The Official Website of JP Brown

Hundreds of new pictures have been added to the 2008 Photo Gallery! Enjoy!

Over 150 newly-found and never-before-seen photos of JP’s 2002 European Adventure have been posted!

Photo Archive: 2002 European Adventure Photos

Hey Everyone! Well, as you can clearly see the old website has been given a new look! I’ve been meaning to have it changed for months now and just finally got around to it this weekend.

Also, we added a new feature — a Library! The Library is still under construction, as we’re still adding the list of books to the database, but hopefully it should be up and running sometime soon. Essentially it’s a (much faster) way for us to search through my enormous book collection.

Anyway, I think that’s all the news and updates I have for now. I haven’t posted in quite a while, so hopefully with the new look I’ll be inspired to blog more often. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

A couple of weeks ago, at my sisters’ birthday party, Eva and I were speaking with my Uncle. Among other things, we talked about the status of the Republican Party, the upcoming election, the Fair Tax Act, capitalism, free trade, and so on. Then my Uncle asked us if we had ever read any of Ayn Rand’s books. Although I had heard of Ayn Rand, I had never actually read any of her writings. (In fact, all I knew about Ms Rand is that I can clearly remember one of my high school English teachers bad mouthing her anytime her name was brought up). My Uncle said she wrote about many of the issues we were talking about, so I decided to give her a shot.

Although her most famous works are Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, the only Rand book I have in my collection is one of her earliest works, Anthem. It was a short novella, so I just finished it last night and thought I would write a quick review about it.

In short, Anthem is set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world where perfect Communism reigns supreme. As the book says:

“We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE”. (Page 19).

From the age of five, all children (who are raised in State-run institutions void of their parents) are taught to memorize and say the following creed:

“We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the State. Amen.” (Page 21).

The main character of the story is Equality 7-2521 (as people are without of unique, individual names). In fact, the reoccurring them of the book is that socialism deprives people of all individuality. Masked as “true freedom”, socialism carried out to perfection eventually strips man of all known liberties – even his name. So much so, that in Rand’s fictional world, the word “I” itself becomes known as “The Unspeakable Word” and is punishable by death. Therefore, instead of saying “I am six feet tall”, the characters in Rand’s world would say, “We are six feet tall”, always referring to him or herself in the plural form, as if part of a giant collective. (Like tbe Borg in Star Trek).

For the first two thirds of the novella, Rand writes about Equality 7-2521 struggle against the Communist State and his (unlawful) desire to learn more and aspire for more than his fellow Brothers. He falls in love, sneaks away at night to study and conduct experiments, and eventually discovers electricity all on his own (presumably lost after what appears to be a past nuclear war).

Rand is really quite remarkable at her ability to draw you in. I found myself not wanting to put the book down, nervously wondering if Equality 7-2521 would be turned in or caught by the authorties. Nevertheless, he escapes with the woman he loves and seeks a new life beyond the Uncharted Forest. Unfortunately, this is where in my opinion, the book took a sudden and dramatic downslide.

***

Although I fully agree with Ayn Rand’s rejection and criticism of Communism, I’m afraid Rand didn’t lose all of her Marxist ideals in her flight from the Soviet Union. Perhaps the last third of the book focuses on Rand’s ideal that man is the pinnacle and summit of all creation. That a belief in a higher power burdens man from achieving true perfection.

She declares:

At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race. But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that a man has rights which neither god nor king or other men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right of man and there is no right on earth above this right.” (Page 102).

This reminded me of another book (and one of my favorite books, I might add) that I had read a few years ago called The Gods of Atheism, by Catholic priest, Fr. Vincent P. Miceli, S.J.. In his denouncement of Communism, Fr. Miceli stated:

[The Atheist] vows to enthrone man at the summit as his own God. […] Indeed, his denial of God is his choice of a crusade against God. [p.17]

Prometheus, the ideal Marxist man, revolted against the gods crying, “I hate all the gods”.

When he was punished by Father Zeus, Prometheus, far from being repentant and subordinate, answered Hermes, the servant of the gods, in the defiant words: “Be assured of this, I will never exchange my miserable lot for your servitude. I prefer to be riveted to this rock that to be the servile valet or errand boy of Father Zeus.”

