"Fitnah" Foul

An Arab Jesuit fills us in on what he reads in the comment boxes of al-Arabiya. Specifically on the Abdul Rahman case.

Countdown To BLTs

Tomatoes officially planted. Besides the usuals (Early Girl, Better Boy), the Franciscans had some heirloom toms for sale too: with cool names like Boxcar Willie & Mortgage Killer (what on earth?). And a grape tomato variety for the little guys: Sweet Olive.

Each year there is a new creepy-crawly experience when I dig my beds. Two years ago it was cicada grubs eyeing me with their big red orbs. Last year it was baby snakes. This year it was big furry underground black spiders and their egg sacks. Tonight I'll probably have a cumulative attack of the heebie-jeebies. I did it for the gazpacho.

My daughter has a little garden patch, too. Strawberries and flowering herbs of various kinds. She is very mad at me for deciding to plant the pennyroyal in front of the house instead of giving it to her (theoretically it repels bugs, and she doesn't like those spiders, either).

Oz Vies For My Affections

I consider the Declaration of Independence, taken together with the U.S. Constitution, to be the pinnacle of human political achievement. There are things I love and admire about other nations, I understand the debt we owe to our European forebears & I don't harbor the illusion the US always lives up to its own ideals. But in principle I love America best. However, it cannot be denied that Australia rocks:

Animal activists bit off more than they could chew this morning when they chained themselves to the killing area of an abattoir at Ipswich in south-east Queensland. The 12 protesters got a fright when meatworkers took matters into their own hands and used angle grinders to cut the chains off the activists so they could get back to work.

Love it. And is it even imaginable anywhere else? Tim Blair (to whom curties) comments:

They called police to protect them from people who were determined to get to work. This might be the happiest news story of the year—made even more so by the fact the protesters were attempting to disrupt something called the World Meat Congress.

If silliness and bureaucracy are being defied rather than kow-towed to, it's usually an Australian story. It's become the last bastion of manhood (outside the military).

Compare And Contrast

The original report from Guernica after its destruction. And any report from any attack on a town or our forces in the past 25 years. Style, thoroughness, authors' assumptions about his audience. Discuss. Curtsy: ninme.

Is There A Republican In The House? Or Senate?

"False Statement" From The Ryskind Sketchbook

Pardon The Mouth Foam

The confusion of the possessive "its" (no apostrophe) with the contractive "it's" (with apostrophe) is an unequivocal signal of illiteracy and sets off a simple Pavlovian "kill" response in the average stickler. The rule is: the word "it's" (with apostrophe) stands for "it is" or "it has." If the word does not stand for "it is" or "it has" then what you require is "its." This is extremely easy to grasp. Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, "Good food at it's best," you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.

There. I feel better. Came across this mistake in print more than five times this morning. I can forgive a lot, but not that. Citation from Lynne Truss, Eats Shoots & Leaves.

Petering Out

The New Yorker, of all things, has a very interesting piece about Anglicanism and its current struggles. Including these amazing comments from the primate of the West Indies and a prominent professor.

“The problem is that in Anglicanism, as presently constituted, we have no means of officially disciplining people,” says Archbishop Drexel Gomez, the Primate of the West Indies. Some, such as Paul Zahl, Dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, began to despair that Anglicanism’s very DNA bore the seeds of its undoing. “This whole crisis has revealed a very serious deficiency in the character of Anglicanism,” Zahl told me. “It’s a severe deficiency in Anglicanism because there isn’t really a church teaching in the same way that there is in the Church of Rome. . . . I would say there is a constitutional weakness, which this crisis has revealed, which may in fact prove to be the death of the Anglican project—the death, at least in formal terms, of Anglican Christianity. We’ve always said that we’ve had this great insight, and I used to think that we did. But I’m not quite sure whether we’re not on very sandy ground. . . . It’s at the edge of the abyss. It’s about to be extinguished, and that’s not histrionic.”

Oh, c'mon. Everyone has a pope --a definitive arbiter of the content of Christianity when disputes arise about what the Master meant.The only question is: are you going to be your own personal pontiff, or are you going to listen to the guy Christ chose? Cross the Tiber, for Pete's sake!

Too Good To Be True

Did I actually hear a bi-partisan Senate panel recommend the dissolution of an agency of government bureaucracy? Well, not exactly. They want to end FEMA but replace it with another government agency. Ninme knows just how it'll go:

They’re going to hire a bunch of bureaucrats to function as a transitioning task force, and each one of them will have their own staff of bureaucrats. And each of those staffs will be assigned to a different section of FEMA. And each of those assigments will need additional staff of bureaucrats to operate as communication and streamline liaisons. Then they’re going to take the whole operation, give it a new name, and fire the copy girl whose term at school starts in a week anyway.

Please. They're called Multiple Document Distribution Assistants now, and they're part of the Office Communication Workers of America.

Hey, MSM: Uganda Do Something About This?

Congressman Chris Smith is holding hearings about goings-on in Uganda. Trying to shine the light of publicity on a real civil war that no one seems to care about.

Saving Christendom With Every Bite (First Tomato Post of the Season)

I'll have you know that I have delayed getting my tomato plants in the ground by an entire week so as to take advantage of the garden sale at the Franciscan Monastery downtown tomorrow --profits to benefit the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. (How's that for thoughtful consumption, you Crunchy Cons? I think you people who go organic without additionally supporting Christians in the Holy Land are ruining the Republican Party with your self-absorption and thoughtlessness.)

Rhymes With Orange cartoonist Hilary Price totally gets it.

Three Generations of Eugenicists Are Enough

WaPo has an interesting review of Better for All the World, a new history of the eugenics movement in the U.S. Hubby has long thought that the story of Carrie Buck, the supposedly impaired woman (it seems in retrospect that wasn't so) whose case put the SCOTUS stamp of approval on forced sterilization, would make a great movie. I learned from the review that one was done in 1994.

Actually, we've had more than three generations of eugenicists here. Ever since Darwin popularized the idea of evolution, there's been no shortage of people eager to speed up nature's slow progress toward perfection by preventing those of whom they disapprove from reproducing. In his infamous "cornerstone" speech, the vice-president of the Confederacy invoked the new science of evolution as proof that the Founders' idea of the equality of all peoples was flat wrong.

They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew." Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science.

and further on

the truth of this principle may be slow in development, as all truths are and ever have been, in the various branches of science. It was so with the principles announced by Galileo—it was so with Adam Smith and his principles of political economy. It was so with Harvey, and his theory of the circulation of the blood. It is stated that not a single one of the medical profession, living at the time of the announcement of the truths made by him, admitted them. Now, they are universally acknowledged. May we not, therefore, look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system rests? It is the first government ever instituted upon the principles in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society.

Incidentally, looking for those quotations, I happened to read the opening of Stephens' speech:

When perfect quiet is restored, I shall proceed. I cannot speak so long as there is any noise or confusion. I shall take my time—I feel quite prepared to spend the night with you if necessary. I very much regret that everyone who desires cannot hear what I have to say.

What a stuffy old fusspot! Which reminds me that we watched the original Cheaper By The Dozen over the weekend. By far the funniest moment is when a mischievous neighbor sends a Planned Parenthood officer to see if Mrs. Gilbreth would like to start a local chapter. The pinched, unpleasant woman is received graciously in the parlor, and then the parents enjoy watching the woman's horrified face as they whistle for their numerous children. She exits in a dither as if she'd encountered an infestation of rats or snakes. A friend old enough to know recalls that not so long ago that was the stereotype for all birth control types: schoolmarmy, prudish folks who seemed to have distaste not only for children, but for the act that engenders them. I guess the relation between radical feminism and priggishness goes back further than I'd dreamed.

WaPo's reviewer likes the book, but isn't quite convinced that eugenics is a bad thing. (Notice how smoking always gets into this discussion somehow? Proving the eugenics-prig connection?):

After all, Hitler was strongly against smoking; the simple fact that he was for or against something is not the ultimate moral determinant. Consider a case that Bruinius mentions, that of a woman with an IQ of 71 -- just about the level that even today's Supreme Court thinks makes a person incompetent -- who had eight children out of wedlock. Is it absolutely wrong if the state says, "Get sterilized or we will keep you out of society until you are past reproductive age"? I keep thinking of all of those kids. Even if they are not genetically inferior, I doubt very much that they are going to have the warm, nurturing upbringing I have tried to give my children.
Judge me a moral monster if you will.

