Friday, August 19, 2016

News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 32


Despite the dog days (or, for dog lovers, the cat days . . . except there’s no Cat Star to counter Sirius), there has been a good amount of action this week, starting off with a group that has republished some important articles, and all without having to be asked:

• We recently found out that a group called “New World Standard Critique” has republished one and a half articles by Louis Kelso and Norman Kurland.  The Kelso article is The Great Savings Snafu,” Business and Society Review, Winter, 1988.  The Kurland article(s) is a journal article split into two parts, “A New Look at Prices and Money: The Kelsonian Binary Model for Achieving Growth Without Inflation,” The Journal of Socio-Economics, Vol. 30 pgs. 495-515.  Part One is here, and Part Two is here.  The group even has a menu item, “The Just Third Way,” that gives full credit to Kelso and Kurland for their work.  There is even an article by CESJ’s Director of Research, although he is misidentified as “Deputy President” (we’ll see if we can get that fixed).
• Work is proceeding well on a new book, tentatively titled Roots of Dissent: How the State Became God.  Tying together developments in religious and civil society, the book shows how bad religious social theory and bad political social theory joined forces during the New Deal, and then went out to the rest of society in the turmoil following the Second Vatican Council.  A first draft may be completed before the end of August.  Although the book is not, strictly speaking, “Catholic” or even religious, we will be seeking an “imprimatur” so that readers (or those who care, anyway) can be assured that we are not misrepresenting what the Catholic Church teaches about itself.  (We’d do the same with the Jews, Muslims, Hindus, or any other group.  It’s only fair that if we say something about somebody or a group, he, she, it, or they get a chance to see what we’re saying, put in their two cents, and make any necessary corrections.)
• On Wednesday we had a very interesting interview with a prospective volunteer who works for the Samueli Institute in Washington, DC.  The PV is interested in helping CESJ beef up its social media efforts.  The Samueli Institute explores the science of healing, and is located in the U.S. and Germany.
No, not that Catholic lawyer.
• We are still waiting word on two previous submissions for an imprimatur, Easter Witness, and Letter to a Catholic Lawyer.  Timing on these things is a little loose, obviously, but we expect to hear any time now.
• CESJ’s latest book, Easter Witness: From Broken Dream to a New Vision for Ireland, is available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as by special order from many “regular” bookstores.  The book can also be ordered in bulk, which we define as ten copies or more of the same title, at a 20% discount.  A full case is twenty-six copies, and non-institutional/non-vendor purchasers get a 20% discount off the $20 cover price on wholesale lots ($416/case).  Shipping is extra.  Send enquiries to publications@cesj.org.  An additional discount may be available for institutions such as schools, clubs, and other organizations as well as retailers.
You know why I am not smiling.
• Here’s the usual announcement about the Amazon Smile program, albeit moved to the bottom of the page so you don’t get tired of seeing it.  To participate in the Amazon Smile program for CESJ, go to https://smile.amazon.com/.  Next, sign in to your account.  (If you don’t have an account with Amazon, you can create one by clicking on the tiny little link below the “Sign in using our secure server” button.)  Once you have signed into your account, you need to select CESJ as your charity — and you have to be careful to do it exactly this way: in the space provided for “Or select your own charitable organization” type “Center for Economic and Social Justice Arlington.”  If you type anything else, you will either get no results or more than you want to sift through.  Once you’ve typed (or copied and pasted) “Center for Economic and Social Justice Arlington” into the space provided, hit “Select” — and you will be taken to the Amazon shopping site, all ready to go.
• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 40 different countries and 40 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and India. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “G.K. Chesterton v. Modernism and Socialism,” “A Brief Outline of How to Save the World (and Other Modest Goals),” “I’m New to Distributism,” “Future Schacht, VIII: Infinite Velocity(a),” and “Future Schacht, VIII: Infinite Velocity(b).”
Those are the happenings for this week, at least those that we know about.  If you have an accomplishment that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at mgreaney [at] cesj [dot] org, and we’ll see that it gets into the next “issue.”  If you have a short (250-400 word) comment on a specific posting, please enter your comments in the blog — do not send them to us to post for you.  All comments are moderated, so we’ll see it before it goes up.
#30#