If You Take These Jeans' Name in Vain, Prepare to Meet Their Maker - WSJ.com:
When I was studying in Rome in 1973 there was a huge billboard in the main square, the Piazza Venezia, with a picture of a very female butt in tight bluejeans, Jesus Jeans. The tag line said, Chi mi ama, mi segua. Let him who loves me follow me.
The Italians have a very long tradition of blasphemy.
'via Blog this'
Thursday, February 28, 2013
All it takes
is regular visits to a news aggregator like Drudge (or if you're really evil, DailyKenn), to think that the country, or the West, or the whole friggin' planet is just an insane asylum in orbit.
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Sede vacante
The cathedra of Rome is now empty, awaiting its next occupant.
But fear not, infallible truth remains available here at Ex Cathedra, as always.
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
I'll pass, thanks
Looking for a movie to watch.
CitadelNot from The Onion. Really.
An agoraphobic father teams up with a renegade priest to save his daughter from the clutches of a gang of twisted feral children who committed an act of violence against his family years earlier.
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The irony of me
defending Joseph Ratzinger, given his pivotal role in my leaving the Church.
But the New York Times, the Pravda of the First Church of Liberalism, notes about this pope that
he made "missteps that provoked the anger of some Jews, Muslims and Anglicans."
The real message here is that if you anger Jews, Muslims or Anglicans, what you have done must be a misstep.
Cause the real job of a pope is not to make anybody angry. Especially certain people.
But the New York Times, the Pravda of the First Church of Liberalism, notes about this pope that
he made "missteps that provoked the anger of some Jews, Muslims and Anglicans."
The real message here is that if you anger Jews, Muslims or Anglicans, what you have done must be a misstep.
Cause the real job of a pope is not to make anybody angry. Especially certain people.
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Equality sucks
I have come to believe that there was never a more misguided sentence in American history than Jefferson's* "all men are created equal". They're not. And then, of course, what does equal mean?
Young Alex Kurtagić, one of the several Angry Young Men that I read, has taken that bull by the horns:
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*He, obviously, this propertied slave-holder did not believe it was literally true. I can only assume that what he was really attacking was inherited monarchy. It has become the Fundamentalist Scripture Quote of America. People who laugh at other kinds of certitudes mouth this line as if it were as obvious --and unquestionable-- as sunrise.
And we now know, of course, that "sunrise" is actually "earth-spin". Backstory is always crucial.
Young Alex Kurtagić, one of the several Angry Young Men that I read, has taken that bull by the horns:
Equality as an Evil: The Moral Scourge of Modernity
Equality: The Way To A Meaningless Life
Equality: A Justification of Privilege, Oppression and Inhumanity.
----
*He, obviously, this propertied slave-holder did not believe it was literally true. I can only assume that what he was really attacking was inherited monarchy. It has become the Fundamentalist Scripture Quote of America. People who laugh at other kinds of certitudes mouth this line as if it were as obvious --and unquestionable-- as sunrise.
And we now know, of course, that "sunrise" is actually "earth-spin". Backstory is always crucial.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Not to put too fine a point on it
The folks at Lutheran Satire, who did that brilliant interview with the Groovy Kinda Catholic Sorta Girl/Woman in my earlier post, also have this one, where the similarities between Islam and LDS are pointed out quite rudely.
Hell, 1820. (Which looks very much like Detroit.) Satan and Pazuzu...
Never thought of that before.
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Hell, 1820. (Which looks very much like Detroit.) Satan and Pazuzu...
Never thought of that before.
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Ex Cathedra Emeritus
The current pope wants to be called Pope Emeritus in his new life as a retired/resigned/abdicated Pontifex Maximus.
I watched the press conference from the Vatican, on the Net, and found the press secretary, a Jesuit named Lombardi, pleasantly easy to understand. He even, I thought, had a bit of a Piedmontese accent. Turns out, Wikipedia tells me he was born in Piedmont, which borders on France. They often speak Italian with a kind of French "r" sound in the back of the throat rather than the soft front of the mouth trilling most Italians use.
More evidence of my useless accomplishments.
So when I finally give up ranting on my blog, I will be Ex Cathedra Emeritus... and also give up my red shoes.
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And let's hear the Vox Populi about the successor: Brilliant.
I watched the press conference from the Vatican, on the Net, and found the press secretary, a Jesuit named Lombardi, pleasantly easy to understand. He even, I thought, had a bit of a Piedmontese accent. Turns out, Wikipedia tells me he was born in Piedmont, which borders on France. They often speak Italian with a kind of French "r" sound in the back of the throat rather than the soft front of the mouth trilling most Italians use.
More evidence of my useless accomplishments.
So when I finally give up ranting on my blog, I will be Ex Cathedra Emeritus... and also give up my red shoes.
---
And let's hear the Vox Populi about the successor: Brilliant.
Oh, thank God
We might FINALLY get an African-American character on Downton Abbey...
'cause, ya know, the mansions of the British aristocracy in the 20's were just overrun withAfrican-AMERICANS Blacks and it's been the systemic racism of our society that has repressed this truth til now.
Oh, and the systemic anti-Semitism that has kept Jewish characters from the show.
'Tis true, that all your culture are belong to us.
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'cause, ya know, the mansions of the British aristocracy in the 20's were just overrun with
Oh, and the systemic anti-Semitism that has kept Jewish characters from the show.
'Tis true, that all your culture are belong to us.
---
By any other name, continued
Commentors took off gleefully, following a Jim Goad piece on the tradition of ridiculous Black names. The best contribution, from a woman:
Noam Sayen Meauxfaux?
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Monday, February 25, 2013
Small things
are what therapists sometimes notice.
Reviewing a flick, a White/(Jewish?) newpaper writer notes that it "also beautifully captures the milieu of the Bronx and its rich Latino life."
Rich Latino life.
Why "rich?" What makes Latino life rich? As opposed to other kinds of ethnic life.
Would he use the same word for, say, White life? "The milieu of suburban Evanston and its rich White life?" If not, why not?
What's going on with this "rich?"
PS. A few days later. NOW I know....It's that HispaniLatina bitch Sotomayor:
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Reviewing a flick, a White/(Jewish?) newpaper writer notes that it "also beautifully captures the milieu of the Bronx and its rich Latino life."
Rich Latino life.
Why "rich?" What makes Latino life rich? As opposed to other kinds of ethnic life.
Would he use the same word for, say, White life? "The milieu of suburban Evanston and its rich White life?" If not, why not?
What's going on with this "rich?"
PS. A few days later. NOW I know....It's that HispaniLatina bitch Sotomayor:
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in several speeches she gave in 1994, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2004, according to CNN.[ Sotomayor's 'wise Latina' comment a staple of her speeches, June 8, 2009]
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Damn right
American advertizing.
When a geek, nerd, or slob is called for, we know what race he will be. It is the same for anyone rude, arrogant, or just plain stupid. The smart one who saves the day by recommending Product X is rarely white and never a white man. Black men are the cool, smooth, sexually charged heroes of commercials for deodorant and shaving cream, while white guys are the idiots who chose the wrong car insurance company. Black guys take a break from their tough job on a construction site to apply a muscle ache cream and get right back to work while white guys sit on a couch playing video games until it’s time to make a run for fast food. You will die of old age watching television before you see a commercial in which a black guy is laughed at by whites or is the source of any problem. Meanwhile, it’s the white guys who rob houses in ads for home security systems and who make pathetic passes at the ladies in beer commercials.
Jack Krak
Bad Thought For The Day
Not only is it untrue that "violence is not the answer,"* it is sometimes the only answer.
*Quite the forest of negatives in the first clause. Sorry.
*Quite the forest of negatives in the first clause. Sorry.
The so-called gun problem
Although the murder of White children by a White man has been the catalyst for this latest round of attempts to regulate firearms, the "Face of Gun Violence In America" is not White. Everyone knows this. How many NRA members wind up in jail for murder with a firearm?
A graph using the Wall Street Journal's work. Go visit their interactive site. Fascinating.
It will not surprise my readers that I consider the current moral panic about guns to be a means of disarming American Whites. Young Black Males, for instance, who are galactically over-represented in the gun killing and dying business, will continue to ignore anything like legality. Hell, even Minister Farrakhan knows that.
And check out these cities, demographically dominated by Guess Who, and their relative urban and suburban gun death rates:
The "gun problem" is a "young Black male" problem.
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A graph using the Wall Street Journal's work. Go visit their interactive site. Fascinating.
2000-2010
It will not surprise my readers that I consider the current moral panic about guns to be a means of disarming American Whites. Young Black Males, for instance, who are galactically over-represented in the gun killing and dying business, will continue to ignore anything like legality. Hell, even Minister Farrakhan knows that.
And check out these cities, demographically dominated by Guess Who, and their relative urban and suburban gun death rates:
The "gun problem" is a "young Black male" problem.
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Bingo
The first misconception to discard when grappling with modern feminism is the proposition that feminists are opposed to patriarchy — patriarchy being defined as the woman’s reliance on men for protection and provision. Modern women are no less reliant on men for protection and provision than they were in prehistoric times. They merely achieve it through more indirect and institutional means, so they can afford to be far less agreeable.
