Liberalism as a Christian heresy

Reading Aquinas's treatment of the relationship of the Old Law to the New, I was thinking of the movement to punish hate crimes and police "thoughts" (or desires). Is this a trace of secular pelagianism, attempting to bring about the New Law (of Christ) without grace? (And of course, without God as the end.) The attempt to cleanse interior actions through human law alone? What utopianism. (The implementation of a utopian fantasy leads to totalitarianism.) And what a wicked and perverse desire to displace God, both as the ultimate end and as the Font of Mercy.

"Conservative White Males"

I added the following to this post.

Sarge was filling up the gas tank for Bridge's truck, and I made fun of him because he wasn't removing the pump nozzle correctly from the gas tank. (I had pointed out the sign on the gas pump on a previous trip to a gas station and showed him the technique.) He acknowledged that he wasn't doing it correctly in front of Bridge, who dismissed it as "stupid green ----." Such is the repulsion many feel to contemporary environmentalism. The dismissal of environmental measures is more emotional than rational, and may rest on fallacious reasoning. It should be clear such an emotional response precipitously causing an embrace of fallacy is wrong-headed, but who is to blame for the repulsion? After all, many environmentalists are confrontational and hostile to their fellow citizens and their culture, and have a perceived anti-human attitude. Even if they do not denigrate mankind, their advocacy of "animal rights" may have that practical effect. There is no sense of solidarity -- they embrace a form of [identity] tribalism as much as those they disparage.


Bridge, like many CWMs loves the outdoors but also embraces the age of fossil fuels. Conservatives should know that conservation is part of conservatism. The virtue of prudence requires an acknowledgment of limits, especially of resources, careful stewardship, and restraint. It is unfortunate that many are not true conservatives and embrace a consumerism reliant upon cheap energy, but this is true of many environmentalists as well, as they push for the development of alternate energy sources that will enable them to maintain their current lifestyle.


Those who think they are in the right with regards to climate change should know that an appeal to self as authority is still a fallacy, no matter how much they believe themselves to be experts on the topic. Obviously, appealing to the authority of experts is fallacious as well, and referring opponents to the "data" or "papers" that are available online does nothing to advance the discussion at hand. They should be able to present the arguments themselves, and if they cannot, then they should have the humility to realize that their case is not so obvious or certain,.


A better understanding of CWMs on the part of environmentalists is necessary, to the point that they can identify with them. Only in that way can they breach the emotional barrier and being persuading them. This is true of any divide that is caused by emotion or trauma, and Christians should remember this as well when they evangelize. But I believe it is unlikely that environmentalists "on the left" will be able to do this, as they are steadfast in their opposition to what they think conservatives represent, and it is not just this moral issue that separates the two groups. Pride is a problem for everyone. Perhaps the best chance for converting CWMs to a form of environmentalism lies with Christians who live a theology of "stewardship."

On Paleo "Communities"

Begun on July 12 at 8:37 P.M.

In a previous post I linked to a piece describing how the author formed a paleo/primal community. What would unite people? A common interest in health and fitness, in particular the paleo lifestyle. What would such a friendship be like? I would suspect the more important things in life (e.g. religion) are just ignored or brought up, unless perchance a bunch of paleo enthusiasts who are like-minded in other areas meet. Religion may not be necessary for some friendships, but if we are talking about the health of society at large, it is important.

For men, friendship is usually lived or expressed through common pursuits, such as physical activities and sports. Having common activities may suffice for passing most of the time together, but it isn't enough. The conversation naturally turns to other topics. "Compartmentalizing" both in one's personal life and with regards to the people with whom he spends time is easy in a community that is too big, but it involves the risk that the higher pursuits will be ignored or diminished in favor of other things, depending upon the friends with whom one associates most often. With too many friends, there is a potential for over-extension and "dilution" -- one will probably end up having a core group. Which friends will comprise that core group? It's not necessarily one's priorities alone that will determine this, but one must also take into account who is free and available.


As friends are united by what they share, they should share pursuit of the ultimate end in common. Physical health is subordinate to spiritual health. It is true that in this country, food has become a political issue, as well as health and fitness, because of the political economy and government regulations and "recommendations." But even without these problems, they would be political in so far as they are ordered to the proper exercise of citizenship, and a citizenship should be concerned about these goods.

