Liturgical Defense Initiative (LDI)
Do your part to defend the Faith: play "Missal Defense" (an actual version of the classic game) by blowing away as many Gather hymnals as you can!
(Hat tip: Gerald Augustinus)
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February 28, 2006
The pains of cross-training
Last Saturday, my former gym buddy, Ryan, and I spent an hour at the Amador Valley High School track running wind sprints. Now, Ryan's been doing this for awhile, but it was my first time running anything more strenuous than a 9-minute-mile pace on the treadmill, so we only did a total twenty 50-yard sprints (instead of his usual forty). Good thing, since I've been plenty sore this week from just 1000 yards of sprints.
Still, it was a good workout, Amador has a really nice track and infield, and it was a beautiful day. I'll definitely do it again.
February 27, 2006
Baby Charlotte
Michelle Malkin blogged recently about the Life of Baby Charlotte, a two-year old brain-damaged toddler whom a British High Court judge has decided should not be resuscitated despite her parents' adamant wishes that her life be saved if possible. These life issues seem to crop up with greater frequency, and due to the current utilitarian view of life, they usually end the same sad way. If we allow the killing of babies in the womb, why should we strive to save a brain-damaged toddler, whom society has decided is worthless since she'll never "produce" anything? (What do you think would have happened to Helen Keller were she born today, assuming she made it past any tests that might have detected her handicaps?)
Charlotte's doctors are allowed to refuse resuscitation if they "feel" that it is in Charlotte's "best interest." Shouldn't parents be the ultimate arbiter of their own child's best interest, unless they can be shown to have exercised real neglect or to have caused those children actual harm? Medical science has not yet (nor probably ever will) reached a state where it can proclaim when someone will die with any great accuracy. The father of my close friend was given 6 months to live, and he went for 2 years, time that was very important for his own reconciliation with God and with some family members. If parents are robbed of the decision whether resuscitation is "extreme treatment" to try to keep their daughter alive, they will spend the rest of their lives knowing that doctors killed their child. Baby Charlotte should be resuscitated. We must value life since it made by God in His image.
February 26, 2006
Lisa a la Flambe
This sort of post needs to start with "Don't worry, I'm just fine." Tonight I experienced a little refresher course on propane and open flames that ended with me losing the hair on the backs of my hands. (Don't worry. I'm just fine.) We have a gas grill that has lived a good life, but in its heavy use, the ignition switch finally gave up the ghost, and we have been lighting the workhorse by inserting one of those automatic lighters with a long barrel into a small hole near where the propane first enters the grill. I have been doing this for some time with no problem. Tonight, I went to light the grill as normal, turned on the propane, lit the automatic lighter. Hmm. Lit the automatic lighter? No? Why isn't this thing working? Hmm. Oh, here's a lock on the lighter. Flick the switch. There! It's working now. KA-BOOM! (Don't worry. I'm just fine.) Now, let me tell you, that I yelped loud enough to frighten the kids and elicit an "Are you alright?" from Don, who was in the other room. I was definitely spooked, though I did turn off the gas before racing to Don to inform him I hadn't started the grill yet.
The actual experience, in retrospect, was rather awesome. When the lighter ignited the gas, I saw a flash fireball (well, more like an oval) about 1 1/2 to 2 feet long and about 8 inches high. (Don't know how deep.) A wave of heat smacked my face, I yelped, and then I smelled singed hair. It actually took me awhile to feel any discomfort on my hands, and at the point when I did, I realized some of the hair had been burned off the backs of both hands. (Don't worry. I'm just fine.) I got a light singe on a few hairs on my head, those precious hairs that God has numbered, and I was very, very, grateful that God cares about them, and that my Guardian angel helped me light that lighter as soon as I did. The frustrating thing to me is that I know better than this. I know how gas works. I just didn't really realize how quickly gas can pour from a hole just barely larger than a pencil. I'm ashamed to have been so foolish when I know better, but perhaps somebody out there will read this and not duplicate my foolishness. Be careful with propane, folks. And remember... don't worry. I'm just fine.
Darren McGavin, Don Knotts RIP
Actor Darren McGavin, best known for his role as Ralphie Parker's dad ("The Old Man") in the classic A Christmas Story, died Saturday, aged 83.
Don Knotts, the great Deputy Barney Fife, and the Incredible Mr. Limpet, died on Friday at 81.
Both men worked steadily throughout their careers and avoided having their personal lives become the staple of entertainment gossip. Two more examples of classic television and old Hollywood are gone. RIP.
