Ron G.

Laleo... Maybe you should learn about Hegelian dialectics and learn how the strident, elitist, arrogant, and condescending socialist left is achieving hegemony over our culture via the propoganda aimed at the under informed "useful idiots" of our society. I homeschool my son using the Trivium method which is dialectics, grammar and rhetoric. We focus on Socratic dialecticism rather than Hegelian or materialistic dialecticism, although we study both. You'll find the author of the posted article has an excellent understanding.

I read a story that this cat was shot in Iowa. Snopes says Washington State. Either way, I'm glad I ain't changing it's litter box.

Belle... I'll make a big ol' pot of that chili sometime just for you. The fajita recipe looks wonderful and here's three hints to make them really extra special. 1. Get a couple of sticks of hickory or mesquite wood (about 3 or 4 inches in diameter) cut fairly recent so it's still green. Split them into 5 or 6 pieces each, place them in your grill on top of some charcoals, get them started and grill the meat over them. 2. Take an iron skillet and oil it very lightly, get it nice and hot. Put your flour tortilla in it and cook it until it puffs up, then flip it over and do the same thing again. Make sure they're not over cooked and still soft and pliable. This takes a little time as you have to do them one at a time, but hey'll taste 1000% better. 3. Accompany your fajitas with Pico de Gallo. Pico de Gallo (roosters beak) is a fresh salsa made of fresh chopped tomatoes, fresh chopped onion, fresh chopped cilantro leaves and fresh chopped jalapenos. Chop it all up into a container of water, add a little salt, vinegar and garlic to taste, cover and refrigerate overnight. Many years ago, I worked as a photographer in San Antonio. The owner of a high end, family owned and operated Mexican restaurant chain hired me to shoot his sons wedding. I did the wedding and provided them with a 20x24 bridal portrait, a wedding album and all the goodies...even gave them the negatives... and instead of charging them for it, I asked to work in their restaurant kitchen for a few weeks and observe and learn. They were more than happy to do this and not only did I learn some priceless stuff, I gained about 25 lbs, learned a little Spanish (Tex-Mex) and made some wonderful friends. What was this thread about again? Oh, yeah...the super bowl. IMNSHO, a bowl is a bowl is a bowl and can't be a SUPER bowl unless it's filled with chili.

