The Future

Refrain:Things are gonna slide, slide in all directions
             Won't be nothing you can measure anymore
              The blizzard of the World has crossed the threshold
              And it's overturned the order of the soul
               When they said repent I wonder what they meant (3X)
1st Verse:Gimme back my broken night, my mirrored room, my secret life
                It's lonely here there's no one here to torture
                Give me absolute control over every living soul
                 And lie beside me baby that's an order
                Gimme crack and anal sex
                 Take the only tree that's left and stuff it up the hole in your culture
                 Give me back the Berlin Wall
                 Give me Stalin and St. Paul
                  I've seen the future brother, it is murder

2nd Verse:  You don't know me from the wind
                  You never will you never did
                   All the little children who wrote the Bible
                   I've seen the nations rise and fall heard their stories heard them all
                   But love's the only engine of survival
                   Your servant here he has been told to say it clear, say it cold
                    It's over it ain't going any further
                   And now the wheels of Heaven stop
                    You feel the devil's riding crop
                    Get ready for the future it is murder

3rd Verse:    There'll be the breaking of the ancient Western code
                    Your private life will suddenly explode
                    There'll be phantoms, there'll be fires on the road
                    And the white men dancin'
                     You'll see your woman hanging upside down
                     Her features covered by her falling gown
                      And all the lousy little poets come around trying to sound like Charlie 
                     Manson
                     And the white men dancin'
                      Give me back the Berlin Wall, give me Stalin and St. Paul
                      Give me Christ or give me Hiroshima
                      Destroy another fetus now we don't like children anyhow
                      I seen the future baby, it is murder

                                                               Leonard Cohen

Are Clergy Like the Klan?

In a piece for the Washington Post entitled "The Tangled Web of Conflicting Rights," the great George F. Will discusses a case where a New Mexico photographer is being sued for discrimination for refusing to photograph a homosexual commitment ceremony.  The piece of course brings to mind Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity by James Fitzjames Stephens, where Mr. Stephens made the point very well that what one person regards as a right can often be viewed by another as the violation of a right.  One might well say that the couple could easily have hired a less objecting photographer, but such is apparently an outdated notion that in a world of many photographers, one might reasonably object to photographing something that violates their conscience.  No, today is the day when one might use the blunt instrument of coercion to punish people for their scruples.  A commenter calling themselves Truth Be Told 3 said that Will would never have defended a photographer who refused to photograph an interracial wedding, thus pretending religious teachings are in the same class as racism.  This is the pro-homosexual meme, acting as though thinking homosexuality is religiously prohibited is akin to racism.  Thus, the left can relive their glory days of the 1960s by pretending that by advocating gay sex, they are like the Freedom Riders, or the little kids hit with fire hoses.  They may also conveniently forget that marching in places like Selma, Alabama were the clergy, the same people who this analogy parallels with the KKK.

Catholic News Agency had a piece about a Serbian doctor named Stojan Adasevic who was converted from his abortion practice by a nocturnal visit from Thomas Aquinas.  One of the main failures of Aquinas was the fact that he believed quickening was the point at which a pregnancy began, which perhaps is a mistake the great Dominican is trying to correct from beyond the grave.  Vice-President Biden once pointed to the Dumb Ox's mistaken opinion as the reason why he was a pro-abort, neglecting the fact that medical science knows much more about embryology than it did in the thirteenth century.   In another piece of liberal buffoonery, People's Republic of Illinois Governor Pat Quinn says that he needs to raise the already-high minimum wage even higher because the current rate of $8.25 is "unbiblical."  This is the same Governor Pat Quinn that drove Catholic Charities out of the adoption business by mandating that all adoption agencies place children with homosexual families.  But now Governor Quinn is concerned about the Bible, so much so that he doesn't mind reducing the hours of minimum wage workers.  So let me get this straight, the clergy are like the Klan, but forcing workers to get by on fewer hours is biblical?

A MSNBC contributor named Mona Eltahawy spray-painted over a pro-Israel advertisment in a New York subway, and the Transit Authority decided that it was the advertiser's fault.  Daniel Greenfield's piece in FrontPageMag says the woman exclaimed as she was being arrested that all she was doing was expressing herself.  So are Muslims more entitled to religious speech and belief than Christians? 

