Le Sabot Post-Moderne

Dangerously Disaffected Dems Dyspeptically Desire Doomed Dean

Here at Le Sabot, we compensate for any lack of insight or wisdom with alliteration. This condition stems from reading too many Hush-Hush transcripts in James Ellroy novels.

Today the Dems will have to release their fundraising for this reporting period. This is a red-letter day for politics junkies. Will Lieberman better his feeble showing from last time? Will Edwards come anywhere close to the previous 7.4 million he raised, or has he already exhausted the Ambulance Chasing Caucus?

Howard Dean gave us a preview yesterday, and it's very interesting. The word is that he's raised around 6 million dollars. This comes on the heels of his 44% showing in the MoveOn primary. These together should cement his position as a legitimate threat to "Hair"-apparent Kerry (for a look at his enormous mop, check here.) It looks more and more like the D's may elect a real liberal.

The authentic is always pricier than the imitation, and the cost of a real liberal is electability.

Terrorists at the Border?

Human Events has a good article about Middle Eastern infiltration and immigration through Mexico. Considering that we're now tightening our border with Canada in fear of terrorism, isn't it time to get serious about the southern stretch as well? Homeland Defense is concerned about 'dirty bombs' coming in, yet every day countless people walk into our country unmolested from Mexico.

For years Washington has winked at illegal immigration. The Left rhapsodizes about diversity and sees every newcomer as a future voter. On the right you have the WSJ branch of the Republicans which sees each one as a potential low-caste worker.

Consequently, half of the California prison population is made up of illegals. Worse, in the long-term, are the balkanized pockets of immigrants who feel no loyalty to their new country, who seemingly feel no need to learn the language, and who don't share the American values of self-reliance and limited government. They come from a corrupt oligarchy where the key to survival is to live near Mexico City, the source of all blessings, because the government is the economic heart of the country. (Lest anyone think I'm only speaking of Mexican immigrants, the last data I had for Cambodian arrivals plotted the percentage receiving federal assistance at 48%)

Culture is an organism. It evolves and grows slowly, over centuries. It NEEDS immigration and cultural exchange. But this needs to be done at a rate that allows newcomers to learn the values of the receiving country. Limited government and political liberty are not guaranteed rights from God. Rather, they are among the most rare of blessings, historically speaking. Flooding the country with endless millions of unskilled workers in a post-industrial era isn't altruism, it's insanity.

These facts were never enough to make Washington serious about illegal immigration. One hopes that perhaps the threat of terrorism may, but I'm not holding my breath.

Palestinian Death Cult

Opinion Journal features a beautifully written essay by Cynthia Ozick on the Palestinian situation. Not only is it a good primer for anyone unaware of the history underlying the conflict (for example that this has only been the "historic homeland" of the Arabs since the 17th Century) it's also a good summary analysis of their culture as a whole. And the writing sings. Here's a good selection:

"Confronted by this orgiastic deluge of fanaticism and death, there are some who would apply the term psychopathological. But it is metaphysics, not Freud, that is at stake: the life force traduced, cultism raised to a sinister spiritualism--not because the "martyrs" are said to earn paradise, but because extraordinary transformations of humane understanding are hounded into being. A Palestinian ethos of figment and fantasy has successfully infiltrated the West, particularly among intellectuals, who are always seduced by novelty. We live now with an anti-history wherein cause and effect are reversed, protection against attack is equated with the brutality of attack, existential issues are demoted or ignored--"cycle of violence" obfuscations all zealously embraced by the State Department and the European Union.

The Road Map permits no contradiction to the Palestinians' emerging nationhood. But if it is teachings and usages that characterize a nation, then what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches out of Bethlehem to be born?"

Metrosexuality, Part Deux

I wrote in an earlier post that the rise of metrosexuality wasn't as radical a shift in masculinity as the author seems to believe. This is because metrosexuality brings with it no redefintion of manhood or a man's place in society. It's essentially a matter of style and consumer habits. These are culturally relative and shift throughout history even within a single culture. The average white collar worker of today would seem terribly effete to a 19th Century farmer. He cannot plow, thatch a roof, or slaughter animals. Decidedly girly-man by that era's standards.

Secondly, this isn't a new type of man. There have always been men who appreciated clothing, groomed well, loved opera and cared about thread counts. Bruno Magli and Armani didn't open their first ateliers last week, after all. Previously, however, these people belonged to the upper-middle class. Several factors are widening these tendencies to a larger pool of men:

1. Urbanization tends to make one urbane.

2. More and more people are receiving a higher education. This generally refines a man.

3. Globalization brings with it cosmopolitan influences. European men have always been more prone to the metrosexual end of the spectrum than Americans.

4. Pottery Barnization, the process by which style and design are brought down in price and made accessible to the middle class.

5. The death of Modernism, with it's ugly and sterile utilitarianism.

6. The Pink 90's, and the emphasis on aesthetics and style that seems to inevitably result whenever homosexuality is in apogee in a society (one of its few cultural benefits.)

It seems to me that much of what is meant by the label metrosexual is simply what other eras termed "cultured." If not taken to an extreme, metrosexuality is much closer to the chivalric ideal of martial valor coupled with refinement, sensitivity and a love of beauty than other historic views of manhood. Certainly closer than the sweating jock, the swaggering thug or the sniggering mook -- the three archetypes of Gen X and Y manhood.

Praise God!

About three weeks ago God led a young Iranian student (whom I'll call R for safety reasons) to our church here in Kiev. He's been coming to a Bible study at our home on Thursday nights, and said his first Christian prayer here last week. He's just an amazing young man, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to befriend him.

R just left our home to go back to his flat, and I'm sitting here astounded at the power of the Spirit. I'm a Calvinist, if anyone has a high view of the Spirit's power to change hearts, it's us. But how much more can God do than our feeble imaginations ever conceive. Our Bible study is focusing on the Gospel of John, and we've talked about the work of the Spirit in the lives of men. It's a double blessing to be able to watch it happening in the life of a friend.

