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

 


Illustration courtesy of Aquinas and More Catholic Goods
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:02 PM

 
"Doctors told us to abort our disabled baby - but our son is proof that we were right to say no"
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:52 PM

 
Feast of the Holy Innocents, anciently called Childermass.

Christmas is a season in which joy and grief are mixed. It's not like Lent/Easter, where mourning gives way to rejoicing: they're on both sides of the seasonal dividing line. Advent contains Gaudete Sunday, and Christmastide contains numerous martyrs' feasts, including this one, so integrally linked to the Nativity itself. Even secularly speaking, so much of our merrymaking masks -- just barely, and sometimes not at all -- an undercurrent of anxiety. But cheer up -- Christ is born.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:07 PM

 
Benazir Bhutto assassinated. This is terrible, in particular for a non-obvious reason.

Back in 1994, at a UN Conference about -- well, I forget what it was nominally about, but the UN was having a lot of high-profile international conferences in those days and they were all really about one thing: promoting population control and its capstone, a (never agreed-upon) international right to abortion.

At the one in 1994 -- it was in Cairo -- I remember Ms. Bhutto giving a speech that was distinctly critical of this whole project. Her apparent ascendancy in Pakistan may have been about the best news on the international scene. And now....
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:28 PM

 
Now burn, new-born to the world,
Double-natured name,
The heaven-flung, heart-fleshed, maiden-furled
Miracle-in-Mary-of-flame,
Mid-numbered He in three of the thunder-throne!

-- G. M. Hopkins, "The Wreck of the Deutschland"
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:48 PM

 
Saint Francis and Saint Benedight
Bless this house from wicked wight;
From the night-mare and the goblin,
That is hight good fellow Robin;
Keep it from all evil spirits,
Fairies, weazles, rats, and ferrets:

From curfew-time
To the next prime.

-- Cartwright
(see Washington Irving, Sketchbook, "Christmas Eve")
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:53 PM

 
And here's another demerit point for Romney.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:47 PM

 
A Huckabee Catholic problem? Floating Cross Man speaks at a church Bill Donohue doesn't like. Actually, I'm more concerned about his casual remarks, such as cap-and-trade being “a bit like buying indulgences from the ancient church.” Actually that would be the Renaissance Church, but ignorance doesn't do much to decorate bigotry.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:09 PM

 
My Dad died early this morning, just after midnight. Massive heart failure: always foreseen as a possibility from the stress of the unavoidable treatment for the hematoma.

Prayers for his soul and for my family are invited and appreciated. Beyond that, this will henceforth be a family matter, not a blog matter. Right below this there's a political post, and below that a religious post. Comment away. The blog goes on.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:47 AM

 
"Heroic Conservatism" -- stuff and nonsense. Just a throwback to Peter Viereck's idea more than a half-century ago that "true conservatism" was embodied in New Deal paternalism, and if you didn't agree, you were just a social-atomist liberal. Conservatives laughed that message out of court back then; this time they're asking it to take the messsenger with it.

Think you have to be a paleocon to think conservatism's shrink-the-state message is still at it the core of the movement and its philosophy? Not unless The Weekly Standard is "paleocon": that magazine may have been born flirting with "national greatness conservatism," but Fred Barnes now says "It's not impossible to shrink the federal government."

The Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel, in an article entitled "The Gospel of Paul" (meaning the obstetrician from Texas, not tentmaker from Tarsus), notes:

Former Bush speechwriter Michael's Gerson's new book, "Heroic Conservatism," calls on Republicans to give in to big government and co-opt the tools of state for their own purposes. "If Republicans run in future elections with a simplistic, anti-government message, ignoring the poor, the addicted, and children at risk, they will lose, and they will deserve to lose," he writes. Then again, Republicans have already been losing, and losing big, in no small part because they've taken Mr. Gerson's advice.

posted by Cacciaguida at 9:54 PM

 
Ahem:

There is today, however, a growing confusion which leads many to leave the missionary command of the Lord unheard and ineffective (cf. Mt 28:19). Often it is maintained that any attempt to convince others on religious matters is a limitation of their freedom. From this perspective, it would only be legitimate to present one’s own ideas and to invite people to act according to their consciences, without aiming at their conversion to Christ and to the Catholic faith. It is enough, so they say, to help people to become more human or more faithful to their own religion; it is enough to build communities which strive for justice, freedom, peace and solidarity. Furthermore, some maintain that Christ should not be proclaimed to those who do not know him, nor should joining the Church be promoted, since it would also be possible to be saved without explicit knowledge of Christ and without formal incorporation in the Church.

In the face of these problems, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has judged it necessary to publish the present Note....

posted by Cacciaguida at 9:35 PM

 
Cacciagranddaddy update

I never thought I'd achieve Escape From New York (delays due to Dad's condition, then more due to weather), but I'm home now. Elinor updated you in her last comment to the post immediately below. Dad's surgery went brilliantly, but his recovery went awry starting about 36 hours after I put up that post, and from that point on, between my dad's condition, my mom and and two sisters (who have quite literally camped out in the waiting room of the Neuro-Surgery Intensive Care Unit since last Sunday), and other things I had to do in NY, I have not had time to get to a computer.

Elinor summed it up, so I'll just add: Dad is still in the ICU, with both a feeding tube and a respirator. However, the agenda is therapeutic, not terminal. The "game-plan" (as his internist puts it) is to get him nourished and rested back up to the point where he can again take food and air the normal way. When that happens, he can return -- not home (yet), but to in-patient physicial therapy, where he was before it became obvious that surgical removal of the hematoma was absolutely necessary.

All his CT-scans since the surgery have been excellent, including one done yesterday. His neurosurgeon says that overall he's making progress in slow steps. He's being kept stable at a level of sedation deep enough for him tolerate the tubes, but light enough for his heart to tolerate (past history of heart attack and atrial fibrillation).

His cardiologist is the most driven Jewish doctor I've ever met, and seems to have taken an extra year of residency just to learn a particularly dramatic way of taking off his glasses while giving an explanation. He continues to focus on each emergent problem of Dad's like Holmes on Moriarty or Patton on Rommel. He uses the word "realistic," which drives my sisters into hysterics, and doesn't do me a lot of good either. But the thing is, he really is Pattonesque. He is invested in this case, obviously not because he loves Dad the way we do, but because every syndrome that doesn't yield to his ministrations is a personal and professional affront to him. And (as Patton said in the midst of Hitler's Ardennes offensive) "because I realize, gentlemen, that we could still lose this war." You really want him on your team, even if you don't look forward to his briefings. (He's the one who cured Dad of atrial fibrillation a year and a half ago.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:24 PM

 
Apologies for light posting.

Regular readers will be glad to know that my dad, who has been struggling for months with unidentified psychomotor problems, has just (withing the last two hours) come with flying colors through neurosurgery to remove a subdural hematoma (brain bruise with bleeding). All cleaned up now, and the brain tissue recovering much faster than expected, the surgeons tell us.

Prayers of thanksgiving are requested for this favor received; prayers of petitition are requested for his continued progress in physical therapy (likely to be more productive now that the obstacle is gone.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:49 PM

 
Henry Hyde, RIP. Cue Siegfried's Funeral March.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:41 PM

 
John Allen reports on the Church in Mongolia -- which dates all the way back to 1992. Yep, your Iraqi Catholics can boast of Chaldean traditions that make Byzantium seem nouveau, and parts of the Church in India stake a plausible claim to have been founded by the Apostle Thomas. But Mongolia? 1992.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:41 PM

 
I've been concerned that the pro-life views of -- of -- of

*

Sayyy dee n-a-a-a-a-a-a-m-e!

OK -- the pro-life views of R-R-R-RRRRRon Paul (there, I said it!), yes, his pro-life views, arising out if his decades-long practice as an obstetrician, have not been getting enough attention. But comes now an Arizona Republic letter-writer who is incensed that Paul "thinks the government has no right to tax us, but it does have a right to limit our family planning choices."

Sounds to me like whole package!
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:38 PM

 
The current key question about Summorum Pontificum

There's this Motu Proprio, see? And it says that whereas before, bishops had been permitted to permit the Tridentine Mass, now it was no longer up to them, but would henceforth be the privilege of every priest.

In response (as Fr. Zuhlsdorf has exhaustively chronicled), quite a few bishops (not all or even most, but enough to constitute a problem) suddenly appointed themselves "chief liturgists" of their dioceses and started making elaborate announcements about how Summorum Pontificum would be "implemented" in their diocese, or, in extreme cases, whether it would be implemented at all.

