Ralph Nader on the airlines

A partial response to the JetBlue's recent actions, Nader praises Southwest for not doing what other airlines have done: Gouged in the Skies: Gotcha Capitalism in the Airline Industry. While it may be better if airlines compensate for increasing fuel costs by raising fares instead of charging for items that were complimentary in the past, which action is more likely to cause customers to consider other airlines? On the other hand, if everyone is doing it (except Southwest, which does not travel everywhere in the United States), where is the incentive to do the former?

Austen Blog on Austen editions

AustenBlog: REVIEW: Jane Austen’s Novels, Oxford World’s Classics Edition
Ask AustenBlog: What Edition of Jane Austen’s Novels Should I Buy?

Jane Austen Moleskine Notebooks back in stock

Videos with Alice Waters

Charlie Rose Greenroom - Alice Waters


Edible Education, 2008


Edible Education (2 of 2), 2008


Yeah, she supports Obama. We can overlook that, can't we?

Alice Waters clip in "Ripe for Change"

Alice Water's Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, CA


Chez Pannise

More on Chef Waters.

Damian Thompson: Rome's plans for the Anglicans

Twitch: [SAGEUK WORLD] 전설의 고향 (Hometown of Legends) - Ep. 1 구미호 (Fox with Nine Tails)

official website for the 2003? Hometown of Legends: 전설의 고향

Official website for the current series? KBS2 수목드라마 전설의 고향

Macross 25th Anniversary

All That VF

alt:

Hey Sarge, do you remember V? I watched the original miniseries with the MD. It certainly kept my attention. Unfortunately, the storytelling became worse with the miniseries, which couldn't really maintain production values, either.

via AICN, Exclusive: A look The Script For V: THE MOVIE!

AICN: LETHAL WEAPON 5?!?!

Trackingb says Gibson and Glover are interested in reprising their roles. No other details are given, except that 1) franchise producer Joel Silver has already been contacted by Black, and 2) the storyline would deal with an about-to-retire Riggs coaxing an already retired Murtaugh out for a "ride off into the sunset" case/adventure.

I'd rather see Mel Gibson do another Mad Max movie than a Lethal Weapon movie... just saying.

AR: Reviving the Household Economy, Part Two

Reviving the Household Economy, Part Two: The Decline and Fall of Home Economics

John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report

Behind the collapse of the household economy in modern American society lie sweeping changes in social roles and the collective imagination. Can those forces be harnessed to deal with the challenges of a world in the wake of peak oil?

original

Postwar propaganda – “advertising” is too mild a word for the saturation campaigns that flooded the popular media in the late 1940s and early 1950s – presented middle class families with a glittering image of affluence in which convenient, up-to-date consumer products provided by the market would replace the dowdy routine of the domestic economy with a life of elegance and leisure. The reality behind the facade turned out to be much less palatable. Denied both the place in the market economy they had occupied during the war years, and the role in the household economy their mothers had held before that, millions of middle class women across America found themselves expected to lead a purely decorative and essentially purposeless existence.

Dr. Fleming writes this response:

Catholics who argue for mass immigration from Mexico are making two mistakes: first, in treating the Catholic Church as a kind of universalist ideology–something like Communism–and, second, in pretending that nothing else matters. Obviously, common faith is important and it would be better not to have religious diversity within a body politic. We do not, however, always live in the country we would like to and have to accept reality. Whatever our background, we must be artificial Englishmen, to some extent, if we are to be fully American, and being English we are then European and being European we draw our cultural inspiration from Greece, Rome, the Germanic and Celtic barbarians in our past, and from the Jewish traditions reinterpreted by the Church.

I think, on balance, that people from non-British backgrounds from one to three generations back might be better off if they preserved–or rather learned–their ancestral languages and cultures as a sort of reserve culture. American culture is now so thin and the WASP element so diluted and so self-hating, it is only healthy for a third-generation Greek or Italian or Pole to bone up on his heritage. The same goes for those who come from Middle Eastern and Asian cultures who, if they are Christian, can stay connected with the European tradition. As for non-Christian immigrants, I don’t think they should be encouraged, though, ultimately, it is none of my business. The problem with MacIntyre is that he could never entirely escape his leftism, which requires him to be fair and objective toward aliens. As for a common American core, I don’t think that is possible any longer. We have to recover, reinvent our civilization and pass it on. That can only be done in small communities. The entire world is against us.

"We have to recover, reinvent our civilization and pass it on." Elsewhere he advocates a return to the "classics," in their original languages. The New Scot should be in better shape than me. More thoughts from Dr. Fleming on liberal education here.

Kim So Hyun, "Think of Me"

I don't like ALW or Phantom of the Opera, but she really sings this quite well... perhaps even better than Sarah Brightman. (SB can try to sing opera, but I think she has been trained too much to sing in musicals? To this beginner, Miss Kim sounds like she has had some proper vocal training... ) I think E. Asia still maintains some standards when it comes to vocal performance in musicals--perhaps a carry-over of how seriously they take music education? Look at how many classical musicians and vocalists there are in China, Japan, and S. Korea.

Another anime brought back...

I mentioned a while ago that there was a new Space Battleship Yamato in the works... the trailer is out. (I don't think the CG looks good at all...)

Official website.

Space Battleship Yamato OP

Dr. Fleming on what can be done

Dr. Fleming writes in the comments:

A return to local control would be a necessary though not sufficient step toward recreating some form of decent republican life. On the other hand, much good would also be done if our elite class became a genuine aristocracy as opposed to merely a vulgar and self-destructive oligarchy.

The problem, it seems to me, has two major components: 1) an overcentralized system that drains the energy out of everyday life and small communities, and 2) a decadent, stupid, suicidal culture that his shared by lords and peasants alike. Our decadence makes any move toward decentralization very difficult if not impossible and the stranglehold of the system– both government and cultural institutions-makes a cultural/moral recovery difficult.

It seems to me that the only practical steps that can be taken at this point would consist of A) a national or even international movement of serious people, who B) organize themselves locally and regionally into cells, not for direct action against government but to revivify private life and cultural traditions. In a way, some of this goes on through larger religious groups and even with various strands and movements in “the arts”–music education, for example. But for what interests us or some of us on this site, we need the equivalent of a national or international network of local and laergely autonomous John Randolph Clubs, where people would meet to clarify issues, talk about books, and discuss how to apply the big ideas to small local issues. The point would not be activism or even education per se but the creation of small-scale little communities of decent civilized people. Any way, it is a thought I have been toying with the past few days. Perhaps I have seen Frank Capra’s Meet John Doe once too often.

