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

 

So, a little while back, vandals removed or damaged 3,000 crosses placed on the LSU campus as part of a protest against abortion. There have been arrests. And now, the leader of the vandals has sent a letter to the university newspaper explaining his actions. We don't usually Fisk here at MansfieldFox (it runs counter to our generally easy-going attitude) but the letter is such a masterpiece of inanity that it cries to Heaven to be parsed and mocked.

Angus goes on to demonstrate that those who do not fisk often, often do it best.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:44 PM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida: hi-tech for the unadventurous

CACCIAGUIDA: Can I borrow your Walkman?

ELINOR: Sure. Use the electric cord.

CACCIAGUIDA: I've never used one with an electric cord before.

ELINOR: Saves batteries. It's more like a Sitman.

CACCIAGUIDA: [shakes head]

ELINOR: I have one with a cupholder. It's called a Have-a-Cuppa-Teaman.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:39 PM

 
Blog break

Entering the Matrix. Back on Monday, Jan. 31. Meantime, scroll down to the get-sick card I just sent to the New Oxford Review.

I was going to comment on the faux-scandal about Maggie Gallagher's work-contracts with HHS, but what do you know, someone has taken the words right out of my mouth. See you soon.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:16 PM

 
This has been coming on for a while. I've just mailed this letter:

January 25, 2005

To the New Oxford Review:

Please stop my subscription. I don’t care about refunds; I just don’t want it in my house any more.

It’s a shame, really. You and I moved from Anglicanism to Catholicism at about the same time. But then you went socialist and very nearly com-symp. I lost interest.

I picked you up again in the mid-90s, only to watch you slide toward paleocon nuttiness, with a large dollop of self-awarded Grand-Inquisitorial imperium. Today, you evidently consider an issue wasted in which you don’t mount a major attack on some individual or institution connected with the Holy Father’s New Evangelization.

John Paul II used to be your inspiration; but lately you’ve run a feature article denigrating his pontificate, and you rely on some of his open detractors, of the “rad-trad” variety, in support of your own heresy-hunting enthusiasms.

Look, critique Scott Hahn’s specific theories all you like. But there’s a grammar and style for debate, known to everyone who publishes in the intellectual sphere, and it’s not what you’re doing. You don’t dispute his theories on their merits: you use them as bullet-points in an all-out attack. You don’t do discussion, you do exposés. When I want that, I can get it – better done – in The Wanderer (which, interestingly, has not seen fit to attack Hahn.)

I see your latest witnesses against Hahn are Christopher Ferrara and Robert Sungenis. Yes, well. Ferrara’s got his own record to defend when it comes to fidelity to the Magisterium. And Sungenis – what’s his latest enthusiasm, six-day-young-earth creationism, or his patronizing brand of JPII-bashing ("of course, he has his positive points....")? Has he admitted yet that it was a bad idea to rely on open anti-semites, white-supremacists, and Holocaust-deniers in formulating his response to a dodgy USCCB subcommittee statement on Jews and salvation?

Honestly, where do you guys go looking for theological authorities these days, the cantina from Star Wars?

From one ex-Anglican to a bunch of others, let me ask this: didn’t we say, when we came over, that in the Catholic Church, at least “the lunatics aren’t running the asylum”? Or words to that effect? I stand by that, even acknowledging the problems. But if you now think that maybe the lunatics are running the asylum, even in the Catholic Church, then you don’t have a whole lot of reason for staying Catholic, now do you? You could become “Continuing Anglican” again, or openly Lefebvrist. I hope you won’t, but some day soon these may be your more honest alternatives.

I’ll continue to look forward to your “trademark” ads, since (apart from Ann Barbeau Gardiner’s luminous book reviews, which I will miss) they are the best thing you publish.


In Christo Rege,

Cacciaguida

posted by Cacciaguida at 7:11 PM

 
British gov't wants Little Teddy, not Big Teddy. Big Teddy, it seems, leads children into gambling. I don't know. In our house, the only gamble we took with Big Teddy was the risk that he might fall on one of the younger children. But it was Little Teddy who took the lead against Bad Guys, so maybe the Brits are on to something.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:03 AM

 
Quote Log: Seems Marine units have their own version of "Seen and Heard"!
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:24 PM

 
Great picture (the top one, I mean). I think I'll link to Gleeful Extremist, probably under Crusaders' Corner. (Hat tip: The Crowe)
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:17 PM

 

....If you want to have it rubbed in your face that women who sleep with men take different, specific, culturally- but also biologically-imposed risks, why don't you go do pregnancy tests for women who were on Ortho-Tricyclin, or women who'd had their tubes tied? (I did both tonight.)...

