The Anchoress

Ah, I love this, one of my favorites from Bryn Terfel’s Handel Arias CD, which is a swell recording, all around, and which I first wrote about here - and which is no longer allowed in my car when my husband is driving.

Yes, yes, I know you purists (like my disapproving classical composer Elder Son) it’s transposed into a lower key for the baritone, originally meant for a castrato. I say a carefree, “bite me, I like this; it sounds good.”

And this is an old favorite, too.

A longish, but I promise, informative and fun “round-up” of things you may or may not be seeing elsewhere. August is generally a “slow news” month, so you’d think the press would be jumping on some of these stories. You’d think.

Following up on yesterday’s bit on the questionable background of one several of Hillary Clinton’s financial backers, I did update that her campaign had decided to divest themselves of $23,000 - a fraction of what it had received - but Ed Morrissey expounds upon that news and nails it:

The New York Times neglects to mention the actual amounts that Hsu redirected to Hillary’s coffers. The Paw family alone gave $55,000 over the last three years to Hillary’s campaigns, bundled through Hsu. The Lee family in New York donated over $37,000 to Hillary through Hsu as well, for a total just shy of six figues. The charitable donations to which Hillary has committed amounts to 25% of Hsu’s bundled donations from just the two families reported by the LAT.

Why not part with all of it? She’s been raising at least 1000 times the amount of her divestment in each of the last two quarters. While she will certainly need the money, clearing her name should take a higher priority. Quarter-measures like this make her look as though she’s only interested in token actions meant to take the heat off for just long enough to keep as much Hsu money as she can.

Well, of course that’s what she’s doing - it’s what most politicians do sometimes and some politicians do all the time: she’s making the token gesture so the press can say she’s done the “right thing” and the scrutiny goes away. As it will.

Speaking of scrutiny going away, John Stephenson at Stop the ACLU has a fascinating piece and timeline posted at his site, all about some very stinky fundraiser dealings re Mrs. Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign. I didn’t know any of this stuff - I bet you didn’t either - but John spells out a great deal. Will the press look at it or cover any of it? I doubt it. If you didn’t know the name Peter Paul yesterday, my bet is you won’t know it after September 7, 2007, either. I don’t trust the press to cover such an unflattering and suggestive story about their Queen-presumptive, do you? When the press loves you, they give you the soft-focus lighting and the soft-focus coverage, too. And the inconvenient stories go away.

When the press doesn’t love you, on the other hand, the pictures are less flattering, and the coverage a bit sharper, as well. Methinks the press smells blood in the water re one Katherine Couric. I’m kind of tired of saying I told you so to CBS. Not like they’ve ever listened to me, although they’d have been brave to.

Speaking of “brave” moves, can we finally, once and for all state that there is nothing “brave” or “edgy” about getting on a stage before like-minded people and saying nasty things about President George W. Bush (actually that is the surest bet in the world) and it is not “brave” to make any sort of point by immersing Christian icons or Christian Ideals into dubious artistic media. I generally stay away from these stories about “artists” doing something like this while believing they’re somehow pushing an envelope. I stay away from the stories both because I believe Christians have nothing to react to (and plenty to pray for) whenever an “artist” takes this lame, dull-witted and easy route to get noticed. Secondly, I mostly find this “edgy” art to be boring. Oh, look. Madonna’s on her cross again, how same-old, same-old! Oh, look, someone uses elephant dung and cut outs of genitalia to “honor” Mary, how not-interesting. Oh, look, a Jesus Icon that turns into Osama bin Laden, no one ever thought of turning the world on it’s head like that before! Although I did think this Crucified Christ worked in Chocolate was an impressive bit of sculpture.

Mostly this “offensive” art seems juvenile to me - it feels like the sort of stuff you come up with when you’re 14, or at least the stuff I would have come up with when I was 14. Daring? No. It’s actually as safe as denouncing Bush, because Christians do not riot or separate heads from bodies simply because someone drew a picture. This stuff is not edgy, just rather pedestrian. You want to be edgy, you take an image of Mohammed and turn that into bin Laden, or better, turn it into, oh, I don’t know…George W. Bush, or a woman (any woman), or a gay man (any gay man) or even just have Mohammed turn into Jon Stewart. Now, we’re talking interesting, edgy…brave, even. This stuff? Pfffft! Leave it to the perpetual adolescents and the dog days of August.

