In re-reading Understanding Tolkien by William Ready I was struck by this one passage (sorry for the length):

"Tolkien regards this future somberly; he sees it coming, which is why he is a conservative. Conservatives are disliked not for the right reasons, political, but for the wrong reasons, moral. Tolkien is sharp, and the bite in his writing shows how sharp he can be. When a fellow Oxford don exulted that now Oxford city was becoming alive, relating to progress, the High blocked and fumed with the traffic of Machines, Tolkien asked him how much more alive these cars were than horse-drawn vehicles that had preceded them. And for most men, cars are more alive than living things. They polish them more than they ever curried horses, feed, scent and sink into them, make fancy women out of them, and killers, too.

Yet Tolkien is no dreamer with straw in his hair, no Endymion wandering around the Sacred Town babbling of brooks where once the wild thyme grew that now are muddied and greased over. Essentially he is a man of the traditional way, an apostle of rather addled common sense who sees Man for what he is and longs for him to put forth in all his staggering and vaulting majesty as the Son of God.

This yearning of Man to relate goes completely back to infancy and prenatal existence. The womb is the haven, flinching from the challenge life throws. Many a Man wants to return to it, and all Nature can be Mother. To be one with Nature and be Man too is unnatural, however much desired when the going gets tough, and the times call for sons of bitches. It is just as unnatural for Man to find a solution to his problems by handing himself over to the care of wise, Welfare-State Saruman, on the Board, who will curdle when he is not obeyed, or to Board member Sauron, who calls on the worst in Man, the nearest the surface and the most responsive, wherein lies the greatest danger of all: final self-destruction."

Miley Cyrus descending into a slut spiral in 5-4-3-2-1. What did you expect? Annie Leibovitz is involved.

Here's Michelle Malkin:

The adults surrounding Miley Cyrus shamelessly abdicated their responsibility to protect her best interests. Mom and Dad got caught up in the Vanity Fair glam. Vanity Fair didn’t see a 15-year-old girl. They saw magazine sale dollar signs. And Annie Leibovitz saw skin, skin, skin and another notch in her belt.

The parents, grandmother, and teacher are not alone in shouldering blame. Shame on Liebovitz and the pretentious left-wing editor of Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter.

“Artists” and “literary magazine editors?” Nonsense. They’re the elitist version of Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis and his video camera operators, coaxing girls to take it all off–just with more refined tones and high-minded pretentiousness.

Source

Labels: end times

Newt Gingrich deserves praise for his open mindedness on climate change, global cooling/warming or whatever name the left is giving the threat these days. I think Newt understands that his advocacy is in keeping with ideas championed by conservatives like Russell Kirk, G.K. Chesterton, and Hilaire Belloc.

Newt received some static from the right about his outspokenness and responded on his site:

Many of you have written to me to ask why I recently taped an advertisement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for The Alliance for Climate Protection, a group founded by former Vice President Al Gore.

I completely understand why many of you would have questions about this, so I want to take this opportunity to explain my reasons. First of all, I want to be clear: I don't think that we have conclusive proof of global warming. And I don't think we have conclusive proof that humans are at the center of it.

But here's what we do know. There is an important debate going on right now over the right energy policy, the right environmental policy, and making sure we do the right things for our future and the future of our children and grandchildren. Conservatives are missing from this debate, and I think that's a mistake. When it comes to preserving our environment for future generations, we can't have a slogan of "Just yell no!"

But beyond being at the table for this debate, conservatives should be wrestling this issue from liberals before, as this article warns, it's used to advance completely unrelated issues like domestic partnerships and multicultural competence (what does that even mean).

There's no doubt the environment is an issue championed by liberals primarily as an opportunity to extend the size and scope of government. Conservatives need to provide the public with alternatives that promote conservation (environmental stewardship) without legions of bureaucrats, thousands of new laws and burdensome taxes.

I'm waiting for the first hybrid candidate. A conservative driving a SMART car with an "I ♥ Adam Smith" bumper sticker who can remind voters that conservation is part of our canon and that environmental stewardship flourishes in a society that promotes private property, free enterprises, and individual rights.

Labels: global warming

EU wipes England off map
England has been wiped off a map of Europe drawn up by Brussels bureaucrats as part of a scheme that the Tories claim threatens to undermine the country's national identity...

Will there always be an England? The Anchoress says it's starting to look a little doubtful.

Labels: end times, england

A potpourri of quotes that aren't intended to make any sense. I often use my BLOG as a placeholder of sorts until I can string these into something reasonably coherent. I am a very lazy reader. I read quickly and mark passages that I intend to return to later on. I usually finish the books I borrow (or buy) but sometimes fail to return to those highlighted passages. Unfortunately, I don't always remember why I marked a certain page or passage. I think someday I'll develop a technique for limiting this defect*.

