Nemesis

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church is working furiously to have Bishop Robert Duncan of the Diocese of Pittsburgh deposed before he pulls the diocese out of the the church, in other words, she's trying to fire him before he can quit. Duncan, of the evangelical rather than the catholic branch of the Episcopal Church, recently sent a letter to the presiding bishop, responding to her and some committee's demand he aver he is "fully subject to the doctrine, discipline and worship of [the Episcopal] Church." This he does and offers eight examples to support his affirmation (you can read them here). Perhaps unwittingly, however, Bishop Duncan, in his third example, provides a clue to what led to the undoing of the Episcopal Church, and what will, in all likelihood, lead to the breakup of the Anglican Communion: "I have preached and taught nothing but what faithful Anglicans and mainstream Christians have always preached and taught, with the exception only that I have supported and encouraged the ministry of women in Holy Orders" (emphasis added).

It seems peculiar Bishop Duncan should bring up women's ordination here and I wonder if he does so as if to cry out in protest to the presiding bishop: "Look here: on this matter, so sacred to you to you and your ilk, I am on your side. How dare you come after me!" If that was the bishop's ploy, it will have no effect. Liberals in the Episcopal Church, as do those in politics, have a hoary tradition of extracting all they can out of members of the opposition, then dumping or destroying them once they are no longer needed, or are in the way. Sadly for Bishop Duncan, that "exception" he supports, the ordination of women, is the wedge that created the opening through which countless bizarre innovations have been forced onto the Episcopal Church, rendering it into the Gnostic, cult-worshiping organization it is today; once that sine qua non of Catholicism, the male priesthood, was abrogated, it was inevitable Episcopalian liberals would come to regard most other hallmarks of catholic worship as antiquated and in need of updating or jettisoning.

By all accounts Bishop Duncan is a good and decent man but his and his colleagues' acquiescing so many years ago to the liberal demand for women priests (which he still supports) has come back to haunt him, in a way he could not have imagined in his wildest dreams.

(h/t the MCJ.)

Nemesis

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church is working furiously to have Bishop Robert Duncan of the Diocese of Pittsburgh deposed before he pulls the diocese out of the the church, in other words, she's trying to fire him before he can quit. Duncan, of the evangelical rather than the catholic branch of the Episcopal Church, recently sent a letter to the presiding bishop, responding to her and some committee's demand he aver he is "fully subject to the doctrine, discipline and worship of [the Episcopal] Church." This he does and offers eight examples to support his affirmation (you can read them here). Perhaps unwittingly, however, Bishop Duncan, in his third example, provides a clue to what led to the undoing of the Episcopal Church, and what will, in all likelihood, lead to the breakup of the Anglican Communion: "I have preached and taught nothing but what faithful Anglicans and mainstream Christians have always preached and taught, with the exception only that I have supported and encouraged the ministry of women in Holy Orders" (emphasis added).

It seems peculiar Bishop Duncan should bring up women's ordination here and I wonder if he does so as if to cry out in protest to the presiding bishop: "Look here: on this matter, so sacred to you to you and your ilk, I am on your side. How dare you come after me!" If that was the bishop's ploy, it will have no effect. Liberals in the Episcopal Church, as do those in politics, have a hoary tradition of extracting all they can out of members of the opposition, then dumping or destroying them once they are no longer needed, or are in the way. Sadly for Bishop Duncan, that "exception" he supports, the ordination of women, is the wedge that created the opening through which countless bizarre innovations have been forced onto the Episcopal Church, rendering it into the Gnostic, cult-worshiping organization it is today; once that sine qua non of Catholicism, the male priesthood, was abrogated, it was inevitable Episcopalian liberals would come to regard most other hallmarks of catholic worship as antiquated and in need of updating or jettisoning.

By all accounts Bishop Duncan is a good and decent man but his and his colleagues' acquiescing so many years ago to the liberal demand for women priests (which he still supports) has come back to haunt him, in a way he could not have imagined in his wildest dreams.

(h/t the MCJ.)

Class, the Sunday School Lesson for Today is...

Irony and its successful employment.

From the Bulletin of the Church of Our Saviour, New York, NY:

CALL TO CITIZENS

Governor Spitzer has proposed legislation which would establish abortion as a "fundamental right" in the State of New York. Our state has the highest abortion rate in the nation. Governor Spitzer, as Attorney General, consistently tried to limit or close agencies promoting adoption instead of abortion and teaching chastity in the schools. The Governor’s proposal would also endanger the liberty of the Church, for it would force Catholic hospitals, social service agencies, and even schools to cooperate in abortion and other objectionable practices at the risk of losing their state-issued licenses. Please contact your state legislators about this proposed legislation. The Governor and the Cardinal were scheduled to meet about this matter on March 10 but the meeting was cancelled because at that hour the Governor had to address the press about matters concerning his personal conduct (emphasis added). The legislation still is being considered. Information on what you can do is available on the New York State Catholic Conference website, nyscatholic.org.

Extra credit question:

Explore and discuss causality between the matter that preoccupied the Governor and the matter the Cardinal had hoped to discuss with him.

Class, the Sunday School Lesson for Today is...

Irony and its successful employment.

From the Bulletin of the Church of Our Saviour, New York, NY:

CALL TO CITIZENS

Governor Spitzer has proposed legislation which would establish abortion as a "fundamental right" in the State of New York. Our state has the highest abortion rate in the nation. Governor Spitzer, as Attorney General, consistently tried to limit or close agencies promoting adoption instead of abortion and teaching chastity in the schools. The Governor’s proposal would also endanger the liberty of the Church, for it would force Catholic hospitals, social service agencies, and even schools to cooperate in abortion and other objectionable practices at the risk of losing their state-issued licenses. Please contact your state legislators about this proposed legislation. The Governor and the Cardinal were scheduled to meet about this matter on March 10 but the meeting was cancelled because at that hour the Governor had to address the press about matters concerning his personal conduct (emphasis added). The legislation still is being considered. Information on what you can do is available on the New York State Catholic Conference website, nyscatholic.org.

Extra credit question:

Explore and discuss causality between the matter that preoccupied the Governor and the matter the Cardinal had hoped to discuss with him.

This is News?

(Update: the good Archbishop means business.)

From Catholic World News:

Excommunication for women claiming ordination

St. Louis , Mar. 14, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis has formally announced the excommunication of three women who participated in a ceremony that they described as ordination to the Catholic priesthood.

In defiance of warnings from the archbishop, two Missouri women-- Rose Marie Hudson and Elsie McGrath-- claimed ordination during a November 11 ceremony performed at a Jewish synagogue. A German woman who claims to be a bishop, Patricia Fresen, led the ceremony. Since that time, Hudson and McGrath have been serving as "pastors" of a group based in a Unitarian church.

[]

"The situation is sad for the whole Church," Archbishop Burke said, urging the faithful to pray that the women will be reconciled.

Well of course it's sad, we should always feel sadness for delusional idiots who, by donning vestments and passing out crackers, actually believe they can upend 2000 years of Magisterium and Scripture, forcing an archbishop to excommunicate them. What's even sadder is this is considered newsworthy. If foolishness like this had occurred fifty years ago, the only place you would have read about it would have been in Ripley's Believe it or Not, in the funnies.

