"Conservative" Robert George?

Governor Perry, the 10th Amendment, and the 14th

“It is important for Governor Perry and for all Americans to recognize the responsibility of the national government under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment to ensure that the guarantees of Section 1 of that Amendment are honored by all 50 states. Those guarantees include the following: ‘nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.’ As a matter of indisputable scientific fact, the child in the womb is a living human being. As a matter of moral truth, deeply embedded in our legal and constitutional traditions, all human beings are persons. Thus, by the clearest logical implication, the national government is empowered and obligated by our Constitution to ensure that unborn human persons are equally protected in their most fundamental right---the right to life. Because this is an expressly delegated power, there is no 10th Amendment basis for denying or relieving the national government of its responsibilities, along with the states, to protect the child in the womb.”

Peter Hitchens likes The Conspirator

His post from today. At the bottom he makes a comment about tattoos on policemen.

I didn't see the movie in the theaters, but I have pre-ordered it from Amazon.

FB

A discussion of tattoos

at OneSTDV

Body mutilation is common for the employees at Whole Foods; why is that? "Transgressive" behavior? How many of them are also professed vegans as well? The 60s spirit of rebelliousness isn't dead, yet. I don't understand the use of rings to make wholes in the skin, like in the ear lobes.

Dr. Fleming on Liberalism

The Liberal Tradition I: Introducing a Few Basic Concepts (thanks to Jerry Salyer)

Colonies

It may be easy to blame American social atomism on liberalism, but political and cultural factors more significant causes? How do the thirteen colonies compare with Greek colonies in Asia minor? It seems to me that there was a greater proximity between the Greek colonies and Greece, leading to stronger ties with the motherland. And there perhaps was a stronger sense of Hellenic identity? While there was some mobility, there were limits. And there was a different political and domestic culture, leading to more intact clans and communities in the colonies. Political independence of the colonies strengthened, rather than weakened, their identity as Greeks?

I should ask Dr. Fleming about this.

wrt mobility and stability, what significant geographical, social, and cultural differences between the British colonies and the Spanish?

Laurence Vance, Thank you for your service? (via Ohio Republic)

Gratitude for what has been done? Or for their offering of themselves and their virtue of obedience? Too much of a posture of moral purity? Americans have been trying to compensate for the attitudes and disrespect shown to soldiers returning from Vietnam. Is a balance necessary? Can we thank them even though we do not agree with American imperial policy? Or is the best way to show support to make sure that our military is not misused by the National Government?

Patrick Deneen, Community AND Liberty OR Individualism AND Statism

Before exploring this dynamic in more detail, let me first contrast two competing understandings of liberty, one largely developed in the ancient and Christian world, and the other centrally developed in the early-modern period by, among others, the philosopher John Locke. Both claim the “language of liberty,” but if one is true, the other is false, but, importantly too, it is only from the perspective of ancient liberty that one can see more clearly the close relationship between the individualism of classical liberalism and the collectivism of progressive liberalism.

Modern liberalism begins not – as might be believed if we were to follow the narrative of contemporary discourse – not in opposition to Statism or Progressivism, but rather in explicit and intense rejection of ancient political thought and especially its basic anthropological assumptions. Hobbes, among others, is frequently explicit in his criticisms of both Aristotle and “the Scholastics” – that Catholic philosophy particularly influenced by Aquinas, who was of course particularly influenced by Aristotle. Modern liberal theory thus began with an explicit rejection of Aristotelian/Thomist anthropology.

According to Aristotle, and later further developed by Thomas Aquinas, man is by nature a social and political animal – which is to say, that humans only become human in the context of polities and society. Shorn of such relations, the biological creature “human” was not actually a fully realized human – not able to achieve the telos of the human creature, a telos that required law and culture, cultivation and education, and hence, society and tradition. Thus, Aristotle was able to write (and Aquinas after him essentially repeated) that “the city is prior to the family and the individual” – not, of course, temporally, but in terms of the primacy of wholes to parts. To use a metaphor common to both the ancients and in the Biblical tradition, the body as a whole “precedes” in importance any of its constitutive parts: without the body, neither the hand, nor foot, nor any other part of the body is viable.

