"No shamanism please."

The above sign I encountered recently while traveling in Korea came to mind after reading a blogging colleague's post reminding us that "Korean shamanism is not a benign practice or 'religion,'" — Curses are real. His post was occasioned by "a dear friend's family [that] was cursed by a woman through the help of a Korean shaman, and she even died during the process."

Kitsch and Tenderness

"It is no accident that the arrival of kitsch on the stage of history coincided with the hitherto unimaginable horrors of trench warfare, of the Holocaust and the Gulag -- all of them fulfilling the prophecy that kitsch proclaims, which is the transformation of the human being into a doll, which in one moment we cover with kisses, and in the next tear to shreds," wrote author Roger Scruton, quoted by Robert Fulford — Finding kitsch's inner beauty.

One is reminded of these words from the great Flannery O'Connor: "In the absence of this faith now, we govern by tenderness. It is a tenderness which, long since cut off from the person of Christ, is wrapped in theory. When tenderness is detached from the source of tenderness, its logical outcome is terror. It ends in forced labor camps and in the fumes of the gas chamber."

"Power to the Neighborhoods"

"Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin’s campaign to liberate NYC," which had the above as its slogan, recalled by the former's son — Summer of ’69. An excerpt:

He took great pride in pronouncing himself a Left-Conservative—Left because he believed that desperate times required radical solutions, conservative because he distrusted centralized government. The label baffled even the more eclectic personalities he encountered on the various circuits. But in his view, Left and Right do not necessarily need to exist in solitary states. Rather, they could dwell together in a radically alternative system to the one we know today—one in which governance belongs to local inhabitants bound by as little federal interference as possible. His claim to be running to the left and right of every man in the race was no gimmick.

President Calvin Coolidge Speaks Truth to Power

Patrick J. Buchanan on Torture

He acknowledges that "the legal and moral case against torture is compelling" but puts forth the scenario of "U.S. citizens d[ying] in a terror attack the CIA might have prevented, had its interrogators not been tied to an Army Field Manual" — Is Torture Ever Moral?

In addition to this "ticking time bomb scenario" he also mentions a film whose protagonist "has a daughter kidnapped by white slavers in Paris, whom he tortures for information to rescue her and bring her home." (What father wouldn't do the same? I would.) But compelling as they are, how realistic are these scenarios, and how useful are they in framing public policy?

On a related note, Mark Shea includes yours truly in an answer to a reader's request for "names of 'conservatives' (by this [he] mean[s] to say, people who might be swimming against the general current in their own usual 'political' cohort) who are writing good stuff against torture" — A reader has a question. Mr. Shea "note[s] (from the blogosphere) such voices as Zippy Catholic, Tom Kreitzberg, Feddie at Southern Appeal, Eve Tushnet, blackadder at Vox Nova, and John Schwenkler. Also, Rod Dreher, Maclin Horton, Red Cardigan and Daniel Larison have been vocal critics, as well as A Conservative Blog for Peace and Western Confucian."

Berry, Röpke, Schumpeter, Schumacher, Polanyi, and Pope Leo XIII

Michael Federici looks to the worthies above who "share in common.. a concern for a humane scale and... the humane economy" and reached the conclusion that "small is apt to be more beautiful and more humane than the scale of mass culture" — Causes and Lessons of the Current Economic Crisis.

The Tao of Warren Gamaliel Harding

Thomas E. Woods Jr. on the president who "knew that cutting government was the best way to end a depression" — The Harding Way. He cites "the depression of 1920-21, which most people have never heard of, [a]s an example of the resumption of prosperity in the absence of government stimulus, indeed in the face of its very opposite." (Wu wei was, and is, the way.)

Prof. Woods argues that this man "routinely portrayed as a bumbling fool who stumbled into the presidency... understood the fundamentals of boom, bust, and recovery better than any 20th-century president." Said the first black (see below) and greatest XX^th Century president (seconded by his running mate and successor Calvin Coolidge) at the time: "I would be blind to the responsibilities that mark this fateful hour if I did not caution the wage-earners of America that mounting wages and decreased production can lead only to industrial and economic ruin."

It is worth remembering that this same Warren G. Harding not only pardoned the antiwar socialist Eugene V. Debs, who had been locked up by the interventionist (at home and abroad) Woodrow Wilson, but also invited him to a personal dinner at the White House! Bill Kauffman said of this moment that it "suggest[ed] an era when America writ large still had certain of the qualities of a small town" in his book, Look Homeward America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists.

Listen in rapt awe as I have just done to this great American man of peace:


Noting that "we never before sent so many to battle under the flag in a foreign land," he says:

I find a hundred thousand sorrows touching my heart, and there is ringing in my ears, like an admonition eternal, an insistent call, "It must not be again! It must not be again!" God grant that it will not be. And let a practical people join in cooperation with God to the end that it shall not be.

I would not wish a nation for which men are not willing to fight and, if need be, to die, but I do wish for a nation where it is not necessary to ask that sacrifice. I do not pretend that millenial days have come, but I can, believe in the possibility of a nation being so righteous as never to make a war of conquest and a nation so powerful in righteousness that none will dare invoke her wrath. I wish for us such an America.

Further suggested reading:

• Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. on the president who "reduced taxes, deregulated, and generally calmed down the country after a culture-wrecking, budget-busting war, and assured a time of great prosperity" — Missing Warren G. Harding.
• John MacMurray tells his fellow progressives "that it’s already been done — over 80 years ago, by the Republicans; and, Conservative Republicans, at that" — The First Black President.
• Ilya Somin on the president who "made a well-known speech advocating full legal equality for southern blacks in 1921" and "is also notable for reversing the severe violations of civil and economic liberties that had proliferated under his predecessor Woodrow Wilson" — Our Most Underrated President?

Trading Places

Bruce Bawer wonders "whether the Western European left's condescension toward America, and the American left's habit of holding Western Europe up as a socialist paradise, can survive the combination of Europe's right turn and the elevation of Barack Obama" — Europe’s Right Turn.

Paul Harvey's Voice and Politics

Scott P. Richert informs us that "few of the scores of millions who listened to him for decades ever heard his real voice" — Now He Knows the Rest of the Story. It turns our that his "normal mellifluous baritone" was replaced by his "high, almost nasal, on-air voice."

Mr. Richert explains that "Harvey was a product of early AM radio, and a broadcast voice in an upper register stood a better chance of cutting through the frequent static." His was one of the few voices I could make out on the staticky American Forces Korea Network (AFKN) broadcast from Taegu.

Read to learn how "he reversed course on the Vietnam War, of which he had been a staunch supporter," and "supported George Wallace’s campaign for president in 1968" and "cheered on Pat Buchanan’s insurgency against President George H.W. Bush in 1992."

Apocryphal Art

Sandro Magister reports on a "major exhibition dedicated to the apocryphal books – the stories and characters not included in the canonical Scriptures" — What the Bible Never Said. He rightly states that "the memories and legends not written in the books of the Old and New Testament, but which have entered into Christian tradition, depicted in art and even in many churches," do "[n]ot... invalidate the Gospels and the Church, but... bring them closer to us." Some examples:

Starting with the ox and ass beside the newborn Jesus, there are many episodes and characters in sacred history that have been handed down outside of the canonical texts of the Bible. For example, the birth and childhood of Mary, with her parents Anne and Joachim, her marriage with Joseph, the names and experiences of the Magi, the details of the flight into Egypt, the "dormition" of the Virgin Mary and her assumption into heaven.

Another Reason Not to Fear Swine Flu

The Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas has been petitioned to intercede — As swine flu spreads, Our Lady of Guadalupe is invoked. "We beg for your protection and help for quickly overcoming the epidemic that has affected our nation," prayed Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City. "Cover us with your cloak; free us from this evil."

The Good Doctor Diagnoses Hysteria

A must-see video that puts things into perspective — Ron Paul, MD, on the Swine Flu Scare.

Here's to the State of Mississippi!

Above, Bukka White and Sam Chatmon play us some Country Blues from my maternal grandmother's homeland, the state fellow Upstate New Yorker Bill Kauffman rightly called "the economically poorest yet culturally richest state in the union" in his Look Homeward America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals.

Bill Kauffman's Look Homeward, America

Reviewed by Caleb Stegall, who calls it "a detailed and often idiosyncratic look at the 'real split' underlying American society and politics" — A Call to Arms. Mr. Stegall continues:

To paraphrase Gore Vidal, one of Kauffman’s unlikely heroes, that real split lies between those who love the old American republic and those progressive dreamers who would sell their patrimony for a bowl-full of the centralized, mechanized American Empire. Be forewarned: this is not a book for those seeking confirmation of their already accepted political stereotypes. Rather, Look Homeward, America is Kauffman’s quest through American history and its living landscape to find those he lovingly calls “reactionary radicals and front-porch anarchists.”

The result is, by design, impossible to categorize. Kauffman’s collection of throwbacks and throwaways, retreads and retrofits, hillbillies and hell-raisers, poet politicians and insubordinate patriots is a stinging rebuke to political categorizers, taxonomers of the soul, and those who reduce humanity to the talking heads and soundbitten ghosts of American punditry. Kauffman describes himself as an “outsider even among outsiders” and “the love child of Henry Thoreau and Dorothy Day, conceived amidst the asters and goldenrod of an Upstate New York autumn.” His is a Middle American, profoundly un-imperial patriotism based in love of American music, poetry, quirks and commonalities, historical crotchets, holy fools and eminent Kansans.

Here's my review of one of my favotite books — Steal This Book!

The Greenean Worldview

"Nobody... has ever wanted to be a Graham Greene character," "murderers, traitors, unhappy adulterous lovers, sinners of every stripe," writes Michael Dirda — The Man Within.

The Catholic novelist himself stated that "the religious sense was lost to the English novel, and with the religious sense went the sense of the importance of the human act." Mr. Dirda notes that the author "sought to reinvest contemporary fiction with moral seriousness, to depict solid and real people trapped in life-or-death ethical dilemmas and racked by guilt and despair" and to illustrate "the awful strangeness of the mercy of God."

[link via Arts & Letters Daily]

Could Samoans Posthumously Sue Margaret Mead?

These stories linked to today by Arts & Letters Daily have me smiling — Research Subjects Sue Jared Diamond, the Author and Professor, for $10-Million and New Guinea Tribe Sues The 'New Yorker' For $10 Million.

"When foreigners come to our culture, we tell stories as entertainment," says the legal advisor to one of the plaintiffs. This is exactly how one of the most sinister books of modernity came about — The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead: A Historical Analysis of Her Samoan Research.

"The Neglected Tradition of High Church Conservatism"

"Reviving the Constitution depends on restoring the tie between church and state," rightly says Daniel McCarthy in a brilliant essay — What Would Burke Do? The first paragraph:

Edmund Burke might not like what American conservatism has become. With its devotion to abstract rights, democracy, and perpetual growth, the American Right today looks more like a stepchild of Thomas Paine than an heir to the author of Reflections on the Revolution in France. But Burke would recognize the conservative movement’s rhetoric of liberty, its anti-elitism, and its alienation from institutions of authority. Those are the hallmarks of a disposition Burke described as “the dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the Protestant religion.” In 1775, that was how he characterized the creed of Britain’s rebellious New England colonies. Today, those words apply to the faith of many in the Republican Party’s base.

Megumi's Parents

The story of Shigeru and Sakie Yokota whose daughter was abducted by North Korean agents thirty years ago — Parental love versus Kim Jong-il. "The Yokotas have since become Japan's most famous crusaders for Japanese abduction victims."

Barack Obama and Taro Aso

"The president is imitating Japan's PM who ignores World War II responsibilities," says — Obama's Unfortunate Denial of Past US Torture Culpability. The author speaks of "America's loss of her moral and political influence in the world."

