Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

Another Reason Why I Don't Ride Roller Coasters

Hot Springs, Arkansas news report:

 A dozen riders on a roller coaster spent half an hour hanging upside down — 150 feet above the ground — after a power outage shut down the attraction.

Click here to see a picture of the car hanging upside down.    (HT: Drudge)

Living Unexpectedly Without Power (Electricity)

Have you ever found yourself living unexpectedly without power for several days?   Bishop G. Porter Taylor tells of coming home one Sunday evening to a surprise.

When I opened the door of our house, I didn't hear the customary noises: no CD's, no TV's, no clicking of computer keys.  Instead, there was a mechanical silence broken only by murmurs of voices.  I went into the living room and all became clear; the power was off.  My family was gathered around the fireplace with oil lamps, candles, and flashlights reading the newspaper and just taking about the routine matters of daily life.

Our power stayed off the rest of Sunday and all of Monday and most of Tuesday. . .  I noticed how slow life became and also how mutual life became.  I was no longer "productive" without power to run my computer for very long or adequate light to work at my desk.  Making coffee with a Coleman stove just

Get Well Wishes for Tony Snow and Elizabeth Edwards

The White House has a get-well-soon Tony feature for note sending on the right side of their homepage.  The Edwards campaign has something similar for notes to Mrs. Edwards here.   

(The above courtesy of Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO)

Thomas Sowell's Musings

No blind observer to the passing scene, Thomas Sowell offers his take on cultural craziness.  A sampling:

- Will those who are dismantling this society from within or those who seek to destroy us from without be the first to achieve their goal? It is too close to call.

- "Women's Liberation" and the "sexual revolution" have not liberated women. They have liberated the sort of man who is a "love and leave 'em" kind of guy, who lets the woman deal with the consequences, including pregnancy. 

- Amid all the media hysteria over the price of gasoline and the profits of "Big Oil," one simple fact has been repeatedly overlooked: The oil companies' earnings are just under 10 percent of the price of a gallon of gas, while taxes take 17 percent. Yet who ever accuses the government of "greed"? 

- After President Bush fired a handful of U.S. attorneys, it has become a big scandal in the media. But when President Clinton fired all the U.S. attorneys in the country — including those who were investigating him for corruption in Arkansas — it was no big deal. Yet many in the media still claim that there is no bias.

Read the whole article for much, much more.

"Truthiness" and Our Moment in Time

A friend has alerted me to an essay on "truthiness"  by Dick Meyer, the editorial director of CBSNews.com based in Washington.  Truthiness is a new word.  Meyer writes:

Webster's has now sanctioned truthiness with two definitions: "truth that comes from the gut, not books" and "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts of facts known to be true."

Meyer does us the service of noting its philosophic pedigree:

Truthiness actually has a long philosophic pedigree. It is called "emotivism," a term resurrected by a Scottish philosopher who lives and works in America, Alasdair MacIntyre. In 1981 he published one of the most influential works of moral philosophy in the later part

HIGHLY RATED CHARITIES

Debra England, an expert on philanthropy and education, wrote recently:

In the absence of competitive market forces, the average non-profit organization is significantly less effective, less efficient, less innovative and more poorly managed than the average for-profit company. But if you seek impact with your donations, you must look for investment opportunities in organizations that are performance-driven and strategically aligned with your values.

Two of the 10 charities she lauded included Operation Blessing and Foundation for Defense of Democracy.    (HT: Cliff May at the Corner)

Update: 12/25/06 - I have spent considerable time looking up charities at Charity Navigator.  Later in the afternoon I also took a look at Give.org and glanced at Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.   Hereafter I won't give to any charities until I've checked them out. 

GOLDEN RULES FOR LIVING

I came across the following, but I don't know whom to credit.   I think these are pretty terrific "Golden Rules for Living".

1.  If you open it, close it.

2.  If you turn it on, turn it off.

3.  If you unlock it, lock it up.

4.  If you break it, admit it.

5.  If you can't fix it, call in someone who can.

6.  If you borrow it, return it.

7.  If you value it, take care of it.

8.  If you make a mess, clean it up.

9.  If you move it, put it back.

10.  If you don't know how to operate it, leave it alone.

11.  If it belongs to someone else, get permission to use it.

12.  If  it's none of your business, don't ask questions.

The Origin of Certain English Phrases Explained

An e-mail arrived recently covering all sorts of interesting "facts".  Some of the "facts" dealt with how certain words and  phrases found their way into the English language.  I can't vouch for the accuracy of what follows, but it makes for interesting reading.  (For all I know, the explanations may be accurate.)

