Practical Distributism

I found this site: Practical Distributism and share it with you now (and on the sidebar). Some good articles here especially if you are interested in how Distributism is different from Capitalism and Socialism, and how it may work in practice-both small and large scale. Enjoy!

Oremus pro invicem!

The Blockade Runners

Just finished listening to The Blockade Runners by Jules Verne courtesy of www.Librivox.org. First, a hat tip to the reader. I have listened to him on several other novels, most recently one by Louis L’Amour, and, by chance, he is from Simpsonville, SC.

About the book: it is short and takes place around 1862 (written in 1864). The basic plot concerns a ship which plans to run the Federal blockade of Charleston, SC in order to deliver arms and return with much-needed cotton to the British Isles.

What most fascinated me was the attitude about the conflict (the war between the states, the war of Northern aggression, or the Civil War-depending on your persuasion.) The main protagonist, the ship’s captain, believed the war was about slavery-though, at least initially, he was partial to the Confederate cause, but not a fan of slavery . Recall the author was French and the protagonist was British.

It is always interesting to get outside perspectives on this. Recall that a year or two ago I read Chesterton’s (Cecil’s) America (my commentary here) . Of course Chesterton's view was more nuanced and presented a history of the country leading to the conflict. Things are always more complicated than they seem.

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Here’s an observation for those who listen to books frequently. Why is it that women readers can easily give voice to a male character in the book without sounding ridiculous, but a man reader cannot do the same for a female character in the book.

In the present book I am listening to (a Max Brand western), the male reader does the sensible thing. When reading the dialogue of a female character, he doesn’t try to sound female; he simply changes his inflection slightly as he does with each character.

(BTW – in my view Max Brand westerns don’t hold much of a candle to Louis L’Amour.)

Oremus pro invicem!

Swarms

It won’t happened overnight, but the day is coming when you will simply say to a swarm of robots, ‘Okay, go and perform this mission’. … “Think about standing in a swarm of a million mosquito-sized robots and getting them to go somewhere or to execute a particular task ……”

This isn’t a conversation from Marvel’s Ant-Man movie. This comes from Horizons the Georgia Tech Research quarterly publication.

Another article in the same issue describes complex objects that fold or assemble themselves. They are manufactured of layers with different temperature sensitivities. Generally they would be “printed” flat. When heat is applied they change shape and assemble themselves. Manufacturing needs workers less and less, just like the jobless recovery from the present recession.

Oremus pro invicem!

Coming late to the party ...

I am finally reading Pope Benedict’s Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi. This passage jumped out at me yesterday:

This is precisely the point made, for example, by Saint Ambrose, one of the Church Fathers, in the funeral discourse for his deceased brother Satyrus: “Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy. Human life, because of sin ... began to experience the burden of wretchedness in unremitting labour and unbearable sorrow. There had to be a limit to its evils; death had to restore what life had forfeited. Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing”. A little earlier, Ambrose had said: “Death is, then, no cause for mourning, for it is the cause of mankind's salvation”.

I have never thought of death like this before. I am glad I am reading it now (in the 2^nd half of my life) instead of reading it and forgetting about it (in my youth.)

Also, I didn’t know St. Augustine wrote an extended letter on prayer. I have to get this.

Finally, just received a late Christmas present (shipped to the wrong address): Robert Hugh Benson’s The Friendship of Christ. Will start on it soon.

Oremus pro invicem!

Gem in an unlikely place

Listening, found this:

"Cities are for money; mountains are for the soul." - Galloway Sacket in Louis L'Amour's Galloway

Oremus pro invicem!

Reading and things

Update: Decided to read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Arundel by Kenneth Roberts – another book that was neglected in my youth, to my loss. I picked it up a few weeks ago and have been engrossed. At the beginning it reminded me of the favorite of my youth, Treasure Island. Arundel didn’t continue in such a high esteem, but never-the-less is well worth the read.