Here is an interesting piece that is about that queer sheepboy movie, but is germane to this thread as you'll see towards the end. ------------------------------------------------ Brokeback - Understanding Propaganda By Dr. R. Winfield 1-31-6 The most effective propaganda comes in under the radar, it's innocuous and appeals to our humanity and emotions. Having studied propaganda and its effects on societies for over 50 years, I can state unequivocally that the film Brokeback Mountain is one of the most blatant propaganda pieces of recent times. In a society that is purposely and effectively dumbed down, the rarest and most valuable of commodities is discernment. Increasingly crucial, discernment is an attribute of astute acumen, and vital as your enemy uses crafty subtlety. As a people, we have lost discernment. Logic, rational and intellectual discourse, are shunned from the public square. Feelings, emotional sentiment and compassion are no longer tempered with intelligent reason. Now truth is sacrificed on the altar of "tolerance. To even talk rationally about a film like this will endanger one of causing immediate knee-jerk reactions with slogans; "homophobe, bigot, narrow minded, etc. And God forbid you dare to insinuate that there is an agenda behind such obvious propaganda, or you will surely hear the two words designed to end all discussion or consideration of facts.; "Conspiracy Theory. Agendas and purposes behind what we are seeing, shall be dealt with, but first, the film. Yes, I saw Brokeback Mountain, and no I didn't spend any money to support it. An actress friend lent me her "academy consideration DVD (a crime that in many cases now carries a stiffer penalty than murder). First and foremost, I've yet to hear anyone mention how boring this film is. It's tediously long and in most parts just plain dull. But let's look at some of the propaganda aspects, shall we? Indeed nature is beautiful, and its grandeur is depicted with majesty and uplifting music, great sweeping vistas instill a sense of awe and splendor. It is of course in this setting that the "homosexual romance blossoms. But even more significant, this is where the men discuss the deeper things of life, theology, meaning, etc. Contrast this with the scenes of marriage. Every time marriage is depicted in the film, it is shot in a tiny dark squalid hovel, with screaming children and absolute pandemonium. The house is a mess, the wife never communicates on any kind of meaningful level. Wives in fact, are portrayed as a constant annoyance, and more irritating than understanding. But children receive the worst treatment in this slanted rant against family. They are usually crying, often two at a time, or smashing things, the general feeling the film presents, is that these joyless hellions are an intrusion into life, an encumbrance and a terrible burden. Making sure it drums in its message in no uncertain terms, the film keeps switching back and forth between the two contrasts. The great outdoors, wild and free, close to nature, close to God, close to hot gay sex without any negative consequences. Back inside the dark little messy box of marriage, with horrible in-laws, demon spawn children, berating nagging wives, endless pressures and even the loveless, passionless sex has hanging over it the dread of producing more parasitic offspring. Special note must be taken of music and lighting, how they are carefully manipulated to accentuate these contrasts in the manner outlined here, bringing a much deeper impact of the propaganda message. Marvelous tools, music and light illicit emotional responses, and penetrate the subject to effect his core values. The use of props in the juxtaposition of images adds power to the medium. There is a scene where the Heath Ledger character is saddled with his wife and children, struggling among the crowds to watch the fireworks. The opening shot depicts husband and wife, each with a child in one arm, and great square bags full of baby necessities in the other hand. The construction of this frame is identical to the earlier shots of the pack mules heavily laden with similar square heavy supplies. Marriage has turned him into a beast of burden, a theme reinforced throughout. Another common theme these days, is of course portrayed in the film; that of "religious intolerance. Remember, the wilderness loving gay fellas are close to God, out in the high places, whereas the church folk are depicted as spouting "hellfire and brimstone. The film also shows two horrific murders, and the connection is not lost, it is precisely this type of religious thought that contributes to this sort of bloody violence. The implication is, and this is the very strength of propaganda, if you are in anyway opposed to two men "loving each other, then you must be for brutally murdering them. Do you see the way these things are subtly implied? Just like, if you are not for abortion, then ipso-facto you must be for the murdering of doctors who perform them. This is one the objects of propaganda, reduction of critical argument down into well drummed slogans, therefore removal of discourse, then total polarization of advocates and detractors into radical extremes. Of course this fits perfectly with the method of those purveying propaganda, as they have chosen Hegelian dialecticalism to divide and conquer you and I. Earlier I mentioned that the homosexual sex was portrayed as without negative consequences, some may take objection to this. You might say, what about the violent deaths, how can you say without consequences? Think about the film again, the violence is presented not as a result of the sex, but rather the result of a backwards people, mindless ignorant hicks, who's judgmental religious intolerance killed those beautiful martyrs. See how they work it? The film preaches quite a lot about sex, man's "need for it is apparently only surpassed by his need to breath oxygen. The lies they told about fishing demonstrate that gay sex was even more important than food. Of course the Jake Gyllenhaal character when deprived of this vital necessity has no other choice than to leave his wife and child and search out Mexican male prostitutes. When even this leaves him unable to find enough "manlove he is forced to lower his standard and carry on an adulterous relationship with some woman he has no feelings for, all perfectly justifiable because the evil society is hindering the two gays total access. So what about the "love, is this really a film about love? Having spoken to a lot of women about this film, I can tell you, they think it is. "Oh, it's a true love story. they pine. A married woman told me, "Because it's about two men it's much more interesting, a man and a woman would be banal. What's going on? When a woman tells me it's about "true love, I ask her how she knows that? They don't have much to say beyond what the film presents. When informed of the statistics that the majority of male homosexuals are the single most promiscuous segment of the world's population, having more anonymous sexual partners per year than any other group, these women shut down. "Oh I,m not interested in the real gay sex, I just like the love story, one told me. Oh, so you,re Truthophobic, I said. You see, the facts, statistics, recorded data on a subject are not important, in fact they are rather a stark reminder of something we,d prefer to ignore. Truth is something we want to completely tune out with our escapism, hence fantasy is more to be desired than the mundane existence of reality. The promotion of gay men to women has seen a real upswing in the past 10 years or so. Every sitcom has a funny gay character, and of course he's the funniest, least inhibited and most able to communicate with women. Queer Eye For The Straight Guy tells women that gay men are superior to the knuckle dragging neanderthal you have at home. When the Queer Eye fab five went on Oprah, "normal housewives screamed and swooned like schoolgirls cheering rockstars. But the agenda goes deeper, the plan is to get women interested in gay porn as an addictive and isolating tool of division. Sex In The City, shows women sitting together giggling while watching gay porn. The biggest thrust in this wave is coming out of Japan and targeting your preteen daughters. It's called Yaoi. Yaoi is a massive multi-million dollar subculture providing young girls with comic books and animated films depicting gay romantic love between handsome boys, culminating in explicit hard core homosexual pornography. The tide of this material represents a generation of girls whose misdirected sexuality is being warped in an unnatural direction. Traveling extensively, I warn you this epidemic is rampant throughout Europe, Russia, Asia, and now making heavy inroads into the Americas. Parents have no idea what their young girls have tucked under their mattresses, or hidden in closets and computers. Scores of websites are devoted to young girls fiction describing their fantasies of young men in popular music, tv, film, etc, all engaged in romantic "love and gay sex. Teen girls rapidly become obsessed with Yaoi and find it an entry drug to other shows like Queer As Folk, and gay hardcore. Many discuss openly their confusion about sex, not wanting a husband or baby, or angst ridden with their own experimentation towards bisexuality and lesbianism. Of course, they're all buzzing about Brokeback. None are buzzing more than the critics who are falling over themselves in trying to outdo one another in kissing this film's foot. Sad but so predictable, as homoeroticism has been chosen as this year's politically correct cause for film awards. Just like the year it was blacks and everything black won everything great. Never mind that Oscar winner Halley Barry is said to have a black and white parent, meaning she's as much white as she is black. You see, in the brave new world of propaganda soaked society, truth is no longer black and white. It's all gray now, everything is blurred. Or as the popular group Blur sings ... "Girls who are boys Who like boys to be girls Who do boys like they're girls Who do girls like they're boys Always should be someone you really love Confused yet? Good, that's what they want. Dr. R. Winfield may be reached at drrwinfield@mail.com

