Ephemeris

My Right to Not Be Offended

2011-12-10T11:58:00.001-08:00

is more important than your right to free speech. That is, if I belong to a protected group. Welcome to LIberal Fascism.

Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
On December 10, 1948-63 years ago today-the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted; 48 nations voted in favor, 8 abstained, and none dissented. The Declaration proclaimed a simple idea: that all human beings are born equal and free in dignity and rights. The Declaration also made it clear that rights are not conferred by governments. They are the birthright of every human being regardless of where they were born, what the color of their skin is, or what religion they practice. These rights include the right to freedom of expression and opinion, as enshrined in Article 19 of the Declaration.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Things: On the Square.)

Kantian Philosophy

2011-11-21T12:56:00.001-08:00

can be a minefield for the new philosopher. He's extremely important for understanding modern philosophy but can be abstract and difficult to understand. So follow the little girl in the video to get a glimpse of what might be wrong with Kant:

Do you understand the philosophy of Immanuel Kant? Why it ultimately fails? Then give me five minutes of your time, because this is important...:
Do you understand the philosophy of Immanuel Kant? Why it ultimately fails? Give me five minutes of your time; this is important. Some would say Kant's principles are the very cornerstone of our civilization. The term "categorical imperative" means that we decide right from wrong by the premise, "If it's OK for me to do it, then it has to be OK for everybody to do it. If it's not OK for everybody to do it, then it's not OK for me to do it either." Or said a little differently, “One must always follow one’s own conscience.” Sound familiar? Immanuel Kant taught that the obligation of moral command comes from the will (we all want to do the right thing), that in matters of conscience individuals have absolute autonomy (follow your own conscience), and that mere obedience to an external authority was immoral. That's right - immoral.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

Philosophy is Hard

2011-10-14T11:14:00.001-07:00

Especially when you have a cold. Nonetheless Professor Beckwith cites four pdf documents of some of his arguments against a Rawlsian view of democracy and law. They are worth reading and pondering, though I did burn out by the last one:

President Obama: Ex-Liberal:
President Barack Obama has abandoned liberalism. What I mean by liberalism is not the political philosophy that we typically associate with left-of-center politicians and candidates. The president, of course, remains unabashedly in that camp. What I am referring to is a particular posture concerning moral questions, which the preside.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

One Man's Meat

2011-10-13T16:32:00.001-07:00

is another's cult:

Pot meet Kettle...

...Rock meet glass house.

Michael Voris:
Pot meet Kettle...

...Rock meet glass house.

Michael Voris deconstructs Pastor Jeffres criticism of Mormonism.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Lex Communis.)

Logical Inconsistency

2011-10-10T11:00:00.001-07:00

is a common human condition. We are apt to entertain two quite inconsistent ideas without ever realizing it. Do read the entire article below for an illuminating exploration of one such situation, involving a brilliant man. Intelligence is guarantor of consistency it seems:

The Delusions of Liberal Humanism:
The link between intelligence and correct interpretation of reality is unfortunately weak. That is one of the reason why someone like cognitive scientist Stephen Pinker can be very smart and yet be consistently wrong. Pinker champions his latest wrong idea in his new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: the Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes, which posits that humans are evolving to become less violent.

The fact that you can publish a book making a claim so easily debunked by both empirical evidence and common sense says a lot about the publishing industry. But the idea that Pinker believes it to to be true—and so many people are willing to entertain the notion—says even more about the delusions of liberal humanism. As philosopher John Grey says in his devastating review,

The idea that a new world can be constructed through the rational application of force is peculiarly modern, animating ideas of revolutionary war and pedagogic terror that feature in an influential tradition of radical Enlightenment thinking. Downplaying this tradition is extremely important for Pinker. Along with liberal humanists everywhere, he regards the core of the Enlightenment as a commitment to rationality. The fact that prominent Enlightenment figures have favoured violence as an instrument of social transformation is—to put it mildly—inconvenient.

There is a deeper difficulty. Like so many contemporary evangelists for humanism, Pinker takes for granted that science endorses an Enlightenment account of human reason. Since science is a human creation, how could humans not be rational? Surely science and humanism are one and the same. Actually it’s extremely curious—though entirely typical of current thinking—that science should be linked with humanism in this way. A method of inquiry rather than a settled view of the world, there can be no guarantee that science will vindicate Enlightenment ideals of human rationality. Science could just as well end up showing them to be unrealisable.

Read more . . .

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

With Retirement pending...

2011-10-05T14:01:00.001-07:00

These may be words to ponder:

*How to overcome envy over the depth and beauty of other:
How to overcome envy over the depth and beauty of other people's blogposts

There are several effective methods.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Disputations.)

Lay "Blessings" Again

2011-09-28T12:31:00.001-07:00

I second Father Z's opinion:

D. of Madison’s newspaper’s explanation of EMHC’s giving blessings as if they were priests:
In The Catholic Herald of the Diocese of Madison, where the great Bishop Robert Morlino exercises oversight, there is a great article on an issue we have addressed here many times: Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion giving blessings to non-communicants as if they were priests.

The whole thing deserves a reading here and there is no combox over there.

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

Expert Opinion

2011-08-03T15:21:00.001-07:00

is something we all have recourse to. To avoid falling into the "Appeal to Authority" fallacy in logic there are things we must be sure of before we rely on an "expert". What are his Qualifications? Are they current? Are they relevant to the topic under discussion? Does this opinion represent a consensus or is it a minority opinion or even a lonely dissent?

Ok, I like Mark's way of putting better:

Train Wreck Imminent:
Suppose an expert weightlifter were to be given an entire series by the BBC in which he is allowed to hold forth on US Middle East policy, the gold standard, and plumbing techniques in New Zealand. You might ask, "How does expertise in weightlifting qualify this guy to pontificate on these things?" and you'd be right.

But nobody asks why expertise in a rarified branch of physics qualifies Stephen Hawking to pontificate on philosophy and metaphysics. Instead, the theological and philosophical illiterates running the Beeb in the Country that Used to Be England simply assume that a technician will have profound things to say, despite the massive and growing pile of evidence that the man has no idea what he is talking about when he blathers about these things that are clearly outside he field of competence.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

I Am Who and What I Say I Am

2011-06-09T10:05:00.001-07:00

I'm a little puzzled by the John Jay Report apparently understating the influence of homosexual behaviour amongst the offending priests (and bishops). This seemingly because the offenders didn't think of themselves as homosexuals while they sought sexual gratification with post-pubescent males. I don't think of myself as lazy even if there's a lot of work I should be doing now that I'm neglected, ok? So don't judge me.

John Jay report a "whitewash" of clerical homosexuality?:
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice recently released its report, commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, on the clerical sex scandals that came to light over the past decade. Some have alleged that the study is a "whitewash" of the issue of clerical homosexuality, since the report denies that a man engaging in sexual acts with a post-pubescent teen male should be called a "homosexual" if he doesn't think of himself as a homosexual.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Musings of a Pertinacious Papist.)

A Little Exercise for the Grey Cells

2011-06-07T11:16:00.001-07:00

can be found here:

The Collection of Atoms Called "Mike Flynn"...:
replies to the collection of atoms designated "Sam Harris" and tries to persuade him to stop babbling nonsense.

Someday I hope Flynn gives up this nonsense of writing award winning fiction and publishing one great novel after another and finds his true calling: explaining Thomistic philosophy to materialist New Atheist dunderheads.

Also, how can I ever publish fiction when anything I even dream of attempting pales next to his work? It's intimidating, dammit!

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Do you need facial hair to be a Catholic apologist?

2011-05-20T10:04:00.001-07:00

Oh good, something to do while I'm busy retiring:

Do you need facial hair to be a Catholic apologist?:
So you want to be a Catholic apologist? It isn't all that hard, really. There's only a handful of things you need in order to be an effective and successful Catholic apologist. Faithfulness to the Magisterium. Love of Scripture. Passion for the truth. And facial hair.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

Is Waterboarding Torture?

2011-05-13T10:50:00.001-07:00

The first question we should be asking is "Should we allow torture at all?" And the answer, I insist, is no.

The follow-on question "Is torture effective?", given the answer to the first question, is irrelevant. Effective or not torture is immoral and dehumanizing both for the victim and the torturer. You shall not do evil that good may come of it. Without this fundamental truth moral reasoning loses it's coherency. So I disagree with the author of the article cited below to that degree.

