AK-12

The Pittsford Perennialist posts the documentary, AK-47 - The King of Guns, along with a link to an article about the new Kalashnikov, the AK-12. The AK-47 has become popular recently here in the US with various instructors like Gabe Suarez, Travis Haley, and Larry Vickers making videos or offering classes in its use.

What would the manosphere make of this?

EWTN Bookmark 02-12-2012 - Men, Women and the Mystery of Love by Dr. Edward Sri

Xanga appears to be down. I've gotten that error message for the past 2 days.

On the occasion of Lent I should really give up soda, since it does me no good. And I should recommit to sprinting at least 3 times a week. I tried to do it today but was loathe to do so; I can't blame my shoes as the cause. Laziness or the aversion to the discomfort. It would be better to lose a few more pounds before subjecting the body to that kind of stress, though.

The best thing to give up for Lent is sin.

Items of Interest, 17 February 2012

Finished this response; will try to finish a couple of more on community and contemporary communitarianism before I take a break.

Thomas Fleming, American Idols and A Christian Defense of the Unspeakable Dawkins

Lessons in Empire

Marriage of Rights and Duties

Daniel Larison informs us that Andrew Bacevich is the editing a new book - The Short American Century: A Post-Mortem and American Exceptionalism

Oakeshott and Conservatism

Patrick Buchanan, Blacklisted But Not Beaten

I know there are some who are enthusiastic about Elizabeth Warren as a candidate in MA, but this (and her purported support for the feminist legal system) should give them some pause: Elizabeth Warren’s Rhetorical Extremism.

Mary Jo Anderson, Journalist for EWTN – and Professor Kevin Gutzman, Author of James Madison and the Making America – Join for Throwdown Thursday

Woods on Schiff with Rockwell and Gutzman

Faith and Marriage Under Attack

Patrick Deneen, Our Libertarian Future and Religious Liberty?

Obamacare:
Religious Freedom and the Triumph of the Therapeutic by Thaddeus Kozinski
Paul Gottfried, Immaculate Secularism
Rod Dreher, Liberalism's Assault on Catholicism and Has the Catholics Moment Passed?

Fast and Furious:
James Antle, Mission Implausible

Obama:
'Obama Girl' Turns on President, Slams Him in New Video

Economics:
The Fight of the Century by Richard Heinberg (EB)
Free online showing of The Economics of Happiness, followed by a live Q&A with Helena Norberg-Hodge (co-director and producer of The Economics of Happiness), Steven Gorelick (co-director of The Economics of Happiness), Manish Jain (founder of The People's Institute for Rethinking Education and Development) and Charles Eisenstein (author of Sacred Economics).
URL to be announced.

Relocalization:
The challenge of re-localisation by Graham Barnes (EB)
Book Review: Urban Homesteading by Oliver Lazenby (EB)
Big government and big corporations befriend the local food movement by Olga Bonfiglio
MDA: The Art of Crafting with Your Hands
Taproot Magazine

Farming:
Why Farms Want Cold Winters

Energy and Peak Oil:
World oil supply debate between ex-Shell chief and ASPO-USA professor
by Karen Rybold-Chin (EB)

Will Occupy Wall Street start drilling for peak oil?

How reliable are U.S. Department of Energy oil production forecasts? by Roger Blanchard (EB)
World energy consumption - beyond 500 exajoules by Rembrandt Koppelaar (EB)
Peak Oil and the Importance of EROI (review of Fleeing Vesuvius, Part 2)
The Grey, a peak oil flick quick take

Monsanto:
Open Seeds: Biopiracy and the Patenting of Life by grtv

Catholic:
Robert J. Araujo, SJ: What is freedom?
Introducing Chant into the Domestic Church
Culture, Liturgy, Beauty and Anthropology by David Clayton

Diet and Health:
Ask the Low-Carb Experts 6: ‘All Things Lipids (Cholesterol 101)’ | Chris Masterjohn (mp3)

Karen De Coster, Functional Medicine vs the Conventional Approach
How 1-minute intervals can improve our health

Feminism:
James Taranto Takes on Hypergamy

History:
Let It Not Happen Again by Clarence Moriwaki
Reflections on the 70th anniversary of Japanese American incarcerations.
If only immigration had been restricted... would there have been a  question of loyalty about a subset of the population? Why do we let Muslims immigrate to this country?

