Notre Dame has a Gender Studies program? Why?

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/387140/catholic-university-program-will-ask-high-school-kids-question-their-genders

Notre Dame has a Gender Studies program? Why?

Freedom: Progressive Dystopia

Wow. My girls devoured the Hunger Games, divergent and The Giver books series and movies. I'm glad to see the content was enough to make a commentator for the Guardian warn against letting Progressive children read them.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/01/ya-dystopias-children-free-market-hunger-games-the-giver-divergent

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/385251/when-people-have-freedom-choose-they-choose-wrong-watching-giver-david-french

It is frightening to me, though, to realize that Progressives would consider the Donald Sutherland character in Hunger Games or the Meryl Streep character in The Giver to be the GOOD GUYS.

Very scary to think the Utopias that Progressives promise are so dystopian in effect.

The Well and the Shallows

I must apologize to GK Chesterton for appropriating the title of his book, The Well and the Shallows.

My prose does him no justice by association. Nor does my topic, I suppose. But as I am in the middle of the book at the moment, the title came to mind as I considered two comments on Progressive Rock. And I'd like to think through whether prog rock occupies the well or the shallows before I sell all of my record albums.

7 Songs That Sound Deep... But Really Aren't is posted to the blog, Man in the Woods, a blog "dedicated to culture from a Catholic perspective." The author, Chapmaniac, is a Theology teacher and author. He lists a number of prog rock anthems among the seven songs that give the impression of being deep, but which lyrics, upon consideration are sometimes less than shallow. Sometimes they are gibberish. His list includes, Dust in the Wind by Kansas (I have that album), The Horse With No Name by America (I have that one too), Stairway to Heaven (I think so..), Iron Butterfly (got it), Yes (got it) and Blue Oyster Cult.

Being familiar, as I am, with the songs listed; and having enjoyed them in my youth, I chuckled in agreement.

But I also recalled reading another perspective on the genre from a usually reliable source, National Review. A quick websearch retrieved the article, which I also enjoyed: A Different Kind of Progressive, the subtitle of which is, "Prog rock preserves Western traditions." The author, Prof. Bradley J. Birzer occupies the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies, and is a professor of history, at Hillsdale College. And judging from his article, he knows far more about prog rock than I do. He is also a Catholic.

He considers prog rock lyrics to be deep. Deep enough, it seems, to preserve Western traditions.

In college, I did an English paper on the Beatle's White Album. Some reviewers praised the album for its ground-breaking originality, creativity, and deep meaning behind recordings like Revolution #9 and Yer Blues. Others suggested that the blank white album cover was for non-attribution or that the Beatles wanted to prove that people would buy any sort of rubbish they might produce. My favorite observation was that the 2-album set was one album too long. I think that's right. But I confess, I spent a fair amount of time trying to discern the meaning of Revolution #9 before I found out that it really was gibberish.


Is it just so with progressive rock?

The two men seem to be seeing the same things, but disagreeing about what it is that they see.

Both, for instance, recognize the influence or confluence or something of J.R.R Tolkien on prog rock. Prof Birzer imagines Arwen listening to her father, Elrond's Led Zep album, "While J. R. R. Tolkien probably never listened to progressive rock (though Arthur C. Clarke did), it’s hard to believe his elves in Rivendell or Lothlorien did not."

Meanwhile, Chapmaniac suspects Elrond wouldn't let his daughter listen to such silly nonsense, "Known to incorporate Lord of the Rings references into their songs, this band has a whole catalogue of lyrics that sound like they could be the soundtrack of Dungeons and Dragons. With Robert Plant's fixation on Tolkien, and Jimmy Paige's penchant for dabbling into the occult, Zeppelin was able to capture some of the mystery of Lord of the Rings without any of the content."

Chapmaniac has strict criteria for his list: "a song must have every appearance of saying something profound (meaning that the song must be well constructed and the artist must be under the impression that he is saying something sublime), while simultaneously managing to say very little at all."

That criteria excludes Lady Gaga, Bjork and, well, an awful lot, actually.


