Crunchy Con: Monks & Catholic agrarianism in these times -- the post includes the complete text of a talk given by Bob Waldrop of the Catholic Worker house in Oklahoma City.

American Papist: Dr. Grisez's Comment on Fr. Berg's Letter. The actual text.

Twitch: IFFR 2009: BLIND PIG WHO WANTS TO FLY Review and EFM 2009: HIGH KICK GIRL

GL, An Ecologically Sane Farm

An Ecologically Sane Farm
Gene Logsdon, Dave Smith, OrganicToBe.org
The chief “product” of his business is mammoth jacks, but they are not the only animals he raises and sells. As we walk over the 180 acres, my astonishment grows. I have been on thousands of farms from the East Coast to the West, and never before have I seen such a variety or number of animals grazing per acre: not only the eighty head of mammoth jack stock, but about a dozen draft horses, a couple of lighter harness horses, a few dairy cows and calves, a bunch of fattening steers, a flock of sheep, a barnlot full of hogs, a barnyard full of turkeys, peacocks, ducks, geese, guineas, dogs, cats, and a genetic explosion of all kinds of chickens...Jack Siemon’s farm is a celebration of the earth’s vital forces.

original

Some interesting questions raised by this season of 24:

1. Does the President have a greater obligation to her country than to her spouse? Does she have a greater obligation to strangers in another country? If as President she can act to save her spouse, should she do so? Or is there a division of roles here--she cannot permit herself as a private citizen to make use of the tools that are available to the President?

President Taylor says that she cannot ask the American people to make sacrifices that she herself cannot make. And she is not the one who would be killing her husband, but she would be allowing her husband die (in a way that does admit of active efforts to find him and preventing this from happening). Is the First Gentleman no different from any other American citizen though?

2. Are those who are liberated obligated out of justice to do something for those who died to liberate them? Or for the liberating country as a whole? And if they didn't ask to be liberated? Who can legitimately represent the people if the country is being ruled by a tyrant, and speak for their desire to be liberated?

Joseph E. Fallon, Lincoln and God

Predicting Crisis: Dr. Doom & the Black Swan
How to predict a financial crisis and the five signs of a bear, with Nouriel Roubini, RGE Monitor and Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan author.

(via the Crunchy Con)

[Roubini thinks that ultimately globalization will be a net positive for everyone. Hm.]

The second part of their appearance.

Paul Gottfried, History, the Holocaust, and the Doctrines of the Church

Professor Gottfried takes on the lefties. Unfortunately, he gets the reason for the excommunications wrong:

Church authorities, however, are authorized to excommunicate those who reject church discipline or who openly deny some basic doctrine. Still and all, in the past century or so, the Vatican has not been kicking out confessing Catholics very often. What happened to Lefebvre and his followers was not a common occurrence. It was directed against those ultra-traditionalists who resisted the changes introduced by Vatican Two. Lefebvre and his followers repudiated the Church’s teachings, as proclaimed through Vatican Two, about the uses of vernacular liturgy and about certain alterations in the priest’s role in the Eucharist.

Patrick Deneen, Protecting Work

Leon J. Podles, Maciel: Equal Opportunity Abuser (via Crunchy Con)

American Papist: Maciel Meltdown: weekend recap & latest, which includes a link to his post, Legionary Priests on EWTN - Feb 6th, 2008 (video in 4 parts).

Download the audio (mp3) for that episode of The World Over.

There is also this post, which links to some reflection by canon lawyers Ed Peters and Pete Vere: Analysis: How do Maciel and the Legionary charism relate?

John Rich - Shutting Down Detroit


John Rich - Shutting Detroit Down

Paul Craig Roberts, Driving Over the Cliff

The unemployment rate reported in the US media is a fabrication. Williams reports that in changes since 1980, particularly in the Clinton era, "‘discouraged workers’ those who had given up looking for a job because there were no jobs to be had--were redefined so as to be counted only if they had been ‘discouraged’ for less than a year. This time qualification defined away the bulk of the discouraged workers. Adding them back into the total unemployed, actual unemployment, [according to the unemployment rate methodology used in 1980] rose to 18% in January, from 17.5% in December.”

In other words, without all the manipulations of the data, the US unemployment rate is already at depression levels.

How could it be otherwise given the enormous job loss from offshored jobs. It is impossible for a country to create jobs when its corporations are moving production for the American consumer market offshore. When they move the production offshore, they shift US GDP to other countries. The US trade deficit over the past decade has reduced US GDP by $1.5 trillion dollars. That is a lot of jobs.

