The Honorable Ron Paul on the Koreas

[link via the LewRockwell.com Blog]

On the CCth Anniversary of the Death of Joseph Haydn

Damian Thompson says the composer "wrote more works of sublime craftsmanship than any composer except J. S. Bach" and "only Bach, Mozart and Beethoven surpassed his inspiration, which [he] would put on a par with Schubert's," but whose "art conceals itself in a way that no other great composer's does" — Haydn: a composer for grown-ups.

A re-posting of the composer's "Mass for Troubled Times" seems à propos for both the day and the times:

Justice Pierce Butler

Alexander Cockburn informs us that the Catholic Supreme Court justice's was "the sole dissenting vote" in the "decision to sterilize the unfit in Buck v. Bell," which by which "the United States became the first eugenic nation" — Sotomayor and the Last of the WASPs. Also, "he was one of the 'Four Horsemen' on the Court in the 1930s, fanatical opponents of New Deal legislation."


Pierce Butler's Conservapedia page tells us that this "conservative Democrat picked by a Republican.... proved to be perhaps the best Supreme Court Justice ever."

Maybe He Hates Us For Our Freedoms

"... I saw [name withheld] who was wearing a military uniform, putting his [male appendage] into the little kid's [anus] ... and the female soldier was taking pictures" — Again, May God Forgive Us.

Paper Money

A video clip of the "dynamic duo of death" discuss whether hyperinflation is 100% or a little less so — Peter Schiff and Mark Faber on the Beck Show — and a blast from the past — Ron Paul was calling out the Fed in 1983.

An Old Rightist Attacks White Nationalism

Justin Raimondo brilliantly takes apart a "movement [that] has zero to do with legitimate issues, such as the injustice of affirmative action" — Nationalists Without a Nation. An excerpt:

There is a good reason to avoid the Taylorites, and their even cruder brothers-in-spirit in the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi netherworld, and it has to do with maintaining the intellectual and spiritual integrity of the American Right. I agree with Pat Buchanan, who, in pointing out the disparity between his own ideas and those of David Duke, averred: “We come from different traditions.” Indeed we do. Taylor’s is the legacy of Lothrop Stoddard, Madison Grant, the Count de Gobineau, and that failed portrait painter from Vienna: ours is the legacy of Christianity, which recognized the centrality of the individual soul, and rejects collectivism, including racial collectivism, as inimical to freedom, reason, and just relations among men.

Opposition to the Obama Régime

"With Democrats like him, who needs dictators?" asks Ted Rall — An Early Call for Obama's Resignation. "He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power."

"If the Obama regime does not hold the Bush regime accountable for violating US and international law, then the Obama regime is complicit in the Bush regime’s crimes," says Paul Craig Roberts — Torture and the American Conscience.

"A Redneck View of Obamarama" offered by Joe Bageant — Plain Truths From Appalachia.

Linguistic Tyranny

The dominance of the effeminate accent of the capital now has the force of law — Court Upholds Seoul Dialect as Standard Korean.

I'm proud that my children are native speakers of the Gyeongsang dialect, which is marked by its "highly pronounced intonation," and which, we learn, is a "direct descendant of the Silla language" and "maintains a trace of Middle Age Korean."

This is also interesting: "During the military dictatorship (1960-1992) the Gyeongsang dialect had an informal supremacy over other dialects as all of the presidents were natives of Gyeongsang province. This bias towards the dialect ended with the democratization of South Korea."

Sanguis Martyrum Semen Christianorum

Tertullian of Carthage (c. 160 - 225) was right, "behavioral evolutionists" have discovered — Religions owe their success to suffering martyrs.

It's easy to laugh when scientists "discover" the obvious, but it is potentially useful that there is now "scientific" evidence that "churches that liberalise their behavioural codes may be sabotaging themselves by reducing their followers' commitment."

Shin Youngok Performs J.B. Bach and C. Gounod's Ave Maria

Seoul Guitar Quartet Performs Astor Piazzolla's Libertango

Live-Blogging From a War Zone

That is what I will be doing now that the North Koreans have stated that "the American imperialists and Lee Myung Bak traitor factions have driven the Chosun Peninsula situation into a state of war" — KCNA: Korean Peninsula in State of War — and that the South Korean president has urged his American counterpart to take the bait — Lee Asks Obama to Pressure North Korea.

When I'm not at the door defending my family with my balisong, the only weapon the South Korean government will allow me, I'll try to sneak in a post or two. I think I'll need to stop shaving, stop buttoning my top button, and effect an Australian accent to fully assume my new war correspondent persona.

Hope?

Could the sixth Catholic on the Supreme Court turn out to be a stealth justice just like the one she's replacing — Abortion rights groups concerned about Sotomayor's stance?

There is "no evidence that she supports upholding Roe vs. Wade" and "in her only abortion-related decision," she "rejected a challenge to President George W. Bush's so-called Mexico City policy, which required foreign groups receiving U.S. funds to pledge that they would not support or promote abortion."

Don't Ask; Don't Tell; Don't Dare Show the Photos...

... because they show "a male translator* raping a male detainee" and "sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube" — Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape'. To be fair, "one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner." (Why haven't the guilty been tried and executed for these documented war crimes?)

Barry Goldwater's speechwriter Karl Hess, after his boss's defeat, said, "Vietnam should remind all conservatives that whenever you put your faith in big government, for any reason, sooner or later you wind up an apologist for mass murder." I say, "Abu Ghraib should remind all conservatives that whenever you put your faith in big government, for any reason, sooner or later you wind up an apologist for mass sodomite rape."

This is especially true of you so-called so-cons, neo-cons, and even theo-cons, who expended much ink (rightly) denouncing sodomite "marriage" in the States, but who lacked the testicular fortitude to raise your voice against the sodomite rape of religious Muslims committed in your name with your tax dollars by your federal employees overseas in an illegal, immoral war for which you shilled.

Shame on you! You effeminately put your State before your God. You limp-wristed "'conservatives' who melt at the sight of a man in uniform" (to borrow Bill Kauffman's phrase) trash not only the term "conservative" but also the name "America." And you probably call those of us man enough to call you out "anti-American."

*Remember the left-liberal outrage over this story — Army fires gay Arab linguists? How many other outrages at Abu Ghraib were prevented by the Army with these firings?

Camerata Antiqua Seoul Performs J.S. Bach's Air on a G String

John Michael Greer on Ernst Friedrich Schumacher

A look at a man whose "insights have not lost any of their force with the passing years" and who "was decades ahead of his time in recognizing the imminence of peak oil and sketching the outlines of an economics that could make sense of a world facing the twilight of the age of cheap abundant energy" — A guide for the perplexed.

Most importantly, "Schumacher pointed out that the failures of contemporary economics could not be solved by improved mathematical models or more detailed statistics, because they were hardwired into the assumptions underlying economics itself."

A Chinese Constantine?

Father Francesco Sisci says the "exponential growth of Christianity in China would not have been possible without the forbearance and tacit encouragement of the regime" and that "the Chinese government has shifted from persecution of Christians to subtle—and sometimes even open—encouragement of Christianity" — China's Catholic Moment.

He goes as far as to suggest that "it is not an exaggeration to say we are near a Constantinian moment for the Chinese Empire, as the government looks to Christianity—particularly Catholicism—for an instrument of social cohesion." Noting "Beijing’s special interest in Catholicism as a potential unifying force," the author says:

On the face of it, the loosely organized and geographically dispersed Protestant churches may seem less of a threat to party rule than does the international organization and unity of the Catholic Church. But the Catholic Church remains of far greater interest to the authorities than the amorphous and sometimes ephemeral denominations that comprise the “house churches.”

That is partly because China’s Catholics have shown no interest in politics, despite decades of repression: During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, for example, Bishop Joseph Zen of Hong Kong ordered priests and congregants to keep out of the demonstrations. But the Communist party’s attitude has much to do as well with their worries about the unstable combination of traditional elements among the endlessly diverse Chinese Protestants.

Beijing views the Catholic Church as an unambiguously Western embodiment of Christianity, untainted by syncretic confusion and therefore indispensable to the Westernization of China. The Chinese government wants to deal with a Christian Church that preaches values compatible with modernization, preferably one that has a transparent and coherent organization. Although its public stance is positive toward Christianity in general, in practice the government’s efforts to develop relations with Christians have been concentrated on the Catholic Church. Chinese diplomacy has devoted a disproportionate amount of attention to the revival of relations between Beijing and the Vatican.

A fascinating, informative and controversial read, tolle, legge. Most controversial is the claim that "parts of the underground church—notionally the Chinese Catholic Church, which is currently most obedient to Rome—are locked into improvisations of liturgy and doctrine that are hard to suppress and potentially embarrassing."

[link via The New Beginning]

韓屋

Below, a picture from an article reminding us that "[t]he downside to progress... is quite often the loss of heritage and tradition, and in Korea, a case in point has been the wholesale disappearance of hanok, the traditional Korean house" — Hanok homes beckon:


South Jeolla Provincial Governor Park Jun-young is quoted as saying, "Our ancestors created a type of housing that fits most with our environment, using years of experience living in these locales." He continued, "Hanok is not only good for your health, but also matches well with the scenery of our farming and fishing villages." Lee Seung-ok, director of the Happy Hanok Village division of South Jeolla’s provincial government, added, "You need a lot of workers to build a hanok, which translates into jobs and a boost to the regional economy."

One is reminded of the anecdote offered by Caleb Stegall from 1947, when "Ludwig von Mises and Wilhelm Röpke, met in Röpke’s home of Geneva" and the former saw "the small garden allotments outside the city for growing vegtables" as "[a] very inefficient way of producing foodstuffs," whereas the latter countered they were "a very efficient way of producing human happiness" — Price, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Two Roads to Heaven

"Individualism" can be overcome with "a true sense of belonging to the Church" — Holy Father says Church offers solution to society's ‘loss of belonging’.

"We must not depend on property, we must learn to do without, we must learn simplicity, austerity, sobriety" is the lesson garnered from the life of "a Byzantine monk from the eighth century" — Follow St. Theodore's example to escape poverty and selfishness, Pope advises.

Two Roads to Hell

One paved with the good intention of ending poverty — The Tyranny of the Obvious. Hunter Baker reminds us that those behind the War on Poverty "had no inkling that these good-hearted strategies would lead to enduring cycles of poverty and family disintegration that threatened to consume entire generations" and that "[w]ishing for good outcomes resulted in disaster."

The other paved with the evil intention of culling the world of much of its human population — Humanitarians: please spare us humans. Bill Muehlenberg exposes the "energetic people... hatching grandiose schemes" and who claim to "have the good of humanity at heart." He asks, "What will emerge from a secret meeting of American billionaires about reducing population in the Third World?"

Bach Collegium Japan in Seoul's Myŏngdong Cathedral

Ignore North Korea

South Korea's leftist organ blames the latest replay of the fifteen-year-old crisis on the fact that "the [Obama] administration had decided to not engage with North Korea further, and to wait until either North Korea steps forward with a rational attitude or China twists its arm to act rationally" — N. Korea challenges U.S.’s “benign neglect” policy with second nuclear test.

Old Rightist Justin Raimondo phrases the title of his latest in the form of a question — Is North Korea About to Blow Up the World?. "No – but maybe a little corner of it, if we aren't careful." He has nothing kind to say about "the most secretive, repressive, and downright loopy neo-Stalinist regime on earth" that "is popping up like a grotesque jack-in-the-box, every few months, with a new outrage against international order," but injects some realism into the conversation:

Now, every regime, no matter how tyrannical, depends to a large extent on the consent of the people. What prevents them from rising up and overthrowing their oppressors is the conviction that they’re being protected from a much greater danger, and, in North Korea’s case, it’s the bugaboo of foreign occupation. Draconian economic sanctions imposed by the West reinforce this general impression and give the regime’s insistence that the Americans and South Koreans are about to invade enough credibility to increase the public’s tolerance of Kim Jong-il’s antics.

