Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


"Very fun." -- J. Bottum, Editor, FIRST THINGS

"Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood

"Perhaps the wisest man on the Web" -- Henry Dieterich

"Hat tip: me (but really Cacciaguida)" -- Diana Feygin, Editor, THE YALE FREE PRESS

"You are my sire. You give me confidence to speak. You raise my heart so high that I am no more I." -- Dante

"Fabulous!"-- Warlock D.J. Prod of Didsbury

Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


E-mail me

 
Vatican Letter Denounces 'Lethal Effects' of Feminism
Document Outlines Formula for Man-Woman Relationships

Interestingly, at the time I clicked on this W.Post story, there was a banner ad up there for a medical practice specializing in treatment of male inadequacy.

Click here for the document itself. I mean the Vatican document!! Gaa, bunch of goats, the lot of you.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:12 PM

 
"Hunting Hippies." Ah, takes me back. Specifically, to L.A. in the early '70s....
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:36 PM

 
Unbelievable -- the "strength" convention is barely over, and Kerry is talking about once again treating terrorism as a law-enforcement problem rather than as a military problem:

Kerry: Try Bin Laden in U.S. Court
Friday, July 30, 2004
NEWBURGH, N.Y. — John Kerry said Friday he would put Usama bin Laden on trial in U.S. courts rather than an international tribunal to ensure the "fastest, surest route" to a murder conviction if the terrorist mastermind is captured while he is president.

"I want him tried for murder in New York City, and in Virginia and in Pennsylvania," where planes hijacked by Al Qaeda operatives crashed Sept. 11, 2001, Kerry said in his first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Now, I'm a lawyer and a law teacher; I've no reason to suppose I'm less enthusiastic about the rule of law than other people. But, at the level of results, we treated terrorism as a law-enforcement problem throughout the '90s, and we see where that got us. Furthermore, at the level of principle, is there any reason why the problem presented by Al Qaeda is one of law-enforcement and not of troop and materiel deployment? Any reason why Osama should be tried and convicted and given a life sentence or a nice easy drip, rather than, say, paraded in a cage through New York and Washington and then executed on the Mall while the Marine Band plays the Captain From Castile March?
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:49 PM

 
New post on Eastern Orthodoxy coming soon, in reply to Alexander's here.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:44 PM

 
Bayreuth's new production of PARSIFAL: pictures available here. (Click on the button next the "more photos" under "Gallery.")

Looks like an interesting and basically representational set design. But what's with those two lurid, black-flecked balls hovering over Klingsor's tower? You don't suppose...?
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:29 PM

 
Top ten signs your convention speech is boring
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:05 PM

 
Kerry's speech is not playing well with the liberal media -- not because it wasn't liberal enough, but because it wasn't really anything enough. See e.g.:
Washington Post editorial
Thomas Oliphant at The Boston Globe
Chris Suellentrop at Slate ("Eight losers helped John Kerry write his acceptance speech")

Well, one liberal does think it wasn't liberal enough: Debra Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle ("They should have picked Dean").

Meanwhile, the hard-hitters of The New York Post's editorial page hit him hard, with lots and lots of paragraph breaks.

(I culled this survey with help from RealClearPolitics.com, a very useful site.)

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:49 AM

 
Unhappy Workers Should Take Prozac --Bush Campaigner
This is bad. The campaign shouldn't hire people who don't know selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors from benzodiazepines. They also shouldn't hire people with with oatmeal for brains.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:43 AM

 
Lancelot's Manifesto (cont.)

There are only two ways to go. One is their way out there, the great whorehouse and fagdom of America. I won't have it. The second way is sweet Baptist Jesus and I won't have that. Christ, if heaven is full of Southern Baptists, I'd rather rot in hell with Saladin and Achilles. There is only one way and we could have had it if you Catholics hadn't blown it: the old Catholic way. I Lancelot and you Percival, the only two to see the Grail if you recall. Did you find the Grail? You don't look like it. Then we knew what a woman should be like, your Lady, and we knew what a man should be like, your Lord. I'd have fought for your Lady, because Christ had the broadsword. Now you've gotten rid of your Lady and taken the sword from Christ.

...

We are going to set it out for you, what is good and what is bad, and no Jew-Christian waffling bullshit about it. What we are is the last of the West. What we are is the best of you, Percival, and the best of me, Lancelot, and of Lee and Richard and Saladin and Leonidas and Hector and Agamemnon and Ricthofen and Charlemagne and Clovis and Martel. Like them we might even accept your Christ but this time you will not emasculate him or us. We'll take the Grail you didn't find but we'll keep the broadsword and the great warrior Archangel of Mont-Saint-Michel and our Christ will be the stern Christ of the Sistine. And as for your sweet Jesus and your guitar-banging and ass-wiggling nuns, and your love feasts and peace kisses: there is no peace.

-- Walker Percy, Lancelot

To be continued.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:59 PM

 
A "strong America," "values," and gay Arabs

I'm finding this week that you need The Washington Times to get an adequate flavor of the Democratic Convention. While party organizers dish out carefully focus-grouped pablum inside the Fleet Center, their outreach to controversial interest groups is taking place outside, and few besides the W.Times are taking notice. E.g.:

"'Alienated' Arab-Americans Flock to Kerry Campaign"

BOSTON — Arab-American delegates, attending the Democratic National Convention in their greatest numbers in years, say many in their community will vote for Sen. John Kerry because they are disillusioned with the current administration.

Gays to gain in Kerry White House

BOSTON — A parade of Democratic leaders and Hollywood stars, including Ben Affleck, yesterday reassured homosexual delegates and advocates that they have a lot to gain by defeating the Bush administration and electing a Kerry administration.

Meantime the normally lively Washington Post seems to think its job is to hang around the Fleet Center and turn the officially approved speeches into mood-pieces that could have been drafted by the DNC. Even its comics are boring today.

posted by Cacciaguida at 5:37 PM

 

Hopkins

Gerald Serafin reminded Narwen, and Narwen reminded me, that today (yesterday, technically -- it's late) is (was) the birthday of the great Victorian Catholic poet Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ, one of Newman's converts.

