Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
|
|
| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
|
|
Monday, December 06, 2004 People Believe in Jesus Christ (according to Newsweek) Dec. 5 - Seventy-nine percent of Americans believe that, as the Bible says, Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, without a human father, according to a new NEWSWEEK poll on beliefs about Jesus. 79%. That's great. I have no problem with that. In fact, I'm encouraged by it. As a Christian essentialist, I don't believe that it is necessary to believe in a number of dogmas in order to be saved, but I prefer that people accept the dogmas rather than not. It is the place to start with Faith in Jesus. Also (and I cannot urge this too strongly), it is important for souls to recognize that anything is possible with God. That acceptance requires humility. So, I am very happy to know that my fellow Americans in such numbers believe in Jesus as they do. Aside. I've started saying "Merry Christmas" to everyone I encounter on the phone or in running errands. Many people have been surprised to hear it and are pleased by it. California has always had a hard time of getting into the spirit since so much of it is warm in winter, lacking the seasonal signs and cues for such greetings. But with a little effort, said with some strength and sincerity, Merry Christmas makes for a good moment. Try it. Spread it around. posted by Mark Butterworth | 11:01 PM | Saturday, December 04, 2004 Speaking of Romans So, Bush wants to create Tax Farmers like the Romans had. For 25%, private tax collectors can go to work on us. This is a very bad idea. Why? It creates a new lobby of businessmen who have a stake in the Income Tax code who would fight against a Flat Tax or a National Sales Tax which would make our lives so much better (in some respects). This is another kind of slippery slope. Not as bad as some others, but why go there? posted by Mark Butterworth | 10:46 PM | Friday, December 03, 2004 Ancient Americans As a child I was fascinated by American Revolutionary War history and later with the Civil War and WW2. (Not WW1 for some reason. Maybe because it wasn't our war so much as it was a European one, and it was an idiotic slaughter and waste of lives by generals.) What also fascinated me and continues to do so was the ancient history of Greece and Rome, whereas the history of English Kings, Napolean, the Russian Czars, or China and japan held no interest for me. The reason I mention this is that while reading a book on the history of the Roman Republic it occurred to me that my lifelong interest in these people has to do with the fact that, in a way, these people of Greece and Rome were Americans. Especially the Romans. Yes, they were pagans (but religiously devoted ones), and they were war-like imperialists (while law abiding moralists and constitutionalists at home) and predators; yet, they had the rule of law, their citizens were free, and they provided a peace and prosperity the world had never known. Their innovations in city life were unmatched for nearly 1800 years. Respect and love for freedom has been rare in this world, and few peoples who have enjoyed its blessings. The Greeks and Romans were Americans at heart. Who are the Chinese? They are not Americans and will not be any time soon, but Indians just might. I sympathize with the Russians (they are the descendants of Vikings, after all), but what a sorry lot of miserable creatures they are in abiding one Ivan the Terrible after another. posted by Mark Butterworth | 1:21 PM | Thursday, December 02, 2004 Jonah Goldberg - Squeamish about God Jonah wrote a column today detailing his faith in God. Well, not really. He wrote a column detailing why he doesn't like to talk about his belief in God, because it turns out that he doesn't have faith but a rather vague belief that there is a God; and that morality is what we should fixate upon. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1 This passage is often translated that faith is belief in things unseen (unprovable), where belief becomes the operative word of something not factual. I believe the sun will rise tomorrow. I believe that science will discover a cure for psoriasis. I believe my children will be good when I'm not looking. Jonah appears to be operating under the principle that faith in God is closer to wish fulfillment than fact, a matter of logic and not experience. But the truth is that faith is based upon a fact of real human experience. I believe in God because I not only acknowledge that he must exist, but that I've met him and I know for a fact that his love for me is absolute, unconditional, and reliable. And I'm not ashamed to say so. Why would I be embarrassed to talk to anyone about my Best Friend, Father, Guide, and