(Hat tip: John J. Miller)
February 25, 2006
The Mass of Vatican II
Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ wrote a 1999 article about the Vatican II document Sacrosanctum Concilium (the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) and what it says about "full, conscious, and active participation" of the faithful in liturgical celebrations. He quotes the nine detailed reforms spelled out in the document and shows how the radical changes to the Mass, made in the "Spirit of Vatican II," are not mandated by Sacrosanctum Concilium.
Of particular interest, Fessio shows that Latin was never intended to be dropped entirely and that Gregorian chant is still the preferred musical form for the Ordinary of the Mass. I found the origins of the various Canons (aka the "Eucharistic Prayers") very interesting. Fessio also describes his quest to find out how the ancient Hebrew form of singing the Psalms would have sounded. His remarkable discovery: a lot like Gregorian chant (Manhattan Rabbi to Fr. Fessio: "You got it from us.")
(Hat tip: Gerald Augustinus)
Is Homeschooling Just a Strategic Retreat?
Don's post about Crunchy Cons directed me to Jonah Goldberg's criticisms of the idea of Crunchy Conservatism. In this article, Jonah says that conservative "...homeschooling, for example, is nothing but a strategic retreat from the battlefield..." I thought about that for a bit, and realized that, initially, that was true for us. We planned to homeschool to protect our children from indoctrination with the modern liberal ideologies so prevalent in public schools. We also had concerns about the poor academic quality of many schools.
Things have changed, While we still retain the "strategic retreat" and "academic quality" portions of our reasons to homeschool, we have also come to see homeschooling as a way of life that we would be loathe to give up. We enjoy being closely involved with our children, in their education and in their lives. We believe that Sarah and Alex are such close friends because Sarah is home during the day rather than heading off to school. And we believe that Alex benefits enormously from listening in while his sister does her work. We enjoy learning things with them.
Homeschooling is a strategic retreat that should allow conservatives to rise stronger in the future, but it is also a way of life.
More thoughts on "Crunchy Conservatism"
Rod Dreher's new book "Crunchy Cons" came out this week and is generating a lot of discussion, including its own blog at National Review Online (Warning!: some of the contributions are the blog-equivalent of degenerate neutron star matter - very heavy).
As I mentioned here before, there are aspects of Dreher's thesis that seem to apply to Lisa, me, and our social circle - particularly at church (less so at work, but there are examples there as well). Other aspects are a poor fit: e.g., if you saw me in a pair of Birkenstocks, you could safely assume that I was dead, and that I had fallen prey to an undertaker with a twisted sense of humor.
As the debate has progressed, I've been intrigued by some of Jonah Goldberg's criticisms of the crunchy con notion, particularly his assertion that crunchy conservatism defines itself (at least in part) by "externalities" like shopping at Whole Foods, eschewing synthetic fibers, and wearing those goofy Birkenstocks. Goldberg further criticizes the crunchy con idea of distinguishing itself from "classic" or "mainstream" forms of conservatism that are, in fact, caricatures.
Guess I'll have to buy the book and decide...
February 22, 2006
Samarra mosque bombing
The news of today's bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra is terrible news. The immediate reaction, including Shiite reprisals agains Sunni mosques, threatens to ignite the sectarian war that the foreign insurgents have long sought.
Fortunately, the Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish leadership are all calling for calm and blaming the violence on al Qaeda. My hope is that this attack will turn out to be the "Iraqi 9-11": an event where the enemy drastically over-stepped, igniting a backlash against the insurgency that they didn't anticipate. Only time will tell...
February 19, 2006
More Nutcracker News
This morning we were playing The Nutcracker Suite, and the music had gotten to the point where the mice come to fight. I had asked Sarah to go pick up some toys in the same room where the music played, and she was afraid to go because of the mice. Alex had his sword, so I asked him to protect his sister. He put his little arm around her waist and cried, "I'll protect you!" The two of them marched into the family room, and he fought the mice while she picked up the toys.
There's a darker side, though. Alex has several outfits he can wear to be the Nutcracker. Basically they have to be red and/or blue, but there are particular combinations he really likes. Today I pulled out his clothes to dress him for church. He burst into tears because I hadn't chosen the usual Nutcracker clothes. I tried to convince him that what I had selected was what the Nutcracker would wear, but he would have none of it and cried for a prolonged time. Once he settled down a bit, I finished dressing him. I got his shoes out, and he started to cry again. He asked nicely through his sobs if he might wear his Nutcracker boots, so I told him that if he quit crying about the clothes, he could wear the boots. Apparently the boots were enough to make the man, or in this case, the Nutcracker, because he agreed to the deal.
