I've upgraded the blog software to Movable Type 3.32 and moved the blogs to a different server machine. I hope this will help resolve some access-control problems that authors and commenters have run into recently. My previous hosting provider's attempts to improve security were behind most of them.
August 2006 Archives
Human Events asks: will Pennsylvania social conservatives decide to stay with Rick Santorum once they learn that senate candidate Bob Casey opposes a marriage protection amendment?
(HT: CaNN)
We had a somewhat unplanned addition to the Schultz family on Friday. We brought our foster baby home from the hospital at exactly 4pm.
I say somewhat unplanned because we finished our training in June and the county was still working on our paperwork. They said since we were new parents, they were recommending us for respite care - weekend or weeklong placements for full time foster parents. Instead we got the call a week ago that there was a baby in need, and we could meet her on Monday.
My wife spent the week at the hospital - mostly bonding with the baby but also getting training on working with a newborn with some special medical needs. I spent a couple of hours a day with her.
Now we're into our first full weekend together. The house is upside down, but caring for the baby is going well. She was an absolute angel at Mass today, and did what I hope hope a 2 month old would do: sleep through the entire Mass.
We're not sure how long we'll have her - maybe a few months, maybe forever. Only God knows, and the state gets to decide is she can be cared for by a family member.
She's sleeping now, and when she wakes up I'll be taking care of her all afternoon while Teresa catches up on some sleep.
She's a real blessing to have in our family.
Wow: Pluto's downfall is probably the biggest diss issued in public since they pulled Saint Christopher from the calendar.
Jeff Miller's ready to become an Old Solarist, but I'm looking for the political angle. What are the Democrats going to do with this? Pluto is small and eccentric, so it might be a perfect new interest group to add to the Coalition. Maybe it needs anti-discrimination laws or subsidies.
One TV reporter put it perfectly: "So this means, if you're small and different, you're dead?" The Dems have to keep that front and center, and keep asking what kind of universe we want to live in. A whole planet just fell through the Republican safety net, and -- let's face it -- the fact that we lost Pluto on George Bush's watch can count for something with the voters.
Guess what today's featured article is about?
The good news is that Fr. Bennett caught the young perpetrators in the act and scared them off before they could break into the wonderful Basilica in Boston. It's also good that they were untidy criminals: some of them came back to the church to get the drill they'd dropped, so the police were able to arrest three. The other two cared enough to bail out the three, so they came by the station to do that, and the police arrested them too.
Some of them appear to have pages on "myspace", and if these are the very same people, the pages reveal them to be a bunch of drunks barely out of high school who care only to party when they're not at their dead-end jobs: "Robby", "Alyse", "Jamie".
Some of them break into buildings for kicks, it seems: one friend posted on "Alyse's" page: "we should party and break into s--- again" (8/10); and she replied on his page: "we definetly need to break in to things and drink some more!" (8/11).
What do these people really need? What kind of life is this? They don't seem to have any connection to the Church: the two girls designate themselves as atheists.
Now, folks, don't post any comments on their pages....
Update: These whiz-kids removed their myspace.com pages from public view today, but Google has preserved snapshots of the pages from a few days ago.
"Some issues morally ‘non-negotiable’"
“On most issues that come before voters or legislators, the task is selecting the most effective policy to implement or apply a moral principle. Good Catholics must embrace the principles, but most of the time there isn’t a specifically ‘Catholic position’ on the best way to implement that principle,” the guide states.“But some issues concern ‘non-negotiable’ moral principles that do not admit of exception or compromise,” the guide continues. “One’s position either accords with those principles or does not. No one endorsing the wrong side of these issues can be said to act in accord with the church’s moral norms.”
A couple of thoughts: Catholic Answers is an outstanding organization, and they produce wonderfully engaging and accurate publications.
You'll also note that "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" is not on the non-negotiable list.
This month's pig-pile is on the Israeli government.
And don't make it look like you've any planning or preparation for such as operation. That will just make people (including Catholic Bishops) question your intentions.
Only God knows when Israel will get a break. Every concession they make only results in more demands from the terrorists in the region. Every defensive act they take is condemned. And the global media gets spoon-fed propaganda and doctored photos.
