Random Tuesday Thoughts

The current occupant promised “change”. Is the change he has delivered more in the way of speed instead of direction?
“All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.” - GKC

Since the powers that be believe in Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory (in a literal sense) why do they insist on putting warning labels on everything?
“But the point was that the fittest did not need to struggle against the unfit. The survivor had nothing to do except to survive, when the others could not survive. He survived because he alone had the features and organs necessary for survival. And, whatever be the truth about mammoths or monkeys, that is the exact truth about the present survival of religion. It is surviving because nothing else can survive.” - GKC

The Capitalists tell us ‘all boats rise with the tide’ but capitalism is the roller coaster manic depressive approach to life of booms and busts. Socialism is a slower smoother ride but it’s direction is down hill.
Time to reconsider Distributionism

Public Art

My youngest and her gaggle of gal pals are always busy, “Playing as children mean playing is the most serious thing in the world.”

They have a limited set of yards to explore each day since but, for them, these places are never the same from day to day. One day it is a ball field the next a dark wood of dragons and elfs sometimes a classroom other times a kitchen. Some days all the above.

When I got home on Friday my back yard was an industrial art studio with papers, crayons and water colors everywhere. Upon completion of their days work they processed around town and taped up their work on each pole they past.

The best example of Guerilla Art I’ve encountered. Better than the ones I participated in during my more down-with-the-man days.

As cars past these master pieces it made those, who looked, smile and point. Beautiful.

At this point I wanted to quote Chesterton form an essay that appeared in Gilbert magazine several years ago on public art. Well, for the life of me I cannot find that issue.
I know better than to quote from memory with this crowd so I will give you the gist of the essay. Public art that the public does not like is not public art but private art exhibited in public. The people need to have a say in what is displayed.

monkey love

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi infamously told Americans that they would have to wait until Congress passed ObamaCare to see what was in it. Well know you have the opportunity to see exactly what is in this new 2,562 page law. Where do you fit in this tangled web of red tape. See the small star in the lower right hand corner.


This is the best schematic of seven monkeys trying to fornicate a football I’ve seen.

Of Course we need to get good quality Heath Care for all or as Bishop William F. Murphy said, "Genuine health care reform that protects the life and dignity of all is a moral imperative and a vital national obligation"

But right now this legislation is a mess but do not be discouraged because as Uncle Gilbert said, "It is a good sign in a nation when things are done badly. It shows that all the people are doing them. And it is bad sign in a nation when such things are done very well, for it shows that only a few experts and eccentrics are doing them, and that the nation is merely looking on."

new book

A new book by Father John McCloskey.
Any one get this yet? Reviews welcome.

Charming

Josh Ritter gives us puppets, an interesting twist on an old story, good music.

the puppets were done by the drummer of the band, Liam Hurley.

E pluribus unum - NOT

"It is our expectation that, when the law takes effect on December 31st, the Department of Education will announce that TUSD is to have ten percent of its entire budget withheld, until it complies with H.B. 2281. At that time, you will have the right to appeal to an administrative law judge. If you agree to this video tape, it will be helpful evidence to the administrative law judge. If you refuse, we will offer that refusal as evidence to the administrative law judge that the school district has deliberately hidden facts that would show that the district is in non-compliance with H.B. 2281."


Read the letter about this course here

As if you needed another reason to home school.

Make The Call

Ground-breaking Bill Would Ban Tax-Funded Abortions — For Good

OK people make the call or email to your representatives and tell them to support this bill.
Most of them will not do right on thier own they won't do anything unless they think there job is in jeopardy.

go ahead flood the lines

Even NPR has noticed the feeding frenzy.

Toleration is not enough YOU MUST APPROVE

There have always been times in history when it seemed that the lions were winning. It is easy to feel that we are now in such a time.
Today the lions are political correction beasts dressed in pink.

Lee brought to our attention the story of the counseling student, Julea Ward, expelled for upholding her Christian life view.
Ward’s attorneys claim the university told her she would only be allowed to remain in the program if she went through a “remediation” program so that she could “see the error of her ways” and change her belief system about homosexuality.

There is also a similar case with Jennifer Keeton.

Professor is fired for stating what the Church teaches. Then rehires him.

Campus Christian groups cannot "discriminate" against non-Christians from joining their clubs or from becoming officers of that group.