This is News?

(Update: the good Archbishop means business.)

From Catholic World News:

Excommunication for women claiming ordination

St. Louis , Mar. 14, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis has formally announced the excommunication of three women who participated in a ceremony that they described as ordination to the Catholic priesthood.

In defiance of warnings from the archbishop, two Missouri women-- Rose Marie Hudson and Elsie McGrath-- claimed ordination during a November 11 ceremony performed at a Jewish synagogue. A German woman who claims to be a bishop, Patricia Fresen, led the ceremony. Since that time, Hudson and McGrath have been serving as "pastors" of a group based in a Unitarian church.

[]

"The situation is sad for the whole Church," Archbishop Burke said, urging the faithful to pray that the women will be reconciled.

Well of course it's sad, we should always feel sadness for delusional idiots who, by donning vestments and passing out crackers, actually believe they can upend 2000 years of Magisterium and Scripture, forcing an archbishop to excommunicate them. What's even sadder is this is considered newsworthy. If foolishness like this had occurred fifty years ago, the only place you would have read about it would have been in Ripley's Believe it or Not, in the funnies.

It Could be Even Worse

The upside to preparing for your first confession by creating a list of all the bad things you've done in your life, using the handy Commandment by Commandment Checklist™ provided by your catechists, is even though the list is depressingly long indeed, there are still a lot of really, really bad things you somehow managed not to do. That should be the cause for at least a little rejoicing.

It Could be Even Worse

The upside to preparing for your first confession by creating a list of all the bad things you've done in your life, using the handy Commandment by Commandment Checklist™ provided by your catechists, is even though the list is depressingly long indeed, there are still a lot of really, really bad things you somehow managed not to do. That should be the cause for at least a little rejoicing.

Mugged by Stupidity

I have long suspected there was a conservative lurking inside David Mamet, thus am pleased he has just outed it, via (oh irony of ironies!) the Village Voice. Written in colorful Mametese, it is well worth reading in its entirety but here are a few choice elements.

As a child of the '60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart.

These cherished precepts had, over the years, become ingrained as increasingly impracticable prejudices. Why do I say impracticable? Because although I still held these beliefs, I no longer applied them in my life. How do I know? My wife informed me. We were riding along and listening to NPR. I felt my facial muscles tightening, and the words beginning to form in my mind: Shut the fuck up. "?" she prompted. And her terse, elegant summation, as always, awakened me to a deeper truth: I had been listening to NPR and reading various organs of national opinion for years, wonder and rage contending for pride of place. Further: I found I had been—rather charmingly, I thought—referring to myself for years as "a brain-dead liberal," and to NPR as "National Palestinian Radio."

[]

What about the role of government? Well, in the abstract, coming from my time and background, I thought it was a rather good thing, but tallying up the ledger in those things which affect me and in those things I observe, I am hard-pressed to see an instance where the intervention of the government led to much beyond sorrow.

[]

And I realized that the time had come for me to avow my participation in that America in which I chose to live, and that that country was not a schoolroom teaching values, but a marketplace.

"Aha," you will say, and you are right. I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher) but Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson, and Shelby Steele, and a host of conservative writers, and found that I agreed with them: a free-market understanding of the world meshes more perfectly with my experience than that idealistic vision I called liberalism.

Well ain't that grand? For a real chuckle, after you have read Mamet's piece, stroll through the combox and note the outraged reactions from liberals who use the same shopworn and stale arguments Mamet has just demolished. You have to wonder: as the Democratic party's arteries harden ever further, as their candidates' grow increasingly shrill over over which one is the more racist, which one can propose higher taxes, which one despises our military more, will we not see more liberals of Mamet's intellectual caliber pausing to take a good hard look at their life-long and cherished ideologies and find them wanting? Let us hope. In any event, welcome to our shores, Mr. Mamet, delighted to have you (but fuck off, just the same).

Mugged by Stupidity

I have long suspected there was a conservative lurking inside David Mamet, thus am pleased he has just outed it, via (oh irony of ironies!) the Village Voice. Written in colorful Mametese, it is well worth reading in its entirety but here are a few choice elements.

As a child of the '60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart.

These cherished precepts had, over the years, become ingrained as increasingly impracticable prejudices. Why do I say impracticable? Because although I still held these beliefs, I no longer applied them in my life. How do I know? My wife informed me. We were riding along and listening to NPR. I felt my facial muscles tightening, and the words beginning to form in my mind: Shut the fuck up. "?" she prompted. And her terse, elegant summation, as always, awakened me to a deeper truth: I had been listening to NPR and reading various organs of national opinion for years, wonder and rage contending for pride of place. Further: I found I had been—rather charmingly, I thought—referring to myself for years as "a brain-dead liberal," and to NPR as "National Palestinian Radio."

[]

What about the role of government? Well, in the abstract, coming from my time and background, I thought it was a rather good thing, but tallying up the ledger in those things which affect me and in those things I observe, I am hard-pressed to see an instance where the intervention of the government led to much beyond sorrow.

[]

And I realized that the time had come for me to avow my participation in that America in which I chose to live, and that that country was not a schoolroom teaching values, but a marketplace.

"Aha," you will say, and you are right. I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher) but Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson, and Shelby Steele, and a host of conservative writers, and found that I agreed with them: a free-market understanding of the world meshes more perfectly with my experience than that idealistic vision I called liberalism.

Well ain't that grand? For a real chuckle, after you have read Mamet's piece, stroll through the combox and note the outraged reactions from liberals who use the same shopworn and stale arguments Mamet has just demolished. You have to wonder: as the Democratic party's arteries harden ever further, as their candidates' grow increasingly shrill over over which one is the more racist, which one can propose higher taxes, which one despises our military more, will we not see more liberals of Mamet's intellectual caliber pausing to take a good hard look at their life-long and cherished ideologies and find them wanting? Let us hope. In any event, welcome to our shores, Mr. Mamet, delighted to have you (but fuck off, just the same).

The Look of "Victimless" Crime

New York Post

Next time you hear some liberal or libertarian twit proclaiming prostitution a "victimless crime," recall this image of Silda Wall Spitzer, the wife of the governor.

The Look of "Victimless" Crime

New York Post

Next time you hear some liberal or libertarian twit proclaiming prostitution a "victimless crime," recall this image of Silda Wall Spitzer, the wife of the governor.

Maybe He'll Enter the Rabbinate

Update: the Clinton website was sanitized of the numerous mentions of the Spitzer name within an hour of the story breaking; yep, it's a well-oiled machine.

Update: Spitzer (married, with three children), is a Democratic "superdelegate" who has endorsed Hillary Clinton. It should be fun to see how she handles this, it being an issue with which she actually does have experience.

From the New York Times:

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring

[New York] Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.

The wiretap recording, made during an investigation of a prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP, captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.

Funny how people who play fast and loose with other people's lives, as Spitzer did, both as New York's Attorney General and as Governor, so often do the same with their own.

Maybe He'll Enter the Rabbinate

Update: the Clinton website was sanitized of the numerous mentions of the Spitzer name within an hour of the story breaking; yep, it's a well-oiled machine.

Update: Spitzer (married, with three children), is a Democratic "superdelegate" who has endorsed Hillary Clinton. It should be fun to see how she handles this, it being an issue with which she actually does have experience.

