"a brutal Israeli/U.S.-led cutoff in aid has been imposed_
on the Palestinians for voting the wrong way in a free election"
Complete misrepresentation. The aid is cutoff because the currently elected government openly advocates the destruction of a neighboring country. For the aid to start again, all they need to do is modify their thinking to be more in line with reality. We don't provide aid directly to the governments of North Korea or Iran now, do we?
It would be monumentally uninspired to willingly fund an organization whose main thrust is the elimination of another people. The rest of the world is not governed by the US -- why don't they pony up their side of the cash to Hamas? Because they see what everyone sees - funding Hamas in any way will free up resources to wrongfully kill innocent people. That includes Isrealis, Palestinians, and others around the world.
What kind of a message would that send to other terrorist organizations? That you can run a country and still get boatloads of cash from the US and allies in order to fund your terrorist armies?
Why not see the argument another way - the Palestinian people knew the West would demand Hamas give up their terrorist creed -- they want the much more capable Hamas to govern their country and quit trying to destroy Israel. They had no idea Hamas would rather see them in terrible poverty rather than properly run the goverment they were elected to run!
The Palestinian State only works because of the billions in aid rec'd each year. To think, suggest or dream that aid would be given without strings attached, for instance the cessation of violence, is nonsense.
"The aid cut-off appears to be increasing anti-U.S. sentiment here," writes the Post's Scott Wilson, quoting 33-year-old pharmacist Mustafa Hasoona: "The
problem is the West, not us. If they don't respect democracy, they shouldn't call for it. We are with this government we elected. I voted for it."
That's rich - 'increasing anti-US sentiment.' It's already so bad no matter what action we take, what does a few percentage points matter? Who cares anymore. Besides, I don't really care what the Palestinian people think we should do with our money, now do I?
The problem isn't the West. The problem is those with liberal views in the West who think that entitlement is a right provided to all people of the Earth. Hardship? Too bad. It is the Palestinian Leadership and the people themselves who have built a society with the destruction of Israel as their main drive, even if it means their own destruction. Palestinian society has molded several successive generations of lawless haters and killers.
It's well past time the world quit coddling Palestinian society and starting helping them change their mind about their course. If it works fine, if not, well we've saved a couple billion dollars in the process!
Hamas is winning converts for refusing to buckle. Said Khalil Abu Leila, a Hamas leader, "They have misunderstood the Arab mentality. As long as the pressure increases on Hamas, the more popular it will become."
We don't care who they pledge their allegiance to - they could pledge allegiance to Hitler Jr. - as long as Hitler Jr. didn't advocate a lawless killing society.
Then, at the end of the article, he calls the US a terrorist organization:
Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break their political leaders. Is that not a fair description of what we are doing to the Palestinians? No wonder they hate us.
RIDICULOUS! Hamas is anything but innocent in this issue. They are an organization that publicly endorses the killing of Israeli citizens and soldiers, and the destruction of the State of Israel. We don't provide aid directly to the governments of Iran or North Korea for similar reasons.
The fact that they hate us doesn't mean we should cough up cash to buy their favor. They hate us for many reasons, why should hate guide our foreign policy? It's our cash, and there's plenty of places it can go to do good rather than the evil Hamas brings.
"The least credulous country of all those reporting box office revenue was Nigeria (...) Nigerian skepticism should come as no surprise to anyone who has been reading their emails."UPDATE: Responding to my '08 thoughts, a correspondent mentions Mike Huckabee, someone I may actually be able to get enthusiastic about voting for!
 |  |
"... Do you agree," [Guy] asked earnestly, "that the Supernatural Order is not something added to the Natural Order, like music or painting, to make everday life more tolerable? It is everyday life. The supernatural is real; what we call 'real' is a mere shadow, a passing fancy. Don't you agree, Padre?"The story of the modern age is man's attempt to move the "point," to impose a tight, artificial boundary around the supernatural. Waugh understood this to be a form of insanity, an active negation of reality, and that the consequences would be catastrophic. - Rich Leonardi of "Ten Reasons"
"Up to a point."
Writing for LewRockwell.com, resident Fred Reed answers ‘What’s Mexico Really Like, Fred?’ Short answer: "it isn’t nearly as bad as many Americans think."...One part Mr. Reed's article in particular of caught my interest. In response to the question of "why is Mexico a comparatively poor country?" Mr. Reed gives the following as part of his answer: "Lack of ambition…perhaps. Mexicans (yes, I’m generalizing) seem to want enough, and to stop there. The focus is on family, friends, and a quiet life. Thus an intelligent and competent mechanic, say, will make a comfortable living from his garage, but will not try to start a chain of garages. Americans are much more driven, and much more materialistic. These qualities pay off economically." That sounds like me. I've never wanted much more than "family, friends, and a quiet life." The idea of starting a business seems almost offensive to me. During a year in Chile, I found that the word ambicioso has negative connotations in Spanish. Not so in English. I prefer the Spanish meaning.
If we look at his history as a reader, the Psalms come first in his affections. Genesis second, Paul's letters third, an the Gospel of John fourth. Nothing else quite competes. The synoptic gospels he knows well, but they don't move or impress him with their theological depth the way John does...Jerome wrote endless commentaries on the prophets, but Augustine never felt the magic (or dared to compete with the old master).
'I SINCERELY maintain that Nature-worship is more morally dangerous than the most vulgar Man-worship of the cities; since it can easily be perverted into the worship of an impersonal mystery, carelessness, or cruelty. Thoreau would have been a jollier fellow if he had devoted himself to a green-grocer instead of to greens.'Yet elswhere he is more appreciative of Thoreau, at least by comparison:
Omar's (or Fitzgerald's) effect upon the other world we may let go, his hand upon this world has been heavy and paralyzing. The Puritans, as I have said, are far jollier than he. The new ascetics who follow Thoreau or Tolstoy are much livelier company; for, though the surrender of strong drink and such luxuries may strike us as an idle negation, it may leave a man with innumerable natural pleasures, and, above all, with man's natural power of happiness. Thoreau could enjoy the sunrise without a cup of coffee. If Tolstoy cannot admire marriage, at least he is healthy enough to admire mud. Nature can be enjoyed without even the most natural luxuries.
Local Man Yearns for Last Month
COLUMBUS, OH-- John Switzer pines for an earlier period of his life. 29 days ago. No, not much happened in the interim. "It was a forgettable month as far as months go," he says.
But he keenly misses the "golden age" twenty-nine days ago when he was a month younger and "all the world seemed at his feet".
"I long for the gilden era of my life 29 days ago. The television show 24 was not on hiatus. I had more hair. The sky was a bluer..."
