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

 

Now burn, new born to the world,
Doubled-naturèd name,
The heaven-flung, heart-fleshed, maiden-furled
Miracle-in-Mary-of-flame,
Mid-numbered He in three of the thunder-throne! -- Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ, "The Wreck of the Deutschland," 34

posted by Cacciaguida at 9:07 PM

 
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

-- Hamlet, I i


Saint Francis and Saint Benedight
Bless this house from wicket 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," quoted in Washington Irving, The Sketchbook, "Christmas Eve"

posted by Cacciaguida at 9:20 PM

 
CONVERSATION CHEZ CACCIAGUIDA: improbable effect of a last-minute Land's End sale catalogue

ELINOR (turning last page): I don't think I want any clothes.
CACCIAGUIDA:
ELINOR: That does not go on the blog.
CACCIAGUIDA (trying out lines for the blogpost): Guys! Try this one!
ELINOR: It wouldn't work on normal women. Normal women would go, oh, I'll get one of these, and one of these, and one of those....
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:14 PM

 
Wisdom of Children (hat-tip: JRB)
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:31 PM

 
CONVERSATION CHEZ CACCIAGUIDA: things that go bump in the night

ELINOR: Did you wake up last night and say you bumped your head?
CACCIAGUIDA: No, that was getting up this morning, and it wasn't my head, it was my -- [short pause, but lethally long for vaudeville]
ELINOR: Easily confused.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:00 PM

 
CONVERSATION CHEZ CACCIAGUIDA: oppression

CACCIADELIA (now 13): Can I have the keys to the rental car?
CACCIAGUIDA: Don't drive it anywhere.
CACCIADELIA: Oh may-un!!
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:57 PM

 

He [von Stauffenberg] acted not only out of patriotism but also as a member of an aristocratic caste whose sense of honour had been upset by SS thuggery and the incompetence of Hitler.

The Germans were sure, in advance of the premiere, that Cruise wasn't up to the job.

I doubt my view will be any different. I am Ve. Ry. Par. Tic. U. Lar. about how the German Widerstandbewegung (resistance movement), which I love personally as well as politically, is portrayed. I haven't yet seen Valkyrie; I probably will, just in case she wants to talk about it next time we e-mail.

EDITED TO ADD: I've now seen a trailer and a brief interview. The story, of course, is un-ruinable, but it seems the movie has enough lame lines in it almost to do the job. And I'm talking, of course, about lines that the marketers chose for the trailers as the ones most likely to reel in an audience. Even setting to one side the inexplicable variance of English and American accents among the (of course Germanophone) heros, they seem to talk in hero-movie cliches that would have been embarrassing in the '50s.

Some viewers may enjoy watching David "Mr. Collins" Bamber as Hitler. Terence Stamp (General Zod in Superman, Chancellor Valorum in the first Star Wars prequel) is cast as Ludwig Beck, and Stamp enhances any cast -- but he doesn't look like Beck. And Ambassador von Hassell was, it appears from the IMDB cast list, deemed unnecesssary to this particular retelling.

[Folds arms, breathes in slowly; gaze conveys readiness for an explanation but no expectation of receiving one; ice crystals form around eyes and lips; "tief in des Busens Berge glimmt nur noch lichtlose Glut."]

FURTHER EDITED TO ADD: Take a stand for a non-personal reason? Whatever for? :)
(Sorry, folks, that one was just for Eve, and Snape.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:15 PM

 
"...How you look in the glow of evening
I have dreamed and enjoyed the view..."

A toast -- to my many good "children"!
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:49 PM

 


TRISTAN -- with an "A"
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:38 PM

 
Enough politics? Good, because we're in the middle of the Novena of the Immaculate Conception. Here, thanks to a friend in northern Virginia, are some pictures of historic Imm. Conc. cards from France, from the 1930s t0 the 1980s. It's interesting how the images and messages reflect the times, while remaining unchanged in essence.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:18 PM

 
Notwithstanding the post immediately below, and my full-throated participation in Sarahmania this fall, I notice with relief and maintain with delight that conservatism actually has a rather deep "bench" right now, involving none of those losers from this past cycle.

Besides Palin, who is very much in play but doesn't have anything locked up yet imo, there's also Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford, and now, Florida's likely next Senator -- Jeb Bush. At a NR-summoned conservative "summit in January of '07, Jeb gave the best speech and got the warmest reception, far outstripping any of the actual candidates. Who knows, maybe that was in part because he wasn't a candidate. But he's smart, he's conservative, and he's popular, at least in his state. Oh and did I mention he's Catholic?

Watch the House too, where new Minority Whip Eric Cantor (VA), Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy (CA) and Republican Conference Whatever Paul Ryan (WI), are becoming known as the conservative "Young Guns" who may challenge the stodgy and compromised Republican leadership. Party like it's 1978!
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:04 PM

 
Chambliss wins: big boost for conservative morale, for GOP resilience in Senate -- and for Palin Power on the campaign trail.

The newly re-elected Georgia Senator says, according to Fox, that Gov. Palin's campaigning "helped put him over the top." She also helped him "peak on the last day," and "to peak and get our base fired up." After all, "When she walks in a room, folks just explode."

Senator, we either couldn't have said it better, or we could have, depending on just what you were trying to say. Clearly, you were at least trying to say -- the the GOP needs to note it -- that Palin is a "rock star."
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:22 PM

 
Jonathan Lee is home from Iraq -- again!
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:25 PM

 
In a break from politics, here's a link about screenwriting, and really about storywriting in general: some remarks by Robert McKee. Story is research, not riverside-strolling inspiration. I like the cut of this guy's jib. And as to television outpacing movies in the story department -- well, just consider Lost and Fringe!
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:55 PM

 
Well, Janet Napolitano is being appointed something, and something much more worrisome than dogcatcher. Does anybody care? Gerard, you're a Pennsylvanian -- why not write to Arlen, ask him what memories he has of this woman from '91, and whether he's cool with her having control of the Homeland Security apparatus....
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:58 PM

 
Cardinal Stafford, speaking at CUA:

"On Nov. 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake,” continued the cardinal. He pointed out that president-elect Barack Obama campaigned on an “extremist anti-life platform,” and described him as “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic.”

posted by Cacciaguida at 9:50 PM

 
Sneeze Causes Massachusetts Driver to Lose Control of Car, Plunge Into River. Gesundheit.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:27 AM

 
The Obama cabinet -- NRO's Jim Geraghty (apparently a frequent quotee on this blog; can't say if that will continue or not; no, I'm not Jim Geraghy) says:

All That Hard Work By Liberals This Year Is Finally Paying Off

So Joe Lieberman is keeping his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee on the say so of 42 Senate Democrats AND President Obama; his Secretary of State might be Iraq War supporter and preconditionless-summit opponent Hillary Clinton; no one will be prosecuted for waterboarding, Bush's guy John Brennan may take over at CIA and Bush's man Robert Gates may stay on as Defense Secretary.

I don't know how the liberals feel, but so far the Obama administration rocks.

Well, "rocks" is relative, but I'll say this: so far, it's shaping up as a conventional Democratic administration, not as "DailyKos Goes To Washington." And the DailyKos people know it (they're enraged, inter alia, that Joe Lieberman has not, not, been deprived of his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee).

And, Eric Holder as AG: very well, he's a respected career prosecutor and former Deputy AG. His one gaffe was that he didn't look hard enough at the Marc Rich pardon file at the end of the Clinton administration. The Rich pardon was disgusting, but it was Bill Clinton's fault, not Holder's.

Obama had been looking at Janet Napolitano for AG. If she had been chosen, I would hope -- hope -- it would have been World War Three-and-a-Half from conservatives, because Janet Napolitano was one of Anita Hill's attorneys during the Thomas hearings. It should be a priority to make sure neither she nor anyone else from that crew is ever appointed dogcatcher. I have all their names.

posted by Cacciaguida at 8:49 PM

 
So McCain is a gentleman. I didn't really doubt it, but it was good that he stepped up to the plate on Leno last night.

Asked by Leno about griping about Palin from unidentified McCain operatives in the days following the election, the Arizona senator said, "These things happen in campaigns.

