A Don's Life

I read Mary Beard in the Sunday Times. The LONDON Sunday Times, that is. I have begun to steer clear of the other Times since it has been sleeping around and came up with a case of Kristols. (I suppose one must hear the other side, so to speak, but my point is that we have heard what this particular guy has said; he has said it over and over again and it has been balderdash...pernicious balderdash at that! He has his own burrow. Let him stay there. Why go chivvying the little grunt out? So we may hear more of the same? No,no,no. If you want conservatism, publish some articles by Burke. Publish something by Barry Goldwater. Publish The Federalist Papers. Publish Common Sense. Russell Kirk could use another go round since we were not paying attention the first time. But whatever you do, do not publish lies we've heard before and whose propagation has caused the deaths of almost 4,000 Americans, untold numbers of Iraqis, and has maimed and destroyed the lives of more. Idiot that I am, I deny that I require the tutelage of an viper immoral in his species and unethical as an individual.)

Now back to kindlier things: Ms. Beard. Her column is A Don's Life. How nice it is to read someone who does not have a bloody axe to grind...and who is not in the pay of some cruel taskmaster.
This week it was What's an acceptable alternative to democracy? http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/
and poses a question not many of us thought to pose over the holidays. She does so, and does so with references to Athens and Pericles, although not so many as to encumber the piece with the patina of archaeology and philology. Try it out.