It don't matter to meA sentiment that seems just a tinge off from Humphrey Bogart. The Bread singer is giving the girl the choice while I seem to recall Bogart making that choice for her. In the '60s, Gary Lewis and the Playboys put out a song that was generous to a fault, although (I assume) the definition of "fling" has radically changed:
If you take up with
Someone who's better than me
'Cause your happiness is all I want
Walk along the lake with someone newPlaying with fire if'n you ask me, but then that probably shows a lack of self-sacrifice on my part. He wants his girl to have fun without him.
Have yourself a summer fling or two
But remember I'm in love with you and
Save your heart for me
When you're all alone, far away from home
Someone's gonna flirt with you-ou
I won't think it's wrong if you play along
Just don't fall for someone new
I want you to wantWe've come a long way baby.
I need you to need me
When you look at these causes, you keep coming back to one them: human capital. The people who do well not only possess skills that can be measured on tests, they have self-discipline, which is twice as important as IQ in predicting academic achievement, according to a study by Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman...
If there's one thing that leaps out of all the brain literature, it is that, as psychologist Daniel J. Siegel, director of the Center for Human Development, puts it, "emotion serves as the central organizing process within the brain." Kids learn from people they love. If we want young people to develop the social and self-regulating skills they need to thrive, we need to establish stable long-term relationships between love-hungry children and love-providing adults...
I started out in the company of economic data, but the closer you get to the core issue, the further you venture out into the primitive realm of love.
"I think I'm a better person now. I'm not as judgmental," she says. "I don't take anything for granted anymore."
"The thanks we give to God at all times is done because the 'glory of God' is always before us...In worshipping God we participate in this 'glory' in God's Presence."That makes excellent sense. I'll be mentally substituting "We praise you for your Presence" from now on!
"Q: Do you ever read strictly for pleasure? A: It seems that all I ever do is read. Reading is necessary for individuals to be interesting. I don’t read political books; they bore me."___
I looked up at the tallest buildingI feel more deeply what Bill Luse recently wrote: "Now if...Zippy or Riddle or Terry or Ellyn or Peony and some others went haywire, I'd be upset because I feel I know them in some limited way. If Culbreath went, I'd know the world was coming to an end." There's a keen desire for me to talk about this scandal as if that would be heal it. But it doesn't. Better to recall St. Philip's admonition. Between the pedophile priests, Bud MacFarlane and now this latest, it at least serves to solidify my trust in the only place it is secure: with Christ.
Felt it falling down
I could feel my balance shifting
Everything was moving around...
Downside up, upside down
Take my weight from the ground
Falling deep in the sky
Slipping in the unknown
All the strangers look like family
All the family looks so strange
The only constant I am sure of
Is this accelerating rate of change
Perhaps those writings on mercy (and homilies on mercy by the pedophile priest) were cries out to God himself, knowing perhaps even subconsciously, that they were in such need of mercy that it was the only straw they had to hold onto in the roiling sea of sin that they were in. I'm not saying this right, I'm sure. But perhaps in both cases they weren't preaching/writing it as an AGENDA, but as a way of begging God for what they could not ask outright.
And maybe it was a case of being like a child with only undeveloped faith--"Oh, please, please, please let this be true."
I say this, not to make light of either Chris' or the priest's sins. I am appalled by them. But I know that the children involved were not the only ones damaged by the sin. And whether WE can see it or not, the potential loss of those two OTHER souls mean something to God, too. It's hard for us to see that, in our righteous (and I believe in many cases it IS righteous) anger, God is mourning the damage to ALL the souls involved. Even the ones we'd like to kick to the curb.
Blessings to you! This is hard, isn't it? I spent a great deal of last night praying for Chris' soul. Lord knows he needs it. And one day, maybe when I need it too, someone will do the same for me. I have long said that I live and breathe only because some obscure Carmelite nun somewhere is praying for someone she doesn't even know.
Meacham declines the challenge to examine some of the cliches he passes along from [Billy] Graham, as in, “In our pluralistic state we have learned to live with each other and to respect each other’s religious and political convictions.” The phenomenon being celebrated arises from indifference to religion, not from toleration of it. Graham adds: “There’s a truth reiterated throughout the teachings of the various religions, but especially in the Bible, that no man rules except by the will of God.” But that is either meaningless or wrong. There are no grounds for believing in the pietistic notion that the will of God had anything whatever to do with the advent of Hitler.I'm currently reading Jarrett's The Relation of Church and State in the Middle Ages and am getting a keen appreciation for the difficulty. In a way, the relation of church and state reminds me of the apparent irresolvabilty of God's sovereignty and man's free will. (At least in the second case, we are assured it can be resolved.) Jarret points out how different Christianity is from either paganism or Judiasm with respect to the state:
The American experience is leached of meaning by platitudinous stress on the freedom of worship. Of primary concern, surely, are the secularist engines that mock the very idea that worship is compatible with higher thought. That subject engaged this reviewer when at Yale, fifty-five years ago. And the subject of religion was once considered worth noting every week in sections of Time and Newsweek. Still, Mr. Meacham’s invaluable book serves as a lodestar for original thought on — the American gospel.
That the difficulty is wholly Christian can be seen if it be remembered (using the words in their present day sense) that to a pagan his State was his Church, and to the Jew his Church was his State. In either view there were not two powers but one. The Jew considered God to be the head of the State; the pagan made the head of the State into a god, i.e. he deified his ruler: Caesar, Alexander, Pharaoh, seeing in him divine guardian spirit of the State. For the Christian, however, the problem was much more delicate, since he was brought up to look on both the Church and State as divinely authorized powers and to believe that the authority of both was from God.Buckley writes of how American law has made it impossible to assume our government is interested in the moral law at all:
At the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel this at once arose, due in part to an anarchical spirit amongst some of the early Christians. The New Testament, therefore, contains many passages insisting on the necessity of obedience to the civil power , and Our Lord is deliberately described as teaching and practicing obedience to the civil power....
But the problem became even more complicated when...Christians were allowed freedom of worship, and when the Emperor himself became a catechumen. The difficulty now was no longer the simple difficulty of heroic obedience to a persecuting government, but of adjusting obedience to two authorities which were both interested in the application of the moral law of Christ to life.
With magisterial sweeps, traveling from the Founding to the beginning of the 21st century, Meacham (who is managing editor of Newsweek) disposes of the internecine absolutists, but acknowledges that there are unresolved and bitter questions brought on — most divisively — by the Supreme Court’s intervention into the City of God when it ruled, in Roe v. Wade, that abortion was a constitutional right. President Jimmy Carter would comment privately that he did not believe that Jesus would have accepted abortion (or capital punishment), but as president Carter was under obligation not to the word of Christ, but rather to the word of the Constitution. One has to believe that such reservations as his were privately held by other presidents and lawmakers who, while standing by their Christian faith, defended a Constitution that protected slavery.
