Stones Cry Out

1. Mr Obama offers a message to Iran. And Iran responds.
2. More Lenten thoughts.
3. My view is “not much” in a positive fashion, but the last month or so is showing he can certainly have a substantial negative impact.
4. Of being young and foolish.
5. Heh.
6. That poster was hung in our office for a year or so.
7. Armenia again.
8. What moroons. And more of the same.
9. Context. Context matters.
10. Of wealth and power.
11. Killer shrimp.
12. Hanging out in Dorking.
13. Of person and God.
14. Time on their hands.
15. Another quote from the Pope.
16. Make music via flash. Sort of.

Is this a worrisome slip? Via a “Podium Pundit” a ex and current political speechwriters blog, a Mr Walsh offers “congratulatory” remarks regarding Mr Obama’s “deft” handling f the AIG bonus kerfuffle. Mr Obama had said:

Listen, I’ll take responsibility. I’m the president. So — we didn’t draft these contracts. And we’ve got a lot on our plate. But it is appropriate when you’re in charge to make sure that stuff doesn’t happen like this. So we’re going to do everything we can to fix it. So for everybody in Washington who’s busy scrambling trying to figure out how to blame somebody else, just go ahead and talk to me. Because it’s my job to make sure that we fix these messes, even if I don’t make them.

Now this Mr Walsh offers his take (which I freely and almost fully excerpt):

This is perfect on two levels. First, Americans love that kind of bravado from their leaders. “The buck stops here,” someone once said. Don’t go fussing with deciding who to blame; just blame me and let’s move on. Grrrr.

Second, the president manages to accept responsibility while making it clear he didn’t actually have anything to do with the issue. “Didn’t draft these contracts.” “Fix these messes, even if I don’t create them.”

In other words, “I would like you to credit me for taking responsibility for this issue, without actually blaming me for being responsible.” Masterful.

This isn’t anything at all like the buck stops here. The “buck stops here” is a phrase intended to give two messages (and that someone was popularized by “Give ’em ‘ell ‘arry” Truman). First and foremost that phrase means that “I’m the man in charge and therefore anything that goes wrong is my fault.” As Mr Walsh notes, Mr Obama is specifically not doing that here and is specifically and clearly pointing out that this is not his fault. That is exactly the opposite of the “buck stops here” meaning. And the Administration didn’t “draft” these contracts as it is being pointed out clearly and pointedly protected them with loopholes in the carefully read and considered stimulus bill. But … it wasn’t the Administration’s fault. Yeah right.

What Mr Walsh calls “masterful” sounds more to me like more of the same ducking and weaving. Just more of the same beltway operatives piling it higher and deeper on the rest of us. And it’s beginning to look like a continuing regular pattern of deceit. Many (and not just on the right, e.g., Mr Greenwald) have noted that for example on torture, just as in this case, Mr Obama’s rhetoric feints in one direction while moving in another. Torture is denounced, yet provisions for its continuation remain. Or here, I’m responsible but it’s wasn’t my fault. Or with any other of issues one could make similar accusations in which one thing is said and another is done. Rhetoric used as smokescreen to deceive.

Henry Neufeld and Timothy Sandefur (here and here) have both blogged about the NC divorce case that I highlighted yesterday.  Both point to a PDF of the judges ruling in the case, and note that there is more to the ruling on schooling.

Mrs. Mills has joined the Sound Doctrine church, a church that many who have “escaped” from it (that’s the term they, in fact, use) say has anything but sound doctrine.  After reading excerpts of the affidavits in the ruling, I would have to agree.

The concerns that Mr. Mills had to homeschooling included misconceptions that those don’t homeschool typically have about the practice; that it did not expose the Mills children to “the real world” and didn’t give them a “firm foundation for their future social relationships”.  Some of their extra-curricular activities are listed, and it sounds like they could easily find socialization in those.  He also said that it was his understanding was the the homeschooling was temporary.

At the end of the section about schooling, he does mention that some of this included religious training from this Sound Doctrine church, which he was concerned about.  Fair enough, but here is where we find ourselves at a decision that could, contrary to Mr. Neufeld’s and Mr. Sandefur’s thoughts, have widening influence.  The judge finds that it would be in the best interest of the children to pull them out of a schooling situation where, the judge agrees, the children have “thrived academically”.  There can be only two reasons for this based on what’s in the ruling; either it’s the “only temporary” issue or it’s the religious issue.