Within human societies, to the extent that humans are able to develop true and flourishing individuality, it is only by means of political society and its constitutive groups and associations, starting of course with the family. An essential component of our capacity to achieve human flourishing is our learned ability to place ourselves under rule and law. At first, as children, we are expected to obey because of the claims of authority – we follow rules and law because we are told to do so by our elders. As we grow in maturity and self-knowledge, we assume the responsibility of self-government – ideally in a form that is continuous between the individual and the city. For the ancients, liberty is the cultivated ability to exercise self-governance, to limit ourselves in accordance with our nature and the natural world.

The various practices by which we exercise self-limitation and self-governance is comprehensively called virtue. By contrast, for the ancients, the inability or unwillingness to exercise virtue was tantamount to the absence of liberty. The unbridled or even extensive pursuit of appetite led necessarily to a condition of servitude and even slavery – slavery to one’s passions. Thus, for the ancients, law was not an unnatural imposition of humanity’s natural freedom; rather, law (ideally, a self-imposed law) was the necessary and enabling condition for liberty.

Last night I went on a ride-along with Sarge's friend RP -- the graveyard shift from 9 P.M. to 7 A.M. It was rather informative; I wasn't bored even though it could be considered a slow night. We did make one traffic stop -- someone was going 40 mph in a 25 zone. It turns out that he had a suspended license and a history of not showing in court for traffic offenses so RP was saying afterward that if he had known, he would have had the truck towed. No violent incidents last night.

Around 3, we went to a local Mel's Diner (not to be confused with Mel's Drive-in in SF)--RP said the food there wasn't that great, and he was right. I got a burger, and it tasted rather burnt.

I'm thinking of doing it again when he gets a weekend shift, perhaps Spring or Summer of next year.

An article on George Kordis

Iconography to adorn sanctuary
By JOEY HOLLEMAN

Some things on barefoot running

Mark's Daily Apple: How to Prepare for Barefooting
2012 Vibram FiveFingers Spotted! New Toe Shoes for Casual Wear, Running, and Trails!

Related:
A Competition Kettlebell Primer…
Gaining more exposure? The Paleo Diet: Caveman Cure-All or Unhealthy Fad?
Truth in advertising? U.K. Bans Two Retouched Makeup Ads For Being 'Misleading'

Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, Playing Ball With the Pentagon

Ballpark Liturgy: America’s New Civic Religion
Cheap Grace at Fenway

(via AmCon)

Archibald Rutledge Academy

website

The Lowcountry Shrimp Festival

Related:
Colette Baudoche by Maurice Barrès

Dr. Robert Lustig, Interventions to Reduce Sugar Consumption

(via LLVLC)

The Modern Gypsies introduce themselves

Will they win Expedition Impossible?

Archduke Otto: Responding to Dr. Trifkovic by James Bogle

Kimberley Fraser/Brenda Stubbert mirror image fiddling

Kimberly Fraser, MS

John Médaille on Collapse

Will There Be Zombies?

A speech delivered at the Roman Forum.

Bee Gees, Holiday

The Archdruid Report: Salvaging Learning

The Archdruid Report: Salvaging Learning: "The other day, courtesy of the public library system here in Cumberland, I had the chance to curl up on the couch with a copy of Canadian journalist Jonathan Kay’s survey of American conspiracy theorists, Among the Truthers. I’m sorry to say it was a disappointing read. Kay’s an engaging writer and the book has some good moments, but on the whole it was a depressing reminder of the reasons that the word “journalistic” has become a synonym for “facile and tendentious.”"

Gillian Welch on Q UNCUT

CBC.ca (via Gillian Welch)

Wendell Berry, Tim DeChristopher, and Teri Blanton discuss principled activism (mp3)

The occasion for Orion reposting this on their FB page? See the following for details: In DeChristopher and protesters, courage found its voice

National Guardsmen Earn French Croix de la Valeure Militaire

More info in yesterday's post.

Dempsey to SASC: Joint force must be versatile, affordable
Dealing with 4GW is a political question, not a military question. So what does he really offer for reform of the Union Army?

Items of Interest, 27 July 2011

Mike Davis, The Coming Economic Disaster (via collapse.net)

Tomb of St. Philip the Apostle Discovered in Turkey

Rorate Caeli: Roberto de Mattei and "The Lefebvre affair"

Mere Comments: "The Church Impotent' Now On-Line, Plus Fireworks

The Great Tradition: Reading Ourselves Back to Cultural Sanity
by Robert M. Woods

John Robb, ON BECOMING A RESILIENT INDIVIDUAL

Franklin C. Spinney, Afghan Sitrep: We're Here Because We're Here Because We're Here...