"Bluntly equating literary discourse with sexual intercourse, Wister indicates [in the novel The Virginian] that a cowboy can make love to a woman only by first gaining intellectual access to her through an acquaintance with canonical fiction."Uhh okay... whatever. "An intellectual stretch", Kevin says, and it made me wonder what an academic might do with the old country song "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On" by Mel McDaniel:
- Blake Allmendinger, "The Cowboy: Representations of Labor in an American Work Culture"
______________________________________Place tongue firmly in cheek while I attempt to "decode McDaniel":
Down on the corner by the traffic lights
Everybody's lookin', as she goes by
they turn their heads and they watch her 'til she's gone
Lord have mercy, baby's got her bluejeans on
Up by the bus top, & across the street
Open up their windows, to take a peek
While she goes walkin', rockin' like a rollin' stone
Heaven help us, baby's got her bluejeans on
She can't help it if she's made that way
She's not to blame if they look her way
She ain't really tryin' to cause a scene
It just comes naturally, No -- the girl can't help it
Well up on Main Street, by the taxi stand
There's a crowd of people, in a traffic jam
She don't look back, she ain't doin' nothin' wrong
Lord have mercy, Baby's got her bluejeans on
"Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On" -- Mel McDaniel
__________________________________________
Obviously the song is about the dysphoria that comes with the paradigmatic shift that results from the hegemonic oppression proceeding from a hermaneutics of infantalism--this is the "baby" of the song title, thus diminishing capacity and objectifying and essentially reinforcing the cultural entreclat while undermining ego identity creating the collapse of "eigen" space (or augen space if the central dimension is visual.)
The point of American Idol is that none of these people would have a chance in the ordinary system, and some seem quite deserving. I am also frequently reminded that Carrey Underwood was last year's winner. The point being that in many different disciplines there are people of professional caliber who are too numerous to be recognized by the very restrictive system that allows for larger publicity.I always tend to think that great talent will always rise to the top and I think it normally does, but it's true the system doesn't always work. Cerainly with major league baseball, if you were black or Latino you couldn't play until 1948! Definitely a case of talent not rising to the top. That is obviously just one example among myriad. Besides that my post was ridiculously elitist. Count me rather with Chesterton who always defended the amateur.
Springtime
Deliberate, it seems,
their curve,
the gentle winding
of young branches
that break my numbness
in this soft near-June
when white pillowy seeds
ascend and descend
like snow.
Having Jesus live among us, teaching and demonstrating the life God wants us all to have, would have been a good thing in and of itself. But our Father is a God of abundance, not merely of sufficiency, so he gave us more. He gave us his Holy Spirit. And what a gift the Spirit is!... He is far more than a “tool” for building the kingdom of God. When we give a gift, we don’t tend to present something merely practical and functional. No, we aim to surprise and delight the person. We want our gift to be a sign of our love and appreciation for that person. So it is with the Father. In giving us his Spirit, he has made it possible to surprise and delight us continually with more and more of his love (Romans 5:5).
1. “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by The Who.
The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naive idealism once and for all. “There’s nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye. . . . Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.”
2. “Taxman,” by The Beatles.
A George Harrison masterpiece with a famous guitar riff (which was actually played by Paul McCartney): “If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street / If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat / If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat / If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.” The song closes with a humorous jab at death taxes: “Now my advice for those who die / Declare the pennies on your eyes.”
3. “Sympathy for the Devil,” by The Rolling Stones.
Don’t be misled by the title; this song is The Screwtape Letters of rock. The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that “every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints.” What’s more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: “I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain.”
4. “Sweet Home Alabama,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
A tribute to the region of America that liberals love to loathe, taking a shot at Neil Young’s Canadian arrogance along the way: “A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”
5. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” by The Beach Boys.
Pro-abstinence and pro-marriage: “Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true / Baby then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do / We could be married / And then we’d be happy.”
6. “Gloria,” by U2.
Just because a rock song is about faith doesn’t mean that it’s conservative. But what about a rock song that’s about faith and whose chorus is in Latin? That’s beautifully reactionary: “Gloria / In te domine / Gloria / Exultate.”
7. “Revolution,” by The Beatles.
“You say you want a revolution / Well you know / We all want to change the world . . . Don’t you know you can count me out?” What’s more, Communism isn’t even cool: “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao / You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow.” (Someone tell the Che Guevara crowd.)
8. “Bodies,” by The Sex Pistols.
Violent and vulgar, but also a searing anti-abortion anthem by the quintessential punk band: “It’s not an animal / It’s an abortion.”
9. “Don’t Tread on Me,” by Metallica.
A head-banging tribute to the doctrine of peace through strength, written in response to the first Gulf War: “So be it / Threaten no more / To secure peace is to prepare for war.”
10. “20th Century Man,” by The Kinks.
“You keep all your smart modern writers / Give me William Shakespeare / You keep all your smart modern painters / I’ll take Rembrandt, Titian, da Vinci, and Gainsborough. . . . I was born in a welfare state / Ruled by bureaucracy / Controlled by civil servants / And people dressed in grey / Got no privacy got no liberty / ’Cause the 20th-century people / Took it all away from me.”
While I was watching the NFL playoff games one weekend, my wife and I got into a conversation about life and death, and the need for living wills. During the course of the conversation I told her that I never wanted to exist in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and taking fluids from a bottle.
She got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all my beer.
Man, sometimes it's tough being married to a smartass.
| | |
Chapter 2
I followed the action from Peoria to a large metropolis in the northeast. Dan Tan whispered, as if what he were about to tell me could get me killed: "Cloaked under the satyr of night, the heroes of Opus Taylorus traveled to Paris, Tennessee, with the film canister in their hands. They'd heard of an artist named Leo Vinny who'd painted a velvet Elvis that held many clues."
"What sort of clues?" I interrupted.
"I'm getting there. Vinny was commissioned to do a painting of Elvis eating a peanut-butter and banana sandwich with Priscilla at Graceland, only it wasn't Priscilla but bodyguard Sonny West who - as was the custom of the '60s - was wearing his hair long, almost waist-length. Now I'm not implying that the King was gay. In fact to my knowledge he was not. But a lot of folks in the film industry are gay and there were people who saw Sonny at the breakfast table in that painting and made false assumptions. Think about it: everyone is told that Sonny is Priscilla in that velvet masterpiece and you have to ask yourself why? Why lie?"
"But that doesn't prove a conspiracy. And besides, what do Presley or West have to do with the Vatican keeping down the film industry?"
"Elvis wasn't just a great singer but a great movie star, a very credible actor. His Hawaiian pictures make Citizen Kane look like the B-movie of a film academy dropout. And he was the most connected dude of that generation. Elvis knew everybody in the music and film industries. Elvis found out the secret! Found out that Kevin Costner is of divine lineage and that A Field of Dreams had been suppressed for centuries. So the Vatican had Elvis killed in order to cover up Emperor Bushantine's crime. In 1978 Leo Vinny painted that kitchen scene on the very day the King learned the secret and if that is Sonny in the painting then Sonny's a dead man because there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the King would've told Sonny. He told Sonny everything. So after they got Elvis, Sonny talked up Priscilla as the one in the painting and Pricilla went along with it because she wanted to squash any Elvis-is-gay rumors, fearing that it would lessen the value of residuals and syndication monies."