I don't think it's monstrous to worry about that woman and her kids, but it's monstrous to set yourself up as the person who decides who gets to reproduce. Who's qualified to make such a decision? Anyone who thinks he's worthy of the job is automatically disqualified. Lincoln put the principle of equality best:

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.

There isn't any principle you can put forth that allows you to make such judgments for others that can't ultimately be used against you by someone else (if 71 is the cutoff reproductive IQ, why wouldn't 72 be better? Or 93? Or 120? What's your IQ?). If we're to remain free, there can be no exceptions. (The beauty part is, the eugenecists generally don't reproduce themselves.)

The Perfect Loophole

Ninme provides her own funniest item of the day.

Wednesday Ratzinblogging

Last week's audience on his anniversary --very sweet. And this week's audience on "Tradition" is great. Official summary here, but I'm going to try to find you a full translation. Ah. Find it at Zenit.

This permanent actualization of the active presence of the Lord Jesus in his people, realized by the Holy Spirit and expressed in the Church through the apostolic ministry and fraternal communion, is what is understood by the term Tradition in the theological sense: It is not the mere material transmission of what was given at the beginning to the apostles, but the efficacious presence of the Lord Jesus, crucified and risen, which accompanies and guides in the Spirit the community gathered by him.

Enough!

Anyone objectively found guilty of sexual abuse should be punished to the full extent of the law. Let's stipulate that before we move on, ok? No one's out to defend creeps --or the creeps who defend them. But just so we're clear, a few facts are in order (the following from the 2/26/06 issue of Our Sunday Visitor):

In 1998 the U.S. Dept. of Justice listed 103,600 reported cases of sexual abuse in public schools, while in the 53 years from 1950-2003 there were 10,667 reported cases of clergy sexual abuse nationwide. That's ten times as many in a single year as instances of clerical abuse in more than half a century.

Why, then, all across the country, is the Church being singled out for what amount to ex post facto laws eliminating statutes of limitations for child abuse allegations against clergy --only? Not school teachers. Not anyone else. The fearless Chaput the Great is taking on this difficult but important topic --and God bless him, because his enemies are trying to smear him as a coddler of dirty old men. Here's how it works, according to the good bishop:

Once the public is suitably sensitized by news media in a target area, pressure on lawmakers grows to provide “justice” for those victims whose claims have expired due to statutes of limitations. Some victims may say they were too frightened to come forward until now. Others may say they were so traumatized that they couldn’t remember their abuse until recently. Typically, attorneys will then argue that the only way their clients will get closure and peace is by litigating their expired cases. It’s an effective, appealing argument, and no one can dispute the real suffering that goes with the experience of abuse.

But:

Any revision to civil statutes of limitations must be comprehensive, fair, and equally applied. This almost never happens. The data clearly show that the sexual abuse of minors is not a disproportionately Catholic problem. In fact, some of the worst adult sexual misconduct with minors occurs in public institutions, particularly public schools. But in most states, those schools enjoy some form of governmental immunity. In other words, it’s far easier to sue a private institution, such as a Catholic diocese, than it is to sue a public-school district. It’s also a lot more lucrative since, even if governmental immunity were waived, public schools and institutions usually enjoy the added protection of low caps on damages (in Colorado, $150,000). For exactly the same sexual abuse in a public school and a Catholic parish, the difference in financial exposure is millions of dollars.

In other words, your parish and your Catholic school can be looted by trial lawyers for an allegation made against a priest who went to glory 50 years ago. But good luck trying to get the pedophile in your local public school even fired. RTWT in First Things for a thorough laying out of the injustices involved here. Once again, "the children" we use to justify everything turn out not to have much to do with it.

Rummy Podcasts!

And lots o' news you won't hear about from the Many Screeching Monkeys. At The Pentagon Channel.

"Suspicious Minds"

From The Ryskind Sketchbook

Who's In Charge Here?

Osama: Quick, Jihadists, go defend Sudan! (Why is more not made of his attention to Sudan? I read the transcript as an admission that his cause is all but lost in Iraq & an effort to save some stronghold somewhere. Whom do we still have a fair chance of defeating? Where's the UN going to be?)
Zarqawi: No, stay here and fight. I'm not irrelevant! (Anyone notice that Rumsfeld's still here but Osama's DefSec really has been demoted?)
Tim Blair has more.

Update: Someone else reads things as I do. From Tigerhawk (curtsy: ninme):

Less than 2 1/2 years ago, al Qaeda broke the news to the Taliban that it was diverting resources to Iraq so as to humiliate the American “Crusaders.”…Al Qaeda drew a line in the sands of the Sunni Triangle, and the United States Army and Marines walked right across it. First, al Qaeda tried to kill Americans, per bin Laden’s orders. It largely failed. Then al Qaeda went after America’s allies, and succeeded only in turning public opinion against itself in every Muslim country it attacked. After thirty months of battlefield defeats and political embarrassments, bin Laden won’t even mention Iraq in one of his rare public utterances, and he rallies his troops to fight a war where American soldiers aren’t. How humiliating. How delightful.
Al Qaeda has lost in Iraq, and bin Laden is desperate to change the subject.

Lace A-ffair

I've been meaning to draw your attention to a terrific series of ads the Acton Institute's been running to promote better thinking about how to help the poor (e.g., they don't want your worn-out hand-me-downs, but access to our markets). See three of them here (click to enlarge --they're worth it). Then ninme found this wonderful story about a fashion designer who's found a way to help Sri Lankan tsunami victims (great pix there, too) that illustrates the point. Touring the devastated areas to make a documentary, the designer found the situation dire:

"As far as we could see, absolutely none of the relief money had got through to them," says James. "That said, there was still this enormous sense of pride and self-reliance; they were insistent that they weren't looking for continual hand-outs; the men just wanted boats, so that they could go out fishing again, and the women only wanted help finding new markets for their work."

So she and some others are using the lace in their costume designs --and teaching the women what appeals to tourists:

"For years, these women have been making the same sort of old-fashioned lace doilies and tablecloths that Western tourists no longer want," says Galer. "Instead, we've been encouraging them to start making things for which there is a real demand, like lace belts and these wristbands.
"The aim is to generate income that will enable them not just to survive but to put a little back into the business as well, enough to buy themselves stools to sit on, electric lights to work under, or glasses to help them with close-up work.

This reminded me --by contrast-- with a story in the business pages of WaPo (which I never, never read but picked up for some reason) about how charities are funding drug research for unglamorous tropical diseases that disproportionately affect poor people. . . .as if that were a bad thing. The logic I gather being it's more moral for "rich governments" to do it. This even though the story admits the biggest problem the poor in underdeveloped nations face is inadequate access to medicines and other care. Now I ask you, who is more likely to find an efficient way to get the medicines to the poor: Bill Gates or "rich governments" (keep in mind all the billions of tsunami aid that the fashion folks didn't find in Sria Lanka --and this is not the time for Windows jokes)? Now think-tank people want to take something that is working very well and add a UN or other international agency bureaucracy to it.

The Evidence Mounts

I just love taking pokes at the received wisdom that B16 is markedly different from JPtheG, as if the two hadn't been in close collaboration with one another --and disciples of the same Christ-- for the past 25 years. Here, more evidence that B16 wishes to put the kibosh on all that tacky Marian devotion JPG stirred up.

Invite Hu Back

Whenever Chinese muckety-mucks visit here, they smooth their diplomatic path by silently releasing people they never ought to have arrested in the first place. I say we sub-let the Lincoln bedroom to President Hu and give this poor man a break.

Things Are Often What They Seem

Remember in 2004 when a flight attendant wrote on womenswallstreet.com about the strange behavior of some swarthy-looking men on her Detroit-LA flight? The blogosphere lit up about it for awhile, and then we were all assured that they were just part of a Syrian band heading West for a gig? And the moral was, "let's not jump to conclusions, people"? Look again --the "investigation" was never as thorough as reported, and the TSA thinks it was indeed a practice run for something nefarious.

