What I oughtn't to blog, but I blog anyway
Otto Clemson Hiss
Otto Clemson Hiss
30 June 2004
Elwood P. Dowd: "I've wrestled with reality for thirty-five years, and I'm happy, Doctor: I finally won out over it."
--James Stewart, "Harvey"
ACLU challenges nude teen camp ban
[Now that I've posted the above title, I suppose Google will send all kinds of riffraff here to be disappointed. Well, perhaps the cold Alpine air will do them some good.]
The concept above reminded me of a line from Auntie Mame, spoken by the title character to her young ward, Patrick:
"By the way, I know the most divine new school that a friend of mine is starting. Coeducational and completely revolutionary. All classes are held in the nude under ultraviolet ray. Not a repression left after the first semester. This man I know is absolutely au courant with everything that's going on in Vienna--none of that dead-tired old Montessori system for him--and there's lots of nonobjective art and eurhythmics and discussion groups--no books or anything like that. How I'd love to send you there. Really give your libido a good shaking up."The name of the teen nudist camp in question, by the way, is worth mentioning: "Camp White Tail." I am sure that those who run the camp appreciate the innuendo. One does have to wonder about adults who insist on surrounding themselves with unclothed children. In fact, one should do more than wonder; one should probably worry.
[I do know what a whitetail is, by the way. But a nudist camp for children might just want to avoid any such odd insinuendo. Caesar's wife should be above reproach, particularly if she insists on whooping it up with unclothed adolescents in the wilderness. --Ed.]
29 June 2004
I come to bury Buckeridge, not to praise him
I understand this is no way to eulogize a man, but I thought Anthony Buckeridge died some time ago. I hadn't read anything of his since grammar school. Still, RIP and all that.
Harry Mount comments:
Like all children, I was precise about my age and longing to be older. When Jennings turns up at school on his first day, the teacher who confronts him, Mr Carter, says, "JCT Jennings; ten years, two months. Right?"That sounds right. Being a septuagenarian at heart in grammar school, I think I may have learned how to be a child the first time around in part from Buckeridge. A bad idea by all accounts.
"No, sir, not quite right, sir; ten years, two months and three days last Tuesday, sir."
At the age of 10, you don't know what a mixture of the pompous, the precise and the deferential you are. And, once you've grown up, you have to get hold of someone like Buckeridge to remind you.
Vandal Smashes Saintly Venice Statues with Hammer
Yahoo! filed this one under the heading "Oddly Enough." Had someone desecrated a mosque or synagogue, I doubt the editors would dump the story in the humorous category. One does tire of saying this.
So my doctor was right all along
Ancient Bloodsuckers Approved for Therapy
The Food and Drug Administration approved an application from French firm Ricarimpex SAS to market leeches for medicinal purposes. The company has been breeding leeches for 150 years, the FDA (news - web sites) said.
Doctors have used the small aquatic worms for several thousand years in the belief that bloodletting helps to cure a wide range of complaints from headaches to gout. They reached their height of medicinal use in the mid-1800s.
28 June 2004
More mail
From: Zorak
To: Otto
Subject: Google Ads Has Figured Out Your Site
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004
Ads now read: "Buy Nausea Relief Now" and "Nausea - Herbal Relief"
The reconciled assassin
"On the Front Lines: A life defined by reproductive rights"; San Francisco Chronicle, 27 June 2004. Cheap shot alert: You know, quite a few lives have been defined by reproductive rights. Defined right out of existence.
On to this macabre portrait of Dr. Maureen Paul:
What led you to this line of work?Yes, not too surprising or interesting. But please do wait for the capper:
When I was 18 years old, I had an unintended pregnancy. It was 1968, five years before the nationwide legalization of abortion. I was a freshman at Michigan State. ...
What ended up happening?
I tried to raise the money [for an abortion] and my parents found out. They took me home to Worcester, Mass. My case was considered by a therapeutic abortion committee, and the panel turned me down. I was forced to carry the pregnancy against my will, which had to be the most painful experience that I have ever had and certainly a life-transforming experience. I dropped out of Michigan State for nearly a year.