"Why didn't they kill Priscilla?"
"The Vatican figured that Priscilla wasn't credible. No one would believe her. Pure prejudice."
"To be honest, it sounds a little farfetched."
"Look, I said this was a work of fiction didn't I? It's a catch-22. If you take it as fact and research it I'll emphasize it's fiction. If you dismiss it as fiction I'll call you close-minded and emphasize the facts, like the existence of the Priory of Peoria and the Sonny/Priscilla controversy in Vinny's The Last Supper of Elvis Presley. To tell you the truth I'm beginning to believe it myself. And besides, you got ten thousand conspiracy theories and one of them bound to be true. Sort of like a million monkies typing one of 'em's gonna produce Shakespeare. It could be true couldn't it?"
...The main sensation of the experience was the discovery of new modes of love. The highest, of course, was the absolute fecundity of God's love for his creatures, as expressed in the miracle of the world itself. The great theologian Jean Danielou has observed that "creation is the first revelation." At the beach the splendor and self-giving force of this creation was evident. Our every day revolved around this splendor. In the morning we would bring our blankets down to the beach to lie in the sun - which, as Chesterton noted, dances in the sky. We would spend hours in the surf, surrending ourselves to the embrace of the waves until we were so stupefied with fatigue that we trudged like old men back to our blankets. At exactly two o'clock - it was never planned, it just seemed to happen that way - we climbed to the second-story balcony of the house to play drinking games for a couple of hours, a preverse Liturgy of the Hours. Then it was a nap, dinner - most likely, fast food - and a shower and a shave to get ready for that night's party. Through it all the laughter never stopped. What is so sad about this is that we considered this new joy an escape from God rather than an entrance into God's self-giving mystery. The deep sensuality occasioned by a place like the beach - the brief, rapturous loss of breath when one is smothered by a wave, the feel of sand under toes; the unquenchable grandeur of the plain of the ocean illuminated by the moonlight - all herald the closeness of the Maker. This was evident to Ignatius Loyola, about whom we had read nothing at Georgetown Prep. Loyola celebrated and encouraged the practice of "seeing God in all things" - even in the nautical world.
I am curious as to why a woman would have such misogynist attitudes toward women and marriage. I speak of you.It always strikes me as odd that many of the same people who tell us to be color and gender blind are actually the most color and gender conscious. That infects us all because we begin to look at people only as members of a group rather than individuals because they see themselves only as members of a group and not individuals. Group identity takes precedence over everything, including the search for the truth. The assumption of Amy's correspondent is: "you can't be against a book that is positive towards your sex" which, ironically, gives Amy no credit for preferring the truth to falsehood, as if her sex would be better served if she were ignorant.
I'm Wary: Andrew Stuttaford__
Somewhat Wary: J. Derbyshire, Victor Hanson
Neutral : J-Pod, Brookhiser, R. Lowry
Comfortable K-Lo, Kate O'Beirne, Jonah Goldberg,Ramesh P.
Frontipiece:While this is a work of fiction, everything presented within is true and factual; there is a Greek word for scribes, and there is a Priory of Peoria.
Chapter 1
Having a case of blogger's block, a non-fatal cousin to the more famous writer's block, I recalled admonitions to "write what you know" and thought fondly back to those halcyon days when I hung with a certain writer named Dan Tan, who told me a story of perfidy going back millennia...
I feels like it was only yesterday he told me of the scriptorium in Peoria, Illinois where a group of hairy, dark-skinned scribes known in the Greek as "monkus", or monks, perpetrated the greatest conspiracy in the history of humankind. Twenty centuries ago they'd begun the Latin order in nearby Decatur only to be squashed by Emperor Bushantine, who'd forced them to go underground until this very day. They called themselves "the work of the goddess" or "Opus Taylorus". Opus Taylorus believed in the divine feminine, to the extent it led to the divine lucre.
Clues left by surviving Tayloruses leave an exciting trail of murder and mayhem, not necessarily in that order. The eldest monk, the wizened Dan Tan, told me of Order members in the 5th century who had discovered a dusty cannister proving that the Vatican had held down the film industry for centuries. He said films we enjoy and pay money to see today had actually been around for centuries and only the Opus Taylorus monks had preserved them. The first find was a dusty cannister which contained a remarkably well-preserved 482 A.D. copy of Kevin Costner's A Field of Dreams. Dreams of great lucre appeared within reach for the Order. That is, until Emperor Bushantine's NSA spies learned of the discovery and had them all put in Guantamino [editor's note: I have no editor].
But from the film they learned: "if you build it, they will come" and it was said by the head monkus in Peoria that women buyers beget lucre since they buy books, CDs, DVDs far more than men. "Ergo," he said, "veee mussen create our own Opus Taylorus book and movie so that vimmen vill buy it and make us all filled with lucre! We'll make it more realistic by acting like it's true!". Evil laughs resounded around the Knights of the Templar table.
"Mr. Ergo!" one impertinent voice said, piercing the aromatic air of crisp Benjamins and fine cigars. All looked at the hairless, white-skinned monk. "Why not just represent it purely as fiction?"
They huddled around, calling him an idiot even though they'd done focus groups and knew the book and movie would be taken factually by a third to half of the readers.
"If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, did it still fall? If a book is taken as factual by half of its readers, is it still fiction?" said the albino monkus.
"I can't be held responsible for other people's stupidity," came the reply.
CHAPTER 2
I followed the action from Peoria to a large metropolis in the northeast. Dan Tan whispered, as if what he were about to tell me could get me killed. "Cloaked under the satyr of night, the heroes of Opus Taylorus traveled to Paris, Tennessee, with the film cannister in their hands. They'd heard of an artist named Leo Vinny who'd painted a velvet Elvis that held many clues..."
Jesus Christ, Pentecost, Our Lady, nothing lost,
Peter, Paul, Linus, Cletus, Clement of Rome.
Athanasius, Ambrose, Thomas More, Thérèse's rose,
Dominic, John the Baptist, Perpetua, Jerome.
Augustine, Eusebius, Greg the Great, James the Just,
Anthony, Alphonsus, Catherine of Siena.
Joan of Arc, Benedict, Magdalena, Patrick,
Bonaventure, Sacred Heart, Teresa of Calcutta.
CHORUS
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
So let's not fight it
John Paul, Joseph, Padre Pio, Francis,
Agatha, Gabriel, Bernadette, Anne.
Francis Xavier, Felicity, Ignatius, Dorothy,
Rita, John, Borromeo, Brigid of Ireland.