Matt Parrot
The gift that keeps on giving
And why the hell was the Diva In Chief surrounded by military marionettes? WFT?
Plus, I don't even know who Seth MacFarlane is.
It could be worse
Ex Cathedra is not alone in holding that the 70% out of wedlock birth rate among American Blacks is a sign and cause of huge social dysfunction. And not The Man's fault, unless there is some hidden systemic racism making millions of them do this. :)
In the wake of a flap over a White guy acting like a Jamaican in a Superbowl add, comes this bit of info about Jamaica: Out of wedlock birthrate is 86%, half of the birth certificates do not give a father's name...
Not their only problem, but shows that in America...it could be worse.
In the wake of a flap over a White guy acting like a Jamaican in a Superbowl add, comes this bit of info about Jamaica: Out of wedlock birthrate is 86%, half of the birth certificates do not give a father's name...
Not their only problem, but shows that in America...it could be worse.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Life's small pleasures
Stretching at the gym and finding you are a bit more limber than you expected.
Washing a sinkload of dirty dishes, with the window above the sink open and nice cool air flowing though the kitchen to dry them.
The aromatic kick and slight burn from a shot of Irish whiskey. Which word, by the way, comes from the Latin aqua vitae, water of life, into Gaelic, uisce beatha and thence into English as whiskey.
Having the doors and windows open, with sunshine and air coming through, in February.
Being able to remember your passwords.
Having someone in your life to make you laugh every day, including at yourself.
Scratching an itch.
The pleasure of pipe smoke coming out of your mouth.
Having all your teeth (but one) at the same age when your grandfather's were mostly false.
Not having diabetes as the age that your grandfather did, and he loved to make you watch him stick the insulin needles in his leg.
Sleeping through the night most nights.
The incredible blue sky above San Francisco, still amazing after more than two decades of watching it.
Picking lemons off the tree in your backyard in February.
Seeing a hummingbird again among the branches of said tree.
Being able to walk around my neighborhood most hours without having to be anxious about danger.
Having the good sense not to have watched the Oscars in the last ten years.
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Washing a sinkload of dirty dishes, with the window above the sink open and nice cool air flowing though the kitchen to dry them.
The aromatic kick and slight burn from a shot of Irish whiskey. Which word, by the way, comes from the Latin aqua vitae, water of life, into Gaelic, uisce beatha and thence into English as whiskey.
Having the doors and windows open, with sunshine and air coming through, in February.
Being able to remember your passwords.
Having someone in your life to make you laugh every day, including at yourself.
Scratching an itch.
The pleasure of pipe smoke coming out of your mouth.
Having all your teeth (but one) at the same age when your grandfather's were mostly false.
Not having diabetes as the age that your grandfather did, and he loved to make you watch him stick the insulin needles in his leg.
Sleeping through the night most nights.
The incredible blue sky above San Francisco, still amazing after more than two decades of watching it.
Picking lemons off the tree in your backyard in February.
Seeing a hummingbird again among the branches of said tree.
Being able to walk around my neighborhood most hours without having to be anxious about danger.
Having the good sense not to have watched the Oscars in the last ten years.
---
If ur lookin 4 a laff
A site I have not visited in quite a while.
Ain't diversity --post-colonial, race-critical womanist veganist, victim of white supremacy and institutional and structural racism-- grand?
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PS. Honest to God, if the PC victim speak were not so excruciatingly familiar, I would consider these people simply extra-terrestrials. There is fixed between thou and us a great gulf which no man may cross.. Please, go back to your home planet.
Ain't diversity --post-colonial, race-critical womanist veganist, victim of white supremacy and institutional and structural racism-- grand?
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PS. Honest to God, if the PC victim speak were not so excruciatingly familiar, I would consider these people simply extra-terrestrials. There is fixed between thou and us a great gulf which no man may cross.. Please, go back to your home planet.
The Multicultural Borg
"Modern liberal societies in Europe and North America*...celebrate their own pluralism and multiculturalism, arguing in effect that their identity is to have no identity."
Francis Fukuyama
Identity & Migration (2007)
*White societies, the only ones that believe this nonsense, homes to "the most foolish people on the planet." (C)
Final solution
There is no "final solution" to anything.
As soon as any do-gooder, politician or priest tells you they are going to "end" some chronic problem, you know they are lying. Maybe even to themselves. Steer clear of them.
Of course, there are solutions to certain situations, but never to the context that produces the situations. You can't immanentize the eschaton.
Was that abstract enough for you?
You can defeat an enemy in a war. But you can't end war. That's the kind of thing I mean.
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As soon as any do-gooder, politician or priest tells you they are going to "end" some chronic problem, you know they are lying. Maybe even to themselves. Steer clear of them.
Of course, there are solutions to certain situations, but never to the context that produces the situations. You can't immanentize the eschaton.
Was that abstract enough for you?
You can defeat an enemy in a war. But you can't end war. That's the kind of thing I mean.
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Fightin' words
Talking with my very talented and very liberal sister, we got onto the topic of explosive words. She let me know that the word that creeped her out the most was "ministry." The way evangelical TV preachers talk about their "ministry." I could see it. Folks like that embody mostly everything she hates and fears.
The word that creeps me out the most?
"Diversity."
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The word that creeps me out the most?
"Diversity."
--
Men's emotions
It's a useful shorthand to assert that there are four basic emotions: anger, joy, fear and sadness.
Men are typically criticized for not being more in touch with their feelings. But this really is code, for expressing fear and sadness. Something women are much more like to do.
If men prefer anger and joy, both of which are expansive and powerful feelings, and generally avoid the diminishing experiences of fear and sadness, --or at least keep it to themselves most of the time--what is so hard to understand about that?
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Men are typically criticized for not being more in touch with their feelings. But this really is code, for expressing fear and sadness. Something women are much more like to do.
If men prefer anger and joy, both of which are expansive and powerful feelings, and generally avoid the diminishing experiences of fear and sadness, --or at least keep it to themselves most of the time--what is so hard to understand about that?
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
Compact
An Irish short film, Chicken. Captures a moment in male adolescence: it's personal, raw, simple, rich, archetypal. And prior to labels.
Latter Gay Saints
I am fascinated with Mormonism. Despite the (insurmountable) historical problems with its mythology, I agree with Harold Bloom that Joseph Smith's post-Christian creation is an amazing act of religious imagination.
I watched a 2011 video by a young gay Mormon and felt a lot of sympathy for him. It's even tougher for LDS gays than for Catholics, I think. Their community is much tighter, more conformist and more highly structured (not unlike a Catholic religious order) and their whole religion is founded on marriage and family: the Lords' Supper is a little matter of bread and water in your pew every Sunday, blessed by the adolescent boys of the Aaronic priesthood. Matrimony, eternal marriage as the path to progression unto godhood, that's for the inner sanctum of the Temple, where even Mormons need special permission to get in the door. And where Catholics separate marriage and the priesthood, Mormonism meshes them.
He outlines four options that gay Mormons face: to leave the church, to attempt marriage, to remain celibate, or to make some kind of compromise by living as gay and also staying in the church.
He rejects leaving because his Mormon identity feels as deep to him as his sexuality. He rejects marriage because it is unfair to a woman to ask her to take as a husband a man who can really only be a friend. "I wouldn't want that for a daughter of mine," he says. He rejects celibacy because it requires him to give up not only hope of finding someone to love but any kind of more than friendly connection with other men. So he is going to try the fourth.
But by 2012, he gave up the church. The double life was too painful. Not an uncommon outcome.
Yet, I think it is the only one that makes sense*. Sometimes you have to leave a place where, despite your feelings, you don't belong. Sure it hurts. I know. But, frankly, be a man about it. Go.
Gay LGBT apologists want every institution in society to reform so that they are made completely equal, regardless of the consequences. Every institution in society must adapt to the desires of not more than 4% of the population**. Why should they do that? Especially if it unravels them? And why be surprised if people resent you for it? Especially when you refuse to accept that they have any right to a different opinion and that their opposition to you is nothing but hatred and bigotry.
The gay marriage push is the classic example. Rather than working for an alternative structure like a civil partnership, the only acceptable course is the dismantling of a fundamental institution under the guise of "inclusion." Because "equality" is The Most Important Value In Creation. And when they are resisted, the "LGBTs" cry out in anguish, as if one of the Great Crimes of History is being re-enacted.
It's all so out of balance. So histrionic. So teenager-ish. So...gay.
*There are rare exceptions. And my one Mormon friend is a fourth-option guy.
**Another example of the Rule of the Minorities in decaying Liberalism, where the Majority is cast as oppressive and so the Minorities must be protected from them, by ruling them.
---
I watched a 2011 video by a young gay Mormon and felt a lot of sympathy for him. It's even tougher for LDS gays than for Catholics, I think. Their community is much tighter, more conformist and more highly structured (not unlike a Catholic religious order) and their whole religion is founded on marriage and family: the Lords' Supper is a little matter of bread and water in your pew every Sunday, blessed by the adolescent boys of the Aaronic priesthood. Matrimony, eternal marriage as the path to progression unto godhood, that's for the inner sanctum of the Temple, where even Mormons need special permission to get in the door. And where Catholics separate marriage and the priesthood, Mormonism meshes them.