R approached me after Bible study, and said he wants to put together a 'blog so that he can tell the people back in Iran about Jesus... He wants the people of Iran to have a chance to hear the Good News. It's amazing to me that even though our countries are bitter enemies, through Christ R and I are spiritually united.

God is so good. He is so great.

Excuse our dust...

If you see anything strange here for a little while, likesay a Michelle Branch photo, this is only Imelda and Fernando sweating away at Le Sabot's new and slightly less primitive look. Any problems you experience with the site should be resolved in a day or so...

Metrosexuality, Part I

The Times today carries a feature I think will eventually cause a lot of buzz. It's entitled Metrosexuals, and deals with the emergence of a new trend -- young, straight, urban guys who defy traditional gender stereotypes. (Registry is free at NYT if you can't access the article.) These are "straight guys who (are) into Diesel jeans, interior design, yoga and Mini Coopers, and who would never think of ordering a vodka tonic without specifying Grey Goose or Ketel One." They like shopping and know how to cook.

The more I thought about the phenomenon, the more sense it made. You have large numbers of upwardly-mobile whites leaving the 'burbs and repopulating the cities. You've had 10 years of the Pink '90s popularizing or at least leeching the stigma from a lot of things that were formerly considered "gay" -- for example grooming, fashion and camp. And there's the trend of the middle classes beginning to appreciate things that were previously reserved for the upper-middle, like interior design, exotic skin treatments, haute couture, mochaccino and the like. How many people knew what salade niçoise or freschetta were 15 years ago?

Lastly, perhaps as America continues to evolve into a neo-imperial power, it's also developing some of the traits of empire, such as decadence. The Metrosexuals sound like they would have gotten on quite well with Wilde and the Decadents.

While not about to 'come out' as a Metrosexual anytime soon, I could identify with much of the article. A lot of what the author has written rings true. But unlike the author, I don't see it as a radical redefinition of masculinity. I'll develop that idea in my next post on the subject.

Leftists Don't Hate Injustice -- They Hate America

Leftists don't hate aspects of America, they hate America.

They freely attack the UN when it's supporting an American proposal such as Iraqi sanctions. And then hold it up as the sine qua non of international legitimacy when it opposes us.

They rail against America for backing out of the Kyoto treaty, but say nothing about China and India's exemptions from the terms of the treaty. During the lead up to Gulf War II, environmentalists refused to speak out on Saddam's deliberate cause of the worst environmental disaster the region has ever seen--the genocidal draining of the southern salt marshes in Iraq. Defending the environment is only fun when you're opposing the United States.

Now there's wailing and gnashing of teeth because we're installing p-rn filters in libraries. One man fluttered on a blog I read that this might herald a return to male patriarchy and a loss of our free speech rights. Internet filters. In libraries. Sure it will.

Meanwhile, the EU is seriously considering outlawing any media that's guilty of "sexual stereotyping." In other words, they will ban your book, movie or advert if it doesn't meet a Brussels bureaucrat's standards of "respect" for all genders. Yeah, that sounds like free speech.

Don't hold your breath waiting for a hue and cry from the so-called defenders of civil liberties. They don't really hate government usurpation. They hate America.

More Bhangra Goodness...

I finally got the new Panjabi MC disk! The single, Mundian To Bach Ke, has been out in Kiev for ages, but no one had the full disk. I've only had two listens, but my initial impressions are very good. I was surprised to see that Jay-Z is actually featured in a couple of the tracks. Although initially leery about this, I have to say it works.

For anyone whose impression of Indian music is Ravi Shankar or else some tinny Hindi film musical, check out Panjabi. His sound is a cool fusion of traditional Indian music with modern electronica. Here's the homepage. To listen to some samples, try here.

Few of the other cuts rise to the level of "Mundian", but almost all of them are solid, with a couple of exceptions that sound like something from a Bollywood romance. (Yes, I know Fire was a good film. But everything else Bollywood makes is horrid.)

As Ferris Bueller might say, "If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."

L'Etat -- C'est Sandra!

One of the great blessings of the American system has always been that (at least in theory) we are a nation ruled by laws rather than by men. We are not a true democracy, subject to the whims of mobs or demagogues. We are not a monarchist state where the law is a creature of the King. We're a Constitutional Republic, and EVERYONE is bound to obey the law.

Usually when we speak of the rule of law, we're using it in the context of the Executive or the Legislature. The president and Congress are bound to obey the Constitution while performing their duties. But what about the Judiciary?

Here the system is breaking down. As my buddy John Rabe has pointed out, Sandy Day's decision-making process in the Michigan case was little less arbitrary than the Great Carnac's. When the Judiciary abandons its role of interpreting the law, and decides instead to legislate it from the bench, the rule of law breaks down. The Constitution ceases to be the master, and instead becomes the servant of a small, black-robed group of unelected officials.

It's especially dire when Supreme Court justices do this. A reckless president can be turned out after 4 years. A Supreme is a Supreme for life.

(Before anyone wastes their time going off on an anti-Bush screed about the 2000 election and judicial activism, save your fingers the trouble. The disputed ballots have been counted and recounted, and have validated his election. Those grapes are no longer just sour, they've turned to vinegar.)

Diverse Discrimination

As if we needed another example of the illiberalism of modern liberalism, we were treated yesterday to the spectacle of supposed liberals calling for college applicants to be vetted by their skin color, while conservatives argued for a color-blind approach to college admissions.

The affirmation of diversity as a good-in-itself is a disturbing change. The court grounded its logic not in traditional "reversing the effects of past discrimination" reasoning, but instead in the nebulous foundation of "diversity." The difference is huge. The legacy of racism argument has a certain shelf-life. You simply can't trot it out indefinitely. But diversity never ends. And the more tribal our country becomes, the more groups will be clamoring for this special leg-up.