If it’s because the understanding was that homeschooling was to be only temporary, then perhaps some other education needs to be done to make sure that this isn’t being nixed by the husband because of misconceptions about homeschooling.  The whole “real world socialization” idea has been thoroughly debunked.  And on page 7, point #5, the judge “clearly recognizes the benefits of home school”.  So this appears not to be the main reason.

Which brings us to the religious issue.  After conceding the benefits of homeschooling, the judge, in the same point, then agrees to Mr. Mills’ request to “re-enroll the children back into the public school system and expose them and challenge them to more than just Venessa Mills’ viewpoint.”  This is where it gets dicey.

Others cited in the ruling consider the Sound Doctrine church to be a “cult”, and I’m not in a position to disagree with them.  The behavior of Mrs. Mills tends to back up their assertions.  However, if this ruling is made specifically to expose the children to other viewpoints, than any homeschooler of any religion or philosophy could have their choice annulled by a court for that reason, cult or not.  (I imagine, indeed, a judge that took children out of an atheist homeschooling situation to “challenge” that viewpoint would find all sorts of “friend of the court” briefs from the ACLU.)  The mother could lose custody of the children based on her religious beliefs and how those beliefs translate into abuse, but, while even that is a difficult thing for a court to decide, that is not, as I read it, the reason that the children are being sent to public school.

There’s that poem that has lines “First they came for ___, and I did not speak up because I wasn’t a ___.”  It’s been used and misused over the years, but I think it applies here.  I don’t think we can see this ruling and not feel some concern over perhaps government coming for Christians or Jews, or whatever other religion that a judge thinks needs to be “challenged”, on the say-so of an aggrieved spouse.  Whether the grievance is valid or not, or whether the religion is a cult or not, it should be cause for concern.

1. Insert your own reference to Bill Clinton’s example here.
2. The pope and his quote on AIDS in Africa described here.
3. More on Benedict here as well.
4. How indeed can you love the other without listening.
5. OK, that ‘splains it … or not.
6. The shoes.
7. Is that how American’s learn about other cultures?
8. As long as super-model doesn’t actually mean super-model.
9. Not impressed by a modernist heritage.
10. Liberals now accuse Mr Geithner of being a GOP stooge.
11. Ezekiel.
12. When in Rome (take pictures).
13. A letter on chastity.
14. Penal substitution under attack … rightly so from my point of view.
15. A film recommended.
16. Don’t get thrown under that bus.
17. A Diebold kerfuffle germinating.
18. Another argument against abortion.
19. Obama’s four riders of his economic apocalypse.
20. the “Buck stops here” not seen here.
21. So … “gets better mileage than the one it replaces” … when will any automaker make a car that I can buy that improves on the mileage my 2001 Insight? I’d likely buy it.

Last week, a judge in North Carolina was ruling in a divorce case.  The husband was an admitted adulterer.  His wife was going to get custody of the kids. 

However, the husband decided he didn’t want to pay for the expenses of continuing to homeschooling the children, so his lawyer drew up a request, and the judge granted it.

Even with abundant evidence showing the Mills children are well adjusted and well educated, Judge [Ned W.] Mangum ruled overwhelmingly against Mrs. [Venessa] Mills on every point. He stated the children would do better in public school despite the fact that they are currently at or beyond their grade level.  Evidence showed two children tested several grades ahead.

When issuing his verdict Judge Mangum stated his decision was not ideologically or religiously motivated. However, he told Mrs. Mills public school will "challenge the ideas you’ve taught them."

Typical big-government mentality.  Never mind results, you gotta’ get with the program.

More details here.

1. Ms Midgely praised.
2. A question, does a breaking of campaign promises haunt a candidate.
3. Rugged Yankee (?) individualism and the fall.
4. From somewhat left of center, two from the Moderate Voice … one piece having buyers remorse and another piece which doesn’t seem to understand Mr Limbaugh is a government official and “approval” is not the rating that matters one whit.
5. On suffering as martyrdom (and as a reminder martyrdom etymologically means witness).
6. A smooch.
7. AIG money trail. More here (of course they didn’t read the bill … they didn’t give themselves time).
8. A prayer request.
9. One key to happiness.
10. Doing sums.
11. Mr Fareed Zakaria has a post which is being discussed … I read one of his books and found it horrible, filled with any number of little and large factual errors which continually distracted from and diminished any larger points he was trying to make. So, instead of “Is Fareed Zakaria Serious” (the lede of the linked post) one might ask, why does any one take Mr Zakaria seriously.
12. Fear of children.
13. Le tour.
14. Verse.

