Blogworthies XLII

Because The Blog from the Core simply can't cover everything.

Noteworthy entries @ HerbEly, Turnabout, BlackFive, The Diplomad, small dead animals, man with black hat, ProfessorBainbridge.com, Mere Comments, The Corner, Cor ad cor loquitur, Recta Ratio, Power Line, Rightwingsparkle, 2Slick's Forum, IraqPundit, Irish Elk, Anchor Rising, Ed Driscoll.com, The Curt Jester, Thrown Back, and Laudem Gloriae.

Grade School Principal Declares the Declaration of Independence Unconstitutional! @ HerbEly:

A California teacher is suing for the right to use the Declaration of Independence in the classroom. The principal at Stevens Creek Elementary school has banned the use of the Declaration and other documents in the classroom because they mention the “G-word”....

Natural society @ Turnabout:

Is there such a thing as "natural society"? The difference between the traditional and modernist outlook is that the former believes in it and the latter does not. From the traditional standpoint basic institutions like family, property, religion and ethnic affiliation are natural. Secondary features and particularities of line-drawing vary here and there, but the institutions themselves are tied to basic human realities that don't change much and require social relations — if they are to function at all well — to settle into certain forms that follow a logic and order of their own. That natural logic and order are affected by circumstances to some extent, and they can be supported or disrupted, but for the most part they go their own way and we can't make of them what we will....

Thanksgiving in Fallujah - Emails Home @ BlackFive:

Via Seamus and Gunny Gregory come a few emails sent home from Marines in Fallujah. The Marines only have about a minute to fire off emails home. These were sent at 5am CST today [Wed. Nov. 24].

The first is from Marine Corporal Joel Yeager who happens to be General Chuck Yeager's grandson....

Seeing the UN Plain: Corruption as a Way of Life @ The Diplomad:

Ah, yes, the United Nations.

As school kids we all heard the UN described as "the last best hope of mankind" and "if it hadn't been invented it would need to be." Even now as adults we hear calls for "sending" in the UN; getting UN approval; the need to "work with the UN"; and praise for its "technical and relief agencies." On its official website, the UN modestly states, "United Nations. It's Your World."

We at The Diplomad are here to ask you to forget all that misty-eyed blather. Our Diplomads have served at the UN, in New York, Vienna and Geneva, and worked with the UN in a variety of other posts, and can tell you from experience that the UN is a massive, expensive hoax that needs to be ended once and for all....

Cattlers @ small dead animals (emphasis in original):

Oh, just stop.

They are not "beef farmers"....

"Farewell, my friends, I'm bound for Canaan." @ man with black hat:

For those of you who read this weblog, particularly if you are more devout a Catholic than I am (it could happen), you must wonder why I bother remaining in the Church. After all, I find enough wrong with what's going on, with the scandals in the news, the priests who act like clowns when celebrating Mass, and like total jerks when they're not, the "conservative" bishops who cover for them, and then....

Religious Law Schools @ ProfessorBainbridge.com:

The NYT finally has deigned to notice developments in faith-based legal education. New law schools (such as Liberty University, St. Thomas, and Ave Maria) with an explicit religious identity and mission. Old and well-established law schools whose leaders are intentionally reviving their religious identity and mission (such as Villanova)....

Smashing Technology @ Mere Comments:

I only got the last few minutes of a story on BBC World last night, so I don't know the country in which this story took place, but it doesn't matter, because it could be any country in the West. (They were not English-speaking, and the translation drowned out the speakers so I couldn't identify the language.)

It seems some people are paying for a new therapy treatment. The last bit of the therapy that I saw, and it may be all there was to it, took place out in field, perhaps not far from a junk yard. The participants were taking out their frustrations with modern life by taking sledgehammers to cars. In a group moment, they turned one car over on its side.

The report said that they also got to smash up computers and cell phones. By the time I got to work this morning, I could see why, though it wasn't surprising even then. The unholy trinity of cars, computers, and cell phones?...

The Last Election @ The Corner:

At one of the panel discussions on the recent (sigh) cruise, we panellists were invited to opine about what GWB did right this election, and what JFK did wrong. I laid out my own contribution in the form of a Letterman-style Top Ten. Several people have asked me to post it. Here is as much as I can glean from my notes....

Reply to "The Problem of Pain and the Egomania of the Psalms" (by Agnostic Ed Babinski) @ Cor ad cor loquitur:

.... I have been in the mood lately to do some Christian-skeptic discussion (my first love in apologetics, going back to the early 80s). I've selected one of Ed's shorter papers (he has written some huge, meticulously- and massively-researched ones, which are — false conclusions entirely aside — quite impressive), because restricted subject matter works better in terms of a systematic working-through of the issues (one can't sensibly, constructively deal with 1000 things at once — or even 100; or even 10).