Was an illegal rebellion, in fact, a legal one?
It's February: that means Lincoln's Birthday & Presidents' Day. It also means it's time for libertarian southern apologists to start popping up like daffodils...
While no one would unquestioningly defend the acts of President Lincoln or the Union armies in the prosecution of the Civil War, I don’t buy the arguments of the southern apologists that defending the Union by force of arms was illegal. Their description of the Constitution as a compact between sovereign states that retained their sovereignty and saw the national government as their servant is untrue. That’s what the Articles of Confederation were, and they didn’t work. The Constitution deliberately set up a sovereign national government that was separate from, but (within it's own sphere) superior to, the governments of the several states. It was, however, limited in its powers. The States (or the people as a whole) retained rights and sovereignty in those areas not belonging to the Federal government (the 10th Amendment made this explicit).
There is nothing in the Constitution that indicates that the States retained a right of secession. A “textualist” reading of the Constitution looks at what the document says about secession (nothing). It would then take into account that in the 1787 Constitution, the States ceded a great deal of sovereignty to the national government (much more so than under the Articles of Confederation), and that the Constitution included an amendment process (should the people decide they had problems with how the government was working). Such a reading leads one to conclude that a right of secession isn’t granted by the Constitution. In fact, one could claim that Article I, Section 10 (“no State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation ...”) argues pretty strongly that secession is explicitly prohibited.
By the way, I think this is one of the strengths of Justice Antonin Scalia’s “textualist” approach over the “originalist” approach that considers the thoughts and opinions of the people who passed a law. While it’s true that some people thought the Constitution was a pact among sovereign States that retained the right of secession (Jefferson), others did not (Hamilton, Madison). These opinions are interesting and informative when considering how to make new law, but, as to the question of the legality of secession under the Constitution, aren’t relevant. [What I’m thinking when I sign a contract isn’t what’s important. What’s in the contract is.]
My take is that secession was illegal and once the country was in a state of insurrection, the federal government gained powers under Article II, Section 2 (“The President shall be Commander in Chief [...] of the Militia of the several States ...”) that granted him wartime authority for defense against insurrection (see Amendment III for an indication that the Constitution envisions different authority for the government in wartime and peacetime).
Having said all that, what do I think of the assertion that the Civil War screwed up the balance between State and Federal sovereignty? I think the criticism is valid. Assumptions changed after the Civil War. These changes would, in part, pave the way for the massive growth in the scope of Federal power from the 1930’s onward. However, the Supreme Court bears even more blame for this growth than does the Civil War. There isn’t anything we can do about the unfortunate, unanticipated consequences of the Civil War. There is something we can do about the Supreme Court.
February 17, 2006
Audience! Fight with me!
Alex, our nearly 3 year old Nutcracker fanatic, loves to fight the Mouse King to save Clara. Tonight, I starred as the seven-headed Mouse King while Alex waved, thrust, and plunged his sword into my furry mouse body. Once Alex vanquished me, he asked my husband Don to play the Mouse King. Don replied, "I'm just the audience." Before Alex had a chance to reply, I roared to life, lunging at the distracted Alex with a mighty yell. He shrieked in joy, jumping to attention, then turned to Don and cried, "Audience! Fight with me!"
I love this age.
Homeschooled Presidents
This comes from Chuck Muth's News and Views email newsletter:
PRESIDENTIAL HOME-SCHOOLERS
"As you probably know, Monday will be Presidents' Day. Originally intended as the celebration of George Washington's birthday, it is now widely accepted as a day to honor U.S. Presidents in general. This special holiday has particular significance to home schoolers, since many of our Presidents received their early education, either completely or in part, through what would today be known as home schooling. Here's the full list of ten:
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
John Quincy Adams
James Madison
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The Homeschool Enrichment newsletter, 2/15/06
February 15, 2006
My first "push poll" experience
I've heard of them before, but this is the first time I've experienced a push poll in the run-up to an election. After a series of innocuous questions on current issues and my opinions about various national political figures, I started getting a long litany of "descriptions" of "positions" that our current Congressman, Richard Pombo, has taken.
The interesting thing was that several of the statements covered legislation or government initiatives that I knew a fair bit about (drilling rights on federal lands, search procedures at ports and airports, Medicare reform...). The statements were clearly false, and were intended to put Pombo in the most negative possible light. After each group of five or six such statements, the poll taker asked if I'd be more or less likely to vote for Pombo, or for his likely Democratic opponent, Jerry McNerney. By the end of this relatively boorish attack job, I was a much more enthusiastic Pombo supporter than I'd been at the beginning.