I come late to the Bobby Jindal brouhaha, but I urge you to read this piece by Michael Gerson, for several reasons, partly because he and others are quite right to call out the Democrats for blatantly trying to stir up the Know-nothings and sow discord between the increasingly friendly Catholics and Protestants, but also because Gerson’s piece is really well-written and it talks about what pluralism really means in a world that pays a great deal of lip-service to “tolerance” and yet actually “tolerates” very little.

Some mothers have decided not to tolerate the promptings of clothing manufacturers to dress their young daughters like streetwalkers. I applaud. I’ve stopped trying to clothes-shop for my nieces and simply give them books, because it’s so hard to find modest but stylish clothing for 11-13 year olds. While you’re musing about that, you might want to go over to Maxed Out Mama’s place and read about back-to-school sex education. And if you’re thinking about all of that - you might want to consider - just consider for a moment - that maybe, just maybe Pope Paul VI wasn’t wholly wrong when he warned in Humanae Vitae where uncommitted casual sex and the devaluations of the female, of marriage and of the basic sanctity and dignity of human life would invariably lead. Never read Humanae Vitea? It’s not that long and it clearly is not preaching to the converted. You might like it.

Funny thing about Humanae Vitae. I once asked someone if she had read it and they said no, she hadn’t but she didn’t want to, either, because “I don’t want to change.” In other words, she was afraid of being convinced of something and then having to make appropriate changes to her life. I thought it was very honest of her. Every once in a while, in discussions on faith, you’ll come across such a one, someone who knows that they’d rather not be called on to examine themselves, or what they believe. Interesting, that’s all.

Speaking of examining what you believe or don’t, So, who lost the Vietnam War, anyway the left or the right? It’s not about finger-pointing, though. It’s about not repeating mistakes.

Even Mother Teresa Got the Blues! It sounds like a Country/Western song, but it’s Fr. James Martin, SJ, talking about Blessed Teresa on NPR, if you’ll have a listen. Also, my Li’l Bro Thom sent this piece along. Sad, troubling, upsetting…ultimately uplifting. But yeah, even cowboys, Christians and bona-fide Holy Folk get the blues, sometimes. And for good reason. More on that story, and on Fr. Sudac here, and about his forehead marking here.

I’m not all that interested in the latest “Gay Legislator” scandal but if you are, neo has an amusing take on it.

Is it just me, or does Fred Thompson seem like he missed his moment?.

Mostly O/T I rather like Sissy’s Hillary graphic here. Nice news from Sissy also, - The Italian Government is saving a pilgrims route.

Thanks to reader Klaire: Why it pays, sometimes, to have a sense of humor.

Okay, that clears my header bar. Nun news coming up.

I’ve gotten a few emails from folks concerned that I’ve been laid up with another ailment. Sorry I’ve been so quiet or raised concern. I’m well…it’s just been very busy. (And of course really backed up on email, again).

So, we left Buster at dorm on Friday night, came home Saturday. I gave myself Sat/Sun/Monday to cry, be depressed and eat chocolate (I can’t seem to get enough…I feel too young to be at this “next” stage - the empty nester - of my life) and yesterday it was errand-running all day, including a trip to traffic court, where all I was trying to do was change a court date.

Because the court date had already been changed twice, I had to go before a judge, which seemed entirely reasonable to me. In my case, however, “the judge” was a snarling, hyperactive little chihuahua of a man whom I have nicknamed Ginger, because when I was a little girl I was bitten by just such a little mutt, and that was her name.

This dog bit, too. I tried to stare him down, Alpha-doggie style, and got him to look away once, but in the end he still made me cry. I hate that. Suffice to say I did manage to calm down (after spending some time in my car using language to make a sailor blush) and talk to God about Ginger with some rationality and charity. Barely. But I’m still very much a “work-in-progress Christian” with a lot of growing to do, as evidenced by the fact that I drove home imagining a snarling chihuahua flying through the air the length of a football field after having come into direct contact with my foot. Lord, forgive me.

The thing is I go away for almost a week…and once again I find that there is nothing new in the news.

To my way of thinking both the most entertaining (and, unsurprisingly, barely covered) story in the current cycle regards Mrs. Clinton will not be returning some questionable (or at least slightly stinky) funds donated to her presidential campaign. This is entertaining because Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has several times in the past months recommended that other candidates -both GOP and Dem - return checks contributed to them by sinister folks who have committed the unthinkable crime of not admiring Hillary.
From what I am reading there is lots to wonder about regarding these donors, and a smart campaign - particularly one married to past scandals involving names like John Huang, Charlie Trie and Johnny Chung - might want to just return the cash. (Good advice offered for free!)

