General Archives
May 3, 2007
What's Right With the World
July 6, 2007
Raindrops on roses
One of my heroes is Alois Podhajsky. Podhajsky was the Austrian colonel who, during WWII, focused his considerable energy and passion on...horses. It's almost enough to make one laugh, or even get angry. There is the world, tumbling down, all too many innocent people dying and being killed everywhere in horrible ways, the great powers battling, good and evil duking it out. And this fellow, drafted by the Anschluss into the de facto status of a soldier on the wrong side, thinks and works entirely toward the end that the Lippizan horses of Austria, the Spanische Hofreitschule of Vienna, and the ancient art of dressage shall not perish from the earth. Is this not Quixotic, not to mention trivial?
December 22, 2007
Unto us a Child is born.
The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why.
— Chesterton
Merry Christmas to all!
January 10, 2008
Child Molester Given Probation by Wac[k]o Jury
An 82-year-old child molester, Tommy George, has been given a sentence of PROBATION by a jury here in Waco, Texas. (Read all about it here). How can this happen? A friend and colleague at Baylor offers an answer: "This is a Texas-Jury: `This is a guy we all like from the community; we know his kids; we can't lock him up.'"
Here's what one courtroom witness wrote online after the sentence of probation was handed down last October:
I was in the courtroom when the jury handed down the sentence of probation for Tommy George. After the decision was read, all of the lawyers and Tommy George went into the judges chambers for a few minutes. As he strolled out of the judges chambers, Tommy grinned and gave his family an energetic two thumbs up.No jail time. Just a little money, a few days in court, and one night a year with the other perverts at the Halloween Pervert Party. Unbelievable.
Bill O'Reilly should know about this.
February 21, 2008
My wife, Frankie's, stained glass work
You can find it here.
March 14, 2008
Dept. of Not Sure We Should Go There
Via Rod Dreher:
I'll confess to having a mild Luddite streak, which ranges from indifference to antipathy, where some modern technology is concerned (somehow, I suspect that this will not be altogether surprising to everyone); hence, while I can perceive the benefits of such technology, I harbour ambiguous premonitions of the possible misuses of a mature version of the technology. Regardless, the video clip is fascinating, in a tech-geek sort of way.
March 27, 2008
Lighter Fare
Abigail Lavin, writing in the Weekly Standard, reviews Oliver Lutz Radtke's Chinglish, a guide to misuses, miscues, and mutilations of the English language in China.
So far as I can tell, Chinglish falls into two categories: instrumental and ornamental. Instrumental Chinglish is actually intended to convey information to English speakers. Ornamental Chinglish is born of the fact that English is the lingua franca of coolness. Meaning aside, any combination of roman letters elevates a commodity--khaki pants, toilet paper, potato chips--to a higher plane of
chic by suggesting that the product is geared toward an international audience.
This is also a pop-cultural phenomenon in the Former Soviet Union, albeit on a much lower level of frequency. It typically involves nonsense phrases in English emblazoned on articles of
clothing, intended to convey an air of youthfulness and joie de vivre.
Such usages often aim for a certain effect, not so much of transgressiveness as of chic, though the means often veer off into the transgressive:
Lighter Fare II
Prima facie I find it difficult to fathom this level of hostility toward a mediocre rock band - and this is, in fact, what the group in question are: neither among the best nor among the worst in the genre, particularly by comparison to what else was current and on the Homogenized Corporate Radio playlists between 1997 and 2002 or so. I can comprehend being put off and scandalized, perhaps, by mediocrity, having spent seven years studying classical piano; but the hatred - even granting that Suderman is piling on the hyperbole - strikes me as excessive. Seriously, if we're talking about popular acts, past and present, thriving and lingering, there are legions of others far more deserving of detestation. Spice Girls, anyone?
April 1, 2008
What's Wrong with the World to Close
Dear Readers,
Effective at 10:33PM Central Time, I will be closing down What's Wrong with the World. The domain will go dark completely at midnight. Backups of the database, comments and site layout have been sent to the editor, Paul J. Cella if he wishes to continue this site elsewhere.
Due to recent changes in my political philosophy, I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to run this site.
Notes on Music
Apropos of recent discussions of the vocation of the artist under the conditions of modernity, it would be well to note that Sunday was the birthday of Josef Haydn, while today was the birthday of Sergei Rachmaninov.
Without delving into comparative criticism of various recordings and performances, I'd recommend, well, anything by Haydn, but especially the Masses, the magnificent oratorio, The Seasons, and the sublime Piano Trios. For Rachmaninov, I'm partial to the settings of the Divine Liturgy and All-Night Vigil, particularly this performance of the Liturgy by a Russian church choir and this recording of the Vigil.
