Tag: Blithe Spirit

Feeding Audrey

Red meat today for angry blacks and guilty whites in Chi Trib’s hard copy p-1 headline story, “The transplant gap keeps more blacks waiting for kidneys,” by Deborah Shelton. 

The story is another in a line of “makes me want to holler” items that regularly feed black resentment and white-liberal anguish, recounting in excruciating, montonous detail what’s wrong with organ transplantation in this country as regards racial disparity.

Read it and weep, whether from anger or guilt or ennui compounded with disgust at colorized journalism meant to feed the race-complaint machine — rather plant, like Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors” : “Feeeeeed me!”

At least in the Metro section’s page-one story about bicycle messengers with its bike-messenger viewpoint lede, we read also about drivers and pedestrians’ complaints about cyclist’s recklessness and flouting of traffic rules.  In this kidney-transplant story, on the other hand, we get almost all quotes and notations in support of What a Damn Shame This Is.

African-Americans account for 37 percent of people receiving dialysis but make up only 19 percent of the transplant population, according to the United States Renal Data System, a government database.

This is news?  Over– and under-representation of blacks in bad (as incarceration) and good (academic achievement) has been trumpeted with indignation, but never going beyond that and white American responsibility for it all.  Or is it propaganda?

Responsibility, thy color is white, is the message.  If you’re black, step back from responsibility, for this and a dozen other bad situations.  A very bad message for all concerned.

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George and Caroline and their son Fred

George II of England and his queen, Caroline, had no use for their son Frederick, Prince of Wales, who returned in 1733 from schooling in his grandfather’s home city or state of Hanover, Germany. He had no use for them either, and some close observers were worried, including Lord Hervey, who discusses it in his Memoirs.

The prime minister, Robert Walpole, urged the parents to make it up with the son, whom their enemies would play against them, but they said no, you don’t know him like we do — and he did turn out a nasty fellow before his death in 1751, nine years before his father’s. There was no use being nice to him, they said; it will only make him worse.

Hervey had already tried, with some success, to mollify the son, whom he had served as advisor. It was a no-win situation, he told him. The king has many enemies, and you all have much to lose, nothing to gain. The prince seemed to take it to heart. Would the parents do so too, if some dared to tell them about the enemies in their midst? Hervey thought so and told Walpole as much.

Walpole agreed that the king should use “supple insinuating arts” to make friends, rather than engage in such a “fierte” — “wildness” or “fierceness” — involving his son and heir, and should cease his “awkward, simple, and proud conduct.” But he was buttering no one up, nor was he spreading cash around, and so no one had a good word for him, in and out of the palace. He had neither “address” enough to do the first nor “liberality” enough to do the latter.

But Walpole would “not dare to tell them of the ticklish situation they are in,” said Hervey, warning him that when matters went bad, he and other ministers would get the blame.

At this point the two interrupted by the Duke of Newcastle, who entered “with as much alacrity and noise as usual . . . in his hand a bundle of papers as big as his head and with little more in them.”

In any case, Hervey eventually warned the royal couple by reporting what he said he heard others say, having got their acquiescence in his not revealing his sources, which were nonexistent. In this way he could give his own ideas as if they were others’ and thus escape censure.

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Button your lip, Father

This may bother some priests itching to abuse the pulpit:

Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput [did] issue a new directive this week that clarifies what political activity is allowed by clergy and prohibiting them from endorsing or contributing money in partisan elections.

But they will have to suck it up for the sake of their role in society, which is not political.

Same goes for newsies, of course: They routinely claim neutrality.  Why?  So they can fulfil their role in society, which depends on their credibility.

I have the script right here for that and am reading carefully.

It’s not a problem in Denver, where only one donor said he’s a Denver cleric, a deacon.

But nationwide, about 100 Catholic priests and deacons have contributed nearly $100,000 to federal candidates or political parties in the 2007-08 election cycle, according to a Coloradoan review of FEC records.

Most of the contributions are to Republican groups or candidates, particularly outspoken opponents of abortion. However, the largest single recipient of Catholic clerical money is presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, a supporter of abortion rights.

Suckers for populist rhetoric?  Mad about the war?  This latter is my guess.  Pound for pound, there’s more pacifism among mainstream religious professionals, is my educated guess. 

However, issues are not out of bounds:

While restricted in partisan political activity, clergy have an obligation to speak out on important moral issues such as abortion or immigration, [archdiocesan spokeswoman Jeanette] DeMelo said.