Man is born and projected into history by his act of revolt against God, his “I will not serve! [p. 103-104]

Man is, therefore, his own immanent, dialectic movement and definition. He is his own goal and god. This glorification of man is the goal of Marxist, atheistic humanism. [p. 106]

Sure enough, and to my great disappointment, Rand followed in Marx’s footsteps. After Equality 7-2521 had escaped the tyranny of the State, he and his girlfriend settled peacefully in an abandoned house in the wilderness. Inside the immense house there was a vast library of books, were Equality 7-2521 read and learned about a whole host of things. One day, after reading for several days, he called out to his girlfriend (whom he called ‘The Golden One’) and said:

“My dearest one, it is not proper for men to be without names. There was a time when each man had a name of his own to distinguish him from all other men. So let us choose our names. I have read of a man who lived many thousands of years ago, and of all the names in these books, his is the one I wish to bear. He took the light of the gods and he brought it to men, and he taught men to be gods. And he suffered for his dead as all bearers of light must suffer. His name was Prometheus.

[…]

“And I have read of a goddess, … , who was the mother of the earth and of all the gods. Her name was Gaea. Let this be your name, my Golden One, for you are to be the mother of a new kind of gods.” (Page 99).

Unfortunately, this is where I have to break with the philosophy of Ms Rand. In response, I completely agree with the philosophy of Fr. Miceli who stated:

“When man becomes his own absolute center, then God becomes his hell, because God sets limits to man’s greatness. But once having attained autoerotic sovereignty, a monstrous metamorphosis takes place in atheist man. He begins to feed on his own fellow men, for they now are his hell, threatening to rob him of his freedom.

When God is rejected because he is seen as man’s hell, then man, whom God loves, suffers the same fate and for the same reason. There is a frightening resemblance between the atheist humanist as a cell of society and a malignantly cancerous cell in the human body. Both cells have thrown off any service of subordination to the healthy of the communities in which they thrive.” [p.463-464]

Ultimate rejection of a Creator will not give man more freedom. Rather, such a rejection will enslave man to his fellow man.

Homo Homini Lupus
“Man is a wolf to his fellowman”
Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254–184 BC)

Well, I guess all this socialist talk sparked my interest…

Currently Reading: The Communist Manifesto

“Know thy enemy…”
Sun Tzu (c. 544 BC – 496 BC)

Note: Obviously, what occured at NIU is undesirable and unacceptable in our society. Looking forward, I present the following information.

According to NIU Campus Police Chief Donald Grady, the following timeline lists the events that occurred 14 Feb 2008 (see video link).

3:06 PM - shots ring out in classroom

3:06:29 PM (direct quote) - 2 officers are “already in the area of the scene”

3:08:59 PM (1.5 minutes later) - an additional 8 officers are on the scene and they immediately went in

Within that time (2 minutes) the shooter “managed to walk into the building, begin his shooting spree, and conclude it, before we were able to enter the building and stop it”

3:20 PM - school posts alert on internet of possible gunman on campus
3:50 PM - university reports there has been a shotting on campus with injuries

4:10 PM - campus police report the campus is secure
4:14 PM - university confirms the immediate danger has passed and “the gunman is no longer a threat”

Donald Grady at the press conference that evening says “It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances, that no one could possibly have predicted, nor could they have been more responsive, in getting the event to stop, unfortunately these things happen”
——————————————————————————-
OK friends - seriously I don’t believe the preciseness of this story. 29 seconds? I’d have to see the person with the stopwatch who timed it. Assuming these officers are ‘normal’ people - in 29 seconds they couldn’t have moved more than 150 yards. Chief Grady doesn’t describe how close the officers got, but if they only moved 150 yards, they were, IMNO, already ‘in the area’. Now while these two guys are around outside, 8 more cops show up over the next 1:30, at which time they enter the scene, to discover that the shooter has already killed himself.

So - with a response time of under 2 minutes (they can say 29 sec if they want, but showing up and standing outside doesn’t seem like much of a response to me) - the gunman had time to shoot off at least 56 rounds (that’d be approx 1 every 2 seconds).

Now, I’d agree with Chief Grady that, if his timeline is correct, the response couldn’t have been any quicker. I’d say it was incredibly quick already. But even still - they were not in time to stop the shooter or limit the harm he was causing.

So if we assume that:
1. shootings of this style may happen on college campuses (and other venues in society), and
2. guns will not be completely outlawed in our society

I think it can be accepted that something must be done to limit these types of acts so that they are as minimally detrimental as possible.

