According to the famed military strategist, Carl von Clausewitz, two conditions must be met if victory in war is to be achieved:  First, “The fighting forces must be destroyed”. That is, “they must be put in such a condition that they can no longer carry on the fight”.  And second, “The country must be occupied, …

So Long As The Enemy’s Will Is Unbroken… Read More »

On the rare occasion that I seek the advice of a medical professional, I’m careful not to offend the good doctor by asking if his adherence to the ethical standards of his profession remains, after all these years, unwavering. That supposedly “sacred” Hippocratic oath to which he pledged himself way back in med school–does he …

Israel, The Good Doctor  Read More »

“Violence, which plays a most conspicuous part in war, is a thing which belongs to wild beasts; wherefore we should take most diligent pains to temper it with humanity, lest by too much imitation of the beasts we forget how to be human”.  Hugo Grotius Lest we forget how to be human, we should, for …

Grotius, Israel, and the Gaza Strip Read More »

“If I am occasionally a little overdressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated.” Oscar Wilde John Fetterman, the junior senator from Pennsylvania, has taken Wilde’s bon mot and flipped it on its head; not even by accident has the hulking Reading-native ever been overdressed, and by no metric has his intellectual …

John Fetterman: The Unfashionable Icon Read More »

There are, for better or worse, two things with which Key West is synonymous: one is “Fantasy Fest”, the annual ten-day bacchanal at the end of October to which thousands of topless revelers flock. The other is Ernest Hemingway.  With the exception of the striped concrete buoy that marks the island’s “Southernmost Point” , no …

Reflections on Ernest Hemingway, An American Icon Read More »

A Short Story “¿Qué me dijo?” He asked the pretty young woman at his side, upon whose superior fluency with the English language he was, at important times such as these, unabashedly dependent.  He had feigned, though not altogether convincingly, to understand the question I had put to him about his foot a moment ago. …

In Bed with Orwell  Read More »

Summer 2020 An initial installment of my “Lives of the Philosophers”, composed in Plutarchian fashion during the summer of 2020.  This series (on which I hope to expand) will comprise essays on the philosophers whom I find most interesting, and, more importantly, whom I can understand.  It is my modest goal to compile a few …

On Friedrich Nietzsche: Lives of the Philosophers Read More »

The image of a portly Sam Smith traipsing about on heels and gyrating on stage at last week’s Grammy Awards isn’t one that I’ll soon forget. In truth, I fear that I may never forget it so long as I live. A week removed from the performance and it remains an image by which, no …

Sam Smith and Satan: The Meaning Behind the Devil-Worship Read More »

Inisherin is an island off the coast of an island, which is itself an island detached from a slightly larger island, which is, if you’ll bear with me just a moment longer, patient friend and reader, a third island separated from the land-locked continent of Europe. This, I assure you, is more than a mere …

The Banshees of Inisherin: One of the Year’s Best Films Read More »

When I was in the seventh grade, at the unripe age of twelve, I had an English teacher by the name of Mr. Bodnar.  He was a quiet, unassuming fellow of middle age and small stature, of receding hairline and protuberant eyes, in whose genial presence all the children of Bunker Hill Middle School felt …

Why (and How) You Should Memorize Poetry Read More »

Babylon (and on…and on…and ON…for THREE whole hours!), like the ungodly city after which it’s named, was a confused mess of biblical proportions. The plot was senseless, the filth gratuitous, the writing sloppy, the budget bloated, the talent wasted, and the running time unmercifully long. *** There are certain sights, sounds, and substances to which …

Babylon Film Review Read More »

Tell me, dear friend and reader: have you traveled lately? Have you thought deeply lately? Please—don’t withhold from me your answers. I know just how static and monotonous life can sometimes be. I know how inert and incurious we can sometimes get. If, to those two questions, you answered in the negative, here’s what I’ll …

An Introduction To Aristotle Read More »

“Three poets, in three distant ages born,  Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.  The first in loftiness of thought surpassed;  The next in majesty; in both, the last.  The force of nature could no further go; To make a third, She joined the former two”.  John Dryden In one’s attempt to identify the three poets …

An Introduction to John Milton Read More »

The following essay/meditation is from my sister project, Pneuma. If you’re interested in this essay and would like to listen to the podcast, visit the website pneumameditations.com or search Pneuma By Daniel Finneran on any of your favorite podcast streaming platforms Hello friends, and welcome to another episode of Pneuma A few episodes back, I …

Epicureanism And The Good Life Read More »

