New Year's Resolutions:

I sketched out in brief the following list back in early December:


--More trips to the gym per week

--Eating healthier

--Losing weight

--Driving less

--Sleeping more

--Drinking even more water

--Reducing clutter in various aspects of life

--Eliminating virtually all talk radio of a toxic nature

--Maintaining and tightening my near-ban on all cable news and other television news

--Getting back to business

--Improving nutritional supplementation

--Smoking more cigars

--Eating less red meat

--Allowing myself to imbibe some alcohol again after implementing the rest of the above list

--Resolving as early in the year as possible my mother in laws housing situation which caused many things to go awry in the past couple of years but either way, no longer allowing this to get in the way of my personal and professional goals


I later appended the following to the list as of January 1st:

--Give even less of a shit overall in 2019 than I did in 2018.


With the publishing of this note, consider the above list as written to be official.

All things to the contrary notwithstanding.

A general principle worth considering...

(((AG)))
@AG_Conservative
If you have nothing nice to say after someone dies, with the rare exception of someone who is truly evil, decent thing to do is to just stay quiet. This isn't hard.

Crazy how many think it's alright to mock or be dismissive of the death of someone whose politics you don't like.
7:14 PM · Dec 30, 2018

A brief notation on the passing of an old friend a few months back has had me questioning since that time a few things for a while including if I even want to continue any involvement in this website and other projects for much longer.{1}

The additional passing of another friend in October of 2018 made me feel in conscience the need to say something about these two friends, the era that defined them, my debt to them, etc. Material composed for that purpose is now completed and will be published after Epiphany 2019. In the meantime, I wanted to take the opportunity of the fifth anniversary of the passing of F. John Loughnan to note that I will speak more about him and Bill Grossklas very early in the new year.

Merry Christmas John and Bill!

Note:

{1} There are some postings planned which have been prepared for publishing for quite some time. They will be published at some point in the new year-after that, I am not sure at the moment what else I want to do in these areas.

Ultra Briefly on an Important Anniversary:

Ten years ago today, I first made contact on Facebook with the lady whom I was later to marry. We celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary earlier this year and while I did not note that at the time, a tenth anniversary seems like a good one for such things; ergo, the purpose of this brief musing here.

Points to Ponder:

"[I]f you hear Santa say 'ho ho ho' and you start looking around to see if he was talking to you, I would suggest that should be a red flag that something in your life needs to change." [Me on Facebook (circa December 27, 2011)]

Briefly on a Blues Legend:

Albert King (AK) died on December 21, 1992. He was without a doubt the blues musician who influenced rock players the most{1} and he did this despite a technique that was uniquely his own -including tuning down the guitar a whole step and playing a right handed guitar left handed resulting in the strings being reversed. As a result of this, the strings most players pushed he pulled at and his ability to generate the crying sound that epitomizes the blues through bending was without parallel.{2} He was not a flashy player nor did he play very fast but he compensated for this with focus on all the other elements that go into being a well rounded player and sadly enough, these are areas that most players take little if any notice of.

Jimi Hendrix who is usually considered one of (if not the) best guitar players in history was terrified to stand onstage with King{3} as indeed anyone who was sane would be when AK was having a good night.{4} For the man known as "The Velvet Bulldozer" had such power and intensity in his playing but was also capable of playing very delicately with careful note inflections. His vibrato was first rate and he had a certain sass{5} to his approach which coupled with his tremendous size made for an imposing stage presence.

May he rest in peace.

Notes:

{1} He was put in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

{2} BB King noted in his own autobiography (not long before he noted that AK was "not my brother in blood but he was surely my brother in blues") that AK was able to bend notes in a way that would absolutely cut you in half.

{3} I am unaware of any other musician who could make this claim but then again, it was more than his style of playing that was intimidating but the man himself who stood six and a half feet tall and weighed a good 250 when in his prime.

