All Things Expounded

• An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope: Not bad, but *yawn*
• The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd by Richard Zachs: Fascinating, but maybe stretching it a bit?
• Psmith, Journalist by P.G. Wodehouse: Wodehouse takes on New York. Good–though not among Wodehouse’s best.  I prefer “Psmith in the City”.
• Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse: Excellent.
• God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything by Douglas Wilson: Fantabulous.
• I, Pencil by Leonard Read: Makes you go hmmm

There’s an old folk song called “He Was A Friend Of Mine”, the earliest version being from “Shorty George”. Many musicians have performed this song, perhaps most notably Bob Dylan starting in 1962.

It lamented the death of a friend. Part of it went:

He was a friend of mine

He was a friend of mine

Every time I think about him now Lord I just can’t keep from cryin’

Cause he was a friend of mine

In 1963, Roger McGuinn of the Byrds rewrote this song to make it an eulogy for President Kennedy:

He was a friend of mine, he was a friend of mine
His killing had no purpose, no reason or rhyme
He was a friend of mine

He was in Dallas town, he was in Dallas town
From a sixth floor window a gunner shot him down
He was in Dallas town

He never knew my name, he never knew my name
Though I never met him I knew him just the same
Oh he was a friend of mine

Leader of a nation for such a precious time
He was a friend of mine

This song actually caused a little bit of tension among the members of The Byrds. Before singing the song at a festival in 1967, David Crosby stated he did not accept the usual explanation of the shooting (which is to some degree affirmed in the song). The other members were upset at him for littering the performance with this conspiracy theory, at least partly because it resulted in less television coverage. This, along with other events at the festival, is probably at least partially an explanation for the split between Crosby and the rest of the group. Or at least part of the progression that led to that.

Anyways, just an interesting random history flashback.

1. Aunt Dalia gawked at him like a teradactyle meme with a simplistic expedient case of discouraging rational inquiry in a foolish way magnanimously recognizing the truth of science.”

2. He had the look of a man who was just told by his chiropractor that he caught a mind virus, a mind virus which disposed him to the intense perpetuation of pseudoscientific ignorance.

3. Spode appeared as if nature had intended to make a brain size has no connection with intelligence; that intelligence has nothing to do with the Drones Club; and that its members were probably nasty fascist things anyway.

4. “All is right in the world and the universe”, remarked Honoria Glossop with a deep, inner, convincing vigor. “On the other hand, I don’t intend to be callous, but even if I have no proposal, who cares? Because that still doesn’t mean that what anybody else has to offer therefore has to be true”.

5. Jeeves glanced sideways at him and cleared his throat with the sound of one of his bacterial ancestors, which indeed were still bacteria, perambulating in vast ignorance around its own dreadful colony of bacteria.

6. “We are all co-evolved blighters, though people seldom realize they are such”, pontificated Spode in a benevolent, subjective way. “Some of us just go one blight further”.

7. “No doubt, Jeeves, you are grindingly, creakingly, crashingly brilliant. Your brain hardware has co-evolved with the internal virtual worlds that it creates”. Jeeves said “Not at all sir. This can be called hardware-software co-evolution.”

Shudder. Uh, on second thought, I’ll take P.G. Wodehouse

Those familiar with more than a few Wodehouse stories will find the following assessment of Ukridge and Psmith fascinating.

“Loosed upon society, Ukridge attacks life like a juvenile delinquent with a hammer who has broken into the Queen’s Dolls’ House. Psmith, indulgent if patronising, regards the world as created for his amusement, and patiently adjusts it where it falls short of his standards.”

R.B.D. French in P.G. Wodehouse (1968), p.37

And the atheist–a complex chemical reaction according to the best contemporary science–uncorks with scathing observations on the hypocracies of other complex chemical reactions. Hitchens does this in the first five lines of his book, and shows no sign of letting up. But how can a chemical reaction be hypocritical? … Given his premises,  it is like being indignant with a tornado, or vegetable soup, or sand on the beach–but Hitchens does it. They all do…When atheists stop suspending their moral  indignation from their invisible sky hook, then I will no longer amuse myself by pointing out their levitation trick.

