Douglas Ernst Blog

Escape from Camp 14: A haunting tale of North Korea’s gulags

April 19, 2012January 2, 2013by Douglas Ernst9 Comments

Where does one begin when reviewing Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14? The story of Shin In Geun’s (now Shin Dong-hyuk) life inside a North Korean gulag is one not many people in free societies can ever really fathom, which is probably why the book is a harder sell than it needs to be. Americans think torture is something they see in a movie theater while chomping on overpriced popcorn, or if they’re more socially conscious they might ramble on about water boarding terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In both cases they miss the mark completely.

Conservatives are often laughed at and ridiculed for speaking about certain countries in terms of good and evil, but the truth of the matter is that good and evil exist, and perhaps there is no closer embodiment of hell on earth than North Korea.

Shin’s story revolves around his life at Camp 14, a “total control” camp, which meant he was born there and he would die there. His earliest memories were of watching executions—mouths filled with rocks and bound tight (we can’t have anyone criticizing the Dear Leader in their last moments) before rounds of bullets blew their heads off. Camp 14 had a prison camp within a prison camp (where Shin was tortured). Sons and daughters are taught to snitch on their parents, snitch on their peers and to live in a constant state of paranoia. Women are raped and then executed when they become pregnant. Starving kids like Shin find themselves picking undigested kernels of corn from animal feces…to eat. In short, the North Korean regime seeks to strip every ounce of humanity from its citizens, and they have shown that they are willing to go to great lengths to succeed.

Fear societies, despite their best efforts to turn people into animals, can not succeed. The human spirit will often find a way to break free. People are not meant to be cattle, and they will either unshackle their spirit through suicide…or die in the pursuit of freedom.

What is most interesting about Escape from Camp 14 is that even though Shin was born and raised in an environment of pure evil, he seemed to know deep down that there was a right from wrong. Looking back on his actions now he struggles with the repercussions (e.g., the execution of his mother and brother…and quite possibly his father), but the free, adult Shin is too harsh of a critic of the 13 year old version of his imprisoned self.

For example, should Shin feel guilty for having to climb over the electrified, charred remains of his friend in order to obtain freedom?

Without hesitation, Shin crawled over his friend’s body, using it as a kind of insulating pad. As he squirmed through the fence, Shin could feel the current. The soles of his feet felt as though needles were stabbing them.

Shin was nearly through the fence when his lower legs slipped off Park’s torso and came into direct contact, through the two pairs of pant he was wearing, with the bottom strand. Voltage from the wire caused severe burns from his ankles to his knees. The wounds bled for weeks. But it would be a couple of hours before Shin noticed how badly he had been injured.

What he remembers most clearly about crawling through the fence was that Park’s body smelled like it was burning.

There is a reason why Shin still wakes up from nightmares, screaming as his mind conjures up images of his dead mother, brother and friend. The guilt that he feels, however, is misplaced, as it is the tyrannical North Korean regime’s seeds that sprout in his mind. They are responsible for the heartache and pain Shin feels, not him.

We all have a purpose in life, and I can’t help but think that Shin’s was to break free from North Korea and tell the world what is truly going on inside their border. If you get a chance, pick up a copy of Escape from Camp 14. You’ll be glad you did.

Pelosi seeks ‘windfall profits’ tax on Avengers ticket sales

April 16, 2012April 16, 2012by Douglas Ernst5 Comments

THOR (Chris Hemsworth) (L) and CAPTAIN AMERICA (Chris Evans) (R) — If House Democrats have their way, your favorite Marvel superheroes will be hit with a "windfall profits" tax once an arbitrarily defined level of success has been met. Republicans argue that this will result in fewer superhero movies making it to the market.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is trying to find an 11th hour solution to Marvel Studios’ The Avengers, which is primed to be one of this summer’s biggest blockbusters. Sources close to producers Avi Arad and Jon Favreau have confirmed that the California Democrat has been in touch with Marvel Studios, and that a “windfall profits” tax will be in place before Friday, May 4 if Democrats can cobble together enough votes.

