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.

In and Out of the Cave

"The common sense of the child could confine itself to learning from the facts what the facts have to teach; and the pictures in the cave are very nearly all the facts there are. So far as that evidence goes, the child would be justified in assuming that a man had represented animals with rock and red ochre for the same reason as he himself was in the habit of trying to represent animals with charcoal and red chalk. The man had drawn a stag just as the child had drawn a horse; because it was fun. The man had drawn a stag with his head turned as the child had drawn a pig with his eyes shut; because it was difficult. The child and the man, being both human, would be united by the brotherhood of men; and the brotherhood of men is even nobler when it bridges the abyss of ages than when it bridges only the chasm of class. But anyhow he would see no evidence of the cave man of crude evolutionism; because there is none to be seen. If somebody told him that the pictures had all been drawn by St. Francis of Assisi out of pure and saintly love of animals, there would be nothing in the cave to contradict it. " GKC Everlasting Man

When Picasso first saw the cave paintings at Lascaux it is reported he said, "We have learned nothing."

When teaching my Humanities class I often quote from Everlasting man. Last year when archeologists found a flute that was 30,000 plus years old I was in the throws of such a presentation. Man has always been in search of the higher things. The only way to express those things is through the arts.

We can recreate that flute from the same type of bone using the same type of tolls used by the caveman and learn what kind of sound was made by that flute BUT we will never know what kind of music was played by those early seekers.

Then again, in the future, someone may wonder what kind of music was played on a 3 string guitar and an old wooden box? And they will come across Seasick Steve. CaveMan blues.

When you evangelize timing is everything

A little boy was waiting for his mother to come out of the grocery Store.
As he waited, he was approached by a man who asked,
"Son, can you tell me where the Post Office is?"

The little boy replied, "Sure! Just go straight down this street a coupla blocks
and turn to your right."

The man thanked the boy kindly and said, "I'm the new pastor in town.
I'd like for you to come to church on Sunday. I'll show you how to get to Heaven."

The little boy replied with a chuckle. "Awww, come on...
You don't even know the way to the Post Office."

a CATHOLIC politician? whod a thunk it

"Human law is law only in virtue of its accordance with right reason: and thus it is manifest that it flows from the eternal law. And in so far as it deviates from right reason it is called an unjust law; in such case it is not law at all, but rather a species of violence..." [Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II Q93 A3 ad 2]

"In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it." GKC

Most politicians are the modern types of reformers and their visionary powers can not see past tomorrow's headlines.

However Chris Christie, the Gov. of New Jersey, is looking past that headline. He may be the only politician who not only says he is against abortion but knows that the state should not be in the killing business. He is cutting Planed Parenthood from the state budget. He also is embracing the concept of subsidiary.

Could distributionism be far behind. Maybe, if he survives the the political fist of PP.

While at the same time the Current Occupant, always deviating from right reason, is increasing funds to the death mills.

$25 million fund established by the new health care law to assist pregnant women. $250 million to Planned Parenthood.

The State Rights Boogie

Since the founding of this country there has always been a push and tug between states rights and federal authority. Beginning with the whiskey rebellion of 1794 to these two interesting cases.

In Boston they declare federal law null and void where 'Judge Joseph L. Tauro ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage law violates the Constitutional right of married same-sex couples to equal protection under the law and upends the federal government’s long history of allowing states to set their own marriage laws.'

"This court has determined that it is clearly within the authority of the Commonwealth to recognize same-sex marriages among its residents, and to afford those individuals in same-sex marriages any benefits, rights, and privileges to which they are entitled by virtue of their marital status," Tauro wrote. "The federal government, by enacting and enforcing DOMA, plainly encroaches upon the firmly entrenched province of the state."

If this holds up could Utah legalize polygamy?

In Arizona the federal government declare a state law, that mirrors federal law, null and void where The Obama administration asked the court to review the Arizona employment law and has indicated it will sue to block enforcement of the state's broader immigration law, scheduled to take effect July 29.

If this Arizona law holds up will other states do the same. Will San Fransisco boycott all those states?

Just cause we did it before.....

Dad29 left a comment on my post "The Sanger Parade Marches On":

"Yah, well.

In the early 1900's, the Progressives in Wisconsin called for mandatory sterilization of the "feebleminded."

At that time, the Progressives were all Republicans. The Catholic Bishops rallied the troops--and since then, the Democrat party has dominated Wisconsin elective offices. "

True, forced Sterilization of the of the mentally disabled happened in more that half of the states in this country up to the early-mid sixties. The rest at least thought about it or did it without anyone knowing.

Not sure why he mentioned Democrats and Republicans the split is pretty even in the states that practiced this act. Heavy on the Democrat side in the South.

One public service article entitled:

North Carolina Law, little used, makes small dent in problem: Public information is vital to success of Eugenics.

It tried to inform the public this was a good idea with such quotes as:

"An animal breeder, if he took the time to study our technique in perperuating the race, would likely shudder and use strong language. He knows better that to permit his scrub stock to out breed his best blood lines on a two-to-one basis.
In the past we have made (and still making some half-hearted stabs at correcting the imbalance in our birth rates. The use of contraceptives has been urged to help bring the birth rates into balance. Yet contraceptives have back-fired on us. Generally speaking, they have been accepted only among the class of persons who represent our best mental stock." (emphasis mine)

The last quote was the basis for the movie Idiocracy

North Carolina's rules were simple:

The Eugenics Board will order an operation:

1. Where it is to the best interest of the patient, mentally, morally, or physically.

2. When the operation is for the public good.

3. Where the operation has been requested by the guardian of a mental case.

4. Where the patient "would be likely, unless operated on, to procreate a child or children who would have a tendency to serious physical, mental or nervous disease or deficiency."

