Friday, July 18, 2014

Cosmic Leveling and the Animalization of Man

Leveling is the barbarian's substitute for order. --Aphorisms of Don Colacho

As mentioned a few posts back, one of the general tenets or principles of conservative thought is the recognition and preservation of vertical hierarchy. When "natural distinctions are effaced among men," writes Kirk, "oligarchs fill the vacuum." (Like nature, trans-nature abhors those vacuous nothings.)

Thus, the story of leftism does not have a happy ending, i.e., a carefree proletariat living on Sugar Candy Mountain. It doesn't end in a classless society but a two-tiered one, e.g., wards of the state and administrators of the state, bureaucrats and cronies, power and its clients.

It is why the "income inequality" liberals pretend to care about has become so much more pronounced under Obama, why labor participation is at a historic low, and why blacks are falling further behind (one reason, anyway). The cure? More of the same!

Here's how it works: "Each day we demand more from society so that we can demand less from ourselves" (Don Colacho). Or in other words, little by little we transfer our power to the state, until the state does all the demanding and we do all the obeying.

"Hierarchies are heavenly. In hell all are equal" (ibid.). Indeed, "if men were born equal, they would invent inequality to kill the boredom." But since they are born unequal (or better, un-equivalent) -- in talents, in intelligence, in interests -- the left has invented a soul-sapping, boredom-inducing culture to stifle the recognition. Mind-numbing bread and mediated circuses to keep the LoFos either amused or riled up.

Another aphorism: "In society just as in the soul, when hierarchies abdicate, the appetites rule." Why? Because in a two-tiered system there can be nothing higher than carnal appetite and endless desire. The state has the overwhelming advantage here, since conservatives must rely on arguments, whereas the left has only to bribe with other people's property. Thus, "elections decide who may be oppressed legally." And "social justice"? That's the term they invented "to claim anything to which we do not have a right" (ibid.).

Ah, Obama's epitaph: "Revolutions have as their function the destruction of the illusions that cause them." True enough, but he's also causing an awful lot of collateral damage to reality while he's at it.

I could playgiarize with Don Colacho all day. Let's move on to the nature of this vertical hierarchy.

I suppose the first thing a spiritually bereft leftist will say is, "what about 'all men are created equal?'" Do we really have to remind him that this refers to equality before God and therefore before the law? This mediocre book on Original Sin makes the point that the doctrine of our primeval calamity assures that all men are equal in another sense, of ineradicable guilt for unavoidable sin. Thus, the doctrine can be "curiously liberating," in that it implies that we are "all in the same boat" and in need of a vertical intervention, the prince no less than the pauper.

For Schuon there are no fewer than five vertical degrees which we could boil down to corporeal/material, soul/psychic, spirit/intellect, formal (cataphatic) God, and formless (apophatic) God. Being that this is a hierarchy, it can only be understood from the top down. Thus, each level is a kind of downward projection of the one immediately above.

As we have discussed and even belabored, the essential error of modernity was to invert this hierarchy, such that the bottom -- matter -- became the top. But this led to insoluble absurdities such as how life can emerge from dead matter, or how the soul can emerge from biology. As a patient of mine once put it, "you can only get so much blood from a turnip." Likewise, you can only get so much wisdom from a rock.

In a properly oriented cosmos, we see the hierarchy of Beyond Being → Being → Spirit → Soul → Body; or Godhead → Personal God → Celestial/Logospheric Realm (which is mirrored in the Intellect) → Psychic → Corporeal (encompassing space, time, matter-energy, etc.)

Now, what would happen if we were to collapse this hierarchy? Or rather, what has happened? Let's start at the top: what happens when level 1 is merged into 2? A fascistic theocracy such as Islamism, which merges God and religion and denies the divine freedom of the Godhead.

How about when 2 blends into 3? I would say an impotent and disembodied idealism. 3 into 4? The desiccated, wisdom-free mind of the tenured. 4 into 5? The successful animalization of man, i.e., nihilism and barbarism.

