Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Messiah will not arrive through the ballot...
Gridlock prevents any party's messianism from dominating our government. Here is an old post that turned out to be largely accurate.
Anglo-Catholicism and the Search for the Church
Jeffrey Steel quotes G.K. Chesterton in a beautiful post:
'He cannot think that the Church first rose in the middle of the British Empire, and not of the Roman Empire. He cannot think that England existed, with cricket and fox-hunting and the Jacobean translation all complete, when Rome was founded or when Christ was born.'
'He cannot think that the Church first rose in the middle of the British Empire, and not of the Roman Empire. He cannot think that England existed, with cricket and fox-hunting and the Jacobean translation all complete, when Rome was founded or when Christ was born.'
"Ad Orientem"
When I was received into the Church, I did not make my commitment conditional on the Church's liturgies being to my preferences. For this reason, I do not participate in the battles between traditionalist Catholics and modernists, though my Anglican upbringing makes me more receptive to the traditional.
Fr. Dwight Longenecker discusses the celebration of the Mass ad orientem.
He also posts on the monastic church at Mont St. Michel.
All Hallows' Eve
Because of Christ's death and resurrection, we Christians can actually mock death as well as evil spirits. We have been given power over both. Yes, Halloween celebrations can be excessive and even sinful, but the way to deal with the excess is not to condemn fun, humor, and the mocking of death, but to teach the truth of God's power as manifested through the saints. If we spent as much time celebrating the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls, Halloween would simply be what it is: preparation for the bigger feasts.
(Christmas is no different. We celebrate Christmas excessively during the time of penance, Advent, and we forget about Christmas on December 26. If we celebrated twelve days of Christmas properly, then the silliness of pre-Christmas celebration would be what it really is: trite.)
Elena Maria Vidal understands as does The Anchoress, who comments on All Saints Day (and All Hallows' Eve) and posts lots of links. Mark Shea writes in the National Catholic Register.
Karen Edmisten also posts, as does Jeff Miller, who links to a good piece in Inside Catholic.
I have posted before on All Saints, Halloween,
Russell Kirk's Halloween gift, and celebrating a Catholic Halloween.
(Christmas is no different. We celebrate Christmas excessively during the time of penance, Advent, and we forget about Christmas on December 26. If we celebrated twelve days of Christmas properly, then the silliness of pre-Christmas celebration would be what it really is: trite.)
Elena Maria Vidal understands as does The Anchoress, who comments on All Saints Day (and All Hallows' Eve) and posts lots of links. Mark Shea writes in the National Catholic Register.
Karen Edmisten also posts, as does Jeff Miller, who links to a good piece in Inside Catholic.
I have posted before on All Saints, Halloween,
Russell Kirk's Halloween gift, and celebrating a Catholic Halloween.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Credentialed rather than educated...
Glenn Reynolds has found a phrase applicable to our culture. Russell Kirk warned decades ago that our universities were turning into "certification factories." Does anyone study the breadth of Western languages, literature, history, and science today? (Better start with Latin and Greek.)
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
"Republicans Kind of Suck … Which Is Why They Will Win Huge in November"
Frank Fleming:
'[B]oth a dog incessantly barking and a zombie apocalypse are things that everyone would agree suck. Yet no one during a zombie apocalypse, while hiding out in a boarded up mall, would turn to the other survivors and say, “We don’t want to kill all the zombies; then we’d have to go back to being woken up at night by that annoying dog next door.” But this is the best argument the Democrats can come up with. “Remember how awful the Republicans and Bush were? You hated them. You don’t want to go back to that.” Yes, why would people want to go back to when 6% unemployment was considered high?
'People do remember how much the Republicans suck, and they know where it tops out … and that is nowhere near as bad as the Democrats are today.'
'[B]oth a dog incessantly barking and a zombie apocalypse are things that everyone would agree suck. Yet no one during a zombie apocalypse, while hiding out in a boarded up mall, would turn to the other survivors and say, “We don’t want to kill all the zombies; then we’d have to go back to being woken up at night by that annoying dog next door.” But this is the best argument the Democrats can come up with. “Remember how awful the Republicans and Bush were? You hated them. You don’t want to go back to that.” Yes, why would people want to go back to when 6% unemployment was considered high?
'People do remember how much the Republicans suck, and they know where it tops out … and that is nowhere near as bad as the Democrats are today.'
Thursday, October 21, 2010
"Why Am I So Hard on Conservative American Catholics?"
Mark Shea. An excerpt:
'Catholic social teaching is what is right. And the great majority of alleged Catholic conservatives I run into on the web regard it with suspicion and contempt, preferring to get their gospel of democratic capitalism, laissez faire, and disregard for the weak from Talk Radio and not bother with learning the true gospel teaching from the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching. As long as this remains the case, the Church on the Right will continue to be as much a cafeteria as on the Left. Indeed, it will be more immune to correction because it will have sealed itself off from any sense of a bad conscience by saying that, so long as it opposes abortion, all other forms of contempt for Church teaching are okay. At least the Left doesn’t kid itself that it is faithful. It openly and cheerfully treats Church teaching with scorn, without the base alloy of hypocrisy.'