Solutions I see as viable would be:
1. placing armed security guards and metal detectors at all entrances of all buildings on campus
2. removing the ‘gun free zones’ from campuses and allowing appropriately licensed students/individuals to carry concealed loaded weapons on campus

Note: Emergency e-mails, text messaging has been proposed as possibly being of assistance to students in these situations. I couldn’t find any evidence that such texting occured in the NIU situation, nor can I personally see how it would have mitigated the results.

Solution 1:
would be incredibly expensive and would hinder the academic learning environment, drastically slowing things, it would guarantee monitoring at all campus buildings (or perhaps be limited to only dorms or classrooms, etc.)

Solution 2:
would be of minimal cost (perhaps verifying licenses of individuals and monitoring for mental health/criminal activity on those individuals) and would not impact the learning environment, this would not ensure a concealed weapon carrier would be present in each classroom, but would allow individuals who chose to protect themselves and others to do so

Off the top of my head - I cannot think of any other viable solutions. I would love to hear from you all about this, if you have additional solutions or if you can think of improvements to the cost/benefit analysis of each plan outline I presented. There may be other assumptions that I made but did not specifically state or that should be added.

Other facts:

gunman: Steven Kazmierczak, shot himself before police arrived
students in classroom at the time: approx 150
guns: 3 handguns, 1 shotgun (shotgun was smuggled into class in a guitar case, handguns under a coat)
shots fired: police found 48 shell casings, 6 shotgun shells (so 54 shots fired in 2 minutes)
victims: 6 dead (including Kazmierczak), 22 shot (I think includes dead)
note: If these numbers are accurate, 22 hits of 56 rounds fired would be a hit percentage of 40% (assumes only one hit per victim) - which would be a very high percentage in my opinion. [VaTech Shootings was approx 174 rounds and 47 victims (27%), Columbine Shooting approx 188 rounds and 36 victims (19%)]
other: Kazmierczak was supposedly on some sort of medications, which he had reportedly stopped taking recently

LINKS:
Chief Grady video press conference
Chicago Tribune Story with timeline
Wikipedia NIU Shooting entry

New photos have been updated!

On a side note: I think I’m officially going to end the “Peace of Soul” discussion. Although I enjoy talking about it, I just don’t have enough time each and every day to do so. I’m about 100 pages further than my last post — and to be honest — I just don’t feel like trying to play catch up! When I finish the book I’ll probably give an overall review and discussion. But this “chapter by chapter” breakdown, sadly, just isn’t going to make the cut. Haha.

Jayson Shankle and I travelled to San Antonio for this year’s 2007 Big XII Championship. More photos and blogs about our trip to come soon!

There’s only one Davy Crockett

Suffice to say, OU looked incredible. Look out Mountaineers!

In other days men were anxious about their souls, but modern anxiety is principally concerned with the body.

How true is this quote? I’m sure there are a thousand beautiful quotes you could probably recite about the body from Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body here. Unfortunately, I’m not familiar enough with this piece of work as I should be. (Hopefully someone will come forward with some great JPII quotes!)

Suffice to say, God created our bodies and declared it “good” (Gen 1:31). Therefore, the desire to be concerned with your body and the eagerness to take care of it is not necessarily a bad thing. Although just watching an hour’s worth of television commercials or reading a few pages of magazine advertisements will certainly tell you where America’s main preoccupation lies. Certainly, it’s not preoccupied with the soul, that much we can be sure of. Taking care of one’s body is commendable, but one must not forget to take care of his soul as well.

Speaking of man’s errant preoccupation with the body and material possessions, Archbishop Sheen remarks:

Standing midway between the animal and the angel, living in a finite world and aspiring toward the infinite, moving in time and seeking the eternal, he [man] is pulled at one moment toward the pleasures of the body and at another moment to the joys of the spirit (p. 15).

Every man in the world has an anxiety complex because he has the capacity to be either saint of sinner (p. 16).

Man can either mount upward to the peak of eternity or else slip backward to the chasms of despair and frustration (p. 18).

Archbishop Sheen then goes on to state how when man rejects or ignores God, he often tries to fulfill this void with material possessions:

Avarice [the insatiable greed for riches] is the material expression of one’s own insufficiency and a challenge to the sublime truth that “our sufficiency is from God”. […] All intense interest in luxury is a mark of inner poverty. The less grace there is in the soul, the more ornament must be on the body (p. 21).

Quick, someone go relay this message to Hollywood!

Finally, Archbishop Sheen offers three ways in which man can curb this anxiety: (1) by controlling desires; (2) by transferring anxiety from body to soul; and (3) by surrender to the Will of God (p. 23).

