Ranting, 1642-style

If you remember the whole Stephen Williams kerfuffle, I once had the opportunity to state (semi)publicly what I'd always wanted to say over here: that I'm no liberal, and that back in the UK I would be viewed as a republican; I'm sure that you can place this in the right context. There was a song that at the time (6th grade) you said reminded you of your maths classes(!):

Mind you, the Chumbawamba video has nicer illustrations

and they also sang the original Winstanley version

You've probably forgotten, but you once asked to have a Diggers' themed birthday party; I somehow managed to change the subject. These guys were of course all religious fruitcakes, and judging by Christopher Hill (The World Turned Upside Down), Abiezer Coppe was one of the fruitiest -- "there's swearing ignorantly i'the dark, vainly, and there's swearing i'the light, gloriously".

While on religious English nutters, who can resist the bard's version of William Blake

or more surprisingly, him doing a version of a Rudyard Kipling poem

By the way, Christopher Hill had one of my other favourite sentences, in a postscript to a preface of a book of essays (Puritanism and Revolution): "It comes as rather a shock to reread nearly forty years later what one wrote in the brash exuberance of early middle age."

And in case you are still worrying about the whole republican claim, here's something I wish I'd had the clarity and knowledge to put to paper.