This is what gives President Barack Obama’s recent comments on the latest crisis a darkly humorous tone. He said that the world has got to "stand up to North Korea." The truth, however, from a North Korean perspective, is precisely the opposite: in their view, it is North Korea that is standing up to the world. So much of the Western commentary on the North Korean issue notes that the nuclear test generated firepower equivalent to the blasts that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki – acts carried out by the United States against a prostrate Japan. It is certainly not lost on the North Koreans that the U.S. could just as easily rationalize a similar attack on yet another nation of yellow-skinned people.

"The only rational policy is to avoid provocations at all costs," Mr. Raimondo suggests. "The West, however, holds a trump card that requires no action on their part, and that is the inherent instability of the regime." He concludes, "The best we can do is wait and let nature – in the form of a natural human resistance to intolerable conditions of privation and repression – take its course."

Benign neglect, for the record, is what this blogger has been advocating for at least eight months — Benign Neglect Toward North Korea / North Korean Headline of the Week / Do the Norks Read Donald Kirk? / The Future Secretary of State Speaks / North Korea's Eminent Preemptive Attack / The Foreign Entanglement That Is the Korean Peninsula / Should the U.S. Bomb North Korea? / ♪ I'm So Bo-o-ored With the D.P.R.K. ♪ / North Korean Refugees Look at the American Election / History Repeats Itself.

Confucianism and Liberty

Hats off to Sam Crane for correcting the assertion made by one Jiang Rong that "Confucianism wants people to become sheep" and that it is "autocratic, totalitarian and dictatorial" — Confucianism doesn't make people sheep, Legalism does. Professor Crane explains:

Confucianism, especially in its Mencian guise, creates a moral standard, Humanity, that stands apart from imperial power and should be used to judge the actions of the Emperor. Those in power should not, from a Confucian point of view, rule in a manner that contradicts Humanity. And if they do rule inhumanely, then junzi (those people who work to cultivate and reproduce Humanity) are duty-bound to point out the ruler's flaws.

Confucianism thus creates a moral framework that inspires political critique. Good Confucians do not sheepishly follow bad rulers; rather, they speak out against inhumanity.

Mindless obedience to law and power is, of course, a product of Legalism. Harsh punishments ruthlessly inflicted upon the populace creates a fearful acceptance of political authority. And that's what the institutionalization of Legalism produced over the centuries in China. Indeed, it is no coincidence that Mao, the grand orchestrator of the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, also saw himself as a modern-day Qin. The Cultural Revolution was deeply anti-Confucian. Mao's politics were much more Legalist, precisely in the manner that Jiang stipulates: "autocratic, totalitarian and dictatorial."

Bill Kauffman's Ain't My America

George C. Leef reviews the book chronicling "the long, noble history of anti-war conservatism and middle-American anti-imperialism" — America’s Anti-Militarist Heritage. Living where I do, I was happy to be reminded that "old Herbert Hoover... declared that Truman had violated the Constitution by involving the country in the Korean War without a declaration of war by Congress."

The three books by Bill Kauffman that I have read cannot be recommended highly enough, and were instrumental in forming my views:

Leaving Left-Liberalism

"Franco's death in November 1975, at 82, was the only reason my brother and I did not succumb to scurvy," writes Jan Fleischhauer of "his childhood in a typical West German liberal family, with parents who wouldn't let him eat oranges because they were grown in countries ruled by dictators" — How To Become an Accidental Conservative.

It is unfortunate that in Germany, too, that watching garbage from Disney or eating it from McDonald's is considered "conservative," but the article is quite informative and humorous. This bit identifying what is sometimes right about the left stood out:

There is nothing wrong with growing up in a household in which the national origins of fast food are turned into a political issue, one that sheds light on correct awareness. From an early age, one is trained to be on the lookout for moral snares. In our family, as in all good leftist families, seemingly ordinary, everyday decisions were imbued with a momentousness difficult to comprehend for anyone but the politically initiated. Every item purchased at the supermarket was subjected to an assessment of not only its freshness and flavor, but also its moral quality. Organic oatmeal was clearly superior to industrial muesli, even if it tasted like bran, because we were always suspicious of major brands and supported small cooperatives.

This also stands out:

The liberal family has many clans competing sharply with one another, but in the end it remains a family, and it sees itself as a family. The left, with which I have dealt throughout my life, is a milieu that could be described as the leftist bourgeoisie. In English-speaking countries, terms like "chattering class" or "creative class" have taken hold. Middle-class socialism or leftist chic are other attempts at description, but they all mean the same thing. This milieu is inhabited by a type of person easily recognized by his consumption and cultural habits (even if he prides himself on his nonconformity), and who is characterized by a pronounced elite awareness, even though the word elite is much as a taboo for leftists as words like nation, homeland or ethnic group.

Rondeau des Indes Galantes de Jean-Philippe Rameau

"[I]nterprété par Magali Léger et Laurent Naouri, les Musiciens du Louvres sous la direction de Marc Minkowski en version de concert."

The De-Christianization of Iraq

The not-new story that "Iraq has lost more than half the Christians who once called it home, mostly since the war began, and few who fled have plans to return," makes the news — Christians flee Iraq's violence.

The Sage of Defiance

William Diehl, who "lives and works in Defiance, Ohio," calls retirement a "government snare and delusion" that's "bad for your mind and body" — I'll Never Retire. The author, "someone on a payroll until the age of 79, and now employed on a non-compensated basis," admits to being "regarded as something of a freak."

Mr. Diehl notes the "sense of self-worth that comes from working to a purpose that is essential to well-being." He also nots how "the government has created a large new class of dependents who see no necessity to save or to accept responsibility for themselves, their offspring, or their parents." He says the decision "to continue to be productive" may require "a change in occupation" and "giving up benefits and accepting a lower wage, or no wage at all." However, "a reason for living, and a retention of identity, are surely sufficient remuneration."

My father was never unhappier than after he retired. My father-in-law is on the verge of forced retirement and is quite unhappy about it. I can't see myself working for the same organization indefintely, but I don't see myself giving up work.

The Honorable Ron Paul on Waterboarding

The Good Doctor reminds us that "we hanged Japanese officers for war crimes in 1945 for waterboarding" and thus "[i]ts status as torture has already been decided by our own courts under this precedent" — Hold the Torturers Accountable. And yet Messrs. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al. remain at large.

The Long Term

Michael Federici takes on "the assumption[s] that the more activist a president is, the better the nation fares," "that public policy is the appropriate response to virtually any economic, cultural, or political problem," and "that government action is better than inaction and that quick action is better than a slower more deliberate response to political, social, and economic ills" — The 100 Years vs. The 100 Days Standard.

Ignorant "Conservatives," Bone-headed "Liberals"

Author Rich Shenkman revisits a year-old book he wrote — Just how stupid are American voters? "After Barack Obama's election friends emailed me wondering if I still believed the voters are uninformed," he writes. "Didn't Obama's election mean they were pretty smart?"

"Alas," he sighs, "the answer is no." It's not that "American voters are not any smarter for having voted for Obama." The author implies that Obama voters are a smart lot. In fact, he says he has "hope that for the vast majority of Americans information remains a vital consideration in the formation of opinion." What irks him is those who were taken up in "controversies over Obama's bowling score, his middle name Hussein, and Hillary's crying."

Irksome or not (I've never heard anything about his bowling score, but the other two could be valid points), his "five-part test" designed to "determine whether a mistake is just a mistake or whether it's a sign of rank stupidity" has some value:

•First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who’s in charge.
•Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events.
•Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts.
•Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually exclusive, or contrary to the country’s long-term interests.
•Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.

It is regrettable but not surprising that the author fails to see how all of these categories, but most damningly that of "bone-headedness," apply to the President's supporters. Indeed, these are at least as "bone-headed" if not much more so than are his opponents.

Was there ever a more "meaningless phrase" uttered in American political history than "Yes We Can?" Did not candidate Obama resort to "stereotypes" and "irrational biases" when talking about the rural Americans who "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them?" What were both "Hope" and "Change" if not "simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears?"

And what do you say of those who continue to support a man who has reneged on every significant promise he made to those who voted for him and whose régime is essentially the same as the one it replaced? How would these same supporters have acted had his opponent won, and enacted the same extension of the imperial Bush Doctrine overseas and invited Wall Street insiders to take over the management the economy?

The terms "conservative" and "liberal" are placed in quotations because they have not only lost almost all of their original meanings but are now utterly useless in describing American political tendencies. In fact, they are no longer even political terms. What we have now in America is nothing but "identity politics." People liked President Bush because they saw him as one of their own, just as those who like President Obama see him as one of their own. A liberal friend supported Hillary because "her biography was the same as [his] mother's."

So, we have two allegedly divided camps of people whose political prescriptions on the big issues are essentially the same and vote for candidates whom they'd like to spend time with. This politics of identity leads to politics as usual, which means no end to the un-American Empire and the Corporatism that feeds it.

It's not difficult to be charitable toward the ignorant; to the willfully boneheaded who pride themselves on the superiority, however, one is reminded that Someone once said, "And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye?"

Flannery and Evelyn

"Flannery O’Connor’s Catholicism made her the writer she was," says Chilton Williamson Jr. in his essay — A Good Woman Found — and R.J. Stove begins his by saying, "Evelyn Waugh died in 1966 and spent most of his last two decades wishing he had died in 1946—or better still in 1446" — Casualties of Waugh.

Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop and the 124 Martyrs

Bishop Michael Park Jeong-il has declared his investigations on their cause closed and sent his findings to the Vaticans — Tribunal investigations on martyrs' beatification cause concluded. More on the priest:

Father Choe, often referred as the "Martyr of Sweat," was the second Korean priest ordained in 1849 in Shanghai, China. The first was Saint Father Andrew Kim Tae-gon who was martyred in 1846.

Father Choe, after returning to Korea in 1849, started pastoral work by visiting mission stations in the country.

The priest walked an average of 2,800 kilometers a year to visit Catholics in remote villages and heard 4,000 confessions, according to the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia. He died of typhoid in 1861, at the age of 40.

Father Choe is being promoted as a confessor, the term used for a non-martyr saint. "Father Choe is not a martyr, but the brilliant pastor deserves to be recognized as a saint," said Father Yoo.

He added that because Father Choe is not a martyr, his beatification process would require a separate investigation for signs of a miracle. This is presently ongoing in the local Church.

"I hope the faithful will pray to him for his intercession, and report any miracles to our committee," he said.

"Morally Objectionable" and "Scientifically Obsolete"

A reminder that "that the stem cell debate is not a matter of religious belief" — Bishops Weigh in on US Stem Cell Proposal.

Reactions to the Nork Nuke

Compare these two, one hysterical, one rational — Obama Blasts Nuke Test as ‘Reckless Challenge’ / Market Shrugs Off Test.

Tim Swanson's reaction is phrased in the form of a question — If North Korea is bad… "for detonating a nuclear bomb comparable to the one dropped at Hiroshima, then what about Truman and the crew of the Enola Gay?"

Two Martyrs of the Henrician Schism

Above, for your edification and mine, the martyrdoms of Saint John Fisher and Saint Thomas More, as depicted in "The Tudors" (2007).

[link via Vox Nova]

The Need for the Separation of Gays and State

"Same-sex marriage does make a difference to wider society, especially when the force of the state is behind it," explains Patrick Thompson — What’s the difference?

Caleb Stegall's Commencement Address

A call "to live in love with the frailty and limits of one’s existence, suffering the places, customs, rites, joys, and sorrows of the people who are in close relation to you by family, friendship, and community" — Commencement Address.

Look to Switzerland

Looking to the country, Daniel Larison reminds us that "there is no absolute contradiction between favoring a relatively large military and a neutral foreign policy," even if "in the American context we have rarely seen the two combined" — The Swiss Option.

He quotes one Conor Friedersdorf noting that "it is nevertheless demonstrable that the strategy redounded to the benefit of the Swiss, and the fact that they’ve prospered for 500 years, despite being adjacent to great powers that warred incessantly, suggests that isolationism can work far better than its critics imagine."

Steve Sailer quotes the same Conor Friedersdorf quoting John McPhee that "[i]n every part of Switzerland, there are streets and plazas and equestrian statues—there are busts on plinths overhung with banners and flags—doing honor to the general of an army that did not fight" — Questions.

