Judge Alito

From what I've heard, Judge Alito is a fine pick for the Supreme Court. I think the gang of 14 in the Senate will have a tough time considering him extremely out of the mainstream. I wouldn't be surprised, though, to start hearing the Democrats complain about the court being stacked with Catholics. If Alito is confirmed, I believe 5 of the 9 Supremes will be Catholic.

Indictment

I read the indictment. Here's my take: Fitzgerald proved to his own satisfaction (and to the satisfaction of the grand jury) that Libby found out Plame was a CIA employee from the CIA and from V.P. Cheney and from the State Department. Libby told the grand jury and the FBI that he found out about Plame's emplyment from journalists. The indictment spells out that Libby knew about Plame a month ahead of when he says he learned it. Thus, Libby lied about who told him Plame worked for the CIA.

A lot of time I can go through my mail and notes and refresh my memory of who told me what when, but sometimes... a lot of the time... that is really difficult. And I'm not in the middle of the rush of the White House gotcha games. This sure seems like a weak thing to ruin someone's career over: "This here paper shows you knew a month before than yur tellin' us, Mr. Libby. What cha got to say about that?" I mean, it's not like knowing, or releasing her name and job was a crime.... he wasn't indicted for that, after all.

Another take: In one instance either Tim Russert or Scooter Libby is lying. Fitzgerald believed the journalist.

A Telling Omission

Please read Michelle Malkin's entry about the New York Times picking and choosing what portions of a dead soldier's letter to realease. Even knowing that the Times is biased doesn't do this omission justice, they left out the part of the letter that means to most to everyone who knows a soldier in this war... and even those who dont.

The Lion

I've been reading "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" to my first grade daughter over the last week. We only had a few pages to go and she asked me to finish it this morning instead of this evening. And so the children, now Kings and Queens all, followed the White Stag back to the wardrobe and became only children, once again.

I can tell you, there were a few tears from us both when Aslan gave himself up for Edmund and was shaved and bound and sacrificed. I do wish, however, that when I read the scene of the sacrifice I would have stopped reading for the night and then picked up the next night. Since I read that part straight through, we only had to wade through a few paragraphs of grief before Aslan was made whole, more than whole, again. Waiting overnight might have made it more powerful. Even as it was, though, my daughter was already drawing pictures of Aslan and Lucy with hearts all around them.

This morning, after I finished, I asked her, my daughter, if she wanted to hear a secret about Aslan. Of course she did, she loved the book. And I asked her if she remembered how Edmund was before he met Aslan, how he lied and cheated and was pretty nasty to everyone. She did. And I asked her if she remembered what Aslan had done for Edmund, how he had let himself be caught and tied and shaved and killed so that Edmund could go free. (And here, with tears in her eyes because she was remembering the scene, she nodded.) And I asked her if she knew of anyone else who had ever done something like that, anyone who had ever given themselves up to die so others could go free, anyone who had ever died and come back to life... I saw a light start coming on in her eyes. "Jesus?" "Yes," I said, "that's the secret... Aslan is Jesus. We are, all of us, you and me and mommy and all of us, in trouble like Edmund was in trouble and Jesus took the punishment for us so we could go free."

Country Lyric

"We've got a long drive ahead and I find myself longing for my old bench seat Chevy, but I'm trapped in this bucket seat life."

-- from an old letter I happened upon

OK, isn't that phrase just looking for a country song to wrap her arms around it? "We've got a bench seat love in a bucket seat world."

Noonan: A Separate Peace

Peggy Noonan writes, in her most recent article "A Separate Peace," that the intellectual elites of America are split into two groups. One group is out to just "get theirs" before everything falls apart and the other group is trying to fix things. I like Peggy Noonan's writing, generally, although she's a bit overly dramatic. (OK, more than a bit.) In this case, though, I disagree. Ms. Noonan sees the rush of technology (the "Future Shock" of Alvin Toffler, or perhaps Toffler's "Third Wave") as overwhelming our human ability to deal with it, or manage it. Perhaps she doesn't specifically believe she's writing about technology, but most of her examples have to do with techie stuff: cloning, nuclear proliferation, embryonic stem-cells, the media, biological threats, etc.

