What was the Great Barrington Declaration's evil plan? To stop lockdowns and mandates from turning the formerly civilized world into an economic & social dumpster fire? To give poor kids a decent, uninterrupted education? To prevent rabid, prissy hypochondriacs from destroying third world economies?-- Jay Bhattacharya
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India will likely become the most populous country on Earth this year, and, yet, outside of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, there are only four State Department consulates in the country of 1.4 billion. That is fewer consulates than the State Department operates in France and fewer offices than the U.S. Embassy services in Spain. The Canadian province of Quebec, whose population totals less than nine million, merits two consulates in the State Department’s view.
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Taliban update.
Women now need a male guardian to travel more than 48 miles, or to undertake basic tasks such as entering government buildings, seeing a doctor, or taking a taxi. They are banned from nearly all jobs, except medical professions and, until Wednesday, teaching. Women also can no longer visit public parks.
Origins of Resolutions
Pale Gas is the mnemonic for the seven deadly sins (vices): pride, avarice, lust, envy, greed, anger, and sloth. These were originally listed by Pope St. Gregory the Great but, of course, redefined by Aquinas who felt they were rather vices that led to sin. It is a shame that lust so dominates our cultural prohibitions because the other vices are vibrating and alive. They all deserve some thought. And these old thinkers thought about them so well.
Five are of the "inordinate desire" variety: "For one's own excellence"--pride (Aquinas changed this to "vainglory", the desire for the recognition of one's own excellence), of "possession or riches"--avarice, "sexual pleasure"--the old reliable lust, "of food and drink"--gluttony, "for revenge"--anger (vs. the righteous anger of seeking justice.)
Anger, the Achilles killer, is surprising as only revenge, an interesting sharpened point. And the church fathers struggled over pride and where it fell among fulfillment, ambition, and achievement which explains St. Thomas' modification away from excellence and into the recognition of same. Envy is defined as "sadness on account of the goods possessed by others." Envy is sadness! And sloth is "sorrow in the face of spiritual good", not just laziness but "a malady of the will which causes us to neglect our duties." (Sheen, Fulton not Martin) Sloth is more than slobbering weakness or self-indulgence, at its core is sorrow! Therapists take note.
The world is the lesser for the absence of these thinkers, high-minded, confident, and clear. And it misses the debate on these qualities--or lack thereof. There is a frisson in just the reading of them.
Tension, drama, fullness, even reflection, are all impossible without confines, without a fixed point, without the right of judgment.
Women now need a male guardian to travel more than 48 miles, or to undertake basic tasks such as entering government buildings, seeing a doctor, or taking a taxi. They are banned from nearly all jobs, except medical professions and, until Wednesday, teaching. Women also can no longer visit public parks.
***
Origins of Resolutions
Pale Gas is the mnemonic for the seven deadly sins (vices): pride, avarice, lust, envy, greed, anger, and sloth. These were originally listed by Pope St. Gregory the Great but, of course, redefined by Aquinas who felt they were rather vices that led to sin. It is a shame that lust so dominates our cultural prohibitions because the other vices are vibrating and alive. They all deserve some thought. And these old thinkers thought about them so well.
Five are of the "inordinate desire" variety: "For one's own excellence"--pride (Aquinas changed this to "vainglory", the desire for the recognition of one's own excellence), of "possession or riches"--avarice, "sexual pleasure"--the old reliable lust, "of food and drink"--gluttony, "for revenge"--anger (vs. the righteous anger of seeking justice.)
Anger, the Achilles killer, is surprising as only revenge, an interesting sharpened point. And the church fathers struggled over pride and where it fell among fulfillment, ambition, and achievement which explains St. Thomas' modification away from excellence and into the recognition of same. Envy is defined as "sadness on account of the goods possessed by others." Envy is sadness! And sloth is "sorrow in the face of spiritual good", not just laziness but "a malady of the will which causes us to neglect our duties." (Sheen, Fulton not Martin) Sloth is more than slobbering weakness or self-indulgence, at its core is sorrow! Therapists take note.
The world is the lesser for the absence of these thinkers, high-minded, confident, and clear. And it misses the debate on these qualities--or lack thereof. There is a frisson in just the reading of them.
Tension, drama, fullness, even reflection, are all impossible without confines, without a fixed point, without the right of judgment.
2 comments:
I am a man without sin.
Up spake HORATIO the Captain of the Gate
Death will come to everyone be it soon nor late
What better way to die against such fearful odds
But Defending the graves of our Fathers
And the Temples of his Gods
yOU WILL BE IN GREAT DEMAND. a GROUP ALWAYS NEEDS SOMEONE TO CAST THE FIRST STONE.
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