Sunday, April 30, 2023
Something to think on …
What is philosophy for the Catholic but the way intelligence lives its faith?
— Don Colacho
Saturday, April 29, 2023
Something to think on …
When you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge.
— Constantine P. Cavafy, born on this date in 1863
Given to snooping …
… The Lamp Magazine | The Double Life of John le Carré. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
No wonder this lonely man, adrift amid the chilly beauties of Bern, was so easily seduced by His Majesty’s Unmentionables, as proper diplomats once referred to the disreputable, deniable spies who lurked in the back parts of British embassies across the world.
Friday, April 28, 2023
Something to think on …
The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.
— Haroer Lee, born on this date in 1926
Thursday, April 27, 2023
Anthony Burgess
Much has been said and written about A Clockwork Orange and I do not intend to wade into the debate. But I will say, having just finished the novel, that there was more here than I was expecting. (Indeed, I had shied away from reading the book because of its associations with violence.) To start, this is a novel about humanity and whether a human, when deprived of the ability to make moral decisions, still amounts to a -- well -- to a human. When Alex, Burgess's central droog, is subject to an intense regimen of therapeutic violence, he loses his ability to engage in violent acts: he has been compelled, in effect, toward good. But as Burgess wonders: is Alex a human at this point, or is he instead more like an animal or infant, knowing only what will produce a smile? This idea of adolescence is woven into the novel and when Alex, toward the end of the book, marks the passage of his youth, he seems to be hinting at some balance: some ability, perhaps, to move beyond violence -- but on his own accord. Of course Burgess was made famous in Clockwork as a result of his invented language. This in itself is worthy of a blog post. But just to say that Burgess's insistence on this language has a remarkable effect: namely that it can be learned by reader and that it provides a sharp -- even violent -- contrast with the traditional forms of English spoken by members of "the State." All told, this would not be among my favorite books, but there was more here to consider than I'd have thought, and that idea of choice, of choosing to be good, is one which will stay with me.
The passion of language …
… Finding the Words. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sometimes my process of divination comes easily to me, and other times it’s effortful, but it is always enlightening.
Something to think on …
Only one who has known how troubled life can be, has a real appreciation of it when it is good.
— Ludwig Bemelmans, born on this date in 1898
The mystery of being …
… The Sleeper by Walter de La Mare | Poetry Foundation. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Walter de La Mare woukd have turned 150 on April 25.
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Mel Gibson and Christ’s Passion …
… Appassionato | Eve Tushnet. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I get why it doesn’t work for a lot of people. Passion is an intensely personal vision, and the person having the vision is, you know, Mel Gibson. If you were revolted by it, I think you’re reacting to things that are also really there in the movie. Below are some thoughts on specific aspects of the film.
I saw a preview of it when it first came out. It seemed to me to an ecceliastical snuff movie,
Something to think on …
When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
— Marcus Aurelius, born on this date in 121
Grades of meaning …
… (9) Unusual Experiences and the Problems of Overbelief and Underbelief.
The typical intellectual suffers from hypertrophy of the critical faculty, and in consequence, he suffers the blockage of the channels of intuition. He hones his intellect on the whetstone of discursivity, and if he is not careful, he may hone it away to nothing, or else perfect the power of slicing while losing the power of splicing.
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Something to think on …
As long as I live I shall always be My Self - and no other, Just me.
— Walter de La Mare, born on this date in 1873
Happy 75th …
… Prophet of the end of liberalism | David Herman | The Critic Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Monday, April 24, 2023
Blogging note …
My wife is still in the hospital. I may go visit her today. Right now, I am about to take my daily walk. Blogging will resume later. I just have other things on my mind now.
Sunday, April 23, 2023
The other Lewis …
… The Notion Club Papers - an Inklings blog: Review of Inkling, Historian, Brother: A life of Warren Hamilton Lewis, by Don W King, 2022.
In evaluating Warnie as a man; I believe that King has done a good job. Warnie's great character flaw was his alcoholism - he was of an archetypical Irish type of an intermittent but very extreme binger; periods of moderation or teetotalism, punctuated by drinking constantly and in large amounts for several days until he required hospital admission.
Something to think on …
Like all great rationalists you believed in things that were twice as incredible as theology.