The Associated Press received the following from Pelosi’s office late Monday:

“Investments.” “Risk.” “Reward.” Such is the language of the Republican Party. Extremists. The GOP would have you believe that it was a “risk” to set up an Avengers movie with a series of films based on many of the individual characters: Thor, Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America. They would have you believe that an Avengers movie was no sure bet, and that the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on these movies and their marketing campaigns by no means guaranteed success. Rubbish! It’s high time Hollywood paid its fair share. If Democrats have their way, Marvel Studios will be the first to pay a windfall profits tax on its flagship characters, in addition to their corporate taxes (which also need higher rates). Warner Bros. will then follow suit in August, when The Dark Knight Rises takes number one at the box office. Behind every Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark movie are greedy Hollywood producers; that will change starting today.

The Hollywood Reporter seems to back up the Minority Leaders predictions, at least in this isolated case, although the philosophical debate is something that will have to be settled inside the Beltway on on cable news airwaves:

Avengers also is tracking better than Lionsgate’s blockbuster The Hunger Games, which posted a record March bow of $152.5 million to score the third-best opening of all time behind Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Dark Knight, respectively.

According to first tracking, unaided awareness in Avengers is 13 percent, compared with 10 percent for Dark Knight and 11 percent for Hunger Games; first choice is 23 percent, tying with Hunger Games and higher than the 19 percent for Dark Knight.

Total awareness is 85 percent, compared with 76 percent for Dark Knight and 74 percent for Hunger Games; definite interest is 61 percent, versus 62 percent for Dark Knight and 54 percent for Hunger Games.

Asked to comment, House Majority Leader John Boehner set up a stark (pardon the pun) contrast between Republicans and Democrats:

“The windfall profits tax proposed by Democrats will go nowhere because Americans want more Marvel movies, not less—and taxing Marvel Studios will result in less movies. Let me tell you what House Republicans will do to this bill in a way that Marvel fans—and fans of The Hulk—can all understand. BOEHNER SMASH!“

Why we run

April 14, 2012January 15, 2014by Douglas Ernst3 Comments

When I talk to most non-runners about running, the biggest complaints seem to be that it’s a.) painful and b.) boring. Both opinions tell us more about the person making them—and by extension our culture—than any accurate truths about the sport. A healthy society does not seek to avoid pain at any cost, because there are times when pain is good. You must break down muscle to build muscle. You must find your limits in order to figure out ways to extend them. Pain is humbling, and men who have been humbled are capable of great deeds. Such observations on the nature of pain dovetail nicely with the second accusation—that running is boring. Again, the runner knows otherwise.

On a long run, the only companion a runner has is his own thoughts. There are no video games, musicians, 24-hour cable new networks, brothers, sisters, moms, dads or bosses to serve as a distraction. The runner’s mind isn’t clouded by alcohol or drugs or other substances, and as a result he becomes tuned in to his own body and inner thoughts in ways others aren’t.

Years ago, when my mileage was particularly heavy, I reached a point where at any point in time I could gauge how fast I was moving without the aid of a watch. I’d do experiments just to see how accurate I could get, and often times could predict down to the second how my mile times were. How is my heart rate? What is the cadence of my breath telling me? What is my turnover rate? Is my second (or possibly third?) wind coming on? Like yoga, there is something spiritual about running, although I would argue that running takes it a step further (no pun intended).

Ask any runner about their favorite path, and they know every square inch of it. They know where there are divots that could be dangerous on the ankles, slight changes in the slope of the land, straightaways than always inspire a sprint, and that place where the sun always rises in a way that could melt the hardest of hearts. In a society that thinks it needs to be stimulated by an onslaught of images and sound, the runner is someone whose mind can be stimulated by silence. There are deeper truths that reveal themselves in the seclusion of a long run that societies dependent on Twitter streams and Facebook updates and “friend requests” all to often fail to learn.

Running is a sport that highlights like no other that, no matter what the endeavor, we are primarily competing with ourselves. Once we overcome the obstacles and mountains in our mind, those of the outside world erode tremendously. When we navigate the valleys inside our heart, the low points in our personal and professional life become less daunting. Whether you’re new to running or someone who’s been hitting the pavement for years, I hope this piece helps motivate you to lace up and head out the door. And if our paths should cross I promise to look you in the eye and give the quick head nod all good runners extend to one another that says, non-verbally, everything I’ve written here.