Giovanni Antonio Rigatti's Regina Coeli Sung by Philippe Jaroussky

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman

With the verifaction of "the inexplicable healing of an American man who was 'bent double' by a severe spinal disorder came as a result of praying to Newman for a miracle" confirmed, "the Pope can now beatify Newman at a date of his choosing" — Cardinal John Newman poised for beatification after ruling. The article says that the Pope "is known to be keen to make Newman a saint" and "asks about the progress of his cause on a regular basis." Here's why:

Benedict XVI has been an admirer of the writings of Cardinal Newman since the 1940s, especially his "theology of conscience".

He learned about this from a German scholar called Theodor Haecker, who translated Newman's works from English into German, and who was close to the White Rose, a German resistance movement in the Second World War.

It was revealed last month that German academics have discovered that Newman's writings on conscience were a key inspiration of the White Rose – in particular of Sophie Scholl, a student beheaded in 1943 at the age of 21 for distributing leaflets urging students at Munich University to rise up against "Nazi terror".

Two of his books, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine and Apologia Pro Vita Sua, were instrumental in my own conversion.

[link via New Oxford Review]

President Ronald Wilson Reagan on Torture

In a post on the man "who testified against his Japanese captors on the horrors of waterboarding," many of whom "were later hanged" — The Case for Torturing Lt. Chase Nielsen — Casey Khan notes that "the Gipper signed a bill defining torture and offering no exceptions to it whatsoever" with the following wording:

1. "...torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession..."

2. "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."

Reid Buckley on Fitness Fanatics

"Would it be possible to invent a more stupefying supper companion than the person obsessed with keeping himself in Phidian perfection of pecs, abs, and buttocks, to the exclusion of mind and spirit?" he asks — Vile Bodies.

He describes his targets as "so frenzied by the infantile desire to cheat time that they become infatuated with their bodies, worshiping them as ancient Hebrews in the desert fell before the golden calf" and their obession as "another escape from the consequences of metaphysical ignorance—an attempt to flee time and space and the inevitability of inexorable, unstoppable, uncamoflageable aging."

Kurt Cobb on the Tragic View of Life

He says that "paradoxically the tragic view of life doesn't beget mere glumness" but rather "teaches prudence which can be a good thing and occasionally a lifesaver" — Does understanding complexity beget a tragic view of life? More:

It actually inculcates a more profound appreciation of those moments of happiness and bliss, for the tragic view of life cautions us that these are not the products of will and planning, but rather mostly the result of serendipity. Those with the tragic view do not believe that everything must end in tragedy; rather, they believe that tragic endings are an ever present possibility.

As we mature we are ushered into the complexities of life. But when the willingness to accept these complexities is blunted or eliminated, maturity never arrives. Many remain in an adolescent state preferring an optimistic gloss on a simple-minded model of the world.

"The tragic view of life teaches humility in the face of complexity," he later writes. "It is not the role of those who adopt the tragic view of life merely to predict tragedy," he continues, suggesting not only that "these prudent thinkers are busy identifying trends that could possibly be forestalled and reversed so as to prevent tragic consequences" but also that "it takes a tragic view of life to imagine such scenarios in the first place."

Hime Island, Japan

"If Marxism had ever produced a functional, prosperous society, it might have looked something like this tiny southern Japanese island," begins Martin Fackler — A Workers’ Paradise Found Off Japan’s Coast. What makes the island unique, says the author, is that "it invented its own version of work-sharing four decades before the current economic crisis popularized the term."

Despite the "socialist parallels" the islanders "proclaim themselves political conservatives." They also call their home "a repository for traditional Japanese values, like economic egalitarianism and social harmony," and suggest that "the current crisis has made traditional values appear progressive, even utopian." The authorities above have criticized the island for being "the least transparent local government in the prefecture" and "refusing to make information like detailed budget records available to non-islanders."

"Hime Island is North Korea, just a livable version," joked one islander. Mayor Akio Fujimoto and the father who preceded him in that post "have won every mayoral election in Himeshima, the island’s village, for 49 years — without once being challenged by a rival candidate." Mayor Fujimoto, noting that "traditional attitudes prevent him from extending family control of the mayor’s office for another generation, because he has only a daughter," said, "Hime Island can’t be run by a woman. This place is too medieval for that."

Hime Island may not be for evreyone, but it is not trying to impose its system on others. It seems to work well for the Hime Islanders, and those who don't like it can leave. I see it as an example of one of the many forms that localism can respond to particular circumstances.

[link via Energy Bulletin]

Jeff Culbreath Reviews James Kalb

Calling the latter's new book "essential for anyone who wants to understand Liberalism as a worldview" and suggesting "that liberals themselves would benefit the most from this book" — The Tyranny of Liberalism.

We learn that the book acknowledges that "only the Roman Catholic Church is capable of presenting a single, viable, coherent alternative worldview in the public square." However given that "Catholicism does not have the history or the momentum in the United States to effectively resist Liberalism on its own," the author "suggests a restoration of the broad religious consensus that prevailed for so long in this land."

On a more practical level, he "calls for the decentralization of government power and authority (a renewal of subsidiarity), repealing certain antidiscrimination laws, and other measures that would facilitate more local, traditional, familial and cooperative ways of life." It is this strategy that I see as the more viable option.

The Myth of Brazilian "Racial Democracy"

Arturo Vasquez exposes "a myth that the Brazilian intellegentsia has itself been pushing for over sixty years" and suggests "[t]he reality on the ground turns out to be as ugly, if not uglier, than the American situation" — The Eyes of Escrava Anastacia. I agree with Mr. Vasquez that "the enslavement of black Africans is an act of ontological violence that is far more brutal and significant than any other atrocity in history, and to pretend that we have recovered from it is beyond wishful thinking."

The final scene from Orfeu Negro (1959):

The Practical Politics of Swine Flu

These stories have me worried — US declares public health emergency for swine flu and WHO declares international concern over swine flu.

I'm worried not about swine flu, mind you, but about those who are stoking fears about it. Observed H. L. Mencken, "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

In a used bookstore, I once came across a book on communicable diseases promulgated by the F.D.R. régime. It was an informative read. The final chapter, however, was a propaganda piece suggesting that the reader must surely agree that these diseases were so terrible that nothing but a strong central bureaucratic state could protect people from them.

Let us remember that the last time "swine flu" was in the news, in what some statists have called "the finest hour of America's public health bureaucracy," it is alleged that "hundreds of Americans were killed or seriously injured by the inoculation the government gave them to stave off the virus" — 1976: Fear of a great plague.

Props From Maryknoll Fathers in Korea

"Maryknoller in Korea" "ha[s] been following many of the most popular Catholic English blogs for sometime and some years ago was happy to see that there was one right here in our own Country of Korea" — WESTERN CONFUCIAN IN KOREA.

The good father says he "ha[s] rarely been disappointed" and is "surprised to see how he keeps it updated and with many Catholic issues taken from around the world." (In contrast, I'm often disappointed.) He writes, "A blog that is updated daily and is interesting to read and has a message to give is a work of great perseverance and vitality. Joshua's blog is catholic and Catholic." I am especially appreciative of that last comment.

As I wrote to father a while back, "I am indebted the the Maryknoll Fathers because Orbis Books was my first real exposure to Catholicism back when I was a liberal (and rather lukewarm) Protestant volunteering with refugees in Buffalo, NY in the '90s."

Korea's Hyper-Confucianism

"Maryknoller in Korea" quotes a professor at a university in Seoul in his diocesan bulletin about the "rigid look[s]," "stiff facial expression[s]," and "somber facial looks" of Koreans — THOSE YOU KNOW AND DON'T KNOW. This Korean professor mentions that "as children... Koreans are told to be kind to people they know but people you do not know you don't act as if you know them."

For the Confucian, the five relationships form the basis for all social interaction. Taken to the extreme, this might leave people who don't fit into one of the relationships out in the cold. The Korean word for "other people" (nam) shares a root with words for "excess," "left over," and "left behind." A colleague once said that Koreans are simultaneously the most considerate people in the world (to those with whom there is a relationship) and the most inconsiderate (to people with whom there is none). Driving on Korea's roads, where there are no relationships, bears this out.

Paul Gottfried's Schicksalsgemeinschaft

His "alliance of fate" included "a pro-Confederate critic of Abraham Lincoln," "an avowed Marxist," "a Southern agrarian," and "a Catholic Burkean" — Voices Against Progress.

Lincolnian Whiggism vs. Jeffersonian Traditionalism

John Fea offers a balanced appriasal of the man whose "real legacy was the promotion of an American nationalism that has resulted in the slow erosion of local places and an agrarian way of life" — Abraham Lincoln and the Destruction of Place.

Haydn and the Habsburgs

Tim Blanning argues that the "subject and servant of Europe’s most cosmopolitan empire... played an important role in the emergence of German cultural nationalism during the 18th and 19th centuries" — Joseph Haydn and the German Nation.

Among the many things of which we are reminded is that "the most multinational, multicultural, multilingual and generally diverse great power that Europe had ever seen" had "two great enemies: the Protestants and the Turks."

China Buys Gold

The country wants to "protect itself from the global crisis and the possible devaluation of the dollar" — China increases its gold reserves. From the report:

For years there have been rumors that Beijing has been steadily buying gold, with the intention of protecting itself from possible collapses in foreign currencies, especially the U.S. dollar. Experts observe that this announcement leads to the conclusion that China intends to buy more gold, proof of increasing lack of confidence in the U.S. currency, and also confirmation of its role as a global superpower.

The Infant of Prague vs. Joseph Stalin

"The Church will yet prevail, even in Europe, the forgetful continent," concludes Thomas Basil, reporting from sixteen different countries — Travels in Europe's Once & Future Faith. The first two paragraphs of an absolute must-read:

In 1950 the government of Czechoslovakia began building a granite statue of Soviet leader Josef Stalin. Finished in 1955 and towering ten stories high on a hill overlooking Prague, communist authorities dynamited it in 1962 following Khrushchev's famous denunciation of his predecessor. Stalin's colossal statue endured seven years, and today exists only in photographs at Prague's Museum of Communism. This remarkable museum documents what life under socialism was really like, such as deluxe watches as prizes for any border guard who shot an escapee from Stalin's "workers' paradise," or the Baroque core of Prague left to fall into ruins.

But somehow the city's famous wax doll less than three feet tall has endured nearby since 1628, when the Little Infant of Prague was donated to a Carmelite monastery by a wealthy benefactor. For some 380 years the doll has attracted devotees of Christ the King, who humbled Himself as a child and asks for childlike trust. That this little doll has outlasted countless European tyrants and secularists seems a metaphor for Christianity on the Continent: small and weak yet still splendid, and perhaps with more of a future than we dare hope.

"Come Home, America," Says George McGovern to Barack Obama

"For our sake and God's sake, let's get out of there and begin healing our own bankrupted land," pleads the 1972 peace candidate — Bring Our Troops Home from Mideast This Year. Noting that the president "has adopted most of the previous administration's formula for dragging out the withdrawal of our troops from the mistaken war in Iraq for nearly three more years," he asks some important questions:

Has either the great God above or his creatures here below designated us to run the Middle East? What do we say to the Iraqi people, who have indicated overwhelmingly in several polls that they want U.S. troops out of their country now? Why would we not understand this sentiment considering that our military equipment has smashed Iraqi homes, public buildings and infrastructure, including electricity and running water?

About the plan to "leave 50,000 troops in Iraq to 'police' that troubled country through 2011," he reminds us of history:

In June 1950, President Harry S. Truman ordered our troops into Korea, stating it would be only a brief police action that did not require a declaration of war. Three years later and after 38,000 American soldiers had been killed, the new American president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commander of Allied forces in World War II, promptly ended our involvement in the Korean War, to the relief of our combat soldiers and the American public.