**
Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented.  It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only... Ladies Forbidden'... and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

Thoughts Of A One-Cigar A Day Smoker

Dennis Prager, whom I admire greatly, has an offbeat column today singing (and justifying) the pleasures of smoking a cigar or pipe once a day.  It's worth a read.  Embedded in the article is the following choice paragraph:

We live in the Age of Stupidity. This new age has been induced by widespread college education and widespread secularism -- Psalms is entirely accurate: "Wisdom begins with fear of the Lord" -- which explains, for example, why only well-educated secularists came to believe that there were no innate nonphysical differences between men and women.

In Prager's view, the dangers of smoking a pipe or cigar in the moderation he reccomends is quite minimal or nonexistent and can't hold a candle to the pleasures it affords.  It's an entertaining and thought-provoking read.

MOVING MAP OF IMPERIAL HISTORY - COOL SITE

See a moving map of 5,000 years of Imperial history in 90 seconds.  Click here.

THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF LEARNING ENGLISH

Who of us hasn't felt compassion and sympathy towards foreigners trying to learn the English language?   It's crazy, virtually incomprehensible, as Jay Nordlinger points out in this little post:

Sometimes English drives me nuts.  There are certain instances when, in a piece of writing, you want it super-clear that “read” is in the past tense, and not the present, or vice versa.  And English, sometimes, thwarts you.

Which reminds me of a story: I once met a foreign woman — can’t quite remember from where — who noted the moment at which she gave up on English. She had studied diligently.  (I believe she was Eastern European.) For example, she knew that “read,” in the present tense, is “reed,” whereas in the past tense it is “red.” And she knew that “reading” is always “reeding.”

So she arrived in England and noticed a sign for a town called Reading. “Ah,” she said, “Reeding.” “No,” she was corrected: “Redding.”

She gave up.

Obituary for Common Sense

From The Brussels Journal which does not know the source of the following:

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn’t always fair, and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

OVEREXPOSURE TO BEAUTIFUL WOMEN: WHAT HAPPENS?

What happens when men are constantly exposed to beautiful women (on TV, in movies, in magazines, in advertisements, etc)?  We're not talking here of pornographic images;  rather,  just the constant sight of beautiful women.  What happens to a man?  How does he view the more ordinary women he encounters every day at work or at home? 

I ran across this question in J.P. Moreland and Klaus Issler's book The Lost Virtue of Happiness.  They refer to Michael Levine's cover article for the July/August 2001 issue of Psychology Today titled Why I Hate Beauty .   Moreland summarizes:

Levin... argued that constant exposure to beautiful women has made men less interested in dating (if single) or in their wives (if married).  Levine cited studies in which men were exposed to (nonpornographic)pictures of beautiful actresses.   The men were then asked to rate the desireability of a typical woman in their social environment (if single) or of their wives.  In both cases they were much less interested in the women available to them.  Levine pointed out that for all of human history prior to the automobile and television, the average man was exposed to very few people in general and to very few extremely beautiful women in particular.  Limited in travel and with no television, most men learned to relate to women on a basis other than beauty. But today, said Levine, the average man sees plenty of absolutely gorgeous women each night on television shows and commercials and gradually loses interest in the women in his 'real life.'"  (p. 22)

Interesting stuff.  I've noticed in recent days (before reading this excerpt) the extraordinary number of attractive women on TV compared to the more ordinary women I see walking the aisles of the local Wal-Mart.   One can't help but notice....   I'll return to this subject at a later date.

HOW WELL DOES PRESIDENT BUSH UNDERSTAND THE HUMAN HEART? - NOT VERY WELL IT SEEMS

Rich Lowry makes a good point when he notes that

He [President Bush] often says that freedom is God’s gift to humanity. But it sometimes seems that he neglects what, for a Christian, is a central event in understanding human motivation, the Fall.  Pride and hatred and fear are as likely to drive human behavior as any hunger for freedom.