In fact, I believe my grandparents (early 1900's through the 1980's) had to deal with a much greater shock of technology. When my grandparents were children, it was an overnight trip, by wagon, just to go to town; no electricity, no cars, no radios, no nothing... days spend choring around followed by dinner and sleep. From this, they watched Men go to the moon. My kids, most kids I'd say, have an obvious ability to deal with the multi-faceted world around them that defines our modern life. They are not overwhelmed, not even near to being overwhelmed, by technology -- and they are more than willing to put it to use as a tool in solving problems.

Ms. Noonan thinks the world is off its tracks and headed for a crash. I think the next generation is waiting for stodgy thinkers to retire so they can move the world ahead. This is not to say that change for change's sake is good, or that technology for technology's sake is good. I find a healthy concern among college kids I encounter about biological ethics. I think they'll do fine, given the chance, given the faith of their fathers.

Miers Withdraws

President Bush has apparently accepted the withdrawal of Harriet Miers. Now we will see if Judge Bork was correct last week when he predicted that if Bush was forced to withdraw the Miers nomination, he would poke a stick in conservatives' eyes with an even worse candidate. I thought at the time that that type of action didn't sound like the kind of thing President Bush would do... but we'll see.

And not one word about Bird Flu

Rare Asian Black-Tailed Gull Found in Vermont.

Esquire

I haven't read it except for some excerpts here, but Esquire magazine has a long article out titled "Creationists and other Idiots." As an example of ID and Creationists, of course, the magazine uses the Museum of Earth History in Kentucky. Really, isn't there some difference between dinosaurs wearing saddles and Dr. Behe?

Rock of Ages

The new TV Show "Close to Home" (which is about an Indianapolis prosecutor who took time off to have a baby and who is now back at work) last night dove into religion. The case was about a woman who killed her husband and her defense was that God asked her to do it. Is this how Hollywood sees Indiana? Are we, here, in one of the redder states, seen as Bible-quoting, knife wielding hypocrites?

It was never clear whether the lady was going for an insanity defense, or what, but the image I'd like to write about concerned the prosecutor's Presbyterian church. She was preparing to have her baby baptized, you see, and there were some scenes from inside the church.

In the opening scene, the Cathedral-sized Presbyterian church was pretty full for Sunday morning service with almost no grey-haired people in the pews, everyone dressed up in suits and ties and nice dresses, and very few children besides the baby. And the hymn they were singing? "Rock of Ages." Not only is it unlikely that a church full of 30 and 40 somethings would be singing "Rock of Ages", but it was ridiculous too see them all holding up and referring to their hymnals -- because apparently lifelong Presbyterians can't remember the words to the first verse of "Rock of Ages?" The moment was so completely and utterly and obviously staged... it was like the camera had zoomed into that Lego church you see around on the Internet from time to time. It was a scene that could have just as easily been from The Andy Griffith show forty years ago ... only there, then, the pews would have been filled with all of the townsfolk, from kids to grandfathers, some stuggling to stay awake, some singing poorly, some distracted, none of them Legos.

Later, the baptism was held in an apparently private ceremony... the church appeared to be empty but for the immediate family, at least that's what I remember. The baby was very calm and beautiful for the pastor and the scene was set to music so no other sounds could be heard but the music and a woman in a choir robe singing "All things bright and beautiful." But in this baptism scene, with the calm baby and head-nodding pastor dripping water on the baby's head, the actress playing the prosecutor was gleefully laughing (off sound, so it was just an image). Now, I've had four kids baptized and I even put up with wearing a tie on those days, and I've seen lots of baptisms, but I've never seen a mother laughing with joy as a pastor sprinkles water on the head of a calm baby. What's the deal with that?

The deal, I guess, is the continuing recognition in Hollywood that Christianity brings in the bucks, so why not give it a go, however half-hearted the attempt.

