Wells and Stalin

H. G. Wells visited Stalin in 1934 and chatted with him about the theory of socialism, noting that though he’d only just touched down in Moscow, “I have already seen the happy faces of healthy men and women and I know that something very considerable is being done here.”

Fashions in churches

Recently, a leader of one of the Protestant Churches in Dublin said to me that all our Churches were now wearing clothes which do not fit well because they had been tailored for us when we were fatter.

Atheism and baby killing

An atheist female friend of mine admitted to having two abortions, after which she said, "God will never forgive me."

Belloc on modernists

As Hilaire Belloc said, "Do not, I beseech you, trouble yourself about forces already in disarray. They have mistaken the hour; it is not the middle of the night, but the coming of the dawn."

Aquinas on "ensoulment"

Aquinas makes it quite clear:
We are NOT ensouled bodies - rather we are embodied souls

Didache

The Didache
"The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child" (Didache 2:1–2 [A.D. 70]).

Usury

Dante, following as always Thomist theology, put the moneylenders in Hell in the same circle as the sodomites -- each was perverting nature. I think of this every time I drop by my bank, St. Mary's Credit Union, here in Manchester, New Hampshire, which was founded by a French Canadian priest. (It charges interest.)

New heresy

My friend is a seminarian whose Professor told the class he would give them all an A+ if they could come up with a brand new heresy that nobody had thought of before. None of them could come up with one.

Army unions

I mean, what if the army had a union, and the soldiers went on strike every time there's a war?

Lawyers

99% of lawyers give the others a bad name.

Newman

Newman did not give weight to “paper arguments” about God’s existence; as he wrote: “Many a man will live and die upon a dogma: no man will be a martyr for a conclusion. . . . No one, I say, will die for his calculations: he dies for realities.”

Scientology

After the war, Hubbard’s marriage dissolved, and he moved to Pasadena, where he became the housemate of Jack Parsons, a rocket scientist who belonged to an occult society called the Ordo Templi Orientis. An atmosphere of hedonism pervaded the house; Parsons hosted gatherings involving “sex magick” rituals.

Government

On his birthday (February 22), quote George Washington as a reminder that, from first to last, all of America's greatest presidents have believed above all in liberty:
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

Psychoanalysis

I have never seen a psychoanalyst who had quiet eyes.

Unsympathetic biographies

The curious modern fashion of books about people one detests apparently to show how much out of sympathy it is possible to be with one's subject, seems to me to have little to recommend it. (Though I know why they do it, and it is not a pretty reason)

Religious people

All you religious people trust God so little. [DLS to CSLewis]

Technique

Studying the technique makes clear the sense.

Saints

"Perhaps when we stopped bothering saints about lost railway tickets that we came over so spiritual about them and our religion went all "other worldly" and "spiritual" too

Orange County

In early 2004, in front of dozens of reporters and parishioners, Bishop Tod D. Brown of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange nailed a "Covenant with the Faithful" to the door of the Holy Family Cathedral in the city of Orange. This publicist-cooked document contained seven "theses" vowing to create a new era of openness in a diocese long plagued by leaders who protected pedophile priests at the expense of innocents.

NB: Publicist cooked document.

Morality

Moral stupidity comes in two opposite forms: relativism and legalism. Relativism sees no principles, only people; legalism sees no people, only principles.

PhD

“That idea is so stupid that you have to have a Ph.D. to believe it.”

Man on the moon

“Americans make up six percent of the world’s population, but they account for 100 percent of the men on the moon".

Universities

From the Las Vegas Sun: "In what must have been one of his most painful tasks in office, UNLV President Neal Smatresk warned faculty leaders Tuesday to prepare for a budget catastrophe -- news that left some in tears. Smatresk at times sounded almost in mourning as he spoke to the Faculty Senate, saying he had instructed his provosts to start planning for more cuts in staff, departments and programs. The faculty was angry and indignant.
'I’m sick we are destroying much of what we’ve built,' said Cecilia Maldonado, an educational-leadership professor and chairwoman of the Senate." Well, Cecilia, the taxpayers in Nevada feel much, much worse. Have you checked their unemployment numbers lately, Cecilia? Have you checked to see how many people in Nevada are out of work? They've been given a bill for all the reckless spending at the university.

