Libertine behavior leads to tyranny. So says Plato and so says Paul. Further thoughts, on the side bar under “Phone Call in the Night.”
FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Sept. 11 Panel to Press Rice to Testify Publicly: “‘But we do feel unanimously as a commission that she should testify in public. We feel it’s important to get her case out there. We recognize there are arguments having to do with separation of powers. We think in a tragedy of this magnitude that those kind of legal arguments are probably overridden,’ Kean told ‘Fox News Sunday.’ “
Legal arguments being far less important than public grand standing. Anything the Commission needs to know, they can learn from Rice in private. It is bad television, but good consitutional law. But wait, I forgot, this is about television.
Americans come clean with The Passion: “It seems like everyone I know wants to talk about his or her personal relationship with God. I was under the mistaken notion that faith was something private, not to be shown off. I thought we were supposed to live our faith, not talk about it.”
The chief problem with the cultures view of religion summed up in two sentences. Private? Yes, but not merely private. Religion, true or false, organizes the way a man lives and so is one of his most public acts. Living faith is a public act. . . and so worthy of explanation. Put another way, if a man loves a woman, a private thing in a way, he tells her. But he does not just tell her, he tells her friends and anyone else he can. In a chatter-box age, to relegate religion to the quiet place is to outlaw it all together, which may be the point.
But what if Christianity is true? Then the writer of this little piece is missing life and in danger of hell fire. Shouldn’t he be told? And shouldn’t rational arguments be made to convince him. Of course. But the writer does not really believe religion can be true, he has bought into the irrational notion that religion is like a preference for Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream: subjective without any trace of “fact of the matter.” However, at least some religious claims can be tested by experience. . . for example: can men be made “good” by mere education? We now know the answer to that: “no.” And this is what Christianity suggested all along. Now for second: did Jesus rise from the dead? For a third: Were his teachings true? These questions deserve answers for they are (in principle) matters of fact, not fancy.
FOXNews.com - You Decide 2004 - Kerry: WH in ‘Character Assassination Mode’: “‘I don’t think people want questions about character; I think they want questions about our security to be answered,’ Kerry said Saturday. ‘That’s what this is about.’ “
Kerry should pray that he can avoid questions about character. His problem? He has none. Beyond his one moment of selfless service in a war a half a lifetime ago, Kerry is always for Kerry. Ask the unborn children of our nation who have no greater foe in the Senate.
A nation is most secure when led by a man of character.
Box Office Mojo > Movie Reviews: “When they assault Ashton Kutcher’s villain, he’s dating the oldest sister, who has abandoned the herd for a life in the city — one little girl watching the movie turned to her mother and asked: ‘Why do they hate him?’ Bright children need not await answers. “
Bright children with moral sense would know. But this clueless reviewer confuses noisy kids (he dislikes them) with sexual libertines (he likes them.) Big families are “herds.” Earlier in the review, self-centered sexual promiscuity is being “an individualist.”
Let me help the reviewer get a moral clue: the oldest sister is dating a person so involved in his own looks and career that he cannot pay attention to anyone else. He also is cad who sneaks into the house to fornicate. He is a bad man. . . to all but the morally indifferent.
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN - ON DVD APRIL 6
This was a wonderful, warm-hearted, old-fashioned book. It is also a surprisingly old-fashioned movie in this present, pleasant incarnation. It actually attacks the narcissistic amoral values of the age. . . and is positive toward large families, the Rosary, and married sex.
Quick: when was the last time the couple in the film having the best time were married?
Worth a video look.
Amazon.com: Books: The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian Today, for fun, I decided to read another Lloyd Alexander book. Most famous for the “High King” and the other adventures of an assistant pig keeper, Alexander has written this short book, a worth while stand-alone. Despite the late sixties and early seventies “rationalism” that creeps into all his books, and some bowing and scraping to political correctness (how different a feminine heroine would actually be by now!), this is good fun. Alexander sneaks some critical thinking lessons into the book. . . But mostly tells a classic fairy tale very well.
