Deadlier Than Dragons: The Basilisk and Other Monsters From Ancient Bestiaries

 https://youtu.be/_tTlC5m-WcE?si=nnhpXDu9uEyicoCh

We take a look at the intertwined legends of the Basilisk, Cockatrice, Yale, and Ichneumon. 4 mythical creatures, or is it 3?

Empowered By Warren Adams

 Empowered

By Adam Warren

Adam Warren was born in New Hampshire in 1967.  After high school, he started attending the Kubert School, a private school in Dover, New Jersey that teaches comic book art and commercial illustration. Warren almost dropped out, but over one Christmas Break, he got a hold of some anime and manga, most notably some issues of the series Dirty Pair.  This not only renewed his commitment to becoming a comic book artist, but it was also when he met the art style that would forever dominate his destiny. 

In fact, writing and illustrating an American Dirty Pair comic would be Mr. Warren's first major project after graduating; he would continue producing comics and graphic novels throughout the 90s. He also wrote the limited Marvel comics series Live Wires and Iron Man: Hypervelocity.  He started writing and illustrating Empowered in 2007. 

Empowered got its start in a series of commissions where someone requested art of a superheroine who was tied up and gagged. From there, Mr. Warren started to come up with a backstory for the superheroine, and things seem to have snowballed from there.  Now, just a quick note, the Omnibus combines volumes 1, 2, and 3, and I haven’t read any further.  Considering the series is still ongoing, and is somewhere past volume 12, there’s a lot more going on. 

Empowered is the story of Elissa Megan Powers, aka the superheroine Empowered. Often called Emps, to the point that her birth name isn’t revealed til the end of issue 3, Elissa attempts to be a superhero, but struggles with the weaknesses of her powers and the lack of respect from everyone.  You see, she gets her powers from her suit, a hyperthin membrane that grants her the strength of 10 to 15 men, and the ability to toss around bolts of energy.  However, if the suit is damaged, then her powers are drastically reduced, often to the point of her being just another young lady. This leads to the villains overpowering her and tying her up. 

These villains don’t go any further than this due to the unwritten rules of Capes, which is you don’t kill a Cape, and you don’t take any liberties with subdued Capes.  I don’t know who is enforcing these rules, but they must be deeply terrifying because most villains show real fear at the idea of anyone even thinking they might be breaking the rules. 

As a result, her teammates on the superhero team, the Superhomeys, treat her either as a joke or as a little sister they need to protect, while the villains flat-out laugh at her, and the public is rather cruel. Despite this, Emps gets up, puts on her suit, and runs into situations that could get her vaporized because she wants to help and do the right thing, even if no one ever gives her credit for trying. 

Now, she isn’t alone: in volume I, she meets Thugboy.  Thugboy was working as a minion for a villainous organization, but rapidly switched sides due to falling in love with Emps. He is her number one fan, and, frankly, he might be the smartest guy in the series.  He’s definitely one of the more complicated ones as we quickly learn about his rather horrifying past.  

For example, we learn he used to be a part of a group called the Witless Minions, who specialized in signing up to work for supervillains and then robbing them blind.  This ended the way you would expect, as it seems the unwritten rules don’t apply to minions who betray their supervillain employers, and Thugboy is carrying some unresolved trauma as a result.  There’s the matter of what he was doing before being a Witless Minion, but I’m going to encourage you to read the comic and find out about it that way.

There’s also Ninjette, a lady ninja who fled her clan and met Emps by trying to kidnap her.  When the kidnapping went wrong, the ladies started drinking together and became best friends. Both these girls are big fans of the other, which I like, and their relationship is interesting as both these girls are carrying a boatload of issues.  

The tone of the comic is comedic, but it has its serious moments.  While Emps is often the butt of the joke, the story manages to balance this out with her winning victories and saving lives, even if she loses dignity in the process.  I should also note this comic is a bit raunchy, as Warren's right up to the line on what you can show and do without turning it into an “adult” graphic novel, so this is something you want to keep out of the hands of children. Still, it was a  fun read, so I’m going to give it a B+

Arguing About Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress By William Lee Miller

 Arguing About Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress

By William Lee Miller 

Today, we’re going to look at a book that covers a half-forgotten part of history.  Arguing About Slavery covers the Gag Rule, which was one of the first major legal and social battles over slavery.  This nine-year-long struggle did a lot to propel the debate over slavery to the center stage of America. Before I get to in depth on that, though, let’s talk about the book and the author. 

