Taki: Bon Mot Machine

Sorry- couldn't resist: 

But I must say, Osama did laugh like hell the last time we chatted. I asked him what the difference was between neoconservatives and women? He did not know. The answer is that you can sometimes find women on the battlefield. - In the Dec. 31st Spectator: Taki

The dandy is generally a man given to micro-whimsy. Something, such as cufflinks, that at close inspection turns out to be clever. The archetype of the prep likes his whimsical fun macro-sized. Think of madras jackets or trousers with embroidered whales. This, gentlemen, is a place where the paths of Mr. Prep and Mr. Dandy truly diverge. It is, quite frankly, impossible to cut a dandy figure wearing fire-apple red trousers emblazoned with lobsters. - J.M. Garcia III

Read the whole thing at the redesigned Dandyism.net

There has been for centuries an anti-capitalist streak running through conservative and especially religious conservative thinkers.

Terms are used so loosely nowadays; there is such a paralysis in the power of definition, that almost any sentence using current phrases may be misinterpreted. If I were to say, "slavery under capitalism," the word "capitalism" would mean different things to different men. It means to one group of writers (what I must confess it means to me when I use it) "the exploitation of the masses of men still free by a few owners of the means of production, transport and exchange." When the mass of men are dispossessed_own nothing_they become wholly dependent upon the owners and when those owners are in active competition to lower the cost of production the mass of men whom they exploit not only lack the power to order their own lives, but suffer from want and insecurity as well.

 

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There are few things that are so unpardonably neglected in our country as poker. The upper class knows very little about it. Now and then you find ambassadors who have sort of a general knowledge of the game, but the ignorance of the people is fearful. Why, I have known clergymen, good men, kind-hearted, liberal, sincere, and all that, who did not know the meaning of a "flush." It is enough to make one ashamed of one's species. -Mark Twain quoted in A Bibliography of Mark Twain, Merle Johnson

Newman: Scourge of Liberalism

Liberalism is the ideology that enshrines the Enlightenment ideals of a rational and egalitarian society; it seeks maximum individual freedom in politics and markets. As a system of government (democracy) and of material exchange (capitalism), it is the only legitimate ordering system left standing at the “end of history.” It prizes above all else the liberty of an individual to define himself in a fluid environment, unimpeded by any outside constraint save perhaps the reciprocal consent of his fellow citizens—a consent which, by the perverse logic of Liberalism, can almost never be withheld. This freedom, left unchecked, has become endemically exploitative in both the political right and left today, though for a time the areas of exploitation have remained distinct. And it is manifested in a dehumanizing materialism which, in essence, denies the human soul. - Caleb Stegall

Such is the welcome statement of the New Pantagruel. Read the whole thing, now. The welcome statement is a kind of manifesto which has not generated enough discussion until now. For how long have Christians settled for a place at Liberalism's table so long as they don't with the Reformed Kuyper or any of the late 19th century popes actually claim that God is sovereign over man. I will set it next to Newman and Pope Leo.

Read on.

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I take the administration at its word that this is the new project for America in the world. But to me, both the "hard Wilsonians" of the Bush administration, to use the name coined by the Council on Foreign Relations' Max Boot, and their liberal interventionist interlocutors are suffering from a terrible hubris, a terrible utopianism about not just the use of force, but about the promise of democracy itself. The right at least used to scorn utopianism, as a folly of liberalism and the left. Communism, it was said, taught one where utopianism led. And yet, what has the administration's policy been if not utopian?

Presume, for a moment, that we don't have the wisdom to transform foreign societies. Suddenly, the world looks very different and our actions--even presuming the most idealistic motivation for them--have a very different, much more dangerous, and certainly much less exalting resonance. President Bush has said that, in order to protect freedom at home, we must, in effect, go abroad to create freedom. That is, and doubtless will remain, American policy for the foreseeable future. But if it goes wrong, as I desperately fear that it will, perhaps John Quincy Adams's words in his Independence Day speech of 1821 will resonate once more. "Once enlisting under other banners, were they even the banners of foreign independence, [America] would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assumes the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force." - David Reiff

Come home wayward souls.New traditions around SwD. Wednesdays will see posts based on quotations. Hopefully encouraging discussion. This week the topic is ecumenism.

The Second Vatican Council reminded opportunely "with how much love Eastern Christians celebrate liturgical worship, above all the Eucharistic celebration, source of the life of the Church and pledge of future glory ("Unitatis Redintegratio," No. 15), and explained that in virtue of the apostolic succession, the priesthood and the Eucharist "are united to us with very close links" (ibid.).

