Hard Times!

It is most amazing to me that while 2 of my favorite all-time novels are by Charles Dickens (Great Expectations and Tale of Two Cities) that I have only read a total of 4 of his books. (The others A Christmas Carol and The Pickwick Papers - although I can barely remember reading the latter.)

 

You would think a reader such as I would have devoured many more of his works. Well I am beginning to round things out. This morning I started (courtesy of librivox.org) listening to Hard Times.

 

*******************

 

My semester winds up today. A final exam this morning and another this evening. Grade them, download records, and I am through until early January. Not that all work stops, but all my other work is flexible.

 

I caught the 6:30 AM Mass at the parish near the college for the feast day. I had to do this on November 1st also.

 

I was contemplating this situation after Mass this morning. When Requiem Press was around, I would take these days off. Mass wasn't "fit in" to the schedule, it was the center of the day.

 

Somehow we need to get back to this "Angelus Time" lifestyle. Lack of income does have its advantages!

 

To some extent I am my own boss much of the time. My college stint is part-time. My other work as a patent agent leaves me a whole lot of flexibility in schedule - but is unpredictable. Feast or famine! Last year at this time I was winding up 3 months of a reckless amount of work. This year is much more leisurely - but less lucrative.

 

But the ease of schedule has been a blessing. Mrs. Curley and I have been doing some fostering and that keeps you on your toes. The rewards are much more gratifying. Many tears, heartbreak, laughter, and joy.

 

Happy feast day! Blessed Mother Mary, conceived without sin - pray for us!

Reading ....

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

About a third of the way through, I think the entire Gulag Volume III is being illustrated up in this 150 pages quite effectively.

 

Last day in November - remember to pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory all year round!

Oremus pro invicem!

I was trying to remember if I liked The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. Apparently, I did.

Am just finishing a collection of short stories by the same author - not too much of a fan of these. I am finishing it, but I haven't found anything too worthwhile.

Been listening to audio cds (downloaded from www.librivox.org ) of E. Phillips Oppenheim's The Great Impersonation and now The Double Traitor. It seems most of his books are warnings to England about Germany's war plans before WWI - enjoyable, but not overwhelmingly so.

Son Matthew is coming home from the seminary tonight. While we will miss those absent, this again should be a joyful Thanksgiving.

Oremus pro invicem!

 

Sinning and Miscalculation

Think that blog post title will attract some reading?

Last night I went to an Evening of Recollection (Opus Dei style) at Prince of Peace in Taylors, SC.

I love the meditations, the prayer time, and the opportunity for confession - that's the sinning part, or actually the redemption part. In my confession, Fr. Smith talked about the leper who called out to Jesus, "Lord you can make me clean if it is your will."  While I am not skeptical of the power of Jesus, I have made that call (probably with a lot less faith), and still need constant cleansing.

******************

This morning Thomas and I put down a hog. We didn't have any help. I figured it to be about 200-220 pounds .... After putting it down, Thomas and I couldn't lift it! I am no Captain American, but I am also no pre-1941 Steve Rogers either. (This was the miscalculation.) I think the hog was over 300 pounds. We ended up using brains rather than brawn.

 

We still we ready to put it on ice in under 2 hours. (Not cold enough to just hang in the shed.) Not bad for the home team.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

More Aftermath

Stealing this from TS -who got it from First Things. I wish I would have considered the last paragraph in the weeks leading up to the election. While I may seem at times to claim humility, I really had it in for those who didn't agree with me on how to vote - and sometimes I let them know it. Mea culpa!

********************

Harvested peanuts this weekend. Pretty small crop. Probably the smallest we've ever had. I can't really put my finger on the cause. We had rain, but it was sporadic. We used gypsum when they were flowering. We may not have kept up with the weeds at the end, but it has never effected us so much in the past.

Will be harvesting our small sorghum crop this week.

Then, back to clearing trees downed (in neighbor's yards) by Hurricane Matthew.

Oremus pro invicem!

In and out of the wilds

Thomas and I returned to Jones Gap last week. He resurrected my pup tent which I think I purchased in 1988 or 1989. I haven't used it in at least 17 or 18 years. It was missing a post, but Thomas figured something out for me, as you can see.

 

I think he just didn't want me squeezing into his one-man tent with him this time around.

 

We lit into the woods at Jones Gap around 2:25 PM on Monday. We arrived at the campsite (3.5 miles in) around 2 hours later. We did take a wrong turn (No Daniel Boone, I) and had some equipment problems.

 

Coupled with the fact I haven't really walked since our last endeavor into the wilderness in March, it was a bit slow going. We were heavily loaded for 2 nights in the wilderness.

 

At 4:30 it was already getting dark in the woods. We barely had time to find a good tree to hang food from, find firewood, set up tents, and start supper.

 

Our ultimate goal was to see Raven Cliff Falls. But through a series of mishaps and miscalculations, we walked 12 miles, but never got there. It just means we have to go back again.

 

 

We did go up to Caesar's Head. It used to be that you could go down into the formation, but apparently someone fell off the cliff a few years ago, so you have to view it from a distance. There is a great overlook with Tablerock in the distance.

 

We hiked up and down Tom Miller trail, which almost beat my behind. At the foot of the Tom Miller trail is a closed campsite by the Middle Saluda River where I camped with the boys back in 2002. It is a great site, but apparently all the dead Hemlocks drop branches on the site, and it is "dangerous".