He outlines four options that gay Mormons face: to leave the church, to attempt marriage, to remain celibate, or to make some kind of compromise by living as gay and also staying in the church.
He rejects leaving because his Mormon identity feels as deep to him as his sexuality. He rejects marriage because it is unfair to a woman to ask her to take as a husband a man who can really only be a friend. "I wouldn't want that for a daughter of mine," he says. He rejects celibacy because it requires him to give up not only hope of finding someone to love but any kind of more than friendly connection with other men. So he is going to try the fourth.
But by 2012, he gave up the church. The double life was too painful. Not an uncommon outcome.
Yet, I think it is the only one that makes sense*. Sometimes you have to leave a place where, despite your feelings, you don't belong. Sure it hurts. I know. But, frankly, be a man about it. Go.
The gay marriage push is the classic example. Rather than working for an alternative structure like a civil partnership, the only acceptable course is the dismantling of a fundamental institution under the guise of "inclusion." Because "equality" is The Most Important Value In Creation. And when they are resisted, the "LGBTs" cry out in anguish, as if one of the Great Crimes of History is being re-enacted.
It's all so out of balance. So histrionic. So teenager-ish. So...gay.
*There are rare exceptions. And my one Mormon friend is a fourth-option guy.
**Another example of the Rule of the Minorities in decaying Liberalism, where the Majority is cast as oppressive and so the Minorities must be protected from them, by ruling them.
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Even the French
Les journalistes sont "déconnectés des réalités" pour 89% des internautes - Fdesouche.com:
think that their journalists are ideologically biased and disconnected from reality!
'via Blog this'
Internautes, like astronauts and argonauts, is how they describer surfers of the Internet. Funny.
think that their journalists are ideologically biased and disconnected from reality!
'via Blog this'
Internautes, like astronauts and argonauts, is how they describer surfers of the Internet. Funny.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Liberalism through the looking glass
The ascendancy of Liberalism as the default doctrine of our chattering and ruling classes leaves us in a thoroughly Alice In Wonderland world: cheaply egalitarian, voluntarist and nominalist, not just un- but anti-real, and deeply intolerant.
As the Dodo Bird said: Everybody has won and all must have prizes.
As Humpty Dumpty said: A word means just what I choose it to mean, nothing more and nothing less.
As the White Queen said: Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!
And as the Queen of Hearts said of any who displeased her: Off with his head!
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Why Natural Law Arguments Fail
Why Natural Law Arguments Fail | The American Conservative:
Culture change does make certain kinds of arguments obsolete.
His remarks about identity formation led to these thoughts:
For how long and how many place was the idea and institution of slavery taken for granted as part of the natural order? In Islam, according to its sacred texts and traditions, it still is. Now the very idea strikes most people, Westerners especially, as unthinkable. You can't make an argument for it now.
The notion of aristocracy, royalty, inherited rank, as another example, have been very powerful through most of human history since the growth of the complex civilization. For thousands of years, the difference between an aristocrat and a commoner felt natural, metaphysical even.
It no longer does. This does not mean --pace Jefferson-- that it is wrong, just that it no longer can find any ground on which to make its point.
Identities which arise and fade in time are not therefore unreal. They were overwhelmingly real for many people for many centuries, even millennia.
Conservatives sometimes poo-poo the notion that sexual orientation can or should be an element in personal identity. Many gay people --myself included-- experience their erotic desire (which includes emotional desire) as constitutive of who they are.
If aristocracy could be a real, though perhaps historically temporary, identity, then so perhaps may homosexuality.
And if the shape of my sexual/emotional desire is constitutive of who I am, then how does that affect even the natural law discussion?
Both very conservative theologian Alvin Kimel and very pro-gay theologian James Alison understand that if a homosexual can be a kind of person, rather than a doer of certain acts, this changes that discussion. Which is why Kimel denied the assertion and Alison embraces it.
Off to the gym.
'via Blog this'
Culture change does make certain kinds of arguments obsolete.
His remarks about identity formation led to these thoughts:
For how long and how many place was the idea and institution of slavery taken for granted as part of the natural order? In Islam, according to its sacred texts and traditions, it still is. Now the very idea strikes most people, Westerners especially, as unthinkable. You can't make an argument for it now.
The notion of aristocracy, royalty, inherited rank, as another example, have been very powerful through most of human history since the growth of the complex civilization. For thousands of years, the difference between an aristocrat and a commoner felt natural, metaphysical even.
It no longer does. This does not mean --pace Jefferson-- that it is wrong, just that it no longer can find any ground on which to make its point.
Identities which arise and fade in time are not therefore unreal. They were overwhelmingly real for many people for many centuries, even millennia.
Conservatives sometimes poo-poo the notion that sexual orientation can or should be an element in personal identity. Many gay people --myself included-- experience their erotic desire (which includes emotional desire) as constitutive of who they are.
If aristocracy could be a real, though perhaps historically temporary, identity, then so perhaps may homosexuality.
And if the shape of my sexual/emotional desire is constitutive of who I am, then how does that affect even the natural law discussion?
Both very conservative theologian Alvin Kimel and very pro-gay theologian James Alison understand that if a homosexual can be a kind of person, rather than a doer of certain acts, this changes that discussion. Which is why Kimel denied the assertion and Alison embraces it.
Off to the gym.
'via Blog this'
I got nothin'
Wait for 1:56...
BTW, this video courtesy of The Hostile Negress, whose 2-year blog observed and commented on the various and sundry "shenanigans" of her people. Hilarious. She was a terrific writer.
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The Truth about America
The magazine. (And maybe the country, too.)
The rag is the voice of US Jesuits. Been around for ages and reliably liberal. Very well known in Catholic academic, religious and intellectual circles.
They just came out in favor of repealing the 2nd Amendment, for example.
At least they're honest about it.
But the article cited below
Questioning Garry Wills | America Magazine:
describes well-known Catholic author Garry Wills bluntly denying, on the Stephen Colbert Show, the Catholic doctrines of the sacraments (fake and pretend and made up) and the papacy and the whole priesthood (an invented power group).
Rev. Malone, the Jesuit editor, is loathe to call Mr Wills a heretic for his "alternative theological viewpoint", but was offended by his intemperate expression of it, and on TV. "He may dissent from the substance of Catholic teaching, but a baptismal certificate is not excuse for incivility."
The real problem is not so much that famously Roman --if increasingly liberal-- Catholic Mr Wills bluntly and publicly rejected at least two of the three actual fundamentals of Catholicism (sacraments, hierarchy, plus doctrine), but that he hurt peoples' feelings.
Veritas, optional. Sensitivitas, absolute.
Welcome to America.
'via Blog this'
The rag is the voice of US Jesuits. Been around for ages and reliably liberal. Very well known in Catholic academic, religious and intellectual circles.
They just came out in favor of repealing the 2nd Amendment, for example.
At least they're honest about it.
But the article cited below
Questioning Garry Wills | America Magazine:
describes well-known Catholic author Garry Wills bluntly denying, on the Stephen Colbert Show, the Catholic doctrines of the sacraments (fake and pretend and made up) and the papacy and the whole priesthood (an invented power group).
The real problem is not so much that famously Roman --if increasingly liberal-- Catholic Mr Wills bluntly and publicly rejected at least two of the three actual fundamentals of Catholicism (sacraments, hierarchy, plus doctrine), but that he hurt peoples' feelings.
Veritas, optional. Sensitivitas, absolute.
Welcome to America.
'via Blog this'
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Outstripped
At my old gym there was a guy, early 30's, handsome and beautifully built, but shy, whom I got to know a little. Despite his splendid frame and face, because he was so young, it seemed indecent of me to do more than be friendly and a little fatherly. He seemed to like that.
Since then, I have seen him in the, uh, adult film industry.
On the way to the gym today, he was bounding down the street and recognized me while we were in the middle of a busy intersection, with the light about to change. I thought we'd just nod and say hi. Instead he came over and gave me a big hug and said, "Hey, long time no see!"
Since my relationship with B is based on common spiritual and intellectual pursuits, I emailed him a pic of said fella and told him pleasantly of the greeting.
His response: Oh, yeah. His name is Aaron. He works at the school.
SF is a relatively small town, but the school where he works is huge. Still, he knew him.
B. Always one-upping and out...stripping me.
--
Since then, I have seen him in the, uh, adult film industry.
On the way to the gym today, he was bounding down the street and recognized me while we were in the middle of a busy intersection, with the light about to change. I thought we'd just nod and say hi. Instead he came over and gave me a big hug and said, "Hey, long time no see!"
Since my relationship with B is based on common spiritual and intellectual pursuits, I emailed him a pic of said fella and told him pleasantly of the greeting.
His response: Oh, yeah. His name is Aaron. He works at the school.
SF is a relatively small town, but the school where he works is huge. Still, he knew him.