So I think I'll have my own Poetry Wednesday (Thursday?) Here are the last two verses of The Wreck of the Deutschland, a poem written to commemorate seven Franciscan nuns who had drowned in a shipwreck off the English coast on the way to America, escaping from Bismarck's Kulturkampf against the Church:


Now burn, new born to the world,
Doubled-naturèd name,
The heaven-flung, heart-fleshed, maiden-furled
Miracle-in-Mary-of-flame,
Mid-numbered He in three of the thunder-throne!
Not a dooms-day dazzle in his coming nor dark as he came;
Kind, but royally reclaiming his own;
A released shower, let flash to the shire, not a lightning of fire hard-hurled.


Dame, at our door
Drowned, and among our shoals,
Remember us in the roads, the heaven-haven of the Reward:
Our King back, oh, upon English souls!
Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us, be a crimson-cresseted east,
More brightening her, rare-dear Britain, as his reign rolls,
Pride, rose, prince, hero of us, high-priest,
Our hearts’ charity’s hearth’s fire, our thoughts’ chivalry’s throng’s Lord.


posted by Cacciaguida at 12:35 AM

 
The Republican National Committee's website covering the Democrats' convention on-site. Under Ed Gillespie, no one can say the RNC isn't scrappy.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:45 PM

 
The "I Had an Abortion" T-shirt from Planned Parenthood: Here is where the story was really broken. Drudge picked it up and thus gave it wide circulation, but in the process, credit to Lifesite was dropped, along with some good quotes.

So now, here's the question. An astute observer I know says that with this T-shirt, PP is

taking a script from the successful 'coming out' strategy for gays and lesbians. The theory is that negative stereotypes about "X" cannot survive meeting actual people you know and like. Stigma depends on distance. So here's the question: Does this work for abortion too? If not, why not? Discuss.

posted by Cacciaguida at 2:26 PM

 
"Liberal Catholics," too, have conspiracy theories. From Alan Phipps's excellent blog, Ad Altare Dei.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:50 AM

 
The Old Oligarch on swimsuit modesty. O.O. has some treats coming up in the "Lancelot's Manifesto" excerpts that are still coming down the pike.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:27 AM

 
The Kerry "Bunny Suit" picture:



Is this the new Dukakis "Snoopy" picture? Dems are already calling it a "dirty trick" by a presumably Republican-conrolled NASA. (Here is the original context.) "Here's the Easter Rabbit, hoo-ray...!"

Note to Gene Delgaudio: give us crowds of striped-pyjama'ed "babies" at every Kerry campaign stop shouting "I wan'an Easter Egg! I wan'an Easter Egg!"
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:05 AM

 
If you're pregnant with triplets, why abort two of them? Because otherwise you'd find yourself "shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise."
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:39 PM

 
A cool anti-Planned Parenthood site.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:36 PM

 
What it's really all about.  The Washington Times reports:

Sen. John Kerry's sister assured a rally of feminist Democrats here yesterday that her brother will name several pro-choice justices to the Supreme Court if elected president.

posted by Cacciaguida at 6:03 PM

 
The Washington Post on bloggers at the Democratic Convention.  The media reporting on themselves: could be a story in it.

posted by Cacciaguida at 6:00 PM

 

W's Rapid Response War Room. Via Bush '04 Official Campaign Blog.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:36 PM

 
Some good political news for W. Keep in mind, Kerry will get a "convention bounce" in next week's polling -- as will W in August polling.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:36 AM

 
Lancelot's Manifesto (cont.)

Then how shall we live if not with Christian love? One will work and take care of one's own, live and let live, and behave with a decent respect toward others. If there cannot be love -- you call that love out there?* -- there will be a tight-lipped courtesy between men. And chivalry toward women. Women must be saved from the whoredom they've chosen. Women will once again be strong and modest. Children will be merry because they will know what they are to do.

Oh, you wish to know what my own life will be like? (Look at you, all at once abstract and understanding and leading me on, all ears like one of these psychologists: why can't you priests stick to being priests for a change?) Very well, I will tell you. I plan to marry Anna here in the next room. I think she'll have me. You can marry us if you like. I shall love and protect her. I can make her well. I know that I can just as I know I can do what I choose to do. She is much better already. Yesterday we watched the clouds flying along and she smiled. She is the first woman of the new order. For she has, so to speak, endured the worst of the age and survived it, undergone the ultimate violation and come out of it not only intact but somehow purged, innocent. Who else might the new Virgin be but a gang-raped social worker?...

-- Walker Percy, Lancelot

*referring to a pornographic movie poster visible from his window

To be further continued.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:26 PM

 
"Jesse Helms is back, and this time he's black!" Vernon Robinson for Congress. Thanks to Human Events for alerting me to this rising star and likely next Congressman from the Winston-Salem-based 5th District of North Carolina (the seat Rep. Richard Burr is vacating to run for the Senate), and snaps to me for alerting Tarheel Zorak.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:41 PM

 
Cacciadelia at the podium (Passing the Books-a-Million at Dupont Circle, Washington D.C.)

"Books-a-Million! That's where a book-loving girl like me would like to live!"
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:25 PM

 
Lancelot's Manifesto, cont.

You have your Sacred Heart. We have Lee. We are the Third Revolution. The First Revolution in 1776 against the stupid British succeeded. The Second Revolution in 1861 against the money-grubbing North failed -- as it should have because we got stuck with the Negro thing and it was our fault. The Third Revolution will succeed. What is the Third Revolution? You'll see.

I cannot tolerate this age. And I will not. I might have tolerated you and your Catholic Church, and even joined it, if you had remained true to yourself. Now you're part of the age. You've the same fleas as the dogs you've lain down with. I would have felt at home at Mont-Saint Michel, the Mount of the Archangel with the flaming sword, or with the Richard Coeur de Lion at Acre. They believed in a God who said he came not to bring peace but the sword. Make love not war? I'll take war rather than what this age calls love. Which is a better world, this c___sucking c___lapping a______licking fornicating Happyland U.S.A. or a Roman legion under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus? Which is worse, to die with T. J. Jackson at Chancellorsville or live with Johnny Carson in Burbank?

-- Walker Percy, Lancelot

To be further continued.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:44 AM

 
Why does a canonized married mother of 8 have to be listed as a "religious"?

Today is the feast of St. Bridget of Sweden. Most missals give a one-word description of each saint's basic deal on the same line as his or her name. In Bridget's case, it's "religious".