Oh yes they also call on the founding fathers to back them up:

"When William Penn observed, "Menare generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children," his readers smiled and nodded, "How true! How true!" In the past two centuries we have come to learn just how true this observation is. We continue to quote William Penn and nod our heads but we no longer can afford to smile."

The important point in Dad29's comment was that the Bishop's did rally the troops and ended this practice, at least by state law. As they recently did in Louisianan and are continually working to end abortion both in and out of our two party system.

Dad29 pick up a copy of G.K. Chesterton's Eugenics and Other Evils.

Improving Chances for Success

When my eldest son wanted to join the military, each branch of service courted him with hefty sign-on bonuses and no entrance exams. They were hungry for warm bodies.

My son joined the Air Force because they gave him the best deal.

Now that my youngest son is considering the same move he asked the recruiter about sign-on bonuses.

The Sargent told us that the because of the current economy there is no need for monetary incentives to get people to join. And he would have pass an exam. It is the only job out there right now that doesn't lay people off.

Schools have seen this trend and are adjusting the curriculum accordingly.

What's Right With The World

Good article by Gerald J. Russello

Little Emperors

"We can always convict such people of sentimentalism by their weakness for euphemism. The phrase they use is always softened and suited for journalistic appeals. They talk of free love when they mean something quite different, better defined as free lust. But being sentimentalists they feel bound to simper and coo over the word "love." They insist on talking about Birth Control when they mean less birth and no control. We could smash them to atoms, if we could be as indecent in our language as they are immoral in their conclusions." (GKC: "Obstinate Orthodoxy" The Thing)

An interesting series of essays and articles about China's one child policy from an unexpected source.

The essays from the the the Little Emperors themselves are the most heart wrenching.

You know those times when you find a jug of milk in the back of the refrigerator that you KNOW has gone bad but you smell it anyway?

The Mike Wallace interview with Margaret Sanger is like that.

Sanger begins with: "I was what I would call a born humanitarian."

Later she says, " I think the greatest sin in the world is bringing children into the world--that have disease from their parents, that have no chance in the world to be a human being practically. Delinquents, prisoners, all sorts of things just marked when they're born. That to me is the greatest sin -- that people can -- can commit.."

full transcript here

The Sanger Parade Marches On

When Barbara Harris began her story on how she adopted her children I paid attention because it was a similar story of our path to adoption. We both received children from drug addicts who knew they were incapable to raise that child. I soon found that we both reacted differently from this similar experience.

Where as when we found out the birth mother was pregnant again we located another family seeking to adopt. A word of mouth network began and several children of women in trouble have been adopted. We are no longer in the loop but referrals are still happening - no web site needed.

Now Barb took a different tact. She thinks these types of women should not breed. She has set up an organization to pay these women (and men) to be sterilized.

"Hey Girls, just say yes to this little procedure and we will give you $300.00" Her business is death and business is booming. Now she exporting, starting in the UK

"More children for the fit, less from the unfit - that is the chief aim of birth control." Margaret Sanger 1919

In that same vien a Louisiana State Rep., John LaBruzzo is putting together another program to help society: "What I'm really studying is any and all possibilities that we can reduce the number of people that are going from generational welfare to generation welfare," he said.
He said his program would be voluntary. It could involve tubal ligation, encouraging other forms of birth control or, to avoid gender discrimination, vasectomies for men. This program would pay the volunteers $1,000.00.
It could also include tax incentives for college-educated, higher-income people to have more children, he said.

Fortunately the state legislature put the kibosh on that - for now.

Final thought:
"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live." Deut. 30-19

Cinematic Bookends

It has been argued that Fellini's Satyricon does not fit well in his body of work. Some call it his best and others laugh at that notion. But all agree that this film was not your typical sandal and spear roman epic and is still the best presentation of the pre-christian world ever put to film.

Fellini really captured that time in history that Chesterton labels; "Pan was nothing but panic. Venus was nothing but venereal vice."

The film shows a life devoted to sensation and personal freedom devoid of any transcendent meaning.

This is why GKC also reminds us "Pagans were wiser that paganism; that is why the pagans became Christians."

It took about 1200 years to cleans us of the pagan era as outlined in Chesterton's book on Saint Francis. ushering in the Christian era.

Now, today, many are saying, we are beginning the postchristian era. This I have been trying to deny to no avail because the evidence is so overwhelming. Thus brings us Terry Zwigoff's film, Art School Confidential. Again critics were divided on to whether this is a good film or not but it is an excellent example of the post-christian era (something they do not even notice) and as such it is just as unsettling as Satyricon.

Again, a film that shows a life devoted to sensation and personal freedom coupled with a pursuit of fame and fortune at any cost all devoid of any transcendent meaning. This film also shows the art world today in all its empty chaos. The artists today are still trying to deconstruct something that has been deconstructed a hundred and fifty years ago. They are deconstructing with out any philosophy, understanding or sense of beauty.

The sixties brought us a back-to-nature "pagan" way of life, it's "high point" was Woodstock and then it went ugly very fast. As GKC said, "Whatever natural religion may have had to do with their beginnings, nothing but fiends now inhabited those hollow shrines."

I think both movies should be seen but I warn you it will not be a feel good evening of cinema.
Also Felline is a better film maker and much is lost on the small screen where as Art School Confidential works just as well on the small screen because postchristian ideas and ideals are small.

What would Gene Autry say?

Chesterton, spoke poetically about cheese;

Stilton, thou shouldst be living at this hour
And so thou art. Nor losest grace thereby;
England has need of thee, and so have I--
She is a Fen. Far as the eye can scour,
League after grassy league from Lincoln tower
To Stilton in the fields, she is a Fen.
Yet this high cheese, by choice of fenland men,
Like a tall green volcano rose in power.
Plain living and long drinking are no more,
And pure religion reading "Household Words",
And sturdy manhood sitting still all day
Shrink, like this cheese that crumbles to its core;
While my digestion, like the House of Lords,
The heaviest burdens on herself doth lay.