Which reminds me, I dreamt about SO a couple of days ago. I think she lives in Hawaii now. I saw some recent pics on her brother's FB. She has two or three kids, I can't remember. When I saw those photos I recalled how she defended "the right to an abortion" in high school. The details of the dream are lost to me now - I think it was related to HS drama/relationship problems.

Was Beowulf an Empty Nester?
Interview with Author Nancy Bilyeau (via Supremacy and Survival)

Music:
Alison Krauss & Union Station Commemorate The Simpsons 500th Episode with a Song
Brumel’s Missa “Et ecce terrae motus” (mp3)
Stile Antico on BBC3 (4 days left to listen)
Natalie MacMaster has a new album, Cape Breton Girl.

Misc:
Tim Kennedy - in a Gerber video for a giveaway contest

Cecile Corbel - Arrietty's song

Cecile Corbel - Arrietty's song Vidéo Milano-san sélectionnée dans Musique

Good decision by Liturgical Press

It is publishing Chalice of God: A Systematic Theology in Outline by Aidan Nichols, OP.

The ISI Experience: Community, The Limits of Individualism (registration required to access links)

"Intermediate associations" are important, but they are not perfect communities; what of the polis? Is that being ignored here? Or is the problem of scale as it relates to the American states simply being ignored?

Happy Happy Joy Joy

(via ClubOrlov)

But it stars Leelee Sobieski!

She plays an ex-Marine MP. Yeah, right. NYC22 - another police drama (set in NYC) filled with female characters/rookies. Getting a bit tired of seeing NYPD on the small screen. It premieres April 15.

But I'll probably watch it for Leelee. A fansite and some pictures.

Go apply to be a contestant for the new CBS dating reality show 3.

East of Byzantium teaser Vardan Mamikonyan

John Michael Greer begins an exposition of empire

The Nature of Empire

An interesting aside about David Korten:

We can start with the verbal habit of using empire—or, more exactly, the capitalized abstraction Empire—as what S.I. Hayakawa used to call a snarl word: a content-free verbal noise that’s used to express feelings of hatred and loathing. The language of politics these days consists largely of snarl words. When people on the leftward end of the political spectrum say "fascist" or "Empire," for example, these words mean exactly what "socialist" or "liberal" mean to people on the right—that is, they express the emotional state of the speaker rather than anything relevant about the object under discussion. Behind this common habit is the most disturbing trend in contemporary political life, the replacement of ordinary disagreement with seething rage against a demonized Other on whom all the world’s problems can conveniently be blamed.

In too many cases this sort of thinking is taken to frightening extremes. Consider David Korten’s The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, which manages to be both one of the most popular works in the anti-Empire canon and one of the most profoundly antidemocratic tracts in recent memory. Korten’s argument is based on the theory that certain people—quite explicitly, those who share his background and opinions—belong to a higher "developmental stage" than anyone else, and the world’s problems can only be solved if power is taken away from those who have it now and given to the gifted few. If you want thoughtful analysis of the ideas and motivations of the supposedly less evolved people who hold power nowadays, don’t look for it in Korten’s book; what you’ll find instead is an unusually crude version of the standard left-wing caricature of right-wing thinking.

Empire, in Korten’s book, amounts to the whole of the existing order of society, portrayed in the shrill language of apocalyptic rhetoric—unless the gifted few who have "spiritual consciousness" get the power they ought to have, one gathers, all life on Earth is doomed. It’s interesting to note, though, that exactly how the utopian state of Earth Community will deal with the flurry of planetary crises luridly depicted in the first part of The Great Turning is nowhere detailed. The reader who is able to step back and cast a cold eye on the book’s argument may thus be forgiven for thinking that Earth Community is simply Empire with the ruling class Korten prefers, just as the "emerging values consensus" that guides Earth Community can be hard to distinguish from the ideologies that guide Empire, and so on down the list of inevitable parallels.

"Empire" as an emotivist word...

Assuming this is an accurate representation of Korten's politics, then Korten is wrong to think that having correct opinion by itself qualifies someone to rule. One must have the proper moral character. The appropriate practical and speculative sciences can aid the ruler, but having good character is first.

The stupidity continues

51-year-old mom holds her own during Basic Combat Training

Watered-down.

Went to a school near the Cupertino-San Jose-Santa Clara border today. There were a lot of white faces in that classroom. I would be surprised if the percentage is higher in any Cupertino school.

