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Kennedy questions Alito's integrity? By Mark M. Alexander Jan 13, 2006 "The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice." --George Washington You heard it here first: Ted Kennedy, the Democrat Party mascot, is a tone-deaf alien from a distant galaxy. How else to explain his impudent inquisition into the integrity of our nation's next Supreme Court justice, the Honorable Samuel Alito? In Senate Judiciary Committee hearings this week, Kennedy actually asserted that the nominee's association with a conservative Princeton alumni group two decades ago should disqualify him from a seat on the High Court....

Genre: Sports, Drama Ronald Reagan stars as baseball pitching great Grover Cleveland Alexander in his 40th and last film for Warner Bros. Doris Day co-stars in the 1952 drama as the wife who spurs him on to the major leagues and sees his triumph in the 1926 World Series. With Frank Lovejoy and Russ Tamblyn. Actors: DORIS DAY, RONALD REAGAN, FRANK LOVEJOY, EVE MILLER, JAMES MILLICAN

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran, at loggerheads with the West over its nuclear ambitions, has put tension to one side and lent a treasure trove of artefacts from Ancient Persia to a new exhibition at the British Museum. Organisers were concerned the exhibition may not happen at all after hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected the Islamic state's president in June. "We certainly were worried for a time that we wouldn't receive any objects," said curator John Curtis. "But happily that wasn't the case, and everybody decided to go ahead with the exhibition." "Forgotten Empire: the world of Ancient Persia," which opens...

Back to the Future Part IV / Time After Time 2By J. Neil SchulmanA movie I would love to see but am never going to be allowed to write.--JNS While traveling through the American southwest, Sherlock Holmes1 is hired by the railroad to investigate the hijacking and destruction of a locomotive that was deliberately crashed, apparently senselessly, off an unfinished railroad bridge into Shonash Ravine 2, Hill County, Texas. During his investigation Holmes sees a flying locomotive engineered by a white-haired man and a dark-haired woman2, which Holmes initially attributes to a cocaine-induced hallucination3. However, further investigation of forensic...

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress - 1st Session as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate Vote Summary Question: On the Amendment (Ensign Amdt. No. 1219 ) Vote Number: 179 Vote Date: July 14, 2005, 10:04 AM Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Amendment Rejected Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 1219 to S.Amdt. 1124 to H.R. 2360 (Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act ) Statement of Purpose: Of a perfecting nature. Vote Counts: YEAs 38 NAYs 60 Not Voting 2 Vote Summary By Senator Name By Vote Position By...

There are caves and sarcophagi with pointed arches in Lycia, moreover carved as if they were wooden structures. Many of them were made in the 4th century B.C. As to India, the first cave temples appeared in the middle of the 3rd century B.C. They are the caves at Barabar and Nagarjuni Hills built for Ajivikas by King Ashoka. If there is no connection between the two sites located so far apart, it might be considered only a strange coincidence. However, there exists historical evidence of the eastern expedition by Alexander the Great of Macedonia (reign 336 B.C. - 323...

Director Oliver Stone has cut the gay references from his 'Alexander' movie for the DVD version of the 2004 flop. Stone claimed that the Macedonian epic was unpopular with American audiences because of the subtle homosexual content.He said, 'They didn't even read the reviews in the South because the media was using the words-- Alex is Gay.''As a result you can bet that they thought, We're not going to see a film about a military leader that has got something wrong with him.'In the DVD version, Colin Ferell's Alexander the Great character's relationship with Hephaistion--played by Jared Leto--will be portrayed...

WASHINGTON - New driver's license rules tucked in a military spending bill will create national identification cards for Americans and stick state governments with the bill, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander said Tuesday. Alexander, R-Tenn., joined Democrats and state officials in railing against the White House-backed driver's license rules and other immigration measures before the Senate approved the $82 billion spending bill 100-0. The House approved it last week. Several states fear the new rules will be costly, provide little protection against invasions of privacy and identity theft, and make getting a driver's license a bigger headache for Americans. The rules...