John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said, "The Supreme Court has now enshrined political correctness as a central tenet in American society and in American university life. This decision is yet another broadsided attack on the First Amendment, especially religious freedom.

"It will force well-meaning groups to abandon the tenets of their faith in order to be granted the same privileges and freedoms afforded to other campus groups and organizations. If not, they will face discrimination."

Or as Groucho Marx once said, "I have a good mind of joining a club and beating you over the head with it."

Now the University of California won't admit students that graduate from a Christian High Schools.
"Essentially what's happening is the UC has to pre-approve courses taught in high school," Tyler said. "It's pretty shocking, because in depositions UC reps made it clear: whether it be English, history or science, the addition of a religious viewpoint makes it unacceptable."

It's hard not to get depressed or upset that God's hand moves soooo slowly but "Fear is useless what is needed is trust." JC

"The early Christian martyrs talked of death with a horrible happiness. They blasphemed the beautiful duties of the body: they smelt the grave afar off like a field of flowers. All this has seemed to many the very poetry of pessimism. Yet there is the stake at the crossroads to show what Christianity thought of the pessimist." GKC.

Or from another great writer:
The message of the cross is complete absurdity to those who are headed for ruin,
but to us who are experiencing salvation it is the power of God. Scripture says, “I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise and thwart the cleverness of the clever.”
Where is the wise person to be found? Where the scribe? Where is the debater of
this age? Has not God turned the wisdom of this world into folly? Since in the
wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it pleased
God to save those who believe through the absurdity of the preaching of the gospel.
(1 Cor 1:18-21)

Fur Real

"All the human things are more dangerous than anything that affects the beasts - sex, poetry, property, religion. The real case against drunkenness is not that it calls up the beast, but that it calls up the Devil. It does not call up the beast, and if it did it would not matter much, as a rule; the beast is a harmless and rather amiable creature, as anybody can see by watching cattle. There is nothing bestial about intoxication; and certainly there is nothing intoxicating or even particularly lively about beasts. Man is always something worse or something better than an animal; and a mere argument from animal perfection never touches him at all. Thus, in sex no animal is either chivalrous or obscene. And thus no animal ever invented anything so bad as drunkenness - or so good as drink. " GKC


When I first heard of this I thought someone was talking about a scene from a Will Ferrell movie.
But it is true. The strongest beer in the world packaged inside stuffed woodland creatures.

Yes Grasshopper, they combined Chesterton's 'animal with drink' in a literal way.

This immediately brought three questions to my mind, How drunk do you have to be to think that:
1.) this is a good idea?
2.) that in the cold light of the next day it is still a good idea?
3.) people will pay $725.00 a bottle?

Of course, if I were rich, I have the personality that would buy a few for the drink and the laughs.

Magic clean up

Not to minimize the Oil Spill in the Gulf, it is/was a disaster. But now many are wondering where the oil is. They are saying that Mother Nature is doing her job and cleaning it up. Early on this was something the CEO of BP said would happen. He was pilloried and sent to Siberia for telling the truth.

Everyone is all agog that Mother Nature can clean up the "worst oil spill like ever".

“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.” GKC

But she can't clean up global warming?!?! Because "they" think she is a solemn mother who rewards and punishes without rationality.

There is another man-made disaster in my area at Grand Lake St. Mary's. The water has become life threateningly toxic. People are warned not even to touch it. If people or pets drink from it they could die.

We are not talking about Pelicans but cats, dogs and children.

This is a man-made disaster through local large farm run off of manure and fertilizer. And one columnist is blaming those who like to Bar-B-Que pork or like eggs for breakfast for this disaster.
I do not think he is being tongue-in-cheek.

I do not recall anyone blaming those who like to drive for the gulf spill. But I am sure someone did.

There is no company to extort a super fund to help those businesses and people effected. But it was caused by big factory farming. This why I and others fight CAFO's whenever they try to move into our area.

If they manage to clean this up it will be done with tax dollars, dollars our state does not have.

Mother Nature will not clean this one up alone.

Please pray for those in the Grand Lake St. Mary's area.

Anne Rice Leaves Home

I once wrote clerihew about Anne Rice's rediscovery of her Christian faith:

Anne Rice
found a pearl of great price.
But she had to make money first
dwelling on an unnatural thirst.

I was skeptical. Sure enough, she recently rejected Christianity, declaring:

"In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian."

A few years back she wrote about her return to Christianity in Called Out of Darkness.

