North Western Winds

The irony is that I think I got 10% of my 20% from saying I thought Bush rocks. I'm not sure where the other 10% is from... it's pretty easy to know what the 'correct' answer is on this one. I AM 20% WHITE TRASH! I, my friend, have class. I am so not white trash. . I am more than likely Democrat, and my place is neat, and there is a good chance I may never drink wine from a box. Take the WHITE TRASH test at Fuali.com

Somebody going by the name Pericles put up ten ideas that "Democrats should think about for 2008" at Daily Kos back in late November. I've only just found the post through Dissect the Left . Pericles isn't dumb but a lot of what he says is foobar. I want to address two of them (it's too long to go argue point by point, but I do recommend giving the whole thing a quick lookover). I think the root of most of Pericles' errors is that he thinks that people are inherently good and rational (wrong) and that the government is (in some way that really isn't clear), synonymous with the people (wrong again), making it virtuous too. He also seems to have no understanding or appreciation for the kind of distributed decision making (think Linux) that small government minded people favour, or how such a system could create benevolent societies to support the poor morally (teaching and example), and provide money well spent (as opposed to just spent). His big governm...

"Pie in the Future" Bill Vallicella (aka The Maverick Philosopher) strikes again, this time on the weird relationship between the radical left and islamist terrorists . Loved this line: Perhaps we could say that the utopianism of the Left is a quasi-religion with a sort of secular eschatology . The leftist dreams of an eschaton ushered in by human effort alone, a millenial state that could be described as pie-in-the-future as opposed to pie-in-the-sky. After making several good points, he concludes that leftists are "nuts." Well, that's my word. What he actually said is: ... the leftist in his naivete fails to grasp that religion, however we finally resolve the question of its validity or lack thereof, is deeply rooted in human nature. As Schopenhauer liked to point out, man is a metaphysical animal, and religion is one form the metaphysical urge takes. As such, religion is not a merely contingent expression of a contingent misery produced by a contingent ...

I could tell you what it is, but I don't want to steal Rebecca's thunder . It is a big step and we are very happy about it. I was pretty sure it would be affirmative, but nothing beats knowing it for sure. That approval letter can't get here fast enough.

We have a winner in the Nasty Chasuble contest!

Checking out Colby Cosh's blog (yes, the guy that the National Post let go) led me to Tart Cider , a blog that he recommended. I'm always interested in new blogs, looking for things that are new an interesting to read. Cider isn't to my taste for many reasons, some of them being nothing more than personal taste (I utterly refuse to wax nostalgic for the 1970's, even when it's camp). What I did want to comment on is Chris Selly's idea that SSM is about rights, while polygamy is about freedom of religion. Selly writes that conservatives ought to stop using the threat of SSM leading, via a ' slippery slope ', to legalized polygamy. Slippery slope arguments can be problematic, no doubt about it. I think the problem here is that when polygamy is brought up as the boogeyman in the SSM closet, there are two arguments at work. One is that polygamy will follow SSM in a temporal sense. If that is a slippery slope argument, I don't think it is a controversi...

Chesterton and The Dumb Ox Tonight I have been flipping through some G.K. Chesterton, as I am prone to do when I am restless and in need of good, solid company. As usual, he does not disappoint. The following is from his book on St. Thomas Aquinas : ... The philosophy of St. Thomas stands founded on the universal conviction that eggs are eggs. The Hegelian may say that an egg is really a hen, because it is a part of an endless process of Becoming; the Berkeleian may hold that poached eggs only exist as a dream exists; since it is quite as easy to call the dream the cause of the eggs as the eggs the cause of the dream; the Pragmatist may believe that we get the best out of scrambled eggs by forgetting that they ever were eggs, and remembering only the scramble. But no pupil of St. Thomas needs to addle his brains in order adequately to addle his eggs; to put his head at any peculiar angle in looking at eggs, or winking the other eye, or squinting at eggs, or winking the other eye i...