“The church’s role in the public square is to help Catholics understand the teaching of their church regarding moral issues and encourage them to make informed decisions in light of those moral principles,” she said.

So pro-life and [pro?-] immigration preaching OK:

“Political campaigns prohibited would be those that are strictly partisan; in other words, the priests or deacons cannot support political parties or candidates in a public way. Right-to-life or immigration initiatives are not strictly partisan — in fact, we encourage that they not be partisan,” she said.

I insert “pro-“ before immigration because priests have been quite prominent on marches, etc.

However, very few preachers have gone whole hog as Fr. Michael Pfleger did in l’affaire Hillary at Obama’s former church, Trinity UCC.  They don’t name names but make their points in other ways, as I pointed out a few years back in a Wednesday Journal column, “If you’re Irish and you’re Catholic… [you’re a Dem].”

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Senator Chameleon

The man never ceases to amaze.  When 72 senators voted for a “sense of the Senate” resolution last year rejecting the moveon.org ad rhyming (Gen.) Petraeus with “betray us,” O. took a pass, though he voted on two other bills that day, explaining:

“The focus of the United States Senate should be on ending this war, not on criticizing newspaper advertisements,” Mr. Obama said. “This amendment was a stunt designed only to score cheap political points while what we should be doing is focusing on the deadly serious challenge we face in Iraq.”

But the other day in Independence, Missouri, when he came out as a patriot, he bemoaned the fact that “a general providing his best counsel on how to move forward in Iraq was accused of betrayal.”

“That was then,” says Kim Strassel in Wall St. Journal’s Political Diary

 — back when Mr. Obama was apparently eager not to ruffle the Netroots activists. This is now — with the MoveOn.org endorsement firmly in hand, Mr. Obama evidently feels free to pander in the opposite direction. Mr. Obama is certainly serving up the audacity of something, but I wouldn’t call it hope.

He’s got brass.  But as for balls, can you imagine him confronting an international enemy with something he believes in that goes against the polls?  This will be the Obama security problem — not the leftist friends who can’t count on him but his firm determination to do anything that preserves popularity.

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On tee-vee tonight, life at the polls

NY Times review of “Election Day,” produced by #3 Daughter Maggie, opens with the Chicago story:

All that slick, heavily financed campaigning at the top of the ticket in a presidential election year makes it easy to forget that the whole democratic system sinks or swims on mundane things like this: “E, F, G, J, H.”

That is the alphabetic sequence that Jim Fuchs, a Republican committeeman in Chicago, reads off with dismay as he examines a polling-place something-or-other on Nov. 2, 2004, in “Election Day,” a ground-level look at the Bush-Kerry election on Tuesday on PBS’s “P.O.V.” series. It’s not quite clear what he’s looking at, but it is clear that it has been incorrectly assembled, possibly confusing voters; Mr. Fuchs quickly has it replaced.

Mr. Fuchs, who spent the day keeping an eye out for irregularities in Democratic Chicago, is one of an assortment of people the film follows from the predawn hours until the polls close on the day of the election. The documentary’s director, Katy Chevigny, set videographers loose all over the country that day, and the resulting vignettes are full of glitches, some less innocent than others: long lines, lost voter registrations, shortages of ballots, general confusion and understaffing.

Fuchs is a great subject.  His and the film’s cinematic marriage was made in heaven. 

The NYT man continues.  A disapproving note:

The film isn’t as dispassionate as it strives to be; its choices of focus include an Indian reservation and a group concerned with voting rights for ex-convicts, and several times it lets its subjects indulge in aimless complaining about the economy that seems off-topic.

But see the Chicago and Cincinnati stories and the heart-touching closer that leaves audiences cheered, even cheering.

An concluding, approving note from NYT:

But the overall collage is interesting, and a bit disheartening. Four years after the ballot mess in 2000, there were still far too many ways for the simple act of voting to go awry.

Disheartening if you dwell overly long on the personal, sad parts, but cheering at the end, as I say above.

It’s on most PBS stations tonight — check local listings.

Directed by Katy Chevigny; Maggie Bowman [cheers!] and Dallas Brennan Rexer, producers; Penelope Falk, editor. Co-produced by P.O.V. and Independent Television Service.

And: WTTW-Channel 11 is the Chicago station, set for 10 Chi time.  But look also at Chicago Tonight, same channel, 7 to 8, for appearance of Maggie Bowman to discuss the film, barring breaking news that edges her off the air.

