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Scott Richert: How Not to Write a Direct-Mail Package (Or, Their Mistake Is Your Gain)

Items of Interest, 11 April 2011

Phillip Blond: Electing the Lords would undermine its value

On the Nationalist Myth: One Nation, Indivisible

Thomas Fleming, The Lesser Evil
Rival Campaigns React to Santorum's Withdrawal
James Antle, Rick Santorum was undone by his flaws, but exposed some of Romney's

Lies, Damned Lies, and the Pentagon’s Latest Budget Numbers by Winslow T. Wheeler


Tomgram: Engelhardt, The Smog of War

It's Sheriffs First in Arizona

Stop Locking Up So Many Kids by Matthew Feeney

The Tragedy of Democracy without Authority: A Reflection on Maritain and Thucydides by Jose Maria J. Yulo

James Antle, Getting it Right Next Time

Paul Craig Roberts, What is Obamacare

Economics and Relocalization:
Another Richard Heinberg interview. (mp3)

Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist by Tom Murphy (EB)

Census and Experts Confirm Death of Sprawl in US (PCI)

Rebecca Mayes ‘Turn the Lights Out’ video released


Study Shows Consumers Consider Local Produce More Important than Organic

Sustainability:
Will Modern Phoenix Outlast the Prehistorical Hohokam?

Marriage:
Allan Carlson, Love is Not Enough

So Much for Molly's Traditional Catholic Parents
Time to be Darcy with a vengeance. "Your family isn't good enough."

Feminism:
Sex, Lies, and Banking (via Oz Conservative)
An alpha female self-destructs.

Diet and Health:
The LLVLC Show (Episode 567): Dean Dwyer Helps You ‘Make Shift Happen’ In Weight And Health Pursuits (mp3)
MDA: The Importance of Pull-up Bar Training
Free the Animal: Guest Post: Your Backyard Kettlebell Workout



Music:
Miranda Lambert Hopes to Have a Career Like Loretta’s

Misc:
Sons of Guns: Jesse Opens Fire


20 Supporting Characters From '90s TV Shows Then And Now

Special Forces: Shooters and Thinkers

Some good news about Saint Gregory's Academy

It is still closing this year, but a many of those involved with the school are seeking to create a replacement elsewhere.

Musical duo: Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac

Their sexual orientation might explain why some of the audience members last night are fans. I didn't know until I read the article today; should they still receive patronage? Prayers, at least. There has been some discussion about the plasticity of female sexual orientation in connection with comments made by Cynthia Nixon.

Straight Talk: We Don’t Know Anything About Heterosexuality
Written in accordance with an agenda.

Male Sexual Orientation is Fixed by Age 15; Female Sexual Orientation is Apparently Changeable
Not so written? Catholic therapists differ with that assessment (with regards to males) to differing degrees. (Fr. Harvey and NARTH, for example.

Han Hye Jin on Healing Camp

Promo for the first episode (which was broadcast last year)


And something on another Korean actress, Kim Ha Neul: Kim Ha Neul's Stills from Upcoming Drama "A Gentleman's Dignity"

"Breaking badder"

I just started watching Breaking Bad. Methland is still a book I should pick up - Author Paints Small Town's Struggle In 'Methland'




The author reading at the Strand Bookstore. (alt)

Socons love chivalry

Ryan Gosling, Manly Men, and the Witness of Chivalry by Emily Stimpson (alt)

Regardless, last week when Gosling bravely stepped in and prevented a woman from being hit by a car, he moved up a notch or two in my estimation. Not enough that I want his memes appearing on my Facebook wall, but enough to make me realize he’s more of a manly man than I thought. This particular act of heroism was actually rather endearing to me since I have an unfortunate habit of wandering into oncoming traffic and have been saved more than once by similarly solicitous men. I guess you could say I felt gratitude towards Gosling by proxy.

Chivalry? Or just "plain" benevolence or humaneness? Shouldn't a woman have done the same? So was Ryan Gosling obligated to save her because she is a woman? (Would he not have done so for another man?) Medieval chivalry existed within a specific social and cultural context; is it really the same as the code of the 19th century gentleman or Victorian chivalry? It cannot exist without reciprocal duties and obligations on the part of women.