47% and the Sfear of Influence

The sfear of influence Estase discussed a few weeks ago reared its head with the Mother Jones video where Mitt Romney discusses how he feels 47% of the nation is unwilling to vote for him since it pays no income taxes, and much of that same group receives government benefits.  The previous post said that if Romney went after the issue of cutting taxes, that the left would paint that as a self-interested statement rather than a matter of broader economic policy.  The controversy the left has attempted to gin up over Romney's remarks have followed this vein.  Although Romney didn't broach the issue of people unwilling to confront the fact that some draw benefits from the government, and hence stand to gain nothing from a tax cut in the most delicate way, he was absolutely right.  As Justice Holmes observed over 100 years ago, any time one offers to rob Peter to pay Paul, you will always have Paul's vote.  The only problem is, Paul won't like to hear about Peter's grievance, and will be altogether happy to have Mr. Politician tell him that he is entitled to have Peter "pay his fair share."  Paul will also go to the Occupy rally, and between episodes of public defecation, shout about how the 1% should have their money given to the 99%.  The statistics are of course, faulty.  It is the 47% who enjoy the benefits of the 53%.  And the top 5% pays almost half of the taxes in the United States.  Romney needs, of course, to confront this issue head-on.  But, just as he wants to steer clear of the social issues most Republicans care at least a little about, Romney also seems afraid of talking about economic issues.  So if Romney will let the left get away with their heuristic of how Romney doesn't care about the middle class, how does he expect to win the election.  Bitter a pill as it is to swallow, Romney must talk about his sfear of influence, because it is, right now, the main thing he has to run upon.

Mamby-Pamby, etc.

Everyone is familiar with the penchant lefties have for saying that Republicans are stupid.  Most trace it to J.S. Mill, and his-oft quoted statement that most stupid people are conservatives.  It is actually even older than that.  Whig P.M. Robert Walpole suffered a shower of condescension about his patronage of Colley Cibber as Poet Laureate.  Ever heard someone call someone effeminate by calling them 'Mamby-Pamby?"  The phrase Mamby-Pamby was originally a reference to Ambrose Phillips, a Whig literateur.  One of Jonathan Swift's favorite modes of attack was to say that Richard Steele and Estase's fave Daniel Defoe were poorly educated ignorami.  An eighteenth century paper called Mist's Journal published the following insult to Cibber and Steele:

            Thus Colley Cibber to his Partner Steele,
             See here, Sir Knight, how I've outdone Corneille;
             See here, how I, my Patron to inveigle,
             Make Addison a Wren, and you an Eagle.
             Safe to the silent shades, we bid Defiance;
             For living Dogs are better than dead Lions.

The Fifth Column: A Labor Day Epiphany

The Fifth Column: A Labor Day Epiphany
Steve points out, in a vein similar to the recent Mike Rowe letter, the value of manual work.

Weingartz Supply Company Case

An Alinskyite group of leftist bottom feeders called Credo Super PAC has taken on Representatives Joe Walsh of Illinois, Steve King of Iowa, and Allen West of Florida.  Not surprisingly, they have also targeted Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.  The so-called Tea Party Ten are targeted for being conservatives both socially and fiscally.  Petasus tip to Matthew Vadum at Front Page Magazine.