Belle... I discovered the ULTIMATE commercial barbecue sauce. I buy it by the gallon. Corky's Barbecue Sauce from Memphis, TN

I don't much care for football or any other sports for that matter except rodeos and girls mud wrestling. But when you're watching football, what could be better than a big bowl of BORSCHT? Here is my favorite borscht recipe... 2 lb Lean beef in 1/2 inch cubes or pork ribs 2 cn Beef broth Water * 6 oz Tomato paste 1 t Salt 1/2 ts White pepper 1/2 ts Black pepper 1 tb Vegetable oil 3 lg Garlic cloves,minced 2 lg Onions sliced (2 cups) 4 c Coarsely shredded beets 4 c Coarsely shredded cabbage 2 c Coarsley shredded carrots 1 1/2 c Thinly sliced celery 1/4 c Minced fresh parsley OR 2 tb Dried parsley flakes 1 1/2 ts Dried dillweed 1 t Dill seed 1 t Celery seed 2 Bay leaves 1 1/2 ts Sugar A whole bunch of water Servings: 12 Fresh lemon juice** *Add enough water to beef broth to make 12 cups liquid. **Use 2 to 4 tablespoons of lemon juice or to taste. 1. Brown beef quickly and transfer to a very large soup kettle. 2. Add broth and water, tomato paste, salt, white and black pepper. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. 3. In skillet, heat oil, add garlic and onions and saute for 5 minutes. When meat is done, add to soup kettle with remaining ingredients. Bring back to boil, reduce heat, simmer uncovered for 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Discard bay leaves before serving. NOTE: The flavor of this soup improves with reheating. This is a large recipe and leftovers can be frozen. Offer plain yogurt as a topping and serve with pumpernickel or rye bread or rolls. Another wonderful dish you might try is Ron's Buffalo Hump Chili... 1 medium buffalo hump all chopped up (be sure to remove hide and hair first) 3 poblano peppers 1 or 2 envelopes of Williams chili powder 1 handful ground cumin seed 3 cans of Rotel tomatoes 2 mashed up garlic cloves 2 onions skinned and all chopped up 1 finely chopped cayenne pepper about half a glass of masa harina mixed with water salt and pepper 1. get a big cast iron pot and brown the meat with the onions. 2. Add all the other stuff except for the masa mix 3. fill the pot about 3/4 full of water and let it all simmer for 2 or three hours. 4. Mix in the masa mix and simmer for another half hour or so while stirring until it gets as thick as you want it.

