December 28, 2007
In The Name Of The Ozone, The Rainforest and the Holy Carbon Credits
Brendan O'Neill lays into the Archbish of Canterbury over his eco-friendly Christmas sermon:
They say we get the leaders we deserve. We also get the bishops we deserve. And in an age of petty piety, where relativistic non-judgementalism coexists with new codes of personal morality, giving rise to a Mary Poppins State more than a Nanny State, it’s fitting that the Archbishop of Canterbury is a trendy schoolteacher type who dispenses hectoring ethical advice with a smarmy grin rather than with fire-and-brimstone relish. In his Christmas sermon, delivered at Canterbury Cathedral, Dr Williams finally completed his journey from old-world Christianity to trendy New Ageism. His sermon was indistinguishable from those delivered (not just at Christmas but for life) by the heads of Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth. Williams did not speak about Christian morality; in fact, he didn’t utter the m-word at all. He said little about men’s responsibility to love one another and God, the two Commandments Jesus Christ said we should live by. Instead he talked about our role as janitors on planet Earth, who must stop plundering the ‘warehouse of natural resources’ and ensure that we clean up after ourselves. Williams has clearly been reading the Good Books – not the Bible, but those Carbon Calculator tomes that are clogging up bookshop shelves around the country, and which instruct people on how to live so meekly that they leave no imprint whatsoever on the planet or human history. He said that Earth does not exist only for ‘humanity’s sake’; it also exists ‘in its own independence and beauty… not as a warehouse of resources to serve humanity’s selfishness’.O'Neill, an atheist himself, notes that this is a widespread theme in the modern Church:
Williams isn’t the only leading Christian who has sold his soul to Gaia and traded in Christian morality for the pieties of environmentalism. The Reverend John Owen, leader of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, said in his Christmas sermon that everyone should remember his or her ‘duty to the planet’. He urged people to recycle leftover food, and ‘redouble [your] efforts to take action and campaign against climate change’ in the coming year (2). Meanwhile, the Vatican is taking steps to become the world’s first carbon-neutral sovereign state by planting trees in a Hungarian national park to offset the CO2 emissions of the Holy See. Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, says that in 2008 there should be the ‘dawn of a new culture, of new attitudes and a new mode of living that makes man aware of his place as caretaker of the earth’ (3). The reduction of man to an eco-janitor, a being who creates waste and thus must clear it up, is more than a cynical attempt by isolated Christian leaders to connect with the public. Yes, Williams, Owen, the Holy See and Co. no doubt hope and believe (mistakenly, I’m sure) that adopting trendy Greenspeak will entice people to return to the church. But the move from focusing on love for God and one’s neighbour to focusing on ‘respect for the planet’ represents more than a rebranding exercise: it signals a complete abandonment by the Christian churches of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. And in this sense, it is not only God that is being downgraded by the new nature-worshipping priests; so is humanity itself. And that’s enough to make even a committed atheist like me worry about the current direction of the Christian churches.Indeed. And with good reason:
Christians and atheists may have spent much of the past 200 years at each other’s throats, but they inhabited the same moral plane. Theirs was literally a struggle for the soul of humanity. Today, by contrast, Christian leaders have abandoned questions of morality and free will. They now view people as little more than waste managers, ‘caretakers’, eco-binmen, whose job is to sweep up after themselves and keep the planet in good nick. Instead of remaking the world in anybody’s image – whether it be God’s, man’s, Buddha’s or L Ron Hubbard’s – man must simply adapt to his surroundings like an amoeba; indeed, he must minimise as much as possible his impact on the planet. Old Christians taught us that ‘the Kingdom of God is within you’ (4), which was their flawed way of saying that man is a sovereign being, free and morally responsible. Today Christians say: ‘You are merely guests in the Warehouse of Resources. So be quiet, don’t get any ideas above your station, and please shut the door when you leave.’ The cult of environmentalism embraced by the Christian churches does away with morality altogether. Some sceptics claim that environmentalism is a new form of moralistic hectoring; it is better to see it as amoralistic hectoring. In judging everything by how much CO2 or pollution it creates, environmentalism dispenses with questions of moral worth and judgement. So a flight to visit a newborn nephew in Australia (5.61 tonnes of CO2) is as wicked as taking a flight to Barbados to lounge in the sun; and the transportation of delicious food from Africa to Britain is as unforgivable as the transportation of weapons and drugs from Latin America to Los Angeles: after all, both involve exploiting the ‘warehouse of resources’ and upsetting the ‘fragile balance of species and environments’, as Williams put it (5). When human actions are judged by their levels of pollution alone, the issue of meaning – of why we do things, who we do them for, and how we might do them better – is implicitly downgraded. This is why in his Christmas sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury quoted extensively, not from the Bible, but from Richard Dawkins, who is considered by many to be the Rottweiler of the New Atheism. What today’s eco-Christians and New Atheists share in common is a view of man as animalistic and degraded, as a ‘mammal’ (as Christopher Hitchens describes us in his book God is Not Great) which ought to take its place alongside other mammals on this mortal coil. On the way in which religion distorts people’s minds, Hitchens writes: ‘What else was to be expected of something that was produced by the close cousins of chimpanzees?’ (6) Where Williams and other eco-Christians see mankind as merely a cog in the planetary wheel, Hitchens and other New Atheists see mankind as only the sum of his genes, still, in essence, a monkey. If yesterday’s Christians and atheists inhabited the same moral plane, fighting tooth and nail over the purpose of mankind, today’s eco-Christians and New Atheists inhabit the same amoral plane, bickering with each other but also frequently agreeing that man is a bit of a shit.Read the rest. I think he may overstate the case a bit, at least as far as the Vatican is concerned, and I obviously would disagree with his atheism, but I think he absolutely nails the underlying moral issue. Yips! to Arts & Letters Daily.
Posted by: Robert at 11:30 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Gratuitous Llama Netflix Movie Review
Up last evening was Troy (2004).
I expected this flick to be a dog and I wasn't in the least disappointed. Indeed, it looked exactly what I imagined a cheesy blockbuster 2004 version of The Iliad would look. Except that there was no Angelina Jolie. I had thought there was going to be some Angelina Jolie, so in that sense I was disappointed. However, Saffron Burrows, as the wife of Hector, wasn't too shabby. But I digress. The film was clunky, the story devoid of all the poetry that made the original great and badly at odds with Homer on many points, the characters impossibly modern and shallow and the action, frankly, rayther dull after a while. And I can only assume that the utter lack of participation by the gods was some kind of "statement" on the part of the director. (Indeed, the insertion of the Stalinesque crack about the number of battalions Apollo commands was particularly snide.) Oh, and correct me if I am mistaken, but I always thought that the King of Sparta's name was pronounced "Men-uh-LAY-uhs". For reasons unfathomable, everybody here called him "Men-uh-lowse". Made him sound unclean. Or was that the point? I won't even bother about Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. Puh-lease. And Peter O'Toole (who played Priam) ought to be ashamed of himself. Surely he didn't need the money? But. BUT. There was one semi-bright spot to the film. I thought that Sean Bean was a good choice as Odysseus:
Odysseus was, of course, an extremely shifty fellah, full of tricks, strategems and outright lies. (If memory serves, Dante puts him in one of the circles of hell for this.) Bean has got that sly look about him that allows him to pull off this kind of character very well. (That's why he's so good as Richard Sharpe, too.) And it occured to me as I watched him that this was also why I never bought him as Boromir in LOTR. Boromir is described time and again as being of a lordly, noble appearance. He's blunt, a simple warrior preferring the straightforward. Indeed, I wouldn't go so far as to call Boromir simple-minded, but I would say that all of his thinking hangs on a relatively small set of clear and uncomplicated principles. To me, Bean was never able to convey that. He looked too calculating.
Sorry. But if I digress again it's because I really don't have anything else to say about Troy itself. Robbo's Rating: No Yips! for you! Don't even bother.
Posted by: Robert at 10:51 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
The SI Curse?
Ah HA! Evil Bill makes the cover of Sports Illustrated just before my Giants host them at the Meadowlands.
Posted by: Gary at 10:36 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Light Fuse, Stand Back - Domestic Division
The eldest Llama-ette is close to finishing Old Yeller, which she's reading for the first time. She hasn't the faintest idea what's in store. This could get ugly.
Posted by: Robert at 09:57 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 27, 2007
It's Never Too Early....
For those Moo-Knu Year's resolutions.