"For seven hundred years, freedom has been the fundamental story of Switzerland, and we are not prepared to give it up now," we read following the link — The Porcupine Principle. "We want to defend ourselves, which is not the same as fighting abroad. We want peace, but not under someone else’s condition."

It is well known that the Swiss Confederation looked to our young Republic as a model of Federalism. We would do well to look back across the Atlantic for a model not only of that aspect of our constitution that we have lost, but also of the noble United States non-interventionism we have lost as well.

The Women of the Henrician Schism

For almost two decades, I have almost always been disappointed by any recently-released movie I saw; that was not the case with The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). The film was not well-reviewed, probably because it was, in addition to being an historical drama, a morality play, in which the wages of sin get their just reward. The trailer:


"When was it that people stopped thinking of ambition as a sin, and started thinking of it as a virtue?" asks the mother of the two Boleyn girls of their father's revolting eagerness to sacrifice his daughters' purity for the material benefit of the family. The three heroines of the film are the aforementioned Lady Elizabeth Boleyn, the maltreated but dignified Catherine of Aragon, and the title-character, Mary Boleyn, who, despite her fall, is redeemed. Knee-jerk reactionaries might be outraged at what they might see as the film's "feminist" theme, but more thoughtful reactionaries will quickly recognize the more important themes centering on abuse of power, tyranny, and sin.

Never a Dull Moment on the Korean Peninsula

About two hours ago — 'North Korea conducted 2nd nuclear test'.

On second thought, I take back that title. Who cares? I don't, and neither should the American government. Prof. Michael C. Desch's argument that "[t]he logic of nuclear deterrence applies as much to Iran as it did to the Soviet Union" works just as well for North Korea — Apocalypse Not.

World Day of Prayer for the Church in China and Our Lady of Sheshan

It was yesterday, which is still today in some parts of the world — From the land of St Benedict my thoughts go to the people of China and it’s Catholics, says Pope / Pope approves Compendium of his Letter to the Catholics of China. Regardless of what day it is, we can participate, since St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) figured out that "God exists outside of time in the 'eternal present.'"

Ralph Vaughan Williams' Mass in G Minor

The Real President Barack Hussein Obama

Giving some advice to the president, Patrick J. Buchanan warns, "The crowd manipulating him into war with Iran has in mind, first, obliterating Iran; second, getting rid of him" — Did Bibi Box Obama In?

Matt Barganier posts a brilliant video of Rachel Maddow "explain[ing] how President Obama, principled opponent of prosecuting or even investigating past crimes, plans to lock people up for future crimes. Forever" — Face It, Progs: Obama’s a Dud.

"How long does it take a mild-mannered, antiwar, black professor of constitutional law, trained as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, to become an enthusiastic sponsor of targeted assassinations, 'decapitation' strategies and remote-control bombing of mud houses at the far end of the globe?" asks Alexander Cockburn — How Long It Took.

Belarus, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine

South Korea shares "an average of 1.2 babies per woman of reproductive age based on 2007 figures" with the above countries — S.Korea's Birthrate Remains Lowest in the World.

Former President of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun Commits Suicide

The man who left office just last year jumped to his death from a mountain nearby his home a few hours ago — Former President Roh Dies. He was "under investigation of the alleged bribery involving his family members and long-time supporter."

I was never a supporter of the leftist ex-president, but my life as a foreigner improved under his régime, and at the behest of my father-in-law, I visited his residence after he left office. From a year-old post of mine — Roh Moo-hyun, My Daughter, My Father-in-Law, And Me — a picture of the latter three from the ex-president's website:


Baptised a Catholic in 1986, his faith was lapsed and he claimed to have no religion. His baptismal name was Justo. Let us pray for his soul. Suicide is a grave evil. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches the following:

2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law. Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.

Il Giardino Armonico Performs Tarquinio Merula's Ciaconna

Ambassador Kagefumi Ueno on Pope John Paul II and President Bush

It is well known that the previous pope, John Paul II, voiced his objections to President Bush before the latter decided to attack Iraq in 2003. At that time, the pope's advice was not heeded by the U.S., but that does not mar the value of the pope's words and actions. On the contrary, the fact that the pope made a suggestion the U.S. did not want to listen to demonstrates the important role of the Vatican. I do believe that the international community is in need of a moral guardian like him or the secretary general of the UN. No one else could replace his role. In that sense, the pope should be deemed an international public goods or property. Irreplaceable. Not because he is the head of the Catholic Church, but just because he is capable of extending humanitarian, moral messages everywhere.

The above comes from Sandro Magister's coverage of the address by the Japanese ambassador to the Vatican, a Buddhist-Shintoist scholar, to his fellow Asian ambassdors — All Roads Lead to Rome. Even from Asia.

International Conscientious Objection Day and South Korea

"Maryknoller in Korea" informs us that "[t]his year the International Conference on Conscientious Objection had as its focus the South Korean conscientious objectors' (CO) poor human rights situation" — Conscientious Objection in Korea.

"The Catholic Church is very much on the side of conscientious objectors for those whose consciences have difficulty serving in the military," the good father notes. Acknowledging local circumstances, he continues, "The Church here in Korea has made it clear where she stands but she is also very circumspect in what she says in this area." Calling to mind one of our heroes of the faith, Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, he says, "The example of Franz will bring the subject more prominence and hopefully Korea will join the many other countries that acknowledge the right of those whose consciences do not allow them to serve in the military."

"The pioneers of a warless world are the youth who refuse military service," said a man quoted by Lew Rockwell today — Einstein Was Right.

The Right Decision in Kim Ok-kyung's "Death With Dignity" Case

News of "a landmark ruling" from South Korea's Supreme Court yesterday — Comatose Grandma Allowed to Die. The decision "allow[s] a family to remove life-support equipment from a comatose patient with no chance of recovery."

Another report clarifies that the ruling states that "a patient should have the 'right to die with dignity' if he or she can breathe only with the help of a respirator, has no possibility of recovery, and has explicitly asked for a stop to all treatment" — Supreme Court Upholds Terminal Patient`s Right to Die. This report quotes a statement from the Protestant Severance Hospital, founded by American missionaries: "Immediately after the ruling is officially announced, we’ll decide to stop life support for the patient after reflecting the opinions of her family and the hospital`s ethics committee."

Another report quotes a statement from the family, reading, "This was a lawsuit about the right to choose medical care, not to actively demand the right to die" — Top court upholds ‘die with dignity’ right. The same article quotes the family's lawyer as saying, "The ruling is very meaningful because it showed that a patient can be the main decision maker for the medical treatment that he or she is receiving."

This story has appeared on the pages before — Kim Ok-kyung Is Not a Korean Terri Schiavo / Kim Ok-kyung and Catholic Teaching on Euthanasia / Korean Protestants on Euthanasia, and Catholic Teaching on the Same / An Update on the Korean "Euthanasia" Case. From the last post:

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

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

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

The Ordinary/Extraordinary Means distinction is all-important here; feeding is an ordinary means, and can neither be rejected nor denied, while artificial ventilation is an extraordinary means, and its withdrawal must be judged on a case by case basis.

May God rest Kim Ok-kyung's soul.

City of Life and Death

John M. Glionna on a film of that title — Film on Nanjing massacre shows Japanese soldiers in new light. Chinese director Lu Chuan "has been criticized by some for not portraying Japanese soldiers as monsters" and "for suggesting that some were deeply conflicted over World War II atrocities."

The portrayal of "mass rapes, point-blank executions, public beheadings and victims buried alive" is said to be "brutal," but just "as disturbing to many filmgoers" is the portrayal of "Japanese soldiers as real people, with human flaws, some deeply conflicted over the murder and mayhem they inflict." The article reports that "a public uproar has ensued, with some viewers walking out, a few questioning the theater manager's patriotism.... Lu has even received death threats."

"Accustomed to Japanese soldiers being demonized as mindless murderers, many were unprepared for a more balanced rendering of human frailty," suggests Mr. Glionna. But some viewers seem were prepared. A local writer said, "The atrocities were incredibly brutal, but the Japanese were still human." A 21-year-old is quoted as saying, "Governments declare wars, ordinary people fight them."

The director "told reporters that many of the film's Japanese actors who had initially disagreed about the scope of the Imperial Army's crimes in Nanjing later found the filming difficult." He said, "They cried and asked to leave because the atrocities in the massacre, like raping and killing, drove them crazy." The director himself said of the filming, "My heart was in pain and darkness... It was like in hell."

The director's words bring to mind the late Iris Chang, who took her own life after researching The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.

A trailer for City of Life and Death (2009) (notice the cathedral and what appears to be an allusion to the Fall of Baghdad in 2003):


War is truly disgusting.

"The Theology of the Church Building"

"No more barren concrete bunkers, please!" cries Fr. Giles Dimock, OP, Professor of Theology at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio — Why We Need Beautiful Churches.

Questions asked: "Why are so many modern church buildings so barren? Why have so many lovely old Irish Victorian church edifices, neo-basilican or neo-classical structures, been stripped and whitewashed away?" Questions raised and thoroughly answered: "Are beautiful sacred buildings needed? Can't we, the Body of Christ, worship anywhere?"

Short answer: "[W]e do need beautiful sacred buildings after all, because they correspond to the needs of our religious psychology, because God used sacred places in manifesting his presence in history, because Christ dwells in his Church, and because our edifices are a sign of that indwelling, both in us and in the Eucharist which is our consolation and joy."

Dr. Rand Paul, the Next United States Senator From Kentucky

"In January, 1962, Carol bore Ron a son who would forever bear the mark of this fertile period of his father's intellectual development," I concluded in my chapter of Ron Paul: A Life of Ideas; it turns out I was wrong, as this video linked to by the LewRockwell.com Blog explains — Rand Paul on Ayn Rand and his name.

The Good Doctor's son, a good doctor himself, could soon join his father is Washington — Dr. Rand Paul Considers Senate Run. Visit his Campaign HQ to learn more. It turns out he's from the town eulogized in this song:

The Cheney-Obama Ticket

The ruse — Obama, Cheney plan dueling speeches — and the reality, explained by Paul Craig Roberts — Watching Obama Morph Into Dick Cheney.

Even the former article admits that "Obama’s speech is also intended to quiet the ire aimed at him from the political left." Mr. Cheney is doing his part in helping win over to Mr. Obama those "furious over his recent decisions on continuing military commissions rather than civilian trials for suspected terrorists, and his about-face in deciding to fight a court order releasing photos of detainees undergoing abuse." This, coupled by the "frequent charges from Cheney that Obama is leaving the country more vulnerable to attack," will leave both Democrats and Republicans and convinced that there is an iota of difference between the two parties when it comes to foreign policy.

Dr. Roberts, who served as Assisstant Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan, reminds us that "Obama has deserted the people for the interests" and "is relying on his non-threatening demeanor and rhetoric to convince the people that change is underway." In short, "Obama... is committed to covering up the Bush regime’s crimes and to ensuring that his own regime can continue to operate in the same illegal and unconstitutional ways." Dr. Roberts concludes, "The world, or much of it, seems to be content with the soft words that now drape Dick Cheney’s policies in pursuit of executive supremacy and U.S. hegemony."

The fact that Barack Obama and Dick Cheney are cousins perhaps hints at just how incestuous Washington is.

Viol Pieces by Szászvárosi Sándor, Regős Júlia, and Ölveti Mátyás

Fœderalism

The Rev. Larry L. Beane II, a Lutheran Latinist, offers a lesson in language, government, and American history — The Founders Knew Latin. An excerpt:

The founders of the American Republic knew their Latin.

That is why they carefully chose the word "federal." In James Madison's original draft of a proposed new Constitution (the "Virginia Plan"), the word "national" was used to describe the proposed new Union. However, this word was explicitly rejected by the Constitutional Convention, specifically because the founders did not see the United States as a "nation" but rather as a "federation." Their vision was for the United States to be a union of sovereign states as opposed to a consolidation of the states into "one nation, indivisible" – and this reality is embedded in the very word "federal."

