January 08, 2004
A warning from Saint Thomas More
ROPER So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!MORE Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
ROPER I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
MORE (Roused and excited) Oh? (Advances on ROPER) And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you - where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? (He leaves him) This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast - man's laws, not God's - and if you cut them down - and you're just the man to do it - d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? (Quietly) Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
Is this quote apocryphal? I hope not.
December 18, 2003
Soccer? No, thank you.
Everything you really need to know about soccer, in one handy picture.
November 18, 2003
A couple of useful websites
...from Robert Spencer: Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch.
And these folks want to run their own country
Raped by her brothers, murdered by her mother: just another Monday in Palestine. If this is reported in the States, you know it'll be blamed on the hook-nosed Joooz somehow.
To quote Golda Meir, "We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us."
ABU QASH, West Bank - Rofayda Qaoud - raped by her brothers and impregnated - refused to commit suicide, her mother recalls, even after she bought the unwed teenager a razor with which to slit her wrists. So Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud says she did what she believes any good Palestinian parent would: restored her family's "honor" through murder.Armed with a plastic bag, razor and wooden stick, Qaoud entered her sleeping daughter's room last Jan. 27. "Tonight you die, Rofayda," she told the girl, before wrapping the bag tightly around her head. Next, Qaoud sliced Rofayda's wrists, ignoring her muffled pleas of "No, mother, no!" After her daughter went limp, Qaoud struck her in the head with the stick.
Killing her sixth-born child took 20 minutes, Qaoud tells a visitor through a stream of tears and cigarettes that she smokes in rapid succession. "She killed me before I killed her," says the 43-year-old mother of nine. "I had to protect my children. This is the only way I could protect my family's honor."
...
Qaoud's confessed crime, for which she must appear before a three-judge panel on Dec. 3, is one repeated almost weekly among Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel. Female virtue and virginity define a family's reputation in Arab cultures, so it's women who are punished if that reputation is perceived as sullied.
...
According to court records, Rofayda was raped by her brothers, Fahdi, 22, and Ali, 20, in a bedroom they shared in the family's three-room house. On Nov. 26, 2002, doctors at a nearby hospital who were treating Rofayda for an injured leg discovered she was eight months pregnant.
Palestinian authorities whisked her off to a women's shelter in Bethlehem, where she gave birth to a healthy boy on Dec. 23. He has since been adopted by another Palestinian family, court records show.
...
While honor killings committed in the heat of the moment - for example, by a husband who catches his wife in bed with another man - generally carry a six-month to one-year jail term, Qaoud will likely be sentenced to three to five years in prison, Tarifi says. The fact she is a mother who was trying to protect her family's honor mitigates the crime of premeditated murder, which is punishable by death under Palestinian law, he adds.
...
No trace of Rofayda or her brothers remains in the family home. Qaoud says she ripped up all of their photographs and burned their clothes. The bedroom in which she killed her daughter is now a storeroom.
Erasing the memories is harder, she admits. She eases her pain by doting on her three children still living at home, especially the youngest, Fatima, 9, whom she lavishes with kisses. The children say they've forgiven Qaoud and return her affection.
"My mother did this because she does not want us to be punished by people," Fatima explains with a shy smile. Leaning into Qaoud's arms, the little girl adds: "I love my mother much more now than before."
September 19, 2003
Suicide, Hell on Earth, bestiality and blenderized rodents
Apparently it's End of Civilization Friday here at Summa Minutiae. If you haven't heard about this yet, see Mrs. vonHuben's notice here.
Margaret Sanger etext
File under "Civilization, threats to". I'm surprised they let this one out of its cage.
Margaret Sanger, The Pivot of Civilization - see especially the Appendix, "Principles and Aims of the American Birth Control League". Speaking of Sanger, the Margaret Sanger Papers Project at New York University has articles from their newsletter, a bibliography, lotsa web links, and so on.
August 20, 2003
"Looking at such pictures makes me feel good"
The death cult known as Islam has been successfully transplanted in Illinois: some Illinois teenagers just can't get enough of that good old-fashioned Jew-killing.
Here are the pictures:
I note with amazement that although I'm tempted to rant for a while about the aforementioned gloating teenagers, it probably wouldn't be, um, prudent. There's a war out there, folks.
August 19, 2003
What think ye?
Here's part of a note I received from a friend yesterday, and my reply. Comments?
First the note:
IMPORTANT...please take a few seconds to vote TRULY -- It only takes SECONDS. CNN is trying to prove the President wrong on his anti-gay-marriage stand... and we are losing 2-1. If this concerns you, go to the site below...follow your conscience ... and VOTE. Then forward it on to all your friends, because this poll will be used by CNN to show how "out of date" the President is in his beliefs. CNN Poll asks: Should marriage be legally defined as only a union between a man and a woman? http://edition.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/30/bush.gay.marriage/index.html
And my reply; basically "they have no right -> slippery slope". It's a sloppy off-the-cuff answer, but aside from that what's your take on this?
I've been wondering about this. The poll question is: "Should marriage be legally defined as only a union between a man and a woman?"