Fly

I have been cruel to a fat pigeon
Because he would not fly
All he wanted was to live like a friendly old man

He had let himself become a wreck, filthy and confiding
Wild for his food, beating the cat off the garbage
Ignoring his mate, perpetually snotty at the beak
Smelling, waddling, having to be
Carried up the ladder at night, content

Fly, I said, throwing him into the air
But he would drop and run back, expecting to be fed
I said it again and again, throwing him up
As he got worse
He let himself be picked up every time
Until I found him in the dovecote, dead
Of the needless efforts

So that is what I am

Pondering his eye that could not
Conceive that I was a creature to run from

I who have always believed too much in words

---- Fly, by W.S. Merwin

I find it embarrassing to pray for something that is totally within my power to achieve. I'm not saying I don't sometimes do so, but isn't it rather embarrassing to ask for divine intervention to, say, eat less and exercise more, or to watch less TV and get more sleep, or to stop focusing so much on the negative news and start focusing on a positive life? Perhaps I shouldn't be embarrassed at such prayers. Our priest prays for the Holy Spirit to give us focus and open our hearts before Bible study, doesn't he, and that is under our control. In fact, many of the prayers of our church focus on what is, in fact, under our control.

So why do I feel like a fat, untidy pigeon God is tossing up and telling to fly? Why do I "drop down and run back expecting to be fed" at God's hand when I know, full well, how to fly? And really, our priest has been telling us in homily after homily, in Bible study after Bible study, that the fear of God is lacking in our parish. Fear of God... our minds just cannot conceive that the God of Love is a being to fear, just as the pigeon, in the poem, could not conceive that the man was someone to run from. How many people are just like me, believing in, even seeking God's endless patience and totally unaware of the damage ignoring His guidance does to our bodies and souls. How many times can we fall from God's grace before damage and death finally follow.

Celebrating Death

The mischaracterization of Christianity reaches a fever pitch in this article. The author uses the Albigensian Crusade in the early 1200's as an example of the danger of believing in an afterlife, the danger of seeking the afterlife and the capacity of religion to do evil works.

More than one Christian, when pressed, has admitted to me that they're essentially "biding their time," avoiding sin and waiting for their eternal reward. How sad.

Perhaps this explains why many religions regard suicide as a grave mortal sin. Without such prohibition, certainty of belief in heaven could prompt highly faithful people to shorten their earthly lives and hasten their trip to paradise, which would translate into fewer congregants.

Viewing the evolution of religion from a Darwinian perspective, as a meme, one would expect successful modern faiths to discourage suicide and promote sexual reproduction, which is precisely what we see. Suicidal cults, or faiths that discourage procreation, are at a tremendous competitive disadvantage for passing on their beliefs.

Albigensianism, a Christian faith practiced in the Middle Ages, offers an example of an extinct religion that reportedly embraced these maladaptive and self-limiting dogmatic approaches. This cult believed the earthy physical realm was evil, frowned on procreation, and condoned suicide by starvation as a way of freeing spirits from their earth-bound prisons. It's impossible to know how long this cult would have lasted, however, since the Roman Catholic Church hunted down and exterminated these "heretics" during the Albigensian Crusade.

The author, Mr. Bice, is a college professor at Michigan State University and teaches in the area of Pediatrics and Human Development. He goes on to talk about the 911 suicide hijackers' belief that they were going to heaven, but nowhere does he come close to a discussion of Judgment. Nowhere does he mention that Christians are directed by Jesus to pursue humility, gentleness, justice, mercy, purity, peace and courage of conviction. The best he can do is to say, "Christians, when pressed, admit to me that they're essentially "biding their time," avoiding sin and waiting for their eternal reward." Is that what we're doing here on Earth? Biding our time, avoiding sin and waiting for Christ to return and reward us? Is that where our focus is placed? Just how virtuous is it to expect a reward for behaving as you ought?

Is praising God for our blessings 'biding our time?' Is seeking intercession from God on behalf of others and for the world 'biding our time?' Are the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities 'biding their time' when they feed and clothe the poor? Are we 'biding our time' when we pray the rosary with our first grader, when we tell her to seek out the lonely to include, when we teach her to turn the other cheek when she feels insulted, when we talk of her great grandparents in Heaven? And do we do these because we seek a reward, because we wish to avoid Hell? Fear of God is a powerful and missing thing these days, but fear of going to Hell is a small part of why we try to live as God directs. The greater part is because deep down, I am a sheep and I hear God calling me to come, to obey, to follow Him... and I find that more than any fear of Punishment or hope of Reward, I want to follow because I love him.