— Halldór Laxness, born on this date in 1903
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Something to think on …
We live not only in a world of thoughts, but also in a world of things. Words without experience are meaningless.
— Vladimir Nabokov, born on this date in 1899
Friday, April 21, 2023
Surprise, surprise …
… Oops. That climate science isn't quite as settled.
… rather than adding even more thermal energy to the atmosphere, as previously thought, methane’s solar absorption sets off a cascade of events that reduces its overall warming effect by about 30 percent, researchers report March 16 in Nature Geoscience.
Something to think on …
A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.
— Charlotte Brontë, born on this date in 1816
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Surprise, surprise …
… New Senate Report: Covid Pandemic Likely Caused by Wuhan Lab Leak
I postulated this just a few weeks into the pandemic, having been a medical editor (which enabled me to go to serious medical and science sites) and having worked for quite a few years in the field of arms control and disarmament.
Something to think on …
Throughout history the world has been laid waste to ensure the triumph of conceptions that are now as dead as the men that died for them.
— Henry de Montherlant, born on this date in 1895
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Yes, indeed …
… Let's give our regards to Broadway. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Much more than escapism or diverting entertainment, the great Broadway musicals, though almost never radical in their perspective, went much further than Hollywood in wrestling with race (in Porgy and Bess), racial prejudice (Showboat, South Pacific), family tensions (Gypsy), ethnic conflict (West Side Story), ethnic identity (Funny Girl, Fiddler on the Roof), social class (My Fair Lady), fascism (Cabaret) and AIDS (Rent)—as well as the sleazy, seedy, salacious underbelly of American life displayed in Pal Joey.
Something to think on …
Happiness happens when you fit with your life, when you fit so harmoniously that whatsoever you are doing is your joy. Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.
— Daphne du Maurier, who died on this date in 1989
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
A genuine masterpiece …
… Retrospectives: Estate planning can be challenging.
I stood outside her house once. She is as true a poet as ever existed.
Amen …
And by the way, I am not in the least homophobic. My friend Katherine and I shared power of attorney for a gay couple and I have had many gay friends.
Something to think on …
These transnationalists have little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles that thankfully are vanishing, and see national governments as residues from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate the elite's global operations.
— Samuel P. Huntinton, born on this date in 1927
Monday, April 17, 2023
Something to think on …
Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.
— Thortin Wilder, born on this date in 1897
Sunday, April 16, 2023
More crap …
… Jeeves and Wooster stories censored to avoid offending modern readers. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, they have their work cut out for them. A lot of thought and writing has accumulated over the Millenia. And yes the people back were different from us. How dare they
As well they should …
… Vatican academy will probe 'mystical phenomena' around the world | Daily Mail Online.
… including 'weeping' statues of the Virgin Mary, stigmata and ghost sightings under plans for a new dedicated observatory.
Something to think on …
Politics is a thing that only the unsophisticated can really go for.
— Kingsley Amis, born on this date in 1922
Saturday, April 15, 2023
Wow!
That is all I can say. … The First Metaphysical Poet - The Catholic Thing (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.
— Thomas Szasz, born on this date in. 1920
Friday, April 14, 2023
Good riddance …
…New College employee quits, rants about Hillsdale and says DeSantis is like Hitler | The College Fix.
Having been clasiccaly educatted — Latin, Greek, philosophy, erc. — I was spared be taught by a clown like this.
Still radical after all these years …
… Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez | Book review | The TLS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Rodriguez is unafraid, too, to challenge the orthodoxies of public opinion, and staunchly refused to fall in with a tribe. His views on affirmative action have made him “notorious among certain leaders of America’s Ethnic Left”, who consider him “a dupe, an ass, the fool – Tom Brown, the brown Uncle Tom, interpreting the writing on the wall to a bunch of cigar-smoking pharaohs”. It is not as a contrarian or devil’s advocate that he writes, however, but in pursuit of the truth about himself and the society in which he lives.
Thursday, April 13, 2023
Something to think on
All poetry, as discriminated from the various paradigms of prosody, is prayer.
— Samuel Beckett, born on this date in 1906
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Sounds like a good idea …
… Texas venue to stop hosting 'all ages' drag queen events after undercover video shows performer exposing himself, children offering tips - TheBlaze.
Why woukd you take your kids to a drag show?
Something to think on …
Nothing in the whole world felt as good as being able to make something from a sudden idea.