Uh huh. As the last major act of a long life filled with apostolic activities, the vast majority of which she undertook as a wife and mother, others of which she undertook as a widowed laywoman, Bridget founded a religious order. Hence, "St. Bridget of Sweden, religious" -- just as if she had joined the Carthusians at age fifteen.

The reason for this relative dissing of lay sanctity is not hard to find, and it's not anything nefarious: it's simply that canonization takes a lot of legwork and paperwork, and members of religious orders -- especially founders -- have a lot of fellow-members eager to do that. Lay people do not. Old Mrs. McGillicuddy from down the street may have been as much a saint as Sister Mary Ignatius Scholastica from the convent three streets over, but unless Mrs. McGillicuddy had even more children than St. Bridget, and all of them can afford to volunteer full-time for her cause, it's unlikely that those who believe in her sanctity will be able to assemble the muscle even to get her cause opened, but less processed.

Reducing (further) the paperwork for canonization is not the answer: the Church does have to be careful about these things. Maybe what's needed is a sub-Congregation within the Congregation for Saints' Causes dedicated exclusively to the canonization processes of lay people. And indeed the Holy Father has made it a priority to canonize more layfolk. e.g. the Quattrochhis, and Gianna Beretta Molla.

Pray for us, St. Bridget, wife, mother, and wielder of influence at the royal court of Sweden!
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:45 AM

 

Marines Kill Over 100 Militants During Afghan Tour

Marines Kill 25 Insurgents in Ramadi Clashes

And now, it's Miller time....

posted by Cacciaguida at 10:48 PM

 
Lancelot's Manifesto (my lame name for it)

Come over here. Never mind the window. Look at me. We've been through a great deal together: school, war, talk, whoring, football, nice girls, hot girls, so since you understand me and my past -- if you don't, nobody does -- I'm going to tell you my plans for the future. There is going to be a new order of things and I shall be part of it. Don't confuse it with anything you've heard of before. Certainly not with your Holy Name Society or Concerned Christians Against Smut. This has nothing to do with Christ or boycotts....

It is simply this: a conviction and a freedom. The conviction: I will not tolerate this age. The freedom: the freedom to act on my conviction. And I will act. No one else has both the conviction and the freedom. Many agree with me, have the conviction, but will not act. Some act, assassinate, bomb, burn, etc., but they are the crazies. Crazy acts by crazy people. But what if one, sober, reasonable, and honorable man should act, and act with perfect sobriety, reason, and honor? Then you have the beginning of a new age. We shall start a new order of things.

-- Walker Percy, Lancelot

To be continued.


posted by Cacciaguida at 9:11 PM

 
Introducing (after an unpardonable delay): Mansfield Fox, a blog by Angus Dwyer, a Yale law student who links to this blog (and not, I should add, as an example of "what we're up against" or anything like that).

In my blogroll, I'm filing him under Law Blogs. He's a good Catholic, but that category is getting rather full, while the Law blogs category is way too thin.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:47 PM

 


(Available, along with many other hard-chargin' tchatchkes, at the Marine Corps Heritage Center.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:17 PM

 
Elinor recounts here and here the various adventures she dealt with in getting Jonathan Lee on to the Island: the Diploma Crisis, MOS Debate, the Antibiotic Anxiety, the Pull-Ups Drama, the Doctor's Letter Kerfuffle, the Departure Date Perplexity, and the Fly Frustration.

All of these would make great Robert Ludlum titles. Alternatively, try putting "Harry Potter and" in front of them.
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:33 PM

 

Officers' Plot -- 60th Anniversary

Two days after commemorating the anniversary of Spain's national rising against communism and militant atheism, I have the honor of commemorating the 60th anniversary of the July Plot against Hitler, also called the Officers' Plot -- the one that culminated in a bomb that, tragically, missed Hitler by inches, and led to the brutal execution of thousands. 
 
The leading conspirators were hanged with piano wire; their deaths were filmed and shown to Hitler for his amusement. May God reward all of those martyred plotters, including my personal favorite:



Ambassasor Ulrich von Hassell


posted by Cacciaguida at 3:24 PM

 
He's off!  (Note time of this post.)  OO-rah!! 
 
Prayers are invited for his successful completion of the program.  Graduation, deo volente, is October 15.

posted by Cacciaguida at 3:48 AM

 
Sir, Recruit Morris reporting, SIR!

Jonathan Lee ships out for Parris Island later today -- or actually, very early tomorrow.

About the "proud parent" sticker that I've posted in the margin: I should clarify that no one is a Marine until they've graduated boot camp, and that technically Jonathan Lee is at present (and for the next twelve weeks) a Marine Recruit.

"Nothing is theirs, not even the right to be called 'Marine.' They are simply 'recruits.' They will have to earn the title 'Marine' -- and that is why most of them joined the Corps." -- Thomas E. Ricks, Making the Corps, p. 29.

So, technically, I've jumped the gun. But, as Gen. Patton said in the movie, putting on his third (or fourth?) star before the Senate had confirmed his promotion: "They have their schedule, I have mine." (Yes, I know Patton was Army -- but George C. Scott was a Marine!)
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:47 AM

 
Cacciadelia at the podium: oppo research

Cacciadelia: John Kerry is with the Democrats, right?

Cacciaguida: Right.

Cacciadelia: I thought as much.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:29 AM

 
Feliz aniversario del Alzamiento Nacional contra la dictadura roja,

18 julio, 1936!

posted by Cacciaguida at 10:46 AM

 
Just when you thought it was safe to visit this blog, I post about
 
"Eastern Orthodoxy"!
 
First, about nomenclature.  In the centuries following the schism of 1054, an  understanding seems to have developed whereby the East made off with the word "Orthodox" while the West made off with the word "Catholic".  Needless to say, each side claims the other side's characteristic moniker as well as its own.  The churches of the East not in communion with Rome do not recede from their claim to be catholic, and the Roman Catholic Church does not recede from its claim to be orthodox.
 
If in this post I use the terms "Orthodox" or "East", I mean to denote those churches, mostly grounded in lands east of the Adriatic but west of, say, India, but present in other countries as well; that use the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; that possess valid priestly and episcopal orders dating back to Christ Himself, but are of schismatic status because they are not in communion with the See of Peter at Rome.  