Had a craving for Togo's. I missed the taste but the wheat is probably messing my insides up.

Ron Paul, Stop V.A.W.A. & Title IV d

2008

(via a comment at The Spearhead)

Just remembered Blue Valentine -- mandatory watching for women for Valentine's Day? If they'd learn anything from it...

What is Paleo?

See also Paleo Soul.

Items of Interest, 15 February 2012

Redeeming America's Political Culture

Tom Piatak, A Warring Visionary
A review of The Crusader: The Life and Tumultuous Times of Pat Buchanan
by Timothy Stanley

Counterpunch:
GARETH PORTER, Obama’s Zig Zag Maneuvers with Israel and Iran
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, Obama, the Human Rights Hypocrite and The Divine Right of Money
NOAM CHOMSKY, Empire and Its Discontents and American Decline in Perspective (Original TomDispatch)
THOMAS H. NAYLOR, The EU Plays the China Card

Relocalization:
Rod Dreher links to this interview with Craig Bartholomew: Where am I? The Middle-Class Crisis of Place. Those commenting at Mr. Dreher's blog don't get real Christian spirituality: the diversity of vocations and the order of charity.

Building Houses As If They Mattered

Coffee and tea anyone? - Mt. Shastians bring Transition and Tea Party together

BALLE Blog: 10 Reasons for Financial Optimism (If You Invest Locally) - 5 Ways to Make Your Dollars Make Sense (EB)

Rob Hopkins: ‘Breathing new life into the concept of resilience’: the notes from my ‘Four Thought’ talk (mp3)

Breaking through the myths: New book seeks to redefine urban farming
Twighlight Greenaway, Grist
(More links on urban agriculture)

Orion Magazine: What Love Looks Like
A conversation with Tim DeChristopher by Terry Tempest Williams

Sustainability:
A country for old men by Gene Lodsdon (EB) (Humanure!)

Paul Kingsnorth & Friends Discuss “Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist” (EB)

Energy:
Tom Murphy, Fossil fuels: I’m not dead yet (EB)

Feminism:
All About Women, What Big Sister Doesn’t Want You To Know

Catholic:
Mass of Installation of the First Ordinary of the Ordinariate in the USA
The Tyranny of Misunderstood Freedom (Jim Kalb: Turnabout)
The Truth About Same-Sex Attraction
Mischievous Monks and Naughty Nuns? Scholar re-examines the illicit sexual accusations against monasteries in England during the dissolution
Top Five Dating Tips for Men
The End of the Affair by William Fahey
Moral Theology 101

Music:
Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa
'After the End of Music History' Conference at Princeton

Mexico:
Border Battleground

Misc:
8 Elevators You Need to See to Believe
Linsanity Heads Eats, Linfects China, Taiwan
Step Up to the Plate, From Baseball Bats to Chopsticks

Alte on Flannery O'Connor's novels

A flawed character

What is the manosphere?

One response:

It is her (and feminists) buzz-word used to lump groups with nothing in common together so they can be discredited based on their most extreme membership. “Manosphere” lumps in game hucksters, Conspiracy Nuts, Diet Enthusiasts, “Human Biodiversity” writers, White Nationals and others with Fathers Rights advocates and judicial reformers so they can be discredited.


Fidelbogen (google Counter-Feminist) wrote about this earlier last week and he may be correct that terms like MRM, MRA, and Manosphere should be abandoned by Fathers Rights and Judicial Reformers as they are tainted and poisoned terminology.

I think he is referring to this: Feminism Invented the "MRA Movement". (See also A Video Worth Watching.)

The original post is Dalrock's response to Elizabeth Duffy's column, about which I blogged here.

Interview with the Cranberries

Rolling Stone Performance

"Make good choices."

Begun on 2/5/12 at 8:28 P.M.

This is part of a new behavioral modification program implemented in the last few years at at least one school in a particular district. Actually I think I have heard this said in another district, too.

Making good choices might is same as making smart choices - it requires the virtue of prudence. One needs to learn how to choose in accordance with ends, and to set goals for one's self. But is it possible to develop prudence when the child hasn't attained the age of reason yet?