Catholic In His Appeal

Was too busy last week to post much, so I missed talking about Mercy Sunday, which happened to fall on Shakespeare's birthday, which would have been worth discussing too. Ninme found this nice little piece in the Telegraph documenting that pretty much all clichés in English (that don't come from Scripture) come from Shakespeare. The author writes:

No writer is so catholic in his appeal.

Possibly because he was himself Catholic? The thesis asserts itself from time to time, and while I admit I'd love it to be true, I've never found the evidence very persuasive. But there's an article available here (Fall/Winter 2005 issue), which argues that Merchant of Venice is a reference to the underground Jesuits' habit of referring to each other in letters as "merchants" and that the "pound of flesh" is token of the Eucharist.

Living The Dream

I harbor a low-brow fantasy of running a diner (really it's the even lower-brow fantasy of getting to be a little gruff all the time and call everyone "Hon.") But almost as good is knowing the owner of a pub, so with delight I read this in my inbox:

The Grand Opening of McMahon's Irish Pub & Restaurant will occur on Sunday, May 14th, 2006 at 5 pm. The Pub is located at 380 Broadview Ave, Warrenton VA 20186. Michael, Emmet, Noel and I hope you will be able to attend--and if not that evening, we hope you will be able to stop by at some future date. All the best, [Good Friend]

M,E & N being of Dubliner, Four Provinces and Molly Malone fame, respectively (GF to date is known mostly for his lovely wife, adorable kids & conspicuous consumption at the Four Ps). Well, Local Readers, let's trek way the heck out there and demand free ale for friendship's sake, sinking the place into ruin on its first night, shall we? Wear a neck-tie so I'll know you.

"Essence of Al"

From The Ryskind Sketchbook

Slow News Day

Front cover of WaPo this morning:

• Dominant story is huge photo of kids at an un-school, with accompanying text.
• Obligatory bin Laden tape piece. I actually laughed aloud when I turned to the flip page and saw they actually ran a chart dating and summarizing all of b-L's taped messages since 2001, with a little graphic indicating whether released as audio or video. Can you say "filler"? (And can we please stop running the "undated" photo of him from ten years ago every time he speaks? It gives the impression that he's remaining young and vital while Bush & Blair get greyer and greyer.)
• Allegations that Iraqi jailors have been torturing inmates.
• Funeral homes learning immigrant customs.
• A local murder.
• New Orleans mayor's race.

What, the front page writers are on vacation?

Prophecy

Archbishop Lajolo recently gave an interview to an important Indonesian paper about the proper relationship of Church & State.

Religion, the Italian archbishop explained, concerns "the spiritual good of persons, and their relations with God and with others, in the light of faith." Politics, on the other hand, refers to questions of public affairs. Howevever, Archbishop Lajolo cautioned, faith cannot be reduced to a purely personal, private matter. Moreover, he continued, if religious faith is expressed under compulsion, "it cannot be authentic nor worthy of God or of man."

It's the last line that strikes me as the most effective persuasion we might make to open-minded Muslims. This story also got me thinking about the prophetic nature of the Declaration on Religious Freedom. Probably the most controversial of the Vatican II documents, it turns out to have been necessary not only for engaging the Soviets and the secular West, but perhaps especially Islam. And who in 1965 was thinking about engaging Islam? The Holy Spirit, apparently.

This One's A Huut

"Trading Partners" from The Ryskind Sketchbook

Easter Potpourri (of Popery)

I've been catching up on Papal doings for the Triduum and Easter. Here are the links.

• Palm Sunday homily. Speaking to young people, Benedict explains all the Old Testament prophesies that Christ fulfills. He also tells them that Jesus' "triumphal" entry into Jerusalem shows he is King of the poor --he rides a borrowed colt, not a royal carriage:

A person can be materially poor yet his heart can be full of greed for wealth and for the power that derives from it. The very fact that he lives with envy and covetousness shows that, in his heart, he is one of the rich. He wants to reverse the division of goods so that he himself can take over the situation that was previously theirs.
The poverty that Jesus means - that the prophets mean - presupposes above all inner freedom from the greed for possession and the mania for power. This is a greater reality than merely a different distribution of possessions, which would still be in the material domain and thereby make hearts even harder. It is first and foremost a matter of purification of heart, through which one recognizes possession as responsibility, as a duty towards others, placing oneself under God's gaze and letting oneself be guided by Christ, who from being rich became poor for our sake(cf. II Cor 8: 9).
Inner freedom is the prerequisite for overcoming the corruption and greed that devastate the world today. This freedom can only be found if God becomes our richness; it can only be found in the patience of daily sacrifices, in which, as it were, true freedom develops.

• Homily for the Chrism mass. Those mourning the discontinuation of the Holy Thursday letter to priests JPII used to write should read this reflection the hands of the priest.
• In his homily for the Mass of the Lord's Supper, he focuses on the mystery of God's love for us and the mystery of man's freedom:
  

"You are clean, but not all of you", the Lord says (Jn 13: 10). This sentence reveals the great gift of purification that he offers to us, because he wants to be at table together with us, to become our food. "But not all of you" - the obscure mystery of rejection exists, which becomes apparent with Judas' act, and precisely on Holy Thursday, the day on which Jesus made the gift of himself, it should give us food for thought. The Lord's love knows no bounds, but man can put a limit on it.

• Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum (written by Archbishop Comastri & led by the pope, causing much journalistic hyperventilation).
• The Easter Vigil homily illustrates what I love about Benedict. The consummate teacher, he is always ready to get to the heart of the matter. Where some teachers will express their ideas and kind of hope no one asks a tough question, Benedict often starts a homily with the toughest possible objection, to wit, with respect to the Resurrection:

A German theologian once said ironically that the miracle of a corpse returning to life - if it really happened, which he did not actually believe - would be ultimately irrelevant precisely because it would not concern us. In fact, if it were simply that somebody was once brought back to life, and no more than that, in what way should this concern us?

And then, ah! his answer. My favorite? The chrism mass, although the Vigil is powerful. Here are some side dishes to go with all this red meat, too:

• Comments on the anniversary of JP the Great's death.
• Urbi et orbi message (2x a year I regret not having cable --when the Pope gives this special blessing, which can be received through the wires). Go here and you can see the Pope's Easter card (in which it is revealed that the Pope may be a Ph.D, but he writes like and MD), and find the U et O message in any language.
• Regina Coeli Easter Monday.
• Summary of his audience on his first anniversary.

Relatively True

At long last (what, they have lives or something?), the folks at National Catholic Prayer Breakfast have posted Bishop Morlino's speech, "The Dictatorship of Relativism," in which he makes three main points. You owe it to yourselves to read the whole thing: rarely will you find the topic covered both succinctly and wittily. But here are some favorite moments. The link is to the text as prepared; in delivery he skipped the opening 'grafs, considering them adequately covered by Bill Saunders' introduction of him.

In answer to the question

Who are the members of the junta who govern this dictatorship?

He says it wouldn't be prudent for a cleric to name names, but he's willing to point a finger at the media, who are rarely neutral, and those who live their lives by polls.

We might also ask “What are the principal enforcement mechanisms of the Dictatorship of Relativism, what weapons are contained in the arsenal of these dictators?” The first is inconsistency in civil law and practice, inconsistency being just another instance of relativism. This inconsistency is especially neuralgic because the civil law is our teacher. We have the very same individuals protesting against warrantless surveillance of possible terrorists’ activities, and then in the northwest, affirming warrantless surveillance of people’s garbage containers to ensure that no recyclables are to be found. On the one hand warrantless surveillance with regard to possible terrorism is politically incorrect while warrantless surveillance of personal garbage is politically correct. The polls determine what is politically correct and thus the same people find themselves caught in a clear inconsistency in the context of a culture which never even thinks to question it. Polls rarely divulge information which reaches beyond the trivial and transitory but truth is neither trivial nor transitory. Those who claim otherwise promote the Dictatorship of Relativism.

I'm skipping even more trenchant examples to cut to his discussion of the manipulation of language. Lots of substantive stuff, but I'll cut to the sound-bite:

Supreme Court justices we’re told, should be uniters not dividers, when it comes to Roe v. Wade. How ironic, since Roe v. Wade has become our great source of division. Now to be a uniter means to uphold that which divided us in the first place.

