It's nice to know that it's summertime somewhere in the world.
Popularity: 3%
Posted by: Saint Angilbert
Posted in: Daily Cutie | Tags: bikini, cutie
A friend whom I hold in high esteem posed a question to me regarding exactly how it works that this blog, which strives to hold an essentially orthodox Catholic worldview (in general), is able to maintain said stance and still post a daily picture of a cute girl, often wearing only as much as she might at the beach. It’s a fair question, and in a sense there is a short and easy answer to it, which my friend identified shortly after posing his question. There is an element of brashness and defiance in the juxtaposition (the site banner proclaims “roguish Catholicism” for a reason) of Catholic moral musings and sultry lasses.
So why do it? And if I do it, is doing so at all defensible from a moral standpoint? Is there an danger of sin, either for myself or for others, in so doing?
That last question can only be answered in the affirmative; there is of course just such a danger. Concupiscent man being…well…concupiscent, it is inevitable that for some, the sight of a pretty girl in a bikini might be an occasion of lust. Then again, for others, an image of the newest piece of fine Apple techno-bling might be an occasion of covetousness or envy. There are appropriate and inappropriate ways to digest and process most media and images (porn excepted). Moreover, quibbling about where exactly the line between appropriate and not is actually drawn is, as often as not, less an exercise in proper moral reasoning and more a hunt for loopholes. What is and isn’t appropriate are, in general, sufficiently apparent. I do not think any images posted to this site have transgressed the “appropriate” category, on the assumption that the average reader has struck an appropriate balance in his soul between lust and it’s not necessarily sinful, but still disordered opposite: frigidity.
Still, in musing over my friend’s question, I was struck by the realization that a writer whom both my friend and I hold in high regard, the inimitable John Zmirak, had in fact written about a very related issue. And after a bit of fruitless searching at Inside Catholic (the search function at which I have developed emnity for, or perhaps with) and a bit more not-so-fruitless Google-ing, I managed to find the Zmirak piece I was thinking of1:
Do you suffer from the deadly sin of Lust? Have you attained the virtuous Golden Mean, treating with due respect the created Good (Eros) whose abuse would lead to this vice? Or have you done such a good job of “mortifying” this particular passion that you’ve actually lurched into Frigidity? (That probably can’t land you in Hell, but it might make your earthly life a short-term substitute.) Answer these impertinent questions, and find out.
…
The quiz: When you see an attractive, well-dressed member of the opposite sex, which of the following runs through your head:
A attractive, well-dressed girl. For reference.
a) The pleasing pattern those clothes would make, spilled on your bedroom floor.
b) A twitter of interest, followed by a quick prayer of gratitude for the goodness of Creation.
c) The image of Miss Piggy, languorously swimming through a pool full of champagne — the only trick you’ve found to banish impure thoughts.
d) A surge of anger at the torrents of filth to which decent people are subjected, followed by images of the souls of the Impure, falling into Hell like leaves in the autumn, just like Our Lady said at Fatima.
If you picked:
a) Time to zip up your libido, and quick. Read up on the connection between promiscuity, unwanted pregnancy, and abortion — and remember that every “unplanned” pregnancy started out as a raunchy thought just like . . . yours. It might also help to go home and Google some images — only this time, instead of “barely legal,” try “herpes lesion.”
b) A wholesome thought. Ramp it up a little by actually praying for the person you found so . . . distracting. Wish him or her a happy marriage, and ask God to send you joy in your own vocation. Then, for heaven’s sake, look away.
c) Whatever works for you, man. Careful that it doesn’t start to backfire; once you start associating sexual arousal with Muppets, those kind of neural pathways are really hard to alter.
d) You’re not a lone “decent person” surrounded by sinners. We’re each of us fallen, and the first step is admitting it. (Just make sure that’s not also your last step.) Find a faith-friendly counselor — either a Christian therapist who accepts insurance (good luck with that one!) or a wise, compassionate priest. Schedule some serious time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, pleading for guidance and peace of mind.
