Thursday, October 11. 2007
"If You find it in Your heart, can I be forgiven?
Guess I owe You some kind of apology.
I've escaped death so many times, I know I'm only living
By the saving grace that's over me.
By this time I'd-a thought I would be sleeping
In a pine box for all eternity.
My faith keeps me alive, but I still be weeping
For the saving grace that's over me.
Well, the death of life, then come the resurrection,
Wherever I am welcome is where I'll be.
I put all my confidence in Him, my sole protection
Is the saving grace that's over me.
Well, the devil's shining light, it can be most blinding,
But to search for love, that ain't no more than vanity.
As I look around this world all that I'm finding
Is the saving grace that's over me.
The wicked know no peace and you just can't fake it,
There's only one road and it leads to Calvary.
It gets discouraging at times, but I know I'll make it
By the saving grace that's over me." "Saving Grace," off Saved. A performance from the height of Bob's "evangelical period" is below, though Dylan has continued to perform this song and others from Slow Train Coming and Saved up until the present day.
Golden Retriever begins lactating to feed kitten. That is the power of love in action. (h/t, News for Christians)
 Some further thoughts about The Barrister's fine post Freedom? No Thanks, and a word about Erich Fromm:
Freedom is about the relationship of the individual to the State. I think of freedom as being a zero-sum game: either freedom, and the heavy responsibilities that go with it, belong to the individual or the power belongs to the State (but that may be a bit too black-and-white). Even in democracies, the State is not "the people" and is not "the nation." Institutions have a power-seeking dynamic of their own. Our Founders knew that - and rightly feared that. Does "security from the vicissitudes of life," when provided by the State, result in a diminution of individual freedom? Our Libertarian-minded Barrister often speaks dramatically about "selling our birthright of liberty for a bowl of lentils." Ed Driscoll quotes a piece by Orin Judd. A snippet: ...the importance of the responses to the Depression by both Hoover and Roosevelt lay in their decision to elevate a negative idea of Freedom, freedom from want, from hunger, from "the vicissitudes of life" above, and against, the traditional American ideal of republican Liberty. This shift from a government aimed at protecting Freedom to one designed to provide Security is the single most important thing that happened in 20th Century America.
This is why we sometimes refer to FDR, except for his role as a wartime leader, as the worst President of the US. In his noblesse oblige socialist fashion, he shifted the psychology of the nation to one in which people were encouraged to look to a government as parent (while grossly mis-managing the economy, and while viewing the Depression as a "market failure" rather than partly the consequence of mis-management). I understand very well the human desire for security: emotional, material, physical, spiritual, etc. These are things most of us strive for. However, the psychological shift from "Uncle Sam" to "Mom and Dad" government has been momentous and has, I believe, weakened the American spirit by appealing to the dependent child inside all of us and the notion that somebody else can do it for us. Naturally, many politicians jump on this opportunity to win votes by the transfer of money from neighbor to neighbor. We are ambivalent about freedom and autonomy, and our ambivalence is exploited by politicians. Even those who do not chose lives of wealth-seeking unashamedly covet the wealth of others through government programs and benefits - from corporate farmers to single moms to those on Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare and SCHIP to those on government pensions, etc. etc. That is why we find ourselves in a place where people can complain, with a straight face, that "Bush doesn't care about the health of our children" - as if the care and feeding of our kids were the job of the federal government, instead of ours. The thought contains an infantile assumption and an infantile wish. The trend leads to a royal, if not god-like, view of the State, as if reality no longer counted, and as if the State had the power to immanentize the eschaton. As Robert Parker would say, "Pretty to think so." The conservative JFK tried to reverse this trend. "Ask not..." was an appeal to the best in the country, an effort to right the ship, to redefine the country as something that depended on us, the people, rather than something we looked to for care and parenting. He was trying to say that "the country" is not "the government." He was saying that the duties of citizens of a free republic and large, and serious. But then we had Johnson. Neoneo reminds me of her piece from Passover, 2006, In Celebration of Freedom. She quotes the immortal Dostoevsky in The Grand Inquisitor chapter of Brothers: Oh, never, never can [people] feed themselves without us [the Inquisitors and controllers]! No science will give them bread so long as they remain free. In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us, “Make us your slaves, but feed us.” They will understand themselves, at last, that freedom and bread enough for all are inconceivable together, for never, never will they be able to share between them! They will be convinced, too, that they can never be free, for they are weak, vicious, worthless, and rebellious. Thou didst promise them the bread of Heaven, but, I repeat again, can it compare with earthly bread in the eyes of the weak, ever sinful and ignoble race of man?
