Dig that hole!

Dig That Hole!

Awesome.



"This is my American Prayer."

"This is the church you cannot see."

Yeah, I give up.

Strong Beere

"Strong Beere"

Some things never change.

Two soldiers of old acquaintance, having beene long asunder, chanced to meete, and after salutations they agree'd to enter an Ale-house, where a formall fashionable Tapster fill'd them as much nicke and froath with Petars of Tobacco, as made them (in his estimation) to bee reckoned at two shillings; they fell to the discourse of their severall Fortunes and Services, the one of Russia and Poland, the other of Germany and Sweaden; they talk't of hunger and thrift, cold, and nakednesse, sieges, and assaults, Artillery, Ammunition, Guns, and Drummes, wounds, scarres, death, and all the perils incident to men of the Sword.

If that puts you in the mood for a "gunne" of strong beer and a mighty feast, the site has quite a few Medieval and early Modern English recipes. In fact, that's how I happened on it -- I was looking for a good way to cook some Rock Cornish Game Hens. (Eric would have liked the result, as it featured bacon.)

Bacon Bourbon

"How to Baconify Your Bourbon"

I always appreciate it when you separate the sheep from the goats early.

[S]ince bacon and bourbon are two Agitator favorites, I thought a post about how to deliciously combine the two was the least I could offer. (Why would you want to put bacon in your bourbon? If you have to ask, this isn’t the post for you.)

Roger that.

(H/t: Southern Appeal, who were rather more enthusiastic about it.)

Sports and Fighting 3

Sports and Fighting:

The discussion to the introductory post was great: enlightening, intelligent, spirited and courteous. I commend all who participated.

William's remarks are insightful, and I note that one of his early comments contains the resolution to the dispute on the subject of children displaying courage 'without training.' As he points out, this is not quite so: they train for it all the time.

This is why children day dream of being great warriors and standing against (insert enemy du jour). They are training their mind to choose options in frightening situations. The enemy they are facing is both “real” and a surrogate for other frightening things that they will have to overcome in life. Hence, this applies not just to the warrior aspect, but to every aspect of life.

However, my own sense comes closest to the one Doc Russia put forward. Training in armor can create and nurture courage, if it is done correctly. If it is not -- if the spirit of the thing is lost -- what follows is of no use.

Doc points out the importance of training for stresses in excess of what is probable, so you can minimize your concerns in the event. By the same token, training should emphasize that the way to end the stress is victory, and only that. Anything else is destruction: of the reason to train, of the chance to nurture the virtue being sought, and of the spirit of the man.

G. K. Chesterton wrote of courage:

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. This paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice.

He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.

Miyamoto Musashi, in his Book of Five Rings, pointed out the error of the fighter in the video below -- and the virtue of the victor there.

When a warrior draws his sword the main intention must be to cut the enemy down. There is no reason to change your grip when you strike the enemy. When you have forced the enemy to lose control of his sword because of your parrying thrust, do not change your hand position.... Likewise, when you put aside the enemy's sword, or block the enemy's strike, you must be intent on following up with a powerful attack to win the fight. The martial arts are not a game to see who is stronger and who is faster. You must mean it when you strike the enemy. If you do not, you will certainly get hurt.

The martial arts are not the only sport in which this matters. It occurs also in horseback riding. When a horse panics, there is a fatal voice in the head that says: "Stop. Let go. Get off." If you do, injury or death await. The only chance is to sit deep and ride it out.

Even then, of course, the world may prove too strong for you. Yet that is the only chance: and it is the spirit that the fighting arts, and any warrior's sports, must train.

This is part two in the series. There will be another, but before we move on, let's talk about this.

Retro

On Metrosexuality:

Kim du Toit -- winding down his blogging career, with a planned retirement date about 100 days out -- speaks to ladies associated with metrosexual men. Shy away from the men who wear mascara, he warns!

...[M]ore interesting was the number of women who told me that they had once been attached to metrosexual men, but soon tired of them, and tossed them aside for men who were, well, men and not ur-women. And were now as happy as could be, content in their role as women, while the men were being men, and the women loved them for it.

