The Anchoress

Beth at MVRWC asks the question.

I notice that many people are zeroing in on what I believe is Hillary Clinton’s contribution to the Democrats “Real” Security (as opposed to the fake security we’ve been working on for these years) - that would be the particularly hypocritical, eye-spinning admonition of the Bush Administration for “outsourcing” negotiations with Iran. Writes Jim Geraghty:

This from the party of multilateralism, the party of the “global test”, the party that’s all about “strengthening alliances.” You can’t argue that we should trust our allies and let them do more, and the once that policy is enacted, turn around and claim that we’re “subcontracting.”

Lots of sites having fun with this amalgam of bumper-sticker slogans, empty rhetoric and - oh yes - the promise to “punish” the evil, lying President Bush. I like Gateway’s list of questions.

Ed Morrissey notes that even the reliably liberal LA Times couldn’t find much to respect in this insulting, shallow and cynical effort.

I know I couldn’t be the only one who wondered, when Italy intervened, if Uncle Benedict had anything to do with it.

Abdul Rahman seems to be saying as much, here

ROME - An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty in his homeland for converting from Islam to Christianity said Thursday he was certain he would have been killed if he had remained in Kabul and thanked Pope Benedict XVI for intervening on his behalf.

“In Kabul they would have killed me, I’m sure of it.” … He said he was worried for his family still in Afghanistan.”

I can’t help but notice that the bad old UAE, who we dissed in the port deal, helped get Rahman out of harm’s way.

Amy sez Benedict is attracting record crowds to St. Pete’s too.

Related: Benedict XVI, Allam and Osama bin Laden

If you read nothing else today, please take time to read Gerard Vanderleun’s stunning and brilliant essay, The Return of History. Send it to everyone you know and stick it in your harddrive. He puts its better and more lucidly than anyone could: the “vacation from history” is over, the “me-like-fun” era is over, and it is once again - as before in America, in all of her greatests eras - “us-time.”

It’s difficult to excerpt something this rich, but a little taste:

N THE DAYS AFTER THE TOWERS FELL, in the ash that covered the Brooklyn street where I lived at that time, in the smoke that rose for months from that spot across the river, when rising up in the skyscraper I worked in, or riding deep beneath the river in the subway, or passing the thousand small shrines of puddled candle wax below the walls with the hundreds of photographs of “The Missing,” it was not too much to say that you could feel the doors of history open all about you.
[...]
With the end of the Soviet Union in a whimper and not a bang brighter than the sun on earth, history was officially over. The moment even got its own book, “The End of History,” which stimulated an argument that even more than the book emphasized that history was over.

Then on one bright and unusually fine New York September morning History came back with a vengeance we’d never seen before in the history of America. It came back and it stayed and stayed and stayed. The doors of history swung open again and we were all propelled through them into… what?

Do yourself a favor and read it all!

Perhaps America, like Solomon, needs to raise its hands to heaven and ask for the same - for Wisdom. And we’d better ask soon.

Why? How about for Wisdom for the Nation on the issue of Immigration (or, as a pal emailed me, “migration…”)

This seems like a situation in which partisanship should be put aside in favor of a genuine, workable and realistic solution that will recognise both the dignity of the human beings we’re dealing with, our duties to our nation and to our core values, and our duty to God, as well.

People are gassing away on both sides - some are sure they have the answer, and the answer is “Ship them all back to Mexico, every one of them.” (That means go up to Boston and out to Montauk Point and ship the illegal Irish immigrants back to Eire, too, right? Illegal is illegal!) There are others saying, “let ‘em all in!” There are suggestions of walls rivaling the Great Wall of China (with 40-foot footings sunk into the ground to prevent tunnels?) There are suggestions of amnesty, suggestions of felony.

Let’s get real. There are millions of illegal immigrants here, and some of them have been here for decades. If you’re telling me that the solution is to “arrest and ship out every one of them,” I have to disagree with you. While the “ideal,” of course, is that illegal immigrants don’t immigrate illegally, the fact is, our government, our “leaders” have ignored this issue and refused to enforce existing law for 30 years - hence, genies out of bottles don’t get put back in. Some of these people have made lives here, respectable lives, wherein they have worked and paid taxes, contributed to church and community and raised families - are we going to round them up and “ship them back?” How, exactly? How do you prevent them from coming back, when NOTHING is in place to prevent them? When it is unlikely that our feckless, dispassionate and distracted political “leaders” cannot see this situation as anything but political fodder - ammunition for the season - and are lacking in both ideas and courage.

More importantly - for the soul of America - Are we going to put together massive trains and - at gunpoint - load these people and head them south? Is this what we want America to be?

