Irish Song Friday



"Farewell To Carlingford"

When I was young and in my prime
And could wander wild and free
There was always a longing in my mind
To follow the call of the sea

Chorus:
So I'll sing farewell to Carlingford and farewell to Greenore
And I'll think of you both day and night
Till I return once more, till I return once more

On all of the stormy seven seas
I have sailed before the mast
And on every voyage I ever made
I swore it would be my last

(Chorus)


Now, I had a girl called Mary Doyle
And she lived in Greenore
And the foremost thought that was in her mind
Was to keep me safe onshore

(Chorus)

Now, the landsman's life is all his own
He can go or he can stay
But when the sea gets in your blood
When she calls you must obey

Pray for Fr. Greeley

Dog Bites Man

NPR Arrogant? Whoda thunk it?:

610 WTVN was all set to broadcast live from the Democratic party headquarters at the Columbus Renaissance Hotel on election night when National Public Radio went rogue and decided that the 610 broadcast line belonged to them.

“They literally unplugged our line from the clearly labeled phone jack, and plugged their equipment in, and never looked back,” said Mike Elliott, Program Director for 610.

NPR White House correspondent David Green apparently refused access, even as 610 engineers pointed to their shirts with logos that matched the one on the phone jack, Elliot said.

But the badass nonprofit radio correspondents wouldn’t budge, despite the fact that 610 had paid $325 to secure the line for the night. NPR told 610 that the Ohio Democratic Party gave them permission to intercept the line because they were national.

“They were pretty arrogant,” said Elliot, who said he was going to forward the bill to either NPR or the ODP. “The entitlement kicked in, the whole bit.”

So, 610 called the cops. Columbus police didn’t want the hassle and told the stations to share the line, according to Elliot. No report was filed.

Speaking of dog bites man stories, how's this one? (HT: TB.) Elsewhere in The Other Paper we learn the secret to Democrat parties:

Decrease food, increase beer: Responsible parties offer snack foods that help absorb alcohol to prevent sickness and drunkenness. Then there are Democrat parties: one ounce of food per 16 ounces of alcohol. Pee and repeat until liquor license expires.

Invite at least one person who will dance to a beat that exists only in their mind and who will let people photograph them doing it: In this case, the Dems had about 50 of these. This makes them cool times infinity.

Finally...Parody is Therapy Updated... with the story about the growing intolerance over long, sophisticated soundbytes like "It's the economy, stupid!" (as favored by the '92 Clinton campaign) in favor of shorter catch-phrases like "Yes We Can!" or better still "Change!"

Haiku o' the Day

Smock's classic all-time haiku, author unknown, is a great one:

tiny hotel soap
too small to wash my body
yet i take you home

On a semi-related note, this worthy addiction* goes out to Bill Luse who has something of a fetish on the subject and is currently attending a twelve-step program in Wisconsin. No word if Ms. Hayek is seeking help for hers.

* - For me not to make any further comment on this story requires the forbearance of ten men. The only way I can convey the strength of the pull is to imagine Michael Scott being given the perfect opportunity to say "and that's what she said". And he didn't! Instead I'll just ask the reader to kindly provide his own punchline(s).

This Just In...

There is something slightly mortifying about skipping in an estrogen-soaked pool while raising "your hands in the air like you don't care" to quote an old '80s song. But that's the essence of water aerobics, with the added discomfort of passersby getting their pound of eyeful. But mortification is good for the soul and though it doesn't look gay* for women to do these things it's cringe-worthy in a guy so thus my attempt not to look at my brother-in-law, the other dude in the pool, lest I be confirmed in that opinion. I'm just glad there are no mirrors in the pool area.

* - NTTAWWBGUYAOI applies (i.e. not that there's anything wrong with being gay unless you're acting on it).

A Quick Thought on Capitalism...

I wonder how much of the evils of capitalism are actually the evils of wealth. The Renaissance popes, for example, were materialistic and greedy without any help from capitalism. Is it because we have the goods and services that we are greedy and materialistic? If, as in Soviet Russia, the supermarkets are nearly empty or you have very little choice, then won't there necessarily be less greed and materialism? Is it because capitalism is successful in reducing poverty that it increases spiritual ills? I'm just asking, hence all the questionmarks.