On Controlling Desires:
One of the greatest deceptions of today is the belief that leisure and money are the two essentials of happiness (p. 23).

If we desire possessions, we never have enough of them. We become frustrated (p. 24).

Uncontrolled desires grow like weeds and stifle the spirit (p. 25).

On Transferring Anxiety from Body to Soul:
Archbishop Sheen reminds us that of all the temporal things on this earth that we tend to foolishly worry about (what we look like, what other people think about us, if we have enough money or not, etc), in the end, the only thing that matters is the soul. Jesus tells us not to worry or to be anxious about these things, but as Archbishop Sheen says:

He did tell us that we should be very anxious about one thing and one thing only — our souls (p. 25).

He then goes on to quote Matt. 16:24-28, which reads:

16:23.
… thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men.

[…]

16:26.
For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?

Lastly, Archbishop sheen offers a third bit of advice:

On Surrender to the Will of God:
Love is reciprocal; it is received in proportion as it is given (p. 26).

Relief from all wrong anxiety comes, not from giving ourselves to God by halves, but by an all-encompassing love, wherein we go back, not to the past in fear or to the future in anxiety, but lie quietly in His Hand, having no will but His (p. 27).

You know, this is probably a sacrilegious analogy, but it reminds of of the final test Indiana Jones has to endure in “The Last Crusade” — the ominous “Leap of Faith”. As you recall, standing on the edge of a cliff, Indy is separated from where he needs to be by a giant canyon. He then realizes that this test is the “Leap of Faith”. He nervously puts one foot out in the air — hovering over the canyon below — seemingly about to fall to his death. With faith, he steps out into the air, and alas, Indy thought correctly, had faith, crosses over an invisible bridge to reach the Holy Grail and the movie ends ‘happily ever after’. At times, I wonder if I were to be faced with the same challenge, if I could take that faithful step to the other side, or if I would cling to the edge of the rock, looking down to the abyss below.

Archbishop Sheen then concludes his chapter by the infamous prayer of another great bishop in history, St. Augustine:

“Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in thee”.
- St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, Book I, Chapter I

You know, this “simple book discussion” has turned out to be a lot tougher than I thought it would be! After reading the superior words of Archbishop Sheen, then looking at what I have written down afterwards, I’m afraid my level of penmanship just isn’t quite up to par. But, nevertheless, here we go…

“There is nothing really new in the world; there are only the old problems happening to new people.” (Page 6)

Ironically, I was just speaking with someone about this very thing not even a few weeks ago. I think this is one reason why you can hear people say they’ve read a passage from the Bible and it “spoke out to them as if it knew exactly what they were going through”. It’s because although the times and technology have changed — the human condition and our human emotions have not. Thus, in addition to the Bible, when you read the works of Homer, Plato, Socrates, Shakespeare and other great writers, many times what they speak of is just as relevant in our own day and time as it was hundreds or thousands of years ago in theirs.

As for Archbishop Sheen, he starts his book by examining the current frustrations of the modern man. He states:

The modern man is characterized by three alienations: he is divided from himself, from his fellow man, and from his God (Page 7).

He then proceeds to break each of these three alienations down:

On Self-Estrangement:
The modern man is no longer a unity, but a confused bundle of complexes and nerves… likened to a radio that is tuned in to several stations; instead of getting any one clearly, it receives only an annoying static… There is no fixed ideal, no great passion, but only a cold indifference to the rest of the world (Pages 7-8).

The Archbishop states that modern man is often searching for his purpose in life. To be honest, I think I have fallen deep into this category. At times, I admit, I often think of what my purpose in life is. In regards to my career, school, church, family life, friends, you name it, I have a million questions racing through my head. Should I do this… Should I do that… Although instead of taking a plan of action and doing something proactive, sometimes I have chosen to do nothing; becoming quite indifferent to the world around me. (In particular, sitting on the couch watching ‘Rock of Love’ instead).

Every once in a while, when a problem or a particular situation presents itself at my doorstep, I will try to hide and hope that it will go away. For an analogy, it’s kind of like Halloween. After awhile (usually when it’s getting late and I’m about out of candy), I’ll shut the door, turn off the porch lights and hide somewhere in the comfort of my home. Hoping that the kids, that I can still hear running around outside, will think I’m not home and pass by my house. This “indifference”, of course, is quite troubling to me, as I know that apathy is one of the seven deadly sins.