For example, Schuon draws a distinction between "intellective intuition" (level 3) and "a merely cerebral 'intelligence'" (level 4). "The cult of intelligence... distances man from truth: intelligence narrows as soon as man puts his trust in it alone," for the level 3 intellect is precisely that faculty "which perceives the transcendent," or level 2.

And importantly, this intellect is "a receptive faculty and not a power which produces: it does not 'create': it receives and transmits; it is a mirror" of what transcends it, just as the level 3 psyche, when properly functioning, should be a mirror of "the world."

Another valid point, although one that will be easier for eastern Christians to appreciate: that the intellect is not fallen per se; or rather, one might think of it as the divine spark which survives the fall, even if it is only an ember. But the real fall is from level to level, especially from intellect to ego and then on down to the infrahuman (which is technically lower than the innocent animal, which only does what comes naturally; but when man becomes an animal, he sinks beneath himself and exists in a kind of unreal, non-space).

But if we understand the hierarchy rightly, there is nothing whatsoever "wrong" with any of the levels, so long as the hierarchy is maintained. I am thinking, for example, of Pope JP2's "theology of the body," whereby the body (and sexuality) is divinized by energies and graces emanating from above. (Indeed, the whole doctrine of Incarnation could hardly be more clear about this.)

Likewise, there is nothing wrong with the tenure-mind, so long as it is informed by the spirit, and doesn't become detached from vertical reality; or negate what surpasses it, up to and including its very source and ground.

78 comments:

julie said...

Thus, the story of leftism does not have a happy ending, i.e., a carefree proletariat living on Sugar Candy Mountain. It doesn't end in a classless society but a two-tiered one, e.g., wards of the state and administrators of the state, bureaucrats and cronies, power and its clients.

Just yesterday, I was reading something by VDH (I think - don't have the link) where he was noting that as the US withdraws its influence in the world in order to do important things like monitor all the citizens and give everyone (well, except of course the left sort of .01%) the same shitty insurance, other influences are moving into Central and South America. You know, perfectly benign influences like Russia and China and Iran, and of course there's no possibility that they could be sending some of their friends across our wide-open border with less-than-friendly intentions. Nope. Why would they want to do that?

Not only does it all not end in a classless society, there's a good chance that large swathes of our society - especially those who are most vulnerable - could simply find themselves experiencing real poverty, third-world style, while the orchestrators wall themselves up in their compounds or simply wander off to their second or third homes conveniently located, er, somewhere else.

When America withdraws from the world to tear apart its own navel, the world will not be content to just quietly muddle along as it has done for most of the past century.

neal said...

Pathogens are not just ideological. These days, start with weak minds, then the body. That is probably why people used to dress and live a bit differently; health and safety.

Strange how there seems to be such a need for some exorcist/medic. Who are you going to call?

Pandemics are shovel ready. Gravedigging will just leave with a bad back, vertical or otherwise.

mushroom said...

The cult of intelligence -- I am reminded of a family friend who was not terribly intelligent but rather witty. He had a job driving a school bus. One morning the school's superintendent got on his case because when the bus came in, he had seen that some of the riders were standing up.

The driver said, That's the route and the bus you've assigned me. It's a 54-passenger bus, and there are 62 kids to pick up on the route.

The superintendent said, You have to get them seated.

The driver said, How do seat 62 people on a 54-passenger bus?

The superintendent replied, That's your problem.

"That," our friend said to us, "is what I call an educated idiot."

Gagdad Bob said...

Elizabeth Warren on the One Tenet of conservatism:

"I got mine. The rest of you are on your own."

I'm guessing she actually believes that. She's up there in the intellectual stratosphere with Sandra Fluke, Nancy Pelosi, and Rosie O'Donnell.

julie said...

Ugh.

Yeah - Fauxcahantas got hers, alright. The one thing Liberals do extremely well is projection. Well okay, that and envy.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"It is why the "income inequality" liberals pretend to care about has become so much more pronounced under Obama, why labor participation is at a historic low, and why blacks are falling further behind (one reason, anyway). The cure? More of the same!"