CHORUS
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
So pray don't fight it
With, it seems, increasing frequency I come across lay people who are daily praying The Liturgy of the Hours. That is required for priests and members of religious communities. The daily office, as it is called, varies according to the traditions of some religious orders and in most communities is prayed in common or, as it is said, in choir. It is an encouraging thing that lay people, and especially younger lay people, are taking up this spiritual discipline. And even more encouraging when they are able to pray the office with others, as in the family. I count it among the great blessings of my life that, in our little community on 19th Street, we pray at least Evening Prayer together every day.
Survey research regularly turns up the finding that Catholic clergy pray much more than Protestant clergy, and sometimes folks wonder why that should be the case. The answer is not hard to find: The daily office is required. When traveling around the country, I often ask priests and bishops how many priests do they think, based on their experience, pray the office daily. The usual answer is about two-thirds. Of course that is a completely unscientific estimate, but one does feel sorry for the estimated one third who don’t. Because they are failing in their obligation, of course, but, most important, they are denying themselves and the Church a disciplined life of prayer.
At the core of the office are the psalms. An older priest told me he had stopped saying the office many years ago because he couldn’t stomach the imprecatory psalms, sometimes called the violent psalms or psalms of animosity. That is obviously among the failures of his theological formation. The saints had no hesitation in asking the Lord to smite the evildoers hip and thigh–always in the hope of their repentance, of course, unless they have by their own free will precluded that possibility.
More commonly, one hears that the praying of the office has become routine, as in rote. This is usually from people who are affectively greedy, rummaging through what Yeats called the rag and bone shop of the heart to see how their praying is affecting their own sensibilities. Prayer is liturgy, meaning the work of the people of God. One does one’s duty when it is not pleasurable, in the hope that it will happen, as it does at times happen, that one’s duty becomes one’s delight.
I don’t have an answer, never mind a comprehensive answer, to the question of immigration policy. It seems likely, however, that we are not going to have a calm and deliberate discussion of what the policy should be as long as 500,000 (some say 700,000) people are crossing the border illegally each year. Law and order does not guarantee justice, but it is certain there will be no justice without law and order. Once people are assured that the border is under reasonable control, there will be ample time and, I expect, a popular disposition to consider more deliberately what should be done about the 11 or 12 million illegal immigrants already here...
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Signs of spring are lush grass, love, and poetry -- a combination which called for sulphur and molasses in the old days. This year, the lush grass has been washed out by heavy rains or frozen by cold spells, the love has been suppressed by the untimely weather or driven to the less conspicuous fireside--but the poetry; it takes more than inclement weather to affect that mighty manifestation of the change of seasons.
This year, the Journal-News has received, shall we say, classic examples of poetic license. No exception is the one received today from Jack Snively, 224 North F street:Spring is back,But hope springs eternal in the human breast, and the continues on what at first appears to be a more optimistic note.
And we have rain.
Oh! This weather
Gives me a pain.But soon the sun
Will shine a lot,
And then it will be
Too darned hot.
Quotable from outgoing Deacon James Keating:
The pelican was said in medieval bestiaries to peck at its breast in order to feed its young with its own blood. In a variation of the story, it could revive its young after death by sprinkling them with its blood. In both tales, the pelican gives its blood to feed, nurture, and save its offspring, which was seen as a direct analogy with Jesus' sacrifice. Christian commentators thought that this was confirmed by a prophecy about Jesus in Psalm 102, the King James version of which reads 'I am like a pelican of the wilderness' (Psalm 102:6; in more modern translations the pelican is an owl).
"I began to think that the way of spirtuality was the way of virtue, and that such a way attracted people to leave vice behind and take up the challenge of living in virtue. Being centered on law or authority rather than spirituality allows people to excuse themselves under the rationalization that individual laws do not apply to their unique circumstances. But who is excused from allowing Christ to draw one into his sacred love? To be so drawn is the heart of Catholic spirituality._
I have learned that parishioners want their priests, deacons and seminarians to be spiritual leaders. They don't want them to be 'pals'. Also, they don't need them to be competent at secular pursuits as their primary gift, they need and want them to lead them somewhere, and that somewhere is into the mystery of Christ. And so, in awe, the priest must want to go there first.
Because of this calling that the priest receives, I have learned we need to pray deeply for our priests. I have also learned that we get the kind of priests we deserve. If we do not utilize the priest for his spiritual acumen it will dry up...If we are not fascinated with holy, we cannot expect our priests to be spiritual leaders, but alternately, if the priest is not fascinated with the holy, he cannot lead the people into a rich participation into the life, death and resurrection of Christ."
- James Keating, deacon, professor, keynote speaker, now leaving Columbus for the Institute for Priestly Formation in Nebraska
"Well, number 1, lose the title. Folks driving down the highway look at a billboard for a tenth of a second. They ain't gonna comprehend something like 'Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor'. Sounds to me like an inscription on a Roman tomb and people don't want to be reminded of death."FYI: this was a fictional piece.
"But I don't advertise. On billboards or anywhere else."
"We'll change that."
"I don't want to change that."
"Number 2, you need in layman's terms a 'snappy phrase'. In the ad biz we call it a tagline. Something auf ENGLISH monsieur, like Nike's "Just Do It". How about "Just Read It!". I won't even charge you for that one." [laughs uproariously]
"Number 3, you need consistency. Lemme ask you: Do you go to McDonald's expecting a steak dinner? Do you go to a steak house looking for halibut? If I go to your blog for humor I often get grimness and when I hit your site looking for grimness I often get humor. Not good! People go to Welborn for news and commentary - it's a money back GUAR-AN-TEE! They go to Disputations to get humbled, unless you're Chris or Rob who are humble-proof and enjoy a challenge. Yes, don't look surprised - I do read St. Blog's. So lose Scammin' the Scammers, any and all poetry, sentimental vignettes and the Fictional Friday's. In fact, just keep the Globe thing and humorous stuff. Stay away from politics which automatically pisses off half your audience."
"Number 4, more sex. Sex sells. I know it's a Catlick blog, but you gotta keep people's attention. Would it hurt you to put the picture of Paris Hilton out there occasionally? Even if while commenting on how outraged you are by her behavior or whatever? Just get her picture out there."
"Number 5, where are the comment boxes? Blogs are all about interactivity. Helll-ooo McFly! Why do you think Bill O'Reilly reads his emails? Because he doesn't have comment boxes. Comment boxes are to blogs what conjugal relations are to marriage."
It had been a long day and Phil Harrigan considered the effort of cooking less appealing than entering a local Wendy's drive-thru. He studied the offerings like he'd taken the bar exam, looking for weaknesses in a menu that stumped many with bad choices. He settled on the chili.