{4} "I can't think of anybody who would go out onstage with Albert on a good night and not be absolutely terrified to play the blues next to him. That guy'll run over you like Amtrak." [Joe Walsh in Guitar World]

{5} "I don't know of anybody who can play sassier than Albert." [Stevie Ray Vaughan in Guitar World]

On President Trump and His Re-Election Odds:

This is a response to some comments seen on Facebook. My words will be in regular font. Without further ado...

[T]here is zero chance Trump will be re-elected if he runs. Why? Here are some factors: 

Number One - Trump lost the popular vote and only edged the Electoral Vote as a result of 70,000 votes spread across 3 states.

As a rule presidents win re-election by larger margins than their initial election. Obama is the only exception to this rule I can think of.

Trump has driven the economy southward, and it will be even more evident in the second half of 2019.

The economy is much better now than it was in 2016.

"It's the economy, stupid" never fails to drive voters away from a failing presidency.

See my prior comments.

Number Two - One of the states Trump relied on to put him over the top in the electoral vote count was Pennsylvania. The GOP in Pennsylvania has crashed and is in no position to bolster the rust belt coalition that got Trump over the EC hump.

Trump won with 304 electoral votes. Even assuming the same number of faithless electors in 2020 (which will not happen) and a loss of Pennsylvania, he would still have 284 electoral votes.

Number Three - The element in the Republican party that voted for Drumpf because they were spooked about Hillary, won't be taken in by that again - as represented by the suburban voters who crossed party lines to join the Blue Wave in the House elections.

Presidents usually lose congressional seats in midterms -in fact its only not happened twice since 1900 if memory serves (1934 and 2002). Claiming Trump will lose because he lost the average midterm House seats is quite ahistorical to put it nicely.

Number Four - Moreover, a significant number of Republicans have left the GOP since the election and now identify as Independents.

This also happened before 2016. Most Independent voters are former Republicans.

Trump is stinking it up with Independents.

You are forgetting it depends on whom the Democrats nominate. There are few options for them to have a candidate that is genuinely coalitional rather than a partisan factionalist. They pick from the latter and Trump is a lock to win reelection.

What does all this add up to? Trump still has a base, but the outer crust around that base is gone. Sure - his cultists will show up come hell or high water, but there just are not enough of them for lightning to strike twice.

Since so much of your math is erroneous, you might want to consider recalculation.

Points to Ponder:
(On the Manipulation of Pictures, Etc., In the Absence of Actual Argument)

[A] visceral reaction is not an argument. Ever. Good things *can* be unpleasant to look at. I eat sausage with a perfectly clear conscience. I send gifts to friends' children without any need for pictures of how the child came about. So a person's resort to pictures designed to evoke a visceral reaction immediately causes me to suspect him, on all subjects. [Victor Morton (circa September 28, 2006)]

I am still waiting to hear from the #NetNeutrality doomsday folks from a year ago...

The Internet Lives

The Origins and Approval of the Malines Conversations

More on Conservative Judicial Activism:

This to a certain extent continues the thread topic located HERE.

Roberts invented a farcical excuse to rule the unconstitutional law constitutional -- changing his vote from one to strike down the unconstitutional law to one to preserve it 

Actually, that is not true. Roberts did not go along with the absurd notion of the minority that they could not sever the mandate and therefore had to strike the entire statute. (Talk about judicial activism!) He was willing to strike the Medicaid expansion and the mandate but when told it was all or nothing, he sided with the backup argument of the government that the mandate could be read as a tax -incidentally, something the Senate themselves made clear before they passed the statute to begin with.

I do not see SCOTUS going along with the "it is not severable" nonsense this time around any more than they did previously. However, they could very well rule the mandate is no longer constitutional since it cannot be read as a tax anymore and has already been ruled unconstitutional under the commerce clause. (And thus sever it from the statute which would make the statute an unworkable mess.) If I was to guess offhand, that is what I suspect they will do with two of the most ardent (and in this case, hypocritical!) "it cannot be severed" folks from 2012 no longer on the court.

The funeral for The Weekly Standard has not even happened yet and Ace of Spades is already desecrating the corpse!

On Conservative Judicial Activism:

This is a continuation of sorts from the material located HERE. My words will be in regular font here.