Elsewhere at Taki's, Richard Spencer takes up the question of just why contemporary music is so dreadful, providing links to a pair of aural atrocities that are not to be missed. The first, in particular, had me descending into the torments of migraine in less than 30 seconds. Among other things, he observes that
There’s also no evidence that our age is any more “commercial” than the putatively golden one—Die Zäuberflöte was a beer-hall musical; Verdi was always questing for the latest “blockbuster”; and even Wagner, the ultimate anti-social composer, brought out mechanical floating Rheinmädchen for the premiere of his Ring sage.
It is an observation which I must contest. The difference between our aesthetically blighted age and that of these composers, for example, is precisely that between a society coasting on the legacy and forms of an aristocratic, Christian civilization, and one in which commercial, quantitative values have pushed art to the fringes, where one might compose a helicopter string quartet. Die Zäuberflöte may have been popular fare of a sort, but this was because higher expressions of popular culture were then authoritatively shaped by those Christian-aristocratic hangovers; grace, we might say, elevated nature. In fine, an aesthetically traditionalist nobility was a tremendous boon to artistic excellence, while the displacement of that nobility by liberal, modernizing, commercial elites - a gradual process, to be certain - set the timer on the vitality of the Western tradition. The contemporary version of an aristocracy, the meritocracy, will not get the job done, first, because where the old aristocracy saw patronage of the arts as a function of its social position, the meritocracy can only view such patronage voluntaristically, and second, because the meritocracy is an elite premised on the very quantification that banishes the arts: IQ, test scores, credentials, the most materially remunerative positions, etc. The meritocracy is the distillation of the utilitarian, calculating ethos of the age, which remains inimical to art.
April 29, 2008
Baubles of the Meritocracy
I have a modest collection of comparatively modest mechanical timepieces, having been fascinated by them since childhood, when, at that early age, my interest in them prompted me to reflect upon the goods of craftsmanship, the wastefulness of the disposability/planned obsolescence culture, and the impermanence of material things generally. Yes, I did think about this stuff in elementary school. Yes, I was a weird kid, something impressed upon me by my peers, and ratified by the adults in my world, who occasionally remarked that I was growing up before my time. Hence, my interest in this story about a $300,000 watch that doesn't tell time, and therefore isn't really a watch.
What’s most impressive about the Day&Night is its complexity, given its absolute uselessness. The watch features two tourbillons — devices that overcome the ill effects of earth’s gravity on a watch’s accuracy — connected by a differential mechanism. Instead of hands, the watch has a “contemplative tourbillon operation whereby the ‘Day’ tourbillon operates for 12 hours to symbolize working life, while the ‘Night’ tourbillon takes over afterward to represent an individual’s private time.”
May 11, 2008
Housekeeping
The purpose of this notice is to announce that the comments feature of my earlier post, At What Point Does This Slot Into a Larger Narrative, has been disabled, not as a means of foreclosing upon discussion, but because, the discussion having arrived at first principles, it will be more fruitful for it to continue in a new thread. A new entry elaborating on that earlier discussion should be posted later today, although it will probably have to wait until I have prepared dinner for my wife and my mother - it being Mother's Day, after all.
June 18, 2008
Why? Because, Without Beauty, Life Is Void of Meaning
I know that the objection will be raised that the piece is being played prestissimo. This is one of the points of contention between partisans of period instrumentation and performance, and the skeptics, as some scholarly evidence suggests that pre-romantic tempos were faster. Nevertheless, the performance seems a good one, and the Allegro of Bach's fifth Brandenburg Concerto features what may be the first cadenza in the keyboard repertoire. To this day, twenty years after first hearing it, it enchants me; it retains the capacity to startle and delight with its inventiveness and novelty. It was, perhaps, a small thing in its time, but it was far in advance of that time.
July 27, 2008
Stupid Credit Card Thief
Some idiot named "John" ordered flower arrangements that he sent to two women on the same day, at the same time, from the same vendor with my credit card, while my wife and I were in the air flying home from Las Vegas to Texas. Here's what the moron wrote to the woman named, "Marie B*******":
I am sending this to show you how much you mean to me. I really cant [sic] wait to meet you in person. John.
Here's what the moron wrote to the woman named, "Laurie W********":
I am sending this to show you how much you mean to me. I really cant [sic] wait to meet you in person. John.
We requested the bill from Amex, which included not only the above sentiments, but the addresses and names to which and to whom these floral arrangements were supposed to be delivered. (They happen to both be in Arizona).
Because Amex has refused to remove the nearly $200 worth of charges after "their investigation," it's time for Frank Beckwith, internet sleuth, to kick into high gear.