Polka services popular with parishes
At Sacred Hearty Heart Catholic Church in Dent, where there’s a strong German and Polish heritage, polka music the Night Owls from Sauk Center provided the music. The congregation appreciated the happy music coordinated by Kevin and Marlene Gwost. ...full article
From Power Line:
The bottom line is, Hezbollah went the distance and was still standing--firing rockets--at the end. It emerges with its stature enhanced.
That's an understatement -- Hezbollah has just won its brief war with Israel. To the Arab mind, if a challenger tries to displace the ruler, and the ruler remains in power, the ruler is the winner. That's why Saddam claimed to be the winner in the first Gulf War, because he remained president of Iraq even though his military forces were demolished. In turn, the challenger might gain in status if he lives to fight another day, but if he is utterly defeated, he is despised and forgotten.
By that logic, Hezbollah was the power in southern Lebanon, and Israel tried to displace it. Hezbollah is still in power, ergo they won. As the challenger, Israel is now despised because it is seen as the greater power in the region -- yet it did not use its full force to defeat Hezbollah. Now other Arab (and Persian) rulers will seek to take advantage of this victory.
You think this is "ethnic stereotyping"? I tell you that this description can be confirmed by anyone who has studied Middle Eastern politics without ideological blinders. Displays of compassion or restraint are interpreted as weakness. Shows of strength, even when they are untethered to anything resembling morality, are always respected even coming from hated enemies.
The State of Israel has known this since its inception, and has chosen its tactics accordingly. That explains why in the Palestinian areas under its control, Israel has chosen to treat the Palestinians with high-handed disdain, giving them daily, visible reminders of their material inferiority and powerlessness. This fuels the nihilistic rage of the Palestinians, who strike back with increasing desperation; from this shame, suicide bombers are born.
Looking at it from the other side, though, what choice does Israel have? "Treat the Palestinians with love and respect," you reply. That will only invite more attacks, as when the odious murderer Arafat launched a suicide-bombing campaign in 2000 after Israel offered 97% of the Palestinian territories in exchange for peace. In this decade, Israel evacuated southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and in return it got rockets launched against its population centers. What would happen if it gave up the Golan Heights and the West Bank? Likely it would get more of the same, and twice as bad.
I sympathize with the Israelis' plight, but ultimately, agreeing to this cease-fire does not mean "the fighting will stop." It will simply postpone the fighting until a later time, when Hezbollah has replenished its weapons and men, and is newly motivated to spill fresh Jewish blood. The State of Israel will have two choices: 1) suffer another defeat, and concede its eventual dissolution at the hands; or 2) respond with devastating force. This will almost certainly kill far more people tomorrow, innocent and otherwise, than defeating Hezbollah today.
That is what Michael Ledeen was getting at in his latest NRO column: "If we do not do the logical and sensible things, if we do not deploy the massive political weapons at our disposal, we will end by doing terrible things." Hitler could have been stopped when he invaded the Rhineland -- his generals agreed that if the French showed the slightest resistance, they would turn their troops around and depose the government. But France did nothing, and a war that could have been stopped with a few minor skirmishes ended with the wholesale destruction of entire cities.
False peace is the hallmark of our time, and our descendants will rightly despise us for believing in it -- assuming they will still teach history in their schools, along with memorizing the Koran.
Does "celebratory gunfire" violate a cease-fire?
I will pray it holds and there can be peace, but with Hezbollah on the other side of this, how can we have true peace?
Here are a couple of pictures of pro-terrorist demonstrators on Saturday, August 13, 2006. These lads were on their way to Lafayette Park, right across the street from the White House. I was eating a picnic lunch with my older three kids in front of the Reagan Building's fountain on 13th Street.
The sign is from International ANSWER, a communist front group that constantly organizes marches and demonstrations.
That's a Palestinian flag, as you probably know already. When the flag guy saw me snapping a picture, he asked if he could tell me why he was there.
"Oh, I know why you're here," I said. "You're here to defend the terrorists of Hezbollah."
"We are here to protest the illegal Israeli invasion of Lebanon...."
