Libertas et Memoria

Is Ron Paul right on foreign policy?

2012-02-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

Paleo-conservative stalwart Pat Buchanan argues that Paul is in this must-read op-ed published over at The American Conservative online: Ron Paul: Reactionary or Visionary? Writes Buchanan:

The hawkishness of the GOP candidates aside, the United States, facing its fourth consecutive trillion-dollar deficit, can no longer afford to sustain all its alliance commitments, some of which we made 50 years ago during a Cold War that ended two decades ago, in a world that no longer exists.

As our situation is new, said Abraham Lincoln, we must think and act anew.

As Paul argues, why close bases in the U.S. when we have 700 to 1,000 bases abroad? Why not bring the troops home and let them spend their paychecks here?

Buchanan's invocation of Lincoln's prudence is well-founded on this point. As our second greatest president knew well, prudence is the key to successful policy, and America's over-reach abroad is anything but prudent. It is draining our coffers and sapping the strength of our country's people.

At one time, when facing the menace of an expansionist global communist movement, America had to take extraordinary measures in order to defend itself and the principle of free government from the threat of totalitarian Bolshevism. The Cold War necessitated that America act on a global stage to assist Europeans and other peoples besieged and attacked by the Soviet Union and its proxies. But those days are long since gone, as Buchanan points out:

During the Cold War, 300,000 U.S. troops faced hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops from northern Norway to Central Germany to Turkey. But not only are there no Russian troops on the Elbe today, or surrounding West Berlin, they are gone from Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Between Russia and Poland lie Belarus and Ukraine. Moscow no longer even has a border with Turkey.

Why, when NATO Europe has two nuclear powers and more than twice the population of a Russia whose own population has shrunk by 8 million in 20 years and is scheduled to shrink by 25 million more by 2050, does Europe still need U.S. troops to defend it?

She does not. The Europeans are freeloading, as they have been for years, preserving their welfare states, skimping on defense and letting Uncle Sam carry the hod.

Amen to that, Brother Pat.

I am not a libertarian and there are aspects of Paul's domestic agenda that I find very, very troubling. The whole newsletter flap did a lot to discredit Paul, I think, and it damaged his candidacy in a way that is difficult to overestimate. But the one of part of Paul’s platform that appeals to me is his basic approach to foreign policy. Paul is the one candidate this time out who is directly addressing the reality of America's situation in regards to foreign policy. The United States is broke & over-extended, and as a result in an unsustainable position. It needs to consolidate its strength in order to preserve its role as the global superpower — otherwise the country risks going down the same path as such formerly great powers as Spain, Great Britain, Italy and France. It is only by a realistic reassessment and revision of the scope of America's overseas commitments that the United States can preserve its status as the world’s leading power. To continue down the road of overseas adventurism is to continue down the road to future irrelevance.

To go back to Lincoln for a moment, he understood that America needs to have a modest foreign policy with limited military ambition outside of the defense of the nation and the Union upon which the nation is built. As a Whig congressman in 1848 Lincoln courageously stood against the war that the United States launched against Mexico, denouncing the desire of some to expand American power at the expense of the legitimate interests of other nations. America's leaders would do well to emulate Lincoln in this regard, and tend to the cultivation of our country's domestic tranquility, peaceful trade & commerce, and the health & vitality of its indivisible Union.

Washington State Senate votes in favor of same-sex marriage

2012-02-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

The vote was 28-21. Here's the story from the News Tribune. It is pretty much a foregone conclusion that the State House of Representatives will agree with the Senate on this issue, so it appears that the legislature will be sending this measure on to Governor Gregoire, who has already publicly stated her support for same-sex marriage. One of Spokane's state senators, Lisa Brown (D), voted in favor of the measure, while the other, Michael Baumgartner (R) voted against. Spokane Valley state senator Mike Padden (R) voted against.

As the story reports, conservatives are planning a ballot challenge to the measure once it is enacted.

Three problems for Obama's re-election campaign right now

2012-02-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

Government Motors brings the magic: GM only sold 603 Chevy Volts in January. Why am I not surprised? The government takes over an auto-company, orders it to build a car that hardly anybody wants, and then hardly anybody buys it. Sounds about right -- a testament to the kind of government programs that Obama is going to have to defend in the upcoming election.

So, how's that hope and change magic working? Not very well -- it looks like the Obama campaign is losing its fundraising advantage. His victory in 2008 had a lot to do with the fact that he had so much more money than McCain did when push came to shove. It doesn't look like Obama will have that advantage this time around. That is likely to be a huge problem for him.

Speaking of Obama campaign problems, according to this Gallup poll, Obama is in serious trouble in the upcoming national election. He's losing Oregon for crying out loud (although he is solid in Washington -- I would be stunned if Washington State didn't vote for Obama in 2012). My advice to Republicans: don't get cocky. In politics, the time between now and November is an eternity, and Obama is not going to go gently into retirement.

Das Wort des Tages

2012-02-01T21:48:00.000-08:00

Today's German word is "die Karte," which means "the ticket" in English. A feminine noun, it is an obvious cognate to the English word "card." The plural is formed by adding an "n" to the end of the word -- "die Karten," "the tickets." Used in a sentence thusly: "Habt ihr Karten für die Matinee gekauft?" That translates nicely into idiomatic English as: "Did you buy tickets for the matinee?"

Sehr gut!

Wednesday night culture moment: The Tony Rice Unit plays "Manzanita" at Merlefest 2011

2012-02-01T21:39:00.001-08:00

Which Gospel was written first?

2012-02-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

When I was a religion student back in the day, my Franciscan professors taught me the now-standard theory that the Gospel of Mark was written first, followed by the Gospels of Matthew & Luke, with the Gospel of John written last. The excellent translation of the New Testament by classical scholar Richmond Lattimore (my personal favorite New Testament translation) even alters the traditional order of the Gospels to reflect that standard theory. Most modern Catholic Bible commentaries adopt the standard theory when explaining the composition of the Gospels. The introductions to the Gospels found in the New American Bible assume the validity of the standard theory.

But what if the standard theory is wrong? Over at his blog, theology graduate student Taylor Marshall persuasively argues that the Gospel of St. Matthew was written first, in Aramaic rather than Greek, and that its composition began during the earthly lifetime of Jesus of Nazareth. His post is well worth a read.

Obama throws the Catholic Church under the bus

2012-02-01T21:02:00.000-08:00

Over at the American Conservative, Pat Buchanan takes a look at the politics around the Obama administration's decision to force Catholic institutions to provide insurance coverage for artificial contraception: Obama Sandbags the Archbishop. Buchanan's analysis is spot on, as is his call for the bishops to actively oppose the administration's attempt to destroy the legitimate autonomy of Catholic institutions under our constitutional order.

Commenting on the Obama administration's move, libertarian blogger Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit notes that Obama's decision isn't "about birth control. It’s about control." That's a key insight. This is an attempt by the government to dictate to the Catholic Church and force the Church to directly subsidize behavior that the Church finds morally objectionable. This is a direct attack on religious liberty and demonstrates the fundamental contempt that the Obama administration has for the American tradition of freedom of conscience and religious freedom.

Megan McArdle, blogging over at The Atlantic, has a solid post discussing the folly of the administration's move and the blinkered support that many (but not all) liberal commentators are showering on the administration's move: Should the Church Have to Dispense Birth Control? As part of her argument, McArdle notes that the Church's educational and health care institutions provide much-needed services to the poor and the marginalized, services that neither the government nor secular private organizations can match. That being the case, what benefit is there to attacking the Church over this issue?

Law professor blogger Stephen Bainbridge has a great response to the Obama administration's move: A remarkably narrow definition of religion. As Bainbridge points out, Catholics have an obligation under our religion to help the poor and the marginalized -- schools and hospitals aren't ancillary organizations to the Catholic faith, but are a core part of the Church's work in serving others. "The Catholic Church believes--as an article of faith--that both the Church as an institution and its members as individuals have a religious duty to tend to everyone, not just fellow Catholics. Indeed, the whole point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is that there is a moral obligation to help those in need without regard to who they are. In response to this teaching, Catholics have run social services like hospitals since the earliest days of the Church's history[.]" In that light, the Obama administration's decision is effectively a denial of the rights of Catholics to practice their religion freely.

Adrienne over at Adrienne's Corner has a round-up on religious liberty regarding the Obama administration's move -- much worth reading.

Matthew Archibald over at the National Catholic Register advises Catholics to "Get Ready to Suffer." As he warns, "The lions are waiting. They may be dressed as lawyers and bureaucrats. But be assured, they will have teeth."

