Everyone talks about “chaos” in Congress just because Republicans haven’t chosen a new speaker of the House. If you want to see real chaos, look at Rome, where Pope Francis’s synod on the family has been a shambling disaster since the moment it started.
Month: October 2015
Trump president?
Chris Wallace thinks it could happen.
On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace reacted to his sit-down interview with GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who said he is now “beginning to believe” that Trump “could be elected president of the United States.”
Me too, for what it’s worth.
Mack the knife Machiavelli, the honest criminal
Shakespeare knew there was bad in everybody, “made no ideological exception,” wrote Wyndham Lewis in his 1950 autobiography Rude Assignment.
He had “no appetite for . . . useless and degrading performance of a series of . . . tricks” by rulers. As opposed to Machiavelli, who glorified the “heroic man — a ‘Prince’ — a model for other ‘Princes,’ a paragon.” (403 of the 1966 collection by Raymond Rosenthal, A Soldier of Humor and Selected Writings (Signet Classic)
Machiavelli did much in the cause of dictatorship with his articulate defense of it. (405) No one had argued it was the people’s own good that someone should rule over them, they just said they liked power. Shakespeare knew as much as Machiavelli about it, but did not endorse it.
M. became the go-to guy for despotism if not for despots such as Frederick the Great, a disciple who objected to his candor. M. was an honest criminal, admitting everything, and is so admired by the student who turns to him with respect. (406)
At McDonald’s a song about Subway
Other day at McDonald’s (Sunday before mid-morning mass), it was “Please don’t sleep in the subway, darling” on the overhead. Nine o’clock or so, beautiful.
Dining with me, other tables, were Mexican families, including one with boy and girl who were as cute as singer Petula. Father in baseball cap kept his smiles to a minimum, mother had softer demeanor, two kids were relaxed.
Sunday morning breakfast, Foster & Bryn Mawr.
Jesus quick on his feet
Luke 11.15 and following has him giving as good as he gets. Better. His opponents shot at him for casting out devils. By Beelzebul, they said.
But they do it, He asks by whom? If someone does it by the Kingdom of God, then God is here, the age of the Messiah has dawned.
More: He gives analysis of demonic behavior. The backslider ends up worse than before.
24 ‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place, but not finding any, it says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” 25When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. 26Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.’
Jesus talk is direct, even harsh. He was to submit to awful death, but as a preacher he took no prisoners.
Young Catholics sound off about today’s mass
And guess what some find offers them bread not a stone:
One Catholic, who did not want to trash his parish, says he finds more sustenance these days sneaking off to the old Latin Mass. This isn’t because he’s a traditionalist, but because of its quiet and almost mystical aesthetic: lots of bells, lots of incense, no “awful” hymns badly sung but gorgeous Latin chants instead.
Bad music — and bad singers leading the singing — was a frequent young Catholic complaint. One complainer, understanding how superficial that sounds, told me that bad music for him turns what’s supposed to be a sacred time into a cringing endurance test. It’s downright embarrassing when the cringeworthiness takes place at a Catholic funeral and he’s surrounded by non-Catholic friends. [italics mine]
My position is, in addition to the almost guaranteed mediocrity as above, substituting “Amazing Grace” and “An Irish Lullaby” (what Barry Fitzgerald sang to his mother in “Going My Way”) for church music that survived the ages, you have performers, clerical or otherwise, who are not up to the challenge.
Big, big problem here. The bread-for-stone business is Scriptural, I must add: “”Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” from Matthew 7.9.
“You Have the Rite to Remain Silent” – Discovering Silence in Praying the Mass
Arne Duncan Resigns Amid Legacy-Threatening Student Debt Crisis
Oh my, the trials of an apparatchik.
The shit he leaves behind.
And he meant so well.
Oregon College joins undistinguished list of gun-free institutions
Easy pickings for shooters:
On August 2 Breitbart News reported that eight attacks with firearms in gun free zones in the last eight years resulted in the lost of 105 lives and the wounding of 150 others. Those attacks were on the Lafayette Grand Theater (July 23), Chattanooga (July 16), Fort Hood (April 2, 2014), DC Navy Yard (September 16, 2013), Sandy Hook Elementary (December 14, 2012), Aurora movie theater (July 12, 2012), Fort Hood (November 5, 2009), and Virginia Tech (April 16, 2007)
One heck of a worship service, Ezra reading the law of Moses
Right here, verses 1-12, including this:
Then Nehemiah, that is, the governor, and Ezra the priest-scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all the people: “Today is holy to the LORD your God. Do not lament, do not weep!”—for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law. He continued: “Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our LORD. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD is your strength!” And the Levites quieted all the people, saying, “Silence! Today is holy, do not be saddened.” Then all the people began to eat and drink, to distribute portions, and to celebrate with great joy, for they understood the words that had been explained to them.
A blessing that, reading clearly, so that all could get it, he from a wooden platform.
All in all, a great day:
It’s today’s RC bishops-prescribed reading, fyi.
Blithe Spirit 