At the far end of this loss of significance lies Deconstructionism, which denies that even words have significance, intentionality, a meaning that points beyond themselves. Archibald MacLeish says, "A poem must be palpable and mute, /Like globed fruit...a poem must not mean, but be." If this means what it seems to mean, it is proto-deconstructionism, linguistic nihilism, and the beginning of the end - the end of human history and consciousness that begins with "In the beginning was the Word." Nietzsche wrote, sagely, "We [i.e., we atheists] are not done with God until we are done with grammar.

- Peter Kreeft

The words
Now Roland feels his time is at an end;
On the steep hill-side, toward Spain he's turned his head,
And with one hand he beats upon his breast;
Saith: "Mea culpa; Thy mercy, Lord, I beg
For all the sins, both the great and the less,
That e'er I did since first I drew my breath
Unto this day when I'm struck down by death."
His right-hand glove he unto God extends;
Angels from Heaven now to his side descend.

- The Song of Roland

Hail, Queen of Heaven, the ocean star,
Guide of the wand'rer here below:
Thrown on life's surge, we claim thy care -
save us from peril and from woe.
Mother of Christ, star of the sea,
Pray for the wanderer, pray for me.

Sojourners in this vale of tears,
To thee, blest advocate, we cry;
Pity our sorrows, calm our fears,
And soothe with hope our misery.
Refuge in grief, star of the sea,
Pray for the mourner, pray for me.

- English hymn by John Lingard

The sub-creators
"Man is the measure of all things." Yes, that's what he is saying about Quality. Man is not the source of all things, as the subjective idealists would say. Nor is he the passive observer of all things, as the objective idealists and materialists would say. The Quality which creates the world emerges as a relationship between man and his experience. He is a participant in the creation of all things.

- Robert M. Pirsig

"Man is not ultimately a liar. He may pervert his thought into lies, but he comes from God, and it is from God that he draws his ultimate ideals...Not merely the abstract thoughts of man but also his imaginative inventions must originate with God, and in consequence reflect something of eternal truth."

- Humphrey Carpenter

The skeptics
There was nothing here that the Vicar of Bray would not understand (or even applaud, if the sentiment was sufficiently popular). But in the Christian tradition, this is scandalous. Christianity is about revelation, about God breaking into history with a definite message. Yet here are the fathers of the Anglican church plainly stating that the truth about God is unknown, perhaps unknowable. Does this mean that God tries and fails to reveal himself? The churches of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and medieval England thought they had Eternal Truth; they did not, say the Anglo-Saxon divines. The kind of certainty that these churches- and that other Abrahamic dispensations like orthodox Muslims and Jews- claim for their beliefs is not, Cranmer wrote hundreds of years ago, what God intends for us to have.

- Walter Russell Mead

*This defect never occurs when I'm reading Giant Boy Detective.

Where's Sven?
The last time England played the U.S. MNT in an international friendly Sven-Goran Eriksson was their manager. The U.S. was led by Bruce Arena, who now manages the Red Bulls (no word on whether or not his pants are still involved in the sport). His MLS club is at the bottom of the Eastern Standings.

Meanwhile, Sven is managing Manchester City in the English Premier League. His club is 15-10-11 and in 9th overall (9 of 20).

The U.S. MNT will play England at Wembley on Wednesday, May 28th. They last met on the same date in 2005 in Chicago, IL before a crowd of 47,637. The U.S. lost 2-1.

I went to the match with my brother and it was equaled only by the NFC Championship between the New York Football Giants and the Minnesota Vikings. There's a photograph of Sven I took in this set on Flickr.

The English will play Trinidad and Tobago a couple of days later at Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain. This match is notable for Bermuda who will play the Caribbean titans in their campaign to reach the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

***UPDATE 1***
I just learned that Bruce Arena is NO longer with the Red Bulls. He (and his pants) will miss the opening of Red Bull Park which is scheduled for 2009.

***UPDATE 2***

Ball: City's players united behind Eriksson

Manchester City's players are uniting behind manager Sven-Goran Eriksson to try to quell uncertainty over the Swede's future.

Eriksson met City's Thai owner Thaksin Shinawatra twice over the weekend but speculation over his position refuses to die down.

City's 3-2 home defeat by relegation strugglers Fulham on Saturday did nothing to help Eriksson's cause, especially as Thaksin was at the game.

Labels: england, soccer, weekend

From Balaguet there cometh an Emir;
His form is noble, his eyes are bold and clear,
When on his horse he's mounted in career
He bears him bravely armed in his battle-gear,
And for his courage he's famous far and near;
Were he but Christian, right knightly he'd appear.
Before Marsile he cries for all to hear:
"To Roncevaux", saith he, "my course I'll steer;
If I find Roland, then death shall be his weird,
And Oliver's, and all of the Twelve Peers!
The French shall die the death in shame and tears.
King Charlemayne, the dotard old and blear,
Will soon be sick of waging warfare here!
Spain shall be ours in peace this many a year!"
The King Marsile pours thanks into his ears.

