Curtis Dahlgren
The Ides of August are here again; "Beware education deluxe"!
By Curtis Dahlgren
"Have we reached the stomach-turning point yet?" – Jenkin Lloyd-Jones
FROM ST. LOUIS TO THE SINJAR PLAINS there was no news fit to print this week, but while slumming at Martha's Vineyard the press said that the Prez had a good day (at least the weather was nice, "climate change" notwithstanding), and he had fun raising funds. The weekend Wall Street Journal had some items that were interesting though, including a back-page headline, "STANFORD GETS SATANIC; Sympathy for the Devil?"
You read that right, but supposedly it's about a harmless history of art featuring paintings of Satan (during freshman-orientation month). I don't need to be a fly-on-the-wall to foresee some of the professorial comments about the exhibit ("See? See? Those Christians are stuck so far back in the Stone Age that some of them actually believed that Satan was real!"). The WSJ says:
"The devil became more of an abstract force by the 18th century. . . The antagonist of John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' even took on the aspects of a tragic hero . . [and] As the influence of religion diminished, the traditional devil largely disappeared from contemporary view, often reduced to a light-hearted figure on food packages and advertisements or a character in comic books."
Meanwhile fleeing men, women, and children in Iraq saw the unmasked Satan in the form of a sub-human species – the press calls them "insurgents." People buried alive. Children beheaded. Their heads placed on pikes as a "warning" to all non-Islamists. People dying of dehydration without food on a mountain. Dogs eating the dead carcasses. And for what? What did those little children do to you "insurgents"? They act like they're actually trying to start World War III.
Is there any need for further proof of the existence of a devil? NOOOO!!
Elbert Hubbard said, "It requires a Pharaoh to develop a Moses, just as it took a George the Third to evolve George Washington. Blessed be stupidity! . . The thing you believe in will probably benefit you – faith is hygienic."
Haven't found God yet? How hard have you been looking? God has revealed Himself in many ways, including but not limited to, a) His word, b) His spirit, and c) His "art." No matter what you believe, you have to admit He is very "artistic." Tom Paine, the 'deist,' said:
"Yes; there is a word of God; there is revelation. The Word of God is the Creation we behold . . It does not depend upon the will of man whether it will be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds . . . " [or]
The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky . .
Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening Earth
Repeats the story of her birth.
Whilst all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets, in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
In Reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious Voice,
For ever singing as they shine,
'The Hand that made us is Divine.'
- Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
That hymn was written in that "18th century" when Satan was supposedly evolving into "an abstract force" and then "a tragic hero" and then, finally, a comic book character. Tell that to the Christian about to have his or her head chopped off!
Our "best and brightest" professors might say that even the jihadists are "too religious" and that if the world had no religion we'd be better off. O'Really? How's that been workin' out for us since religion began to be "diminished"? World War I. World War II. And where does it all end?
Dr. Ben Carson says that when evil is resisted vigorously, we get better results than when we don't resist. AMEN!
P.S. I have written about 100-year time cycles before. For example, 100 years to the month after the Nihilists assassinated a Tsar, Ronald Reagan and the Pope were shot. Do you think there was no devil or demon involved in those three shootings? I should say "four" because James Brady's death was a homicide (you might as well say the same about Robin Williams').
Someone wondered if Williams believed in anything greater than himself? I don't know, but I know for sure that Ronald Reagan did. He was belittled without end, but as Hubbard said:
"You had better be standard by performance than by pedigree." The Gipper got results.
CONCLUSION
Just a few words more from Elbert Hubbard:
- A Socialist is a man who, so far as he is concerned, considers a thing done when he has suggested it.
- Beware of education de luxe.
- Education without humor is preposterous.
- Pedant: A person with more education than he can use.
- The Law of Compensation never rests, and the men who are taught too much from books are not taught by Deity.
- The brain needs exercise as much as the body, and vicarious thinking is as erroneous as vicarious exercise.
- People who have not lived, no matter how grammatically they may write, have no message."
- We are not punished for our sins but by them.
- Chickens always come home to roost, which is right and natural; but when they come home to cackle and crow, that is another matter.
- Oratory is the lullaby of the intellect.
- The average man plays to the gallery of his own self-esteem.
- You are what you think, and not what you think you are.
- Nothing is so fatal to integrity as pretense.
- Power manifests itself in conspicuous waste, and the habit grows until conspicuous waste imagines itself power.
Bruce Barton put it this way:
"Conceit is God's gift to little men." [and also]
"Jesus picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world." [and]
"Before you give up hope, turn back and read the attacks that were made on Lincoln."
PPS: Speaking of the Ides of August, this is probably the coldest August I've seen so far in 72 years. It was about 45 degrees this morning in the Northwoods.
[BTW, I bought a bicycle for my birthday recently and took it on a 12-mile ride last Sunday. Which reminds me of just one quotation more by Hubbard.]
"Whether genius is transmissible is a question, but all authorities agree as to gout."
