Friday, July 08, 2022
Thursday, July 07, 2022
Contemporary journalism …
… Supreme Court Prayer Calumny Is Classic Illustration of Elite Media Manipulation of Facts.
Yes, Peggy spoke in present tense on the “hot mic,” thus arguably seeming to suggest recency. But the authors, subsequently and properly, asked her to clarify the timing intended. She did, but they buried it in their copy because it undermined the conclusion to which readers were being led.
The birth of the Beats …
… July 3, 1947: The Young Jack Kerouac Coins “Beat” While Grieving His Father. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
In an entry penned in the middle of weeklong Independence Day party at his friend Allen Ginsberg’s house in Harlem, the twenty-five-year-old Kerouac uses the word “beat” as an adjective for the first time, a year before he formally introduced the term “Beat Generation” to describe New York’s underground nonconformist creative youth.
Great shots …
… Macro Photography: The Universe At Our Feet - Outdoor Photographer. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Something to think on …
There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men.
— Robert A. Heinkein, born on this date in 1907
The problem of evil …
… ‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’ Gets A Controversial New Trailer. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… it’s no wonder that this very brief teaser for The Rings Of Power should have fans in heated debate. We see very little of the Second Age in the trailer, but we get a new tagline: “Nothing is evil...in the beginning.”
Master of brevity …
… Cement Angels – Brief poems by Nelson Ball. (Hat tip Dave Lull.)
Authenticity
A new headstone
at the cemetery
awaits certification
by birds
Wednesday, July 06, 2022
That’s for sure …
… Hey, Philly mayor Jim Kenney, the feeling's mutual: The city wants you out. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
I sure hope …
… he moves to some other country and never darkens our door again: Michael Moore pens woke Independence Day 'declaration'.
You always have prayer …
… ‘Nulla Scriptura’ (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… you know the Apostles’ Creed, basic prayers, the Rosary. You can go to the tabernacle and actually pray before the Lord. You will see immediately that you will need to pray much more, to become more familiar with God. Also, you will need to mortify yourself constantly, to create openings for the Spirit.
Here is something I came upon this morning:
…"IF MY PEOPLE WHO BEAR MY NAME, HUMBLE THEMSELVES AND PRAY AND SEEK MY PRESENCE AND TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, I MYSELF WILL HEAR FROM HEAVEN AND FORGIVE THEIR SINS…" (2 CHRON. 7:14) – "YOU WILL SEE THAT IN PRAYER YOU WILL FIND MORE KNOWLEDGE, MORE LIGHT, MORE STRENGTH, MORE GRACE AND VIRTUE THAN YOU COULD EVER ACHIEVE BY READING MANY BOOKS, OR BY GREAT STUDIES. NEVER CONSIDER AS WASTED THE TIME YOU SPEND IN PRAYER. YOU WILL DISCOVER THAT IN PRAYER GOD COMMUNICATES TO YOU THE LIGHT, STRENGTH AND GRACE YOU NEED…" (SR LUCIA DOS SANTOS)
Something to think on …
One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated.
— Thomas More, who died on this date in 1535
Tuesday, July 05, 2022
A poet in love …
… TS Eliot: After The Waste Land review: how the author found happiness - New Statesman. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
As in this book’s 2015 companion volume, Young Eliot: From St Louis to The Waste Land, Crawford’s work is impeccable. His aim is to give a “close-grained, intimate portrait” of Eliot from after the publication of The Waste Land in 1922 to his death in 1965. In the years following his modernist masterwork, TS Eliot would become one of the most influential artists of all time, “his poetry – whether in the original or in its many translations – having become a detectable presence in literatures as different as Gaelic, Greek and Chinese”.
Pushback …
… CJV Demands Apology after Washington Post Doxxes LibsofTikTok - Coalition for Jewish Values.
I sure hope Jeff Bezos reads this. Maybe it will dawn on him that the paper he owns has steadily declined on his watch.
