Sunday/ The Rewards of Division

 “I also wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender.”--George McGovern, after retiring from his Senate seat and opening a hotel.

Trivia night at PGC with the McGraws. I had a good meal, a surprise.

Conversations at a recycling conference:  “Oh, we all know it makes no sense to recycle glass. The economic case is easy. But people should still recycle, because it’s simply the right thing to do. It’s not about the actual environment. It’s about enlisting people to care about the symbol of the environment. Overall, recycling is still worth doing, regardless of its effects.”

“It’s okay to say that sort of thing here, because we are insiders. But it’s better not to talk about the economics of things to the general public. We need to help train them to care about the environment, and recycling is one of the best ways to do that.”

Will on the Left' attack on the individual: Dilution is a prerequisite for advancement of a collectivist political agenda. The more that individualism can be portrayed as a chimera, the more that any individual's achievements can be considered as derivative from society, the less the achievements warrant respect. And the more society is entitled to conscript -- that is, to socialize -- whatever portion of the individual's wealth that it considers its fair share.

Simone Biles landed an extraordinary triple-twisting double somersault on Sunday night to take a sixth national title.

Turkey's military pension fund has reached a tentative deal to buy British Steel out of insolvency. The Turkish Armed Forces Assistance Fund (known as Oyak) says it plans to take over British Steel, which employs 5,000 people, by the end of the year. British Steel owns the Scunthorpe steel works where 3,000 people work and it employs another 800 on Teesside. But the firm was put into compulsory liquidation in May after rescue talks with the government broke down. Astonishing.

 While Jews and Asians were not enslaved, they encountered gross discrimination. Nonetheless, neither Jews nor Asians felt that they had to await the end of discrimination before they took measures to gain upward mobility. Intellectuals and political hustlers who blame the plight of so many blacks on poverty, racial discrimination and the “legacy of slavery” are complicit in the socioeconomic and moral decay. Black people must ignore the liberal agenda that suggests that we must await government money before measures can be taken to improve the tragic living conditions in so many of our urban communities.--Williams

                      The Rewards of Division


The gospel today promises fire and division; families divided against each other over Truth, or each version of it. Beneath it, there is an optimistic idea about us, that we are passionate about the Truth, more than about tranquility. But seeing Christ talk about the necessity of division is unsettling. But the Truth allows no middle ground. But is does bring a certain unity.


  Fire and Ice    

Some say the world will end in fire, 

Some say in ice. 

From what I’ve tasted of desire 

I hold with those who favor fire. 

But if it had to perish twice, 

I think I know enough of hate 

To say that for destruction ice 

Is also great And would suffice.

    Robert Frost