The New Beginning

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

For how much longer will I have to bear with California?

Three Anti-Gun Bills Awaiting California Governor's Signature
California bill which would mandate STD vaccine for sixth grade girls moves forward

A premature judgment about the favor of the judges to their case? Too much optimism? Thank You for Supporting Prop 8!

Items of Interest, 14 September 2011

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Atonement Online: Litany of the Holy Cross

FSSPX News:
Catholic News
Rorate Caeli: COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE HOLY SEE: MEETING BETWEEN THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH AND THE FRATERNITY OF SAINT PIUS X
[Vatican] FSSPX : Communiqué de la Congrégation pour la Doctrine de la Foi
Rorate Caeli: Official Interview with Bishop Bernard Fellay (DICI)
Insight Scoop

Christianity:
Fr. Christopher Colven Reflects on Anglican Patrimony

Hieromonk Maximos: We all have work to do

Jeffrey Tucker, Sing the Liturgy of the Hours

To Be Free or Not to Be. Welsh Christianity at the Crossroads

Fr. Anthony Ho: CACCLC 2011

Truth, Goodness, Beauty: The Revolutionary Traditionalist
FB Page

The Spearhead: A Father Cannot Be a Mother And He Should Not Try

Distributist Review:
Distributism and Marxism
The Restoration

Transition Voice: Peak Oil Explained Graphically
Lester Brown, Learning from China: Why the Existing Model Will Fail (EB)
Small farms create more jobs by Gene Logsdon (EB)

Health and Diet:
Karen De Coster on the Lew Rockwell Show: 223. Government Hates Good Health (mp3)
Fast Plaeo: Bacon Jam
Paleo enthusiasts turn the "caveman diet" into a lifestyle
Paleo Diet, Part 1
CrossFit – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Kettlebell Swing…
The Internet's Low Carb Standard Setter, Jimmy Moore
Grassfed Fat, the Lost Delicacy

Barefoot Running and Minimalist Footwear:

DASH RunAmocs

TV:
Interview with Julian Fellowes
Inspector Lewis: Laurence Fox Takes Fan Questions

Anthony Bourdain on Joe Rogan Experience

JRE #138 - Anthony Bourdain from Brian Redban on Vimeo.

Tim Ferris is featured in the previous episode.

Bill Monroe

NPR: Bill Monroe: Celebrating The Father Of Bluegrass At 100 by Stephanie Coleman and Bradley Klein

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Red Phillips expresses some reservations about Rod Dreher: Rod Dreher is Now Blogging at The American Conservative. It's a good thing I didn't attempt a defense, because today Mr. Dreher writes the following: Are we our brother’s keeper?, in which he makes judgments about members of the Tea Party based on their reaction to a question posed during the most recent Republican debate. Mr. Dreher makes Mr. Phillips's attitude warranted.

I still think Mr. Dreher is useful as a crunchy conservative and for taking on social and cultural questions: ‘Anti-bullying’ as a pro-gay wedge. But admonishing the Tea Party for supposed failures could take a better form than using a supposed flaw as fodder for a blog post. See some of the comments to the first post; some familiar names from the comments sections at FPR. While American Conservative does provide an alternative understanding of conservatism for Republicans, it's openness does allow for those who are hostile to Republicans and other conservatives to use the website to vent their spleen against the "other."

Mr. Dreher: "I favor a law compelling those who can afford it to buy some kind of basic health care policy — even if it’s only catastrophic care coverage. We are not the kind of country that’s going to allow anybody to die on the street because they can’t pay their hospital bill — and we must not become that kind of country."

By what sort of interpretation of the Constitution does Mr. Dreher abide? I haven't seen anything to lead me to believe that he is anything other than a nationalist.

So what about health costs? Are people paying a just price for services and treatment? Or are such calculation outside economics and considerations of justice? Should insurance only cover unforeseen injuries and illnesses, and not illnesses that are preventable by proper self-care? I have read some (Karen De Coster?) suggest that those who follow the paleo diet and lifestyle form their own insurance plan, so that they don't have to pay for the poor choices of others who embrace conventional wisdom concerning nutrition and exercise. How many of current health costs are due to conditions that are the fault of the sick, or could at least have been prevented through different choices? What about illnesses associated with aging? Should the elderly expect less?