Yet curiously silent about Harmonicas.
I think this would have gotten his attention.

A New Friend Found

Leafing through my new yard sale How-To-Build-Furniture book my Bride said to me, "You know I would Like some chairs to put under our big maple in the back yard."

"There are some plans for Adirondack chairs in here."

"Well, I saw, on a show, the other night where they used Arts and Crafts style chairs outside and it looked real nice."

For those of you not married let me translate that statement: 'I want Arts and Crafts chairs and nothing else will do.' There were no Arts and Crafts style chairs in this book. Another twentyfive cents wasted.

At times I really believe that HGTV is a tool of the devil.

"Stickley or Morris style?" I asked.

"You pick."

My research got waylaid when I found an entry that couples William Morris with G.K.C. and there I found a kindred spirit, Jennifer Pierce. She writes a very interesting series called GKC 15 Minutes at a time. It begins here.

Jennifer has a respectful love of Chesterton and the series is a wonderful read as she weaves modern art, theater, and pop culture through the lens of a Chesterton world view, quoting him liberally.

The down side is her site has an annoying pop-up that keeps asking you to register. You can hit cancel and keep reading.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

“There can be comparatively little question that the place ordinarily occupied by dreams in literature is peculiarly unreal and unsatisfying. When the hero tells us that “last night he dreamed a dream,” we are quite certain from the perfect and decorative character of the dream that he made it up at breakfast…….Dreams have a kind of hellish ingenuity and energy in the pursuit of the inappropriate; the most omniscient and cunning artist never took so much trouble or achieved such success in finding exactly the word that was right or exactly the action that was significant, as this midnight lord of misrule can do in finding exactly the word that is wrong and exactly the action that is meaningless.” GKC

Why I highlighted that particular phrase is because last night I had a powerful dream. In this dream I came up with an invention for a train car that would be able to transport fruits and vegetables, from California to parts east, without spoiling. In it I saw many schematics, innovative insulation techniques, and I was able to see and solve the previous problems that others did not.

When I awoke I gave this dream some thought and decided it would work. I got up in search of a pencil and then remembered that this “thing” had already been invented and was working fine, they call it a refrigerator car.

It was then I recalled Chesterton’s essay on dreams.

Sometimes it is better to wake up and know you are a fool as opposed to finding out later in the day.

A Merton Clerihew

In his early life Thomas Merton
was often uncertain.
He ended his consternation
through contemplation.

This Looks Like Fun

Uncle Chestnut's Table Gype

In his autobiography G.K.C. mentions "the well-known and widespread national game of Gype".

Specifically, Chesterton mentions, "I myself cut out and coloured pieces of cardboard of mysterious and significant shapes, the instruments of Table Gype; a game for the little ones."

Almost 100 years later, Eternal Revolution has published Table Gype as an abstract strategy game with a random element.


If you have this game I'd love a review.

Maybe a Gype Tournament at the Chesterton Conference. with muffins as a prize for the winners

Chesterton Sightings

This past weekend our town held its annual community wide yard sale, otherwise known as ‘the great transference of junk’. It is also a good time to wander around town and meet with our neighbors. All my kids come home for this event.

At one of our stops I was staring down upon a table, that was calling my name, and internalizing that age old debate, “Do I need any more hand tools vs. “Can you have too many tools?” when my youngest daughter came up to me and said, “Look Papa, a picture of your friend.”

In her pudgy little hands was a magazine with a drawing of Gilbert on its cover. I gave her praise and a dime telling her to go buy it. And I bought a two foot wooded level.

As my wife and pregnant middle daughter were negotiating the price of a baby crib I looked at the magazine article, by our friend by John C. Chalberg, reviewing William Oddie’s Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy The making of GKC, 1874-1908. Being written by “Chuck” it was an enthusiastic review beginning with this paragraph:
“Somewhere on virtually everyone's list of the 100 most important books of the last century is G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. A "sort of slovenly autobiography" by its author's own reckoning, this thin volume packed a huge wallop when it first appeared in 1908. It still does today, whether it's being read for the first or fifth time.”

He also states that Oddie wrote an excellent companion work for GKC’s Orthodoxy. In it Oddie challenges what he terms an “academic embargo” against Chesterton. Something we have all noticed.

A few stops later we spotted a table of books. There was no debate here because you just can not have enough books. Unfortunately this table was mostly full of romance novels, a few How-To books and several children’s books. I grabbed up a couple of furniture building books and moved to the kid’s books. One I picked up was Coraline by Neil Gaiman, my daughter and I liked the movie so she might like me to read the book to her. The book begins with this quote:
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” G. K. Chesterton.

And yes, that was a surprise.

At the end of the day we had a lot of stuff most of which we were wondering why we bought. Maybe next year I will hold a yard sale to sell all the stuff we have bought from yard sales.

Belloc: Islam is a Christian heresy

In his book The Great Christian Heresies, Hilaire Belloc described Islam as a threat to the West - and counted it as a Christian heresy.

"Millions of modern people of the white civilization-that is, the civilization of Europe and America- have forgotten all about Islam. They never come in contact with it. They take for granted that it is decaying, and that, anyway, it is just a foreign religion which will not concern them. It is, as a fact, the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization has had, and may at any moment become as large a menace in the future as it has been in the past."

Certainly the extreme forms of Islam have become a world-wide threat in the last few decades. Belloc proved prophetic in that.

But I also find his argument that Islam is a Christian heresy interesting.

