American Innovation

Ramirez on SOTU, shamelessly pinched from The Corner.

They Really Shouldn't Talk About Rahm That Way

WSJ: Coyotes Establish Residency in Chicago.  Establish residency? What, did they get green cards?

No Good News For You!

That the Christian Children's Fund dropped the word "Christian" is last year's news --and perhaps inevitable, since upon investigation it turns out the group hasn't had any programs with Christian content since the 1970s.  The Official Cartoonist of Wheat &Weeds missed it however, and offers this guest post and reflection:

I was looking for a random charity to support. So off I went to the Mall. Not really. But I was in a mall and I was solicited by Children’s Fund International to sponsor a child. They had a kiosk set up in the middle of the floor and they employed moderately aggressive sales tactics to get donors. By moderately aggressive I mean they approach you, get your name right away, and calculatingly employ your name in every sentence tele-market style.

“Sam we help children all over the world... and for 28 dollars a month, Sam, you can provide a needy child an education. Furthermore, Sam, your contributions are 100% tax deductible."


The retail tactics of a charity are not what interest me (well, it interests me a little). But in an attempt to prove the legitimacy of Children’s Fund International, the sales representative explained they used be the Christian Children’s Fund. I found that very interesting. I asked why a Christian organization would drop the "Christian" identifier, expecting her to say the obvious,  but she didn’t say they were no longer a Christian organization. Instead what she said was, "Sam, we dropped the name because people were under the impression that we helped only Christian children.”

That answer was a little better than I was expecting. "So is there still ministry provided?" She did not say, "No, because we are no longer a Christian organization." What she said was, "we do not minister, Sam, because we do not wish to change the indigenous cultures we serve."

This answer was worse than I was expecting.

Clearly the Children’s Fund changed its name because it is no longer a Christian organization, but the sales rep would not forthrightly say that.

Jesus taught Christians to be fishers of men and that we do not live by bread alone, so what Christian with any sort of charity in his heart could think, "I could tell this child the Good News that God loves us, that Jesus died for our sins, and that through him we can have joy and eternal life... I could tell him that but I’m not gonna; all he’s getting from me is this crust of bread.

Me again: I don't know that it is always necessary to evangelize overtly. "Preach always. If necessary, use words," as St. Francis of Assisi said -- and Mother Teresa preferred to preach with her deeds. So I don't think ministry always needs to be explicit, especially when you're working in non-Christian nations. But the name "Christian" is itself a ministry -- it points silently to the One who is the inspiration for mission. As Bl. Charles de Foucauld wrote of his largely silent mission to the Muslims of Algeria:

My apostolate must be one of goodness. I must make people say this when they see me: "This man is so good that his religion must be good." If someone asks me why I am so gentle and good, I must reply, "Because I serve One who is much better than I am. If only you knew how good my Master, Jesus, is." I want to be so good that people will say, "If that is the servant, how, then, is the Master?"

A beautiful expression of the impulse behind Christian works of service!

How is it that Bl. Charles de Foucauld's Muslim neighbors, and the Missionaries of Charity's clients, and even our translators and enemy agents in Iraq can figure out that "Christian" ministries will serve and protect them too, but the clients of the Christian Children's Fund cannot? My criticism is not that they aren't Christian, it's that the Cartoonist is right, they should be sincere about it.

Say What, Mr. President?

Three posts is too many to dedicate to SOTU, but I happened to just read Conrad Black's column on the topic and wanted to point it out, especially since he highlights something I've noted before and noticed again Tuesday night but let it slide until now.

I always accuse Obama's speechwriters of thinking like sophomores. His texts are filled with glittering cliches, maudlin appeals to emotion and --always-- "examples" from history that actually cut against the point he's making, as if the authors had skimmed the wikipedia article while writing their term paper.

I'll give you the column opener for its amusement value:

From the terminal platitude that all are “part of the American family,” to the likelihood that a girl in Tucson may “have dreams like the rest of us,” which “is what sets us apart as a nation,” it was a groaning farrago of clichés and unlikely undertakings.... I do not believe that Mr. Obama thinks the United States is the only nation on earth where young people in one region of the country are likely to have similar ambitions to those in other sections of the country. 

But my point is the misuse (or is it actually ignorance?) of history:

The president fantasized that “throughout history, our government has provided cutting-edge scientists with the support that they need.” It has done nothing of the kind, apart from some World War II military activities. Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers, the only inventors the president actually named, did not receive one cent from any government, any more than NASA “created millions of new jobs.”

That's bizarre, and rather like last year's SOTU in which he talked about the country joining hands and moving forward together and used the civil war and the civil rights marches as examples (howzat? war is not hand-holding).

Which reminds me -- that failing school he highlighted for righting itself? It did so by being granted a waiver from district and union rules and firing most of its faculty. It was not an example of teachers working together to save their own schools. 

