Hey, at the polling place, anyone can be the famous former AG.

I have to wonder about this regular-as-rain reference to clericalism as the root of evil, as if to steer us away from the very idea of a gay church network as contributing to the current crisis, even hijacking the “perversion” word.

“Clericalism is a perversion and is the root of many evils in the church,” Pope Francis said Oct. 3 at the synod’s first working session.

Without naming one of the evils either. And supplying what becomes a bromide in the present context.

It’s not a perversion, anyhow, but as old as the apostles fighting with each other and keeping the children away from the Master — human nature asserting itself.

He offers what in the present circumstances is a bromide — again unspecified. Forgiveness for what? Asked by whom? The kids in attendance?

“We must humbly ask forgiveness for this [?] and above all create the conditions so that it [what?] is not repeated.

So much to be inferred, guessed at, only imagined. But can he get specific?

via Pope asks bishops, young people to drop their prejudices as synod begins

Facts matter.

We are now in a time of chronic national convulsions, and the latest, over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, has resulted in the wrenching public and private testimony of women who have been sexually assaulted and who have never before spoken about it. Of course, this outpouring has a hashtag: #BelieveSurvivors. Women who tell their stories should have the support, and belief, of loved ones, friends, and a therapeutic community.

But when a woman, in telling her story, makes an allegation against a specific man, a different set of obligations kick in.

Even as we must treat accusers with seriousness and dignity, we must hear out the accused fairly and respectfully, and recognize the potential lifetime consequences that such an allegation can bring. If believing the woman is the beginning and the end of a search for the truth, then we have left the realm of justice for religion.

A true believer’s holiday.

via The Atlantic

Rumblings from (one of) “the media.”

The Cubs scored one run Monday. They scored one run Tuesday. They scored two runs in 22 innings at home in those games. The first cost them a division title. The second cost them their season. You’d think this would cost someone a job.

Make mine Joe.

via Chicago Tribune

She has their number and won’t shut up.

Makes it up as he goes along.

Pope Francis famously downplays law and doctrinal formulations, which he often associates with Pharasaism, in favor of “discernment,” which seems to involve the direct application of ultimate considerations to particular situations.

As he put the matter in his address at the conclusion of the Synod on the Family, “The true defenders of doctrine are not those who uphold its letter, but its spirit.”

But would he know a doctrine if he tripped on one?

More on painful subject:

Many Catholics are therefore concerned that Francis fails to balance his denunciations of legalism with warnings about lawlessness—a tendency that seems a far greater problem in today’s Church.

Quite a good point.

via Crisis Magazine

But we can’t say that, can we?

Anyone with an ounce of common sense, two eyes, and a grasp of history understands instinctively that most genetic traits are inheritable.

Height, body type, skin color, even eye color run in genetically related families, and those families, bound together in local, tribal, ethnic, and national communities, reflect that.

There’s nothing inherently conspiratorial, “racist” or “supremacist” about any of this.

And yet, for decades, ideologically driven scientists and cultural Marxist apologists have struggled with such a raw truth, and have endeavored to show that nurture, not nature, is the determining factor, especially when it comes to talents and intelligence.

After all, what do human sperm and eggs have to do with the making of the New Soviet Man omelet?

Diseases too, for that matter, sickle cell anemia, for one.

Oak Park IL doctor James B. Herrick, of Presbyterian Hospital, had an important role in discovering sickle cell disease, by the way, as related in my history of Rush-Presbyterian Medical Center, Good Medicine: The First 150 Years of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center.

via Trending

They will publish a dossier on every cardinal young enough to vote on a new pope, intend to be ready on ongoing basis because as one of the top staff said, “We always have to be ready for a conclave.”

The Red Hat Report, dubbed as the group’s “flagship project,” is designed to audit all 124 current papal electors. Organizers say it will be conducted by a team of, to date, nearly 100 researchers, academics, investigators, and journalists, with the aim “to hold the hierarchy of the Catholic Church accountable for abuse and corruption, and to develop and support honesty, clarity, and fidelity in Church governance.”

Sex issues, of course, but also fiscal, and with reference to the Vigano report, which named names, as has been widely published. See also his more recent “testimony.”

via Wealthy Catholics to target Cardinals with ‘Red Hat Report’

Eloquence of a very angry person:

Georgetown Professor C. Christine Fair tweeted over the weekend that “entitled white men” should have their corpses castrated and then fed to pigs.

Fair, an associate professor in Georgetown’s Security Studies program, tweeted, “Look at thus [sic] chorus of entitled white men justifying a serial rapist’s arrogated entitlement.”

Fair linked to a video of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham defending Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh from allegations of sexual assault from when the judge was in high school.

“All of them deserve miserable deaths while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps,” Fair wrote. “Bonus: we castrate their corpses and feed them to swine? Yes.”

Ain’t she sweet?

via The Daily Caller