The only new release movie I've seen is Narnia. I enjoyed it. As for the rest, having never seen them and I most likely won't until they show up on TCM is... So what? .

Ha0py Birthday, MO!!!! You're another one who I've known since WayDale and always read your posts. Love you much, Ron (dmiller...that's the biggest bluegrass group I ever saw. I looked and looked and couldn't find the banjo player. What's up with that?)

Belle... Russian literature can be quite tragic. Poor Anna Karenina went through all that tragedy only to end up beneath the wheels of that train and the hapless Dr. Zhivago dying so abruptly not knowing the fate of Larissa or his daughter. It's very rich in human experience and lyric prose, but you'd better have some cartoons to watch after finishing one of those Russian classics. I'm also quite fond of Charles Dickens (Andrew got me a Charles Dickens action figure for Christmas who sits on my monitor perusing my every move) and a nearly forgotten gothic horror novelist by the name of H.P. Lovecraft whose masterful works have inspired some truly dreadful movies. Some of my other favorite authors include J. Frank Dobie, Louis Lamour, Howard Fast, Harry Turtledove and Kurt Vonnegut Jr...and of course, Kilgore Trout. Non fiction includes Andreas Feininger who wrote the finest books ever written on the art of photography, John Taylor Gatto on education and assorted animal care and gardening books. "The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest." --Kilgore Trout, from his novel "Venus on the Half Shell" OH!!! I nearly forgot!! "The Illuminatus Trilogy" by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. A must read for all!! How could I have forgotten probably my most favorite author of all, Robert Anton Wilson.