We have to think long and hard about what it means - and what it will FEEL like - to gather people together at gunpoint and put them on trains to send them to a place they do not want to go. Our intentions could be the purest and most noble in the world…that scenario still still smacks of history we don’t want associated with us. It sets a precedent we dare not embrace. I don’t want to see such pictures in our history books. That is not America. That cannot be America, if she is to survive.

Gerard Vanderleun is suggesting that the only way to halt the illegals, and to stop the street party which seems to be a warm-up for a long, hot summer, is to arrest those who hire the illegals. That’s one solution. Dry up the money flow. I think it can work in a limited way, but there are simply too many - too many - small businesses or greedy employers or crooked town commissioners…people who will slip a little money to someone who will look the other way while the law is circumvented. All we’ll really be accomplishing creating a “little Mexico” of local/state corruption which will rival that of Tijuana, or Baja, or Mexico City.

It’s an idea. It’s a start. Unfortunately, it is limited. And Vanderleun doesn’t think anyone in government will even embrace the idea until people start dying. Which we really don’t want to see.

Maybe the solution is a combination of many different ideas. Maybe arresting and prosecuting employers, combined with “grandfathering-in” those illegals who have been here for a certain amount of time and have demonstrated stability - give them citizenship and increase the tax-base, allow them to compete for jobs which offer health care, to take the burden off of our hospitals and clinics which are currently treating too many for free and breaking the backs of the insured in order to make up the difference. Maybe along with those ideas, we should create a registry of some sort, plus ship back those illegals who are not managing to create a stable life, or who have not been here long. Heh. As if we’d find them all. As if they wouldn’t be back here within weeks, because - again, and most importantly - nothing is in place to prevent their return.

I think this problem is simply too large to be effectively solved with “one” solution. Moreover, I don’t think the politicians who have allowed this problem to fester and become the massive running sore it now is can be trusted to bring serious solutions to the table. Possibly, though, a coalition of businessmen, lawyers, community leaders and church leaders could sit down and put together a plan. If you give them a few years, they might come up with a realistic and workable program.

We don’t have years, of course.

A friend emailed me that he was feeling very hopeless, that if we could not “ship ‘em out” we - as a nation - are doomed.

I think if we do “ship ‘em out” without concern for their humanity, for their dignity (and for our humanity and dignity - and for our souls) we may well be doomed. We cannot stop seeing these people as people. We must protect the borders, absolutely, but there is currently no effective program to do that, and none on the horizon that won’t be laid up in courts for a decade. And we cannot undertake a mass-eviction process without protecting ourselves against what we might become. We must protect the very generosity of spirit which has made us great.

I wrote elsewhere that God is never outdone in generosity - and America (naysayers aside) is a massively generous nation - both economically and spiritually. It is one of the reasons she is great. She cannot become insular, isolationist, cold and distant without freezing her own heart.

And so, let us pray. Let us stop running on emotions and fomenting rage and focusing on where the flag is on the flagpole. (Of course I am offended by those pictures, but they are - in the end - a distraction, a misdirection - a way to get us feeeeeeling and not thinking. Take them with a grain of salt and keep your guts steady.)

I think God has a way of turning things topsy-turvey when He wants to. We know the Holy Spirit has a habit of using what is before us to His advantage, confounding us in every age, turning profound negatives into something else. Wouldn’t it be funny if all of these Catholic, Our Lady of Guadalupe-loving Mexicans (remember, she is patron saint of the Americas ) came into the country and, unexpectedly, over time - completed the domination of the conservatism over progressivism?

It could happen, but not if they get mired in victimology. Wheels are turning, everywhere - it’s like a cosmic gear and pulley are being put into place. Tipping points everywhere.

“Doom, doom, doom” writes my pal. “America is (dying) and I don’t see her coming back.”

Well…that’s no way to be. The fact is, if the America of 40 years ago is not the America of today, well…we who are here, who love her, have a duty to look at the world as it is, the reality of things as they are, and do our best to re-create (or re-instill, re-establish, re-emphasize) all that is/was the best of America - her values, her industry, her heart - in order to keep the nation alive.

John Paul II used to say that. In encouraging Solidarity, in evangelizing, he would say, “you have to deal with the world as it is, not as you would ideally like it to be.” He was right. And the world right now - as it is - is in flux, due to a systemic lack of interest in addressing this problem for decades. Point the finger at the government - every part of it. Point the finger at ourselves, too, for tuning this problem out for too long.

Speaking of JPII, remember - he made an abrupt trip to Mexico City in 1999. He decided to insert it into his schedule -his advisors and handlers said, “can’t do it - there’s no time in the schedule; you’re too weak.” He said, “make it happen.”