In fact, although I know that mnost of my Lady Readers are attached, and well so, to Real Men, I would suggest that if any casual Lady Reader is unhappy with their current relationship, they should check for signs of metrosexuality in her partner. If the Metro Quotient is high, I would bet money that the lady’s unhappiness would disappear if she tossed the girlyman out of her life, and found instead a man who was not afraid of being a man.

If we're giving advice to young ladies on this subject, here's mine. Today was hot. My dog was hot, and panting hard. Finally I had to stop the truck, open up the back, take off my Stetson and pour a pint of water into it for my dog to lap up. When he was finished, I put the hat back on my head and we finished the drive home.

This is the proper use of a Stetson. Heck, it comes with instructions printed right on the liner.



If your man won't do that for his dog, he may not be the right man for you. Proverbs 12:10.

Sport 2

Sport II:

While I compose the next piece for discussion, a video that clarifies something of what I intend to say. This is the difference between sport and fighting, in spite of the ring, in spite of the rules. I've been sent this video by about a dozen of you folks:

As with the law, it's really the spirit of the thing that matters.

Obvious

I Believe FARK Tags This "OBVIOUS"

A news story: apparently the Democratic Party leaders will be reviewing their nominating process. Can't imagine why.

Dell

On Dell:

My new motherboard arrived last night, accompanied by a Dell service representative who had never seen a dirt road before. Apparently there was some error at the factory with the old one, and it burned out cleanly; but so far, the new one works fine.

Dell seems to have moved its help center to India (along with the rest of the tech industry), and the experience of dealing with them is much like what you'd expect. However, once they determined (in the step-by-painful-step method that such call centers employ) that the error was indeed critical, they arranged to send someone to the house. The experience was painless: I borrowed the wee wife's computer for email and so forth, and now I'm back.

So: it looks like I need to sit down and read through an excellent discussion in the "On Sport" post, before I go further. I should leave you folks alone more often!

While Grim's Away...

While Grim's Away

...the peasantry will play. Full disclosure: this is going to be an utterly mindless post.

When the Editorial Staff were expecting our first grandchild (promptly dubbed "The Burrito" by his father upon arrival) we only half-jokingly began suggesting Manly Names for the prospective grand-progeny. Can you tell we were hoping for a boy? Since our eldest boy is of the law enforcement persuasion, our first Helpful Suggestions were "Law" and (our personal favorite) ...

[drum roll]

..."Justice".

Inexplicably, our well thought out contributions were heartlessly disregarded. Apparently, the offspring had their own ideas about what our grandchild should be called. The *nerve* of some people.

This is what we get for all those years of loving care and attention. O! How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is, to have a thankless child...

/hand to forehead

But hope springs eternal in the grandmaternal breast, and so we have not given up. There is always the chance of further rugrats down the road. Consequently, we were gratified to see this list of The Manliest Names in the World, and even happier to see it included one of our fav actors.

Check it out. And feel free to suggest a name for our next grandchild in the comments section.

Death of Motherboard

A Hopefully Short Pause:

Due to a dead motherboard in the computer, I'll be away for what I hope will be a short bit. I regret the timing, as I had what I hoped would be an interesting series of post prepared for this week; but we'll get back to it as soon as we can.

Sport

Sport:

As the Olympics continue, we see some sports that were originally martial in origin. This reminds us of the Laches, in which Socrates is asked whether practice fighting in armor can actually build the courage needed for real fighting in armor. It was a critical question to Greek city-states whose survival depended on producing that kind of men: it remains a critical question.



The video is from A Knight's Tale, which (by the way) I suggest as an entertaining film. The film makes a highly risky choice in its musical score: so-called classic rock, in a Medieval setting. I fully expected to hate not only the music but the movie as a consequence, but in fact it comes off wonderfully. The film uses mostly tracks that are frequently used in modern American sports, and the effect is to make the emotions felt by Medieval characters immediately relevant to modern audiences. The film has a small amount of the usual Hollywood preaching about how we ought to feel on social issues, and a somewhat overwrought ending; but those are minor flaws. It is generally a good film, one you'll enjoy viewing again and again.