A legitimate question might be "Is waterboarding torture?" Prior to 2001 (and the torture-works-ticking-clock rationale) the answer was clearly yes:

Is Waterboarding Torture?:
I agree with you, Matt, that there are several questions surrounding this issue that, while disturbing, are disputable. “Should we allow torture?” and “Is torture effective?” are two examples. But the question of whether waterboarding is torture is not one of them.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

For the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes: "Song of Bernadette"

2011-02-11T08:03:00.001-08:00

Since today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes this seems an appropriate link:

For the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes: "Song of Bernadette":
People forget that Leonard Cohen wrote something else besides the now-ubiquitous "Hallelujah". He composed this haunting ode to love and human frailty, "Song of Bernadette." Here's the great Jennifer Warnes - whatever happened to her, by the way? — performing this, evidently on "The Smothers Brothers" show in the early 1970s.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

Our Problem is

2010-12-28T12:35:00.001-08:00

We have the attention spans of goldfish. If something is broadcast that confirms our beliefs or our suspicions we accept it without further thought. Actually investigating the basis for our beliefs and opinions risks disconfirmation, something we are ill-equipped to deal with.

The case in point is the Liberal/Moderate contempt for the Fox News network and it's viewers:

Are Fox News Viewers Misinformed?

This is a great example of:
Are Fox News Viewers Misinformed?

This is a great example of how the internet undermines the biased academic class.

Via Roger Ho.

(Via Lex Communis.)

What He Said

2010-09-11T09:11:00.001-07:00

(Well, isn't that what most of my posts say?)

Reaping the Whirlwind:
Zac Alstin on how Nazi thinking became our own.

In what sense did we win World War II?

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

A Follow-Up Post

2010-09-10T13:36:00.001-07:00

My mentor in the sixties and seventies was Larry Evans. He is a Grandmaster and an excellent teacher. I had the honour of watching him play against Bent Larsen in the 1972 tournament I referred to in the previous post. My teacher got taught.

In the after-game analysis Bent explained that he knew that Larry thought (and taught) in terms of concrete concepts. So he deliberately steered the game into complications where Larry's point-count style chess (from Bent's perspective) would not help him. Wow.

Bent Larsen, 1935-2010:
Danish chess legend Bent Larsen died yesterday in Buenos Aires, following a short illness, at the age of 75. He was a leading grandmaster from the mid-to-late 50s through the early 80s, and for a period from the mid-to-late 1960s until his 1971 Candidates match against Bobby Fischer was considered a genuine title contender and even at one point possibly the strongest player outside the Soviet Union.

Read the whole thing.

(Via The Chess Mind Blog.)

Bent Larsen dies at 75

2010-09-10T10:57:00.001-07:00

In the glorious days of my youth the greats of chess did battle and we all stood in awe. Bent Larsen was one of those greats. I partly took up the Grand Prix Attack because he was one of the first grandmasters (that I knew of) to practice it.

He played in the Grandmaster tournament on San Antonio in 1972, following Fischer's victory over Spassky. I met him and his wife on a street corner there. They were both so gracious to me and left a positive impression. I am sad at his passing.

Bent Larsen dies at 75:

Bent Larsen photographed in January 2010 by Peter Heine Nielsen.

Hello Everyone,

It is sad news that the great chess player Bent Larsen is no more.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Alexandra Kosteniuk's CHESSBLOG.COM.)

A Rule For Reasoning

2010-09-03T15:48:00.001-07:00

is to weight the expert's testimony based on his actual expertise and it's relevance to the topic under debate. So when a big-name sports player tell me to buy something that has nothing to do with his or her sport, I ignore the recommendation.

Enter Stephen Hawking on the subject of Natural Theology:

Fr. Robert Barron: "I confess that something in me tightens whenever I hear a scientist pontificating...":
... on issues that belong to the arena of philosophy or metaphysics. I will gladly listen to Stephen Hawking when he holds forth on matters of theoretical physics, but he’s as qualified to talk about philosophical and religious issues as any college freshman. There is a qualitative difference between the sciences, which speak of objects, forces, and phenomena within the observable universe, and philosophy or religion which speak of ultimate origins and final purposes. Science, as such, simply cannot adjudicate questions that lie outside of its proper purview—and this is precisely why scientists tend to make lots of silly statements when they attempt to philosophize.
Read all of Fr. Barron's piece,"Stephen Hawking & More Tiresome Atheism,"on WordonFire.org.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog.)

Global Warming

2010-09-03T15:41:00.001-07:00

isn't what it used to be. The actual data and reasoning about long-term effects of humans on the climate remain opaque to me. But there's still something uncomfortably like the Chicken-Little panic about some of the claims that have been made, not least by Al Gore. So this is interesting news:

The Thing that Used to be Global Warming...:
...and then morphed into the much-harder to grip "climate change" is suffering from severe changes in the climate of public opinion. Happens when you get caught with your pants down.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

What Happened After Vatican II

2010-08-27T12:00:00.001-07:00

and why? Here is an intriguing interpretation:

The Liturgical Experts’ Long Tassels:
Publicly owned corporations are more accountable to their shareholders than tenured bureaucracies, which may explain why it took the Ford Motor Company only two years to cancel its Edsel, and not much longer for Coca Cola to restore its “classic” brand, while the Catholic Church has taken more than a generation of unstopped attrition to try to correct the mistakes of overheated liturgists.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Things: On the Square.)

Political Correctness

2010-08-27T11:55:00.001-07:00

that I can agree with:

Toward a Jolly-Friendly Media:
In which we continue to discuss ways to make Amerika affirm the Jolly Lifestyle, as well as how to teach our children to practice safe eating.

Say it with me!: We're out and we're stout!

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

The Probability of God

2010-08-18T08:58:00.001-07:00

Wow. There's a 99% probability that God exists? Who knew that kind of calculation was possible?

The Probability of God:
Betrand Russell, famous for his agnostic views as much as for his theories on logic, was once asked how he would answer if he turned out to be wrong about God. Russell was delighted with the question and answered, “Why, I should say, ‘God, you gave us insufficient evidence.’”

I suspect that upon their meeting, God corrected the ol’ Brit, showing how the evidence was there and that Russell had simply chosen to ignore it. But it does raise the question of why different people when presented with much the same evidence, come to such varying conclusions about the existence of God.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

Persecution

2010-07-12T12:24:00.001-07:00

isn't a subject in many sermons nowadays. (I'll omit ranting a out abortion, contraception and the other elephants in the room.) But my growing sense of unease in our culture of comfort and self is tweaked by little signs of a coming storm.

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
(Matt 5:10-12 NAB)

We are too comfortable, too sheep-like in the presence of the increasing hostility of the world elite towards Jesus, His teaching and His disciples. We need to prepare ourselves and our children for the troubles that are coming.

Ok, sermon over. Now to the news:

Catholic prof fired for giving Church teaching on homosexuality:
Our good friend and fellow Catholic convert, Dr. Kenneth Howell, who worked for St. John's Catholic Newman Center as Director of the Institute of Catholic Thought, and taught Introduction to Catholicisim and Modern Catholic Thought at the University of Illinois, Urbana, has been fired for relating the Catholic teaching on homosexuality in his class:
"Illinois professor fired for giving Catholic teaching on homosexuality" (CNA, July 9, 2010).

"University of Illinois Instructor Fired Over Catholic Beliefs" (FOX News, July 9, 2010).

[Advisory: this article is vile, anti-Catholic, and illustrates why a secular academic climate today could get a good and decent Catholic professor fired]: P.Z. Myers, "Honesty about sex is going to disqualify a lot of professors of Catholic dogma" (Pharyngula, July 9, 2010).

Read the whole thing.

(Via Musings of a Pertinacious Papist.)

Thought and Prejudice

2010-07-08T11:39:00.001-07:00

In this instance I'm struck by the reflexive approval of most, if not all, things homosexual. When I started on a reasoned argument (rant) about why homosexual unions should not be elevated to equality with marriage, my daughters, bless them, were embarrassed and demanded we stop talking about the subject. It didn't help this was in a public place (a restaurant for Sunday Brunch).

Their aversion to disagreements with the homosexual agenda puzzles me. They have or are getting a University education. Shouldn't reasoned disagreement be the heart and soul of their intellectual life? Even if they strongly disagree with me, I'm wanting reasoned arguments and facts. They seem to recognize no value to these things independent of achieving the results they have chosen to endorse. Is this how far the intellectual rigour has fallen at Universities?

Ok, rant mode off. Here is an interesting article about how research itself is produced and disseminated in a doctrinaire fashion to promote the ideology of the day:

Who could possibly have predicted this?:
Research showing the risks of lesbian and gay parenting is ignored in the race to make a political case

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Philosophy and Chess

2010-07-02T07:52:00.001-07:00

are sometimes close companions. Dennis M considers death and the arguments for survival beyond death:

Maroczy - Korchnoi ?:
The Hungarian grandmaster Geza Maroczy died in 1951, but on some reports, his chess career didn't end there. He took about 34 years off, and then, with the help of a medium named Robert Rollans, played a game against Viktor Korchnoi that lasted until 1993. (He lost, but hey - he was rusty. You can replay the game here.)

Read the whole thing.

(Via The Chess Mind Blog.)