Yep, the left has basically a one size fits all solution to everything (including the problems they cause):
Mo' money (other people's), mo' power, and mo' regulations.

To paraphrase lefties into honest language:
"We will not rest until everyone is equally free of scary freedom and until social and economic justice reigns supreme (barring your kind, bureaucratic leaders of course who only have your best interests at heart whether you like it or not you freaking ingrates)."

LoudandProud Lefty said...

We will live on Sugar Candy Mountain, we will you fucking h8ters!

Skully said...

Wow, lilly white redskin is really on the whorepath ain't she?

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Mushroom,
That superintendent should be riding the short bus.

mushroom said...

That would have been a great line. I don't think we had short buses back then. I seem to remember all the retards being on the same bus with me.

Wait a minute ...

Gagdad Bob said...

So much for the left being offended by Washington Redskins.

Anonymous said...

or maybe Al Sharpton can bring you around.

Gagdad Bob said...

Carter was our first female president, Clinton our first black president, Obama our first gay president, and now Warren would be our first Indian president. Progress!

Jack said...

1) Simply as a piece of music the "Run, Liz, Run" is AWFUL.

2) The first line of the song says, "America wants our next President to be a women:. Forgetting the nitpick that the line doesn't really scan, and sounds like it is sung by someone with speech issues. Forget that!

More importantly, are we as a nation really going to try and elect another far left jr. Senator based on the delusion that their skin color or genitalia will magically allow them to create a utopia?

Have we learned nothing?

Wait, don't answer that...

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

I don't see why lefties are so enamored by Warren.
Her squaw-kings are essentially the same all the other leftist, snake oil grifters.

Maybe it's the fire water they drink.

Gagdad Bob said...

To vote for someone based upon skin color or genitalia is the logical entailment of leftist thought -- even though, in the same breath, they'll tell you that race and gender are just meaningless social constructs.

Stupid² .

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Speaking of stupid, Biden talked to the President of Ukraine today.
Probably gave him his fire a shotgun blast through the door advice t spread all this tranquility that Obama has given the world.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

I know the passengers and crew of MH17 are happy about all this tranquility Obama has set in motion.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Next up for Obama:
Iran and nuclear tranquility.

liberal logician said...

We already know the "Reset Button" didn't work for spreading world peace. Maybe what we need now is someone with some high cheekbones to just sit all the world leaders down in a drum circle, maybe sing Kumbayah, and pass a peace pipe. Has anybody tried that yet? No. And that's why we need Fauxcahantas in 2016.

Anonymous said...

I would like to know under what theory Obama has the slightest responsibility for MH17, other than that he is the incarnation of the devil and thus to blame for evil anywhere in the universe.

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you people?

Shouldn't need to be said said...

If you don't understand the worldwide consequences of having an American president whose foreign policy has consistently succeeded in alienating our allies and emboldening our enemies, I doubt there is much that anybody here can say to make you understand.

OBVIOUSLY, the only people responsible for shooting down MH17 are the shooters. The point is, would there even be any shooters bold enough to be knocking jets out of the sky in Ukraine right now if Putin respected America's resolve enough to have stayed out of Ukraine in the first place? Somehow, I doubt it.

George W. Bush said...

... other than that he is the incarnation of the devil and thus to blame for evil anywhere in the universe.

I thought that was me.

Anonymous said...

So you think the US should have gone to war with Russia over the Ukraine? $3 trillion dollars and 100000 or wasted on Iraq wasn't enough for you? Going to send you or your children to fight house to house in Kiev and Simferpol, or are you planning to use someone else's?

Shouldn't need to be said said...

With President Poofter at the helm? Yeah, that would have gone well.

