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 Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again! Tips are deeply appreciated! Yes! I do take Credit Cards! Atom RSS Feed         Franciscan Friars of the Assumption Province - Religious Vocations for Men   Little Way Web Store  Hard to find holy cards and photographs of St. Therese imported directly from her store in Lisieux. We specialize in carmelite spirituality and offer a wide selection of books and gifts about carmelite spirituality. This is the website you have been waiting for. Gethsemane Garden Stones  Stations of the Cross Garden Stepping Stones transform your garden into a Prayer Garden Check Out "Rock Solid"  Mark Shea's Podcast                   
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Thursday, May 31, 2007
As you may have noticed... I'm a bit scarce today. I'm trying to record a bunch of podcasts, as well as get stuff caught up on email and in the writing department. Something's gotta give, so today it's the blog. By the way, your prayers would be appreciated. Tomorrow I'm up in Bellingham (about 80 miles north) to be the Catholic Guy for a public school unit on Religions of the World. You don't get many opportunities to talk about the Faith at a public school, so I will endeavor not to blow it, but the help of prayer and the Spirit are all that stand between me and my native screwupishness. By the way, a general word of thanks to all who respond to the various prayer requests that turn up here. You inspire me with your generosity of spirit. God bless each one of you! Labels: PSA Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Another Bush Supporter Struggles with Regrets Over the Train Wreck of This Administration I believe that the Bush administration used 9/11 as a pretext to go to war with Iraq. I believe it decided that Iraq could be turned into a decent country if Saddam were gone, and that a regime change in Iraq would be the catalyst for a positive revolution in the Mideast. I believe the administration knowingly told whatever lies it needed to tell to win over the American people to its policy. I believe our president, for whom I voted twice, is a dishonorable man who will be ill-remembered by history. I find the manifest and catastrophic incompetence forgivable; I find the dishonor and mendacity far less so.Last night I was reading a Robert D. Kaplan essay from the forthcoming issue of The American Interest, an advance copy of which I received ysterday. I have only a few quibbles with this. First, because charity believeth all things, I continue to think that it's more accurate to say that a culture of corporate self-delusion probably explains the behavior of the Administration better than the word "lie" does (since that communicates the notion that they knew perfectly well that they would not find WMDs, whereas I think their astonishment was genuine). That said, self-delusion is, after all, a form of lying and the simple fact is, the Bushies were not much interested in views from outside the hothouse that contradicted the Dominant Narrative. So they rashly rushed into a disastrous war, ignoring the common sense point of the Church, that they were assuming grave responsibility. Now that they are thoroughly stuck to the tar baby, they are cooking up stupid ideas like a "war czar" in an effort to distance themselves from their catastrophic incompetence. Second, though I think there will be a cultural reaction to the hubris of this Administration and that the GOP is basically toast for the foreseeable future, I don't share Rod's dizzying fears about the loss of confidence in the government, just as I did not share Rod's dizzying fears about the loss of confidence in the Church. In the case of the Church, I never knew anybody who was a Catholic because of their faith in the "moral authority of the bishops". People believed in Jesus Christ, or their wife, or some saint, or some other deeply personal connection. That's what motivated them. Almost nobody outside St. Blog's was hanging on the details of ecclesial politics as some sort of "basis" for their faith. In the same way, the visceral forces of love of home unleashed by 9/11 seem to me to still be quite potent. No small part of the disaster of Bush is that he has misdirected these forces into this stupid war of choice. But I can think of few people I know who think that we should just call off the war with Radical Islam on the theory that America is now safe from the Bronze Age Nutjobs. So I don't envision some crazy pacifism. Indeed, the *reason* the troops are admired is that people recognized they *do* stand on a wall and protect us--provided dunderheads at the levers of power don't send them off on damn fool nation-building projects based on the theories of the End to Evil types. I think Americans recognize we are in a serious war with Radical Islam. What they doubt is that the bog of Iraq is advancing our cause in that war. Finally, I think Rod confuses "excusing" with forgiving. Bush's unjust war and the sins he has committed in laboring to corrupt our political culture are inexcusable. They are not unforgivable. No sin is. A small but vital distinction since so many people conflate excusing and forgiving. Labels: War Heh!  