"I think I have at least a thousand, quote, top advisers," he scoffed. "A top adviser said? I've never even heard of ... a top adviser or high-ranking Republican official."

This was the "straight talk" that Bill McGurn, writing in yesterday's Journal, rightly said that McCain "owed" Palin. Last week's anti-Palin leaking from unnamed "McCain staffers" had the unmistakable smell of campaign bottom-feeders trying to find their place in the circular firing squad before they rot altogether. Wrote McGurn:

The unmistakable message here has nothing to do with Africa, the North American Free Trade Agreement or bathrobes. It is the campaign team's cry, "It's not our fault. How could we ever win with this woman on the ticket?"

The first point to make here is the most obvious: This is the language of losers.....

We are asked to believe that Mrs. Palin was not ready for a national campaign. On what evidence from any part of this election are we to conclude that anyone on the McCain campaign team was ready for a national campaign?

posted by Cacciaguida at 5:23 PM

 
Latin and Black Voters Instrumental to the Success of Proposition 8

But since for many on the left, Teh Black and Teh Gay serve as co-symbols of political angelism, this can't be allowed to be true; hence some interesting contortions, e.g. at SocialistWorker.org.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:32 PM

 
Jim Geraghy has a nice post on Palin's future at NRO. Question: should she go for a Senate seat or not? I'd have said yes -- gravitas, national exposure, all that -- but Geraghty says no: too many opportunities to make enemies and alienate constituencies, too many chances to "vote for it before you vote against it."

Besides, even though we've just come through an election in which both major parties nominated sitting U.S. Senators, and several Allen Drury novels notwithstanding, sliding directly from the Senate into the Presidency is very rare. It's been done precisely twice: Harding, and JFK. We usually choose our Presidents from among sitting and former governors.

Another good Geraghty point: the lady's 44! That's about 19 in politician-years! (Old enough to be qualified, but only just!) Why should she be bruited about for 2012? Give her time to mature into the leader she has shown she can be.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:27 PM

 
U.S. bishops investigating Church grants for ACORN
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:42 PM

 
California: Prop. 8 passes, overturning same-sex marriage
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:44 AM

 
* Will Obama turn out to have gained or lost votes by giving the generous-to-the-loser victory speech the day before the election?

* While The Economist, always hip to irrelevant trends in American politics, has a chin-scratcher on the "Obamacons" this week (did you know that Susan Eisenhower is a "big name" for conservatives? Neither did I. Did you know that Susan Eisenhower existed? Neither did I), Iowahawk has the last word on them here.

* Well, all things considered, the smell of cooked goose is in the air, but I'll be busy tomorrow trying to uncook it, so I cannot, repeat, cannot promise to blog the vote.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:20 PM

 
Some good news, and a sobering reflection

Pollster John Zogby:

Is McCain making a move? The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama today, 48% to 47%. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Pennsylvania:

Gov. Ed Rendell urged supporters of Sen. Barack Obama on Friday to get out the vote in the last 100 hours of the presidential campaign because the race for Pennsylvania is closer than polls suggest.

"This is not a 10-, 12- or 14-point election for Barack Obama," the Democratic governor said Friday afternoon in the lobby of East Stroudsburg University's new Science and Technology Center. "A lot can happen in that last weekend."

While most polls show the Democrat Obama leading his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, by 7 to 14 points in the state, a recent NBC/Mason-Dixon poll forecast a mere 4-point difference.

"The enthusiasm gap has narrowed," he said....

Look, I need to add this about last-minute poll-narrowings. They happen a lot (Ford in '76, Gore in '00, and Kerry in '04). Almost always, the candidate who was behind but whose numbers were improving at the end loses anyway. And then his supporters wander around bumping into trees and saying, "If the election had been one week later...!"

Dummkopf!! If the election had been one week later, your last-minute surge would have been one week later too! It was almost certainly a voter response to the approaching deadline, not some exogenous variable caused by dawning recognition of your candidate's intrinsic wonderfulness! Get a grip and start planning for the next election cycle!

That said, it is nice to read the above news, and to see a few pundits talking about the electorate's Obama "buyer's remorse," e.g. this one, and also Republican insider Ed Rogers in The Washington Post (subscriber access only).

Rogers also talks about how voters resent the media telling them "it's over" and that they have no further choice to make. In that regard, consider Doonesbury's latest.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:53 PM

 
John Podhoretz: Ten Reasons Why McCain Might Win

Plus two that John didn't get:

1. McCain does best with "retail" campaigning: diner to diner, front porch to front porch. That's one of the ways he revived his moribund campaign for the nomination. Even his rallies (and I attended one) have since late September had the heart-to-heart feel of true retail campaigning, rather than the rah-rah-kick-their-butts feel of more conventional campaigning. (He has Palin for that, and she does it very well!)

2. McCain has always done best in a comeback situation, as he did in the primaries. I said months ago that he'd be hopeless in the general election unless he had a good solid poll-deficit in mid-October. And he certainly did.
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:35 PM

 
The Phillies just won the World Series. The last time they did that was in 1980. A few days later, Ronald Reagan was elected President, despite a widespread superstition that a National League victory in the Series always portends a Democrat victory in the election.

I'm just saying.

(And congratulations, Gerald E.!)
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:04 PM

 
Christ the King

Tomorrow, Oct. 25, is the Feast of Christ the King in the Extraordinary Form calendar (last Sunday of October). This feast will occur in the Ordinary Form calendar on Nov. 23 (last Sunday of Ordinary Time).

I don't know what if anything Canon Law says on this point, but, lacking such knowledge, my opinion is that those with access to each form of the Western Rite can celebrate this feast twice each year, and I intend to. Once before, and once after, the presidential election, to show that, in the final analysis -- presidents, temporal kings, other secular pooh-bahs, on s'en moque, quoi?
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:34 PM

 
Mark Steyn on Obama on-line fundraising and "Mr Fake Donor" of "23 Fraudulent Lane":

The gentleman who started the ball rolling made four donations under the names "John Galt", "Saddam Hussein", "Osama bin Laden", and "William Ayers", all using the same credit card number. He wrote this morning to say that all four donations have been charged to his card and the money has now left his account. Again, it's worth pointing out: in order to enable the most basic card fraud of all - multiple names using a single credit card number - the Obama campaign had to manually disable all the default security checks provided by their merchant processor.

The reader adds:

Last night on Sheppard Smith’s 3pm-ET show this issue was brought up briefly and they cited the Obama campaign falsely claiming that this sort of thing happens at the McCain site and that they catch these errors later in the processing. Well, it took three days to process my donations and they all skated through their rigorous screening.

And it doesn't happen at the McCain site. This reader tried donating under "John Galt" and "Saddam Hussein" to the McCain campaign and they rejected it.

Powerline comments: "Of course, in the world we live in, our reporters are too busy covering Sarah Palin's shoes and hair stylist to have time to notice that Barack Obama's entire campaign may be based on a foundation of criminal fraud."
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:10 PM

 
Pollster who was closest to right in 2004 says 2008 is now a 1.1% spread

New Republic blogger tremulously sketches how Obama could lose, even without a "catastrophic external event."
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:05 PM

 
Voice mail. Our university is significantly upgrading its voice-mail system, which will give me occasion to review my "greeting." Tell me what you think of these alternatives.

"You have reached the office Il Professore Cavaliere Cacciaguida....

1. "....I am currently in a secret meeting with the Jesuits to Counter the Reformation. If you are calling to seek my intercession with the Inquisition on behalf of a family member, you know perfectly well that can't be done. If you have any other message, please leave it after the tone."

2." ....Thanks to our new system, which allows me to check voice-mail messages on the Web, a chance now exists that I will retrieve your message. On the other hand, if you were someone I wanted to talk to, you would know to send me an e-mail message instead of calling, or you would have my cell phone number. So all I can say is, at the tone, give it a whirl and we'll see what happens."
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:56 PM

 
Latest RealClearPolitics poll average is Obama +5, down from Obama +7 a few days ago and on the edge of the margin of error. What the...?
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:02 PM

 
Predictions:

It will come down to some 500-or-so disputed ACORN-registered voters in Ohio (or PA, VA, FL, CO, NM, WI, or MO, but most likely OH).

The Republicans will file the first lawsuit (it was the Dems who did so in 2000).