The House recently passed legislation requiring states to turn 190 million driver's licenses into national ID cards, with state taxpayers paying most of the cost. The first thing wrong here is that the House stuck the ID card proposal on the appropriations bill that supports troops in Iraq and sent it over to the Senate. We should not slow down money for our troops while we debate ID cards. The second problem is that states not only get to create these ID cards, they'll likely end up paying the bill. This is one more of the unfunded federal mandates that...

No, this is not a blonde joke. If you want one of those, go to this week’s Humor File. Cleopatra was in fact a blonde. That’s because she was not Egyptian. She was a Macedonian Greek, with hair as blonde as Alexander’s. Alexander conquered Egypt in 332 BC, then went on to subdue all of the Middle East. When he died nine years later, his just-conquered empire was fought over and carved up by his generals. The one who ended up running Egypt was Ptolemy (367-283 BC). Declaring himself Pharaoh, he founded the Ptolemaic Dynasty, with twelve Ptolemies in succession,...

WASHINGTON - Tennessee's two senators voted Wednesday to allow oil drilling in a portion of the Alaska wildlife refuge, saying high gasoline prices show more energy supply is needed. But environmentalists said they will fight in other forums to keep drilling out of the area for the protection of wildlife and the ecosystem. They predicted there would be no more oil flowing in Alaska for at least 10 years or longer - so no near-term relief from high prices. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said: "The high cost of gasoline illustrates that our nation is too dependent on foreign...

A teacher at Bear Creek High School charged with giving sexually explicit materials to a student heard the charges against her in a Stockton courtroom on Wednesday. Kim Alexander, 39, who is also know as Janet Kim Alexander-Low, was arrested Friday after allegations surfaced that she had provided pornographic materials to a 15-year-old male student at Bear Creek High. Today Alexander appeared before a judge with her attorney and her husband at her side. It quickly became clear that she will face more serious charges than initially thought. In addition to the expected charges of annoying a child under 18...

We did it... We protested churchill. There was a collection of pro-Churchill moonbats that showed up, and we protested them as well.

TROUBLE SPEAK Ward Churchill copied 'original' art piece Takes a swing at TV reporter who confronted him -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 26, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Professor Ward Churchill Adding to a growing list of allegations, controversial University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill appears to have violated copyright law by claiming a reknowned artist's work as his own. Churchill, whose integrity has been challenged since news broke earlier last month of his paper blaming victims of 9-11 for the attacks, made an Indian-theme serigraph in 1981 called "Winter Attack" and printed 150 copies. But one of the buyers,...

Ward Hill as a member of the schismatic Boulder/Denver branch of AIM [American Indian Movement] as spent his whole life trashing the FBI and police. Here is what he said in his "Roosting Chickens" article. He is an anarchist who publishes his books through anarchist publishers. He wants to trash our law enforcement and intelligence organizations so that we will be destroyed. He doesn't want to make them better. He want the USA off the planet. He has often depicted the FBI and CIA as terrorist organizations.

Ward Churchill is the professor from Colorado University who called the dead in the World Trade Center "Nazis" and also said that the US deserved 9/11, and that we should have not fought back. Prof Churchill may get fired from the University of Colorado-Bolder He may appear on March 1st, time pending, if the administration approves of it.

In his FrontPage Magazine article Andrew Alexander’s Lies About the Cold War, Jamie Glazov speaks of the Soviet regime’s aggressive and expansionist designs against the West in the post-WWII period, and how de-classified Soviet sources prove that they had extensively infiltrated their agents into Western society. "...the Venona transcripts are thousands of Soviet intelligence messages that were intercepted and decoded over four decades by the FBI and the NSA (National Security Agency). Released over the past few years, these files prove that there was a large-scale Communist penetration of the U.S. government, and that Communist spies passed on valuable information...

Norway Set to Reopen Embassy in Iraq January 26, 2001 Norway is preparing to reopen its embassy in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, 10 years after it was closed at the start of the Gulf War, the foreign ministry announced Friday. Norway, a new member of the U.N. Security Council, was appointed this month to lead the world agency's sanctions committee on Iraq. Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland said Oslo needs first hand information from Iraq. ''To be able to do the most independent evaluation possible of the conditions in Iraq in connection with our work on the Security Council, we...

