Tomorrow in Houston

Historic Mass of Institution for newly created Catholic Ordinariate on Feb. 12

See also this article.

Phillip Blond: Who are the Real Conservatives?

The Agenda with Steve Paikin

Jeffrey Polet links to this piece by Anthony Esolen, "The Lovely Dragon of Choice".

Check out the comments by RM Peters and JA at FPR in response to a feminist.

Linmania

A lot of Asian-Americans have gotten on the bandwagon for Jeremy Lin, posting their support on Facebook through status updates and the like. Not all of them are Chinese/Taiwanese[-Americans], either. Will he more popular than Yao Ming in that subset of the population because of his American birth? He seems to be a better basketball player, though I am only hazarding a guess since I read that Yao Ming didn't live up to expectations while Jeremy Lin has met or surpassed them so far.

So these Asian-Americans see him as one of their own, yearning for Asian-Americans to be represented among the stars [or the "best"] and the like. Do they believe that this is the way for their "integration" into American society to be visible, satisfying their group aspirations to contribute in all spheres and the desire for recognition by non-Asian-Americans of their achievements? In certain areas where Asian-Americans live in considerable number (the megapoleis of California, Boston, NYC, where else?) some Asian-Americans may have white friends. But that integration is rather illusory in the rest of the United States, happening only via the images produced by the MSM.

It may understandable that Asian-Americans support Lin simply because he is an Asian-American who is playing basketball well. But is that sort of "genetic affinity" a sufficient reason for this manifestation of Azn pride? They may be fans of other players as well, but Jeremy Lin is "special." Professional basketball as an important socio-political sphere? I can't relate to that sort of emotion.

Well, I'll save airing my ire against most Asian-American politicians later.

Jeremy Lin Taking the NBA by Storm
Jeremy Lin Inspires Basketball Mania

*Edit* Turns out the catch word is "Linsanity."

Rod Dreher, How Crunchy Con You Be?

There is a vast middle ground. I favor doing the best one can to re-localize life by patronizing local businesses, living in a localist manner, and so forth. That will necessarily look different for different people, depending on their circumstances. I think it’s a good thing that extending broadband to rural areas will make it possible for a number of folks to move (or move back!) to those areas, or to never have to leave in the first place. Where I live, West Feliciana Parish, there aren’t now enough jobs to enable everyone’s children to stay here if they wanted to. Broadband access, and the move towards working at home, has the potential to expand the economy here. The place still needs a more diverse economy, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

All of which is to say that I generally agree with Ballor that given the world that we actually live in, the localism and the kind of conservatism I favor will in many cases only be feasible through the Internet. When I was growing up, one reason people moved from small towns to the big cities was the lack of something to do. The lack of movies and bookstores were a big deal to me as a kid. We still don’t have theaters or bookstores in St. Francisville, but Netflix and Amazon.com mean that sort of thing need not be an impediment to choosing small-town life over city life. Now, if you never leave your house, and instead just sit inside watching TV and not getting to know your neighbors or your town, you haven’t really accomplished much. Still, it’s good that books and movies are easily available electronically. And of course I am grateful that the Internet makes it possible for me to sell my product to a wide audience. But if the day comes when I cannot do that, I’m either going to have to find another line of work, or move to where the job is, whether I want to or not. Unless you’re independently wealthy, you are dependent on economic forces no locality can control.

The internet makes living in a small-town possible because it alleviates boredom? How about following Wendell Berry's sugesstion that we learn how to entertain ourselves?

One is a hostage of the system that is true. So long as one is a wage slave, one must go where work is, and there may be no way of escaping wage slavery. It would be ideal to re-establish roots where one has some sort of familial connection/history, but it will be a struggle, if it is at all possible.

Shooting USA preview for Wed. Feb. 15, 2012


Shooting USA at the 2012 SHOT Show

Russell Hittinger on the Nation State and Rights

You will now have to register in order to have access to the ISI lectures now. I listened to his lecture while on a hike this afternoon. It's rather good; I am not sure if he has written his thoughts somewhere. He mentions First Grace, but I do not think he provides an extended account of how the appeal to rights to limit the power of the modern nation-state was subverted to give primacy to individual autonomy in positive law.