He goes on:

The word “transparency” it seems to me, is being used so that we no longer even hear the word“truth” in our public dialogue and conversation. We already have a very good word for transparency: truth and truthfulness. Why is it the agenda of some to rid our language of the usage of the word, truth?

Best example (with a funny line at the end):

We are at the point where, because of in-vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood and what flows from that, we are no longer sure what the words “father” and “mother” mean. In some cases, there is the genetic mother, the gestational mother, and the mother who actually raises the child to adulthood. There are at least three mothers. When we move to the redefinition of marriage, as including other options than “one husband – one wife –one lifetime – with openness to children,” we find ourselves in very troubling waters indeed. The Dictatorship of Relativism gains strength from the outrageous manipulation of language, and if we are to overcome this dictatorship with true democracy, we’re going to have to regain control of the use of language so as to point to the objective truth. Certain Catholic legislators recently received a correction from our Bishops’ Conference when they attempted to promote a redefinition of primacy of conscience as a line item veto with regard to elements of the Ten Commandments and the teachings of the Church, another example of surrender to the Dictatorship of Relativism.

Second point: the dictatorship of relativism leads to state-imposed secularism, which undermines democracy (dictatorship being the enemy of democracy by definition):

The relationship between church and state involves three simple rules. First, the state is never to force anyone to practice a particular religion. Secondly, the state is never to prevent anyone from practicing a particular religion. And third, generally the state should favor the practice of religion, because religious experience includes a moral code according to which people restrain themselves so that restraint by the state becomes less necessary. Thus if the state wishes to encourage democracy and needs less to intervene in the lives of individuals, one key to this strengthening of the sphere of freedom, this strengthening of democracy, is the favoring of religion by the state. Secularism founded upon relativism and deconstructionalism, should never be imposed as a state religion.

What to do?

Our response is not to seek the embodiment of distinctive Catholic convictions in civil law. We should not be seeking to pass civil laws requiring belief in the Trinity or attendance at Sunday Mass or fasting from meat during the Fridays of Lent. Our response should be to seek the embodiment of natural law in the civil law. Natural law is that law written on the human heart which can be known by every human being through reason alone.

He then offers the world's shortest explanation of natural law, which I'd love to quote, but a girl's gotta stop someplace. I should mention that he was interrupted frequently with loud applause, which always seemed to take him by surprise. Not that he didn't seem completely composed and professional in his delivery, but he had a bemused smile on his face throughout --as if he couldn't believe a philosophy professor was getting applause during a lecture.

Playing Catch-Up

"Easy Audience" from The Ryskind Sketchbook

Now that I know I can post these again, I have a back-log to show you. My immigration question of the day is: isn't "undocumented workers" a highly offensive term? Why is it better than "Wops," which I believe evolved from "without papers"?

An Act of Faith

"Profiles in Courage" from The Ryskind Sketchbook

I hear from at least two people that you can indeed see these cartoons, even though I no longer can. I hope these people are not simply making sport of me. Click Ryskind's site to see a slightly different version of this one (I get the prototypes).

Whiff Of Rat

I have a soft spot for soldiers (you may have noticed), in addition to profound respect for our military, but that doesn't blind me to some of the Army's less attractive qualities, which are common to all bureaucracies: a powerful CYA culture and extreme resistance to change. Therefore, last week when the story first broke that 5 generals were dissing Rummy, I heaved a sigh of relief (I'd been prepared to be persuaded) that they didn't have anything more substantive to say than that he's gruff and has different ideas then their own.That's news? We've all seen his press conferences, at which, as my cousin says, he is "gorgeously withering" to the insolent and the ignorant. But these are fighting men --and they're saying they can't stand up to a 70 + year old man? Spare me.

My little bro, whom you may recall was "the line in the sand" formed by the 82nd Airborne in the first Gulf War, laughed when he read that complaint, because said he, "We all know how open Generals are to feedback and complaints." [Not very, in case you miss his sarcasm.] A big part of Bush's platform for the 2000 campaign was the reshaping of the military from the Cold War paradigm --it was one of the items that convinced me W was more serious than his caricature and that he was going to be more than another "noblesse oblige" Waspish Republican. And a certain contingent in the Pentagon has never liked it --even prior to 9/11 and the War on Terror. Here's Rummy defending himself --which of course he would, but he confirms what the story already smelled like to me.

Speaking of getting a whiff of something, Tony Blankely's been catching the scent of rodent:

This may sound far fetched, but in The Washington Post on Sunday the very smart, very well connected former Clinton Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke published an article titled "Behind the Military Revolt." In this article, he predicts that there will be increasing numbers of retired generals speaking out against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Then, shockingly, he writes the following words: "If more angry generals emerge -- and they will -- if some of them are on active duty, as seems probable ... then this storm will continue until finally it consumes not only Donald Rumsfeld." Mr. Holbrooke is at the least very well informed if he is not himself part of this military cabal intended to "consume ... Donald Rumsfeld.

To put the matter more clearly:

A "revolt" of several American generals against the secretary of defense (and by implication against the president)? Admittedly, if each general first retires and then speaks out, there would appear to be no violation of law. But if active generals in a theater of war are planning such a series of events, they may be illegally conspiring together to do that which would be legal if done without agreement. And Mr. Holbrooke's article is-- if it is not a fiction (which I doubt it is) -- strong evidence of such an agreement.

He goes on to cite the relevant statute on sedition in the Uniform Code and wonders about what precedent such a revolt might set and what implications it would have for civilian rule of the military. Me, I'm not as confident as Blankley that Holbrooke might not simply be, to sanitize what a friend told me, speaking out of an unusual part of his anatomy. But it's worth keeping an eye on. Blankley followed up the next day, noting that even that morning's WaPo editorial seemed to pick up on that aspect of the story.

Testing

"Spring Fashions" From The Ryskind Sketchbook

Maybe. Experiencing technical difficulties. The html code says it's there, but I can't see it. Can you?

Bring Back The Melting Pot

Just thought I'd point out that in the article about Islam I linked to in the previous post, there's an interesting passage about the tendency of governments to look the other way when Muslim immigrants import their more distasteful practices. The authors cite the case of a Tunisian immigrant community in Sicily which practices infibulation & polygamy without prosecution. The conclusion is worth thinking about, even where Islam isn't at issue:

One the whole, this creates an asymmetry among citizens before the law, by virtue of which some minorities are first protected, but then become privileged. And this proves the incompatibility of radical multiculturalism and the rule of law.

Bingo!

Christos Anesti

Happy Easter, everyone. Blogging will be erratic as I cope with the chocolate-induced bi-polar disorder reignant in our home this week. Plus, I'm having server problems. If you can face a dense read in your sugar coma, however, here's something both fascinating and important. Studium, an important Catholic journal, has just published a 30-page analysis of "The Islamic Question." Sandro Magister excerpts it broadly here. He notes that the lead author writes too for La Civiltá Cattolica, which is Vatican-approved. Magister wants to say that the article therefore represents the Vatican's current thinking on the topic, but was too explosive to be presented as such. Maybe. I don't think Cardinal Ratzinger would have suggested that all the articles he wrote in his own name in various journals represented the Church's view necessarily, even if he was prefect of the CDF. I think it wise to be wary of such leaps. Nonetheless, knowing the authors' pedigree lets us know that we're reading the ideas of serious scholars who are within the mainstream of the Church. Here's their introduction:

At the end of the 1980’s, there was a pitched battle within the Islamist camp between the positions of Abdullah Azzam and the more extremist positions of Ayman Al-Zawahiri, a true ideologue of jihad in the form it has taken today, which includes in the category of enemy the “Herodians,” or those who collaborate with the West. On November 24, 1989, Azzam was assassinated in Peshawar, and Al-Zawahiri had an open field. For the zealots, everything that comes from the outside is like poison to their traditional ways of life, so they hold that there is only one way to avert cultural catastrophe: expel the invader and hermetically seal off the borders, so nothing can pollute or corrupt their miniature world.

But of course "the West" is not limited to a territory.

The pervasiveness of the global village is such that there is only one way to escape its grasp: destroy it. And this is Al-Zawahiri’s ideological program, which he pursues with a complex strategy. For the formula of “modernizing Islam,” he substitutes another: “Islamizing modernity,” and therefore the West.

How is that to be accomplished?

