Does church make people good?

Or do good people generally go to church?

The Maximum Leader’s mea culpa and Phin’s comment had me flashing back to working in Baltimore.

The citizenry of Baltimore is very religious.

And would have acted much the same way as the citizens of New Orleans.

I was constantly stunned by the melodramatic proclomations of Christian belief from kids who were dishonest, selfish, profane, promiscuous, drug-using thugs.

I also have many friends who are not religious but who hold themselves to a very high moral standard. A good example would be my good friend the Minister of Propaganda. He’s honest, hardworking, generous, loyal… well, he’s a walking book of virtues except for that whole celibacy thing.

So, in my experience, the term “churchgoing” doesn’t necessarily equate with “moral.”

In many areas, churchgoing folks do tend to be good people as well. But are they good because they believe in God or because basically good people get involved in community activities like church?

Maybe the breakdown isn’t religion - maybe it’s a rural vs. urban thing.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been thinking about a comment from a he threw together a short while ago. He feels the need now to restate, that is to say, restate more clearly, the point at which he was driving. He must do so lest you all start to think that your Maximum Leader is going to start making Pat Robertson-esque pronouncements about how God will use the weather to punish the unrighteous.

In this post your Maximum Leader started off by snarkily commenting on the sometimes useless studies presented by news organizations as news. In this case specifically it was a study by the Brookings Institution showing that married couples provide more financial stability, and stability in general, for families than single parents.

Your Maximum Leader stands by his comments that we didn’t need another study to inform us of that which any marginally politically engaged person has known was the case for the past 40 years. But after those comments your Maximum Leader needs to start restating.

As your Maximum Leader has said on many prior occasions, he sometimes posts without proper editorial review of his own work. He posts some rather loosely thought out opinions. In most cases your Maximum Leader has favoured commenting quickly at the expense of editorial clarity.

He did not do himself, or you dear minions, a service by that modus operandi today.

It would seem, upon review, that he implied that the chaos, disorder, lawlessness, and other wretched fates to befall New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina may have been the result of a certain Godlessness exhibited by the residents of New Orleans. A Godlessness not duplicated in Mississippi.

That was not meant to be the thrust of where your Maximum Leader’s comments were going.

A snarky, yet deserved, comment from our own Minister of Propaganda caused your Maximum Leader to re-read his post and think again about what he wrote. Upon review he can see where the idea he wanted to write about became muddled.

The idea that your Maximum Leader wanted to more clearly articulate was not that the Hurricane devastated the non-religious more than the religious; although that interpretation can be easily made from what he wrote. (It is also an interpretation not borne out by any facts.) Moreover, he wanted to point out that the reaction of the population to the privations and destruction that resulted from the Hurricane could, perhaps, be judged by the moral beliefs of those affected by the Hurricane. This is to say that one could use going to church as being an indicator of reaction. The more likely a person was to go to church the less likely they were to become part of a roving mob looting stores, firing guns at the National Guard, and terrorizing their neighbours. It is an imperfect indicator, but your Maximum Leader will maintain a useful one. Church attendance is not the only indicator.

Your Maximum Leader meant to speak much more broadly, and perhaps plainly. He believes that there were many contributing factors to the descent into lawlessness we saw in New Orleans. Let him describe some of them.

The first is basic human nature. When one is no longer constrained by the police powers of “the state” there is a temptation to also throw aside all of the contraints of civil society and act only out of self-interest and self-satisfaction. This is the Hobbesian in your Maximum Leader coming out. He firmly believes that we all have the potential to devolve into brutish thugs acting only to satisfy personal desire. But that potential is held in check by a number of factors. Many of which were absent or degraded in the population of New Orleans.

The second factor is civil society. That is to say those elements of human association outside of the immediate control of “the state.” Civil society, for the purposes of this discussion, is interaction with neighbour, being part of a community, cooperating with others and interacting with others using unwritten, but learned, guidelines for conversation and behaviour. Broadly speaking being a part of civil society is being what used to be called civilized.

It is somewhat ironic that the word civilized has at its root the word for “city.” In the case of New Orleans after the storm the city was most uncivilized.

Your Maximum Leader stated a moment ago that when one is unconstrained in behaviour by the power of the state that it is often civilized behaviour that constrains his actions. But in New Orleans civilized behaviour was not a constraining factor. Why?

To begin there always has been a hedonistic streak in New Orleans. It wasn’t called “The Big Easy” for nothing. New Orleans was a refreshing change from traditional America in many respects. It was one of those places where you could “let your hair down” and cut loose.