Of course this really isn’t anti-Semitism. Just anti-Zionism. The difference is that anti-Zionists don’t really hate Jews. The just don’t want them to have a country of their own. Or something like that.
The right choice — unfotunately …
… The Word of the Year Is: Sophistry - by Ted Gioia. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
— Jean Cocteau, born on this date in
Monday, July 04, 2022
Where we find ourselves …
… School Prayer Ruling Is a Bitter Blow to Intolerant Secularists - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
Separating God from government is alien to American history, [Gorsuch] observed, as evident in its openly theistic practices: “At the opening of each day’s Session of this Court we stand, while one of our officials invokes the protection of God … In 1954 Congress added a phrase to the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag so that it now contains the words ‘one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’… Since 1865 the words ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ have been impressed on our coins.”
The America I grew up in …
… and the one I still believe (please don’t bore me if you feel otherwise): God Bless America Sung by Kate Smith This Is the army 1943..
Sinclair Lewis
I've just finished Sinclair Lewis's Main Street -- and let me say at the start: it's been a while since I've read such a scathing critique. But that's what Main Street is: a work of social commentary focused on the petit bourgeois, the American midwest, and the myth of rural piety.
For a book written one hundred years ago, Main Street still packs a punch: Lewis is unrelenting in his condemnation of Gopher Prairie, the fictional town at the heart of his novel. This is a place, as Lewis would have it, lacking imagination and culture, a town on the abyss of nothing. The shopkeepers, doctors, and lawyers populating Gopher Prairie do little more than gossip, play cards, and capitalize on the hard-won harvests of nearby farmers. The petit bourgeois is limited by a provincial quality: a crippling aversion to intellectualism coupled, as Lewis would have it, with a misguided sense of self-regard.
Like Gopher Prairie itself, Main Street becomes increasingly claustrophobic: by the end, there's nowhere to turn, no additional characters to engage. Lewis has made it clear that to expect more of Gopher Prairie -- in its intellectual pursuits, or its international understanding -- is to be disappointed. The most a person can do is to continue to ask questions, to acknowledge realities unspoken by true.
I must admit that reading Main Street was something of a melancholy experience: in many cases, the social and political challenges facing America around 1919 have not changed. Similar racial and ethnic divisions remain; a skepticism of intellectual culture continues to be a hallmark of certain rural communities; and working class Americans, including farmers, continue to be exploited -- despite the necessity of their trade.
Sinclair Lewis set out not only to highlight these dynamics, but to criticize them, to lay them bare: I can only imagine what Lewis would make of America today: a nation still struggling to resolve its tensions, contradictions, and geographies. Main Street remains very much a novel of our times.
Malcolm X would understand …
… Twitter reactions to racist meme posted by Bette Midler about Clarence Thomas - TheBlaze.
How dare a black man have views that differ from those of white liberals.
The real America …
… Mendon, Missouri - Sean of the South.
Sure, you heard about the wreck itself; the 150 injured, and the four fatalities. But you didn’t hear about how the residents of Mendon—nearly every single resident—rushed to the scene of the accident.
Something to think on …
Writers feel like a middleman, standing with pen in hand over the page. A force greater than me stands above telling me what to write. That may sound romantic, but that's how it feels.
— Neil Simon, born on this date in 1927
Some things worth knowing …
… Supreme Court's Roe v Wade opinion sparks racist attacks on Clarence Thomas, confirming his world view.
… Thomas was deeply inspired by Malcolm X. He had a poster of Malcolm X that hung in his dorm room. He memorized many of his speeches by heart, and he continues to evoke him frequently to this day.
It was Malcolm X, of course, who famously declared that, “In this deceitful American game of power politics, the Negros (i.e. the race problem, the integration and civil rights issues) are nothing but tools, used by one group of whites called Liberals against another group of whites called Conservatives, either to get into power or to remain in power.”