Related: The Runner King

Note to Ashley Judd: Men don’t care about your face. Women do.

April 11, 2012April 14, 2012by Douglas Ernst13 Comments

Ashley Judd is angry. She’s really angry. So angry, in fact, that she wrote about it in The Daily Beast. Over what, you ask? Apparently the endless chatter that occurs in Hollywood circles, entertainment magazines and on talk shows about whether or not she’s had plastic surgery reached some sort of crescendo that demanded her attention. She writes:

“I choose to address [this now] because the conversation was pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle. The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about. …

That women are joining in the ongoing disassembling of my appearance is salient. Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it. This abnormal obsession with women’s faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times—I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly. We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.

A case in point is that this conversation was initially promulgated largely by women; a sad and disturbing fact. (That they are professional friends of mine, and know my character and values, is an additional betrayal.)

If you make a deal with the Devil, you’re going to get burned. How many magazine covers has Ashley Judd been on? How many of them have been Photoshopped to hell? How many of them have been marketed almost exclusively to women? She enters into an industry filled with the most shallow, narcissistic and vain clowns among us and then wants to blame a patriarchal system designed to brainwash her female friends into betraying her? Not quite.

Sixteen to twenty-five year old men see women as objects because they’re raging balls of hormones. Literally. The rest of the male world will always appreciate a good-looking woman, but they have more important things on their mind. That’s what happens when you become a man. Although, sometimes, they have less important things on their mind (e.g., the football game). Either way, they don’t give a rip what Ashley Judd looks like…except when she willfully dons a football jersey and poses seductively for the camera.

Do you want to know who does care what Ashley Judd looks like? Women. Specifically, the kind of women who host The View. Angry, catty types who like to say mean things behind the back of others. The kind of women who take great glee in seeing beauty fade in someone they once saw as a rival, or were jealous of simply because she was beautiful. On some level Ashley Judd is even worse, because she’s a good-looking woman who goes around throwing out terms like ‘inter alia’ (unnecessarily) just to rub it in that she’s more beautiful and more intelligent than you. If our pretentious friend wanted to put an end to all the “nasty, gendered, and misogynistic” conversations she could start by having a heart to heart with the person in the mirror.

Below is a picture of Adele. A friend of mine had this to say about her Vogue cover shoot:

“Taking a women who IS in shape, photographing her in a bathing suit and putting her in a men’s magazine is one thing. But that is light years away from taking a woman who is somewhat overweight—who is known specifically for her TALENT—airbrushing her to the point that she looks like she’s had surgery, painting her with makeup and putting her in, easily, the most revealing top she’s ever posed in. Then they point a fan at her and hide her chin with heavy shadows—and FOR WHAT? A magazine aimed exclusively at women? That’s who this is for? That is something [women] all should be ashamed of. Including her.”

422520_10150683652146348_708161347_11664852_2043126169_n — Nice Photoshop, Adele. Way to sell your dignity for a few extra bucks.

Remember how women fought for all sorts of basic rights, and then generations later their daughters and great granddaughters used those rights to turn themselves into Photoshopped mannequins? I do. Note to Ashley: next time you write a piece on the “insidious” women who don’t realize they’re part of the problem, all you have to do is to stick it in an envelope, put a stamp on it, and then send it to your home address. The mailman might think you’re a little strange, but your message will be better targeted.

Captain Planet’s Earth Day marathon: Ignore the utility bill?

April 9, 2012April 10, 2012by Douglas Ernst15 Comments

Earth Day is coming up April 22nd. This year, besides the usual claptrap from academics who think the world would be a greener place if the United States became an irrelevant outpost in a world filled with tyranny, we get a 14-hour Captain Planet marathon on the Boomerang Network.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Captain Planet, the character was the end result of Ted Turner’s desire to inculcate a generation of kids with leftist environmental propaganda.

In an effort to inform younger viewers about serious environmental issues, legendary cable entrepreneur Ted Turner partnered with DIC Enterprises in 1990 to create the world’s first animated environmental series, Captain Planet and the Planeteers. The half-hour series was about a group of young people (The Planeteers) who combine their special individual powers (given to them by Gaia, the Spirit of the Earth) to summon Captain Planet, an environmental superhero, to battle the world’s worst eco-villains.

