tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48447609019644937482024-03-27T01:35:21.920-05:00The Worden ReportDr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comBlogger1629125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-54834663576055968322024-03-23T19:59:00.000-05:002024-03-23T19:59:59.730-05:00Democracy Waning in Former French Colonies in Africa<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The subversion of democracy in
former French colonies in Africa stymies the African Union from developing from
a mere confederation, wherein all of the governmental sovereignty resides with
the states, to modern federalism, whose chief characteristic is dual
sovereignty. There is good reason for the requirement in the U.S. that the
states be republics rather than dictatorships, for the latter would be more
likely to ignore the federal jurisdiction within their respective states.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2024/03/democracy-waning-in-former-french.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Democracy Waning in Africa</span></a>."</span></p><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-74606507106521017142024-03-10T21:24:00.002-05:002024-03-10T21:25:19.994-05:00The Zone of Interest<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">It is, unfortunately, all too
easy for the human brain to relegate the humanity of other human beings—to dehumanize
them. This is the leitmotif of <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7160372/"><span style="color: #783f04;">The Zone of Interest</span></a></i> (2023),
a film whose release took place in the context of the Russian invasion of
Ukraine and Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza in which civilians, including
women and children, were targeted as if they were culpable for the break-up of
the U.S.S.R. and the Hamas attack in Israel. Under the fallacy of collective
justice, dehumanizing carnage can run wild. In <i>The Zone of Interest</i>, the
banality of evil is evident even though it is subtle under the protection of
the status quo. To be sure, other films depict such banality of the ordinary; what
distinguishes <i>The Zone of Interest </i>is how it shows us the rawness of
human violence ironically by now sh</span><span style="font-family: times;">owing it.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: times;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-zone-of-interest.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">The Zone of Interest</span></a>."</span></span></div>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"> </span><i style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"> </i></p><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-60754638100455743002024-02-24T13:55:00.009-06:002024-02-25T17:09:17.779-06:00Yale Divinity School<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: rgb(238, 238, 238);"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">On
February 21-23, 2024, Rowan Williams, a former archbishop of Canterbury,
delivered a series of lectures on the topic of solidarity in moral theology. In
my own research, I relate that field to ethics and historical economic thought.
Williams’ theory of solidarity goes beyond what he calls “the vague feeling of
empathy” that is emphasized in the moral writings of David Hume and Adam Smith.
Williams has solidarity, unlike mere "fellow-feeling," reach a
person’s identity and even one’s soul through a shared experience of
existential fragility. Solidary pertains to interpersonal relations and is thus
relevant to neighbor-love, which includes being willing to attend to
the human needs even of one’s detractors and enemies, as well as just plain rude people. I contend that the upper
echelon at Yale Divinity School is at two-degrees of separation from this sort
of solidarity, especially as it is wholistic rather than partisan in nature. It
is no accident, by the way, that the self-love that characterizes the school's
culture has manifested in some courses being almost entirely oriented to
advocating very narrow ideological partisan positions, politically, economically,
and on social issues at the expense of sheer fairness to students, wholeness,
theology, and academic standards. At the time, the school was accepting 50% of
studen applicants. I leave these ideological and academic matters to the side
here so I can focus on the astonishing distance between the school's dean and
the sort of solidarity that he heard of in the lectures and that could lead to
Christian leadership for Yale's Christian divinity school, which includes two
seminaries. </span></span><o:p></o:p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-mycorner.blogspot.com/2024/02/yale-divinity-school-fish-rots-from.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Yale Divinity School</span></a>." </span></span></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-68125742825006826052024-02-23T15:57:00.001-06:002024-02-23T15:57:22.250-06:00On the Role of Agribusiness in Global Warming<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Agriculture is a major source
of carbon and methane emissions, which in turn are responsible for the general
trend of the warming of the planet’s atmosphere and oceans. In fact,
agriculture emits more than all of the cars on the roads. 10 percent of the
emissions carbon dioxide and methane in the U.S. come from the agricultural
sector. Livestock is the biggest source of methane. Cows, for example, emit
methane. Methane from a number or sources, including the thawing permafrost, accounted