Humanae Vitae

This is a picture of some broken statue pieces my first grade daughter and I found and pieced back together on a corner of our new property, taken between the trunks of two shagbark hickory trees. She calls it her secret garden and she planted some of the chestnuts we collected the other day.

I wrote a bit about Humanae Vitae back during RCIA. Now, less than a year later, our priest has asked my wife and I to join a group of marrieds who help counsel engaged couples before their marriages. Our priest has asked that we use Humanae Vitae as our guide in this effort. He gave us all a copy to study and we'll meet again with the priest to discuss both it and the sacraments. We don't feel qualified, of course, even though we've been married 24 years and have four kids from 22 down to 7.

When we met with a priest before we were married, he made it clear he wasn't against contraceptives and spoke about how hard having kids early in a marriage is. Our priest now, 25 years later, is much different and follows the guidelines of the Church closely. He tells stories of going through the seminary being taught by unbelievers and I realize every Catholic parish has, or develops, its own sense of itself. After a lifetime of Methodism and what I believed to be the slow erosion of that faith, the conservative aspects of the Catholic faith in this parish called to me. It was like I turned a corner and there, between two trees, I saw an old and amazing secret garden where I could find peace and strength. I'm pleased with my priest and with my new faith.

Discourse in America

From Friday's press briefing:

Q What do you say to reports that the White House is very jittery about everything that's been happening, and that the President is under a great strain?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think you've been covering the President today. The President has been having a pretty full day here at the White House. Like I said, we've got a lot of important work on the plate, and we are moving forward on the President's agenda.

Q Where do these reports come from, that they -- do they have any validity?

MR. McCLELLAN: From your colleagues, who write them.

Q Pardon?

MR. McCLELLAN: From your colleagues, who write them.

Q I mean, do they have any basis?

MR. McCLELLAN: What do you mean, "do they have any basis"?

Q That's what I'm asking.

MR. McCLELLAN: Ask those colleagues.

Q No, I'm asking you --

MR. McCLELLAN: I told you what we're doing.

Q -- you know what's going on in the White House.

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, we're focused on the priorities of the American people.

Q Come on, Scott, have you got a case of the shakes, or not? Come on. (Laughter.) Hold up the hands, let's see (Laughter.)

There you have it. The press writes that the Administration is nervous and then they ask the Administration if there's any truth to what they've written. Can journalists get any worse? I read that a law was in the works that will protect journalists (but not bloggers) from having to reveal their sources. One question: If there is a way to become a journalist, there must be a way to stop being a journalist, yes? I mean, a lawyer can be disbarred, yes? I doctor can lose his license, yes? A president can even be impeached, I've seen it happen. So what does it take for a journalist to no longer be considered a journalist?

My take? When they ask the White House Press Secretary to hold out his hands so the world can see if he is nervous... and then give him his daily dose of public humiliation by laughing in his face.

Roman Coin

This, my Roman coin --
lasciviousness,
Caesar's face --
hidden in feminine flesh.

Taken, I'm obliged:
Caesar taxes
my waning soul.

Rejected, it remains:
a coin at my feet
my cross.

What do chestnuts have to do with Roman coins? Nothing, I just liked the picture. The prickly shell of the chestnut opens to reveal the fruit inside... make your own connection.

Our priest's sermon was on the Gospel reading (Matthew 22:15-21). You remember the story, the Pharisees try to get Jesus to rebel against Rome by saying Jews shouldn't pay taxes, instead he says, "Whose picture is on the coin? 'Caesar's' -- well then, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God's." Our priest said that Caesar, here, can be a stand in for Satan and the coin is a stand-in for our culture of death. Young women choose to take Caesar's coin and wear revealing clothes, young men choose to take Caesar's coin and revel in the flesh of videos and pornography, we choose Caesar's coin by having too many possessions, by coming late to Mass and by leaving early, by not coming at all. And once you take his coin, you're obliged to pay: Satan waxes in your life and Jesus wanes. Prayer, daily prayer, daily Bible reading, daily focus on God, keeps Christ on the face of the coins in your pocket.