As the man said: "Like the argument for God's existence from a Bach organ composition, either you get it or you don't." The only other Calvinist humor I know of is about the predestinarian who tripped and fell down the stairs. Picking himself up, he said, "Well, I'm glad *that's* over with." Labels: Humor How editorials tell me, "Don't bother reading further." "I was a loyal church-goer in my youth in the '70s." Then something about the Episcopal church and why I no longer go to Church and "Why did I leave? Silly things really." I believe that. Labels: The Ever-Falling Religious IQ of the Media "Benedict, a quintessential realist, will probably be among the few who understand right away that his ruling is not terribly earth-shattering." The sane John Allen on the motu proprio that means so very much to enthusiasts out at both ends of the bell curve. Labels: Liturgy stuff The Prophet Chesterton was a Patriot, Not an Imperialist ...which is to say, he loved his country because it was his Home, not because it dominated the homes of everybody else. Indeed, he was such a patriot that he thought people in other homes likely felt much the same way about their home as he felt about his and sympathized with their justified sense of resentment when his own country tried to dominate other homes. This explains his opposition to the Boer War and the English occupation of Ireland (and English imperialism in general), as well as his loathing of the Kaiser. Chesterton's greatest work of patriotism in fiction is The Napoleon of Notting Hill. You should read it. If you do not have time to read it, something of the flavor of Chesterton's local patriotism comes through in this lovely paean to Chicago from a true lover of that town. It brings back fond memories of the brief times I have spent in Chicago and, in particular, a fine afternoon I spent at the Field Museum admiring their Egyptian and dinosaur collections. Also, the best yogurt in the world and the Mundelein seminary, as well as Marytown, figure largely in my memories, as well as Loyola U, a talk by Cardinal George, and a fine (Italian IIRC) restaurant. I love local patriots. I always loved Robert E. Lee because when he said he could not lift his sword against his country, he meant Virginia. I love Willa Cather because in My Antonia, she prefaces the novel with a quote from Vergil and makes it clear, as the novel progresses, that she is trying to do for Nebraska what Vergil did for Rome: sing the glories of her home. Anybody who loves the home--especially their home--is alright by me. And anybody who truly loves their home appreciates others who love theirs. If they replace true love of home with mere devotion to Bigness, Empire, and Power they don't love even their own home. Speaking of love of Home, here is a cool book I ran across yesterday which Seattle longtimers will appreciate: Vanishing Seattle. I miss Jones' Fantastic Museum and the Bubblator. Labels: Meditations Flash! Science Discovers Water is Wet, Sky is Blue! It turns out that when you do the right thing, it is natural to feel good about it. How clever of evolution to encode that into our genes. Remember always the creedal mantra of Francis Crick, "Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved." You must. You simply must. There's something very odd about Science News trumpeting as a discovery something known by kindergartners and then saying "Such research 'has opened up a new window on what it means to be good,' although many philosophers over recorded history have suggested similar things." What "new windows" on the *meaning* of being good are opened up? The *meaning* of being good is a philosophical, not a scientific question. The menace of the professional scientist who tries to be an amateur philosopher and doesn't even know it is writ large across this story, particularly in this comment fragrant with the residuum of rotting Calvinism: Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired and pleasurable.' The dessicated theories of Total Depravity, not any sort of science, lies behind this news flash. Only a complete idiot believes that the impulse to do good and avoid evil is evidence of "superior" moral faculty. For most people, it is evidence of "being human". Meanwhile, Catholics are quite free to suppose that the Creator *of course* made it natural for us to feel pleasure at doing what is right. Labels: Water Found to Be Wet A Little Foreshadow of Things to Come as We Cede More and More Power to Caesar for the Promise of Safety Don't say you weren't warned. Labels: Salvation Through Leviathan By Any Means Necessary Shocking Proof of Outrageous Military Spending Just look at the original price and compare to current congressional allocations!  