Quincy House

The Suffering Bastard

2011-07-30T19:02:00.005-05:00

If you're really into mixed drinks, you may have heard of this one before. I had not. Until I came across it in the papers of a lieutenant colonel serving in Britain's Special Operations Executive. The man had parachuted into Burma during World War II to organize resistance among the Karen hill tribes. He conducted sabotage and ambush operations against the Japanese in intensely unforgiving jungle terrain. Clearly, the man earned the title "suffering bastard" (and by "bastard" I mean hero, in case you had any doubts).

So how do you make a suffering bastard? I came across several recipes on the internet, but none of them were given by SOE veterans who dropped into the jungle to fight the bad guys. So here's my man's recipe, taken from the scrawlings I found on the top of a page in the archives:

4 dashes of Angostura bitters
1 part gin
1 part rum
juice of 1 lime
ginger ale
mint
slice of lemon

So give it a try! If you don't like it, blame the brave men who saved the world (or just try a different version).

Today's image comes from Trader Vic's. It does not represent an SOE-certified suffering bastard, but another variation.

A New Religious Community

2010-11-05T14:44:00.008-05:00

The Quincy House would like to announce the formation of a new religious community, the Society of Sts. Columba and Francis Xavier (SSCFX). In light of various technological developments and theological discussions, the need for SSCFX has become quite clear. The Society will dedicate itself to a three-fold mission:

(1) Ministering to those members of the human race who are beyond the atmosphere of Planet Earth.

(2) Evangelizing any ensouled extraterrestrial species which (a) might be encountered by human beings, (b) be in need of redemption and, (c) by God's grace, have His mercy available to them.

(3) Combating the heresy of axenoism, which claims that other ensouled races cannot exist because the Incarnation can only redeem humanity. This heresy is an affront to the power of God, Who may redeem any He so chooses, and by any means.

Formal approval of SSCFX by the Holy See is pending, but Proto-Abbot James Thomas Kennelly is already accepting donations. For further information, please email SSCFX@quincyhouse.net.

Image courtesy of the Weekly World News .

Introducing the Quincy

2010-07-02T12:22:00.003-05:00

As faithful readers will recall, there was a time when the Men of Quincy were trying to come up with a signature house cocktail.

Some time ago a Quincyite was in a bar, wanting to order some Jim Beam on the rocks with a splash of bitters. Though not a particularly complicated order, he regretted having to use so much verbiage to describe it. And then, in a flash of brilliance, two problems were solved and the "Quincy" was born. It has been growing steadily in popularity ever since.

Last weekend I was on Long Island for a wedding. I was pleased to observe that a variety of guests at the reception were ordering Quincies from the bartenders. (And, for the sake of full disclosure, let me clarify: neither I nor JT, the other housemate present, led this rush of orders.)

So next time you need a some cheap bourbon over ice, with the pleasure of bitters, save yourself some breath and simply ask for a Quincy.

Quincy Ark, an adaptation

2010-04-13T10:27:00.006-05:00

After a recent viewing of Alexander Sokurov's 2002 film Russian Ark there was a lively discussion among the house members recognizing the parallels between the two venerable historical institutions, the Hermitage Museum and the Quincy House. This lead to the development of a short film treatment.

Quincy Ark - Screen Treatment

Narrator/Camera view point - Nathan

Vignette 1 - Front of house

Coffee House revelers two men and two women are walking up to the house with narrator following.

Revelers go around the side of the house. Men are lagging behind women jostling for position as one claims a female.

Vignette 2 - Below back porch

Revelers go up the back stairs while narrator bumps into Santi at bottom of stairs, both go below stairs under house walk by window looking through to see Jeremiah Cunningham and Col. Brooks working on his still discussing the founding of the house.

Vignette 3 Back yard

Santi and narrator are interupted by loud noise behind them, turn around to find rugby players loudly reveling in the back yard. Santi and narrator wander through the partying crowd. No one notices them and Santi urges caution, discusses their petty jockishness while being drawn to the reality of their vital debauchery. One jock on the periphery notices santi and chases the pair off.

Vignette 4 In the basement

Enter the basement through the outside door. Come upon period couple and child huddling in corner whispering in fear. Discussing the know nothing riots. Santi recalls the fire to the narrator. They walk past and up the stairs.

Vignette 5 - The hallway/bathroom door.

Reaching the top of the stairs the two walk to the bathroom door. Santi motions as if to enter. Narrator cautions strongly and fearfully against it. Open door see house resident in bath tub scrubbing. Resident remarks about the terror of trying to clean the bathroom. Scares out Santi and Narrator.

Vignette 6 - Fireplace half of Living room - Scotch tasting

Santi and narrator enter the room to a resident (perhaps in some sort of period clothing) giving an introduction to a scotch with much pomp and circumstance. Santi quietly mocks while narrator disagrees. Both mention not knowing the taste of alcohol any more. Move to the dining room.

Vignette 7 - Dining room - contemporary people

Enter the dining room with 3 contemporary people, one staring at the St Bridget poster, one investigating beer on the table, and one looking at the movie shelf. Narrator and stanti move to the person at the movie shelf who is now holding a bergman film. Santi questions the person and ultimately berates them for a lack of taste in film.

Vignette 8 - (optional) Kitchen scene

Narrator tires of santi's conversation and wanders to the Kitchen, enters kitchen sees landlord fixing broken diswasher muttering about students trashing the place. Is approached by "re-founding" members of the house. Discuss their idea for a house of Catholic men.

Vignette 9 - Living room other half

Narrator begins to search for Santi again. Wanders through dining room now full of people talking. Sees performers in the stage area who begin to play music. walks through the area finds Santi hitting on some woman. Tries to talk with him, but Santi ignores/can't hear him. Band finishes song and people applaud, start to get up and make their way out. Narrator sees original couple that was entering now sitting hand in hand on couch. Narrator finds Santi standing there and they converse, Santi says he is staying. narrator makes it out to the front door, and out the window on the door one only sees water.

Who Was Jeremiah Cunningham?

2009-08-16T16:18:00.004-05:00

In light of the theme for the next Quincy coffee house, some might be asking: Who was Jeremiah Cunningham? An excellent question.

According to the prestigious and reputable Wikipedia, Jeremiah Cunningham (1756-1845) came from a colonial family of some means and attended the College of William & Mary. In the summer of 1781 he settled in what would become the District of Columbia, building the first Quincy House (though the house would not receive the name until 1796).

Cunningham was a founding member of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and was a friend to such historical figures as William Short, Dr. William Thornton, Lt. Col. Franklin Wharton and Col. Jehiel Brooks.

Though a professed Anglican, Cunningham was a friend of both the Catholic and Anglican bishops of Maryland, and there were rumors that - like his second cousin, Edmund Burke - he may have been a crypto-Catholic. In any case, we know he was a man of letters and a distiller of scotch whiskey. What about that is not worth celebrating?

I regret the absence of a picture, but I have not yet been able to find one of our esteemed founder.

Quincy: The Drink

2009-07-30T18:08:00.004-05:00

There has been talk of late about creating a mixed drink that is uniquely Quincy: a signature cocktail that would be the Quincy House in a glass.

What, you ask, would such a drink entail? An excellent question, and one we've been asking ourselves. At this point the Quincy cocktail is still in the concept stage, but previous discussions have suggested that it be strong, bitter, and complex.

Suggestions for ingredients? A name? Please, share!

Projects Underway at the House

2009-04-07T22:20:00.003-05:00

So I am feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the projects that myself and other housemates are working on at the moment, so I thought I would take a break from the craziness and enumerate them.

We are at the moment:

Planning a the first off-site Coffee House 1.5 weeks
Planning an American Whiskey Tasting in 2 weeks
Working on 3 separate freelancing web site projects
Trying to start a T-Shirt company
Beginning promotion for our Band
Finishing up creating a new musical instrument
Planning an Easter dinner for 20+
Encoding a DVD for the nun film project
Mixing down 3 live performances from the 24bit multi-track files
Practicing music for 3 gigs

And I'm sure there are some other happenings in there somewhere. At least things aren't getting boring.

The making of a Caucasian

2009-04-05T22:43:00.010-05:00

Anyone who has spent any time in the Quincy House dining room will have noticed that two things we are passionate about are fine films and fine alcoholic beverages. One film that I have always enjoyed is the Cohen brother’s, The Big Lebowski, which is not only a classic film, but it also prominently features a classic drink. The Dude’s love for white Russians has certainly made the drink a part of the American vocabulary. One practice that the film has not caused growth in is (at least according to my extensive search of the interwebs) the practice of the dude’s unique recipe, which is using non-dairy creamer to make the drink. In fact, I was not able to find a single mention of anyone who had actually tried doing so. Since we recently screened the film, it seemed incumbent upon us to document and review the process of making a Caucasian.

Ingredients:
Vodka
Kaluha
Ice
Coffee Mate Non-Dairy Creamer

After mixing the drink, the first observation that I had was that the creamer did not immediately mix as evenly as the milk did.

Even after some vigorous stirring the creamer still clumped together in small chunks.

This led to an interesting drinking experience because every once and a while I caught a large bit of creamer crystals. The surprising bit was that the added texture was almost enjoyable. It is almost akin to having the cookie bits in a Krackle bar.

Aside from texture, the flavor of the creamer fit the drink quite well. Indeed after finishing the Caucasian, I moved to a more standard white Russian and I had a hard time discerning much difference in quality, however there may have been other intervening factors.
And of course the drink was best enjoyed while watching the film.

Coffee House Videos!

2009-03-30T15:37:00.003-05:00

Here are the first round of coffee house videos from the Lenten Coffee House! There will be more coming soon. (Sorry for the poor lighting, we are still new to this video thing...)

A Router and Space

2009-03-30T15:01:00.007-05:00

After the two bodies were fused the next step was to route out the space for the keyboard to fit in. Doing this required a tool that I don't have, a router. Now since this is a rough economy and I don't have a lot of cash to throw around on tools I'm only going to use infrequently. Enter Chicago Electric, cheap tools in both sense of the word. This router is basically holding an electric motor in the palm of your hand with some cheap plastic casing. But it was only $20 and this project has been mostly eyeballed, so no complaints.

Next I set up a gate so that the sides would be straight. The gate was clamped down, and the body was lined up and clamped down as well. Finally the guard on the router, even though it's a cheap piece of aluminum, it got the job done.

And the resulting product:

Stay tuned next time for refinishing the body!

Building a body

2009-03-14T13:34:00.008-05:00

The instrument creation continues!

When we last checked in we had just finished taking apart the keyboard and doing some minor soldering. The next step on our list is to build the body of our instrument.

As a base I'll be starting with two cheap Fender Starcaster bodies these are the guitars they sell at Target. I picked them up on ebay for $15 a piece.

The top 1/3 of one body is going to serve as keytar portion which will sit on the top of the instrument and the bottom 3/4ths of the other body will be the guitar portion. I measured out the height of keyboard and marked the body.

Cutting a straight line with the table saw was going to be difficult because of the non-straight edge of the guitar. In order to make it straight, I put together a few pieces of scrap wood to even the side out and keep it flush to the gate.

Since one of the sides of the body was going to be a throw away piece I attached it to the scrap wood with a short screw, making sure that the screw was not long enough to be in the path of the blade!

Once that was done it was time to fire up the table saw, cut and repeat for the second body.

With the two bodies cut the next step was to get them attached together. In order to have the most stability I figured that dowels were the way to go. Using a drill and a place marker i drilled for a total of 10 dowels, probably overkill, but I don't want to take any unnecessary risks.

Finally using a guide mark the spots on the other side of the body, apply the glue and clamp it together!

Because I just eyeballed the angles of the dowels getting the sides together with those clamps took a lot of work, but after a lot of effort the two bodies were clamped together, and there was only one step left for the evening:

The Journey Begins!

2009-03-12T19:16:00.005-05:00

I was having dinner and drinks late one evening with some musician friends. As we were talking about various musical instruments I was struck by an idea that I believe was at once both pure madness and sheer brilliance. A new instrument, a double necked instrument. I wondered what happens when you take two of the most ridiculous, and therefore awesome instruments, the double neck guitar and the keytar, and combine them?
Surely the ridiculousness and the awesomeness would be off the charts. I believe that after having such a flash of inspiration I have been given a grave moral obligation to bring this monster into existence.

So after a few late nights on ebay, the project is ready to begin!

First I will start with the keyboard. Fortunatley one of my roomates had an old Yamaha Portasound PSS-140, which is the perfect size for this project. The first step was to seperate the keyboard from the body.

y.

This step required a bit of soldering because the white connector you see between the keyboard and the drum pad was far too short to set the keyboard in the body.

Next will be to construct the body of the guitar. I've gotten two cheap bodies on ebay, and I'll keep you all posted as it progresses.

La Llorona

2009-01-16T09:35:00.001-05:00

For those looking forward to the new March of the Zapotec EP from Beirut next month, this video of the song "La Llorona" seems to be the only preview available. Hope you enjoy.

A separate EP, though they will be sold together, Beirut's Holland is also due out next month.

A Christian Political Mythology

2009-01-13T18:02:00.002-05:00

Being back at Quincy for a few days, I thought a blog post might be in order...

A while back I was reading a blog post and got to thinking about how we, as Christians, view the world. Is this life a place of exile or a pilgrim land, through which we merely pass? If we are merely passing through, we would do well to ignore the world, even hide from it, and focus on the end goal, our return (reditus or nostos) to the Lord. On the other hand, if this present life is a gift from the Lord, then it should not only be noticed, but cherished. How we understand the Christian response to politics is largely colored by our understanding of our present state. (I have recently been reading Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy, which has perhaps fueled my interest in legitimacy, law, subversion and such questions.) So what exactly is our present state? I have been trying to piece together a few archetypal insights into what you might call a Christian political mythology. Here it is:

Once upon on time there was a great and glorious kingdom, ruled by an ancient and wise King. Though His dominions were vast and rich, one day He decided to create a new land for His kingdom. Yes, create. Somewhere in the distant seas He decided to raise an island. He drew up plans, dispatches the greatest engineers and landscapers in the kingdom and a lavish island world was made. Legend had it that some of the most spectacular wonders of this land were the product not of His servants' hands, but of the King's own mental powers.

On this island He chose to settle some of His leading citizens. But in spite of choosing only the finest of settlers, and in spite of the lavish world He had created for them, the island settlers revolted against the King. And so, He decreed, their island home would no longer be a place of privilege, but of exile.

