Twitch: Ah, Much Better. A Watchable - And Subtitled - Trailer For Derek Yee’s SHINJUKU INCIDENT

Twitch: Francis Ng’s CHASING SHADOWS Might Just Be The Cure For Your Wuxia Fatigue.

I watched the teaser. A lot of wire-fu. But what should one expect in a wuxia movie? It reminds me of certain Korean dramas and movies, especially Damo.

Maybe I'm just not into wuxia movies that much any more.

2nd Meditation for Christian Unity Prayer Week
3rd Meditation for Christian Unity Prayer Week

I liveblogged the inauguration a bit this morning on Facebook. Was there a lot to critique? His talking points were mostly phrased in terms of vague generalities, with nothing concrete or specific being offered to address the problems that he mentioned. A lot like the campaign rhetoric. Of course, we all know about his stimulus plan, and he did have a transition website. But I would have liked for President Obama to have said more about how Americans need to sacrifice, and in what ways. Do we need to give up the idea of an infinitely expanding economy? His talk about alternative fuels was disappointing, as he continues to advocate biofuels as an economically feasible source of energy. As for his claim that we 'may be facing' new challenges. Well, we aren't--nothing that hasn't been around for a while--the need to curb the oligarchs and bring about social justice, for one. (Perhaps he should read some of the papal encyclicals presenting the Church's social teaching.)

On Facebook, someone unfriended me today--perhaps as a result of the criticisms I was making of the inauguration and of the inaugural address--it was Mrs. O's daughter. That's too bad, since I originally made the request to maintain some sort of link to Mrs. O. Usually I refrain from being too political on Facebook, since it's not really a secure place to voice one's opinion. Not that the Internet is any better, but at least on certain websites one can have a conversation with those who agree on first principles, without being distracted by others who are opposed to those principles. The mania surrounding the inauguration and the historical novelty will eventually subside. Will his supporters be disappointed? And how soon?

With a social networking website like Facebook, one is tempted to make as many connections as possible, even though not all of the relationships are of the same depth. Is it really that vital to make it possible for others to find and contact me, if they have the need to do so? Close friendships should be maintained without the use of Facebook; what then, of the other associations? It seems unlikely that one can form even an "online community" with all of one's FB friends as members--they have better things to do with their time. Perhaps FB would be useful for prayer requests and other notifications, but if one is grounded in a real community and parish (or has access to a community of contemplatives), would FB really be necessary for the former?

I suppose the human heart is such that it holds out hope that friendships that have deteriorated due to distance will eventually be re-strengthened, and latches on to FB as a means of bringing this about.

Are you dissatisfied with your life? Many moral theology texts have taken the eudaimonistic approach--one sees this approach taken in various evangelization efforts as well. I was thinking about this today... might it be that when some people report a voice telling them something is wrong, this isn't their conscience, but really the Holy Spirit at work? The eudaimonistic approach will not work with those are content with their lives. Something needs to make them question whether they are happy, either their conscience or God Himself. If I do not believe in God and do not perceive that there is anything missing from my life, and that my goodness is good enough, what reason do I have to consider theism, much less a moral conversion that is centered on God?

Peter Hitchens, Don't call me a snob. I'm Lower Upper Middle Class

Dancing with the Stars gallery at Yahoo!

The Distributist Review: Should Distributism Be Given a New Name? and The Paleocrat Tribune's New Site

More from John Médaille:
Chapter XIV: The Cost of Government
Chapter XV: Taxes, Economic Rent, and Externalities

An Interview with Albert Bates (via EB)

Website for the book: A Nation of Farmers.

Also via EB: Reality Report: Ben Gisin of Touch the Soil magazine -- mp3.

Ben Gisin is co-founder and publisher of Touch the Soil magazine, an agricultural magazine promoting resilient agricultural practices. He speaks with Jason Bradford about the crumbling industrial agricultural system and its close relationship with the global economy.

Rod Dreher gets caught up in inauguration fever: We have a new president!

He's good at reporting crunchy topics, but when it comes to grasping what the American system is really like and the nature of the National Government, there is a big distance between him and paleos.

The Comparative Insignificance Of Politics, by William Murchison

Hosing Obama Israeli Style, by Chuck Spinney
Should the US Pull the Plug on Israel?

Citizenship is not an entitlement.

source: Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus

As another Presidential Inauguration draws near, one waits for things to fall apart because that is what we deserve.

