The Right Is Dead, Long Live the Right!

The Tory Anarchist makes the observation that "the most interesting developments on the Right are taking place on the margins" — What’s Right With the Right. He lambastes "the yuppies who descend on Washington to take jobs in the conservative establishment" and the "dead and discredited orthodoxy" they serve. In contrast, he speaks of "a confident and positive movement," which is "not fueled by resentment" and "angry white men," but one which is, rather, "hopeful" and "forward-looking."

He also describes "a new direction in traditionalism, away from post-industrial angst and toward a post-industrial way of life." The "religious element," he notes, is "very different from the tired cant of the Falwells and Dobsons." Finally, of the movement, he says "it’s brightest lights, unlike many traditionalists of old, are not anti-market." He links to two blogs exemplifying the trend — A Thinking Reed and Upturned Earth.

Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos Calls Summorum Pontificum a "Gift for All"

[link via Holy Smoke]

Rev. Dr. Chuck Baldwin on the Alex Jones Show

The former getting the latter's endorsement — Alex Jones Endorses Chuck Baldwin. The website — Chuck Baldwin for President 2008.

My Muslim Doppelgänger?

Despite our differences in religion, Abu Hatem أبو حاتم expresses political and economic ideas almost identical to my own, only he does so much more lucidly.

Take, for example, this post — Muslim-Christian Relations. He begins by announcing that his "blog is about politics, not religion." Mine, too. Like him, "I am not a religious scholar," and "I do not feel it is appropriate that I go too deep into religion lest I fall off the deep end." I have not always taken this advice, and think that more Catholic bloggers should do so. Like him, "I am not a syncrenist... and I believe in the truth of my tradition." Be sure to read the rest of his post, and this extraordinary document to which he links, in which "138 Muslim scholars, clerics and intellectuals have unanimously come together for the first time since the days of the Prophet r to declare the common ground between Christianity and Islam" — A Common Word Between Us and You.

Turning back to politics, there is this post, in which he declares himself "a Burkean Whig, a conservative with enough of a dose of (natural law) classical liberalism to be a federalist on moral issues (in the spirit of the principle of subsidiarity!)" — Fusing Liberty and Tradition?

Korean Vocations

They're growing — Korea: number of Catholic priests increases. The article reports that "as of Dec. 31, 2007, the country had 4,116 priests, up 142 from 2006, apart from 32 bishops." The flock they serve has also increased: "the number of Catholics in 2007 at 4,873,447, an increase of 2.2 percent from the 2006 figure, or 9.7 percent of South Korea's 50,034,357 people."

Barack Hussein Obama, Buchananite Economic Nationalist

I'm for genuine free trade, but Sen. Obama is right about the so-called free so-called trade so-called agreement between the USA and South Korea, as reported in this English-language pro-FTA Korean daily — Obama's comments may actually aid FTA. The article reports that the Korean government has said that "Barack Obama’s opposition to the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement is proof that the deal favors Korea." More:

Obama’s remark that the “approval of the agreement as negotiated would give Korean exports essentially unfettered access to the U.S. market and would eliminate our best opportunity for obtaining genuinely reciprocal market access in one of the world’s largest economies,” should be an assurance to Koreans, the official said.

And it should be a wake-up call to Americans! Of course the Koreans wrenched a deal that favors them out of the negotiations; like the Chinese, Japanese, and Saudis, they own huge amounts of our debt amassed to pay for Mr. Bush's foreign entanglements. They own us.

FTA agreements, it should be remembered, are just a new form of Mercantilism, as this article by Jeffrey Tucker attests — Free Trade versus Free-trade Agreements.

James Howard Kunstler in the WaPo

EnergyBulletin.net links to the article by the Peak Oil prophet, in which he calls the "increasingly shrill cry for 'solutions'" as "just another symptom of the delusional thinking that now grips the nation, especially among the educated and well-intentioned" — Wake Up, America. We're Driving Toward Disaster.