The bishops seem to be moving on this, as this post from Fr. Z over at What Does the Prayer Really Say? notes: 116 U.S. Bishops have protested Pres. Obama's blatant attack on Catholics. Fr. Z lists the bishops who have protested, and he observes that the numbers as of now mean that 60% of the American bishops who head dioceses have protested. So, what's up with the other 40%????

Quote of the day: the mechanism that threatens American liberty

2012-01-30T17:17:00.000-08:00

Never can tyranny be introduced into this country by arms; these can never get rid of a popular spirit of enquiry...It is to be subverted only by a pretence of adhering to all the forms of law, and yet by breaking down the substance of our liberties.

- Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), American founding father, in his closing argument in People v. Croswell (1804), quoted in Richard Brookhiser, Alexander Hamilton: American.

Something for anyone who believes in liberty to ponder in light of the Obama administration's recent decision to force Catholic institutions to provide health insurance coverage for artificial contraception.

Walking the pro-life walk

2012-01-30T17:02:00.001-08:00

Neo-Neocon notes that both Rick Santorum and Sarah Palin have admirably lived up to their pro-life convictions in the face of very difficult family circumstances. Well worth a read. I think that the example that the Santorums and the Palins have demonstrated as families dealing with children with disabilities, is both inspiring and encouraging. In a culture and political climate that increasingly views life was cheap and disposable, their witness is a precious one. Both in the political arena, but even more importantly, in the little platoon of our society that is the family.

The collapse of the private sector union movement

2012-01-30T16:56:00.000-08:00

That topic is explained briefly by Mickey Kaus over at his blog. (Hat tip to Instapundit.) As Kaus explains, the percentage of private sector workers who are members of a union is flat in comparison to last year -- and both years are pretty dismal in regard to overall numbers. From a high of 35% at the mid-point of the century, private sector workers are now unionized at a rate under 7%. That's an astounding collapse. What's the cause? Kaus doesn't offer any, although I would speculate that the decline of American manufacturing combined with the increased leftism of the union movement as a whole is what is doing the unions in.

Saturday night culture moment: the Katahdin Valley Boys sing "Blue-Eyed Boston Boy"

2012-01-28T21:56:00.000-08:00

This is a really old song, first recorded in 1937 but stretching back to the Civil War:

Cui bono?

2012-01-28T21:29:00.000-08:00

The Anchoress has a theory that possibly explains for the Obama administration's decision to force Catholic institutions to provide insurance coverage for artificial contraception to their employees: Obama, Alinsky and the Bishops. Follow the money. Worth a read.

Anti-Romney conservatives made a mistake backing Gingrich

2012-01-28T21:23:00.000-08:00

That's Ross Douthat's view, expressed over at the New York Times online: The Last Days of Newt. Douthat's thinks that conservatives would have done better supporting Santorum instead of Gingrich because of the problems hardwired into Gingrich's candidacy at this point:

Some of what we’ve seen this week are problems inherent to Gingrich’s candidacy: You just can’t expect a rich Washington insider with considerable personal baggage, an endless enemies list within the party, and a long history of ideological flexibility to exploit Mitt Romney’s myriad weaknesses terribly effectively, at least so long as Romney himself is willing to fight back.

Gingrich's performance in South Carolina is showing that his campaign is likely to continue to have critical problems moving forward. He is rapidly headed towards Ron Paul territory when it comes to electability. It will be interesting to see if any of Gingrich's supporters come to realize this and shift their support to Santorum.

President Obama's vision for American society: back to Sparta

2012-01-28T21:12:00.000-08:00

That truth is explained by Jonah Goldberg here: Obama's Vision for a Spartan America. In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for a fundamental re-thinking of American civil society, a re-thinking predicated on our civilian life being patterned after the military. As Goldberg notes: "What Obama is saying, quite plainly, is that America would be better off if it wasn't America any longer. He's making the case not for American exceptionalism, but Spartan exceptionalism." That's the kind of change that American doesn't need.

"Who gave us the right to remake the world?"

2012-01-28T21:06:00.000-08:00

That's the question asked by Pat Buchanan over at The American Conservative. (Hat tip to The Pittsford Perennialist.) As Buchanan writes, "If America wishes to lead the world, let us do it by example, as we once did, not by hectoring every nation on earth to adopt the American way, which as of now, does not seem to be working all that well for Americans." Amen to that. America is at its truest when it is a shining city on a hill, as Ronald Reagan used to say, echoing a phrase by the great Puritan divine John Winthrop. We lead best by our example, not by the use of force or coercion.

President Obama's vision for the economy: back to the 50's

2012-01-25T20:38:00.000-08:00

Megan McArdle thinks that what's he's aiming for -- as she puts it, a 1950's economy without the social conservatism. Well worth a read. What most liberals don't understand is that the conformity of the 1950's was an integral part of that decade's overall success. It's what made the economic and social systems of that time work. Without it, as McArdle notes, the 1950's wouldn't have happened the way they did. An attempt to have late 1960's values in a 1950's economy is doomed to failure -- that's essentially the mix that brought us the train-wreck of the 1970's.

Washington's state's proposed gay marriage law to impact churches directly?

2012-01-19T21:24:00.000-08:00

That's the claim being made by Joseph Futton over at Catholic Lane: Gay Marriage Coming After the Churches. As Lane notes, while there is a religious exemption in the bill, that exemption is very narrowly tailored and many churches won't meet its definition. In addition, the proposed law contains a very powerful anti-discrimination clause that would apply to churches and other religious institutions not covered by the narrow exemption. Bad news for religious liberty in the Evergreen State.

Update: here's the text of the bill before the Washington legislature, posted over at the Washington legislature homepage.

Thursday night culture moment: the Kyrie from Franz Josef Haydn's Harmoniemesse

2012-01-19T21:23:00.000-08:00

Praise for Santorum's performance in the South Carolina debate

2012-01-19T21:19:00.000-08:00

That's provided by Terrence P. Jeffrey over at National Review Online's blog The Corner: And the Winner Is... As Jeffrey writes:

If you want to be a conservative hero for the future, you better have a compelling vision for the future as well as the ability to persuade people to follow you toward it. Last night, Santorum demonstrated he may be developing exactly that ability.

Santorum is still a long-shot, I think. But in tonight's debate he did a much better job than he's done before. Of course, he still has some difficulties -- as the Anchoress points out, he still has some weak-spots in terms of his presentation style. But given the problems that both Romney and Gingrich are running into as the campaign progresses, the fact that Santorum is getting stronger is telling. And as William A. Jacobson notes over at Legal Insurrection, Santorum was on the attack during the debate.

Homeschoolers as potential employees

2012-01-19T21:03:00.000-08:00

That's the topic of this very interesting post over at Adrienne's Corner. As Adrienne points out, in the real world of small business, the characteristics of many homeschoolers is precisely what business people look for in employees. I would also add that the kind of self-motivated and self-started learning style that successful homeschooling develops in young people helps a lot when it comes to starting and running any kind of venture -- be it in business, a profession, or higher education. Homeschooling -- something to be encouraged!

War with Iran would likely be a disaster

2012-01-19T20:54:00.000-08:00

"As America started up the road to Baghdad in 2003, Gen. David Petraeus is said to have asked, 'Tell me how this ends.' Before some agent provocateur pushes us into war with Iran, Congress should debate the wisdom of authorizing President Obama, or anyone else, to take America into her fifth war in a generation in the Middle and Near East." So advises Pat Buchanan in this article over at the American Conservative: Who Wants War with Iran? As tensions in the Persian Gulf increase, it would do well for policy-makers to pay attention to the consequences of engaging Iran militarily. Buchanan's op-ed serves as a good introduction to the complexities and the likely negative consequences that would flow from a military attack on the Iranians.

The federal budget then and now...

2012-01-19T20:46:00.000-08:00

A comparison of our national budget in 1797-98 compared with the current federal budget is provided courtesy of the New York Times. Well worth a read. While a lot has changed, one thing hasn't: debt by the federal government was then and is now a big problem. Of course, back in the day we were fortunate to have men like Alexander Hamilton around to help manage the debt and ensure it wasn't a threat to the stability of the Republic. Today? Not so much...

Scottish independence -- not a good idea

2012-01-15T21:24:00.000-08:00

That's the point of this insightful commentary by Peter Hitchens on the move by the Scots to break away from the United Kingdom: A free Scotland? No, it's being fed into the Euro-blender. Scotland has a rich history as a part of the UK, but its viability as a truly independent nation is quite in doubt, as Hitchens makes clear:

Now, it can either be a part of a United Kingdom, sharing a long and mostly happy history, a love of liberty, an astonishing inventiveness and industry and remarkable valour in war; or it can be a province of the Brussels empire, granted all the toys and trappings of nationhood but actually far less free and autonomous than it is now.

