Association Of Catholic Bloggers

This week I'll be looking at: Parts of that "...Progress of the Century..." lithograph A few lines from three poems by Tennyson What's changed over the last couple centuries What hasn't I'll also explain why I don't "believe in" Progress with a capital "P". On the other hand, I'd rather be living today than in 1923 or 1823. That's partly because we've made considerable progress, lowercase "p", on the technology side of our lives. And some remarkable lowercase progress on the social side, too. I've been running a fever this week, so the discussion of P rogress and p rogress is a whole lot shorter than I'd planned. Which may be a good thing. This week's post may be a trifle more digressive than usual. You have been warned. Mottoes and Viewpoints Principles Steam, Reform, and Poisoned Candy A Long-Overdue Change (Optionally) Rational Animals The Candy Man Could "Forward!...

There are times when I almost regret having successfully avoided a conventionally-successful career. Last weekend was not one of them. Partly because I saw what happens when an otherwise-smart person forgets to think. Big-Time Bungle: Bogus References Trust, Assumptions and ChatGPT Two Timelines, a Career and Experience A Little of This, a Little of That Using Our Brains: It’s an Option Common Sense and Other Alternatives A Skunk, a Wood Pile, Dynamite and the Sixties Changing Times, Human Nature THE ROBOTS ARE COMING! THE ROBOTS ARE COMING! More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Bogus research by a chatbot. Technology, common sense and human nature. Using our brains is an option. And a good idea.)

I'll be talking about ChatGPT, artificial intelligence, and why I don't think we're doomed. Search Engines, Iron Gall Ink and Me Prolonged Paragraphs, Abundant Adjectives: a Prolix Style From Another Age It's New, it's Scary and it's (Not) the End of Creative Writing ChatGPT and Three Fears 1. Loss of Economic Security (or Maybe a New Job) 2. Loss of Originality: Being Homogenized Diversity and a Discerning Chatbot 3. Loss of Creativity (Quoth the Chatbot: "Nevermore"?) Twitter Terror and the Chatbot of Doom Psst! Know Where a Buddy Can Get a Nuke? "It Can Only be Attributable to Human Error" From "I Read it in a Book" to "I Saw it Online" Nostalgia, Memory and Job Security More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Chatbots and three fears. ChaosGPT: Twitter terror and the chatbot of doom. Accepting change, and why I do not think creative writing is ...

(From Ken Eckert, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) A year and three weeks ago, I started writing about Marlowe's "Faustus" play: "The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus." Three months later, I'd finished three more. Then in May, 2021, "Faustus" moved to my mind's back burner; before falling off the metaphorical stove.... ...Last April, I said I'd probably look at Faust’s GOOD ANGEL and EVIL ANGEL," the prince of parma," and maybe grapes next time; so that's where I'll pick up. Taking those items in reverse order —... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Patriotism comes in many flavors: cheesy, sour, salty: and that's enough 'flavor.' Maybe too much. My country's Independence Day celebration, our Fourth of July, started me thinking about patriotism. Also screwball notions, drought and Florida's pancaked condo. But mostly, the impending holiday is probably why part of an old song has been on my mind's playlist this week.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

"...Blue skies Smiling at me Nothing but blue skies Do I see..." (" Blue Skies ," Irving Berlin (1926) via Lyrics.com) But that's not literally true. We had blue skies with clouds Monday through Wednesday. Then it rained part of Wednesday night, pretty much all Thursday and part of Thursday night. So maybe this is more appropriate. Or was, until Friday's bright blue skies and sunshine.... (I have been feeling down, depressed and worse. So I wrote about emotions, personality disorders, predestination, flowers and making sense.) More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

A few groceries have been offering delicacies like elk steaks for decades, at least. But the odds are that hunters aren't supplying your grocery's meat department with wild game. That's not surprising, or shouldn't be. I'll be talking about an indoor Florida fish farm, wild rasberries, chickens, and why genetically modified foods don't fill me with fear and foreboding. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Advent started November 29, a couple Sundays back. It's my faith's Christmas warmup. I'll get back to that. My culture's Christmas begins after Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.... ...Today I'll be talking about Advent's serious side: a song that's been sung at funerals, a Nativity painting's crucifix, introspection and shortcomings. Also ♪ magi on Segways with Amazon cartons. ♪ (Try singing it to the tune of "My Favorite Things," from "Sound of Music:" The bit that goes "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens....") Anyway, these are today's headings: "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel" — Plainsong, Burial Chant and Advent Hymn Heaven's Peace: a Work in Progress Advent: Ordinary Folks, Unique Events Something Odd O Hipster Night Illustrators and Illustrations Joy and Shadow Joseph's Options News: Not Entirely Bad; Unsettling; and Disbelieved Herod,...

Derek Chauvin, a police officer, killed George Floyd about a month ago. I don't know whether a court will call that homicide a murder, or assign some other label. I do know that there was and is no apparent excuse for ending Mr. Floyd's life.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . News and Views A Drive-Through Nap The Mystery of the Transferred Tazer Duality and Death St. Cloud, Minnesota: An Arrest, Social Media and Riots Good Neighbors and Ersatz Facts Rumors and Looting Fear and NASCAR Flags Prudence and Perspective "A Highly Charged and Emotional Time" Freudian Slips, a "Cavalier" Comment Moral Panic, Then and Now "A Day of Reckoning:" He Said, She Said Attitudes "Hooray for Our Side" Irish Lives Matter??? Cartoons, Slogans and Some Logic Statue Panic? Public Safety and Making Sense Minneapolis: [insert feared technolog...