http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=t...968m19qmf4w3g5y How Christianity (and Capitalism) Led to Science By RODNEY STARK When Europeans first began to explore the globe, their greatest surprise was not the existence of the Western Hemisphere, but the extent of their own technological superiority over the rest of the world. Not only were the proud Maya, Aztec, and Inca nations helpless in the face of European intruders, so were the fabled civilizations of the East: China, India, and Islamic nations were "backward" by comparison with 15th-century Europe. How had that happened? Why was it that, although many civilizations had pursued alchemy, the study led to chemistry only in Europe? Why was it that, for centuries, Europeans were the only ones possessed of eyeglasses, chimneys, reliable clocks, heavy cavalry, or a system of music notation? How had the nations that had arisen from the rubble of Rome so greatly surpassed the rest of the world? Several recent authors have discovered the secret to Western success in geography. But that same geography long also sustained European cultures that were well behind those of Asia. Other commentators have traced the rise of the West to steel, or to guns and sailing ships, and still others have credited a more productive agriculture. The trouble is that those answers are part of what needs to be explained: Why did Europeans excel at metallurgy, shipbuilding, or farming? The most convincing answer to those questions attributes Western dominance to the rise of capitalism, which took place only in Europe. Even the most militant enemies of capitalism credit it with creating previously undreamed of productivity and progress. In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels proposed that before the rise of capitalism, humans engaged "in the most slothful indolence"; the capitalist system was "the first to show what man's activity can bring about." Capitalism achieved that miracle through regular reinvestment to increase productivity, either to create greater capacity or improve technology, and by motivating both management and labor through ever-rising payoffs. Supposing that capitalism did produce Europe's own "great leap forward," it remains to be explained why capitalism developed only in Europe. Some writers have found the roots of capitalism in the Protestant Reformation; others have traced it back to various political circumstances. But, if one digs deeper, it becomes clear that the truly fundamental basis not only for capitalism, but for the rise of the West, was an extraordinary faith in reason. A series of developments, in which reason won the day, gave unique shape to Western culture and institutions. And the most important of those victories occurred within Christianity. While the other world religions emphasized mystery and intuition, Christianity alone embraced reason and logic as the primary guides to religious truth. Christian faith in reason was influenced by Greek philosophy. But the more important fact is that Greek philosophy had little impact on Greek religions. Those remained typical mystery cults, in which ambiguity and logical contradictions were taken as hallmarks of sacred origins. Similar assumptions concerning the fundamental inexplicability of the gods and the intellectual superiority of introspection dominated all of the other major world religions. But, from early days, the church fathers taught that reason was the supreme gift from God and the means to progressively increase understanding of Scripture and revelation. Consequently Christianity was oriented to the future, while the other major religions asserted the superiority of the past. At least in principle, if not always in fact, Christian doctrines could always be modified in the name of progress, as demonstrated by reason. Encouraged by the scholastics and embodied in the great medieval universities founded by the church, faith in the power of reason infused Western culture, stimulating the pursuit of science and the evolution of democratic theory and practice. The rise of capitalism also was a victory for church-inspired reason, since capi-talism is, in essence, the systematic and sustained application of reason to com-merce — something that first took place within the great monastic estates. During the past century Western intellectuals have been more than willing to trace European imperialism to Christian origins, but they have been entirely un-willing to recognize that Christianity made any contribution (other than intolerance) to the Western capacity to dominate other societies. Rather, the West is said to have surged ahead precisely as it overcame re-ligious barriers to progress, especially those impeding science. Nonsense. The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians. Unfortunately, even many of those historians willing to grant Christianity a role in shaping Western progress have tended to limit themselves to tracing beneficial religious effects of the Protestant Reformation. It is as if the previous 1,500 years of Christianity either were of little matter, or were harmful. Such academic anti-Roman Catholicism inspired the most famous book ever written on the origins of capitalism. At the start of the 20th century, the German sociologist Max Weber published what soon became an immensely influential study: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In it Weber proposed that capitalism originated only in Europe because, of all the world's religions, only Protestantism provided a moral vision that led people to restrain their material consumption while vigorously seeking wealth. Weber argued that, before the Reformation, restraint on consumption was invariably linked to asceticism and, hence, to condemnations of commerce. Conversely, the pursuit of wealth was linked to profligate consumption. Either cultural pattern was inimical to capitalism. According to Weber, the Protestant ethic shattered those traditional linkages, creating a culture of frugal entrepreneurs content to systematically reinvest profits in order to pursue ever greater wealth, and therein lies the key to capitalism and the ascendancy of the West. Perhaps because it was such an elegant thesis, it was widely embraced, despite the fact that it was so obviously wrong. Even today The Protestant Ethic enjoys an almost sacred status among sociologists, although economic historians quickly dismissed Weber's surprisingly undocumented monograph on the irrefutable grounds that the rise of capitalism in Europe preceded the Reformation by centuries. Only a decade after Weber published, the celebrated Belgian scholar Henri Pirenne noted a large literature that "established the fact that all of the essential features of capitalism — individual enterprise, advances in credit, commercial profits, speculation, etc. — are to be found from the 12th century on, in the city republics of Italy — Venice, Genoa, or Florence." A generation later, the equally celebrated French historian Fernand Braudel complained, "All historians have opposed this tenuous theory, although they have not managed to be rid of it once and for all. Yet it is clearly false. The northern countries took over the place that earlier had so long and brilliantly been occupied by the old capitalist centers of the Mediterranean. They invented nothing, either in technology or business management." Braudel might have added that, during their critical period of economic development, those northern centers of capitalism were Catholic, not Protestant — the Reformation still lay well into the future. Further, as the Canadian historian John Gilchrist, an authority on the economic activity of the medieval church, pointed out, the first examples of capitalism appeared in the great Christian monasteries. Though Weber was wrong, however, he was correct to suppose that religious ideas played a vital role in the rise of capitalism in Europe. The material conditions needed for capitalism existed in many civilizations in various eras, including China, the Islamic world, India, Byzantium, and probably ancient Rome and Greece as well. But none of those societies broke through and developed capitalism, as none evolved ethical visions compatible with that dynamic economic system. Instead, leading religions outside the West called for asceticism and denounced profits, while wealth was exacted from peasants and merchants by rapacious elites dedicated to display and consumption. Why did things turn out differently in Europe? Because of the Christian commitment to rational theology, something that may have played a major role in causing the Reformation, but that surely predated Protestantism by far more than a millennium. Even so, capitalism developed in only some locales. Why not in all? Because in some European societies, as in most of the rest of the world, it was prevented from happening by greedy despots. Freedom also was essential for the development of capitalism. That raises another matter: Why has freedom so seldom existed in most of the world, and how was it nurtured in some medieval European states? That, too, was a victory of reason. Before any medieval European state actually