Sunday, March 29, 2009

SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE --
THAT'S ALL YOU'VE GOT LEFT

But you'll enjoy singing along with this old favorite.
Listen well, and then go throw some tea in a harbour.


Saturday, March 28, 2009

SMARTEST WOMAN IN THE ROOM
MAKES A GLOBAL FOOL OF HERSELF
YET AGAIN

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Broadbottom, fresh from presenting an "Overcharge" button to the Russians, and expressing the hope that North Koreans are listening to her on Greta von Susteren better than they listened to her when she was in Seoul, topped herself yet again on her recent visit to Mexico.

Privileged to stand up close to the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, she expressed her admiration by asking "Who painted it?" Her flummoxed host, one Monsignor Monroy, could only splutter, "God."

Now I have no quarrel if a week ago Hillary had never heard of Our Lady of Guadalupe, knew nothing of the story of how the image of the Blessed Virgin came to appear on the cloak of a peasant, and laughed heartily when she was told.

But wait --apparently, she wasn't told. But, hey -- how could this ridiculous monument to superstition possibly merit some advance leg-work by Hillary's minions anyway? They have far more important matters to attend to -- like boning up on their Russian translation....

Hillary returns stateside in triumph, stopping off in Houston tonight to accept probably her most fitting and well-deserved honor in a distinguished (?) career of standing next to important people. She steps up to the podium -- to follow in the footsteps of, among others, Katherine Hepburn, Phil Donahue, Canadian butcher-of-the-unborn Henry Morgentaler, and, perversely, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-- to accept the coveted Margaret Sanger Award for outstanding service in the cause of lifelessness.

Ah, yes, Margaret Sanger -- that apostle of eugenics, paragon of racism, saint of sterility, doyenne of demographic suicide. Who would not crave to stand heir to such a legacy, and to be publicly crowned with such dusty and desiccated laurels? A proud moment, Mrs. Clinton.

Were there no lightning bolts available in Mexico on Thursday?

[Hilarious Hillary Hat-tip: Gateway Pundit]

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Add this to the body of general knowledge lacking in our President:

HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE CONSTELLATION "ORION"

John Hinderaker over at Power Line tells of the Obamessiah's apparent cluelessness when setting eyes on the name "Orion" as one element of the name of a corporation involved in his clean energy roundtable -- such that the Barackster mispronounced it over and over again.

Attached to Hinderaker's memo is the following, from our boy Iowahawk, who once again, NAILS IT, with acuity that's just downright painful. The Presidential Teleprompter speaks:



Read more at Iowahawk's site, taking all precautions not to wet yourself laughing.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Despite my massive head-cold --
or maybe because of it -- I engage in......


EVIL THOUGHTS ABOUT THE MISFORTUNES
OF AN EVIL MAN


I have done my best over the years to ignore the verbal excretions of one Father Andrew Greeley, Catholic priest, cheesy pop novelist, and sociologist boil-on-the-bum of Chicago/American Catholicism. I came close to meeting him once, on vacation in Wisconsin, because he and my parents had a mutual friend, a married ex-priest. Greeley never showed, but I always considered it the sole point in his favor that, while remaining on friendly terms, he had very much disapproved of the ex-priest's bailing out of his vows, and had refused to attend the man's wedding.

In preparation for that possible encounter, I bought a volume containing three of Greeley's novels. I could only make myself get through one of them, and discovered in it yet another reason to think ill of him: it was a crappy piece of potboiler/bodice-ripper/soft-porn "romance" -- and to the perennial question, "How does a priest know so much about sex?" it gave the definitive answer, "Actually he doesn't know much of anything, especially if he thinks women get turned on by being roughed up."

Anyhoo, it obviously wasn't of vital international Catholic import that Greeley was the victim of a nasty car accident last November, because it only just came to my attention today, kind of accidentally. (Unlike when Fr. Benedict Groeschel was hit by a car -- seems like the whole Catholic world knew and fell to its knees to pray him back to health.) It seems that Greeley was getting out of a cab in Chicago, fell down, hit his head, and was dragged a bit because his coat was caught in the door. Nasty.

He was sedated into unconsciousness for quite awhile, but apparently has been up and into the rehab more recently, and is being cared for at home by family. Well, good for him.

I hadn't given the man a thought for years and years, but at some point during the election season I ran across a link to his columns written at the time. To no great surprise, he was one among that foul demographic, the Catholics for Obama. Okay, we know you're out there, and your mental gymnastics must be downright painful. What was shocking, disgusting, shameful, outrageous about his version of Obamaphilia were the newspaper columns he wrote that engaged in vicious flat-out libel against Sarah Palin (and, to a lesser extent, John McCain), and others that were filled with flat-out baseless race-baiting. Read them here (if you think it's necessary) and see if I'm exaggerating.

I have always wondered why Greeley has been able to operate unrestricted, especially as a crap novelist, under the Chicago episcopal authority -- but then, I suppose under Cardinal Bernardin anything was possible. And, as much as I like the way the present Cardinal, Francis George, thinks about most things, it doesn't appear that the creeps have been cleansed from the temple on his watch -- let's not forget the 25-year reign of the execrable Fr. Michael Pfleger.

Bits and pieces of the story -- some assembly required:

-- Greeley was hysterically enthused about the mere idea of an Obama presidency. But.....
-- Greeley believed that the Obama presidency was impossible because America is too racist
-- Greeley was utterly euphoric in the wake of the election.
-- Greeley was wearing his Obama cap when he fell and conked his head.