for 30 percent of global warming in 2023. As global population has grown exponentially
since the early 1900s, herds of livestock at farms have expanded, at least in
the U.S., due to the increasing demand.<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span>
We are biological animals, and we too must eat. More people means that more
food is needed, and the agricultural lobby in the U.S. is not about to let the
governments require every resident to become a vegetarian. Indeed, the economic
and political power of the large agribusinesses in the U.S. have effectively
staved off federal and state regulations regarding emissions. It comes down to
population, capitalism, and plutocracy warping democracy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2024/02/on-role-of-agribusiness-in-global.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">On the Role of Agribusiness in Global Warming</span></a>."</span><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: times;">1. Georgina
Gustin, “Climate Change and Agriculture,” Yale University, February 22, 2024.</span></p></div></div><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-16312700685540807362024-02-22T13:15:00.002-06:002024-02-24T15:21:42.518-06:00Energy and Global Population<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">There is a temptation,
especially since the global average temperature reached the 1.5C increase threshold in 2023 much faster than anticipated, to focus narrowly on the
progress in renewable energy sources without placing it in perspective relative
to the total amount of energy being used globally, the annual increases in
energy demand, and the root cause, the explosive growth in human population
since the early 20<sup>th</sup> century. The strategic geo-political
international interests of countries impacted and should thus be considered as
well. </span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2024/02/energy-global-population-and-security.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Energy and Global Population</span></a>." </span><o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-57819460779556825452024-02-18T16:41:00.001-06:002024-02-19T17:56:51.575-06:00On the Impotency of International Law in a System of Sovereign States: The Case of Gaza<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The sheer brazenness with which countries
ironically recognized as being sovereign states by international law ignore
international law even in regard to human rights that seeks to place boundaries
on said sovereignty reflects the impotency of international law, and thus even
that which recognizes national sovereignty itself. For the rest of us,
continuing to believe that upcoming cases before the International Court of
Justice, the UN’s court, are of consequence and thus even worth paying attention
to, demonstrates abject stupidity, as if we were herd animals without learning
curves. Admittedly, the stubborn, self-aggrandizing governments are ethically
worse than the world’s population that lets such governments blatantly and even
explicitly ignore judicial rulings of the International Court of Justice (and
the European Court of Human Rights), but culpability can also be gleamed from
the public’s truly pathetic irrational belief that another case against a
country that has just ignored a verdict of that very court might just work in
curtailing human-rights abuses and outright, even genocide-scale, aggression
that outstrips even the sin of retaliation. Either I am blind or the proverbial
emperor is not wearing any clothes. </span><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2024/02/on-impotency-of-international-law-in.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">On the Impotency of International Law</span></a>."</span></div><br /><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-39002839205349145022024-02-16T17:41:00.001-06:002024-02-17T12:28:25.861-06:00The Humanities on Climate Change<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">William Paley claimed that the
“university exists to form the minds and the moral sensibilities of the next
generation of clergymen, magistrates, and legislators.”<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
The assumption at Cambridge in 1785 was that both “individual conduct and a
social order pleasing to God can be known and taught.”<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
To know outside of divine revelation what is pleasing to God was typically
considered to be presumptuous back then because human finite knowledge cannot
claim to encompass all possible knowledge. This could not even be claimed of AI
a couple decades into the twenty-first century. Although infinity itself is not
necessarily a divine concept—think of infinite space possibly being in the
universe—it cannot be said that humans have, or even are capable of having,
infinite knowledge. Theists and humanists can agree on this point. So, when a
professor decides that a political issue is so important that using a faculty
position to advocate for one’s own ideology in the classroom, presumptuousness
can be said to reek to high heaven. I assume that <i>any</i> ideology is partial, and thus partisan, rather than wholistic. Both
the inherently limited nature of the human brain, and thus human knowledge, and
the presumption of an instructor to use the liberal arts, or the humanities
more specifically, to advocate for one’s own ideology were strikingly on
display on a panel on what the humanities should contribute on climate change.