Addendum: Our blog pal Shrinkwrapped happily picked up on the theme with a thoughtful piece which focuses on the psychology of freedom - On Autonomy and Regression. Late Addendum from Dr. Bliss: Lest this post, with which I entirely agree, sound too heartless, we are entirely in favor of a safety net for the unlucky, the feckless, the mentally ill, and for those who, for whatever good reason, cannot make it in the modern world. We are not in favor of policies which put every able-bodied soul on the dole, and reduce them to political and literal serfdom. We resist anything which causes or tempts the able-bodied towards dependency in some way: that is not the American spirit nor does it do justice to the human spirit. Plus, if we do that, who will be motivated to take the risks and to create the wealth to pay those bills? That has been tried, and it failed, because of human nature. Governments cannot create wealth: they can only help create conditions under which people can create it. On the whole, humans will rise to challenge, but will take what they can get, if their pride and conscience permit.
Insty. I think that if every honest gent and lady in DC were armed, their crime problem would be quickly solved.
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Tri-State University tried a faculty dress code - for a week. The Army is looking for a new rifle. The banality of evil. A Nazi photo album. Interview with Hirsi Ali. Reason The 11 lies in Al Gore's movie. Crittenden Dems considering personal retirement accounts. Didn't we just go through this last year? Larry Summers is a symbol. John Leo. Not a human being anymore. Obama wants Calif. to provide college aid to illegals The bogus Dem poster people. Gateway Live free or die? Jailed for using old token in NH This is what I call Hand Soap. Trying to get rid of feral hogs in Texas. Not easy. A rowing boathouse in Oklahoma? Fregans seek salvation in dumpsters.
Wednesday, October 10. 2007
SISU. She quotes Schopenhauer from John Tierney's NYT piece: We should find that it is two or three persons who, in the first instance, accepted it, or advanced and maintained it; and of whom people were so good as to believe that they had thoroughly tested it. Then a few other persons, persuaded beforehand that the first were men of the requisite capacity, also accepted the opinion. These, again, were trusted by many others, whose laziness suggested to them that it was better to believe at once, than to go through the troublesome task of testing the matter for themselves. When opinion reaches this stage, adhesion becomes a duty; and henceforward the few who are capable of forming a judgment hold their peace . . . there are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from others, instead of forming opinions for himself?
"Smile, though your head is aching." Pelosi rips antiwar protesters, and talks inside baseball. (h/t, reader)
 Moose using human shields.
We agree with Robert Reich! - against farm subsidies. Long outdated, but proof that once a govt gives a handout, it's tough to take it away. New NASA evidence refutes global warming. Gateway. The video is good. Even SF is fed up with human poop on the sidewalk. Jules. I thought they were compassionate and tolerant there. Bums are people too. Got an elephant problem? Try bees. Brit National Health turning to private insurors for help. Who would expect this in Switzerland? Is "personal responsibility" a "simplistic" notion? The NYT thinks so. Vincente Fox called me a racist. Not only is he in error, but what did he do to make his citizens want to live in their own country? Did you read about the "cascade effect" among scientists? They are human, after all. Wise advice from Scott at Powerline, with this quote from Tony Blankley: Every faction within the GOP coalition should agree immediately to make no further demands of their party. Just as the liberals did in 1991 and 1992, the conservatives of 2007 and 2008 simply should let their strongest candidate campaign in a way most likely to gain victory. Every conservative principle thereby would be safer than if heavy demands yield a Hillary presidency. Given the grotesque irresponsibility of the national Democrats, keeping them out of the White House should be the first calling of every patriotic conservative.
Photo was from Classical Values, last year
Only a person in Rhode Island could make this up. From the state where drunk driving is considered a manly sport comes this tale (thanks, Craig):
Recently a routine police patrol parked outside a bar in Lincoln, RI. After last call at the Lodge, the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so apparently intoxicated that he could barely walk. The man stumbled around the parking lot for a few minutes, with the officer quietly observing. After what seemed an eternity in which he tried his keys on five different vehicles, the man managed to find his car and fall into it. He sat there for a few minutes as a number of other patrons left the bar and drove off.