In general, both my intentions in posting the Daily cuties and my own thoughts toward the pictures themselves are in alignment with (b), as Zmirak describes it. Partly, they are intended as a meditation on beauty, and partly, they are intended as a meditation on the fleetingness thereof. Most women are not Jennifer Aniston; they will not seemingly grow yet more beautiful as they approach, and then surpass, forty. The same is generally true of most men, although it is worth noting that how most men and women feel attraction — and what they each find attractive — is often vastly different. Younger men may be desirable for their apparent virility; older men (as they become more established/successful in their fields of employment) are also apparently objects of desire to a goodly number of unattached (and typically younger) women, if surveys out of Britain can be trusted.
And in truth, half the time, I don’t so much notice the subject of the photo as I do the photo itself; I notice the angle of the shot, the lighting, and/or what the photographer has chosen to accentuate naturally or through editing. That’s the price you pay for being a geek; you notice the MacBook that the girl is asking you for help with, solve the problem, and only notice as she departs that her shorts and tank-top are only barely have enough surface area to avoid being classed as swimwear.
It’s a curse, though probably not one which will lead to loss of soul (so long as one is able to avoid despair).
Popularity: 4%
Posted by: Saint Angilbert
Posted in: Catholicism - Men and Women - Sex | Tags: abortion, Apple, bikini, Britain, Catholicism, faith, frigidity, God, Google, Inside Catholic, Jennifer Aniston, John Zmirak, lust, MacBook, porn, pregnancy, promiscuity, sin, Theology of the Body
I can haz 3G?
Skype for iPhone finally, finally allows you to make calls over a 3G connection; a wi-fi connection is no longer necessary. Previously, the only way to enable 3G Skype calling on an iPhone was to jailbreak the unit and install one of the various free or paid “3G unlock” extensions available through Cydia. But no longer! I guess someone finally slapped AT&T around enough that the American communications giant finally relaxed its silly “no VOIP on our networks” policy.
Actually, I’ve been seriously impressed with Skype since I started using it a few years ago. Most people know it as that webcam-friendly program that lets you keep in touch with distant relatives and friends half a world away, and certainly it is that. But it also serves as a remarkably good stand-in for a phone; not every Skype call need be a video call. I maintain an “Unlimited US & Canada” plan (CAD $2.99/month, although I pay every three months and save a few cents) that lets me call anywhere in the United States and Canada for just the cost of that flat fee.
This has proven useful in the past when I’ve been on the road and have needed to call ahead to confirm an appointment, meeting, or place to sleep. (Because, yes, my iPhone 3GS is jailbroken and 3G-unlocked.)
This is a nice move to see on Skype’s part; it’s a pity that they’ve been really behind the curve (competing and third-party services have had 3G capability for a while now; Apple relaxed their own silly restrictions on VOIP over 3G about a year ago, if not more) on this one. Not that they’re not still the premium VOIP service out there, of course.
Popularity: 2%
Posted by: Saint Angilbert
Posted in: Computers - Mobile Communications - The Interwebs | Tags: 3G, Canada, Cydia, iPhone, iPhone 3GS, jailbreak, Skype, United States, VOIP, wi-fi
Your tax dollars pay this man's salary!
Okay, this is actually yesterday’s news, but…you know me and blogging on weekends. The footage above was captured by teh Cat Fuzz hizself, at the anti-Netanyahu/anti-Israel protest that took place in Toronto over the weekend. The protest was, of course, supported by Palestine House.
Ali Mallah is a member of CUPE, and a prominent figure in the Canadian Arab Federation. He can quite clearly be seen assaulting BCF (who is holding the camera) in the video, and then without provocation (peacefully filming a rally/protest is still considered a peaceful action in Canada, right?).
