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.


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Feast of St. Martha

The Catholic Encylcopedia says:

Again the picture of Martha's anxiety (John 11:20-21, 39) accords with the picture of her who was "busy about much serving" (Luke 10:40); so also in John 12:2: "They made him a supper there: and Martha served." But St. John has given us a glimpse of the other and deeper side of her character when he depicts her growing faith in Christ's Divinity (11:20-27), a faith which was the occasion of the words: "I am the resurrection and the life."

Martha is actually an example of prayer, because she approached Our Lord with real questions. "Lord, I'm serving and my sister's vejjing, what's up with that?" "Lord, my brother assumed room temperature and You weren't here to stop it, what's up with that?" As long as one is ready to listen to the answers, those are good prayers. Maybe she's the patron saint of noodges, in the best possible sense.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:31 PM

 
SCOTUS confirmation schedule: The WSJ says this morning that Specter will cut short his committee members' vacations -- I presume that means starting hearings on Roberts befor Labor Day -- unless they promise a vote in time for Roberts to be on the Court by Oct. 3 (the start of its term).

That's good news, and Specter should be encouraged in this direction. There's no reason for delay, and while Roberts is in pretty good shape anyway, time is not the friend of Republican Supreme Court nominees.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:47 AM

 
Hello, and thanks to readers for your patience with slow posting this week. I'm in New York, hangin' with "Silas," knamean? (In two different senses, come to think of it.)

So, is it cool about Roberts or what? I mean that he's Catholic, and also those memos he wrote back at DOJ (or the White House Counsel staff, I forget), saying we don't need an intermediate appellate court b/c only school children and the Supreme Court expect and get a full summer off?

Gotta go. Here's a question you can work on: Do we give up on Snape, or what?
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:54 AM

 
Snogwatch: Half-Blood Prince posts soon. Been reading it on various airplanes. Thumbs up.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:35 PM

 
AP says:

The mother of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts says faith was a big part of their life, although she and other family members would not say how religion might influence his court decisions.

"Yes, it is, yes," Rosemary Roberts, 76, said Thursday when asked if their Roman Catholic faith played a major role.

So-o-o-o-o-o, says the Left, they've confessed to Roman Catholicism -- nya ha HAAAAH! Now, how to parlay this into a scandal without coming off as bigots....
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:24 PM

 
Possible light blogging this week and next as I travel a lot.

In the meantime, some recent interesting searches that brought people here:

McCloskey + opus dei + john roberts: Nothin' doin', huh? Too bad. Interesting insight into what some people are thinking as they look for a stick to hit Roberts with.

+Catholic, +"opus dei", +"John Roberts": Still nothing? Tell me, how long have you and/or your colleagues had this obsession?

Phillippine riddles: If any, they probably disapparated to Japan before MacArthur landed at Leyte.

judge "John Roberts" Jr. "opus dei": You know, you really should hang this one up. If even Counterpunch can't help you, it's probably not a fruitful line of inquiry. But (sigh) don't take my word for it....

Then, after nine more "John Roberts Opus Dei" searches, we find:

John Roberts jr straussian: A real conspiratorium emporium we are this week, aren't we? (Say -- what if there were a Straussian who's in Opus Dei? Oh man -- like saying "Bilderberger" to a skiz! Oh well: as Iago says, "Fie, there's no such man, it is impossible.")

After that we get back to June 20, when there were rumors throughout the day of a nominee other than Roberts:

Edith Clement fascist -- and about a dozen other Clement searches.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:41 PM

 
Bush chooses Roberts

The interesting thing for me will be how he plays the fact that he was on a brief for the Bush I Administration advocating the reversal of Roe.

It was fleshcrawlmaking last night watching CNN announcers and experts talking about this as if it were the moral and political equivalent of past Klan membership (as in the cases of, all together now, Justice Hugo Black and Senator Robert Byrd). "How concerned should the American people be?" they kept asking. Whom do you think you're broadcasting to, mascara-for-brains?

I won't be best pleased if Roberts takes the line the newsreaders seem to expect him to: that he was just "representing a client," as if a triple murderer had walked in the door needing a lawyer.

Schumer seems to think he'll get to play Sherlock Holmes, ferreting out Roberts's true views. Howzabout Roberts short-circuiting that by simply saying, as Bill Barr did at his hearing for AG, that he thinks Roe was wrongly decided? Who's really going to vote against him who wouldn't anyway? What firepower will Nan Aron, Ralph Neas, and NARAL really hold back if he says something wimpy? Just a thought.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:49 AM

 

"I don't think Ted Kennedy lecturing me on the teachings of the church and how the church should handle these problems is something I'm going to take particularly seriously," Santorum said during a conference call with Catholic media.

The rehab of Rick begins!
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:49 PM

 
Edward Heath, R.I., um, I guess, P.