The following is my reply, then, to his short essay, "The Problem of Pain and the Egomania of the Psalms". There is plenty enough here to deal with, as readers will see....

An Old Fashioned New England Thanksgiving @ Recta Ratio:

Thanksgiving is almost here [Sun. Nov. 21]. It seems appropriate, since everyone is gearing up for a gathering of family and friends for the holiday, to provide another installment of this semi-regular feature dealing with food. Perhaps there are ideas here you may want to use.

Thanksgiving in my house traditionally exalts the flavors of early New England. Turkey with dressing and gravy, clam chowder, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, squash with maple sugar, corn bread, apple cider, baskets of nuts, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and mince pie are all on the groaning board every year....

Slandering the Red States @ Power Line:

This morning's New York Times Sunday Magazine has a column by Jim Holt that tries to channel the Democrats' post-election blues in a more constructive direction. Forget about secession, Holt argues; stick up for states' rights instead....

Protesting. @ Rightwingsparkle:

I seem to be in the "personal stories" mode. One of the previous posts had many comments on protestors. I have actually been a protestor. Let me tell you about my first time....

What's Next For Fallujah? @ 2Slick's Forum:

This simple answer to this question can be found by looking at the current state of affairs in Samarra, Najaf, and Sadr City. Oh, I'm sorry — the press isn't telling you anything about that. Well, the short story is that our forces are steadily working on financing and supervising reconstruction projects — employing a substantial Iraqi work force and getting the towns back on their feet. Newly trained Iraqi cops provide security and protection, and US forces just sort of monitor the situation and help where they're needed. This is what we in the business call an "exit strategy." ....

Cunning, Resolute, and Tenacious? @ IraqPundit:

America's agenda-setting press has been quite impressed by the thugs who have been targeting, kidnapping, and murdering defenseless Iraqi civilians. A front-page headline out of Iraq in Friday's New York Times, for example, reads, "Showing Their Resolve, Rebels Mount Attacks in Northern and Central Iraq."

Got that? These murderers have been demonstrating "resolve." Indeed, throughout the battle of Fallujah and in the battles that have followed, American journalists have discovered many impressive attributes in these criminals. According to a week of major-press stories, the "insurgents" are a cunning and courageous band who have been putting up a tenacious struggle....

When St. John de Brito almost died of a childhood illness,... @ Irish Elk:

... his mother vowed he would wear a Jesuit cassock for a year if he were spared. He went on to indeed become a Jesuit missionary to India, where he went native, adopting local cultural practices in his evangelization — and where, for his efforts, a raja had him beheaded by scimitar.

The Martyr of India is among the multitude of Jesuit saints and blesseds, the great number of them slain for their faith....

Meeting the Emotional Needs of the Elite @ Anchor Rising:

Brown professor Anne Fausto-Sterling, recent Massachusetts-made spouse of Brown professor Paula Vogel, skirts the heart of the same-sex marriage debate (coming to a small coastal state near you) in a Providence Journal column today. Interspersed with a description of exactly the sort of ceremony that one would expect from New England radicals, Fausto-Sterling offers points of rhetoric that adeptly slip right past any arguable point so as to return to emotionalist tugs that are ultimately irrelevant....

The Man, In Full @ Ed Driscoll.com:

Tom Wolfe spoke yesterday [Thu. Nov. 18] in San Francisco, at the Herbst Theatre, an early 1930s, 916-seat auditorium....

Christmas Music @ The Curt Jester:

Dawn Eden has an interesting op-ed in today's New York Post called "The Grinch Who Stole Messiah." She discusses the modern censorship or overtly religious music during Christmas. You know your getting old when you can remember singing Christmas music in a public school without the appearance of ACLU storm troopers jumping in. When the Christmas concert was actually called the Christmas concert and not just as holiday or seasonal music....

Article on Fight for Terri's Life Out This Month @ Thrown Back:

In this month's issue of Catholic World Report, my article "The Struggle to Save Terri" is the cover story!...

What were the first words spoken by Jesus to His apostles... @ Laudem Gloriae:

... after the resurrection?

Jesus first relayed a message through Mary Magdalene to His apostles before appearing and speaking directly to them. After Mary recognized Jesus standing near the tomb and cried out to Him, He said to her: ....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 11/27/04 09:41:19 AM
Categorized as Blogworthies.