Labels: Humor A reader writes: From my understanding, there's an obligation for an employer to pay a just wage to employees. A just wage isn't merely the agreed-to wage; it must also take into account the needs of the employees. So, if I'm a sole proprietor, I couldn't just pay my employees less than a just wage on the justification that (1) they would agree to it, and (2) it would save me money (and thus improve the profitability of my business). I'm afraid I'm going to pretty useless for this since it's a question that requires training, not only in moral theology, but also in business, econ, and ethics--all of which I lack. My combox commenters may want to give a stab at an answer, but please be aware, reader, that what you get in comboxes can often be the fruits of AIWAK (Any Idiot With a Keyboard) and nothing resembling an informed answer. My suggestion would be to talk to somebody with some expertise in the field. Perhaps a Catholic businessperson of some sort (though I'd shoot for one who is notably Catholic, and not just nominally so). Sorry I'm not more help! Labels: Mailbag Feddie Hits the Big Time! Feddie, of the late, lamented Southern Appeal blog writes: I just rec'd a call from Chris Matthews's producer asking me to appear on Hardball tonight. We'll see if it pans out, but I thought I would go ahead and let my friends and former SA readers know of this possibility before I get too busy preparing for the show. Godspeed, Feddie! I'll say a prayer for you that you get a word in edgewise between the staccatto of Matthews' self-involved monologue with himself. How the guy is able to be passed off as an "interviewer" I will never understand. Speaking of which, Ramesh Ponnuru has a piece in the latest National Review called "A Singular Issue: Why abortion should doom Giuliani’s campaign" about the disastrous implications of a Rudy nomination for the GOP. He ticks off all the reasons why: Giuliani's support for the barbarism of PBA, his subsequent back-tracking and incoherent butt-covering that wouldn't convince his own grandmother of his sincerity, the simple fact that a Rudy nomination would be a clear sign of total capitulation by the GOP on this question, and the implications for the SCOTUS: But Giuliani’s nomination would change everything. By moving the politics of abortion to the left, his nomination would also — regardless of Giuliani’s intentions now — move the politics of judicial confirmations to the left. If the range of acceptable opinions on abortion policy narrowed, so would the range of acceptable opinions on Roe. A nominee who followed the pattern of Samuel Alito, with a history of hostility to Roe and no extravagant shows of respect for it in his confirmation hearings, would seem more extreme than Alito in fact did. If Giuliani nonetheless sent up such a nominee, would he really fight for him if the Democrats chose Roe as the battle line? Most of all, Ponnuru makes the point that abortion is a winning issue for the GOP, not a liability as the Mammon First Crowd keeps telling itself. The notion that the GOP would be moving toward the Sane Center by nominating Giuliani is a class example of how sin makes you stupid. Nice to see these two knights for the dignity of human life making their voices heard in the public square. I hope more Catholics stand up and say a very loud "NO!" to the candidacy of Rudy Giuliani. Labels: Abortion, Politics, Sin Makes You Stupid, Stupid Party My Latest at Catholic Exchange The gospel's power to reconcile is parodied by the devil. Labels: Catholic Exchange Stuff Tuesday, May 29, 2007
200 Million Christians Persecuted Worldwide. Nobody Notices. One would like to say that this is due entirely to a secular press that doesn't care and one would be very largely right. But it's also due to the fact that, in America, "Christians" are largely recognized as such if they fit the Evangelical template. So, for instance, when the Church gets stomped in Bethlehem or Iraq, those people are just Catholics or some other form or ancient Christianity and they don't count because they happen to be in the way of somebody's eschatological scheme or some plan of the End to Evil types currently setting policy in DC. Still, it's heartening to see this article in the Euro press. Labels: Suffering Church A suitable poem eminently transposable to Memorial Day during the current situation Elegy in a Country Churchyard The contrast between the courage and sacrificial spirit of our our troops and the Wilsonian/Machiavellian numbskulls who have sent to them into harm's way becomes more tragic and outrageous every day. Here are some of the faces we have lost forever. Thanks be to God for their sacrifice for us. May they all find eternal rest in His Light:  Meanwhile read, if you can bear it, Andrew Bacevich's lament of loss over a son who died in a war his father courageously opposes. Read first the depths to which some devotees of the Bush cult of personality will sink: Among the hundreds of messages that my wife and I have received, two bore directly on this question. Both held me personally culpable, insisting that my public opposition to the war had provided aid and comfort to the enemy. Each said