I will not only remedy this financial wrong, I may save two damsels from a first class jerk. Wish me luck!
Update: It only took me about 61 minutes--with the help of google, online county property and business records (in Maricopa and Yavapai) as well as the Mac white pages widget--to find Marie's real address and phone number as well as Laurie's email address, real address, and place of employment. Neither one apparently lives alone. It looks like Marie lives with her husband and Laurie with a man that does not share her last name. Why couldn't the Amex "investigators" do this? I already emailed Laurie. I plan on calling Marie tomorrow.
July 29, 2008
To Bearly Go?: Baylor physicists propose way to travel faster than light
Nathan Wade blogs on the Waco Tribune-Herald web site:
Baylor University physicists Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy have submitted a paper to ArXiv.org explaining how an engine could bend the rules of physics to travel faster than the speed of light without violating Einstein’s theory of relativity.According to Discovery News, the proposal “involves expanding the fabric of space behind a ship into a bubble and shrinking space-time in front of the ship. The ship would rest in between the expanding and shrinking space-time, essentially surfing down the side of the bubble.
“The tricky part is that the ship wouldn’t actually move; space itself would move underneath the stationary spacecraft. A beam of light next to the ship would still zoom away, same as it always does, but a beam of light far from the ship would be left behind.
“That means that the ship would arrive at its destination faster than a beam of light traveling the same distance.”
Scientists who understand what this means and want to know more, click here.
July 31, 2008
Bob Dylan's 8th Bootleg Series Album, "Tell Tale Signs," to be released in October
You can read about it in Rolling Stone Magazine online here. (cross-posted)
Update: USA Today includes a video of one of the album's live numbers, "Ring Them Bells." You can see the video on this page (click "Play Video" on the right). Here are the lyrics:
September 9, 2008
J. P. Moreland's Wonmug illustration
Here is an interesting illustration offered by my friend J. P. Moreland:
September 24, 2008
Free Bob Dylan Download: Mississippi
To celebrate the October 7 release of the new Bob Dylan album, Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8, bobdylan.com is allowing fans until September 29 to download a free copy of a song from that album, "Mississippi." Although a version of this song appeared on the 2001 album, Love & Theft, the version on Tell Tale Signs is an outtake from 1997's Time Out of Mind, winner of the album of the year Grammy Award. Here are the lyrics to "Mississippi":
September 25, 2008
Bob Dylan Halloween Costumes
Courtesy of Boing Boing:
October 15, 2008
My 30-Year High School Reunion
I just got back from 7 days in Las Vegas for my 30-year high school reunion. I graduated in 1978 from Bishop Gorman High School in Vegas, the city where I grew up. Here are some pictures of the October 11 party that I posted on my website, francisbeckwith.com. My wife and I had an amazing time. It was great to catch up with so many friends, two of whom, Jaime Holcomb and Ricardo Hawkins, were my teammates on Gorman's first big school (AAA) state championship basketball team (1978). Also present was Bob Glennen, with whom I was on both the track and cross-country teams.
December 27, 2008
Me as Santa, December 24, in Las Vegas
I was asked to play Santa Claus at the home of my brother, James, in Las Vegas on Christmas Eve, December 24. Here are some photos of the festivities:
l. to r.: Santa solo, Santa with my sister Lizzie (34) and her daughter Frances (9 months), Santa and my nephew Dean (17), and Santa with Dean's brother, Dylan (16). Dean and Dylan are the eldest sons of my brother, James (46), an optometrist practicing in Las Vegas.
January 13, 2009
A great win.
Friends, if you'll excuse this athletic interlude:
Wake Forest men's hoops had a great win Sunday night over North Carolina, pushing them to #2 in one poll and #3 in another. It was a magnificent performance, above all because they played so well down the stretch. With Carolina shooters starting to heat up in the last 4:00, knocking down three-pointers regularly for the first time all night, Wake kept its cool, got the ball to its best guard Jeff Teague -- who has blossomed into a star this year -- and let him hit free throws after driving hard and getting fouled. Smart, disciplined play to close out a tough opponent; there are few things more impressive in basketball than that.
Wake has been an excellent home team for many years. This year the team knows they can beat anyone at home. No small prize in confidence, that. Big wins away from the friendly hardwood at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Collesium is another question. They won at BYU two weeks ago, which was no small feat considering that BYU had not lost at home in 50-some games, but now we're in the midst of the ACC schedule, and those other teams are going to be waiting to pounce on a #2 for a huge upset.
