Lauren Best

The most recent "Poet of the Month" in the Owen Sound Sun Times is Lauren Best. In the interview she was asked "What's your favourite quote about poetry?" Her response was from G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy:

We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.

and the livin is easy

They lay together,
she on her back
he on his side.
The open space
between
them
hardly big enough to hold a whisper.

They closed the gap.

The sheet,
lazily
adrift
on their ankles
and calves,
carelessly caressed them
as a cat would relive an itch.

Years of child bearing,
triumphs,
disappointments
were not available for viewing.
They did not see the ravages
of time
on each other.

Here they did not age.

The moon
walked through their window
to be rearranged
by her lace curtains.

Its speckled beams
fell
upon them
looking like the first touches
of gold leafing
on the statues of Hindu gods.

The summer wind tickled the pines

and their needles began to sing.

He touched a point of light on her skin

and a dog barked in their hearts.

Sex in the City

Yea yea we all know the story but here is a movie review that quotes both G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis to make it's point.

A "Chesterton" novel

As the school year was winding down - and exams and papers from students piled up - I looked for some light reading to relax with in between bouts of grading and averaging.

At the local Catholic bookstore, I stumbled across The Tripods Attack (Book 1 of "The Young Chesterton Chronicles") by John McNichol.

The book is of the alternative history genre. Chesterton is an American orphan stranded in England who links up with H.G. Wells and Father Brown (!) to fight invaders from Mars.

We also learn that America is five separate countries, and that elements of the British MI 5 assassinated Lincoln. And that Edison flew to Mars! There's also mention of Lewis's Ransom.

Silly? Perhaps. And certainly not Dickens (or even Chesterton), but quite enjoyable.

Physics Can Be Phun

"The obvious truth is that the moment any matter has passed through the human mind it is finally and for ever spoilt for all purposes of science. It has become a thing incurably mysterious and infinite; this mortal has put on immortality. Even what we call our material desires are spiritual, because they are human. Science can analyse a pork-chop, and say how much of it is phosphorus and how much is protein; but science cannot analyse any man's wish for a pork-chop, and say how much of it is hunger, how much custom, how much nervous fancy, how much a haunting love of the beautiful. The man's desire for the pork-chop remains literally as mystical and ethereal as his desire for heaven. All attempts, therefore, at a science of any human things, at a science of history, a science of folk-lore, a science of sociology, are by their nature not merely hopeless, but crazy. You can no more be certain in economic history that a man's desire for money was merely a desire for money than you can be certain in hagiology that a saint's desire for God was merely a desire for God. And this kind of vagueness in the primary phenomena of the study is an absolutely final blow to anything in the nature of a science. Men can construct a science with very few instruments, or with very plain instruments; but no one on earth could construct a science with unreliable instruments. A man might work out the whole of mathematics with a handful of pebbles, but not with a handful of clay which was always falling apart into new fragments, and falling together into new combinations. A man might measure heaven and earth with a reed, but not with a growing reed. " GKC

I do not know for sure if the The Institute for Advanced Physics intended to follow Chesterton’s thoughts on the nature of science, that is basically, one can not separate the physical from the metaphysical and remain sane but they understand it.

Too many scientists believe we live in a Godless accidently made universe where everything is knowable and they always get twisted up in their shorts and many people along with them.

Now along comes a breath of fresh air and sanity - this is the mission statement of the IAP:

The Institute for Advanced Physics is established to advance modern science in a balanced fashion that does not leave behind the correct philosophical foundations, nor the proper moral and spiritual components.

They go on with this:

Anywhere physical science is done, one finds a ready defense of certain basic truths. Scientists hold that the world is rational and understandable by us. Science is one of the few arenas in modern culture where objectivity is respected. As Nietzsche, albeit from a hostile perspective, pointed out, those who study the world and hold to the reality of objective understanding witness to the God of Truth.

Still, scientists have inadvertently allowed the poison of subjectivism to enter through various port holes. Leading scientists hold, for example, using facts of quantum mechanics, that the world is not there when you're not looking at it. Of course, this entails a kind of split thinking, for while they're actually doing their science, they obviously think that they are learning something about a real world whose existence is not merely an aspect of themselves. The root causes of such a schizophrenic state must be addressed or science itself will be undermined by its unintended subjectivist fruit.

See the complete mission statement here

For you home schoolers you can get their text books here

In case you have forgotten: get your daily fix of wonder here

Conference clerihews

Wow, based on what I'm reading, I'm almost glad that I can't go to the conference. (I can't because as a teacher/principal, I can never get away this time of the year, and they won't move the date of the conference, so I won't be able to go until I retire!).

Anyway, although I can't be there, I did submit 6 clerihews for the clerihew contest.

So maybe I'll be there in spirit.

“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

Depending on where you live your Bishop will fall into one of those categories.

Contact Archbishop John Clayton Nienstedt about the Chesterton Conference and see what category he is in.

Then go here to see a Bishop not afraid to go against it.

Poisoning the Annual Chesterton Society Conference

First, the letter from Dale Ahlquist at the American Chesterton Society that just came out:

St. Thomas Security has taken over our conference. This is what we have to deal with this year:

1. Alcohol can only be served and consumed in the lobby of OShaugnessy Education Center. Glasses cannot be taken into the auditorium or outside.

2. The wine and beer has to be served by St. Thomas food service staff, for which we will be charged a fee.

3. The alcohol has to be served with food. Not just cheese and crackers. The food has to be ordered through Food Service. We can’t bring our own. They may make an exception for the wheel of Stilton cheese.

4. We have to serve other drinks as well. The other drinks have to be ordered through Food Service.

5. We can serve wine and beer only during the following hours during the conference: 7-10 Thursday, 1-4, Friday, and 1-4, Saturday

6. We can have an outdoor “afterglow” in Foley Plaza on Thurs, Fri., and Sat nights from 10:30 to Midnight. Again we have to have a food service staff member act as bartender with the last drink served not later than 11:45 pm. The plaza will be fenced off with one entrance and exit and everyone there has to wear a conference badge. We have to pay for the fence, too.

7. There will be a security officer present at all our events.

8. We had to get a special license to serve wine with the banquet on Saturday night.

The costs of these extra requirements will do a good job of eating up the costs saved by having Catholic Studies co-sponsor the event. So we’re back to the conference being a money-loser.

I think we’re done with St. Thomas, and I think the conference is changed forever.

This is frustrating. First, you know the person that has imposed these restrictions is a self-righteous little jackass that is probably chanting “liability." Second, the self-righteous little ass probably has very little, if any, exposure to the Annual Chesterton Conference and doesn’t know how this will kill the Conference. Third, you couldn’t explain it to the self-righteous little ass because all these changes affect the “intangibles”–the spirit, the little things, the unnoticed things, the “air”–and if you can’t show such a person in black-and-white how changes will screw things up, he won’t believe you. Most frustrating.

Some Chestertonians are fighting back. An enjoyable email from one of them:

Dearly Beloved Mailing List 1, and Bcc’s:

Please find below a forwarded copy of a sad and distressing email I received tonight from Dale, the reigning Czar of the American Chesterton Society. For those of you who are unaware, the American Chesterton Society has held its annual Conference at the University of St Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota, since June of 1997 (previously it had been hosted for nearly two decades in Milwaukee). Until last year, our Conference was a joyful, personalist, self-directed meeting of minds and hearts regarding all things Chesterton (and, therefore, Catholic and godly), but it appears that those pathetic, treasonous, squash-every-life-like-a-bug, Left-wing, sour, ruthless, joyless, little nimrod-minded, Obama-voting imps of the Fifth Pillar (hereafter referred to only as they) cannot stand the sounds of resounding laughter, singing and conversant chatter that are the ordinary hallmarks of a good, traditional Catholic party; they cannot tolerate the warm, sweet scent of cigar smoke wafting though the trees and, by GOD, they must not let us alone to, as responsible adults are sometimes wont to do on festal days, be allowed to imbibe anything stronger than Coca-Cola without wage-sucking chaperones and security. After all, they must tell themselves in the wee hours of the cold dark nights in the Caves [faculty housing], we evil Chestertonians might get a little loose in the head and begin planning the sacking and overthrow of all that is good and Marxist in a modern-day liberal “Catholic” house of education; we might even gang up as an unruly mob in the first night, storm the Caves, and run all the sad little tenured heretics off the premises with our pen-knives and holy-water-guns and (gasp!!!) raise the standard of the Papal household in the Quad before the dawn breaks! Eek-gads!