Labels: england, playmobil, toys, weekend

Microsoft is going to stop offering XP. According to this article sales of XP will end June 30, 2008. There is an online petition calling for an extension.

Related
Why Microsoft Won't Extend Windows XP's Lifespan
It's crashing and it won't boot up.
20 Reasons why Vista Sucks!
My Vista Experience, Part One

The money quote:

Due to all the issues above, there are numerous reports of people being forced to buy a Vista system, then after getting it into their hands proceed to wipe the OS off the hard drive and install XP instead. Microsoft should be ashamed and taken to task for releasing such a half-baked product into the marketplace...

Labels: microsoft, weekend

Khano Smith's goal in the 72nd-minute last night gave the New England Revolution a win on the road against unbeaten FC Dallas. Smith also plays for the Bermuda National Team and his performance was reported in the Royal Gazette.

The Revolution were playing without several regulars (injuries) which makes the points from this away win so impressive. New England is tied with Kansas City in the Eastern Standings with 10 points (3-1-2). Their next match is at home on May 3rd against the Chicago Fire.

Labels: soccer

"...actually, I'm a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect "history" to be anything but a long defeat - though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

This is what the Van Wyck would look like if Robert Moses and Walt Disney were still alive. I found this image on Retro-Futurismus via Smashing Magazine.

Staying in Flushing...

Here is an image of Shea Stadium shortly after take-off from LaGuardia Airport (LGA). You can see the Unisphere from the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair in the bottom left corner of the image. This is the last season the New York Metropolitans will play at Shea. I pulled this image from the archives (a 35¢ miniature postcard flip book from the 64/65 World's Fair).

I also found this site and it features dozens of great photographs of Shea Stadium over the decades. My favorite is the black and white photo that shows Shea in proximity to the fairgrounds. The photo includes a quote from Robert Moses.

Smashing Magazine did a long post (heavy on the visuals) celebrating vintage and retro design. Some of my favorites include the advertisement for the "Scout" and the book cover for I Wake Up Screaming (who doesn't). I see a little Mary Blair and Jim Flora in some of the designs featured in the retrospective.

At some point the falling greenback and its effect on commodity prices worldwide is going to reach a breaking point. Some economists are predicting $150-$175 oil (bbl) by Labor Day but we could see those prices by Memorial Day. If I were a betting man and had to put my reputation as the blogger with many visions™ on the line I would predict 1 gallon of regular unleaded gasoline at $5.10 - $5.25 by Labor Day and the unemployment rate at 6 1/2% - 7%**.

"As long as the Fed continues to cut rates, traders will keep selling the dollar, buying the euro, and buying commodities like oil," says Peter Beutel, president of the New Canaan (Conn.)-based energy risk management firm Cameron Hanover. It also doesn't help that investors are still skittish about putting more money into stocks. "Traders are relentlessly long (on oil) because there's nowhere else to go," says Phil Flynn, an analyst and vice-president at brokerage firm Alaron Futures & Options in Chicago. "They're heading to oil and other commodities for safety."

It's unclear how much lower the dollar can go. The euro has been gaining ground against the dollar since 2003, and has risen 24% against the dollar since January, 2007. The euro increased 0.4% to $1.59 on Apr. 21 -- within 1% of a record -- as European Central Bank officials reiterated concern that inflation has accelerated.

In addition, contracts for commodities like wheat and corn are also spiking. In the coming weeks and months the MSM will begin to cover the impact of rising food prices in third-world and developing countries. Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit linked to a report about "food runs" in Japan (although the reports have not been substantiated).

The global food crisis is a monetary phenomenon, an unintended consequence of America's attempt to inflate its way out of a market failure. There are long-term reasons for food prices to rise, but the unprecedented spike in grain prices during the past year stems from the weakness of the American dollar. Washington's economic misery now threatens to become a geopolitical catastrophe.

Never before in history has hunger become a global threat in a period of plentiful harvests. Global rice production will hit a record of 423 million tons in the 2007-2008 crop year, enough to satisfy global demand. The trouble is that only 7% of the world's rice supply is exported, because local demand is met by local production. Any significant increase in rice stockpiles cuts deeply into available supply for export, leading to a spike in prices. Because such a small proportion of the global rice supply trades, the monetary shock from the weak dollar was sufficient to more than double its price.

It is not only rice, of course, that the cash-rich countries of the world are buying as a store of value; the price of wheat, soy and other grains has risen almost as fast.

U.S. monetary policy is creating a global resource scramble and is already causing some nations to hoard (forbidding exports). And I doubt the FED is cutting rates to stave off a recession...My guess is that these rate cuts are for a greater good, in this case a complete meltdown of the U.S. banking system related to the subprime mortgage meltdown, derivatives, etc.