It's especially insidious, because it opens the door to other sorts of discrimination in the name of diversity. If a historical grievance is no longer needed, and diversity itself is a goal, then political persuasion, sexuality, handicap, and virtually anything else that post-modern men (and womyn) use to define and segment themselves from one another can be lobbied for as a reason to receive special recognition. After all, it serves the overarching goal of diversity.

WANTED: Overwithered, Unflirtatious, Sanctified Sproul Minions

I was just looking through my Awestats for Le Sabot, and learned that my site was found through the following Google searches:

sabot or shelfpiece or overwithered or unflirtatious or liration

AND

sproul or oblong or minion or sanctified or concentrating

If this was you, please drop me an email. Anyone who would deliberately type in a search like that is my kinda freak. Let me know, we'll do some damage to a 4-pack of Guinness the next time I'm in your part of the world.

Sanctification

While Evangelicals have a pretty solid consensus on justification, this unity frays when we move beyond it to progressive sanctification. At one extreme is an antinomian position in which one can, without peril, remain just as the Holy Spirit found you. At the other is the view of some Wesleyans that one can actually become without sin while still on this side of glory. One weakness that many of the views share is that (like their views on salvation in general) they are anthropocentric. Man is central to all of it, and it is his striving that earns his sanctification.

Modern Reformation has two good articles on the subject this month. The first, by Jerry Bridges, is called Gospel Driven Sanctification. It's in the same vein as World Harvest's "Sonship" program, focusing on the Gospel as central not only to our justification, but also to our becoming Christlike. We're not only saved by grace, we live by it as well.

The second, by Dr. John Hannah (a Calvinist at DTS, that Fortress of Fundamentalism. What joy!) is entitled John Owen and the "Normal" Christian Life.

Here's a representative paragraph that I thought a lot of:

"The presence of sin in the believer's experience mandates two responses. First, because sin is no longer extensively or intensively universal (the domination of sin has been broken), there is the ground of assurance that one has become the recipient of divine light and grace (therein is the saint's joy and confidence in the struggle with sin; that is, in our union with Christ). Second, the remnants of sin's dominance (now called indwelling sin), call for serious striving to limit its reign, realizing that the normal Christian life is one of struggle and ragings, though not to the exclusion of profound joy and advances. It is also in this context that part of the glorious hope for the Christian is magnified when he or she is aware that the fight with sin will end when we are in his presence."

Caption Contest

Ship of Fools has posted a delightfully weird photo of a nun genuflecting through steel bars to a priest. I'm sure the explanation is all quite simple from an RC perspective, but likely not nearly so entertaining as the captions here. Pop over and see what you can come up with...

Your Deux Centimes...

Many thanks to Carol and her friend Andrea for their help in adding comments to the main page of Le Sabot. Ferdinand, Imelda and little Tomas down in the programming sweatshop asked me to say maraming salamat for them too...

So everyone feel free to weigh in!

One note: Profanity is the language of the ignorant. Any posts with language harsher than Southern slang will be nuked.

Dispatch from an Alternate Reality

Continuing our theme of the liberal drift away from electibility and sanity, here's Donald Lambro's coverage of the recent leftist convention at the Omni Shoreland. More than 1,000 activists from every balkanized tribe of the Left -- environmentalists, feminists, gays, labor activists and the like -- were represented at one of the largest such gatherings in 20 years. An impressive show of force, and another gravitational tug of the Dems in a sinister (in both the Latin and English senses of the word) direction.

For the red-stater who rarely strays into the urban blue-state jungles, Front Page Magazine (put together by the uber-cool David Horowitz) has a virtual menagerie of interesting Leftists here. I especially liked the peace protester carrying a Josef Stalin sign. You know, Josef Stalin, the Russian peace activist who starved seven million Ukrainians and signed a non-aggression treaty with Hitler.

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On an unrelated note, my son Calvin seems poised to be as brilliant as his namesake. Today as my wife was nursing him he started humming a hymn. I was impressed both with the doctrinal content of the song, as well as how appropos it was for his position -- Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

The Dems' Long, Dark Tea-time of the Soul

I've watched the Democratic base's flirtation with bitter madness with a great deal of passionate ambivalence.

On the one hand, it's disturbing, because it's never a good thing for 15% of the country to basically declare war on the functions of government and retreat into a cult-like and insular denial of reality. We live in a two-party Republic, and it's unhealthy for one-half of this system to take leave of its senses.

On the other hand I've felt a surge of what the Russians call zloradstvo. It can basically be defined as the happiness one feels watching an enemy be run over by Cossacks. Well, something close to that, anyway. The spectacle of Democrats drifting farther and farther out into Left field, to the point where the borderguard stations for the Middle Ground can hardly be sighted, is a happy one. Their venomous and irrational hatred of Bush will eventually alienate everyone except themselves. And NPR has never won an election by itself.

For a very good analysis of this phenomenon, check out "Democrats Go Off the Cliff" by David Brooks.

Here's a section that summarizes it well:

"It's mystifying. Fury rarely wins elections. Rage rarely appeals to suburban moderates. And there is a mountain of evidence that the Democrats are now racing away from swing voters, who do not hate George Bush, and who, despite their qualms about the economy and certain policies, do not feel that the republic is being raped by vile and illegitimate marauders. The Democrats, indeed, look like they're turning into a domestic version of the Palestinians--a group so enraged at their perceived oppressors, and so caught up in their own victimization, that they behave in ways that are patently not in their self-interest, and that are almost guaranteed to perpetuate their suffering."

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Another interesting piece is Kenneth Pollack's take on the WMD controversy. It's significant not so much for what it says, as for who is saying it and where. He's a former Clinton NSC guy, and it's published by the closest thing the Dems have to a Heritage Foundation -- the Brookings Institution.

Got a burning in your bosom?

