Nota bene: Ben Stein

Missed Tributes, by Ben Stein
Published 3/6/06

Now for a few humble thoughts about the Oscars.

"I did not see every second of it, but my wife did, and she joins me in noting that there was not one word of tribute, not one breath, to our fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan or to their families or their widows or orphans. There were pitifully dishonest calls for peace -- as if the people we are fighting were interested in any peace for us but the peace of the grave. But not one word for the hundreds of thousands who have served and are serving, not one prayer or moment of silence for the dead and maimed.

"Basically, the sad truth is that Hollywood does not think of itself as part of America, and so, to Hollywood, the war to save freedom from Islamic terrorists is happening to someone else. It does not concern them except insofar as it offers occasion to mock or criticize George Bush. They live in dreamland and cannot be gracious enough to thank the men and women who pay with their lives for the stars' ability to live in dreamland. This is shameful.

"The idea that it is brave to stand up for gays in Hollywood, to stand up against Joe McCarthy in Hollywood (fifty years after his death), to say that rich white people are bad, that oil companies are evil -- this is nonsense.

"All of these are mainstream ideas in Hollywood, always have been, always will be. For the people who made movies denouncing Big Oil, worshiping gays, mocking the rich to think of themselves as brave -- this is pathetic, childish narcissism.

"The brave guy in Hollywood will be the one who says that this is a fabulously great country where we treat gays, blacks, and everyone else as equal. The courageous writer in Hollywood will be the one who says the oil companies do their best in a very hostile world to bring us energy cheaply and efficiently and with a minimum of corruption. The producer who really has guts will be the one who says that Wall Street, despite its flaws, has done the best job of democratizing wealth ever in the history of mankind.

"No doubt the men and women who came to the Oscars in gowns that cost more than an Army Sergeant makes in a year, in limousines with champagne in the back seat, think they are working class heroes to attack America -- which has made it all possible for them. They are not. They would be heroes if they said that Moslem extremists are the worst threat to human decency since Hitler and Stalin. But someone might yell at them or even attack them with a knife if they said that, so they never will.

"Hollywood is above all about self: self-congratulation, self-promotion, and above all, self-protection. This is human and basic, but let's not kid ourselves. There is no greatness there in the Kodak theater. The greatness is on patrol in Kirkuk. The greatness lies unable to sleep worrying about her man in Mosul. The greatness sleeps at Arlington National Cemetery and lies waiting for death in VA Hospitals. God help us that we have sunk so low as to confuse foolish and petty boasting with the real courage that keeps this nation and the many fools in it alive and flourishing on national TV."

Chronicle of the Damned, part 6

Catholic DEMOCRATS in U.S. House of Representatives assert "primacy of conscience" over Church teaching

Washington, Mar. 01 (CWNews.com) - A group of Catholic members of the US House of Representatives has issued a "Statement of Principles" in which they claim a "commitment to the basic principles at the heart of Catholic social teaching," but refuse to accept the Church's opposition to legal abortion.

Interesting. But it seems to me that the sanctity of human life and protection of life at its most defenseless stages is the heart of Catholic social teaching.

The "Statement of Principles" was released on February 28, and signed by 55 of the 72 Catholic Democrats in the House. The group professes its commitment to carrying out Catholic social teaching in many ways: "reducing the rising rates of poverty; increasing access to education for all; pressing for increased access to health care; and taking seriously the decision to go to war."

Ok, now I get it. Translation: Catholic social teaching is a useful tool to justify leveraging more and more money from the taxpayers to pay for fiscally irresponsible entitlement spending. (Quick question for the valiant 55: what good is health care, education, subsistence, and just war if YOU'RE DEAD BECAUSE YOU WERE MURDERED BY ABORTION?)

The "Statement of Principle" does not mention other controversial issues on which Democratic lawmakers have often clashed with Church teachings, such as euthanasia, embryonic research, and government recognition of same-sex unions.

Hmmm. They usually claim conservative Catholics cherry-pick social teaching for selective issues. It proves the old political adage that the Left never accuses anyone of doing anything they haven't yet done themselves.

The Democratic group goes on to acknowledge "the undesirability of abortion-- we do not celebrate its practice."

So they're basically saying "We know abortion is wrong but we will give it legal sanction (and federal funding)." Translation: we're pandering to our wacko political base.

Here's the kicker: But the statement says that although they recognize the Church's teaching authority the lawmakers "believe also in the primacy of conscience."

