The Western Confucian

Il Giardino Armonico, Rameau's Pièces de clavecin en concert N° 3

2009-11-24T14:33:00.002+09:00

Famime and Abundance in Ethiopia

2009-11-24T05:15:00.003+09:00

Seemingly paradoxical news that an "impoverished and chronically food-insecure Horn of Africa nation is rapidly becoming one of the world's leading destinations for the booming business of land leasing, by which relatively rich countries and investment firms are securing 40-to-99-year contracts to farm vast tracts of land" — The ultimate crop rotation.

Paradoxical, until one considers Amartya Sen's observation "that famine occurs not only from a lack of food, but from inequalities built into mechanisms for distributing food."

Natural Law Victories in the Great State of Maine

2009-11-24T05:11:00.004+09:00

"The same day they rejected a gay marriage ballot measure, residents of Maine voted overwhelmingly to allow the sale of medical marijuana over the counter at state-licensed dispensaries," begins Karl Vick's report — Support for legalizing marijuana grows rapidly around U.S.

Some might see a contradiction here, but there is none; legislating gay "marriage" is every bit as tyrannical as denying a naturally growing herb to patients who could use it. In fact, it is more so.

Taoist, Tory... and Trappist

2009-11-24T04:31:00.003+09:00

Sinologist Sam Crane acknowledges that "the two streams of thought - Taoism and a certain British conservatism - do share a skeptical stance" — Chuang Tzu and Oakeshott. He also "mentions Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who penned his own rough versions of selected Chuang Tzu passages."

Blessed Miguel Pro Before the Firing Squad

2009-11-24T04:03:00.002+09:00

Liberty vs. Leviathan posts the above image among others in remembrance of the "Jesuit priest and Christian martyr, executed November 23, 1927, on the orders of Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles" for his "refusal to submit to the laws outlawing the practice of his Catholic faith" — ¡Viva Cristo Rey!

Mark Shea on the G.O.P. and Abortion

2009-11-24T03:37:00.002+09:00

"Thirty years is about the limit of the GOP blathering that abortion is the central moral issue of our time while, you know, doing as little as they possibly can about it while still exploiting it as a vote-getting tool" — The Dude's Got a Point.

"I think no small part of the reason they keep guys like Ron Paul marginalized as lunatics is because the GOP would have no idea what to do with a candidate who really meant to end abortion by taking actual concrete steps to do so," continues Mr. Shea. "The GOP has made it abundantly clear that they have no intention of doing anything by talk and exploit the hopes of pro-life suckers who believe they care about them and their concerns."

An Agrarian, Anti-war, Anti-state Chinese Film?

2009-11-24T03:15:00.006+09:00

Gautaman Bhaskaran reviews Mai tian (2009), which "tells the story of women left behind after their husbands are sent to war" — IFFI to Open on a Note of Visual Lyricism. A synposis:

Vive la France!

2009-11-24T03:07:00.003+09:00

"We could learn from the country neoconservatives call our oldest enemy," says R.J. Stove — Tour de France. "To the rest of the world, France and America seem not... inveterate foes... but rather a pair of quarrelsome fraternal twins."

"What sets Anglos dancing with rage is more often France’s wartime record," says Mr. Stove, offering American "Fred Reed’s verdict on French military failure" as defense:

I note ... that the French have Germany on their borders, a condition associated with military failure for everybody enjoying the same circumstances. Americans cannot always distinguish between military prowess and the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, a great many Americans cannot find the Atlantic Ocean.

Desconstructing Le Corbusier

2009-11-24T02:57:00.002+09:00

Theodore Dalrymple on the man who "was to architecture what Pol Pot was to social reform" — Architect as Totalitarian. "By their very presence, the raw-concrete-clad rectangular towers that obsessed him canceled out centuries of architecture."

Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the Musical

2009-11-24T02:25:00.007+09:00

A new Broadway musical on the life of Fela Kuti, the phenom whose music I discovered in a used record store back in the Vinyl Age — 'Fela!' and the risks of a firebrand. One of my disappointments was not being able to see him perform at the Chautauqua Institution in the early 90's after the Nigerian government did not allow him to leave his country.

"Fela scares the hell out of me, [he was] a sacred monster, a megalomaniac who was all razor blades and coffee," says the man behind the musical, who "just didn't think that a white middle-class audience would be interested in a story of an African pot-smoking firebrand who made music with songs that were loud, long and aggressive." Here, a "loud, long and aggressive" performance of his:

An Inside Look at "Persistent Vegetative State"

2009-11-24T02:14:00.003+09:00

One wonders what Rom Houben would have to say about Terri Schiavo's execuation by dehydration — 'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear': Man trapped in 23-year 'coma' reveals horror of being unable to tell doctors he was conscious. "The disclosure will also renew the right-to-die debate over whether people in comas are truly unconscious."

"Anyone who bears the stamp of 'unconscious' just one time hardly ever gets rid of it again," said his doctor, "plans to use the case to highlight what he considers may be similar examples around the world." From the article:

A Reeducation Camp for Catholics

2009-11-24T02:09:00.002+09:00

News of a program "designed to teach educators about anti-Semitism and the history of the relationship between Jews and the church" — Catholic teachers find themselves intensely immersed in Jewish history.