Eve is in on her A-game as she whacks a mole on the "What does it matter what the genital equipment of the partner is? Love is love, right?" issue.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:00 PM

 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top members of the Senate Armed Services Committee met with the Pentagon's intelligence chief Monday amid reports that the Defense Department has been running a beefed-up intelligence-gathering unit.

And the Defense Department running a beefed-up intelligence-gathering unit is bad because...? Am I missing something?
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:25 AM

 
That old I Confess spirit (when Canadian Catholicism rocked): Canadian bishops and the impending gay-marriage bill

Quebec Archbishop Marc Cardinal Quellet said in an open letter Friday that Canadians should not underestimate the impact of such legislation: ''We must not forget that every law is the expression of a commonly held value that shapes the culture of a society. We therefore find ourselves at a turning point in the evolution of Canadian society. This should not be overlooked by those who shape and form our laws.''...

Calgary Bishop Frederick Henry linked homosexuality to adultery, prostitution and pornography, saying in a pastoral letter to his diocese that the church has a duty to protect the fabric of society, even while that society is governed by law.

''Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the state must use its coercive power to proscribe or curtail them in the interests of the common good,'' Henry wrote.

From the AP, via Boston.com, here.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:24 PM

 
"Irap"

Nothing like having a son in the Marines to concentrate one's mind on Iraqi politics, and Syrian and Iranian as well.

First, who is Abdul-Aziz Al Hakim (besides the most likely winner of the Iraqi elections), and what is the Badr Brigade? Chester the Marine comments under the misleadingly bland header "Latest Prognostications from George Friedman."

George Friedman, you will be aware, is the head of Stratfor, a private, for-profit intelligence service that the Left doesn't like.

One of Chester's commenters pithily remarks: "Based on the excerpt given above, the Stratfor article seems like another statement of the 'Shi'ite hive-mind' prognosis for Iraq. This theory comes in optimistic (the Shia are about to do our dirty work for us) and pessimistic forms (the Shia are about to create West Iran)."

I say, let's call that new nation "Irap" -- p being the only consonant in between n and q.

Washington Times: "Polls have shown that most Iraqis plan to vote despite such threats and unremitting violence, but the fear is palpable in conversations with Iraqis, many of whom refuse to be photographed or even to talk to Westerners."

WorldNetDaily: "Syria yesterday invited Israel to renew negotiations with Damascus to bring 'comprehensive peace' to the area, but sources tell WorldNetDaily Jerusalem views the overture as an act of desperation while the U.S. works to isolate Syria."

Jerusalem Post:

Iran's nuclear program is close to the "point of no return," at which they will no longer need outside or international help to enrich uranium for use in atomic weapons, Mossad Chief Meir Dagan told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday.

The international community is not using all of its capabilities to curb the Iranian program, Dagan stressed.

Dagan assessed United States Vice President Dick Cheney comment last week, which mentioned the possibility of Israeli action against Iran in order to provoke European countries to take action, as an attempt at provoking the international community to take action against Iran before it is too late.

posted by Cacciaguida at 8:28 AM

 
Va', Blogwatch,
Nel tuo cor s'annida Scarpia....

Legal Theory Blog alerts us to recent scholarship by Prof. Kevin Kordana

Caption contest at Shrine of the Holy Whapping

Henry Dieterich on trends in first-name popularity. "Emma" is among the rising favorites. Well, duh!

A knowledgeable reader (not me) writing in to Dappled Things: on Lord Acton, Old Catholic

Smiley, at The Daily Demarche, on "mulipolarity": a doctrine beloved of for-pol academics and Frenchmen, but actually "nothing more than old-fashioned balance of power politics writ large...." That was fine for 19th century Europe, but "It all came crashing down, however, during World War I, when technology improved the ability to kill beyond the ability of statesmen to keep re-balancing the power....A brief glance at the history of the last one hundred years will reveal that the greatest threats to stability have come from illiberal states and/or ideologies. This continues to the present day: illiberal strains of Islam (and the states that give them succor) pose a serious threat to the democratic world."

At Marine Corps Moms, a Marine blinded from injuries received in Iraq is quoted: "I have seen everything I need to see. I saw my son being born, I saw my Drill Instructor smile at me when he said congratulations Marine. I saw a lot of sunsets in places that they talk about in the Bible. I saw a lot of my friends go home from over there, I saw a lot that didn't. I saw the Iwo monument in Washington. I saw how proud my dad was when I graduated boot camp. I'm satisfied with that...."
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:33 PM

 
MY FELLOW AMERICANS, I had intended to reach out to all of you and bring a divided nation together. But I changed my mind....

Every once in a while, P.J. O'Rourke hits one out of the park.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:27 PM

 
Birth and death

The great cycle. Nell Rankin is gone, but -- Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum! -- Zorak and the Old Oligarch have their first child, a girl! Labor was brief and easy (though we must remember, gentlemen, that the latter term is relative in this context).