Dialogue and confrontation in truth and charity, which will be developed during the symposium, will certainly make the common faith emerge, as well as those theological and liturgical aspects peculiar to the East and West, which are complementary and dynamic for the building of the People of God and which are a richness for the Church. The absence of full communion does not allow, unfortunately, the concelebration that for both is the sign of that full unity to which we are all called. In any case, it will be a call to intensify prayer, study and dialogue with the objective of resolving the differences that still remain.

To achieve the full communion of Christians must be an objective for all those who profess faith in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, "faithful and shepherds alike. -Pope Benedct XVI

So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it. During the lapse of centuries, the mystical Spouse of Christ has never been contaminated, nor can she ever in the future be contaminated, as Cyprian bears witness: "The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to her Spouse: she is incorrupt and modest. She knows but one dwelling, she guards the sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely and modestly." The same holy Martyr with good reason marveled exceedingly that anyone could believe that "this unity in the Church which arises from a divine foundation, and which is knit together by heavenly sacraments, could be rent and torn asunder by the force of contrary wills." For since the mystical body of Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one, compacted and fitly joined together,it were foolish and out of place to say that the mystical body is made up of members which are disunited and scattered abroad: whosoever therefore is not united with the body is no member of it, neither is he in communion with Christ its head.

11. Furthermore, in this one Church of Christ no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors. Did not the ancestors of those who are now entangled in the errors of Photius and the reformers, obey the Bishop of Rome, the chief shepherd of souls? Alas their children left the home of their fathers, but it did not fall to the ground and perish for ever, for it was supported by God. Let them therefore return to their common Father, who, forgetting the insults previously heaped on the Apostolic See, will receive them in the most loving fashion. For if, as they continually state, they long to be united with Us and ours, why do they not hasten to enter the Church, "the Mother and mistress of all Christ's faithful"? Let them hear Lactantius crying out: "The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true worship. This is the fount of truth, this the house of Faith, this the temple of God: if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. Let none delude himself with obstinate wrangling. For life and salvation are here concerned, which will be lost and entirely destroyed, unless their interests are carefully and assiduously kept in mind."

12. Let, therefore, the separated children draw nigh to the Apostolic See, set up in the City which Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, consecrated by their blood; to that See, We repeat, which is "the root and womb whence the Church of God springs," not with the intention and the hope that "the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" will cast aside the integrity of the faith and tolerate their errors, but, on the contrary, that they themselves submit to its teaching and government. Would that it were Our happy lot to do that which so many of Our predecessors could not, to embrace with fatherly affection those children, whose unhappy separation from Us We now bewail. -Mortalium Animos - Pope Pius XI

Discuss.

To Gereral Colin Powell:

"What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about, if we can't use it?" - Madeleine Albright

Bush didn't change American foriegn policy - he just presided over its reaffirmation.

Occasioned by a reading of Andrew Bacevich's The New American Militarism.

"Ecstaticness"

Anurag Kashyap, responding to the question, "How Do you Feel?" after winning the 78th Annual Scripps Howard National spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word "appoggiatura " (a melodic tone) after Aliya Deri went down on "trouvaille" (windfall) and Samir Patel went down on "Roscian" (skilled in acting).

In the latest installment of Quotations, I present P.Diddy.

"It moisturizes my situation and maintains my sexy." - P. Diddy in an infomercial for Proactiv skin care

Is P.Diddy Surfeited by Dainties?

Everyone being allowed to learn to read, ruineth in the long wrong not only writing but also thinking. - Nietzsche

What would he think of blogging?

“Beauty is fleeting, but a rent-controlled apartment overlooking the park is forever.”

Quotation is the latest feature for Surfeited by Dainties. It will be a quote relating to some theme the site touches on.  You are welcome to comment on them yourself- and soon I will add an e-mail address at which you can submit quotations.

Taken from “On Being a Conservative” from Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays

To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss. Familiar relationships will be preferred to the allure of more profitable attachments; to acquire and enlarge will be less important than to keep, to cultivate, and enjoy; the grief of loss will be more acute than the excitement of novelty or promise. It is to be equal to one’s fortune, to live at the level of one’s own means, to be content with the want of greater perfection which belongs to itself and one’s circumstances. With some people this is itself a choice; in others it is a disposition which appears, frequently or less frequently, in their preferences and aversions, and is not self chosen or specifically cultivated.

Also quoted in Chilton Williamson’s The Conservative Bookshelf