If we get ideologues who happen to vote the way we like, then we are as guilty of using the Court to pass laws by fiat as the other side. No, thank you.

There are two ideologues on the court right now on the conservative side{1} and possibly a third.{2} On balance they are all good folks and rule as I think is appropriate 90-95% of the time but they also have activist tendencies here and there and as one who has spent literally decades railing against judicial activism,{3} it really makes me bristle when conservatives suddenly stop condemning activism on the court when it touches their pet issues.

The bulk of the conservatives did it on NFIB in 2012 when they sought to portray the bullshit that the mandate could not be severed from the ACA; ergo, they should strike the whole statute{4} and they did it here by cosigning a written dissent on a denial of ceriatori here: something that next to never happens because decisions to take a case or not are not supposed to be ideological. But because Planned Parenthood was on the case names here, the ideologues on the right just had to try and get it before them. While not the only two examples I could mention, they are two fairly notable ones, the former because it took the mask off the facade of conservative opposition to judicial activism as a matter of principle,{5} the latter because it seeks to make ideological a routine denial of ceratori which happens roughly 7920 out of 8000 times every term{6}or to put it in mathematical terms, 99% of the time.


Notes:

{1} Referring to Justice Thomas and Justice Alito.

{2} The jury is still out on Justice Gorsuch in that area.

{3} Here is just one example of many I could pull from the archives on this subject for anyone interested:

On the Previous Audiopost and Our Final Post on the Miers Nomination (circa October 27, 2005)

{4} This happened when the present website was suspended but I wrote elsewhere on my displeasure with this at the time.

{5} As opposed to a matter of convenience.

{6} And is being spun that way by clownservatard activists who are downright shameless in what they are doing.

Points to Ponder:

"You'd be amazed how much government you'll never miss." [Mitch Daniels]

#CocaineMitch
#TheTurtle

Turtle Found by U.S. Coast Guard with $53 million Worth of Cocaine Attached to It

Briefly...

I am reminded from time to time as with the responses from many on the right viz the SCOTUS denial of ceratori in two cases tangentially related to abortion that the right can be just as judicially activist as they frequently squawk about the left being.

Its as if many on the right see Planned Parenthood and are blinded to everything else. This case had to do with Medicaid and Medicaid funding which cannot by law be used for abortions.{1} So how on earth even taking the case would come within 10,000 miles of touching Casey is quite the Scooby Doo mystery. The more conservatives pull this activist crap, the less I trust them as a group to call fair balls and strikes.

Note:

{1} See The Hyde Amendment for details. 

Points to Ponder:

If "the base" stays at home in 2020 over the stupid wall not getting funded/built, they deserve to be dhimmis to the Dems for the next 50 years! [Me]

What Straight-A Students Get Wrong

A poignant bit from the link above:

"...If I could do it over again, I’d study less. The hours I wasted memorizing the inner workings of the eye would have been better spent trying out improv comedy and having more midnight conversations about the meaning of life..."

"One From the Vault" Dept.
(On Dialogue)

The following was originally planned as a column for Where Peter Is when I was still involved in that project.{1} It seems appropriate at the present time to revisit it with a few minor tweaks considering the material to be forthcoming on this humble website in the coming months. Without further ado

[It] seems appropriate before delving into the most controversial material that I have involved myself in for some time the importance generally speaking of how dialogue should be conducted yet almost never is -even among those of good faith. The principles are ones we can all benefit reflecting upon particularly when the matters of discussion are ones where emotions can override reason and logic: a problem that in this day and age is nearly an epidemic both within and without the Church.

With those factors in mind, the following is a flashback to the archives and material from a Joint Statement on Dialogual Principles that preceded a written dialogue on a controversial subject matter back in 2008...

---

It is with no small degree of chagrin that we take a jaded view of the lacuna in modern life of genuine dialogue. The latter when properly understood is both difficult and also potentially rewarding. Most definitely it is not aimless bantering or a series of monologues as much of what passes today for "dialogue" actually is. Instead, dialogue properly conceived and carried out contains a dynamic constituent to it. 

