Ultimately

Ultimately—is a very fine word

         For a more than rarified notion;

Ultimately—though it seems absurd,

         It might even be quaffed in a potion:

Surreptitiously with soda or nog,

Or serendipitously on someone’s blog.

Ultimately—it’s an eleventary aside,

For a band that’s not twelve or ten or seven;

It’s not either three or five—but eleven.

Mattie, Mac, and Meg; Tip and Ben; Jen and Hal

MSG and LB; NPA and GHol:

Ontolaughably, epistemaffably, ruinationably,

FCSedly, eleventarily—and yes, of course, remarkably, ultimately.

Moral Philosophy Lessons from Modernity

1. Ideas have consequences. 

2. Worldviews matter. 

3. Right and wrong are not adjustable in accord with clock and calendar. 

4. There is no virtue in celebrating vice. 

5. Just as there are no victimless crimes, there are no victimless sins. 

6. Principled opposition to the reigning shibboleths is not hate or fear. 

7. Advocacy is not tolerance. 

8. Insults are not arguments. 

9. Secularism is not neutral. 

10. Scientism is not scientific. 

11. Pragmatism is not pragmatic.

A Gipper Eleventary

1. The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

2. Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.

3. I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.

4. I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.

5. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

6. Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

7. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

8. We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.

9. If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.

10. You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.

11. It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.

Priming the Tastebuds for Our UK Trip

1. Pret a Manger: Charing Cross

2. Nero’s Coffee: St. James Piccadilly 

3. Barbacoa: St. Paul's

4. Wagamama’s: Tower of London

5. Jamie’s Italian: Covent Garden

6. The Eagle: Cambridge

7. The Borough Market: Southwark

8. West Cornwall Pasty: Victoria

9. Nandos Peri-Peri: Brighton

10. Maoz Falafel: Leicester Square

11. Recipease: Bighton

Thus Saith the Iron Lady

"I am not a consensus politician. I'm a conviction politician."

“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”

“Being democratic is not enough; a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.”

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

"Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope."

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”

“Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.”

“Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.”

“Of course it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.”

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

“Oh, but you know, you do not achieve anything without trouble, ever.”

The Wisdom of Chalmers

1. "The wider a man's knowledge becomes, the deeper should be his humility; for the more he knows the more he sees of what remains unknown. The wider the diameter of light, the larger the circumference of darkness."

2. “Regardless of how large, your vision is too small.”

3. "It is only through faith that we can find our way to love, and only through love that we can find our way to obedience."

4. "Live with the high aim and purpose of one who is in training for eternity."

5. “Gargantuanism and the care of souls cannot coexist.”

6. "Repentance is not one act of the mind; it is a course of acting by which we die daily unto sin."

7. "Obstacles, setbacks, and difficulties are but opportunities for courage and tenacity. Great victories demand fierce resistance. Otherwise, they would not be great."

8. "I would pray unto watching--and watch unto praying."

9. "Let us standfast and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered; let us be manly and strenuous in the vindication thereof; and yet, let all our things be done with charity."

10. "It is not by irregular efforts, however gigantic, that any great practical achievement is overtaken. It is by the constant recurrence and repetition of small efforts directed to a given object, and resolutely sustained and persevered in."

11. "Let us be neither over-sanguine nor over-melancholy of immediate results. Our perspective of time is only slowly synchronized to the clock of providence."

The Ascension

1. Prophecies and types: Ps 24:7; 68:18; Eph 4:7,8, Le 16:15; Heb 6:20; 9:7,9,12
2. Foretold by Jesus: Jn 6:62; 7:33; 14:28; 16:5; 20:17
3. Forty days after His resurrection fortelling His return: Acts 1:3, 1:10,11
4. From Mount Olivet: Lk 24:50; Mk 11:1; Acts 1:12
5. While blessing and instructing His disciples: Lk 24:50, Acts 1:6-11
6. After he had atoned for sin: Heb 9:12; 10:12.
7. Demonstrating His triumph: Ps 68:18, Phil 2: 9-11
8. Unto supreme power and dignity: Lk 24:26; Eph 1:20,21; 1Pe 3:22
9. As the forerunner of his people: Heb 6:20
10. To intercede and send the Holy Spirit: Rom 8:34; Heb 9:24, Jn 16:7; Acts 2:33
11. To prepare gifts and a place for his people: Jn 14:2, Ps 68:18; Eph 4:8,11