The election will be in litigation through Thanksgiving at least.

It's anyone's guess whether the Supreme Court will once again consider the statutory electoral vote counting deadline of Dec. 12 to be significant. (There is grounds for hoping that the litigation does not go beyond the courts of the forum state, no matter how biased it may be. I know nothing about the present condition of the Ohio S.Ct.)

Very possibly McCain will emerge the winner because the disputed voters were blatantly ineligible, but he will take office with all the prestige editorial pages declaring this yet another illegitimate Supreme Court coup, and civil disorder on the verge of following on financial disorder, perhaps reigniting it. Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:17 PM

 
I did not watch the final debate. I was actually at a jolly lawyers' dinner talking about lawyer stuff, almost entirely unrelated to the election, and it was really fun.

Consider the comment boxes to be "Open mike Whateverday," esp about the election and the final debate. But if you've got something you've been wanting to get off your chest about the nature of the universe, by all means....
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:10 PM

 
A must-read on polling from NRO. Conclusion: the deficit is 4-5 points, not the 12-14 found by some pollster and widely splayed across front pages. Find out why one political scientist thinks the pollsters with the big spreads are misleading the public.
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:16 PM

 
Writing in The New York Post, Amir Taheri quotes Jesse Jackson as saying of an Obama presidency:

The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end.

Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.

So, Obama gets the paleocon vote -- but is New York now in play? :)

posted by Cacciaguida at 9:57 PM

 
"Troopergate" report: piffle, says Powerline.

Powerline has also been tracking evidence of Obama's membership in something called the New Party, whose manifesto places it several turns of the crank to the left of even today's Democratic Party.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:54 PM

 
Babar!!
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:36 PM

 
From the Acton Institute: Thomas E. Woods (not all of whose written works I can endorse) offers a great take-down of distributism, which cannot be too often taken down.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:00 PM

 
Second debate -- a draw. Boring. I was leafing through Charles Tyrwhitt and Brooks Brothers catalogues while listening for gaffes, or indeed, anything other than undeserved compliments for each questioner followed by a lego-house of familiar talking-points.

Do presidential "debates" serve a purpose anymore? Maybe we should just have vice-presidential debates and then give presidential candidate ninety minutes of free commercials, with commentary afterwards by the people who rate the commercials after the Super Bowl. I'll bet American campaign know-how would prove better at making Super-Bowl-caliber commercials than at putting wind-up candidates on a stage.

OTOH -- Obama's recent lead is shrinking. And Leno actually did an Obama joke: "The town-hall format is John McCain’s favorite, as opposed to Barack Obama’s favorite way — Sermon on the Mount."

Letterman's Top Ten Signs You're Watching a Bad Presidential Debate:

10. It's a town hall debate, but the town is in a mountainous region of Pakistan
9. Tom Brokaw leaves early to catch 9:15 showing of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua"
8. Topics fall into the categories "Domestic policy," "Foreign policy," and "Burt Reynolds Films of the '70s"
7. Keep arguing about who has more friends on Facebook
6. Candidate says, "Why you hatin'?" Other responds, "Why you buggin'?"
5. It's covered by CBS, NBC, ABC, and the Howard 100 News team
4. Candidates ignore questions and gossip about which Senate pages are sluts
3. The yodeling competition
2. Disproportionate amount of questions about "The Hills"
1. It's 90 minutes of folksy phrases and winking

You betcha!

posted by Cacciaguida at 10:48 AM

 
Meet "Good Will" and "Doodad Pro," just two of (apparently) many Obama campaign donors of no known address or employment, and who have given his campaign tens of thousands of dollars in $10 and $25 dollar increments.

The RNC is suing.

If the McCain campaign is run by professionals, like Lee Atwater in 1988, Good Will and Doodad Pro are now Obama's running mates. Picture it: Good and Doodad sky-trailers at every Obama campaign appearance; Gene Delgaudio's street-thespians dressed up as Good and Doodad giving interviews about their munificence. C'mon guys, it's October 5....

And a big shoutout to Newsweek for setting aside its normal "Help us Obama-won, you're our only hope" coverage to break the story. You betcha! *Wink*
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:54 PM

 
I've just figured out the real dynamic of the GOP ticket: McCain is an unusually old Maxwell Smart, and Palin is an unusually feisty 99! They get into fixes, but in the end, "niceness" triumphs over "rottenness."

Watch for them (probably Palin) to warn that Obama's policies would unleash "chaos."
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:29 PM

 


Yer shoe's untied!
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:16 PM

 
Rapid response: The McCain Store now has a You Betcha! department.
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:51 PM

 
You betcha! *Wink!*

ABC News: As Map Shrinks, Palin Gives McCain Ticket Opening For New Storyline

Fox News: Palin Performance Helps McCain Regain Political Footing
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:10 PM

 
YESSS!

Maybe she got the name of the commander in Afghanistan wrong, but she got what he said right. Biden scored brownie points by not correcting her on the name, but he saved his own butt by not insisting on his version of the general's remarks.

Palin's smile was a little too permed on for my taste, but apart from that, her style was right for her. I can imagine a lot of my friends not approvin' of all them country-western-style speakin' ways, but if that's part of letting Palin be Palin, then I still say let Palin be Palin ("Paling"?). Those who won't like it aren't voting Republican this year anyway.

Above all she was never tongue-tied and never deer-in-the-headlights. Biden, for his part, never ran off into circular postmodern rambles -- but that was because of the time limits, and you'll have noticed how often he had to refer to the time-limit lights going off.

Even the commentators (I was watching the ABC crew, with includes George Stepalloverus, who had previously pontificated that Palin couldn't afford even the teeny-weeniest mistake) were all on about both had done well, pleased their supporters, allayed doubts, etc. Translated from MSMspeak, that means Sarah kicked ass.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:38 PM

 
I was right.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:39 PM

 
It would appear that Palin is being over-coached, over-managed, and under-deployed. She should protest and resist.

It is possible, of course, that some of this is just a very effective playing of the "expectations game" for the debate on Oct. 2.

Geraldine Ferraro is saying: “She has got to sit down and go over all of John McCain’s votes.” Hogwash, poppycock, and horsedookey. There are a million other things she could be asked about, and what's she supposed to say then -- "I don't know, but would you like to hear how John McCain voted on the Treasury-Postal Appropriation Bill in 1998?" Come on -- this is deliberate sabotage by Ferraro.

Let Palin be Palin. For every issue, she should have a theme, and then let herself rip and riff on that theme. There were debates and candidate fora in the Alaska Governor's race, in which she unseated an incumbent of her own party and went on to beat a popular Democrat. She should go by her "Sarah Barracuda" political instincts, not by her lessons in Wonk-in-a-Week.

In the above-linked Fox story, Douglas Brinkley says: “She’s cunning and smart and people who underestimate her could be sorry.”
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:51 PM

 
Christian-Jewish forum defends Pope Pius XII

Pope defends wartime predecessor
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:05 PM

 
Naturally I get a lot of fundraising e-mails from the McCain campaign, but this latest one, routed through GOPUSA, had the subject-line -- I swear -- "Sarah Palin needs your help!"



I'm off!!
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:43 PM

 
Rudman, Danforth to head McCain anti-vote-fraud committee. Good choices: John Danforth has cred with everybody, and Warren Rudman has cred with Souter, if it should come to that, as with sinking horror we realize it may.

Marc Armbinder updates here on the charges and counter-charges, and a lawsuit already filed, in Michigan.

Of particular concern is ACORN, the community organizer of all community organizers, which has endorsed Obama, has long ties to him -- and his doing its voter-registration thing in its signature style. Newsmax, fwiw, quotes Danforth, from a tele-news conference:

In Colorado, ACORN registered some individuals 40 separate times. Danforth noted that the ACORN director in Ohio played this down, saying in effect just because you register somebody 35 times doesn’t mean that they get to vote 35 times. “So, a fairly cavalier attitude,” he concluded.