I do a lot of commuting these days between the technical college I adjunct at and other work I pick up. I am always looking for good books on CD from the library. I have found that most mysteries and westerns available are just not worth it. The language is usually too crude to my taste and often there is subject matter which is described in such detail that a man shouldn’t be listening to (or anyone else for that matter.) Louis L’Amour westerns are an exception. They hold my attention (so I don’t fall asleep on the road) and are generally very clean. (Just finished Mustang Man on CD from the library.)

Libravox.com has many worthwhile books. My problem is that if you download them and put them on CD, you are constantly using CD. If you play them straight from the computer in the car, you have to hit a new track after every chapter-which is not safe. From Libravox.com I have listened to some of Chesterton’s fiction, Zane Grey, and a few others. (My youngest son complains that Zane Grey's are simply romances dressed up as westerns - I guess he's pretty on the mark for the most part, although Lone Star Ranger was an exception.)

I have listened to Lighthouse CD’s when I have new ones available.

My next handheld fiction foray (as I usually have something non-fiction in the works also at any time) my be to return to Kenneth Roberts (maybe Rabble in Arms or Oliver Wiswell, or I heard he wrote about Cowpens also, which is in SC and deserving a visit from the Curley’s in the near future. Or possibly I will return to James Fennimore Cooper. I have both read and listened to The Last of the Mohicans and read The Prairie.

As you can guess, my fiction interests tend towards 1-2 centuries ago and the outdoors!

Christmas season is officially over (although some celebrate til the Presentation), but our Christmas tree is still up and beautiful-although I think its days are numbered this weekend. Much work has been done on the homestead this past month as we built a new horse pen, slaughtered a couple hogs, several chickens, started cutting and splitting wood for next winter, and burned much yard debris. Our Fall square dance was held on January 2^nd this year and a success (by our counts anyway.)

The freezer is full; the boys back at college; and the schedule is full. Life is good-although we miss the boys.

Oremus pro invicem!

Merry Christmas!

Oremus pro invicem!

Just happened to notice one of my old pieces is getting new life, here .

But something even better to read (not by me) would be this.

Oremus pro invicem!

So our vet preg-checked our heifer and our older milk cow back in July. Both, he said, were pregnant; the heifer being much further along. In fact, the heifer calved the next day! In due course, we sold her and the calf.

Come September, we dried off our older milk cow in preparation for her calving. You want her last couple months devoted totally to growing the calf and not producing milk.

We didn't have a solid date for the calving, but did know that we killed the bull on February 28th, so the gestation tables told us December 7th was the "due date".

Alas, December 7th came and went with no calf, and her bags just didn't seem to be filling up.

I called the vet this morning and asked "how late can she be?". I was told 2 things. 1st, that full gestation is 290 days. (This could be good news, this gives us December 15th - tomorrow!)

2nd, I was told the full moon was December 26th, so she would definitely calf by then. I asked the vet assistant to repeat this last piece of information. It was duly repeated.

I was afraid to ask what the full moon had to do with it.....

Oremus pro invicem!

What to do when the only thing left from the Thanksgiving feast is a pumpkin? The contest which happened here .... We all took turns. It turned pretty raucous at times.

Oremus pro invicem!

getting ready ....

for Thanksgiving dinner.

Oremus pro invicem!

Palmer Method

Now, there are certainly more important things going on in the world, but back to ordinary complaining ....

When I was taught to write in cursive, this is the alphabet I was taught: (although I think the T had a little more flourish at my school.)

Twice my daughter has written a letter to a friend who lives on a street beginning with "Q". Twice the letter has been returned because the postmaster didn't realize the "Q" was a "Q" and not a 2 on envelope's address.

 

Several times my kids have been asked if they can read and write cursive handwriting-because few can these days-apparently including a postal worker near us.

What is the world coming to!

Oremus pro invicem!

Peanuts

No, we are not growing them.

Took my wife and teenagers to see the movie last night. Never a huge Peanuts fan myself, it was still heartening to hear my teenage son's laughter ripple over the crowd at some of this innocent humor. I think we all enjoyed the movie.

Not to get mathematical, but I would say that Peanuts is to Toy Story (or UP) as Ant Man is to Captain America. All enjoyable, but clearly different classes in the type.