But the "fix" is going to be a bitter pill and it will require higher taxes, entitlement reforms and a hold in federal spending (i.e. freeze the size of government). All of these actions will result in higher interest rates and a short-term surge in unemployment.

There is not alternative because our present course (i.e. doing nothing) IS going to result in double-digit inflation and unemployment...economic hardship in severity and duration possibly equal to that of the Great Depression.

Unfortunately, Hillary and Obama will certainly raise your taxes but they won't be able to control the size of government (or reform entitlements). In fact, none of the DEM "green jobs" proposed by Hillary and Obama will come unless the greenback becomes as worthless as a mark during the Weimar Republic and the government is forced to "create" them via FDR-like work programs. Higher taxes, without offsetting cuts in spending, AND a dangerous pro-union roll-back of free trade agreements will accelerate unemployment and possibly create the conditions Hillay and/or Obama will need for those FDR-like work programs. Maybe that's the plan?

Sources
Oil: How High from Here?
Rice, death and the dollar

**I hope I'm wrong.

Labels: economics

Some great desktop goodies from 2719 Hyperion. There are some very clever designs for Disney's unrealized projects like the Mineral King ski resort. I would like to see designs for the Hollywood Terror Hotel and Celebrity Lanes.

Celebrity Lanes

If he [Walt Disney] had lost interest in developing Smoke Tree, he hadn't lost his fervor for creating some kind of bowling-recreation complex under the Disney aegis, and he invested in a sports center outside Denver that included not only eighty bowling lanes but a swimming pool and restaurant- a model for a new kind of Disney franchise. Once again, though, the project dragged on, and by the time Celebrity Lanes opened in September 1960, Walt had resigned from the board. Walt Disney Productions filled the breach, purchasing a $277,000 stock interest and floating a $650,000 loan within the year to take control of the center. Walt and Lillian attended the center's second anniversary, and the company kept it operating even as it drained money. Roy later admitted the entire project had been ill-conceived. "We wasted a million dollars there by putting in a deluxe dining room and a swimming pool," he told one interviewer. "We had 80 lanes, of the biggest bowling alleys in the country...But who want to bowl in a wet bathing suit and what bowler wears the kind of clothes that are necessary for a deluxe dining room?"

- Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination

Labels: disney

I was installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 (pre-release) on my laptop and received the dreaded blue screen on reboot. I was able to google the error message (see below) and quickly found a technical forum with a solution. My biggest challenge was remembering a couple of DOS commands.

stop: c0000139 {entry point not found} The procedure entry point GdiGetBitmapBitsize could not be located in the dynamic link library GDI32.dll

Related
Microsoft finishes Windows XP Service Pack 3

Labels: microsoft

Whatever initial/preliminary goodwill I had for Obama as the **NEW** candidate is completely gone. Every new story about Obama and those connected to him (terrorist Bill Ayers, super racist Reverend Wright, and indicted developer Antoin Rezko) make the arugulu a little more unpalatable. Obama deserves props for making someone like Hillary seem the lesser of two evils.

Obama Tech Advisor Introduces Video of Gay, Singing Jesus Who Gets Hit by a Bus

More Details

Labels: clintons, democrats

I'm watching on EWTN now. He made some brief remarks at JFK and is now boarding Shepherd I.

His departure, at least for me, is tinged with sadness. It feels like the first hour after a very special party ends. It's also the same feeling I have when my brothers and sisters roll out of the driveway after visiting for Christmas. I always stand around in the cold and quiet, missing them awfully, and dreading the walk back inside.

I'm sure that in the days and weeks ahead, as I reflect on his message, my sadness will be replaced by a renewed sense of hope.

Here, in this little Bay,
Full of tumultuous life and great repose,
Where, twice a day.
The purposeless, glad ocean comes and goes,
Under high cliffs, and far from the huge town,
I sit me down.
For want of me the world's course will not fail;
When all its work is done, the lie shall rot;
The truth is great, and shall prevail,
When none cares whether it prevail or not.

The text of Pope Benedict XVI’s homily at Yankee Stadium can be found here.

Selected Excerpts:

At the same time, it shows the power of the word of God, authoritatively proclaimed by the Apostles and received in faith, to create a unity which transcends the divisions arising from human limitations and weakness. Here we are reminded of a fundamental truth: that the Church’s unity has no other basis than the Word of God, made flesh in Christ Jesus our Lord. All external signs of identity, all structures, associations and programs, valuable or even essential as they may be, ultimately exist only to support and foster the deeper unity which, in Christ, is God’s indefectible gift to his Church.

The Gospel teaches us that true freedom, the freedom of the children of God, is found only in the self-surrender which is part of the mystery of love. Only by losing ourselves, the Lord tells us, do we truly find ourselves (cf. Lk 17:33). True freedom blossoms when we turn away from the burden of sin, which clouds our perceptions and weakens our resolve, and find the source of our ultimate happiness in him who is infinite love, infinite freedom, infinite life. “In his will is our peace”.

