Blogito ergo sum.

The Army Corps of Engineers denied Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal’s emergency request to dredge up some barrier islands to prevent the BP oil spill from contaminating his beaches and marshes, because…(scroll down)…

Wait for it…

They want to do an “environmental impact” study on what possible damage these barrier islands might do to Louisiana’s beaches and marshes!  Huh?  Wha?  R U kiddin me?  “Environmental impact”?  Sheesh!!!  Our tax dollars at work – in the hands of greenie weenie bureaucrats…

Yesterday, while waiting in the car for Cindy at the grocery store, I saw a mother and daughter exit.  It was raining – not a drenching downpour, just a gentle shower – a sprinkle, really – just enough to know you’re getting wet.

The girl was looking up and smiling with the innocent smile that only children are capable of.  She was delighted with the rain.

The mother was looking down and frowning.  She was clearly irritated with the rain.

I thought: when do we change from the former to the latter, and why?

…because I want us to drill for American oil in safer places – like in shallow waters right off shore – and here’s a novel idea – how about right on land, as in ANWR!

It’s time to push back on the greenie weenies with their NIMBY approach to oil drilling close to shore and their feigned sensitivity to Alaskan caribou and drill, baby, drill!

When I became the headmaster of a Classical Christian school, I faced a weird conflict between my personal love of sports and my professional disdain of them.  The former was born of a lifelong enjoyment of athletics, both as a spectator and as a participant.  The latter came from the damage I had seen athletics do to school programs, devouring disproportionate amounts of precious time, energy, and money.

 Further study into both Classical and Christian traditions (where athletics have been prominent), plus discussions with school leaders about how to give athletics their proper place in campus life, plus reflection on the merits of athletic endeavor for character formation, have convinced me that sports, clearly understood and carefully guarded, will enrich the lives of schools and their students.

 Paideia has commissioned a task force to explore the strategic role of athletics in our mission and vision.  One of the task force members loaned me a book put together by Brain Kilmeade (you may have seen him on Fox and Friends), The Games Do Count, in which famous Americans from all walks of life testify to the formative role of sports in their own lives.

 The book includes such luminaries as Oliver North, Condoleeza Rice, Ronald Reagan, Tony Danza, Robin Williams, Donald Trump, Jim Caviezel, Jon Bon Jovi, George Will, Geraldo Rivera, and Bernie Mac.

 The Games Do Count is a nice book to fill up the little nooks and crannies of one’s day (doctor office waiting rooms, public transit rides, Saturday-morning coffee on the patio) because it has short chapters, interesting personal stories, doesn’t have to be read in order, and is non-controversial if strangers see you reading it.

 Burt Reynolds tells a fascinating story about the famous touchdown scene in his classic movie, The Longest Yard.

 George W. Bush tells how George H.W. Bush inspired him but never pushed him.

 I have to admit that I skipped the chapter by John Kerry.

 The most moving part of the book was a series of four chapters in the middle by friends and family members of some passengers of United Flight 93.  These authors told how they were not at all surprised that their fallen comrades were heroes on 9/11, because they had seen heroic traits in them on the lacrosse field, the basketball court, and the wrestling mat.  I was surprised at my own emotion welling up as I read these chapters.  I guess the wound of 9/11 has not yet healed, and perhaps never will.

 The book’s characters are true-life people, of course, and they tell of true-life lessons they learned in sports: discipline, endurance, strength in numbers (teamwork), magnanimity in victory, humility in defeat.  In short, all of the virtues and vices of the human soul are surfaced, focused, intensified, magnified, and conquered on the athletic field.  Sports is a microcosm of life, and those who participate find their lives fuller for it.  Sports can make us better human beings.

A few summers ago, I picked up some books from a bookseller at a summer training conference.  One of them was The Intellectual Life by a French Dominican Priest named A. G. Sertillanges.

Have you hit the delete button yet?

You shouldn’t.  We claim to be making young people into disciples, scholars, and citizens.  We won’t do a good job of that unless we aspire to be disciples, scholars, and citizens ourselves. 

Sertillanges’ book is actually written for those who wish to do intellectual work.  However, it is also beneficial for those who might wish to become intellectual people – not geniuses, not elitists, not recluses – just people who want to think deeply about important issues instead of just floating along on the cultural tides like so much human flotsam.  This sentiment is not new: Socrates famously wrote, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  Sertillanges sounds a similar theme when he writes: “The public as a whole is vulgar and likes only what is vulgar.”

