POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

‘Adult Baby’ Will Hold His Breath Until He Dies

If his SSI check is taken away.

In an email response to The Washington Times, Mr. Thornton threatened to kill himself if his Social Security payments are taken away, and said the television episode showing him doing woodwork oversold his abilities.

“You wanna test how damn serious I am about leaving this world, screw with my check that pays for this apartment and food. Try it. See how serious I am. I don’t care,” the California man said. “I have no problem killing myself. Take away the last thing keeping me here, and see what happens. Next time you see me on the news, it will be me in a body bag.”

Mr. Thornton was featured in early May on National Geographic Channel’s “Taboo” program along with Miss Dias, a former nurse who feeds him a bottle and otherwise attends to his needs when he is dressed in diapers.

I got in touch with my inner child. He murdered me and assumed my identity.

Dan Collins

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

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In the Midst of Life….

I see from Instapundit that the Lonely Conservative's mother died. And looking at the time stamp, it seems she died around the same time my grandfather, Wirt H. Cook, died.

My grandpa was an IBM man, and he would regale me of stories of ye olden tymes of working the accounts, back when 3M was called Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. These were the days when you couldn't buy a computer - you rented it from IBM, and it came with a (FULL) service contract. Well, evidently, 3M had a contract to run the computers 1 shift a day, and it came to Pop-pop's attention they were running the machines around the clock. This was known to the prior guy in charge of the account, I think, but he didn't want to make waves - after all, 3M was the largest account in the office. Do you want complaints? On the other hand, where else would they get computers from? Let's just say Pop-pop made sure they paid their bills in full.

In true IBM tradition, he got moved around the country - from Minnesota to Connecticut to Tennessee to Indiana to Florida. He decided to alight in Orlando as his last stop, with a golf course in the backyard (the 17th green right behind the pool.... he collected a lot of golf balls, or rather, when he took us grandkids out in the golfcart, we picked up a lot of golf balls).

He wasn't Catholic when he married my grandma (Mary Lou Murphy), and he wasn't Irish, but after 6 kids he converted and he definitely out-Irish-Catholicked us all. You had to watch your glass when you were drinking with him - would never let it dip below half, and it made it difficult to keep track of how much you had. My Dad got sick drunk the first time he met Pop-pop, when he was 19 years old, due to this ploy (it didn't help that Dad came from a tee-totaling family).

Grandma Cook left the earth back in 2003, and now Pop-pop goes to join her. Below is how I remember them, a picture from my wedding in 2000:

There are, of course, many more stories. For the past several years, I've been talking with him about business and politics, and writing him letters while I was riding the train to and from work. My grandparents had 6 kids, 15 grandkids, and.... 17 great-grandkids? So far? I've lost count. I'm one of the oldest of the grandkids, and we're still whelping, so that last number may change. My youngest sister had her second child on Mother's Day. We are a fecund bunch.

....and when I see my son's bright blue eyes, I think of the pics of my Pop-pop as the high school football player. When I see Bonnie's moon face, I see those Irish eyes smiling from Grandma. I see my daughter's First Holy Communion, and I remember the pic of my Aunt Mary Pat's First Communion. So while I miss them terribly, I smile and I remember.

L'chaim!

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

My Thoughts on the “Arab Spring”

Enoch_Root

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

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New from O’Bam-a Toys!

Arab Spring?

Oh, goodie.

Already Self-Denounced (also denouncing Cowboy in advance)

Enoch_Root

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

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Best Allegory Ever

I really don't think he meant it this way, but Enoch's post on his son's struggles really works out to be the perfect allegory.  The fact that it was written just a day before Obama openly threw Israel under the bus makes it perfectly timed; even prescient. 

I do not wish to make light of Enoch's untenable position here.  My daughter had her own struggles, and to her credit has steadfastly followed the school's instructions.  My son (5), however, doesn't suffer fools easily.  He'll need to learn how to simply ignore the morons of this world in order to function, but if he senses a slight from another, his first instinct is to tackle it head on.  We've had those notes, phone calls, and meetings, too.

Now, after Saturday, it's apparently likely that y'all won't be hearing much from me.  This time, he's got it right, I'm sure of it.  So, I suggest you prepare yourselves for the pending chaos.  My understanding is shotguns are the weapon of choice for fighting zombies.  The weapon of choice for fighting Jews?  Obama.  Although, given Israel's successful history, you may want to head that way to ride out the pending Zombie Apocalypse.

Just sayin'.

Adam Wells

Living life at 84 mph and 7000 feet. All I ask is that you don't block traffic, act like a professional, and don't act all surprised when your actions have consequences. Oh, and don't complain about the refs; trust me, they don't care if your team wins or not.