We need to continue the trend of smart, disciplined play. The big, agile swingmen -- L. D. Williams, James Johnson and al-Farouq Aminu -- need to settle down, play a bit more patiently, and work on their outside jumpers. Ishmail Smith accepting his role as second ball-handler, not a scorer, may persist as something of a challenge for coach Dino Guadio. But by golly that win over Carolina was no fluke. This team is for real.
I think Carolina was surprised that we were able to match them athletically. For instance Carolina frequently had a hell of a time in-bounding the ball through our defenders. Few teams can say this, but we combined strength and size with dexterity and speed as well as even the mighty North Carolina Tar Heels, and it disconcerted them.
Shooting is still a bit of a question. Teague just aint gonna score 34 for you every night. He'll shoot poorly, or be neutralized by an aggressive defender. The ACC teems with smart, tough, aggressive defenders at the two position. So there will be games where scoring will have to come from some other guard, and we are light on guards.
Still, that and a couple other worries aside, Wake Forest appears to have a backetball team comparable in potential to the Chris Paul teams of earlier in the decade.
January 15, 2009
September flashbacks.
I’m starting to have flashbacks to last September. It’s not a pleasant feeling. The banking sector is clearly still in dire straights. Financial stocks have plotted an almost unbroken decline since the first of the year. Citigroup announced this week a rather desperate plan to dismember itself. It is expected to report a staggering $10 billion loss for the 4th quarter of 2008.
Meanwhile, Bank of America has been pleading for a second bailout, and according to The Wall Street Journal, likely to get it — which would earn it the distinction of being third company in the last four months bailed out by the government twice. At stake is BofA’s commitment to purchase the distressed securities firm Merrill Lynch, which deal, if it failed, could be another Lehman-like detonation.
The excellent website Baseline Scenario reproduced a Bloomberg chart showing that credit default swaps on the banks are creeping back toward September levels. And one thing (maybe the only thing) that CDS is good for is this: predicting a company’s approaching agony.
Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke bluntly told us Tuesday that more capital injections will probably be necessary; and even the President-elect hinted that it would be “irresponsible” not to have that second TARP tranche ready for new emergencies, so he asked President Bush to request it. The latter duly obliged.
Elsewhere, hedge fund redemptions are still accelerating. “Cry me a river,” you say? Fair enough. But I think it is also fair to conjecture that the one prominent feature of the early Great Depression which we have mercifully avoided (if the extraordinary Fed and Treasury activity did nothing else, at least it accomplished this) is massive bank runs. Our economy today is much more sophisticated than that of the 1930s — instead of bank runs we get hedge fund runs.
In a word, we’re not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.
UPDATE: Don’t miss Francis Cianfrocca’s post on the resurgence of the banking crisis. His succinct and mournful summary: “You just accept that the biggest moral-hazard-creating event in world history is preferable to not having a banking system at all.” He recommends revisiting the original TARP plan, specifically in the form of a “First National Bad Bank of the United States,” which would be chartered to
issue debt on a full-faith-and-credit guarantee, possibly with an agency-like imprimatur that would generate a few extra basis points of yield. It would be used to buy up maybe half a trillion dollars’ worth of asset-backed paper from banks, and simply hold to maturity. [. . .]As with a hedge fund, the point would be to capture the risk-adjusted yield from the asset portfolio and repay the investors. Risk is simply the credit risk of the portfolio, because the purchases would be non-leveraged. (The low cost of capital makes this possible.)
Downsides? Well, there’s the moral hazard of course. The banking system will never return to full-normal because everyone will know how rigged and nationalized it is. This effect will last for at least a generation. More than a generation, if the textbooks start getting rewritten to reflect a new dogma that private enterprise doesn’t really work in banking.
That’s were we are, folks: up a creek, and our only paddle is a bizarre sort of thing that slaps you in the face every time you row.
January 16, 2009
Heroes
As some of you may know, I am a private pilot. I am licensed to fly land-based single-engine airplanes, and I have an instrument rating which permits me to fly in the clouds and in bad weather. I am also a licensed helicopter pilot.
All of that makes me about as qualified to comment on yesterday's extraordinary aviation accident as the average weekend golfer is to comment on the performance of Tiger Woods.
My comment, succinctly, is: Wow.
I don't know of any other successful intentional emergency water landing (ditching) of a large modern airliner, other than yesterday's. The survival rate for ditching in a small plane is actually remarkably good; but there just aren't any data points to go on for large airliners. Airliner engines and systems are incredibly reliable, which is component of why, mile for mile, airline travel is safer than any other form of travel -- even bicycles or walking. But part of what that means is that in the history of aviation, before yesterday, there have been no successful emergency large airliner landings on the water, despite all the time spent by stewardesses telling us what to do in case it happens.