 

No pictures this time because somehow my phone got turned on during the initial trek and it lost all charge searching for signal.

 

We came out of the woods Wednesday morning around 9:15 AM.

 

It was a great trip. Son Thomas is a great camping companion and pulls more than his share of the work.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

Just earlier today I was telling Mrs. Curley that the Republicans won't have the guts to repeal Obamacare. (After all, Obamacare is essentially the Republican response to the old Clinton universal plan from the 90's). And Trump's promise was that he had something "wonderful" to replace it.

 

So what is so wonderful. Well WSJ is reporting this afternoon that Trump says he plans to keep at least part of Obamacare.

Hmm! Here we go!

Aftermath

For the first time since college, I did not watch election results. I was in the mountains backpacking with Thomas for 2.5  days. (Backpack log to follow.) I didn't learn of the results til just outside a Waffle House outside of Greenville at 10:00AM Wednesday morning.

While I was thrilled that Hilary Clinton had lost, I was disappointed that Donald Trump won.

My daughter came back from the SAT's on Saturday with a quote from Thoreau (a passage on the SAT) which essentially said :

The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls -- the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.

In other words, (my interpretation), if we as a people live our lives correctly, the country will be taken care of, including having good choices at the ballot box.

What we had this year is the two major candidates who reflect who we are and how we live as a people. Think on that for a bit. Angry, immoral (or amoral), bigoted, sexually immature, animalistic, liars, and cheaters.

We need to pray that the president-elect gains some humility and will seek advice. As yet he hasn't demonstrated that he will.

But we will go a long way for the future of the country if we as citizens reform our own lives.

One other (final) point. I have gotten many emails throughout the election season saying I need to vote for Trump because this priest or that priest gave a homily or talk saying so. ("Hilary is evil, Trump is just bad"). The problem is that politics is mostly in the realm of the laity. We should follow guidelines on voting from the Church, but how to play the political game is the laity's. So many people hid behind the cassocks of clergy to justify a vote for Trump. I still don't believe there was any justification. I hope I am wrong.

Oremus pro invicem!

election

For some reason, I thought I was teaching classes all day on November 8th and therefore cast an absentee ballot. I realized yesterday that the college was closed for Election Day. What an embarrassment!

 

However, now I don't have wait in the long lines at the Bethune polling place. (The "long" being very sarcastic). I have waited to vote for more than 5-10 minutes only once since coming to Bethune. In 2008, I arrived at the polls before they opened and there was a line of at least 30-50 people. We only have 2 or 3 voting booths. But that wait was nothing like the lines I waited in when we lived in Columbia.

 

Really small town living (population 250) has distinct advantages. For example I have never been more than the second person in line at the post office - even on the busiest mailing day of the year.

 

I am tired of the election. I am tired of getting ready responses every time I hear or read that voting for a third party candidate is _______________ (you fill in the blank). In the past couple weeks I have restrained myself, but it has been difficult at times. I have been voting 3rd party since 1992 in the National presidential elections.

 

I have friends in SC who are appalled I would do this. But let's be real, if the Republican nominee (pick your year) can't win SC without my vote, then he is going to get hammered nationwide. This isn't why I vote the way I do, but it is reality.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

Peace of Mind

Although we need to always remember that we need spiritual peace of mind primarily, and shouldn't store up earthly treasures, at the same time, the following pictures give me some peace of mind for the coming cold season.

Most of this wood was cut and split ongoing since last February. However, since hurricane Matthew came through we have been cutting up friends and neighbors trees for the coming year(s). It is keeping us busy. Friday, Thomas and I worked on a big Hickory. This wood will be cook on.

Of course having food gives peace of mind too ....

Oremus pro invicem!

Another peaceful weekend

We went to Pointsett State Park this weekend. I think I have mentioned we have a few other children staying with us right now. Camping was a new experience for them - but something they now want to do again. It was hard to leave.

 

It was the first time all of us spent the night away from home in many years. The cow is dry, so we just made sure all the other animals had extra feed, hay and water. They seemed to make out okay.

 

We arrived at Pointsett on Friday afternoon. We got 2 campsites because we wanted a little privacy and had 3 tents and 9 of us. After setting up camp (tents mostly by Thomas) we went over to the field and had wheel barrow races, tug of war and a friendly game of kickball. (Sort of friendly, Mrs. Curley was rolling fastballs when my team was at bat!)

 

Friday night, Mama (Mrs. Curley) put a seafood medley in a cast iron Dutch oven on the fire. I grilled some flounder on the Coleman stove. I think we had some veggies too and put some potatoes in coals.

 

Saturday morning (after an interesting night in the tent for some) I cooked up some bacon and eggs while we broke up the camp (Thomas again doing most of the disassembly work).

 

 

We then rented a canoe and two peddle boats. I drove the canoe, and we switched off my front paddler until almost everyone had a turn. We saw some diving ducks. Supposedly there were a few small gaters in the pond, but despite claims of seeing them, I don't think we really did.

 

We had a picnic lunch by the lake and then headed home.

 

I think everyone had fun. Usually I don't say it is good to be away from home, but in this case, I think it was good to have fun at a neutral site.

 

Now Thomas and I have a backpacking trip to schedule. We might go back to Jones Gap and see Raven Cliff Falls, or maybe decide to pack along the Chattooga River. We'll see.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Over the weekend

I was trying to sell a couple of sows to make way (that is, raise the purchase price) for a new sow. The State Fair is in town, and I heard there were some Old Spot gilts and some Chester White gilts - both of which I wouldn't mind having.