But as Damien Thompson noted, it's harder these days for this sort of horsedookey to go unnoticed in Rome, so this week, the Vatican's Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith (watch him: he's a rising star) delivered an official statement that in effect, though not in terms, raises the question that many of us have for some time wanted to put to certain bishops:

What part of "Get stuffed" don't you understand?

Here is a report on Archb. Ranjith's remarks. Catholic World News points out: "[B]ecause the archbishop's immediate superior at the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Francis Arinze (bio - news), has been utterly silent about the motu proprio, it seems likely that the encouragement has come from Pope Benedict himself."
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:53 PM

 
Counter-revolution coming in music at the Sistine Chapel: Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony to be revived.

I know, one learns with shock that they were ever in danger, but apparently even the Sistine Chapel and the Lateran Basilica have their own in-house Mauty Haugens. Or had.

Fr. Zuhlsdorf blogs it up; the Daily Telegraph reports.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:38 AM

 
Worst headline of the past month
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:11 PM

 
An emerging theme on some of the hardline military blogs: we should get out of Iraq, not because we can't win, but because we already have!

(Sort of takes some of the sting out of the squirrelier views of You Know Who -- but more on that later.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:30 PM

 
Daily Telegraph columnist celebrates Pope Benedict's goals and denounces obstructionist Left-overs in the English hierarchy. "He reminds me of another conservative revolutionary, Margaret Thatcher, who waited a couple of years before taking on the Cabinet 'wets' sabotaging her reforms." Hard to believe it can get even better than that, but it does!
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:21 PM

 
Lió: my new favorite comic strip. It's Charles Schulz meets Charles Addams, dialogue suppressed.

In the short time I've been a regular reader, young Lió has eagerly and successfully sought abduction by aliens; nearly trampled a doomsaying street prophet while driving an ant-shaped car contraption; costumed a space alien as himself for trick-or-treat purposes; met the Grim Reaper after school when the sly fellow sent him what looked like a billet doux; and accidentally nuked his home town by playing with fissible material in class. I can't wait for more!
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:53 PM

 
One more reason Amtrak is the new Greyhound.

Had to get out in New York? It couldn't have been some place where a cheap hotel costs less that $400/night? (What was New Rochelle -- closed for renovations?)

Stuck in a tunnel? Rather than that, get me stuck at an airport any day.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:46 PM

 
Smoking suitcase taken off plane in Phoenix. Of course: suitcases aren't allowed to smoke!
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:58 PM

 
A-a-a-a-a-and -- notwithstanding his recent complete exposure as a posturing buffoon on the abortion issue -- the National Right to Life Committee endorse-e-e-e-e-zzzzzzz -- Fred Thompson!

I hate endorsements. It's been National Cred-Shred Week for so many.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:51 PM

 
Fred Thompson is through. The linked Novak piece makes it clear that Fred doesn't have a pro-life bone in his body. While I'll take a good faker if I'm convinced he'll keep faking as president, Thompson can't even fake long enough to get the nomination. Kaput. Over. Finito.

Though Fred is still #2 in national GOP polls, this story shows that he's now at the back of the pack in New Hampshire, at 5%, behind Mike Huckabee and He Who Must Not Be Named Lest You Receive Dozens of Canned Comments From Overwrought College Students Who Otherwise Never Visit Your Blog, who are tied at 7% each.

Romney, whom I guess I should now be for but whom I'm having a hard time getting excited about, is at 33% in NH, and Rudy at 21%.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:22 PM

 
A spot of encouragement from Commonweal's blog (called -- is your cute-o-meter ready? -- dotCommonweal):

This week, Monsignor Valentín Miserachs Grau, director of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music--a non-curial office dedicated to teaching sacred music--ramped up the volume. In an interview with L'Osservatore Romano, (reprinted by Zenit), Grau called for a centralized Roman authority over liturgical music, which he said has been the arena of greatest abuse since Vatican II:

"How far we are from the true spirit of sacred music, that is, of true liturgical music," he lamented. "How can we stand it that such a wave of inconsistent, arrogant and ridiculous profanities have so easily gained a stamp of approval in our celebrations?"

It is a great error, Monsignor Miserachs said, to think that people "should find in the temple the same nonsense given to them outside," since "the liturgy, even in the music, should educate all people -- including youth and children."

posted by Cacciaguida at 7:10 PM

 
Happy Birthday, U.S. Marine Corps! The original Lejeune birthday order, plus a great story, here.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:43 PM

 
Fighting aid to overseas abortions: The USCCB has placed this ad, in support of the "Mexico City policy" restricting U.S. support of foreign aid organizations that do abortions, in several Capitol Hill publications.

Well done -- but I note that not a cent of the USCCB's budget went towards this ad: it was all paid for by the Knights of Columbus. So it's no reason to up your contrib to those USCCB "second collections," or even to start giving to them in the first place.

Instead, Catholic gentlemen, join the K of C and buy some insurance from them. I can't promise that your local council will be what you might call intellectually stimulating (unless you're in a major metropolitan area where Knights with nous may perhaps be found). But I assume you have other sources for that, and that you might be interested in supporting an organization that, at the national level, does a heckuva lot of good for the Church and the world.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:16 PM

 
THE OLD BARONESS:
What could you have seen in such a man?
When I was young a man came into this house like a conqueror
carrying his love with pride;
but this Anatol, oh, this cautious knight,
who entered our house like a thief,
what kind of a man is he?

-- Barber/Menotti, VANESSA
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:58 PM

 
Brits test invisible tank. "Yes, we in Special Crime Squad have been using wands for almost a year now. You find it's easy to make yourself invisible. You can defy time and space, and you can turn violent criminals into frogs. Something which you could never do with the old truncheons." (Monty Python sketch)

FoxNews warns:

Before bloggers start making comparisons to Harry Potter and Romulan spacecraft, it must be noted that the "technology" relies on heavy use of camera and projectors.

Basically, a camera films the background, which is then projected upon a special surface applied to something in the foreground — in this case, a tank.

Yes, well, even the Invisibility Cloak works on some principle, dudn'it? Muggles just aren't in the ordinary way of finding out what it is.

Anyway this is a great step ahead for the good guys. What's the other side doing to compete -- rubbing lamps?

EDITED TO ADD: I acknowledge a possible downside: the Brown government could exaggerate its defense spending by claiming that it is so building x-number of new tanks -- it's just that y-percent of them are invisible!

posted by Cacciaguida at 2:40 PM

 
I don't want to prolong Buckbeak-Mountain-gate unnecessarily, but just a few links and loose ends:

* Gay writer John Cloud analyzes Dumbledore's personal saga much the way I do, except of course he sees it as a Bad Thing. (Hat-tip: Mark Shea)

* Exception Day for our NY Times ban, 'cause they printed this. Read the whole thing, but above all, picture NYT readers trying to comprehend the following:

[T]here seems to be no compelling reason within the books for her after-the-fact assertion. Of course it would not be inconsistent for Dumbledore to be gay, but the books’ accounts certainly don’t make it necessary. The question is distracting, which is why it never really emerges in the books themselves. Ms. Rowling may think of Dumbledore as gay, but there is no reason why anyone else should.

Yes, of course, Dumbledore acknowledges that at the bleakest moment of his life, when he was still a teenager and feeling “trapped and wasted,” the appearance of a charismatic friend “inflamed me” and lured him into fantastical dreams of power and influence. “Two clever, arrogant boys with a shared obsession,” he recalls, resulted in “two months of insanity.” But his regrets lasted a lifetime.....

As for his later celibacy, it has the echo of a larger renunciation and a greater devotion. That is, after all, what the fantasy genre is all about. The master wizard is not a sexual being; he has shelved personal cares and embraced a higher mission. And if he indulges in sex, it marks his downfall, as it did, so legend tells us, with Merlin, the tradition’s first wizard, who is seduced by one of the Lady of the Lake’s minions. Tolkien’s wizards — both good and evil — are so focused on their cosmic tasks that sexuality seems a petty matter. Gandalf eventually transcends the physical realm altogether.

Ms. Rowling quite consciously makes Dumbledore a flawed, more human wizard than these models, but now goes too far. There is something alien about the idea of a mature Dumbledore being called gay or, for that matter, being in love at all. He may have his earthly difficulties and desires, but in most ways he remains the genre wizard, superior to the world around him.

(Emphasis mine. Is Edward Rothstein always this good? If so, I'll have read him more often, no matter where he publishes.)