Week after week young kids were bombarded with the idea that corporations are inherently evil. For six years kids heard, “The power is yours!” when it came to stopping environmental damage, but the real message was that people were the problem. Only recently (and from a liberal website, no less), did anyone of note bother to point out the weird self-loathing that was at the “heart” of the show.

Contrast Ted Turner’s message with that with individuals like Becky Norton Dunlop, who understands that we should be counting on more people and more corporations with new and exciting ideas to solve our problems—not less.

[We] need to clearly state and stick by the principle that people are our most valuable resource. Natural resources and energy policies should be judged first and foremost on how good they are for people. Meeting human needs should be paramount. This is because we value people’s well-being above other measures such as carbon emissions or the population of a rare insect and because we recognize that the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit of a free people hold the keys to meeting our challenges. (emphasis added)

It isn’t less people and a smaller carbon footprint we should be aiming for to address environmental concerns. What we need to be doing is creating an environment where the best and brightest minds are cultivated in ways that will bear technological fruit.

The other day someone told me we were “running out of resources.” False. People have been saying that for ages. Humans keep inventing new ways to tap natural resources, allocating them differently as tastes and conditions change, finding new reserves, and becoming more efficient as a whole. Every time I hear someone talk about “population control” I cringe and think of Communist China. The world doesn’t need less people; it needs more free people. Free people come up with ideas that change the world. Free people find ways to raise the standard of living for hundreds of millions (or billions) at a time. As I’ve said before, ask Bill Gates about that. Look at what Steve Jobs accomplished. Those are only two recent examples using household names, but there are countless others.

This Earth Day, if you run up a large electric bill watching 14 hours of Captain Planet, don’t worry about it. What matters isn’t how you spend your recreational time as much as what you do when you’re on the clock.

And with that, I leave you with this question: If Captain Planet was standing at ground zero when Mount St. Helens erupted, spewing untold amounts of ash and soot into the atmosphere, would he gain the strength of a supernova, or would he die instantaneously?

Attack of the Lizz Winstead Drones

April 8, 2012April 8, 2012by Douglas Ernst2 Comments

Note to self: If you want to stir up a bees nest of angry feminists, postulating on the psychological profile of a Planned Parenthood advocate (using public statements readily available to anyone with Internet access), is the way to go. Like the life of the honey badger, future conflict is inevitable.

The drones of any good insect colony dutifully attack when the queen is threatened; Lizz’s did just that. It reminded me of a night years ago in Fort Benning, GA, when I spent an entire sleepless night getting chomped on by fire ants—simultaneously amusing and annoying, but ultimately something that would not prevent the overall mission from being completed. I didn’t hate those little guys, just like I don’t hate Lizz’s drones, but I have no problem properly disposing of either nuisance.

In the span of 24 hours I’ve had roughly 2000 liberal feminists and their friends read my piece on the co-creator of the Jon Stewart show. I’ve also been called a “turd” by a juggalo on Twitter, although I didn’t have the heart to directly remind him that as much as I wish he’d be the face of Planned Parenthood, he’s not…he’s just a juggalo.

The comments I’ve received have been indicative of what conservatives can expect when they strike a nerve: blind rage, distortions and pseudo-intellectual gibberish. I will address them one-by-one.

Blind Rage: “I want to boil his nuts in Aunt Trudy’s cast-iron chicken pot and set a match to his wiener until it explodes like a cigar.”

This one is somewhat understandable, given the sisterly bond the writer shares with Winstead. What is most interesting, however, is the liberal feminist’s instinctual reaction to conjure up visions of penis-mutilation. The inner rage and hate that bubbles up from them at a moment’s notice is reminiscent of characters brought to life by “Emperor George Lucas.” Remember: anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the Dark Side. But that’s okay ladies, because I can take your hate. Give me your hate. It dissipates into an invisible mist as it nears me; the love of the things I “bitterly cling” to (God, family and country) burns white hot, like the barrel of a S.A.W.

Distortions: You don’t believe abortions should be legal. Or available to women at all. … [Your] opinion doesn’t matter. She doesn’t need your permission, or your approval. I’m certain she doesn’t give a s**t.