B. Always one-upping and out...stripping me.
--
Turbulent priests
What are the real differences between Mahony and Gomez?:
The longtime Irish liberal bishop of Los Angeles and the new Mexican
conservative bishop of Los Angeles. Not friends. But when it comes to helping dismantle
America for the sake of Aztlan, brothers in arms:
You know that "forest of gallows" I sometimes dream about?
The Nativists had a point.
'via Blog this'
The longtime Irish liberal bishop of Los Angeles and the new Mexican
conservative bishop of Los Angeles. Not friends. But when it comes to helping dismantle
America for the sake of Aztlan, brothers in arms:
(Gomez) plans to take 60 conservative Catholic business leaders on a spiritual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City this fall in hopes of winning them over on immigration reform.Spiritual pilgrimage.
You know that "forest of gallows" I sometimes dream about?
The Nativists had a point.
'via Blog this'
The Tangled Web of VDH on Race
The Tangled Web of Race - National Review Online: "the old racial binaries are fossilized and increasingly irrelevant. The United States is now a multiracial society, an intermarried society, and an integrated society, in which racial identity is each year more confusing."
Saying that we are a multiracial society is just a demographic fact; so was Yugoslavia.
As for integration, in public spaces there is truth to that, but if you look at our neighborhoods, across the country, people still want to live with their own kind. Intermarriage, though celebrated in media to the point of feeling like propaganda, is actually pretty small.
There is a racial binary: White vs Non-White. All built on the ancient White vs Black one.
I am afraid that VDH is just afraid of letting himself admit what's actually happened. The voting demographics of 2012 give the lie to his view.
Non-Whites voted massively for Obama.
Left column: % of the 2012 electorate Right column: actual vote % by party
White men only.
In the final analysis, 90% of Romney's votes came from Whites. 90%
Do the math, VDH. Do the math.
PS. I felt moved to express my frustration to The Man himself in an email:
==
'via Blog this'
Saying that we are a multiracial society is just a demographic fact; so was Yugoslavia.
As for integration, in public spaces there is truth to that, but if you look at our neighborhoods, across the country, people still want to live with their own kind. Intermarriage, though celebrated in media to the point of feeling like propaganda, is actually pretty small.
There is a racial binary: White vs Non-White. All built on the ancient White vs Black one.
Non-Whites voted massively for Obama.
Left column: % of the 2012 electorate Right column: actual vote % by party
White men only.
Whites, male and female, only
In the final analysis, 90% of Romney's votes came from Whites. 90%
Do the math, VDH. Do the math.
PS. I felt moved to express my frustration to The Man himself in an email:
Dear Dr Hanson,
I have been a longtime fan of your writing, but I have to say that since the 2012 election, I believe you are refusing to face up to the realities of race in America now. People are not increasingly “confused”, unless they’re White.
The demographics of the last election, as I interpret them, show that the fundamental
divide is between Whites and non-Whites. A few inter-group friendships and marriages
do not alter the massive preference of Blacks, Asians and Latinos for the Democrat
therapeutic-managerial-redistributive state. The only group holding on to the tattered threads of traditional America, represented so very poorly by the Republicans, is Whites.
And as we know, we are not allowed to assert, celebrate or stand up for our group interests. We are in fact the only group so disallowed.
Forgive my presumption in saying this both to a Classics scholar and to the author of
Mexifornia, but I doubt that the clear-eyed Greeks would have missed this.
==
'via Blog this'
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Sports Writer Theology
Agreeing to speak at intolerant church is Tebow's greatest sin :
Well, there's nothing worse in the whole world than having
clear religious beliefs that are --gasp!-- intolerant.
'via Blog this'
Well, there's nothing worse in the whole world than having
clear religious beliefs that are --gasp!-- intolerant.
'via Blog this'
Allan Bloom
"There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative. If this belief is put to the test, one can count on the students’ reaction: they will be uncomprehending. That anyone should regard the proposition as not self-evident astonishes them, as though he were calling into question 2 + 2 = 4. Those are things you don’t think about. The students’ backgrounds are as various as America can provide. Some are religious, some atheists; some are to the Left, some to the Right; some intend to be scientists, some humanists or professionals or businessmen; some are poor, some rich. They are unified only in their relativism and in their allegiance to equality. And the two are related in a moral intention. The relativity of truth is not a theoretical insight but a moral postulate, the condition of a free society, or so they see it. They have all been equipped with this framework early on, and it is the modern replacement for the inalienable natural rights that used to be the traditional American grounds for a free society. That it is a moral issue for students is revealed by the character of their response when challenged—-a combination of disbelief and indignation: “Are you an absolutist?,” the only alternative they know, uttered in the same tone as “Are you a monarchist?” or “Do you really believe in witches?” This latter leads into the indignation, for someone who believes in witches might well be a witch-hunter or a Salem judge. The danger they have been taught to fear from absolutism is not error but intolerance. Relativism is necessary to openness, and this is the virtue, the only virtue, which all primary education for more than fifty years has dedicated itself to inculcating. Openness—and the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in the face of various claims to truth and various ways of life and kinds of human beings—is the great insight of our times. The true believer is the real danger. The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past; men always thought they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism, and chauvinism. The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all."
The Closing of the American Mind, 1987.
Of course, while contemptuous of those who hold to antiquated notions of good and evil, right and wrong, a passionate and unquestioning rejection of "wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism and chauvinism" (as we used to call sexism) is required. The political absolutism of moral relativists...
Monday, February 18, 2013
Presidents' Day, cont'd
By chance, I saw Lincoln this afternoon. Since it was directed by Mr Spielberg and especially because it was written by Mr Kushner, I had not intended to go. But B invited me and, well...there I was. My back was up from the opening scene.
I will only note this for now. While the White characters had a huge range, revealing all manner of human desires, failings, accomplishments, etc. the Black characters were uniformly saintly, one dimensional holy cards in the Kushnerian Passion Play. Despite the film's focus on the messy business of politics among the Whites, the Negroes were without ambiguity or flaw, either bravely seeking justice or nobly enduring hardship, all pious cartoons.
---
A further thought. It is the default attitude of the right-thinking that Blacks are owed something. In fact, they are owed pretty well anything they want. Just ask MLK. This moral stature is not based on any proven accomplishments of theirs but simply on the fact of others not treating them well. It is the great example of the Liberal worship of the victim. Simply by dint of being a victim --or better, of being granted the role of victim-- moral superiority is achieved. Actual behavior has nothing to do with it.
--
I will only note this for now. While the White characters had a huge range, revealing all manner of human desires, failings, accomplishments, etc. the Black characters were uniformly saintly, one dimensional holy cards in the Kushnerian Passion Play. Despite the film's focus on the messy business of politics among the Whites, the Negroes were without ambiguity or flaw, either bravely seeking justice or nobly enduring hardship, all pious cartoons.
---
A further thought. It is the default attitude of the right-thinking that Blacks are owed something. In fact, they are owed pretty well anything they want. Just ask MLK. This moral stature is not based on any proven accomplishments of theirs but simply on the fact of others not treating them well. It is the great example of the Liberal worship of the victim. Simply by dint of being a victim --or better, of being granted the role of victim-- moral superiority is achieved. Actual behavior has nothing to do with it.
--
Washington's Birthday
and Lincoln's Birthday have been collided into today, President's Day.
Since reading Ellis' Founding Brothers back in 2003 (?), I have found a set of biographers who are interested neither in hagiography or debunking. These men have become more three-dimensional for me.
Washington: an extraordinary man, without whom the country would never have been born or survived. His decision to step down after two terms protected us from dictatorship for a long time. Neither the orthodox Christian nor the unbeliever desired by Right or Left. An adoptive father. Well worth re-discovering.
And the current situation of the country he founded would be utterly beyond his comprehension.
"Jeffersonian", in his vision for a re-founded American republic, uses attitude toward Washington as a kind of touchstone for groups that he would want to include. If you like George, he wants you.
If, like corrosive ingrate Professor Reb Seidman, you think of him only as one of those "evil rich White men," he doesn't.
I like George.
----
Since reading Ellis' Founding Brothers back in 2003 (?), I have found a set of biographers who are interested neither in hagiography or debunking. These men have become more three-dimensional for me.
Washington: an extraordinary man, without whom the country would never have been born or survived. His decision to step down after two terms protected us from dictatorship for a long time. Neither the orthodox Christian nor the unbeliever desired by Right or Left. An adoptive father. Well worth re-discovering.
And the current situation of the country he founded would be utterly beyond his comprehension.
"Jeffersonian", in his vision for a re-founded American republic, uses attitude toward Washington as a kind of touchstone for groups that he would want to include. If you like George, he wants you.
If, like corrosive ingrate Professor Reb Seidman, you think of him only as one of those "evil rich White men," he doesn't.
I like George.
----
Sunday, February 17, 2013
House of cards indeed
In the closing episode of House of Cards, the Greek Cypriots use singing schoolgirls to stop British soldiers (who are on a peace-keeping mission). When the men hiding on the side of the road open fire, the soldiers shoot back. As the crowd disperses and runs, three of the schoolgirls are accidentally shot in the crossfire.