Benefactor? How, exactly, is that a private relationship? Well, the intimate details are private to some extent, but how can I not share some of that intimacy with others in public prayer -- in a church? Faith without religion is like what Jung said, "Confessions made to the self are meaningless." Faith without two or three gathered in God's name is nearly graceless. And what is faith without private prayer? Where does one learn morality, God's will, except through prayer? I pity Mr. Goldberg for his reliance is upon works rather than faith and prayer, but without meaningful practice in religion, where does he derive any authority for morality whn his Supreme Moralist is a vague mysterious somebody? posted by Mark Butterworth | 11:04 AM | Wednesday, December 01, 2004 The Angel of Death carries a stethoscope Hugh Hewitt wants to know why the MSM won't cover the Dutch protocol for euthanasia for children and older folks. Obviously, because the Media doesn't want people to know about it, anymore than they would illustrate partial birth abortion or show a film of any abortion procedure a la CSI. These are the great sins of omission on the part of liberal bias. The agenda means see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil when it comes to liberalism's actual effects and results. posted by Mark Butterworth | 3:19 PM | Expressions de moi Some new photos. 1. This is my favorite autumn picture. It was a group of Japanese Maples in various stages of color with an elm above/behind. They were blocking the view of one of the Painted Ladies below (#5) 
2. The Elks Lodge in downtown Sacramento slightly altered from reality. I hope it's fun to look at. 
3. This is The Indio Arch which is downtown between Old Sac and the Plaza Mall. I don't like this arch, but it is a distinctive feature of the landscape. 
4. This is from the Consumnes River Nature Preserve. A place for birds on the last undammed river in California. 
5. A Victorian commonly referred to as a Painted Lady. 
6. 
7. 
posted by Mark Butterworth |
2:02 PM
|
Old Farts, Speaking of Hollywood Tom Hanks is going to star in The Da Vinci Code to begin filming next summer. I think it's a silly thing for Hanks to do. Is he really an action star? But what I find sillier is what I noticed about his movie, You've Got Mail, with Meg Ryan a few years ago - how old can actors be to play in romantic comedies? This goes back to the 30's onward of older actors in romantic comedies. At some point it becomes absurd. Hugh Grant anyone? There is something desperately ridiculous about forty something people carrying on like teenagers in love for the first time, or rediscovering romantic love. There's a problem, though. A young twenty something male actor has too much of a baby face to be taken seriously as a romantic lead while a mature actor with geniality and charm in his features is really too old to play the erotically driven lover. For example, in the movie mentioned above, Meg Ryan was showing too many signs of wear. Her bright smile and pert face have become something past their cuteness. Her smile has come to resemble that of the Joker's, and her eyes crinkle not with pertness but crow's feet. It's like trying to admire Katie Couric now who looks harder and pinch faced with each passing week. You simply can't be over 40 and be cute. (I'm sorry but Ruth Gordon in Harold and Maude wasn't cute either. She weirded me out, frankly. Old is not sexy and will never be sexy no matter what some insist. Raquel Welch, among others, is officially undesirable now.) But people acting like erotically charged love is the most important thing in life is just sad. In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Benedict (an old bachelor by the Bard's standards) realizes that "the world must be peopled." That is the driving force behind the comedies - fertility (and getting to enjoy it in a legitimate way). But we don't really believe Tom and Meg are getting together to produce a fine brood of young 'uns, do we? At least Cary Grant, at the end of Operation Petticoat, after he marries the clutzy bombshell, is shown greeting his wife on the dock with their offspring. posted by Mark Butterworth | 1:42 PM | Whimpering Boys Are people noticing the lack of manliness in movies and music? This year we had Troy and Alexander the Great featuring fey, Playgirl pinups Brad Pitt and Colin Ferrell. Producers have tried to make a stud out of Ben Affleck, and the long lasting Tom Cruise can't really be anybody's idea of a man's man, can he? It seems that Hollywood is having more and more difficulty in finding and casting males who actually exude manliness or virility. In the music field you have the boy bands with their nasal and whiney falsettos, silly hair, and clownish dance moves. I like Clay Aiken, great voice, but