I guess she's heading back into the darkness.

Christian booted from counseling program

This is a case where a Christian student in a counseling program was assigned a homosexual client. The client wanted his/her lifestyle to be accepted; the counseling was for another reason.

The student did not deny the homosexual treatment. She simple referred the person to another counselor because she did not feel as a Christian she could condone the individual's actions. The person would have gotten what he/she wanted from another counselor - yet the university felt this Christian needed remediation (i.e. indoctrination) or to be dismissed.

Christians face persecution across the word, including in the U.SA.

Judge rules against Christian banned from Eastern Michigan counseling program :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Canadian Anglicans vote to unite with Rome

I'm not sure of the numbers who will really come home, but this is just another sign of what's happening.

Canadian Anglican Catholic group votes to unite with Rome :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Leaping Lizards It's Hilly On The Air

One of our local public radio stations has a little feature called, Conrad's Corner. Where Conrad Balliet reads a few poems with a quick bio of the poet. Usually he reads from the works of local poets with occasional readings from the world famous both short and long dead.

This week I got a pleasant surprise when I heard him introduce our friend Hillaire Belloc.

Conrad read three poems of Belloc's, the first was this:

The Frog

Be kind and tender to the Frog,
And do not call him names,
As "Slimy skin," or "Polly-wog,"
Or likewise "Ugly James,"
Or "Gap-a-grin," or "Toad-gone-wrong,"
Or "Bill Bandy-knees":
The Frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these.

No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair;
At least so lonely people say
Who keep a frog (and, by the way,
They are extremely rare).

All That Jazz

Uncle Gilbert and I part ways on how we feel about the art of the early twentieth century. I like it and he moved a lot of ink against it. Yet I often use his "negative" view point quotes (a lot to choose from there) to describe the art of the later half of the twentieth century to today. So he was right about it I just think he was premature. Can you say prophet?

One would think his attitude of modern visual arts would map over to the other modern arts - but not so fast white boy. True he did not particularity like Jazz:

“I have formed a very strong impression about jazz. It does express something; and what it expresses is Slavery. That is why the same sort of thrill can be obtained by the throb of savage tom-toms, in music or drama connected with the great slave land of Africa. Jazz is the very reverse of an expression of liberty, or even an excessive expression of liberty or even an expression of license. It is the expression of the pessimist idea that nature never gets beyond nature, that life never rises above life, that man always finds himself back where he was at the beginning, that there is no revolt, no redemption, no escape for the slave of the earth and of the desires of the earth. There is any amount of pessimistic poetry on that theme that is thrilling enough in its own way; and doubtless the music on that theme can be thrilling also. But it cannot be liberating, or even loosening; it does not escape as a common or vulgar melody can escape. It is the song of the treadmill.”

GKC might not have loved the actuality of Jazz but he liked it's idea, as he uses the word in a positive way in many of his essays.

But he loved modern dance. I use the word love because his writings on modern dance were in the form of poetry and poetry is the language of love.

Although possible, I do not know if Chesterton ever saw Isadora Duncan or Ruth St. Dennis perform but he must have seen their influences.

Nick posted one of theses poems here THE JAZZ

My favorite line is: "She looks nearly as pretty as when she is not dancing..."

They should have known something was up when he pinstriped his buggy.

What Were They Thinking Department

Fund Raising idea gone bad.

It's not like anyone was using it anyway.

The sauna idea was good because it can get hot in there.

Bentley's Clerihews - found a copy

I just received a copy of the 1981 Oxford University Press edition of The Complete Clerihews of E. Clerihew Bentley. (It's out of print, but I found a like-new copy on line).

Ahhh.

It includes the illustrations that Chesterton did for a number of the early poems. It also contains some poems that I either hadn't seen before, or read so long ago I didn't remember them.

There's a nice introductions by Gavin Ewart that includes a few clerihews by some other poets.

I've already read through the book, and will continue to dive back in.

A nice find.

Edgar Allan Poe
Was passionatley fond of roe.
He always liked to chew some
When writing anything gruesome.

(From the back cover)

To Vacate

Going camping for a week with my daughters and the grandkids. Long ago my bride admitted she is not a roughing-type-of-gal but me and the kids love it - camp smoke in the cloths and everything, we will miss her.........

Very low tech week. Swimming, hiking, fishing, reading and bacon.

Until I return here is a little camp song.