Mr. Kunstler reminds us that "the 'peak oil' story" is "not about running out of oil" but "about the instabilities that will shake the complex systems of daily life as soon as the global demand for oil exceeds the global supply." He rightly says that "America's new favorite religion [is] not evangelical Christianity but the worship of unearned riches."

Follow-up on World Day of Prayer for the Church in China

AsiaTimes.it has three stories on the events of this past Saturday, centered around Our Lady of She-Shan. First, the Vicar of Christ's message — Pope calls for solidarity with China's earthquake victims and Christians. Second, the report that "[f]or the first time official and underground Catholics are gathered together in public in response to a plea by Benedict XVI to pray for the Church in China and its mission" — Cardinal Dias tells Chinese Catholics the Pope blesses them all, wants to see them united. Finally, a message froma "Chinese Catholic from the underground Church" — Even in persecution we pray to Our Lady of Sheshan.

Six-Pack Jimmy, Requiem æternam...

The "colorful, irascible, and indefatigable mayor of Buffalo from 1978 to 1994" has died — Former Mayor James D. Griffin dies at 78 in Orchard Park nursing home. I moved to Western New York in 1976 at the age of six and left in 1996 for the Far East, so Mayor Griffin and the city he served seem almost synonymous.

We all fondly remember His Honor's advice during the Blizzard of '85: "Stay inside, grab a six-pack and watch a good football game." Certainly one of the best political lines of the 20^th Century, we'd all be much better off would politicians would likewise understand the limits of government.

The article notes: "He defied the Democratic establishment to win election on the Conservative line in 1977, and he captured three more terms to rank as the longest-serving mayor in Buffalo history." In Buffalo, the terms "conservative" and "Democrat" are not mutually exclusive. In fact, Buffalo is a one-party town, and both very conservative and very Democrat.

"Abortion Is Murder" signs are ubiquitous. As a state senator, Mr. Griffin voted against New York's 1970 abortion (before 1973, states decided the matter), and in 1993, during the "Spring of Life," he invited Operation Rescue and other anti-abortion groups to the city to protest in front of abortuaries. Said His Honor, "If they can close down one abortion mill, they've done their job."

The article notes that "Buffalo... entered its steepest decline under his tenure, losing tens of thousands in population and becoming one of the nation's poorest cities." He took office the same year that Bethlehem Steel closed. How much blame can we place on a mayor whose federal government decided it would be a good idea to rob American tax-payers in order to fund foreign steelmakers through IMF and World Bank monies and then open up markets at home, all in the name of de-industrialization?

That utopian "service economy" the globalist planners promised us has really worked out well for Americans, hasn't it? Had there been more Six-Pack Jimmies in Washington, such a scheme would have never gotten off the ground.

Preceding James Griffin in the mayor's office was Stanley Makowski, and following him was Anthony Masiello, who in turn was followed by Byron Brown, the city's first black mayor. (The 15% and 50% rule of black politicians, which states that "if a city was between 16 and 49% black, they probably would NOT have a black mayor," does not hold true for Buffalo.) Thus, in an unspoken power-sharing agreement that could never have worked in Yugoslavia, Buffalo's four major ethnic groups have peacefully rotated the city's highest office among them.

His Honor may not have been up there with that greatest of Buffalo mayors, Grover Cleveland, but he is certainly deserving of respect, and our prayers:

Requiem æternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace.

Never the Twain Shall Meet?

The exquisitely beautiful statue of the Madonna del Latte above, made by a Chinese carver in the Philippines from African ivory in the 17^th Century (click on the image for more information), proves Rudyard Kipling, that apologist for imperialism, a sort of anti-G. K. Chesterton if you will, wrong, as do these photos — Images from Sheshan - May 24. (Thank you, Clare!)

