From: ted@loft.tnolan.com   
      
   In article ,   
   Paul S Person   wrote:   
   >On Thu, 15 Jan 2026 21:23:40 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D´Oliveiro   
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >>On Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:02:11 -0500 (EST), Scott Dorsey wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> On Thu, 15 Jan 2026 01:35:43 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> Reading a book on the early history of Mesopotamia just made me sad.   
   >>>> The first city-states in the world, the beginnings of civilization,   
   >>>> and they spent centuries warring against each other.   
   >>>>   
   >>> Sadly, this is the story of so many places.  China is one of the most   
   >>> fascinating.   
   >>   
   >>China at least was able to achieve centuries-long episodes of   
   >>largely-peaceful conditions at a time -- most of the strife came from   
   >>foreign invasions. To the point where they automatically assumed that   
   >>foreigners must be “barbarians”.   
   >   
   >I actually ran into a note in a high-level super-intellectual   
   >commentary the other day identifying the Greek for "barbarian" as   
   >meaning "talks nonsense".   
   >   
   >This is a sort-of confirmation of an earlier claim that, when they   
   >first started trading with Semites, those Semites spoke a language   
   >that use "bar" where Arabic uses "ibn" and Hebrew "ben", and called   
   >them "barbarians" meaning "people who say 'bar' a lot".   
      
   Went to the manse   
   Looking for my lance   
   Saw barbarian   
   So I thought i'd flee to France...   
   --   
   columbiaclosings.com   
   What's not in Columbia anymore..   
      
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