Those who follow the paleo/primal lifestyle are more likely to be free-thinkers or libertarians; one has to be to a certain extent to reject the Establishment's dogma regarding nutrition and exercise. In addition, there are also plenty of locavores seeking organic produce and better selection of meats. Some are engaged in a post-Christian search for "spirituality"; others are content being agnostics or atheists.

Are there enough Christians interested in paleo to form their own groups? Certainly there are many  who are interested in learning about alternative views about nutrition and fitness and many support local farms and buy grass-fed meat as well, but they may be wary of adopting the evolutionary theory used to explain why the paleo diet works or taking such a radical step as to adopt some version of the paleo lifestyle. Christians and VFFs?



P.S. There is a local meetup group for Paleo, and another for MovNat.

Related links:

Adam Farrah's blog: Raw Meat on Paleo and Paleo Spirituality

FB page for his new book

Leangains Guide
Fast Paleo

Note: Today is the Ancestral Health Symposium. Wish I could be there. Spocom Anaheim is this weekend too. Free the Animal.

The Cranberries are back, too.

The Cult of Rothbard...

I think I saw links on Facebook to this piece by Christopher Ferrara, but I didn't read it until last night: The Apotheosis of McDonald’s. (A response to this piece by Jeffrey Tucker praising McDonald's. Someone needs to come up with a clever mockery of the corporation's name.)


(More from Mr. Ferrara in the Fury in the Cult of Rothbard)

Too late!

100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School (via Pertinacious Papist)

Koide Hiroaki

ATimes: Engineer dismantles facade of Japan's nuclear industry



paper
Hiroaki Koide on the Dream of a Nuclear Japan
Nuclear Safety Research Group

Ides of March trailer

website

I think if George Clooney's name appeared in polls he might actually garner a big percentage of the votes. What do you think?

Debbie Gibson and Tiffany Perform - The View

Tats...

Banking and the Confederacy

Banking and the Confederacy
“Graybacks”: A Forgotten Example of State Credit
by K. R. Bolton

I have no way to evaluate this piece, but thought it could be informative.

Moleskine has a online store in the US

announcement

Might be cheaper just to go to B&N, if the stores still carry the notebooks. What about Amazon?

Feist is back

Rolling Stone: Four Years After '1234,' Feist Returns With Raw Follow-Up



website

Items of Interest, 5 August 2011

Nick Turse, A Secret War in 120 Countries
Lewis McCray, A Nation Derailed

If Super Congress has final authority on legislation, it is Unconstitutional
Dr. Gutzman on Super Congress & Alabama Immigration Law

The Deindustrialization of America by John R. MacArthur

The Folly of Bourgeois Sustainable Food

If You Eat, You Need to Know: 5 Facts About the Farm Bill

Philip Zimbardo: The demise of guys?

Some good responses to this man in the comments section.

Fides et Familia

Dilsaver's essays on patriarchy that appeared in Christian Order are now available online. (Thanks to DC.)

Bourdain on Colbert

The full episode. An appearance from earlier this year.

What do you do with self-righteous white liberals?

Grist: How do you solve a problem like conservative white men?

Sarge was filling up the gas tank for Bridge's truck, and I made fun of him because he wasn't removing the pump nozzle correctly from the gas tank. (I had pointed out the sign on the gas pump on a previous trip to a gas station and showed him the technique.) He acknowledged that he wasn't doing it correctly in front of Bridge, who dismissed it as "stupid green ----." Such is the repulsion many feel to contemporary environmentalism. The dismissal of environmental measures is more emotional than rational, and may rest on fallacious reasoning. It should be clear such an emotional response precipitously causing an embrace of fallacy is wrong-headed, but who is to blame for the repulsion? After all, many environmentalists are confrontational and hostile to their fellow citizens and their culture, and have a perceived anti-human attitude. Even if they do not denigrate mankind, their advocacy of "animal rights" may have that practical effect. There is no sense of solidarity -- they embrace a form of [identity] tribalism as much as those they disparage.