If I use the terms "Catholic" or "West", without more, I mean the Church, the Roman Catholic Church, emphatically including those churches rooted in eastern countries, and using the Chrysostom or other eastern liturgy, that have returned to full communion with the Apostolic See and therefore have every right to be considered Roman Catholic (though not Latin Rite).
 
For more than you ever wanted to know about Eastern churches, both in communion with Rome and not, go here.

 
Second.  The Paladin of Faith and Reason writes in to say: 

Do you two have any suggestions about good books out there that put Eastern Heterodox in their place?  I have recently run accross one and it is like talking to a fundamentalist only with the added arrogance of liturgy and history!  I have never met someone so rude in their emails and they way they just smuggly laugh off the claims of the Church. 
 
Its all Donation of Constantine and Papal Supremecy is a Frankish doctrine . .blah blah blah.
 
I have no intention of trying to chase this guy home to Rome but I would like to read some good Catholic Apologetics that deal with the history of the split, the filioque, their refusal to come to Ecumenical counsels (thus excusing themselves from having to believe the results of one), their rejection of the supremecy of Peter as chief apostle, etc. 
 
Any suggestions?
 
Thanks and Deus Lo Volt!

"Frankish"?  That's a term of abuse from the heyday of the Byzantine Empire.  To Constantinopolitans, everyone west of the Adriatic was a "Frank".  Meanwhile, western emissaries such as Liudprand of Cremona wrote in their travel diaries about what a pack of effete, perfumed backstabbers the Byzantines were.  (On Liudprand, see R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages, Chapter I ii b. )
 
Donation of Constantine?  The Church accepted the fraudulence of this document as soon as it was proved by Lorenzo Valla in the 16th century; anyway the Church hadn't relied on it for over two hundred years before that.  And even in its heyday it only referred to the Church's supposed secular jurisdiction, not to any matter of theology or ecclesiology.  You're saying this guy seriously cites the D of C as a present gripe against the Church?  I suppose he also thinks he was personally robbed and beaten in 1204?
 
Well, on to the books.  There was a Russian philosopher and theologian, much admired by Fulton Sheen, named Vladimir Soloviev, who wrote a book called The Russian Church and the Papacy.  I have not yet tried to find it complete in English, but an abridged English version, edited by Fr. Ray Ryland (a convert from Anglicanism), is available from Catholic Answers.  I don't know if Soloviev himself ever poped, but according to Catholic Answers, he believed that:

* Jesus Christ instituted the universal jurisdiction and infallible teaching authority of the Papacy as a perpetual gift to His Church
* Apart from the Papacy, the Eastern churches will always remain what they are now: ethnic, national churches, totally independent and disunited
* Only in union with Rome can the separated Eastern churches become truly Catholic.

Also, don't forget the more recent general histories of the Church written from a Catholic perspective, such as Warren Carroll's 4-volune History of Christendom, especially volume 2, The Building of Christendom, and Harry Crocker's Triumph.

 
A great many Orthodox folks, like Alexander the Great, want reunion.  But, as you've found, there are also last-ditch rejectionists.  In my experience, these come in two varieties: ethnic Russians or Serbs, and American converts from fundamentalist Protestantism.  
 
Many Russians -- even if they themselves have no faith, as I hear most do not these days -- have nonetheless bought into the idea that Catholicism is a foreign bacillus seeking to infect the pure folk-faith of the noble Russian peasant.   For Russian Orthodox who are actually believers, this nationalist-mysticism is sometimes amplified by a messianic view of  the role of "Holy Russia" in the divine plan.  Such was Dostoevsky (whose work I absolutely love, btw).  With the Serbs, this ecclesiastical nationalism is heightened by genuine grievances over what the nominally Catholic "Ustashe" of Croatia did to them during the War. 
 
(I'd post a link about war-time Croatia, but it seems all of them are put up either by Serbs, each of whom thinks he was personally killed by the Ustashe, or by Croats whose longing to have Pavelic back in town is not well concealed.  Suffice it to say that the Ustashe were a bunch of ultra-nationalist terrorists, led by an attorney-assassin -- one of these career-switchers -- named Ante Pavelic.  They seized  power in Croatia in April of '41 under the sponsorship of Hitler and Mussolini, killed a lot of Serbs and Jews, then fled in '45 at the approach of Tito's Partisans.)
 
As for the ex-fundies, what can one say?  They've done scored themselves some kickin' liturgy and some high sacramental theology without having to go near the Whore of Babylon.  Anti-Catholicism is the fixed point of their universe.  "Fundamentalism with pictures" -- that's how one ex-fundy once described to me his new-found Eastern Orthodoxy, in between scabrous jokes about Catholic priests.  In fairness I should add that our mutual host -- a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy from Anglicanism -- personally apologized to me for this lout's conduct.


Third. Alexander the Great also writes in. I'd better consider his letter bit by bit.

Just a response to your comment on the Re-Union issue (I haven't been online in a while, and since posts on the blog have moved on I decided to just e-mail you to ensure you got my message).

As for the 22 Ecumenical Councils, what makes them Ecumenical?  Is it that the Pope is there?  Representatives of the other Apostolic Sees didn't attend most of them (and I think there was never full attendance after the 7, with the possible exception of Florence).

Here, as so often, one turns to the indispensable 1911 (give or take) edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia, used copies of which were once hunted with more ferocity than DaVinci codes, but which is now available online via the equally indispensable New Advent.  In part of its article on councils, it says (Cath.Enc. text in bold blockquotes; Alexander's letter in regular blockquotes):

Ecumenical Councils are those to which the bishops, and others entitled to vote, are convoked from the whole world (oikoumene) under the presidency of the pope or his legates, and the decrees of which, having received papal confirmation, bind all Christians. A council, Ecumenical in its convocation, may fail to secure the approbation of the whole Church or of the pope, and thus not rank in authority with Ecumenical councils. Such was the case with the Robber Synod of 449 (Latrocinium Ephesinum), the Synod of Pisa in 1409, and in part with the Councils of Constance and Basle.