From the New York Times:

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring

[New York] Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.

The wiretap recording, made during an investigation of a prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP, captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.

Funny how people who play fast and loose with other people's lives, as Spitzer did, both as New York's Attorney General and as Governor, so often do the same with their own.

Become more Catholic, or Else...

The New York Sun reports another item on the Pope's agenda for his upcoming visit to America: read the riot act to Catholic educators.

Pope Benedict XVI will use his trip to America next month to present Catholic educators with a powerful challenge, one whose effects could ripple from Notre Dame, Ind., to Tarrytown, N.Y., prominent Vatican watchers are predicting

The expected message: Become more Catholic, or else.

In one of just a few major addresses planned for his six-day visit to America, Pope Benedict is scheduled to speak about education at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before an audience that should include the president of every Catholic college and university in the country, plus representatives from every archdiocese, which oversee Catholic primary and secondary schools.

[snip]

"Doubtless, I think, there will be a challenge there," the president of Franciscan University in Ohio, Terence Henry, said of Pope Benedict's speech. "He may challenge Catholic universities to get back to the spirit of why they were founded. They were not founded to be another Penn State or another Ohio State."

Judging by the reaction of this fellow, the Holy Father has his work cut out for him.

[Professor of Moral Theology at Marquette University Daniel] Maguire called such colleges attempts by the church's far-right fringe to mimeograph the evangelical Bob Jones University in North Carolina.

If these colleges became the standard, he said, "Catholic universities would then become like a Bob Jones University, where there's only one view tolerated and there's only one debate going on. Issues would be decided by the hierarchy, and you would have to mouth the party line, at which point it really wouldn't be a respectable university at all."

While it is gratifying the Pope is taking on Catholic colleges and universities, with their whackadoodle ideologies and professors, it is even more important the Holy Father address the problems in Catholic elementary and secondary schools. As the left's stranglehold on the American public schools grows tighter and tighter, those schools increasingly become institutions whose only function is to create future wards of the welfare state. If liberal (in the old sense) education is to survive in the United States, the role of religious schools becomes more critical.

Owing to their ubiquity, as well their still being in generally better repair than their public school counterparts, the Catholic schools play an especially vital part in the preservation of civilization as we know it. While they have been subject to the same dumbing down so prevalent in all educational institutions, the damage is not so severe and can still be reversed. If Catholic schools do the job right, their young charges will be sufficiently forearmed against the ideological assaults they will face in college, far less receptive to the corrupting influences of heresy and Marxism. If Catholic schools return to the standards they upheld fifty years ago, the need for the massive overhauling of so many Catholic colleges will be all but obviated, the heretics finding few takers of their wares; a marketplace solution, in a way.

Become more Catholic, or Else...

The New York Sun reports another item on the Pope's agenda for his upcoming visit to America: read the riot act to Catholic educators.

Pope Benedict XVI will use his trip to America next month to present Catholic educators with a powerful challenge, one whose effects could ripple from Notre Dame, Ind., to Tarrytown, N.Y., prominent Vatican watchers are predicting

The expected message: Become more Catholic, or else.

In one of just a few major addresses planned for his six-day visit to America, Pope Benedict is scheduled to speak about education at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before an audience that should include the president of every Catholic college and university in the country, plus representatives from every archdiocese, which oversee Catholic primary and secondary schools.

[snip]

"Doubtless, I think, there will be a challenge there," the president of Franciscan University in Ohio, Terence Henry, said of Pope Benedict's speech. "He may challenge Catholic universities to get back to the spirit of why they were founded. They were not founded to be another Penn State or another Ohio State."

Judging by the reaction of this fellow, the Holy Father has his work cut out for him.

[Professor of Moral Theology at Marquette University Daniel] Maguire called such colleges attempts by the church's far-right fringe to mimeograph the evangelical Bob Jones University in North Carolina.

If these colleges became the standard, he said, "Catholic universities would then become like a Bob Jones University, where there's only one view tolerated and there's only one debate going on. Issues would be decided by the hierarchy, and you would have to mouth the party line, at which point it really wouldn't be a respectable university at all."

While it is gratifying the Pope is taking on Catholic colleges and universities, with their whackadoodle ideologies and professors, it is even more important the Holy Father address the problems in Catholic elementary and secondary schools. As the left's stranglehold on the American public schools grows tighter and tighter, those schools increasingly become institutions whose only function is to create future wards of the welfare state. If liberal (in the old sense) education is to survive in the United States, the role of religious schools becomes more critical.

Owing to their ubiquity, as well their still being in generally better repair than their public school counterparts, the Catholic schools play an especially vital part in the preservation of civilization as we know it. While they have been subject to the same dumbing down so prevalent in all educational institutions, the damage is not so severe and can still be reversed. If Catholic schools do the job right, their young charges will be sufficiently forearmed against the ideological assaults they will face in college, far less receptive to the corrupting influences of heresy and Marxism. If Catholic schools return to the standards they upheld fifty years ago, the need for the massive overhauling of so many Catholic colleges will be all but obviated, the heretics finding few takers of their wares; a marketplace solution, in a way.

Rasputin

If you'll pardon just a smidgen of gloating, this foolish blogger did insist a few weeks back, contrary to the torrent of obituaries the big guys were pumping out, Hillary Rodham Clinton's march to Washington to claim her White House was hardly finished; that it was folly to count her out. Nope: despite losing eleven primaries in a row and loud infighting among her staff, despite myriad calls from liberal pundits to quit, she hung in there, re-organized and is back, better than ever. And look who's reeling now. From ABC News:

Samantha Power, a senior foreign policy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, resigned Friday morning after calling Sen. Hillary Clinton a "monster" in an interview with a European newspaper.

"With deep regret, I am resigning from my role as an adviser the Obama campaign effective today," said Power in a statement issued by the Obama campaign. "Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor and purpose of the Obama campaign. And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months."

In a conference call organized by the Clinton campaign (emphasis added), Democratic Reps. Nita Lowey and Gregory Meeks of New York, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, decried the remarks made in The Scotsman by Power, 37, a Pulitzer-Prize winning professor at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University.

"This is an important test for Senator Obama, " said Lowey. "It's really a test of character … You really wonder how Sen. Obama can have a person like that, as bright as she might be, advising his campaign."

Wasserman Schultz said Power's comments violated the spirit of the campaign run by Obama, who "has talked about politics of hope throughout," since her description of Clinton in the interview "degenerated into negative personal attacks and name-calling," which Wasserman Schultz called "below the belt" and "out of bounds."

A senior Obama staffer makes a not-terribly-unreasonable accusation of Hillary, considering her and her husband's twenty-five year history of lies, smears and dirty tricks, yet utterly shameless Hillary manages to get the woman fired. Better yet (and this is classic Hillary), she doesn't do it herself, rather others, including members of congress, do it at her behest. Just imagine the myriad late-night phone calls, the hasty script writing and its distribution to the players in order to pull off this performance: doff your hat in admiration of the superb Clinton machine. Do Barack Obama, his naive lieutenants and all those dopey disciples have any idea who and what they are up against?