"'This amounts to foreclosure,' said Greg Brown, a history professor and president of the Nevada Faculty Alliance, a professor group." This amounts to foreclosure, he said. Well, you know, there are millions of Americans who have suffered through real foreclosures, Mr. Brown. They've lost their jobs. They've lost their homes. You're worried about cutbacks. You're not gonna get a whole lot of sympathy. Fantasy land has come to a screeching halt. You just got transferred to Literalville. Same place I live. And you people in Wisconsin, you better come to grips with the fact that you live in Literalville as well.

"Michael Bowers, UNLV’s provost, noted that UNLV is 54 years old and that he has worked there 27 years. 'I never thought this day would come, but we have to plan,' he said. The emotional display was unprecedented, Bowers said after the meeting, 'because we’ve never had a situation like this before.'" Well, you've never run out of other people's money before. This is just the beginning. This is what happens when you run out of other people's money. But if you notice the tone of this story, these are like war heroes, people losing their jobs or may be downsized. I don't want to come off as insensitive here, but being that I live in Literalville, since when did state employees take on the status of war veterans? Since when did their jobs and benefits take precedence over everything else?

Borders books just went into Chapter 11. Look at the number of people looking for work at Borders. What did they get undercut by? Internet. Store employees at Borders are gonna lose their jobs, others will get fewer hours, a lot of stores are gonna close. I haven't seen the stories about all the employees there shedding tears. How about we get a story of all of the taxpayers crying 'cause they're watching their hard-earned money get thrown down rat holes by this administration? My point is the sympathy is selective. Somehow there's a valor involved if you are a state employee and you have your salary cut back or you lose your job.

We're not getting any stories about how unemployed state workers and union workers are benefiting from their new status. We're not getting the stories about how they're coming together and getting closer to their families and closer to nature and finding more productive uses of their time. But when average, ordinary Americans were laid off and losing their jobs, we got all kinds of stories about how good it was for them. Now we get stories from New Jersey to Wisconsin to Nevada about the sorrow, the unfairness, and the insensitivity involved. It's now state, federal workers facing the same thing private sector workers face every day. It's just what happens when you run out of other people's money.

Planned Unparenthood

Too many liberal women with checkbooks remember how Planned Parenthood clinics helped them abort their way through law school, while too many racist right-wingers secretly hope that the organization's efforts will help keep the welfare rolls under control.

Religious orders

“Religious life is in difficulty today and this must be recognized,” said the cardinal.

It also threatens to turn works of charity into pure social service, which he said causes harm to the proclamation of the Gospel.

In such an atmosphere, “a society of well-being” is pursued over questions of eternity, explained Cardinal Rode.

Doctrine

True doctrine was to be “received and not invented.”

Caring for parents in England

“As this ageing population emerges, the working population is shrinking. My kids regularly remind me that it's not for them to keep me in the style to which I have become accustomed".

Tolerance

“The Church is intolerant in principle because she believes; she is tolerant in practice because she loves. The enemies of the Church are tolerant in principle because they do not believe; they are intolerant in practice because they do not love.” Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP

Groucho

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
Groucho Marx

Egypt

For those who are prone to be prone to such things, recent events in Egypt are further evidence of declining American global influence.
President Hosni Mubarak, having taken a lot of American aid, now seems immune to both American advice and pressure. The protesters, one article complained, didn't even bother to burn our flag.

Weimar and abortion

The year 1931 also saw the birth of the Committee of Self-Incrimination Against §218, which encouraged celebrities to come out and admit to having had, or having aided in, an abortion. Among those who came out was Albert Einstein.

Weimar and abortions

No wonder the Weimar Republic was distinguished by "the lowest birth rate in the Western world." With this fall in birthrate came "a new hedonism in women's sexuality."

Contraception, of course, was not foolproof, so abortions multiplied and "official disapproval" of them faltered. In 1917 new guidelines set forth by the Reich Health Council allowed abortions "on the strictest health grounds," only if approved by two doctors. In 1926 the law on abortions was mollified, and in 1927 the Supreme Court allowed doctors to perform "therapeutic" abortions. German law on abortion became "one of the most liberal in the world" because doctors could easily convince officials that any abortion was necessary for "health" reasons.