Bridge, like many CWMs loves the outdoors but also embraces the age of fossil fuels. Conservatives should know that conservation is part of conservatism. The virtue of prudence requires an acknowledgment of limits, especially of resources, careful stewardship, and restraint. It is unfortunate that many are not true conservatives and embrace a consumerism reliant upon cheap energy, but this is true of many environmentalists as well, as they push for the development of alternate energy sources that will enable them to maintain their current lifestyle.

Those who think they are in the right with regards to climate change should know that an appeal to self as authority is still a fallacy, no matter how much they believe themselves to be experts on the topic. Obviously, appealing to the authority of experts is fallacious as well, and referring opponents to the "data" or "papers" that are available online does nothing to advance the discussion at hand. They should be able to present the arguments themselves, and if they cannot, then they should have the humility to realize that their case is not so obvious or certain,.

A better understanding of CWMs on the part of environmentalists is necessary, to the point that they can identify with them. Only in that way can they breach the emotional barrier and being persuading them. This is true of any divide that is caused by emotion or trauma, and Christians should remember this as well when they evangelize. But I believe it is unlikely that environmentalists "on the left" will be able to do this, as they are steadfast in their opposition to what they think conservatives represent, and it is not just this moral issue that separates the two groups. Pride is a problem for everyone. Perhaps the best chance for converting CWMs to a form of environmentalism lies with Christians who live a theology of "stewardship."

SWCS Sniper School

Happy, Sarge?

CSPAN: In Depth with David Hackett Fischer

From 2004:
Liberty and Freedom A Visual History of America's Founding Ideas David Hackett Fischer Google Books

Steve Sailer thinks The Guard is a funny movie. The movie, from the trailer, didn't seem that humorous to me, but I wouldn't mind a good laugh. Alas, it is playing at CineArts at Santana Row.

(Empire)

Apple trailer
Don Cheadle interview

Amanda Shires: Tiny Desk Concert

her website

Blog fatigue

Lately I have not been perusing the blogs I had been regularly checking a year ago. With changes in opinions and interests there is a corresponding change in the blogs I frequent. Five years ago I will still look at some neocon blogs from time to time. That has practically ceased, with one exception. Still, the number of blogs I look at everyday seems to have decreased. Maybe I'm spending too much time on FB. I don't think it is plain boredom, although I do think that there isn't much fresh material appearing these days. Being engrossed with opinions when no concrete plan of action is available can be frustrating. But there is the sense that there is more to life than reading blogs, and the internet commentariat/diarists are in the process of destroying the internet's usefulness through the sheer number of poor blogs. The signal-to-noise ratio is falling. One could be discerning or rely on a few sites, whether they be blogs or alternative media websites, but can they really keep a reader for more than a several years? Rapid turnover of blogs as bloggers reach a new stage in their lives is even more likely.

A learning community would be much better. There are a few study groups around here, but returning to the university environment would be a more suitable option.

Miss Korea 2011

Waiting for some video to be available; there is this youtube video. Found something else:




Chosun Ilbo: Lee Sung-hye Crowned Miss Korea

Soompi: 2011 Miss Korea Pageant Winner Lee Sung Hae Becomes Hot Topic on the Web
pageant website
Some photos
Missosology

A comment I left over at Traditional Christianity:

With real people one has to deal with their foibles, quirks, and whatever annoys us. In virtual relationships our interaction is limited to written words, and while it fosters bonds quickly with those who share our beliefs, that sort of "substance" can mislead us as to the depth of our friendships.

I'm looking for an adjective to describe that apparent elevation that comes with conservation about serious subjects, but all I could think of was "substance."

I need to start reading something other than blogs and magazines, plus review something on grammar and style.

Vacation and leisure

Jason Peters, Against Vacation

How about less work hours per week and more communal celebrations of feast days? (True holidays.)

The Simple Living Network
Less Work, More Life
Take Back Your Time
Four Hour Work Week blog
Preservation Institute
ShorterWorkWeek
Shorter Work Time (hasn't been updated for a while)

Corn Pros and Cons by Gene Logsdon (EB)

Fascinatingly enough, this is not the first time in human history that corn has been overdone. From what archeology thinks now not only did excessive corn production bring down the downfall of the ancient Mayans but the Woodland Indians of the Mississippi Valley too. Not only is corn hard on the soil, but a diet heavy in corn is not necessarily healthy. Early mound-building Indians ate too much corn, say archeologists. Late skyscraper-building Americans eat too much corn too, in the form of meat fattened on corn.

