Antiwar Right Blogger Gazanalysis

The Antiwar.com Blog's Jeremy Sapienza on a former congresswoman who not only "seems to prefer a hands-off approach to Zimbabwe and, surprisingly, liberal cause célèbre Darfur," but also "backs her convictions not just with her own money but her very skin: she went as a human rights advocate aboard a Gaza relief boat" — Say What You Will About Cynthia McKinney…

Abu Hatem أبو حاتم says that "the hyper-emotional Arab and Muslim world simplifies the Gaza conflict yet again" — Gaza 2 — and that "Hamas is at fault for its violent takeover of Gaza, but Egypt is also at fault for closing the Rafah border crossing" — Gaza Updates.

Conservative Heritage Times says, "According to the Israel-First, pro-war, any-war crowd, if you so much as question the Israeli Army’s use of American WMDs against the civilians in Gaza, you’re a goose-stepping Nazi who wants to exterminate all Jews" — Rooting for the overdog.

Western Confucian of the Year

What we need is more confidence in ourselves, and a stronger belief in our traditions, so that we never are tempted to initiate force to make others live as we do. If we truly have an economic and political message worth emulating, our only responsibility is to set a standard that others will want to follow.

That profoundly Confucian sentiment of "reverence of tradition and antiquity on the one hand and governance by moral example rather than force on the other" (I quote myself) was expressed by Congressman Ron Paul in A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship, earning him this year's designation as "Western Confucian of the Year."


As I wrote in Ron Paul Tzu:

Dr. Paul's advocacy of constitutional principles and the thought of the founders would gain approval from Confucius, who said "I transmit but do not innovate; I am truthful in what I say and devoted to antiquity (The Analects, VII, 1)." The Paul Administration will serve to "transmit" the ideas of our founders and their documents, which are our classics. There will be no officials who "innovate" upon them with creative interpretations or dismiss them as "quaint." Indeed, Dr. Paul's strict adherence to the letter of the Constitution is reminiscent of the Confucian devotion to the "Rectification of Names," i.e. the restoration of original interpretations of words and the rejection of arbitrariness. Said China's first teacher, "When words lose their meaning, people lose their liberty (ibid. XIII, 3)."

The Confucian statement of the Golden rule-"What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others (ibid. VX, 24)"-is remarkably similar to the "no harm" principle that guides Dr. Paul's libertarian philosophy. While the Confucian version may be less active than the Christian version, it is perhaps more suitable to governance, in that it allows individuals and voluntary associations more leeway and incentive to carry out mutual aid and charity work.

Confucius would applaud Dr. Paul's opposition to rule by a unitary executive with unchecked powers. Confucius rejected rule by force, going as far to say, "Barbarian tribes with their rulers are inferior to Chinese states without them (ibid. III, 5)." Instead, he proposed leadership by example, which is what the Paul Administration will offer America, at home and abroad. Confucius offered this admonition which could have been levelled at the current occupant of the Oval Office: "Sir, in carrying on your government, why should you use killing at all? Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good (ibid. XII, 19)." Indeed, Confucius, like Dr. Paul, was an arch-enemy of tyranny: "An oppressive government is fiercer and more feared than a tiger (The Record of Rites II, 2)."

As I wrote in America's Confucius:

On this blog's sidebar, you may have read that "Confucianism, condemned as 'Reactionary' during the so-called Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, is, in many ways, an ancient Eastern archetype of the highest ideals of both Paleoconservatism and Paleolibertarianism, to employ contemporary American political parlance, in that the Sage posits reverence of tradition and antiquity on the one hand and governance by moral example rather than force on the other."

The Good Doctor also calls for "reverence of tradition and antiquity" and "governance by moral example rather than force." His ideas have been decried as "reactionary" by our own cultural revolutionaries, whether they be neocon or left-liberal. The Sage came early in Chinese history, during a time of chaos, just as the Good Doctor has come early in ours and also during a time of chaos. Both great men looked to the past for guidance for the future....

Confucius' influence was limited in his lifetime, but would extend over 2,500 years of Chinese history; let us pray that Dr. Ron Paul's wisdom guides our next 2,500 years.

The Good Doctor may not have won the election, but he was right! Only one man was "truthful in what [he] said and devoted to antiquity."

"Western Confucians"

I've re-introduced the quotes to my sidebar:

"But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice and madness, without tuition or restraint."
─ Edmund Burke

"We have heard enough of liberty and the rights of man; it is high time to hear something of the duties of men and the rights of authority."
─ Orestes Augustus Brownson

"Order is not pressure which is imposed on society from without, but an equilibrium which is set up from within."
─ José Ortega y Gasset

"Tradition! We scarcely know the word anymore. We are afraid to be either proud of our ancestors or ashamed of them. We scorn nobility in name and in fact. We cling to a bourgeois mediocrity which would make it appear we are all Americans, made in the image and likeness of George Washington."
─ Dorothy Day

"When, I wonder, did we in America ever get into this idea that freedom means having no boundaries and no limits? I think it began on the 6th of August 1945 at 8:15 am when we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima... Somehow or other, from that day on in our American life, we say we want no limits and no boundaries."
─ Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

This Afternoon's Gazanalysis

Patrick J. Buchanan, noting "the bloodiest day in the history of the Palestinian people since being driven from their homes in the war of 1948," calls on "Obama [to] denounce the collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza," calling it "a policy that Obama should declare the United States will no longer support with tax dollars" — Bush, Obama, and the Gaza Blitz.

Jim Lobe says the assault "risks inflicting greater damage to Washington's standing in the Arab world" — Israeli Attack May Complicate Obama's Plans.

Ran HaCohen notes the "historic record of over 200 Palestinians killed in a single Sabbath's blitz" and reminds us "not to look for consistency, integrity, or intelligence where war criminals are involved" — Pacifying Gaza.

Today's Gazanalysis

"I don’t think there is such a thing as an independent Israel doing anything, because I think no matter what they do it’s our money, it’s our weapons, and they’re not going to do it without us approving it and if they get into trouble we’re going to bail them out, so there is no separation between the two," quotes Dylan Waco — Israel and Ron Paul.

"The Israeli attack on Gaza is far from a simple operation to stop homemade rockets being fired into Israel," writes Philip Giraldi, noting that "it has been planned for six months and is expected to destroy the Hamas infrastructure as well as much of the remaining Gazan economy" and suggesting that the attack is "an attempt to confront Obama with a fait accompli in which he will have to weigh in on the side of Israel" — Clueless in Gaza.

"Is it our 9/11, or is it a taste of the 'bigger shoah' Matan Vilnai, the deputy defense minister, threatened in February, after the last round of mass killings?" asks Ali Abunimah — We Have No Words Left.

"Even if you set aside the magnitude of Israel's violations of the Geneva conventions and the long terrible history of its methodical collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, consider the vastly disproportionate carnage in the conflict," writes Norman Solomon — A Hundred Eyes for an Eye.

"We've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more - providing we don't offend the Israelis," says Robert Fisk — Leaders Lie, Civilians Die, and Lessons of History are Ignored.

"As so often, the term 'terrorism' has proved a rhetorical smokescreen under cover of which the strong crush the weak," notes Nir Rosen — Gaza: The Logic of Colonial Power.

"If you get your news from the American mass media, you know that there's a nice simple explanation for the massive Israeli attack on Gaza," observes Ira Chernus, noting that "if you read Israel's most respected newspaper, Ha'aretz, you find out that things are rather more complicated" — Israelis Get Truth About Gaza Attack.

Glenn Greenwald says that "any minimally decent human being -- even those who view the world through the most blindingly pro-Israeli lens possible, the ones who justify anything and everything Israel does, and who discuss these events with a bottomless emphasis on the primitive (though dangerous) rockets lobbed by Hamas into Southern Israel but without even mentioning the ongoing four-decades brutal occupation or the recent, grotesquely inhumane blockade of Gaza -- would find the slaughter of scores of innocent Palestinians to be a horrible and deeply lamentable event" — Marty Peretz and The American Political Consensus on Israel. Not the subject of his article, though, whose reading of the events is, "Do not f*ck with the Jews."

"Israel's past military responses to the rocket threat, although massively disproportionate, have also been largely ineffective," says Justin Alexander — The Assault on Gaza Will Not Stop Rockets, but Could Influence The Israeli Elections.

Ewa Jasiewicz offers a chilling first-hand account — Gaza Today: This is only the Beginning.

Jennifer Loewenstein notes that "[t]he bombings were timed to cause the maximum number of 'enemy' casualties... at approximately 11:20am on a bustling Saturday morning, just as schools were changing shifts and many children were either leaving for home or coming to afternoon classes; when offices were filled with their employees, and streets busy with the late morning crowds out getting lunch or on quick errands of one sort or another" — Israel's Attempted Endgame in Gaza.

Neve Gordon delineates the attack's "four distinct objectives" — What, Exactly, is Israel's Mission? The author notes, "What is clearly missing from this list of Israeli objectives is the attempt to halt the firing of Qassam rockets into Israel’s southern towns."

"The war against the Palestinians arises from the merging of the Zionist view of Jewish exceptionalism with the view in the United States of American exceptionalism," say George Salzman and Manuel Garcia — The War Against Palestine.

Belén Fernández reports that "the origins of the assault's codename.... w[ere] in fact adapted from a Hanukkah poem by Haim Nachman Bialik, national poet of Israel" — Hanukkah Games.

"It was like an earthquake on top of your head," reports Dr. Eyad Al Serraj, a practising psychologist in Gaza City — The Bombing of Gaza.

Comments on this blog alert us to a story "[y]ou won't hear... in the Western press" — Gaza Christians cancel Christmas celebrations to protest blockade. "It took Communist China's news agency to report on Christians in Gaza."

"The First Genocide in Modern History"

LewRockwell.com links to a story about the "revolutionary murder of hundreds of thousands of Catholic Vendéeans" — Vendée French call for revolution massacre to be termed 'genocide'. A brief history of the atrocities:

Twelve "infernal columns" commanded by General Louis-Marie Turreau were ordered to kill everyone and everything they saw. Thousands of people – including women and children – were massacred in cold blood, and farms and villages torched.

In the city of Nantes, the Revolutionary commander Jean-Baptiste Carrier disposed of Vendéean prisoners-of-war in a horrifically efficient form of mass execution. In the so-called "noyades" –mass drownings – naked men, women, and children were tied together in specially constructed boats, towed out to the middle of the river Loire and then sunk....

When it was over, French General Francois Joseph Westermann penned a letter to the Committee of Public Safety stating: "There is no more Vendée... According to the orders that you gave me, I crushed the children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, at least for these, will not give birth to any more brigands. I do not have a prisoner to reproach me. I have exterminated all."

I'm currently reading Reflections on the Revolution in France by the great Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797), which was written four years before the horrors described above but saw them coming.

The article quotes Philippe de Villiers, European deputy and former presidential candidate for the right-wing traditionalist Movement for France (MPF) party, with these remarkable statements:

There was in the Revolution a clearly stated programme to wipe out the Vendéean race....

Why did it take place? Because a people was chosen to be liquidated on account of their religious faith. Today we demand a law officially declaring it as a genocide; we demand a statement from the president; and recognition by the United Nations....

It's the rare case of a people rising up for religious reasons. They did not rebel because they were hungry, but because their priests were being killed....

It is my burden – and my great honour – to defend the Vendée to the end of my days. The Vendée is not just a province of France, it is a province of the spirit. If today we enjoy the freedom to worship the way we choose, it is largely down to the sacrifice of those who died here.

Historian and novelist Maria Elena Vidal posts the image below with her thoughts — Genocide in the Vendée:

Time for Conservatives to Take Back Nature

Patrick Deneen's latest — The Future of Conservatism: Hopeful Possibilities. The author "afford[s] one example that seems to most conservatives a tremendous obstacle among a younger generation—and seems to [him] to be an area of great promise:"

It is the remarkable rise of a commitment to the environment, that hallmark of “Left” politics for so many years, yet, to my mind, a deeply conservative commitment that we are allowing to go underarticulated and thus by default permit our students to believe to be the very antithesis of conservative.

After all, we need only point out that the root of the very word “conservative” is “conserve” and “conservation,” meaning “to maintain” or “to keep.” In clinging to their own incoherent orthodoxies, conservatives have ceded this concept to the Left and thereby lost the ability to articulate the deepest sources of conservatism.

"Missionaries, Not Aid Money"

Matthew Parris, "a confirmed atheist," has "become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa" — As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God. Mr. Parris, who grew up on the continent, is not merely "applauding... the practical work of mission churches in Africa," he's talking about "the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset." More:

I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.

Wow! I had the same observation about Korean Catholics (but curiously not Protestants) in the five years in country leading up to my reception into Holy Mother Church. Meeting a foreigner, especially more than ten years ago, tended to be a profoundly disturbing and uncomfortable experience for the average Korean. I observed what could be described as a "crushing passivity of the people's mindset."