that my son's death came as a direct result of my antiwar writings. But read as well, Bacevich's awful, but dreadfully resonant-with-reality grasp of how our quasi-representative oligarchy actually functions: To whom do Kennedy, Kerry and Lynch listen? We know the answer: to the same people who have the ear of George W. Bush and Karl Rove -- namely, wealthy individuals and institutions. After 9/11, the country needed a Daddy. We looked for somebody to protect us because we felt profoundly unsafe. The Bushies promised to fill the Daddy role. Only you cannot give what you do not have. What we got was what we had before 9/11, a deeply decadent and money-driven political culture on both sides of the aisle that pretty quickly returned like a dog to its own vomit. What did we expect? Saints? We've tried to console ourselves that these guys know what they are doing and care about us. They don't. They care about money, power, and (when the ocassion calls for it) our vote and how to get it. The care they have for the sacrifices of the people who are dying and suffering on their orders is pretty well summarized by the spectacle of Walter Reed Hospital and other fine VA facilities. The care they have for the troops on the ground is evidenced by the way in which they dragged their feet in providing them with sufficient armor, making *them* pay for it, and the way in which they send them, at this hour, into combat against terrorists we are training and arming ourselves. Meanwhile, the President who launched this bungled war of choice has shown himself to be God's gift to Al-Quaeda, while his Vice President makes clear that he is a fan of Now that the Iraqis we are training are using their new skill sets to kill our troops, I think we are done there. It's time to bring our troops home. Bush's war has failed and there is no point in sacrificing more great young men like Andy Bacevich on the altar of Bush's cult of personality. Our leaders are deeply unworthy of the brave men they send off to die. Eternal gratitude to our troops. Prayers for the souls of the politicians who value them less than an inning of baseball. Labels: War Sean Dailey writes: Thought you'd like to let people know that today is G.K. Chesterton's birthday (he'd have been 133 years old today). Some activities to help people celebrate: I'm thankful for Chesterton! Happy Birthday, GK! Only the master could turn write about his own birthday this way (from his Autobiography): Bowing down in blind credulity, as is my custom, before mere authority and the tradition of the elders, superstitiously swallowing a story I could not test at the time by experiment or private judgment, I am firmly of opinion that I was born on the 29th of May, 1874, on Campden Hill, Kensington; and baptised according to the formularies of the Church of England in the little church of St. George opposite the large Waterworks Tower that dominated that ridge. I do not allege any significance in the relation of the two buildings; and I indignantly deny that the church was chosen because it needed the whole water-power of West London to turn me into a Christian. Labels: Chestertoniana The Beloved Cow Keeps us Apprised of His Movements in His Own Inimitable Fashion You come away not actually knowing much more about how to plan than when you started, yet with the strange sensation that it will probably all pan out somehow. Advance apologies to all of Texas as well as Gary, Indiana. No apologies to Detroit since it does, in fact, blow. Labels: Cow Our dear daughter-to-be, Tasha, writes: I wanted to share this with you, and maybe ask if you could offer some Tasha, we will certainly keep your family in prayer. Thanks be to God indeed! I must say, this is taking Pentecost a bit far! Labels: Praise report, Prayer Requests Dawn Eden on the Euthanizers of the Human Conscience The pro-abort approach to the human conscience is like the fool who places his hand on a red hot stove and feels a burning sensation: he solves the problem by numbing the hand with novocaine and leaving it on the stove. Labels: Abortion The Great Thing about Being a Boeing Engineer is that the Toy Planes You Get to Destroy Aren't Toys Check out the video at the bottom of the story. Labels: Cool Stuff Dean Peters frets: I'm not anti-Catholic for my critique of the Vatican web site, am i? I don't see what's anti-Catholic about pointing out that the Vatican website sucks as a website. I'm sure many a web designer has shaken his or her head at it, especially the Catholic ones. Labels: Mailbag A reader writes: I read your article about Marian Devotion in Crisis Magazine. My point is not that the Church is responding to the 19th Century Philosophies of Pride, but that the Holy Spirit is. In much the same way, I think the Second Vatican Council was given by the Spirit to fortify her against the various diastrous ideas of postmodernity that would follow the council (which the bishops could not foresee). He can see farther than we can. I think we are looking, in both cases, at divine providence, not human foresight. Labels: