Stones Cry Out

1. The Onion noted at the Corner.
2. A big day of remembering Saints/Doctors of the Church. East, West, and Evangelical.
3. Setting the record straight.
4. Quoth many a tyrant, if not so outspoken about it.
5. Perhaps a group to watch.
6. Very close.
7. Mr Updike’s passing noted.
8. A Roman liturgy blog looks East.
9. A question not answered.
10. I’m thinking … hopefully March not tomorrow.
11. On that “right to choose” thing.
12. Our Southern border.
13. Well, I have to agree, I hope Mr Obama fails at much of what he hopes to accomplish. I have no yearning for a precipitous slide (slouch) down the Road to Serfdom, as it were.
14. Discussing the bike design contest winner.
15. Another big day noted … the ending of 900 days.
16. Keeping the banks afloat … laundry?
17. Axios indeed.
18. Monasticism looked at frankly.
19. Some statistics, if you believe that sort of thing is worth the paper it’s written on.
20. Why big projects today aren’t “shovel ready” … that would be, uhm, obstruction from the left. Put that in your stimulus pipe and smoke it.
21. Nero’s political trajectory, dates, and St. Paul’s Romans.
22. When Gay bashing is mostly from the left.
23. More on the SSPX reconciliation … more here.
24. Moscow.
25. Heh.
26. Spector dissed … for doing exactly what I’d advised (and done).
27. A Silver Star.

Apparently, via Mr Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy, that the “crack baby” epidemic wasn’t all it was, uhm, cracked up to be. I beg to differ, based on small amounts of personal experience. 14 or so years ago, my #1 daughter, having just been born, spent 3-4 weeks in the neo-natal ICU because of duodenal webbing blocking her intestine and then, as well (possibly related) having some facial reconstruction done due developmental anomalies. The point is that we spent some amount of time spending nights in the wards at the Chicago Children’s Hospital. Some number of kids were there each time with a particular screeching cry. I’ve heard that scream. It’s was identifiable and related as a symptom of that exposure. We were specifically informed by the nurses on staff that these kids were damaged by parental drug abuse during pregnancy. These kids were also not all infants but ranging in age up to about 4. Now it might be that “long term” the effects of this early developmental damage may fade, but … I don’t believe it.

First, conventional wisdom has it that nutrition in the first years of life has long term effects down the road, for bodily and intellectual development. For example, a main reason that people are a foot taller on average than they were 200 years ago is because of childhood nutrition. Is neo-natal development and environment not important?

Second, one of my wife’s cousins is going through the adoption process of a special needs infant. What makes that child special needs? Natal exposure to drugs like cocaine.

Is that conventional wisdom all wrong. I guess I’ll my life will be touched by someone who is not a statistical entry.

Can you be a Republican and a homosexual?  Bruce Carroll and Dan Blatt, who contribute to the blog GayPatriot, would say, "Yes", and I would agree.  Now, I believe that homosexual acts are a sin, I believe the Bible says this, and while I know that not everyone necessarily agrees with that assessment, I do.  Does that mean, ergo, that I hate Bruce and Dan?  No, it does not, and I do not. 

But what about Republicans in general?  We all know what Democrats think of social conservatives, so you’d think that venom against the GayPatriot blog would come mostly from the Right.

You couldn’t possibly be more wrong.

Read the rest of this entry

1. Choosing one’s passing, heh.
2. Of Daphny van den Brand.
3. Now that’s what I call short term thinking … increase debt to decrease the population and thereby decreasing the numbers of those who will be paying down that debt in the future. And it’s not just Ms Pelosi pushing that tale.
4. Speaking of demographics … why is Europe committing demographic suicide?
5. Popular Culture meets philosophy.
6. Barack on spending.
7. I’ve always ended that prayer “a sinner” not “a servant.” I wonder if that’s how some teach it to kids.
8. Heh. (literally)
9. I’m with him 100% on that first one. And I like a lot of other Kubrick films.
10. Benedict, the church and the SSPX bishops … it’s not “about anti-Semitism” but is also badly handled “PR.”
11. Will the economic stress fracture the Euro?
12. Stopping sans brakes.
13. Stimulus bill = “the worse bill in galactic history?”
14. For the girls (a book).
15. A good question, “what kind of person takes Che for a hero?” … or Mao? Or Lenin?
16. Hmm, media bias perhaps?
17. Patriotism, two posts (here and here), I was going to write a whole essay last night on these two. I think Mr Brayton and Mr Beinhart don’t get it at all and prefer instead to demonize or trivialize views of the “other” … which is by and large far easier.
18. So, CO2 caused the tsunami?

