Category: Internet

Sorry for the delay in blogging of late.

The last few weeks have been incredibly hectic, in large part because I’ve been getting ready for Catholic Answers’ cruise, which starts this Wednesday. This will be a big one, and getting ready for it has taken up a huge amount of time, on top of my usual activities. So . . . that’s why things have been slow from me of late. I’m hoping to get back to regular blogging on the other side of the event.

In the meantime, I hope to send along some mystery photos from my travels. Have fun with them! (But don’t go looking on the itinerary for the event. That’d be cheating!)

I’d also like to say a very heartfelt thank you to Tim J and SDG for their efforts of late, as well as whatever they may be able to contribute to the blog in my absence.

See y’all when I get back.

As Mark Shea says before going on a trip: Beans. Noses. You know the drill.

Later!

Okay, so I really, *really* meant to blog tonight!

I know, my life has been crazy hectic of late (the fires being only one of the reasons for that), but tonight I had a night off and I wanted to blog and then . . .

And then . . .

Just after 7 p.m. my lights flickered . . . and went out.

Then they flickered again . . . and went out again.

Blackout!

Power failure!

It’s the first time in a year or two, but tonight my area of El Cajon went dark. Not even the nearby streetlights were working.

And I’ve spent the last three hours killing time by candlelight, bored out of my gourd.

(It’s not like a hundred years ago when there were no blogs and everyone was used to candlelight and it would have been business as usual.)

I was just starting to blog this fact from my iPhone when the power suddenly came back on, and I decided to switch over to my computer (while it lasts).

Anyway, just wanted to say that I haven’t forgotten y’all, and I hope to be back to blogging full strength soon.

Later!

Jimmy

Tonight, and increasingly in recent days, I’ve had trouble or found it impossible to blog due to computer problems.

At present it appears that my hard drive may be dying, and this has been interfering with my ability to blog without untimely freezes and crashes.

Tonight I’m initiating a full-HD backup, and I anticipate that I’ll be blogging from new hardware in the next couple of days.

Wanted to let y’all know, and talk with you soon!

Have been added to Da Rulz:

23. The following terms are pejorative and their use as actual
descriptors (as opposed, for example, to quoting someone else’s use of
them for purposes of critique) constitutes rudeness: "Romanist,"
"Romish," "Roman" (when used to mean or as a substitute for
"Catholic"), "Roman Church" (when used to mean the entire Catholic
Church, as opposed to the Roman church sui iuris that exists
within the Catholic Church), "Papist," Papistic," "Papistical,"
"Popish," and any cognate terms based on the terms "Roman" or "Pope."

The term to be used on this blog is Catholic, without scare quotes.

This is a Catholic blog, and Catholics are to be called Catholics on it.

24. It constitutes rudeness to make inflammatory assertions that one
is not prepared to back up by anything more than hearsay (e.g., "Mother
Theresa prayed to Hindu idols. I know because my friend said so.").

Inflammatory claims are those likely to inflame passions. An inflammatory claim can be true. But because of its emotion-stirring character, it requires concrete evidence (more than just hearsay) to back it up if the discourse is to be kept civil and not degenerate into an impassioned muddle.

(NOTE: I’ve added clarifiers to these rules based on issues that came up in the combox below. The corresponding changes have been made to Da Rulz page as well.)

Francis Beckwith has begun doing interviews on his reversion to the Catholic Church following an extended stay in Evangelicalism, which included a stint as the president of the Evangelical Theological Society.

He has yet to do an interview in a major radio or TV Catholic venue (though those are planned), but recently he granted an interview to Greg Koukl of the Evangelical radio program Stand to Reason.

GET THE INTERVIEW (MP3 DOWNLOAD).

I think Frank did very well under difficult conditions. It was mere weeks after his return to the Church, and the environment was more hostile that expected. In fact, he called Greg on the carpet for presenting a more confrontational interview than he understood would be the case, but the two men are friends and this very much showed through, with both seeking to be charitable and balanced with the other.

I thought Greg definitely engaged in "steamroller" tactics at various points (that is, he threw multiple verses at Frank without letting him have a proper chance to respond), but overall the interview was in the service of truth as the participants saw it.

Be sure to check it out.

More later.

H. P. Lovecraft’s fictional narrator begins the story The Call of Cthulhu, by writing:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of
the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in
its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the
piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying
vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall
either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace
and safety of a new dark age.

Well, that situation has just gone kablooey.

I mean, Google has been eating away at the fact that there are so many disparate bits of knowledge that no one person can piece them all together, but then there’s this:

From one perspective, this is wicked awesome–amazing!–but from another perspective it is really, really frightening (and like a good horror story, it starts normal–cool even–and gets scarier as it goes).

Somewhere, Lovecraft’s narrator is screaming.

(CHT to the readers who have e-mailed!)

A reader writes:

Hi Jimmy,

I don’t believe you and I have ever traded emails before, but my name
is Greg Willits from Rosary Army and SQPN.

I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to see it, but my wife and I have
recently launched a new online video series called "That Catholic
Show."

We just posted episode 6 yesterday entitled "You Are A Priest Forever."

If you have a moment, I’d love to have you take a look at it.  So far
we’ve posted 6 episodes and they can all be seen at
http://www.ThatCatholicShow.com

Below is a direct link to the latest episode, as well as a link for
embedding, should you
want to share it on your site.  Any help you can give in getting word
out about That Catholic Show would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, my wife and I will be the guests on Catholic Answers Live
on August 3rd.  I believe Jerry will be hosting that night.

http://www.sqpn.com/?p=1567

Thanks for writing, Greg; it’s nice to make your acquaintance! I’ve heard really good things about That Catholic Show, but this was the first episode that I’ve had a chance to watch. I’m very impressed, and I especially appreciate your use of humor! (Humor is kinda special to me.) Very pleased to get the word out about the show, so here’s an embed of it:

Good luck on Catholic Answers Live and, BTW, if I can ever help in any way with the show, be sure to let me know!

John has been warned repeatedly about hobby-horseism but recently posted a comment on the Spanish television set entry that was guaranteed to spin it off into a discussion about Latin and bishops and traditionalism. He is now given his last chance to avoid disinvitation to participate in the blog. If he doesn’t keep discussions of Latin, the bishops, and traditionalism to entries dealing with those subjects, he’s gone.

I’m also announcing the creation of two new entries in DA RULZ:

21. Commenters in the combox are to use either their real name or a
(non-offensive, non-spiteful) handle that distinguishes them from
others when posting comments. They are not to post comments while
leaving the "Name" field blank. It’s rude to expect people to interact
with you and give them no way to refer to you.

22. When someone is
under a warning not to ride his hobby horse, others on the blog are not
to post comments tempting him to get back on the hobby horse (e.g., "I
wonder what So-and-so will do to twist this thread onto his favorite
topic"). That’s rude because it tempts another person to break a rule
when he already may have trouble restraining himself on a particular
topic.

Last time I gave John a warning, he asked that others not taunt him in this way, and I agree with that sentiment. I’ve seen people under a hobby-horse warning get goaded into breaking the restriction, and it’s not fair to them.

Steve Dillard struck the tent on his popular blog Southern Appeal a few months ago, but he isn’t gone from the Internet.

Currently he’s working on the web site CatholicsAgainstRudy.Com, which hasn’t even gone online yet, but it’s already getting attention from the press.

LIKE THIS ARTICLE.

OR THIS HARDBALL INTERVIEW (PART ONE) (PART TWO)