Perhaps he made that abrupt and insistant trip to for a reason. I think he knew what he was doing when he consecrated OLGuadalupe to the Americas - and when he named her feast day. He was grim, serious and purposeful while in Mexico. And it’s worth noting that the first celebration of Guadalupe’s feastday was also the day the Great Election Debacle of 2000 ended. December 12, 2000. Maybe America needs Our Lady of Guadalupe and her devotees more than we realize.

I am coming to the conclusion that all of the noise and handwringing and the certainties that all will be well if “only the right POLICIES are put into place” is horse manure. Focusing on public policy is helpful, but I don’t expect the government to suddenly, magically be able to solve an unweildly problem it has steadfastly ignored since the 1970’s. The government is not going to get us out of this anytime soon. If I look to them, I see insincerity, confusion and political opportunism, on both sides.

The solution is going to have to come from inside of us, the can-do, pragmatic, realistic, problem-solving American people. And I hope our better natures manage to overcome our baser ones.

I don’t like being in the middle of all of this, to be honest - I’d rather be in Brooklyn, circa 1942 - but…this game is afoot - these gears and pulleys are moving, and we do not understand it, and we cannot fathom all that God brings to it. How many times has something happened in your life that seemed awful, but ended up being providential?

We cannot comprehend and know what “negatives” of today will become “positives” tomorrow. All we can do is ask for wisdom and direction, come to this problem as honest brokers seeking real, lasting, humane solutions, and then understand that nothing will happen overnight.

Keep your eyes on the sacrifice we’re watching unfold. And have faith!

Meanwhile, George Will has a very sensible and good article on this issue. He too wonders if we oughtn’t worry about some of the things we “can” do. David Brooks has an excellent piece up, as well, addressing the social conservatives, but it’s behind the stupid NY Times wall.

Related: John Hawkins has a useful FAQ on Illegal Immigration in America
Peggy Noonan finds Immigration and Patriotism must be compatible if we are to survive
Gerald is has sensible thoughts on all of this, and isn’t carrying a bat, today!
Alexandra is talking the economics of it all
Common Sense from Kobayashi Maru
Flannery O’ Connor (Yes, her!) on that Holy Spirit, part.
The Absurdity by Polipundit
Watchman thinks the debate is being shifted
Publius Pundit says there is perhaps a shakeup inside of Mexico
Q&O says First control the boarders
A good piece by Lowell Ponte on Hillary’s Illusory Immigration stance

Call this the “Touch-yer-heart Roundup”

First the Lend a Hand:
Julie at Happy Catholic and The Holy Fool (who I need to blogroll) are linking for the sake of Ron Rolling, who is facing a situation none of us would want. They’ve convinced him to install a paypal button and pass the plate to stave off the action. If you’ve a bit to spare and feel nudged to help out, please follow the instinct. Remember, God is never outdone in generosity!

Then the Say a Prayer:
For wisdom, for more wisdom, and for fairness, for progress through dialogue, for freedom, for an opportunity to find room for faith. For more Democrat Security Plans like this one!

Then the Wipe a Tear:
Because The American Soldier, naysayers and caricaturists aside, is the most generous and compassionate warrior on the face of the earth.

The most interesting women on the internet is Alexandra and today she has two provocative posts which you must check out.

First up - Who is eligible for salvation? It is a question she is carrying over from this post and for an answer she provides links to several snippets from an interview between Bob Wright and Fr. Lorenzo Albacete. Good stuff and perhaps a timely dialogue.

The complete interview between Robert Wright and Fr. Albacete is here and it is well worth watching. Wright overtalks a bit - a little annoying - but still very good. I love how he talks about his own decision - as a man, a scientist, engaged to be married - to become a priest. “I was (lectoring) not even thinking it as ‘religious’ thing, but as a ‘performace,’ when suddenly…(I felt) a call I had not felt before…suddenly something was different…a suggestion…not difficult to ignore…what convinced me was that one day, looking back, I came to the realization that it was irresponsible of me not to say yes or no to this possibility.” As we learn in Kings, it’s not the clap of thunder, it’s the whisper. “I didn’t fall off a horse like St. Paul, I just figured, ‘what the heck, let’s try it out.’”

Secondly, check out her graphic - An Islamist John Kerry wrapped in an American flag, and read Alexandra’s thoughts on the Democrats new “REAL” Security plan which could rightly be called waiting Bush out. Don’t worry Islamofascists - just wait Bush out, and you can get back to the killin’!

Sez Alexandra: “…the next President will admit defeat and order a retreat, as all of President Bush’s predecessors have done since Jimmy Carter.”

A very interesting and enlightening back and forth.

Reform is always tricky. I think Ali sounds like a very careful man. And I think dialogue with him and others like him is really important and should be encouraged with patient listening and slow reaction. As Siggy says:

…Ali, of Unwilling Self Negation, speaks clearly and eloquently for himself- and he is a voice of moderate Islam.

