Uncommon Sense

A few days ago, I promised that I’d go into more detail about the Google Books project.  Here it is in a nutshell.  I haven’t been this impressed by an internet undertaking since I first fired up a modem.  You may think this is overstating the case.  Okay, I can see why.  The creation of email, the development of the World Wide Web, the near instantaneous availability of video reports from all corners of the map…what is so special about Google Books?

Two things:  First, this little thing called public domain.  Second, Google’s tireless Library Project.  Even as you read this, there are “agents” all over the place scanning library holdings into Google Books.  For the most part, I am only concerned with their public domain scans.  These are works whose copyright has expired or those which never held a copyright.  They belong to…me.  And you.  And they are increasingly more available now online.  You can read them online.  You can download the PDF on a portable drive and take them with you anywhere.

Okay, PDFs are kind of clunky to read on a computer and are even worse on portable devices.  Gotcha.  It is better than not having the books available to you.  And then, two things are quickly coming down the pike that could erase the headache.  Amazon is coming out with a next generation Kindle book reader with nearly a ten inch diagonal screen, which will make most of these public domain books eminently readable.  The new Kindle will cost around five hundred bucks.  If you have the cash, that’s a small price to pay to be able to carry an entire library around in your briefcase or purse, and when you find time to read, for it to feel like…well, like a book.

Sometime next year, Barnes and Noble will be rolling out their version of an electronic book reader which incorporates plastic electronic technology…that means a flex screen book reader.  Why am I so excited?

It is simple really.  I subscribe to John Senior’s worldview.  That is to say, if we are to restore Christian culture, it will be because we smash the television and the video game system and all of these technologies of separation and return to the hearth and the porch as families.  We have to return to a human scale and pace.  And we have to have the normal experiences which will prepare us to fight for our culture.  That includes hiking in the woods, sledding down hills, wading through creeks, chasing dragonflies, singing wholesome songs together and reading the “thousand good books” that prepare the soil of the soul to receive The Faith.  If you didn’t have those experiences as a kid, can you still?  I don’t know.  What I do know is that we had darn well better make these experiences available to our children.

At this point, ninety-or-so percent of these irreplaceable works are available for free on Google Books.  Many of them had been out of print for decades, and if you couldn’t find a copy in a used bookstore after weeks or months of searching, your only recourse was to unicode text versions stripped of their artwork and peculiarities.  Google Books are the real thing…high quality scans of the actual books, in most cases with color artwork intact.

I am in awe of those at Google who have devoted their time and effort to this undertaking.  They may not realize it yet, but they’re saving the world, one book at a time.

As I said, these books are available for PDF download if that appeals to you.  You can also create your own library.  Check out mine.  It is fledgling, but I’ll flesh it out.

The GB project is still in beta, believe it or not, and there aren’t a lot of controls, but to help you out, here are some simple instructions.  Go to books.google.com and then click on the “advanced book search”.  Once on that page, click the radio buttons for “full view only” and “all content.”  That will give you only the books which are public domain, and it’ll give you all of them.  Happy hunting!

What happens after you get there, I’ll let you discover.  Make sure you get to bed before 3 a.m.

On a given Sunday

Whereas the General Instruction for the Roman Missal 162 states: “The priest may be assisted in the distribution of Communion by other priests who happen to be present. If such priests are not present and there is a very large number of communicants, the priest may call upon extraordinary ministers to assist him, e.g., duly instituted acolytes or even other faithful who have been deputed for this purpose. In case of necessity, the priest may depute suitable faithful for this single occasion.

And whereas the Instruction “Redemptionis Sacramentum” in paragraph 88 states “Only when there is a necessity may extraordinary ministers assist the Priest celebrant in accordance with the norm of law.”

And whereas the same instruction in paragraph 151 states: “Only out of true necessity is there to be recourse to the assistance of extraordinary ministers in the celebration of the Liturgy. Such recourse is not intended for the sake of a fuller participation of the laity but rather, by its very nature, is supplementary and provisional. Furthermore, when recourse is had out of necessity to the functions of extraordinary ministers, special urgent prayers of intercession should be multiplied that the Lord may soon send a Priest for the service of the community and raise up an abundance of vocations to sacred Orders.”