* The IOLANTHE thing. I did it in re Larry Craig (see Aug. 29 post here); only fair if I do it here too. I refer to the scene in which the Fairy Queen -- no, it's a contralto role, and she really is a Fairy Queen, sort of a cross between Shakespeare's Titania and Wodehouse's Aunt Agatha -- confronts the Lord Chancellor over a perceived slight to her nephew, Strephon. The LC dismisses her curtly, realizing only too late that she is no ordinary intruder. In the original it goes like this:

QUEEN
Oh! Chancellor unwary
It's highly necessary
Your tongue to teach
Respectful speech-
Your attitude to vary!
Your badinage so airy,
Your manner arbitrary,
Are out of place
When face to face
With an influential Fairy.

LORD CHANCELLOR
A plague on this vagary!
I'm in a nice quandary!
Of hasty tone
With dames unknown
I ought to be more chary;
It seems that she's a fairy
From Andersen's library,
And I took her for
The proprietor
Of a Ladies' Seminary!

All right, let's have a go:

JK (through publicists)
O readership unwary,
It's highly necessary
Your tongue to teach
Enlightened speech
Your attitude to vary.
A worldview more inclusive
A politics intrusive
Are de rigueur
When a characteur
Is an influential fairy!

US
A plague on this vagary!
We're in a nice quandary!
Of hasty tone
With microphone
She ought to be more chary.
It seems that there's a fairy
In Dumbledore's library,
And by your leave
We're asked to believe
It's that very luminary!

posted by Cacciaguida at 1:00 PM

 
Tory press busts sweatshop
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:51 PM

 
They say sin makes you stupid; sometimes the effect (whether it's stupidity or something else) is on other people, as suggested by the case of Prof. Luke Timothy Johnson in this exchange with our own Eve, wherein the Scripture scholar (that would be Prof. Johnson) throws over the authority of Scripture rather than face the admittedly grievous prospect of a serious rift with his daughter.

For the good-parts version, courtesy of Fr. Neuhaus, click here and scroll down.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:14 PM

 
Sunni and Shiite sheiks kidnapped in Baghdad on way home from reconciliation meeting. But cheer up: at least they weren't being protected by Blackwater!
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:10 PM

 
Would like to get this onto a T-shirt/mug/sticker:
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:06 PM

 
Dallas Morning News: Harry Potter and the Author Who Wouldn't Shut Up
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:17 AM

 
Top Ten Rejected Titles for the Post Before This One

10. Boybatons
9. Those warts aren't from hogs, my friend
8. Dear me, is that what my hair looks like from the back?
7. Gayvenclaw v. Hufflepoof
6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Secrets
5. Harry Potter and the Half-Dyed Perm
4. Mad-Eye for the Straight Guy
3. No #3 -- writer on 24/7 JK watch to find out what "happens" "next"
2. Pottery Barn

and the Number One Rejected Title for the Post Before This One:

BUCKBEAK MOUNTAIN
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:57 PM

 
Dumbledore: that father-absence thing is a killer

Most of what I would want to say on this has already been said by me and others in the comments underneath my two most recent Potter posts (one on HP and the Christian theme, and one on the name "Pius Thicknesse"), but b/c people may be looking here for a post directly on the "Dumbledore is gay" thing (and that's why I just wrote it out: hello, search engines!), I thought I'd pull together some comments and links here, to express some views that are "for the editors," as they say.

1. My good friend Publius commented (and I trust implicitly in his memory of the past content of JK's web site):

Personally, I've taken what she says extra-canonically with a huge helping of salt since she totally reversed herself on what happens when a Secret Keeper dies. On her website she said (and it was a really big deal) that the secret dies with the keeper, i.e., that knowledge of it is limited to those already told and no one else can ever learn of it. In DH, of course, that is totally blown out of the water with everyone knowing the secret becoming Secret Keepers.

2. Elinor says:

Dumbledore is not homosexual, although he may, like many people, suffer from SSA to a certain degree. (He is English, after all.) The intense friendship with Grindelwald is no evidence at all of even emotional inversion. Why are people so ready to accept the homosexual lobby's assertion that any affection between men indicates an erotic attraction? Boys have dedicated friendships the same as girls have, although boys seem to demand less time and confidence from their friends than girls do, and consequently have fewer quarrels and hurt feelings.

To which I would only add: not only are there dedicated friendships that are non-erotic (and more so among boys); there may also be friendships that are eros-tinted but nonetheless free from penetration and consummation. I assume the idea is now rattling around the planet that Dumbledore and Grindelwald would routinely unwind with a little sodomy after a tough day of planning a wizard dictatorship over muggles. At the rate this is going, that may be JK's press conference tomorrow; but as of today, the operative (though post-canonical) word about the D/G relationship is "smitten," and"smitten" does not, of itself, go beyond "puppy love" or the Shakespearian "greensickness."

Put it this way. If the only "straights" among us are those who reached age 20 or so without so much as a brief and innocent fixation on a co-genderist, then, well, it's a big, big "Easter parade" out there, that's all I've got to say.

3. I myself wrote (and I endorse my views w/o reservation):

[T]he theory of D/G as British schoolboy crush makes perfect sense, esp. given D's vulnerability due to his mother's death. Anyway, in later life he can hardly be said to view that relationship as any sort of wonderful, sentiment-worthy thing, can he? Nor did he ever (within the canon) pursue any other "gay" relationships....

Like many, I too have long viewed Voldy as a flamer. Fwiw, every one of my teenage sons, in succession, has cringed at young Riddle in the CoS movie.

Grindelwald, otoh, was apparently repentant, at least of his tyrannical ways. He accepts the "political" penance of incarceration in the prison he built for others, and (so we may now read it) the "gay" penance of old age and ugliness. Thus accoutered, he eventually defies Voldemort -- "There is so much you don't understand!" -- and dies, manfully.

4. Have a look at this story from ABC News. Now granted, people aren't necessarily at their smartest when a microphone is suddenly shoved in their face. This applies to J.K. Rowling, and as far as we know it may also apply to "Potter fan Patrick Ross, of Rutherford, N.J." We do not know how "Potter fan Patrick Ross, of Rutherford, N.J." was chosen for this interview. Perhaps, like "Warlock D. J. Prod of Didsbury," he was simply willing to endorse the product. Perhaps it was a random choice. Perhaps he's the reporter's steady. We just don't know.

Whatever the explanation, how thick (in the head, I mean) do you have to be to say, in the context of Albus Dumbledore, that "a gay character in the most popular series in the world is a big step for Jo Rowling and for gay rights"? One would think a self-described Potter fan would notice, even if others don't, that the relationship with Grindelwald, which according both to the canon and to Rowling's recent comments is the only instance of gay "smitten-ness" in Dumbledore's life, is regarded -- by him, and by us, unless we're partisans of Dark Wizards -- as the moral nadir of his life? That his delay in combatting Grindelwald -- caused, we are now asked to believe, by lingering affection for the pretty blond dictator -- is a source of lifelong shame and regret to Dumbledore?



Grindelwald? What was I thinking of?

But perhaps I'm being too subtle. Perhaps the argument is a simple application of the transitivity principle to cultural warfare: Dumbledore = good, Dumbledore = gay, therefore gay = good.

But the first of those equations has been under assault by the books themselves since somewhere in the middle of the cycle. Oh to be sure, he's the leader of the anti-Voldemort forces, and his is the party to stick with in a conflict. But he's not Gandalf, and never was. He makes mistakes, and usually but not always realizes them and 'fesses up to them. His last grand stratagem -- what has aptly been called "magician-assisted suicide" -- is morally inadmissible. (So were some things done by the Allies in World War II -- yet I do not therefore wish the other side had won.)

Even more to the point, Dumbledore knows where he is vulnerable to temptation, and generally avoids the near occasions of sin. One of those vulnerabilities is power, so he declined to become Minister of Magic. That one we're told about. How about the other -- namely, Harry?

In light of the new theory (and that's all I'll concede it to be, since I don't believe an author's opinions about her characters, once the canon is closed, have any more force than anyone else's; even her statements about what she "meant" can have only as much validity as can be proved from the canon), perhaps D's unwillingness to confide adequately in Harry (for which he reproaches himself at the end of OoTP) is part of a general effort to avoid getting too close to Harry, if you follow me.

Only in HBP does D start to take H into his confidence in a way that brings them together for large chunks of time. And that's after D is already dying, because of his horcrux-induced hand injury. And even so, all of his long journeys away from Hogwarts that year are without Harry, except for the last, the one to the "Birdbath from Hell."