Using Your Head

2010-05-31T06:50:00.001-07:00

is necessary to solve problems. Here is a series of propositions that lead to the solution of whether or not abortion is justified in the case of rape:

Challenging a La Presse journalist on the logic of his pro-abort stance:

Every species on Earth can only reproduce after its own kind (for example, rabbits can only give birth to other rabbits, dogs can only give birth to puppies, etc.).

Therefore, a fetus is of human nature.

The fetus is clearly alive, as witnessed by its continual growth, its need for nutrition and hydration, its beating heart, its brain waves, etc.

From 2 and 3, we deduce that the fetus is alive and human.

The fetus has a distinct and unique human DNA, different from its mother and from any other human being.

The fetus has all the components to develop into a complete and independent human organism.

From 4, 5 and 6, we deduce that a fetus is a living human being distinct from its mother.

Intentionally ending the life of an innocent living human being is a grave injustice.

Abortion ends the life of the fetus.

From 8 and 9, we deduce that abortion is a grave injustice.

While rape is a grave injustice towards the woman, this tragedy does not alter points 1 through 10.

Therefore, we deduce that aborting a fetus conceived through rape remains a grave injustice, as per 10.

Q.E.D

Read the whole thing.

(Via SoCon Or Bust.)

Six Impossible Things

2010-05-13T15:29:00.001-07:00

to believed it you're an atheist:

Alice, Atheists, and the Ability to Believe Impossible Things:
“Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — Alice in Wonderland

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

More Evidence

2010-05-07T12:55:00.001-07:00

that the MSM is heavily filtering the news to promote their world-view:

:
I did not know this stuff....

...which, apparently, is the point of the news media's practice of suppressing news reports about leftist violence:

While the media is all over the recent bombing attempt in Times Square, they quickly swept the 2008 bombing of the Times Square military recruiting station under the rug. The hometown New York Times relegated the terror attack to regional news, even

Read the whole thing.

(Via Lex Communis.)

Spiritual Alzheimers

2010-05-02T13:45:00.001-07:00

That is a wonderful phrase from Cardinal Dias that you will find at the end of this post:

Traditionally-minded Anglican bishops ready to come to Rome:
Everyone should be calling Benedict XVI "The Pope of Christian Unity".

His provisions for traditionally-minded Anglicans issued in the Motu Proprio Anglicanorum coetibus are concrete demonstrations of his desire to bring separated Christians into unity with the Catholic fold.

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

Toyota Versus Gardasil

2010-05-01T10:01:00.001-07:00

We have enjoyed our car for the last eight years. The panic over sticking accelerators hasn't affected our conviction that overall Toyotas are safer and more reliable. But where does Gardasil come in?

THIS IS STAGGERING! [Rachel Watkins]

4/30/2010

Are you ready to buy a Toyota yet? I'm not to sure.

Have you gotten a Gardisil vaccination for yourself, your daughter? I have not but have received some pressure from some who think I should.
I will not feel any guilty any more -

Toyota 52 deaths, Gardasil 49. Toyota recalled.

There is no press, no ongoing meetings before Congress, no fines being levied.

Women are seemingly less important to our country than we imagine.

(Via Heart, Mind & Strength.)

Quote of the Day

2010-04-30T09:23:00.001-07:00

Bob Dylan is a Phony, Unlike Joni Mitchell:

I just want to take this opportunity to point out that there is no such thing as “spirituality.” Doesn’t exist, has no meaning. It’s just a name for “doing what I want to do and feeling that the universe somehow smiles on me for doing it.

—Alan Jacobs doesn’t think much of spirituality.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

Another Solution

2010-04-30T08:58:00.001-07:00

to the difficulty about EMHC's giving blessings:

Blessings from lay people?:
My post yesterday about deacons giving blessings prompted a reader to write: My question is, as a eucharistic minister, would you have in your repertoire a short blessing that we can use when a non-Catholic or child comes up for a blessing during communion? I use, " May the Lord's blessings come down upon you in abundance" Acceptable? Well, actually...

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

A Summary

2010-04-24T10:00:00.001-07:00

of the sex-abuse scandal in the Church and the MSM coverage of it:

Media's deadly ammunition of half-truths:
A retired Hollywood actor and Catholic convert whom I had the honor of sponsoring, regularly sends me clippings about the Catholic sex scandals from newspapers and news magazines -- his only source of news other than television, since he fastidiously eschews the world of computers. I do not know how much help he finds from his priest in sorting out fact from fiction in the daily media onslaught. One feels considerable sympathy for our priests, who doubtless feel besieged and confused by the anti-Catholic onslaught in the media and may prefer to ignore the issue in their homilies. The result, however, is the reinforcement of an unhealthy fortress mentality, where the Faith is increasingly isolated from the issues of the day and rendered irrelevant. Legions of parishioners like my actor friend need answers. Hence, the issues must be addressed.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Musings of a Pertinacious Papist.)

Taboo

2010-04-21T12:45:00.001-07:00

topics in RCIA certainly included contraception. I managed to persuade some to attend a viewing of Dr. Smith's video "Contraception: Why Not?" in the Mystagogia period of formation. The reactions were enlightening to say the least.

Contraception, deception, and retrospection:

The feature story for the May 2, 2010, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper is titled, "Uncovering a string of lies"; it was written by Dr. Janet Smith to mark the 50th anniversary of the FDA's approval of "The Pill." An excerpt:
That the Father of Lies should be using lies and subterfuge to promote contraception should not be surprising.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog.)

Just A Brief Rant

2010-04-21T10:54:00.001-07:00

about Catholic Update, a publication I loved to hate during my RCIA days: Bland, confusing, uninformed, uninspiring. Ok, rant over:

God is other, people:
My award for "Worst Theological Point Inspired by Earth Day" goes to the following e-card from St. Anthony Messenger Press:

Holy people
such as Sts. Francis and Clare
remind us that
we are not separate
from the natural world
but part of it
in one sacred earth community.

Catholic Update

This one is a close second.

More Earth Day-themed greetings can be found here.

(Via Ten Reasons.)

Two Points of View

2010-04-14T09:31:00.001-07:00

on the brief Oxburgh report; I'm unable to evaluate the differences between the two. First, Global Warming:

Second CRU inquiry reports:
The Oxburgh report on the science done at the CRU has now been published and….. as in the first inquiry, they find no scientific misconduct, no impropriety and no tailoring of the results to a preconceived agenda, though they do suggest more statisticians should have been involved. They have also some choice words to describe the critics.

Carry on…

(Via RealClimate.)

Now the opposition:
Oxburgh’s Trick to Hide the Trick:
The Oxburgh report ” is a flimsy and embarrassing 5-pages.

They did not interview me (nor, to my knowledge, any other CRU critics or targets). The committee was announced on March 22 and their “report” is dated April 12 – three weeks end to end – less time than even the Parliamentary Committee. They took no evidence. Their list of references is 11 CRU papers, five on tree rings, six on CRUTEM. Notably missing from the “sample” are their 1000-year reconstructions: Jones et al 1998, Mann and Jones 2003, Jones and Mann 2004, etc.)

Read the whole thing.

(Via Climate Audit.)

Any Stick to Beat a Dog With

2010-04-13T09:50:00.001-07:00

seems to be the operating principle of the MSM these last few weeks:

Anti-Benedict Campaign Jumps Shark Again:
Okay, so today's headline in the "Benedict is a Stoopid Doodyhead" shark attack is "Vatican forgives The Beatles for 'bigger than Jesus' comment ". Some variations of this hot hot HOT story tell us the Pope or Rome or somebody "finally" forgives the whole "bigger than Jesus" remark.

Don't these guys even read their own copy? What about the *last* time the Vatican/pope/Rome/some guy in L'Osservatore Romano (they are all one and indistinguishable) forgave the bigger than Jesus remark? Heck! I wrote a whole piece about it at the time! And now they are playing that tape again? What? Are they running out of material?

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Whack-A-Pope

2010-04-13T09:43:00.001-07:00

continues with interesting results. Now that the Vatican push-back is impossible to ignore, the MSM tries to fan the flames of a Catholic-Queer smackdown. A potentially entertaining tangle of absurdities results:

Card. Bertone in Chile strikes some sparks, MSM puffs on the fire:
From CBS/AP ... yes.. AP again…

My E & C.

SANTIAGO, Chile, April 12, 2010

Pope’s No. 2: Sex Abuse Tied to Homosexuality

Cardinal Bertone’s Remarks Cause Uproar; U.S. Priest Slams Vatican for "Incompetence and Irresponsibility"

(CBS/AP) Updated at 7:15 a.m. Eastern. [The original title seems to have been "Sex abuse not tied to celibacy"]

The Vatican’s second-highest authority says the sex scandals haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy among priests. [There are the two points… homosexuality and celibacy. But they shifted the title of the story.]

