I don't plan to recommend too many books on my blog, I guess if I did that I would only be posting book reviews, but I couldn't help recommending the one I am reading now--The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton. I read the first chapter of the book late at night and after all the Western Lit. reading at PHC just wanted to enjoy a book for once without thinking too much about it. I never got any further as I remembered that I had been wanting to read a Frank Peretti for a long time so started reading Nightmare Academy. When I picked up The Man Who Was Thursday again I decided to just start all over as I had only read a few pages. Man was I shocked when I realized how much of the philosophy I had missed by reading it that late. If you were here you would probably here me exclaiming every so often something like "yes YES" or "amen brother Chesterton" I have been so excited by the incredible way he presents, as he puts it, moral anarchism. It is quite nice as well how Chesterton has wrapped up all the philosophy in a mystery/thriller similar to his Father Brown Stories that, taken on this level only, makes great literature. Both Nightmare Academy and The Man Who Was Thursday deal with the same topic, moral absolutes, but while Nightmare Academy hits you over the head with the Christian viewpoint G. K Chesterton presents it subtly yet strongly making moral anarchism laughable. I believe this is going to be one of those books that further refines and strengthens my worldview. From now on I am not going to call moral relativists moral relativists but rather use Chesterton�s term moral anarchists for that is what they are.

[R] 

Some wisdom from Ronald Reagan

"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from
extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended
constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who
have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again."

--Ronald Reagan

A birthday, old friends, and sleep debt

Sorry I have not posted in so long but I have been paying off sleep debt so have not had the time. So far my summer has been going swell (a little alliteration there. Oh no! I have been infected by Dr. Smith) All is going well here. We went into DC a few days ago for my 20th birthday. Went to the Supreme Court, walked the mall, sat for a bit in the House and Senate galleries, then had a great dinner at Ruths Chris Steakhouse. I don't know if I should consider it a good thing or not :) but, while waiting to go into the Senate gallery, first Dianne Feinstein then John Kerry passed right by us in the narrow hallway. I assume they were together plotting a Communist takeover. ;) The past few days we have been hanging out with our friends on the boat Danza who we sailed a good chunk of the world with and who stopped for a few days here while sailing their way up to their house in Maine. They are gone now so I have been painting the garage, reading up on Costa Rica, and getting my Fox News fix. I hope you all are having a great summer.

[R]

Sophomore

IT'S OVER!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

No more 8:00 Journalism
No more Rhetoric with Dr. Smith and his red pen of death
Only one more semester of Western Lit. to go
No more US History (I never have to hear "drip drip" again, or the great state of Indiana, or Quinn ask questions about Nixon)

No more logic with khaki and blue oxford

No more research and writing

For some reason I am going to miss it though.

Sophomore Rob (I think I like the sound of that)

Greed and Art

In honor of finishing the US history final and never having to look at US history again, I thought I would take this post from history.

Reading our text, A History of the American People by Paul Johnson, it struck me that the two eras in history most known for their greed are also the eras known for some of the best art.

I have talked to many people who condemn the greed of the Catholic Church during the Renaissance. It is easy when walking into one of the magnificent churches around the world to condemn the richness but it was the Catholic Church's "greed" that funded, so to speak, the Renaissance. It is the church and aristocracy that funded the art.

I have also talked to many people that condemn the so called "greed" of the late 1800s and early 1900s but it was at this time where art flourished again with the Hudson River School and artists like Winslow Homer, Sandford R. Gifford, Thomas Cole, Frederick Edwin Church, and Louis Comfort Tiffany. It was the American version of the European aristocracy, the great entrepreneurs and big business, that funded the art.

It is only when we have more money than we need that we are willing to spend it on art

Great Friends Great Tournament

I am so blessed to have friends that are willing to take the time to drag me out of my cave and get me to do things. Judging the debate tournament (pronounced ternament NOT tornament) was great! Thanks guys!

[R]