This is commentary. And this is really good.
Aglaonice (also called Agloanike, or Aganice of Thessaly) was a Greek astronomer who lived in the first or second centuries BC, "the daughter of Hegetor (or Hegemon) of Thessaly."
"She was regarded as a sorceress for her ability to make the Moon disappear from the sky, which has been taken to mean [even as early as Plutarch] she could predict the time and general area where a lunar eclipse would occur."
"A number of female astrologers, apparently regarded as sorcerers, were associated with Aglaonice. They were known as the 'witches of Thessaly' and were active from the 3rd to 1st centuries BC."
"In Plato's Gorgias, Socrates speaks of 'the Thessalian echantresses, who, as they say, bring down the moon from heaven at the risk of their own perdition.'"
According to Plutarch, Aglaonice was "thoroughly acquainted with the periods of the full moon when it is subject to eclipse, and, knowing beforehand the time when the moon was due to be overtaken by the earth's shadow, imposed upon the women, and made them all believe that she was drawing down the moon."
If Wiki is correct, and she's from the first or second centuries BC, then the reference by Plato should lead us to infer that she did not organize a society of astronomer-witches around her but rose to prominence from among them. It is also possible that she is extremely long-lived, and/or that her father was not "Hegemon of Thessaly" but the Hegemon of Thessaly and "Aglaonice" was the title given to the head of the society, who was regarded as the hegemon's ritual daughter.
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Archeofuturism is a collection of essays by Guillaume Faye, which discusses "his opposition to immigration, his dismissal of contemporary European politics, his call for a pan-European government, and his concept of Archeofuturism, which involves combining traditionalist spirituality and concepts of sovereignty with the latest advances in science and technology."
In another book, published in 2000, Faye predicted "an abolition of European societies due to massive immigration, and a total war between the West and the Islamic world, endorsing the 'clash of civilization' theory."
On the bright side, Faye has "strongly criticized Holocaust deniers," so I guess he can't be all bad.
...
"The Overton window is a political theory that describes the range of ideas the public will accept as a narrow 'window.' According to the theory, an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within that window rather than on politicians' individual preferences... At any given moment, the 'window' includes a range of policies considered politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too extreme to gain or keep public office."
The "degrees of acceptance" are:
- "Unthinkable
- "Radical
- "Acceptable
- "Sensible
- "Popular
- "Policy
"After Overton's death, others have examined the concept of adjusting the window by the deliberate promotion of ideas outside of it, or 'outer fringe' ideas, with the intention of making less fringe ideas acceptable by comparison."
...
Mexico is "almost as racially diverse as Brazil and Mexicans dance nearly as passionately as Cubans but with half the talent. Mexicans tend to range all over on the political spectrum, but seem to favor a strong government to take care of social policies. Due to the Philippines having been technically under New Spain, Mexicans also tend to have fairly close ties with Filipinos."
"Mexicans have two family names: the first is the paternal one, and the second is the mother's. Because children only get the first family name of either parent only the father's name is passed on through successive generations... Women don't lose their maiden name when marrying, but traditionally added the husband's family name to their own, this has no legal value however."
"Mexican humor is largely formulaic and simplistic. For example shows and stand-up comedians mostly restort to tried and true jokes Older Than Radio. Comedy may rely on pure slapstick... Humor featuring social/political commentary is largely limited to printed media and the internet (Television rarely touches this stuff). The most characteristic type of humor is the 'albur' (pronounced 'al-BOOR') which consists in heavily sexual wordplay and double entendre, basically it's Getting Crap Past the Radar taken Up to Eleven since many people in the country already have the double entendres memorized, especially the censors. Since it's practically the only aspect of national humor with any hint of subtleness, the albur serves as the moremost justification that Mexicans have in believing themselves the most ingeious and good natured nation ever."
"If they make fun of others, rest assured they have developed a level of self deprecating humor Woody Allen would admire... Since making fun of people based on their race, their gender, or their handicaps isn't considered as politically incorrect as it is in the US or the UK it may seem that Mexican comedy can be crass... Another phenomenon is Malinchismo, a very old and widespread tendency to show any unjustified preference, however slight, for foreign over national stuff."
"Macho... is a hard-to-define term, but call it testosterone poisoning on a national scale. Your average Mexican would rather get his ass kicked than be considered feminine in any way, shape, or form. This is why there are so many films about castration, ranging from serious films to wacky comedies."
"Tourism is an important source of revenue, regularly ranking among Mexico's top 5 moneymakers."
"Broadcast commercial television is still by far the dominant medium in the country. There are two major broadcast networks: Televisa and Azteca, both private and suspect of being colluded in a duopoly cartel that decides what is or isn't show on open air TV in the country, which would explain why so many politicians bow to these companies' whims."