Is Natural Law Still Relevant? Notes on a Paradox

Also of interest:
Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity by Robert P. George

Links of Interest, 9 February 2012

Rod Dreher, Obama Chose Feminists Over Religious Liberty
Patrick Buchanan, Obama Tramples on God's Turf

Planned Parenthood’s Grand Delusion, by William Murchison

Komen's Karen Handel quits after funding dispute
Komen Exec Quits Over Funding Flap
Former Susan G. Komen VP Karen Handel: Planned Parenthood "Hijacked This Great Organization"

"Court Strikes Down Ban on Gay Marriage in California"
The Ninth Circuit’s Desperate Targeting of Justice Kennedy by Matthew J. Franck

Climate Science Goes Megalomaniacal by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY
From last week: No global warming since 1997
'I Feel Duped on Climate Change'

Iran:
Philip Giraldi, All the Lies Fit to Print

Economics:
Uneconomics: a challenge to the power of the economics profession by William Davies (EB)

Richard Heinberg: Happiness is the ultimate economic indicator

Wee shall overcome: Tiny houses, big plans by Jessica Dur (EB)

Relocalization and Agrarianism:
Localization is the Economics of Happiness

Farmers Go Wild by Abby Quillen (EB)

Cold weather conundrum by Gene Logsdon (EB)

A day in the life of a Transitioner
Charlotte Du Cann, Transition Norwich Blog
(EB)

Wes Jackson, Forever Planting

The Benefits of Gratitude

RJ Snell, Creative Fidelity and Weighty People

10 Reasons to Become Self-Sufficient and 10 Ways to Get There

An interview with Michael Shuman from 2009. His
Local Dollars, Local Sense.
resilience.org

A Toast to Local Farmers with Michael Shuman from Robert Russell on Vimeo.

Woody Tasch and Michael Brownlee at the Wilkinson Public library


Energy:
Roger Ebert reviews Windfall (NYT)


ALAN FARAGO, Big Wind’s Inconvenient Truth

Obama's energy stool by Rolf E. Westgard

Diet and Health:
http://energybulletin.net/stories/2012-02-06/school-lunchrooms-put-planet-and-kids-risk

Christianity:
Let us be Human: Christianity for a collapsing culture by Sam Norton (EB)

Remembering the Jesus Seminar by Rev. George W. Rutler



Education:
Why Russell Kirk's Teaching Humane Literature in High Schools is MUST Reading
by Robert M. Woods

Who's calling the shots?

$26B Mortgage Settlement: Good for Banks, Not So Good for Homeowners

Whistfulness

Photos via Yahoo TV.
Caption: Mark Harmon as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Muse Watson as Mike Franks in the 200th episode of "NCIS" titled, "Life Before His Eyes." (CBS/Richard Foreman)

"Life Before Your Eyes" - an excuse to bring Mike Frank back for the producers' version of It's a Wonderful Life. A long-running series will do a flashback episode, sometimes out of laziness, but this is the 200th episode. Will this one advance the audience's understanding of Gibbs's life and character? Should Leroy Jethro Gibbs have any regrets?

Yes, I am still watching NCIS. This may turn out to be one of the season's better episodes. I guess they were able to get Sasha Alexander to appear in the episode and work around the constraints of the business on story-telling. It seems like that refilmed the scene in which her character leaves the show, plus did some new ones? Or did they just manipulate pre-existing footage?

What about Gibbs's mother? What accent is she supposed to have?

The episode does raise the question about the justice of a revenge killing, when the state is unable to do anything. And did Gibbs have the authority to prohibit his wife from testifying against a drug lord, thereby putting her life at risk? Did his wife have the authority to make that decision? Or did "justice" require that she do it?


Brian Dietzen, David McCallum, Pauley Perrette, Mark Harmon, Sean Murray, Cote de Pablo, and Michael Weatherly attend CBS' "NCIS" celebration of their 200th episode on January 3, 2012 in Valencia, California. (Mark Davis/Getty Images)

Members of the cast and crew attend CBS' "NCIS" celebration of their 200th episode on January 3, 2012 in Valencia, California. (CBS/Michael Yarish)

Bullhead

Trailer 2 - Hulu


Apple

Plus, The Hunter.

(official)

The full episode of The Late Show with Girls' Generation.

