thanksgiving day reading

On this national feast day, the Ochlophobist has posted two links and a good heartwarming story about the true meaning of the holiday.  While M. Iafrate points out that Christians already have a Eucharist (thanksgiving), and thus have no need to celebrate incipient genocide, a fellow by the name of Robert Jenson analyses the uses of history surrounding the day, ending with this inspiring note:

As Americans sit down on Thanksgiving Day to gorge themselves on the bounty of empire, many will worry about the expansive effects of overeating on their waistlines. We would be better to think about the constricting effects on the day’s mythology on our minds.

a tirade on decadence

Although I am sorry to so regularly quote relatively harsh voices, this one (via Rod Dreher) has something quite interesting to say, once you get past the harshness.  If you read the following paragraph, wait till the last sentence before judging it; the point is not so much in the condemnations as in the final equation of this thing with that thing.  And, of course, one need not agree to see that the asserted commonality holds (should the factual observations hold, which they do not).  It is still interesting:

This is the I’ll have my cake and eat it too phenomenon – I’ll send my $500 to the Christians Rightly Allied Against Perversion (CRAAP) fund to have them lobby against homosexual marriage, but I still want my 4 large screen TVs in the house so that my 2 kids can each play their video games while my wife watches Desperate Housewives and I watch the instruction DVD which explains to me how to operate the DVD players in my new 26 foot long Ford Explosion. What I do not “get” when I do this is that when I live in a manner that assumes the correctness of grossly gratuitous consumption, I live in a manner that assumes that homosexuality should be socially accepted. Why? Because like calls out to like. Homosexuality as a lifestyle and as a moral act is a decadent, gratuitous form of consumption in which the human person becomes commodified. In fact the normative accoutrements which gays and lesbians themselves often heartily embrace as representative of their lifestyle convey a pervasive quality of consumer oriented decadence (yes, there are exceptions; they prove the rule). It would seem that such a false ontology would naturally follow from a relationship based upon a sexual act which can never rise above entertainment. But my intent here is not to analyze homosexuals, it is rather to note how much in common the bourgeois Christian living a decadent lifestyle has with the homosexual lifestylist on a fundamental level, and thus the ridiculousness of that Christian going all Dobson in his political life.

So what is the point?  So-called conservatives today are liberals inasmuch as they ground their politics in inherent individual rights that are oriented toward self-orientation and free consumption.  This is not necessarily a bad thing (and is certainly not entirely a bad thing), but it does bespeak a deep sickness within US political conservatism, which usually holds to (liberal) premises that contradict its socially conservative proclivities.  As a result, such “conservatives” are merely what MacIntyre calls “conservative liberals,” arguing mostly on the basis of perceived efficiencies in the pursuit of supposedly (though not really) shared societal aims.

national awareness month

Those who know me well will recall that I am an avid advocate of raising awareness.  Thus, it is with great glee that I notice that The Onion has reported on the declaration of December as National Awareness Month.  We can now only hope that this will lead to World Awareness Month and, not so far off, a Worldwide Year of Awareness (2012, anyone?).

meta-blogging

While meta-phenomena are normally to be avoided at all costs, Matthew Milliner’s reflections on the current state of blogging are worth whatever costs may be incurred by linking to them.

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decline and fall of the american democracy

Via Andrew Sullivan, a surprisingly fair yet still horrifying self-expression of the US electorate.  While I cannot object to the right that people have to feel certain emotional reactions, the lack of policy knowledge, among other things, makes democracy untenable even in a relatively literate society.  If you don’t believe that, then watch this.

a perceptive vegan

One need not be a practicing vegan (I certainly am not) to recognize the brilliant insight in Gary Steiner’s mostly less-than-satisfactory NYT op-ed piece:

By and large, meat-eaters are a self-righteous bunch. The number of vegans I know personally is … five. And I have been a vegan for almost 15 years, having been a vegetarian for almost 15 before that.

Five. I have lost more friends than this over arguments about animal ethics. One lapidary conclusion to be drawn here is that people take deadly seriously the prerogative to use animals as sources of satisfaction. Not only for food, but as beasts of burden, as raw materials and as sources of captive entertainment — which is the way animals are used in zoos, circuses and the like.

As someone with an interest in issues surrounding the treatment of animals, I am continually astonished by how defensive and vociferous people are in arguing for the eating of animals.  Other than perhaps US patriotism (which is understandable for many reasons), I have never encountered such a strong pre-rational impulse as the defense of the use, killing, and eating of animals.  While Gary Steiner may very well lack social tact to some degree, he is certainly right in pointing to the absurd intensity of those who disagree with him.  If you don’t believe me, try arguing that ethically motivated vegans may be correct, and you will be shocked at the response.

necessary penance

Following up on a previous open letter warning him, (Roman Catholic) Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, R. I. has instructed Rep. Patrick Kennedy to not receive the Eucharist.  While the Providence Journal story notes that “Exclusion from the Holy Eucharist — bread that the faithful believe to have been transformed into the body of Christ — is a rare and serious penalty to impose on any Catholic,” it is obvious from this simple statement of fact that it is the faithful who are to receive the Eucharist, not those who openly and willing disregard Church teaching.

What is puzzling, though, is that Thomas J. Reese, S.J. has contributed to this story by claiming that

The vast majority of bishops don’t want people denied Communion… But the problem is, every time an individual bishop does it — especially if the public official has a high-profile name like Kennedy — it’s going to make headlines across the country and every bishop is going to suffer because of it.

Yes, those silly rogue bishops with their rules and Church teachings, making all the other poor bishops suffer… what, exactly?  One wonders how Reese would react to a truly demanding bishop like St. Ambrose, who just happens to be one of the Doctors of the Church.  But the sight of a Kennedy on his hands and knees, doing penance for months on end just seems a bit far-fetched – why?

a war not worth fighting

While it is puzzling that he sets 2014 as a deadline, John McWhorter is right once again to point to the fatally flawed War on Drugs.  Like similar wars on ‘poverty’ or ‘terror’, this ‘war’ is interminable, having mostly just wrecked havoc on vulnerable communities.  As McWhorter points out, there would be no lucrative drug trade without the harsh penalties that exist; nor would so many young men get shuffled into and through prisons.  If the US decriminalizes and then legalizes first marijuana and then other substances on a case-by-case basis, we can look forward to a détente similar to that experienced by Latin American and European nations that have made such moves.  Otherwise, we will face endless violence and societal upheaval in the Bronx, Detroit, Mexico, Columbia, and Afghanistan, among other troubled regions; if careful legalization is implemented, then there will at least be hope that things will get better.

the shamefvll ende of bifhop atherton

After helping to institute a law making “buggery” punishable by death, poor Irish Anglican Bishop John Atherton (Of WATERFORD AND LYSMORE within the Kingdome of Ireland, borne near Bridgwater in Somersetshire) was accused of committing such an act with another man and was sentenced to death by hanging in 1640:

Who for Incest, Buggery, and many other enormous crimes, after having lived a vicious life, dyed a shamefull death, and was on the fifth of December last past, hanged on the Gallows Greene at Dublin, and his man Iohn Childe being his Proctor, with whom he had committed the buggery, was hangd in March following at Bandon Bridges, condemned thereunto at the Assises holden at Corke.

question: who is david thorne?

Answer: A first-rate comedic genius.

Perhaps it is how he engages in conversation rather than getting bogged down in the details of late fees and such.

Or it may very well be his meticulous attention to the anatomy of arachnids, even at the expense of a confused cog in the normally well-oiled billing and collection machine.

As a result of this spider drawing, he made $15,000 (AUS) on EBay.  Not bad.