Empire of Lies

The Empire of Lies by Guy Sorman (Google Books)

City Journal article from 2007

Empire of Lies: The Truth About China in the Twenty-First CenturyPublic Affairs Program
Guy Sorman, Joanne J. Myers

Who's up for a trip to Congee Queen?

I visited the restaurant more than a few years ago when I was in Toronto. There still isn't anything comparable to the Chinese restaurants in Vancouver or Hong Kong here in the South Bay. Recently a new Chinese restaurant replaced the Broadway Bistro in San Jose, near Cupertino. It appears to be owned by Mandarin-speakers, I am guessing Mainlanders and not Taiwaness. The food is slightly better than Top Cafe, but last night one of the waiters was very aggressive in trying to sell us the fish and crab specials for New Year. I wasn't interested, and the food isn't that good. It's just better than the food at Top Cafe. Our green beans with beef arrived with some of the beans burnt. I really don't have much of an appetite for Chinese food these days, not since I went primal...

Flux in the Internet

Websites and blogs come and go, but Bronx's Junkyard is still around! There are some fansites I haven't visited for more than a year, and they're no longer in existence, including one dedicated to Song Hye Gyo. Monkey Peaches hasn't been updated since last May.

Is there anything comparable in Berkeley?

Humankind Fair Trade store in San Luis Obispo

I find Global Exchange. There is also this blog.

Dancing Yoga

website

I found an advertisement for the school a while back over at Cupertino Public Library. From the card:

Dancing Yoga provides a high-energy workout with therapeutic effects to align and purify the body. It si inspired by Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, but enhanced with graceful dance movements to form a dynamic series of flowing postures. Dancing Yoga synchronizes movements with breathing to build inner energy to cleanse and strengthen the body.

Cultural exchange between China and India isn't new, even if there is some antagonism between the two countries.

Saint John Chrysostom, One of the Great Fathers of the Church's Social Doctrine

Saint John Chrysostom, One of the Great Fathers of the Church's Social Doctrine by Pope Benedict XVI

(Zenit: Part 1 and 2)

Mandolin Cafe: The Bobby Osborne Interview

Mandolin Cafe: The Bobby Osborne Interview

Fr. McCloskey reviews Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element

Toward a More Just Economy by Rev. C. J. McCloskey III

First time I've seen anything by someone from Opus Dei on the science of economics. Seriously.

Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element

A paper from the author of the book--Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element by John D. Mueller

Tom Bosley

I had intended to post something around the same time that I did this post for Barbara Billingsley, as they had both passed away. Happy Days was one of my favorite shows when I was growing up... I didn't get into his Fr. Dowling Mysterys--I was too young to enjoy it at the time, and I didn't even know who Ralph McInerny was at that point in my life.

Ron Howard helps say goodbye to Tom Bosley...

Taste of Celtic Colours Live @ the 2010 American Folk Festival

Other videos:
the Beaton Sisters - live @ ECMA 2010 - Celtic Colours Festival Club Stage


Andrea Beaton - live @ ECMA 2010 - Celtic Colours Festival Club Stage




Hailee LeFort

KoreAm Article on Jane Kim

Following Her “True North”

I came across the article through Facebook at the beginning of this week; on Wednesday night someone posted a criticism of Jane Kim, writing that she hasn't really done anything substantial. The interview was rather boring -- would a male politician have been given the same questions? Would a male politician have given the same sort of answers? After all, Uhmerican politicians might be the same regardless of sex because the men don't have any masculine virtue. I don't see the interview as anything but another means of pandering to the public. "Shameless," as the ancients might say. It could also be characterized as a pro-feminism fluff piece.

Narcissists are attracted to the spotlight: entertainment, news, journalism, and... politics. She can try to show me that my impressions of her are incorrect.

The latest controversy: San Francisco supervisor Jane Kim refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance
Tough Week For Jane Kim: Is It Because She's A Woman?
San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim defends not reciting Pledge of Allegiance
Jane Kim's brave stand on Pledge of Allegiance
Supervisor, Pledge of Allegiance Dissenter, And Now Cover Girl Jane Kim

Can we say, "Guess what, you're part of the problem now?" San Francisco gets the politicians it deserves. She's lived here only 11 years, but she probably fits in with that crowd.