Margaret Thatcher, who challenged and replaced Mr. Heath not a moment too soon, went on to save Britain from economic collapse by adhering stubbornly to the principles on which Heath had been elected in 1970 but which he abandoned in 1972 in favor of the high-Tory dirigisme that was always closer to his heart. As a result of that change, he failed miserably, where Mrs. Thatcher succeeded beyond all expectations in the following decade.

One would think a gentleman would show a certain respect for a lady who had beaten him in almost every sense of the word, but no: for the rest of his days, Heath's behavior toward Thatcher was that of a snotmouthed s.o.b. Informed of his death, she showed generosity he could never have imagined, saying:

"Ted Heath was a political giant. He was also, in every sense, the first modern Conservative leader - by his humble background, his grammar school education and by the fact of his democratic election.

"As Prime Minister, he was confronted by the enormous problems of post-war Britain.

"If those problems eventually defeated him, he had shown in the 1970 manifesto how they, in turn, would eventually be defeated.

"For that, and much else besides, we are all in his debt."

He served with courage and distinction in the Normandy invasion. He also had considerable talent as a sailor and as a musician. He should have stuck to those fields. Instead he concentrated on politics, where was the very model of a loser. May he command yachts and conduct orchestras in Heaven.

posted by Cacciaguida at 6:48 PM

 
Church of England agrees to have women bishops within seven years. Did you know that they didn't already? Be honest now.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:44 AM

 
Eliot Cohen: Is a hawk becoming chicken because bubelah-boy is going to war?

I like Cohen's book, Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime. It makes a strong case that the traditional civilian-military division of labor -- civilian leaders give the broad goals, military leaders make all the strategic and tactical decisions -- is wrong, and that there's no substitute for militarily-literate civilian leadership. He illustrates this with detailed examples from Lincoln, Clemenceau, Churchill, and Ben-Gurion. (My quickie review of this book is here.)

However -- when I first saw this column in print in last Sunday's Post, I could not finish it. Just the possibility that a hawk would "rethink" his position because his son is being deployed made me so angry that I was a danger to myself and others reading it at the brunch table.

Now that Eve has linked to it, I've given it the eyeball, and it's not as outrageous as it could have been. Still, why should a national-security academic whinge about secrecy and incomplete or misleading information coming from official briefers? That's part of the deal; always has been. Pericles gave a great funeral oration, but I'm not thinking he gave fully detailed and candid battlefield reports and prognoses.

I wish Prof. Cohen's son all the good I wish my own -- and no more. And I entreat Prof. Cohen, if he cannot be dissuaded from embarassing himself, that he at least refrain from embarassing those of us who want to win this war and believe we can.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:29 PM

 
With less than an hour to go until the official release, just some questions that I would expect to see resolved in Half-Blood Prince:

* In Goblet of Fire there was a reference to the inconceivability of Percy ever turning a member of his own family over to the Dementors. Will he?

* That message to Aunt Petunia, "Remember my last" -- I presumed it was from Dumbledore, but was it? And what's up with Petunia's connections to the wizarding world (aside from having a sister in it)?

* Will the inconclusive results of Harry's "occlumency" lessons leave him wide-open to the Dark Lord's "legilimancy" spells?

* What's with these clever cats? If Crookshanks and Mrs. Norris aren't animagi, what are they?

* I think Cho will give Harry a second chance. And Hermione? As some icon on some fansite put it: "Choosy girls choose Ron!"
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:00 PM

 
Also from today's WSJ Weekend Section....

Jonathan V. Last on Order of the Phoenix as allegory of Britain in the '30s

Dumbledore = Churchill
Fudge = Chamberlain
Umbridge = Halifax (That's good! A tall gangly man represented by a short squat woman! Unctuousness, as well as appeasement, is what they have in common.)
You Know Who = You Know Who
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:30 PM

 
I generally like the writings of Frederica Mathewes-Green

...but this essay in the WSJ -- pulling the brake on Catholic-E.O. unity, as most E.O.'s will do, except for Alexander -- has some lameosity.

But from an Orthodox perspective, unity is created by believing the same things. It's like the unity among vegetarians or Red Sox fans. You don't need a big bureaucracy to keep them faithful. Across wildly diverse cultures, Orthodox Christians show remarkable unity in their faith.

So from the "Orthodox perspective," the Church has unity by definition. Just define "the Orthodox" as those who believe as the Orthodox are supposed to, and the problems faced every day by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith disappear -- by definition. Who needs a "bureaucracy" when you have definition?

What's the source of this common faith? The consensus of the early church, which the Orthodox stubbornly keep following. That consensus was forged with many a bang and dent, but for the past millennium major questions of faith and morals have been pretty much at rest in the Eastern hemisphere.

Excuse me? The Hesychast controversy? Dissension between clergy and laity over the attempted reunion at Florence? Turkish conquest and resulting dhimmitude? The compound schisms of the various Old Believer sects in Russia? The split between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Orthodox today? The schisms within and among Orthodox bodies just within the U.S.?