I think there is a valid Catholic reason to answer "no". As Cardinal George, our Metropolitan, recently wrote - http://www.archdiocese-chgo.org/cardinal/letter/letter_080403.shtm
The Holy Father, through the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, approved a statement about the nature of marriage, a statement which repeats what every Pope has taught for two thousand years: marriage is the life-long union of a man and a woman who enter into a total sharing of themselves for the sake of family. This is not first of all a religious teaching, although Christ raised marriage to the level of a sacrament. This is an understanding of marriage from nature itself. Marriage predates our present government or any other and predates, as well, the founding of the Church. Marriage is not the creature of state or church, and neither a government nor the church has authority to change its nature. A government that claims such authority becomes totalitarian.
I don't think government should claim any authority over marriage, which is not only a sacrament but an integral part of the natural law, which precedes and supercedes any claims of government. The government has no more right to define the nature of marriage than it has to define the nature of, say, the Eucharist.
Give the government that power, and soon enough it will attempt to define the nature of the Eucharist; it will define our prayers and worship as child abuse, our Scriptures as hate speech, our acts of charity as crimes against humanity, and so on.
I don't know what should be done - I'm no brainiac - but this doesn't seem to be a step in the right direction.
August 15, 2003
August 13, 2003
Bob Munden
"The fastest gun who ever lived" - you should go see Mr. and Mrs. Munden's show if they're ever in your neighborhood.
August 11, 2003
The face of Islam
Here's what shari'a looks like. Coming soon to a leafy suburb near you?
Finally,death comes to this lady. She is then left there for a few more hours for the spectators to see, because this is a public lesson for all muslim females, who commit adultery.Then her father and relatives are allowed to dig her body, and bring it above ground. Pieces of her flesh, lying on the ground, is collected and because she has no face, it is put back on the front of her head, and bundled up. Now readers, imagine that is your mother, or your daughter, or sister, or even you, yourself.
Israpundit knows the score.
Those who have vision
A rabbi with the 101st Airborne Division begins to recover Iraq's Jewish histoy.
"Climbing over the rotting garbage, I realized I was the first Jew to enter this holy place in over 50 years"I am writing to you from Nineveh, the city of the prophet Jonah. Its present name is Mosul. I have had the privilege of seeing its ancient walls, of touching its stones, of going to the grave Islamic tradition says is the prophet Jonah's.
There is a mosque at the site; but hundreds of years ago, the Iraqis we work with tell me, it was a synagogue. They tell me the reason the site is so sacred is because of the sacredness in which the Jews held it. Presently, there are no signs of this ancient synagogue.
August 06, 2003
Anglican use Liturgy
Episcopalians who are thinking of swimming the Tiber may be interested in the Catholic Anglican Use parishes.
August 05, 2003
Clarence and Gene
First off: hey Episcopalians - we've already tried the gay clergy thing and it doesn't work. Sooner or later they'll be sodomizing your 6-year-olds.
Second, isn't there a resemblance between the cases of Gene Robinson and Clarence Thomas? Not really. Justice Thomas's accusers tried to derail his nomination with last-minute allegations of sexual misconduct, which, if they had been true, would have shown him to be a knave and a fool. Mr. Robinson's accuser, in bringing forth last-minute allegations of sexual harassment and porn for kids, is simply proclaiming some of Mr. Robinson's many qualifications to be the gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire.
UPDATE: here's the website for a program that recruits children with same-sex attraction disorder into the gay lifestyle. Mr. Robinson co-founded the Concord, New Hampshire, branch of the program.
August 01, 2003
Pope Indicted for Hate Crimes
To Be Arrested Upon Arrival in Belgium Next Week
Inciting Violence Among the Charges
It shouldn't be long now. Applying the Ginger Factor (a cousin to dowdification) to Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons, we may soon hear...
Pope John Paul II declared Thursday that "homosexuality is a troubling moral and social phenomenon...a serious depravity...objectively disordered." In the document issued Thursday, he called Catholics worldwide, especially Catholic politicians, to "clear and emphatic opposition" to the legal recognition of gay marriages. Enumerating the reasons behind his call to further oppression and intolerance, he declared that laws supporting gay marriage are "contrary to ... reason" and "contrary to the common good".A new devlopment
Among the reasons given for his call to intolerance, he said, "[s]exual relations are human when and insofar as they express and promote the mutual assistance of the sexes in marriage and are open to the transmission of new life." Experts see this as a veiled statement that gays are not human. Father George "Where's My Collar" McGeorge, High Poobah of the Theology Department of Votre Dame University, stated, "This is an entirely new and dangerous development, and perhaps the most dangerous development, in the long reactionary reign of Pope John Paul II. Clearly, this opens the door to a new era of attacks on, violence against and intolerance of homosexual individuals and their families."
Having just dashed that off, looks like I'm now qualified for a job at the New York Times!
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan has already outdone me:
It tears me apart to see no prospect of the Catholic Church ending its war on gay people and their dignity in my lifetime. In fact, I think it's getting worse; and the next Pope from the developing world could make the current one seem humane. Leaving the sacraments would be a huge blow to the soul; but the pope just called the love I have for my boyfriend "evil." That's a word he couldn't bring himself to use about Saddam Hussein. How can I recognize what I know to be true with what the Pope has just said? I cannot. It doesn't leave many options but departure.
July 30, 2003
July 28, 2003
It's like, how much more bleak could this be?