As the years passed, the distant King became increasingly relegated to the stories of legend. There were rumors among the islanders that at some distant time His armies had come and smashed the greatest wonders of their island home. But many of them doubted that these stories were true. They began to doubt that there were other lands, a splendid capital city with streets of gold, or a great and benevolent King Who ruled there. Some of the islanders even began to doubt that there were such things as greatness or benevolence.

But then a very curious thing happened: the King returned to His island. At least, that is what certain small gatherings of people began to claim. First they whispered it in the dark, but soon some were shouting it in the streets. He had returned, showing Himself to those of His subjects who were still faithful. He assured them that greatness and benevolence and love were indeed real, and He was the embodiment of them all.

But then something as curious as the King's return occurred (or so the story was told). He left. The King left the island once again. He had ordered those willing to listen to live as His faithful subjects and then He had left. But not without promising to return again (and this time, He said, there would be no confusion: He would come in power and might with all the royal armies). Moreover, He promised that those who remained faithful citizens of the kingdom, who proved themselves in the midst of this rebellious land, would be taken with Him back to His capital city, where they would rule with Him.

But what, the faithful asked, were they to do in the meantime? Should they seize control of the island, making war on their fellow islanders? Many doubted that had been the King's intention. Indeed, from time to time secret messages would be smuggled back and forth between the King, on the mainland, and His faithful subjects on the island. Though He exhorted them to love one another and remain faithful to Him, He never spelled out exactly how the island should be governed. While a handful of the islanders proclaimed themselves to be in open rebellion against the King, most simply doubted His existence. Some even stated publicly that they wished there was a King beyond the seas, but - alas - they were convinced there was none.

Some of the small number of open rebels, denouncing the tyranny of the King, demanded a government of the people, a democracy. The vast majority, doubting there ever had been a King, did not see themselves as rebels, but nevertheless thought this a good idea. Could they too, the faithful wondered, enter into such a government? Or would it be treason, a betrayal of their beloved King? Some said they should have no dealings with rebels. Other insisted that by sitting in council with the doubters, perhaps the faithful could win them over. And, after all, the King had left no governor to rule the island in His stead. Was it really treasonous to form a democracy, which might try to govern according to His will, in His absence? Some insisted the faithful should band together in one corner of the island, where they might live according to the King's laws, abandoning the rest of the island to the rebels. Other thought the King would want them to extend His reign across the whole of the land.

This, it seems to me, is the basic place of the Christian: we live in a world which was once a gift, became an exile, but has been transformed into a rite of passage, a preparation for some great reward and responsibility to come. How do we, Christians, live in the midst of a secular world? Do we abandon the political realm to the secularists? Do we try to seize government to impose virtue upon the unbelieving? Can we compromise with those do not share our moral views?

Insofar as the world is in rebellion against God, we are subversives in such a world. But we are also restorationists, traditionalists, loyalists trying to defend the monarchy of Christ the King. We are revolutionaries, insofar as we are called to change the world. But we are also pilgrims, ever called to remember that something greater lies beyond this world, and in our future.

These, it seems to me, are the conundra of Christian political philosophy. Relating them in a single story does not solve them but it does, I hope, at least bring the questions into slightly sharper focus, by bringing them into relation with one another.

The "asthmatic kitty" in Asthmatic Kitty has died

2008-12-29T15:32:00.004-05:00

As anyone who's been to the Quincy house and listened to the music playing over the stereo, or taken a gander at the vinyl collection on our piano knows, we have a soft spot for the Asthmatic Kitty record label.

From their website, the cat that gave the label it's name passed away two days before Christmas. I am not a fan of cats in general, but I'll tip my hat to this one.

Rafter Music Video Contest

2008-11-20T23:32:00.000-05:00

Here is the Quincy Studio's entry in the Rafter Music Video Contest:

Movie and Discussion Promo Video

2008-09-22T13:53:00.000-05:00

An Odd sight

2008-09-10T13:30:00.003-05:00

Last.fm is a really interesting music site that tracks one's listening habits and graphs them for the world to see. It is an interesting social way to stay in touch with music and find new artists. However as iTunes becomes a more full featured eco system things like television shows and movies have started showing up in my last.fm catalogue. I was a little surprised to log in and see that one of my recently added "artists" was Mrs. Cindy McCain. As it turns out both conventions created podcasts of the speaches that were available via iTunes. Now it is possible to broadcast one's political aptitude right along side an eclectic and sophisticated musical taste.

Ah the confluence of thechnologies.

A single add for Metro, a giant leap backwards for geek-kind

2008-07-30T21:38:00.006-05:00

For years people like myself who are computer professionals, a.k.a. Geeks have been trying to educate the public that we actually can be cool, well balanced regular guys who totally have girlfriends who are completely real. But every now and then someone comes along and sets our cause back seemingly irrevocably. I witnessed such a backsliding this evening when I got on the metro.
So sad. Please a moment of silence for the loss of dignity that all of us who work with computers just suffered...

Now I am going to go do something completely awesome like hang out with some totally hot and not make believe chicks, and totally not sit in the basement and read blogs about current web 2.0 trends.

Pauline Year Imagery

2008-07-04T05:57:00.001-05:00

Pope and Patriarch Reflect on Icon Imagery

By Elizabeth Lev

ROME, JULY 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- How blessed Christians are to have seen God! When the Word was made flesh, all of our senses were invited to participate in the experience of the Lord. More than just a recounted story, Jesus came to be seen and touched. Centuries of art have celebrated this happy event: the Incarnation.

And what a sight greeted the faithful at the Mass for the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul last Sunday in St. Peter’s Basilica: Christ’s Vicar on earth, Benedict XVI, seated side-by-side with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople upon the high altar over the tomb of St. Peter.

This was the second time in two days the two men appeared together. The evening before they had presided over vespers at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls to inaugurate the Year of St. Paul for the Churches of both East and West.

The city has been abuzz with the meaning of these fraternal appearances. Could it be that we will see the Churches of the East and West united in our lifetimes? Experts are already hard at work analyzing the significant gestures and issues, but I found myself fascinated by the images that these two extraordinary religious figures dwelt upon during the Mass.

As the twins Romulus and Remus founded the Rome that would grow into an empire, so did Sts. Peter and Paul, as Benedict XVI said in his homily. “Through their martyrdom, they became brothers; together, they are the founders of the new Christian Rome.”

As Benedict XVI and Bartholomew I stood on the tomb of St. Peter, it seemed almost as though Paul had returned to Rome, and that the elusive encounter we search for in the Gospels between the two apostles in the Eternal City was happening before our eyes.

Over their heads soared Michelangelo’s dome, with the words of Christ to Peter shimmering in the sunlight: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build by Church” (Matthew 16:18).

From one of the piers supporting the massive dome, the statue of St. Andrew by Francis Duquesnoy faced the two men. Brother to Peter and the first to be called, St. Andrew died in Greece after having spent his last years spreading the Gospel through the Eastern Empire.

One could imagine his joy as he saw the spiritual leader of millions from the lands where he suffered and died reunited with the successor of his brother. Following the Liturgy of the Word, Bartholomew I took a seat near the tribune of St. Andrew.

Benedict XVI and Bartholomew I both drew upon the shared tradition of images in the two Churches during the Mass.

Bartholomew I’s homily gave us a glimpse of Eastern art. Speaking of the icons that are part of the celebrations for this feast day, he described an imageof Sts. Peter and Paul exchanging a fraternal embrace.

The patriarch commented that the icon reflects the traditional story recounting the martyrdom of the two saints. When sentenced to their deaths, he reflected, Sts. Peter and Paul exchanged the kiss of peace one last time as St. Paul said: “'Peace be with you, foundation of the Church and pastor of the sheep and lambs of our Lord.'

"Peter then said to Paul: 'Go in peace, preacher of good morals, mediator, leader and solace of righteous people.'”

The patriarch then addressed Benedict XVI saying, “It is indeed this kiss that we have come to exchange with you, Your Holiness, emphasizing the ardent desire and love in Christ, things which are closely related to each other.”

Benedict XVI’s homily also meditated on the same image of the fraternal kiss between the two great Roman apostles, a reflection of harmony in the visual tradition of the Church.

The Roman Pontiff also spoke of the Church of Gentiles and its birth at the foot of Christ’s cross. “The centurion of the Roman execution squad recognizes the Son of God in Christ,” said Benedict XVI, referring to the soldier Longinus who exclaimed, "Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mark 15:39).

A few feet away, Bernini’s colossal statue of St. Longinus stood before them, arms akimbo, hair, drapery and musculature rippling as the awe of realization washes over him. His kinetic excitement, his feeling of profound witness of a crucial moment sparkled in the basilica that day.

Across from the Roman centurion, the gigantic statue of St. Helen, the mother of the man who brought the Church to Constantinople, stood in its niche by the altar, reaching out to invite everyone to join Longinus at the foot of the cross and to see and be amazed.

Behind their heads in the apse of the basilica, mosaic letters spelled out Christ’s charge to St. Peter, “Feed my sheep and lambs” (John 21:17) in both Latin and Greek. For many there, it seemed as though Sts. Peter and Paul were joining forces once again to tend to an increasingly threatened flock in this postmodern world.

Addressing the archbishops who were to receive their palliums, Pope Benedict used an image taken from the dawn of Christianity, the Good Shepherd. “When we put the pallium on our shoulders, this gesture reminds us of the Shepherd who puts the lost sheep upon his shoulders -- the lost sheep who by himself can no longer find the way home -- and takes him back to the sheepfold.”

This symbol, whether painted hastily on a catacomb wall or engraved on a stone sarcophagus, has accompanied Christians since the earliest years of developing a visual narrative of the story of salvation.

But from the lips of Benedict XVI, the image seemed as fresh and apt as it must have been to the first community of persecuted Christians.

Faith, history and art, brought together on the tomb of St. Peter, allowed the gathered faithful to bask in the long visual tradition of the Church while looking forward with hope to the future.

Two Homilies from the Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul

2008-07-01T19:47:00.002-05:00

The homilies of Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Bartholomew I, given at mass on the Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. (At this same mass the new archbishops of the Church received the palium.)

* * *

The Holy Father's Homily:

Your Holiness and fraternal Delegates,
Lord Cardinals,
Venerable brothers in the episcopate and priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters

From the earliest times, the Church of Rome has celebrated the solemnity of the great apostles Peter and Paul as a single feast on the same day, June 29. Through their martyrdom, they became brothers; together, they are the founders of the new Christian Rome. They are sung of as such in the hymn of the second vespers, which goes back to Paulinus of Aquileia (+806): "O Roma felix -- Oh happy Rome, adorned with the crimson of the precious blood of such great princes, you surpass every beauty of the world, not by your own merit, but trough the merit of the saints whom you have killed with bloody sword". The blood of martyrs does not call for revenge -- but reconciles. It does not present itself as an accusation but as a "golden light," according to the words of the hymn of the first vespers. It presents itself as the power of love which overcomes hate and violence, founding, in this way, a new city, a new community.

By their martyrdom, they -- Peter and Paul -- are now part of Rome. Through martyrdom, even Peter became a Roman citizen forever. Through their martyrdom, through their faith and their love, the two apostles show us where true hope lies, and are the founders of a new kind of city, which must again and again form itself in the midst of the old city of man, which continues to be threatened by the opposing forces of the sin and egotism of men.

By virtue of their martyrdom, Peter and Paul are in reciprocal relationship forever. A favorite image of Christian iconography is the embrace of the two apostles on the way to martyrdom. We can say that their martyrdom itself, in its deepest reality, is the realization of a fraternal embrace. They die for the one Christ and, in the witness for which they give their lives, they are one. In the writings of the New Testament, we can, so to speak, follow the development of their embrace, this unity in witness and in mission.

Everything starts when Paul, three years after his conversion, goes to Jerusalem "to consult Cephas" (Galatians 1:18). Fourteen years later, he again goes up to Jerusalem to explain "to the most esteemed persons" the Gospel that he preaches in order so that he might not run the risk of "running, or having run, in vain" (Galatians 2:1f). At the end of this meeting, James, Cephas and John give him their right hands, thus confirming the communion that unites them in the one Gospel of Jesus Christ (Gal 2:9). A beautiful sign of this growing interior embrace, which develops despite the difference in temperaments and in tasks, I find in the fact that the co-workers mentioned at the end of the First Letter of St. Peter -- Silvanus and Mark -- were equally close co-workers of St. Paul. This having of the same co-workers makes the communion of the one Church, the embrace of the great apostles, visible in a very concrete way.

Peter and Paul met each other at least twice in Jerusalem; at the end their paths take them to Rome. Why? Was this perhaps more than just pure chance? Is there perhaps a lasting message in it? Paul arrived in Rome as a prisoner, but at the same time as a Roman citizen who, after his arrest in Jerusalem, as a Roman citizen appealed to the emperor, to whose tribunal he was brought. But in a more profound sense, Paul came to Rome voluntarily. Through the most important of his letters, he had already drawn close to this city interiorly: to the Church in Rome, he had addressed the writing which, more than any other, is the synthesis of his whole proclamation and his faith. In the opening salutation of the letter, he says that the whole world speaks of the faith of the Christians of Rome and that this faith, therefore, was known everywhere as exemplary (Romans 1:8). And then he writes: "I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, though I was prevented until now" (1:13). At the end of the letter he comes back to this theme, now speaking of a plan to travel to Spain. "When I go to Spain I hope to see you when I pass through and to be helped by you on my way to that region, after having enjoyed your presence for a little while" (15:24). "And I know that, having come to you, I shall come in the fullness of Christ's blessing" (15:29). There are two things made evident here: Rome is for Paul a stage on the way to Spain, that is -- according to his conception of the world -- towards the extreme end of the earth. He considers his mission to be the fulfillment of the task received from Christ, the bringing of the Gospel to the very ends of the world. Rome is along this route. While Paul usually only goes to places where the Gospel had not yet been announced, Rome is an exception. There he finds a Church whose faith the world speaks about. Going to Rome is part of the universality of his mission as one sent to all peoples. The way to Rome, which, already before his external trip, he had traveled interiorly with his letter, is an integral part of his task of bringing the Gospel to all peoples -- of founding the Church, catholic and universal. Going to Rome is for him the expression of his mission's catholicity. Rome must make the faith visible to the whole world, it must be the meeting place in the one faith.

