Blogwatch, where the guys are drips;

Blogwatch, where they rip your slips…

The Agitator: Questions for the Democrats. I know they’re kind of tendentious, esp. toward the beginning, but I guess I don’t mind b/c I agree with many (though not all) of his premises. He also has a round-up of five songs stemming from the US civil rights movement. And while I think the civil rights movement too often becomes a self-comforting narrative of borrowed righteousness (They Might Be Giants’ “Purple Toupee” and “This Is the Spawning of the Cage and Aquarium” are awesome, acidulous takedowns of that attitude, and of course old-school fans will prefer Phil Ochs’s “Love Me, I’m a Liberal“), it’s also amazing and inspiring, and these songs capture that aspect.

…Someday I should do a post on what I gained from a fairly Afrocentric elementary school. The seven Kwanzaa virtues are desperately socialist and lame, but much of the rest of it was great.

Daniel Mitsui: I think this might be my favorite of the many excellent Dances of Death he’s posted so far.

David Morrison: ZOMG, thank you. “Now, for the record, here is a man who lives with a degree of same sex attraction, has been a Courage member and is not in the closet about either one. In addition, as I am writing this after I have returned from a very satisfying day spent in the beautiful weather with Dan and other terrific friends, tasting wine, buying wine and admiring beautiful flowers, my life is hardly miserable, dishonest or loveless.”

I’m not a Courage member, mostly b/c I’m not a “joiner.” But this whole idea that chaste Catholic life is devoid of love or joy–okay, I mean, I totally suck as a friend, I’m guessing it’s like being friends with the Captain Nemo of the Navel-Gazing Expedition, but when I do manage to love people and be loved in return, I know I’m strengthened by my faith. I love and I’m loved, and those things are as central to my life as pride allows. My life is as sweet as honeysuckle; and sweeter because I’m Catholic. It’s so strange to me when people assume otherwise.

Some people seem to have the impression–maybe because of the attitude of people they’ve known?–that chaste Catholic life, for someone who’s mostly or entirely same-sex attracted, is this huge awfulness. And… look, you do have to take up your Cross. I would never deny that. There are times when fidelity feels like a cross. But it’s just weird to me that other people think my life is so much worse than I think it is. I have one definite vocation (writing) even if other possible vocations are totally up in the air. I have specific people I’ve pledged to love and serve (my friends, my family, my readers, and the women I counsel in my volunteer work).

I’m grateful for my life; and I don’t mean to be bitchy, but I kind of think you should be grateful for a life like mine. I get to use my talents, serve my friends and family, and worship God without fear of martyrdom. How on earth is this something to pity? I don’t get to have sex with a woman I love. Well, you know… I’ve done that. It’s really wonderful–seriously, it’s amazing. It’s completely not worth giving up the Catholic faith.

…Oh, and I agree with his other comments in this post, as well.

And, because I’m not done with his blog yet!, he writes about the mystery of Hell. I… I guess I don’t find it so mysterious. If you’ve known an addict, you’ve known what it means to choose the destruction of self and beloved rather than give up sin. And I think most of us (can I generalize from my own experience here?) have known what it feels like to push everyone, even Christ, even ordinary humans we love, aside in order to gratify immediate urges or ignore immediate pleas. Addiction is the most obvious metaphor for Hell: Which way I fly is Hell, myself am Hell.

(My old post on despair as the Mary Sue of sins.)

First Things: Why dictators fear artists. Haven’t read all of it, b/c there’s discussion of The Lives of Others, and when I know for sure I’ll see a movie in the future (if the Messiah tarries) I want to go in with as little knowledge as possible. But the post looks really interesting–starts with Glenn Gould in the role usually played by the Velvet Underground.

Mark Shea: Cradle and convert Catholics. Mark gets it right. And a question about suicide which could use your comments-boxing. I find it incredibly hard to offer advice in the abstract–even the degree of personal encounter we get at the pregnancy center feels shockingly inadequate to me, though I try to be as personal and one-to-one as I can given the constraints of the situation–but I know my counseling is aided by the more abstract guidelines and ideas I’ve heard from others. So I’m not very helpful with abstract discussion, but I know that we rely on it to shape our more one-to-one attempts.

Scans_Daily: William S. Burroughs in comics form. I… am not sure what I think of Burroughs’s writing from day to day. His work mostly diminishes the longer you look at it. But comics might be the best form for understanding what was compelling in his work in the first place. (Via Journalista.)

The Rat: Crusoe, El Dorado, Naipaul.

Oh, and hey, Spider-Man shills for Planned Parenthood. Also via Journalista. Babies suck!

…And as long as I’m snatching links from Journalista, this piece about the Doug Marlette cartoon killed from Killed Cartoons: Casualties from the War on Free Expression is really good–mostly because it includes one of several cartoons that Christians could have yowled about in self-righteous caterwaul, but were harsh and necessary, much like the Mohammed cartoon that got yanked.