So: our new poster-boy for "gay rights" is a man whose one known experience with gay "smitten"-ness was a moral catastrophe; who practiced celibacy ever after (so far as the canon shows, and nothing else counts), and who exercised extreme, even excessive, caution with regard to the only other boy he may be said to have, in some sense, "loved."

Doesn't sound like "gay rights" to me; sounds like Courage.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:16 PM

 
Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal!! Not only is this a conservative political victory of a sort that has been much too rare lately, but it also puts in scoring position someone who could plausibly fill the long-vacant -- and noticeably still-vacant -- role of "next Reagan."



This is also the first time in like a gajillion years that Louisiana has produced a majority, and therefore a victory, in its October all-party primary, eliminating the need for a run-off. (Mr. Jindal narrowly lost a run-off to Kathleen Blanco in 2003.)

More specifically, Jindal could be a unifying conservative leader for the 21st century: conservative, a Catholic convert yet able to beat back the Democrats' attempts to use this against him with Evangelical voters, an ethnic Indian yet able to overcome the Democrats' tawdry reminders of his ethnicity in areas not known for voting for dark(er)-skinned people, a Louisianan with a "good government" record (details in this pre-victory report in The Weekly Standard) -- the matchings of improbables go and on.

As will the partying of young conservatives tonight.
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:04 PM

 

'Harry Potter' Author J.K. Rowling Opens Up About Books' Christian Imagery

'They almost epitomize the whole series,' she says of the scripture Harry reads in Godric's Hollow.

...That was the plan from the start, Rowling told reporters during a press conference at the beginning of her Open Book Tour on Monday. It wasn't because she was afraid of inserting religion into a children's story. Rather, she was afraid that introducing religion (specifically Christianity) would give too much away to fans who might then see the parallels.

"To me [the religious parallels have] always been obvious," she said. "But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going."...

But if she was worried about tipping her hand narratively in the earlier books, she clearly wasn't by the time Harry visits his parents' graves in Chapter 16 of "Deathly Hallows," titled "Godric's Hollow." On his parents' tombstone he reads the quote "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," while on another tombstone (that of Dumbledore's mother and sister) he reads, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

While Rowling said that "Hogwarts is a multifaith school," these quotes, of course, are distinctly Christian. The second is a direct quote of Jesus from Matthew 6:19, the first from 1 Corinthians 15:26....

(HT: Mark Shea, whose own Harry Potter post on the First Things website can be found here.)

EDITED TO ADD: Many, many thanks to NewAdvent.org for the link, and welcome to the many who are visiting as a result. But let's make sure credit goes where it's due: as the link makes clear, the story comes to us from, of all things, MTV.com. As for me, I learned of it from Mark Shea -- but he gets many more hits and comments than I do, so he won't begrudge me some! And again, do see his own Potter post at First Things.

I'll add an opinion of my own to Ms. Rowling's remarks: it's wonderful to have her say all this publicly, but if she had never done so, I'd have been prepared to go on interpreting the books this way just the same. The scriptures deployed in Deathly Hallows speak for themselves. The Christian themes elsewhere in the saga are less explicit, but, as a "New Criticism" partisan who rejects the personal-expression theory of literature and who (with Eliot) doesn't believe that an author's own interpretation of his work is of intrinsically greater value than anyone else's, the author's endorsement of my interpretation is welcome but not essential.

That said, there is a certain triumphant sensation is hearing JK affirm what was widely gathered from previous interview snippets and the books themselves themselves: that she is a Kirk member, grounded though not quite solid in her faith, and profoundly engaged in at least some of the questions Christianity answers.

Also: scroll down a few posts to see whether the name "Pius Thicknesse" is a hit on Pope Pius XII. Spoiler: it isn't.

posted by Cacciaguida at 10:43 AM

 
The new cardinals. Only one current American ordinary, and not one anyone was expecting: Archbp. Daniel DiNardo, of Galveston-Houston. What gives? Even gossipy Whispers can only say "Don't Mess With Texas" and attribute the choice -- as everyone else is doing -- to the growing influence of Hispanics the the "American Catholicism's gravitational shift to the south."

Anything special about Cardinal-elect DiNardo?

Also: new cardinals for Bombay and Senegal.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:46 PM

 
Michael Barone says the tax issue is back, favoring both Britain's Conservatives (Gordon Brown shrank back from a snap election because of it) and U.S. Republicans (a Republican is now competitive in a special election in a district in Massachusetts last won by the GOP in 1972, the year of the McGovern debacle).

Of course, it's going to take more that "the tax issue" being "back" to found The Next Conservatism. Still, I pass this on fwiw.

EDITED TO ADD: Dem held to 51%, in Massafrickinchusetts.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:35 PM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida: famous drug tests

CACCIAGUIDA: It's so fall-like out, Marion Jones tested positive for cider. [Hat-tip: Letterman]

ELINOR: Who's Marion Jones?

CACCIAGUIDA: Olympic star; had to turn in her medals 'cause she tested positive for something.

ELINOR: When you said "Marion," I thought you said Marion Barry. Lord knows what he's tested positive for.

CACCIAGUIDA: He's the control.

ELINOR: Why did they used to use rabbits for pregnancy tests?

CACCIAGUIDA: There were too many of them.

ELINOR: You'd think they'd have no trouble standing up to pregnancy hormones.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:37 PM

 
Gertrude Stein: Pigeons on the grass, alas
Snoopy: Beagle on the roof, aloof
Washington Shakespeare Theater: Taming of the Shrew, review
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:34 PM

 
How thicke can you get?

Returning, however, to Harry Potter. Some people are exercised over whether the naming of the last Minister of Magic before the death of Voldemort, "Pius Thicknesse," is a swipe at Pope Pius XII. "Hogwarts Professor" John Granger ("no relation"), though ultimately dismissing this notion, grants it much too much credibility along the way.

It's all very well for Catholics to be on the lookout for slights, especially with the "Pius wars" (originating, as Rabbi Dalin has argued, not from Jewish sources but from dissident Catholics and other opponents of the Church, and having the Church's authority per se, rather than Pius himself, as its true target). But this is just silly. Stop it.

You have to take the name Pius Thicknesse as a whole. When you do that, you immediately realize that, yes, you've certainly known some "pious thicknesses" in your life. I distinctly remember remarking once in the comment boxes at E-Pression that I have met Umbridge at various parishes, usually as DRE or music minister. Well, in any parish, wherever there's an Umbridge, there is at least one, and usually two are three, pious thicknesses.




Ministry of Magic:
a certain "thickness" is favored

Don't take my word for it, and don't make me post links to prove it: do a Google image search for "director of religious education." Numerous Umbridges will appear immediately. Not as numerous, but present too (especially as you click through the pages) are their male enablers, the pious thicknesses.

Come on, you know exactly whom I mean. He's the thin guy with the peninsular Adam's apple and the pectoral cross brushing against his pocket protector, who takes a lot of notes, especially when someone asks why we're doing things a certain way. Or, he's the great big bear of a guy, his arms crossed with his fingers caressing his opposite biceps, with a lobotomized grin and a ready laugh whenever Umbridge signals, by her own "laugh," that she wants one.

He isn't only in parishes, of course. If only. He's the guy in any setting who gets with the program and roots for the causes du jour as signalled by those in power. (Yes, those of us who support the Bush Administration's current Iraq policy need to make real sure that we are not doing so merely as pious thicknesses!) He avoids "inappropriate laughter" or any other speech code violation, and he is gravely concerned about the things the media (any media) tell him he should be gravely concerned about. A totalitarian system thrives on people like him, as they are naturally sycophants and climbers. They man the world's interrogation chambers, and it's not the least of torture's social harms that it tends to encourage and empower pious thicknesses.

Obviously the "piety" of pious thicknesses is a sham. It's the "piety" that, in another century, might consist of pressing hands together around a rosary just to impress Father; I tend to think that today it's more likely to take the form of holding hands and swaying just to impress Sister. (And what kind of piety can you see that is not a sham? That's just it: real piety isn't seen; doesn't try to be, anyway. It would rather be suspected of secrecy than be caught out as self-exhibiting.)

Pius Thicknesse hardly needed to be placed under the imperius curse. Yaxley, remember, is a rank bungler. He breaks through the fidelius charm around No.12 by luck, and even then, our heroes escape him. One wonders whether his imperius curse on Mr. Thicknesse even matters. People like Thicknesse sort of come pre-imperiused.