No, genius. Again - my point is that when there is an American president who maintains decent bonds with our allies, and whom our enemies consider dangerous enough, none of this would be necessary, because the world's assholes are a lot less inclined to try something that will get our attention. Instead, they've got the World Apology Tour and a muzzled military that appears to be pulling back and shrinking down in all the wrong places, because, like, war is for meanies, man, and it's time for some smart diplomacy. When somebody does something that seems a little offsides, they know they can expect a disappointed tweet with a sad face from our administration as a response. Also, they're getting great promises from the state department that we'll be sending more fruits as diplomats - I dunno, for entertainment purposes? Or maybe so that next time an embassy is invaded, the ambassador might enjoy getting plowed in the street before being torn limb from limb?

Putin went into Ukraine because he knew for a fact that nobody in this world with the necessary strength has the will or the interest to do Jack or Shit about it. Hell for all I know Obama may well have promised that we wouldn't do anything - or else what was that little discussion between him and Putin just prior to the last election?

The world is, and is always, an ugly place full of ugly people who want to do ugly things. And right now, all those ugly people know that for those they oppress, they can be sure that no help is coming.

Make no mistake, anon - Things Are Going to Get Worse, and the world will get uglier. Do I want to send our young people off to fight and die? Don't be an ass. There are young people in my family serving right now. But nor would I disrespect those people enough to try to "keep them safe". You see, that's not what they signed up for.

An article excerpt said...

Which states it all more clearly:

"The heralds of the “post-American world” devote most of their songs to the wonders of the BRIC economies, the rise of a globally conscious, technologically savvy youth culture, the justice of a humbled America, the importance of institutions and conferences and stakeholders in resolving global conflict through diplomatic means. What they never get around to singing about, in any particular detail, is the day-to-day reality of the post-American world: the headlines one encounters when Vladimir Putin is unrestrained; the numbers of dead and wounded in civil wars fueled by Russian weapons and Russian assistance; the lies and conspiracies and anti-Americanism fueled by Russian information operations; and the unexpected events, the contingencies, the collateral damage of insurgency and strife. No secret why they leave all this out: such dissonant lyrics do not jibe with a placid, comforting melody of exhaustion, war weariness, senescence.

Well, there is no getting around it now. “Obama contends with arc of instability unseen since ’70s,” says the Wall Street Journal. Militias and rogue generals in Libya, Hamas versus Israel, Hezbollah and Assad and Iran against Sunni rebels and the Caliphate, the prospect of an Iranian bomb, war in Ukraine, withdrawal from Afghanistan, China bullying its neighbors—such is the extent of global disorder today."

Gagdad Bob said...

For evil, weakness is provocative. The left disagrees, and literally thinks that our strength is provocative -- that evil people hate us because Military Industrial Complex or because we won't unilaterally disarm. I have moonbat relatives who really believed the world would love us once we got rid of the naughty Bush and brought in the nice Bammy. Two things about the left: they do not understand evil. And they do not understand how the world works.

Gagdad Bob said...

And I will be the first to admit I used to believe such nonsense. Back in the 1980s, I no doubt hated Reagan more than communism, just as the left hates Bush far more than Islamism.

Gagdad Bob said...

Bottom line: if you are confused about good and evil you will be confused about which one to defend and which to attack. It's why the left attacks Israel and defends the Palestinian monsters, or why Obama spends a few seconds on Putin before launching into his ritual denunciation of Republicans Who Hate the Middle Class.

Jack said...

"...who really believed the world would love us once we got rid of the naughty Bush and brought in the nice Bammy"

One would think even a slender familiarity with human history would disabuse anyone of the notion that human conflict can somehow be our fault for being strong.

Of course we are not angels either, but compare our worst day to the levels of chaos and violence to come (and have been before us) if our power wanes significantly.

I found "War in Human Civilization" to be very helpful in understanding why this is.

Gagdad Bob said...

As Hitchens said (ironically), "the root cause of terror is resistance to it."

Van Harvey said...

From the opening sales blurb for the book Jack linked:

"Why do people go to war? Is it rooted in human nature or is it a late cultural invention?..."

Is it a late cultural invention? Hello, 'Trojan War'? Only a people completely ignorant of their own nature could ask that. Only that, and a few 'Studies' degrees could make such ignorance conceivable.