Is "unity" membership in a common institution or a bond of shared belief?

Why the dichotomy? The key assumption is smuggled in with the asking of the question.

[W]e can't be fully united until we agree on what "unity" means.

If we don't agree that it has at least something to do with a visible unity under visible hierarchy, we're farther back than I thought.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:12 PM

 
Responses to recent search requests that have brought people here

"Moll Talvela Winterreise": I hope you find both, but I don't know if either recorded it. It's usually considered a cycle for baritones, not basses.

"Pope Charles turns into Emperor Palpatine": Assuming you mean Emperor Charles, this sounds like a nifty way to stage the finale of DON CARLO!

"Richard Paul Fink Oberlin": Richard Paul Fink is today's greatest exponent of Wagner's Nibelung lord Alberich (though Oleg Briyak is close), and Richard did in fact speak at a Wagner conference at Oberlin last spring. Hope you made it there; I was not able to.

"Rice Krispies Pagliacci commercial": Yeah, too bad we have to reference that commercial just to remind people of "Vesti la giubba."

"picts. of parris island is south carolina[marine corp]": I'm #1 for this search! Get some!!

"Harry Potter gets Pope's attention": Been there, done that, got the jumper.

"koran virgins raisins": Ah yes, the theory that the words translated as "luscious virgins" actually mean "juicy raisins." The thought of all the surprised suicide bombers is faboo!

"role of steakholder": Try Morton's, or else try "stakeholder."

"Sgt. Darren Carey": Ah yes: Force Recon. And a tough DI.

"In bocco al Lupo English": "In the wolf's month." [No, mouth, as BABH points out in the comments.] Traditional way of wishing an opera singer good luck. And it's bocca, not bocco.

"'triumph magazine' Tolkien": Dunno. Tolkien was considered hippy stuff back when Triumph was publishing. I hope the editors had a clearer view of the matter, but I don't know.

"camp geiger, NC-- MCT-training schedule": My boy's past that milestone; hope yours soon will be too.

"political bowges": You mean, like the 8th Circle of the Inferno? Let me know if you find any.

"Margaret Harshaw students": Why, yes: Charles Austin is one! How we miss Margaret! Those were great days for Wagner at the Met, when she and Astrid Varnay were on hand to alternate Elisabeth and Venus in TANNHÄUSER and Brünnhilde and Sieglinde in DIE WALKÜRE.

Enough for now.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:47 PM

 
Pope Benedict and the Half-Baked Prints

Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin reports that Vatican Radio today broadcast an interview with Monsignor Peter Fleedwood, who, as an official of the Pontifical Council for Culture, had delegated to him by then-Cardinal Ratzinger the task of dealing with German anti-Potter author and diligent letter-writer Gabriele Kuby. (As an old Washingtonian I know how this works: part of your work as a staffer is to respond, over a higher-up's signature, to tiresome correspondents expressing opinions within your field of expertise.)

In recent days Ms. Kuby has been flashing to reporters two brief, polite letters from two years ago, addressed to her and signed by Ratzinger, and the Rita Skeeters of the world have responded with an avalanche of "Pope Hates Harry" stories. Ms. Kuby is getting the publicity she so obviously seeks, but the comments of Msgr. Fleedwood, broadcast today (and did I mention that they were broadcast by Vatican Radio?), should put the matter in perspective.

Here is the transcript of Msgr. Fleedwood's remarks, as posted by Jimmy. As a supplement, here is a news story currently on the Holy See's website detailing how the distinguished English critic Fr. Peter Milward SJ came to like both Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. (Scroll down to "A British View from Japan on 'Tolkien versus Rowling'" -- bit of a misnomer, as there's no "versus" to it, but that's the hed the Holy See editors chose.)

Meanwhile, I've you've got more HP operas to suggest, put 'em in the comment boxes below that post. Also, "remember my last" -- the post on opera singers for HP.
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:19 PM

 
OK, while we wait for the release of Vol. 6 this Saturday, and while the summer opera festivals shimmer on, it's time, at long last, for

Harry Potter operas

Yes, we've gone to the great opera composers and asked them to submit proposals. Here are the results so far:

MOZART:

Accepted:

Harry Potter and the Marriage of Figaro: Lockhart recovers someone else’s memories, now thinks he’s a Count, and wants to revive the “feudal privilege.” Harry’s and Ron’s counterplots are hopeless, so girlpower has to save the day. Grab some polyjuice potion and meet me in the garden! (But Snape's watching, so please use the bushes only per leggere. Thank you.)

Harry Potter and the Magic Flute: Sarastro replaces Cornelius Fudge, but will he or Dumbledore be the one to stop the Queen of the Night? (Spoiler: turns out the Queen of the Night is a Met standee who lives in the west 70s.)

Harry Potter and the Stone Guest: There’s statue on his way and man is he pissed!