Time has not served Lloyd Alexander well. Disney made a mediocre film “The Black Cauldron” about one of his books. Students have moved on to racier fare. That is too bad. Alexander is not Lewis or Tolkien (who is?), but he can write. At his best, his paragraphs compare to Lewis’ worst. And that is high praise. One can read this book in about an hour. So turn off the television and give your amusement time to a solid practioner of the genre.
JesusJournal.com - Christian Birth Control: “Interestingly, the New Testament does not give any command that couples have children. “
Perhaps, given the cultural background this was thought as unnecessary as specific injunctions forbidding bestiality (which are also not in the New Testament).
Beware the “interestingly” argument from silence when it comes to exegeting texts. I learned this the hard way by making silly errors in Plato. “Look,” I would say to myself, “Plato does not give his entire doctrinal position here. Maybe he changed his mind” Then my advisor would kindly remind me of the basic rules of argument: failure to positively assent to a thing is not, by itself, evidence of disagreement.
“Christian” feminists do this a great deal. The Bible assumes patriarchy as the cultural background. It can “bounce” against this consensus with rhetoric to soften abuses and sometimes fail to clearly affirm it, because everyone accepted it. The Bible is quite clear about counter-cultural stands (monotheism) when it wants to be. It has to be read with the cultural background in place.
JesusJournal.com - Christian Birth Control: “It may very well be the false emphasis on the family by so many churches that is rendering them impotent in these latter days. Raising children properly is extremely important, but that does not mean the Christian faith should be reduced to a cult of the family. “
I get it. The problem with most Christians is that they are too family centered. What a giving group we are! I must be mistaken in noticing shrinking families in mall like churches where Mom and Dad do not even sit with the children. I must be mistaken when I hear people with incomes that would have been viewed as “rich” by my grand-parents complain that more children would cramp their life style.
Of course, Christianity is not “all about family.” Celibacy is a good, even a greater good for service to the Kingdom. However, family is an older structure than the Church. It is very, very important. And it is in trouble. I have heard that Christian college professors have denied this. . . new structures do not mean problems they intone. . . but in the West Christians are not sustaining their populations. Children are sent to day care at churches with the approval of pastors who are glad for the money.
Are there any good Christian arguments for birth control on demand?
Alterman makes it easier for a cultural critic to demonstrate that a modern doctorate in the humanities is often no better than a Victorian undergraduate degree. You have to appreciate that at least. He lives in the new post-modern world where reality is constructed. By whom? Alterman! People who agree with Alterman are smart, people who disagree with Alterman are stupid.
Friday’s gem is a blog comment on Iraq “youth” celebrating an attack on America in Falluja. This seems to prove his counter-factual fantasy that we are losing the war in Iraq. This despite the fact that all polls show most of Iraq is glad we finished off Sadaam. This despite the fact that Falluja is one of the head quarters of the “dead end” supporters of the regime. Most of Iraq is peaceful and getting more prosperous. It has a constitutional process in place. The Kurds are not yet killing the Shiite. In fact, we are well on our way to doing what Alterman hopes is impossible: building a democratic Iraq. Next Alterman will tell us that a certain fondness for Stalin in some Russian cities proves that the Cold War was really lost.
Why does this upset Alterman? It is hard to see anything other than partisan blindness. His name calling seems the product of a marketing meeting of liberals. “The right wins by calling names. We are too smart to call names naturally, but we will have to try to protect abortion.” Alterman thus spins the vast majority of his blog time inventing or passing on new school-yard names for Bush.
But let’s be reasonable, even if Alterman isn’t. He is wrong about Iraq for three reasons:
1. Most people in Iraq are better off and the majority of evidence shows they know it.
2. Most of Iraq is peaceful and all of Iraq is more peaceful (on the whole) than it was last fall.
3. Iraq has lost a brutal dictator and has gained a constitutional process that is working.
Sorry, Dr. Alterman. It is good to be on the side of freedom. Bush has liberated two nations. I would like you answer this question: Do you think Iraq and Aghanistan are better or worse off today, than before Bush invaded?
