Joseph Bottum recounts the central role of mainline Protestantism in the history and cultural attitudes of America. It was the unifying principle:
Which makes it all the stranger that, somewhere around 1975, the main stream of Protestantism ran dry. In truth, there are still plenty of Methodists around. Baptists and Presbyterians, too—Lutherans, Episcopalians, and all the rest; millions of believing Christians who remain serious and devout. For that matter, you can still find, soldiering on, some of the institutions they established in their Mainline glory days: the National Council of Churches, for instance, in its God Box up on New York City’s Riverside Drive, with the cornerstone laid, in a grand ceremony, by President Eisenhower in 1958. But those institutions are corpses, even if they don’t quite realize that they’re dead. The great confluence of Protestantism has dwindled to a trickle over the past thirty years, and the Great Church of America has come to an end.
The once outlandish actions of Bishop Pike, for example, (“discarding doctrine in the name of ethics, and he was always feckless: dangerously irresponsible, refusing to think his way through causes and consequences”) became the norm.
And that leaves us in an odd situation, unlike any before. The death of the Mainline is the central historical fact of our time: the event that distinguishes the past several decades from every other period in American history. Almost every one of our current political and cultural oddities, our contradictions and obscurities, derives from this fact: The Mainline has lost the capacity to set, or even significantly influence, the national vocabulary or the national self-understanding.
Among the causes, Bottum discusses Canadian law professor John Humphrey who completed a draft of the 1948 U.N.’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights and said what had been achieved was “Christian morality without the tommyrot.” Tommyrot to Humphrey stood for dogma, sacraments, prayer, and other trappings of religion. And morality without the tommyrot seems to be precisely what many Americans seek. Morality has been replaced by ethics, and religion by spirituality, and the core principles are no longer apparent.
Protestantism’s quest for greater relevance in the economic and political realm has led to its demise. The real tommyrot in hindsight seems more likely to be the lefty causes that distracted mainline Protestantism into irrelevance.
July 19th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Religion |
no comments
In honor of our simian brothers’ new-found human rights in Spain, I propose a toast to monkeys everywhere, including the fully upright ones. What could be more fundamental than the right to a martini? The “Fuzzy Monkey Martini” comes from Supercocktails.com.
Ingredients:
- Stoli Vodka
- Malibu Rum
- Hiram Walker White Peach Schnapps
- cranberry Juice
Quantities:
- 1 Part/s Stoli Vodka
- 1/2 Part/s Malibu Rum
- 1 Part/s Hiram Walker White Peach Schnapps
- 1 Part/s Cranberry Juice
Blending Instructions:
- Put all ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake, strain into a martini glass, garnish with a pineapple slice
Image by Ken30684 - Creative Commons
July 18th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Leisure |
no comments
Great Apes are currently found in 21 countries in Africa and two countries in Southeast Asia. Those apes need to go to Spain where they will now enjoy basic human rights. MercatorNet explains:
Spain will become the first country in the world to extend some human rights to apes. From now on, the great apes – gorillas, chimpanzees and orang-utans – will enjoy the right to life, the right to the protection of individual liberty, and the right to prohibition of torture. “This is a historic moment in the struggle for animal rights,” Pedro Pozas, the Spanish director of the Great Apes Project, told the London Times. “It will doubtless be remembered as a key moment in the defence of our evolutionary comrades.”
Times Online reports that there are only 350 apes in Spain – all of them in zoos. Those apes will remain incarcerated without any right of habeas corpus, and the law inexplicably bans them from the entertainment industry where apes have historically achieved some of their greatest success.
Using apes in circuses, television commercials or filming will also be banned and while housing apes in Spanish zoos, of which there are currently 315, will remain legal, supporters of the bill have said the conditions in which most of them live will need to improve substantially.
But with its total ape population at a measly 315 to 350 apes, Spain might be criticized for making an empty, purely symbolic gesture. Anyone who really cares about simian quality of life should be helping apes to emigrate to Spain. Give Spain the chance to prove it’s serious! Soon you should be able to adopt an ape and move to the Costa Brava where your ape can enjoy its human rights in the sun and surf.
MercatorNet laments the loss of a more robust variety of leftists in Spain, who took up the plight of the downtrodden. The wimpy, Peter Singer version of leftism leaves a lot to be desired. But I think Spain can rise to the occasion, if only we send enough apes to allow the Spaniards to prove their mettle.
It will improve Spain’s image and give the apes a better place to live. You can read about the destruction of the apes’ natural habitat, by the way, at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa.