Bird Flu

Charles Krauthammer has an excellent piece on the recent scientific discoveries regarding the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed so many people world wide. I don't subscribe to the current bird-flu fever of fear that TV anchors and reporters seem to be doing their best to generate. I suspect uncounted, small bird-flu variations appear and affect people every year -- forever. Saying we are in a race against the clock to develop a cure or a vaccine against the flu before a pandemic sweeps the planet is only saying what everyone knows, and has known, deep down -- forever.

Tidbits

Disconnected thoughts:

I have never lived in a large house until now. I have the impression that the walls are further apart than they should be, leaving a lot of empty space in the center of rooms.

I continue to read Ron Chernow's "Alexander Hamilton." I'm astounded at all I don't know about not only this rather amazing member of the Founding Fathers, but also about the basic knowledge set his possessed. I think I've written before about the lack of modern, classic education, but by the time Hamilton was out of college (he didn't graduate because the British took over his college during the revolution), he was well versed in Latin, Greek, History, Math, Economics, Religion, Languages, Geography, etc. Hamilton, though, never stopped learning... he hauled large monetary policy and military history books around during the revolution and read them at night, after the fighting ceased. Chernow is, perhaps, overly glowing about Hamilton's intellect, but it seems obvious that people can graduate college today and know next to nothing about the world beyond their major.

I remain unconvinced that Harriet Miers should be approved by the Judicial Committee. I rather hope she doesn't even come up for a vote. I do appreciate Sparrow's take on Bush, trying to succeed without a fight, but with only nine Supreme Court Justices, the appointment should have gone to someone who can make strong, clear conservative arguments. I haven't seen that from Miers so far -- perhaps during her confirmation hearings she will flower.

The Right to Die

If the Supreme Court recognizes that each person in their hospital bed has "The Right to Die," doesn't a ruling logically follow that each person in his or her mother's womb has "The Right to Life?"

Just asking...

Channel Flippin

As an unrepentant TV channel flipper, I occasionally run across some interesting shows. Last night, however, I found a show that actually reached out and grabbed me. I was flipping along when I saw some kind of Smokey Mountain Knife show on a QVC-type of channel. The guy was selling these expensive, collector's edition American pocket knives, which was kind of interesting. He had a southern accent and was pretty funny. In a break between knives, though, he took a moment to say something like this:

I want to take a moment to tell y'all, while I still can and the government hasn't yet made it illegal for me to speak my mind, that I find it very interesting that the more we kick God out of our lives, the more exorcisms are occuring. I'm not just talking Catholics here, neither, I'm talking Baptists and Lutherans and Methodists and all manner of religions. Exorcisms are up across the board and God is down. I've seen films that would curl your hair -- not fiction, but real exorcisms. The Devil is looking down at us -- you heard me right, the Devil's up in Heaven, his time down here hasn't begun yet -- The Devil tempts us and each one of us that falls, he pokes God and says, "see, see, got another 'un."

I was captured. This channel I'd never stopped at before had an amazing citizen preacher speaking his mind between pocket knives, doing more than I ever do at my job, and trying to move people to the Lord. What a great guy! Even though I'm sometimes down that the government is pushing Christianity out of the public square, this guy helped me realize that the United States government has a fight on its hands getting religion out of our lives.

The Other Cheek

It occurs to me that so many of President Bush's supporters (on this site and others) believe he has faced away, dropped trou and presented them the "other" cheek. His supporters, and I name myself among them, are also red-state, pro-life Christians who know what "turning the other cheek" and "blessed are the peacemakers" means. Many are, as Rock said, spoiling for a fight in the Senate between conservatives and liberals. President Bush, though, has always made it plain that he has no desire to fight with Congress. Not one veto, over-the-top consultation, behind the scenes discussions... if the president has found a way to appoint a pro-life Christian to the Supreme Court without a battle, more power to him.