Entitlement can serve as a reference to welfare programs and the welfare state. Or to the mindset of contemporary pampered Americans who believe they are owed everything. Possibly the two are not unlinked. Citizenship, however, is not something owed to us simply because we happen to be in the right place when we were born. Even if it is granted to us automatically it does not mean that we have earned it. It could mean that those who have the authority to grant citizenship have been foolish in their legislation.

Plato and Aristotle rightly criticized democrats and their erroneous understanding of equality. Both of them believed that only the virtuous had a valid claim to rule.

Republican government, government by the many, may be the best form under circumstances for a particular community. (Republican government = polity, politeia.) (The Catholic Church has not endorsed any one form of government as being the best for all, though in recent times some clerics have tried to argue that modern mass "democracy" is best in so far as it respects human dignity and rights.) The prudent man will grasp this and will work to safeguard that constitution, for the sake of the common good.

Aristotle saw a link between republican government and martial virtue. Can we dispute that this was a feature of ancient Greece and republican Rome? Is this the reason why many early Americans identified with George Washington as the model citizen? Serving in the military seems to be an important component of civic republicanism. And yet, fewer Americans join the military or have ties to the military in some way.

Those who believe in the lie that we are 'fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here' should do their part; it is the duty of every citizen to defend his community, and if he believes his community is in danger, how can he shirk from fulfilling his duty?

Andrew Bacevich argues that we do not need the draft--but we do need to realize that our professional armed forces are shouldering an unjust burden. If there really is a GWOT, why isn't the country doing more to support it? More consumption, as some sort of wrong-headed act of defiance (look at who was promoting it), is not the answer to terrorism. While joining the armed forces may not be incumbent on all, I do advocate the restoration of local militias, and all able-bodied citizens who would claim to be such should participate.

In addition, the classical ideal of the farmer-soldier-citizen underscores the link between economic freedom and political freedom. Those who are not masters of their own lives should have no share in governing others. How many Americans are not the masters of their own lives? Granted, they are not working all the time, but how free are they to deviate from the daily patterns? It is said that the medieval serf had more leisure time than today's office drone.

How much economic freedom is necessary for a citizen? Can one become free merely through advances in tools and energy? Or is there more to economic freedom than not having to do much work? It is being the master of one's household and being able to provide for the needs of that household (or at least most of them). There is something to be said for having others labor, if that is all they can do.

Some cannot but be servants of other, because they cannot direct themselves, given their appetites or their lack of foresight. They live only for the present, and fail to understand what makes their comfort possible. (The thought that what is needed to make their life of pleasure last may not be sustainable in the long run does not enter their mind.) They are so enslaved to their pleasures and luxuries that in our political economy, they are willing wage slaves.

Aristotle reminds us that the citizens of a healthy polity need the virtue of moderation and the other virtues to be able to use leisure rightly. The virtue of courage, which is necessary for wars and securing peace, is not enough for the good life. It is true that some cannot be economically free because of the circumstances that have been forced upon them. Should they be denied citizenship as a result? But others are willing dupes of the present political economy. Perhaps they are looking to profit personally from the system, or they may be defending an abstract ideology because it is comfortable to do so.

Most Americans seem to be unwilling to make the sacrifices that are necessary for the good of society. The poor, unemployed or the middle class-- how many of them would be willing to accept a reduction in luxuries, for the sake of being their own masters in the production of goods required for daily living? (Much less for reasons of sustainability or protecting the environment.)

Given the moral degradation of the majority of Americans, the judgment that our system grants citizenship too freely follows rather quickly. Not everyone's opinion counts equally, though this may be the sort of fiction that is needed to maintain a pseudo-democracy, and not everyone should be participating in the political life of the community or of the state (or in Federal elections) . For justice to be maintained, unequals may actually have to be treated unequally. We can understand that those who commit serious crimes against others or the state may lose their right to vote. What I am writing here is nothing more than an elaboration of the general principle.

Universal franchise is a relatively recent phenomena, and may not last much longer. Who should vote? And what does voting do in a mammoth nation-state? It can seem so distant from the real exercise of authority and the actual law-making. I will have to address voting at some other time.

I would note that many so-called conservatives lack any real roots in community. They are have few or thin ties to family, community, and the local Church. They also have no clue what they are doing when they "defend free markets" and the like is to maintain the power of the existing oligarchy. Something's wrong with one's liberal education if after receiving it, one still treats people like Rush Limbaugh as serious conservative intellectuals.

Excessive American mobility, in the name of individual advancement and economic opportunity, is the enemy of community and of justice, and generally works against citizenship instead of enhancing it (in the name of choice).