I feel sorry for them if they somehow wind up reading that book, their self espreen will be in for a beating.

Gagdad Bob said...

Vertically speaking, war starts in Genesis 4 and hasn't let up since. There's more wisdom in that simple declaration than in all the Peace Studies departments combined.

Jack said...

Rooted in human nature vs. a cultural invention.

Yet another unbridgeable divide between the right and the left. Of course, the left HAS to believe that conflict and war is an merely a cultural invention --imposed on us by the rich and powerful --or their delusions of utopia would be exposed as exactly that.

Since conflict is so pervasive (in one form or another) throughout history there must be some culprit or cabal driving it all. Forcing us to engage in violent acts in opposition to our gentle, peace-loving ways. Oh the humanity!

The Rich! The Kulaks! The Jews! The British! The Americans! George W. Bush! White Heterosexual Conservative Men!

If only...IF ONLY...we could be rid of all these evil white conservative men we could finally settle in to the utopia which is our birthright! Free Elizabeth Warren!!

Gagdad Bob said...

To paraphrase Don Colacho, there are those who believe in some version of original sin, and then there are idiots.

Van Harvey said...

Gagdad said "Vertically speaking, war starts in Genesis 4 and hasn't let up since."

Genesis 4:6-7 is an interesting one, especially comparing different translations,

King James Version:
" 6 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him."

Young's Literal Translation:
"6 And Jehovah saith unto Cain, `Why hast thou displeasure? and why hath thy countenance fallen?
7 Is there not, if thou dost well, acceptance? and if thou dost not well, at the opening a sin-offering is crouching, and unto thee its desire, and thou rulest over it.'"

Wycliffe Bible:
"6 And the Lord said to him, Why art thou wroth, and why felled down thy face?
7 Whether not if thou shalt do well, thou shalt receive well; but if thou doest evil, thy sin shall be present anon in the gates? but the desire thereof, that is, of sin, shall be under thee, and thou shalt be lord thereof. (If thou shalt do well, then thou shalt be accepted; but if thou doestevil, then at once thy sin shall be present at the gates, and the desire of sin shall take thee under, and so thou must be lord of it, or rule over it.)"

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition:
"6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”"

Of the four I think I prefer the last two, and the Wycliffe of those (probably part of my brevity issue), but the upshot seems to be that to flatter your preferences over what is actually true, to not know yourself, to try to impose upon reality what you would rather it be... one thing leads you into another and soon draws you war with yourself and the entire cosmos.

Gagdad Bob said...

I think that auto-victimization and self-pity must be the Mother of War. Make yourself a victim, and it legitimizes violence. Thus, Palestinians are self-styled permanent victims, as is Putin. Hitler was a victim of the Jews, as communists were victims of the bourgeoisie. Obama is a victim of the Republicans he persecutes (via the IRS), and feminists are victims of their babies.

What is the left in general but an abyss of self-pity and therefore instant self-justification? It is a perversion of Christianity, in that it is the remission of sin via identification with primordial victimhood.

Gagdad Bob said...

BTW, this book by Kirk, Decadence and renewal in the higher learning: An episodic history of American university and college since 1953 is highly informative but even more insultaining. Although published in 1978, it's like a spiritual biography of Obama, in that it shows how he is the very incarnation of every crazy and pathological idea to come out of academia since I don't know when. Obama might as well have a PhDs in Good Intentions and Unexamined Assumptions. But his clueless smugness wasn't learned. That's just a gift.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"But his clueless smugness wasn't learned. That's just a gift."

The gift that keeps on taking.

julie said...

:D

Anonymous said...

How many of you bold manly warriors have served in the military? Not many, I assume. But OK, the thought of all that physical power gives you a chubby by association. Reagan's faux-cowboy act and Bush's codpiece let you be macho men by projection.

You people have the sophisticated geopolitical thinking of a 6 year old boy playing with his GI Joe action toys. Obama is hardly perfect, but at least he's an adult, so anathema to your fantasies.