But why did Peter go to Rome? About this the New Testament does not say anything directly. But it gives us some indication. The Gospel of St. Mark, which we may consider a reflection of the preaching of St. Peter, is intimately oriented towards the moment when the Roman centurion, facing the death of Christ on the cross, says, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (15:39). At the cross the mystery of Jesus Christ is revealed. Beneath the Cross the Church of the gentiles is born: the centurion of the Roman execution squad recognizes the Son of God in Christ. The Acts of the Apostles describe the episode of Cornelius, the centurion of the Italic cohort, as a decisive stage for the entrance of the Gospel into the pagan world. Following a command of God, he sends someone to get Peter, and Peter, also following a divine order, goes to the centurion's house and preaches. While he is speaking, the Holy Spirit descends on the gathered domestic community and Peter says: "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the holy Spirit even as we have?" (Acts 10:47).

Thus, in the Council of the Apostles, Peter becomes the intercessor for the Church of the pagans who do not need the Law because God "has purified their hearts with faith" (Acts 15:9). Certainly, in the Letter to the Galatians, Paul says that God gave strength to Peter for the apostolic ministry among the circumcised, and to Paul himself, the ministry among the pagans instead (Gal 2:8). But this assignment could be in force only as long as Peter remained with the 12 in Jerusalem in the hope that all of Israel would adhere to Christ. In the face of later developments, the 12 recognized the time in which they too must go forth into the world to announce the Gospel to it. Peter who, following divine order, had been the first to open the door to pagans, now leaves the leadership of the Christian-Jewish Church to James the Less, in order to dedicate himself to his true mission: to the ministry of the unity of the one Church of God made up of Jews as well as pagans. The desire of Paul to go to Rome highlights above all, as we have seen, the word "catholica" ["catholic"] among the characteristics of the Church.

St. Peter's journey to Rome, as representative of the peoples of the world, is above all associated with the word "una" ["one"]: he has the task of creating the "unity" of the "catholica," of the Church made up of Jews and pagans, the Church of all peoples. And this is the permanent mission of Peter: to make sure that the Church never identifies herself with any one nation, any one culture or any one state. That it may always be the Church of all. That it may unite mankind beyond every frontier and, amidst the divisions of this world, make God's peace present, the reconciling power of his love. Due to technology that is now the same everywhere, due to the global information network, and due also to the linking of common interests, there are new modes of unity in the world, which have caused the explosion of new oppositions and given new impetus to old ones. In the midst of this external unity, based on material things, we have all the more need of interior unity which comes from the peace of God - the unity of all those who, through Jesus Christ, have become brothers and sisters. This is the permanent mission of Peter, as well as the special task entrusted to the Church of Rome.

Dear confreres in the Episcopate! I wish now to address those of you who have come to Rome to receive the pallium as the symbol of your rank and your responsibility as archbishops in the Church of Jesus Christ. The pallium is woven from the wool of the sheep that the Bishop of Rome blesses every year on the Feast of Peter's Chair, thus setting them apart, so to speak, to be a symbol for the flock of Christ, over which you preside.

When we put the pallium on our shoulders, this gesture reminds us of the Shepherd who puts the lost sheep upon his shoulders -- the lost sheep who by himself can no longer find the way home -- and takes him back to the sheepfold. The Fathers of the Church saw in this sheep the image of all mankind, of human nature in its entirety, which is lost its and can no longer find the way home. The Shepherd who takes the sheep home can only be the Logos, the eternal Word of God himself. In the Incarnation, he placed us all -- the sheep who is man -- on his shoulders. He, the eternal Word, the true Shepherd of mankind, carries us; in his humanity he carries each of us on his shoulders. On the way of the Cross, he carried us home, he takes us home. But he also wants men who can "carry" together with him. Being a shepherd in the Church of Christ means taking part in this task, which the pallium commemorates. When we put it on, he asks us: "Will you also carry, together with me, those who belong to me? Will you bring them to me, to Jesus Christ?" What comes to mind next is the order Peter received from the Risen Christ, who links the command, "Feed my sheep" inseparably with the question, "Do you love me? Do you love me more than others do?" Every time we put on the pallium of the shepherd of Christ's flock, we should hear this question, "Do you love me?" and we must ask ourselves about that "more" of love that he expects from the shepherd.

Thus the pallium becomes a symbol of our love for the Shepherd Christ and our loving together with him -- it becomes the symbol of the calling to love men as he does, together with him: those who are searching, those who have questions, those who are self-assured and the humble, the simple and the great; it becomes the symbol of the calling to love all of them with the strength of Christ and in view of Christ, so that they may find him, and in him, find themselves. But the pallium which you will receive "from" the tomb of Peter has yet another meaning, inseparably connected with the first. To understand this, a word from the First Letter of St. Peter may help us. In his exhortation to priests to feed the flock in the correct way, St. Peter calls himself a "synpresbýteros" -- co-priest (5:1). This formula implicitly contains the affirmation of the principle of apostolic succession: the shepherds who follow are shepherds like him; together with him, they belong to the common ministry of the shepherds of the Church of Jesus Christ, a ministry that continues in them. But this "co-" (in co-priest) has still two other meanings. It also expresses the reality that we indicate today by what is said today about the "collegiality" of bishops. We are all "co-priests." No one is a shepherd by himself. We are in the succession of the apostles thanks only to being in the communion of the college in which the college of apostles finds its continuation. The communion -- the "we" -- of the shepherds is part of being shepherds, because there is only one flock, the one Church of Jesus Christ. Finally, this "co-" also refers to communion with Peter and his successor as a guarantee of unity. Thus, the pallium speaks to us of the catholicity of the Church, of the universal communion of shepherd and flock. And it refers us to apostolicity: to communion with the faith of the apostles on which the Church is founded. It speaks to us of the "ecclesia" that is "una," "catholica," "apostolic," and naturally, binding us to Christ, it speaks to us of the fact that the Church is "sancta" us that the Church is holy, and that our work is a service of this holiness.

This brings me back, finally, to St. Paul and his mission. He expressed the essence of his mission, as well as the most profound reason for his desire to go to Rome, in Chapter 15 of the Letter to the Romans, in an extraordinarily beautiful passage. He knows he has been called "to be a 'leitourgos' of Christ Jesus for the Gentiles, serving the Gospel of God as a priest, so that the pagans become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the holy Spirit" (15:16). Only in this passage does Paul use the word "hierourgein" -- serving as a priest -- together with "leitourgos" -- liturgist: he speaks of the cosmic liturgy, in which the world of men itself must become worship of God, an offering in the Holy Spirit. When the whole world will have become the liturgy of God, when in its reality it will have become adoration, then it will have reached its goal, then it will be whole and saved. And this is the ultimate objective of St. Paul's apostolic mission and of ours. It is to such a mystery that the Lord calls us. Let us pray in this hour that he may help us carry it out in the right way, to become true liturgists of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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The Holy Father's Introduction to the Patriarch's Homily:

Brothers and Sisters,

The great feast of Saints Peter and Paul -- patrons of this Church of Rome and, together with the other apostles, pillars of the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church -- brings to us every year the welcome presence of a fraternal delegation of the Church of Constantinople which, this year, because of the opening of the "Pauline Year," is led by the Patriarch himself, His Holiness Bartholomew I. I address my cordial greeting to him as I express my joy of once again having the happy opportunity of exchanging the kiss of peace with him in the common hope of seeing the coming of the day of "unitatis redintegratio" -- the day of full communion between us.

I also greet the members of the patriarchal delegation, the representatives of the Churches and ecclesial communities, who honor us with their presence, offering with this presence a sign of the will to intensify the movement toward the full unity of the disciples of Christ. We dispose ourselves now to listen to the reflections of His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch, words that we desire to receive with an open heart because they come from our dearly beloved brother in the Lord.

* * *

Homily of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I:

Your Holiness,

Having again experienced, in November 2006, the joy and emotion of the personal and blessed participation of Your Holiness in the patronal feast of Constantinople, the commemoration of the St. Andrew the Apostle, the First Called, I set out "with a joyous step" from Fener in the New Rome, to come to you to participate in your joy in the patronal feast of Old Rome. And we have come to you "with the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ" (Romans 15:29), returning the honor and love, celebrating with our beloved brother in the land of the West, "the certain and inspired heralds, the coryphaei of the disciples of the Lord," the holy apostles Peter, brother of Andrew, and Paul -- these two great, central pillars of the whole Church stretched out toward heaven, which, in this historic city, also offered the ultimate shining confession of Christ and gave their souls to the Lord here through martyrdom, one on the cross and the other by the sword, and thus sanctified this city.

We greet, with the deepest and most devoted love, on the part of the Most Holy Church of Constantinople and her children throughout the world, You Holiness, desired brother, wishing from the heart "those who live in Rome beloved of God" (Romans 1:7), good health, peace, prosperity and progress day and night toward salvation "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, joyful in hope, strong in tribulation, steadfast in prayer" (Romans 12:11-12).

In both Churches, Your Holiness, we duly honor and greatly venerate Peter -- he who made his salvific confession of the divinity of Christ, as much as Paul -- the vessel of election, who proclaimed this confession and faith to the ends of the universe in the midst of the most unimaginable difficulties and dangers. Since the year of salvation 258 we have celebrated their memory in the West and in the East on June 29. In the East we also prepare for this feast by a fast observed in their honor on the preceding days, following a tradition of the ancient Church. To strongly emphasize their equal importance, but also their weight in the Church and her regenerative and salvific work through the centuries, the East honors them in an icon in which they either hold a little ship in their hands, which symbolizes the Church, or they embrace and exchange the kiss in Christ.

It is indeed this kiss that we have come to exchange with you, Your Holiness, emphasizing the ardent desire and love in Christ, things which are closely related to each other.

The theological dialogue between our Churches "in faith, truth and love," thanks to divine help, goes forward despite the considerable difficulties that exist and the well-known problems. We truly desire and fervently pray that these difficulties will be overcome and that the problems will disappear as soon as possible so that we may reach the desired final goal for the glory of God.

We know well that this is your desire too, as we also are certain that Your Holiness will neglect nothing, personally working, together with your illustrious collaborators, through a perfect smoothing of the way, toward a positive fulfillment of the labors of dialogue, God willing.

Your Holiness, we too have proclaimed the year 2008 "Year of the Apostle Paul" on the 2,000 anniversary of the great apostle's birth. In regard to the events of the anniversary celebration, in which we have also venerated the precise place of the St. Paul's martyrdom, we are planning, among others things, a sacred pilgrimage to some of the monuments of the apostolic activity of the apostle in the East: Ephesus, Perge, and other cities in Asia Minor, but also Rhodes and Crete, the places called "good ports." Be assured, Your Holiness, that on this sacred journey, you too will be present, walking with us in spirit, and that in each place we will offer up an ardent prayer for you and our brothers of the venerable Roman Catholic Church, fervently asking the divine Paul's intercession with the Lord for you.

And now, venerating the sufferings and the cross of Peter and embracing Paul's chains and stigmata, honoring the confession and martyrdom and the venerable death of both for the name of the Lord, which truly leads to Life, we glorify the Thrice-Holy God and we supplicate him, so that through the intercession of Saints Peter and Paul, who are his protocoryphaei and apostles, he will, here below, grant us and all his children of the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world "union of faith and communion in the Spirit" in the "bond of peace" and there above eternal life and great mercy. Amen.

Benedict's Homily for the Opening of the Pauline Year

2008-06-30T19:37:00.002-05:00

A translation of Benedict XVI's homily from Saturday's vespers for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, held at the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls. The liturgy marked the inauguration of the Pauline Year, which runs through June 29, 2009.

* * *

Holiness and Fraternal Delegates,
Lord Cardinals,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We are gathered before the tomb of St. Paul, who was born 2,000 years ago in Tarsus of Cilicia, in present-day Turkey. Who was this Paul? In the temple of Jerusalem, before an agitated crowd that wanted to kill him, he introduced himself with these words: "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but educated in this city, instructed at the feet of Gamaliel in the exact observance of the Law of our fathers; I was full of zeal for God." At the end of his journey he would say of himself: "I have been made a herald and apostle, teacher of the Gentiles in the faith and in the truth."

Teacher of the Gentiles, apostle and herald of Jesus Christ, thus he characterized himself in a retrospective look over his life. However, he did not look only to the past. "Teacher of the Gentiles" -- this word opens to the future, which we recall with veneration. He is, also for us, our teacher, apostle and herald of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we have come together not to reflect on a past history, irrevocably surpassed. Paul wants to speak with us today. That is why I wanted to convoke this special "Pauline year": to listen to him and to drink from him, as our teacher, in the faith and truth, in which are rooted the reasons for unity among the disciples of Christ. In this perspective, I wished to light -- for this bimillenary of the apostle's birth -- a special "Pauline Flame," which will remain lit during the whole year, in a special niche placed in the portico of the basilica. To solemnize this event, I have also opened the so-named Pauline Door, through which I entered the basilica accompanied by the patriarch of Constantinople, the cardinal archpriest and other religious authorities.

For me it is a motive of profound joy that the opening of the Pauline year assumes a special ecumenical character, given the presence of numerous delegates and representatives of other Churches and ecclesial communities, which I welcome with an open heart. I greet first of all His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I and the members of the delegation accompanying him, as well as the large group of laymen from several parts of the world who have come to Rome to participate in these moments of prayer and reflection with him and all of us. I greet the fraternal delegates of the Churches that have a special bond with the Apostle Paul -- Jerusalem, Antioch, Cyprus and Greece -- that form part of the geographic environment of the apostle's life before his arrival in Rome. I cordially greet the brothers of the different Churches and ecclesial communities of the East and West, together with all of you I have wished to take part in this solemn opening of the year dedicated to the Apostles of the Gentiles.

We are gathered, therefore, to questions ourselves about the great apostle of the Gentiles. Not only do we ask ourselves, "Who was Paul?" Above all, we ask ourselves "Who is Paul?" "What is he saying to me?" At this hour of the beginning of the Pauline year that we are inaugurating, I would like to choose three texts from the rich testimony of the New Testament, in which [Paul's] inner physiognomy appears, that which is specific about his character.

In the Letter to the Galatians, he has given us a very personal profession of faith, in which he opens his heart to the readers of all times and reveals what is the most profound source of his life: "I live in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me." All that Paul does starts from this center. His faith is the experience of being loved by Jesus Christ in a totally personal way; it is awareness of the fact that Christ faced death not for something anonymous, but for love of him, of Paul, and that, risen, Christ still loves him, has given himself for him. His faith is having been captured by the love of Jesus Christ, a love that affects him in his innermost being and transforms him. His faith is not a theory, an option about God or the world. His faith is the impact of the love of God on his heart. So, this faith itself is love of Jesus Christ.