In fact, most everything the President said in favor of the country was an argument against what he wants to do to it. I don't get the vibe that this is "lying" on the part of his speechwriters; I really do think it's a sophomoric failure to think things through. It's typical of most student writing I see these days -- the supporting material doesn't logically support the topic sentence, and there's a failure to understand the distinctions between connecting words such as and, moreover, similarly versus words that draw distinctions such as but, yet, however.... I think the generation with a tenuous grasp of logic and the power of language has come into power.

Australia Day!

Best wishes, Oz!

Don't Be Fooled

Seems like all the commentators are being fooled by the President's speech last night. The main Conservative complaint seems to be that he doesn't really mean it about American exceptionalism.

But the problem with the President's take isn't hypocrisy, it's that he has no idea what American exceptionalism is.

The President is right that America's the only nation founded on an idea, but he thinks that idea is that you can be anything you want to be: the Progressive ideal of the autonomous individual, infinitely malleable, unbounded by anything at all.

That is not the American idea. The American idea is that all men are created equal and nothing should stand in the way of a person's pursuit of human flourishing according to the laws of nature and nature's God.

This was not a speech about American exceptionalism, it was the same old progressivism dressed up in flattery and condescension. Cheerleading, not vision.

Not Ignorance or Bias, Outright Fraud

In re: March for Life coverage. Curtsy: Brutally Honest

There were 350-400,000 marchers again this year. Same stories about "thousands." The video's not so much about abortion as about media corruption.

The High Speed Rail Presidency?

I live-tweeted if anyone cares for my spontaneous reactions -- which you shouldn't! Now after one whole minute's reflection, my response is:

• One whole hour and he couldn't address the one thing he needs to get in hand: entitlement spending. One tiny little sentence he gave to it was a dig at Paul Ryan and told us we can't touch poor, elderly, sick, education, or anyone receiving an entitlement. 
• Worst speech of the sort I've ever heard. It felt ad-libbed and insincere.
• Kept talking about American greatness and doing big things...then advocated completely small-ball crapola policies. Does he know what greatness means?
• Laughed out loud when he took credit for inhibiting Iran's & NorKo's nukes.
• We stand for people yearning to be free....except Iran.

Off to watch Paul Ryan implode his career by giving the response....which, as you may recall, I disapprove of on principle anyway.

Update:  Well, that was refreshing in a way...but a little dour, which Americans don't appreciate. Mr. W. calls it a double, which seems right.

Update 2: After a bit more chewing:  The "we do big things," let's get in the game theme doesn't work for him because he fundamentally misapprehends it. I HATED the whining about other countries doing well. This is just the liberal view that human flourishing is a zero sum game writ large. Here's the President of the United States publicly bemoaning other people's success. Do we not want others to rise? Are we not pleased when third world nations lift themselves out of poverty? In that sense there is no competition, there is a rising tide that lifts all boats. That was just a response to low approval ratings. People think I'm not American enough, so now I'll love on the country and detract from the "other" other guys.

The foreign policy section was risible. Our standing has increased...one more dig at Bush, how long can that possibly be milked? We're coming for you Tallyban, and we'll be relentless....for a few more months. And do we know enough about the Tunisian uprising yet for it to merit praise in SOTU? Might that be like praising the Iranian uprising of the 70s? I'm sure it was tucked in because he was raked over the coals for not standing with Iran last year, but there's no vision represented. Or if there is, it's a disturbing one.

Walk Like An Egyptian

Massive protests of the Mubarek government. Shameless pinched this pic from ninme's twitter. Hmm.

Update: So...anyone got a bead on what's going on there? Are we witnessing the glorious dawn of liberty or the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood? Who's got a good source?

President Pierce Celebrates Anniversary of Kansas-Nebraska Act

President Buchanan recommits himself to Dred Scott, celebrates anniversary of decision.

Makes as much sense as this.

Today marks the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters.  I am committed to protecting this constitutional right.  I also remain committed to policies, initiatives, and programs that help prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women and mothers, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption.  And on this anniversary, I hope that we will recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms, and the same opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.

Our Aborted Economy

In How Roe v. Wade aborted America, Robert Patterson lays today's collapsing economy at the feet not of the Congress, but of the Court, for profoundly disrupting family, which is the bedrock of the economy.

He takes the idea from an important new book from former Jack Kemp aide John Mueller, Redeeming Economics, which is a discussion of how no economic model takes love and family ties into account -- and yet people's decisions can't be understood otherwise. (Read the book and then re-read Caritas in Veritate, which you'll see in a different light.) 

Mueller likens the effects of Roe on baby boomers to the impact of World War II on their parents, only in reverse. Unlike the war, whose aftermath produced a boom in family life and child-packed neighborhoods --creating, per French writer R. L. Bruckberger, a "humane economy" that made America the envy of the West -- Roe ushered in a marriage and baby bust that has sucked the life-blood out of the economy.
Census data show that the legalization of elective abortion was followed by immediate and sharp decreases in fertility rates. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) sank to a historic low of 1.74 children per woman in 1976 and has since struggled to reach replacement levels (the 2009 TFR is 2.01).
Given that birth rates were already in decline and that the Court had recently dictated that states could no longer limit contraceptive sales to married couples, 1973 was the worst of times for the justices to license abortion-on-demand nationwide.
Mueller estimates that the new abortion regime further reduced fertility "by an average of 0.6 to 0.7 children per couple" -- and that the corresponding three-decade reduction in U.S. population is "entirely" responsible for the liabilities of the Social Security system. If the TFR returned to what to the late-1960s level of 2.7 children, these deficits "would be easily surmounted," he contends.