The Latin motto "e pluribus unum" also captures the plural nature of the Union. It was never meant to be collapsed and rolled into into "one nation." This is even evident in common grammatical usage, for while the architects of the Union were still living, the singular verb "is" was not paired up with the plural subject "United States."

"Deo gratias that the founders knew their Latin," the good pastor concludes. "And even more so, thank God they knew the danger of centralized power, leading them to establish a federation and to reject a nation."

Egalitarianianism vs. Confucianism (and My Family)

Fellow anti-egalitarians might be interested in reading Mike Yates's account of how three foreign English teachers here are attempting to make things difficult for folks like us who have married into the culture — The ATEK Panel: Anti-ATEK.

First, some background: Due to a large number of foreign English "teachers" here who were accused of using drugs and committing lewd acts, South Korea decided to perform drug and HIV tests on E-2 (conversation teacher) visa holders in the country, and criminal background checks on those applying for the visas. None of these checks are required of F-series visa holders (the "F" is for "family"), for reasons that should be obvious to anyone except ideological egalitarians.

The Association for Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK) issued a call ssuggesting that "[t]here is no reasonable basis to exempt Korean citizen teachers, ethnic Korean non-citizen teachers (F-4 visa holders), or non-citizen teachers married to Koreans (F-2 visa holders) from any precautionary measures that have been applied to E2 visa holders" — Equal Checks for All!

No reasonable basis? Being married into the culture implies a certain level of commitment, and it implies both obligations and rights. You treat a son- or daughter-in-law better in your home than you treat someone hired to fix your toilet.

Mr. Yates, "an F-2 visa holder" who is "married to a Korean and ha[s] a 10 month old baby," notes that the group was "cited as an organisation ‘for the 20,000 foreign teachers’ in South Korea, yet they had only three members" and "had managed to get appointed as the representative body for English teachers in South Korea without actually being appointed." When the "equal checks" call was issued, they were still "three guys and a website," but had made somehow it into the domestic and international press.

Mr. Yates says that rather than "ask[ing] for ‘equal checks’ by employment type, thus bringing Korean teachers, and their unions, into the debate," the group "chose to make it an immigration issue, sacrificing the F-Visa holders." He concludes, "Whatever the reason for this, the three people who were ATEK chose to fight me. They chose to threaten my family."

(An ATEK-operative accused me of being "a sad, sad man" for daring to call the group into question in an earlier post — Don't Victimize Me!)

Maria Hsia Chang on Those Given Wholly to Evil

"Many readers will find this article, a study of the nature of evil, difficult to read," she warns, noting that "our instinctive reaction to evil is revulsion" — Perfect Possession. The body of her essays begins:

Thanks to Hollywood movies such as The Exorcist, most people know something about demonic possession, although many no doubt dismiss it as superstitious hocus pocus. Few, however, including Catholics, are aware that cases of possession that come to the attention of exorcists are only of the partial or incomplete variety. There is something worse -- total or perfect possession -- which is rarely spoken of even by the Catholic Church.

One can't help but wonder if this might help explain these recent headlines — California Father Accused of Biting Son's Eye, Eating It and Richard McTear Charged With Throwing 3-Month Boy Out Car Window On I-275. Saying that the beasts responsible for these crimes were "perfectly possessed" would not excuse them; Prof. Chang notes that "no one can become possessed without some degree of consent," elaborating:

It is not just the occult that poses a danger. Any activity that impairs our mind and will is a threat to the integrity of our selfhood. The activity can be engaging the occult, abusing alcohol and drugs, or indulging in "malogens." The latter is a word coined by former public defender Jay Gaskill to refer to malevolent ideas, images, and themes in popular culture that are "as dangerous to the developing mind as biological pathogens are to the developing body." Transmitted through pornography, death-obsessed music, violent movies and television, and macabre role-playing computer games, malogens celebrate violent, even homicidal imagery, and a nihilist, anti-life ethos. Teen subcultures are especially vulnerable because they are among the most under-protected targets in American society.

Pope Benedict XVI's Message to Catholic Bloggers

He asks us to promote "culture of respect, dialogue and authentic friendship where the values of truth, harmony and understanding can flourish" — Pope calls for Internet evangelists. His Holiness said:

I am inviting all those who make use of the new technologies of communication, especially the young, to utilize them in a positive way and to realize the great potential of these means to build up bonds of friendship and solidarity that can contribute to a better world. Young people in particular, I appeal to you: bear witness to your faith through the digital world! Employ these new technologies to make the Gospel known, so that the Good News of God’s infinite love for all people, will resound in new ways across our increasingly technological world!

How the Life of Thomas More Kim Dae-jung Was Saved

A Dec. 11, 1980 papal letter to South Korean dictator Chun Doo-hwan has been made public — John Paul II saved life of Korean President Kim Dae-jung. Kim, then leader of the democracy movement, had been sentenced to death a week earlier. After becoming president two decades later, Kim would commute the death sentence handed down on Chun.

뿌에리 깐또레스

Above, young singers from my diocese take Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina back to the capital of the world — Pueri Cantores of Daegu sing "Adoramus Te Christe" at Rome's Pontificium Collegium Coreanum.

An American Catholic in Rome who saw the performace writes of being "on the verge of tears," "overcome with emotion," and "in utter astonishment" upon hearing what "was like nothing [he] ha[d] ever heard in all of his sad life" and reflecting on "the beauty, but also the loss" — Pueri Cantores of Daegu: glory from the Orient! "They ought to be world famous and sing for the Pope in private audience," he says.

To think, these kids visited my parish a few months ago and, busy fool that I am, I did not attend. I'm sure the chance to hear them will come soon.

"I Believe in One Condom for the Prevention of A.I.D.S."

The French First "Lady" shows that she has uncritically given assent the above article of the secularist creed with her "scathing attack on Pope Benedict XVI saying that she has allowed her Catholic faith to lapse because of his approach to contraception in Africa" — Carla Bruni criticises Pope Benedict XVI. Should we be surprised that a mistress turns out to be a sex Jacobin?

First, saying that she "has allowed her Catholic faith" is a lie used to dramatize her rather trivial remarks, as she says very clearly, "I was born Catholic, I was baptised, but in my life I feel profoundly secular." She suggests that "the Church should evolve on this issue," saying, "It presents the condom as a contraceptive which, incidentally, it forbids, although it is the only existing protection."

While the article doesn't examine her claim (this post will momentarily), it does mention her "depart[ure] from her post's traditional religious neutrality" and quotes a constitutional historian's opinion that "there is a certain obligation to keep counsel when one is the wife of a head of state, such comments are not opportune." Now, onto her claims.

An article published today sheds much light — Condom Worshippers & Their Perennial Bogeymen. The article notes that "condoms are, at most hopeful estimates, only 90 percent effective against the transmission of the HIV virus." It also cites a study that found "the use of condoms resulted in a 24 percent failure rate." Average those out and we get odds slightly better than Russian roulette. The article continues:

With a false sense of security many African men and women engage in unsafe sex practices precisely because they believe they are protected against the disease by the use of condoms. Statistics bear this out. In fact, according to statistics examined over the previous decade, the nations with the highest rate of condom availability -- South Africa, Kenya, Botswana and Zimbabwe -- have the highest rates of HIV infection.

By the same token, Uganda, the country with the lowest rate of condom availability has by far the lowest incidence of AIDS in the region. Uganda once had the highest rate of AIDS in the world. Starting in the late 1980s, however, the Ugandan government chose to follow a different approach to the disease than that of other African nations. Instead of handing out condoms and encouraging HIV/AIDS patients to use them, Uganda promoted abstinence before marriage and fidelity during marriage. In this country that chose the path recommended by the Catholic Church, from 1991 to 2001 the incidence of AIDS in the population dropped from 15 percent to 5 percent. Compare this to the countries that focused on condom distribution: Botswana rose to 38 percent and Zimbabwe to 32 percent by 2001; both have risen even higher since then. Though very few people seem to realize it, it's obvious that the Church, and especially the Pope, has been set up as the perennial bogeyman in this affair.

(Here in Asia, the same trend was recently documented by the Catholic Association of Doctors, Nurses and Health Professionals in Asia (ACIM-Asia) — Tell truth about the dangers of condoms, Catholic health workers say; the group's secretary reminded us that "about 10 years after the implementation of the World Health Organization's (WHO) '100 percent condom use program' in Thailand," "Thailand had the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases in Asia with 570,000 sufferers compared to 9,000 in the Philippines.")

The article reminds the reader of the papal comments "that drove the frenzy: 'One cannot overcome the problem [of AIDS] with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem.'" Immediately before these words, the Vicar of Christ said, "The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids" — Pope rejects condoms for Africa. These are affirmed by the facts detailed above.

They are also affirmed by Dr. Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, a self-described liberal and "condom heretic," who said of the Pope's comments, "Yet, in truth, current empirical evidence supports him" — The Pope May Be Right. He went on to say that "what has worked in Africa" is, "in plain language, faithful mutual monogamy or at least reduction in numbers of partners, especially concurrent ones."

The New York Philharmonic Performs "Arirang" in P'yŏngyang

The Reactionary Nature of Streetcar

Watching A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) again the other night, I couldn't help but think that even though it was written by a gay dude, it was a profoundly reactionary work, a compliment in these quaters. Abandonment of chivalric codes was one of its main themes.

Blanche DuBois and her sister, Stella Kowalski (née DuBois), are of the old aristocratic order of the American South, fallen tragically into terminal decline. The villain, wife-beating rapist lumpen proletarian Stanley Kowalski, in his decidely Yankee accent, claims he's "not a Pollack" but "one hundred percent American.... born and raised in the greatest country on this earth and... proud of it." Yet, he's obvioulsy rootless, as are his friends of various ethnicities.

In the one, brief, fleeting moment of hope the viewer is offered, Blanche says, "Sometimes—there's God—so quickly!" Later, on hearing the tolling of the bells from St. Louis Cathedral, she says, "Those cathedral bells — they're the only clean thing in the Quarter." It's a horror to watch her lose the last bits of dignity on to which she holds.

Eurabia or Brave New World?

Sandro Magister offers "[a]n extensive report from the most Islamized city in Europe" — Eurabia Has A Capital: Rotterdam. We learn that "entire neighborhoods look like the Middle East, women walk around veiled, the mayor is a Muslim, sharia law is applied in the courts and the theaters." This in a "country in which individual license is the most extensive – to the point of permitting euthanasia on children."

Invoked is the memory of the murdered Pim Fortuyn, "the homosexual, Catholic, ex-Marxist professor who had formed his own party to save the country from Islamization." We are introduced to Bart Jan Spruyt, described as "a robust young Protestant intellectual [and] founder of the Edmund Burke Society," who says, "Pim was truly Catholic, more than we think, in his books he spoke out against modern society without fathers, without values, empty, nihilist." We are also introduced to Chris Ripke, "a well-known artist in the city," who notes that "the Muslims brought religion back to the center of social life, [a]ided by the anti-Christian elite."

All is not well in my ancestral homeland; glad again I'm American. That said, it would be far better to live under Sharia than the T4 Euthanasia Program.

Woodrow Wilson, Republic-Wrecker

J.K. Baltzersen of Wilson Revolution Unplugged reminds us that one of the Republic's most odious pieces of legislation was signed into law four score and a dozen years ago yesterday — Selective Service Act. Mr. Baltzersen posts this contemporary anti-family propaganda poster:


("America, here's my boy" was never the sentiment of my mother, and neither was it of her mother, my beloved Mississippian Yellow Dog Democrat granny, who wore a P.O.W. bracelet, and when I was at a very young age, advised me, rather commanded me, never, ever, to join the United States military. Nope, she didn't want her grandson ending up owned by the State and dead in some imperial war. Bill Kauffman, author of Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Anti-War Conservatism, would recognize her.)

I find it hard to believe how Americans were ever convinced that being involuntarily sent to Europe to die in what amounted to a personal crusade against Blessed Charles of Austria was a good idea. (If the Republic actually had been threatened, by enemies foreign rather than domestic, that would have been a different story.) As John Zmirak has noted, "Woodrow Wilson set as one of the primary war aims of the U.S. as she entered (thanks to his careful maneuvering) World War I the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy" — An Inconvenient Miracle. "As a multi-ethnic state based not on 19th century nationalism but ancient dynastic loyalty cemented by a majority Catholic faith, it offended his modern notions of what should constitute a country—and as a good Princeton academic, who was in addition convinced that he personally embodied the Will of God, Wilson knew that he could do better."

