Sometimes we are obliged to restate the obvious, Part 2

As reasonable human beings, we are sometimes obliged to restate the obvious.

The Westchester Institute has recently published a white paper (allow time for .pdf file to download) regarding the scientific rationale for establishing the moment at which human life begins.

Connected with this, and my garage sale, I have been re-reading a classic introductory textbook on Philosophical Logic, by Copi/Cohen. I was reminded of the classic informal fallacies of argumentation (which still apply in any debate about abortion, or indeed, about politics during a campaign/election year).

Informal Logic and Informal Fallacies form the critical guidelines of any discourse, public debate, or reasonable argumentation. Educate yourselves about these traditional rules of debate, and you won't go far wrong in the election, on human life issues, or even spousal relationships.

Q: Which informal fallacy applies -- "Women simply are not reasonable when discussing things; my wife, for example, just the other day...."?

Megyn Kelly just freaking rocks!

20th Century Authors - rediscovered in my garage

We are moving in late November (to a house in the same mid-town area of Toronto which we live in at present); so I have been forced, by the ancient Fates of "Storage space" and "Square footage", to reduce my library through what are benevolently called "Yard Sales" in Canada.

While sorting through 3 dead, blind mice (no photo available)--and other assorted rodential & marsupial problems--I've uncovered an assortment of authors whom I am now re-reading. These are (mostly) 20th century Christian authors, both American & British (with some Europeans too) - if you haven't read them yet, then do so now, and reap the rewards of Western Culture. Find whatever you can of these authors. Read what you find. You won't be disappointed. Significant background data about the British authors concerns the relationship between Eliot, Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, and Jones around the time of the two great wars.

My first re-read was C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. See the text here (however much it is in need of editing). For anyone interested in Angels & their role in our lives, you must read the absolutely fascinating introduction (by C.S. Lewis) to the 1961 republication here, with just 3 mouse clicks forward; but most especially this book asks the big question -- "How are we to act as Christians in this our life on Earth?"--reading this book is like a "mini" Christian retreat. This book is particularly relevant as it was written (and recited via radio) during a time of war.

The no-brainers:

G. K. Chesterton
Hillaire Belloc
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Edgar Allen Poe
Herman Melville
Joseph Conrad
T.S. Eliot
C.S. Lewis
J.R.R. Tolkien
W.H. Auden
James Joyce
Flannery O'Connor
Graham Greene
William Faulkner
Ezra Pound
Francois Mauriac
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Interesting, yet under-read and under-rated:

David Jones (especially his epic poems)
Charles Williams (especially his 'supernatural' novels)
Walker Percy (especially his irony-laden novels)
Robert Lowell (poetry)
Richard Wilbur (translations and poetry)
Robert Penn Warren (everything)
Robert Fitzgerald (both his translations and his neglected poetry)
Allen Tate
Caroline Gordon
Paul Claudel
Georges Bernanos
Zbigniew Herbert

Sometimes we are obliged to restate the obvious

As Christians we are sometimes obliged to restate the obvious; Cardinal Egan of New York City has done so. R. T. Anderson over at "First Things" asks us to take a close look. Again. Cardinal Egan states:

"Have you any doubt that it is a human being?

If you do not have any such doubt, have you any doubt that it is an innocent human being?

If you have no doubt about this either, have you any doubt that the authorities in a civilized society are duty-bound to protect this innocent human being if anyone were to wish to kill it?

If your answer to this last query is negative, that is, if you have no doubt that the authorities in a civilized society would be duty-bound to protect this innocent human being if someone were to wish to kill it, I would suggest—even insist—that there is not a lot more to be said about the issue of abortion in our society. It is wrong, and it cannot—must not—be tolerated."

WTF: Sexually Ambiguous Nazi Assassins?

No, not this one, these guys. Click, read, be amazed. You can't make this shit up, you really can't.

Obama Talks About Wealth Distribution 2001

If we elect this man, we will deserve him - we can't say we haven't been warned.

Hat Tip: Billy Buru

More on this here.

VDH's brief take here.

The Smart Spunky Kid with the Fatal Disease

Dean Barnett has died. He was too young. Hugh Hewitt has more.

Rest In Peace, Dean.

Update: just thinking how odd it is my first response to this sad news was that he was too young. Of course, for someone with CF 41 wasn't young at all. It's a testimony that his affliction in no way defined him as a person.