But I sometimes met Koreans who displayed "a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing" among their compatriots, and it seemed to me that these more often than not turned out to be Catholics. They were interested in things other that what I thought about their country. They seemed to be free of the profound inferiority/superiority complex that plagues most Koreans. "They stood tall." We talked man to man. The Catholic Faith was profoundly witnessed by their humanity.

"I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly" — Douay-Rheims Bible, Gospel According to Saint John Chapter 10, Verse 10.

The Ministry of Labor vs. the Workers of Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital

The comfort of the sacraments for "support of non-regular workers whose contracts the hospital did not renew in September" — Mass Outside Catholic-run Hospital Supports Former Workers. Father Benedict Ho In-soo is quoted with the following statement:

The first-class hospital in Gangnam (Kangnam), the richest area in the country, and the Church have rejected non-regular workers and driven them out... As a Catholic priest, I feel guilty, and I sincerely apologize for this... We celebrate the unity of heaven and earth through the birth of Jesus. In the same way, I beg the hospital management and the workers to come together.

Indeed, at first glance it seems the archdiocese-run hospital is the bad guy in this story. But that is to forget whose meddling brought this about: "a 2006 law" stipulating that "an employer must hire non-regular workers as full-time employees once they have worked two years for the employer." As I've blogged before, this "law meant to protect non-regular workers" actually does them great harm — How Do You Say "Subsidiarity" in Korean?

Tridentine Latin Missal Translation Project

Comments inform us that reader August has taken on the project, 라틴어 미사 번역 (彌撒飜譯), of translating the 1962 Missal of the Traditional Latin Mass into the Korean mixed script, which uses both the Hangul alphabet and Sino-Korean characters. The first two offerings — Antiphonum - 應答頌歌의 飜譯 and Ps. 42 Judica Me - 詩 42/43 저를 審判하소서.

I undertook the infinitely more modest project of adding the Sino-Korean characters to the old version of the Ave Maria, posted below in both Korean and the mixed-script:

은총이 가득하신 마리아여, 기뻐하소서! 주께서 함께 계시니, 여인 중에 복되시며, 태중의 아들 예수 또한 복되시도다! 천주의 성모 마리아여, 이제와 우리 죽을 때에 우리 죄인을 위하여 빌으소서. 아멘.

恩寵이 가득하신 마리아여, 기뻐하소서! 主께서 함께 계시니, 女人 中에 福되시며 胎中의 아들 예수 또한 福되시도다! 天主의 聖母 마리아여, 이제와 우리 죽을 때에 우리 罪人을 爲하여 빌으소서. 아멘.

In Defense of Korean Air Stewardesses

"GI Korea" reports on a classic case of feminists threatening state power against the rights of a company — Will Korean Airlines Stop Hiring Only Female Fight Attendants? Here's the story in a nutshell:

South Korea's official human rights watchdog urged Korean Air Lines Co. on Wednesday to stop banning male job seekers from applying for flight attendant positions, saying the policy violates a law banning sex discrimination.

However, Korean Air said it has no intention of abiding by the watchdog's advice because it "seriously" violates an individual company's rights to formulate its own hiring system.

Let Korean Air be Korean Air and let Southwest Airlines be Southwest Airlines. The company faces a "maximum penalty of a 5 million won ($3,810) fine." Comments the GI, "Let’s see, pay a $3,810 fine or keep hiring attractive women that I am willing to bet the majority of the airline’s customers would probably want?"


I hope not to have more than one one-way flight in my future, and I'd rather have one of the lovely (albeit somewhat scary) lasses pictured above than some gay dude serving me my free drinks as my last memory of air travel. That said, I'd jump at the chance to be seated on a long haul flight next to Justin Raimondo, to talk politics and, if I could get a word in edgewise, the religion he was born into.

Paleos Weigh in on the Gaza Massacre

The American Conservative's Scott McConnell has a post reminding us that "use of this much American made air power against defenseless civilian targets will have some blowback, probably in this direction" — The fire next time — and another on why "why we shouldn’t be indifferent to Israel’s air attacks (with American weapons) on defenseless Palestinians in Gaza" — Gaza Day Two.

"The real casus belli is politics, in Israel and America," says Antiwar.com's Justin Raimondo, suggesting that "the real focal point of the Israeli assault isn't Gaza – it's Washington, D.C." — The Politics of the Gaza Massacre.

Also writing for Antiwar.com, Joshua Frank takes on a man whose only response is to blather about "the special relationship between United States and Israel" — No Comment and No Leadership From Obama.

Linked to by Antiwar.com is this piece by Gideon Levy of Haaretz on "yet another unnecessary, ill-fated war" — The neighborhood bully strikes again.

The Antiwar.com Blog's Jason Ditz takes on Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Andy David 's suggestion that "the Israeli military’s killings in the Gaza Strip (300 at last count) are really being done for the children, claiming that the children of Sderot haven’t slept in eight years (a remarkable testament to their endurance, to be sure) and that anyone who looks at their tired eyes cannot help but support the continuation of the attacks" — Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children?

"The US Pravdas can never be trusted on matters of war," notes the man behind the LewRockwell.com Blog, giving us sources — To Understand What's Happening in Gaza — and a report — 'Little Baghdad in Gaza: Bombs, Fear, and Rage'.

Burke on Chivalry

This mixed system of opinion and sentiment had its origin in the ancient chivalry; and the principle, though varied in its appearance by the varying state of human affairs, subsisted and influenced through a long succession of generations, even to the time we live in. If it should ever be totally extinguished, the loss, I fear, will be great. It is this which has given its character to modern Europe. It is this which has distinguished it under all its forms of government, and distinguished it to its advantage, from the states of Asia, and possibly from those states which flourished in the most brilliant periods of the antique world. It was this, which, without confounding ranks, had produced a noble equality, and handed it down through all the gradations of social life. It was this opinion which mitigated kings into companions, and raised private men to be fellows with kings. Without force or opposition, it subdued the fierceness of pride and power; it obliged sovereigns to submit to the soft collar of social esteem, compelled stern authority to submit to elegance, and gave a domination, vanquisher of laws, to be subdued by manners.

Thus wrote Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) in Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he earlier asks France, as we might well ask ourselves, to "see what is got by those extravagant and presumptuous speculations which have taught your leaders to despise all their predecessors, and all their contemporaries, and even to despise themselves until the moment in which they become truly despicable."

Gaza Burning

Abu Hatem أبو حاتم has some words of wisdom on a flare-up that I missed being away from the Internet for a few days — Gaza. He reminds us that "its best not to take both sides at face value in the Middle East conflict" and suggests that "although both sides are often not moral or ethical, they are almost always acting with rational Machiavellian motives." He underscores the fact that "the civilian death toll has been absolutely horrible."

Even Neocons Are Rethinking Teddy Roosevelt

Omar Abu Hatem links to an article by "a scholar from the neoconservative Claremont Institute" who reminds us "that while some on the right, such as William Kristol, Karl Rove, and John McCain, have praised Roosevelt, the man was not a conservative" — Teddy Roosevelt and the American right. The author cites "the founding of the progressive income tax, despise for the separation of powers, and the creation of the Federal Trade Comission," but does "not mention Roosevelt's foreign follies," says our poster. An excerpt:

Not only did Roosevelt go to war on false pretenses and increase executive power over foreign policy, but his idea that the United States should embrace imperialism to become a "great nation," is a far cry from the non-interventionism of the founding fathers. Carrying a big stick abroad, and introducing centralized power and statism at home, Roosevelt walked in the footsteps of our current President George W. Bush.

"Chronic Late Adopters of Technology"

Count me among them, and Sharon Astyk, who shares a "taste for obsolete technologies" — The Pleasures of the Obsolete. I have no idea what the "blu-ray" is that she mentions, nor do I care to learn. And I, like her, "still don’t have an Ipod" nor will I ever waste my money on one.

Torture, Myths, and Lies Exposed

James Leopold with news "disturbingly," but unsurprsingly I add, "not covered at all by the mainstream media" — Cheney Admits He 'Signed Off' on Waterboarding of Three Guantanamo Prisoners.

Juan Cole and Andy Worthington respectively — Top Ten Myths about Iraq, 2008 and The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney.

State vs. Church Writ Small

Reader bregwin sends along the above clip from Don Camillo (1952), an Italian film in which "the priest and the communist mayor are always fighting to be the head of the community."

Russell Kirk on Bush I and the New World Order

"Republican Errors" is the title of the first part of this speech given in 1991 by the father of American conservatism — Political Errors at the End of the Twentieth Century. An excerpt:

President Bush and Americans of his views doubtless intend the American hegemony to be gentler and kinder than the sort of hegemony that prevailed in the ancient Persian Empire, say; more just even than the Roman hegemony that gave peace, for some centuries, to several lands -- relative peace, anyway, at the price of crushing taxation and the extinction of earlier cultures. But devastating Iraq (and the rescued Kuwait) is an uncompromising way of opening an era of sweetness and light. Peoples so rescued from tyrants might cry, as did the boy whom Don Quixote de la Mancha had saved from beating by the muleteers but who was thrashed by them not long later, nevertheless -- "In the name of God, Don Jorge de la Casablanca, don't rescue me again!"

Don Jorge de la Casablanca has toppled and imprisoned one Central American despot -- somewhat small fry -- and is in the process of dealing after the same fashion with one Mesopotamian despot, somewhat larger fry. "Well done!" some cry. It has all been rather like deer hunting in my Michigan back woods.

Yet presidents of the United States must not be encouraged to make Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, nor to fancy that they can establish a New World Order through eliminating dissenters. In the second century before Christ, the Romans generously liberated the Greek city-states from the yoke of Macedonia. But it was not long before the Romans felt it necessary to impose upon those quarrelsome Greeks a domination more stifling to Hellenic freedom and culture than ever Macedon had been. It is a duty of the Congress of the United States to see that great American Caesars do not act likewise.

[link via Abu Hatem أبو حاتم]

Free Market Economics at Christmas

Kevin Schmiesing, Ph.D., reminds us that the "system of free exchange... is not an exercise in selfishness, but the practice of properly ordered self-interest, which is of necessity tempered by the wants and needs of others" — Selfless Giving and Tempered Trading.

"In two thousand years of celebrating Christmas, tributes today to the owner of the inn are absent," says Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., decsribing his as "the fate of the merchant throughout all history: doing well, doing good, and forgotten for his service to humanity" — The Economic Lessons of Bethlehem.

(Church) Life Imitating (Sacrilegious) Art

Here's a Korean church building that almost gets it right — 천주교영통성령성당. But why in the place of the crucifix do we have a flying Buddy Christ?

The Archdruid on Historicism

John Michael Greer questions "the belief that history has a direction that the future will inevitably follow" — History's arrow. He gives the idea's heretical origins:

The founder of the current of thought that gave rise to today’s historicism was an Italian monk named Joachim of Flores, who lived from 1145 to 1202 and spent most of the latter half of his life writing abstruse books on theology. Most Christian theologians before his time accepted Augustine of Hippo’s famous distinction between the City of God and the City of Man, and assigned all secular history to the latter category, one more transitory irrelevance to be set aside by the soul in search of salvation. Joachim’s innovation was the claim that the plan of salvation works through secular history. He argued that all human history, secular as well as sacred, was divided into three ages, the age of Law under the Old Testament, the age of Love under the New, and the age of Liberty that was about to begin.

Some of his theories were formally condemned by church councils, but his core theory proved unstoppable. Every generation of church reformers from the thirteenth century to the eighteenth seized on his ideas and claimed that their own arrival marked the coming of the age of Liberty; every generation of church conservatives stood Joachim on his head, insisted that the three ages marked the progressive loss of divine guidance, and portrayed the arrival of the latest crop of reformers as Satan’s final offensive. As secular thought elbowed theology aside, in turn, Joachim’s notion of history as the working out of a divine plan got reworked into secular theories of humanity’s grand destiny.

Two From Doug Bandow

"While Christianity is the principal target of North Korean religious repression, it also offers North Koreans the greatest hope for the future" — Christmas Behind Bars.

An idea whose time is long overdue — Incoherent Empire: The Case for Getting Out of NATO. Strange that the case for staying in an alliance almost two decades after its raison d'être vanished is the mainstream opinion, isn't it?

A Very Blessed Christmas to All!


Glory to God by Kim Ki-Chang, a.k.a. Woonbo (1914 ~ 2001); image from World's Great Madonnas

The Western Front, Christmas Eve, 1914

The Christmas Truce of 1914, "in which the soldiers of the Western Front laid down their arms on Christmas Day and met in No Man's Land, exchanging food and cigarettes, as well as playing football," as dramatized in the film Joyeux Noël (2005).

[link via Comments]

North Korea's Eminent Preemptive Attack

Yawn — DPRK warns of "Korean-style preemptive attack" against U.S., S Korea. Cue laugh track: "The 'Korean-style preemptive attack' will be more powerful than nuclear weapons, reduce everything 'treacherous and anti-reunification' to debris and build an independent reunified country on it."

I've said before that benign neglect toward North Korea should be our true policy. I'm beginning to think we should just laugh in their faces. Of course, even more laughable is the inevitable neocon ninny who will see this as an existential threat to the United States.