Unfortunately, we left 40,000 American soldiers behind to police the 38th Parallel -- for a brief time. Yet, more than 50 years later, nearly 30,000 American troops are still in South Korea. So much for brief police actions.

The American Conservative has in recent years printed two pieces on the man; Bill Kauffman's appreciation of the "liberal with a sympathetic understanding of conservative rural America" — Come Home, America — and Daniel McCarthy's of the man he calls "a temperamental conservative, an anti-militarist, and a committed decentralist" — McGovern Beats Nixon.

"The Perfect Latin American Idiot's Bible"

That's how Alvaro Vargas Llosa describes, Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America, the book given by President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías to President Barack Hussein Obama — Regift, Please! Says the reviewer, "Everything that has happened in the Western Hemisphere since the book appeared in 1971 has belied Galeano's arguments and predictions."

I never read the book, but from my time as an change student in Chile, I remember Las venas abiertas de América Latina being the singular most popular book among the local students.

The State vs. Venerable Jiyul

Jiyul Sunim, pictured above during her hunger strike, has been convicted of "obstructing state business" in her "long-running protest against construction of a tunnel near her temple" — Supreme Court convicts female Buddhist monk.

Andrei Lankov on P'yŏngyang

"They are not madmen or ideological zealots, but remarkably efficient and cold-minded, perhaps the most perfect Machiavellians of the modern world" — Why Pyongyang clings to its weapons. The nuclear weapons program serves as a "powerful strategic deterrent" and "blackmail tool" but also "has domestic importance," about which the author writes:

Pyongyang's propaganda now insists that the suffering and destitution of the past 15 years were a necessary sacrifice, voluntarily made by selfless North Koreans to safeguard their country and nation against enemies (above all, the "blood-thirsty Yankees" who dream about wiping out the entire Korean race). Surrender of the nuclear weapons would render this suffering and death meaningless.

Other salient points include the author's insistence that "no military action against North Korea is thinkable" and that the "strategy of economic sanctions.... is not likely to work in North Korea" and their "only result would be the suffering and death of common people."

The News From Pakistan Is Not Good

Gerald Posner reports that "Taliban forces are on the verge of seizing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal" — The Taliban's Nuclear Threat.

News that "pro-Taliban slogans, calling on Christians to convert to Islam, [have] appear[ed] on church walls," six Christian houses been set ablaze, and "three Christians, including an 11-year-old boy, who is in critical condition," been attacked by gunmen — Taliban attack Christians in Karachi.

Syed Saleem Shahzad reports that Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani acknowledges that "the seven-year-long strategy of military operations [has] only aggravated the situation" and "that the situation can at best only be contained as long as foreign troops remain in Afghanistan" — Frontier wisdom.

"Pakistan’s judiciary system cannot enforce the country’s laws until the United States leaves the region and the Pakistani government strengthens the law enforcement system" was the conclusion reached at this forum — US presence in Pakistan harmful, analysts say.

The 2009 Tji Hak-soon Justice and Peace Award

It was awarded to Marius Rukshan Fernando — Sri Lankan human rights activist receives Korean Church award. The recipient "has committed himself to investigating and revealing the truth to the United Nations of those arrested or murdered by the Sinhalese-led government." A Sinhalese-Catholic, noting the disproportionate number of deaths among the Tamils, he said, "It is why I have to side with Tamils."

Father Francis Tan Tiande, Requiem æternam...

News of the passing of a priest "held in high esteem as a martyr by all the faithful in Guangzhou diocese" — Fr Francis Tan Tiande, a joyful witness after 30 years in a labour camp, dies. An excerpt from his writing:

In the 30 years I spent in the north-east, farming was my main occupation. Each year, when spring came we had to fertilise a field that was as hard as steel [because of the extreme cold]. We used pickaxes to break the ground. Once the ground was loose, we would water it and plant the seeds. Today, when I describe all this, it does not all seem so bad. In reality we were underfed. All that work was beyond our capacity and each minute was an agony . . .

People might wonder how I could survive such terrible conditions. For those who do not believe, it is an enigma with no solution. For those who believe it is God’s will. Life is man’s most precious gift. I must take care of this gift so as not be ungrateful. Hence I ate wild herbs to survive, and tree bark . . . Such were the conditions I lived in that I experienced my fellow inmates’ brutal actions . . . That pain was even worse than hunger. I wanted to run in the fields, shouting "Where are you God?" . . . I cannot remember how many times I wanted to end it all, but at the crucial moment I saw Jesus on the cross looking at me with those merciful eyes . . . and telling me, "Man of little faith! Do you doubt perhaps that I love you?"

Even during the years when showing a religious symbol was severely punished, I did not stop doing the sign of the cross among the prisoners. I was afraid that I might forget that everything came from His hands, that everything was a token of love, that everything was given to me so that I might be someone who could love. I was afraid that I might end up thinking that there was something I might not thank the Lord for, that I might end up being ashamed of Him, that I might think someone or something was stronger than Him. That "sign" cost me several punishments . . . but I had to preserve my dignity as a believer in order not to find myself without strength.

Catholic Exegesis

"[T]he Catholic exegete does not harbor the individualistic illusion that the biblical texts can be understood better outside of the community of believers," reiterated the Pontiff — Pope: the Bible must be interpreted within the magisterium of the Church. His Holiness concluded that "only the ecclesial context permits sacred Scripture to be understood as the authentic Word of God, the guide, norm, and rule for the life of the Church and the spiritual growth of believers."

A Traditionalist Conservative on Classical Liberalism

"Generally, when someone says, 'I’m conservative on some issues and liberal on others,' what he really means is that he is just a more consistent classical liberal than American-style conservatives and liberals, i.e. he has traced out more fully the consequences of the individual as the sole entity in politics and the individual’s protected freedom as its end," writes James Matthew Wilson — Letter from a Traditional Conservative.

This Would Make Interesting Alternative Ecclesial History

"Secret plans were drawn up by the Vatican to elect a new Pope and flee to a friendly country should Hitler have carried out his threat to kidnap the wartime Pontiff" — Vatican planned to move to Portugal if Nazis captured wartime Pope. "Pope Pius XII told senior bishops that should he be arrested by the Nazis, his resignation would become effective immediately" and "bishops would then be expected to flee to a safe country – probably neutral Portugal – where they would re-establish the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and appoint a new Pontiff."

"Pius has been accused of being anti-Semitic and of harbouring sympathies for the Nazi regime, most notably in the 1999 book Hitler's Pope, by British author John Cornwell," the article reminds us. However, "other Catholic and Jewish historians contend that in fact Pius was loathed by the Nazis for speaking out about the Holocaust and for behind-the-scenes efforts to save Italian Jews who otherwise would have been sent to death camps."

China's A-Bomb Victims

"Up to 190,000 may have died as a result of China’s weapons tests," reports Michael Sheridan — Revolt stirs among China’s nuclear ghosts. The reports mentions the "[s]oldiers [who] galloped on horseback towards mushroom clouds, with only gas masks for protection." If you've never seen incongruous footage before, take a look:


[link via The Marmot's Hole]

A Korean Church Father

Maryknoller in Korea brings to our attention Father Choe Yang Eop (Thomas), pictured above — First Non-matyred Korean Saint? More:

He worked for 12 years in pastoral work among his Korean Christians. Kim Andrew was the first Korean Priest but died a martyr’s death shortly after ordination. Fr. Choe was actually the one who helped the Church to grow. He can be considered a Korean Church Father. He was born in 1821 and died in 1861 overworked and dying of typhoid fever.

Worthy of pondering also is his mother, Ri Seong Rye, who "temporarily denied her Faith because of her bond with her breast feeding son," unable as she was "to overcome her maternal instincts, separating herself from her son and entering jail on her own to face beheading."

No Uncle Tom

Dylan Hales defends the "former slave, Southern patriot, neo-agrarian capitalist" "who’s 'authentic blackness' cannot be seriously questioned—and who’s refusal to play by the rules of the State often spat in the fate of the sweeping progressivism so dominant among many whites of his era" — The Soul of Booker T. Washington.

Reclaiming Galileo

Carolyn Moynihan writes that "it is salutary to distinguish the Catholic believer that Galileo was from the secular saint made of him by the Enlightenment tradition" — The faith of Galileo.

The Galileo Affair by George Sim Johnson is required reading on this "one stock argument used to show that science and Catholic dogma are antagonistic." The author notes, "Until Galileo forced the issue into the realm of theology, the Church had been a willing ombudsman for the new astronomy," having "encouraged the work of both Copernicus and sheltered Kepler against the persecutions of Calvinists."

In The Galileo Myth, Robert Spencer quotes Thomas Woods as suggesting that "even if the Galileo incident had been every bit as bad as people think it was, John Henry Cardinal Newman, the celebrated nineteenth-century convert from Anglicanism, found it revealing that this is practically the only example that ever comes to mind."

Bill Kauffman on Ron Paul

"American political discourse, defined as it is by Arthur Schlesinger’s ghost and Bill Bennett’s ghostwriter, has contracted to such a pinpoint that I half expect a Big Bang to blow it all apart, as forbidden thoughts—Peace! Liberty! Localism!—bust loose from the thought prisons and the air is filled with the glorious cacophony of patriotic debate as free men and women relearn the language and habits of vigorous citizenship,' he begins — The Republic Strikes Back. About the Good Doctor, he writes:

Ron Paul started something. Or, rather, he revealed something: liberty has a constituency. I was heartened mightily by the crowd in Minneapolis, which was overwhelmingly young. What a rousing sight: bright and enthusiastic kids afire with the spirit of liberty, of resistance to regimentation and the tyranny of standardization. Homeschoolers, homebrewers, punk rockers, evangelical Christians, radical Kansans, and reactionary New Englanders. These were American girls and boys, beautifully stained in the American grain, hip to Republican lies and numbing Democratic statism. Hell no, they won’t go. They’ll not be cannon fodder for the wars of Bush-Cheney or Obama-Biden. They demand honesty and liberty and respect for all things small and smaller; they have nothing but scorn for the liars and whores who run the empire.

(Mr. Kauffman also introduces us to the man "whom Harvard College Observatory director Harlow Shapley called 'the world’s greatest non-professional astronomer'" — Ohio’s Backyard Scientist.)

Korean Catholic Base Communities

As an old man is not agile and not full of life, we (the German Church) need revival and refreshment. By contrast, the Korean Church is young and vibrant and we can learn from it.

So said Archbishop Ludwig Schick of Bamberg, about the South Korean Small Christian Communities (SCC) movement — German delegation learns about SCCs from Korean Church. From what I gather, these SCCs are like the "base communities" of Liberation Theology without the Marxism.

Korean Economic Notes

Those on "the lowest rung of the country's economic ladder" have made their way to an American daily — South Korea's 'seal men' suffer in downturn.

This sounds eerily familiar — Ponzi Scheme Could Shake Economy. "The South Korean government is accused of employing an ill-fated strategy similar to a Ponzi scheme in order to prop up real estate prices in the midst of the financial crisis."

A good result in a case of a man "charged with not only deliberately spreading false rumors about government policy on the exchange rate, but also with the intention to harm the public good by negatively affecting the foreign exchange market and undermining the nation’s economic credibility" — S. Korea acquits Internet pundit “Minerva”.

XIXth Century Wisdom for XXIst Century America

"April 16th marked the 150th anniversary of the death of one of the significant thinkers of modern times," notes Dr. Samuel Gregg, reminding us that "Alexis de Tocqueville’s prophetic insights into America have been cited approvingly by figures ranging from Nobel Prize economist Friedrich Hayek to Benedict XVI" — Despotism – The Soft Way. The thinker is "largely ignored in his native France, where the left-dominated intelligentsia dismisses him as 'antidemocratic,'" but "Americans of all generations... have regularly turned to this nineteenth-century aristocrat to understand their past and future." Says Dr. Gregg, "This is especially true when it comes to Tocqueville’s thoughts about democracy’s promise and perils which, more than ever, seem relevant for America." Dr. Gregg ends with this Tocquevillean observation" "The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults."