On Estrangement from Fellow Men:
The modern soul which cannot live with itself cannot live with its fellow men. A man who is not at peace with himself will not be at peace with his brother… unhappy souls almost always blame everyone but themselves for their miseries (Pages 8-9).

I think this kind of falls under the category of “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40). Also the verse, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt. 7:2) comes to mind.

Then lastly,

On Estrangement from God:
Once the hub of the wheel, which is God, is lost, the spokes, which are men, fall apart… no man hates God without first hating himself (Pages 9-10).

This defiant attitude of rebellion — the refusal to serve God — reminds me of Prometheus’ reply to Hermes, in Aeschylus’ play, “Prometheus Bound“. Being chained to a rock where an eagle eats out his liver (which magically grows back) every single day, Promethus responded:

Be sure of this, I would not change my state
Of evil fortune for your servitude.
Better to be the servant of this rock
Than to be faithful boy to Father Zeus.

… I hate all the gods.

About a year ago, a friend lent me a thought-provoking book to read called, The Gods of Atheism by Fr. Vincent P. Miceli, SJ. Like Archbishop Sheen, in his book, Fr. Miceli also spoke of man’s estrangement from God. He stated:

“Atheism is not a blind, innate, untaught, instinctive posture for intelligent creatures. Rather it is a conscious, voluntary, even premeditated development in man. […] A man becomes an atheist because he wants to be an atheist; he wills to be an atheist.” [p.9]

“[The Atheist] vows to enthrone man at the summit as his own God. […] Indeed, his denial of God is his choice of a crusade against God.” [p.17]

“When man becomes his own absolute center, then God becomes his hell, because God sets limits to man’s greatness. But once having attained autoerotic sovereignty, a monstrous metamorphosis takes place in atheist man. He begins to feed on his own fellow men, for they now are his hell, threatening to rob him of his freedom. When God is rejected because he is seen as man’s hell, then man, whom God loves, suffers the same fate and for the same reason. There is a frightening resemblance between the atheist humanist as a cell of society and a malignantly cancerous cell in the human body. Both cells have thrown off any service of subordination to the healthy of the communities in which they thrive.” [p.463-464]

Pretty interesting stuff.

Unfortunately, I’ve recently discovered that I am a “television zombie”. Probably like most Americans, I come home from work, eat dinner, then I proceed to sit mindlessly in front of the television until I go to bed. Don’t ask me why, but somehow in addition to my regular menu of shows, I somehow managed to watch every single episode of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. Then as that show ended, I automatically moved on to I Love New York 2 and A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.

Now, admittedly, these reality shows are absolutely vile and stand against practically every single moral virtue I have. So I have no idea why I watch them. In fact, I’m practically disgusted with myself for doing so. Perhaps it’s the “shock factor”. As I’m flipping through the channels, I stop on these reality shows in awe and think, “Are you serious? Do people really act this way?”

Nevertheless, I soon as I turn them on, I find that a substantial amount of time has passed and I’ve essentially wasted an entire evening sitting in front of the TV like a zombie, not having moved a single inch from the couch in hours. This is not even to mention all the other host of frivolous shows I always find myself captivated by, such as Cops, Cheaters, Room Raiders, Man vs Wild, Survivorman, How Its Made, Mythbusters, etc. The list could go on and on.

Point Being: I’m wasting valuable time. None of these shows are enriching my life. Rather, I am (quite literally) wasting away while doing so. When you sit back and think how your time on this earth is limited — and think about how you could spend each of those precious hours — I’m sick to think about how many countless hours I’ve sat being unproductive on the couch.

Of course, I’d like to think I’d spend all my free time praying, volunteering at soup kitchens, reading the Bible or devoting myself to the enhancement of mankind… but I know that’s not practical. I’m no saint. But I thought I could at least start taking some “baby steps” that might lead me in that direction. Sure, I’m going to continue watching television, as I don’t think I have the fortitude to cut it out completely. And to be honest, I really do enjoy vegging out on the couch after a long day at work. Although some changes must be made.

My goal is to limit my watching and try to spend some time each day in an attempt to educate or enlighen myself in some manner.

The Plan: So I thought I’d start with reading a good book. I recently purchased “Peace of Soul” by the late, great Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. My plan is to read a chapter each night and then hopefully give a daily, brief review / synopsis on my website. I figure that would at least be more productive than trying to figure out why Scott Baio is “45 and still single”.