And the answer is none. None more bleak. Just what would the "irreversible failure of human society" look like? Pope John Paul II recently wrote:
In proclaiming to Europe the Gospel of hope, I will take as a guide the Book of Revelation, a "prophetic revelation" which discloses to the community of believers the deep and hidden meaning of what is taking place (cf. Rev 1:1). The Book of Revelation sets before us a word addressed to Christian communities, enabling them to interpret and experience their place in history, with all its questions and its tribulations, in the light of the definitive victory of the Lamb who was slain and who rose from the dead. At the same time, it sets before us a word which calls on us to live in a way which rejects the recurring temptation to construct the city of man apart from God or even in opposition to him. For should this ever happen, human society itself would sooner or later meet with irreversible failure.
July 27, 2003
The more things change...
John Henry Newman (1801-1890) pegs the "information age" (it's kinda long; give it a chance):
Wealth is one idol of the day, and notoriety is a second. I am not speaking, I repeat, of what men actually pursue, but of what they look up to, what they revere. Men may not have the opportunity of pursuing what they admire still. Never could notoriety exist as it does now, in any former age of the world; now that the news of the hour from all parts of the world, private news as well as public, is brought day by day to every individual, as I may say, of the community, to the poorest artisan and the most secluded peasant, by processes so uniform, so unvarying, so spontaneous, that they almost bear the semblance of a natural law. And hence notoriety, or the making a noise in the world, has come to be considered a great good in itself, and a ground of veneration. Time was when men could only make a display by means of expenditure; and the world used to gaze with wonder on those who had large establishments, many servants, many horses, richly-furnished houses, gardens, and parks: it does so still, that is, when it has the opportunity of doing so: for such magnificence is the fortune of the few, and comparatively few are its witnesses. Notoriety, or, as it may be called, newspaper fame, is to the many what style and fashion, to use the language of the world, are to those who are within or belong to the higher circles; it becomes to them a sort of idol, worshipped for its own sake, and without any reference to the shape in which it comes before them. It may be an evil fame or a good fame; it may be the notoriety of a great statesman, or of a great preacher, or of a great speculator, or of a great experimentalist, or of a great criminal; of one who has laboured in the improvement of our schools, or hospitals, or prisons, or workhouses, or of one who has robbed his neighbour of his wife. It matters not; so that a man is talked much of, and read much of, he is thought much of; nay, let him even have died justly under the hands of the law, still he will be made a sort of martyr of. His clothes, his handwriting, the circumstances of his guilt, the instruments of his deed of blood, will be shown about, gazed on, treasured up as so many relics; for the question with men is, not whether he is great, or good, or wise, or holy; not whether he is base, and vile, and odious, but whether he is in the mouths of men, whether he has centred on himself the attention of many, whether he has done something out of the way, whether he has been (as it were) canonised in the publications of the hour. All men cannot be notorious: the multitudes who thus honour notoriety, do not seek it themselves; nor am I speaking of what men do, but how they judge; yet instances do occur from time to time of wretched men, so smitten with passion for notoriety, as even to dare in fact some detestable and wanton act, not from love of it, not from liking or dislike of the person against whom it is directed, but simply in order thereby to gratify this impure desire of being talked about, and gazed upon. "These are thy gods, O Israel!" Alas! Alas! this great and noble people, born to aspire, born for reverence, behold them walking to and fro by the torchlight of the cavern, or pursuing the wildfires of the marsh, not understanding themselves, their destinies, their defilements, their needs, because they have not the glorious luminaries of heaven to see, to consult, and to admire!
July 22, 2003
Pleasant coolness in the heat
We bought a tower fan yesterday at Lowe's. Man, what's better than a fan with a REMOTE CONTROL?
A strange land
When it comes to armchair frisson, it's hard to beat the local all-night restaurant. By day it's an ordinary local family restaurant with good food and good service. By night, the food is still good and Marge's service is perfect, but there's also the adventure. On my left the self-consciously loud college students [sic], green-haired black-clad conformists, full of dildoes and masturbating to my dead grandma's picture and a prolapsed rectum or two; on my right a couple of pasty D & D geeks rolling dice incessantly and earnestly discussing monsters with large teeth; two booths down a couple of rednecks in baseball hats drooling a steady stream of lesser obscenities; and me reading Newman's Neglect of Divine Calls and Warnings.
I shoulda left Marge a bigger tip.
July 17, 2003
On the use of tobacco
Dennis Prager: Would you rather your teenager smoke or cheat?
Peggy Noonan: Them
Emmett Tyrrell: The liberation of smoking
Vittorio Messori: Tobacco
He was quite intelligent about economics or architecture; but his moral sense seemed to have entirely disappeared. He really thought it rather wicked to smoke. He had "no standard of abstract right or wrong"; in him it was not merely moribund; it was apparently dead. But anyhow, that is the point and that is the test. Nobody who has an abstract standard of right and wrong can possibly think it wrong to smoke a cigar.
July 08, 2003
The local pipe shop
Here's the staff of the local pipe & tobacco shop, Jon's Pipe Shop in Champaign, Illinois. It's an oasis filled with some of the most precious fruits of civilization - tobacco, pipes, cigars and cigarettes, and even (back in the day) vile Soviet "Kazak" cigarettes from, if I recall correctly, Tobacco Factory Number 5 in Moscow. Apparently, Cossaks are Russia's cowboys, judging by the heroic horse-riding figure pictured on the boxes of those wretched things.