How about the return of indentured servitude for vicious free-riders, those who are at fault for their medical conditions and cannot afford treatment, or illegal immigrants? (This would require a rightly-ordered political economy and stronger communities and security--all other injustices in the system would have to be rectified first.) The political economy is unsustainable because we do not recognize limits. But it is also so in part because of the lack of stability in the citizenry of many of the states. Reform cannot be attempted with the Union at large -- it is too large and there are too many local differences that preclude a uniform set of laws being imposed on everyone. Reform can only be implemented with the States (which are not subunits, but if you have to think of them as such then do so). Citizens have duties to people and concrete communities and they and the exercise of their duties must be protected; those entities that have too much power to manipulate the market, leading to injustice in pricing and so on, must be countered.

*As for those who have become obese because they naively followed the recommendations of the government or of their experts: the bureaucrats and experts who are guilty of malfeasance or corruption in making those recommendation (especially because they serve the interests of the corporations) must be punished.

Misc:
'Speak your piece' and 'hold your peace'

William Freehling - Road to Disunion: Why the South Left

Forum Network:

(mp3)

The Road to Disunion, Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, by William W. Freehling
CSPAN

Ethnonationalism? The book is featured at two websites focused on [white] ethnonationalism:
Faith and Heritage: Disunion, Slavery, and the Confederacy, Part One: A Southern Reflection (via Confederate Colonel) and Occidental Quarterly.

Going beyond John Zmirak...

Fred Reed recommeds home-schooling and avoiding the modern university: Disengagement

Disengagement from the system of universities, or as I should say, “universities,” is also advisable. This is true, first, because if you seek cultivation, to gain a grasp of such matters as history, literature, the arts and the sciences, you can do it better on your own. Professors serve little purpose other than to ensure that the student does his homework. If the student wants to study, he can do it by himself, and if he doesn't want to study, he has no business in a university.

Learning facts? Books can for substitute for teachers, so long as they are written by trusted authorities. Becoming acquainted with certain texts? Some commentary by a dependable scholar might be helpful. I could be in one of those lousy moods, but much of the coursework in the humanities could be done outside of the classroom. A possible exception? Learning how to write. But how many professors bother to teach their students good academic writing?

He recommends some sort of vocational training for jobs that will be in demand in the future. I can't disagree with him there. What can we do to promote farming in our communities, and to make it a possibility for our children? Given the still high price of real estate in California, something needs to done to bring the prices down. How can we destroy demand to the point that land becomes affordable for natives?

Mr. Reed has some words about consumerism, as well. His other recent writings are rather enjoyable.

(John Zmirak's column on college, which I posted here.)

The last debate that I will watch for some time?

Begun on September 8 at 9:50 PM.

Republican Presidential Debate at the Reagan Library
NYT transcript

Chris Cillizza

It is significant when voting for Ron Paul would be choosing the "least of the evils" among the Republican candidates. Listening to Ron Paul during the debate I was reminded why he can't win--despite having the correct answer for many questions, he just doesn't sound presidential and he does not do well speaking ex tempore. He'll get the votes of the true believers, but I don't think other women would vote for him. Perry and Romney may look the part and sound polished, but their smug smiles annoy me. Perhaps they are true representatives of the Great Oligarchy Party.

Romney was horrible on immigration; he talked about the need to attract talent from other countries. Is he not aware that we are arguably neglecting the talent we already have, through outsourcing and a poor education system? Moreover, there is a limit to technological progress, but all of the Republican candidates were terrible on energy and sustainability. Where's Roscoe Bartlett when you need him?

He also talked about how immigrants cause real estate prices, citing Vancouver as a good example. So Romney supports the displacing of native, less affluent whites and the creation of ethnic enclaves? What about the rights of natives to stay in their home communities and maintain their roots? And does he not know that the increase in the value of houses is not the same as the increase in true wealth? What an ignoramus. Let's see how he would feel if he were to actually live in an non-white neighborhood.