he isn't any kind of Sinatra (who was a geeky, somewhat effeminate crooner in his early days, too). I was listening to songs at Garageband.com. A site that replaces MP3.com. What I heard was a horde of whimpering boys and bitchy, angry girls complaining and complaining. Now, there are a couple of basic songs in the world - I'm in love and I'm happy, happy, happy -- or -- I'm not in love and I'm sad, sad, sad. That's pretty much it for the pop vein. A song, to connect with others needs to be about them, and not about all the personal drama and angst of the artist. Artist types are notoriously narcissistic so they think that their every stubbed toe is endlessly fascinating to others, or else they have only just discovered (as my daughter was told by an older, more hard nosed co-worker) that first loves never work out. But there is something unseemly about all these young men moaning in groaning in Dave Matthewesque falsettoes about how close to suicide they are. As if we care and are supposed to feel especially sorry for them. All the young Werthers have simply become too much. An occasional nod to despair, okay, but a total slide into unmitigated nihilism makes audiences want to slit their wrists. Hollywood throws up a new pretty boy every few months hoping he'll be the next John Wayne, Clark Gable, or Jimmy Stewart (Tom Hanks took that role). Josh Hartnet anyone? Jake Gyllanhall? Toby Maguire? Joaquin Phoenix? Please. Okay, Russell Crowe succeeds well. The problem, of course, is as old as the hills. It takes one to know one. Birds of a feather. Producers and directors don't come from reality tested lives anymore. They come from suburbs, film schools, business schools, and places where all thought is liberal thought. Writers don't have a background in many different jobs among different peoples. Liberalism has taught so many that only feelings matter. Actors learn how to emote (over emote usually) very well, but no one has ever taught them how to be men. They don't have the core which transmits itself naturally. When they have to play police, firemen, or soldiers no one is really convinced. John Wayne, who didn't serve in WW2 (because he couldn't get the rank he wanted, so the story goes) made many war movies that, for many, captured the essence of an American fighting man. I'm sure there are many vets who laugh at John Wayne as warrior, but I think their complaints are about the fact that WW2 war movies never captured anything like the real horror and total snafus that they experienced. Women have a similar problem in that as actors and singers, they have submitted to being complete whores for men in their private and artistic lives, and have no idea how to play women who are not easy. I was watching a movie, Ella Enchanted (not good but a few good moments), featuring Anne Hathaway whom I found wonderfully appealing and fresh mainly because I realized that she had a virginal quality. Something which is exquisite in an attractive young woman, and yet which you rarely see these days. (I suppose she also reminded me of my daughter and my affection for her.) There were a few young actresses who had that quality. Natalie Portman had it, but it looks like she's thrown it away. Kirsten Dunst could have had it, but she threw it away as fast as possible. Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) in Gone With The Wind had goodness in the highest degree, and I remember simply adoring her when I first saw the movie as a teenager. Goodness and purity is winsome, but in movies, theater, music, and art today men are achingly emotional boys and the women are whores. But the arts industries can't stop themselves. They are on a self-destructive course, not because they are giving the people what they want, but because they lack genuine sense and wisdom. They don't know what life is like anymore. There comes a point where trying to imagine what another's life is like or a situation like war, a fire, a disaster, an emergency room, an ordinary but decent job, an ordinary but decent life, or an ordinary but decent church and minister -- imagination fails when lives are uninformed by actual experience and respect for others. The artists, writers, directors, producers, actors, and so forth are mostly hothouse flowers kept under special conditions far away from ordinary and harsher realities. (Hollywood is harsh in a much different way. Egotism and despotism runs amock, and there is a viciousness which is real and yet unreal in its perverseness.) If it weren't for our Armed Forces and their actions, we wouldn't ever see real men in action anymore (and even then it's not easy to hear about or see). posted by Mark Butterworth | 10:57 AM | |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
 |
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