And that’s why men open car doors for women— as a reminder, among other things, of their call to love, honor, and protect women.

After her explanation of why chivalrous actions are necessary for the moral development of men, she discusses women:

As women, we’re called to nourish and nurture life. Our ability to answer that call, however, depends on us being receptive. Thanks to nature, our bodies already have that down pat. It’s how we’re built. But thanks to the effects of the Fall, it usually takes a bit more nurture to bring our souls up to speed. Most of us need help letting go of our own fallen need to dominate, manipulate, and control so we can become vulnerable enough to welcome people into our lives and love them for the gifts that they are. Learning to receive a man’s arm helps us do that. At least a little.

What of respect and submission to the husband's authority (or the authority of men in civil society)? In a community where there are consequence for failing to live up to the moral idea, this or any other kind of chivalry might make sense. But in an Uhmerican megapolis? More and more men are seeing that such gestures are not acknowledged, much less appreciated. Women are not the only special class who can "claim" the help of a man's physical strength -- there are also children and the elderly, for exmaple. This is a duty of distributive justice, something owed for the good of the community as a whole, not something owed to women as individuals or as a specific group. Chivalry may have been understood by some as a vehicle for inculcating attitudes of honoring/respecting women, but it may be better understood as reinforcing social separation and protecting against over-familiarity with members of the opposite sex. Gestures of honor and respect may be laudable when displayed to one's wife, but they can also faciliate or strengthen an erroneous understanding of women (and ignorance of their weaknesses). It might be better to understand them as another mode of communication, one that signals respect and affection and so on, rather than as an act that is due to a woman because she is a woman.


Related:
Over at The Spearhead: Ryan Gosling Saves Feminist, Gratitude Not Forthcoming (See also What's Wrong With Wanting to be Loved?)

Cardinal Dolan on Face the Nation

CBS: Cardinal Dolan: Contraception debate not over

Anywhere else it'd be called fan fiction...

But at a university it's a MA thesis - The Peace Weaver: Wealhthrow in Beowulf

Why would it be taken that seriously? Take a look at the abstract:

This historical novella charts the events as they unfold within Beowulf through the eyes of the minor character Wealhtheow, Hrothgar’s Helming Queen. The novella tries to remain as historically accurate to the culture of fifth and sixth century Scandinavia, for this is when most scholars agree the historical events of Beowulf unfolded. This fictional account of the Beowulf-poem presents the story within a different genre in hopes of creating an environment that is vivid and more easily accessible to modern readers, especially young adult readers, not only referencing Scandinavian culture but also the role of Anglo-Saxon women.

Introduction: My goal in writing this fictional novella is twofold: to make Beowulf more accessible to modern readers and to expound upon the less articulated female point of view in the poem.

Maybe it can't be called fan fiction if the author is not really a fan of the original epic poem? She probably is, though.

Items of Interest, 10 April 2012

No Country for Old (Catholic) Men by R. Cort Kirkwood
The Real Reason Pat Buchanan Got Fired from MSNBC

PJB, The Outing of Deep Throat

Rick Santorum is out. Good. I didn't like the idea of him receiving the Pro Deo et Patria medal then, and my opinion of him has gone down even more since then.

Why Ron Paul Matters More Than Obama, Romney, Santorum and Gingrich

How Could a Former Con Law Professor Be So Ignorant?

Judge Napolitano on Admin. Sending $500M to IRS for Health-Care Law


Are We Serious about Talking with Tehran?