If anything here at Le Sabot gives you a 'burning in the bosom,' as the Mormons say, just click on the relevant archive link and add your comments there.

I've ordered the underaged Filipino sweatshop programmers we employ here at Le Sabot to add comment links to the main page. Unfortunately, they haven't been able to figure it out yet. If you have any advice for them, please drop us an email -- preferably in Tagalog.

Rowling an Inkling?

I just put in an order for the new Harry Potter today; the first deliveries should reach Kiev in about a week. My navel is puckering and unpuckering in excitement at a frightening rate. This is possibly too much information for you.

Regardless, a healthy percentage of the Christians reading this have just deposited me in a bin marked either 'misguided' or 'worldly.'

Enough bytes have given their lives already to endless debates over the ostensibly pagan nature of Harry Potter and his alleged ability to turn nice kids into warlocks. I'll confine my remarks to something I wrote the other day on a blog I frequent:

If your child's grasp of Christianity is so tenuous that Harry Potter can turn him to the dark side, then you have failed in your covenant duties as a parent. Further, Hogwart's is little more than a fanciful adaptation of British public school life. I think a much greater threat than children turning to witchcraft is that they may develop a desire to wear knickerbockers and speak in fruity little English voices. Now THAT is something to fear.

Dave Kopel has written an interesting review of John Granger's book: The Hidden Key to Harry Potter. The premise of the work is that J.K. Rowling is heir to the tradition of the Inklings-- the Oxford dons (including Lewis and Tolkien) who wrote some of the only worthy fantasy in modern Christian literature. I'd have to read the book to be fully convinced, but it was an interesting alternative view.

Plus I learned that Rowling is a Presbyterian. Which demonstrates the truism that liturgical Christians are the only believers that write decent fiction.

Demographics, hormones, and squirrel droppings...

One aspect of the terrorist problem that I think gets short shrift is the demographics of the region. We hear a lot about "root problems" such as poverty, ignorance and American support of Israeli democracy. I've yet to hear a commentator factor in the population statistics. In the States, whenever a population boomlet reaches adolescence, it's just a given that crime statistics will rise. According to BoJ stats I found here, people under 18 are about 3X more likely to commit a violent crime than one over 25. For property crime the rate is about 5X more likely.

The craziness of the Middle East is a little more comprehensible in this light. First, you have the genuine root problems of ignorance, poverty and repression. Then you have a population inflamed by a homicidal and epically vicious "religion of peace." Then you have a region with a higher percentage of teens than the audience at a Freddie Prinze movie. In Iran about half of the population is under 18. In Gaza it rises to 57%. No wonder everyone seems to be nuttier than squirrel droppings -- hordes of teenagers jacked up on hormones and intoxicated with their own immortality and righteousness. It's like an anti-globalist rally with AK-47s.

Birth rates are trending downward in most of the world. The Arabs simply haven't gotten the memo yet. Let's hope they do soon...

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Staying with our topic, National Review Online demonstrates once again why it's the best online news 'zine around. Check out The Blood of Iranians for an update on the student protests in Tehran. It's written by one of the protesters. His courage is humbling. The article exposes the true viciousness of the regime. Hopefully State will stop the ridiculous policies of engagement and appeasement, and start backing these student's desire to be free of the mullahocracy. You can't reason with people who sodomize protesters with daggers. You can only fight them. And that's just the way it is in the Middle East.

And that's just the way it is in the Middle East

President Bush takes a lot of flack over his ostensible lack of intellectual curiousity. In a technocratic age that fetishizes degrees and academic attainment, Bush seems a bit primitive.

I'm certainly not opposed to education. True learning makes us liberal in the best of senses. But certain fields have become so inbred and provincially-minded they make Arkansas seem cosmopolitan. Women's and the various Ethnic Studies fields are of course the most obvious examples -- the work coming from them written in hermetic in-group language and bearing little resemblance to the world outside. Middle Eastern studies suffers from the same problem. It's strongly pro-Arabist and so fixated on imperialism and victimology that everything is filtered through this paradigm.

The foreign policy types at Foggy Bottom have their opinions formed by these Arabists, and suffer from two other fatal weaknesses -- a positive view of human nature and a thoroughgoing moral relativism. Like Carter, most of them seem to believe that the rest of the world is motivated by the same humanitarian and profit motivations that we are. People are basically reasonable and good, so if you can just TALK with them, things can be worked out. Sting wrote the theme song for this type of thinking with his "Russians Love Their Children Too."

Bush, for all his lack of sophistication, has a much more worldly-wise viewpoint than these alleged experts. He said this on Sunday: " "It is clear that the free world, those who love freedom and peace, must deal harshly with Hamas and the killers. And that's just the way it is in the Middle East..."

He recognizes that religion isn't just a mask for economic or political impulses. He understands that the culture of the Middle East truly is different than ours. Fanatics with a medieval mindset don't see concessions made to them to be an incentive to compromise, but rather a reason to push for further concessions. The relativists at the State Department can't understand the absolutist mindset. Bush does.

For French practice I've been

For French practice I've been reading an Akira graphic novel lately. I love Manga, so it's a good incentive. Unfortunately, that means a lot of what I'm learning consists of shouted interjections and useful phrases like "The psychic children have escaped their fusion bonds!"

Think You Can't Get a Date? Try Being a Chinaman.

Ukraine has a declining population, and whenever I go out with my four boys we're instantly objects of curiousity. Today I tried to imagine how much stranger they would seem in China, given her One Child Policy.

And for the first time I realized what a fascinating sociological experiment this policy really is. Obviously much of it is a moral atrocity, but setting that aside a moment, on another level it's morbidly interesting. First you take a society which has evolved with glacial slowness over millenia. Then subject it to a World War followed by a Revolution. Add in forced urbanization and industrialization of a formerly agricultural society.

Further, as an agricultural society it's always had large families that live in close geographic proximity. Extended family has been very important.