For many, Paul appears as a combative man who knows how to use the sword of the word. Indeed, in his path as apostle, there was no lack of disputes. He did not seek a superficial harmony. In his first letter dedicated to the Thessalonians, he himself says: "We had the courage in our God to declare to you the Gospel of God in face of great opposition. … For we never used either words of flattery, as you know, or a cloak for greed." The truth was too great for him to be ready to sacrifice it in view of an external success. The truth he had experienced in his encounter with the Risen One merited for him struggle, persecution, and suffering. However, what motivated him in the depth of his being was being loved by Jesus Christ and the desire to transmit this love to others. Paul was someone able to love, and all his work and suffering is explained from this center.

The concepts underlying his proclamation can only be understood on the basis of this. Let us take only one of his key words: freedom. The experience of being loved to the end by Christ opened his eyes about truth and the path of human existence; that experience embraced everything. Paul was free as a man loved by God that, in virtue of God, was able to love together with him. This love is now the "law" of his life and, precisely thus, was the freedom of his life. He speaks and acts, moved by the responsibility of love; he is free, and given that he is one who loves, he lives totally in the responsibility of this love and does not take freedom as a pretext for pleasure and egoism. He who loves Christ as Paul loved him, can truly do what he wills, because his love is united to the will of Christ and, therefore, to the will of God, because his will is anchored in truth and because his will is no longer simply his will, arbiter of his autonomous I, but is integrated in the freedom of God and from it receives the path to follow.

In the search for St. Paul's inner physiognomy, I would like, in the second place, to recall the word that the Risen Christ spoke to him on the road to Damascus. Earlier the Lord asked him: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" He answered: "Who are you, Lord?" And he received the reply: "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." By persecuting the Church, Paul was persecuting Jesus himself. "You are persecuting me."

Jesus identifies himself with the Church in a single subject. In this exclamation of the Risen One -- which transformed Saul's life -- is contained the whole doctrine of the Church as Body of Christ. Christ did not return to Heaven, leaving a handful of followers to carry his cause forward. The Church is not an association that wishes to promote a certain cause. It is not about a cause. It is about the person of Jesus Christ, who also as Risen remained "flesh." He has flesh and bones," affirms the Risen One in Luke, in face of the disciples who thought he was a ghost. He has a body. He is personally present in the Church. "Head and Body" form a single subject, said Augustine. "'Know you not that your bodies are members of Christ?' wrote Paul to the Corinthians, and he adds: 'That, according to the Book of Genesis, man and woman become one flesh?'"

So Christ becomes one spirit with his own, one subject in the new world of the resurrection. In all this, the Eucharistic mystery is visualized, in which Christ constantly gives his Body and makes of us one Body: "Is not the bread we break communion with the body of Christ? Because, though being many, we are only one bread and one body, as we all share in one bread."

He addresses us with these words, at this moment, not just Paul but the Lord himself: "How were you able to lacerate my Body?" Before the face of Christ, this question becomes at the same time an urgent appeal: Bring us together again from all our divisions. Make this again a reality today: There is only one bread; therefore, we, despite being many, are only one body.

For Paul the word Church as Body of Christ is not just any analogy. It goes far beyond a comparison. "Why do you persecute me?"

Christ attracts us continually to his Body, he builds his Body from the Eucharistic center, which for Paul is the center of Christian existence, in virtue of which all, as well as each individual can experience in a totally personal way: "He has loved me and given himself up for me."

I would like to conclude with a later word of St. Paul, an exhortation to Timothy from prison, in face of death. "Endure with me sufferings for the Gospel," said the apostle to his disciple. This sentence, which is at the end of the roads traveled by the apostle as a testament, leads us back to the beginning of his mission. While, after his encounter with the Risen One, the blind Paul was in his room in Damascus, Ananias received the order to go where the feared persecutor was and lay his hands on him, so that he would recover his sight.

To Ananias' objection that this Saul was a dangerous persecutor of Christians, this answer was given: "This man must take my name to the Gentiles, to kings and to the children of Israel. I will show him all he will have to suffer for my name."

The task of proclamation and the call to suffering for Christ are inseparably together. The call to be teacher of the Gentiles is at the same time and intrinsically a call to suffering in communion with Christ, who has redeemed us through his passion. In a world in which lying is powerful, truth is paid for with suffering. He who wishes to avoid suffering, to keep it far from himself, will have pushed away life itself and its grandeur; he cannot be a servant of truth and thus a servant of faith. There is no love without suffering, without the suffering of denying ourselves, of the transformation and purification of the "I" for true freedom.

Wherever there is nothing worth suffering for, life itself also loses its value. The Eucharist -- center of our Christian being -- is based on the sacrifice of Jesus for us; it was born from the suffering of the love that found its culmination on the cross. We live from this love that gives itself. This gives us the courage and strength to suffer with Christ and for him, thus knowing that precisely in this way our life becomes great, mature and true.

In the light of all of St. Paul's letters we see how on his journey as teacher of the Gentiles, the prophecy of Ananias was fulfilled at the hour of the calling: "I will show him all that he will have to suffer for my name." His suffering makes him credible as teacher of truth, which does not seek its own benefit, its own glory or personal pleasure, but is committed to him who loved us and gave himself up for all of us.

At this hour in which we thank the Lord for having called Paul, making him the light of the Gentiles and teacher of us all, we pray: Give us also today the testimony of the Resurrection, touched by your love, and [make us] able to carry the light of the Gospel in our time. St. Paul, pray for us. Amen.

My Next Six Degrees

2008-06-19T13:41:00.005-05:00

Having just finished my second degree, I'm about to begin a third. Chances are, this will be my last one. But if a Bachelor of Arts, History (University of Dallas), Master of Arts, Statecraft & National Security (Institute of World Politics) and Doctor of Philosophy, History (Texas A&M University) are not enough, what will I do next? It's an enjoyable parlor game to play, and I've come up with what my next six degrees might be... In order:

Master of Library Science: There are few things an academic can't do with a PhD, but running a library is one of them. Besides, I spent eleven years of my life working in a library, and rather enjoyed it.

Master of Arts, Theology (or Master of Theological Studies or Licentiate in Sacred Theology): While the field of theology is of some interest to me, this degree gets an added boost from the possibility that some day I'll be in a ministry role where such a degree would be desirable. Should I ever pursue one, expect Scripture, Church history and liturgy to figure most prominently in my studies.

Master of Business Administration: I don't have any particular plans to take up the world of business, but I've always enjoyed investing and you never know when I might end up managing a team of intelligence analysts at some defense contractor.

Master of Arts, Anthropology: This degree narrowly edged out the next one down, but my lifelong interest in archaeology, coupled with the fact that anthropology intersects with - but is still intellectually distinct from - both history and national security, earned anthropology its spot.

Master of Arts, Economics: There are lots of degrees I wish I could earn (like a PhD in Classics or Biochemical Engineering), but let's be honest: I'm not cut out for them; I just don't think in those directions. But economics is one of those fields I not only enjoy, but also manage to do passably well at.

Doctor of Laws: I can't say I'm wild about the idea of law school, but for someone interested in the working of government and things, it's not an entirely absurd possibility. So ahead of med school (which didn't make the list), but not a big priority.

If you've got suggestions for particular schools, please let me know...

The Rebel Side of Heaven

2008-06-17T18:42:00.002-05:00

Special thanks go out to WondrousPilgrim's Ten Thousand Places blog, which brought this music video to our attention.

Langhorne Slim is a native of Langhorne, PA, and sings a delightful mix of blues and folk rock, with quality lyrics to boot:

And though we have sinned all of our lives,
Well, we ain't going to hell,
We're going to the rebel side of heaven.

Saints through the Ages

2008-06-11T11:20:00.008-05:00

Some time ago I started the exercise of naming a few favorite saints, with at least one from each century. Some centuries were a little easier than others - the 16th, for example, seems to have been a great time for being a saint - but what was really exciting was to see that in every age, men and women have answered the call to love and serve God. Though we hear time and again that you can be a saint today, this list makes that proposition just a little bit easier.

1st century: St. Stephen (d. c. 33)

2nd century: St. Polycarp* (69-155)

3rd century: St. Lawrence of Rome (225-285)

4th century: St. Ambrose of Milan (340-397), St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

5th century: St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547)

6th century: St. Columba (521-597)

7th century: St. Bede the Venerable (672-735)

8th century: St. Boniface (672-754), pictured

9th century: Sts. Cyril & Methodius (827-869 and 826-885, respectively)

10th century: St. Adelaide (931-999)

11th century: Sts. Robert of Molesmes (1028-1111), Alberic of Citeaux (d. 1108) and Stephen Harding (d. 1134)

12th century: St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

13th century: St. Clare of Assisi (1194-1253), pictured, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

14th century: Bl. Julian of Norwich (1342-1423)

15th century: St. Thomas More (1478-1535), pictured

16th century: St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), and St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552), St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)

17th century: St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621)

18th century: Bl. Junipero Serra (1713-1784)

19th century: Ven. John Henry Newman (1801-1890), Bl. Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916)

20th century: Bl. José Sánchez del Río (1913-1928), St. Gianna Molla (1922-1962), John Paul the Great (1920-2005), pictured

"pious fictions": St. Julian the Hospitaller**

* Yes, I could have gone with Our Lady, one of the Apostles or Gospel Writers. But that kind of felt like a cop-out.
** I'm really hoping that I'll get to the Pearly Gates and find St. Julian there, confounding all the historians.

Bad Pun of the Day

2008-06-02T08:37:00.005-05:00

This is awful. Or amazing, depending upon how you feel about puns.
(Just click the image to see a larger version.)

Ever Wished You Had More Siblings?

2008-05-31T06:41:00.001-05:00

Beirut's "Nantes"

2008-05-30T18:32:00.001-05:00

Some good times with one of the Quincy House's favorite bands.

2008 University of Dallas Commencement Address

2008-05-22T12:36:00.005-05:00

Commencement Address
University of Dallas
May 18, 2008
By John Lenczowski

Chairman Cruse, President Lazarus, Bishop Farrell, Bishop Vann, Trustees, Faculty, Administration, Clergy and Religious, Graduates, Parents and Friends:

I am honored to be given the opportunity to address you on this most felicitous occasion. I am an enormous admirer of the University of Dallas. It has been my conclusion, after considerable study, that there is no better liberal arts college in America.

You, the graduates of 2008, have received an extraordinary gift: an education in the most important sense of that term. I dearly hope that you understand how special and precious that education is, because a lot is at stake for our country and civilization, and for your own lives.

This University has faced an uphill challenge to give you this education. In a national atmosphere of declining educational standards, it has been to define what constitutes an authentic and inspiring Catholic higher education.

Fulton Sheen once noted that the prime purpose of an education is the making of a person – and it is impossible to make a person without giving him the purpose of being a person. To study the purpose of life is to study philosophy and theology, to examine what is ultimately true, and to search for truth in the various aspects of God’s creation.

In a climate where most Catholic universities have distanced themselves from their Catholic identity and abandoned not just the core liberal arts curriculum but precisely the study of philosophy and theology the University of Dallas has set the highest standard of a genuine education, both in terms of content and academic rigor. How you have been educated, and how you will use your education has enormous implications for the future of our country and the future of your eternal souls.

Having worked in the field of foreign policy and national security, and having had to mind the lessons of history, I have been struck by the fragility of civilization. The last century witnessed the rise of totalitarian regimes that perpetrated more murders of innocent people within their own borders than the accumulated death toll from all the contemporaneous wars. We saw the Nazi slaughter, the Soviet Gulag, the Maoist Cultural Revolution and its own still-existing network of slave labor and death camps – the Lao Gai. These monstrosities happened not only in lands of oriental despotism, but in lands that were once part of Western Christendom. The story of the Holocaust is well known.

But how many are aware of the unprovoked massacre of 7,000 bishops, priests, nuns, and monks by the anarcho-communists in Western, civilized, Spain in 1936? How can such things happen within living memory in our civilized world, in a world with so many nice people?

They happen when society has weakened in achieving its central mission – the educational task of passing on the principles that underlie a sound civilization to the next generation, and when its leaders have failed to be courageous and vigilant. Invariably, this is a moral breakdown. It occurs when too many people, particularly in leadership roles, let ego and thirst for power dictate their own “moral code” which is at variance with the Natural Moral Law and ultimately the Divine Law. It is where moral relativism triumphs and whatever shifting moral standards are set for one’s own personal convenience undermine those standards that are necessary for a healthy society. It is where selfishness and the temptation to be one’s own god smother the essence of a good civilization and a truly free society – and that essence is love and self-sacrifice.

The ancient historian, Livy, once taught that the surest way to defeat an enemy is by spreading among his population the ideas of selfishness and hedonism. When a society becomes overtaken by selfish pleasure-seeking, it renders itself incapable of self-defense. It telegraphs its culture to its enemies and projects what we in the national security world call “provocative weakness” – the kind of cultural and ultimately physical weakness that encourages foreign adversaries to take aggressive action against a tempting, conquerable target. That is why, ultimately, the costs of the moral breakdown of a society are often paid in war.

Today we live in a dangerous world. We face certain well-known external threats such as terrorist movements and their penetration of Western societies, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, a resurgent, revanchist Russia with policies based on an active imperial nostalgia. We also face the rise of China, a country with the largest military buildup on the face of the earth, with a new and rising global strategic presence, with territorial claims on most of its neighbors, with 10,000 spies in the United States, and with a mercantilist economic policy that has developed enormous leverage over our economy.

Our ability to meet these external challenges will depend on sound national strategic leadership. But ultimately, there is no external threat that America cannot handle so long as our culture retains some modicum of health.

In the struggle for the health of our civilization, the battle front is everywhere. It is in our cultural institutions. It is in our universities. It is in our scientific laboratories and in our governmental institutions. It is in our businesses and in our elementary schools. It is in our own homes and in how we raise our children. It is even in the Church.

So, what are you going to do with the education and moral formation that you have received? You will pursue many professions. But the real question is: What kind of person will you be? What kind of defender of civilization will you be?

If you go into business, will you uphold the highest standards of honesty so that American business can be conducted in an ever greater climate of trust? If our business community fails at this and trust melts away and the cost of a transaction becomes as much one of legal protection as of the intrinsic value of the transaction, the result will be an ineluctable erosion in our ability to create wealth.