The Afghan Syndrome

Democrats and Republicans at local level step up to oppose NDAA detention

The U.S. Government's Top Secret Town

Growing up in the first Great Depression

(Peak Moment Television)

Economics:
Revisited: Three Data Points That Prove Europe Cannot Be Saved

First World Happiness report launched at the United Nations by Earth Institute (EB)



The Return of The Limits to Growth by Ugo Bardi (EB)

Mapping the GLobal Transition to a New Economics

Catholic:
Christus Resurrexit a Mortuis - A Latin Version of the Byzantine Easter Hymn
by Gregory DiPippo
Medieval Monastic Library of Lorsch recreated online
Cardinal Burke Clarifies: Employers Providing Contraceptives “Materially and Formally” Cooperating with Sin
Vatican Cardinal: If Catholic employers provide contraceptive coverage they cooperate in sin

Dating Pascha in the Orthodox Church

Marriage and Courtship:
The scam of diamond engagement rings

Diet and Health:
The first in a series on America's Pedestrian Problem: The Crisis in American Walking by Tom Vanderbilt
How we got off the pedestrian path.

MDA: The Definitive Guide to Traditional Food Preparation and Preservation

The LLVLC Show (Episode 566): Karly Pitman Encourages ‘Growing Human(kind)ness’ To Overcome Sugar Addiction (mp3)

MovNat Featured in the Washington Post: Commentary by Master Instructor, Clifton Harski (The Washington Post)

Beef 101: A guide to what 25% of Americans eat every day - the original at Frugal Dad

Music:
The Vespers - 'Close My Eyes' ~ Live at Music City Roots (HD)


J. D. Crowe to Hang Up His Banjo

Josh & Renee Fleming Perform Brigadoon Medley


Best Of The West 2012: Classic Cowboy Songs

Watch Rachel Holder's New Video For 'In Your Arms'


Movies:
Whit Stillman Rescuing Damsels

The heroic bloodshed genre... originating in the U.S.

Something I had not considered in the films of Sam Peckinpah, who did influence John Woo, until I read Bill Kauffman's Peckinpah Country.

But the memory of that lost place—the pain of watching that which one loves disappear—informs his best movies: “The Wild Bunch,” “Ride the High Country,” “Junior Bonner,” “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.”


This last, with its elegiac score by Bob Dylan, is at once listless and haunting, as it treats Peckinpah’s two favorite themes: men out of time and the imperative of loyalty. Its tersely poetical script is by the underrated novelist Rudolph Wurlitzer (check out his brutal and ethereal The Drop Edge of Yonder) of the jukebox family.


Queried why he doesn’t kill his pursuer Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid (played by Kris Kristofferson) says simply, “He’s my friend.” No other explanation is necessary, or even possible. It’s the same reason Peckinpah’s Wild Bunch go on a mission perdu to rescue their compadre Angel from the sleazy federale Mapache.


“Aren’t your losers and misfits conformists to outdated codes?” asked a Playboy interviewer in 1972. Peckinpah replied, “outdated codes like courage, loyalty, friendship, grace under pressure, all the simple virtues that have become clichés, sure. They’re cats who ran out of territory and they know it, but they’re not going to bend, either: they refuse to be diminished by it. They play their string out to the end.”

It is difficult to sympathize with the bad guys in The Wild Bunch, since they have very little scruples in killing in order to save themselves. (I don't think they feel much remorse when civilians are shot in the crossfire?) The noble criminals of John Woo's movies do have some scruples...

Seventh Annual Napa Valley Catholic Men's Conference

To be held on Saturday, April 28, and Bishop Robert Vasa will be hearing confessions and celebrating Mass. (Co-sponsored by Ignatius Press) Register online.

$10 discount if you register before April 14. After that the registration fee is $50 (includes continental breakfast and BBQ lunch), until April 22, when a $5 surchage will be added. In the evening those who are attending will have the opportunity to see For Greater Glory. (RSVP required.) More info.

"The Bishop's talk is Men as the Pastors of the Domestic Church." How far will he go in his talk to support patriarchy?

A few days after I read Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Patridge, I had to suffer through an activity revolving around Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores, which encourages tomboys to be themselves instead of forcing themselves to be girl and to be friends with boys, forming clubs with them (because the clubs for girly girls are too boring for the tomboys). Are you skeptical that public schools are indoctrinating children to accept the new morality?

Worse business decision of the year?

Facebook acquires Instagram for about $1B

$1 billion? Where do they get the money? The private "misallocation of resources" continues...

