October 2011
63 posts
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Etiquette for the .001% →
Just in case you’re ever in England, Debrett’s offers “a unique and indispensable guide to negotiating the social minefields of British titles and styles.”
An example (and my head hurts just reading it):
I would be most grateful for your advice on the following. In July this year my sister-in-law, Jane XXX, is being ordained as a Deacon in the Church of England....
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Understanding U.S. debt →
From the Bookworm Room:
This helps to understand the US debt: • U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000 • Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000 • New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000 • National debt: $14,271,000,000,000 • Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget: • Annual family income: $21,700 • Money the family...
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Cool Hunting Fridays v 1.9 →
Maybe this will be one of the aircraft/spaceships landing at the new Spaceport America in New Mexico:
10. NASA for Virgin Galactic
After bringing the Space Shuttle Program to a close earlier this year, NASA has signed a $4.5 million, three-mission contract with the commercial airline. It’s a partnership that may seem jarring to those who grew up idolizing the space program, as a lucky...
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#OWS: Do they truly not see the irony? [UPDATE] →
The 99% just became the 1%:
The Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution yesterday — because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.
For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic...
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What a week…
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Hypocrisy much? →
For this, they had to close St. Paul’s Cathedral in London for the first time since WWII (in 1940, a bomb-scare shuttered the cathedral for four days):
…Footage from a thermal imaging camera shot by a police helicopter revealed that the ramshackle camp is almost completely empty during the cold nights.
It suggests the majority of the 300 ‘defiant’ protesters at the cathedral ...
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Milton Friedman, admirer
On You Tube (thanks, Daily Caller), Milton Friedman discusses how the “magic of the price system” comes together to produce items as simple, and as complex, as an ordinary pencil:
This was first written about in 1958 by Leonard Read in his essay, I, Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read:
…My family tree begins with what in fact is a tree, a cedar of straight...
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What did I say?... →
What goes around comes around. I already said:
There’s a reason why societies over time develop rules and mores for dealing with how individuals and groups should function within that society. Human nature needs structure, not oppression and not anarchy, but structure. I think that’s something a few of the Occupy protesters are just beginning to realize.
And now here come’s Zombie,...
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Davis: Should have supported voter ID law →
Well, yes, Mr. Davis, you should have, and you knew so at the time. But when did that ever get in the way of political expediency for any politician? At least you’re acknowledging now what you didn’t or couldn’t then.
From Artur Davis, a former Democratic U.S. congressman from Alabama, writing in the Montgomery Advertiser:
I’ve changed my mind on voter ID laws —...
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CCC: Part One: The profession of faith
Section One, “I Believe” — “We Believe”
26 We begin our profession of faith by saying: “I believe” or “We believe”. Before expounding the Church’s faith, as confessed in the Creed, celebrated in the liturgy and lived in observance of God’s commandments and in prayer, we must first ask what “to believe” means. Faith is...
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CCC: Above all--charity
25 To conclude this Prologue, it is fitting to recall this pastoral principle stated by the Roman Catechism:
The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring...
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Goofus and Gallant
Let’s do a little comparison, shall we? Politics aside, which group would you rather be a part of?
A Tea Party gathering:
…Just as stunning as the tableaux of the massive throngs lining the reflecting pool were the images of the spotless grounds afterward. If someone had told attendees they were expected to mow the grass before they left, surely some of them would have hitched...
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Cool Hunting Fridays v 1.8 →
What’s old is new again—who knew vinyl records would be the new hip thing? Here’s taking it one step farther:
2. Analog Vinyl Sampling
Innovative designer and engineer Ishac Bertran outdoes the modern mash-up with his analog vinyl sampling concept. Laser-cutting LPs with fine precision, Bertran cuts and pastes various records together for surprisingly melodious tracks.
...
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CCC: Necessary adaptations
24 By design, this Catechism does not set out to provide the adaptation of doctrinal presentations and catechetical methods required by the differences of culture, age, spiritual maturity, and social and ecclesial condition among all those to whom it is addressed. Such indispensable adaptations are the responsibility of particular catechisms and, even more, of those who instruct the...