Want to meet a real-life Pius Thicknesse? Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident murdered in London in1978, recalled in his memoirs how one day, when the Communist regime in his country had recently taken power, a minor figure identified by the regime as a dangerous capitalist sympathizer was executed, and an aspiring apparatchik emoted to Markov that this was, thanks to that execution, the "happiest day of his life." There went a true pious thickness.

In a democracy the syndrome is less dangerous -- as long as the democracy more or less remains one. Want to meet a democratic example? They aren't all men, you know. During the Robert Bork nomination to the Supreme Court, Elinor and I were living near, and I was working in, Washington. (Dead people are eligible for this, though normally one has to wait until 5 pm to find out who they are.) Our community was sharply divided between those families in which at least one member was a Washington commuter (and thus, as it were, "inside the Beltway") and those who were not, and who therefore might as well have been in Kansas.

One day the subject of Judge Bork came up between Elinor and a casual acquaintance who was (trust me on this) neither an inside-the-Beltway-ite, nor a lawyer, nor a CSPAN junkie, nor a public policy junkie, nor, forgive me, out-of-the-ordinary bright. Elinor and I were, of course, strong supporters of Judge Bork, both out of legal principle and personal acquaintance. Elinor's friend, however, said she was "not sure about his record on civil rights."

Something about the CBS Evening News phrasing struck Elinor as not quite ringing true, so she asked -- nicely, of course: you know Elinor! -- just what it was about Judge Bork's "record on civil rights" that gave this nice lady pause. Of course, the rest was awkward silence -- because this basically nice lady was a pious thickness. She had absorbed "nice" views from whatever news program she watched (this was 1987, remember); what might she have absorbed in some other time and place?

Obviously, it's Georgi Markov's rejoicing careerist -- or, rather, millions like him -- who is the model for Deathly Hallows's Pius Thicknesse, not Elinor's "nice" friend. But my point is: if Catholic Potter readers fasten on the first name in the un-disappointable hunt for something to get annoyed at, we will have missed something of importance in the name as a whole, as well as demonstrating that our heads are too deep into the grievance industry.

(Hat tip: Signe)
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:31 PM

 
Romanian MPs reject sale of Dracula's castle. Of course I disagree with their Communist-influenced views of Hapsburg's title to the property. But then I warned Vlad several times not to sell to the Hapsburgs in the first place, but would he listen? No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o. Always something about needing to get home; couldn't stay all night and finish the conversation.

Now Hapsburg says the place is "not suitable as a home." I never liked it either -- damn wolves keep you up all night. But then, napping during the day is not frowned upon there; positively encouraged, I'd have said. Had to time my visits to avoid Sundays, though, 'cause I could never find a Mass within a day's ride of the place.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:55 PM

 
Are they sure this wasn't a homework assignment?

Parent: "My mouth flew open when you told me just a few minutes ago." I'm sure it did, ma'am, but a few seconds invested in finding a different expression would not have been wasted.

To me there are a host of problems and I think it starts at home," Ray said....

"I think there should be more supervision. If that's the case and they have enough time to do such things, obviously there's not people there to supervise them," Crockett parent Gerry Banez said.

So some parents are programmed to blame parents, others are programmed to propose solutions that involve hiring more (public school) teachers.

"Campus and district counselors have talked with the students who were in the class and will be available in the future if those students need to talk." When -- between viewings of Superbad?

Still, some parents said it all boils down to a lack of respect. "No respect for authority, no respect for themselves, (and) not for the other kids in the classroom," Munson said.

You mean all that "you're special" stuff and the self-esteem curriculum didn't work? More likely it did, and that's the problem.... Any case, and joking aside, respect for sex is distinct from (though related to) "respect for authority," "respect for self" and even "respect for others." It's not a freebie automatically thrown in with them, even if public schools do manage to teach those nice things, which quite obviously they don't.



posted by Cacciaguida at 10:44 PM

 
Btw -- Haloscan (my commenting service) is acting weird. I am investigating. Meantime, if you're having trouble posting comments, please be patient. And if you're getting a message that says you've been banned -- no, the system is lying to you: you haven't been banned.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:16 PM

 
Many thanks to those who took the point of the "new secessionist" post and comments. I will continue, as and if needed, to do mark-and-snark on this dangerous movement -- an alliance of the Birkenstock Left and the Birkenau Right.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:10 PM

 
Passive-secessive

Here is the AP story on the new secessionist alliance of the extremes, referenced in the comments underneath the previous post. And here's who's happy about it. Like I said: the looney left and the paleocons. Actually, survey this list of contributors to LewRockwell.com and see if you can even tell the difference.

The loss of Vermont, admittedly, would be a major sweetener for any deal. Just think of a Senate without Leahy or Sanders! I'd certainly trade Mississippi for that! But no one's telling us how many southern states we'd lose, or which ones -- or why we should indulge this particular set of losers in the first place.

*SLAP* *SLAP* *SLAP* Listen up, Billy-Bob! And you too, A. Whitney Brainfree IV! We kicked a$$ in Fallujah and Ramadi and (pahdun me, ma'am) Chattanooga. We could take Burlington on our lunch break, seeing as you guys up there don't even know which end of the f'in' gun the f'in' bullet comes out of. Now go home and...


posted by Cacciaguida at 11:33 AM

 
Sinking The Anchoress

This post by The Anchoress got the honor of an Instapundit mention and a link on RealClearPolitics. Glenn Reynolds is no social-conservative, so I don't know whom she thinks she has impressed.

Anyway, her argument -- that pro-lifers must not go third party under any circumstances, because anything's better than Hillary -- is as fine an example as you could want of the kick-me-oh-mighty-GOP attitude that threatens to make prolifers politically irrelevant, as they already are in, e.g., Britain, where they are spread about evenly across all the major parties, and are accordingly ignored by them all.

The Anchoress (not a lawyer, evidently -- sorry, but one of the reasons I took the trouble of becoming a lawyer was so that when I catch non-lawyers writing ignorantly about law, I could say "Not a lawyer, evidently") supports her fears about near-term developments in the Supreme Court, re "compassionate" or "environmental" euthanasia, with links that involve legislative and policy proposals in the U.K. What she needs to make her point are examples of current litigation (not legislation) in the U.S.

Of course rights-claims such as the ones she fears, and others, are on the Left's long-range agenda. But not in the next eight years. They know the public isn't ready. And even if it were, the Court isn't -- which brings me to another fact The Anchoress appears unaware of: at present, the Court's conservatives are relatively young, while its liberals are various combinations of old, sick, and bored.

The next Justice to resign because of age will be Stevens; the next to resign for reasons of health will be Ginsburg; the next to reason just because he feels like it and wants to have a like-minded successor will be Souter. Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy (for better or worse), Thomas, and Alito will all (barring the very untimely and improbable) still be in office in 2017, regardless of who takes office in 2009.

Yes of course it would be a shame to miss the chance to fill those seats. But The Anchoress writes specifically about the Court becoming solidly leftist. Actuarially speaking, that is specifically not what is going to happen: a liberal President replacing liberal Justices will keep the Court where it is now, not move it to the left.

Now, about those news stories about Dobson, the Council for National Policy, and a "Christian" "third party" candidate -- the stories that caused The Anchoress to set sail.

Much ado about nothing. The press loves stories about shadowy rightwing Christians pulling strings. Anything rather than admit that lots of voters will decide, quite on their own, that they can never vote for a scuzzball like Giuliani. The only influence Dobson and the CNP could conceivably have is in tipping those discontented voters toward one protest candidate rather than another.

Weigh anchor, Ma'am.

See also: NCRegister on Rudy
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:28 PM

 
Feast of the Guardian Angels. Clearly a devotional gift of Spain:

It was not one of the feasts retained in the Pian breviary, published in 1568; but among the earliest petitions from particular churches to be allowed, as a supplement to this breviary, the canonical celebration of local feasts, was a request from Cordova in 1579 for permission to have a feast in honour of the guardian angels....Toledo sent to Rome a rich proprium and received the desired authorization for all the Offices contained in it, Valencia also obtained the approbation in February, 1582, for special Offices of the Blood of Christ and the Guardian Angels.

...but reflecting an idea with older roots in the Church:

There are five proper collects and prefaces assigned to this feast in the Leonine Sacramentary (seventh century) under the title "Natalis Basilicae Angeli in Salaria" and a glance at them will show that this feast included a commemoration of the angels in general, and also recognition of their protective office and intercessory power. In one collect God is asked to sustain those who are labouring in this world by the protecting power of his heavenly ministers (supernorum . . . . praesidiis . . . . ministrorum). In one of the prefaces, God is praised and thanked for the favour of angelic patronage (patrociniis . . . . angelorum). In the collect of the third Mass the intercessory power of saints and angels is alike appealed to (quae [oblatio] angelis tuis sanctisque precantibus et indulgentiam nobis referat et remedia procuret aeterna" (Sacramentarium Leonianum, ed. Feltoe, 107-8).