Wrote this down beecause they echo what you read in the manosphere androsphere about discerning women's characters -- "I choose to listen to your actions than your words - they're more honest." This was uttered by someone, but for what movie/TV show? House. It figures. It's too bad that this is the last season for House (shouldn't they be saying series finale instead of season finale in the commercials/promos?), but the show has been getting a bit stale and while House has shown some signs of improvement this season, it is not clear whether his personality issues will ever be resolved. (Did that story arc with Andre Braugher's character lead to anything? I don't think so.)

Podcast Interview with Jack Donovan

Counter-Currents Radio: Interview with Jack Donovan (mp3)

Once again something involving Jack Donovan is hosted at that WN website, but it nonetheless has a good discussion of emergent tribalism and what is necessary to strengthen the bonds between men, which are the primal instance of political life [the living and directing of community] and action. I prefer Aristotle's understanding of the virtues, but Mr. Donovan's delineation of characteristic habits of males is useful. (I don't think his notion of virtue completely escapes the moral realm into the "pre-moral" though.)

In the course of the interview Mr. Donovan mentions a book he wrote with others, Blood Brotherhood, which includes an examination of gang cultures all over the world.

It's interesting that the host concedes that race nationalism is rather abstract in comparison to the particular ties we have to family and to a certain people. These primal attachments seem to be more important than something based on race. Still, both he and Mr. Donovan believe that if things begin to collapse, people will seek protection in numbers with people of the same skin color. (Like in prisons.) If things get bad, warrior skills will be needed.


Both refer to John Robb, whose book Brave New War I have not read. This reminded me that John Michael Greer has mentioned 4GW theorists before, noting that he will discuss his differences with them in the future.
How are we to create a community within a megapolis? Even if we can find like-minded people, who will volunteer for stability, like the monks of old, weathering any major crisis that may come their way? But the economic pressure may be too great, if one cannot find appropriate work to pay for one's lifestyle commitments.
Care for one's family will probably always outweigh any friendship one may form with non-family.

Related: Biologist E.O. Wilson on Why Humans, Like Ants, Need a Tribe (via Rebellion) - The Social Conquest of Earth

Kirkus Review

Regina caeli

Am I a modern conservative?

The Pillars of Modern American Conservatism by Alfred S. Regnery

The first pillar of conservatism is liberty, or freedom. Conservatives believe that individuals possess the right to life, liberty, and property, and freedom from the restrictions of arbitrary force. They exercise these rights through the use of their natural free will. That means the ability to follow your own dreams, to do what you want to (so long as you don’t harm others) and reap the rewards (or face the penalties). Above all, it means freedom from oppression by government—and the protection of government against oppression. It means political liberty, the freedom to speak your mind on matters of public policy. It means religious liberty—to worship as you please, or not to worship at all. It also means economic liberty, the freedom to own property and to allocate your own resources in a free market.

Conservatism is based on the idea that the pursuit of virtue is the purpose of our existence and that liberty is an essential component of the pursuit of virtue. Adherence to virtue is also a necessary condition of the pursuit of freedom. In other words, freedom must be pursued for the common good, and when it is abused for the benefit of one group at the expense of others, such abuse must be checked. Still, confronted with a choice of more security or more liberty, conservatives will usually opt for more liberty.

"Ordered liberty" is often discussed by conservatives, following Edmund Burke, to distinguish liberty from licentiousness (see, for example, Patrick Deneen). But we can distinguish between liberty as it describes a political community in itself and the members of a community, i.e. political self-rule versus individual "sovereignty." One can have the former without the latter, if that sort of liberty is identified with complete self-rule (or autonomy). Those who rule in a polity should be qualified to do so on the basis of virtue.

How much liberty is necessary for the members of a community? There should be freedom from government interference with legitimate activities or the abuse of authority (legislating in those areas where it has no competence); subsidiarity vs. micromanaging.