Related:
CULTURE AND BEHAVIOR: The Human Nature of Unsustainability

If the distinction between the three economies, as discussed by John Michael Greer, is so important then why were Aristotle and the medievals ignorant? Well, Aristotle and the medievals were ignorant of many things, so that does not mean that the distinction is not significant or that it does not mark a a ture advance in understanding of economics and its dependence on the natural world. Medieval farmers may have understood the need to replenish their soil. But scientific knowledge about ecology and natural cycles was not even being discovered at that time? Given the relatively small size of communities and the more significant causes of death at that time, it wouldn't be surprising if very few or no medieval communities collapsed because of ecological causes or resource depletion. Fortunately Catholics such as E. F. Schumacher have picked up on the importance of ecology and sustainability and integrated it into their economic and political thought. There is much we can learn from non-Catholics still, even if we do not accept their practical suggestions for dealing with environmental issues.

Edit. Last night CNN handled the Tea Party Debate for the candidates in Florida. I didn't bother to watch it. A transcript.

Items of Interest, 13 September 2011

The conversion story of Thomas Storck.

Thomas Fleming, Idling, Week 2

John Zmirak, College: How Not to Waste Your 4 Years

A guide for the perplexed energy policymaker by Kurt Cobb (EB)

This is the house Transition built by Charlotte Du Cann (EB)
The Mondragon bank – an old model for a new type of finance by Oscar Kjellberg (EB)

States quietly throwing wrenches into health care implementation

NPR: An Interrogator Writes the Inside Story of 9-11

Counterpunch:
FRANKLIN SPINNEY, It’s Budgetary War, Bloody and Terrible
IAN HARRIS, Drone Warfare
HARVEY WASSERMAN, Ten Thousand Fukushimas
SHELDON RICHMAN, 9/11 and the National Security Scam
PATRICK COCKBURN, The Enemy That Barely Exists

Terri, Should Christians Kiss Dating Goodbye?

Monday, September 12, 2011

Wendell Berry, 17 Rules for a Sustainable Community

here
Wild Resiliency Blog
Sustainable Traditions
Another poster, available through Yes!

Linking to this again to point out something else -- while these are probably good suggestions for directing a community towards sustainability, they do not tell us what makes a community (or people) in the first place. Berry addresses this both in his essays and his novels, but maybe his admirers do not pay enough attention to this aspect of his thought? What community can be sustained when traditional [Christian] morals are being eroded?

The Princess' Man 공주의 남자

Just started on KBS America last week.

KBS
Hancinema

Bachelor Pad is such a white show, even whiter than Bachelor and Bachelorette, which will include on occasion a non-white cast member. And yet these individuals are supposed to be representative of white America? To what an abysmal state the portrayal of white America has been reduced. Perhaps the actors and actresses of the 70s and 80s shows of my memories were no different from the not-so-young men and women who appear on Bachelor Pad, but at least they tried to hide what they were really like. (Or entertainment news had not become gossipy, approaching the level of tabloid journalism yet?)

Would I have the same impression of the infamous Jersey Shore?

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Madison Violet

It's All Good for Madison Violet

website and MS and FB

Beyond the Global Culture War

Google Books
website
profile for the author at the Center for Chinese and American studies

Gene Expression: 10 Questions for Adam K. Webb

4) My understanding is that the attitude of the Chinese mandarin class toward Xunzi, the early Confucian who most emphasized ritual as opposed to heart, was ambivalent because of the fact that it was his students who became the base for Legalism. On the other hand, some scholars contend that State Confucianism as it emerged under the Han dynasty owed a great deal to Xunzi and Legalism even though rhetorically it reviled them. What is your attitude toward Xunzi? Do ritual, heart and piety stand shoulder to shoulder, or do you emphasize one in your personal constellation of values?

I's true that some of Xunzi's students became the founders of Legalism. But I suspect he would have frowned on the path they took. The Legalists were hard-headed pragmatists who tended to scoff at ethics. (They're eerily modern-sounding....) Xunzi was no soft idealist, but he was deeply committed to Confucianism. He was much like Aristotle in appreciating that living an ethical life required being habituated to good practices first. People needed to learn how to be good, through ritual and custom and law, rather than just relying on an innate goodness to come out, as Mencius tended to stress. While the later Confucian high culture elevated Mencius over Xunzi, perhaps because he seemed more idealistic, all the stress on custom and study smacked of Xunzi. Premodern China spoke Mencius but lived Xunzi, and benefited from doing both.