'Catholic social teaching is what is right. And the great majority of alleged Catholic conservatives I run into on the web regard it with suspicion and contempt, preferring to get their gospel of democratic capitalism, laissez faire, and disregard for the weak from Talk Radio and not bother with learning the true gospel teaching from the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching. As long as this remains the case, the Church on the Right will continue to be as much a cafeteria as on the Left. Indeed, it will be more immune to correction because it will have sealed itself off from any sense of a bad conscience by saying that, so long as it opposes abortion, all other forms of contempt for Church teaching are okay. At least the Left doesn’t kid itself that it is faithful. It openly and cheerfully treats Church teaching with scorn, without the base alloy of hypocrisy.'
Christianity and Dogma
You cannot have one without the other, though I wish those that agree with me would make a point not to drop the anvil on someone's head as they tell him the bad news that he is wrong. A soft touch is best when you're talking about doctrine and morality.
Good post by Fr. Dwight Longenecker.
Good post by Fr. Dwight Longenecker.
"Global Aging"
Far more dangerous than global warming. Phillip Longman writes in Foreign Policy.
So the population explosion that struck fear in my childhood is actually turning out to be a population implosion. If Paul Ehrlich had been an ancient Hebrew prophet, he would have been stoned to death.
So the population explosion that struck fear in my childhood is actually turning out to be a population implosion. If Paul Ehrlich had been an ancient Hebrew prophet, he would have been stoned to death.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The Effects of Progressive Taxation
Professor Stephen Bainbridge asks: How much is too much when it comes to taxes?
His post caused me to reflect less on the fairness of progressive taxation, but rather, on the fairness of income taxation at all. The diffusion of power is fundamental to liberty. Policies which centralize power, even if implemented with the best of intentions, generally lead to the loss of liberty, the growth of bureaucracy, and the institution of mediocrity, e.g., centralized public schools, the regulation of private ownership of firearms, and national regulations for labor and employment.
We have forgotten that the current dependence on personal income taxes replaced a former dependence on excise taxes on alcoholic beverages. Thus, we fail to recognize our loss of liberty during the past century as well as the consolidation of central power effected. All tax policies are social policies. We used to punish drinking in order to pay the public's obligations. One could forswear drinking and avoid a huge portion of public levies. That's what the Ingalls family does in the Little House books.
Today, you are taxed with every paycheck, dividend, and sale of assets whether you are drunk, sober, honest, corrupt, hardworking, or a bum (unless you launder money and/or game the system). Though the progressive purpose of the income tax is to redistribute wealth, it does so arbitrarily and capriciously and creates an entire industry which seeks tax breaks for both productive and not-so-productive activities (mostly the latter). Worse yet, Congress (all 535 of its members, though committee chairman are more equal than others) becomes the arbiter of incomes and wealth. Congress legislates the rules by which you earn or burn money.
Progressive politicians argue that no one "needs" to live on more than say, $250,000 per year, so no one should expect a democratic society to let him keep much income beyond $250,000. But, some lines of work are so physically difficult or financially risky that no person can sustain the lucrative practice for more than a few years. When Congress imposes confiscatory taxation on large incomes, it attacks the spirit of entrepreneurship and risk-taking that has made our country prosperous.
Just as we Americans believe that the federal government should not have a monopoly of arms, Congress should not have taxation power capable of atomizing the citizens and thereby making them dependent upon the central power. The 16th Amendment makes it possible to tax away all of our liberties in the name of equality and government services. Private wealth, not merely a big salary, is vital to liberty and its aspiration. We are better off with individuals having and enjoying their wealth, even if they are as stupid with it as those seen in celebrity magazines, than we are to give Congress power to confiscate private wealth through direct taxation.
(Should wealth be allowed to form perpetually stagnant pools in family trusts? I say no, but this post is way too short (and the writer too ignorant) to propose sober reforms of our estate, trust, and wealth-transfer laws. Governing wealth from the grave and the probate court for more than three decades after death, and protecting the drunk and stupid heirs not yet born, is generally not wise social policy either.)
The income tax, which was implemented by progressives in order to make possible the abolition of alcoholic beverages (which once provided more than a third of tax revenues for the federal government), falls not on the drinkers, but all those who produce income and wealth. Taxing them is not really a good idea. Confiscating their incomes as they reach arbitrary thresholds is both theft and ill-advised social control.
His post caused me to reflect less on the fairness of progressive taxation, but rather, on the fairness of income taxation at all. The diffusion of power is fundamental to liberty. Policies which centralize power, even if implemented with the best of intentions, generally lead to the loss of liberty, the growth of bureaucracy, and the institution of mediocrity, e.g., centralized public schools, the regulation of private ownership of firearms, and national regulations for labor and employment.
We have forgotten that the current dependence on personal income taxes replaced a former dependence on excise taxes on alcoholic beverages. Thus, we fail to recognize our loss of liberty during the past century as well as the consolidation of central power effected. All tax policies are social policies. We used to punish drinking in order to pay the public's obligations. One could forswear drinking and avoid a huge portion of public levies. That's what the Ingalls family does in the Little House books.
Today, you are taxed with every paycheck, dividend, and sale of assets whether you are drunk, sober, honest, corrupt, hardworking, or a bum (unless you launder money and/or game the system). Though the progressive purpose of the income tax is to redistribute wealth, it does so arbitrarily and capriciously and creates an entire industry which seeks tax breaks for both productive and not-so-productive activities (mostly the latter). Worse yet, Congress (all 535 of its members, though committee chairman are more equal than others) becomes the arbiter of incomes and wealth. Congress legislates the rules by which you earn or burn money.