Jeffrey St. Clair, The Politics of Make-Believe: Barack Obama, Changeling

Barnyard Irony
Gene Logsdon, The Contrary Farmer, Mulligan Books

‘Totnes: what the past can teach us about the future’: a new film by Rob Hopkins

A culture of dysfunction

Some have recently remarked on Breivik's family background, linking male violence to the lack of a father.

First Laura Wood: The Father of Breivik, More on Breivik's Father, And Breivik's Mother.

Today this piece by Carolyn Monihan was published: Anders Breivik’s broken family.

The Telegraph: Norway killer: Anders Behring Breivik was a 'mummy's boy'

Welmer, British Writer Points Finger at Breivik’s Father

Jack Donovan lambastes this slate article: "The inevitable feminist attempts to emasculate the shooter and use him as an example of masculine "illogic" and the dangers of obsession with a reputation for manliness. (What our ancestors called "honor.")" He responds to those who would advocate stricter gun control laws. Massad Ayoob's has a piece that could serve as part of the standard republican rejoinder as well: The Norway Atrocity.

VFR has a post on the sheeple: A nation of consummate Eloi

Brett Stevens has this piece; a connection between the killer to a distorted notion of Nietzsche's Übermensch? His lawyer may attempt an insanity defense. Many liberals cannot understand how his actions are rational, dismissing him as crazed.

The Atlantic piece on Polyface Farm

Inside Polyface Farm, Mecca of Sustainable Agriculture by Andrea Gabor

Good to see a Catholic media outlet paying attention

'Peak oil' era may have arrived - and civilization will never be the same

Della Mae - Masters Stage - Grey Fox 2011

The ToneWay Project

official website and FB and Youtube

The JamShop in Santa Cruz, CA from Luke Abbott on Vimeo.

Meetup: SJ
Santa Cruz

Natural resources, again

And ownership...

How are natural resources common? (1) Intended for the benefit of all? (And therefore to be shared by all or apportioned to all.) Or (2) common in so far as they are not claimed by anyone? In which case they (a) belong in potency to everyone or anyone, or (b) belong in actuality to everyone until they are apportioned to someone through property claims/rights?

I'm thinking of not just fossil fuels, oil and coal, but other, more basic natural resources -- fresh water, [arable] land, plants and trees -- these do not appear to be uniformly distributed across the planet. Is it the case that how they are to be distributed should be left to the market, and to contracts between individuals or groups, and thus governed only by commutative justice, with property rights being given to those who have first possession? Or should distributive justice also play a role in determining property rights, with only labor for extraction and processing covered by commutative justice?

Or do fossil fuels differ from other natural resources because they are such immense stores of energy and more important/valuable in that respect?

How are claims of ownership to be adjudicated if not "first come, first have," or "finders, keepers"?

I could imagine these considerations being used to defend the need for a world government, in order for there to be an 'equitable' distribution of resources.

Something to reflect upon again: the right to refuse service and the right of association

The Gypsies with Robb Wolff

he Gypsies talk Paleo, Crossfit, and Expedition Impossible with Robb Wolf -> The Paleo Solution, episode 90 (mp3)

France bestows high honors on National Guard, active duty Green Berets

Photos:

Special Forces Soldiers from the 10th Special Forces Group and the 20th Special Forces Group are seen after they received the French Croix de la Valeur Militaire, roughly analagous to the Silver Star, during a private ceremony at the French Ambassador's Residence in Washington, D.C., on July 25, 2011, awarding the honor to five National Guard and one active duty Special Forces Soldiers. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

The class A's don't look so good. Would they look better tailored?

Future force: Army Research Lab equips warfighters

If it isn't doing anything to promote an understanding of 3GW and 4GW, it's just another part of the MIC, especially if they know the expensive tools will never be purchased in significant numbers.

More egalitarian lunacy: Oklahoma brother and sister serve together in Afghanistan

Kunstler for TED

From 2007: James H Kunstler dissects suburbia


YouTube

Putting a yellow face in government

Because there are too many white people?

UC Berkeley Law Professor Nominated To State Supreme Court

Gordon Liu passes the ideological litmus test for Jerry Brown, who probably wouldn't nominate a Republican. (I wouldn't either, but I'm not committed to "diversity" and "representation.") Another token minority to carry out the liberal agenda. What a shame.

