EUREKA!!

One of my heroes is Dr. Stanley Williams, PhD. When his series, "Trying to Fly With One Wing" was posted at Catholic Exchange, I was enthralled. I sought it eagerly, as it seemed one of the finest bits of apologetics I had ever encountered. Eventually it disappeared from CE, and then from the entire web, as far as I could tell.

But now I have found it again! First at CatholicLane, where they are up to part 4, and then after some googling, on a blog devoted entirely to the series. I am thrilled to find it available once again, and I'm making sure it's in my sidebars.

Blogrolling number... 65. I checked.

I find blogs I like all the time. I find blogs I add to my bookmarks and blogroll regularly.

I have found no more than three or four blogs where I feel compelled to go back to the first post and read all of the archives.

BadCatholic is such a blog. Marc Barnes may only be 18, but his writing is full of love of life, orthodoxy, and Christ, His Blessed Mother, His Church, and His saints, not to mention such delightful neologisms as "badassery" and "destupidification," combined with a stark humility, demonstrated by his free and open admission that no Catholic on earth since the Assumption, least of all him, is anywhere close to perfect.

I can't promise that you'll enjoy any of it, let alone all of it. Still, I would do you a disservice if I didn't suggest you go and look.

Why I Don't Fear China

It's hard to make war when everyone is old: China, damage of one-child law points to "risk of collapse"

If there is to be another great, horrendous conflict, it will likely be Humanae Vitae Catholics with Quiverfull evangelicals on one side, and such Islamic societies that reject contraception and abortion on the other.

In Which I Remain Too Lazy to Create Content of My Own

I refer you to this column by David Warren. Tolle, legge. It is a delight.

In Which I am Too Busy to Create Content of My Own

so I refer you to this post by Simcha Fisher. She ably demolishes what is in truth a presentist attack upon George Washington.

In related news, the NAACP requested that a national boycott be made upon the city of Charlotte, NC, because they had the nerve! the effrontery! to allow the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board to make up for snow days by scheduling classes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Why, that's proof positive that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are the center and pinnacle of racism in America today!

Do you think for a moment there will be similar protests, should they go and do it again next month, on President's Day? My respect for Dr. King is enormous; he took a principled stand against evil at great cost to himself. This makes me wonder if the NAACP is verging towards idolatry. Dr. King was a man and a hero, not a god.

David Warren

David Warren is quite possibly my favorite journalist alive today. He has been writing, lately, on "What is to be done?"This column is the one where he hits it way, way out of the park. Go and read it.

NOW.

Blogrollin via Conversion Diary

Jennifer F. recently posted her top 12 links of 2010. The following caught my attention:

Contraception and the Vocations Crisis -- in which the admirable Fr. Dwight Longenecker (whose blog is in my roll) expounds on three different ways in which contraception undermines the call to a clerical or religious vocation,

These Stone Walls

These Stone Walls has just been added to my blogroll. It is composed on a rather flaky word-processor typewriter in a New Hampshire penitentiary by a priest who will in all likelihood remain in prison until (if) he reaches the age of 108. He will serve this sentence of 67 years because he maintains his innocence. Had he admitted guilt, he would have served no more than three years, and perhaps no more than one.

I just started reading this blog about four or five hours ago. It is absolutely RIVETING. I should have been in bed two or three hours ago. I am having a very difficult time leaving it alone. Part of this is because Fr. Gordon Macrae is demonstrating tremendous Christian charity in outrageously trying and difficult circumstances. I recommend him and his writings very highly.

Yet Another Blogrolled Video

This one came to my attention via Dr. Sanity (she's in the sidebar; I'm too lazy to look up the link right now).

This video is one of those XtraNormal videos of little to no artistic merit, beyond the dialogue. This one intends to be very informative on the subject of quantitative easing, and it by and large succeeds.

Proof Of God's Grace

that people would come together to do this:



I would have LOVED to have been there for it.

Salute to Fr. Longenecker.

Forced Intimacy

I would be very surprised to find out my reader(s) are unfamiliar with outrageous molestation of passengers by TSA agents. (I could get more links if I wanted. Check out Google Search 1 and Google Search 2).

