Aye or Nay?

Uh, I'm neutral on that unless there is some issue around it I'm unaware of. Aye?

And aye on grass skirts.

Octavian "Augustus" Caesar?

A mixed bag. A political genius, but then so was Mao. On the whole, probably aye-ish.

Gerbils as pets?

But poor Ovid though :(

And nay for me, I don't like indoor mammal inclosures for the smell they produce.

The nation state of Austria?

Also I am aware that I am a mammal in an indoor inclosure...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clopin

But poor Ovid though :(

And nay for me, I don't like indoor mammal inclosures for the smell they produce.

The nation state of Austria?

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Well, Augustus ended a generation of civil war and prolonged Roman imperium for 400 years (and 1000 years longer than that in the East, although that was mostly Constantine's doing). The Republic was moribund and Rome would never have survived without him. Most Romans at the time resented and feared the Senate, whose members had divested their families of their land over the years. All but the senatorial families themselves saw the emperors (at least in principle and usually in practice) as their protectors against the Senate. But yes, Ovid's case was a grim bellwether that freedom of speech from an artist was incompatible with the new way. Less than a generation before, Catullus had said what he liked about whomever he felt like talking about--including Cicero, Caesar, Crassus, Pulcher (Caesar's muscle in the city and his own married girlfriend's dangerous brother), and many others. By the end of the first century (after the Ovid business), the poet Martial used a savage toward private citizens, but only nauseating panegyric for the emperor and his family. Juvenal, a satirist, made a crack about Domitian's sister's abortion, but he was certainly dead and gone by then, and despised by the regime in power. So that's why Augustus only got an aye-ish from me. Maybe it should have been a nay-ish, but he was a political genius and a kid with b*lls, at least when he started. No one ever thought he'd win (at first), least of all Antony.

So Austria? Well, if it's the nation state, that leaves Mozart out. And the Anschluss in--I mean, it was the nation state that decided to collaborate like that. So nay? On the other hand, every Austrian I've known has been cool. So I guess I don't know.

Same question.

Nay, one of the lamest countries in the world, alongside Sweden.

And I like Augustus to be honest, it was a different time.

Rhubarb?

Hell yeah. Great pie.

Raw shellfish (like cherrystones, if you know what those are)?

Mhm, never had raw shellfish though I do like cooked shellfish.

Nay just for the prospect of eating them, right now at least, I'll try a raw oyster eventually.

The South rising again?

Oh they're soooo good, Clopin.

No to the South rising again. They completely deserved to lose that war.

No taxes for churches?

Provinces, states, etc voting to secede from their parent nation (Quebec, Scotland, Texas, etc)?

Aye, no taxes for churches.

Haha whenever I see someone call for churches to pay taxes they INVARIABLY just hate religion and want to do the institution harm. I say no to tax policies designed as some sort of... punishment.

Possibly, but in my make believe republic, it would have to be ratified by the other states or provinces. And succession is not why our Civil War was really fought; it was over the expansion of slave economies into the northwest (per the Kansas-Nebraska act); despite the myth, the Confederacy was a highly expansionist proposition)

Choice of celibacy or no celibacy for Catholic priests?

I'm not a catholic, no celibacy makes more sense to me but I don't know how important that doctrine is to their faith.

Best book to read on the civil war?

Titus Andronicus (the play)

I just read a great book on the Civil War, part of the Oxford History of the United States, and Pulitzer Prize winner, with the unfortunately dorky name: Battle Cry of Freedom. It's a political history and covers the period from the end of the Mexican War to the end of the Civil War. I recommend it highly, although be warned that it's 900 pages or so. I'll probably write a review sometime next week.

Aye to Titus Andronicus.

Asking a post-operative transexual on a date?

Nay, sorry. I might change to aye if the surgery really worked, but I doubt I could get past it.

Plastic, different coloUred money?