I have been watching the disaster response on the other side of the planet and the horribleness of the event is such that I am quite speechless. A fine thing, that. Here I am in my comfortable house, my family intact and I have before me a plate of Christmas cookies. And over there - well, none of that. My heart goes out to those whose lives have been turned upside down and I hope and pray for the souls who are departed. It makes no sense to me, but I must remind myself that I have merely one man's perspective. My mind and my faith tell me that a peaceful, long life is not the purpose of living, and my desire for just that may be among the larger impediments to any understanding I might have. Awareness of that clash between what I want and what really is helps only a little. In instances like this it is faith that props up the mind, which, left to it's own devices would simply spin its wheels until they were bald. Currently the death count sits at about 50,000, which, if it ...

A few days ago I tore into Lydia Lorvic for a pro SSM column that was an opinion piece without the solid backing she claimed it had. She's back with a better effort , this time about an idiot who wants to be able to use the local Ladies Only Fitness Club. Oh- and he's a man. Lorvic compares the man wanting access to the women only gym to the big fru fru this summer over a Vancouver Golf Club's having a bar that did not allow women. She correctly concludes that women cannot have it both ways. If they insist on attacking the golf club, they must accept this man into their fitness gym. I think sending the trouble makers packing is the best solution in both cases. If men want to create a place where they are free of women, that's fine so long as the women have the same right, to create a club with no admittance to men. People who don't like voluntary sex segregation can choose not to visit such establishments and to tell others why they shouldn't either. Pickets...

Enlightenment as Sympathetic Liberty The Enlightenment is interesting both as a historical event and as an idea. At Policy Review Peter Berkowitz examines the same book that Jonah Goldberg looked at on NRO a few days ago, Gertrude Himmelfarb's The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments . I find much to admire in the English and American experience and find the French positively frightful. England: [Edmund Burke] best known for his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), which defends the wisdom embodied in tradition and condemns the French revolutionaries for seeking to remake political society on the basis of abstract theories of political right, Burke is often thought of as a leading figure of the counter-Enlightenment. But, as Himmelfarb observes, though a conservative, he is a conservative defender of liberty. He argued that free-market economics was essential to prosperity while insisting that the institutions and sent...

You Are a Retrospective Soul The most misunderstood of all the soul signs. Sometimes you even have difficulty seeing yourself as who you are. You are intense and desire perfection in every facet of your life. You're best described as extremely idealistic, hardworking, and a survivor. Great moments of insight and sensitivity come to you easily. But if you aren't careful, you'll ignore these moments and repeat past mistakes. For you, it is difficult to seperate the past from the present. You will suceed once you overcome the disappoinments in life. Souls you are most compatible with: Traveler Soul and Prophet Soul What Kind of Soul Are You?

I hope your Christmas Day was wonderful. I wanted to do a short post of a few bits of Christmas things. For appropriate background music, click here (*.ram music file on this page requires Realplayer). A ngels We Have Heard on High is my new favourite Christmas Carol and the words don't at all do it justice. You have to hear the Gloria to get it (it has a lot of O's in it). Angels We have heard on High Angels we have heard on high Sweetly singing o'er the plains, And the mountains in reply Echoing their joyous strains. CHORUS Glo----ria in excelsis Deo, Glo----ria in excelsis Deo. Shepherd, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong? What the gladsome tidings be Which inspire your heav'nly song? CHORUS Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing. Come adore on bended knee Christ the Lord, the newborn King. CHORUS With Christmas Day, Advent comes to a close and The Twelve Days of Christmas begin, lasting...