Within the Muslim world, Islamization means de-Westernizing everything: from political and cultural institutions to economic ones, even to the point of rethinking banking operations. On the outside, it means spreading Islam through vigorous missionary activity, in both Europe and the United States: this activity is supported above all by Saudia Arabia. But according to the most radical interpretations, Islamizing the West means violently attacking its political and economic power, without sparing the civilian population.

This pan-Islamist program might make some smirk, just as many smirked at Hitler
before his political ascent. But this is a real program, which is being carried out according to a clear plan, and although it is working slowly, it is producing results.

That this is a real program can be seen in many ways.

The rest of the article is a detailed elaboration of that thesis. This is a much more in-depth treatment of the theme Mark Steyn took up with respect to the Iranians a week or so ago: that while we were treating Islamism as an aberration, they've been doggedly pursuing a strategy since 1979. When Jesuits and hawkish columnists agree, I pay attention.

Spy Wednesday

Since tonight's the night Judas was not out writing his gospel, but negotiating his treachery, it's traditionally called "Spy Wednesday." A few links before radio silence for the Triduum begins:

Go see "Easy Audience" at The Ryskind Sketchbook. I've temporarily lost the ability to publish pix, or I'd show it myself.

Go to Zenit for a preview of Friday's Stations, plus many other good things for the Triduum. Or even better, directly to the Vatican's Holy Week page. Here's the English summary of the papal audience today.

Don't forget to pray for the Holy Land and its peoples on Good Friday (and remember them in the collection that day, Americans).

I'm sure ninme & Tim Blair will keep you posted on news if you can't resist. Turning. Computer. Off. Now.

The Mahmoud To Celebrate

Did you see the photo of the interpretive dance the Iranian government put on to celebrate the country's going nuclear?

Read Mark Steyn on Iran, if only to see how he works in,

How do you solve a problem? Like, Sharia.

Then:

Nukes don’t nuke nations. Nations nuke nations. When the Argentine junta seized British sovereign territory in the Falklands, the generals knew that the United Kingdom was a nuclear power, but they also knew that under no conceivable scenario would Her Majesty’s Government drop the big one on Buenos Aires. The Argie generals were able to assume decency on the part of the enemy, which is a useful thing to be able to do. But in any contretemps with Iran the other party would be foolish to make a similar assumption. That will mean the contretemps will generally be resolved in Iran’s favor.

Then he explains how we've come to this pass by trying to fit Iran into an East-West Cold War paradigm. Read it. There's too much to excerpt. And then come back and read about a British MP complains that in the face of this, all his country can think to do is worry how we'll react.

What’s wrong with us in a nutshell. A series to be continued. Item one. Iran sponsors terrorism, and its leadership is pledged to the elimination of another nation. It’s trying to acquire a nuclear weapon. Its leaders explain that the Holocaust never happened. But, never mind, they’re going to make good where the Nazis left off by obliterating the Jewish people. Meanwhile, the American President asks his top team what can be done to stop this. And then the entire media-political consensus allocates their time not to analysing Iran but to worrying about what America might do. Moral? The key to being respected in British life, when faced with any tough question, is always blame George Bush.

Curtsy to ninme, who entitled her post on this latter topic, "Can't see the forest for the Bushes."

The Taliban Does It For The Children

The Taliban remnant is busy blowing up schools all over Afghanistan, but that isn't stopping most kids from going to school. Look at this BBC slide-show and read the accompanying texts where the kids describe their hopes for the future. (First: Are these the most beautiful faces you've ever seen?) Look at what ambitions they have --and how noble they are-- at such young ages, and sometimes in opposition to their parents' desires. And half the West doesn't think these people can be free! American kids this age should be so fit for freedom.

Curtsy: Ninme

You Know What Happens When You Assume

With each passing day it becomes more clear that none of the loud voices we're hearing on the topic of immigration know enough to offer any real solutions.

• Exhibit A: All the marchers Monday who carried "Bush Step Down" signs, or other anti-Bush propaganda. Either they don't know Bush is the one who proposed the Guest Worker program they support in the first place, or they have a different agenda entirely, and the press doesn't know.

• Exhibit B: Laura Ingraham & all our local A.M. talkers here are up in arms about the Hastert/Frist "cave-in", by which being in the U.S. illegally will be considered a misdemeanor, rather than a felony as first proposed. However, as someone in Frist's office called in to our local guy to explain (after he'd dedicated his entire show to ranting about this as far as I can tell), that's to utterly misunderstand the situation. First, it has always been a misdemeanor to come here illegally, and that aspect of the law has never been in question. At issue is what to do with people who arrive legally but then become illegal by overstaying their visas. The original provision proposed making that a felony, but this was a mistake because a person charged with a felony is entitled to a jury trial and a court-appointed lawyer. All you Conservatives complaining about resource drain might just want to think about the effect trying so many people by jury might have on our Court system.

• Exhibit C: What is with the argument that "we can't possibly deport 12 million people?" Duh, but you don't have to. You only have to have a few very public prosecutions of employers who hire illegal immigrants and a few very public deportations. Enough to make people realize the law once again has teeth.

• Exhibit D:Where is the evidence that the preponderance of immigrants --legal or illegal-- is low-skilled? Or that they remain low-skilled once they come here? Undoubtedly many are. But the actual illegal immigrants I have known in my life were all highly educated, cultured people in their countries of origin, to wit: a physicist, two doctors, and a businessman. They were working as a maintenance man, waiters and a bus-boy respectively because they didn't yet speak English. In my single days, my friends and I used to frequent a Mexican restaurant/bar on Capitol Hill where it drove me crazy to see how all the super-important "in-the-know" Hill staffers treated the waiters on the assumption that anyone in a humble job must be a lesser person. Little did they know in many cases the restaurant staff was better educated than most of the customers. Everyone seems to make the assumption that numerous immigrants will be a drain on our system because they'll come here and camp out at the lower end of the economic spectrum, bringing their parasite families with them. I think there's every reason to think instead that people who are restless, courageous and entrepreneurial enough to leave everything for a shot at a better life can become great contributors to our country. Even if they arrive here ignorant and unskilled, a person with that much determination isn't likely to remain that way. In the four cases I'm aware of, all four are now here legally, fluent in English, and working as a Physics teacher, a restaurant manager, a doctor and a businessman, respectively. As Bush said at the Catholic Prayer Breakfast the other day (and it's a much better argument than the implication that his opponents are racists), our country has frequently been invigorated and renewed by immigrants.

The problem is: the welfare state is as corrupting of this new blood as it is of all the rest of us. Here's a great post about that: Who Shall Be An American Citizen? And continuing my "assimilation" mantra, here's an excellent Remedy post that doesn't yet offer a solution, but at least is beginning to ask the right questions (it also makes the important point that when you fail to enforce your own laws for decades at a time, it's a little rich to start being offended that other people follow your cue). I'm not sure what the answer is, but I know what I want, and I suspect I'm not alone. It ought to be possible to secure our border from terrorists, gang members and criminals and have a very generous, simple legal immigration process that puts people on the path to being Americans rather than hyphenated-Americans. In the meanwhile, I'd settle for some honest reporting on the matter so we could all think the question through.

Finally, a border-crossing story. My alma mater, the University of Dallas (founded by Cistercian immigrants escaping from Hungary), has a campus in Rome. A legendary tale from the mid- 80s, I think, involved a few students who climbed the Vatican Wall (The Vatican city-state's border is protected by a wall!). They were arrested and charged with the felony crime of "invading a foreign country." The charges were later dropped. There's a UD grad mildly limping around Washington from the sorry job the Italians did setting the broken leg he incurred during this misadventure. This was a grand story when I first heard it told, but the details have faded from memory.

In The Future I May Be Banned, Or: Behold The Power of The Cigarette

Someone just sent me this link (don't know how long it'll last) to a conversation between Rush Limbaugh and one Linda from New York about the Canadian survey suggesting the ugly be banned; it follows as night follows day from the logic of banning smoking. Enjoy in any case, but the added bonus is that some of you --you know who you are-- know who she is. She's an inveterate smoker who's been transformed into a Conservative because of increasingly ridiculous anti-smoking laws. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Mmmm.Yellowcake. An Update.

