Quote of the Day

"Some people in this chamber love the Constitution more than they love the safety of this nation. We should all send President Bush a letter thanking him for protecting us."

-Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama)

Slowing Down

I think I'm going to go to "light" blogging for a while.

Should you be in the Public Eye?

Should a person has been involved in something scandalous be in the public eye talking about religious and moral issues?

What if there are accusations that they have been neither admitted or denied, but sidestepped?

How should we, as people who care about the things this person says, treat such a person?

Would it make a difference if the incident was before they came to their current moral/religious position? If it is after, would it make a difference if the person came clean?

Would it make a difference if it was something totally agregious like taking advantage of someone who is vulnerable (young, drunk, at a low point), or if it was just a moral slip up (like Mitch in The Firm)?

Would it make a difference if the person were totally no judgmental?

Torture

There is an interesting discussion on torture here. Maybe I ought to lay out my argument against torture.

Renaissance Men Rock!

If your kids want to make it in the 21st Century, they need to study the liberal arts.

I continue to work my way through The World is Flat. I'm not sure if I can encapsulate the theme of the book, but it is basically about how technology and innovations in the way we do things makes for a more level playing field in many areas, makes outsourcing jobs easier, etc. There are chapters on blogging, and how information is so easily available on the net. etc.

Anyway, he also addresses the problem of jobs since people in India and China can do not only manual labor tasks, but also intellectual and service work much cheaper (and apparently do a better job because these are high prestige jobs for people in India--and for other reasons).

Let me cut to the chase: He argues that if you learn only the nuts and bolts of your field, be it accounting, journalism (yes, even that gets outsourced), law, business, engineering, you are likely to find your self scraping by or completely useless. You need to offer something more be it a personal touch, higher expertise and proficiency, or innovation.

The education he recommends for young people, and the direction he suggests for America if it wants to compete globally is to promote the study of liberal arts.

One concrete reason for this is that (not an exact quote): Since the East can do left brain work cheaper, we must be able to do right brain work better. Innovation and adaptation to changing circumstances (who doesn't need this skill?) is best done by someone who has mastered more than one discipline (case in point, Leonardo Da Vinci) because such a person can take priciples and thinking from one discipline and apply it to the other. A person who has studied, math, music, literature, history, philosophy, foreign languages etc. is better prepared for right brain endeavors--though if you want to be an engineer you still need to study math!

He also has an interesting formula for success: CQ + PQ > IQ (Curiosity Quotient plus Passion [about learning and about your work] Quotient are more important than Intellectual Quotient.

So then all of you "grade grabbers", and utilitarians who were always asking us "what are you going to do with that?", on behalf of all liberal arts majors, let me say: Nanny Nanny boo boo, looks like you'll be the one flipping burgers!

Stand Firm in the Hypocrisy

I believe in the value of words. We hear it said by politicians that they are persons of deep “faith”, but that they will not let that affect their role as a perfect servant. We also hear people say that, for the individual, “faith” should be kept separated from public life, that it should not influence their politics and that they should not infuse their “faith” into their political efforts.

But this is not faith. The word faith comes from the Latin fides. Fides was the goddess of loyalty in Roman Mythology. Hypocrisy comes from the Greek hupokrinesthai, to play a part or pretend—I might use the word “fake”.

I think it’s time for people, in intellectual honesty, to proclaim that they are men and women of hypocrisy. So hear is a new set of mantras:

“I am a person of deep hypocrisy.”
“My hypocrisy is very important to me.”
“My hypocrisy is a big part of who I am.”
“I’m a man of hypocrisy.”
“My parents taught me the importance of hypocrisy.”
--A much better use of language.

Put Your Money Where your Mouth is or Realeconomik?

I believe in supporting local business. On the other hand, I have been wondering whether my shopping habits can make a difference, or if it only delays the enevitable. I've been saving my pennies and I want to buy a new canoe. The locally owned shop has the canoe I want. The chain store has the same canoe for $130 cheaper. My wife says I should buy local because of all that I have said in the past. Even if I still felt as strongly about buying local, isn't this making a $130 donation if I go to the local shop? I mean, I don't mind paying slightly higher prices, but is this a business or a charity?

How should I look at this situation? I'd really like to hear thoughts from both sides.

Is that Jesus?

A Republican in a wheelchair entered a restaurant one afternoon and asked the waitress for a cup of coffee. The Republican looked across the restaurant and asked, 'Is that Jesus sitting over there?' The waitress nodded 'yes,' so the Republican requested that she give Jesus a cup of coffee, on him.

The next patron to come in was a Libertarian with a hunched back. He shuffled over to a booth, painfully sat down, and asked the waitress for a cup of hot tea. He also glanced across the restaurant and asked, 'Is that Jesus over there?' The waitress nodded, so the Libertarian asked her to give Jesus a cup of hot tea, 'My treat.'