Recently, Rush Limbaugh, of all people, instructed his so-called "ditto-heads" to cross party lines wherever they could and vote for Hillary in the primaries; the thinking being her scorched-earth tactics to win the nomination will fracture the Democratic party and make it easier for the Republicans to keep the White House. What that tiresome gasbag doesn't get (but she does) is Hillary and Obama are carbon copies politically. Once Obama's been dispatched to Illinois, tail between his legs, the Clinton machine will go into overdrive against the Republicans. Within a few short weeks, Obama's supporters will no longer even remember how to pronounce his name, the man is so easy to forget. John McCain would make mincemeat of him. Against Hillary he will face the toughest political fight of his life.

Rasputin

If you'll pardon just a smidgen of gloating, this foolish blogger did insist a few weeks back, contrary to the torrent of obituaries the big guys were pumping out, Hillary Rodham Clinton's march to Washington to claim her White House was hardly finished; that it was folly to count her out. Nope: despite losing eleven primaries in a row and loud infighting among her staff, despite myriad calls from liberal pundits to quit, she hung in there, re-organized and is back, better than ever. And look who's reeling now. From ABC News:

Samantha Power, a senior foreign policy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, resigned Friday morning after calling Sen. Hillary Clinton a "monster" in an interview with a European newspaper.

"With deep regret, I am resigning from my role as an adviser the Obama campaign effective today," said Power in a statement issued by the Obama campaign. "Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor and purpose of the Obama campaign. And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months."

In a conference call organized by the Clinton campaign (emphasis added), Democratic Reps. Nita Lowey and Gregory Meeks of New York, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, decried the remarks made in The Scotsman by Power, 37, a Pulitzer-Prize winning professor at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University.

"This is an important test for Senator Obama, " said Lowey. "It's really a test of character … You really wonder how Sen. Obama can have a person like that, as bright as she might be, advising his campaign."

Wasserman Schultz said Power's comments violated the spirit of the campaign run by Obama, who "has talked about politics of hope throughout," since her description of Clinton in the interview "degenerated into negative personal attacks and name-calling," which Wasserman Schultz called "below the belt" and "out of bounds."

A senior Obama staffer makes a not-terribly-unreasonable accusation of Hillary, considering her and her husband's twenty-five year history of lies, smears and dirty tricks, yet utterly shameless Hillary manages to get the woman fired. Better yet (and this is classic Hillary), she doesn't do it herself, rather others, including members of congress, do it at her behest. Just imagine the myriad late-night phone calls, the hasty script writing and its distribution to the players in order to pull off this performance: doff your hat in admiration of the superb Clinton machine. Do Barack Obama, his naive lieutenants and all those dopey disciples have any idea who and what they are up against?

Recently, Rush Limbaugh, of all people, instructed his so-called "ditto-heads" to cross party lines wherever they could and vote for Hillary in the primaries; the thinking being her scorched-earth tactics to win the nomination will fracture the Democratic party and make it easier for the Republicans to keep the White House. What that tiresome gasbag doesn't get (but she does) is Hillary and Obama are carbon copies politically. Once Obama's been dispatched to Illinois, tail between his legs, the Clinton machine will go into overdrive against the Republicans. Within a few short weeks, Obama's supporters will no longer even remember how to pronounce his name, the man is so easy to forget. John McCain would make mincemeat of him. Against Hillary he will face the toughest political fight of his life.

Bernard Nathanson

Dr. Bernard Nathanson is a trooper in the fight against abortion but he certainly did not start out that way. An obstetrician/gynecologist who was, by his own estimation, "responsible for 75,000 abortions," he was a founding member of NARAL and played a leading part in the campaign to legalize abortion, a campaign fraught with lies, which led to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973. He began to have doubts about his life's work with the development of ultrasound in the 'seventies and images that put the lie to the claim of pro-abortionists, still made today: that which is evacuated from the mother's womb is a mere "clump of tissue."

Moved by the demonstrators he encountered at abortion clinics, observing their love for the unborn, their mothers and even their executioners, he eventually came around to see abortion for the true evil it is. Since then, Dr. Nathanson has championed the rights of the unborn with the same vigor he used to campaign for their demise. Dr. Nathanson also began to examine his personal life, which was a mess, and over time realized, with the help of an Opus Dei priest, his salvation lay in Jesus Christ. In 1996, this Jewish atheist was baptized and received into the Roman Catholic Church.

I have heard he is in poor health these days and it would be a good thing if we could remember him in our prayers. The prayer that comes to this Anglican's mind, as he nears his own reception into Holy Catholic Church, is the Declaration of Absolution from Book of Common Prayer, said by the priest in the almost unbearably beautiful Order for Daily Evening Prayer.

Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live, hath given power, and commandment, to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins. He pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel.

Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do at this present; and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy; so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bernard Nathanson

Dr. Bernard Nathanson is a trooper in the fight against abortion but he certainly did not start out that way. An obstetrician/gynecologist who was, by his own estimation, "responsible for 75,000 abortions," he was a founding member of NARAL and played a leading part in the campaign to legalize abortion, a campaign fraught with lies, which led to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973. He began to have doubts about his life's work with the development of ultrasound in the 'seventies and images that put the lie to the claim of pro-abortionists, still made today: that which is evacuated from the mother's womb is a mere "clump of tissue."

Moved by the demonstrators he encountered at abortion clinics, observing their love for the unborn, their mothers and even their executioners, he eventually came around to see abortion for the true evil it is. Since then, Dr. Nathanson has championed the rights of the unborn with the same vigor he used to campaign for their demise. Dr. Nathanson also began to examine his personal life, which was a mess, and over time realized, with the help of an Opus Dei priest, his salvation lay in Jesus Christ. In 1996, this Jewish atheist was baptized and received into the Roman Catholic Church.

I have heard he is in poor health these days and it would be a good thing if we could remember him in our prayers. The prayer that comes to this Anglican's mind, as he nears his own reception into Holy Catholic Church, is the Declaration of Absolution from Book of Common Prayer, said by the priest in the almost unbearably beautiful Order for Daily Evening Prayer.

Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live, hath given power, and commandment, to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins. He pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel.

Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do at this present; and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy; so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Good News for James "Knees" McGreevey, the Ex-Governor of New Jersey...

If your plans for the Episcopal priesthood don't work out, you could have a future in the theater! And in Manhattan, sort of (there will have to be a slight casting change, of course).

Senator Craig of Nebraska is also welcome to audition!

Good News for James "Knees" McGreevey, the Ex-Governor of New Jersey...

If your plans for the Episcopal priesthood don't work out, you could have a future in the theater! And in Manhattan, sort of (there will have to be a slight casting change, of course).

Senator Craig of Nebraska is also welcome to audition!

Try to Contain Yourself, My Dear

Update: apparently the linguistic pathology cited below is a nationwide phenomenon (h/t to Christopher Johnson).

If there were a Bulwer-Lytton award for non-fiction, this jewel of an item by one Cintra Wilson would surely be a contender.

After shaving its head and driving drunk around the globe with no panties, calling itself the Antichrist, and finally abandoning its children, totaling its SUV and getting its ass kicked in the parking lot of the Persian Gulf, America is realizing that it is internationally loathed, broke, soulless, tasteless, fat, drunk, malicious, greedy and stupid, and has been generally behaving like a lousy excuse for a world superpower for long enough to lose all its friends and position.