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

Fair and Balanced

2010-04-13T09:20:00.001-07:00

coverage of the Climategate issue is my goal. So here's a response from the "Yes there is potentially catastrophic anthropogenic global warming going on" side:

The Economist does not disappoint:
The March 20th -26th cover story of The Economist, “Spin, science and climate change,” deftly bypasses the politics surrounding ‘climategate’, to tackle the more important issue: whether any of this has any bearing on climate change science and policy. This is a refreshing bit of journalism that everyone should read.

Read the whole thing.

(Via RealClimate.)

Defrocking

2010-04-12T16:01:00.001-07:00
doesn't, strictly speaking, have any meaning in Catholic usage. "You are a Priest Forever" actually means what it says for the Church. There are two ways of leaving the ministry: by ejection, as a penalty ["degradation" in the old usage or "dismissal from the clerical state" (1983 CIC 1336.1, n. 5)], or by having a request for dispensation granted [laisization]. These distinctions do not register with those in the MSM who would be teaching us, though:
Mt. Rainier, Puyallup and Defrocking:
One of the ways that Out of Staters periodically embarrass themselves when they visit Washington (the New England of the West Coast) is by making casual knowing references to things they know little about. So, for instance, when somebody insouciantly declares that they are going to take a drive out to "Renyay" or visit "Poo yall up" Washingtonians smile cryptically and look at the floor. (Hint: It's "Pew al up" and "Rayneer" and you aren't from around here, are you stranger?)

When I read the hysteria in the daily installments of the Get Benedict Campaign that the media has ginned up, I feel the same way. Everybody keeps screaming about "defrocking" and seems to think they know what they are talking about about. So we were breathlessly informed us that Benedict refused to punish a pervert California priest with "defrocking". The mob shouts in righteous indignation!

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

A Priest Can Dream, Can't He?

2010-04-12T15:47:00.001-07:00
Father Z goes on a reverie that warms the cuckolds of this old heart:
Is Benedict XVI a “better Pope” than John Paul II? A couple views and then Fr. Z really rants.:
[...] If I were Pope, I would form a small corps of monsignori tasked to obtain some resignations… I think I would recruit them from, say, Sicily. They seem to know how to do this sort of thing quietly, with a smile. "Eccellenza… our Holy Fadher isa greatly concerned fora your healt." One sits down a little too close to the bishop. The other, still standing, opens his jacket, reaches in and draws out a beautiful Waterman fountain pen and thick, folded sheet of paper.]

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

Fisking

2010-04-12T09:24:00.001-07:00
is an art form, best left to practioners with intelligence and insight. I give you Father Z on an AP ~~hack~~ writer:
Another ridiculous AP article deconstructed:
AP, which unprofessionally has declared open season on Pope Benedict – engaged in a relentless ad hominem – has a piece which cites as the mainstay non other than Richard McBrien. They drag in a 'conservative' for reasons of ballast, but they crack on upon their course.

My emphases and comments.

Pope's ivory tower past adds to his detachment

By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer Vanessa Gera, Associated Press Writer [AP's correspondent in Poland] - Sun Apr 11, 1:41 pm ET

VATICAN CITY - Long before entering Vatican life, Pope Benedict XVI won renown as a theologian and a German university professor, penning more than 40 books and winning a devoted following of students who respected his prodigious memory and brilliant mind.

One thing absent from his resume? Significant time as a parish priest. [I think what we are about to see here is a common liberal trope: when you want to discredit someone or something, say that it or he isn't 'pastoral'. Personal anecdote: I was once told by a chancery hack in a diocese where an ultra-liberal bishop was in charge that their concern about me was that I was conservative but I was intelligent. I am not making this up. If I were 'less intelligent', and, say, more 'pastoral', well... then.... First, liberals only think liberals are really intelligent. But when they run across [FILL IN BLANK] on the other side which is smart, effective, successful, etc., they label that thing or person 'not pastoral'. A perfect example is what Bp. Trautman says about the new translation. I already have the sense that that is what you are going to see in this article.]

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

What He Said

2010-04-03T12:48:00.001-07:00
I noticed some of the MSM touting the "Papal Scandal" alongside the NYT. For example, there were complaints in the blogosphere about the London Times just before the American Times resumed covering itself with shame. The BBC, which I like to watch for international news was following lockstep. And I join those who are curious about the timing of the "demonstration" organized in Saint Peter's Square that just happened to coincide with the Times latest assault on the papacy. So I'm in agreement with this:
Birds of a Feather:
Ruth Gledhill of The Times in London seems to be vying with Maureen Dowd for the 'Dumb Attacks on the Catholic Church' award. In this article she leapfrogs from Archbishop Rowan Williams snide comments about the Catholic Church to the sermon by Fr Raniero Cantalamessa quoting a Jewish friend who recognized elements of the persecution in the present campaign against the Catholic Church that...

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

Mea Culpa

2010-04-03T10:58:00.001-07:00
It's the Catholic thing to acknowledge one's guilt. In the Latin (curiously changed in the present-and-soon-to-be-replaced translation) we start each Mass by confessing our sinfulness: Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa ([through] my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault--replaced with "through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do;"). So it is good for us to consider how we have been complicit in the Long Lent that we are still suffering through:
Happy Hour Links:
Peggy Noonan on the Catholic Church's catastrophe.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Campaign Standard.)

A Nice Summing Up

2010-03-30T09:23:00.001-07:00
of the "The Pope Should Resign" party and it's malcontents:
Murphy Case: NYT Never Talked to Judge:
In a remarkable piece, we get a sense of confirmation, that the New York Times and the mainstream press are doing their best -during Holy Week, as usual- to (at the very least) foment disgust at the Pontiff and the Catholic Church and/or (at worst) create a climate that "demands" a papal abdication. But curiously...

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

Oh Good

2010-03-29T15:32:00.001-07:00
Another reason to doubt Global Warming:
Settled Science Based on Unsettled Data:
Science requires the collection and interpretation of data. Consensus, therefore, requires that there be no significant dispute on either the data (e.g., its relevance) or it interpretation. The debate over whether there is a “consensus” about anthropogenic climate change has tended to focus on the interpretation of the data.

But what if the data is fatally flawed?

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

Internal Politics

2010-03-28T09:39:00.001-07:00
in the Church?
“using the victims of clerical child abuse to fight internal political battles”:
Some analysis from the UK by Damian Thompson with my emphases and comments:

Some liberal Catholics are thinking: It’s payback time, Ratzinger!

By Damian Thompson

There is still no good evidence that Pope Benedict XVI is seriously implicated in the atrocious child abuse scandals that are – rightly – blackening the reputation of the institutions of the Catholic Church. But still the attempts to join the dots continue. To put it bluntly, there is an increasingly frantic media campaign against the Pope in which headlines are being written first and then facts shaved to fit them. [What’s on the masthead of Hell’s Bible again? "All the news that fits"?]

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

New York Times & Facts

2010-03-27T14:38:00.001-07:00
Here's a link to a summary of the facts:
New York Times Smears:
From Father Raymond J. de Souza, a response to the New York Times.

The story is false. It is unsupported by its own documentation. Indeed, it gives every indication of being part of a coordinated campaign against Pope Benedict, rather than responsible journalism.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic Light.)

A Catholic Perspective

2010-03-27T11:54:00.001-07:00
on the controversy:
The poisons that lurk in the mud:
In Robert Graves I, Claudius, the old emperor decides to let Nero be his heir knowing well that Nero will be so bad that people will cry for reform and the Republic to return. In his cups, the old Claudius rumbles:

"It will be bad, exceedingly bad…worse even than Caligula but they have to have the whole terrible truth about just how bad it can be before they come to their senses.

Let all of the poisons that lurk in the mud, hatch out."

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

A Useful List

2010-03-27T11:48:00.001-07:00
of links for those inclined to investigate the current media storm over the Vatican:
Wisconsin, Irish, German, and Other Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandals and Pope Benedict XVI: Collection of Factual, Non-Agenda-Driven Articles and Posts:
[ source ]

Read the whole thing.

(Via Cor ad cor loquitur.)

Perspective

2010-03-27T11:43:00.001-07:00

Objectivity is difficult to attain. Catholicism and the Papacy in particular evince emotional responses that reflect our prior commitments, beliefs and life history. So the current news media assault on the papacy needs some distancing before reaching judgement.

There is no reason for a Catholic to assume that every decision made by a bishop who later becomes Pope is infallible. And given the history of the papacy, serious moral defects much be considered possible in the abstract. Criticism of Church leaders may be necessary for their own good as well as that of the Church as a whole.

But the Church is a Family which means that public humiliation of one's own family including parents and other family authority figures is only moral if there is no other way of achieving their salvation. So we must not refuse to consider the possibility of failure, even serious moral failure in the successors of the Apostles, even of Saint Peter himself. But neither must we engage in public speculation or condemnation unless as a very last resort.