Rejected:

Cosi Fan Tutte le Streghe: Harry and Ron polyjuice-potion into each other and pay court to Hermione and Cho respectively, to test, er, something

VERDI:

Accepted:

Harry Potter and the Force of Destiny: really just an accumulation of coincidences, but no worse than the non-Potter version

Harry Potter and the Masked Ball: like the Yule Ball, but with daggers

Harry Potter and the Wandering Minstrel: as in, Trovatore Traviato. Clever, huh?

Harry Potter and the Sicilian Vespers: this time, when the bells sound, the French are already halfway back to Beauxabatons; much frustration and compensatory pizza-making.

Rejected:

Harry Potter and Falstaff

WAGNER:

Accepted:

Harry Potter and the Flying Dutchman: he turns up at Hogwarts every seven years; which of our wizard-swains will lose his heartthrob to the mysterious captain?

Harry Potter and the Ring of the Nibelung: the Philosopher’s Stone was pikers compared to this!

Harry Potter and the Mastersingers of Nurnberg: ten galleons says Ron can’t succeed in a muggle singing contest…

Rejected:

Harry Potter and Tristan and Isolde (enough, Meister, you can go home now)

PUCCINI:

Accepted:

Harry Potter and the Girl of the Golden West: misunderstood bandit escapes from Azkaban, pursued by Sheriff Jack Rants, saved by a Veela

Harry Potter and the Three Riddles: Cho reads up on Chinese princesses and decides to play seriously hard-to-get

Il Tabarro d’Invisibilità: Nulla, silenzio!

Rejected:

Harry Potter and Madama Butterfly: new Divination teacher is a geisha; pass.

RICHARD STRAUSS:

Accepted:

Harry Potter and the Woman with No Shadow: and she’d better get one, or there’ll be another Stone Guest!

Harry Potter and the Knight of the Silver Rose: Harry gets more than he bargained for when he agrees to present Hagrid’s engagement present to Olympe

Rejected:

Harry Potter and Salome and Elektra (sorry, we’re at quota on high-maintenance chicks)

Under consideration:

Zandonai: Harry Potter and the Knights of Ekebu: how Swede!

Montemezzi: Harry Potter and the Love of Three Kings: watch out for the old one – he’s got "unforgivable" moves Mad-Eye didn’t teach him

Menotti: Harry Potter and the Night Visitors: will the wizards finally understand why they get presents on Christmas?

posted by Cacciaguida at 5:35 PM

 

Vacation time!

Meanwhile, when he visits Cologne for World Youth Day (his first trip to Germany as Pope), Pope Benedict will also visit a synagogue there and say some prayers in Hebrew. (Hat-tip: Papa Ratzi Post.) This will confirm the opinion of many Jews that they have a friend in Rome (due credit is hereby given to the ADL for swatting down the "Nazi Pope" stuff back when Benedict was first elected). But watch for the real right-wing nut-ride of skiz-"Catholicism" to call him a "Jew-lover" and worse.

(Indeed it may be starting in Papa Ratzi Post's own comment boxes. One commenter contests the proposition that it is licit to visit non-Catholics at their homes or places of worship, and backs up his view with: "Read any catechism published prior to 1965 for the straight truth on this." I guess the ones published later -- such as, say, The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) -- aren't reliable.)

You know, there was a time I thought I'd never use the term "right-wing nut-ride" to describe anyone other than myself or some group I belonged to. God, the Catholic Church is great!
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:08 AM

 
Radical Islam as Hitler's revenge

The Wall Street Journal is doing a series called Islam in Europe. Viewing it online requires registration, so register, or pick up a copy of today's issue, which focuses on new evidence concerning a mosque in the northern suburbs of Munich. An appetizer:

[T]he material shows how radical Islam established one of its first and most important beachheads in the West when a group of ex-Nazi soldiers decided to build a mosque.

The soldiers' presence in Munich was part of a nearly forgotten subplot of World War II: the decision by ten of thousands of Muslims in the Soviet Red Army to switch sides and fight for Hitler. After the war, thousands sought refuge in West Germany, building one of the largest Muslim communities in 1950s Europe. When the Cold War heated up, they were a coveted prize for their language skills and contacts back in the Soviet Union. For more than a decade, U.S., West German, Soviet and British intelligence agencies vied for control of them in the new battle of democracy versus communism.

Yet the victor wasn't any of these Cold War combatants. Instead, it was a movement with an equally powerful ideology: the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded in 1920s Egypt as a social-reform movement, the Brotherhood became the fountainhead of political Islam, which calls for the Muslim religion to dominate all aspects of life. A powerful force for political change throughout the Muslim world, the Brotherhood also inspired some of the deadliest terrorist movements of the past quarter century, including Hamas and al Qaeda.