As Bill Bennett knows, mind games can be taken wrong these days, but don't many believe that Judas and other Jews back in the day wanted the Messiah to be warrior, raise an army and bodily throw the Romans out of the Holy Land? And don't many believe that some followers of Jesus were frustrated to no end that he would not stand up against Rome? Is what Bush has done/is doing that much different? I'm not comparing the president to Christ except in the most general sense, but wouldn't Jesus have been a peacemaker? Wouldn't He have turned the other cheek -- repeatedly? Wouldn't He, in fact didn't He, appoint someone He trusted to safekeep the future when He was not physically present? Wasn't that someone Peter? And really, wasn't Peter pretty thick at times?

As Falcon said, it really all boils down to trust. We can all wish the president could communicate as well as Ronald Reagan, but in the end, aren't we trying to replace a moderate who was put on the Supreme Court by Reagan? Trust is a funny thing. Based on his track record of nominations, the president has earned mine.

Harriet Miers

After all the years of fighting, since the recount in 2000, after all the years of letters to Congressmen, Senators, Governors and newspapers, after all the years of contributions, and all of years of replying to your surveys that your Supreme Court Justice picks were the most important thing to my family... you pick Harriet Miers. You had it in your hands to pick someone we could all be sure was a conservative, someone who has stood up and made it clear they are conservative, instead you have ducked your responsibility and your promise -- you have avoided the fight we all put you in the ring to fight. I am more than disappointed... I am disillusioned and wonder why I ever stood up for you or gave you & the RNC a dime.

-- a note to President Bush

Of course Harriet Miers may well turn out to be the conservative we all hoped President Bush would pick. My disappointment, however, lies in the fact that her only qualification for this high post appears to be that she is a friend of the President. A test: is there any way Harriet Miers would ever have become a Supreme Court Justice without President Bush in the White House? Judge Roberts, on the other hand, might have been chosen by any number of conservative presidents. J. Michael Luttig or Michael McConnell or even Janice Rogers Brown might have been chosen by any conservative president. Harriet Miers? Only President Bush would go this route and he is saying, in effect, "Trust me."

Well, I don't. I have lost my trust... I can't trust President Bush to stand up and say what he is doing. I understand the media ruins the message, but even in speeches to the American people, he doesn't seem to have the ability to clearly state his policies and it always becomes a mush of stump speech platitudes. He seems to have been cowed into a corner and has forgotten the way out just as he has forgotten the red states who put him where he is.

When I was a young teen, my father read a bright article about the future of HUB Airlines and decided to invest some money. Not long after, HUB Airlines went bankrupt and my father lost his investment. That not only ended my father's stock market career, it ended mine before it ever could have started. President Bush has done me a favor. I can now forget about political activism and save all that time and money. I will vote for the candidates who are closest to being pro-life and ignore the obvious junk mail from the Republicans. I lost my investment in the GOP and plan to stay out of the market for good.

Latin Mass

Our priest, who has always been an inspirational leader (at least for me), seems to have actually deepened his faith and has delivered many homilies on how much more value his days and prayers have now. This weekend, he delivered his Masses in Latin to make the point that we are not alone in our parish, but are celebrating Mass with the whole Church, in all times, in all places. It was my first Latin Mass. It's good that I've been to Mass every week for a couple of years since I could tell where he was, what he was doing, despite the language barrier. I enjoyed it greatly and found it inspiring.

Our priest has stood up against the tide of our culture more and more. He has given homilies against gambling and has removed bingo as one of our major fundraising activities. He has stood up for temperance and has admonished beer tents and told us to set examples for our children. He has worked to get more and more of the parish to receive on the tongue in order to retrieve the sense that the Body of Christ is given to us, we don't take it. He has worked the sacrament of confession into homily after homily, telling us we need to go more than one a year, we need to take advantage of the sacraments Christ gave us. He continues to preach against the schedules our children are living... he has preached against Sunday sporting events for kids, continuous practices that prevent kids from having time to think, the sometimes prevent families from attending Mass together. His Bible study is attended by dozens of people -- so much so that we had to move from a small room into the gym to make room for more tables.

Church, for me, has returned to what it used to be in all those years I was growing up. Methodist ministers used to preach great sermons against drinking, against infidelity -- sermons full of fire and brimstone, if you will. Sermons people need to hear so they know they are not wholly a part of this world, but have one foot in always in either Heaven or Hell. Mass, in other words, makes my week and my faith, too, has grown.