2010 June archive at Being Frank

Archive for June, 2010

Jun

Lord Byron the Heroic, Noble, and Inspiring

By Inkling Closed

Categories: Being Frank...

Firstly, apologies to everyone for the lateness of this post – this week has been a madness of writing and deadlines, and in the effort to remember everything, one important one managed to slip by.

I was introduced to a brilliant essay the other day, in a book by Jacques Barzun, about Lord Byron. (‘Byron and the Byronic’ in ‘The Energies of Art’ by Jacques Barzun). Reading Barzun is an education in itself; (I suddenly find myself scribbling titles of books to go and look up and read afterwards). But reading Barzun’s mini-biography of Lord Byron was inspiring.

Lord Byron is now often summed up as ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ (words given to us by one of his mistresses). A recent documentary series celebrated Byron’s seamier side and extolled him as some great early version of a hippie.

Barzun obviously identifies this side of the man, but this was not his only face. Barzun shows him to be a man of action, not only standing up for what he believed but leaping into the fray as well. Byron’s maiden speech in the House of Lords was in support of the northern Weavers who were rioting against new machinery (well worth reading); he died overseas fighting in someone else’s rebellion; he was a Bonapartist and a liberal, and fought for the underdogs of society. I know his politics and his private life do not agree with many people, and there is a danger of the brave and noble things he did somehow justifying the less noble things he did. But reading this essay showed a man who was incredibly complex, flawed but noble, riddled with contradictions and paradoxes. Even if we don’t agree with his politics, it shouldn’t stop us reading his poetry.

History loves to put people in boxes; but as Barzun says, Byron is much more than ‘byronic’.

I find Byron inspiring, because althought I may not agree with his politics or his private affairs, he really did something about things he saw were wrong with the world. Too many people keep quiet and watch the bad things go on unchallenged.

Lastly, The ability of history and historical characters to intrigue, inspire, delight, and instruct was impressed upon me as I read this essay. Why didn’t we learn about this noble side of Byron, and why weren’t we taught his poetry at school? Schools need to teach more classic poetry and history.

Jun

The sheep are deserting the shepherd

By The Dumb Ox 40 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Followers of this blog will remember that at the time of President Obama’s election to the Oval Office I made a prediction that it wouldn’t take long for the PR gloss to wear thin, and for even the staunchest of US lefties to realize that Obama is ‘all show and no go’.

It seems that my prediction may be starting to come true, well if you believe New York Times commentator Ross Douthat that is.

Douthat dedicated a recent editorial column in the Times to the issue of the left wing discontent with President Obama.

He even went as far as dubbing this their ‘summer of discontent’.

I think he’s right, and I am completely unsurprised by all of what he lays out, because any astute follower of the Obama campaign would have seen that the Obama on display was a highly polished and carefully constructed invention that presented nothing in the way of concrete substance to back up the messianic claims being made by Obama and his disciples.

Well, being on the campaign trail is one thing, but being in charge is another thing altogether.

Anyone with half an ounce of commonsense and worldly smarts could see that there was no way that Obama was going to be able to deliver the brave new world of peace, prosperity and freedom that he was promising prior to his election.

And anyone who knew anything at all about Obama’s personal beliefs and prior political dealings easily saw that Obama was always going to do things like increase funding for abortion in the US and overseas.

People who had followed his earlier political wheelings and dealings would have also seen that above all else, Obama’s main priority is the advancement of Obama (which is the same for 99% of all politicians, anywhere in the world).

So here we are, Obama’s been in the chair for a while now, and, ‘oh my gosh, like, you know, like, the world isn’t any better, or stuff.’

This should come as no real surprise or disappointment to committed Catholics, because we understand that salvation is not found in political leaders, and that the deep problems that plague the human person have nothing to do with politics.

Jun

Home sweet home!

By James the Least 12 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

There’s nothing quite like travelling to remind you of just how wonderful home is.

I’ve never been a very good traveller; I get jet-lagged travelling to Australia for goodness sake! And I’ve never really had what you might term “itchy feet”. Part of this, I think, is due to how much I love New Zealand and living here and the total lack of desire to live anywhere else. This stands me apart from many of my peers – many of whom love travelling and are overseas right now. Heck – Beardy is a good example of that: someone who is seeing the world, working in different countries, seeing the sights – all stuff I could take or leave, to be honest.

I recently had a bit of a debate with one of my sisters about the amount of broadening that goes on with regards to one’s “horizons” when one goes travelling. She puts forward the very common and seemingly valid argument that experiencing other countries first-hand – the people, the culture, the differences – is an experience that broadens your world view better than anything else. I tend to think that it may be a bit of over-simplification to state that all people receive significantly broader world-views through travelling though, and that some people actually broaden their view more dramatically using different means.

Rather than compare the amount of broadening different types of people experience from different types of travelling, I’d rather talk briefly about the purpose of such broadening. The very nature of the word suggests that the alternate (i.e. the current state) is one where the individual has a narrow mind or point of focus. Depending on their role in society, this may or may not be a crippling feature of their character. However, pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to who has done the OE thing and/or is working overseas, has said to me words to the affect of “it just makes you realise who small you really are, and just how many people are out there” – enumerating these as key benefits of extended, long-distance travel.

But I have to ask: isn’t that the lesson that God tries to teach us all in multiple ways? Including travel, but not excluding philosophy, theology, socialising, studying, exploring etc? I think that our goal should be to learn and teach all we learn about the two basic truths – that God exists and that He calls us to be good to our fellow man – through any means necessary. Doing so would leave it over to the individual to decide how best to broaden their horizons; if travel is not their thing, they should still find a way that is.

Because, with the discussions at the G8/G20 conferences serving as a reminder, everyone just looking out for #1 is just not good enough!