The panel, which consisted mostly of scholars from other universities, took
place at Yale University on Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day, 2024. Perhaps on
that day in which the two holidays aliened, both fear of our species going
extinct—literally turning to dust—and love of our species and Earth could be
felt. That we can scarcely imagine our planet
without our species living on it does not mean that such a scenario could not
happen; and yet I contend that the humanities should not sell its soul or be
romanticized ideologically to be transacted away into vocational knowledge, as
if the humanities would more fittingly ask <i>how</i>
to do something rather than <i>why</i>
something is so. Going <i>deeper</i>, rather
than departing from the intellectual <i>raison
d’être </i>in order to tread water at the surface, metastasizing into training
and skills, is not only the basis of the humanities’ sustainable competitive
advantage in a university, but also the best basis from which the humanities
can make a contribution to solving the problem of climate change by getting at its
underlying source. Neither a political ideology or skills in “knowledge-use”
can get at that; rather, they are oriented to relieving <i>symptoms</i>, which although very harmful, could be more expeditiously redressed
by discovering <i>and understanding </i>their
root cause. So I’m not claiming that universities should do away with applied
science and research on technology, such as to absorb carbon from the seas and
atmosphere; rather, I contend that the liberal arts and sciences, especially
the humanities, should not be turned into engines of application. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-highered.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-humanities-on-climate-change.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Humanities on Climate Change</span></a>."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="edn1"><div><span style="font-family: times;">1. A. M. C. Waterman, <i>Political Economy and Christian Theology Since the Enlightenment: Essays in Intellectual History </i>(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), p. 211. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">2. Ibid.</span></div></div></div>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-45595156757297253292024-02-10T10:47:00.001-06:002024-02-17T13:00:55.509-06:00Yale Vipers<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">Even though it is sometimes difficult to "read between the lines" to assess whether or not people in an organization are welcoming or tacitly "showing you the door," the message is undoubtable and even palpable when "all the arrows are pointing in the same direction." In the case of Yale, where I have been</span><span style="font-family: times;"> an alumni scholar temporarily in residence during the 2023-2024 year, the university's administration could do its alumni a big favor by explicitly saying that we are not welcome back on campus, except to visit and of course donate money. Instead, passive aggression, unaccountability, and even unwarranted retaliation rule the roust there, in what is a toxic organizational culture. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">The full essay is at "</span><a href="https://thewordenreport-mycorner.blogspot.com/2024/02/yale-vipers.html" style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #783f04;">Yale Vipers</span></a><span style="font-family: times;">."</span></span></div>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-10172983255628870542024-01-30T13:33:00.008-06:002024-02-17T13:42:32.061-06:00On Universities Cancelling Classes on Some Minor Holidays for Ideological Purposes<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Higher education is not valued equally in the various American states. Where academia is not particularly valued, other things can intercede as priorities even at the universities themselves at the expense of academics. In such places, even the universities themselves may value being academic institutions too little by allowing other societal agendas to eclipse the distinctly academic mission. Indeed, even academic administrators may be infected with an ideology currently in fashion societally, and insufficiently academically minded to thwart the interlarded non-academic values that seek hegemony even on academic campuses.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-highered.blogspot.com/2019/10/university-classes-and-minor-holidays.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Universities Cancelling Classes</span></a>."</span></div></div>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-56539183674422281832024-01-24T16:28:00.001-06:002024-02-04T16:42:43.478-06:00The Devil’s Arithmetic<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179148/"><i><span style="color: #783f04;">The Devil’s Arithmetic</span></i></a><i> </i>(1999) can be classified superficially as a coming-of-age film, for Hanna, the protagonist, starts out being immaturely contemptuous of her family’s ethnic and religious heritage and current practice. She tries to skip the Passover Seder at her grandparents’ house. That her aunt Eva had been a prisoner at a Nazi death camp makes no difference to Hanna—that is, until she is transported back as her aunt’s cousin (for whom Hanna was named) and experiences the camp herself. Whether she is <i>really </i>transported back in time (and if so, how?) or is merely dreaming is answered in the end but not so blatantly as would insult the viewers’ intelligence. Then again, it’s not every film that has allusions both to theology and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><i><span style="color: #783f04;">The Wizard of Oz</span></i></a>. The different ways in which that movie is incorporated and alluded to in this film are actually quite sophisticated in extending the viewers’ sense of synchronicity beyond the film’s narrative.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: times;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-devils-arithmetic.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">The Devil's Arithmetic</span></a>."