Comments on: Sonic Booms and Lemon Balm Tea

By: cleanth

cleanth — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:27:12 +0000

Another Maurin Fan!

You’ve made my night.

I like a lot of what I have gleaned from your posts here. So, making your night makes my night!

By: Siun

Siun — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:37:47 +0000

Erdla .. thank you. My lack of Arabic is showing. Astonishing news – I hope folks jump in and support their work.

By: GorillasGuides

GorillasGuides — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:18:52 +0000

“On the good news front MAG, the Mines Advisory Group, which last week announced the clearing of 700 pieces of unexploded ordinance from Sulaymaniyah. Their work is extraordinary and worth supporting.”

A belated comment and correction - The news is even better than that. What they cleared are seven hundred minefields.

Erdla

By: Siun

Siun — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:53:38 +0000

Another Maurin Fan!

You’ve made my night.

By: alank

alank — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:49:02 +0000

The only bad guys in this monumental catastrophe that never ends are the Americans. Only Americans. Nobody else. Just Americans.

By: cleanth

cleanth — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:40:34 +0000

Thanks for your observations, bigbrother. Statesmanship is not something I have proposed. Personalism is not individualism. Holding the administration, any administration currently known, accountable is not part of any programme envisioned by me. The entire system of administration of states must be re-thought. The entire concept of states must also be rethought. People have been thinking about such things seemingly forever. In a previous comment (I cannot recall in re what post now) I gave a very short bibliography of such speculation. I do not have the answer: it is a thing in process; something I have been concerned about for decades. One of my earlier degrees was in history of political thought and philosophy, and there I developed these concerns which have never left me.

I do not agree with certain commenters here who insist that if one does not have solutions to implement, one has no call to complain. There was quite a heated exchange on this point last night on FDL.

Framing the problem is necessary before adducing putative solutions.

You opine that living more responsibly is necessary. To be sure. But I insist that it is quite impossible to live responsibly within the structures of governance we claim to embrace here.

Personalism entails taking personal responsibility. One cannot delegate ones responsibilities. It will not do to try to weasel out, claiming that Senator X or Representative Y took decisions, and responsibility, in ones stead and for one.

Personalism was well expounded by Peter Maurin; he was the one who inspired Dorothy Day. If one looks, copies of his Easy Essays can be found. Indeed, apparently they were so easy that people often missed their import.

And after two thousand years of Holy Mass
We’ve got as far as poison gas.
–Thomas Hardy

By: Siun

Siun — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:26:01 +0000

Thank you so much! I will definitely order one right away!

And personalizing - absolutely yes.

By: cleanth

cleanth — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:14:00 +0000

Siun, I have located copies for you. ABE have many, and Powell’s have a few.

I looked locally and would have sent it on to you, but came up empty.

http://www.abebooks.com/servle.....hout+a+map

http://powells.com/biblio/1-9780452267459-20

By: bigbrother

bigbrother — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:05:55 +0000

Statesmenship or Individualism sounds a bit like Ron Paul. Right noe there is no entity strong enough and willing to hold the Administration accountable. What do you propose?
My sense is live more responsibly.

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:01:49 +0000

teddy upstairs