How did your parents take it?
I came from a strong working-class Irish Catholic family. My father gave me the option of getting married or going to a home for unwed mothers.
Which did you choose?
It was a shotgun wedding in Lansing, Mich. I was pretty devastated. My daughter was adopted out into the local area.
What happened to the child?How awkward. "Mummy is so glad to see you, even if she was forced to have you." But how does she explain to her daughter what she does for a living now? "Oh, Mummy works ever so hard to ensure that no one else will have the opportunity to repeat this little reunion."
I was reunited with my daughter about 10 years ago. She was in college at Michigan State. We now see each other on a regular basis.
But wait, there is more:
The thing that was most poignant for me in meeting her is that I told her my story and she said, "If I were in your shoes I would have done the same thing."She would have? Either she empathizes with others to the point of self-obliteration, or her life must not be worth living. Someone should put this child on suicide watch.
In the mail
A reader writes, "I appreciate your fact-finding and analysis on serious issues, but don't you think you cause people to take you less seriously when you adulize these dead monarchs?"
Respondeo: "Adulize" is an interesting concoction. Perhaps my reader is conflating "adulate" and "idolize"? Very creative. But I do neither: I venerate (in Ven. Karl's case, anyhow). It is as much a part of me as my moral outlook. My "seamless garment" is chainmail.
I "miss the medieval grace / Of iron clothing."
27 June 2004
Death Comes for the Archduke
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- The museum caretaker goes into a storage room and, from the back of a dusty shelf, fishes out a yellowing photograph of Gavrilo Princip, the young, weary-eyed assassin. "This was him," says the caretaker, Bajro Gec. "He was the one who started it all."HIH Archduke Otto von Habsburg "sees Princip as emblematic of Serb passions - the trigger man for dark conspiracies that most recently led to the assassination of pro-democracy Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic last year."
Princip fired the shots that changed Bosnia - and the world - on a Sarajevo street corner 90 years ago Monday, killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.
But Habsburg, 91, is charitable as he looks back, suggesting that 90 years after the fact, all of Europe's nations should be one, no matter what sides of the barricades they were on in the past.(Incidentally, the quoted article contains a glaring error. It refers to Archduke Otto "grandson of Austria's last emperor." He is in fact the son of Austria's last emperor, the Venerable--and soon to be Blessed--Karl I. I highly recommend this site on Ven. Karl, by the way.)
"I never dwell on thoughts of sadness," he told The Associated Press, when asked of his feelings on the eve of the anniversary. "We should look to the future of a united Europe."
One can read two eyewitness accounts of the assassination here. The report of the Austrian investigation into the assassination is available at this (worthwhile) site.
Brief footage of the funeral procession is available here.
A Jesuit community in Styria recently uncovered the Browning pistol used to murder the Archduke and his morganatic wife; it had been entrusted to Anton Puntigam, the Jesuit who gave the couple the last rites. He had intended to open a museum in memory of the archduke, but the war made it an impossibility. The gun will be on display this week at the Museum of Military History in Vienna, along with the imperial car and the archduke's bloodstained tunic. One can view an image of the car at the website of the Heeresgeschichlichtes Museum (click on "Exhibitions," choose "Permanent Exhibitions" at the left, then click on "Sarajewo Room").
The Chicago Sun-Times had the most striking headline: "Pistol found that killed 8.5 million people." I believe there were others responsible for the high number of casualties, although it does not offend my sense of justice to place a heaping portion of the blame on the shoulders of the tubercular terrorist, Gavrilo Princip.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand D'Este & Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg, RIP.
AEIOU.
25 June 2004
Bishop Vigneron shuns VOTF...
...and says Mass for St. Josemaria. The juxtaposition of these two events in the San Francisco Chronicle is no doubt meant to cast Bishop Vigneron in an ominous light, but I find it reassuring. A breath of fresh air in Oakland!