If you go into political life, will you be there principally to benefit your own ego or to serve the common good? Will you serve honestly, and courageously resist the forces that are tempted toward corruption – a corruption whose consequence around the world has been unremitting poverty and human misery?

Wherever you go, will you live a life of virtue and be part of the fabric of a healthy society and thus a defender of a civilization of love and the realization of the highest of human possibilities?

The University of Dallas has given you a grounding to know the purpose of your lives and to live them accordingly. That purpose, as I hope you have discovered, has something to do with your soul. This is a purpose, however, – contrary to the dogmas of those who have never studied philosophy and theology – that can be found through right reason.

Indeed, as Saint Thomas Aquinas said, you cannot begin a religion merely with faith. You have to have a reason for that faith and a motive for belief. And that reason and that motive can be found through the kind of education you have received.

In short:

because it is more likely than not that God exists, and
because it is more likely than not that Jesus Christ was who He said he was, and
because it is more likely than not that God created the world, and then created you somehow, (because it is impossible for something to come from nothing), and
because He must have had a reason for doing so, and
because He instilled in your heart a conscience and the capacity to love,

Then your purpose is:

to try to discern God’s will for you
to perfect yourself in the way that He would have you do, and
to return the love that He has given you.

As Bishop Sheen pointed out, perfecting the personality does not consist of knowing God’s plan for you – for this cannot so easily be known in advance. Rather, it consists of submitting to God’s will as it reveals itself in the circumstances of life. In doing this, you will succeed in the great task before you. You will become the builder of true civilization and of a free society – something that must be done anew by each generation.

You have been called to be the one person that makes a difference for the better – wherever you may be. You have all been called to be saints. That means you, not somebody else. And you have been called to be the Lord’s instrument in the lives of your friends and colleagues. You will succeed not only in your professions but in your quest for these higher things – so long as you remember that Christ is the vine and you are the branches. And so long as you remain connected to Him, you will bear great fruit.

We need you to be the leaders of our society in every battle front where the struggle for civilization is taking place. We cannot but depend on you. For, if not you, the products of this great university, then who?

Thank you for listening and God bless you all.

John Lenczowski is Founder and President of The Institute of World Politics, an independent graduate school of national security and international affairs in Washington, DC. He previously taught at the Georgetown University and the University of Maryland and worked in the Department of State at the National Security Council. In the latter capacity, he served as principal White House advisor on Soviet affairs to President Ronald Reagan.

The Neural Buddhists

2008-05-15T18:42:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine sent me this article by David Brooks, who considers the how scientific advances in neuroscience will change the parameters of cultural and religious debate.

The real challenge [to orthodox religion] is going to come from people who feel the existence of the sacred, but who think that particular religions are just cultural artifacts built on top of universal human traits....

In unexpected ways, science and mysticism are joining hands and reinforcing each other. That’s bound to lead to new movements that emphasize self-transcendence but put little stock in divine law or revelation. Orthodox believers are going to have to defend particular doctrines and particular biblical teachings. They’re going to have to defend the idea of a personal God, and explain why specific theologies are true guides for behavior day to day.

Lord, if Tom Cruise can have one good movie...

2008-04-29T15:27:00.005-05:00

As a huge fan of the July 20 Plot, I took a look today at the trailer for Tom Cruise' new film, Valkyrie, about the conspiracy. Needless to say, I was a little worried. This is, after all, Tom Cruise playing Claus von Stauffenberg, the German Catholic aristocratic military officer who tried to kill Hitler.

While there were moments of Cruise-ness in the trailer, and the general Hollywood feel was there, the film does not necessarily appear to be a total disaster. I retain some hope.

Things That Changed Aaron's Life

2008-04-27T12:02:00.021-05:00

One of the housemates sometimes likes to ask if something someone is praising changed their life. It's a bit of an overblown phrase - "changed your life" - but there's something to it. Last night I was thinking about this notion in regards to art. We often like talk about the power of art to transform people (cf. Das Leben der Andere), but with regards to particular pieces, more often we speak in terms of objective value or historical significance, rather than personal subjective importance.

So I got to thinking: What works of art have changed my life? Since that can be a rather intangible criteria, I came up with two more specific questions: What works of art have caused me to really sit up and take notice? Or what works do I find myself looking back to and referencing time and again?

Really, I think these are two sides of the same coin; both questions identify works that reveal something heretofore unknown in my experience. These are works that transcend their medium or genre: not, "This is a great painting," but "This is great."

So here are some preliminary lists. I may modify or explicate them in subsequent posts - they are, after all, highly provisional tabulations - but for now, simply laying them down is labor enough.

Things That Changed Aaron's Life

Visual Art:
Bernini, Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius
--, Apollo and Daphne
--, David
--, The Rape of Proserpina
Abbott Handerson Thayer, A Virgin

Books:
Homer, The Iliad
uncertain, Song of Songs
Plato, Republic
Shakespeare, Macbeth
Milton, Paradise Lost
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life
T. S. Eliot, The Four Quartets
C. S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost
--, Mere Christianity
--, The Chronicles of Narnia
--, The Four Loves
--, A Grief Observed
Martin Heidegger, Building Dwelling Thinking
Josef Pieper, Leisure, the Basis of Culture
--, The Four Cardinal Virtues
J. R. R. Tolkien, Leaf by Niggle
Walter M. Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz
Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
Lloyd Alexander, The Prydain Chronicles
George Weigel, Witness to Hope
Stephen Pressfield, Gates of Fire
John Eldredge, Wild at Heart

Music:
Palestrina, various
de Victoria, various
Fauré, Requiem
Rich Mullins, Songs
--, A Liturgy, A Legacy and a Ragamuffin Band
--, Never Picture Perfect
Anonymous 4, An English Ladymass
--, 1000: A Mass for the End of Time
Sufjan Stevens, Seven Swans
Rosie Thomas, These Friends of Mine

Films:
Chariots of Fire
The Mission
Shadowlands
La Vita è bella
Amelie
In America

Opera:
Giacomo Pucini, Gianni Schicchi

Beverages:
Earl Grey tea
Strongbow cider
Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale

PS You might notice that there are far more books than paintings, for example. I guess it's a pretty basic proof that I've spent more time in libraries than in art galleries.

Papal Coffee House This Weekend

2008-04-22T18:06:00.003-05:00

In the wake of all the papal celebrations we decided to continue the party. Join us for an evening of music and such.

National's Stadium

2008-04-15T18:11:00.003-05:00

Some of the Quincy Men were at the Nationals Stadium today and saw the crews working to transform the stadium.

The excitement is building:

Bobblehead Benedict, Calm Down People!

2008-04-09T11:22:00.003-05:00

I don't know if you all have seen the above video, but apparently it is creating some controversy. The Archdiocese of Washington asked Metro to take it down because it is somehow offensive. This type of reaction really gives Catholics a bad image. There is nothing morally objectionable in the video, so why can't we laugh at ourselves a little. I find the fact that metro went to the trouble of actually getting someone to chant in Latin somewhat impressive.

For further coverage of the whole situation you can read about it in the following locations:

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0408/509914.html
http://dcist.com/2008/04/09/morning_roundup_232.php
http://www.americanpapist.com/2008/04/arch-of-dc-requests-metro-remove.html

You Don't Wanna Leave - New Animated Mike Mangione Video

2008-04-04T20:42:00.000-05:00

You Don't Wanna Leave
Uploaded by BarfQuestion

Not Exactly Proud...

2008-04-04T06:50:00.005-05:00

This picture really cracked me up. I'm sure their elementary school teachers are proud. Or should I say "they're" teachers?

How To Be Emo

2008-03-31T14:00:00.001-05:00

Warning: Video contains some use of taboo speech

A Brief History of the Modern Deaconate

2008-03-28T15:19:00.005-05:00

I stumbled upon this history today and - quite surprised by the origins of the modern permanent diaconate - thought I would share. This passage comes from the website of the Archdiocese of Washington:

The Permanent Diaconate did not surface again for more than a thousand years. At the height of World War II, a group of Catholic men imprisoned at the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau buried the remains of hundreds of people who were murdered in the infamous gas chambers. In the midst of this dehumanizing environment of pain and cruelty, these men prayed for the courage to believe. They offered support and encouragement to all the nameless and voiceless ones around them. Somehow they kept faith alive, sustained hope, and witnessed to God's unconditional love.

Through not ordained and, totally unaware that what they were accomplishing would have worldwide significance, these men in Dachau became the restorers of the modern permanent diaconate. They were true "servants in the image of Jesus." After the war ended, these men continued to meet and work for the awakening in every Christian of a commitment to justice through service and stewardship. They were called, "the Deacon Circle."

In the years that followed, additional groups emerged throughout Germany, France, and Eastern European countries. These "Deacon Circles" were the first role models for an emerging lay apostolate which Pope Pius XII urged each diocesan church to nurture as a way of transforming every aspect of society.

In 1959, an International Diaconate Circle was organized. This organization prepared the way for the eventual restoration of the diaconate by drafting a petition asking that the diaconate be restored and, that it be opened to both married and single men. The Vatican received the final petition from the International Diaconate Circle in 1962. From there several of the Council Fathers, mostly from Germany, went on to develop a compilation of thirty-nine essays, called Diakonia in Christo, which addressed various aspects of ministry which could be carried out by a modernized permanent diaconate as well as the enormous value of such an ordained ministry to the Church.

In the course of the Vatican II discussions that followed, the permanent diaconate was restored by a majority vote of the Council on October 30, 1963. The restoration of the diaconate was promulgated as part of the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church which was released on November 21, 1964.

Two Cows, Catholic Style

2008-03-26T10:53:00.004-05:00

You may have seen the two cows explanations of politics. For example, "Communism: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk." Well, someone has gone to the trouble of putting together Catholic versions of the two cow metaphor. (Some are better than others.) We reproduce them here, for your reading pleasure:

Benedictine: You have two cows. You use one to preserve the art of animal husbandry for all time. You kill the other and make intricate, colored markings on its hide.

Cistercian: You have two cows. And a more extraordinary method of procuring milk.

Trappist: You have two cows. You do not appreciate their mooing, yet require their milk to craft high quality fudge. You assign them to a novice.

Franciscan: You have two cows. Moved by the beauty of sister cow, you unleash them. Your ensuing lack of milk allows you to glory in the poverty of Christ.

Dominican: You have two cows. You feel as if you should share one with the Franciscans, but can’t bring yourself to trust them with it.

Carmelite: By concession of Pope Innocent IV, you have two cows. You don’t eat them between Sept. 14 and Easter.

Discalced Carmelite: You have two cows. You feed them by arduously dragging hay to their tough, but then you deliver it by truck. Ultimately, abundant hay falls effortlessly from the sky.

Jesuit: You have two cows, but everyone from Louis XIV to Pastor John at 1st Community Baptist believe you control the cattle industry. Admittedly, you founded many farms in the bovine tradition, but struggle with what bovinity means in the 21st century.

Salesian: You have no cows, but work to improve the welfare of calves orphaned by factory farming. You are a visionary when it comes to cattle futures.

Opus Dei: You have two donkeys, and tend to them very carefully. You never admit that you engage in this work, but are delighted to meet other covert donkey owners.

Communion and Liberation: You have two cows, and bring them to huge annual gatherings. You speak to them only in the present tense.

SSPX: You have two cows. You raise them precisely according to USDA standards, c. 1950. One cow denies that the USDA exists and runs off to take care of itself.

Visualize Encyclicals - Spe Salvi

2008-03-19T22:34:00.004-05:00

One of the hip features of many "Web 2.0" sites are things called Tag Clouds. A Tag Cloud is a cluster of words that helps people to visualize content by giving larger sizes to words that have a greater frequency. It occurred to me that it may be interesting to take this tool to visualize a church document or two. So here you have it, Spe Salvi goes web 2.0

created at TagCrowd.com

This is How We Do It

2008-03-19T07:01:00.003-05:00

If you've ever been at Quincy late at night, when most of the guests have gone home, the drink is flowing freely and maybe a competitive game of cards is being played, you know that what Paul calls "taboo speech" sometimes comes out. For those who have never heard the Quincy men swear, it sounds something like this:

(To see a larger version, simply click the image.)

Your Life

2008-03-18T07:25:00.004-05:00

Even if you're not in academia, I suspect we all feel like this is our lives sometimes.

(Click on the image if you'd like to see a larger version.)

Me Not You - or - The Coolest Video with a Toaster. Ever.

2008-03-16T12:33:00.002-05:00

After last night's rockin' Mike Mangione concert at Quincy (which, btw, make the official list of tour stops), I figured I should post this amazing music video.

Foreign Policy Has a Sex Appeal

2008-03-10T07:59:00.005-05:00

Why sex and foreign policy aren’t as different as you might think

By Colin Parks

Would you believe that having sex can provide you with a better guide to effective foreign policy than any political theory out there? In fact, if our policy makers spent more time nurturing their sex lives, they could find themselves more attuned to the most effective tools of statecraft. This should come as no surprise and I’ll tell you why.

In order to have sex, you have three options. You can buy it, i.e. prostitution; you can take it by force, i.e. rape; or you can seduce it, i.e. the art of romance. Buying sex is usually only a temporary fix and an expensive one at that; most prostitutes don’t offer blue-light specials. Furthermore, it might not be the most desirable experience unless a dingy motel room, cheap champagne, and the incessant glow of neon lights is your idea of a romantic getaway. Forcing sex might be desirable for some but for most it simply isn’t worth the likely consequences, i.e. spending the rest of your life behind bars in an orange jump suit contemplating escape with a spoon and a bed spring.

How then, do you use seduction to get sex? You first need to possess certain elements of attraction such as good looks, an appealing personality, and some sort of alluring feature that compels your intended companion to get a little frisky with you; generally a few sprays of cologne will turn the trick. Second, you need to have a strategy; sex on first contact isn’t usually the rule but rather the exception. You need to take the time to get to know your companion, i.e. enduring a few awkward dates, engaging in conversation more enlightening than the weather, and actually noticing little things like eye color and the type of shoes your companion is wearing; observing bust size doesn’t qualify! Finally, you have to set the mood; a few candles and some sultry music will do. A little tender, loving, care can go a long way so don’t be afraid to sharpen your massage skills. What’s more, when the deed is done, you can’t just fall asleep or abruptly leave. It pays to cuddle and stay around for breakfast. While it might take a bit longer and require more finesse, if executed skillfully seduction can result in quality, long lasting, and meaningful sex, without the messy consequences of prostitution or rape.