"Most of you should know the cheesy 'telenovelas', Lucha Libre and masked luchadores like El Santo or Blue Demon, and perhaps even El Chavo del ocho and that creepy Santa Claus movie MST3K riffed once. But there has been more stuff that, due to Creator Provincialism, might never see the light of day outside from Mexico, like lots and lots of old movies and sketch series made from the 40s and 70s." Do some more reading on this.
"Most newspapers in Mexico are unprofitable but survive thanks to bribes that local city or state governments or the drug cartels pay to keep them quiet on certain inconvenient issues and/or put a positive spin on those issues. Only a handful of papers (mostly those who enjoy national distribution or have a very large market) survive on their own. Mexico used to have a considerable comic book industry in The Forties and Fifties but due to prolonged decay comics nowadays are almost an underground movement. Even the most successful are often unable to reach a true national distribution, be it on magazines or newspapers." Do more reading on Kaliman and La Familia Burron.
"Traditional and cellular telephone services are quite inefficient and charge some of the highest service rates in the world. This is in part due to the fact that most phone land lines are serviced by a company called Telmex, property of Carlos Slim, the richest man on the planet, whose company enjoys a monopoly grant from the government. This has been changing as cable companies are entering the traditional phone serves at a lower rate than Telmex, and recent laws allow people to switch companies without having to change phone numbers."
"The pop music industry is quite influential in the Spanish spaeaking world but it's very hampered because Mexico is a haven of copyright piracy. Local music that plays harder than 2 in the Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness was actively ostracized by mainstream media for decades."
"The film industry used to be the sixth in the country in terms of exports and it's also victim of the widespread piracy in Mexico. Mexican film making reached its Golden Age roughly from 1935 to 1960. In the 7s however the government introduced its own brand of Executive Meddling via financiation schemes that ended up virtually ruining the industry for more than 20 years."
"The cuisine is world-renowned for being colorful, intense, spicy, greasy, and fiery hot (on part with Koreanor Thai food). Mexicans absolutely love chili peppers: you can find at least 10 varieties at any supermarket, it's present in pretty much every single dish, you can even buy candy made with dried chili, and any Mexican who can't stand them is automatically called a pansy."
"Tex-Mex and every variation of Mexican food came to be because the ingredients used in many popular Mexican dishes weren't readily available, so they had to make do with whatever substitutes were available."
"Mexico has the highest emigration rate of any country in the world."
"Entire towns live exclusively off money sent from abroad, and money orders are Mexico's second largest income after oil imports."
"Worth noting is how... Santa Anna, went from Independence hero to eleven times president/dictator to national traitor, first class, due to the loss of the war and secession of almost half of their land to the victorious United States. it's because of his merry-go-round presidencies that Mexicans, to this day, distrust re-election on principle."
"Problems were far from over as there were two main groups who wanted to have complete influence in the political life of the country. One group were called the Conservadores, who believes that many mechanisms that worked well in Colonial Mexico should be maintained. Some also believed the country should be ruled by a European monarch (as they saw the republic system as the worst thing that happened to the country, what with the endless rebellions, coups d'etat, and the lame duck governments). Opposing them were the Liberals, who believed the colonial past should be left behind in favor of modernization and decided to take the US as an example of how things should be done. (They felt quite betrayed when their admired big brother invaded and took a good chunk of Mexico's territory)."
"Napoleon the Third decided that it needed a French protectorate to stop the growth of influence of the United States, and believed that Mexico was the perfect place for his plans. Many of the Conservadores actually went to France to arrange this."
"Thing is, while it was a single party system, the presidents only served for six years apiece... giving the illusion of change. All were corrupt, some were visionaries, a few went insane."
...
Mexico is "almost as racially diverse as Brazil and Mexicans dance nearly as passionately as Cubans but with half the talent. Mexicans tend to range all over on the political spectrum, but seem to favor a strong government to take care of social policies. Due to the Philippines having been technically under New Spain, Mexicans also tend to have fairly close ties with Filipinos."
"Mexicans have two family names: the first is the paternal one, and the second is the mother's. Because children only get the first family name of either parent only the father's name is passed on through successive generations... Women don't lose their maiden name when marrying, but traditionally added the husband's family name to their own, this has no legal value however."
"Mexican humor is largely formulaic and simplistic. For example shows and stand-up comedians mostly restort to tried and true jokes Older Than Radio. Comedy may rely on pure slapstick... Humor featuring social/political commentary is largely limited to printed media and the internet (Television rarely touches this stuff). The most characteristic type of humor is the 'albur' (pronounced 'al-BOOR') which consists in heavily sexual wordplay and double entendre, basically it's Getting Crap Past the Radar taken Up to Eleven since many people in the country already have the double entendres memorized, especially the censors. Since it's practically the only aspect of national humor with any hint of subtleness, the albur serves as the moremost justification that Mexicans have in believing themselves the most ingeious and good natured nation ever."