The part relevant to this discussion begins at 07:25 (although some of you, most especially Cassandra, will enjoy the earlier parts). Notice how, when "Ulric" is to strike, he does so at first with care, in a martial fashion: but after his first victory, he becomes increasingly flashy, showy, doing things (like turning his back on his foe) that no one would do in combat.

It is just that quick that the spirit of the thing is lost. Masters have made this mistake.

In Autumn Lightning, Dave Lowry writes about being instructed in Japanese swordsmanship by an old teacher from Japan. One night, after long practice, the sensei tries to convey the point.

"The swordsmanship we do, that is nothing. What is cutting with a sword? If I have an atomic bomb now, it will melt your katana and you.... We keep the Yagyu Shinkage tradition alive for another reason than fighting. Because it is like--" he paused, reaching for the right word, "it is like an antique that is living. Because we have the ryu [school of teaching], we have something of the past. We can depend on it. All the bugeisha in the old days, they are just like us. Same problems, they loved and hated, just like we do. Since they went before, they are an example for us."

In fact, the man who practices a fighting art to preserve it, as a moral guide, is doing nothing like what the samurai was doing. The samurai wanted to kill. He would change anything about his technique, in an instant, if it gave him an advantage. The man who carefully preserves kata is the opposite of him. The man who seeks to preserve unchanged the techniques as a moral lesson is nothing like the man who would change any technique for a momentary advantage.

Yet it is possible to be "like" the fighting men of old. It is possible to learn courage by practicing fighting in armor. In coming days, we'll talk a bit more about this: and perhaps I'll finally get around to answering Eric, who has long said that "chivalry" was largely a romantic ideal, whose forms we have mostly of the 19th century.

Football

Well, We Can Too:

Feddie at Southern Appeal has a little Notre Dame film up, "Just because I can." They have to make films, because they don't have Larry Munson.



"We just stepped on their face, with a hobnailed boot, and broke their nose!"

That reminds me of a story.

Time to buy a Chicken

Time To Buy Some Chickens:

This is an outstanding idea.

Interesting

McCain and Religion:

We looked at an article on Sen. Obama's faith the other day; here's one on Sen. McCain's. It's a very different kind of faith -- less intellectual, and less public:

Although polling suggests voters view faith as an essential ingredient in a president, McCain has never been a candidate to invoke God or dwell on religion. "In our case, faith is private," said his wife, Cindy, adding that once voters get to know him, "they will know he is a man of faith."

I thought this was remarkable:

About six months later, they were back in the ironically named Hanoi Hilton, and Day, the senior officer, chose McCain as the group's chaplain. His first lesson — he doesn't like to call them sermons — recounted the biblical story of the man who asked Jesus whether he should pay taxes. Jesus replied, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and render unto God what is God's."

McCain's point was that the prisoners should not pray for freedom, nor for harm to come to their captors.

"What I was trying to tell my fellow prisoners is that we were doing Caesar's work when we got into prison, so we should ask for God's help to do the right thing and for us to get out of prison if it be God's will for us to do so," McCain said. "Not everybody agreed with that."

I imagine not! Yet it is a highly plausible reading, and one achieved against personal interests and while under extraordinary duress.

I May Go See This One

An American Carol

Now this is kind of remarkable:



That's a fair set of big Hollywood names, thrashing a well-known and influential filmmaker. You don't see this kind of infighting very often. I may have to go see this movie, just since it has my (very) distant relative George Patton as a character.

Good Point

A Very Good Point from XKCD:

OK...

OK...

I get about three of these conspiracy-theory mails a week from friends and family. I think I can honestly say that I've been diligent in pointing out the holes in them. I'm certainly opposed to Sen. Obama's election as President, and ready to use any true and fair weapon that comes to hand against him; but not untrue or unfair ones.

