The Queue

I found much of value in The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic, but also much that I will not call useless but which I will call irksome. I would like to say that The Four Signs was written in an occasionally grating "self-help" style, except I've never read a self-help book, nor have I read much about them, so I cannot comment with any accuracy upon the comparison. Nevertheless, there was much of value, especially the recurrent theme of intentionality. Also, those four signs? Prayer, study, generosity, & evangelization. I'm working on being a more dynamic Catholic.

The Evils of Revolution appears to be comprised of excerpts from Reflections on the Revolution in France. I've never read Burke, but everything I've read about him supports the idea that I am indeed a conservative in the Burkean mode. (By this I do not make any claim to his intelligence, grace, or kindliness of disposition.) Reading Burke strikes me as the best means to discern the truth of this supposition. Positive signs about, as the cover features this quotation, presumably for somewhere within this slim volume: "What is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils." To-day's world champions liberty without wisdom, & nakedly disdains the idea of virtue. Plain for all to see, evils abound.

Recently
Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" & "Rip Van Winkle"
Ross Douthat, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics
Matthew Kelly, The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic: How Engaging 1% of Catholics Could Change the World

Currently
Edmund Burke, The Evils of Revolution

Presently
F. J. Sheed, Theology for Beginners
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Swords of Mars
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Synthetic Men of Mars
Sir Ernest Shackleton, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Llana of Gathol
Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter of Mars
Richard Price, Clockers
Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator, "Sinbad the Sailor" from The Arabian Nights
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill ***shelved***

Urbi et Orbi | Lies, Damned Lies, & the News
This morning, I heard a startling story on N.P.R., about the enduring faith of those in the highly Catholic Philippines, faith that endured & in some cases was even strengthened in the wake of the typhoon's devastation. I posted the hyperlink to the story to the FaceSpace. I would republish it here, except that the comment following the story are truly frightful. The survivors are mocked & attacked for their faith, & their Catholicism is held to be the cause of the disaster. The comments are disgusting & I cannot in good conscience post their vile hate for all to read. A pal of decidedly left-wing sensibilities & no religious convictions shared my disgust, writing:

As for your disappointment with [the] commenters, I wholeheartedly share it. A reporter with The Detroit News I used to work with in my last job once told me that online comments for stories really ought to be set in a separate page, otherwise, those oft-vile comments are given same billing to a story that took hard work to create and publish.

My compliments for N.P.R. for the story, which neither endorses nor denigrates the faith of those it covers, but reports the facts of the situation & the reporter's impressions. I would hope that they would also find newsworthy the horrific lack of sympathy & basic human decency in the overwhelming number of their website's commenters.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Go Sailor, "Windy" from Go Sailor (T.L.A.M.)