That voice may or may not always be in harmony with our own. That said, Ali’s voice is one of reason and moderation. What is most admirable is his openess. He is a seeker- ‘If I’m wrong, show me, teach me,’ is the background music of almost everything he writes. In fact, he is more likely to question his own motives and beliefs before he is content with his beliefs. That is no small matter- Ali has his own compass. He is not likely to be drawn off course by any of the agendista’s out there.

And from Ali, on defining Reform:

I believe that ‘reforming Islam’ means: 1) making Muslims who live in non-Muslim and/or secular countries (America, England, the West), the ability to live harmoniously there, 2) making Muslims who live in predominantly Muslim countries which do not have democracies (Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Syria), the ability to agitate for change using moral, just, and humane methods, 3) making Muslim who are agitating for authonomy (Kurds/Palestine/Chechnya), the ability to use Islam as a liberation theology, not as a death theology, 4) making Muslims who live in theocracies (Iran, Saudi Arabia), redefine the Shariah under which they live in such a way that their laws comport with the current human rights norms of the world. Finally, there is 5) an independent element of reforming Islam: that is, to engage the world-wide community of Islamic Jurists and have them figure out why the theoretical Shariah ( i.e. the framework of the Shariah) has ossified in the 11th century.

All the news that’s fit to ignore?

A panel of former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges yesterday told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that President Bush did not act illegally when he created by executive order a wiretapping program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).
The five judges testifying before the committee said they could not speak specifically to the NSA listening program without being briefed on it, but that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not override the president’s constitutional authority to spy on suspected international agents under executive order.
“If a court refuses a FISA application and there is not sufficient time for the president to go to the court of review, the president can under executive order act unilaterally, which he is doing now,” said Judge Allan Kornblum, magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and an author of the 1978 FISA Act. “I think that the president would be remiss exercising his constitutional authority by giving all of that power over to a statute.”

Just thought you’d like to know. AJ has more. As does John. Powerline is pointing out that - unsurprisingly the press is spinning and framing the story to something more useful to them and the dems. Check out the transcript. The NY Times is shameless.

I know this is a very “Catholic” way to look at things, and also a little too supernatural for some. Indulge me, please.

All parts of the US government, every president since Carter - yes, even President Reagan - played down the aggressions of the islamofascists for 30 years. For thirty years, we’ve watched endless reams of tape - “Death to the Great Satan!” Every president has been burned in effigy. And nothing was done. Talk, talk, talk. Nothing done. Until that big fat hen came home to roost.

All parts of the US government, every president since Carter, or prerhaps even Nixon - and yes, even President Reagan - played down the effect of unchecked illegal immigration. For thirty years, we’ve watched the saga, seen protests. Every president has watched it. Talk, talk, talk. Nothing done. And now, that bill has come due. And it is a very strange and muddled bill.

All parts of the US government, every president since Carter, has played down environmental concerns. President Clinton laid aside the Kyoto treaty (the Senate rejected it to, remember, unanimously). President Bush . Now we hear a past-president moralising about global warming. Talk, talk, talk. Whether that dubious bill is coming due or not, the press would have you think so; the public is buying it. Another bill-collector coming to the door.

Perhaps it is because we took a “vacation from history” for 8 full years before reaching this point, although - to be fair - these three issues I’ve highlighted were pushed aside for decades, by everyone.

After decades of inattention to so many issues, it seems like literally every single boil on the butt of the world is needing lancing on President Bush’s watch. I wonder how much more he can take?

This is a little like watching the crucifixion. Let us use this whip; let us use that whip, - let us mock and jeer and curse - let us make you an entertainment. Now, now carry this on your bowed and bloody back - keep carrying it. Get up - do not rest - do not look for sympathy. Get up, get up, and carry some more. Now, let us hoist you, now let us steal your breath. Now, you suffer, now you die; you are nothing. You are less than nothing, you are food for vultures…

I’m beginning to wonder if President Bush’s whole presidency is not a sacrificial fire meant to (somehow - we pray) purge and redeem this blessed nation, and protect it from the unholy Other.

If that makes you uncomfortable, I am sorry, but there are things seen and unseen, things natural and supernatural. And perhaps since September 20, 2001 there has been a touch of the supernatural in Bush’s (and - on the issue of our time, Tony Blair’s) immovable stance and the quasi-silence on their parts which so many find “cagey” or “stubborn.” And the energetic, tireless and deranged hate that attends this man certainly seems, sometimes, almost supernatural, as well.

Perhaps President Bush (and Tony Blair, re Iraq) are not “cagey and stubborn.” Perhaps they are only being faithful to a calling which we cannot hear. To what - or to whom - is the hate being faithful to?

We must be careful what we open up to. There are tipping points all over the place.