. . .  Someone living in a tribal or traditional culture will view the world differently, and have different values, than an atomized individual in the West. He might value sexual purity more than freedom, thus insisting on the repression of women.  He might value his religious conviction that all of the Levant should be Muslim-controlled over freedom and life itself.  He might hate the dishonor of foreign occupation more than he loves anything.

. . . the human heart is more complicated — and twisted — than President Bush acknowledges in his rhetoric.

MONA CHAREN MUSES ON THE WORLD WE LIVE IN

Mona Charen is always worth reading, and her blog contribution below is no exception:

I wonder about this: not just the question as to whether modern enlightened, liberal nations have the will to do what’s necessary to survive, but whether our people can transcend the Alice in Wonderland nature of the world we live in.

We (and this also includes Israelis, Brits, and a few others) would never dream of targeting civilians for any reason – not even in self-defense. In 2002, the Israelis used ground troops going house to house in Jenin rather than attack from the air — though it cost the lives of 23 of their men – in order to spare civilians.

Our enemies can not imagine not targeting civilians – ours – and when they can be used as human shields/propaganda fodder, theirs.

Our people are beheaded on videotape and the world ignores it. We fail to offer the full panoply of the Bill of Rights to the beheaders and the world groans at the inhumanity of it all.

The United Nations Security Council condemns Israel for defending herself from naked aggression and manages to overlook Chechnya, the Chinese occupation of Tibet, every terrorist attack against Israel, the massacre in Rwanda, the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, Serbian acts in Bosnia, and pretty much the entire continent of Africa, which as Kofi Annan surely knows better than most, is a human rights cesspool. As Jeane Kirkpatrick put it: “What happens in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving.”

There are millions of Americans who are not deluded by this madness (and we draw our military recruits from their ranks), and yet you cannot escape the times you live in. Lack of self-confidence is eroding our civilization like dry rot. We are not as far gone as Europe – but the glide path is worrisome.

ROGUE OCEAN WAVES OVER 100 FEET TALL

Here is a fascinating New York Times article on huge ocean waves that were once thought mythical but are now known to be "out there".     Scary.   (HT: Drudge Report)

SHOULD WE SIMPLIFY THE WAY WE SPELL ENGLISH WORDS?

From time to time I have  used creative spelling in writing notes to whimsically inclinded friends.  Consequently, I found this article on the on-going effort to simplify spelling interesting.  I didn't know that President Roosevelt,Carnegie, Dewey, Bernard Shaw, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster and Mark Twain had all sought to advance simpler spelling.   Nor did I know there existed such a thing as the Simplified Spelling Society.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER

The following came as an e-mail from a friend.  It's not clear to me whom I should credit, so if you read this and recognize it, you can let me know.  I thought it worth passing along.

God, grant me the Serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the Courage to change the one I can, and the Wisdom to know it's me.

1. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.
2. Dear God, I have a problem, it's me.
3. Growing old is inevitable, growing UP is optional.
4. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.
5. Silence is often misinterpreted but never misquoted.
6. Do the math. Count your blessings.
7. Faith is the ability to not panic.
8. Laugh every day, it's like inner jogging.
9. If you worry, you didn't pray. If you pray, don't worry.
10. As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling home everyday.
11. Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.
12. The most important things in your house are the people.
13. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still.
    God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.
14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.
15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

WAS THERE EVER A SIMPLER TIME? -- NO

In a wonderfully illuminating and down-to-earth public lecture given at Hillsdale College this past March, historian David McCullough talked about John Adams, second President of the United States, and his wife Abigail.    The lecture is available here.   I especially appreciated the following:

Something I always like to emphasize is that there never was a simpler past. We hear often, “Oh, that was a simpler time,” but it's always wrong. Imagine Abigail's life.   Up in the morning at about 5 to light the fireplace that served as the kitchen, call to the children to come down, cook the breakfast, tend the stock, try to keep the farm solvent during the whole war with her husband gone and with inflation and with shortages of everything. Schools were closed, so she had to educate the children at home.   Her day didn't end until 9 or 10 at night when the children would go upstairs to their bedrooms, where it could be so cold that the water in the bowls that they used to wash their faces was iced over.  And then she would sit down at the kitchen table with a single candle and write some of the greatest letters ever written by any American.