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:24 AM

 
Conversation chez Fellowship of Catholic Scholars conference

REV. MSRG. MICHAEL J. WRENN (to the group): ....seeing as Archbishop Wuerl is Archbishop of Washington and likely to become a cardinal this November.

CACCIAGUIDA (aside, to Msgr. Wrenn): Even with two cardinals still living?

MSGR. WRENN (aside, to Cacciaguida): No, Cardinal Hickey died.

CACCIAGUIDA: I was thinking of Cardinal Baum.

MSGR. WRENN (pause, then): You're right!

CACCIAGUIDA: Always the tone of surprise!
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:09 PM

 
IC Publications, Lagos: African archbishop says Anglican church still faces 'gay' crisis. BBC: Thieves escape with church organ.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:31 PM

 
Coed at Columbia -- yes, that Columbia -- tries to rescue her brother from the Naval Academy, 'cause it turns out it's military and they're into authority and stuff, and some of their "courses" even teach combat....
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:30 PM

 
The largest parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Rio Grande is leaving the Episcopal Church. Being a charismatic outfit, it doesn't see any need to join any other Anglican ecclesial structure, so it's going to go it alone, bishop-wise. Good luck with that.

From the same article:

The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey N. Steenson, Bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, could not be reached for confirmation.

Well there's a reason for that: he's becoming a Roman Catholic. If he successfully pursues re-ordination, and then becomes a real bishop, I'm sure at that point he will be able to be "reached for confirmation."
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:05 PM

 


"Now what, ah say what, is the meaning of putting up a picture of that irrrrrrresponsible, no-good entertainer-varmint Michigan J. Frog in a post about that puhfect little belle, Girl V? (Sweet old knight, Cacciaguida, but nuttier'n squirrel poo.)"
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:28 PM

 
My goddaughter "knows lots of songs and likes to sing and dance."


posted by Cacciaguida at 7:31 PM

 
In a further development in photo-op over retail in American presidential campaigning, Giuliani makes a stop in London. The photos in the Telegraph show him shaking hands with Lady Thatcher and Mr. Blair, and learning from Prime Minister Brown how to summon a broom. He also did some "wrapping himself in the legacy of Churchill," whatever that means.

Next: lox with Disraeli, evensong with Gladstone, trip to Israel with Balfour, sailing with Heath, cricket with Major, inner-tubing with Hague (free souvenir cap)....
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:05 PM

 
Successful surgery to remove Yorkshire accent
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:54 PM

 
So, O.J. is co-authoring this book with Britney Spears, see -- "If I Did It Again"
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:01 PM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida: dark v. nice

ELINOR: I saw a Jane Austen site where there was a poll going on: Bingley vs. Darcy. Can you imagine?

CACCIAGUIDA: Heh. Like that would be a hard choice.

ELINOR: I know. Who wouldn't want to spend an hour with Bingley?

CACCIAGUIDA:

ELINOR:

CACCIAGUIDA:

ELINOR:

CACCIAGUIDA: So, which dialect of Martian did they speak back in your village near the polar ice cap?
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:20 PM

 
Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. The backstory of this Feast involves both the finding of the Cross by St. Helen, dated to Sept. 14, 326, and its recovery by the Emperor Heraclius in 629 after it had been seized the Sassanid Persian Emperor Cosroes. Worse than the Sassanids was shortly to come, and the Empire was too exhausted from the Sassanid wars to do much about it, but that's not Heraclius's fault: one does the possible with the available.

This feast comes 'round every year, but only once in all time come the other event we celebrate today: Summorum Pontificum Kick-In Day!
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:54 PM

 
Tea for two
And two for tea,
Tea, FU,
FU and tea...

UK Conservative blogger Iain Dale writes in The Daily Telegraph:

Conservatives should make no mistake. Brown is the most ruthless prime minister of this country since Francis Urquhart ["URK-ut"], Michael Dobbs's Machiavellian PM in House of Cards.

(Actually, FU was only PM at the very end of of H of C; not even, since the last scene showed him couldn't-possibly-commenting in the limo on his way to kiss the Queen's hand. If you want real knee-slapping hiss-boo FU PM action, you'll have to watch the second four-part installment in the Urquhart Circuit, To Play the King. But watch out: to watch a high-class, right-wing Prime Minister demolish some sentimental leftist twit of a King descended from German pig farmers is a sore trial of any man's monarchism.)

Returning however to the matter at hand: yesterday the PM has Lady Thatcher over to No. 10 for tea. It was a very gracious gesture. Conservatives are saying it was all political. Of course it was, scones-for-brains! The point is, there are political gestures that are gracious, and those that are not. This one very much was. I only wish Conservatives were half that respectful toward the woman who rescued their party from irrelevance and their nation from disaster.
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:34 PM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida: Left Behind

ELINOR: Do you think a padded envelope is OK for mailing a cell phone charger?

CACCIAGUIDA: Sure. Did you sell one on Ebay?

ELINOR: No, Jonathan Lee left his behind.

CACCIAGUIDA (and the rest of you -- all together now): Well if he left his behind, why are sending him his cell phone charger?
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:42 AM

 
Blog discovery: Patum Peperium. Don't know what it means; don't know who they are, except that they're a transatlantic bunch of funny Catholics who write well. But I know this: besides being Catholic and writing well, they link to me. Also to Manolo, Dawn Eden, and Arts & Letters Daily. So you just know.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:34 AM

 
What the well-dressed Crusader is wearing

Foxfier (see comments to 9/11 post infra) has a T-shirt that says "When Does the Next Crusade Start?" I have a bumper-sticker that says "You say 'neocon' like it's a bad thing." Any other ideas for Crusade-themed word-wear? (Neocon themes accepted as functional equivalent.)

"My St. Bernard is a Clairvaux"

"Urban II Renewal"

"'Saladin' -- is that a Nom de Drag?"

"Fighting the Dark Lord Since 1099"

"My other car is a white horse with this awesome red cross on it"

"Snape is Bohemond's Man"

"Bless the children, give them victory now" (Aeschylus, Libation Bearers; DH epigraph)

"Just War -- When Anything Else Just Won't Work"

"Neocon = Granddad dug Trotsky
Paleocon = Granddad dug Lindbergh"

"711: In Spain, it's Not a Convenience Store"

"I Love it When You Talk Esoteric" (for Straussians)
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:04 PM

 




posted by Cacciaguida at 10:26 AM

 
Europe worried by trend of radical Muslim converts. No grass growin' under those Europeans, nosiree.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:41 PM

 
This weekend's debate topic

Resolved: Except for the superblogs, which get a billion hits a day, and where the least burp gets a hundred comments a minute, no one reads or cares about blogs any more.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:26 PM

 
Luciano Pavarotti, RIP. An outstanding obit here.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:58 PM

 
SpySpace. Cloak'n'Blogger. TradeBook. Want to join this social networking site? Well you can't.... ("Ed has added the My Kills application." "Add My Map: click once for countries you've worked for, twice for countries you'd like to work for, three times for countries you've screwed over....")
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:42 PM

 
Fr. McAfee (commenting on Fr. Zuhlsdorf's blog): Seven Arlington Diocese parishes, besides St. Lawrence (Franconia) and St. John (Front Royal), are planning to offer the Extraordinary Rite.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:28 PM

 
"Intentionally wearing green vestments"

This is all over St. Blog's (I got it from American Papist by way of The Curt Jester), but I couldn't resist, because I have a similar story. Basically, the root story is about how reporters filter everything they see through the small set of ideological stimuli that can fit into their tiny brains.

Over the weekend, Pope Benedict gave a homily to young people that touched on the Church's long-standing teaching on stewardship of creation. Flash: Pope "goes green!" In support of this spin, Reuters noted that the Holy Father was "[i]ntentionally wearing green vestments".

Now, you and I know that green is the standard liturgical color for those parts of the year that are outside the Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter cycles, those long parts of the year called "ordinary time" in the Ordinary Rite and "after Epiphany" or "after Pentecost" in the Extraordinary. But that's just it, see: you and I know something about the Church, whereas the guy Reuters sends to cover it, or the editor he reports to, doesn't. All he knows is the last week's worth of trends; the last month's, if he's exceptionally well read for his profession.