So read the following and consider what merit, if any, these current news stories really have:

Keeping the record straight on Benedict and the crisis:
Intense scrutiny is being devoted these days to Pope Benedict XVI's history on the sex abuse crisis. Revelations from Germany have put his five years as a diocesan bishop under a spotlight, and a piece on Thursday in The New York Times, on the case of Fr. Lawrence Murphy of Milwaukee...

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

Justice as Therapy

2010-03-14T11:34:00.001-07:00
Maybe what's needed for pædophile and pæderast priests is a trial:
Interview with the CDF’s “prosecutor” of priests who commit “graviora delicta”:
Q: What happens when a priest is accused of a "delictum gravius"?

A: If the accusation is well-founded the bishop has the obligation to investigate both the soundness and the subject of the accusation. If the outcome of this initial investigation is consistent, he no longer has any power to act in the matter and must refer the case to our Congregation where it is dealt with by the disciplinary office.

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

Therapy

2010-03-14T11:23:00.001-07:00

is the magic mantra of our age. We have therapies for everything. But if something can't be treated with a therapy, is it a disease? Is it a human failing that needs to be fixed?

Homosexuality, for example, was removed from the APA's list of mental disorders in 1973. So now the controversy is, is it possible or desirable to "treat" homosexuality?

In light of this it's interesting to observe that pædophilia may be going down the same road. First, the idea that it involves a mental disorder is being challenged. And it is certainly resistant to therapy:
A number of proposed treatment techniques for pedophilia have been developed. Many regard pedophilia as highly resistant to psychological interference and have dismissed as ineffective most "reparative strategies."[38] Others, such as Dr. Fred Berlin, believe pedophilia can "indeed be successfully treated," if only the medical community would give it more attention.[23] The reported success rate of modern "reparative" treatment on pedophiles is very low.[38]

So are these attempts to "treat" pædophile priests doomed to failure? Are the elite trying to prepare us for a future Pædophile rights campaign? Curious, first we vilify the Church for sheltering them, then we decide there's nothing wrong with them after all.

And since eighty percent or more of the sexual abuse done in the Church is, in fact, Pæderasty there is little chance of interest in therapy for that condition.

Pope Bashing

2010-03-13T13:04:00.001-08:00

is in high season now. I opened the paper while half-awake this morning to catch the lead "Pope helped house suspected pedophile" with a large colour picture of the current pope greeting the head of the German Bishops' Conference. The article is buried in Section B ('Canada & World'), page 8, with a header of "Religion".

There's a holy grail for pedophile-abuse lawyers--the incredible wealth of the Vatican. This is an idea that will not leave the popular imagination, facts be damned:

To put it bluntly, the Vatican is not rich. It has an annual operating budget of $260 million, which would not place it on any top 500 list of social institutions. To draw a comparison to the nonprofit sector, Harvard University has an annual operating budget of a little over $1.3 billion, which means it could run the equivalent of five Vaticans. This is to say nothing of the corporate world. Microsoft in 2002 spent $4.7 billion on research and development alone and has annual sales of $293 billion. On the scale of the world's mammoth enterprises, the Vatican doesn't rate.

John Allen

Greed will not believe anything less than billions, if not trillions, of dollars of wealth hidden somewhere by the opulent Vatican. And the Pope is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of this incredible treasure-trove. So, tagging a current pope to alleged misconduct directly then becomes the all-important tool to gain access to this booty.

I get the need for journalists to have no special friends who are above suspicion. And I understand that allegations like this need to be fully aired. Imagine my confusion when I read the article and come away with 'the current pope, then archbishop, arranged for housing for an accuse priest while he sought counselling and therapy'.

Where's the beef? Did the pope do something that was improper, illegal even? Did he fail to do something that he should have, morally or legally? No answers to these questions are to be found in this article. Did the Vancouver Sun edit the submission to eliminate these issues? Or did the author (Gina Doggett) think these wouldn't be germane to her story? She threw in enough hot-button issues in the article, with only a slender thread of relevance to the lead story. Why weren't the key questions asked and answered?

There is, alas, a possible explanation for these omissions. Read this for more.

Self-Discernment

2010-03-08T16:28:00.001-08:00

In my brief stint in RCIA, one of the stumbling blocks was my perception that the candidates (Christians seeking full communion with the Church) and catechumens (the unbaptized seeking that sacrament and full entry into the Christian Life) were self-selecting themselves. Given that they started the nine-month process with that intention and endured to the point of being asked what they thought, the answer was almost universally "Yes, I'm ready". No chance of a misjudgement there, right?

Yet it must be admitted that a certain amount of self-awareness and conscious choice must be involved for each person in the process. So consider this quote in that context:

Couldn't Have Said it Better Myself:
"Conscience formation comes first. A person with a well formed conscience is equipped to engage in fruitful discernment. But when someone whose conscience is not well formed tries it, the result is likely to be self-serving and not God's will."

Read the whole thing.

(Via Intentional Disciples.)

Which then lead naturally into my other major issue: catechesis...

Global Warming and Science

2010-03-02T11:19:00.001-08:00

The following citation is an interesting breakdown of the issues surrounding global temperatures over the last sixty or so years. It identifies five different issues with the 2007 IPCC claim which attributes most of the rise of 0.7 ° C over that period to human GHG.

This article identifies five different issues with the Hadley ("Climategate") data which is the basis for the IPCC claim. These five issues break down into two different types: those which modify the original 0.7 ° C itself and those which attribute a different cause. Of those which suggest different causes, some are not anthropogenic, but one is (soot).

So let's correct the original number to 0.47 ° C by eliminating the sea surface temperature errors and the non-climatic signal change ("urbanization"). We then identify four possible causes contributing to this change. Two are anthropogenic and two are not. Those causes we are not responsible for are Stratospheric water vapour and the Sun. Stratospheric water vapour contributes about 0.06 ° C. The Sun's contribution is more problematic.

We don't actually know what, if anything, the sun contributes to our climate variations. The seasons themselves seems to indicate a large role--less sunlight equals colder temperatures. But what about longer-term changes in climate? The scientist cited comes up with different hypotheses that range from no contribution to 65% of the observed warming over the last sixty years. He then cited plumps for 33% for no reason cited. Yet the graph only drops 0.1 ° C. So something is being done with these successive graphs that I'm not understanding.

Of the two anthropogenic causes Black Carbon (soot) contributes 0.1 ° C or about twenty percent of the total. The remainder includes GHG and any other causes as yet unidentified. This apparently amounts to about 0.2 ° C or about 40% of the total. In other words, we seem to be contributing more than twenty percent to current warming, but possibly less than sixty percent. That still seems pretty serious to me, so I'm at a loss to explain the articles conclusion which reduces GHG's contribution to less than a third (which it may, in fact, be) by merging all the various issues indiscriminately.

Most of the Observed Warming since the Mid-20th Century Likely Not from Human GHG Emissions?:
A few weeks ago, over at the blog MasterResource.org, WCR’s Chip Knappenberger took a look at just how confident one should be regarding the amount of warming that anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have caused since the mid-20th century.
The IPCC claims that it is “very likely” that “most” of the warming since then has been [...]

Read the whole thing.

(Via World Climate Report.)

Climategate

2010-03-02T09:57:00.001-08:00
may be getting some uncomfortable exposure over the pond. I'm still agnostic. But the behaviour attributed to some of these scientists seems completely normal given Original Sin.
Opening Night Reviews in the UK Press:
Richard Drake sent in an interesting selection of opening night reviews for the Parliamentary Inquiry from UK parliamentary reporters, most of whom seem to be new to the climate wars and offering a relatively fresh perspective.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Climate Audit.)

Are We Being Manipulated

2010-03-01T08:07:00.001-08:00
by the MSM when it comes to gender?
Down the Memory Hole

This Classical Values post, and the video below, raise some good points about the disparate treatment of men in post-modern Western culture. Add to this disproportionate differences in homelessness and suicide, the disproportionately greater expenditures on women's medical issues, and you have a sense that if these factoids didn't favor women, they would be considered a

Read the whole thing.

(Via Lex Communis.)

Realsim and the Resurrection

2010-02-28T09:07:00.001-08:00
Oswald Sobrino has some interesting things to say on these subjects vis-a-vis an atheist friend of his:
Who Is the Realist?:
One of my favorite friends and conversation partners is the "village atheist" where I live. He is an eminently decent and pleasant man. One of his main concerns is not to live under the allegedly false illusion of religious belief.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic Analysis.)

An Exercise in Moral Reasoning

2010-02-27T18:31:00.001-08:00
especially in light of Catholic Moral Teaching:
More on Thiessen’s Moral Muddles:
For those interested in a detailed discussion of the flaws in Marc Thiessen’s use of double effect to justify “enhanced interrogation techniques,” as well as a sober overall judgment about the moral status of our interrogation policies after 9/11, see Christopher Tollefsen’s analysis on The Public Discourse.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

You Decide

2010-02-26T12:18:00.001-08:00
This is an opportunity to see an actual debate between ACC(GW) proponents and critics. How many university courses do I need to take to confidently reach my own conclusions?
Quick Response to Ben Santer’s Comments at RealClimate:
Ben Santer has an article over at RealClimate defending himself against some claims made recently by Fred Pearce in a series of articles Pearce did for the U.K.’s Guardian in recent weeks.
In particular, Santer discusses a 1996 paper that he (and colleagues) published in Nature magazine in which they reported to have identified a human [...]

