The OD called again tonight to ask me if I wanted to go to his church again this weekend, and to tell me that a friend of a friend was interested in meeting me. Apparently she's (1) Taiwanese and (2) an atheist, and I don't know if there's anything to compensate for these two negative marks. Maybe she has an ok character, but I've met very few Taiwanese women who have impressed with their personality. (Or their speaking voice in Mandarin, which annoys me more than anything else.)

"A Woman Against Feminism" by KellyMac (mp3)

(See also the Don't Marry blog.)

James Matthew Wilson, Letter from a Traditional Conservative (via The Western Confucian)

A good short summation of traditional conservatism, and its differences from liberalism.

We are at last on the verge of seeing what administered society in its most radical form might look like; the State really will be the manager to whom every question of our survival and moral life may be referred. So, our two presidents illustrate in fact what Classical Liberalism always announces in theory: the end of liberalism is the free, isolated individual; and the State’s duty in simply “protecting the private interests” of those individuals gradually but inexorably makes it the sole real or efficacious entity in social life, whose interest in “securing our freedom” gradually leads to its involving itself in every dimension of our lives except for those which are most trivial. It only wishes to look into our souls in such cases where our souls might actually do something of consequence.

Traditional conservatism steps radically outside this theory. It rejects its fundamentals and its consequences. Man is intrinsically a social or political animal; his individual identity is formed by, tied to, and fulfilled only in, community. To speak, therefore, of the “interests of the individual” as if they stood in tension with those of “State” or “society” literally makes no sense; it creates separate entities and interests to describe what in fact is something organic. Community is organic because it has distinguishable parts, but none of those parts is in any meaningful sense separable from the whole (it would no longer be itself were it not part of something bigger than itself). It is organic also in that all of its parts have not only a present unity, but they exist for the same end: the good life for man, who is himself capable of seeking the Good. Thus, the first argument of this position is to reject the “going” anthropology of the last two-and-a-quarter centuries.

Liberal politics takes for granted that the individual is the sole identifiable and legitimate entity in society and that no one can pronounce on the end or purpose of the individual except the individual (because, as truly individual, we are all mutually un-intelligible to one another, and cannot speak to, with, or for, each other). Therefore, liberalism always sets some conception of “freedom” as its end, because by that term it can describe an empty space cleared for the free play of the individual, rather than an image of what the individual might, or ought to, look like.

But traditional conservatism insists that we not only reject the anthropology that reduces man to an isolated individual, rather than recognizes him as a person whose very individuality only comes into being in community, but that we also reject this “negative theology” of the end of human life. If we are social animals because we are born into community, we are also — indeed primarily — social animals because we reach our telos, our final cause, our fulfillment, only in a certain kind of shared life. We inherit relationships to some communities, we develop other relationships within other communities, and these relationships, which both allow us to do some things and limit us and prevent us from doing others, gradually give shape to our personalities. Thus the human being becomes, through these communities and communal relationships, more fully a person. The State has a role in protecting relationships and communities, and even in exemplifying one instance of a kind of communal institution, but its role is necessarily limited precisely because it is clear that it is the overabundance of varied, limited, and imperfect communities and associations that form a complex web or network that can fulfill man’s social nature. An overly comprehensive State undermines or frustrates man’s political nature by making its practical condition threadbare.

If society and community is in part a fulfillment of our natures, that is to say, if it is part of the happiness that we wish to have; if it is part of the good life for man; it is also a necessary means even to discovering what that good life looks like. More strongly: our social nature makes us dependent upon community for us to discover an image of the good life and indeed to look into the face of the Good itself. The isolated individual is not strictly speaking incapable of discovering the good, but is de facto, since by definition he deprives himself of, or rejects as “irrational” and “oppressive,” the generations of shared experience offered him as a gift and obligation from the past, and therefore ends up trying to “fashion himself” from scratch, rather than “correcting and conserving” what he has inherited like so much cultural property — like, to specify the image, a stable homestead with farmland cultivated over generations.