Of course, the bête noire of Mr. Baltzersen's blog only succeeded by disappearing peace-loving folk like Eugene V. Debs with the very un-American midnight-knock-on-the-door. And how interesting it is to note that he also signed these un-American travesties into law — the Federal Reserve Act and the Revenue Act of 1913, and the Sedition Act of 1918. Contemplating the legacy of the 28^th president, the words of G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) come to mind: "It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."

An Appreciation of Wilhelm Röpke

Bart Fuller on "a man whose life and work we all should be familiar with during these days of economic turmoil," whose "observations still ring true" and who "provides wisdom for the challenges of the day" — Evangelist for Freedom.

"Burke was liberal because he was conservative."

My favorite line from Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind comes to mind reading David Bromwich's suggestion that "Burkean conservatism must be as much about civil liberties as property rights" — Right Reflections.

The author calls it "an odd fact of American society in the past 60 years that a section of the party of improvers—the improvers of wars—have so often called themselves conservatives... It is no less strange—except that one saw it also in the 1950s—that property libertarians have so often failed to live up to their duties as civil libertarians."

"Gay" Is Not the New Black

A hometown report on some genuine community organizers who "have long opposed the march toward legal same-sex marriages" and are "also challenging the growing efforts of gay-marriage supporters to frame the issue as a civil rights cause" — Black clergy opposing gay marriage resent civil rights comparision.

"We feel the terminology, the definition itself, has really been hijacked," said the Rev. William Gillison of Mount Olive Baptist Church, calling it "another ploy to garner more support from people who may not understand what the civil rights struggle was all about."

"As an African-American, I don’t have a choice in the color of my skin," said Bishop Michael A. Badger of Bethesda World Harvest International Church. "I have a choice in whether I’m abstinent or not,” Badger said. “I don’t think you can compare the two."

Pope Benedict XVI on the Western Confucian

The original one, that is — Pope: Matteo Ricci, a model of evangelisation for China. The Pontiff highlighted the "harmony between the noble and millennial Chinese civilisation and the novelty of Christianity" achieved by the Jesuit missionary, whom he said was "gifted with profound faith and extraordinary cultural and academic genius."

Noting that he "dedicated long years of his life to weaving a profound dialogue between West and East, at the same time working incisively to root the Gospel in the culture of the great people of China," the Pope suggested that "his example remains as a model of fruitful encounter between European and Chinese civilisation." The pontifical statement:

In considering his intense academic and spiritual activity, we cannot but remain favourably impressed by the innovative and unusual skill with which he, with full respect, approached Chinese cultural and spiritual traditions. It was, in fact, this approach that characterised his mission, which aimed to seek possible harmony between the noble and millennial Chinese civilisation and the novelty of Christianity, which is for all societies a ferment of liberation and of true renewal from within, because the Gospel, universal message of salvation, is destined for all men and women whatever the cultural and religious context to which they belong.

What made his apostolate original and, we could say, prophetic, was the profound sympathy he nourished for the Chinese, for their cultures and religious traditions. We only need to recall his Treaty on Friendship (De amicitia – Jiaoyoulun), which met with great success from its earliest edition in Nanchino in 1595. A model of dialogue and respect for other beliefs this son of your region, made friendship the guiding style of his apostolate which lasted 28 years in China. The friendship that he offered was returned in kind by the local populations thanks to the climate of respect and esteem that he sought to cultivate, concerning himself to gain an increasingly better knowledge of the traditions of the China of the time. Despite the difficulties and lack of understanding that he encountered Father Ricci remained faithful till his death, to this style of evangelisation, giving birth, we could say, to a scientific methodology and a pastoral strategy based upon, on the one hand, respect for the healthy local traditions that Chinese neophytes did not have to abandon when they embraced the Christian faith and on the other, based on the awareness that the Revelation would only further enrich and complete this. And it was from these very convictions that he, as the Fathers of the Church did before him in the encounter between the Gospel and the Greek-Roman culture, set out on his farsighted work of the inculturisation of Christianity in China, establishing a solid bond with the learned of that Nation.

In following his example, may our communities, within which people of different cultures and religions live, grow in a spirit of welcome and reciprocal respect.

"Now Is the Month of Maying"

Above, the Taipei Chamber Singers perform the madrigal by Thomas Morley:

Now is the month of Maying, when merry lads are playing! Fa la la la la!
Each with his bonny lass, upon the greeny grass, fa la la la la!

The Spring, clad all in gladness, doth laugh at Winter's sadness! Fa la la la la!
And to the bagpipes’ sound, the nymphs tread out the ground! Fa la la la la!

Fie! Then why sit we musing, youth’s sweet delight refusing? Fa la la la la!
Say, dainty nymphs and speak! Shall we play barley break? Fa la la la la!

Distributivism in Korea?

News of a South Korea political party's call for "harmony between growth and distribution, the free market and an efficient government" — Democrats unveil 'Third Way' vision.

Not unexpectedly, "left-leaning members criticized it for diluting its ideological purity," suggesting "the new program was ambivalent and much too cautious in asserting its liberal values." (Let us remember that "conservatism is the negation of ideology" — Ten Conservative Principles by Russell Kirk.)

I have little hope for the project; when talk of a "third way" comes from the left, it usually means something along the lines of Bill Clinton or Tony Blair, not Wilhelm Röpke.

Questioning the Blackness of Barack Hussein Obama

"The inescapable but deliberately ignored irony about Barack Obama being installed as this nation’s first so-called black president is that being Black in ‘America’ has in reality always meant so much more than mere color pigmentation," begins — To Be Black & Head of the U.S Empire: A Contradiction in Terms.

Says the author, "Those who choose to wrap themselves in the security blanket of the supposed wonderfulness of Obama’s so-called Blackness while ignoring the ongoing horrors that this person supports, are deeply complicitous in perpetrating the misery that this empire is heaping upon Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow peoples both inside and outside of its physical borders." (And inside and outside the womb, I might add.)

(As noted earlier on these pages, the woman who was "by far the leading black figure on the libertarian old right" was also actively opposed to "the idea that the only notable difference was skin color" — Zora Neale Hurston, Segregationist.")

The Church in Asia in the News

The priest after whom this blog was named, who "who promoted Christianity in China while introducing the country's culture to the West," and was also "a prolific writer, a Sinologist, linguist and an accomplished scientist" is being remembered as we approach four centuries after his death — Church forum discusses Father Matteo Ricci's work in China.

A report on the the Scola Cantorum of Saint Joseph College of Colombo — Church trains choirs in Latin hymns on growing demand. One young member rightly called it "a way to store the old traditions in the archives of young minds." "True, missionaries imposed western culture here but they came from distant lands, learned our language, underwent hardship, sacrificed their careers, died and their bones were laid to rest in our soil," said another. "Let us sing for them."

"If we are promoting truthful public information then tell the people that using condoms is dangerous," reads a statement issued by the Catholic Association of Doctors, Nurses and Health Professionals in Asia — Tell truth about the dangers of condoms, Catholic health workers say
. The group's secretary reminds us that "about 10 years after the implementation of the World Health Organization's (WHO) '100 percent condom use program' in Thailand," "Thailand had the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases in Asia with 570,000 sufferers compared to 9,000 in the Philippines."

More Richard Yongjae O'Neill and Alte Musik Köln

A follow-up to an earlier post of mine — Richard Yongjae O'Neill and Alte Musik Köln Play Baroque — with more from the same Arirang TV perfomance and the same album — Mysterioso.

Saint Thomas More, Paterfamilias

Elena Maria Vidal posts excerpts of a review of a new hagiography that hightlights the saint's "progressive educational program for all his children, including his daughters, uncommon at the time, with the highest standards of contemporary humanism," as well as the fact that he "had completely integrated the sacred and the secular in his way of life and yet steadfastly kept the public and the private aspects of his life separate" — A Daughter's Love.

Rabbi Jacob Neusner

Lives there a man who actually deplores Jesus' Sermon on the Mount? Yes, there does. His name is Jacob Neusner, and he is a highly esteemed and scholarly orthodox rabbi and professor, with more than 900 books to his credit, including several that take Jesus to task for His teachings.

So begins Hurd Baruch's piece casting doubt whether "there can be an honest dialogue between the Church and representatives of Judaism about theology, as opposed to social-welfare projects" — Pope & Rabbi Square Off Over the Teachings of Jesus. The rabbi is at least right that "the conception of a Judeo-Christian tradition that Judaism and Christianity share is simply a myth in the bad old sense: a lie."

Conscience Is Innate

"Alison Gopnik describes new experiments in developmental psychology that show everything we think we know about babies is wrong" — To Be a Baby. She explains an experiment "that’s been around for quite awhile but hasn’t been fully appreciated:"

Two-and-a-half-year-olds already recognize the difference between moral principles and conventional principles. You can ask them if it would be okay to hit someone at daycare if everyone said it would be okay, versus asking them whether it would be okay to not hang up your coat in the cubby if everyone said it would be okay. These children say it’s never okay to hit someone, but whether or not you have to put your clothes in the cubby could change from daycare to daycare. They already seem to appreciate the difference between the kinds of morality that comes from empathy and the kind that comes from our conventional rules. From the time they are two, they recognize both are important but in different ways. That’s pretty amazing.

Now read Peter Kreeft's explanation of "one of the only two arguments for the existence of God alluded to in Scripture, the other being the argument from design (both in Romans)" — The Argument from Conscience. You might also be interested in some of these Twenty Arguments For The Existence Of God.

[link to article via Arts & Letters Daily]

Flannery's Faith and Fiction

"The real spiritual drama in Flannery O’Connor’s fiction was even darker than the one she acknowledged," says Joseph O’Neill — Touched by Evil.

"O’Connor was a fervent Roman Catholic—a 'thirteenth century' Catholic, as she described herself," reminds the author. "She read deeply into theology [and] went to Mass every day she could, invariably accompanied by her mother." He also notes that she "was dismissive of any pressure, whether of religious or secular origin, for more 'positive' fiction" and "saw no contradiction between her faith and her art." She herself said that "the novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural."

Mr. O’Neill succinctly summarizes Miss O'Connor's approach: "(1) from the Christian viewpoint, the modern human condition is filled with a peculiar horror; (2) therefore, to fictionally depict humans in their peculiarly horrifying aspect is necessary in order to explore the mysteries of redemption and grace." However, while he may be right to say that "[t]he repugnancy of O’Connor’s characters is, in her portrayal, connected to their poverty and backwardness," he is wrong to find any contradiction in the fact that "she is anguished by, and fundamentally hostile to, the forces—ostensibly progressive—that ask us 'to form our consciences in the light of statistics.'"

"Some readers may find that here O’Connor is herself repugnant," says Mr. O'Neill. Indeed, I once lent one of her books to a self-described "flaming socialist" from her home state who found her so, and who might agree with Mr. O'Neill's suggestion that she is "one of those people for whom the misery and injustice of human affairs is chiefly a source of egocentric intellectual gratification, and whose political and moral instincts are distorted accordingly." Mr. O'Neill's conclusion:

One problem with O’Connor the exegesist is that she narrows the scope of her work, even for Catholic readers. To decode her fiction for its doctrinal or supernatural content is to render it dreary, even false, because whatever her private purposes, O’Connor was above all faithful to a baleful comic vision derived, surely, from an ancient, artistically wholesome tradition of misanthropy. Nonetheless, a spiritual drama is playing out. Only it is not the one put forward by the self-explaining author, in which she figures as an onlooker occupying the high ground of piety. On the contrary, Flannery O’Connor’s criticism reveals her as scarily belonging to the low world she evokes. She was touched by evil and no doubt knew it. That is what makes her so wickedly good.