Catholic colleges

Notre Dame may have been but is certainly not the flagship of American Catholic Universities nor is Georgetown. Father Corapi said to an audience in MA that he loved them deeply but would not go to hell for them.

Notre Dame, again

The hard, cold reality is that only the force of will can quell the crisis at Notre Dame. Reason may work tirelessly to adjudicate the conflict, but it will ultimately fail. Specific "reasons" will function, after the fact, mainly to package the decisions that are made by those who are either in charge or who take charge of the crisis.

Relativism

If we assume that truth is relative, then we must affirm as an absolute truth that this is the case.

Eating

Many people have eaten in this kitchen and lived to tell about it.

Progress

Progressivism or 'chronological snobbery,'

California

So in truth, the state's problems involve a larger "California philosophy" that is relatively new in its history, one that now curbs production but not consumption.

Boys

Growing up, my mom had an effective method to curtail fighting, especially among us boys. She would force us to “kiss and make up” - believe me, that was a deterrent.

F. S. Fitzgerald

Lois confesses to Keith “how inconvenient being a Catholic is.”

Reagan

Ronald Reagan famously summarized the federal government's attitude toward the economy this way: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

Professors

College professors are really important role models for their students. They don’t just come and deliver their lecture and go away. They aren’t just hired entertainment.

Modern theologians

Ist die kalte Professorenreligion der 70er Jahr wirklich modern?

[Is the cold professoriat religion of the 70s really modern?]

The dissenters

Zudem wurde soeben Benedikts Interviewbuch „Licht der Welt“ weltweit millionenfach nachgefragt. Der Papst auf der Bestsellerliste, das schmerzt.

[The pope on the bestseller list, that hurts].

Jesuits

Genauso unerhört, wenn Obere der Jesuiten jetzt gegen die katholische „Sexualmoral“ wüten, als wäre der Vatikan und nicht sie selbst verantwortlich für die unglaublichen Schweinereien, die in ihren Häusern passiert sind, von Priestern, die ihre Berufung verraten haben.

[Precisely unheard of, when heads of the Jesuits now arise against Catholic sexual morality, as if it were the Vatican and not themselves responsible for the unbelievable schweinereien which went on in their houses, by priests who betrayed their vocations].

Paul on dissent

St. Paul’s words (2 Tim 4:3):

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachings to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

German dissent

The journalist whose in-depth interview with Pope Benedict XVI became the book Light of the World has dismissed a public protest by German-speaking theologians as “a rebellion in the nursing home.”

Jesuits & Dominicans

The Dominicans were founded by St Dominic to fight the heresy of Albigensianism. The Jesuits were founded by St Ignatius Loyola to fight Protestantism... So when did you last meet an Albigensian?

Government programs

"For every action there is an equal and opposite government program."

Niceness

I just picture a sledgehammer with the words "Be Nice!" written on it and it makes me laugh!

Relative unemployment

Cleveland's unemployment rate rose slightly in 2010 to an average of 9.3%, but the city's unemployment rank improved relative to other cities, thanks to soaring job losses across the U.S.

ARCIC

The trouble with ARCIC always was (as a former Catholic member of it once explained to me) that on the Catholic side of the table you have a body of men (mostly bishops) who represent a more or less coherent view, being members of a Church which has established means of knowing and declaring what it believes. On the Anglican side of the table you have a body of men (and it was only men, on both sides, in those days) the divisions between whom are just fundamental as, and sometimes a lot more fundamental than, those between any one of them and the Catholic representatives they faced: they all represented only themselves.

Socialism

Using taxpayers' money to prop up failing industries that the market no longer deems viable is a classic socialist error.

Eric Hoffer

Consider this quote from social writer and philosopher Eric Hoffer and decide for yourself: “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”

The NYTimes flops again

The New York Times ran a glowing profile of Mr Wisner in its pages two weeks ago – but mysteriously did not mention his ties to Egypt.