The following is an essay/meditation from my sister project, Pneuma. If you’d like to listen to the podcast, visit my website, pneumameditations.com or search Pneuma By Daniel Finneran on any of your favorite podcast streaming platforms. Hello all you beautiful, brilliant, remarkable people, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. The great sages of the …

“An Honest Heart and a Knowing Head” | Lessons from Thomas Jefferson on How to Live Well Read More »

The following essay/meditation is from my sister project, Pneuma. If you’re interested in listening to this essay as a podcast, visit my website, pneumameditations.com or search Pneuma By Daniel Finneran on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Hello my friends, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. Before all else, I want to say a …

The Promethean Diet Read More »

The following is an essay/meditation from my sister project, Pneuma. If you’d like to listen to the podcast, visit pneumameditations.com, or search Pneuma By Daniel Finneran on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Hello all you beautiful people, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. Before delving into this episode (with which, I should say, …

Sun Yourself Like a Cynic Read More »

The following is an essay/meditation from my sister project, Pneuma. If you’d like to listen to this meditation as a podcast, please visit my website, pneumameditations.com, or download Pneuma By Daniel Finneran on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Greetings my friends, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. I’m your host, Daniel Finneran, and …

Wisdom Is The Mother Of All Good Things. And What Is The Highest Wisdom? To KNOW Yourself Read More »

The following essay/meditation is from my sister project, Pneuma. If you’re interested in what you read and would like to hear the podcast, visit pneumameditations.com or download it on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Hello my friends, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma.  Not quite a week ago, in my prefatory remarks for …

Worldly Possessions: Do You Possess Them, Or Do They Possess You? Read More »

The following is an essay/meditation composed for my sister project, Pneuma. You can visit its website and access its podcast at pneumameditations.com Hello all, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. I am, as always, your humble host and devoted friend, Daniel Finneran, and I’m glad that you’ve decided to join me today.  The name …

A Meditation On Human Nature With Machiavelli And The Buddha Read More »

It’s my habit, whenever I’m in conversation with someone of a strong and unconcealed political bent, from whom the gift of a sound civic education and a talent for an idea’s thoughtful expression haven’t been withheld, to ask him which of America’s two central documents, the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, he regards more …

The Declaration or The Constitution: Which Do You Prefer? My Thoughts on The Documents and A Review of Yoram Hazony’s “Conservatism: A Rediscovery” Read More »

Do you dare discuss religion and politics over the holiday season?  It’s an ageless maxim that, when gathered with family and friends during the course of the holiday season, all discussion of politics—and, to a lesser extent, religion—should be studiously avoided. These are the two guests, unique among all possible guests, to whom it’s not …

Religion and Politics: The Unwelcome Guests Read More »

Written 6 November 2022 There’s a shrinking number of celebrities in whom we Americans place our collective trust. A very small number, indeed, for whom, no matter the direction toward which our political preferences incline us, there’s near universal veneration.  Take, as one example, the late Alex Trebek, whose name was, and yet remains, synonymous …

Use Your Discernment (So Long as You Discern Nothing Different)  Read More »

Unlike most of his corpulent countrymen, John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, spent more time at the gambling than at the dinner table.  A founding member of the notorious Hellfire Club, to which only the most refined rakes and well-born lechers in England were granted admittance, Montagu was, by any measure, an extraordinary man. …

Deep Thoughts About Sandwiches: John Montagu, Gambling Debts, and Reading Terminal Market Read More »

Louis XVI: C’est une grande révolte!  La Rochefoucault-Liancourt: Non, Sire, c’est une grande révolution. Upon learning of the fall of the Bastille in the summer of 1789, Louis XVI—the hapless (and soon to be headless) French king against whom popular opinion in the country had long since turned—responded with one of the great understatements of …

On Revolts and Revolutions: 18th-Century France and Modern China Read More »

And, just like that, Rome’s conquest of Greece was nearly complete.  The strong, sturdy, ageless foundation of Hellas, upon which the rest of the civilized world then firmly stood, suddenly began to quake. Those ancient, mighty pillars by which the early Western man was raised, atop which the hundred famous city-states he inhabited were built, …

Donald Trump and King Pyrrhus Read More »

The good people of Pennsylvania, although ignorant, do have, unlike their more unenlightened neighbors across the Delaware River in the state of New Jersey, an inborn ability to grasp the truth. In them, but not in us, there’s an instinctive talent to comprehend objective reality, an eye capable of detecting subtle but incontrovertible truths to …

If People are Kept Ignorant Long Enough, Anything is Possible Read More »

(From my podcast, Pneuma by Daniel Finneran) Hello all, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. I’m your humble host, Daniel Finneran, and I’m honored to be joined by you today. The subtitle of a recent episode, “Guided Beach Meditation” contained the following three words: the sand, the sea, and the sublime. For a treatment …