Imagine how you feel about that sort of personal violation when you fly. Now imagine it as part of your living arrangements -- something to which you are subject 24/7/365.

That's what military life is going to be like if/when Obama repeals the prohibition on gays serving in the military.

By the way, this is NOT an original thought. I owe it to this article on CE.

A Clarion Call for Subsidiarity

There's a reason that David Warren's column is in my bookmark and my blogroll. He is an excellent writer who defends the moral, the true, the just, and the beautiful.

Here is a case in point. You should go read it.

And since Mr. Warren doesn't have commentary on his site, come back here and comment.

A Blast From the Past

This was originally posted August 7, 2007. I got to add a reason, and it's so AWESOME I had to repost the whole thing with the new reason at #37.

The Top 100 Reasons Burt Gummer is Better than MacGyver

Americans have a fascination with how-to, and even more so with improvisational technology. The popularity of shows like "This Old House," "Junkyard Wars," "Battle Bots," and yes, "Tremors: The Series" all reflect this fascination. But, of course, the first show to use improvisational technology as a gimmick was "MacGyver."

But let's face it. MacGyver was nowhere near as cool a character as Burt Gummer, the tough guy of "Tremors." Nothing about the show was as cool as "Tremors." And so, in tribute to Burt Gummer and all the people who've composed and posted their lists of the top 100 reasons why the original and Next Generation Star Trek captains, first officers, science officers, chief engineers, and doctors are better than each other, I'm posting this.

I know, I don't have 100 reasons. But hey, I came up with 30 all by myself in a day or two, and a couple more while typing this up, so I'm sure there must be at least that many. Maybe my four readers, if they've seen both "Tremors: The Series" and "MacGyver" could add some more.

37. There would never be anything like this for MacGyver.
36. Two words: Excessive force.
35. There is absolutely nothing contrived about Burt Gummer.
34. When Burt Gummer meets an obvious nutcase, he says so.
33. Burt Gummer is a serious opponent, while MacGyver is only an annoyance.
32. When something's out to kill Burt Gummer, he kills it first.
31. Other people actually want to be like Burt Gummer.
30. Burt Gummer has backups and reserves of everything.
29. You can readily believe that Burt Gummer could survive naked in the wilderness with nothing more than a Leatherman.
28. Burt Gummer remains devoted to his first wife.
27. Burt Gummer cynically uses the forces he hates against each other for his own benefit.
26. "Tremors: The Series" is nothing like "Knight Rider."
25. Burt Gummer doesn't have hateful animated middle-aged chain smoking DMV clerks lusting after his body.
24. Burt Gummer is not politically correct.
23. Burt Gummer worries more about his own welfare than that of his foes.
22. Burt Gummer likes weapons and is proud of it.
21. The people who turn to Burt Gummer for their safety are nearly as clever, inventive, and tough as he is.
20. Burt Gummer doesn't have to narrate himself to get his exposition done.
19. Burt Gummer's 4 wheel drive would eat MacGyver's Jeep Wrangler for breakfast.
18. Everyone in Burt Gummer's community is a working entrepreneur.
17. Burt Gummer would never wear his hair in a mullet.
16. Burt Gummer can inspire even lifelong federal bureaucrats to take decisive and necessary action in a crisis.
15. Burt Gummer isn't a pansy.
14. Burt Gummer tries simple solutions first.
13. Burt Gummer doesn't need a Babe of the Week to prove his manhood. (warning: that link is to TVTropes!)
12. When Burt Gummer gets stuck with a youthful twerp, he turns the situation to his advantage.
11. Burt Gummer is famous, but he doesn't let it go to his head.
10. Burt Gummer treats lethal menaces as such.
9. Burt Gummer and his neighbors cooperate well, in spite of their diversity and individualism.
8. Burt Gummer doesn't take unneccessary risks.
7. Burt Gummer knows Hollywood tough guys for the idiots that nearly all of them are.
6. Burt Gummer works for a living.
5. Burt Gummer makes contingency plans.
4. Burt Gummer lives in an environment that would kill MacGyver.
3. Burt Gummer sniffed out a secret underground lab from hundreds of miles away by following graboid tracks.
2. Nobody could ever just slug Burt Gummer.
1. One word: GUNS.