He argued that white liberals and white conservatives differ “only in one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative. The liberal is more hypocritical than the conservative. Both want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro’s friend and benefactor.” He continued, “By winning the friendship, allegiance and support of the Negro, the white liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn or a tool.”
Sunday, July 03, 2022
Good news …
… Reach For Your Culture.
UATX’s forbidden courses program, which brought together undergraduates from leading colleges and universities, lived up to its name.
The challenge to the faithful …
… The Contempt of the World - The American Conservative.
So far, no one’s tried anything at my church. Wise decision. This is South Philly. Back when the church doors were always opened someone stole something made of gold off the altar (it may been a chalice). Anyway, when he went to sell it in the Italian market, one of the merchants bought it, then took it back to the church.
Lest we forget …
… The Divine Importance of Preserving Freedom - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
We are at a particularly chaotic period in our American politics and in the politics of the world. Our time offers a further illustration of Yeats’ words: “The worst are full of passionate intensity.” Political creativity is seen by far too many as an exercise in uncontrolled emotion. With that all-consuming passion, such things as reasoned discussion, constitutional traditions, and civility are useless burdens. History, tradition, civilizational norms of every sort, language — all are heated up until they dissolve into plasma. Human beings who dare to object or criticize are subject to the same treatment.
Defining her time …
… ‘All her movies are nonfiction’: remembering the life and work of Nora Ephron. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Besides outlining a compact chronology of Ephron’s early years and the career she maintained to her deathbed, Doidge’s book highlights the contradictions of the soul contained within a cynical romantic as quick to belittle those close to her as she was to love them
Why don’t these people move to another country?
… City of Orlando 'Regrets' Impact of Bashing USA on July 4.
Those of us who still love our country don’t need their bullshit.
Where did these people get their degrees …
… out of a cracker jacks box? Campus Reform | These are the words colleges don't want you to say.
Hmm …
… Supreme Court's Roe v Wade opinion sparks racist attacks on Clarence Thomas, confirming his world view.
It was Malcolm X, of course, who famously declared that, “In this deceitful American game of power politics, the Negros (i.e. the race problem, the integration and civil rights issues) are nothing but tools, used by one group of whites called Liberals against another group of whites called Conservatives, either to get into power or to remain in power.
Something to think on …
Atheism is a crutch for those who cannot bear the reality of God.
— Tom Stoppard, born on this date in 1937
Saturday, July 02, 2022
Contemporary journalism …
… The Aspen Times censors are literally crying about their new owner “censoring” them.
The new owner apparently asked staff not to comment on the lawsuit. That’s normal and prudent. Employees are typically asked not to issue gratuitous commentary on litigation involving their employer, because the comments become evidence at trial which may or may not be consistent with the company’s legal position
Something to think on …
Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.
— Hermann Hesse, born on this date in 1877
Friday, July 01, 2022
Pretty dumb critics …
… once upon a time: 10 most boring classics according to literary critics.
Nothing wrong with the books, most of which I’ve read — Moby Dick, Boswell Life of Johnson? — the problem here is the critics’ lack of imagination and lack of education.
In case you wondered …
… Respect for Unborn Human Life: The Church's Constant Teaching | USCCB.
In 1827, with the discovery of the human ovum, the mistaken biology of Aristotle was discredited. Scientists increasingly understood that the union of sperm and egg at conception produces a new living being that is distinct from both mother and father. Modern genetics demonstrated that this individual is, at the outset, distinctively human, with the inherent and active potential to mature into a human fetus, infant, child and adult. From 1869 onward the obsolete distinction between the "ensouled" and "unensouled" fetus was permanently removed from canon law on abortion.
An Islamic perspective …
… LGBT Propaganda Under the Microscope.