How about a few more: At the very least, doesn't capitalism take on the flavor of the time and culture it lives in? Wasn't turn of the century America, still enraptured by social Darwinism and endowed with only the fittest survive philosophy (it was in the air back then; see Margaret Sanger), more amenable to child labor and other labor abuses because of that rather than something inherent in capitalism? Aren't the corporate sins of today, shown so spectacularly by Enron and others, less imaginable during the '50s in which America in general and corporate leaders in particular were more apt to play by the rules even without the hoovering eye of the Securities and Exchange Commission watching them?

Via here.

Matter Matters

Though made of recycled dust
it matters not
since God made dust.

New EWTN Series...

...with a set that looks very NFL pre-game showish:

Hope no fights break out as that would just be embarrassing. Potential drinking game: drink every time a sports analogy is applied to the spiritual life. (Though drinking during a show like that would feel very wrong.)

The Writer in Winter

John Updike reflects.

And while linking, George Rutler on Benson's "Lord of the World" via Sancta Sanctis.

Velvet Glove?

Forgot where I found it, but this is an interesting link. There's almost undoubtedly going to be a lot of inflation going forward; I just wonder how to protect assets in that environ. And, on the issues of freedom:

Will Obama's be the strong-man socialism of a Chavez, or the soft socialism that Clement Atlee used to defeat Churchill after WWII? I don't know, but I suspect something kind of in between. Despite right-wing predictions that we won't see Rush shut down by Fairness Doctrine fascists. We won't see Baptist ministers hauled off in handcuffs for anti-sodomy sermons. It will more likely be a matter of paperwork. Strong worded letters from powerful lawyers in and out of government to program directors and general mangers of radio stations. Ominous references to license renewal.

Indeed

From First Things:

"We need first to recognize that politics is the art of the possible and that political battles can never be won by attacking our friends. During the annual march on Washington each January, some pro-lifers have had nothing better to do than to stage confrontations with pro-life members of Congress whose support they consider insufficiently militant. I received such an attack myself, during a previous presidential campaign, when a listener found the decibel count of a strong pro-life homily I preached too low. This is madness."

That's why I parodied that tendency in the ol' Parody is Therapy blog recently. Of course by atttacking those who attack our friends I was probably making things worse.

Just remember, we're the party that believes in the necessity and meaning of suffering--and especially humiliation. So really, we win again! Offer this $#@! up, y'all. - Eve Tushnet, listing a positive of the Obama win

As a black conservative, I can appreciate how far we have come in this country — I even felt a tinge of pain as my family and I went to the polls and voted against Obama — but we will not have truly transcended race in America until who you voted for is not assumed because of the color of your skin. - commenter on "The Corner"

Rather than looking at Obama as an African, or an African-American, or a fringe liberal, his story makes most sense if you think of him being the child of a broken family. It's all there -- the need to be loved by everybody, the identity crisis and drug use, the relishing attention, the search for a community to belong to (even the point of organizing a community to be a part of). So if you want to blame your (Babyboom) generation for something in particular, how about skyrocketing divorce? As for my generation, well, as you say, Gens X and Y, which I straddle, are simply practicing crass identity politics. Obama to them really is "new" and fresh, nevermind the specifics. It's really something to see, and I don't think I would have understood the depths of it if not for the Facebook account I opened in March. My generation is sinfully stupid. - commenter on Bill Luse's blog

Politics has never really been my thing. At least that's the kind of thing I say. I say it, and try to believe it, mostly because I don't want to get in trouble...The truth is, however, politics IS my thing. It's my thing primarily because God made it my thing when he made me. He made all of us to be political - to use our gifts and talents and formed insights for the good of society. This is involves such 'nasty' things as actually listening to one another, thinking, researching, building community, and putting yourself out there both in both dialogue and action. - Mary of "Broken Alabaster"

I must re-read Huxley's Brave New World. A feminine form of totalitarianism. How lovely. I always thought Huxley's title came from Shakespeare's Miranda in The Tempest, but Wikipedia set me straight when it points out a poem from Rudyard Kipling in 1919 with the following lines: "And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins / When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins. . ." - blogger at Muellerstuff