Praying fervently for the coming of the Kingdom also means being constantly alert for the signs of its presence, and working for its growth in every sector of society. It means facing the challenges of present and future with confidence in Christ’s victory and a commitment to extending his reign. It means not losing heart in the face of resistance, adversity and scandal. It means overcoming every separation between faith and life, and countering false gospels of freedom and happiness. It also means rejecting a false dichotomy between faith and political life, since, as the Second Vatican Council put it, “there is no human activity - even in secular affairs - which can be withdrawn from God’s dominion” (Lumen Gentium, 36). It means working to enrich American society and culture with the beauty and truth of the Gospel, and never losing sight of that great hope which gives meaning and value to all the other hopes which inspire our lives.

I often wonder in what context NPR, MSNBC, etc. frame the Pope's visit. The Anchoress does a great job recapping the "howling and not a little drama-queening" of our MSM punditry at the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy and how their histrionics missed the mark.

In the current age, which would prefer God to fit into its plans rather than the reverse, Benedict is preaching a radical message that he knows many — blessed with free will and beholden to the age — will reject. Far from displaying an “enforcer” mentality, the pope accepts that rejection with pragmatism and ultimately with trust. “The Church,” he said as Joseph Ratzinger, “will become small, and will to a great extent have to start over again. But after a time of testing, an internalized and simplified Church will radiate great power and influence; for the population of an entirely planned and controlled world are going to be inexpressibly lonely … and they will then discover the little community of believers as something quite new. As a hope that is there for them, as the answer they have secretly always been asking for.”

I've been watching coverage of the Pope on EWTN. The Eternal Word Television Network was started by Mother Angelica. They provide little commentary and allow events to just unfold.

The text of Pope Benedict XVI’s homily at a Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for priests, deacons and members of religious orders can be found here.

I encourage you to read it- even if you're not Catholic (or religious). It may diverge from your expectation that Pope Benedict is here to administer a Holy SmackDown and to let loose condemnation on the pushers and enablers of our relativistic culture.

Selected Excerpts:

The proclamation of life, life in abundance, must be the heart of the new evangelization. For true life — our salvation — can only be found in the reconciliation, freedom and love which are God’s gracious gift.

This is the message of hope we are called to proclaim and embody in a world where self-centeredness, greed, violence, and cynicism so often seem to choke the fragile growth of grace in people’s hearts. Saint Irenaeus, with great insight, understood that the command which Moses enjoined upon the people of Israel: “Choose life!” (Dt 30:19) was the ultimate reason for our obedience to all God’s commandments (cf. Adv. Haer. IV, 16, 2-5). Perhaps we have lost sight of this: in a society where the Church seems legalistic and “institutional” to many people, our most urgent challenge is to communicate the joy born of faith and the experience of God’s love.

The first has to do with the stained glass windows, which flood the interior with mystic light. From the outside, those windows are dark, heavy, even dreary. But once one enters the church, they suddenly come alive; reflecting the light passing through them, they reveal all their splendor. Many writers — here in America we can think of Nathaniel Hawthorne — have used the image of stained glass to illustrate the mystery of the Church herself. It is only from the inside, from the experience of faith and ecclesial life, that we see the Church as she truly is: flooded with grace, resplendent in beauty, adorned by the manifold gifts of the Spirit. It follows that we, who live the life of grace within the Church’s communion, are called to draw all people into this mystery of light.

This is no easy task in a world which can tend to look at the Church, like those stained glass windows, “from the outside”: a world which deeply senses a need for spirituality, yet finds it difficult to “enter into” the mystery of the Church. Even for those of us within, the light of faith can be dimmed by routine, and the splendor of the Church obscured by the sins and weaknesses of her members. It can be dimmed too, by the obstacles encountered in a society which sometimes seems to have forgotten God and to resent even the most elementary demands of Christian morality. You, who have devoted your lives to bearing witness to the love of Christ and the building up of his Body, know from your daily contact with the world around us how tempting it is at times to give way to frustration, disappointment and even pessimism about the future. In a word, it is not always easy to see the light of the Spirit all about us, the splendor of the Risen Lord illuminating our lives and instilling renewed hope in his victory over the world (cf. Jn 16:33).

It also calls for the cultivation of those virtues which enable each of us to grow in holiness and to bear spiritual fruit within our particular state of life. Is not this ongoing “intellectual” conversion as necessary as “moral” conversion for our own growth in faith, our discernment of the signs of the times, and our personal contribution to the Church’s life and mission?

In the light of faith, we will then discover the wisdom and strength needed to open ourselves to points of view which may not necessarily conform to our own ideas or assumptions.