Here’s the deal: I didn’t spend all freaking year babying thirty gallons of prize merlot along just so I can turn around and have it measured out by the thimbleful, like so much poison, by some snot-nosed little Liberal-hack-without-a-clue because ol’ Archbishop Flynn has refused to grow a spine and let one of the most historic hallowed halls in American Catholic academics be turned into a den of Green Peace-worshiping, law-mongering, joy-sqwashing Commies. Sounds harsh? Too bad. It’s the bare truth.

We need help. Please!!! Send this communique to everyone you know–especially the media. St Thomas will invite every anti-Catholic, anti-Life, anti-Reason moron and hack to our campus to spread Modernist filth and lying propaganda, but we orthodox, faithful Chestertonians (with 10 solid years of peaceful, non-confrontational, trouble-free, self-directed, responsible assemblies under our proverbial belt–and not one single DUI) can’t be trusted to meet without Big Brother monitoring our every move??? O, puleeze…..

We need you to protest.

We need donations to find a new Conference home.

We need dynamite in the Church, as Peter Maurin put it–and you all are the fuse!

Please email Fr. Dennis Dease (DJDEASE@stthomas.edu) and tell him that this is a sophmoric, vengeful move on the part of the University of St Thomas. And if you are giving money to these idiots, please stop!

That’s all. Up until now, this has been the best three day party on the planet. Now, like everything else, the Libs are trying to destroy it. We alone can stop them.

In His Grace, miki

Between a Rock and a Rock

With current gas prices I work one day a week just to fill my tank and because of the fuel prices I have to work a day and half to buy groceries for my family. Many complain that the money we spend for gas goes back to governments that fund terrorism and scream for energy independence. One of the things that is keeping us for this independence is the enemy within, in this case the environmental terrorists who won’t let us drill within our boarders.

Mark Steyn has a good piece on this here and manages to quote C. S. Lewis at the same time.

If you still believe that the people have a voice in government go here.

Good for GKC

The story is told of GK Chesterton delivering proofs, late, to his editor. The office was deserted, with just one person, from the accounts department, to take delivery of the great man's work. When Chesterton produced from his bag not only his corrected pages but a bottle of port and a glass, the terrified clerk confessed he was teetotal. 'Good heavens,' Chesterton squeaked in dismay. 'Give me back my proofs!'

Yes we remember

As I was going through some of the old war photos of my Dad’s I was struck by the obvious fact that these soldiers were just boys. Or rather they were in that space between boy and man. I also read the letters he sent home to Mom in hopes to find some insight on battles and life on the front but what I found was a series of love letters with no mention of war at all. Then again the war was, at its heart, about love - love of liberty and freedom, love of hearth and home.


“A real soldier does not fight because he has something that he hates in front of him. He fights because he has something that he loves behind his back.”
G. K.C.


A good read for this weekend.

Katy Bar the Door

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
-- G K Chesterton, Illustrated London News (April 19, 1930)

The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what is right.
-- G K Chesterton, Illustrated London News (October 28, 1922)


I find the recent ruling by the California Supreme court that same sex couples have a “right” to marry interesting on several levels; first they are telling us that our votes don’t matter - that pesky will of the people thing is soooo 10 min. ago. Secondly San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told us that, "As California goes, so goes the nation." But where are they going? Does it mean we are all going down the drain? Does that mean that from now on the minority rules? Is this the ideal future ACLU, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and the Gay Mafia want us to attain? Is this making things better?

Money buys power, power buys influence, influence drives the society toward what ever end money wants and our kid’s future required reading list will now include Heather Has Two Mommies.

The question remains for us now as it did for Chesterton’s time, can this train be stopped and turned and who will stop it? The answer to this lies within the Catholic Church and the who is us.

As Uncle Gilbert tells us:
"Everyone is interested in making things better. But what does "better" mean? Nature cannot answer this question, for nature accepts things as they are without making value judgments. Nor does the mere passage of time guarantee progress. Any meaningful sense of progress must come from a definite vision of how things should be, a point toward which we can move . . . A belief in the inevitability of progress is the best reason not to be progressive. For in that case we need do nothing at all. The best reason for being progressive is that things tend to get worse . . . Christianity answers these three challenges of progress. 1. It fixed the ideal before the foundation of the world. 2. It can give us the complex picture of life toward which we should move. 3. And its doctrine of original sin alerts us to the need to work toward that ideal."

It has been said that the first millennium belonged to the Bishops, the second belonged to the Popes and the third belongs to the laity. It is up to us to say enough! And preach the Good News for as Cicero said, (I know he has been quoted many times whenever something stupid like this happens but truth is still truth - in or out of fashion).

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared. The traitor is the carrier of the plague. You have unbarred the gates of Rome to him."

let's kick him out and bar the door, because this is what is next.

Roy, Gilbert!, and GKC

Roy F. Moore, Gilbert Magazine, and GKC in The Phoenix yesterday:

“Ever get that feeling like you just kicked Lucifer in the face and got away with it?!” Roy F. Moore of Woburn grimaces in triumph against the broad afternoon light. “That’s the feeling I get from that movie.”

We’re outside the Fresh Pond 10 — most desolate of Cambridge’s multi-screens, wedged in the southeast corner of the Fresh Pond Mall between a boarded-up acupuncture center and the railroad track. It’s one of the four places in Massachusetts where you can see the anti-Darwin documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It was just the two of us in the theater, and having observed the affirmative nature of Mr. Moore’s reactions — his gasps, guffaws, fist-shakings, and signs-of-the-cross — I introduced myself. Mr. Moore (somewhat unexpectedly) is a columnist for Gilbert Magazine, the official publication of the American Chesterton Society, so we talk about that roly-poly old Catholic apologist G.K. Chesterton. We talk about the Tridentine Mass, and punk rock, and Mr. Moore quotes approvingly from the Dead Kennedys’ “A Child and His Lawnmower”: “You know some people don’t take no sh!t/Maybe if they did, they’d have half a brain left!” And we talk about Ben Stein.

Margaret Sanger clerihew

Margret Sanger
Eugenicist haranguer
Thought with certain groups it would be good
To strongly “encourage” Planned Barrenhood.

Dont want to mention here.......

.......but its bugging me to see just how poor Hilary Clinton's (aka Lady McBeth) rhetoric is.

The whole thing with Hilary being the most qualified to take the 3 am phone call in particular just leaves me dumbfounded.

If Hilary got the call, I have no doubt that no decision would be made until dawn, her first communications are going to be to her media relations staff, her pollsters, and probably some attorneys. I do trust Obama to take action, albeit action I would likely disagree with. McCain? Well for gosh sakes, most men his age are up at that time to use the bathroom anyhow, so he would probably be the freshest to take the call.

Have a great week!!

Helen Steiner Rice Clerihew

Critics of Helen Steiner Rice
say her poems are just too sweet and nice.
But I suspect those poems will be read
long after those critics are dead.

Super Duper

There has been a lot of talk these days about Super Delegates. A concept I pretty much found amusing- you know a group of politicians creating a legal program to ignore the wishes of the people, (like the witches in Macbeth). It is not that they think the people ignorant it’s just that you and I don’t know what’s good for us. The other thing that has sparked my interest in that group is that I have a Super Delegate living close by me, her name is Enid Goubeaux. I have seen her at the grocery store! Now really how cool is that.