The quintessentially American restaurant had hired Mexican cashiers, an action the result of attention to dollars, not diversity, though it did add a dimension of piquancy. They looked as exquisitely Mexican as the residents of the village in The Three Amigos, but no curiosity was returned to Harrigan, a customer looking like all other customers, looking as if he'd no great adventure to share, no bracing swim across the Grande nor arid desert trek, just the mandatory heroism of birth, shucking the amniotic fluid for air. He regarded her as having the halo of voluntary heroism; she regarded him as she did the nondescript Wendy's hamburgers.
Her lack of curiosity provided no opportunity to frame the forbidden question "are you illegal?", not even with the issue being constantly paraded across the television news. No way to ask it without sounding rude, condescending or judgmental. He thought her not pretty, looking more like El Guapo's right-hand man than Selena, but she had a certain solidity of character and nobility of gesture. Did he imagine it or was not the offering of the chili done with a cross between Indian directness and Spanish flair?
Souls they both possessed though covered and unseen; she lost his individuality in his commonplaceness just as he missed hers in her exoticness.
During the last few years, Congress has specialized in problem-causing responses to problems. In response to September 11, it created an enormous, sprawling Department of Homeland Security, endorsed by President Bush. Smart analysts said at the time that a collection of 22 disparate agencies could not be made to function effectively, at least not for years...When DHS’s dysfunction played into the chaotic response to Hurricane Katrina, Congress turned around and excoriated the people in charge of the unmanageable department it itself had created. Being in Congress means never having to own up to your own errors, when you can browbeat other people over them during televised hearings instead. Blame always rolls off Capitol Hill onto someone else. The same dynamic has played out in the creation of a new national intelligence director..._
The problem for me is simple: over the years, I’ve read so many books that have had a profound effect on me that it’s nearly impossible for me to single out just one to be the subject of a review for this write-off. And, as it turns out, I’ve already written a review of most of the books that have a great impact on my life!
The other evening, right before going to sleep, I did what has been my nightly habit for the past twenty-four years: I picked up my Bible from the night stand, opened it, and began to read prayerfully from it…
...And suddenly I realized that the New Jerusalem Bible, Standard Edition, a book I’ve read more frequently over the years than any other; a book that has been for me a constant source of spiritual enrichment, inspiration, wisdom, and solace; is the one book that has truly changed my life... and continues to do so each and every day...
The New Jerusalem Bible, Standard Edition: simple, powerful, eloquent, spiritually enriching… and continuously life-changing. These days, I take my NJB Standard Edition with me wherever I go. Before I leave for work, I open it and prayerfully read a few passages. Then I put it into my backpack so that, later in the day, when I take a coffee or lunch break from whatever painting job I happen to be working on, I can delve into God’s Word. And each night before I go to sleep, I read and meditate on God’s Word for me this particular day...
...And I am at peace.
BOSTON, MA-- Blogger/Congressman Patrick Cannady today claimed yesterday that he had no recollection of an embarrassing post he'd posted at 4am on Saturday morning, blaming it initially on beverages taken for medicinal purposes.
He said in a statement yesterday evening that he was apparently disoriented at the time of the post after taking the prescribed amounts of a sleep aid and an anti-nausea drug.
Asked as he left the room if he planned to quit blogging, the six-term blogger responded, "I need to stay in the fight." He does promise to enter rehab, a 12-step program for people who regret what they blog in the morning.
Crime scene
COLUMBUS, OH-- Professed Christian TS O'Rama coveted his neighbor's bible yesterday, thus breaking one of the commandments contained with that bible.
"Ironic, 'eh? But when I saw my neighbor Dan's bible, the new Ignatius number, I fear I was coveting it."
Image of coveted neighbor's good
Tying the knots is rather like driving a manual transmission (Emmanuel Transmission??) It's not difficult....once you know how. Then again, there's a difference between learning to drive, and learning to drive well. I'm still on my learner's permit.
I'm not sure how much time a knot takes. A lot depends on whether the kids are setting the house on fire, and whether the knot is being cooperative or not. (or knot?) Most of them are, but I have rapidly progressed in the art of taking out knots that I insisted on trying to complete when good sense should have told me not to. [*grin*] You'll laugh, but when you tie a happy knot - one that is going to be good, the loops that went 'round and 'round your hand come together in what I find myself calling "the beautiful raspberry." Sounds silly, but it looks an awful lot like a lovely, symmetrical raspberry - with rabbit ears of yarn. The noncooperative ones lack that lovely symmetry. Even though they are "tied right" they are wrong, wrong, wrong. Take 'em out & [*assume Monty Python accent*] start again.
...I learned on rattail, and I think it's great for learning. It also makes a pretty chotki, but I have this perverse taste for natural fibers - or at least a significant percentage of natural fibers. (Classic chotkis were wool.) There is some microfiber (polyester) in the yarn I used for yours, but the greater percentage is wool and cashmere - and I think the "touch" of it is simply lovely. Rattail slides well, and looks pretty, but it's cold and slick. Our hearts are to be on fire for God. I think a chotki should warm in your hand.
Shelby Steele casts White Guilt as an internal monologue on a solitary car trip, undertaken as the Monica Lewinsky scandal was erupting. It occurs to Steele that if Dwight D. Eisenhower had been discovered to have engaged in such sexual escapades, he would have been out of a job in short order. On the other hand, it is rumored that Eisenhower used the N-word occasionally in private conversations — and Steele points out that if Clinton had been heard doing the same, he’d have been on the street in a second. In the late 1960s, he writes, “race replaced sex as the primary focus of America’s moral seriousness.”
...The countercultural revolution conclusively divested white Americans of the moral authority they had always enjoyed. From then on, the culture has allowed whites moral legitimacy only with the requirement that they dissociate from racism. The problem is that showing that one is not racist is not the same as actually helping black people, or even treating them as full human beings.
Whites’ new interest in not looking racist played tragically into a rip that the post-civil-rights era left in the black psychological fabric. The official script is that the urban riots and angry politics were simply a response to oppression. This is a mistake: If it were not, then slavery would have been impossible to maintain. Black America’s problem now was not oppression but, ironically, freedom.
Steele notes that for all groups recently freed from oppression, “freedom shows them their underdevelopment and their inability to compete as equals.” Once racism had become the new pedophilia in terms of social incorrectness, blacks were presented with a tempting strategy for dealing with this insecurity: seeking validation in the theatrics of “black rage.” “Anger is acted out by the oppressed only when real weakness is perceived in the oppressor” — and blacks were now assured that whites would play their part in what Steele has elsewhere described as a dance, dutifully concurring that racism is the source of all black problems.