Courtesy of Harvard's online extention program

HIST E-1825 China: Traditions and Transformations
Peter K. Bol, PhD, Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University.
William C. Kirby, PhD, T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor.

Pragmatism or slovenliness?

Is it a feature of the American mind to be pragmatic; has it evolved to embrace function over form with respect to fashion? Is this a poor defense of the Uhmerican sloppy slob who desires comfort and ease above all else? The other night I was watching the second episode of Zen. As it might be expected, the Italian Aurelio Zen dresses well in a suit. This is something you can confirm about Romans when you visit the city. (Rufus Sewell, who plays Zen, looks good in a suit -- thanks to the in-house costume department?) A sight of European classiness and style, reminding us of America of yesteryear.

When I was trip down memory lane a couple of nights ago, I was thinking about what American men have lost since the 50s and early 60s. Americans had their own separate style and trends, but they were conscious about how they dressed and appeared in public. That is true no more, except at work where dress codes still prevail. On Sunday, I was at Costco and there were two men (bachelors) wearing t-shirts and shorts; the shorts were too loose and they were showing plumber's crack. No one said anything to them. American "casual" wear is so ugly. Even the poseur's preference for khakis (or cargo pants) with shirt and a fleece or outdoors jacket looks inappropriate or out of place for a more serious indoor setting, such as a well-furnished personal library. Part of this is due to what one is accustomed to seeing in such settings. But there does seem to be a mismatch between the styles.

As a practical concern of the postcarbon era: how difficult is it to make a modern coat, as compared to a jacket or fleece (with buttons)?





I also note that in the second episode they show a requiem Mass ad Deum and in Latin. Spem in Alium is used as background music. The liturgical color was purple. Only on television!

A piece with the New Economics Foundation

BBC News: Happiness linked to 'high level of equality'

the nef

2011 Anglican Use Conference

AtonementOnline has archived videos from the recent Anglican Use conference.

NPR: Blake Shelton: Out Of The Ordinary, A Country Everyman by Ken Tucker (mp3)

Pistol Annies, "Hell on Heels"

Hell on Heels - Pistol Annies - Pistol Annies Videos

Some sad news

Please pray for Fr. Luis Ruiz, S.J. who passed away this morning in Macau. Requiescat in pace.



The other parts.

From 2007, a review of The Children of Hurin in Asia Times by "Spengler" (David Goldman): Tolkien's Christianity and the pagan tragedy  (via JM)

I still have to get a copy of the book. Is the account of Tolkien's work and project correct?

With the reconstruction of the young Tolkien's prehistory of Middle-earth, we discern a far broader purpose: to recast as tragedy the heroic myths of pre-Christian peoples, in which the tragic flaw is the pagan's tribal identity. Tolkien saw his generation decimated, and his circle of friends exterminated, by the nationalist compulsions of World War I; he saw the cult of Siegfried replace the cult of Christ during World War II. His life's work was to attack the pagan flaw at the foundation of the West.

Tribal identity is the tragic flaw of the pagans? Not an obvious vice? Maybe this is a correct understanding of Tolkien's project, but it seems incorrect.th

Items of Interest, 25 July 2011

Richard Heinberg, Conservation: There Is No Alternative


What a waste! The scoop on poop and ecological wastewater management- Part 2 of a 2 part interviewAudio
Jill Cloutier, Sustainable World Radio

Have you ever wondered why we poop in fresh water? In Part 2 of an interview author Carol Steinfeld, we talk more in-depth about human waste as a resource. Carol, co-author of The Composting Toilet System Book and Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling, shares her extensive knowledge about human waste management practices around the globe, how to clear human waste of possible pathogens, and different waste-composting systems for the home.

(mp3) [Part 1]

Surviving the heat when the power or the A/C is out
Sharon Astyk, Casaubon's Book

New Evidence for the Teutonic Order’s Bavarian Origins: Fragments Found

“3 Gun Nation” Launches Second Season With Mark Wills As Host (3 Gun Nation, FB)

Why Barefoot Running is Good For You

Inferiority complex... in Japan?

The J-drama Jin marks the anniversary of TBS;

Chinese have an inferiority complex of sorts can be associated with the Chinese; the actions of the government can be explained as an attempt to reclaim past glory and wash away national shame for having been overwhelmed by foreign powers in the 20th century. But the flip side of an inferiority complex is a superiority complex, and both are rooted in pride. The common root is why someone can swing from one to the other?