Anyway, the popular vote in the Democratic primary of Ohio went to the Madonna loving Hillary but Enid has cast her support for Barack Hussein Obama.
Because:

“I am endorsing Sen. Obama because his message, ‘yes we can’ has inspired so many voters, especially younger voters, to take part in shaping our country's future.

“I believe that Sen. Obama will end politics as usual which divides the nation and prevents us from confronting our most serious problems.”

With well thought out, reasoned and insightful comments like those she certainly has shown others the error of their voting.

Reminds me of the story of a boy coming home and announcing that he is going to major in philosophy. His father asks, “What are you going to do with that?”
The boy answers “Open up a shop and sell ideas.”

Barack supporters opened a shop and are selling platitudes and people are buying.

Chesterton Conference

The latest issue of Gilbert reminds me of a sad reality,

The back cover has an ad promoting the 27th Annual G.K. Chesterton Conference, June 12-14.

In red.

So you can't miss it.

Alas, I will miss it. Again.

You see, every year they schedule these conferences for June.

I am a principal and a teacher.

June is final exams and graduation.

I'd have a hard time justifying to the trustees suddenly taking off for four days or so right in the midst of all that.

A death in the family. Surgery. Okay. But I only have so many relatives and body parts I could use as an excuse.

("How many grandmothers do you have?")

Uncle Gilbert .... Hmm.

Anyway, once again, I can't be there.

It would be nice if the organizers could occasionally rotate the date. I realize that consistency is nice, and that no matter when they scheduled it someone would be inconvenienced. But it would be nice if we educators could catch a break once in a while.

And I don't want to wait until I retire. Some of my fundamentalist friends tell me the Rapture will happen before then. Should they be right, I suspect most of the regular conference attendees will get called home, cancelling the conference anyway.

So have fun everyone. I'll be thinking of you as I grade exams and fill in report cards.

One question for organizers - should any of you visit this site.

I have been known to scribble clerihews. I know there is an annual contest at the conference. Do you have to be there to enter? Or can you e-mail entries in? Or send them along with someone who is attending?

Tonight......

For those of you on night shift, or tend to be owls. Br. Guy Consolmagno, of the Vatican Observatory, is going to be on Coast to Coast AM tonight.

.......and some of us have ugly sisters

Title is regarding that post about nature. The following may be of interest to homeschoolers, or anybody interested in science. The technical issues involved here are impressive. Other than that, little connection to Chesterton besides that Chesterton is cool, and so are GIANT SQUID.

A Sister’s Surprise

“The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity. Nature was a solemn mother to the worshippers of Isis and Cybele. Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.”

Within every small town or neighborhood where there is tillable dirt you will find a lady whose garden is the envy of all others. A garden where people slow down as they drive by to look at or walk the long way home so they can stroll pass her flowers. This lady is always generous with giving or trading cuttings and bulbs. She will always listen to your garden stories and advise when necessary. She has dirt under her nails all summer dancing with her “younger sister.

In our town that lady is my wife.

She has set it up so that every two weeks or so the garden changes color. Slow waves of yellow to purple to blue to red back to yellow then burnt orange and gold all moving within an undercurrent of all the hues of green. She knows all the names of the flowers both the common and the Latin. She can do this whether the plant is in full bloom or just a half inch out of the ground. When she and I wander around the garden in summer I ask her to tell me the Latin names of each one we pass. Not that I have forgotten from the last time she told me it is just that to hear the sound of Latin spoken in a soft Kentucky accent is beautifully lyrical. It is the voice of angels or at least the voice of the elves of Arda.

My function in this garden is to do the heavy lifting and provide patience. The later is most important this time of year. This past weekend as I was turning and adding compost to some dirt for our beets and lettuce she exclaimed, “I want to uncover the beds!”

“It is to soon. Next week will be safer.” I tell her and she knows I’m right.

So she walked around behind me and gentling moved away some leaf matter to take a peek. “Daisys?” she wondered “What are they doing over here? I thought I had those contained.”

I laughed and told her, “You can’t contain daisy’s.” and then said, “It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.’ Do it again He says and our sister obeys. A nice surprise for us huh? ”

Oh yea the garden is also a place I can quote Chesterton where my wife does not roll her eyes at me.

George's Day

It’s St. George’s Day. Time for the only non-Nantucket poem that I ever memorized (and to be honest, I only memorized the first verse):

St George he was for England.
And before he killed the dragon
He drank a pint of English ale
Out of an English flagon.
For though he fast right readily
In hair-shirt or in mail.
It isn’t safe to give him cakes
Unless you give him ale.

St George he was for England,
And right gallantly set free
The lady left for dragon’s meat
And tied up to a tree;
But since he stood for England
And knew what England means,
Unless you give him bacon
You mustn’t give him beans.

St George he is for England,
And shall wear the shield he wore
When we go out in armour
With the battle-cross before.
But though he is jolly company
And very pleased to dine,
It isn’t safe to give him nuts
Unless you give him wine.

Mighty GKC

The Digital Catholic

Thirty-five Catholic treasures on CD Rom for $29.95. Includes one Belloc and seven GKCs. I'm pretty sure I'm going to order it.

Weekend Thoughts

I think most people who read this and similar blogs have been paying attention to the B16 visit to the US. Unfortunately the crazy woman at Yale with her "performance art" has sucked up some valuable media time. It is good to note that several of the usual protocols for heads of state were broken for the Pope. I think we have a tendency to try to always look for the cloud behind every silver lining, and there have been some problems with the Papal visit, but all in all I think that a character such as B16 does come off as an enigma to the press. There is nobody left in our mainstream culture who represents scholarship, prayerfulness, and erudition of lifestyle the way B16 does. There is something that is felt and experienced by all, even if words cannot be found to express it adequately. Perhaps the contrast with the Yale faculty is appropriate?

I think people get this same sense from GKC, one is in the presence of a master, and we are so heretical and fanatic in our cultural egalitarian pathos that we never get to experience this.

Gilbert Sighting

A handful of weeks and a bucket of lost sleep ago I directed a play for my local High school for them to enter in the state competition, (their regular teacher was out on maternity leave). We placed second in our category but that is not the story. On our first day of rehearsal I entered a classroom to meet them and there before me stood a blank blackboard. I am always drawn to a blank writing surface like a groom to his bride I cannot leave it untouched.

Upon it I wrote some of my favorite quotes about art and theatre, two of which were Gilberts: “A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.” and “Art, like morality, consists in drawing a line somewhere.”

During that rehearsal I did not talk about any of the quotes. I just let them sit there. Unusual for me but that is just how it played out.

A few days ago I was back in the school, to pick up my son, and they had a display case up containing some students favorite quotes and there in the bottom center done up in red marker on yellow card stock was G.K.C’s, “Art, like morality, consists in drawing a line somewhere.” I smiled big.

But not so fast white boy. When my son finally showed up I pointed that quote out to him all puffed with pride, “Gilbert strikes again” I said.

“Oh yea, There’s a new teacher this year that is constantly quoting Chesterton.” My son told me.

“Thanks for the heads up son.”

“Sorry. What’s for supper?”

So I guess there is a new friend for me to make.

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--

Condi Rice and torture - a clerihew

Condoleezza Rice
seemed so smart and nice,
but I'd have to say she's flawed
if torture gets her nod.


(Rice was the head of committee - than included people like Cheney and Powell - that reportedly approved in specific instances methods of torture that at the least violated human rights, and may have violated U.S. and international law.)

GKC, Just War, Torture, Law of Land Warfare, The Servile State....Oh My!

I see Inside Catholic just had an article on this same matter......

