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

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


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

"Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood

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

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

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

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

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


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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