Alexander continues:

As for [the Council of] Florence [a reunion Council, ca. 1435, that made theological progress but failed to grasp the brass ring of reunion], I was always under the impression that the Eastern delegation was illegitimate.  Specifically, the Emperor sent select bishops and priests to Florence in order to reconcile with Rome for political reasons (the Turks being on the doorstep of Constantinople).  When the delegation got back lots of monks and bishops and priests cried foul.  I think it's analogous to what would happen if the College of Cardinals was coerced or otherwise under pressure when electing the next Pope.  Though the Holy Spirit is supposed to guide the proceedings under normal circumstances, people can mess that up by "fixing" the outcome. 

As far as I can remember from Deno Geanokoplos's course on Byzantine history and his seminar on Orthodox Church history (in which I did a paper on Byzantine Thomists, btw), you're right that the result of Florence was not accepted by the clergy and people of Constantinople.  My impression is that according to E.O. ecclesiology, as to which I defer to you, that is enough to scuttle a council.

But it does not follow that the Eastern delegation was illegitimate.  It was no secret that desire for Western aid against the Turks was the principal reason for the Emperor's renewed interest in church reunion, and for the Patriarch's consent to this otherwise-unthinkable undertaking.  It's also no secret that Western promises of military aid never materialized, to our great shame and to the deadly peril of Christian Constantinople.  But a secular motivation (especially a worthy one, such as saving Eastern Christendom from the Saracen) does not invalidate a delegation's credentials or a council's outcome.

Alexander winds up:

Here's hoping for 2054, through the Grace of the Holy Spirit.

In Christ,

Alexander

Alexander refers here to something he and I have talked about: that the year 2054 would be a wonderfully auspicious one for the declaration of full reunion, or, failing that, some huge step such as reunion between the See of Rome and the Patriarchate of Constantinople -- and there's still fifty years to work towards it.   Deus lo volt.

But remember, there are still those radical rejectionists, such as the Paladin and I have encountered from time to time.  One repeats to them what the Pope says about "the Church breathing with both lungs" (i.e. her eastern as well as her western traditions), and they all but spit.  Gonna be tough.  

Alexander adds:

PS As for the Filioque, I think it is instructive that St. Peter's was constructed with the original text of the Creed (mounted on bronze plaques somewhere), as the Pope explicitly refused to use Toledo's wording.  Also, the 3rd Council (which we both agree is Ecumenical) forbade meddling with the Creed.

Dunno about plaques at St. Peter's.  That would be the old, i.e. pre-16th century, St. Peter's.   The present one has inscribed around the belt of the dome (what's the proper architectural term?) Our Lord's conferral of authority on Peter.  The words positioned so as to strike you in the face when you first enter are et tibi dabo claves regnum caelorum.

The Cath.Enc. article previously linked gives a complete list of the ecumenical councils that had take place by the time it was published.  (Btw, in letter to Alexander I made a mistake: there are 21 ecuumenical councils, including Vatican II, not 22.)  Here is the short file on the Third E.C.:

Third Ecumenical Council: Ephesus (431)
The Council of Ephesus, of more than 200 bishops, presided over by St. Cyril of Alexandria representing Pope Celestine I, defined the true personal unity of Christ, declared Mary the Mother of God (theotokos) against Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, and renewed the condemnation of Pelagius.

The Athanasian creed, a much longer and more theologically specific creed than either the Nicene or the Apostles', contains Filioque, and dates to about 400, according to this site.  The same site has quotes from St. Cyril of Alexandria from 429, a year before the Third Council, that show that this Eastern father was something of a Fili-fanatic.  For it, I mean.

Fwiw, I believe the present practice at East-West liturgies at the Vatican is to leave out Filioque.  This is crazy-generousof JPII, and typical of him.  The Church may someday accept the proposition (keep track of the double negatives here: they're necessary) that it is not heretical to say the Creed without Filioque, but she must, it seems to me, forever reject the proposition that it is heretical to say the Creed with Filioque.

posted by Cacciaguida at 9:32 PM

 
GOPers Seek Pro-Life Voice at Convention

posted by Cacciaguida at 6:53 PM

 
Daily Telegraph: Brooklyn Jews raise alarm over 'hipster' invasion
By Marcus Warren in New York(Filed: 16/07/2004):
 

Thousands of Hasidic Jews have attended rallies protesting against an invasion by "artists" with immodest lifestyles and its impact on their neighbourhood and its property prices....

The juxtaposition of devout Hasidim and "hipsters", some artists but most just young exiles from the more expensive fleshpots of Manhattan, has long amused New Yorkers.  Both belong to tribes out of sympathy with the modern world, favour the colour black and tend to wear strange headdress - Hasidim broad-brimmed hats, hipsters trucker caps, the joke goes.  All speak quaint languages, Yiddish or a dialect of English enriched by use of terms such as "dude" or "sweet".

posted by Cacciaguida at 4:27 PM

 
-- Are you a strict t. t.? says Joe.
-- Not taking anything between drinks, says I.
 
-Joyce, Ulysses (Cyclops)

posted by Cacciaguida at 4:22 PM

 
Mark Belnick acquitted!   I offered all my Masses and rosaries this past weekend for this intention.  Mark is a good Jewish Catholic, a generous giver to Catholic and pro-life causes, and a good friend.  I first met him at a pro-life fund-raising event.   Since this is the first time I've mentioned him on this blog, you are free to speculate that I waited until he was acquitted to show support for him.  But he knows otherwise.

posted by Cacciaguida at 8:49 PM

 
Fun with spam-scammers. Via The Old Oligarch. Don't try this at home.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:15 PM

 
Diana likes shrimp too! See also shrimp-related post here (plus comments).
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:08 PM

 
On the Bishop DiLorenzo story, a "folo", as we used to call it in the news biz; i.e. a follow-up story. No further news, just local "reax". Also, still more "reax" from the locals here.

Meanwhile the tale of DiLorenzo the Magnificent is rattling aroung the Catholic blogosphere. See e.g. Kross & Sweord, Ad Limina Apostolorum, De Fidei Obedientia, and of course, Mommentary (permalink not working today, but look for post headed "We're so happy!").
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:58 PM

 
On Kerry's claim that he believes "life begins at conception" but that, unlike any other personal beliefs he may have, this one must be kept separate from his public life:

Deacon Keith Fournier remarks:

I know, some newspaper reports say it was somehow “unintentional”; after all he is trying to keep out of the controversy, right? Wrong! He knows exactly what he is doing. He is trying to delude Catholics, other Christians, other people of faith and people of good will by his sophistry in order to be President....