As Catholics we are the beneficiaries of ancient truths which to some extent admit of variations in application depending on particular times, circumstances, etc. However, there are also core principles which do not admit of an expiration date and which sadly we see given little if any accounting these days in much of what passes for public discourse. The degree of ignorance of people (some of whom considering what they claim for themselves should know better) of fundamental principles of proper conduct is appalling. There are however two ways to deal with this. We can either curse the darkness or try and light a few candles. With this statement of joint principles as well as the dialogue to follow, we intend to aim at the second approach. 

We have an interest both for ourselves individually as well as to assist the common good generally in handling this matter in accordance with principles that are at the core of how Catholics should conduct themselves when confronting another person with opposing views. But these are not principles which are strictly speaking matters of faith only. We believe faith and reason cannot contradict and that reason is a natural light given to us all by the Creator as one way we are made in His image. It is therefore a crime to denigrate reason the way many people do and sadly, not a few Catholics fall prey to this. 

We intend in this dialogue to show a proper respect for the rigours of proper logic and reasoning while doing our best to set an example for others of how a dialogue should be conducted. We trust that readers will see if they are of good will that in the sources about to be cited, while of an authoritative character for Catholics, the principles being touched on are and should be by logical extension universal. For example, there should be a general principle of what is and is not a dialogue and how one is properly conducted. We intend to propose one in this thread which will serve as a point of reference for us in the following undertaking but which has an applicability which we believe is universal. 

The ancient concept of dialogue was codified by Pope Paul VI in his inaugural encyclical letter as "[the] internal drive of charity which seeks expression in the external gift of charity" (Ecclesiam Suam). It therefore must have charity at its core which St. Paul declared was "patent, kind, not jealous, not pompous, not inflated, not rude, seeks not its own interests, is not quick tempered, kind, not jealous, not pompous, not inflated, does not brood over injury, does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth." (cf. 1 Cor. xiii,4-6). 

So if dialogue has at its core charity and all that term encompasses, this by logical extension means that the parties actually listen to one another. Clarifications if requested by one party are complied with by the other. If in the process, someone encounters a principle, an argument, an approach to something different than what they have seen before, it involves considering that information and seeking as far as possible to assimilate it into the matrix of their own view to the extent they can. It may even require modifying one's view either in part or wholly. 

Dialogue is indeed all too rare today because it takes genuine effort and shuns the kinds of strawman caricatures, sound-bytes, etc. that play into what passes for much of modern discourse. Pope Paul noted that the following characteristics should accompany a dialogue and we note them here as principles that we will endeavour to follow at all times on the subject before us as much as any other. 

First of all, dialogue requires by its very nature clarity or as Pope Paul noted "the dialogue demands that what is said should be intelligible" (Ecclesiam Suam 81). We will strive at all times to be intelligible to both each other as well as the readers of what we will present. 

Second, dialogue requires a degree of humility because as Pope Paul noted "[i]t would indeed be a disgrace if our dialogue were marked by arrogance, the use of bared words or offensive bitterness. What gives it its authority is the fact that it affirms the truth, shares with others the gifts of charity, is itself an example of virtue, avoids peremptory language, makes no demands. It is peaceful, has no use for extreme methods, is patient under contradiction and inclines towards generosity" (Ecclesiam Suam 81). 

We will certainly strive to persuade others to give consideration of our positions as they will be outlined. We will also in recognizing these principles not make a demand on each other or others -viewing what we will say and how we shall say it as either standing or falling on its own merits or lack thereof. 

Third, dialogue requires a confidence by both parties "not only in the power of one's own words, but also in the good will of both parties to the dialogue" (Ecclesiam Suam 81). We expressly recognize in each other the good will to dialogue and would ask of those reviewing what we will present the same courtesy as well. 

Fourthly, dialogue requires adaptation to the characteristics of the audience or "allowances for the psychological and moral circumstances of his hearer, (Mt 7.6.) particularly if he is a child, unprepared, suspicious or hostile" (Ecclesiam Suam 81). This is a difficult areas to navigate because people's understanding can vary significantly; we will however do our best which is all anyone can do really. Having noted the principles and procedures we intend to follow, a bit needs to be said on the subject of criticism itself. 