Frans Brüggen Plays Georg Philipp Telemann's Fantasie No. 3

2009-11-23T18:22:00.002+09:00

Old Roman Chant

2009-11-23T12:56:00.005+09:00

A kind reader sends along a channel dedicated to "reconstruction[s] of the 'Old Roman' style," which he rightly describes as "very Greek-sounding" — Callixtinus's Channel. Said said reader, "I like it particularly as I can sing along with it (I am a very low bass), whereas most Gregorian settings put me in falsetto (the Carolingans loved their contraltos apparrently!)"

The American Powder Keg

2009-11-23T12:31:00.006+09:00

"Are we nearing a tipping point as rapacious elites push a heavily armed populace too far?" asks David DeGraw — 15 Signs American Society Is Coming Apart at the Seams. His conclusion, "We are now witnessing the critical unraveling of U.S. society."

AlterNet, on which the above was published, is a leftist site, but, as Glenn Greenwald noted the other day, "Populist anger over elite-favoring economic policies has long been brewing on both the Right and Left (and in between)" and that "many of the most consequential political conflicts are shaped far more by an 'insider v. outsider' dichotomy than by a 'GOP v. Democrat' or 'Left v. Right' split" — Ron Paul's Victory. And it was "political atheist" Gerald Celente who first described what we may now be witnessing — The 2nd American Revolution.

[link via Vox Nova]

Two Masses in Korean History

2009-11-23T12:25:00.003+09:00

Peter Kim reports on the arrival of Father Gregorious de Cespedes with the Japanese invaders in 1593 — The First Mass Celebrated in Korea — and a 1947 "Requiem Mass celebrating the 37th memorial of the patriot Thomas Ahn's dying for country" — Thomas Ahn's Requiem Mass in Hong Kong.

Defending Christian Liberty

2009-11-23T12:17:00.005+09:00

A report that American "Anglicans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, etc." have issued a joint statement on "1. the sanctity of human life," "2. the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife," and "3. the rights of conscience and religious liberty" — The Manhattan Declaration. Quoted is the document's final paragraph:

Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.Coming to mind is the first article of the Magna Carta, guaranteeing "that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired."

The Dark Side of the Baroque

2009-11-23T07:03:00.005+09:00

"No one paid a higher price for celebrity than the male soprano of the 18th-century, those greatest of European stars, whose fame in their own time was proportionally greater even than that of George Clooney, Madonna, Brittany Spears or of those opera singers’ most direct modern descendant, Michael Jackson," begins David Yearsley's accound of the — 200,000 Testicles Offered Up to the Gods of Song.

"Castration was an officially illegal operation often carried out at the behest of poor families to preserve a promising soprano voice from the hormones that would change it and thereby prevent an operatic career," Mr. Yearsley informs us. "A fall from the horse or an attack by a goose were the usual stories told, and these were accepted, if at all, with a wink."

Mentioned is the new recording of "fifteen classic castrato arias, eleven of which have never been recorded before," by a real soprano whose "technical command is beyond impressive, it is downright unbelievable," a taste of which can be seen in the video — Cecilia Bartoli - Sacrificium, Concert in Caserta.

No "Gosepl of Prosperity" in Rome

2009-11-23T06:53:00.001+09:00

"Benedict XVI explaines that the 'power' of Christ is different from that of 'the great of this world,' but it has 'the strength to defeat the dominion of death' and 'knows how to derive good from evil'" — Pope: choosing Christ the King does not guarantee success, but peace and joy to martyrdom.

Patron of the Arts

2009-11-23T06:46:00.003+09:00

A report on Saturday's audience with "250 artists, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, [who] responded to the Holy See's invitation to all professionals in the arts to take part" — In Sistine Chapel, Pope encourages artists to be ambassadors of beauty. Sandro Magister has the full text of the letter read — "Dear Artists, You Are the Custodians of Beauty".

Remember Libraries?

2009-11-23T06:41:00.001+09:00

"Search engines are all well and good, but sometimes the best place to find something is a library," says Diana Wagman — A Luddite in the library. She concludes, "If you have a specific destination, the Web is the place to go. If you just need to search, there is no place like the library."

White Slavery

2009-11-23T06:04:00.003+09:00

Dmitry Shlapentokh reviews a book, which, among other things, "draws the reader's attention to a little-known aspect of the emerging slave trade" — Constructing the Oriental image:

Hanwoori Choir Perform Gounod's Messe Solennelle de Santa Cecilia

2009-11-21T23:34:00.002+09:00

Tomorrow would mark the memorial of Saint Cecilia, patroness of music, if it weren't superceded by the Feast of Christ the King. (And today marks the Presentation of the Virgin Mary.)

False Hope at the Large Hadron Collider

2009-11-21T23:33:00.002+09:00

News that "nuclear physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider were surprised that they could so quickly get beams of protons whizzing near the speed of light during the restart late Friday" — Quick restart of Big Bang machine stuns scientists.

Earlier posts explain why the project is doomed to fail— God vs. God Particle, Nature Abhors a Higgs Boson Particle, Time on that Time-Traveling Bird.

That Shroud

2009-11-21T23:28:00.004+09:00

"The Catholic Church makes no claims about the cloth's authenticity," it is quite true, but new research suggets that "faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus" — Researcher: Faint writing seen on Shroud of Turin.

The report informs us that "the words include the name '(J)esu(s) Nazarene' — or Jesus of Nazareth — in Greek" which "proves the text could not be of medieval origin because no Christian at the time, even a forger, would have mentioned Jesus without referring to his divinity," as "[f]ailing to do so would risk being branded a heretic."