Progressive politicians argue that no one "needs" to live on more than say, $250,000 per year, so no one should expect a democratic society to let him keep much income beyond $250,000. But, some lines of work are so physically difficult or financially risky that no person can sustain the lucrative practice for more than a few years. When Congress imposes confiscatory taxation on large incomes, it attacks the spirit of entrepreneurship and risk-taking that has made our country prosperous.
Just as we Americans believe that the federal government should not have a monopoly of arms, Congress should not have taxation power capable of atomizing the citizens and thereby making them dependent upon the central power. The 16th Amendment makes it possible to tax away all of our liberties in the name of equality and government services. Private wealth, not merely a big salary, is vital to liberty and its aspiration. We are better off with individuals having and enjoying their wealth, even if they are as stupid with it as those seen in celebrity magazines, than we are to give Congress power to confiscate private wealth through direct taxation.
(Should wealth be allowed to form perpetually stagnant pools in family trusts? I say no, but this post is way too short (and the writer too ignorant) to propose sober reforms of our estate, trust, and wealth-transfer laws. Governing wealth from the grave and the probate court for more than three decades after death, and protecting the drunk and stupid heirs not yet born, is generally not wise social policy either.)
The income tax, which was implemented by progressives in order to make possible the abolition of alcoholic beverages (which once provided more than a third of tax revenues for the federal government), falls not on the drinkers, but all those who produce income and wealth. Taxing them is not really a good idea. Confiscating their incomes as they reach arbitrary thresholds is both theft and ill-advised social control.
"Blogging Through Georgia"
Georgia of the former Soviet Union, that is. As he reaches the Republic of Georgia, Walter Russell Mead remembers an earlier trip during the Cold War:
'By the time I reached the Soviet border, a lot of that early left-wing soft sympathy for communism had fallen away. Driving through the wasted urban landscapes of central and eastern Europe, it was hard to avoid noticing that the evil capitalist pigs were actually much nicer to the environment than the enlightened and idealistic socialist workers had managed to be. The filth of late-communist Poland was hard to take; I stood outside Krakow one day in a beautiful field by the side of the road, with a fresh breeze blowing through the grass. I took a deep breath and nearly choked; it was like standing directly behind the exhaust pipe of a big, dirty bus. The air in that part of Poland was so polluted that kids used to have to go down to the salt mines, hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface, to get something approaching fresh air.'
The corruption and decay was leading to social chaos even totalitarians could not prevent:
'The facade of ethnic friendship among the fraternal peoples of the Soviet Union contrasted with feverish, paranoid hatreds festering just under the surface. As in Yugoslavia, I got to know people who were nerving themselves up to massacre their neighbors and drive innocent people out of their homes. I saw how the worst nationalistic paranoias and chauvinisms raged unchecked under Soviet rule — while in the capitalist west most Europeans had left that murderous claptrap behind long ago. Communism, it seemed to me then and still seems to me now, is not the opposite of fascism: it is fascism’s blood-brother, its complementary twin. The two live together in a vicious symbiotic relationship; scratch a Red and you’ll find a Brown. Better yet, scratch either one deeply enough and you will find a Black: someone so caught up in the will to power that crimes and atrocities don’t even count anymore.'
'By the time I reached the Soviet border, a lot of that early left-wing soft sympathy for communism had fallen away. Driving through the wasted urban landscapes of central and eastern Europe, it was hard to avoid noticing that the evil capitalist pigs were actually much nicer to the environment than the enlightened and idealistic socialist workers had managed to be. The filth of late-communist Poland was hard to take; I stood outside Krakow one day in a beautiful field by the side of the road, with a fresh breeze blowing through the grass. I took a deep breath and nearly choked; it was like standing directly behind the exhaust pipe of a big, dirty bus. The air in that part of Poland was so polluted that kids used to have to go down to the salt mines, hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface, to get something approaching fresh air.'
The corruption and decay was leading to social chaos even totalitarians could not prevent:
'The facade of ethnic friendship among the fraternal peoples of the Soviet Union contrasted with feverish, paranoid hatreds festering just under the surface. As in Yugoslavia, I got to know people who were nerving themselves up to massacre their neighbors and drive innocent people out of their homes. I saw how the worst nationalistic paranoias and chauvinisms raged unchecked under Soviet rule — while in the capitalist west most Europeans had left that murderous claptrap behind long ago. Communism, it seemed to me then and still seems to me now, is not the opposite of fascism: it is fascism’s blood-brother, its complementary twin. The two live together in a vicious symbiotic relationship; scratch a Red and you’ll find a Brown. Better yet, scratch either one deeply enough and you will find a Black: someone so caught up in the will to power that crimes and atrocities don’t even count anymore.'
Sunday, October 17, 2010
"First They Came for the Cartoonists..."
Barton Hinkle writes:
'Gratuitously mocking other people's religious beliefs is uncalled for. But there was nothing remotely, never mind gratuitously, offensive about the "Non Sequitur" cartoon -- the target of which was violent intimidation, not Islam. Nevertheless, many newspapers apparently feared that some Muslims somewhere could, maybe just possibly, take offense. Parts of the media seem to have been intimidated to such a degree that they are now pre-emptively silencing their most entertaining and creative voices.