If you have more to suggest, oh please oh please DO. If you want to debate any of these, go ahead. But if you want to post the top 100 reasons why MacGyver is cooler, post on your own blog. I'll link to it here. I'll even give you a freebie: If anyone said "maggot DNA" on MacGyver, Mac would point out that maggots are the larval form of flies.

Subsidiarity in Anticorruption

I've been reading my way forward in the Uncubed webcomic archives. It's an autobiographical comic by the creator of PC Weenies. He described an encounter with the corruption that is endemic to India here.

When you live in a land where the law rules, as I do, it's really easy to forget that not all lands are so blessed, or the grave harm such corruption does, especially to the poorest of the poor. Imagine having to pay a month's wages to get a doctor's appointment, or a license to do business, or to run a charity, or to get your neighborhood connected to municipal utilities. This is the sad reality in many poor and developing parts of the world, where the Judeo-Christian ethic of government employees owing service to the polity has never taken hold.

I found in the comments a link to a Boston Globe article (which is well worth reading, btw). The article details anecdotes of 5th Pillar's efforts to fight bribery by giving people, especially the extremely poor, zero rupee notes to hand over when a bribe is solicited. There are three significant differences between the zero rupee note and the 50 rupee note: the denomination goes from 50 to 0 (obviously); it is printed on only one side; and the 0 rupee note includes a phrase that the bearer “promises to neither accept nor give a bribe” in place of a claim of legal tender.

Seriously, what is not to like about this? It takes the struggle directly to the people who are most seriously harmed by graft, making it a wonderful act of solidarity with the poor; it does so with a powerful appeal to conscience; it works without government intervention; it's remarkably inexpensive; there are (as yet) NO reports of it not working; and it doesn't get anyone in trouble.

Same Sex Marriage -- Why Not?

Salute to Mark Shea, who only posted the first of these videos on his blog. I'm going to post all 4, which is nearly an hour of video, strictly on the strength of his recommendation; I have yet to watch them through.

The World of Salamanca by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

The World of Salamanca by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. Go and read. Salute to The Western Confucian.

This is just way too cool to limit to my twitter feed.

On Vampires

Never mind what I have to say about vampires. You should DEFINITELY go and read what John C. Wright has to say about vampires. Salute to Mark Shea.

Greens jump the shark!

Salute to the Western Confucian.

Here's the video. Greens did this themselves, without any prompting, with the idea that this is funny, and you'll agree. Be advised, it's nearly as violent as photos of aborted children.



There's commentary on Lew Rockwell and James Delingpole's Guardian blog.

EDIT: Some thoughts of my own....
the murders are portrayed as essentially inconsequential to those who do them. And they do them immediately after lying about the consequences. These things point out first, the value that the AGW types put on human life; second, their respect for the rule of law; and third, their commitment to honesty.

Further update: 10:10Global took down this video of theirs the same day they posted it (and yes, it really is the creation of 10:10Global, an advocacy group going on about the need to cut global carbon emissions by 10% every year, intending to start in 2010). They can no doubt ask Google to remove this posting of it, but it's likely that the detailed write-up currently on Wikipedia will remain, and that it will get re-posted each and every time it gets blocked or taken down.

Pressure your senators!

Leahy and Hatch, two longstanding proponents of nearly any legislation that restricts freedom, have come up with a real doozy: S. 3804, the the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (THOMAS link). There is an online opposition group, Demand Progress. Their front page links to stories from nearly a dozen sources.

I urge you to call and write your senators, and tell them to oppose the bill. No need for details, just tell them "OPPOSE S. 3804, the the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act." No point in getting verbose, all your senator will get is a report telling how many have written, called, and emailed in on each side of the issue.

Still More Blogrollin'

Deo gratias, Dr. Sanity has returned to the Blogosphere. In my typically inattentive manner, I failed to notice for nearly a month.

The whole content of her first post since April is this YouTube Video, deftly showing the contrast between President Obama, and one of his predecessors in the Oval Office, to whom his followers are fond of comparing him.