Brussels would be happy to let Scotland (like Ireland) have a flag and an anthem. There would be Scottish EU passports, token Scottish armed forces, a Scottish international dialling code and internet code, Scottish postage stamps and a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation.

The political classes of Edinburgh and Glasgow would be able to feast on Brussels money. But every important decision would be taken by the EU. You can see why this appeals to professional politicians. But it is hard to see how it would help normal men and women. Yet, unless we all fight our way out of the EU, our country will be broken up and our flag made meaningless.

The move to push Scotland out of the UK will be bad for Scotland but also bad for the UK. Plus, now that the European Union is floundering, why would the Scots choose to strike down their Union with the English in exchange for full membership in an EU that is on the verge of collapse? In some ways, the movement in support of Scottish independence reminds me of the separatist movement in Quebec -- if either movement was successful, it would be an absolute disaster for them and their unique culture.

Update: looks like a plurality of Scots, a people historically renowned for their common sense, have figured this out -- 43% of Scottish voters oppose Scotland leaving the United Kingdom, while only 40% approve. Interestingly, a slim majority of English voters want Scotland to leave the UK.

In moderation, beer is good for you

2012-01-15T21:02:00.000-08:00

That's the story linked to over at Instapundit: Ten Surprising Health Benefits of Beer. I am reminded of a saying attributed to Benjamin Franklin: "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." It turns out that Franklin was actually talking about wine, but thanks to the marvels of modern science, we now know that such a sentiment can apply to beer as well. Cheers!

Pat Buchanan fired from his job at MSNBC

2012-01-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

So reports The Pittsford Perrenialist: Pat Buchanan Canned from MSNBC. For the record, Buchanan has been "indefinitely suspended," which is media-speak for "fired." It appears that Buchanan's views on illegal immigration and its not-so-slow demographic effect on the American populace were the heresies that got Pat removed from the liberal network. Which is a sad commentary on the insularity and intolerance of the modern Left.

Buchanan was one of the first conservatives to stand up for the American working class in the face of the deliberate de-industrialization of our nation by its trans-national elites. Buchanan was one of the few prominent conservatives to have argued, since the end of the Cold War in 1991, that the United States needed to reassess its military strategy overseas in order to adopt a more realistic and pragmatic approach to foreign policy. No knee-jerk right-winger, Buchanan draws from the well-springs of conservative thinkers as disparate as Robert Taft, Russell Kirk and Barry Goldwater to approach new problems and situations, both domestically and globally. It was his encounters with working-class Americans during his 1992 GOP primary challenge to President George H.W. Bush that got him to rethink the utopian scheme of free trade. And that's just one example of Buchanan putting people ahead of ideology.

One would think that such an approach would make Buchanan exactly the kind of independent conservative thinker that a network like MSNBC would want to have on board. Alas, it is precisely Buchanan's independent streak that has run him afoul of that network -- when it comes to questions about America being a nation with actual borders and a common culture rooted in its Anglo-European heritage, dissent will not be tolerated at MSNBC.

Huntsman drops out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination

2012-01-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

Here's the story, courtesy of the New York Times. As the story puts it:

A third-place finish in the New Hampshire primary last week failed to jump start his flagging candidacy, aides said, and his campaign limped into South Carolina with little money. Mr. Huntsman has spent days pondering his future in the race, but aides said that he concluded he was unlikely to topple Mitt Romney or match the momentum of his Republican rivals in the conservative Southern primary.

Looks like Huntsman will endorse Romney tomorrow. Huntsman's campaign never got off the ground because he fundamentally misjudged the mood of the Republican primary electorate. He first sought to run as a moderate Republican who was willing to make accommodations to the left when it came embracing both global warming and civil unions for homosexual couples. Both of these positions, for a variety of reasons, alienated key segments of the GOP base. By the time Huntsman realized that he had to emphasize his conservative positions in order to have a chance to stay in the race, it was too late. He was never able to build a narrative regarding his conservative accomplishments as governor of Utah that was sufficient to get him needed electoral support. He never managed to be more than a blip on the radar. So, we are now at the point, as Robert Stacy McCain puts it, to say "Good-Bye, Governor Asterisk."

The Iron Lady on socialism and poverty

2012-01-15T11:17:00.000-08:00

From a question period in the House of Commons, at the close of Margaret Thatcher's run as prime minister of the United Kingdom:

Hat tip to Instapundit.

As I listened to Thatcher's argument, I recalled a recent news story about Washington Senator Patty Murray meeting with a group of impoverished unemployed people who were desperate for more government assistance. Here's the video of that story, as it ran on Northwest Cable News and King 5 T.V. out of Seattle:

What's interesting about that story? While these people are having financial problems caused by unemployment and medical issues, they aren't really poor. Look closely at the phone the unemployed construction worker uses to show photos in the video. It's an iPhone -- and not an old one either, it is either an iPhone 4 or a 4S.

Financial problems and actual poverty are two different things in America -- and for that, we can thank the free market economic system.

The law on which natural rights depends

2012-01-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

Clear words from one of the most important of the American founding fathers:

Upon this law depend the natural rights of mankind: the Supreme Being gave existence to man, together with the means of preserving and beautifying that existence. He endowed him with rational faculties, by the help of which to discern the pursue such things as we consistent with his duty and interest; and invested him with an violable right to personal liberty and personal safety.

- Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), The Farmer Refuted (1775).

Social conservative activist group decides to back Santorum

2012-01-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

"In an effort to avoid a repeat of 2009, when social conservatives failed to rally behind a single Republican presidential candidate, a group of more than 100 religious leaders who gathered in Texas this week reached a consensus to support former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum." So begins this report in the LA Times on a meeting of social conservative & evangelical activists. Representatives of all the Republican candidates except for Jon Huntsman made presentations to the group, and in the end, by a two-thirds majority, the activists present voted to support Santorum, as this story over at the Washington Post reports.

As this post over at National Review's blog notes, there is widespread dissatisfaction with Romney as a candidate among the activists who were present at the meeting.

It should be noted that the group that met is only a selection of activists, and they may or may not reflect the views of social conservative voters overall. Many prominent social conservatives, like Mary Ann Glendon, are supporting Romney, and Ron Paul has begun an outreach movement to social conservatives as well, as this blog reported recently. The social conservative vote is hardly monolithic, and it is still very much up for grabs.

Update: Mary Ann Glendon is defending Romney's record on pro-life issues, as Kathryn Jean Lopez notes over in a post on National Review's blog. The video is well worth watching.

Ron Paul won't go third party

2012-01-13T15:49:00.000-08:00

As explained by one-time GOP presidential candidate and later third-party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan in this article posted over at The American Conservative: The True Believer. Buchanan sees Paul as one trying to remark the Republican Party, just as Barry Goldwater did in the early 1960's. Of course, Goldwater was disastrous as a candidate in 1964, but he did set the stage for Ronald Reagan's rise within the party, first as governor as California and then later in Reagan's failed 1976 bid to wrest the GOP nomination from Pres. Gerald Ford and ultimately in Reagan's successful 1980 campaign for the White House.

If Paul is like Goldwater, which politician might Paul be interested in elevating as his Reagan? Could it be Paul's son and senator from Kentucky Rand?

Update: this story over at The Hill also casts doubt on Paul running as a third-party candidate: What does Ron Paul want? Well worth a read. Ron Paul isn't arguing for his own candidacy so much as he is arguing for the positions he holds -- fiscal conservatism, libertarianism and a restrained military policy overseas -- to become prominent within the Republican party. As neo-conservative writer Charles Krauthammer observes quite wisely:

Put aside your own view of libertarianism or of Paul himself. I see libertarianism as an important critique of the Leviathan state, not a governing philosophy. As for Paul himself, I find him a principled, somewhat wacky, highly engaging eccentric. But regardless of my feelings or yours, the plain fact is that Paul is nurturing his movement toward visibility and legitimacy.

Paul is 76. He knows he’ll never enter the promised land. But he’s clearing the path for son Rand, his better placed (Senate versus House), more moderate, more articulate successor.

And it matters not whether you find amusement in libertarians practicing dynastic succession. What Paul has already wrought is a signal achievement, the biggest story yet of this campaign.

Did Pat Buchanan's 1992 GOP convention speech hurt George H.W. Bush's campaign?

