So what\u2019s this blog about, Mark?<\/p>\n
Glad you\u00a0asked!\u00a0 Basically, what I\u2019m interested in here is\u2026 whatever interests me.\u00a0 That\u2019s a fairly wide variety of stuff since\u00a0I think the world is interesting, it being made by God and all.\u00a0 The world is, at bottom, a good and beautiful thing, like the people in it, since God made it.\u00a0 At the same time, of course, the Fall has done a number on us and we have to contend with that.<\/p>\n
My general habit is to try to view the world through the lens of a lay non-revisionist Catholic who thinks we should try to think with the Church about our kneejerk political, cultural, and ideological preferences rather than try to press-gang the Church into cooperating with those preferences.\u00a0 In terms of subject matter, I will be chatting about whatever the stream of news washes up on shore each day, as well as ideas that occur to me in the shower, things I read, or Catholic theology as it happens to apply to things.\u00a0 Some stuff I talk about is de fide and therefore not negotiable.\u00a0 Some of it is the obvious and clear teaching of the Tradition even though the Church hasn\u2019t said \u201cSimon Peter Says\u201d.\u00a0 Some of it is my prudential application of the Church\u2019s teaching.\u00a0 Lots of it is just reflective of my taste.\u00a0 Since this is very much a personal and stream of consciousness blog, expressed very much in my own idiosyncratic way, I urge readers to bear that in mind and not imagine I think I\u2019m a magisterial authority.\u00a0 I\u2019m just this guy.\u00a0 In certain, very narrow areas, I\u2019m a guy who knows what he\u2019s talking about.\u00a0 But mostly, in this blog, I\u2019m a guy who\u2019s sounding off about stuff that interests him, speaking as a free man in a free country about his views on things.\u00a0 Often I\u2019m just Statler and Waldorf wise-cracking as the Muppets on stage are delivering the news.<\/p>\n
One theme that pops up a lot (mostly because it is so persistently neglected by our culture) is this: I have come to be convinced that the number one favorite moral heresy of Americans, left and right, is consequentalism: the lie that you can do evil that good may come of it.\u00a0 I am also persuaded that the most scandalous teaching in the entire corpus of Catholic moral theology is Mark 11;25: \u201cAnd when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone,
\nforgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.\u201d\u00a0 Press on these two things for long and people get mad.\u00a0Not a little of my writing has had to do with these extremely unpopular teachings.\u00a0 (It\u2019s partly therapeutic, because I don\u2019t like them either, and therefore need to keep reminding myself that the Faith does not exist in order to affirm my personal preferences.)<\/p>\n
In addition to the heavy duty \u201cCulture Seen Through a Catholic Lens\u201d stuff, I enjoy the cool, the weird, the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the hilarious (YMMV)\u00a0and the daffy.\u00a0 As an extrovert trapped in an introvert\u2019s job, I love conversation (when I find time for it given my crushing workloard) and I generally run a pretty loose ship in the comboxes and there are lots of disagreements with what I say most days.\u00a0 At the same time, I make it clear that my rule of thumb is \u201cDisagree all you like, but behave toward me and others as you would in my living room.\u201d\u00a0 I do *not* owe anybody a forum and it is *not* \u201ccensorship\u201d if I decide a reader is too much of a jerk to be allowed to continue posting.\u00a0 If you have a burning need to denounce me as a communist\/fascist, liberal\/conservative, reactionary\/progressive, homophobic\/gay apologist, traditionalist fanatic\/modernist heretic, Nazi\/Zionist, unscientific lunkhead\/evolutionist heretic, fetus loving\u00a0woman hater\/secret abortion lover\u00a0or some of the other remarkable combinations of charges leveled against me over the years, feel free to set up your own blog and alert the world to my undiluted evilness.\u00a0 The gratitude of humanity will, no doubt,\u00a0be yours.<\/p>\n
We observe the Welborn Protocol here.\u00a0 If you email me, it\u2019s grist for the blog unless you tell me not to publish it.<\/p>\n
Lets\u2019 see\u2026 what else?\u00a0 I think that\u2019s it for now.\u00a0 Oh!\u00a0 Try to keep combox threads on topic.\u00a0 I\u2019m not too keen on people who hijack a combox discussion for their own personal hobby horses.\u00a0 On the other hand, I realize the fractal nature of conversation and don\u2019t mind when tangents get taken, within reason.<\/p>\n
One final point: I don\u2019t have a lot of patience for conspiracy theories, especially ones in ALL CAPS or cutting and pasting lengthy diatribes from paranoid.kook.net.\u00a0 I\u2019m not interested in 9\/11 truth, JFK assassination conspiracies, Obama the Devout Muslim-Atheist Antichrist, the International Jewish Conspiracy, the New Age Conspiracy, Masons Tunneling Under Our Houses or whatever other world-spanning All-Explaining Web of Evil you think you might be on to.\u00a0 I have a congenital allergy to All Explaining Theories of Everything and ideologies (but I repeat myself).\u00a0 I do, however, like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, as well as brown paper packages tied up with string.<\/p>\n
I look forward to getting to know you if you are new, and continuing the conversation if you are one of my long time readers!\u00a0 Excelsior!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So what\u2019s this blog about, Mark? Glad you\u00a0asked!\u00a0 Basically, what I\u2019m interested in here is\u2026 whatever interests me.\u00a0 That\u2019s a fairly wide variety of stuff since\u00a0I think the world is interesting, it being made by God and all.\u00a0 The world is, at bottom, a good and beautiful thing, like the people in it, since God […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n