After scanning the discussions on this over at Blue Boar, and Inside Catholic, I have to say that the level of discussion is very high, well reasoned, and it is quite surprising that this issue is being discussed at its best within faith circles......whom, to use Bill O'Reilly's phrase, the Secular Progressives (SP), would see as the fundamentalist inquisitors. The strongest support for "Torture" in general, and waterboarding in particular are from those who obviously have played the card of idolatry of the state. For those who didnt read on Friday, we had a very good give and take between alot of people with alot of military experience and very well read both in faith and morals, as well as politics. I myself was involved with detainee operations in Iraq, have also served as tactical PSYOP in both Iraq and Bosnia. I worked in civilian corrections for 7 years as well.

This discussion could take place over hundreds of pages, but I think there are a few things that can be agreed on by all, there is an enormous amount of gray area for disagreement, but I think the principles and considerations to be taken into account can also be universally agreed upon, with an enormous amount of difference of opinion as to application. I think all sides must come away with very uncomfortable realizations.

First: I think we all agree that causing physical or psychological damage to innocent parties for no purpose other than the glee and psycho-sexual release of the captors is mala in se. This clearly is torture and the objectifying and dehumanizing of persons. I think we can accept this as a given.

Second(perhaps third and fourth): States do have a right to conduct military operations in certain circumstances. Part of the exercise of this function requires knowledge of the movements and plans of the other parties in the conflict. This information can be gained electronicially, through scouting, and through questioning of enemies who come into the custody of a state's forces. This I think needs to be mentioned because I think there is an unspoken thought behind some words on the political left that interrogation and questioning of prisoners, even HOLDING prisoners is unjust or inappropriate.......I actually say some things not challenging this point, but making its understanding more complicated.

Third: In an effort to bring some philosophical and legal structure to the most horrid and chaotic aspects of human existence, we have models such as Just War in philosophy, and the Geneva Conventions in International Law: Just war principle: Jus ad bellum-Just cause, comparative justice, legit authority, right intention, prob of success, last resort, proportionality. Part II is Jus in Bello - Distinction, proportionality, military necessity. The Geneva conventions are here and here. Note, and if you see this, you are understanding the situation at a level far above and beyond anybody in the US Legislative branch, the mainstream media, and certainly the Democratic Party-----the Geneva Conventions "dont apply" to the situation we find ourselves in. I will admit that line has been used politically by the administration. However, just as raw jurisprudence, it is still true. The GCs are written around a WWII type of situation. The war on terror(bad term, I know), is already a very gray area since we are dealing with groups that exist on the fringes of being paramilitary organizations, organized crime groups, and multinational-non state entities.

I think these are the three essential pillars, many other things branch off, but those three points summarize the crux of the issue. I think a couple things that add nuances are as follows.

-This isnt necessarily a situation of vox populi or sensuum fidelium. There is a certain amount of expertise, knowledge and background necessary to really properly address these topics. I think this issue cant be fully explored and adequately dealt with unless everybody involved holds a security clearance. The end point critical facts and procedures at the heart of the discussion simply cant enter the mainstream debate. One example: I think there are far better organizational models used by some other countries in integrating their intelligence functions that would greatly benefit us. Unfortunately, that line of reasoning cant take place in public. Im going somewhere with this at my end conclusion if you can hang with me.

DING DING--Havent mentioned this yet, but the state of ISLAM is very important here. We arent talking just about academic theories, but about a concrete, real situation, with actual definable forces. We arent in a "Clash of Civilizations," but you can sure see it from here. I see a couple things that I have not seen addressed in other places.
1)Historically, during the Crusades and other times, there have been prisoners taken and exchanged on both sides. There have also been prisoners executed and tortured on both sides. There were religious orders founded for the ransom and exchange of captives. I find this very interesting. From the stories one reads, the Crusader knights, and some of the Islamic chiefs, were treated very Chivalrously, and gentlemanly. My natural instinct, and I think that of our contemporary intelligence model, would have us grilling those guys for order of battle information as well as for intelligence about their military infrastructure -- How many horses could be bred and trained for war every year out of certain areas of France, for example. I havent read enough to see if this was done, or if it has even been translated from the historical documents. An important note, however......prisoners were always held for ransom, thus they were a dehumanized commodity for cash and capital. In our age, information is a commodity......so has anything changed? We are morally superior in the sense that we recognize that the average Joe Private should be released back into normal life.
2)This leads us to the observation that contemporary Islam is the "sick man of the world." The US and allies at least TAKE prisoners, anybody falling into the hands of these other groups is killed, period. I think we can see even in our own time how this situation has deteriorated. Remember Terry Waite, Fr. Jenco, and the Lebanon hostages during the 80's? As terrible as that situation was, we cant even raise to that level now.

Where this takes us to a conclusion....
I think we can clearly see that our current intellectual and political paradigms are inadequate in dealing with our current situation. Just War is strained when dealing with modern conflict where immigration has intermixed all the populations of the world, where groups other than states are capable of mounting operations, and where technology has made distance obsolete. The Geneva conventions, likewise, are inadequate in dealing with non-state forces and loosely organized cell structures.

Where I see the kernels of good ideas:
The Petraeus doctrine: The "surge" was not merely a strategy of throwing more bodies into Iraq. It is a radical shift in thought from seeing a military force as merely a battlefield fire and maneuver element. The economic, social, societal, and neighborhood problems of an area are equally, perhaps more important at times, than the combat power issues affecting an area. This sort of thinking seems so much more in tune with Jus ad Bello than mere "Occupation". On a cultural note, I dont think anyone from a non-Christian society could ever dream up this stuff. As to our original question of "waterboarding" and "torture", I think as this sort of more modern, unconventional theory of warfare permeates all the branches, I think that the intelligence and interrogation functions will progress in step.....there will still be tough interrogating(thankfully, I have to say), but I think the organizational culture will be such that abuses will be seen as detrimental to the overall effort --Look at it this way, suppose we do the whole routine on somebody who gives us useful information, there might be 10 people who would have "Snitched" who will now keep their mouths shut due to the actions taken against the first. I know this sounds like a very shallow cop-out, but Im trying to be realistic as to what is possible, and how morals and procedures change within institutions.

Benedict XVI - That rascally devil. My impression of Benedict/Ratzinger is that of an intellectual of the highest order, an urbane and cultured man who will be remembered for the density of his thought. However, I am now seeing him as a very shrewd politician who fully seems to be able to manifest the Love of Christ as "Tough Love". The Regensburg lecture, although yet again decried by the media, did spark some very serious debate. I dont like to dwell on what I see as cultural failures of Islam at too much depth, gets the feeling of a racist rant, but, I will say that there is a certain machismo and mafioso element(hell, Godfather was Saddam's favorite movie, just about EVERYBODY who has access to media in those countries seems to be aware of it, "it breaks my heart") in Islamic culture that you really need to carry yourself like an alpha male to have respect. I cant believe I just had to use that same term in reference to B16, but nobody..NOBODY else has accomplished as much to open a dialogue with Islam. Read this about Benedict's interaction with Islamic scholars.
I think in order to move from our current situation of generational warfare to one of at least detante, if not co-existence, the paradigm of the Islamic world has to be challenged, and challenged from within. Benedict's moves are the only ones being played on that most important Chessboard. Indeed, as GKC said, "Islam is a movement that ceased to move." Thats it in a nutshell.

This is very long, very wordy, but a dense topic. I think it goes to show how all of these things are interconnected, how our political and academic systems are piecemeal in their workings, and how one needs a "catholic" outlook on things to truly contribute.

Have a great day!

Diamonds Aren't Forever?

Stefan Kanfer, in his book on the De Beers diamond cartel, gives Chesterton the last word on Cecil Rhodes, who instead of promoting Western values "illustrated almost every quality essential to the Sultan, from the love of diamonds to the scorn of women." The irony was, as Kanfer points out, that Rhodes' "scorn of women" caused his ruin. While he hid from Poland's aggressively flirtatious Princess Catherine Maria Radziwill, the lady searched his study and carried away the secret telegrams that would eventually lead to his downfall. [The Last Empire, New York: Farrar Straus, 1993. pp. 47-48.]