It's not merely low fertility that's the problem, it's that the "new freedoms" gut the number of folks who choose the one lifestyle that drives economic effort and economic growth: the two-parent family with dependent children.

Caustic-Free February

There are several writers in the commentariat who at one time or another have said things so revealing of paucity of soul or judgment that I just stopped reading them or reading anything by other people responding to them. It's not animus on my part, merely time management. As soon as I see certain names I know nothing serious, but only self-absorption, will follow, and I look for actual news or ideas.

That people I respect in public life don't do the same utterly mystifies me. Why, for example, anyone pays any attention whatever to the ramblings of the ladies on a little-watched daytime television show like The View I've no idea. I would not know who any of them were, nor have heard of the program, without people I like constantly calling them to my attention. Why their silly utterances are considered worth dignifying with responses and furthering with publicity I can't imagine. Mr. Darcy once knew better than to engage Mrs. Bennett in conversation beyond civil formalities. Today she has a tiny talk show and Mr. Darcy issues breathless point by point refutations, ever in high dudgeon over her follies.

Ordinarily Dana Milbank is one of the creatures on my "Don't Read" list, but his Palin-Free February idea is catching everyone's attention and for once I agree with his general idea --though I suggest it be employed not against Sarah Palin, but against all the habitually petty. I really, really wish my favorite columnists and bloggers would learn from Dana Milbank and quit giving importance to people who never break news or engage any important ideas, but only make catty, self-centered comments.

The tone of our public discourse wears me, but it's not anger that troubles me. Where important matters are at stake, there will be high feelings and frustrations, and sometimes the real trouble is that we are not angry enough -- our senses of justice, liberty and basic decency having been corrupted and our love of the noble seriously debased. I love an elegant polemic, provided it marshals facts into an argument. ("F--- you" does not qualify, nor does "Ha-ha, you misspoke that time.")

What I have no patience for is protracted arguments about unimportant matters, and the tone which now passes for sophistication which is actually more suited to mean teenaged girls and flamboyantly gay men. 

I guess this is actually another Die, Boomers, Die rant on my part. The last two weeks of hostile exchanges about civility have appeared to me utterly detached from reality. The folks in Tucson behaved quite wonderfully, actually --they didn't need a lecture. And civility entails a great deal more than refraining from the argument ad hitleram. It means being the sort of person who, confronted with a tragic death, is capable of an impulse other than, "The world needs me to comment," thus drawing attention away from the dead and grieving and toward the self.

The utter self-absorption and lack of impulse control of the chattering classes who tell us what to think about is what's truly uncivil. I'm distressed not only by those making shameful and preposterous accusations, but also those who could not hold their fire a few days until the bodies were cold to defend what didn't need defending, as no one was fooled or persuaded. The only right response was, "Hush, we can debate later, a moment of silence for the dead."

I begin to understand the real reason we can't have prayer at public events. We'd have to shut up for a moment.

Communism, The Board Game

Awesome.

A Polish research institute has developed a board game to teach young people about life under Communism. In the game, which is inspired by Monopoly, players must wait in endless lines at stores for scarce goods. For added realism, they have to put up with people cutting in line and products running out -- unless they have a "colleague in the government" card. 

Curtsy: No Left Turns

Is This What We Mean By Choice?

Today's NARAL's blog for choice day. Seems like a good day to note this gruesome story out of Philadelphia:

A doctor accused of running a filthy "abortion mill" for decades in an impoverished Philadelphia neighborhood delivered babies alive, killed them with scissors and allowed a woman who had survived 20 years in a refugee camp to be overmedicated and die at his clinic, prosecutors said.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, was charged Wednesday with eight counts of murder for the deaths of seven babies and one patient. Nine employees also were charged, including four with murder.
Prosecutors described the clinic as a "house of horrors" where Gosnell kept baby body parts on the shelves, allowed a 15-year-old high school student to perform intravenous anesthesia on patients and had his licensed cosmetologist wife do late-term abortions. A family practice physician, Gosnell has no certification in gynecology or obstetrics.

Everyone's horrified, but by what? He's not licensed and his aborttoir wasn't inspected? So what: abortion clinics aren't regulated (the only thing that isn't under the Progressive creed). He killed babies by stabbing them in the head? That's what partial-birth abortion is -- and abortion groups claim Dr. Carhart, who champions that particular deed, is a hero for it. He was cavalier with a woman's life? Happens all the time (see clinics, unregulated). The story suggests there's something unsavory about this clinic being a "mill." So the frequency of procedures there is objectionable? Why, precisely?