Also, re-birth: Zorak's esteemed E-Pression is back in service! Take a look at the "Sex of the Baby" poll there, and you'll see that "girl" (my "side," natch) led 53-47% when the, um, polls closed. (Ohio is nonetheless demanding a recount, as many "boy" voters report long lines....)
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:39 PM

 
Nell Rankin, 1926-2005

Very strange, and sad. Only sixteen days ago, having been alerted to her birthday, I put up on this blog a photo-tribute to the great (and, at the Met, severely under-appreciated) mezzo-soprano, Nell Rankin. In the days that followed, I pulled off the shelf many "private" recordings of her performances now available on the gray market, and listened to them one by one (I mentioned listening to her in LA GIOCONDA here.)

Yesterday, the news came that she has entered into eternity. A worthwhile selection of obits is found here (AP), here (for this, I'll break my rule against linking to the New York Times), and here (from her home-town paper in Montgomery, Alabama).

Since getting the news, I've been in private e-mail contact with family, friends, and enemies about Nell. Maybe I'll post my portions of that correspondence on this blog later. For now, just a personal note. I cc'ed my mother, who was a very close friend of Nell's for a long time, and she wrote back:

I forwarded your messages to [your sisters], who appreciated them. After all, Nell was responsible for Bunny [the favorite toy of my littlest sister, clutched by said sister long after its expiry date], as she was for your Bugs [a real rabbit that Nell gave me, on condition that I let my sisters pet it too: see second comment here], and all your Snoopys, among other things. You were "her" kids.

That's true. I think I'll continue listening to her Laura in GIOCONDA, but first I think I'll cry for a while.

I would greatly appreciate prayers for her soul.

Stella del marinar, Vergine santa,
tu mi difendi in quest'ora suprema....
-- LA GIOCONDA


Nell Rankin, 1926-2005:
great mezzo-soprano, great "aunt"
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:44 PM

 
Syrian-Catholic Archbishop released.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:15 PM

 

Iraqi Archbishop Seized, Vatican Demands Release
Mon Jan 17, 2005 04:37 PM ET
By Maher al-Thanoon and Philip Pullella

MOSUL/VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Iraqi Catholic archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped at gunpoint on Monday and the Vatican demanded his quick release and deplored what it branded an act of terrorism.

Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, was believed to be the highest-ranking Catholic prelate to be abducted in Iraq, where churches have been the target of a bombing campaign that has rattled the tiny Christian minority. More

The article also, and inevitably, notes: "While Christians had little political power under Saddam Hussein, they were free to worship and did not feel threatened by sectarian violence." That's what everyone says; I wonder how true it is. Strictly speaking, the "tolerance" attributed to Saddam is perfectly consistent with the oppressive condition known as Dhimmitude. On this question, Operation Iraqi Freedom has, I submit, merely lanced a boil.

Meanwhile, let's pray for Archbishop Casmoussa.

P.S. One of the by-lines of the linked Reuters article is Philip Pullella. I knew Phil briefly when I was a temporary reporter in Rome, almost twenty years ago. Certain of my "sound" Catholic friends didn't like him, but at any rate, I found him to be about as friendly and helpful to a greenhorn like me as one could rightly expect a Reuters guy to be.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:43 PM

 
First promotion

As of January 13, and retroactive to January 1, it's Private First Class Jonathan Lee Morris (title is abbreviated "Pfc.").
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:03 AM

 
The Passion and the Oscars

As you probably know, winning an Academy Award is a lot like winning the Presidency: regardless of the inherent quality of the candidate, it takes a multi-gazillion-dollar publicity campaign. Gibson has decided not to play that game, for, no doubt, a variety of reasons: having better uses for a few gazillion dollars (let's have that Maccabees movie, Mel! Or Baodicea!); the high probability that even a top-tier p.r. effort would not get past Hollywood's rage; and the sheer incongruity of having TPOTC up there with works that, however good, are in the final analysis just movies.

However, if you'd like to sign a TPOTC petition to the Academy (and I did), you can click here.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:11 PM

 

You scored as Upper middle Class. Your determination have soared you this high, yet not high enough to enjoy the luxuries of the upper class. Your most valued posession is your country club membership which is kept framed in the office. Upper middle Class 88% Luxurious Upper Class 67% Middle Class 63% alternative 38% Lower Class 8% What Social Status are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Well, I don't have a country club membership, unless the Supreme Court Bar counts, my membership in which is, in fact, framed on my office wall. Other than that, pretty accurate. (And no, the Supreme Court Bar is not where you go to get your Nino Vino, your O'Connor's Lite, your Dryer Breyer, your Ruth Vermouth, or your RehnqMist.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:25 AM

 
Happy Lee-Jackson Day! A colleague just wished me one, so I thought I'd pass it on to you.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:53 AM