</span></span></div>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-37971434881668417182024-01-14T15:28:00.003-06:002024-01-14T15:47:12.209-06:00Record Global Warming and Carbon Emissions in 2023: Exponential Population Growth and Beholden Governments<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I submit that not enough attention is brought to bear on the root of the warming of the planet: the huge increase in human population in the 20<sup>th</sup> century. More attention could also be directed to the disconnect between the warming running up against the 1.5 Celsius limit agreed to by governments in the Paris Agreement in 2016 and the still <i>increasing </i>amounts of carbon emissions from humans. Finally, the culpability of governments in not being willing to touch economic growth or corporate interests warrants attention. It as if an adult steps on a weight scale and realizes, <i>I’ve never weighed this much in my life</i>, and then eats ice-cream that very night. Unfortunately, the diffusion of responsibility can inhibit governments, industries, and an electorate from having the sort of cognitive dissidence that an individual who has a record weight and then eats ice-cream—not even low-fat!—should have. Such dissidence should trigger changes in conduct. Even so, business and government are comprised ultimately of people and thus have been culpable and are thus blameworthy.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2024/01/record-global-warming-in-2023.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Record Global Warming</span></a>." </span></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-4633826395652907762024-01-08T23:12:00.000-06:002024-01-08T23:12:51.801-06:00Exfoliating a Hero: On Lincoln's Unconstitutional Overreaching<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Lest we get carried away and inadvertantly enshrine our leaders with mythic laurals, it is worthwhile to peel back our societal "remembering" of past figures, such as Abraham Lincoln, who have become larger than life.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-governmentandmarkets.blogspot.com/2024/01/exfoliating-hero-on-lincolns.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Exfoliating a Hero</span></a>."</span></div></div>
Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-60337348440925730792024-01-08T23:01:00.001-06:002024-01-08T23:19:43.269-06:00On the Birth of Corporate Social Responsibilty in 1869<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;">Referring to the speculation in gold that was engineered by Jay Gould and others in 1869 to enrich themselves and the Erie Railroad, Henry Adams (1838-1918), a grandson of John Quincy Adams and great grandson of John Adams, wrote at the time:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;">“For the first time since the creation of these enormous corporate bodies, one of them has shown its power for mischief, and has proved itself able to override and trample on law, custom, decency, and every restraint known to society, without scruple, and as yet without check. The belief is common in America that the day is at hand when corporations far greater than the Erie [Railroad] — swaying power such as has never in the world’s history been trusted in the hands of mere private citizens<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>. . . — will ultimately succeed in directing government itself. Under the American form of society, there is now no authority capable of effective resistance.” (1) </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-businessandsociety.blogspot.com/2024/01/on-birth-of-corporate-social.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">The Birth of Corporate Social Responsibility</span></a>."</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">1. Henry Adams, “The New York Gold Conspiracy,” in Charles F. Adams, Jr. and Henry Adams, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;">Chapters of Erie</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1956), pp. 135-36.</span></div></div>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-70460691653945544002024-01-08T22:43:00.000-06:002024-01-08T22:43:58.877-06:00Legislation of the U.S. Government during the Civil War: A Case of Unconstitutional Governance?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Lest history be forgotten, it may come around again to bite us when we least expect it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times;">During the war between the Confederate States and the United States of America, The Legal Tender Act required debtors to accept “greenbacks,” the U.S. Government’s paper currency. The National Bank Act barred state banks from issuing notes, giving the U.S. Government a monopoly on paper currency. Finally, The Internal Revenue Act imposed a federal income tax and other levies. Henry </span><span style="font-family: times;">Brands asks, however, whether “greenbacks” fall under the U.S. Constitution’s wording that the federal government can “coin” money. If money was in coin specie when the constitution was written, the meaning could be widened to include new means without necessarily extending the power of that government beyond what was intended.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-governmentandmarkets.blogspot.com/2024/01/legislation-of-us-government-during.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Unconstitutional Governance in the Civil War</span></a>."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span>Source: Henry W. Brands, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/American-Colossus-Triumph-Capitalism-1865-1900/dp/0385523335"><span style="color: #783f04;">American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism 1865-1900</span></a> </i>(New York: Doubleday, 2010), p. 13.</span></div>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-12658559759517974842024-01-07T14:55:00.000-06:002024-01-07T14:55:10.210-06:00Barbie<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><span style="color: #783f04;">The Wizard of Oz</span></a>
</i>(1939), Glenda, the Good Witch of the North, tells Dorothy at the end of
the film that it had been within her power to go home to Auntie Em’s farm in
Kansas at any time, simply by clicking the heels of her ruby shoes thrice together.