How to Think about the Sublime and Beautiful: Aesthetics for Everyone Read More »

From my sister site, Pneuma. The following is the transcript of my latest “meditation”. Hello my friends, and welcome to Pneuma.  I’m your host, Daniel Finneran, and I’m honored to have been invited into your headspace for a little while, into that vast, shifting, tempestuous ocean of fear, hope, love, and doubt, by which your …

Guided Meditation For When You’re On An Airplane Read More »

Lines Written To And Beneath A Full Moon, 18 March 2022 (1) “And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring, from which such copious floods of eloquence have issued? Glory and light of all the tuneful train! May it avail me, that I long with zeal have sought thy volume, and with love immense have …

Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue – A Pagan Poet’s Prophecy of Christ? Read More »

Lines Written To And Beneath A Full Moon, 18 March 2022 (1) White milky ball of alabaster glow Shining borrowed light (2) on the world below;In your brilliance bathing sweet silent dreamsRippling, at a glance, the tides at their seams. Chaste (3) quiet sovereign, nature thy subject broodEnthralled by your beauty, by your strength subdued. …

Lines Written To And Beneath A Full Moon, 18 March 2022 (1) Read More »

Two Saviors In Two Weeks: First Obama, and Now Christ Returns – A Political Poem So said the man who knows not what he says: Cherish the hours, for short are the days‘Till you soldiers of American fameWill be deployed to the heart of Ukraine! “You’ll see when you’re there”, said he to the crowd. …

Off We Go!–To WWIII, Led by Biden’s Inarticulacy– A Political Poem Read More »

Two Saviors In Two Weeks: First Obama, and Now Christ Returns – A Political Poem Of Trump ‘tis said he lacks proper grammar;Of Biden, he suffers an inborn stammer. With his words, the first is carelessly loose—Committing great crimes of verbal abuse. And I don’t just mean insults at foes launchedLanding on Rosie O’Donnell’s large …

Full of Faux Sincerity, Lacking (all) Intelligibility, Kamala Harris Can’t Speak – A Political Poem Read More »

Two Saviors In Two Weeks: First Obama, and Now Christ Returns – A Political Poem From the incorrigible yet inimitable mind of Eugene Erigena–a man better born than reared. Eclipsed is the sun in the sunshine stateDarkened by clouds of conservative hateWhich haunt the land like a joyless specter,Draining the fruit of its orange nectar; …

The “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, Poeticized – A Political Poem Read More »

Two Saviors In Two Weeks: First Obama, and Now Christ Returns – A Political Poem A contribution from Eugene Erigena, by whose shameless inelegance, I’m frankly appalled. So soon! The month of April has arrived;How swift the seasonal pace is contrivedTo pass—yielding cruel winter to soft spring,For whose balmy advent, the angels singAn ethereal song …

Two Saviors In Two Weeks: First Obama, and Now Christ Returns – A Political Poem Read More »

Ketanji Brown-Jackson, Our New Justice Supreme The tree of government is triply branched, In three portions split, in three segments tranched: Nearest the root is where Congress is housed(Of whose brainless bugs, it should be deloused!) The branch Executive, next in esteemIs led by a dotard whom we must deemDiminished—If the case be made quite …

Ketanji Brown-Jackson, Our New Justice Supreme Read More »

From Bad to Worse: The Predictable Implosion of CNN+ Success, ‘tis said, yet more success begets–On the prosperous rains ever more profits. So reads the adage of the Gospel’s Jew: The iron law, the Effect of Matthew. “To him who has much, more will be given; A yacht, a car, a mansion to live in! …

From Bad to Worse: The Predictable Implosion of CNN+ Read More »

Twitter has tweeted, whose board has now spoken: Musk owns the site, and all the world’s broken. In the halcyon days of 2006(When, as I recall, fewer hereticsRoamed the earth), a bold company was conceived,In whose potential, everyone believed.It billed itself as the new public square,A place of untamed and unfettered air;A place, ‘round which, …

Twitter has tweeted, whose board has now spoken: Musk owns the site, and all the world’s broken. Read More »

Reflections on a 5-Day Water Fast (With Occasional Digressions Into Elizabethan Literature) “You’re looking big!”, I was assured by a friendly young man with a nod of masculine approval, which, in the setting of an E-Sporta (née LA Fitness) gym, is to be received as a compliment than which none greater can be offered. I …

Reflections on a 5-Day Water Fast (With Occasional Digressions Into Elizabethan Literature) Read More »