"Environmental protection can be done more efficiently and for less cost at the local level," says Laura E. Huggins — On Earth Day, think Thoreau. This being "a time when government involvement in the environment is all the rage," she reminds us that "Henry David Thoreau, who wrote that 'government is best which governs not at all,' is probably writhing in his grave." The author, after denouncing the "green nationalism" that began with Teddy Roosevelt, ends with this bit of Thoreauvian wisdom: "The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished, and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way."

Tim Rutten on a man who "died 99 years ago this week" but whose "status as both an author and protean example of the now-familiar pop cultural celebrity seems to grow with each passing decade" — 'Who Is Mark Twain?'. This stands out: "Twain, though an unbeliever, was one of the first American cultural observers to intuit that the country's great problem was not religion per se but a surfeit of religiosity." So does this: "He also was aware that few of his readers were prepared to accept his advanced political views, which were all the more remarkable in that he'd been born in the divided border state of Missouri, served a couple of desultory weeks as a Confederate irregular, then became one of the few Americans to sit out the Civil War as a neutral in Nevada." He was also "a passionate defender of racial equality, an early champion of women's suffrage, a fervent anti-imperialist." (Two out of three ain't bad.)

Back From Kŏje Island

My second attempt to explore Geojedo was far more successful than my first. A dozen years ago, I set of alone took half-a-day by bus and ferry to reach the island, only to discover that figuring transportation, food, and lodging in an unfamiliar place was no longer as fun as it once had been, and then decided over a meal of hoedeopbap to talk the remaining half of the day and return to my apartment.

This time, I traveled with my wife, two kids, and a plan. We stayed at the Geoje Natural Recreation Forest, one of many such facilities run by the Korea Forest Service. This was perhaps the best of the ones we've visited thus far, being seculded in the very lush woods of the island. There's quite a lot of natural beauty on the island, like Hakdong Pebble Beach. But for us the highlight was Historic Park of Geoje, P.O.W. Camp. During the Korean War, the site held a total of 170,000 prisoners of war, 20,000 from China and 150,000 from North Korea. Today, it is one of Korea's finest museums.

What made it great for us was the interest it sparked in my four-year-old son. He had questions about every weapon and artifact on display. My six-year-old daughter couldn't have been less interested, which is either evidence that there are innate differences in the sexes or that my wife and I are indoctrinating our children into the "gender roles" assigned by a patriarchal society. Both kids, however, were interested in why their mother's country should have been at war with herself. I took the opportunity to explain the evil of war, then the evil of communism. The evil of interventionism will be saved for a latter lesson.

One thing I can say is that the longer I stay in this country the more interesting it becomes. It has been years since I last set foot off this peninsula and I have no compelling desire to do so, as much as I miss my homeland. That said, I could never think of giving up my American citizenship. Not only will I never be anything other than an American nor ever want to be, I am opposed in general to the idea of Korea granting citizenship to male foreigners. But that is the subject perhaps of a future post.

Back on Wednesday

I'll be away until the memorial of Saint Leonidas of Alexandria, father of Origen, who was martyred eighteen centuries ago.

President Obama's Corporatism

America is going from what used to be the major capitalistic country in the world of free market – a crusader – into what Mussolini would have called fascism: the merger of state and corporate powers. So it is not socialism as people believe, it is socialism’s egalitarianism. It’s not communism where the state controls monopolies – it’s fascism, plain and simple. The merger of corporate and government powers. State-controlled capitalism is called fascism, and fascism has come to America in broad daylight. But they’re feeding them it in little bits and pieces. First AIG was too big to fail. Mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were too big to fail. Banks too big to fail and auto companies. And now we give money to the people that make the auto parts. And now there’s talk about the technology companies, wanting their piece of the action. The merger of state and government is called fascism. Take it from Mussolini; he knew a thing or two about it.

So said Gerald Celente — Americans Live in a Fascist State.

Peace, Commerce, Honest Friendship (and Régime Change)

Andrei Lankov, associate professor of North Korean history at Kookmin University in Seoul, notes the "spontaneous growth of grassroots markets in the North and partial disintegration of state controls" and suggests "active engagement with the North in the form of development aid, scholarships for North Korean students and support for all sorts of activities that bring the world to North Korea or take North Koreans outside their cocoon" — Toppling Kim Jong Il. He writes, "Such exchanges are often condemned as a way of appeasing dictators, but the experience of East Europe showed that an influx of uncensored information from the outside is deadly for a communist dictatorship."

[link via The Marmot's Hole]

Two on Inefficiency and Happiness

Caleb Stegall offers an anecdote from 1947, when "two titans of 20th-century economic theory, Ludwig von Mises and Wilhelm Röpke, met in Röpke’s home of Geneva, Switzerland;" what the former called "[a] very inefficient way of producing foodstuffs" the latter called "a very efficient way of producing human happiness" — Price, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

An American Maryknoll father offers a personal anecdote from his first days in Korea of seeing three men using one shovel (the other two helped with ropes) and thinking that "they could do more work doing it separately but it would not be as much fun" — ONE PLUS ONE IS NOT ALWAYS TWO.

Two on Secession

Kurt Cobb, a progressive, suggests that "an ongoing economic slump may end up feeding continued calls for secession as well as create receptivity to genuinely useful relocalization efforts" — Does Rick Perry see the future?

Rev. Larry Beane reminds us that "secession, resistance against tyranny, and the right to self-government are quintessentially American, and are the hallmarks of all free peoples around the world" — Is Secession 'Anti-American'?

Beyond Right and Left on the Economy

"President Obama grossly overstated the support these policies enjoy by claiming, 'economists on the left and right agree that the last thing the government should do during a recession is cut back on spending," says Peter Schiff — Not All Economists Agree.

Kelley Vlahos on one institution that has benefited from the crisis — Military Recruitment and the Economic Crisis. She concludes, "It’s a pity that a economic crisis at home might forestall real reform in the Armed Forces — who can possibly hold their feet to fire when they have all the 'cannon fodder' necessary to fight these unpopular but nonetheless ongoing wars abroad?"

"Even during the boom years, one of the dirty secrets of the economy was that middle and lower-class wages were not keeping up with inflation," writes Daniel McCarthy — What the Fed Has Done to the Working Man. He asks us to keep in mind that "this impoverishment is not a function of the burst [but] a product of the original bubble."

"How about a test of your injustice barometer?" writes the man who got my vote in '08 — Bailout Indignation.

"Behind the scenes, banks are rapidly reshifting power, wealth and control of the U.S. economy," writes Don Monkerud, and all we knoew is that "the wealthy increased their share of national wealth, and taxpayers are left to pay for it" — Economic Recovery for Whom?

"The economic news in the near and medium term is ghastly," suggests Alexander Cockburn, noting that "Wall Street and its boosters are trying to pretend that indeed the worst is over" — Thin Ice From Here to the Horizon.

"It’s a curious symptom of the consensus trance zombifying the American public and its auditors in the media that something like a 'recovery' is now deemed to be underway," begins James Howard Kunstler — The Coming Siege of Austerity.

John Huer on Religion in South Korea

The Korea Times columnist's latest is a good, but superficial, introduction to the topic of religion in Korea, but is marred by several small and one outstanding factual error — Koreans Are Soulful People.

"With a naturally superstitious culture, Korea is in a sense a very 'religious' society," he says. True enough. "Koreans easily refer to 'Hanu-nim,' meaning ``God'' as a general term for the Supreme Being, in their daily lives without any particular denominational reference." Yes, but Protestants call Him "Hana-nim."

"Their belief in God is diffused with shamanism, their most native religion, as much as Christianity and Buddhism," he writes. "It is fair to say that Korea's religious distribution is roughly about one-third shamanism, one-third Christianity, and one-third Buddhism." That may be true, but Korean shamanism is not a religion, per se. Korea's irreligious population (and Buddhists and some Christians), however, will turn to it when they need a fortune told or a spirit exorcised.

"Within the Christian church, Catholicism is said to be the fastest growing branch in Korea," he writes. "Oddly, they call Protestants 'Christians' and Catholics 'Catholics.'" I'm not sure to whom the pronoun they refers, but if it refers to Koreans generally, this is true.

Where he really goes wrong is here: "Catholic Koreans mix their religious practices with those of shamanism in ancestor worship, as they pay homage to their ancestors' graves on Chusok holiday, Korea's largest holiday.... Even the Catholic Church unofficially sanctions the acceptability of shamanistic ancestor worship."

First of all, the ritual is Confucian, not shamanistic. Secondly, "worship" is too strong a word; "veneration" would be better. Thirdly, the Church officially sanctions the rite. A brief history is in order:

Catholics were barred from practicing the ancestral rite in what came to be known as the Chinese Rites Controversy of the XVII^th Century. Holy Mother Church, under the influence of Jansenism, rejected the learned opinion of Matteo Ricci, S.J., this blog's namesake, who held that the rite was not religious in nature. (My reading of Confucius tells me the same.) Venerable Pope Pius XII corrected this on Dec. 8, 1939, and the Confucian ancestral rite has been allowed ever since.

Compañeros

If ever a photo spoke a thousand words, it is the disturbing one above — Barack Obama Shakes Hands with Hugo Chavez. About the man on the right, Mexican leftist novelist Carlos Fuentes was right — "Chávez is a tropical Mussolini".

President Obama and Torture

"Former Reagan Justice Department official Bruce Fein writes that Obama's decision to release CIA memos without prosecuting Bush administration officials flouts his constitutional duty" — How Obama Excused Torture.

"Without a hard look at the Bush administration's torture program, the United States could be condemned to repeat it, no matter what President Obama says," argues Mark Benjamin — Is Torture Really Over?

Humane Environmentalism

"Is an environmentalism without humanity the answer?" asks Brian Lilley of the "top environmentalists [who] say the way to a greener planet is to have fewer people" — Wish you weren’t here.

"It's overconsumption, not population growth, that is the fundamental problem," argues Fred Pearce — Consumption Dwarfs Population As Main Environmental Threat.

"The greatest threat to... developed industrial nations may not be global warming, peak oil, pandemics or rogue asteroids, but rather the ongoing demographic transformation," suggests Harvey Enchin — Paying for the excesses of youth.

Happy Arbor Day!

"The difference between Arbor Day and Earth Day," says Bill Kauffman, "is the difference between planting a tree in your backyard and e-mailing a machine-written plea for a global warming treaty to your UN representative" — To Hell with Earth Day; Long Live Arbor Day!

Defending Ox-bow

"I especially do not like liberal propaganda films disguised as westerns," says Gary North, writing for LewRockwell.com, of The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) , a film I own and respect — How Liberals Killed the Western: A Case Study. The author is a well-known advocate of Christian Reconstructionism, which "advocates the modern-day application of Old Testament law in 'reconstructing' the Kingdom of God... on earth."

Mr. North describes the movie as "the story of mob rule leading to a vigilante hanging," which it is. He decries the film as "low-budget" and points out its "bloopers," including "a black man who is accompanied by singing angels" who "does not look black" but "looks like a white actor with what Ann Coulter would call swarthy guy makeup" but "really was an African-American, the founder of the Negro Actors Guild." Mr. North delivers many such insignificant details, but fails to deliver what his title promises.