Dr. Birzer says, "As such, progressive rock is to rock music what Imagism (e.g., T. E. Hulme and T. S. Eliot) is to poetry. It takes a modern form, and it fills and animates it with a well-ordered soul, an essence commensurate with its form."

And perhaps that's it. Perhaps the best of prog rock is akin to modern poetry. At first hearing, it sounds deep. Upon closer inspection, the words look like pretentious gibberish. But if you take the energy to engage your mind, there is some depth.

Can you tell the poem from the lyric?

"What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow


Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,

You cannot say, or guess, for you know only

A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,

And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,

And the dry stone no sound of water. Only

There is shadow under this red rock,

(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),

And I will show you something different from either

Your shadow at morning striding behind you

Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;

I will show you fear in a handful of dust."




"I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone


All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity

Dust in the wind

All they are is dust in the wind

Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea

All we do crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind

Oh, ho, ho

Now, don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky

It slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy

Dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind

Dust in the wind"


Yeah, I'll keep the albums.

Voter ID Duplicity Part 2

The Financial Times weighs in on the validity of US elections:

Voter ID laws could sway US elections

"Millions of US voters could be turned away at the ballot box in this November’s presidential election as new rules impose tough requirements for identification that observers say could lead to minorities and young people – traditionally more likely to vote Democrat – being excluded."

Of course, on the other hand, millions of ineligible voters - traditionally more likely to vote Democrat - may vote in this November's presidential election as new rules designed to ensure the integrity of US elections are challenged in court and overturned or stayed by political judges.

How many? Millions? How does Anna Fifield know its millions?

She was told - just like Harry Reid was told that Mitt Romney didn't pay taxes for 10 years - by a reliable source.

"“There is certainly the potential for very serious outcomes,” said Keesha Gaskins of New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, which estimates as many as 5m voters across the country might be affected by the rules. "

Hans A. von Spakovsky comments in National Review Online regarding a related article for Politico:
"Among the many poorly researched articles that have written about voter-ID laws, one piece that appeared recently in Politico holds a special place.
"Reporter Emily Schultheis opens with the claim that “at least 5 million voters, predominantly young and from minority groups sympathetic to President Barack Obama, could be affected by an unprecedented flurry of new legislation by Republican governors and GOP-led legislatures to change or restrict voting rights by Election Day 2012.”

"Schultheis doesn’t say where she got the estimate of 5 million until well into the article — it’s from a Brennan Center report. And she fails to disclose the radical, left-wing nature of the Brennan Center or the fact that it is an advocacy organization that is litigating against voter ID.


"As I have pointed out previously, that 5 million figure is completely speculative and not based on any substantive evidence. In fact, the experience of states such as Georgia and Indiana, whose voter-ID laws have been in place for years, as well as reputable surveys conducted by academic institutions such as American University, consistently show that the share of registered voters who don’t have a photo ID is less than 1 percent. This is a far cry from the high numbers the Brennan Center has been claiming since 2006."

"Thus, there is no evidence to support the claim, as expressed in the title of the article, that “Voter ID Laws Could Swing States” — unless what is meant is that these laws could prevent the casting of fraudulent votes that could steal an election. Voter ID is a commonsense reform intended to protect the integrity of the election process for all candidates, whether they are Democrats, Republicans, or members of third parties."


Here's one of my favorites from the FT article: "Pennsylvania’s new rules are being challenged by three elderly women – including one who first voted for Franklin D Roosevelt in the 1940s – who say they will not be able to vote in November under the changes."
1. How are these poor old ladies going to get into the court building for their own hearing - without picture ID?
2. It seems they are elderly enough to draw Social Security - which at least one of them voted for, back in the day - they had to show ID, I'm guessing, to sign up for benefits and to open the checking account into which their benefits are deposited.



Photo: USAID/Julie Fossler
An elections worker checks a voter's ID card during Afghanistan's 2009 presidential and provincial council elections.



That's my absolute favorite. While one arm of the Leviathan - the (in)Justice Department - claims it is an unreasonable burden for Americans to show ID to vote, another arm (or should I say tentacle) brags on its web site that citizens of that advanced democracy, Afghanistan, are required to show picture ID in order to vote.

Detroit, apparently, is less able to provide for verification of its citzens than Kandahar...