So why is sex similar to foreign policy? If it isn’t already apparent, nations have three options when deciding how to achieve a particular foreign policy objective. Like sex, they can buy it, i.e. with bribery or economic sanctions; they can take it, i.e. with military force; or they can seduce it, i.e. creating an allure via soft power. The first two options are hard power methods frequently used to coerce or compel an adversary to succumb to your will, tangible instruments that clearly indicate a nation’s desire to alter behavior or gain the advantage in a given scenario. However, these options can have dire consequences. Economic sanctions, bribery, and war can be costly, extremely risky, and lacking in quality assurance. Moreover, military force and the careless use of economic sanctions can produce damaging ripple effects that can be difficult to suppress. One only needs to look at the situation in Iraq to ascertain that the friction and uncertainty of war can create more problems than solutions, and the case of Cuba to realize that buying your objectives doesn’t necessarily work.

The seduction of soft power attempts to alleviate some of the pains associated with the misuse of hard power by using public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy to persuade an adversary rather than coerce it. This implies confidence in one’s ideals and principles, and a willingness and ability to export them. For the United States, this means accentuating our most appealing qualities such as democracy, the rule of law, plurality, and freedom. It also means tapping into the alluring features of culture such as music and art. These elements can potentially convince an adversary to view the U.S. in a more positive light; a nation that finds us attractive is more likely to emulate our behavior and subsequently comply with our demands. Like a seductress, however, the purveyor of soft power must be patient and willing to invest in a little TLC.

So maybe the hippie mantra “Make Love, Not War!” has a point. If we take the time to seduce our target and tap into the softer side of foreign policy, we have a greater chance of securing our foreign policy objectives in a manner that ensures lasting relationships. Like a good lover, the U.S. must be willing to sustain its soft power initiatives over time by not abandoning these initiatives when the deed is done and sticking around for a little cuddle time.

Colin Parks is a graduate student at The Institute of World Politics in Washington where he studies the elements of statecraft in national security and foreign affairs. He can be contacted at parks@iwp.edu,

The Vatican Through an Ambassador's Eye

2008-03-07T11:11:00.003-05:00

The Vatican Through an Ambassador's Eye

Accompanying the U.S. Envoy to the Holy See

By Elizabeth Lev

ROME, MARCH 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Art historians secretly dream of going back in time to see artistic masterpieces in their original environment, rather than as museum pieces. In their wildest flights of fancy, they fantasize about being part of that world.

Last Friday, this art historian lived that dream when I accompanied my mother, Mary Ann Glendon, as she presented her credentials to Benedict XVI as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.

As we donned our black mantillas at the embassy residence, we were already entering into a different criterion of beauty and worth. Covered head to toe in long skirts and jackets, all I saw were the radiantly happy faces of my mother, sisters and daughters.

Click here to read more.

Britain Kow Tows to China

2008-03-07T10:17:00.001-05:00

The Daily Mail released a scathing article about the British Olympic committee's decision to gag its athletes at the Beijing Olympics. They write:

British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China's appalling human rights record – or face being banned from traveling to Beijing.

The move – which raises the specter of the order given to the England football team to give a Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938 – immediately provoked a storm of protest....

From the moment they sign up, the competitors – likely to include the Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips and world record holder Paula Radcliffe – will be effectively gagged from commenting on China's politics, human rights abuses or illegal occupation of Tibet.

Prince Charles has already let it be known that he will not be going to China, even if he is invited by Games organizers.

His views on the Communist dictatorship are well known, after this newspaper revealed how he described China's leaders as “appalling old waxworks” in a journal written after he attended the handover of Hong Kong. The Prince is also a long-time supporter of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader....

The [British Olympic Association] took the decision even though other countries – including the United States, Canada, Finland, and Australia – have pledged that their athletes would be free to speak about any issue concerning China.

To date, only New Zealand and Belgium have banned their athletes from giving political opinions while competing at the Games....

However, human rights campaigner Lord David Alton condemned the move as “making a mockery” of the right to free speech.

The controversial decision to award the Olympics to Beijing means this year's Games have the potential to be the most politically charged since 1936.

Adolf Hitler used the Munich Games that year to glorify his Nazi regime, although his claims of Aryan superiority were undermined by black American athlete Jesse Owens winning four gold medals.

More recently, there was a mass boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan....

Former Olympic rowing champion Matthew Pinsent has already criticized the Chinese authorities over the training methods used on children, which he regarded as tantamount to abuse. Young gymnasts told him they were repeatedly beaten during training sessions....

Lord Alton said: “It is extraordinary to bar athletes from expressing an opinion about China's human-rights record. About the only justification for participating in the Beijing Games is that it offers an opportunity to encourage more awareness about human rights.

“Imposing compulsory vows of silence is an affront to our athletes, and in China it will be viewed as acquiescence.

“Each year 8,000 executions take place in China, political and religious opinion is repressed, journalists are jailed and the internet and overseas broadcasts are heavily censored.

“For our athletes to be told that they may not make any comment makes a mockery of our own country's belief in free speech.”

Who's more Pro-Life?

2008-03-03T15:53:00.003-05:00

My vitriol towards a particular Texas congressman's presidential bid is probably well known. However, after overhearing an absurd conversation while at work today, I feel the need to post a little bit of information. The National Right to Life organization puts together a file of how every member of Congress voted on key life issues, ranging from abortion to euthanasia to stem cell research. You can quibble with some of their selections, no doubt, but the gist of it is pretty sound.

Now John McCain scored 31 happy green check marks for pro-life votes and 11 unhappy red x's for anti-life votes. That's about what you'd expect, from what you hear in the media. The guy's pro-life on the most salient issues, but not "perfect" on some of the details.

What's interesting is that Ron Paul's record is not so different: 51 happy green checks and 16 unhappy red x's. (The disparity in totals is a result of votes which the congressmen either missed or in which they were ineligible to participate.) So in fact Ron Paul has voted against life more often than John McCain, and both of them have a ratio of about 3:1, pro-life to anti-life.

Detailed research might show that one member of congress missed more key votes in one direction than the other; it could be that one or both knew that the pro-life camp would carry the day and so they didn't mind missing certain counts. I don't know, but if you're bored you're welcome to look into the matter.

However, I think the basic point has been made. Dr. Ron Paul, deliverer of babies and champion of certain pro-life and conservative factions, is in fact not significantly different from John McCain when it comes to voting.

Employment Is in the Air

2008-02-26T12:27:00.009-05:00

It would seem that everyone is talking about employment (or lack thereof) these days. Let's begin with today's comics (you can click on the images for larger versions, if these are too small or fuzzy):

In addition, one housemate just sent out this article about the top ten reasons to quit your job. It's a passable list, though I didn't see anywhere on it, "You're not making enough money." That seems like an obvious one.

In fact, some time ago Lucy Kellaway - a wonderful columnist for the FT who addresses such pressing problems as "My boss wants to be my friend on Facebook" and runs a close second to Yulia Tymoshenko as my secret love interest - wrote a column on this very topic of quitting your job. She took to task all the business-speak types who talk about "meaningful expectations," "affirmation" and "fulfillment." It's about the money, she said. And some other stuff. Which I don't remember because I can't find the article online right now. So major points to you if you can.

Muslim scholars decry terrorism

2008-02-25T08:25:00.001-05:00

It's this sort of thing that will win the War on Terror in the long run:

An influential group of Muslim theologians in India have denounced terrorism, saying it is completely against the teachings of Islam.

Click here to read the article.

Some Fun Music Videos

2008-02-21T11:29:00.003-05:00

Beirut, "In the Mausoleum," from The Flying Club Cup

Sufjan Stevens, "The Lakes of Canada"

2008-02-13T11:24:00.001-05:00

Modern metaphors.

Thinking About Writing it Down

2008-02-13T09:11:00.002-05:00

As Americans, we tend to think of constitutions as things written on yellow paper and kept in bomb-proof vaults for all to see. Well, that's not the case in Britain. The British constitution is a collection of customs and odd laws here and there. But that may change.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw is looking at the possibility of drafting a single, written constitution. The BBC reports:

He said the move would encapsulate in one document a citizen's rights, their responsibilities and an outline of how the different arms of government work.

He told the BBC the process could take 20 years and depend on a referendum.

In a speech in the US later he will say most UK people "struggle to put a finger on where their rights are".

Remembering the Integrated Humanities Program

2008-02-06T20:01:00.000-05:00

I was reading up on the University of Kansas' Integrated Humanities Program today and feeling nostalgic for Dallas. While our programs of study were different in many ways - we took notes in class, for one - I think many of the goals of the IHP were also accomplished at UD, outside the classroom, if not necessarily within, and in particular during the Rome semester. I strongly recommend reading the article linked above.

We Must All Do Our Part To Preserve This Climate Of Fear

2008-01-30T09:21:00.000-05:00

Here is a brief, but good, editorial on the importance of maintaining our xenophobias. America is depending on us. We red-blooded patriots must heed the call to be afraid.

Unions Aim to Subvert Democracy

2008-01-29T09:12:00.000-05:00

This is an alarmist headline. It also happens to be true, which is why the alarm should be raised.

The United Food and Commercial Workers are trying to force unionization on the employees of the Bashas' grocery chain; meanwhile, a second union is trying to work its way into the Milum Textile Service in downtown Phoenix.

The Phoenix New Times reports that there is a lot more going on than just a little political lobbying:

At the heart of both conflicts is the unions' goal of forcing management into labor agreements without giving employees the chance to vote in a secret-ballot election....

Officials at Bashas' and Milum Textile say they want secret-ballot elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board to decide whether their workers are unionized. If more than half of their employees vote to unionize, the companies would have to work with respective unions to set wages, benefits, and workplace rules for affiliated employees.

The unions have a different plan. They want to do an end-run around such elections, which long have been the usual route to organizing workers. They want the matter decided through what's known as the "card-check" system....

Under the card-check system, union advocates gather workers' signatures on union-approval cards over time. If they eventually get more than half of a company's workers to sign up, the union can legally represent the firm's employees without an election — as long as the employer agrees to acknowledge the card-check system.

Neither Bashas' nor Milum will acknowledge the system.

What's particularly galling about this "card-check system" is that the union will know who hasn't voted for them yet; no one's identity is kept secret.

In other words, the unions would like to overturn one of the key components of the democratic system: the secret ballot. Ancient Athens and Rome employed the secret ballot for many important decisions, but apparently the unions would rather take their cues from the totalitarians whose Marxist ideology still permeates so much of the American labor movement.

And just in case it wasn't enough for them to try to do away with secret balloting, they're busy bribing people to plant stories in the media:

Tolentino Lazaro, a 64-year-old janitor, said he used to see cats in the building occasionally, but not anymore. The place can get dirty, he admitted, but he said he never saw rats.

Lazaro's said his problem was that he didn't like how Bashas' treated him after he was injured on the job. He said the company paid him less because he was on light duty for a few months.

When Lazaro was finished telling his story to New Times, Sanchez [a UFCW official] fished a $5 bill out of his wallet and started to hand it to Lazaro.

"No, no!" Giglio [another UFCW official] told Sanchez. "You're not supposed to pay him in front of the reporter."

And in case you were wondering, the United States House voted in favor of doing away with the secret ballot for union elections; only the Senate stopped them. In the lower chamber, every single Democrat voted to abolish secret balloting.

Proof the Super Bowl is Shady

2008-01-27T19:26:00.000-05:00

My homepage is set to the local newspaper/NBC station back home in Phoenix. So when I first open my browser, I see a number of stories, including video. A recent one with the headline "More than 1,000 women paid to party at Super Bowl" caught my attention, and not in a good way.

(For technical reasons, I couldn't manage to post the video itself - something about javascript - but I've shared the print story for your consideration; it included a link to the video version.)

From the get-go I thought this didn't seem quite right, but when the third interviewee in the video started telling about all the different places she'd worked, it became undeniably clear: this is watered-down prostitution, paying women for the use of their bodies.

And, yes, for the record, I'm ashamed that this is happening in my home state.

Quincy Demands Apology for Racist Comment

2008-01-22T09:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday presidential candidate Barack Obama made a very racist comment implying that Caucasian-Americans cannot dance.

When asked if he thought Bill Clinton was America's "first black president," Mr. Obama answered: "I would have to investigate more Bill's dancing abilities and some of this other stuff before I accurately judged whether he was in fact a brother."

Some of us hoped that America had moved beyond this sort of racial stereotyping, but apparently not. In any case, the Quincy House blog is calling upon Barack Obama to apologize for his comments, which were deeply hurtful to members of the Caucasian-American community.

*** This post has not been vetted by all members of the Quincy House and may not represent the views of all House residents. ***

A Whole New Meaning to "Red State - Blue State"

2008-01-18T10:05:00.000-05:00

New Springtime for North Korea?

2008-01-14T13:06:00.000-05:00

I discovered this post, sitting around as a draft, and figured I should post it, now that it's eleven months old...

The other day my Chinese Grand Strategy professor was explaining that he though Christianity was not about to take off in China, as some have suggested. He pointed out that, while there are many bona fide Christians in China, many Chinese Christian sects are little more than cults, with charismatic leaders who are often megalomaniacs and criminals. (In one case a while ago a leader of a Christian sect was jailed for sending out hit men to kill other such leaders.)

That was all fairly interesting, but what was really interesting was that my professor said he thinks North Korea is ripe for mass Christian conversion. The Christian communities in the South, both Catholic and Protestant, are large and strong, and are already laying plans to flood the North with missionary activity should the North Korean regime collapse. Furthermore, my professor argued that the end of the regime would also mark the death of the last shaky belief system remaining in North Korea. The atheistic state-worship of the Communist regime is believed to have little traction, but has also successfully managed to stamp out all other religions. The harvest may soon be in need of laborers…

Just Some Thoughts...

2008-01-04T19:23:00.000-05:00

For the last six or seven years I have been mulling over a set of issues concerning notions of inspiration, sequencing and different forms of art.

It is fairly common that we describe the relationship between two works of art in a way that is chronological, causal and hierarchic: this painting was inspired by that poem; this novel is the sequel to that one; this opera draws upon that epic.

There is an interesting (and somewhat natural) flow to this process. A painting or other visual form of art often depicts a scene from a story. Less often do you find an entire novel that was inspired by a single work of visual art (or even a series of pieces, such as the collected paintings of Monet). You do, however, sometimes find poetry with inspirations ranging from expansive narratives to very simple visual forms. Song, likewise, seems to be a flexible medium, though obviously certain types of songs - such as operas - are less so.