I don’t mind making logical arguments in the public forum. I just think it’s a misguided use of resources to expect that they will have much impact. Amy, I don’t know anyone who was directly influenced by Catholics for Obama, but they didn’t need to be. The tide sweeping the U.S. (of which Cs for O is a symptom, not a cause) picked them up and carried them off just fine. So what do we do now? I’m feisty and I’m not just going to sit here. And, figuratively speaking, I can see Russia from my house. - Roz of Exultet

There’s a wrenching non sequitur for you. - Tom of Disputations responding to the comment 'as an attorney himself, Prof. Kmiec surely knows the importance of candor.'

Christians who voted for Obama told themselves that we just needed a "change."... Those folks drank a little too deeply of the Obama Kool Aid. Other Christians are patting themselves on the back for voting 3rd party, and from what I can gather are comforting themselves by thinking these are the last days I guess. And my nemesis Candy thinks Obama was elected because of the Jesuits. I kid you not. In the meantime I think for pro-life conservative Christians, we have to keep the faith, we have to live the faith and we have to be more outspoken about it. Steve Kellmeyer notes that it took France just ten years to go from a monarchy to a dictatorship. As long as we have a constitution, congressmen only have a two year term and those elections are coming up in 2010. Congressmen have a six year term, and the president is up every four. Let's calm down, regroup, and prepare to make a "change" and send a message then. - Elena of "My Domestic Church"

Conservatism is inherently a tradition of complicity, satire, internal conflict, and cynicism. So with the Messiah as our next president, we're in like Patricia Quinn! - Another from Eve Tushnet

That's all your money. - Barack Obama via "Social Engineer" concerning one U.S. corporation's profit

And while the agony of having a tattoo has been likened to childbirth - the most painful areas are anywhere that is bony, and on the tender flesh of the inside of the wrist - there is only one form of tattoo that has ever denoted real suffering, or real heroism. My best friend's grandmother has a tattoo, a series of numbers, on the inside of her wrist...She was given the tattoo when she was a small child, upon entering a Nazi concentration camp. - Liz Jones

“Abolitionists need to reach out to Jefferson Davis knowing well that he will not agree with them on some 'fundamental issues'...“Capitalists need to reach out to Joe Stalin knowing well that he will not agree with them on some fundamental issues”...“Jews need to reach out to Hitler knowing well that he will not agree with them on some fundamental issues”...Pro-lifers reaching out to Obama is as pathetic as it is stupid. - Commenter on "American Catholic" blog

"Arbeit macht frei" (work makes you free, or work brings freedom) was not first and foremost a Nazi slogan. It originally was the title of a novel by Lorenz Diefenbach, but gained wide currency as a good progressive/liberal catchphrase in the Weimar Republic to justify big New Dealish public works programs. - Jonah Goldberg at "Liberal Fascism"

In the last four decades, following the pattern of American Protestantism, many, perhaps most, Catholics view the Church in terms of consumption rather than obligation. The Church is there to supply their spiritual needs as they define those needs, not to tell them what to believe or do. This runs very deep both sociologically and psychologically. It is part of the “success” of American Catholics in becoming just like everybody else. Bishops and all of us need to catch the vision of John Paul II that the Church imposes nothing, she only proposes. But what she proposes she believes is the truth, and because human beings are hard-wired for the truth, the truth imposes. And truth obliges. - Fr. Neuhaus at "First Things"

Various

I often think of George W. Bush as the anti-Nixon. Nixon was a policy wonk who was mostly competent (though not on economic policy) and who was accused, fairly, of corruption. Bush is a non-policy with difficulties with competency but who was unfairly accused of corruption (i.e. lying). Nixon would've never planned a war without taking elections into account, while Bush was completely oblivious to any sort of "end the war before the mid-term elections" kind of talk. Refreshing. The war would end when Iraqis were ready for it to end, when they had a stable country. The opposite of Vietnam.

Bush and Carter, born-again Christians with a strong sense of morality about them, both ended up being very unpopular. I think the common denominator is that when you feel a close relationship with Christ you have less need the reassurance of the polls or public opinion. You do unpopular things, like Carter's energy conservation program ('wear sweaters!') or Bush's taking seriously the threat of Saddam Hussein, and you'll pay the price for it at the polls.