Read the whole thing.

(Via World Climate Report.)

Global Warming

2010-02-24T12:15:00.001-08:00

remains a concern for me. Is it happening? How fast? Are we responsible for it? What, if anything, can we do about it? These are important questions that need to be answered.

But it's difficult to answer when information is being offered by experts that is questionable:
Update on Global Drought Patterns (IPCC Take Note):
We are sure you have heard that global warming is causing more frequent and intense droughts throughout the world. Right? The claim is easy to make – higher temperatures increase evaporation rates, soil moisture is depleted, and drought conditions result. Indeed the Technical Summary of the most recent IPCC assessment includes “More intense [...]

Read the whole thing.

(Via World Climate Report.)

Let's Engage in a Thought Experiment

2010-02-24T12:04:00.001-08:00
What if the unborn were as important as rain forests?
The Satanic Inversion of Values Gets Pwned:

H/T: Brutally Honest

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Archaeology

2010-02-24T12:00:00.001-08:00
is an enduring interest for me:
New Discovery in Jerusalem:
The AP is reporting some big news about important new find in Jerusalem: JERUSALEM - An Israeli archaeologist said Monday that ancient fortifications recently excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon and support the biblical narrative about the era. If the age of the wall is correct...

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

Catechesis and Discernment in a Year-Round RCIA Process

2010-02-22T20:23:00.001-08:00
These were important themes for me by the end of my brief (three-year) stint on the Team. We were still a September-to-May type of process. This is an interesting take on these issues:
Integrating a Systematic Catechesis with a Year-Round R.C.I.A. Process:
This presentation was given by Dino Durando and Stacy Phillips from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Modesto, CA at the Diocese of Sacramento’s Catechist Ministry Day on September 26, 2009 in Sacramento, California.

Read the whole thing.

(Via The Blog That's All About R.C.I.A..)

What is the New Media?

2010-02-20T12:32:00.001-08:00
I can see how blogging plays an important new role in trying to keep the MSM somewhat honest. (Hello, New York Times. Welcome to the Climategate controversy.) What other medium is part of that process? Or are we using the plural (-ia) as a singular? Maybe medium has confusing and irrelevant connotations in English. Let me check my crystal ball...

"Kate Zernike...are you in the room?":
Here is Part 1 of Andrew Brietbart 's speech upon receiving an Accuracy in Media award for his work as 'whistleblower' against mainstream media bias. At 6:05 find his comments about Zernike's venom spitting attack , posing as a NYT 'journalist'. You don't have to be conservative to be scandalized by obvious lying and proselytizing by bankrupt journalists, but it helps if you're not a liberal...

Read the whole thing.

(Via island breezes.)

Fraud

2010-02-02T13:26:00.001-08:00
from the MSM?

Media Malpractice at March for Life

via Heart, Mind & Strength.

Torture and Definitions

2010-01-26T11:52:00.001-08:00
John DaFiesole asks some pertinent questions for those who are still on the sidelines about torture:
:
Some questions for those whose need for a definition of torture has not yet been met
What are you going to do with your definition once you get it?

I ask this because lexicographers, moral theologians, legislatures, courts, governments, and international bodies all have definitions that meet their needs.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Disputations.)

Humour-Challenged

2010-01-22T08:55:00.001-08:00
is what I sometimes think people are about some subjects. Read the disclaimer at the bottom of this to get the context:
37th Anniversary of legalized baby killing ...:
... and Robert George says he's "moderately pro-choice"!!:

I am personally opposed to killing abortionists. However, inasmuch as my personal opposition to this practice is rooted in sectarian (Catholic) religious belief in the sanctity of human life, I am unwilling to impose it on others who may, as a matter of conscience, take a different view. Of course, I am entirely in favor of policies aimed at removing the root causes of violence against abortionists. Indeed, I would go as far as supporting mandatory one-week waiting periods, and even non-judgmental counseling, for people who are contemplating the choice of killing an abortionist. I believe in policies that reduce the urgent need some people feel to kill abortionists while, at the same time, respecting the rights of conscience of my fellow citizens who believe that the killing of abortionists is sometimes a tragic necessity--not a good, but a lesser evil. In short, I am moderately "pro-choice."

Read the whole thing.

(Via Musings of a Pertinacious Papist.)

Abortion and Economics

2010-01-21T09:24:00.001-08:00

The other night a friend mentioned the Freakonomics hypothesis that Roe v. Wade had led to a decrease in the crime rate. The idea is that crime comes from the poor and abortions tend to reduce the number of the poor, ergo a decrease in the crime rate.

I couldn't remember the details on that one, but I did suggest a counter example: the decrease in the population from abortions may be having a devastating impact on our economy. Lo and behold:

Researcher: Abortion is $38.5 Trillion Drag on the Economy:
In its latest estimate on the economic impact of abortion, the Movement for a Better America is reporting that the abortion toll is projected to climb to a new high of 52,333,000 as of January 22, 2010, the 37th anniversary of Roe V. Wade.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic Exchange.)

Can Anyone Remember the Shoe-Bomber?

2010-01-06T09:10:00.001-08:00
Because if you can this looks scary stupid:
Kristol: Dennis Blair vs. the Intelligence Community:

We can and we must outthink, outwork and defeat the enemy's new ideas.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Campaign Standard.)

Framing the Question

2010-01-06T08:46:00.001-08:00
sometimes determines the answer you get. In the abortion debate (to the extent there is one) the philosophical analysis frequently ignores the obvious biological relationship the two parties have: mother and child:
The Right Way to Think About Unborn Children:
I give you a wonderful quote from Francis Canavan's excellent book The Pluralist Game:
If
we take the principles of liberal individualism as axiomatic, we find it
possible to think of the fetus and the woman as the parties of the first and
second part arguing over their respective rights. We are then able to blind ourselves to the
natural fact that they are related as mother and child and that the child is in
the only natural place for him to be, his mother's womb (italics added).

(Via Touchstone Magazine - Mere Comments.)

Really Scary People

2010-01-06T08:40:00.001-08:00
are marching boldly into moral chaos:
Denying Intrinsic Human Dignity in Bioethics:
An article in the journal Bioethics proposes dumping intrinsic human dignity as a basis for determining bioethical principles and policies. But that would expose the most defenseless among us to the worst forms of exploitation, which the author, Alasdair Cochrane, acknowledges. From his article “Undignified Bioethics” (link to abstract):

…if all individual human beings possess dignity, then they should not be viewed simply as resources that we can treat however we please.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

Mark Shea

2010-01-06T08:36:00.001-08:00
saves me the trouble of writing and thinking (hopefully not in that order) about the Christmas bomber and reactions to him:
A rather sensible and sober take:
on the security issues raised by the Christmas bombing attempt.

Me: I don't think we are serious--and I say that about both a) the fools who think we should subject blue-haired old Lutheran ladies to the exact same scrutinies as single male Nigerian Muslims with a documented history of crazy Islamic opinions and b) the idiots who think that Dick Cheney's policies of torture and terror are Manly Realism.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

ID and Enthymemes

2010-01-05T11:27:00.001-08:00
What is an Enthymeme? It's an argument that fails to state all it's premises and which is defeasible because of that. (Gee, I miss college-level philosophy.) All of which is an excuse to point out this well-reasoned post:
A Walk to the Moon:
As Jim Croce once sang, “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, You don’t spit into the wind, You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t match wits with David B. Hart.” (At least I think those are the lyrics, its been awhile since I heard the song.) Hart’s commanding intellect and depth of knowledge are so daunting that only the foolish would rush to disagree with him. While I’m naturally reticent to disagree with anything he writes, he made a claim about intelligent design theory (ID in his review of Richard Dawkin’s latest book that I believe is worth challenging.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

I Won't Be Cheap

2009-12-31T15:30:00.001-08:00
But I'd sell out if the price were right:
Predictions for 2010:

—Bloggers will continue to mau-mau the mainstream media in the hopes of being able to sell out and be co-opted by an establishment media company.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

Emotional Fish?

2009-12-28T09:28:00.001-08:00
I'm as fascinated by the scientific study of brain as the next guy. So when they start applying fMRI technology to fish, I'm interested. Then I find out that our emotional fish is dead:
Are fMRI Studies a Red Herring?:
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a technique for measuring brain activity by detecting the changes in blood oxygenation and flow that occur in response to neural activity.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

Peer review

2009-12-23T15:51:00.001-08:00
should be a kind of quality assurance system for scholars. But it doesn't necessarily work that way:
Peer review: Life, death, and the British Medical Journal:
This controversy erupted over estimates of war deaths since World War 2 (1939-1945:)
Researchers from Canada, the UK and Sweden have slammed the influential British Medical Journal (BMJ) for publishing an error-filled study on global war deaths, refusing an equivalent rebuttal article and having a flawed peer-review process.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Post-Darwinist.)