The Catholic faith that the Senator wants to trade upon does not just speak to our "personal" lives. It is not "private". It speaks to the whole of life and is meant to inform and transform the entire way we both view and live our lives as Catholics and as human beings. Our Catholic Christian faith must be lived as an integrated whole. It is not like a hat that we take off when we enter public life. In fact, it is precisely there where we need to inform our participation in order to truly serve the common good of all men and women. Our baptismal vocation compels us to live a unity of life. If our faith does not inform our participation in every sphere of life, it is not real, it is feigned. Those who claim adherence to the Catholic faith and then publicly renounce it in word and deed are engaged in an egregious error that puts their soul in grave risk. They also engage in public scandal.

In support, Fournier quotes from Section 43 of Gaudiem et Spes, Vatican II's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World:

"43. This council exhorts Christians, as citizens of two cities, to strive to discharge their earthly duties conscientiously and in response to the Gospel spirit. They are mistaken who, knowing that we have here no abiding city but seek one which is to come,[13] think that they may therefore shirk their earthly responsibilities. For they are forgetting that by the faith itself they are more obliged than ever to measure up to these duties, each according to his proper vocation.[14] Nor, on the contrary, are they any less wide of the mark who think that religion consists in acts of worship alone and in the discharge of certain moral obligations, and who imagine they can plunge themselves into earthly affairs in such a way as to imply that these are altogether divorced from the religious life. This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age."

The above paragraph is a handy and hearty statement of the ideal of unity of life.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:04 AM

 
Fatima meets Gettysburg: today is the four-score-and-seventh anniversary of the apparitions.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:57 PM

 
This book, according to the Washington Post, argues that radical Islamists don't really hate America or democracy at all, they're just sore that we keep thwarting their aspirations to kick the Jews into the sea and take over Russia and China -- you know, thwartful stuff that would piss anybody off.

Three strange things about this book:

* that it would be authored by a CIA agent -- well, maybe nothing about the Company can be said to be strange, or stranger than anything else about it;
* that the Company would allow the author -- still in its employ, after all -- to publish it: but see caveat supra;
* that it should turn up on an Amazon list of "What the gay world is reading."

About that last one: I think we know what radical Islam thinks of gays. So by what arcane twist of coalition-building does a book that shills for radical Islam get lapped up by the gay monde?
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:40 PM

 
The Salt Lake Tribune brings us some items of religious news, of which two stand out:

* At the recent national convention of the Unitarian-Univeralist Association, break-out sessions on polyamory were exceedingly well attended.

* In Sweden, a pastor will spend a month in jail for saying that homosexuality is "abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumor in the body of society."
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:09 PM

 
The Mighty Barrister offers some variations on the Number of the Beast.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:36 PM

 
Diocese of Richmond:

New bishop conforms to strict Catholic law

I'd quote highlights, as I usually do, but there's too much to choose from. Just read it!

To the old guard -- the aging renewers, the senescent innovators, those clinging to decades-old visions of the "future Church" -- I want to address a few words of fellowship and reconciliation:

NEENER NEENER NEENER! NANNY NANNY BOO BOO! IT MUST SUCK TO BE YOU! IT'S GREAT TO BE KING!

Thank you. As you were. I guess that was a sin (is it covetousness or envy that's involved when you rejoice over your foes' discomfiture? Envy, I think), but I had to get it out of my system. Confession comin' up -- and a better future for the diocese!
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:08 AM

 
Gleichschaltung in Russia?

Putin's agents shut down an independent talk show called -- and I'm not making this up -- "Freedom of Speech". Yep, "Putin Shuts Down Freedom of Speech" -- not much sensitivity to headlines, eh? That's how confident Putin is.

Then this: Editor of Russian Forbes Shot Dead.

I'm glad to have Putin's support, however passive, in Iraq (Russian Czars tend to be very clue-y about Muslim aggression: can you say "M-o-n-g-o-l-s"?), but a neo-fascist Russia is also a threat to internal freedom and world peace.

EDITED TO ADD: I realize the Mongols at first were pagans who did yeoman work busting up the Caliphate. But over time, numerous Central Asian nations became Muslim, while "the Russias" (principalities of Kiev, Novgorod, Moscow, etc.) fiercely retained their Christianity, however schismatic, and carried icons of Our Lady into battle against their "near abroad".
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:41 PM

 
Meanwhile, in today's Britain:

A return to tradition in schools

A return to traditional school uniforms, the house system and competitive sport was announced by the Government yesterday.

Gee, how do you think that happened? Making those things cool again, I mean? (Competitive sport may always have been In; I don't know. But uniforms and "houses" were definitely Out according to trendy school reform notions, until now.)

posted by Cacciaguida at 3:26 PM

 
Who were the Picts? This site seems fairly respectable. Note:

The toponymic elements "Pett" and "Pitt" are certainly a common feature of placenames within Pictish territories. The Norsemen, when they arrived in Orkney, certainly described the inhabitants at "Pettr".

Also this:

[B]y the time the Norsemen were compiling their sagas and histories, the memory of the Picts had degenerated into a semi-mythical race of fairies.

-- which makes me think maybe they were the Harvard football team.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:34 PM

 
The Mets are within inches of first place. They'd be there now if they had won tonight. They didn't, but things are looking good anyway. Newly acquired centerfielder Richard Hidalgo rocks. Together with Mike Cameron -- who hit his third homer in two games in tonight's 5-4 heartbreaker against the Phillies -- the Amazins' have a solid outfield.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:12 PM

 
BBC: Scan shows unborn babies smile. Via Summa Mamas.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:49 PM

 
Camelot? Lancelot? Barf a lot!

I probably won't be seeing the new KING ARTHUR movie. It's evidently a lot more anti-Christian and pro-pagan than Harry could ever hope to be, assuming Harry so hoped. It's drawing reviews with titles like Blights of the round table and The once and future king, in his dreariest picture yet. In the latter, Slate movie critic David Edelstein tells us:

This is all pretty revisionist: no court, no jousts, no chivalry, no religiosity. No Holy Grail, for that matter, since no one in Arthur's squadron has a use for those sadistic Christians, who'd torture you as soon as look at you....