Director Oliver Stone Quits US For France January 14, 2005, 6:59:20 STONE ESCAPES AMERICA FOR FRANCE Director OLIVER STONE is so distraught over the criticism targeted at his last two big screen projects, he's preparing to flee America for France. The JFK movie-maker sparked controversy by meeting Cuban dictator FIDEL CASTRO for his 2003 documentary COMANDANTE - forcing TV network HBO to axe it from their schedule. Stone's recent historical epic, ALEXANDER, was also subjected to scathing reviews in the US for portraying Macedonian warrior ALEXANDER THE GREAT as a bisexual. And Stone can't understand why years of hard work...

HIS LATEST attempt at ridiculous historical revisionism, “Alexander,” having met defeat at the box office, director Oliver Stone has sought a scapegoat for his failure: Americans. “Americans don’t read about ancient history like the Europeans. And in America there is a raging fundamentalism and morality,” Stone said last week in an attempt to explain his flop. “From day one the Bible Belt people did not show up because there was one phrase throughout the media and that was ‘Alex the gay.’” According to Stone, the “raging fundamentalism and morality” of Americans kept his film from doing well because we didn’t...

Alexander, 15 cert, 173 min Oliver Stone's Alexander limps to these shores as bloodied and bruised as its conquering hero, Alexander the Great, after the battle of Gaugamela in 331BC. Only without the victory. Barbs of gleeful scorn protrude from its back, the names of usually mild-mannered American critics attached. And that groaning you hear on the battlefield is the sound of Warner Bros accountants totting up the box-office takings. We'd heard much about the highlights in Colin Farrell's hair, which are admittedly distracting. And we'd heard that the movie was an outright disaster, which it is: lumpen, pedantic, agonisingly...

LONDON - Director Oliver Stone said he was surprised by the critical reaction to his historical epic "Alexander" — and put the blame on the fundamentalist morality in some parts of the United States. Critics lambasted the film, which stars Irish actor Colin Farrell, and some conservative groups condemned Stone's depiction of the Macedonian conqueror's sexuality. "I was quite taken aback by the controversy and fierceness of the reviews about a character we don't really know too much about," Stone told reporters in London Wednesday before the film's British premiere. "I operate on my passion and sometimes I'm naive, I...

LONDON — Director Oliver Stone (search) said he was surprised by the critical reaction to his historical epic "Alexander" (search) — and put the blame on the fundamentalist morality in some parts of the United States. Critics lambasted the film, which stars Irish actor Colin Farrell (search), and some conservative groups condemned Stone's depiction of the Macedonian conqueror's sexuality. "I was quite taken aback by the controversy and fierceness of the reviews about a character we don't really know too much about," Stone told reporters in London Wednesday before the film's British premiere. "I operate on my passion and sometimes...

Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005 8:40 a.m. EST Oliver Stone Blames His Flop on Christians Castro-loving movie director Oliver Stone refuses to take responsibility for the box-office and critical failure of his ludicrous bomb "Alexander." In fact, he "put the blame on the fundamentalist morality in some parts of the United States," the Associated Press reported today. American audiences' rejection of the terrible movie, whose low point is Angelina Jolie as a Freudian mother from hell vamping with snakes while talking in a Natasha Badenov accent, is a sign of "a raging fundamentalism in morality," Stone complained in London. "I was...

Director Oliver Stone turned on American critics and audiences on Wednesday, saying they had focused solely on the issue of homosexuality in "Alexander," his big-budget epic that portrays the Macedonian hero as bisexual. He also blamed the U.S. invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) for the movie's poor performance at the box office, arguing that people were distracted by comparisons between Alexander the Great's forays into the Middle East and President Bush. "The homosexuality thing was a buzzword and got all around," Stone told Reuters Television in London at the film's British premiere. "It was a hot button issue...

LONDON (AFP) - Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone blamed "raging fundamentalism in morality" for the frosty reception that his new film "Alexander" is getting in his native United States. In London for its British premiere, Stone, 58, said that after a career full of cage-rattling work, he thought a biopic of Alexander the Great, the 4th century Macedonian-born conquerer, would be "a safe subject". But he said he was "quite taken aback by the controversy and fierceness of the reviews" which greeted its US release, including outrage at the film's suggestion that Alexander was bisexual. "Sexuality is a large issue in...