2012-01-13T15:40:00.000-08:00

That question is answered by Daniel Larson over at Eunomia. Short answer: probably not. As Larson points out, Buchanan's speech likely helped the elder President Bush maintain support from conservative and independent voters who had backed Buchanan. There is no question that Buchanan's campaign exposed fundamental weaknesses in President Bush's support, but Buchanan's campaign and speech didn't cause those weaknesses -- they were a response to them. And, as Larson points out, the GOP enthusiasm level was much higher after the convention and Buchanan's speech than it was before.

Friday afternoon culture moment: Collective Soul and the Atlanta Youth Symphony Orchestra play "Shine"

2012-01-13T15:29:00.001-08:00

Can a Catholic be a libertarian?

2012-01-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

According to Pope Leo XIII, teaching authoritatively in his encyclical letter Diuturnum (On Civil Government), the answer appears to be: no.

Although man, when excited by a certain arrogance and contumacy, has often striven to cast aside the reins of authority, yet never has he been able to arrive at the state of obeying no one. In every association and community of men necessity itself compels that some should hold pre-eminence; lest society, deprived of a prince or head, by which it is ruled, should come to dissolution and be prevented from attaining the end for which it was created and instituted.

According to Catholic social teaching, the state has a positive, beneficial and necessary role to play in human society. It is a good thing -- and insofar as the ideology of libertarianism denials this fundamental truth, it is in conflict with the social teaching of the Catholic Church, a social teaching with flows from the Gospel itself.

Ron Paul campaign moving to reach out to social conservatives

2012-01-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

Here's the story, with documentation, courtesy of The Other McCain. Republican voters are for the most part socially conservative -- raw appeals to libertarian ideology will only get a candidate so far.

A critique of "compassionate conservatism"

2012-01-09T14:18:00.000-08:00

Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute provides one over at National Review's blog The Corner. Well worth a read, as is one of the best short books on political theory out there, Gregg's little treatise On Ordered Liberty, which inspired one of this blog's previous names.

Alexander Hamilton on "the essential rights of mankind"

2012-01-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

I am inviolably attached to the essential rights of mankind, and the true interests of society. I consider liberty in a genuine unadulterated sense, as the greatest of terrestrial blessings. I am convinced that the whole human race is entitled to it, and that it can be wrested from no part of them, without the blackest and most aggravated guilt.

- Alexander Hamilton, quoted in In God We Trust: the Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers, edited by Norman Cousins (Harper & Bros.: 1958), pg. 326.

Monday afternoon culture moment: Junior Brown sings "My Wife Thinks You're Dead"

2012-01-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

The virtues of Southern Agrarianism

2012-01-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

Are explained in this essay by Lee Cheek discussing Allen Tate, posted over at The Imaginative Conservative: Agrarianism and Cultural Renewal. Here's a bit to inspire you to head over and read the whole thing:

Even though the Agrarians were an assortment of representatives with many theoretical and geographical differences, they were united by an unwillingness to accept consolidationist measures, regardless of the form, and insistent upon protecting a decentralized, group-oriented society, as defined in a variety of ways. But the Agrarians cannot be adequately fathomed by simply noting their negative response to particular issues; on the contrary, the Agrarians were part of a clear republican understanding of the nature of the American regime and religious experience.

For Tate and his fellow Agrarians the overwhelming practical and theoretical inheritance was established upon an appreciation of the necessary limitations of social and political life. Primary among the means of limitation was the need for societal and personal restraint when faced with the possibility of radical transformation. While change and social mobility were not the most commonly acknowledged aspects of Southern society, neither were such considerations beyond the pale of possibility. As articulate representatives of agrarian republicanism during the 20^th century, Tate could present an Aristotelian mean as the basis for installing an element of restraint in the operation of government. If government could not be restricted and faith encouraged, the regime would necessarily lose a sense of liberty.

On the value of the study of history

2012-01-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.

- Paul Johnson, The Quotable Paul Johnson: A Topical Compilation of His Wit, Wisdom and Satire, edited by George J. Marlin, et al (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994), p. 138.

Pat Buchanan on the future if Obama is re-elected

2012-01-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

Well worth a read. To summarize Buchanan's prediction: the economic crisis that faces our country will not get resolved and we are headed the way of Italy and Spain. And when that happens, the financiers of our nation's debt will come to the conclusion that it isn't sustainable.

The end of Epiphany and the end of Christmas

2012-01-08T22:24:00.000-08:00

Epiphany, in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, now winds to a close, and with it's end so ends the Christmas season. The dark days of winter are now upon us, and the only significant festival between now and the start of Lent is the Feast of the Presentation on February 2. Traditionally called Candlemas, it is a festival of light that begins formal preparations for Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday.

The Christmas decorations are now down and put away, and the Christmas music put back on the shelf or synced off the iPod. With the light of Christmas behind us, we begin the journey through winter towards Lent, and through Lent to the light of Easter. Deo gratias.

George Washington on civic affairs, revelation, and the need to imitate the "Divine Author of our blessed religion"

2012-01-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

George Washington's pronouncements regarding civic religion were usually couched in general language. He rarely referred to God in specific confessional terms, for example, but rather used generalized language that reflects often common 18th century Deistic terminology. This use of generalized language was often paired with terminology designed to appeal to religious believers of a more orthodox Christian persuasion. It is this pairing that more often than not leads, I think, to a good deal of the confusion regarding Washington's own religious beliefs and his view of faith in public life.

A good example of Washington's use of language in this regard can been seen in one of his more significant public pronouncements, the Circular Letter to the Governors of All the States regarding the disbanding of the Continental Army in 1783. In that letter, Washington seeks to reinforce the stability of the early American Republic as the Continentals returned home after winning independence. In his letter, Washington makes two particularly important points regarding the role of religion in civil life. The first is that for a variety of reasons, including divine "Revelation," human society is improving. As Washington writes:

The free cultivation of letters, the unbounded extension of commerce, the progressive refinement of manners, the growing liberality of sentiment, and, above all, the pure and benign light of Revelation, have a meliorating influence on mankind, and increased the blessings of society.

Note that Washington, while listing many human accomplishments in this process of improvement, he attaches priority to "the pure and benign light of Revelation." It was divine Revelation, in Washington's statement, that was most to account for the progressive improvement in human society. Not a dry and cramped secularism or a humanism operating in a universe where God is simply an inattentive watchmaker, but Revelation proceeding from an active God who was communicating with human beings, moving them constantly forward toward a better future. Washington argues that because of these many advantages -- both human and revelatory -- the happiness of the citizens of the United States as "a Nation" (and Washington uses both the singular indefinite article and a capital "N") is for the taking. If happiness and freedom do not result, "the fault with be entirely" our own.

Second, Washington further reinforces the importance of God's action in human events by commending the state governors and their respective states to divine care. "I now make it my earnest prayer," he writes, "that God would have you and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection[.]" Washington then states that he hopes that God would move the citizens of the country to "cultivate" a host of proper civic virtues: obedience to governmental authorities, fellow-feeling for each other -- both fellow citizens and particularly for the returning veterans of the Continental Army -- and, most interesting, to emulate those virtues "which werethe characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion[.]" (Italics in the original.) After including a brief and common list of those virtues, Washington states that without "an humble imitation" of the example of the Divine Author, "we can never hope to be a happy nation."

What one sees in Washington's Circular Letter is language used that is non-confessionally specific, but which takes for granted certain key religious ideas: 1) God is active in human affairs, moving human beings towards greater goodness and social solidarity; 2) because of the advantages they benefit from, the citizens of the United States are responsible for their freedom and happiness; and 3) human beings are called to imitate the attributes of God as He has revealed them.

While Washington's Circular Letter is not a fully developed treatise in civic theology, it does manifest the key points of Washington's own views about the role of religion in human society. And Washington's vision in that regard was one that viewed religion as a positive force in human life and civic affairs. It is not, to say the least, a vision of civic life that is hostile to religious faith. While couched in language that is not expressly orthodox, it is couched in language that is certainly amenable to orthodox interpretation. Far from religion ruining everything, to borrow a phrase from the late Christopher Hitchens, to the Washington writing the Circular Letter, religious faith stands as the well-spring for civic virtue and human happiness.

[Cross-posted at American Creation.]

What explains the Santorum surge in Iowa?

2012-01-03T22:17:00.000-08:00

Well, as I write this tonight Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are neck and neck for first place in the Iowa caucuses. Ron Paul is coming in third. Tonight's results show remarkable strength on the part of Rick Santorum's campaign, and a weaker showing than expected for Ron Paul. What undergirds Santorum's strength in Iowa? His work in the state was critical -- he put in the time and the energy to campaign there and it paid off. But I think there is something deeper to Santorum's campaign, a resonance that his themes have with a large bloc within the Republican Party. David Brooks has written about this in his most recent column in the New York Times: Workers of the World, Unite! As Brooks details, Santorum's Catholic ethnic blue collar background strongly influences his political positions and his campaign rhetoric:

Santorum is the grandson of a coal miner and the son of an Italian immigrant. For years, he represented the steel towns of western Pennsylvania. He has spent the last year scorned by the news media — working relentlessly, riding around in a pickup truck to more than 370 towns. He tells that story of hard work and elite disrespect with great fervor at his meetings.

