Cacciaguida

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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Sunday, March 30, 2008
 

"Finally, let us in turn express our own displeasure at what Professor Nayed says concerning education in Christian schools in Muslim-majority countries, where he objects to the risk of proselytism," the priest said. "We feel that the Catholic Church's great educational efforts, also in countries with a non-Christian majority [i.e. India, no less than Muslim countries] where for a very long time the majority of students in Catholic schools and universities are non-Christian and have happily remained so -- while showing great appreciation for the education they have received -- deserves a quite different evaluation.

"We do not think the Church today merits the accusation of lack of respect for the dignity and freedom of the human person; these suffer entirely different violations to which priority attention must be given. Perhaps the Pope accepted the risk of this baptism also for this reason: to affirm the freedom of religious choice which derives from the dignity of the human person."

-- Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi SJ (emphasis added)




 
Stop Loss: Yet another anti-Iraq-war film tanks. Experts stumped.




Friday, March 28, 2008
 
Paul Scofield, 1922-2008




Saturday, March 22, 2008
 
Pope Baptizes Prominent Italian Muslim at Easter Vigil. The convert, Magdi Allam, is already under death sentence for supporting Israel and opposing suicide bombing, so what's one death sentence more or less? As for the Holy Father -- what's confirmation accept a bar mitzvah for martyrdom? (Hence the slap that used to be part of the rite.)




Friday, March 21, 2008
 
Today is Good Friday.

It's also a rather important birthday for me. Yes, today I turn 900! Or: "I know, you're twenty," as KEM smartly put it when she rang me up from London. (One rings up from London, you know.)




Thursday, March 20, 2008



Tuesday, March 18, 2008
 
At www.chiesa, a three-fer: well-regarded Church journalist Sandro Magister explains Pope Benedict's thinking on the revision of the Tridentine Good Friday prayer for the Jews; Bishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, defends the prayers; and so too does orthodox Talmudic scholar Rabbi Jacob Neusner.




 
SSPX's Bishop Richard Williamson says Protocols of Elders of Zion authentic. You make me dizzy Miss Skizzy.

(Related: Good to see the Fringewatch blog back in action.)




Monday, March 17, 2008
 
Fiftieth anniversary of the last presentation of debutantes at the Palace. Was this ritual a victim of the fall of empire? Or was Princess Margaret's diagnosis (included in the linked story) correct? And if so, was the latter linked to the former?




Saturday, March 15, 2008



Friday, March 14, 2008
 
Kidnapped Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Dead in Iraq. Kidnappers say Archbishop Paolos Faraj Rahho was ill and the death was "natural." However, "Pope Benedict XVI immediately condemned the killing of Mgr Rahho." [Emphasis added]




Thursday, March 13, 2008
 
The Spitzer jokes have in general not been very good, to my surprise. Letterman's Top Ten Eliot Spitzer Excuses and Top Ten Messages on Eliot Spitzer's Answering Machine showed the effects of having only four hours to write jokes (in the first case; 28 hours in the second case, so less of an excuse).

The Top Ten Surprises During Eliot Spitzer's Resignation were much better. For discretion, I'll merely link to them. Letterman also sez: "Did you know Spitzer was a Hillary Clinton superdelegate? Boy, can she pick 'em or what?"

Leno sez:
Did you see the resignation speech? Only spoke for two minutes and 40 seconds -- but he still had to pay for the entire hour.

More details coming out about the incident. It seems the governor was caught on a federal wiretap making arrangements to meet with this prostitute. See, that’s why the Democrats are so against President Bush’s eavesdropping policy.

Besides these, we have the following list of hypothetical headlines:


WASHINGTON POST: "DC Madam" Protests Outsourcing

NATIONAL JOURNAL: NY Legislators Reject Governor's Stimulus Package

Historian Michael Beschloss, historian: "Speaking as an historian, I'd say she definitely came across in the Mayflower. Historianly speaking."

THE NATION: Her Governor's in Trouble, But Hillary's Not Talking. (Actually I didn't make that one up.)

DAILY VARIETY: Spitz Hitz Ditz, Quitz

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Citz Hitz Spitz Bitz

NY POST: No-Luv Shuv for No-Gluv Guv

NY DAILY NEWS: EmperorVIP to clients: Crop Head!

NATIONAL REVIEW: Rockefeller establishment. Tcheh.

LE MONDE: Sarko to Spitz: Eet eez to laugh!




Sunday, March 09, 2008
 
Haven't I always said New York City tap-water is the best? Ask anyone who knows me: I've always said New York City tap-water is the best. Philadelphia tap-water? Eck. London tap-water? Phooey. New York City tap-water? Always loved it; everyone loves it.




Wednesday, March 05, 2008
 
Religious freedom types: stand up for Malaysia's Teapot Sect! Seriously -- it's just a harmless little cult that's under Islamic persecution. The tea angle gives them a little extra charm from my point of view.




Tuesday, March 04, 2008
 
Ralph Peters on Russia:
Russian citizens are content to be led like sheep. As long as there's a bit more fodder in the trough than there was yesterday, Russians won't protest against being herded around: Their primary characteristic over the centuries has been the determination to avoid responsibility.

It's incomprehensible to us, but most Russians want a good-but-strong czar to make their choices for them. (Oh, and they'd rather not work too hard, thanks.)

Peters may be hopelessly out of the running for Slavophile of the Year, but many non-Russian experts on Russian history would agree with him, e.g. Richard Pipes. Sorry, Feodor D., and it's not that I don't love you.

After alluding to "all my decades of studying Russia and countless visits to that authority-addicted land," Peters passes the mike to the even-better-qualified Vaclav Havel, "the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic - is a very old 71, a frail survivor of cancer and years in Communist cells." Said Havel, at a meeting of civilian and military NATO leaders last week (all this is in Peters's column):

"A dictatorship of a fairly new type is coming into existence to the east of the area under NATO protection. All basic human and civic freedoms are gradually and quietly being suppressed under the banner of the aggrieved ideology that everybody is doing Russia wrong or that they are all covert enemies.

...Havel summed up: "I believe none of us has the right to remain silent and pretend . . . that we can't see these things. Politeness and falsehoods have never yet preserved the peace."




 
Is this a sign the MSM may be discovering the possibility of asking Obama hard questions, and that he can't take it?