By the way, there is a small gem in this article:
"(Vigneron) claims that Voice of the Faithful is advocating the ordination of women, but we take no position on church doctrine," said Peter Davey, who leads [Voice of the Faithful's] Easy Bay chapter."No position on Church doctrine"? Why not believe it? One takes a position on negotiable areas, political planks, and school board elections. Voice of the Faithful's wolves use some fairly shoddy sheep costumes.
24 June 2004
Reality becomes Parody
Somehow, I find Mary Jo White's conclusions about Bishop Howard Hubbard less than convincing.
White was also retained to look at the circumstances surrounding the Feb. 15 suicide of the Rev. John Minkler of Watervliet after a 1995 letter he allegedly sent to then-New York Archbishop John O'Connor accused Hubbard of homosexual behavior and theological transgressions.What was this mystery priest's name? Hishop Bubbard?
White's investigation found there was another priest in the city at that time who "somewhat resembled" the bishop and was apparently known as "The Bishop" at gay bars.
Your Excellence, you've been bamboozled. You've been paying this woman $770 an hour, and that's the best cover story you get?
Perhaps my earlier parody may have given the bishop of Albany too much credit.
Peter Warne: "I never did like the idea of sitting on newspaper. I did it once, and all the headlines came off on my white pants. On the level! It actually happened. Nobody bought a paper that day. They just followed me around over town and read the news on the seat of my pants."
--Clark Gable, "It Happened One Night" (1934)
Cutting a great road through the law
The Commons, determined to slough off any remaining vestiges of English culture, will not let the parliamentary system stand in its way. To pass its bill against foxhunting, Labour plans to bypass the House of Lords--just a hop, skip, and a purge away from a Rump Parliament.
The Countryside Alliance continues its principled opposition.
Letter from Addis Adaba
Laurie Goering visits the neglected Ethiopian grave of Chicago Tribune correspondent Wilfred Courtenay Barber (d. 1935).
She mentions the similarity between his name and that of John Courteney Boot, a minor though not unimportant figure in Scoop (it's William Boot, however, who sets out for Ishmaelia, cleft sticks and all, with hilarious results).
Jewish newspaper to bishops: Shut up.
The threat by Catholic bishops to withhold communion from politicians who uphold abortion rights is an affront not just to democracy, but also to the best moral teachings of Catholicism.Staff editorial, The Forward, 25 June 2004
Church leaders have been standard bearers for years in the effort to recriminalize abortion. They base their opposition to the procedure on the Catholic doctrine that human life begins at conception, and so aborting a fetus amounts to homicide and violates Catholicism's absolute reverence for human life.
Last week the heads of the church upped the ante. During a meeting in Colorado, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a statement urging Catholic institutions to deny honors to politicians who support abortion rights. And while the statement didn't require denial of communion — to the vocal disappointment of church hard-liners — it explicitly authorized bishops to take that step when they choose.
We've long held the view that the campaign to ban abortion, resting as it does on a particular view of when human life begins, violates the rights of others whose view of life differs. Civil law does not and should not require Catholics to undergo abortion if their conscience forbids it. But those whose faith — or lack of one — tells them that life begins at some other point should equally be free to follow their consciences. The law should not bar citizens from access to a medical procedure they consider ethical and essential, simply because it violates the religious principles of another group of citizens.
To be sure, every individual is free to advocate his or her opinions in a democracy, including the opinion that abortion is wrong. That's democracy.
Where democracy is affronted is at the point where a church — the nation's largest single church, as it happens — attempts to impose its view from above by threatening to withhold what its believers consider an essential religious rite. That's nothing more than bullying, trying to bludgeon believers into substituting obedience for conscience. It's unfair to believers and unfair to the system. It's especially egregious in the heat of a pivotal election campaign — a campaign in which one of the candidates is a believing Catholic. ...