'Once upon a time, members of the media could be counted upon to champion free expression even when nobody else would. Where the First Amendment was implicated, newspapers were willing to go to bat for everyone from neo-Nazis to Hustler magazine, and to take on powerful institutions from the Vatican to the Pentagon, often while patting themselves on the back for "speaking truth to power." Yet when it comes to the Islamic question, many in the media will not even stick up for themselves. That is, to say the least, a very ominous development.'
'Gratuitously mocking other people's religious beliefs is uncalled for. But there was nothing remotely, never mind gratuitously, offensive about the "Non Sequitur" cartoon -- the target of which was violent intimidation, not Islam. Nevertheless, many newspapers apparently feared that some Muslims somewhere could, maybe just possibly, take offense. Parts of the media seem to have been intimidated to such a degree that they are now pre-emptively silencing their most entertaining and creative voices.
'Once upon a time, members of the media could be counted upon to champion free expression even when nobody else would. Where the First Amendment was implicated, newspapers were willing to go to bat for everyone from neo-Nazis to Hustler magazine, and to take on powerful institutions from the Vatican to the Pentagon, often while patting themselves on the back for "speaking truth to power." Yet when it comes to the Islamic question, many in the media will not even stick up for themselves. That is, to say the least, a very ominous development.'
Letters of Daniel Patrick Moynihan
I think he was one of the most interesting people in politics for most of his career. Unfortunately, as a Senator he did not shine, partly because of his need to be reelected and also because his party loyalty made him unbecomingly boring.
David Brooks reviews a collection of Moynihan's letters.
David Brooks reviews a collection of Moynihan's letters.
Stalin and Hitler
Under either, the state was supreme and the peasant's life was cheap. Nice commentary by Glenn Reynolds about Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands. Mass murder by two of the three worst dictators of the 20th century cannot be justified. A review is here in the Economist.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Circuit Split in the Making
The U.S. Supreme Court often intervenes when a "circuit split" threatens the coherence of the law. A federal judge in Michigan has thrown out a challenge to the mandate of Obamacare, and a federal judge in Florida has just refused to dismiss a challenge to the mandate. Judge Roger Vinson in Florida said that if Congress declared the mandate to be under the commerce clause of the Constitution last spring, then the Attorney General cannot argue today that the new mandate is a "tax" in order to dismiss the lawsuit.
I predict that Obamacare's mandate for every citizen to buy health insurance will be overturned in either the 4th Circuit (VA, NC, SC, MD, WV), the 5th Circuit (TX, LA, MS), or the 11th Circuit (GA, AL, FL). The new law will likely be affirmed in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or the 9th Circuits. Then on to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Justice Anthony Kennedy might get a chance to write a decision that makes Rapanos look clear.
I predict that Obamacare's mandate for every citizen to buy health insurance will be overturned in either the 4th Circuit (VA, NC, SC, MD, WV), the 5th Circuit (TX, LA, MS), or the 11th Circuit (GA, AL, FL). The new law will likely be affirmed in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or the 9th Circuits. Then on to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Justice Anthony Kennedy might get a chance to write a decision that makes Rapanos look clear.
The Hidden Suffering of Infertility
Creative Minority Report links to a piece called "A Hidden Kind of Suffering." My wife and I know this suffering, though its duration was relatively short. I have written about infertility more than once.
UPDATE: Great comment below.
UPDATE: Great comment below.
G.K. Chesterton said...
That those who don't believe in birth control will fortunately soon outnumber those who do. Jordana writes about a woman in the "hippy store" who could not get over her "entourage" of children.
Perfection v. Holiness
The writer is described in a comment on a near post as the "good curate-to-be-Padre Longenecker in that hip-hopping berg of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex."
"More fit for gills than lungs"
A short poem of Ellen Bass called "The Thing Is" posted by Pentimento.
Friday, October 15, 2010
What is wrong with ballet today is characteristic of current culture.
We have a generation which claims independence from and often belittles the achievements of the past. Thus, those few that love classics, whether in ballet, literature, art, poetry, or music, are hard-pressed to keep the ancient flames burning. Today's creativity and innovation are stilted for lack of peer standards and an educated audience (including this writer). In general, the classical practitioners are over-consciously orthodox, and the avant-garde are abstract if not obtuse and too detached from all but their own narrow circles. This situation is not in the least limited to dance, but appears to be the status in many art forms in the West.
From Jennifer Homans' piece in The New Republic, "Is Ballet Over?":
'Today’s artists—their [deceased masters such as George Balanchine's] students and heirs—have been curiously unable to rise to the challenge of their legacy. They seem crushed and confused by its iconoclasm and grandeur, unable to build on its foundation yet unwilling to throw it off in favor of a vision of their own. Contemporary choreography veers aimlessly from unimaginative imitation to strident innovation usually in the form of gymnastic or melodramatic excess, accentuated by overzealous lightening and special effects. This taste for unthinking athleticism and dense thickets of steps, for spectacle and sentiment, is not the final cry of a dying artistic era; it represents a collapse of confidence and a generation ill at ease with itself and uncertain of its relationship to the past.'
[Photo of George Balanchine.]