According to Belloc, what Mohammad "taught was in the main Catholic doctrine, oversimplified. It was the great Catholic world - on the frontiers of which he lived, whose influence was all around him and whose territories he had known by travel-which inspired his convictions."

Belloc argued that "the very foundation of his teaching was that prime Catholic doctrine, the unity and omnipotence of God."

"But the central point where his new heresy struck home with a mortal blow against Catholic tradition was a full denial of the Incarnation."

"He taught that our Lord was the greatest of all the prophets, but still only a prophet; a man like other men. He eliminated the Trinity altogether."

An intriguing line of argument.

Happy Birthday GKC

Happy 136th birthday.

for mom

I have recently come across the life and writings of Cardinal Mindszenty. A very interesting and holy life.

In his writings you can hear the similar tones and melodies Gilbert expressed, especially when talking of motherhood. Another similarity between the Cardinal and Gilbert is that Alec Guinness played the Cardinal in The Prisoner (loosely based on Mindszenty’s imprisonment) and he played GKC’s Father Brown.

I know we are a few days past Mothers day but then again any day is a good day to honor Mother. Here is the preface of Cardinal Mindszenty’s book Motherhood:

The Most Important Person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral-a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby's body…The angels have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God's creative miracle to bring new saints to Heaven. Only a human mother can. Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature; God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation…What on God's good earth is more glorious than this: to be a mother?

-Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty

Stimulus dollars at work

National Poetry Month

With the support of this $1 million National Leadership Grant, Poets House will partner with five zoos and four public libraries to create poetry installations and programs... …collaborating with wildlife biologists and exhibit designers to curate zoo installations with poems that celebrate the natural world and the connection between species.

I the GKC poem below would be a worthy entry that shows that species are only connected in the physical, like comparative religion. “.. it is so much a matter of degree and distance and difference that it is only comparatively successful when it tries to compare. When we come to look at it closely we find it comparing things that are really quite incomparable.”

Triolet Poem
G.K. Chesterton

I wish I were a jelly fish
That cannot fall downstairs;
Of all the things I wish to wish
I wish I were a jellyfish
That hasn't any cares
And doesn't even have to wish'
I wish I were a jellyfish
That cannot fall downstairs.'

Cheat the Prophet

Earth Day Predictions, 1970

"The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age."
Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

"We have about five more years at the outside to do something."
Kenneth Watt, ecologist

"Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind."
George Wald, Harvard Biologist

"We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation."
Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist

"Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction."
New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day

"Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years."
Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

"By...[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s."
Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

"It is already too late to avoid mass starvation."
Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

"Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions....By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine."
Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

"Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support...the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution...by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half...."
Life Magazine, January 1970

"At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it's only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable."
Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

"Air pollution...is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone."
Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

"By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate...that there won't be any more crude oil. You'll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill 'er up, buddy,' and he'll say, `I am very sorry, there isn't any.'"
Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

"Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct."
Sen. Gaylord Nelson

Tax Day - Oh Joy

"A citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine, except that the fine is generally much lighter." G.K.C.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
T. Coleman Andrews was an IRS Commissioner for 3 years. He had the following things to say about income taxes after resigning.
----------------------------------------------------------
"Congress went beyond merely enacting an income tax law and repealed Article IV of the Bill of Rights, by empowering the tax collector to do the very things from which that article says we were to be secure. It opened up our homes, our papers and our effects to the prying eyes of government agents and set the stage for searches of our books and vaults and for inquiries into our private affairs whenever the tax men might decide, even though there might not be any justification beyond mere cynical suspicion."

"The income tax is bad because it has robbed you and me of the guarantee of privacy and the respect for our property that were given to us in Article IV of the Bill of Rights. This invasion is absolute and complete as far as the amount of tax that can be assessed is concerned. Please remember that under the Sixteenth Amendment, Congress can take 100% of our income anytime it wants to. As a matter of fact, right now it is imposing a tax as high as 91%. This is downright confiscation and cannot be defended on any other grounds."

"The income tax is bad because it was conceived in class hatred, is an instrument of vengeance and plays right into the hands of the communists. It employs the vicious communist principle of taking from each according to his accumulation of the fruits of his labor and giving to others according to their needs, regardless of whether those needs are the result of indolence or lack of pride, self-respect, personal dignity or other attributes of men."

"The income tax is fulfilling the Marxist prophecy that the surest way to destroy a capitalist society is by steeply graduated taxes on income and heavy levies upon the estates of people when they die."

"As matters now stand, if our children make the most of their capabilities and training, they will have to give most of it to the tax collector and so become slaves of the government. People cannot pull themselves up by the bootstraps anymore because the tax collector gets the boots and the straps as well."

"The income tax is bad because it is oppressive to all and discriminates particularly against those people who prove themselves most adept at keeping the wheels of business turning and creating maximum employment and a high standard of living for their fellow men."
"I believe that a better way to raise revenue not only can be found but must be found because I am convinced that the present system is leading us right back to the very tyranny from which those, who established this land of freedom, risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to forever free themselves..."

When the culture of death meets “I don’t think so”.

Dr. Boris Veysman is my new hero.

"Life is precious and irreplaceable. Even severe incurable illness can often be temporarily fixed, moderated, or controlled, and most discomfort can be made tolerable or even pleasant with simple drugs. In chess, to resign is to give up the game with pieces and options remaining. My version of DNR is "Do Not Resign." Don’t give up on me if I can still think, communicate, create, and enjoy life. When taking care of me, take care of yourself as well, to make sure you don’t burn out by the time I need your optimism the most.