Laissez les bon temps roulez! You always heard that in New Orleans. Let the good time roll! Order that extra appetizer at dinner. Don’t share that sinfully delicious dessert. Have another drink. Visit another strip club. Flash your tits to get some beads. Hook up with a stranger. No one cares if you fall down drunk in the streets. We could all be dead tomorrow. At any moment life as we know it could end.

Contained in those common phrases is a kernel of naive hedonism that should not be overlooked. “Everything we know could be gone tomorrow so live it up today.” New Orleanians prided themselves for living according to that belief. They founded a tourist industry on it.

The problem is that suddenly one tomorrow everything was gone and it was no longer possible to live it up today. Your Maximum Leader believes that a life of living for the bon temps contributed to the fall of civilization in New Orleans. When the party ended no one knew how to react. So many fell back on human nature. A nature that is opposed to constructive, cooperative interaction with others.

Beyond the historic hedonism of the city one cannot overlook poverty. The strain of urban poverty in New Orleans has always been characterised by corruption, crime, and (for the past 40 years) dependency. New Orleans is famous for corruption and petty crime. Your Maximum Leader has seen people shaken down on the streets of New Orleans by the police. (They’ll take $20 from you now to save themselves the effort of doing paperwork for some petty offence.) Your Maximum Leader has seen reports that the overall crime rate in New Orleans is many times higher than the national average. Crime, corruption and hedonism seem to walk hand in hand in New Orleans.

Dependency in New Orleans has taken many forms. Dependency on federal, state, and local welfare and assistance programs. Without those programs functioning you have a substancial population that is angry and filled with a sense of entitlement. Add to anger and entitlement a natural disaster that takes away whatever a person has and threatens their life and the results become Hobbesian.

Where dependency on federal, state, and local assistance programs becomes the norm, traditional support groups (churches and civic associations) suffer. In the case of churches, there is a great societal benefit reaped from church attendance. That benefit is the inculcation of moral values and belief in behavioural absolutes in congregations. A belief in something greater than, and outside of, oneself is a powerful motivator to behave in an acceptable, civilized, way.

And that brings your Maximum Leader back to where he started… In areas outside of New Orleans, areas that didn’t have the same culture as New Orleans you didn’t have the same reaction among the populace to the destruction wrought by Katrina. The traditional bonds of civilization held in places like Biloxi, Waveland, and Pascagoula. There is, your Maximum Leader thinks, something to be said about that.

Carry on.

. . . nonetheless, I’m just providing the link.

Your guy is an idiot. Enough said.

Believe.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader asks you, “Do you have what it takes to be very Sexy Sadie’s Co-blogger?”

Sadie is looking for a co-blogger. Not a guest blogger mind you. A co-blogger. Sort of like a friend with benefits… Only it is really like a blogger with no benefits… (So to speak.)

Sadie asks only that you fill out her form and tell her why you want to join the par-tay.

Your Maximum Leader thinks there are a few other questions she should ask…
(more…)

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maxmum Leader sees that the hottest story on the news wire right now appears to be Britney’s baby.

Yes. Britney violated the laws of God and Nature and reproduced with a complete waste of DNA. Now their baby boy has been brought into the world. No update on the name. The article says Preston was one choice. Some other tabloid article a while back suggested Vegas as a name.

Either way the kid will be screwed up.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees on the new wire that a Brookings Institution/Princeston study shows that marriage improves a couple’s financial situation and increases familial stability.

Haven’t we known that for about 40 years now? Indeed, if you read even part of the transcript of the press conference announcing the study findings you will see time after time that speakers on the panel comment that the findings are not new news.

The press conference transcript shows there is a lot of discussion concerning going to church and how church-going men and women seem to have more stable families when the get married and are less likely to have children out of wedlock. Many speakers also discussed parenting, and marriage classes as helping a lot.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t doubt the effectivness of classes. But he wonders when the hell did you have to have a class to teach you all you needed to know about marriage and parenting? Oh yes… Classes were needed right about the same time that traditional morality was sacrificed on the altar of relativism and diversity and children no longer had the benefit of observing marriage and parenting first-hand.

Perhaps some of the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans can be traced to a similar root cause. An acquaintance of your Maximum Leader’s just returned from Waveland, MS. He was there to move his family from the Mississippi gulf coast to his home in Virginia. These people lost nearly everything. As they put it, “We lost everything, except what was in our attic. Have you seen the stuff in YOUR attic recently?”

When asked about looters and the breakdown of civil society they responded that they didn’t see anything like what happened in New Orleans. A group of people did loot a strip mall in their town. But the concensus was that the people responsible were “not from round here.” They said they formed “watch groups” by neighborhood and made sure that “they knew anyone coming into or going out of” their neighborhood.