 

All three of my sows were pregnant, so I put out a deal. Good price for two pregnant sows, just ready to give birth. (6 week old piglets will fetch $40-60 easily, so purchase price of the sow was contained several times over in her belly.)

 

I had some serious bites, but Friday at the noon watering, Thomas comes running in saying that Sam (Samantha) was farrowing at that moment. We hadn't even moved her to a farrowing pen. She didn't finish having pigs until after midnight, but we moved her in the process. (Two myths broken here: 1. sows are in some kind of trance during labor (I have never seen it), and 2. Sow labor is 2-3 hours - mostly true, but Sam holds marathons.)

As a precaution, we moved Polly to her farrowing pen also. We have a few extra souls living with us now. It was their first time moving big pigs. I think they enjoyed it and observed some interactions they hadn't seen before!

I figured I still had a chance to sell Polly....

Sunday morning, Thomas comes in and announces Polly farrowed overnight. She pulled all the hay from her house and built a nest over by the fence, piling hey and dirt so high, the piglets fell through the higher openings. But Thomas recaptured them and all is well (except I don't have a new sow!).

But I thank God for the many blessings he has bestowed.

Oremus pro invicem!

Sex (as in male or female)

I never thought of this before:

Now, sex is the first thing we notice about someone, and the last thing we forget.

It is true. When describing someone we've met for the first time, we never struggle to remember whether the person was a man or a woman (although people are trying to make it difficult these days.) We might struggle over the name, eye color, height, weight (except in a general sense), but we don't forget whether they are male or female. It's hard to hide.

Yet the confusion people are having describing their own sex these days! Read Anthony Esolen's take.

Oremus pro invicem!

Recommended:

On debate and discourse:

Yet it is striking how appearance can overwhelm reality. We are being trained that all that really matters is whether it looks like you’re right—not whether you actually are. Or more, it’s not even about seeming to be right, but seeming to be in control, suave, and strong. Words become bludgeons, tools to manipulate. Speakers are reduced to actors, playing a part in a charade.

 

There is of course a place for the art of rhetoric in discourse, especially public discourse. But at the end of the day, discourse is not combat; it should not be about winning but about communication, and coming to some truth

 

It seems that email, comment boxes, and the like have exacerbated the problem.

 

And The End of the Utilitarian Argument for Trump:

 

 

Many conservatives, then, have been making what we can call the utilitarian argument for Trump. They argue that those who appreciate how bad a liberal majority on the Supreme Court would be should recognize that Trump, for all his faults, would be less bad than Clinton, so they ought to vote for Trump

Stated in these terms, this argument has always been too simple and too fast. A vote has lots of effects, only one of which is increasing the probability of a particular candidate’s victory. In particular, all else being equal, the more votes Trump receives, the more people will think that his platform is one that deserves a place in American politics and that his style of politics is worth emulating; it encourages the Republican Party to adopt his views and manner. A Republican vote for Trump will, generally, be taken as a Republican condoning of Trump

.

 

And is that what we want?

Finally, here is the future: The a third party based on solidarity, subsidiarity and distributism.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

If I were a rich man ....

You all understand, of course, that a vote for Trump is a vote against that the most pro-life candidate running for president. (really?)

 

You all understand, of course, that it is only moral to vote for the lesser of two evils when there are NO other choices?

 

The wars are heating up, and even as prominent "conservatives" are abandoning Trump, others are surprisingly clinging even tighter.

 

I was in an email exchange this week which was prompted by a friend forwarding an article to me and a bunch of other Catholics on why Catholics should vote for Trump. (Interestingly, the organization sending out the article abandoned Trump themselves in midst of our "discussions".)

 

It is interesting that not a single one of my arguments against voting for Trump and voting 3rd party (practical or philosophical) was ever addressed by those opposing me in the exchange. Their total arguments consisted of attacking me-often personally, "the Supreme Court", and the tired, old, philosophically flawed, and bullying technique of "If you vote 3rd party, you are voting for Clinton."

 

I can understand, but do not agree with, the "stop Clinton" reasons. In fact, I refer readers to the first two sentences above just for starters.

 

This whole thing reminds of a line from Fiddler On the Roof (watched this weekend):

 

And it won't make one bit of difference
If I answer right or wrong
When you're rich they think you really know.

Apparently I am not rich enough to have my arguments even considered by many others. I guess Trump is!

 

Funny how worldly success attracts the respect and admiration of even those who say that worldly success is not important and secondary to relationship with God!

 

Years ago I never understood in Alphonsus Liguori's Stations of the Cross, the big deal about eschewing all human respect.

My outraged Jesus, / by the weakness You suffered in going to Calvary, / give me enough strength to overcome all human respect ....

I wish I was still in that state of oblivion, because sometimes (especially this week) how I crave it. I want others to say I am right. (It should be good enough for me that Mrs. Curley does - but I am a greedy man.)

 

BTW, I am not fishing here-if my craving were satisfied, this would be a bad thing spiritually for me. If you think I am right about anything, keep it to yourself!

Oremus pro invicem!

The Lesser of Two Evils

Someone must have said this before me. I can't imagine this is original thinking on my part, but it makes SO much sense:

 

As long as we vote for the lesser of two evils, the only possible outcome is evil!