In the chance you wonder what in God's name Ms. (we assume) Wilson's point is, apparently it's an explanation why many of the Oscars went overseas this year. Silly me, I thought it might have had something to do with the pictures.

(h/t OpinionJournal)

Try to Contain Yourself, My Dear

Update: apparently the linguistic pathology cited below is a nationwide phenomenon (h/t to Christopher Johnson).

If there were a Bulwer-Lytton award for non-fiction, this jewel of an item by one Cintra Wilson would surely be a contender.

After shaving its head and driving drunk around the globe with no panties, calling itself the Antichrist, and finally abandoning its children, totaling its SUV and getting its ass kicked in the parking lot of the Persian Gulf, America is realizing that it is internationally loathed, broke, soulless, tasteless, fat, drunk, malicious, greedy and stupid, and has been generally behaving like a lousy excuse for a world superpower for long enough to lose all its friends and position.

In the chance you wonder what in God's name Ms. (we assume) Wilson's point is, apparently it's an explanation why many of the Oscars went overseas this year. Silly me, I thought it might have had something to do with the pictures.

(h/t OpinionJournal)

Requiescat in Pace

William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008)

Requiescat in Pace

William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008)

Extraordinary News

(Image from the American Guild of Organists, NYC Chapter)

The Church of the Holy Innocents, 128 West 37th Street in Manhattan, has announced it will offer the extraordinary form of the Holy Mass on Mondays at 5:15 pm in April, date not yet determined. This is happy news for your Bloviator, who doesn't work far from that church, but all Catholics (and even non-Catholics who love the Latin Mass) should try hard to attend; good attendance may encourage other parishes to consider offering the extraordinary form of the Mass. You will not, however, find a venue more splendid than Holy Innocents. Wow.



The above bit of intelligence comes courtesy of the website Aufer a Nobis, the exemplar for this one had your Bloviator any ambition (bovines, alas, are only passively industrious). Go visit it, it's a feast of information and resources: there for the taking, you might say.

Extraordinary News

(Image from the American Guild of Organists, NYC Chapter)

The Church of the Holy Innocents, 128 West 37th Street in Manhattan, has announced it will offer the extraordinary form of the Holy Mass on Mondays at 5:15 pm in April, date not yet determined. This is happy news for your Bloviator, who doesn't work far from that church, but all Catholics (and even non-Catholics who love the Latin Mass) should try hard to attend; good attendance may encourage other parishes to consider offering the extraordinary form of the Mass. You will not, however, find a venue more splendid than Holy Innocents. Wow.



The above bit of intelligence comes courtesy of the website Aufer a Nobis, the exemplar for this one had your Bloviator any ambition (bovines, alas, are only passively industrious). Go visit it, it's a feast of information and resources: there for the taking, you might say.

Thugs

Just in case you had any doubts on the wisdom of the United States recognizing Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia (from Fox News):

Rioters stormed the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, on Thursday and started a fire in protest of Kosovo's declaration of independence earlier this week.

The situation in Belgrade is serious, but the embassy building is secure and the fire has been extinguished, U.S. officials tell FOX News.

Sources have provided conflicting reports on how extensive the breach of the U.S. Embassy was. Some told FOX News that no protesters made it into the building, which has been closed this week.

Other reports from the Associated Press noted masked attackers had gained entry and tried to throw furniture from an office. The reports also said a blaze had broken out inside one of the offices.

The neighboring Croatian Embassy also was attacked by the same group.

Thugs

Just in case you had any doubts on the wisdom of the United States recognizing Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia (from Fox News):

Rioters stormed the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, on Thursday and started a fire in protest of Kosovo's declaration of independence earlier this week.

The situation in Belgrade is serious, but the embassy building is secure and the fire has been extinguished, U.S. officials tell FOX News.

Sources have provided conflicting reports on how extensive the breach of the U.S. Embassy was. Some told FOX News that no protesters made it into the building, which has been closed this week.

Other reports from the Associated Press noted masked attackers had gained entry and tried to throw furniture from an office. The reports also said a blaze had broken out inside one of the offices.

The neighboring Croatian Embassy also was attacked by the same group.

That's OK Pal, Nobody Else Can Either

Poor fellow here was asked to name some of Barack Obama's "legislative accomplishments."



He's the candidate for change and his amplifier goes to eleven.

That's OK Pal, Nobody Else Can Either

Poor fellow here was asked to name some of Barack Obama's "legislative accomplishments."



He's the candidate for change and his amplifier goes to eleven.

Oh, Hear Us When We Cry to Thee, for Those in Peril on the Sea

Can you think of a worse fate than being trapped aboard an Alaskan Cruise ship with 460 readers of the Nation? Nope, neither can your Bloviator. The New York Times, of course, felt differently and sent a reporter to cover the event. Herewith excerpts from a dispatch filed from floating hell:

During a weeklong cruise from Seattle up the Alaskan coast last August, Ms. Mapes and 11 other speakers — mostly Nation contributors and journalists, but also Ralph Nader, Richard Dreyfuss and Rocky Anderson, then the mayor of Salt Lake City — tackled the Big Topics, all within the confines of the Holland America Line’s amenities-drenched Oosterdam. Cultural dissonance was much in evidence — picture a self-described “atheist Socialist Quaker” marveling at an ice-carving demonstration; picture Birkenstocks in the piano lounge. (“Do you think we’ll ever see Ralph Nader in the hot tub?” I asked a fellow cruiser at one point. “I don’t think so,” he told me. “Every time I’ve seen him he’s disinfecting himself at the Purell hand-sanitizer station.”)

Pretty grim, huh? By the way, "Ms. Mapes" would be Ms. Mary Mapes (remember her?) who no doubt leaped at free passage on a cruise ship in exchange for being stood drinks and chatting up people who actually believed her, seeing it as quite a deal for someone in reduced circumstances like her. It gets worse.

I was made aware of this hobnobbing for the first time over lunch on Day 2, when my seatmate, Marlena, a five-time Nation cruiser, told me that on one Nation cruise she had brought sheet music. She told me: “David Corn, the writer, played piano and Bud Trillin — all of us who know Calvin Trillin call him Bud — started singing ‘Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.’ We had 400 people singing until 2 in the morning.”

And worse.

Later, the Nation columnist Patricia Williams told me that Daniel Ellsberg, a guest speaker, did magic on one cruise — “He was pulling coins out of people’s ears. I wondered, did he learn this in prison?” (I didn’t point out that Mr. Ellsberg, did not in fact serve time for releasing the Pentagon Papers to the news media. Why ruin a good story?)

Why indeed, sir, and spoken like a true liberal. There was more mirth and merriment to be had. Who could resist pounding down a few with the party animals below?

The fireworks of the [Robert] Scheer-Nader discussion seemed to carry over into the Crow’s Nest that night — the partying and the dancing took on a slightly harder edge. At 2:30 a.m. I found that two Nation cruisers — one in his 30s and one in his 50s — had grown anxious that the bar was about to close, and had started to stockpile drinks. One had three screwdrivers lined up in front of him, and the other, two Heinekens, causing a third drinking companion to comment, “You’re like the Costco of alcohol: three drinks, two beers, eight rolls of toilet paper. ...”

