What now?

In all the vortex of commentary in the aftermath of the election, one argument in particular seems to me both plausible and troubling. I keep hearing people say, “The Republican Party has to go libertarian. Enough with social conservatism. Nobody wants it anymore. Christian America is dead and gone. We’ve got to promote an ideology of freedom, where the government just keeps its hands off all private matters, whether marriage or abortion or drugs or anything else. That will attract the younger voters.”

It’s conceivable, but I have a lot of trouble with it. Those who promote homosexual marriage have very poor track record of leaving alone the people who refuse to recognize it. They’re awfully prone to use laws to force acquiescence from businesspeople, or even churches, who don’t want to play that game. And I, personally, think that a society needs to privilege man-woman marriage in order to make it worthwhile for men to enter into marriages. Otherwise, men are congenitally inclined to wander away, and then the wife falls into the arms of the welfare state, which grows government, the very thing libertarianism wants to reduce.

I will never donate to a party that promotes abortion. And I consider drugs a societal danger. You may consider Amsterdam a paradise on earth, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Still, a libertarian regime might be more tolerant of Christians, all in all, than the socialist one we seem to headed to.

In either case, the old republic as we knew it is gone, it would seem.

Post-Election Reminders

Pastor Corey Widmer writes:

Reminder #1: Politics is not a Pass for Christian Discipleship

“Brian Roberts notes that political discourse is like the Vegas of Christianity – it’s that place where sin and indiscretion is winked at and excused. Hate speech, vitriolic language, childish names, caricaturing opposing viewpoints — just go on, Christian, your sin is excused here.

“Jesus doesn’t live in Vegas. Please friends, this is inexcusable.”

Losing the Election

Newspapers B&W (4) Marvin Olasky describes how last night’s presidential election (and many others) began to be lost about 50 years ago. Here’s one strong point:

Twenty years ago, as the advent of talk radio left many conservatives thinking they had a weapon adequate to overcome the influences of liberal newspapers and news magazines. That proved untrue, because those print publications still do the original reporting and storytelling that frames national debates.

That’s what we see in the current reporting on what happened in Benghazi and everything related to Muslims in the news. That’s what we see in the established process for candidate debates (“Mr. Ryan, should women be afraid of your election?”). That’s what we see in the reporting on government spending, budget modifications, fiscal cliff, etc.

I stopped listening to NPR over the summer when they used the news on Pixar’s Brave to deride the idea of princesses and ask a homosexual entertainer, who I think goes by the name Princess, to expand on being a princess means. I turned it on the other day to hear them pass lightly over a colonel’s criticism of the grossly irresponsible handling of our Libyan embassy’s defenses to focus on what he believed was miscommunication from the Marines on the ground.

We live in an infoworld today. Our kings or kingmakers are the information keepers.

Decision day!

Today, America, it is your duty and honor to make what will be perhaps the most important choice of our lifetimes.

No, not that political race. Most of you, being upright citizens, have probably cast your votes in that one already.

No, I’m talking about the solemn and portentous decision as to what the cover of my next novel will be like.

As you know if you’ve been around here, I’ve gone to e-publishing, with the generous assistance of our friend Ori Pomerantz, who does the technical publishing stuff, and Phil Wade of this blog, who designs the covers. (You can see my previous masterwork, Troll Valley, here.)

The new book is another Erling Skjalgsson novel, and I call it Hailstone Mountain. It’s a sort of H. Rider Haggard-esque story, centering on a lost civilization high in the mountains of Norway. We’ve been brainstorming it and have gone through a few versions. Here’s one. The background is a photo I took during my last trip to Norway. It’s a famous place in Romsdal called Trollveggen (Troll Wall). The people in front are members of my Viking group, the Viking Age Club and Society of the Sons of Norway.



Continue reading Decision day!

What Would the Founders Think?

What would our founding fathers think of today, Election Day 2012? Author Ron Chernow talks about it:

Washington did take public opinion into account. In fact, during his first term as president he made a tour of the Northern states and a tour of the Southern states because he wanted to hear what people had to say about the Constitution and the new government. So, he wasn’t oblivious to public opinion, but it wasn’t a situation where you had poll numbers on an almost hourly basis that you’re consulting.



People might disagree with him, and they certainly did, but they never felt that they would be betrayed by him. There was an extraordinary sense with all of the early presidents of authenticity, that is, what you saw was what you got. These were not people capable of that kind of guile. That mystic bond I don’t sense with either Obama or Romney.

Author Jon Meacham also answered the question what Jefferson would think about modern elections: “Let’s stipulate that this is an unknowable question. That said, Jefferson loved big political fights, and while he often said he disliked controversy, in many ways political strife was the air he breathed. So he’d enjoy this dash to the finish.”

Sound of Blood, by Lawrence De Maria

I’m half ready to become a big fan of Lawrence De Maria just on the basis of having read Sound of Blood. The other half is ready to cast him into utter darkness for a couple mistakes that seemed to me bush league.

The story concerns Jake Scarne, a New York private eye with military and police experience. Jake is no Philip Marlowe, smoking a lonely cigarette in a seedy office. Jake recently moved into the big leagues. He has a nice office, a beautiful secretary, an expensive apartment, and a babe-magnet car. He’s approached by a wealthy man named Sheldon Shields, who believes his son Josh has been murdered. Josh was a reporter working on a story about a mysterious Australian business tycoon, Victor Ballantrae. Jake’s investigations lead him into a world of corruption, violence, and sex. They also introduce him to Alana Loeb, Ballantrae’s associate, a beautiful, seductive, dangerous, yet strangely sympathetic character. Continue reading Sound of Blood, by Lawrence De Maria

Feedback for the Professor

From the Bulletin of the New York C.S. Lewis Society’s July/August 2012 issue: In an article entitled “Between Friends,” Pastor Mark Koonz provides extracts from reminiscences by George Sayer (who wrote the Lewis biography, Jack), in which he recounts a visit by J.R.R. Tolkien to his home in the summer of 1952. Tolkien was depressed, having had his The Lord of the Rings manuscript rejected by several publishers.

To entertain him in the evening I produced a tape recorder (a solid early Ferrograph that is still going strong). He had never seen one before and said whimsically that he ought to cast out any devil that might be in it by recording a prayer, the Lord’s Prayer in Gothic, one of the extinct languages of which he was a master.

He was delighted when I played it back to him and asked if he might record some of the poems in The Lord of the Rings to find out how they sounded to other people. The more he recorded, the more he enjoyed recording and the more his literary self-confidence grew. Continue reading Feedback for the Professor

Poetry and Memorization

Professor Hunter Bakers writes, “It is interesting to read about education in the 19th century. One encounters a former emphasis on memorization and recitation. I suppose that method is considered inadequate now and we have moved well past it.”

I think memorizing is important. It’s recommended in the Trivium at early ages, because kids like to rattle off quotes. They are little parrots at that age.