Hot Off the Presses from The American Conservative

"Will the crew who brought us the Iraq War stick with the GOP or return to their Democratic roots?" asks Jacob Heilbrunn — Where Have All the Neocons Gone? The same question rephrased: "Having wrecked the Right, will neoconservatives revert to their left-wing origins or double down on the GOP?"

"The Illinois governor isn’t uniquely corrupt—just unusually candid," says Justin Raimondo — Bailout Blago.

Daniel McCarthy on the "South Dakota senator [who] transformed the Right even more dramatically than the Left" — McGovern Beats Nixon.

Michael Brendan Dougherty on "[w]hat anti-abortion activists can expect from an Obama administration" — Fight of Their Lives.

Have a Non-Manichean Christmas!

Pico Ultraorientalis "submit[s] that the best way of memorializing the way in which Christ exists as the fusion point of the Divine and Created worlds, is to pay respect to his Mother" — Have a Very, Very, Noetic Noel! (But don’t forget the Turkey and the Miseltoe!)

The Taqwacores

Crunchy Con links to the story about a novel about "imaginary punk rock Muslims in Buffalo" by one Michael Muhammad Knight, who "was born an Irish Catholic in upstate New York and converted to Islam as a teenager" — Young Muslims Build a Subculture on an Underground Book. It's being filmed in Cleveland, whose "crumbling streets and boarded-up storefronts of their neighborhood resemble parts of Buffalo."

Forty Years Ago Today

Catholic and Enjoying It! links to the above video of "the first televised pictures of the entire Earth from space" in which the "Apollo 8 astronauts read from Genesis on Christmas Eve." (Imagine government workers doing that today!) The broadcast inspired Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso's great song, below accompanied by Gilberto Gil, about seeing the images from a prison cell:

Eseulchon, Korea's Organic Catholic Village

Noan Church, pictured above, is at the heart of this story about a "a little farming village [that] has sprung to life for five days with song, music and tens of thousands of light" — Festival In Catholic Village Promotes Christmas And Organic Farming. The report states that "almost all 68 village families are Catholic" and that "local people 'naturally' became Catholics when a French missioner built Noan Church here 100 years ago."

L’État c’est Jerry Brown

That could be the title of an updated version of the 1979 song California Über Alles, given this news of the man who had my support in his '92 presidential bid — Attorney General Jerry Brown Declares Prop 8 Invalid.

Funny how just about everyone — left, right, and "vital center" — blathers on about the wonders of democracy until the People deliver a vote they don't like. And then there are those of us who advocate monarchism or republicanism, depending on the polity.

Neo-Keynesianism as Astrology

You must be some kind of moron to think the stupid equation-laden crap coming out of your stupid mouth is real economics, when any semi-literate halfwit can see that the Classical and the Austrian schools of economics are obviously right, whilst you low-wattage 'constant stimulus via deficit spending' morons are going to destroy the dollar and the US economy with your econometric insanity!

Richard Daughty wishes someone had said the above to Ben Bernanke, pointing out "such weirdness as negative interest rates, the totally flat yield curve, and the US Federal Reserve looking to buy Treasuries on the open market, [and] the nonsense of safe assets in a fiat currency" — Pseudoscience.

"Ecology of Man"

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has spoken of the need to not only "defend the earth, water, air, as gifts of the creation that belongs to all of us" but also to "protect the human being from his own destruction" — Pontiff Calls for "Ecology of Man".

"It is not outmoded metaphysics when Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman, and demands that this order of creation be respected," he said. "What is often expressed and understood by the term 'gender,' is definitively resolved in the self-emancipation of the human being from creation and the Creator. Man wants to create himself, and to decide always and exclusively on his own about what concerns him." He added, "The rain forests certainly deserve our protection, but man as creature indeed deserves no less."

Amen. Back in the '80s, when I ran with the Left, I could never understand why so many who professed nature-lovers saw nothing perverse in contravening nature with homosexuality, contraception, sterilization, mutilation, abortion, and other abominations. What could possibly be organic about any of these? The Catholic Faith is the most organic thing going.

Why Even American Atheists Should Celebrate Christmas

"Whether or not we are individually believers in Christ, we are beneficiaries of the moral doctrine that has curbed power and protected the weak," says Paul Craig Roberts — The Greatest Gift for All. "Such a religion as this is worth holding on to even by atheists."

Antonio Gramsci or the Infant Jesus?

According to Orthodox Marxism, during a crisis like World War I, the masses of the different warring nationalities were supposed to recognize their common proletarianhood and lay down their arms (and then take them again up against their "class enemies"). That never happened.

Antonio Gramsci attempted an answer. Hegemony, as he termed it, meant that capitalism maintained power "through a hegemonic culture in which the values of the bourgeoisie became the 'common sense' values of all." The culture must be overthrown first, he maintained, and thus was born Cultural Marxism, with its incessant assaults on every cultural norm the West has held dear for millennia. (Here's a story illustrating why we should never give up hope — The Deathbed Conversion of the Founder of Cultural Marxism.)

Soldiers in that first battle of the Hemoclysm, however, did lay down their arms, but they did so not in recognition of their common proletarianhood, but rather in recognition of their common humanity and their common Savior:


The Christmas Truce of 1914, "in which the soldiers of the Western Front laid down their arms on Christmas Day and met in No Man's Land, exchanging food and cigarettes, as well as playing football," is a beautiful story that never fails to come to the peace-loving conservative mind this time of year. Writes Robert Wilde, "The cessation of violence was entirely unofficial and there had been no prior discussion: troops acted spontaneously from goodwill, not orders. Not only did this truce actually happen, but the event was more widespread than commonly portrayed."

Several first-hand accounts from both sides are recorded on this site — HELLFIRE CORNER - The Christmas Truce- 1914. Also worth reading is the LewRockwell.com article — Soldiers Against War by John V. Denson — whence comes this photo of British and German soldiers fraternizing:

The Foreign Entanglement That Is the Korean Peninsula

The irony is that South Korea's great success has made South Korea comfortable enough to live at least with the status quo... While favoring unification in the abstract, South Koreans dread the potential cost of absorbing the North -- its economic weakness and its people... The result is great apathy and a tendency of South Korean governments across the political spectrum to seek to avoid tensions -- and even to pay North Korea what amounts to 'protection' money.

Thus spake James Kelly, the man in charge of the U.S. State Department's Korean Peninsula policy until four years ago, quoted today in a Korean daily — Does S.Korea Really Want Unification? The article notes correctly that "U.S. officials and Korean Peninsula experts are well aware that South Koreans are fed up with discussions about human rights in North Korea."

All this just underscores the fact that America has no business or interest on this peninsula. We needn't even ask ousrevles we we cannot get our "allies" on the same page as us; rather, benign neglect toward both Koreas should be our true policy. Let the Koreans figure out how to live on their peninsula.

The Buchanan Doctrine should guide us; let us "see our role not as a knight-errant that sets out to right the wrongs of a sinful world, but as the coiled rattlesnake that threatens none so long as it is not threatened and its domain is not intruded upon."

"Dona Nobis Pacem" on M*A*S*H

[link via The Intersection by way of Catholic and Enjoying It!]

Economic Straight Talk

"The economy needs a period of cold turkey in which remaining credit bubbles, bad debt and financial distortions are purged," reminds Eric Margolis — America Needs a Period of Pain. "This is called recession, and it's a vital part of the capitalist free market cycle."

Tirdad Derakhshani notes that "the country's economic health is measured more according to how much we are willing to spend, our consumer confidence, and less in how much we produce, the gross national product, or even how we invest" — The American Cult of Consumerism.

Santa Claus Visits the LRC Blog

Lew Rockwell informs us of some "brittle-voiced neocon talk show host" who says kids need "not worry... about Santa being taken down by terrorists, even though he also visits Christian homes in Afghanistan and Iraq, because USAF jets follow him everywhere" — Santa and the Pentagon.

In response, Anthony Gregory reminds us that "Santa delivers presents to all the Christians and other kids who celebrate Christmas throughout the world, not because of the military, but despite government intervention" — Santa vs. the State. "If they ever caught up with him, he'd be in violation of thousands of labor, trade, travel, and industrial regulations."

"How, one wonders, did Santa manage all those years without our benevolent government's assistance?" asks Mike Tennant of a government lie that "that Santa Claus will have access to special air space on Christmas Eve used by the United States Air Force" — Santa Shills for the State.

A Purpose-Driven Controversy

I, too, am no fan of the pastor's "white bread megachurch evangelicalism," but I hope Daniel Nichols is right "to see this as a peace offering" — A Sign of Hope. More likely, though, it is probably simply shrewd politics. Mr. Nichols notes that "the State Department is now full of Democratic interventionists instead of Republican ones," a fact which has not generated nearly as much controversy.

"I am always amazed at the brazen stupidity shown by those on the Left," says "Stonewall," a sentiment I share — Barack Obama and Rick Warren. The author is also right about the "fanatical group of self-righteous statists who want to use the power of civil government to impose their morality through unconstitutional Federal legislation and programs."

Questioning the Korean Baby Export Industry

ROK Drop Korea calls this "one of the most racist Korean media articles I have read yet" — Korean adoptees better off in Korea.

I disagree that the article is racist, athough I am not sure that "Korean adoptees [would be] better off in Korea." They'd be better off, in general, if they were adopted by Korean parents, though. Ethnicity is not everything, but neither is it something to be dismissed out of hand.

Christmas in America

I'd like to associate myself with my friend Jeff Culbreath's defense of "the American way of celebrating Christmas" which "is also under attack... by some traditionalists and religious conservatives" — Christmas, American Style. I, too, "love many things about our American-style Christmas." I put up my tree early and do not hesitate from playing the secular songs I love from childhood, like this one:

Gloom and Doom for Today

The LewRockwell.com Blog links to "commodities guru" Jim Rogers, who "predicted two years ago that the credit bubble would devastate Wall Street," taking about "gigantic shortages developing over the next few years," "inventories of food worldwide [being] already at the lowest levels they've been in 50 years," and "Great Depression II" — 8 really, really scary predictions.

The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel links to some analysis by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard noting that "[t]he riots have begun" and "[c]ivil protest is breaking out in cities across Russia, China, and beyond" — Protectionist dominoes are beginning to tumble across the world. The author concludes by reminding us that "[t]he last great era of globalisation peaked just before 1914."

East Gate, Seoul, Sunrise, 1920

The seasonally appropriate woodblock above by Elizabeth Keith was one of the works brought to our attention by Robert Koehler in a post about the "British artist who studied woodblock printing in Japan and went on to produce a wonderful collection of work depicting life in East Asia" — Woodblock Prints of Old Korea by Elizabeth Keith. In turn, I brought to his attention another lady-artist, Lillian Miller, daughter of the American Consul General to Seoul, who studied in Japan under Shimada Bokusen and made woodblocks of Old Korea in the same period.

Eddie Vedder, Paleoconservative Particularist Patriot?

The Northern Agrarian posts a video of a singer whose name I recognize but who had become popular only after I left America (and her popular music) — I am a Patriot. This is a live performance from a rally for the man who got my vote, Old Right Nader. These lines struck this patriotic expatriate as almost heartbreakingly poignant:

I am a patriot, I love my country
Because my country is all I know
I wanna be with my family
People who understand me
I got no place else to go...

That pretty much sums up what I've given up living overseas.

Father Proto-Deacon Paul M. Weyrich's Religion

Many, including yours truly, were surprised to learn that the conservative columnist was not only a member but a deacon of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church; Nicholas Sanchez' obituary gives an anecdote — Paul Weyrich (1942-2008):

I indicated to him that in recent days I had felt spiritually stymied and unable to find a church I was comfortable attending. He immediately suggested I seek out the nearest Greek Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Church, on the condition I attend three times before making a final judgment.

White man speaks in riddles.

What, pray, was a “Greek Catholic” church, and, assuming such a thing actually existed, how did it differ from Roman Catholicism (the confession I grew up in)? Responding to the second part of my query, and without batting an eye, in a stentorian tone he pithily proffered: “We preach the Gospel!”

Taking Up Where Cardinal Newman Left Off

David M. Whalen reviews a book by Gordon Graham — The Idea of the University, Again. An excerpt:

Western culture has taken a peculiar turn in the last century-and-a-half, resulting in proclivities of thought and imagination that render us largely incapable of comprehending one of our own, most venerable institutions: the university.

Those habits of thought and the turn they bespeak—commercial, utilitarian, and scientific or quantifying—have so shaped the imagination that other categories of thought or value seem now quaint or self-refuting. If, to a hammer, everything looks like a nail, then to the modern imagination every institution looks like a business, and every human relationship corresponds to the logic of contracts.

Venerable John Henry Newman's The Idea of A University sits next to me, awaiting my read.

From Social Darwinism to Socialist Darwinism

Interesting how one error leads to the next — Capitalism Short Circuits Our Moral Hard-Wiring.

