Blogwatch, blogwatch, blogwatch,

Where did our love go?

Church of the Masses on how to provoke a new Renaissance: “…There is nothing egalitarian about artistic talent, a fact that is an ongoing source of outrage to the melancholic Marxists who hold sway in pretty much every Humanities department at the top universities. I remember one of my grad school professors becoming enraged at me when I asked if she thought any of my class’ final projects were ultimately any good. ‘How dare you hinder the right of self-expression by asking that kind of question?’ Having already gotten my grades for the term, I shrugged back, ‘How dare this university charge me $30,000 for a transcript of meaningless grades?’

“The art classroom reduces the artist to a technician, and negates the sense that art proceeds from a whole person. …Artists need formation, not education, and formation can only happen in a one to one relationship.”

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Eve adds: The “classroom model,” as vs. the one-on-one relationship model, has done even more harm to philosophy than to art. Universities ought to foster the kind of community that can hone artists’ and philosophers’ talents: They shove together lots of restless, seeking young people; push them to read/argue with/explore great works (ideally…); and offer the intermittent guidance of professors and the luxury of a life of intellectual companionship. But in fact, universities rarely offer this kind of community. (One somewhat random point: Such a university-based community would require the personal, rather than merely financial, involvement of alumni, both to create a sense of continuity through time and to serve as a reminder that mastery–or even raw competence–is unlikely to be attained in just four years.) …Anyway, this is a rant for another time.

Mark Shea: Brian Savio O’Connor, “a Catholic Indian national who (according to reports from Fides and L’Osservatore Romano) has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia on charges of drug use (trumped up) and praying to Jesus Christ (true). Brian faces the death penalty if he does not renounce his faith.” Eve notes: I have not looked into this myself. But Mark offers lots of links and addresses to write to and it’s not as if I trust the Saudis further than I could throw them.

Otto-da-Fe: Disturbing search requests.

Oxblog: Abu Ghraib (weirdly called “Al Ghraib”) and American prisons. “Fifteen to Life,” my Crisis magazine piece on fixing the prison system, is here.

Oxblog also is running a series of letters from a correspondent in Afghanistan. Here’s the most recent.

P. Blosser tells me something I didn’t know: Ronald Reagan gave a speech on Hans Urs von Balthasar! What did he say? I haven’t the foggiest. …Link via Mark Shea.

The Volokh Conspiracy: Why corporations do so have rights. Nice basic intro post.