IQ

Wissler's doctoral dissertation used the new Pearson Correlation Coefficient formula to show that there was no correlation between scores on Cattell's IQ tests and academic achievement. Wissler's dissertation eventually led the psychology movement to lose interest in psychophysical testing of intelligence.

Going native

In the 17th Century the Jesuit Fathers were reprimanded for "going native" in their attempts to adapt to the customs of the various native peoples they encountered in their missionary work. This habit has not died out in modern times. For we may say that they attempt to go native in countries that have fallen into missionary status.
One has only to consider the Americas and the European countries. They attempt to flatter the locals by adopting, and even encouraging, their practices. But they fail to realize that the practices are those of a decadent civilisation. Consider but the rampaging of sexual practices which would have shamed the Romans in their decadence. I wonder of this be not a result of their sexual ignorance. For there is no female order attached to the Society of Jesus as there is to almost all the other male orders. They certainly do not have schools for girls as they have for boys. Whence arises, I believe, a sheer plain ignorance of the feminine mind and spirit.

Government Statistics

....To ease the awful squeeze on the middle class (policy makers never talk about the poor), to reform education, and so on.

Churchill & Gandhi

(You can see there how empty and bombastic Churchill's style can sound when he's barking up the wrong tree; never forget that he once described himself as the lone voice warning the British people against the twin menaces of Hitler and Gandhi.)

Friend of the USA

"In this world, it is often dangerous to be an enemy of the United States," said Henry Kissinger, "but to be a friend is fatal."

Jews in Iraq : A new definition of chutzpah

Shortly after they overthrew Saddam, US forces found the archives of the Jewish community submerged in a flooded basement of a secret police building in Baghdad. The archive was dried and frozen and sent to the US for preservation. Last year, despite the fact that Saddam's secret police only had the archive because they stole it from the Jews, the Iraqi government demanded its return as a national treasure.

Jews in Tunisia

Then on Monday night unidentified assailants set fire to a synagogue in the town of Ghabes and burned the Torah scrolls. In an interview with AFP, Trabelsi Perez, President of the Ghriba synagogue said the crime was made all the more shocking by the fact that it occurred as police were stationed close by.

The day after the attack Roger Bismuth, President of Tunisia's Jewish community disputed the view that the scorching of Torah scrolls had anything to do with anti-Semitism. The man responsible for representing Tunisia's Jewish community before the evolving new regime told The Jerusalem Post that the attack was the fault of the Jews themselves, "because they left [the synagogue] open…This is not an attack on the Jewish community."

Unread laws

The posture and policies of the Obama presidency, using temporary majorities and legislative trickery to shove through massive unread bills

Sputnik

The Soviets stunned America by launching the utterly useless satellite called "Sputnik."
(We could have launched a satellite much earlier, but we wanted the Soviets to go first so they would establish the right to launch satellites over other nations.)

Monsignors

At a confirmation he once said, in his booming voice, “Now children, the bishop has been asking you questions. Do have any questions for the bishop?” Always dangerous. One lad piped up, “What’s a Monsignor?” The priest at the place was a Monsignor. Without missing a beat the old bishop said “Why, sonny, a Monsignor is the Cross that hangs around the bishop’s neck!”

Bishops out of line

John Paul II: "You are priests, not social or political leaders. Let us not be under the illusion that we are serving the Gospel through an exaggerated interest in the wide field of temporal problems."

Church of England

Newman could write (in a note in the French edition of his Apologia pro Vita Sua, explaining Anglicanism) that: “This remarkable Church has always been in the closest dependence on the civil power and has always gloried in this.” Newman went on to explain that “it has ever regarded the papal power with fear, with resentment and with aversion, and it has never won the heart of the people”. It has, said Newman “either had no opinions, or has constantly changed them… The great principle of the Anglican Church [is] its confidence in the protection of the civil power and its docility in serving it, which its enemies call its Erastianism.”

The Mass of Trent

The Tridentine Mass is a majestic and sacred experience -- for priest and parishioner alike. Its impact is often profound. It can shake even hardened progressives out of our post-Vatican II liturgical torpor.

Cost of government

Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large.