Human Rights, A Gift to the World From the Catholic Church

From the religion that gave us the concept in the first place, a reminder that "human rights are at risk if not rooted on the ethical foundation of our common humanity as created by God who has given everyone the gifts of intelligence and freedom" — Holy See: Realism Is Base of Human Rights.

Thomas E. Woods, in How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, explains how in the aftermath of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, Francisco de Vitoria, noting the abuses he saw, came to the conclusion that "[t]he treatment to which all human beings were entitled... derives from their status as men rather than as members of the faithful in the state of grace." We are reminded of how Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, whose "Catholic faith taught him that a single code of morality bound all men, ... rendered judgment on the behavior of his own society in a spirit of strict impartiality." He quotes this remarkable statement from Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa:

Father Las Casas was the most active, although not the only one, of those nonconformists who rebelled against abuses inflicted upon the Indians. They fought against their fellow men and against the policies of their own country in the name of the moral principle that to them was higher than any principle of nation or state. This self-determination could not have been possible among the Incas or any of the other pre-Hispanic cultures. In these cultures, as in the other great civilizations of history foreign to the West, the individual could not morally question the social organism of which he was part, because he existed only as an integral atom of that organism and because for him the dictates of the state could not be separated from morality. The first culture to interrogate and question itself, the first to break up the masses into individual beings who with time gradually gained the right to think and act for themselves, was to become, thanks to that unknown exercise, freedom, the most powerful civilization of our world.

An Update on the Korean "Euthanasia" Case

News that the "Protestant-run hospital plans to appeal to the High Court after a lower court said life support for a terminally ill woman should stop" — Update for KO06262 of Dec. 5, 2008 (Court Ruling To Stop Medical...) Catholic teaching:

According to local Catholic bioethics experts, the lower court's ruling is not contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Father Remigio Lee Dong-ik explained to UCA News Dec. 3 that if a medical procedure falls short of expectations, stopping such a procedure "with a patient's consent" can be considered "an acceptance of the human condition," as noted in Declaration on Euthanasia, a document the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued on May 5, 1980.

Chapter IV of the Vatican document states: "When inevitable death is imminent in spite of the means used, it is permitted in conscience to take the decision to refuse forms of treatment that would only secure a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life, so long as the normal care due to the sick person in similar cases is not interrupted."

My previous posts in reverse chronological order — Korean Protestants on Euthanasia, and Catholic Teaching on the Same, Kim Ok-kyung and Catholic Teaching on Euthanasia, Kim Ok-kyung Is Not a Korean Terri Schiavo.

Gigantism Was Not Inevitable

This is the standard tactic used on twentieth-century Jeffersonians: to admit to the emotional appeal of their vision but to scoff at its hopelessly backward-looking romanticism. In fact there was never anything inevitable about gigantism; as economic historians ranging from Marxist Gabriel Kolko to free marketeer Murray N. Rothbard have shown, the largest corporations grew fat precisely because the level playing field... had been tilted by the array of subsidies, licensing arrangements, tariffs, import quotas, and tax advantages that stock the monopolists' armory.

— Bill Kauffman, from America First!: Its History, Culture, and Politics

What Would Mel Gibson Say to This?

Joel Stein is "one Jew who doesn't... disagree with the statement that 'Jews control Hollywood'" — How Jewish is Hollywood? The article begins with a poll finding that "[o]nly 22% of Americans now believe 'the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews,' down from nearly 50% in 1964."

It has been said the Jews have suffered from the tolerance they encountered in America, the least racist country in the world, in that they have been intermarrying to the point that their numbers are decreasing. The reverse seems at play here; America has been de-Christianized to the extent that a non-Christian minority in control of the country's media is no longer seen as controversial.

It has also been said that satire is the only medium in which serious ideas can be discussed in America these days, as evidenced by The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Mr. Stein uses the same device, but not to criticize, but to gloat. He begins with a partial list:

News Corp. President Peter Chernin (Jewish), Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey (Jewish), Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger (Jewish), Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton (surprise, Dutch Jew), Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer (Jewish), CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves (so Jewish his great uncle was the first prime minister of Israel), MGM Chairman Harry Sloan (Jewish) and NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker (mega-Jewish).

Later:

As a proud Jew, I want America to know about our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood. Without us, you'd be flipping between "The 700 Club" and "Davey and Goliath" on TV all day.

(I was raised in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and Davey and Goliath was the denomination's one contribution to American popular culture, and a proud one I might add.)

ADL Chairman Abe Foxman is still upset (surprise), though, because the poll "showed that 59% of Americans think Hollywood execs 'do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans,' and 43% think the entertainment industry is waging an organized campaign to 'weaken the influence of religious values in this country.'" I agree with Mr. Foxman, who, Mr. Stein tells us, "would prefer people say that many executives in the industry 'happen to be Jewish,' as in 'all eight major film studios are run by men who happen to be Jewish.'"

Conceding Mr. Foxman's point, a more accurate assessment might be that "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by" secularists "who happen to be Jewish," who "do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans," and who are "weaken[ing] the influence of religious values in this country."

(Anyone else remember all the pogroms that were supposed to happen after The Passion of the Christ (2004) was released?)

Imperial Korea? [Guest Column by Taru Taylor]

[The article below, its author informs me, was "was published and then unpublished by The Korea Times." That is, "it was put up onto the website yesterday afternoon, then taken down a few minutes later." The author notes that he has "been profoundly disturbed by the recent news concerning the Korean scramble for Africa, that is, for Madagascar." In the interest of the free exchange of ideas, it is my honor to publish Mr. Taylor's "thoughts and sentiments" on this important issue here — Joshua Snyder.]

South Korea has learned well from Japan, its onetime imperial master—how to be an imperialist. Witness the recent deal between the Republic of Korea and Madagascar, brokered by Daewoo Logistics, for a 99-year lease of 3.2 million acres, half of Madagascar's arable land. "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" indeed! Except South Korea, too, is now a master.

One might have thought that the suffering endured under Japanese imperialism had taught Korea to sympathize with poor and oppressed peoples. That, in the person of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, South Korea pointed the way to equity between the white bourgeois and the colored proletarians and peasants of the world. As a Black American who has suffered from the tyranny of the white majority, I thought Koreans might prove soul mates. But Korean employers requiring photos to screen out Black applicants exploded that wishful thought.

Nevertheless I eagerly applauded the Seoul street protests last spring, apparently against American beef but really against Anglo-American imperialism and its chaebol and yangban flunkies. President Lee Myung-bak apologized to the people. I felt humble before the might of the ordinary Korean. They truly seemed the beacon of the true democracy necessarily anchored in the proletariat and the peasantry.

I sought historical perspective for the beef protests and found it in the "Tonghak" ("Eastern Learning") of native Korea as opposed to the "Western Learning" of Europe. Its slogan: "Drive out the Japanese dwarfs and the Western barbarians, and praise righteousness." Its author: Choe Cheu, a wandering peasant martyred in 1864. He inspired the Tonghak rebellion of 1894, which compelled the Korean aristocracy to bring in 1500 Chinese troops to suppress it. He inspired "Chondogyo" ("Society of the Heavenly Way"), the indigenous religion of Korea that had changed its name from Tonghak in 1905. The first signer of the March 1, 1919 Declaration of Independence from Japan was Son Pyong-hi, leader of Chondogyo, which provided 15 of the 33 signers.

Choe Cheu—author of Tonghak and of Chondogyo—is the true hero of Korea. His Tonghak philosophy and his Chondogyo religion seem the portals for discovering Korean identity. When, last summer, I described the beef protests as a 2008 Tonghak rebellion, I meant that Choe Cheu still lived as the archetype of modern Korea. Just as Luke Skywalker led the Rebellion against Lord Vader's Empire, the specter of Choe Cheu haunted the "new world order" from the streets of Seoul.

But South Korea lately seems more like Park Chung-hee, the mastermind who modeled South Korea after Japan. He epitomizes the Korean bourgeoisie even as Choe Cheu epitomizes its proletariat and peasantry. In America, Thomas Jefferson had advocated agrarian democracy and limited government—states' rights—as against monopoly capitalism as commandeered by the imperial government of Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton won the debate, for first president George Washington sided with his Secretary of the Treasury against his Secretary of State.

Although not contemporaries like Jefferson and Hamilton, Choe Cheu and Park Chung-hee are the grand interlocutors of Korean destiny. Tonghak is one portal; imperialism is the other. The "Republic of Korea" and "Imperial Korea" are the terms of the debate between the agrarian hero and the capitalist dictator. The beef protests argue for Choe Cheu; for Tonghak; for Korea as Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight. But the Madagascar deal argues for Park Chung-hee; for Imperial Korea; for Korea as Anakin Skywalker nee Sith Lord Darth Vader.

"Imperialism," of course, is a heavy word, perhaps the heaviest word of current political discourse. Before we proceed with the question of Imperial Korea we would do well to come to terms with it. For, as Confucius reminds us in Book 13 Chapter 3 of "The Analects," semantics are the essence of sound government. Asked by Tzu-lu the first thing the governor must do, Confucius replies "rectification of names." He explains: "If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success." So without further ado let's rectify "imperialism" and thus put South Korea's deal with Madagascar in perspective.

According to Merriam-Webster, "imperialism" is "the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas." V.I. Lenin's economic treatise, "Imperialism: the Final Stage of Capitalism" (1916), expands this definition. He first of all insists that imperialism is in essence economic, a mere function of finance capital. That imperialism is "monopoly capitalism" writ large. That imperialism is "parasitism" whereby the ruling class of the oppressor nation uses colonies to enrich itself at their expense. That imperialism has for its complement "opportunism," that is, corruption of the elite bureaucrats of the proletariat by means of bribery. That imperialism creates privileged sections of the proletariat who thus detach themselves from the proletarian and peasant masses, what we would call tokenism.

Is there really any doubt, given the above rectification of "imperialism," that South Korea is not now colonizing Madagascar? That it is not now Imperial Korea? That the bureaucrats of Madagascar who are making this deal aren't Uncle Toms selling out their people just as Esau sold out his birthright to Jacob? Interestingly, Lenin cites Japan as an example of imperialism for its then recent annexation of Korea. History has come full vicious circle, for now Korea is exhibit A of imperialism for its annexation of Madagascar.

Oremus...

The soul who stumbled across this blog following the search terms "painless suicide" might be in need of a prayer.

Quo Vadis, Barack Hussein Obama?

"Why is America getting seamless continuity when it voted for significant change?" asks the peace candidate of '92, Patrick J. Buchanan, of the man who positioned himself as the peace candidate of '08 — Obama's War.

"President Obama is pledged to launch an Afghan 'surge' that will dwarf our continuing efforts in Iraq – but how will we pay for it?" asks Justin Raimondo — The Bubble of Empire.

Doug Bandow reminds us that "a foreign policy [of] nonintervention, not isolation... would better protect the liberty, prosperity, and security of Americans," but "none of Obama's appointees believe in such an approach" — What Foreign Policy Agenda Will President Barack Obama Set?

O Come All Ye Jacobites!

LewRockwell.com informs us of "a coded rallying call for Catholic supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie" — O Come All Ye Faithful 'was a Catholic rallying call':

Professor Bennett Zon, head of music at Durham University, said the Latin version of the song, Adeste Fideles, celebrated the birth not of Jesus but of the prince.

He said: "There is far more to this beloved song than meets the eye.

"Fideles is Faithful Catholic Jacobites. Bethlehem is a common Jacobite cipher for England, and Regem Angelorum is a well-known pun on Angelorum, angels, and Anglorum, English.

"The meaning of the Christmas carol is clear: 'Come and Behold Him, Born the King of Angels' really means, 'Come and Behold Him, Born the King of the English' - Bonnie Prince Charlie!"

The Latin version was written by John Francis Wade, an English Catholic who fled the country after the failed 1745 rebellion.

The Jacobite meaning of the carol gradually faded with the cause.

I'll never hear nor sing the song in the same way again.



All hail His Majesty King Francis II of England, Scotland, France and Ireland!

Free John Walker Lindh!

This, I think, would be a magnanimous gesture for "the Christmas season," as his mother suggests — 'Taliban American' asks Bush to commute prison sentence.

I've always had some sympathy for Mr. Lindh, "that poor fellow" to use the president's phrase. Many have us have been pushed to certain extremes by the cesspool that American culture has become; imagine for a moment having your father leave your mother for another man, as happened to Mr. Lindh. Was there anybody in Marin County who would have sympathized with the young Mr. Lindh's problems with this situation? Or would he have been told that it was he who had the problem, as a judgmental homophobe unwilling to accept his father's lifestyle choice? Would he have been told that he himself was a closet homosexual because he could not accept his father's behavior? What would the clergy, even Catholic clergy, of Marin County have told this young man? None of this excuses his crime, but what was his crime?

Islam gave him some answers, and a faith-based organization, the Taliban, gave him some purpose. The article reminds us that he "joined the Taliban to fight in the country's civil war one month before the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan," he "never fought against American forces," and he "did not participate in terrorist activities of any kind."