My Country Right or Wrong?

I see that Sean over on the Blue Boar put up a post of Mark Shea's about waterboarding, and linked to a "Hannitized" T Shirt making light of the practice. I really applaud Sean(Dailey, not Hannity) et al for really calling this out as a life issue and something to be condemned as dehumanizing and not to be condoned by a Christian society.

My thinking on this is in the process of changing....Im somewhat close to these circles. My award for an ARCOM coming out of Iraq includes "587 Interviews conducted" in the Achievement #2 paragraph box. For the purposes of my unit's information requirements, we were considered passive intelligence collectors, and soft interrogators, to use the proper term. In 2003, most of the folks we ran into were somewhat happy to help us. There was an energy in the air of potential despite the chaos and upheaval. I know that the practice of waterboarding is associated more with Gitmo, and the more clandestine activities of certain agencies, but Ive questioned myself many times about my Iraq experience, in terms of where I was in my head at the time and how I would have viewed certain things. This is the task of a lifetime, so Im patient with myself on it. As Ive thought and read more and more about the Gospel, Just War, Augustine, and Chesterton, I end up coming to what I feel are solid conclusions. Some I feel like sharing, others not.

I feel at one hand we are on a slippery slope towards micromanagement of hour by hour soldier tasks. Most combat is based off of ambush/counterambush. Once the element of surprise is taken away, one comes closer and closer to an organized, ritualistic duel. As a PSYOPper, I know about tactical loudspeaker, and surrender appeals, which are appropriate for certain situations. What I am afraid of is the requirement for the offering of surrender as part of the law of land warfare. This could ultimately lead to MORE loss of life on both sides, as an intransigent enemy could use those vital seconds or minutes to fortify a position and prepare to take on an entry team or counter them in mid-maneuver. What this has to do with waterboarding? There is a tough, brutal reality to the situation that just does not come across through the media, and certainly not through the politicians. Some of these bad guys are very, very tough, well conditioned, and trained to resist questioning and frustrate the process. I see many defending the practice of waterboarding in a similar fashion to how the NRA used to deal with gun rights....no room to maneuver, and concession can only lead down a road to defeat. I can picture certain politicians who would not allow a prisoner to be questioned without due process, attorneys present, and the accompanying administrative mess.

I think that those of us who spend time delving into Chesterton(perhaps Belloc even more so) are deeply aware of the concepts of nationalism, worship of the state, "Prussianism", and distributism. From this body of material, one has to question the legitimacy of most of the conflicts which have occurred since the industrial revolution. Mass production of war material, and mass transportation of foodstuffs are necessary for fielding the vast land and naval (later air) forces of a national power. It is ironic that the Middle Ages are seen as so bloodthirsty when they could only fight about 40 days a year due to the requirements of manpower needed to maintain agriculture. CS Lewis made the chilling observation that if war is sometimes just, then peace is sometimes sinful. Most of us know theology of the body enough to recognize the true beauty and goodness of sexuality, and how pornography and promiscuity are shadows and abberations of that good. Likewise, greed and monopolization are distortions of the just use of the goods of this world. I dont think we have even developed the vocabulary to truly make distinctions between the just and holy application of force, and the violent gruesome phantasms of that good. Due to the thoughts of our contemporary pundits, Holy War and Jihad can only be manifestations of fundamentalist rancor. There is a professional and just way of approaching combat and the military life. However, if one is facing a prisoner who, due to time and circumstances of capture can reasonably be known to be in possession of certain knowledge. What does one do when he only stares back, plainfaced or smirking, when being questioned about operations in motion targeting US soldiers or civilians? I think what one must keep in mind, or at least be aware that I have in mind, is that there is a distinction between a 15 year old shepherd thrown on a truck and drafted into the army(or have his family killed), and someone who has been trained at terrorist camps, indoctrinated, and connected to the larger terrorist infrastructure.

I honestly think that the Petreus doctrine really is the answer to this situation, and should be seriously studied by philosophers of Just War, as the factors of modern, multinational, multi-front, and multimedia warfare are vastly different than the type of situations that JW theory developed (evolved :-) ) within. I dont want to talk down to people, but I should provide a very quick summary --also dont want to breach security clearance stuff. The Petreus doctrine turns a counterinsurgency force from being a battlefield maneuver force into behaving more like a highly armed community police force. Winning hearts and minds is accomplished not merely through media efforts, but through putting US bodies in the line of fire in the same neighborhoods where people are being pressured by militias. Rebuilding is done even before insurgent group numbers are eliminated. It is hoped that the populace then sees the militias as standing in the way of progress. In this situation, the necessity of waterboarding and aggressive interrogating is lessened, as the pool of information sources are increased....there are neighborhood leaders and citizens who will likely "snitch" on events, lessening the importance of the information of a single individual.

For as goofy as this sounds, just like theology of the body, I believe that the truth lies not in eliminating negatives, but in adding a positive-- a proactiveness, and structures that affirm humanity and human interaction.

Hope I dont catch hell for this..........folks on both sides could be upset.

Have a great weekend.

Roosevelt clerihew

In 1912, Roosevelt, Teddy,
when asked if he was ready
to run again, said he was fit as a moose,
prompting Taft to sputter, "What the deuce!"

Blind patriotism

The saying, “My country, right or wrong,” is often cited as a statement of blind allegiance to the nation and its policies, no matter what.

It is often said to counter those who try to point out when this country is doing something wrong - implying that critics are not patriotic.

The problem is, it is only a partial quotation – and one that distorts the real meaning.

In 1872, Senator Carl Shurz said: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”

His notion was that if the nation is wrong, it should be set right, not just blindly followed. Criticism can not only be patriotic - a true patriot must be ready to criticize and fix things when the nation goes astray.

Naturally, G. K. Chesterton had his own spin on the idea: “'My country, right or wrong' is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'”

Obama Clerihew

Barack Obama,
neither Muslim, nor Osama.
But his foes are not above lies
to fabricate ties.

Why is this man Smiling??

Because he knows GKC!!

Ive started reading a bit of history/current events about the Vatican II era forward of the Church and the Papacy......I realized how little I really knew about John XXIII, Paul VI, and JPI and how they saw their leadership in tumultuous times.

Pope John Paul I, born Albino Luciani (sp?) wrote a book calledIllustrissimi , a collection of letters to historical and literary figures, including G.K Chesterton! I attached a link to a google books excerpt. I think John Paul does catch the spirit of GKC, for those of us who have lived most of our adult lives with John Paul the Great, the style of writing seems so un-pope-like. I cant believe Ive been a Chestertonian this long without knowing about this.

Sorry for my absence, I plan on being around much more frequently.

Happy Easter.

Any Thursday Experts Out There?

I received this question by email. Can anybody help?

Can anyone help me identify the "constable" who recruits Gabriel Syme to become a "philosophical policeman" in THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY. I'm convinced it's not Sunday himself, but neither is it Lucian Gregory. Who is it? Help, please!

More on Second Spring

John Zmirak writes about Second Spring at Taki's Top Drawer. Excerpt:

But in the Easter spirit, I’d like to offer something positive today—news about a terrific intellectual journal edited in Oxford by Tolkien scholar and theologian Stratford Caldecott. Learned in the work of other “Inklings” C.S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers, and well-versed in the smart cultural criticism of Chesterton and Belloc, Caldecott provides a contrarian voice among orthodox Catholics—one that takes seriously the importance of “just war” teaching, distributism, and internal cultural renewal instead of the confrontations urged upon us by the neocons. Published twice per year, subjects regularly covered in Second Spring include the arts, sciences, technology, liturgy, new ecclesial movements, metaphysics, history, literature, poetry, and the world of books. Indeed, one might call Second Spring a kind of First Things for the peace party.

GKC-Type Joke

I think GKC would've liked this joke:

There are three religious truths:

a. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
b. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith.
c. Baptists do not recognize each other in the liquor store.