Here's The Weekly Standard with a page linking to the many tributes to Dean coming in from all over the conservative blogosphere.

From The Onion: Guman Kills 15 Potential Swing Voters

Considering how vociferous the MSM has been in their advocacy of Obama, this parody doesn't seem too far over the top.

Sarah smacks "Slow Joe" around

(link via The Weekly Standard's blog)

Red Sox lose - depressed? Watch this again....

Whenever I feel a bit down (eg, after the Red Sox lose), I watch this:

Red Sox Lose

The Tampa Bays beat a damn fine Boston team to represent the American league in the World Series. Good luck to them they're a damn fine team too and will probably win the whole thing. You have to admire them. For years they were a joke in the AL East, today they became the American League Champions. Well done you marvelous bastages, well done.
If there was any doubt that summer was over it ended five minutes ago. This is a beautiful time of year in New England, with all the foliage and brouhaha, but it not without it's sadness:

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

I hear you Ishmael, I'll wait until after Christmas and I'll find some blue water to play in.

To watch, or not to watch

I have never watched the Red Sox (the worlds' greatest baseball club) actually win a World Series, or even an American League Championship. Should I watch today's game? I watched all of the games they lost against Tampa Bay, and saw none of the games they won.

I figure I have a mini-curse: so do I watch?

I just saw that they scored to take a lead in the 3rd against Tampa Bay in today's (Saturday's) game; but even such fleeting glimpses have been very unlucky in the past.

After a business trip, I sat late one night on the New Jersey Turnpike, listening to the car radio, only to hear a World Series lost by my team, the Red Sox. I did the same thing once again, but crossed my fingers and turned off the radio -- continuing home to CT -- only to discover in the morning that my team won the World Series.

I am a realist and a Thomist. I am a reasonable, conservative American. I don't believe in jinxes or Astrology or Ouija boards.

So why can't I watch my baseball team win?

John the Senator Hires Joe the Plumber

part one



part two

Liberals Learn Slowly

Hawaii ending universal child health care:
HONOLULU – Hawaii is dropping the only state universal child health care program in the country just seven months after it launched.
Gov. Linda Lingle's administration cited budget shortfalls and other available health care options for eliminating funding for the program. A state official said families
were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.
"People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."

So, you give stuff away and are shocked that people would prefer not to pay for it?

Love That Dirty Water

This is just SICK - biggest comeback in 79 years!

Art History

I thought this blog might appeal to those interested, as I am, in Art History. Here's his e-blogger 'profile':

About Me
Millinerd (a.k.a. Matthew J. Milliner) is a Ph.D. candidate in art history at Princeton University. In a previous life he graduated from the same town's Theological Seminary. In the life before that he was a Youth Director at Media Presbyterian Church (PA). In the life before that he went to Wheaton College (IL). In the life before that he went to Haddonfield Memorial High School (NJ). In the life before that he was born and raised mostly in Jersey. In the life before that he did nothing, because Origen's doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul was condemned in 553AD.

More on Millinerd recently over at First Things.

Also interesting for Art aficionados -- read Paul Johnson's (relatively) recent great book, Art: A New History. I've been plowing (ploughing?) through it since early Summer.

Real Estate Agents

Our house is up for sale. We will be moving in late November.

Why is it that Real Estate Agents are just about the only so-called professional business people/entrepeneurs who will (more often than not) show up late for 'viewings', or else never show up at all, and also frequently leave your house unlocked -- and then proceed to arrogantly argue with you about whether or not they lack professionalism given the evidence?

If I were to do that in any other "profession", I would either be canned immediately, or else outta business.

Seven (respectable) Real Estate agents later, I still have no clue about this phenomenon, except that apparently it is one field where being an irresponsible loser is not necessarily a negative asset.

Obama's Abortion Extremism

by Robert George
Oct 14, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama's views on life issues ranging from abortion to embryonic stem cell research mark him as not merely a pro-choice politician, but rather as the most extreme pro-abortion candidate to have ever run on a major party ticket.

Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.

Yet there are Catholics and Evangelicals-even self-identified pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals - who aggressively promote Obama's candidacy and even declare him the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view.

What is going on here? ...

link (via The American Spectator)

"If you want to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."

Nifty and informative article over at the Jerusalem Post about Israel's intelligence gathering biz, read the whole thing.
Hat Tip: Marc Fishman

McCain Critical of Obama's Radical Past

It's about time the American people knew who this Obama character really is.