Theology John Medaille (who I knew years ago on the Free Catholic list) writes: I am proud to announce the publication of my book, The Vocation of Business: Social Justice in the Marketplace, by Continuum International. Congrats, John! Labels: Book recommendations If your murder fails to fall within the template of the MSM, it is unworthy of attention That's why Mathew Shepard is a martyr symbolizing the Evilness of Everybody Who Fails to Celebrate the Glories of Gay Sex while Jesse Dirkhising is utterly forgettable. Labels: Chattering Class Follies Reason to Homeschool #394583759386573040672309475034759345978 Your kid will never has to endure some quack curriculum put together by people who follow a religion cooked up by a hack sci-fi writer whose main apostles are Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Labels: News of the Weird, Reasons to Homeschool Only in the American South.... This is the sort of place my pal Rod Bennett would absolutely love. He has a weakness for strange roadside attractions. Indeed, he promises to blog on it, once he has finished his series on "pop typology" (well worth checking out). Labels: News of the Weird A reader asks: Could any of your readers recommend a parish and RCIA program in the San Francisco Bay area? St. Dominic's is good. It's the Mother Ship for the Western Dominicans. Also, St. Albert's is the House of Formation in Oakland. Anybody know others? Labels: Mailbag For those of you who prayed for and helped my friend, Jerry... Some good news from his wife, Barbara: Hi All... As you all know, Jerry has been hanging on for dear life! (And so have I!) The last couple of weeks have been really scary with him almost losing consciousness several times a week and being really, really weak! The doctor has been closely monitoring him and increasing the levels of detoxing medicine to scary levels, as well as changing the detoxing regimen. I have been staying home with him this week to carry out the new regimen, which is to last 7-9 days. Thanks be to God! Labels: Praise report, Prayer Requests Had a lovely Holiday Just what the doctor ordered. A bit tired today, but a lot less stressed. We basically did little of consequence in worldly terms--but much of consequence in spiritual ones. Giving kids (and adults) memories that will feed them throughout their lives is fun work. Also, digging clams and having a chance to talk to God is a great gift. I've been missing Him and it's my own fault. Biggest event of the trip (aside from Pentecost in the little country church on the Island) was the big clam fry on Sunday night. I made zealous converts of the Warn fambly. Brian, the paterfamilias, found that even his English and Irish ancestry could not keep the food he cooked from tasting scrumptious. Here he is, frying away:  Dorothy (standing next to Brian) was one of the helpers on Team Clam. The production line worked away with me bisecting the clams and washing the sand out of them. Then Alyosha would break the two shells apart and give them to Audrey for distribution to Albert (not pictured) and Dorothy. Here's Audrey, Alyosha, me and a bit of a smashed clammy friend.  Audrey, by the way, is no girly girl, squealing, "Gross!" and running away from harmless (though a bit yukky) clams. She was right in there, breading the clams, and eating them like a linebacker. She will be president of the World Bank someday. Not your shrinking violet type, as the photo somewhat attests. Of course, being up to my elbows in raw clams somewhat hindered my ability to actually eat them as they were fried. Sometimes, my hunger almost got the best of me:  But Brian would take pity on me (between sharing out clams to all and sundry who walked into camp and sharing the Good News of the Deliciousness of Fried Clams) and spoon feed me to keep up my strength for the many clams that still lay ahead.  The best part was, it's all so simple: a few eggs, a glug of milk in a bowl, beat them, cut the clams in two, dip them in the egg batter, then grind them in some Progresso bread crumbs and fry them (still in the shell), face down on a skillet with hot oil or butter. Voila!  Oh. Wine doesn't hurt either. The Evaluation Task Force rated this week's camping trip as having met and exceeded Superior Performance Standards for a vacation. The only problematic factor is that the Task Force deemed the vacation "too short" and recommends something twice as long next year. We will be passing our recommendations on to the Supernumerary Committee on Evaluation Task Force Recommendations very soon. Labels: Fambly Thursday, May 24, 2007