Conservatism and Religion

What is the place of religion (or Christianity) within conservatism? A few years ago, Heather MacDonald sparked a discussion of whether it is possible for there to be a conservative atheist. I chanced upon this article recently:

Mark C. Henrie, Opposing Strains (from Modern Age 44:1, Winter 2002):

In The Conservative Mind (1953) Russell Kirk delineated six “principles” or “canons” of conservative thought. First among these was “belief in a transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as well as consciences.” The life of the political community is not a mere artifact, and human rights and duties cannot be disposed at our convenience; rather, we are responsible to the divine. And this responsibility has public consequences. Kirk went on to argue that conservatives believe “political problems, at bottom, are religious and moral problems,” and thus, technical or procedural fixes offer no lasting solutions.

In the introduction to his anthology, The Portable Conservative Reader, nearly thirty years later (1982) Kirk again placed a “transcendent” orientation as the first of conservative principles, observing that “conservatives generally believe . . . there exists a transcendent moral order, to which we ought to try to conform the ways of society.” He contrasted this view with liberal utilitarianism and with a philosophical radicalism that detests “theological postulates” and that attempts to conceptualize human society as just so much matter in motion. For Kirk, any genuinely conservative mind had to it a religious cast, a sense of piety, a concern, as it were, for the rights of God—though he demurred from doctrinal disputes.

More recently, however, Professor Jerry Muller, in a widely reviewed “anthology with an argument” entitled Conservatism (1997), takes a far different tack. Implicitly in his selection of texts and explicitly in his carefully argued introduction, Muller reinterprets the tradition in such a way as to leave little room for any genuinely religious dimension to conservatism “properly understood.” As with religion, so too with the other mytho-poetic elements that many have associated with the conservative mind. All “romantic” nostalgia for “lost causes” championed by such “literary” conservatives as Kirk appears as an aberration to Muller. In contrast to Kirk’s transcendent view, holding first place among Muller’s conservative principles is the prudent defense of existing human institutions based on a profound sense of the limits of reason, an “epistemic modesty” directed equally against grand ideological schemes—and against every form of religious “enthusiasm.” Conservatives, according to Muller, properly hold religion at arm’s length, and they view the prophet and the saint with suspicion.

Edward Feser responds to Heather MacDonald (One of his responses, at any rate.)

Related:
wiki: Roman citizenship, Cincinnatus
Westminster Wisdom: Livy's Cincinnatus
Google Books: A Companion to the Classical Tradition, American Republicanism: Roman Ideology in the United States

Ron Paul, On Reinstating the Draft

Begun on January 19.

Edit. Fabius Maximus: Are Americans still willing to bear the burden of self-government?

Emma Kirkby vids

Emma Kirkby - Purcell: Dido's lament - York, 2007


Händel - Messiah "But who may abide", Emma Kirkby


Emma Kirkby, Handel - Messiah, But who may abide
Haydn - The Creation "Graceful consort !", Emma Kirkby

Emma Kirkby - Que Philis A L'Esprit Leger


Exultate Jubilate

Emma Kirkby: Salve Regina - JC Bach (1. )
Emma Kirkby: Salve Regina - JC Bach (2. )
Emma Kirkby: Salve Regina - JC Bach (3. )

Stabat Mater (Pergolesi) - Emma Kirkby



photo: Eric Richmond

Her website. wiki. Emma Kirkby (Soprano) - Short Biography.

Hyperion Records | Emma Kirkby (soprano)
Emma Kirkby Discography Title Page

I need to learn more about Collegium Vocale.

A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations (part 1)
A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations (part 2)

via WWWTW

Fr. Z: URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: Fr. Reginald Foster

Once again, James Howard Kunstler rattles off the list of changes he thinks need to be implemented, this time on the eve of the inauguration of the new president: Hope and Fear.

Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team

Papal Address to Family Meeting

Papal Address to Family Meeting

"It Is in the Home Where One Learns to Truly Live"

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 19, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the message Benedict XVI gave via video linkup at the conclusion of Sunday's closing Mass of the 6th World Meeting of Families. The world meeting was held last week in Mexico City.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters:

I greet all of you with affection at the end of this solemn Eucharistic celebration with which the 6th World Meeting of Families is concluding in Mexico City. I give thanks to God for so many families that, without counting the cost, have gathered around the altar of the Lord.

I greet in a special way the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, who has presided over this celebration as my legate. I want to express my affection and my gratitude to Cardinal Ennio Antonelii and to the members of the Pontifical Council for the Family, over which he presides, to the Cardinal Archbishop Primate of Mexico, Norberto Rivera Carrera, and the central commission that has been responsible for the organization of this 6th World Meeting. My recognition goes to all those who with their abnegated dedication and surrender have made its fulfillment possible.