The dawn from on high shall break upon us Christmas Eve. Spend time with your family. Remember your Christmas traditions. Open one present after diner or after Mass. Enjoy some food and enjoy all the lights. Don't worry about whether you've done enough. The glass is not half empty, it's half full; and though not one of us has earned it, it is available anyway. You, my child , shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

This is making the rounds through some of the blogs my wife likes to keep in touch with (and me too!). No one stuck me with this, but that doesn't mean I can't take the initiative! ******* Three names you go by: Curt Sonny Grubby Three screen names you have: Curt (that's it) Three things you like about yourself: My ability to stay calm under pressure My work ethic People underestimate me Three things you hate/dislike about yourself: I can make unwarranted assumptions I can be hard on myself and others I can be shy Three parts of your heritage: German Austrian Italian Three things that scare you: Being broke Poor health Family misunderstandings Three of your everyday essentials: Internet Coffee Country music Three things you are wearing right now : Long sleeve T-shirt corduroy pants Slippers Three of your favorite bands/artists (at the moment): Gretchen Wilson Alan Jackson George Straight Three of your favori...

NRO's Jonah Goldberg takes look a two new books critical of France and drops not one, but two interesting observations about the Enlightenment , both of which have profound implications for those of us who call ourselves Conservative. More people should know this first bit. A lot more: The French have long tried to claim that the American Revolution was merely an offshoot of the French Enlightenment project. Himmelfarb disagrees. She shows that the French took a different road to modernity than the British and Americans, who took similar but slightly different routes themselves. The British valued virtue more than liberty; the Americans had it the other way around. But where the French differed is that they sought to replace the religion of old Europe with a new cult of reason. They even made the Notre Dame Cathedral into a "Temple of Reason." The philosophes' Encyclopedie proclaimed, "Reason is to the philosopher what grace is to the Christian. Grace move...

Micheal Leeden from NRO, commenting on Iraq : The clear strategic conclusion remains what it should have been long before Coalition troops entered Saddam's evil domain: No matter how strongly we wish it to be otherwise, we are engaged in a regional war, of which Iraq is but a single battlefield. The war cannot be won in Iraq alone, because the enemy is based throughout the region and his bases and headquarters are located beyond our current reach. His power is directly proportional to our unwillingness to see the true nature of the war, and our decision to limit the scope of our campaign. It doesn't matter that I've thought this since before the war started, it still creeps me out. But I don't see an alternative. The issue reminds me of Nixon in Vietnam, when he was faced with enemy troops resting and re-supplying in Cambodia, which was beyond the border and the jurisdiction of the American war effort. Nixon did a few raids if I recall, but it was too little too late. ...

More on Class The Tiger in Winter sent along some class conscious quizzes yesterday. I did the Furniture one today. I like my result, I think: Old Money. I also got a smattering of New Money and Middle Middle. My taste for electronics dragged me down. Dang! (is that Old Money?) It wasn't too hard to see where most of the choices would take you, but I was baffled, baffled I tell you , over the floor covering. What is wrong with pile carpet? They claim it isn't even middle middle - it's lower class. I would have said that about deep shag...

There's a short, interesting comment on the relationship between the term "conservative" and support for SSM at the Anal Philosopher . I like and agree with Burgess' conclusion. He says that although people can disagree over terms, he: ... conceive[s] of conservatism as traditionalism. There is no human institution that is older, more traditional, or more important—given its connection to childrearing—than monogamous heterosexual marriage. Claiming to be a conservative while supporting homosexual “marriage” is like claiming to be a Christian while denying the divinity of Jesus. There are some whose conservatism is only support for a free market. That's great but guys? It's hard to sell that to people who know that they won't be able to compete very well.

David Horowitz has drafted what he calls an Academic Bill of Rights . After a quick look see, I tentatively think I like the document. These points I see as valuable, because I saw why they're needed when I was a student: 5. Exposing students to the spectrum of significant scholarly viewpoints on the subjects examined in their courses is a major responsibility of faculty. Faculty will not use their courses for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination. 7. An environment conducive to the civil exchange of ideas being an essential component of a free university, the obstruction of invited campus speakers, destruction of campus literature or other effort to obstruct this exchange will not be tolerated. As a student more than ten years ago, I has classes in the Political Economy of the Canadian Media that were relentlessly Marxist. You could write from another view, but you never heard it in class, and it wasn't in the textbooks. I al...