Don Surber has more thoughts and Ed Morrissey is as usual, writing sensibly and well.

UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE: Hillary’s campaign is now going to give $23,000 of Hsu’s money to charity - again, I’d like to know what charities these pols gift with dubious funds and whether or not those charities somehow end up supporting these candidates. The Clinton campaign is not returning, however, “[does] not plan to return any money Hsu raised from other donors.” END UPDATE.

Glenn calls campaign finance regulations a sham.
And no wonder.

America Coming Together (ACT) raised $137 million for its get-out-the-vote effort in 2004, but the FEC found most of that cash came through contributions that violated federal limits.

Sheesh.

That was about the 2004 election, but egad, the stench of corruption is all over the ‘08 elections, too, and we’re still over a year out from them. I told you this all started way too early. But maybe that’s a good thing for the pols; they’re scratching around and raising tons of money while no one is paying attention, and heaven knows the press won’t “press” on this story. Not when it concerns this candidate, anyway.

I wrote something a while back about Katie Couric, but it sort of applies to Mrs. Clinton, too:

We do women in general no favors…by continuing an “affirmative action” mindset that says, “aw, she’s a woman, and it’s a man’s world, so she gets extra forbearance.” That’s nonsense. Once you’ve reached a pinnacle, you can’t keep whining that you’re only teetering because you’re a woman. You’re teetering because the pinnacle is slim, sharp and lonely, and you can only remain there if you belong there, or if you have one hell of a safety belt supporting you. Those that belong there make the pinnacle look easy, the rest impale themselves or fall. Or they loll about in the safety belt, and stagnate.

Mrs. Clinton needs to give up her own questionable campaign donations and stop resenting it when other pols and contributors dare to dislike her, but she is by no means stagnating. She has that “hell of a safety belt” supporting her, in the press, as she nears a pinnacle upon which I am not so certain she belongs. This election is going to be interesting.

Oh…and it seems another Hillary donor is maybe also not so desirable. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign says his large donation will be donated to charity. Will we ever be told which charity? Can they donate it to a “charity” which is a front for the DNC? Does anyone know? Why not donate it to something transparent, like a cancer fund, a kidney foundation, an AIDS program, a school music foundation? I’m not saying Mrs. Clinton won’t do exactly that. I’m just wondering if we’ll ever know. I mean, the press is so selective, lately, about what they tell and don’t tell.

Castro says Hillary and Obama will be the winning ticket. Well, there’s a a questionable endorsement, or whatever. But yeah, I say bring that. I’d love to see Hillary/Obama against Rudy/Michael Steele. I’m up for that.

Meanwhile, a few days ago I gave you the death of Scarpia, now, thanks to the magic of you tube, I leave you with Bryn Terfel embodying the beastly baron as he lusts after Tosca, while in church. “Tosca, you make me forget God!”

Can you believe it? The boy wasn’t even driving when I started the blog and now we’re taking him off to school, and yes, this leave-taking is tough. It was hard to leave our Elder Son a few years ago, but at least I still had “one at home…” Now…well, the house is already feeling kind of empty and we feel it keenly.

Will likely post something tonight after we get him settled in. Please pray for us, especially that this infection does not come back. It feels like the antibiotics and the infection are battling it out and I’m terrified of that pain coming back. No kidding, I’m no wimp but I never want to feel that again. Thanks. Off we go.

While monastic orders and a few active ones tend to receive new postulants and novices individually, many “active” religious orders tend to do so in groups. The end of August or beginning of September is that season when year-old postulants finally are invested in their longed-for habits and veils, and other sisters make their progressions from second-year novices to be simply professed or solemnly professed. A few religious orders have already begun, and these young women are all aglow:

Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration

Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal

Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George

Hmph…lots of Franciscans, here. I guess the Dominicans and Benedictines do their things a little later.

Ummm, and of course, this all goes for the fellows, too.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, also here.

Some Dominican Novice Brothers.

A new friar here, and I believe the sisters at Moniales are receiving a new postulant tomorrow.

Meanwhile, an unusual discernment story.