And, as Monty Python used to say, for something completely different!  Viewer traffic indicates an interest in the quidnunc I did last winter on Jane Fonda and her pro-communist fellow travellers in relation to Wal-Mart selling Jane Fonda videos.
"Paul Galanti, a Navy pilot who was shot down over Vietnam in June 1966 and then spent seven years in Communist captivity as a POW, remembers {Senator John} Kerry's antiwar rhetoric all too well.  Galanti told The Los Angeles Times in February 2004 that during torture sessions his North Vietnamese captors had cited anti-war speeches as 'an example of why we should cross over to [their]side.'  As far as Galanti was concerned, 'Kerry broke a covenant among servicemen never to make public criticisms that might jeopardize those still in battle or in the hands of the enemy.'  Galanti's criticism of Kerry was particularly biting:'John Kerry was a traitor to the men he served with.'  Now retired and in his sixties, Galanti refuses to abandon his anger at Kerry.  'I don't plan to set it aside.  I don't know anyone who does,' he was quoted as saying.  'The Vietnam memorial has thousands of additional names due to John Kerry and others like him.'(p 107-108)  Noted extremists were involved in organizing the Winter Soldier Investigation.  Jane Fonda was a key financial supporter and the honorary national coordinator of the event.  This was Fonda's Mao period, complete with Viet Cong flags, red star costumes, and frequently photographed expressions of her clenched fist raised in anger.  The second major financial sponsor was Mark Lane, whose 1966 book Rush to Judgment had played a key role in advancing the conspiracy theories rampant in the years following the JFK assassination.  Lane had published a new book, Conversations with Americans, featuring interviews with Vietnam veterans who described war crimes and atrocities.  To raise money for the Winter Soldier Investigation, Fonda and Lane planned a series of fundraising concerts and speaking appearances throughout the United States prior to the hearings, focusing largely on college campuses.(p109-110) John Kerry may believe in his own mind that his participation in the antiwar cause lifted him to a new moral plane, one where he would not be restricted by conventional legal distinctions or commonsense understandings of patriotism.  Yet, the record shows that Kerry and the VVAW {Vietnam Veterans Against the War} consistently coordinated their efforts with Communists, both foreign and domestic, represented the Communist positions, and repeated their grossly exaggerated claims of American atrocities.  In fact, it is hard to find any disagreement whatsoever between Kerry's words and actions as a leader of the VVAW and those of the Hanoi and Viet Cong leadership.  Had Madame Binh herself been permitted to appear at the July 22, 1971, press conference instead of John Kerry, the most noteable difference in the argument presented might have been the absence of a Boston accent.  John Kerry was clearly welcomed warmly by the Vietnamese Communists.  His propaganda value was obvious--a good-looking, clean-shaven, well-spoken, decorated American war hero.  How could any Communist apologist not see that here was the next candidate to carry their anti-American message back home?  John Kerry had no difficulty getting an appointment from Madame Binh.  The Communists welcomed him.(p 129)  From July 8, 1972, through July 22, 1972, Jane Fonda made her famous visit to Hanoi, where she delivered radio broadcasts to American and South Vietnamese military personnel encouraging mutiny and desertion, while repeatedly claiming that the United States was responsible for war crimes and atrocities.  Fonda visited American POWs in Hanoi, reporting in broadcasts from Hanoi that the American prisoners were being 'well cared for' and that they wished to convey their 'sense of disgust of the war and their shame for what they have been asked to do.'  A photograph was taken of Fonda sitting in a North Vietnamese antiaircraft gun, wearing a Vietnamese helmet, surrounded by North Vietnamese military.  Upon leaving North Vietnam, Fonda accepted from her hosts a ring made from the wreckage of a downed American plane.(p159;  Unfit for Command, by John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi)

Remember the name Weingartz Supply Company, because it might end up like the name Schechter Poultry Company.  Bob Unruh has a September 6,2012 article in World Net Daily about how DOJ lawyers are arguing that the Catholic owners of Weingartz Supply Company in Michigan cannot object to abortion and contraception requirements in Obamacare. Also in the same state, Central Michigan University student Zach Tennen is brutally beaten by apparent neo-nazis when he identifies himself as being Jewish.  So being Jewish isn't any safer than being Christian.  We live today under a return to barbarism, where no religion is safe from bigotry and persecution.

Atlantic:"Pro-Lifers Racist"

Tip of the petasus to Father Z of What Does the Prayer Really Say.  Brian Fung of Atlantic Magazine says that the pro-life movement is aimed at harming poor minorities.  Whereas Brian Fung of Atlantic thinks killing the offspring of poor minorities is helping them.  Reminds Estase (as most things do) of Eighteenth Century England.  In his Importance of the Guardian Considered, Tory firebrand and general asshole Jonathan Swift attacked a letter written by Richard Steele.  Steele's crime?  By suggesting that the Harley/Bolingbroke ministry should demolish the port of Dunkirk (which the ministry Swift wrote on behalf of actually wanted to do anyway), Steele was ordering about Queen Anne.  Make sense?  No, me neither.  And this is why Fung's argument is dung.  Just as how Swift was berating someone for insulting the Queen just because they advocated a policy, Fung is implying race animosity based on a policy position.  The only difference is that two hundred years after his death, Jonathan Swift is recognized as a master literary figure and Brian Fung, well, he just writes for a liberal magazine.