His worldview is not individualistic. His book, “It Takes a Family,” was infused with the conservative wing of Catholic social teaching. It was a broadside against Barry Goldwater-style conservatism in favor of one that emphasized family and social solidarity. While in Congress, he was a leader in nearly every serious piece of antipoverty legislation. On the stump, he cries, “The left has a religion, too. It’s just not based on the Bible. It’s based on the religion of self.”

Santorum does not have a secular worldview. This is not just a matter of going to church and home-schooling his children. When his baby Gabriel died at childbirth, he and his wife, a neonatal nurse, spent the night in a hospital bed with the body and then took it home — praying over it and welcoming it, with their other kids, into the family. This story tends to be deeply creepy to many secular people but inspiring to many of the more devout.

He is not a representative of the corporate or financial wing of the party. Santorum certainly wants to reduce government spending (faster even than Representative Paul Ryan). He certainly wants tax reform. But he goes out of his way in his speeches to pick fights with the “supply-siders.” He scorns the Wall Street bailouts. His economic arguments are couched as values arguments: If you want to enhance long-term competitiveness, you need to strengthen families. If companies want productive workers, they need to be embedded in wholesome communities.

This approach to politics -- that emphasizes community and the moral values that have to be at the center of a free society -- has been around for awhile within the Republican Party. Pat Buchanan's campaigns in 1992 and 1996 certainly addressed those issues, as did Mike Huckabee's bid for the GOP nomination in 2008. In both instances, the Republican establishment lined up firmly against each of those candidates.

This time around, it remains to be seen is whether the Republican Party is willing to step up to the challenge of crafting a truly conservative campaign for this election cycle -- a campaign that makes the case for a free society grounded in community and tradition. That's a task the GOP has avoided since 1992. But Santorum's success -- together with the deflation of the Paul campaign -- may provide an opportunity for the Republicans to finally move towards a conservative approach to the great first principle questions of politics, an approach that emphasizes not the atomized individualism of some of the more excessive fringes of libertarian ideology but the conservative vision of order & balance between rights and duties, freedom and responsibility, individualism and community, the free market and the dignity of the human person. Santorum's speech tonight at the close of the caucuses indicates that such a conservative moment is precisely what Santorum is aiming for:

As Maggie Gallagher writes over at National Review Online:

This is a very, very powerful speech. The word I would choose to describe it and him is “grounded.” There’s a reason Rupert Murdoch used a word not often used about a presidential candidate surging: “humility.” The humility that comes from standing for something larger than yourself, for people other than yourself. As Rick said, “Game on!”

Related items:

Kathryn Jean Lopez over at National Review Online has a very insightful article on Santorum's campaign: Rick Does Pander-less Populism. Well worth a read.

Jill over at Pundit and Pundette talks about the media attacks against Santorum for his religious beliefs and family life. What an upside down world the media culture inhabits where a man of faith who has a strong family life has been reviled in the way that Santorum has.

Hubris, utopia and our national loss of control

2011-12-31T20:34:00.000-08:00

"In this past year, we Americans seemed to lose control of our destiny, as events seemed to be in the saddle." So writes Pat Buchanan in this insightful essay over at The American Conservative: America Loses Control. Much of the economic and foreign policy establishment of the past 60 years has been dedicated to lessening America's control over its future -- both its economic future and its sovereignty under the Constitution. This leaves us far more vulnerable to the march of events than would otherwise be the case, if America had a truly American first policy when it comes to our economy and our foreign affairs. And at the core of this multi-decade push by the establishment sits hubris, the deadly vice that propels us to spend our talent and treasure in the quest for a utopia, as Buchanan notes:

America is losing control. Why? A failure to understand human nature and the lessons of history — and the mindless pursuit of Utopian dreams.

We wagered the wealth of a nation on a Great Society gamble that through endless redistribution from top to bottom, we could create a more just, equal and productive society.

After the Cold War, we embraced the idea that using our immense power, we could remake this world into a more egalitarian, cooperative and democratic place.

Long after reality caught up to us, we continue to chase the dreams.

Reality can only be ignored for so long, though. It has a nasty way of reasserting itself.

"The deepest poverty is the inability of joy"

2011-12-31T20:26:00.000-08:00

A thought to end out 2011:

The deepest poverty is the inability of joy, the tediousness of a life considered absurd and contradictory. This poverty is widespread today, in very different forms in the materially rich as well as the poor countries. The inability of joy presupposes and produces the inability to love, produces jealousy, avarice -- all defects that devastate the life of individuals and of the world.

- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Dec. 12, 2000 address to catechists and teachers, quoted in Stephen Mansfield, Pope Benedict XVI: His Life and Mission (Penguin 2005), pg. 170.

Poverty of spirit and the spirit of Christmas

2011-12-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

On the fourth day of Christmas, a thought for those of us who continue to celebrate the season:

No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God—for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit, there can be no abundance of God.

- Servant of God Archbishop Óscar Romero (1917-1980).

(Hat tip to Titusonenine.)

Quote of the day: the problem with reason completely separate from God

2011-12-27T13:35:00.000-08:00

"There is a pathology of reason totally separated from God. We have seen it in totalitarian ideologies that denied all relationship with God and attempted to construct the new man, the new world. It always ends in horrors."

- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Address for the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, June 4, 2004, quoted in Stephen Mansfield, Pope Benedict XVI: His Life and Mission (Penguin: 2005), pg. 167.

The Republican establishment versus the Tea Party folks

2011-12-27T13:21:00.000-08:00

Smitty over at The Other McCain does a very good job discussing that topic. Well worth a read for anyone interested about the politics going on within the GOP for the past few years.

A lot of the tension between the grass-roots and the establishment go back to before the formal start of the Tea Party -- discontent was rising during George W. Bush's administration because of things like No Child Left Behind and the Medicare prescription drug plan. And before that, during the 1992 and 1996 elections, the same grass-roots discontent on the right fueled Ross Perot's campaigns for president.

Is there a Santorum surge brewing in Iowa?

2011-12-27T13:20:00.000-08:00

The Creative Minority blog things so. As with all things having to do with the Iowa caucuses, we'll have to wait and see. From the numbers, it looks like Santorum is peaking too late -- he is still far behind the front runners in the campaign there. But upsets do happen. Like I said, we'll have to wait and see. Santorum is about the only other GOP candidate, other than Huntsman, who hasn't had a moment in the sun yet as the main alternative to Romney.

Culture moment for the third day of Christmas: Bach's Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 performed by the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner

2011-12-27T13:14:00.000-08:00

Composed in honor of the third day of Christmas:

Rubrics: the next phase of liturgical reform

2011-12-27T12:56:00.000-08:00

The blog Southern Orders has an interesting post on further reform of the Roman Rite's Novus Ordo liturgy, namely restoring the rubrics from the older Tridentine Mass. (Hat tip to Serge over at A Conservative Blog for Peace.) This is a very interesting idea, and would go a long way towards the re-sacralization of the Mass. The words spoken are important, but the physical movement during the Mass is critical as well.

I think that in addition to reforming the rubrics in a more traditional direction, it would be helpful to restore two components of the liturgy that were trimmed away after Vatican II: the prayers at the foot of the altar prior to the formal start of each Mass, and the Leonine Prayers said at the foot of the altar after low Mass was over.

Here's a video of the recitation of the prayers before the altar at the start of Mass in the Tridentine form of the Roman Rite:

And here is a video of the recitation of the Leonine Prayers at the end of low Mass:

CBS News: more women are owning guns

2011-12-27T12:46:00.000-08:00

Here's the story. I'm always happy to see people embrace their constitutional rights -- especially when those rights are ones that are, you know, actually spelled out in the Constitution...

Nebraka Senator Ben Nelson retiring rather than face 2012 electorate

2011-12-27T12:42:00.000-08:00

Here's the story, courtesy of Legal Insurrection. The Lonely Conservative has more on this story. As Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit notes, Nelson pretty much doomed his re-election chances when he supported Obamacare.

The Apostle Paul on the birth of Christ

2011-12-25T20:00:00.000-08:00

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.

- Galatians 4:4-7 (Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition).