I have been reporting for years that university graduates have had to take jobs as waitresses and bartenders. As over-indebted consumers lose their jobs, they will visit restaurants and bars less frequently. Consequently, those with university degrees will not even have jobs waiting on tables and mixing drinks.

US policymakers have ignored the fact that consumer demand in the 21st century has been driven, not by increases in real income, but by increased consumer indebtedness. This fact makes it pointless to try to stimulate the economy by bailing out banks so that they can lend more to consumers. The American consumers have no more capacity to borrow.

With the decline in the values of their principal assets--their homes--with the destruction of half of their pension assets, and with joblessness facing them, Americans cannot and will not spend.

Why bail out GM and Citibank when the firms are moving as many operations offshore as they possibly can?

Much of US infrastructure is in poor shape and needs renewing. However, infrastructure jobs do not produce goods and services that can be sold abroad. The massive commitment to infrastructure does nothing to help the US reduce its huge trade deficit, the financing of which is becoming a major problem. Moreover, when the infrastructure projects are completed, so are the jobs.

John Médaille, Capitalism Hits the Fan.

See also Fr. Boyd's Mondragon: A Distributist Beacon of Hope for a Troubled World. (And Paleocrat's Distributism is Dying...)

More links:
::: MONDRAGON :::
Mondragon: A better way to go to work?
wiki

Phillip Blond, Rise of the Red Tories (via Crunchy Con; Mr. Dreher's first post on this article)

Is Peter Hitchens planning a response to this?

JHK, Poverty of Imagination:

The attempt to restart "consumerism" will be equally disappointing. It was a manifestation of the short peak energy decades of history, and now that we're past peak energy, it's over. That seventy percent of the economy is over, especially the part that allowed people to buy stuff with no money. From now on people will have to buy stuff with money they earn and save, and they will be buying a lot less stuff. For a while, a lot of stuff will circulate through the yard sales and Craigslist, and some resourceful people will get busy fixing broken stuff that still has value. But the other infrastructure of shopping is toast, especially the malls, the strip malls, the real estate investment trusts that own it all, many of the banks that lent money to the REITs, the chain-stores and chain eateries, of course, and, alas, the non-chain mom-and-pop boutiques in these highway-oriented venues.

Jan Lundberg, Downward Spiral's Silver Lining: End of Lonely Plastic Culture (via EB)

Daniel Larison, Lincolnism Today: The Long Marriage of Centralized Power and Concentrated Wealth

Shetland Folk Festival 2007: Troy MacGillivray


Troy MacGillivray live ""The Road to Errogie"

Chrissy Crowley Troy MacGillivray Tim Chaisson Andrea Beaton


Kendra & Troy MacGillivray - Antigonish Highland Games

official website

Other links:
Rambles.NET: Troy MacGillivray at Celtic Colours, Festival Club
Monadnock Folklore Society » Blog Archive » Troy MacGillivray
Cape Breton Fiddle - Troy MacGillivray - Eleven

Kendra MacGillivray Official Site

Andrea Beaton

Andrea Beaton Set - Third Figure


Nova Scotia Fiddlers Troy MacGillivray and Andrea Beaton #1

Andrea & Kinnon Beaton Set - Part One


Andrea & Kinnon Beaton Set - Part Two


Andrea Beaton, Troy MacGillivray & Quinn Bachand


Troy McGillivray, Andrea Beaton & Quinn Bachand in Concert


Andrea Beaton and friend playing the fiddle in Cape Breton

Her website.

Building the sustainable economy
Marcin Gerwin, Permaculture Research Institute of Australia
The world seeks an alternative to the current disaster of globalisation. If we decided to change our economic system, what can we actually do? How can we create a sustainable economy?

(original)

Alexander Cockburn, Obama's First Bad Week:

Since America’s political system is one of institutionalized bribery, overt (the legal political “donation”) and covert (the bag of cash ) and has a tax code with 50,000 pages of fine print, it stands to reason that of any ten nominees enduring scrutiny by White House investigators, by the staff of the Senate Finance Committee plus the occasional journalist probably 98 per cent will have some sort of explaining to do. Throw in infidelity and kindred offenses outlined at detail in the opening books of the Bible and maybe only Rep Ron Paul would survive.