My DNI? It means "Do Not Ignore" early signs of trouble when my failing body and mind need support so I can continue to function in ways that matter. And Do Not Ignore my needs for companionship, stimulation, and purpose, as these, too, make life worth living. To leave me in the hospital bed alone staring at the TV is torture. (My overarching orders at all times: "Do Not Torture.") Surround me with people; bring the kids so I can teach and talk to them. Discuss the news with me. Let me use my e-mail. Treat my depression, dehydration, malnutrition, muscle wasting, and pain with potent pills, infusions, tubes, and hormones. I don’t aspire to play for the Yankees, so throw in some anabolic steroids if that might contribute to wellness. I choose high-quality life, and I agree to chance adverse effects in doing so. …

It’s so easy to let someone die, but it takes effort, determination, and stamina to help someone stay and feel alive. Only after you made every effort to let me be happy and human, ask me again if my life is worth living. Then, listen, and comply. At that point, if I wish to die, let me die. But until that happens, none of us realize what I can accomplish with another day, another week, another month. So do it all for me. Then ask someone to do it all for you."

Read entire essay here.

More War Crimes

Closing arguments begin today in a trial that could be a landmark case against the Boy Scouts of America, which is accused of covering up alleged sexual abuse of several of its Boy Scouts for years.

North American Man/Boy Love Association stating that the Boy Scouts and Big Brothers were perfect recruiting grounds for victims.

If only Scout Masters could marry.

Seriously?!?

(NEW YORK – C-FAM) In London last Friday, a high ranking United Nations (UN) jurist called on the British government to detain Pope Benedict XVI during his upcoming visit to Britain, and send him to trial in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “crimes against humanity.”

like Chesterton said this sound is recognizable it is “a hiss out of hell.”

Mark has a good answer

why not try it at home

"There was a time when you and I and all of us were all very close to God; so that even now the color of a pebble (or a paint), the smell of a flower (or a firework), comes to our hearts with a kind of authority and certainty; as if they were fragments of a muddled message, or features of a forgotten face. To pour that fiery simplicity upon the whole of life is the only real aim of education; and closest to the child comes the woman --- she understands. To say what she understands is beyond me; save only this, that it is not a solemnity. Rather it is a towering levity, an uproarious amateurishness of the universe, such as we felt when we were little, and would as soon sing as garden, as soon paint as run. To smatter the tongues of men and angels, to dabble in the dreadful sciences, to juggle with pillars and pyramids and toss up the planets like balls, this is that inner audacity and indifference which the human soul, like a conjurer catching oranges, must keep up forever. This is that insanely frivolous thing we call sanity. ... "

GKC What's Wrong With The World

The Missing Piece

When my children were little we would always attend Easter Mass at the Cathedral , which is a great place to be on any given Sunday but at Easter you get all the smells and bells. Since the majority of my children have grown and started families of their own this tradition has faded.

This year my bride suggested we start going again. I was not sure if it was for our littlest one or she was being nostalgic but it did not matter. I missed the Cathedral too.

Once you enter the Cathedral, even after a long absence, it is as if you were never away. There is a joyous wonder in its sameness. Its sameness comes from the dynamic position of always being where the past and the potential of the future meet in the envelope of the present.

As you walk in and someone unseen would be wailing on the large pipe organ and when the horn section enters in you could feel your sternum vibrate. The choir is angelic. The building is beautiful in fulfilling the prophesy, “If These Were Silent, the Stones Would Cry Out”, all this before the procession had begun.

As the procession past us I began to take a closer notice of the throng of the faithful before me. I felt something was different then from what I remember and honestly I missed the opening prayers trying to figure it out. Before the first reading it dawned on me – there were no ladies in hats. Those marvelously large pastel colored hats were gone - not one Easter hat. In the past as you focused on the alter it was through a sea of big brimmed soft flowing hats acting as flowers turning toward the morning sun. Now everywhere not only were there no hats there were very few ties, little finery, only a few children in new outfits. Our pew was the exception where as in the past I would sometimes feel we looked a little ragged.


I am not one to wear a tie much and I keep my sport coat in a bag until Christmas and Easter my wife never wore a hat but many did. But EASTER that was the time when dads wore suits, mom’s bought you new outfits and your one pair of new shoes for the year were bought at Easter. It all added another layer to the day we were all, in a way, “resurrected” from winter to the new life of spring.

We wore our best on the best day. Now, how is anyone to know that this day is above all other days, when all they see are jeans and polos?

A word from Pope John Paul II

Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.
- Pope John Paul II

(I don't think GKC would mind a Pope being cited on this day!)

Good Film For Good Friday

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

Speaking of Judas

Judas has appeared in all the Church readings this past week. In dramatic terms this is because he is the pivotal character in the passion, it is his decision on which all else turns. Even though we know how this story ends we keep hoping Judas will have a change of heart.

It is fascinating to me that at this time pope Ben is being assaulted on all sides by the priest sex scandals throughout Europe. Judas’ are popping up all over (in and outside the church) saying everything from the pope should resign to the pope needs to change his mind on priest celibacy and sexual "freedom", (ho-hum).

Archbishop Timothy Dolan says Pope Benedict XVI, is suffering "some of the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob, and scourging at the pillar as did Jesus"!

It is important to remember that after the first Judas the other disciples did not say, “We need to change the teaching of the Lord so we won’t have another Judas incident”.

It won’t be said now. And it will not lessen the pain.

The Judas type will be with us always. Salvation history is filled with God’s people falling away and coming back. The “What could it hurt” to the “How were we to know” syndrome.

The difference between Peter and Judas is that Peter asked for forgiveness.

The question, as always, are we going to leave Peter because of Judas?