Mel Gibson's Passion

A "sincere commitment to charity in its purest sense -- without ostentation" and "lend[ing] a sympathetic hand to troubled celebrities" — Mel Gibson reaches out to Britney Spears. An excerpt:

According to those who know (who declined to be named for fear of angering the actor), Gibson -- and his wife, Robyn -- reached out to Spears back in the dark days of February, around the time the troubled songstress was committed to the UCLA Medical Center's psychiatric unit. He was tortured by the idea that the pop star might end up dead, in part a casualty of the public's lurid fascination with her. Says one informed source, "There was no religious overtones, no endgame other than trying to show her there's a way to live your life without being in the fishbowl, and learning how to raise kids that way." Indeed, unlike Suri Cruise or Jaden Smith, the seven Gibson kids have avoided becoming tabloid grist.

Interesting that Catholics and other Christians are always being derided for being "judgmental," yet the libertine media that have condemned her get a free pass on this charge. In the past, Mr. Gibson was instrumental in the turnabout of two other figures crucified by the media: Robert Downey Jr. and Courtney Love.

Author Rachel Abramowitz seems to be stumbling toward something at the heart of The Catholic Faith when she speaks of the "personally flawed but still human Gibson." We're all "personally flawed;" that's what the Sacrament of Penance is for. If I might quote death-bed convert Oscar Wilde: "Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."

Organic Distributivism in Cuba

A video sent in by a reader — Urban Food Growing in Havana, Cuba.

Run, Gore, Run!

"Gore Vidal tells Mary Wakefield that America has forgotten its constitutional roots, and explains why Bobby Kennedy was ‘the biggest son of a bitch in politics" — Welcome to the United States of Amnesia. Said Mr. Vidal, "I’ve been thinking about running for Congress this year — I won’t now because it’s too late — just to have the power of analysing the lies of the administration." If only he had done so! The "outspoken critic of America’s foreign policy" would have been a towering presence in his wheelchair, "railing against the ongoing corruption of the once-great republic."

[link via LewRockwell.com]

Soderbergh's Che Film a Cinematic Triumph!

So says anti-Guevarista Humberto Fontova — Cannes Snores Through Che Biopic. Critics called the 4½-hour film "butt-numbing," "defiantly nondramatic," "a commercial impossibility," "something of a fiasco," and spoke of "viewers' bleary eyes." Mr. Fontova:

These reviewers, as usual, miss the point and bash the director unfairly. Director Stephen Soderbergh said flat-out that the purpose of his movie was, "to give you a sense of what it was like to hang out with this person (Che Guevara)."

He goes on to describe the "dreadful bore, incurable doofus, sadist and epic idiot" at the center of the film and to praise the director for "expertly transmitting this insufferable dork's personality and presence to a soon snoring audience."

"Another Stimulus Package for the Pentagon"

Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, says that "Bush’s wars are destroying our country’s economic position and permanently lowering the living standards of Americans" — War Abroad, Poverty at Home.

Those still drinking from the "war is good for the economy" kool-aid would be wise to familiarize themselves with The Broken Window Fallacy.

An Old Right Appreciation of the New Left

Bill Kauffman on the "decentralist, anti-interventionist, and almost Kirkian" radicals of the ’60s — When the Left Was Right. Says the author, "The sager figures in the New Left, however, rejected television, IBM, nomadic corporate culture, and the Cold War—all profoundly anti-conservative forces—and I wonder just what is so 'Left' about that?"

As we can expect from Mr. Kauffman, we are introduced to a wide range of interesting figures who defy easy categorization, from "Eugene McCarthy, the peace candidate of the 1968 Democratic primaries, the distributist-inclined Catholic intellectual who befuddled his conventional liberal supporters with talk of a salutary 'depersonalizing' of the presidency, of reducing that office to its constitutional dimensions, shorn of the accreted cult of personality" to "the 1969 New York City mayoralty campaign of Norman Mailer, who campaigned as a 'left conservative' on a platform of power to the neighborhoods." Much of the article is devoted to SDS president Carl Oglesby, "the New Left figure who first saw the potential of a Left-Right linkage."