Is the conception of liberalism given here one that is more allied to "voluntaristic" notions of law and will rather than a "rationalist" notions? Is there a sense of liberty which is not tied to certain errors which nonetheless retains the importance given to the limits upon human authority? I think so - but one must still show how the different meanings of "uncoerced" can be related with one another. (Freedom can also mean faculty or the potency to some action?)
At the end the author writes: "Conservatives advocate free market capitalism, less regulation of economic activity, and fiscal responsibility." "Free-market" conservatism. The essay is representative of the conservatism articulated by ISI. I would have to say that such a statement of principles is not sufficient as it is not explicitly tied to any particular conception of the human good (or goods).

Related: The Principles of True Politics
On Ordered Liberty A Treatise on the Free Society
Bradley J. Birzer, The Meaning of Liberty During the American Revolution (part 2)

RT: What are the economics of happiness?

Items of Interest, 9 April 2012

More on John Derbyshire: A Purge too Far
Derbyshire and National Review: A Conflict of Visions
Thomas Fleming
Paul Gottfried

Peter Hitchens, Quiz Show: ‘We thought we were going to get TV … but TV has got us instead’

Why Obama's Jobs Act Couldn't Suck Worse
Political correctness beats cosmopolitan Libertarianism: because sacrificial religion beats hedonic individualism

Paul Gottfried, What the Hell is the West?
The Uniforms Came in One Color by Adnan Sarwar

DAVE LINDORFF, Kurt Vonnegut and the American Police State
FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, The Afghan Disaster (link at Fabius Maximus)

The 14th Amendment and the Bill of Rights
When are Federal Laws Supreme?
Health Care On Federal Enclaves, And Really Silly Journalists.
Who Was the Real Thomas Jefferson? A review of Liberty, State, Union

That Old Romanov Feeling
America loses even if it wins a war with China.

Economics:

(via Mish)

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Trailer)

Media Education Foundation



Energy:
Beehive Design Collective: “The True Cost of Coal” Slide Show
Education in a Post-Carbon World by Steve Bull

Catholic:
The Pope's Homily for the East Vigil Mass
The Legion Must Disappear

Orthodox:
Orthodox believers celebrate Palm Sunday
The Byzantine communion chant for Easter in 14th-century manuscripts
Orthodox Christians Celebrate Palm Sunday

Education:
Grounding the Life of the Mind

Diet and Health:
The Paleo Solution – Episode 112, guest Dr. Loren Cordain (mp3)
7-Year Blogiversary Giveaway Contest Prize Package Post #2
Guest Post: The Difference Between Eating Paleo and “Being Paleo”
The Trouble With Pork, Part 2
Women cannot rewind the biological clock

Architecture:
SCA – Notre Dame

American History:
Rare color photos from 1930s-40s
Inside the Army's Secret Cold War Ice Base

Gokhale Pain Free™ Chair


A little bit too much marketing? Or effective correction and therapy?

How true a representation?

VFR: An Indian immigrant on Indian anti-white animus and America’s suicide

Indian children and parents in the classroom are usually friendly; the same can't be said of those who are actually living nearby.

Lawrence Auster writes: "Thank you very much for this. I don’t think white Americans know much about Indian anti-whiteness. Chinese anti-whiteness, for example, is a more familiar phenomenon. If you would like to give some examples of this, that would be helpful."

Is it the case that every group is chauvinistic? Even the SWPLs are, though they base it on liberalism instead of ethnic identity. For the Chinese, ethnic identity and culture are tied together. Chinese people may believe themselves to be superior to white people with respect to culture and morals, but I don't see the same sort of animosity that they reserve for other groups.

Related:
The Uniforms Came in One Color by Adnan Sarwar

Authors@Google: Joel Salatin discusses 'Folks, This Ain't Normal'

From October 25, 2011


the book

Some Kevin Gutzman interviews

Kevin Gutzman and his new book, James Madison and the Making of America (mp3)

The Forgotten Men: Kevin Gutzman returns for a second interview

And a Lew Rockwell podcast...
268. Ron Paul Has Won the Future (mp3) That Joel Salatin episode isn't available yet?

John Stossel: Salman Khan and Joel Salatin

A blessed and Holy Pascha to all!