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The living rule, the holy nun,I have listened intently to the voices of the marginalized, those who have most likely been denied a voice in the discourse, the undocumented immigrants. But I have also tried to hear those on the other side of this debate, people who want to tighten down the borders and impose tougher penalties on immigrants who cross the border illegaly. My instinct is to go back and forth between these “sides” until I have a certain opinion born from hearing all the stories and facts. Unfortunately, that’s impossible as only God has a perfect view of it all. Only God can know the truth with certainty. If I can only approach the truth, but never attain it with absolute certainty, then what’s left? Faith. A wager.- blogger at "Rusty Parts" via Camassia
awaits her Savior in the sun,
and when the sun puts our her light,
awaits her Savior in the night.
-J. Bottum in latest Crisis
The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.It is wonderful in our eyes because the LORD (Reality) has done this.
By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes.
DR DR HENRY Smith.To which I replied, "I want 26%".
BANK OF NIG. PLC,
V/ISLAND LAGOS.
+234-08376-31541
ATTN:SIR,
I am .DR HENRY Smith. an accountant with the Intercontinental BANK OF NIG. PLC and I need your assistance in remmitting a huge ammount of money toyour bank account...[deleting much verbiage].....I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased so that the $15million dollars can be remmitted to your account and then we can share the money,25% to you and 70% for us, while 5% will take care of all expenses that might be incured on the course of the transfer. All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us see this deal through....
"Dear beloved...Greetings and blessing of the lord upon you and your family! Sequel to the receipt of your response mail, the board of trustee and executor to the Will of late Mr. Charles Fredrick, so regards on the share I have agree with the 26% of your share...."To which I just now replied, "I want 27%".
Infact I got your mail, but I am not inpressed at all.
You were talking of 26% before, but now you demanded 27%, are you serious at all?, if I may asked. the way you prize things is not the way business men do prized. are you forced to it?, if you are intreasted, I will afford 26%, so if you know that you will make good at of it , then , get to me back quickly, so that we can move ahead.
thanks.
Dr Henry Smith
Washington, D.C. -- Parents know that the cost of teeth placed under pillows at night has gotten more expensive in recent years.
And the U.S. Government has noticed too: the cost of the Tooth Fairy has been added to the Consumer Price Index.
"We've noticed that despite a lack of supply or demand shocks the cost to parents in the form of monetary remuneration for children's teeth has exceeded the rate of inflation for many years," said chief economist Jonathon Brystal.
"Back in the '70s the going rate was a dime or a quarter. Today it is $2 and sometimes as much as $5 per tooth. Economists attribute it to greater parental affluence but also to competition among neighbors. It appears that the Internet is allowing children to communicate erroneous Tooth Fairy prices to each other and when that information is relayed to parents it is often additionally inflated," said Brystal.
That giant sucking sound you hear -
pray tell, not another sound! -
is that of another edition of The Suburban Weekend,
starring prime time hours freshly festooned
with mowers and blowers
tractors and whackers
punctuated for relief by
the Ice Cream truck
truculently overplaying his song,
until, at last, there is peace
in the valley sundered only
by a sudden exclamation next door,
"lucky yore dad wasn't there, I'd
have planted one on his jaw."
And boy can that boy talk,
and just now I long for a visit
to Jeff Culbreath's monastery in the
California hills.
Grab the nearest book."There are points of interest."
Open it to page 161.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
Don’t search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.
Fictional Friday: Encomium to SpringsteenAnd the poets down here don't write nothin' at allThe words come back as if in a dream or at least the shadowy staging area between chimera and reality in the time before we understood. There in early King Library the pixie’d book-dust glanced ‘gainst our halos as we busted the city in half with our Tenth Avenue freezeout for we'd no choice but to move, jazz’d by our pecuniary and love poverty. We were assured and the exams within and without the ivy halls kept us on the edge of our personal excellence: “And she’s so pretty she’s lost in the stars...”.
They just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night they reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand but they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland
Everything was on the line when the Bard of Jersey sang though we heard him as outsiders: they were born to run, the other, those who lived on the margins. We were born to maintain, conserve, to get a lead and hold it. They gambled it all while we bet the favorite to show and sat out the next ten races. They had the last laugh, losers who proved we're all born to run, born to move or die cuz' "you're not a beauty but hey you're allright...Oh come take my hand, ridin' out tonight to case the Promised Land."
Christological abstraction the Body seemed until stung by her loss we sang the door's open but the ride it ain't free outside a window in northern Virginia where Bonnie'd been living a freeze-dried life and impoverishing the world. We took our stand down in Jungleland, singing so the world could hear:The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive. Tramps like us, baby we were born to run.
“An atheist philosopher said, ‘Man is what he eats.’ . . . Once again, without knowing it, an atheist has expressed the Christian mystery in the best way. Because of the Eucharist, a Christian is truly what he eats.
“The Fathers of the Church took the example of physical nourishment to explain this mystery. It is the stronger form of life, they said, that assimilates the weaker and not vice versa. So, to those who receive him, Jesus says: ‘You shall not change me into you. Instead you shall be changed into me.’ So, while the food that nourishes the body is assimilated by the body and forms human blood, the complete opposite takes place with the bread of life. This bread gives life to those who receive it. It assimilates them and transforms them into itself. Jesus makes us like him in our sentiments, desires, and our way of thinking; in a word, he creates in us ‘the mind that was in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 2:5).
From: Barr. Johnson Kuffour, Esq. (For Trustees)Well I suppose you just can't keep a bad man down. Here's my reply to his reply:
Accra, Ghana.
Telephone/Fax: +233242861170
Dear Andreas Karlsson,
This is to acknowledge your reply to our notification. I can imagine that the late Mr. Edwin Gabriel must have known that you will put the money to good use for the less privileged of which he was aware that you could achieve, that is why he selected you. Also, understand that I don't know you neither have I met you before, but my contacting you is based on the recommendation of my late client Mr. Edwin Gabriel. Please do reconfirm to me through the above stated fax number your full contact details; Full Name, Address,.....
Ol' Ed Gabriel was a balled-face liar I tell ya! Heard from Doc Smitty that on his deathbed he said "tell Karlsson or O'Rama that he's a sumbitch!". I don't have to tell you that them's fighting words in these parts so I don't spect he was overly inclined to leave my name in the will considerin' them last words.Too subtle?
'Sides that, I don't rightly think I should have anything to do with Ed's dirty money, probably stolen from type of hard-workin' but naive yokels who'd respond to email solicitors.
The word "family" tended to be a more comprehensive term in Virginia than in Massachusetts. Virginians addressed relatives of all sort as "coz" or "cousin," in expressions that were heavy with affective meaning; but the term "brother" was used more loosely as a salutation for friends, neighbors, political allies, and even business acquaintances. It is interesting to observe that an extended kin-term tended to be more intimate than the language of a nuclear relationship. The reverse tended to be the case in Massachusetts.