Ah, but scratch a liberal and you'll find a didact: our intrepid reporter was able to make this fabulous cruise a learning experience after all; squeeze in a little re-education and share his gleanings with the reader.

The museum was dimly lighted and wonderfully quiet, a perfect antidote to the pressure cooker of the Nation seminars. Nevertheless, on looking at a diorama called “The Buffalo Jump,” whose placard read, “The Indians stampede the herd over the cliff to their death,” I couldn’t help but get all over-analytic and Nation-y by thinking, “Even out on the prairie and operating under his own terms, man oppresses whatever he sees fit to oppress.” My days aboard the cruise ship were starting to pay off.

(h/t the Bloviator's brother.)

Oh, Hear Us When We Cry to Thee, for Those in Peril on the Sea

Can you think of a worse fate than being trapped aboard an Alaskan Cruise ship with 460 readers of the Nation? Nope, neither can your Bloviator. The New York Times, of course, felt differently and sent a reporter to cover the event. Herewith excerpts from a dispatch filed from floating hell:

During a weeklong cruise from Seattle up the Alaskan coast last August, Ms. Mapes and 11 other speakers — mostly Nation contributors and journalists, but also Ralph Nader, Richard Dreyfuss and Rocky Anderson, then the mayor of Salt Lake City — tackled the Big Topics, all within the confines of the Holland America Line’s amenities-drenched Oosterdam. Cultural dissonance was much in evidence — picture a self-described “atheist Socialist Quaker” marveling at an ice-carving demonstration; picture Birkenstocks in the piano lounge. (“Do you think we’ll ever see Ralph Nader in the hot tub?” I asked a fellow cruiser at one point. “I don’t think so,” he told me. “Every time I’ve seen him he’s disinfecting himself at the Purell hand-sanitizer station.”)

Pretty grim, huh? By the way, "Ms. Mapes" would be Ms. Mary Mapes (remember her?) who no doubt leaped at free passage on a cruise ship in exchange for being stood drinks and chatting up people who actually believed her, seeing it as quite a deal for someone in reduced circumstances like her. It gets worse.

I was made aware of this hobnobbing for the first time over lunch on Day 2, when my seatmate, Marlena, a five-time Nation cruiser, told me that on one Nation cruise she had brought sheet music. She told me: “David Corn, the writer, played piano and Bud Trillin — all of us who know Calvin Trillin call him Bud — started singing ‘Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.’ We had 400 people singing until 2 in the morning.”

And worse.

Later, the Nation columnist Patricia Williams told me that Daniel Ellsberg, a guest speaker, did magic on one cruise — “He was pulling coins out of people’s ears. I wondered, did he learn this in prison?” (I didn’t point out that Mr. Ellsberg, did not in fact serve time for releasing the Pentagon Papers to the news media. Why ruin a good story?)

Why indeed, sir, and spoken like a true liberal. There was more mirth and merriment to be had. Who could resist pounding down a few with the party animals below?

The fireworks of the [Robert] Scheer-Nader discussion seemed to carry over into the Crow’s Nest that night — the partying and the dancing took on a slightly harder edge. At 2:30 a.m. I found that two Nation cruisers — one in his 30s and one in his 50s — had grown anxious that the bar was about to close, and had started to stockpile drinks. One had three screwdrivers lined up in front of him, and the other, two Heinekens, causing a third drinking companion to comment, “You’re like the Costco of alcohol: three drinks, two beers, eight rolls of toilet paper. ...”

Ah, but scratch a liberal and you'll find a didact: our intrepid reporter was able to make this fabulous cruise a learning experience after all; squeeze in a little re-education and share his gleanings with the reader.

The museum was dimly lighted and wonderfully quiet, a perfect antidote to the pressure cooker of the Nation seminars. Nevertheless, on looking at a diorama called “The Buffalo Jump,” whose placard read, “The Indians stampede the herd over the cliff to their death,” I couldn’t help but get all over-analytic and Nation-y by thinking, “Even out on the prairie and operating under his own terms, man oppresses whatever he sees fit to oppress.” My days aboard the cruise ship were starting to pay off.

(h/t the Bloviator's brother.)

Morning Palette Cleanser

Our boys take out a sniper (while using language that's not safe for work).

(h/t The Jawa Report)

Morning Palette Cleanser

Our boys take out a sniper (while using language that's not safe for work).

(h/t The Jawa Report)

My Brother Rowan is an Hairy Man...

I am indebted to Dr. Mabuse for reminding me of a sketch from "Beyond the Fringe" even more apropos the Archbishop of Canterbury than the one quoted in the posting below: the sermon given by the dithering clergyman (Alan Bennett) based on the text, "My brother Esau is an hairy man but I am a smooth man." Dr. Mabuse also provides an excerpt from it new to me; it apparently didn't make it into the version that played on Broadway but is Rowan Williams to a tee (minus a few academic degrees, perhaps).

Perhaps I might say the same thing in a different way by quoting you the words of that grand old English poet, W.E. Henley, who said:

"When that One Great Scorer comes
To mark against your name
It matters not who won or lost,
But how you played the game."

'But how you played the game.' Words very meaningful and significant for us here, together, tonight. Words which we might do very much worse than to consider. And I use this word 'consider' advisedly. Because I am using it, you see, in its original sense of 'con-sid—er', of putting one's self in the way of thinking about something.

I want us here, together, tonight to put ourselves in the way of thinking about ... to put ourselves in the way of thinking about, ummh ... what we ought to be putting ourselves in the way of thinking about.

Another fictional cleric who comes to mind when thinking on His Grace Rowan is the doddering Rev'd Henry D'Ascoyne ("The Parson"), played so brilliantly (as are the seven other D'Ascoynes) by Sir Alec Guinness in the picture "Kind Hearts and Coronets."

My Brother Rowan is an Hairy Man...

I am indebted to Dr. Mabuse for reminding me of a sketch from "Beyond the Fringe" even more apropos the Archbishop of Canterbury than the one quoted in the posting below: the sermon given by the dithering clergyman (Alan Bennett) based on the text, "My brother Esau is an hairy man but I am a smooth man." Dr. Mabuse also provides an excerpt from it new to me; it apparently didn't make it into the version that played on Broadway but is Rowan Williams to a tee (minus a few academic degrees, perhaps).

Perhaps I might say the same thing in a different way by quoting you the words of that grand old English poet, W.E. Henley, who said:

"When that One Great Scorer comes
To mark against your name
It matters not who won or lost,
But how you played the game."

'But how you played the game.' Words very meaningful and significant for us here, together, tonight. Words which we might do very much worse than to consider. And I use this word 'consider' advisedly. Because I am using it, you see, in its original sense of 'con-sid—er', of putting one's self in the way of thinking about something.

I want us here, together, tonight to put ourselves in the way of thinking about ... to put ourselves in the way of thinking about, ummh ... what we ought to be putting ourselves in the way of thinking about.

Another fictional cleric who comes to mind when thinking on His Grace Rowan is the doddering Rev'd Henry D'Ascoyne ("The Parson"), played so brilliantly (as are the seven other D'Ascoynes) by Sir Alec Guinness in the picture "Kind Hearts and Coronets."

Do You Have any Brains in that Head?