This weekend while listening to the Chicago Symphony accompany pianist Valentina Lisista performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #5 it occurred to me that music and art in general composed, performed or created today rarely strives to improve us. It rarely strives for to push us to push us to strive for and to see ideals of good and beauty but instead more often reaches (down?) for “authenticity” and to touch or arouse our raw emotional responses. What can be learned from probing the change in our motives and aims of our art?

Again I want to write more about this … and will work on it but time didn’t permit developing a longer essay last night. This essay has ideas which I think are not unrelated to the probing of that matter as well.

These days, the same park is filled with people: families with children, women in jeans, women walking alone. Even the nighttime, when Iraqis used to cower inside their homes, no longer scares them. I can hear their laughter wafting from the park. At sundown the other day, I had to weave my way through perhaps 2,000 people. It was an astonishing, beautiful scene — impossible, incomprehensible, only months ago. – NYT

ABCNews video here.

HT: HotAir

From Chuch Asay (click for a larger version):

You get less of what you tax/punish. 

1. Yeee-haaa.
2. Two for St. Patrick’s feast day, here and here.
3. Meanwhile the fast continues.
4. A defense of Mr Madison, for my part I don’t think he anticipated Mr Arnold and what later became the get-out-the-vote machines.
5. No. No No No No. Newspapers do not need federal protection.
6. Speaking of media, some thoughts on Mr Stewart.
7. Hmmm, no communal societies? But, I really liked The Gods Must Be Crazy.
8. A publisher speaks. Oh, I received the book (being a blog neighbor and a conservative … thanks Henry!) and a review will be forthcoming before week’s end.
9. Contra optimism.
10. Love of other and memory eternal.
11. Old and New (Testament).
12. Thoughts on Mr Obama and religion.
13. A film, Ratzinger’s Faith recommended.
14. Capitalism … and a criticism of Ms Rand.
15. Patristics.
16. Loss of faith, oddly enough “faith in polls” was not an item polled.
17. Exactly right.
18. This might make a lot of sense, when dealing with a foreign party, listening to the thoughts of those who have the most to lose and are very close to the situation might be wise.
19. Well, when trying to hold on to delusions about the other, it helps if you over-generalize … and are innumerate to boot. Uhm, “astoundingly large margins” and “sweeping victory?” Uhm, it seems that 2-3% margin of victory looms ever larger.
20. PC stifling conversations and consequence.
21. A rephrasing.
22. And … last but not least … zooooom, in a creepy way.

In an number of previous essays the notions of Bertrand de Jouvenel regarding political theory have been utilized. One of these ideas in particular is that government is rightly formed for a particular society and culture when its authority is freely granted by the people, that is it utilizes the authority granted to it by the people and does not have to resort to coercion. This idea of government does not stem from rights or freedoms and the “standard” contract terminology stemming from Hobbes/Lockean political philosophies. Limitations on government stems from both the withholding of authority and that what actions and freedoms state may grant to a person, does not by that granting make that action ethical or moral. For example, the Roman state (and in fact many states) granted the power of life and death to the state over individual citizens. For over 200 years, Christians were put to death for their faith under this power granted. That however, did not make it ethical or moral for a particular Roman to do put a Christian to death. Or more plainly, it was within the boundaries of Roman rule to put a Christian to death but it was unethical for individual Roman to do so. Nero as Emperor could execute Christians as such but it was unethical for Nero the man to do so.

Christians for just slightly under two thousand years have opposed abortion. A statement regarding abortion made today of and by those against abortion that fixes the idea that the act of abortion is a equivalent to murder and the actor be it the mother or the doctor, is equivalent to a murderer is not unheard of in pro-life circles. Some pro-life activists “go this far” and those criticizing the pro-life Christian position remark that this should be a logical consequence of ascribing personhood to the fetus. It is not necessary to ascribe full or even partial “personhood” to a fetus in order to oppose abortion. But even granting that, a view of government as expressed above combined with Christian ethics does not necessitate that step of equivicating abortion with murder. Read the rest of this entry

The blog "Stop the ACLU" has a run-down of just the recent cases of countries doing things in a manner that doesn’t exactly say they like us again.  Cuba and Venezuela opening up their airfields to Russian bombers.  Ecuador (Ecuador!) expelling US diplomats for the second time this month.  Iran continues its nuclear ambitions (and blames economic isolation for their pushback).  North Korea threatens to test a ballistic that some believe could hit the US west coast. 

Hillary Clinton did, however, use the strongest possible terms to denounce that missile test, saying that such a launch would be "very unhelpful". 

Yeah, that’ll teach ’em.

