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Life has been somewhat chaotic the past year. I can hardly believe I even remember the login information for this blog! I was able to get into the account, however, and plan to do a lot more posting!

Be sure to check back!

Nothing erudite or witty (of course) - just a tidbit

Well, as I write this, I feel like a person of some importance. In the space of just two weeks, I have become president and an editor of a rather good newspaper. My new role as El Presidente was certainly by default only. But as Edmund Burke once said something to the effect that "all that is necessary for disaster is for good men to do nothing." I won't even comment on whether that men was restricted to the male sex or not, and if you are looking for something along that line, point your browser elsewhere and run far away.

So I'm president of a conservative book reading group. This semester, we will be reading Newman's "Idea of a University."

Any thoughts on that?

A film review

After a long break, I am thrilled to be posting again. There is, sadly, no lack of material.

However, I would like to begin on a neutral note and add a few lines about a film I recently saw.

I recently watched "An Affair to Remember" with Cary Grant. I was rather offended by the title, but the promptings of a friend encouraged me to check it out. The film is brilliantly woven. Two people meet and fall in love, but prudently put off pursuing a serious courtship, each having a few loose ends.

They become estranged, and loose contact completely. Each party is greatly dismayed. They are brought together once again by beauty. More preciesely, a particular piece of art. Their mutual love for it's beauty draws them back together.

This can be found also in people who "reconvert" to the faith. After falling away, they find themselves returning to a beautiful moment in their past connected with the Church. I have most often found these memories to be ones surrounding Christmas and Easter. While their love of the beauty of the traditions surrounding those holidays is not a trancendent love, it lifts them up to our dear Lord.

Anyways, this film is very well done, and I would highly recommend it.

Green Pigs

Taiwan proudly announced today that it has created a floresent green pig. It will help them to become the new leaders in stem-cell reasearch. The green pigs are unique because they are green throughout, even their organs are green. The world now welcomes three transgenic male pigs.

I'm saddened to think that soon, and perhaps already, a similar procedure has been inflicted on a human embryo. The "doctors" inject flouresecent green protein into the embryos.

I also don't see the connection between a pig and a human being. Man is both spiritual and temporal, and these "doctors" don't seem to see that what they are investigating is something sacred and unique.

"Before I formed thee in the womb I knew thee, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."Jeremiah 1:4-6

"Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Luke 12:7

A stroke of brilliance

The Omaha World-Herald announced today "Man found dead in Wahoo cemetery" [omaha.com, subscription required]. I'm just glad to know the police are looking in all the right places!

Indian Abortions

A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic. - Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1953)

On Monday, January 2, 2006 the Lancet, a UK medical journal reported that 10 million female babies were aborted in India in the past two decades. They report that this atrocity is largely due to prenatal sex determination. India largely regards daughters as a liability.

Let's put 10 million into perspective.

6 million - The number of Jewish people killed in the Holocaust between 1933 and 1945.
50,000 - The number of Americans killed in WWI
1,370,000 - The number of abortions in the U.S. (Allan Guttmacher Institute)

And some less muderous statistics:
55,601 - The number of people that can be seated in Shea Stadium
1,048,319 - Population of Rhode Island
8 million - The population of New York City

Staggering, is it not?

The Emergence of the Family in Hollywood

I have watched the emergence of such movies as Cheaper by the Dozen, Nanny McPhee, and the Pacifier with an element of chagrin. Each of these movies portrays a large family (12, 7, and ~5, respectively), which I was initially very excited by, thinking Hollywood was glorifying the idea of a larger family. Well, my admiration was quite mistaken. The families are portrayed as an unruly lot. Indeed, The Pacifier and Nanny McPhee assert that the only way to manage the ungodly number of children these families have is to be a super controlling person, such as a Navy SEAL. Forget the idea of an organized mother and a strong father; they’re not capable of rearing children.

These movies suggest that an extra baby only adds more chaos.

Sadly, these movies only add to the disdain many large families are faced with. A father and mother with more than one child are often viewed as a menace to society, since Americans are being fed with the idea we are overpopulating the earth.

On the sacred nature of the feminine

Fydor Dostoevsky once said "to love someone is to see him as God intended him." It inspired me to delve more deeply into the archetypes ideas of man and woman and also the relationship between them.

Alice von Hildebrand asserts the dignity of the woman by stating that woman was not made from dirt and saliva, as man was. Rather, she was created from the flesh of Adam. Since she enjoys this high privilege, she is also one of great responsibility. She has the role of bringing into the world new life. She deserves utmost respect. She is a vessel of life. Perhaps even the vessel of life. Chesterton states "Nothing can overcome that one enormous sex [that of the female] superiority, that even the male child is born closer to his mother than to his father.

Men must treat women with great respect then, as they are indeed sacred. The chivalric code between men and women aims at maintaining a woman's dignity, and is indeed based on the love between Jesus and Mary. However, that has been lost in the modern world where both men and women are responsible for the breakdown of chivalry. It is the job then of both sexes to return to this code.

With great interest, I turned to Brad Miner's "The Compleat Gentleman: the Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry." Although it had a rather interesting section on sprezzatura (the effortless grace of the masculine in pursuit of truth and goodness), the rest of it is at best a lengthy, dry, history. It is hailed as "witty" by Publisher's Weekly, but it not worthy of such praise.

I wouldn't bother with it, but if you have, I would love to know your opinion.