"The Big Alienation"

Peggy Noonan's latest:

'Both parties resemble Gordon Brown, who is about to lose the prime ministership of Britain. On the campaign trail this week, he was famously questioned by a party voter about his stand on immigration. He gave her the verbal runaround, all boilerplate and shrugs, and later complained to an aide, on an open mic, that he'd been forced into conversation with that "bigoted woman."

'He really thought she was a bigot. Because she asked about immigration. Which is, to him, a sign of at least latent racism.

'The establishments of the American political parties, and the media, are full of people who think concern about illegal immigration is a mark of racism. If you were Freud you might say, "How odd that's where their minds so quickly go, how strange they're so eager to point an accusing finger. Could they be projecting onto others their own, heavily defended-against inner emotions?" But let's not do Freud, he's too interesting. Maybe they're just smug and sanctimonious.

'The American president has the power to control America's borders if he wants to, but George W. Bush and Barack Obama did not and do not want to, and for the same reason, and we all know what it is. The fastest-growing demographic in America is the Hispanic vote, and if either party cracks down on illegal immigration, it risks losing that vote for generations.

'But while the Democrats worry about the prospects of the Democrats and the Republicans about the well-being of the Republicans, who worries about America?

'No one. Which the American people have noticed, and which adds to the dangerous alienation—actually it's at the heart of the alienation—of the age.'


Sometimes when you say you want to reinvent politics, people actually believe you... and then become disillusioned. The disillusioned now include more than the usual suspects on the lunatic fringe.

Russell Kirk Memorial today

Dr. Kirk died on this day, April 29, Saint Catherine of Sienna, in 1994. His biography is here at the Kirk Center's website.

Former Wilbur Fellow Wesley McDonald keeps a separate website, including links to Kirk's essays and lectures. Amazon's reviews of The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot are interesting (as is the book). Oddly enough, in 1954, both Time and The New York Times reviewed the book favorably. There are no conservative thinkers today with Kirk's imagination, wit, vision, broad reading, and humor, as this piece in the NYT discusses.

A search of this blog for Russell Kirk demonstrates how much he has influenced my thinking on everything from art to religion to liberty. Here is my first post when the blog began in 2005.

What will Americans do for a British soldier?

More than a lot.

(I found the old post by Michael Yon tonight. I don't pretend that my blog is for people who want "news.")

Back to immigration...

Victor Davis Hanson discusses the problems of immigration and how no one on the federal level has the guts to deal with them.

I blogged quite a bit on the subject in early 2008:

here,
here, and here.

Cowering before Jihadi threats...

When Comedy Central ("South Park")gets scared of the jihadis, you know that their threats are effective.

I don't make a habit of offending anyone's religion, so I am not going to draw a caricature of Muhammad just because I have a right to do so. But I will repeat: When someone is willing to kill you and your own indiscriminately because he has a Gnostic belief in his own righteousness and your evil, you are either going to have to obey him or kill him. Only about 25% of our nation takes seriously the existential threat that Muslim fascists present to us. (That is not to say that the 25% who take the threat seriously have wise plans for security.)

The above link is to Ross Douthat in the NYT.

More on Church scandals

The "latest" scandals are not really breaking news. They are internal documents which show:

1. How reluctant many if not most bishops were to discipline misbehaving priests;

2. How slow Church tribunals are to defrock a priest because the burden on the accuser is very high (due to a long history of political bishops attacking righteous priests);

3. How a misbehaving priest can be quickly disciplined if his bishop has the guts to move him from active ministry to some other type of work;

4. How an international faith in social science and psychotherapy replaced the wisdom of Christianity and common sense during much of the 20th century;

5. How Pope John Paul II, as holy as he was, came from a country of heroic priests and did not see how predatory some clerical cultures had become;

6. How some wise and holy bishops, even members of the Curia, went against the complacency of the Curia, diocesan bishops, and some holy orders to fight the perpetuation of mortal sin by the clergy.

Here are some good links:

George Weigel's "Another Long Lent" and "An Open Letter to Hans Kung," and

Ross Douthat's "The Better Pope" in the NYT.

Peggy Noonan has taken some heat for her sometimes biting criticism of the bishops, but as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said, "If the bishops act like nuns, the nuns will act like bishops."

