Michelle Arnold – Page 7

What Was Lost…

Having just returned from summer Boy Scout camp, I have found the story of Brennan Hawkins (the missing Utah scout who was found yesterday) especially touching. Another scout who went missing from the same area last year has never been found. The experience of briefly losing my son in a theme park gave me some small inkling what it must have been like to find the boy whole and unharmed.

The thoughts that go through a parent’s head, even in the short space of forty-five minutes, probably make the episode more traumatic for the parents than the lost child. I was, of course, flooded with emotions when I finally came upon my son
(then eight years old) wandering in the crowd. I was joyful, relieved,
thankful… all the good things – but I was also a little irritated
with him for having wandered off. I’m sure it was less than a minute
before I said something like "You had us all worried sick!".

Which, naturally enough, brings me to the Rosary.

I have sometimes felt that the Finding of Jesus in the Temple was somewhat out of place among the Joyful Mysteries. While the other four mysteries strike me a s naturally joyful, the Finding has always made me reach a little. There is joy there, but there are so many other emotions involved (dread, relief) that joy seems a bit crowded out. Even sinless Mary felt compelled to say "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.". Joy simply is not the first thing that leaps out at me from that verse.

But the accumulated Catholic wisdom of the centuries has placed the event alongside the Annunciation and the Nativity as a Joyful Mystery, so I find myself compelled to explore it more deeply. The recent finding of Brennan Hawkins has helped me, I think. While there is a torrent of conflicting emotions surrounding a lost child, the one that should remain at the end is Joy. C.S. Lewis wrote a great deal about joy, making it clear that it should not be confused with mere happiness. Real joy can even be a frightening thing at times, a mysterious thing. Jesus talked a good deal about the joy of finding what was lost; a sheep, a coin, a repentant sinner.

Brennan Hawkins was lost for four days, my son for less than an hour. Finding Brennan alive and uninjured after all that time alone in the wilderness was almost too much to hope for. I had not yet reached that point with my son, even though horrid thoughts had entered my mind. Perhaps the Finding of Jesus in the Temple is a fitting way to remind us of all that we should be joyful about. We can be an ungrateful bunch, at times.
I think maybe Brennan’s parents now have a perspective on life that we should all try to grasp, even if we never have to go through a similar experience.

GET BRENNAN’S STORY.

Christians United Together for Everyone

Reuters runs a story about a new and exciting religious coalition called "Christian Churches Together in the USA" that will include U.S. Catholics as well as a cross section of evangelical, pentecostal, mainline protestant and other denominations. In the formation stage since 2001, the group will represent a much larger group of Christians than any current ecumenical group.

So, am I just paranoid, or are the alarm bells going off in my head a rational response to this unity-through-bureaucracy movement? I’m sorry, I am having a hard time seeing the benefit of signing on to such a movement. Okay, so we are gonna "agree to disagree" on a whole raft of stuff and concentrate on working together on things like "overcoming poverty". A better recipe for mischief could hardly be imagined. I could be wrong, of course, but the giddy ramblings like this one have not exactly calmed my nerves:

Tim Matovina, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of
American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, said one of the
significant things about the new group is its stated objective of not
taking a stand on something unless all member churches agree.

Often today the rank-and-file members don’t always agree with what church leaders say, he said.

Beyond that, the renewed interest in ecumenical cooperation is another
indication that "in American religion today … denominations mean less
and less," he said.

The country has a strong history rooted in
home-ruled Congregational churches, and today Lutherans, Presbyterians
and Catholics are "experiencing this Congregational dynamic where
people kind of ignore or resist what denominational leaders say, and
seek out a pastor who suits their style … what’s important is the
service."

If this is the kind of Catholic that finds the prospect of such a coalition exciting, then my instinct to go for my parachute seems wholly justified.

Apparently the group will function something like the U.N. (we can only hope). If they truly plan to "not take a stand on something unless all member churches agree" we can anticipate alot of fluffy rhetoric and not much action, which would be the best scenario.

GET THE STORY.

I Am Telling a Lie…

I was flippin’ through the channels this morning and came across yet another live car chase on FOX News. I had other fish to fry, but just before I switched the TV off, the ~~play-by-play guy~~reporter remarked that the police were likely telling the bad guy in the pursued vehicle anything they could think of that might make him give up. Police negotiators are allowed to say anything at all if it will save lives or cut short an unstable situation, even if it is 180 degrees opposite of the truth.