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Imus, Gen. Clark, & the Rome-bound St. Louisian

Start with this from Steve Rhodes:

North By Northwest
“I challenged people’s sensitivities and the way they think,” Mike North [newly fired smashmouth sports radio commentator] told Rob Feder [Sun-Times media reporter] last week.

I thought that was Don Imus’s job.

Then from an Investor’s Business Daily editorial about “the Sunday performance of Gen. Wesley Clark, an Obama adviser and possible VP pick” talking to CBS’ “normally unflappable” Bob Schieffer:

Obama talks about change and hope and masquerades as the anti-politician. But as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright noted after Obama disowned his pastor of two decades, Obama will do and say the things a politician has to do and say to win.

Clark dismissed McCain as military leader, not having “been there and ordered the bombs to fall” but merely “riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down.”

When a visibly shocked Shieffer asked what Obama’s command credentials were, Clark said Obama was running on the strength of his character and judgment. Oh. Considering that Clark was probably given the green light for his ad hominem attack, both are open to question.

Finally from AP:

Canon lawyer Raymond Burke, well known for urging denial of communion to pro-choice pols as archbishop of St. Louis, has been sent (not kicked) upstairs as newly appointed Vatican supreme court judge. 

Tom Reese SJ, ex-editor of America, sees the appointment as demonstrating high papal regard for Americans, who have been largely frozen out of churchwide governing positions.

Burke named presidential candidate John Kerry as not eligible for communion during the 2004 campaign.  This may become the churchwide norm, speculates Reese.

Burke’s new job makes him an adjudicator of marriage annulments among other things.  The word in Rome has been that American bishops give too many annulments.  But this American is a bet for stricter church practice in the future.

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Trouble in Dem city?

Bill Clinton is steamed:

A senior Democrat who worked for Mr Clinton has revealed that he recently told friends Mr Obama could “kiss my ass” in return for his support.

What’s more, he’s not betting on O.:

A second source said that the former president has kept his distance because he still does not believe Mr Obama can win the election.

On the other hand, O. got “effusive,” said UK Telegraph:

“I know how much we need both Bill and Hillary Clinton as a party. They have done so much great work. We need them badly.”

So what?

The Democrat told the Telegraph: “He’s been angry for a while. But everyone thought he would get over it. He hasn’t. I’ve spoken to a couple of people who he’s been in contact with and he is mad as hell.

“He’s saying he’s not going to reach out, that Obama has to come to him. One person told me that Bill said Obama would have to quote kiss my ass close quote, if he wants his support.

“You can’t talk like that about Obama – he’s the nominee of your party, not some house boy you can order around. . . .

Ouch.

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This explains everything

The whole tone of this e-blast to potential contributers is one of dreadful, overweening pride and arrogance:

Dear Jim —

On Monday, everyone will be watching our fundraising totals to see if we can compete with the McCain campaign.

This month is the first test of our grassroots fundraising strategy since we declared our independence from the broken campaign finance system.

You can help build our organization and show that a movement of ordinary people giving only what they can afford is changing the way presidential campaigns are funded.

Now is the perfect time to step up and own a piece of this campaign. And if you make your first donation right now, you’ll receive a special gift.

Make a donation of $15 or more by midnight on Monday, June 30th, and show off your support with an Obama logo car magnet:

etc.

Note the “broken campaign finance system” — the trumped-up talking point that justifies his not honoring his pledge of only months ago.  When did it break?  Since then?  No?  Then at what point in that last few months did O. and his people decide it was broken?

Note the ridiculous, mendacious “to see if we can compete with the McCain campaign,” after he broke his pledge only when it became clear he was swamping McCain with money.

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Catholic si, Roman no

The Pius X society has said no:

The leader of a breakaway traditionalist Catholic group has rejected a Vatican offer to rejoin Rome, accusing Pope Benedict of trying to silence dissenting voices.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) that broke with Rome 20 years ago, said conditions set by the Vatican amounted to muzzling the traditionalists who claim to be the only true Catholics since Church reforms in the 1960s.

Fellay, at the SSPX seminary in Winona, Minn., said. “They just say ‘shut up’ … we are not going … to shut up.”

That’s it, according to the Milan daily Il Giornale‘s well-informed Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli, who wrote, “Such favorable conditions for a return to full communion will in all probability not come again.”

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