Stonewall Barack and Stonewall Rahm went strollin’ down the avenue, two by two/ Oh my buddy-buddy, block that, block that, Oh my buddy-buddy block that, for sure!

(To the tune of the immortal doper’s song, “Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue.”)

The two of them can’t break the habit.

God writes straight with crooked lines.

(No offense to Mr. Lavrov, but he does represent a country with a long history of malfunction.)

Good for Fr. Graf.

But small question: How is he on the rule of law?

Probable answer: He believes in it but considers this an unjust law.

Then: How is he on open-borders? Ancillary matters in his view? Important considerations nonetheless?

Just asking.

Not so sure about the headline, with memories evoked of Richard Nixon’s famous “I am not a crook.” But NC Reporter is not letting this story go, and that’s a good thing.

Besides the headline critique, I’d like to see someone who buys ink by the carload or its digital equivalent put this question: Presuming Francis has been convinced of offenders’ guilt in many other abuse cases, what does he see missing from this case of episcopal see-no-evil-ism?

Is there an analysis anywhere of what usually tips the scale, has done so in other cases, that — in Francis’ view — is not available in this one? What did he see in those other cases?

Or, to call up the big Nixon question of decades ago, what did Francis know (about Bishop Barros, enough to give him a pass) and when did he know it?

Wordsworth vs. Darwin. W. offered milquetoast alternative to Darwinism based on his vague pantheism, transforming the believer into a “daffodil enthusiast” valuing “a tour through Westmoreland” over “a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.”

From TLS review of R. Ryan’s Charles Darwin and the Church of Wordsworth (Oxford U Press)

EX-Dem Trump voters in CNN interview, Ohio woman: “He talks like we do . . . We are sick of the suave (a la Obama), sick of the teleprompter.”

“He talks like we do.” A man of the people even if a billionaire.

These former Dems who voted for Trump in 2016 “will vote” for him again in 2020, reports CNN man.

, , , to shut down a Latin-mass-saying monastery.

The Trappist Monastery of Mariawald, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, was one of the very few monastic houses in the world to make use of the provision present in Article 3 of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum that allowed for the whole conversion of such a house to the exclusive use of the Traditional Rite.

We covered this momentous news in 2008 (see our 2012 post), and in 2015 we published the translation of a great interview granted by the abbot responsible for this change, Dom Josef Vollberg.

The traditional turn at Mariawald was too much for the current vindictive regime installed in Rome, and they forced the abbot out in 2016, as we also covered at the time.

Now, the inevitable outcome arrived: as GloriaTV reports, the old abbey is being closed and completely dismantled. What two world wars could not destroy, Bergoglianism could:

Read more »

A new chapter in insensitivity:

In stunning new comments made during his visit to South America this week, Pope Francis has attacked the credibility of victims of notorious clerical sexual abuser Fr. Fernando Karadima.

The pope accused abuse victims of “calumny” for their allegations that Bishop Juan Barros, a Karadima protege, knew about the abuse, or even that he watched as it took place.

“There is not one shred of proof against him.” Francis said to a Chilean journalist at the end of his visit to Chile. “It’s all calumny. Is that clear?”

A stunner.

Plus National Catholic Reporter:

TRUJILLO, PERU — Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, one of Pope Francis’ key advisors on clergy sexual abuse, acknowledged Jan. 20 that the pontiff’s defense of a Chilean bishop accused of covering up abuse was “a source of great pain” for survivors.

In an unusually blunt statement from a church prelate in response to a controversial action of a pope, the cardinal also said that expressions of doubt about survivors’ testimony “abandon those who have suffered reprehensible criminal violations of their human dignity.”

What was he (Francis) thinking?

Waste of time.