"The Catholic Church's Catastrophe" and "How to Save the Catholic Church."

The Anchoress, as usual, writes thoughtfully about these things. Her writing has a prayerful and plaintively motherly quality about it:

"The Great Prostration," and "John Allen's Definitive Writings on the Scandals."

Syria, Hezbollah, and Iran on the brink

Michael Totten notes that wishful thinking is not good foreign policy.

A doctor in Afghanistan...

Major J.F. Sucher, M.D., posts on Michael Yon's website:

'A singular sentence in reply to a common, simple question. A whisper from Afghanistan has returned a loud echo from Laconia, New Hampshire, a small town of 12,000 (40,000 in the summer) nestled amongst the glacial lakes in the center of the state.

'Dr. Sam Aldridge has practiced peripheral vascular surgery in Laconia, NH for the past 15 years based solely on a gentlemen’s handshake with Tom Clairmont, CEO of Lakes Region General Hospital, who has been a stalwart supporter of Aldridge’s military commitment.

'On January 15th, 2010 LTC Aldridge left for his third active duty deployment since joining the Army Reserves Medical Corps. Before leaving, Danielle Mostoller, the hospital’s PR representative, had LTC Aldridge promise to write regular updates that would be placed in the hospital’s email newsletter, which reaches 1600 people.'

Doubting Thomas

Fr. Dwight Longenecker links to Mark Shea.

The Resurrection is what we Christians are about. The doubts of Thomas are the doubts of all.

Plenty of things to post...

But my hard drive died last week. It was perhaps killed by a jihadi worm. I clicked on a link on Michael Yon's Facebook page. Instead of taking me to a web address, my computer started downloading something until I could hit "Cancel." I should have turned it off, but I didn't. The next day it was disabled.

Michael Yon might be one of the worst enemies the jihadis have. He is fearless and relentless as he embeds with U.S. and British troops in the war zones of the Middle East. He never bunked at the Baghdad Hilton and let Iraqis feed him stories. He has been tough on his own country, tough on the Brits, brutally honest about our foes, warm and compassionate towards the Iraqis and Afghans who are stuck between the West and the Taliban, and candid about the malice and hatred of our enemies.

I will post a string of articles later. I wish I had more time. So far, no one has offered me a day job as a blogger. For now, Mr. Yon is more than critical of General Stanley McChrystal. If the criticism came from one of the usual armchair quarterbacks, I would scarcely make note of it. Mr. Yon, however, is a soldier by training who knows how to talk to grunts, NCOs, and junior officers, as well as lieutenant colonels (the ones high enough in rank to know what is going on, but not so close to the top as to have as strong an interest in covering for the high command).

From the comments below a Spengler column...

Here.

"A Tour Through Recession America"

Victor Davis Hanson looks at all classes in California.

Corporate collectivism discussed

Unlike my cousin Atarip in Buenos Aires, I am not a fan of Ron Paul, at least not to be anything but a Congressman. Nonetheless, I have written quite a bit about how private property is under attack from both government collectivists and corporate collectivists. Ron Paul agrees.

Corporate collectivism is a common topic on this blog.

"Will Barbie Save the Episcopal Church?"

Actually a serious piece by Walter Russell Mead.

Overspecialization and Journalism

Information is not knowledge, and knowledge is not wisdom, but in our specialized world we try to substitute the lesser for the greater.


The Atlantic has a nice piece on how specialized veteran journalists can presume too much and miss the story.

Did my taxes...

I had a good year, kept working despite the recession, and now owe. Don't get me wrong: I am very grateful for having a steady and ample income in a year of financial devastation.

In case any members of Congress are reading this blog, it would be a great incentive if we paid a flat-rate tax that did not increase as our earnings increase. It bothers me how hard I work for bonuses, yet when my income barely surpasses certain threshholds, my deductions and exemptions are curtailed because somebody in Congress who makes more than I make and gets numerous federal benefits believes that I am "rich" and ought to pay more in taxes at precisely the time of year when I am most productive.


Uncle Sam will spend $31,406 per household this year, yet collect only $18,276 per household in taxes. The rest is borrowed from our "allies" such as the Chinese (Didn't they try to kill my father as recently as 1951?) and the Saudis (Aren't they the ones who bankroll Wahhabism?).