Hitch's latest is must-read: Wowie Zahawie. Subtitled "Sorry, everyone, but Iraq did go uranium-shopping in Niger," it is further evidence in his continuing position that the Bush Admin basically got things right, but has been fatally sabotaged by inter-agency feuding. I am persuaded by everything he says here, except on glaring factual error. Reporting on Iraq's top nuclear negotiator visiting in 1981, Hitch refers to Niger as

a country known for absolutely nothing except its vast deposits of uranium ore.

Well. Maybe now that we all pompously call it "Knee-jaire." But in the old days when we proudly Anglicized all pronunciation, Niger was best known to millions of school-kids from the classic limerick:

There once was a lady of Niger
Who smiled as she road on her tiger.
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside
And a smile on the face of the tiger.

Don't complain to me about the last line not rhyming properly; I didn't write the thing.

Make The Law Possible To Follow

Hernando de Soto wrote a book about trying to start a business in Peru legally some years ago. He gave himself the project of following the letter of the law and never paying a bribe unless every other avenue of success was closed to him. I can't recall the precise details, but I think it took him 18 months to a year to finally clear all the hurdles for an imaginary business. One of his conclusions was that you could not stop black market businesses with that level of bureaucracy --no one has two years to wait to work and feed his family.

That is the big point that I don't hear any Conservatives making in the midst of all the shouting about "law-breaking" and "illegals." Yes, for security reasons we need to be able to control our border. Yes, people must be assimilated. But an important path to assimilation is being on the path to legal citizenship --keeping them out of the "shadows" as is said-- and when it takes some seven or eight years to bring a family here legally, the disincentives are too high. Take a look at this discussion over at ninme's place and what Aussies and Brits have to go through just to visit here on business.

It's all Bureaucracy's fault. Bad laws and too many laws breed contempt for Law. Do you follow the preposterous speed limits on your local streets?

Maundy Monday

A friend sends me daily reflections from one Fr. Victor Brown, about whom I know nothing --maybe he's her parish priest? I think she told me once, but I've forgotten. At any rate, I liked his reflection on the woman who poured expensive perfume on Christ's feet, causing Judas to protest that the perfume cost 300 days' wages --roughly a year's income-- and the money would better have been spent on the poor.

Was Judas exaggerating wildly, or was the perfume that St. Mary used really that costly? Stop and think for a moment of your yearly income. How much Chanel No. 5 would that buy, or some other expensive scent from Paris? Certainly more than you would use on any one occasion. But then, Jesus had just raised her brother Lazarus from the tomb, so St. Mary's gratitude knew no bounds, and she wanted to show it by the lavishness of her gesture toward Jesus.

So, Father asks, how do we show wild gratitude? We who have more reason to be grateful to Christ than Mary of Bethany did?

• Every time we see a crucifix, we should remind ourselves: He did that for ME and for MY salvation as much as for anyone else's. Every time we make the sign of the cross, and draw with our hand the instrument of death on which Our Lord gave His life, we should again remind ourselves: He died on the cross for ME. What does He ask in return? Certainly not perfume. Rather, the day-by-day living of the life which He asks of us. Prayer, service to others, the frequentation of the sacraments, the patient toleration of, and even welcome to, our sufferings.
• Every night, we might well ask of ourselves: have I today poured over the feet of the Lord this day my "prayers, works, joys, and sufferings" as we say in the morning offering? Have I said to Him "Thank you!" by my actions this day, as Mary of Bethany did when He was physically present there with her?
• And if we do use perfumes or scented lotions and cosmetics of various kinds, let them remind us of that perfume at Bethany and of what we can do to be equally demonstrative of our gratitude to Our Blessed Lord.

Reciprocity

That's B-16's battle cry with regard to Muslim-Catholic relations, and I'm taking it up. In that spirit, check out this David Frum post a reader just sent me. It highlights this Weekly Standard article about anti-apostasy laws worldwide (in the wake of the Abdul Rahman case). It also points out that when Muslims win converts to Islam, he gets CAIR press releases crowing in his in-box. But when others evangelize Muslims, different story.

Not Gloating

TNR publisher Martin Peretz eviscerates John Kerry. But I post this not out of schadenfreude, but to point out once again how preposterous is the reporting in the NYT. Curtsy: No Left Turns

Canticle For Ms. Leibowitz

One Wendy R. Leibowitz wrote WaPo a corker of a letter to the editor (Saturday's "FreeForAll"), managing to show how shallow and lazy our press and Congress are simultaneously:

I am tired of reporting by anecdote.

Sing it, Sister.

"The Hard Road" [Magazine, March 12] devoted a substantial amount of time, space and detail to the story of an undocumented immigrant from Nicaragua. It was thorough and poignant, but it could have been written 10 years ago. Heck, change Daniel Rodriguez's nationality to Russian, Irish, Scandinavian, Polish, Chinese, Greek or Italian, and a similar article could have been written 100 years ago.
Post readers know about the struggles of immigrants. What we don't know enough about are proposed solutions to the problems of illegal immigration.

Can I get an "Amen"?

Various immigration bills are pending in Congress. On the same day that The Post was telling us the story of Rodriguez, the Senate Judiciary Committee was considering immigration legislation. The Post said nothing about it in that article and made scant mention of it in the days that followed.
The March 22 news story "Immigration Debate Heats Up" spent only a few paragraphs describing a bill the House approved in December. It then reverted to the predictable reactions from the Hispanic community.

I am so tired, too, of reporting by "he said, she said." Can we know what is in the dang bills for a change, before we cut to people's opinions of them? Especially since most of those opining don't know what's in the bills either?

I'd like to hear what solutions home builders, developers and restaurateurs think would be workable within their industries, since they rely heavily on illegal immigrants. What effect would using only legal labor have on the prices of new homes or the price of a meal? I'd like to know how various immigration proposals compare with what we've tried in the past --lotteries, amnesty-- and what other countries are doing. I'd like more details about legislation.

Solutions usually come bottom up rather than top down --somewhere out there is a kind-hearted employer who's thought it all through and has a brilliant idea --but we're all content to trade epithets and work hastily. Lady, I kiss your feet.

And just to keep all my immigration stuff for today in one post:

• Here's Mark Steyn's latest on the subject. He demands equal rights for non-undocumented workers. (curtsy: Ninme).
• And I think you'll find this post interesting as regards a "Christian" response to immigration. A commenter replies to it:

It cannot be "compassionate" to expose those poor strangers who have just entered the country as immigrants to greater threats from illegal terrorists or, maybe more important, to the undermining of our society from UNLIMITED immigration without time and effort for assimilation. Surely the overwhelming majority who enter the US do so to enjoy the material and nonmaterial benefits of freedom. It’s a hoax to first invite them in, and then to undermine the principles that form the rationale for their immigrating in the first place. To do so is to say that once you have entered the US, we will stop being concerned about your well-being as a resident or future citizen of America.

Cool Stuff For Passion Sunday

Wow! Not having grown up Catholic, I never learned how to braid palms at all, much less so elaborately. How long do you s'pose His Holiness had to work at that? The text for his homily isn't up yet at the Vatican site, or I'd have it for you. Check back at this link all week for all the Holy Week transcripts.

Cool Palm Sunday fact (courtesy of the Jeff Cavins Bible Study I'm taking): After the Exodus from Egypt, the children of Israel were told to commemorate the Passover each year on the 14th day of the first month (of the Jewish year). The sacrifice required an unblemished male lamb, and families were to select the lamb on the 10th day of the month, basically so they had a few days to be sure it was perfect, and then if the lamb passed muster with the priests, it could be offered in sacrifice. Palm Sunday, when the people selected Christ as their king, was the tenth day of the month. And on the fourteenth day, Pilate proclaimed to the people after interrogating Christ, "I find no fault in him." Hence: an unblemished Paschal Lamb for the ultimate Passover.

• Over at Pontifications, there'll be readings from the Fathers all week. Go here for Palm Sunday.