Furthermore, the isolated individual cannot make much headway looking for the Good, because he will always shrink it to something particular to his own self. He will reject as a possible vision of goodness anything that he cannot understand as “good for me,” where the “me” is reducible to the temporally bounded, bodily self’s experience of pleasure. Many things that are indeed “good for me” do not appear as such if I deny my social nature and can think of myself and my good as restricted to my individuality and freedom. Liberals like to preach against “selfishness” or “egoism,” because they simply cannot fathom a good for the person that is something more, or something other, than a person’s good qua individual. We lose the ability, under such circumstances, to think of our personalities living on beyond our one, truly individuated element, our bodies; as such, we cannot conceive of our good as extending beyond our corporeal life, and thus, things like “courage” and “self-mastery” begin to look unreal and contrary to one’s personal good. When one truly understands one’s social nature, however, such virtues become naturally desirable; one wishes not just to benefit from the past in the present, but to live on in the memory of others in the future and, thereby, to give shape to the future. The end of one’s present life, therefore, comes to be part of what future generations know and lives meaningfully on in them.

Energy is everything by Michael Lardelli (original)

Gene Logsdon, Manure More Precious Than Gold

The possibility that all of agriculture might have to rely on animal and human waste to maintain the necessary fertility to keep the world from starving is not at all something new to civilization. Only in the last century or so has it been possible to lard enough chemical nitrogen on cropland to attain record breaking yields while burning most of the organic matter out of the soil. Before this modern “progress,” human society had no other choice than to consider manure— animal and human— to be more precious than gold. At least humans did so in countries that sustained an ample food supply for very long periods of time, as China and Japan did. We all need to read again Farmers of Forty Centuries, by F.H. King, published in 1911, about oriental agriculture at that time. Manure was treated like a precious gem because it was a precious gem. Every scrap of animal waste, human waste, and plant residue was scrupulously collected, composted, and reapplied to the land. So precious was manure that Chinese farmers stored it in burglar-proof containers.

'Natural patterns' of farming touted in documentary (via EB). The new documentary is Food, Inc., by Robert Kenner.

California Catholic Daily: “Already deeply involved in the daily running of the school” --
Thomas Aquinas College names interim president.

Meanwhile, the college has announced funeral arrangements for Dr. Dillon. The funeral Mass for Dr. Dillon will be held in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel on Friday, April 24, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. Interment will be at Santa Paula Cemetery. There will be a reception immediately following in the St. Joseph Commons on the Thomas Aquinas College campus.

See the homepage for TAC for tributes to Dr. Dillon. (A Life of Faith and Reason by Dr. Thomas S. Hibbs)

Newly ordained Thomas Aquinas College alumni Fr. Michael Goyette blesses Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Dillon, president of the college and his wife. (source)

The American Papist brings us this letter from the Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross to President Obama.

Insight Scoop post. Post at David Gibson's Pontifications.

Links:
Holy Cross Congregation
Congregation of Holy Cross - Indiana Province
Congregation of the Holy Cross, CSC
Eastern Province
About ND // University of Notre Dame
2007 Outstanding Alumnus Award Citation in Honor of Rev. Hugh W. Cleary, C.S.C. `69 (source of the photo above)

Waiting on a woman.

Brad Paisley - Waiting On A Woman


Brad Paisley - Waiting On A Woman

There is the expectation that when men arrive to pick up their dates (whether at her parents' house, or at her place if she is 'independent') that he may have to wait a while, as the women put on their final touches. Is this peculiar only to American, or can it be found in contemporary societies where dating is the norm? (And love has been commodified?)

It is natural that women seek to make themselves presentable and attractive to men in order to strengthen their attraction. Physical beauty exerts a great pull on men. But I don't think that the practice of women not being punctual has always been the case in the past, because the practice of dating is a relatively recent development. Weren't the women of the upper classes always ready and presentable? They may have spruced themselves up for special events like dances or dinners at another home, but receiving suitors in their father's homes did not require this, as far as I know.

(source)

(More photos of the gowns in Wives and Daughters. Enchanted Serenity of Period Films.)

Is the same true of daughters of the rising bourgeoisie? I suspect among the lower class, courtship practices involved less expectations about what could be done to enhance beauty, though cleanliness, modesty, and basic grooming standards were probably required.

Now it may be that the men would have to wait for the women sometimes, but not because they were getting ready to be seen, but because they were occupied with other tasks. I don't think the delay would have been too long -- it would be impolite to make someone wait longer than is necessary to get one's self to the appropriate place after being notified of his or her arrival? There may have been certain "social" hours during which callers could visit and be received -- I'll have to check this.

Nowadays, women take it for granted that a man will wait for them, beyond the appointed time for their meeting. Some justify this it a test of how he is willing to treat her? Or if he is willing to do a lot of waiting for her, since this is what will happen if they get married. If it is a test, it seems to be more a test of patience or ardor than of the virtues. Is it combined with a more narcissistic view of the self? Some women may defend this delay as being necessary; after all, they are beautifying themselves precisely for the men. But now a few are actually guilty of wanting to put themselves on display for everyone they encounter, hence the charge of narcissism--in which the beloved becomes more enamored with the self and her ability to attract others, than with the one whom she is trying to attract.