I report, you decide. I'm Catholic, so of course I don't believe in Karma.


Other Catholic matters:

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
INVITES
THE ABORTION PRESIDENT
TO DELIVER
THE 2009 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

As Leno said to Hugh Grant after he got busted with a prostitute,

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKIN'????"

There's a church in Rome on the Piazza Navona called Sant' Agnese in Agone. It is said to mark the spot where the Saint Agnes was confined, naked, inside a brothel so that she could be summarily violated, because Roman law did not allow the execution of a virgin. She emerged intact [only to be beheaded later] because the miscreants inside the brothel had decided there were some lines even they would not dare to cross. Nevertheless, the name of the church tells of the AGONY of humiliation and terror she must have suffered awaiting her fate.

The upper ranks of administration at University of Notre Dame, especially its president, Fr. John Jenkins, should give a moment's thought to the insult and agony they offer to Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin for whom their institution is named, in inviting, for the purpose of honoring, as commencement speaker the man who may be the most activist political promoter of abortion and infanticide in America's history.

There have been many instances of perverse thinking over the course of the recent American election cycle, but none worse than the block of Catholic voters who pulled the lever for the Abortion President. This fetid rot at the core of the American Church now blasts its stink to the far reaches of the land by such a high-profile act of apostasy.

One retiring UND professor bemoans the situation
here.

Sign, call, demonstrate the ire of the faithful
here.

Dies irae, dies illa.



MISCELLANY

More from the Windy City: Gary Sinise fumes about the De Palma version of Iraq.

Further north: David Warren speaks from the Great White North, with pithy Obamanalysis.

Then down south: Mark Steyn sums up the Hopeychanger's latest Very Bad Week for Orange County (and the rest of us).

Anne Coulter tames her customary bile in a well-deserved tribute to the late Ron Silver, who died too young of cancer a few days ago. Two Hollywood scions make their contribution here.

And President Obambi's TELEPROMPTER has its own blog. Rush Limbaugh immediately puts the comic cherry on top by referring to the teleprompter as TOTUS. This, my friends, is political satire at its very finest. "Reflections from the hard drive of the machine that enables the voice of the Leader of the Free World" Love it, love it, love it.

Caller to the Limbaugh show, speaks to substitute host Mark Steyn today: "Obama doesn't want to BE president, he just wants to play one on TV."

Heh. Yeah.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

JUST PASSING THROUGH

Well, I've just come off teaching as much as I could of the two millennia of Christian art and architecture to a dozen new deacons (I got up to around the 1500 year mark, selectively, in about three and a half hours), and all that compacting of data and analysis has wrung out my brain.

Am preparing to head south to visit various family, having duly packed off masses of chicken fajita jerky to Al Asad air base, via Treats for Troops. (Great group -- send a soldier some goodies.)

Can't stop to chat now, but will insert this incendiary device just for fun. Greyhawk over at
Mudville Gazette thinks it's an unfair comparison, but I disagree.



Also worth noting, from the Milblog universe: you know that much-touted "drawdown" of 17K troops by diverting them from Iraq to Afghanistan? Commingler-in-Chief Obambi neglected to mention that another stryker brigade is being sent to Iraq in place of the "diverted" one. So it's a wash -- no drawdown, just one more chapter in the Obama multi-front shell-game. Thanks for popping up that illumination shell,
Mudville and Blackfive.

Blackfive also has some good stuff on the new documentary "Brothers at War", where the film-maker follows around his two brothers both serving in Iraq. This sounds like something I may be able to watch. I have a pile of videos I've ordered over the past five years or so, all fine work about the real face of the Iraq campaign, bought because I wanted to support the filmmakers who are usually working on a shoestring to get the truth out against great odds. But so far I really haven't been able to make myself watch any of them. The most recent (which isn't for sale yet) is "Taking Chance", a remarkable true story of the return of a Marine's casket for burial at home. It sounds wonderful, and got rave reviews from military folks everywhere. I think I'll probably be ready to watch it in, oh, maybe 2012 or 2015? Not now -- too close to the bone.

"Brothers at War"
is something a little different (though its trailers do warn that military families may be disturbed by the part about an IED explosion -- and the foul language!!! Are they kidding?), so maybe I'll give it a look before the next decade. Opening this weekend in selected theatres, with filmmaker Jake Rademacher and producer Gary Sinise attending the premier in Fayetteville, N.C.


IT'S THE ECONOMY, COCOA PUFF

You probably didn't put all your eggs in one basket, but the trouble is, governments have a way finding all your baskets and playing reverse-Easter-bunny. Here's a young woman who knows how to get the point across to the post-literate generation. I think it's smashing.




[Hat-tip/
Real Revo]

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

HIATUS AND A HALF

The Dow may be down, but my Tao is not -- I'm just WAY too busy to post right now.

On alternate Tuesdays when it's raining I have been known to wish that I actually understood what the numbers mean that come after words like "Nasdaq" and "Dow" and stuff like that on TV. Neil Cavuto remains cute, Larry Kudlow is not cuddly, but on the whole I don't know what they're talking about. Probably a pretty good thing that I don't own any stock.

Coming soon to this site: I "Fisk" the Commander-in-Chief's revolting performance at Camp Lejeune. It's about the first thing he's said that contained anything meaningful enough to be Fisked. Made me want to smack him right in the teeth. Cue the Secret Service.