It is possible that Ethiopian Airlines 961 might have achieved this feat if the pilot had not been fighting with hijackers in the middle of the ditching. I certainly view Captain Abate and co-pilot Yonas Mekuria as aviation heroes; Abate seems to be something of a hijacker magnet, having been hijacked twice before the Flight 961 accident. But in any case it is a very different story from yesterday's story.
Then there is Japan Airlines 2, which landed short of the runway at San Francisco International in 1968. Captain Asoh may not be the hero in the accident, but you have to give him credit: when he took the stand in front of the NTSB, upon being asked why he landed in the shallow water short of the runway, he replied "As you Americans say, I f***ed up." When you hear a pilot say "I was just being an Asoh", unlike Captain Asoh, he isn't using profanity: but like Captain Asoh, he is manning up to his mistake.
If you want the definition of a cool customer, though, you need look no further than Captian Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III and co-pilot Jeff Skiles. Over densely populated New York City, these men were faced with the unthinkable: bird strikes had taken out both of their engines. And while takeoffs are optional, landings are not. I read a rumor that the initial plan, in the first seconds after the loss of the engines, was to glide to Teterboro airport for a dead-stick landing on a runway; this kind of thing has been done before.
But there wasn't enough altitude: the choice was buildings or freezing cold water. Looking back during those crucial moments, history provided no comfort. Ahead and below them was death, not merely their own deaths but their passengers' deaths too, 155 souls, and possibly the deaths of others on the surface. But they followed the pilot's mantra: fly the airplane. Never stop flying the airplane, not until you are dead and can't fly it anymore; fly it into and through the crash, as long as you have any control.
And that is just what they did.
January 30, 2009
Revolting Cuisine
An "appreciation" of two of the vilest foodstuffs concocted by members of our race, this article on hakarl and Vegemite is not to be missed. One cannot fail to be impressed by a piece of writing which likens the horrific experience of eating Hakarl to being told by the Almighty that Who Moved My Cheese?, that breathtakingly obscene bit of corporate human-resources agitprop (Its message is essentially that workers should learn to love being treated as fungible pieces of meat, and that this is liberating.), and not the Good Book, is one's scripture. Nor can one fail to be entertained by writing which associates the evil of Vegemite, with its red and yellow label, with other red and yellow indicators of evil. Such as international communism.
February 6, 2009
More prayers
If you would, please spare a moment of prayer for the family and friends of Mark Kilmer, my friend and colleague at Redstate who lost his battle with cancer this week.
He was a man of humor and insight, who served the Lord Jesus Christ in word and deed. Several years ago we learned of his throat cancer, and received a regular series of profound and moving email updates on his ordeal with that illness, which he eventually conquered. But the cancer returned this year, and, with shocking speed, he was gone.
May those who knew and loved him find comfort in the assurance that the promises of Christ are true. Even in our grief we may cry, boldly, defiantly, with St. Paul, "O Death, where is thy victory?"
February 11, 2009
The Onion: FDA Approves Depressant Drug For the Annoyingly Cheerful
HT: Frankie Beckwith
February 13, 2009
Batwoman is a Red-Headed Lesbian
That is very troubling. I always thought she was a brunette.
Update for aristocles (Batgirl circa 1967, Yvonne Craig):
It looks like aristocles is right.
March 1, 2009
What's right with the world: hawks in your backyard.
A mating pair of Red-shouldered hawks have taken up residence in my back yard. We see them almost every day, perched stoically on a branch or gliding effortlessly through the oaks and maples. Magnificent birds. I have yet to witness a kill, though I have seen them active down on the ground in a way that suggests I just missed one. With any luck, these two will deplete the local population of squirrels, chipmunks and moles that have been laid waste to the lawn I'm trying to cultivate.
[Another photo is below the fold.]
Continue reading "What's right with the world: hawks in your backyard." »
March 15, 2009
Bring it on, Mr. President
My brother Jim Beckwith mailed this to the White House on January 25, 2009:
President Barack Obama: January 25, 2009RE: The Gym Beckwith Basketball Decathlon
Dear Mr. President:
Each year on the first Friday of the NCAA tournament I host at my home a basketball decathlon. It involves 10 events. Some are outdoor events on my sport court (free throw contest, 3-pt contest, longest shot, etc.) while others are “indoor” events which involve picking the college games played that day.
Since we share the same age and a passion for hoops, I am inviting you to participate this year. I generally have 12-15 guys about our age playing. This is my tenth year doing this, and each year I try to break in a rookie. You could be our rookie this year.
I think you will feel comfortable with the group. We do have a couple of Ivy Leaguers playing (Big Mike Brown a Penn All-American and Andy Gordon who graduated from Harvard Law School). Our group is very diverse, so race is never an issue. The incident with Joe Hong having to shoot with the yellow ball was sheer coincidence.