Christmas day culture moment #6: "Coventry Carol" sung by the Westminster Cathedral Choir

2011-12-25T19:27:00.000-08:00

Christmas day culture moment #5: "The Holly and the Ivy" by the King's Choir at Cambridge

2011-12-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

"For to us a child is born"

2011-12-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

The prophecy from the book of Isaiah foretelling the birth of a child who would be the Prince of Peace:

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government will be upon his shoulder,
and his name will be called
"Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom,
to establish it, and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

- Isaiah 9:6-7 (Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition).

This passage from the Hebrew Bible served in part as the inspiration for one of the great (if not the greatest) works of classical music, George Feideric Handel's Messiah. Here's the particular movement from the Messiah based on Isaiah's text:

St. Thomas Aquinas on the timing of Christ's birth

2011-12-25T15:51:00.000-08:00

There is this difference between Christ and other men, that, whereas they are born subject to the restrictions of time, Christ, as Lord and Maker of all time, chose a time in which to be born, just as He chose a mother and a birthplace. And since "what is of God is well ordered" and becomingly arranged, it follows that Christ was born at a most fitting time.

- St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologicae, III, Q. 35, Art. 8.

Christmas day culture moment #4: "There is No Rose of Such Virtue" sung by the Choral Society of Durham

2011-12-25T15:23:00.000-08:00

Christmas day culture moment #3: "I Saw Three Ships" sung by the St. George Choir, Windsor

2011-12-25T13:18:00.000-08:00

A Christmas-time "Spiritual Lullaby"

2011-12-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of one of the most interesting blogs on the Catholic side of the internet: Pentimento.

Pope Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve homily

2011-12-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

The official English text of the Pope's Christmas Eve homily may be read here, courtesy of the official Vatican website. For those who can read Italian, the text that was actually delivered by the Pope during Mass may be found here (along with video of the homily). Well worth pondering.

Christians face Christmas-season persecution in Gaza

2011-12-25T12:12:00.000-08:00

Here's the story, courtesy of the U.K. Guardian newspaper online. As most Christians here in America celebrate today in relative peace and security, our brothers and sisters in many parts of the world are not so fortunate. Persecution is a daily reality for many Christians - something to remember on this day celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace.

Mark Steyn over at National Review Online has more thoughts on the increasing global persecution of Christians, and notable Vatican analyst John Allen also has some thoughts on this topic. As Allen writes:

According to the International Society for Human Rights, a secular NGO based in Germany, fully 80 percent of all acts of religious intolerance in the world are directed at Christians. A recent symposium organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe asserted that 200 million Christians are currently the victims of violence, oppression or harassment.
Just in the last few days:

A well-known Christian catechist was killed in the Indian state of Orissa, site of a ferocious anti-Christian pogrom in 2008 that left roughly a hundred dead, hundreds more wounded, and thousands homeless.

A Sister of Charity of Jesus and Mary was killed in the Indian state of Jharkhand, allegedly by mining interests threatened by her activism among poor tribals.

Catholics in Kirkuk, Iraq, erected a monument to 36 Christian martyrs since 2003, a reminder of the decimation of Iraq’s once-sizeable Christian community.

In Pakistan, a 38-year-old Christian mother of two is facing a death sentence under the country’s blasphemy law, allegedly for challenging the treatment of women in Islam during a 2010 discussion about religion in her village.

If this were happening to any other religious community, the outcry almost certainly would be deafening – airwaves would be filled with spiritual leaders and pundits demanding action, while the grassroots would be organizing solidarity campaigns. In the Christian world, especially in the West, the basic response instead seems to be silence.

The nativity story from St. Matthew's Gospel

2011-12-25T11:42:00.000-08:00

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to be her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

"Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel"

(which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.

- St. Matthew 1:18-25 (Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition).

Christmas day culture moment #2: "What Child is This" sung by Jeanette Köhn

2011-12-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas day culture moment #1: "O Come All Ye Faithful" sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

2011-12-25T10:09:00.000-08:00

Christus natus est!

2011-12-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Today is the great feast of Christmas in the Catholic liturgical calendar. The lectionary readings for the various Masses held today may be found here. Far from ending the Christmas season, today is it's beginning -- the season lasts until the feast of Epiphany on January 8.

Today's feast stands at the core of the Christian faith, testifying to Christ's birth of the Virgin Mary, a miraculous birth that is part of the testament of his divinity and sacred mission. As one of the earliest martyrs, St. Ignatius of Antioch, wrote to a church in Asia Minor in the early second century A.D.:

For I have observed that you are perfected in an immoveable faith, as if you were nailed to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, both in the flesh and in the spirit, and are established in love through the blood of Christ, being fully persuaded with respect to our Lord, that He was truly of the seed of David according to the flesh, and the Son of God according to the will and power of God; that He was truly born of a virgin, was baptized by John, in order that all righteousness might be fulfilled by Him; and was truly, under Pontius Pilate and Herodthe tetrarch, nailed [to the cross] for us in His flesh. Of this fruit we are by His divinely-blessed passion, that He might set up a standard for all ages, through His resurrection, to all His holy and faithful [followers], whether among Jews or Gentiles, in the one body of His Church. Now, he suffered all these things for our sakes, that we might be saved. - Letter to the Smyrnaeans, 1-2.

As Ignatius evidences, the birth of Christ is far from secondary or ancillary to his nature and work. It has from days of the early Fathers been part of the core proclamation of Jesus's identify -- a key part of the tradition handed on about him, his ministry and his sacred purpose. That makes today a special day indeed -- a day where we remember not only Jesus' birth, but who he is and what he has done, is doing, and will do in the future.

In that spirit, I wish all my readers a very merry Christmas. Christus natus est!

Christmas Eve culture moment #2: "O Holy Night" sung by the King's College Choir, Cambridge

2011-12-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

"For yonder breaks our new and glorious morn":

A great short Christmas Eve sci-fi story

2011-12-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

"The Gift" by Ray Bradbury, posted over at The Imaginative Conservative. Well worth a read if you have a moment -- and it won't take more than a moment.

Christmas Eve culture moment #1: "Stille Nacht" sung by the St. Thomas Boys' Choir, Leipzig, Germany

2011-12-24T13:05:00.000-08:00

"Sleep in heavenly peace":

This Christmas Eve, remember the Christians of the Middle East

2011-12-24T13:01:00.000-08:00

Many of whom, as Mark Steyn points out in this post over at National Review Online, are suffering persecution for their faith.

New Jersey federal court rules that nurses don't have to assist in abortions

2011-12-23T20:58:00.000-08:00

Here's the good news, courtesy of A Catholic View. LifeNews.com has more on this development as well, as does the Washington Post online. Here's a link to the federal judge's initial restraining order in this case, issued on Nov. 3.

About those Ron Paul newsletters...

2011-12-23T15:44:00.000-08:00

The New Republic posts some of the more inflammatory stuff here. While much of what the New Republic views as being objectionable is simply a result of that magazine's own left-ward tilt (Paul supported Pat Buchanan -- how outrageous! Paul's son was despondent that his fellow medical students weren't libertarians -- nutty! MLK was a serial adulterer -- how dare someone say that in polite company!), some of the material from Paul's newsletters is clearly out of bounds. The conspiracy-mongering is classic tinfoil hat stuff on the far-Right, unfortunately, but even worse is the 1992 defense of David Duke. Even if Paul didn't write this stuff himself, the fact that he let it out under his own name will be pretty damaging, I think, politically. Independents, who are key to victory in 2012, aren't likely to look kindly on this paper-trail.

Update: Memeorandum has links to most of the reaction around the blogosphere to TNR's publication of the materials.

One tyranny of which Christopher Hitchens approved

2011-12-22T15:30:00.000-08:00

This PBS interview, discussed by Rod Dreher in this post over at his blog at The American Conservative, sheds troubling new light on the disturbing views that Christopher Hitchens had about Soviet totalitarianism's attempt to exterminate faith. Read the entire interview -- Hitchens' youthful embrace of Marxism comes back to him with full vigor, as he defends aspects of one of the most inhumane and barbaric systems of government ever devised by the human mind. Hitchens' admiration of Soviet savagery waxes most eloquent when he is describing the communist attempt to exterminate the Russian Orthodox Church. As Dreher quotes Hitchens:

One of Lenin’s great achievements, in my opinion, is to create a secular Russia. The power of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was an absolute warren of backwardness and evil and superstition, is probably never going to recover from what he did to it.