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:45 AM

 
Thomas Vanderwoude

I know the pace of blogging here hasn't kept up with the pace of events. In part that's because I've been thinking about the life and example of Tom Vanderwoude, an old friend from my Manassas days who died suddenly on September 9. A father of seven and grandfather of 24, he died rescuing his youngest son, Joey, a Down's Syndrome child, from drowning in a septic tank. The rescue of Joey succeeded, but Mr. Vanderwoude himself drowned. (That's not a generic dad-and-son file photo in the post at GetReligion.com: that's actually Mr. Vanderwoude and Joey. I'd know the Mr. Vanderwoude's hair and Joey's gait anywhere.)

Every Catholic in Manassas knew the Vanderwoude family. Elinor's succinct portrait of the man is here; I can't say I knew him as a close personal friend, just as I can't imagine calling him "Tom." But everyone knew about the life of service to family, parish, and local lay-run Catholic School (the Seton School, one of two fine schools of its kind in Manasses, the other being Holy Family Academy) that he lived.

Joey I knew slightly better. He is 20 now (and the news stories need updating: though he did not yet know of his father's sacrifice while in the hospital, he was present at the funeral). He was ten when we moved away from Manassas. I remember him best from when he was, oh, three, four, or five-ish. They say that one of the effects of Down's, alongside the less desirable ones, are that Down's kids are very loving. Joey used to run up and hug me after Mass for no particular reason. And I'm not very loveable. Maybe it was the Down's; maybe it was that plus a simple conclusion that since dads of boys are loveable, I must be too.

I set all this alongside some of the stinkpiles in American society that have been prodded open by the public conversation about the Palin family. For example, let Mark Steyn tell you here about an e-mail he received about Trig, the Palin with Down's.

The "culture war" is the one in which one side sees Joey Vanderwoude or Trig Palin as a "retard" and a poster child for abortion and human "spaying," and in which the other sees its role model in a man who doesn't think twice about risking and then giving his life -- many future happy years of playing with the grands and (eventually) greatgrands, watching the younger kids form their own families, coaching future generations of Seton students, etc. etc. -- to save Joey.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:47 PM

 
Jimmy Kimmel sez: It’s a bear market — and Sarah Palin is just the lady to shoot it for us.

And Craig Ferguson sez:

McCain and Obama are tied. The polls are saying today that they each have 56 percent. Is it me? I think people are thinking it’s like “American Idol” — you can vote as many times as you like.

Let's not joke too much about that: the lawsuits are already starting -- along with both creative Democratic crank-up-the-vote-drives and ham-fisted Republican "voter security" moves.

(And about that tie: yes, it's basically a tie again, or maybe even a tiny Obama lead. But Obama's already-narrow lead in PA and CO has virtually vanished. VA teeters; today it's back in the McCain column, tho' still within the margin of error, where it's likely to stay. OH continues to lean McCain. MI is a toss-up; Palin campaigned there yesterday. Keep track at RealClearPolitics.com. And let Dick Morris cheer you up, here.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:41 AM

 
Biden calls paying taxes a patriotic act. "Oh say, you will pay...."

Did McCain Diss Spain? Mainly on the plane.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:41 AM

 
Leno on Sarah being back in Alaska: On her first day back, she shot two campaign commercials, a moose, and a caribou.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:36 PM

 
Feast of the Holy Name of Mary. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1911) explains: "After the siege of Vienna and the glorious victory of Sobieski over the Turks (12 Sept., 1683), the feast was extended to the universal Church by Innocent XI, and assigned to the Sunday after the Nativity of Mary by a Decree of 25 Nov., 1683."
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:28 PM

 


Seven years and the summer is over

-- T.S. Eliot
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:54 PM

 
From the late-night circuit (via Newsmax):

Leno: Sarah Palin’s glasses have become a hot item. Those Joe Biden hair plugs? Not so much. They can’t give those away.

Letterman: They’re saying that Barack Obama is starting to slip in the polls. But don’t worry. He has a plan. He’s going to go back to campaigning in Europe.
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:42 PM

 
Huffpost blogger: "re-regulate" the media and "dismantle" the Republican party; otherwise, see, "we" might "frickin' lose." Hat-tip: DZ

Boston Herald columnist: Obama's media well-wishers are his biggest problem. "The harder the media work to elect Obama, the lower his poll numbers go."

Jonah Goldberg: "The more Obama has to explain why being a community organizer -- or a state legislator, or a one-term senator with few accomplishments under his belt -- is better preparation for the presidency than being a mayor or governor, the more he volunteers his own shortcomings when compared with McCain."
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:18 AM

 
Bishops criticize Biden's abortion comments

..."Protection of innocent human life is not an imposition of personal religious conviction but a demand of justice," they added....

[Justice Cardinal] Rigali, of Philadelphia, is chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities. -Bishop William] Lori, of Bridgeport, Conn., is chairman of the bishops' Committee on Doctrine.

Bishop Lori is also Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus, and a former Auxiliary Bishop of Washington D.C.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:31 PM

 
A miracle of Sarah Palin: she has raised Elinor's blog Mommentary from the dead!
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:28 AM

 
Birthday of the Blessed Mother. No, no, no, not that blessed mother -- the Blessed Mother.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:22 PM

 
McCain jumps ahead of Obama in latest poll.

Accompanying photo shows McCain buying "jars of salsa at El Pinto restaurant in Albequerque, N.M., for himself and his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin." Palin needs salsa to quench her burning thirst. Little-known fact.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:44 AM

 



Awesome!

My LKFs from tonight would probably be:

* Sarah Palin has trucks delivering extra ass for her to kick.
* Sarah Palin had a few extra cans of whup-ass hidden on a shelf inside the podium in case she ran low on her natural suppy, but of course she didn't.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:19 PM

 


Levi Johnston and fiancee Bristol Palin welcomed to St. Paul by John McCain:
Major political photo?
Mantle of grandfatherly protection?
Old captain welcoming raw recruits aboard, damn the torpedos?
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:36 PM

 
About tonight -- I mean, The Speech:

I don't do Twitter, but for those of you who do, Palinfacts.com has an announcement for you that I'd like to pass on in a spirit of Sarahndipity:

Attention Twitterati…

Sarah Palin wants to see some people talking. Tomorrow night [i.e. tonight, 9/3], during her speech, it’s the first Little Known Fact-a-Thon. Stream your LKFs while she speaks. If you got to this site through some other avenue, sign up for a Twitter account and join in.

posted by Cacciaguida at 3:50 PM

 
Maggie Gallagher on the sexual politics of Palin:

How did McCain know? A moose-hunting pioneer woman is the perfect choice to be America's first female vice president.

Is Sarah Palin up to being president of the United States? Hey, listen, anyone who can raise five children while governing Alaska successfully enough to earn over an 80 percent approval rating -- I'm just not worried about.

Gov. Sarah Palin can do whatever she has to do, and she can do whatever needs to be done.

That's her conclusion. But it's worth reading the whole thing to see how Maggie got there.

ETA: In another version of the same article, Maggie adds to the lede:

Forget about Gov. Sarah Palin.

Seventeen-year-old Bristol Palin is better qualified than Barack Obama to be president of the United States in at least one respect: Figuring out when a baby gets human rights is apparently not above her pay grade.

posted by Cacciaguida at 3:40 PM

 
"The Case Against the Case Against Palin": Continuing, for the mo', our all-Palin all-the-time format, we note that a liberal (of course) blogger at The New Republic has generously passed on to readers an e-mail he received from "a very good friend, who is a lifelong Alaskan and one of the smartest people I know," offering a "word of caution to those (yes, like me [blogger Christoper Orr]) inclined to take Sarah Palin lightly."

There you can read, inter alia:

Palin slaughtered the incumbent in the primary--posting a 30 point margin of victory--and went on to win the general (over a former Democratic governor) without seeming to break a sweat. She then quickly fulfilled an implicit campaign promise by slapping down ExxonMobil, BP, and ConocoPhillips in negotiations over a proposed Alaska natural gas pipeline, even though they, too, by all accounts, were well prepared to dine on her tender little frame. Not bad for a lightweight....

What the Republicans missed about Sarah Palin then--and what the Democrats seem poised to miss now--is that she is a true political savant; a candidate with a knack for identifying the key gripes of the populace and packaging herself as the solution. That keen political nose has enabled her to routinely outperform her resume. Nearly two years into her administration, she still racks up approval ratings of 80 per cent or better.