It's Only Friday

The men of the east may spell the stars

And times and triumphs mark

But the men signed with the cross of Christ

Go gaily in the dark.

The Ballad of the White Horse

Whenever I get depressed about the current condition of things I have to remind myself that I am called to go gaily in the dark because it is only Friday and Sunday is coming.

Second Spring

I received an email from John Zmirak, new writer-in-residence at St. Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, informing me of a new project:

"We recently launched a new journal, Second Spring: An International Journal of Faith and Culture, edited by the Oxford-based theologian Stratford Caldecott. This thoughtful, thought-provoking journal explores and advances the mission of a Catholic intellectual in the context of contemporary culture. Published twice per year, subjects regularly covered in Second Spring include the arts, sciences, technology, liturgy, new ecclesial movements, metaphysics, history, literature, poetry, and the world of books."

They're offering a 50% discount right now. I bet it'll be good. Zmirak might be the best Catholic writer alive. Scamper over.

(Aside: I responded to Zmirak, congratulating him on landing a position at the location of the annual Chesterton Conference. Kind of embarrassing. His is the school in New Hampshire, not the one in St. Paul, Minnesota. Oh well, I received his email in the heat of the work day, just as the morning caffeine burst was wearing off. I'm sure he understands.)

Quiet Beauty

The good news out of New York is the Neue Galerie is hosting a Gustav Klimt show though June.

If you can take it in you will not be disappointed for your effort to go into “the big bad city”.

(OK maybe not as exciting as Jet Li and Jackie Chan in the same movie but in this world we need to sometimes seek out quiet beauty in order to renew the spirit.)

Klimt was one of only a few artists that captured the transcendent strength and beauty of authentic femininity. Just compare this mother and child with the dripping sentimentality of Mary Casset’s work, the predatory sexuality of Picasso’s women, the aloof elegance that Modigliani gives us or the party girls of Lautrec. Klimt loved women, and loved the idea of woman. He gives us the same tenderness in his portrayals of old women and those in their prime.

Through the symbolism of women he worked out his biggest spiritual battle - the question and meaning of death. His conclusion was that life was monumental and at the same time as delicate and fragile as the wings of a butterfly. He saw it is only in women that this paradox is at balance.

A Buddha Clerihew

When Siddhartha Gautama
was seeking Nirvana
he refused to settle
for any old heavy metal.



(Karma's gonna get me!)

Stupid is as Stupid does

What Eliot Spitzer did with those naughty ladies of the night is between him and his wife and him and God. We will pray for him. Of course it cost him his dream job, he will become the butt of many jokes for a long time and he may even have to do some jail time because our system of justice nevvverrrr favors the rich and powerful. But remember, within the Democratic Party this kind of activity is usually a resume booster. Look what it did for Jerry Springer.

Both Springer and Spitzer support Hillary Clinton because Bill is their hero – sin attracts sin and as Mark Shea tells us: “Sin makes you stupid.”

Psalm 94: "Can judges who do evil be your friends? They do injustice under the cover of law; they attack the life of the just and condemn innocent blood."

The Bad Catholic's Guide to Distributism

John Zmirak (of The Bad Catholic's Guide fame) has a post on Distributism today at Taki's Mag. A snippet:

Those of us who understand the importance of economic independence, the virtues of independent farms and mom and pop businesses (and here comes the radical step) should patronize them. And convince our friends to join us. And boycott everything else.

read all of A Road Not Taken: Distributism

Frank Petta, RIP

Frank A. Petta, a man who played a significant role in the GKC revival, passed away last week. I met Frank once, at his birthday party when he was turning 84. He was a most gracious man, based on my brief meeting and the testimony of his many well-wishers at the party. His obituary:
Frank A. Petta, 89, of Elgin passed away Monday, March 3, 2008 in his home. He was born March 12, 1918 in New York, NY, the son of Victorio and Rosa Maria Petta. Frank was Baptized at St. Anthony of Padua and received first communion at the Church of Transfiguration in 1929. he graduated from St. John's University in Brooklyn and served two years in the US Army Air Corps. He then attained his Masters Degree from Columbia University. Frank was a teacher and taught in New York and Chicago for many years prior to retirement. He had a life long interest in the ideas and writings of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, an English journalist and author of many books. With others, he founded the Midwest Chesterton Society, and helped start an annual conference. Frank had been a member of several Pro Life organizations, and was director of Elgin Birthright for several years. He was a member of St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Elgin. Survivors include his wife, Ann, whom he married on March 23, 2002; a sister-in-law, Ethel Petta of New York; along with niece, Theresa Catherwood; and nephews, Fredrick, Joseph and Robert Petta; and many cousins and family. He was preceded in death by his parents; and his brother, Louis Petta. Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Friday, March 7, 2008 at 10:00 A.M. in St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Elgin with Rev. Geoffrey Wirth officiating. Burial will follow in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Elgin. Visitation will be on Thursday from 4-8:00 P.M. at Laird Funeral Home, 310 S. State St. (Rt. 31), Elgin, IL 60123, 847-741-8800, and on Friday at the church from 9:30 A.M. until the Mass. Memorials directed to St. Thomas More Building Fund.

Lunchroom Caucus part duex

The Wednesday lunch after Hillary’s win in Ohio my buddy announced to our table, “See my girl won. Na na ne na na.”
The ladies chimed in, “I can’t believe that hag won.” and other derogatory remarks.
So I asked them, “So you voted for Obama?”
“Well no. Not exactly, I didn’t vote. I was just sure she would lose.”
The only other person that voted at all was the 20 something girl (voting for Hillary). So I asked her why she voted for Hillary.
“That’s who my dad told me to vote for.”
Of the 10 of us 3 voted, two for Hillary and one for McCain.

“The unconscious democracy of America is a very fine thing. It is a true and deep and instinctive assumption of the equality of citizens, which even voting and elections have not destroyed.” GKC

Let’s just hope we don’t get too unconscious.

Collecting Rocks

I have posted the following quotes on my studio wall. This kind of thing helps to keep me focused on what studio work is supposed to mean.

"The world will never starve for want of wonders, only for want of wonder."
Chesterton

“The Catholic Church is the natural home of the human spirit. The odd perspective picture of life which looks like a meaningless puzzle at first, seen from that one standpoint takes a complete order and meaning, like the skull in the picture of the Ambassadors.”
Belloc

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Although Saint-Exupery is not an official member of the friends of Chesterton many of his quotes and essays have that flavor. I think Gilbert would have liked The Little Prince, as well as Saint-Exupery adventure stories.

Letters from Belloc

I wasn't aware of the book "Letters from Hilaire Belloc", edited by his early biographer Robert Speaight, until today. Are there any H.B. fans reading this that have read his letters? John DeJak recently posted one of Hilaire's letters to Chesterton. If his other letters are only a portion as good as this one, then Speaight's book would be edifying to read.

God Tube Chesterton

There's a Christian version of You Tube - it's called God Tube (http://www.godtube.com/).

There's a variety of groups and videos on there - some great music videos, talks, skits, and so one. There's also some Catholic ones.

And when I searched there for Chesterton, I found a Gilbert monologue.

Check it out.

If I knew how to link a video, I would. http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=dc2a6340e258630febd5 This is the best I can do!

UPDATE: Here it is, "embedded":

New Gilbert is Here!

Volume 11, Number 5 is on my lap. In the editors' sites: Feminism. It looks pretty good, though I've only had a chance to read Sean Dailey's Tremendous Trifles. He mentions that the headmaster of new Chesterton Academy has started a blog: War, Drink, and the Church. Presumably not for the weak-hearted, weak-stomached, or weak-minded.

Definitely not P. C.

An interesting thing happened at work the other night that might explain Hillary’s “surprise” fall for inevitability. I say interesting because I was surely not expecting the comments I heard. It was a great example of the cheat the prophet game.