“But the best example of this unjust historical habit is the most famous of all and the most infamous of all. If there is one proper noun which has become a common noun, if there is one name which has been generalized till it means a thing, it is certainly the name of Judas. We should hesitate perhaps to call it a Christian name, except in the more evasive form of Jude. And even that, as the name of a more faithful apostle, is another illustration of the same injustice; for, by comparison with the other, Jude the faithful might almost be called Jude the obscure. The critic who said, whether innocently or ironically, "What wicked men these early Christians were!" was certainly more successful in innocence than in irony; for he seems to have been innocent or ignorant of the whole idea of the Christian communion. Judas Iscariot was one of the very earliest of all possible early Christians. And the whole point about him was that his hand was in the same dish; the traitor is always a friend, or he could never be a foe. But the point for the moment is merely that the name is known everywhere merely as the name of a traitor. The name of Judas nearly always means Judas Iscariot; it hardly ever means Judas Maccabeus. And if you shout out "Judas" to a politician in the thick of a political tumult, you will have some difficulty in soothing him afterwards, with the assurance that you had merely traced in him something of that splendid zeal and valour which dragged down the tyranny of Antiochus, in the day of the great deliverance of Israel.”

GKC The New Jerusalem

Always a Great Day

"If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

This past weekend our youngest received her first and second Holy Communion. Great day - it was - for real.

If you are a Catholic Christian you understand the ginormous joy this day holds. I have been struggling all week to find the words to explain this feeling to our non Catholic brothers and sisters and have failed completely. I just could not find a relevant analogy.

As we waited in the school before the mass the men watched the women going into full Martha mode: straightening out veils and ties, curling or flattening out hair with spit, chatting with the other moms about how many guests would be at home and what they would be fed hoping there would be enough.

It was just after the line-up and before the procession to the Church that one of the dads said, “It’s like a wedding but with out the dread.”

As we went over I began to hum an old hymn “…sometimes it causes me to tremble.”

Conspiracy theory - and a Chesterton sighting

"The Invisible Man" is a frequently anthologized Father Brown story. A "postman" (i.e. mailman) plays an important role in the the story - though in a negative way.

I've sometimes suspected that my local mail carriers bear a grudge against Chesterton because of this.

My issues of Gilbert invariably arrive a week or two after other people have already begun to blog about what great issue it is and refer to articles I have not yet read.

And last week, my March-April issue of StAR (Saint Austin Review) arrived graced with Chesterton on the cover and chock full of articles about him.

The cover was torn.

Hmmm. I wonder what Father Brown would make of that. Coincidence?

Or a conspiracy?

Paranoia aside, I have been enjoying the articles. Dale Alquist, of course, contributes a piece (how could you have an issue of anything devoted to Chesterton and not have something from Dale?). He speculates what might have happened if Chesterton had gone bad!

We also have articles of orthodoxy, being a defender of the faith, fairy tales, Chestertonian drama, a little bit of Belloc, and more.

If you are a Chestertonian (why else would you be reading this blog?) and you don't subscribe to StAR, at least get a copy of this issue.

(Go to http://www.staustinreview.com/ for info.)

They Are Smarter Than We Are

Many a moon ago I discovered this truth: When building a fence around your chicken coop you don’t make it strong enough to keep the chickens in but to keep the carnivores out. I rebuilt my fence to that ideal or so I thought. Carnivores are clever in their pursuit and relentless in their search for a weakness in the defenses’.

Such a weakness was found in my coop, one loose board high up on the south side.

This morning I found only feathers.

I’m sure there is an analogy to the health care bill that could be made here but all I know is that I will now have to buy my Easter eggs.

I didn't do it. You didn't see me do it. You can't prove a thing.

ah spring

The rains have stopped and the sun is gaining confidence. The remaining snow weaves emaciated down shadow filled alley ways. It still clings, weak and weary, to the corners of parking lots like an old postcard stuck in back of your sock drawer. Its cryptic message now understood: “The weather is here. Wish you were beautiful.”

After the cookies are gone

Is this what the Girl Scouts will sell next?
Will it be door to door or will we have to go to meetings
Will they at least earn a badge for doing 'it'?

Mark Shea once said,"Show me a culture that despises virginity and I'll show you a culture that despises children."

...and the tears will not stop.

very cool

A Small Glass Of Whine

Recently the news has been filled with the problems of our public educational system. Simply put it is failing. The talking heads are blaming everyone from the teacher unions to not enough money.

Central Falls High School in Rhode Island fired all their teachers because they would not accept a change with out more money. That school did make the statement that the school should run the school - not the Union.

The current occupant of the white house is threatening to close more schools unless they improve.

California college students are protesting a hike in fees (they still think higher education should be free even if the state is bankrupt).

A democratic state senator in Chicago is campaigning for a voucher system in that city.

However this is not entirely about the union. Most teachers want to teach, love to teach, and do a great job and follow the Chesterton rule, "A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching".

As nice as it is it is not about the money either.

For the past several years I have been working in the public educational system and my job this year has given me a different view on why this may be happening. In the mornings I teach, off campus, a group of young boys who do not work and play well others. In the afternoons I along with two full time teachers tutor high school kids in order to help them pass their state exams - without which they can not graduate. These tests are not that difficult most of the questions are on an eighth grade level. Nearly 90% of these just don't care to learn the material.

When I was in school we would ask our teachers, "Why do I gotz to learn this stuff"?
The answer was simple, "You need a good education if you want to support yourself and your family."

Since we are now in our 3rd generation of an entitlement society this answer is no longer true. Some have learned that 'workin for da gubment' they can get food, a place to live, health care, energy allowances, with enough money for beer, cigarettes and cable TV. So why bother with school why bother with work?

It is very hard to convince these kids of the importance of education. The percentage of these kids is growing every year. This attitude of "I don't care and I don't have to care." is infections. The parents of the motivated and gifted are pulling their kids to send them to private schools or home school. The scale in public schools is tilting and not in the right direction.