How would this differ from Alasdair MacIntyre's "Benedict option"?

From MacIntyre's After Virtue:

A crucial turning point in that earlier history occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium. What they set themselves to achieve instead--often not recognizing fully what they were doing--was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness. If my account of our moral condition is correct, we ought also to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point. What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us. And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope. This time however the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are waiting not for Godot, but for another--doubtless very different--St. Benedict. (263)

New Gatchaman CG movie

I first saw Gatchaman when I was a child, when it was aired here under the name Battle of the Planets. For some reason all the good cartoons were shown in Arizona--Battle of the Planets, Speed Racer, Johnny Quest. I thought my cousins were pretty lucky. I watched plenty of TV at home, so I don't think I missed anything. (Though I remember one of them, not sure which one, was being shown on a local affiliate that was not in the area, or too early in the morning.) Well, at least I got to see Star Blazers and Robotech in California. Yes, I was very much a TV addict when I was young. Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers... I didn't care much for Electric Company. Lots of Scooby-Doo, and the other cartoons that American children grew up with. I also saw some episodes of shows that had been syndicated--Bionic Woman, The Rookies, SWAT, The Six-Million Dollar Man, Hart to Hart, Charlie's Angels... plus shows being aired for the first time, like Battlestar Galactica. I think I even saw a couple of episodes of Wonder Woman. And then there were the Planet of the Apes movies. (Unbelievable that I grew up in the latter half of the 70s. I don't remember much of the 70s at all, besides the clothing. The 70s in Calfiornia didn't really resemble the 70s I see reflected in TV and movies, but I was just a child, so I wasn't exposed to all of it. Maybe L.A. was closer to the 70s than the Bay Area, but I just remember the house we lived in and the stairs, not much else. Though my mother has stories of us riding the bus and me eating hot dogs.) With the 80s came the sitcoms, but there were plenty of other shows as well--Remington Steele, Scarecrow and Mrs. King. I could keep on going. Having grown up with the television, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that I have a rather strange sort of nostalgia for TV shows. No doubt someone could write a psychology paper on this phenomenon. (A transfer of affection from real people to fictional characters?) Just yesterday I saw that the DVD set for the last two seasons of Remington Steele was available and I was tempted to watch it, since I never got to see the series finale...

Anyway, my cousins and I all thought Princess was hot.



It appears that the studio producing the new Gatchaman movie is following the lead of Final Fantasy, Appleseed and some other recent movies and using computer animation. Twitch: Three New Screen Shots for Imagi’s GATCHAMAN.

What's happened to Tatsunoko?

wiki on Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and the OAV

Battle of the Planets (G-force)


Compare with the original Japanese opening:


Okay, this is rather sad:

Lin Chi-ling photos

Taiwan model Lin Chi-ling poses during a promotional event at a shopping mall in Hong Kong August 22, 2007. (Reuters)

CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 19: (L-R) Hu Jun, director John Woo, Chi-ling Lin, Tony Leung and Zhao Wei attend the 'Red Cliff' photocall at the Carlton Hotel during the 61st International Cannes Film Festival on May 19 , 2008 in Cannes, France. (Getty)

Director John Woo (2nd L) poses with cast members (from L-R) Hu Jun, Lin Chi-ling, Tony Leung, Zhao Wei and. Chang Chen during a photocall for the film "Red Cliff" at the 61st Cannes FIlm Festival May 19, 2008. (Reuters)


Reuters

Taiwanese actress and model Lin Chi-ling poses as she arrives to attend the screening of US director Steven Soderbergh's film 'Che' at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival on May 21, 2008 in Cannes, southern France. The May 14-25 festival winds up with the awards ceremony for the prestigious Palme d'Or, to be determined by a jury headed by Hollywood "bad boy" Sean Penn. AFP/GETTY


Reuters

Director John Woo (3rd L) poses with cast members (from L-R) Chang Chen, Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Lin Chi-ling during a premiere for the film "Red Cliff" in Seoul June 25, 2008.

From left: Chinese actors Zhang Fengyi, Hu Jun, Hong Kong director John Woo and Taiwanese actress Lin Chi-Ling pose after a press conference of their new movie "Red Cliff " in Hong Kong Monday, June 30, 2008. AP/Vincent Yu

In this undated photo released by Meiyi Entertainment on Tuesday, July 8, 2008, Taiwanese actress Lin Chi-Ling appears in the production of the movie" Red Cliff " directed by Hong Kong director John Woo.


Taiwanese actress Lin Chi-ling poses for photographs during a press conference for her new film "Red Cliff" by famed Hong Kong director John Woo, in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, July 8, 2008. AP/ Wally Santana

From Left to Right, Japanese-Taiwanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro, Hong Kong director John Woo, Taiwanese actor Chang Chen, Taiwanese actress Lin Chi-ling, and Hong Kong actor Tony Leung pose for photographs during a press conference for their new film "Red Cliff" in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, July 8, 2008. AP/Wally Santana

Taiwan actress/model Lin Chi-ling attends a news conference for her new film "Red Cliff" in Taipei July 8, 2008. Reuters

Taiwanese actor Chang Chen, Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, Hong Kong director John Woo, his wife, Annie Woo Ngau Chun-lung, Taiwan-born actor Takeshi Kaneshiro and Taiwan actress/model Lin Chi-ling pose (R-L) for a group photo during a news conference for their new film "Red Cliff" in Taipei July 8, 2008.

(L to R) Taiwan actress/model Lin Chi-ling, Japanese-Taiwanese heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro, Hong Kong director John Woo, his wife Annie, Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Taiwan actor Chang Chen pose for photographs at the premiere of Woo's latest historical epic film "Red Cliff" in Hsintien, Taipei county, on July 8, 2008. The film is based on the Battle of Red Cliffs and events during the Three Kingdoms period in ancient China.