Some women don't take that long to get ready, and perhaps even less time than many men. Women of the upper classes, having some leisure and light housework, could easily adhere to the ideal of always being presentable. But with the increase in wealth in Western industrialized societies, and the acceptability of a diversity of clothing, ranging from casual to formal, depending upon the circumstances and purposes, women now do need time to change into something "appropriate."

Still, our society is used to an extravagance unseen in previous eras, except among the extremely affluent, and their expectations of what comprises a good life has trickled down to the masses, even if the attempts by many to imitate that way of life are laughable. And women hold themselves to exaggerated standards of beauty.

Maybe in earlier times, after getting married things would seem different to a man in this regard, in so far as he would now be present while his wife was getting ready, and thus be waiting for a woman, something he hadn't had to do while courting her.

But at least with respect to the courtship/dating period, why shouldn't punctuality be possible if the women is concerned with modesty (and simplicity!) and consideration of others, and with punctuality itself? Is it possible for women to not fuss as much over themselves, and yet remain physically attractive to men? I think so -- I don't think it really takes that much. Has there even be an inversion of values? That is to say, many women expect man to wait on them, but are much more willing to give their bodies to them, while in the past a woman may have had to prepare herself ahead of time for a suitor or caller (and thus be bound to social conventions or biology or whatever is being criticized in the negative judgment we moderns may currently pass on the conventions of an earlier period), but at least she would be protected from being exploited as a mere provider of sexual pleasure?

I think I've posted this before, but it's worth putting up again -- Almost Lover - Wives and Daughters.


Should I mention Alan Jackson's Livin' On Love on Catholic Match? Seems like my kind of Romantic ideal. hah.

NLM: Alcuin Reid Reviews Fr. John Baldovin's Critique

Sacrosanctum concilium and the Reform of the Ordo Missae (pdf)
St. Michael's Abbey

Medical update.

Even if one is supposed to lose weight in order to prevent future gout attacks, one cannot start exercising right away, because that increases the amount of uric acid in the body. I had been walking somewhat regularly up until 2 months ago, and then I stopped, because the sciatic nerve had gotten to be too much, and prevented me from walking around much. So advice that I should lose weight is rather useless, when the medical condition(s) prevents me from exercising.

The back is mostly better, but it's not 100% well--while I haven't experienced sciatic nerve recently, sometimes the back will ache if I'm bent forward or backward. And just as that was starting to finally get better, I get gout. Unbelievable. The right large toe is not as bad as it was a week ago, but it is still swollen and tender, hurting if I try to flex it back as far as possible. Now my right thumb joint, where the thumb meets the rest, is starting to ache a little, and I feel aches in my hips, so I wonder if those pains are related.

Eh. Now the left thumb joint feels weird as well. Maybe it's carpal tunnel syndrome.

Last week I walked by Nice Matin in NYC and noticed that on the menu, they had adopted the European convention of using commas instead of periods for marking of decimals. Is it a French restaurant? What would traditional French speakers make of the name "Nice Matin," with the English mixed with the French?

(I was meeting a friend at Cafe con Leche for lunch. I believe it is a Cuban restaurant, but some of the Latin dance songs -- I don't know which genre -- mentioned Puerto Rico and Boricua.)

NLM: Theorized Reconstruction of a 17th Century Jesuit Church in America, which links to Jesuits' brick chapel is rebuilt in St. Mary's City.

While the Archdioceses of Baltimore and Washington were important contributors, the chapel will not be consecrated for worship. But it will stand as a monument to the principle of religious tolerance that the Calvert family - the Roman Catholic proprietors of the colony - pioneered in the Chesapeake outpost in response to the harsh repression of Catholics in England.

AOL Video
Virginia Lime Works has posted a video of the reconstruction.

Related links:
Historic St. Mary's City
Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit: 17th Century Jesuit's St. Mary's Chapel
Brick by Brick, History Re-Created
Jesuit Chapel Replica: St. Mary’s City rebuilds a 17th century
Jesuits in the News

China puts the results of its naval buildup on display.