Finally he started the car, switched the wipers on and off - it was a fine, dry summer night- flicked the blinkers on and off a couple of times, honked the horn and then switched on the lights. He moved the vehicle forward a few inches, reversed a little and then remained still for a few more minutes as some more of the other patrons' vehicles left.
At last, when his was the only car left in the parking lot, he pulled out and drove slowly down the road headed toward 146. The police officer, having waited patiently all this time, now started up his patrol car, put on the flashing lights, promptly pulled the man over and administered a breathalyzer test.
To his amazement, the breathalyzer indicated no evidence that the man had consumed any alcohol at all! Dumbfounded, the officer said, I'll have to ask you to accompany me to the police station. This breathalyzer equipment must be broken." "I doubt it," said the truly proud driver. "Tonight I'm the designated decoy."
Ducks in the AM, Ruffed Grouse in the woods or Sharptails on the prairie after lunch, then ducks again in the evening. Then it's cocktail hour. A very fine trip, if the weather is nasty and the ducks are flying. But, of course, if the weather is nasty it doesn't work for grouse. I prefer the grouse, in a way, because sitting fatigues me. The lodge:  The dock in the lodge's front yard: 
 The American Academy of Pediatrics has gone over to the dark side. The sort of distrust that this sort of routine interrogation of kids could engender is alarming, and goes far beyond the rightful domain of medical care. Big Brotherism.
I would advise any parent to ask their kids what their pediatrician asks them about, and fire the doctor if he is doing this sort of thing. The number of beers I drink at a Red Sox game (2-3) is none of his damn business, and the potential for harm is enormous. If a child has emotional symptoms, the doctor should send them to a shrink who knows how to handle things.
With creamed spinach: recipe and Video.
It works well. Tangled Web. Did they have to deal with the same reactionary unions the US does?
Individuals have rights. Government has no rights, only powers. Tyler Cowen asserts that, most of the time, governments do not have the right to tell us what to do. He wants unpasteurized cheese (and so do I). Two books: Big Babies, or Why Can't We Just Grow Up by Michael Bywater Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Bonehead Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children by David Harsanyi
 I'm goin' to Jackson. Good deals on ammo. h/t, Right Wing Prof
American kids refuse to grow up. Jon Swift. Many will refuse to if they have the choice not to. Are taxes fair? No. The prosperous pay more than their fair share. Willisms Dems turn protectionist. I don't see why this is "left." Clinton was a free-trader. I think it's populist - and irrational. Are Americans fed up with "over there"? A security leak has damaged US intel on Al Qaida. I hope someone is in deep trouble. Islamo-fascism Awareness Week at GW creates a stir. Scapegoat time. Mugabe blames the West. Nice try, moron. Is the death penality constitutional? Wizbang says yes. Who trusts the media? Dems and Repubs polled. Also at TigerHawk Bashing Woodrow Wilson. Linknzona. Reality is not optional. Medical care, at Cafe Hayek The need for "narrative." Assitant Village Idiot Chavez is going to create the New Man. Good luck, pal. Stalin tried that already.
Tuesday, October 9. 2007
Don't let the food Nazis bother you. From Insty: JOHN TIERNEY: Diet and Fat: A Severe Case of Mistaken Consensus. "The notion that fatty foods shorten your life began as a hypothesis based on dubious assumptions and data; when scientists tried to confirm it they failed repeatedly. The evidence against Häagen-Dazs was nothing like the evidence against Marlboros."
Now finish all your ice cream like good boys and girls.
 It is the endless frustration of the liberty-minded that so many in the Western world seem willing, if not eager, to sell their birthright of individual freedom and autonomy for a bowl of lentils.
A short piece titled Freedom? No thanks by Dean at Samizdata quotes Steyn: A year ago, I wrote that, "The story of the western world since 1945 is that, invited to choose between freedom and government ‘security,' large numbers of people vote to dump freedom — the freedom to make your own decisions about health care, education, property rights, seat belts and a ton of other stuff."