My favorote part is when he begins by discussing how "the Panthers... were groping toward a Marcus Garvey-Malcolm X philosophy of community self-reliance" and "were solid on Second Amendment issues" and continues on to say that "Gov. George Wallace of the right-wing American Independent Party" embodied "the spirit of the New Left" and was, according to "the New Left monthly Ramparts... the only one of the three major candidates who is a true radical."

Gay "Marriage" Was Decided Decades Ago

"Extending marriage to same-sex couples negates the ideal that no parent should abandon his child," argues attorney Margaret Liu McConnell — Less Perfect Unions.

It's a good argument, but one that can be used against all marriages outside of the Catholic understanding of marriage. (It goes without saying that the "Catholic understanding of marriage" applies to many, perhaps most, marriages outside the Catholic Church and may not apply to many, perhaps most, marriages within the Catholic Church.) Ms. Liu McConnell reminds us that "[a]lthough same-sex advocates demand the freedom to marry—the recognition of what they view as a constitutionally guaranteed liberty interest—the essential promise of marriage is a loss of freedom." Marriage, she says, is "the promise to fulfill what is at once the most simple and obvious of duties and the most profound, time-consuming, and liberty-killing."

Once it this meaning, with no-fault divorce and even before, the word itself lost its meaning, and the battle was lost. "When words lose their meaning, people lose their liberty," Confucius is said to have had said.

Vive le Québec catholique!

Hats off to Premier Jean Charest — Crucifix Will Stay in Quebec National Assembly Says Premier. "We won't rewrite history," said the premier. "The church has played a major role in who we are today as a society, the crucifix is more than a religious symbol."

Andrew Cusack's thoughts are well worth reading — Christ at the heart of Quebec.

President Bush, Weak on Defense

Ralph Nader, saying the President "dishonored the White House and brought a pattern of waste," elaborted, "A wasteful defense is a weak defense and a weak defense, inspires waste" — Nader Calls for Bush-Cheney Impeachment. More:

Nader charged that the President and Vice President are currently committing five impeachable offenses, on a daily basis, including: criminal use of offense against Iraq; condoned and approved systematic torture; arresting thousands of Americans -- denying them habeas corpus and violating attorney/client privilege; signing 800 signing statements, precluding the president from actually having to follow the laws he signs; and systematic spying on Americans without judicial approval.

Totus Tuus

Honh Kong's prelate on the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China — The destiny of China and its Church are in Mary’s hands, says Cardinal Zen.

Today Is the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China

Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother,venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title "Help of Christians", the entire Church in China looks to you with devout affection. We come before you today to implore your protection. Look upon the People of God and, with a mother’s care, guide them along the paths of truth and love, so that they may always be a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens.

When you obediently said "yes" in the house of Nazareth, you allowed God’s eternal Son to take flesh in your virginal womb and thus to begin in history the work of our redemption. You willingly and generously cooperated in that work, allowing the sword of pain to pierce your soul, until the supreme hour of the Cross, when you kept watch on Calvary, standing beside your Son, who died that we might live.

From that moment, you became, in a new way, the Mother of all those who receive your Son Jesus in faith and choose to follow in his footsteps by taking up his Cross. Mother of hope, in the darkness of Holy Saturday you journeyed with unfailing trust towards the dawn of Easter. Grant that your children may discern at all times, even those that are darkest, the signs of God’s loving presence.

Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain all those in China,who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love. May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world, and of the world to Jesus. In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high, offering him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love. Help Catholics always to be credible witnesses to this love, ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the Church is built. Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and for ever. Amen!