In one plaintive letter, she writes: “Posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors.”  And we don't.  We don't know what they went through–epidemics of smallpox or dysentery, which could take the lives of hundreds of people just in the little town of Quincy, Massachusetts.  It was by no means a simpler time.  They had to worry about things that we don't even think about any more, and suffer discomforts and inconveniences of a kind that we never even imagine.  We have little idea of how tough they were.  Imagine John Adams setting off in the middle of winter to ride nearly 400 miles on horseback to get to Congress. T ry riding even 40 miles sometime. John and Abigail were separated, in all, more than ten years because of his service to the country.

FAMILY KICKED OUT OF BUFFET RESTAURANT FOR WASTING FOOD

Have you ever been to a buffet and walked past a table where people have just left and seen piles of food left on the plate?  Has it produced revulsion in you?  It has me, too.   Check out this AP Report:

Wendy Dershem may think twice before  leaving that egg roll on her plate at her next Chinese buffet.  The Des Moines woman, her boyfriend and her two children were kicked out of a restaurant last week after management accused her of leaving too much food on her plate.  "They told us we are not welcome there anymore," said Dershem, a repeat customer at the Dragon House buffet. "We waste too much food. But the buffet is all you can eat. And you know kids. They won't always eat everything and they want something else."

Dershem said she paid her $5.95 fee but was abruptly told to  leave after eating one plate of food.  "They just take one bite and throw it away," said cashier Lin Huyen. "They take four egg rolls and crab rangoon, take one bite of egg roll and throw the whole plate. That is wasting food."    Dershem said she was shocked by the scolding and complained to  management.  Dragon House manager Kent Cao said his restaurant offers all you can eat buffet, not all you can waste. Dershem's family took food, didn't finish it and then piled on the same food again, he said.    "Shes done that too many times," Cao said. "We would welcome  her back if she has respect and knows what she wants."

Hat tip: Drudge Report

TONY SNOW: A GOOD MAN FOR PRESIDENT BUSH'S PRESS SECRETARY

Tony Snow, President Bush's new press secretary, penned an extraordinary column on Good Friday titled "Testing Our Faith".  (HT: Smart Christian)   It talks about Easter and the public square.  It's not hard to discern where he stands.  A good man, this Tony Snow.   

Peter Robinson, over at the National Review's  "Corner" says:

Tony Snow is smart, funny, and billiantly savvy in the ways of Washington; a devoted husband and doting father; a master of print, television, and radio alike; a patriot; a thoroughgoing conservative; a man of immense personal courage, as witness his struggle with cancer; and simply one of the nicest guys I know.

Have I made it clear that I consider his appointment good news?

UPDATE:  4:28/06  Deroy Murdock offers Tony Snow some advice on how to get the President's message out there.   Well worth reading. 

ANN COULTER - WE NEED TO CONQUER OUR FEAR OF CONDEMNING SEEDY BEHAVIOR

Here's a great article by Ann Coulter on our inability to condemn seedy behavior for fear of seeming a hypocrite.   Definitely a must-read!!

WHY POLITICIANS LIE, AND WHY WE BELIEVE THEM

David Kupelian of WorldNetDaily explains the power of telling giant falsehoods.

"There's a dark magic in boldly lying, in telling a big lie – repeatedly, with a straight face and with confidence and authority.

"One of the greatest liars of the last century – Adolph Hitler – taught that the bigger the lie, the more believable it was.

"During WWII, the U.S. government's Office of Strategic Services – a precursor to today's CIA – assessed Hitler's methods this way:

"His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."(emphasis added)

"In his 1925 autobiography "Mein Kampf," Hitler – who actually did lie his country into war, and a whole lot more – explained with remarkable insight the fantastic power of lying:

… [I]n the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes. ...

"Hitler's principle is exactly what prominent Democrats, who qualify as some of the "expert liars in this world," are constantly banking on every time they insist the president of the United States lied America into war."

VIETNAM FOR HOMESCHOOL PARENTS (AND OTHERS)

Jonah Goldberg at the Corner of National Review Online received the following e-mail offering guidance to someone looking for help on studying the Vietnam War from a more conservative position.  I think it's worth reproducing.

Jonah,

About two years ago, I did my senior thesis on the conservative approach to Vietnam.  Instead of going to mainstream sources, it almost seemed that I had to relearn everything about Vietnam from the ground (war) up.  There are a few good resources that, if used properly, and if the parent has a good background knowledge of the war from a conservative perspective, could be used to teach kids effectively.