Update:  In reviewing election results on MSNBC, Nancy Giles comes to the same erroneous conclusion as Brian Fung.  Giles theorizes that pro-lifers want "to build up the white race," neglecting the fact that it is by and large future black and hispanic voters whom abortion eliminates.

Update:  An education weenie theorizes that the term "PB&J Sandwich" is racist because, get this, non-English speakers don't use the term sandwich to refer to materials between bread.  In a related vein of idiocy, Shiitetown Mayor Rahm Emmanuel is under attack by. . . Salon.com?  Yes, oddly enough, now the salonistas consider the President's former attack dog to be a terrible right-winger for opposing the almighty teacher's unions by asking for, gasp, accountablity for the best paid teachers in America.  By the way, it isn't Chicagoans who will pay the bill for the nonfunctional Mercedes-Benz that is the Chicago Public Schools, it is we benighted downstate Illinoisans who will really subsidize this nonsense.  But then again, an Accuracy in Media story by Mary Grabar details how a friend of Bill Ayers, bomber-educator, named Linda Darling-Hammond is instituting, with the support of the Obama Education Secretary Arnie Duncan, a new national education standard called Common Core.  Contrary to what its name suggests, Common Core is intended to replace the literary tradition with popular culture, replace the founding documents with radical texts, and in general indoctrinate the students of America with Oh Blah Blah's social values.  So perhaps the teacher's unions are unaware of what their mayor really intends for their job to be--Democratic party recruiters.

Lex Christianorum: Stoics: The Chrysippian Synthesis

Lex Christianorum: Stoics: The Chrysippian Synthesis
This quidnunc has admirably tackled the topic of Stoicism.

Creative Minority Report: Pro-Life Dems: None So Blind

Creative Minority Report: Pro-Life Dems: None So Blind
A comment on the NCR version of this piece talks about how the Democrats are still better because they care about "the least among us," etc.  This is Seamless Garment baloney at its worst.  We are to reject the soulless individualism of Republicanism so that we may show our respect for the poor by aborting their young at taxpayer expense.  The fact that so many Catholic Bishops embrace this nonsense is yet another problem.  Many priests prayed for Obamacare to pass in general intercessions, only to watch that program require the Catholic Church to fund contraception and abortion for its employees.  But the Democrats care more about the least among us!

Locke on Abortion

In June 2010, I left a note on Libertas et Memoria, Mark in Spokane's quidnunc, about the pro-choice potential in John Locke.  "In Concerning Human Understanding Book II Chapter Twenty-Seven, Locke defines persons as 'only{. . .}intelligent agents, capable of a law, and happiness, and misery.'  In Book III, Chapter Six, Locke suggests that it would be permissible to kill a misshapen infant of poor intellect.  He questions the meaning of the word 'life' in Book III Chapter Ten.  In Book III Chapter Eleven, Locke says that killing a misshapen infant is permissible only if it has no 'rational soul,' by which Locke means having poor intellect.  Another idea Locke is fascinated with is 'the changeling,' described as an animal and having a narrow, flat, long face (Book IV Chapter Four), and what is most disturbing about this is that it seems apparent to me that Locke is talking about developmentally disabled people when he talks about changelings.  He also uses the term 'monster' to describe them.  It is hard to avoid thinking Locke would enthusiastically support abortion were he alive today."

A Bruno Waterfield article in the London Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9520026/Christians should 'leave their beliefs at home or get another job'.html says that British Muslims may wear a headscarf, but British Christians may not wear a crucifix.

What Won't Perdue Do?

