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  • Briny Breezes road to riches detoured

    The collapse of the sale of Briny Breezes (some more about the original deal here) is primarily due to the objections of Ocean Ridge (to the north) and Gulf Stream (to the south.)  In my last piece I commented as follows:

    As I understand it, the prospective developers want to put high rise development in Briny Breezes; otherwise, the price couldn’t be justified.  And this leads to the next factor that worked in favour of Briny Breezes’ inhabitants: many of the oceanfront communities, such as Palm Beach and neighbouring Ocean Ridge–restrict high rise development.  If this were not the case, the coast from the South Beach to Jupiter and beyond would be one solid concrete wall.  This is what basically happened to Highland Beach (between Boca Raton and Delray Beach) in the 1970’s; developers were able to exert enough influence to break up the single family dwellings and build high rises.

    Since Briny Breezes is a municipality in its own right, it will be a lot simpler to authorise high rise development without having to worry about the neighbours voting it down.  Thus, Briny Breezes is valuable not only as a tract of oceanfront land but also as a free-standing municipality.

    Evidently Ocean Ridge and Gulf Stream remembered that bit of South Florida history.  Being a separate municipality obviously wasn’t the insurance against that form of adversity that the developers, Briny Breezes residents, or I thought it would be.

    The current state of the real estate market–and the availability of financing–didn’t help matters either.

  • Yahweh in the Morning: He Lives

    We continue with Emmanuel’s great music with He Lives (not the Baptistic version!)

    Click here for more information on Yahweh in the Morning.

  • Why is The 1662 Book of Common Prayer so popular all of a sudden

    Peter Toon’s piece on Why is The 1662 Book of Common Prayer so popular all of a sudden (especially relative to its American 1928 counterpart) agrees with the statistics we get on this site.

    Positive Infinity offers both the 1662 and 1928 books for free download.  The inclusion of the 1662 book in 2004 (in part a by-product of the Island Chronicles research) literally brought the site’s visitation rate to a new level.  The 1928 book was added not too long after that, but has never matched its English counterpart in downloads.

    Part of the novelty of our online edition of both of these books was that they were each presented as one pdf file, as opposed to multiple pdf files or an html/php file.  Other Anglican sites were concerned with the large file size, but of course the definition of a "small file" keeps expanding with higher speed connections.

    Looking at the year to date statistics, the 1662 book remains the single most downloaded document on the site.  (A "downloaded" document is one that isn’t an html/php file, like a pdf, exe, mov or other executable/archive file.)  Its downloads are triple those of its 1928 counterpart.

  • SanctiFusion: So Many Books so little time

    If only to be playing it safe, it seems like the safer bet to recognise that we have one life, and no promise of a “spare,” and no guarantees on how long this one is going to last. So how do we find the right “door?” Please consider these suggestions.

    Read more…

  • The East is Red With Something Different

    Eighty years ago, Mao Zedong predicted the following:

    For the present upsurge of the peasant movement is a colossal event. In a very short time, in China’s central, southern and northern provinces, several hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty storm, like a hurricane, a force so swift and violent that no power, however great, will be able to hold it back. They will smash all the trammels that bind them and rush forward along the road to liberation. They will sweep all the imperialists, warlords, corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry into their graves. Every revolutionary party and every revolutionary comrade will be put to the test, to be accepted or rejected as they decide. There are three alternatives. To march at their head and lead them? To trail behind them, gesticulating and criticizing? Or to stand in their way and oppose them? Every Chinese is free to choose, but events will force you to make the choice quickly. (Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan)

    Looks like the Chinese are set on yet another revolution, as "Spengler" tells us in Christianity finds a fulcrum in Asia.

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  • Mitt Romney Answers the Most Important Question

    One thing has always bothered me about Mitt Romney is this: how can a Temple Mormon, given the central role of children in Mormon theology, be or ever have been pro-choice?

    The following is Mitt Romney’s own answer.

  • An Investment in the Future

    The collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis last Wednesday has focused our attention on the subject of the transportation infrastructure in the U.S.  The real tragedy is that it takes incidents like this to do that.

    The American Society of Civil Engineers routinely puts out its Infrastructure Report Card on the state of the "physical plant" that allows this country to physically function.  The grade is inevitably low.  Since so much depends on the state of the infrastructure, and considering the fact that virtually everyone comes in contact with it on a daily basis, the serious question is, "why has this been permitted?"  In the case of roads, the U.S. has not made a broad-based, major investment in the system since the completion of the Interstate system.