His entire speech can be read here. Two of my favorite excerpts:

As history proceeds, new situations arise, and the attempt is made to link them to new rights. Discernment, that is, the capacity to distinguish good from evil, becomes even more essential in the context of demands that concern the very lives and conduct of persons, communities and peoples. In tackling the theme of rights, since important situations and profound realities are involved, discernment is both an indispensable and a fruitful virtue.

It is inconceivable, then, that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves - their faith - in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one's rights. The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature. The full guarantee of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship, but has to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion, and hence to the possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order.

Read this:

"In a world where some see freedom as simply the right to do as they wish, we need your message that true liberty requires us to live our freedom not just for ourselves, but "in a spirit of mutual support..."

Now watch and listen to this moron:

Background on the "artist" seeking an "authentic community" here and here.

Labels: end times

LOS ANGELES — Ollie Johnston, the last of the "Nine Old Men" who animated "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Fantasia," "Bambi" and other classic Walt Disney films has died. He was 95.

Johnston had planned on becoming a magazine illustrator but fell in love with animation.

"I wanted to paint pictures full of emotion that would make people want to read the stories," he once said. "But I found that here (in animation) was something that was full of life and movement and action, and it showed all those feelings."

Johnston was honored with a Disney Legends Award in 1989 and, in 2005, he was the first animator honored with the National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony.

He was also a major train enthusiast. The backyard of his Flintridge home boasted a hand-built miniature railroad, and Johnston restored and ran a full-size antique locomotive at a former vacation home in Julian, Calif.

Source

***RELATED***
The Blackwing Diaries has some great posts and images. Here is a link to Ollie's official biography (via Disney Legends).

I cribbed this quote from 2719 Hyperion:

"Most of our work has been in only one small part of the vast field of animation. There are so many areas to be explored, drawings to be tried, emotions to captured, effects to be created, new wonders to be seen. It is an exciting prospect. With electronic aids being perfected and new tools and materials being used, who can possibly foresee what lies ahead? It will probably not be another Walt Disney who will lead the way, but someone or some group of artists will surely discover new dimensions to delight and entertain the world."

- Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston

Labels: disney

Robert Ferrigno takes a dystopic look at the U.S. (post November) and finally answers the question about William Clinton everyone wants to know.

More on this short story from Peter Robinson:

It's 2012, the Fairness Doctrine has forced Rush Limbaugh off the air, President Obama is running for a second term, and Bill Clinton—didn't he used to be an ambassador or something?—has found himself in...reduced circumstances.

In "Missing Rush Limbaugh," novelist Robert Ferrigno has produced a strangely wonderful thing: A tale of the near future that's both utterly hilarious and really pretty scary. My favorite detail? The "I'm Sorry" button. I mean, it's perfect.

My favorite quote from Ferrigno's short story:

No problemo for that hombre. George W.’s biggest concern was that Dan Rather was going to go off his meds again, coming ashore in a wetsuit and flippers, holding a conch shell aloft and screaming he had finally found the evidence. If the facts don’t fit, you must acquit, Danno.

Labels: clintons, end times

"In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, he [Pope John Paul II] reminded us that history shows, time and again, that "in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation," and a democracy without values can lose its very soul. Those prophetic words in some sense echo the conviction of President Washington, expressed in his Farewell Address, that religion and morality represent "indispensable supports" of political prosperity."

- Pope Benedict XVI

I employ my own bastardized version of the fairness doctrine around here and it's strictly enforced...

Hillary Won't Say When She Packed Heat Last
Hillary Clinton is trying to out-Romney Romney, saying in a press conference Saturday that she had received firearms training as a youngster...

The video/audio is here. It has to be seen. It's textbook pandering (and maybe a tall tale). Is there .00001% ounce of "authentic" in this woman?

***Update***
Poll Shows Erosion Of Trust in Clinton

Really?

Labels: clintons, democrats

I thought I could go a day without quoting Jonah Goldberg. I was wrong.

The offending word here is "cling." It's a word drenched in haughtiness and condescension. We cling to rocks when we are caught in a current. Obama's imagery suggests that because the economic tide is receding these people are clinging to God and guns, presumably to compensate for the undertow. But he also suggests that if the economic tide were rising these same people would let go of God and guns and ride the currents to happier and more progressive lands where everyone thinks like Obama.

I am moved to pity by this related quote from Peter Kreeft's C.S. Lewis for the Third Millennium in relation to Obama's remarks (sorry for the length):

"A man can endure almost any how if only he has a why." In other words, you can endure bad circumstances, powerlessness, poverty, even a concentration camp, if and only if you have a meaning and purpose to your whole life, and therefore also to suffering, which is part of life. The corollary is that if you do not have a "why", you will not be able to endure any "how" that is a little upsetting...Once the sense of life's significance was lost, we could not endure its sufferings, so we had to invent ways of conquering nature to reduce those sufferings radically. A man with no "why" must conquer his "how".