I've missed one morning set, and several of the evening prayer sequences, in the routine I started February 13. ( February 19, 2017 ) I'm doing a little better with so far with the Lenten Chaplet. I started that Ash Wednesday. Emphasis on "so far." I nearly forgot twice, which doesn't surprise me. There's a very good reason for my wife handling the household's schedules, and that's another topic. This is where I could quote Romans 7:19 and launch into a 'wretcheder than thou' lament. It'd be accurate, on one level, since I've felt this way often enough.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Last week's Gospel reading, Matthew 2:1 - 12 , ends with a sort of cliffhanger. "Magi from the east" arrived in Bethlehem, found our Lord's house, and paid their respects.... ...Or maybe not so much — we read Matthew 2:13 - 18 on December 28. I don't suppose we'll see the massacre of the innocents 1 in an animated Christmas special any time soon. It's far from the most cheerful parts of the Bible. That didn't keep folks in Coventry from including it in their Shearmen and Tailors' Pageant . We got " Coventry Carol " from that mystery play.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Depending on who you listen to, Satan prowls Earth's surface, lives in the White House, lurks in Hell, or doesn't exist. About Satan and devils in general, I think C. S. Lewis made a good point.... ...I like most of Gustave Doré's work. That's his illustration for Canto XXXIV of Dante's " Divine Comedy ," Inferno .... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

There's trouble everywhere, and that's not news. It's not new, at any rate. "Your princes are rebels and comrades of thieves; Each one of them loves a bribe and looks for gifts. The fatherless they defend not, and the widow's plea does not reach them." ( Isaiah 1:23 ) "Yes, I know how many are your crimes, how grievous your sins: Oppressing the just, accepting bribes, repelling the needy at the gate!" ( Amos 5:12 ) How come the world is such a mess, and has been at least since we started keeping records? More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

God speaks to us in many ways, leading us to who we are truly supposed to be.  Most people, push away the harder, more eternal truths because frankly, they are quite terrifying.   God is far more terrifying than the devil ever thought about being.   Most people are like the German's that lived around the Death Camps during WWII, vaguely aware of what the real truth is, but pushing it away because it would interfere with their everyday lives and security.  People hate change and few will embrace it even for themselves, nevertheless for the good of another.    But some will, even at great risk to themselves .  T hese brave souls are needed even today.    You see, what happened in Schindler's list is happening even today... .TO READ MORE...CLICK HERE.

As a Mathematician I have a great hunger for knowledge.  I seek knowledge in Mathematics like a bulldog would, I dig in, latch on, and don't let go until I have what I want.  Because this is the method I have used to acquire knowledge, it was no surprise that I would employ these same techniques when it came to seeking after God.     It is written,  "there is no one who seeks God" , well I did.   I went after God, and sought Him diligently  and by God's grace I will tell what I found.  ..... TO READ MORE...CLICK HERE!

The following is a true story of a four-year-old Catholic child, in a coma, following a serious car accident. Chandra was still not conscious when she began to speak to her parents in the ICU unit. She spoke as if in a dream, describing a big room with two doors where she sat waiting with several other people.  She explained that she had to decide which door she wanted to walk through. A really nice man, dressed in white smiled at her and told her that she was completely free to walk through either door.  One door would bring her back to her life on earth. If she liked, she could across the room, take the nice man’s hand and walk through the other door.   continue reading

I do not know how I would cope with my life if I were not Catholic. I can easily tell you that I would not cope well. Years of living beforehand would bear that out. Here are some differences in how I get through tough times today vs. during my "heretical" years.  (1) My emotions do not control my decisions as much Free will has to do with making decisions without being driven by emotions. I am making more solid, logical and clear choices now than I ever have before. During my "heretical years," I believed that free will had to do with extricating myself from the oppression of moral obligations in order to be free to follow my feelings. How did that work out for me? Hmm.. I'm writing this... so... (2) I take care to have selfless motives.  When I pursue being of the greatest service to God above the motives for comfort, public opinion or material things, each decision I make has meaning. When I work to make my life a gift to God rather than a gif...

Too many folks die, waiting for a compatible donor organ. We can't coax a patient's body into growing a new heart or kidney: yet. But we can build made-to-order bladders, and scientists have grown a new thymus: inside a mouse. It's a first step.... ...If starfish and some mice can regenerate complete missing parts: why can't we? Right now, we don't know. Not for sure. It probably has something to do with our immune system, and the way our bodies deal with injury.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

1,024 little robots got together at Harvard, making the letter "K" and drawing a star. What they do doesn't look as sophisticated as many marching band halftime formations — but it's a good start on collective artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Harvard and MIT's angular automatons don't do much except fold themselves into crablike shapes, and scuttle away: today.... ...I'm not troubled that we make increasingly lifelike imitations of living creatures. Somehow, I don't think the Almighty is going to be offended by cuckoo clocks or robot dogs playing soccer. Tightly-would folks of a grimly pious bent might have qualms about mechanical birds, music boxes, and other frivolities. I'm convinced that gloominess is not next to Godliness, and that's another topic. Besides, many automata help make this a safer world for humans.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Samuel Clemens may have taken God seriously: but not his era's version of Christianity. His "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" include Huck's reactions to well-intentioned religious instruction by the Widow Douglas — and "pretty ornery preaching." " It was pretty ornery preaching—all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet. " ("Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Chapter XVIII , Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens (1885)) Called by God If I thought predestination meant that God had decided ahead of time whether I was heading for Heaven or Hell, I might feel hopeless or self-righteous. Robert Burns' Holy Willie dramatizes what can happen when...