DaveTown

You gotta like that Peggy Noonan.

If you’re going to pick a post-modern outrage topic, why not be really, really counter-culture, and choose the killing of innocent babies in utero?

I was noticing some incongruous groupings of books on my shelves today. Here’s some of the ones I noticed:

Selections From Ralph Waldo Emerson is next to Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy, which is next to Dante’s Inferno

Marva Collins’ Way is next to The Physics of Star Trek which is next to A Wrinkle in Time

The Philosophy of Aristotle is next to Seven Days to Success in Golf which is next to Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard

Hmmm….perhaps a lesser man would take that as an indicator it may be time to organize the bookshelves….but I am not such a man.

“What do you want to be anyway [asked Lax]?”

“I don’t know; I guess what I want to be is to be a good Catholic.”

Lax replied, “What do you mean you want to be a good Catholic? What you should say is that you want to be a saint.”

“How do you expect me to become a saint? I can’t be a saint. I can’t be a saint.”

Then Lax said, “all that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one. Don’t you believe that God will make you what he created you to be if you consent to let Him do it? All you have to do is desire it.”

Thomas Merton

(The Seven Story Mountain, NY, Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1948, 1978 (New American Library, 1961), pp.237-38

Here’s what I scored on the Which Philosopher Are You? quiz:

http://selectsmart.com/PHILOSOPHY

1. Aquinas (100%)
2. Augustine (85%)
3. Spinoza (82%)
4. Ockham (72%)
5. Mill (61%)
6. Aristotle (60%)
7. Kant (56%)
8. Bentham (52%)
9. Cynics (47%)
10. Epicureans (43%)
11. Noddings (43%)
12. Stoics (41%)
13. Prescriptivism (37%)
14. Sartre (37%)
15. Plato (31%)
16. Nietzsche (28%)
17. Hume (23%)
18. Rand (22%)
19. Hobbes (13%)

I’m pretty pleased to be 100% Aquinas. Not proud; just pleased. Not too many years ago I’d have been 100% Ayn Rand.

Gosh, Dave, who have you been listening to lately? (I hear you asking)

The Specials
Tom Lehrer
The Who
Trout Fishing in America
Arlo Guthrie
Bodeans
Junior Brown
Minutemen
Public Enemy
Run DMC (Jam Master Jay, R.I.P)
Squeeze
Rev. Billy C. Wirtz

Biographical Info (or, All That David Copperfield Kind of Crap):

Born: LeMoore NAS, CA. 3 Sep. 64

Parents: Of Course, What’d You Expect!

Current Residence: Edmond, OK, America

Education: Self Taught, plus a BS in Elementary Ed (Langston Univ. ‘93) and a dusty, never-been-used JD (Oklahoma City University ‘98) and a couple courses from TSOHK.

Religion: Only recently. I am a joyous and grateful convert to the Catholic Church.

Occupation: Elementary School Teacher (for now . . . see my blog “teachingjournal.blogspot.com” to see why I may end up a lawyer someday).

Marital Status: unwillingly unmarried . . . sigh . . .