Keep it up, You're Doing Just Fine!

If our President would like a quick 10-point or so boost to his declining poll numbers all he should do, instead of jetting off to Copenhagen for the climate control conference next week, is go on national television and announce he has decided not to attend the conference because of the recent release of thousands of e-mails casting doubt on the verity of global warming. He might also say he is reserving judgment on any future quotas or restrictions on carbon emissions until those doubts are satisfactorily dealt with.

The President won't do that of course. Since anthropogenic global warming is an article of faith for those on the left, he will go to Copenhagen and read soaring rhetoric off his Teleprompter in support of crippling restrictions on the world economy in the midst of a deep recession. He will receive acclamation from European elites for his stance along with hosannas from pathetic twits like this at the New York Times (note the breathtaking sneering by a soul desperately cognisant his job and "specialty" are in jeopardy) but among most of his and Congress' employers, the approval ratings will continue their inexorable trend downward.

So off you go, Mr. President: have a wonderful trip! And when you get back don't forget to resume thumping for socialized medicine; the Euros and the media will love you all the more for it. Pay no attention at all to what those ignorant rubes who who have to work for a living think. You have have nothing to worry about from them until next November.

New York Vignette

While standing on the corner of 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, waiting for the light to change, an elegant, mink-clad older woman wearing simple but tasteful jewelry approached me. She appeared to be in her late sixties and was quite attractive. She smiled, gave me a friendly greeting and informed me she was looking for extra income; she would be glad to entertain me in her home and further informed me, "I do fellatio."

I politely declined. She bid me a good evening, which I returned, and we went our separate ways.

The Convenience of Politics

Rhode Island Representative Patrick Kennedy is at it again, publicly complaining about Bishop Thomas Tobin's publicly responding to Kennedy's public attacks against Catholic bishops for their opposition to taxpayer funded abortions. Kennedy recently revealed Bishop Tobin, nearly three years ago, asked him (privately) to cease presenting himself for communion, a perfectly reasonable request since by his advocacy of abortion, a mortal sin, Kennedy has already excommunicated himself.

It is likely this brouhaha will lead to another chorus from the left deploring the "politicization" of abortion, notwithstanding those opposed to it do not regard it a political issue at all, rather a moral one. To the Catholic Church, and many others, opposition to the killing of the innocent, whether babes in the womb or adults in the street, can hardly be considered "political;" murder is murder regardless the venue and the Church of course forbids it.

It is people like Congressman Kennedy who politicize abortion and they do so because they have to: any "moral" arguments in abortion's favor are quickly reduced to a defense of homicide, the taking of a life to ameliorate ill effects that life may have on somebody else's. Even in this narcissistic age that appears monstrously selfish so a different ploy must be used. By wrenching abortion into the political sphere not only do Kennedy and company avoid sticky moral issues, they can also insist, by citing separation of church and state, the Catholic Church and other religious "extremists" stay out of a "political" matter.

To a 15-watt bulb like Congressman Kennedy that probably seems clever but to most Catholics, especially Bishop Tobin, it is galling and downright disingenuous. Kennedy would do better to consider the view of this liberal opponent of abortion:

While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized -- the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.

I share the confidence of those who feel that America is working to care for its unwanted as well as wanted children, protecting particularly those who cannot protect themselves. I also share the opinions of those who do not accept abortion as a response to our society's problems -- an inadequate welfare system, unsatisfactory job training programs, and insufficient financial support for all its citizens.

When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception.

The abortion foe who wrote the above, in a letter to a voter (and who later, sadly, apostacized) was the Congressman's father, the late Senator Edward Kennedy.

Quid Quod Erat Demonstrandum

Behold what passes for logic from an international organization that serves no useful purpose and has much too much money (from Aggie Catholics):

The UN Can't Help It...

The United Nations can't help themselves. Years ago they sold an international peacekeeping identity for a radical political agenda. At the front of the agenda is abortion. Another item on their current agenda is global climate change. So, how do you wed these two together into a compelling story?

1 - Make climate change the cause of a great evil.
2 - Make the solution to the great evil abortion.

The result = climate change leads to prostitution, which would go away if abortion-on-demand was furthered, because it would reduce the number of people that stress the climate.

Read it all.

UPDATE: Thank you Daniel Muller for doing the proofing I should have done; this one really was just a typo, "I" being right next to "O." ("Uh-huh," I hear you say.)

Order Before the Easter Vigil and Get This Matching Thurible Absolutely Free!

This is not from the Onion.



There is much noise on the Internets whether or not this is a joke. It is, I am positive, but will entertain opposing views.