And whereas the same document states in paragraph 158: “Indeed, the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion may administer Communion only when the Priest and Deacon are lacking, when the Priest is prevented by weakness or advanced age or some other genuine reason, or when the number of faithful coming to Communion is so great that the very celebration of Mass would be unduly prolonged. This, however, is to be understood in such a way that a brief prolongation, considering the circumstances and culture of the place, is not at all a sufficient reason.

And whereas the Vatican instruction “On Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priest” states in Article 8 § 2: “Extraordinary ministers may distribute Holy Communion at Eucharistic celebrations only when there are no ordained ministers present or when those ordained ministers present at a liturgical celebration are truly unable to distribute Holy Communion. They may also exercise this function at Eucharistic celebrations where there are particularly large numbers of the faithful and which would be excessively prolonged because of an insufficient number of ordained ministers to distribute Holy Communion.

And whereas the same document at the end of Article 8 states:  ”To avoid creating confusion, certain practices are to be avoided and eliminated where such have emerged in particular Churches: the habitual use of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion at Mass thus arbitrarily extending the concept of “a great number of the faithful.”

And whereas the conclusion of the same document states:  ”All particular laws, customs and faculties conceded by the Holy See ad experimentum or other ecclesiastical authorities which are contrary to the foregoing norms [On Certain...] are hereby revoked.”

And whereas in “Norms for the Distribution and Reception of Holy Communion Under Both Kinds in the Dioceses of the United States of America” paragraph 24 states:  ”In practice, the need to avoid obscuring the role of the priest and the deacon as the ordinary ministers of Holy Communion by an excessive use of extraordinary ministers might in some circumstances constitute a reason either for limiting the distribution of Holy Communion under both species or for using intinction instead of distributing the Precious Blood from the chalice.”

And whereas the same norms in paragraph 28 states:  ”When the size of the congregation or the incapacity of the bishop, priest, or deacon requires it, the celebrant may be assisted by other bishops, priests, or deacons. If such ordinary ministers of Holy Communion are not present, “the priest may call upon extraordinary ministers to assist him, i.e., formally instituted acolytes or even some of the faithful who have been commissioned according to the prescribed rite. In case of necessity, the priest may also commission suitable members of the faithful for the occasion.”  … When recourse is had to Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, especially in the distribution of Holy Communion under both kinds, their number should not be increased beyond what is required for the orderly and reverent distribution of the Body and Blood of the Lord. In all matters such Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion should follow the guidance of the diocesan bishop [Mindful of the fact that this paragraph draws its authority from GIRM 151 which speaks only of instances where a great number of the faithful are gathered, and it is the competence of the Holy Father alone, and of no bishop or priest, to legislate anything in the liturgy against the norms which the Holy Father has duly set forth].

We put forth the following observations:

Observation 1:  The habitual use of extraordinary ministers at Masses in the United States is in fact a violation of the norms set forth in “On certain questions.”  In most parishes across this country are even scheduled weeks ahead of time.

Observation 2:  The majority of these Masses are not attended by “a great number of the faithful” and thus this term is being arbitrarily extended in violation of the norms of the Holy Father set forth in “On Certain Questions…”.

Observation 3:  In point of fact, aside from being viewed as supplementary and provisional, extraordinary ministers are being utilized in such a way that they believe that their ministry involves a fuller participation in the Eucharistic celebration, in violation of the norms set forth by the Holy Father in “Redemptionis Sacramentum.”

Observation 4:  The continued unnecessary recourse to the use of extraordinary ministers continues to blur the distinction between the ordained and lay members of the Catholic Church.

And in light of the above observations we submit the following petition:

 Petition:  Considering the constant violations of the norms set forth above, we humbly ask  you to implement the provisions set forth in the Norms for the United states, namely that Holy Communion normally be distributed only by the ordinary minister, under one species [the Host], or by intinction in those parishes and communities where the faithful wish to receive under both species.

