POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Dr. Daniel P Collins, Sr – On Women

Pop can't see so well these days, but he still loves to write. And among the things all five of us kids, along with Daughters-in-law (and now Grandkids), have been asked to do is to type up his essays - there are tons and tons of them - all filling boxes full of legal pads. Some contain quotes. Some beginnings of ideas. Some are fully baked essays - and some are shorts.

Here is a sample of Pop Collins's writings. More to come - but reflections of the old dogs among us - the limping veterans, as it were, are fascinating. I thought to post the following on POWIP. So, with your leave, I give you the mind of Doc Collins - the last of the dinosaurs.

Women

“No man will have any serious affinity to the Virgin Mary who does not have a serious affinity to women. One is impossible without the other. For a Christian of the Catholic tradition one could almost judge his understanding of woman by his devotion to the Mother of God.”

“…It is probably to be admitted that our devotion to the Mother of God will be marked by the same attitudes we bear to women on earth. When woman is held in reverence, virginity reckoned to be beautiful, marriage and motherhood honorable, this will reflect itself in our relationship to the Virgin Mother. We have a certain consistency.”

Fluta Solo Matthew Kelly p. 103, 106.

Women Take Two

The theme of the temporal redemption of man by woman is common in literature, poetry, opera and other forms of art. My father believed devoutly that women were a superior form of life. He was courtly and gentlemanly and treated women with the greatest respect. I gathered it was because of his love for his mother Elizabeth Brigid who died when he was fourteen. He insisted that I watch out for my older sisters. If he was on duty he would call home and if Pat, Mariann or Joan was expected but not home, he would have me walk to the Northwest Highway, a mile or so, and wait in the doorway until they arrived.

I have come to appreciate his view. I believe if a man has a loving mother, and a loving wife, he should be able to fashion a happy and successful life.

The British historian Toynbee in his Civilization on Trial had some macro-cultural constructs that I believe translate to micro-cultural truths; the family is a microcosm of the world in general. The first is: as a culture successfully meets a challenge it gets stronger; as it fails to meet it the culture fades. So it is with the basic building block of society, the family.

Toynbee credited religion as the crysallis of civilzation, the cocoon that protected what was core and carried it to the next generation. In my micro model, women carry the important core values from one generation to the next.

Contrast my father’s convictions with the Rap artists of today and the denigration of women by Hefner and their ilk. What in the world has happened?

Again, the sixties with its disdain for tradition, which I believe represents accumulated wisdom by generations of smart people. The replacement of freedom (which has responsibilities) with license (which has none), and the rejection of religion. The Ten Commandments and the Old Testament address the things we should not do out of fear of God. The Beatitudes and the New Testament, the Gospel, the Good News, focus on what we should do out of Love of God who sent His Son to suffer and die to defeat death and open Eternal Life for us.

In the course of this, He gave us His Mother Mary. Now we have a woman’s redemption in more than a temporal mode but helping in our Eternal Redemption. Don’t get me wrong—it was only through Jesus’ cross, and Resurrection that we can be saved. Protestants are told, incorrectly, that we as Catholics, worship Mary - which of course would be a great sin. We honor Mary and use Jesus as true man as well as true God as the basis of our love for her. As man, He would be open to His Mother’s influence.

I am somewhat put off by the term “Co-redeemer” when applied to Mary. But if you believe in Free Will then we are all co-redeemers when we follow and obey God’s laws.

The 60s rejected all this and separated responsibility from privilege. Then we had the Feminist Movement which was hijacked by the radical feminists of the National Organization of Women. A small group but our lazy media people gave it stature since they would give a fifteen second sound bite for TV news. This radical feminism set out to destroy the family unit by denigrating motherhood’s status. The Supreme Court had decided abortion was legal so commitment and responsibility the backbone of civilized society and sanctity of life were degraded. Then the media decided what was legal must be moral. Morality was subjected to the brutality of a corrupt legal system. It started with the acknowledged perjury of “Rove v. Wade” is which Jane Roe said she became pregnant due to rape. She later admitted this perjury and became pro-life. This was augmented by the acquittal of O.J. Simpson and reached its zenith in the Clinton administration. The media kept saying he hadn’t been found guilty of breaking any law. He, of course, lied repeatedly under oath, suborned perjury and withheld the tapes from a blanket subpoena and then claimed we are “a Nation of Laws.”

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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Humanism is a False Idol

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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More on Obama’s Mystery Student Loans

Dreams from my benefactor:

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt had no answer as to why the Obamas’ failed to declare the loans, stating the obvious that “because interest on the loans was not deducted, it would not appear on the Obamas’ personal return.”

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Jeff G.

Jeff's rather private, but he's got some kind of health issue in his family right now, and is asking for donations.

He's been away from the scene for too long, but please regard this as an opportunity to let him recall that the intartubes are not an unmitigated cesspool. I know that he wouldn't be asking for anything if the need weren't there.

And I'll not tolerate any criticism of Jeff in the comments, either. If you want to slag him, you've got his email address. I'm not hosting it and I'm not listening to it.

Later today, after Brendan's gotten back from dropping his buddy back off in Beloit, I'm hitting the road to drive all the way back to Vermont as quickly as I can manage. I want to thank you all for the kind encouragements you've sent my way.

In fact, if you know of any businesses who are looking for website work, and I can sell them on SunAnt, I will forward the commission to Jeff.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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The Wages of Dumb

Two truck bombers who killed 95 people in devastating attacks on the Iraqi finance and foreign ministries were recently released from US custody, a senior interior ministry official said on Sunday.

"The suicide bomber who blew himself up at the ministry of foreign affairs was released three months ago from Camp Bucca," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, referring to the US jail near Basra.