"Who started it?" I interrupted.
Flag guy looked startled for a moment, then continued. "The Israelis occupied Lebanon for 18 years...."
"Yeah, but they left six years ago. Who started firing the rockets?"
Not listening, he continued his rote speech. "They are killing civilians..."
"Who fired the rockets?"
"...acting as occupiers..."
"Who fired the rockets?"
"...illegal war..."
"You can't even answer a straight question," I said, getting more frustrated. "Why did the Israelis invade Lebanon?"
"Israel has been killing women and children in Lebanon...."
"No." Looking back to make sure my kids were still out of earshot, I replied, "They have been killing Hezbollah. And I hope they kill every single one of them. Every single one of those bastard terrorists."
Flag guy continued to spew the same lines he memorized on the trip from Detroit. (That's a guess, but his friend was wearing a Detroit Tigers cap.) I shook my head and walked back to the fountain, convinced that no meaningful dialogue was possible.
Later, I heard that the demonstration had attracted 30,000 people. That's a risible falsehood, unless the demonstration spilled over from Lafayette Park to the adjoining streets, or maybe the Ellipse. The park just isn't big enough. When I worked around the corner, my Web development team used to have meetings in the park when the weather was nice. (It wasn't a big team -- we only needed a couple of park benches.) You'd have to stack people like cordwood to get 30,000 protesters in there. Check out this satellite map to get an idea of the park's scale.
In my last entry, I made a (very brief) argument for referring to Islamist radicals as "Islamic fascists." Han, an astute commenter who has obviously thought through this issue, demurred: he thinks "Islamic fascism" is an attempt to cram their non-Western ideology into our own Western categories.
Below is a response to his objection -- not a refutation, because I don't think we disagree about the nature of Islam, or the threat that Islamic radicalism poses to the West. Han's words are in italics.
I define historical fascism as a theory of organising society premised on supreme authority invested in one leader,
Al Qaeda's avowed goal is to re-establish an Islamic caliph, ruling all Muslims around the world. Bin Laden probably saw himself in that role of supreme leader; we have to assume that it remains one of their objectives.
regulation of industry,
Point well taken: besides oil, the Muslim world (particularly the Arab part of it) has little industry worth mentioning. But presumably the economic sphere would not fall outside the caliph's authority.
a generous welfare programme,
Hamas and Hezbollah have extensive welfare infrastructures. To a lesser extent, Al Qaeda was known for its almsgiving until it was forced to keep a much lower profile.
cross-class solidarity based upon nationalism,
Islamic radicalism fits the bill here, too -- they just have a different idea of what constitutes a "nation." More on that in a bit.
and nationalisation/single party control of civic organisations.
Again, it's difficult to imagine that a caliph (or any Islamist religious authority) would consider civic organizations to fall outside his purview.
The universalist aspirations of the Islamists just doesn't fit the bill. They are not nationalists, and they seem generally unconcerned with the problems of industrial society that Fascism (along with Communism, Social Democracy, &c.) was attempting to solve.
Islamism is very much a reaction to modern industrial (and information-age) society. In part, it derives its legitimacy among the Muslim masses because it poses as the defender of traditional values and family structures, much as Mussolini and Hitler clothed their radical intentions in conservative garb.
Unlike the fascists, who believed in control of church by the state, the Islamists seem to believe in control of the state by the mosque.
I respectfully disagree with this statement, for the same reason that I believe the Islamists are nationalists. Their conception of national identity is based, not on blood, language, or soil, but solely on whether an individual accepts their interpretation of the Koran. They do not believe in "state sovereignty" because God alone is sovereign and does not delegate that authority to earthly powers, contrary to what St. Paul said about the role of the state as God's inperfect instrument of justice on earth.
Further, they make no distinction between "state" and "mosque" because the Koran makes no distinction between divine law and civil law. Jesus said that we owe ultimate allegiance to God, but we have temporal duties to the state as long as we are living. As Pryce-Jones points out, the Koran sanctions Islam and the family as the only two divinely-blessed institutions. There's no room for "civic institutions" such as unions, associations, corporations, etc. They might exist, but to a Muslim they have no real meaning or value in themselves, and they all must be ultimately subsumed by religious authorities or families.