Russians will land on Mars
Cows will possibly be the size of elephants and pigs five feet tall
Cars will be voice activated
30 hour work weeks
Bathrooms will be the home's entertainment center with weight equipment, jacuzzi
Near cure for breast, lung & colon cancer
This book is to be cherished, as with brother Bill's memoir of last year ("And Miles Gone By"), like a strand of hair from a saint; to be pulled out every now and then and pressed to one's heart in longing remembrance of the grandeur that humankind can produce so resplendently every now and again in individuals(as opposed to collectively). Read the book and weep, but with a smile on one's face mirroring the same that radiantly graced it's author's lo these many years.
If one finds difficulty in deciding whether some particular remark applies to one's own case, or in fact, if one hesitates to believe that it has personal reference, it is a mistake to let that uncertainty or hesitation disturb one's peace.
It is always permissible to keep an open mind until one has read more, or until some advice can be obtained on the point. Peace of mind and liberty of spirit are essential for the growth of the spiritual life; and unless there is a clear reprimand from one's conscience, it is always wise to put aside anything in reading which upsets our peace or liberty - even if there be a doubt which appears to have some foundation - until some occasion of wise counsel arises. If God wishes to indicate some line of action to a soul He will not be content with speaking merely once. He will repeat His request with a quiet insistence, which sooner or later will produce a clear and certain knowledge of His wishes. He never blames us for refusing to follow doubtful leads. Uneasiness of this type is nearly always the either the work of the devil or of our own pride.
God dwells not in a violent wind...The surprising effects of ancient music to calm the passions are well attested. By this means St. Francis was raised to the contemplation of heavenly things; and St. Augustine says of himself: "How I wept when I heard thy hymns and canticles, being greatly moved at the delightful harmony of thy church."This reminds me how Pope John XXIII once said that the problem with prayer for many Americans is they (we) are so uptight.
Dear PayPal User:
Your PayPal Account has not been flagged, frozen, beset with unauthorized transactions, plagued by suspicious activity, troubled by system problems, updated with additional email addresses, tampered with or otherwise compromised. No need to log in and give away your password.
The house was homey, lots of wood floors and wood furniture and arched doors and a ceiling that reminded me of a sort of ovaled thatch house. There was something Hansel & Gretel-ish about it. Built in 1920 it could've been 1820 with its patina of age and a pastiche of photographs that have yellowed in their appointed spaces. A framed picture of Shroud of Turin image sat easily in the mix. Very old world. "Colonel William Luse" said a brass plate next to the door bell, his grandfather, definite roots here. I'm distracted not only by the surroundings but by Bill smoking a cigarette that appears to be the world's longest, at least eight inches I'd guess. But it's apparently a cigarette with a long white tip, a holder that seemed last favored by Lauren Bacall and other glitzy '40s film stars. Bill is startingly lean; the body's metabolism naturally slows with age which means the body naturally fattens. Is the life of the mind is his food? Do the cigarettes prevent weight gain?Okay so it's not so secret. I sent the above to him and here is his reply:
To answer your questions: the cigarettes have nothing to do with it. I don't gain weight and never will. I exercise, do yardwork, eat like a pig, and drink like a fish. Other people think it's unfair, and it is. The name plate by the doorbell said "Arthur H. Luse", but that's okay because my dad was a colonel too. The cigarette filter is just another way of kidding myself. The painting to the left of the Shroud image is a watercolor painted by me, which you didn't ask about because I didn't bring it up. There was another one in the bedroom and a passle of them out in Bern's old room. I didn't want
to overwhelm you with my various talents on your first visit.
| Spanning the Globe... |
[Others] desired the charismatic gifts. On Holy Saturday in 1971, Father DeGrandis and Mother prayed over each member of the community. All but one nun experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and everyone experienced something...By Easter Sunday, the whole community was "speaking in tongues."From Raymond Arroyo's biography of Mother Angelica.
"It was all very strange," Mother Angelica remembered. "The gift of tongues didn't really last that long. I think the Lord used it to re- orient my soul, and the sisters toward the Scriptures, so that we talked about them, we read them, and discussed them. It was really the beginning."
KOFFOUR CHAMBERSAlas I'm running out of responses to Nigerian and Ghanese scammers. Charles Darwin was said to have lost his ability to appreciate poetry as he got older; I fear that I'm losing my ability to respond creatively to scammers. In the past I've trotted out Aunt Pixel, have responded in Greek (stolen from Aeschylus) and replied to their fiction with fictional stories of my own. If everyone replied to scammers it would slow their mission to steal so here goes:
8 Middle Temple Lane, Ground Floor, Temple,
Accra, Ghana,
Tel: +233 242 861 170.
Notification of Bequest.
On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the estate of Late Mr. Edwin Gabriel, I once again try to notify you as my earlier letter was returned undelivered. I hereby attempt to reach you again by this same email address on the WILL. I wish to notify you that late Mr. Edwin Gabriel made you a beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Nine One Hundred Thousand Dollars (USD$9,100.000.00) to you in the codicil and last testament to his will.
_____
That no good sunava bitch Ed Gabriel died? Why I don't want his money. That ol' cuss drained Lake Poncbgon just because he knew I liked to go fishin' there! Up and bought the property and drained the sucker. And I cain't prove it but I suspect Gabby stole one of my prize hounds and bred her with his Alaskan Malamute. So don't get me started on him. I don't need any of his nine one hundert thousand dollars. If I know him he probably scammed someone to get it.
I have described New York Times editorials as Eleanor Roosevelt rewritten by Cotton Mather, but I have to confess I do not know what I would do without them--they are as perversely cheering as the misanthropy of Scrooge, who, let's face it, ceased to be very interesting whn he became wise and humane...Another quote while I'm here...
- Let Us Talk of Many Things - WFB
You can go miles and miles in the People's Republic of China without running into Jane Fonda. The free society needs to depend heavily for its national security on the bond of its citizens' affection. If it is strong, no effort is too great to provide for the national security. If it is weak or factious, the requirements of the national security blur in the alienated perceptions of a citizenry disgusted with itself, unconvinced of the value of that which the national security is there to guard.
It was only a year ago that an organization of militant ladies who call themselves Another Mother for Peace bombarded the Congress of the United States with four hundred thousand signatures of Americans who protested the Vietnam War after being advised by Another Mother that the war was actually being fought in behalf of American oil interests. The report had circulated that U.S. oil companies were poised to take four hundred million barrels of oil out of the Indo-Chinese shelf beginning on the day that South Vietnam won its victory. What proved wrong with the story, a congressional committee patiently discovered, is that (a) four hundred million barrels of oil per day is a lot of oil; in fact it is ten times as much oil as is taken daily out of the entire world's oilfields combined; (b) U.S. companies own no concessions of Indo-China; and (c) no oil has yet been discovered off Indo-China.
- from Let Us Talk of Many Things - W. F. Buckley
I feel bombarded by stimuli all the time, and if that's the way someone in the business feels, how do others feel? What everybody seems to need most right now is silence.
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