Also from KoreAm: The Kimchi Chronicles

If I were Korean-American, would I like the journal more? I usually wouldn't be interested in reading the Chinese-American equivalent. That sort of false multiculturalism that ignores how assimilated most East Asians tend to be with respect to core values (liberalism and consumerism) is just stupid.

Related: ZenKimchi Korean Food Journal

Why I Prefer X-Files to Fringe

Something besides the reason I gave previously: X-Files tried to keep some mystery, even with its monsters. It didn't attempt to explain everything (which, of course, was part of the show's theme and the impetus for Mulder's mission). This is in contrast to Fringe, which attempts to give a hokey sci-fi explanation to everything and it ends up subscribing to some sort of crude reductionism. One of the latest examples, from last night's episode: the doomsday device (More destructive than Project Genesis--it can create and destroy a whole reality) will annihilate the universe of the Olivia that Peter does not choose. How will it know? Because it is tuned into Peter's "frequency."

One might contest that Fringe is more sci-fi than X-Files, which is more drama/fantasy. I'd have to think about this.

Nullification: Answering the Objections

A piece by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. at Tenth Amendment Center

Also from the American Conservative News & Views

In addition to the article on left libertarianism, you can read the following:

Mr. Natural Rights
Liberty, State, and Union: The Political Theory of Thomas Jefferson, Luigi Marco Bassani, Mercer University Press, 277 pages
By Ronald Hamowy

Multiculture War
From Sweden to Switzerland, liberals pushing unfettered immigration court a populist backlash
By Theodore Dalrymple

More to be found in the archive.

Related:
ComeHomeAmerica.us: Historic and Current Opposition to U.S. Wars and How a Coalition of Citizens from the Political Right and Left Can End American Empire (website)

KNR

Gear Scout: Stoke your stranger danger with this new Discovery Channel series



Gear Scout provides this: "WARNING: The above trailer is a pretty graphic depiction of a violent kidnapping. Do not click play if you’re eating. You’ve been warned."

Kidnap and Rescue
Discovery Press Web
Discovery Insider

An Unexpected Post at Rorate Caeli

A playlist of traditional Celtic and English folk music

A Sandy Denny video.

The Holy Father Recommends the Youth Catechism

Sandro Magister, A Book in the Backpack. With the Pope's Autograph
It is the catechism for the very young. It will be launched at the worldwide gathering in Madrid. Benedict XVI is betting on it heavily, and recommending it. "Because it speaks to us of our own destiny," more compelling than a crime novel

World Youth Day 2011 Madrid

Why Vocation Programs Don't Work

Disciples Beget Disciples! Fr. Damian J. Ference on Why Vocation Programs Don't Work

(via Insight Scoop)

Good Job, McFly

Elusive Wapiti posts a link to this post on NYPD's ESU: Negligent Discharge: We Pay These Clowns' Salaries?
(See also NY Daily News.)

When I visited NYC a while back, I was surprised when I saw a female ESU officer standing in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, holding a M-4 carbine. I didn't think NYPD had such low standards for its special tactics and weapons team, and I wouldn't count on that officer protecting me during a terrorist attack in NYC. Low standards are often coupled with the lack of training (or the lack of making sure that such training takes in order to ensure that those who are not qualified are nonetheless employed for political reasons (e.g. feminism).

Free Republics

Dr. Fleming's answer to a reader's query on what to read in order to learn about a free republic:

There is no one good book defining republican government which in any case has to be understood in a variety of forms and within different historical contexts. Some books however are essential: Aristotle’s Politics, Cicero’s De Republica, Livy's History and Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy. In the American tradition I would study Jefferson and Calhoun and perhaps John Adams. There are several central themes essential to the republican tradition and I shall mention two or three.