I also greet the cardinals and bishops present in this celebration, in particular those of the Mexican episcopal conference, and the authorities of this dear nation, who generously have welcomed and made possible this important event.

The Mexican people know well that they are very close to the heart of the Pope. I think of them and I present to God the Father their joys and hopes, their projects and concerns. In Mexico, the Gospel has taken deep roots, forging its traditions and culture, and the identity of its noble people. This rich patrimony must be protected so that it continues being a spring of moral and spiritual energies to courageously and creatively face the challenges of today and so that it can be offered as a precious gift to new generations.

I have participated with joy and interest in this World Meeting, above all with my prayer, giving specific guidelines and attentively following its preparation and development. Today, through the communications media, I have spiritually made a pilgrimage to this Marian shrine, heart of Mexico and of all of America, so as to entrust all the families of the world to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

2. This World Meeting of Families has aimed to encourage Christian homes so that their members be free persons, rich in human and Gospel values, on the way toward sanctity, which is the best service that Christians can offer today's society. The Christian response to the challenges that must be confronted by families and human life in general, consists in intensifying trust in the Lord and the vigor that springs from one's faith, which is nourished by attentive listening to the Word of God. How beautiful it is to gather as a family to allow God to speak to the hearts of the members through his living and effective Word. In prayer, especially with the praying of the rosary, as was done yesterday, the family contemplates the mysteries of the life of Jesus, interiorizes the values that it meditates and feels called to incarnate them in their lives.

3. The family is an indispensable base for society and for peoples, as well as an irreplaceable good for children, worthy of coming into life as a fruit of love, of the parents' total and generous surrender. As Jesus showed in honoring the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, the family occupies a primary place in the education of the person. It is a true school of humanity and perennial values. No one has given being to himself. We have received life from others, which is developed and matured with the truths and values that we learn in relation and communion with the rest. In this sense, the family founded on the indissoluble matrimony between a man and a woman expresses this relational, filial and communitarian dimension, and is the realm where man can be born with dignity, grow and develop in an integral way (cf. Homily in the Holy Mass of the 5th World Meeting of Families, Valencia, July 9, 2006).

Nevertheless, this education task is made difficult by a deceptive concept of liberty, in which whims and the subjective impulses of the individual are exalted to the point of leaving each one locked within the prison of his own "I." The true liberty of the human being comes from having been created in the image and likeness of God, and therefore should be exercised with responsibility, always opting for the true good so that it becomes love, gift of self. For this, more than theories, the intimacy and love characteristic of the familial community are needed. It is in the home where one learns to truly live, to value life and health, liberty and peace, justice and truth, work, concord and respect.

4. Today more than ever is needed the testimony and public commitment of all the baptized to reaffirm the dignity and the unique and irreplaceable value of the family founded on the marriage of a man and a woman and open to life, as well as the [value] of human life in all its stages. Legislative and administrative measures that support families in their inalienable rights, necessary to carry forward their extraordinary mission, should also be promoted. The testimonies presented in yesterday's celebration show that today, too, the family can show itself to be firm in the love of God and renew humanity in the new millennium.

5. I want to express my closeness and assure my prayers for all families that give a testimony of fidelity in especially difficult circumstances. I encourage numerous families that, living sometimes in the midst of contradictions and incomprehension, give an example of generosity and trust in God, expressing my desire that needed help is not lacking for them. I think also of the families that suffer poverty, illness, marginalization or emigration. And very especially of the Christian families that are persecuted because of their faith. The Pope is very close to all of you and he accompanies you in your efforts of every day.

6. Before concluding this meeting, it pleases me to announce that that 7th World Meeting of Families will take place, God willing, in Italy, in the city of Milan, in 2012, with the theme, "Family, Work and Celebration." I sincerely thank Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, archbishop of Milan, for his hospitality in accepting this important commitment.

I entrust all the families of the world to the protection of the Most Holy Virgin, so highly venerated in the noble Mexican land in her image from Guadalupe. To her, who always reminds us that our happiness is in doing the will of Christ (cf. John 2:5), I say now:

Most Holy Mother of Guadalupe
who has shown your love and tenderness
to the peoples of the American continent,
shower with joy and hope all the peoples
and all the families of the world.

To you, who goes before [us] and guides our journey in the faith
toward the eternal homeland,
we entrust the joys, the projects,
the concerns and the desires of every family.