And a lot more. Hat-tip: FAD

Sarah Palin will be the first woman to be President.

Sarah Palin is the new Reagan.

Sarah Palin will give birth to the man who will lead humanity’s war against the machines.

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:57 AM

 
Palin update: Turns out liberals are outraged by premarital sex, and think a mother of five should stay home with her kids. Who knew?
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:23 PM

 
This is GREAT!
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:24 PM

 
St. Added

In the 1962 Missal, today is not only the Feast of St. Rose of Lima, but also that of two martyrs of the era of Diocletian: St. Felix and St. Adauctus. Here is the headnote:

St. Felix, a Roman priest, was martyred under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. An unknown Christian joined him at the last moment. The Church called him Adauctus (Added). They were beheaded A.D. 303.

How cool is that? Of course it's great to have a calendar that includes saints canonized since 1962, including martyrs of the French Revolution, the persecutions in Mexico, and the Spanish Civil War. But we oughtn't to lose sight of those ancient Roman martyrs commemorated in the old calendar.

The Gospel chosen for the Feast of St. Felix and St. Adauctus is Luke 10:16-20, which concludes: "rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven" -- even if your name is "Added"!
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:44 PM

 


SARAH! SARAH! SARAH!
SARAH! SARAH! SARAH!

--or--

"NASCAR meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

Consider:

* Pro-life;
* Mother of five,
* ...one of whom is an Army enlisted man about to go over to Iraq;
* called "Barracuda" by her college soccer team-mates;
* an anti-earmark Republican with a reform record;
* hunts moose.
* According to this local piece culled from coverage of the 2006 multi-candidate Alaska governor's race, she:
=> supported Alaska's 1998 state constitutional amendment defining marriage as 1 man & 1 woman;
=> is a member of Feminists for Life;
=> once smoked wacky-terbacky; perhaps twice, even (it was legal in Alaska at the time); and thinks people who split a gusset about that should get a life because methamphetamine is a much greater threat and much more deserving of law-enforcement resources.

In short, the closest to an ideal candidate that this vale of tears is going to produce.


Early conservative press reaction:

National Review editorial: "has wowed the public and enthused the Right."

The Weekly Standard: Fred Barnes reviews her Alaska record; Noemie Emery lists, seriatim, what the Palin choice accomplishes (my favorite: "As a pro-life super-achiever, puts feminists in a tizzy.")

Human Events (my old colleague Marty Sieff writing): "The Sarah Sensation: Sen. John McCain has gone crazy as a fox in picking Sarah Palin, bold as a lioness...."

That leaves, of course, The American Conservative, where Daniel McCarthy ("A Smart Choice on Paper") concedes that she "reassures conservatives" but is of opinion that "Her speech just now was underwhelming to say the least, however. The longer she spoke, the less interesting she seemed, and her voice is not particularly mellifluous." I disagree utterly, but who really thought TAC writers would like any candidate once he or she was actually running? TAC is anti-political: to run is to be a bad candidate.

Then Michael Dougherty -- in a riff that makes even a troglodyte like me reach for the word "sexist" -- writes that "she looked like a local Republican Committee chair who should be introducing McCain during a primary." Sometimes those people run for governor, Mike -- and even win. Guess they just don't know their place, eh? Probably should have handed off the rifle to her husband when it came time to bag the moose, huh.

Dougherty follows this with: "Like Bobby Jindal or Mark Sanford, I considered Sarah Palin a promisingly conservative, likable, and reform-minded governor. I wished desperately to spare her (and them) from association with the bellicose and ideological foreign policy of Bush-McCain." TAC's ideology appears to be that a significant world power can get by without a foreign policy. This proposition can be discussed, but Dougherty's apparent belief that all reform-minded conservative governors accept it until the wand of national prominence is aimed at them is simplistic, and reflects -- again -- scant respect for Gov. Palin's decision-making and conviction-forming powers.

In short: NR, the Standard, and Human Events like her, TAC doesn't -- so it's unanimous!

EDITED TO ADD:

Kristen Soltis, writing at Ladyblog, which is a feature of Culture11, lists nine reasons to have a "girl-crush" on Sarah Palin -- and eight of them are different from mine! (And my crush ain't girl, dude!) Here they are:

1) She had a baby. In APRIL. (It was her fifth. So like a pro, she was back at work three days later.)
2) She eBayed the state private jet because it was government waste.
3) She cut her own salary.
4) She was in the Miss Alaska pageant.
5) She has a son going to Iraq this month to serve.
6) She is 44.
7) Her husband is an Eskimo…they eloped shortly after college and got folks from the nursing home down the street to be witnesses.
8) She has children named “Track”, “Bristol”, and “Willow”. It’s like NASCAR meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Which, in fact, is pretty appropriate for Sarah Palin.
9) She eats moose burgers. (Not that I have anything against moose.)

posted by Cacciaguida at 1:34 PM

 

Pelosi Stands by Abortion Comments

DENVER (AP) - Under fire from U.S. Catholic bishops, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not backing off contentious comments about abortion she made during a weekend television talk show appearance.

Pelosi said Sunday on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' that ``doctors of the church'' have not been able to define when life begins. That prompted swift rebukes from Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl and Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, who said Pelosi was incorrect and that Catholic teaching has consistently condemned abortion.

Cardinal Edward Egan of New York voiced similar sentiment Tuesday. Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William Lori, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Doctrine, also issued a statement correcting Pelosi.

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi, said in a statement Tuesday that she ``fully appreciates the sanctity of family'' and based her views on conception on the ``views of Saint Augustine, who said: '... the law does not provide that the act (abortion) pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation ...''

First, Pelosi probably thinks "doctors of the Church" means the Catholic Medical Association.

Second, I doubt she has any of her staff doing original research into Augustine. Most likely these lines are fed to her office by "Catholics for a Free Choice" or by aging tenured deadwood on theology faculties. But since she chooses to stand behind Augustine, does she agree with him on, e.g., the inseperability of sex and procreation?

Or would she, on the contrary, agree with U. of Chicago Law Dean Geoffrey Stone, who told the Federalist Society's annual student conference in 2006 -- true story -- that laws that restrict pornography are based on an Augustinian understanding of sexuality, and Augustine was a Catholic theologian and saint, and therefore such laws violate the Establishment Clause? (Challenged on his interpretation of Augustine by a conference participant who announced himself as a theologian, lawyer Stone responded: "Read Augustine.")

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:23 PM

 
Giving himself Ayers: Here and here is what the Obama campaign is doing to stop TV stations from airing an ad by Harold Simmons's American Issues Project that calls attention to his ties to former Weatherman Bill Ayers.

And here is the ad. If I'd been producing it, I'd have named the "left-wing Chicago board" that they both served on. Other than that, it's a perfectly good ad of its type. Any conservative with past ties to figures as radically and violently right as Ayers is radically and violently left would not even have a political career, much less be a major party presidential candidate with a good chance of winning.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:17 PM

 
From Fox:

The McCain camp also produced another ad featuring a Clinton supporter who now backs McCain over Obama.

“She had the experience and judgment to be president,” says Debra Bartoshevich, identified by the McCain campaign as a former Clinton delegate. Of McCain, she says: “I respect his maverick and independent streak, and now he’s the one with the experience and judgment. A lot of Democrats will vote McCain. It’s OK, really!”

Clinton, speaking publicly for the first time at the Democratic National Convention, said, “I am Hillary Clinton and I do not approve of this message.”

So what McCain should do now, see, is play that Hillary comment at the end of his next commercial, and then add himself saying: "Well I'm John McCain, and I did approve this message!"

posted by Cacciaguida at 1:06 PM

 
International Olympic Committee launches probe into He Kexin's age



You're sixteen
You're beautiful
And you're nine
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:44 PM

 


"Why so Severus?"
So I kan be emprer lol!
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:00 PM

 


Why So Severus?


posted by Cacciaguida at 2:54 PM

 
Actors' Equuity? Warner Bros. is postponing release of the Half-Blood Prince movie from November '08 to July '09. Why? Because summer is just the ideal time for a blockbuster release, as WB's Dark Knight shows? But they hardly needed Dark Knight to know that.

Or is it that Daniel will be in the middle of the Broadway run of Equus in November?