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CCC: Necessary adaptations
23 The Catechism emphasizes the exposition of doctrine. It seeks to help deepen understanding of faith. In this way it is oriented towards the maturing of that faith, its putting down roots in personal life, and its shining forth in personal conduct.17
17 Cf. Catechesi tradendae 20-22; 25.
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CCC: Practical directions for using this catechism
22 At the end of each thematic unit, a series of brief texts in small italics sums up the essentials of that unit’s teaching in condensed formulae. These “IN BRIEF” summaries may suggest to local catechists brief summary formulae that could be memorized.
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Transparency redux: “A black cow, at midnight,... →
Yes, friends, this is the information the DOJ thinks you (and Congress) are entitled to review about the ATF Fast and Furious program:
Moe Lane has more, including the entire CBS Face the Nation segment on Fast and Furious with Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA):
…[This] is one of the pages that the Department of Justice considered to be an adequate response to an information request by the House...
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Polling the Occupy Wall Street crowd →
Interesting.
From Douglas Schoen, a Democratic pollster, for the Wall Street Journal, a synopsis of his poll of the Occupy Wall Street crowd:
…The protesters have a distinct ideology and are bound by a deep commitment to radical left-wing policies. On Oct. 10 and 11, Arielle Alter Confino, a senior researcher at my polling firm, interviewed nearly 200 protesters in New York’s...
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CCC: Practical directions for using this catechism
21 The quotations, also in small print, from patristic, liturgical, magisterial or hagiographical sources, are intended to enrich the doctrinal presentations. These texts have often been chosen with a view to direct catechetical use.
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VDH: Did 2008 come true? →
From Victor Davis Hanson:
…We are now nearing the third year of the Obama administration. Were those worries of 2008 at all justified? Let us briefly review them in the same order:
a) Uniter? The country is divided, perhaps more so than in 2006 — except to the extent of gradually unifying around opposition to Obama, who now polls around 40% approval and is heading to Bush levels in...
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Ace: Obama to embrace anti-semitic "Occupy"... →
From Ace:
The media worked night and day to make the Tea Party out to be a racist, violent group of astroturfed malcontents without any legitimate goal, an impression the Democrats were happy to abet. This time around, the make-believe media is delighted to look the other way while the Occupiers demonstrate casual anti-Semitism….
Check it out.
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McCain warns of ‘slippery slope’ with U.S. troops... →
Ugandan districts affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is despicable, but I’m not sure what U.S. troops are doing in Uganda—and apparently, I’m not the only one.
From the Daily Caller:
The Obama administration surprised a lot of folks late last week when it announced it was sending around 100 American troops to Uganda to help ...
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CCC: Practical directions for using this catechism
20 The use of small print in certain passages indicates observations of an historical or apologetic nature, or supplementary doctrinal explanations.
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Government is the biggest job killer →
From John Stossel at the Washington Examiner:
…I guess Obama doesn’t know that the Transcontinental Railroad was a Solyndra-like Big Government scandal. The railroad didn’t make economic sense at the time, so the government subsidized construction and gave the companies huge quantities of the best land on the continent.
As we should expect, without market discipline ...
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Inside the entitlement generation →
Okay, I know it’s from Canada, but this article by Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail sounds like what I’ve been hearing in the U.S.:
…The survey found that work/life balance and vacation time ranked extremely high on their wish list. They also expected high salaries and quick promotions. On average, they expected a starting salary of $53,000 a year….
Plenty of...
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CCC: Practical directions for using this catechism
19 The texts of Sacred Scripture are often not quoted word for word but are merely indicated by a reference (cf.). For a deeper understanding of such passages, the reader should refer to the Scriptural texts themselves. Such Biblical references are a valuable working-tool in catechesis.
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Cool Hunting Fridays v 1.7 →
Of course, this week there are the obligatory Steve Jobs links:
1. Macbook Memorial
A lot of love has been shown for the Apple CEO, but MintDigital’s portrait of Steve Jobs made from the parts of a Macbook Pro really stands out for its clever concept and beautiful execution.
and
3. Steve Jobs Patents
If you can measure a man by his patents, the NY Times has a nice interactive piece...