Having read the bulk of her work, including her letters, I never came away with the impression that she saw herself "as an onlooker occupying the high ground of piety." That is simply the image most nonbelievers have of believing Catholics. It is no insight that she saw herself as "scarily belonging to the low world she evoke[d];" as a believing Catholic she was certainly aware of her sinfulness and of course knew herlsef to be "touched by evil."

[link via Arts & Letters Daily]

"First-Devotion Return Chant" by Tu Fu, Translated by David Hinton

I come home to sounds of weeping,

wailing cries for a child stone-dead now of hunger.

Neighbors sob in the street.

And who am I to master my grief like some sage,

ashamed even to be a father--I whose son has died for simple lack of food?

From Adam Kirsch's review of a new anthology — Disturbances of Peace. Concludes the reviewer, "No doubt our own time of troubles, our own ugly and vicious world... is the reason why the Chinese poets seem to speak to us more intimately now when they speak of suffering and disillusionment rather than of beauty and perfection--or even, in David Hinton's magisterial book, of enlightenment."

[link via Arts & Letters Daily]

C.I.A. Faggotry

Conservatives shouldn't mince words when it comes to denouncing a particularly shameful and disgusting Bushevik legacy — Sexual Torture. Writes David Rosen:

Sexual torture served two purposes on those subjected to such abuse: to physically harm and to emotionally scar. It was intended to break male inmates. It sought to inflict both pain and shame, to make the recipient suffer and loathe himself. Sexual torture attempted to break the victim both physically and spiritually, to leave scars on (and inside) the body and in the psyche.

Self-styled "social conservatives" who had a clue as to what was going on but didn't see the need to raise their voices are little less culpable than those government employees in those prisons "forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped," "arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them," and "sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick."

Pray for Peace in the Swat Valley

I first posted about the region because of its beauty — Taliban Takes Over Switzerland.

Today, facing "the largest mass exodus in its history," "Pakistan’s Catholic community is mobilising in favour of peace" and "Catholic leaders issued a statement calling on the government to end the military operation as soon as and to help those displaced by the fighting" — Swat Valley: Catholics pray for peace as the country faces an exodus of Biblical proportions.

"If there’s one thing the private sector can’t compete with a modern military on," says James Dits, "it’s the ability to drive millions of people from their homes in a matter of weeks" — Swat’s Refugee Crisis Underscores Government Incompetence.

Quantum Physics and God

A post of Rod Dreher's today first had me scoffing but then had me thinking — "Spooky" quantum physics and healing. Mr. Dreher begins with a link to what he describes as "a piece by Gautum Naik about the practical uses to which the bizarre insights of quantum physics are being put" — Science, Spirituality, and Some Mismatched Socks.

Mr. Naik reports on the "series of recent mind-bending laboratory experiments [that] has given scientists an unprecedented peek behind the quantum veil, confirming that this realm is as mysterious as imagined." Also, the authhor notes that "[s]ome philosophers see quantum phenomena as a sign of far greater unknown forces at work and it bolsters their view that a spiritual dimension exists."

Google led me to this neat little argument — A Proof Of God Using Quantum Physics. Similarly, James Daniel Sinclair argues that "quantum mechanics seems to provide as good a proof of God’s existence as there is" — The Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics.

China's Return to Confucianism

In an article about "China’s political evolution," Sinologist Daniel Bell rightly says, "Packaging the debate in terms of 'democracy' versus 'authoritarianism' may crowd out other possibilities that appeal to Chinese political reformers" — The Confucian Party.

The author reminds us "that China’s most fertile intellectual period was the Warring States era (476 to 221 B.C.), when scholars like Mencius could openly criticize rulers for their immoral deeds and put forward political alternatives." He also brings us the welcome news that "Communism is dead as a unifying myth that can sustain the Chinese people" and "many intellectuals are turning to traditions like Confucianism that emphasize social responsibility."

The author's Confucian friends do not look fondly on "20th century efforts by Chinese liberals to seek complete Westernization as the solution to China’s problems." Instead, they rightly argue that "any long-lasting and stable political reform must be rooted in China’s own traditions."

He reports on one new Confucian who "explicitly criticizes the idea of state sovereignty, saying that sovereignty lies with 'heaven' rather than the state," and "criticiz[es] democracy for being too narrowly focused on the interests of the current generation of voters." Instead, he "proposes another political institution designed to represent non-voters whose interests are typically neglected in democratic states, such as foreigners, future generations and ancestors."

("Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors," said G. K. Chesterton. "It is the democracy of the dead.")

[link via The Useless Tree]

"Anti-Semitic Jerk"

Words selected by Rod Dreher to describe Metropolitan Seraphim, Orthodox Bishop of Piraeus, for having called the Bilderberg Group a "criminal cabal of world Zionism and its efforts to set up a cruel world dictatorship under the headship of Lucifer" — Bilderbergers, ahoy! Commenter James P. gently corrects Mr. Dreher:

The metropolitan may be an adherent of the mother of all conspiracy theories, but does that make him "anti-Semitic" because he presumably opposes Zionism or sees it as driving world events? Does he hate Jews in and of themselves? He may or may not. I certainly hope not. Are there Jews who oppose Zionism? Yes, many, both religious and secular. Do Jews make up the largest number of Semites? No; Arabs do. Do Semites make up the largest number of Jews? No. Are all "Zionists" Jews? No; just look at the Republican party.

You have posted about how (secular) Jews run the American film and TV industry. Regardless of how that came to be, it's true. Diamond industry? Yep, but they're mostly religious. Is it so absurd to suggest that a similar network wields huge if not controlling power in international finance with all that entails, and has for decades?

Many Eastern Europeans espouse the big conspiracy theory to varying degrees, but the ones I know who do make a clear distinction between "Zionism" and Jewishness. I would not be surprised to find that many do not make that distinction, but I'm just relating my experience.

American "Cultural Aggression" Against Iran

"From pornography to fashion, Tehran is fighting a losing battle as it struggles to keep American culture [sic] out of Iranian society," reports Shahir Shahidsales — Iran to US: 'It's a culture thing'. May the Iranians prevail!

Orwell and Chesterton

Comments from Enbrethiliel to a post yesterday in which we learn that G. K. Chesterton was George Orwell's "favourite writer" — "The Last Man in Europe" — link to "an old post on some basic connections between them" — A Visit with the Good Professor.

An Émigré Reads Thomas Fleming's Latest

The émigré being yours truly and Prof. Fleming's latest being this article — Nations of Immigrants. Reminding us that "it is the very essence of Leftism to destroy all forms of the natural order, the family, the community, the province, and the nation," and that "it does not matter what the Republicans say or propose, because in their hearts they believe the Left is right," the author continues:

We intend to go on fighting this fight, not because we think we can defeat either wing of the Left but because it is one way of waking people up to the profound truth that man is neither a social insect nor a rogue elephant. We are creatures whose lives depend on the traditions and communities that form our character–the families that rear us, the language we speak, the books we read, the religion we practice. The government can and will raise our taxes, fight unjustifiable wars of aggression, and flood the country with immigrants, but it cannot, without our complicity, rob us of our identity and historical memory.

He concludes, "Life can be good if you forget about changing the world and concentrate on brightening the corner where you are." Responding to a commenter, he writes:

I do not recommend any course of action to anyone. A Catholic Englishman in Tudor England could either 1) betray his and his ancestors’ religion and comply with the tyrants’ decrees, 2) stand up boldly for his faith and be martyred, 3) live in the shadows as an alien in his own land, or 4) go some place where he could practice his religion in peace. The choices one makes will depend on a man’s character and circumstances but also on his age.

There are two sets of traditions, the local (by which I include provincial and national) and the universal–though they are hardly that. One set makes us Charlestonians and Southerners, but another makes us Christian and heirs to classical antiquity. In anything like a decent country, one should be able to balance the two traditions, the two sets of loyalties. Some times it is more difficult. Our is a pagan country that makes it increasingly difficult to lead a Christian while carrying out our duty of loyalty to divinely appointed authority. To speak personally, I think I can be comparatively happy in remaining an American but spending a good part of the year away from my increasingly unlovely homeland. Others will make other choices. I do not at all envy the fate of emigrés and exiles, however comfortably fixed they are, but my fellow countrymen seem Hell-bent on living like swine on a commercial pig farm, getting fat on chemical slops, oblivious to the fate their masters have planned for them. But even if I had the answer, I doubt that I would state it. Some mistakes we have to make for ourselves.

I left America before I was old enough to have figured these things out, and now find myself an unwitting but very "comfortably fixed" émigré in the imperfect process of relearning the "two sets of traditions," "provincial and national" and "universal," while living in isolation overseas. I have been very "happy in remaining an American but spending" more than a dozen years "away from my increasingly unlovely homeland," but realize something is lacking. Later, Prof. Fleming comments:

Solzhenitsyn’s amor patriae was admirable, but then Russia was a patria in a way that America has never been. What chance we had was destroyed by the nationalists of the 19th century and the internationalists of the 20th. I agree that there is still enough to local identities to justify staying where you are. My job takes me abroad a good deal. Otherwise I should have to make up my mind to answer decisively the musical question posed by a famous punk band, “Should I stay or should I go?”

My job is abroad, but certain familial obligations have me asking, "Should I stay or should I go back?" And then there is this absolutely brilliant argument contra racialism:

The first problem in posing questions in terms of White People is that Whiteness is an abstraction. For example, many South Italians are comparatively dark, while Swedes are achingly White, but, although I have several Swedish and Swedish American friends, I am more comfortable in the company of Sicilians. There are African and partly-African Americans who are more “White” in the sense of being civilized and Christian than 95% of the Whites in Rockford. The second is that Whiteness tends to be a negative category, that is, it is defined in terms of not being black or brown rather than in terms of being something good. At this point in my life I am not much interested in making alliances with Meth freaks, child molesters, school shooters, neoconservatives, or wife swappers, simply because they have white skin and blue eyes. The Church is open to all human beings and so is the possibility of being civilized, while racialist and nationalist ideologies are not only close-minded but they are part of Jacobin leftism. If we could just go back to the good things our ancestors had, train our minds and cultivate a good life, we would not have to worry so much about skin tone or hair texture. White people per se did not create our civilization. Greeks, Romans, Germans, and Celts and the nations of Europe they spawned did.

[link via The New Beginning]

Chiyul Sŭnim Contra Mundum

The Los Angeles Times' John M. Glionna on the bhikkhunī (Buddhist nun) who "ventured from the monastery to take on a government plan for a train tunnel through her beloved mountain" — South Korean monk: A meditative force of nature. Says the author, "What she learned about the world would change her."

"If she had known how much this society has been corrupted and spoiled, she would never have come out from solitary," friend Kim Jong-chul, a former English literature professor and the editor of an environmental magazine, was quoted as saying. "It is unprecedented that such a selfless act by one person could be so mocked and ignored."

"The Last Man in Europe"

The working title of what was to become "[p]robably the definitive novel of the 20th century" — The masterpiece that killed George Orwell. We learn that "Orwell himself claimed that he was partly inspired by the meeting of the Allied leaders at the Tehran Conference of 1944," as he was "convinced that Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt consciously plotted to divide the world."

About the title, "there's no documentary evidence for" the common claim "that the title derived from reversing the date, 1948." There are, however, suggestions that "he was alluding to the centenary of the Fabian Society," giving "a nod to Jack London's novel The Iron Heel (in which a political movement comes to power in 1984), or perhaps to one of his favourite writer GK Chesterton's story, 'The Napoleon of Notting Hill', which is set in 1984."

Richard Yongjae O'Neill and Alte Musik Köln Play Baroque

The Arirang TV interview and performances above are from an album by Richard O'Neill that I considered purchasing today — Mysterioso.

The Pope and His Enemies

Charles A. Coulombe on "the firestorm of condemnation [the Pope] has received from many of the world’s mighty in the past few months" — By His Enemies You Shall Know Him.

Michael Cook notes that the Pontiff "is bearing a powerful message: that Christianity and Islam face a common enemy in secularism" — The Pope’s détente with the Muslim world.