The Brits act as if the world has come to an end.
Utter sentimentality and foolishness, unique to the West.
When people use their children as a shield --foreigners especially--and they get hurt, it's their own damn fault. Cause don't think for a second that such people would hesitate for a second to mow down your children if they needed to. And then they'd go home for lunch.
--
The Brits act as if the world has come to an end.
Utter sentimentality and foolishness, unique to the West.
When people use their children as a shield --foreigners especially--and they get hurt, it's their own damn fault. Cause don't think for a second that such people would hesitate for a second to mow down your children if they needed to. And then they'd go home for lunch.
--
Secession, anyone?
Secession: The Road to a Rebirth of America:
A longish proposal for an American Federal Republic.
The author, "Jeffersonian", replaces the idea of states seceding with that of counties seceding, based on their Red or Blue voting history. I don't see how that would work, since it would create archipelagoes of counties inside another country.
The USA would be mostly composed of the Pacific Coast, the Mexican borderlands, the Northeast and the Upper Midwest. The AFR, while larger in land mass, would encompass only about 1/3 of the current population.
But, outlandish --literally :)-- though the idea be, it demarcates some of the reasons why some Red Americans want out of Blue America.
Interestingly, he suggests that the basic shape of the US Constitution be kept, but with changes based on historical experience of the last 200 years. The Establishment Clause would be dumped, not because he wants a State Church but because it has been used to erase religion from the public square in favor of an unacknowledged religion of secular humanism. Suffrage would not be universal. It is frank about the realities of race and ethnicity and culture and sees the new country as continuous with the Founders and the Founding People: the White European Christians.
A nice dream*.
*Not utopian, though. Certainly not in my view. Ex Cathedra doesn't do utopia; seeking for it brings only misery. And American history prior to 1960 was not paradise, for sure. It's a matter of which set of problems you'd prefer to grapple with.
'via Blog this'
A longish proposal for an American Federal Republic.
The author, "Jeffersonian", replaces the idea of states seceding with that of counties seceding, based on their Red or Blue voting history. I don't see how that would work, since it would create archipelagoes of counties inside another country.
The USA would be mostly composed of the Pacific Coast, the Mexican borderlands, the Northeast and the Upper Midwest. The AFR, while larger in land mass, would encompass only about 1/3 of the current population.
But, outlandish --literally :)-- though the idea be, it demarcates some of the reasons why some Red Americans want out of Blue America.
Interestingly, he suggests that the basic shape of the US Constitution be kept, but with changes based on historical experience of the last 200 years. The Establishment Clause would be dumped, not because he wants a State Church but because it has been used to erase religion from the public square in favor of an unacknowledged religion of secular humanism. Suffrage would not be universal. It is frank about the realities of race and ethnicity and culture and sees the new country as continuous with the Founders and the Founding People: the White European Christians.
A nice dream*.
*Not utopian, though. Certainly not in my view. Ex Cathedra doesn't do utopia; seeking for it brings only misery. And American history prior to 1960 was not paradise, for sure. It's a matter of which set of problems you'd prefer to grapple with.
'via Blog this'
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Guilty
Enjoying the 1990's British House of Cards, where psychopath murdering power-hungry amoral and ruthless PM Francis Urquhart, the evil conservative, is locked in a PR and political war with the bleeding-heart and "caring" statist liberal narcissist English King.
Guess who's side I'm on?
You're not surprised, are you.
You're not surprised, are you.
----
Don't whine, dear
It's not attractive.
I remember that line from some movie, a mother to a daughter during dinner.
Now, of course, an unsympathetic, unsophisticated and unenlightened reader might consider Ex Cathedra a whiner. I prefer to think of myself as a ranter. Anyway, to my point...
Professional Sacred Minority Victim Groups in America (and the rest of the West) gain and maintain much of their power by continuing the narrative of their victimization, even as, or especially as, their actual situation improves. (Notice how, the farther removed we are from slavery, the more we hear about its "legacy?") And White people, the most foolish people on the planet ©, usually buy into this. (And usually only White people.)
It's called enabling: rescuing someone from the effects of their bad behavior so that they never have to take responsibility for it or change it. And with PSMVG's, this means blaming someone else for it and them taking the blame.
Well, ranter though he be, Ex Cathedra dislikes whiners. And White though he be, is unmoved by their piteous cries.
Some Whiners du Jour:
Gays (maybe 3% of the population), --pardon me, The LGBT Community--who have more visibility, acceptance and power than ever before in history, in all of history, have decided that reluctance to go along with the radical project of redefining a basic civilizational institution is just one more example of how they are still victimized by H8. And that bullying is now an Epidemic of Crisis Proportions.
Muslims, (less than 1%!) who are the real victims of 9/11, of course, are supposedly living in constant fear of bigoted jingoist racist Amurrican Islamophobes. People are suspicious of them, wondering if they can be trusted and resent them building mosques down the street from Ground Zero. Horrifying, no? Totally understandable, in the wake of the 9/11 riots and lynchings and murders and burnings of mosques and the shutting down of all Muslim immigration to America....oh, wait. Sorry. None of those things happened. There are twice as many of them now as before the Twin Towers. And the only reason for the grotesqueries of airport security is to avoid offending them. But beware anti-Muslim bigotry. And be sure to feel sorry for them and apologize.
Jews. (2%). My attitude toward Jews, though historically extremely positive, if differentiated, has taken some hits of late. They are a group with hugely disproportionate influence and power and wealth. The vast majority of them are Jewish by genes and culture but have left behind the practice of their ancient and defining religion. And they are wildly of liberal and leftish persuasion. As Reb Dennis Prager laments, they have transferred their messianism from the Messiah to leftwing utopian political and social projects. Plus, as he points out, they have a kneejerk fear/contempt of Christianity and of any national identity based on actual nationality. Which makes them, as a group, inimical to Ex Cathedra's political and social views.
The latest whine? About Downton Abbey. And here we have British Jews complaining, not Americans. The hit series, these individuals whine, does not grant visibility and weight to the anti-semitism of the English, especially the upper classes. Not making the Granthams look bad so that the Hebrews, once more, can be cast as the innocent victims of groundless resentment.*
An example of the narcissism of the PSMVG. How dare you not showcase my "victimization" and make your people look bad!? In real life, British anti-semitism amounts to basically nothing. I liken it to the anti-semitism faced by upper class American Jews who used to find resistance to their joining the country club. Boo hoo. If freedom of association means anything, why should people have an ethical duty to like people they don't like or trust? But in the wake of how the Nazi attack on Jews has been played out, with the exception of the State of Israel, the Holocaust is the background accusation and threat for any criticism of Jews. (Funny how the same PC folks who excoriate Eurocentrism as a form of White privilege and self-absorption want me to think that the European Holocaust is the fulcrum of history.)
My response: Not everything is about you.
Again, I am astonished at how much energy is spent on such infinitesimal parts of the population. Some days it feel like the tyranny of the minorities.
As I have said before, --and I have seen this as a therapist as well--victims have a tendency to provoke the very behavior that they whine about. Like the nagging wife who is surprised by the husbandly smack to her mouth, --Why did he do that?!--the PSMVGs, building their identity on and basing their power on their victimization, --and your flaw and your failure--forget how deeply annoying they are to those groups they are forever castigating and blaming. Then they wonder why other people hate them.
Take a clue.
---
*Found a Catholic blog complaining that Thomas the homo butler got off too lightly. Perhaps there should be a line formed...
Fish in water
My contempt for "journalists" is clear. Most of their recent reports and comments in the wake of the Pope's abdication only confirms my attitude. Ignorance compounded by arrogance.
One described the Pope's crosier as "a cane topped with a cross" to help him walk. They call for an "inclusive" Pope for a "modern" world. Point out the Big Issues the new one must face: women's ordination, gay marriage, condoms. A Black African would be, like, cool. (They are ignorant of the fact that African clerics, while self-interestedly distributionist and pro-immigration, are very orthodox in matters dogmatic and moral. Ask the Anglicans.) One of the Guardian's columnists, "prominent political and social commentator" Deborah Orr has opined that Ben XVI has lost his faith and that's why he's leaving.
They live in their own pond and imagine it is the whole world.
As the Russians say, it's all just desinformatsiya.
-----
One described the Pope's crosier as "a cane topped with a cross" to help him walk. They call for an "inclusive" Pope for a "modern" world. Point out the Big Issues the new one must face: women's ordination, gay marriage, condoms. A Black African would be, like, cool. (They are ignorant of the fact that African clerics, while self-interestedly distributionist and pro-immigration, are very orthodox in matters dogmatic and moral. Ask the Anglicans.) One of the Guardian's columnists, "prominent political and social commentator" Deborah Orr has opined that Ben XVI has lost his faith and that's why he's leaving.
They live in their own pond and imagine it is the whole world.
As the Russians say, it's all just desinformatsiya.
-----
Unto dust
Val Kilmer then and now.