Oremus pro invicem!

Random takes

Maybe the hurricane Matthew cometh! Good thing we canceled the family campout we planned for this weekend. While a get away to the upstate may have been dry, it is best we are here during the storm with all the livestock we have around.

 

Our laying hens must have good hearing. After two weeks of only getting 2 eggs a day from a flock of almost 20 hens, I started talking about lots of chicken pot pie. Suddenly we are getting 10 eggs a day.

 

When to Mass this morning and then breakfast at Huddle House to celebrate: Number two daughter turns 18 today! 

 

Reading from Galatians today. St. Paul corrects St. Peter "to his face" in public  for his hypocrisy and poor judgement. Do we still have courageous Bishops?

 

Couldn't help but smile at the pieces on Bishop Etienne (Cheyenne) now that he is getting Anchorage: carries around a fishing rod-just in case, brothers buy each other rifles for Christmas, 3 priests and a nun in his family, spends free time chopping wood.  

 

I keep checking the peanuts and the sorghum, but both are not quite ready.

 

Speaking of not ready, I am not sure I have enough wood cut for winter yet. I have it here, but much still needs to be cut and split. In addition, we still need to clean out the chimney. People are telling me its my turn.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homer

A few years ago I was at dinner with two of my sons at a college president's house. The college president and I were discussing our educational journey. I made the comment that my sons in their homeschool curriculum were reading all these books (giving examples of the entire Bible, Homer's Odyssey, etc) which I wanted to read but never had-my education was lacking.

 

One son looked at me incredulously - "You haven't read everything you make us read?"

 

Well as time goes on, I am trying to catch up.

 

This week I have started Homer's Odyssey. I read something today from Anthony Esolen:

 

"Homer is relevant to me because Homer is relevant to man."



So I read what is relevant to man. So far, good!

Oremus pro invicem!

A Bit of Sanity in an Insane World

Ah, but isn't it so true:

No, we do not need the state to compel us to do what comes naturally. But the state can compel us to do, under sufferance, what does not come naturally, or what is downright unnatural. (Anthony Esolen - complete article here.)

Of course this is what is happening.

Unfortunately not all of our pastors are supporting, guiding, and shepherding the lay faithful in what is natural and what is divinely commanded (such as the sanctity and nature - i.e. indissolvability- of marriage.)

 

I have not been paying to much attention to what is going on in the world. For example I didn't see about the bombings in NY and NJ til this morning.

 

And, I have suddenly realized I need to get an absentee ballot for the November election - no time to vote on Tuesdays with my teaching schedule. Oh yeah, who's running again? That's right, it is Darrell Castle (Constitution Party) vs. Michael Maturen (American Solidarity Party )

.

And the letter to the Argentinian bishops? Well I discuss that briefly above.

 

I catch snippets of all these things (terrorism, elections, Church doings) but my life is filled with wife, children and family right now - when I am not working.

 

I went to a Opus Dei-style evening of recollection last week and was again reminded how much MORE time I need to spend in prayer.

 

That being said....

 

Oremus pro invicem!

The surprising fate of Kershaw, SC

Kershaw is a small town (although with a population 6.58x greater than Bethune) about 19 miles up the road from us. It is a non-assuming town. We sometimes get pizza from Gus' (which is closed on Sunday - Greek).

 

So the other day I was driving some young and basically uncatechized children. After breaking up a fight between K- and G-, I mentioned that the reward for being good when we die is Heaven, living with God.

 

And young K- responded with the question: "Where do you go if you are not good?"

 

Before I had a chance to respond, young G-, chimed in: "To Kershaw, K-, to Kershaw!"

It was all I could do, to stay on the road!

Oremus pro invicem!

The nature of parenthood

Two articles on parenthood worth reading appear on Public Discourse this week. These are not “how to” articles, but discussions about the nature of biological and adoptive parenthood by Christopher O. Tollefsen. 

The two things (which are probably obvious to those not so dull-headed as I) that I pulled away as intriguing points to ponder further can be summed up, or at least introduced, in these short excerpts.

On biological parenthood:

The nontrivial sense of irreplaceable love is the sort we associate with personal relationships: if Smith is my friend, then Smith’s love and friendship are irreplaceable to me. There are goods for me that Smith’s friendship provides that no other friendship can provide, and there are times when it is specifically Smith’s friendship that I need and desire.

Moschella (This is a discussion of her new book: To Whom Do Children Belong? Parental Rights, Civic Education, and Children's Autonomy - JC) grounds the obligations of biological parents to their children in the special personal relationship that being a biological parent generates. Specifically, biological parenting inevitably brings with it the relationship of being biologically responsible for another’s existence, and being biologically implicated in another’s identity. And these in turn make it the case that there are goods that only biological parents can provide: the good of being loved by one who is biologically responsible for one’s existence, and the good of being loved and raised by one who is uniquely and closely related to one’s identity. Children raised by their biological parents, for example, can see in their parents’ lives examples both good and bad of how traits to which they may be disposed can, should, or should not be allowed to grow and develop.

On adoptive parenthood: 

It can be tempting to extend this description (i.e. a fertility problem –JC) of what is happening to the absence of children itself: that is seen as a problem, indeed, the problem, to be rectified by taking appropriate steps. That attitude can lead to the use of various assisted reproductive technologies that seek to make a child, thereby fixing what is wrong.