Taking a break from expounding on the virtues of integrating Sharia into the British legal system, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the General Synod of the Church of England, contributed to a "Debate on a Covenant for the Anglican Communion." Here are but a few sentences from opening of that address but they are more than sufficient to convey its tone.

I wanted to make three points as briefly as I can, partly in response, partly to open up one dimension of the language of covenant itself. The first point is what we heard concerning mechanisms of exclusion. That is a very unpleasant term, and I agree with those who said that they feel that discomfort and that unpleasantness in it. Behind it lies the very difficult but I think unavoidable question 'Are there limits plurality infinitely extendable?'

A question so many of us have pondered, your Grace; here's hoping you'll share the answer with us someday.

*****

Every time the foolish Archbishop open his mouth or puts pen to paper, your Bloviator is reminded of a sketch from the British comedy revue of the early 'sixties, "Beyond the Fringe," where Jonathan Miller (who wrote the sketch) impersonates a feeble minded intellectual forebear of Rowan Wilson, Bertrand Russell. The sketch was in the guise of a BCC radio program of the time.

Presenter: This is the BBC Third Programme. We have in the studio Bertrand Russell, who talks to us in the series, “Sense, Perception, and Nonsense, Number Seven: Is this a dagger I see before me?" Bertrand Russell.

Bertrand Russell: One of the advantages of living in Great Court, Trinity, I seem to recall, was the fact that one could pop across, at any time of the day or night, and trap the then young G. E. Moore, into a logical falsehood, by means of a cunning semantic subterfuge. I recall one occasion with particular vividness. I had popped across and had knocked upon his door. “Come in,” he said. I decided to wait a while, in order to test the validity of his proposition. “Come in,” he said once again. “Very well,” I replied, “if that is in fact truly what you wish.” I opened the door accordingly, and went in. And there was Moore, seated by the fire, with a basket upon his knees. “Moore,” I said, “Do you have any apples in that basket?”. “No,” he replied, and smiled seraphically, as was his wont. I decided to try a different logical tack. “Moore,” I said, “do you, then, have some apples in that basket?” “No,” he replied, leaving me in a logical cleft stick from which I had but one way out. “Moore,” I said, “do you, then, have apples in that basket?” “Yes,” he replied. And, from that day forth, we remained the very closest of friends.

Do You Have any Brains in that Head?

Taking a break from expounding on the virtues of integrating Sharia into the British legal system, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the General Synod of the Church of England, contributed to a "Debate on a Covenant for the Anglican Communion." Here are but a few sentences from opening of that address but they are more than sufficient to convey its tone.

I wanted to make three points as briefly as I can, partly in response, partly to open up one dimension of the language of covenant itself. The first point is what we heard concerning mechanisms of exclusion. That is a very unpleasant term, and I agree with those who said that they feel that discomfort and that unpleasantness in it. Behind it lies the very difficult but I think unavoidable question 'Are there limits plurality infinitely extendable?'

A question so many of us have pondered, your Grace; here's hoping you'll share the answer with us someday.

*****

Every time the foolish Archbishop open his mouth or puts pen to paper, your Bloviator is reminded of a sketch from the British comedy revue of the early 'sixties, "Beyond the Fringe," where Jonathan Miller (who wrote the sketch) impersonates a feeble minded intellectual forebear of Rowan Wilson, Bertrand Russell. The sketch was in the guise of a BCC radio program of the time.

Presenter: This is the BBC Third Programme. We have in the studio Bertrand Russell, who talks to us in the series, “Sense, Perception, and Nonsense, Number Seven: Is this a dagger I see before me?" Bertrand Russell.

Bertrand Russell: One of the advantages of living in Great Court, Trinity, I seem to recall, was the fact that one could pop across, at any time of the day or night, and trap the then young G. E. Moore, into a logical falsehood, by means of a cunning semantic subterfuge. I recall one occasion with particular vividness. I had popped across and had knocked upon his door. “Come in,” he said. I decided to wait a while, in order to test the validity of his proposition. “Come in,” he said once again. “Very well,” I replied, “if that is in fact truly what you wish.” I opened the door accordingly, and went in. And there was Moore, seated by the fire, with a basket upon his knees. “Moore,” I said, “Do you have any apples in that basket?”. “No,” he replied, and smiled seraphically, as was his wont. I decided to try a different logical tack. “Moore,” I said, “do you, then, have some apples in that basket?” “No,” he replied, leaving me in a logical cleft stick from which I had but one way out. “Moore,” I said, “do you, then, have apples in that basket?” “Yes,” he replied. And, from that day forth, we remained the very closest of friends.

She Has Not Yet Begun to Fight

If Barack Obama were overweight, clumsy, balding and white would the media be in such a swoon over him? His and Hillary Clinton’s positions on issues are essentially monolithic so his appearance and demeanor can be the only explanation for fourth estate puppy love. This infatuation, however, is forcing the media into a big mistake with their recent dismissals of Mrs. Clinton’s chances of winning the nomination.

Hillary has craved the presidency before Barack was born and her and Bill’s attack machine is second to none in efficacy; look, for example, to hear a whole lot more about Barack’s youthful drug use. Moreover, there is a slew of delegates in Michigan and Florida we soon will hear Hillary claiming are hers after all. No matter how many people are outraged by it, she will likely get them. Ambition trumps prettiness just about every time and it’s a long way to the convention. As long as Hillary has a pulse, we are foolish to count her out.

She Has Not Yet Begun to Fight

If Barack Obama were overweight, clumsy, balding and white would the media be in such a swoon over him? His and Hillary Clinton’s positions on issues are essentially monolithic so his appearance and demeanor can be the only explanation for fourth estate puppy love. This infatuation, however, is forcing the media into a big mistake with their recent dismissals of Mrs. Clinton’s chances of winning the nomination.

Hillary has craved the presidency before Barack was born and her and Bill’s attack machine is second to none in efficacy; look, for example, to hear a whole lot more about Barack’s youthful drug use. Moreover, there is a slew of delegates in Michigan and Florida we soon will hear Hillary claiming are hers after all. No matter how many people are outraged by it, she will likely get them. Ambition trumps prettiness just about every time and it’s a long way to the convention. As long as Hillary has a pulse, we are foolish to count her out.

Obviously He Dresses Left

Chris Matthews on MSNBC, gushing away on Barack Obama:

"It's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. Me, I felt this thrill going up my leg."

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

(h/t The Jawa Report).

Obviously He Dresses Left

Chris Matthews on MSNBC, gushing away on Barack Obama:

"It's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. Me, I felt this thrill going up my leg."

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

(h/t The Jawa Report).

The Education of a Pundit

The question now is how much more racial friction the Clinton campaign will gin up if its Hispanic support starts to erode in Texas, whose March 4 vote it sees as its latest firewall. Clearly it will stop at little. That’s why you now hear Clinton operatives talk ever more brazenly about trying to reverse party rulings so that they can hijack 366 ghost delegates from Florida and the other rogue primary, Michigan, where Mr. Obama wasn’t even on the ballot. So much for Mrs. Clinton’s assurance on New Hampshire Public Radio last fall that it didn’t matter if she alone kept her name on the Michigan ballot because the vote “is not going to count for anything.”