Because I Hate Bush and Always Vilify Everybody who Disagrees with Me In the Slightest Since I'm Never Willing to Admit I Could Be Wrong... You cannot possibly be reading what follows: I did a little cursory reading up on Jerome Corsi and am today much less inclined to take his word for it that this story means what he thinks it means. In addition, reader Seamus, who actually knows something of constitutional law, says I'm fretting about nothing. Very well. I will take the word of people with competence in the field. I apologize for letting anger at Bush's torture policies get the better of me and cause me to be uncharitable. Mea culpa. If you happen to be one of those combox commandos who feels the need to say one of the following: 1. Out of the fulness of the heart, the mouth speaks. Clearly your heart is full of sin. You've just admitted it. Why should anybody forgive you? 2. You've sinned before and repented. And yet here you are sinning again. I know Jesus said all that stuff about 70 X 7, but he was just kidding. What he actually meant was "a couple of times" and then give it up because it's clear the guy is not serious. Feel free to call him an impenitent hypocrite who is just asking for enablers to go on enabling him in his sin. 3. Yeah, sure, you *say* "mea culpa" but those are just empty words without deeds! Let's see some practical deeds! Admittedly that's impossible to do in cyberspace where the sole medium is words. But you should have thought of that before you committed a sin in front of critics who have no intention of forgiving you! ...please don't. Many thanks. The Management Now I can go on vacation. Labels: Mea Culpa Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Vacation! A consummation devoutly to be wished! Chez Shea is about to depart (on Friday) for glorious Lopez Island in the San Juans for our annual Memorial Day Hooptidoo-in-the-Woods at Spencer Spit. We'll be hanging with a bunch of friends and fambly, including some of CAEI's very own combox denizens! Accordingly, tomorrow will be a combination of trying to get stuff written and sent off and packing so we can leave early, (not to mention a Seattle G.K. Chesterton Society meeting tomorrow night!). Thursday, May 24, 2007, at 7:30 PM in the Falcon Lounge Ergo, look for me back in the blogging saddle on Tuesday! Have a great Memorial Day weekend! Labels: Fambly Resolved: That the tissue mass known as "Richard Dawkins" shall forthwith be made a host for the endangered species "smallpox" Should the host tissue mass "Richard Dawkins" survive Phase One of the Aggressive Endangered Species Recovery Program, we propose that it be farmed into Phase Two and made a host for the endangered species "bubonic plague". Labels: Atheism Hail Caesar! More on Bush Granting Self Power to Grant Self More Power. Here's Jerome Corsi, America-hating Netroot Leftist from that fanatically Left Wing World Net Daily (and co-author of the book by the Swift Boat guys in the 2004 election that help re-elect His Imperial Majesty): President Bush, without so much as issuing a press statement, on May 9 signed a directive that granted near dictatorial powers to the office of the president in the event of a national emergency declared by the president. Update: There's a lot less here then meets the eye, it appears. Serves me right for letting my exasperation with the "Hey! Just because a guy dies during CIA interrogation doesn't mean there's evidence for torture and murder. Wouldn't now be a good time to quibble about the meaning of homicide? And let's not forget that the *real* issue is not the murdered man in the photo, but how horribly mean you are to a politician who gave Sean Hannity the distinct impression that torture was just peachy, not to mention your unspeakably awful manners to people who call you a "Torture Pharisee" and have labored for years to make the case for being "anti-anti-torture"." Usual Combox Crowd below--and the seemingly deathless Bush cult of personality for the Supreme Maximum Leader Who Is Incapable of Wrong that it evinces--spill over into my reading of the web. This Administration has plenty to answer for already. But I don't think what Corsi claims is part of it. Labels: Politics Give me strength Just because a healthy guy died from asphyxiation during interrogation by CIA ops doesn't mean he was tortured to death. And besides *if* homicide is wrong, then some of my favorite Bible characters may have had character flaws. Plus, it's not like the guy was tortured to death for *fun*. So that makes it alright. Or "not torture and murder". Or... something. Plus, Brownback is getting ready to clarify why he could not have said what McCain and Paul had no trouble saying. The check's in the mail any day now. So how about not being so mean just because the guy didn't have the stones to call FoxNewscritters on their Orwellian push for torture? And another thing, if you don't bring a discussion of Catholic annulments into your discussion of torture, you are a FRAUD, Mr. Shea. And War is not sinful. Never was. Nothing about war is sinful. No war was ever sinful. After reading that paean of praise to the goodness and greatness of war, I can scarcely see the need for Just war teaching since war was "never" sinful. Ever. Under any circumstance. God loves war. He's the Lord of Hosts you know. So when a pagan says "war is the natural state of man", any *real* Catholic worth his salt knows that "grace perfects nature" and the purpose of Jesus in the world is to turn us into more effective and