Questions that won't be asked about Iraq via University Blog

Newly-Published Interview with Walker Percy

Wicked Satire courtesy of LaBelleDameSansMerci:

Miz Scarlett! Miz Scarlett! How you gwain spread democracy and free markets all over da moslem world when you cain't even preserve da freedom on yo' own planatation?--

Oooo mammy! You let go of me! I want to roll--

But Miz Scarlett! Miz Scarlett! Da plantation is burnin' down around our ears! We got no money! Da teachers hate us and are makin' the chillun mo' stupid den when dey was born. Da field darkies hate you lily white folks like da' debil. Miz Scarlett you gots to mind yo' own plantation afore you go around da world givin' advice to da moslem masses!--

Ooooo Mammy! Let go of me! I'm goin to roll!--

Miz Scarlett! Miz Scarlett! How long you gwain stay over dere? How much of da' money you ain't got is you gonna spend over dere? How you gonna' put dat democracy into da' brains of folks who don't want it dere? You gwain put dat freedom on da tip of a missile and fire it into da brain of dem foreigners? --

Ooooh Mammy! I'll think about that tomorrow. Today I want to roll!--

But Miz Scarlett! What's gwain happen to da' plantation while yo is out rollin' around in da big wide world?

Ooooh Mammy! You selfish darkie! Don't you care about all the weapons of mass destruction in the hands of an evil mad man? Don't you care about UN resolutions?

Why Miz Scarlett, is we goin' in after North Korea and Pakistan and India and all dey other countries in violation of UN resolutions too?

Ooooh Mammy! You commie, nazi, islamofascist.---

But Miz Scarlett! If 'da UN tells 'da United States dat we has to do somethin' dat we don't wanna do, is we gwain do it?---

Ooooh mammy! You're so dumb. That could never happen.---

But Miz Scarlett! Does you want America to be gone with da' wind?--

Ooooh Mammy! You hate George Bush! That's what it is. Now you let go of me! I'm going to roll, if it's the last thing I do!

"I got entangled in my own data, and my conclusion directly contradicts the original idea from which I start. Starting with unlimited freedom, I conclude with unlimited despotism. I will add, however, that apart from my solution of the social formula, there can be no other." -Shigalyov, _Demons_

Sursum Corda points to this excellent essay by Stanley Hauerwas, who echoes Alisdair MacIntyre in basing ethics upon submission to a discipline of life.

When Hauerwas says that "to learn to pray requires that we learn to pray with other Christians. It means we must learn the disciplines necessary to worship God." I fear that American Catholicism seems to have failed to provide such spiritual exercises. Perhaps there was no greater communal prayer than the exercise, that is, the askesis, of the Friday fast so hurriedly abolished after Vatican II. Besides Sunday Mass, how many Catholics actually pray together?