The full story of Muslim-Nazi cooperation has never been told as far as I know, and there's a lot to tell: the Mufti of Jerusalem; Nasser (a client of Germany before switching to the Soviets during the Cold War); various Axis fifth columns in British imperial territory....
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:52 AM

 
Greetings to whoever reached this site via a Yahoo search for "Thomas Rolf Truhitte." Tom is an awesome Heldentenor -- potentially the next Melchior -- and a heckuva nice guy. Right now he's in Seattle doing Froh in RHEINGOLD; recently he has sung Parsifal in Genoa and Lohengrin at the Spoleto Festival (scroll down), and Siegmund and Tristan here in the States. I hope you found more about him than I have on this site. He has his own site here.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:08 PM

 
Monday morning Court-er-backing

Still no Rehnquist news, though rumors persist. K-Lo is convinced that as long as he's wearing that Nike cap, he's not resigning.

Meanwhile, Hadley Arkes has a piece about the "two Ediths," Judge Edith Jones and Judge Edith "Joy" Clement. He offers cautious assurances on Clement, some good reasons for preferring Jones, and an argument that the reversal of Stenberg v. Carhart (the decision that struck down Nebraska's partia-birth abortion law) would begin the unravelling of the Roe regime, and would be achieved by the appointment of either of the Ediths.

And Jon Adler points out that the 8th Circuit's recent decision against the federal partial-birth abortion ban helps push the abortion issue into territory where it would be politically advantageous for a conservative nominee, contrary to conventional wisdom among professional Republicans:

[A] debate over partial-birth abortion (like parental notification, which is at issue in another abortion case the Court will hear next time) puts the Democrats at a distinct disadvantage. The federal ban passed both houses by wide margins, as many Democrats were reluctant to be seen supporting such a brutal procedure.

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:41 AM

 
Ein Schwert verhieß mir der Blogwatch,
Ich fänd es in höchster Not…

Anglican blogger becomes Catholic! (Hat-tip: Dappled Things)

Pope Benedict rides through the Piazza Venezia accompanied by mounted Presidential Guards of the Republic of Italy (note plumed helmets!!). Photo by alert Zadok the Roman.

Jonathan Lee models competing automatic rifles and discusses their specs and merits -- a discussion that, for a certain number of jihadists, will be largely academic. Click here and scroll down.

Eve makes pan-roasted rib-eye steaks with Gorgonzola and sweet onion sauce.

Barbara Nicolosi has a sister who's an opera singer!

The Catholic Girl Talkers are in New Orleans.

The Angry Twins present: The Seven Deadly Sins, Demonstrated by Gummi Bears. Via Davetown.

Philokalia Republic: a colleague encounters a "theory whore"

The Curt Jester has a message for NARAL: Pardon me but your agenda is showing.

Southern Appeal on the Church and evolution, and the latest from Andrew's whine-list.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:21 PM

 
Pope condemns Iraqi insurgents' killing of Egyptian ambassador, calling attention to the way this particular killing violates the laws of war:

The Pope's letter said that the "atrocious assassination" of Ihab al-Cherif was doubly outrageous because "in all of human history, the person of an ambassador has been considered sacrosanct."

posted by Cacciaguida at 1:16 PM

 
The daily on-line edition of The Weekly Standard offers some suggestions for Supreme Court confirmation strategies.
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:33 PM

 
Rehnquist to Retire TODAY -- says RedState.org, citing a Bob Novak column.

There are also rumors about Stevens and Ginsburg. Four vacancies? Bush could slip Gonzalez in and we on the right might not even notice, as long as the other three were (let's say) Alito, Garza, and Jones. (Not that I'd advocate that. Give the fourth slot to Luttig.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:33 PM

 
Pope presents summary of catechism, urges memorizing Latin prayers

Learning the prayers in Latin as well as in one's own language "will help Christian faithful of different languages pray together, especially when they gather for special circumstances," the pope said June 28 as he distributed the Italian version of the compendium, which included an appendix with the Latin texts of many traditional prayers, including the Sign of the Cross, the Gloria, the Hail Mary and Come, Holy Spirit.

posted by Cacciaguida at 8:37 PM

 
Washington Post: Evangelicals Building a Base in Iraq; Newcomers Raise Worry Among Traditional Church Leaders

Two observations.

1. To my Evangelical friends: in light of the improved relations between us back here in the States, I think both your Evangelical contributors and your Catholic well-wishers expected you to convert the Muslims, not other Christians. Yeah, it's hard: the Chaldean and Assyrian Catholics have found it so for 1400 years. Yes, that's a lot of time. I know some of you think mere moments passed between the Ascension of the Lord and the day your denomination did its first churchplanting or held its first revival. Learn some history, OK?

2. Otoh, the article makes this claim:

Some Iraqi Christians expressed fear that the evangelicals would undermine Christian-Muslim harmony here, which rests on a long-standing, tacit agreement not to proselytize each other. "There is an informal agreement that says we have nothing to do with your religion and faith," said Yonadam Kanna, one of six Christians elected to Iraq's parliament. "We are brothers but we don't interfere in your religion."

