I would like to take this opportunity to update the good readers of my blog on what people are searching for on my site.  According to WordPress, the following are the Google searches that people have made that caused them to end up on my blog site:

historical context of fuenteovejuna

non sans droit school motto

lope de vega plays

north korea beatdown

north korea bullying

in what speech does he say “let us have faith that might makes right?”

antebellum southern culture

As I have already discussed Fuente Ovejuna, and my desire for someone to cite my paper (thus far without reply), I do not feel that needs to be covered again.  Nonetheless, the fact that people have found my blog while looking at information on Lope de Vega plays in general is rather heartening.  So, I might ask to those people, what plays are you looking for?  I have, besides Fuente Ovejuna, Orlando Furioso, and Punishment Without Revenge (Castigo Sin Verguenza) in my library.  Both are interesting and worthy plays, though Castigo Sin Verguenza is a particularly worthy one to write on, even if the subject material is very serious business (involving an illegitimate son of an Italian philandering ruler having an affair with his father’s much younger new wife and the vengeance that ruler takes on the two of them).  If you’re looking for a posting on either of those plays in particular, please let me know.

I’m rather curious what school has as its motto “Non Sans Droit.”  School mottos in general are pretty pretentious, but for a school to adopt Shakespeare’s (someone defensive) motto as their own is definitely upping pretentiousness to a new high.  As it happens, I was not able to find a school with that motto (not even the school in Stratford-on-Avon), but perhaps the request was merely for help on a school project.  I would like to know.  For the record, it appears as if my own high school (Tampa’s own C. Leon King High School, where I graduated from the IB Program in 1999) could claim as a motto one of the following statements:  “Proud to be ranked among the nations top high schools by Newsweek Magazine. ” “We are a “B” school.”  “Celebrating 50 years years of pride.”  “Home of the Lions!”  (Source:  http://king.mysdhc.org/King%20History)  I have a few comments to say about that, but I will refrain–suffice it to say none of those potential mottoes is going to end up in a book of famous quotations anytime soon.

I’m really pleased that someone is looking for a “North Korea Beatdown.”  In fact, I suggest that some sort of Youtube channel like “Barely Political” or the funny folks at JibJab.com, who possess much better video equipment and artistic abilities than I do, come up with some sort of appropriate tragicomic skit about the subject.  Nonetheless, as much as I agree with the sentiments of a North Korea beatdown, I can’t see it happening without a lot of collateral damage.  As much as I loathe tyrannical dynasties like the Kims of North Korea, there are a lot of innocent people trapped in North Korea who are hostages to that family, and a lot of people who are going to get hurt if those madmen start a war.  That’s not something I can really celebrate.  Too bad there’s no way to get them in the ring with Mayhem for two rounds of punishment on Bully Beatdown, though.

Additionally, as a big fan of Abraham Lincoln, I’m glad that someone actually got the phrase right, “Let us have faith that right makes might.”  As someone who deeply believes in the truth that right makes might (rather than might makes right–the motto of bullies), it is good to help spread the excellence that is Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech.  It happens to be among the best political speeches ever given, serving both to seize the moral and rhetorical high ground from rebellious and pompous rebels, but also to demonstrate the historical evidence that the vast majority of signers of the US Constitution believed in the constitutionality of federal restrictions on slavery through the testimony of their own votes–a fact that is probably not included in “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War,” even though it should be.  So, whoever is looking for the Cooper Union speech, I highly recommend the book by Harold Holzer:  “Lincoln At Cooper Union:  The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President.”  It’s an awesome book, and I’m shocked that I haven’t written a book review on that–that will come shortly, as soon as I can find it in the library again.

Finally, I’m curious about what aspect of “antebellum southern culture” someone was looking for on my profile.  I must own that, as the descendant of Cherokee Indians who were dispossessed by land-greedy Southern slave owners, abolitionist Northern preachers, and simple farming folk who got put in harm’s way because of treacherous rebels, I’m not really fond of antebellum southern culture if what you mean by that is a bunch of too-good-for-their-equals Southern aristocrats with plantation homes and lordly ways.  If what you mean by antebellum southern culture is the proud yeomen of the Appalachians and piney woods areas of the South, seeking to live freely without having pseudo-aristocrats around, then we are on the same page, since a substantial portion of my own ancestry are the independent-minded farmers of Scot-Irish, German, and Cherokee descent of the Appalachian region.  I do intend to write, in the future, about them, and about the different aspects of the “South” that clash, but I have not had the time to do so yet at length.  If you are looking for any particular aspect of antebellum Southern culture, though, please offer some suggestions.  I have it in mind to write about the constitutionality of federal regulation of the internal slave trade and why it was never allowed in the antebellum period.  That ought to spark some ferocious thoughts (and maybe comments).

In the meantime, I’ll be on the lookout for Google searches that cause people to end up in this blog–hopefully you’re bookmark or subscribe and stick around.  Enter through the front door, make yourself at home, and be prepared for some friendly (and obscure) conversation, you hear?