But that is not the whole reason I criticize corn sometimes. I am heretical enough to think that it is not really great feed for livestock. My chickens don’t think so. They eat it only grudgingly. They prefer wheat to supplement their bugs and worms in the woods. When I eat corn, at least half of each kernel goes right through me. I have mixed hog manure with water and poured it through a screen and again, the yellow parts of the kernel were still there in the manure. It appears that almost half of the bulk of commercial corn fed to hogs goes right through them undigested. Squirrels regularly raid our corn crib. They eat only the germ out of each kernel and leave the rest. I think corn is like candy. It’s fun and fattening, and produces meat that is fun and fattening too.

More on the Internet

What are the Internet's dependencies? by Barath Raghavan (EB)

Sierra Hull, "Chasin' Skies"

Chasin' Skies - Sierra Hull - Sierra Hull Videos

Debbie Gibson and Tiffany on The View

Most of our teen singers now are marketed by Disney and Nickelodeon? And we have reasons to be suspicious about their "innocence"?

The Archdruid Report: Salvaging Science

It took a long time for science as a profession to catch on, because—pace a myth very widespread these days—science contributed next to nothing to the technological revolutions that swept the western world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Until late in the nineteenth century, in fact, things generally worked the other way around: engineers and basement tinkerers discovered some exotic new effect, and then scientists scrambled to figure out what made it happen. James Clerk Maxwell, whose 1873 book Electricity and Magnetism finally got out ahead of the engineers to postulate the effects that would become the basis for radio, began the process by which science took the lead in technological innovation, but it wasn’t until the Second World War that science had matured enough to become the engine of discovery it then became. It was then that government and business investment in basic research took off, creating the institutionalized science of the present day.

Anatoly Karlin's review of The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy

The Power Of Contingency: Why China Didn’t Rule The World

Rawesome Raid August 3, 2011

via Cheeseslave:

"Rawesome" Milk Farm Raided... Again
Eat Drink Better
FoodRenegade

Two period films

Mozart's Sister trailer. Should I label this as "feminism"? Historians may "speculate" about people for political purposes -- why can't this also be true of artists? Mysteries of Lisbon might be less annoying.

Tuesday night's episode of Hell's Kitchen had the restaurant's special event of the season. The restaurant hosted the 20-year reunion of Culver City High School's Class of 1991. I didn't realize these people graduated around the same time I did until I did the math using the information presented on the TV screen. 20 years have gone by and I have very little to show for it. I looked at the website for our class reunion; not many confirmations. Will many of those attending look like the people on the TV screen. After all, we are closing in on 40. Do the single women feel bad that they are single? That hasn't stopped some of them from having children out of wedlock. Not that this is a matter of shame in our permissive enlightened society.

I was offered a job today, and while the work may involve philosophy from time to time, I can't get excited about it. It, like most everything I've been looking at, seems like futile work. Wouldn't our energy and resources be better invested in preparing for the age of austerity? I would think so, but very few companies around here are taking steps in that direction.

OSV: Is the unconsecrated single life a vocation? By Emily Stimpson

Adam Curtis, The Century Of The Self

view it online

Adam Curtis' acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty.

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?

The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter; and present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud.

Sigmund Freud's work into the bubbling and murky world of the subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man's ultimate goal. goal.

Locavesting

Fast Company: "Locavesting": Investing In Main Street Instead Of Wall Street
BY Danielle Sacks

Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It by Amy Cortese - press release
blog
Slow Money profile

Why don't they just go all the way?

And make Superman black? They attempted it once before, with Will Smith (before he did Hancock). Why not another try? Did they learn their lesson? So they don't have the guts to do it this time around (because they believe it would affect box office numbers), but they figure they can go ahead and do this? Why not change Lois Lane then? A they afraid of an interracial relationship? Cowards -- they won't go all the way to re-imagining America according to their utopianism because they won't make money, but they will do what they can to push the limits.

Mass entertainment (movies, comic books, even books) is in the hands of the elites -- don't let them have power over your imagination and your emotions. Return to the classics and circle the wagons...

Laurence Fishburne will play Perry White in 'Superman: Man of Steel'

Yes, then there is the Ultimate Universe Spider-Man.