And Gerald has thoughts on why some religious orders are thriving with young vocations while others are not. And Darcee has some fair thoughts on something seldom discussed but troubling regarding how we present ourselves in comments sections, sometimes.

More to come within the next few weeks.

Really, this is a great bumpersticker.

Concise. I have to work on Concise. I actually expressed a similar sentiment a long time ago, when I wrote:

…if the big boys of Global Warming aren’t really taking the issue seriously…if they find it so unserious as to allow the issue to be used as a political wedge or a rabble-rousing sound-bite, and that’s all…well, then I don’t have to take it seriously, either.

The Global Warming Hysteria Movement, complete with Media overhype, is not real. The proof is in the politics of it. It is a means to an end. To what end, I’m not sure.

I’m going to try to blog better. Just as soon as I am able to really get down to work. Feeling much better, although we had to change from the Cipro, which was giving me the heeby-jeebies and making me feel like I’d had ten shots of espresso, which is never good for those around me.

Without going into gross specifics, the single rolling kidney stone from the other day became the beginning of an avalanche - as it were - and somehow the start of a whopper of an infection that got very bad, very quickly. I’m pretty good at enduring pain, but this was unbearable…morphine made me feel human, again.

I am home now with cipro and percoset and some other thing they want me to take and am out of it a little - I like the morphine a lot better than the percoset, which makes me nauseas and needs tylenol or whatever [correction: ibuprofen] behind it to really do the job. I’ll be quiet for a little while. I just wanted to thank you for all of your prayers - I felt that I was being prayed for, and it was so helpful - and I want to thank Ed Morrissey and Jeanette for their friendship and concern. To be honest, as I was waiting for my husband get home so we could go to the ER, I wrote to them (and to my bro Thom) telling them what was up and just asking for their prayers beause I know they are all prayer warriors, and because I was going mad from pain and needed to yell it at someone - cyber or otherwise. I hadn’t expected either of them to post on it, but I am grateful for all of the kind emails and notes - humbled beyond expressiom by the prayers. Thank you. I’ on the other side of it, now and will be back at work soon, I hope. Thanks again and God bless all.

Excuse my silence. I suddenly decided to pass a kidney stone the approximate size and tonnage of my first born.

We’ve decided to name it Seymour and we’re looking into Pre-K’s.

My Li’l Bro Thom says, “oh, good, now you’ll have company when Buster leaves for college!”

Smart ass.

Kind of exhausted just now. Will try to post later.

For some reason, there is a theme recurring on this blog, not by intention. A while back I wrote this piece, which jumped off of a remark by Hillary Clinton and mused on how a “big” idea like communism can work well when executed in a “small” way but utterly fails on the large scale, mostly because of free will and intention.

There is an enormous difference between a few dozen people voluntarily giving up their worldly goods for communal living, and forcing people to participate in such a society against their will. The first brings freedom for those who choose it. The second, historically, has brought tyranny, poverty, slaughter and the gulag.

I’d thought no more on the issue until I re-read a copy of The Right to be Merry by Mother Mary Francis, PPC and read her thoughts:

One has to be very spiritual-minded to grasp the true meaning of the cloistered contemplative vocation, very convinced of the supernatural values to understand its supreme significance for the universal Church. Those who hold power in communist-dominated countries have a very comprehensive grasp of it. They understand its significance quite perfectly. If they sometimes draw red herrings of “national churches” across their atheistic paths, they dare not deal even in half-measures with cloisters. We shall grow old and die waiting for Russia or (Communist) China to set up “national cloisters.”

You can find that post here.

Today I got an email from my L’il Bro Thom linking to this piece by Deacon Greg, who features a short film, Via Crucis (The Way of the Cross) depicting the plight of Catholics in China.

My Auntie Lillie had a few words of advise for me, growing up. One was to tilt a glass 90 degrees before pouring the lager, and to let a Guinness “build” before drinking, another was to talk to St. Michael the Archangel when dodging nightmares, and the third was to “pay attention to anything that keeps being put before yer eyes; it’s the Holy Spirit calling you to prayer or action. Pray to know which.”

I’m paying attention. I’m praying. And I still say socialism doesn’t work.

Is Totalitarianism Incompatible with monasticism and religion?

You Are a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

You are a traditional person with very simple tastes. In your opinion, the best things in life are free, easy, and fun. You totally go with the flow. And you enjoy every minute of it! Your best friend: The Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Ham Sandwich

H/T here