And it could equally lead to adoption of a child. Let’s call that adoption out of need. The couple has a problem: they need a child, and adoption is one way to fix the problem at hand. But spouses should not adopt from what they do not have, but from what they do: an abundance of spousal love that seeks to be creative and life-giving. We could call that adoption-out-of-abundance. (my emphasis – JC)

Read both articles for a more complete fleshing-out of these and some other ideas.

Oremus pro invicem! (on the nativity of our Lady)

Farenheit 451

Just finished reading it upon the recommendation of one of my children.

 

Never too much a fan of science fiction (although I did try. In graduate school I lived in a family's attic. There was a bookcase full of science fiction. Over two years I read most, maybe 75-100 books, most of it science fiction. I confirmed without a doubt-not much of a fan.)

 

F-451 is not so much science fiction as a cautionary tale, like 1984 and Brave New World. (I read one of the latter, maybe both. I just can't remember which one.)

 

I had never read Ray Bradbury before (I don't think). I wouldn't say it great literature, but an engaging story. I wasn't crazy about F-451 as I thought the ending was pretty vague and not too satisfying in any particular way (endings are important to me). However, I did enjoy reading it, and was glad it did.

 

It is funny how today in some sense mindless social media curbs ones time and appetite from literature. The schools (we are having some experience with public schools now - but that is a different story) have joined the electronic revolution and even when books are read and assigned, the selections are not classic, but tend to be depressing studies of teenage tragedy. (And we wonder why teenagers are in crisis? This is all we give them to read.)

So in many senses, the first stage of F-451 is actually taking place. Colleges and Universities no longer want to educate the mind and create creative independent thinkers. Great literature almost seems banned from most levels of our education system.

 

Schools and Colleges are at the service of both social, politically correct agenda, and big business. Turn us out politically correct (and amoral) but submissive workers-no independent thinkers, please.

The great works are not read and explored except for at a few colleges.

Oremus pro invicem!

 

Missing in action - the holiday/Holy Day

The irony of Labor Day just past has been gnawing at me. As I understand it, Labor Day was achieved by the labor movement to celebrate the achievements of the American worker. Part of the motivation was to make the American worker appreciated in order to push for higher wages and better working conditions.

However, we recall that at that time, (early 20^th century) the target for this holiday were some of the lowest paid workers who were pushing the industrial machine.

Now many of our manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas.

Today the lowest paid American workers are in service and retail jobs … and they don’t get a holiday on Labor Day.

In the drive to make more and more money, we have lost the meaning of holidays.

Holidays have become opportunities for business to make more money, not to relax and enjoy our family, not to appreciate our country and our heritage, and most definitely not to worship our God.

Especially as Catholics, how many of our Holy Days have been moved to Sundays so we can celebrate with the Holy Sacrifice?

I listened to a talk the other day about how St. John Paul II viewed keeping Sunday holy as a key component of "the new evangelization" - a sign to the culture. But to be a sign, we need to actually practice this gift from God.

Oremus pro invicem!

What is old is new again

I didn't think I would see one of these in our driveway again (with us as the drivers), but with a few more people staying with us, the minivan-pickup combo just wasn't doing the job.

I pick it up tomorrow - the return of the 'big van'.

 

Mrs. Curley didn't want white, but it was the better deal for us than the tannish one.

 

Last year we spent our wedding anniversary moving pigs and I injured my wife by tossing a pallet her way. The year before we slaughtered a hog. I guess shopping for a 12-passenger van on our anniversary may be considered an improvement, but for who?

Oremus pro invicem! 

We saw this fellow yesterday. He is in the overflow pipe of our kitchen drain. How he got there I don't know.

I am not sure the picture captures his "green-ness".

Oremus pro invicem!

Robots: Love and Destruction

These comments are a long time coming. I haven't had much time for thoughtful posts of late. But I am on a 2-week vacation from my Adjunct teaching (really not that much time, as I have to spend a bunch of it getting ready for the Fall semester, and I do have other work), but I have a little.

The articles I am commenting on come from a mainstream, widely circulated, professional engineering magazine - not some sci-fi rag.

 

First: Apparently there was an article (I didn't read the article itself) in the online edition of the magazine pertaining to humans forming romantic relationships with robots. Okay, I think there have been sci-fi movies over the years exploring this, but in IEEE Spectrum? Here are some excerpts from comments on the article:

Exhibit A: One thing is sure: A company that sells good-looking "male" and "female" robots complete with humanlike anatomy will make more money than Apple, Google, and Microsoft combined. ... future people will see it as normal, just as normal as smartphones are now.

 

Exhibit B: Another problem is that people might become so enamored with their robot mates that they abandon human relationships. (just like they do with smartphones now? - JC)

 

Exhibit C: Since we don't know how human consciousness really works, we can't comment on whether consciousness could be simulated acceptably (in robots). If we believe that when humans fall in love, the brain is just implementing some algorithm, why shouldn't a machine be able to implement it too?

So, there you have it: everything comes down to utility, money, and sex. What was stunningly absent was any concern about morality. There could have been, of course- more comments online. However, the magazine only printed ones with the tone of the Exhibits above. This is the world we live in.

The same magazine had a cover article in the June issue about the role of robots in the future, i.e. can we trust them in the operating room, on the road, and on the battlefield.

The section on autonomous weapons was particularly interesting. All those quoted assured us that a human would have a final say on targeting. I have several concerns-even if this is the case.

