John C. Wright's Blog, page 112
November 8, 2012
Recommendations for the Deuce
A reader with the binary name of ‘the Deuce’ writes:
John:
Here’s something right up your alley. I’d love to see a list of books you’d recommend to read with ones kids for this purpose [of inculcating proper and worthy emotional reactions], at different stages in their growth. I’ve got a baby boy (pictured), and looking around at this rot, I know I’m going to need all the help I can get.
Let me jot down a short list of what I have read to the boys that I enjoyed reading, which I think taught a right message, or at least did not teach a wrong one.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Weigel Shifting Through the Wreckage
From the pen of George Weigel:
Five weeks before Election Day, I had lunch with the head of state of one of America’s closest European allies. When I asked him how our politics looked to him from a distance of some 3,500 miles, he replied, more in sorrow than in anger, “America is missing greatness.”
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Klavan on the Long Game
Andrew Klavan writes a correct and insightful autopsy on how the republic has come to the point where the sleaziest and stupidest of political tactics can persuade more than half the nation to vote away their legacy for a mess of pottage. http://www.city-journal.org/2012/eon1107ak.html
Allow me to quote at length:
… to create an electorate more deeply committed to true liberty and resistant to the sort of cultural scare tactics the president’s campaign team used so effectively, there are three areas to which conservatives need to commit intellectual and financial resources—three areas that our intelligentsia and funders, in their impractical practicality, too often ignore.
The mainstream news media. Major news outlets, like ABC, NBC, CBS, and the still influential New York Times have now become so ideologically corrupt that they are engaging in the sort of Nixonian cover-ups they once prided themselves on exposing. Their studied creation of non-scandal scandals and non-gaffe gaffes on the right and their active suppression of such true scandals as Fast and Furious and Benghazi on the left amount to journalistic malpractice on behalf of the state.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
November 7, 2012
Opera Ain’t Over Till the Fat Lady Sings; World Ain’t Ended Till the Christ Paratroopers
This (http://bob-rice.com/2012/11/07/the-most-important-result-is-still-to-come/) is very much in line with my own thinking, Bob Rice writes how he working and prayed for this election, and was disappointed, yes, severely, by the result. He goes on to say:
…now have a president who seems to not care about either of those two important issues. He is more concerned with the rights of same sex couples to be married than the rights of unborn children to live. He is more concerned with the “rights” to free contraceptives than the rights of religious freedom.
So… were our prayers unanswered? Our novenas wasted? On the surface, it seems to be that way.
But God isn’t done yet. He just rarely answers prayers the way we think He will.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Opera Ain’t Over Till the Fat Lady Sings; World Ain’t Ended Till Christ Paratrooper Drop
This (http://bob-rice.com/2012/11/07/the-most-important-result-is-still-to-come/) is very much in line with my own thinking, Bob Rice writes how he working and prayed for this election, and was disappointed, yes, severely, by the result. He goes on to say:
…now have a president who seems to not care about either of those two important issues. He is more concerned with the rights of same sex couples to be married than the rights of unborn children to live. He is more concerned with the “rights” to free contraceptives than the rights of religious freedom.
So… were our prayers unanswered? Our novenas wasted? On the surface, it seems to be that way.
But God isn’t done yet. He just rarely answers prayers the way we think He will.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Wreck It Ralph Guest Post by Anonymous Houyhnhnm
Allow me to introduce my first guest commentator here at John C Wright’s Journal, whose article first appeared on the Cryptocatholic Website. Out of respect for the cryptic anonymity of that site, I will not give his name, but merely refer to him as a fellow Houyhnhnm. Here are his thoughts concerning Disney’s latest triumph, WRECK-IT RALPH.
Wreck-It Ralph Overcomes Being Born That Way
I just got back from seeing Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph”. It was excellent; not just fun but moving and meaningful. I think that Disney buying Pixar and putting John Lasseter in charge of all animation may have been the best thing to happen to it in a long time; it has brought increased levels of heart and sincerity to Disney’s animated films, and none more so thus far than “Wreck-It Ralph”.