Hong Kong director John Woo, second from right, poses with Taiwanese actor Chang Chen, left, Taiwanese actress Lin Chi-Ling, second from left, and Chinese actor Zhang Fengyi during a press conference to promote their new movie "Red Cliff" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, July 11, 2008.

Interview with 斎藤千和 and 中島愛?

m-serve styleVol.57 Ver1
m-serve style Vol.57 Ver2
m-serve style Vol.57 Ver3
m-serve style Vol.57 Ver4

AICN: Clippage From NBC’s BOURNEy New Christian Slater Series!! It’s No Surprise To Me It Is MY OWN WORST ENEMY!!

AICN: Cylon-Centric BATTLESTAR GALACTICA TV-Movie Prequel To Hit SciFi Subsequent To Series Finale!!

KK looking out for me

Hahaha! From KK:

OLOP Hispanic Community is selling tamales, tortas, tacos, quesadillas,
etc. all day next Sunday. Maybe you should go and see if you can find a
wife who can make yummy tamales.

The shrine's website.

Miss Korea 2008

Miss Korea 2008 Na Re, center, and runner-ups of the 52nd Miss Korea Pageant smile and wave to the audience at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts Wednesday evening. From left, second runner-up Lee Yu-na; second runner up and Miss Korea Natural F&P Seo Seol-hee; first runner-up Kim Min-jung; Na; first runner-up Choi Bo-in; second runner-up and Miss Korea-Jin Air Chang Yun-hee; and second runner up and Miss Korea-Hankook Ilbo Kim Hee-kyeong. / Korea Times photo by Choi Hung-soo

More about the 'contest' and the finalists. Official website. Slideshow.

Dr. Fleming has posted the parts of his essay that were missing from the first two parts: Poor Mexico, Poor America: Extracts Omitted

What he says may surprise some who think they have the paleos figured out on immigration, or believe them to be racists.

The future of American culture is the heart of the immigration question, and if the cultural question remains taboo, the doom of America is fixed, even if the means and the will were found to seal the border and repatriate large numbers of illegal Mexican immigrants. Economic analysis of immigration, important as it is, does not touch this most fundamental issue, which is the kind of country we are leaving our children and grandchildren. Economics is a blind science that cannot tell the difference between citizens and foreigners, friends and enemies. We are told, for example, that the soundest criterion for legal immigrants is their educational level and potential earnings. This may be, but if 400 million hardworking and intelligent Chinese immigrants were admitted, our economy would boom, but our grandchildren would be Chinese, not American. Chicano activists understand this reality, which is why they talk about Reconquista and dream of rebuilding the Aztec world of Aztlan. Professional critics of immigration policy who pretend this question does not exist are like the coward who hears burglars invading his home and pulls the covers up over his head.

America’s weakness and self-hatred were not forced upon the American people at the point of a bayonet. We accepted the propaganda and paid for the soft-core Marxists who shoved it down the throats of our schoolchildren. In the decades following World War II, American culture was transformed. Our historical and cultural roots were torn up, and, to the extent we have an historical imagination, it is of ourselves as the descendants of oppressors, exploiters, and murderers. Now in our weakness and self-contempt, we fear high Mexican birth rates, because Anglo-Americans refuse to have children, and we cannot stanch the hemorrhaging border for precisely the same reason that we insist on teaching our children to hate the people and habits that made their country. The fault, my dear American Brutuses, is not in the stars–nor in demographic forces or tectonic shifts of geopolitical power–but in ourselves that we are underlings.

The first step toward addressing and resolving the cultural problems presented by mass immigration is to quit denying their existence. The second is to give up the glib and futile language of assimilation and recognize the fact that immigrants will affect us as much as we affect them. The third is to recognize that the larger part of the problem is of our own devising: American mass culture, including the schools that purvey mass education, are breeding grounds for anti-American resentment and American self-hatred.

To halt and reverse this process, Americans must be willing to take several boldly conservative steps. Quite apart from whatever is done to control legal and illegal immigration, we have to transform the teaching of humanities, in elementary and high schools as much as in universities. The conservative defense of the “traditional” curriculum has been, up till now, predicated on liberal and leftist concepts like “freedom of expression” and “respect for diversity.” Western culture is not valued as something good in itself or as our precious heritage but only as the foundation for an “open society” that encourages toleration of opposing points of view. It is time to dispense with such fantasies, which have little to do with the flesh and blood people who created and defended the West, and to revive the older understanding, that the purpose of a nation’s educational system is to form the character and historical imagination of the nation’s citizens. In our case, this would mean that European and American history must be taught from a Western and American point of view; that, beginning in the lower grades, the classics of English and American literature are required reading, and that the Greek and Latin classics, which, along with the teaching of Latin, were the foundation of our civilization for over two thousand years, be given once again their honored place in the curriculum.
The celebration of American history and the revival of our civilization should not be made at the expense of the rich cultural heritage that Mexicans and other Latinos bring with them. Although many, if not most recent immigrants have been poorly educated, there is no reason why they and their children cannot be encouraged to learn real Spanish and to imbibe the literary and cultural traditions of Spain and Latin America. Study of their authentic history and culture would replace the narcissistic and inflammatory Chicano Studies programs that indoctrinate Latinos into a culture of victimology that can only retard their social and economic progress.

The theory of assimilation encouraged educationists to think they could impose a uniform culture on this vast continental empire of diverse regions and states. The result was the sterile ideology taught in civics classes and expounded every four years at the two parties’ national conventions. Instinctively, students turned away from the lies and embraced either the culture of revolution or the mass commercial culture of self-gratification. True diversity would mean a revival of regional and ethnic identities within the context of a broad Anglo-American paradigm. Just as individual states and counties are beginning to control illegal immigration, they might be allowed to develop their own variations on the European American civilization that is our heritage so long as the traditional core is strengthened. Yankees and Southerners alike respect Thomas Jefferson; Polish and Italian Americans love Shakespeare. We all, as American citizens, revere the rule of law and the British liberties preserved in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Elsewhere people focus on questions of economics and such. Dr. Fleming rightly looks at the question of culture. One might respond that it is enough that immigrants share the same moral norms. But is that enough to sustain a community? It may be necessary for concord, but does the human animal require more than that? Is it enough for norms to be transmitted through law, or do we need our heroes and stories, and the other tools of culture?