In case you're wondering, that's Frank Rich in the New York Times, gobsmacked at discovering the Clintons are opportunists, race mongers and liars. We feel your pain, Frank, but be of good cheer: Hillary may indeed steal the nomination but come fall, when she and Bill start going to work on John McCain, you'll find yourself asking, "Why on earth was I so upset?"

(h/t Tim Blair)

The Education of a Pundit

The question now is how much more racial friction the Clinton campaign will gin up if its Hispanic support starts to erode in Texas, whose March 4 vote it sees as its latest firewall. Clearly it will stop at little. That’s why you now hear Clinton operatives talk ever more brazenly about trying to reverse party rulings so that they can hijack 366 ghost delegates from Florida and the other rogue primary, Michigan, where Mr. Obama wasn’t even on the ballot. So much for Mrs. Clinton’s assurance on New Hampshire Public Radio last fall that it didn’t matter if she alone kept her name on the Michigan ballot because the vote “is not going to count for anything.”

In case you're wondering, that's Frank Rich in the New York Times, gobsmacked at discovering the Clintons are opportunists, race mongers and liars. We feel your pain, Frank, but be of good cheer: Hillary may indeed steal the nomination but come fall, when she and Bill start going to work on John McCain, you'll find yourself asking, "Why on earth was I so upset?"

(h/t Tim Blair)

Now From Even a Less Impeachable Source! Sort of.

Remember, though, you read it here first!

Now From Even a Less Impeachable Source! Sort of.

Remember, though, you read it here first!

Who Will Rid Us of This Troublesome Decade?

From the Barack Obama campaign headquarters in Houston.

(h/t the Instapundit)

Who Will Rid Us of This Troublesome Decade?

From the Barack Obama campaign headquarters in Houston.

(h/t the Instapundit)

Articles We Never Finished Reading

Patty Hearst's Bulldog Wins At Westminster

(New York Sun)

Articles We Never Finished Reading

Patty Hearst's Bulldog Wins At Westminster

(New York Sun)

How +Cantuar May Save His Neck

The Archbishop of Canterbury seems still to be in a bit of a spot over his recent remarks on Sharia. While many have called for his resignation, that shouldn't concern him unduly; most of those calls (so tarsome) come from traditional Christians and may be safely ignored. No, the real problem for the Archbishop is he has pissed off some of his pals from the left and if they aren't pacified, His Grace could have a problem on his hands. Critics from the left require special handling and your Bloviator is only too pleased to offer the Archbishop a job-saving tip.

His Grace should immediately embark upon a speaking tour and lambaste the west, the United States and President George Bush (not necessarily in that order) in no uncertain terms, at every stop, as the "root cause" for every single possible evil in the world. In no time his critics on the left will rally round him (or at least will silence themselves), being assured His Grace is still on their side. This campaign will, of course, do nothing to mollify the Africans, Asians and other third-worlders but that hardly matters because they are poor and have zero caché. +Cantuar will be restored in the eyes of those who count, liberals with prestige and money, and all silly talk of his resignation should cease. If the Archbishop has any doubts about this, he may wish to consult Bill Clinton and discuss how that former president got a pass from the feminists for some rather anti-feminist behavior while he was in power.

How +Cantuar May Save His Neck

The Archbishop of Canterbury seems still to be in a bit of a spot over his recent remarks on Sharia. While many have called for his resignation, that shouldn't concern him unduly; most of those calls (so tarsome) come from traditional Christians and may be safely ignored. No, the real problem for the Archbishop is he has pissed off some of his pals from the left and if they aren't pacified, His Grace could have a problem on his hands. Critics from the left require special handling and your Bloviator is only too pleased to offer the Archbishop a job-saving tip.

His Grace should immediately embark upon a speaking tour and lambaste the west, the United States and President George Bush (not necessarily in that order) in no uncertain terms, at every stop, as the "root cause" for every single possible evil in the world. In no time his critics on the left will rally round him (or at least will silence themselves), being assured His Grace is still on their side. This campaign will, of course, do nothing to mollify the Africans, Asians and other third-worlders but that hardly matters because they are poor and have zero caché. +Cantuar will be restored in the eyes of those who count, liberals with prestige and money, and all silly talk of his resignation should cease. If the Archbishop has any doubts about this, he may wish to consult Bill Clinton and discuss how that former president got a pass from the feminists for some rather anti-feminist behavior while he was in power.

Old Man, Look at Your Life

It's a fair bet when a folk-rocker's age is eponymous with the decade, people don't care about what he thinks anymore (from Breitbart.com):

Canadian folk rock legend Neil Young said he has lost all hope that music can change the world, as he presented a documentary about his 2006 anti-war concert tour at the Berlin film festival on Friday.

"I know that the time when music could change the world is past. I really doubt that a single song can make a difference. It is a reality," Young told reporters.

"I don't think the tour had any impact on voters."

Shed a quiet tear.

Bonus fun-fact: The breaking story above, originating from Agence France-Press, also contains the following, which could only come from the left-wing French media:

But the silver-haired frontman of the sixties supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young nonetheless dealt US President George W. Bush a stinging, back-handed insult (emphasis added) and said his own "naive" urge to make people think remains intact.

"What is wrong with George Bush? That would take a really long time. Let's talk about what is right with him, it is a much shorter answer.

Oooh! You know the president must still be smarting from that one.

Old Man, Look at Your Life

It's a fair bet when a folk-rocker's age is eponymous with the decade, people don't care about what he thinks anymore (from Breitbart.com):

Canadian folk rock legend Neil Young said he has lost all hope that music can change the world, as he presented a documentary about his 2006 anti-war concert tour at the Berlin film festival on Friday.

"I know that the time when music could change the world is past. I really doubt that a single song can make a difference. It is a reality," Young told reporters.

"I don't think the tour had any impact on voters."

Shed a quiet tear.

Bonus fun-fact: The breaking story above, originating from Agence France-Press, also contains the following, which could only come from the left-wing French media:

But the silver-haired frontman of the sixties supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young nonetheless dealt US President George W. Bush a stinging, back-handed insult (emphasis added) and said his own "naive" urge to make people think remains intact.

"What is wrong with George Bush? That would take a really long time. Let's talk about what is right with him, it is a much shorter answer.

Oooh! You know the president must still be smarting from that one.

The Tolerable is Preferable to the Abhorrent

From the Washington Post:

Fred Thompson Backs McCain

By Michael D. Shear
Fred Thompson, the one-time Republican presidential candidate, endorsed Sen. John McCain Friday, calling on the party to "close ranks" behind the presumed nominee.

"This is no longer about past preferences or differences. It is about what is best for our country and for me that means that Republican should close ranks behind John McCain," Thompson said in a statement reported by the Associated Press.

Yep. And if he's good enough for Thompson, he's good enough for your Bloviator. Still...

The Tolerable is Preferable to the Abhorrent

From the Washington Post:

Fred Thompson Backs McCain

By Michael D. Shear
Fred Thompson, the one-time Republican presidential candidate, endorsed Sen. John McCain Friday, calling on the party to "close ranks" behind the presumed nominee.

"This is no longer about past preferences or differences. It is about what is best for our country and for me that means that Republican should close ranks behind John McCain," Thompson said in a statement reported by the Associated Press.

Yep. And if he's good enough for Thompson, he's good enough for your Bloviator. Still...