Mr. North's deeper criticism seems to be this: "Nothing is resolved judicially. Injustice triumphs.... The book's theme was contrary to the popular western, where injustice gets its due reward." I can't really see where his criticism goes beyond that that the film did not have a happy ending. I fail to understand how a Christian could take excpetion to this statement, made by the lynched man in the film:

A man just naturally can't take the law into his own hands and hang people without hurting everybody in the world, because then he's just not breaking one law but all laws. Law is a lot more than words you put in a book, or judges or lawyers or sheriffs you hire to carry it out. It's everything people ever have found out about justice and what's right and wrong. It's the very conscience of humanity. There can't be any such thing as civilization unless people have a conscience, because if people touch God anywhere, where is it except through their conscience? And what is anybody's conscience except a little piece of the conscience of all men that ever lived?

I see the film as making a profoundly anti-democratic statement, as it has been said that the purest form of democracy is the lynch mob, and thus it is worthy of praise.

An old Negro Spiritual appears to great effect in the film; it is sung below by the great Mississippi John Hurt:

Mississippi John Hurt - Lonesome Valley
Uploaded by soulpatrol

Pope John Paul II, Classical Liberal

Anne Barbeau Gardiner notes that the late pontiff "appropriated as 'naturally Christian' the principles once thought to be the 'exclusive preserve of the Enlightenment,' and put them on 'a coherent ethical foundation' to make them capable of serving man and supporting 'his fundamental rights, starting with the right to life'" — Intimate Memories of the Late Pope. "In the great battle over morality during his pontificate, he was often accused of being reactionary, but what he proposed was 'a humanism he thought could help contemporary man rediscover the authentically moral meaning of his history and destiny.'"

Susan Boyle, Devout Catholic and Filial Daughter

"Not many people these days are devoutly religious or would spend their time devoted to their parents to the point they'd find themselves a spinster," says neighbor Stewart Mackenzie of this "simple soul with genuine warmth" — Singing 'spinster' strikes chord in talent contest.

The article informs us that the "the frumpy 47-year-old, who says she's never been kissed," was "[t]he youngest of nine children of a devout Roman Catholic family, [and] grew up in one of Scotland's most deprived areas, a district blighted by unemployment, crime and social problems."

The Tao of Isolationism

Rich Rubino rectifies some names — Non-Interventionism is Not Isolationism. The former holds "that the U.S. should not intercede in conflicts between other nations or conflicts within nations" and "supports commercial relations." The latter "dictates that a country should have no relations with the rest of the world" and is called by the author "an impracticable worldview."

But is it necessarily? Isolationism, it must be admitted, holds a certain appeal, and never was it better articulated than by Lao Tzu in the LXXX^th chapter of the Tao Te Ching:

In a little state with a small population, I would so order it,
that, though there were individuals with the abilities of ten or a
hundred men, there should be no employment of them; I would make the
people, while looking on death as a grievous thing, yet not remove
elsewhere (to avoid it).

Though they had boats and carriages, they should have no occasion
to ride in them; though they had buff coats and sharp weapons, they
should have no occasion to don or use them.

I would make the people return to the use of knotted cords (instead
of the written characters).

They should think their (coarse) food sweet; their (plain) clothes
beautiful; their (poor) dwellings places of rest; and their common
(simple) ways sources of enjoyment.

There should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the voices
of the fowls and dogs should be heard all the way from it to us, but I
would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any
intercourse with it.

"The New Decentralism"

Justin Raimondo says "that bigness – in the world of nation-states, as well as finance – is out, and smallness is in" — These United States: Too Big to Fail? He says "the world’s biggest financial combines, along with the giant producers like GM, are in trouble [because] like the dinosaurs, their bigness – once an advantage – evolved into a fatal gigantism."

Also, he argues, "the reality is that big countries – and bigness, per se – are on the wane" and that "what happened to the old Soviet Union is not such an implausible scenario for us."

Two on Wall Street

"For every 100 dollars corporate America made between 1973 and 1985, the financial sector took 16 dollars. In 1986, the share rose to 19 dollars and 21 to 30 dollars in the 1990s," notes Hong Kwon-hee — Wall Street. "In the 2000s, the figure has risen to 41 dollars."

Zach Carter on a "plan [that] all but guarantees-see if this theme sounds familiar-a windfall for banks that lied to regulators and investors so that they'd be allowed to lend out far more money than they could realistically afford to" — Is Geithner's Hedge-Fund Bailout Illegal?

Korea's Roe v. Wade

"Abortions were legalized in South Korea in 1973 under the Mother and Child Health Law, which a military regime promulgated without collecting public opinion," we learn in this article — Government's abortion limitation has little meaning, Church officials say.

The proposed change would "shorten the period for legal abortion of a pregnancy from 28 weeks to 24 weeks." ("The Korean bishops," in contrast, "have consistently upheld Church teaching on the inviolable dignity of human life from conception by opposing abortion in any circumstances.")

Currently, abortion is allowed only "in case of pregnancy by rape or incest, certain kinds of genetic mental or physical damage, or if the mother's health is in danger." But, as we know, the phrase "mother's health" is a catch-all phrase vague enough to include the inconvenience of of giving birth to an inconvenient baby.

We also are reminded that a country with one-sixth the population and about one-and-a-half times the number of abortions per annum: "The local Church says 1.5 million abortions are performed annually in South Korea, which has a population of 48.5 million people."

Jefferson, Adams, and Hamilton

Prof. Clyde N. Wilson at his best— Politics and Economics in America. The first paragraph:

Thomas Jefferson has left us an account of a supper-table conversation in the very earliest days of the U.S. government. Vice President John Adams (who was intended by nature for a preacher) declaimed at length about the virtues of the British government, which, he said, if purged of its corruption, would be perfection. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (a canny immigrant bastard with a Napoleon complex) differed sharply. It was its corruption, he avowed, that gave the British government its great stability and power. Add in Jefferson’s views, which agreed with neither, and you anticipate almost the whole history of American political economy.

Is Sodomite "Marriage" a Fait Accompli?

Unwelcome news from my home state — NY Gov. introduces same-sex ‘marriage’ bill day after archbishop's installation. "The governor, who said he was baptized a Catholic, said the proposal was the 'right way' from a spiritual standpoint," we are told.

We also learn that "one Democratic Senator, Sen. Ruben Diaz, has said he opposes Gov. Paterson’s measure." Says Sen. Diaz:

I think it's a laugh in the face of the new archbishop. The Jews just finished their holy week. The Catholics just received the new archbishop. The evangelical Christians just celebrated Good Friday and resurrection. He comes out to do this at this time? It's a challenge the governor is sending to every religious person in New York and the time for us has come for us to accept the challenge.

Even if "the time for us has come for us to accept the challenge," we may well be doomed to fail and it is all our own fault. Restrained Radical, that "Korean-American compassionate-conservative neoclassical-liberal libertarian-paternalist violent-papist," yesterday posted "[a] prediction on when public opinion would turn in favor of SSM" — On Same-Sex Marriage.

He found "a regression model that looked at a series of political and demographic variables" and concludes, "By 2016, only a handful of states in the Deep South would vote to ban gay marriage, with Mississippi being the last one to come around in 2024." He mentions correctly that "Christians in general have been much more outspoken about SSM than about non-SSM threats to the sanctity of marriage."

He concludes, "I've always advocated getting the government out of marriage altogether but if the government is going to actively promote marriage, IMO, the next best alternative, though still probably infeasible, would be to promote marriage as an institution designed to provide for the best interests of children, rather than merely a contractual relationship between adults."

Three Lessons for America From Fourth Generation War

A reader sends along William S. Lind's latest — The Fourth Generation Armies Are Winning. His three lessons "of overriding importance" in a nutshell: "1) So long as America pursues an offensive grand strategy, Fourth Generation war will ensure her defeat;" "2) Second Generation militaries cannot win Fourth Generation wars;" "3) There is no chance America will adopt a defensive grand strategy or reform its military to move from the Second to the Third Generation – a necessary though not sufficient step in confronting 4GW – so long as the current Washington Establishment remains in power."

CNN "Reporting" the Tax Protests

A reader sends along a video that "speaks for itself of our media continuing to try to divide their puppets with right wing-left wing BS" — Chicago Tax Day Tea Party. The fellow interviewed is a bit confused about the sixteenth president, but his heart's in the right place.

Pontifical Chrism Mass (Novus Ordo) in Shanghai

Some photos from D. Shanghai - Chrism Mass - linked to by Father John Zuhlsdorf, 163 of them in all — 圣周三徐家汇教堂圣油弥撒全记录！！！

My experience has been that in Asia the Novus Ordo Missae is genereally celebrated with the same reverence and solemnity seen in the photos linked to above. Twenty-five centuries of Confucianism have left an indelible mark on the peoples here. Thus, the Mass of Paul VI was not met with resistance by Asian Catholics, out of respect for authority, and the importance placed on ritual and custom have left in place much of what was more fully expressed in the Traditional Latin Mass.

[link via The New Beginning]

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Micro-Lender

"[F]ar from being a practice of pure welfare, the micro-credit will be the way to make the creativity and ingenuity of our people emerge again," said His Eminence, Archbishop of Naples — Cardinal Donates Savings to Start Bank for Poor.

This is part of an Italian "crusade of charity and assistance" to combat the economic crisis, about which His Eminence says, "We agree that we have built our society on sand and not on rock and, basing ourselves solely on economic calculation, have built the umpteenth tower of Babel."

There are those who might take issue with this statement: "We thought that the globalization of markets would bring us further well-being, wealth for all, and instead we globalized poverty." But even free-traders can agree that what we really have is what Jeffrey Tucker called "mercantilism in disguise" — Free Trade versus Free-trade Agreements.

Susan Boyle, Anti-Modernist

"Modern society is too quick to judge people on their appearances," rightly said the lovely woman pictured above — The Scot Heard Round the World. "There is not much you can do about it; it is the way they think; it is the way they are. But maybe this could teach them a lesson, or set an example."

The story of the woman who's "47, frumpy, out of work, from a small Scottish village... unmarried, ... has never been kissed... who lives in public housing in a Scottish village, a victim of bullying and a disability, who spent her life being faithful to the church and caring for her now-dead parents" was linked to on this blog yesterday — Overcoming the Bullies.

The article linked to above informs us that she is the "youngest of nine children" who "spent years taking care of her mother, who recently died." Her parish priest, the Rev. Ryszard Holuka, called her a "quiet soul." He said, "She never flaunted her voice; this is the first time it's been publicly recognized."

A Corean Curmudgeon

Cho Se-hyon, a man "hotly chided... for being so sarcastic, even unpatriotic, about fellow Koreans," is "convinced that practically nothing moves in Korea unless there is money to be made by an individual or group" — Greed Rules. It wasn't always this way, he notes:

In the 1950s when the people were less materialistic, we were happier, with full of dreams, even though many of us were forced to go hungry and wear worn-out clothes handed out by the U.S. forces or international aid organizations. But we helped each other whenever we could and although Seoul was not any less chaotic and difficult to live in than it is now, we were courteous to each other.

When I went back to Korea after a long sojourn overseas, I found the country vastly more affluent with high-rise apartments and people driving big, shiny cars everywhere. Ironically, though, life appears to be much tougher and the people have become more selfish and greedier than they were half a century ago.

He describes a practice not limited to his country: "Our politicians get together and form a political party not because they share the same political ideology or want to advance any political ideals they believe in, but simply because it is easier for them to fight for power as a group and make money for themselves by using their influence." He also notes that "democracy is not a cure-all for social ills, least of all, the people’s greed."

The Man Who Should Have Been Archbishop of Canterbury

News that the Rt. Rev. Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali, Anglican Bishop of Rochester, England, is retiring early — A troublesome priest in a timid church. A brief bio: "Born in Karachi to parents who converted to Christianity from Islam, the first non-white diocesan bishop in Britain emerged as an outspoken critic of multiculturalism."