On the day that his men are supposed to be given their freedom to leave the rainy, backward island and return to the sunshiney land of gladiators and Christian zealots, a bishop with a ratlike countenance orders Arthur to embark on one last (suicide) mission, beyond Hadrian's Wall, into the land of Scots, Woads, and invading barbarian Saxons [impressive, seeing as the Saxons in fact invaded Britain from the south - C.]....

Arthur even joins forces with Merlin's Woads, including a hotcha Woad who looks like Winona Ryder stretched out (Keira Knightley), whom Arthur's men liberated from the dungeon of a fanatical Roman. "He tortured me," she says. "With machines." Then she adds, "I'm Guinevere." That's some revision! At first too weak to talk, Guinevere is soon lecturing Arthur nonstop in perfect Oxbridge know-it-all diction about his habit of killing his own people, whereupon I thought about torturing her with machines myself. But it's hard to hate her too much when she wriggles into a fetching halter, paints herself green, and picks up a bow and arrow, determinedly setting that long fish jaw. You go, you saucy Woaden wench!

Before you ladies festoon my comment boxes with denunciations of "men!!", please consider that those last two sentences there may be ironic, intended to spoof what this movie does to Guinevere, not to applaud it. (Now the real Winona Ryder with a bow and arrow, a la AGE OF INNOCENCE -- that's something else altogether!)

In contrast to this KING ARTHUR, the liberties taken in the recent TROY movie were tolerably well within the narrative tradition within which Homer himself worked. And the gods it dissed were the Olympian ones, not the True One.
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:45 PM

 
That "Ratzinger Memo" as published on the online edition of the Italian paper L'Espresso. Via Lifesite. (I cannot vouch for the completeness or authenticity of the text, nor for the accuracy of the translation. Are any of you clued in on these things?) (Brackets in original.)

Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion. General Principles
by Joseph Ratzinger

1. Presenting oneself to receive Holy Communion should be a conscious decision, based on a reasoned judgement regarding one’s worthiness to do so, according to the Church’s objective criteria, asking such questions as: “Am I in full communion with the Catholic Church? Am I guilty of grave sin? Have I incurred a penalty (e.g. excommunication, interdict) that forbids me to receive Holy Communion? Have I prepared myself by fasting for at least an hour?” The practice of indiscriminately presenting oneself to receive Holy Communion, merely as a consequence of being present at Mass, is an abuse that must be corrected (cf. Instruction “Redemptionis Sacramentum,” nos. 81, 83).

2. The Church teaches that abortion or euthanasia is a grave sin. The Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, with reference to judicial decisions or civil laws that authorise or promote abortion or euthanasia, states that there is a “grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. [...] In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to ‘take part in a propoganda campaign in favour of such a law or vote for it’” (no. 73). Christians have a “grave obligation of conscience not to cooperate formally in practices which, even if permitted by civil legislation, are contrary to God’s law. Indeed, from the moral standpoint, it is never licit to cooperate formally in evil. [...] This cooperation can never be justified either by invoking respect for the freedom of others or by appealing to the fact that civil law permits it or requires it” (no. 74).

3. Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.

4. Apart from an individuals’s judgement about his worthiness to present himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, the minister of Holy Communion may find himself in the situation where he must refuse to distribute Holy Communion to someone, such as in cases of a declared excommunication, a declared interdict, or an obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin (cf. can. 915).

5. Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.

6. When “these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they were not possible,” and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, “the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it” (cf. Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts Declaration “Holy Communion and Divorced, Civilly Remarried Catholics” [2002], nos. 3-4). This decision, properly speaking, is not a sanction or a penalty. Nor is the minister of Holy Communion passing judgement on the person’s subjective guilt, but rather is reacting to the person’s public unworthiness to receive Holy Communion due to an objective situation of sin.

[N.B. A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate’s stand in favour of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons.]

Thoughts? Updates?

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:12 AM

 

"God will not suffer man to have the knowledge of things to come; for if he had prescience of his prosperity he would be careless; and understanding of his adversity he would be senseless."

You are Augustine! You love to study tough issues and don't mind it if you lose sleep over them. Everyone loves you and wants to talk to you and hear your views, you even get things like "nice debating with you." Yep, you are super smart, even if you are still trying to figure it all out. You're also very honest, something people admire, even when you do stupid things.

What theologian are you?

A creation of Henderson

posted by Cacciaguida at 10:21 PM

 
Maggie Gallagher: The "gayby boom" grownups start to speak out
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:13 PM

 
Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., Declares Bankruptcy "Lawyers for alleged victims across the country said they were stunned by the filing...." I'll bet. As Jonathan Lee says, they probably just made down payments on their boats.

The W.Post appears to be concerned that a religious entity will be forced to "open its finances to outside scrutiny and risk turning over its operations to a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee." Crocodile tears. Bankruptcy is intrusive, but I've never heard yet that a question of faith or morals was litigated in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Furthermore, the Archbishop was free to avail himself of the Bankruptcy Code, or not to do so. If he chose to do so, he in entitled to a presumption that he weighed the limited danger to Church autonomy and decided the risk was small. And did I mention that bankruptcy is temporary?

Sexual abuse of minors is a crime; covering it up may (depending on the facts) be a form of accessory liability to that crime. The legal system treats many misdeeds as both crimes and torts. In the case of "the crisis", this has been very unfortunate, as it has allowed the process of redress to be led not by salaried and accountable prosecutors, as it should be, but by gold-digging plaintiffs' lawyers.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:40 AM

 
Headline watch

Loudoun Approves Ex-Chairman's Farm for Development. At first I thought, gee, better not annoy these Loudoun supervisors, or they'll turn your farm into an oil refinery. Then I realized, no, he wants the re-zoning, for housing developments, so he can make a gadgillion dollars. Well, people need houses, so I'll shut up on this.

Shrimp Duties Imposed. Yes: bathe daily in cocktail sauce.

Actually the real story appears to be that Asians are "dumping" inexpensive shrimp. I.e. they're competing with American shrimpers, successfully. Can't have that. Ordinary people might get access to good, inexpensive shrimp, diminishing this delicacy's proven class-distinction value. Even worse, American shrimpers might have to work harder or change businesses. We've got a Commerce Department to prevent outrages like that.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:28 AM

 

Saint Maria Goretti, 1890-1902

Maria Goretti's story -- continuing, as it does, so long after her physical death -- never ceases to fascinate.