At the end of <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517268/"><span style="color: #783f04;">Barbie</span></a> </i>(2023)<i>,
</i>Ruth, who created the Barbie and Ken dolls, tells the traditional Barbie
that she can become human herself simply by choosing to feel, and thus to live.
The Witch and Ruth occupy similar roles, as do Dorothy and Barbie. But whereas
Dorothy is trying to get <i>back</i> to the home she had known and now appreciates
from faraway Oz, Barbie is trying to get <i>to </i>what she was made for—something
qualitatively different than not being alive. Barbie’s plight is existential,
and she discovers that the root of her identity transcends the feminist agenda.
As home transcends ideology, what a person is made for transcends even home.
Put another way, home is ultimately in being who one really is, hence being
transcends location.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2024/01/barbie.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Barbie</span></a>."</span></p><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-45110040517491947882024-01-06T20:48:00.001-06:002024-01-06T20:50:16.349-06:00On Israel’s Public Relations Campaign against the Charge of Genocide<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In theory, state media is more
vulnerable to doing the bidding of its sponsoring government than are privately
owned media companies. In practice, governments are able to pressure even
private news outlets to sway public opinion for political purposes. Even allied
governments can pressure the government of a country in which a private news
company resides in terms of what stories to air and when to air them, in order
to sway that country’s public opinion, and even global public opinion. The
sudden appearances in print, online, and on television news networks of former
Israeli hostages being interviewed just after the International Court of Justice
had announced on December 29, 2023 that Israel would be tried on charges of
genocide in Gaza. Not coincidentally, I submit, emotionally-charged hyperbole was
used to pull emotional “heart-strings” in order to convince the world,
including the justices at international court,<i> </i>that the Hamas attack on
October 7, 2023 had been so bad that even Israel’s extremely disproportionate
military attacks in Gaza were justified and thus should not be considered to be
genocidal. Besides the logic being flawed, for the infliction of such
disproportional harm was not justified, and even a justified genocide would
violate the Convention on Genocide, which Israel had agreed to be bound. In
short, I suspect that much was happening behind the scenes not only in Israel,
but also in the U.S. Government and even private media companies in the U.S.