UPDATE: This piece has much that is quotable, including this part on the problems of learning from video:
'But film, video, and computer imaging may also be part of the problem. The dull, flat-screen look of today’s dances and dancers surely owes something to the media revolution. Learning a ballet from a screen, or even using film or video as a memory aid, can be disorienting and misleading. First, the dancer sees the ballet—a live three-dimensional form—as a two-dimensional image. Then she must transpose the flat, already diminished steps in mirror image, thus adding another layer of distance between the dancer and the dance. Moreover, the assumption that the film is true can be its own nemesis—rather like seeing the movie before reading the book: once the image of a performance is fixed in the mind’s eye, it is harder to imagine the ballet performed differently. Nor does video distinguish accidents and mistakes, idiosyncrasies and departures. Not surprisingly, some directors are using screens more sparingly, wary of closing off possibilities and encouraging the idea that the dance text is inflexible or fixed.'
Has the GOP learned anything about foreign policy since the last election they won?
Let's hope so. I want the Republicans to take the House of Representatives in order to create gridlock and to use investigative powers to monitor the party in the White House. Nonetheless, I have castigated the Republicans before as I will surely do again.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Fr. James Coyle died for his faith in Birmingham, Alabama.
As Fr. Coyle sat on the porch of the rectory of Saint Paul's (now a Cathedral), he was shot and killed by an incensed Methodist minister whose daughter had married a Puerto Rican that same afternoon. The shooter was acquitted; his lawyer was Hugo Black. Mark in Spokane comments and links to the LA Times.
The crime did not happen long ago. My mother were not born, but my aunt was a baby. More about Fr. Coyle here.
More here, including a comment by Jim Pinto.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Problems for the Middle Class?
Yes, but not to be solved by most of the pundits' proposals. The old saying that "one who gives up his liberty for security deserves neither" applies especially to the middle class.
The quest for security is causing the decline of the middle class: the diversion of efforts from entrepreneurship to government and institutional employment, the constant quest for more and better insurance (health, life, disability), the borrowing of ridiculous sums to educate oneself and one's children, and overspecialization to the point of us all becoming drones. The biggest competition today is to channel federal funds to particular types of sinecures. Gaming the system, not innovation in products and services, has become the goal for too many of us.
I am not against security, but guaranteeing incomes and livelihoods without improvements in productivity and innovation is social and economic cholesterol and will lead to high blood pressure and strokes for the commonweal.
UPDATE: I would like to follow up with a post on what types of security should be pursued through social policies.
The quest for security is causing the decline of the middle class: the diversion of efforts from entrepreneurship to government and institutional employment, the constant quest for more and better insurance (health, life, disability), the borrowing of ridiculous sums to educate oneself and one's children, and overspecialization to the point of us all becoming drones. The biggest competition today is to channel federal funds to particular types of sinecures. Gaming the system, not innovation in products and services, has become the goal for too many of us.
I am not against security, but guaranteeing incomes and livelihoods without improvements in productivity and innovation is social and economic cholesterol and will lead to high blood pressure and strokes for the commonweal.
UPDATE: I would like to follow up with a post on what types of security should be pursued through social policies.
Andrew Sullivan's 10th Anniversary as a Blogger
He was very good in the beginning- a radical moderate- but his intemperate condemnations of people make him offensively boring and predictable. He does not know how to distinguish his opponents' political and social views from their basic dignity as human beings. He has become a Manichean who thinks he is a moderate and even modest. Saint Augustine, pray for us.
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Secretariat: The Impossible True Story
I will wait to see this film because it is rated PG, and I do not know what was inserted to give it such a rating. Nonetheless, I have loved only one horse in my life. I remember 1973 very well. At the Kentucky Derby, May 5 [above], Secretariat beat Sham and set a Derby record. (Sham's time is still the second best; he was born the wrong year.)
On May 19, Secretariat beat Sham again in the Preakness under a completely different strategy [above].
And at the Belmont, June 9, Secretariat won by 31 1/2 lengths and set a record that still stands for that distance. The photo above is a piece of sports history that will not likely be seen again in my lifetime. The win was so extraordinary that it appears the other horses were weak, but Secretariat was simply the finest horse God made in the 20th century.
"Revolt of the Accountants"
Peggy Noonan does what she does best, which is to assess the cultural condition of the country we love. An excerpt here, though I encourage you to read the whole piece:
'Government not only can change the national character, it can bizarrely channel national energy. And this is another theme in my mailbox, the rebellion against what government increasingly forces us to become: a nation of accountants.
'No matter what level of life in which you operate, you are likely overwhelmed by forms, by a blizzard of regulations, rules, new laws. This is not new, it’s just always getting worse. Priests are forced to be accountants now, and army officers, and dentists. The single most onerous part of ObamaCare is the tax change whereby spending $600 on goods or services will require a 1099 form. Economists will tell you of the financial cost of this, but I would argue that Paperwork Nation is utterly at odds with the American character.'
I was a teenager during the Carter administration. There was the famous "tax revolt" in California led by Howard Jarvis. Much has been written about the rise of the "religious right" at that time, but the leading issue was not abortion or prayer in schools as is often alleged. The main issue was the decline of public schools, the hegemony of the centralized monopoly in education, and the persistence of public-school officials in crippling any reforms or alternatives. A similar populist uprising is occurring today, and it is likewise more cultural than political. We sense we are out of control of our own destiny and that the leaders of our governments are indifferent and foolish.