The Party Party: Republicans have more fun: “Even Al Sharpton called the joke ‘one of the most despicable acts of a sitting president.’”
The devil, Proud Spirit, cannot bear to be mocked.
Along Came Polly Proof in your local dollar theater that Hollywood is out of ideas. Ben Stiller “stars” in this “comedy” that threatens to use up all the scare quotes in America in my writing this review. It is a “film” that tries to emulate the screw ball comedies of Hollywood’s golden age. Instead it merely screws the audience. It is rare to feel ripped off in a dollar theatre, but this film did it. Stiller looks like he is memorizing the script for his next film while doing this one. . . Anyone want to invent a game “Two steps to Ben Stiller”. . . And Jennifer Aniston proves that an ability to light up the small screen may simply prove that you are a 30 watt bulb. The script is only funny when Stiller does “comedy” routines. . . And in the middle simply stops making any sense at all. No writer should want credit for this mess.
If Dick Clarke is telling the truth about the President, then he is a cad for not resigning publicly in protest years ago. If Dick Clarke is telling the truth about the Bush administration, then his “backing them” under oath before Congress is the worst sort of lie. He lied to keep his job and not for some greater purpose. If Dick Clarke is telling the truth, he is doing so now only when it can make him money from book sales. If Dick Clarke is telling the truth about the President, then he owed it to the American people to tell us as quickly as possible.
Dick Clarke is either lying now and so betraying his commander in chief for money, like Judas betrayed our Lord for silver, or he was lying then betraying our nation for a job, like Judas.
Either way Dante has a place for Mr. Clarke. Say hello to Cassius, Brutas, and Judas for me Mr. Clarke.
Still thinking about Dorothy Sayers Mind of the Maker. Why do so few people know about this brilliant book?
An artist creates. This act, according to Sayers, reflects the triune nature of God: Idea, Energy/Action, and Power. The author writes her book based on an Idea. This idea, like the Father is the ground for the books existence. Everything is dependent on it. Most of what we think of as “creating” a book is the “Energy.” Finally, the book has power to impact both its audience and author. It becomes a thing itself.
If I assume ideas are found in the Mind of God, a concept I accept as almost an axiom of faith, then I am still left to wonder about fictional characters. Where do they live? Are we sub-creators as Tolkien suggests? Sherlock Holmes seems real to me. Does he live in a sub-reality, dependent on our faith in his existence? Gandalf lives.
Perhaps, there is some deep truth behind the Peter Pan injunction to “believe in fairies” or one of them will die. If I believe in fairies, do I create them? Perhaps. If all the world doubted them, then they would have been, but they would be dead as a living Idea. The ugliness of heresy comes only when it has living believers. It becomes weaker as belief fades. Some believe in fairies, but too many of us believe in Darwin and ugliness. We make real a world of Images in our belief.
While we are at it, if you have not read Gaudy Night, then you are missing the best description of love between a man and a women ever found in a detective story. Real passion, not airport rack wanna-be stuff.
MiceAge.com: “This year’s cuts asked for by Matt and his top Senior Vice President Greg Emmer are mostly unseen by the customer. For instance, the yearly ‘Cast Survey’, which was incessantly touted by Paul and Cynthia as an important feedback tool, was cancelled. The huge cost of creating, administering and tallying the survey results has been saved, not to mention the extra two hours of pay that all of the hourly Cast Members received if they filled out the survey forms for 20 minutes. What made that money hog an easy target for Matt though was the survey statistic that never seemed to budge from year to year that stated that a majority of the people taking the survey didn’t actually think the results would be acted upon by senior management.”
Leaders act. Other people follow. Disneyland has been in the grip of people who study problems. Thank God it is now in the hand of people who solve them. I have a new piece coming to Californiarepublic.org on Procedure Man. It is important to California government that we rid ourselves of the Gray Davis Procedure Men. . . And allow our Governor to lead. This applies to business and education in the state as well.