A Chinese Great Wall 218 Navy submarine docks at Qingdao Port, Shandong province April 22, 2009. China will show off its resurgent naval strength this week at a parade marking 60 years since the founding of its navy, presenting its fleet of warships and nuclear submarines as a force for peace, not aggression. (Reuters/Daylife)

Chinese naval personnel stand at attention atop the Great Wall-218 navy submarine at Qingdao Port, Shandong province April 22, 2009. China will show off its resurgent naval strength this week at a parade marking 60 years since the founding of its navy, presenting its fleet of warships and nuclear submarines as a force for peace, not aggression. (Reuters/Daylife)

North Korean military officers look at the Wenzhou, a Chinese navy frigate, in Qingdao Port, Shandong province April 22, 2009. China will show off its resurgent naval strength this week at a parade marking 60 years since the founding of its navy, presenting its fleet of warships and nuclear submarines as a force for peace, not aggression. (Reuters/Daylife)

A Chinese navy soldier guards on a battleship at Qingdao port on Wednesday April 22, 2009 in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. China is marking 60 years of the Chinese navy and has invited ships and top officials from dozens of countries to attend. (AP/Daylife)

A Chinese navy soldier guards on a battleship at Qingdao port on Wednesday April 22, 2009 in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. China is marking 60 years of the Chinese navy and has invited ships and top officials from dozens of countries to attend. (AP/Daylife)


Chinese navy officers look on on the missile destroyer 115 Shenyang docked at Qingdao port, China's Shandong Province, Tuesday, April 21, 2009. The destroyer will attend an international fleet review to be held on April 23 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army Navy. (AP/Daylife)

Chinese naval officers walk past foreign warships at Qingdao Port, Shandong province April 21, 2009. China will show off its resurgent naval strength this week at a parade marking 60 years since the founding of its navy, presenting its fleet of warships and nuclear submarines as a force for peace, not aggression. (Reuters/Daylife)

AsiaTimes: China unveils its new naval clout
Beijing will mark the 60th anniversary of the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army on Thursday by flexing its newfound nautical muscle alongside vessels from 14 other countries. The gala, four-day fleet review attended by naval dignitaries from around the world in the northern port city of Qingdao will show off once-secret nuclear submarines and may launch a new role for Beijing in the world's waters. - Wu Zhong

BBC News: China shows naval power at parade‎
Time: The Chinese Navy: How Big a Threat to the U.S.?
Weekly Standard: China's Naval Gambit

Links:
Chinese Naval Forces - SinoDefence.com
wiki
海军总医院欢迎您

Came across this book by Joseph A. Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies, when doing a search for Colin Renfrew, who has apparently written about the collapse of complex societies.

Professor Lord Renfrew, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge
International Balzan Prize Foundation - Colin Renfrew
Edge: COLIN RENFREW and EDGE 3rd Culture: A TALK WITH COLIN RENFREW
Colin Renfrew on recent human evolution
Gene Expression: Colin Renfrew as a vector for misinformation
Technology Review: Our Past Within Us
Colin Renfrew expands our understanding of cognitive archaeology
ecologically collapsing and retrenching civilisations: written sources
Reflection: Catastrophe?

Related?
Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires

I was looking at the curriculum and reading list for Wyoming Catholic College. The theology practicums are rather interesting; during the sophomore year students read the Carmelite doctors (St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux). A different way to approach "ascetical and mystical theology"? (Certainly it's different from reading Aumann or Garrigou-Lagrange.)

Here are the requirements for the co-majors and professional majors in Philosophy at Benedictine College, and the requirements for majors in Theology.

John Médaille, Chapter XVII: Distributism and the Health Care System

Sandro Magister, The City of Florence Has a Special Defender: Its Bishop
Just recently appointed, Giuseppe Betori has inaugurated a new pastoral style: very much engaged in the public square, and with the defense of human life as a priority. In reality, he has implemented an episcopal model that is classical in Church history. The analysis and interpretation of Pietro De Marco

From the analysis by Pietro De Marco:

Since the first centuries of Christianity, the bishop has been both the center of liturgical life, which is public in and of itself, and – in keeping with his ministry as "overseer" – a unique civil authority. An historian of late antiquity, Bernard Flusin, wrote that "the list of areas in which the bishop is called to act is startling." Although he is not a territorial lord, the bishop is a "defensor civitatis" with a role of balancing with respect to the imperial officials. Through the bishops, the Church brings to new institutional prominence, compared with pre-Christian systems, the functions of assistance and governance: the bishops organize worship, they teach, they help the poor, they influence urban space. The bishop, within the boundaries of his city, holds legally defined powers that put him at the head of the community in front of secular power. Other historians confirm this, including Luce Pietri: "His titles declare him the guarantor of justice and the protector of the weak, often in contrast" with civil jurisdiction. He is the minister of assistance.