The subtitle of the book is: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods.  Those three movements actually represent the steps from the strongest part of the book to the weakest.  Sertillanges is excellent on the “spirit” of the intellectual life, practical on the “conditions,” and not as helpful on its “methods.”  The “spirit” sections read like great devotional writings.  The “methods” sections are a little outdated (not his fault), since this book was written in 1920 with a typewriter, and technology today has made the research possibilities for thinkers today so much more vast.

Spirit

“The life of study is austere and imposes grave obligations.  It pays, it pays richly; but it exacts an initial outlay that few are capable of.  The athletes of the mind, like those of the playing field, must be prepared for privations, long training, a sometimes superhuman tenacity.  We must give ourselves from the heart, if truth is to give itself to us.  Truth serves only its slaves.” (p. 4)  A looser translation from the French might read: “Becoming a more deeply intellectual person isn’t always exciting or as entertaining as The Sopranos or American Idol, but it will enlarge our souls as TV never could.  We won’t be able to fritter away the hours on Facebook, but we will be in touch with the greatest minds our race has ever produced.  We will never master the truth; we must let it master us.”

Similarly: “To get something without paying for it is the universal desire; but it is the desire of cowardly hearts and weak brains.  The universe does not respond to the first murmured request, and the light of God does not shine under your study lamp unless your soul asks for it with persistent effort.” (p. 6)

Knowledge must be harnessed to goodness: “By practicing (sic) the truth that we know, we merit the truth that we do not yet know.  …If I embark on the tributary, I reach the river, and then the sea.” (p. 19)  “Great thoughts come from the heart.” (p. 24)  “The good is the brother of the true.” (p. 58)  “Study has been called a prayer to truth.” (p. 69)

Reason must serve faith: “Study is itself a divine office, and indirect divine office; it seeks out and honors the traces of the Creator, or His images, according as it investigates nature or humanity; but it must make way at the right moment for direct intercourse with Him.  …Study carried to such a point that we give up prayer and recollection, that we cease to read Holy Scripture…is an abuse and a fool’s game.” (29)  “Hence, for the fully awakened soul, every truth is a meeting-place; the sovereign Thought invites ours to the sublime meeting; shall we miss it?” (p. 31)

Conditions

Sertillanges outlines certain organizational principles for the intellectual life: simplifying your life, practicing some solitude, limiting the scope of study – in other words, avoiding the Vanity Fair all around us.

Simplifying life: “Money and attention squandered on trifles would be much better spent in collecting a library, providing for instructive travel or restful holidays, going to hear music which rekindles inspiration, and so on.” (p. 43)

Practicing solitude: “Society life is fatal to study.” (p. 42)  “Did you not prefer truth to the daily lie of a scattered life?” (p. 49)

Solitude doesn’t mean being a hermit: “A body too long motionless gets atrophied and nerveless; a soul which does the same wilts and broods.  By carrying the cult of silence too far, one would reach the silence of death.” (p. 63)

Limiting the scope of study: “The encyclopedic mind is an enemy of knowledge.” (p. 118)  “A danger lies in wait for minds that spread themselves over too many subjects: the danger of being easily satisfied.” (p. 119)  “We must read intelligently, not passionately.” (p. 147)

Since I have no affinity at all for fiction, I was thrilled to find this little gem: “There must be no question at all of poisoning your mind with novels.” (p. 148)  “As for newspapers, defend yourself against them with the energy that the continuity and the indiscretion of their assault make indispensable.” (p. 148)

Methods

Since there is nothing that good to write in this section, I will close with another devotional quote on the “spirit” of the intellectual life.  Quotes like this are worth the price of the book: “We think too little of the privilege of this bond with the greatest minds.  It multiplies the joy and profit of living, it enlarges the world and makes it a nobler and more precious place to live in, it renews for each man the glory of being a man, of having his mind open on the same horizons as the greatest, of living on high levels and of forming with his fellows, with those who afford him inspiration, a society in God.” (p. 157)

El Presidente: 

Since you are meeting with President Obama today, I thought this would be a good time to break the news.

I’m planning to move my family and extended family into  Mexico, and I would like to ask you to assist me. 

We’re planning to simply walk across the border from the  U.S. into  Mexico , and we’ll need your help to make a few arrangements. 

We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. 

I’m sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Obama, that I’m on my way over? 

As a favor returned for all of the Mexicans now living in the U.S., please know that I will be expecting the following as “human rights”: 

1. Free medical care for my entire family. 

2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not. 