Cia Cherryholmes and Stetson Adkisson

"I'm Not the One "


"The Heart of Me"

Pride is the soul-killer

Transition Voice: Meet the Percapitas: we’re greener than you are by Tim Murray

Alas, there is the anti-natalist side to the satire:

OK, it’s true. We could have done better. By not having three kids we could have saved the atmosphere from an extra 28,223 metric tons of C02 each year — or 58 times the amount that we have saved by switching to a fuel efficient car, driving less, recycling, installing CFLs, replacing our inefficient refrigerator and old windows. And by adopting rather than conceiving, we would not have added to the 350,000 children who are born every day to a planet now burdened with 7 billion humans, and braced for more.

Colin Grant, Chrissy Crowley, and Jason Roach

Colin Grant Band
Chrissy Crowley

More AA at work?

Vietnamese-American Lawyer Nominated for Federal Bench

What qualifications do lawyers have, other than being educated in law, for becoming judges? What assurances do we have that they are responsible members of their local communities? So is Miranda Du more than a partisan for the Cultural Marxist Party?

Her page.
White House announcement

MMA Fighting: Why Tim Kennedy Won't Stop Talking About the Military, Even if You Want Him To By Ben Fowlkes

But let's be honest, these aren't the things people want to hear about when there's prizefighting to be done. Hence the backlash when Kennedy brings it up. Hence the forum threads and snarky Twitter rants. Not only are these types of stories a downer, they're not even sufficiently novel anymore.

After nearly ten years of wars, we've heard about so many wounded vets who have been forced to rebuild their lives that it's too mundane to seem special anymore. Even the tales of their injuries are no longer sufficiently horrifying for us, which is itself horrifying in a different way.

The wars go on, the soldiers get blown up, but back home we prefer to keep our pro sporting events free from such interruptions. Tell us about your sponsors, fine. But don't go off on this military thing again. We were having such a good time.

For Kennedy, the fact that people are sick of it is precisely what motivates him to tell them, again and again.

"I think people already have forgotten," he said. "It's not like I have a responsibility to do it, but I'm very passionate about it and I know people have forgotten how many guys we have overseas, how many guys are messed up, and how much these guys are sacrificing."

For Schlitz, who doesn't have Kennedy's celebrity pulpit, the focus is on helping the people who are still coming back from the wars, whether the rest of the country remembers them or not.

"It's something you can't always talk about," he said. "That's where that disconnect comes with civilians and the military, because there's no way to actually verbalize it and have someone comprehend what you've seen and what you've done."

It's even harder to talk about when no one back home wants to hear it.

More on the debt ceiling circus

Michael Hudson, War and Debt
Ralph Nader, When Fanatics Don't Blink
Andrew Levine, Obama Surrendered (But Got What He Wanted Too)
Winslow T. Wheeler, Defense Spending and the Debt Deal

Obamacare: Subsidizing immorality

GL Piggy, Subsidized Birth Control

California Catholic Daily: Catholic healthcare imperiled?
US bishops denounce new government requirement that health insurers cover sterilization, contraception and abortion-inducing drugs

Notre Dame Law Prof Worried About Federal Contraceptive Coverage Mandate

First Things: Protected in Law, Cared for in Life
The new health-care act fails to satisfy pro-life principles.
Ryan T. Anderson

Is Anita Lee living in Vancouver now?

A radio program in Vancouver:

Part 1 林峯訪問 @ 李婉華 小心華之里 Raymond Lam vs Anita Lee


Part 2

Monroeville - Live Passive Aggressive / Orange Blossom Special

Monroeville

Heckler & Koch videos

Here

Includes an older clip of the HK416 (since the XM8 is also featured).

One hopes that family would turn your account into a memorial page?

Adam Ostrow: After your final status update

Dave Grossman, On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs

On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs
(From the book, On Combat, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman)

Here is the point I like to emphasize, especially to the thousands of police officers and soldiers I speak to each year. In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves. They didn’t have a choice. But you are not a critter. As a human being, you can be whatever you want to be. It is a conscious, moral decision. If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes, you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a sheepdog there to protect you. If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior’s path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door.

Newport Folk Festival

NPR

Archived performances by Gillian Welch and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, among others.