 

First, we shouldn't want to make war easier to conduct. Along these same lines, will the technology populations care so much about what foreign adventures conduct if all the killing (on our side) is done by remote control?  

 

Second, the interviewees claim we would be saving lives-but whose? Our soldiers, sure, but innocent civilians? Does the warfare today with all our targeting technology really protect civilian?

 

Thirdly, who will get their hands on these remote control destructors? The Cold War and its aftermath have armed every population and tens of thousands of terrorists around the world. Do we really think the arms trade will stop here?

 

Once again, get out your rosaries!

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Finished ... The Brothers Karamazov

I have been slogging through The Brothers Karamazov since early May. The back cover claims three of its chapters "rank among the greatest pages of Western literature."

 

Who am I to dispute that? I would agree that "The Grand Inquisitor" was immensely thought provoking.

 

I did enjoy it, but wanted it to end after a while. And certainly the claim that Dostoevsky planned a trilogy is borne out by the ending (and by a stray sentence on the first page) which leaves a few major plot lines in the air.

 

I broke with The Gulag ... to read The Brothers. So I stay in Russia. UPDATE: Just noticed that I first ordered The Gulag interlibrary loan in 2008. Now I have my own copies-but talk about taking a long time to finish a book!

 

I do have one question to research. Several times in the book, the Orthodox worship was referred to as: "the Mass." I thought the Orthodox referred to "The Divine Liturgy" as opposed to "the Mass", which is, to my understanding a Anglo-version of the Latin dismissal-thus doesn't make sense for an Orthodox liturgy. Maybe it was a Roman translator?

 

Ah, these loose ends.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

A song

Update: I suddenly realized that I posted this video a couple years ago. Not that I tire of it, but instead I will post a different video below of Nick, Matt, and Connor doing one of Nick's songs.  Again .... enjoy.

I hope I am allowed a little latitude as a father proud of his children. Someone was watching my son Matthew's YouTube channel today, and I just can't help posting this video of a song he wrote for and performed at my 50th birthday party a couple years ago.

It makes me cry-especially because I wish the words of the song really reflected my fatherhood.

Enjoy.

 

 Oremus pro invicem!

Genderless animals

I was at the library the other day with a young boy who is staying with us. I haven’t been in the children’s section for quite a while, so I decided to stick with something safe: Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. It was billed as a modern retelling, but really there was only one modification from the classic tale: no gender was assigned to the 3 bears. We had a large bear, a medium-sized bear, and a small bear.

At a doctor’s office with the same young boy a few days later, I read another fairly recently issued children’s book about a young character with a fairly generic plot:  child having a bad day; decides to run away; but then returns after missing sounds and sights of home (as well as meals.) All the characters in the book were talking animals-although the type of animal was not clear from the illustrations. As with “the 3 bears”, there were no specific gender references to either the child character or to the adult figure (note that the household had only 1 adult figure.)  Gender specific pronouns were absent.

Now this is just an anecdotal finding, but I won’t object so much in the future to Mrs. Curley’s insistence on saving boxes and boxes of children’s books for our grandchildren and/or other child visitors to our little homestead.

Up until now (homeschooling and all), we have been somewhat insulated (by design) from the cultural revolution against our children. I have read numerous articles and warnings about what is being taught in public schools; I do worry about nieces and nephews. But truly we haven’t experienced some of these things firsthand.

So what’s so devastating about genderless bears? First there are no genderless bears living in the woods! (Farm kids will know this-but we have less and less of these.) Secondly, the 3 bears are representative of a family. One book doesn’t make a cultural revolution, and in the absence of the 2^nd book, I would have thought it stupid but uninteresting. But if this is a trend, it has an agenda to destroy the family and indoctrinate our children-especially because it isn’t “in your face”, but subtle as the case builds, book after book.

And, by the way, in both cases, the young boy doesn’t read yet, so I did insert gender (Papa Bear an Mama Bear) into both books.

Oremus pro invicem!

cantaloupes and cats

Last year our cantaloupe crop was lousy to non-existent. This made me nervous because I didn't have too many seeds left from 2014. Here is what I said about the cantaloupes in 2014:

 

A friend of ours saved some cantaloupe seeds from his dad's garden in Nebraska 30 odd years ago. Last year he planted them and 5 plants came up and fruited with some of the sweetest cantaloupe I have ever tasted. My friend gave us one of these treasured cantaloupes. I saved these seeds and planted them this spring. We harvested the first ones this week. Boy are they good. The best I have ever tasted. Guaranteed we are saving more seeds!

 

This year it looks like we will have a good crop. I picked two this morning. (pic)

 

 

However we have lost 4 big ones, not quite ready for picking. I think its the cats clawing at them and taking a few bites. This really annoys me. These cats don't do their share in catching mice. We overfeed them, and how they are wrecking my cantaloupe crop! But I need proof!

 

And here's a view of our modest sunflower patch.

Oremus pro invicem! 

Course Evaluations

About midway through a semester I get the previous semester course evaluations. Sometimes the comments are helpful, but there is always something I get a kick out of.

Take this one for example:

I’d cut out the quizzes, they were utterly unnecessary. The quizzes would pertain to the most simplistic things, usually making students overthink their answers. Aren’t the purposes of quizzes to boost grades? Not hand out free 0’s?

Besides the fact that quizzes are not given to "boost grades", does the student even understand the irony of his own complaint?