Something comparable can be found in the Japanese psyche -- losing World War 2 may not have helped? The drama seems to be an opportunity for the Japanese to indulge in a fantasy of sorts - what if Japan somehow was ahead of the West in medicine. The main character, having traveled back in time from contemporary Japan, "invents" modern surgery practices and techniques in order to work as a doctor during the Meiji Restoration. In ep. 6 of the final series, the main character demonstrates his skills to a bunch of foreign visitors, and astounding them with his capabilities. How will the drama be resolved, and will his introduction of advanced medicine have anything to do with it?

Joel Salatin Lunatic Farmer Video

Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund:


His lecture at the Woodstock Farm Festival.

Alan Jackson, Long Way to Go

Long Way to Go - Alan Jackson - Alan Jackson Videos

Another movie about Sun Yat-Sen

A Twitch post about Jackie Chan's 1911. The other movie of which I was thinking is Bodyguards and Assassins, which was released in 2009. (Twitch review)

Shooting Industry Academy of Excellence 2011 Award Winners: Benchmade Knife Company Wins 2011 Knife of the Year
Model 915 Triage™ Captures Third Straight Knife of the Year Award

Benchmade
Gear Buyers Guide video

TAC's Summer Program Blog

Here

April Verch - The Colebrook Chronicle

Dream: A motley group of men (including one or two gangsters) who go off on a retreat to learn how to sing, taught by a unorthodox singing coach who is pursuing a young woman who wants to become a pop singer. For what reason? I don't woke up.

The cast was tendingg Korean at first (because of a recent episode of 1 Night 2 Days), but then it picked up some Russians?

Tomas Tallis, Spem in Alium

An excellent piece from Jeff Culbreath

Creating a family identity

Kevin Carson, Jehu Eaves' Critique of My Work . He mentions his thesis that "state's indispensible role in the primitive accumulation process and the rise of capitalism." Distributists would agree with this historical account. Read his blog (and book) for more?

Edit. Something related: The Austrian Version of the English Enclosures by Christopher Ferrera

Doing period pieces right? No more.

BBC must advance the liberal, progressive agenda. The may not be able to rewrite Austen yet, but the recent "original" works are meant to be subversive in reflecting contemporary moral ideals.

Peter Hitchens, The BBC can't recreate 1956 - because it loves our selfish, grasping present too much

There's Romola Garai...

The Hour


The Hour: BBC’s Mad Men?
The Hour's take on 50s fashion
BBC’s The Hour: Mad Men comparison is way off

"I see dead people."

For some of the same reasons as Dmitry Orlov: Dead Souls

Prester John

Medievalists.net

More from Medievalists.net:
TO TAKE OR TO MAKE? CONTRACTING FOR LEGITIMACY IN THE EMERGING STATES OFTWELFTH-CENTURY BRITAIN
Women Religious Virtuosae from the Middle Ages: A Case Pattern and Analytic Model of Types
Prayer Bead Production and use in Medieval England

Tim Kennedy is in Muscle and Fitness. Some photos and video.

Anders Behring Breivik

I'm surprised some have not try to characterize him as sexually frustrated single white male, and thus explaining his actions that way. Will the sheep use the power of the state to put down the wannabe sheepdogs because they are a potential menace to society? What sort of pushback is this? Could he not find like-minded individuals in Norway to form some sort of community which would give him some solace?

Some discussion at VFR and CHT.
Why the European Right Can't Be Blamed for the Tragedy in Norway by Joshua Foust

Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival

August 12-14, 2011 in Tres Pinos (near Hollister). Anyone want to go?

more info


Jerry Logan:


Angel's Wings
How Many

Alone Again

another

Nostalgia bites again

Anthony Bourdain at Google in 2007

I generally enjoy No Reservations; it's generally good, clean escapist fun, despite the bleeped out expletives. You can read and listen to his criticisms of celebrity chefs and Food Network (and food tv in general) as being "food porn" -- enabling viewers to live vicariously and settling for mediocrity, not getting their duffs off the couch to try their hand in the kitchen or experimenting with new and difficult recipes. He may be right as a cultural critic in this regard. (I'll have something to say about this in connection with Bear Grylls.) He is also an ardent defender of culinary tradition/traditional cuisines at the very least, and his desire to understand other people extends to their cultures as well. Is he a cultural relativist, thuogh?

Alan Richman Takes Eric Ripert to Costco