This very disheartening for a teacher.

The why bothers go to school cause they got nothing else to do, and it is better than sitting at home with dad.

QUALIFICATIONS

In a Purdue University classroom, they were discussing the qualifications to be President of the United States . It was pretty simple, the candidate must be a natural born citizen of at least 35 years of age.

However, one girl in the class immediately started in on how unfair was the requirement to be a natural born citizen. In short, her opinion was that this requirement prevented many capable individuals from becoming president.

The class was taking it in and letting her rant, but everyone's jaw hit the floor when she wrapped up her argument by stating, "What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified to lead this country than one born by C-section?"


And don't forget, "They walk among us!"

good times

Thursday the weather began to soften to the point where school was back in on Friday. On Saturday I had no choice but to proclaim a road trip. We went to go see semi distant family where we would partake in the simple joys of storytelling, snacking and letting the grandchildren, nieces and nephews climb all over me. Before dinner we went as a faction to church to take up a pew and a half. It is sometimes excellent to be patriarch.

I like this church. It is a small neighborhood church that sits about 200 and no matter what mass we have attended it is always standing room only. Each parish manages to bubble up it's dominate talents. This church excels in it's music ministry. It is beautiful to listen to as well as to participate with which the whole congregation does with gusto. From this we moved to great dinner of truly more comfort food.

When we returned from this trip we found that our Girl Scout cookie order had arrived.

Life is good.

Start your Lent with a Song in Your Heart

Snow Daze

We are now on our seventh day without school because of the SNOW. Snow, snow and more snow - up to our knees in snow. It is too cold to make snow persons, too deep to go sledding and too flat around here to go skiing.

Even the cats are getting cabin fever.

It's not all that bad, really we are doing ok. We watched butter soften and then made cookies. Shuffled around on the rug and played shock tag. I received on going reports from my wife on how she was doing rearranging her fabric collection. I cleaned out "that closet" and tried to solve the mystery on how there could be, in there, 7 gloves and 2 mittens none a match and all left handed.

There is a store within walking distance so we have not run out of chips and beer.

I saw my first Robin.

The Jesus Rifle

Oh No! It is the end of the world. The war is lost! (be sure to watch Rachel Maddow's video at the end of the post) But for $660,000,000.00 I will stop talking about Jesus.

"If a boy fires off a gun, whether at a fox, a landlord or a reigning sovereign, he will be rebuked according to the relative value of these objects. But if he fires off a gun for the first time it is very likely that he will not expect the recoil, or know what a heavy knock it can give him. He may go blazing away through life at these and similar objects in the landscape; but he will be less and less surprised by the recoil; that is, by the reaction. He may even dissuade his little sister of six from firing off one of the heavy rifles designed for the destruction of elephants; and will thus have the appearance of being himself a reactionary. Very much the same principle applies to firing off the big guns of revolution. It is not a man's ideals that change; it is not his Utopia that is altered; the cynic who says, "You will forget all that moonshine of idealism when you are older," says the exact opposite of the truth. The doubts that come with age are not about the ideal, but about the real. And one of the things that are undoubtedly real is reaction: that is, the practical probability of some reversal of direction, and of our partially succeeding in doing the opposite of what we mean to do. What experience does teach us is this: that there is something in the make-up and mechanism of mankind, whereby the result of action upon it is often unexpected, and almost always more complicated than we expect."

The Superstition of School, by G.K. Chesterton

The quotable Mr. Chesterton

While trolling my local Catholic bookstore, I spotted several copies of a new - 2009 -book - The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips & Cracks from the Pen of G.K. Chesterton.

It's edited by Dave Armstrong (of Biblical Evidence for Catholicism).

Some 359 pages of Chesterton quotations? Of course I bought it.

I know I can find many of the quotations on line, but it's nice to have a hard copy in hand.

The book is organized by topics, which makes it easy to find apt quotations. I've been diving through, enjoying discovering or rediscovering the Great One's wit and wisdom.

A quibble though. "The Very Best" - yet no sign of two of my favorite quotations:

"You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion."

and

"Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."

Ah well, I have eclectic tastes.

Maybe there's a second collection in the works. I'll buy that one, too.

But for now, I'll enjoy this wonderful collection - while eating cheese and rubbing my beard.

Ratcheting it up a notch

As long as I can remember I have never heard the Bishops tell their flock to explicitly vote one way or the other or support one bill or the other. They have given us a teaching and told us to vote our conscious. So you can imagine my surprise and delight when, after hearing that the Knights are having a wing fry and the Rosary Alter Society is looking for new members, I heard this:

“Congress continues to debate health care reform. While the House passed a health care bill that prevents the federal government from funding elective abortions, and includes provisions making health care affordable and accessible for all, the Senate rejected this and passed a bill that requires federal funds to help subsidize and promote health plans that cover elective abortions, while forcing purchasers to pay directly for other people’s abortions. These two bills must now be combined into one bill that both the House and Senate will vote on in final form. The U.S. bishops continue to strongly oppose abortion funding, while calling for critical improvements in conscience protection, affordability for the poor and vulnerable, and access to health care for immigrants.
In your pews/bulletins today, you’ll find a flier/bulletin insert from the U.S. Bishops Conference asking you to please contact your congressional representatives immediately and urge them to address these moral issues. The flier/bulletin insert includes a web address that allows you to send an email message to Congress with a click of a button. The bishops have asked for our swift action and our prayers. Thank you for your help. We can help make sure that health care reform will protect the lives, dignity, conscience and health of all. Health care reform should be about saving lives, not destroying them.”

We were then given a link to go to: www.usccborg/action this site allows you to send a prewritten letter to your representatives and through the magic of the internet it sends this letter to your specific rep.