attempted rule by an elected council, Christian theologians had long been theorizing about the nature of equality and individual rights — indeed, the later work of such secular 18th-century political theorists as John Locke explicitly rested on egalitarian axioms derived by church scholars. All of this stemmed from the fact that from earliest days, the major theologians taught that faith in reason was intrinsic to faith in God. As Quintus Tertullian instructed in the second century, "Reason is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason — nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason." Consequently it was assumed that reason held the key to progress in understanding scripture, and that knowledge of God and the secrets of his creation would increase over time. St. Augustine (c. 354-430) flatly asserted that through the application of reason we will gain an increasingly more accurate understanding of God, remarking that although there are "certain matters pertaining to the doctrine of salvation that we cannot yet grasp ... one day we shall be able to do so." Nor was the Christian belief in progress limited to theology. Augustine went on at length about the "wonderful — one might say stupefying — advances human industry has made." All were attributed to the "unspeakable boon" that God has conferred upon his creation, a "rational nature." Those views were repeated again and again through the centuries. Especially typical were these words preached by Fra Giordano, in Florence in 1306: "Not all the arts have been found; we shall never see an end of finding them." Christian faith in reason and in progress was the foundation on which Western success was achieved. As the distinguished philosopher Alfred North Whitehead put it during one of his Lowell Lectures at Harvard in 1925, science arose only in Europe because only there did people think that science could be done and should be done, a faith "derivative from medieval theology." Moreover the medieval Christian faith in reason and progress was constantly reinforced by actual progress, by technical and organizational innovations, many of them fostered by Christianity. For the past several centuries, far too many of us have been misled by the incredible fiction that, from the fall of Rome until about the 15th century, Europe was submerged in the Dark Ages — centuries of ignorance, superstition, and misery — from which it was suddenly, almost miraculously, rescued; first by the Ren-aissance and then by the Enlightenment. But, as even dictionaries and encyclopedias recently have begun to acknowledge, it was all a lie! It was during the so-called Dark Ages that European technology and science overtook and surpassed the rest of the world. Some of that involved original inventions and discoveries; some of it came from Asia. But what was so remarkable was the way that the full capacities of new technologies were recognized and widely adopted. By the 10th century Europe already was far ahead in terms of farm-ing equipment and techniques, had unmatched capacities in the use of water and wind power, and possessed superior military equipment and tactics. Not to be overlooked in all that medieval progress was the invention of a whole new way to organize and operate commerce and industry: capitalism. Capitalism was developed by the great monastic estates. Throughout the medieval era, the church was by far the largest landowner in Europe, and its liquid assets and annual income probably exceeded that of all of Europe's nobility added together. Much of that wealth poured into the coffers of the religious orders, not only because they were the largest landowners, but also in payment for liturgical services — Henry VII of England paid a huge sum to have 10,000 masses said for his soul. As rapid innovation in agricultural technology began to yield large surpluses to the religious orders, the church not only began to reinvest profits to increase production, but diversified. Having substantial amounts of cash on hand, the religious orders began to lend money at interest. They soon evolved the mortgage (literally, "dead pledge") to lend money with land for security, collecting all income from the land during the term of the loan, none of which was deducted from the amount owed. That practice often added to the monastery's lands because the monks were not hesitant to foreclose. In addition, many monasteries began to rely on a hired labor force and to display an uncanny ability to adopt the latest technological advances. Capitalism had arrived. Still, like all of the world's other major religions, for centuries Christianity took a dim view of commerce. As the many great Christian monastic orders maximized profits and lent money at whatever rate of interest the market would bear, they were increasingly subject to condemnations from more traditional members of the clergy who accused them of avarice. Given the fundamental commitment of Christian theologians to reason and progress, what they did was rethink the traditional teachings. What is a just price for one's goods, they asked? According to the immensely influential St. Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), the just price is simply what "goods are worth according to the estimate of the market at the time of sale." That is, a just price is not a function of the amount of profit, but is whatever uncoerced buyers are willing to pay. Adam Smith would have agreed — St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) did. As for usury, a host of leading theologians of the day remained opposed to it, but quickly defined it out of practical existence. For example, no usury was involved if the interest was paid to compensate the lender for the costs of not having the money available for other commercial opportunities, which was almost always easily demonstrated. That was a remarkable shift. Most of these theologians were, after all, men who had separated themselves from the world, and most of them had taken vows of poverty. Had asceticism truly prevailed in the monasteries, it seems very unlikely that the traditional disdain for and opposition to commerce would have mellowed. That it did, and to such a revolutionary extent, was a result of direct experience with worldly imperatives. For all their genuine acts of charity, monastic administrators were not about to give all their wealth to the poor, sell their products at cost, or give kings interest-free loans. It was the active participation of the great orders in free markets that caused monastic theologians to reconsider the morality of commerce. The religious orders could pursue their economic goals because they were sufficiently powerful to withstand any attempts at seizure by an avaricious nobility. But for fully developed secular capitalism to unfold, there needed to be broader freedom from regulation and expropriation. Hence secular capitalism appeared first in the relatively democratic city-states of north-ern Italy, whose political institutions rested squarely on church doctrines of free will and moral equality. Augustine, Aquinas, and other major theologians taught that the state must respect private property and not intrude on the freedom of its citizens to pursue virtue. In addition, there was the central Christian doctrine that, regardless of worldly inequalities, inequality in the most important sense does not exist: in the eyes of God and in the world to come. As Paul explained: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor fee, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." And church theologians and leaders meant it. Through all prior recorded history, slavery was universal — Christianity began in a world where as much as half the population was in bondage. But by the seventh century, Christianity had become the only major world religion to formulate specific theological opposition to slavery, and, by no later than the 11th century, the church had expelled the dreadful institution from Europe. That it later reappeared in the New World is another matter, although there, too, slavery was vigorously condemned by popes and all of the eventual abolition movements were of religious origins. Free labor was an essential ingredient for the rise of capitalism, for free workers can maximize their rewards by working harder or more effectively than before. In contrast, coerced workers gain nothing from doing more. Put another way, tyranny makes a few people richer; capitalism can make everyone richer. Therefore, as the northern Italian city-states developed capitalist economies, visitors marveled at their standards of living; many were equally confounded by how hard everyone worked. The common denominator in all these great historical developments was the Christian commitment to reason. That was why the West won. Rodney Stark is university professor of the social sciences at Baylor University. This essay is adapted from The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success, to be published in December by Random House. Copyright © by Rodney Stark. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://chronicle.com Section: The Chronicle Review Volume 52, Issue 15, Page B11