First is the emphasis on law and tradition taking precedence over both the will of the sovereign (whether king or democratic majority) and raison d’état. Then there is the acknowledgment of the valid powers of the constituent social authorities of family, clan, region, church sometimes simplistically summed up as subsidiarity. Finally I would point to institutional strategies to avoid tyranny especially the tyranny of the majority that AT so feared but also the lesser tyranny of Louis Napoleon in which AT initially acquiesced. We discussed some of these themes in connection with the Politics.

(I have edited the post for the typing errors.)

Gabe Suarez, THE BEST SOLUTIONS TO PISTOL MALFUNCTIONS

David Korten, The Illusion of Money

Yes!

What has intrinsic value because is an instrumental good, benefits us in some way, versus something that has a derivative value, a value only because we value it?

"From Union to Empire: Essays in the Jeffersonian Traditon" by Clyde N. Wilson: A Review by Winston Elliott III

Peter Hitchens Explains Why He Doesn't Debate SSM

Pretentious Greeks, Other People's Quarrels, avoiding Stalingrad etc:

The issue is marriage and the death of marriage, and even more specifically, of the rapid and tragic abolition of the very concept of fatherhood. That is what matters, and that is where moral conservatives must fight - in society, and in the Church. The homosexual question affects a tiny number of people and is, more or less, a provocation to get us to charge off in the wrong direction and make fools of ourselves. The destruction of marriage and the end of fatherhood is changing the western world for the worse and must urgently be addressed.

The Answer is Christ

Protesting an Abusive God

Google Books: Facing the Abusing God: A Theology of Protest

But would a Jew be willing to accept this? No doubt the author presents a more complex case against God, which does not accept what we believe about God's goodness. While Christ does say that, "It would have been better for him that he had not been born," this seems to be more hyperbole than an strictly "metaphysical" assertion.

Related: Confronting the Character of God

Misotheism

Yeah...

Mike Whitney, The Student Loan Swindle (The Chronicle of Higher Education: Loan-Default Rate at For-Profit Colleges Would Double Under New Formula)

Paul Craig Roberts, Americans are Oppressed, Too

It can be difficult thinking of new post titles... I can see myself reusing "Yeah" in the future.

America's Bluegrass - Show Nine

Utility Jacket

KITANICA’s MARK I Tactical Utility Jacket

Does it really live up to the advertising?

Kitanica PNT X.A, MARK I and MARK IV (video)


Kitanica

After an unpleasant incident tonight, I was reminded of a question I've pondered before -- what was the impact of teaching orders on the education of boys in the United States in the first part of the 20th century? When were co-ed classrooms introduced in the United States? How close was American Catholic education to the American industrial model?

Mark's Daily Apple: The Unconquerable Dave

Freedom of Expression

Dr. Fleming:

Once again, I have to remind you all, that the Ancien Regime, while it interfered in the political process and regulated economic affairs, did not stick its nose into private life. Even so, it used the technique, so familiar to us, of encouraging a bogus public “freedom of expression” to encourage the delusion that people free to discuss stupid ideas have the reality of political liberty. “Since Frenchmen must always be allowed the sop of a little flexibility, to console them for their enslavement, the government allowed them to discuss very freely all kin of general and abstract theories in matters of religion, philosophy, ethics, and even politics. It was quite willing to tolerate attacks against the fundamental principles upon which society then rested and even arguments about God Himself, provided that is most menial agents were not the subject of their ramblings.”
Today, of course, attacks on God and society are the principles on which the regime rests, but it is quite comfortable in tolerating the pseudo-opposition of talkshow hosts and websites so long as they do not get in the way of business. When someone does, say Julian Assange, he finds himself the target of malicious prosecution.

Mr. Sanjay responds: "Does that mean TV talking heads and pundits are just a group for encouraging faux pas freedom of expression in politics while allowing more room for enslaving elderly TV viewing politics enthusiasts?"

So there is this reply from Dr. Fleming: "Precisely, and, to anticipate future questions, yes also to the conservative websites that encourage unhappy and powerless people to vent their frustrations. So long as people waste time on FreeRepublic, they will never live in one or even come to understand what a free republic might be like."

Someone then asks for an illustration of a free republic.

