Dictator

Uday and Kuse dumplings.

dim sum.

I'm going with Big Mac Alfredo.

Okay.

So in your book, what did you, what was it called? I think it was called like Dictators or something, the chapter.

Yeah.

Talking to Dictators.

You talked about all the dictators you've met, which you only mentioned two, I think.

But you said you were invited to Libya as personal guest of Gaddafi in 2007 and in 2008.

That's what I think of.

Dictator always with an overcoat.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Who are you?

Then you will behold him like a great colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight, and break in pieces.

End of section 1 Section 2 of Anti-Dictator.

The Discourse sur la Servitude Volontaire of Etienne de la Boissy.

Translated into English by Harry Kurtz.

in torment for having paraded as Jupiter in order to deceive the populace, now atones in nethermost hell.

he suffered endless torment for having dared to imitate the thunderbolts of heaven and the flames of jupiter upon a chariot drawn by four chargers he went unsteadily riding aloft in his fist a great shining torch among the greeks and into the market-place in the heart of the city of elis he had ridden boldly and displaying thus his vainglory he assumed an honour which undeniably belongs to the gods alone this fool who imitated storm and the inimitable thunderbolt by clash of brass and with his dizzying charge on horn hoofed steeds the all-powerful father beheld hurled not a torch nor the feeble light from a waxen taper with its smoky fumes but by the furious blast of thunder and lightning he brought him low his heels above his head footnote a chapter six verses five eight five and foot if such a one who in his time acted merely through the folly of insolence is so well received in hell i think that those who have used religion as a cloak to hide their vileness will be even more deservedly lodged in the same place our own leaders have employed in france certain similar devices such as toads fleurs-de-lis sacred vessels and standards with flames of gold footnote these are references to heraldic emblems of royalty the sacred vessel contained the holy oil for the coronation of the kings of france said to have been brought by an angel from heaven for the crowning of clovis in four nine six the fleur-de-lis is the well-known heraldic flower dating from the twelfth century in its earlier forms it has other elements besides petals such as arrow tips spikes and even bees and toads the oriflamme or standard of gold was also adopted by french royalty originally it belonged to the abbey of st denis and had a red background dotted with stars surrounding a flaming sun some scholars have noted in the three branches of the fleur-de-lis a heraldic transformation of toads which formed presumably the totem of the ancient franks footnote however that may be i do not wish for my part to be incredulous since neither we nor our ancestors have had any occasion up to now for scepticism our kings have always been so generous in times of peace and so valiant in time of war that from birth they seem not to have been created by nature like many others but even before birth to have been designated by almighty god for the government and preservation of this kingdom even if this were not so yet should i not enter the tilting ground to call in question the truth of our traditions or to examine them so strictly as to take away their fine conceits here is such a field for our french poetry now not merely honored but it seems to me reborn through our ronsard our baif our ballet footnote these three were the most inspired of the pleiades a group of seven poets of the renaissance in france la boasie's boast is impulsive but natural when one thinks of the vigor and hope of this period du belay fifteen forty eight published a defence of the french language which explained the literary doctrines of the group the reference in the text to this defence helps date the these poets are defending our language so well that i dare to believe that very soon neither the greeks nor the latins will in this respect have any advantage over us except possibly that of seniority and i should assuredly do wrong to our poesy i like to use that word despite the fact that several have rhymed mechanically for i still discern a number of men to-day capable of ennobling poetry and restoring it to its first lustre but as i say i should do the muse great injury if i deprived her now of those fine tales about king clovis amongst which it seems to me i can already see how agreeably and how happily the inspiration of our ronsard in his franciade will play footnote this unfinished epic has only four cantos it attempts to relate how to francis son of hector is revealed the glorious future of france he beholds a visionary procession of her kings descending from him all the way to charlemagne king clovis four six five to five eleven of whom many tales are told was baptized after the miracle of tolbiac and founded the morovinian dynasty although the poem was not published till a few days after the massacre of st bartholomew ronsard had spoken of his project more than twenty years before he had even read the finished prologue to henry the second in fifteen fifty la boissy's early reference bespeaks his close relations with the poets of his day i appreciate his loftiness i am aware of his keen spirit and i know the charm of the man he will appropriate the oriflamme to his use much as did the romans their sacred bucklers and the shields cast from heaven to earth according to virgil footnote a need canto eight verse six six four and foot he will use our phial of holy oil much as the athenians used the basket of erythonius footnote erithonius legendary king of athens fifteen seventy three to fifteen fifty six b c was the son of the earth he is at times represented in the guise of a serpent carried by the cercropodes maidens to whom athens had entrusted him as a child the allusion here is to the panathena festival when maidens carried garlanded baskets on their heads races were also held for which the winners received olive wreaths as prizes and he will win applause for our deeds of valor as they did for their olive wreath which they insist can still be found in minerva's tower certainly i should be presumptuous if i tried to cast slurs on our records and thus invade the realm of our poets but to return to our subject the thread of which i have unwittingly lost in this discussion it has always happened that tyrants in order to strengthen their power have made every effort to train their people not only in obedience and servility toward themselves but also in adoration therefore all that i have said up to the present concerning the means by which a more willing submission has been obtained applies to dictators in their relationship with the inferior and common classes End of Section 2

Section 3 of Anti-Dictator The Discourse sur la Servitude Volontaire by Etienne de la Boutière Translated by Harry Kurtz 1889-1973 This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Recorded by Linda Andrus, Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA.

And I found myself in a slightly awkward position that there are at least three scenes that Agrippa appears in at the end of the Cicero trilogy that I then had to write from Agrippa's point of view and do them all over again.

So I had to get down the old copy of Dictator and thumb through it I could hardly change my own dialogue.

I was suggesting that one of them was inaccurate.

So I had to sort of precede the dialogue and put it back in.

It's going to be World War II dictator.

World War II dictator.

Dictator, dictator.

World War II dictator.

Until we get to episode 100 and we count down the best of them.

...

I will say, they get rid of Mr. Dictator d- fairly easily.

Um, he doesn't-

Yeah

I like it too, but I'm still petitioning for the name to be changed.

I want to call it the Dick Lock, short for Dictator.

Let's go.

Let me know if you need help writing anything, kid.

HBR was there at the state capitol on Saturday.

It started as a series of No Dictators rallies organized by Indivisible Hawaii.

But many groups, including the League of Women Voters, wanted to help get the vote out.

They've been urging registered voters to make it a priority to turn in their ballots as soon as possible.