The 535 "emperors" in Congress, as well as their advisors, have no clothes, or so it appears from everywhere outside the Beltway. When the very independent Russ Feingold is in trouble in progressive Wisconsin, you know that rebellion is in the air. Recall also that the American Revolution was not an egalitarian one to reinvent the body politic, the state, and humanity, but was essentially a conservative one to defend the independence, low taxes, and self-government to which American colonials had become accustomed. Just as Americans can roll the dice twice a generation and elect a president who is essentially inexperienced, we run off most of our Congressional leadership twice a generation as well.
[Photo above of Charles Lane, who acted in more than 200 films, often as a miser, accountant, auditor, inspector, forecloser, etc. More about his long life and career here.]
'Government not only can change the national character, it can bizarrely channel national energy. And this is another theme in my mailbox, the rebellion against what government increasingly forces us to become: a nation of accountants.
'No matter what level of life in which you operate, you are likely overwhelmed by forms, by a blizzard of regulations, rules, new laws. This is not new, it’s just always getting worse. Priests are forced to be accountants now, and army officers, and dentists. The single most onerous part of ObamaCare is the tax change whereby spending $600 on goods or services will require a 1099 form. Economists will tell you of the financial cost of this, but I would argue that Paperwork Nation is utterly at odds with the American character.'
I was a teenager during the Carter administration. There was the famous "tax revolt" in California led by Howard Jarvis. Much has been written about the rise of the "religious right" at that time, but the leading issue was not abortion or prayer in schools as is often alleged. The main issue was the decline of public schools, the hegemony of the centralized monopoly in education, and the persistence of public-school officials in crippling any reforms or alternatives. A similar populist uprising is occurring today, and it is likewise more cultural than political. We sense we are out of control of our own destiny and that the leaders of our governments are indifferent and foolish.
The 535 "emperors" in Congress, as well as their advisors, have no clothes, or so it appears from everywhere outside the Beltway. When the very independent Russ Feingold is in trouble in progressive Wisconsin, you know that rebellion is in the air. Recall also that the American Revolution was not an egalitarian one to reinvent the body politic, the state, and humanity, but was essentially a conservative one to defend the independence, low taxes, and self-government to which American colonials had become accustomed. Just as Americans can roll the dice twice a generation and elect a president who is essentially inexperienced, we run off most of our Congressional leadership twice a generation as well.
[Photo above of Charles Lane, who acted in more than 200 films, often as a miser, accountant, auditor, inspector, forecloser, etc. More about his long life and career here.]
Thursday, October 07, 2010
After 54 years, the second postseason no-hitter!
Congratulations to Roy Halladay of the Phillies. Not to take anything away from Roy Halladay's one-walk no-hitter last night, but what Don Larsen did in 1956 can only be equaled, not exceeded- a perfect game- 27 up and 27 down.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
"Heroes of the Holocaust"
Memorial here. Hat tip to Skopeji, who writes about Raoul Wallenberg, who saved many Jews before he was arrested by the Soviets and disappeared in the gulag.
Can we make our educational system more like Korea's?
Mitch Albom does not think so:
'I am writing this from South Korea, where I have spent a week, much of it speaking to high school kids. And I can tell President Obama, pretty confidently, that we can't do what they're doing here.
'Because we don't believe in it.
'South Koreans treat school like a full-time job plus a full-time marriage. They put in day hours and night hours, followed by weekend hours. It is not uncommon to see children in school uniforms walking home late at night. It is not uncommon to see them studying through weekends. There is private English education on top of the public education. Families split apart to improve a child's training. You hear stories about schooling that runs from sunrise past sunset, with breakfast, lunch and dinner being served in the building.
'What you don't hear is cheerleading squads. What you don't hear is spring break trips to Cancun. What you don't hear is classes to boost self-esteem, to celebrate an ethnic group, to explore the arts. What you don't hear is "Glee" or "High School Musical" or other coolness-driven entertainment fantasies about high school fashion, sex, talent or jockdom.
'How are our kids supposed to mimic these kids, when this place doesn't look anything like the American school system?
'Which is funny, because most of the kids here want to be American.'
'I am writing this from South Korea, where I have spent a week, much of it speaking to high school kids. And I can tell President Obama, pretty confidently, that we can't do what they're doing here.
'Because we don't believe in it.
'South Koreans treat school like a full-time job plus a full-time marriage. They put in day hours and night hours, followed by weekend hours. It is not uncommon to see children in school uniforms walking home late at night. It is not uncommon to see them studying through weekends. There is private English education on top of the public education. Families split apart to improve a child's training. You hear stories about schooling that runs from sunrise past sunset, with breakfast, lunch and dinner being served in the building.
'What you don't hear is cheerleading squads. What you don't hear is spring break trips to Cancun. What you don't hear is classes to boost self-esteem, to celebrate an ethnic group, to explore the arts. What you don't hear is "Glee" or "High School Musical" or other coolness-driven entertainment fantasies about high school fashion, sex, talent or jockdom.
'How are our kids supposed to mimic these kids, when this place doesn't look anything like the American school system?
'Which is funny, because most of the kids here want to be American.'
"Courtship of the Lost"
Pentimento's post and Scopeji's comment.
Welcome back home both of you! As Fr. John French told my father when he returned to the Church after more than three decades away, "You never left."
Welcome back home both of you! As Fr. John French told my father when he returned to the Church after more than three decades away, "You never left."