I have also watched numerous episodes of NYPD Blue, so I know that police interrogators are allowed to say things like "Your accomplice gave you up already. He says you made him do it. He’s singing like a canary… " even if it is not true. In other words, the police are allowed to lie. In certain situations I suppose it would even be considered a professional duty to lie, say to save the life of a hostage.

Now, obviously, this brought to mind Rahab, the lying prostitute back in the Old Testament (sorry, I’m not much for chapter and verse). She lied to save the good guys in the story (a couple of spies from Israel) and was rewarded by having her life spared later.

So, this all got me thinking, which is a dangerous thing. What sort of ethical, moral and spiritual problems might a devout Catholic police officer have about lying in the course of performing his/her job? Is it permissable from a moral standpoint? Is it even meritorious in certain circumstances? Would they have to go to confession after telling a whopper to a kidnapping suspect?

You might think that I ask these questions in a rhetorical fashion only in order to provide the answers later in the post. Nope.

I’m asking because I really don’t know. Now, I suspect that, yeah, in certain circumstances it might be considered not only morally permissable, but commendable to lie in certain life-or-death type siuations. BUT, I just don’t know. Much as I hate to punt on this, I will leave it to Jimmy and some of the better informed readers to handle this one. My head hurts…

Well, not really…

Save the Rainbow!

The rainbow used to be the very symbol of simple, innocent beauty. Noah’s Ark, the Wizard of Oz… heck, Kermit the Frog – these are the kinds of things that used to come to mind when we thought of rainbows. As an artist, the rainbow represents all the possibilities of the limited palette; from these few colors, you could paint anything.

Nowadays, though, the rainbow has been co-opted for more nefarious uses. From GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, the rainbow has been adopted as a symbol to give a veneer of happy innocence to the twisted causes of these groups.

Now, the rainbow is being dragged even more deeply into the muck. A new book, Rainbow Party, tells the story of a group of teens who engage in a fairly new form of group sex involving girls wearing different colored lipstick (so, if your kid is ever invited to a rainbow party, just be informed that they will not be doing crafts for entertainment). The book itself would be less irksome if it were not written by an author of juvenile fiction and published by Simon Pulse, a division of Simon & Scuster that specializes in books for teens.

Michelle Malkin comments on the book in the Houston Chronicle, and points out why it is closer to sex-ploitation than to education. Under the guise of "educating the yutes" it will doubtless be showing up in school libraries before long. It reminds me of Reefer Madness, a classic exploitation flick which was designed to generate ticket sales and controversy, but was billed as being for educational purposes (it was re-released at one time under the frantic title Tell Your Children!).

GET THE "COLORFUL" STORY.

Crime and NO Punishment

In stark contrast to Michelle’s recent post (regarding a guy who was sent up the river for 30+ years for the crime of nicking a television set) FOX News tells the story of a New Jersey guy who beat his girlfriend to death with a hammer and dumped her in the river, only to walk away a free man. He was tried for the murder, but it seems that nobody told the jury that a conviction on a lesser charge of manslaughter would result in no punishment at all, due to a screwed-up statute of limitations law. You would think that the judge or the prosecutor might have said something (!?).

Of course, this kind of thing can damage a person’s reputation. It could make it hard to get work, or find a wife. It could dog a person to his or her grave. Such a thing might even happen to the murderer in this case, Marc Ferarra. That’s MARC FERRARA. Are you listening, New Jersey? M-A-R-C F-E-R-A-R-R-A. This is not a nice person. You might not want to, say, loan him a book. He is likely a spine-cracker.

GET THE STORY.

Art For . . . Something Else’s Sake?

A new study by the Rand Corporation analyzes the fairly recent phenomenon of "selling" the arts based on their instrumental effects (like an enhanced local economy, or higher student test scores) as opposed to their intrinsic value. The study, entitled Gifts of the Muse: Re framing the Debate of the Benefits of the Arts, concludes that in promoting the arts across the country there has been too much focus on broad economic and social benefits.

The report places the origin of this kind of thinking in the early 1990s, and offers alternatives. The assumption is that there are just not enough people enjoying art.

One recommendation is that "attention and resources be shifted away from supply of the arts and toward cultivation of demand" . The summary of the study gives several suggestions for the "promotion of satisfying arts experiences" including the need to develop the language needed for discussion and acknowledging the limitations of current research. In other words, like alot of research, the study concluded that more study is needed (a little job security, there).

But the money quote is right here:

"Research has shown that early exposure is often key to developing life-long involvement in the arts. That exposure typically comes from arts education… The most promising way to develop audiences for the arts would be to provide well-designed programs in the nation’s schools."