Carpel tunnel syndrome has become a scourge among today's active and computer literate population. Men, especially, are becoming afflicted with this serious health problem. To help stamp out carpel tunnel syndrome, new mouse pads have been devised to assist men in their computer operations. Ergonomically improved mouse pads to support the wrists such as these will enable men to avoid the pain and suffering associated with this serious health concern.

I live in a very rural area and can't get cable or normal broadcast teevee, so I have to rely on satellite. A couple of years ago, I got Dish Network. I changed over to DirecTV last spring and it's all pretty much the same except I got a much better price on the DirecTV. They seem to have better prices and better customer service. DirecTV also has XM channels so you can listen to digital quality satellite radio through your stereo at no extra charge, which Dish Network didn't have back when I had it. Shop around a bit because different dealers will have different deals available. You should be able to find a local dealer who'll supply your equipment with intallation for free or just a few dollars. I paid $19.95 for the dish and installation and boxes, remotes and hookups for 4 rooms. DirecTV also has Tivo and high speed internet and a lot of other stuff if you want to pay for it, which I don't. If you choose DirecTV and tell them I referred you, I'll get a free month, so email me or PM me and I'll give you the necessary info

Ironic, isn't it. Ex70'sHouston MUST turn a profit unlike city, county, state, municipal and fed entities who are funded by the taxes paid in by Ex70'sHouston and those like him. I could turn this into a PSA for how the free market system could better serve everyone concerned, but I won't.

Why yes, it is. Just click on the spinning head, then on the next page, click on the little pic of two copper colored guys standing facing each other. You done caught me perusing the Eurotrash.

It's part of Hillay Clintons new health care plan for those have the money but don't pay on time.

Clikky da Linky Link don't work on account of the infernal internal editor.

I get great workouts from that trainer with the big forehead!

Belle, Be sure to tell everyone it was a White House leak.

LOLOL Belle

I saw a commercial on teevee where Esteban saved a bunch of money on his car insurance by changing to Geico. Isn't he blind?

MODERATORS... I request this post be removed to the "Doctrinal" forum since Moonys definition of "service" fits like a hand in a glove with scientific accuracy and mathematical precision. Thank you