Mrs. Callahan, the mother of proprietor Patrick and a fellow parishioner of ours, is a grand lady with a million stories and a sleek white Camaro. You can catch a glimpse of her on this page.
My pipes come from their collection of reconditioned estate pipes (i.e. someone died and Jon's bought the pipes at the estate sale), and I smoke Stonehenge, one of their house tobaccos, and Schimmelpenninck cigars.
June 17, 2003
Slashdotted!
Theo Gray is at it again. His website is hosted at members.wri.com, as is mine, and now that he's writing a monthly column for Popular Science Magazine, all the teeming unwashed masses of websurfers eager to see Theo's periodic table table are slashdotting the server.
Once the server recovers, you really should check out Theo's website.
June 12, 2003
The legacy of Archbishop Weakland
While lots of folks had lots to say about retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, it seems we rarely heard of his Cathedral Center for Women and Children, which was dedicated last Sunday and opened on Monday. Its current capacity is 36 single women and 8 families. I feel the obligatory quote from Matthew 26 coming on:
Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?"
And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."
Hat tip: Karen Marie Knapp
June 06, 2003
The new ecumenism
Man, it's creepy seeing the Yankees playing in Wrigley Field. I've been out of touch with baseball the last few years, and today was my first viewing of a National League vs. Amateur League pairing outside a World Series.
For many of my younger years I really did think "A.L." stood for "Amateur League", and I know next to nothing about them even today. Ut unum sint and all that, I guess.
May 29, 2003
A doctorate ain't what it used to be
An original contribution to historical research, dont'cha know.
The old blind man
Folks are hard at work preserving your children from such disturbing ideas. Wait til they get hold of a missal and realize how we're abusing our children by using such words in prayer.
She says a lot of people are having fun finding new titles for Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" which presents problems with every word except "and" and "the." Ravitch said old is ageist, man is sexist and sea can't be used in case a student lives inland and doesn't grasp the concept of a large body of water.
May 17, 2003
Math joke
An oldie seen on the jokes mailing list at Wolfram Research:
Q: What's the line integral around western Europe?
A: Zero, because all the Poles are in the east.
May 08, 2003
Christendom resurgent?
I've been pleasantly surprised by the tone of the Pope's recent statements on European history. He seems to be entreating Europeans to return, not just to the Church, but to Christendom (roughly speaking; I don't have the links handy at the moment). If you've noticed this, too, perhaps you can elaborate since you no doubt can write much better than I can :-)
If I have a chance I'll take a look at the sources, pull them together and boil them down.
May 07, 2003
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Seen over at Envoy Encore: how to spend $10,000,000.
4) Buy or build a spacious and comfortable building as a home for indigent or low-income unmarried pregnant women. Provide free room, board and medical care, the sacraments (for Catholic women, of course) catechism instruction, home-ec classes. This would be a proven brick-and-mortar pro-life solution for local women who are tempted by the blandishments of the vile abortion industry. (cost: $1,000,000)
Have you been thinking about such a project, too? Let's see... you'd need
- a building, furnishings and supplies
- money to build, furnish and supply
- more money the next year for the same thing, etc.
- access to professional medical care & a hospital
- an arrangement with the diocese?
- a religious order to staff the home?
- money for people, every year
- a chapel
- at least a few acres of land for peace, quiet and beauty
- anything else? Please leave a comment!
May 02, 2003
I like Sam's Club...
... where you can buy a 15-pack of Guinness Draught in cans.
Special for parents
Nârwen points us to a thing in the Washington Post about a recent development in stem cell research. According to the Post, this technique could, in theory, allow the manufacture of a child whose parents are two men or two women. In passing, it's interesting to note that the Post advertises this technique as one of special interest to "gay men."
Presuming that the product of such a manufacturing process were fully human, physically healthy and capable of reproduction, here's a question for parents: should your child marry one of these products (assuming that a full and valid marriage is intended, complete with ordinary sexual reproduction)? Whether yes or no, on what do you base your answer?
February 20, 2003
Neither here nor there
I found a crowd of Amish folks at the local restaurant this morning, and for the first time I heard them speaking their form of German. Just curious - after a few hundred years over here, how German is their German? It seemed "smoother", perhaps more drawled and soft-spoken than what I hear from the Germans and Austrians here at work.
More Kirk
Here's a review of Russell Kirk's The American Cause, on Kevin Holtsberry's blog.
February 17, 2003
Russell Kirk websites
Many good links.
The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal
February 14, 2003
First Things
I bought my very first copy of First Things this week - it's magnificent! Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik's article "The Virtue of Hate" was a revelation. An excerpt:
When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there. . . . Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."-- Luke 23:33-34
In his classic Holocaust text, The Sunflower, Simon Wiesenthal recounts the following experience. As a concentration camp prisoner, the monotony of his work detail is suddenly broken when he is brought to the bedside of a dying Nazi. The German delineates the gruesome details of his career, describing how he participated in the murder and torture of hundreds of Jews. Exhibiting, or perhaps feigning, regret and remorse, he explains that he sought a Jew--any Jew--to whom to confess, and from whom to beseech forgiveness. Wiesenthal silently contemplates the wretched creature lying before him, and then, unable to comply but unable to condemn, walks out of the room. Tortured by his experience, wondering whether he did the right thing, Wiesenthal submitted this story as the subject of a symposium, including respondents of every religious stripe. An examination of the respective replies of Christians and Jews reveals a remarkable contrast. "When the first edition of The Sunflower was published," writes Dennis Prager, "I was intrigued by the fact that all the Jewish respondents thought Simon Wiesenthal was right in not forgiving the repentant Nazi mass murderer, and that the Christians thought he was wrong."