We are free to despise his choice. But just as we might despise the choice made those who joined the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, it does not follow that they should have been sent to American prisons. In fact, Mr. Lindh has said, "[H]ad I realized then what I know now about the Taliban, I would never have joined them." I don't think I've ever heard any volunteer for the Spanish Republicans express a similar sentiment.

Korean Hot Springs

One of my favorite activities profiled — Chase Away Winter Blues at Hot Springs. My family has been to several of the places mentioned in the article.

Korea's Future Rust Belt?

My adopted town's company has some news that reflects the sorry state of the world economy — Posco to cut production for the first time. I'm from the Rust Belt and have seen where this is leading.

Father Deacon Paul Weyrich, Requiem æternam...

Strange; I never much read his columns nor gave him much thought, but just last night he came to mind and I even dreamed about him, and then this news this morning — Paul Weyrich, Reqiuem im Pacem.

Korean Protestants on Euthanasia, and Catholic Teaching on the Same

A report that "Severance Hospital in Sinchon-dong [Korea's best hospital, founded by American missionaries — TWC] is rejecting the decision of the district court of Seoul, which approved the request to suspend feeding and ventilation submitted by [the] relatives [of a 75-year-old woman in a vegetative state]" — Physicians reject euthanasia for woman in vegetative state. An excerpt:

The Protestant minister Lee Sang-won, head of the Korean Christian Bioethics Association, says that the decision of the court of Seoul is "hasty and ambiguous," and can be applied "only to brain-dead people." For Lee, a person in a vegetative state cannot be considered as having "no hope of recovery."

The secretary general of the Life and Ethics committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul, Park Jung-woo, says that "patients should receive the best care possible, but how one accepts death is also important when there's no chance of recovery. A patient choosing to withdraw his own treatment is one thing, but removing treatment from someone else is different."

Anti-euthanasia associations are expressing harsh condemnation of the decision by the court in the capital, which requires the suspension of both feeding and artificial ventilation. For the pro-life movements, the interruption of feeding makes the sentence an act of euthanasia.

Of course, it is impossible to say that there is a Protestant position on this, or any other, matter, as there a tens of thousands of Protestant denominations. There is a Catholic position, however, and Park Jung-woo's statement begins to express it, but misses the Ordinary/Extraordinary Means distinction, which is all-important here. Feeding is an ordinary means, and can neither be rejected nor denied. Artificial ventilation is an extraordinary means, and its use must be judged on a case by case basis. If, "[f]or the pro-life movements, the interruption of feeding makes the sentence an act of euthanasia," which is true, the "the suspension of... artificial ventilation" alone would be the charitable solution.

I've blogged about this particular case before — Kim Ok-kyung Is Not a Korean Terri Schiavo and Kim Ok-kyung and Catholic Teaching on Euthanasia. May God bless Kim Ok-kyung, her family, the doctors, and all involved in this difficult case.

Christmas False Knowledge

Deacon Methodius dispels the some popularly held misconceptions — Urban legends about Christmas. "[C]laiming that the statement that Christmas marks the birth of Jesus Christ is 'untrue' (and implying that it is 'hysteria') is.... like saying that it is untrue to say that your birthday party commemorates the anniversary of your birth (and hysterical to boot)."

"Vascular Pipe-Cleaners"

LewRockwell.com links to news of "a vineyard in New South Wales [that] is producing wines with up to 100 times the antioxidant content of a standard drop" — Here's to the wine that clears your arteries.

Support Grand Duke Henri de Luxembourg

J.K. Baltzersen of Wilson Revolution Unplugged links to an online petition on which he can "give our support for the Grand Duke of Luxembourg" and his brave "action against euthanasia" — Soutien au Grand Duc du Luxembourg.

Raimondo's Reclaiming

Justin Raimondo's 1993 Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement has earned a place on my bookshelf next to Russell Kirk's 1953 The Conservative Mind. Indeed, the former takes up where the latter leaves off, minus the Kirkian Anglophilia. Instead, the reader is treated to healthy American Anglophobia, being that the Limeys dragged us Yanks into two world wars that the Old Right rightly opposed.

Comments left on this blog have questioned the very idea of "[f]aggots and Libertarians 'Reclaiming the American Right.'" In a critical essay that appears in the 2008 reissue, Scott P. Richert, who has been known to comment on this blog, "address[es] a few omissions and interpretations that make Reclaiming the American Right somewhat less than completely satisfying from a traditionalist conservative standpoint." (I find myself somewhere between Messrs. Raimondo and Richert on the Paleoconservative / Paleolibertarian spectrum.)

Mr. Raimondo's book has much in common with Bill Kauffman's 2008 Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Anti-War Conservatism, and next on my reading list is Mr. Kauffman's 1995 America First!: Its History, Culture, and Politics.

The Republic of Lakotah Needs You

The Republic of Lakotah celebrated "the anniversary of its first four seasons of existence" as a "renewed republic" yesterday.


In the above video, Russell Means reminds us that "the United States under Obama is going to get rid of the last vestiges of the Posse Comitatus Act" and invites "all of you who want to be free" to make their "60 million acres 60 million acres that others will emulate."

Sock and Awe

"Throwing shoes at people isn’t polite," says the The American Conservative's Daniel McCarthy, "[b]ut video games aren’t real, so enjoy" — Sock and Awe!

Who Is Shoe-Thrower Muntadhar al-Zaidi?

Sami Ramadani, a political exile from Saddam's regime, informs us that he "is a secular socialist whose hero happens to be Che Guevara" — The Shoes We Longed For. More:

He became a prominent leftwing student leader immediately after the occupation, while at Baghdad University's media college. He reported for al-Baghdadia on the poor and downtrodden victims of the US war. He was first on the scene in Sadr City and wherever people suffered violence or severe deprivation. He not only followed US Apache helicopters' trails of death and destruction, but he was also among the first to report every "sectarian" atrocity and the bombing of popular market places. He let the victims talk first.

(Speaking of which, I remember watching the live coverage of the Fall of Baghdad and seeing two men waving a hammer and sickle flag from a balcony welcoming the invaders. Leave it to the unreformed Trotskyites — the neocons are reformed Trotskyites — to cite as one of the "wretched betrayals in the annals of Stalinism" the fact that "after the fall of Baghdad... [the Iraqi Communist Party] hailed the US military defeat of the Baathist regime as a victory" — Iraqi Communist Party joins Washington’s puppet administration in Baghdad.)

A Muslim View of the Shoe Incident

"I honestly don’t see how throwing shoes at another human being is a dignified action, or something our Beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) would have approved of, even against someone one was at enmity with," says Canadian Muslim legal scholar Faraz Rabbani, quoted by Omar Abu Hatem — Muslim scholar condemns the shoe incident.

Send In the Marines!

"Little by little, step by step we are accepting the mechanisms of our own demise," says milblogger "El Cid," reporting that "U.S. Marines… are apparently manning 'sobriety checkpoints' in San Bernardino County in California" — Not in America You Say?

Decline and Fall Watch

Terry Nelson posts some signs of the times — The moral collapse of the United States. He suggests, "I think we are watching it unfold - although many are probably too numbed out on Zoloft to care."

An Agragrian Dream Deferred

"Pauline Disciple" shares how he "always been drawn to agrarianism" — Memoirs of an Agrarian Wannabe. He concludes, "My day will come." Mine, too. As I commented:

I'm nearing 40, and still waiting for my day to come. It will, and I pray yours comes sooner rather than latter.

I was heading in that direction at an early age. I decided against the wishes of my counselor to get some vocational training in horticulture is high school, and I worked on a farm in the summer before I started college. Since them, I've been detoured, but now I'm thinking about getting back on track.

It's funny that in our language we still use phrases like "back to the land" even if we were not raised on farms.

Neocon Evil

Dylan Waco gives us "a brief reminder that as bad as the liberal internationalist are likely to be, they cannot possibly be as bad the neocons" — A brief note on the evil of the neocons.

Representative-Elect Joseph Cao Is Not Black, But His District Is

A report that "Cao, the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress, told his hometown paper, the Times-Picayune of New Orleans, that he’s interested in joining the CBC [Congressional Black Caucus]" — Sometimes racial discrimination is a good thing … The report notes that "the CBC has never admitted a non-black member," something "Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) learned... after he was elected to succeed Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D) in a majority-black district in 2006." Let this be the first test of America's "post-racialism."

Korean Madonna Graces American Missal

A kind reader sends along news of a "Korean icon on the cover of US missalettes" — Today's Missal. A cropped version of the same graces the bottom of this blog's sidebar.

Lessons From '90s Japan and '30s America

Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D, says that "no country could be sorrier for endorsing a primitive ver­sion of Keynes's teachings than the Japanese--who squandered vast sums of national wealth in a vain attempt at stimulus that cost them the chance to lead the world in economic growth and prosperity" — Japan: Infrastructure spending doesn't help.

"But what about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal?" you might ask. Yes, we learned in school that it saved us, but Dr. Utt explains that it was, in fact, "a failed effort to end the Great Depression" that only "substantially and permanently increased the scope of the federal government." Also, "10 years into the Great Depression, America's unemployment rate remained at 14.6 percent."

The Vatican and the R.O.K.

How "Holy See recognition of South Korea as a sovereign country... was a very significant factor in South Korea becoming internationally recognized" — Historians Say Vatican Played Key Role When United Nations Recognized South Korea.

An International Adoptee on International Humanitarianism

"I am not ungrateful, but international help makes me puke," says Miriam Yung Min Stein. "People like Angelina Jolie or Bono make me puke."

The Korean adoptee "is not only harsh on her 'home country,' but also rants and raves about the institutionalized altruism that brought her to Germany, highlighting the dark sides of feel-good charity" — Genes, Schemes and International Adoption.

Advent Antiphons

Which are "sung one per day, at the Magnificat during vespers" and "are very ancient, and extraordinarily rich in references to the prophecies of the Messiah" — Advent in Music. Seven Antiphons, All Worth Discovering Again.

Korean Adultress Sentenced

This just in: "One of South Korea's best-known actresses, Ok So-ri, has been given a suspended prison sentence of eight months for adultery" — Korean adultery actress sentenced.

More importantly, the slatternly floozy "failed to get the constitutional court to overturn the strict law that makes adultery a criminal offence." In fact, "the constitutional court ruled for the fourth time that adultery must remain a crime, saying it was damaging to social order."

Paleolibertarians on the Shoe Thrower

Justin Raimondo says the Iraqi journalist "managed to sum up, in a single gesture, how much of the world feels about the 43rd president of the United States – including Americans" — Muntadar al-Zeidi: Hero, Martyr, Symbol of Resistance.

Tom Chartier reminds us that with "the total destruction of Iraqi society and the deaths of something like 1.2 million Iraqis," "it’s a good safe bet the shoe thrower knows at least a couple dead friends or family members, thanks to George’s Liberation and gift of freedom" — The Blundering Shoes of Rebuilding.

"The most remarkable thing about the gesture was the fact that it was an act of defiant contempt, rather than one of criminal violence," says Christian libertarian William N. Grigg — Flying Shoes, Bursting Bubbles.

William N. Grigg on George W. Bush

Those who don't believe in a Creator find it difficult to explain how matter attained self-awareness. The existence of George W. Bush presents us with exactly the opposite conundrum: How can someone blessed with the capacity for thought be at once utterly self-preoccupied and entire devoid of self-awareness?

The above comes from a post on a "gesture" that was "remarkable" because "it was an act of defiant contempt, rather than one of criminal violence" — Flying Shoes, Bursting Bubbles.

Lew Rockwell gives us more evidence of a man "at once utterly self-preoccupied and entire devoid of self-awareness" — So What? "One of the major theaters against al-Qaeda turns out to have been Iraq," says the president. ABC News's Martha Raddatz responds, "But not until after the U.S. invaded." To this, the Decider says, "Yeah, that’s right. So what?"

Confucian Humanity vs. Equality Under the Law

A report today from a Korean daily that amid the economic crisis, "[l]ow-income earners including those on welfare will pay half or a third the current fines or will see their indictment suspended for petty crimes they have committed to support their family" — Law Enforcement to Go Easy on the Poor.

I'm reminded of Henry C.K. Liu's excellent essay, Rule of law vs Confucianism. Mr. Liu quotes William Blake (1757-1827) as saying, "One law for the lion and the ox is oppression." Says Mr. Liu, "Confucians are not against the concept of equal justice for all; they merely have a sophisticated notion of the true meaning of justice."

When I came to the Far East, I expected to find draconian enforcement of laws. Instead, I found compassion and leniency, which in turn cause another set of problems, but which, in the balance, is far better. I've blogged before about the fact that "Korean cops routinely tolerate behavior that would get one Rodney King-ed backed in the Land of the Free™" — Don't Tase Me, Hyeongnim. An American colleague said it best, "Here in Korea, you don't have to be afraid of the police."

Should the U.S. Bomb North Korea?

The liberal interventionists at the WaPo seem to call for just that in a recent editorial, Three Kernels of Corn, which concludes with the following:

High school students in America debate why President Franklin D. Roosevelt didn't bomb the rail lines to Hitler's camps. Their children may ask, a generation from now, why the West stared at far clearer satellite images of Kim Jong Il's camps, and did nothing.