Regarding Camp Wingnut

A couple of months ago, I suggested the possibility of organizing a first annual Camp Wingnut here in Vermont, at a resort in the Northeast Kingdom, as a possibility. Some people expressed an interest. I'd be happy to have it co-hosted by Jay Tea from Wizbang and any of the AoSHQ Morons who would like to attend. As I mentioned at that time, it would be a family friendly event and considerably less expensive than the usual conferences at which Wingnuts gather.

Now that we're in the middle of May, it's important that I really do know who's interested. We're looking at Monday, August 1 to Sunday August 8. To get a group discount, we need at least 10 people. There's a restaurant/tap and free WiFi at the location I'm considering, and I know where the local swimming holes and waterfalls and other reasonably priced and good restaurants are. Each unit has its own kitchenette.

In order to give a lecture, I'll need to be gone a bit of the first day, but that also means that I'm going to be able to stop at the Burlington Airport, should anyone need a ride, at about 4:00 pm. If you're really interested in coming, please let me know. Discount rates require a minimum of 10 people. Activities include canoeing, hiking, fishing (if you care to buy a license), picking chanterelles, possibly skinnydipping, and also possibly getting drunk and traipsing in your skivvies, the last couple depending entirely on whether there are youngsters around. I will make sure that we have at least one gas grill available at all times.

As I mentioned before, it's a 90-minute drive to Montreal, should you require some culture. It's also possible to get duty free cigs and booze if you head into Quebec to pick some strawberries, for example, though you'll have to bring your passport if that's part of your plan.

Dan Collins

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

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Dante and the Great Refusal

Over at Father Z's place, he's posted about Pope Celestine V in The Divine Comedy. Celestine was exalted from his condition as a monk, and served only a few months before exiting the role. Dante suggests that he is in Hell, though we do not see him in the "Inferno." Celestine tried to flee Italy after deposing himself, but was captured and thrown into prison by his successor, Boniface VIII, whom Dante hated, I think it can truthfully be said. Nevertheless, Pietro da Marrone, Celestine V, was canonized in 1313.

Dante's project was most important: how does one justify Divine Judgment in the light of Divine Mercy? The poem takes place between Good Friday and Easter Sunday of the Jubilee Year 1300. Dante represents himself as he was, then . . . warts and all.

Virgil represents for Dante the Pagan Virtues. He's the great Roman poet of Empire. The project of the Renaissance, at which Dante is at the cusp of and in the foreground of, is renovatio imperii, the renewal of Empire. The great humanist project was just getting under way, reviving the encyclo-paedeia of classical civilization, while at the same time trying to Christianize it.

Dante investigates in each particular the idea of justice. Like most of us, he is most apt to try to cut slack where he himself is most likely to err . . . for example, in the way of concupiscence. Virgil rebukes him at these points. His own hero, Aeneas, is continually given the epithets "pious" and "dutiful." His dalliance with Dido threatens to become an alliance (later, Shakespeare would explore this dynamic in Julius Caesar and Anthony & Cleopatra, the latter of which sees Virgil's Emperor Octavius, under whose auspices Dante's Christ is born, triumphant by its end), but in the masculinist Roman world, and in Rome's historical destiny, there is no room for personal decisions when you have been called to historical greatness. To unify and restore Italy to its former greatness would be the work of one with the single-mindedness of an Aeneas: someone who could put aside the blandishments of the world to a larger vision, to take the tattered tessellation of city-states and bind them together.

A century after Dante wrote, the Duchy of Milan (just to cite an example) could boast a greater GDP than the entirety of England. Still, it was not until the 19th Century that Garibaldi was able to create a unified Italian state.

One of the things that Dante did manage to do, though, was to create out of the Florentine dialect (principally) an Italian for the educated. If to be Greek was, as is sometimes argued, to know Homer, to be fully Italian one had to know Dante. The incredible success of his project demonstrated that the Italian vernacular, at least as employed and enriched by Dante, was capable of manifesting great poetry and great philosophy. The most thrilling words of the Renaissance may be, "I, Dante . . . ." That self-assertion was the first and most important step in realizing renovatio imperii.

Like a good epic poet, Dante begins his poem in medias res with the words, "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita," indicating that at the time of the poem, 1300, he is literally halfway through his allotted 3 score and 10, but also indicating that he is of middle age, a man in full. When we are young, we are likely to place little emphasis on Divine Justice, placing perhaps too much on Divine Mercy. As we grow older, we begin to understand that we are not God, that we have limited resources, that it is best that we bestow them (including our own charities and mercies) on those who most deserve them. Too often, Catholics of the immature sort (in my view) omit to consider the relations of justice and mercy in this fallen world. It is true that we must strive to forgive trespasses against us, but it is not our place to forgive those against others.

Dante's greatest student in the next generation was Boccaccio. What Boccaccio makes of this whole issue is addressed, I think, in the very first story of Il Decamerone, dealing with Ser Ciappelletto.

Dan Collins

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

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