Rhodia Papers and Tablets

Resolved: 2013

1. Pray more. 1 Thessalonians 5:17

2. Listen first. James 1:19

3. Work harder. Colossians 3:23

4. Serve others. Galatians 6:9

5. Defend life. Proverbs 24:11-12

6. Grumble less. James 5:9

7. Do justice. Amos 5:24

8. Love mercy. Micah 6:8

9. Walk humbly. Proverbs 15:33

10. Rejoice always. 1 Thessalonians 5:16

11. Trust Jesus. Revelation 19:6

Essential Life Lessons

1.     Look before you leap.

2.     Aim before you shoot.

3.     Think before you speak.

4.     Get the facts before you judge.

5.     Verify before you crucify.

6.     Read the fine print before signing on the dotted line.

7.     Wait a day before you send the scorching e-mail.

8.     Context, context, context.

9.     Lend no credence to gossip.

10.  Get the story right from the horse’s mouth.

11.  Know what you know and who you know.

Calvinism: My Favorite Coolidge Quotes

1. “I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm.”

2. “No man ever listened himself out of a job.”

3. "The ideas expressed in progressive, big government schemes are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Founding Fathers."

4. “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”

5. “Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”

6. “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.”

7. “Duty is not just collective; it is personal.”

8. “Perhaps the most important accomplishment of my administration has been minding my own business.”

9. “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.”

10. “We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.”

11. “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”

Favorite Churchillisms

"We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." 

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

"The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong."

"All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." 

"We rest with assurance upon the impregnable rock of the Holy Scripture."

"What is the use of living if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place to live in after we are gone?"

"The greatest advances in human civilization have come when we recovered what we had lost: when we learned the lessons of history."

"The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may destroy it, but there it is."

"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense."

Favorite Architecture Sites

1. dpz.com

2. beauxartsatelier.org

3. patternlanguage.com

4. classicist.org

5. qftarchitects.com

6. fosterandpartners.com

7. hopeforarchitecture.com

8. newurbanism.org

9. michaelgraves.com

10. cnu.org

11. sacredarchitecture.org

Bah! Humbug! As Far As the Curse Is Found

1. Humbug is an old word of indeterminate etymology meaning “spectacle” or “hoax” or “jest,” often referring to some unjustified reputation or publicity.

2. Of course, the word is most often associated with Ebenezer Scrooge, a character created by Charles Dickens in The Christmas Carol. He famously dismissed Christmas declaring, “Bah! Humbug!” Interestingly, variations of the term make appearances in any number of European languages:

3. Humbug may well be derived from the Old Norse words hum, meaning “night” or “shadow” or “dark air,” and bugges, a variant of bogey, meaning “apparition” or "ghost."

4. In Icelandic, húm means “twilight.” 

5. In Faeroese, hómi means “unclear.” 

6. Humi in Swedish means “dark suspicion.” This word may well be derived from the Old Swedish verb hymla, still in use, which means “to conceal," "to hide," or "to evade the truth.”

7. In Old English and Anglo Saxon, hum means “to deceive.” And bugges is a word that appears in Wyclif’s earliest translation of the English Bible meaning “specter.” And that may well be derived from the much older Celtic word bwg, meaning “scarecrow.” 

8. But, it could also be derived from the Early Italian, uomo bugiardo, which literally means “lying man.”

9. Uim-bog is supposed to mean “soft copper” in Ancient Gaelic—still used in Ireland as slang for “worthless money.”

10. In other words, “Bah! Humbug!” may very well be an apt declaration for Christmas (much to the chagrin of Scrooge): it is the declaration that Christ has come to expose the fraudulence, the impotence, the bugaboo nonsense of this poor fallen world; but even more, He has come to replace the dark specters, the apparitional hoaxes of sin, the evasions of the truth at the heart of sin. 