Oh Mary,
to you we turn, trusting in your motherly tenderness;
do not ignore the petitions we direct to you
for the families of all the world
in this crucial period of history.
Instead, gather all of us in your maternal heart
and accompany us in our journey to the celestial home.

Amen.

[Translation by Kathleen Naab]

Other items from Zenit:
On World Day of Migrants"Work in Every Part of the World for Peaceful Coexistence"

Cardinal George's Letter to Obama"We Will Consistently Defend the Fundamental Right to Life"

1st Meditation for Christian Unity Prayer Week"We Are a People Who Belong to Christ"

Hitler Stopped by Franco (via Stephen Hand)

Mr. Hand writes: "Always in the name of "equality": It could not have been more cynical. Women were dogged into the workplace (double the taxes for the gov't), and then dogged into war (double the cannon fodder). Then women found they had no choice but to work since the Fed, banks and lenders manipulated their housing costs and everything else. Now many are being foreclosed on. But many (women and men) will still enjoy the cliches and mythology of this week's inaugural events."

On Tuesday CNN will be giving live coverage of the inauguration, in tandem with Facebook. If I'm not working, I suppose I may watch it. But there isn't much point--there will be plenty of pundits and bloggers who will be going through the rhetoric and dissecting it. My guess is that it will make plenty of Americans feel good about themselves and their country, but "talk is cheap." I am waiting for the new president to do something unexpected, rather than maintaining the status quo. His stimulus plan is already disappointing.

2009 Presidential Inaugural Resources
2009 Inaugural Events
Inauguration Day 2009
Q&A: Presidential inauguration 2009 - CNN.com

The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies will be honoring Lincoln for the 2009 Inaugural theme. Once again, the official mythology is perpetuated, and Obama is all too happy to play his part.

Twitch: First Glimpse Of Jackie Chan In Derek Yee’s SHINJUKU INCIDENT

Transition Town networking site for the United States - beginning of a movement?
Transition United States

Post Carbon Institute launches a partnership with Transition United States
Shelby Tay and Asher Miller, Relocalize.net

both links via EB

New book: "Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in an Era of Oil Scarcity" (via EB)

Jim Caviezel reveals his passion for The Prisoner—and his co-star and Blade Runner anime?


via TrekMovie

Daniel McCarthy, What Conservatives Think About the Draft

Barry Goldwater:

There should no longer be any confusion about the liberal, radical and conservative positions on the draft.

Liberals favor it, but either want to make it random in its selection or extend it to social as well as military service.

Radicals want to end it or turn it to social service. They are not against compulsion. They are just against the fact, it seems to me, that the compulsion in this case is being used as part of an effort against their current heroes, the Viet Cong.

Conservatives want to end the draft–period. They do not want to extend it to any other form of service. …

Between the liberal and conservative positions lies the world of difference that marks the two philosophies.

The liberal position is based solidly upon the notion that every form of compulsion and every sacrifice of the individual may be justified in the name of ’society.’

The conservative position is based solidly upon the notion that man’s most fundamental right and responsibility is to live his own life.

This may be Barry Goldwater's position, but is it the position of Catholic teaching? I recall there being an article written by a bishop stating that the military draft or compulsory military service was immoral--I think it was posted at Zenit, but I can't find it at the moment. It seems to me that the common good may require that all participate in the defense of a community, though it is possible that some may be exempted from actually fighting. They must contirubte to the defense in some other way. The question, then, is whether the draft is the means by which this is achieved, or if it is intended for something else. (Moreover, can the selection process be problematic or unjust?)

Something I did find in the my search through the Zenit archives:
Land of Missions and Vineyards [2008-08-21] Discovering the Franciscan Legacy in California
Opus Dei Opens Its Doors to Everyone [2008-03-31] Interview With the Vicar General of the Personal Prelature

Rhonda Vincent-Good Thing Going And Going Strong...

Doctor Who - The Curse Of Fatal Death, Part 1.1
Doctor Who - The Curse Of Fatal Death, Part 1.2
Doctor Who - The Curse of Fatal Death, Part 2.1
Doctor Who - The Curse Of Fatal Death, Part 2.2

Spoof with Rowan Atkinson, Jonathan Pryce, and Hugh Grant.

More:
Doctor Who Spoof (David Tennant in drag)
Doctor Who: Tom Baker John Cleese
Doctor Who - Curse of Fatal Death - Bonus - Part 1
Doctor Who - Curse of Fatal Death - Bonus - Part 2
Doctor Who Spoof 1985

I was prompted to look these up after watching the Doctor Who Confidential for the 2008 Christmas Special.