The grand semicentennial celebration has begun. No tam-tam as yet, but one can feel it in the air. The semicentennial anniversary of Vatican II will uncork whatever it will be possible to dream up by way of laudatory judgements. Not the faintest shadow of the sobriety that had been requested both as an attitude of mind and as a moment of reflexion and analysis to evaluate the conciliar event at a greater critical depth. Free-wheeling assertions and repetitions of what has been said and repeated for the past fifty years are already underway: Vatican II is the pinnacle and the quintessence of Tradition. International congresses on the greatest and most significant among all ecumenical councils have already been planned, while other gatherings of greater or lesser impact will follow along the way. Literature on the topic is swelling by the day.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Church-Tradition-Magisterium by Brunero Gheradini
Written late last year.
Tom Piatak Replies to Daniel McCarthy
How Does a Traditionalist Vote?
"The answer to McCarthy's question is that no traditionalist could ever countenance voting for Obama, who has been the most leftist president in our history on social and cultural issues."
I have not seen anyone play on the word "abomination" with "Obamanation." Someone would likely scream, "Racist!"
"The answer to McCarthy's question is that no traditionalist could ever countenance voting for Obama, who has been the most leftist president in our history on social and cultural issues."
I have not seen anyone play on the word "abomination" with "Obamanation." Someone would likely scream, "Racist!"
Idolizing the Spartans
Lycurgus &; the Spartan State by Mark Dyal
Aristotle has a response in his Politics. No need for me to repeat it here? Masculine virtue should be complete, including what is necessary for the defense of the community, but the end of moral education goes beyond self-defense. Spartan society was a bit... unbalanced?
Edit. 10/28 Today I was reminded of the latest fitness fad, the Spartan Race (FB).
Aristotle has a response in his Politics. No need for me to repeat it here? Masculine virtue should be complete, including what is necessary for the defense of the community, but the end of moral education goes beyond self-defense. Spartan society was a bit... unbalanced?
Edit. 10/28 Today I was reminded of the latest fitness fad, the Spartan Race (FB).
If...
Reality can be rather trying, a cause of emotional and psychological fatigue.
My ideal living situation: somewhere near SF so I could go to the Byz rite regularly (though they do not have daily liturgy, unlike SBG). Berkeley is close, and BART might be an option. Berkeley does have a traditional music scene which I enjoy. What is lacking in both of these locations is a community of like-minded people, though there may be a few at certain parishes. And even though sustainable ag is something that may be more feasible across the bridge and over in Marin or Sacramento counties, it's unlikely I'd be able to get into that. An urban garden instead?
Ah well, one can have dreams...
My ideal living situation: somewhere near SF so I could go to the Byz rite regularly (though they do not have daily liturgy, unlike SBG). Berkeley is close, and BART might be an option. Berkeley does have a traditional music scene which I enjoy. What is lacking in both of these locations is a community of like-minded people, though there may be a few at certain parishes. And even though sustainable ag is something that may be more feasible across the bridge and over in Marin or Sacramento counties, it's unlikely I'd be able to get into that. An urban garden instead?
Ah well, one can have dreams...
Daniel Dayl-Lewis on Voicing Licoln
Daniel Day-Lewis explains the inspiration for his Lincoln voice
He is still an actor I would watch onscreen, and because he's a foreign national, I can overlook his participation in Spielberg's movie. But I bet someone like Dr. Wilson would claim that the voice does not reflect the real Lincoln at all.
Related:
The Real DiLorenzo
He is still an actor I would watch onscreen, and because he's a foreign national, I can overlook his participation in Spielberg's movie. But I bet someone like Dr. Wilson would claim that the voice does not reflect the real Lincoln at all.
Related:
The Real DiLorenzo
Christian Bale...
Christian Bale honors Chen Guangcheng for fighting abortions in China
How pro-life is Christian Bale? Or is he just a "human rights activist" celebrating another activist?
How pro-life is Christian Bale? Or is he just a "human rights activist" celebrating another activist?
The Right to Housing
If there is such a thing, it is not a "basic" right but a derived claim - one can argue that through distributive justice, one has a claim on the natural materials (and land) necessary for the construction of housing for one's self and family. Is it a liberal notion of property (rights) that enables those with wealth to buy up homes in order to capture the rental market? Or does this notion of property, in the West, predate the rise of capitalism and liberalism?
Is Housing About to Tank? by Mike Whitney
Is Housing About to Tank? by Mike Whitney
Renting out foreclosed homes has increasingly emerged as an investment opportunity for Wall Street. Financiers are busily studying ways to take the single-family home rental business, for years mostly a mom-and-pop affair, and make it a bigger industry. That has made it difficult for first-time shoppers to compete.”