One should keep in mind that Lenin's campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church was not a campaign against an "it," it was a campaign against people. The Soviets slaughtered countless thousands of priests, nuns, monks and ordinary laypeople who sought nothing more than to worship God in the freedom of their own consciences. That Hitchens, who was extraordinarily astute in condemning atrocities by right-wing regimes, both depersonalizes the persecution of the Russian Orthodox and then praises such murderous persecution tells you everything you need to know about his commitment to the human liberty. He was no man of conscience in this regard.

Of course, one could say much the same thing about those who continue to defend the Spanish Republican regime during the Spanish Civil War, a regime that deliberately sought to exterminate the Catholic Church and which slaughtered thousands of priests, nuns, monks and ordinary laypeople as well.

Was Jesus really born in late December?

2011-12-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

The general consensus is no, but Taylor Marshall argues that there is good reason to believe that Jesus was born sometime around December 25. His argument is well worth a read. Wassail!

Trailer for the Hobbit is released

2011-12-22T15:01:00.000-08:00

And here it is! Only a year until the movie is released!

Rhetoric as a necessary component of liberal education

2011-12-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

"Oh, that's just rhetoric," is a refrain that sadly is heard far too often in regard to politics or any kind of civic engagement. But as this article by Sean Lewis over at The Imaginative Conservative rightly points out, the study of rhetoric -- the presentation of ideas and concepts -- is critical for liberal education. The study of rhetoric is one of the pillars of classical education, and the recovery of the integrity of rhetoric is essential to forming a disciplined mind.

One good place to start one's own study of rhetoric is with George Orwell's magnificent treatise on writing & rhetoric: Politics and the English Language.

Thomas Jefferson's version of the Nativity story

2011-12-22T09:30:00.000-08:00

Taken from his redaction of the Gospels, commonly known as the Jefferson Bible:

And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and lineage of David,)
To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger: because there was no room them in the inn.
And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS.

As with his usual approach in his Gospel redaction, Jefferson has eliminated any trace of the miraculous in regard to Jesus' birth. No angels harkening, no shepherds in the field by night, no miraculous conception -- yet at the same time the power of the story of Jesus' birth comes through: the dictates of an occupying power greedy for taxes, the sojourn of the Holy Family to Bethlehem, the culmination of Providence in the timing of the birth, the holy Infant swaddled in a manger because there were not lodgings for the family at the inn. What a powerful story, even without the miracles. A story of a birth that, even when told without the trumpets and angels, was no ordinary birth.

The difference between entrepreneurs and the rest of us

2011-12-19T15:26:00.000-08:00

Explained quite nicely with a delightful story over at Instapundit. The ability to see avenues of both profit and service is the key...

Polygamy, same-sex marriage and the end of "normative Western traditions"

2011-12-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

Those topics are discussed in this interesting post by Razib Khan over at Secular Right: Gay marriage and polygamous marriage. Khan makes a good distinction between the likely prevalence of same-sex marriage versus polygamy, and rightly notes that polygamy is a much larger threat to traditional notions of married life, simply because it is a possible option for the vast majority of people, a majority that is not going to be tempted into same-sex marriage because they are heterosexual. Well worth a read, particularly for his analysis of the end-results of polygamy on a society -- end results which usually aren't for the good.

One point that I wish he would have dwelt on in more detail though is his observation that once "normative Western traditions" are removed from the debate, the liberty-based argument for polygamy becomes much stronger. We have gone a long way, in our courts and public discourse, from removing those "normative Western traditions" from our civic life. And the very fact that Khan uses a phrase like "normative Western traditions" displays that.

The "normative Western traditions" involving marriage all evolved out of one particular religious tradition -- the Judeo-Chrstian religious tradition. And the removal of those religiously-grounded marriage norms from the public arena has largely been accomplished at the behest of atheists and radical secularists who view religion as a benighted and besotted way of looking at the world. By stripping Christianity and Judaism from the altars of our civic space, a principled defense of monogamy -- like a principled defense of the other aspects of traditional marriage -- becomes increasing problematic, particularly since the void left by the removal of the Judeo-Christian tradition has been filed with an increasingly narcissistic libertarianism. While Khan attempts to ground objections to polygamy in the consequences of that marital practice, such an argument will gain little traction, I fear, in a climate of gross indulgence to atomized individualism. And Khan himself largely recognizes that fact, as the last part of his post indicates.

In the absence of the foundational principles of our civilization -- principles that derive directly from the Jewish and Christian faiths -- it is very, very difficult to argue against the resurgence of old pagan practices.

You'd think that somebody would know the answer to that...

2011-12-18T21:37:00.000-08:00

Nobody Knows How Many Federal Regulations Carry Criminal Penalties, so reports the Lonely Conservative blog. Read it all and realize how close we are to losing our free society as the burdening crush of federal regulatory power continues its ever-increasing expansion into criminal prosecution.

A culture moment for the last Sunday of Advent: the King's Singers sing "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel"

2011-12-18T21:22:00.001-08:00

Vaclav Havel, RIP

2011-12-18T21:18:00.000-08:00

Former president of Czechoslovakia, later president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel has died today. His obituary at the New York Times may be read here. Havel was a crucial figure in the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism in the Eastern Bloc, and his voice of conscience & dissent served as a moral rallying point against the brutality of communism. While Havel himself was not a religious believer, he understood the dangers to civilization inherent in an atheistic worldview, denouncing the hallow materialism that leads to pride and a sense of human self-sufficiency. As Havel so clearly put it:

I am certain that our civilisation is heading for catastrophe unless present-day humankind comes to its senses. And it can only come to its senses if it grapples with its short-sightedness, its stupid conviction of its omniscience and its swollen pride, which have been so deeply anchored in its thinking and actions.

A hero for freedom and liberty has passed from the stage of this life. The Cato Institute has a reflection on this lion for liberty over at their website. And Reason magazine online posted this piece on Havel back in 2003 which bears reading: Velvet President: Why Vaclav Havel is our Era's George Orwell and more. (Hat tip to Legal Insurrection.)

Update: National Review Online has posted a collection of reflections on Havel and his significance as a leader. Well worth a read.

North Korean leader dies, likely to be replaced by his son

2011-12-18T21:03:00.000-08:00

The kleptocracy known as North Korea keeps lurching along, with its Dear Leader now dead and his son waiting in the wings to succeed him, as the Dear Leader did his own father when he passed on. The murderous farce of communism -- really just another form of tyrannical aristocracy designed to incestuously preserve its own power -- rolls on with the greatest victims of the North Korean state being the Korean people themselves.

Prof. William A. Jacobson over at Legal Insurrection has more links on this story, well worth reading.

Pres. Obama's ten key mistakes

2011-12-18T21:01:00.000-08:00

Don Surber identifies and explains them here. (Hat tip to Instapundit.) I think Surber's spot-on in his analysis, but before Republicans cheer too much it bears repeating that Obama's mistakes don't mean that the president's re-election is doomed. While Obama has make critical, indeed catastrophic mistakes, he has one thing going for him: he has the right enemies. The Republicans are a hapless bunch right now, and I would not put it past them to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Republicans would be wise to remember that it isn't enough for the president to be weak -- their candidate needs to be stronger than the incumbent. A weak Obama will beat a weaker GOP candidate. This is the Kerry lesson from 2004. Republicans benefited from it then, but did they learn from it? Given the nature of the GOP, I wouldn't be on it.

Taxes hurt the poor who try to work themselves out of poverty

2011-12-16T20:03:00.000-08:00

That's what the data shows, as Megan McArdle points out in this worthwhile post over at The Atlantic online. The punative nature of the tax rates have a punative function for people trying to get out of the cycle of poverty and dependence on public assistance. Another example of the perverse outcomes of much of the modern liberal welfare state.

Lawyer claims he was forced to commit billing fraud by 3000 billable hour quota at his former law firm

2011-12-16T08:29:00.000-08:00

Here's the story, courtesy of the ABA Journal Online. The story reminds me of an old joke about a lawyer who dies at a relatively young age. He is standing before the heavenly gates and talking to St. Peter, and the lawyer says, "I can't believe I died, I was only 52 years old." St. Peter looks down at the Book of Life and says, "Wait, that can't possibly be right -- it says here you were 157." The lawyer is perplexed and asks St. Peter how they calculated his age. St. Peter says, "We looked at your billable hour records."

Christopher Hitchens, RIP

2011-12-15T21:58:00.000-08:00

While it hardly comes as a shock, it is still sad news: writer and "new atheism" proponent Christopher Hitchens has passed away, according to this story from Vanity Fair. What to say about the passing of a writer who was so wrong about so much, but who was a master of the English language and a fearless proponent of his views? May we have as much strength as he had, in facing adversity and in arguing for the truth as we understand it. And as with all of us, may God have mercy on his soul.