Society today has an overly critical component to it that often seems to want to criticize as if the latter is an end in and of itself instead of a means to an end. Fundamentally and in principle, neither of us has a problem with criticism -indeed we intend to criticize the positions of the other on the subject in question. But we do not intend criticism for the sake of criticism as that is of no value. In a dialogue, criticism can suit a useful purpose to enable people to explain themselves better, to account for weaknesses in one's position, etc. and therefore be of a constructive nature. It can also give people cause to reassess their views and (in the words of Benjamin Franklin) "question a bit of their own infallibility."

We are both willing to consider the possibility that we may be wrong and indeed it would seem strange for us to expect either each other or anyone reading what we write to reconsider their views where ours may be different if we somehow were unwilling to do the same thing ourselves. 

Another problem of modern life is the loss of a habit of mind that allows differentiation of arguments from quarrels with the result that disagreements or attempts at correction tend to be destructive rather than constructive. This is a trap we intend to avoid to the best of our abilities. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa August 10, 2008)]

The above material can be viewed as a formalization of how I approach the subject of dialogue on all subjects now as it serves to weed out a lot of pretenders who merely talk about these matters but have no intention of actually engaging them in a rational and ethical manner.

Note:

{1} On My Resignation From Where Peter Is, General Concerns For The State Of Public Discourse There and Elsewhere, Etc. (circa August 6, 2018)

Points to Ponder:
(On Obedience)

Now I wish you to see and know this most excellent virtue in that humble and immaculate Lamb, and the source whence it proceeds. What caused the great obedience of the Word? The love which He had for My honor and your salvation. Whence proceeded this love? From the clear vision with which His soul saw the divine essence and the eternal Trinity, thus always looking on Me, the eternal God. His fidelity obtained this vision most perfectly for Him, which vision you imperfectly enjoy by the light of holy faith. He was faithful to Me, His eternal Father, and therefore hastened as one enamored along the road of obedience, lit up with the light of glory. And inasmuch as love cannot be alone, but is accompanied by all the true and royal virtues, because all the virtues draw their life from love, He possessed them all, but in a different way from that in which you do. Among the others he possessed patience, which is the marrow of obedience, and a demonstrative sign, whether a soul be in a state of grace and truly love or not.

Wherefore charity, the mother of patience, has given her as a sister to obedience, and so closely united them together that one cannot be lost without the other. Either you have them both or you have neither. This virtue has a nurse who feeds her, that is, true humility; therefore a soul is obedient in proportion to her humility, and humble in proportion to her obedience. This humility is the foster-mother and nurse of charity, and with the same milk she feeds the virtue of obedience. Her raiment given her by this nurse is self-contempt, and insult, desire to displease herself, and to please Me.

Where does she find this? In sweet Christ Jesus, My only-begotten Son. For who abased Himself more than He did! He was sated with insults, jibes, and mockings. He caused pain to Himself in His bodily life, in order to please Me. And who was more patient than He? for His cry was never heard in murmuring, but He patiently embraced His injuries like one enamored, fulfilling the obedience imposed on Him by Me, His Eternal Father. Wherefore in Him you will find obedience perfectly accomplished. He left you this rule and this doctrine, which gives you life, for it is the straight way, having first observed them Himself. He is the way, wherefore He said, 'He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.'For he who travels by that way, travels in the light, and being enlightened cannot stumble, or be caused to fall, without perceiving it. For he has cast from himself the darkness of self-love, by which he fell into disobedience; for as I spoke to you of a companion virtue proceeding from obedience and humility, so I tell you that disobedience comes from pride, which issues from self-love depriving the soul of humility.

The sister given by self-love to disobedience is impatience, and pride, her foster-mother, feeds her with the darkness of infidelity, so she hastens along the way of darkness, which leads her to eternal death. [St. Catherine of Siena OP: Treatise on Obedience from her Dialogues (c. 1370)]