"The confining form liberates the content."

The confining form actually liberates the content.  This is a universal principle in the human arts.  The confining form of a haiku liberates and expresses satori or kensho. Within the Apollonian confines of the sacred dance, Dionysian energies can safely be released.  Only because the children play inside the playground fence can they play wildly, safe from running into cars or over cliffs. (The Commandments are God's fence to protect our play.)

- Peter Kreeft, Summa Philosphica, pp. 6

Ben Carson for President 2016

At least that's the way it looks now

My first disagreement with Father Robert Barron

Here Father Robert Barron tells us not to worry about the loud public disagreement and confusion caused by the Church's recent Extraordinary Synod on the Family.  He says essentially that this happens all the time and that we ought to be patient with the Church to wait for the true definitive teaching of this council which will be issued a long time from now. 

I would agree with him, IF the Church were debating questions that had not been settled or previously expounded.  However, in this case, the Church is simply giving voice to a seemingly large percentage of the clergy that outright disagrees with the Church's (settled) teaching on any basically any issue involving sexual morality (pick your favorite!)

It's not like this council can end with anything but a simple restatement of moral truths, perhaps cast in a different tone.  The substance of the Church's moral teaching on sexuality will not change, because it cannot, and because it if does, She is not who She says She is.

things the media says

the UK's daily mail  says the Pope "... is about to overhaul a number of social dogmas that the Church has held for many years"

we'll see.

America

In America I saw the freest and most enlightened men placed in the happiest circumstances that the world affords, it seemed to me as if a cloud habitually hung upon their brow, and I thought them serious and almost sad, even in their pleasures.

The chief reason for this contrast is that the former do not think of the ills they endure, while the latter are forever brooding over advantages they do not possess. It is strange to see with what feverish ardor the Americans pursue their own welfare, and to watch the vague dread that constantly torments them lest they should not have chosen the shortest path which may lead to it.

- AT

common wisdom

that said, smoking is seriously bad for you, no joke.

Why Battlestar Galactica is an awesome show

The doctor on the show smokes cigarettes.

on aging

Throughout the course of "my twenties", I was psychologically (not rationally) convinced I was invincible, and  I more or less behaved like my body could not fail me in any serious way, regardless of the extremes to which I pushed it. I'm aware this disposition was unwise.

So I recently entered the fourth decade of my life and went to the doctors and found that I am not, in fact, invincible.  This is a hard truth that I don't like.  Reason let me know it when I was younger; time made it real, and reality has impinged upon my delusions and upset me.

good decision from the supreme court today

in the United States, religious freedom survives for another day, just barely

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hobby-lobby-wins-contraceptive-ruling-supreme-court/story?id=24364311

a ridiculous freak-out session at abc news is captured in a video at the above link

i could never be a part of a religion that derives its moral teachings from the spirit of the times

it just doesnt make sense

it's what people want, though

Everything is Grace

It's all going according to plan...

Survey: US sees sharpest health insurance premium increases in years

The investment bank’s April survey of 148 brokers found that this quarter, the average premium increase for customers renewing an insurance plan is 12 percent in the small group market and 11 percent in the individual market, according to Forbes’ Scott Gottlieb.
The hikes — the largest in the past three years, according to Morgan Stanley’s quarterly reports — are “largely due to changes under the [Affordable Care Act],” analysts concluded. Rates have been growing increasingly fast throughout all of 2013, after a period of drops in 2012

 Affordable indeed!

Prophetic Article from Robert George

On "What Mozilla Means":

Mozilla has now made its employment policy clear.
No Catholics need apply.
Or Evangelical Christians.
Or Eastern Orthodox.
Or Orthodox Jews.
Or Mormons.
Or Muslims.

Unless, that is, you are the “right kind” of Catholic, Evangelical, Eastern Orthodox Christian, observant Jew, Mormon, or Muslim, namely, the kind who believes your religious or philosophical tradition is wrong about the nature of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife, and the view now dominant among secular elites is correct. In that case, Mozilla will consider you morally worthy to work for them. Or maybe you can work for them even if you do happen to believe (or should I say “believe”) your faith’s teaching—so long as you keep your mouth shut about it: “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Recommend reading the rest.

Saturday

"Information is to wisdom as a ceiling is to the sky"

- Anthony Esolen

too true?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/relatives-gather-from-across-the-country-to-stare,34842/

Twitter as Public Expression of Lonliness

via David Brooks

One of his sources describes Twitter this way: “It’s the constant mirror in front of your face. The only problem is that it’s not just you and the mirror. You’re waiting for the mirror to tell you what it thinks. The more you check for a response, the more habituated you become to craving one. It’s pathetic, because at the end of the day, a Twitter user is asking, ‘Am I really here, and do you love me?’ ”