February 13, 2003
War blogs and preparedness
http://blogsofwar.com
http://www.blastersblog.blogspot.com
Bug Out Box
February 11, 2003
February 04, 2003
On looking into the first paperback of Pope's Homer
Here's an insightful article (and fun, too) on the problem of translating Homer into modern English, by David Ricks, King's College, London.
February 01, 2003
Vaclav Havel
"After an extraordinary career as a stagehand, dramatist, convict, poet, brewery worker, revolutionary, and president, Mr Havel steps down tomorrow as head of state of the Czech Republic." - The Guardian
Vaclav Havel is one of the great men of our time - an era of exceptionally mendacious and murderous politicians - and the simple, remarkable essay below shows why. Presented here on the occasion of his leaving the Presidency of the Czech Republic.
Excerpt from Summer Meditations by the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel
Journalists, and in particular foreign correspondents, often ask me how the idea of "living in truth", the idea of "anti-political politics", or the idea of politics subordinated to conscience can, in practice, be carried out. They are curious to know whether, finding myself in high office, I have not had to revise much of what I once wrote as an independent critic of politics and politicians. Have I not been compelled to lower my former " dissident" expectations of politics, by which they mean the standards I derived from the "dissident experience", which are therefore scarcely applicable outside that sphere?
There may be some who won't believe me, but in my second term as president in a land full of problems that presidents in stable countries never dream of, I can safely say that I have not been compelled to recant anything of what I wrote earlier, or to change my mind about anything. It may seem incredible, but it is so: not only have I not had to change my mind, but my opinions have been confirmed.
Despite the political distress I face every day, I am still deeply convinced that politics is not essentially a disreputable business; and to the extent that it is, it is only disreputable people who make it so. I would concede that it can, more that other spheres of human activity, tempt one to disreputable practices, and that it therefore places higher demands on people. But it is simply not true that a politician must lie or intrigue. That is utter nonsense, spread about by people who - for whatever reasons - wish to discourage others from taking an interest in public affairs.
Of course, in politics, as elsewhere in life, it is impossible and pointless to say everything, all at once, to just anyone. But that does not mean having to lie. All you need is tact, the proper instincts, and good taste. One surprising experience from "high politics" is this: I have discovered that good taste is more useful here than a post-graduate degree in political science. It is largely a matter of form: knowing how long to speak, when to begin and when to finish; how to say something politely that your opposite number may not want to hear; how to say, always, what is most significant at a given moment, and not to speak of what is not important or relevant; how to insist on your own position without offending; how to create the kind of friendly atmosphere that makes complex negotiations easier; how to keep a conversation going without prying or being aloof; how to balance serious political themes with lighter, more relaxing topics; how to plan your official journeys judiciously and to know when it is more appropriate not to go somewhere, when to be open and when reticent and to what degree.
But more than that, it means having a certain instinct for the time, the atmosphere of the time, the mood of people, the nature of their worries, their frame of mind - that too can perhaps be more useful than sociological surveys. An education in political science, law, economics, history, and culture is an invaluable asset to any politician, but I have been persuaded, again and again, that it is not the most essential asset. Qualities like fellow-feeling, that ability to talk to others, insight, the capacity to grasp quickly not only problems but also human character, the ability to make contact, a sense of moderation: all these are immensely more important in politics. I am not saying, heaven forbid, that I myself am endowed with these qualities; not at all! These are merely my observations.
To sum up: if your heart is in the right place and you have good taste, not only will you pass muster in politics, you are destined for it. If you are modest and do not lust after power, not only are you suited to politics, you absolutely belong there. The "sine qua non" of a politician is not the ability to lie; he need only be sensitive and know when, what, to whom, and how to say what he has to say. It is not true that a person of principle does not belong in politics; it is enough for his principles to be leavened with patience, deliberation, a sense of proportion, and an understanding of others. It is not true that only the unfeeling cynic, the vain, the brash, and the vulgar can succeed in politics; such people, it is true, are drawn to politics, but, in the end, decorum and good taste will always count for more.
January 29, 2003
Stephen Wolfram
Some of you may be interested in the name behind the company I work for, Wolfram Research.
January 23, 2003
The Truth About "Freedom of Choice"
From Pete Vere over at Catholic Light:
"Why did you have the abortion?" I ask.The woman sitting across me then breaks down in tears, if she's not crying already, and tells me a lurid story of domestic violence and extreme physical abuse suffered at the hands of her former husband who did not want the child. I then reach over, stop the tape, and offer the woman a kleenex.