Western civilization began to worship power when it began to doubt significance. The reason Lewis, Chesterton, Williams, Tolkien, and Thomas Howard fascinate us so much is that they still live in the medieval world, a world chock-full of built-in, God-designed significance. That's why they all think analogically, sacramentally, imagistically. For them, everything means something beyond itself. Everything is not only a thing, but a sign, full of significance. Modernity, confining itself to the scientific method as the model for knowing reality, deliberately induces in itself what Lewis calls a dog-like state of mind, full of facts and empty of significance.

Labels: democrats

This is from Victor Davis Hanson at NRO:

At some point is there any sane Democratic strategist left, who sees that populist rhetoric and "two Americas" lingo do not go well with the several Kerry mansions, the Edwards' 30,000 sq. ft. domicile, the carbon-consuming Gore spread, the $109 million Clinton tax returns, those burdensome Michelle Obama Ivy-League student loans to be repaid, and Marin County sociology lessons?

Labels: democrats

I caught this program on CNBC on Sunday night and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the airline industry and/or the economics of managing an airline. It's narrated by Paul Greenberg and he does a decent job examining the industry via American Airlines in areas like logistics (baggage, travelers, fleet, and cargo), fuel costs, passenger safety (post 9/11), and maintenance.

The segment on rewards (frequent flier miles) will make you angry, especially now since AA is charging $10 to cover the variable cost of your seat. What I found most fascinating is how little profit the airline makes on each flight. As a result, the airline is incentivized to keep those planes full and off the tarmac. At one point in the program, Greenberg shows a slide that shows how many flights between LAX, JFK and BDA one airliner must make in one week/month to reach maximum profitability.

One other comment...I thought the CEO seemed a bit smarmy.

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Labels: airlines, airports, business, economics

Abe Greenwald wrote that in his article "It’s All Gone" to describe the "authentic" Obama. Hugh Hewitt goes a little further and completely turns the table using liberal-think, in this case cultural relativism, to describe Obama's rattlebrained perceptions of those Americans who live in flyover country.

Obama doesn't know this America, which is certainly the backbone of most suburbs, small towns and rural communities in flyover-country and, truth be told, on most of the coasts outside of the largest urban centers.

What Obama knows is the world in which he has lived, which is a strange combination of some of the toughest neighborhoods in the U.S. and its most elite institutions. He belonged to a church that indulged radical politics in its weekly bulletin and from its pulpit even as it struggled to help some devastated neighborhoods. He did so after attending and absorbing the attitudes of America's most elite law school and having been taught by its --mostly-- hard-left professors. He does so from the lofty perch of the U.S. Senate. He's had a schizophrenic life that combined the toughest aspects of America and its most indulgent.

Labels: democrats

Great news for long-suffering rail fans and advocates of the iron horse (HAT TIP: INSTAPUNDIT)

Harvard professor predicts railroads will return to prominence in the U.S.

Labels: railroads

I'm not sure how much play this story is getting in the MSM but if the polls are any indication, Obama is faltering in the polls since news of his speech from one of America's wealthiest blocks in San Francisco broke on April 11th.

I don't live in small-town rural America but I found his comments unsettling (and unsurprising). I was deeply offended by his arrogance in regards to those who cling to religion. Perhaps the best quote, and something I long suspected, comes from Lisa Schiffrin at NRO:

I now feel fully vindicated in my suspicion that Obama's attendance at Wright's church was entirely political and expedient. No one who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ — or even moderate respect for other people's religious views — thinks in these terms about why working class people might believe in God. Or believes that a more enlightened government will supplant that.

William Kristol puts Obama's words in context:

What does this mean for Obama's presidential prospects? He's disdainful of small-town America — one might say, of bourgeois America. He's usually good at disguising this. But in San Francisco the mask slipped. And it's not so easy to get elected by a citizenry you patronize.

And what are the grounds for his supercilious disdain? If he were a war hero, if he had a career of remarkable civic achievement or public service — then he could perhaps be excused an unattractive but in a sense understandable hauteur. But what has Barack Obama accomplished that entitles him to look down on his fellow Americans?

My favorite quote is from Kathryn Jean Lopez via NRO:

Don't you love the fact that Obama slipped and the news broke just before the papal visit? We'll have a week's worth of oppressed people at the White House, at Catholic University, at two baseball stadiums, lining the streets of Washington and New York. It's Obama vs. these clingers.

This one must sting every voter who believed Obama was some type of transcendental, post-modern candidate:

The radiant charm; the verbal agility; the promise of change; the post-racial unity; the deferential press; and most importantly, the vagueness of character and intent that sustained the whole façade. These were the hallmarks of Barack Obama’s run for the Democratic nomination, and bit-by-bit, associate-by-associate, gaffe-by-gaffe, the junior senator from Illinois has given all of it back. The extraordinary bounty that had made his campaign a nearly unstoppable force of nature is gone.