© Curtis Dahlgren
August 14, 2014
"Have we reached the stomach-turning point yet?" – Jenkin Lloyd-Jones
FROM ST. LOUIS TO THE SINJAR PLAINS there was no news fit to print this week, but while slumming at Martha's Vineyard the press said that the Prez had a good day (at least the weather was nice, "climate change" notwithstanding), and he had fun raising funds. The weekend Wall Street Journal had some items that were interesting though, including a back-page headline, "STANFORD GETS SATANIC; Sympathy for the Devil?"
You read that right, but supposedly it's about a harmless history of art featuring paintings of Satan (during freshman-orientation month). I don't need to be a fly-on-the-wall to foresee some of the professorial comments about the exhibit ("See? See? Those Christians are stuck so far back in the Stone Age that some of them actually believed that Satan was real!"). The WSJ says:
"The devil became more of an abstract force by the 18th century. . . The antagonist of John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' even took on the aspects of a tragic hero . . [and] As the influence of religion diminished, the traditional devil largely disappeared from contemporary view, often reduced to a light-hearted figure on food packages and advertisements or a character in comic books."
Meanwhile fleeing men, women, and children in Iraq saw the unmasked Satan in the form of a sub-human species – the press calls them "insurgents." People buried alive. Children beheaded. Their heads placed on pikes as a "warning" to all non-Islamists. People dying of dehydration without food on a mountain. Dogs eating the dead carcasses. And for what? What did those little children do to you "insurgents"? They act like they're actually trying to start World War III.
Is there any need for further proof of the existence of a devil? NOOOO!!
Elbert Hubbard said, "It requires a Pharaoh to develop a Moses, just as it took a George the Third to evolve George Washington. Blessed be stupidity! . . The thing you believe in will probably benefit you – faith is hygienic."
Haven't found God yet? How hard have you been looking? God has revealed Himself in many ways, including but not limited to, a) His word, b) His spirit, and c) His "art." No matter what you believe, you have to admit He is very "artistic." Tom Paine, the 'deist,' said:
"Yes; there is a word of God; there is revelation. The Word of God is the Creation we behold . . It does not depend upon the will of man whether it will be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds . . . " [or]
The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky . .
Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening Earth
Repeats the story of her birth.
Whilst all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets, in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
In Reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious Voice,
For ever singing as they shine,
'The Hand that made us is Divine.'
- Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
That hymn was written in that "18th century" when Satan was supposedly evolving into "an abstract force" and then "a tragic hero" and then, finally, a comic book character. Tell that to the Christian about to have his or her head chopped off!
Our "best and brightest" professors might say that even the jihadists are "too religious" and that if the world had no religion we'd be better off. O'Really? How's that been workin' out for us since religion began to be "diminished"? World War I. World War II. And where does it all end?
Dr. Ben Carson says that when evil is resisted vigorously, we get better results than when we don't resist. AMEN!
P.S. I have written about 100-year time cycles before. For example, 100 years to the month after the Nihilists assassinated a Tsar, Ronald Reagan and the Pope were shot. Do you think there was no devil or demon involved in those three shootings? I should say "four" because James Brady's death was a homicide (you might as well say the same about Robin Williams').
Someone wondered if Williams believed in anything greater than himself? I don't know, but I know for sure that Ronald Reagan did. He was belittled without end, but as Hubbard said:
"You had better be standard by performance than by pedigree." The Gipper got results.
CONCLUSION
Just a few words more from Elbert Hubbard:
- A Socialist is a man who, so far as he is concerned, considers a thing done when he has suggested it.
- Beware of education de luxe.
- Education without humor is preposterous.
- Pedant: A person with more education than he can use.
- The Law of Compensation never rests, and the men who are taught too much from books are not taught by Deity.
- The brain needs exercise as much as the body, and vicarious thinking is as erroneous as vicarious exercise.
- People who have not lived, no matter how grammatically they may write, have no message."
- We are not punished for our sins but by them.
- Chickens always come home to roost, which is right and natural; but when they come home to cackle and crow, that is another matter.
- Oratory is the lullaby of the intellect.
- The average man plays to the gallery of his own self-esteem.
- You are what you think, and not what you think you are.
- Nothing is so fatal to integrity as pretense.
- Power manifests itself in conspicuous waste, and the habit grows until conspicuous waste imagines itself power.
Bruce Barton put it this way:
"Conceit is God's gift to little men." [and also]
"Jesus picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world." [and]
"Before you give up hope, turn back and read the attacks that were made on Lincoln."
PPS: Speaking of the Ides of August, this is probably the coldest August I've seen so far in 72 years. It was about 45 degrees this morning in the Northwoods.
[BTW, I bought a bicycle for my birthday recently and took it on a 12-mile ride last Sunday. Which reminds me of just one quotation more by Hubbard.]
"Whether genius is transmissible is a question, but all authorities agree as to gout."
© Curtis Dahlgren
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