I've lost track of how many times this scenario has played out in my office at any diocesan marriage tribunal where I have worked -- probably at least half of cases involving an abortion, if my memory serves correctly. And while there are many types of situations to which I've hardened over the years, this ain't one of them. It still breaks my heart when I discover a woman was beaten by her former spouse into killing the couple's child in the womb. And yet, the feminists would have you believe that abortion is about women having control over their own reproductive systems. They would have you believe that abortion is about choice.
Not in my experience. It never ceases to amaze me how many of these women claim that they were simply dropped off at the abortion clinic, bruised and bloodied, sometimes even with broken bones, after just suffering a terrible beating. And yet, no questions are raised, nobody calls the police, the abortion just proceeds on the spot. Why do we never hear a peep about domestic violence and spousal abuse from the pro-abortion and so-called "choice" crowd when it comes to forced abortion? Strange. It seems that choice and freedom from coercion, often reinforced by violence, doesn't apply when a woman's decision is to keep the baby.
A valuable illustration of the evil promoted by N.O.W., Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the Democratic Party, et. al.
January 22, 2003
Reminder: Day of Penance and Prayer
January 22nd - A Day of
Penance and Prayer
In November, 2001, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the adaptation of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. Following confirmation by the Holy See in February, 2002, the following became particular law for the dioceses of the United States of America:
In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when the 22nd falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass "For Peace and Justice" (no. 21 from "Masses for Various Needs") should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day.
On January 22, 2003, a "day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life" will be mandatory in the dioceses of the U.S. for the first time. As an "Optional Memorial," the Mass celebrated that day may be the Mass "For Peace and Justice" or follow the normal weekday Mass readings and prayers for the day found in the Ordo, with or without optional prayers related to St. Vincent of Saragossa whose Feast Day falls on January 22.
__________________________ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202) 541-3070
January 07, 2003 Copyright © by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
January 21, 2003
Robert Edward Lee
General Lee's General Orders No. 9: 10 April 1865; also known as his "Farewell to the Army of Northern Virginia."
January 15, 2003
Religious Landscape in Europe
Here's a marvelous "big-picture" summary of the current religious landscape in Europe.
January 02, 2003
A Treasure Trove
I love finding things like this on the web: Professor David A. Salomon's webpage. See especially his "links of interest".
December 27, 2002
Indy and the Interstates
I spent some time in Indianapolis last weekend and was struck by the vast expanses of erased neighborhoods in the heart of the city along the interstate corridors. You can see mile after mile of amputated neighborhoods lining the edges of the corridors, most of them seemingly decaying, dirty and crime-ridden.
Even away from the interstates on the old main roads, like south Meridian, there's just block after block of neighborhoods you don't want to walk through at night. I went downtown Tuesday night to check out Krieg Bros. bookstore, about a block south of the monument. Krieg's was closed, so I headed south on Meridian intending to simply head south out of town. Before I knew it, Meridian turned into Madison, which is just an on-ramp to I-70 or I-74.
On the south side of that interstate, there's a huge old building with tall windows - it looks like it was some old gothic church. Unfortunately, it had been built in the wrong place and now seems to be some sort of large warehouse with bright floodlights glowing inside.
The next exit to the east took me to I-65 south - no escape from the damned interstates! The next exit off of 65 put me back on a city street next to a Safeway supermarket about 2 miles east of where I had intended to travel. On the way back west to Meridian, I noted a dark and narrow old street that pointed straight downtown: "Old Madison Street."
Knowledgeable sources say that Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life by Tom Lewis is good study of the effect the interstates had on city neighborhoods - Ken Burns even made a TV production of it.
December 26, 2002
"A Good Honest Life"
A profile of Indy's last moleta, from 1997. Note the effect Indy's interstate highways had on St. Patrick's parish.
December 19, 2002
Thank You, Mr. Riddle!
Mr. Steven Riddle, of Flos carmeli fame, has by his blogging quietly tutored me in the ways of poetry. I knew only the painted & poxed whore modern secular verse has become; he has introduced me to Poetry and the holiness of beauty.
December 12, 2002
Archbishop Myers' New Letter
Archbishop John J. Myers (formerly our bishop here in the diocese of Peoria) has written another pastoral letter, his third since arriving in Newark.
The phrase "our bishop, Daniel" still sounds funny.
December 10, 2002
Sheik Yerbouti, et. al.
From lgf's Peaceful Religion Watch.
File under "Civilization, lack thereof".
November 28, 2002
Salman Rushdie on the Current State of Islam
From yesterday's New York Times editorial page: No More Fanaticism as Usual
The last few paragraphs are interesting:
Where, after all, is the Muslim outrage at these events? As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming?
At least in Iran the students are demonstrating. But where else in the Muslim world can one hear the voices of the fair-minded, tolerant Muslim majority deploring what Nigerian, Egyptian, Arab and Dutch Muslims are doing? Muslims in the West, too, seem unnaturally silent on these topics. If you're yelling, we can't hear you.
If the moderate voices of Islam cannot or will not insist on the modernization of their culture — and of their faith as well — then it may be these so-called "Rushdies" who have to do it for them. For every such individual who is vilified and oppressed, two more, ten more, a thousand more will spring up. They will spring up because you can't keep people's minds, feelings and needs in jail forever, no matter how brutal your inquisitions. The Islamic world today is being held prisoner, not by Western but by Islamic captors, who are fighting to keep closed a world that a badly outnumbered few are trying to open. As long as the majority remains silent, this will be a tough war to win. But in the end, or so we must hope, someone will kick down that prison door.