With a tip of the petasus to Adrienne's Corner, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue is apparently a big fan of Planned Parenthood and taxpayer-supported abortion.  Hmmm. . . that name sounds familiar!  Oh yes, this was the same madcap who wanted to suspend the 2012 election (See my previous quidnunc "Septennial Act Redux")!  So, of course, it is no coincidence that Governor Perdue wants to, shall we say, bend the law.  It is all to bolster the abortion party.  The Dems like to use hyperbolic language about how Republicans want to take away everyone's rights, chase liberals out of the country, force women into barefoot kitchen servitude, but never mind when Democrats propose actual violations of law like skipping elections.  I really am surprised Governor Perdue didn't just suggest naming Barack Obama as Maximum Jefe, President-for-Life.

Update:  As of September 6, wife-murdering policeman Drew Peterson is convicted of murder.  No doubt, Governor Perdue will endorse some absurd violation of the law, such as she has done in recommending the suspension of the 2012 election.  Maybe instead of being sent to prison, Peterson will be made the White House Advisor on Wife Disappearance.  The murder czar, I can see it now!  Tip of the petasus to Riehl World View:  Congressman Ellison, who definitely is not an extreme CAIR affiliated Muslim, is irritated with his party's insertion of pro-Israel language into the party platform.

Fixing Catholic Relief Services

When one donates to an organization calling itself "Catholic," they typically expect certain things.  They expect that it serves the needs of the poor in a way typical of Christian Catholic values.  They do not expect it to employ those who abhor those values, or for it to take money or give money to those who support abortion.
      LifeSite News of August 1, 2012 has an article by John-Henry Westen that reports that Catholic Relief Services is accepting money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which supports contraception and abortion in developing countries.  It gave the pro-abortion group CARE International $5.3 million.  Catholic Relief Services is a member of the pro-abortion CORE group, to which it pays $3,000 in membership fees.  CRS employees Mary Hennigan and Shannon Senefeld sit on CORE's board of directors and HIV/AIDS working groups respectively.
      LifeSite News of August 21, 2012 has an article by Patrick B. Craine that is even more explosive, detailing that several employees of Catholic Relief Services have pro-abortion backgrounds.  Daphyne Williams interned at Pro-Choice Resources before joining CRS in 2008.  Dr. Amy Ellis came to CRS after working for Population Services International.  While working for CRS, she gave a presentation at the International Conference on Family Planning.  Dr. Pun Sok came to CRS from CARE, which, as before stated, promotes abortion.  Finally, CRS employee Charisse Espy Glassman was such a dedicated pro-abort that she, while employed by Catholic Relief Services, deliberately drove her car into marchers at the DC March for Life in January 2011.  Clearly, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to reform Catholic Relief Services every bit as much as it needs to reform Campaign for Human Development, so that the faithful are not gulled into funding causes they detest.

The Scapegoats

The Primrose League is trying to disavow social conservatives again.  Riehl World View has a piece about how social conservatives need to figure out which side they're on.  This is a disingenuous statement;  social conservatives know damn well which side they're on.  Either it's Republicans or a party that is openly contemptuous of people of faith.  Either it's Republicans or people who want to force Catholics to bankroll contraception.  I could go on, but you get the point.  The real issue is that the Primrose League knows social conservatives have no where else to go.  This is the reason why they think they are an embarrassment, the country cousins whose votes they need, but whom they wish to disavow and blame for their image problems.  So when an idiot like Todd Akin puts his foot in it, this gives the Primrose League a fit.  They would rather run on pure economic policy, which is rather different than the attitude of Democrats.  Democrats love NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and all the rest of the culture of death.  When the abortion industry is embarrassed, the Democrats don't abandon them the way the Primrose League wants to jettison social conservatives.  So as abominable as the Democratic Party is in what it aims to do, they at least have more loyalty to their own than Republicans show their own.  Maybe Akin should step out of the way, but Republicans are almost buying into the idea the Democrats are fostering that Akin is somehow typical of social conservatives.  It isn't surprising that liberals would think social conservatives are bumpkins, but it is rather disturbing when the Primrose League thinks so.

The Clue Batting Cage: Akin's Achin'

The Clue Batting Cage: Akin's Achin'
A good comment on someone who may not be perfect, but also isn't Claire McCaskill.