The process is usually, however, quite linear, monodirectional and hierarchic. If a scene from Homer’s Iliad inspired a particular sculpture, there is a certain sense in which we say the sculpture is indebted to the epic and in that regard, inferior to it. At the very least, no one would suggest that the sculpture would go on to influence how Homer writes his work. And yet, the sculpture might change how we read the epic. So why not break the linearity in more material ways?

What if a community of artists were to produce, as a single project, a corpus of interplaying works of art, with none primary - in time, causality or importance - to another? You will sometimes see an exhibit of visual arts which begin to do this, a series of works which revolve around a central theme and were created at roughly the same time. These, however, do little to transcend the distinctions between various forms of art; at most, such an exhibit might include painting, sculpture and prints, with some carefully selected background music. But what if such a body ran a fuller gamut: drawings, paintings, one-act plays, songs, poems, photographs, short stories?

I can imagine a dozen or two interdisciplinary artists choosing a theme - probably something broad like “fathers and sons” - and, over a course of time, producing an interconnected body of works. They might begin with paintings and drawings. One of these might be of a father with two young boys, walking hand in hand to the beach on a windy day. In a second round of creation, someone might wonder what their background was, going on to writing a short story about a husband who had just lost his wife, and took his boys to the beach in an attempt to raise their flagging spirits. Or was it just his own attempt to keep up appearances and deal with his own grief? This in turn might be picked up in a song or poem, and thence recycled into another drawing. A topic of properly-calibrated breadth would allow the artists to incorporate elements from various works in new and interesting ways.

What would the final product look like? I can imagine a sort of coffee table book, full of short stories and poems, lavishly illustrated with a variety of pictures, and containing the lyrics and music to an accompanying album of music. Is this an elaborate set of notes for the album, or is it just background to the book? Are these stories about a series of pictures, or illustrations to the stories? Such a project would relish such ambiguities, and happily play with them. With imagination, film or other artistic media might be included. (Narrative stories with an appendix of recipes are fairly common amongst certain genre of reading; why not include the culinary arts? Or brewing?)

Admittedly, this is a somewhat artificial way of doing something that happens, to a lesser extent, in the ordinary course of human cultural exchanges. Still, it might be a fun and interesting project, for those involved in its creation or appreciation. Alas, I am afraid I shall probably have to relegate myself to the latter category. But I enjoy just thinking about it.

Europe's New Auteurs

2008-01-04T17:21:00.001-05:00

at the WSJ.

Some of the Best

2007-12-30T19:25:00.001-05:00

This time of year, many writers are putting together a “best films of 2007” list. I would like to get in on the action, but it would be a little impractical for me to try to list the best films that have come out, since I have seen so few of them. Instead, this is the “best films Aaron has seen in 2007.” Thanks in no small part to the Quincy Movie Nights, there have been plenty of good films to consider. After much thought, I have chosen a trifecta of winners to share the title.

The first of these films, Juno, is still playing in theaters. Jason Reitman’s story of a pregnant high school student - a sort of wise fool surrounded by adults who do not always get it - began as a limited release, but quickly moved to theaters everywhere. And it is easy to see why. The audience with which I saw it was laughing out loud and clearly enjoying the humorous moments; but when the film got serious, you could have heard a pin drop. The story is well written, with several neat turns and reversals; it is well acted, with a first rate performance by Ellen Page in the title role; it is beautifully shot; and it has a quality musical score. Finally, the film is grounded on solid philosophical and moral principles. It does not bill itself as “pro-life” or “family-friendly” and does not assault its viewer with kitch messages. Indeed, the film is very much a creature of the modern age, frankly acknowledging the reality of family life in 21st century America. But it is also a film that understands and speaks to the fundamental importance of human dignity, the value of parenting and the importance of committed relationships.

In America (2003) is the story of a modern Irish family moving to New York City and struggling along with financial and family issues. Normally a film with that description would not pique my interest; it sounds like it would either be pathetically cheesy or terribly depressing. But as Nathan (not exactly the house optimist) explained, “this is a feel-good movie I can get behind.” Unlike most films of the feel-good genre, In America is neither predictable nor poorly acted; instead, it is a highly believable story. (This is probably due, in large part, to the fact that the script was written by a real family, based on their actual experience.) In addition, the story is artfully constructed, with several thoughtful sub-themes weaving through the story of the family’s struggles.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) can be a confusing film. But fear not; the confusion is artfully handled, complementing the story, instead of leaving the viewer woefully confused. Michel Gondry’s story of love, loss and memory, like Juno and In America, avoids the formulaic, with several enjoyable plot turns and a nice interweaving of the main plot line and a subplot. Though I have only seen the film once, I have little doubt that a second viewing would reveal a wealth of carefully thought out details. But in addition to its narrative qualities (which are many), Eternal Sunshine is a beautiful piece of art. Much of the story is set in the world of memory and Gondry has done an excellent job of imaging what that might look like. (Thankfully, this does not include massive amounts of computer animation that tax the viewer’s suspended disbelief.)

There were any number of honorable mentions, but their ranks are far too many to actually mention them. Perhaps another blog post...

Chrismas Don't Care

2007-12-20T18:41:00.000-05:00

It's almost Christmas and the radio waves are jammed with sleigh bells and cheer. This Year Sufjan Stevens held a Christmas Song Swap Contest. We thought that it might be fun, so Quincy house members, and our friends in the new international sensation, Fauxhawk Favre, joined us to create two songs for a short Christmas album. We hope that you all enjoy them, and have a very Merry Christmas.

Chrismas Don't Care - Fauxhawk Farve

Far Away Christmas - Nathan Castellanos

A new figure: Part III

2007-12-13T11:59:00.001-05:00

While studying the works of an obscure Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci (pictured left), for my History of Political Warfare exam, I was struck by his picture. The resemblance with a soon-to-be housemate is, well, striking. Is it possible that Gramsci did not die in 1937, as suspected, but is in fact still among us, posing as one Santiago Ramos (pictured right)? Decide for yourself.

This Christmas Season, Make Sure to Remember Those Less Fortunate

2007-12-11T19:21:00.001-05:00

Report: Nationâ??s Wealthy Cruelly Deprived Of True Meaning Of Christmas

For All of You with Holiday Parties to Attend

2007-12-07T16:59:00.001-05:00

(For a larger version, simply click the image.)

75 Years! Time to Celebrate

2007-12-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

"You make wine to cheer human hearts, olive oil to make faces shine, and bread to strengthen human hearts." Psalm 104:15

Today, December the 5th 2007 is the beginning of the 75th year that the absurdity of prohibition was repealed in the United States.

Here at the Quincy House we are raising a glass to those courageous lawmakers who realized that the heavy hand of the state was causing more harm than good.

This is a cause for celebration, however, even now the vestiges of that dark time still live with us. The freedoms that our forefathers, Jefferson, Washington and countless others fought for are still not fully attainable to the average American. If my patriotic fervor led me to emulate our first president and distill a batch of rye whiskey, the over reaching federal powers would definitely not smile.

So raise a glass.

Don't Cry For Him, Venezuela...

2007-12-03T01:45:00.000-05:00

NO.

Boycotting the Beijing Games

2007-11-30T21:36:00.000-05:00

I'm boycotting the Beijing Olympics. No, I have not been invited to participate, nor was I ever really planning on attending.

Normally I'm kind of opposed to boycotts. In the modern economy, revenue streams can be very complicated and corporations are often wholly- or partially-owned subsidiaries of some other company. The goals of many boycotts are ambiguous and the message intended to be sent and the means by which it will be sent are often unclear. Furthermore, the time span for most boycotts is vague: if the boycott's goals are not achieved in a timely manner, will it drag on indefinitely?

To address such questions, I figured I'd post a small manifesto for my Beijing Olympic boycott:

What is to be boycotted?

Coverage of the Games, in print or on television, including the opening and closing ceremonies. Any merchandise is also out.

How long will the boycott last?

The length of the Games, 8-24 August 2008.

What is the goal of the boycott?

I am under no illusion that the infinitesimal amount of money the Chinese regime will lose due to my boycott will go noticed. Nor am I under the illusion that millions will flock to my side, creating a mass movement that will in some way harm the regime. (Though I must confess that, if this happened, I would not be opposed.)

Instead, this boycott is aimed at educating fellow Americans about the evils of the Chinese regime. Inevitably there will be get-togethers to watch the opening ceremony; I plan on being in the next room telling folks why I'm not watching the TV. The list of reasons is so extensive I struggle to find the right place to start:

* The Chinese regime has supported the military junta in Burma for years; had the Chinese wanted to stop the suppression of monastically-lead pro-democracy demonstrations this year, it could have. It didn't.

*The Chinese regime conducting ethnic cleansing in Xinjiang, intentionally conducting nuclear tests upwind of population centers of Turkic Uyghur populations, releasing violent criminals into Xinjiang to help kill of the Uyghurs, and settling large numbers of heavily-armed ethnic Han Chinese to drive them out.

*The Chinese regime is destroying Tibetan culture, to such an extent that the Dahli Lama has threatened not to reincarnate himself in Chinese-controlled Tibet, so oppressive is the environment.

*The Chinese regime and its various state-owned industries stealing American commercial secrets left and right. This is not free trade, this is industrial espionage, intellectual piracy. Under the guise of winning jobs for their own people, the Chinese regime demands that most products sold in China be made in China; this allows them to copy any and every design for products made there. (And have no doubts, they are copying with a vengeance.)

*The Chinese regime routinely hacks American networks, trying to steal military and political secrets from the government and contractors.

*The Chinese regime is busy subverting South Pacific island nations, as it tries to out-maneuver Taiwan for diplomatic influence in the region. This subversion has included - but is not limited to - support for the coup in Fiji.

*The Chinese regime has armed the Taliban, thereby threatening the lives of Afghans, Americans and their other allies, and delaying democracy and development in that nation.

*The Chinese regime suppresses democracy at home, heavily censors the internet (including this website), makes use of slave labor, oppressing the Catholic Church, poisons its own rivers and engages in more abuses than I have time to type.

*Oh, yes. And the Chinese regime has displaced 1.5 million of its own people to build the Olympic Park in Beijing. And you thought use of eminent domain was out of control here...

Two pounds of coffee is the new bottle of wine.

2007-11-28T10:46:00.000-05:00

I was reading the DCist, and came across this article. I knew that coffee was big, but not this big.

Check out the article.

Rather than bringing a bottle of a nameless, never-tried bottle of Pinot Noir to your holiday parties, bring something the hosts will actually remember that it was you who brought it. Bring something that they'll be thankful for the morning after two too many egg nogs or a night of putting up with the relatives in town for Hanukkah. Bring them Joe....

I don't know if I fully agree. But it's something to think about anyways

Et tu, Carson?

2007-11-27T16:24:00.000-05:00

Just when you thought you knew him, Carson Daly turns out to be a bigger ____ than previously thought. (I invite all Quincy Blog readers to fill in the blank in the combox.) Looks like he's going to cross the picket line:

NBC's "Last Call with Carson Daly" is about to become the first late-night talk show to defy the writers strike and resume production.

Technically, Daly isn't a member of the WGA -- would he qualify? -- but that doesn't mean he isn't bound by ancient strictures of honor, compassion, solidarity, and coolness. Nope, Carson Daly is too cool for coolness, and he has just poked a finger in the eye of the good guys.

Since this is the Quincy Blog, I guess I should also link to Rerum Novarum.

Keepers of the Lost Ark?

2007-11-27T15:51:00.000-05:00

A fascinating piece in the Smithsonian.

Jay·hawk·er (jā'hô'kər) n.

2007-11-24T11:13:00.000-05:00

Jayhawker: Guerrilla fighter from Kansas during the American Civil War, who often clashed with pro-slavery partisans (Bushwhackers) and Missouri militia units.

Organizers of the Jayhawkers included James H. Lane (R) and Charles "Doc" Jennison (pictured). Jennison's raids into Missouri were thorough leaving five counties in western Missouri wasted, save for the standing brick chimneys of the two-storey period houses, which are still called "Jennison Monuments" in the areas. Lane and his band of militants wore red gaiters, earning them the nickname "Redlegs", or "Redleggers". This moniker was often used interchangeably with the term "Jayhawkers" (although it was sometimes used to refer specifically to Jayhawkers who refused to join units officially sanctioned by the US Army). Lane's attack on Osceola, Missouri, inspired the Clint Eastwood film The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Within Kansas, the Jayhawkers were not always popular because, in the absence of federal support, they sometimes supplied themselves by stealing horses and supplies from farmers.

The Jayhawk is the official mascot of the University of Kansas.

The Original Thanksgiving Proclamation

2007-11-21T09:32:00.000-05:00

[New York, 3 October 1789]

By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God -- to obey his will -- to be grateful for his benefits --- and humbly to implore his protection and favor: And whereas both Houses have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a DAYof PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be--That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions--to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness onto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

Rust in Peace

2007-11-21T00:10:00.000-05:00

It is with some sadness that I write a heartfelt good bye to my car of four years. We have gone from the Pacific to the Atlantic together. You have been a faithful companion, and I will miss you. We don't always understand why the Lord takes away those we love but we have to trust that it was his plan for that minivan to take you from me. May you live on in that great scrap heap in the sky, (or Jersey as the case may be.)

Re: A new figure

2007-11-19T17:11:00.000-05:00

Here is a photograph which shows what I actually look like:

Sola Scriptura Strikes Again

2007-11-19T14:15:00.000-05:00

Nation & World | For polyamorists, three's not a crowd; it's just the start | Seattle Times Newspaper

The Ethanol Effect: When Alternative Fuels Go Bad

2007-11-19T13:54:00.000-05:00

A new figure

2007-11-18T23:21:00.000-05:00

You may notice a small change to the upper right hand corner of this website, which you have come to rely on for all of your quincy related information. No your eyes are not playing tricks on you. We are getting a new house mate, and I have finally had time to sit down and put together a proper image. I'm sure that you will all give him a warm welcome when he finally gets himself out to the east coast.

A Great Concert!

2007-11-13T09:27:00.000-05:00

Last night we at the quincy house were blessed to host a concert by musician Mike Mangione and his band. Thanks to everyone who came out and made the concert such a success.

If you notice people being a little more edgy than usual...