There Are Facts and There Are Facts

2009-12-21T10:42:00.001-08:00

I'm still struggling with the competing narratives of the CACC(GW) so more competition is not welcome. Trying to remember that we're in the Holocene epoch of the Quaternary period isn't too much of a strain. Terms like the Holocene Climatic Optimum and Younger Dryas stadial are starting to test me, though. The net result of my research to date is to confirm that we are in an interglacial interval in the current ice age. that has had some significant climate fluctuations

Pressing issues include was there a Medieval Warm Period? How warm was it compared to today? (Or can we even reasonably know that?) The same issues arise with the Little Ice Age. Different scientific opinions can be read differently. These are deep waters for a high school graduate.

It's not only that different folks massage different sets of facts differently, but that different facts can be highlighted and others ignored from the same set of facts:

A Christmas Story: Some Facts about Greenland:
The wonderful Christmas season is upon us, and no Christmas story would be complete without snow. If you really like snow, Greenland is the place for you! The snow there lasts all year long and is 1,000s of feet deep in the interior – a white Christmas is guaranteed every year in this [...]

Read the whole thing.

(Via World Climate Report.)

Climate Wars?

2009-12-19T13:23:00.001-08:00
I'm trying to keep an open mind on the CACC(GW) theory while I do some desultory reading. So I've subscribed to RealClimate, Climate Audit and World Climate Report. The early returns suggest that I might get bogged down in details, scientific arguments I'm not competent to resolve and competing narratives:
Climategatekeeping: Wikipedia:

Lawrence Solomon has an interesting column in the National Post today on William Connolley’s climategatekeeping role at Wikipedia. See also an article last year.

Connolley was one of the nine realclimate founders, but posted little at realclimate. This has notoriously not been the case at Wikipedia. Solomon reports that Connolley “created or rewrote 5,428 unique Wikipedia articles” and that Connolley was granted a senior editorial and administrative status at Wikipedia that enabled him to delete “over 500 articles” and “barred” more than 2000 Wikipedia contributors who “ran afoul of him”.

Particular areas of interest for Connolley were the Hockey Stick debate e.g. here,

Check it out

Read the whole thing.

(Via Climate Audit.)

There's a Cold Breeze Blowing

2009-12-18T10:47:00.001-08:00
against CACC(GW). Isn't there something self-serving about simultaneously blocking access to peer-review while dismissing alternative theories because they haven't been peer-reviewed? Admittedly the attempt to block access hasn't been 100 per cent effective. Does that mean we should trust the peer review process when it comes to Climate Change?

WSJ: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus:
Be sure not to miss Pat Michaels’ view of one of the most important impacts of ‘Climategate’–the biasing of the contents of the scientific literature upon which the EPA bases its Endangerment Finding.
Pat lays out his case in today’s (Dec. 17, 2009) Wall Street Journal.
In summary:
The result of all this is that our refereed literature [...]

Read the whole thing.

(Via World Climate Report.)

Confidence

2009-12-17T22:58:00.001-08:00
in Science is not increase by this sort of news:
Another crack in the wall

Russians confirm that Global Warming is based on "cherry-picked" data.

Climategate has already affected Russia. On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with

Read the whole thing.

(Via Lex Communis.)

The Koran Versus The Bible

2009-12-15T12:26:00.001-08:00

The multiplicity of Scriptural texts over a thousand years and more and the large number of textual variants are viewed by Muslims as a scandal. How could God's Word be variant or doubtful? For them, the Qur'an is the perfect counterfoil to the Scripture Text: uttered from the mouth of the Archangel Gabriel to Mohammed, who memorized it and passed it on to be written down, incorrupt.

For an educated Christian, however, the multiplicity of Scriptural texts and the hundreds of variants are a major blessing. First off, try drawing straight, parallel lines on a piece of paper. In elementary school I was taught that you needed at least three points to make sure a line was correct. By analogy, the thousands of Scripture texts (complete and partial) provide abundant evidence ("points") of the state of the original texts (the autographs).

What about all those variants? Don't they undermine confidence in the text? Not really. No significant doctrinal or historical divergence appears in any of the surviving manuscripts. The Good News of Jesus Christ is the same in every one. For thousands of texts over a thousand years in multiple languages, this is strong evidence for the reliability of our present text.

But is this not still inferior to the Muslim claim of a perfect, invariant text? No, because there is no such text. A great deal of the Qur'an's history has been destroyed thereby reducing the number of "points" we could test the present text against. Enough variants exist, however, to show that there was a history to the Qur'anic text which Muslim apologists are unaware of. Consider the following:

The Yemeni Qur'an:
To quote Puin: "So many Muslims have this belief that everything between the two covers of the Qur'an is just God's unaltered word... They like to quote the textual work that shows that the Bible has a history and did not fall straight out of the sky, but until now the Qur'an has been out of this discussion. The only way to break through this wall is to prove that the Qur'an has a history too. The Sana'a fragments will help us to do this."

[snip]

One early Muslim declared, "Let none of you say, 'I have acquired the whole of the Qur'an.' How does he know what all of it is when much of the Qur'an has disappeared? Rather let him say 'I have acquired what has survived'" (As-Suyuti, Al-Itqan fii Ulum al-Qur'an ).

Read the whole thing.

(Via Jihad Watch.)

Natural Theology

2009-12-14T17:20:00.001-08:00
is a branch of philosophy. It's heartening to see it being promoted this way:
All the Evidence for God. An Inquiry:
Ruini outlined three ways of access to God, three proofs of his existence, not theological but rational, and therefore able to be presented to all, not only to believers.

The first way departs from the evident fact "that there is something rather than nothing." The second moves from the observation that the universe can be known by man. The third is based on man's experience of a moral law within himself.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

A Different Perspective

2009-12-14T17:05:00.001-08:00
on the Copenhagen Climate Conference:
If the Marx Brothers Held a Climate Conference:
It would look like this

Read the whole thing.

(Via Campaign Standard.)

I Don't Believe in Santa Claus

2009-12-14T16:57:00.001-08:00

It's hard to say when it began. Perhaps my nanny taking me (three years old or so) to a store with a large bearded man in a garish red suit. I cried and cried and would not sit on his lap. Perhaps it was later when I had reached the age of maturity (twelve or thirteen) and announced to my sister (six or so) that Santa Claus was a lie. Dad was not happy

As a moralistic parent (thirty plus) I determined never to tell my children lies. So while I never said "There is no Santa Claus", I refused to promote his cult.

Saint Nicholas, on the other hand, we enthusiastically promoted. We hung stockings on the Fireplace mantle on the eve of his feast (Dec. 6). And the first year, just to make the point, Daddy (me) received sticks in his stocking for being a bad boy. You should have seen how big their eyes were.

On Nicholmas morning their presents from the sainted bishop would be found. The gift giving at Christmas was by way of exchange only. They had the advantage on their schoolmates of getting presents early, but otherwise felt left out of the Santa Claus festivities. As young adults they're still not entirely reconciled to Dad's philosophy of Christmas and child-rearing. Oh well.

Santa’s Dead:
Perhaps it was my innocent sheltered and naive nature, but I found the Santa myth quite appealing as a youngster. So appealing, in fact, that I clung it to it long after others my age had discovered that it was no coincidence that Santa Claus and Dad had the same favorite cookies, or that Santa’s handwriting bore a striking resemblance to Mom’s.

Read the whole thing.

(Via In the Agora.)

Eccentricity

2009-12-14T16:28:00.001-08:00
is in the eye of the beholder. There has been a little sensitivity in the Catholic Blogosphere over the Archbishop of Canterbury describing the Pope's theology as eccentric. I'm not as riled as some over the Dr. Williams comments. He seems irrelevant to Catholicism for the most part. But some of the reactions do raise a smile:
Catholic Culture : Commentary: Off the Record:
The Archbishop of Canterbury is annoyed with England's Labor government, and particularly with the way the government treats religions: as if "it's an eccentricity, it's practised by oddities, foreigners and minorities."

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic World News.)

Less Babies

2009-12-14T16:12:00.001-08:00

equals happiness? The dark underside of the environmentalist religion has started showing a little more prominently. Promoting the totalitarian regime in China as a leader in the CACC(GW) movement doesn't inspire confidence. These are the children of Mao and he had millions of deaths on his conscience when he died. The current leadership hasn't renounced a single one.