Speaking for myself, I tend to think heart is more important than ritual, as you put it. That's probably because I see rituals varying across cultures, while the bettering of the heart at which they aim is more universal. I’m interested in common ground, and that often seems the easiest place to look. That said, I'm very aware of how important habits, instilled by a culture, are in forming people and sustaining their better natures. It's very easy to talk about one's heart as the most important thing, and then slide into a kind of shapeless complacency, especially if a society on the whole is not very hospitable to virtue. Rituals can fortify. I imagine Xunzi would agree: rituals are important, but they're important because of where they lead, which is to the heart.

Adam K. Webb on Beyond the Global Culture War

A review by "Bonald."

The Importance of Place

The New Atlantis: Place and Placelessness in America (via Mark T. Mitchell)

GPS and the End of the Road

by Ari N. Schulman

Since the days of Jack Kerouac, the image of personal freedom has been the driver on the open road. What, then, should we make of the navigation revolution found in GPS and “location-awareness”? Do they expand our freedom, as they seem to promise? Ari N. Schulman looks to On the Road and Huckleberry Finn, asking why we aspire to travel, and what we expect to get out of it today.

Symposium: What ‘Place’ Means to Us Today

Sweden as the canary in the coal mine

Whiskey's Place: Why The West Collapsed: Case Study Sweden

David Walker on the Obama jobs plan

pdf

Other responses:

A panel which includes Jim Antle.

Why infrastructure spending won't work: A "progressive" perspective by Erik Lindberg (EB)

Related:
The American Respublica project is coming. (via FPR)
Who’s Building the Do-It-Ourselves Economy?
Kevin Carson, Move Over, Lawrence O’Donnell

Hugh Laurie performing at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

October 1: Live in San Francisco at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival

Festival website.

His website.

Meetup.com originated as a response to 9/11

An e-mail sent by meetup.com:

Fellow Meetuppers,

I don't write to our whole community often, but this week is
special because it's the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and many
people don't know that Meetup is a 9/11 baby.

Let me tell you the Meetup story. I was living a couple miles
from the Twin Towers, and I was the kind of person who thought
local community doesn't matter much if we've got the internet
and tv. The only time I thought about my neighbors was when I
hoped they wouldn't bother me.

When the towers fell, I found myself talking to more neighbors
in the days after 9/11 than ever before. People said hello to
neighbors (next-door and across the city) who they'd normally
ignore. People were looking after each other, helping each
other, and meeting up with each other. You know, being
neighborly.

A lot of people were thinking that maybe 9/11 could bring
people together in a lasting way. So the idea for Meetup was
born: Could we use the internet to get off the internet -- and
grow local communities?

We didn't know if it would work. Most people thought it was a
crazy idea -- especially because terrorism is designed to make
people distrust one another.

A small team came together, and we launched Meetup 9 months
after 9/11.

Today, almost 10 years and 10 million Meetuppers later, it's
working. Every day, thousands of Meetups happen. Moms Meetups,
Small Business Meetups, Fitness Meetups... a wild variety of
100,000 Meetup Groups with not much in common -- except one
thing.

Every Meetup starts with people simply saying hello to
neighbors. And what often happens next is still amazing to me.
They grow businesses and bands together, they teach and
motivate each other, they babysit each other's kids and find
other ways to work together. They have fun and find solace
together. They make friends and form powerful community. It's
powerful stuff.

It's a wonderful revolution in local community, and it's thanks
to everyone who shows up.

Meetups aren't about 9/11, but they may not be happening if it
weren't for 9/11.

9/11 didn't make us too scared to go outside or talk to
strangers. 9/11 didn't rip us apart. No, we're building new
community together!!!!

The towers fell, but we rise up. And we're just getting started
with these Meetups.

Scott Heiferman (on behalf of 80 people at Meetup HQ)
Co-Founder & CEO, Meetup
New York City
September 2011

A multiplication of friendships not quite approaching the level of intentional communities--what is the state of American civic friendship?

States' Rights vs. the Supreme Court

Over at VFR: How the tenth anniversary of Pearl Harbor was observed—or not observed

VFR focuses more on the holiday for the liberal, multicultural therapeutic state. A the same time it is also a holiday for the American Empire to remember the "martyrs" who died because of "freedom" and used to "bless" perpetual warfare. American civic religion exploiting and perverting Christianity to supplant it.

More propaganda for the new American order: F-16 pilot was ready to give her life on Sept. 11.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Car problems again -- I hope it is not too serious; might just be a broken hose, but repairs will still be costly.