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CCC: Practical directions for using this catechism
18 This catechism is conceived as an organic presentation of the Catholic faith in its entirety. It should be seen therefore as a unified whole. Numerous cross-references in the margin of the text (numbers found at the end of a sentence referring to other paragraphs that deal with the same theme), as well as the analytical index at the end of the volume, allow the reader to view each theme in its...
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CCC: Structure of this catechism
Part Four: Prayer in the life of faith
17 The last part of the Catechism deals with the meaning and importance of prayer in the life of believers (Section One). It concludes with a brief commentary on the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer (Section Two), for indeed we find in these the sum of all the good things which we must hope for, and which our heavenly Father wants to grant us.
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Detacho: Modular dollhouses for fractured families →
And the truly sad thing is, this is not a joke. From Kathy Schiffer via the Digitalnun Daily:
…Detacho families, like so many contemporary American families, can reconfigure themselves, either expanding with the birth of new siblings, or separating into smaller groups of married or divorced or cohabiting adults and their complacent children. And Detacho dollhouses meet the...
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Supreme Court Justices find government line in... →
Sometimes, you just gotta wonder…
From ABC News, a report on the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court:
…The Obama administration, arguing on behalf of the EEOC, urged the court to reject the claims of the Lutheran Church and embrace a line of analysis that would have virtually...
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Fall is in the air... →
Ahhh, the Manolo is at it again…
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CCC: Structure of this catechism
Part Three: The life of faith
16 The third part of the Catechism deals with the final end of man created in the image of God: beatitude, and the ways of reaching it—through right conduct freely chosen, with the help of God’s law and grace (Section One), and through conduct that fulfils the twofold commandment of charity, specified in God’s Ten Commandments (Section Two).
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Transparency! →
From the Daily Caller:
…When a reporter followed up and asked the Attorney General if he knew about the “controversial tactics” employed in Fast and Furious, Holder refused to answer and walked off the stage….
Top Justice Department officials have continually refused to answer questions [on the ATF Fast and Furious program] from press or from Congress except in extreme...
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Racist Republicans flocking to Herman Cain →
The stereotypes do become so stereotypical—and after a certain amount of time, can become vastly inaccurate and outdated. From Walter Russell Mead (love the opening line):
Either a lot of Democrats have been slandering millions of American voters as racist, or the Tea Party hasn’t gotten the word that Herman Cain is African American….
Unless there has been a heretofore unnoticed...
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I, Pencil →
Written by Leonard Read in 1958:
…I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me—no, that’s too much to ask of anyone—if you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can...
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Not a single Christian church left in Afghanistan,... →
From CNSNews.com:
… The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last month and covers the period of July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, also states that “there were no Christian schools in the country.”
“There is no longer a public...
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CCC: Structure of this catechism
Part Two: The sacraments of faith
15 The second part of the Catechism explains how God’s salvation, accomplished once for all through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, is made present in the sacred actions of the Church’s liturgy (Section One), especially in the seven sacraments (Section Two).
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LA Times: Fast & Furious weapons were found in... →
Fast & Furious strikes again. From the LA Times:
High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF’s Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars. In all, 100 assault weapons acquired...
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CCC: Structure of this catechism
Part One: The profession of faith
14 Those who belong to Christ through faith and Baptism must confess their baptismal faith before men.16 First therefore the Catechism expounds revelation, by which God addresses and gives himself to man, and the faith by which man responds to God (Section One). The profession of faith summarizes the gifts that God gives man: as the Author of all that is good; as...
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CCC: Structure of this catechism
13 The plan of this catechism is inspired by the great tradition of catechisms which build catechesis on four pillars: the baptismal profession of faith (the Creed), the sacraments of faith, the life of faith (the Commandments), and the prayer of the believer (the Lord’s Prayer).
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OccupyBoston’s pass steams Tea Party →
From the Boston Herald, another illustration that we are turning into a nation of whims, not laws:
The Hub’s hands-off approach to unpermitted Occupy Boston protests has Tea Partiers up in arms and has even rankled a top civil libertarian who said all groups should be subject to the same rules — regardless of the cause.
“It’s always a dangerous precedent when the city treats one group ...