As a reminder my primary source of income is as a third shift factory worker in Ohio. The gender mix on my shift is 75% female of which 80% is over 35. They are fork lift driving, power tool using, tough, independent working woman. This is Hillary country or should be.

March 4th is our primary so election talk is now running through the lunch room along with domestic issues. The guy I was sitting with said he was going to vote for Hillary and before I could talk about the expensive and dangerous socialist policies Hillary is purposing, the woman next to him said, “What are you nuts! You don’t really want a menopausal woman as president. Do you?”
Another woman chimed in, “Yea, she’s all dried up.”
Another, “Even if she is not in menopause you can’t have someone PMSing with access to nuclear weapons.”
Another, “She can’t even keep her own house in line.”
This went on for little while till a 20 something female said, “Hillary, she’s a democrat right?”

Like I said, I was surprised and I think Hillary will also be surprised here in Ohio

Nothing is important except...

Nothing is important except the fate of the soul; and literature is only redeemed from an utter triviality, surpassing that of naughts and crosses, by the fact that it describes not the world around us, or the things on the retina of the eye, or the enormous irrelevancy of encyclopaedias, but some condition to which the human spirit can come.

from G.K. Chesterton's introduction to Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop

--

Political colors

Jim Wallis recently reminded me of G. K. Chesterton.

I was reading Wallis’ latest book, The Great Awakening.

In the book, he argumes that the old religious right coalition is being replaced by a new politics/faith alignment engendered by a new “great awakening.”

I don’t want to get into all his arguments here – though I admit I find them interesting.

It was one passage that jumped out at me.

Wallis argues that many evangelicals and Catholics are, “like most Americans … searching for a new political agenda that doesn’t fit the standard right-left battles of American politics and is more consistent with their deeply held values.”

He continues, “What would such a new political agenda look like, one that moves us beyond the color-coded cultural divisions of ‘red’ and ‘blue’ that the political class and media pundits continually impose upon the country? If many Americans are actually closer to ‘purple,’ as is often suggested what might be a compelling vision that could evoke their convictions, reflect their values, summon their commitments, and change America?”

That sounded familiar.

A couple of days later I picked up my copy of A Miscellany of Men, and spotted the essay “The Voter and the Two Voices.”

I had an Aha moment. That’s where I’d seen that notion before.

In that essay, Chesterton wrote, “The real evil of our Party System is commonly stated wrong. … The real danger of the two parties with their two policies is that they unduly limit the outlook of the ordinary citizen. They make him barren instead of creative, because he is never allowed to do anything except prefer one existing policy to another. We have not got real Democracy when the decision depends upon the people. We shall have real Democracy when the problem depends upon the people. The ordinary man will decide not only how he will vote, but what he is going to vote about.”

Chesterton goes on to contend, “A certain alternative is put before them by the powerful houses and the highest political class.Two roads are opened to them; but they must go down one or the other. They cannot have what they choose, but only which they choose.”

Sound like the “political class and media pundits” Wallis mentions.

Chesterton, like Wallis, then uses some colorful imagery in terms of what “suffragettes” might want to do with Mr. Asquith.

“Let us say (for the sake of argument) that they want to paint him green. We will suppose that it is entirely for that simple purpose that they are always seeking to have private interviews with him; it seems as profitable as any other end that I can imagine to such an interview. Now, it is possible that the Government of the day might go in for apositive policy of painting Mr. Asquith green; might give that reform a prominent place in their programme. Then the party in opposition would adopt another policy, not a policy of leaving Mr. Asquith alone (which would be considered dangerously revolutionary), but some alternative course of action, as, for instance, painting him red. Then both sides would fling themselves on the people, they would both cry that the appeal was now to the Caesar of Democracy. A dark and dramatic air of conflict and real crisis would arise on both sides; arrows of satire would fly and swords of eloquence flame.”

In this Presidential primary season, doesn’t this sound familiar?

“The Greens would say that Socialists and free lovers might well want to paint Mr. Asquith red; they wanted to paint the whole town red. Socialists would indignantly reply that Socialism was the reverse of disorder, and that they only wanted to paint Mr. Asquith red so that he might resemble the red pillar-boxes which typified State control.The Greens would passionately deny the charge so often brought against them by the Reds; they would deny that they wished Mr. Asquith green in order that he might be invisible on the green benches of the Commons, as certain terrified animals take the colour of their environment.”

“There would be fights in the street perhaps, and abundance of ribbons, flags, and badges, of the two colours. One crowd would sing, 'Keep the Red Flag Flying,' and the other, 'The Wearing of the Green.' But when the last effort had been made and the last moment come, when two crowds were waiting in the dark outside the public building to hear the declaration of the poll, then both sides alike would say that it was now for democracy to do exactly what it chose. England herself, lifting her head in awful loneliness and liberty, must speak and pronounce judgement.”

All well and good – or not so good – but what if red and green are not what the people want?

“Yet this might not be exactly true. England herself, lifting her head in awful loneliness and liberty, might really wish Mr. Asquith to be pale blue. The democracy of England in the abstract, if it had been allowed to make up a policy for itself, might have desired him to be black with pink spots. It might even have liked him as he is now. But a huge apparatus of wealth, power, and printed matter has made it practically impossible for them to bring home these other proposals, even if they would really prefer them. No candidates will stand in the spotted interest; for candidates commonly have to produce money either from their own pockets or the party's; and in such circles spots are not worn.”

As for the media pundits – “Nearly all the great newspapers, both pompous and frivolous, will declare dogmatically day after day, until every one half believes it, that red and green are the only two colours in the paint-box. THE OBSERVER will say: 'No one who knows the solid framework of politics or the emphatic first principles of an Imperial people can suppose for a moment that there is any possible compromise to be made in such a matter; we must either fulfil our manifest racial destiny and crown the edifice of ages with the august figure of a Green Premier, or we must abandon our heritage,break our promise to the Empire, fling ourselves into final anarchy, and allow the flaming and demoniac image of a Red Premier to hover over our dissolution and our doom.' The DAILY MAIL would say: 'There is no halfway house in this matter; it must be green or red. We wish to see every honest Englishman one colour or the other.' And then some funny man in the popular Press would star the sentence with a pun, and say that the DAILY MAIL liked its readers to be green and its paper to be read. But no one would even dare to whisper that there is such a thing as yellow.”

CNN vs. FOX, with maybe Colbert tossed in?

When it comes to issues, Chesterton says, we are given two choices, when there are many available: “What is plain is that it was not inevitable; it was not, as was said,the only possible course; there were plenty of other courses; there were plenty of other colours in the box.”

Chesterton notes, “The democracy has a right to answer questions, but it has no right to ask them. It is still the political aristocracy that asks the questions.And we shall not be unreasonably cynical if we suppose that the political aristocracy will always be rather careful what questions it asks. And if the dangerous comfort and self-flattery of modern England continues much longer there will be less democratic valuein an English election than in a Roman saturnalia of slaves. For the powerful class will choose two courses of action, both of them safe for itself, and then give the democracy the gratification of taking one course or the other. The lord will take two things so much alike that he would not mind choosing from them blindfold - and then for a great jest he will allow the slaves to choose.”

Sounds like the criticism of our two-party system in the U.S. - a system in which the parties are really much closer than they (and the political aristocracy and pundits) would care to admit. The Republocrats and Demicans that Ralph Nader cites.

Anyway, at least I discovered why Wallis’ point sounded familiar.

Maybe he had an Obama moment and used someone else's ideas and neglected to mention where he got them.

Season IV . . . And It's Racy

Received from Dale Ahlquist: The 4^th season of “The Apostle of Common Sense” with all-new episodes will finally begin to air on Sunday, March 2^nd (9 pm EST, 8 pm CST). The first episode “The Only Man I Regularly Read” will have a bedroom scene!!!