The article notes, "His views on Muslims were said to have ruled him out of succeeding George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury." It was during my last year as a guest of the Anglican Communion (I was on the verge of formally joining in 2002 when I got cold feet and ended up swimming the Tiber by the end of the year) when Bishop Nazir-Ali was one of two candidates selected by Her Most Britannic Majesty for the Communion's top post, and the one I supported. Prime Minister Tony Blair, now a Catholic lecturing the Pope on gays, selected his rival.

"Bishop Nazir-Ali intends to take up the cause of persecuted Christian minorities in the Middle East, Pakistan and places like Orissa in India... but there is no doubt that conservatives in the Church of England have lost their most outspoken champion."

[link via Crunchy Con]

"The Wilhelm Roepke Solution to Our Economic Woes"

Explained by Dermot Quinn, professor of history at Seton Hall University and a fellow of the James Madison Program at Princeton University — Too Small to Fail.

"The key to Roepke’s thinking is freedom," notes Prof. Quinn, who goes on to explain that "his notion of freedom was profoundly communitarian, rooted as it was in certain moral understandings of man and the good life, of human beings living together in honorable interdependence, of families being free because obliged to each other."

Roepke "understood economics in deeply religious terms, as a kind of magnificent participation in creation itself," and "distrusted all forms of collectivism." Writes the author, "An Aristotelian preference for balance and variety, a Burkean delight in the little platoons, a Chestertonian love of the local and the down-to-earth—that was Roepke."

"Roepke was appalled by the sheer vastness of the modern state," and "offered, instead, the more modest proposal that self-reliance—'the individual taking care of himself and his family'—was the foundation upon which all economics and politics should be built."

I've blogged before about this great thinker:

• Wilhelm Röpke
• An Austrian School Distributivist?
• Röpke on Centrism and Decentrism
• A Humane Austrian
• A Call for Peace Between Paleo-libertarians and Neo-distributists
• Wilhelm Röpke, Libertarian Traditionalist
• Again, the Great Wilhelm Röpke
• Yet Another Wilhelm Röpke Post
• Wilhelm Röpke, Libertarian Traditionalist
• Look to Wilhelm Röpke
• The Austrian School and Distibutivsm
• The Humane Economist
• A Roepkean in the House
• A Libertarian Looks to Belloc, Röpke, Agrarians, and Distributists
• Where Röpke and Schumacher Meet

"Peacenik Sellouts"

Writing for The American Conservative, Antiwar.com's Justin Raimonso asks, "Was the Left antiwar or just anti-Bush?" — Peace Out. The author suggests "that the antiwar movement has largely collapsed in the face of Barack Obama’s victory" and the "ostensibly antiwar organizations that did so much to agitate against the Iraq War have now fallen into line behind their commander in chief and are simply awaiting orders."

New Urbanism in Korea?

"A good urban environment creates a society," says architect Seung H-sang (don't ask me how to pronounce that) — Still, slow waters of Korean architecture. "A lot of social conflict comes from the structure of the city." Sounds a lot like New Urbanism.

Glenn Beck Admits He Was Wrong

"If this is what the Right is feeding on to educate itself, it's going to be out in the wilderness, gashing itself with sharp rocks and babbling numbers for a very long time," says the sadly, but not unexpectedly, misguided Mark Shea of the above clip — Talk Radio Dementia on the Right. "The guy's nuts," wrongly says Mr. Shea, mockingly adding, "This is what passes for serious discourse on the Right these days? Oy!"

I, too, am a bit suspicious of Mr. Beck's recent conversion and of his network, which for years shilled for the previous régime, but this statement from the video seems sincere, and it is undoubtedly true:

Our government is not marching down the road to communism or socialism... but now they're marching us to a brand of non-violent fascism. We have to empower ourselves, we have to read, we have to learn, we have to study it ourselves, and then we have to stand up, not with a gun, but with our voices, our minds, our hearts, together, left and right, the people who said, 'Fascism if coming under Bush,' and the people who are saying, 'Fascism is coming under Obama;' you're both right! Fascism is coming... I think we've been on this road since Teddy Roosevelt.

Profound Christian Witness in a Profoundly anti-Christian Society

A. N. Wilson, British academic (and Young Fogey), who once "wrote a book, entitled Jesus, which endeavoured to establish that he had been no more than a messianic prophet who had well and truly failed, and died," announces his return to the faith with a powerful essay — Religion of hatred: Why we should no longer be cowed by the chattering classes ruling Britain who sneer at Christianity.

He calls his "a culture that is overwhelmingly secular and anti-religious," whose "universities, broadcasters and media generally are not merely non-religious, they are positively anti." Of his return to the faith, he says, "Rather than being cowed by them, I relish the notion that, by asserting a belief in the risen Christ, I am defying all the liberal clever-clogs on the block," naming by name the "cutting-edge novelists," "foul-mouthed, self-satisfied TV presenters," "and the smug, tieless architects of so much television output."

He mentions "in contrast to those ephemeral pundits of today... companions in belief such Christians as Dostoevsky, T. S. Eliot, Samuel Johnson and all the saints, known and unknown, throughout the ages." He rightly says that "materialist atheism is not merely an arid creed, but totally irrational," suggesting as it does that "we are just a collection of chemicals," providing "no answer whatsoever to the question of how we should be capable of love or heroism or poetry if we are simply animated pieces of meat."

"The Resurrection, which proclaims that matter and spirit are mysteriously conjoined, is the ultimate key to who we are," he concludes. "J. S. Bach believed the story, and set it to music. Most of the greatest writers and thinkers of the past 1,500 years have believed it."

[link via Crunchy Con and Catholic and Enjoying It!]

American vs. Korean High School

If you've ever wondered what "a comparative chart of American and Korean high school senior classes" looks like, Robert Koehler links to one — I Was Wondering Why You Guys Were So Good at Math… Makes me want to move home immediately for the sake of my kids.

Overcoming the Bullies

Rod Dreher links to video of the triumph of a woman who's "47, frumpy, out of work, from a small Scottish village... unmarried, ... has never been kissed... who lives in public housing in a Scottish village, a victim of bullying and a disability, who spent her life being faithful to the church and caring for her now-dead parents" — Susan Boyle, Superstar.

The Broad Tent of Anti-Modernism

Susan Astyk looks at her readership and "the juxtaposition, say of the black women survivalists with the urban Catholic distributist nuns, the anarchist social critics and the right wing ones, the Belizian Mennonites*, the Mormon food storage people, the Pagan Fiber artists, the Baptist farmers, the socialist Baptist farmers, and the guy who occasionally sticks my pieces in with his essays on South African poetry" — Formulating a Future: The Case for Anti-Modernism, Part I.

This is what her "readership has in common - anti-modernism, a fundamental skepticism that economic growth, more energy, more technology, more shiny things, minor economic social change and other incremental variations on the same basic themes can resolve the deeper problems." She notes that "the agrarian movement is an entertaining mix of aging Hippies and conservative Christians" and "the anti-globalization movement has Pat Buchanan and George Monbiot." She concludes, "Agrarianism alone, peak oil awareness alone, eco-village culture alone, traditionalism alone, anarcho-agrarianism alone, crunchy conservativism alone, anti-globalization alone, climate activism** alone, survivalism alone, distributism alone, radical homemaking alone, or any of the complex personal identities we create for ourselves alone are insufficient to stand against to the totalizing message of modernity, the one that erases even the possibility of our existence."

* This blogger had the pleasure of sharing a bus journey with one of them in 1991.

** "I have quite a few readers who are climate change dissenters, but who share my perspective on other grounds," she says. Count me among them.

[link via Crunchy Con]

Countering the President's Speech

The LewRockwell.com Blog posts video of two who speak truth to power — Ron Paul Responds to Obama and Peter Schiff vs. Barack Obama.

All-American Black Anarchism

Robert A. Wicks contrasts "the absence of forceful authority" with "disorder" in the history of his people — Anarchy and Chaos in Black Communities. He says that his "black, rural community in Mississippi" and those like it in other parts of the country "with their localized anarchy, were nonetheless orderly places."

"The communities policed themselves through ostracism and familial ties," he says. He rightly praises "the more organic leadership of church and business leaders of past generations." His beautiful conclusion:

Most of us live in homes which are largely anarchic, yet which have less crime and violence than city streets, which are completely owned by governments. Far from bringing chaos, the anarchic portions of our lives are usually the most peaceful and orderly parts of them. So, when someone asks me "what do you want, anarchy?" I feel completely justified in saying "I can only hope."

Living With Nork Nukes

While acknowledging that "a nuclear-armed North Korea... with long-range missile capability would not be a good thing, generally speaking," Charles V. Peña suggests "a Plan B policy... to live with North Korea as a nuclear power" — More Einsteinian North Korea Policy.

Questions About Those Pirates

Justin Raimondo wonders whether "the United States [is] military going to be rescuing each and every victim of pirates in the seven seas, ceaselessly sailing in whenever some off-course yacht is boarded by bad guys in the troublesome waters off the East African coast" — Obama and the Pirates. His definition of the subject of his piece: "private individuals engaging in activities that are normally monopolized by government agencies."

Johann Hari brings to light "mysterious European ships... appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean," and "other European ships... looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood" — You Are Being Lied to About Pirates. He suggests many of these pirates "were ordinary Somalian fishermen who at first took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least wage a 'tax' on them," and reports that among Somalis "70 percent 'strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence of the country's territorial waters.'"

"To solve the problem of cargo and crew seizure for ransom, decentralized decision-making and decentralize actions will work best, at minimal cost, with minimal destruction and violence," says Karen Kwiatkowski — Solutions for the Pirate Problem. The adopted solution: "Establish the moral high ground of the state, centralize decision-making, bureaucratize and internationalize the legitimate policy discussion, drum fear and uncertainty into the hearts of markets and populations, demonize the 'enemy' and smear as co-conspirators any individual actors offering non-state solutions, and make the erstwhile victims as helpless as possible."

¡Viva la plaza!

Jeremy Beer visits the local park and finds "an exclusively Latino affair" — Ain’t No Anglos at the Park. On the way home, he finds "an outdoor dinner party" of "white folks."

Observing these two milieus, he suggests that "America [has] long had both the bourgeois interior and the park as cultural counterpoints." He also concludes that "for all the great appeal of the bourgeois interior, anyone concerned about the atomizing and alienating effects of late modernity can’t have much, if anything, against the park."

Having spent more than a year-and-a-half in various places south of the border, I became an admirer of a certain aspect of Latin civilization that I blogged about several years ago — ¡Viva la plaza! Here's some of what I said:

One thing that does not exist in Anglo American (or Asian) cities or towns but that exists in every Latin American capital city or remote village is the plaza (called a zócalo in Mexico). The plaza usually has on two of its sides the seats of temporal and eternal power: the presidential palace or mayor's residence on one side, the national cathedral or village church on another. The plaza is a place were all the citizenry can meet, to buy ice-cream or food from street vendors, to watch performamces, to play dominoes or chess, or simply to people-watch (I don't know how many hours I spent in Santiago's Plaza de Armas doing just that). The plaza provides much more than a place for diversion, however; it provides a sense of community sorely lacking in Asian or American cities.

Asian and North American cities suffer from a dearth of public spaces. New York has its beautiful Central Park, but it encourages too much solitude (not a bad thing, mind you, but different from community). Seoul has its Pagoda Park, but it is the domain of elderly men; the plazas of the Latin World are multi-generational, as is much of Latin culture and society.

In Defense of Taha Abdul-Basser

He's the "Harvard Islamic chaplain [who] has recently come under fire for controversial statements in which he allegedly endorsed death as a punishment for Islamic apostates" — Chaplain’s E-mail Sparks Controversy. The controversial statement: "I would finally note that there is great wisdom (hikma) associated with the established and preserved position (capital punishment) and so, even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand."