Monday, October 04, 2010
G.K. Chesterton on St. Francis Assisi
At Amazon:
'[Chesterton] converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 because, it has been said, "only the Roman Church could produce a St. Francis of Assisi." Published shortly after his conversion, Chesterton wrote this book in part to reclaim Francis for the church. There are always those who want to claim Francis for their cause, Chesterton recognized, who also fail to understand the spiritual and intellectual ground upon which he stands. Chesterton would return Francis to Christ. As he summarizes, "however wild and romantic his gyrations might appear to many, [Francis] always hung on to reason by one invisible and indestructible hair.... The great saint was sane.... He was not a mere eccentric because he was always turning towards the center and heart of the maze; he took the queerest and most zigzag shortcuts through the wood, but he was always going home."'
Sunday, October 03, 2010
St. Therese of Lisieux- October 1-
Sally Thomas discusses the Little Flower.
Deirdre Mundy too. She discusses how she scorned St. Therese as a teenager but has come to understand.
The Anchoress has a round-up of posts.
Deirdre Mundy too. She discusses how she scorned St. Therese as a teenager but has come to understand.
The Anchoress has a round-up of posts.
Spirit and Flesh
Fr. Christian Mathis discusses Thomas Howard's book Evangelical Is Not Enough. Readers of this blog know that Dr. Howard is my friend, teacher, and mentor. The question of the book and the post is: How should Christians worship our Incarnate God?
Catholic Tea Party?
Jeff Miller thinks not. The Tea Party is good and effective to the extent that it expresses popular opinion that our governments not tax and spend us into bankruptcy. Any attempt to define the Tea Party within the culture wars is going to undermine its mission to make elected officials accountable to the taxpayers who hire them.
A letter to someone who wanted to attend Mass with us...
[Via email]
Dear Tiber Wader,
A Catholic Mass engages the spirit, the mind, and all five senses. We look forward to sharing tomorrow's 11 a.m. Mass with you. As a preliminary, here are a few things you ought to know about the Mass:
1. The Mass has different parts: the Processional, the Penitential Rite, the Prayer of the Day, Old Testament Reading, Psalm (usually sung with congregational response), New Testament Reading, Gospel Reading, Homily, Nicene Creed, Prayers of the People, Eucharistic Prayers, the Our Father, the Eucharist, Closing Prayers, Benediction, and Recessional Hymn. The form and structure do not change, but the readings and daily prayers do for every day of the year.
2. The vestments (altar dressings and clerical garb) change by the season. Right now we are in green for Ordinary Time, which is that period between Pentecost (June) and Advent (December). Lay people don't necessarily change colors by the season, but the current color, green, sets the mood for the Mass.
3. The music is built around the Liturgy (a word which means "service of the people"). At 11 a.m., the entrance antiphon (which precedes the processional of the choir and priest) is likely to be chanted in Latin. The processional hymn will follow the theme of the season. During the Eucharist, a hymn will likely be sung which is about the Eucharist or service to God. It is the Catholic equivalent of "Just As I Am." The recessional hymn is usually upbeat and triumphant. Catholics generally do not sing as well or as enthusiastically as Baptists or Methodists, but our choir is very good. Watch a few faces in the choir. You will see piety.
4. Before the Eucharist we prepare ourselves: We repent of our sins: "Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy." We listen to the scriptures. We hear a homily. (Catholic preaching is more meditative than rousing; it is not the focus of the gathering. The Eucharist is everything.) We affirm our faith by reciting the Nicene Creed. We bring our gifts to the altar and prayer for our needs and those of the world.
5. In the Eucharistic Prayers, we recall the Last Supper. We recall the history of salvation. You will recognize some of the words of the songs: "Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and earth are full of your glory! (Isaiah 6), and "Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world." (John 1:29-34) We recall the Passion. Because we believe the Bread and Wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, we ring a bell when the priest quotes Jesus: "This is my body," and ring it again when he says, "This is my blood."
6. We sing the Lord's Prayer at the end of the Eucharistic Prayers, then we greet each other in the name of Christ.
7. When we go forward for the Bread and Wine, you are welcome to come with us. Those who are not Catholic cross their arms over their shoulders to indicate they will not be receiving the Bread and Wine. The minister will bless you. Blessings are good.
8. There are a few other things we do which are probably not familiar: We dip our fingers in baptismal water as we enter the sanctuary to remind us of our baptism. We cross ourselves: Father (right hand at head), Son (right hand at center of chest), and Holy Spirit (right hand to left shoulder then right shoulder). We kneel when we first reach the pew and say a few private prayers. We kneel during many of the prayers, including the Eucharistic Prayers. We stand for the hymns and the Gospel reading and sit for the Psalm and the OT and NT readings.
9. Dress is casual, sometimes too casual. You won't be able to tell who is married to a doctor and who cleans the doctor's office. Our parish is more than multi-racial: Koreans, Vietnamese, Nigerians, Haitians, and Mexicans as well as 2nd to 4th-generation Irish, Germans, Italians, Poles, Czechs, and Croatians all attend. Plenty of Southerners too.
There will be no quiz! Just observe and enjoy. We would rather tell you what you are about to see than try to explain it all afterwards. We'll try to be there at 10:45.
See you tomorrow,
TQ
[Photo above of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.]
UPDATE: Mass this morning was beautiful. The choir was great. Our friend was happy to attend with us. Pray for her.
Bl. Mary McKillop
She is to be canonized on October 17 as Australia's first native-born saint. Yes, she had to fight opposition from her own bishop, but her battles with her bishop are not as important as her saintly soul and dedication to the needy. Oddly enough, I discovered her this week in The Huffington Post, but the breadth of her work is greater than the posted article.