Crunchy Con: District Attorney Caleb Stegall!

Niece #1--*puts towel on her head* "I am a sister."
"Daddy will take me to the airport."
"I will go to Mass by myself."
"Look at baby chick. Baby chick in the name."

Edit: "She [Mama Mary] is wearing blue." "She is talking to God the Father."

Niece #2: "Maa! Maa!" "Maaam!"

NLM Interview with Dr. Alcuin Reid on Fr. Adrian Fortescue and the Upcoming New Edition of the Ceremonies

The current edition is published by St. Michael's Abbey Press. It is being sold at a discount, probably because of the new edition (which is actually available for pre-order at Amazon).

Burns & Oates special offers: Weinandy's Aquinas on Scripture is on sale. ("Please quote order source code CQ48 when placing an order.")

Related links:
Adrian Fortescue: Priest and Scholar (another version)
'The Wisdom of Adrian Fortescue' ed. Michael Davies
The Genius of Adrian Fortescue, Priest and Scholar

Christian Bale in British GQ

Full Scans of Christian on GQ August Issue
Christian Bale GQ Shoot by Vincent Peters

Lots of photos and scans at ChristianBaleFan.

WTA Tennis fashion show

Taki's favorite:



MONTREAL, QC - JULY 27: Ana Ivanovic of Serbia attends the WTA Tennis fashion show portion of the Rogers Cup Tennis Tournament at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel on July 27, 2008 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Getty)

MONTREAL, QC - JULY 27: Fashion designer Yves Jean Lacasse (L) and one of his models pose on the red carpet before the WTA Tennis fashion show part of the Rogers Cup Tennis Tournament at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel on July 27, 2008 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The fashions worn by the models were designed by Lacasse. (Getty)

MONTREAL, QC - JULY 27: Fashion designer Yves Jean Lacasse walks out after his show during the WTA Tennis fashion show part of the Rogers Cup Tennis Tournament at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel on July 27, 2008 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Getty)






MONTREAL, QC - JULY 27: Maria Sharapova of Russia attends the WTA Tennis fashion show part of the Rogers Cup Tennis Tournament at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel on July 27, 2008 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

More:
WTA Tennis Fashion Show | Athletes and Models Hq Pictures
Ana Ivanovic at the WTA Tennis Fashion Show! « Rafael Román Martel
SuperiorPics Celebrity Forums: Maria Sharapova @ the WTA Tennis ...
WTA players at the Rogers Cup fashion show in Montreal | Rogers Cup

Pontifical High Mass @ Merton College

Lots of photos @ TraditionalCatholic.org.uk and SouthAshfordPriest. One photo from each site, both of Knights of Malta:


via NLM


Links:
Order of Malta® Federal Association, USA
Order of Malta® American Association, USA
Knights of Malta
This page crashed Firefox last time I tried to open it, so I don't know what it is like:
KNIGHTS OF MALTA
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the United Nations
more links here

MG, Betrayed by the village idiot

Betrayed by the village idiot
By The Mogambo Guru

The low-IQ socialist scumbags in the House of Representatives in Washington, DC among other legislative horrors have raised the debt limit of the US by another US$800 billion, taking the limit to a staggering $10.6 trillion, so that they could continue to act like the mental defective lowlife collectivist scumbags that they truly, truly are, which is destroying our money and our country, which is why I hate them, and which explains why I intend to vote against every incumbent as often as I can, and urge everyone else to do so, too, (except for the people in Texas who elect Ron Paul), unless I can successfully get the American people stirred up into an unruly mob so that I can take over the country and give myself a nice, big salary, a generous retirement package, and the awesome, unlimited powers of an emperor!

FPJ: Literary Profiles of Solzhenitsyn by Edward E. Ericson, Jr. and Alexis Klimoff

Anime-TV 【ゲスト】中島愛

Michael Bublé vids

Quando, Quando, Quando - Michael Bublé feat Bonita


JushiFruiti, check this one out:


Lost


Sway


Mack the Knife


Feeling Good

I have to admit that when the New Scot first played his CD, my reaction was quite tepid. But his singing is starting to grow on me. (I'm still iffy on his on-stage persona.)

NLM: Nicola Bux on the Ars Celebrandi

The Art of Celebrating the Liturgical Service

A reflection in the light of the teaching of the Church

By Nicola Bux

In order to celebrate the liturgical service with art, the priest must not resort to mundane artifices but focus on the truth of the Eucharist. The General Instrucion of the Roman Missal states: "A priest also ... when he celebrates the Eucharist, ... must serve God and the people with dignity and humility, and by his bearing and by the way he says the divine words he must convey to the faithful the living presence of Christ." The priest does not make up anything, but with his service he must render as well as possible to the eyes and ears, but also to the touch, taste and scent of the faithful, the sacrifice and thanksgiving of Christ and of the Church, whose tremendous mystery may be approached by those who have cleansed themselves from sins. How can we draw near to Him if we do not have the feeling of John the precursor: "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3, 30)? If we want the Lord to walk with us, we have to recover this awareness, otherwise we deprive our act of devotion of efficacy: the effect depends on our faith and our love.

The Priest Is Not Master of the Mysteries

The priest is minister, not master, administrator of the mysteries: he serves them, and does not use them to project his own theological or political ideas and his own image, to the point that the faithful become focused on him rather than look to Christ Who is signified by the altar and present on the altar, and high upon the cross. As the Holy Father recently warned, the culture of the image in the worldly sense marks and conditions also the faithful and the shepherds. The Italian television, as a comment to this discourse, showed a concelebration in which some priests were talking on the mobile phone. From the manner of celebrating Mass many things can be deduced: the chair of the celebrant in many places has decentralised cross and tabernacle, occupying the centre of the church, sometimes overtowering in importance the altar, ending up by resembling an episcopal cathedra, which in Eastern churches [Don Bux is also lecturer for comparative liturgy at the Ecumenical Institute of Bari - NLM] is outside of the iconostasis, to one side clearly visible. It was thus also with us before the liturgical reform.

The ars celebrandi consists in serving with love and fear the Lord: for this is expressed with kisses of the mensa and the liturgical books, bows and genuflections, signs of the cross and incensations of people and objects, gestures of offering and supplication, and the showing of the Evangeliary and of the Holy Eucharist.