— Beverly Cleary, born on this date in 1916
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
Blogging note …
My tech advisor will be by shortly to improve security on my computer, etc. Laye yesterday I got a call telling me I had been charged with a crime and to call a certain number. I was also given a case number. Luckily, my son-in-law is a Wall Street lawyer. So I sent him the phone number and case number. He immediately war=ned me me never to call such a number. It's a scam. Welcome to the information age.
Something to think on …
Extremists think 'communication' means agreeing with them.
— Leo Rosten, born on this date in 1908
Hmm …
… Documents Reveal FBI Sought to Develop Sources in Local Catholic Churches | House Judiciary Committee Republicans.
This information is outrageous and reinforces the Committee’s need for all FBI records about the domain perspective document. Accordingly, and because Director Wray has not fully responded to the Committee’s earlier voluntary requests, Chairman Jordan is issuing a subpoena to the FBI for all records about the FBI’s January 23 domain perspective document.
In case you wondered …
… Why You Should Befriend St. Therese This Spring.
I just finished reading Therese’s The Story of a Soul. There’s really nothing else quite like it.
Monday, April 10, 2023
Blogging note …
I appear to have been seriously hacked. My bank exec is calling the people purporting to be PayPay, but who may be the hackers. This could have resulted in the theft of everything in my savings account. So I won’t be blogging for awhile.
Something to think on …
It is more beautiful to trust in God. The beautiful in this world is all from his hand, declaring the perfection of taste; he is the author of all form; he clothes the lily, he colours the rose, he distils the dewdrop, he makes the music of nature; in a word, he organized us for this life, and imposed its conditions; and they are such guaranty to me that, trustful as a little child, I leave to him the organization of my Soul, and every arrangement for the life after death. I know he loves me.
— Lew Wallace, born on this date in 1827
Sunday, April 09, 2023
Happy Easter …
… DC Shroud Exhibit Could Mean New Believers | Newsmax.com.
The distinction is that the Shroud of Turin turns out to be a precise photographic negative, which is mysteriously imprinted on cloth material that does not accept photographic impressions.
Note this as well:
- The energy it took to produce the image would be equal to all the electrical power generated in the world today
He is risen.
Something to think on …
The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.
— Charles Baudelaire, born on this date in 1821
Saturday, April 08, 2023
We have to look closey …
… Can We No Longer Believe Anything We See?
Experts fear the technology could hasten an erosion of trust in media, in government and in society. If any image can be manufactured — and manipulated — how can we believe anything we see?
Methinks the media is doing enough on its to hasten that erosion of trust.
Something to think on …
Philosophers, as things now stand, are all too fond of offering criticism from on high instead of studying and understanding things from within.
— Esmund Husserl, born on this date in 1850
Friday, April 07, 2023
Blogging post
I am awaiting my wife’s return from the hospital. Blogging must take a back seat today.
Something to think on …
Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult, but because it wishes to be art.
— Donald Barthelme, born on this date in 1931
Thursday, April 06, 2023
Something to think on …
The man who can speak acceptably is usually given credit for an ability out of all proportion to what he really possesses.
— Lowell Thomas, born on this date in 1892
In caseyou wondered …
… Why You Should Befriend St. Therese This Spring.
With a new study guide, Endow is offering women a chance to truly get to know this great Saint. Acknowledging that many find Therese difficult (it’s not just me!), this study guide helps women to see how her somewhat over the top femininity deepens and strengthens her spirituality, helping both men and women to find a path to Sainthood.
Wednesday, April 05, 2023
Tracking the decline …
… Chicago School of Law: EXPOSED.
Too many Americans still think a law degree from Harvard means that the graduating lawyer is competent to practice law. The opposite is becoming more true.
Very interesting …
…Why I stopped watching 'The Chosen'.. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I stopped watching “The Chosen” because I suddenly realized, in a deep and visceral way, that television was robbing me of what the hard work of imaginatively constructing biblical scenes in prayer affords me. The problem was not the content or the quality of the production, but the very medium itself.
Something to think on …
There is a certain class of race problem-solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.
— Booker T. Washington, born on this date in 1856
Tuesday, April 04, 2023
I don’t know …
… Friendships Superficially Satisfying.