What did the old people in the audience make of all the dyed hair? Dying one's black hair another color in order to be more attractive or interesting seems counter to "Azn pride." But East Asian natives probably less hang-ups about that than those born here, and Azn pride seems to come and go and changing hair color isn't something rejected as being symbolic of hating one's self.

"They're so skinny."

Girls’ Generation on their ‘David Letterman Show’ & ‘Live! With Kelly’ performances
See Bill Murray Pose With Korean Pop Outfit Girls Generation - IBT

Items of Interest, 8 February 2012

Robert M. Peters, First Principles

Mark T. Mitchell, Conservative in America

Conservatism at Its Highest

John Taylor of Caroline: The American Cato by Brittany Baldwin

Wendell Berry to Give 2012 Jefferson Lecture (Rod Dreher and FPR)

Daniel Larison, Romney and Santorum on Foreign Policy

Buchanan's Revolution

Daniel McCarthy, Is Santorum Buchanan 2.0?

Thomas Fleming, Adolf Assad

Why Edmund Burke is Studied
The Conservative Movement, Then and Now

Rod Dreher, Social Conservatives & the Politics of Now

Tom Engelhardt, Kicking Down the World's Door

Chinese Fascism's Global Consequences

Iran:
Fabius MaximusIran: War Drums Beating
Patrick Buchanan, Iran, War or Peace?
US Oblivious to Unintended Consequences of Foreign Policy by Ivan Eland
Paul Craig Roberts, Will Iran be Attacked?

Localism:
Robb's 27 Rules for Global Guerrillas
Seeing Berry’s Wilderness again by Chris Chaney (EB)
Community supported agriculture by John McKay (EB)
How do we build local social capital? by Dave Pollard (EB)

Mad City Chickens - trailer #3 from Tarazod Films on Vimeo.

Documentary
Madison, Wisconsin

Economics:
Is There Such A Thing As Ethical Capitalism? by Kerry-anne Mendoza (EB)
More on the job numbers--Michael Shedlock and Paul Craig Roberts.
Growth and free trade: Brain-dead dogmas still kicking hard by Herman Daly (EB)

Energy and Peak Oil:
OutThere Monthly - Interview with Richard Heinberg
Peak Oil Debate Continues
What is energy for? by Rebecca Willis (EB)
Arthur E. Berman, Petroleum Geologist: Magical Thinking and Fracking by James Howard Kunstler (EB)

Christian:
Rorate Caeli: A new Traditional monastery of Benedictine spirituality in France
Rod Dreher, Cardinal Egan Cracking Up

That article on French parenting: Why French Parents Are Superior

Music:
Today's Country: Rhonda Vincent
NYC: Upcoming performance by St. Vlad's Chorale (May 7, 2012)

Exploring Bay Area's hidden country music scene

Steve Martin Throws Down the Gauntlet

Feminism:
APNewsBreak: Sources: New military roles for women
What happened to downsizing the military? Are there not enough qualified men for these roles that women have to be allowed? But of course, everything must be thrown open to women, so that they can advance their careers.

Equal opportunity launchers of mass nuclear death
Insert a jokes about the synchronization of cycles and the end of the world...

Historical All-Female Flight Takes Place Aboard USS Carl Vinson

Without women there is no food sovereignty by Esther Vivas (EB)

Ending "Farmer's Wife" Syndrome by Sharon Astyk

Misc:
Tim Kennedy gives it to us straight about Iran, his duty as a sniper and retiring from MMA

[MV] 생각날거야 I Will Think Of You - Davichi

Went to listen to Fr. Sherwin's talk tonight. Alas, got hit by too many carbs and not enough sleep. I should have taken a nap this afternoon; I missed the meat of the discussion. Had some questions but didn't ask them, but they were related to physical attraction and the like.

Peter Hitchens, MRA

From Don't forget, it takes a cynical knave to create a dodgy knight -

In the name of the fathers
I promise you that the supposed reforms aimed at giving divorced fathers more access to their children will not work. Our anti-fatherhood state and courts will simply fail to implement them.


And so our national tragedy drags on, with its growing millions of small victims.


Last week, Pennsylvania State University academics exploded the myth of the ‘good divorce’ and showed that children suffer however the parents behave.


The answer’s simple. More than 40 years ago a slapdash Parliament was lobbied by liberal fanatics into making divorce ridiculously easy.