What would my course be if I were one of the 100 Senators voting for confirmations for Mr Obama’s Presidency. My result may come as a surprise, being as I am a member of the loyal opposition, that I would vote to confirm. Don’t get me wrong, I would advise that many of these appointees are regrettable choices and will do more harm than good to the country and to his administration. Take Mr Geithner and Mr Holder for example. Both I think have lied about the past issues on which they were questioned. I think Mr Geithner withheld taxes knowingly and it is likely that Mr Holder was a willing participated in the pardons-for-cash (and favors) and suggesting Mr Rich during the embarrassing pardon spree at the end of Mr Clinton’s term in office.

However … Federalist paper 76 is clear and I think in fact right. When the Senate intrudes too much into the appointment process then the dangers of which Mr Hamilton warns are evident by the disastrous confirmation proceedings we’ve seen in the last decades when such advice was ignored. A primary example of this is Justice Thomas. The reasons for rejection suggested by Hamiton were:

It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity.

That is not the case with either candidate … therefore, I it were up to me I would vote to confirm … even though I think they have considerable talents for prevarication being demonstrated, oddly enough, in these confirmation hearings.

President Obama took a jab at former President Bush with this phrase from his inaugural speech; "We will restore science to its rightful place….".  This implies that science has been taken down off of some pillar that it should reside on.

Science is important in the betterment of humankind, but science must be tempered by morality (as must all things).  Dubya, for example, kept federal funding for embryonic stem cell research for those cell lines already existing at the time, but his moral concerns over the issue prevented his allowing it unhindered.  (Private funding is still available and, indeed, the research is continuing.)  Is Obama suggesting he’ll place science above morality?  Is submitting science to the scrutiny of morality robbing the former of it’s "rightful place"?  Is this his worldview?

If you’re curious about what Jim Wallis, CEO of the Christian social justice organization Sojouners, thinks about President Obama’s views on abortion, then take a look at the BeliefNet article, Jim Walllis Supports Obama’s Abortion Approach. An excerpt,

In breaking the symbolic cycle, President Obama showed respect for both sides in the historically polarized abortion debate, and called for both a new conversation and a new common ground. I hope that this important gesture signals the beginning of a new approach and a new path toward finding some real solutions to decrease the number of abortions in this country and around the world.

Nonsense.

Let’s take the roof off of this argument by substituting a couple of choice words into the original…

In breaking the symbolic cycle, President Obama showed respect for both sides in the historically polarized slavery debate, and called for both a new conversation and a new common ground. I hope that this important gesture signals the beginning of a new approach and a new path toward finding some real solutions to decrease the number of slaves in this country and around the world.

If you truly care about social justice, Mr. Wallis, then please call a spade a spade; but don’t patronize us with rhetoric which is illogical, at best, and immoral, at worst.

1. A suggestion for an econ primer.
2. A rising tide.
3. The New Martyrs.
4. If … there are no earmarks in the “stimulus package” why is ACORN expecting dough? And what is that expected to “stimulate?” In other news … why are bridges and roads always mentioned along with the earmark, err, stimulus bill if it’s such a small part of it?
5. Of celibacy and the early church … laity.
6. A Sunday homily courtesy of Mr Daniels.
7. Tweeet. Wheee … and other celebratory noises.
8. An evangelical remembers St. Gregory.
9. An Amen! offered.
10. Or perhaps it’s not all about you. Mr Schraub notes … “I think institutional Christianity has long since proven that its default position is of hostility to Jews.” which of course explains perfectly the rise of Antisemitism in Europe (see #2 above) as institutional Christianity wanes.
11. Of making oaths under false pretenses.
12. Virtual fraud.
13. Another Sunday homily … this from from Mr Weedon.
14. So … remind me why this guy is exemplary?
15. Why I ride a road bike (disturbing image … be warned).
16. A quiet voice in a cave?
17. The UAW and why in an economic downturn support of the unions is not in our best interest.
18. Mr Colson roils the waters.
19. 2010 … better or worse than today?
20. A great cathedral noted.
21. Or … faith groups don’t read the fine print.
22. That change we can believe in … or not.
23. A magazine released.
24. Today’s economy in perspective.
25. Obama as Palpatine?

Ronald Reagan never went into the Oval Office without a suit jacket and tie, and that was his rule for everyone who entered.  He did it out of respect for the position.  We know (unfortunately) how much respect Bill Clinton gave the office.  President Bush also had that dress code as well.  But Obama?  Naah.

Now you can say this is making something out of nothing (as some on the Left have), and admittedly it’s just clothing.  But it exposes an underlying attitude that I think speaks to how Obama treats the position of President of the United States.  I honestly hope he doesn’t take it as casually as he appears to, but his outward appearance says otherwise.