In only a couple of decades they have, by fiat, gone to a one child per couple rule. In other words, they now have a society without uncles, without aunts, without cousins, nephews or nieces. Civilizations are organic entities. It'll be interesting to see how this experiment ultimately shocks the system, and what unintended consequences eventually result.

Social engineering is almost always doomed to failure, because it flies so radically in the face of human nature. The failure is only magnified when attempted on such a grand scale. China of all places should know this, since it was Mao's push for large families during the Cultural Revolution that helped overpopulate them.

Some effects are already apparent-- the pampered "Imperial Children" that result from being the only child in increasingly wealthy families. There's also the small matter of 119 male children being born for every 100 females, which will make for some lonely guys come prom night. But things get REALLY hairy in about 40 years, when about 45% of their population (about 400 million people by then) will be over 60 years of age. Try keeping your social security system in the black then.

Which means that China will end up being a pioneer not only in ingenious means of eliminating inconvenient children, but will use this same prowess in the culling of excess retirees. One wonders what the Chinese characters for "Hemlock Society" and "Officially mandated assisted-suicide" will look like...

A well-regulated militia?

Those who oppose the individual ownership of firearms often appeal to the introductory clause of the 2nd Amendment in order to make their case. The amendment reads:

"A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."

In their view, the amendment only protects a state's right to form an organized National Guard. In other words, it's an outworking of federalism allowing states their own military formations. Thus, it has no bearing on individual firearm ownership, and there is hence no constitutional difficulty in banning such weapons. (This is of course, during those rare moments when they actually concern themselves with the constitutionality of a given course of action they've chosen.)

The key word in all of this, of course, is "militia." Does it EXCLUSIVELY mean an organized national guard?

Not if we look at the US Code, the law of our land. It took me awhile to find it, but here's the definition given in TITLE 10; Subtitle A; PART I; CHAPTER 13; Sec. 311:

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"The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

(b) The classes of the militia are -

(1)the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and

(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia
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Every able-bodied male is a member of this militia. This presupposes armament, as an unarmed militia is an oxymoron. Both organized and unorganized militias come under the 2nd Amendment.

Everyone's Favorite Guerrilla Feminist

To maintain my credentials as a Pop Culture Maven, I've been advised that I need to include more lesbian references in my blog (given the ubiquity of lesbian chic these days, I'm sure you understand.) After briefly considering a post on Tatu, the pseudo-sapphic Russian band that's sweeping Europe, I opted instead for Camille Paglia.

I've been rereading her breakthough work -- Sexual Personae. Walking in the Louvre among the ephebes, femme fatales, amazons and other archetypes which populate the book inspired me to pick it up again. It is a long, strange, tripped spin. Her unified field theory of Western art and culture is incredibly ambitious, and immersing yourself in it is to step temporarily into an alternate reality.

Much like Ayn Rand, many of her conclusions are cheering to conservatives and Christians. A cursory reading of her introduction would find many such people nodding their heads approvingly. But as with Rand, her worldview (atheistic paganism) is so utterly foreign to Christianity that these points of connection are limited. For example, where she sees nature's barbarism in operation in human interaction, Christianity sees mankind's Fall. Nevertheless, it's a wonderful read... a sweeping look through Western Civ from the Egyptians to Elvis that's written in an engaging and aggressive voice.

"Sexuality and eroticism are the intricate intersection of nature and culture. Feminists grossly oversimplify the problem of sex when they reduce it to a matter of social convention: readjust society, eliminate sexual inequality, purify sex roles, and happiness and harmony will reign. Here feminism, like all liberal movements of the past two hundred years, is heir to Rousseau...

"This book takes the point of view of Sade, the most unread major writer in Western literature. Sade's work is a comprehensive satiric critique of Rousseau...

"For Sade, getting back to nature (the Romantic imperative that still permeates our culture from sex counseling to cereal commercials) would be to give free reign to violence and lust. I agree. Society is not the criminal, but the force which keeps crime in check. When social controls weaken, man's innate cruelty bursts forth."

I recommend Sexual Personae with one very large caveat. She takes a position in the book on a very sensitive subject (which I won't even mention on this blog, but think Catholic priest scandals and you'll be in the ballpark) that is completely abhorrent to any normal person, and which almost ruined the book for me.

Questions About Calvinism?

For several years, Calvinism has been enjoying a Renaissance, with Reformed books, churches and seminaries springing up everywhere. Calvinists are leavening congregations from every stream of Christianity, with even Charismatic churches seeing large numbers of people come to a Reformed understanding of the Word.

This growth has brought with it a pretty curmudgeonly backlash in the form of badly researched and openly biased books like Dave Hunt's most recent. Most of the objections to Calvinism I come across stem from misunderstanding, and these polemicists are often to blame. Better to go to the source instead.

If you have questions about Reformed belief or practice, I'd enjoy the opportunity to discuss them with you in a low-key way. My email address is Discoshaman@saintly.com

I had lunch yesterday with

I had lunch yesterday with a young Iranian student. He studies computers at a university here in Kiev. He embodies what many observers of Iran say about the new generation -- he's young, secular, pro-American and couldn't give a fig about the Revolution. He also speaks near-perfect English.

We had a good time discussing the political landscape in Iran these days (for an overview, check here, though the idea that Khatami is anything more than a Tehranian Gorbachev is silly to me.) Then he brought up the inevitable -- the war in Iraq.

I hedged a bit, not wanting to spoil a good lunch. But he turned out to be pretty vehemently pro-war and pro-Bush. I'd heard of pro-American rallies by students in the post-9/11 era, but it was fascinating to actually meet one in the flesh. After fending off attacks about the war all year from our ostensible Ukranian allies, it was a nice twist to find a like mind in such an unlikely place.

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I saw the perfect motto for Postmodernism while I was in Charles de Gaulle Airport. I think it was a Dior ad -- I Sense, Therefore I Am.

