The church militant of Elmer Gantry and storefront prophets

5 December 2003

Protestants are a factious fraction of Christianity, that do not realize their importance within it. They are the majority in the english speaking world and by the combined exceptionalism of calvinism and american chauvinism they project their imagination as the defining one for all.

We can see their combative thought in their musings concerning those who were closest to Christ, when He walked the earth. The hostility toward Mary is greater than the indifference of the innkeepers on the eve of the Nativity. The axis of human history, which is the Incarnation and the Crucifixion, that our salvation revolves about, had only two people in common attendance. It seems that Mary's presence is an encumbrance to these some, who would approve of the mechanisms manifest to have been otherwise---the appearance of the Messiah without nativity, and an Ascension without Passion, and a Tridium of different itinerary.

The chief earthly associate in the ministry of Christ, for those who ever read a gospel by the words that are within it, was Peter. Whatever of the failings that Peter demonstrated, none disenfranchised him to Christ. Yet, by circumlocutions and selective filtering that would make a drunken Talmud scholar blush, Peter does not receive the keys to his office in their reckoning.

To those who proclaim, "sola scriptura", by sola sciptura are vanquished. Ultimately and instantly the claims of the reformers and their descendants are null on continuity and elegance.

And then there is primary commandment of the decima. Ten percent is mine, praise the tithe. The widow's mite will not do. Twist and turn, rave and pay. Now Elmer Gantry was a huckster, but can we not find him less artfully on the television and in his place of practice still plying his trade?

Under the Rosebush

28 September 2003

Under the Rosebush

Q. The fountain of youth, seven cities of gold, the cock's egg, bigfoot, flying saucers, weapons of mass destruction and the unicorn. What have these all in common?
A. All have been vainly sought for.

Q. Which one does not belong?
A.The weapons of mass destruction.

Q. Why?
A. Only they have been claimed to have been found under a rosebush or searched for in a Scottish distillery.

The DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency) notified Bruichladdich Distillery on the Scot's Hebridean isle of Islay that one of their webcams was awry. Osama has been forgotten, Saddam is also missing and since Ali Baba hid in an oil jar, why not find an atom bomb in a copper whisky pot. Does the al-Qaeda gourmand prefer single malt?

I vaguely remember, in university, making the acquaintance of certain students, for part of a quarter, at some parties. Through the alcoholic bluster and probable exaggeration, the one kid, in this circle of friends, pointed to a bush outside a dorm window as the place our drunken, coed friend ditched the pistol her daddy gave her, when she thought campus security was about to go into her room. I was not there for that one, but guns were not a problem on campus, they were not sent in care packages from home, now musical, plastic hammers were though. I didn't bother to look, for it was on the walkway at the railroad crossing that led to the new south green where hundreds of people passed by each day.

I had not thought about that hidden, smoking gun till the current occupation after this Second Iraqui war. American forces pointed out to television reporters bunker, drum and vehicle that held the smoking gun -- weapon of mass destruction -- again and again. The headlines broke loudly and triumphantly to be followed by a sub voce, "nevermind." After a series of these, it was mentioned to Washington that no gun was yet found, in inestimable logic Fleischer, Rumsfeld and company said it was the responsibility of those who did not believe in their existence, to find them. Huh?

I remember teaching a science class and somehow alien life in other worlds came up in discussion. One girl was adamant in their existence. I tried, but failed, to impress upon her the logic that, though it is speculatively possible, it can not be assuredly maintained prior to its discovery. This merely angered her. They existed without evidence--period.

Now this came trickling back into recollection, when, in late June there was found the scientist, Mahdi Shukur Obeidi, who claimed to have buried nuclear plans and parts, under his rosebush, on the orders of Saddam's son. That could well replace the line, "my dog ate the homework," as the humorously lame falsity.

In 1958 Graham Greene's, "Our Man in Havana", began to be read. Mr. Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman, is recruited to be a British spy. He (Alec Guinness, at the picture show) invents other spies, and has vacuum cleaner parts and diagrams pass for military ones. Danger and excitement ensue when these reports and drawings are accepted. Beware the atomic pile cleaner. Perhaps the Mack Sennett Studios can come out of mothballs and Arnold can play Dr. Hasselbacher. How horrible it is when farce becomes real.