 

Another complaint was that the test questions were not the same as problems we worked in class or on the homework. I always try to impress upon the students that we don’t want simple regurgitation. We teach the concepts and then work examples which apply those concepts. Working test problems correctly will show that the student understands the concept and can apply the concept. It is not a matter of just memorization of problems. It is matter of learning and understanding. But that is not what they (some of them) want.

****************

After Mass on Sunday, Father asked us to pray with him a Hail Mary and the St. Michael prayer due to all the violence going on. I am thinking that this will become a weekly thing....

Oremus pro invicem!

A contrast, but not a contradiction

A contrast, but not a contradiction .....

Oremus pro invicem!

On our own ....

Mrs. Curley wasn't home this evening to cook dinner, so I stepped up to the plate and hit at least a double with the fried chicken, okra, and salad. Here's what was left after the 7th inning stretch:

 

 

 

Now to the shower to wash of the dust from our neighbor's corn field which he graciously let us gleam for leftover corn before he disks it. Then, maybe some cribbage?

Oremus pro invicem!

Voting again

My point is not to dispute particularly with anyone, including my friend, neighbor, and better writer than I who lives not too far away, but ........

A vote for Hilary is a vote for Hilary. A vote for Trump is a vote for Trump. And a vote for Darrell Castle (WHO?)  is a vote for Darrell Castle.

To say that my vote for Darrell Castle (WHO?) is a defacto vote for Hilary Clinton tries to deny me the right to vote for the best person running for president.

 

Why do we have legal same-sex marriage, absurd gender issues, women in combat, women poised to be required to register for the draft, continued abortion on the demand, and host of other problems, both economic, moral and financial?

I could make a good case that it is precisely because men and women of good conscience continue to vote against that conscience, election cycle after election cycle. And because of that the Republican party knows it can ignore moral and social issues and give us the likes of McCain and Romney as nominees, and now Trump. These guys lose anyway, so why not vote for someone better?

 

The question has been asked: Are you better off than 8 years ago? Financially, most definitely yes. (I give the credit to God, however, not Obama!)

 

When asked the question, most people think of the financial aspect.

 

Culturally and morally we are much worse off - and it effects everyone regardless of financial well-being. There is more moral desperation than ever before, more confusion, and more hurting, more poverty of soul.

 

I know that neither of our major party candidates can make this better because they are either immoral or amoral.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Big

I read an article the other day praising the interstate project of 60 years ago and claiming we need another such project now.

My initial reaction was that the interstate project destroyed many local economies, communities, cultures.

Big business certainly benefitted as now they could truck their goods more efficiently across country on the taxpayers back.

Individuals may seem to have benefitted with easier travel and mobility, but communities not on the interstate routes died. (Think the movie "Cars", or the story of my town, Bethune, SC which used to be on the route to Florida from the Northeast.)

On the other hand, towns along the interstate now boomed, just like the days of old for communities on the major rivers.

So, some folks gained, and some folks lost.

And by the way, America has always been about mobility: Go West Young Man!

I still think that the loss is greater than the gain. After all families and communities are made up of individuals and the apparent short term benefit is a long-term cultural loss.

The interstate was one of the early steps which killed the family farm. (Need I say more?) We need tasteless tomatoes from California; bland cantaloupe from (who knows where) in the middle of winter; watermelon which tastes so-so, but can sure be stacked (Bradford).

 

As far as another BIG project now? Isn't everything the government does BIG now? They take over everything: BIG education for one. Now they are regulating bathrooms and marriage licenses!

 

We need "small is beautiful" not big is beautiful. (or: Local is lovely-Distant is disaster?)

 

Ah.........

Oremus pro invicem!

still here ....

but been busy.

 

Am on summer break from technical college next week so may be I will have time to say some things then.

Oremus pro invicem!

Becky's first litter

So here it is. She looked ready to farrow for about a week now. Becky had 11 live births. Of course thy all look like their sire, Thor.

Put up more corn over the weekend. Sorghum is up strong. We've been blessed with enough rain. This is the first summer I can remember it raining so late in many years. Thank God.

Oremus pro invicem!

The Three Greates Cinematic Love Stories (of those I have seen)

Many people would consider a great love story one where a couple falls in love, undergoes misunderstandings, tragedy, and/or hardships, (possibly being separated) and then come together and get married: TheEend. (Alternately, i.e. Romeo and Juliet, death separates the lovers.)

But “the end” is the beginning of the love story. That is why I believe the greatest love stories involve couples who are already married.

My three picks: The Scarlett Pimpernel (1934 Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon); Random Harvest (1942 Ronald Coleman, Greer Garson); and Make Way for Tomorrow (1937 Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi).

The first two I wrote about in this very context 11 years ago in this space: http://bethunecatholic.blogspot.com/2005/01/love-stories.html

The last I mentioned briefly about just a year ago.

We watched Make Way for Tomorrow again last night. Orson Welles said about it: “Oh my God, that’s the saddest movie ever made! It would make a stone cry!”

It is the story of a couple married for 50 years who have fallen on hard times and have to go live “temporarily”, but separately 300 miles apart, with two of their children. Of course all things temporary become permanent if there is no plan.

Near the end, they reunite for a few hours and go on a date-reliving the happiness and failures of their 50 years of marriage. The “date” is captivating.

One particularly memorial reminisce is when Bark (the husband) recalls that Lucy (his wife) chose him over another she had been dating. The other became a banker and had foreclosed on their house at the beginning of the movie. Bark says, “He got my house, but I got his girl.”

