A public record of some of my thoughts. Feel free to comment, but don't expect me to respond.
P&C drink and review St. Michael’s Amber Ale, then discuss monarchies.
They ask the obligatory question — is Meghan Markle oppressed? — then discuss Piers Morgan, and the royal clown show in general. They move on to an overview of the idea of monarchy, and whether such a thing is a good idea in the modern world.
It turns out that countries with constitutional monarchies do pretty well. P&C offer some ideas why that might be.
P&C drink and review Pigweed’s Cocoa / Peanut Butter Porter, then, with special guest Longinus, review the movie Conspiracy.
The movie covers the Wannsee Conference of 1942, where Reinhart Heydrich gathers German leaders to discuss the “evacuation” of Jews from German-occupied territory. Heydrich (played by Kenneth Branagh) puts an exclamation point on “German efficiency.”
At first there is a lot of squabbling about the right approach from a legal / procedural point of view, but Heydrich leads them inexorably to a predetermined solution.
The horrifying story calls to mind a quote from C.S. Lewis: “The greatest evil is … now done … in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.”
Two very intelligent men talking about interesting things!
Jordan Peterson and Bret Weinstein on Jordan’s podcast.
Also quite interesting is the reverse — Jordan and Bret Weinstein on Bret’s Dark Horse podcast.
It’s a big investment of time, but they are absolutely worth it.
They cover a lot of ground, but I’ll call two things out. In the first one, they discuss what is the “it” that’s going on nowadays. Why are people going so crazy? Why has identity become an unquestioned reality — often at the expense of objective reality?
In the second they spend a lot of time on an evolutionary explanation for the origins of religion.
P&C review Glutenberg, a gluten-free IPA, then, along with special guest Longinus, discuss Elie Wiesel’s Night.
We’ve covered some hard topics, but this was the most difficult. The book chronicles Wiesel’s experiences leading up to and then during his confinement in Auschwitz. The story takes you through all the small steps on his journey from being a boy who wants nothing more than to study Kabbalah to an innocent who is sentenced to a living Hell.
Vatican Declares Blessings for Same-Sex Unions ‘Illicit’
It’s not the conclusion that surprises me. It’s the strong language.
The blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered licit because “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”
“Absolutely no grounds.”
Not “in any way similar or even remotely analogous.”
That’s strong language. A homosexual union is not even remotely analogous to a marriage — because (I would infer) a marriage is not about love, it’s about procreation. Married people should love one another, but that’s not unique to marriage. Everybody should love everybody. What’s unique to marriage is procreation.
Does this put an end to the question? Of course not. That would imply a view of words, norms and reality that our culture has rejected.
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the U.S.-based NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice and an advocate for greater LGBTQ inclusion in the church, said she was relieved the Vatican statement wasn’t worse.
She said she interpreted the statement as saying, “You can bless the individuals (in a same-sex union). You just can’t bless the contract.”
“So it’s possible you could have a ritual where the individuals get blessed to be their committed selves.”