Not once in my piece did I mention my preferences for U.S. public policy on abortion. Faced with someone who doesn’t fit into the wacky-religious stereotype, the drones are incapable of adapting to their new adversary and continue to act as if the conditions on the ground match what they were told in the deployment briefing. In regards to Lizz not giving a “s**t”, again we have a case of cognitive dissonance producing pure entertainment. The internal monologue goes: “Lizz doesn’t give a s**t, yet she tweeted out the story to all her followers. Does. Not. Compute. Error code. Resort to default: Doesn’t give a sh**t.”

Pseudo-intellectual gibberish: “It just reeks of unexamined male privilege. You can’t even conceive how a woman might see being a parent as a chore, even while suggesting that she’ll be the primary childraiser. It’s your blindness which marked you as a male, not your opinion on abortion.”

When I was at USC years ago I was tasked with reading a piece by Peggy McIntosh called White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. The message for guys like me: You’re white. You’re racist. You don’t even know it. They system is rigged in your favor and will always be that way.

I then went to a presentation during Black History Month and asked one of the speakers what I could do to combat racism, since he referenced “White Privilege.” Answer: Nothing. I was told I would always be “subconsciously racist.” How convenient. The guy who had plenty of black and Hispanic “battle buddies” he’d gladly die for in the military was subconsciously racist, which would also allow said Black History Month speaker to collect checks for the rest of his life.

Fast forward to yesterday, where it turns out Planned Parenthood’s drones are capable of passing Gender Studies 101. Like “white privilege,” “male privilege” is a great way to end the debate. If you agree with the premise, you’ve already lost.

My advice for conservatives who come into contact with the drones is to kill them with kindness. Smile. Get that glint in the eye that Mark Steyn has when he drops intellectual atom bombs on his opponents. Show them that you love life, and they will usually let you know what they think about death:

“There is a direct correlation between the Roe v Wade judgment and crime percentages. Approximately 18 years post Roe v Wade the national crime average started going down. There seems to be no other major influencer besides that to attribute this to. A lot of people disagree with that. Although this is not conclusive – one cannot argue that this is inconsequential to the equation, in my opinion.”

Great point there. Nothing like promoting abortion based on the selling point that it results in lower crime rates. I don’t think I need to explain why that’s not a winner at the ballot box. Here’s a clue: Margaret Sanger.

Now, for you honey badgers, go find yourself a bees nest to upset. I have a favorite clip of Mark Steyn I’d like to watch for the 100th time.

Lizz Winstead: Planned Parenthood’s personal narcissist

April 7, 2012February 26, 2014by Douglas Ernst48 Comments

Liberal feminists have a long history of denigrating stay-at-home moms. One could argue that raising children (and raising them right), is quite possibly the most important job there is. And yet, time and time again they act as if all the wonderful technology we have today always existed and that those evil men banished them indoors anyway. For that, Lizz only needs to travel to the Middle East…

Liberal feminists act as if being a mother is a “chore,” when in fact the ability to give life and then nurture it into someone who will be a good, honest contributing member of society is a blessing. Comedienne and co-creator of the Daily Show, Lizz Winstead, is Exhibit-A for the case against the liberal-feminist worldview. Or perhaps I should say Exhibit-Z4, since no one really knows who she is. She states:

One time my mom gave me a stove, a toy stove, for Christmas and I was like, are you kidding?! Even at 8, I was like, cooking is not a game. You know, this is not a game. I want to be outside. I want to do anything but cook and have a baby that pees and that you call that a game. That is not a game, that is a baby that pees. That is not fun for me. That’s indentured servitude.

Indentured servitude. It takes a special kind of narcissist to refer to motherhood as “indentured servitude.” Of course, when you think the world should revolve around you that’s the logical progression of thoughts, I guess. With that said, I can’t help but think that perhaps there’s more to the story than an 8 year old little girl who never wanted to be a mommy. Perhaps Winstead’s antipathy toward motherhood doesn’t trace back to her Barbie days, but her…abortion.

Please, watch the entire video. It’s a fascinating case study of denial and projection. Lizz, a staunch supporter of Planned Parenthood, talks about her experience as a 16 year old—she became pregnant the first time she had sex. In her desperation she went to a religious organization to get tested anonymously. After tests came back, besides being told that she could have the child or give it up for adoption, a woman deadpanned: “It’s either mommy or murder.”

