George H. Nash, How Firm a Foundation? The Prospects for American Conservatism

Paul Corey, Shakespeare and the Poetics of Character Formation

Scott Richert, Does the Pope Need a Lesson in P.R.?

Patrick Deneen says "Adieu, Culture 11," and returns to his old blog.

From LRC: Elect the Cops -- Dylan Hales on a mild reform.

By giving citizens a better voice in the administration of law, particularly egregious violations of privacy and questionable policing tactics could be scrutinized by those who are actually affected by these policies. Speed traps and other arguable misallocations of resources could be redirected to increase street patrols or furthering direct relationships with members of the community. In certain areas, victimless crimes might fall under salutary neglect. In other areas, the exact opposite approach might be taken. Ultimately, the choice would be the citizen's.

Are street patrols effective? I don't think they are. Strengthening the bonds between officers and their communities is important, and attempts can be made without the democratic election of police officers. The wall separating police officers and other citizens is a cultural one, partly linked to the size of the communities themselves and also to the way they are structured.

Would the provision of greater oversight to citizens be a better political solution? (And a concomittant effort to increasing their participation in governance, rather than the sham democracy that we have now in municipalities and counties?)

Edit. He responds to some comments at LRC and elaborates a bit more -- LRC feedback.

The Founders’ Great Mistake by Garrett Epps (via LRC)

AICN: Esurance brings you a feature on STAR TREK?

Here it is.

Met up with some HS friends for dim sum today... I was the only guy there... (!)

I was looking at a Michael Brandon jacket over at the discount Macy's. On sale for... $84. Crazy. There were two pockets? But they were sewed up, either all the way or partially. I don't understand that.

As I was walking through Vallco, I saw two men wearing Hofbräuhaus uniforms, pushing a cart with some heating trays. Does this mean the restaurant will be opening soon?

G.I. Joe on ET (via AICN)

Living up to the worst excesses of Marvel superhero movies?

Yahoo! Movies stills

Edit. AICN-UPDATED: Full Teaser Online Now!!! 1st Glimpse of GI JOE Action!
GI JOE Superbowl Spot Arrives Online

It was foolish to think that the producers of Hell's Kitchen would change things and try to make the competition a bit more dignified. Out of the 16 contestants, at least half deserved to be there. It makes one wonder why the other 8 were chosen (probably for entertainment value), and if there weren't some among the 300 who weren't chosen who should have had a chance.



The women's team does seem stronger than the men's. My favorites include Carol


and Andrea.


I am watching out for Ji as well.

I do find the drama and the personality clashes to be worse than annoying--possibly the worst of network 'reality TV'. Are there trumped up conflicts? Or is there really rampant immaturity among our 20- and 30-somethings, which is simply reflected on the show? If I were looking to hire a chef, I'd be very hesitant to hire some of these people, after witnessing how they behave with others, and what they say about them.


More photos at Yahoo! TV.

Sandro Magister, No More Excommunication for the Lefebvrists. But Peace Is Still Far Off

The causes of conflict are even increasing, including with the children of
Israel. Benedict XVI is multiplying his gestures of openness, but is receiving
nothing in exchange. The incident of the Holocaust denier bishop, with a
commentary by Anna Foa, herself Jewish

Latin on LOST

youtube video via Exploring Our Matrix

Language is used by the Others, who need to speak it fluently, because it is "the language of the enlightened."

Is Richard Alpert one of the survivors of the 19th ce shipwreck? (Or am I thinking of a pirate movie/Robinson Crusoe?)

I don't think the second conversation in Latin is available on YT yet. But there is the official video podcast, in which "Elizabeth Mitchell talks about learning Latin":


Yeah, I did find Juliet to be hot when she was speaking Latin, even if it was classical pronunciation with an American accent. (And her 'si placet' was off.)

Links:
LOST
Elizabeth Mitchell Fan
Elizabeth Mitchell Online

Twitch: Sammo Hung gets Cooking in KUNG FU CHEFS

I thought I wasn't working today, but I was called up for a half-day assignment. Which was actually only two hours. So I figured, why not... half-day pay for 2 hours. It was for a kindergarten class--I guess the teacher went home sick or something. It was a good class, and it improved my opinion of the district a bit. But 5 and 6-year-olds can hardly disappoint. (Though before I arrived, two boys had to be sent home during lunch because they urinated on the lunch table/ground.) There were a couple of Korean girls in the class. One had a rare(?) Korean last name - Hur. Her mother came to pick her up after school, and she looked like one of the waitresses over at Palace. I wonder if it was her. (If it was, she looked thinner. But maybe black does make you look fatter. The waitresses at Palace wear a black uniform.)