...[W]e ought to accept the Islamists' claims that they represent true Islam....The left likes to imagine that despite what they say, the Islamists are really just doing some class struggle, and the right likes to imagine that it is fighting the Cold War again.
Correct on all counts. The secular Left is completely incapable of understanding radical Islam, because of its cramped and inadequate view of what human beings are. The Right would like to recast Islamism as Marxism because 1) it was a recent enemy and the public remembers it; 2) right-wingers are sensitive to the charge that they are trying to start a "religious war"; and 3) we eventually beat the commies, so it's comforting to think that by applying similar strategies, we can beat the Islamists.
As to whether the Islamic radicals represent "true Islam," Han may well be correct to agree with them. We might be disagreeing about nothing more than ideological forensics: he thinks the tendencies which I describe as "fascist" are intrinsic to Islam, and contain no imported ideas because they were there from the beginning. I think the tendencies were there from the start, but they were mixed with Western fascist ideas in the first half of the twentieth century, making the nasty brew that has wreaked its vile mayhem around the world.
Ultimately, we do agree on one thing, unless I'm misreading Han -- that Islamic radicalism, by whatever name, is a totalizing movement that represents an existential threat to the West.
The truly awful thing is that many people will agree with CAIR:
US Muslims bristle at Bush term "Islamic fascists"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Muslim groups criticized President George W. Bush on Thursday for calling a foiled plot to blow up airplanes part of a "war with Islamic fascists," saying the term could inflame anti-Muslim tensions....
"We believe this is an ill-advised term and we believe that it is counter-productive to associate Islam or Muslims with fascism," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group.
Don't you think that plotting to murder 2,700 people is a little more likely to "inflame anti-Muslim tensions" than a couple of words uttered by the president?
Besides, "Islamic fascists" is a perfect description of the terrorists' ideology. They plan to form an Islamic superstate from Morocco to Indonesia, governed by their interpretation of sharia law. From there, they will make jihad against non-Muslim lands until the entire world submits to the Word of God as delivered to Muhammad (npfp). This isn't the president's imagination. This is the Islamofascists' stated game plan. It's not a mischaracterization or interpretation.
--Will you come with me?
--I'll go with you.
Our parish is mourning two deaths in one family today. A 17-year-old altar server in our parish died shortly after midnight Tuesday after a lengthy fight with cancer. Dominic Davulis had been serving at Holy Trinity Church in Boston for most of his life and hoped to serve at the altar of God for years to come.
We all pray for the grace of a holy death. The circumstances around Dominic's passing and the unexpected death of his brother William make me wonder at what mysterious events can happen, perhaps in response to that prayer.
Tragedy strikes Southie family: Brother killed hours before tumor takes his sibling's life
By Laura Crimaldi (Boston Herald)
Thursday, August 10, 2006 - Updated: 03:14 AM ESTThe devoted older brother of a dying Dorchester teen fulfilled a promise to join his little brother on his journey into eternal life when he died Tuesday in a motorcycle accident just hours before a brain tumor claimed his kin.
William Davulis, 26, the eldest of 10 children, was on his way to say goodbye to his younger brother, Dominic, 17, when he lost control of his motorcycle at the intersection of East First and O streets in South Boston at about 4:35 p.m.
"William wasn't expecting to see God. He was expecting to see his dying brother," said the brothers' mother Terina, who hasn't slept since she bid adieu to her older son at the city morgue only to return to Dominic's bedside and hold his hand until he died at 12:50 yesterday morning.
Continue reading et in hora mortis nostrae, amen.
Cool! Thanks to Republicans across the river, I got to meet fellow bow-hunter Ted Nugent. Here's a picture of him autographing my membership card for an organization that supports hunters' rights.
(Thanks to Dave Helwig at SooToday.com for snapping the above pic.)
Thanks Greg! At least someone recognizes that Canadians really are on the front lines of the culture war.
First we have all the news stories about women getting "ordained" to the priesthood.
Now we get the stories about their first "Mass."