You scored as Middle Class . You're content in your position and would prefer a house or a family than a seven figure pay cheque. But you have your moments of weakness when you buy a lottery ticket in the hope of knowing how the rich and famous live. Middle Class 75% alternative 63% Upper middle Class 58% Luxurious Upper Class 46% Lower Class 21% What Social Status are you? created with QuizFarm.com Tip: After Abortion

The guys at Cox and Forkum strike again.

Secular isn't neutral David Warren , excellent, as usual: ... even where, as in the United States, they still form a majority, Christians are the targets of molestation that becomes ever more serious if it is not resisted. It ranges from the petty campaigns to remove everything from Christmas crèches to Salvation Army bell-ringers from all public places by the "politically correct", to the fact Canadian churches are already bracing for the removal of their charitable status, as the legal weapon most likely to be used to force them to "sanctify" "gay" "marriages". Italy, the figurative heart of Catholic Christendom, is where the action is, in the West this year. All across Italy, school and municipal authorities have been banning traditional Christmas displays from public property, on the grounds that they must be offensive to Muslims -- even while prominent Italian Muslims repeatedly condemn their "excessive zeal". As they...

This is the best they can do? I read Lydia Lorvic's pro SSM bit in the Vancouver Province while I was at work yesterday and I was astonished at the majority of her arguments. This is what passes as editorial comment in the MSM in Canada today? No wonder I don't pay to read any of the papers anymore. Now I've found her editorial on line and will attempt my first fisking . Lydia is in blue, and my comments are in black. Mon, December 20, 2004 Let them eat (wedding) cake By Lydia Lovric -- Winnipeg Sun As a staunch conservative on many issues, this may come as a bit of a shock to my friends on the right. Rarely do I agree with the Liberals. For the most part, I think they're merely well-paid fence-sitters who couldn't take a stand if their hefty pensions depended upon it. But when it comes to same-sex marriage, I think the Liberals (most of them, anyway) and NDP are on the right track. Gay people should have the right to be just as happy or miser...

How to move forward? Oswald Sobrino at Catholic Analysis explores how Hispanic Catholics struggle with the Catholic Church they find in America. Part of the problem, he says, is in the way we handle the Bible: [Hispanics] find the Protestant preacher always talking about the Bible in a way that is quite different from the typical American Catholic homily. The Protestant evangelical likes to "dig" into the Bible and tie different parts of the Bible together. It is even routine in Southern Baptist churches to hear the preacher refer to the original Greek in his sermons. Contrast this approach with the typical American Catholic homily: begin with a non-biblical anecdote about sports or some other secular event or with a sentimental story, then draw platitudes from the lectionary readings. It is a mediocre exercise that challenges no one: neither the preacher nor the audience. Instead of digging to give the people something solid to fascinate them with Scripture, we are lef...

Robert McCelland at MyBlahg has begun The Canadian Blog Awards , and nominated NWW for "Best Conservative Blog." I'm flattered. I come at things quite differently than he does, and have been put off by his some time tendency to insult first and reason second. Kudos to Rob for being big about the different approaches. I'll try to do the same. I'm not under the impression the NWW will score a crushing victory over well known and published names like Andrew Coyne. I'm also up against some blogs I read and enjoy, like Brock: On the Attack, Bound by Gravity and Babbling Brooks, not to mention Jay Currie. But if you like this blog and want to vote, well, what are you waiting for?