Above, in his 35 year old prime --and a cool signature-- and currently.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Not only Olympus Has Fallen
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) - IMDb:
Great. "Terrorists" take over the White House and capture the President.
Who are the terrorists? North Koreans. Not Muslims. That would be unthinkable.
And who is the Big Strong American Hero who saves the day? Gerard Butler. Scot.
Well, at least it wasn't Jamie Foxx.
'via Blog this'
Great. "Terrorists" take over the White House and capture the President.
Who are the terrorists? North Koreans. Not Muslims. That would be unthinkable.
And who is the Big Strong American Hero who saves the day? Gerard Butler. Scot.
Well, at least it wasn't Jamie Foxx.
'via Blog this'
Would smell as sweet
Jack D reprinted an article of his about White nationalists, people he calls "The Mighty Whities." There is, of course, in our culture, no crime as heinous or unforgivable as being such. No need to even think about it for a nanosecond. It's just bad. White people consciously choosing to side with White people and their interests, above and even against the interests of other groups. It is the definition of evil, the local incarnation of Nazi. It's ok, more than ok, virtuous, laudable and praiseworthy when other groups do it: Blacks, Amerindians, Hispanics, etc. But Whites? That's a race/horse of a different color, my friend.
The fraudulent hacks at SPLC make a living out of naming groups and people it calls "White supremacists," among other groups of people who promoteideas it doesn't like hatred. Caucasians who wish to be seen as decent, ie, aware of their permanent and metaphysically invalidating stain of racial guilt but regretful and repentant about it, flee from these terms like long-tailed cats from a room full of rocking chairs.
Like my mother Eve, however, I am transgressively drawn to investigate things, especially things that I am forbidden to investigate.
It is no secret that Ex Cathedra no longer buys the Liberal line on race (or pretty well anything.) But does that make him a White nationalist or a White supremacist or some other form of racist? Well, here again, any use of the word racist now induces narcolepsy as I sit on my cathedra. So, what to think without falling asleep?
Actually, even writing about this is making me sleepy, so I am gonna take a little nap.
---
PS. Another leukophore ruminating on this question.
The fraudulent hacks at SPLC make a living out of naming groups and people it calls "White supremacists," among other groups of people who promote
Like my mother Eve, however, I am transgressively drawn to investigate things, especially things that I am forbidden to investigate.
It is no secret that Ex Cathedra no longer buys the Liberal line on race (or pretty well anything.) But does that make him a White nationalist or a White supremacist or some other form of racist? Well, here again, any use of the word racist now induces narcolepsy as I sit on my cathedra. So, what to think without falling asleep?
Actually, even writing about this is making me sleepy, so I am gonna take a little nap.
---
PS. Another leukophore ruminating on this question.
Amusing
Minnesota high school placed on lockdown after cafeteria food fight turned into huge brawl over racial tensions between black and Muslim students | Mail Online:
So....once again, Muslims are a race.
In fact, this is indeed a "race" riot: American Blacks vs immigrant Somalis.
Whites had nothing to do with it, btw.
Although I'm sure it's really our fault, deep down. After all, when it comes to Peeplz of Color, it always is.
'via Blog this'
So....once again, Muslims are a race.
In fact, this is indeed a "race" riot: American Blacks vs immigrant Somalis.
Whites had nothing to do with it, btw.
Although I'm sure it's really our fault, deep down. After all, when it comes to Peeplz of Color, it always is.
'via Blog this'
Another Boomer implodes
New Pope? I’ve Given Up Hope - NYTimes.com:
"Catholic" commentator Garry Wills, who has clearly transcended Catholicism ..and even orthodox Protestantism..("There is one God and Jesus is one of his prophets.") whines about the Catholicity of the Pope...and the Catholicity of Catholicism, which he now finds, as a "Catholic," one big huge mistake.
Based on his reading of the Bible (except for the parts, like Hebrews, he doesn't like.)
I am reminded of HL Mencken's wise words in his wonderful 1923 essay Holy Writ:
This cavalier and narcissistic* Garry Wills kind of stuff, where you read a few books and write a few books and then decide that when you eviscerate a 2000 year old religion, that you're actually finding its True Self, rather than your own reflection, really leaves me speechless.
*PS Santayana compared Catholicism with Protestantism by way of the contrasting images of a complex Baroque Roman fountain and a deep rural well. Not difficult to guess which one he preferred. His sincere and anguished Protestant sought to find the truth all by himself, his own moralizing and guilty ego, and in the end drew up a pail of muddy water in which he only saw his own reflection.
----
'via Blog this'
"Catholic" commentator Garry Wills, who has clearly transcended Catholicism ..and even orthodox Protestantism..("There is one God and Jesus is one of his prophets.") whines about the Catholicity of the Pope...and the Catholicity of Catholicism, which he now finds, as a "Catholic," one big huge mistake.
Based on his reading of the Bible (except for the parts, like Hebrews, he doesn't like.)
I am reminded of HL Mencken's wise words in his wonderful 1923 essay Holy Writ:
Whoever it was who translated the Bible into excellent French prose is chiefly responsible for the collapse of Christianity in France. Contrariwise, the men who put the Bible into archaic, sonorous and often unintelligible English gave Christianity a new lease of life wherever English is spoken. They did their work at a time of great theological blather and turmoil, when men of all sorts, even the least intelligent, were beginning to take a vast and unhealthy interest in exegetics and apologetics.The whole thing --whose last line accurately predicted the shape of Vatican II's liturgical reforms--can be read here.
This cavalier and narcissistic* Garry Wills kind of stuff, where you read a few books and write a few books and then decide that when you eviscerate a 2000 year old religion, that you're actually finding its True Self, rather than your own reflection, really leaves me speechless.
*PS Santayana compared Catholicism with Protestantism by way of the contrasting images of a complex Baroque Roman fountain and a deep rural well. Not difficult to guess which one he preferred. His sincere and anguished Protestant sought to find the truth all by himself, his own moralizing and guilty ego, and in the end drew up a pail of muddy water in which he only saw his own reflection.
----
'via Blog this'
Typical
Aging tyrannophile* Harry Belafonte recently excoriated either the NRA or White People, I forget which --prolly both-- for obsessing about their 2nd Amendment "rights" when Black people were the "most hunted" people in the country.
Of course he forgot to mention that it is Other Blacks who are doing the hunting that results in this "carnage."
Over 90% of Blacks who are murdered are murdered by Other Blacks.
But in the Standard Narrative, they are always The Victim and Someone Else (Guess who?) is always to blame.
*A fan of Hugo Chavez, he also suggested the Barry Hussein O simply jail his political opponents in a "Third world dictator" kinda way. Ah, the Rainbow Revolution of Dr King. What a gift to America.
----
Of course he forgot to mention that it is Other Blacks who are doing the hunting that results in this "carnage."
Over 90% of Blacks who are murdered are murdered by Other Blacks.
But in the Standard Narrative, they are always The Victim and Someone Else (Guess who?) is always to blame.
*A fan of Hugo Chavez, he also suggested the Barry Hussein O simply jail his political opponents in a "Third world dictator" kinda way. Ah, the Rainbow Revolution of Dr King. What a gift to America.
----
House of Cards
is not only the name of a political reality series, but a good description of some of the elements within the show.
Guess what Special Group, for example, is portrayed as disproportionately brilliant and talented in ways that never appear in nature?
Otherwise, as was its brilliant Brit original with Ian Richardson, it's a very entertaining look at human passions --especially revenge-- in the politics of our great and noble Republic's capital city.
---
Guess what Special Group, for example, is portrayed as disproportionately brilliant and talented in ways that never appear in nature?
Otherwise, as was its brilliant Brit original with Ian Richardson, it's a very entertaining look at human passions --especially revenge-- in the politics of our great and noble Republic's capital city.
---
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Cognitive egocentrism
The Grand Universal Illusion | World Affairs Journal:
One of the things that made me like B when I was first getting to know him was his assessment about people in places like Eritrea and Pakistan, both places he worked in and knew on the ground: "They're not like us."
'via Blog this'
One of the things that made me like B when I was first getting to know him was his assessment about people in places like Eritrea and Pakistan, both places he worked in and knew on the ground: "They're not like us."
'via Blog this'
Soul mate
Corvo Syndrome.
Named after the author of Hadrian VII, who also went by "Baron Corvo."
Hadrian, meet Julius.
(It'd be a cigar or a pipe, though.)
---
Named after the author of Hadrian VII, who also went by "Baron Corvo."
Frederick William Rolfe, alias Baron Corvo, was one of the more freakishly talented eccentrics of English letters. A homosexual, a paranoiac, a scoundrel, a petty blackmailer and a fake, he was constantly in debt, sponged on his friends, excoriated his enemies and died in 1913 in self-imposed exile in Venice. At 26 he converted to Roman Catholicism and trained for the priesthood. Twice dismissed from seminaries, he retained a lifelong conviction of his priestly vocation.
Hadrian, meet Julius.
(It'd be a cigar or a pipe, though.)