The book itself was published in 1998 by Vintage Books, a division of the ever-present Random House, the massive publishing company that prints nearly 1 out of 4 books printed in the United States. So if you own more than 5 books and if any of them are nonfiction, odds are you’ve bought one of their books. Arguing About Slavery was written by William Lee Miller; let’s talk about him for a bit. 

William Lee Miller is an American who was born in Bloomington, Indiana, on April 21st, 1926.  He was the son of a minister, and so lived in a number of states growing up, which I can relate to.  After finishing high school, he attended the University of Nebraska and then Yale, ending up with a PhD from Yale University in Religious Social Ethics. 

 He would work as a journalist from 1953 to 1965, contributing to the Reporter, a biweekly American news magazine.  He also served as a speechwriter for Adlai Steveson in 1956. He would teach at Smith College, Indiana University, and Yale, with his last teaching post being at the University of Virginia, where he started in 1982.  He started writing history books in the 1960s and continued writing and publishing until the year of his death in 2012.  He left behind a sizable body of work and taught hundreds, if not thousands, of students.  With that, let’s turn to the book in question. 

Arguing about Slavery covers the fierce debate over the Congressional Gag rule that was in effect from 1836 to 1844. Now, before we get into the book, let me provide some context here.  After the Revolution, most of the Northern states abolished slavery, with New Jersey being the last in 1804.  While most “Yankees” considered slavery distasteful, they also thought that they had no right or ability to meddle in the affairs of Southern States. 

Abolitionists were unpopular, seen as moralizing busybodies, and, to be blunt, Southern propaganda was in full swing, convincing Northerners that slavery wasn’t that bad and most slaves were happy.  Plus, everyone was sure that eventually slavery would die away, being an archaic institution that belonged to the past.  So why rock the boat? 

Abolitionists knew better, but also found themselves ice skating uphill. So they decided on a three pronged strategy, first focus on countering and disproving Southern propaganda, second on writing slave owners directly and trying to convince them to free their slaves and lastly petitioning Congress to ban slavery and the slave trade in Washington D.C feeling that the capital of a nation that was supposed to been founded in liberty was no place for a slave market. 

It’s that last tactic that concerns us the most, because these petitions outraged Southern Congressmen so much that they compelled the House of Representatives to pass a gag rule in 1836, a rule that automatically prevented any petition requesting any limitation on slavery from being even considered. Now, back then, the right of petition was a much bigger deal because of the limits on communication technology; it was harder to be heard by the federal government, but anyone was allowed to send a petition to their Representative and be assured that Congress would at least spend a couple of minutes on it, even if they decided to tell you no. 

But now this right was being curtailed to protect the feelings and interests of one part of American society over the rest. This did not sit well with many Congressmen, among them John Quincy Adams. Now, John Quincy Adams is himself somewhat forgotten despite being one of the most distinguished and perhaps talented civil servants America ever had. He served as an ambassador to almost every great European power, Secretary of State, and even as President before being elected to Congress.  His father was John Adams,  the second President of the United States. He was also, at this point, a cranky old man who was done with everyone else’s crap, and it shows in this book. 

The Honorable Representative Adams would make it his personal mission to either have the gag rule rescinded or ensure that every Southern Congress member regretted its existence.  He did this with the kind of single-mindedness and sly intelligence that only a learned man with decades of experience can pull off.  He wasn’t alone in this; other representatives like Joshua Giddings and William Slade, men all but forgotten, would close ranks with him and fight in bitter debates and endless parliamentary maneuverings

Twice, the Southern members of Congress would try to get Adams censored, which back then meant you would resign from Congress, and once they tried to remove him from heading the Committee on Foreign Relations.  That last one was especially galling to a modern reader as the allegation was that he was too soft on brown-skinned people. Both these attempts failed miserably as Adams outmaneuvered them. They did get Giddings censored, making him resign his seat, but his district was so enraged by this that they sent him right back to Congress with a crushing majority. 