11. Thus: He has come to make His blessings flow as far as the curse is found.

Merry Eleventary X3

Gëzuar Krishtlindja--Albanian

Een Plesierige Kerfees--Afrikaans

Schenorhavor Dzenount--Armenian

Chestita Koleda, весела коледа--Bulgarian

Felices Pascuas--Catalonian

Srecan Bozic--Croatian

Vesele Vanoce--Czech

Glaedelig Jul--Danish

Zalig Kerstfeest--Dutch

Roomsaid Joulu Puhi--Estonian

Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah--Farsi

Hauskaa Joulu--Finnish

Vrolijke Kerstmis--Flemish

Joyeux Noel--French

Nodlaig Nait Cugat--Gaelic

Frohliche Weihnachten--German

Kala Christooyenna, Καλά Χριστούγεννα--Greek

Mele Kalikimaka--Hawaiian

Khag Same'ach, חג שמח--Hebrew

Boldog Karacsony--Hungarian

Buon Natale--Italian

Meri Kurisumasu--Japanese

Selamat Hari Krismas--Malay

Kung His Hsin Nien, 圣诞快乐--Mandarin

Gledelig Jul--Norwegian

Boas Festas--Portuguese

Sarbatori Vesele--Romanian

Hristos se Rodi--Serbian

Feliz Navidad--Spanish

Glad Jul--Swedish

Maligayang Pasko--Tagalog

Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun--Turkish

Chrystos Rozdzajetsia Slawyte Jeho--Ukranian

Why I Won't Be Shopping on Black Friday

1. I just don't believe shopping should be a contact sport.
2. I don't do crowds.
3. Nothing I want is ever on sale (Have you ever actually seen a first edition Chalmers book at WalMart? Nope, me either).
4. I don't do lines.
5. Turkey sandwiches await at home.
6. I don't do malls.
7. I'd rather read.
8. I don't do big box stores.
9. I'll be asleep during the worst of it anyway.
10. I don't do coupons, price comparisons, store-hopping, or wheeling-and-dealing.
11.  I think I'd actually rather go to the dentist (or go to traffic court; or have a colonoscopy; or even be forced to watch an entire Obama speech).

Favorite Chalmers Quotes

1. "The wider a man's knowledge becomes, the deeper should be his humility; for the more he knows the more he sees of what remains unknown. The wider the diameter of light, the larger the circumference of darkness."

2. “Regardless of how large, your vision is too small.”

3. "It is only through faith that we can find our way to love, and only through love that we can find our way to obedience."

4. "Live with the high aim and purpose of one who is in training for eternity."

5. “Gargantuanism and the care of souls cannot coexist.”

6. "Repentance is not one act of the mind; it is a course of acting by which we die daily unto sin."

7. "Obstacles, setbacks, and difficulties are but opportunities for courage and tenacity. Great victories demand fierce resistance. Otherwise, they would not be great."

8. "I would pray unto watching--and watch unto praying."

9. "Let us standfast and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered; let us be manly and strenuous in the vindication thereof; and yet, let all our things be done with charity."

10. "It is not by irregular efforts, however gigantic, that any great practical achievement is overtaken. It is by the constant recurrence and repetition of small efforts directed to a given object, and resolutely sustained and persevered in."

11. "Let us be neither over-sanguine nor over-melancholy of immediate results. Our perspective of time is only slowly synchronized to the clock of providence."

The "Solas" of Chalmers

Thinking about the "Five Solas of the Reformation," on this eve of Reformation Sunday, I couldn't help but also think of the reformational way Thomas Chalmers has shaped my thinking about life, grace, mercy, the Scriptures, and the beauty of the faith that the magisterial reformers bequeathed to us.  

It struck me that like them, Chalmers' influence has also produced a list of "solas." This is my first feeble attempt to somehow codify those "solas."

1. Only the Triune God is truly holy.
2. Only His holiness can offer grace.
3. Only His grace can bring forth faith.
4. Only faith bears the fruit of love.
5. Only love produces hope.
6. Only hope gives way to obedience.
7. Only obedience results in service.
8. Only service manifests mercy.
9. Only mercy makes for justice.
10. Only justice establishes peace.
11. And, only peace can flower into Christian culture.

Essential Political Maxims

“The greatest political storm flutters only a fringe of humanity.” G.K. Chesterton

“Almost nothing is as important as almost everything in Washington is made to appear.  And the importance of a Washington event is apt to be inversely proportional to the attention it receives.” George Will

“Being in politics is like being a football coach; you have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.” Eugene McCarthy

“All politics is actually based on the indifference of the majority.” John Reston

“Americans view politics with boredom and detachment.  For most of us, politics is increasingly abstract, a spectator sport barely worth watching. Since the average voter believes that politics will do little to improve his life or that of his community, he votes defensively, if at all.” E. J. Dionne

“The Constitution is not an instrument for government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government‑‑lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” Gouvenor Morris