Updated Info About Local Dominican-Rite Masses

Fr. Augustine: Dominican Rite Masses at Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology

Rhonda Vincent Interview

Which reminds me, I still haven't typed up my thoughts on that day...

Highlander's Farewell

The new CD by Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas

Will it be available at next week's concert?
Culburnie Records

Rorate Caeli: It's wartime.
Archbishop of Tokyo: "It is necessary for the Way
to suspend its activities in Japan"

Athol Kay Explains the Physiology of "Love"

Athol Kay: In Love Feelings, Pair Bonded Love... And Me So Horny

Solidarity vs. Identity

Solidarity, if it is identical to social justice or perhaps benevolence, pertains to the will, while identity pertains to the intellect. The exercise of solidarity is dependent upon how one's identity, which is admittedly "subjective," in that people can identify themselves in various ways and think that each way of determining their identity is correct relative to the moral agent. But in answer to the question of "Who am I?" in relation to moral reasoning, we should look not at what is relatively insignificant (what are our pastimes or "interests" are), but firstly the role we play in creation [our function, narrowly conceived]. This role is tied to our understanding of our family (including lineage), relations with friends and associates, community, and people.

I remember someone else in the PhD program writing her dissertation on role-centered morality, but from more of an "analytic" perspective--I don't know if she is trying to turn her dissertation into a book (or if she's still in academics). If roles are so important, why didn't the medievals talk about them? Because their moral theology  already presupposes an understanding of roles and related precepts (see Aquinas's discussion of the virtues related to justice and the order of charity)--there wasn't a need to write an explicit account of roles and duties. (As Fr. Cessario once said in class, "The medievals didn't have to talk about community; they lived it.")  This understanding of roles is covered, implicity if not explicitly (at least not as far as I remember) in Dr. Fleming's The Morality of Everyday Life (a review here).

For us Americans, the acquisition of a "role-centered" morality is necessary for a deepening of our understanding of the lay vocation.

The Sub Tuum Praesidium

NLM: The Sub Tuum Praesidium by Henri de Villiers, Paris

AmCon: Libertarian Left
Free-market anti-capitalism, the unknown ideal
By Sheldon Richman

J.D. Crowe and The New South - Lefty's old Guitar

J.D. Crowe and the New South
MySpace
CMT.com
J.D. Crowe Bluegrass Festival Website

American Self-Reliance

Living the Real Simple Life (ABC Nightline)


(via ML)

And via JM: Ten Reasons to Become Self-Sufficient and Ten Ways to Get There (original).

Food Miles -- A Helpful Measurement?

Katherine Dalton, Locavoracity

A Question for "Conservatives"

Franklin Spinney, How Much Should We Spend on National Defense?

A Comparison Between the United States and...

Ancient Greece (rather than the Roman Empire): Elusive Wapiti, History Repeating Itself

Who's a commitmentphobe?

Time: Debunking the Myth of the Slippery Bachelor
By Belinda Luscombe

Who wants to marry the modern American woman? --

But the figures need to be parsed carefully. While overall, as many men as women wanted to marry, age played a big role in their preferences. Younger (ages 21 to 24) and older men (50 and up) were more favorably disposed to legal lifetime unions than their female peers. In the between years — the decades when women must pay heed to a uterine deadline — the ratios shift the other way.


Men's greater inclination toward parenthood, however, seems to hold across every age group. While more than half the single men ages 21 to 35 wanted kids, only 46% of the women did. After that, the difference widens further, and not just out of biological reality. Only 16% of childless women in the still fertile years from 35 to 44 wanted kids; 27% of the men did. Plus, more women than men were prepared to say definitively that they were skipping parenthood.
(See an illustration of the expectations and realities of marriage.)


"Women are much more interested in their independence than men are," says Fisher. They value certain parts of their single lives more than men do: according to the survey, women are likelier to want to have their own bank accounts, their own interests, their own personal space and solo vacations, even if they're in a committed relationship. They also care more about nights out with buddies.

You can find "confirmation" of this from anecdotal evidence provided in the "manosphere" and attraditionalist websites everyday.