As soon as I get the RSVP’s from the other guys, I’ll send you a list of participants for security purposes. Senator John Ensign knows most of the guys, so you can probably just have him eyeball the list. In fact, the veterinarian who Ensign used to practice with, Doc Yach, plays in my event. He is left-handed and shoots 3-pointers Rick Barry style!
I will announce the outdoor events in a couple of weeks so you can begin practicing the skills necessary to win the cup. The indoor events are not announced until the day after selection Sunday, so I’ll need your e-mail to get that to you right away. You will only have a couple of days to ponder before making your choices.
If Danny Tarkanian can play with two artificial hips and my brother Frank Beckwith (#1 person of the year by Inside the Vatican magazine 2007) can travel from Notre Dame to nail a three, then certainly the leader of the free world can try his hand at speed shooting. The official invite is reprinted below:
Four score minus 70 years ago, Gym brought forth on the sportcourt a new event, conceived in his fertile mind, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal (even Christopher Reeves). The world will little note nor long remember the lame excuses of those who have declined to participate, but can never forget the valor of those that did.
You are invited to the 10th annual Gym Beckwith Basketball Decathlon:
Friday, March 20th, 9:00 a.m. The court opens one hour earlier. Lunch will be catered.
Please respond so that I know how many people I will defeat.
Gym
As of March 15, 2009, the President has not responded.
(For legalists out there, I wrote this, with the exception of this line and the last one, before the beginning of Lent).
April 15, 2009
My sister Elizabeth's forthcoming book, Raising the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation
My sister, Elizabeth Beckwith, is publishing a book this Fall with Harper Collins, Raising the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation. Above is a picture of her and the book's cover, which has just appeared online at Amazon.com, which includes this blurb about her:
May 4, 2009
New issue of The Christendom Review
Bill Luse writes,
Paul, the 2nd issue of The Christendom Review is now online. The special features section focuses on the legacy of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, The Modern Error on (in Rick's words) "the legal and moral obfuscations surrounding the court-ordered death of Terri Schiavo." I have an article in that section, but of particular importance is Lydia's, which demonstrates to my satisfaction that, contrary to the common wisdom, the law was not followed in bringing this woman to her end. It may also be the first time ever that anyone has attempted such a rebuttal based on all of the witness testimony from the 2000 trial. (The transcripts are available at her website.) Lydia has a follow-up article on this subject appearing in the June issue of Touchstone. Also to be found in the issue is a remarkable short story by Bill Miles, poetry by Anthony Esolen, and paintings by the brilliant Catholic artist, Timothy Jones. [I've looked at some of these; brilliant is right -- Ed.] Those who wish to support the site can do so by clicking on that link in the left margin to purchase a softcover edition of the Review. And as always there is a free pdf version available on the right.
The Christendom Review, like this site, exists only because of the generosity of Todd McKimmey, our webmaster extraordinaire.
May 15, 2009
Constitutional scholar Steven Gey's philosophical take on the establishment clause
In Professor Barbara Forrest's recent diatribe against me--brought to your attention, and ably refuted, by my colleague Ed Feser--she asserts the following: "I am indebted for this point to Prof. Steven Gey, who, unlike Beckwith, is both an attorney and a constitutional scholar." Ironically, in my recent Santa Clara Law Review piece in which I clarify my views on intelligent design, I briefly critique Professor Gey's philosophical take on the establishment clause of the U. S. Constitution's First Amendment. In order for readers of W4 to get an understanding of Professor Gey's scholarship, and what Professor Forrest perhaps finds so intellectually compelling about it, I reproduce below a portion of my article in which I assess Professor Gey's argument.
May 25, 2009
Happy 79th Birthday to My Father, Harold "Pat" Beckwith
(My Dad, me, and brother Jim in front of Caesar's Palace in 1968. And yes, that is our white Mercedes Benz)
Today my father turns 79. He has been the best father any man can hope to have. Here are some excerpts about my father from my book, Return to Rome: Confessions of An Evangelical Catholic (Brazos Press, 2009):
Continue reading "Happy 79th Birthday to My Father, Harold "Pat" Beckwith" »
May 30, 2009
Billy Raftery (1952-2009), R. I. P.
It is with great sadness that I report the death of my friend, Billy Raftery. I have known Billy and his wonderful parents and siblings since I was a student at St. Viator Elementary School in the late 1960s. During my years at Bishop Gorman High School (1974-78), Billy was the most enthusiastic fan and supporter. He bled orange and blue.