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Very belatedly, I want to acknowledge one of my favorite fellow bloggers. You'll notice a newly-minted The Desolation Angels link on my sidebar. Use it. Sarah is my favorite Jones since Alyssa Jones in the New Jersey Chronicles. Anyone who likes Elvis Costello and reads William Gibson and Foucault earns a high place in my pantheon of blogdom.

Supporting Sinful Sexuality Sustains Sectarian Suicide

I'm feeling alliterative today, so sue me. Anyway, the Episcopal Church has just elected its first openly gay Bishop. Undoubtedly mascara is running down stubbly-cheeks all over South Beach and the Castro District as they sob with joy for this historic first. There hasn't been anything this exciting since they outlawed transgender discrimination in San Francisco. I still remember the city councilwoman sniffling and saying, "It's not every day you get to create a new civil right."

Indeed.

While I think the Church's failure to reach out to gays and lesbians is inexcusable, this brings with it no blurring of the sinfulness of the homosexual lifestyle. It's a grievous and gross sin, like any type of fornication. The appointment of a gay bishop is only another step down the road of apostasy the Episcopals have been treading for decades.

The Episcopal Church has been on a slow glidepath to oblivion for about 30 years. They've lost 40% of their membership since 1968. Those attending out of brand-name loyalty are graying and dying, and young people see little compelling reason to get out of bed early on Sunday to hear moralistic platitudes.

In one of those schadenfreude-laden ironies of life, Bishop John Spong, author of "Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism" and "Christianity Must Change--Or Die" saw his congregation die at TWICE the national rate. Newark has lost 80% of its members in thirty years. He's DEFINITELY the man on a white horse that Christianity needs to save it. The Jack Kevorkian of church growth.

Much like the Democrats in Congress, the Episcopals have seemed to decide that since the American people have rejected liberalism, they must be hungry instead for... liberalism.

Faux Amis -- Eric Rudolph and South Korea

Eric Rudolph was quoted by as saying recently that after 5 years away from women, "even the bears started to look good." I imagine that after a few decades of prison they'll look even more attractive. Especially when compared to his 350-pound, hairy-backed cellmate, Tiny. Considering the damage that he's done both to conservatism and the Church, I can't muster up too many crocodile tears.

South Korea also falls under our heading of false friends today. I have a great fondness for the country--my adopted sister is Korean, and it has one of the largest populations of Presbyterians on the planet. Nevertheless, when it comes to matters military and political, they've increasingly "gone wobbly", to crib a line from Dame Thatcher. Aside from the annoying protests that ingrates in that country keep organizing against the American troops (who are functioning as living speedbumps vis-a-vis North Korea), the government itself is undercutting us.

As they've moved increasingly into a dysfunctional appeasing relationship with the North, their interests have begun to diverge from ours. Any moves we make to pressure the North is weakened by their desire to buy friendship with Treasure Troll-cum-Dictator-for-Life Kim.

For a VERY eye-opening look into the South Korean approach, check out A Defector's Story. It details a weapon scientist's defection first from North Korea, and then from the South as he sought to get out the truth about the North's weapons programs. He even writes under a nom de plume out of fear of reprisal from SOUTH Korea's Intel services...

Calvinism and Israel

Outside of the initial, flustered incomprehension upon considering the concept of predestination for the first time, the most common knee-jerk objection to Calvinism among mainstream Evangelicalism has got to be over "replacement theology." The impression out there among the percentage who know of Calvinism's existence seems to be that all Calvinists think that Israel has been utterly cut off and consigned to the outer darkness. Given that a healthy percentage of Protestants ingest Dispensational presupps (along with cookies and juice) from their earliest days in Sunday School, this is quite a deterrent to accepting the truth of Reformed belief.

Reformed Christians actually maintain a balanced view between the bifurcation of Dispensationalism amd the excision of Replacement theology. Richard Pratt, of RTS, has put together a great piece entitled To The Jew First: A Reformed Perspective that's a great clarifier. A good supplement would be Fred Klett's Not Replacement... Expansion! Both of these come from Monergism.com's site. If you've never checked out monergism, take a peek. It's huge. Beyond huge. In the words of the dad in "So I Married an Ax-Murderer" -- It's a virtual planetoid! It's got its own weather-systems!

Here are Calvin's thoughts on the subject (Israel, not Mike Myers films):

"I extend the word Israel to all the people of God, according to this meaning, -When the Gentiles shall come in, the Jews also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith; and thus shall be completed the salvation of the whole Israel of God, which must be gathered from both; and yet in such a way that the Jews shall obtain the first place, being as it were the first born in God's family."

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For anyone interested in keeping up with events in the church around the world, check out Brigada's mission mobilization newbriefs. Caleb Project and Brigada were both big influences on the Duchess and I as we considered overseas ministry.

Emasculated Europeans and Empowered Bovines

John Derbyshire's article on the multitudinous stupidities of gun control makes for sober reading. Just as no free society has ever taxed itself to prosperity, likewise no free society has ever disarmed itself to public safety and order. Yet gun control, like so many credal beliefs of the Left, seems impervious to emprirical or rational argumentation. It is instead an article of faith. A blind, Kantian sort of faith totally disconnected from the world around it.

"It is now very difficult for ordinary British citizens legally to acquire a gun of any kind. It is well-nigh impossible in the case of handguns. The results of this gun-panic have been perfectly predictable: a rapid rise in gun crime, and stupendous levels of the kinds of crimes that gun ownership deters -- notably burglary."

I also liked this quip at the beginning:

"Heaven is a place with British government, American houses, French high culture, Japanese hygiene, Chinese cooks, and Italian opera, while Hell has Italian government, Japanese houses, American high culture, French hygiene, British cooks, and Chinese opera."

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Speaking of gun control, Dana Lyon's late-90's classic "Cows With Guns" now has a music video! Check out Shagrat to hear refrains like "We will fight for bovine freedom, and hold our large heads high/ We will run free with the buffalo, or die!" and "He read Che Guevara with great zeal/ A revolutionary veal... Cow Tse-tung!"

