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The satirical comedies written and performed during the glory years of the ancient Athenian Democracy still pack a punch after more than 2,400 years. Athens faced many of the same issues and dilemmas we Americans face. Part of the reason for that is the fact that our founding fathers were great students of ancient Greek democracy and modeled some of our own institutions on the Athenian model.
The comedies are also much more sophisticated than modern audiences expect, featuring political views, sexual material and metatheatrical humor that seem several centuries ahead of their time. Breaking the fourth wall is not a postmodern concept like some people have convinced themselves – it was a convention established in these ancient works of comedy.
Irreverence toward any and all subjects – including the gods they worshipped – was permitted by the Athenians in the “anything goes” arena of the Theatre of Dionysus, where the comedies competed with each other at festivals, chiefly the Dionysia and the Lenaea.
For more details click here: https://glitternight.com/2011/09/22/at-long-last-my-ancient-greek-comedy-posts-begin/
WEALTH GODS (PLUTOI) – By Cratinus. In this satirical comedy the Titans are depicted overthrowing Zeus in a metaphor for the fall of the political leader Pericles. This was a reference either to his actual death or to the loss of his position as Strategos (Commander in Chief) depending on which year you go with for the comedy.
With Zeus/Pericles out of the way, Cratinus depicted the Titans returning Earth to the Golden Age when they ruled and all wealth was shared equally. The comedy presented various Athenian tycoons being put on trial by the Titans, who would confiscate wealth acquired in an “unjust” way and give it to others. But just WHO gets to decide what qualifies as an “unjust” way of acquiring wealth? Continue reading
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at yet ANOTHER collapse of anti-Trump and pro-Biden lies told by the Democrats and their media outlets. They lied about “Russian Collusion” (LMAO), they lied about and/or simply fabricated remarks supposedly said by Trump, and on and on. Their 
Inevitably, as the lies about Trump have fallen apart over time, the Democrats and their media outlets give a few token retractions of their earlier lies, then cover the stories as if they were not monumentally wrong about them at first. Anyone out there who still dismisses anything Trump says as lies has completely missed who keeps getting exposed as the real liars over the past seven years. 
Below are just SOME links to stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop and the evidence that the drug using, corrupt thug seems to have forgotten was on it. Also, JOE BIDEN STILL HAS MORE KIDS IN CAGES THAN TRUMP OR OBAMA HAD. But we know that Democrats never cared about those kids, they just used them as a political stick. 
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes another look at the Democrats’ ongoing war against the rest of us. 
Mickey Spillane’s hard-boiled private “detective” Mike Hammer first appeared in the writer’s debut novel I, The Jury in 1947. Spillane filled the Hammer stories with scandalous – for the time period – violence and sex. Critics frowned on the hundreds of millions in book sales that followed but readers continue to make the many Mike Hammer novels a success to this very day. 
MICKEY SPILLANE’S MIKE HAMMER (1954) – This was a failed pilot for what would have been the first Mike Hammer television series. Brian Keith starred as the title dick (as it were) while Blake Edwards wrote and directed, years before his Peter Gunn series. 
THE MOST TERRIBLE TIME IN MY LIFE (1993 in Japan, 1994 in the U.S.) – Masatoshi Nagase IS Maiku Hama, the Japanese rendering of the name Mike Hammer. This unusual film, directed and co-written by Kaizo Hayashi, is in black & white for all but the final 20 minutes. 
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes another look at some of the ongoing scandals, failures and disasters under the Joe Biden Regime. And remember – BIDEN STILL HAS MORE “KIDS IN CAGES” THAN EITHER TRUMP OR OBAMA DID. Gee, how come Biden supporters don’t still hold their protests about kids being in cages? Oh, yeah, because they never really cared about those kids in the first place, they just used them as a political stick. 
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’ve never made any secret of my fondness for David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks. I’m even a huge fan of the 2017 continuation of the series. Well, for the most part. I could have done without the introduction of time traveling into the series and the notion of Laura Palmer being some sort of Chosen One figure. 
Here at Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog I’ve long pointed out that one of the many things that drove so many like me away from the Democrats is the way that financially comfortable Democrats are every bit as callous and uncaring toward the working class and the poor as the richest snobs ever were. 
GEORGES (1843) – Published just one year before The Three Musketeers, this novel is not only a rollicking adventure full of action, romance and double-crosses but it deals with racial issues in such a way that you would have thought it would have been adapted for film four or five decades ago. The title character uses his sword to fight slavery! 
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at some recent political cartoons and the failures of elected Democrats and Republicans. (Plus, how about Joe Biden’s latest senile gibberish. He actually said “How did we get to the place where, you know, Putin decides he’s gonna just invade Russia?”)
