Prudence (Wikipedia entry)

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Dear Fred,

Thanks for Frog Hospital.

I very much like the conclusion of your second paragraph: "You can go down to the beach and not worry about all that nonsense."

"You get what you pay for..."

You also get more-than-otherwise even when you pay too much.

Pay too little, however, and you never escape the orbit of Barbarism.

Which is why The Bible Belt (including Lone Star Texas) is what it is.

It is always better to have big chunks of pork bubbling in the broth than to have no pork at all.

The quest to "cut all fat" is the logic of anorexia.

Keep in mind that a healthy male body contains a minimum of 5% fat and a healthy female body contains a minimum of 10%. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage

Unavoidable need for fat in institutional "organisms" should be seen in similar light.

Anorexia is a horrifying form of perfectionism, consistent with deluded beliefs that vice is virtue and ugliness, beauty. (I am reminded that Impossibly Pure Principles make uncompromising "conservatism" an unworkable -- and essentially selfish -- enterprise.)

The following photo was gotten from Google Images with "Safe Search" in place.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/valeria-levitin-worlds-thinnest-woman-1497425

I am an unabashed champion of Johann Tetzel: traditional Catholic "indulgence" is preferable to rigidly-literal, play-by-the-book Protestant "Puritanism."

Of course, we must also laud The Reformation for focusing the crucial importance of individual conscience.

Also praiseworthy was early Protestantism's recognition that the printing press was a "miraculous" invention - a gift from God (and "his" incarnate agents) which obviated much need for priestly mediation because, suddenly, everyone was literate and -- by extension -- everyone could finally collaborate, building knowledgeably on one another's achievements.

How did the Church's (supposedly wise) magisterium fail to understand this epochal event?

Not only did the Church fail to understand, she excommunicated and anathematized those who did understand. Subjected them to torture. Burned them at the stake.

Today, Catholics and Protestants alike carry the world's largest library... in our pockets.

***

I also like your distinction between "nuisance" and "threat."

Increasingly, I realize that the exercise of virtue distills to perspective-and-proportion.

Prudence.

Aquinas observed that "sin" is always accompanied by three characteristics.

Loss of perspective-and-proportion.

Loss of splendor.

And loss of something else. (I forget...)

With age, I see ever more clearly the ubiquity of disabled perspective, especially on the rabid right.
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/mid/1508/ArticleId/223/Default.aspx

What can American "conservatives" be thinking, representing "the essence of sinfulness" as humankind's culminating virtue?

Pax on both houses,

Alan

It's history now!
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/mid/1508/ArticleId/223/Default.aspx

***

On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 1:44 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:

FROG HOSPITAL -- Feb. 6, 2013

By Fred Owens

"Spring in California" That was an old song by George Jones and Tammy Wynnette. Spring comes early to these green hills -- we like to walk out on the breakwater at the Santa Barbara Harbor, see the waves and pelicans facing one way, then turn around and see the green, beautiful hills in the background. Santa Barbara is a town that makes a living being good-looking. Such prosperity! The parks are clean and fresh and the flowers are beautiful.

Texas Governor Rick Perry is buying spots on local radio stations in California. He's touting the Texas advantage -- lower taxes, less regulation, and lower real estate prices. You all come to Texas, he invites us. Perry is welcome to make his pitch -- I lived and worked in Texas six years ago and it was all right, but I guess I just like it better here -- where it's more expensive to live and the taxes are too high and the regulations are excessive -- but you can go down the beach and not worry about all that nonsense.

Anyway, it's always good to be hearing from Governor Perry. I enjoyed it when he ran for the Presidency.

Predictions. This week, the nation is confronting two issues -- gun control and immigration reform. Here's what going to happen -- we have 11 million undocumented or illegal immigrants. The reform that will pass will allow them to stay and get right with the law. Hardly anyone is coming over from Mexico these days, not since the bust and the scarcity of jobs in our country, plus the Mexican economy has gone upwards.... But I hear that immigration from Asian countries is on the rise. Basically, the ones that are here will be staying and the ones that are coming in now will be less welcome. That's the reform. Not to many people will be sent home. Mainly everybody is staying where they are.

Which is exactly what will happen with our vast domestic weapon supply. Everybody who has a weapon will keep it, and those that don't care to register the ownership or sale of weapons will continue to do so. It just won't happen otherwise -- this is only my own observation. I realize that Pres. Obama and his allies have a lot of steam up on this issue and hope to get all guns registered and all ammunition clips limited to ten rounds -- but they will not succeed.

So, to sum it up, and to link these two issues -- the immigrants are staying here and so are the guns and we all can just learn to live with it.

And everybody gets to vote.

Marriage. I wrote about gun control and immigration reform because it was much easier than writing about social issues such as the feared or welcomed changes in our marriage laws. I am thoroughly confused about all this. I am also a responsible purveyor of news and commentary, and since I cannot provide any clarity, direction, or judgment on this question, I will say nothing.

Judgment. Good judgment is the only quality that the old have over the young. Younger people, say 25 or 35, are smarter, quicker, and stronger. They can be astonishing. They can also be astonishingly stupid, because they lack judgment.

Old people are slower, weaker, and working with decaying mental faculties, but they're judgment is superior. The have discernment and the ability to discriminate between a false path and a true path. A good horse from a bad horse, right from wrong. Take an experienced cop, for example. The most important quality any cop can have is good judgment. He needs courage of course, but even more he needs judgment -- that ability to come upon a situation and know the difference between a nuisance and a threat.. That's good judgment, and it tends to be found among older people.

Which is something I am sure of, which is why I wrote it.

Marriage and Judgment. If people don't get married and have children, then we won't have anything but old folks - a country with lots of good judgment but no energy or passion. Doesn't sound good to me.

Note. The title of the song is "Take Me." But the strongest phrase, toward the end of the song, is "and it would be just like spring in California as long as i knew you were mine."

Flowers blooming everywhere, surf pounding on the shore, fleecy clouds sliding by -- not bad at all.

--
Fred Owens
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