America's bishops dishonored that doctrine of life last week. If they were consistent, they would have condemned all those who violate their traditions — war hawks, death-penalty advocates and free-market fundamentalists no less than abortion-rights advocates. They would be defending the rights of the born as vigorously as they defend the unborn.
If the bishops were faithful to their creed, they'd be threatening virtually every politician in America this year. God doesn't belong to any political camp.
23 June 2004
Speaking of pick-me-ups
I never have tried Charles's suggestion below. Someday, in the interests of scientific progress.
They were drinking prairie oysters. Francis pushed his over to me without looking at it. "Here, drink this," he said, "I'll be sick if I look at it another second."--Donna Tartt, The Secret History
The yolk quivered, gently, in its bloody bath of ketchup and Worcester. "I don't want it," I said, and pushed it back.
He crossed his legs and pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. "I don't know why I make these things," he said. "They never work. I have to get some Alka-Seltzer."
Charles closed the screen door behind him, and wandered listlessly onto the porch in his red-striped bathrobe. "What you need," he said, "is an ice-cream float."
"You and your ice-cream floats."
"They work, I tell you. It's very scientific. Cold things are good for nausea and--"
"You're always saying that, Charles, but I just don't think it's true."
"Would you just listen to me for a second? The ice cream slows down your digestion. The Coke settles your stomach and the caffeine cures your headache. Sugar gives you energy. And besides, it makes you metabolize the alcohol faster. And it's the perfect food."
Intersecting the Vicious Circle
Last night a few friends and I dropped by The New Criterion's weekly Tuesday gathering.
Reader and frequent commenter Steve M., blogger Alexander, and MLY were in attendance at Fitzpatrick’s. They helped to discover the special surprise that awaits those who mention The New Criterion to the barmaid. I will not spoil said surprise, but I assure my readers that it is a pleasant one. Find out for yourself some Tuesday.
The representatives of TNC were pleasant and adept at preventing discussion and saturation from flagging. Topics of conversation ranged from dirt lawyers to the Reformation and from Nancy Mitford to Niall Ferguson. There was even mention of the fabled vessel Patito. I did neglect one subject: how Mr. Beck fared on his physical fitness test. (Of course, I have no expertise in the area; my exercise is limited to shaking martinis and, when piqued, umbrellas.)
Drinks ranged from pale to stout and from dry to dirty. The barmaid was charming and skilled. After the tissue-restorers downed at Fitzpatrick’s (on top of my pre-prandials), I could have used one of Jeeves’s pick-me-ups when I awoke before dawn this morning; instead I had to settle for mere bicarbonate of soda before typing this entry. (Incidentally, anyone who has a guess as to the ingredients of Jeeves's potion, which is said to "produce immediate results in anything short of an Egyptian mummy," should e-mail me directly.)
I would recommend TNC’s "Tuesdays." The literate conservative will find delightful company in Ms. Steeves and Messrs Beck and Panero (resplendent in seersucker).
I should also recommend The New Criterion itself to anyone of sound mind. I must guiltily admit that I have put off subscribing for some time because one of my clubs always had a copy handy; that deplorable situation changes today.
21 June 2004
"Guido Fawkes was the only person to enter Parliament with honest intentions."
--Taki, Pirate Captain of the Jet Set, in the Spectator, 19 June 2004.
[The faint of heart should exercise caution: Taki's language is salty.]
17 June 2004
Dixon Steele: "It was his story against mine, but of course, I told my story better."
--Humphrey Bogart, "In a Lonely Place" (1950)
"Madonna" now "Esther"
Mrs. Ritchie (or is it Ciccone-Ritchie?) should see an analyst about her fixation on strong women from the Bible.
Esther before Assuerus, by Nicholas Poussin
By the way, Esther was married to Assuerus (Xerxes), an irascible and fickle Persian king who ordered the death of all Jews in his kingdom, only to rescind it after his wife's entreaties. What does this say about Mr. Ritchie?