A Monstrous Biopic

Rod Dreher reports on the upcoming film — The false romance of Che Guevara. He quotes from a review by The New York Times' A.O. Scott:

There is a lot, however, that the audience will not learn from this big movie, which has some big problems as well as major virtues. In between the two periods covered in “Che,” Guevara was an important player in the Castro government, but his brutal role in turning a revolutionary movement into a dictatorship goes virtually unmentioned. This, along with Benicio Del Toro’s soulful and charismatic performance, allows Mr. Soderbergh to preserve the romantic notion of Guevara as a martyr and an iconic figure, an idealistic champion of the poor and oppressed. By now, though, this image seems at best naïve and incomplete, at worst sentimental and dishonest. More to the point, perhaps, it is not very interesting.

Humberto Fontova has done a yeoman's job exposing the monster for what he was — Tune In, Turn On – Get Shot, Mass Murder by Troubled Youths, Che Guevara: 39 Years of Media Hype, and Che at the Oscars. Click on the last link for an account of how "the most complete human being of our time" (to use Sartre's hideous phrase) put a bullet in the back of the head of a twelve-year-old boy. Here's a Guevarist quote from el Che's gulag comandante days: "We don't need proof to execute a man. We only need proof that it's necessary to execute him. A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate."

"Our Father, which art in heaven..."

"The Young Fogey" answers the question I've always had about that seemingly incorrect relative pronoun — Tudor English. I'm all for stubbornly clinging on to archaicisms in language, but this is a reminder that language changes over time and there ain't nothing we can do to stop it.

Wise Counsel from Mohammed

At the risk of losing the last of my American Catholic readers, I'll give that title to my latest post linking to Abu Hatem أبو حاتم — Counter-Revolutionary. Read the post on your own, especially if you consider yourself a Burkean, but I'll simply quote the following:

The Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and give him peace, forbade revolutions and violent revolts against tyrannous rulers. Instead he ordered Muslims to civil disobedience of such a ruler’s unjust commands, and patience in God.

Our Lord was never a political or military leader as was Mohammed, but His counsel, from what I gather, would be the same. (We paleolibertarians might say secession, e.g. the American War of Independence (1775-1782), is something altogether different.) If you choose to leave comments, especially those that might "insult the faith of a billion people," read this piece by Pat Buchanan first —Secularist Stupidity and Religious Wars.

2500 Children, Some as Young as 10

"Surely nothing that President Bush has done in his two wretched terms of office — not the invasion and destruction of Iraq, not the overturning of the five-centuries-old tradition of habeas corpus, not his authorization and encouragement of torture, not his campaign of domestic spying — nothing, can compare in its ugliness as his approval, as commander in chief, of the imprisoning of over 2500 children," says Dave Lindorff — For His Treatment of Children in the ‘War on Terror,’ Bush Is a War Criminal.

Conservatives Are Not Inclined to Take Kids Away From Their Parents

A talking head I chanced upon today was astonished that three of the judges ruling in this case were "conservative" — Texas court rules against polygamist removals.

Of course, the default conservative opinion would be, barring extraordinary circumstances, to allow children to remain with their parents. It is the Nanny Statists on the other side who are inclined to remove children from "unfit" parents.

The problem here, despite ample evidence to the contrary, is that the term "conservative" has come to mean "a mean person," and the opposite designation (let's take back the term "liberal" and vow never to use it incorrectly) "a nice person." (The etymology of the word "nice" tells us this assessment is correct, but that is beside the point.)

3,000,000 Unborn Girls Killed Each Year in Chindia

William Sparrow, who "has reported on sex in Asia for over five years," turns his eye to the sex imbalance in the region — Asia: The land of raising sons.

Spontaneaous Order in Iraq

There is much of interest in this article by Michael Schwartz — How the US dream foundered in Iraq. This passage particularly stands out:

Consider, for example, the myriad ways in which the Iraqi Sunnis resisted the occupation of their country from almost the moment the Bush administration's intention to fully dismantle Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime became clear. The largely Sunni city of Fallujah, like most other communities around the country, spontaneously formed a new government based on local clerical and tribal structures.