Three Irreverent Songs, From Worst to Best

Three examples of songs disrespectful of religion immediately come to mind.  The first, and worst, is Joan Osborne's "One of Us," which is a nearly atonal ditty wherein Ms. Osborne opines God might be a "slob" riding a bus, whose only communication is with the Pope.  Thus, "One of Us" is the Rock for Choice anthem of disbelief.  Second, Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach" begins with mock classical instrumentation that leads into a typical 80s pop song.  What is remarkable about the Madonna song to Estase is that the character in the song apparently intends to have her baby.  Given the star's personal life, it is surprising that the song doesn't point to an abortion.  And for all its debatable morality, the Madonna song has more going for it than the Joan Osborne one.  Third is my favorite, the Electric Light Orchestra song "King of the Universe," which is only slightly disrespectful to religion.  As a matter of fact, I have more religious feeling from "King of the Universe" than from such dreadful ecclesiastical offerings as "Gather Us In."  Lyrically, nothing is truly heretical about "King of the Universe," and only the song's grandiosity suggests it is a tongue-in-cheek song about the Almighty.  Appearing on the 1973 album On the Third Day, "King of the Universe" can be seen in its context of songs about death as a reflection on mortality and the meaning of life.

Commentarius de Prognosticis: What Is Wrong with the Roman Jurisdiction in America

Commentarius de Prognosticis: What Is Wrong with the Roman Jurisdiction in America
This says it all.

Sfears of Influence

I wish to introduce a new term.  Political scientists and diplomats have long discussed spheres of influence.  This term means geographical areas which are important to different states, e.g. Afghanistan is in Russia's sphere of influence.  My new term is sfear of influence.  A sfear of influence is a topic which although vitally important to a person or person, is something that circumstances make incredibly uncomfortable to acknowledge.  An example of a sfear of influence would be the issue of homosexuality to the Catholic Church.  Formally condemned by the Church, it is, nevertheless, the orientation of many of its priests.  Another example of a sfear of influence would be taxes on the rich for the Republican Party.  While economic growth requires that capitalists be able to accumulate money without it being sapped by well meaning or not-so-well meaning politicians, tax fairness for the rich is a Republican sfear of influence because the Democrats are all too willing to pretend that Republican tax policy is motivated only by a desire for people like Mitt Romney to avoid paying their "fair share," which according to President Carter meant paying 70% of one's income as taxes.

Restore-DC-Catholicism: CCHD - A Different Sort Of Prostitute

Restore-DC-Catholicism: CCHD - A Different Sort Of Prostitute
Yet another example of why Campaign for Human Development is a bad,bad cause to donate to.
On a different topic, extremists of all stripes are one reason for my retreat to the eighteenth century.  When Estase was a student at UIUC, there was a repellant character in the law school who liked to parade around in a Hitler outfit and hand out anti-Semetic pamphlets.  The College Republicans loathed him because he made our lives Hell.  Every would-be Mao Zedong liked to pretend that Matt Hale was somehow like us.  The fact of the matter is that every time there is some psychiatric case that flips out, the Salon types start talking right-wing terrorism.  Matt Hale ended up going to prison for trying to put a hit out on a Federal Judge.  So, obviously, being high functioning enough to be a law student doesn't exclude acts of utter idiocy.  Debbie Schussel claimed Holmes, the Aurora CO shooter was associated with Occupy, which may account for the media losing interest in the case.  The MSM will do anything to further their goals, even if that means soft-pedalling a story they were excited about a week ago.  The Matt Hales of the world are a boon to leftists, because they distract people from their own lunatics.

An Appeal

I received this letter from my favorite charity, Edmundite Missions www.edmunditemissions.org. Their snail mail address is 1428 Broad Street, Selma, AL  36701.