Mine? Tackle the ol' blogroll. No, really. I mean it this time. Step One will be to hack out all the dead links, as well as the ones that I frankly do not read any more. Step Two will be to add some very richly deserving blogs that I do read but have to get to via other sites or google searches. Ultimately, I hope that we Llamas can come out with a new blogroll format that mirrors the eventual new look to this place. [Insert sound of accusatory throat-clearing here.] My thought is that we all have a common set of regular reads that we can amalgamate into one list. Beyond that, each of us can have our extra set of personal favorites set out in individual lists. It strikes me that this will cover the waterfront pretty well. SOOPER SEKRET MESSAGE TO THE REST OF THE LLAMAS: Steve-O? Gary, Chai? LMC? Since we've hoomed and hommed about this for months but not actually done anything, I'm a-gonna just get busy and start cutting and pasting. My apologies if I axe something you want - feel free to stick it back in. As for the formatting thingee, unless one of you has a better idea, just follow my lead. Yip! Yip!Posted by: Robert at 07:15 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Gratuitous Post-Christmas Rumination
I have to admit that as important as Christmas (and Easter) are to me from a religious point of view, the actual physical celebration of these holidays in church typically leaves me feeling rayther flat, and is not nearly so spiritually satisfying as an ordinary Sunday's worship.
I suppose this is due primarily to the influx of the C&E crowd, those people who only attend church at Christmas and Easter, and often do so only because they're tagging along with relatives or friends, because they want to show off or because they retain a faint, vestigial sense that it's the right thing to do. It isn't just that such people don't know the drill. It isn't just that in order to accomodate them the clergy have to juggle worship schedules and generally dumb down the services. It isn't just that they typically have very bad manners, gabbing, fussing and strutting all the way through. Instead, it's a combination of all of these things, coupled with an admittedly unworthy sense of resentment on my part, that often times hopelessly distracts me from the things on which I ought really to be concentrating. Typically I find the need to slip off on my own after such a service and spend a little time in solitary devotion to, as it were, make up for what I've squandered in church on cranky fuming. Of course, I've always witnessed this in the context of TEC, which is notorious for this kind of thing. (It has been my sense that the C&E phenomenon is largely a mainline Protestant issue, although I could be quite mistaken about this.) It will be very interesting to see if my perspective changes once I've completed my swim of the Tiber (which will occur at Easter, btw, and which promises to be a veritable cornucopia of distractions as my family comes face-to-face with things).Posted by: Robert at 11:49 AM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Bhutto Assassination Is A Wake-Up Call
For the American electorate. It's time to stop all this silliness over the candidates' religious chops and start focusing on the most important issue we face today. JPod puts things back into perspective:
It is a sobering and frightening reminder of the challenges and threats and dangers posed to the United States by radical Islam, the nature of the struggle being waged against the effort to extend democratic freedoms in the Muslim world, and the awful possibility of a nuclear Pakistan overrun by Islamofascists. This is what the next president will be compelled by circumstance to spend a plurality of his or her time on. This is what really matters, not the cross Mike Huckabee lit up behind his head in his Christmas ad. American politics would dearly love to take a holiday from history, just as it did in the 1990s. But our enemies are not going to allow us to do so. The murder of Bhutto moves foreign policy, the war on terror, and the threat of Islamofascism back into the center of the 2008 campaign. How candidates respond to it, and issues like it that will come up in the next 10 months, will determine whether they are fit for the presidency.Amen to that.
Posted by: Gary at 11:13 AM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 26, 2007
Guaran-damn-teed To Drive The Lefties Completely Mental
Jonah Goldberg's new book.
Heh. Yips! from Robbo: I pre-ordered a copy months and months ago. Alas, I got it from the devil's website instead of from NRO, so no signing for me. I think it's great that Jonah is getting published and all and I'm sure the book is going to be good, but I confess to some regrets that he is growing up. His old G-File columns used to make me double over with laughter while getting their point home. But the past couple years (as he's been writing this book, in fact), he's gotten somewhat more....stuffy. Of course, I'm well aware that an author has to grow and that trying to do the same shtick beyond its expiration date is a recipe for flame-out (see O'Rourke, P.J.), but I'm hoping that Jonah is able to somehow keep the wit and spark that powered his old writings alive and well as he matures. Of course, once I read the book I'll post a review.Posted by: Gary at 04:20 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Eight Days Out
After what seems like a campaign that's been waged forEVAH, we're just over one week away from the first contest (thanks to plenty of childish shenanigans over who gets to go first).
