Three Links Wednesday

The laser is up, the Nicene Guys site is down, and so today seems a good day to just pass along a few quick links.

--1--

First, an assessment of the Iowa caucuses by Mr Ross Douthat. He's been saying for some time that this is the weakest field of Republican (or really, any party) candidates for President in some time. The Iowans selected the three who least deserve to lose. My own observation is that the Republicans of the 2012 elections are increasingly looking like the Democrats of the 2004 elections, but perhaps more so: "anybody but Mitt for nominee, anybody but Obama for President." Fortunately, that didn't work for the Democrats then; it probably won't work for the Republicans now, and this against the worst president in living memory (and possibly, ever). I also agree with Mr Douthat (and also with my friend Mr Nathanael Blake) that Rick Sanctorum and Ron Paul are the most likely to do a good job of actually "challenging" Mitt Romney, but that Romney will ultimately (and probably quickly) prevail.

--2--

Second, Dr George Weigel has an excellent piece about breaking bad liturgical habits--actually, a follow-up to an older piece which is also quite good. It gives a little something for everyone to work on. I especially like the suggestions for silence: both during the Mass at given times, and (among the congregation) less chit-chat while in the Sacred Space (I suppose I could work on this one a little myself).

--3--

I kind of missed out on this blogosphere party, but quite a few bloggers have been posting book recommendations for 2012 (apparently, at the invitation of Mrs Jennifer Fulwiler); Mrs Jennifer Fulwiler has collected these and posted them. I've read a number of the recommended books, and many of the others I have read something else by the same authors, and most of these I would second. I especially liked Jesus of Nazareth, What We Can't Not Know, and Memorize the Faith. However, if I was going to make one recommendation (one which is not on the list already mentioned, and which you are likely to not have read already), I'd probably go with Prof Mortimer J Adler's Ten Philosophical Mistakes. In this book, Dr Adler takes aim at ten common misunderstandings found in modern philosophy--indeed, in everyday life. In particular I would recommend the section on happiness and contentment (which I have discussed a few times), but really all ten are common mistakes. Adler is also very readable: like Dr Budziszewski, he writes very well to the everyman reader while not just "dumbing down" philosophy.

--Bonus--

Today's bonus link is to my friend Mr Colin Gormley's post about hypocrisy, in which he briefly discusses another common (rhetorical or philosophical) mistake.