Friday, May 05, 2023
Actual telling …
… The Poetry of Reality | Commonweal Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
When I was a child, the two most intolerable aspects of my life (or the two of which I was then conscious) were church and school. Both seemed to me so geologically dull I felt my arteries hardening. It seems either cold fate or high irony, then, that I should end up in church school. Some people can’t conceive of a god who can’t suffer. Me, I can’t conceive of a god who can’t laugh.
Thursday, May 04, 2023
This sounds worrisome …
… Animals Are Dying in Droves. What Are They Telling Us? | The New Republic.
The numbers are as bleak as the footage: More than 3,400 sea lions sickened and dead of the H5N1 variant of avian influenza in Peru this winter and spring. With the animal weighing, on average, about 770 pounds, each of those infected corpses threatens to further pulse the pathogen along the Peruvian coastline, according to researchers there.
Confession …
… Tucker Carlson was my guilty pleasure - The Spectator World. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Allow me to come clean. After force-feeding myself each evening the UK’s self-righteous Channel 4 News and America’s equivalent bastion of liberal sanctimony, the PBS NewsHour, I’ve often flossed to Carlson’s nightly open, posted on YouTube in London at 2 a.m. After all that earnest concern for the environment, hanky-twisting about indigenous American poverty and all-minority arts coverage — the culinary equivalent of overcooked lentils and steamed tofu — I settle down to dessert: a truffle from the dark side.
Wednesday, May 03, 2023
A further tracking …
…Why Tucker Carlson Had To Be Purged - LewRockwell.
‘The media,’ Tucker recently said, ‘are part of the control apparatus…not only are they part of the problem, but I spent most of my life being part of the problem, defending the Iraq War, like I actually did that.’ That is, Tucker came to recognize that the media are ideological state apparatuses whose functions are to indoctrinate, mislead, and support the reigning regime and their narratives, whether past, present, or future. Tucker attempted to subvert those media functions and became a danger to the regime. It is no wonder that he no longer works for Fox News. The question is how he lasted so long.
Tracking the decline …
… (10) On targeting a university president for the thoughtcrime of questioning how well mRNA shots work. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The good news is that newspapers like the Inquirer have so completely squandered their credibility and audiences that they no longer have the power they once did.
In 2000, the Inquirer had 400,000 paid weekday subscribers for the paper. Last year, it had 60,000 - a number that is probably no higher than 50,000 now - plus 140,000 digital subscribers.
I used to be a medical editor. I did not gat vaxxed during the pandemic. The mRNA vaccines were known to cause cardiomyopathy. I happen to be in the top 1 percent of the population to die of a heart attack. Why would I risk taking something that might precipitate a coronary episode? I have been tested for Covid dozens of times because my wife has been in and out of hospitals and rehabs. Always negative. Experientia docet.
Tuesday, May 02, 2023
Words of wisdom…
… (10) Radix Omnium Malorum - by William F. Vallicella.
A wise and beautiful lady I know asked me tonight why I worried, since I pray.
Monday, May 01, 2023
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)