Since the general election is still almost 9 months away, chances are the poll wasn't a true push poll, but a variant that is used by a candidate to test negative messages out for future use in campaign ads. The amazing thing was how bad and blatantly false many of the allegations were. If McNerney wants to unseat Pombo (not likely, the 11th CD is a pretty safe GOP seat), he'll have to come up with something better than this crude hatchet job.
Totally Tomatoes
[Note: I do not endorse any of the seed companies to whom I have linked below. I have never ordered from them and don't know if they're any good. I included the links for pictures and descriptions of the tomatoes in question. Buy at your own risk!]
Don and I like to can tomato sauce for use later in the year in our spaghetti sauce. Tomato sauce requires vast amounts of tomatoes, so we usually plant about 20 vines, leaving little room for anything else. Now, as we get a bit closer to planting time (okay, still quite awhile off, but it's fun to dream), I think about which varieties to plant.
We are very fond of Italian Gold, an indeterminant paste tomato that actually tastes sweet! Our other paste favorites are Speckled Roman, and Healthkick, an indeterminant loaded with lycopene and flavor. We usually plant one Amish Paste, which is an indeterminant heirloom tomato.
For a Beefsteak-type tomato, we like Brandywine and Mortgage Lifter. The former takes a very long time to yield fruit, but is by far the best tasting tomato imaginable. We only plant one Brandywine since it also has a low yield (though each fruit can weigh about a pound.) Mortgage Lifter tastes almost as good as Brandywine, but is much more prolific, as the name implies. However, the vine itself can get very large if you don't cut it back. Mine fell over last year.
We usually plant one cherry tomato. Last year it was Sungold, which I liked, but which didn't produce enough fruit for my taste. I might try Sunsugar this year. We also plant Celebrity every year, after deciding we like it better than the Ace tomato.
I usually like to try one new tomato plant each year. I have yet to decide what I'll try this year. But I'll enjoy looking for it!
February 14, 2006
Happy St. Valentine's Day
What better gift for your Sweetheart than a nice box of assorted chocolates? Perhaps one that includes Crunchy Frog...
February 13, 2006
Death from pine cones
Our front yard is graced by a bunya-bunya tree that grows 13-pound pine cones at the very top of the probably 45-foot tree. The first time this happened, we were rather startled as enormous (larger than a pineapple) cones began to fall and hit the ground and house. Let me tell you, when one hit the roof we noticed it. We began to tell our friends to enter through the garage rather than the front door, for fear they might be killed by a falling cone. Don mowed the lawn in a hard hat, which I was certain would fail to protect him from a direct hit.
Today we had Tri Valley Tree Service come and denude the tree of its deadly cones, which seem to form about every 4 years. An intrepid and brave gentleman climbed the tree with his cleated boots and then severed the cones from the branches. The kids and I watched from the safety of the house, counting the cones as they fell. I came up with 59 of the things. We got them early this time, so they were probably only 5 pounds rather then the 13 pounder we measured the last time. It was 4 years between cone formings this time, so let's hope it takes that long again.
Of course, as a homeschooler, I had to find one of the cones that was broken apart and help my kids dissect it, though I did all the work since bunya trees are the porcupine equivalent of the tree world. I think I might have been more interested than the kids were, but they played along for awhile. All in all, it was a fairly fascinating morning.
February 11, 2006
Has Dale Vree "Jumped the Shark"?
I've been a subscriber to the New Oxford Review for probably fifteen years. In that time, it's been a staunch defender of orthodoxy within the Church. The magazine has a reputation for being "cheeky" and this cheek can sometimes become abrasive. Still, Lisa and I have stuck with the NOR and their editor, Dale Vree, despite these "cranky periods" (as we call them) because there are occasional gems and because Vree's contrarian view keeps us on our toes.
However, in the last several years, Vree seems to have become increasingly vituperative in his writing. As noted over at the Ratzinger Fan Club, Vree is embroiled in feuds at the moment with Amy Welborn and George Weigel (to say nothing of his long-running feuds with Scott Hahn, Fr. Fessio, and others). Perhaps it's time for us to move on.
February 8, 2006
How Barry Manilow Saved the West
It's an indication of how far popular "culture" in the West has sunk that the news that Barry Manilow's new album, "The Greatest Songs of the Fifties," opened at Number 1 on the Billboard Magazine charts is a real sign of hope.
Given the steady stream of misogynist filth that the Hip-Hop community cranks out, a week where "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" and "Unchained Melody" outsell the latest from Eminem, Snoop Dog, or P Diddy (Is that what he calls himself this week?) is a good week indeed.