It goes without saying that the D.P.R.K. is a "horrifying" and that "[t]he casual, routine brutality of the camps is... almost unfathomable." The authors are correct that we should "not simply denounce abuses so that America can feel good about itself," but neither should military action be hinted at so that newspaper editors can feel even better about themselves.

(Another story today of white people trying to feel good about themselves — Expats picket for comfort women.)

"The irrepressible need to meddle, help and do good" is the subject of two recent Daniel Larison posts about an editor at the same outfit, in which he exposes the fallacy "that outrage compels action, and that if you aren’t acting — now, dammit — you aren’t outraged" — Gerson Cares, But Do We Care That He Cares? and Where’s The Outrage? As Doug Bandow recently suggested in Force: The Real 'F' Word, "The appeal of humanitarian intervention is obvious," but it is, ultimately, "never an appropriate tool for attempted social engineering in other nations." Charley Reese's advice from None of Our Business a few years back still hold true: "To George Clooney and the other Americans who demonstrated and demanded that the U.S. intervene in the Darfur region of Sudan, I have a simple and clear message: Buy yourself a gun and plenty of ammunition, and go intervene yourself."

When it comes to North Korea, benign neglect should be our true policy. Had Seoul and Washington followed this course, rather than supplying the régime with food aid and fuel oil which went to the army under the Sŏn'gun “Military First” policy, the North Korean state would have long since withered away and been relegated to the dustbin of history.

"More Jeffersonian Than Jefferson Himself"

Clyde N. Wilson introduces us to "an important Founding Father almost unknown these days," who, compared "with the politicians of today gives us a benchmark as to how dreadfully far America has degenerated from the principles on which it was founded" — Nathaniel Macon and The Way Things Should Be. His principles:

The federal government should be tightly bound by the Constitution. It should not tax the people and spend money any more than was absolutely necessary for the things it was entitled to do, nor go into debt, which was just a way to make the taxpayers pay interest to the rich. Eternal vigilance was the price of liberty. Power was always stealing from the many to the few. Office-holders were to be watched closely and kept as directly responsible to the citizens as possible.

The Church of the East

Philip Jenkins reports on what "happened when evangelists for two great religions crossed paths more than 1,000 years ago" — When Jesus met Buddha. In short, "they got along."

I was a bit surprised to read the author of The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice to write, "Over the past 30 years, the Roman Catholic Church has faced repeated battles over this question of Christ's uniqueness, and has cracked down on thinkers who have made daring efforts to accommodate other world religions." The author says that "the church refuses to give up its fundamental belief in the unique role of Christ." Would we expect Buddhists to question Buddha's uniqueness or Muslims Mohammed's?

Despite its flaws, the article is well work a read. An excerpt:

Europe's is not the only version of the Christian faith, nor is it necessarily the oldest heir of the ancient church. For more than 1,000 years, other quite separate branches of the church established thriving communities across Asia, and in their sheer numbers, these churches were comparable to anything Europe could muster at the time. These Christian bodies traced their ancestry back not through Rome, but directly to the original Jesus movement of ancient Palestine. They moved across India, Central Asia, and China, showing no hesitation to share - and learn from - the other great religions of the East.

Leaving aside the fact that Nestorianism "is a Christological heresy," the author asks us to "broaden our scope to look at the faith that by 800 or so stretched from Ireland to Korea, we see the many different ways in which Christians interacted with other believers, in encounters that reshaped both sides." This claim, I have to say, wtrikes me as rather dubious: "No other church - not Roman Catholics, not Eastern Orthodox - has a stronger claim to a direct inheritance from the earliest Jesus movement." The speculation "that Nestorian missionaries influenced the religious practices of the Buddhist religion then developing in Tibet" is interesting, as is the claim that "[a]ll the famous movements of later Japanese history, including Zen, can be traced to one of those ancient schools and, ultimately - incredibly - to the work of a Christian bishop."

The Third North American Secessionist Convention

Fellow Western New Yorker Bill Kauffman covers it as only he can — Manchester Disunited.

Nanny State vs. Seneca Nation

Seneca Nation President Barry Snyder [no relation] has called the law to collect taxes on Native American cigarettes signed by Governor David A. Paterson a violation of "the Buffalo Creek Treaty that the Senecas have long maintained exempts them from taxes being collected on retail sales" — Snyder says Paterson admitted cigarette tax law is flawed. One of the reasons given by the governor for breaking the treaty is "that it will reduce the consumption of cigarettes, and presumably their negative impact on health, by driving up prices for packs and cartons that are now tax-free."

Two Kids Who'll Never Be Able to Throw a Shoe at Mr. Bush

Nor will they be able to throw a ball or throw stones at Satan, when and if they perform the Hajj. Perhaps Muntadar al-Zaidi threw a shoe each for these kids, and for the many others maimed and killed in an unconstitutional and unnecessay war that was in no way in our American interests.

Alternative Views of the Shoe Incident

Comments to yesterday's post — "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog!" — hailed it as "Bush's best action as president" and "the most entertaining 60 seconds of the Bush Presidency." Is it right for us to take lightly such a brazen insult to our president? In the interest of fairness, here are two different views of the same incident, looking at it from different angles:




Nope, my commenters were absolutely right; best moment ever of this disastrous régime's misbegotten war. Dave Lindorff sums up what many of us feel; "I admit, listening to Bush lie his way through eight years of press conferences, while pre-selected reporters played along and pretended to get his attention so they could ask questions which had been submitted and vetted in advance, I have felt like throwing my shoes at the television set" — Muntadar al-Zaidi Did What We Journalists Should Have Done Long Ago.

Dioecesis Sciamhaevensis

Congratulations — Celebrations concluded for 400th anniversary of Church in Shanghai.

“F*ck Your God” by Deicide

That "anti-Christian rant... whose title would presumably cause consternation to believers in any religion" was just one of the "musical" selections chosen by our boys over there in our taxpayer-funded torture chambers, as documented by Andy Worthington — A History of Music Torture in the War on Terror. The author quotes released Guantánamo prisoner Ruhal Ahmed:

I can bear being beaten up, it's not a problem. Once you accept that you're going to go into the interrogation room and be beaten up, it's fine. You can prepare yourself mentally. But when you're being psychologically tortured, you can't.... [F]rom the end of 2003 they introduced the music and it became even worse. Before that, you could try and focus on something else. It makes you feel like you are going mad. You lose the plot and it’s very scary to think that you might go crazy because of all the music, because of the loud noise, and because after a while you don’t hear the lyrics at all, all you hear is heavy banging.

"I could not take the headphones off as I was cuffed," said Binyam Mohamed. "I had to sleep with the music on and even pray with it."

Why in the world would they ever think to call us the Great Satan? Oh! I forgot. They hate us for our freedom...

Mr. Obama's Radioactive Corporate Socialism

Karl Grossman looks at the man who'll head the U.S. Department of Energy, which, it goes without saying, should be abolished — Dr. Chu's Nuclear Prescription.

The most convincing argument against nuclear energy was made by the man who got my vote this year, Ralph Nader, whom I quoted in a post entitled Atomic Corporate Socialism as observing that "the atomic power industry does not give up... as long as Uncle Sam can be dragooned to be its subsidizing, immunizing partner;" i.e. nuclear energy would be impossible in a free economy:

For sheer brazenness, however, the atomic power lobbyists know few peers. They remember, as the previous Atomic Energy Commission told them decades ago, that one significant meltdown could contaminate “an area the size of Pennsylvania.”

They know that no insurance companies will insure them at any price, which is why the Price-Anderson Act hugely limits nuclear plants’ liability in case of massive damages to people, property, land and water.

Andrew J. Bacevich's Book

Walter A. McDougall reviews the book by the military historian who was an antiwar conseverative befor Mr. Bush's War calimed his son's life — It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue. The first paragraph of the review:

One need look no further than the dedication and epigraph to find the fonts of this book’s controlled passion. The former mourns a U.S. Army lieutenant killed last year by an IED in Iraq. The latter is a quotation from 2 Kings 20:1: “Set thine house in order.” The soldier was the author’s own son and namesake. The “thine” from the Bible verse refers to all us Americans, because Isaiah’s prophecy to King Hezekiah was both a judgment on Judah’s foreign policy (toward Mesopotamia, no less) and a warning of national death if the king and people did not seek the Lord’s healing. The upshot is a severe judgment on Americans’ efforts to satisfy their always growing appetite for domestic consumption through ever costlier foreign expansion. Call it an imperial Ponzi scheme, or futile effort to serve both God and Mammon, or millenarian Calvinism run amok, or just the machinations of power elites, but the strenuous efforts to make the world safe for a profligate “American way of life” are fast approaching their limits. Imagine Henry Luce’s “American Century” ending the way Ronald Reagan dismissed Communism: just “another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages, even now, are being written.”

O Tannenbaum!

"With its loftiness, its green [color] and the lights in its branches, the Christmas tree is a symbol of life that points to the mystery of Christmas Eve," said Pope Benedict XVI if the newly arrived a Norway spruce from the municipality of Gutenstein in Austria — What's the Point of a Christmas Tree? Also from the "deeply Christian soul of Austria" comes this:

Failed State

Evan Halper and Michael Rothfeld look at their "state's latest collision course with insolvency" — Is California too unwieldy to govern? Some point to the governator: "If he were a more effective, engaged leader, they charge, the lawmakers would follow." Perhaps he should read Confucius, who advocated "rule by moral example (dé)."

"Others say this nation-state is so oversized, Balkanized and polarized that it is destined for dysfunction no matter who is in charge," report the authors. Lao Tzu reminds Californians in the sixtieth chapter of the Tao Te Ching that "[g]overning a great state is like cooking small fish." When hearing of "its influx of immigrants, its constant tensions over water supply and its large, self-contained regions that bear little resemblance to one another," this sage might suggest from the eightieth chapter of the same book "a little state with a small population." Some are taking this latter piece of advice:

It has even been suggested that the state should break into multiple, more manageable pieces. More than two dozen attempts at that have been tried over the years, the latest by a Northern California lawmaker in the early 1990s. More recently, a blog called Three Californias was created to advocate carving California out of the union and turning it into a new country with three states.

Here's to the State of Jefferson!

Democracy Comes to Sark

With the expected results, i.e. "extraordinary amounts of bad blood and ill will" — Shedding Feudalism, a Channel Island Fights Over Its Future. Before, the island had had "a feudal government run by a bunch of unelected landowners whose legislative sessions began with rousing recitations of the Lord’s Prayer in French." And, not surprisingly, "the community always seemed to work, in its strange way." (Of course, Sark's way is normal and that of the rest of the world is strange.) Those days are over:

An angry dispute has poisoned relations among the 600 residents of this tiny island in the English Channel not far from the coast of Normandy as it prepares for its first democratic election, on Wednesday. The fight, over two different visions of Sark’s future, has ripped families apart and turned lifelong friends into implacable enemies.

What is, or was, "a crown dependency, though by and large independent of Britain, Sark has no cars, income tax, unemployment or social security." These four horsemen of Sark's apocalypse are sure to come. Ancient rights and freedoms like the following will surely be lost:

According to ancient Norman law, people here who believe their rights are being violated can halt the offending action by dropping to their knees, raising one hand and crying out in front of witnesses “Haro, Haro, Haro!” followed by a French phrase meaning, roughly, “I have been done wrong.”

The villians of the story are "a pair of reclusive identical-twin British billionaires who have bought up more than one-fifth of Sark in the last few years and feel its future should include paved roads, cars and a helicopter landing pad." They are accused of "lobbing continual antigovernment lawsuits and ad hominem attacks at the old feudal rulers and trying to push through an un-Sarkian view of the future." One Sarkian is quoted as saying, "We’re in danger of going from feudalism to dictatorship." Another "compared the [twin British billionaires] Barclays’ move into Sark to the invasion of Iraq," the analogy that popped into my mind reading the article.

I blogged about this a little over two years ago — A Sad Day for Sark.

[link via Wilson Revolution Unplugged]

בראשיתבראאלהיםאתהשמיםואתהארץ

Pico Ultraorientalis looks at "the first line of the book of Genesis/Bereshith" and makes the convincing claim that "the case for a trinitarian interpretation of the original Hebrew text is better than is generally known" — Christian Kabbala: In the Beginning was…

Hanam City's Gusan Hallowed Ground Catholic Parish

This church, built on a site where some of the Martyrs of Korea went to glory, manages to be modern, traditional, and inculturated all at once — 천주교하남구산성지성당.

Confucian Justice?

"This is some spooky stuff," says Robert Koehler of a recent Korean court decision — Parents of Teen Rapist Ruled Responsible. Commenter Tmartin is of a different opinion: "Gee, making parents responsible for the actions of their kids… Who would have thought in a world of secularism and atheism!"

I tend to agree with the latter, although I recognize that this could open the door to all kinds of injustices. The rapist was an "18-year-old, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, [who] raped a local seven-year-old girl in 2006." The court ruled that "his parents could have prevented the crime with appropriate education, but neglected their duty."