With last Sunday’s revelation—that he looks at smalltown America and finds armed, hate-filled, irredentist religious zealots—the last piece of the Obama puzzle fell into place. He is not, it turns out, an agent of change; he is a walking checklist of modern liberal inanities.

Finally, you can't toss Jonah softballs like this.

Barack Obama says the state's economy is so bad that a once prosperous and secular people have been driven to embrace their sky god and shoot animals for sport.

Labels: democrats

i am a little church (no great cathedral)

i am a little church (no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor of hurrying cities
-i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are prayers of earth's own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying) children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection:
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope, and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains

i am a little church (far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish) at peace with nature
-i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing

winter by spring, i lift my diminutive spire to
merciful Him Whose only now is forever:
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence
(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)

ee cummings

Labels: weekend

Weekend Politics

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

- Barack Obama at a San Francisco fund-raiser

He's trying to spin the comments. He can't because he really believes it.

Obama believes (really believes) that people of faith are being retarded by their religion. It smacks of hypocrisy and requires a kind of herculean doublethink. Obama is asking voters to reject their faith and communities so we can be remade/reborn into a new man and re-invested in a new community of faith.

So people, ya know they vote about guns or they take comfort from their faith, and their family, and their community...

Obama is going to spend the rest of his campaign suppressing these innate San Francisco values, hoping voters don't realize that there's no place in this new religion for their own volition.

Related
Obama To Rural Pennsylvanians: Vote For Me, You Corncob-Smokin', Banjo-Strokin' Chicken-Chokin' Cousin-Pokin' Inbred Hillbilly Racist Morons

Obama Tries Damage Control; Epic Fail

Great Day 2 Run-Down on Obama's Redneck Rampage Speech

Redneck Rampage Round-Up Redux

Labels: democrats, weekend

Let's do this!
This is a mini-tribute to Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Coupland.

See the breakfast of tomorrow (smokey* cheese sauce) today.

It's an actual word, although dictionary.com says it should be capitalized.

Here's what some other blogger says about the real combos. I found this post while I was searching for a Warhol-like painting of 1 solitary combo.

Labels: end times, weekend

This is a sobering article from 24/7 Wall Street.

Labels: economics

Watch a replay of this match! Even if you don't like (or know anything about) football.

Liverpool 4-2 Arsenal: Frenetic finish at Anfield

In other UEFA Champions League quarter-final matches Manchester United, Chelsea, and Barcelona all win on aggregate to advance to the semi-finals. The first leg of the semi-finals begins on Tuesday, April 22, with Liverpool hosting Chelsea. Barcelona hosts Manchester United on Wednesday, April 23. Three of the four semi-finalists are club teams from England's Premier League.

Labels: soccer

Playmobil on Flickr
P (Prayer, work and study)
L (Whaddya gonna do bout it?)
A (Shimmy like my sister Kate)
Y (Robotica gigante @ Sci-Fi Diner)
M (We're all gonna die!!!)
O (Public Works Commission)
B (Hurry. Before she wakes!)
I (Economic downturn)
L (Identity theft)

Labels: toys

"I am Bender, please insert girder."

Here is another card in my limited-edition robot trading card series™. Bender is my favorite robot. In the pantheon of robotdom only R2D2 comes close (and a distant second at that).

Bender isn't great because he smokes cigars and uses foul language. It's not his womanizing, drunkenness, thievery, or lying that makes him great either. Bender is great because his indifference and selfishness are rendered benign by his feelings for Fry (and everyone else at Planet Express).

I would love some nominees for the most useless/worst robots category. I'm quite certain Roboz from Riptide would make the list. I think H.E.L.P.eR from the Venture Brothers deserves a nomination.

Here is a list of "favorite robots" I found on the Internets®. I am happy to report that the blogger/writer/author included Small Wonder in the montage.

She's fantastic. Made of plastic. Micro chips here and there.

Before I forget...

Here's a link to the smartest toy robot in the world.

Labels: robots, toys, weekend

The New England Revolution defeated the Houston Dynamo 3 - 0 to start the season but lost Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston to injuries.

The U.S. MNT will play England in a friendly at Wembley Stadium on May 28th.

The Bermuda National Team defeated the Cayman Islands 3 - 1 and will advance to the second round of CONCACAF qualifying. They will now play Trinidad and Tobago in their campaign to reach the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Trinidad and Tobago are currently #93 in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings and played in their first World Cup finals in 2006 (Group B).

Related
'It's all-out war' declares BFA boss
Bermuda Football Association (BFA) president Larry Mussenden has declared an all-out football war on 2006 World Cup debutants Trinidad and Tobago...

Labels: soccer