Now, such a service and style of the priest celebrant or, as people love to say, the presider of the assembly - a term that leads to misunderstand the liturgy as a democratic act - can be seen from his preparing himself at vesting in the sacristy in silence and recollection for the great action that is preparing to do; from his going to the altar, which must be humble, not ostentatious, without indulging in looking to the right and left, almost as if to seek applause. Indeed, the first act is the bow or genuflection before the cross and the tabernacle, in short before the divine presence, followed by the reverent kiss of the altar and possibly by the incensation. The second act is the sign of the cross and the sober greeting of the faithful. The third one is the penitential act, to be made profoundly and with eyes lowered, while the faithful might kneel, as in the old rite - why not? - imitating the publican who pleased the Lord. The readings will be proclaimed as a word not of our own, thus with a clear and humble tone. Like the priest bows while asking for his lips and heart to be purified in order to worthily proclaim the Gospel, why could not the lectors do the same, if not visibly as in the Ambrosian rite, at least in their hearts? The voice will not be raised like in the streets, and a clear tone will be maintained for the homily, but a quiet and supplicatory one for the prayers, solemn if in song. The priest will compose himself bowed down to celebrate the anaphora still "with humble spirit and contrite heart."

The Eucharistic Wonder

He will touch the holy gifts with wonder and astonishment - the Eucharistic amazement about which John Paul II often talked - and with adoration, and the sacred vessels he will cleanse calmly and carefully, as so many fathers and saints call for. He will bow over the bread and the chalice in saying the consecrating words of Christ and while invoking the Holy Spirit at the supplication or epiclesis. He will elevate them separately fixing his gaze on them in adoration and then lowering it in meditation. He will genuflect twice in solemn adoration. He will continue with recollection and a tone of prayer the anaphora until the doxology, elevating the holy Gifts offering them to the Father. He will recite the Our Father with his hands raised and without holding others by the hand, because that is proper to the rite of peace. The priest will not leave the Sacrament on the altar to offer the sign of peace outside the sanctuary. Instead he will break the host solemnly and visibly, and then genuflect before the Eucharist and pray silently asking again to be freed from every unworthyness in order not to eat and drink his own condemnation and to be preserved for eternal life by the holy Body and precious Blood of Christ. Then he will present the Host to the faithful for communion, supplicating Domine non sum dignus, and bowed he will himself communicate first. Thus he will serve as an example to the faithful.

After communion there will be thanksgiving in silence, which better than sitting can be done standing as a sign of respect or kneeling, if possible, as John Paul II did until the end, with head bowed and hands joined; in order to ask that the gift received be for us a remedy for eternal life, as is being said while the sacred vessels are being purified. Many faithful are doing this and they are an example for us. The priest, after the final greeting and blessing, going the altar to kiss it, again lifts his eyes to the cross and bows, or genuflects to the tabernacle. Then he returns to the sacristy, recollected, without dissipating with glances and words with the grace of the mystery celebrated.

Thus the faithful will be helped to understand the holy signs of the liturgy, which is a serious matter, and in which everything has a meaning for the encounter with the mystery present.

Paul VI, in the instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium, recalls a central truth propounded by St. Thomas: "This Sacrifice, then, as the passion of Christ itself, even though it is offered for everyone, 'has no effect if not in those who unite thmesleves to the passion of Christ through faith and charity ... To them, still, it helps more or less according to the measure of their devotion'". Faith is a condition of participation in the sacrifice of Christ with all myself. In what consists the action of the faithful, different from the priest who consecrates? They, remembering, give thanks, offer and, conveniently disposed, communicate sacramentally. The most intense expression is in the response to the invitation of the priest shortly before the anaphora: "May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy Church."

Without faith and devotion of the priest there is no ars celebrandi and the participation of the faithful is not favoured, above all the perception of the mystery. Because to the Lord "are known ... [our] faith and devotion" (Roman Canon) which express themselves in the sacred gestures, bows, genuflections, hands joined, remaining kneeling. The lack of devotion in the liturgy impels many of the faithful to abandon it and dedicate themselves to secondary forms of piety, widening the gap between the one and the other.

Since the sacred liturgy is an act of Christ and the Church, not the result of our ability, it does not foresee a success which to applaud. The liturgy is not ours but his.

The Tradition of the Church

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum reminds the priest of his promise of at ordination, renewed from year to year during the Chrism Mass, to celebrate "devoutly and faithfully the mysteries of Christ for the praise of God and the sanctification of the Christian people, according to the tradition of the Church"(No. 31).

He is called upon to act in the person of Christ, he must therefore imitate Him in the supreme act of prayer and offering, and he must not deform the liturgy into a representation of his ideas, change and add anything whatsoever arbitrarily: "The Mystery of the Eucharist 'is too great for anyone to permit himself to treat it according to his own whim, so that its sacredness and its universal ordering would be obscured'."(Ibid., 11). The Mass is not the property of the priest or the community. The instruction abundantly expounds how Mass should be rightly celebrated, that is the ars celebrandi: seminarians first must learn it carefully so that they can implement it as priests.

Benedict XVI, in Sacramentum Caritatis devotes attention to the ars celebrandi (No. 38-42), understood as the art of celebrating properly, and makes of it the condition for active participation of the faithful: "The ars celebrandi is the fruit of faithful adherence to the liturgical norms in all their richness; indeed, for two thousand years this way of celebrating has sustained the faith life of all believers"(38). In the note 116 Propositio No 25 specifies that "An authentic liturgical action expresses the sacredness of the eucharistic mystery. This should be evident from the words and actions of the priest who celebrates, as he intercedes to God the Father both with the faithful and on their behalf." Then the exhortation recalls that "The ars celebrandi must foster a sense of the sacred and the use of outward signs which help to cultivate this sense, such as, for example, the harmony of the rite, the liturgical vestments, the furnishings and the sacred place" (40). Speaking of sacred art, it recalls the unity among altar, crucifix, tabernacle, ambo and chair (41): attention to the sequence which reveals the order of importance. Together with the image, the song must also serve to orient the understanding and the encounter with the mystery.