I’m impressed with Google Books. More on that and the excellent work they’ve been doing on the public domain later. But, I’ve been scanning the January 1, 1915 edition of the Catholic “Fortnightly Review” by one Arthur Preuss. On page 25 thusly: Commenting on the fact that Attorney General Hogan, of Ohio, was defeated in the recent election mainly in consequence of the warfare waged against him on account of his religion, the New York Freeman’s Journal (No. 4210) asks the “significant question”: “How is it that it is only against Catholics the ‘religious warfare’ is ever raised in politics?” Can it be for the reason that the average Catholic politician is notoriously a scamp?!?

Opposite going to the gym, one might consider a bit of yard work. It was good for the arms, abs and quads, even though that wasn’t strictly the point. I wish we would have had the luxury of putting some veggies in this spring, but it was not to be. Hindsight says we should have, even though we’ll be moving and someone else would have enjoyed the spoils. After all, we’re still here. We’d have lettuce by now and tomatoes for salsa. Oh well, off to the farmers market…

One might consider himself lucky to live here…

Last Sunday, when I was heading back to Western Illinois for the last few days of the temp job I was doing, the westering sun guided my way.  Things got interesting once the sun got underneath the clouds and began to  light them up from underneath.  There was enough moisture in the atmosphere to really increase the complexity and delicacy of the palate.

In the first picture, you can see little flecks of cloud flipped up on the eastern end, making the still image appear to show movement…as if the tiny clouds were zipping around the sky, but I assure you they were relatively stationary.

The second picture is a good example of the neon pastels that saturated everything and made it difficult to concentrate on the drive.  So I pulled over and snapped away with my G1’s camera.  The sensation that liquid light was pouring down like lava was an anomaly that only shows up in the picture, but I had to include it because it’s just too cool.  It was amazing when I was looking at it, but the detail wasn’t as apparent, and somehow the camera lense intensified it.

The third picture was taken as I was pulling into the last stretch down 136 into Macomb.  I turned the music off, rolled down all the car windows and just bathed myself in the salmonand silver gloaming.  Had I gotten lost in a vesper psalm and tasted the sweet inebriation of language that turns to love, the peace it produced could not have been more profound than that I felt as the overwhelming blueblack sky pushed that final pink ribbon of light into another country.

Ya shoulda been there!

The aptly named website “Jezebel” has the Ginsberg eugenics faux pas wrapped up. Those of you who have taken logic at the undergraduate or above level might want to sharpen your pencils and take notes.

In a later interview, the author of the NYT piece, Emily Bazelon said:

“…it was clear that when Justice Ginsburg said ‘we,’ when she was talking about populations that we don’t want to have too many of, she meant some people in the world, not herself or a group that she feels a part of. That’s not how she sees the world, as you I’m sure know. Her point was about other people’s conception of who they thought should be encouraged to have children and who shouldn’t be, not her own.”

In other words, the Supreme Court Justice can’t convey the simple grammatical difference between first, second, and third person singular and plural.

“We” is the new “they” I suppose.

Somebody we really want on SCOTUS?

Do the people who work at sites like Jezebel understand that they’re making their subjects look even more stupid than they did before they started sucking on their toes?

Just thinking that next week could be my last here in Western Illinois. I’ve submitted a packet to stay full time for a year, but it seems likely that it could fall through. There is an opening at my alma mater which could work out, but I could just as easily find myself out of work again for a few weeks, and then be left scrambling about schools for the kids. But you know what? I’m not anxious. God hasn’t let us starve, in fact He has been pretty darned good through everything.

Something went wrong with my G1 WordPress app. Looks like it is working again. Today is SOAR, student registration at WIU. Lots of kids interested in ROTC today, so we’re expecting good numbers.

UPDATE:  Best numbers so far this summer.  26 Freshmen signed up for class.  If you’re a WIU alum, yes, the picture was taken in Stipes Hall.  Two more weeks to go on my current “temp” position contract.  Praying that it becomes full time.