As you may know, Zenit is operated by the Legionaries. Two articles regarding the recent revelations:

Legionary Superior-General Regarding Founder's Life
"I Ask Forgiveness for All This Suffering"

Father Kearns Regarding Life of Father Maciel
"I Entrust His Soul to God’s Infinite Mercy"

I don't recall seeing anything from Zenit, though, confirming the details that have been printed elsewhere (e.g. The New York Times).

B16: On Sickness and God's Healing Love

On Sickness and God's Healing Love

"We Are Made for Life"


VATICAN CITY, FEB. 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered today before praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today the Gospel (cf. Mark 1:29-39) -- in direct continuation with last Sunday -- presents us with Jesus, who after having preached on the Sabbath in the synagogue of Capernaum, cured many ill people, beginning with Simon's mother-in-law. Entering his house, he found her in bed with a fever and immediately, taking her by the hand, he healed her and had her get up. After sunset, he healed a multitude of people afflicted with all sorts of ills.

The experience of the healing of the sick occupies a good portion of the public mission of Christ and it invites us once again to reflect on the meaning and value of illness in every situation in which the human being can find himself. This opportunity comes also because of the World Day of the Sick, which we will celebrate next Wednesday, Feb. 11, liturgical memorial of the Virgin Mary of Lourdes.

Despite the fact that illness is part of human existence, we never manage to get used to it, not only because sometimes it comes to be burdensome and grave, but essentially because we are made for life, for complete life. Precisely our "internal instinct" makes us think of God as plenitude of life, and even more, as eternal and perfect Life. When we are tested by sickness and our prayers seem in vain, doubt wells up in us and, filled with anguish, we ask ourselves: What is God's will?

It is precisely to this question that we find an answer in the Gospel. For example, in the passage of today we read: "He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him" (Mark 1:34). In another passage from St. Matthew, it says: "He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people" (Matthew 4:23).

Jesus does not leave room for doubt: God -- whose face he himself has revealed -- is the God of life, who frees us from all evil. The signs of this, his power of love are the healings that he carries out: He thus shows that the Kingdom of God is near, restoring men and women to their full integrity in spirit and body. I refer to these healings as signs: They guide toward the message of Christ, they guide us toward God and make us understand that man's truest and deepest illness is the absence of God, who is the fount of truth and love. And only reconciliation with God can give us true healing, true life, because a life without love and without truth would not be a true life. The Kingdom of God is precisely the presence of truth and love, and thus it is healing in the depths of our being.

Thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, the work of Jesus is prolonged in the mission of the Church. Through the sacraments, it is Christ who communicates his life to the multitude of brothers and sisters, as he cures and comforts innumerable sick people through so many activities of health care service that Christian communities promote with fraternal charity, thereby showing the face of God, his love. It is true: How many Christians all over the world -- priests, religious and laypeople -- have given and continue giving their hands, eyes and hearts to Christ, true physician of bodies and souls!

Let us pray for all the ill, especially for those who are most grave, and who can in no way take care of themselves, but depend entirely on the care of others; may every one of them be able to experience, in the solicitude of those who are near to them, the power of the love of God and the richness of his grace that saves us. Mary, health of the sick, pray for us.

[After praying the Angelus, he said:]

In these weeks, strong political tensions are taking place in Madagascar, which have also provoked popular disturbances. Because of this, the bishops of the island have convoked for today a day of prayer for national reconciliation and social justice. Intensely concerned by the particularly critical moment that the country is going through, I invite you to unite yourselves to the Catholics of Madagascar to entrust to the Lord those who have died in the manifestations and to invoke from him, through the intercession of Most Holy Mary, the return of harmony of thought, social tranquility and civil co-existence.

As I said just a moment ago, next Feb. 11, memorial of the Virgin Mary of Lourdes, the World Day of the Sick is celebrated. In the afternoon, I will meet with the sick and other pilgrims in St. Peter's Basilica, after the holy Mass that the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, Cardinal Lozano Barragán, will preside over. From now, I assure my special blessing to all the sick, the health care workers and the volunteers of every part of the world.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[The Pope then greeted the people in several languages. In English, he said:]

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors here today including those from the Saint Patrick's Evangelization school in London. Today's Gospel reminds us of the duty to bring Christ's Good News to all the world. May your time in Rome be filled with joy and deepen your resolve to draw others to our Lord and his love. God bless you all!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

The Family's Essential Role

Church, Society Upholding the Rights of Marriage


By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, FEB. 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- As the status of the family and marriage continue to be at the forefront of many public debates, the social cost of marriage breakdowns isn't far behind.