The price for Bush being able to wave his junk around on an aircraft carrier is very high as I mentioned. The GOP is the party of childish fantasies and primitive emotions, but we all get stuck with the bills. Fortunately the political winds are shifting a bit so we may have adults in charge for awhile now.

Van Harvey said...

(I think our aninnymouse has a woody for Freud)

julie said...

Huh. It's clear that there isn't anything we can say to the troll of the month, which leads me, once again, to ponder what it is that he gets out of coming here?

I've never understood that - if you dislike somebody so much, especially somebody who can have no bearing on anything in your life, why devote that much time paying attention to what they say? Especially people as wordy as us.

Weird.

Dr. Freud said...

When you've lost the argument, just attribute unconscious sexual motives. Works for me.

Although I must say, I don't like these vulgarians who do the same thing with wild charges of racism. Very unscientific.

Anonymous said...

Uh, dude, aren't you the one who is constantly poring over Obama's behavior looking of for signs of narcissism, or homosexuality, or any other pathology your imagination can dream up? That's like half your output here. It's all Cosmic Truth and by the way the president is an incarnation of everything dark and twisted and evil.

You don't want to be the subject of cheap remote psychosexual diagnosis? Then don't dish it out.

julie said...

And uh, dude, it seems like you can't get enough. So either you're ragingly masochistic, or perhaps there are some hidden desires locked away deep in your own psyche...

Dr. Freud said...

Back off, man. I'm a scientist.

Van Harvey said...

Julie said "...which leads me, once again, to ponder what it is that he gets out of coming here?"

Lets just say that his sizable investment in viagra was fruitless, so... he does what he can to fill in the blank.

Anonymous said...

if you dislike somebody so much, especially somebody who can have no bearing on anything in your life, why devote that much time paying attention to what they say?

Why do you spend so much time parsing the psyche and actions of Obama and "the Left" whom you despise?

You as individuals do not have any bearing on my life, but the political faction you are aligned with most certainly does. You have chosen one side in an ongoing political battle, so why are you so shocked that someone on the other side would fight back?

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Fighting back, eh? Is that how you imagine your hysterical ravings?
You remind me of Kim Jung Il in Team America but far more irrational.

Are you...ronery?

Anonymous said...

Who you callin' ronery?

Van Harvey said...

Why is the pussy...cat, always bigger than they are?

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Heh, anyone else find it funny that Obama was lecturing Putin about unintended consequences?

Even the best seeing irony dogs can't help the irony deficient boy tyrant see the irony in that.

Captain Kirk said...

Even the pussy in that one Star Trek episode I did wasn't that big!
No, I'm not talking about you, Sulu (bitch).

julie said...

Wait, you're "fighting back?"

lol - how cute.

Oh, okay - well, let us know when you've got your dukes up.

julie said...

Oh, and if that's really you, you might want to proofread your header...

Van Harvey said...

Julie said "Oh, okay - well, let us know when you've got your dukes up."

Julie, please be more specific, otherwise this aninny might show up in his Daisy Dukes, and... well, horrors....

Van Harvey said...

Julie said "Wait, you're "fighting back?"

Sad isn't it? He tries to enter a discussion of ideas by hurling charges. It's like someone wandered into a tank battle with a straw and spitwads yelling "I'm fighting back! !!"

What do ya do with that?

Other than chuckle I mean.

julie said...

Right? I mean, first of all I'm not at all sure what he's accomplishing doing his fighting here. Clearly, he's not trying to change minds, just score points. Points which only exist in his own mind. Then his arguments pretty much boil down to "Nuh uh!" and "I know you are but what am I!"

So he disagrees that American weakness emboldens the thugs of the world - and Russia in particular - to take actions they wouldn't have otherwise taken? Fine - but show some evidence, have a point, explain to me how the world is actually safer now, six years after the "reset button." Frankly, I'd love to hear it - it would be nice to find out that my concerns about the degrading situation in the Middle East, China's threats to take over Japanese territory, the situation in Ukraine, and all the people flooding into our Southern border are all overblown. It would be nice to discover that my grocery budget will stretch farther because the economy really is recovering. Bring on the good news!

