The right words at the right place at the right time

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's words live.He also said:“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” Thanks, Dietri...

Trouble in Capital City!

In my years as a university professor, I taught both the English Civil War (=Revolution) and the French Revolutions, and the American one as well, all of them at various levels of detail.  On all of them, I read far more material than ever got into my lectures. I've always had...

How to respond to Trump

I am a regular reader of Josh Marshall's politics website, talkingpointsmemo.com.  Back in the early 2000s, I found him one of the most sensible and honest American commentators on both the Bush regime and its disastrous wars. Recently Josh wrote an optimistic piece on the current political situation, optimism meaning "not primarily a prediction but an ethic, a philosophy,...

My history of the SCA

Last year was the fiftieth anniversary of the Society for Creative Anachronism.  As a professional historian who has been a member of the SCA from practically the beginning, I seemed to be a logical choice to write a history of the organization to be distributed to people who...

Courtesy

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More Yes (And you and I, from Close to the Edge)

Sad preacher nailed upon the coloured door of timeInsane teacher be there reminded of the rhymeThere'll be no mutant enemy we shall certifyPolitical ends as sad remains will dieReach out as forward tastes begin to enter youOooh, oohI listened hard but could not seeLife tempo change out and inside meThe preacher trained in all to lose his nameThe teacher travels, asking to be shown...

A post-Roman British royal capital

The capital of Rheged?The Scotsman has an article on what seems to be the rediscovered post-Roman capital of the kingdom of Rheged.The best part of it is this artistic reconstruction of the settlement. It didn't take much to be regarded as a king in the 6th century. The difference...

No one will ever know what it was like...

...to be a bull-jumper in the court of King Minos.  I have decided that every once in a while I am going to recycle a past blog entry. I occasionally run across really good posts from the past that I myself have forgotten. I don't think there is any large group combing through this blog to see what's in it. So if I like it enough, I will put in a link. Here's the first:...

SCA -- The Dream

An amazing evocation of the SCA at its best....

Another review of my book, Deeds of Arms

I just ran across this review on the website of Academie Duello in Vancouver. Book Review: “Deeds of Arms” by S. MuhlbergerWes von Papineäu JUNE 19, 2015CATEGORIES: ADULT SWORDPLAY, PROGRAMS, SWORD NEWSTAGS: BOOK REVIEW DEEDS OF ARMS HUNDRED YEARS' WAR JOUSTING MEDIEVAL MUHLBERGER “They are stories about stories.” [1] It does my heart good when I hear competent people say that...

The evolution of the Canadian character

The Sesquicentennial of Canadian Confederation is being celebrated by the Globe and Mail with a number of special features. The first one is a long thought-piece by Doug Saunders, who was born on the Centennial year. He's got a lot to say about the many changes that took place before 1967 and emerged into public consciousness in the year of his birth. Highly recommended even...