Somehow it doesn't translate well to print. You'll have to see the video.

Funny Like a Heart Attack

An aficionado of dark humor, I appreciated a recent CT interview with the new National Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard. The headline quote reads, "This Is Evangelicalism's Finest Hour." If he were speaking only internationally, there MIGHT be some legitimacy to the claim, at least in a gross numbers/geographic dispersion sense. But nationally? The notion is as painfully funny as watching someone belly-flop from a high dive. Haggard seems to be an ideal president of what passes for Evangelicalism these days--Charismatic, Dispensational and apparently completely lacking in historical perspective.

Let's examine this "finest hour." Over the past decade the evangelical percentage of the population in America has dropped from 14% to 8%, according to Barna. About 32% of "born-again" Christians believe in absolute truth, 45% believe that Satan is "not a living being but is a symbol of evil." 34% believe that good works can earn someone a place in heaven. "A majority of all born again Christians reject the existence of the Holy Spirit (52%)," according to Barna's fact sheet on the Trinity. The same page states that 35% percent deny the physical resurrection of Christ. From everything I've read, the data only skews worse when you look at the Tweens and Xers apart from the older generations. Add in the drift toward liberalism at many Christian publishing houses, and the fact that Evangelicalism's public face consists mainly of Hagenite Faith Movement hucksters and political ideologues like Robertson or Falwell, and the picture only darkens.

The current generation of Evangelicals seems contemptuous of the theology, traditions and practice of the preceding 1900+ years of Christianity. It's smug and self-congratulatory, and worships novelty with all the avidness of an adolescent. Anyone who would claim this as our Finest Hour is perfect for the job of NAE spokesman.

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Continuing our theme of dark humor, check out the latest Red Meat -- the crinkly caress of crenulated crevice clips.

Presidents are sometimes caught in

Presidents are sometimes caught in candid moments that tell us a great deal about them. Clinton's instantaneous shift from back-slapping and chuckles to teary-eyed remorse at the Ron Brown funeral was one of these. One of my favorite anecdotes about Reagan deals with the time he was warming up for a speech and didn't realize he was being overhead. I can't remember exactly, but he basically said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have just signed a law declaring the Soviet Union illegal. The bombing will commence in five minutes." You had to love the guy.

On Tuesday, Egyptian television caught Bush unaware as he spoke very plainly to those at the Middle East peace talks. "No matter how difficult it is, you have my commitment that I will expend the energy and effort necessary to move the process forward." He was very clear in his demand that the Arab leaders cut off funding for terrorists, and lectured the Israelis about the need for a contiguous Palestinian state. All in all he came across as serious, dignified and engaged. Once again I'm thankful he's our president. A big victory for Bush was the absence of Arafat from the talks. For the first time, someone other than Arafat is being seen by the world as the spokesman for the Palestinian people. Given his addiction to terror and dissembling, this is a great leap forward for peace.

While in France, I saw

While in France, I saw their future written on the wall. It was in Arabic--everything from the graffiti in bathroom stalls to the shops in the Muslim suburbs around Paris. What struck me continually was how OLD the French are becoming. An enormous percentage of the young people one sees are "buers"--Middle Eastern immigrants. Arab activists are already talking about Eurabia, and with much justification. With their ostensibly Christian populations maintaining a well-below-replacement birthrate, Italy, Spain and France are all tracking to become Muslim-majority countries within a couple of generations. Already 10% of France is Arab in descent. In general, these Muslims have no understanding or respect for the foundations of Western civilization, even those most contemporary of values--diversity, tolerance and pluralism. The need to appease this large, unassimilated and politically-active minority will grow with time, so watch for European resistance to American initiatives to increase. The Atlantic already represents an enormous cultural divide. This will grow commensurately with the Arab population of Europe.

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According to this article at The Hill, the Democrats are forming an alternative to the Heritage Foundation, which is to be called the American Majority Institute. With an operating budget of around 10 million dollars, it'll be the largest left-wing think tank in the country, unless one counts the New York Times. The Dems have many institutional advantages--labor unions, certain Big Business sectors, trial lawyers, liberal NGOs, much of the media, the university system, etc. Republicans have a few as well--think tanks, talk radio and an impressive small donor base.

The Dems have taken steps to nullify all three this year. First is the DNCs attempt to organize a small donor database, now that they've shot themselves in the foot with McCain-Feingold and can no longer count on soft money from big donors to match the R's (Yes, contrary to propaganda, the average donation size to Democrats is much larger than the average Republican donation. So much for the party of the working man thesis.) Secondly, they're making noise about cobbling together an alternative to conservative talk radio with Al Franken as the headliner. And lastly, the American Majority Institute will answer the Cato, AEI and Heritage Foundations of the Right.

Reality check. Dems will have a great deal of trouble mining small donations from their core constituencies. Not only because of the demographic make-up of these, but also because there is little in the DNC to inspire the loyalty necessary to part with hard-earned dollars. The fact that it isn't the Republican Party may motivate someone to VOTE for it, but there is little intrinsic to the party itself these days to make someone want to send in a check. As for talk radio, Franken will bomb just as badly as Hightower, Cuomo and all the others have. Only half as many Americans self-identify liberal as conservative. More significantly, Franken has never been funny. He's a sanctimonious putz. I've heard local liberal talk jockies who were successful. They ribbed the conservative listeners and motivated them to call in. Franken will just alienate them.

Their think tank will benefit them on some levels. It'll be a good source for quotes and statistics when the media comes calling. It may even bring some unity to the fractured Party agenda. As for the goal implicit in its name, however, I have serious doubts. A left-wing think tank will be little help in becoming an "American Majority." Liberalism has drifted far from that happy place where mushy-middle voters will support it. A unified message of liberalism isn't any more palatable than a disunited one.