Hitchens' last reflection on his disease and treatment may be found here. A list of his more recent columns may be found here. An obituary from the Associated Press may be found here.

Updates:

The Anchoress has a reflection on Christopher Hitchens and his passing, along with links to others who are writing about him today. Well worth a read.

Christopher's younger and wiser brother, Peter Hitchens, has a moving tribute posted over at his blog at the Mail Online: In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011). These passages struck me as particularly moving:

Here’s a thing I will say now without hesitation, unqualified and important. The one word that comes to mind when I think of my brother is ‘courage’. By this I don’t mean the lack of fear which some people have, which enables them to do very dangerous or frightening things because they have no idea what it is to be afraid. I mean a courage which overcomes real fear, while actually experiencing it.

I don’t have much of this myself, so I recognise it (and envy it) in others. I have a memory which I cannot place precisely in time, of the two of us scrambling on a high rooftop, the sort of crazy escapade that boys of our generation still went on, where we should not have been. A moment came when, unable to climb back over the steep slates, the only way down was to jump over a high gap on to a narrow ledge. I couldn’t do it. He used his own courage (the real thing can always communicate itself to others) to show me, and persuade me, that I could. I’d add here that he was for a while an enthusiastic rock climber, something I could never do, and something which people who have come to know him recently would not be likely to guess.

He would always rather fight than give way, not for its own sake but because it came naturally to him. Like me, he was small for his age during his entire childhood and I have another memory of him, white-faced, slight and thin as we all were in those more austere times, furious, standing up to some bully or other in the playground of a school we attended at the same time.

This explains plenty. I offer it because the word ‘courage’ is often misused today . People sometimes tell me that I have been ‘courageous’ to say something moderately controversial in a public place. Not a bit of it. This is not courage. Courage is deliberately taking a known risk, sometimes physical, sometimes to your livelihood, because you think it is too important not to. My brother possessed this virtue to the very end, and if I often disagreed with the purposes for which he used it, I never doubted the quality or ceased to admire it. I’ve mentioned here before C.S.Lewis’s statement that courage is the supreme virtue, making all the others possible. It should be praised and celebrated, and is the thing I‘d most wish to remember.

Was Newt Gingrich right about the Ryan plan?

2011-12-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

Sure looks that way, as this post by Prof. William C. Jacobson over at Legal Insurrection explains. Ryan has had to rework his plan for Medicare reform in precisely the direction that Gingrich had argued it had to be reworked. As Jacobson writes, "Newt has been proven right, and is owed a huge apology, which of course will not be forthcoming. Newt was the adult in the room, as it turns out."

Conservatism is about prudent and gradual reform. It is not revolutionary in its inclinations, nor does it seek to tear down without plan or rationale. When it comes to Medicare reform, Gingrich understood those aspects of conservatism far better than Paul Ryan or some of the other more libertarian-minded Republicans in Congress. On this point, Gingrich was not only the adult in the room, he was the Burkean conservative as well. Something to think about as primary season lurks around the corner.

Monday night culture moment: "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen"

2011-12-12T17:28:00.001-08:00

A classic in the original German:

The problem with President Obama's turn toward populism

2011-12-12T17:09:00.000-08:00

It simply doesn't make sense in light of his other policy positions, as legal scholar and libertarian theorist Richard Epstein points out: Populist-in-Chief (hat tip to Instapundit). As Epstein concludes:

The problem, therefore, with the president’s speech is not that it is demagogic in tone. The problem is that it is intellectually incoherent. As a matter of high principle, the president announces his fealty to markets. As a matter of practical politics, he denigrates and undermines them at every step. It is a frightening prospect to have a president who lives in a time warp that lets him believe that the failed policies of 1935 can lead this nation back from the brink. His chosen constituency, the middle class, should tremble at the prospect that his agenda might well set the course for the United States for the next four years.

Obama keeps trying to model himself on the Roosevelt cousins -- first FDR in 2008 and now TR. Our Roosevelt presidents, whatever their faults, had intellectually coherent political platforms. President Obama, in his effort to find some point upon which to ground his 2012 relection campaign, keeps moving from one point to another without seeking to bring a coherence of vision to any of those points.

That isn't to say that he won't get re-elected (I still think that the Republicans will manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory), but if the president is given a second term in office, it will be with no clear mandate from the voters. And if the Republicans hold one or both houses of Congress, the lack of a such a mandate will be catastrophic for the president's agenda. Of course, Obama and his supporters are likely not thinking that far ahead, or aren't that concerned about the downside of winning without a mandate. They are probably more concerned with the immediate challenge facing the administration -- Obama's re-election. And that's a normal political response. But it is precisely the problem that has vexed the Obama administration when it comes to policy: short-term vision without a contemplation of the long-term consequences.

Robert Taft on the purpose of American foreign policy

2011-12-11T21:31:00.001-08:00

From the always interesting Imaginative Conservative comes this quote from the American senator and one-time conservative lion, Robert Taft of Ohio:

I do not believe it is a selfish goal for us to insist that the overriding purpose of all American foreign policy should be the maintenance of the liberty and peace of our people in the United States, so that they may achieve that intellectual and material improvement which is their genius and in which they can set an example for all peoples. By that example we do an even greater service to mankind that we can do by billions of material assistance--and more than we can ever do by war.

Amen to that, Senator Taft. Amen to that.

Sunday night culture moment: "Danse Arabesque" from The Nutcracker performed by the Royal Ballet

2011-12-11T21:07:00.001-08:00

Predator drones being used in domestic law enforcement

2011-12-11T20:56:00.001-08:00

Here's the story, courtesy of the LA Times: Police employ Predator drone spy planes on home front. While the criminals in question certainly deserve to be caught, I have to confess to being uneasy whenever military technology is used in domestic law enforcement. The creeping militarization of law enforcement, with even small towns now having SWAT teams at their command, isn't healthy in a republic.

Gingrich leading in South Carolina & Florida

2011-12-11T20:49:00.001-08:00

Of course, no votes have been tallied yet, but according to polling data, the former Speaker of the House is doing quite well: Gingrich opens up big leads in South Carolina and Florida. Gingrich is not a candidate without certain weaknesses, as many in the pundit class and the mainstream media have been quick to point out. But he has strengths as well -- he's bright and he's pugnacious. For a GOP electorate that very much wants a more confrontational candidate to lead the effort against President Obama, Gingrich's appeal is obvious. The Democrats have certainly wasted no time in cutting an ad against Gingrich asserting that he is the "original Tea Partier." Whether that will help or hurt him is another matter. Maybe a bit of both.

Update: Ross Douthat over at the New York Times online has a very good analysis of at least part of what is propelling Gingrich's rise in the polls. Well worth a read.

New blogs on the blogroll

2011-12-10T20:36:00.001-08:00

I've added the blog Franciscan Life to my blogroll under the "Catholica" category. Written by a Franciscan religious, the blog explores Christian spirituality from the perspective of a Franciscan sister. A lot of the time I post on political, legal or cultural issues, but in everything I do, I try to ground myself in the Catholic tradition. And while my brain is Thomist, my heart is Franciscan -- or at least I like to think so! Franciscan Life provides a wonderful overview of Franciscan spirituality as a lived practice. Highly recommended!

Four more new additions to my blogroll are:

Great blogs -- well worth reading!

Christopher Hitchens and Mother Teresa

2011-12-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

The similarities between the two are explored in this interesting post over at From Burke to Kirk and Beyond: Christopher Hitchens is dying... Like Tertium Quid, I have long been a fan of Hitchens, although I am much more in agreement with Christopher's younger and wiser brother Peter.

The power of the new English translation of the Mass

2011-12-10T19:15:00.001-08:00

"What is happening with the new translation is that our imagination is being engaged, and not just as as individuals, but all of us a part of a Catholic culture. The imagination is that part of our mind that connects with beauty. Beauty is the language of worship, and it is the imagination which perceives and processes beauty in our mind." So explains Fr. Dwight Longenecker over at Crisis magazine online: Einstein, Imagination and the New Translation. Well worth a read.

Santorum in Iowa speaking on education policy

2011-12-10T18:27:00.001-08:00

"President Obama doesn’t know the name of your child. How dare he suggest what is best for them." So said former senator and current GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum on the campaign trail in Iowa. You can read a report about his comments regarding the proper role of the federal government when it comes to education here. As the report states:

[H]e favors an education system designed around the fact that most parents love their children and want to give their child the best opportunity for success.

Whatever one believes about Santorum's particular political positions, that basic point surely rings of common sense.

Saturday night culture moment: "The Holly and the Ivy" by King's College choir

2011-12-10T17:56:00.001-08:00