LONDON (AFP) - Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone blamed "raging fundamentalism in morality" for the frosty reception that his new film "Alexander" is getting in his native United States. In London for its British premiere, Stone, 58, said that after a career full of cage-rattling work, he thought a biopic of Alexander the Great, the 4th century Macedonian-born conquerer, would be "a safe subject". But he said he was "quite taken aback by the controversy and fierceness of the reviews" which greeted its US release, including outrage at the film's suggestion that Alexander was bisexual. "Sexuality is a large issue in...

Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone blamed "raging fundamentalism in morality" for the frosty reception that his new film "Alexander" is getting in his native United States

LONDON (AFP) - Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone blamed "raging fundamentalism in morality" for the frosty reception that his new film "Alexander" is getting in his native United States. In London for its British premiere, Stone, 58, said that after a career full of cage-rattling work, he thought a biopic of Alexander the Great, the 4th century Macedonian-born conquerer, would be "a safe subject". But he said he was "quite taken aback by the controversy and fierceness of the reviews" which greeted its US release, including outrage at the film's suggestion that Alexander was bisexual. "Sexuality is a large issue in...

Colin Farrell and director Oliver Stone have spoken out to defend new movie Alexander, which has been given a thorough kicking in the US. The £80m movie, which shocked America by portraying the Macedonian warrior king as 'Alex the gay', has only taken £18m across the pond. Stone, director of Platoon and Born On The Fourth Of July, said: "There's a raging fundamentalism in morality in the US. "From day one, audiences didn't show up. They didn't even read the reviews in the South because the media was using the words 'Alex the gay'. "I was quite taken aback by...

Oliver Stone laments 'Alexander the gay' Director admits: 'There was clear resistance to his homosexuality' © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Hollywood director Oliver Stone is lamenting the poor box-office performance of his latest film "Alexander," citing the homosexuality of the lead character as one of the detrimental factors. Colin Farrell, right, stars as Alexander the Great, with Angelina Jolie and Val Kilmer as his parents. (Courtesy Warner Bros.) "I still think it's a beautiful movie, but Alexander deserves better than I gave him," Stone said, according to the London Telegraph. "There was clear resistance to his homosexuality. It became the headline to...

SHIRAZ -- Some Iranians are up in arms again at the United States -- this time because of Hollywood’s version of Alexander the Great’s conquest of ancient Persia. According to Hassan Moussavi, who teaches history at Shiraz University, Oliver Stone’s latest blockbuster is merely the latest in a long line of affronts to the national esteem of the Persians. “There is not even any proof that this Alexander even existed,” asserted Moussavi, who said he was “fed up” with history’s ongoing fascination with the Macedonian king, who died in 323 BC at the age of 32 after capturing most of...

Alexander the Not So GreatBy Hugh Davies (Filed: 31/12/2004) The Hollywood film director Oliver Stone said yesterday that the flop in America of his £83 million production about Alexander the Great was 'dismaying', confessing that more people watched it on the opening weekend in Croatia 'than in the entire' Deep South. Mr Stone said: "I still think it's a beautiful movie, but Alexander deserves better than I gave him. There was clear resistance to his homosexuality. It became the headline to the movie. Oliver Stone talks to lead actor Colin Farrell on set "They called him Alexander the gay. That's...

Wednesday, December 29, 2004 MEDIA MATTERSHomosexual 'Alexander'on life supportWarner about to pull plug on $200 million 'gigantic fiasco'Posted: December 29, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Warner Brothers is about to give up on its $200 million epic depicting Alexander the Great as a homosexual. Colin Farrell, right, stars as Alexander the Great, with Angelina Jolie and Val Kilmer as his parents. (Courtesy Warner Bros.) Fox News Entertainment columnist Roger Friedman says "Alexander," starring Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie and Val Kilmer, has become a "gigantic fiasco," the company's biggest since Kevin Costner's "The Postman" earned just $17 million. The film grossed just...