New Youth Catechism?

Carl Olson, Benedict XVI describes New Youth Catechism (YOUCAT) as "extraordinary" and "gripping"

New urbanism, landscape urbanism, and the future of settlements
Christopher J. Ryan, AICP, The Localizer Blog

Chet Richards, About Fourth Generation Infections

@ Fabius Maximus

Rob Hopkins, How might we reminisce about the Age of Oil and Debt?

I'd like to get a pair of VFF

One of those things that I would purchase if I had money.

The Definitive Guide to Cleaning Vibram Five Fingers a.k.a. How to Get the Smell out of your Vibrams!

A review of VFF by Justin Owings.

Gear Junkie (preview of the new 2011 products and post on Vibram's "Casual Shoes")

Gov. Jerry Brown's State of the State Address

transcript

Video: SJ Mercury (ABC 7)


KTVU
KESQ
Examiner
KQED: Video: Jerry Brown After State of State Speech

The Examiner: Jerry Brown Outlines Challenst to California in State of the State

The Washington Post: Obama should follow the governors -- the Democrats, too

Another Piece on Jack LaLanne

From last week: The Archdruid weighs on the significance of Jack LaLanne: The Power That Remains.

Dmitry Orlov, Peak Oil Lessons from the Soviet Union

ClubOrlov: Video Interview: The Nation

Short interview with Hank Keirsey, the military adviser for Call Of Duty: Black Ops

FHM Au

Wood by the cord yields lots of discord
Gene Logsdon, OrganicToBe.org
Sitting by the woodstove, I am warmed twice when I read that a cord of shagbark hickory equals 250 gallons of No. 2 oil in heat value. I don’t know what heating oil costs right now, or what that equals in gas heat or electric heat, but it sounds like my wood is worth real money today.

Paste: Video Premiere: Carolina Chocolate Drops' "Short Dress Gal" (with Luminescent Orchestrii)

Link.

Dr. Kurt Harris Has a New Series of Posts

About "Macronutrients":
There is No Such Thing as a Macronutrient Part I - Fats
No such thing as a macronutrient part II - Carbohydrates

Another Gary Taubes interview

Fathead: Why We Get Fat: Interview With Gary Taubes (via Dr. Helen)

Roberts, Porter, and Spinney on US Foreign Policy in the ME

American Hypocrisy in the Middle East by Paul Craig Roberts
Things Have to Change in Order to Remain the Same

Why Washington Clings to a Failed Middle East Strategy by Gareth Porter

Did Obama's Promise Trigger the Arab Revolt? by Franklin C. Spinney

David Morgan, Lexicon Latinum

pdf
htm

Related:
David Morgan - Vicipaedia
Latin Links / Catenae Latinae

Catherine Doherty

I believe the New Scot enthusiastically recommended her to me once. You can find her books at Madonna House Publications. Would it denigrate her uniqueness too much by calling her the Canadian Dorothy Day? Probably.

I am not sure if I would recommend them as good guides for the lay vocation, but I am leaning towards doing so.



Catherine and Dorothy Day

Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin and the Catholic Worker Movement
Baroness calls Dorothy Day a Saint
by Catherine Doherty

Comrades Stumbling Along: The Friendship of Catherine de Hueck Doherty and Dorothy Day as Revealed through Their Letters
Editor: Robert Wild

VERITAS 2009 No.3: Women at the Service of the Word

The PCPAS of Our Lady of Solitude

Website for the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, Our Lady of Solitude Monastery. They do have a blog.

Alte reviews Radical Homemakers

Here.

The book.

Do we have to be relativists on this question, too?

The last post evokes this question: if you could only pick one, which would be a superior way to maintain fitness -- something using natural movements and whole body exercises/strength training, or a system of exercises/stretches/breathing (like you find in Asia, whether it be yoga, qigung or something else). The two aren't mutually opposed, and some may have an exercise regimen composed of both, but could you determine that one is better if you were limited in your choice?

The Adventures of Gunny - Teaser

SOG Knives

A return to the Greek ideal?