16 June 2004
Kerry's Sanhedrin Approach
They cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." (John 19:15)
CNN reports that John Kerry called President Bush's Vatican visit "entirely and extraordinarily inappropriate." He also commented on the meeting of the bishops to discuss the issue of Communion for wayward Catholic public figures:
Kerry said he welcomes the meeting, but noted "we have a separation of church and state in the United States."This is characteristically incoherent (and not a little disingenuous, which is also characteristic now that I think of it). But it is also a pathetic aping of President Kennedy's language, which, harmful as it was to Catholicism in this country, was at least made a bit more understandable by the more widespread (though not excusable) fear that a Catholic in the White House meant a confessional in the Oval Office and rule by fat Italians in scarlet galleros. Having met some specimens, I know that there still exist people who believe this; they are more likely to be eastern liberals than southern Protestants these days. Still, on the whole it is an easy prejudice best left undignified by any response. Would an Irishman running for the presidency announce that he is not a spokesman for Jack Daniels, and neither is Jack Daniels a spokesman for him? I can insert any number of humorous and offensive analogies, but I believe my readers will get the point. And even if one must address this, one should use the exact opposite of the Kerry tactic. He treats anti-Catholicism as a justified fear to be mollified softly instead of a nasty bigotry to be condemned strongly.
"There are many things that are of concern and taught by the church with respect to war, with respect to the environment, with respect to poor people, our responsibilities to each other, and I am very comfortable with where I am with respect to those," he said.
"But I am not a spokesperson for the church, and the church is not a spokesperson for the United States of America."
And to make matters worse, Kerry rebukes the Church. Saying "the church is not a spokesperson for the United States of America" seems aimed more at bishops than at anyone else. No one thinks Kerry is under the thumb of any bishop (not even Bumbling Gumbleton); he is publicly telling the bishops not to try it.
And there is something fundamentally shifty about claiming to belong to a Church but promising to ignore its moral dictates while wearing one's public servant hat. A foolish compartmentalization is the hobgoblin of slippery minds. It would be altogether fitting were Senator Kerry's hatband inscribed not with "WWJD" but with the letters "NKBC"--"No King But Caesar," an encapsulation of his public philosophy, not to mention his insincerity. But since he doesn't really wear a hat (thanks again, President Kennedy), I've designed a small bracelet that might prove quite popular among his colleagues in the Democratic Party.
Call now. Quantities are limited.
Update: I had a link to a store I set up selling bumper sticker and the like (thank you to the lucky few who ordered); however, I have temporarily taken it down due to fair-use concerns; though using John Kerry's face for parody is fine, using it on a commercial product is another story. Perhaps I'll redesign them later.
15 June 2004
"Yes, I've actually heard it used as a term of endearment."
--University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman, on "a four-letter word used toward women."
My, what polite company she keeps!
Parody Becomes Reality, Part II
South African Government Launches Colorful Condoms
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - The South African government, criticized for its slow response to the AIDS pandemic, launched a brand of brightly wrapped condoms Monday in a bid to enhance their appeal in the battle against HIV/AIDS.An occasion for Waugh (but then again, what isn't?):
"And another thing. I have been reading in my papers about something very modern called birth control. What is it?"I am sure South Africa's Neo-Azanian policy will fare as well as Emperor Seth's.
Basil explained.
"I must have a lot of that. You will see to it. Perhaps it is not a matter for an ordinance, what do you think? We must popularize it by propaganda--educate the people in sterility. We might have a little pageant in its honour..."
--Black Mischief
The tin roofs rang with the falling drops. Sodden rioters waded down the lanes to shelter; troops left their posts and returned to barracks huddled under cover in a stench of wet cloth. The surviving decorations from the pageant of birth control clung limply round the posts or, grown suddenly too heavy, snapped their strings and splashed into the mud below. Darkness descended upon a subdued city.
Possibly the worst search request yet:
Dakota sodomy 19th century.
It could be worse. I only come up as #2 on Google for that search.