But wait -- wasn't he still in, or just recently out of, the West End run of Equus when Order of the Phoenix was released? So, prurient questions from the British media don't matter, but from the American media they do? Eh?

I've blogged before that Daniel's desire to establish that he's a serious stage actor is laudable, and that his choice of Equus as a vehicle for this was somewhat less so. But, whatever -- it's now a fact on the ground (as it were); get over it -- and give us the new movie in the fall, which is the natural Potter season.

P.S. Happy birthday, Evanna Lynch!
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:37 PM

 
"John will be home in time for tea!"

-- the Unfounded Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Happy Feast Day!
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:13 PM

 
The Night That the Tanks Rolled Out in Georgia

If you've been reading The Wall Street Journal this week, you basically know what I think about this. Georgia was doing what it could for us in Iraq, and when she needed our help, there was nothing we could do except deliver food and medicine after a ceasefire, and for a while there was doubt even about that.

Maybe part of the reason was the Iraq war itself. But if that war had never occurred, would we have been any more likely to help the Georgians? How many of us even wish we could -- even after one throws in the obvious fact that the real quarry here is not Georgia but the pipeline that runs from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea, providing the only oil line connecting Central Asia to the West and bypassing both Russian and Iran? Once Russia controls that, there is once again a single "global hegemon," and it's not the U.S.

"[G]lobalization may soon lose its American parent," argues VDH:

[G]lobalization, in all its manifestations, will run out of steam the moment we tire of fueling it, as the world returns instead to the mindset of the 1930s — with protectionist tariffs; weak, disarmed democracies; an isolationist America; predatory dictatorships; and a demoralized gloom-and-doom Western elite.

A friend even older than me (Alcuin: you know him -- big intellectual at Charlemagne's court? organized schools for him?) was visiting us this week. I asked him if this was the new Poland, '39. He said no, but it might be the new Sudetenland, '38. And that was before Russia started holding on, post-ceasefire, to parts of Georgia that aren't even inside either of the two "breakaway" provinces.

Though Secretary Gates's current line is that there is no need for U.S. forces in Georgia, I might note that my son Lance Corporal "Jonathan Lee Morris," USMCR, is still in Iraq, that the U.S. Marines are "first to fight," and that the first in, if needed, would presumably be those closest to the scene.

Iowahawk nails the lighter side, such as it is: Red-Faced Russian Party-Crashers Retreat

...."Russia said South Ossetia invited them, to try out some of their pipeline stash," explained a source with the French Foreign Ministry. "I know Russia used to have something going on with Georgia, but nobody thought it was going to turn into a big ugly scene."

...

"Everyone was just sort of staring at Russia, who's in the middle of beating the hell out of Georgia, and Russia's like, 'what? Come on man, you have to admit it's funny,'" said a source with UNSCOM. "So Russia's going around, looking for high fives and is like, 'don't leave me hangin', bro,' but the G8 gives him the total gas face, so he's like, 'whatever, dude, this party sucked anyway.'"

...

"It's a shame, because Russia is a such a great guy when he's not drinking and invading neighbors," said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "I think it might help if some of us got together and organized an intervention."

For his part Lavrov rejected the idea that his nation had a drinking and invading problem.

"Hey man, we can quit any time we want," he said.

Hat-tip: TKB. But you knew that.

posted by Cacciaguida at 1:06 PM

 
Safety is getting dangerous.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:52 PM

 
At Westminster: Civil servants 'preparing for Conservative Government' with secret meetings -- and a general election hasn't even been called yet, and may not be for almost another two years!

O2BN England!
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:28 PM

 
In the Jewel of Medina incident, any account that leaves out the pivotal role of U. of Texas historian and gender studies professor Denise Spellberg, as some accounts I've read are doing, is radically incomplete. It was to Spellberg that first-time author Sherry Jones trustingly sent her book in galleys for a blurb, having partly relied on Spellberg's scholarship in her own research.

Jones was prepared, no doubt, to be denied a blurb, but one imagines she was surprised when Spellberg alerted friends in the Muslim community that they needed to get offended about this book, fast, and spread the word -- leading to Random House's decision to "postpone" the book "indefinitely."

Prof. Spellberg is currently the object of much unwelcome (to her) blogospheric attention, but I think you have to budget for that when you undertake to carry the Prophet's speech-stifling water for him.

The Jewel of Medina may not be a book I'd particularly want to read myself, but I find myself hoping the media buzz will bring a long line of major publishers to Ms. Jones's door, eager to make the money that could have been Random House's.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:17 PM

 


Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Dostoevsky of the Gulag, 1918-2008
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:53 AM

 
Yes, Virginia, there are vice-presidential possibilities: while Obama considers Gov. Kaine, McCain checks out Rep. Eric Cantor, Congress's highest-ranking Jewish Republican (tipping factor in FL as well as VA?). Cantor is a high-energy guy, and very conservative. Though associated mainly with economic and business issues, the National Right to Life Committee gives him a 100% rating.

ETA: Cantor's staffer for child/family issues is a conservative RC. I tell you, this Cantor can really sing!
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:25 PM

 
Everyone enjoying Dark Knight? Let me tell you this: it is not in fact the case that anyone can excel as a villain if you slap paint on him and give him a lot of bwah-ha-ha lines. That boy, it turns out, was one of greatest acting talents to come to the movies in a long time, and we'll miss him.

Meanwhile, though I'm not a comic-book fan, I have long had a weak spot for this Batman cover:


posted by Cacciaguida at 11:08 PM

 
The Mets are in first place.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:13 PM

 
"spiritual Alzheimer's" and "ecclesial Parkinson's" -- Cardinal Ivan Dias tries a new tack in Vatican-Anglican relations.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:05 PM

 
Today's Britnews

* Batman arrested! But now doubt he'll be able to make Bale ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....

(Hey girls! Remember Christian Bale as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream, opposite Allie McBeal's Helena, and understandably pursuing Anna Friel's Hermia?)

* They might not be picking up your garbage any more.

The government is to give councils the power to refuse to collect rubbish if home owners fail to abide by draconian rules which may include leaving bins in the right place, sticking to weight restrictions and following strict recycling policies.

Labour is quietly pushing the new rules through parliament without any debate after it proposed amendments to a 130-year-old law which has, until now, made it a statutory duty of local authorities to collect household waste.

There are fears that the changes to the law will lead to large increases in fly-tipping, bonfires of noxious substances and rat infestations around uncollected waste. Despite this, there will no reduction in council tax for home owners.

The Conservatives described the plans as "disgraceful", adding that bin men will now be able to use "any excuse not to empty your bin".

Many Labour MPs fear the changes will add to a growing backlash against the government which has seen them slump in the polls.

"Fly-tipping," it turns out, means emptying your trash in an unauthorized location, such as in front of your local Labour MP's home.

posted by Cacciaguida at 4:02 PM

 
Usually I put something up on this blog to mark July 20, the anniversary of the failed but valiant attempt on Hitler's life by a group of German army officers, senior politicians, and diplomats, most of them ennobled in Germany's ancient social hierarchy even before they became so in deed, and all of whom paid dearly.

But as I will most likely be out of blog-range on the 20th this year, I'll just send flowers:


posted by Cacciaguida at 10:19 PM

 
Vatican asks for Cardinal Newman exhumation on path to sainthood

...

Catholics hope that Pope Benedict XVI will issue a decree declaring Cardinal Newman as Blessed in December, which would pave the way for beatification next spring.

The final step would be for the Cardinal to be canonised as a saint.

Father Paul Chavasse, Provost of the Birmingham Oratory, said: "One of the centuries-old procedures surrounding the creating of new saints by the Catholic Church concerns their earthly remains.

"These have to be identified, preserved and, if necessary, placed in a new setting which befits the individual's new status in the Church.

"This is what we have been asked to do by the Vatican with regard to Cardinal Newman's remains, which have lain at Rednal since his death in 1890."

posted by Cacciaguida at 12:07 AM

 
If Dostoevsky wrote political headlines...