Who the hell cares? It's only women.

The End Of Empire Balls

Gee, when he puts it that way it doesn't sound so good. Mark Steyn with another B-12 shot for the morale.

In 2009, the United States spent about $665 billion on its military, the Chinese about $99 billion. If Beijing continues to buy American debt at the rate it has in recent years, then within a half-decade or so U.S. interest payments on that debt will be covering the entire cost of the Chinese military. This year, the Pentagon issued an alarming report to Congress on Beijing’s massive military build-up, including new missiles, upgraded bombers, and an aircraft-carrier R&D program intended to challenge American dominance in the Pacific. What the report didn’t mention is who’s paying for it. Answer: Mr. and Mrs. America. Within the next five years, the People’s Liberation Army, which is the largest employer on the planet, bigger even than the U.S. Department of Community-Organizer Grant Applications, will be entirely funded by U.S. taxpayers. When they take Taiwan, suburban families in Connecticut and small businesses in Idaho will have paid for it.

 And this is just the cheerful opener of the piece. He refers to an episode at Cambridge, in which the organizers of an "Empire Ball," with a Victorian theme, had to be renamed because "anti-fascists" denounced the word empire as redolent of slavery. So they dropped the word empire. Says Steyn:

it would make more sense to remove the word “balls.”

A wee bit more:

It’s interesting to learn that “anti-fascism” now means attacking the British Empire, which stood alone against fascism in that critical year between the fall of France and Germany’s invasion of Russia. And it’s even sadder to have to point out the most obvious fatuity in those “anti-fascist groups” litany of evil—“the British Empire’s association with slavery.” The British Empire’s principal association with slavery is that it abolished it. Before William Wilberforce, the British Parliament, and the brave men of the Royal Navy took up the issue, slavery was an institution regarded by all cultures around the planet as as permanent a feature of life as the earth and sky. Britain expunged it from most of the globe.

It is pathetic but unsurprising how ignorant all these brave “anti-fascists” are. But there is a lesson here not just for Britain but for the rest of us, too: When a society loses its memory, it descends inevitably into dementia.

...and into the total loss of personal liberty.

This is why The King's Speech is an important cultural achievement by the way. (How's that for an abrupt segue?) No doubt what interests the story-teller is the relationship between the king & the commoner. But simply by telling that story, there is so much savor of honor, courage, self-sacrifice, patriotism...and the self-indulgent "heart wants what it wants" ethic of the age as embodied by King Edward VIII looks so small (I would say niggardly, but would run the risk of being misunderstood) by comparison. Wonderful story, wonderful performances....but what I most felt was two hours of relief from the crappy culture.

St. Escriva With The Jewish Girl

How neat that we have video of our most recent saints. Here's St. Josemaría Escrivá taking questions in Chile. I can't say why, but this made me tear up. I like his smile, and he comes off much warmer here than I'd have guessed from his writing. Love those sibilant Spanish "s"es!

Music Versus Al-Qaida

Here's a story that reminds me of the Hungarians preserving their national songs to keep their identity against the crush of the Soviet leviathan, or Karol Wojtyla and the Polish underground theater. Director Karim Wasfi reports on the trials and tribulations of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra. Things are looking up. Director Karim Wasfi reports that three years ago:
he had itemized a menu of adversities: out of 70 orchestra members, only 50 remained in Baghdad and even fewer made it to rehearsals. Underfunded and under siege from violent incidents, electricity cuts, cracking instruments, pitiful wages, stolen sheet music, and decaying buildings and sound systems, the orchestra had kept going with no stable venue in which to rehearse or perform. Mr. Wasfi had run the show since 2004 and survived several random attacks. Then, as now, he was conscious that, for Iraqis, the symphony symbolized an elevated alternative to the "barbarism everywhere."
Now he can worry about artistic quality and gets packed houses for concerts.

This is partly because I still insist on free admissions for now, but also because so many Baghdadis want this for their city. We get funded primarily by the Ministry of Culture, but other ministries like to help in various ways too. Everybody understands that we illustrate a kind of collective achievement for the country."

Not that there aren't still problems.

I had to move my wife and two little girls abroad because our apartment complex was partly demolished when the nearby Foreign Ministry got bombed last winter. I thought, why should they be facing shrapnel to support my convictions?

And the security effort to make a concert happen is astonishing. But...

"We have every sect in the orchestra, Christians, Shiites, Sunnis, women, Kurds. I've also launched a youth orchestra and an after-school youth academy where we teach music, civics, manners and the like to almost 300 kids. We pay poor kids to attend. Some even come all the way across town from Sadr City. Yes, I'm sure there are fanatics who disapprove of the symphony, but we've generated such goodwill that they're afraid to oppose us publicly. The Institute of Fine Arts lay disused for two years until we made it our home. We brought new life to the area so the entire neighborhood helps keep us safe."