(In this case, I blame the editor. I note that the reporter is Phil Pulella: I knew him in Rome over twenty years ago. While I suspect he knows and cares more about cardinalatial politics than about vestments, he probably knows better than to submit a side-splitter like this.)

Anyway, here's my analagous tale.

I was in a student production of G&S's TRIAL BY JURY. There were two highly qualified sopranos who auditioned for the one soprano role. One of them was clearly the superior of the two; the other was the conductor's girlfriend. The conductor and the director argued, then came up with a solution: the conductor's girlfriend would get the soprano lead; the role of her attorney, written for a tenor or high baritone, which is a difficult male voice to find among amateurs, would be given to the better soprano. Minor changes in the script could easily be made to reflect the fact that the attorney was now a woman (e.g. "O man of learning" became "O learned woman").

Result: The student newspaper critic called this a "feminist touch." Of course, feminism had nothing to do with it. Quite the opposite: it was a highly stereotypical hairpull between two women and their patrons. But the reviewer, possessing an elite education, had his (or her, I forget) carefully honed set of ideological categories, into which all observed experience had to fit.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:45 PM

 
Prez makes surprise visit to Iraq. Good move, if long overdue. His remarks at Al-Asad Air Base, the principal air base in Anbar, are in the linked article. Some commentating:

Anbar is a huge province. It was once written off as lost.

Yes, and my son Jonathan Lee Morris was there at the time. I think he found it.

It is now one of the safest places in Iraq.

Could we set a higher standard than that? Like, safer than New York City? That's what JL says it was back in the "written off as lost" days, and while I think he exaggerates so as not to borrow glory, I'd say he's got the better point of comparison.

Earlier today I met with some of the tribal sheiks here in Anbar. It was a really interesting meeting.

Whas'matter, you never had goat yoghurt?

The very people that you helped the Iraqis defeat in Anbar swore allegiance to the man that ordered the attack on the United States of America. What happens here in Anbar matters to the security of the United States.

I believe that is accurate. Now: draw-down of forces?

...will be based on a calm assessment by our military commanders on the conditions on the ground -- not a nervous reaction by Washington politicians to poll results in the media....If we let our enemies back us out of Iraq, we will more likely face them in America. If we don't want to hear their footsteps back home, we have to keep them on their heels over here.

Good line.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:03 PM

 
Introductory speech for Constitutional Law II (Individual Rights):

You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of constitutional rights-making. As there is little foolish rule-following here, many of you will hardly believe this is law. I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cert-pool with its shimmering issues, the delicate power of rhetoric that creeps through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.

When first tried about three years ago, it got a few knowing chuckles. Last week, it got applause.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:43 PM

 
"British invastion" of men's shirts (herein of Charles Tyrwhitt)
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:35 PM

 
Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:40 PM

 
Craig then handed the officer a business card that identified him as a Senator. “What do you think about that?” Craig said.

...dissolve to scene from G&S's IOLANTHE, involving the Fairy Queen and the Lord Chancellor, with light edits to suit the case:

SENATOR:
Oh constable unwary
It's highly necessary
Your tongue to teach
Respectful speech
Your attitude to vary

Your badinage so airy
Your manner arbitrary
Are out of place
When face to face
With an influential fairy!

(CHORUS:
We never knew
We were talking to
An influential fairy!)

OFFICER (aside):
A plague on this vagary!
I'm in a nice quandary!
Of hasty tone
With Idahoan
I ought to be more chary.

It seems that he's a fairy
From Bob Bauman's library
And I took him for
A propositor
In an airport lavatary.

(CHORUS:
We took him for
A propositor
In an airport lavatary.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:57 PM

 
New cardinals soon? Mentioned: Abp. Donald Wuerl, Abp. John Foley, Abp. Leandro Sandri; also the new prez of the Italian bishops' conference, the one who keeps getting death threats from gay groups.

Want to send a signal? St. Louis was a red-hat see for a long time -- give one to Abp. Burke.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:26 PM

 
Feast of St. Augustine. There aren't many ways in which the Ordinary Rite is better than the Extraordinary, but one is the way it treats Gus. In the N.O. this feast gets its own readings; plus, one celebrates St. Monica the day before. In the Trid, only the Collect is specific to Gus; the rest of his feastday Mass is taken from In medio, the common Mass for a Doctor of the Church. ("In the midst of the Church the Lord opened his mouth...," Sirach 15; first line of the Introit for that Mass.)

Why the relative dissing of Augustine in the old days? Anything to do with his associations with Luther? With Jansenism? A regrettable side-effect of the marvellously pugnacious Thomism of that era?
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:50 PM

 
OK now, this Ginny/Harry/tattoo thing.



The mommies and daddies -- eventually -- of the next generation

(Fan-art credit)

When the bit of dialogue at issue came up in HBP, given that Ginny was "going out with" Harry at the time, and was reclining against his leg during the four-way conversation in question, there was (and I think JK meant that there should have been) a finite non-zero number of people who wondered just what was being signalled by this suggestion that Ginny was, at that time, thought to be an authority on what Harry looks like with (part of) his kit off.

After all, by this point in HBP, many readers were still reeling from Ginny's transformation from blushing baby sister to spitfire make-out champ, and were set up to believe a great deal.

Some, not many, said this was a full-scale sexual relationship, voilà tout, deal with it. Others said, no, a chaste swim in the lake would explain it (raising the question of whether there are any longer such things as chaste swims in lakes).

Still others, more sensibly, said duh (or in England, "dur") -- quidditch!

Harry's the Seeker, Ginny's a Keeper. (Put that in your Freud and smoke it!) They suit up down by the pitch, and though boys and girls may reasonably be supposed to have separate changing rooms (this is, after all, the school that causes the stairs of the girls' dorm to turn into a steep ramp and pitch the boys right out if they get in there; though, interestingly enough, the same charm does not cover the reverse situation -- "Happy Christmas to you too," said Hermione), even so, a bare male chest on the girls' side of the quidditch changing room once in a while would not, one fancies, add to Harry's total of rule-breaking. (What it would add to coed quidditch, I'll let female readers speculate.)

Well, DH went a long way toward settling all this: assuming the question of what kind of tattoo Harry has or doesn't have on his chest even got asked -- i.e., assuming Ginny wasn't telling a tall tale about the question as well as about the suppositious tattoo itself -- what happened was nothing more than Romilda Vane being catty towards Ginny, and Ginny taking a slice out of Romilda in response: declining to go into missish outrage over the question, and building a substantial "eat your heart out" factor into her reply. If this catfight really occurred, then plainly it was Romilda who withdrew from the battlefield in tears, quite contrary to her original plan.

Then, too, it's possible that Ginny's whole line of remarks in this scene (whether the firefight with Romilda occurred or not) was designed mainly to take the mickey out of Ron.

Technically, the polyjuice scene in DH did not answer the question of exactly how Harry and Ginny spent their time together in HBP. But it at least moves that question back to where it was before Ginny mouthed off to Romilda (or, as the case may be, bragged to Harry, Ron, and Hermione about mouthing off to Romilda). My vote is still with "no," because in a story-cycle in which all the "'ships" stop at "snogging" before marriage as far as we know, there is little reason (once the "tattoo factor" is neutralized) to suppose this one is an exception. And there is some reason to suppose the opposite: Harry's announcement to Ginny at the end of HBP, though still well motivated, is a little too icy for my taste if, well -- movin' right along, I'll post later about the Christian symbolism in DH, especially the blood.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:52 PM

 
Am-I-Dumb.com - Are you dumb?
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:50 PM

 
Max Boot in the WSJ on Bush and the Vietnam/Iraq analogy: "for the editors," as they say (except for the words "for all his faults" in the eighth graf: no interest in Diem-bashing hereabouts).
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:28 PM

 
Feast of King St. Louis IX of France, Crusader. Headnote for today's feast in the current edition of the Missal of Bl. John XXIII:

The pious queen of France, Blanche, educated her son Louis IX to be a model for all kings in his faith, courage, and love of justice. He undertook two crusades to reconquer the Holy Land. The plague, which decimated his army in Africa, struck him down and he died at Tunis. This most Christian king reigned from 1226 to 1270.

posted by Cacciaguida at 6:03 PM

 
Astronomers find a hole in the universe

OK now, this is:

a. Where your Heathrow luggage ended up

b. John Warner's brain

c. The "dormant Commerce Clause"

d. Where all my commenters have gone
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:42 PM

 
The problem: The Scotsman reports:

Hospital staff in the Lothians have been told not to eat at their desks to avoid offending Muslim colleagues during Ramadan.