"If they make fun of others, rest assured they have developed a level of self deprecating humor Woody Allen would admire... Since making fun of people based on their race, their gender, or their handicaps isn't considered as politically incorrect as it is in the US or the UK it may seem that Mexican comedy can be crass... Another phenomenon is Malinchismo, a very old and widespread tendency to show any unjustified preference, however slight, for foreign over national stuff."
"Macho... is a hard-to-define term, but call it testosterone poisoning on a national scale. Your average Mexican would rather get his ass kicked than be considered feminine in any way, shape, or form. This is why there are so many films about castration, ranging from serious films to wacky comedies."
"Tourism is an important source of revenue, regularly ranking among Mexico's top 5 moneymakers."
"Broadcast commercial television is still by far the dominant medium in the country. There are two major broadcast networks: Televisa and Azteca, both private and suspect of being colluded in a duopoly cartel that decides what is or isn't show on open air TV in the country, which would explain why so many politicians bow to these companies' whims."
"Most of you should know the cheesy 'telenovelas', Lucha Libre and masked luchadores like El Santo or Blue Demon, and perhaps even El Chavo del ocho and that creepy Santa Claus movie MST3K riffed once. But there has been more stuff that, due to Creator Provincialism, might never see the light of day outside from Mexico, like lots and lots of old movies and sketch series made from the 40s and 70s." Do some more reading on this.
"Most newspapers in Mexico are unprofitable but survive thanks to bribes that local city or state governments or the drug cartels pay to keep them quiet on certain inconvenient issues and/or put a positive spin on those issues. Only a handful of papers (mostly those who enjoy national distribution or have a very large market) survive on their own. Mexico used to have a considerable comic book industry in The Forties and Fifties but due to prolonged decay comics nowadays are almost an underground movement. Even the most successful are often unable to reach a true national distribution, be it on magazines or newspapers." Do more reading on Kaliman and La Familia Burron.
"Traditional and cellular telephone services are quite inefficient and charge some of the highest service rates in the world. This is in part due to the fact that most phone land lines are serviced by a company called Telmex, property of Carlos Slim, the richest man on the planet, whose company enjoys a monopoly grant from the government. This has been changing as cable companies are entering the traditional phone serves at a lower rate than Telmex, and recent laws allow people to switch companies without having to change phone numbers."
"The pop music industry is quite influential in the Spanish spaeaking world but it's very hampered because Mexico is a haven of copyright piracy. Local music that plays harder than 2 in the Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness was actively ostracized by mainstream media for decades."
"The film industry used to be the sixth in the country in terms of exports and it's also victim of the widespread piracy in Mexico. Mexican film making reached its Golden Age roughly from 1935 to 1960. In the 7s however the government introduced its own brand of Executive Meddling via financiation schemes that ended up virtually ruining the industry for more than 20 years."
"The cuisine is world-renowned for being colorful, intense, spicy, greasy, and fiery hot (on part with Koreanor Thai food). Mexicans absolutely love chili peppers: you can find at least 10 varieties at any supermarket, it's present in pretty much every single dish, you can even buy candy made with dried chili, and any Mexican who can't stand them is automatically called a pansy."
"Tex-Mex and every variation of Mexican food came to be because the ingredients used in many popular Mexican dishes weren't readily available, so they had to make do with whatever substitutes were available."
"Mexico has the highest emigration rate of any country in the world."
"Entire towns live exclusively off money sent from abroad, and money orders are Mexico's second largest income after oil imports."
"Worth noting is how... Santa Anna, went from Independence hero to eleven times president/dictator to national traitor, first class, due to the loss of the war and secession of almost half of their land to the victorious United States. it's because of his merry-go-round presidencies that Mexicans, to this day, distrust re-election on principle."
"Problems were far from over as there were two main groups who wanted to have complete influence in the political life of the country. One group were called the Conservadores, who believes that many mechanisms that worked well in Colonial Mexico should be maintained. Some also believed the country should be ruled by a European monarch (as they saw the republic system as the worst thing that happened to the country, what with the endless rebellions, coups d'etat, and the lame duck governments). Opposing them were the Liberals, who believed the colonial past should be left behind in favor of modernization and decided to take the US as an example of how things should be done. (They felt quite betrayed when their admired big brother invaded and took a good chunk of Mexico's territory)."
"Napoleon the Third decided that it needed a French protectorate to stop the growth of influence of the United States, and believed that Mexico was the perfect place for his plans. Many of the Conservadores actually went to France to arrange this."
"Thing is, while it was a single party system, the presidents only served for six years apiece... giving the illusion of change. All were corrupt, some were visionaries, a few went insane."
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