I must say, we had a particularly fine liturgy for this morning's mass. Gorgeous weather, so we got to do a full 'round-the-block procession. The past few years it's rained and we have cheated and simply walked from the school parking lot across the street into the Church. And the Hosannah was a simple chorus, so the whole congregation sang it without accidentally de-synchronizing itself and falling into a disonant round. The Psalm 22 response was one written by a parishioner who's building up to an entire Mass setting (he sang a few bars of his "Gloria" for us after Mass). And he sang it himself in his beautiful baritone. Then: our pastor is a good ol' meat and potatoes priest with a deep Eucharistic piety. Goodness just radiates from him when he preaches, even when he's not eloquent. But today he was also eloquent.

It was one of those days when everything about the Mass just "works" to facilitate prayer. Could be the fact the toddler was absent, I suppose. Or maybe things were really better today than they usually are. Or maybe it's that I was better today than I often am. The kids & I went to Confession yesterday. As I explained to them, it's important to get your soul squeaky clean for Holy Week so all the graces can soak directly in. Hmmm. I think sometimes we moms say things by way of description that turn out to be more true than we know.

Strangely, This Worked

Sunday evening time-waster, courtesy of my uncle: the pig-drawing personality test.

Saccharine Stones

No Brown Sugar allowed in their first concert in China? Nor any Chinese, either, apparently. What was the point?

Best. Immigration Solution. Ever.

Anybody at all can come here, but for assimilation purposes, each must spend a year in Gitmo first. Here's what some released detainees had to say when tracked down in their current homes in Afghanistan:

“I am lucky I went there, and now I miss it. Cuba was great,” said the 14-year-old, knotting his brow in the effort to make sure he is understood.

He's only sorry he didn't get to spend as much time at the beach as he would have liked.

He spent a typical day watching movies, going to class and playing football. He was fascinated to learn about the solar system, and now enjoys reciting the names of the planets, starting with Earth. Less diverting were the twice-monthly interrogations about his knowledge of al-Qaida and the Taliban. But, as Asadullah’s answer was always the same - “I don’t know anything about these people” - these sessions were merely a bore: an inevitably tedious consequence, Asadullah suggests with a shrug, of being held captive in Guantanamo Bay.

One of his confreres agrees:

The food in the camp was delicious, the teaching was excellent, and his warders were kind. “Americans are good people, they were always friendly, I don’t have anything against them,” he said. “If my father didn’t need me, I would want to live in America.”

First boy again:

“Americans are great people, better than anyone else,” he said, when found at his elder brother’s tiny fruit and nut shop in a muddy backstreet of Kabul. “Americans are polite and friendly when you speak to them. They are not rude like Afghans. If I could be anywhere, I would be in America. I would like to be a doctor, an engineer — or an American soldier.”

Now that's assimilation, Baby. Hey, can we send the ACLU, Michael Moore, Cynthia McKinney and the Democratic Leadership to Gitmo? Curtsy to lgf.

Galileo's Rehabilitation Is Complete

The pope's Q & A session with young people the other day is its own potpourri all by itself. The translation is unofficial, but you owe it to yourself to RTWT (you have to scroll down to it --April 6). In addition to the question about his vocation I pointed out here, the Pope fields questions from teenagers about How to Read the Bible, what's wrong with pre-marital sex, what it is he as Pope expects of Christians, and the relation between Science & Faith. Any single answer to a single question is worth meditating on -- and again, this was all unscripted --these were his spontaneous answers. I'll just highlight a few things.

In addition to the wisdom of his answers, it's impossible to miss his charity. For example, in his response to the question of how to read the Bible, in making the point that the Bible must be read in a personal way, but at the same time in concert with fellow Christians, he says

at the same time, it is important to read it in the company of those we walk with. To let ourselves be aided by the great masters of lectio divina. For instance, we have so many beautiful books by Cardinal Martini, a true master of lectio divina, which helps us to enter fully within Scriptures. He who knows well all the historical circumstances, all the characteristic elements of the past, also seeks all the time to open the door in order to show that words from the past are also words for the present. Such masters help us understand better and even to learn the way to read Scriptures properly and well.

Cardinal Martini has for years been upheld by the gossipisti as the leader of the "liberal" wing of the Church, and was supposedly their candidate for Pope contra Ratzinger. So we see here either the exaggerated nature of the gossip about curial factions or the Pope's lovely ability to appreciate and engage ideas without letting debates get personal.

Speaking of which, in his answer about the relation between science and faith, he takes his answer from Galileo :

The great Galileo said that God wrote the book of nature in the language of mathematics. He was convinced that God had given us two books: that of Sacred Scripture and that of nature. And that the language of nature - he was convinced of this – was mathematics which is thefore a language of God, of the Creator.

And then he takes us from Math to reality (man, this is the first time I've regretted dropping Calculus). Math, he says, does not exist as pure essence, but is an abstract construct of the mind:

The surprising thing is that this invention of our mind is truly the key to understanding nature, that nature is really structured mathematically, and that our mathematics, invented by the human spirit, is really the instrument with which we can work with nature, place it at our service, make it an instrument through technology. It seems to me almost incredible that an invention of the human intellect and the structure of the universe should coincide, that the mathematics invented by us truly gives us access to the nature of the universe and makes this nature useful to us. And so the intellectual structure of the human subject and the objective structure of reality coincide: subjective reason and reason objectified in nature are identical.

I'll skip a further elaboration of this to bring you the Pope who knows chaos theory:

In this sense, it seems to me that mathematics – in which God cannot appear as such – shows us the intelligent structure of the universe. Now, we even have theories of chaos, but they are limited, because if chaos had the upper hand, then all technology would be impossible. Technology is reliable only because our mathematics is reliable. Our science, which finally makes it possible for us to work with the energies of nature, assumes that matter has a reliable and intelligent structure. So we see that there is a subjective rationality as well as a rationality objectified in matter which coincide.

Which is not to say that God can be "proven" in the scientific sense:

Of course, no one can now prove – as one does through experiment or technical readings – that both systems of reason really originated from one single “intelligence”, but it seems to me that this single intelligence behind the two systems of reason we have is truly manifest in our world. And that the more we are able to instrumentalize the world with our intelligence, the more the design of creation becomes apparent.

And at that point you have a choice to make.

to come to the definitive question, I would say: Either there is a God, or there is none. Only two options exist. One either recognizes the priority of reason, of the creative Reason that is at the origin of everything and is the principle of everything – the priority of reason is also the priority of freedom; or one advocates the priority of the irrational, in which everything that works on earth and in our lives would simply be occasional, marginal, an irrational product, in which case reason would be the product of irrationality!

Ultimately one cannot “prove” one or the other, but the great option of Christianity is to choose rationality and the priority of reason. This seems to me the optimal option which shows us how behind everything there is a great Intelligence, to whom we can entrust ourselves.

The great challenge to Reason, of course, is the problem of evil, but I can't do everything for you, now can I? Go read what he has to say about that. And incidentally, if you take this question about reason with what he says about how to read the scriptures, you'll see why Islam is ultimately the enemy of freedom.

Nothing Says "Morally Serious" Like Undue Haste

Breakfast with W & JR (Chief Justice) was fun, but it's been kind of an errand-running, kid-chauffering day otherwise. Which is how I know the radio news guys have spent the day tsk-tsking the stall of the Senate immigration bill with an exasperated, "when will they get it together" tone. As if the whole purpose of the Legislative Branch is to Do Stuff. No matter what Stuff it is. Take the lede of WaPo's coverage:

Efforts to rewrite the nation's immigration laws collapsed in the Senate today, renewing doubts about Congress's ability and willingness to tackle the complex, emotional issue in an election year.

Personally, I'm glad the Senate has another two weeks to consider my proposals to solve the immigration crisis, which no one has taken sufficiently seriously to date:

• Since Vicente Fox (and his poorest citizens) claim there is no border between Mexico & the U.S. he's bound to respect, let's agree with him. Declare Mexico the 51st state. Yes, there will be an assimilation problem, but on the other hand, our dependence on foreign oil is over. All those exported American jobs and factories? They're back!
• Or: instead of deporting illegals, give them vouchers to fly to Europe. This will solve Europe's demographic crisis by re-populating it with Christians who share the commitment to Western civilization.
• Or as some radio wag said: instead of a fence, build a tunnel under the U.S. to Canada. There are so many Canadians here illegally, too, it's a fair trade.
• (Repeating myself) Repeal the minimum wage laws, ending the unfair competition between illegal workers and our own unskilled poor.
• UPDATE: VDH argues that not only do we not assimilate newcomers, we actually radicalize them by leaving them to home-grown hate groups (no one actually comes here for the purpose of re-colonizing). Therefore, instead of building a fence along the border, we should build fences around the offices of La Raza, Mexica.org, & the ACLU.

