Sorry, my wife deleted the messages for the last couple of days, but she related
to me that someone said something to the effect that today's liberal 'mentality'
is too timid to follow Dante Alighieri's lead and throw people in Hell. This
reminded me a recent incident. I had sent 150 lines or so along to a publisher
to be printed. A la Pound much of the part of the poem I sent along dealt with
the history, current and past, of criminal parceling of the Middle Esat on
behalf of colonial oil interests, Achnacarry et al. As way of prelude this part
of the poem goes:

"The way of Typhon is attributed to the Ferryman of the Dead,
Tiphys, whom we met in legend as steersman of the Argo;
       Son of Phorbas, or Hagnias or Hagnios,"
       a.k.a., the Nightmare Demon, Ephialtes;
And Charon who rushed to claim Dante's soul."

The editor called me up. He couldn't make heads or tales of any of the poem I
had sent him. Then he launched into, "Like this" and read the above. "What does
that mean?"
I replied, "That means, now you're in Hell," as the poem launches into the
Middle East oil resprise.

The original sin and trade dimension of the Tiphys myth is interesting
especially as Hans Blumenberg treats it in Genesis of the Copernican World.
Also, when I have limited time to work, I knock out a parody of the Divine
Comedy. Several hundred lines are availble on the FlashPoint magazine site.

http://www.flashpointmag.com/

I thought it pretty ephemeral stuff until G. W. Bush was elected and noticed a
number of people from the criminal class who appear in the poem making a
reapearance like Dick Armitage and Elliott Abrams.

Also, does anyone know what happened to En Lin Wei? Is his disappearance from
the list a cause for concern?  Carlo Parcelli