. . . and America Magazine is not pleased

Andrew Klavan — True Crime, Damnation Street, Shotgun Alley and many other books — called the pope’s Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration “luminous,” then worried that he sounded “like a nun.” His hard-guy reputation was at stake.

Then he read Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week from the Entry into Jerusalem to the Resurrection and decided the hell with it, he was willing to risk it.

What’s going on?

Pope Benedict, as I’ve said before, is the Last European, by which I mean the last great man and mind who fully comprehends the beautiful but now dying culture that produced him.

Its appalling to me, though not surprising, that the only thing the mainstream media ever covers about him is how often he apologizes for the abuses of some priests or how politically incorrect his view of gay people is or whatever.

I have now read a good selection of his writings and when the work of Foucault and Derrida and de Man and the rest of that benighted lot has toddled off to the obscurity it so dearly deserves, Benedict’s writings will stand. They may be the final flares of genius to fly up from the continent he loves before darkness closes over it.

Eloquent, that.

Thinking of seeing “Identity Thief“?

Consider this from Adam Shaw at Catholic News Service:

The film contains skewed moral values, much slapstick and other violence, considerable sexual content including a semi-graphic nonmarital encounter, off-screen masturbation and brief rear nudity, occasional profanity, frequent rough and crude language and an obscene gesture.

Other than that,

Craig Mazin’s screenplay offers few fresh jokes. He relies instead on exploitative sight gags and foul language.

Other than that, it’s a work of art.

Surprise. Harmon is always such an independent thinker:

Senator Harmon (D.-Oak Park) endorses Robin Kelly, salutes Toi Hutchinson

Dear Friend:

I am proud of my friend and colleague, Senator Toi Hutchinson, both for her congressional campaign and for her selfless decision to put the interests of the residents of the Second Congressional District ahead of her own political ambitions.

Selfishly, I’m thrilled that Toi will remain in the Senate. In her time in Springfield, she has demonstrated great abilities as a legislator and a leader, tackling tough issues with equal parts tenacity and grace. She is a highly valued member of our caucus, and I expect that she will exert even more influence, having been battle tested by a hard campaign.

Notwithstanding my gratitude for her return to the Senate, I doubt we will be able to keep her long. Toi’s potential is limitless. I expect she will soon again be courted to run for higher office. Until then, we in the Senate are happy and fortunate to have Toi fully back in our fold. . . . .

. . . . blah blah blah . . . And the machine goes rolling along . . .

. . . when they are in the right hands. For instance.

NY Times’ Weisman writing on deadline, copy desk snoozing:

By JONATHAN WEISMAN

Published: February 15, 2013 389 Comments

WASHINGTON As the Senate edged toward a divisive filibuster vote on Chuck Hagels nomination to be defense secretary, SenatorTed Cruz, Republican of Texas, sat silent and satisfied in the corner of the chamber his voice lost to laryngitis as he absorbed what he had wrought in his mere seven weeks of Senate service.

Get a load of that “divisive,” as if filibusters are not divisive by nature.

And:

Mr. Hagel, a former senator from Mr. Cruzs own party, was about to be the victim of the first filibuster of a nominee to lead the Pentagon.

Victim? How about subject? Or object?

Those nits picked, it’s a good profile, on which I congratulate Mr. Weisman.

In my opinion, this resignation is the sign of a modern Pope.

None of this not knowing he’s sick until he’s dead, hanging on no matter what, a shadow of your former self, all that.

Very gutsy, practical, pragmatic decision. No fuss, no muss, he’s got a job to do, can’t do it, says sayonara.

Smart guy, good for him, good for us.

Go Benedict! (Meant as encouragement, of course, not get outta here)

It’s a tangled but appealing web that Meinrad Scherer-Edmunds weaves in his blog at Chicago-based U.S. Catholic Mag, where he is exec editor. He begins with the news that a deacon for the Phila. archdiocese has been told to shut up about anything he wants to say in speaking appearances.

This is so because he has written that ordination of woman as deacons (not priests) is open for discussion, and the archdiocese’s Speaker Approval Commission says he would cause “doctrinal confusion.”

However:

As the National Catholic Reporter notes . . . Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George recently referred to the possibility of ordination of women to the diaconate as an open question.

Given the doctrinal confusion that statement could sow, one wonders when Cardinal George will be banned from speaking in the Philadelphia Archdiocese as well?

Banned in Philly, our own archbishop. Wow.