One of the best scenes of acting I have ever watched without dialog occurs at the end, performed by Beulah Bondi – who was in her 40’s at the time playing a 70 year-old woman.

It was reissued on DVD a few years ago. We borrowed it from the library. Roger Ebert gives it a 4/4. The Criterion Collection calls it: "one of the great unsung Hollywood masterpieces". The director of MWfT,  Leo McCarey, won his first Oscar that same year for The Awful Truth (Cary Grant, Irene Dunne). However, he commented that he got the Oscar for the wrong movie. I agree. 

Do see it.

Oremus pro invicem!

Couldn't say it better myself

This voting guide is an invaluable source of reasoning and mirrors my thoughts exactly.


Here are a couple of the gems included:

When people use variants of the “lesser of two evils” argument, keep in mind that this is only a partial statement of the actual principle of reason. The actual principle is, “If one cannot avoid doing one of two acts, from both of which will follow an evil effect, one is obligated to choose the lesser of the two evils.”  Note that the premise here, which is fundamental to the entire principle, is that you cannot avoid doing one of the two acts. For this to apply in the context of an election, you would have to be constrained to only choose one of two candidates and have no other option – you must vote and you must vote for one of the only two candidates presented to you. Is this the actual case in our elections?

AND

Your actual responsibility in an election is to vote for the candidate or position you think should win. What you vote for represents what you choose regardless of the outcome. You are not to blame for the votes of others.

I urge you to read the whole thing.

Oremus pro invicem!

Green Tint

Mrs. Curley asked me to buy some Bennings Green Tint squash seeds-not knowing what it was. So when I started picking them, no one knew what they were (I don't label my rows). We had to google it.

Here are the funny guys. Raw, they taste great! We'll see in an hour or so how they tasted cooked.

Oremus pro invicem!

Sweet!

We have been eating sweet corn with supper for a few days now. Today we picked all that was ready and put up 8+ quarts of blanched corn. There is nothing like eating sweet corn on the day it was picked. I could never get tired of it.

 

Here is Connor today, taking delight in what he sees as he husks the first ear.

 

 

It seems quite unpenitential that we are having more tonight with tuna/egg salad.

 

If the rain keeps coming, sweet corn should remain on the menu most of the summer as I staggered my plantings. I even have a small batch that could theoretically be harvested in September. But all this is being overly optimistic.

But for now .... joy!

Oremus pro invicem!

Updated: The nature of male and female

Update: I have written to both of my US Senators (Graham and Scott) regarding the FY17 NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), which I believe is up for a vote in the Senate later this week. It contains a provision requiring our daughters to register for selective service. I have urged them to reject any amendment to this effect and/or the entire bill if it contains this provision.

****

As with the authors of this piece at Crisis Magazine I haven't read much, if anything, about this in the Catholic press (however, maybe I am reading in the wrong places?).

 

Some time ago, (I can't find it) I wrote in this space about my responsibility to my daughters if they were a) required to register for the draft, and b) if the draft was actually instituted. What if (a) happens - which appears likely, but (b) never happens? What then?

 

I think (b) is not going to happen unless we are attacked. The American people are okay with foreign military adventures of dubious merit when we are using an all-volunteer armed service. However, if their sons (and daughters) are being drafted for these ventures, I think many in congress will be running scared.

 

However, I am finding my predictions are more wrong than right in recent years (That could never happen! yet it does with alarming regularity.) So maybe I am all wet.

 

The last few years have done nothing if not demonstrate how confused man is about the nature of male and female. Things that seem (are) so obvious from observation, science, and personal experience are the subject to mass confusion.  The Emperor's new clothes?

 

Oremus pro invicem!

In and Up; Here and Gone (Updated)

Update: Regarding my final comment below about the presidential election, I feel the way this guy thinks , excepting the last two paragraphs. (And by the way, we are eating our sweet corn!)

So we finally planted the sweet sorghum this morning. The peanuts are in and up. The pumpkins are in and up. We will be picking at least a dozen ears of sweet corn for supper on Saturday. Still picking peas, broccoli and spinach, although these three are petering out fast.
 

God is good to us. We've had plenty of rain and just enough sun to plow and plant.

 

It just turned to hotter this week. While we've had a few 90 degree days, it was still getting cool at night. But with this week, the coolness has ended. Too bad. I have 2-3 hogs to put down and would rather have done it before this turn of weather. Oh well, we will still get it down.

 

Matthew, the seminarian, was here for a week before going back to Texas to work at a Catholic summer camp.

 

Connor (NE Catholic) has been here for 2 weeks. He's been working hard helping me get this place in shape for the summer and next fall. He will be heading back North for work at the college for the summer in a couple weeks. He is a counselor at the high school summer program at NCC.

 

Nicholas (Wyoming) came home last weekend after a 10-day mission trip in Nicaragua. He will be here for almost 2 months before heading back to Wyoming to work for the summer. Nick helps lead the freshman outdoor trips at WCC.

 

So we are enjoying having, playing and working with the boys while they are home.

 

We are fostering a young boy this summer, so it really is a full house once again - for a while.

 

I meant to link to this several weeks ago, because it is so telling and true. I don't need to comment; it speaks for itself.

 

Finally-what about this election coming up? Maybe The Constitution Party? Of course I still have some bumper stickers left from the '012 campaign:).

Oremus pro invicem!