"Music and Memory, Part 18: Dreams Dashed"
Music is a ticket to the transcendent, though I cannot say that I have made tremendous sacrifices. The writer of Hebrews said: "For you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." He was speaking to me on several levels.
Musicians, whatever their religion, are somehow splashed with water or blood and strive for musical perfection in order to find God. Almost all fail, and dealing with that failure is worse than almost any other failure. Like Icarus, they often crash as dramatically as they rise. Like Prometheus, they are sometimes punished for bringing the light.
Because our culture has forgotten the origins of love and beauty, we are willing to substitute material success and popular adoration for either or both. Pentimento concludes:
'Little girls who sing with preternatural vocal (but not musical) maturity on national television will work, in the sense of getting Vegas acts with lots of costume changes and making lots of money. But they will miss the chance they might have had to enter into the enchanted realms of art, of beauty, of poetry, of music. It's a pity that the world values classical music so little, and values classical musicians even less; every true musician I've ever known has wanted only to share their joy in that "holde Kunst," as Schubert and the poet von Schober put it -- that wondrous art that transports the hearts of the suffering in their darkest hours to joy, to companionship, to the knowledge that God exists and that they are not alone.'
(I am pleased that Marie Therese at Skopeji has discovered Pentimento.)
Musicians, whatever their religion, are somehow splashed with water or blood and strive for musical perfection in order to find God. Almost all fail, and dealing with that failure is worse than almost any other failure. Like Icarus, they often crash as dramatically as they rise. Like Prometheus, they are sometimes punished for bringing the light.
Because our culture has forgotten the origins of love and beauty, we are willing to substitute material success and popular adoration for either or both. Pentimento concludes:
'Little girls who sing with preternatural vocal (but not musical) maturity on national television will work, in the sense of getting Vegas acts with lots of costume changes and making lots of money. But they will miss the chance they might have had to enter into the enchanted realms of art, of beauty, of poetry, of music. It's a pity that the world values classical music so little, and values classical musicians even less; every true musician I've ever known has wanted only to share their joy in that "holde Kunst," as Schubert and the poet von Schober put it -- that wondrous art that transports the hearts of the suffering in their darkest hours to joy, to companionship, to the knowledge that God exists and that they are not alone.'
(I am pleased that Marie Therese at Skopeji has discovered Pentimento.)
Unity without dogma?
There will always be a large number of Christians who do not understand why we must have dogma, but dogma, that is, doctrine that cannot be compromised, is essential to the very idea of the Church. When Jesus discussed the Church in the Gospels, it is obvious that He did not believe it to be some secret and ephemeral society, but His own body. If we cannot create a church from separated and decaying parts, we have not the Church, but Frankenstein.
Fr. Dwight Longenecker has a thoughtful post. The Church is not a confederation of armed partisans, but the army of the King.
Fr. Dwight Longenecker has a thoughtful post. The Church is not a confederation of armed partisans, but the army of the King.
Sacred Architecture
'The unknown architect of Glastonbury Abbey in England said, "I want to create a church so beautiful that it will draw even the hardest heart to prayer." In other words, one of the functions of a church is to lift the heart to prayer. It is to inspire with beauty, the heart that longs for beauty. Indeed, the medieval churches in England are vast, lofty and totally inspiring. Historians tell us that many of the huge churches in little towns and villages could never have been filled each week with the population of the place. They were built in a time when utilitarianism was not heard of, and if it were ever spoken it would have been recognized as a heresy.
'Since one of the functions of a church is to inspire the hardest heart to prayer, then those who follow the dictum that 'form follows function' have not only failed, they have failed to even begin to understand what a church is for. Furthermore, their clerical masters who have squandered the money of the faithful on brutal travesties of churches reveal that not only do they not know anything about the tradition of sacred architecture, but they also don't know very much about the meaning and purpose of worship.'
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
I have written before that Beauty can force a man to his knees just as can her twin sister, Love. When I face doubts about my faith, and I do sometimes, the beauty of love in the Cross converts me, often speaking through art.
Here, Cecilia Bartoli sings W.A. Mozart's "Exsultate Jubilate - Alleluia."
'Since one of the functions of a church is to inspire the hardest heart to prayer, then those who follow the dictum that 'form follows function' have not only failed, they have failed to even begin to understand what a church is for. Furthermore, their clerical masters who have squandered the money of the faithful on brutal travesties of churches reveal that not only do they not know anything about the tradition of sacred architecture, but they also don't know very much about the meaning and purpose of worship.'
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
I have written before that Beauty can force a man to his knees just as can her twin sister, Love. When I face doubts about my faith, and I do sometimes, the beauty of love in the Cross converts me, often speaking through art.
Here, Cecilia Bartoli sings W.A. Mozart's "Exsultate Jubilate - Alleluia."
"The Twister of 2010" [Post No. 3300]
Peggy Noonan on the implosion of the Democratic coalition that won the elections of 2006 and 2008.
Republicans need not think they are popular or even competent. Being "1st Runner Up" when the pageant winner is caught sleeping with the judges and sponsors does not mean you are virtuous or even worthy of the crown.
Republicans need not think they are popular or even competent. Being "1st Runner Up" when the pageant winner is caught sleeping with the judges and sponsors does not mean you are virtuous or even worthy of the crown.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