I don't always agree with Steven D. Greydanus movie reviews, but I think he hit it squarely with this one.

Now the previews for other children's movies (all animated) due out soon, show no promise at all.

Oremus pro invicem!

November 9

We finally fired up the woodstove for the first time this morning. It 63 F in here this morning. Not too cold and we will probably let the fire die before noon.

This is the 16th anniversary of my father's passing (Here pictured in 1942). May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace!

Oremus pro invicem!

I shouldn't rant ...

but I am self-employed and get my health insurance from the marketplace. I have probably ranted before ....

Here's what you have to deal with: You put in your monthly income-specifying it as monthly income. They ask to confirm it. Then they multiply by 12 and ask if this is your yearly income. Then they divide it by twelve and ask if this is your monthly income.

They ask if you are a US citizen. Then 45 questions later they ask if you are an illegal alien even if you already indicated you are a US citizen.

At some points in the application, the program will invariably lock up. At that point, hold on to your hair, because the only option is to x-out of the website and then re-login. The problem is that even though you think all the previous responses have been saved (after all there is a green check mark next to all "saved" answers), when you log back in, those answers are not saved and you start from scratch or (if you get extremely lucky) from the beginning of one of the sections.

It is not any better if you call in. In the past two years I have applied over the phone. The same thing happens-the program locks up and you call back 24 hours later and start from scratch.

Can I charge the government for my wasted time trying to fill this thing out?

You would think by now the bugs in the program would have been fixed, the redundancy eliminated, and well ..... it is a government thing.

All Soul's day

Praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory was the special apostolate of the late Requiem Press. Every order included a free copy of our booklet "Daily Prayers for the Church Suffering". Do remember the holy souls today and all during November. A plenary indulgence is available for the holy souls by your prayers-praying for them at a cemetery during the next 9 days (under the usual conditions).

1 Out of the depths I cry to thee, O Lord;  2 Master, listen to my voice; let but thy ears be attentive to the voice that calls on thee for pardon. 3 If thou, Lord, wilt keep record of our iniquities, Master, who has strength to bear it? 4 Ah, but with thee there is forgiveness; be thy name ever revered. 5 I wait for the Lord, for his word of promise my soul waits; 6 patient my soul waits, as ever watchman that looked for the day. Patient as watchman at dawn, 7 for the Lord Israel waits, the Lord with whom there is mercy, with whom is abundant power to ransom. 8 He it is that will ransom Israel from all his iniquities. (Psalm 130)

 

 

Update: Attended Divine Liturgy at St. Peter's in Cheraw, SC for All Soul's Day. Father used black vestments-as is appropriate, and faced the tabernacle during the consecration (as is appropriate).

Oremus pro invicem!

The New Guy in Town!

Our first boar here was a Hampshire we named Tarzan (1st pic). He was prolific. We've had a few other boars here for a short time, but none measured to Tarzan. Most recently we have been using Red (2nd pic), who is a product of the best of our own herd. However, it has come time to let his daughters enter the herd, so I needed a new boar.

I called Kewannee Farms in Georgia where Tarzan came from and yesterday arrived home with a new young boar-Thor (next 2 pictures). He is 325 pounds and just ready to come into service.

It was pouring rain yesterday and so I had to stop and rig up a roof for him. He joined his first gilt this morning.

Welcome ... Thor!

Oremus pro invicem!

The Pilgrimage of Mercy

This is how I spent my day:

at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Charlotte. The Pilgrimage of Mercy-veneration of the relics of St. Maria Goretti, preceded by the Divine Liturgy in the Extraordinary Form.

Oremus pro invicem!

Introducing our new chimney sweep...

 

Although we've had a frost the past two nights, I haven't quite got the wood stove ready to fire up. But we are a step closer now as our newest edition of chimney sweep has done his job.

Oremus pro invicem!

Yes! I agree with This .

Read what this Romanian lady has to say to the Synod!

We have our martyrs (although few) in North America also. Yesterday was the feast of the North American martyrs. I posted about our trip to Auriesville, NY 11 years ago here.

 

Oremus pro invicem!