A recent study in England found that divorce results in a significant economic benefit for men, but penalizes women, reported the Observer newspaper Jan. 25. According to a study carried out by Stephen Jenkins, a director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research and chair of the Council of the International Association for Research on Income and Wealth, when a marriage splits up, the father's disposable income increases by around one-third.

By contrast, and regardless of whether or not there are children, the average post-divorce income for women falls by more than a fifth, and is adversely affected for a number of years.

According to the report by the Observer the survey carried out by Jenkins is the first long-term study of income and marriage breakdowns.

Jenkins found that the poverty rate among divorced women is 27%, almost three times higher compared to their former spouses.

Economic penalties are not the only disadvantages associated with divorce. An Australian study published last year found that the emotional and social impact of divorce makes itself felt for decades afterwards, reported the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper July 10.

A research team headed by David de Vaus, of La Trobe University in Melbourne, presented the conclusions of a study at a conference of the Australian Institute of Family Studies. They compared the well-being of about 2,200 Australians aged 55 to 74.

Those divorced not only suffered trauma in the initial years following the end of their marriage, but they were also more likely to feel they lacked someone to confide in, and they were less satisfied with their home and health.

Vital

Benedict XVI recently affirmed the importance of the family for society in his message sent to the participants in the recitation of the rosary during the 6th World Day of Families meeting held in Mexico City.

During his video message on Jan. 17 the Pontiff said the family is a "vital cell of society."

"Because of its essential role in society, the family has a right to have its proper identity recognized that is not to be confused with other forms of coexistence," the Pope explained.

As a result Benedict XVI asked that the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman receive a sufficient level of legal, financial and social support.

The social importance of family life is not just something affirmed by the Church. Jennifer Roback Morse, a former research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and currently a research fellow at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, recently published a second edition of her book "Love and Economics" (Ruth Institute Books).

One of the books sections is entitled, "Why There is No Substitute for the Family." The family is irreplaceable not only in the sense that the two parents of a child play a unique role in its life, but also because the very institution of the family has no effective substitute.

Morse affirmed that the primary role of the family is relational. Clearly, some families carry out this task better than others, but no other institution does this better than the family, she argued.

Not optional

The fact that some families fail should not lead us to the conclusion that the family as an institution is merely optional, according to Morse.

"If we can hold the family together at the individual and personal level, we would have less need for grand schemes to replace the family at a societal level," Morse affirmed.

Morse summarized the findings of a number of studies that document the adverse results of children brought up in single-parent families: poverty; lower educational results; and behavioral problems.

The task of raising children is simply too much for a single parent, said Morse. Moreover, other possible variations, such as cohabitation and stepfathers do not provide the same advantages as a family based on the two biological parents of the children.

The role of a father is more than just economic, Morse continued. His contribution to the moral development of children is something that society is guilty of largely ignoring, she accused.

"The real question is not whether men and women are different but how the difference allows each to contribute something unique to the moral development of children," said Morse.

Commenting on the sweeping changes in moral norms and sexual habits in the last few decades, Morse noted that the changes unleashed in the 60s and 70s promised happiness and fulfillment through unlimited freedom. With the experience of hindsight Morse said that we can now conclude that the ability to sustain commitments is a gift that will bring deeper happiness and satisfaction.

"A great many adults are now ready to relearn whatever they can about lifelong marriage, for their own benefit as well as for the benefit of their children," she concluded.

Freedom has its limits, Morse argued in the concluding chapter of the book. Every generation is not free to redefine the family and its obligations. Some virtues and obligations are indispensable, said Morse.

Foundation

A similar view was expressed by Cardinal Seán Brady, archbishop of Armagh and primate of All Ireland, during his address last year to the Céifin Conference Nov. 4.

The theme of his speech was, "The Family as the Foundation of Society."

The family based on marriage as the foundation of society is a truth revealed by God in the Scriptures, said Cardinal Brady, but it also one of the most precious human values, he added.

The welfare of marriage and the family are of public interest, the cardinal argued, and are fundamental to the common good. They are, therefore, entitled to special consideration and care from the state.

"Other relationships whether they are sexual or not, are the result of private interest," he explained. "They do not have the same fundamental relationship to the good of society and to the bringing up of children as the family based on marriage," Cardinal Brady maintained.

By asking that the family based on marriage is worthy of support from the state the cardinal clarified that the intention is not to penalize those who have chosen different types of relationships.

"It is rather to uphold the principle that the family based on marriage between a man and woman is so intimately connected to the good of society that it is deserving of special care and protection," he said.