2007-11-09T10:41:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you have found that around the district tempers have gotten a little shorter. Well the reason may be the recent surge in Cocaine prices. The Washington Post reports that dealers are cutting cocaine quite a bit, and the national price of cocaine has risen 44% from January to September.

It's getting harder and harder to find the drug,

On a recent weeknight patrol, Officer Alvin Lytel was hunting for drug activity in Southeast Washington. He drove to 30th and Hartford streets, a spot normally filled with small-time dealers who shoot dice while they wait for cars with Maryland and Virginia license plates to drive up from nearby Southern Avenue to buy crack.

"These streets are empty out here," Lytel said, patrolling four spots in an hour before he found one with activity.

One must wonder what this is going to do to the legislative efficiency of our capitol.

90's Coffee

2007-11-07T17:29:00.001-05:00

Flier

Minnesota's Finnish guests find a rude airport welcome

2007-11-04T16:44:00.000-05:00

Minnesota's Finnish guests find a rude airport welcome

Bell---eh...

2007-10-31T16:04:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: It bears repeating that not all Quincy House residents, alumni, friends, sponsors, fans, well-wishers, etc., share the opinions of this post's author.

Barbara Nicolosi has some interesting thoughts on the movie Bella here. She describes much of what I had feared would be the case, and it fits with what I've been hearing from friends who have seen the movie.

I think the Bella phenomenon is another case of Calvinist-influences in our culture confusing a lot of Catholics as to what the relationship between the True and the Beautiful is. Producing a film with an aim of conveying the truth does not guarantee that the film will be beautiful; and furthermore, there's a way in which ugly art lies (and this is more than a simple matter of poor execution causing ambiguity), but that's another post...

A Little Close To Home...

2007-10-29T10:40:00.000-05:00

(Click to see larger image)

The Human Experience

2007-10-28T17:47:00.000-05:00

It seems there are a spate of Catholic movies being made these days; I recently received an email recommend for this one.

In terms of genre it looks to be rather interesting, something that sort of fits in the category of "documentary" but really pushes the boundaries of that label in a way that began only a few years ago.

To be honest, the trailer seemed a little bit over the top, playing up the evil and inhumanity in the world in a way that, while not strictly false, came off flat. Nevertheless, that could just be the trailer. A more interesting question might be that of audience: Who is this film intended for? Because - in spite of the name, The Human Experience - the film clearly takes a Christian, even Catholic view of the world. I happen to share such a world-view, but I wonder how marketable such a film is. If they're hoping for a broad market appeal, they may have shot themselves in the foot by dropping a few too many Christian images, using too much Christian language. Still, the very fact of the film's title suggests that they understand the basic idea behind a broad appeal: it has to be on the basis of that which all men share, namely the human experience.

On the other hand, perhaps the film is really only designed for consumption by Christians. And maybe that's not such a bad thing. While the goal these days is usually to make blockbuster films that will convert the whole world, a more limited task may be called for. After all, a film that specifically aimed at touching a Christian audience and encouraged them to live out their faith in a more vibrant way would have the virtue of being able to focus on doing a single thing and doing it well. Such a film would be addressing an audience which speaks the same language as its producers, the language of Christian faith. That's not a recipe for reaching the masses, but it might be just the sort of thing someone should do.

A Speech That Never Had To Be Given

2007-10-26T20:13:00.000-05:00

To: H. R. Haldeman, Chief of Staff
From: Bill Safire, Presidential Speech Writer

July 18, 1969

IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER:

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by the nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT:
The President should telephone each of the widows-to-be.

AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN:
A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep," concluding with the Lord's Prayer.

What's this movie actually about...?

2007-10-25T08:44:00.000-05:00

"Very Catholic." "Very pro-life." In spite of the intense media blitz, that's all I've really heard about the film Bella which - if you didn't know - comes out tomorrow. So I sat down and watched the trailer this morning. In the interest of adding some substance to all the noise, I figured I'd share it with you, readers of the Quincy House Blog.

We all do it...

2007-10-16T08:36:00.000-05:00

(Click image to see larger version)

Proof There's a Shortage of Peacemakers

2007-10-12T07:24:00.000-05:00

The BBC reports:

Climate change campaigner Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee cited "their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change". Mr Gore, US vice-president under Bill Clinton, said he was "deeply honoured".

Did no one reconcile warring factions or netogiate a peace process or dig up land mines in the last year?

Sign of a Culture in Trouble: Commuter Marriages

2007-10-11T21:44:00.000-05:00

An article I read recently in Time Magazine truck me as particularly disturbing and worthy of sharing. There's a growing trend of married couples living at long distances. Quite euphemistically--and ironically, I might point out--these cases are being terms "commuter marriages." But whatever you call it, there are now millions of American's living this way.

Unconventional? Yes. Unusual? Not exactly. Commuter marriages, in which couples live apart for long stretches, are multiplying. Their number jumped 30%, to 3.6 million, from 2000 to 2005... While military deployments, migratory jobs and economic need have long forced couples around the world to live apart, in America today, it is more often the woman's career that drives the separation.

Whereas in the past it was expected that the wife would, whenever possible, follow her husband wherever his career took him, this is no longer the case. Now she can have her job in New York and he can have his in Los Angeles, and everybody wins, including the kids:

Even the arrival of kids doesn't necessarily end the arrangement. The [2005] census counts 817,000 children under 18 who have married parents living apart for reasons other than marital discord.

Of course, if there are roughly 3.6 million commuter marriages this means less than 1 child per 4 commuter marriages, so most of these couples just aren't having kids.

But why marry then? No kids. No time with your spouse. Why bother?

Is it the safety of retaining the independence of being self-actualized in one's career (whatever that means) while at the same time possessing an other and avoiding the unpleasant business of getting to know him/her in the kind of up-close and person way cohabitation entails? Is it easier? Whatever the reason, it's a distressing trend.

Muslim scholars reach out to Pope

2007-10-11T13:28:00.000-05:00

Just in from the BBC:

More than 130 Muslim scholars have written to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders urging greater understanding between the two faiths. It was also sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the heads of the Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist churches, the Orthodox Church's Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I and other Orthodox Patriarchs.

The letter says that world peace could depend on improved relations between Muslims and Christians. It identifies the principles of accepting only one god and living in peace with one's neighbours as common ground between the two religions. It also insists that Christians and Muslims worship the same god.

The letter comes on the anniversary of an open letter issued to the Pope last year from 38 top Muslim clerics, after he made a controversial speech on Islam. It also coincides with the Eid al-Fitr celebrations to mark the end of Ramadan.

The letter, entitled A Common Word Between Us and You, compares passages in the Koran and the Bible, concluding that both emphasise "the primacy of total love and devotion to God", and the love of the neighbour. With Muslims and Christians making up more than half the world's population, the letter goes on, the relationship between the two religious communities is "the most important factor in contributing to meaningful peace around the world." "As Muslims, we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them - so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes," the letter says. It adds: "To those who nevertheless relish conflict and destruction for their own sake or reckon that ultimately they stand to gain through them, we say our very eternal souls are all also at stake if we fail to sincerely make every effort to make peace and come together in harmony."

One of the signatories, Dr Aref Ali Nayed, a senior adviser at the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme at Cambridge University, told the BBC that the document should be seen as a landmark. "There are Sunnis, Shias, Ibadis and even the... Ismailian and Jaafari schools, so it's a consensus," he said. Professor David Ford, director of the programme, said the letter was unprecedented. "If sufficient people and groups heed this statement and act on it then the atmosphere will be changed into one in which violent extremists cannot flourish," he said in a statement.

The letter was signed by prominent Muslim leaders, politicians and academics, including the Grand Muftis of Bosnia and Hercegovina, Russia, Croatia, Kosovo and Syria, the Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the former Grand Mufti of Egypt and the founder of the Ulema Organisation in Iraq.

The full text of the letter can be found in PDF on the BBC's website.

Does Doubt Belong to Faith?

2007-10-02T12:04:00.000-05:00

First Things has an interesting piece I recommend reading here. While there has been quite a lot said on the subject of Bl. Teresa of Calcutta's 'doubt' since the publication of Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, I think this brief article by Fr. Edward Oakes, S.J. addresses the heart of it.

Mother Teresa’s darkness was a direct result of the actions of Jesus on her soul... she became Christ’s own chosen instrument, living out the same reparative suffering that had already brought redemption to the world—but which now has to be continued by the members of his Body, the Church.

We in the Church are all called to shared in Christ's reparative suffering. This is the way of Love.

Parenthood at VMI

2007-09-28T14:19:00.000-05:00

The Virginia Military Institute is one of those places that holds onto tradition like it's going out of style (which, in most places, it is). One of the most famous features of VMI is their honor code: "A cadet does not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do." For those who violate the code, there is only one punishment: a midnight expulsion ceremony known as a 'drum out.' The entire student body assembles on the parade ground and it is announced that the offender has chosen personal gain over the good of the institution and its honor. They then depart, never to return, their name never to be uttered in its halls again. Serious business...

While poking around on the internet about the Honor Code, I discovered an intriguing article written last year. A certain Nicholas Provenzo complained that VMI's throwbackishness is even more pervasive than previously thought. As the Student Handbook explains:

All VMI cadets must live in Barracks and participate in a demanding and rigorous military program that does not permit attention to the duties implicated by marriage or parenthood. Pursuant to the policy adopted by the Board of Visitors, any cadet who marries or becomes a parent is expected to resign from the Corps. Absent voluntary resignation, should the Institute confirm that a cadet is married or the parent of a child, such cadet shall be separated from the Corps for failure of eligibility at the end of the semester in which the information is received and confirmed. For the purpose of the policy, the responsibilities of parenthood are deemed to begin upon a cadet’s learning that a child has been conceived as a result of his or her conduct.

Yes, that's right. It is official VMI policy that marriage and parenthood involve duties. What's more, parenthood - and by extension, life itself - begins at conception. The tone of Mr. Provenzo's article is livid:

VMI’s policy is nothing more then a cheap way of smuggling anti-abortion policy into the Institute.

He goes on to complain,

I think VMI’s current anti-abortion policy is even worse that its previous refusal to grant admission to women. At least that policy could be defended, however benightedly, on the grounds of long-held tradition.

And belief in life from conception is not traditional? The way St. Luke writes at the beginning of his gospel you sort of get the suggestion that maybe John the Baptist and Our Lord were persons even before they were born...

In any case, props to the Virginia Military Institute for getting this one right.

Art and Culture in the War of Ideas

2007-09-26T10:42:00.000-05:00

Supporters of the Iraqi insurgency have begun producing Hollywood-style movie posters, most based on horror or action movies, satirizing the American military. While the precise origin of the posters is unclear, Britain's Sky News, the only media outlet to cover the matter, reported this summer that the images are proliferating on Islamic extremist websites, which attribute them to the insurgents themselves.

One blogger who picked up the story noted that the insurgents "show a native fluency in American popular culture." This indeed raises a variety of questions about culture, popular or otherwise.

Is culture the type of thing that can be used or abused?

Is art merely techne, the ability to craft something well? In that case, might we call this latest propaganda campaign by these mufsidun "good art"? Or does art necessarily have a moral dimension?

Finally, do cultures have an innate value, or are all equal? As a practical matter, should we be studying the enemy, in order to bring this sort of propaganda to his camp, or is there something inherently wrong with this, if his culture is intrinsically disordered? Is his culture so disordered?

Monks lead largest Burma protest

2007-09-24T10:26:00.000-05:00

This just in from the BBC:

Tens of thousands of monks and civilians around Burma have held the biggest protest marches against the military government yet. Eyewitnesses say up to 100,000 people marched peacefully through Rangoon with monks demanding better living conditions and national reconciliation. The military government has so far showed restraint over the protests. Monks are highly revered in Burma and any move by the junta to crush their demonstrations would spark an outcry.

The Hobbit: Not Human?

2007-09-23T13:45:00.000-05:00

Discovery Channel :: News - Archaeology :: The Hobbit: Not Human?

A Very Cool Music Video

2007-09-20T22:45:00.000-05:00

I love the song and the video--well, it speaks for itself.

Human tragedy and inhuman acts

2007-09-20T08:08:00.000-05:00

Can bimbos become Bernhardts? A gasp of consternation went out from cinemagoers on first learning that the lead role in A Mighty Heart, the screen adaptation of Mariane Pearl’s memoir of her husband Daniel’s kidnapping and killing, would be played by Angelina Jolie. Lara Croft in a reality-based political tragedy? Tinseltown’s top siren, the much-buzzed diva with the hornet-stung lips, as the widow of a beheading that set the benchmark for barbarity in an early chapter of present-day jihad?

Rest reassured. That Jolie can act is proved by this moving and modulated performance, as the woman whose husband became a casualty on the motoring map towards Middle East conflict resolution. Jolie’s French accent is a convincing start; the curly black wig and brown contact lenses help; the immersion in the role’s emotions is the clincher, an empathy possibly helped by the actress’s own friendship, preceding the film, with Mariane Pearl.

Michael Winterbottom (Welcome to Sarajevo, The Road to Guantanamo) is a savvy guide through the political jungle. Here he makes a virtue of information overload. Too many facts, not too few, feed this drama and its frustrations. The rumour mill, the real news, the disinformation of officials: Mariane tries to connect the dots on the chaotic wall chart in her home, but their prolixity keeps defeating her.

What is knowledge anyway? the film asks. Is it the “knowledge” of one character here, a Zionist-conspiracy theorist, that 4,000 Jews who normally worked in the Twin Towers did not turn up there on September 11? Is it the facts or half-facts gouged from men under torture (an instrument of persuasion used here by both sides)? Is it the news stories filed every day under restraints, constraints or, just as bad, the propagandist colouring of a writer and his newspaper?

Winterbottom and scenarist John Orloff resist an enactment of Daniel Pearl’s own ordeal. That would be their colouring-in of history. Instead the Wall Street Journal reporter, played by Dan Futterman, is seen mostly in flashbacks. These become poignant memory-retrievals for Mariane as she learns, scene by scene, to convert hope to realistic despair.

Could the story have been given a bigger acoustic? Should it have dared to give offence to westerners by letting the terrorists articulate, at greater length, their cause? (The Road to Guantanamo allowed Islam its say.) Probably not. The world is still too young to treat Pearl’s death as anything but the inhuman act that to feeling human beings it was. The film opts to depict a single but reverberant tragedy and does so with force, skill and a memorable central performance.

-Nigel Andrews, FT