“Liberty necessitates the diminutization of political ambition and concern.  Liberty necessitates concentration on other matters than mere civil governance.  Rather, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, freemen must think on these things.” Patrick Henry

“What frustrates many Americans about politics, I think, is that their hard-earned prosperity was supposed to produce widespread decency.  It didn’t.  And as a result, we’re mad.” James Q. Wilson

“Our national temper is sour, our attention span limited, our fuse short.  We yearn childishly, for a cowboy in a white hat to ride into town.  We are ripe for political disaster.” Simon Schama

“The voters think Washington is a whorehouse and every four years they get a chance to elect a new piano player.  They would rather burn the whorehouse down.” Peggy Noonan

“We are perpetually being told that what is wanted is a strong man who will do things.  What is really wanted is a strong man who will undo things; and that will be the real test of strength.” G.K. Chesterton

P Logomorphs

Paedocide:  Taking care of the next generation by nipping it in the bud.

Phonesia: Dialing a phone number and then suddenly forgetting who you’ve just called.

Platitudinarianism:  The sentimentalizing of all issues and conflicts; the gospel of nice.

Pornodoxy:  A new standard of truth confirmed by a perversiarchy.

Pornutopia:  The end result of an ACLU lawsuit.

Pow-woo:  A carefully choreographed diplomatic photo-op; a political version of “less filling-tastes great.”

Pox Americana:  The process of inflicting the worst of American pop culture on the rest of the world.

Pseudocracy:  The false illusion of magistratal order and cogency.

Psychosophism:  The bizarre religious sophistry propounded by psychotherapists.

Pucknuckler: A fight at a hockey game.

Pundictatorship:  The absolute rule of a land by the media pundits.

More P Logomorphs

Paedophobia:  An oddly modern antipathy toward children.

Perversiarchy:  A reprobate society governed by those committed to concupiscence.

Peterpantheism:  An environmentalist dogma that refuses to face facts or to grow up.

Pharmer:  A drug lord.

Piccasso Porn:  The images from scrambled adult cable channels.

Pietoid:  An adherent of Pietism; the opposite of someone committed to true piety.

Pluriscuity:  The promiscuous vision of radical pluralism that claims an equal standing for truth and error.

Politism:  The ideology that places governmentalism at the center of all things.

Pornocracy:  A debauched culture ruled first and foremost by its sensual impulses.

Promise Peepers:  Men who attend evangelical rallies, conventions, and crusades just to see what is going on; ethical lurkers.

Psychoprattle:  The pop psychological chit-chat that passes for intelligent analysis in our day.

O Logomorphs

Obaminable: Declaring as right what is undeniably wrong; post-modern bully pulpit.

Obstropulous: Seeming to be helpful while really making things more difficult.

Ohnosecond: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a big mistake, like accidentally sending a personal e-mail to everyone in the office.

Olibarky: Cranky, patronizing, and oh-so-pious sermonizing from the modern politically-correct elite.

OMG-iddy: Effusive enthusing on social networking sites.

Omnimoral:  The modern moralistic indifference to morality; Episcopalian ethics.

Onomatimusic: Music that actually is as bad as it sounds (with a tip of the hat to Wagner).

Oranter: The blurring of the distinction between oratory and a temper tantrum; a cable TV talk show host.

Oreosis: Eating the icing center of an Oreo before eating the cookie outside.

Osteopornosis: A disease of degeneracy.

Ozombied: Inhaling the rarefied air of the environmentalist ideologue.

N Logomorphs

Naftathoughts:  Lingering doubts about the economic and cultural benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreements.

Namenesia: Inexplicably forgetting the name of someone you know very well.

Nanachronym: Those instantly ubiquitous internet and texting abbreviations;

Narceclessia: A sleep disorder that afflicts modern Christians causing cultural detachment and irrelevance in times of grave societal danger; the church asleep in the light.

Nefariography: A biography of a notorious villain; the opposite of Hagiography.

Negalicious: Distasteful, nasty, and disgusting; the opposite of delicious and nutritious; American fast food.

Nehemiad: A bold declaration of encouragement, blessing, and optimism; the opposite of a woeful Jeremiad.

Nephitism: The bizarre historiographical and sociological claims of Mormonism that underlie its equally bizarre cultus.

Nerb: A noun misappropriated in a sentence as a verb.

Netnyet: A web search yielding only irrelevant and unrelated data; an information technology dead-end.

Newsertainment:  The reduction of broadcast and cable television news to mere entertainment.