I seem to have a talent for friendship. When my friend of nearly years, the composer Harold Boatrite, died, I sat beside and recited Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “Felix Randall.” I just felt he could hear it and be comforted. I could give more examples, but I’ll spare everyone.
These days …
… The Cancelling of Christianity - Crisis Magazine.
Consider the media coverage surrounding this latest event, the shooting of six unarmed Christians, including three nine-year-old children, by an enraged member of the transgender community. How cleverly our news outlets have managed to spin the story, insinuating somehow into the narrative the notion, wholly preposterous on its face, that the killer was no less a victim than the six human beings left dead on the floor of that small Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
I certainly believe in individual rights. If someone wants to change the sex they were born with, that’s their choice. My first wife met Christine Jorgensen and had an autographed photo of her.
A strange novel …
… Waugh’s last cruel novel. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Among Waugh’s targets in The Loved One was the English community in Hollywood, personified by the character Sir Ambrose Abercrombie, who was modeled on the English character actor C. Aubrey Smith, a dictator of behavior on all matters English. The community is portrayed in stiff-upper-lip style, determined not to lose face before the decadent Americans. The protagonist, Dennis Barlow, has done that by being sacked at the studio (for failing to complete a screenplay of the life of the English poet Shelley), and, to make matters worse, he now works at an animal cemetery, the Happier Hunting Grounds.
I didn’t find it especially funny. It’s my least favorite Waugh novel.
A great film …
… Diary of a Country Priest movie review (2023) | Roger Ebert.. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The novel by Georges Bernanos is also well worth reading.
Remembering …
…salmagundi : Watching the birdie and striking out on my own in 1963.
I graduated from college in 1964.
Monday, April 03, 2023
Where are we and where are we going …
… Lloyd Austin Blames Pro-Lifers for DoD Weakness - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
A personal note: I am an illegitimate child. That means my mother and father were not married. I knew my father as Uncle Ray. I instinctively loved him. I don’t think my mother ever thought of aborting me. Indeed I was the so-called apple of her eye. The so-called fetus has a unique genetic code, different from both mother snd father. As for rape or even incest, the baby is as much a victim as the woman. I look forward to comments, especially from bastards like me.
Maybe the best writer around
… Nihilism as Public Policy | The Russell Kirk Center.
Interventions 2020 is quintessential Houellebecq, a writer in the vein of Celine, a spokesman for common sense who exposes the debilitating effect that nihilism, as a form of public policy, has on meaning and purpose in private life.
Something to think on …
Villainy wears many masks; none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.
— Washington Irving, born on this date in 1783
Wonderful …
… Door by Daniel G. Hoffman | Poetry Magazine. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Danial Hoffman was born 100 years ago today. He was a nice man.
Sunday, April 02, 2023
Just so you know …
…John Lennon was Actually an Awful Role Model - Foundation for Economic Education.
Now you know why the violent despot Fidel Castro had a soft spot in his heart for John Lennon. If Cuban communism is a Disney-like park, “Imagine” is its theme, the counterpart to the annoying “It’s a Small World” that some people can never get out of their heads.
Tracking the decline …
… ‘A Cesspool of Narcissistic Insular Self-Gratification': How the Mainstream Media Squandered the Public's Trust (and How To Win It Back.
They are geographically (and culturally) isolated from the vast majority of Americans. They are highly credentialed, prone to "egotism and self-absorption," loath to admit mistakes and correct them. They're just as lazy and incompetent as the rest of us, increasingly susceptible to perverse financial incentives. They've been absorbed into The Establishment, grown too cozy and incestually involved with the powerful figures they're supposed to be scrutinizing, too aloof and even hostile toward the public they're supposed to serve.
About time …
… Restoring the True and the Beautiful | The Russell Kirk Center. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
For two-thirds of The Truth and Beauty, Klavan does exactly what he says artists should do: he perceives what things mean and beautifully speaks that meaning. With a novelist’s scintillating touch, he extracts significance from works as disparate as Hamlet, Paradise Lost, Frankenstein, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Ode to a Grecian Urn. These pages demand to be devoured in one sitting.
Something to think on …
Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers.
— Hans Christian Andersen, born on this date in 1805
Saturday, April 01, 2023
I have a better idea …
… Planned New FBI HQ Is Twice the Size of the Pentagon.
How about this | do away with the FBI, which doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job these days.