At the same time, I’ll bet he (rightly) expects people to respect his position, but he won’t treat it with the same deference.  A tad hypocritical.

Starting reading a book … but for now, the question is … should I continue? The book is Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World. Apparently, one of the books noted as a book our President has read recently. I think I may continue, but some of the errors spotted in a quick perusal at the start were annoying.

For example, Mr Zakaria notes in pointing out how commodity prices are getting higher because, apparently Malthusian shortages. One of his examples is Helium. He notes that Helium is the “second most abundant element” in the Universe … yet is a shortage. This is really ignorant. Helium is called helium because it is very very rare terrestrially. It was discovered via spectral analysis of solar radiation … because it is so rare on earth. It is basically only found in any quantity from oil wells.

I think the thesis that American’s dominance in all sphere’s is going to wane is uninteresting. The question is what to make of it. America will likely remain dominant at the “things at which we excell” and no longer be dominant in sphere’s in which we had been dominant by default.

As Mr Collier notes in the The Bottom Billion that of the 6 1/2 billion people on the globe, one billion are “very rich”, 4 1/2 billion are “getting rich very quickly” and one billion are stuck at the bottom. While his book concentrates on the billion which are stuck in poverty, the obvious logical consequence of the other 5 1/2 billion being rich or getting rich quicker is that influence of nations and economies will spread.

I think I’m going to skip or quickly skim (and try not get hung up on rhetorical simplification and overstatement) this book tomorrow night. I’ll hunt for some conclusions … because otherwise the book just a long winded statement of the obvious.

Five days in, and President Obama has made at least two significant moves: One, he signed an executive order which will effectively close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, thereby releasing terror suspects; two, he issued a memorandum which lifts a ban on U.S. funding for international groups that perform abortions.

Score:

Terror suspects – 1, Unborn children – 0

Change? Certainly. Hope? Hardly.

Christians, pray for Obama.

Hanks did he right thing and apologized for calling Mormon supporters of California Proposition 8 "un-American". 

"Last week, I labeled members of the Mormon church who supported California’s Proposition 8 as ‘un-American,’" the actor said in a statement through his publicist. "I believe Proposition 8 is counter to the promise of our Constitution; it is codified discrimination."

"But everyone has a right to vote their conscience; nothing could be more American," the statement continues. "To say members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who contributed to Proposition 8 are ‘un-American’ creates more division when the time calls for respectful disagreement. No one should use ‘un- American’ lightly or in haste. I did. I should not have."

Fair enough.  I hope the Mormons graciously accept it.

Another one of Obama’s first acts as President is to rescind the "Mexico City Policy" which frees up federal money to pay for abortions in other countries.  Exporting the culture of death seems to be extremely high on the list of Democrats, as this history of the policy, recounted by The Anchoress, lays out.

Interesting history here: President Reagan first put the Mexico City Policy in place and it is named for a population conference that took place in the Mexican capital in 1984 when he introduced it.

President George H.W. Bush continued the pro-life policy, President Clinton overturned it, and President George W. Bush kept it for eight years and threatened to veto any Congressional spending bill reversing it.

Your tax dollars at work.  We may be in debt up to our eyeballs during this financial crisis, but gotta’ save those women from "being punished", dontcha’ know?

Obama listened to the GOP’s criticisms of, and suggestions for, his economic stimulus plan, and included the title of this post as one of his rebuttals.  The Kos Krowd krows about it, but Moe Lane at Redstate takes Obama up on that offer.

So, it’s all yours. Your responsibility, your obligation, your reputation on the line. Not ours: yours.

Because, after all, you won.

Indeed, Obama won, and he can have it any way he wants.  Elections, as the GOP noted during its time, mean things.  But this quip, just days after being seated in the Oval Office, makes it sound like that vaunted bipartisanship that Democrats always say they want is not so highly valued by the Democratic President. 

I know he’ll take credit where credit is due, but will he take the blame where it’s due?  All the blame?  Hey, he won.

1. Where will they go?
2. Temperature and Li-ion batteries.
3. The press, still superficial and stupid. I suppose one might also consider … the audience?
4. A question. An answer.
5. Numbers, economy, and Zimbabwe.
6. Not impressed by marketing … although I think “drinkability” is the worst, sort of an intentional self-damning with faint praise.
7. Exactly on target.
8. So the stimulus bill will, “not contain any earmarks”, seeing that it ontologically is basically a huge earmark that makes no sense.
9. A RvW anniversary post.
10. So, in Mr Geithner’s case … does character matter?
11. Coptic beauty and a book.