The bishop and the priest are called to express all this in the liturgy which is sacred and divine, in a manner that truly manifests the creed of the Church.

via Mutualist Blog: Total Liberty Magazine

Stuff from Twitch

[K-Film Databank Returns] Updated 08/04

Goguryeo Sageuk 바람의 나라 (Kingdom of the Wind) Wraps Chinese Shoot

TV Mainstay Hu Mei Preps Big Screen Epic 孔子 (Confucius)

The film, which starts shooting this September, is currently undergoing auditions for the main role. The press asked Hui if Tony Leung was ever considered as a candidate, but Hu will try to stay true to history and cast a larger, more imposing actor in the role. Preliminary budget is set for 150 million yuan (roughly US$ 21 million), and script will be handled by Chen Han, who also worked on John Woo’s 赤壁 (Red Cliff). Hu was apparently preparing a 60 episode drama on the subject already, when the offer to direct the story on the big screen came. This will officially mark her debut in the film scene (despite having worked in the industry already), but one shouldn’t forget she’s part of the “Fifth Generation,” graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in the early 80s along with Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang. Film will release on October 2009.

This should be interesting... did they consult any scholars for some sort of 'authentic' Confucianism? Will they recreate the Zhou rituals faithfully?

Music Video For Mamoru Oshii’s SKY CRAWLERS!
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2.0 Getting A Quick DVD Release …

Hrm, Dr. Laura has been using the resume analogy a lot recently to describe the choices people make regarding relationships, and how it reflects on them. It does work, I think, to consider how one's actions reflect one's character, and how others would perceive them if they were to learn of them.

People mistake her 'tough talk' for meanness... but as the Philosopher pointed out, some people need that sort of 'brutal' honesty in order to wake up. But some remain in denial, no matter how the truth is presented.

Some guy gave the following excuses to get out of an engagement: "It's hard to commit, I have trust issues, I don't know if I want children, I like to be alone sometimes, I can't handle the drama..." Is there anything he left out? Dr. Laura did praise him though for realizing he couldn't handle marriage and putting an end to it.

From Boundless: It's My Fault by David Barshinger
When we call sin what it really is, we can embrace truth, and life can spring again.

Asia News: Two Japanese reporters arrested and beaten: they were "investigating" the attack in Xinjiang
Two Japanese reporters arrested and beaten: they were "investigating" the attack in Xinjiang. Tokyo has said it will lodge official protests. Meanwhile, there is controversy over yesterday's attack in Xinjiang. Tighter security in Beijing and elsewhere. But for the IOC, there are no serious problems over human rights, censorship, security, and pollution. What the athletes of Nepal are thinking as they depart for Beijing.

08/04/2008 CHINA
Beijing gets a blue sky, demonstrators get beaten and activists get arrested

08/04/2008 CHINA
Xinjiang, sixteen dead in a terrorist attack by Muslim separatists

EB: Slow Food Nation gains momentum

Shepherd Bliss, Energy Bulletin

Over 50,000 people are expected at the Slow Food Nation celebration in San Francisco August 29-31. Restauranteer and food writer Alice Waters comments: "We want to lift a loud voice to change our food system. We need to change the ways we grow, distribute, and eat food, which needs to be good, clean, and fair. Things are at a crisis point with respect to health and the environment."

Slow Food Nation: tickets, schedule
Slow Food San Francisco
Slow Food Nation comes to San Francisco

Slow Food USA
Slow Food International | good, clean and fair food

Gene Logsdon, Thinking eco-logically and the food web of a bluebird

Thinking eco-logically and the food web of a bluebird

Gene Logsdon, Organic To Be

When you consider which plants, insects, and animals you ideally would like to share your backyard garden with, you think immediately of the most beautiful and beneficial creatures—perhaps bluebirds, luna moths, fiery searcher beetles, barn owls, bluegills, and foxes. You reject “ugly” or “harmful” creatures—pine voles, rosy apple aphids, starlings, and hognose snakes. This kind of thinking, perfectly logical when applied to a totally man-made environment like a house, won’t work when applied to nature.

(original)

State gov'ts need to get out of education

Steve Sailer, "No Real Solution" -- Arnold Schwarzenegger's Algebra for Dummies

My new VDARE.com column expands on a long-term topic -- how political correctness about ignoring differences in intelligence winds up hurting the people it's nominally supposed to protect. I take a look at something I'd touched on a few weeks ago -- Gov. Schwarzenegger's new mandate that every single 8th grader in California's public schools must take algebra by 8th grade (95% new material, including some decent jokes).

More evidence of the governator's incompetence. Is anyone in the state legislature protesting this? If not, they're incompetent as well. One size-fits-all education doesn't work, because people do not receive the same intellectual gifts. But returning education to local control isn't enough--education that is meant to be practical needs a local political economy to which it can be ordered.

Thomas Fleming, Poor Mexico, Poor America II

Thomas Molnar, The Liberal Hegemony: The Rise of Civil Society

The Liberal Hegemony: The Rise of Civil Society
Thomas Molnar (IR 29:2, Spring 1994) - 08/05/08

From the eleventh to the fifteenth centu­ries, and then increasingly beyond, we wit­ness the incredible growth of civil society, unthinkable in other civilizations. The mea­sure of its growth is its increasing articula­tion and, naturally, its power. Civil society intelligently exploited the conflicts between Church and State, taking generally the side of the king who was struggling against his own rivals, the anti-burgher feudal lords and the similarly feudal lord-bishops. His jurists, a reliable rampart around his power, were mostly of burgher origin themselves, and so were the personnel of his adminis­tration, blocking whenever possible the power of the nobility. The growing bour­geois power can be ascertained even today in every old European city and its architec­ture. Next to beautiful churches (Prague, Florence, Ghent, etc.), one finds magnifi­cent city halls, the private palaces of mer­chants meant to compete (in Brussels, Flo­rence, Bruges, Frankfurt) with the noble families’ chateaux, the feudal fortresses, even the royal and episcopal residences. And what was true of buildings was also true of a whole branch of art, what could be called “bourgeois” or “third-estate” art: the burgher joined the courtier in having his portrait painted, in purchasing relics and having them encased in precious stone, in having magnificent prayer books, organiz­ing splendid burials in churches to which they financially contributed.

