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!