"The suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the ministry of finance was also released a few months ago from the same jail."

The August 19 attacks in Baghdad also wounded 600 people in the worst day of violence to hit the country for 18 months.

If the allegations are true, heads should roll for this.  But instead, we're going to Mirandize them:

Calling it a "terrible decision" that undermines national security and devastates CIA morale, former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed the Obama administration's probe of aggressive interrogation of terrorists.

"It's an outrageous political act that will do great damage, long-term, to our capacity to be able to have people take on difficult jobs, make difficult decisions, without having to worry about what the next administration is going to say," Cheney told "FOX News Sunday" in a no-holds-barred interview.

In blunt, unsparing language, Cheney accused President Obama of setting a "terrible precedent" by launching an "intensely partisan, politicized look back at the prior administration." He seemed to question Obama's fitness as commander-in-chief.

"I have serious doubts about his policies," Cheney told FOX News' Chris Wallace in Jackson Hole, Wyo. "Serious doubts, especially, about the extent to which he understands and is prepared to do what needs to be done to defend the nation." [emphasis Zip's]

Hell, even the San Francisco Chronicle isn't buying it:

When he served as deputy attorney general, now Attorney General Eric Holder gave a "neutral leaning positive" recommendation that led to President Bill Clinton's pardoning of gazillionaire fugitive Marc Rich, who was on the lam in Switzerland hiding from federal charges of fraud, evading more than $48 million in taxes, racketeering and trading oil with Iran in violation of a U.S. embargo.

Holder also had a role in the 1999 Clinton pardons of 16 Puerto Rico independence terrorists - members of the bomb-happy FALN or the splinter group Los Macheteros - who had been convicted on such charges as bank robbery, possession of explosives and participating in a seditious conspiracy - even though none of the 16 had applied for clemency. As the Los Angeles Times reported, two of the 16 refused to accept the pardon - as it required them to renounce violence - while another later was killed in a shootout with federal agents.

During his confirmation hearing in January, Holder refused to explain why the Clinton Department of Justice changed its earlier position against the 16 commutations - citing Clinton's claim of executive privilege.

So you'll forgive me if I don't buy into the argument that, as a simple lawman, Holder had no choice but to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate alleged abuses during CIA interrogations of high-value detainees.

The Clinton Justice Department didn't even make the 16 terrorists disclose pertinent information about the crimes they committed, just as they tied no strings around Rich. Yet 10 years later, Holder's Justice Department won't give a break to CIA officials desperate to stop another terrorist attack.

Oh, yeah, there's something wrong with your picture, but it isn't on the receiving end.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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WaPo Story Backs Cheney on EID

From Ben Smith on Politico:

The Washington Post leads today with an extraordinary story cutting against the conclusions of a series of recent government and media reports to cast as straight news -- with a few hedges and qualifications --  that waterboarding and sleep deprivation worked like a charm to turn Kalid Sheik Mohammed from an enemy into an "asset."

The story -- which seems sure to provoke an intense reaction from the many critics of President Bush's interrogation policies, and comes just before Dick Cheney's appearance, taped Friday, on Fox News Sunday  -- bears all the marks of some complicated internal discussions over at the Post, which has been on the defensive since its reporting in the run up to the Iraq war. A sign of the internal focus on the piece: The story -- appearing as the paper's top story on an off day, a Saturday -- has three major bylines and just a tagline from national security reporter Walter Pincus.

They dumped it on a Saturday.

Frankly, this new revelation about KSM doesn't surprise me much.  Solipsists are narcissists are solipsists.

I want to apologize for not having posted in days.  We drove straight through to Wisconsin, getting to the dorm about 15 minutes before check in opened.  I've spent the past days getting Brendan settled in at Marquette, in between his bouts of attending mandatory sessions and recreating with his new friends.

At Enoch's, I wasn't able to spend much time on the computer, which was okay, because it's more important for Unca Dan to hang with the monsterlings.  I took to heading to Bayview, where there's a nice wireless cafe, but I've only eaten thrice since I got here, and I've only had a couple of hours at a time online, which I've devoted to The B-Cast.

I had thought that maybe I'd be able to get online at my friend Bob's place last night, but it was not to be.  Brendan, Bob, Hal and I went out for a Friday night fish fry--a Milwaukee tradition not at all limited to Lent--where we had some deep-fried beer-battered bacon as an appetizer (Milwaukee is very tasty, but potentially hazardous to one's health), with a beer & cheese sauce for dipping, and fried smelt and cod.  Wisconsin is, to my knowledge, the only state where a child, no matter how underaged, can be served alcohol in public, just so long as s/he's in the company of her/his parents, so Brendan enjoyed a couple of pints of Guinness, before we went back to Bob and Hal's for the Packers preseason game.  Aaron Rodgers is looking awesome.

My brothers prevailed on me to spend an extra day for Auntie Beth's surprise birthday celebration.  I hadn't thought things through very well, so we're out at M&D's place, and they're out of town, and I haven't got a key.  Brendan's off to Beloit to pick up his buddy, Luke, so I'm stuck here on the porch, where, for a change, I can actually snag a strong wireless signal.  It's freezing, though.

Hey, some of the crew have materialized, so I don't have to freeze.

Brendan's going to be working at Uncle Tim's fish market/restaurant, so he'll have a little spending cash, so long as he can hold the job.  Books, socks, binders, paper, pens.  Among Enoch, Tim and Bob, he shouldn't lack for adult . . . not supervision, but contact.  Put him on a payment plan for a new laptop, too, so Mary gets the old one.

Tomorrow morning I hit the road, bright and early.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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