Aaron has a new blog!

Aaron has a new blog! This is like the 15th one he's organized. College kids always think they're so busy, just wait til he has a wife and a few kids and he'll look back on this time as an extended vacation... Anyway, check out Soli Deo Gloria for his latest theological musings. Aaron is a cool frood.

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Anyone jonesing for Comical Ali needs to check out the North Korean news service. While sadly lacking in decapitation threats, it does serve up entertaining whoppers like: "Thus it is indisputable that the mass killings of one million civilians were committed by the U.S. imperialist aggressor troops." It?s also a great addition to the canon of Engrish literature. Here are a few highlights...

"Pyongyang is seething in a festive mood all day long." and "Such moves of the Japanese reactionaries are directly linked with the brigandish design of the U.S. to dominate the world... As it has become obvious that Japan is working with blood-shot eyes to stifle the DPRK in league with the U.S., the DPRK has no option but to strongly react against their moves. Japan had better to behave itself if it does not want to meet its self-destruction."

And we're back...

I won't bore you today with all the details of our trip (that's reserved for tomorrow.) I /will/ say, however, that the French could not have been kinder or more charming. After a year of parrying hostile questions from Ukrainians, a nation only tangenitally involved in the Iraq conflict, I expected a fair amount of it from the French.

Not a whisper. While I retain my healthy disdain for their political culture, I must give them their due on a personal level. They did an admirable job of separating the personal from the political.

Speaking of politics... We were faced constantly by museum closings because the labor unions were striking. Communists clogged several of the metro stations, yelling slogans, singing the Internationale and waving red banners. Hammer-and-sickle banners for the Turkish Communist Party were everywhere. And, my favorite, an abandoned McDonalds had been occupied by anti-globalists and pasted with placards. They literally sat at a booth in the doorway and handed out anti-American literature. I was thankful for the online research I'd done on rude French hand gestures. Dead useful information to have with you.

All said though, a wonderful visit. Even the waiters were friendly. In fact, one of them is a friend now, and might be popping over to see me the next time he visits Poland. If you've been avoiding France for fear of anti-war backlash, don't let it deter you.

History is replete with "what

History is replete with "what ifs." If Hitler had been a better painter, if Castro had been a better baseball player, if Charles Manson's audition with The Monkees had gone better...

While on a lower tier than these, one wonders how much healthier the inter-racial dialogue in this country might be if Louis Farrakhan were a better calypso singer. While reflecting on this, why not tune in to some of his old classics, such as "Don't Let Me Mama Know" and "Don't Touch Me Nylon."

Between Louis "The Charmer" Farrakhan and now Harry Belafonte's recent idiocies, will the FBI soon be adding the Organization of Calypso Performing Artistes to its list of subversive organizations?

California Uber Alles

While I think references to "health fascists" are a bit over the top, there is definitely an authoritarian strain in modern liberalism (which is generally cloaked in the language of civil rights.) Just as one of the few anti-abortion songs in history was sung by the Sex Pistols, the best song pointing up this authoritarian streak comes from a punk band--the Dead Kennedys.

The Nanny State

I'm not an ideological libertarian. True conservatism is antithetical to ideology of any kind. I do, however, strongly believe the government should be kept bound with the Constitutional chains created by the Founders. Freedom is a zero-sum game. Expanding government power necessarily involves a diminution of individual liberty.

Modern Liberalism seems to grasp this principle only when it comes to laws affecting one of the polymorphous forms of fornication, or as it applies to abortion. What they never see is the connection between governmentally-granted "rights" and the erosion of freedom.

When the state gives Person A a right to a certain economic benefit, this necessarily dictating a corresponding responsibility to Person B. Person B has exchanged a portion of his life through work for the money he has. The state in turn uses force to take this money and give it to Person A, in the name of A's economic "right." Lost is any sense that B might have rights as well, namely, the free use of the money his own sweat (or ingenuity, or family) has earned. Bastiat called this "legalized plunder."

Worse, when a person is receiving these benefits from the state, the bureaucrats are holding the purse-strings. A great example is health-care. If the cost of health care comes from state coffers, then the state is responsible for rationing. Life-and-death decisions leave the hands of individuals and come under the purview of bureaucratic bean-counters. And the state now has a vested interest in how you live your life.

Which explains this article in the Guardian: Smokers 'to sign pledge' with doctors. While it's initially voluntary, smokers and overweight people are being asked to sign a formal agreement to stop smoking and exercise. Anyone who thinks this will remain voluntary for long doesn't understand the thrust of modern European politics. Coercion is logical and necessary in socialism, because every use of these pooled resources affects every other individual in the system.

Liberalism has become a secularized sort of Fundamentalism-- humorless, joyless, opposed to smoking and drinking, and obsessive about other people's personal lives.

A Profit Without Honor?

With worthy exceptions like Michael Novak or the Foundation for Economic Education, too often Free Market supporters cede the moral high ground to the collectivists and base their apologetic on pragmatic grounds. Capitalism "works." During the Cold War there were many good many moral defenders of capitalism. Edmund Opitz and his Religion and Capitalism: Allies, Not Enemies springs to mind. But with the post-Cold War breakdown of the conservative synthesis, this type of argument isn't heard often any more.

While not a comprehensive defense of the system, Peter Drucker's piece in OpinionJournal goes a long way toward demolishing the old liberal perennial about profit equating to exploitation. Best of all, he turns the language of the collectivists around to make his case--"A company that loses money is socially irresponsible."

"What is called "profit" and reported as such in company accounts is genuine and largely quantifiable cost in three respects: as a genuine cost of a major resource, namely capital; as a necessary insurance premium for the real--and again largely quantifiable--risks and uncertainties of all economic activity; and as cost of the jobs and pensions of tomorrow. The only exception, the only true "surplus," is a genuine monopoly profit such as that now being achieved by the OPEC cartel in petroleum."