I'll echo Mr. Rushdie: where can one hear the voices of the fair-minded, tolerant Muslim majority? Any suggestions?
November 18, 2002
You Never Know...
...when you'll need to answer a question about Tyrian purple.
November 15, 2002
November 14, 2002
Epistolary Incompetence
Here's the letter Mr. Naji Saberi Ahmed, Iraq's Minister of Foreign Affairs, sent to Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations. No, really! I'm not kidding. Presumably Mr. Ahmed is the cream of the crop in Iraq. How about that Islamic "civilization"?
November 12, 2002
Catholic Lay Movements
Here's a webpage I'm putting together on Catholic lay movements. If you have any information to add, please drop me a note.
I'm still trying to figure out just what a lay movement is, so the page is rather disorganized at the moment.
November 11, 2002
November 06, 2002
More on Reunification
Lots of heat and lots of light.
Seems that no matter where you turn in the Church, there's a near-infinite ocean of experience, wisdom and theology to explore.
November 05, 2002
Thoughts on Reunification
Catholic Easter and Orthodox Pascha coincide in 2004, on April 11. Wouldn't that be a good day for the reunification of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches?
2004 is also the 150th anniversary of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Does anyone know what the Orthodox think of that dogma?
A Remarkable Web
Peter McFadden's Christmas story, and his website.
Mr. McFadden is one of the organizers of the Love & Responsibility Discussion Group, which I found linked from this website created by the Daughters of Saint Paul, which I found courtesy of an average Catholic guy.
October 28, 2002
Old Roads
Growing up, one of my favorite pastimes was tracing old roads in Shelby County, Illinois. A friend and I would head to the courthouse to look up old county maps, then head out and walk or bike the old roads. Some of the best exploring was in what is now Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville - it was a farming area before the Kaskaskia River was dammed in the late 1960s, and it was always interesting to find the remains of an old farm site along an abandoned country road - all the fun of archaeology without really leaving home.
I recently discovered that other folks share the same interest in old roads - there's an email list devoted to discussion of US 40, the "National Road," which goes through my old (1991-1996) hometown of Effingham, Illinois:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/route-40/
Here's an article on US 80.
October 27, 2002
What's Worth Remembering Around Here?
There's been some talk lately about parallels between modern America and ancient Rome; here's an interesting sample.
One of the jobs the Church had in its early centuries was to save what was worth saving of our ancient Greek and Roman civilization. If we're in a similar decline today, what would the Church find worth remembering and saving in American civilization?
October 24, 2002
On Reviving Ancient Music
Here's an article from The Atlantic about recovering ancient Greek music.
Watching a play by Euripides or reading poetry by Sappho is perhaps as incomplete an experience today as watching a "play" by Wagner or reading "poetry" by Stephen Sondheim would be - by Toby Lester
I haven't caught up on all the blogs yet. Has someone else covered this yet?
September 23, 2002
Homer and Virgil in English
Which English translations of Homer and Virgil do you prefer, and why?
I've only read them in Robert Fitzgerald's translations, but there's a newer translation of Homer by Robert Fagles, published by Penguin Classics. Opinions, anyone? I've read the blurbs, but I'd like to hear from ordinary folks who have read both (before I spend my money :-).
September 18, 2002
Notes on Reading
After my dyspeptic rant against speed reading on Monday, a few folks brought some welcome correction, balance and suggestions.
John DaFiesole brought his usual mature judgment and incarnational insights to the discussion, Ellyn vonHuben contributed a comment with her usual charm and humor, and Steven Riddle of Flos Carmeli fame startled me with a simple insight: read aloud! This rang a bell... a quick web search turned up some excellent reading:
Margaret R. Miles, On Reading Augustine and on Augustine’s Reading:
One of Augustine's most important experiences in his early days in Milan was the discovery of a new method of reading. He had been taught to read in a way that maximally engaged the body and senses: reading aloud, seeing and hearing words, simultaneously moving the lips and projecting the words with one's breath - an expressive art of tone and emphasis. So he was astonished as a young man, new to the sophisticated imperial capital of Milan, to witness Bishop Ambrose reading silently: "When he read his eyes would travel across the pages and his mind would explore the sense, but his voice and tongue were silent." Augustine and his mother sat watching him for a long time, speculating on why he chose to read in this strange fashion.
No, Saint Ambrose wasn't the first to read silently, of course. See this thread from an old discussion, including a contribution from Augustine expert James O'Donnell (thus fulfilling my seeming requirement to link to his webpage at least once a day).
And here is a readable chapter from Alberto Manguel's A History of Reading. It presents some very nice historical tidbits despite a couple of rickety paragraphs near the end. (I got a chuckle from this quote from Cicero: "Before poems were invented, many wise men lived happily" - sorry, Steven :-)
At any rate, I don't think I'll often pray the Liturgy of the Hours silently again.