From Mark Sisson's tribute to Jack LaLanne:

Before we had easy access to reams of medical journals featuring research on the link between physical activity and brain function, Jack intuitively knew exercise was about mental fitness and psychological well-being as much as it was about physical fitness. A constant refrain of his was that people were unhappy, unfit, and messed up because we had forgotten how to move and live naturally.

Dr. Fleming on the centralization of power in Europe

Dr. Fleming is leading a discussion of Alexis de Toqueville's L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution:
L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution
L’Ancien Régime Book I
L’Ancien Régime Book II

He writes this in response to a question:

I think we can distinguish three phases or aspects of centralization: 1) an inevitable and probably necessary process of expansion and state-building in response to internal and external threats. If Philip Augustus had not expanded his realm and begun to centralize control, he could never have fought off English aggression, and his successors would have lost France permanently to predators like Edward III and Henry V. The second phase was a non-ideological campaign to turn France into the Great Nation, able to beat back challenges both from England and the Empire. If phase I organized and centralized feudal France, phase II subordinated and destroyed feudal France. Phase III was the egalitarian ideological nationalism of the Jacobins, transmitted by Napoleon, who disciplined it, to subsequent generations. While it is true that we can see how each phase leads to the next, I think it a mistake to attribute motives across the ages or even assign guilt. If Philip Augustus, his grandfather Louis the Fat, and his grandson Saint Louis. had not strengthened France, it would never have survived.

Shepherds of Helmand

official

Mike Ruppert's latest

He is certainly continuing to put his reputation on the line with these videos.

Saint Joe By Patrick Casey
Joseph Sobran and the Tribe

I must have missed the part where the author explains what he means by "tribal localism."

Pope: Holiness is at Heart of Church's Mystery

Mark Bittman Changes Employers

Civil Eats: Faces & Visions of the Food Movement: Mark Bittman

His official site. The Minimalist archive.



(youtube)

Tom Hooper Will Not Cut the King's Speech

Why not? If Peter Hitchens is correct and there is no evidence that George VI used the F bomb as a part of his speech therapy, then it's not really necessary to the telling of the story, is it? --Unless it's not really story-telling, but deliberately intended to support the coarsening of manners... (and to give a subversive look at the British monarchy).

AllKPop: Paradise Ranch’s Changmin & Lee Yeon Hee send their Lunar New Year’s greetings!

Some in the Catholic blogosphere have been discussing this

Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the 45th World Communications Day: Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age

The new technologies allow people to meet each other beyond the confines of space and of their own culture, creating in this way an entirely new world of potential friendships. This is a great opportunity, but it also requires greater attention to and awareness of possible risks. Who is my “neighbour” in this new world? Does the danger exist that we may be less present to those whom we encounter in our everyday life? Is there is a risk of being more distracted because our attention is fragmented and absorbed in a world “other” than the one in which we live? Do we have time to reflect critically on our choices and to foster human relationships which are truly deep and lasting? It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives.

In the digital age too, everyone is confronted by the need for authenticity and reflection. Besides, the dynamic inherent in the social networks demonstrates that a person is always involved in what he or she communicates. When people exchange information, they are already sharing themselves, their view of the world, their hopes, their ideals. It follows that there exists a Christian way of being present in the digital world: this takes the form of a communication which is honest and open, responsible and respectful of others. To proclaim the Gospel through the new media means not only to insert expressly religious content into different media platforms, but also to witness consistently, in one’s own digital profile and in the way one communicates choices, preferences and judgements that are fully consistent with the Gospel, even when it is not spoken of specifically. Furthermore, it is also true in the digital world that a message cannot be proclaimed without a consistent witness on the part of the one who proclaims it. In these new circumstances and with these new forms of expression, Christian are once again called to offer a response to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is within them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).