So, rather than paying artists to produce more art that nobody looks at, we should strap students into specially designed art-appreciation chairs and refuse to release them until they grasp the "surrealism of the underlying metaphor" ("Welcome, Billy. Are you ready to have a satisfying art experience?").

This is wrong-headed for several reasons. For one, there is no shortage of art in kids’ lives. They are practically choked with art. Animé, comic books, movies, tattoos… heck, they are bombarded with art through cable television. Sure, it is generally of a low quality, but in a culture that has elevated subjectivism and relativism to the level of religious dogma, how would an art teacher even begin to help these kids distinguish "good" art from "bad" art? The very idea of good or bad art is anathema to the current art establishment. It’s all good, Billy, in it’s own way. Graffiti is as valid an expression as the Sistine ceiling. We have been feeding people this line for years.

Funding for the arts indeed began to come under (quite justifiable) attack around the early 1990s, as the preposterous excesses of goverment funded art began to come to light. The arts bureaucracy unwisely aligned themselves with the purveyors of artsy anti-religious hatred and pornography. Now they find themselves somewhat against the wall in trying to justify continued funding.

If the art establishment in this country had not been peddling ugly, meaningless art to the public for so long I doubt that they would find themselves in this position. Graffiti may not really be as good as the Sistine ceiling, but it is as good or better than Mark Rothko or Willem de Kooning.

Beauty is the key. People are starved for it. Alot of animé is quite stunningly beautiful, which is why kids respond to it. Give the people beautiful art and they will respond to it. Continue with the present course and the arts will always go begging for funds.

The report can be found online in the full version or just the summary.

GET THE REPORT HERE.

(Warning!! Evil File Format – PDF)

You Got a Permit for That?

According to THIS CNN.COM ARTICLE, a prediction I made years ago has begun to come true. I felt fairly certain that eventually some well-meaning idiot (or group of idiots) would call for the banning of kitchen knives and other edged implements, and now three doctors in London have started the ball rolling.

See, guns are hard to find in Britain, so when you find yourself in a muderous rage you have to work with whatever is at hand. Stabbings are common.

These doctors (all emergency room docs at a London hospital) didn’t just call a press conference and whine, but actually published an article in the British Medical Journal, so they apparently have wider support in the medical community there.

Think this is too far-fetched to be of any consequence? The doctors called for "goverment action", and Tony Blair and company have obliged by proposing a new MINIMUM AGE for knife ownership (18). The anti-knife lobby are also calling for knife design to be regulated so that long, pointy models are kept out of the marketplace. Their article pointed out that such knives are totally unnecessary, and cited an exhaustive survey of 10 chefs to bolster their argument.

In the true spirit of this new movement, I have begun compiling a list of other items that should be under consideration for future government regulation:

1) Pillows
2) Baseball bats
3) Rope
4) Lamp cord
5) "Blunt" objects
6) Fireplace pokers

This is just a beginning, of course. You can add your own items to the list in the com box. It will make us all just that much safer.

Chilly Chili

In one of his recent posts, Jimmy made reference to cold pizza in such a way as to make one speculate that he appreciates the occasional refrigerated snack. I have nursed a private affinity for chilled foods for some years, but until now have never publicly acknowledged my secret.

Hello, my name is Tim, and I like cold food.

I’m not talking about things you would normally eat cold, like yogurt or deli meat. I’m talking about those things that you would normally heat up before consuming. The merits of cold fried chicken, of course, are well documented. That’s one that would fall into the category of socially accepted cold food. One could eat this without receiving weird looks from friends or family.

I am advocating more adventurous and creative dishes: cold mashed potatoes and gravy, cold chicken and rice casserole, or (my personal favorite) the cold spaghetti sauce sandwich. The latter has to be made with meat sauce, and the more meat the better. Vegetable-only spaghetti sauce just won’t hold together. It should also be made with some good bread; leftover garlic toast or a hoagie roll work nicely. Steer away from the pasty white sandwich bread. The same can be done with cold chili.

Cold food has several advantages over warmed-up food: It is great when you are in a hurry, it requires no sauce pan or anything like that, and it will never FRY THE ROOF OF YOUR MOUTH as a result of being heated far beyond natural limits in a microwave oven. A piece of microwaved pizza can be a real health hazard, far hotter than anything served straight from a regular oven. Molten cheese behaves like napalm at those temperatures.