The Brothers Katabalzov
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:48 PM

 
Well, whoever signed up the Workshop this week at Kenthurst made out like a bandit!
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:54 PM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida: player pianos

CACCIADELIA: She [local friend] has the song on a paper that makes a piano play it.
ELINOR: You mean a piano roll?
CACCIADELIA: I think so, yeah.
CACCIAGUIDA: Those used to be really popular, before gramophones and victrolas became widespread.
ELINOR: They still are. At least, I still see piano rolls for sale on E-bay.
CACCIAGUIDA: Piano rolls? I'm surprised. I know there are "automatic" pianos now, for cocktail lounges and the like, but they're computerized.
ELINOR: Remember the one at the hotel where Zorak and the Old Oligarch had their wedding rehearsal?
CACCIAGUIDA: Not likely to forget it. I emerged into the lounge and found an invisible pianist playing Phantom of the Opera.
CACCIADELIA [now a huge Phantom fan]: Phantom of the Opera? Really?
CACCIAGUIDA: Mm hm. "Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You."
CACCIADELIA: How appropriate.
CACCIAGUIDA: You have no idea.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:56 AM

 
Dead as church, C of E is reborn as comedy troupe

A senior church leader says he would be willing to consecrate Britain’s first openly gay bishop, despite fears that such a move would further split the Anglican communion.

The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, told The Sunday Telegraph that practising homosexuals should not be barred from becoming bishops.

He accused conservative Anglicans of being “exclusive” and narrow-minded in their opposition to gay clerics.

Now I ask you. If it were a matter of wanting to keep the tacky people out and associating only with the cool and "clubbable," would that be an argument for excluding the gay guys? Come now. (And stop giggling, that's a perfectly valid expression.)

The Archbishop, who is an old friend of Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that the Church should select people on their ability rather than discriminating against them because of their sexuality.

Goyische Kopf! All these years I've thought it was a question of the nature of human sexuality in the context of Christian anthropology and theology. Turns out it's just a two-way mulitple-choice question, and one of the "answers" is clearly a throw-away so that all of us can pass! Well pass me my ballot then!

The man at the centre of the controversy, Bishop Robinson, was set to preach in a London church. He told this paper he fears for his life

Of course he does, luv, it's part of the script. Like that time a decade and a half or so ago when a bunch of them disrupted a Christmas morning Mass at Old St. Mary's in Washington D.C. Clearly they thought their conduct would provoke physical reprisals by the congregants. When none of the worshippers rose to the (admittedly yummy) bait, some of the activists stuck to the script anway, falling to the floor and shouting "Oh oh oh you're hurting me" to no one in particular.

The Welsh archbishop, who last week chaired a meeting of the Modern Churchpeople’s Union, said that rigid dogmatism was damaging the Church.

“There used to be a generosity of spirit and diversity in the Anglican communion. There should be a backlash against this fundamentalism that has been thrust upon us.

“It is contrary to the ministry of Jesus and damaging that in the Church, we’re still fighting battles that have already been won in society."

I take it, then, that to the Modern Churchperson, the "ministry of Jesus" consists of conforming the Church to "society"; once "society" has a settled opinion, what business is it of the Church's to do anything other than fall in line instanter, and stay there? (Did William Wilberforce know that?) "Go forth and make late-capitalist consumerist citizens of all churches, baptizing them in the name of the Creating/Evolution-Managing Entity, the Redeeming-Accepting Entity, and the Empowering Entity...."

And so on, up to St. Loony up the Cream Bun and Jam....

posted by Cacciaguida at 12:19 AM

 
Daily Telegraph:

Anglican bishops in secret Vatican summit

Senior Church of England bishops have held secret talks with Vatican officials to discuss the crisis in the Anglican communion over gays and women bishops.

They met senior advisers of the Pope in an attempt to build closer ties with the Roman Catholic Church, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was not told of the talks and the disclosure will be a fresh blow to his efforts to prevent a major split in the Church of England.

In highly confidential discussions, a group of conservative bishops expressed their dismay at the liberal direction of the Church of England and their fear for its future.

The rest

St. Thomas Becket, St. Thomas More, St. Edmund Campion, Venerable John Henry Newman, pray for us! Obtain for us, and for England thy Dowry, every grace and blessing, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:27 PM

 
Note on Jesse Helms and the right to life

I feel I should pass on something I learned about Sen. Helms from a one-time fellow Hill-staffer and pro-life activist.

Sen. Helms's mailbag (and likewise that of his equally conservative, equally pro-life colleague, Sen. John East) would occasionally toss up the sort of letter that protests these senators' pro-life stands on openly racist grounds. That is, if you can believe it, "Senator, we've got to have legal abortion, otherwise you-know-who will keep multiplying...." That's not a direct quote, but it's a summary of the sentiment. (And I'm sure longtime readers of mine know all about Margaret Sanger's views on race, and about Planned Parenthood's targeting of black neighborhoods, etc.)

To this sort of pro-choicer, as well as to the conventional kind, Sen. Helms -- who takes so much guff on the "civil rights" issue, even in death -- would reply: "This is where I stand, and if it's the issue I go home on, then I'll go home."

In the event, Sen. Helms "went home" politically only when he was good and ready. Now he has has gone home to the good Lord on the Fourth of July. And Lord, Te Martyrum innatorum candidatus laudat exercitus.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:56 PM

 


JESSE!!
(Helms, that is)
1921-2008
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:14 PM

 
Oh dear, Clan McHammed is offended

ETA -- Charles Moore writes in the July 5 Daily Telegraph:

Later this month, Labour may well lose the by-election in Glasgow East to the Scottish National Party. Nearby, in Glasgow Central, the SNP candidate is Osama Saeed. Mr Saeed is now the adviser on Islamic matters for Alex Salmond, the First Minister. "Scotland can be the hub for the Muslim world," he says. As part of the Scottish Contest programme, he offers young Muslims "alternatives" to al-Qa'eda material on the internet. This is how he proposes to do it: "When people talk about deradicalisation, the last thing you want to do is say you must be against terrorism." At various times, Mr Saeed has told Western countries that they must change their foreign policy to avoid being blown up, praised "martyrdom operations" (suicide bombing) and called on Scottish Muslims to act "in defiance" of police inquiries about terrorism. He is the Scottish spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood.

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:07 PM

 
Delahunt

"It would be generous to say we were stunned," says a Republican House Judiciary Member, describing his response when Congressman and Obama Superdelegate William Delahunt (MA-10) yesterday asked the vice president's chief of staff David Addington about water boarding of terrorists. Addington declined to comment, citing President Bush's refusal to discuss techniques used to attain vital intelligence, and added that another reason not to respond was that Al Qaeda is probably watching.

Congressman Delahunt's response: "I'm glad they finally have a chance to see you." (Emphasis added.)

But the House Republican and Judiciary member was not so stunned to notice that no Republican rose to defend Addington, or to call out Delahunt for essentially inviting al Qaeda to impart physical harm to a senior member of the Bush Administration. "It was shameful that we didn't do anything. I can't explain it," says the GOP member.

...

"You have to understand, guys like Delahunt, really all of the Democrats here, don't care about winning the war against the terrorists, or keeping us safe. They might have cared after 9/11, but now they are ruled by the radical left. All they care about now is putting the Americans who put in place the policies that have kept us safe for seven years on trial. The terrorists just don't matter to this crowd," says a former Department of Justice lawyer.

The "on trial" stuff is correct -- politically, and even, in certain fever-swamps, such as the unaccredited left-activist "Massachusetts School of Law," legally, with the hanging of Bush and top administration officials gleefully contemplated by neo-Leninist ideologues who in other contexts probably consider Amerika's use of the death penalty one of its premier human rights violations.

But getting back to Congress -- the Delahunts of the world show in such unguarded moments that they don't just want to ignore al Qaeda and try Bush administration figures: they want an even playing field between al Qaeda and the United States. At least.

We've been here before. How many of you remember the House Democratic left's "Dear Comandante" letter to the Sandinista leadership in the mid-1980s? They didn't just oppose U.S. aid to the Contras on general pacifist grounds, or because they thought the Contras were bad guys. They opposed it because they thought the Contras might in fact unseat the Sandinistas.