Billy lived a full and flourishing life, touching the lives of countless friends and admirers who had the privilege to cross his path. Although his time with us has been brief, his personal virtues and deep love for friends, family, and community have left an indelible mark on so many of us. Here his is obituary in this morning's Las Vegas Review Journal:
June 15, 2009
Not that there's anything wrong with that....
(Update: I just remembered that I had done this before, finding just the right poses in the four photos in question. Here it is, from 2008.)
I just took down a WWWtW entry in which I placed a poster that included Seinfeld and Newman next to each other, with me and Brian Leiter below. And the title was "Is Brian Leiter my Newman?"
Because, as all Seinfeld fans know, Jerry and Newman (not to mention Elaine, Kramer, and George) are jerks, I thought it would bring a little levity to the discussion by the parallel as well as our similar appearances.
In any event, my colleague, Jon Kvanvig, raised an objection to my entry on the Leiter blog. After thinking about it, I thought it best to take my entry down. Here are comments that I submitted to the Leiter blog, that may or may not be posted:
My colleague, Jon, makes a good point. And for that reason, I will take the poster down. I chose the photo of Brian because of the hand-folding that corresponded roughly to Neman's. This is why I cropped out the water bottles and the slouching. Aesthetic concerns were not foremost in my mind when putting this together. What I was looking for was similar poses.In any event, it was not intended to offend but draw a humorous parallel between the rivals on the 90s sitcom and the bantering between Brian and me. It was all intended for good fun. I am from a family of comedic types, including a sister who has a book coming out in October: Raising the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation
Nevertheless, I apologize for needless offense. My hope is that Brian and I can become friends. As I have noted on several occasions, I think his work in philosophy of law--especially a recent piece I linked to on southernappeal.org--is illuminating and insightful.
June 26, 2009
Jonah Goldberg on the media and Michael Jackson's death
Over at NRO, Jonah Goldberg offers some nice insights on the way the media have covered Michael Jackson's passing. Here is an excerpt:
[H]is relatively early death wasn’t “tragic.” He was one of the richest people in the world. He spent his money on perpetual childhood and he was perpetually with children not his own.Meanwhile, in the last ten days, we’ve seen or heard of remarkable people who’ve given their lives for freedom in Iran. We’ve heard of innocents killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the last decade, America has lost thousands of heroes in noble causes and thousands of innocent bystanders who were denied the simple joys of life through no fault of their own. Those deaths are tragic, and we're hard pressed to think of more than a handful of names to put with the long line of the dead.
If anything, Michael Jackson’s life, not his death, was tragic....
I feel sympathy for Jackson’s family and friends who understandably mourn him. But I can't bring myself to mourn him any more than I mourn the random dead I read about in the paper everyday. Indeed, I confess to mourning him less.
Every channel says this is a sad day for America. I agree. But not for the same reasons.
You can read the whole thing here.
(Originally posted on First Thoughts at First Things)
August 6, 2009
Transfigured by—consequentialism?
August the 6th is a spiritually important date in two ways. In the Catholic Church, it is the Feast of the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17: 1-8), which I celebrated by attending Mass this morning. The Transfiguration was a sign of who Jesus really is and what those who love him are destined, in our own smaller ways, to become; in Eastern Christianity, some people are alleged to have exhibited and/or seen the Uncreated Light that Peter, James, and John saw on Mount Tabor; in the West, some living folks who have undergone "near-death" experiences are certain they have seen it too. In American history, today is the 54th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. That day manifested, concretely, the then-new fact that humanity had developed the capacity to destroy itself by its own artifice. The spiritual stakes of history had been raised; the question is whether the gamble, now unavoidable, will turn out disastrously before the Second Coming. That question is spiritual because it turns, in large part, on that of what sort of morality will prevail.
Tangled Up in Yule: Bob Dylan Recording Christmas Album
You can read about it here. For those who are interested, in 2006 I published a chapter in the book, Bob Dylan & Philosophy: It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Thinking), "Busy Being Born Again: Bob Dylan's Christian Philosophy." You can find that chapter here.
August 10, 2009
Atheist Summer Camp
No singing Kumbya around the campfire, I suspect. Can't be any worse than the Ayn Rand School for Tots.
I guess this is atheism's answer to places like Summit Ministries, Wheatstone Academy, Franciscan University's Youth Outreach, and the forthcoming Augustine Institute College Student Summit.
August 14, 2009
Coffee and Markets
My friends Ben Domenech and Francis Cianfrocca have launched a regular podcast discussing finance, the markets and politics. “Coffee and Markets” airs most mornings here at Radio New Ledger. I have listened to a number now and found them fascinating.