Posted by: Gary at 04:15 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Mission Accomplished
The 11-year old was in hog heaven yesterday morning when he tore the wrapping off of this baby:
Posted by: Gary at 02:59 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 25, 2007
Of Course You Know This Means War
It's the Flingshot Flying Monkey.
My brother sent three of these things to the Llama-ettes for Christmas. The gels discovered their blood-curdling shriek-making capacity at about 6:30 ack emma. When I was about eight or so, we picked up a couple of toy chattering skulls for Halloween. Miraculously, one of them survived and over the years it has become something of a family tradition -particularly between Mom and my brother - to booby-trap one another with it at unexpected times and in unexpected places. When I saw the Flying Monkeys this morning, I immediately realized that John had decided to take things up a notch. When I spoke to him a while ago, I vowed that I'm going to get him if it's the last thing I ever do. He laughed heartily.Posted by: Robert at 11:05 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 24, 2007
The Best Christmas Present
We received word at Orgle Manor this morning that our Llama Military Correspondent has formally turned over his command and is at this moment at Baghdad Int'l awaiting a flight to Kuwait.
How sweet is that? Godspeed, LMC.Posted by: Robert at 12:04 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
THE LLAMABUTCHERS PRESENT: THE LLAMABUTCHER YULE LOG
What's the blog equivalent of the old WPIX Channel 11 yule log---a tee vee channel running a live feed of a fireplace? How about youtubes of a video watching an old record player playing Bing Crosby's White Christmas album?
Play this while reading the post below. YULETIDE UDATE YIPS from Steve-O: How about a little White Christmas, LLamabutcher Yule BLog style? THIS ONE'S FOR MY MOM: See you late Wednesday or early Thursday, Mom! ONE MORE for now: Bonus points for coming up with quality naughty lyrics to this one:Posted by: Steve-O at 11:58 AM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
The (now) traditional Christmas Eve post
From Christmas 2004:
My most powerful and clear memory of Christmas as a child is from a year that I cannot place: I might have been eleven or twelve, probably no more than thirteen. The year doesn't matter. That Christmas was my first as an altar boy that I was old enough to be the crucifer, to lead the procession into the church. Christmas Vigil mass was always the best one of the year to attend at, as the red cassocks were broken out for that one occasion. There was always something about the stained glass windows too---they were shining brightly to the outside world, but inside they were oddly black, which always seemed fitting and appropriate at Holy Thursday as well as when walking Stations of the Cross, but seemed out of place for Christmas Eve. We would always line up in the vestibule next to the sacristy, and I can remember how dark it was in that hallway, the smell of the incense swirling, the heat of the candles behind me, the door in front of me with the mass schedule tacked to it. There were probably seven of us in line, plus the pastor. He would wait for us to stop fidgeting, and then would say, "Okay, boys, He's waiting" and the door would open. I remember the door opening that night stepping off from the darkness of the hallway into the light of the church. The smell of the fir and the incense combined with the heat of the breath of the people smashing into the sound. I have never felt anything in my life before or since like the feeling of stepping into that sound: Adeste fidelisOf course, the joke was on me and Father Shields knew what he was talking about. Merry Christmas to all. Merry Christmas to you and yours, and Merry Christmas indeed to all the denizens of Orgle Manor. Thank you, Robbo, for being crazy enough to agree to join in on this partnership 4 years ago. It means so very much to me. LMC---God bless you and your brave colleagues in Mother Army. Thank you for standing watch while foppish wretches like me go about my selfish, insular lives. Chai-Rista---Merry Saturnalia, or whatever Festivus-esque thing The Big Heat's got cooked up for the week, in particular. Enjoy a fine week of world class BBQ, bottlerockets shot off the front porch, gallons of homebrew cough syrup, and may Santa leave you Kurt Russell, naked and scruffy, in your stocking!