deadly killing machines for the spread of "western values". War is not a concession to human weakness. It's an ideal, a positive good. It's not an earthly image of our true spiritual warfare with sin, hell, and death. It's an endorsement by God Almighty of our glorious post-Christian civilizational struggle to make the world safe for Democracy, Whiskey and Sex. I learn so much from my comboxes. Labels: Consequentialism on Parade If all my readers in Southern Washington, Idaho, eastern Oregon, Wyoming, Utah, and Northern Colorado could kindly step aside.... I would like to focus a concentrated beam of gloating directly at Sherry Weddell. Bzzzzzneenerneenerzzzzzzzzzzzt! Thank you. Here in Seattle (or should I say, Lopez Island in the San Juans, where I will be this glorious weekend), the weather is expected to be balmy and beautiful. Labels: Miscellany Sorry I disappeared. I had a speaking gig. Upon my return and my glance at the comment boxes and the issues that push people's buttons I think I have formulated the blog entry title guaranteed to generate more comments than any other Haloscan thread in history: "Motu proprio on torturing menstruating women with Latin liturgy expected soon" Discuss. Labels: Humor This reminds me of this. The whole "separation of powers" thing is a big drag on efficiency. It's okay for leisurely 18th century landed gentry to talk that way. But we are in a War Like No Other and we need a strong leader who will not be bogged down in red tape about "Congressional approval" or the sterile disputes of theologians about "good" and "evil". Above all we need speed and efficiency in rushing toward any goal the Executive chooses to rush toward or we will all die in searing pain! Fear and terror should be our guiding lights here, not some dusty out-of-date ideas from a bunch of dead guys. Labels: Politics A bold new generation of anesthetized consciences and moral monsters marches out to do battle with innocent babies! Wow! You can practically hear the swelling orchestral music in this paean of praise for the merchants of death. Labels: Abortion Cdl. Schonborn defends the highly unpopular proposition that "all things on earth should be ordained to man as to their center and summit." I would argue that even environmentalists and various imbibers of the Darwinian Mythos who deride this proposition routinely are constantly speaking out of both sides of their mouths. Oh sure, they *say* things like: Some people want to think of humans as the product of a special creation, separate from other living things. I am not among them; I am glad it is not so. I am proud to be part of the riot of nature, to know that the same forces that produced me also produced bees, giant ferns, and microbes that live at the bottom of the sea. But then they give the game away by talking in the most naked Judeo-Christian terms about our "responsibility" for creation, about the "immorality" of overpopulation and all the rest of it. Nobody talks about the immorality of bacteria colonies that exhaust their own food supply. Nobody talks about the immorality of lampreys that destroy fish populations in the Great Lakes. All the other beings in the great riot of nature just do what they do. We alone are constantly lecturing ourselves on how what we do is "unnatural" not "part of nature". Why, it's almost as though we are rational animals raised by grace to a place of dominion over nature or something. The main achievement of the environmentalist movement and its philosophical allies in the Darwinian Mythos agitprop arm has been to press down on us all the old Calvinist teaching about human guilt and shame while robbing us of any of the happy bits of the Catholic tradition about man as the crown of creation and a creature specially loved by God. The work is thankless, but at least the pay is low. Labels: Darwin Mythos, Theology A reader writes: One of my co-workers, Margaret, is in the hospital for very serious heart surgery today. I would be grateful if the readers of CAEI would join me in lifting up this fine, hardworking woman to our Lord in prayer. Thank you. May God grant Margaret healing in body, soul, and spirit through our Lord Jesus Christ. Regarding your book request, I'd check with Amy Welborn. I'm pretty sure that in her vast corpus of work, she's got something to help you here. Labels: Book recommendations, Prayer Requests "Giuliani is a crucial figure in the conservative movement." In much the same way as the guy who designed the eternal flame for JFK's grave was a crucial figure in the life of JFK. The article goes on to question whether Rudy's position on abortion "makes sense". Depends on what you mean. Does it make rational, coherent, moral, or theological sense? Of course not! It's a mass of contradictions and blather. Does it make political sense? Apparently so. He is the front runner and "conservatives" are willing to accept this two-faced effusion of self-serving lies because, you know, "he's strong on the war" and that, ultimately, is all that really matters. We may be witnessing a grand