Items of Interest, 1 August 2011

Commentary: Peak Oil Teachers by Eric Woods and Sharon Astyk (EB)
100 MPG on gasoline: Could we really? by Tom Murphy (EB)
How much energy does the Internet use? by Barath Raghavan (EB)

WWWTW: On being ladies and gentlemen in complimenting our spouses

Coolest Sheriff in the Country: Richard Mack on Tenther Radio (mp3)

The debt ceiling agreement

Mike Whitney, The Worst Deal in American History?
Ron Paul, When a Cut is Not a Cut

Other items from CP:
Paul Craig Roberts, The Road to Armageddon
Paul Craig Roberts, Disastrous Outcomes From an Orchestrated Crisis
Mike Whitney, Shadow Banking and the Repo Market

Home Renaissance Foundation International Conference: Renewing the culture of home

Home Renaissance Foundation

Economics for a Sunday

David W. Cooney, The Errors of the Economists: Usury
Allan Carlson, The Family-Centered Economy

Captain America

Photo: Yahoo Movies

A model superhero movie? The main character is an earnest do-gooder who can't stand bullies. I decided to watch the movie last Thursday, even though I could have used a longer nap in the afternoon to prepare for the ride-along, because of the bimonthly street cleaning. How much money is the city spending on that?

There is very little patriotism explicitly stated in Captain America's initial motivations, though the movie takes place during World War II. It's implied that he wants to fight alongside other American soldiers in repelling the Nazi threat. Could he be a hero for neo-conservatives, seeking to bring freedom, human rights, and democracy to the rest of the world? Dr. Erskine pics Steve Rogers to be the test subject for the super soldier serum because of he is a good person first of all. But I find the story to be a rather shallow exposition of the virtuous soldier/hero.


Although Rogers's strength and body have been augmented through the serum, I found the action sequences to be rather uninspired. The massed armed combat was rather unrealistic, something you'd expect from a B-movie or a cheap TV show. There wasn't much hand-to-hand combat in comparison with a movie like Batman, and what was in the movie was simplistic. It didn't seem like Captain America was overwhelming his opponents because of superior strength and ability. I had the impression that the action directors were too lazy to be more creative.

Roger continues to exhibit an "aw shucks" American humility and the sort of courage and moral resoluteness one associates with "the Greatest Generation." But as for his charisma and leadership qualities... they weren't much in evidence. Captain America is meant to be an inspirational figure, but we aren't given the opportunity to witness Captain America's abilities being exercised, due to the rather rapid pace of the movie and the editing. Bad movie-making, I would think. He is supposed to be the leader of the Avengers, but there's very little meat onscreen to his command of the Howling Commandos. Maybe that is to be expected from a comic book movie.

Watching Captain America made me pine for something actually from the 40s, a movie for adults. Would the director's The Rocketeer be a slight improvement in that regard, is it a more gentle and quieter movie? I was reading some of the entries in the Marvel Database. The Marvel Universe and its superheroes may have appealed to me a long time ago, but I find it and superhero movies to be rather juvenile now. (With the possible exception of the first Iron Man movie, though that's not great art, either.)

*spoiler warning*

2011 Berkeley Old Time Music Convention

official; fb event:

Mike Bryant & Joe Decosimo with Karen Celia Heil

Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz

Pilot Mountain Bobcats

Thomas Maupin, Daniel Rothwell & friends

The ACES (Alan Senauke, Chad Manning, Eric & Suzy Thompson)

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod

New Omatics

Roots Revue

Triple Chicken Foot

Plus dance callers Susan Michaels & Erik Hoffman

SCHEDULE:

Wed. night: square dance

Thurs. night: concert at the Freight

Friday 12:10pm: panel discussion at UC Berkeley

Fri. night: concert & film at the Freight

Sat.10:15am: free concert for kids and families at Berkeley Main Branch Library

Sat.11am-3pm: the Farmers Market String Band Contest, at Civic Center Park

Sat. evening: dance workshop with Thomas Maupin, followed by square dance at Ashkenaz

Sun. day: instructional workshops/master classes at the Freight

Sun. afternoon: kids/ family dance at Ashkenaz

Sun. afternoon/evening: Old Time Cabaret at the Jupiter

Plus plenty of jamming, socializing, partying, etc.