Bill O'Reilly I think correctly identified Bush's post-war Iraq difficulties as "rich guy syndrome", the tendency not to have a sense of urgency about a problem because things tend to work out for rich guys. For those raised in the working class, disaster is always in play, always present on the horizon. But if you're born into wealth and power you lose that fear. Things always seem to work out. So when Iraq went awry - which was almost the first day given that widespread looting was allowed - he didn't clamp down.

It's part of what makes GWB not a true conservative. He doesn't take a skeptical view of human nature. He didn't anticipate looting in Baghdad because we would be declared liberators. It was a minor utopian vision that besets all on the left and even some on the right. Bush seemed to identify the good guys and the evil guys and not recognize that there are a lot of in between guys, due to Original Sin.

It's hard to even begin to be objective about Bush given the way he's been treated in the media. I wonder how much of my own attitude towards him is media-derived. Much of what is associated with him he deserves no fault: Enron, the mortgage crisis, the poor economy, Katrina. But war is a big thing, and rightly so.

* * *
So my boss comes over yeterday and tells me about his 90-year old's aunt fixation with Michelle Obama: "She's not pretty. And would you get a look at that dress she wore!"

I think she's pretty. Women are hardest on women I suspect, so I ask if she's that hard on Hillary. He said yes. Does she like Palin? Oh yes, he says, she was very upset about the way the media treated her.

Speaking thereof, I was surprised by the CNN reporter's reaction during an interview with Chevy Chase. She was surprised that he said he was trying to get Carter elected when he was portraying Ford as an clumsy oaf. I thought it was sweetly naive of her. Transparency is good although ignorance is bliss. It's more enjoyable to watch SNL if you didn't know there was the ship of an agenda behind it.

It turned out Gwen Ifill had a conflict of interest given her Obama book coming out but it was only because she had an obvious conflict of interest that made her a less obvious cheerleader. But it's not as if the other reporters didn't have an obvious conflict of interest given their ideology. It's when it's hidden, either because they are a comedian like Chevy Chase or a comedian-commentator like Chris Matthews, who recently boasted that he will do his best to make sure Obama has a successful presidency. Is that a journalist's job? But then it's especially rich he would say that given his desire to tear Bush down during a war. But there's a reason the phrase "it is what it is" has become so famous. It is what it is.

So Michelle Obama's dress on election night seems to have drawn a lot of attention and this blog would lack the comprehensive aspect it strives for if I didn't comment on it. I thought it a bit black widow spidery. I think it represented a lot of pent-up demand in that she had to dress like a soccer mom all those campaign days in order to reassure voters. Once it was over she could be herself. It's sort of like how if you read too much cloying stuff you need a dollop of Edgar Allen Poe. That was her Poe dress.

Interesting Sunday Homily from Our Pastor

A paraphrase:

Why did Jesus drive out the moneychangers and merchants from the Temple? They were, after all, performing a necessary service. There could be no image of Caeasar in the temple, so the moneychangers were exchanging Roman money for Temple money as well as selling the animals that would be used for sacrifice. Those traveling a long distance to Jerusalem may not have an animal and so the moneychangers and sellers were doing a good thing.

What Jesus objected to was how the buying and selling became the focus and how the sacred space of the Temple was being ignored and taken for granted. It became a social occasion, where people would meet and talk and laugh. Many were casually walking through the Temple as a shortcut to other destinations. Others were treating the Temple as a mall.

The word "church" has different meanings in different languages. In some, it means "assembly". In others it means "sacred space". The Catholic Church has always tried to maintain both meanings. People are sacred, being made in the image and likeness of God, and so it is always fitting to say that the Church is "the People of God". But it's also true to say that God is present not only within us but also in this church, in the tabernacle. And we've seen in the past that we get in trouble if we think of God as only present within us. It's then that God becomes like us to the point that he is us. We begin to think whatever we would approve, God would. That is why the Church prefers that Masses be held in the sacred space, consecrated to God. We go to Him, as the Israelites went on pilgrimage and to Jerusalem. It is a precarious balance that the Church has long tried to maintain.