Finally.

Вознести благодарение Богу, сподобившему нас успешно провести IV Всезарубежный Собор с участием представителей клира и мирян из всех епархий Русской Зарубежной Церкви, за то, что на Соборе выразилось явное единодушие по принципиальному вопросу о том, что завершением его созидательного делания будет восстановление чаемого единства Поместной Русской Церкви, как было выражено в Послании Собора.

Everything going according to plan. Next, the patriarchate, and then, the World. I haven't heard any rumblings yet, which is a good sign, but I'm not the sort to hear rumblings ever. No insightful commentary, really.

on anscombe

Resolved: Our school needs one of these. Apparently they have like 80 members at Princeton or something. A suitable answer for those "Sex Education Activists" and "NOW" must be prepared. I, alas, will not be here in the future, but I am sure somebody will see my appeal and take up my aegis. There must be some lovers of chastity in this school willing to "take back the night".

EDIT: Caelius has convinced me [it didn't take much] that the main purpose should be providing a counterbalance to Vita.

on baseball

I'm no fan of Mr. Esolen's, but, since I am avoiding writing a paper about less important matters, I will write some reflections about baseball. Mr. Esolen says:

The owners, colluding by their silence, allowed the players to inject these dangerous drugs into their systems -- anything to keep the baseballs flying over the fences and the buttocks in the bleachers, anything to help the fans forget how both owners and players, rolling in a sea of money, managed to disgrace the game with their shutdown in 1994.

I won't forget. Baseball was pretty much the only professional sport I followed. I avidly read baseball history, developed rigid opinions about the moral superiority of the National League over the American, grass over astroturf, daylight ball over night games, and even collected baseball cards using what little means I had. But, after the strike, I refused, as a matter of principle, to pay any attention whatsoever to professional baseball. How could I care anymore? They betrayed me: it is as simple as that. The course professional baseball has taken since then only confirms I made the right decision. And that is how I stopped caring about professional sports.

Of course, the [temporary] retirement of my favorite player, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, as well as the departure in previous years of other key figures in the Cubs lineup made it easier to cut all ties.

It's a sad game that we play.

today is a good day i think

Spurred by my thoughts on the ending of War and Peace, among other things, I'm really gonna try this time and write my thoughts on gender and sexuality.

Don't fail me now, Patrick! By quoting you on my web-log, I have bound you to this course of action. I wait eagerly for your thoughts on teh sex, esp. as I lean more towards the Catholic take on the matter than the Orthodox take [the?] re: contraception and divorce [at least, those like Mr. Liccione who agree that, in the case of AIDS, the use of a condom may be a legitimate application of the principle of double effect]. I should consider articulating my own take on the matter, perhaps on aesthetic grounds rather than the more conventional grounds which are far more important to me but which can be found stated irrefutably in Anscombe.

EDIT: a fine Anscombe quote. "You might as well accept any sexual goings–on, if you accept contraceptive intercourse."

EDIT: on the irrefutability of Anscombe. I've never seen anybody directly take on and decisively defeat Anscombe. Especially not on matters where she's right.

la politesse

Is there a polite way of informing a "blowhard" that his argumentative techniques are stupid, unhelpful, and narrow? Sometimes a man just does his cause more harm than good by supporting it in public.