Written in the same spirit as the Vatican 2 Document on the Media of Social Communications, Inter Mirifica? All things should be harnessed to serve Christ. Those who are using social networking websites should do so in the spirit of Christ. Still, one should ask whether a passing fad deserves such notice, or if Christians need a more radical re-orientation towards Christ and the order of charity. Pope Benedict XVI hints to the danger that we neglect real people while on the Internet -- but is this sufficient? And are there limits to what can be done online? How real can our friendships online become? As far as I can tell, it is rare that they develop into intimate friendships. Better to keep some emotional distance and to cultivate detachment, I would think.

I suppose only when it becomes obvious that the age of cheap energy is over will we see some adjustments made in pastoral advice.

Is it less a question of whether the message contains good principles and more of a question of whether the Church endangers its credibility by being too up-to-date when such innovations will be short-lived?

Mark Zuckerberg meets Jesse Eisenberg on SNL

Stimulus duds, bailout blanks
Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute
In response to the financial crisis, governments and central banks have undertaken a series of extraordinary, dramatic measures. In this section we will focus primarily on the U.S....From Richard Heinberg's upcoming book The End Growth.

John Barry passes away

AICN: John Barry (1933-2011)

Another Jean Vanier interview

More Bearfoot

Beartfoot Fan Page's note on the new lineup for 2011.



MySpace

The old Bearfoot, with Odessa Jorgensen.

I was surprised to see KM at Mass today -- maybe she's on sabbatical? Apparently, she is.

Glock SHOT Show 2011

Milspecmonkey's vid

Daniel Defense - SHOT Show 2011

Aimpoint - SHOT Show 2011

U.S. Catholic: Gun control: Church firmly, quietly opposes firearms for civilians

Selected Works of Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, OP (1802-1861)

Our friend MB posts a link to this piece from 2008: Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev: Liberal Christianity will not survive for a long time

It may not last long, but what will it take down with it?

While it may be normal and accepted, whenever I see a FB wall post that tells me someone is moving in with someone else, buying a house with them, and so on, all without getting married, I have to ask what is preventing them from doing something that is either just a mere formality or is actually something so important that they need to plan a big party for it. (Perhaps it is not the marriage that is being celebrated but the festive occasion itself. Or it is a display of narcissism.) When people have a simulacrum of a marriage, why shouldn't they faces the legal consequences of having one? Ah yes, there is the question of intention and consent. So they're not "ready" for marriage yet, but they're ready for the next step in the relationship, which may last from a year to ten years, during which time they might ("accidentally") have a child or two.

People can make bad decisions, but I'm not going to call that a right or defend it.

Mark Richardson on Another Matrilineal Society

The Khasis - an uncle society on the ropes?

Firework

The third graders at this one school will be singing this song for a school performance -- maybe it is better than not having any opportunity to sing, but does it reinforce the notion that mass culture is the only culture? Does it promote celebrity adulation and the narcissism that Uhmerican celeb pseudoculture promotes? As for the song itself, is it too tied to a wrong understanding of self-esteem, despite "good intentions" of the songwriter?

Having no real culture in common, what can the students in a "diverse" area of California use except the mass entertainment which they all consume? I'd rather have students learn some traditional music, but then we'd have to settle the question of ethnic identity, unless we embrace some sort of multiculturalism as a guiding principle with respect to the selection of traditional music in schools as well.

sfist: Weekend In Classical Music: Early Music
Voices of Music – violin soloists

SFEMS blog

Joel Salatin at SCU

He was in town last week...

Joel Salatin teaches philosophy of farming
PolyFace Farms blends Eastern, Western cultures

SCU Food and Agribusiness Institute

L'angelus "Ca C'est Bon" - The Marty Stuart Show

TV.com: Gordon Ramsay Talks About The Return Of Kitchen Nightmares

I think the episodes of Kitchen Nightmares are getting stale, formulaic, and predictable -- I prefer the slower pace of the British original.

'The Long Road to Freedom' - Lecture by Jean Vanier

Blackfirars Hall:

'The Long Road to Freedom' - Lecture by Jean Vanier from Blackfriars Hall on Vimeo.

L'Arche profile
bio

More:
Interview with Jean Vanier
Interviewed by Lydia Talbot

The Wisdom of Tenderness

AAM and Steven Isserlis - JS Bach's sons