3. Please print all Mexican government forms in English. 

4. I want my grandkids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bi-lingual) teachers. 

5. Tell their schools they need to include classes on American culture and history. 

6. I want my grandkids to see the American flag on one of the flag poles at their school. 

7. Please plan to feed my grandkids at school for both breakfast and lunch. 

8. I will need a local Mexican driver’s license so I can get easy access to government services. 

9. I do plan to get a car and drive in   Mexico but I don’t plan to purchase car insurance, and I probably won’t make any special effort to learn local traffic laws. 

10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo  to leave me alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer. 

11. I plan to fly the  U.S. flag from my house top, put  U. S. flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals. 

12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business I may start. 

13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say critical things about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy. 

14. I want to receive free food stamps. 

15. Naturally, I’ll expect free rent subsidies. 

16. I’ll need Income tax credits so although I don’t pay Mexican Taxes, I’ll receive money from the government. 

17. Please arrange it so that the Mexican Gov’t pays $4,500 to help me buy a new car. 

18. Oh yes, I almost forgot, please enroll me free into the Mexican Social Security program so that I’ll get a monthly income in retirement. 

Sincerely,

A loyal  American-Mexican

It has been a while since I have written one of these, mostly due to writing and teaching the Principles of Liberty course for the Tampa 9-12 Project, and then taking some “time off” to put together a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle – a photomosaic of the face of Abraham Lincoln.

Now, back to my favorite hobby: reading. 

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World was published in 1932, predating a more famous dystopian novel, George Orwell’s 1984 by seventeen years.  The two visions of the future were very different.  In 1984, the omnipresent Big Brother ferreted out and punished sedition by torture and brainwashing.  In Brave New World, the Directorate subjugates the docile populace by an irresistible combination of genetic engineering, subliminal conditioning, chemical manipulation, and mind-numbing diversions.  As Huxley wrote in the preface: “A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”

 The very title has become iconic in our society, and perhaps I was expecting too much.  The concept is superbly fascinating, but the technology is obviously outdated (perhaps that is inevitable when writing about the scientific future), the characters rather shallow psychologically (at least when compared with those of a Dostoevsky), and the plot simply pedestrian (wasn’t it inevitable that the Savage wouldn’t be able to bear civilization?).  The only interesting chapters to me were 16 and 17, in which the Savage and the Controller held a very frank discussion of the relative merits of freedom vs. happiness.

 While Huxley’s vision of a genetically engineered caste system might seem at least remotely plausible – especially now, with the completion of the Human Genome Project – I think it is far more likely that dictators will continue to go in for the shorter, quicker, more direct road to totalitarianism: good old-fashioned revolution.  Power comes, not from the needle of a syringe, but from the barrel of a gun.

Muslims are offended a lot.

Muslims were offended by an episode of the irreverent episode of South Park that treated Muhammad, well, irreverently.  So a Muslim issued a death threat warning to the cartoon’s creators, and they self-censored the episode.

Muslims were offended that Franklin Graham was invited to the National Day of Prayer ceremony at the Pentagon because he had called Islam “evil.”  So the Pentagon uninvited Graham.

Two thoughts…

I expect the so-called comedy writers to be cowards, but not our military leaders.  The South Park writers are probably just spoiled brats who grew up making fun of all serious-minded people around them and have now made a good living at it, even though they have not contributed anything really positive to our cultural conversation.  However, our military brass are supposed to be the leaders of the best, brightest, and bravest, and – especially after the Ft. Hood attack – they should have what is called a backbone.

It appears that the Muslims are being more and more successful in waging their “stealth jihad” – that is, using our own laws, customs, beliefs, civil liberties, and sensitivities against us.  Do we really think that, if they ever gained sufficient political and legal power in this country, that they would show the same deference to us that we have shown to them?  Have they done this in any country yet where they have gained ascendancy?

In the South Park and in the Pentagon, when the Muslims were offended, heads rolled (figuratively).  Someday, it might be more literal.  God, have mercy on us all.

Why isn’t the word, “onomatopoeia,” well, an onomatopoeia?

Some people are up in arms about making it a state crime in Arizona to be an illegal immigrant.  Why is it such a bad thing to make an illegal act a crime?

The same people are upset that legal immigrants will have to produce proof of their status upon request, yet these same people are proposing that every American-born citizen be required to carry a national biometric I.D. card.  Huh?