Now these people from Mississippi are not rich by any extent. They are white, black, hispanic. But they didn’t return to some Hobbesian state when the hurricane hit. They describe themselves as “good God-fearin’” people. Perhaps that had something to do with it.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader tips his bejeweled floppy cap to Saint Jones. Who exactly is Saint Jones? Well Mr. Jones is the proprietor of Big Daddy’s in New Orleans. And what is Big Daddy’s? It is a “gentleman’s club.” (So to speak.)

It seems as though Mr. Jones is doing his damnest to reopen Big Daddy’s. Hurricane damage and levee breaches be damned! From the article on the wire Mr. Jones is stocking up on water and supplies. As soon as he has power, and dancers, he’ll open.

Your Maximum Leader suspects that dancers are the least of his troubles.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader thinks that perhaps you may have missed this lovely article off the wire. He’ll share the title with you: Eatery Sold Donkey in Tiger Urine.

What can you say but… Yum?

You know, your Maximum Leader has never had a desire to eat the flesh of any feline. The whole “cat” family has not ever struck him as a source of meat. Cats, on the whole, seem to range-y and slender to be good eating. (Marinated in urine or otherwise.) Your Maximum Leader imagines that any cat meat would be tough and sinew-y.

Well, regardless of what your Maximum Leader thinks, it appears as though tiger meat is a delicacy in China…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has learned that Susan Ann Catherine Torres has died. Aged 5 weeks.

Susan Ann Catherine Torres was the young girl born to brain-dead woman in Arlington VA a little over a month ago. If you recall, Susan’s mother, also Susan, was ravaged by cancer and died while 15 weeks pregnant. Her body was kept alive to give her daughter, and namesake a chance to live.

While the ceasarian birth appeared to go smoothly, it seems as though young Susan developed a perforated intestines and died. Your Maximum Leader can hardly imagine the heart ache of Jason Torres. Who now has lost his young wife and his infant daughter in the course of a few weeks. This fills your Maximum Leader with a deep sense of pathos.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is in DC today on business. He will try to complete a few updates today during breaks in his day.

Longtime readers will remember that the Villainschloss is not the immediate DC area, but in Fredericksburg, VA; about 45 miles from DC. So this morning your Maximum Leader had to rise very early and become a DC commuter. It has been many many years since he was regularly a DC commuter. As surprising as it seems, once and a while he misses it.

This morning evinced one reason why he sometimes misses the commute.

Your Maximum Leader boarded a Metro train in Springfield, VA to take him downtown. In most cases he would just drive the Villainmobile the whole way in, but he decided to take the subway instead. He seated himself as comfortably as possible in a seat and started to read the new issue of National Review.

At Eisenhower Avenue, your Maximum Leader became penned into his seat by a rather corpulent middle-aged man who took the open seat next to your Maximum Leader. Your Maximum Leader continued to read his National Review.

At the Pentagon City station, your Maximum Leader noticed a young woman enter the train in the crush of people. She looked very smart in her prete a porter Donna Karan suit. She had hair that was cut at about shoulder length and pulled into a sensible pony-tail.

Your Maximum Leader would not have paid much attention to her, until he noticed her exquisite arse. It was the arse of a fit, athletic woman. It was well shaped and firm. It looked great in the DK suit. The legs leading to it were quite nice as well.

Your Maximum Leader had to avert his eyes lest he be caught staring.

At the Foggy Bottom Metro Station the corpulent middle-aged man next to your Maximum Leader got up to leave the train. And the woman with stunning arse in the DK suit moved to let him out. She bent down to move her laptop case and gave your Maximum Leader two gifts. The first was a glimpse of the top of her very nice black thong underwear. The second came a moment later. She placed that lovely arse in the seat next to your Maximum Leader. She looked over at him and smiled politely. Your Maximum Leader smiled back. He then resumed reading National Review.

A moment later he caught a whiff of some scent. It was the woman with the stunning arse in the DK suit. Your Maximum Leader couldn’t identify the scent. But it was understated and not too floral. He sat for two more stations contemplating the arse, the thong, and the scent. He probably turned the page of his National Review, but he wasn’t really reading…

At the McPherson Square station your Maximum Leader had to detrain. He excused himself as he brushed by the woman with the stunning arse in the DK suit.

Thank you woman with the stunning arse in the DK suit. You allowed your Maximum Leader to indulge his lecherous nature on his commute. Thank you very much.

Carry on.

Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is grossly tardy in completing this meme for JohnL of Texasbestgrok.

The meme is this. One reviews a Robert Heinlein list of accomplishments that distinguish a generalist human from a specialist insect. After reviewing the list, one identifies the things listed in the quotation that you have actually done.