Harsh words for a 16 year old? Sure. But what does one expect when they go to an organization that believes life begins at conception? That’s like being surprised you got pregnant after having sex without a condom. At eight Lizz was smart enough to be thinking about ‘indentured servitude,’ but at 16 she wasn’t smart enough to go to the drug store for a pack of condoms. Teenage Liz wasn’t too bright, but then again, we’re all lucky that being a good person isn’t dependent on IQ.

The most telling takeaway from her pro-choice tale seem to be:

In response to being told she had the baby’s life to think about: “What about my life? What are my choices? … I have pom-poms in my room! I can’t be a mom! … I felt so alone … How could she be pro-life when she wasn’t pro-my-life? That wasn’t pro-life, that was profane.”

Lizz never wanted choices—she wanted an abortion. And she didn’t want just an abortion, she wanted to be told that it was okay. A clinic worker who didn’t tell Lizz she could live a life without consequences was somehow “profane”? Nice try. The fact of the matter is that Winstead wanted her pregnancy to be over and done with—forgettable, like the high school sporting events she used to cheer for. Then, instead taking out her anger on the boyfriend who left her and acknowledging her own culpability for the way things unfolded, she lashes out at religious organizations and pro-life members of society.

Like Bill Maher and so many other comedians, Lizz is carrying around some serious pain. She’s angry, and she masks that anger by telling jokes. She aborted her baby and will carry that memory with her to the grave, and to downplay the seriousness of her actions she must downplay the importance of motherhood. According to Liz, she didn’t have an abortion—she freed herself from at least 18 years of “indentured servitude.” And through her advocacy of Planned Parenthood, perhaps she even sees herself as the pro-choice movement’s Harriet Tubman. Although perhaps that’s not the best analogy, since Harriet Tubman was a Christian, those crazy believers who are laughed at and ridiculed on the show Winstead co-created.

Good Friday and the wisdom of self-denial

April 6, 2012April 7, 2012by Douglas Ernst3 Comments

knights_of_malta — Americans can learn a thing or two from the Knights of Malta, particularly when it comes to self-denial and its ability to lead to personal growth.

It’s Good Friday, and if you’re a Catholic you’re probably sick of people asking why you can’t eat meat. You’re forced to either listen to a bunch of dumb jokes, or take time out of your day to explain it. If you’ve had a tough time articulating why fasting is so important—not just for religious reasons but for for personal growth—then you’ve come to the right place.

Perhaps the most eloquent passage I’ve found to date comes from The Spiritual Heritage of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, by Francois Ducaud-Bourget. (I’d link to it, but it doesn’t exist online. If you want more you’ll probably have to go to a rare books library like I did, at least for the time being.) If you’re not familiar with the history of The Knights of Malta I highly suggest researching them, the numerous works of charity they’ve done, and the work they continue to perform for the world’s sick and needy.

Regardless, Ducaud-Bourget writes:

The first means for attaining perfection offered by the Rule of the Blessed Raymond is chastity, which is the domination of the flesh and its appetites by the spirit.

For good reasons it was formerly called “continence”, a restraint which contains, which masters what is opposed to duty.

Of the three lusts of which St. John speaks the flesh is the most brutal, the most seductive, but the easiest to overcome. To dominate it, the will to do so, with the help of the grace of God, suffices. But since it is not only outside of us but also in us, because we are its unconscious accomplices, it can all the more easily charm, flatter, madden, and reduce us to slavery. Energy yields, truth fades away, before lying pretexts and more or less subtle excuses; courage is broken, and we fall. We no longer have enough strength to flee from danger, and, giving it the false name of love, we accept weakening pleasure, the always degrading sensuality. All the “muscles of the soul” are relaxed, loosened, by this acceptance; then they are atrophied by the inaction in which this disorder immobilizes the high powers of the spirit and heart. Reaction against evil becomes difficult, then almost impossible, without a kind of divine miracle. The sensual person finally finds himself completely a slave of his appetites: laziness, gluttony, or voluptuousness, a trilogy often fusing in the same individual to annihilate his real personality and suppress his spiritual, fecund, and creative virility.