'Alexander' on Life Support Warner Brothers is about ready to pull the plug on Oliver Stone's "Alexander." The $200 million movie has become a gigantic fiasco, the company's biggest since Kevin Costner's "The Postman" took in only $17 million. "Alexander," which stars Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie and Val Kilmer, has only grossed $33.9 million. The sad fellow took in a little over $41,000 during the holiday weekend on its remaining (and paltry) 232 screens. That translates into $177 per show. Ouch! The remaining exhibitors who have had this dud are now entering their sixth week and will likely dump it....

Stone: Europe Will Appreciate 'Alexander' KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press PARIS - Director Oliver Stone says he's optimistic that his historical epic "Alexander" will do well in Europe after getting off to a disappointing start at home. "People in America are apathetic to ancient history - they are," Stone told reporters Thursday in Paris. "They don't study the classics like they do in Europe, so there is a significant difference in reaction. I know this because I've been in 12 foreign countries in the last month, to 12 openings." The director noted that his film - based on the life of...

Item: Entertainment Weekly’s lavish cover story for November 19 claims that Oliver Stone’s new movie, Alexander, about Alexander the Great, is “an honest, fairly explicit treatment of Alexander’s famous bisexuality.” “It wasn’t like Stone had taken historical liberties,” the article continues. “His rendering of Alexander’s life is … more or less in the mainstream of scholarly research. By most accounts Alexander did like men, women, and eunuchs — his best friend Hephaistion was his longtime lover.” Item: A New York Times article for November 20 entitled, “Breaking Ground With a Gay Movie Hero,” says of Stone’s film: “Historians of antiquity...

The consensus about Oliver Stone's Alexander is that the film's splashy gay motifs could not overcome the stilted dialogue, ludicrous Irish-brogue and Count Dracula accents, and excruciating minutes of dead screen time devoted to model-like poses, secretive eye contact, and soap-opera double entendres. Stone's apparent hope was that he could garner media hype by overt homosexual scenes of kissing and hugging, and by candor about same-sex relations: The world's first global conqueror was really more a sensitive and feminine creature of the bedroom and banquet hall than a great captain of blood and iron. In reality, the movie proved not...

Democrat chairman resigns after disappointing fall elections By The Associated Press After a series of stinging disappointments in this fall's congressional elections, the head of the Louisiana Democratic Party said Monday that he is stepping down from his leadership post. Party chairman Mike Skinner said his resignation would become effective at the next meeting of the Democratic State Central Committee early next year. Skinner, a former U.S. attorney in Louisiana, was elected chairman in March 2003, and that year the Democrats regained the Governor's Mansion with the election of Kathleen Blanco and held onto nearly every statewide elected position. But...

Justice, 146 years later ‘Historical court’ exonerates Nisqually Chief Leschi as watchers cheer ROB CARSON; The News Tribune Last updated: December 11th, 2004 07:21 AM (PST) To no one’s great surprise, a “historical court” that met Friday to re-examine the trial and execution of the Nisqually Chief Leschi found the martyred Indian leader was unjustly convicted. After listening to nearly four hours of testimony from historical experts and tribal representatives, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry Alexander huddled briefly with six other members of a special judicial panel and returned with this announcement: “Chief Leschi should not have been tried...

Oliver Stone has been out of the limelight for a long time, having gone five years between major theatrical releases since the 1999 football film "Any Given Sunday." The delay could be due to his turning slightly crazy, including an October 2001 panel discussion where he suggested Sept. 11 happened because the Hollywood studios are run by six "princes" that wouldn't let him make a film about Martin Luther King. Christopher Hitchens spoke for many when he summarized that Stone had "lost it." In November, Stone proved Hitchens' point by releasing "Alexander," as in Alexander the Great, the Macedonian conqueror....