Parties on Abortion

27 September 2003

Parties on Abortion

We have in America certain issues that politically generate much heat, sway many votes solely on the one stance and are peripheral to governance. Anyone who is suggested to be anti-Israel has no real chance to be a winning candidate. Anyone who does not agree totally with the gun lobby, which are absolutists, cannot win in non-urban areas. Now in abortion we have an unusual situation.

The politically astute and sly Republicans have played these single issues, that mean so much to so many people, brilliantly. They take the side issue, that is decisive to many, as their own. The Republicans have always represented the moneyed interests and, of course, want access to power. They know that their real platform would not garner one vote in twenty. They would rather run on banning flag burning, prayer in schools or whatever else can be opportunely used. The last refuge of a scoundrel is patriotism, as we all know.

But abortion is the one issue that Republicans have the discretion to have a stance independent. It is the one issue that makes a Republican a moderate, no matter what else. Now, nationally, it is the reverse with the Democrats. No matter what a Democrat believes in, he is persona non grata, if he is against abortion.

When George H. W. Bush was a congressman, he was the Planned Parenthood poster boy in the House. His father, Prescott, was Margaret Sanger's treasurer, beginning in 1947. Since abortion was legalized five Republican presidents have held the office. It seems only funding for abortion has been reduced. Robert Casey, who had been governor of Pennsylvania, was refused by Clinton to speak at the 1996 Democratic convention. The national Democratic website has links to anti-Catholic pro abortion sites.

There has been instituted a religious test act for judges who are or once were faithful members of the Catholic church. We first saw this in connection with the confirmation of Clarence Thomas. Kwase Mfume, then a Democratic Maryland congressman, questioned whether Clarence's former faith disqualified him. This was mostly about Roe v. Wade. Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, thought such a religious concern was legitimate. Thomas was questioned about abortion and natural law and recanted and was confirmed 52-48.

Now federal judgeships have been delayed on Miguel Estrada and Bill Pryor for similar reasons. An advertisement that upset the Democrats had judicial doors holding the sign, "no catholics need apply". Orrin Hatch finds the sentiment accurate. This is the first time since 1960 that anyone has politically suggested anti-catholicism existed. The suggestion which culturally is so visibly obvious is not game to say, because it is so weaved in the fabric of the english speaking world. The Republicans have never been pro-Catholic. This is just a fortunate accident. These judges have not been nominated for their position on abortion. The Republicans will play this out better than the Democrats.

Abortion is a profitable industry. Social darwinism and eugenics have argued for abortion. Paul Ehrlich wrote a successful book using the lifeboat metaphor for global overpopulation. He has since admitted, that he was not academically honest in his admitted propaganda. Rich foundations supported Planned Parenthood, which is the chief provider of abortions and, significantly, bears an orwellian, doublethink name. Bill Gates and Ted Turner have recently given millions to similar causes. The solution to poverty and the wretched among us, as the prohibition of birth has been portrayed, is procured abortion on demand or abortion demanded as the final solution.

Abortionists' other lies that modern science, beyond just rational thought, have disproved have included: the fetus is not living, the fetus feels no pain, the fetus before full term cannot survive. These were standard arguments for abortion that are no longer used. The hallowed Roe v. Wade case was based on a fraudulent plaintiff, whom now speaks against abortion. The duplicity and ugliness of the proponents' arguments and philosophies are astounding. Economic and social convenience seem the only fully non-malevolent rationale for abortion.

It is understandable how the Republicans have played abortion. They have finessed marvelously. They gain votes and positions and sacrifice nothing. All these issues benefit the Republicans and they need them to continue for enduring success. Their true agenda will win them nothing, it has to be camouflaged and diverted. But the Democrats' commitment to abortion is wrong, senseless and counterproductive. They alienate many one time supporters, they are exhibiting a negative religious bias that is counter to their history, they lose votes and they are politically foolish: less abortions, more voters.

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post script -- 11 August 2007
We can see that with even a congress with democrat majorities in both houses, Bush can get his way. For most of six years the will of congress and the federal government was dictated by Bush. Bush could have increased, constitutionally, the number of supreme court justices to have Roe v. Wade overturned. It has never been suggested by anyone, I can think of, since the 30s. I bring it up, to point out, that, Bush and his party are not interested in the ending of abortion, but only in the continuing battle.

post script -- 13 March 2009
The current chairman of the Republican party, Michael Steele, had a lengthy interview with a reporter from GQ, in which he let slip the truth. He may be punished for that. Now, there you have a former catholic seminarian, who is "pro-choice" and welcomes that view in party members.