Like many of these cities, it avoided the worst of the post-invasion looting by encouraging the formation of local militias to police the community. Ironically, the orgy of looting that took place in Baghdad was, at least in part, a consequence of the US military presence, which delayed the creation of such militias there. Eventually, however, sectarian militias brought a modicum of order even to Baghdad.

Spontaneous order, anyone?

Korean Catholics Send Aid to Sichuanese Earthquake Victims

A report on "aid and prayers for the victims and survivors" — Churches of China, Asia aid Sichuan earthquake victims. The Korean effort:

The Korean Church has launched an urgent fundraising drive to send aid to Sichuan. Caritas Korea, headed by Bishop Lazarus You Heung-sik, has provided about 27,000 euros to be sent as emergency funds, and has asked the Caritas offices of 15 dioceses to collect essential articles to send to the survivors. Each diocese, moreover, is saying prayers for the victims: in the various weekly bulletins, the priests invite the faithful to gather to pray and to give as much as possible for the earthquake victims.

Doug Bandow Reads Bill Kauffman

Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism by the latter, reviewed by the former — Ain't My America. An excerpt from the reviewed book, a copy of which is, as I write, making its way across the Pacific to my mailbox:

[T]here is a long and honorable (if largely hidden) tradition of antiwar thought and action among the American Right. It stretches from ruffle-shirted Federalists who opposed the War of 1812 and civic-minded mugwump critics of the Spanish-American War on up through the Midwestern isolationists who formed the backbone of the pre-World War II America First Committee and the conservative Republicans who voted against U.S. involvement in NATO, the Korean conflict, and Vietnam. And although they are barely audible amid the belligerent clamor of today's shock-and-awe Right, libertarians and old-fashioned traditionalist conservatives are among the sharpest critics of the Iraq War and the imperial project of the Bush Republicans.

Daniel Nichols, Futurist

This has to be one of the best Caelum Et Terra posts ever — Some Random Predictions. These ideas among others are just too tantalizing to resist: John McCain not being the Republican nominee, Rod Dreher converting to Islam, a "Great Union" between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Amish evangelization, and, best of all, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle all tried for treason and war crimes.

China and Science

"Why didn't China develop theoretical science in the manner of early modern Europe?" Leaving aside the fact that theoretical science developed in the Islamic world and medieval Europe in pre-modern times, Sinologist Sam Crane attempts an answer to that question — The Needham Question.....and the Chuang Tzu Answer.

There is much truth in what Prof. Crane says. I would only offer that monotheists would add that a belief in a rational Creator led Muslim and Christian scientists to attempt to understand the rational order that He created, which is why theoretical science developed in the West (in which I include the Islamic world).

More From Abu Hatem

Abu Hatem أبو حاتم, which provides "Muslim commentary on politics, political philosophy, international relations, and economics," is a blog I encourage all readers of this blog to visit daily. You will not be disappointed and you will likely be enlightened.

Here is a particularly useful list — Traditionalist Conservative Article List. Included on the list is this article by yours truly — Tasan, Nineteenth Century Korea's Paleo-Confucian Classical Liberal.

He also posts about "a paleolibertarian/paleoconservative blog by a traditionalist Catholic in Korea" with which readers of this blog may be familiar — Western Confucian. "What makes it especially refreshing," he says, "is his quotations of Confucianism as compatible teaching to that of the natural law and natural spontaneous order."

He advises me "to look up the great Chinese Muslim Confucian, Imam Liu Zhi, who expounded upon Confucian doctrines of the natural order within an Islamic framework." The iman sounds like a Muslim Matteo Ricci, S.J., this blog's namesake, the Catholic Confucian who did the same within a Catholic framework. I've dug up this about the Chinese imam — Liu Zhi (scholar) and CHAPTER 2-5 Combination of Islam with Traditional Chinese Culture.

