Eclectic Amateur

Homefeeding: Threat or Menace?

Canadians for Global Warming

Amy Welborn points to this (Lilek’s) Bleat regarding the Opie & Andy stunt at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It’s good. Read it.

It finally dawned on me — I’m entirely through his cycle of the months, and into the regional essays, and the glaring difference between Leopold and Wendell Berry hits me: Leopold keeps talking about his farm, but he never gets around to actually farming. Hunting, yes, but so far not a word about actual farming. It’s puzzling. Maybe it’ll become clearer in the rest of the book …

I’m working my way through A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to find and read it, given how highly Wendell Berry (and others) praise it.

Leopold is nearly as quotable as Chesterton. Here’s a sample:

There are two great spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.

(Via johnaugus) According to this internet poll, I’m a closet Franciscan:

what’s your order?

(OK, so I thought it was amusing …)

Interesting fracas in St. Blog’s regarding Rod Dreher’s editorial “The Pope Let Us Down.” (online this Sunday) Short answer: I’m with Dreher — while I deeply respect His Holiness, I am utterly baffled (and yes, scandalized) at his seeming inaction in this crisis. Maybe His Holiness knows what he’s doing with this approach, but given how untrustworthy the American bishops have shown themselves to be, it’s hard to trust the Bishop of Rome on this, good as he is.

Wow, get crunched at work and then take a vacation, and the blogging goes out the window … so, just a few quick notes and updates:

Dale, don’t worry. Heather’s not just the brains, she’s the looks, too. Good thing you can cook. Oh, and you can’t use “Rachel Anne” as a name, we’ve already used it for our little princess.

Hip hip hooray!! My old math teacher kicks butt in the Republican primary, which given how GOP Hillsdale and Branch counties are, pretty much assures him a seat in the legislature this fall. Congratulations, Mr. Caswell!

Roy Jacobsen posts an interesting question after a Close Encounter with a high school guidance counselor:

When did the goal of education change from “developing good citizens” to “create cogs for the machine of business”?

Indeed. Roy, I hope to get back to your thoughts on this.

“The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense. “

– G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton: By the Babe Unborn

                      "By the Babe Unborn"

                      by G.K. Chesterton

              If trees were tall and grasses short,                As in some crazy tale,              If here and there a sea were blue                Beyond the breaking pale,

              If a fixed fire hung in the air                To warm me one day through,              If deep green hair grew on great hills,                I know what I should do.

              In dark I lie; dreaming that there                Are great eyes cold or kind,              And twisted streets and silent doors,                And living men behind.

              Let storm clouds come: better an hour,                And leave to weep and fight,              Than all the ages I have ruled                The empires of the night.

              I think that if they gave me leave                Within the world to stand,              I would be good through all the day                I spent in fairyland.

              They should not hear a word from me                Of selfishness or scorn,              If only I could find the door,                If only I were born.