Gosh This Is Refreshing

The redoubtable Melanie Philips on Israel's failure to engage the battleground of the mind. The astonishment of the Israeli interviewer is humorous. It's not the side she's taking that's so refreshing; it's just hearing someone say what she thinks forcefully, forthrightly, courageously and with civility. I love her indignation at interest in the facts being dubbed "right-wing." 
Curtsy: Powerline

Heh.

Fewtril #275

It has been said that disgust arises in man from the consciousness of those things which remind him of his beasthood. That must explain my visceral reaction to libertarians.

Nicely Done

I wasn't able to watch the President's speech tonight, but it reads very well.

Genius Of The British Press

Opinionated Catholic, in a series of tweets, points out a Pope story the Mirror has embarrassingly wrong. Pope Benedict XVI calls on parents to use proper Christian names says the headline...as if His Holiness were calling out the Paltrows and Zappas of this world.

Christian names are an “indelible sign from the Holy Spirit” that help protect family life, the Pope said.

That is, um, not quite what he said. Or actually, not even close.

It is not by chance, in fact, that every baptized person acquires the character of son from the name Christian, indisputable sign that the Holy Spirit brings man to be born “again” from the womb of the Church.

And if you followed him at all you'd know it rings totally false. This pope is not a schoolmarm, sniffing at people for every little thing.

I'm thinkin' if you have this beat, you should maybe learn Italian? Or wait for the translation? Or just quit makin' stuff up?

Update: Noooo. Don't trust the British press.

Update 2: A whole 'nother pope story completely made up.

Prayers For Oz

Jeepers.

The landmark floods, which have affected at least 200,000 people and spanned an area approximately the size of France and Germany, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, are the result of extremely heavy rains which occurred at the end of 2010.

And also Cyclone Tasha.

I Burn My Books One Word At A Time

Shamelessly pinched from here.

'Nuff said on the bowdlerization of Huck Finn, I suppose. But we must have our "for the record" mockery. As the cartoonist notes, we all know racists always look to Huck Finn as their inspiration.

McCain For All of Us

From John McCain's posted statement on the senseless shooting of Rep. Giffords, Judge John Roll et. al by some nut:

I pray for Gabby and the other victims, and for the repose of the souls of the dead and comfort for their families. I beg our loving Creator to spare the lives of those who are still alive, heal them in body and spirit, and return them to their loved ones. Whoever did this; whatever their reason, they are a disgrace to Arizona, this country and the human race, and they deserve and will receive the contempt of all decent people and the strongest punishment of the law.

On The Other Hand...

Egptian Muslims to act as human shields for Coptic Christmas.

Fatima Mostafa, a 40 year old house wife, will join Copts tomorrow to show that Muslims feel their sorrow. “I want to show the world that Islam is a religion of peace and that such attacks are nothing more than a result of poverty, ignorance and oppression.”

While the reasons they cite for doing so may vary, many Egyptian Muslims are rallying around the idea of acting to protect their fellow citizens.

“I know it might not be safe, yet it’s either we live together, or we die together, we are all Egyptians,” Cherine Mohamed, a 50 year old house wife said.

For Youssef, Egyptians should attend regardless of their faith as “we all have Christians as part of our family. I am a Muslim but I’m sure my great grandfather was a Christian.”

An engineer who wanted to remain anonymous stated that he was looking forward to tomorrow: “I was a Christian and I’m a Muslim now, I want my kids to go to church to realize that both religions are similar; we have one God, and both holy books stress peace and the welfare of the society at large.”

The goodwill has been well received by the Coptic Church, and Coptic priests have been expressing their pleasure  that Muslims intend to join them at tomorrow’s mass. Some churches have already put up banners welcoming Muslims to their celebration of the birth of Jesus.

Cue The Christine O'Donnell Jokes

Angry witches cast spells to protest taxes. In Romania, which is quite the weird country apparently. Yikes! That is one scary picture, but this has to be the funniest story I've ever read. Souls given to witchcraft isn't funny --but the other details! Hoo!

A dozen witches will head to the Danube to put a hex on the government and hurl mandrake into the river "so evil will befall them," said a witch named Alisia. She identified herself with one name, as is customary among witches.
"This law is foolish. What is there to tax, when we hardly earn anything?" she said by telephone on Wednesday. "The lawmakers don't look at themselves, at how much they make, their tricks; they steal and they come to us asking us to put spells on their enemies."
The tax on witches went into effect Saturday as part of the government's drive to crack down on tax evasion in a country that is in recession. Like any self-employed person, they will pay 16 percent income tax and make contributions to health and pension programs.
And it's not only witches: Astrologers, embalmers, valets and driving instructors are now considered by law to be working real jobs, making it harder for them to avoid income tax. Some argue the law will be hard to enforce, as the payments are made in cash and relatively small at 20 to 30 lei ($7-$10) per consultation.

I'll Have The Stuffed Cabbage

Is that all?

No beef, fish, dairy, fruit or canned veggies, according to 7 Foods You Should Never Eat.