Far be it from this Catholic blogger to present a defense of any Islamic teaching or practice, especially one I strongly disagree with. I'd like to see every Muslim (and everyone else) convert to Catholicism, just as every sincere Muslim would like me and my coreligionists to convert to their religion. But, looking at things from a Muslim perspective, what the chaplain says is not unreasonable. Finding "great wisdom" and in a practice that flies "in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse" and suggesting that "one should not dismiss it out of hand" could well be a valuable intellectual exercise.

We Catholics used to burn heresiarchs at the stake. I know of no Catholic who wants to bring the practice back, and many who are, perhaps even rightly, ashamed and scandalized by the fact. But would it be wrong "in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse" to attempt to find "great wisdom" in the practice? Heresy, after all, is "a deadly poison generated within the organism of the Church, [and] must be ejected if she is to live and perform her task of continuing Christ's work of salvation." For the record, I am more than happy that "the penalties on heretics are now only of the spiritual order [and] all the punishments which require the intervention of the secular arm have fallen into abeyance."

Maryknoll Priests Working in Korea

They have a blog — Catholic American Eyes in Korea. I learned about the blog from an email from one of the fathers. In my response, I said, "I am indebted the the Maryknoll Fathers because Orbis Books was my first real exposure to Catholicism back when I was a liberal (and rather lukewarm) Protestant volunteering with refugees in Buffalo, NY in the '90s.

How to Read Confucius

Noting that "Confucius was addressing some of the same issues as Plato and Sophocles, because these issues are universal," Timothy Garton Ash suggests that "the interesting way for Westerners to engage with Confucianism... starts from a simple proposition: Here was a great thinker who still has things to teach us" — East and West, Confucianism speaks to us all. He adds, "This is not a dialogue between civilizations but a dialogue inside civilization."

[link via The Useless Tree]

Saint Augustine on the Somali Pirate and the American Emperor

"Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized," wrote Saint Augustine of Hippo in The City of God Against The Pagans sixteen centuries ago. "For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you who does it with a great fleet are styled emperor."

Keeping Early American Music Alive

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Their Eminences Speak

"The time of Christianity in Europe is coming to an end" — The end is nigh, warns Schönborn. The cardinal also noted, "The Church can help people acquire the right attitude towards sex, which is not an isolated thing of all-consuming importance. The quality of the entire relationship is what is important in a male-female partnership."

"The idea that you can solve a great spiritual and health crisis like AIDS with a few mechanical contraptions like condoms is ridiculous" — Cardinal George Pell says AIDS-afflicted countries 'awash with condoms'. He said, "If you look at the Philippines you'll see the incidence of AIDS is much lower than it is in Thailand which is awash with condoms."

"Scotland is staring into the abyss of social collapse" — Scottish cardinal rips value-free approach to public policy. He points to a "chronic fear of moralizing" coupled by "ever more frenzied regulation" and issues a call to "educate a new generation in morality and objective truth."

"Whatever else is clear, it's clear Notre Dame didn't understand what it means to be Catholic when they issued this invitation, and didn't anticipate the kind of uproar that would be consequent to the decision, at least not to the extent that it has happened" — Cardinal assails Notre Dame for inviting Obama May 17.

William Black on the Bankster Bailout

"Unless the current administration changes course pretty drastically, the scandal will destroy Barack Obama's presidency," he says — The Lessons of the Savings-and-Loan Crisis. The professor of law and economics continues, "The Bush administration was even worse. But they are out of town. This will destroy Obama's administration, both economically and in terms of integrity." What follows is too important not to share:

We have failed bankers giving advice to failed regulators on how to deal with failed assets. How can it result in anything but failure? If they are going to get any truthful investigation, the Democrats picked the wrong financial team. Tim Geithner, the current Secretary of the Treasury, and Larry Summers, chairman of the National Economic Council, were important architects of the problems. Geithner especially represents a failed regulator, having presided over the bailouts of major New York banks.

[The government backing private purchases of the toxic assets] is worse than a lie. Geithner has appropriated the language of his critics and of the forthright to support dishonesty. That is what's so appalling -- numbering himself among those who convey tough medicine when he is really pandering to the interests of a select group of banks who are on a first-name basis with Washington politicians.

The current law mandates prompt corrective action, which means speedy resolution of insolvencies. He is flouting the law, in naked violation, in order to pursue the kind of favoritism that the law was designed to prevent. He has introduced the concept of capital insurance, essentially turning the U.S. taxpayer into the sucker who is going to pay for everything. He chose this path because he knew Congress would never authorize a bailout based on crony capitalism.

[link via Crunchy Con]

President Obama and the Neocons

"Discredited under Bush, the superhawks reunite for Obama," says Michael Brendan Dougherty — Neoconned Again. "One would expect neoconservatives to be friendless and circumspect, grumbling about Obama’s inevitable failure as they slump away from Washington," he writes. "Instead, they are jubilant, palling around with liberals again, enjoying renewed respect. Obama is their hero."

Western Civilization and Democracy

"Democracy reappeared in a more civilized form in Athens, but when, in a truly political trial, Socrates praised monarchy, he was condemned to death," said Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, quoted by J.K. Baltzersen — Democracy in this Season. Continued Dr. Kuehnelt-Leddihn, "Remember also that Madariaga said rightly that our civilization rests on the death of two persons: a philosopher and the Son of God, both victims of the popular will."

Slow, Lean, and Local in Korea

The "World Slow Walking Festival" hopes to counter "Korea's notorious 'ppalli ppalli' [fast fast] syndrome" — Come walk slow in 'andante Wando'. "As a country that has underscored, more than any other nation in the world, the need to do things 'faster than others,' we indeed have lost a lot along the way," says Wando County governor Kim Jong-shik.

Much might have been lost, but at least not much weight has been gained — S. Korea's Obesity Rate Lowest in OECD. The country usually doesn't come out well in these "best of the OECD" reports, but her 3.5% obesity rate is about a tenth that of the fattest OECD member. (Need I say whom?)

A report on the "nuri, a type of currency used exclusively within the network of exchange for goods and labor" — Local exchange trading system revitalizes feelings of neighborliness. "It's an everyday activity that‘s about exchanging things with people who live nearby, just like the old days," said one participant.

Hespèrion XXI and Jordi Savall

Some videos of Hespèrion XXI and under the direction of Jordi Savall:

A Chinese Pentatonic Ave Maria

Performed above by Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya under the direction of Jordi Savall on the album Francisco Javier - La Ruta de Oriente.

Two Patron Saints of Freedom

Christopher Manion on the saint whose "City of God was the most widely-read book besides the Bible for nearly a thousand years, and forged the foundation for the freedom that developed and flourished in the West in Christendom, and nowhere else" — Viva Saint Augustine! More:

Augustine made one thing perfectly clear: the individual's highest priority is the salvation of his soul. The state cannot save our soul. Hence, the state is limited, metaphysically and irreversibly. Our freedom to seek our most important goal is irrevocable.

Every tyranny has begun by denying that eternal goal so the tyrant could totally control his victims and make his nightmares a reality. If there is no higher law than Caesar, then Caesar rules without competition.

Saint Thomas More limns it perfectly: "Men desire authority for its own sake that they may bear a rule, command and control other men, and live uncommanded and uncontrolled themselves."

Kommt, Eilet und Laufet from J. S. Bach's Easter Oratorio

[link via Reditus: A Chronicle of Aesthetic Christianity]

The Future Is Farming

Jim Rogers, "the legendary American investor, financial commentator and... ultimate commodities bull," has some advice — Marry a Farmer.

"There are times in history when the money lenders have been in charge, and we just came through one of those periods," he notes, reminding us that "it wasn't always that way." He says, "Wall Street was a backwater in the '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s, and it will be again." He repeats a variation of his favorite theme: "Farmers are going to be the ones driving Lamborghinis, and the traders are going to have to learn to drive tractors."

Perhaps it's time I reactivate that Future Farmers of America membership I let lapse more than twenty years ago.

[link via LewRockwell.com]

Taiwan Is Not a Vital American Interest

Ivan Eland argues that "the United States should declare that it will no longer defend Taiwan and retract the American Navy’s threat to China from U.S. forward bases and deployments in East Asia" — China’s Threat to the U.S. Is Exaggerated. Doing so "in a time of world economic meltdown, the U.S. could retract its expensive, unaffordable, and out-of-date empire and make its citizens safer at the same time."

A Left-Liberal's Elitism and Ignorance

"We have every reason to be pleased with ourselves," says Mark Slouka, suggesting that we have "put a self-possessed, intelligent man in the White House who... may actually succeed in correcting the course of empire" — A quibble.

What's his quibble? It's not with the president, but "about us." His thesis: "I’d like to believe that we’re a different people now; that we’re more educated, more skeptical, more tough-minded than we were when we gave the outgoing gang of criminals enough votes to steal the presidential election, twice, but it’s hard work; actual human beings keep getting in the way."

The rest is hidden by a subscriber wall, but a colleague gave me a copy. Mr. Slouka's main theme is "our ever-deepening ignorance" and "our growing fondess of it." He's upset that we care about "auto-racing," "food," "money," "Jesus," America," etc. As you can see, there's really no need to quote any more of his screed, because you've already heard it a thousand times before from our bi-coastal intelligentsia.

It is beyond irony to read someone bemoaning his fellow citizens' ignorance at the same time suggesting that, in spite of all evidence, "the new boss is not the same as the old boss" and he "may actually succeed in correcting the course of empire." Mr. Slouka would be wise to read what the "hard left" at the invaluable CounterPunch has to say about the new leader.

Pierre Hantaï Perfoms J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations

The Gouldberg Variations were posted on this blog yesterday, but, while recognizing Glenn Gould's genius, and having been first introduced to Johann Sebastian Bach's masterpiece in a delightful orchestral arrangement performed by the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, I think I am finally coming to prefer the original instrumentation:

Urbi et Orbi

Easter Vigil in Tianjin

Lumen Christi

In Defense of Texas State Representative Betty Brown

You've probably heard this ridiculous story by now — Texas lawmaker apologizes for saying that Asians should ‘adopt a name…that’s easier for Americans to deal with.’ This story is ridiculous not for what Rep. Brown said, but for the uproar her innocuous words and common sense suggestion have caused.

"Behold, the intellectual firepower on display in the Texas legislature!" mocks Rod Dreher — Those inscrutable Asian names. Posting the video, he says, "Scroll forward to the 3:25 point for some classic entertainment." But she says nothing unreasonable. "I'm not talking about changing your name," she says. "I'm talking about the transliteration." The Chinese-American fellow she's "interrogating" (to use Mr. Dreher's words) notes that Asians often use different transliteration systems and even American names on different forms of identification.

"She's not dumb at all," says the third commenter, rightly, offering the example of the first president of the Republic of Korea: "Different transliteration systems do create problems, and you can't expect the old lady running the precinct registration table to understand that, for instance, Syngman Rhee is the same name as Yi Seung-man."

The differences between Syngman Rhee and Yi Seung-man or Chiang Kai-skek and Jiang Jieshi or Cheung Pak-Chi and Cecilia Cheung, are then, "inscrutable" indeed, except to the student of Asian languages. By way of comparison, I have to explain to students at one of Asia's top universities, all of whom have had more than six years of formal instruction in English, which of my names is the surname and how to address me.

Yet, for noting a difficulty recognized by Asians themselves and scholars of Asian languages, this poor woman has been forced to endure public humiliation and offer Stalinesque self-criticism "that she understands the 'diversity of Texas' and the 'enrichment' that Asian-Americans have brought to the state" — State Rep. Betty Brown apologizes for comments on Asian voters' names.

If "Fake Outrage Over Other White People's Alleged Racism" isn't yet included among Stuff White People Like it should be.