Internalizing standards may require, beyond outward conformity, the understanding the reasons for them. But it is not apparent to me that for children below a certain age that this is a better method than "traditional" discipline and its emphasis on obedience. ("Stop talking" versus "You need to learn in order to do well, go to college, accomplish x, y, z.") In fact, it may be worse, in so far as the reasons offered are the goods/goals of mass education and the associated goods/goals of the modern industrial political economy. At one district the expectation that the students will go to college is strengthened. For example, teachers are encouraged to display their degrees in their classroom.

This approach at behavior modification does not imply the lack of discipline or punishments, usually referred to as "consequences" for poor behavior. The same set of non-corporal punishments are available to reinforce making the "right" choices and that line of moral thinking. (Keep in mind that academic success is gauged by performance in the modern classroom - there are few alternatives, especially for boys. How are many children not being set up for failure and destruction of true self-esteem?)

Do the "creators" of this method appeal to some sort of psychological or scientific basis for such an approach to behavior modification? Has it been incorporated into child psychology/child education classes for the M. Ed? We are aware of how the insights incorporated into tradition and "common sense" wisdom regarding children has been discarded in favor of scientific pretense.

Meddlesome outsiders?

But in this case, they may be too friendly with the Patriotic Association (and by extension the Communists) while making things more difficult for the Church in China and the faithful Chinese bishops.

Sandro Magister, China. Cardinal Zen Against Saint Egidio
And also against a magazine of Communion and Liberation. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," he writes. And he explains why the parallel diplomacy of the two movements brings more harm than help to Chinese Catholics

What is the true good of the Church in China by Card. Joseph Zen Ze-kiun

Robb Wolf talks about the paleo diet

and a variety of topics, including Ron Paul...

(via Karen De Coster)

Le Barroux

Something in 30 Days: “We are not greater than our Fathers” by Giovanni Ricciardi
At Le Barroux, near Avignon, the Benedictine community founded by Dom Gérard Calvet has flourished for forty years in strict observance of the Rule and in love of the ancient liturgical tradition of the Church

Someone linked to this at FPR:
The Transfiguration of Place: An Orthodox Christian Vision of Localism - Part 1 (mp3)

The next part is not available yet.

Items of Interest, 14 February 2012

Guns.com Interviews Tora Bora Delta Force Commander and Author Dalton Fury

The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World

Daniel Larison, Is China a “Far Greater Threat Than the Soviet Union”?

Paul Gottfried, Viktor Obran and the National Question in Hungary

Obamacare's Achilles Heel: Primary Care Physicians

Washington state governor signs gay marriage bill into law

Young Couple Finds Freedom in Simple Living

Permaculture Education, California Style

Stephen Hren, My Decade of Being Peak Oil Aware

Diet and Health:
The LLVLC Show (Episode 546): Sarah Fragoso Makes Paleo Cool For Kids (mp3)

Education:
CIRCE: The Classical Curriculum

Music:
Two Shadows & A Spotlight by Harmonia Early Music
A tribute to singer Montserrat Figueras who passed away in November 2011. Plus, we'll look at a couple of overshadowed composers that history has forgotten.

What does Adele’s big night mean for bluegrass? by Daniel Mullins

Punch Brothers on Leno, and in Vanity Fair
Another Punch Brothers video
The Punch Brothers will be at The Fillmore on March 8.

Sat. February 18, in SF: Americana Angels w/Rita Hosking & Cousin Jack, Evie Ladin , Blushin' Roulettes - St. Cyprian's Church


Evie Ladin - MS

Movies:
Whit Stillman’s First Movie in 14 Years Looks Pleasantly Familiar

We need a traditional/conservative alternative.

"Lefty" websites for eco-awareness, sustainability, and relocalization like Yes! Magazine are useful but the editors don't see how articles like this work against community, rather than build it. This was published in Dec. 2010, but it was featured on FB today, ostensibly on the occasion of Valentine's Day.

Sex Without Jealousy, Love Without Ownership
Exploring open relationships can change our assumptions about intimacy and empowerment.
by Jen Angel

Witness the intellectual confusion that results from the deliberate severing of the procreative function from sex, and ignorance of the justification for such emotions as jealousy. Jealousy is not necessarily tied to a wrong notion of ownership, but it can be interpreted in that way.



Edward Feser, The Metaphysics of Romantic Love
Shannon Hayes: Finding Love, Is it Different for Radical Homemakers?
Conplementarian Loners: What is Happiness?
Athol Kay has a new book.