I can only think of Mel Brooks, reprising his role as the 2000-year-old man, in a sequel called the 2013-year-old man. Asked about the diet that contributed to his incredible longevity, Brooks rules out everything bit by bit -- it'll all kill you.
"But then, how do you survive?"

"Cool, fresh, mountain water....And a stuffed cabbage."
When Carl Reiner as interviewer protests that stuffed cabbage has all the ingredients he'd just rejected, Brooks says, "Who the hell cares, I love it!"

Too Good To Be True?

Here's a story batting around the Catholic blogs from a lawyer in LA who says half the  abuse claims against Catholic priests are false. I had it in my google reader last week, awaiting time to look at it further because it somehow rang false to me, especially because it comes out of Los Angeles, an Archdiocese widely thought by "conservatives" in the Church to be an unholy mess in this regard. I didn't see any of the bloggers embracing the story apologizing to Cardinal Mahoney for misjudging him.

It's open season on priests, and I have no doubt that some accusations are false -- and falsified just as this guy says. But, as Mark Shea's commenters point out here, caveat lector.  I hope he turns out right, but wouldn't put my eggs in that basket.

Adam's Dominion Continues

First there was Egypt saying a slew of recent shark attacks may have been caused by Mossad. Which prompted some photoshop fun on the blogs:

And now a vulture has been arrested in Saudi Arabia as a Jewish spy.

Vile

Mistakes and overeagerness I understand. But in a case like this...fraud? How could you live with yourself?

A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.

What would be the personal gain from a fraud like that?

Update: lest the thought cross anyone's mind that Andrew Wakefield's being persecuted by The Man, read the details of the findings against him. In order to show a link between autism and vaccines, the twelve kids he studied would have had to be "regressive autism" cases --meaning kids who were normal until after they received MMR vaccine. At best only one of the children in his study fits that standard. And in a grant he applied for, he'd already described the syndrome supposedly "discovered" by independent research.
More details, too, on how much Wakefield earned from the legal firm that hired him to fish for victims.

Claiming an undisclosed £150 (€180, $230) an hour through a Norfolk solicitor named Richard Barr, he had been confidentially put on the payroll two years before the paper was published, eventually grossing him £435 643, plus expenses.

The Welfare Quip Is Bonus

It amuses me when inclusive language is not only tedious and unnecessary, but actually absurd. As in this splendid example. The political point at the end is lagniappe.

U.S. President Barack Obama is reported to be attending church again, and shows a "fresh start," by persistently misquoting from the Book of Genesis, chapter four. "I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper," he suggests it says. Check out the original. It is a scene in which no sisters appear, and the brothers in question are Cain and Abel. In particular, the intellectual leap from "you must not murder your brother," to "you must create and sustain a vast and ponderous welfare system, that is funded by taxing him and borrowing the rest from China," is not Biblical.

"Am I my brother's keeper?" may or may not have some relevance to the welfare state not considered heretofore, but add in a girl and you're inventing a second murder. Curtsy: American Digest

Tearing Up

Mr. W. just asked me an interesting question in an email exchange about John Boehner crying as he took the Speaker's gavel. The two Presidents Bush were known for being easy weepers, and Reagan, too, was known to tear up in private meetings.

Can you name a Democrat who cries? Not "foul" or "racist" --just one who tears up? Off the top of my head I can't.

Not saying it means anything, just askin'.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Shamelessly pinched from iOwntheWorld

On the twelfth day of Christmas....

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

 

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, The Family of John the Baptist Visiting Christ 

“She wrapped him in swaddling clothes” allows us to glimpse something of the holy joy and the silent zeal of that preparation. The swaddling clothes were ready, so that the child could be given a fitting welcome. Yet there is no room at the inn. In some way, mankind is awaiting God, waiting for him to draw near. But when the moment comes, there is no room for him. Man is so preoccupied with himself, he has such urgent need of all the space and all the time for his own things, that nothing remains for others – for his neighbour, for the poor, for God. And the richer men become, the more they fill up all the space by themselves. And the less room there is for others....

Thank God, this negative detail is not the only one, nor the last one that we find in the Gospel. Just as in Luke we encounter the maternal love of Mary and the fidelity of Saint Joseph, the vigilance of the shepherds and their great joy, just as in Matthew we encounter the visit of the wise men, come from afar, so too John says to us: “To all who received him, he gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12). 

There are those who receive him, and thus, beginning with the stable, with the outside, there grows silently the new house, the new city, the new world. The message of Christmas makes us recognize the darkness of a closed world, and thereby no doubt illustrates a reality that we see daily. Yet it also tells us that God does not allow himself to be shut out. He finds a space, even if it means entering through the stable; there are people who see his light and pass it on. Through the word of the Gospel, the angel also speaks to us, and in the sacred liturgy the light of the Redeemer enters our lives. Whether we are shepherds or “wise men” – the light and its message call us to set out, to leave the narrow circle of our desires and interests, to go out to meet the Lord and worship him. We worship him by opening the world to truth, to good, to Christ, to the service of those who are marginalized and in whom he awaits us. 