Date With A Broken Record

I was thumbing through a new Art History Dictionary I received and the following made me smile, as this kind of comment always does.
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AD or A.D. - Abbreviation for "Anno Domine," which is Latin, and means "in the year of Our Lord." It is conventionally placed before a number to show that it refers to a year following the birth of Christ, although contemporary experts generally agree that Christ was probably born in 3 BCE. These are fundamentals of the Christian calendar. Other cultures designate years according to other schemes. An alternative term for AD is CE, standing for Common Era. Although CE is a less traditional term, it is globally preferred because it avoids the bais inherent in an insistence upon referring to Christ.

Quotes:
"Every scholar I know uses B.C.E. and shuns A.D."Harold Bloom, contemporary conservative scholar, Professor at Yale University, in correspondence quoted by William Safire in No Uncertain Terms, 2003, NY: Simon & Schuster, p 150.

"[The D. in] A.D. [standing for] Dominus means 'lord,' and when the lord referred to is Jesus, ... a religious statement is made. Thus, 'the year of our Lord' invites the query 'Whose lord?' and we're in an argument we don't need."William Safire in No Uncertain Terms, 2003, NY: Simon & Schuster, p 152.
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First of all Safire’s book No Uncertain Terms is a fun read and sometimes enlightening but his quote above is of course absurd for the argument he is trying to make. This is because, “…invites the query Whose lord? and we are in an argument we don’t need” it is precisely that argument along with “Who is Lord”, and “What is the nature of our Lord” that shaped and unified the “Common Era”. When someone says “the Common Era” what if another asks, “What makes it the Common Era?”, what answer will be given? I have yet to hear one that did not include the Judeo and Christian ideals. Also it is exactly the argument we do need.

And if we use the nomenclature B. C. E. (Before the Common Era) what is it that makes it uncommon or unattached to each other in that pagan era? There was no consistent common story (outside of the Jews). Or as GKC said “The term "pagan" is continually used in fiction and light literature as meaning a man without any religion, whereas a pagan was generally a man with about half a dozen.” Oops back to a religious statement.

We are the family of man and what is the common thread that binds a family, it is blood and a story. A.D. gives us the unifying blood of Christ and a story that is about His family, which would be us – warts and all.

However, what struck me funny was that it was used in an art history book. If you pile up all the art done before Christ you get different people working out their ideals on different views of the transcendent. If you pile up all the western art done for the past 2,000 years 99% of it is of a religious nature. Even the early 20th century artist grappled with religious issues. It can be argued that weakest art produced in history has been done in the past 6o years where a denial of our story has been the vogue. And the fruits of the denial of universal truth are always banality and boredom. B.C.E and C.E. are boring terms because they have no meat to them.

[As a side note: what really gets me rolling on the floor with laughter is when the HistoryChannel uses BCE and CE when talking about Bible History]

Next let’s look at Harold Bloom who put together the western cannon of must read literature. I will not impute Mr. Bloom’s intelligence on this list but I question two of his entries which relates to the above quote.

The first is he included, under The Ancient Near East Category, The Holy Bible - King James Version. Not only is the King James Version bereft of several books known in the Ancient Near East it is also full of translation errors in the books it keeps.

Secondly and the bright spot on this list is that he does include G. K. Chesterton (collected poems and The Man Who Was Thursday) but he includes him as a 19th century writer and The Man Who Was Thursday was published in 20th. And Bloom does not include any of his other writings – To religious I suppose.

And he puts G. B. Shaw (a long list of books) as a twentieth century writer. He also places H.G. Wells in the twentieth century saying all his science fiction work is a must read. Maybe it is one of the rules at Yale, a former divinity school, that religious thought has to be pushed back to the 19th AD where it’s stuffy but cute and right thinkers are pushed to the 20th CE where he lives.

"Book's exuberant truths still impact readers a century later"

Ray Waddle writes today in The Tennessean about his choice of book for Lenten reading. It is G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy.

Existence itself was always a shocking wonder to him. It made him grateful for creation, where nothing is trivial because everything holds clues to divine revelation.

His religious witness offered a rare mix — intellectual dazzle and humility. We could use both just now.

GQ Guy Quotes GK Chesterton

Dylan Jones, editor of GQ, quotes GK in today's [London] Daily Mail article Attack of the 50ft Dream Woman. The article overwhelms me. Perhaps someone else can comment on it.

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Colbert on the Angels and Free Will

Read the quotation from Chesterton below, and then enjoy watching Colbert speak the truth with levity.

Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly... Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy, to say that seriousness is a vice. It is really a natural trend or lapse into taking one's self gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do... It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch. For solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.

-- G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy

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UPDATE: the original embedded video clip (at YouTube) was removed due to copyright restrictions. Comedy Central has it available on their website: Colbert interviews Philip Zimbardo, author of The Lucifer Effect
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"Hat tip" to Marcel LeJeune, The Catholic Evangelist, who sent along the link.

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Very cool.........

An Omen

GK's Poetry in the NY Times

A bit of Chesterton's poetry was quoted in yesterday's New York Times (link). The article was about suicide and the quoted poem was, of course, Ballad of a Suicide.

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Chesterton in Russia

Take a minute to watch this video clip about a small Chesterton conference and debut of a new edition of his writings in Moscow.

H/T to Mark at Straight Flusche who sent me the link.

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"I gave Bobby a book about G.K. Chesterton..."

Big News brought to our attention by Sean Dailey @ The Blue Boar:

In 2004, [Bobby] Fischer was arrested and detained in Japan for allegedly attempting to travel on a revoked passport. The U.S. government insisted that his passport had been revoked. San Diego attorney Richard Vattuone, a Catholic, flew to Japan to act as counsel for Fischer. After his release, Fischer emigrated to Iceland.

Vattuone is intrigued by Fischer's final act. "When I met him in Japan, I gave Bobby a book about G.K. Chesterton, The Apostle of Common Sense. The book covered many matters of culture and religion. I know Bobby had read at least some of the book. Chesterton was a convert and the book contained an article about his conversion. We had also discussed religion."

-- from an article by Robert Kumpel

A haiku clerihew

Basho
on seeing a frog jump said, "Oh,
that should inspire a haiku
or two!"

Some Thoughts and observations.....

Ive got a couple different thoughts Im going to mix and match here. Im a bit erratic in my posting. I apologize. My time issues make me have to mash together some very different things when I do get the chance to come on here. Some outstanding things being said lately.

This is Despicible

and

This is bizzare

I do think that someone has to come up with some solid ideas for cultural assimilation of Middle East/Central Asian immigrants. I find this interesting as a Chestertonian. I think those of us in this circle do take the lessons of Lepanto seriously. On the other hand, I also think that it is the little "c" catholic ideas which we espouse which would form the basis of the mixed culture of the future. During my time in the Balkans and the Middle East, I observed something which Ive been mulling over for years. Despite the seeming contradictions of theology and history, the Islamic interpreters Ive worked with, and even Islamic villagers seemed most comfortable dealing with the more fervently Christian religious soldiers. I think there is a recognition of honor and purity in lifestyle that appeals across denominational lines. The Muslim men, in my opinion, saw that I would not be eyeballing their wife and daughters, and would treat him as a true paterfamilias. Obviously there are extremists and those who stir that pot, but ultimately I think that the common morality of robust faith is the key to cooperation.

Must end with a final rant.......Saw an excerpt and overview of USCCB document on Islam. I value it as an apologetic. Surely the Church must be propped up by the power of God if it is run by people like these guys...............

A bit unrelated....politics.

If Hillary Clinton becomes president and moves Bill back into the White House will a notification have to be sent to all the schools and daycares within a mile of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

I have very bad feelings about this election year. Democratic turnout is so high, and Hillary/Obama both have messianic appeal as "first of their kind" presidents. Contrast that enthusiasm and emotion with the begrudging, ho-hum support that McCain gets from the Republican side. A great many of McCain's primary supporters will cross over to vote Democratic. Im predicting a margin of victory equal to that found in nations where you sign your ballot with name, address, and coffin size.


Have a great day!!

Al-Kyro!