Now one thing I have noticed about cold foods: This seems to be a phenomenon associated with the x/y chromosome combo. In other words, it seems to be a guy thing. Often when indulging my cold-food jones, I am met with incredulous looks from the female members of the household, and remarks like "Aren’t you going to warm that up?", or "Put that on a plate, you’ll enjoy it more.". Obviously this is a pleasure that simply remains opaque to many bystanders.

I am no longer ashamed of my love for congealed beef stroganoff. If the French can have their vichyssoise, I am entitled to my wedge of macaroni and cheese or a quivering slice of chicken and dumplings.

Mm-m-m-m-m…

Wal-Art

The painting at left, Asher B. Durand’s "Kindred Spirits" was recently sold at auction through Sotheby’s for a bid of over 35 million dollars, the highest price ever paid for an American painting.

The painting depicts artistThomas Cole and poet William Cullen Bryant together in a Catskill Mountains scene. Henceforth it will be housed (surrounded by a number of other classic American artworks) in a new museum in… Arkansas!

The painting was offered for sale by the New York Public Library and was purchased at auction by the Alice Walton Foundation. That’s Walton, as in the supposedly evil Wal-Mart corporation.

The noble Metropolitan Museum of Art and the courageous National Gallery of Art combined forces to offer a competitive bid, but were beaten by the hideous strength of the Walton Foundation’s malevolent checkbook. At least that’s how the struggle is being depicted in certain cultural circles. Some letters to the New York Times online have whined as if the transaction amounted to out-and-out theft.

True, if I lived in New York I would miss the painting, too. In a spirit of real restraint, Met spokesman Harold Holzer said, "We’re disappointed that the painting is leaving New York…". The disappointment seems very one-sided, though. I have not heard much criticism levelled at the New York Public Library for putting the painting on the auction block.

Disappointment I can understand, but the bittereness displayed by some hints at something deeper. See, this is another victory for the Red Staters, a sign of the ascendency of Flyover Country. Arkansas, for cryin’ out loud?!! And, to make matters worse, the evil Wal-Mart corporation is behind it all, no doubt punishing the Empire State for it’s icy rebuff to the retail giant’s expansion efforts in that region.

The planned museum, to be located in Wal-Mart’s hometown of Bentonville, will house a collection of national significance. How strange, that the evil and greedy Walton family would spend millions and millions of dollars just to bring a little culture to those who have never had access to such treasures. Southerners don’t have the capacity to appreciate great art, and anyway, don’t corporations always use their money to just make more money? Don’t they have some slave-labor factories to build overseas?

Am I biased by the fact that I will be living close enough to this new museum to practically throw rocks at it? Probably. We are as excited here as they are disappointed in New York. Look at it this way, y’all; Won’t there be plenty of culture left in New York? Can’t you spare a piece or two for us benighted hillbillys?

FIND OUT MORE.

Riddle Me This…

Frank Gorshin, best known as Batman’s arch nemesis "The Riddler" on the original television series, has passed away at the age of 72. He had been suffering from emphysema and pneumonia. He was a prodigious talent, with a range of facial and bodily expression to rival Jim Carrey.

A master impressionist (back when that sort of comedy was "in"), Gorshin starred in one of my favorite comedy shows of all time, "The Copycats", which was basically a sketch show that also starred Rich Little, Charlie Callas, Marilyn Michaels and Fred Travalena (of Simpsons fame), among others. I loved this show.

I would get testy if the house was not sufficiently quiet when it was on. These people weren’t just dressed and made-up to look like the celebs they imitated, but actually spent many hours studying their habits and voices until the resemblance was uncanny, as well as hilarious. Hardly anyone does impressions today. It’s not considered "edgy" I guess. Dana Carvey is the last comic I know of who bothered enough to do dead-on impressions (his Jimmy Stuart, for instance).

I was nuts for the Batman series too, though, and hated to miss an episode in which Gorshin played the Riddler, a role for which he snagged an Emmy nomination. Not impressed yet? Consider this:

He also is remembered by "Star Trek" fans for his memorable
guest performance on that show as Commissioner Bele, a
half-black, half-white alien who appeared in a favorite episode
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," a parable on race
relations.

Not many who ever saw the original Star Trek series could ever forget Gorshin’s hateful intensity as Commissioner Bele (that crazy black and white make-up didn’t hurt, either).

One of his first big breaks was when he was invited to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show back in 1964, but it didn’t come out quite the way he had planned. His performance was great, but the next day all anyone seemed to be talking about was the musical act on the show, some band called The Beatles.

FIND OUT MORE.