--Benedict XVI, Midnight Mass 2007

Ominous Yet Beautiful

Hani Shukrallah, editorializing in an Egyptian new service on the attacks on Coptic Christians this Christmas.

We are to join in a chorus of condemnation. Jointly, Muslims and Christians, government and opposition, Church and Mosque, clerics and laypeople – all of us are going to stand up and with a single voice declare unequivocal denunciation of al-Qaeda, Islamist militants, and Muslim fanatics of every shade, hue and color; some of us will even go the extra mile to denounce salafi Islam, Islamic fundamentalism as a whole, and the Wahabi Islam which, presumably, is a Saudi import wholly alien to our Egyptian national culture.
And once again we’re going to declare the eternal unity of “the twin elements of the nation”, and hearken back the Revolution of 1919, with its hoisted banner showing the crescent embracing the cross, and giving symbolic expression to that unbreakable bond.

But...

All of it will be to no avail. We’ve been here before; we’ve done exactly that, yet the massacres continue, each more horrible than the one before it, and the bigotry and intolerance spread deeper and wider into every nook and cranny of our society. It is not easy to empty Egypt of its Christians; they’ve been here for as long as there has been Christianity in the world. Close to a millennium and half of Muslim rule did not eradicate the nation’s Christian community, rather it maintained it sufficiently strong and sufficiently vigorous so as to play a crucial role in shaping the national, political and cultural identity of modern Egypt.
Yet now, two centuries after the birth of the modern Egyptian nation state, and as we embark on the second decade of the 21^stcentury, the previously unheard of seems no longer beyond imagining: a Christian-free Egypt, one where the cross will have slipped out of the crescent’s embrace, and off the flag symbolizing our modern national identity. I hope that if and when that day comes I will have been long dead, but dead or alive, this will be an Egypt which I do not recognize and to which I have no desire to belong.

And the blame is not solely al-Qaeda's:

I accuse a government that seems to think that by outbidding the Islamists it will also outflank them.
I accuse the host of MPs and government officials who cannot help but take their own personal bigotries along to the parliament, or to the multitude of government bodies, national and local, from which they exercise unchecked, brutal yet at the same time hopelessly inept authority.
I accuse those state bodies who believe that by bolstering the Salafi trend they are undermining the Muslim Brotherhood, and who like to occasionally play to bigoted anti-Coptic sentiments, presumably as an excellent distraction from other more serious issues of government.
But most of all, I accuse the millions of supposedly moderate Muslims among us; those who’ve been growing more and more prejudiced, inclusive and narrow minded with every passing year.

A distressing message, but the fact that such an editorial is written and printed is heartening, no?

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

 Angels and Holy Child, Marianne Stokes

In Psalm 95, Israel, and the Church, praises God’s grandeur manifested in creation. All creatures are called to join in this song of praise, and so the Psalm also contains the invitation: "Let all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes."  The Church reads this Psalm as a prophecy and also as a task. The coming of God to Bethlehem took place in silence. Only the shepherds keeping watch were, for a moment, surrounded by the light-filled radiance of his presence and could listen to something of that new song, born of the wonder and joy of the angels at God’s coming. 

This silent coming of God’s glory continues throughout the centuries. Wherever there is faith, wherever his word is proclaimed and heard, there God gathers people together and gives himself to them in his Body; he makes them his Body. God "comes". And in this way our hearts are awakened. The new song of the angels becomes the song of all those who, throughout the centuries, sing ever anew of God’s coming as a child – and rejoice deep in their hearts. And the trees of the wood go out to him and exult. 

The tree in Saint Peter’s Square speaks of him, it wants to reflect his splendour and to say: Yes, he has come, and the trees of the wood acclaim him. The trees in the cities and in our homes should be something more than a festive custom: they point to the One who is the reason for our joy – the God who comes, the God who for our sake became a child. In the end, this song of praise, at the deepest level, speaks of him who is the very tree of new-found life. Through faith in him we receive life. In the Sacrament of the Eucharist he gives himself to us – he gives us a life that reaches into eternity. At this hour we join in creation’s song of praise, and our praise is at the same time a prayer: Yes, Lord, help us to see something of the splendour of your glory. 

--Benedict XVI, Midnight Mass 2008

Tenth Day of Christmas

 

Nativity, Carl Philip Bloch 

The first thing we are told about the shepherds is that they were on the watch – they could hear the message precisely because they were awake. We must be awake, so that we can hear the message. We must become truly vigilant people. What does this mean? The principal difference between someone dreaming and someone awake is that the dreamer is in a world of his own. His “self” is locked into this dreamworld that is his alone and does not connect him with others. To wake up means to leave that private world of one’s own and to enter the common reality, the truth that alone can unite all people. 

Conflict and lack of reconciliation in the world stem from the fact that we are locked into our own interests and opinions, into our own little private world. Selfishness, both individual and collective, makes us prisoners of our interests and our desires that stand against the truth and separate us from one another. Awake, the Gospel tells us. Step outside, so as to enter the great communal truth, the communion of the one God. To awake, then, means to develop a receptivity for God: for the silent promptings with which he chooses to guide us; for the many indications of his presence. 