Real posting soon. I just have to see Carlo off to Las Vegas. [Sick of the "Godfather" allusions? Well, it's been that kind of week. --Ed.]
14 June 2004
Parody Becomes Reality
Some fear that Meryl Streep's performance in the remake [Heaven preserve us from all such things] of "The Manchurian Candidate" is too "Hillarian."
It reminds me rather strongly of a parody I posted back in February:
The Fly on the Wall reports that "studio honchos have asked director Jonathan Demme to make little recuts and trims here and there to remove some of the more Hillaryesque gestures and expressions in the flick"--so it doesn't appear to bash their comrades.
I wonder if the original version of "The Day After Tomorrow" was even more unsubtle in its criticism of the current Administration: "[Writer/director/producer Roland] Emmerich does not deny that his depiction of a weak-willed president (played by Perry King) and a Dick Cheney look-alike as his vice president (Kenneth Welsh) was a jab at the Bush administration" (McPaper, 26 May 2004). No, not possible.
09 June 2004
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard
I've been saving up strange search requests that sent wanderers in my direction; here are just a few, in no discernible order.
Caravaggio's kill homeless [I think I own a print of that one. Very moving.]
inuits' marriage ceremony [I wouldn't know. They keep me off the guest list.]
Teresa Heinz, pronunciation of her name [Come, now. It's one syllable, and it's on ketchup bottles.]
Update: Jeff Miller says that people (including Senator Kerry) have a problem pronouncing Teresa Heinz's first name. I have looked into this, and have it on good authority that it is pronounced "She Who Must Be Obeyed."
"Jews are concerned and disillusioned" [The only results of this search are the ADL and Otto-da-Fe. Go figure.]
restoration acrobatics caning [I don't know what this is, and I want no part of it.]
upper room arsenal reactionary adventures [I don't know what this is, but I want to be part of it.]
Impostors, Pretenders, and Heirs (oh my!)
[Yes, I really wrote that. Sue me. --Ed.]
Charlie de Bourbon, great-grandson of the clockmaker impostor who claimed to be Louis XVII, still maintains his claim to the French throne, despite the evidence against him.
The Times on the clockmaker, Karl Wilhelm Naundorff:
Germany jailed him for claiming a false identity as the king, France deported him and nearly a decade later, Mr. Naundorff died suddenly at the age of 60 in the Netherlands - poisoned, his descendants say - but not before the Dutch government recognized his royal identity and granted his children the right to bear the Bourbon name. His tomb in Delft identifies him as Louis XVII, Charles Louis, duke of Normandy, king of France and of Navarre.(The Netherlands--perpetuating madness to this day. All those years of Habsburg rule did them little good.)
In 1950 the body of Mr. de Bourbon's great-grandfather was exhumed in the Netherlands and the DNA of a humerus taken from the body was finally tested in 1998. It showed that the owner of the bone was not related to Marie Antoinette or the Hapsburg family.
Lest I am misunderstood: though I do not like the above-mentioned self-styled "Count of Poitiers," I am by no means a defender of the Orléans line that schemed its way onto the throne in 1830. In fact, I sympathize with the legitimists (don't all gasp at once), who trace their preferred heir's line to Charles X, who abdicated in favor of his grandson, the Comte de Chambord (who would have been known as Charles V), only to have the crown pass instead to Louis-Philippe of Orléans, called "King of the French" (and worse).
A republic and an empire later, the National Assembly offered that same Charles V the throne, which he heroically refused unless France dropped the revolutionary tricolor in favor of the pre-revolutionary white banner with gold fleurs-de-lis. The frustrated National Assembly instead devised a plan by which the Orléanist Comte de Paris would take the throne after the stubborn old Comte de Chambord died, which he refused to do for some time--in fact, until political support for a reconstituted Monarchy almost completely disappeared, and the best plans of mice and Frenchmen fizzled.