immediately following the Court’s announcement.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2024/01/on-israels-public-relations-campaign.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Israel's Public Relations Offensive</span></a>."</span></p><br /><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-92055680126207695612024-01-03T18:42:00.001-06:002024-01-04T00:06:57.704-06:00We the People: Invigorating Popular Sovereignty by Referendi<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A republic is characterized by the citizenry electing representatives, who in turn legislate (i.e., make law). As an alternative, the citizenry itself could vote directly on legislative proposals. The latter is called direct democracy. Ancient Athens, for example, practiced it. In the United States, the republic form is the prevalent form of government. In spite of Wilson’s comment made in the constitutional convention that representation “is made necessary only because it is impossible for the people to act collectively,”[1] direct democracy has typically limited to an occasional “referendum” question even though more vital questions could be put to the body politic directly. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-governmentandmarkets.blogspot.com/2010/10/invigorating-popular-sovereignty-by.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Invigorating Popular Sovereignty</span></a>."<br /></span></div>
<br />
1, James Madison, <em>Notes in the Federal Convention of 1787</em>. New York: Norton, 1987, p. 74.Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-38579397772631903432024-01-03T14:08:00.008-06:002024-01-03T18:03:39.220-06:00The Israeli Supreme Court’s Conflict of Interest as Unreasonable<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Ironically, in making the ruling on
New Year’s Day of 2024 striking down Prime Minister Netanyahu’s amendment to the
country’s basic law that would have removed the judiciary’s authority of judicial
review of laws based on their reasonableness, Israel’s Supreme Court too unreasonably
exploited a conflict of interest. Basic Law, which is
essentially constitutional law, includes the basic architecture of a
government, such as how the executive, legislative, and judicial functions are
related. Self-interest being a salient feature of human nature, we can assume
that the governmental functionaries in each of those functions naturally seek
to expand their respective jurisdictions relative to those of the other two. I
contend that to give one or two of those areas the last word in altering the
division of authority involves a conflict of interest. This applies to a
constitutional court. Therefore, even though democracy is served by a judicial
decision striking down an attempt by the executive and/or legislature to eviscerate
the authority of the judiciary to act as a check, giving the latter the last word
is fraught with entanglements. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-governmentandmarkets.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-israeli-supreme-courts-conflict-of.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Israel's Supreme Court: A Conflict of Interest</span></a>."</span></p><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-52382024957154718752024-01-01T14:40:00.003-06:002024-01-01T20:26:40.242-06:00Toothless International Human Rights: Genocide in Gaza<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It strains credulity to believe
that vengeance against the Palestinian residents of Gaza was not among the motives
of the Israeli government’s ministers in retaliating for the Hamas attack
against occupation on October 7, 2023. Within days, Israel’s president publicly
accused every Palestinian in Gaza of being guilty. Because it cannot be assumed
that every resident of Gaza who had voted Hamas into office was in favor of the
attack, and the residents who had voted for the PLO could even less be assumed
to be supportive of Hamas, the Israeli notion of collective justice is
ethically flawed. Deficient as a subterfuge for the very human instinctual urge
to inflict disproportionate vengeance, the espoused justification did not hold
South Africa off from charging Israel with genocide at the International Court
of Justice (ICJ). At the time, both South Africa and Israel were parties to the
Genocide Convention. Because the ICJ was at the time the principal judicial body
of the United Nations, the UN’s lack of enforcement power—notorious even on
resolutions <i>passed </i>by the Security Council—meant that even a conviction could
send the message that a national government can get away with even genocide. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2024/01/toothless-international-human-rights.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Crimes Against Humanity: Israeli Genocide</span></a>"</span></p><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-16297200048859228442023-12-31T12:47:00.003-06:002023-12-31T12:47:41.803-06:00Medium Cool<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In <i>Medium Cool </i>(1969),
John Cassellis, a cameraman, maintains a medium-cool level of emotion even in
the midst of the socio-political turmoil in Chicago during 1968 until he learns
that his station manager had been allowing the FBI access to the news footage.
The film can be interpreted as providing a justification for his lack of trust
in American law enforcement even as the need for law and order is made clear
from the ubiquity of the human instinctual urge of aggression. For the film
shows not only the extent of violence, but also its engrained nature in our
species. By implication, the viewer is left to conclude that that law
enforcement is necessary in a civilized society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet this can only be a necessary evil, for
the last few scenes of the film show just how likely discretion is to be abused.
