tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post5328023554318871119..comments2024-03-29T06:03:45.545-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Man is a Miracle of Evolution (and Evolution is a Miracle of Man)Gagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-744850215746592582013-08-26T08:21:58.012-07:002013-08-26T08:21:58.012-07:00That's so fascinating, as I was raised Catholi...That's so fascinating, as I was raised Catholic. Found it uninspiring. Turned to Buddhism. And then brought in all the Wilber Integralism with that. And then even found some interest in progressive evolutionary spirituality. Now find myself back to Catholicism in some strange way, without the label. (Incidently, just finished Robert Barron's series on Catholicism on DVD which I loved.) tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07354048695798015131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-44173235109929117492013-08-26T08:12:56.979-07:002013-08-26T08:12:56.979-07:00I've given that a lot of thought, and in theor...I've given that a lot of thought, and in theory, Catholicism probably comes closest. However, in practice can be another matter entirely. Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-10860071631563702872013-08-26T08:10:53.215-07:002013-08-26T08:10:53.215-07:00Bob, I love the recap of the readable underpinning...Bob, I love the recap of the readable underpinnings of Raccoon doctrine.<br /><br />Now, if I could only find a community that could close to this (beyond this blog). Is there any group you have found that even remotely comes close to this?tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07354048695798015131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-84186764962090031942013-08-26T08:09:56.764-07:002013-08-26T08:09:56.764-07:00Drudge: "Wildfire Threatens San Francisco'...Drudge: "Wildfire Threatens San Francisco's Water...<br />Thousands of homes in path..."<br /><br />ntm 'homos'gehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-87366378679141179072013-08-26T04:26:48.216-07:002013-08-26T04:26:48.216-07:00world where everythin s perfect
mistakes and all
a...world where everythin s perfect<br />mistakes and all<br />and bursting into laughter<br />is the form breathing takesgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-39705620585597742142013-08-25T11:24:48.160-07:002013-08-25T11:24:48.160-07:00Envy is so intrinsic to the human condition, reali...Envy is so intrinsic to the human condition, realistically speaking, you have to have some sort of 'legitimate' institutions or policies to deal with it. Thus, certain aspects of liberalism, although regrettable, probably serve to siphon off and channel some of the envy. But the transition to leftism marks the elevation of envy to first principle. Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-69385373053392214092013-08-25T11:15:53.487-07:002013-08-25T11:15:53.487-07:00Or in other words, the free market does not satisf...Or in other words, the free market does not satisfy the envious heart, even though the free market would benefit everyone.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-67918081355601742602013-08-25T11:13:34.202-07:002013-08-25T11:13:34.202-07:00Knowledge and Power does look interesting. Reading...Knowledge and Power does look interesting. Reading the blurb, it occurs to me: there are many fine thinkers who have great suggestions about implementing a free market system that would likely be very effective. And yet, to my knowledge, no government anywhere has been wise enough to seriously give these systems a chance. And I don't imagine for a second that the US government would be willing to give it a go. Notably, this is because all the usual suspects stand in the way, essentially on the grounds that free market systems aren't compassionate enough.<br /><br />So instead, we keep getting varying degrees of socialistic and outright communistic systems, which inevitably lead to ruin anywhere they are implemented, with a death toll numbering in the hundreds of millions. And when it is pointed out how poor of a track record these systems have, the response from the usual suspects is that all those other times, people did it wrong.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-82583827193893318662013-08-25T08:38:05.981-07:002013-08-25T08:38:05.981-07:00Believe it or not, A.A. Almaas's The Point of ...Believe it or not, A.A. Almaas's The Point of Existence and The Pearl Beyond Price contain excellent surveys of modern psychoanalytic thought, although his spiritual program is gobshite. Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-17121806170257250712013-08-25T08:33:42.295-07:002013-08-25T08:33:42.295-07:00W. Norris Clarke should be added to the list of Ca...W. Norris Clarke should be added to the list of Catholic thinkers. For a devastating indictment of the left, Dennis Prager's Still the Last Best Hope is about as pointed and concise as one can get. For the religious principles of the Founders, Novak's On Two Wings. Speaking of which, I'd like to try to integrate his Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (a fine corrective to the often kooky economic beliefs of the Catholic hierarchy) with Gilder's Knowledge and Power. And let's not overlook Thomas Sowell, whose every book is an antibiotic for mind parasites. Or would it be antipsychotic? Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-27475031076036598262013-08-25T08:19:58.625-07:002013-08-25T08:19:58.625-07:00Moving all the books out of my office, although a ...Moving all the books out of my office, although a hassle, has had a major upside. We installed bookshelves in a closet, so I can store away thousands of books I don't need, and separate them from the ones I do need.<br /><br />So now, right behind my desk, I have a bookcase with six shelves, about three feet wide, where I want to keep the truly vital ones that form the underpinning of Raccoon doctrine, and which I turn to time and again. There aren't that many.<br /><br />The most prominent ones would be about fifteen volumes of Voegelin, twenty or so of Balthasar, the complete works of Schuon, MotT, a handful of psychoanalytic thinkers such as Bion, Matte Blanco, Allen Schore, Fairbairn, and Grotstein, philosophers Aquinas, Polanyi, and Whitehead, a few anthologies and surveys of Christian mysticism and the early fathers, works by and about Eckhart, works and biographies of Abhishiktananda, other important Catholic thinkers such as Pieper, Kreeft, Maritain, Ratzinger, de Lubac, and Schall, a couple of more occultish guys, Boris Mouravieff and Robert Bolton, some reference books, a number of one-off authors, and Finnegans Wake. Oh, and the aphorisms of Nicolás Gómez Dávila. And of course the Book of the Subgenius. To which will probably be added Knowledge and Power. <br /><br />With these titles, I believe it would be possible to reassemble the whole Cooniverse. Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-75925624238908232152013-08-25T08:02:20.345-07:002013-08-25T08:02:20.345-07:00Knowledge and Power is making my head spin: econ...<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Power-Information-Capitalism-Revolutionizing/dp/1621570274/ref=tf_ssw?&linkCode=wss&tag=onecos-20" rel="nofollow">Knowledge and Power</a> is making my head spin: economics rooted in metacosmic principles -- ideas we've speculated about, but which he makes more explicit, grounded in the latest science. Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-38734306170076045222013-08-25T07:55:06.102-07:002013-08-25T07:55:06.102-07:00Chomsky meets his match. In intellectual depravit...<a href="http://live.wsj.com/video/opinion-noam-chomsky-meets-his-match/C97C4C4E-C236-45E9-8877-AD4DF57EED4E.html?mod=WSJ_article_outbrain&obref=obnetwork#!C97C4C4E-C236-45E9-8877-AD4DF57EED4E" rel="nofollow">Chomsky meets his match</a>. In intellectual depravity. Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-18362302276413597002013-08-23T16:01:35.530-07:002013-08-23T16:01:35.530-07:00Just started attending a backwater Catholic Church...Just started attending a backwater Catholic Church a couple of miles from here as a non-Catholic. Sorry to hear about the Leftist faction but not surprised. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to keep attending and give it my infinitesimal nudge to the Right.John Lienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02302615225311776021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-87296942037282115472013-08-23T13:57:03.603-07:002013-08-23T13:57:03.603-07:00Christina & Magister, it's interesting to ...Christina & Magister, it's interesting to hear you talk about the left in the Church. Now that I have little ones and no family close by, I've been thinking it's time to start going again. But knowing how many leftists hold positions of power, it's not without trepidation...juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-67925196338311109372013-08-23T13:50:50.479-07:002013-08-23T13:50:50.479-07:00By the middle of the eighteenth century, the state...<i>By the middle of the eighteenth century, the state of technology and the luxury and quality of life afforded the average individual were little better than they had been two millennia earlier, in ancient Rome.</i><br /><br />One could even argue that in some ways, the Romans had it better. We are still trying to figure out how they managed to do some of the things they did. <br /><br />In any case, the article goes on to explain the miracles of the industrial revolutions as "luck." Which reminds me rather a lot of the famous Heinlein quote. But of course, one must to call it "luck" if one does not grasp the effect that living in freedom has upon man's ability to create, invent and discover. If progress has slowed in recent years, that is simply what happens when a once-free nation enslaves itself to bureaucracy.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-30489504269512060422013-08-23T12:38:43.268-07:002013-08-23T12:38:43.268-07:00Ha!