When do we get to start calling the story writers "reporters" or the papers that publish them "news outlets?"
Lebanese Catholic expresses solidarity with Israeli soldiersTEL AVIV, Israel (CNS) -- Sharbel Salameh, a Maronite Catholic and Lebanese refugee living in Hadera, Israel, grew up thinking Israeli soldiers were the good guys. Salameh said he remembers his father's stories about when his family was still in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1982, and Israel was trying to evict the PLO. "We brought the Israeli soldiers flowers, threw rice on them, a symbol of blessings, and sang them songs," he told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview Aug. 3. Later the family moved to Klayaa near the south Lebanese army base in Marj Uyun. The army worked to prevent Hezbollah outposts from growing near the Israeli border, but things changed in May 2000 when Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon. Pressured by Syria and Hezbollah, the Lebanese government endorsed Hezbollah's claims that Israel still occupied Lebanese land even after Israel's withdrawal. Salameh and his family of five, along with 7,000 Maronites, other Christians, Muslims and Druze, fled Lebanon, seeking political asylum in Israel. Salameh, 24, said he doesn't agree with a Beirut Center for Research and Information report that said 80 percent of Christians in Lebanon support Hezbollah, as reported July 28 by The Christian Science Monitor. "There is no way. This makes me angry," Salameh said. "None of my friends in Lebanon support the Hezbollah.
Be sure to click on photo on the right side.
And LGF has full details (scroll down.)
My choir sang this anthem by Gabriel Faure today. In French. We had about 20 singers, including my twin the seminarian. And they did an outstanding job.
Word of God the most high, our sole hope,
eternal day of the earth and heavens
as we break the silence of the peaceful night
divine saviour, look down upon us.Imbue us with the fire of thy great mercy
so that hell itself will flee at the sound of your voice
disperse the sleep which leads our languishing souls
to stray from the path of righteousness.O Christ show your favour to your faithful people
who have come together to worship you
receive the praises that they offer up to your immortal glory
and may they come back laden with the gift of your grace.
Winston was a young cowboy who lived near The Kitchen Madonna, so she gave him some advice about finding a good woman.
It figures that such a capable lady would live in the Heart of Dixie.
The Benedictine monks and nuns of St. Mary's Monastery and St. Scholastica Priory in Petersham, Mass., share a chapel.
At vespers, they kindly provide the guests with the psalm texts and antiphon chant settings, so that we are able to join in quietly but correctly.
Fr. Keyes was there too:
We Boston bloggers have two out-of-town visitors at once: Fr. Keyes from Rifugio San Gaspare and my CL co-blogger Eric Johnson are in town, one for vacation and the other for an IT conference. We had supper together at an Italian place in Waltham, and were joined by Mark Sullivan and Eric Ewanco, for a very enjoyable meeting. Fr. Keyes took the photo of me yesterday while I was showing him around the New Hampshire seacoast.
A friend who attends Melkite parishes went to a parish's summer festival last week, and writes this (emphasis added):
Went to St. Ann's in Waterford [CT] this weekend with Archbishop Cyril, Bishop John and [pastor] Father Ed Kakaty. They had their festival, which was great. Interestingly enough, Father Ed made an announcement during [Divine Liturgy] that the church had received threatening calls from local Muslims complaining about the fact that there would be dancing. Evidently some families stayed away....we stayed for the first part of the festival.
It was our first visit to St. Ann's and the singing was marvellous! We may go back to experience a regular Sunday, especially since St. Ann's is slightly closer to us than Worcester.
I have to wonder who these callers think they are. They probably aren't calling up function halls, schools, or restaurants to complain about dancing, or they'd already be in jail, but they think they're entitled to harass a Catholic church. Is it time to call the cops?
Maybe Abdul is in the habit of expecting Arab Catholics to roll over when he doesn't like something they do, but lissen up, Bub, we Catholics are not your dhimmis here. If you don't like it, you can always go back to the old country.
This is making the e-mail rounds, so you may have seen it. But it was new to me.
SPOONS
A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, "Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like."The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.
The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, "You have seen Hell."
They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, "I don't understand."It is simple" said the Lord, "it requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves."