The atrocious and one-sided police violence during the peaceful protests
outside of the Democratic National Convention make it clear that if given the
legal authority to use weapons, human beings may abuse such discretion if too
weak to restrain their own personal passions and, albeit less common, even
their psychological pathologies. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2023/12/medium-cool.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Medium Cool</span></a>."</span></p><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-16278990772336306782023-12-27T16:39:00.000-06:002023-12-27T16:39:27.624-06:00The Conversation<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">Winner of the Palme d’Or (golden palm) prize in the Cannes Film Festival for 1974, </span><i style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071360/"><span style="color: #783f04;">The Conversation</span></a> </i><span style="font-family: times;">(1974) was written, directed, and produced by Francis Ford Coppola; it was a film that he really wanted to make, whereas he had made </span><i style="font-family: times;">The Godfather </i><span style="font-family: times;">(1972) to make money. In both films, business comes to be something more than business. In </span><i style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/"><span style="color: #783f04;">The Godfather</span></a>, </i><span style="font-family: times;">Sonny tells Michael not to take being hit in the jaw by the corrupt police captain McCluskey personally. That Sollozzo expects Tom Hagen to objectively present a business proposal to Sonny after Sollozzo has had the Godfather gunned down with five shots </span><i style="font-family: times;">and still he survived</i><span style="font-family: times;"> just shows how ludicrous it is to suppose that the consequences of the murderous tactics of that business would </span><i style="font-family: times;">not </i><span style="font-family: times;">be taken personally. Even so, the moral dimension does not enter into the considerations. In contrast</span><i style="font-family: times;">, </i><span style="font-family: times;">Harry, who runs a small business recording third-party conversations for clients in </span><i style="font-family: times;">The Conversation</i><span style="font-family: times;">, gradually comes to take his work personally in a moral sense. Whereas the murders in </span><i style="font-family: times;">The Godfather </i><span style="font-family: times;">are personal in the sense vengeance being part of the motivations, those in </span><i style="font-family: times;">The Conversation </i><span style="font-family: times;">are personal in the sense of moral responsibility being increasingly felt by Harry. Accompanying this realization of guilt, however, is a recognition of the extent of surveillance </span><i style="font-family: times;">on him</i><span style="font-family: times;">, and this too changes him. If the problem were just being morally responsible for what clients do with his tapes, then he could solve the problem by doing something else for a living. Being a target of surveillance himself, however, is something that he cannot change. Even in tearing his apartment apart, he does not find the “bug,” or listening device that his client’s assistant is using. By implication, we can reflect on just how much we are watched in the modern world—that is to say, how much the world in which we live has come to be characterized by surveillance. I contend that we are largely oblivious to it because it has encroached so gradually that its incrementalism is difficult to detect.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-conversation.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">The Conversation</span></a>."</span></span></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-62854133195540991232023-12-22T20:59:00.012-06:002023-12-23T13:37:38.457-06:00Pope Francis on Blessing Gay Couples<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pope Francis approved a
document in 2023 that allows for “the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular
situations and for couples of the same sex”<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span>
The inclusion of the word, <i>possibility</i>, is important because it gives
priests (and their bishops) whose stances on morality are socially conservative
an out. That <i>irregular </i>situations are included in the statement—although
admittedly they are distinct from “couples of the same sex”—is a hint that the
statement would likely be controversial and taken at least by some clergy negatively. So that the document gives the clergy discretion is no small matter. It also matters because of the emotional vulnerability that is entailed in requesting a blessing. At the time, the
Church was still being impacted by having been recognized, and thus stigmatized, as the cause of the emotional damage that had been inflicted on children by pedophile clergy
over decades. In fact, the resulting declining church attendance may have gone
into the motivation for the statement. The document's overarching pastoral purpose in blessing gay couples over conducting a moral critique of homosexuality shows not only how much Pope Francis differed as of 2023 from his predecessor, but also how very much the atrocities against children had changed the orientation of the Vatican. To the extent that a significant number of the pedophile priests and bishops had molested (and were still molesting) boys, any moral critiques getting in the way of blessing loving gay relationships would suffe<span style="font-family: times;">r from a lack of credibility in the face of dripping irony and sordid hypocrisy. <span style="line-height: 107%;">Even so, the document can be criticized for failing to distinguish moral