By the way, although the lefties push my rag...Ha! <br /><br />By the way, although the lefties push my rage button and drag me down, this post lifted me up. It is so joyful and hopeful.<br /><br />It should have that Far Side cartoon with it, that says, in the midst of an equation, "And then a miracle occurs!"Christina Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03026226686936294936noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-65968466752041102902013-08-23T12:13:09.346-07:002013-08-23T12:13:09.346-07:00It's not a wing. More of a rear end.It's not a wing. More of a rear end. Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-34719113431504545342013-08-23T12:09:52.688-07:002013-08-23T12:09:52.688-07:00Oh Magister, I see it's not just me. That App...Oh Magister, I see it's not just me. That Appleby has been pushing my rage buttons all week, starting with his announcement for the September 8th push for Amnesty during the homily. I am beyond sick of the left wing of the Catholic Church.Christina Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03026226686936294936noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-15333849996554245082013-08-23T10:43:48.032-07:002013-08-23T10:43:48.032-07:00Corker of a post.
I'm incensed, enraged, spit...Corker of a post.<br /><br />I'm incensed, enraged, spitting mad today at someone who is influential in the Muslim/Christian "dialogue." As you all know, Muslims destroyed more Coptic church buildings:<br /><br />http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324108204579022951847863272.html<br /><br />The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Egypt's best human-rights organization, documents a total of 47 churches attacked, of which 25 were burned, seven looted and destroyed, five partly damaged, and 10 attacked without sustaining heavy damage.<br /><br />Last year, I saw this article on "Black Sunday" in Egypt, which saw the latest round of church burnings begin. "For perspective," our intrepid [sic] reporter says, he turns to a ninny in the US:<br /><br /><i>If American Catholics want to support the beleaguered Christians of the Middle East, Appleby says, the best long-term strategy is to boost our own "Islamic literacy," learning to make careful distinctions among various actors in the Islamic world – and the best way to do that, he says, is by engaging the Muslims in our own backyard.<br /><br />Christians in the West must acknowledge, and help revitalize, the traditional authority structures and leaders in the Islamic world, Appleby says, because relying solely on moderates and Westernized Muslims will not reach the "street" in Egypt or anywhere else.</i><br /><br />I cannot imagine a more contemptible, supine, willfully naive, and destructive piece of "advice." Let's do a simple transposition:<br /><br /><i>If American Catholics want to support beleaguered Jews in Europe, Appleby says, the best long-term strategy is to boost our own "Nazi literacy," learning to make careful distinctions among various actors in the Nazi world – and the best way to do that, he says, is by engaging the Nazis in our own backyard.<br /><br />Jews in the West must acknowledge, and help revitalize, the traditional authority structures and leaders in the Nazi world, Appleby says, because relying solely on moderate Nazis will not reach the "street" in Nazi Germany or anywhere else.</i><br /><br />Forget whethe Nazism and Islam are perfectly analogous. What this transposition makes infuriatingly clear is that comments like Appleby's are worse than nothing. Innocent people, people who are being slaughtered NOW, whose churches are being burned, who are being forced from their homes and home countries, can't count on the likes of Appleby for even a CRUMB of support. No, no, the Wise Man nods sagely, patting his corpulent belly, we must take the "long-term view," we must have "perspective," and we must try to "understand" the people conducting the pogroms and try to "alter their traditional authority structures."<br /><br />Meanwhile, the innocents are seeing their homes and churches burnt, their relatives killed, and their children deracinated forever. But Appleby <i>understands.</i><br /><br />Livid!Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00987042455512485699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-18838923985279795922013-08-23T09:43:45.004-07:002013-08-23T09:43:45.004-07:00You could almost say that all progress is reaction...You could almost say that all progress is reactionary. It's almost always a result of somebody picking up something -- from a rock to a PC -- and saying, "Look what I can do with this", and somebody else "reacting" by building on that.<br /><br />And, as you say, the other side is always saying that we are at the end and now we need to equitably distribute the best rocks, with the pointier, better, head-banging, assault rocks reserved for our elite chieftains.<br /><br />Then some wiseguy ties a rock to a stick and the whole process starts over.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-70361310673703652872013-08-23T09:16:25.704-07:002013-08-23T09:16:25.704-07:00Just look at the NAACP, which used to pursue clown...<i>Just look at the NAACP, which used to pursue clowns who slander blacks with racist bullshit, but is now reduced to slandering clowns pursued by racing bulls. </i><br /><br />That is good.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.com