When Fr. Ricci first visited China, the emperor refused to meet him and his fellow Jesuits, and instead ordered a picture of them to painted so that he could see what they looked like. The emperor took one look at the painting, and said, "Muslims (Hui)." The painter tried to say that they were from a different land and believed a different doctrine. The emperor was undetered. "Muslims," he responded.

This, again from Abu Hatem, bears repeating:

The job of all of us believers in natural law is to unite together, no matter what the cultural, philosophic, or religious orientation, in fighting against postmodern relativism. Thank God that our ideas are not far from the true American mainstream. The love of liberty, justice, and God is still enamored in the American spirit - and no matter what politicians may say, it is still an important aspect of America’s political discourse. Case-in-point with Ron Paul’s run for office this time around.

Imagine the different world we might be living in had Americans not drunk so deeply from the "they-hate-us-for-our-freedoms" cup of kool-aid.

The Spirit of Flannery O'Connor

Invoked today at Taki's Magizine by John Zmirak — Tenderness Leads to the Gas Chamber.

Also, at the same site, Mr. Zmirak and fellow Christian Caleb Stegall do a yeoman's job in defending the site against racialism, a "kind of idiocy [that] ought to be squelched fast and hard" — Racism, Ron Paul & Porn, Race Blind Justice, and Permanent Children?

Korea and the Long Emergency

The Long Emergency could be tough for a country "which imports all of its energy needs from overseas" — Korea Braces for Oil Shock. Last night I talked with a graduate student from my university's Eco-friendly Catalysis and Energy Laboratory. He said his lab-mates incessantly discuss Peak Oil.

Praying for Ted Kennedy

"We are asking people to pray for his immortal soul," says Fr. Thomas Euteneuer — Pro-Life Movement Offers Sen. Kennedy Prayers and Forgiveness as He Faces Potentially Fatal Brain Tumor. Here's where the senator stood in 1971:

While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life... Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain right which must be recognized - the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.

Requiem Mass for Bishop Paul Tep-im Sotha

His Excellency died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge — After 33 years, Cambodians recall anniversary of murdered bishop for the first time. He was not alone: "Church records say Cambodia had 65,000 Catholics in 1970, but only 1,000 or so Cambodian Catholics were alive when Vietnamese troops forced the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979. Foreign missionaries were deported, and no Cambodian priests or nuns in the country survived."

Pengzhou Catholic Seminary

South Korea's New Bioethics Law

The Church bears witness against it — Church: no to bioethics law, it permits sale of human eggs.

The World Day of Prayer for the Church in China

A remider that it is tomorrow — In China the Church is getting ready for the World Day of Prayer in union with the Pope.

Kumamoto's Rota

I reported on Jikei Hospital's anonymous drop-off for abandoned babies, based on the medieval Europen rota, when it opened a year ago Rota Nipponica. A few days later, I reported on the "rather sad start" it got off to when a father put his three-year-old son in the box — Rota Nipponica Update. Today, a report of its first year — Japan "Stork Baby" hospital collects 17 babies.

Injecting Babies With Mercury

Lewis Regenstein asks on of the most important questions of our times — Vaccines, Mercury, and Autism – Is There a Link? Reminds the author, "What has been largely overlooked in this debate is the well known and extreme toxicity of mercury, a preservative used in most childhood vaccines and flu shots, known for hundreds of years to be toxic to nerve cells, and especially harmful to the minds of developing children."

Rastafahrenheit

It might not be 96° in The Shade just yet here in Pohang, but whenever the mercury rises, the classic by Third World pops in my head. Learn the lovely chorus, and then try singing "33°C in the shade." Sounds pretty stupid, huh? But the thought experiment validates everything I've ever said about the metric system — Metric Madness, Glorious Fahrenheit, The Axis of Anti-Metrication, Metric Tyranny Comes to Korea, Korea Goes Metric, The Return of the Nip, Down with the Metric System! Long Live the English Imperial System!, Metric News, and Dystopias and Metric Measures.

Down With the Korea National Oil Corporation!