Jun

41,111 and counting

By admin Closed

Categories: Being Frank...

Hello Being Frank friends,

Next Sunday, we will introduce the latest addition to the Being Frank stable, Joan of Arc. In the meantime, this is just a quick public service announcement and a thank you to all our loyal fans, readers and commenters — and those who fall into all three categories.

The number in the heading for this post is the number of comments that have been published on Being Frank in just under four years. Admin ain’t no mathematician, but that’s something like 10,000 comments each year. That’s more than 25 per day on average. Pretty impressive, we reckon.

This blog can only be truly successful if we can enjoy that level of interaction between our seven posters and our regular base. Thanks for your contributions and we — and Joan of Arc — will look forward to another 41,000+ in the months and years ahead.

As always, if you’ve got suggestions for this blog or any other projects, please email us through the contact page (see the link in the top-right corner of this page).

Jun

A great boost for women in Australia? Or not?

By Voice in the wilderness 5 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

So, out with the old and in with the new. I remember seeing Kevin Rudd at World Youth Day in Sydney and thinking ‘hey this guy is alright’. He seemed to have positive things to say, but I thought he was fairly typical as a politician. Now Australia have made history, having now their first female PM, even if she was not voted in.

Doing a bit of reading about her and talking to my wife however, I found out some interesting snippets of information concerning her membership in a group called Emily’s List and what they stand for.

It seems that they are a U.S based organisation that, on the outside, seem to promote women’s involvement in politics etc. Personally, I think this is a fantastic cause and is much needed in our society. However, upon delving more into their motives, it seems that they push hard the pro-choice/culture of death agenda, which I am strongly against. It is A bit of a dilemma I am afraid. People will praise and support this group for their campaign for equality, but without knowing it, they are also praising and supporting abortion – the killing of unborn human beings.

Some might say “come one Voice in the wilderness, what are you talking about – this group is pro women, and our society needs this.” I would reply, “hmmm yes we do, but look at their mission statement on the U.S based group’s website…”

The mission is simple, really: EMILY’s List is dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women to office.

And on the Australian website…

We believe women must have control over their own bodies and choices in their lives.
Reproductive Freedom empowers women and men to choose if, when and how to begin the important journey into parenthood, without fear of discrimination, coercion or violence.

Pretty cut and dry if you ask me.

On a comical note, many pro choice organisations and people accuse the prolifers of having their basis in right wing, ultra conservative, redneck, southern state, bible belt groups – well here it seems like the opposite is true!

Jun

‘Hmm…Barney’s movie had heart, but “Football in the Groin” had a football in the groin.’

By Methuselah's Beard 1 Comment

Categories: Being Frank...

Back in 1986 the football World Cup was played in Mexico. It’s the WC that’s famous for Maradona’s Hand of God but apart from that, I don’t remember too much of it. I do remember though that I owned a Panini sticker album for the 1986 World Cup. I don’t know if Panini stickers were big in NZ back then, but it was great buying the packs of stickers which contained (obviously) stickers of the players, the stadiums, and shiny stickers for the team badges. I’d sit around and flick through the pages of teams that had made the world cup and memorise the names of the players (ones I could pronounce anyway). Lineker, Maradona, Zico, Butragueno… ah the memories. I also recall owning a Care Bears Panini album where instead of shiny team badges you had to look out for special furry stickers. No I don’t know why owned a Care Bears sticker album.

Anyway the whole point of that little story is that in 2010 the old has become new again (for me anyway) with my rediscovery of the Panini stickers for the 2010 World Cup. The stickers don’t seem to be as hard to collect as I remembered (I’ve bought several packs so far and only have a Thierry Henry repeat) but there is still that same slight thrill in ripping open a new pack.

Further proof that if you wait long enough eventually things will come good, is the Vatican’s ‘approval’ of The Blues Brothers, a classic movie about two dudes who have to save an orphanage. Apparently this movie is a tale of redemption and has Catholic themes running throughout. I’ve never seen the movie although I did own a Blues Brothers computer game. It was a platform game involving alot of jumping and collecting records. I remember getting to a certain stage, getting frustrated, then throwing the 3.5 inch floppy disk against the wall in anger. So having not seen it, I can’t really comment on whether this movie is really deserving of a thumbs up. Is this a sign of the Vatican trying to get in touch with today’s youth (or today’s middle aged person seeing as the movie is at least 30 years old).

My interest piqued, I had a quick look at a list of around 45 films that are the Vatican’s ‘top’ films, the most recent of which is Schindler’s List (1993). I’ve seen a couple of other movies on the list (2001: A Space Odyssey and It’s A Wonerful Life) but I guess this list does ned a little refreshing. Maybe if the Vatican is looking to get with it, they’ll start approving a few more contemporary films. ‘The Matrix’ ‘High School Musical’, ‘The Shawshank Redemption’? I think the options are endless. I wonder if ‘Dogma’ will ever make the list… it did have buddy Jesus in it…

Jun

Selfish Reasons to have more Kids

By Filia Day 1 Comment

Categories: Being Frank...

A couple of months back I posted an article by a journalist baring his soul on why he and his partner felt good about remaining childless. As I expressed in said post, I didn’t think that what he had to say was very nuanced (you can view that post here).

Well, I was leisurely browsing the internet today when I stumbled across this fascinating ‘economic’ analysis of the pros and cons of having children. Personally, I wouldn’t have approached the topic like this author did but it sure makes for a intriguing read. I’m interested to get your opinion on what you think of his argument and approach.

One thought/ question I had was exactly how do we measure parental happiness. I’m interested to source some of the studies discusses and maybe I will at a later point in the week. If I do, I’ll get back to you on the happiness studies.

Man, those babies in the pictures are soooo cute! I bet they’re baby models. Kids aren’t really that cute (unless they’re related to you )