These are only the outward manifesta­tions of growing power and wealth. There was more. The vast network of commerce, industry, and banking increased the burghers’ influence on policies. They lent money to the papal court, to the imperial court, they financed huge overseas opera­tions and possessed entire fleets to carry them out with handsome profits. They en­dowed monasteries, sponsored book publishing, and had a hand in new religious movements, wars, and crusades against the Turks. They even had the beginnings of an ideology, starting with the fourteenth century, not surprisingly at a time when the Church was going through a series of crises as a consequence of new battles against the growing royal power. And when royal pow­er proved finally to be the winner in these conflicts with the Church, the burgher class is found on the side of the former. The ideas of a Marsilius of Padua, whom we maycall a disciple of William of Ockham (the nominalist philosopher), display daring novelties about bourgeois power, still dis­simulated, of course, in the rhetoric of faith and doctrine, but revolutionary for the times, the middle of the fourteenth centu­ry. The burghers’ cause was to derive enor­mous as yet theoretical benefits from these ideas: burgher participation at Councils, increase of imperial power at the expense of the Church, the pope’s demotion to the rank of an imperial civil servant! The Gelasian doctrine was all but forgotten.

The ideology of civil society was still far from its later formulation, yet we should understand in advance the decisive role it was to play inside the still-Christian com­monwealth of a Europe at least nominally united in its faith. This is a culminating moment, with the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a first zenith. It is evident that both Church and State had a well-articulat­ed and deepened “ideology.” For the first, it was the admirable edifice of the Christian dogmatic and corpus of doctrine, jurispru­dence, and moral teaching—which had as­similated the best of Hellenic philosophy and Roman law. There is no need here to enter into the details. The State similarly rested on natural and Roman law, on the old tribal custom, and ancient philosophy. Again, the details are documented in the huge literature of statecraft, law, financial policies, and the “wisdom of nations.” The bourgeoisie faced the uncomfort­able situation of not resting on a political theory of its own, of not being able to justify its power and interests. Political philosophy of past ages passed quickly over such chap­ters, such issues, attributing them to alien thought, that of State and Church. Aristotle’s Politics begins typically with the household, but only to establish the truth that the life of the polisobeys altogether different rules and considerations. Even the contemporary political literature took no notice of bour­geois interests, and speculated (Machiavelli, Jean Bodin, the English jurists) on the place that the new Prince must occupy at the head of a well constructed commonwealth. There was only an indirectly orientated literature that took bourgeois interests into account, with writers hiding their preoccupations in a humanistic garb. Only Protestantism was to produce a political literature wherein civil society’s interests and ideological make­up were frankly displayed, and even there we must separate particles of the new polit­ical doctrine from philosophical consider­ations, as in the case of Hobbes and Spinoza. In retrospect, it is important to note the need of civil society to formulate an ideol­ogy of its own, an indispensable instrument to bring about first, its prise de conscience, then, its equality with its age-old rivals, State and Church; and finally, its (at the time unexpected) hegemony. The last four centuries appear then as the gradual acqui­sition of political hegemony by civil society, a historical first which still leaves all con­cerned open-mouthed. Let’s spell it out: modern history is the history of the growth of civil society’s hegemonic position within the framework of Western nations.

I'm not sure if I agree with his conclusions, but his essay is something to mull over.
"Thus a valid point may be made that civil society achieved its century-long, if not historical, objective of neutralizing its two great rivals, and placing its own ideology—liberalism and/or socialism (or various com­binations)—at the center of the common­wealth."

The end of JetBlue as a cheap carrier?

I have not looked at the prices of tickets for JetBlue for a while; I know the airlines have started charging for luggage. If their airfares are still lower than those of other carriers, how much longer can this last? Some have complained that the airlines have been 'nickel-and-diming' customers, but what choice do air carriers have? Many were already struggling to stay in business before the most recent rise of fuel costs; increase in oil prices have just made things worse.

US Airways to follow JetBlue's pillow fee

Forest Hills, N.Y.-based JetBlue said Monday that it had partnered with CleanBrands LLC, a Rhode Island-based company, to offer customers an eco-friendly travel blanket and pillow on flights longer than two hours. The $7 kit, which fliers can take home with them, comes with a $5 coupon to home furnishings retailer Bed Bath & Beyond

MV OA - Sky Love (Seung Ah and Ki Joon's Love Theme)

21 Accents by Amy Walker


Amy Walker interview - "21 Accents" video


Her channel on Youtube.
Amy Walker - Mahalo

Aside from country singers, it isn't easy to find a clip on Youtube of someone speaking with a pleasant-sounding Southern accent... here's another clip of Shelby Foote:

Shelby Foote on Civil War generals


Who else has a distinguished accent?

wiki on Southern American English
Do You Speak American
Virginia’s Many Voices - FCPL

Rhonda Vincent - I've Forgotten You

Rhonda Vincent and the Rage - Last Best Place

Miscellany for Monday

TrekMovie: First Cut of Star Trek Complete - Paramount Preview Goes Well

Does Paramount have the franchise that it needs? Will the movie satisfy fans of TOS or will it alienate the core base? And will people new to Trek be interested? Will the movie capture the optimism, the 'hope' of Gene Roddenberry's original vision? Will James Howard Kunstler watch the movie? These questions won't be answered until next Summer.

Bah, "it's just a movie."

Who knows what the state of the nation will be like by next Summer. Mr. Jeff Culbreath indulges his imagination and makes some predictions. Mass entertainment is a distraction and takes away time that could be spent on something that would build up authentic culture. As I've said before, though, this is difficult to do alone.

Does Guy Pearce have a Southern accent in The Traitor? How many of the big Summer movies feature Southerners this year? I can't think of one. (Not that I've seen many of the Summer movies, but no movie with Southern characters stands out.)

The Stephen D. Lee Institute... I learned of it through this thread: America’s Most Wanted. Last night I had a dream about starting a Catholic school for teaching the classics and the Southern political tradition. I've been spending too much time at Chronicles. It is sad to see so many Southerners lose their intellectual heritage and become Republican cheerleaders. Even now there are some in the North who hold on to a traditional understanding of federalism and states' rights, but they are even fewer than the guardians of the Southern political tradition.