February 7, 2006
Into Great Silence
Philip Groning, a German film director, has produced a movie, Into Great Silence, that has been released in Europe, but not yet here. The information on the web site provides an intriguing glimpse into what might be a very good film. Keep your eyes open in case it comes to the States.
Just one more book...
I am a bookaholic. I suppose that is the first step in recovery, but I also suppose that I have to want to recover for it to take. My only impetus to part with books comes from lack of space. Periodically I decide that I simply must get rid of some books since the shelves are bulging with too much knowledge, some of it in leather with gold trim no less. I peruse the shelves, agonizing over each tome. No, not this one. No, I can't part with this. Oh, my, I haven't even read this one! An hour's labor yields one book, unless I got dragged into rereading a favorite.
How can I relinquish these little gems? From histories of the world to politics to religion to home-schooling, so much lives and breathes within these pages. I have so much and I'm greedy enough to want more.
Recently I saw a post online offering 25 boxes of books -- free! I didn't even know what the titles were, and my salivary glands had started. My husband Don read the post over my shoulder and said. "Take your hands off the keyboard and back away. Slowly." He knows me so well. (I tried to get them later, but they'd already made it to someone else's garage.)
And the bookcases keep growing taller.
Omniscience & Free Will
Last Sunday's homily touched on God's omniscience and how nothing that happens surprises God. The priest spoke about how for everything that happens, God works that thing toward His own ultimate design. Either He wills a thing that happens (if it is good) or permits it to happen (if it is evil). In either case, all that happens, God uses toward good.
This homily immediately got me thinking about the seeming tension between God's omniscience and free will. Remembering a recent discussion that I'd read on National Review Online about the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics, I concluded that the apparent conflict between omniscience and free will arises from a limitation on our part, not God's.
Imagine that there are an infinite number of possible universes, and that each decision we make throughout our lives, for good or ill, is represented by one of those universes. Whether those universes actually exist or not (I tend to think they don't, but that's irrelevant for the thought experiment), God has full knowledge of each of these infinite possible universes: their histories, how each of our choices affects those histories, etc.
In such a scenario, it's easy to see that nothing we choose to do would surprise God. Nevertheless, our free will is maintained. History is not predestined, yet God still knows what will happen and how events will work toward His ends. Our inability to reconcile these seeming contradictions is rooted in our view of a single, linear history - because that is all that we can see. When we "step outside the box," it makes more sense. Because of our human limitations, we can't grasp such a reality fully, as God does. But I think we can see the outlines of it, dimly.
February 6, 2006
Yes, Mommy, I know what privacy means
I understand that a mom has no privacy when her kids are little, but every once in awhile, I really do need it. Today I wanted about two minutes of privacy, and of course that was when the kids decided they just wanted to hang around and see what I was doing. I told them I wanted privacy, and Sarah quickly obliged, but Alex continued to wait to see what wonderful thing I would do next.
Me: Alex, I would like some privacy. Do you know what privacy means?
Alex: Yes.
Me: What does it mean?
Alex: "Get out of my way."
Me: Um... no. It means someone wants to be alone.
Alex: Oh. (He doesn't move.)
Me: Alex, I'd like some privacy.
Alex: I'd like privacy, too.
Me: Good! Why don't you leave for a little bit, and we can both be alone?
Alex: No! I want to be alone with YOU!
What can you do other than smile?
Happy Birthday, Gipper!
Ronald Reagan would have been 95 today. We think of his family and keep them in our prayers. Sarah still remembers watching coverage of President Reagan's funeral with me, despite her being a few weeks shy of her fourth birthday at the time.
February 4, 2006
Which Pope are you?
February 1, 2006
Pride. And more pride.
I have prided myself in allowing my children to be who they are and to have their own interests, likes, and dislikes. This has been particularly easy with Alex since he is so like me, but I thought I was doing a good job of it with Sarah, too. This big pat on the back took a fall today when Sarah's less-than-stellar behavior in her catechism class embarrassed me before some other moms and a priest whom I respect. That, in and of itself, is nothing important and has happened to probably every mom in existence. The problem came when I got mad at Sarah for behavior that she probably couldn't help. I got mad because she "made me look bad." I got mad because of my pride, and because she wasn't being who I wanted her to be.
Sarah is a very physical child who is always on the move. In addition, she's only five. In retrospect, it isn't reasonable to expect her to sit still for an hour in a class that is usually more complex than she's capable of "getting" right now. Since her behavior didn't seem to be willful, anger is the wrong response, and I'm feeling suitably chastened. Following Christ can be so hard for me at times.