Le Comte de Chambord, looking a bit jaundiced
As far as legitimists are concerned, the Duc D'Anjou--a young Spaniard--is the heir to the throne of France; he would be called Louis XX. He may not have France, but he does have a nice website--which is more than the Orléanists can say. I'm sure they can console themselves by contemplating the ship named after the Duc D'Orleans, offering lunch cruises in Canada for $17. Surely the People's King would approve.
A helpful family tree (adhering to the legitimist practice of calling Louis-Philippe "Duc D'Orléans" and the Comte de Chambord "Henri V") is available here. Those interested in what seems to be a more complete history should consult this site, run by a well-informed stereotype named Guy Stair Sainty. [The usual caveat applies; I haven't explored that (quite large) site, and do not necessarily endorse its opinions, decorations, or preferred pretenders. --Ed.]
Now I have to cleanse this French stuff from my palette. Off to the Biergarten.
Update: Matthew of the Shrine of the Holy Whapping adds more on the impostors and the heart, including a link to an AP slideshow.
08 June 2004
Robert Benchley wrote, "Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment." Well, if that were true, I'd be writing quite a bit today.
I have work through which to slog, and miles to go before I blog.
07 June 2004
Le petit dauphin perdu
The heart of the "Lost Dauphin," King Louis XVII of France, will be buried at the Basilica of Saint-Denis tomorrow, the two hundred ninth anniversary of the boy's death of tuberculosis during his imprisonment in revolutionary France.
Recent tests showed definite similarities between the DNA of the heart and that of samples from a lock of Marie Antoinette's hair and from modern scions of the Bourbon-Parma family (now there's a productive use of science!). These recent developments will help put to rest not only the young king, but also the long-standing legend of the Dauphin's escape from prison and subsequent life as an obscure German clockmaker, or perhaps John Audubon.
A crystal vase containing the boy king's heart will be entombed beside the remains of his parents, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, undoing the separation wrought by the Revolution. May they all rest in peace.
Orants de Louis XVI et Marie-Antoinette, Basilique Saint-Denis
Anti-Defamation League protests Sr. Anne Catherine Emmerich's beatification
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has written to high-level Catholic Church officials in Rome, the United States and Germany to express "great distress" over the Vatican's plans to beatify a 19th century stigmatic nun whose visions, as recounted in literature of the period, have fomented hatred and anti-Semitism in her name. ...Guilt is irrelevant; the only thing that matters is the seriousness of the accusation. Thanks, Abe. I'll note your disapproval, and file it in the same place I did your comments on "The Passion of the Christ," same-sex marriage, partial-birth abortion, Guantanamo detainees, immigration laws, Nativity scenes in public schools, "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, school vouchers, school prayer, and other areas.
"At a time when Jews are concerned and disillusioned by Mel Gibson's film, 'The Passion of the Christ' and the renewed interest in Sr. Emmerich's book, we believe that the beatification of Anne Catherine Emmerich could cause harm to Christian-Jewish relations," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "The disturbing conclusion that could be drawn from this beatification is that her anti-Semitic views, even if only attributed to her, are being discounted" [emphasis mine].
05 June 2004
03 June 2004
Cardinal Egan, call your office
From the Paper of Record:
Here's a twist to the machinations over whether Kerry, a pro-choice Catholic, gets invited to the Archdiocese of New York's Al Smith dinner next fall — the dinner emcee, Al Smith IV, is a Kerry fund-raiser.If the USCCB can rouse itself from its customary torpor to get rid of Ono Ekeh, Cardinal Egan should be able to do something about Al Smith IV, even if he is Al Smith IV.
He and wife Nan are "hosts" for Kerry's June 10 Radio City fund-raiser starring Bette Midler and Whoopi Goldberg.
I won't hold my breath.
02 June 2004
"He is not one of us. I wish he would stop pretending that he is."
--Retired Wall Street Journal reporter and Des Moines Register editor James Gannon on John Kerry, USA Today, 2 June 2004.