Michael C. Tuggle, Seceding From the Empire Pt 1


Seceding from the Empire Pt 2
Seceding from the Empire Pt 3
Seceding from the Empire Pt 4
Seceding from the Empire Pt 5
Seceding from the Empire Pt 6

From Human Scale by Kirkpatrick Sale:

Not that the youthful United States government was a particularly autocratic one, not that at all. In fact it was run by men who saw themselves as truly libertarian, ins ervice to those principles of federalism and republicanism that did much to spread power out from the center to the state capitals and the counties and towns. But it did not take more than a few dozen years before the acute Thomas Jefferson, who had done so much to assure that the new government would be restrained, began to fear that even this much centralism was beginning to rot the republic and remove the essential affairs of state from those who should of right be tangling with them. Around 1816, after having served his stint in the presidency perhaps not wisely nor too well, he began to revive an idea that had long been part of his political creed: ward government. A system of small 'elementary republics,' he began to feel--units of perhaps a hundred men or two, populations of 500 to 1,000 in all--was essential to the salvation of the American state, and a better alternative than his earlier notion of recurring revolutions ('a little rebellion, now and then'). What he urged on all who would hear him was 'small republics' by which 'every man in the State' could become 'an acting member of the Common government, transacting in person a great portion of its rights and duties, subordinate indeed, yet important, and entirely within his competence.' 'Divide [government] among the many,' he declared, so that each citizen may feel 'that he is a participator in the government of affairs, not merely at an election one day in teh year, but every day; when there shall not be a man in the State who will not be a member of some one of its councils, great or small, he will let the heart be torn out of his body sooner than his power wrested from him by a Caesar or a Bonaparte.' Thus a nation of face-to-face democracy, of town meetings, of neighborhood government, where 'the voice of the whole people would be fairly, fully, and peaceably expressed, discussed, and decided by the common reason' of very citizen, every day, everywhere.

The Jeffersonian formula was never tried, not even seriously debated in the land--Jefferson himself had effectively retired from public life and chose not to enter new lists at this late date, his passions not quite up to his convictions. And even as it was being voiced, the large shadow of the Federal and state government was moving slowly out to dim and extinguish the small lights of self-government that existed: one after another the towns and cities of the mid-Atlantic region abandoned town meetings or made them ritualistic annual affairs; the corporate form of city government, with mayors and councils, was pushed by conservatives as a way to keep the peace and put decisions into 'responsible' hands; and the township system was downgraded in favor of greater power to the state and, to a somewhat lesser degree, Federal governments. (450-1).

Thomas Fleming, Poor Mexico, Poor America I

Urbanites in the edible forest

Amanda Kovattana, Energy Bulletin

"Farmers should not go to university," Jo said, "what is taught there is not sustainable. What good is it for a farmer to have an education if he is not taught how to be sustainable?" I glanced at Jo's boy Than wondering how this boy would be educated. ... Yet I understood what Jo was saying. Perhaps an education was just another form of runaway consumerism training students to increase their needs and consume more resources in order to "succeed". What, indeed, was sustainable about it? What was progress for a Thai farmer if the use of modern agriculture meant endless debt and health problems from pesticide use?

Peter Morici, The Lingering Economic Malaise

Stan Cox, Turning Your Lawn into a Victory Garden Won't Save You -- Fighting the Corporations Will

via an article linked to by the Crunchy Con

Kitchen Gardeners International

Andrew Cusack, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1918–2008

Thomas Storck, How I Didn't Become a Conservative

Lots of new material up at the ChesterBelloc Mandate.

Sharon Astyk, Ready, Aim... (original)

One of the criticisms levelled at my end of (the relocalizers, permaculturists, sustainability crew) is that we’re unrealistic, utopian, that we don’t fully grasp how hard it will be to simply keep alive, and now we’re shooting at making things better?!? And there’s almost certainly some truth to that criticism - as there is to all potent critiques. And lord knows, as a recent Onion Headline (”Small, Dedicated Group of Concerned Citizens Fails to Change World”) points up, it is easy to get a little too fuzzy and cute about empowerment and imagine that simply by reducing the scale of some things while fundraising and putting up the right bumperstickers that we’ll magically make all the entrenched powers go away.

But while they are pretty good at ignoring or subverting small groups of concerned citizens, the old adage about coyotes (that they are more scared of you than you are of them) rather applies to politicians, corporations and other entrenched powers when faced with big groups of pissed off people. Want proof? Look at history - at the number of times angry groups of people have changed societies quite rapidly and radically. It happens all the time. It isn’t happening yet, but that doesn’t mean it can’t.

So as I cast about for answers to what my correspondent can dream for his children, and I for mine, I found this - a dream of anger, used wisely. A world in which today’s parents, and all today’s grownups have the courage to get angry, and use the power they have. In which they have the ability to see what is possible, and to take in a host of ways as much power as they can for ordinary people. As institutions and politicians and corporations are more and more proved utterly unequal to the task of meeting our needs, we can open our eyes and see that we can meet them - or we can withdraw our support and tolerance from those institutions until serve us, rather than forcing us to serve them.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, A World Split Apart

Seems like everyone is posting the commencement address Alexander Solzhenitsyn delivered at Harvard in 1978. For example, over at WWWTW: Solzhenitsyn's 1978 Harvard commencement address. Why shouldn't I join the bandwagon? Here is the audio and video of that speech.

Autobiography of Alexander Solzhenitsyn
BBC NEWS | Europe | Obituary: Alexander Solzhenitsyn
SPIEGEL Interview with Alexander Solzhenitsyn
St. Austin Review: An Interview with Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Daniel J. Mahoney, Traducing Solzhenitsyn

Russian Writer Awarded by Putin

FPJ: The Treasonous Clerk: Reviving the Culture Wars, Again
James Matthew Wilson - 08/04/08

In a remarkably facile bit of reporting, Patricia Cohen, writing recently in The New York Times claims that the young faculty slowly replacing Baby Boomers in the contemporary university are creatures of a decidedly more “moderate” political stamp. Yet she makes only the most modest efforts to verify or explain the meaning of such an observation. In fact, while younger faculty are less likely to define themselves as political activists, this is a sign more clearly of the complacent acceptance by young faculty of leftist ideas coupled with an increased specialization and careerism within the academy than of a true return to the loving pursuit of knowledge and the appreciation of the contemplative life.