More on the new CD by the Norbertines -- California Catholic Daily, “Chants and Polyphony”

NLM: Very exciting new release from St. Michael's Abbey
Dr. Alcuin Reid on Our Approach Now to the SSPX Question
Traditional Anglican Communion to be Received as Personal Prelature?

Austen Blog: Emma 2009 is official!

GL, The pond at the center of the universe

The pond at the center of the universe
Gene Logsdon, OrganicToBe
Three generations of our family have worked, played, fought (the only verb that properly describes our hockey games), picnicked, swum, camped out, made out, and celebrated holidays around The Pond. Most of all it has been a haven where any of us could come when the need to be alone hit us, to sit and slip out of the consciousness of self and into the arms of a little wilderness that thrums and hums with enough activity to keep a naturalist occupied for a lifetime or two. It is not an accident that Thoreau gained inspiration for his best nature writing on the shores of a pond.

(original)

I remember one of the first books dealing with the causes of the current crisis in the Church was Anne Roche Muggeridge's The Desolate City. (She is the daughter-in-law of Malcolm Muggeridge.) How well has the book stood the test of time? A review in AD2000.

David Warren's remembrance of John Muggeridge, who passed away in 2005.

As if we didn't already know it, but celebrity gossip/news can be rather mean. Ashlee Simpson 'disgusted' by criticisms of her sister's weight. And there's the title for this slideshow: Waiting for a Star to Fall. On the other hand, Simpson's trainer defends her curves. Why do people get paid to report this stuff? Simply because people are interested and will read it? One might think with the recession, frivolous jobs would be eliminated rather quickly.

The Crunchy Con continues: Anti-Semitism and SSPX

He cites a piece by John Allen:

A troubled history with Judaism has long been part of the Catholic traditionalist movement associated with the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre — beginning with Lefebvre himself, who spoke approvingly of both the World War II-era Vichy Regime in France and the far-right National Front, and who identified the contemporary enemies of the faith as “Jews, Communists and Freemasons” in an Aug. 31, 1985, letter to Pope John Paul II.

Is a blog really the place to do justice to the details and history of Catholic-Jewish controversies? Shall we start going after Chesterton, Belloc, and Fr. Fahey as well? Some may believe in a conspiracy among certain Jews for world domination and such. Is such speculation due only to the sin of hate? Or is it due to a sincere recognition of the profound religious differences and views about the identity of God's "chosen people"? Who is the Messiah for whom the Jews are waiting? As for the support of the Vichy Regime--the Vichy Regime was not the same as Nazi Germany, though it did cooperate with it. There are Catholics who believe Pétain was a patriot (and even representative of the old Catholic France?). I believe the Abbé Georges de Nantes holds this opinion. Is he an anti-Semite? Archbishop Lefebvre?

Is traditional European culture exclusively Christian (and ultimately Catholic)? Is there such a thing as Judeo-Christian culture? Once Europe had converted to the Faith, was there any way for it to revert back to its pagan roots and remain European? I do not think so--in order to be non-Christian once more it would have to apostasize and become anti-Christian.

Did Jews consider themselves to be citizens of the various European polities? Or outsiders? Did they have a better understanding of what it means to have a culture and to be a people than we deracinated moderns, who can think only in terms of abstract principles and loyalties?

Peter Hitchens: The coming war against Home Schoolers

How long before the state advances against homeschoolers all over the E.U.?

Sarge tipped me off about this video:

US Army Special Forces Exercise


Meanwhile, in Hollywood--
AICN: 5 new posters for GI JOE hit the nets!

Energy Bulletin: Bill McKibben interviewed by Jason Bradford (audio and text), which links to Reality Report (mp3)

Dmitry Orlov, Boondoggles to the rescue!

It is not necessary for the United States to embrace the tenets of command economy and central planning to match the Soviet lackluster performance in this area. We have our own methods that are working almost as well. I call them “boondoggles.” They are solutions to problems that result in more severe problems than those they attempt to solve.

(original)