"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

"The word 'probably' jumps out, doesn't it?" says James F. Csank of the Dawkinsian bus slogan above — Inverting Pascal's Wager. An excerpt:

While some atheists have doubts about God's non-existence, no atheists have doubts about the rest of the slogan: "don't worry, enjoy." Most atheists are atheists because they want to be free from God and His Commandments, free from any obligations not chosen by themselves, free from moral constraints they don't like. Non-belief lets them do pretty much what they want to do, especially in the area of sexual morality; it exempts them from worrying about any after-life adjustments of account.

They like a worry-free life of pleasure and profit so much that they are willing to bet their souls (which they believe they probably don't have, but, well, maybe they do) on the probability that there is no God. And, not content with that, they encourage others to make the same gamble.

African Aid for Europe

"So which is the real Dark Continent, Africa or Europe?" asks Chinwuba Iyizoba — Silent heroes of Africa. The author is "tired of Africans being reduced to pathetic victims in the Western media." He says, "The reality of daily life in Africa, chaotic though it may be at times, is not victimhood but courage."

Noting "that Europe’s plummeting birth rates are demographic suicide" of a people "burdened with so much loneliness, so much angst about the future, so much moral confusion," the author offers "missionaries of courage, joy, detachment from consumerism, and generosity."

Restoring Conservatism

W. James Antle III calls for a "a flinty, sober Republicanism, socially conservative but not preachy, pro-defense but not hyper-interventionist" — Beyond the Paleos.

"After the Bush era, the Republican Party has been given the opportunity to redeem and redefine itself—in opposition to a party and a president who are further left than any in American history," says Patrick J.Buchanan — A Conservatism That Can Fight Again.

Richard Spencer, in contrast, "think[s] that dedicating our energies towards rescuing the GOP from defeat (or itself or whatever) is a strategy that promises few rewards for the Alternative Right" — A Hypocrisy That Can Win Again.

"We have to learn to retreat from the passions of the moment, making use of this gift of catastrophe to enter into contemplation and draw once again 'from the moral and spiritual depths' (Ryn) of the sound of church bells calling the faithful to evening prayer, the cattle lowing in the fields, the cold beer on the village square in the twilight of a world that, as Russell Kirk said, 'remains sunlit despite its vices,'" says Rod Dreher — Becoming Barbarians.

Jesse Ventura on Torture

I will criticize President Obama on this level; it's a good thing I'm not president because I would prosecute every person that was involved in that torture. I would prosecute the people that did it. I would prosecute the people that ordered it. Because torture is against the law.

Quoted by Glenn Greenwald as an example of how "prosecut[ing] the people that ordered it... [b]ecause torture is against the law" is hardly "a 'Hard Left,' 'liberal' or 'partisan' argument" — The Massive Expansion of America's "Hard Left".

On the effectiveness of torture, Mr. Ventura, a Navy SEAL whose training included being water-boarded at the SERE (Survival Escape Resistance Evasion) School, said, "I'll put it to you this way, you give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders."

Chronicles' Curmudgeon Strikes a Positive Note

Those small-minded enough to be unable to grasp how "[t]he music that used to be known as 'Negro spirituals'" and "'Dixie' and the Confederate battle flag" can be appreciated by the same man should steer clear of Prof. Clyde N. Wilson's list — Surprise! Positive American Contributions to Civilisation.

This is a departure from his previous lists, which included abominations like "Lincoln worship" and "[n]uclear weapons" — American Contributions to Civilisation — "[p]lastic" and the "Kennedys, Rockefellers, and Bushes" — More American Contributions to Civilisation — "Donald Trump" and "The 'Great Society'" — And More American Contributions to Civilisation.

A Hateful Piece of Legislation

Paul Craig Roberts warns us against a bill that "add[s] a second punishment to existing punishments for acts of violence" — Beware the Hate Crime Bill’s Unintended Consequences. An excerpt:

It will prove difficult to separate speaking against members of protected classes, or criticizing their practices, from hate. The two things are easily conflated. Once enacted, hate crimes will become independent of specific violent acts. An eventual likely outcome will be that speaking against members of specially protected classes will itself become a violent act of inciting violence.

Reviving America's Urban Middle Class

"The sustainable city of the future will rest on the revival of traditional institutions that have faded in many of today’s cities," says Joel Kotkin — The Luxury City vs. the Middle Class. The best quote comes from real estate agent Judy Markowitz: "In Manhattan people with kids have nannies. In Queens, we have grandparents."

Confucianist Corruption or Corrupted Confucianism?

Korea "expert" Donald Kirk, whom I've heard does not understand the language, shows that he does not understand the philosophy — Confucianist corruption in South Korea. "Tales of presidential corruption, or corruption committed by president's wives or older brothers or sons or daughters or in-laws," he says, "are so commonplace here that it's possible to shrug off the headlines before turning to the sports pages."

He's right about that, but he's wrong about the blame. To be fair, his headline comes from Hanyang University's Kim Sung-hak, whom the author quotes with the following statements:

Corruption is condoned at the highest level. Korean culture is a social relationship, not a written contract.... Confucianism was the governing social philosophy... Family and regional ties are very important. Here the personal guarantee carries more weight than an employee contract. Employees are not supposed to betray the president of the company.

All true, but none of what the professor says indicates a "Confucianist" tolerance of corruption. As we Catholics are fond of saying, "Abusus non tollit usum."

North Korean Defector, Taoist Sage

Pictured aboive with his wife his wife, Park An-ja, is Rhee Young-gwang, who, "[a]s a 21-year-old North Korean soldier... crossed the border and came to South Korea in the night of Sept. 18, 1967" — 1st N.Korea Defector on Choosing the Quiet Life.

"I came here to travel the world," he said at the time. Now, he "is living deep in the mountain in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province, having chosen a philosophical life in nature rather than globetrotting." The report says that shortly after his defection, he "went to Yongsan Police Station in Seoul and pleaded the officers to send him back to North Korea." Mr. Rhee explains:

South Korea was poor and noisy. If my dream was to earn lots of money, I could have done that in the North. What I wanted was freedom... But cities were noisy, and because of my petulant personality, it was difficult for me to get along with other people. A place for a person to sleep is supposed to be quiet and dark, but Seoul was the opposite, and I felt that this place was not meant for living.

Later, he asked him himself, "Why am I still in a city when I'm not meant to live here?" He has plans for the future. "My dream is to sail from the East Sea down to the South Sea and then to the Yellow Sea and reach the Yalu and Tumen Rivers in a rubber boat when the Koreas are unified," he says. "Then I would like to go to Fiji and live peacefully until I die."

Yesterday's Tridentine Mass in Seoul

My friend Jason Choi assisted and shares his observations and thoughts — -=attended a non-SSPX Tridentine Mass in Seoul=-. The fact that they had to bring "a (German? or maybe Austrian?) priest serving in Shanghai" tells me that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as it was celebrated by Saint Andrew Kim Taegon and which sustained Saint Paul Chong Hasang and the Martyrs of Korea will not be widespread any time soon.

Arvo Pärt's Bogoróditse Djévo

Богородице Дево радуйся,
благодатная Марие,
Господь с тобою:
блогословена ты в женах
и блогословен плод чрева Твоего,
яко Спаса родила еси душ наших.

Bogoróditse dyévo, raduisya,
Blagodatnaya Mariye
Gospod s Toboyu.
Blagoslovenna Ty v zhenakh,
I blagosloven plod chreva Tvoyevo,
Yako Spasa rodila yesi dush nashikh.

Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos,
Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
And blessed is the fruit of your womb,
For you have borne the Savior of our souls.

Boseong

The LA Times' Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee visits a "region [that] is to green tea what the Napa Valley is to wine" — Green tea is more than a way of life in South Korea. Salient points include the fact that "farming, harvesting and drinking of the beverage dates back about 1,500 years" and that the plant's "seeds most likely traveled to the peninsula in the luggage of monks from China's Yunnan province, who imported Buddhism along with the precious plants."

Four by The Carter Family

Barack Hussein Obama and the Rectification of Names

"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names," says the Chinese proverb quoted by Dan Spielberg at the beginning of his call to "call Mr. Obama by his real names: Wall Street Stooge, Zionist lickspittle, National Socialist, liar and above all, mass murderer" — Barack Obama – Mass Murderer. About the most serious charge, Mr. Speilberg asks some pointed questions:

To kill someone for defending themselves against aggression is the definition of tyrannical is it not? Or is the U.S. Government so holy, so infallible and morally upright that any who defy it are to be disposed of, like so much human garbage? Is a country that claims to be Christian really ready to accept the blasphemous idea that the U.S. Government is above any laws, even those of the God that the majority of Americans claim to believe in?

Three Non-Interventionist Articles

"The left wing of the War Party raises its ugly head," warns Justin Raimondo — The New Neocons. On a positive notes, the author points to "a general, though inchoate, rebellion against the idea that we have to intervene all over the world, especially given our present economic straits."

Charles V. Peña makes the case that "the United States does not have to spend more – and, in fact, could spend considerably less – to be secure against the few military threats we might have to face" and that "the result of continued record defense spending is maintaining and deploying the large military footprint around the world afforded by such spending – which actually makes us less, not more, secure" — Pentagon Gluttons.

"Rather than drawing down violent military interventions into the affairs of other countries, the new administration is escalating the foreign policy of the previous administration," says the man who should be president — Stop ‘Helping’ Af-Pak. He notes that "our involvement in Pakistan’s internal problems is not making us safer" but instead "we are adding to the numbers of our enemies and increasing the threats to our security here at home." He calls for us to "bring our troops home, end all foreign aid, and maintain a neutral stance on the world stage."

Changsan Village Mission Church

One of the pleasures of driving in Korea is stumbling upon humble little churches like this one — 천주교천안장산리공소. Gongso (公所) is the Korean term for "mission church," a usually rural church which has no priest of its own and is connected to a larger nearby parish.

The Homosexualist Assault on Religious Liberty

Rod Dreher has points to remember "the next time somebody asks, rhetorically, how Adam and Steve's marriage is going to hurt anybody else" — Gay rights and religious liberties, again. He quotes a report noting "the rights [sic] of gay couples have consistently trumped the rights of religious groups." A few cases:

Yeshiva University was ordered to allow same-sex couples in its married dormitory. A Christian school has been sued for expelling two allegedly lesbian students. Catholic Charities abandoned its adoption service in Massachusetts after it was told to place children with same-sex couples. The same happened with a private company operating in California.

A psychologist in Mississippi who refused to counsel a lesbian couple lost her case, and legal experts believe that a doctor who refused to provide IVF services to a lesbian woman is about to lose his pending case before the California Supreme Court.

And then there's the case of a wedding photographer in Albuquerque, N.M.

"It's coming," concludes Mr. Dreher. "When an Orthodox Jewish university is compelled by the state to allow same-sex couples access to married student housing, that's a very big deal."

Distributism, Keynesianism, Capitalism, and Austrianism

John Médaille's latest — The Economics of Distributism Part 1: Does Capitalism Work? He rightly says that "the working system we see is not capitalism, but Keynesianism," but then suggests that "[t]he best one can say from the empirical evidence is that Keynesian Capitalism works." Is it working?

He then suggests that "that nearly all of modern economics, whether neoclassical, Keynesian, Socialist or Austrian, is built on a mistake about science; in the attempt to make their discipline 'scientific' in the mold of physics." Is this a fair categorization of the Austrian School of Economics, which I have always understood to be in opposition to Positivism and Scientism? (Cf. Gene Callahan's Scientism Standing in the Way of Science: An Historical Precedent to Austrian Economics.)

Mr. Médaille also makes this very valid point: "Under the free market rhetoric of 'conservative' regimes, the government has not shrunk, but expanded, so much so that we now have a government of nearly imperial power and privilege, headed by an imperial presidency that ignores not only the laws of congress and the Constitution, but even basic human 'laws' such as the law against torture as an instrument of state policy." The author's use of quotes around the word "conservative" indicates that he understands that "free market rhetoric" was just that, rhetoric.

The author reaches "an unavoidable conclusion: capitalism and the free market are incompatible." He explains:

This leads us to a History shows, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the growth of capitalism and the growth in government go hand-in-hand. Big capitalism and big government are not, as in the popular imagination and the economic treatises, things opposed; rather, the one grows on the back of the other, and the more you get of one, the more you will need of the other.