1. Considering past investment bank bailouts.
2. A letter to one considering leaving the church.
3. Lent and the economic crises.
4. Considering Mr Geithner.
5. Girls on bikes.
6. Manliness.
7. Hmmm.
8. Issues with the stimulus.
9. Box office woes shouldn’t stop Mr Gore from raking in millions via the stimulus package.
10. Considerations on the Brazilian abortion case.
11. St. Gregory Palamas and seeing the uncreated light.
12. The recovery could take 4-5 years?
13. Soooo …. who long for the other shoe to drop on this one?
14. Well, you how else can they afford under-the-table kickbacks?
15. Considering the BSG finale.
16. Noting St. Benedict (although I though it was St. John Cassian who brought monasticism to the West).
17. “I suppose it would be better …” (and I concur it would be better).
18. Of not letting go.
19. In which “go drink carbonated cow’s piss” is not fiction?
20. Exonerating (partially) Mao? With Holodomor denial to boot no less. Which faces this problem too.
21. On using your hands and the whole higher vs lower professions thing.

Gilda Radner’s character from old Saturday Night Live shows, Emily Litella, was a hard-of-hearing commentator on the show’s Weekend Update segment.  She would, for example, go on and on with her outrage that the Supreme Court was considering a "deaf" penalty case, or with her support of "Youth in Asia".  When Chevy Chase nudged her and let her know that it was instead a "death" penalty case or "euthanasia", realizing she’d misheard the subject, she meekly turned back to the camera and gave her trademark line, "Never mind."

Apparently, Miss Litella went on to become our first woman President.

Confronting misgivings, even in his own party, President Barack Obama mounted a stout defense of his blueprint to overhaul the economy Thursday, declaring the national crisis is "not as bad as we think" and his plans will speed recovery.

Challenged to provide encouragement as the nation’s "confidence builder in chief," Obama said Americans shouldn’t be whipsawed by bursts of either bad or good news and he was "highly optimistic" about the long term.

The president’s proposals for major health care, energy and education changes in the midst of economic hard times faced skepticism from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, as senators questioned his budget outlook and the deficits it envisions in the middle of the next decade.

(Emphasis on the "Never mind" added.)  This is why many of us are skeptical of the hand of government trying to direct the economy.  We wind up with "cures", such as these massive spending debt packages, that could be worse than the disease.  Just ask a Democrat in the know.

Sen. Kent Conrad, the chairman of the Budget Committee called the track of future deficits "unsustainable" and singled out Obama’s proposal for adding $634 billion in health care spending over the next 10 years.

"Some of us have a real pause about the notion of putting substantially more money into the health care system when we’ve already got a bloated system," said Conrad, D-N.D.

"Unsustainable"?  I thought Obama was supposed to be the responsible, sustainable lifestyle kind of President. 

Now, frankly, I don’t know for sure if even this new analysis of the economy is correct, and there’s no doubt we’ve in the middle of a significant downturn right now.  The point is, rushing through a "fix", and especially a "fix" we’ll be decades paying for, should never, ever be done.  But cries from Washington Democrats, liberal bloggers and pundits that this had to be done now and be done big (with some still saying that it should be much bigger than it is) are irresponsible. 

The size of the "stimulus" is one thing.  The rush to do something, anything, is the worst kind of "government is the solution" thinking.

1. Taken with Taken.
2. It is taken as a given that we need “good powerful science teaching”. One wonders if that is truly necessary sometimes. I’d always also followed that assumption, but do we need to teach more science to the non-scientists … or do we have to identify and encourage those few who are truly gifted at science? Some math and physics can be found here.
3. Bike messenger delivery of girls?
4. Joe and the Jews. More Jewish cultural musings here as well.
5. Faith, works, and (?) liturgy.
6. Heh.
7. Let your yes mean yes.
8. Architectural contrasts.
9. Pro-choice, some criticism.
10. Systematic theology as oxymoron. Perhaps pneumatological theology might be better?
11. ESCR, Obama and Orthodoxy.
12. The key to the problem with the liberal/progressive agenda.
13. Repentance and lamentation a missing element? Might I suggest visiting a presanctified Orthodox liturgy on a Wednesday or Friday night next week?
14. Same sex love.
15. Recommended podcasts.
16. The stimulus bill put in cultural context.
17. Job. Not theodicy?
18. A suggestion.
19. I couldn’t tell if that was satire or not.
20. Change (or not).
21. Could religion be a factor?
22. Oops.
23. A question asked.
24. Two chapels.
25. A better bike (for the third world).