Since then the courts have handed down a series of judgments furiously prejudiced against fathers and husbands.


Parliament has very little to do between now and the 2015 Election. It should put its back into a thoughtful and thorough recasting of the rules of divorce.


And that, surely, is a job for the bishops, instead of taking Trotskyist positions on welfare reform or rowing about the few dozen homosexuals who – bizarrely – wish to get married in churches.


If they really do, let them, provided the law also lets heterosexuals marry in gay clubs. I suspect the take-up will be about the same on both sides.

An Army officer showing his mettle

(photo from the NYT article)

NYT: In Afghan War, Officer Becomes a Whistle-Blower
Fabius Maximus: Important news about our war in Afghanistan and A letter from Lt Col Daniel L. Davis, who is a fulcrum that can move a nation – should we choose to help him

A video that he recorded:


Related:
Patrick Cockburn, How the War Was Lost

Future Primitive interview: Helena Norberg-Hodge

here (mp3)

I need to read more about George Kennan

George F. Kennan, Secessionist? by Thomas H. Naylor

Although best known as the father of “containment,” the mainstay of American Cold War policy, Kennan first revealed his radical decentralist tendencies in his 1993 book entitled Around the Cragged Hill.  “We are…a monster country…And there is a real question as to whether ‘bigness’ in a body politic is not an evil in itself, quite aside from the policies pursued in its name.”  He also noted “a certain lack of modesty in the national self-image” of the U.S.  He proposed decentralizing the U.S. into a “dozen constituent republics” including New England, the Middle Atlantic states, the Middle West, the Northwest, the Southwest (including Hawaii), Texas, the Old South, Florida, Alaska, New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.  “To these entities I would accord a larger part of the present federal powers than one might suspect – large enough, in fact, to make most people gasp.”

He was a realist with respect to foreign policy. Can he also be considered to be a part of the Old Right?

John Lukacs, George Keenan: A Study of Character
C-SPAN presentation

George F. Kennan and the Origins of Containment, 1944-1946: The Kennan-Lukacs Correspondence
George F. Kennan & Jonh Lukacs



Lukacs and Kennan: Reflections on a Friendship



Related:
Not So Huddled Masses: Multiculturalism and Foreign Policy by Scott McConnell

More from James Howard Kunstler on American masculinity in this week's post: All Screaming Id, No Brains, No Honor.

Shots Fired

Shots Fired by Sam Francis no longer has its own url/domain, but it can be ordered here.

Items of Interest, 5 January 2012

Thomas Fleming, Newt Gingrich, RIP and For the Last Time and Gaffes

Daniel Larison, Why Haven't Republicans Repudiated Bush on Iraq?

Clark Stooksbury, Pink Buckets of Chicken

Refuted Congressional Lies about NDAA Kidnapping

Peter Hitchens, Don't forget, it takes a cynical knave to create a dodgy knight and Einstein Versus the Atheists

Intellectual Conservative, No Evidence for God?

Prophet of Conservatism, Russell Kirk

Mike Church: Interview with Kevin Gutzman on the state of conservatism

Mike Church & Winston Elliott discuss Conservatism, Russell Kirk and the Humane Economy

Paul Gottfried, Enough with Family Values and When Democracy Murders Liberty

America: Christian or Jacobin? by John Zmirak

End the Violence, End the War on Drugs

Srdja Trifkovic, Obama's Strategic Doctrine: W Lite
Daniel Larison, Syria and Interventionism Run Amok

Peter Hitchens, The Tory Party, Who Needs It?

Rebellion: Abbeville Institute Conference

Ron Paul:
Scott McConnell, Ron Paul and His Enemies
Patrick Buchanan: Ron Paul: Reactionary or Visionary ?