These longstanding features were later updated and harmonized with the provisions of the modern state and the pluralist democracies, but they were not eliminated. They remain essential. And this is so true and so evident to public awareness and to the strategy of the rulers that when the bishop's responsibilities to the "polis" are expressed in "supplemental" social activities they are appreciated, sought out, praised. But when the bishop's concern – which is not for welfare per se, but responds to the absolute evangelical command and is ultimately ordered to the salvation of souls, even when he is providing physical assistance – is addressed to other decisive forms of protecting the spiritual and moral well-being of citizens, and does this authoritatively, it is whistled down as a "foul."

And yet these are nothing other than distinct features of the same mandate and the same office. The statement of the archdiocese is, in its substance, Archbishop Giuseppe Betori's first letter to the city, and about the city. It is an act of concern of the pastor, who becomes "guarantor of justice and protector of the weak" on anthropological terrain, even in contrast with the public authorities. He analyzes the reality, and warns against the dangers. The call to the "respect of roles and of reciprocal autonomy," which appears in the letter sent to the archbishop by the president of the city council of Florence, demonstrates little understanding of this episcopal responsibility.

Zenit: Discalced Carmelites Elect New Superior General (source of the icon of St. Teresa of Avila; source of the icon of St. John of the Cross).

I can't find a photo of Fr. Saverio Cannistrà of the Sacred Heart. Not so surprising. I don't think the Carmelite monks of Wyoming are officially associated with the Discalced Carmelites yet. (Or if they want to be?) iirc, the Lake Elmo hermits are associated with O.Carm. (But there is also a house of OCD nuns in Lake Elmo as well? Not that the two houses are necessarily affiliated with one another, I'm just wondering if there is a connection.)

Related links:
Web oficial de la Casa General de los Carmelitas Descalzos, OCD
Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Piedmont, OK

Discalced Carmelites
Discalced Carmelite Friars of the Province of Saint Joseph
Byzantine Discalced Carmelites

OCARM-OCD Web Portal
Carmelite Institute - Newsletter
Carmelites O.Carm
Carmelite General Commissariat of Blessed Titus Brandsma
Welcome to Carmelite Friars, Vocation Web Page

Fr. Z: Clear correction from Bp. John D’Arcy (where Notre Shame is)

Commentary: Interview with Matt Simmons, Part 3
Steve Andrews, ASPO-USA
"The only guy in this administration who is apparently steeped in concern about supply is General James Jones, National Security Advisor. As smart as those guys appear to be, I don’t think that any one of them is about to have the epiphany that—as serious as climate change might be—if we have a supply collapse, the game’s over."
Links to the previous parts here.

Winslow T. Wheeler, Eliminating Bad Pentagon Habits

To end the widespread decay within the Defense Department, what must first be eliminated are not bad programs, but bad habits. In keeping with the original editorial request, here are:

1. Underperforming, "white tower" weapons at unaffordable cost.
2. Unaccountable finances.
3. Whistleblower intimidation.
4. Bad managers.
5. Decimate the FYDP.

Read the article for his explanation of each.

House, season 5, episode 21

(source: Yahoo! TV)

"Saviors" -- the patient, an environmental activist, when told he should stay home in order to recuperate from a possible auto-immune disease, and pressed to do so by his wife for the sake of his family: "But why should he [his son] matter more than everyone else's?"

His wife: "Because!"

The activist: "Because he's biologically connected to me? There's no rational reason."

"He's our son!"

"And he's going to need to drink clean water and breathe clean air. I'm doing this for him too."

Could there be any better illustration on TV of abstract liberal universalism (as explained by Dr. Fleming in his The Morality of Everyday Life)?

AP: San Francisco's mayor running for governor

His pride and ambition knows no bounds.

When too many people have jobs making unnecessary products or unnecessary services, who becomes unemployed when there is a "downturn"? The question is, how are these surplus jobs possible, and why can't they be maintained? Where we should look: the availability of cheap energy, and the use of technology to reduce the number of people needed to produce food, and at the same time multiplying the amount produced far beyond what is needed in this country. Such a political economy is not sustainable, if it violates local ecological cycles, but also if it is dependent upon the influx of money from other countries in order to prop it up...