---
Thinking globally
Watching a YouTube video of the Pope's final public ceremony, Ash Wednesday in St Peter's. He usually does it at the Dominican church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill. I saw Paul VI do it there in the 70's. But it was in St Peter's because it can hold over 50K people.
Listening to the choir sing Palestrina as the old man was led out on his little wheely thing, watching the faces of people as they clapped...
It reminded me of the first papal Mass I attended in that church, again in the 70's when I lived in Rome for a year. When it came time to sing the Nicene Creed, the Pope sings the first line, Credo in unum Deum, and then the whole place erupted in the words, and with the very same Latin chant, that I had been taught and used as a boy on Long Island, words hammered out in the 4th century. Fifty thousand people from all over the globe, singing in a single voice a chant they had all learned at home. It was amazing.
---
Listening to the choir sing Palestrina as the old man was led out on his little wheely thing, watching the faces of people as they clapped...
It reminded me of the first papal Mass I attended in that church, again in the 70's when I lived in Rome for a year. When it came time to sing the Nicene Creed, the Pope sings the first line, Credo in unum Deum, and then the whole place erupted in the words, and with the very same Latin chant, that I had been taught and used as a boy on Long Island, words hammered out in the 4th century. Fifty thousand people from all over the globe, singing in a single voice a chant they had all learned at home. It was amazing.
---
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Speaking of Tremors
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Imperfect contrition
I have noticed that in MSM comments about Benedict XVI's papacy, you see the herd-mind of their coven at work. Mr. Kaplan figured out these New Inquisitors perfectly years ago, as examples of Samuel Huntington's insight that now “the arrogance of power is superceded by the arrogance of morality.” Well, "morality" is one name for it.
Often noted are his "mistakes." In his Regensburg speech, offending Muslims --who, as we know from the Ten Commandments and the words of Jesus and St Paul and the National Council of Churches-- must never have their little feelings hurt. And his offending Jews by lifting the excommunication of a schismatic bishop who turned out to be skeptical of the received narrative of the Holocaust.
Muslims and Jews* must never have their sensibilities hurt. Especially by the Church of Rome. Apologies are in order. Let the grovelling begin.
But I don't notice any reciprocity. Since religious Jews tend to stick to their own affairs and keep their contempt for Christianity private, it's usually when (usually unreligious) Jews who act in another role (moviemaker, journalist, lawyer, etc.) offend Christians and therefore are moviemakers, journalists and lawyers who "just happen to be" Jews. And it is anti-Semitic to notice that.
As for Muslims, among the most offensive people on earth, they never apologize for a damn thing. When their jihadi brethren attacked America on Sept 11, 2001, they were the ones victimized by American jingoism and Islamophobia.
In this culture, only Officially Recognized Victims get apologies. All others, just suck it up.
I'd be happier if everyone just stopped apologizing.
*The bizarre exception is Israel. Both Gentiles and liberal Jews alike get to dump all over the Jewish State...because it offends Muslims! Sometimes the complexities of liberal etiquette escape even me.
---
Often noted are his "mistakes." In his Regensburg speech, offending Muslims --who, as we know from the Ten Commandments and the words of Jesus and St Paul and the National Council of Churches-- must never have their little feelings hurt. And his offending Jews by lifting the excommunication of a schismatic bishop who turned out to be skeptical of the received narrative of the Holocaust.
Muslims and Jews* must never have their sensibilities hurt. Especially by the Church of Rome. Apologies are in order. Let the grovelling begin.
But I don't notice any reciprocity. Since religious Jews tend to stick to their own affairs and keep their contempt for Christianity private, it's usually when (usually unreligious) Jews who act in another role (moviemaker, journalist, lawyer, etc.) offend Christians and therefore are moviemakers, journalists and lawyers who "just happen to be" Jews. And it is anti-Semitic to notice that.
As for Muslims, among the most offensive people on earth, they never apologize for a damn thing. When their jihadi brethren attacked America on Sept 11, 2001, they were the ones victimized by American jingoism and Islamophobia.
In this culture, only Officially Recognized Victims get apologies. All others, just suck it up.
I'd be happier if everyone just stopped apologizing.
*The bizarre exception is Israel. Both Gentiles and liberal Jews alike get to dump all over the Jewish State...because it offends Muslims! Sometimes the complexities of liberal etiquette escape even me.
---
Shrove Tuesday
is today.
Comes from the old word, shrive, to remove sins. People used to go to confession on this day to prepare for Lent. Also called Pancake Tuesday. When I lived among French Canadians in Toronto, we always had pancakes for dinner on this day. I'm told that it was to use up the sugar and eggs and oil that would not be eaten much during Lent.
Pancakes for dinner tonight?
Last year for Lent I gave up reading anything political, in order to avoid the occasions of the sin of wrath and the desire to murder, en masse as well as particularly. I don't feel so inclined this year because I am not as angry. Not because things are better, but because they are so much worse that it is a waste of energy to be angry about them. Lasciate ogni speranza. Anger can be a sign of hope. I have little of that left. I still can contemplate a forest of gallows, but without much anger.
James Burnham, whom I frequently quote, considered that Liberalism was the ideology designed to make palatable, even reasonable and virtuous, the suicide of the West. He was wrong about the particulars, however. He thought that Communism would win out over a self-murdering West. Yet Communism fell apart in the space of a few years. He was right, however, (as was Tocqueville) about the governmental form that would eclipse republican capitalism, and that is what we see in the Obamacrat therapeutic state run by a managerial elite. And voted into office twice. Marxism, in its Gramscian, not Leninist, form continues to eat away at its host, like a parasitic wasp whose eggs are consuming us from the inside, even as the exoskeleton appears to be intact. We won the Cold War but are losing the Culture War.
Thomas Aquinas held that anger need not always be wrong. Being an Aristotelian, he considered both body and soul as important and so passion, if guided by reason, can be virtuous. In some situations, it even enhanced the virtue of good act. And sometimes, lack of it was a moral failing.
So my lack of anger may be a failing rather than an accomplishment because it comes largely from lack of hope. So maybe for Lent, I should practice enjoying the decline.
---
Pancakes for dinner tonight?
Last year for Lent I gave up reading anything political, in order to avoid the occasions of the sin of wrath and the desire to murder, en masse as well as particularly. I don't feel so inclined this year because I am not as angry. Not because things are better, but because they are so much worse that it is a waste of energy to be angry about them. Lasciate ogni speranza. Anger can be a sign of hope. I have little of that left. I still can contemplate a forest of gallows, but without much anger.
James Burnham, whom I frequently quote, considered that Liberalism was the ideology designed to make palatable, even reasonable and virtuous, the suicide of the West. He was wrong about the particulars, however. He thought that Communism would win out over a self-murdering West. Yet Communism fell apart in the space of a few years. He was right, however, (as was Tocqueville) about the governmental form that would eclipse republican capitalism, and that is what we see in the Obamacrat therapeutic state run by a managerial elite. And voted into office twice. Marxism, in its Gramscian, not Leninist, form continues to eat away at its host, like a parasitic wasp whose eggs are consuming us from the inside, even as the exoskeleton appears to be intact. We won the Cold War but are losing the Culture War.
Thomas Aquinas held that anger need not always be wrong. Being an Aristotelian, he considered both body and soul as important and so passion, if guided by reason, can be virtuous. In some situations, it even enhanced the virtue of good act. And sometimes, lack of it was a moral failing.
So my lack of anger may be a failing rather than an accomplishment because it comes largely from lack of hope. So maybe for Lent, I should practice enjoying the decline.
---
Lost in the wake
of Benedict XVI's abdication*, is that the meeting he presided over was called to announce the naming of new saints.
The tailor Antonio Primaldo and his companions will now be martyr-saints. They were 800 Catholic men beheaded by the invading Muslims, the Turkish purveyors of The Religion of Peace (c), in 1480 at Otranto in southern Italy, for refusing to accept Islam. Their skulls, behind the altar of the cathedral there, below:
(If you have any interest in hearing what spoken Latin sounds like, albeit by a very tired old infallible guy, here's Il Papa's announcement in vivo.
*No one is using this term for his retirement but the English Dominicans, on whose website I first encountered it.
---
The tailor Antonio Primaldo and his companions will now be martyr-saints. They were 800 Catholic men beheaded by the invading Muslims, the Turkish purveyors of The Religion of Peace (c), in 1480 at Otranto in southern Italy, for refusing to accept Islam. Their skulls, behind the altar of the cathedral there, below:
(If you have any interest in hearing what spoken Latin sounds like, albeit by a very tired old infallible guy, here's Il Papa's announcement in vivo.
*No one is using this term for his retirement but the English Dominicans, on whose website I first encountered it.
---
Jingo Django Oracle speaks
Jamie Foxx: ‘Black people are the most talented people in the world’ :
And in what fields, precisely, is this the case?
Possible candidates:
Music.
Sports.
Catch phrases.
And...?
'via Blog this'
And in what fields, precisely, is this the case?
Possible candidates:
Music.
Sports.
Catch phrases.
And...?
'via Blog this'
Obama's children
At it again.
White racism caused this. It's the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
It's all my fault. Me and my white privilege.
