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| Courtesy of the Cardinal Newman Society |
Love conquers all.
Virgil
I'm
Of all ironies, I went to take out the trash while AMC was playing "White Christmas" and found myself pelted with big wet snowflakes....
Jack Klugman: RIP
I think the funniest sitcom episode I've ever seen was when Oscar came home to find neat freak roommate Felix has replaced all the old furniture and wall hangings for an edgy new clock (as i can recall, a jumble of dots) everybody else can read, and a chair like a hand.I think it's this third-season episode (I couldn't find a Youtube video):
Take My Furniture, Please has a terrific new "modern art" look for the apartment, circa 1973 (when Oscar sits in a chair shaped like a hand, he says, "I feel like an M&M.")Of course, Jack did other film and series work (Quincy), but I thought He was brilliant in his signature role as Oscar Madison.
Natural Gas Protectionism
To be fair, it's not just Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden and Congressmen Ed Markey whom are economics illiterate. Populist conservative Bill O'Reilly has done the same in the attempt to suppress exports of oil products while he saw related retail prices going up. No doubt he thought exports were some sort of conspiracy to drive up prices through artificial domestic shortages. (Among other things, Americans already pay some of the lowest prices in the world, American refineries in a global shortage of refineries also process foreign-owned oil, and we still import half our supplies...)
The argument is familiar: we are now at the lowest prices of a decade (see below chart); you might be under the impression that energy companies must be minting a fortune--but you would be wrong. As of the date of this post, the ETN GAZ, unlike the rest of the market, has dropped 30% in value over the past year..
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| Courtesy of ChartProphet/Seeking Alpha |
Judge Napolitano Interview: Taxes, Abortion and More
In this interview Napolitano makes reference to being a traditionalist Catholic; another Catholic libertarian I've embedded videos of, Tom Woods, is also a traditionalist.(Many Catholic scholars consider a libertarian perspective inconsistent with Catholic social teachings. See here for a bibliography of Woods and his critics.) I believe former GOP Presidential contender Rick Santorum is also a traditionalist.
I am sympathetic with traditionalist Catholics (I have a warm regard for the Latin Mass, various rites and rituals): I think the Church has been too accommodating to the culture, to be "relevant" and matters of faith and morals have been subordinated to secular humanism and the culture; one salient incident was at UH Newman: there is a part of the Nicene creed "for us men and for our salvation", The word "men" is generic: the Church has always recognized female saints. But I remember at least one of the priests refused to say "men" during Mass, and one Sunday I picked up the missal to follow the Mass (mostly for the readings) when I noticed some ideological feminist decided to scribble out in ink all male generic references. I thought it was pathetic, judgmental, petty, intellectually vapid, and reflective of presentist bias. For me, this subordinates the Church to the god of politically correct nonsense. This does not mean I don't have differences with the Church, which I consider incompetent on economic and political issues. I think the Church underestimates the moral corruption intrinsic to statist social legislation and confounds means with ends. Sermons generally failed to address a prayerful lifestyle, sin and personal accountability.
I have written in this blog I thought I had a vocation to the priesthood. But the final straw (beyond the fact I liked dating young women) was a Mass at UT I attended where the priest gave a sermon building on Olivia Newton John's hit "Have You Ever Been Mellow". (In contrast, my Uncle Roger is a real priest.)
I can't speak for the others, but the Church has lost something since Vatican II. It's like when Coke decided to pull traditional Coke in favor of new Coke, like it or not, one of the dumbest moves in the history of business (although Coke quickly worked itself back to the original formula). I was young during the years following Vatican II. I liked the Latin Mass which had been said all over the world for centuries. I liked the old disciplines. There are reasons that weekly Mass attendance has dropped to approximate figures among Protestants. New Mass/Church isn't working out too well. I find the principles of free market et al. totally consistent with Catholicism.
Brain Cancer Patient 7yo Connor Meets Wrestling Idol
Connor Michalek.cut a promo (first video) to meet favorite wrestler WWE tag team champion Daniel Bryan, including Bryan's "No! No! No!" gimmick
Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective
The Priests, "Silent Night"