Delly said that "even if a Muslim comes to me and said, 'I want to be Christian,' I would not accept. I would tell him to go back and try to be a good Muslim and God will accept you." Trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, he added, "is not acceptable."

Now I have a great love for the ancient Catholic rites of the Mideast, primarily because they are Catholic, and secondarily because they are living links to ancient non-western Catholic traditions. But if they've thrown the Great Commission into the dustbin of dhimmitude, they've got no gripe comin' if they are challenged by Christians who don't have the fullness of faith but at least have a spirit of apostolate.

I hope the Post is lying about them. I wouldn't be surprised.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:19 PM

 
Shuffle. Open transcript of recent Michael Medved Show, from David Horowtiz's Frontpage:

MEDVED: ....[I]n Chile when President Bush visited Santiago, the demonstrators there demonstrated with hammer and sickle signs and headbands, and someone was holding a very large sign that said, "Hang on, Fallujah." Now, do you think that – do you feel some sympathy for the so-called insurgents in Fallujah?

DANIEL LAZARE (frequent contributor to The Nation): Oh, absolutely yes, total sympathy, total solidarity.

MEDVED: You do?

HOROWITZ: So who's the sophist here?

LAZARE: Of course, absolutely. The insurgents in Fallujah are repelling a foreign invasion. They have every right to do it. Now, I’m not going to support every last action by every last fighter there, obviously, but certainly they have a right to repel a foreign invasion of their country.

Click. Shuffle. Open pocket Constitution.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid or Comfort. -- Art. III Sec. 3.

In light of the First Amendment, "adhering" probably means more than just "expressing sympathy for," and "giving them Aid or Comfort" probably refers to physical aid or comfort, not just propaganda support. Justice James Wilson, in his 1791 Lectures on Law, is helpful here:

Treason consists in "adhering to the enemies of the United States, giving them aid and comfort." By enemies, are here understood the citizens or subjects of foreign princes or states, with whom the United States are at open war. But the subjects or citizens of such states or princes, in actual hostility, though no war be solemnly declared, are such enemies. The expressions "giving them aid and comfort" are explanatory of what is meant by adherence. To give intelligence to enemies, to send provisions to them, to sell arms to them, treacherously to surrender a fort to them, to cruise in a ship with them against the United States--these are acts of adherence, aid, and comfort.

(Emphasis added.) Nothing about being a pinheaded pisse-froid on behalf of our enemies. No evidence that Lazare or any of his confreres gave the insurgents intelligence or provisions, or sold them arms, at least not while on the Michael Medved show. And we aren't the kind of country that punishes verbal offenses against the dominant ideology, the way offenses against Islam are punished in Saudia Arabia -- and in Italy. So, no treason charges now. We'll wait till the case is airtight.
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:54 PM

 
Well, well -- someone's got Prince Albert in a can.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:19 PM

 
Just so you know

AP: CAIRO, Egypt — A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of Al Qaeda in Europe" has posted a claim of responsibility for the series of blasts in London, saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The statement was published on a Web site popular with Islamic militants, according to Der Spiegel magazine in Berlin, which republished the text on its own Web site.

"Rejoice, Islamic nation. Rejoice, Arab world. The time has come for vengeance against the Zionist crusader government of Britain in response to the massacres Britain committed in Iraq and Afghanistan," said the statement, which was translated by The Associated Press in Cairo.

Belmont Club: The Blitz Comes to London:

As long as Islamic fundamentalist terror exists danger will exist. Liberals may believe that accommodation, appeasement or flattery can change this correspondence. But terrorism will remind the world as often as it needs reminding that there isn't room enough on the planet for Islamic terror and civilization.

Via Cryptic Subterranean: Dhimm and Dhimmer. (Hat-tip: Jihad Watch)
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:20 AM

 
Last Sunday's Doonesbury strip asked: "Isn't blogging basically for angry, semi-employed losers who are too untalented or too lazy to get real jobs in journalism?"

No, dear. Journalism is for angry, semi-employed, etc. etc. Journalism is what intellectuals do between jobs, or as an alternative to one if they can afford that.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:04 PM

 
NOTE: Haloscan is still dealing with a Fourth-of-July hangover, and is sometimes undercounting the number of comments. As your interest may direct, click on comments to see, in some cases, more comments than Haloscan says are there.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:41 PM

 
From Chrenkoff: evidence that the insurgency in Iraq, while still dangerous, is being largely run by Wile Ibn Coyote and Elmer Fahd.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:59 AM

 
For your Fourth of July enjoyment, my long-delayed post on

Gen. Douglas MacArthur

ROCKY: Haven't you read chapter five of The Hero's Handbook?

BULLWINKLE: I can never get past the picture of Gen. MacArthur on the cover!



