DD 181-185.999 (Tony) The Analects by Confucius (181.095 CON)

Finally- Eastern Philosophy. I had gotten sooooo tired of Western Philosophy, I thought I was in a gladiator movie. Okay, bad joke.
But why choose Confucius? I'm going to show my age here, but I choose him mostly due to the means of why I am most familiar with him. Remember Funky Winkerbean? Sure, it's still runs today, but remember when Funky was funny and actually starred Funky? Well I do, and in fact, I remember how Funky would read the works of Confucius. They were very insightful and wise- only they were twisted at the end with a joke. So, I thought, okay- it's safer to try than something I had no idea about.
Well, it freaked my wife out. While in this joyious holiday season, I got depressed. So my wife was afraid I was searching for a new religion. Safely to say, she had nothing to worry about.
In fact, if anything, I got a good laugh. Confucius seems to me like a grumpy old man. One of my favorite sayings is that C would never "turn down a man (for my advice) who offered me a gift of dried meat..." Heck, I'd give anyone advice if they offered me some beef jerky. That's not religion, that' just good common sense. And his selections through this book is full of such tidbits.
The biggest problem with this book isn't even the fault of Confucius- but his translator. You have to muddle through 60+ pages of commentary before you get to the actual works of Confucius. And really it works better if the intro was afterwards. The intro left me thinking C. was a warrior, jerk, deviant, and worst of all a pedophile. But after I read his works and then the appendexs in the back of the book, I found the philosopher to be a rebel, cunning, still a jerk, but thankfully only the friend of a pedophile. See what a difference such lack of info works? Now if only our nations Cable News Channels would take a page out of this commentary and apply it to the 2008 election, I might just want to vote again!