After this announcement we all said the Saint Michael's prayer for the conversion of abortionists. You can get the prayer card here.

Please go to this site and send your message. Like the Bishops said at the end of their letter Act today! Thank you!

more sci-fi on the way but not so much fi

In H.G. Well's novel The Island of Dr. Moreau He tells the tale of a man making human/animal hybrids. Makes for a good story.

"Dr. Moreau and his assistant perished at the hands of their experiments. Prendick escaped and returned to England. And, as the novel concludes, Prendick, in England, said that, as he looked at the people around him, he could not help feeling that he was still amongst the beast-people of Dr. Moreau's island; and, that they might, at any point, turn on him, the way that the creatures of the island had."

The island is closer than you think. here and here just to name a few

Bukowski clerihew

Charles Bukowski
finished his whiskey.
While waiting for another
he wrote about eyeing his friend's mother.

When I first heard about AVATAR I was not in hurry to see it but after reading all the buzz about it on the blogosphere, especially by Catholics> Again I saw a huge popular media event brought everyone out to defend or condemn the "religious" ramifications on our culture. Most of it you can read on Mark Shea's bolg.

I needed to judge it for my self. My feelings on not wanting to see this film were based on the fact that James Cameron does not make great movies. And my $10.00 could be used elsewhere. Yes, he makes visually stunning cinematic experiences but really is a second rate story teller. Seeing AVATAR did not change my opinion on that.

Anyone over sixteen years old could see the borrowed plot line (Pocahotas, Dances with Wolves, and even Ewoks vs. Strom troopers) and stereotypical characters. Cameron not only tells a shallow story sans sub text he telegraphs each upcoming event. There are never any surprises or plot twists in his films. A second or third viewing will add nothing to your understanding to the film or of the human condition. But. BUT it was absolutely, with out a doubt, the best visual candy I have eaten in a long time.

In this way he is not unlike Thomas Kinkade who creates an pretty imaginary world where the viewer would like to live and everyone is happy and at peace. It also seems that Cameron borrowed Kinkade's color palette. (the picture on this post is Kinkade's and not from the film). It is a pastel world without hard edges. Even when there is sudden and bruttal death in a Cameron movie it does not make your cheeks pouch together because it is all about the visual which is only 1% of reality.

You might wish you were one of his characters, (who wouldn't want to fly a giant lizard!) but you never get emotionally attached to his characters. Which I guess that is what escapism is all about. I have heard some say that the Na'vi are blue skinned to represent democrats no no it is that they needed to be pastel and green skin was to much of a cliché even for Cameron.

However casting Sigourney Weaver was a great joke. Even when we first she her she is coming out of the "box" and asks for a cigarette. Watch the first 10 minutes of ALIEN if you need a reminder. (OK, I was the only one in the theatre to laugh).

And really who believes the corporation is just going to give up and leave all that potential money. Can you say sequel? And yes I will go see the sequel and be dazzled for a few hours. I love circus side shows too.

Speaking of Genomes part 2

In the, for lack of a better word, battle between science and religion some voices of reconciliation are being heard. Not because of their volume but from where they speak. Francis Collins is one such voice. He is one with impressive credentials being the director of the Human Genome Project and all; that little hobby of his that mapped the vast vocabulary of life's indwelling "grammar". Collins calls this grammar the language of God.

In his book, The Language of God, Collins systematically lays out a philosophy that science and religion are not only complementary but are both essential for a complete understanding of the world.

Yea, yea I know the premise of the compatibility of God and reason has been expressed elsewhere and with better poetry as with Thomas Aquinas, " For Faith is not opposed to reason but is of that which reason cannot reach." Or as JP2 said, "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth..."

The cool thing about this book is how he came to write it. Collins was homeschooled in an non-religious home - "freethinkers". Religion to him was something quaint and unrealistic so atheism was his logical choice for a world view. That was until he became a doctor and noticed the difference between the religious and non religious patients in how they faced grave and mortal illnesses. The religious ones faced it bravely and peacefully the later spent their time in a panic. When one of his patients asked him about his belief system he knew, as a scientist he could only answer this question with research and careful consideration.

His study led him to Christianity. True, that's an old story but I never grow weary of hearing it. Collins openly credits our friend C. S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity for his spiritual Big Bang moment.

True not all of his writing and many of his other views do not square-up to orthodox Christianity but he is still young in this strange new land and he is courageous.
As he is willing to debate all comers on what Collins calls BioLogos, including Richard Dawkins.

For you Homeschoolers Collins' book would be a good addition to your science library and its a good read for us science groupies.

Speaking of Genomes part 1

In 2004 Svante Paabo, a paleogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, announced he was going to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome. He has yet to succeed in that but is getting close and has a rough draft of the sequence complete. This sequence came from several cells from different samples. But he has yet to find a complete fully intact DNA specimen. But that has not stopped some of the groupies of the scientific community to speculate, "Will we ever clone a caveman?"

Since my son and I are Sci-fi nuts this prompted a lively discussion. Since Neanderthals are not considered human is there an ethical question? If the non-human speculation is correct they would not have souls? But what if the assumption is wrong - who decides? (These questions got batted around but they were beyond our pay grade and won't help with our screen play anyway. Where is Michael Crichton when you need him?)

How do you find a woman to carry this cave man to birth? The reality show fame alone would attract hundreds. "We could easily get those girls who want to sleep with Flava Flav." my son said.

What about the the new modern life of this cave man? Can you see him in public schools? A boy scout making his first fire? What about when he enters Junior High and the peer pressure to look good makes him ask his Mom for a piercing? Can you say sitcom?

As an adult he would have a career as commercial actor for insurance or a great career as a NFL linebacker.