Commitment

"The link between a public commitment to life-long marriage, and the stability of the family unit, as well as the distinct role of a mother and father in the generation and education of children, gives marriage a unique and qualitatively different relationship to society than any other form of relationship," Cardinal Brady pointed out.

The family is an indispensable foundation for society, affirmed Benedict XVI in his video message during the Jan. 18 concluding mass of the World Meeting of Families.

"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," he explained.

"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," said the Pope. A truth valid for all cultures and societies.

Dr. Clyde Wilson cites this anecdote of Gore Vidal:

I explained to him that . . . the Civil War was—and is—to the United States what the Trojan War was to the Greeks; the great single tragic event that continues to give resonance to our republic. “Well, to me,” said Poddy [neocon Norman Podheretz], “the Civil War is as remote and as irrelevant as the War of the Roses.”

From Mr. Peters, in response

That point of history which in labeled “Civil War” marks so many things: the triumph of the schemes, political and financial, of Hamilton, Marshall, Webster, Clay and Lincoln over the principles associated with Jefferson and Calhoun, among others; the triumph of the nascent empire as made manifest in Lincoln’s creedal or propositional nation over the union of constitutionally federated republics; the victory of the New England mindset over the rest of the country; the advent of a Jacobin revisionism of the American War of Independence, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution; the victory of the abstraction of nationalism over patriotism, the latter being a natural expression of the sets of personal loyalties to home and hearth and to the other intimate commonwealths in which real people relate; the destruction of a region, its people and its culture; and the end of republican institutions replaced by “democratic” movements which are the handmaidens of empire.

Save for the issue of slavery, the antebellum cultural faultline which ran roughly east to west, separating the North and the South, is yet with us today: empire versus republic; nationalism versus patriotism; internal improvements versus true private investment; fiat (counterfeit currency) versus specie currency; a consolidated central government versus sovereign states; corporatism versus free enterprise; etc. The latter in each of these examples have, however, become weaker and weaker and are today but faint echoes of what they once were because those of us who hold them are today weaker, having less means and resolve to resist the former. I smile in dismay (not an oxymoron) when conservative friends trumpet that a given President has “allowed” a state to do something otherwise done by the general government. They see such magnitude on the part of the given President as a tip of the hat to “states’ rights.”

Many of my fellow Southerners, when I attempt to engage them in conversation on this issue, wish to avoid the conversation. They have sought the “respectability” of the anti-culture; and having acquired it, do not wish to jeopardize it. Others simply do not want to take the time and the effort to reclaim their heritage.

In addition, we have all of the post-bellum newcomers, particularly those who have streamed into these United States since the 1965 Immigration Reform. For them, there is no descernable objective correlative with the events of 1860-1865. I use the word “descernable” because there is in fact an objective correlative between the mindset which opened the door, beginning in 1965, and the events of the “Civil War.” These newcomers have joined “mainstream” America and their numerous Southern sputniks in making the South and that which it “represents” the scapegoat for all that is allegedly wrong with America. The rest of America and too much of the South itself does not see itself as fallen and alienated from God, a condition in which one quickly recognizes the holiness of God; and that once recognized leads one to appreciate His love and redemptive work in the person of the Christ.

On the drive down to SLO on Saturday morning, I heard the radio broadcast of The World Over on IHR. On the first part of the show, Mr. Arroyo had two Legionary priests as guests, one of them was moral theologian Fr. Thomas Williams, LC. I didn't catch the name of the second one. Oh wait--it was frequent Fox News guest, Fr. Jonathan Morris, LC. Mr. Arroyo mentioned that Germain Grisez had written an open letter to the Legionaries, so I was interested in reading the whole thing. Here it is, at American Papist (link via Fumare).

I'm looking at the EWTN archive, and I don't think that episode has been uploaded. Once it has been uploaded, I'll put the link up. Both Legionary priests were saying that the order will have to discern its charism, with the guidance of the Holy See. They also claimed that the writings of Fr. Macial had been beneficial to them. Apparently they think those can still be salvaged. I think they may be too optimistic about the writings; I tend to agree with those who think that even if the order is not surpressed, it will have to be reconstituted or re-formed in some significant way--the role of the founder in determining an order's charism is just too great.

Several years ago Amy Welborn reviewed a book that covered the history of some order that had to be suppressed because of the activities of its founder. I'm trying to find the title of that book now...

Edit. Here is the post with the links pertaining to Fallen Order...


Amy Welborn: Way, Truth and Life