Dear Congressman: You have my permission to cut the federal budget by 25%. Love, TQ


UPDATE: Please edit the above post as you read for all thoughts of self-pity. "Sarcasm is the protest of those who are weak." (John Knowles) After fasting this Lent and trying to overcome self-pity by sharing in some small way in the sufferings of the Savior, I find myself after a very good year having all the anxieties of this world over a tax bill. I post the photo below a young girl in Haiti who has lost everything to remind myself of how easy it is to magnify my own struggles into something they are not. She and her countrymen, to quote Archbishop Dolan, are "the broken body of Christ."


UPDATE II: I met a West Pointer this weekend who served in combat in the First Gulf War and more recently in Afghanistan. He caught my attention with his 25th Division hat. He is a little younger than I, and we traded stories about our educations and travels. Of course, his stories were far more interesting than mine. He is fine man and a good soldier. If we can have prayer intentions, perhaps my penance for self-pity is to have "tax intentions." I pray for this man and his family, give thanks for his service for liberty, and offer up the last twenty years of my tax payments for his benefit.

Not a word about FDR today...

For a generation of Americans, Franklin D. Roosevelt was simply "The President." He died sixty-five years ago: April 12, 1945.

UPDATE: In the WSJ, "Did FDR End the Depression?"

IRS Publication 525

It says on page 31: "If you receive a bribe, include it in your income."

As Casey Stengel said, "You can look it up."

For the record, in case an IRS special agent reads this blog, I have not received any bribes.

"After the Crash, a Crashing Bore"

Peggy Noonan, like C.S. Lewis, notes that evil encroaches when language becomes meaningless:

'The testimony reminded me of an observation in Michael Lewis's "The Big Short," his study of what happened on Wall Street and why:

'"Language served a different purpose inside the bond market than it did in the outside world. Bond market terminology was designed less to convey meaning than to bewilder outsiders. . . . The floors of subprime mortgage bonds were not called floors—or anything else that might lead the bond buyer to form any sort of concrete image in his mind—but tranches. The bottom tranche—the risky ground floor—was not called the ground floor but the mezzanine . . . which made it sound less like a dangerous investment and more like a highly prized seat in a domed stadium." In short, "The subprime mortgage market had a special talent for obscuring what needed to be clarified."

'Which is what the hearings were like.'

Don't expect any economic enlightenment from hearings in the U.S. Congress from the testifiers or their inquisitors. They have invented a language of irresponsibility.

G.K. Chesterton re Good Friday

For my brother, Mark Shea finds he cannot discuss Good Friday better than GKC.

"On Good Friday, Here's Why I Remain Catholic"

Elizabeth Scalia, a.k.a. The Anchoress, on NPR's website:

'I remain within, and love, the Catholic Church because it is a church that has lived and wrestled within the mystery of the shadow lands ever since an innocent man was arrested, sentenced and crucified, while the keeper of "the keys" denied him, and his first priests ran away. Through 2,000 imperfect — sometimes glorious, sometimes heinous — years, the church has contemplated and manifested the truth that dark and light, innocence and guilt, justice and injustice all share a kinship, one that waves back and forth like wind-stirred wheat in a field, churning toward something — as yet — unknowable.'

I accidentally deleted someone's comment. I apologize.

I am getting a dozen span comments under "Anonymous" every day now. It's to the point where I delete "Anonymous" comments without reading them carefully (because I don't want to read about drugs, porn, escort services, etc.). This time I hit "Select All" and "Delete", and as the computer paused, I saw one of the comments was probably by a thoughtful person. Please post your comment again. Call yourself anything besides "Anonymous."

An interesting piece on General David Petraeus

In Vanity Fair.

A truly great soldier's story tells much about culture, history, technology, and almost everything else. The book on him is not finished.

Priests and the press

Peggy Noonan's latest.

If it sounds too good to be true, it's usually not true...

I graduated from law school during the fastest hike in associate salaries in decades. It was a false Eden, as this NYT article explains.

UPDATE: Law is a great profession and noble one, but the business model of large firms has little to contribute to the health of the profession or the country.