That basically reflects the Northern reaction to the gag rule: while Northern Congressmen would yield to Southern demands in the name of keeping their political parties viable on a national level, the Northern voter grew increasingly upset and angry at this gag, viewing it as a restriction on their rights in the name of Southern comfort. This ironically made Northerners more open to abolitionists' arguments as the undercurrent of “If they’re willing to do this to us now, what else are they willing to do?” bubbled under every debate.  

This is especially ironic, as the Southerners were dead certain that banning discussion in Congress would kill the debate and end any anti-slavery discussion in society.  Which, forgive my bluntness, is so incredibly stupid you wonder just what was in the booze they were swilling back then? 

Now the book itself clocks in at about 577 pages in paperback, although the main text only goes to page 515, with the rest being notes and index. It is a dense and, at some points, dry read as well.  Although there is a bit of dry humor that runs through the book. Dr. Miller is incredibly thorough in covering the background and context of all stages of this battle in American history and in covering the backgrounds of all the key players.  So if you’re not ready for a deep dive into an often glossed-over part of American history, this isn’t your book.  This is not light reading. 

On the other hand, if you want to learn more about John Quincy Adams, the abolitionist movement of the 1820s and 1830s, and the various players in the drama that fought over the gag rule, some of whom would later emerge as key figures in the American Civil War, this is the book for you. It’s also an interesting look at how Southern actions turned the Northern people against slavery through their overbearing demands that they be held above judgment or reproach. I would encourage readers to think about how making demands like that can backfire. 

So, for someone who is a serious reader of American History and is looking to dive deep and learn, this book is an A.  For anyone else, this book would likely come in at C.  So know what you’re getting into before you pick this book up, but I would consider it a good book for those who want to get serious about their history.  

* 

Ancient Maps Reveal Two Impossible Islands: Antillia & Santanazes

 https://youtu.be/8M940wyFq_w?si=mskJ5xCUz1xJ0S-2


Ancient maps once showed two impossible islands—Antillia and Santanazes—floating far beyond the edges of the known world. These mysterious lands captured the imagination of medieval sailors, cartographers, storytellers, and explorers who believed that somewhere west of Europe lay a utopian Christian refuge… and a demonic island where a monstrous hand dragged sailors into the deep.

Avalon: The Enchanted Isle Where Legends Say Arthur Sleeps

 https://youtu.be/k1VzR8fu2o4?si=JpY3D7D09XtWrNJR


On a mist-covered battlefield, King Arthur falls…and a boat of glass appears from the fog. Nine mysterious sisters come from the Otherworld and carry the once-and-future king away to the Isle of Avalon, where—according to legend—he will heal and one day return.

The Myth of Fu Sang: China’s Forgotten Eastern Paradise

 https://youtu.be/ty1LPZx3LVE?si=0MWSDXJkCpxlwNEL

 Fu Sang, one of the most mysterious and imaginative legends in all of Chinese mythology. A mythical Eastern paradise, a land of living suns, immortal trees, fireproof rats, deer-riding nobles, dog-headed men, giant rabbits, seas of varnish, and a fountain of wine. 

Today, we're taking an introductory look at a legend that almost no one has heard of, but absolutely should: the mythical land of Fu Sang as described by the 90-year-old Buddhist monk Hui Shen, whose fantastical tale appears in the Book of Liang over a century after his supposed voyage.

Was Fu Sang a metaphor? A myth? A garbled sailor’s tale? An embellished travel story? Or just an ancient attempt to imagine a paradise somewhere far beyond the sunrise? As always… your guess is as good as mine.

Vineta: The Lost City Beneath the Northern Sea

 https://youtu.be/dYfqwBx-Mxg?si=fJQYShRNiby-vsoo

Set your sights on the storm-tossed Baltic Sea and journey into one of Europe’s most mysterious legends — Vineta, the lost city once called the richest port in the North. In today’s video, we take an introductory look into the mythology, folklore, and historical accounts behind this legendary drowned city. Was Vineta a real place of wealth, trade, and culture? Or is it a cautionary tale woven from medieval imagination?