"This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog!"

So shouted Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi, before throwing both of his shoes at the Leader of the Free World — Iraqi reporter throws shoes at 'dog' Bush. I don't think Mr. al-Zaidi was using the word "dog" as a term of endearment, as American hiphopsters do (or did; I haven't been home in a long time).

Had Saddam Hussein invaded and occupied our country (as the neocons laughably claimed he was on the verge of doing with his drone aircraft), I have no doubt that many patriotic Americans would so the same or worse.


James Ostrowski posts the video above of what calls "Bush's best moment as president."

Family and Faith, Which Comes First?

While "many religions enjoin believers to marry early, abjure abortion and sometimes even contraception, all of which leads to larger families," there is also "something about having families can incline one to religion" — FAITH EQUALS FERTILITY.

Parents of the Day

"The Egalitarian Education Advocacy Group" may have chosen for itself an odious name, they are right in fighting "excessive competition among schools or regions in order to climb in national rankings" — Parents' group to boycott test again.

The article notes that "Seoul City education authorities last week fired seven unionized teachers for letting their students go on field trips instead of taking the test," an injustice I reported on last week — Teacher of the Day. I've blogged about this before — Korea Needs More Babies, Less Education.

Indian Giver

An appalling decision from my home state against "the Seneca Nation, whose retailers dominate the nation's tax-free cigarette business" — Paterson to sign bill collecting taxes on Indians' cigarette sales. Does this spell the end Smokin Joes, a Western New York institution?

"Bleak Winter Beauty"

I'm putting "one of Korea’s top winter destinations" on my itinerary this year — Daegwallyeong Sheep Ranch.

Korean Protestants and Euthansia, and Catholic Teaching on the Same

"Severance Hospital in Sinchon-dong is rejecting the decision of the district court of Seoul, which approved the request to suspend feeding and ventilation submitted by [the] relatives [of a 75-year-old woman in a vegetative state]" — Physicians reject euthanasia for woman in vegetative state. An excerpt:

The Protestant minister Lee Sang-won, head of the Korean Christian Bioethics Association, says that the decision of the court of Seoul is "hasty and ambiguous," and can be applied "only to brain-dead people." For Lee, a person in a vegetative state cannot be considered as having "no hope of recovery."

The secretary general of the Life and Ethics committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul, Park Jung-woo, says that "patients should receive the best care possible, but how one accepts death is also important when there's no chance of recovery. A patient choosing to withdraw his own treatment is one thing, but removing treatment from someone else is different."

Anti-euthanasia associations are expressing harsh condemnation of the decision by the court in the capital, which requires the suspension of both feeding and artificial ventilation. For the pro-life movements, the interruption of feeding makes the sentence an act of euthanasia.

Of course, it is impossible to say the is a Protestant position on this, or any other, matter, as there a tens of thousands of Protestant denominations. There is a Catholic position, however, Park Jung-woo's statement begins to express it well, but misses the Ordinary/Extraordinary Means distinction, which is all-important here. Feeding is an ordinary means, and can neither be rejected nor denied. Artificial ventilation is an extraordinary means, and it's use must be judged on a case by case basis. If, "[f]or the pro-life movements, the interruption of feeding makes the sentence an act of euthanasia," which is true, the "the suspension of... artificial ventilation" alone would be the charitable solution.

I've blogged about this particular case before — Kim Ok-kyung Is Not a Korean Terri Schiavo and Kim Ok-kyung and Catholic Teaching on Euthanasia. May God bless Kim Ok-kyung, her family, the doctors, and all involved in this difficult case.

Korean Protestants and Euthansia, and Catholic Teaching on the Same

"Severance Hospital in Sinchon-dong is rejecting the decision of the district court of Seoul, which approved the request to suspend feeding and ventilation submitted by [the] relatives [of a 75-year-old woman in a vegetative state]" — Physicians reject euthanasia for woman in vegetative state. An excerpt:

The Protestant minister Lee Sang-won, head of the Korean Christian Bioethics Association, says that the decision of the court of Seoul is "hasty and ambiguous," and can be applied "only to brain-dead people." For Lee, a person in a vegetative state cannot be considered as having "no hope of recovery."

The secretary general of the Life and Ethics committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul, Park Jung-woo, says that "patients should receive the best care possible, but how one accepts death is also important when there's no chance of recovery. A patient choosing to withdraw his own treatment is one thing, but removing treatment from someone else is different."

Anti-euthanasia associations are expressing harsh condemnation of the decision by the court in the capital, which requires the suspension of both feeding and artificial ventilation. For the pro-life movements, the interruption of feeding makes the sentence an act of euthanasia.

Of course, it is impossible to say the is a Protestant position on this, or any other, matter, as there a tens of thousands of Protestant denominations. There is a Catholic position, however, Park Jung-woo's statement begins to express it well, but misses the Ordinary/Extraordinary Means distinction, which is all-important here. Feeding is an ordinary means, and can neither be rejected nor denied. Artificial ventilation is an extraordinary means, and it's use must be judged on a case by case basis. If, "[f]or the pro-life movements, the interruption of feeding makes the sentence an act of euthanasia," which is true, the "the suspension of... artificial ventilation" alone would be the charitable solution.

I've blogged about this particular case before — Kim Ok-kyung Is Not a Korean Terri Schiavo and Kim Ok-kyung and Catholic Teaching on Euthanasia. May God bless Kim Ok-kyung, her family, the doctors, and all involved in this difficult case.

Before the Fall

"One of the two pillars underpinning the North Korean system -- information control and iron-fisted rule -- is crumbling down rapidly," says Ha Tae-keung, the president of Open Radio for North Korea, referring to the latter — N.Korea Resistance 'Growing'.

A Confucian Dictatorship of Relativism?

"The dignity of a person must be recognized in every human being from conception to natural death," states a recent Vatican document quoted by Sinologist Sam Crane who suggests that "a modern Confucianist perspective would reject this statement" — Confucius and the Pope.

I'm always surprised by just how controversial the idea of affording "dignity [to] human being[s] from conception to natural death" is, but I think Prof. Crane may be right, although it is interesting to note that Korean Catholics and Confucians joined hands against cloning — Science and State vs. Ethics. That duly noted, here is the crux of Prof. Crane's argument:

Most fundamentally, "life," for a Confucian, is not simply a biological process, it is a social practice. We gain our humanity, the unique quality of human life (as opposed to other sorts of biological entities), through our interactions with others. We might call this "sociality" - the social quality of human life. For a Confucian, then, the key ethical question would not be when biological life begins but when social life begins.

The reader of this blog is aware of where this attitude can lead — Three Out of Four South Korean Babies Murdered in the Womb, South Korea, "Abortion Paradise", and Korean Race Suicide. It also becomes clear why only one civilization came upon the ideas of international law and universal human rights, a story chronicled by Thomas E. Woods in How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization.

It is interesting to note that in the West, it is a perverted view of individuality that leads to the Dictatorship of Relativism, while in the East a perverted view of "sociality" could do just the same. Thoughts from a previous post of mine on a similar theme — Confucianism and Evil:

I'm reminded of the premise of C. Fred Alford's Think No Evil: Korean Values in the Age of Globalization: "Koreans regard evil not as a moral category but as an intellectual one, the result of erroneous Western thinking." When the author asked his Korean subjects whether something was right or wrong, good or evil, instead of an answer, he received a question: "What is the relationship?"

This deficiency in the otherwise excellent moral system that is Confucianism is but an indication that it needs to be perfected by The Catholic Faith.

Prof. Crane ends by quoting the Sage himself: "The noble-minded are all-encompassing, not stuck in doctrines. Little people are stuck in doctrines." The biological definition of human life is not a doctrine, but a scientific fact. (See This Was Settled By a Zoologist, not by a Pope.) The Catholic Confucian can appeal, however, to Confucius’ Rectification of Names in support of Holy Mother Church's clear, not to mention scientific, definition of human life.

Economic Meltdown News

Congressman Ron Paul reminds his colleagues that $15,000,000,000 is nothing compared to the cost of empire — (Video) Ron Paul in Congress: "Eight trillion dollar bailout: on the road to nationalization without a wimper".

Peter Schiff, the good doctor's finance advisor, who saw it coming, is warning now that if we continue down the same path "the hyper-inflation cat will be completely out of the bag" — The Nightmare Before Christmas. (It might be smart to ask Santa for a wheelbarrow.)

Reading about the subject of Justin Raimondo's latest, "a chill of déjà vu crawls up the spine of today’s conservative" — Garet Garrett knew where FDR’s policies—and Bush’s—would lead. Mr. Garrett plays a prominent role in Mr. Raimondo's 1993 classic, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement.

Workers in Detroit might want to watch the video linked to by The Distributist Review about a "cooperative tile factory in Patagonia, Argentina" — Fábrica Sin Patrones. "Over four years ago, the Zanón factory closed down, leaving the workers without jobs. Instead of walking away, these men and women recovered the factory and made it a complete success."

Was The Rape of Nanking Author Driven to Suicide?

"Although there is little doubt that she pulled the trigger, she had been an extremely strong person whose sad end would a year earlier have seemed utterly out of character to those who knew her best," says Eamonn Fingleton, looking at the strange circumstances near the end of her life — Whatever Happened to Iris Chang? The author notes that for some time "Chang had been frightened by the harassment efforts of ostensible Japanese 'rightists'" and that "some Bataan survivors have speculated that Chang's death was not a suicide." And then this:

Chang seems to have believed that her real enemies resided in Washington not Tokyo. As she pointed out, the Bush administration was desperate to ingratiate itself with Tokyo in its efforts to retain at least nominal Japanese support for the Iraq war. Was the U.S. government watching Chang at the end? In truth, because of a legal ban on spying on U.S. citizens, Washington tends to "outsource" such work to other nations. So the real question comes back to what Tokyo was doing. Given the size of the stakes and the fact that the Bush administration would almost certainly turn a blind eye, it is hard to see how the Japanese government would not have spied on her.

The author concludes that "though Chang's allegations of strange vans parked across the street and strange people following her around may have been true, it is surely a stretch to imagine they were real in the sense that their true purpose was surely not surveillance: rather they may have been theatrical gimmicks intended to increase her paranoia and undermine her credibility."

Teacher of the Day

Pictured above is elementary school teacher Seol Eun-joo, who was with six others "dismissed December 10 because they allowed students who did not want to take a nationwide examination to do alternative activities" — tear of teacher. Korea needs thousands of Miss Seols.

Pope Benedict XVI Contra Henry Kissinger

His Holiness decries "international campaigns afoot to reduce birth-rates, sometimes using methods that respect neither the dignity of the woman, nor the right of parents to choose responsibly how many children to have[, nor] even the right to life" — Pope Against Population Control: "Population Is Proving To Be An Asset, Not A Factor That Contributes To Poverty". From the article:

The fact that world powers knowingly use population-control ideology in foreign policy to suppress potential competitors rather than help them is remarkably substantiated by an executive-level government document entitled National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200), published in 1974 and declassified in 1989.

The Memorandum, written by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, admitted that competition would rise when developing nations had sufficient populations to fully utilize resources. To address the problem, the report spelled out a plan to bring about "a two-child family on the average" throughout the world "by about the year 2000."

In accord with such U.S. foreign policy, the world's foremost financial institutions have also faithfully pursued population control in poor countries, and thinly veil their demographic assault - fueled principally by abortion - with well-known euphemisms.

Not Just Another Planet

"Perhaps life on Earth is so special that it is unique," says Nicolas van der Leek, describing the life-giving charcteristics of "[w]ater, atmosphere, the wobble, size, the Moon and more" — What Makes Our World So Special?

Gold Backwardation and the End of Fiat Money

"A landmark in the saga of the collapsing international monetary system was signaled on December 2, when gold went to backwardation for the first time in history," begins Antal E. Fekete, consulting professor at Sapientia University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania — Gold fever sets in What does this mean? "This is a premonition of a coming gold fever of unprecedented dimensions that will overwhelm the world as soon as its significance is fully digested by the doubting Thomases." The author calls "the gold basis is a pristine, incorruptible measure of trust, or the lack of it in case it turns negative, in paper money" and suggests the backwardation is "the coup de grace for the regime of irredeemable currency."

Four-Hundred and Seventy-Seven Years Ago Today

Today is the memorial of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a good day to read Jim Coop's remarkable account of the historic events — In 1531, Mary Intervened to Prevent a Clash of Civilizations.

"Both More 'Conservative' and More 'Liberal'"

Not to be jesuitical, but I cannot help but notice that this Jesuit uses the term "homosexuality" and not "homosexual acts" — Church opposes considering homosexuality a crime, spokesman says. While it would of course be absurd to criminalize "homosexuality," the Catholic case can easily be made for decriminalizing homosexual acts; wrote Saint Thomas Aquinas:

Human law is framed for a number of human beings, the majority of whom are not perfect in virtue. Wherefore human laws do not forbid all vices from which the virtuous abstain, but only the more grievous vices, from which it is possible for the majority to abstain; and chiefly those which are to the hurt of others, without the prohibition of which a human society could not be maintained: thus human law prohibits murder, theft, and suchlike.