The (temporary) solution: Mongolian BBQ in Edinburgh
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:54 PM

 
Michael Yon, one of the best web-based Iraq "embeds," reviews present and recent past in Anbar Province. Note details on how Al Qaeda made the Anbar sheiks our allies just by being Al Qaeda. Also, this tombstone.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:45 PM

 
A "Park Street Sub"
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:53 PM

 
I'm looking for a new research assistant. Here is the ad I have put about. Have I left anything out?

Are you:
*Faster than a negligently driven automobile?
*More powerful than a vested third-party beneficiary?
*Able to convey marketable title to Blackacre in a single bound?

*Can you do the Certiorarus Curse?

*Is an armed citizenry your idea of Equal Protection?

*Is your Substantive Process due?

*Do you expect the Spanish Inquisition?

*Would you rather bake for Lochner than brake for Blackmun?

*Do you defer to Chevron?

*Is there a “you” in “unitary executive”?

*Can you tell a Chief Justice from a Dread Pirate?

*When you say you like The Smiths, you mean Free Exercise, don’t you?

*Do you give O’Connor “no endorsement”?

*Can you cope with the “mystery of existence” without a right to kill your child?

*Do you know the right answer to “Footnote Four, or Footnote Six?”

*Do you know the right answer to “Steve, or Guido?”

*Did you put the “con” in Con Law?

*Do you Yazoo?
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:25 PM

 
Feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux



From the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on St. Bernard:

Alarming news came at this time from the East. Edessa had fallen into the hands of the Turks, and Jerusalem and Antioch were threatened with similar disaster. Deputations of the bishops of Armenia solicited aid from the pope, and the King of France also sent ambassadors. The pope commissioned Bernard to preach a new Crusade and granted the same indulgences for it which Urban II had accorded to the first. A parliament was convoked at Vezelay in Burgundy in 1134, and Bernard preached before the assembly. The King, Louis le Jeune, Queen Eleanor, and the princes and lords present prostrated themselves at the feet of the Abbot of Clairvaux to receive the cross. The saint was obliged to use portions of his habit to make crosses to satisfy the zeal and ardour of the multitude who wished to take part in the Crusade. Bernard passed into Germany, and the miracles which multiplied almost at his every step undoubtedly contributed to the success of his mission. The Emperor Conrad* and his nephew Frederick Barbarossa, received the pilgrims' cross from the hand of Bernard, and Pope Eugenius, to encourage the enterprise, came in person to France.

This is as appropriate an occasion as any to let readers know that my son, Lance Corporal Jonathan Lee Morris, USMCR (blog here; not recently updated), is going to Iraq again next year. Mobilization for training is in December (with a Christmas break). Actual deployment is expected to be April-October '08. We have reasonable hope that he'll be able to finish the present fall term in college; God willin' and the crik don' rise, he'll be able to resume college in January of '09.

_____
* My old commander; see Paradiso XV 139.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:09 PM

 
"MySpace is for slags."
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:49 PM

 
German Scientists Declare Speed of Light Broken. Must have been measuring Chuck Schumer on his way to a microphone.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:22 PM

 


Redwood rising?

Maverick "right-wing" (i.e., free-market, low-tax) Conservative MP John Redwood is in the news again. Good news. Very good.

Much of Britain's Conservative Party has always been strictly small-c conservative: cautious, managerial, muddling through, anti-principle on principle. Then there have been those in it who are devoted to a set of convictions plausibly designated Conservative, such as Margaret Thatcher. Mrs. T. led the Tories to three landslides in a row, but after that third time, a dip in the polls was deemed unacceptable by the "wet" establishment, and they threw her out.

One of the few Thatcherites left in a ministerial position after the "wet" coup of 1990 was John Redwood. When John Major, Thatcher's successor as party leaders and Prime Minister, proved to be too wet, Redwood challenged him for the leadership -- much as Mrs. Thatcher had done to the gormless Ted Heath in 1975, except that back then the party was out of office, while Redwood's challenge was to a sitting Prime Minister. This was in 1995. Redwood's ambition to be the new Thatcher were pretty evident: he even began introducing himself to the U.S. conservative community, lecturing at the Heritage Foundation.

Well, when you challenge your party's incumbent Prime Minister from within the party, you just better had win -- and Mr. Redwood didn't. By the usual rules, his political career should have been over. Plus, given his reputation as both a severe "right-winger" and a cold-fish policy wonk, he was tagged with the nickname "Spode," after P.G. Wodehouse's memorably insufferable fascist party leader.

After the Blair-led Labour victory of 1997, Mr. Major retired to a knighthood and a second career as a cricket author, and the Conservatives looked again for new leadership. Redwood did not even make the longest of long lists -- but he was biding his time, quietly developing policies for whomever his party told him his leader now was.

And those leaders? Coming and going like relief pitchers in a losing baseball game. First, the conservative but hair-challenged William Hague took as big a trouncing by Blair in 2001 as Major had done in 1997. (Mr. Hague is now Shadow Foreign Secretary, meaning, he minds foreign policy for the Conservatives in opposition. His biography of Pitt the Younger was well-received.) (Mr. Major, it will be noted, had excellent hair -- and pulled off a narrow and unexpected general election victory in 1992.)

Then Iain Duncan Smith was (a) elected leader and (b) chucked out without even a general election intervening. Michael Howard, "conservative" only if immigration restriction is your big issue, led the party into the next general election with the slogan, "Are you thinking what we're thinking?" "No," said voters, giving Blair a third term by another huge margin. (Trivia: Mr. Howard was the first Jewish Tory leader since Disraeli, and the first ever if you count Disraeli out for having been baptized as an Anglican. Out of Jewishness, I mean: in those days, it was still possible to be both an Anglican and a Conservative.)

So the Conservatives ousted Howard and his entire generation. Realizing their reputation as the "nasty" party gave them a p.r. problem, they chose a leader whose only experience before being elected to Parliament was as a p.r. exec: the present party leader, David Cameron. Cameron has since been busy re-branding the Conservatives to the left. Some good polls resulted for a while, leading many big-C Conservatives to tolerate Mr. Cameron. But it now seems those polls reflected Blair-fatigue more than Camero-mania: since Gordon Brown has been PM, the Tories have again slipped in the polls again. Problems such as terrorist threats, foot-and-mouth disease, and the implosion in the City should be problems for Mr. Brown: instead, they have only enhanced his standing as a leader, while Cameron is now seen as so obsessed with "image" that re-branding now is his image.

And what of John Redwood through all this? In or out of government, in or out of the shadow cabinet, he just keeps winning his seat, doing his free-market low-tax policy-wonking, and supporting the party leader du jour. Not for him the gesture-politics of defecting to UKIP or stirring up revolt among big-C Conservative backbenchers.

So here he is today, tasked by Mr. Cameron with developing economic proposals for the next Conservative government. He's not even in the shadow cabinet, but with the perception spreading that the party needs principles and not just branding, Redwood is suddenly just what the doctor ordered. He is now driving the debate. Opponents both within his party and in the Government find they have to respond to him.

Will he challenge Cameron for the leadership? What, and repeat his disaster of '95? Don't be silly. Torygraph scribblers say it would suicidal for the party to change leaders again before the next general election, and that seems correct to me. So Redwood has every reason to treat as radioactive any like-minded back-benchers who might be minded to egg him on.

(Number 1 rejected party slogan: "Tories: Every front-bencher a former Leader!" Rejected b/c there are also former leaders on the back benches and in the House of Lords. Number 2: "Tories: Leaders by the sixpack." Faux populism, you know.)

No, there's no escape from Cameronism until Cameron has taken a general election shellacking. But Redwood is clearly back in the leadership limelight. Here's what's going to happen: there will be a general election, either this fall or in 2009, and Gordon Brown will get a full term in his own right. Cameron's letter resigning as party leader, and the party's acceptance thereof, will cross in the mail. Many candidates will emerge, and John Redwood will be among them: as conservative as ever, but no longer an insurgent, and no longer "Spode" (he's often he's photographed tieless these days, including the picture on his own website -- he's loosening up! He's just like folks!), but instead, both a team-player and an ideas-man.

After that I can't predict anything, but my, how jolly it would be for this old last-ditch Thatcherite -- I mean me -- to see John Redwood as Leader of the Opposition, leading the party into the the general election after next.....
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:20 PM