 
Considering: Supreme Court's sentencing decisions

Music: GIOCONDA with Farrell, Corelli, Rankin, Merrill, Tozzi, Dunn; cond. Cleva. Corelli just got through Cielo e Mar; Rankin is now entering for a mezzo-soprano's rare turn at being the tenor's lover.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:20 PM

 
Yeesh, the Brit royals really needed this. Hey, if Edward VIII hadn't abdicated, they'd have had a whole lot more of it.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:58 AM

 
Jonathan Lee and I discuss coats of arms and family history.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:56 AM

 
Uh oh -- someone on the web has even more of a Hermione thing than I do. Scary. I mean, sure, she's brilliant and she's cute, but having a life is good too.
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:14 PM

 
San Francisco

My apologies to Erik Keilhotz for not getting his message in time. The convention was at the Hilton, 330 O'Farrell St., on the edge of the handsome and high-end Union Square district, but with the Bowery-esque Tenderloin district lapping at the southwest edge.

Last time I was in SF, I went to Mass at the new Cathedral, which, besides being ugly itself, requires a walk through several ugly blocks (from Taylor St. to Gough St. along O'Farrell). So this time I went to the Old Cathedral, on California St. at Grant St. That was a nice walk, across Union Square. And a beautiful old church.

However, on Saturday evening, in lashing rain and frigid wind, I attempted a different route: up (and I do mean up) Taylor St., then down (and I do mean down) California St. Oi. I had gone up and down Nob Hill without needing to. On Taylor St., in the block between Pine St. and California St., the sidwalk is stairs.

Though soaked, I at least got to see and hear the trolley cars. The really go "ding ding," just like in the old Rice-a-Roni commercials, and they did it all through Mass. No bells at the Consecration; just at the corners.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:35 PM

 
Chester is now a Captain!
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:40 PM

 
Headline: Olive Oil Beats Breast Cancer. Popeye sends congratulations.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:27 PM

 
Cacciadelia at the podium: Vatican drinks

CACCIADELIA: Is there a Cardinal named Martini?

CACCIAGUIDA: Yes.

CACCIADELIA: Must be kind of confusing....
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:32 PM

 
Maybe it's because I'm due to fly tomorrow (to San Francisco for the Association of American Law Schools conference -- won't that be fun), but I feel sure I heard this morning at Mass:

"....and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those in first class against us...."

EDITED TO ADD: Back on Monday the 10th.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:41 PM

 
Book review, hell!

I was in New York this past weekend, and when I'm there, I'll sometimes read the New York Times over breakfast, if it's not a day on which the New York Sun or the Wall St. Journal is published, and if the cereal box is out of reach.

Last Sunday I saw this review of a new book by W.E.B. Griffin, latter-day bard of the American military and author of the Corps series. In the review we read that Griffin

has written a small library of unabashedly red-blooded adventures about American fighting men -- 35 books in all, including one with a title for the ages, ''Retreat, Hell!'' -- that have found a large and devoted following.

A "title for the ages," eh? It seems reviewer Andrew Santella ("has written for GQ, Commonweal, Chicago magazine and other publications") thinks the prolific Griffin made up the cry "Retreat, hell."

Actually, it was used by Captain Lloyd Williams, USMC, at Belleau Wood in France in 1918. Informed that the German line had remained unbroken by repeated allied army attacks, the Marine commander was urged to retreat, and replied, "Retreat, hell -- we just got here!"

Now, Griffin's novel by that title is about Korea, not WWI. He is therefore open to a charge of misusing Captain Williams's great line. But that fact was utterly lost on Mr. Santella, who was thus forced to look elsewhere for cattiness-fodder.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:39 AM

 
Curt Jester reports: Ave Maria University starts scholarship for Marines.

(Christendom: What, me worry?)
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:07 AM

 
Pope Ratzinger after all? Probably not, b/c western journalists don't know sh_t from sh_nola about the Vatican even when they cover it professionally, and besides, this could be a trial-balloon by someone else's supporters, designed to deflect premature attention. Fun, though. Hat-tip: Catholic Ragemonkey, where is to be found a sound rant on how the American media cover papal politics.

Besides, JPII will probably outlive us all. I say that b/c those who predict his imminent demise tend to pop their own clogs in short order. Bernardin, Hebblethwaite -- just two examples. Crisis once ran a piece on this. No major world figure has ever had his longevity disparaged by so many dead people.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:14 PM

 
Annan urged to play larger role in Iraq. Yeah, like maybe -- Amonasro. He gets killed at the end of the Nile Scene, doesn't he?
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:45 PM

 

Happy 79th birthday, Nell Rankin, greatest mezzo of the 20th century!


Rankin as Laura in LA GIOCONDA


As Amneris in AIDA --
with own cheetah, a once-familiar East Side sight
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:14 PM