We live in interesting times, and times saturated with errant opinion; discovering solid wisdom in the mass of competing media is not easy. So do yourself a favor and listen to Coffee and Markets.
(As a bonus you will learn how to properly pronounce Mr. Cianfrocca's surname.)
August 15, 2009
I guess he is a "complete unknown" with "no direction home"
Read about it here.
August 16, 2009
August 23, 2009
If Michael Vick were to comment on Brett Favre's Vikings' debut
"You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
August 28, 2009
Moving to NYC
I got the job I interviewed for last Wednesday in New York, and am very excited about it. Since I don't know yet whether my boss would approve my publicizing the job here, or even my continuing to blog on my own, I shall say no more for the time being. But I want to thank my "vast readership," both here and at Sacramentum Vitae, for their encouragement and support. God bless you all!
August 31, 2009
Busoni Piano Concerto, Op. 39, Prologo
This is the opening movement of a favourite piece of music, the sprawling, grandiloquent, and yes, in the end, despairing Busoni Piano Concerto. It may not measure up to the magnificence of, say, Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, but it is assuredly an eloquent and stirring summons to contemplation - of the remorseless passage of historical time, the disappearance of great civilizations, and our efforts to hold on to some portion of their achievements.
November 23, 2009
New Issue of The Christendom Review
A new issue of The Christendom Review, a literary journal edited by friends of What's Wrong with the World, is out. It features pieces by our own Lydia McGrew, as well as by former contributor Bill Luse. You will also find some wonderful selections of photography by our illustrious webmaster and technical director, Todd McKimmey.
Everything is online, but you can purchase a hard copy at Lulu Marketplace for a reasonable price. Bill generously gave me one of these hard copies last summer; I can attest that the quality is high. You can also support the journal financially at this link.
January 10, 2010
A Cornerstone of a Classical Music Collection
... May well be Leslie Howard's prodigious pianistic achievement, recordings of the complete works for solo piano of Franz Liszt. Liszt, a great admirer and promoter of many other composers and their works, transcribed many of his favourite works for piano, including many works originally composed for operas. For those familiar with the original works, hearing the Lizst transcriptions may enable one to hear the original works afresh, and to gain a renewed appreciation for the genius of Lizst, and his titanic contribution to pianistic literature. For those unfamiliar with either Lizst's works or those pieces he transcribed, these recordings afford a window on an entire universe of music: one can listen to a recording of a Lizst transcription, and be led on to realms of music discoveries.
As an example of one such transcription, here is Leslie Howard's recording of the transcription of the Overture for Les Francs-Juges, an opera Berlioz abandoned:
Part I:
Continue reading "A Cornerstone of a Classical Music Collection" »
January 11, 2010
My essay in The New Atlantis
In the last two years, the American political economy has undergone extraordinary transformations. The attempt to understand them will surely occupy economists, political scientists, historians, and many others for decades to come; it will be the work of generations. But already from today’s vantage, the shape of what went wrong is becoming clear, and the dangers posed by the U.S. response to the financial crisis are now visible in outline.
To read the rest, subscribe or look for the Fall 2009/Winter 2010 issue on newsstands.
January 28, 2010
New Contributor
What's Wrong with the World is pleased to announce that the esteemed Mr. Jeff Culbreath, after some importuning from other Contributors, has agreed to unite with us in waging polemical war against all the tiresome oppressions of our hyper-modern age. A Roman Catholic gentlemen of traditionalist bent and paterfamilias of a lively (and undoubtedly very noisy) California household, Mr. Culbreath has been a valued correspondent of mine for going on seven years now. I am honored now to count him a colleague as well.
Like his fellow Calfornian Ed Feser, Mr. Culbreath stands as a living witness to the fact that the Golden State is, as the Brits might say, not dead yet. He writes to us, also, from that fair state's rich and neglected interior: a quintessential American place of family enterprises, local festivals, old churches and old verities, which thrives despite the hungry gaze of collectivist politicians plotting its plunder and subjugation.
Here is the short bio he has supplied for us:
Jeff Culbreath is a married father of five, a bumbling rural homesteader, and a Catholic who attends the traditional Latin Mass. A fifth-generation Californian, he works for a small business located in a tiny farming settlement on the ancient Sacramento River. He is the unworthy patriarch of a family of musicians, his children playing both European classical and American traditional styles of music with eight instruments between them. Mr. Culbreath is happy to be considered a conservative, a liberal, a traditionalist or a radical, according to the prevailing norms of political discourse - but never a relativist, a modernist, or worst of all, a moderate. His political views are strongly influenced by the ideas of Russell Kirk, Richard Weaver, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, John Senior, Wendell Berry, G. K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc and many others, but above all by the social doctrine of the Catholic Church.