So they recognize the Church's teaching authority as handed down by Christ but they oppose what that authority says? Am I missing something here?? Catholic teaching on conscience and the formation of conscience is paramount, yes, but it's also clear as the grain alcohol Ted Kennedy is so fond of: "The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings. One may never do evil so that good may result from it" (source: Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1783 & 1789).


Their chief offense is causing grave scandal to the Faith by giving the outward impression that active dissent and heresy can be staples of the virtuous life. Thus their home will be very near the bottom, Circle Eight, where falsifiers and corrupt politicians dwell. They will also be found in Circle Six amongst the heretics. Poenitentiam agite!

The Ides of March

"Beware!"

Quote for the Day

"The world has no room for cowards. We must all be ready somehow to toil, to suffer, to die. And yours is not the less noble because no drum beats before you when you go out into your daily battlefields, and no crowds shout about your coming when you return from your daily victory or defeat."
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Race in America

Do read this excellent interview with Shelby Steele from American Enterprise.

Where are the Pro-Life Democrats?

from National Review Online

by Father Thomas Williams

excerpt:
"Just as you don’t have the polytheistic wing of Islam or the seal-clubbing wing of Greenpeace, you don’t have the pro-abortion wing of the Catholic Church. Certain non-negotiable moral standards define Catholicism just as surely as doctrinal beliefs do. We all advocate a big tent, but it can stretch only so far until it rips asunder."

"To justify their position, the authors of the statement appeal to the so-called “primacy of conscience.” Yet conscience is not a pass to excuse wrongdoing. Would it make any difference if a serial killer claimed he was following his conscience when he murdered his victims? Even if the politicians are following their conscience, Catholic morality makes an important distinction between good conscience and bad conscience, and a conscience that sees nothing wrong with killing the innocent falls decidedly in the second category. Our first duty concerning conscience is to form it according to the moral law, and especially for a Catholic, no doubt can exist regarding the objective evil of abortion."

"True, the statement acknowledges the “undesirability” of abortion, and the signers hasten to assure their constituencies that they do not “celebrate its practice.” That they do not “celebrate” the greatest social ill of our time may prove cold comfort to those who spend much of their free time actively campaigning for its abolition. And as regards its “undesirability,” this poorly chosen term will likely provoke only indignation. Hangnails are undesirable; under-seasoned salads are undesirable; lines at the cash register are undesirable. Abortion is repugnant and evil. Can you imagine a politician stepping forward and (with much hand-wringing) asserting that he finds rape “undesirable” and that he does not “celebrate” its practice, but that he will not stop defending legislation that permits it? Such a politician would rightly be ridden out of town on a rail."

The Right to...bear cigarettes

I came across this somewhere in cyberspace and it amused me greatly. The writer does forget that " possess anywhere, anytime" is no longer valid- thanks to alcohol and tobacco free zones.
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I know it's hard to believe, but as a free American, I still enjoy the following rights:

The right to buy cigarettes.

The right to possess cigarettes, anywhere and at any time.

The right to keep and bear cigarettes, a right which exists no matter where I am, because cigarettes are actually legal.

The right even to brandish cigarettes.

It's the brandishing which most fascinates me, because it's as legal as it is inflammatory in nature. Considering the general disgust I feel for the anti-smoking movement (especially its more pompous manifestations), I think there might even be a First Amendment right to brandish cigarettes as a form of political free speech expression.

How far can cigarette brandishing go? Is there a legal definition of smoking? Clearly, there's a slippery slope somewhere, but certainly brandishing the pack is not smoking. Nor is tapping the pack.

How about pulling out an individual cigarette and tapping it?

Putting it in your mouth? Is that smoking? Sorry, but without fire, there can be no smoke.

What about pulling out a pack of matches? Getting ready to strike one? Actually striking a match? How close does the match have to get to the cigarette before we can call it "smoking."

Can there be such an offense as attempted smoking? And even if the attempt requires intent to smoke, could deliberate cigarette brandishing in publicly marked "NO SMOKING" areas be considered disturbing the peace? If so, why?

Well Done: Athanasius (contra mundum)

" The whole world against Athanasius, and Athanasius against it; half a hundred of years spent in doubtful trial which of the two in the end should prevail --the side which had all, or else the part which had no friends but God and death--the one a defender of his innocency, the other a finisher of all his troubles."