For the parent, I would suggest both Admiral Jeremiah Denton's account of life in the Hanoi Hilton [When Hell Was in Session] , Norman Podhoretz's excellent 1982 book Why We Were in Vietnam (completely conservative perspective, as you well know).   Both of these would familiarize a parent with the conservative interpretation of life in Vietnam and the reasons for going to war, which are the main contentions of liberals.   Most often, in my research, I found that the spin originated from an attempt to whitewash Kennedy's involvement in Vietnam, and to play up the misdeeds of the troops, and the moral superiority of the anti-war crowd.   If either of these is tackled with facts, then the argument collapses.   A good familiarity with Nixonian foreign policy concerning Vietnamization, and a good solid understanding of the Tet Offensive (what many would consider the turning point TOWARD America in the war) would be, at least, a place to start.

I would start with the Eyewitness Books Vietnam War: they have a kid-level run-down of the events, and they'd form enough of a basis for knowledge that a parent could create lesson plans based on the way that the war is broken down in the book.   From there, the old Time-Life books that they used to sell on television (while a little liberal), have really nice photos and maps.   Most bookstores will have photo anthologies of the war on their clearance racks, too.

As much as it pains me to say it, PBS had an excellent documentary series a few years ago that, while it has a decidedly liberal tilt, was incredibly well done, and comprehensive.   It was called Vietnam: a Television History, and it has hours and hours of video that spans from the time the British and French first situated themselves in Vietnam until the last days.   It has one particular episode critiquing the medias role in the anti-war movement that was particularly useful.   For these, PBS has an online resource called Battlefield: Vietnam that has some good outside resources.

Goldberg heard from other homeschooling readers who suggested Michael Medved's tapes.

Ramesh Ponnuru suggests these resources:

When I was in high school, I found books by Guenter Lewy, Richard Nixon, and Henry Kissinger (I'm thinking of White House Years and Years of Upheaval) helpful in providing an intelligent conservative perspective. A 1985 article by John P. Roche for NR--called, I believe, "The Strange Death of Liberal Anti-Communism"--was also worthwhile. The Irony of Vietnam, by Leslie Gelb and Richard Betts, was not a "conservative book" but was quite interesting. If I were working now on the paper that got me reading those books then, I would probably add Michael Lind and H. R. McMaster to the list.

A reader responded to Ponnuru

Just saw your item on Vietnam books.  I agree that anything written by John Roche, whether from his time in government or after, is worth reading. As something of a Vietnam buff myself, I think the most comprehensive, however revisionist, book I've read on the war is Michael Lind's "Vietnam: The Necessary War." (I assume that's the Lind work you were referring to.) [Correct--RP]   Despite Lind's recent zaniness about George W. Bush and his general haughtiness, his Vietnam book is second to none.

Mackubin Owens offers these ideas: 

In addition to Lewy and Podhoretz and some of the others folks have noted, people ought to read Lewis Sorley's A Better War, Doug Pike's PAVN, and Peter Braestrup's classic on coverage of Vietnam, Big Story.  My friend Gerry Turley has a riveting account of his adventures as an advisor in The Easter Offensive. It is riveting. T he best novel is Jim Webb's Fields of Fire. Mark Moyar, one of a new generation of scholars has written Phoenix and the Birds of Prey, well worth the read.  Jug Burkett's Stolen Valor has taken some heat, but no one that he has accused of being a fraud has been willing to take him to court and testify under oath.

The trouble for people who want good stuff is that all the "clearing houses" for Vietnam are left-wing. Several years ago, I attended a book fair at my son's Catholic school. He was 10 at the time and was interested in military stuff so I was looking to buy him something to read. I found a history of American wars that was written for teenagers, and since he was a pretty good reader, I thought he could handle it. It was fine until it got to Vietnam. Then it simply rehashed the left wing litany of sins and atrocities. My Lai loomed large. I put it back and concluded that the left-wing narrative is too deeply embedded to be rooted out, at least during my lifetime.

JUGGLING (LITERALLY) TO TEMPO

Chris Bliss juggling to music.  Quite amazing.

A LEADERSHIP COURSE I WISH HAD EXISTED YEARS AGO

A publication came my way recently that mentioned  The Leadership Matters Course.   This course for Christian mission leaders looks absolutely wonderful.  I wish such a course had been available to me years ago.   The two week course is given in various locations around the world.