Show Trial

Attorney General Eric Holder was grilled recently over his decision that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and four others will be tried in a Federal Courtroom in lower Manhattan rather than by military tribunal.

Senators of both parties also pressed Mr. Holder to say what would happen if Mr. Mohammed or another detainee considered to be a dangerous terrorist was acquitted on a technicality or given a short sentence. Mr. Holder has said he will direct prosecutors to seek a death sentence in the Sept. 11 case.

Other Justice Department officials have said that even if Mr. Mohammed is acquitted, the Obama administration will keep him locked up forever as a “combatant” under the laws of war. But Mr. Holder largely sidestepped such questions, instead simply asserting that he was confident that Mr. Mohammed would be convicted.

“Failure is not an option,” Mr. Holder said.

This is remarkable coming from the Attorney General of the United States (Columbia, Law '76), his assuring us even if Mohammed is found not guilty he will still be locked up forever but not to worry, he will be found guilty, never mind the vagaries of juries. The President (Harvard, Law '91), in fact, has already adjudicated this case before trial. Since the accused earlier offered to plead guilty before a military tribunal (he craves "martyrdom" [sic]), the only purpose in trying Mohammed in court rather than tribunal is is to appease the ACLU and others on the left who refuse to consider an attack by foreigners that killed 2700 Americans an act of war.

So far the President's vast legion of dupes in New York have remained largely silent over this cynical and calculated decision by his Attorney General; the One's messianic status remains intact and they don't want to criticize. However, as lower Manhattan becomes an armed fortress, as Mohammed's trial (as is predicted) drags on for years and as the sense of fear in the pit of the stomachs of those who live in the city, which only disappeared a few years back, returns, the faith of the President's disciples in Manhattan and elsewhere will surely be put to the test unless they are clever enough to find a way to blame even those enormities on George W. Bush.

Waiting for the Outrage

Our President when

asked about those who find it offensive that [Khalid Sheikh] Mohammed will receive all the rights normally accorded to U.S. citizens when they are charged with a crime...

“I don't think it will be offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him,” Obama told NBC’s Chuck Todd.

Those of a certain age will remember this headline and the ensuing furor from outraged liberals.

Which Side are You On?

The President is drawing the line: a tough choice is coming up for liberal Catholics.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Top Obama advisor David Axelrod on Sunday confirmed what pro-life advocates already suspected would happen. He said President Barack Obama will work with congressional Democrats to remove the abortion funding ban the House approved in its version of the government-run health care bill.

Axelrod says that, because the Stupak amendment allegedly goes beyond the status quo under the Hyde amendment (which bans abortion funding under Medicaid), Obama will make sure the amendment is yanked during the conference committee.

The Vatican Reconsider Music

From Chiesa:

Great Roman Polyphony Returns to Saint Peter's

Not in a concert, but in a Mass. It will be conducted by Domenico Bartolucci, the most brilliant interpreter of Palestrina's music alive today. He was removed as head of the Sistine Chapel choir twelve years ago, but now, with Pope Benedict, has finally been rehabilitated...

Among the arts to be represented in the Sistine Chapel next Saturday, November 21, at the highly anticipated meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, music is perhaps the one that has suffered the most from the divorce that has taken place between artists and the Church.

The distress in music has been the first to afflict the Church. Because while the masterpieces of Christian painting, sculpture, and architecture still remain accessible to all, even if they are ignored and misunderstood, great music literally disappears from the churches if no one performs it anymore.

The return of real music, properly performed, to Holy Church is as welcome as the return of Latin; majesty with Magisterium.

My Kind of Blog...

is this new one called Barchester, which makes the modest claim of being the "most fatuous tenth-rate entertainment ever devised by man." Who can argue with that? Thus far the blog has concerned itself with putative Anglo-Catholics who ♥ Geneva, brain-dead liberals and Fred Mertz's pants; worthy subjects all. Watch out, they take no prisoners.

Takes Two to Tango

Nostra culpa from Nigeria:

Traditional African rulers should apologise for the role they played in the slave trade, a Nigerian rights group has said in a letter to chiefs.

"We cannot continue to blame the white men, as Africans particularly the traditional rulers, are not blameless," said the Civil Rights Congress.

The letter said some collaborated or actively sold off their subjects.

The group said it was time for African leaders to copy the US and the UK who have already said they were sorry.

It urged Nigeria's traditional rulers to apologise on behalf of their forefathers and "put a final seal to the history of slave trade", AFP news agency reports.