The third patron to come into the restaurant was a Democrat on crutches. He hobbled over to a booth, sat down and hollered, 'Hey there, honey! How's about gettin' me a cold glass of Miller Light!' He, too, looked across the restaurant and asked, 'Is that God's boy over there?' The waitress once more nodded, so the Democrat directed her to give Jesus a cold glass of beer. 'On my bill,' he said.

As Jesus got up to leave, he passed by the Republican, touched him and said, 'For your kindness, you are healed.' The Republican felt the strength come back into his legs, got up, and danced a jig out the door.

Jesus also passed by the Libertarian, touched him and said, 'For your kindness, you are healed.' The Libertarian felt his back straightening up, and he raised his hands, praised the Lord and did a series of back flips out the door.

Then Jesus walked towards the Democrat. The Democrat jumped up and yelled, 'Don't touch me! I'm collecting disability.'

Wimpy Catholics

Tim Shipe made an interesting comment on Inside Blog.

I find the lack of contact between faithful Catholics and the culture, the political structures, the media etc.. absolutely inexusable. The one big glaring virtue to the American system is the ability to get on the horn, get on the ballot, get off your butt, and change the world for Christ.

I have spoken to newspaper editors who have admitted to me that they would like to go to bat on this or that topic- ex. taking the palestinian narrative more seriously- but they are pressured by who calls, how many call, and do they request a sit-down meeting. If a tiny minority of pro-Israeli American Jews can shape our Congress, our Presidency, our Media, so soundly with good old fashonied organizing- what is wrong with us?

I have found most Catholic parishes barely interested in shaping the political landscape of which the pastors and faithful moan and groan about all the time. Minorities have to stand up and be counted or they will be overlooked or oppressed- history shows this over and over. Catholics are so bound by the devil with the Pro-Life camps pitted against the Social Justice camps- it is a clear divide/conquer strategy and most Catholics I know are being played like fiddles- Catholic Left- Catholic Right- how about straight Catholic- Dorothy Day/Mother Teresa- One Church- liberal give the conservative his due, conservative give the liberal his- you both make some sense.

If Catholics had their act together, we wouldn't be the butt of so much unholy humor, we wouldn't be destroying Iraqis and creating enraged jihadists at every turn, we wouldn't be killing our offspring and cheering right to choose death for our kids, we wouldn't be fighting a losing cause in standing up to a divorce/gay oversexualized culture, we wouldn't be calling social programs 'the beast", we wouldn't be questioning the value of faith-based organizations, we wouldn't have a global economy built on the backs of Chinese slave laborers and poor, desperate workers trapped in corrupt/failed nations with border guards keeping everyone and everything just in place so that the elites can keep their station secured, Hollywood wouldn't be making Da Vinci Code movies anymore than they are likely to make a Protocols of Zion film...but alas, American Catholics are either too wimpy, or too caught up in the exciting idiocies of party politics, to be of much service to the world for Christ's poor and vulnerable.

The only reason we are so powerless in America is that we are so clueless as to what freedom we have here in America- we are like the cave-dweller in Plato's parable gazing at shadows, missing out on the direct sunlight so easily found.

"Ten Conservative Books" by Russell Kirk

Hattip to Tertium Quid

Russell Kirk spoke to the Heritage Foundation on 9/11/86 and gave his reccomendations for Ten Conservative Books worth reading. I think I'll summarize his introduction in a future post, but for now, let me tell you the ten books he reccomends (Methinks it would be more fun that way), and I'll throw in the books and authors that got honorable mention.

THE TEN BOOKS
Reflections on the Revolution in France (Burke)
Democracy in America (Tocqueville)
The American Democrat (James Fenimore Cooper)
The American Republic (Orestes Brownson)
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (James Fitzjames Stephen)
Is Life Worth Living? (W.H. Mallock)
Democracy and Leadership (Irving Babbit)
The Attack on Leviathan (Donald Davidson)
The Social Crisis of our Times (Wilhelm Ropke)
Notes Toward the Definition of Culture (T.S. Eliot)

HONORABLE MENTION
Conservatism: Dream and Reality (Robert Nisbett)
The Case for Conservatism (Francis Graham Wilson)
The Case for Conservatism (Quintin Hogg)
The Portable Conservative (Kirk, ed.)
The Conservative Mind (Kirk)
The Political Writings of John Adams (George A. Peek, ed.)
A Disquisition on Government (John C. Calhoun)
A Disquistion on the Constitution (John C. Calhoun)

AUTHORS (BESIDES THE ABOVE)
Walter Scott
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Robert Louis Stevenson
Benjamin Disraeli
Joseph Conrad
Rudyard Kipling
Henry St. John Bolingbroke
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Paul Elmer More
Bernard Iddings Bell
Malcolm Muggeridge
Alexandre Solzhenitsyn