– Douglas Wilson in God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything

And you, reader,–for without a reader there is no writer,–you are half of my work.  Without you, I am only sounding brass; with the aid of your attention, I will speak marvels.

– Joseph-Pierre Proudhon in The Philosophy of Misery

“It is most absurd, therefore, to maintain, as some do, that religion was devised by the cunning and craft of a few individuals, as a means of keeping the body of the people in due subjection, while there was nothing which those very individuals, while teaching others to worship God, less believed than the existence of a God. I readily acknowledge, that designing men have introduced a vast number of fictions into religion, with the view of inspiring the populace with reverence or striking them with terror, and thereby rendering them more obsequious; but they never could have succeeded in this, had the minds of men not been previously imbued with that uniform belief in God, from which, as from its seed, the religious propensity springs. And it is altogether incredible that those who, in the matter of religion, cunningly imposed on their ruder neighbours, were altogether devoid of a knowledge of God. For though in old times there were some, and in the present day not a few are found who deny the being of a God, yet, whether they will or not, they occasionally feel the truth which they are desirous not to know. We do not read of any man who broke out into more unbridled and audacious contempt of the Deity than C. Caligula, and yet none showed greater dread when any indication of divine wrath was manifested. Thus, however unwilling, he shook with terror before the God whom he professedly studied to condemn.”

John Calvin — The Institutes of Christian Religion Book i. Chapter iii. Part ii.

I’m sick with a cold and yet somehow a bit restless tonight, so I figured I’d get to a long neglected booklog.  That this list is so short testifies to the hectic pace of life for better or for worse! So here is my book log, covering almost two months! It’s been a long time since I’ve read so few books!

• Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck: Love it! (I’m more of a fan of Kevin’s contributions as opposed to those of Ted, but they both have valuable contributions to make here)

• The Songs of the People of God by Charles Hauret: Interesting, a few parts of this are very helpful in understanding the Psalms and seeing their value in the New Covenant.

• The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse: Great

• Islands in the Stream: A Novel by Ernest Hemingway: Definite raunch-factor going on here, but an interesting portrait of Cuba and Cubans

• Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis: There’s unquestionably great parts and there are horrid Psalm-stomping parts.  What was Lewis thinking? If you’re going to mine this for gold, prepare to step in some cowpies.

• Second Apology by Justin Martyr: Interesting.

• Fidelity by Douglas Wilson: Excellent, recommended for guys to read.

• Heretics by G.K. Chesterton:  Jovial, witty, and pleasingly grotesque. Should I expect anything else from GK?

I want to wish my readers (such as they are, if they actually exist) a great 2010!

Here are some significant things that have happened in January 1st throughout history:

• 45BC: The Julian calendar takes effect
• 1600: Scotland starts beginning its New Year at January 1st instead of March 25th
• 1808: The importation of slaves into the USA is banned
• 1895: FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is born
• 1899: Spanish rule in Cuba ends
• 1908: The first New Years ball drops in New York
• 1912: The Republic of China is estalished
• 1919: Novelist J.D. Salinger is born
• 1942: The Declaration by the United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.
• 1953: Musician Hank Williams dies
• 1970: Unix epoch time begins at 00:00:00 UTC/GMT
• 1985: The Internet’s domain name system is created
• 1994: NAFTA goes into effect
• 1995: The WTO goes into effect

Psalm 37:3-6 – “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord,and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” (ESV)

“The Psalms are admirably adapted to the public prayer of the Church, for their authors, even in individual supplications, always intervene as members of the community of the Covenant. Their frequent passage from “I” to “We” is in no way disconcerting to men of our time who posses a feeling for the communal aspect of salvation. Besides, canonical prayer does not suppress personal prayer; rather canonical prayer does not suppress personal prayer; rather, canonical prayer instructs, directs, stimulates, and protects it against wandering without a guide.”

(The Songs of the People of God by Charles Hauret, p. 55)