It is imperative that Muslims understand the ideological, political, and social roots and effects of such a poster. Muslims do not identify with our desires, let alone any other adjective we would use to describe ourselves. We are a community of people based off of a permanent ideological relationship with one another. Allah ﷻ has given us a beautiful name, Muslim, and it is not within the rights of someone who considers themselves Muslim to subsequently change that identity. It is sinful for a Muslim to identify as a “Queer Muslim” or anything of the sort and it is also sinful for a Muslim to propogate any non-Islamic slogans or means of propaganda because these identities and slogans originate from and are a tool to further liberal ideology. Thus, any Muslim engaging in these narratives has participated in working against the Muslim community and Islam.
Get woke, go broke …
… Halifax pronouns scandal: MORE customers close accounts after social media manager told them to | Daily Mail Online.
'My entire family have now transferred their accounts to Nationwide, cards etc. Loss to Halifax is in excess of 450K in investment accounts and savings'. Another said: 'I closed my credit card account today, after fifteen years of being a customer', while one exiting customer who is now changing ISAs containing more than £11,000 and said: 'If they politely said try to use the pronouns on the badge - I would have done my best', but left because he perceived their threat meant 'there would be hell to pay if I got it wrong'
Something to think on …
Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age, and to imagine right up to the brink of death that life is only beginning. I think that is the only way to keep adding to one's talent, and one's inner happiness.
— George Sand, born on this date in 1804
Have a look …
… Get a Sneak Preview of the 2022 Bird Photographer of the Year Finalists. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Thursday, June 30, 2022
In praise of a master …
… Michael Dirda reviews two new volumes of W.H. Auden's collected works - The Washington Post. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In his youth, Auden planned to become a mining engineer, and he’s always terrific at depicting industrial landscapes — he gravitates to tram lines and slag heaps — but he can also survey rough terrain through the eyes of a secret agent: “Control of the passes was, he saw, the key” or “Watching with binoculars the movement of the grass for an ambush,/ The pistol cocked, the code-word committed to memory …”
A living faith …
… Czesław Miłosz's Theological Two-Step.
Poets are full of contradictions. It is one of the tools of the trade. Here’s one of Miłosz’s contradictions, but only an apparent one: while entertaining these thoughts, these heresies, he faithfully attended the stucco, Spanish revival-style Church of Mary Magdalen in Berkeley every Sunday. He sat towards the back of the church, and some remember him serving as an usher. Another colleague remembers a time when the pews were being replaced, and all had a dispensation to sit, rather than kneel, after communion. Milosz kneeled on the floor nevertheless. And he was on his knees praying for a long time.
The power of a temple …
… A Hot Day In Agrigento by Molly Peacock | Poetry Foundation. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Today is Molly Peacock’s birthday.
Something to think on …
A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death — the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders we are not going to be judged.
— Czeslaw Milosz, born on this date in 1911
Testimony …
… Why My Parents Chose Life - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Only once, during my teenage years, did I ever ask my mother whether she had considered having an abortion.
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Turned out we were …
… once upon a time: Are we or are we not at war?
He would go on to fire MacArthur (who had just pulled off the Inchon Landing, thought be one of the most decisive maneuvers in modern warfare) who acted as if it were a war. The “police action” continued for three years and resulted in 36,914 American deaths. Thanks, Harry.
Anniversary …
… Lavinia Stoddard (1787-1820). The Soul's Defiance. Stedman and Hutchinson, eds. 1891. A Library of American Literature: An Anthology in 11 Volumes. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Lavinia Stoddard was born on this date in June 29, 1787.
A tale of these days …
… The Bookseller’s Tale Lessons in resilience amid calamity. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The inefficacy of the police is not merely an inconvenience, though it is certainly that, as well. It indicates that the government and its associated administration, which have for decades mandated, and presided over, a depressing degeneration of law enforcement, are unaware that the maintenance of order is not merely one of their tasks among others—such as ensuring that people are protected from the way others might happen to address them—but the very justification of their existence. Criminal disorder saps their legitimacy, which, in turn, leads to further disorder.
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