The modern trend of apologizing for the sins of our ancestors 400 years ago is a pernicious one but this is nonetheless a worthy gesture by the Nigerians: acknowledging transactions involving slavery were no different from any others in so far as they required two parties. If the story gets any press in this country (and I doubt it will but kudos to the BBC for running it) it will certainly sap the potency of one of the left's preferred ideological weapons: guilt over slavery, selectively and collectively applied to the west alone.

(Thanks to the MCJ)

This is Just Sad

The Archbishop of Canterbury, seeing the writing on the wall, is reduced to begging.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has pleaded with the Church of England’s Anglo-Catholics to resist the temptation to convert to Roman Catholicism over women bishops.

Dr Rowan Williams admitted that the future of the Anglican Communion looked “chaotic and uncertain”.

Preaching in london, he said: “God knows what the future holds.” But he insisted that it remained possible to be at once holy, Catholic and Anglican.

You have to feel sorry for the Archbishop as he contemplates the future of his "Catholic" church without Catholics. Give him his due however for at least begging them to stay. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church all but begs them to leave, albeit after they hand over the keys and bank books.

The Making of Airborne Amtrak

Cambridge blubberer Barney Frank recently stated he wants to "increase the role of government in the area of regulation" and as if on cue, comes now word the Obama Administration wants to re-regulate the airlines, no doubt at the behest of the unions. Say goodbye to cheap fares.

How ironic that these feckless cynics, who only a few months ago wept at the demise of Ted Kennedy, now seek to reverse one of the few good legislative achievements of the late Senator, one that was signed into law by Jimmy Carter no less. They must think Bush had something to do with it.

A Liberal Democrat Channels "Tricky Dick"

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is fit to be tied over Catholic bishops opposing taxpayer funded abortions ("a perfectly legal surgical procedure," she calls it charmingly) and is not going to take it lying down: sic the IRS on them, she says.


Madder than a wet hen

(h/t Robbo)

But My Brother Esau is an Hairy Man,

But I am a smooth man.

"What is church?" Brought to you by the Archbishop of Canterbury.



Thanks to Barchester.

An Offer He Shouldn't Refuse

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (Teddy's kid and by consensus the dumbest Kennedy of them all) recently spoke out against the Stupak Amendment, which bans federal funding of abortions in the recently passed health care bill. Kennedy later issued a statement insisting: “the fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” To which the Bishop of Providence, Thomas Tobin, responded in an open letter to him: Oh yes it does.

[B]eing a Catholic (said the bishop) means that you’re part of a faith community that possesses a clearly defined authority and doctrine, obligations and expectations. It means that you believe and accept the teachings of the Church, especially on essential matters of faith and morals; that you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish; that you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly; that you support the Church, personally, publicly, spiritually and financially.

Congressman, I’m not sure whether or not you fulfill the basic requirements of being a Catholic, so let me ask: Do you accept the teachings of the Church on essential matters of faith and morals, including our stance on abortion? Do you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish? Do you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly? Do you support the Church, personally, publicly, spiritually and financially?

As already noted, Patrick is a little slow so he may not know all the answers to His Grace's questions but the rest of us probably do. Bishop Tobin then delivers the one-two punch.

Your position is unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members. It absolutely diminishes your communion with the Church.

His Grace closes his missive offering to assist Patrick Kennedy as he "travel[s] the road of faith." Since it is generally agreed Kennedys need all the help they can get when on the road let us hope he accepts the Bishop's kind offer.

(h/t Creative Minority Report.)

On Display Today at the Church of Our Saviour in New York

A relic of Mary Magdalene.

Nunc dimittis

Today the Vatican published the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, which "introduces a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow [groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world] to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony."

Absolutely extraordinary, I never thought I would live to see the day. Viva il Papa!

Let's Pretend

Ace reporter Chris Matthews says we may never know if religion was a factor at Fort Hood, never mind that

...according to eyewitnesses, colleagues, and friends...[Major Nidal Malik Hasan] considered the war on terror a “war on Islam” and himself a Muslim first and an American second; he thought Muslims had the right to stand up to the “aggressor” in the Middle East and is suspected of posting things online about the selfless heroism of jihadist suicide bombers; he was placed on probation for proselytizing about Islam to patients and colleagues and was sufficiently devout that he refused to have his picture taken with women; he once used a lecture at a medical conference as an opportunity to discuss how the Koran orders decapitation for infidels; and, oh yes, he yelled “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire.

Let's pretend Major Hasan was a pious Catholic who attended mass daily, prayed the Rosary frequently and made a habit of picketing abortion clinics; or better yet, he was a protestant fundamentalist. Do you suppose Matthews (a Catholic himself) and his colleagues would still effect that same scrupulous objectivity over the part religion might have played in the slaughter?