There seem to be different views as to whether Alessandro Serenelli, Maria's attacker, actually attended her canonization in 1950. The Daily Roman Missal says he did. A documentary video called Fourteen Flowers of Pardon says he remained behind at the monastery where he had been a lay assistant ever since his release from prison, but that he issued a statement warning young men about pornography. (The title of the documentary refers to Alessandro's explanation of why, while in prison, he changed overnight from a hardened con to a model prisoner: he said Maria had appeared to him in a dream, forgiving him, and offering him fourteen flowers, one for each time he had stabbed her.)

All agree, however, that Alessandro and Mama Goretti were reconciled after Alessando got out of prison. (Presumably Papa Goretti had died while Alessandro was serving his long sentence.) Btw, Alessandro would have been executed, except that he was a juvenile at the time of the crime.

The priest this morning stressed the need for mental as well as physical chastity. He also mentioned that Maria could have yielded without thereby committing a sin; he thus showed the heroic angle of her story.

I was reminded of what Augustine stresses at length in Book I of The City of God: without consent, no sin -- so the Roman girls and matrons who were raped by the Goths should be seen as victims and not sinners. (Augustine is here taking issue with the traditional pagan-Roman view exemplified in the story of Lucretia.)

But was Maria's vigorous resistance, then, suicide? No: Alessandro, not Maria, killed Maria. If she set her honor at a higher price than she was strictly bound to do under sin, she certainly did not set it at too high a price. Though acquiescence under lethal threat would not have been a sin, resistance was heroic, and more holy. Once again, minimalism -- doing the least we can get away with while avoiding mortal sin -- is seen as not the path of the saints, nor the path that inspires generous people in after-ages.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:26 PM

 
Just so you know

Thanks to a print-link in the current Weekly Standard (an article by Paul Marshall, of Freedom House), we can read the perps' own narration of their attack, last May 29, that killed 22 people in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Click here (and thanks to MEMRI).

(Mr. Marshall's article contains an image from a jihadist website, where the resemblance of the Arabic script to Sith ciphers is truly remarkable; but I guess that's not what's important.)

As Mr. Marshall points out, the terrorists targeted non-Muslims in complete disregard of whether the nations the victims hailed from were part of President Bush's "coalition of the willing" or not.

At Khobar, after debating the matter, the terrorists spared one American because he was a Muslim, and even apologized to him for getting blood on his carpet. Meanwhile, they happily killed Filipino, Swedish, British, Italian, and South African Christians and Indian Hindus....

Accordingly Mr. Marshall is not convinced that Spain has bought itself security from terror by leaving the coalition, or that the U.S. can do so by acting only through the U.N.

Al Qaeda's enemy is anyone who opposes its program for the restoration of a unified Muslim ummah, ruled by a new Caliphate, governed by reactionary Islamic sharia law, and organized to wage jihad on the rest of the world.... [W]e can resist this program, in which case, tragically, we may well see more videos of beheadings. Or we can acquiesce to this program and see a great many more beheadings....

posted by Cacciaguida at 5:04 PM

 
So it's Edwards.

Predictable. (In fact I predicted it, but didn't document the prediction.) Edwards brings a southern connection and a lot of trial-lawyer money.

OTOH, Gore couldn't even win Tennessee in 2000. Do any North Carolina readers think Edwards will swing that state for Kerry?
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:43 AM

 
British Reject Ban on Spanking of Kids
Note -- leftist Guardian moans:

Britain is out of step on the issue with several European countries, including Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Austria, where all physical punishment of children is illegal.

posted by Cacciaguida at 12:55 AM

 
Here's hoping The Atlantic Monthly keeps the same flavor -- not conservative, exactly, but conspicuously non-worshipful toward liberalism -- that it had under the late Michael Kelly. I was just looking at a back issue (Oct. '02) that had this to say (scroll down) about Thomas Friedman, a columnist considered valuable by the New York Times:

The author, the foreign-affairs columnist for The New York Times, occupies the same position in the cultural and political landscape as that once held by Walter Lippmann—which will confirm for any independent-minded person that our civilization has utterly collapsed. Friedman's latest book, a collection of his columns, displays his peculiar propensity to be at once hokey and pretentious.... Friedman says in twelve words ("This book is the product of my own personal journey of exploration") what a competent writer could say in—actually, wouldn't say at all....

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:56 PM

 
Woad runner: take your Pict

Haven't seen the new KING ARTHUR yet, but from this review, it sounds truer to history than most Arthurian narratives: Arthur as Romano-Briton general, fighting off the Saxons on one side and the Picts (erroneously called the Woads -- "woad" is the type of paint that the "Picts" [= "paint guys"] put on their faces so as to become Blue Men for battle purposes) on the other.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:22 PM

 
Did you celebrate the 4th this year? I didn't. Nothing anti-American -- I'm cool with the incumbent administration and psyched for kicking towelhead tushie (in conformity with the laws of war, of course) -- but I just didn't get around to all the "4th" stuff this year. It was displaced by Sunday, like many a more important feast day in the current calendar.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:19 PM

 
I'm back -- but too tired for any serious posting. Random thoughts for which I take no responsibility:

* Flying AirTran to Boston from points south, on a clear day, sitting on the left-hand side, you get a really boss view of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Ossining, and New Haven.

* There actually is, just at the moment, a chap named Silas living at Murray Hill Place -- but, far from being an albino, he's from Nigeria. Dan Brown must have been working from a photo negative. (So perhaps his real name is Dan Beige...?)

* The lobster at Durgin Park is great, but so is the scrod. I'll tell "the joke" later. Meanwhile be sure to try the baked beans too, and the Indian pudding for dessert. For me, Virginia values and New England food!

* Except for Faneuil Hall and nearby Quincy Market (where Durgin Park is), Boston is still shut tight as a drum on Sundays. Puritan heritage. We'll marry gays, but NOT ON SUNDAY!!

* The U.S. Supreme Court seems to think political speech can be curbed in the interesting of preventing an appearance of corruption, but laws to keep kids from accessing porn are unconstitutional because they might, as a side-effect, make it harder for adults to access "constitutionally protected materials." Shall I blog the decision -- or shall I just retire to Bedlam?

See you during the week, when I wake up.

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:24 PM