Iran:
Philip Giraldi, Another War on the Cheap
Chairman of Joint Chiefs to Israelis: U.S. Won’t Join Your War on Iran by Gareth Porter
US Frets Israeli Attack on Iran
Daniel Larison, Israel Is Not Going to Attack Iran

On Recent Economic Figures:
Auomatic Earth has a new url. Who Killed the Money Printer?
Paul Craig Roberts: Economics 101 and The Real Economic Picture
Fabius Maximus: About the January jobs report – mildly good news, but bought at great cost

Economics:
John Médaille, There is No Such Thing as a Bank Loan
Ralph Nader, The Health Care Racket

Peak Oil and Energy:
Janet Napolitano Personifies US Myopia
Peak Oil Crisis Election 2012

History:
Romance of the Middle Ages
Kathryn Boughton, A Book on James Madison by Dr. Kevin Gutzman

Christianity:
Thomas Fleming, Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites
Ethiopian Iconography
Christian Jihad
The Christianity of Modernism by Cleanth Brooks

Feminism:
The Feminist Mystique

Diet and Health
What happens when you eat Ramen.
Regrowing Your Own Teeth

Misc:
Man Builds Fairy Tale Home for His Family for only 3000 Pounds

Thoughts Precipitated by a Local Open Space Preserve

From 2/4/12.

After being a taxi driver this morning, I decided to park and wait for Rancho San Antonio to officially open to the public. The number of early morning visitors was astounding. I think the first/lower parking lot was full by sunrise. I don't know what those people were doing while the park was officially closed.

It was amusing that a number of suburbanites would drive to the hills so they could jog or walk/hike. Yes, the air there may be better and it may be relatively safer since there are no cars on the trails, but to get to such a natural resource one must take a car, unless one is willing to spend a couple of hours walking and hiking to it. The presence of cars in the suburbs, and the necessary traffic lights to facilitate traffic, would of course add to the delay.

There was a number of 30-something (and older) women chasing their youth and attractiveness away. (I tend to agree that chronic cardio is not healthy but it also has an impact on your appearance, especially if coupled with a high-carb low-fat diet?) Hiking up the hills was quite a workout and when I reached the top of one, I started to doubt whether all that strenuous effort was worth it. The descent down the hill was enjoyable, though. Did I enjoy the hike for its own sake? Barely, especially when I was going uphill. But more importantly, it was difficult for me to have a proper sense of place there, even when looking at Silicon Valley from one of the vista points. Can I really say that this area is my own, when I own no land and have very few links to the people surrounding me? There were a lot of visitors, Indians, Chinese, and a few Japanese who remain in the area. Most were chatting away in their native tongues. What do I have in common with them?

I did see a number of quail and deer yesterday.

I walked by where St. Joseph's Seminary used to be. The seminary college was irreparably damaged in the 1989 earthquake. The diocese was going to try to sell the land to real estate developers but this was opposed by preservationists. The property eventually ended up being incorporated into the open preserve system. I don't know if the diocese can be
said to have "lost money" in the deal. It should have kept the land, perhaps - or turned it into a community farm

From the osp, I could see Maryknoll Seminary/Residence - what shocking things have been done to its interior or the chapel in the name of modernization and relevancy, the "Spirit" [of the age]?

There were some adult men flying their model airplanes... men and their toys. A hobby that would not be possible without cheap energy.

Act of Valor Superbowl Ad

A book on the Church of Shanghai after the Communist takeover

This afternoon, Fr. Paul Mariani, S.J. gave a brief presentation on his new book from
Church Militant: Bishop Kung and Catholic Resistance in Communist Shanghai at St. Clare's for the older students in the SJCCC. He was singing copies afterwards, but the extra copies were sold out rather quickly. I'll pick one up sooner or later. I haven't visited the website for the Cardinal Kung Foundation for some time.

The book is mentioned here.

Something on Fr. Beda Chang

Fr. Paul was on an episode of an EWTN series, but I can't find any video for that.

From 2010: Paul Mariani, SJ, Final Vows on Candlemas 2010 @ Santa Clara Mission at SCU

James Howard Kunstler talks about a crisis of masculinity for American men in KunstlerCast #184: Fake Warrior Culture. He also talks about it again briefly in a more recent episode. I think it is this one: KunstlerCast #191: Get Used to Being Uncomfortable. The causes of this crisis can be linked to the rise of the nation-state and concentration of economic power (i.e. modern capitalism). But feminism is also a factor. Would Mr. Kunstler be willing to take that on?

Jack Donovan recommends the following piece: I Miss Iraq. I Miss My Gun. I Miss My War. Shades of The Hurt Locker?

A different perspective on Susan G. Komen

Karen De Coster, Susan G. Komen and Big Cancer’s “Crawl for the Cure”

Larkin Poe, "Play On"

official, MS, FB