Free Republic

I have shaped these thoughts like a tree. The trunk is the pursuit of truth. What flowers above includes recognition that war is so often horrific folly. I think both Donald Trump and an earlier America knew that. Is leftist PC mob rule the modern equivalent of Ahab?

"There she blows!" cried the lookout, sighting the great white whale, Moby Dick. The classic book, Moby Dick, was written by New England author Herman Melville, published in 1851. In the novel, Captain Ahab, driven by revenge, sailed the seas to capture this great white whale who had bitten off his leg in a previous encounter. The crew of Captain Ahab's ship, the Pequod, included: Ishmael, the teller of the tale, which begins the line: "Call me Ishmael"-the name of Abraham's son who was sent away; Chief Mate Starbuck, a Quaker from Nantucket, for whom the Seattle-based coffee franchise took...

The U.S. ambassador to Estonia, James Melville, is quitting the diplomatic service after 33 years, over comments made by U.S. President Donald Trump.

How fares the good ship America during this, the 233rd year of our voyage? Many would say that with its new captain setting a new course it sails on into fairer days and calmer waters now that our demons at home and abroad are being mollified and made more sociable. Many others, perhaps now more than half, would say that we tack between Scylla and Charybdis with a more than fair chance of being driven onto a lee shore by the gusting headwinds. All would agree our present position was unforeseeable even two years ago and that our present passage...

Wreck of the The Two Brothers found 600 miles northwest of Honolulu Divers have found the shipwrecked vessel of a doomed sailor who inspired the classic American tale Moby Dick off the coast of Hawaii.When, in 1820, a fierce sperm whale sank George Pollard's first whaling ship — Essex — it captured the imagination of author Herman Melville, who published the book in 1851.And, just three years after his first ship sank, a second whaler captained by Pollard, 30, struck a coral reef during a night storm and sank in shallow water.Marine archaeologists scouring remote atolls 600 miles northwest...

Can't resist it - I was raised on American culture and am all the happier for it. It formed me culturally and made me what I am. Since I come into contact with Americans professionally on a frequent basis, it's always a great pleasure to have 'common ground', so to speak. Today I started reading 'Moby-Dick' for the fifth time. And believe me, I do have an exceptional memory. But this book is so rich that you can spend a lifetime with it and still miss out on some things. The pretty pragmatic, relativistic Ishmael embarks on a boat trip...

Moby Dick is full of allusions to the Bible. A major theme in the Bible is salvation and (in the New Testament) new birth. This essay will summarize what the Bible says on the subject and then show ways in which this applies to Moby Dick. Moby Dick depends a lot on the Old Testament. Job and Jonah, Ahab and Noah stalk its pages. (Originally I had thought of doing a paper contrasting Melville's Ahab with Job, but I was overwhelmed at the magnitude of references and allusions--anyone willing to stake me for a two-year sabbatical?). Moby Dick does also...