The Anti-Democratic Party

27 September 2003

The Anti-Democratic Party

On issues there are generally two sides: for and against, pro and contra, this or that. Anti means against. The first political party in the United States was the Federalists, they were opposed by the Anti-Federalists which became the Democrats. Now the Democrats were called the Democratic-Republicans, eventually a party appeared that was called the National Republicans and became the Whigs. In the elections of 1860-64 there were recombinations and local name variations: Northern Democrats, Southern Democrats, Republicans, Unionists, Constitutional Unionists, Unconditional Unionists and so forth. Lincoln was constitutionally elected as a minority winner as a Republican candidate in 1860 and as a Unionist in the '64 election.

Now the Federalists wanted a federal form of government, hence there name. A republic means a public thing. The sovereign and the country are not a private singular person or property -- no monarch, monarchy, king, kingdom, pharao or personal state. So in this sense, we are republicans. A democrat has an etymology too, the people rule.

Today, in America, we have two parties: the Democrats and the anti-Democrats. Will Rogers said, " I don't belong to an organized party. I am a Democrat." The anti-Democrats are tightly bound like the fasces on a mercury dime. There was no Democrat more reviled and hated than Franklin Roosevelt by the anti-Democrats. Prominent financial supporters of the anti-Democrats planned a military coup to prevent his accession. The majority of the press and the anti-Democrats raved against him, his wife and his dog. "A traitor to his class", "that man", "communist" he was called with great vexing loathing.

The word of mouth campaign against him continued upon his party after his death. The Democrats started wars, created fiscal irresponsibility, were anti-american, were communists and so on. Reagan as president blamed Roosevelt for World War II, did he forget Hitler and Pearl Harbor? His accuracy of history was always fussy. He suggested that the Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill, was a communist for disagreeing with him on the Iran-contra operation and other matters

Now we have a president who came to office by extra-constitutional means and has instigated, with his his underlings and party, a war that no one before his regime saw coming. His fiscal policy has amassed a remarkable, quick and grand change in the national account book that sees no correction coming. And with all this; a smug careless attitude prevails and the media either salutes him or leaves him alone.

The last president was constitutionally elected twice, and went through an unending barrage that relentlessly worked against him. He survived the legal attempt to remove him from office on account of a petty sexual dalliance that the anti-Democrats saw as a threat to the Union.

The present government of Texas is controlled by the anti-Democrats. The Texas legislature was supposed to meet every second year. This year its session would have ended, but extra sessions were called and were going to be further called. And for what reason? So that congressional boundaries could be further gerrymandered to the benefit of the anti-Democrats.

In California a Democratic governor was legally re-elected. A rich anti-Democrat engineered a recall election so that he could gain the office and instead, he tearfully quit, after the field produced over a hundred candidates, and at least one candidate that his party would rather have.

Yes, America has an anti-Democratic party. Its methods are beyond regular civil politicking. They want power. They do not care for any result that does not give it to them. Majorities and constitutions mean nothing to them. They are allied to money interests. They care nothing about consequences. They will hide behind and try to manipulate nationalistic fervor. They do not care for world opinion. Italy and Germany had similar parties in the 1930s.
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Presidents Acknowledge Nations' Brutalities

25 September 2003

Earlier this month in Beograd, Serbia, the former jugoslav capital, Svetozar Marović, the president of Serbia and Montenegro surprised the Croat president Stjepan Mesić by admitting national fault in the war after Croat secession. "I want to apologize for all the evils that any citizen of Serbia and Montenegro inflicted upon or committed against any citizen of Croatia." The architect of the war, Slobodan Milošević is imprisoned and on trial in Holland for crimes against humanity. Mesić then quickly reciprocated for his nation's wrongs against the Serbs. " I also apologize to all those who have suffered pain or damage at any time from citizens of Croatia who misused the law or abused their position. As I said, anywhere, any time." Outside observers had no clue that this would occur.