from <i>theological </i>critiques of male homosexuality—an oversight
mitigated by that fact that the pastoral purpose of the letter subordinates
even a theological assessment, for, as Paul wrote, faith without love,
especially love whose object is not convenient, is for naught.</span> </span></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><span style="font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-religion.blogspot.com/2023/12/pope-francis-on-blessing-gay-couples.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Pope Francis on Blessing Gay Couples</span></a>."</span><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText">1. Christopher Lamb, “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/18/europe/pope-francis-same-sex-couples-blessing-intl/index.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Pope
Francis Authorizes Blessings for Same-Sex Couples</span></a>,” CNN.com, December 18,
2023.</p></div></div>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-70287780727379496672023-12-22T16:03:00.004-06:002023-12-22T16:09:13.373-06:00The Colorado Supreme Court Bars Insurrectionist Trump: Who Should Ultimately Decide?<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">On December 19, 2023, Colorado’s
Supreme Court ruled that Don Trump, a former U.S. president, had engaged in
insurrectionist activity as a matter of fact, and furthermore, as a matter of
law, the U.S. Constitution bars him from holding <i>any </i>office, including
the presidency. With an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a certainty, realized
even by the Colorado justices, and some notable (and very visible) Republicans
arguing that the American people should have the final say on whether Trump
will be president again beginning in 2025, the question of who should have the
final say—the judiciary or the people—was pressing, and indeed, very important.
I contend that the determination of fact should have been made by a jury in a
criminal proceeding, and that even absent that, the ultimate decision should
still be made prior to, and thus not during, the election, for the question is
whether Trump can be listed as a candidate for the office. Ultimately, the
tension lies between the value of a politics-free judiciary and democratic
(majority) rule. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-governmentandmarkets.blogspot.com/2023/12/colorado-supreme-court-bars.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">The Colorado Supreme Court Bars Insurrectionist Trump</span></a>."</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-22921354243278723672023-12-15T14:14:00.002-06:002023-12-15T14:14:26.224-06:00Far from Heaven<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The film, <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0297884/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_far%2520from%2520"><span style="color: #783f04;">Far from Heaven</span></a></i>
(2002), centers around a woman whose husband turns out to be gay. That this is
set in 1957-1958 in socialite Connecticut is all the more telling, as the
Caucasian woman finds her groundskeeper, who is a Black man, to be “beautiful.”
The film is arguably a remake, or at least informed by, the film <i><a href="https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2023/12/all-that-heaven-allows.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">All that Heaven Allows</span></a> </i>(1955), in which a widow begins dating a younger, muscular
man who tends to her trees. Although race and homosexuality are not issues in
this earlier film (which, after all, was made in the 1950s), that a woman who
socializes with friends who belong to a country club in New England would dare
to date a younger man of a lower economic class—albeit not as low as the
woman’s son and friends stereotypically suppose—was scandalous enough in the 1950s
to furnish a tantalizing plot. That a filmmaker in 2002 could get away with
portraying an interracial extra-marital sexual interest <i>and </i>a gay or
bisexual husband having anonymous sex with men (even showing the husband
kissing one of the men), whereas a filmmaker in 1955 would not have been able
to get away with including such taboos (much less making them central), says
something about the cultural trajectory of western civilization temporally. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2023/12/far-from-heaven.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">Far from Heaven</span></a>."</span></p><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4844760901964493748.post-88938030208133299722023-12-15T13:54:00.003-06:002023-12-15T13:54:56.161-06:00All That Heaven Allows<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Film is an excellent medium for
displaying and wrestling with practical philosophy, which includes ethics,
political theory, and philosophy of religion (as well as aesthetics, which is a
rather obvious topic for film). A film that has a character personifying a
particular philosopher’s thought and antagonists rejecting that philosophy, and
goes so far as to have a character read on-screen from a philosopher’s book, is
the epitome of film doing philosophy. The film, <i>All That Heaven Allows </i>(1955),
is such a film.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The full essay is at "<a href="https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2023/12/all-that-heaven-allows.html"><span style="color: #783f04;">All That Heaven Allows</span></a>."</span></p><p></p>Dr. Wordenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02867414605883311000noreply@blogger.com