September 16, 2002
From the Folks Who Brought You Prohibition
Speed reading! I hate it. Like prohibition, it reeks of a dead utilitarian approach to life. Some folks seem to think that we read only to gather information, and that this gathering should happen as quickly as possible. "Waste not a minute!" That's fine when you need to look up something in a reference book or find a fact in a newspaper article (if you can make your way through all the typos), but it's worse than useless when you need to read contemplatively, to read in order to understand
Way back in college I learned to speed-read as part of a bogus "study skills" course. All semester I learned to scan paragraphs faster and faster, until I could take in a whole page in a few glances. That occasionally came in handy while cramming for exams, but since then it has nearly destroyed my ability to read contemplatively; it's a struggle to read slowly and think while I read.
Real reading needs to take its time and let connections to other reading slowly bubble to the surface. There's no time for contemplation, much less enjoyment, (God forbid!) when you're racing along like a weasel on crack.
Speed reading makes about as much sense as speed eating.
September 04, 2002
Future Reading
In case you're trying to re-educate yourself after a stint in the wastelands of public education (a.k.a "daytime storage facilities"), here's what you need to read about your civilization:
James V. Schall, Another Sort of Learning. An excerpt:
Belloc sums up these teachings: "The Church does say definitely 'Don't kill'. She certainly thinks sex dangerous, she regards riches with the utmost suspicion. But existence she delights in and it is Catholic civilisation only that ever produces a strong sense of individual existence." This is the most marvelous of sentences. To delight in existence itself, this is the highest mark of sanity and reality. If we can delight in existence itself, we can, even more, delight in the tiny particular being that exists -- the "strong sense of individual existence."In conclusion, Belloc gives us in 1911 a criterion against which to test his thesis: "Let a nation lose the Church, and it is bound to fall in time into Pantheism, or a denial of spiritual continuity, and the immortality of the soul." We no longer bury our dead. We kill our kind before they are born and hasten their ends when they are useless. We deny that past generations can bind us to anything, no Constitution, no natural law. We subsume all back into Earth and judge individual existence merely as a function of or threat to the Environment. We can no longer, it seems, smoke indoors or out of doors. We have reinvented prohibition and made killing the tiniest of our kind a "right."
Thus, with regard to economics, I do not see why the rich and the poor both cannot have either champagne, beer, or Herefordshire Cyder. And with regard to the Devil-worship, that Belloc worried about in Baring's letter, what Belloc caught was a rancid smell of the idea that existence itself is not good, and hence that life is not good, that sex is not good, that material things are not good. In the affirmation that the Church "delights in existence," he knew that, however gingerly we must sometimes treat them, because of what they are, all things, as it says in Genesis, are good. And we are to delight in them in their proper order.
Posted by billw at 07:08 AM
Current Reading
Bathroom book 1: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago Three
I revisit Solzhenitsyn's Gulag trilogy every few years and become more human with each reading.
Bathroom book 2: Bruce Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox
In the lines facing Richmond, Union pickets one night heard a great hallooing and cursing from a swamp out in front, and the crept out and rescued an indignant Rebel conscript who had got stuck in the mud while trying to desert. They took him to their campfire and found that he was fat and sixty, a man who ordinarily wore a wig, spectacles, and false teeth, but who had lost all three while floundering in the swamp. They dried him off and gave him coffee; he drank, looked about the circle, and then began to curse the Confederacy:"He cursed it individually, from Jeff. Davis and his cabinet down through its Congress and public men to the lowest pothouse politician who advocated its cause; he cursed its army, from General Lee down to an army mule; he cursed that army in its downsittings and uprisings, in all its movements, marches, battles and sieges; he cursed all its paraphernalia, its artillery and its muskets, its banners, bugles and drums; he cursed the institution of slavery, which had brought about the war, and he invoked the direst calamity, woe and disaster upon the Southern cause and all that it represented; while the earnestness, force and sincerity with which it was delivered made it one of the most effective speeches I ever heard, and this together with his comical appearance and the circumstances of his capture made the men roar with laughter."
Kitchen: Hilaire Belloc, Europe and the Faith
Point 1: the Roman Empire didn't "fall"
Point 2: the Catholic Church is the soul of western civilization
Living room: Hilaire Belloc, The Crisis of Civilization
The above theses in detail, from a series of lectures at Fordham University in 1937.
August 28, 2002
Patrick O'Brian News
Here's a collection of all the web reports on Peter Weir's movie "Far Side of the World."
According to Richard Snow, Patrick O'Brian's twenty-volume Aubrey/Maturin series of books is the best historical fiction ever written. According to me, you'll not find a better treatment of friendship among men than the O'Brian Canon.
August 27, 2002
Samuel Adams and the Irish Question
An excellent essay on the latest desecration of Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
Sam Adams. Brewer. Patriot. Pimp. (Just how stupid is it for a beer company to tick off a bunch of Irish Catholics?)
August 23, 2002
September 11, 2002
So what will you be doing on September 11 this year? I've read some suggestions in my email lists: wear red, white and blue, drive with your headlights on and whatnot. How about praying the Office of the Dead and listening to Mozart's Requiem?
August 21, 2002
The Forever War
or at least 1,400 years and counting.
This article by historian Paul Johnson, quoted recently by Matthew Alexander, provides some historical background for the "war on terrorism." Of course, it isn't really a "war on terrorism"; it is (or should be) yet another battle in our 1,400-year struggle to preserve Western civilization.
The current battles between Israel and Palestine are another front in the war: Israel is defending its local outpost of civilization against the barbarians blowing themselves up at the gates.