Milošević had caused several disastrous wars in the former multinational state. People died, suffered and lost their human dignity, their homes and many their humanity. The Serbs, as did all the Balkan peoples, had suffered for centuries under the Turks and then in the german wars of this last century. The last of the former, brought about a multi-sided civil war in which the communists won with allied connivance. After a transnational pogrom that physically eliminated anyone who would not externally profess in the personal dictatorship of Tito, the newly reformed country settled in to an independent socialism. After Tito's death one sly, remorseless and conscienceless appartchnik, Milošević, amassed power by playing to Serb nationalism. The suppressed national desires and animosities yearned and churned to break out.

A series of wars broke out, NATO and the U.S. intervened, there was a Christmas bombing of Beograd and a partial occupation of Bosna and Kosovo. All these horrors are on the hands of Milošević and his cohorts, some who are still operating. Milošević made his nation seem as monsters to the world and every war he agitated and lost. The veneer of civilization on people is quite thin indeed and many people shared in actions.

That Croatian-Serb war ran from 1991 to 1995. Estimates of 20,000 dead and over a quarter million Serbs displaced from their homes in Croatia (national and ethnic borders are not the same), many still so, came from that one conflict in the wars of the break up of Jugoslavija.

An apology is a defense, a rationale. It is a word that is almost always misused in english. What these two presidents did was repentedly admit gross failings in national behavior to their brothers of another nation. No translation was necessary, they speak the same language, they were not talking of abstract hypotheses of psychic emotion but of physical blood and gore realities. The only thing we do not know is the level of sincerity involved.

What can strike us as remarkable, in America, is the very act of those words being spoken. George H. W. Bush took a boastful pride in the vow that he as president would not ever to say that America would be sorry for anything (one of the several matters was the wartime internment of japanese Americans, Clinton did not have that reluctance). And who can imagine similar words of admission to trip from George W. Bush's tongue.

What 'men' do is speak the truth. Alexander Isajevich Solzhenitsyn at the end of his Nobel acceptance speech said, "One word of truth outweighs the world." Earlier his compatriot Boris Leonidovich Pasternak had said, "In every generation there has to be some fool who will speak the truth as he sees it." We are all called to do this, why is it so unusual when it is done?
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Changing Partners – Anastasia Volochkova

25 September 2003

So much that happens in what once was known as Holy Mother Russia has been either tragedy or farce. After a century that saw the devastation of the german wars and the brutal imposition of a foreign and evil system of tyrannical materialism and finally its fall, only to be replaced by another materialism and spiritual torpor has left nations more shaken than sensate.

Dostoevskij thought beauty would save the world, he also thought Russia would save the world. In Russia many art forms have found an exquisite realization. In dance, classical ballet, people the world over have russian pre-eminence come to mind. And here we do not have tragedy but an episode of farce. A prima ballerina, Anastasia Volochkova, has shined, become renown and enjoys a following among the masses. She has beauty and elegance. She was dismissed for being too cumbersomely large and heavy. She claims that there are political and personal animosities weighing against her.

In the russian press this is playing out like an old fashioned melodrama or a present day soap opera. A hundred years ago Matilda Kshesinskaya was the attraction of the stage and the fancy of a few of the male Romanovs. Her story has been brought up in the present context. She did not get along with her ballet director and the tsar had him dismissed, today the ballet director may have people to answer to, but there is no tsar and the girl is sent away. Twelve hours before the performance of Swan Lake she is sent adrift.

One is reminded of the Dance of the Hours in the cartoon Fantasia and the hippo ballerina being lifted by the croc danseur. We do not have this here. Our lissome heroine may rely too much on stage cosmetics, but she is far from gruesome. I sit here an ocean away and can only view the brouhaha at a very distant balcony seat. But, she is more attractive than many fashion models and her face has animation, I have no knowledge of her personality, she may exhibit the horrid prima ballerina persona, but unlike many popular idols here, she does possess the ability commensurate to her adulation.

So how big is our agile nymph giant of the Bolshoi ?, apparently in the neighborhood of five foot six inches and a hundred and eight pounds. The more silly and absurd a reason given for someone's firing, the more illegitimate the real reason. Someone does not want someone around and they are made to go. But why?, the true reason may be petty and capricious to the extreme, but people want to know why. So something is given. The more stupid, the more suspect it must be.