The box office flop of “Alexander” is cause for celebration. That Stone’s pretentious film debuted at a weak sixth place—well behind the animated “The Incredibles” and “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie”—is even better.Not because of its debatable portrayal of “Alexander the Great” as bisexual.But because “Alexander’s” director, Oliver Stone, and star, Angelina Jolie, are Soft On Terrorism.  Extremely soft.  Especially Palestinian terrorism.OLIVER STONE’S TERRORIST BUDDIESRemember the 2002 Passover Massacre, when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up 29 innocent, elderly Israelis celebrating the important Jewish holiday?Right after that, Oliver Stone paid homage to Yasser Arafat, visiting the now-deceased Palestinian terrorist-in-chief at his...

A movie as bad as Oliver Stone's Alexander usually would not be worth notice, but Stone has indulged several cinematic and political pathologies that are illuminating. Some of the film's flaws are curiously old-fashioned, redolent of studio schlock of the 1950s — the bombastic musical score, Angeline Jolie's pointless Elvira "Mistress of the Night" accent; the heavy-handed, stale Oedipal psychology, complete with snakes; and the corny dialogue whose purple patches sound positively late Victorian. And Colin Farrel's waxed legs and dye job are as embarrassing as Richard Burton's were in his turn as the Macedonian conqueror. More interesting is what...

With two star-studded motion pictures featuring Colin Farrel and Leonardo DiCaprio, Alexander the Great seems to be suddenly all the rage. In keeping with the spirit of Hollywood, the movies will probably focus on Alexander's impressive military career, his colossal battles with the Persian Empire and his sordid personal life. What will be overlooked are the fascinating interactions Alexander had with the Jewish people and the complex relationship that developed between the Greeks and the Jews that set the stage for the story of Chanukah.A LITTLE BACKGROUNDAlexander, born in 356BCE, was the son of Phillip II (382-336BCE), the King of...

“Few modern historians accept Alexander’s greatness upon his military abilities alone, and none, certainly, upon the pomp which he acquired as Lord of Lords of the Persians and as Pharaoh, the god-king of Egypt. More noteworthy to them—as it was to may of his contemporaries—is Alexander’s surprising cosmopolitanism. By his colonization, Alexander spread the Greek language, Greek social institutions, and Greek culture from Athens to India. He seems to have envisioned a new culture rooted in Hellenism but united with the ancient civilizations of the Near east and any other area which might be added to the empire of the...

The failure of "Alexander," the newspaper wrote, has "brutally exposed the cultural and moral divide which slices America in two." Uh-huh. "It is being suggested that a film about a global warrior with dyed blond hair and waxed legs was never going to conquer an America fresh out of a presidential election in which gay rights became a major issue." Is there another America they might be talking about? Major issue? Brutally exposed? The last thing an American movie brutally exposed was Kathy Bates in the hot-tub scene of "About Schmidt."

A large part of "Alexander's" downfall is attributable to the moral distastefulness of the subject matter. Alexander the Great is played as a mop-top, indecisive bisexual by Farrell. During the course of the movie, Farrell kisses a eunuch full on the mouth and exchanges numerous lingering glances with boyhood chum and grown-up gay lover Hephaistion (played by an eye-liner-wearing Jared Leto). Anthony Hopkins, playing Ptolemy, intones: "It was said ... that Alexander was never defeated, except by Hephaistion's thighs."

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Oliver Stone had a really rotten week. His huge-budget epic drama “Alexander,” starring Colin Farrell, Angeline Jolie, Val Kilmer, and Anthony Hopkins, premiered to critical raspberries and popular apathy. “Alexander” reportedly cost over $150 million to make, and over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, it garnered a mere $21,837,517, finishing sixth at the box office. In all likelihood, Warner Bros., which produced the film, will still recoup its costs, despite the probability that “Alexander” won’t come close to $100 million in domestic grosses. Europeans are expected to turn out in high numbers to see the Macedonian wunderkind; they turned out en...

Recent studies have also raised the question of whether he was a hopeless alcoholic (or perhaps an almost sacrificial votary of a cult devoted to Dionysus, the god of wine) and of whether he was just another bloodthirsty conqueror. But note this first: This man really did exist, and these events really did occur. Our sources may be fragmentary and inconsistent and contradictory, but they involve us in disputes about real people and events. For the next four weeks, you won't be able to go into a supermarket without hearing pseudo-devotional music concerning an episode 2,000 years ago that may...