Sunday, June 6, 2010

Functional Dhimmitude, etc.

Did you happen to see this in this news this evening?

How well was it covered? Why (choose one):

1) News crews stuck in traffic.
2) Bigger stories going on.
3) Don't ask. Don't tell.
4) Would like gasoline for our cars next month.
5) A sheik might stop paying BP to keep Gulk leak flowing.

UPDATE: Patrick Archbold keeps the hilarity afloat with I Want a Peace Boat to Mecca.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

While this is a bit ridiculous at first glance, it typifies the way that the Last Self-Help Administration gets things done: an innuendo here, a nudge there. Never a trail that will deeply implicate .. yet.

In fact, it is of a piece with all those who depend solely on worldly power: out-think, out-maneuver their rival - at any cost. Wrong-doing? Illegality? Whatever it takes. They act innocent until they are caught, like ridiculous little boys denying everything with jam smeared on their hands and faces. Then, absurdly, they smile all the more and deny all the more.

There is a better world. A better realm. Thank God.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Barron - 'Agora'

Fr Robert Barron comments on the new film, "Agora". Note well that Fr Barron portends that the wave of anti-Christian sentiments has, as evidenced in this film filled with misinformation, now moved into popular culture and may, in fact, bring on active persecution of Christians.

His normative? "Stand fast" and "set the record straight."

UPDATE: David Bentley Hart chimes in.

Mongols - 1 Assassins - 0

One wonders if the tale of the 11th century Order of Assassins - and their eventual destruction - carries any lesson for dealing with certain murderous elements of the Scimitar today.

It is a question that an unknowledgeable public - and officials who should/perhaps do, but only think in dollar signs - should be aware about 'defensive jihad' inasmuch as a 13-floor mosque has been approved for Ground Zero in New York City which will be dedicated September 11, 2011. The Scimitar considers lands once "conquered" as always - always - a part of dar al-Islam.

I highly recommend Mary Habeck's book (Yale University Press, 2006), if for no other reason than to know what to pray about with more clarity and specificity.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Dylan - Neighborhood Bully

In honor of the State of Israel and all who pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man
His enemies say he's on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He's criticized and condemned for being alive
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He's wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He's always on trial for just being born
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he could apologize
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a licence to kill him is given out to every maniac
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He's the neighborhood bully.
Every empire that's enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one's command
He's the neighborhood bully.

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He's the neighborhood bully.

What's anybody indebted to him for ?
Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
He's the neighborhood bully.

What has he done to wear so many scars ?
Does he change the course of rivers ? Does he pollute the moon and stars ?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully.

Belloc - Choices and the Catholic Church

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH did not come to destroy but to complete. Unfortunately, that which it came to complete was too well satisfied with its own evil as well as with its own good. There is about the Catholic Church something absolute which demands, provokes, necessitates alliance or hostility, friendship or enmity. That truth you find unchangeable throughout the ages, and therefore it is, that, on the first appearance of the church, the challenge is already declared ...
- Hilaire Belloc

Celebrate June - Sacred Heart of Jesus

Just remember: he has been open and forthright about what he said he would do and he is doing it. The majority of America voted him into office. So it should come as no surprise that he has proclaimed June to be dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

No. Wait. Check that.

Shroud Exposition Ends

ZENIT gives answers regarding the Shroud of Turin as the public display of this tangible gift to humanity returns to a place of repose.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Joys of Defending Yourself - Israel

Spencer sets the story straight regarding the flotilla that was attacked by Israel - the responsibility rests with Hamas. Pay close attention to the amounts of aid that pass from Israel to Gaza daily in the article.

For the record, I deplore the mealy-mouth and dhimmi posture of our Last Self-Help Administration and its State Department flunkies who want to demean Israel and kowtow to the petrol overlords who happen to underwrite terror and Scimitar extremists. The MSM lapdogs will, as they did the Church with the clergy abuse stories, continue unabaited in Israel bashing for the foreseeable future.

The biblical peoples who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob know who hates them, and why.

Need for Subsidiarity

Arright. The Acton Institute stands up for the need for subsidiarity in health care.

On the Acton Institute PowerBlog, Director of Research Dr. Samuel Gregg wrote that the USCCB was right to lay a threefold stress on "the protection of innocent life from the use of lethal force from conception to natural death," "the maintenance of conscience protections," and "the realization of universal access to healthcare for all, especially the poor and migrants" in the health care debate. But Gregg says they overlooked the time-tested Catholic principle of social and economic justice called 'subsidiarity.'

"The truth," Gregg explained, "is that the USCCB's professional social justice bureaucrats have a long history of playing down or even ignoring the implications of the principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity isn't, for example, even listed as one of the "Themes of Catholic Teaching" on the Justice, Peace and Development section of the USCCB's website. It is long past the time for that to change."

Subsidiarity is a Catholic principle of social order that puts a check on government interference in roles that other members of a society can do better and have a responsibility to perform. Gregg emphasized that subsidiarity is neither "anti-government" nor "anti-state" but rather recognizes the importance of government for the common good. Under subsidiarity, government should support - but not dominate - the facilitation of the common good through the actions of individuals and communities .. MORE>>

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Conformity = 'Anything You Want' ?

Too good. My Introduction to Theology prof, Sister Prokes, PhD, would shred Speaker Nancy Pelosi's absurdities with a deft charity. As it is, Father Z does the honors here.

If Martin had met Thomas

For the record: my old Church history professor at Duke, David Steinmetz, has a nice piece of theological inquiry in The Christian Century entitled, Aquinas for Protestants - What Luther Got Wrong. [ht: Francis Beckwith]