Iowa? How many apes are there in Iowa?
Image by youngrobv – Creative Commons
July 18th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Law |
one comment
Jean-Alix Miguel murdered his wife, a crime that earned him a paltry 7 years in prison. When he got out of prison, he got a job teaching school in Montreal. It took the school board 6 years to do a background check on Miguel, and when they discovered his murder conviction they fired him – not for being a confessed murderer, but for failing to disclose it on his application.
Not weird enough for you? Well, Miguel took his firing to arbitration, and won. It seems that the arbitrator didn’t agree that the school board fired Miguel for lying on his application. No, the arbitrator thought that was just a ruse, and that the school board actually fired Miguel for being a murderer. Can’t have that! Miguel was reinstated.
Wingless has this story of murder discrimination.
July 16th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Education, Law |
no comments
Oil is not a fossil fuel, and burning oil does not contribute to global warming. In fact, Peter J. Morgan writing in the Canadian Free Press, says that oil is a renewable resource and that the responsible policy would be to drill it aggressively and burn it cheerfully.
Stalin’s team of scientists and engineers found that oil is not a ‘fossil fuel’ but is a natural product of planet earth – the high-temperature, high-pressure continuous reaction between calcium carbonate and iron oxide – two of the most abundant compounds making up the earth’s crust. This continuous reaction occurs at a depth of approximately 100 km at a pressure of approximately 50,000 atmospheres (5 GPa) and a temperature of approximately 1500°C, and will continue more or less until the ‘death’ of planet earth in millions of years’ time. The high pressure, as well as centrifugal acceleration from the earth’s rotation, causes oil to continuously seep up along fissures in the earth’s crust into subterranean caverns, which we call oil fields. Oil is still being produced in great abundance, and is a sustainable resource – by the same definition that makes geothermal energy a sustainable resource. All we have to do is develop better geotechnical science to predict where it is and learn how to drill down deep enough to get to it. So far, the Russians have drilled to more than 13 km and found oil. In contrast, the deepest any Western oil company has drilled is around 4.5 km.
The hypothesis that oil is a fossil fuel was just that – a hypothesis. Global warming is also just a hypothesis. Both, according to Morgan, are false.
Morgan is no shill for conservative causes. In fact, he blames oil companies for perpetuating the myth that oil is a fossil fuel in order to drive up the price. He goes on to suggest that America’s military-industrial complex won’t have an excuse for meddling in Middle East affairs once we converted to a purely domestic source of supply. Roughly translated, that sounds like “no blood for oil.”
Each of us in our own small way can now burn as much petroleum product as we can afford to put in our cars and boats, safe in the knowledge that (a) oil is never going to run out and (b) all the extra carbon dioxide we produce will not cause global warming, but will help plants, and hence food, to grow faster, thus helping to feed the billions!
And look for oil prices to settle back in at about $30 per barrel.
July 14th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Politics |
no comments
Andrew Breitbart writes about the perils of being Republican in Hollywood. Tolerance has its limits.
Convicted murderer? Has anyone optioned the rights to your story?
Avowed Marxist? Viva la revolucion!
Scientologist? Do you take Visa or Mastercard?
Syphilitic drug abuser? Let’s talk!
Conservative? You should go.
One would think that the entertainment industry would entertain. Instead, it seems hell bent on assuming the role of re-education czar and hectoring half of the electorate about their supposed political shortcomings. Ford and Nike cheerfully sell their products to liberals and conservatives alike – no questions asked. Amazon stocks books written for a variety of audiences. However much Hollywood used to be associated with conspicuous wealth, it now seems to place is misguided principles above the pursuit of income.
More than a dozen box office failures vilify the troops without a single counterperspective seeing the light of day. Yet one positive Iraq war film, “Brothers at War,” dares to tell the story of a noble and patriotic American family – but it can’t find a distributor.
The only thing more vilified than a Republican, Breitbart notes, is a practicing Christian. So naturally no one wanted any part of Mel Gibson’s Passion, and Gibson was forced to keep the profits himself. Breitbart concludes:
The litany of negative consequences to the ideological rigidity of modern Hollywood is virtually limitless. The lack of tension between competing ideas has made the arts increasingly tedious and rendered the celebrities woefully uninteresting.
Hollywood hasn’t figured out that the party is quickly coming to an end. The film business is fragmenting. The gate-keepers and king-makers in all forms of entertainment are fading from the scene. But the myopic powers in Hollywood are wedded to producing expensive films, heavy on special effects, short on drama, with story lines that either caricature or offend large segments of their market.