Without further adieu, the Heinlein quotation:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

As John and Robbo have already done, your Maximum Leader will take the list and address each point ad seriatim. The bold items are Heinlein’s. The plain text is your Maximum Leader’s pithy commentary.

Change a diaper - Indeed. Although this item is overrated generally. Your Maximum Leader also wonders if Heinlein had cloth diapers in mind or just the modern Velcro types. In either case your Maximum Leader can answer in the affirmative. Although he will admit that the cloth diaper he changed was a wretched mess.

Plan an invasion - Certainly if computer simulation counts then your Maximum Leader does so a few times a week. Otherwise this is a toughie. He has done some of those “survivalist” games and played capture the flag and paintball. There was strategery involved. So perhaps that counts.

Butcher a hog - In the strictest sense, no. He’s not ever butchered a live hog. He has taken whole (gutted) carcasses and butchered them into smaller pieces. Perhaps if he’s lucky he’ll do this once at Smallholder’s farm.

Conn a ship - various motorboats and one sailboat.

Design a building - Design - yes. Design a structurally sound building that could get an occupancy permit - no.

Write a sonnet - English/Shakespearian style - yes. Italian style - no.

Balance accounts - Balance accounts using generally accepted accounting practices? No. Manage the Villainschloss accounting (aka: cash flow statement) - yes.

Build a wall - Yes. A brick wall with his grandfather.

Set a bone - Never done.

Comfort the dying - Yes. A few more times than he would have cared to do.

Take orders - In business, yes. Military, no. From Mrs. Villain, once in a while.

Give orders - In business, yes. Military, no. To Mrs. Villain, once in a while. To Villainettes, all the damn time.

Cooperate - Yes. Often more than he would like to.

Act alone - Yes. Sometimes not as much as he would like to.

Solve equations - Yes. Although not in a while.

Analyze a new problem - Yes. Operations management is all about analyzing and managing problems.

Pitch manure - Yes.

Program a computer - HTML only. And not very well at that.

Cook a tasty meal - Very well in fact.

Fight efficiently - not really.

Die gallantly - not yet.

There you go. Your Maximum Leader will not tag anyone for this. But if you happen to be so inclined, please track back.

Carry on.

Thanks, everyone, for the outpouring of concern, but let me assure you that, despite today’s power failures in Los Angeles, I am a-okay. Although I did get cut-off midway through a semi-important phone conversation, there’s no need to send food or water: your love is enough to carry me through the crisis.

I think I’m going to delay this afternoon’s Home Depot visit until they get the traffic unsnarled.

Believe.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that Michael Brown, the “embattled” head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has resigned.

That is a good thing. All to often we have department heads, politicos, and pundits who refuse to resign when they ought to. Of course, there is that old truism in American Politics that “there are no second acts in politics.” Perhaps there should be. If people would fess up and recognize their shortcomings and failures; do the honourable thing and resign perhaps we could see that they learned something. People who admit to learning something are generally worth keeping around in the long haul.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that his server and website are back up and working fine this morning. That is very good news to all of you; as he is sure that you have been aching to your very core as you suffered from Naked Villainy withdrawl DTs.

Your Maximum Leader has a lot to blog about and he will get right to it shortly. He still owes JohnL a meme update (which will come today).

Alas, there is much upon which your Maximum Leader wanted to opine that now seems to have reached its expiration date. Damn the medium of the blog. If you don’t post right away some things seem like old news…

Your Maximum Leader and the Smallholder were discussing the fleeting nature of some stories (and other) topics on the phone over the weekend. A very interesting topic of conversation was the role of morality in society. That is a timeless issue on which your Maximum Leader would like to bloviate about soon.

One interesting little happening overthe weekend that your Maximum Leader will share with you all… He received an e-mail from a gentleman who googled the name “Richard T. Couture.” The gentleman was going through the extended results and found a post your Maximum Leader wrote referencing his friend “the late Richard T. Couture.”

The writer of the e-mail was a student of Richard’s in the late 1950s and was wondering “what ever happened to him?” Your Maximum Leader was a student of Richards in the late 1980s. Your Maximum Leader responed to the gentleman and gave him an update on Richard Couture’s life (and death) in the years since 1959. Indeed, your Maximum Leader is going to try and find a photo to send along to the writer.

It was this morning that your Maximum Leader stopped to think about how amazing that little virtual encounter was. Two people who have never met sharing memories of a mutual friend… How technology can do incredible things.

Expect more updates later today.

Carry on.

Just in time for your weekend, gentle readers!

In Theaters:
Junebug: intelligent
The 40-Year-Old Virgin: amusing
Transporter 2: delirious

Viewed at home:
The Player: delicious
The Deal: predictable
The Flower of Evil: French

Believe.