Kennedy's victory in 1960 over Vice President Nixon seemed to smash the political barrier to the Oval Office for Catholics, and we rejoiced. The fact that Kennedy virtually had to promise to keep his religious beliefs in a lockbox for four years, to overcome fears that the pope would be calling the shots, was a concession we could understand and forgive.John Kerry's cloakroom Catholicism should be proof that we are worse off in 2004 than we were in 1960.
Now, 44 years later, another Catholic is about to become the Democratic nominee for president. I wish I could be as proud and enthusiastic about that as I was in 1960. Instead, I am embarrassed. Given his beliefs and his voting record, I wish John Kerry professed another religious faith or none at all. I would rather have an agnostic or an atheist in the White House than a person who proclaims himself a Catholic but tosses overboard those parts of Catholic doctrine that are politically inconvenient.
A refreshing column in an unlikely place. Read on.
Drunk Students Adrift on Raft at Sea
Ah, that takes me back. In my memoirs I may include a chapter titled "Old Crow and the Sea."*
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A band of drunk Dutch students taking a break from exams had to be rescued at sea after a raft they built from empty jerrycans went adrift on the North Sea, the Hague police said Friday.*I do not recommend Old Crow bourbon at all. Bottom-shelf stuff.
"The students had made a kind of floating island and ventured out to sea under the influence of alcohol. They were carried into the open sea by the current and had to be rescued," a police statement said.
NY Tap Water Not Kosher
NEW YORK - A glassful of cold New York City tap water not kosher? It may be true — and just in case, restaurants and bakeries operated under Orthodox Jewish law were advised Tuesday to use filters that can ensure water purity.In case you were wondering.
The problem: tiny harmless creatures called copepods. The little organisms are crustaceans and therefore not considered kosher.
Au Revoir les Enfants
Two reasons why this article is troubling. Take a look at the following quote:
Parents often think that teenagers who grow up in cities are more prone to promiscuous sexual behavior than teenagers in the suburbs. But according to a comprehensive study sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Development, more suburban 12th graders than urban ones have had sex outside of a romantic relationship (43 percent, compared with 39 percent).This columnist (Benoit Denizet-Lewis) defines promiscuity down: it's just having sex "outside of a romantic relationship." Yes, the "friends with benefits" trend among high school students is bad; but the author doesn't seem to realize that it is a natural result of their having sex at all at their age and state. There is a bright line (or should be) between married and unmarried; less so with other relationships. When sex is taken out of its natural container, it tends to spread among those relationships (or non-relationships). If one has sex with a girlfriend, why not a friend? If a friend, why not an acquaintance? From an acquaintance, it is a small leap to some wanton you can pick up in a chat room, and from there--well, remember "toothing"?
Not that I'm saying that everyone who has sex outside of marriage traipses down this path to promiscuity; but what can one realistically expect of an emotionally immature, hormonally charged, and culturally prodded teenager? The sad thing about this article is that most of the anguish expressed, if any, is over the context in which teens are having sex, rather than the fact that they are doing it at all.
Second troubling point: Doesn't anyone think it's strange that this Times reporter is prowling about the internet and meeting children at Hooters for his research? There may be no other way to investigate this phenomenon, but the situation still makes my flesh crawl.
Thanks to Mr. Bettinelli for the link.
01 June 2004
"Every prostitute and bum in Rome knew Latin."
--The irrepressible Rev. Reginald Foster (or Reggie, as he is more often known), responding to claims that Latin is difficult (New York Times, 28 May 2004).
The pope's quirky Latinist fears for the language's future.
The pope, he said, "should stand up at the United Nations and speak Latin. And say, "If you don't understand this, it's too bad, jack!' "Sic transit gloria mundi. (I've uttered that six times this week already, and it's only Tuesday. A 6 on the Sic Transit Meter is bad indeed.)
Then he sighed. He was not optimistic.
Even at the Vatican, he said, when the pope leads senior church figures in the Lord's Prayer in Latin, after "Pater Noster," their voices often descend into mumbles.
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