July 14th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Film, Politics |
no comments
Knife Crime. PowerLine notes the consequences of Great Britain’s 1997 ban on private ownership of handguns. If has apparently succeeded in its stated goal of taking guns off the street.
But the result has not been what was intended. Crime rates in the U.K. have risen steadily, and violent crime has increased alarmingly in recent years. London is currently in the grip of a crime wave, as one brutal, sensational murder follows another. The perpetrators are nearly always young, and the crimes, often unspeakably vicious, are generally of the type conventionally labeled “senseless.” The weapon of choice these days is the knife, and British papers are full of discussion of what to do about “knife crime.”
Speaking of Crime. The U.S. government discovered an interesting fact after it began fingerprinting insurgents, detainees and ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa. Hundreds have criminal arrest records in the U.S. Thanks to the recent Supreme Court decision, I guess the rest of them are about to have criminal arrest records in the U.S. We can expect a new court-inspired revolving door as terrorists are repeatedly arrested, tried, and released. Then we will have “serial terrorists,” allowing talking heads and academics to wring their hands over recidivism rates.
Pathetic. PZ Myers, an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota, is asking people to attend Mass for the purpose of obtaining consecrated communion wafers, which Myers promises to desecrate on YouTube. He also asks his readers to send letters to the university president supporting him because some religious nuts object to his stunt. But he asks that you please, “take the time to proofread and send him something that at least looks like a high school graduate wrote it.” So PZ views his detractors as ignorant and superstitious and his supporters as sloppy and illiterate. It must be lonely being PZ.
Safety First. Suppose you put your 3-year-old son in the back seat of the pickup, don’t restrain him in a car set, and give him access to a loaded .45 handgun. Then, while driving down the road, the kid shoots you in the back. What do you do? Naturally you sue Glock, the gun manufacturer, for being negligent. It can’t be your fault, especially if you’re a cop and you are well trained in automobile and firearm safety.
Is Buying a Gun a Suicidal Act? Steve Chapman answers: “Presumptuous paternalists argue that Americans should be deprived of guns because gun owners are their own worst enemies. A lot of Americans would reply: We can’t trust ourselves, but we can trust you?”
July 13th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Ammo, Politics, Religion |
no comments
Beldar looks at the two controversial opinions issued by the Supreme Court at the end of the last term. In Kennedy v. Louisiana, the court held that “evolving standards of decency” precluded the death penalty in cases of child rape. But the court based its decision largely on an inaccurate assessment of the trends. Justice Kennedy wrote that Congress had recently expanded the crimes meriting the death penalty, but had not included rape or child abuse among them. Congress did exactly that, however, in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
In Boumediene v. Bush, the court “extended American constitutional rights to foreigners held by the American military on foreign soil who are alleged to have engaged in illegal warfare against America entirely from abroad.”
Beldar sees a pattern:
Every member of the Court, and every one of their law clerks and staff members — including each of the five Justices in the Boumediene majority — have now been conclusively proven by their screw-up in Kennedy v. Louisiana to be utterly ignorant of even such important details about the UCMJ as what crimes under it are punishable by death.
Five of the same Justices who didn’t know enough about the UCMJ to know that it currently allows for capital punishment for child rapes nevertheless felt righteously, omnipotently competent to plunge themselves and the rest of the civilian federal courts into overturning — and then taking over, via their habeas corpus powers — the UCMJ-based system for determining the fates of these military prisoners.
July 12th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Law |
no comments
In honor of John Wiley Price’s peculiar brand of idiocy, I propose we celebrate this Friday with a racist martini. Since most anything can be labeled racist these days, there’s really no avoiding it.
If you missed it, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, with a reputation for grandstanding and bizarre behavior, took offense when fellow Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, referring to a government agency, said, “It sounds like Central Collections has become a black hole.”
Well! Price (who is black) demanded an apology from Mayfield (who is white). Price explained that it’s just like “Angel Food Cake” and “Devil’s Food Cake.” Everyone knows those are racist terms, don’t they?
Now Drinksmixer.com did not ask to be brought into this, and I want to make it clear that I have no reason to think that the fine folks at that site have the slightest inclination toward racism. But then, I never thought Stephen Hawking was a racist either. (Not to mention PBS. Oh, my!) I have friends who prefer to drink White Russians as opposed to Black Russians and never attributed it to racial prejudice. Who knew?
But here it is, in black and white, as it were:
Black Martini
2/3 oz gin
1/3 oz black sambuca
Pour ingredients over ice. Shake gently. Strain into cocktail glass.