The Leadership Matters Course is structured to be presented in a training mode rather than a lecture mode. ‘Training’ in the ITA context is focused on developing skills, and doing it in such a practiced way that the trainees will remember the principles taught. They will remember far more because they have had opportunity to actually practice the new skill, or apply the new insight, rather than only having a record of it in a handbook.

SOMEONE SENT ME ONE OF THOSE E-MAILS. . .

Someone sent me one of those e-mail items making the rounds in cyberspace. This one, on “values,” I think worth passing along. I’ve condensed it a good bit, retaining those items dealing with the value of time.

    To realize
    The value of four years:
    Ask a graduate.

    To realize
    The value of one month:
    Ask a mother
    who has given birth to
    A premature baby.

    To realize
    The value of one week:
    Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

    To realize
    The value of one minute:
    Ask a person
    Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

    To realize
    The value of one-second:
    Ask a person
    Who has survived an accident.

    Treasure every moment you have.

WOMEN WHO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER

For the UN's International Women's Day, NRO highlights  "women the world should know — some activists, some struggling for their lives and the lives of others, some living lives of quiet grace; most are living, others are memorialized here."     This is a very inspiring page since it includes truly courageous women, "women who make the world better," women who do not necessarily make the news.  If you are like me, you will respond more than once with a lump in your throat to the vignettes presented here.   Don't miss this link!

TALKING ABOUT BOOKS WITH LONG TITLES...

The post below talks about Rod Dreher's lengthy-titled book, Crunchy Cons...  When I learned of it, I immediately thought of a book on my shelf with another long  title -- or in this case, subtitle.  It's  James V. Schall's Another Sort of Learning.  First published in 1988, I was surprised to discover that it is still in print.  I guess quirkiness gives a book staying power.  At least sometimes.  Anyway, it's subtitle reads as follows:  "Selected Contrary Essays on How Finally to Acquire an Education While Still in College or Anywhere Else: Containing Some Belated Advice about How to Employ Your Leisure Time When Ultimate Questions Remain Perpelexing in Spite of Your Highest Earned Academic Degree, Together with Sundry Book Lists Nowhere Else in Captivity to be Found."

It's a wonderful book, as the title leads one to expect.  Especially helpful are the suggested readings at the end of each chapter.   Schall mentions that he has in his possession a 1931 Oxford University reprint of the 1794 edition of  Boswell's Life of Johnson.  This particular edition bears the title:  The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., Comprehending an Account of His Studies and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order; a Series of Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Compositions, Never Before Published; the Whole Exhibitng a View of Literature and LIterary Men in Great Britain, for Near Half a Century, During Which He Flourished, by James Boswell, Esq."   

As Schall rightly says, "They do not make titles like that any more."   Except in the case of his book and Rod Dreher's. 

LONGEST BOOK TITLE OF THE YEAR - "CRUNCHY CONS......"

 

Rod Dreher has written a book.  Get a load of the title: Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, and their diverse tribe of counterculture conservatives plan to save  America  (or at least the Republican Party)

No doubt about it.  This book will pass for the longest titled American-published book this year.  At least I'd be very surprised to see any title longer.   Publisher's Weekly offers the following introduction:

" What do you call people who vote for Bush but shop at Whole Foods? Crunchy cons.  And according to Dreher, an editor at the Dallas Morning News, they're forming a thriving counterculture within the contemporary conservative movement.  United by a "cultural sensibility, not an ideology," crunchy conservatives, he says, have some habits and beliefs often identified with cultural liberals, like shopping at agriculture co-ops and rejecting suburban sprawl.  Yet crunchy cons stand apart from both the Republican "Party of Greed" and the Democratic "Party of Lust," he says, by focusing on living according to conservative values, what the author calls "sacramental" living."

That's not a bad description, I suppose, and though I haven't read the book yet (I definitely would  like to peruse it in a bookstore), Dreher offered a preview of the book in a fascinating -- in fact, utterly splendid -- article  published in National Review magazine back in September 30, 2002 and republished in May 1, 2005.  The quotes below don't do justice to the article.  It needs to be read in its entirety.

* There are four basic areas that are touchstones for crunchy conservatives: Religion, the Natural World, Beauty, and Family.