Against all the forms of egotism summarized in those three capital sins, against that unrestrained love of self (or rather, against that blind hatred of self) which makes of the individual the center of the universe and sacrifices the whole world to his appetites and desires, against that monstrous caricature of real love which forgets itself in order to procure happiness for others, against the blasphemy of the self-centered flesh which sets itself up as the god and universal rule of creation, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem supposes the virtue of chastity which, strangling the interest which each person has in himself and the appeals of a nature which promises pleasure, but brings only disillusionment, affords us the real and noble joy of being our own masters and of making our own that Law we have received and heartily accepted, and finally, of accomplishing the noble and exalting sacrifices required to fulfill the Christian ideal.

Amazing stuff. To see how such teachings are applicable to everyday life all you need to do is look at Sylvester Stallone’s chiseled abs at 65, or you can look at the walking heart attacks you see at work, in retail stores, a Kevin Smith interview or…possibly in the mirror. When we improve our self-control and discipline we become a completely different person. In fact, we move closer to the person we were meant to be, because we can never reach our full potential if we don’t have control over the desires of the flesh. Don’t believe me? Ask any number of politicians caught with their pants down. Think back to your favorite musician or movie star who died too soon because of substance abuse. Ask your next door neighbor who is sure he lost the love of his life because he was unfaithful.

It says a lot about our society that abstaining from meat a few times a year for six weeks is considered an onerous task. It says even more that so many people are unfamiliar with self-denial as a means with which personal growth can be attained.

Every day I am thankful for the few short years I spent as an infantryman. Having to live and work in the field for long periods or time, deprived of life’s amenities—it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I became focused. I became serious. It was there that I learned the wisdom of self-denial, and by extension the wisdom embedded in many of the teachings of the Catholic Church. In the Army there were constant references to conditioning the body and the mind; the Catholic Church does the same thing, except it stresses that a sound mind and body will in turn feed the spirit. The Knights of Malta fused the best of both worlds, and came up with The Spiritual Heritage of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. When it comes out in print I’ll be sure to review it here.

Happy Easter,

Douglas

PS: for my non-religious readers, I’ve included a little philosophy from Tyler Durden, who it’s probably safe to say is not a Catholic character. He does seem to know a thing or two about self-denial and humility, though.

Obama speaks out on Augusta, silent on Islam

April 6, 2012April 6, 2012by Douglas Ernst8 Comments

golf copy — If Augusta became a club for Islamic golfers tomorrow, would Barack Obama or Jay Carney criticize it? Magic 8 ball says, "not likely."

The Masters is once again upon us, so you had to know it was only a matter of time before President Obama or a prominent member of his administration spoke up on Augusta National’s men-only policy. Today, White House spokesman Jay Carney got the call.

President Obama thinks women should be allowed membership in the Georgia golf club that is hosting the Masters tournament this week, according to the White House.

“His personal opinion is women should be admitted,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a press briefing on Thursday.

The Augusta National Golf Club, where the Masters golf tournament began on Thursday morning, only accepts male members, and is considered sacred ground in the world of professional golf. …

“We’ve kind of passed the time that women should be excluded from anything,” Carney said.

Interesting, Jay. If Augusta National became an Islamic golf club tomorrow, American liberal feminists and men like Jay Carney wouldn’t say a peep. Suddenly, criticizing the practices of the male members of such a club would be off limits. Barack Obama has nothing to say about “allies” like Hamid Karzai and his “code of conduct” for beating women, and yet a men’s golf club gets a dressing down from the White House Press Secretary. Telling.

Mr. Carney, I invite you to walk down to the nearest mosque in Northern Virgina, summon up the disdain in your voice that you had for Augusta, and say the exact same sentence: “We’ve kind of passed the time that women should be excluded from anything.” Something tells me that I’ll be waiting awhile…

With that said, let me be clear that I’m not inadvertently making the case against Augusta. Whereas I see Augusta as a club where a bunch of guys can get together, drink some beers, smoke a few cigars, play golf…and be guys, Islamic fundamentalists treat women as sub-humans and seek to dehumanize them through a variety of ways. I see Augusta as the ultimate “man cave” for American guys who like to play golf, and I see radical Islam as the religion for guys who literally want to bring us back to the Stone Age. Big difference.