Damian at Babbling Brooks has posted the latest Red Ensign . It is wonderful and it is great. Go and read it for the next two weeks. After reading it I had to do a post for him because he, like yours truly, likes a joke : Oh For The Irish An Irishman staggered home late after another evening at the pub with his drinking mates. Shoes in his left hand to avoid waking his wife, he tiptoed as quietly as he could toward the stairs leading to their upstairs bedroom, but misjudged the bottom step in the darkened entryway. As he caught himself by grabbing the banister, his body swung around and he landed heavily on his rump. A whisky bottle in each back pocket broke and made the landing especially painful. Managing to suppress a yelp, the man sprung up, pulled down his pants, and examined his lacerated and bleeding cheeks in the mirror of a nearby darkened hallway, then managed to find a large full box of Band-aids and proceeded to place a patch as best he could on each place he saw...

When Ordinary is Extraordinary I'm a man of steel. I can accomplish superhuman feats . I’m a heterosexual, monogamous, faithful man who has been married for over five years. And get this: I still want to be married! I'd rather spend time with my wife and children than time in bars with drunkards and strippers! This is the stuff that legends are made of! OK, back to reality. There are plenty of reasons why no sane person would consider me a superhero, especially those who know me best. But in our modern culture, I've accomplished a goal that is seldom realized. When I celebrate my ten-year anniversary, I’ll indeed be beating the odds. And if, like my father, I can go through middle age without getting divorced, I'll truly be staring culture right in the face and spitting in its eye . I admit it; I am also a radical. I don't think people are like turnips or pumpkins who are doomed to become what they are based solely on the nutrients and soil they find the...

When I first read this story from Mathew, I was bamboozled, and did not know what to make of it. I read it again this week as it came up in this weeks' gospel readings; I think I'm beginning to understand. Mt 21:23-27 When Jesus had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, "By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?" Jesus said to them in reply, "I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things. Where was John's baptism from? Was it of heavenly or of human origin?" They discussed this among themselves and said, "If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,' he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?' But if we say, ‘Of human origin,' we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet." So they said to Jesus in reply, "We...

It's the last day of my two weeks off (that sucks ) and I still have not given a rebuttal to Andrew on our "monotheism vs. Naturalism" discussion. Time to put that right. His post is here , and the one I wrote that he refers to most is here . His entry also has links to previous exchanges we've had. I'll try to make this post stand alone as best I can. ******** The first thing Andrew did in his post was to dismiss the human need for a meaningful life. There are two issues I have to respond to here. The first is to admit that Andrew is quite right in saying that wanting something to be true is a lousy proof that it is true. In fact, I never staked a claim on that. Here is what I said: The human heart, however, balks at meaninglessness. Why should that matter? A purely rational approach cannot choose either course and leads to agnosticism. Here is why the heart is important. Because the decision to think with only reason is itself purely arbitrary . There ...

76% and an average error of 61 miles. That's how this Canadian did in putting U.S. states on a blank map . It wasn't too shabby a showing, considering the only states I've seen are the ones on the west coast (Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada). My biggest error was Kansas, which I thought was much further west than it is. The tiny New England states are also very hard for me to keep straight. Give it a go, it's fun. I'd love to see Americans do this with Canadian Provinces and Territories. (Tip: Tiger in Winter ).

Peggy Noonan writes that the US Democratic Party is puzzling over how to better manipulate symbols . You know, like the "code words" president Bush uses to speak to his "evangelical base." Apparently, they still have some work to do. Google labs they're not.

One of our newest Red Ensign bloggers has embarked on a small series of posts dealing exploring Libertarian Ethics. Tipperography has two of three intended posts up and I recommend them to everyone, especially those using the label Libertarian to describe themselves. Brenda is easy to read, so no excuses, jump right in. I'm especially impressed with the second entry, where I got the title for this post. Quote: Having fun is not about egoism. And being good is not about collectivism. Both concepts are to be shunned. Having fun and being good are about altruistic individualism. A few years ago I came up with a political slogan. A non-starter if ever there was one, but something that was nifty for me nonetheless: Less government. More caring. Post one is here and number two is here . Tipper's stance is quite different from what Jay Currie has been posting. Jay stopped by yesterday but he didn't explain how needy, fragmented families resulting from weak, custo...