The One-Child policy continues, albeit slightly less draconian in places, and forced sterilizations and abortions still occur. This kind of madness is only now having deleterious effects that are being recognized by these leaders. This is not the kind of leadership anyone needs. Alas, the Financial Post hasn't caught up with the news. As Mark Shea says: "Just enough of me, too much of you". So the following isn't entirely unexpected:

Carbon Scheme: Offset Your Jet-Set Lifestyle by Eliminating African Babies:
Population control groups have been using the hype surrounding the Copenhagen climate change conference to promote their solution to hypothetical impending environmental catastrophes. Earlier this month, two pieces appearing in the same edition of the Guardian revisited a report by Britain's Optimum Population Trust (OPT) that suggests that people in wealthy first-world countries should "offset" the carbon cost of their jet-setting lifestyles by paying to prevent the births of poor children in the developing world.

Read the whole thing.

(Via LifeSiteNews.)

The Sky is Falling!

2009-12-14T07:16:00.001-08:00

While I wrestle with the vexing issue of whether and how much the base climate change data has been manipulated there is still the uneasy feeling of salesmanship. When I took a Business Communication course many years ago, one technique they mentioned was "backing the hearse up to the door".

This is a sales technique that uses naked fear to sell some good or service to the prospective customer. Examples of it are on TV all the time. If they're not using sex to sell something, it's about our fears. And the sense that there is an overplayed emotionality to the sales pitch for CACC(GW) reminds me uncomfortably of this technique.

Mark Shea brings in some nice insights from GKC while expatiating on this theme:

PANIC!!!!!:
The pattern that emerges over the decade is that the preferred governing style of our Ruling Classes is to scare the daylights out of people with some sort of world-imperilling threat and then use the panic to stampede us toward this or that consolidation of massive power.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

A LIttle More Direct

2009-12-11T13:04:00.001-08:00
than I would put it:
Jimmy Akin Shares My Skepticism About AGW:
in spades.

When they tell you "Shut up about Climaquiddick! We need to adopt a global one child policy right now!" you should be very skeptical about what the Stampeders in our Ruling Classes are up to.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Is Evolutionary Psychology

2009-12-11T11:18:00.001-08:00
a faux science?
Can evolution explain religion?:

Here's my MercatorNet column (10 December 2009),

Evolutionary psychologists offer two contradictory explanations for the existence of religion. They can't both be right, but they can both be wrong.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Post-Darwinist.)

Data Manipulation

2009-12-10T10:46:00.001-08:00
doesn't equal conscious fakery, by the way:
ClimateGate: Was Data Faked? - Megan McArdle:
To me, the worry is the subtler kind of bias that we indisputably know has led to scientific errors in the past. Richard Feynman has the most elegant exposition I've ever read:

Read the whole thing.

(Via Campaign Standard.)

Where to Start?

2009-12-10T10:14:00.001-08:00

If I'm going to try to get off the fence about CACC(GW) what process should I use? I prefer the process of asking questions. So I'm trying to compose a series of questions that will help me assess, as an ignorant lay-person, the validity of the various claims made.
First question, is the global climate warming? If so, over what period of time and relative to what? This involves a lot more research than I'm entirely comfortable doing. I'd have to assess paleoclimatological questions as well. Hypotheses like the MWP and the "Little Ice age", not to mention even more ancient climate change theories, would have to be dealt with.

Second question, to what extent is this change, if it exists, outside normal change?

Third question, what contribution, if any, are human beings making towards this change, if it exists?

Lastly, what are the chances, assuming we can estimate such things, that these changes will have catastrophic effects on humankind?

Unfortunately, I seem to be stuck at the first question. If the "overwhelming proof" that the climate is rapidly warming has been created by statistical manipulation, how am I to assess what is really happening? The good news is that the blogosphere is on the job:

Intellectual freedom: The difference the blogosphere makes:
In "Bloggers peer review a scientific 'consensus,'" Gordon Crovitz writes (Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2009),
Blogging scientists have been busy reviewing the 15,000 lines of code by programmers that were included in the "Documents" folder of the leaked materials. The latest twist is hidden notations in the data from programmers that indicate where they had manipulated results. The programmers expressed frustration when the numbers didn't fit the case for global warming.

Comments in the code include "These will be artificially adjusted to look closer to the real temperatures," referring to an effort to suppress data showing that the Middle Ages were warmer than today. Comments inside the code also described an "adjustment" as follows: "Apply a VERY ARTIFICIAL correction for decline!!" Another notation indicated when a "fudge factor" had been added.
Read the rest here.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Post-Darwinist.)

Puzzling over Global Warming

2009-12-07T20:27:00.001-08:00
The CACC controversy is beyond the competence of laypeople and perhaps even many scientists to adjudicate by themselves. So an appeal to authoritative opinions must be resorted to. When these opinions conflict, how does a layperson reach a conclusion?
INEX: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Appeal to authority):
Any argument should ideally be based solely on direct evidence, not on the authority of the messenger. However, it is rarely possible in common discourse to provide all the direct evidence, so an "appeal to authority" is often used as a shortcut

Read the whole thing.

Doubt and Belief

2009-12-07T19:56:00.001-08:00

are two sides of the same coin: our attempts to achieve knowledge. In the CACC(GW) debate I'm still on the fence. And the recent brouhaha over the hacked emails (I prefer "the CRUtape letters" as a moniker) I'll let others parse their meaning and import before giving anything like a settled opinion.
It's the uneasy feeling that there are agendas behind some the alarmism. The movie clip that was part of the Copenhagen summit has a little girl screaming while holding on to the branch of dead tree and surrounded by raging waters. That creeps me out: "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!".

And I'm reminded that this isn't the only alarmist nonsense that was used to advance radical change in recent history. Who can forget the "Population Bomb"?

Scientists Behaving Badly:
Climate change is a genuine phenomenon, and there is a nontrivial risk of major consequences in the future. Yet the hysteria of the global warming campaigners and their monomaniacal advocacy of absurdly expensive curbs on fossil fuel use have led to a political dead end that will become more apparent with the imminent collapse of the Kyoto-Copenhagen process. I have long expected that 20 or so years from now we will look back on the turn-of-the-millennium climate hysteria in the same way we look back now on the population bomb hysteria of the late 1960s and early 1970s--as a phenomenon whose magnitude and effects were vastly overestimated, and whose proposed solutions were wrongheaded and often genuinely evil

Read the whole thing.

(Via Campaign Standard.)

Kennedy Did It!

2009-12-03T13:49:00.001-08:00
With his world-shaking election in 1960:
Lex Communis:
As it happens, the tree-ring proxies match up with the thermometer measurements up until about 1960, when there is a “divergence” between the two sets of data. The tree rings indicate a global cooling after 1960, while the thermometer data indicates a sharp warming.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Lex Communis.)

Science and Ideology

2009-12-03T12:39:00.001-08:00

There are two parts to my skepticism about anthropogenic global warming (Should I be shortening that to "agw"?). The first the an uneasiness in the face of claims that seem remarkably like a "Chicken Little"-like attempt to stampede leaders into radical changes to society and governance.
The other is the sense that belief in agw has become a litmus test of almost religious proportions. Believe this or be cast into the outer darkness. This particular blend of faith and science bodes ill for all concerned.

Scientists Behaving Badly:
In the current wars over global warming we are seeing an example of scientists behaving badly. I am not referring just to the hacked e-mails that everyone is talking about. Far more disturbing to me is the recent tactic of labeling any scientist who expresses skepticism about the extent of anthropogenic global warming a “global warming denier,” as though they were somehow comparable to holocaust deniers and thus both willfully ignorant and morally repulsive.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

I Remain Agnostic

2009-12-03T12:05:00.001-08:00
about anthropogenic global warming, but Jimmy Akin has strong opinions and lots of links:
I Told You So! (Well, Maybe.):
It is now clear that, as I've held all along (in private conversations if not on the blog), the man-made global warming claim is based on junk science.

(Via JIMMY AKIN.ORG.)

Science and Ethics

2009-12-02T08:18:00.001-08:00
One of the key points to keep in mind is that even if there were unethical behaviours in the "Climategate" scandal, that still doesn't tell us what the truth is about anthropogenic global warming. Remember, Galileo and Newton fudged their numbers too.
Climategate III: The Mystery of the Missing Data - Megan McArdle:
Sexing up a graph is a bad thing. But the world is not going to plunge off a cliff because of one overdone graph. I've become considerably more concerned at items that have subsequently gotten more attention.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Campaign Standard.)

Philosophy and Science

2009-12-02T07:13:00.001-08:00
In our continuing quest to try to understand the conflicting claims of various scientists and others about anthropogenic global warming, here is a beginners guide to evaluating the concept of "scientific consensus":
The “No True Scientist” Fallacy:
In his 1975 book Thinking About Thinking, philosopher Anthony Flew outlined a form of argument that he dubbed the “No True Scotsman” fallacy:

Argument: “No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge.”

Reply: “But my uncle Angus likes sugar with his porridge.”

Rebuttal: “Ah yes, but no true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge.”

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)