UPDATE: You have wonder what effect this atrocity will have on Army moral, both here and abroad, as word gets out that despite Hasan's increasingly anti-American rhetoric, to the point of loudly defending those killing American troops, the brass simply looked the other way. Why should those in the lower ranks willingly face the enemy when officers to whom their care has been entrusted appear to place higher value on political correctness than the safety of their charges?

Stretching the Imagination

Presidential Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on the health care bill and Tea Party protests against it:

You hear in this debate, you hear analogies, you hear references to, you see pictures about and depictions of individuals that are truly stunning, and you hear it all the time. People — imagine five years ago somebody comparing health care reform to 9/11. Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler [emphasis added].

Yep, just imagine.

Cook County Counting

Breaking news!

Illinois data on stimulus-related jobs saved, created don't add up

More than $4.7 million in federal stimulus aid so far has been funneled to schools in North Chicago, and state and federal officials say that money has saved the jobs of 473 teachers.

Problem is, the district employs only 290 teachers.

"That other number, I don't know where that came from," said Lauri Hakanen, superintendent of North Chicago Community Unit Schools District 187.

Gee whiz, you'd think the Chicago Tribune could solve this mystery, especially since it concerns a former Chicago politician and his cronies: that other number is dead teachers' jobs that were "saved."

Ride 'Em Cowboy!

I've never been a huge fan of Lenny Bruce but this recent item about a man sentenced to three years in the jug for enjoying carnal relations with a horse (no word if they were consensual but he was a repeat offender!) brings to mind one of Bruce's funnier routines, in poetic form: "Psychopathia Sexualis" (ignore the illustrations, they don't add much).

Rage Fueled by Greed

Planned Parenthood, panicking that national health insurance and the public funding of abortions may be going off the rails, is recruiting "pro-choice Catholics" [sic] to "defy the U.S. bishops, who are campaigning against the current versions of health care legislation on Capitol Hill because they fund abortion."

“One thing I know for sure,” [Cecile Richards,] the Planned Parenthood president states, “the bishops don't speak for all Catholics. If you're Catholic and you disagree with the bishops, please let your legislators know when you send your message. Your voice as a pro-choice Catholic needs to be heard NOW.”

One thing I know for sure is Ms. Richards' ignorance of the Catholic Church. Not that she knows any but had she consulted a properly catechized Catholic before releasing this astoundingly idiotic statement she would have learned that

• Catholics who publicly oppose Church teachings on abortion are automatically excommunicated, thus they are no longer members of the Catholic Church. A "pro-choice Catholic" is an impossibility.

• Bishops, when voicing their opposition to government-funded abortions, do speak for all Catholics; those who proclaim the bishops do not speak for them on abortion are not and cannot be Catholics.

Ms. Richards gives her game away here.

“[W]e are so close” to passing the current legislation. “In my lifetime, we've never been closer to expanding access to affordable health care for everyone. I don't think we'll get another chance, and we've got to do everything we can not to let it slip away.”

Several years ago I attended an investment seminar at which the instructor asked the class the following question: "What is the purpose of a profit-making corporation?" The answer came quickly and was, of course: "To make money." The instructor then asked: "What is the purpose of a non-profit corporation." Nobody got that one right but the answer was the same as before: "To make money." Planned Parenthood is a non-profit corporation that makes a substantial portion of its considerable income providing abortions. The organization stands to up its receipts substantially with the enactment of health care "reform" that includes federally funded abortions and its well paid executives fairly salivate at the prospect. Now they see the Catholic Church working actively to thwart the raking in of this ill-begotten booty and they are absolutely furious. Good.

UPDATE: Speaker Pelosi’s Government-Run Health Plan Will Require a Monthly Abortion Premium.

UPDATE 2. Broken link in update above now fixed.

(Thanks to Augustine.)

What Happened in NY 23?

Reader PMG writes:

Bovie, As a resident of the Empire State, I'd be interested in your input as to your US Rep race that just completed. I see the RINO, bailed out and endorsed the Democrat, not the Conservative.Michael Steele, are you listening?

PMG, wish I could oblige you but I cannot explain the results of that race. I do know the New York State Republican organization is a disaster, that its hands are every bit as dirty as its Democratic counterpart; that both parties are nothing more than patronage machines. The Republicans seem less concerned with winning than just having a presence so that they may continue scarfing up taxpayer dollars for doling out to party cronies. The party is increasingly despised, especially upstate.