Of course, the case could also be made to include homosexual acts among "the more grievous vices, from which it is possible for the majority to abstain," but they are not "to the hurt of others." There is also then issue of enforceablity, which is brought up by Fr. Hugh Barbour, O. Praem, who quotes the Angelic Doctor above to answer the question as to whether it is "appropriate to make an immoral behavior also illegal" — Can It Be Illegal, Immoral, and Fattening? More:

In our culture, we have a mentality which determines the morality of a thing by its legality: if it's legal, it's morally okay; if it's illegal, it's morally wrong. Morality is thus strongly influenced by human law, much more than it should be. This attitude is called "legal positivism" in philosophy. This legalistic view of morals is the result of two things: the impact of the Protestant refusal to distinguish between mortal and venial sins, and the false conception of human freedom which was inherited from the so-called "Enlightenment" of the 18th century.

For the classical Protestant, there is no inner, theological or philosophical basis for determining the seriousness of a sin, because all sins are of equal malice in the eyes of God. Thus the civil law must serve as a practical guide. That is why Protestants are more likely to desire to outlaw various kinds of sins for the purpose of moral instruction than are Catholics generally. The lax Protestant cultural attitude is, "Well, it may be wrong, but at least it's not illegal." The lax Catholic, on the other hand, is more likely to say, "Even if it's illegal, it's no sin."

The "Age of Reason" made human freedom the most fundamental principle of society, and thus the attitude arose that anyone is free to do whatever he is not forbidden to do by law, which exists simply as a restraint on his individual liberty. Thus there's the tendency to legalize everything which an individual finds necessary for his personal "happiness," even if it's against the natural law.

The result of these tendencies is the type of relation between morality and law we see in America, where many states made practically unenforceable and surprisingly detailed laws against various unchaste actions committed in private, and now seek to show their approval of individual liberty by "legalizing" these same actions. The Catholic principle given above is more sensible: the law does not have to punish every vice, but it cannot make right those acts which are contrary to the natural law.

To sum up, it might be said that three principles govern the Catholic approach to human law: conformity to the natural law, possibility of observance, and enforceability. A law is no law if it does not conform to the natural law, and it is harmful to law generally if it cannot be observed or enforced. This is a view which strikes a modern American as both more "conservative" and more "liberal" than the Protestant and positivist approach he is used to [emphasis mine].

No F-Bombs Please

"The appeal of humanitarian intervention is obvious," concedes Doug Bandow, but it is, ultimately, "never an appropriate tool for attempted social engineering in other nations" — Force: The Real 'F' Word. The author gives us several historical examples in which "the consequences of the supposedly simple act of removing a reviled dictator turned out to be far more complicated and costly than the enthusiastic ivory tower advocates of war suggested."

Post-Britain

A publisher has made some changes "to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society" — Words associated with Christianity and British history taken out of children's dictionary. I think I finally understand what the terms "modern, multicultural, [and] multifaith" mean.

[link via Tea at Trianon]

"Collateral Damage" in San Diego

None of these individual human lives should have ended on that morning. But if one couldn’t be spared, it was the moral duty of the pilot to sacrifice his own – assuming, of course, that there is a coherent moral code underlying the institutions of American militarism.

So writes William N. Grigg, on a tragically failed "opportunity for a member of the US Armed Forces actually to defend the lives of American civilians" — Leviathan Devours a Family.

The Horror That Is North Korea

Robert Neff has one man's story — Escapee Tells of Horrors in North Korean Prison Camp:

Shin Dong-hyuk (26) is described as having a baby face with wary eyes. It is no wonder that he is wary. “There are burn scars on his back and left arm from where he was tortured by fire at age 14, when he was unable to explain why his soon-to-be-hanged mother had tried to escape. The middle finger of his right hand is cut off at the first knuckle, punishment for accidentally dropping a sewing machine in the garment factory at his camp.” He lived in a North Korean camp where savageness and cruelty were “common and almost routine.” Some examples given were ”the rape of his cousin by prison guards and the beating to death of a young girl found with five grains of unauthorized wheat in her pocket. He once found three kernels of corn in a pile of cow dung, he writes. He picked them out, cleaned them off on his sleeve and ate them. “As miserable as it may seem, that was my lucky day,” he wrote.

I've blogged before about this young man who was born in a gulag — The Life of Shin Dong Hyok. The most horrifying thing is that "it did not occur to him to hate the authorities" because "[h]e assumed everyone lived this way."

"GI Korea" has assembled a collection of articles on the theme — Chosun Ilbo & Human Rights in North Korea.

A Paleoconservative Milblogger Explains Iraqi Tribalism

At "a seminar put on by the Naval Postgraduate School on the subject of Iraq," El Cid challenges the contention that "so long as religion and tribalism play a key role in the lives of the Iraqi people democracy will not take hold" — Those Pesky Tribes. He asks whether "a secular society divorced from centuries old familial ties is the solution to achieving the desired end state of democracy (I abhor that word and concept)." More:

Tribalism predates Islam in Iraq, it functions to serve many roles we take for granted in the West. A tribe is part union (they will get you a job), insurance company (no commercial firms exist, you run over someone and have to pay - they help you), small claims court (have a dispute with someone in another tribe, the elders will work it out and get you a remedy), mortgage firm (you need a house, only your tribe can help, no mortgage crisis in Iraq), dating service, divorce court and much, much more. Tribalism is family on a very large scale. How on earth could one possibly suggest that this centuries old institution is the problem, it is ingrained in the culture - there we go, that is the dirty word.

Culture seems to be the stumbling block to all the neoconic and liberal big-thinkers. That is to say some cultures are more equal than others. If we are talking about multiculturalism in the PC sense then sure that is a good thing - it in fact serves to break down and diminish other cultures that possibly stand in the way of "progress".

I am not advocating that traditional Iraqi culture is good or bad, only that it is their culture. Who are we to say that democracy is a better answer?

Pray for the Culbreaths of Orland

"Jeff was admitted to the hospital for a heart attack according to preliminary blood work," his wife LeXuan updates her husband's post — Misery. "Please spare a Hail Mary or two for him. God bless you for your generosity."

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui Iesus. Sancta Maria mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

UPDATE: Our prayers, its seems, have been answered; "Jeff is coming home tomorrow'" writes his wife. "It appeared that he didn’t have a heart attack. The cause of all this excitement may be traced back to an old ailment recurring now after over two decades."

That's good news. Mr. Culbreath is one of the few people I've met in flsh and blood through blogging. He's a great fellow and a great family man. May God bless him with health.

Today's Sign of the Times

A headline you might expect to appear on Energy Bulletin appears in the mainstream media — Food lessons from the Great Depression. An excerpt:

At a time when Americans face frightening and disorienting economic uncertainty, the Great Depression provides valuable lessons. For many people, putting a meal on the table without turning to processed or takeout foods is no longer something just for a weekend dinner party but a skill they must learn. People who remember what it was like to eat during the Depression talk about thrift, growing their own, sharing with neighbors and learning to cope with what they had.

Some important questions raised: "Can anybody in your house skin a rabbit?" "Know what to do with milkweed pods?" "Get your kids to eat sour grass soup?"

Mr. Yoon's Christian Witness

The press conference of Dong Yun Yoon, the "Korean immigrant who lost his wife, two children and mother-in-law when a Marine Corps jet slammed into the family's house" and about whom I posted yesterday — A Christian Gentleman in Need of Our Prayers — has inspired many.

Mark Shea calls it "testimony to the astonishing power of grace that he can be thinking of others who have suffered more than himself and extend immediate compassion to those who accidently [sic] killed his family" — Please Pray for This Poor Man and His Family. Another Catholic blogger echoes the thought — A Moment of Grace. "To come home to a pile of ashes that were your family and your home, and to forgive the person who did this – that is the miracle," says Christopher Manion, who is "transfixed" by the "father’s forgiveness" — The Killings in San Diego.

Robert Koehler's "eyes started to well up" (as did mine) reading the story — More on Tragedy in San Diego. His post has generated a lot of comments. In response to a cynical (and utterly baseless) assertion that "the pastor of the church was looking for attention and was just using this poor guy’s tragedy to get on TV" (from a commenter twisted by an anti-Korean rather than an anti-Christian bias), a wiser commenter suggests:

Maybe he (and his church family) gave a press conference to offer a reminder to me (and others like me) what dignity, grace, eloquence, fellowship, spirituality, forgiveness, and all sorts of noble qualities are really all about. I greatly appreciate the reminder, which was more powerful than anything I’ve seen or heard in a very long time.

That was the impression I was left with. This photo, and the video from which it comes, speaks volumes:


The type of fellowship and community depicted above is all too rare. Manly men solemnly gathered around one of their one to support him in his hour of utmost grief. We don't see that in America much anymore. We don't see it in Korea. Perhaps it is in part due to the community formed by the shared immigrant experience. For some reason, I'm reminded of these words of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky:

To believe that there is nothing more beautiful, more profound, more sympathetic, more reasonable, more manly and more perfect than Christ. And not only is there nothing but I tell myself with jealous love that there can be nothing. Besides, if anyone proved to me that Christ was outside the truth and it really was so that the truth was outside Christ, then I would prefer to remain with Christ, than with the truth.

Only an elementary school theologian would suggest that God sent that plane into Mr. Yoon's house that he might give witness to the world about forgiveness, faith, and love, but I have no doubt the God has used this tragedy, and His faithful servant Dong Yun Yoon, to touch a few hearts.


Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace.

In Search of the Blagojevich Conspiracy Charges Conspiracy

The first hint of one came from the LewRockwell.com Blog when the man himself said, "When the feds arrest the governor of a state, you know it can't be over corruption" — Why the Feds Arrested Illinois Governor Blagojevich. In linking to a story that broke just before the midnight knock on the door took place — Illinois Threat to Bank of America Is Dangerous, Critics Say — Mr. Rockwell suggested that "it was his threat against that Paulson-Bernanke fave, Bank of America, that sealed Blagojevich's fate."

Then came an email from a reader whom I will give the benefit of anonymity for fear of exposing him as "some sort of tin-foil-hat wearing crazy" (his words) whose "instincts are telling [him] 'coup d'etat.'" In a subsequent exchange, my interlocutor admits, "Perhaps the conspiracy here is shallower than it appears, who knows?" He rightly notes, however, that "the actions of the Federal Prosecutor raises very serious constitutional issues impinging on federalism," asking, "Since when can the governor (even if he stinks like h double hocky sticks) of a constituent state of the Union have his door knocked on in the middle of the night and be arraigned by federal police?"

Finally, only Steve Sailer could dig up stuff like this — The Blagojevich-Obama link and the Black Muslims.

Star-Bangled Socialism

It wasn't all that bad, as long as it remained uninfected by ideas from Europe; socialist Harlan Baker in a recent article — Where Are All The Socialists? Here, There and Everywhere — mentions some worthies from the past.

"Not all socialists are Marxists or atheists," he reminds us, turning to the man for whom Russell Kirk once voted: "Norman Thomas, the leader of the party in the 1930s and '40s, was an ordained Presbyterian minister." More:

Socialists do not believe nationalization of an industry, government buying stocks in banks or the subsides [sic] to auto makers makes the country socialist.

Socialism is about social ownership. That can take many forms, such as employee-owned co-ops. It also does mean an end to privately owned business. But, socialists would want to democratize large corporations with real worker and consumer representation.

The Socialist Party of Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas achieved high points respectively in 1912 and 1932, although the socialist-backed Robert Lafollette Sr., running on the Progressive ticket managed to net 17 percent of the popular vote.

The three gentlemen mentioned in the last paragraph all appear in Bill Kauffman's tome, Look Homeward America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists.

On Experts and Brain Trusts

"The collapse of the country runs in a direct line from the manicured quadrangles and halls in places like Cambridge, Mass., Princeton, N.J., and New Haven, Conn., to the financial and political centers of power," begins Chris Hedges — The Best and the Brightest Have Led America Off a Cliff.

The moral? Social and economic matters are too complex to be handed over to mere experts. Wu wei is the way.

The Patroness of Artillerymen

"GI Korea" takes us on a trip through time to the site of a USFK base named in her honor — A Profile of Camp St. Barbara. She got her patronage because she was "martyred by her idolatrous father for refusing to sacrifice to the pagan gods, whereupon a bolt of lightning struck him and he burned to death."

Our milblogger notes that the "naming of the camp actually was the subject of some controversy back in 1959." "Protestant chaplains" complained of "the possibility of undue Catholic pressure in the naming of the I Corps Artillery’s post in Korea," prompting one of their number to ask, "If we had a Catholic President, would we have this kind of thing rubbed in our faces all the time?"

The contemporary article quoted above — Saints in the Army? — is well worth a read. It details how a group called Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State (P.O.A.U.) "has been increasingly uneasy about what it views as an excessive growth of Roman Catholic influence in the armed forces (and elsewhere)."