I’m sure that I’ll have more, and more specific, thoughts on “Wreck-It Ralph” as I continue to mull it over, and after re-watching it on DVD a few times, but even at this early stage I have a (spoiler-free!) observation that I would like to raise:
In addition to the film’s positive themes of self-sacrifice, forgiveness, warning against envy, and making the best of your lot in life, one of the best, and more subversive, messages of the film is that just because you were “born that way” does not mean that you have to embrace your innate nature, that instead you do have agency and the ability to master yourself.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
November 6, 2012
Mr Obama Wins Reelection
The Mass Media has won yet again. I do not recommend despair. I do not recommend stoicism. I recommend singing.
Let me explain.
Back when I was a Libertarian, such a ill-starred event would have had me wondering when it was morally permissible to raise the Jolly Roger and begin slitting throats. Fortunately, the Christian religion, which places no faith in Earthly kings and regards no worldly dismay as inconsolable, also commands utter obedience to worldly authorities placed over us.
In a civilized and Constitutional Democracy of our particular nature, when the rival party achieves victory, the proper thing to do is bow in graceful submission to the will of the Electoral College, and not to descend into ungrateful grumbling about the supremacy of the popular vote. That is not how our Republic is instituted.
Therefore, congratulations to the Media, and to the Democrat Party which they have so loyally served lo these many years.
Come now, my fellow conservatives. We would expect the rival party manfully to show faith and fealty to the laws and administration if our party had prevailed, and, as patriots, we can do no less when they prevail.
That is the bargain; that is the deal’ that is the social contract. Let them break it and go to the lowest and frozen floor of hell where traitors languish; let us keep it for our honor’s sake, and for the reward of the soft applause of angels.
The laws of civilization have protected our lives and goods, lo, these many years, and we owe the laws that same love and obedience we owe a father and a mother, who protect and sustain us. To break the law is as parricide.
Even to be grim and sulking is uncouth, and stirs the generous heart to laughter. Have we learned no good sportsmanship? Let them be the party known for its ill temper and lack of grace in defeat, as they are known for their uncouth vaunting and self flatter in victory. Let us bear both the temptation of defeat, the allure of despair and wrath, and the temptation of victory, the allure of pride, with stoic indifference and philosophical detachment.
Are we not men? Indeed, this night has proved we may be the only adults left in the nation. I pray you act it.
Let us shake hands and congratulate the incumbents, and wish them well, and pray for wise counsel to bless their leadership which is also ours, and pray for the enmity born of rivalry to be forgotten.
Let us vow obedience and good will to the regime who rules and reigns over us.
Lest I be accused of mawkishness, or false sunshine, I assure my readers I have no illusions about the meaning of this vote.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Wreck It Ralph
Time does not permit me to heap upon this movie all the praise it deserves, but I took the family to see the film last night, yes, at a theater, and yes, it was sixty hard earned bucks for the six of us, and my wallet screamed in agony.
It was worth the ticket price, and for a man of my humble means and pinchpenny Scroogesque habits, this is high praise indeed.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Michael Walsh on the Price of Liberty
A man with whom I wholly agree. I shall not scruple to reprint the whole of his short article here.
Crush Them
By Michael Walsh
November 5, 2012 7:16 P.M.
Conservatives have a rare opportunity tomorrow to do something they signally failed to do in the landslide elections of 1972 and 1984: finish the job. Nixon’s victory was vitiated by Watergate and quickly revenged by Woodward and Bernstein, leading to his replacement in 1974 by Jerry Ford, a man who exactly nobody thought was qualified to be president of the United States, probably including Ford himself. Ford led to Jimmy Carter, whose ineptitude and weakness in turn lead to Ronald Reagan, who swept Carter away in 1980 and then smashed Walter Mondale and the Democrats to powder in 1984.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
God of the Copybook Headings
http://andstillipersist.com/2012/11/the-gods-of-the-copybook-headings-illustrated/
Happy Election Day!
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
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