If the term "big business" is substituted above for "capitalism" (a term I'm not attached to), there's little to disagree with in the above paragraph. Even someone as odious as Ayn Rand might agree to a certain extent; Justin Raimondo noted that her "principal villains" were the "corrupt businessmen who succeeded on account of their political connections rather than their entrepreneurial skill" — Is War Good For the Economy?

Gold, Not Dollars or Renminbi

"Americans pay a high price for the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency, but the Chinese proposal for an IMF alternative would be no improvement," says David Gordon — The case against global currency schemes, whether Chinese or American. His solution is to "take money out of the control of the state."

He explains, "Under the classical gold standard, money was a commodity: its supply was not determined by government fiat but was a quantity of physical material, and that worked very well in the 19th century." Here is how he meets the "important objection" to the idea:

Once we converted to the gold standard, the money supply could then expand only through new gold mining. But does not a growing economy require constantly increasing money? Without such inflation, we face the menace of deflation. Ben Bernanke becomes almost apoplectic when the word is mentioned. But what is so bad about lower prices? So long as prices are flexible, a growing economy does not require more money: any quantity would be adequate. Decreasing prices and economic growth often go together.

Sex Discrimination in Scandanavia

You cannot refuse to hire someone based on their sex, but you can kill someone — Sweden allows sex-selective abortions. The article also notes that "that over 25% of Sweden’s pregnancies end in abortion," "[a]n increase of 17% after the introduction of the morning after pill, which was promoted by pro-abortion advocates as a way to reduce the number of abortions performed."

The Pope in Palestine

The Pope's "emotional address at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial" was criticized "for failing to use the words 'Nazis' or 'murder' in his speech" — Vatican defends Benedict from Israeli criticism. Pleading that "the names of these victims never perish" and that "their suffering never be denied, belittled or forgotten" is not enough, it seems. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi responded, "He can't mention everything every time he speaks."

One cannot help but suspect that these petty complaints are but a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from more important issues — Pope Calls for Palestinian Homeland and Catholics still waiting for the return of the Cenacle, Father Jaeger says.

Tridentine Mass Today in Seoul!

Comments from reader T. Chan bring to our attention the exhilarating news that today, "13 May, at 7 pm, there will be Holy Mass in the usus antiquior (Traditional Latin Mass) in the Yongsan church, followed by a conference of famous German Catholic author Martin Mosebach ('The Heresy of Formlessness')" — Usus Antiquior Mass and Conference with Martin Mosebach in Seoul, Korea.

Why Are We Still in Korea?

Mallory Factor notes that "the South Korean perspective on the North Korean threat would surprise many Americans accustomed to thinking of South Korea as a country under constant fear of attack, dependent upon the American military presence as a 'tripwire' for its life — It’s Not Your Father’s South (or North) Korea Anymore…

"Briefly put," the author continues, "the South Koreans aren’t nearly as worried about a military attack from the North as Americans still think they are." In fact, "South Koreans no longer fear the North Korean conventional military, because they have discovered it is not worth fearing." More:

Indeed, many South Koreans fully recognize the psychological aspects of the North-South standoff. Noting the military and economic backwardness of the North, they respectfully suggest that the United States inflates the importance of North Korea by giving Kim Jong Il more attention than he really deserves. Kim Jong Il pushes the U.S. in order to draw a response and attention he would not otherwise get. South Koreans wonder why we respond and appear to take him so seriously. This viewpoint, so different from what one hears from Washington, is widespread in South Korea.

[link via The Marmot's Hole]

How Confucian Scholars Brought Catholicism to Korea

The remarkable 225-year-old story, unique in Church history, is succinctly told by Hahn Moo-Sook in her magnificent historical novel, Encounter:

It was not through the efforts of missionaries that Catholicism spread in Korea. In the beginning it was studied as an academic interest by scholar-officials of the Southerner faction, who had by then lost political power. Disillusioned with the empty, obsolete, and contradictory metaphysics of the day, they developed a profound interest in the Western books brought into Korea by the annual mission to the Peking court. With an insatiable thirst for new knowledge, they marvelled at the newly introduced learning, more logical, scientific, and practical than any they had known. Scientific advancement in mathematics and calendrical computation hitherto unknown to them greatly stimulated and influenced these scholar-officials. They joined forces in a new scholarly trend called Sirhak, or "practical learning," which used an empirical approach aimed at "institutional reform of government" and "economic enrichment in society." True Principles of Catholicism by Matteo Ricci (a Jesuit missionary working in China) was one of the most frequently read books of the movement. Written in Chinese, it was easily understood by those who were fluent in the language. In it, Ricci publicly announced that he had come to China to supplement Confucian belief, and to attack the absurdity of Buddhism. He argued that the Catholic God and the Confucian Lord-on-High were equivalent, and that the Confucian term Heaven, or Providence, was compatible with the Catholic concept of God the Creator. Citing passages from Confucian classics, he demonstrated that the concepts of the soul's immortality and good and evil in Catholicism were analogous to the fundamental teachings of Confucianism. The scholars found Catholicism, although strange and alien at times, easily accessible for the most part. As their research deepened, many decided to accept it as their religion, among them the Chŏng brothers, Yak-chŏn and Tasan.

I've written an article on the novel's protagonist, who is one of modern Korea's most revered figures — Tasan, Nineteenth Century Korea's Paleo-Confucian Classical Liberal. He apostatized, but was later reconciled with the Church. His brother was martyred in 1801 as was his nephew, Saint Paul Chong Hasang, in 1839, who was raised to the altar in 1984, is another of the novel's main characters.

Confucian Picture of the Day

"Students perform a traditional dance during a biannual ritual for Confucius at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul on Monday" — Today's Photo: May 12, 2009.

How Dogma Saved the West

It was precisely the creed and dogma that saved the sanity of the world. These people [the purist Platonists] generally propose an alternative religion of intuition and feeling. If, in the really Dark Ages, there had been a religion of feeling, it would have been a religion of black and suicidal feeling. It was the rigid creed that resisted the rush of suicidal feeling. The critics of asceticism are probably right in supposing that many a Western hermit did feel rather like an Eastern fakir. But he could not really think like an Eastern fakir; because he was an orthodox Catholic. And what kept his thought in touch with healthier and more humanistic thought was simply and solely the Dogma.

Thus wrote G. K. Chesterton, quoted by Stephen Hand — How St Thomas Aquinas Saved Us from Subjective Chaos and Postmodern Despair.

Jimmy Akin on Harry Truman

The Catholic apologist, from whom I once learned much, tells it like it is, noting that "the question of what counts as a war criminal will not depend on whether one has violated human law but whether one has violated the fundamental moral jus in bello, or the moral law as it operates in wartime" — Harry Truman Was A War Criminal.

"I don't pass judgment on him," he says after makking his clear-cut case. "I don't know the state of his soul, and I have no idea whether he has the intellectual formation needed or--given the pressures of wartime--the psychological wherewithal to analyze the issue in the way just presented."

After offering to "be among the first in volunteering to pray for his soul," Mr. Akin makes the case that "[t]he bombings were also acts of terrorism." No less a Catholic than Patrick J. Buchanan came to the same conclusion, rightly called the atrocities "terrorism on a colossal scale" — Hiroshima, Nagasaki & Christian morality.

[link via Catholic and Enjoying It!]

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Michael Cook "[c]elebrat[es] the 150th anniversary of the most famous Islamic poem in English" — A link to our Muslim heritage.

Interesting that this "link to our Muslim heritage" should be a work "Islamic authorities have regarded... as heterodox." The author reminds us that "in Victorian England its combination of theological scepticism and oriental exoticism struck a chord" and the work is "one of best-selling books of verse ever to appear in English."

The Return of Community

Patrick Deneen suggests that "the individualism, isolation and 'silo living' that had been the norm for 55 years (!) - that is, that period dating back to the beginning of American suburbanization and our automobile culture fueled by cheap petroleum - is a luxury that we can no longer afford" — The Great Recession and the Rebirth of Community. He continues:

Individualism, it turns out, may be one of the ultimate luxury items of a prosperous society, one that turns out to be as artificial as the bubble economy and false prosperity upon which it was based. What the community of Glenmont has discovered is something that was the norm in most towns, villages, cities and communities for most of human history: people gather together because we are partial and needy, and we can only achieve the good life together through the effort to achieve together and in concert a shared conception of the common good. Moreover, such common good is not the product of pronouncements of distant government or abstract philosophy, but derives from the lived experience, common concerns, shared history and interlinked destiny of those people who live together. Some economists doubtlessly have read this article and regard it as a highly inefficient expenditure of time and energy on non-productive and unprofitable endeavors. As Aristotle would respond to such economists, they seek to concentrate on “mere life,” not “the good life.”

El Coro Sinfónico de la Universidad de Chile Sing Ave María Guaraní

It being Mary's Month of May is one reason to post the above aria from The Mission (1986) ; another is that the composer/conductor is coming here — Ennio Morricone comes to Korea.

The Onion, Comedic and Prophetic

"And some good news out of Iraq" — Army Holds Third Annual 'Bring Your Daughter to War Day'. "Conceived as a way to open young women's eyes to opportunities in the armed forces, 'Bring Your Daughter to War Day' also provides a way for girls to see their parents once a year."

Bill Kauffman, in George Bush, the Anti-Family President, observed that "the first casualty of the militarized U.S. state is the family." In his tome Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Anti-War Conservatism, he wrote that war "is good for nothing a genuine conservative might cherish."

[link to video via LewRockwell.com Blog]

An Anonymous Gianna Beretta Molla

Dr. Linda Reid Chassiakos tells the tale of a mother whose baby she delivered — Mother-to-be sacrifices her chance of surviving cancer for her baby. Observing the doctor-patient confidentiality second in solemness only to the seal of the confessional, Dr. Chassiakos only offers as clues to the mother's identity that her husband "helped her adjust her sari" and that the "young couple spoke quietly to each other in their native language."

"Even I, who had chosen to study pediatrics because I loved children, reluctantly acknowledged that the woman's care was the medical priority," writes the author, director of the Klotz Student Health Center at Cal State Northridge and an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at UCLA. "Wouldn't I -- wouldn't everyone? -- opt for life-saving intervention for myself? Wouldn't we all yield to the natural instinct to survive?" Yet in the end, the doctor "gave a silent thanks for [the baby's] miraculous survival where it was due -- to her mother."


Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, pray for us.

Challenging Bush-Obama Corporatism

Michael Hiltzik suggests that "much of the bailing out undertaken over the last year by our government and others around the world has been merely handouts to the undeserving rich and the propping up of the undeserving imprudent" — Addressing the 'too big to fail' problem.

That's by no means a new argument around these parts, but it's refreshing to hear it from the mainstream press, not only from the libertarians of LewRockwell.com, the alternative right of Taki's Magazine, the old right of Chronicles and The American Conservative, and the hard left CounterPunch. Maybe we can have the audacity to hope in chance we can believe in after all.

Robert De Niro Celebrates the Tridentine Mass

A conservative blog for peace posts the opening scene of True Confessions (1981), above.

Llewellyn Rockwell, Jr., American Gentleman

Justin Raimondo's call for the "trial of Nancy Pelosi for war crimes" appeared on Taki's Magazine a few days ago with the following headline — The Torture Bitch. The same article appeared on LewRockwell.com today with a cleaned-up headline — The Torture Witch.

Lew Rockwell may be a libertarian, but he's no libertine; Taki Theodoracopulos may not be a libertarian, but he's a libertine. On the former's site, warnings are provided for links to articles with profanities, a charmingly anachronistic practice; on the latter's site, original content is provided with profanity-laced headlines, a disturbingly un-conservative practice.

This probably says less about the Paleolibertarian-Paleoconservative divide than it does about the American-European divide. Most Americans, even the libertarians among us, tend toward social conservatism. The same, it seems, cannot be said of Europeans, or the American secular rightists who strive to emulate the European Right. I'll take an all-American bourgeoisie over a decadent European aristocracy any day of the week and twice on Sundays.