The great psychoanalyst and socio-political thinker Erich Fromm in his politically, psychologically and sociologically brilliant book Escape from Freedom (1941) pondered the human ambivalence towards freedom especially in the context of Fascism, but it applies to any powerful State. He notes that the concept of the "individual," and thus the notion of individual autonomy (ie individual freedom and its responsibilities and risks) arose at the end of Medieval society and was coupled with the Reformation. He asks: In addition to the problem of the economic and social conditions which have given rise to Fascism, there is a human element which needs to be understood. It is the purpose of this book to analyse those dynamic factors in the character of modern man which made him want to give up freedom and which so widely prevail in millions of our own people. These are the outstanding questions that arise when we look at the human aspect of freedom, the longing for submission, and the lust for power. What is freedom as a human experience? Is the desire for freedom inherent in human nature? Is it an identical experience regardless of what kind of culture a person lives in, or is it something different depending on the degree of individualism reached in a particular society? Is freedom only the absence of external pressure, or is it also the presence of something and, if so, what? What are the social and economic factors in society that make for the striving for freedom? Can freedom become a burden, too heavy for man to bear, something he tries to escape from? Why is it that freedom is for many a cherished goal and for others a threat?
It's a book that is worth reading, if you haven't. It contains a number of the themes our Dr. Bliss returns to often: the human desire to be taken care of, to regress, to submit to an authority - all in conflict with the desire to define one's own life, to construct one's life, to make one's own choices, to take one's own risks and pursue one's own rewards, whatever those might be. Photo: Erich Fromm (1900-1980)
Today at 4. It's easy to like the guy, but let's see what he has under the hood.
171 indictments thus far for New Orleans post-Katrina pols, of no identified political party. (h/t Surber.) I think Katrina was very good for the bank accounts of New Orleans. Maybe it's time for a good hurricane in western Mass, so we can all cash in. But no mighty hurricanes this year, despite Al Gore's pleading. Could he be wrong?
Bob explains how it happened that he became a rock star.
 Randall Hoven's 101 Top Media Lies. Am. Thinker
Moslem medical students want special rules Media still searching for the "defining atrocity." Neoneo. Exactly right. More on the inside story of Haditha at Sister Toldjah Obama mixes church and state, says God should be guide. MSM silent. Also at Riehl. Driscoll says Obama wants to immanentize the eschaton, which we have discussed here at some length. That ain't Christian theology. Two years of summer Arctic ice melt. Here's why. The suicide bomber academy in Damascus.
Monday, October 8. 2007
Quote: So executive vice-presidents' families are now the new new poor? I support lower taxes for the Frosts, increased child credits for the Frosts, an end to the "death tax" and other encroachments on transgenerational wealth transfer, and even severe catastrophic medical-emergency aid of one form or other. But there is no reason to put more and more middle-class families on the government teat, and doing so is deeply corrosive of liberty. And, if the Democrats don't like me saying that, next time put up someone in long pants to make your case.
Read the whole entertaining thing. (h/t, Buddy) People do love to pretend that government programs are something other than their next-door neighbor's hard-earned money.
Attack Machine can generally be counted on to independently post many of the same topics and the same links that we do. Our blog instincts are almost identical. Great minds, etc. Case in point, a piece at One Cosmos which sits quite close to our metaphysics, skating past pure solipsism by positing and accepting God's existence. A quote: There is nothing you can say about anything that isn’t laden with implicit or explicit metaphors, which is one of the reasons why it is so absurd for the materialist to object to spirituality, since the idea of solid matter is itself a sort of airy metaphor, just a fanciful concept based upon the illusions of our nervous system, illusions like “solidity” or unambiguous “place.” Scientists often conflate the abstract and the concrete, and essentially extend the concretions of the nervous system into an abstract worldview. Which is fine, so long as you don’t confuse them with metaphysical truth, or with the Ultimate Real. For their part, so-called fundamentalist religionists often do the reverse, which is to say, concretize the abstract. But only God can really do that, since the cosmos itself is none other than a concretion in a small corner of the Divine Mind. As mentioned a couple of days ago, one of the purposes of scripture — which employs countless metaphors and other seemingly concrete images — is to follow it back upstream to its hidden source, the “place” from which revelation perpetually flows like a spring from the ground. Indeed, the place from which language itself flows.
Photo: A girlfriend of Theo, studying one of Gagdad Bob's books and wondering whether her existence is what it seems.
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