national reply to Zippy's question: "If you thought you could win a war by aborting a baby, would you do it?" The answer appears to be "Hell yes." That, friends, is consequentialism in chemical purity. Labels: Consequentialism on Parade, Stupid Party Catholic Counter-Insurgency Begins Not every Catholic is willing to roll over for Rudy. Labels: Politics, Stupid Party A reader writes: After the recent news on the New Birth control pill that is aimed at preventing menstruation, a couple of friends and I engaged in a conversation about birth control and contraception. I see the complete logic behind not using contraception in the marital context as laid out in §2370 and §2399 or the CCC. However, I can't seem to find anything -- at least not on first glance -- as to why a woman cannot, or should not, take birth control while not married and not engaged in sexual activity. I do know that there are a few women who might need such to regulate their cycles and hormones. I also know there are other ways to regulate hormones than taking birth control. I don't see anything morally wrong with the use of birth control pills in hormone therapy for a chaste person. Labels: Mailbag When Poets Attack! Pete Vere has waaaaay too much fun exposing the crooks at PublishAmerica. Labels: Crime and Punishment ta·boo also ta·bu (tə-bōō', tā-) n. pl. ta·boos also ta·bus 1. Whatever disgusting perversion the Manufacturers of Culture in the post-Christian West are just about to try to legitimate. Labels: What a Useful Word Taboo is Tuesday, May 22, 2007
I remember back when conservatives believed in something called "fiscal responsibility" The LBJification of the GOP continues apace, courtesy of the fine job this Administation is doing in turning Iraq into the Great Society. Labels: Stupid Party Just to be clear, this is what virtually the entire field of GOP Candidates and most of the Allegedly Conservative Punditocracy Favors  This man's name was Manadel al-Jamadi. This was done to him by CIA ops using techniques that President Bush assures us are not torture. Evidently the students of what is and is not precisely exactly technically torture made a misstep somewhere and al-Jamadi died as the result of enhanced-interrogation-techniques-that-are-most-certainly-not-torture-or-anything. You may be wondering what became of his murderers. Funny thing that. Nothing. Not one damn thing. Although the investigation showed homicide, everybody apparently agrees that it was nobody's fault. That stands to reason since, as the President has made clear, we do not torture. Mr al-Jamadi's wilful and impertinent death at the hands of CIA interrogators who were using techniques which remain legal at this very hour was but the most devious attempt by subversives to undermine the system of values that Messrs Bush and Cheney are trying to bring to the backward peoples of the world. Most unfortunate. But think of all the valuable intelligence that was beaten out of him. True, there is not one mention anywhere that I can find of whether al-Jamadi actually gasped out any useful information with his dying asphyxiated breath. But since virtually all the Republican candidates favor this sort of thing in their War Labels: Consequentialism on Parade Reader Christine Meyer Asks That We Remember Moscow Idaho in Our Prayers Virginia Tech isn't only place to endure gun violence recently. Labels: Prayer Requests The Always-Worth-Reading Abp. Chaput on Religious Tolerance and the Common Good Labels: Doings on Other Blogs Interesting story about a debate I never heard of Reagan v. RFK I wonder whatever became of all the petulant little brats who were in the audience? Labels: Politics Reason to Homeschool #39457345983534593865735934873452345434958376539487 Your child will never be urged to have sex with anything bearing a pulse, nor to do drugs. Nor will you be banished from hearing such motivational speakers by cubicle rats who know more than you do about what truly good for your kid. Labels: Reasons to Homeschool Take your pick It is only in Christ that man can learn the truth about man. - John Paul II War is the natural state of man. - Victor Davis Hanson Vrillon of the Ashtar Galactic Command has a message for extremely gullible Britons As we all know, aliens with an urgent message for all mankind can only hack into one English TV station and they just happen to have British accents. Labels: News of the Weird Chuck Jones' Strangest Cartoon Ever Hat tip: Mayerson on Animation, a blog by a professional animator which also has a nifty discussion on the greatness of Disney's Pinocchio. Labels: Cool Stuff Horrible And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way. - George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Wilsonian secular messianic rubbish, meet Iraq. Labels: Secular Messianism Pill meant to end periods poised for approval Welcome to the "What could it hurt?" phase of FDA approval. We'll have to wait a few years for the "How were we supposed to know?" moment. I become more and more convinced that the principal fruit of extre |
