This poem, unusual for him as to subject matter, is prayerful indeed, beginning:

Good and great God, can I not think of thee

But it must straight my melancholy be?

Like a lot of people, it’s not his happiest moment to think of the Christian God with His reputation for justice, the poet being “laden with [his] sins,” even as he “seeks for ease.”

He describes his situation:

 . . . I dare pretend

To ought but grace or aim at other end.

As thou art all, so be thou all to me,

So, he turned to God, calling him “my judge, my witness, and my advocate. ”

That’s God — judge, witness, defense lawyer. A healthy concept.

Read the rest at Poetry Foundation

Oh, but you already knew about this from your mainstream outlets, didn’t you?

Kidding.

Fusion GPS? What’s that?

War? He’s being blindsided, downsized, stopped at every turn by the minions of the reigning pontiff. who is looking quite Machiavellian these days, ready to give lessons to a Cook County Democrat.

The progressive party in the Vatican has launched yet another attack on Cardinal Robert Sarah.

Even if you’re progressive, you have to wonder at the hardball being played. Is it worth it? one must ask.

Two what-if’s.

If we found out that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee had paid a firm working for the Russians to create a file of fabricated attacks on Hillary Clinton during the election cycle, would the media treat it as an impeachable offense?

Would such efforts be considered an attack on the foundations of our democracy? Would liberal columnists make sensationalist claims that the Russians had “carried out a successful plan to pick the government of the United States”? Would they argue that the election had been rigged? Would they demand that Republicans pick their country over their party?

Of course they would.

What if a major media organization had taken that ginned-up dossier, one that included a number of unsubstantiated stories about Clinton’s supposed sexual fetishes and shady business dealings with foreign powers, and put it online so millions of readers could judge the content for themselves?

What if the firm that helped disseminate that file had been feeding a number of reporters alleged scoops that helped shape post-election coverage? Would we now be engaged in a national conversation about the responsibility journalists have to avoid broadcasting questionable information about candidates?

Would the outlets that ran with those stories apologize for having regurgitated items that might have been concocted by the Russians themselves? Because all of that sure sounds like “fake news” to me.

Yes. An absolute gold-plate certifiable verification.

A Resistance dream scenario.

Something radical this way may come, a truly wild consideration in the works secretly.

What’s going on here? Have the Borgias come back to haunt us?

In his Monday column at First Things, Italian journalist and veteran Vatican-watcher Marco Tosatti gave voice to what had previously been little more than a whispered rumor: that a group was at work, with Vatican knowledge and support, on a …

. . . new mass with a Protestant flavor.

Again, what gives with these people?

Dems can’t win for losing. Their top man, scoring points for their popular-vote-uber-alles, scores one for . . . nobody, actually, while fumbling for a loss.

In a speech to law students. Great.

Of all the areas where the world’s holiest father loses me, this is the most effective. He’s not the first prelate to sound off against the free market, but he is the holiest. You have to hand him that.

For one thing, he reminds me of the Chicago priest whom I came to admire, in never (or rarely) having an unpublished thought. We’ll hand him this too: We know what’s on his mind.

Are men beasts?

Veteran journalist Mark Halperin sexually harassed women while he was in a powerful position at ABC News, five women told CNN.

Well they are rational animals, — Aristotle said so — some of them less rational than others. (And some more so.)

By a crippled law-school mentor whom she praised at his funeral for his “character” and “moral integrity.” The woman is something else.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has just jumped the shark. The Massachusetts Democrat has been caught lying about being a victim of sexual harassment.

The question is: Will the GOP hold her accountable? If they do, this scandal may be too much even for the progressive icon to withstand.

And did I mention she’s a Democrat?

Source: Kuhner’s Corner: Elizabeth Warren lied about being sexually harassed | WRKO AM 680