"The central government said it will provide diesel at cheaper prices than gasoline, so I switched from gasoline to a diesel-fueled car, but the situation is totally reversed," said Sung Bang-hyun, a 60-year-old Seoul resident, quoted in this article — Diesel prices pass gasoline at the nation's pumps.

I drive diesel, too, and chose diesel for economic reasons. I have seen the cost of filling my tank jump from less than fifty to more than ninety dollars in less than four years, but never once did it occur to me that the government was in any way responsible for its price, except for making it more expensive with taxes.

I guess Mr. Sung has a point, since it is the Korea National Oil Corporation's iron fist, not Adam Smith's invisible hand, that is manipulates fuel markets here. But how much trust can be placed in an organization that just five months ago assured us that "it will be difficult in the foreseeable future for people to see oil prices beyond $100" — "Is the Era of $100 per Barrel Really Coming?"

Korean Race Suicide

It continues unabated, a evdidenced by these two stories today — S.Korea's Birthrate Still Lowest in the World and As Korea ages, suicides rise.

A year-and-a-half ago, I quoted the pseudonymous Asia Times Online columnist "Spengler," with whom I often disagree, on this theme — Whoredom and Race Suicide. Said he:

The collapse of traditional society has brought about a collapse of birth rates across cultures. Cultures that fail to reproduce themselves by definition are failed cultures, for the simple reason that they will cease to exist before many generations have passed.

South Korea's is a failed culture, at least according to the Spenglerian standard. Living here, I see little to counter the claim. I wrote about some of the failings of modern Korean society in this piece for The Seoul Times last year — O Korea, Turn Back to the Tao.

Korean mothers, 80% of whom do not work outside the home, are unwilling to have more than 1.2 children. It gets uglier. Prostitution in South Korea "is big business, accounting for $20 billion, or 4.1 percent of the nation's total gross domestic product in 2002, just behind agriculture at 4.4 percent." It is also one of the country's most rewarded professions (see Room Salon Girls’ Salaries Investigated), and many young ladies forego marriage to reap its financial benefits, thus exacerbating the birth dearth. Again, Spengler:

Prostitution is a form of psychic suicide; writ large, it is a manifestation of the national death-wish, the hideous recognition that the world no longer requires Ukrainians or Moldovans.

Or Koreans, it would seem. Say what you will about America, we have a replacement birthrate of 2.1 and few of our women see whoredom as a viable career choice, and almost none of us would even think "the world no longer requires" Americans. Quite the opposite, in fact, for better or for worse.

A Day in the Life of Ahn Myong Chol

The Vice President of Network Against North Korean Gulags and former political prison guard gives a chilling account of the DPRK's gulag archipelago — "Gulag Inmates Are to Be Killed after Reunification." Most horrifying is the "forced labor until death" policy and how whole families are sent to prison under "Kim Il Sung’s instruction on 'Terminating three generations of traitors.'"

Serbian Day in Korea

"The Embassy would like to invite you to come and enjoy this unique opportunity to experience Serbian culture at the dreamlike surroundings of Namiseom" this upcoming Saturday — Serbian National Day at Namiseom. The article describes the island as "famous for its untouched nature and tree-lined roads." It's a beautiful place.

Miss Centenário Brasil-Japão

Parabéns! Congratulations to Senhorita Karina Eiko Nakahara, pictured above — Bancária de Mogi das Cruzes é eleita Miss Centenário Brasil-Japão. She says "tradições japonesas" are part of her daily life. The concourse took place in Ibirapuera, in São Paulo, the heart of Brazil's one million-strong Japanese community. I visited there in 1995 and had some Chinese food, always a safe bet when travelling in a foreign country.

The Peakniks Were Right!

This AP Story is what Peak Oil enthusiasts have been saying would happen for years — High gas prices drive farmer to switch to mules. Our post-industrial future will look a lot like our pre-industrial past. The last 150 years have been an anomaly in human history, an anomaly fueled by cheap energy.