The Gouldberg Variations

"Forty-five years ago this week, the great Canadian pianist Glenn Gould stepped off the stage of the Wilshire Ebell Theatre and became the prophet of a new technology," says Michael Hiltzik — Pianist Gould foresaw tech role in music. An excuse, if one were needed, to post the second of his famous renditions (the first was in 1955) of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, performed shortly before his death in 1982:

Dave Arneson Meets the Dungeon Master

"The biggest thing about my dad's world is he wanted people to have fun in life," said his daughter — Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons dies at 61. "I think we get distracted by the everyday things you have to do in life and we forget to enjoy life and have fun."

His game gave me a lot of fun. And its "medieval characters and mythical creatures" and "oddly shaped dice" never led me to worship the devil, but may have, in part, led me to my medieval religion and worldview.

Religion Notes

Brendan O’Neill reviews a film that "shows how depressingly biological, even bovine, the New Atheism is, and how stultifyingly soul-destroying The Science can become in the hands of political activism" — The New Atheists’ Easter message? ‘Grow up or die’.

"Saint Augustine, already in the late fourth century AD, confessed that biblical style exhibits 'the lowest of language' and had seemed to him, before his conversion, 'unworthy of comparison with the dignity of Cicero,'" notes Tod Linafelt — The Bible's Literary Merits.

"There was never an Islam like that of Khomeini or Al-Qaeda; these are specifically modern movements," says Bryan Appleyard, noting "that Islamism is not, as some lazily say, a reversion to a pre-medieval world-view" — From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Legacy by Kenan Malik.

Some Paleoconservative and Paleolibertarian Articles

The Good Doctor talks to some fifth graders — Ron Paul Explains How Washington Works to Students. "He talked about the government and how sometimes they disobey the Constitution," said one.

"Who killed our economy -- 'foreigners,' or Washington, Wall Street, and the War Party?" asks Justin Raimondo — The Suicide of the West.

"While NATO provides Europe with a security blanket, it provides America with what she cannot live without: a mission, a cause, a meaning to life," says Pat Buchanan, — Why Europe Won’t Fight.

John Fea's book "offers a new way of thinking about the Enlightenment in America and its relationship to Christianity, the Revolution, and everyday life" — Does the Way of Improvement Lead Home?

Jack Hunter notes that "some of the most interesting and promising developments on the Right today are not only coming from the grassroots, but are far removed from the Republican Party establishment" — The Radical Right.

Mark Shiffman notes that "oikonomia recognizes limits to acquisition, since it takes its measure by the standard of self-sufficiency with a view to a good life, which means a life embodying virtue and friendship" — The Wise Old Œconomist.

Christus surrexit! Surrexit vere!

The Still Days

This blog will observe a solemn silence during the Easter Triduum, which "offers us the opportunity to be immersed in the central events of Redemption, to relive the Paschal Mystery, the great mystery of the faith" — Pope: Easter Triduum "Fulcrum" of Liturgical Year. His Holiness continues:

"How marvelous, and at the same time amazing, is this mystery," the Pontiff said. "We can never meditate this reality sufficiently. Jesus, though being God, did not want to make of his divine prerogatives an exclusive possession; he did not want to use his being God, his glorious dignity and power, as an instrument of triumph and sign of distance from us.

"On the contrary, 'he emptied himself' assuming our miserable and weak human condition."

Benedict XVI noted that the Easter triduum begins Thursday afternoon with the Mass of the Lord's Supper: "The Church commemorates the institution of the Eucharist, the ministerial priesthood and the new commandment of charity, left by Jesus to his disciples."

Holy Thursday, he said, is "a renewed invitation to render thanks to God for the supreme gift of the Eucharist, to be received with devotion and to be adored with lively faith."

Good Friday, the Pontiff continued, is the "day of the Passion and crucifixion of the Lord. Every year, placing ourselves in silence before Jesus nailed to the wood of the cross, we realize how full of love were the words he pronounced on the eve, in the course of the Last Supper."

"Jesus willed to offer his life in sacrifice for the remission of humanity's sins," the Holy Father reflected. "Just as before the Eucharist, so before the Passion and Death of Jesus on the cross the mystery is unfathomable to reason. We are placed before something that humanly might seem absurd: a God who not only is made man, with all man's needs, not only suffers to save man, burdening himself with all the tragedy of humanity, but dies for man.

"Christ's death recalls the accumulation of sorrows and evils that beset humanity of all times: the crushing weight of our dying, the hatred and violence that again today bloody the earth. The Lord's Passion continues in the suffering of men."

He added, "If Good Friday is a day full of sadness, then it is at the same time all the more propitious a day to reawaken our faith, to strengthen our hope and courage so that each one of us will carry his cross with humility, trust and abandonment in God, certain of his support and victory."

"Hope," said Benedict XVI, "is nourished in the great silence of Holy Saturday, awaiting the resurrection of Jesus. On this day the Churches are stripped and no particular liturgical rites are provided. The Church watches in prayer like Mary, and together with Mary, sharing the same feelings of sorrow and trust in God.

"Justly recommended is to preserve throughout the day a prayerful climate, favorable to meditation and reconciliation; the faithful are encouraged to approach the sacrament of penance, to be able to participate truly renewed in the Easter celebrations."

Following the "recollection and silence of Holy Saturday" is the solemn Easter Vigil, which the Pope called the "mother of all vigils."

"Proclaimed once again will be the victory of light over darkness, of life over death, and the Church will rejoice in the encounter with her Lord," he added. "We will thus enter into the climate of the Easter of Resurrection."

More Details Emerge on the Kkottongnae Community

Sad that it takes an act of violence to bring what appears to be a beautiful community into the spotlight — Gunman's rampage leaves Korean community reeling. The "quiet Catholic community near Temecula" is described in the article:

The Kkottongnae Retreat Camp is run by the Congregation of the Sisters of Jesus. Kkottongnae, which means "flower village" in Korean, is a Christian social service organization founded in Korea that works with orphans and the homeless. Between 50 and 100 people live at the site near Temecula, officials said. The organization has other retreats in Lynwood, New Jersey and Georgia....

"The people here take in the homeless. In Korea, they will pick them up off the streets and give them their dignity," said Young Balser, who came to offer help translating for the nuns who live at the retreat. "They sacrifice their lives for these people...."

"They are very nice people, very good people and are very faithful and devoted to God," he said. "This whole thing is really shaking up the Korean community...."

The retreat lies at the end of a winding road nestled in emerald green hills studded with crosses and statues of Mary and Jesus. The complex is composed of bungalows, row houses and dormitory rooms with names like Love, Hope, Joy and Peace.

It's rather poetic that Korean Catholic immigrants would create such a place in the the land established by Blessed Junipero Serra. The original Kkottongnae in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province, is quite a beautiful place.

Auntie Beeb's Folk America Episode One

Above, the first of a three-part series — BBC - Folk America. The first episode ends with the Great Depression, appropriate given our current situation. It also ends by reminding us that "when folk reemerged it would be demanding Heaven on this Earth not in the world to come," reason enough not to be interested in episodes two and three.

History Repeating Itself

The above was sent by a reader — 1934 FDR Depression Era Cartoon - Look Familiar? Yes, only it'll be worse this time, because we don't make anything anymore.

Gerald Celente notes that "global financial markets are collapsing" and sees "no turn around in the second quarter of 2009 or 2010 or 2011," "no stock market bottom in sight," as well as "massive bank failures, runs on banks, and bank holidays" — The Greatest Depression Under Way.

Interesting indded is this 2005 article by one Daniel Arnold predicting "the onset of a catastrophic depression, unprecedented in history" — The Economy's Greatest Depression Downturn Ever Is Now Just A Few Years Away. The author argues that "starting no later than 2012-13, and perhaps as early as 2009-10, an economic decline of terrible proportions begins and lasts until about 2025." He sees "a depression that is financially about seven times as deep as the 1930s."

John Zmirak on Americanism

As Americans we like to think that we're exceptional, that our nation is some unique, divine experiment, immune to the laws of history. (We're not the first nation to think so, and we're unlikely to be the last.) The events of the past eight years have disproved this charming theory. It turns out we really can't impose modernity and liberalism on a civilization of a billion through either force or farce; neither the Pentagon nor Hollywood seem likely to turn the Dar al-Islam into one more interchangeable piece of a globalized, peaceful McWorld. Nor can we live in prosperity forever without making anything -- trading for cheap imports our cleverness at finagling finances.

An excerpt from his latest — A Very Long Lent.

"Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!"

Michael Iafrate "the aesthetic attraction may be so great that the inappropriateness of the music or of the words of the song is not noticed, and the incongruity of singing it in a Christian church may not be perceived" — Fr. Robert Sokolowski on “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Fr. Sokolowski states that "its bloodthirsty wrath, sword, and trumpet in the service of a particular army are quite out of place in a Christian setting, but its melody is so stirring and its phonemic patterns so attractive that the people who sing it most probably do not appreciate the meaning of the words they pronounce."

Professor Antony Sutton vs. Wall Street

Stephen Hand has two posts about Antony Sutton, who was "persecuted but never prosecuted for his research and subsequent publishing of his findings" — The Alliance of the Bankers and Revolution and The Best Enemies Money Can Buy. Prof. Sutton is the author of books titled Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler and Wall Street and FDR.

Mr. Obama's Wars

Chris Floyd says "the attacks ordered by Obama in Pakistan are escalating the threat of exactly the kind of nuclear instability that he decried in Prague" — Talking Peace in Prague, Dropping Bombs in Pakistan.

"What is more appalling?" asks Christopher Dowd — Obama's obscene remarks in Iraq. "The casual obscenity of a US President calling upon a nation that the US has been beating, brutalizing, and raping (that is when not using like a pawn in geo political games) for decades to "take responsibility for itself" or the fact that he has absolutely no idea of how much like a criminal sociopath he sounds when making such remarks?"

President Barack Hussein Obama and King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz

"What would Thomas Jefferson and the founders say about such groveling humility?" asks Kurt Nimmo, including in his article video documentation of "the disgusting instance of mandatory deference" — Obama Lies About Bow to King Abdullah.

The articles quotes Washington's moonie-owned newspaper as rightly calling the act a "shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate." (I'm reminded of the even more troubling event that "took place in a public building of the U.S. Senate and [was] attended by lawmakers from both parties" — Rev. Sun Myung Moon Coronation.)

Russia's "Withering Away of the Family" and "Ethnic Self-Cleansing"

Nicholas Eberstadt on "another sort of mass death may have only just begun, as Russians practice what amounts to an ethnic self-cleansing" — Drunken Nation: Russia’s Depopulation Bomb. The author reminds us that "history offers no examples of a society that has demonstrated sustained material advance in the face of long-term population decline" and notes that "with the collapse of Soviet rule, Russia has seen a pervasive and profound change in childbearing patterns and living arrangements—what might be described as a 'withering away' of the family itself."

[link via Arts & Letters Daily]

Is Sex-Selective Abortion Fueling the Feminization of Korean Males?

This week in my freshman English class, we read an article on "Bare Branches" (光棍儿), Chinese males who will be unable to marry due to sex-selective abortion. The problem exists in other parts of the world, including South Korea.

One of the issues I brought up for discussion, that men will be forced to adopt "the look that women like to see in men these days," is covered in this article — Boys who like the girlie look. The article's author notes, "For middle-aged men today, it’s a far cry from the definition of 'cool' that was popular until fairly recently," quoting a Korean man my age as rightly calling the phenomenon "pathetic."


The article mentions as an example of the phenomenon "[t]he weekly KBS2-TV drama 'Boys Over Flowers,' which revolved around four rich kids with 'pretty boy' looks," and from which the above still comes. Of course, I've never seen the show, but a female student presented a synopsis of the story, which seems to revolve around more than one dandy competing for the attention of one rather plain girl, a situation which reflects the thesis of this post.