So now you have to compete with Wall Street that receives favorable treatment from the government and Fed just to purchase an entry level home. This is becoming a closed loop system. The same financiers that made billions upon billions of dollars shelling out fraudulent loans and toxic waste are now gaining favorable treatment in locking up blocks of properties to jack up prices. The California median price is up 12.9 percent year over year while incomes remain stagnant. In Phoenix it is up a stunning 30 percent. Las Vegas? Up 18 percent year over year. These gains are on par with the peak years of the bubble.” (“A modern day feudal system for real estate”, Dr Housing Bubble)
A “closed loop system”. I love that. It really sums up what’s going on behind the scenes and how all the gravy keeps flowing to the chiselers on top.
And did you catch that part about Phoenix being up 30 percent in a year? That’s what happens when the big boys come to town and start snapping up all the cheapo homes so they can make a killing in the rental biz. It’s like buzzards flocking to roadkill.
Did you know that private equity firms have already raised “$8 billion to buy as many as 80,000 single-family homes” they plan to manage as rentals? That ought to keep prices going in the right direction, right?
Wrong. The truth is, rental management is tougher than it looks. It eats up a lot of time and money, which is why some of these investor groups are bailing already. It’s not the golden goose they thought it was going to be, so they’re pulling up stakes.
Friday, October 26, 2012
John C. Médaille at Students for a Fair Society
John C. Médaille on Catholic Economics - Friday, October 19, 2012 (audio files of the lecture available)
Jacques Barzun
NYT obit
A Masterpiece of Cultural History: Barzun's "Dawn to Decadence"
From 2007: A Tribute to Jacques Barzun on His Centennial by Tracy Lee Simmons
A review of one of his books from 1989: America’s Fin de Siècle: End of a Century or a Civilization?
Some videos:
A Masterpiece of Cultural History: Barzun's "Dawn to Decadence"
From 2007: A Tribute to Jacques Barzun on His Centennial by Tracy Lee Simmons
A review of one of his books from 1989: America’s Fin de Siècle: End of a Century or a Civilization?
Some videos:
The Importance of Fathers as Fathers
Men Don’t Mother by Jenet Erickson
Cultural misandry will get its payback.
Andrea Doucet, Do Men Mother?
MMO: Men and Mothering: An Interview with Andrea Doucet
Cultural misandry will get its payback.
Andrea Doucet, Do Men Mother?
MMO: Men and Mothering: An Interview with Andrea Doucet
Matt Cain versus various objects
Matt Cain w/ Kari Byron & Tory Belleci from Mythbusters destroy things mid air with his fastball
Thursday, October 25, 2012
For the HALO fans...
Exclusive Clip From Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Episode 4
I began viewing the first episode; the actors (especially the males) were too young in their demeanor, and the feminism was too much and I couldn't finish the episode. As far as I know, the games do not push such an egalitarian agenda (though there are some female characters)
I began viewing the first episode; the actors (especially the males) were too young in their demeanor, and the feminism was too much and I couldn't finish the episode. As far as I know, the games do not push such an egalitarian agenda (though there are some female characters)
The Lincoln Propaganda Film
The propagandist-in-chief gives his perspective:
Opening the same weekend as Skyfall. Guess which gets my money, if any?
Another video...
Opening the same weekend as Skyfall. Guess which gets my money, if any?
Another video...
Michael Pollan on Democracy Now!
The Drifter Sisters
Upcoming shows include opening for the Kathy Kallick Band at Redwood Bluegrass Associates this Saturday, and they will be performing live on KALW on November 3, from 7:15-8 (PM?).
(They've added a new member...)
(They've added a new member...)
Farewell to Costco Food Court, Too?
The last few times I've had it, the Costco chicken salad has struck me as tasting funny - there's an odd taste to it, something artificial or chemical? All this time I thought it was real chicken breast, but I may have been too naive. (Or unfamiliar with chicken breast.) Something resembling chicken sandwich meat instead? The food at the Costco food court may be cheap, but it's most likely not very healthy. Running out of options fast...
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Bread and Circuses
So the Giants win game 1. Professional sports are the athletic equivalent of employing mercenaries to fight a war - no real connection with civic spirit or a local patriotism. There were plenty of fans watching the game on TV at Roam and cheering "their" team on (how many of them are actually natives to the area, rather than transplants from elsewhere) but that team spirit is a very poor substitute for a true civic-mindedness.
Driving to SF...
Game 1 of the World Series starts in an hour. Will Giants fans clog the streets and make traffic into SF even worse? Natalie MacMaster is performing at Yoshi's SF tonight; she was in Livermore yesterday. Not sure if I will have time to drop by ROAM before the 8:00 performance.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
"The Pernicious Myth of the Individual"
Dr. Fleming, Back to the Stone Age IIB
Another notable passage:
On Murray Rothbard:
At the Daily Mail: Bishops Defend Freedom From Religion
The decay of precise usage, however, may be less harmless than our unwary conservative thinks. In this case, the misuse and overuse of "individual" is used to perpetuate one of the favorite American myths, that ours is an exceptional nation, founded by "rugged individualists" who left settled communities in Britain and Europe to come to a New World, where they never stopped moving from place to place in search of opportunity and adventure.I'd like to read a book detailing these patterns. At what point in American history did the causes of social atomism become dominant?