I’m being somewhat facetious, but when is Barack Obama going to issue a statement on Curves, the women’s health and fitness club with the motto: “no makeup, no men, and no mirrors,”? Why do overweight women get a place to call their own and feel comfortable with their…curves, but chunky men on the verge of Type 2 diabetes get the cold shoulder? Or was that the cold double-chin? The point is, there are organizations that cater specifically to men, and there are organizations that cater specifically to women. Sadly, the type of person who wants men to become androgynous, “mantyhose” wearing fools also wants a world where men and women must do everything together. No thanks. I love my wife, but sometimes I like to hang out with a bunch of dudes and just be…a dude. Guys like Tim Allen have made really unfunny sitcoms featuring characters who do the same thing.

Now if you’ll excuse me, all this talk about guy stuff has me itching to watch the Expendables 2 trailer again.

Iron Man 3 gets the Tom Clancy treatment

March 27, 2012March 27, 2012by Douglas ErnstLeave a comment

The word is out: Iron Man 3 is going to have more Tom Clancy and less Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots. Robert Downy Jr. is almost always amazing and so is the character of Iron Man (when he’s done right), so this is probably good news. The problem is, Marvel has a track record of sometimes allowing liberal claptrap to soak into its products. Sometimes, as with Summer 2011’s Captain America, they succeed despite their best efforts at self-sabotage. Due to this, let us revisit a Tom Clancy interview with Charlie Rose to get an accurate glimpse of who the man is and what he’s stands for:

Tom Clancy on Iraq: I think we won. Look, the real world is not digital, it’s analog. That means it’s fundamentally untidy. And so, the Iraq situation is going to remain untidy for quite some time to come. At the end of it Iraq is going to be a free democratic society, and that’s a win for us and for the whole world…. Democracy works. America has proven that to the world. Now some parts of the world are a little retarded on that, like China, North Korea and a few others. But democracy and the American model works better than any system in the world.

Tom Clancy on The French: [They’re] like a big sister. They think they know better than us, but we’re the one’s who made the money. They’re offended we don’t take their advice. Well, tough world. We’ve grown beyond that. … They eat McDonald’s, but they burn the places down. They ask Walt Disney to invest in their country, but then when it’s done they call it a cultural Chernobyl. … It’s a love/hate relationship. When the Germans are making noise, they love us.

Tom Clancy on terrorism: The first line of defense against any foe, particularly terrorists, is intelligence information, which means human intelligence, which means the operation starts with the CIA … that was hammered by Frank Church in the early 70’s and then the Jimmy Carter administration in the late 70’s. … Our ability to do [gain intelligence] was gutted almost 30 years ago … The CIA is an agency of about 17,000 people, of whom maybe 500 are field spooks. That’s a big tail on not a big dog. We threw away a lot of our human intelligence capabilities over 20 years ago, and although we’re just now starting to hire people and bring those people back it takes awhile to bring that capability back, it takes upwards of five years for these guys to be effective officers. Just because we’re funding it now, it’s not like flipping on a light switch. It takes time. Some terrorists organizations are actually family members, and it’s kind of hard to infiltrate a family. And the other thing that members of Congress have trouble with is, quite simply if you want to go down a rat hole you better have some whiskers, and they don’t want any good, upstanding Americans to have whiskers. …

The FBI had an agent named Joe Pistone who infiltrated the mafia. And he wrote a book about it titled Donny Brosco … and he got in so far that he almost became a made man, at which point there was a collective panic when the Director looked up and said, “How do we tell a federal district court judge that a sworn Special Agent in the FBI is now a made man in the mafia?” And that’s when they had to cut the information off, and we got a lot of useful information. That’s what the CIA does, but on an international basis…and it’s vital to get that information. The way you get that information might not be aesthetically pleasing, but the real world, contrary to what a lot of people on the political left think, is not the Olympic skating championships.

Got that, Marvel? Tom Clancy is not liberal. He’s a very successful writer who doesn’t fill books with politically correct pap. If you’re going to allow Director Shane Black go on record with the Clancy-plan, then there’s no going back. However, since Black also directed Robert Downy Jr. in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (a severely underrated movie), I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

For all of us who can’t wait for Iron Man 3, at least The Avengers will tide us over.