Our Second Catholic President

I think the Prez. won't mind me calling him "W," now that we've had breakfast together. Just W, Hubby, me, and 1700 Catholics at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. W's remarks were good; it was heartening to see him and to hear how enthusiastically he was received. The MC, Austin Ruse, referred to him after he left as our "second Catholic President" (Hey, if Bill Clinton is the first black Prez. . .) At which I'm certain half the room must have joined me in thinking, "First." I thought it; Hubby said it, and I think --not sure-- that Ruse might have said it as an off-mic aside, too. Besides the serious stuff, he [W, not Ruse] had a funny line, it being a Friday in Lent. Greeting the Cardinals in attendance he said:

I'm so thrilled to be here with the cardinals of the church. Cardinal McCarrick I know is here, and Cardinal Bevilacqua -- must make you feel good to see there's not a slice of bacon around.

Here are his remarks. Also giving a short presentation was Raymond Arroyo of EWTN, who told a great story about Mother Angelica, and showed off his amazing impersonation of her. Everybody loves Raymond, and I would too, but for his discomfiting resemblance to Peewee Herman, which I just can't get past. It's my problem, not his; he seems to be a prince of a fellow.

The highlight of the breakfast was the speech on the dictatorship of relativism by Bishop Morlino of Madison, WI. I've never heard anyone address the topic so succinctly, humorously and deeply at the same time. He's my intellectual hero of the day, but more on him when they post his speech, as I assume they eventually will.

NASCAR Fans Found More Tolerant Than Journalists In NBC Sting

I've linked to the basic story already, but it keeps getting better. Do you know NBC actually got their emergency test Muslims to pull out their prayer mats and pray ostentatiously at a NASCAR race --hoping for some kind of negative reaction? I keep waiting for the "You've been X'ed" at the end of this story, but it never comes. So: as everybody and his uncle is pointing out, who are the racists in this story? Curtsy to Tim Blair, who got it from Michele Malkin.

Canadian Scientists Say: Chill Out

60 climatologists have sent a letter to PM Harper asking him to dial back Canada's commitment to Kyoto, because science doesn't support its conclusions:

Observational evidence does not support today's computer climate models, so there is little reason to trust model predictions of the future. Yet this is precisely what the United Nations did in creating and promoting Kyoto and still does in the alarmist forecasts on which Canada's climate policies are based.

Snip. Snip.

While the confident pronouncements of scientifically unqualified environmental groups may provide for sensational headlines, they are no basis for mature policy formulation. The study of global climate change is, as you have said, an "emerging science," one that is perhaps the most complex ever tackled. It may be many years yet before we properly understand the Earth's climate system. Nevertheless, significant advances have been made since the protocol was created, many of which are taking us away from a concern about increasing greenhouse gases. If, back in the mid-1990s, we knew what we know today about climate, Kyoto would almost certainly not exist, because we would have concluded it was not necessary.

Curtsy: Tim Blair.

Is Ron Howard Albino?

Isn't it interesting that the "Gospel of Judas" just happened to surface in translation (they've had it since 1983!) a month before the opening of the Da Vinci Code? (I think the hole in the pop-up photo of the codex is where "opens May 19" was written.) Between this and the recent discovery of Creation Ex Pescilo and Christ's being not a miracle worker, but an excellent acrobat, what is left but to acknowledge that Ron Howard & Tom Hanks rule the universe? I hope they are benevolent gods.

Uhoh. Here's heresy already. Over at Zenit, Fr. Thomas Williams, LC says:

Q: If authentic, what challenge would this document pose to traditional Christian belief? Will it "shake Christianity to its foundations" as some press releases have suggested?

Father Williams: Certainly not. The Gnostic gospels, of which there are many besides this one, are not Christian documents per se, since they proceed from a syncretistic sect that incorporated elements from different religions, including Christianity. From the moment of their appearance, the Christian community rejected these documents because of their incompatibility with the Christian faith. The "Gospel of Judas" would be a document of this sort, which could have great historical value, since it contributes to our knowledge of the Gnostic movement, but it poses no direct challenge to Christianity.

Some people stubbornly cling to their superstitions.

Things Are Getting Better, So They Must Be Worse

You know whom the MSM most lead astray? Their Democratic clients. Reading the NYT to know what's happening in the world is like hiring Bob Shrum to run your presidential campaign.

Some Days This Seems Like A Good Idea

The Flemish Socialist party has introduced legislation to allow euthanasia of kids under 18 or to allow parents to kill their children. But my kids are being good today, so I'm against this. (Curtsy to SecondhandSmoke, where you should go for this story if the link doesn't work.)

And while you're over there, scroll down to the story about the "Deep Ecologist" who is looking forward with hope to an ebola virus pandemic to thin the human herd. Which would be easy to dismiss as kookiness from a kook, but he's the Distinguished Texas Scientist of 2006 according to the Texas Academy of Science. (I always figure if the "Deep Ecologists" were sincere, we wouldn't be hearing from them, but that's just me.)

Behold The Power of "Dialogue"

According to the President of Notre Dame, you can host any speaker and any event you like on the campus of a Catholic University --as long as there's a discussion panel afterwards. Looking forward to next year's staged reading of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the lively post-performance discussion.

The Pope Is A Mensch

He became a priest to oppose Nazism, among other things.

There was the Nazi regime," Benedict said. "We were told very loudly that in the new Germany 'there will not be anymore priests, there will be no more consecrated life, we don't need this anymore, find another profession.'" "But actually hearing these loud voices, I understood that in confronting the brutality of this system, this inhuman face, that there is a need for priests, precisely as a contrast to this anti- human culture," he said.

Not that it was a simple decision.

I asked myself if I really had the capacity to live an entirely celibate life," he said. "Being a theoretical and not practical man, I also knew it wasn't enough to love theology to be a good priest, but I also needed to be available to young people, old, sick and poor people." He said that in the end, God as well as friends and other priests helped him to decide.

This in response to questions from young people. I'll try to find the transcript of the whole meeting. Curtsy to the Anchoress.

Where's The Leak?

So, the NY Sun scoops all the big guys, with the news that Bush "authorized the leak" in the Scooter Libby case. And everyone is playing "gotcha" with this:

"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information," Bush said on Sept. 30, 2003, two months after Libby made what he says was a presidentially authorized disclosure of such information. "If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action," Bush said.

Bush de-classified info. and members of his Administration used it. Libby first --it's common practice to give journalists "exclusives"-- and then the Prez himself 10 days later. And then this statement a full two months' later. I'm looking very hard for a leak. You know: where someone gives out classified information inappropriately.

As a follow-up to this post (if only there were a war), I got to thinking about the big stories of the past 12 months:

1. Plame-gate.

MSM Version: High Muckety-Mucks in the Bush Administration think nothing of blowing the cover of our most valuable covert agents to trick us into war.

Actual story: A classified memo was de-classified so that it could be provenwithout leaking that the husband of a non-covert agent was lying through his teeth about whether Saddam Hussein had tried to acquire uranium yellow-cake.

2. Elections A-plenty.

MSM Version: The world hates George Bush and America, and nobody wants democracy in the Middle East, as will be proven with the spectacular failure of elections in Afghanistan & Iraq, the defeat of Mr. Bush & all his allies at the ballot box, and the inevitable passing of the EU Constitution.

Actual story: Re-election of Howard, Blair & Bush; defeat of the EU Constitution; amazing elections in Afghanistan & twice in Iraq. (Aznar was defeated, but I'd argue not because of the war, but because he lied to his people about who bombed them.)

3. Hurricane Katrina

MSM Version: 10,000 dead. Rapes & riots and frozen bodies in the Superdome. Where is Bush?

Actual story: Bush begs for evacuations beforehand, against Governor's wishes. Dithering of Gov. Blanco and. . . .those buses. Fewer than 1000 dead.

4. Bush's National Guard Service. (Whoops.)

5. Civil War In Iraq. (Whoops Again.)

6. Death of John Paul II

Well, he really did die. Score one for them.