There are people who describe themselves as “religiously tone deaf”. The gift of a capacity to perceive God seems as if it is withheld from some. And indeed – our way of thinking and acting, the mentality of today’s world, the whole range of our experience is inclined to deaden our receptivity for God, to make us “tone deaf” towards him. And yet in every soul, the desire for God, the capacity to encounter him, is present, whether in a hidden way or overtly. In order to arrive at this vigilance, this awakening to what is essential, we should pray for ourselves and for others, for those who appear “tone deaf” and yet in whom there is a keen desire for God to manifest himself.

--Benedict XVI, Midnight Mass 2009

The Ninth Day of Christmas

The Magi, Tissot

Those figures who came from the East were not the last but the first of a great procession of those who, throughout the epochs of history, are able to recognize the message of the Star, who know how to walk on the paths indicated by Sacred Scripture. Thus they also know how to find the One who seems weak and fragile but instead has the power to grant the greatest and most profound joy to the heart of man. In him, indeed, is made manifest the stupendous reality that God knows us and is close to us, that his greatness and power are not expressed according to the world's logic, but to the logic of a helpless baby whose strength is only that of the love which he entrusts to us. In the journey of history, there are always people who are enlightened by the light of the Star, who find the way and reach him. They all live, each in his or her own way, the experience of the Magi. 

Benedict XVI, Solemnity of Epiphany, 2010

Morales vs. Morale

In Bolivia, protesters against conditions created by the Morales government torched a statue of Che Guevara and a Venezuelan flag.

Hmm. They lashed out at the right things, but the protest is a demand for continued gasoline subsidy, not a cry for freedom.

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Benedict Blog's gone and broken down the Pope's Christmas address to the Roman Curia (the important one I couldn't get into because I was covered in flour and sugar at the time) into bite-size nuggets for us.

Plus, an end-of-year Benedict round-up!

Resolve Weakening Already

And B16 is my tempter. Excerpt from Light of the World:

Q. Do you actually use the exercise bicycle that your former physician Dr. Buzzonetti set up for you?
A. No, I don't get to it at all --and don't need it at the moment, thank God.
Q. So the Pope thinks like Churchill: "No sports!"
A. Yes!

The Eighth Day of Christmas

Madonna, Marianne Stokes

One may interpret the whole biblical narrative as the gradual revelation of the Face of God, until it reaches his full manifestation in Jesus Christ. "When the time had fully come", the Apostle Paul has reminded us today too, "God sent forth his Son," immediately adding, "born of woman, born under the law."

God's Face took on a human face, letting itself be seen and recognized in the Son of the Virgin Mary, who for this reason we venerate with the loftiest title of "Mother of God." She, who had preserved in her heart the secret of the divine motherhood, was the first to see the face of God made man in the small fruit of her womb. The Mother had a very special, unique and, in a certain way, exclusive relationship with the newborn Son.

The first face a child sees is that of his mother and this gaze is crucial for his relationship with life, with himself, with others and with God; it is also crucial if he is to become a "son of peace" (Lk 10: 6). Among the many typologies of icons of the Virgin Mary in the Byzantine tradition is the one called "of tenderness" that portrays the Child Jesus with his face resting, cheek to cheek, against his Mother's. The Child gazes at the Mother and she is looking at us, almost as if to mirror for those who are observing and praying the tenderness of God who came down to her from Heaven and was incarnate in the Son of man, whom she holds in her arms. We can contemplate in this Marian image something of God himself: a sign of the ineffable love that impelled him "to give his Only Son". But that same icon also shows us, in Mary, the face of the Church which reflects Christ's light upon us and upon the whole world, the Church through which the Good News reaches every person: "You are no longer a slave but a son."

--Benedict XVI, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God 2009

Look! Look Over There!

Move it along, this is my annual for the external hard drive only post. Back-dated and buried because I'm ashamed to post anything this self-indulgent...and that goes double for a shamefully poor reading year.

Books Read, 2010

Scripture
The Gospels
Acts
Job
Minor prophets
1 & 2 Thessalonians

Ratzingers
Caritas in Veritate
Verbum Domini

Devotional & Professional
Charles de Foucauld: Writings
Discernment of Spirits
Examen Prayer
Experiencing God
Gift of Faith

Interior Freedom
The Lord
The Loser Letters
The Speed of Trust
Spiritual Consolation

Book Club
Anecdotes of Destiny
Free Range Kids

Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
That Hideous Strength
The Three Musketeers

Just Felt Like It
Dimiter

Driving Straight On Crooked Lines
Don Quixote
Emma
The Last Crusader
Lights Out: Islam, Free Speech & The Twilight of the West
North & South
Theophilus
Wives & Daughters


With The Kids
Akimbo and the Crocodile Man
Macbeth
Much Ado About Nothing
The Lightning Thief
Princess & The Curdie
Where the Red Fern Grows