Even worse, the police were standing only a handful of feet away, and ultimately ended up warning BCF to keep his cool and not be a provocation. Michael Coren rightly comments that the police are perhaps in need of a reminder what the law in Canada actually says.
You can see, from BCF’s blog post, that the usual collection of terrorist-supporting folk were on display; there’s a particularly creepy shot of a mother and son team holding aloft a Hezbollah banner. Yet strangely, these obvious terrorist supporters were not in any way accosted by Toronto’s finest.
Just another weekend in the center of the universe.
Update: Welcome, Steynians!
Popularity: 2%
Posted by: Saint Angilbert
Posted in: Canadian News - Canadian Politics - Immigration - Islam - Judaism - Middle Eastern Politics - anti-Semitism | Tags: Ali Mallah, Canada, Canadian Arab Federation, CUPE, Hezbollah, Israel, Michael Coren, Palestine House, Toronto
Charlize Theron, unless I am grossly mistaken.
It’s snowing at present where I am. At the end of May. And the temperature is a whopping 0 C.
Summer is clearly on backorder. As such, here’s a particularly nice picture of a lovely lass in decidedly summery attire.
Mind over matter!
Popularity: 3%
Posted by: Saint Angilbert
Posted in: Daily Cutie | Tags: Charlize Theron, cutie
And let's end the week with a smiling brunette, what say?
Cuties for the Week:
Update: Welcome, R.S. McCain and Nation of Cowards readers!
Popularity: 9%
Posted by: Saint Angilbert
Posted in: Daily Cutie | Tags: cutie
As you can probably guess, work has kept me unusually busy of late. Just today, I installed and configured four Ubuntu Server virtual machines (LAMP configuration, with Samba and OpenSSL as well) to serve as hosts for a series of intranet-based installations of the Joomla CMS. So I’ve only just extricated myself from the innards of Ubuntu’s not-exactly-factory-standard implementation of Apache2, and am frankly sick and tired of the sight of lines on a screen. May I live until June and not have to worry about mod_rewrite until then.
And that was just today, mind you; yesterday I was coding until all hours for a different project (thankfully, a favourite restaurant/bar is on my direct route home…and thankfully, it is open late), and the day before that was largely devoted to getting Joomla and and various necessary extensions thereto downloaded to my hard drive, since none of the configured VMs will be allowed to “see” the Internet. Oh, and I custom-built (and then tested) two Joomla templates as well.
Busy, like I said. And thus, little time for blogging. Which is a pity, because I have a doozy of an article in the pipeline at the moment, and I’d really hoped to get it pushed out by Friday. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.
Anyhow, all this is kind of my way of saying that there mignt not be a Weekend Report post tomorrow, unless Charlemagne gets around to putting one up. But as he mentioned in his last post, things haven’t exactly been tame and easy over in the UK either.
Partly as a result of the fact that the site’s two main bloggers are held up at the moment, and partly as a result of the fact that the other two have yet to post anything, I’m toying with the idea of adding a couple more guest-bloggers to the site; if anyone out there would be interested in writing for the Press, drop us a comment below, or hit up the contact form in the topbar.
Popularity: 1%
Posted by: Saint Angilbert
Posted in: Computers - Site News - Work | Tags: Apache2, CMS, Internet, Joomla, LAMP, OpenSSL, Samba, Ubuntu, UK, virtual machine
Okay, this is just plain cool (in the most tear-jerking sense possible):
He gets to hear and say his first word on the same day. How cool is that?
I just love the sudden change in little Jonathan’s alertness when the implant gets switched on; he goes from bored and kinda lethargic to startled and smiling almost instantly; he is one happy little baby getting to experience the world in a very new and exciting kind of way. One can only imagine just how overwhelming the experience must have been. His world has just been radically altered.
The moment he tries to copy what his mother is saying, though, is what’s really priceless.
Popularity: 1%
Posted by: Saint Angilbert
Posted in: Health - Parenting - Research | Tags: cochlear implant, deaf, deafness, hearing, hearing loss