Queer Notions Research Articles

The Prosecutor's Reach: Legal Issues Stemming from the New Religious Movements

There appear to be persons-let us hope not many-who find refreshment and courage in the teachings of the Am cult. If the members of the sect get comfort from the celestial guidance of their Saint Germain, however doubtful it seems to me, it is hard to say that they do not get what they pay for. Scores of sects flourish in this country by teaching what to me are queer notions. It is plain that there is wide variety in American religious taste. The Ballards are not alone in catering to it with a pretty dubious product. The chief wrong which false prophets do to their following is not financial. The collections aggregate a tempting total, but individual payments are not ruinous. I doubt if the vigilance of the law is equal to making money stick by overcredulous people. But the real harm is on the mental and spiritual plane. There are those who hunger and thirst after higher values which they feel wanting in their humdrum lives. They live in mental confusion or moral anarchy and seek vaguely for truth and beauty and moral support. When they are deluded and then disillusioned, cynicism and confusion follow. The wrong of these things, as I see it, is not in the money the victims part with half so much as in the mental and spiritual poison they get. But that is precisely the thing the Constitution put beyond the reach of the prosecutor, for the price of freedom of religion or of speech or of the press is

Points of Approach in the Teaching of Elementary Art History

THE history of art is still a now thing in our college curriculum, and it is still newer with the majority of people who register for it; it is especially new for those who have never before come near the art department of their college. Experience has taught me that it is safest not to assume any clear ideas on the part of the students in regard to the scope and nature of the work. Queer notions and misconceptions are still rampant with the public and our freshmen and sophomores are no exceptions. A remark that a colleague made to me several years ago has lingered in my memory as an example. We were discussing modern French painting and I had commented upon its general excellence. He said he believed it would be better, under the circumstances, for us to supply our need for pictures and other art objects wholly from France. To him, in other words, art was a mercantile commodity; it meant only the product not the act of production. No doubt the analogy of Parisian hats and gowns was latent in his mind. In...

Book Review: Leadership

Allan distills his own experience as a CEO and that of other CEO's of top British public corporations in turning round businesses from chaos and disaster in today's turbulent times. His own experience at turning round ASDA as the COO and leading it into £3 billion Chain-store empire and its $ 8 billion sale to Walmart and subsequent bail-out of Royal mail are fascinating stories in themselves. In the stories you also learn of queer notions & logic of CEO's which lead to disaster.

The Ghost of Flamstead

I OUGHT earlier to have thanked this venerated shade for a communication which will enable me to correct (at some future time) an omission in my treatise on the Sun. Let me hasten to assure him (or it), however, that, the omission has been in no way connected with those “queer notions of honour, and justice, and fairness,” which he conceives to be rife in our times. Why should I seek to wrong the honoured dead? And who would gain in this case by the injustice? The present Astronomer Royal? Surely no. To add this small matter to his real claims to our esteem would be To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, And throw a perfume on the violet. Neither, I am sure, has any other writer who has overlooked Flamstead's claims, desired to do him injustice. On this point I would merely remark, “Rest, rest, perturbed spirit.”

The Sun's Parallax

Is there nobody who will perform an act of justice, and ask those who seem to have never known or to have forgotten my doings, to be kind enough not to deprive me of my just claims? When, A.D. 1857, my old method of determining the sun's parallax was again publicly proposed, I thought it somewhat strange, and wondered what could be the reason that it should be treated as if it were some new and not a very old acquaintance of Science. When, some time later, a stir was made about what was represented as a new method of investigating the motion of the solar system in space, and, instead of a new, there was brought forward an old acquaintance (known to Science since the times of your grandfathers), only dressed anew, and engaged to perform some truly “astounding” antics, I wondered indeed that no friendly hand should have prevented such an exhibition, but I also comprehended the true state of affairs. And since then I have had to shrug my ghostly shoulders so often when learning further news about your curious knowledge of Science, and your strange opinions, and your queer notions of honour, and justice, and fairness, that I have long ceased to wonder at anything some of you may say or do. However, as it is only right that I should be allowed to retain what belongs to me, and as nobody appears to remember my claims, you will probably raise no objection, if I, myself, enlighten you a little, and remind you how, A.D. 1672, I determined the sun's parallax.