    There are two interrelated reasons for this.

    The first is that most of the budget of state and federal governments is committed to entitlements of one kind or another, i.e., direct payments or transfer of wealth.  This leaves little for what is referred to as "discretionary" spending, and transportation generally falls into that category.  Events such as this cast aspersions on the concept of transportation spending as discretionary, but that’s the way it’s done.

    The second is that transportation, like education, is an investment in the future.  And it’s easier for people to send resources into the future if they’re sending children there.  But, with a declining birthrate, people are less likely to want to commit resources–to say nothing of the NIMBY reaction–to something they have no personal interest in.  It’s no accident that the development of the Interstate system corresponded with the Baby Boom, and its completion with the end of that boom.  Now it’s simply easier to transfer money for immediate use (entitlements) than to go through the long term pain of infrastructure development.

    But the general productivity of our economic system depends upon its transportation system.  This is one place where public works can actually have a private return on the investment.  If the U.S. wants to remain the pre-eminent country on the planet, it can’t just rely on dollar hegemony to get the job done.  A crumbling transportation infrastructure will in the long run become a drag on the nation’s ability to compete, which in turn will affect the quality of life that Americans are obsessed with.

    As I like to say on this blog, it’s our move.  We need to make it.

  • Morning Prayer in the BCP: A Model for Private Prayer?

    The whole concept of using the Morning Prayer service from the Book of Common Prayer (as suggested by the Reformed Catholic blog) is an intriguing one.  A few comments are in order:

    1. The whole traditional Anglican liturgy is geared towards public celebration, as opposed to the "private" nature of many late Middle Ages Masses.  So some adaptations are definitely in order.
    2. The Reformed Catholic uses the 1662 book as he is in England; those of us in the "colonies" are probably more inclined to use the 1928 version.
    3. The private use of a selected prayer book means that one can use a traditional Anglican prayer book and bypass all of these newer liturgies.  I don’t see the point of modernisation.
    4. The simplest way to select a Psalm is to use the monthly schedule in the Psalter itself as laid out in both 1662 and 1928 books.  That way, it’s relatively simple to cover the Psalter over time, which is good for daily Bible reading practice.
    5. The lectionary and Collect are fairly straightforward, requiring a little advance work.  Later versions of the 1928 book use a lectionary that overwhelms you with choices, though.
    6. From a practical standpoint, the biggest plus with this procedure is that is forces a penitential rite up front.  A good balance to the triumphalism we have too much of these days.
    7. Those who are Pentecostal in inclination can both take in a liturgy that presents the promises of God ("a happy issue out of all their afflictions") and pray in the Spirit when the Spirit moves, not when someone else says so.

    And don’t forget Evening Prayer!

  • Just Be Glad To Vote At All

    The idiotic case of Jerry Rabinowitz suing Palm Beach County because same had the bad taste to use Emmanuel Catholic Church as a polling place is another example of a hypersensitive humanist forcing the waste of tax dollars to make him feel better about his convictions (or lack of them.)

    Churches (and synagogues and mosques for that matter) are convenient polling places because their use is low when voting takes place in the U.S.  The County’s use of these is sensible.

    It’s worthy of note that the running battle Ann Coulter has had with the County over where to vote is because she left one Palm Beach polling place (St. Edwards Catholic Church) and went to another (Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church.)

    As far as the posters and signs are concerned, there are three possibilities:

    1. They can reinforce the convictions of those who agree with them.
    2. They can inspire those that don’t to anger.  But the best way to express that anger is to vote for others who are just as angry.
    3. They can be ignored.  Rest assured that even many who come to Mass ignore them.  Polls show that the convictions of Roman Catholics don’t vary that much from the general population, in spite of the exhortations of their church.

    Back in the Soviet Union, there were propaganda posters everywhere.  Even in the dry cleaning establishments.  ("Better dry cleaning through Communism?")  But the posters didn’t prevent the collapse of the country.

    The endless barrage of litigation such as this is a sign of the insecurity of the plaintiffs (and their supporters.)  The biggest surprise is that, in a stronghold of "God-hating liberalism" like South Florida, one judge actually dismissed this kind of litigation.

  • Yahweh in the Morning: Great is the Glory of the Lord

    We continue Emmanuel’s Yahweh in the Morning with Great is the Glory of the Lord.

    For more information about the album, click here.

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