Laeti triumphantes
Venite, venite in Bethlehem
Natum videte
regem angelorum
Venite adoremus
Venite adoremus
Venite adoremus Dominum. The feeling when that first Adeste hit me sent a wave through me, a feeling that became hardwired into me whenever I now hear those opening notes of Oh Come All Ye Faithful. The rest is a blur, of that day, and of Christmases growing up. But that one moment will be with me as long as I live. Years later, after he retired, I asked our pastor about what he would always say, "Okay, boys, He's waiting." I'd had some semeters of theology in college and wanted to talk about the idea of the Incarnation and all. He looked at me and laughed, not realizing the joke was on him. "Steve, I was refering to Mr. Mostoway, the organist. He'd always get impatient and start playing faster if we didn't start on time." Merry Christmas, everybody.
Posted by: Steve-O at 10:59 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 23, 2007
Merry Christmas From The Llamas!
The Nativity, Antonio Allegri da Correggio (about 1530)
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.Yes, indeed. It's come to the point where I can't even read that passage without getting an involuntary lump in the ol' throat. Very best wishes to you and yours from all of us here at Llama Central. And I'll see you on the other side. Yip! Yip! Yip! YIPS from Steve-O: So beautifully said, the only thing I can say is, "Robbo, you a pirate." Merry Christmas, y'all.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2: 8-14
Posted by: Robert at 09:47 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 22, 2007
What do you do in the film industry after, at age thirteen, you play a nine year old double dog dared into sticking your tongue to a frozen flagpole?
Posted by: Steve-O at 08:15 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Take Me To Your Leader
 | I received 71 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you? |
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You're a major sci-fi geek! Do you speak Klingon? The truth is that I'm not a major sci-fi geek. I just have pretty good ears. (And no, they're not pointy.) Yips! to Jonah.
Posted by: Robert at 05:07 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
I Got A Baaaaad Feeling About This
In January, 2008, Masterpiece Theatre will introduce a new look, new scheduling, and the first of three new hosts for 2008. Gillian Anderson, well known to Masterpiece Theatre fans for her Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated performance as Lady Dedlock in Bleak House, will make her debut as the host of Masterpiece Classic on The Complete Jane Austen, the highly anticipated showcase of all six of Austen's novels, premiering Sunday, January 13, 2008 on PBS. "Gillian is the perfect choice to represent the new Masterpiece Classic," says executive producer Rebecca Eaton. "Through Bleak House, we learned just how passionate she is about the kind of programming we offer. And she's incredibly versatile: How many other actors would choose to go from The X-Files to Charles Dickens?" "I am a huge supporter of Masterpiece Theatre and the quality and integrity of its programming," said Anderson. "And if my hosting the first season brings a new generation of viewers to the classics, then I'm proud to be a part of it." A new Masterpiece Classic host is not the only change coming to the series in January. Viewers can look forward to a schedule that breaks the year into three "seasons," each with its own host, stunning graphics, and fresh take on the series' famous theme music. In winter and spring, Masterpiece Classic will feature signature period dramas. In summer, Masterpiece Mystery! will present the best British mysteries, and in fall, Masterpiece Contemporary will show dramas set in modern times. "Our viewers told us that they miss having a host to lead them into the programs," said Eaton. "In 2008, we're going a step further, bringing on three hosts to the series — each with a true appreciation for the genre they represent. We'll also introduce a new, elegant on-air look, a redesigned, feature-rich website, and a schedule that will help make our content easier to find. What won't change is the caliber of our programming."Um. Miss Austen could not be reached for comment. And what is this "fresh take on the series' famous theme music" business. That theme, btw, is a fanfare written by a French baroque composer named Jean-Joseph Mouret. What are they going to do, score it for electric bass?
Posted by: Robert at 01:40 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
HOT HOT Stove League Update
Well, it looks like the first part of the blockbuster Vatican Crusaders/Canterbury Caterwaulers trade is becoming official: Tony Blair has passed his physical and is joining the Rome Team, to be followed in Spring Training by Robbo, while I've cleared waivers and am already suiting up for Anglican United.
Yips! from Robbo: As it happens, the Missus went to tea this afternoon with what I've taken to calling the Episcopal Widows' Club. My ears have been burning something fierce.Posted by: Steve-O at 08:18 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 21, 2007
LLAMABUTCHERS CHRISTMAS OFFICE PARTY--DAY TWO--LATE NIGHT TROUBLE
Posted by: Steve-O at 10:10 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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