Oh, wait - there isn't any. Except that the bear got loose and had some lunch the other day, and talked about gay sex in front of a bunch of unsuspecting families. I'm sure they were glad to be part of such a historic moment.

Beavis said...

Heh. He said codpiece. Heh.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

I always pictured Obama as a hyena, but never a bear.
Or a parasite. The parasite is loose! Yes, that's a more accurate portrayal.

Rick said...

OT:
The Night of the Hunter
TCM
Sunday 6:30pm EST

Gagdad Bob said...

Liberals & cats.

Gagdad Bob said...

Night of the Hunter. One of our all time faves! Many unforgettable scenes and images.

Gagdad Bob said...

Bond villains & their cats.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Great flick! Thanks fer the heads up Rick!

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Good point about cats n' libs. Cat's also don't think about unintended consequences and do pretty much whatever they feel like doing, another common trait among leftists.

But to be fair, at least cats cover up their crap honestly, whereas libs crap on cop cars and in the halls of the EPA.

Anonymous said...

“Cat hate reflects an ugly, stupid, loutish, bigoted spirit. There can be no compromise with this ugly spirit.” -- WS Burroughs

Van Harvey said...

Personally I love cats, it's people who are smaller than their cats that I dislike.

julie said...

Heh. Yes, Burroughs was intimately familiar with ugliness.

I find the act of quoting about such things as love and hate to be rather amusing, coming from an atheist; it can only boil down to being, like, your opinion, man.

Cats are alright. It's mostly just amusing that so many of our trolls are men who like to post pictures of themselves being extremely affectionate with them. NTTAWWT

Gagdad Bob said...

I am by no means a cat hater. But the cats I've had, once they leave kittenhood and settle into cathood, become sleep-and-eating machines, or breathing pillows. Dogs, however, like humans, retain that element of neoteny. They are usually puppyish until they start acting like a mature cat, at which point you know the end is near.

Gagdad Bob said...

We had one cat, Mookie, who was a charming exception to the rule. But we found him abandoned in a dumpster when he was just a few weeks old, and he seemed to have sustained neurological damage that rendered him a permanent kitten. He might also he been feral, so that gave him some additional spice.

Gagdad Bob said...

He would watch Lakers games on TV, and try to play with them by batting at the screen. Dupree does the same thing during the Miss America pageant.

Gagdad Bob said...

Now, this baby seems like a bargain: Volumes I - III of Copleston's History of Philosophy in one book, from the pre-Socratics to Aquinas and beyond, in one coherent narrative. Must be 1,500 pages, at least. It was in that list of the best 50 books of the 20th century, so I bit.

Gagdad Bob said...

Looks like a deep history of common sense and its alternatives.

Jack said...

"The trouble with a kitten is that eventually it becomes a cat." - Ogden Nash

Jack said...

A few years ago I splurged on the whole series of Copleston's History of Philosophy. One caveat: it was written at a time and for an audience where knowing Greek and Latin was taken for granted. So at least in the first few volumes--which is as far as I've gotten--there is a lot of untranslated Greek.

Which did prompt me to start learning a bit of the language to try and understand what he was talking about. Most of these words have already been imported in to English, so once I got down the basics of the Greek alphabet I was able to transliterate the words into English.

For what that's worth!

Tony said...

I would like to know under what theory Obama has the slightest responsibility for MH17, other than that he is the incarnation of the devil and thus to blame for evil anywhere in the universe.

Anon, we don't expect you to know everything, but you should know something about US military satellite intelligence:

http://tinyurl.com/mmpwzlu

Prior to MH17, US knew that SA-11 launchers were in Ukraine and bringing down military and civilian aircraft. Please read that again: we *knew* this. I would like to know whether we shared that intelligence with Poroshenko's government. I suspect we did not. We certainly did not issue warnings to civilian airlines using Ukrainian airspace. And here is a result.

Obama isn't responsible for all the evil in the world. All that's required for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing. QED.

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