* The crunchy cons, religious or not, share a belief that something has gone seriously wrong in contemporary mass society, and are grasping for "authenticity" (a word you hear often from this group) amid a raging flood of media-driven consumer culture.

* A view of the material world as fundamentally flawed but fundamentally good, and therefore to be revered, embraced, and celebrated within limits, is a key crunchy-right concept.

* Take the environment. Crunchy cons tend to look at the world through the eyes of Tolkien's Sam Gamgee, returned from the war to his beloved shire, only to find the land despoiled by industrial "progress." While they reject the anti-scientific utopianism of hysterical mainstream environmentalism, crunchy cons are skeptical that the Republican party can be trusted as stewards of the natural world.

* In the crunchy-con view, right-wing indifference to natural beauty extends to the man-made world. Today's conservatives don't say enough about the importance of aesthetic standards.

* We agree with Russell Kirk, who observed, "The best way to rear up a new generation of friends of the Permanent Things is to beget children, and read to them o' evenings, and teach them what is worthy of praise: the wise parent is the conservator of ancient truths.   As Edmund Burke put it, 'We learn to love the little platoon we belong to in society.' The institution most essential to conserve is the family."

UPDATE: 2/17/06  Here's an even-handed appreciative review.

U.S. CONVENIENCE STORE OWNER PROMPTS CLIENTS TO MEMORIZE VERSES

"Dale Lanier has found a way to get people to read and memorize Bible verses. If they walk into his convenience store in Snead, Ala., and recite the Bible passage he has selected, they can have a free soft drink or cup of coffee. This month’s memory verse is Psalm 118:8, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man” (NKJV). Lanier says he has been doing this for the last six years, and gives away between two and 12 drinks a day. He says entire families sometimes walk in and recite the Bible passage he has picked. Lanier credits God with showing him a way to share the gospel at his business." (AgapePress/Associated Press)

A friend's challenging e-mail signature

Today I received an e-mail from a friend I hadn't heard from for some time.   His closing signature includes the following quote which I find bracing and challenging:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly . . . who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known either victory or defeat."

                                         - Teddy Roosevelt

"At once they left their nets and followed him."   (Matthew 4:20)

Shyness

I came across a note I had jotted down a year ago on shyness, a condition with which I have great empathy.   Steve Allen, the  comedian, author, composer and Emmy-award winning TV host (d. 10/21/00), was far more comfortable performing on stage than he was off stage in a social gathering.  When he and Jane [Meadows – his wife] went to a gathering, he would either go to the piano or to a bookcase and sit down and read.  When they met, they were both part of a larger gathering in a restaurant I think it was.  Jayne and he were sitting next to each other. During the evening he said not one word to her.  As the evening concluded, she said, ‘You are either one of two things.  Either you are the rudest man I have ever known or the shyest.’  He turned beat red and then suggested to Audrey (Meadows -- Jayne’s sister) that they go to another restaurant for a concluding dessert ‘and bring your sister with you.’”

Miscellaneous items from WorldNetDaily.com

---  Here's an interesting story about a Catholic priest in the Philippines who works with the poor near a garbage dump.  He sees globalization and the internet as aids for his parishioners.   "If the poor are unprepared, if they're still linked to the industrial age when we're living in the cybernetic age, then globalization won't benefit them.   So it's the responsibility of the church and civil society to ready the poor.   We shouldn't hold back the march of history. Our faith tells us to move from the garden to the heavenly city."

 

--- Michael Travers of Southeastern College in Wake Forest, NC became a C.S. Lewis reader and scholar.  He finds that Lewis speaks to the human condition from a Christian perspective in an enormously helpful way.

 

--- I've often wondered about the mental contortions some postmodernists employ in order to deny the reality of "truth".   Do we not all know, for example, the reality of a lie?  Now scientists are studying the way "functional magnetic resonance imaging - fMRI for short - enables researchers to create maps of the brain's networks in action as they process thoughts, sensations, memories, and motor commands."   It spots lies.  The article Don't Even Think About Lying  in Wired magazine explains how this developing technology far surpasses the old 'polygraph' test. 

Lessons of 25 Years

Michael Barone, Senior Writer for U.S. News & World Report, lists three major political and economic lessons of the last 25 years.  Quite unbelievably, most university and media elite remain impervious to these lessons.  This article  is a must read.  There is wisdom to be gleaned from history.