As I said this is not tragedy. Performers travel. The Bolshoi is in Moscow, the girl is from Saint Petersburg and there are ballet companies there (the Mariinsky for one the Kirov for another, though their costumes have recently burned up). The tragedy is for individuals in everyday jobs who are dismissed by similar happenstance and have no place to go and no one willing to see their case.

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Who Shall Depart Next?

22 September 2003

Who Shall Depart Next?

Over a century ago, the fortunes of Standard Oil, and some other industries, built mansion after mansion on Millionaire's Row, on Euclid Avenue, in Cleveland, Ohio. Some of that money also built a tony, and impressive, cut sandstone, English Gothic church with beautiful paneling, and painted, and gilted mahogany beams, and walnut pews. With the motorcar as the access to the first suburbs, the rich left Euclid Avenue. The Anglican congregation of St. Paul's moved east with them, and a new larger church was built in the Heights. The old building remained, and was sold, at the beginning, of the Depression to the Catholic Diocese, and by whimsical irony was sanctified, and dedicated, as the Conversion of St. Paul. A monastery was soon built for the somewhat, newly arrived, Austrian nuns whom came to Cleveland, for the perpetual adoration of the Sacrament. There now resides there: three orders of St. Francis. The second order is the Poor Clares.

The Poor Clares are a contemplative and cloistered order. They are there every weekday at the noon mass, and Sunday at ten, behind a screen and they participate at mass, as you may at the polished walnut benches. They also pray and sing the Liturgy of the Hours five times a day. Sisters Mary Cecilia, and Mary Catharina, are there now. They have come from Korea. Immigration wants to deport them. The paperwork submitted does not fulfill the requirement, that, they can prove they have worked, for the same employer, for two years.

The vocation of the Clares is to pray to God unceasingly. They do this in the belief that is efficacious and necessary for the world. They do so separated from society and in poverty. They have done so since the thirteenth century, this particular order since 1856 France.

Now, we all know that Republicans always campaign they are against big government and bureaucracy, so they created the Department of Homeland Security, originally Office of Home Defense, and gave it the concern of immigration. I was worried they might have called it the Committee of Public Safety. This along with the orwellian Patriot Act sounded an ad hoc fearsomeness that might be used to squelch liberty. Walter Cronkite speaking, to David Letterman, came close to saying something similar, immediately, after this governmental response to Osama's aerial assassins; an excuse to exercise fascism.

Bureaucracy loves to make itself officious, its sense of self importance is, always, something to marvel at. It is characterized by being rigid, and defined by inertia. The functionary, petty or grand, feels he does his job by saying 'no'. and not 'yes'. This bureaucracy is part of the administration, but essentially bureaucracy is the fourth branch of government. What ever disagreeable act they do, they justify with the plea, that, they are doing their job, or it is the law! Remember the apt words Charles Dickens had Mr. Bumble say, in Oliver Twist, "the law is a ass, a idiot."

These possible, enemy, foreign nationals may be here on some nefarious adventure, that, is why laws were passed in the nineteenth century to inspect nunneries, even in states that had none. And in case a few needed to be burnt down to the ground, that was also done. Excuse me, that was pre-civil war xenophobia and paranoia. This is merely a chain of idiot Barney Fifes following procedures.

As ridiculous as all this is, it is only an incident among many. There are many long term resident foreigners with green cards and visitors with visas that the Fifes, Ashcrofts, Ridges, Bushes and their ilk have fingered or made to jump through hoops to satisfy conflicting, changing and silly demands. This is done to protect America?

Bernadette MacAlisky [née Devlin] was roughly detained by immigration officials at O'Hare airport, Chicago, in February and deported on "national security" reasons. In 1969 she was elected as the youngest person to serve in the British Parliament. She represented occupied Ireland, and is noted as being a peace activist, she is a tiny, middle-aged woman, who has visited America many times. I don't think that made the evening news, too, many places.

And there are many people anonymous, and invisible, to all but their families, that have encountered such treatment or worse. Some people have been arrested, secretly, and deprived of all rights. Osama's bandits were very distinct, and they were ignored. These governmental actions neither correct previous errors, nor prevent future ones from occurring. Rationality is scarce today; brusque action is not.
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postscriptum: This has bee resolved in the women’s favor.