And while we’re pushing the envelope, how about another:
Black Martini #2
4 1/2 oz Absolut vodka
2 oz Chambord raspberry liqueur
1 oz Blue Curacao liqueur
ice
Combine in shaker. Shake vigorously. Strain into cocktail glass.
I will try these black martinis and toast Ken Mayfield on the occasion, but I still recommend a gin martini, made with Tanqueray and a niggardly dose of Vermouth.
Image by Ken30684 - Creative Commons)
July 11th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Language, Leisure, Politics |
no comments
I want to propose an ambitious capital project and I want your thoughts on the feasibility.
In order to meet a strategic national need, we need to construct a pipeline nearly 1,500 miles from Texas to New York. We’re going to cross 95 counties and traverse all or part of Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
We’re going to bury most of it in a three foot-wide, four foot-deep trench. We’ll be moving more than 3.1 million cubic yards of earth before we’re done. To complete this project, we’ll cross swamps and forests, go over or under 30 rivers and more than 200 creeks and lakes. We’ll be passing our pipeline under streets, railroad rights-of-way and a few private backyards.
We’re going to need more than 7,500 right-of-way grants or tenants’ consents.
Oh, and there’s just one more thing. We need to have this project completed in 54 weeks. Uh, huh. A year and a month. What do you think?
Well, Paul, I’m not so sure.
Why not?
Why not?! There are a lot of reasons but your time line is the biggest problem. You’ve got to be kidding with that 54 weeks. You’ll be darned lucky to have the environmental impact statements finished in less than five years. And then you’ll have to get the approvals. You’re talking some serious stuff here. Crossing forests and natural wetlands for example. You’re bound to be making an impact on quite a bit of natural habitat, some of which is bound to involve protected or endangered species.
And assuming you get the necessary approvals, which is going to take a long time assuming you get it done at all, don’t think you’re going to just start digging. You’d better budget some serious money and some serious time for the legal challenges. You can count on being sued repeatedly by any number of environmental groups. They’ll get restraining orders and injunctions to stop you or slow you down. You can count on it.
Really?
Yeah, really. I think you should forget about this one.
Well, you’re probably right.
Oh wait. Except for the fact that all of this has already happened. In 1942, in response to the need for massive quantities of oil necessary to prosecute World War II, they built this very pipeline. It starts in Longview and it goes all the way to Linden, New Jersey. And it was completed, start to finish, in 376 days. It’s called the Big Inch, in honor of the fact that it employed what was then revolutionary 24-inch diameter steel pipe.
Want to know the best part? It’s still in operation. It is, at this very moment, transporting natural gas from Longview to New York via that terminal in Linden, New Jersey.
I’m telling you this because oil has gone up about ten bucks a barrel since we spoke last Friday. And yet, members of Congress, and both presidential candidates, still refuse on largely environmental grounds to open up known fields of oil and gas to drilling and production.
We Baby Boomers are the children of people who got things done. And we have been living off of those accomplishments ever since (without really having to put ourselves out much). And to the extent that our parents damaged the earth while accomplishing what they did, they and we all learned from those mistakes and we take better care of the earth now. Show me any business — from the largest multi-national to your corner dry cleaner — that is wantonly damaging the environment today and getting away with it.
Up until now, had you ever heard of the Big Inch pipeline? Ever heard of any harm it has done to the environment? Any chance it could get built today in just over a year?
With the Big Inch in mind, let’s acknowledge that refusing to drill for oil that we know is there out of fear of damaging the environment is ludicrous.
But, Paul, we need to move past oil anyway.
Oh yeah, well that will take a couple of decades if we’re really lucky. And it won’t be the result of some massive government initiative such as the Manhattan Project. The switch from oil to some other energy source will be market-driven. Energy is fungible. Atom bombs are not.
And guess what. Any alternate energy you find or develop will come from the earth. There is no other source. If you want energy, you will have to dig or drill or move or scratch or do something to the earth in order to get it.
All over East Texas there are oil wells that have been plugged and abandoned. Finding them today without specific detailed records would be next to impossible. The earth, by now, has fully reclaimed those old well sites.
And that’s because the earth is resilient and has what it takes to take care of itself.
The question is, with our way of life threatened by global oil market tyranny, do we have what it takes to care of ourselves?
This article originally appeared on Paul Gleiser’s “You Tell Me” at KTBB radio and is republished here with permission.
July 9th, 2008
Posted by
Paul Gleiser |
Politics |
no comments