I normally know what to say about them, but I got one today that one I don't have an answer for. Probably some of you have seen it, and know what to say:

An AP photo appears to show Obama's school registration in Indonesia, listing his religion as Islam. I see that Obama's Fight the Smears page doesn't mention it, though it denies that he was "raised as a Muslim."

So: is the photo real? Does "not raised as a Muslim" mean that his father in law stepfather [UPDATE per ML: see comments] may have considered him a Muslim, but nobody else? Or just not him? Or what?

Edward Luttwak Strikes Again!

Goodness knows we've had our disputes with, or about, the writings of Edward Luttwak. His COIN theory drew a rebuttal from David Kilcullen (and a harsher response by Frank Hoffman that suggested he 'was off his medication'); his piece on "leaving the Middle East alone" provoked some arguments here as well (and another rather rude rebuttal). The comments to those pieces, even here at the Hall, have been contentious. One describes one of his works as a book "so bad I tried to make my officers read it so they could recognize a bad thesis when they saw it"; but another of our co-bloggers found his work sometimes "excellent" and sometimes, well, not.

So it is with some trepidation, metaphorically at least, that I offer his latest barn-burner. Called "A Truman for our times," it is a work strongly praising the foreign policy of George W. Bush. Not that it is entirely kind:

The swift removal of the murderous Saddam Hussein was followed by years of expensive violence instead of the instant democracy that had been promised. To confuse the imam-ridden Iraqis with Danes or Norwegians under German occupation, ready to return to democracy as soon as they were liberated, was not a forgivable error: before invading a country, a US president is supposed to know if it is in the middle east or Scandinavia.

Yet in the end, Luttwak asserts, the problems will not be remembered: what will be remembered was that Bush was the man who threw back Islamism in the Muslim world, made it unacceptable to support in public among the leaders of Muslim states, and made great strides in denuclearizing the dangerous parts of the world.

Read it all, and let's discuss it.

Male/Female

Male/Female by Website:

I see Cassidy is in a panic over her male/female rating. No need to worry! The program is very poorly designed. To get an accurate reading, it would need to look at a far broader range of websites in your history than it does.

For example, if it finds a lot of stuff like this in your history, you're probably male:



"MapQuest"? It's really not that reliable an indicator by comparison.

Via Dad and SAppeal

Locating Authority:

Via both our friend Dad29 and our friend Feddie at Southern Appeal, a little lesson in authority.

From the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

Q. 14. What is sin?

A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

From the Baltimore Catechism:

Q. 278. What is actual sin?

A. Actual sin is any willful thought, word, deed, or omission contrary to the law of God.

From Senator Obama:

Q. Do you believe in sin? OBAMA: Yes.

Q. What is sin? OBAMA: Being out of alignment with my values.

Presumably, the Senator meant to say something like "one's own values," which is a highly contestable definition -- but still a far kinder reading than, "Sin is when one doesn't align with my values."

In fairness, however, read the whole interview. They ask some very difficult questions. It might be worth trying to see if you can answer them yourself. There are a few I would want a long time to consider.

A far more serious confession is here:

OBAMA: When I’m talking to a group and I’m saying something truthful, I can feel a power that comes out of those statements that is different than when I’m just being glib or clever.

GG:
What’s that power? Is it the holy spirit? God?

OBAMA:
Well, I think it’s the power of the recognition of God, or the recognition of a larger truth that is being shared between me and an audience.

That’s something you learn watching ministers, quite a bit. What they call the Holy Spirit. They want the Holy Spirit to come down before they’re preaching, right? Not to try to intellectualize it but what I see is there are moments that happen within a sermon where the minister gets out of his ego and is speaking from a deeper source. And it’s powerful.

So bear in mind: Obama really does think that, at least some of the time, the Holy Spirit is moving him when he speaks.

That's a bold statement: that a politician's work is like a minister's; that he is doing God's own work, and speaking words inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Do you believe that? About him? About yourself?