Monday, December 30, 2024

I like this new religion

 


It is based on drinking beer, listening to loud rock and evading taxes.  All of its tenets I agree with.

I like the preacher’s use of the phrase “aligns with your bullshit.” I will add to my lexicon of phrases and he has some other ones too.  Watch the video.  It’s hilar!

beng-beng-beng-beng


 8 delicious tastes in Two bites?

Simone Weil: Pense #1

 When we are disappointed by a pleasure which we have been expecting and which comes, the disappointment is because we were expecting the future. And as soon as it is there, it is the present. We want the future to be there without ceasing to be future. This is an absurdity of which eternity alone is the cure.

NGD #31: silent allegiances

 Cuando nada merece respeto en la sociedad debemos labrarnos en la soledad nuevas lealtades silenciosas. 

When nothing is worthy of our respect in society, we must carve out for ourselves new silent allegiances in solitude.

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

NGD #30


  • El católico debe simplificar su vida y complicar su pensamiento.
  • A Catholic should simplify his life and complicate his thought.

Monday, December 16, 2024

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Friday, December 13, 2024

David Warren #22

 One of the most encouraging aspects of contemporary life is the sudden drop in university enrolments. This is unambiguously an improvement in human affairs, at least in the United States.

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/12/13/getting-schooled/

How is Justin Trudeau perceived of in China

 In my little burg of China, it seems that they pay him no never mind.  I show pictures of Trudeau to my high school and most don’t recognize him.  I showed them a recent photo of him with Trump, and they all recognized Trump.

The only other evidence I have of the Chinese perception of him are these un complimentary videos I have seen of him on my Chinese social media feed which show him to be very feminine and weird.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Saturday, December 7, 2024

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Facts not Criticsl Thinking Skills

 Heather McDonald on a podcast said that school should be cramming facts down students heads and not trying to teach them critical thinking.  On the basis of this critical thinking teaching being a recent education innovation, I would have to agree.  These courses that teach Critical Thinking are as dull as dishwasher to teach, even if the students English level was adequate enough to understand the course material.

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Simone Weil

 Reading Milosz, I saw that he had encountered the writings of Simone Weil and was impressed by her. So, I found a copy of Gravity & Grace and added to my currently reading file on my books app.  


I also found some podcasts about her on my Podbean app.  The podcasts were disappointing.  One was done out of San Francisco.  When I heard this, I wanted to give up on the episode right away.  But it was a short one so I gave it a listen.  It was done in a PBS style and was about as annoying as you could imagine.  It said that despite her Christianity….  Another podcast had some academic philosophers, or rather people with philosophy degrees working in a university, who had affected verbose manner of speaking.  They didn’t like the Priest Father Perrin who they labeled as a right wing Catholic.  No mention of Weil’s liking the poem Love by George Herbert.


Evelyn Waugh didn’t much care for Weil.  He said that she was a clever girl but…. My favorite blogger David Warren, however. has blogged about her in a more admiring way.


I find her story fascinating.  I wonder if a movie has ever been done about her.

Thoughts on Thursday

Thursday is the day after Hump Day.  It is better than Wednesday if you believe in the concept of Hump Day so why doesn’t it have an even more affectionate nickname?  And what nickname would you give it?  Is there a part of some  animal’s anatomy it resembles?  And what do you call the bit between the top of the slope and the bottom?  Or do you have to dump the concept of the work day being a symmetrical hill and coin a nickname for Thursday based on a different shape for the week?  Could the week be shaped even more symmetrically with the crest or peak on the Thursday?  Thursday could then be affectionately and lovingly called Peakday or Crestday.

Monday, December 2, 2024

Mother Angelica #1

 “There is no other. Only Jesus is Savior. Only Jesus is the Messiah. Only Jesus is Lord. Only Jesus prepares a place for us in eternity.”