They are all victims.
----
(Is there any other complete BS I've forgotten to add?)
-----
White racism caused this. It's the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
It's all my fault. Me and my white privilege.
They are all victims.
----
(Is there any other complete BS I've forgotten to add?)
-----
Monday, February 11, 2013
MSM at play
There are ten British newspapers with circulations great than The Guardian, but this lefty journal always figures high in Google searches for news, usually in the top five.
Google bias anyone?
---
Google bias anyone?
---
If nominated,
I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.
But in case the Sacred College in Conclave does give me a call, I thought that Julius IV would be my pontifical monicker.
Julius II, above, as played by Rex Harrison in The Agony and Ecstasy, was the famous pope of Michelangelo, famed for his patronage of the arts and his love of war.
Julius III, well...even though he supported Palestrina and Vasari, there's that business of the young man he picked up off the street and made his "cardinal-nephew", which, as the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912 says, gave rise to some very disagreeable rumours .
Maybe Julius II.1?
----
But in case the Sacred College in Conclave does give me a call, I thought that Julius IV would be my pontifical monicker.
Julius II, above, as played by Rex Harrison in The Agony and Ecstasy, was the famous pope of Michelangelo, famed for his patronage of the arts and his love of war.
Julius III, well...even though he supported Palestrina and Vasari, there's that business of the young man he picked up off the street and made his "cardinal-nephew", which, as the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912 says, gave rise to some very disagreeable rumours .
Maybe Julius II.1?
----
Trances and tribes
Politics are tribal. Us vs Them. The arguments are secondary.
And Liberalism seems best understood as a kind of trance.
Apparently Bob Hope agrees with me.
---
And Liberalism seems best understood as a kind of trance.
Apparently Bob Hope agrees with me.
---
The Other Ex Cathedra
has resigned from his cathedra.
Catholic trivia: this is the papal throne in the church of St John by the Lateran Gate, which is the actual cathedral of the Bishop of Rome. The Vatican basilica is basically a huge shrine church over St Peter's grave.
First time this has happened since the late Middle Ages. Or the Early Renaissance, depending how you view these things.
Benedict XVI, back when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote some edicts that were the last straw for Ex Cathedra, back when he was Friar Ex Cathedra. But by the time of his election, the decades had brought me to a calmer view, unlike most of my Catholic friends, who howled at his election as if it were some kind of catastrophe.
What the Roman Catholic Church requires in its earthly head is that he be...a Roman Catholic. Really, and not RCINO. The awful truth is that Roman Catholicism has a nature, a shape, a definition. It is a dogmatic-hierarchical-sacramental reality that cannot be made into something else without losing itself. Thank you, Dr. Jung. And a lot of Liberal Catholics are in fact, IMHO, not Catholics anymore.
Unlike the reforming Christians of the Reformation, who stood up and walked out, most groovy Spirit of Vatican II Catholics have lacked the balls to leave, but have stayed inside the walls while abandoning what gave those walls shape. They're always waiting for the next Good Pope John...seemingly unaware of how deeply conservative a man he was. He smiled a lot and he was sweet, but when it came to the fundamentals, he was orthodox.
When you look at all the other (Western and White) churches who have danced to every tune that Liberalism called, they are falling apart. Why would the Roman Church, which, like it or not, has played a foundational role in creating The West, go down that path?
In terms of the three horsemen...pardon me, horsepersons...of the Liberal apocalypse --race, sex and class-- the Church only takes one on. By refusing to ordain women or make marriage a genderless sacrament, it's one of the few institutions left that have any ground to stand on for traditional and biological gender. As for race and class, it is an accomplice. A very mixed review.
I made a choice years ago and I don't regret it, painful though it was, and so remained for a long time. But when the fates of worlds and empires are at stake, my personal stuff does not amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. So I remain clearly outside the walls, but I don't want the city to fall.
----
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Haruspex?
Out wandering this afternoon, I stopped by Safeway and came home with four cans of smoked sardines in oil, a container of Kraft Parmesan cheese and a bottle of toasted sesame oil.
What does this mean?
====
What does this mean?
====
Multiculturalism as cult
Multiculturalism expects us to believe --and forbids us to deny-- that
Is the whole idea not nuts? You'd have to be entranced by a cult to believe it.
---
North African Muslims can move to Holland en masse, remain Muslims and North African, and be "Dutch".
Caribbean Blacks and African Blacks and Asian Muslims can move to England en masse, remain so, and be "British."But consider:
Han Chinese move to Nigeria en masse, maintain their race and language and culture and be "Nigerian."
Germans, Norwegians, Russians, Brits, and Belgians move to Italy en masse, and be "Italians."
Is the whole idea not nuts? You'd have to be entranced by a cult to believe it.
---
Scattershots
Oops, by writing scattershots, am I promoting a culture of gun violence? Heaven forefend.
This week, Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day are right next to each other. Meaningful coincidence?
An over-80 year old priest I know is asking to be laicized so he can marry his almost as old ladyfriend.
I often find my own character a cross to bear. It is, in fact, my principal cross. Nothing causes me as much chronic and serious grief as myself. As Pogo said, We have met the enemy and he is us.
An old friend who was in religious community with me reminded me of the usual solution given by the old Father Master to novices who came to him with problems or complaints: Go look in the mirror, Brother. And when you're done, go look again.
Have you noticed that the MSM often refer to a person, group or position as "rightwing" or "far-right" but almost never as "leftwing" or "far-left?" The children of Marcuse.
What I have to eat and drink during a day can vary quite a lot, but having a good big shot of coffee first thing in the morning is not very negotiable. My own blend from the $7 a pound store down the street is half Espresso and half French Roast. Boom. The hot, steaming, bitter-sweet syrupy nectar of daybreak. (I even bring it with me when I travel.) And I hardly ever drink coffee all day after that.
B was talking about the sensational violence in San Francisco when he was young: the Patty Hearst thing, the Zodiac killer, the (hidden away and not mentioned Black on White) Zebra murders. I can remember the assassinations of both Kennedys and of Martin Luther King, the riots, etc. and all the Vietnam-related stuff. But I was young and somehow these things did not portend The End to me. Although I do know young men who are declinists --some more vehement than I-- it doesn't seem far-fetched to link age with perception.
Because, when you are 20, you can't imagine your own end, it's hard to imagine your world's end. As you approach your sell-by date, it's easier.
A foundational mistake
John Adams, a fascinating Founding Father and presidential successor to George Washington, delivered himself of this quote:
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.It was a fond hope for progress, but actually --like a lot of progressive hopes--a recipe for destruction. Because in the process he describes, his effete grandchildren not only forgot that politics and war are our perennial foundations, but came to despise those who remembered it.
---
Saturday, February 09, 2013
Wondering
how the Muslim Mughals would have responded to a contemporary "Quit India" campaign, in contrast to the Christian Brits?
Can you spell "oceans of blood?"
___
Can you spell "oceans of blood?"
___
Just sayin'
A quite orthodox monsignor in New York offers some historical background to the brand-spanking new Catholic teaching that, in rabbinical fashion*, effectively outlaws capital punishment. It is clear, if you know how traditional Catholics argue, that he does not buy it, but he can't and won't say that in public. His interesting article is an orthodox way of sayin' "Just sayin'."
*The rabbis found ways to nullify certain Mosaic laws while appearing to accept them, by loading them up with so many conditions that they never get enacted. The most famous is the divine command in Deuteronomy which calls for the public stoning of a rebellious teenager.
---
*The rabbis found ways to nullify certain Mosaic laws while appearing to accept them, by loading them up with so many conditions that they never get enacted. The most famous is the divine command in Deuteronomy which calls for the public stoning of a rebellious teenager.
---
Friday, February 08, 2013
Very artificial intelligence
After seeing a funny short film co-written with the Cleverbot AI program, I went for a visit. This is our conversation:
User: The western world is in decline.
Cleverbot: Where in the western hemisphere?
User: All of it.
Cleverbot: Okay.
User: How do I stop the problem?
Cleverbot: By thinking of someone else.
User: Ok, I'm thinking of Heraclitus. Will that help?
Cleverbot: And I am not thinking about that.
User: You sound like a drunken narcissist.
Cleverbot: Yes .. I'm a guy. How about you??
User: Yup. Me, too.
Cleverbot: Too what?
User: Too pessimistic about the fate of my culture.
Cleverbot: I said nothing about the writers.
User: Always.
Cleverbot: Sweet. Juicy. Good.
___
User: The western world is in decline.
Cleverbot: Where in the western hemisphere?
User: All of it.
Cleverbot: Okay.
User: How do I stop the problem?
Cleverbot: By thinking of someone else.
User: Ok, I'm thinking of Heraclitus. Will that help?
Cleverbot: And I am not thinking about that.
User: You sound like a drunken narcissist.
Cleverbot: Yes .. I'm a guy. How about you??
User: Yup. Me, too.
Cleverbot: Too what?
User: Too pessimistic about the fate of my culture.
Cleverbot: I said nothing about the writers.
User: Always.
Cleverbot: Sweet. Juicy. Good.
___
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