Sex, Snow, and Scimitar-Rattling

At First Things, Mary Eberstadt ponders the stark realities and the way of all flesh in terms of mainline christianities' easing sexual restraints in Christianity Lite. The Anchoress observes similar things:

We have a very odd notion, really, of what makes us free, anymore. Sex that lives in fear of life, that must be protected from disease, that exposes the human body to degradation, the human heart to constant shielding and the human spirit to constant uncertainty, is not sex that makes us free. It is sex that entraps us, distracts us and ultimately makes us strangers to ourselves..More>>

As any who have listened to the reflections of Gil Bailie based on René Girard's mimetic theory know, sexuality and the breaking down of restraints around it are the "canary in the mineshaft" of cultural breakdown, not from a moral viewpoint but from the anthropological. As Scalia (above) points out, self-understanding of, for example, sexual freedom ('orientation', etc.) often points the train off the tracks of how we are designed into the "freedom" (sic.) of sinking into quagmires of our own doing. Some freedom.

Meanwhile, the scimitar rattling continues from Iran, with February 11th - the 31st anniversary of the so-called Islamic Revolution. When did Israel ever go lax when one of its sworn enemies makes such promises?

And finally, my area is expecting another 10-20” of more snow on top of the 30" we still have. This leads me to dreams of springtime and cherry blossoms, and a judicious use of this.