"Dear Estase,
       'What am I supposed to do?  I can't serve this kind of food to hungry people for lunch.'  Mary Gayle told me.  'The Food Bank sent us chocolate fudge sauce, diapers and gallons of distilled water.  They even sent us bags of charcoal!'  When she described the serious shortage of healthy food at a time when children are out of school, I immediately drove over to the Food Bank to see for myself.
      With temperatures well above 100 degrees and the humidity so high that it fills your lungs, Bosco provides nourishing meals to the sick and working poor with young children, for a brief lunch hour, out of the merciless Alabama sun.  Without a doubt, Bosco saves lives.
     Unfortunately, upon entering the warehouse of the Food Bank, I soon discovered the lack of food was even worse that I thought.  'We're getting less than half the USDA food products we got a year ago,' the Food Bank Director told me.  'Instead, we're receiving truckloads of questionable products and nonfood items.  Sometimes, a delivery will have no food at all,' he said, pointing to the pallets of diapers, dish soap, nondairy creamer and teeth whitening strips.
     Looking around the warehouse, I was shocked by the stacks and stacks of empty pallets, where canned vegetables once stood.  The shelves were stocked with boxes of cookies, chips and snack cakes, all empty calorie foods, not the kinds of food to keep a child or an elder strong and healthy.  Are we to feed snack foods to 320 people who depend on Bosco every day, 365 days a year?
     We walked up to a pallet filled with packages of candies, which made me cringe, as I thought of the drastic results of this food shortage.  For the last few months, I have watched the Bosco Food Kitchen bills stack up and now I wonder how we will ever pay the increasing costs, when we are forced to purchase all our meat, rice and vegetables from commercial grocery stores in Selma, at much higher prices.
     The frail and sick like 80 year-old Mrs. Mae Young, crippled with the painful curled hands of rheumatoid arthritis, spends her days on the front porch of her shack, alone and suffering through the blistering heat, far out in the country.  She tells me that her only smiles come from the sight of the Edmundite Missions truck bringing her a bag of food and a word of encouragement.  I simply cannot turn these impoverished people away and I know you would not want me to.
     Currently, the Food Bank can no longer provide the nourishing food we must have!  And I can't come up with the additional funds to purchase food at full price.  This terrible situation is why I'm humbly coming to you for your help.  Without you, it is now impossible to feed those who turn to the Edmundite Missions for life-sustaining food.  The hamburger, rice and vegetables we need to serve soup at Bosco for a month costs $30,612.  Without help from the Food Bank, it will cost an extra $167 a day, in addition to the amount it already takes to feed these hungry people.
     I join the Edmundites in daily prayers, asking God to bless you abundantly.  My prayers are filled with hope that your generosity to feed the poor, whom God loves, will continue.
                                                              In Christ, I remain,
                                                              Chad McEachern
                                                              Missions Director"

Men of Business v. Men of Genius

"Wit and humour are the dress and ornament of the mind;  but honesty and truth are the soul itself, and the difference in a man's care of his reputation for one and the other is just in proportion that being robbed bears to being murdered."  Richard Steele quoted in Sir Richard Steele by Willard Connely , p.305 (1934)

The kind of elegant prose Estase refers to as Burkean should perhaps be described as Steelesque instead.  Richard Steele was probably not as well educated as Joseph Addison or Jonathan Swift, and his unfavorable qualities included trading on the labor of African slaves in the West Indies, gluttony, lechery, and what would today be seen as alcoholism.  That last characteristic was common to many of the great men of his time, notably Lord Carteret.  His educational deficiencies were the source of much malevolent fun for Dean Swift, who probably would have thought himself one of the first deserving of that title of Liberal aristocracy coined by John Stuart Mill, the "Man of Genius."  While not even seeking the title of a man of genius, Steele preferred to call himself a "Man of Business,"  meaning that though he was unable to make puns in Greek, what he possessed instead was a knowledge of things as they really are.  Even today, the Leftist intelligentsia disdains all forms of practical knowledge, and while precious few of those today could make puns in Greek, they ascribe great weight to such unpractical studies as Sociology or Law, which also explains why a higher percentage of faculty in fields such as Engineering or Economics are conservative.  The phrase "conservative sociologist" is nearly an oxymoron.  Indeed, the ranks of the Occupy movement would be empty but for the large number of college graduates with degrees in Sociology or Gender Studies who find themselves with no productive work, but $40,000 in debt to pay off.