Question their patriotism? Joe Sobran, with whom I agreed back in those days a lot more than I do now, penned a classic column on this. I don't have it, but permit me to paraphrase from memory:

"Question your patriotism, Congressman? Of course not. It never occurred to me that you had any. It never occurred to me that you wanted to be thought of as having any."
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:16 PM

 
Seems Gov. Bobby Jindal, himself a rising conservative, has "sent" another one into his former Louisiana 1st District seat: Rep. Steve Scalise.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:13 PM

 
Latest SSPX reconciliation non-negotiations (or: "The Dwarves Refuse to be Taken In") (cross posted from Fr. Zuhlzdorf's blog, with my typos corrected):

Fr. Z. wrote:

Mistakes have been made on both sides over the years. The consecrations and continuing defiance was just plain wrong. The attitude of many in the Roman Curia and the hostility to tradition was just plain wrong.

Perhaps -- no, definitely -- Pope Paul showed poor judgment in coming down harder on traditionalist excesses than he did on liberal ones. Apart from that, however, the hostility to tradition was all at much lower curial levels. JPII and (obviously) Pope Benedict have been kind and outreaching, even while the SSPX keeps kicking them in the teeth for their pains.

I sense a bit of "moral equivalence" in the way you've formulated this, Father. "A's been wrong, B's been wrong, so let's just have a vino and go home singing the Missa de Angelis." Yeah, except in this case B just happens to be -- The Church. Moral equivalence isn't possible here.

Reconciliation would be lovely, but the SSPX is holding out for unconditional surrender. Frankly, that's what I would hold out for from the SSPX if I were Pope. Maybe that's just one of the countless reasons why I'm not Pope. If the Holy Father wants to be more generous than I would be, fine. But sooner or later the SSPX may have to reap permanently the fruits of schism.
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:00 PM

 
Keeping up with French slang: We watched Donnie Darko the other night (two thumbs up -- don't think I'll join the cult, but I definitely liked the movie); just now I came across the following remark by a French Donnie fan:

C le meilleur film au monde...A voir ABSOLUEMENT!!!
(meilleur en anglais; la traduction francaise souille vraiement)
WHY DO YOU WEIR THAT STUPID MEN SUIT?!?

Souiller, eh?

Je souille
Tu souilles
Il/elle souille

Nous souillons
Vous souillez (never hurts to be polite)
Ils/elles souillent

(I assume "c" is French net-speak for "c'est". And I think the e's in absolument and vraiment are just mistakes; people make typos when they write fast, right?)
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:16 PM

 
Ice on Mars an important breakthrough. Easier to mix drinks.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:06 PM

 
I was quick to sound the alarm about this; I have been lamentably slow to spread the news about the implosion of the cases against these Marines. World News Daily reports:

Haditha Marine prepares to sue Murtha over smear:
Congressman had accused soldiers of killing 'in cold blood'

With most of the eight Marines charged in the Haditha, Iraq, incident now exonerated, the highest-ranking officer among the accused is considering a lawsuit against Democratic Rep. John Murtha, who fueled the case by declaring the men cold-blooded killers.

In an interview with nationally syndicated radio talk host Michael Savage, the lead attorney for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani said he and his client will look into suing Murtha and the Time magazine reporter, Tim McGuirk, who first published the accusations by Iraqi insurgents.

But the attorney, Brian Rooney, said nothing will happen immediately because he wants Chessani, described as a devout Christian and the father of six homeschooled children, completely "out of the woods" legally before any action is taken. The government, through Lt. Col. S.M. Sullivan, today filed a notice that it would appeal the case to the next judicial level.

As WND reported, a military judge at Camp Pendleton in California yesterday dismissed charges that Chessani failed to properly investigate the Nov. 19, 2005 incident in which 24 Iraqi men, women and children were killed.

Rooney, an attorney for the Thomas More Law Center who served a tour of duty in Iraq himself, is urging citizens to tell their representatives in Congress and military officials that they want the case to come to an end.

That would be:
Thomas More Law Center
24 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive
P.O. Box 393
Ann Arbor, MI 48106

Anyone running against Murtha in his usually safe seat? Funny you should ask. Yes, that would be:
Lt.Col. William T. Russell, USAR
c/o William Russell for Congress
P.O. Box 96632
Washington DC 20090-6632

Of course what you do with any of this information is completely up to you.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:04 PM

 
Lord David Owen (Labour Foreign Secretary, 1977-79):

It is very hard for the political elite in Europe to accept that their dream of ever-greater integration does not carry conviction with their own electorates....By any conceivable test of democratic procedure, the House of Lords should vote to put Treaty ratification on ice, at least until there is an agreed EU policy as to how to handle the Irish "No" vote.

posted by Cacciaguida at 6:40 PM

 
Cardinal Castrillon in high-vis papal embassy in England: “Not many parishes – all parishes."
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:46 PM

 
Economist:

The answer's no -- Ireland rejects EU's Lisbon Treaty -- THE European Union has been plunged into chaos after the rejection of its latest treaty by Irish voters....

It's nice actually to stand athwart history shouting stop once in a while, instead of just, you know, talking about it.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:55 PM

 
Just found the following here; you may have to be a Facebook member to open it, but f. that, I'll just copy it here [I've added composers' names and full opera titles]:

IF HE'S DEAD HE CAN'T SAY NO: OPERA TAUGHT ME HOW TO DATE

"Don't date guys with baggage" (Bartok, BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE)



a realistic set for BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE


"Listen to the rumors, especially if they're laid out in a convenient aria format." (Mozart, DON GIOVANNI). Alternatively, "Spanish chicks are easy. Come on, 1003?!"



Oren Gradus sings Leporello's "Catalogue Aria" in DON GIOVANNI at Houston Grand Opera. (No clue who his Donna Elvira is. Reader challenge?)


"He'll regret rejecting you someday. Seriously." (Tchaikovsky, EUGENE ONEGIN)

"All an uptight guy needs is to get trashed" (Britten, ALBERT HERRING)

"Stay away from religious authorities." (Floyd, SUSANNAH) [to which I'd add: "Religious authorities: don't make house calls."]

"Sometimes you should just thaw out and let him kiss you before some innocent bystander gets killed." (Puccini, TURANDOT)

"Hookers, don't give discounts: you never know who's secretly Jack the Ripper." (Berg, LULU)

"Don't have sex with anyone. EVER." (Wagner, PARSIFAL)



Grail temple, from premiere production of PARSIFAL, Bayreuth, 1882. Pay to play?


"Stay innocent and out of your fiance's family's business, and everything will turn out okay." (Puccini, GIANNI SCHICCHI)

"Go for the old woman. Sometimes she's hot." (Mozart, THE MAGIC FLUTE)

"Love your woman even though she's fickle and unfaithful like all women." (Mozart, COSÍ FAN TUTTE)

"Be SURE you know his or her gender, if that sort of thing is important to you." (Beethoven, FIDELIO)

"Stay the f___ away from tenors. I mean, seriously. (Verdi, RIGOLETTO)



Anna Netrebko as Gilda, and Piotr Beczla (a known tenor!) as the Duke, in RIGOLETTO


"The hot ones are always crazy." (Donizetti, LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR; Bellini, I PURITANI; Bizet, CARMEN)

"If he's dead he can't say no." (Strauss, SALOME)



Cheryl Barker as Salome, English National Opera, 2005


"Consumption is sexy." (Verdi, LA TRAVIATA; Puccini, LA BOHEME)

"Don't piss off the dramatic soprano. You will live to regret it, though probably only briefly." (DIE WALKURE, and most of the rest of Wagner)

Strauss, DER ROSENKAVALIER: "A fifteen year age difference is really too much."



Regine Crespin as the Marschallin, Elisabeth Soderstrom as Octavian



Handel, ALCINA: "Gender is meaningless."

BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE (alternative): "Just don't ask."

Monteverdi (or Gluck), ORFEO: omg don't look behind you...!"

BOHEME: "It is possible to be extremely shallow and have lots of people still like you."

Puccini, MADAMA BUTTERFLY: "Men suck. particularly American men."

"Seriously, dude, she's your sister" -- Wagner, DIE WALKURE



Volsung twins Siegmund (l) and Sieglinde (r); in between, Hunding, not amused. Drawing by Arthur Rackham.


Verdi, DON CARLO -- "If your girlfriend marries your dad, it was never meant to be."

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:20 PM