That does not however explain why voters in NY 23 didn't go for Hoffman, I know for sure they have not suddenly shifted leftward, not by a long shot. Bloggress Ann Althouse suggests the outcome may have had more to do with the personalities and even the physiognomies of the candidates. I dare say she may be right.



Doug Hoffman

Hope and Change at Last

Thanks to John J. O' Sullivan™ for this pic of a billboard he has suffered for over a month while walking to and from the train to work. If the Democrat organization in New Jersey has any sense at all it will be papered over by this evening but my preference would be it to remain up for months as it becomes increasingly faded and tattered.

`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Here's hoping, anyway.

Not That He's Telling Us Anything We Don't Already Know...

But it carries so much more authority coming from him: Archbishop Timothy Doyle lays waste to perpetual adolescent and embittered former Catholic, Maureen Dowd.

She digs deep into the nativist handbook to use every anti-Catholic caricature possible, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, condoms, obsession with sex, pedophile priests, and oppression of women, all the while slashing Pope Benedict XVI for his shoes, his forced conscription -- along with every other German teenage boy -- into the German army, his outreach to former Catholics, and his recent welcome to Anglicans.

His Grace was reacting to MoDo's New York Times column containing a laundry list of feminist complaint directed at the Holy Father and Catholic traditionalists (one of her darts is aimed at those who consider it inappropriate to perform that shrill hoary paean to radical feminism,"The Vagina Monologues," on the campuses of Catholic colleges and Universities).

New York Times readers will not see the Archbishop's response, it was rejected for publication. His Grace should take solace, however, knowing that at least 98 percent of Times readers, when seeing his byline, would have skipped over it anyway.

A Peculiar Ritual

Walking the streets of midtown today I noticed numerous Euro-types bedecked with gold-tone medals attached to orange ribbons (I thought one only wears medals with formal evening clothes). Wondering why, I did a little research and learned every year at this time a vast horde from around the world descends on the city to take a prescribed tour on foot, running as if their lives depended on it, through mostly slum neighborhoods in all five boroughs before ending up in Central Park. Only a small number of them are compensated for their arduous labors, the rest actually spend considerable sums of their own to take part and have nothing but sore muscles, depleted bank accounts and the aforementioned medals to show for it.

For the life of me, I cannot fathom why anyone would engage in such foolishness. Why don't they just just take cabs? It would be so much easier.

Congress Pays Obeisance to Its Owners

Buried in the 2000 pages of Speaker Pelosi & Company's health care bill is this interesting item:

Section 2531, entitled “Medical Liability Alternatives,” establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation. [But]…… a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys’ fees or imposes caps on damages.

So if a state enacts legislation that could conceivably, if you close your eyes and clap your hands, defer the ambulance chasers from their ruinous assaults on doctors and hospitals, they are eligible for "incentive payments" (courtesy the taxpayers, of course). But if states pass legislation that limit or cap the actual take of these bloodsuckers, in other words legislation with teeth, they get nothing at all. A trial lawyer I know, who had a sense of humor at least, named the new yacht he bought after a particularly lucrative settlement, "Pain and Suffering." In the future, the yacht names of choice will be "Pelosi" and "Reid."

I'm beginning to think the best possible outcome for the health care debacle is for this monstrous bill to be passed. Once on the books the public can, at its leisure, have a good hard look at what the Democrats have done to them and take appropriate action the next election.

Who Knew?

Helen Keller, eugenicist:

She was a personal friend and strong admirer of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the country;

She was a strong advocate of birth control and sterilization;

She was a supporter of the eugenics movement, once declaring, in an ironic twist, that: “Our puny sentimentalism has caused us to forget that a human life is sacred only when it may be of some use to itself and to the world.”

(Thanks to Augustine.)

Sorry Son, You're Not Gonna be Mary Poppins This Year!

How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son

Remember, These People Think They're Smarter than Us

I'd love to be in an American Legion or VFW hall when this starts making the rounds.

'Desecrated flag' video is DNC finalist



One of the 20 finalists in health care video contest run by Barack Obama’s campaign arm features a mural of an America flag splattered with health care graffiti until it’s covered completely by black paint.

[snip]

A contestant whose video didn’t make the final-20 cut complains that a video “defacing the flag” won’t do much to help President Barack Obama or the Democrats sell health care reform.

“They should never pick that,” said the contestant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It makes the Democrats look really, really bad.”

Gee, you think?

And just who were the geniuses who gave the nod to this mind-numbingly stupid excrescence? Why "a panel of 'qualified' Democratic National Committee 'employee judges,' " no less.

My fear of these morons has somewhat abated in the last three months; if only we can survive the next three years.

Those Empty Pews