A staunch defender of the Incarnation of Christ against the heresy of Arianism, Athanasius of Egypt (297-373 A.D.) repudiated the belief that Jesus was not fully God. In defending the full deity of Christ, Athanasius was exiled five times, spending nearly twenty years in hiding or on the run.

This heresy has been revived by the Watchtower Society (JW) who agree with Arius and thus deny Christ and damn themselves.

Cardinal Newman said, Athanasius stands as "a principal instrument after the Apostles by which the sacred truths of Christianity have been conveyed and secured to the world."

Athanasius is also responsible for the New Testament canon used by Protestants and Catholics.

"Let what was confessed by the Fathers of Nicaea prevail", he wrote to a philosopher-friend and correspondent in the closing years of his life .

The traditional prayer that remembers Athanasius is as follows:

Uphold thy Church, O God of truth, as thou didst uphold thy Servant Athanasius, to maintain and proclaim boldly the catholic faith against all opposition, trusting solely in the grace of thine eternal Word, who took upon himself our humanity that we might share his divinity; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.


Through God's grace, the mighty efforts of Athanasius were blessed. Today, we too affirm the Nicene Creed.

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

Bring those Loeb Classical Library books off the shelf...and read them!

Harvard remembers the Classics, liberal arts

selections from the article:

Indeed, one of the most moving things in Petrarch’s life and work is his sense of the precious rarity of good books—the opposite of our own postmodern sense of literature’s crushing abundance...“I am possessed by one insatiable passion, which I cannot restrain—nor would I if I could...I cannot get enough books,” he wrote to a relative in 1346.

...Italian Renaissance humanist Pier Paolo Vergerio: “We call those studies liberal, then, which are worthy of a free [liber] man: they are those through which virtue and wisdom are either practiced or sought, and by which the body or mind is disposed towards all the best things.”

Petrarch offered a warning, often forgotten:

And although Petrarch was himself one of the most learned men of his day, he maintains that he would rather be known as a good Christian than as a great classicist: “If You choose to grant me nothing else,” he prays, “let it at least be my portion to be a good man. This I cannot be unless I greatly love and devoutly worship You. I was born for this, and not for learning. If learning alone is granted us, it puffs up and ruins, and does not edify. It becomes a gleaming shackle of the soul, a wearisome pursuit, and a noisy burden.”

The Return of Patriarchy

“When the ordinary thought of a highly cultivated people begins to regard ‘having children’ as a question of pro’s and con’s,” Oswald Spengler, the German historian and philosopher, once observed, “the great turning point has come.”

Read more.... from this month's Foreign Policy

If you are a "DINK" (Dual Income No Kids) be warned. By sheer demographics, conservatives will inherit the earth.


a selection from the above article:

That was the lesson King Pyrrhus learned in the third century B.C., when he marched his Greek armies into the Italian peninsula and tried to take on the Romans. Pyrrhus initially prevailed at a great battle at Asculum. But it was, as they say, “a Pyrrhic victory,” and Pyrrhus could only conclude that “another such victory over the Romans and we are undone.” The Romans, who by then were procreating far more rapidly than were the Greeks, kept pouring in reinforcements—“as from a fountain continually flowing out of the city,” the Greek historian Plutarch tells us. Hopelessly outnumbered, Pyrrhus went on to lose the war, and Greece, after falling into a long era of population decline, eventually became a looted colony of Rome.

Like today’s modern, well-fed nations, both ancient Greece and Rome eventually found that their elites had lost interest in the often dreary chores of family life. “In our time all Greece was visited by a dearth of children and a general decay of population,” lamented the Greek historian Polybius around 140 B.C., just as Greece was giving in to Roman domination. “This evil grew upon us rapidly, and without attracting attention, by our men becoming perverted to a passion for show and money and the pleasures of an idle life.” But, as with civilizations around the globe, patriarchy, for as long as it could be sustained, was the key to maintaining population and, therefore, power.

Quote for the Day

"I think conservatives should study the ideas and arguments that prevail on the left. There is always something to learn from these arguments, if only which way the wind of resentment is now blowing. And lifting your eyes from this joyless stuff, you will thank God that you are a conservative."
- Roger Scruton

Quote for the Day

"The only artists who can show great originality are those trained in distinct and established schools; for originality and genius must be largely fed and raised on the shoulders of some old tradition."

— George Santayana (1863-1952)

Quote for the Day

"Nothing more unpredictable than the mob; nothing more obscure than public opinion; nothing more deceptive than the whole political system."
Marcus Tullius Cicero