A closer look at our colonization and migration patterns reveals a different story: in many cases, towns along the Atlantic seaboard and later in the Middle West were settled by family groups and something like whole villages. Outside of Rockford there were Scottish settlements (Argyll and Caledonia) established by a group of related Lowland families who had been transported to Argyll. Going West, American frontiersmen were less often lone individualists like the mythical Daniel Boone than they were men of family and community, like the real Daniel Boone.
The proper word for a human being, considered in his own right, is "person," and some conservatives such as John Lukacs have preferred to speak of persons. It is a neutral word, that does not specify the human being's relations to his society.
Another notable passage:
Man is by nature a corporate being who belongs to a family, a tribe, or a religious brotherhood. It is only within a society, especially in a civilized society, that family members, kinsmen, neighbors, and co-religionists can cooperate in protecting each other from the depredations of thugs, gang-leaders and the would-be petty tyrants who administer the organs of the modern state.
On Murray Rothbard:
Our most fundamental disagreement was on individual rights, which Rothbard made the centerpiece of his moral and political philosophy. His famous rule of non-aggression was rooted in the classical liberal notion of rights. When I told him that rights were a philosophical fantasy and the social contract a myth, he bristled. One day, over a little gin, he concluded that for him rights were a means to securing the protection of liberty, and he acknowledged that I accomplished the same object by insisting on natural duties that arise from one's position in life, what Bradley referred to in a brilliant if condescending essay on "My Station and Its Duties." A mother's duty to her children, a father's duty to his family, a neighbor's duty to his community should not be invaded by higher levels of social organization such as a state or federal government. What do we call such invasions, I was asked. The answer is simple: tyranny. It was on this understanding that Murray and I found ourselves on the same side of this and many other debates with his disciples and colleagues.
At the Daily Mail: Bishops Defend Freedom From Religion
Don't They Have Bigger Fish to Fry?
Rebellion: Hispanic groups complain Disney character hardly ‘Latina Princess’
Forget Disney - how about Univision or Telemundo? Do they complain about those networks or Ibero-American television networks in general, which reinforce certain "aesthetic" standards in casting and hiring as anchors? Probably not, because it's easier to try to cow "white" liberals, right?
Forget Disney - how about Univision or Telemundo? Do they complain about those networks or Ibero-American television networks in general, which reinforce certain "aesthetic" standards in casting and hiring as anchors? Probably not, because it's easier to try to cow "white" liberals, right?
Monday, October 22, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Interview with Kathy Kallick
Bluegrass Signal - listen online (archived for one week).
It will also be archived briefly at Bluegrass Country.
It will also be archived briefly at Bluegrass Country.
Kathy Kallick Band
I was originally hesitant about attending last night's concert at the Freight and Salvage, but it turned out to be very, very good. Another spectacular local bluegrass band! The band is doing a CD release tour, and they have some more performances in the area for next weekend:
Thur., Oct. 25 (7:30 pm): USS Potomac, Jack London Square, Oakland, CA
Fri., Oct. 26 (8:00 pm): Asbury United Methodist Church, Livermore, CA
Sat., Oct. 27 (7:30 pm): First Presbyterian Church Of Mountain View (CA)
Sun., Oct. 28 (7:00 pm): French Garden Restaurant, Sebastopol, CA
Redwood Bluegrass Associates, 2012-2013 Season
Some videos from a concert last year:
Annie Staninec is one awesome fiddler. She also has some cute facial expressions...
Thur., Oct. 25 (7:30 pm): USS Potomac, Jack London Square, Oakland, CA
Fri., Oct. 26 (8:00 pm): Asbury United Methodist Church, Livermore, CA
Sat., Oct. 27 (7:30 pm): First Presbyterian Church Of Mountain View (CA)
Sun., Oct. 28 (7:00 pm): French Garden Restaurant, Sebastopol, CA
Redwood Bluegrass Associates, 2012-2013 Season
Some videos from a concert last year:
Annie Staninec is one awesome fiddler. She also has some cute facial expressions...
Only in Uhmerica
Can adult women wear their flannel pajamas in public and not see anything wrong with that.
It doesn't help matters that their pajamas resembles the scrubs of some nurses and doctors, even though the material may be different. Those medical professionals generally have no qualms wearing those scrubs outside a hospital environment.
I saw three women wearing pajamas today at a certain county park; presumably they were camping there, but that does not justify their choice of attire.
I have not seen Uhmerican males wearing their pjs in public - maybe one. I suppose there are still some boundaries that they won't cross... yet.
It doesn't help matters that their pajamas resembles the scrubs of some nurses and doctors, even though the material may be different. Those medical professionals generally have no qualms wearing those scrubs outside a hospital environment.
I saw three women wearing pajamas today at a certain county park; presumably they were camping there, but that does not justify their choice of attire.
I have not seen Uhmerican males wearing their pjs in public - maybe one. I suppose there are still some boundaries that they won't cross... yet.
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