That was most of the incentive I needed to learn more about the life of Gen. MacArthur. I chose William Manchester's American Caesar, because the late Mr. Manchester was a good writer, a Marine, and a PhD but not an academic. He was also a true Cold War Democrat; he chides MacArthur for his alliance with right-wing Republicans in the '40s and '50s, but champions his anti-Communism throughout.

(Btw, since I also teach and research law, it's hard to make time for 900-page biographies like this one -- so thank Heaven for Blackstone Audio Books, and for the fact that here in the 'burbs, you have to drive everywhere.)

So much for Manchester; what about MacArthur?

He was one of those larger-than-life types that the Army produces from time to time, like Patton. The Marine Corps is less likely to produce such biography-bait, because all Marines are larger than life.

"I shall return" referred to the Phillippines, where MacArthur had long served, and where his father, also a general, had also served, so that these islands were by way of being a family protectorate. It took a direct order from the President to get MacArthur to abandon the Phillippine stronghold of Bataan, under siege by the Japanese. He directed the "I Shall Return" speech to Filipinos after he had evacuated to Australia to begin the southwestern wing of the Allied counterattack.

No question he was a showboat. When he fulfilled the "shall return" promise by wading ashore at Leyte Gulf, the wading was at first only the result of the failure of the a.a.v. he was riding in to reach shore. But it made such a good visual that he repeated it the next day, this time with the cameras rolling. A staff member who had pseudonyms for everybody, for use in his letters home, referred to MacArthur as "Sarah" -- as in Sarah Bernhardt, drama queen and diva.

While he was virtual viceroy of Japan, he declared that this nation needed to move a few degrees to the "left." This was no relaxation of his own conservatism: if I were dropped into a society based on emperor-worship and radical militarism, even I might conclude that a few moves to the left were in order. The U.S. is somewhat militaristic, but nothing like Japan in the Tojo years, and FDR's mulitple reelections notwithstanding, we are not inclined to emperor-worship.

A clan member who spent time in Japan tells me that the surname still generates enthusiasm over there, especially among women, whose political equality, formerly unheard-of in Japan, the General saw to. Manchester says:

If MacArthur is to be seen in the round, the magnitude of this viceregal triumph, and those which followed it in Tokyo during the postwar years, must be grasped and understood as expressions of the very hub of his character. During his lifetime, his admirers saw only his victories, his critics saw only his defeats. What neither appreciated was that identical traits led to his winnings and his losses. His hauteur, his willingness to defy his superiors, his fascination with the political process, his contempt for vacillation - those would be his undoing in the end. But along the way they reaped historic fruit. There can be no doubt that they made a great democracy of Japan.

The "undoing" Manchester refers to was, of course, his removal by Truman during the Korean War. Given the General's repeated undercutting of administration policy, the removal was perhaps inevitable, but the curtness with which it was handled is a permanent stain on Truman's record and may in part account for his not running again in '52.

And just what were MacArthur's problems with administration policy in Korea? His point was that while there are such things as small wars, there is no such thing as limited warfare, which was what Truman, Acheson, and the Joint Chiefs wanted.

It's a perverse misunderstanding of Clausewitz to think that bombing can be micromanaged to fit the demands of diplomacy. Clausewitz didn't mean that war could a form of diplomacy; he meant that it's a stage to which matters advance (or deteriorate) when diplomacy fails. Diplomacy and war may both be extensions of politics, but neither is an extension of the other. Yet in the Korean "police action" (a term suggested by a reporter at a Truman press conference), Washington wanted MacArthur to fight somewhat but not enough to win; it wanted the Army (and the Marine Corps, which was crucial to MacArthur's masterful landing at Inchon) to act more as goons in support of the diplomats, rather than as guys trying to win a war.

Dean Acheson seems to have been one of these faux-Clausewitzians -- and so was Robert McNamara, which is why MacArthur, in retirement, urged JFK and LBJ not to escalate the Vietnam war. MacArthur, of all people, could understand the impulse never again to lose a war in Asia, but he also saw the same tragedy as in Korea -- pointyheads in Washington using ordinance as form of politics (not what is happening today, but that's a separate post) -- being played out again. (Manchester, cold-war liberal that he is, does not give MacArthur quite enough credit for this vision.)

Clan history: Manchester dismisses as "fantasies" many cool possibilities here, but he grants that "[a]s allies of Robert the Bruce, their lairds held the chieftainship of the great Campbell clan in the 1200s and 1300s, dominating another of the clan's warring factions, the Argylls[,]" and that

by the thirteenth century the clan held extensive estates in the old earldom of Garmoran. By now they had a tartan, comprising shades of green with a thin yellow stripe; a badge, wild myrtle; an armorial motto, Fides et Opera (with faith and by work); and a battle cry, "Eisd O Eisd" ("Listen, O Listen"), which may be found in the ancient Scottish lyric:

O the bags they are piping on the banks of Loch Awe,
And a voice on Cruachau calls the lairds of Lochaw;
"MacArtair, most high, where the wild myrtles glisten,
Come, buckle your sword belt and Listen! O Listen!"

posted by Cacciaguida at 10:17 AM

 
Slated for addition to the blogroll (via Res Publica et Cetera):

Santa Sanctis, by Enbrethiliel

Ephemerics: the news in Latin
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:17 PM

 
Fr. Richard McBrien, a bitter-ender, writes:

In a later interview with an Italian journalist in 1989, John Paul II returned to the topic of polarization, insisting that his many trips around the world were designed in part to prevent a "confrontation" between the two wings of the church.

