St. John the Almsgiver, 2017

    1. Obviously, these prophets didn’t understand
    2. Contemning “thoughts and prayers”
    3. The last idol still standing
    4. Historical Ignorance, Moral Arrogance
    5. Absolute passion, utter fragility
    6. John the Merciful

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Saturday of an eventful week

  1. Right reason versus the might of force
  2. A puzzler, this is
  3. Roy Moore: Guilty by a Preponderance …
  4. … but of what is he guilty?
  5. Don’t be a schlemiel
  6. Where did all the journos go?
  7. Existential political crises
  8. Rich Spiders, Dessicated Flies
  9. Safer Harbors
  10. I can top that!

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Friday, 11/10/17

 

  1. Are victims “worse sinners”?
  2. Born in the wrong body?
  3. Disney is the Worst
  4. Fatal myths
  5. The Reactionary Mind (and it’s obsessive mirror image)
  6. Making stuff up about other Christian traditions
  7. Why Flannery Wrote
  8. Martyrs then, Confessors now

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Too many things to give up

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

(I Corinthians 9:24-27)

When we train there are all kinds of things we have to add to our regimen: stretching, weight-lifting, and so forth. But there are also things that we have to subtract: sweets, drinking, and other things. When you’re training, what you take away is just as important as what you add, but when you talk to Christians it’s all about what their faith adds to their lives and never about what it takes away. And the thing with college students, and the reason why they’re Moralistic Therapeutic Deists is not just because they haven’t been trained properly in certain practices, it’s because there are too many things they don’t want to give up, especially sex and drinking, but also their desire for material success. And so they think about God in a way that allows them to do things they want to do but not be held morally responsible for them, nor be required to take things out of their lives. In my Bible study I am constantly arguing with them about their claim that God wants us to be happy. “Where are you getting that from? That’s not in the Bible. God wants us to be holy, not happy.” But you can’t get anywhere with that argument.

(Student interacting with her prof after Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option lecture at Notre Dame)

* * * * *

“Liberal education is concerned with the souls of men, and therefore has little or no use for machines … [it] consists in learning to listen to still and small voices and therefore in becoming deaf to loudspeakers.” (Leo Strauss)

There is no epistemological Switzerland. (Via Mars Hill Audio Journal Volume 134)

Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes.

Memo to Guys

Memo to guys:

Yeah, I know you’re hot stuff. I know women like to be flattered and like to flirt. They’re really not all that much more monogamous than men. All of them. Doesn’t matter if they’re married or conspicuously religious.

Especially with guys who are really hot like you, not gross like Harvey Weinstein. They want you. They want you really bad.

But could I ask a wild hypothetical question? What if we’re wrong about that?

Respectfully,

Tipsy

* * * * *

“Liberal education is concerned with the souls of men, and therefore has little or no use for machines … [it] consists in learning to listen to still and small voices and therefore in becoming deaf to loudspeakers.” (Leo Strauss)

There is no epistemological Switzerland. (Via Mars Hill Audio Journal Volume 134)

Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes.

 

Saturday, 10/21/17

  1. If he won’t set the record straight, I will
  2. Hedgehog and Honey Badger
  3. Housing subsidies
  4. Liberal Hobby Lobby fan comes out of the closet
  5. Things White Folks Like
  6. CNN’s good rap on Richard Spencer’s fans
  7. Quotable
  8. Rewteetable

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