Monday, April 23, 2007
Free Verse
It used to take talent to write poetry. Then came free verse: no rhyme, no reason, no structure. Basically prose disguised as poetry; they just added line breaks in convenient places. I think it says a lot more for a poet if he is able to articulate his message within a series of rhymes or a clear structure, especially in today's age of anything being called poetry, than it says for the poet who is really just writing in prose.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Another Presidential Review
I have a great interest in the American presidents: I've written about Chester Arthur, Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover on this very blog. I have even published my rankings of them here. Today, I will look at a president who is far more famous for his accomplishments prior to the office. This man, the "Father of the Constitution," served as the fourth president, from 1809-1817. Three of these years, 1812-1814, were quite traumatic to the young nation.
These years, of course, covered an aptly-named war in which the United States fought to reinforce its independence: the War of 1812. The United States was able to fight off an offense from the British. The war itself was necessary, as Madison realized: the British had essentially been abducting American sailors. The way in which it was fought was ignominious. The U.S. was ill prepared to enter the war, and was only able to hold off the British long enough that they grew weary of the war too. In the process, the ill prepared Americans allowed the British to march straight through Washington, DC, as the Madisons fled the White House just before it burned.
The British were held off, but Madison had failed in his role as Commander in Chief. When Madison's administration is analyzed, his actions prior to 1809 must be ignored, which marks President Madison as average at best.
These years, of course, covered an aptly-named war in which the United States fought to reinforce its independence: the War of 1812. The United States was able to fight off an offense from the British. The war itself was necessary, as Madison realized: the British had essentially been abducting American sailors. The way in which it was fought was ignominious. The U.S. was ill prepared to enter the war, and was only able to hold off the British long enough that they grew weary of the war too. In the process, the ill prepared Americans allowed the British to march straight through Washington, DC, as the Madisons fled the White House just before it burned.
The British were held off, but Madison had failed in his role as Commander in Chief. When Madison's administration is analyzed, his actions prior to 1809 must be ignored, which marks President Madison as average at best.
Friday, April 20, 2007
My Ranking of the Presidents
A long, long time ago, I had a blog. The purpose of this blog was to survey people and achieve a ranking of the presidents. That fell by the wayside, at least in the rather inefficient method of a blog. I achieved my goal in other ways, but I will postpone the publishing of that. Here are the rankings I developed by first grading each, then ranking them all within the grades. Only the rankings appear here.
- George Washington
- Abraham Lincoln
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Ronald Reagan
- James Polk
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Harry Truman
- James Monroe
- Thomas Jefferson
- Andrew Jackson
- Franklin Roosevelt
- John Adams
- Chester Arthur
- William McKinley
- Calvin Coolidge
- Grover Cleveland
- William Taft
- George H. W. Bush
- John Q. Adams
- Rutherford Hayes
- John Kennedy
- James Madison
- Richard Nixon
- Zachary Taylor
- John Tyler
- Woodrow Wilson
- Lyndon Johnson
- Gerald Ford
- Benjamin Harrison
- Herbert Hoover
- Andrew Johnson
- George W. Bush
- Bill Clinton
- Ulysses Grant
- Martin Van Buren
- Millard Fillmore
- Warren Harding
- Jimmy Carter
- James Buchanan
- Franklin Pierce
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