Significantly, the pope identified the right wing with the schismatic (and subsequently excommunicated) Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and those who are "afraid of change as represented by the council." On the left wing he placed those who "already hoped for a Third Vatican Council or who are guilty of reducing everything to the particular [that is, local] church."

The pope offered no examples of left-wing Catholics, but if the late Archbishop Lefebvre and his followers constitute the right wing of the Church, would that not mean that Opus Dei, the Legionaries of Christ, Crisis, Communio and First Things magazines, as well as most of the bishops appointed and/or promoted by John Paul II occupy the center?

As Thomas Cromwell might say, "Oh thank you, Sir Thomas, we've been endeavoring to explain that to His Grace for some time."

And if such individuals, groups, and publications are in the center of the Catholic Church, it would also follow that the late Cardinals Joseph Bernardin and John Dearden and such bishops as John Quinn and the late James Malone --- all former presidents of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops --- as well as the Catholic Theological Society of America, the drafters and supporters of the U.S. Catholic bishops' pastoral letters on peace and the economy, and Commonweal and America magazines are left-wing and, therefore, out of the Catholic mainstream.

Gosh, that would follow, wouldn't it! Better press the panic button:

One of the biggest unreported stories in contemporary Catholicism is the redefinition and displacement of the historic Catholic center by newly-powerful forces on the right.

Happy Fourth!
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:19 PM

 
Pope Benedict XVI has Orthodox delegation for lunch -- no, I'm sorry, that's Pope Benedict has lunch with Orthodox delegation.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:13 PM

 
O'Connor resignation

AP says:

The future of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, ailing with cancer and the focus of retirement speculation, is still up in the air.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, 75, announced Friday that she was retiring from the Supreme Court, surprising many who had expected that the 80-year-old chief justice would be the one stepping down.

Fwiw, in my circle (I mean my present professional circle, not the circle of Mars), it was widely thought that O'C, not Rehnquist, would be the El Resigno this time -- and that her replacement would be Gonzalez, which would grossly disappoint the President's base on the right, and also outrage many on the left and elsewhere who are upset about the "torture memos." (Indeed I only supported his confirmation for AG because I thought it would make him less likely to be put on the Supreme Court).

But now Lyle Denniston, a reporter of the old school (one can easily picture him with a fedora and a card marked "Press" stuck into his hatband) has this to say over at SCOTUSblog:

For the first time since President Bush took office in 2001, he is reasonably assured that he will be able to name two new Justices to the Supreme Court. Given his widely reported desire to give a Court seat to his longtime aide, now Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, one of the nominations very likely will be his. But perhaps not the first seat, the one to be vacated by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

So, Denniston thinks, Gonzalez next time (when Rehnquist retires) -- and a conservative this time.

(Note to conservative movement: In future, please consider it a plus if a would-be movement standard-bearer does not have any pro-abortion, pro-torture friends to whom he feels so "loyal" to that he just has to give them seats on the U.S. Supreme Court.)

Gonzalez is on the list that the AP is touting -- but all the rest on that list are first tier. (Well, maybe one-and-a-halfth tier for McConnell and Wilkinson.)

Denniston winds up his remarks:

This scenario, along the way, would seem to make it less likely that a Hispanic-American would get the O'Connor seat. And that enhances the chances that it would go to a woman.

If true, then that's bad news for Judge (and former Marine) Emilio Garza, but good news for Judge Edith Jones. (Here is a quick item about both of them.) Click here for an article about, and a link to, Jones's critique of Roe in McCorvey v. Hill. Garza, for his part, has openly criticized Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

EDITED TO ADD (per Crowe's comment): RedState.org says Garza is lookin' good, but also, don't rule out Sen. Cornyn or the 5th Circuit's "other Edith," Judge Edith Brown Clement, about whom People for the American Way is already upset. Cornyn and Brown are probably OK, but I'd rather it were Garza or Jones (or Alito or Luttig).
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:24 PM

 
O'CONNOR RETIRES.

New Justice: "Eminentissimum ac reverendissium dominum, dominum Josephum Cardinalem Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Ratzinger." KIDDING!

But Bush can do at least as well, mutatis mutandis. No need to hurry: these decisions have to be made carefully; Labor Day gives the Senate plenty of time for any legitimate advice and consent function. Not, of course, time for a summer's worth of unanswered character assassination -- but that's the point.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:21 AM