Some nagging questions coming my way from email…and also my kids, my husband…the dog…
What do you think of that Taser Guy?
I think “Don’t tase me, bro” will very quickly enter our lexicon. Talk show hosts will use it for a punchline, tee shirts and key chains and bottle openers will carry the legend, and…in about six months…anyone who still says “Don’t tase me, bro” will be hopelessly passe.
Why are you writing so much about Hillary Clinton?
I don’t want to. I’d rather not, really. But she is everywhere in the news. I think she must be getting more press than any other candidate by about 4-1 (all of it glowing or deeply protective). Funnily enough, she is everywhere IN the news and NOT in the news. By which I mean we’re being inundated with “Hillary-all-the-time,” but some stories, like the Norman Hsu scandal, are simply not getting much coverage, and old coverage, like the Michael Kelly piece, Saint Hillary, is so difficult to find it leaves one almost breathless. Hillary will always be a complex contradiction.
You haven’t commented on Bryn the Cancel canceling the Ring at the ROH
I’m torn about it. On one hand, his little son’s hand was crushed, necessitating two surgeries, and any parent might consider that pretty stressful and want to focus on the family. On the other hand, it’s no small thing to back out of a brand new production of a Ring cycle at the Royal Opera House - one that had been heavily promoted on the basis of promising a historic Bryn/Wotan participation - two months before curtain. It’s important to let your children know they mean everything to you, and come first in your life. But it’s also important to let them see you keeping commitments, even under high pressure. It’s a balancing act. I’ve had sick and injured kids to deal with while my husband was traveling on business, and it is not nice for any of us, but the living must still be earned. Preparing for an outsized role demands strenuous discipline and focus and I think Bryn felt he couldn’t do justice to the work under the distractions of the home circumstances, and that could be an admirable admission to make…but on the other hand…well as you see. I’m torn. And I’m glad I didn’t have tickets! 
Aren’t you disgusted by Kathy Griffin’s Emmy speech?
No. I think it was two parts publicity gimmick, one part “I say ’suck it’ to everyone all the time,” and one part perpetual adolescence. I rarely take great offense at someone making fools of themselves about the Christ because the reality of Him is so much larger than any of their constructs and conceits. Because he is the gift freely given, the abuse they try to heap on him simply defeats them. And because I’m a sinner and I’ll likely do something this week - by dint of my personality and behavior - that will shame the name of Christians. I won’t have Griffin’s audience, but whoever witnesses it will still think, “oh yeah…those Christians.” The only difference between me and Kathy Griffin is that when I make an ass of myself I have the opportunity to talk to Jesus about it and seek out his mercy and consolation. I feel sort of bad for her, that she does not have that. But if she wants it, she knows where to go. Lauren Green addresses it all very well.
You haven’t written anything at all about OJ!
You’re right.
How is Buster doing at college?
He’s taking 20 credits and has extra music commitments that leave little free time, but he is doing well in his classes, making lots of friends and loving it. He sounds very happy.
What do you think of this Newsweek article that enthusiastically seems to call this woman a Catholic priest?
I think people in the press are largely ignorant about many things, including Catholicism. And Curt Jester is funny.
Are you almost finished with that reading-for-pay job?
Ummm…almost…I got a little distracted yesterday because pianogirl sent me pictures of wedding dresses made from toilet paper, and that made me want to google more of the same…and then I wanted to look at real wedding dresses, because I’m a sucker for them. And that made me want to look at beautiful saris, because beautiful fabric makes me happy. I lost a little time. Sorry. I’ll work very hard today, and blog less!
You said you’d post more nun news!
Later today. Must now read-for-pay. If you’re looking for a pretty fascinating read, though, head over here and read about desegregation in Arkansas in the mid-to-late 1950’s. It’s not what you think you know. Interesting stuff.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:17 am
I got yer don’t tase me bro t-shirt right here:
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/006747.php
September 19th, 2007 at 11:41 am
TASER GUY
This guy was clearly violent and a danger to cops.
They had every right - indeed, obligation - to use whatever tools they had.
And the screaming following the taser -
A taser shock is a fraction of a second, yet this guy yelled out OW OW for about a minute afterward. Truly play acting. And this is not his first such event.
HILLARY CARE
Hillary Care II is being sold as “keeping the private system” but with “federal assistance” - in other words, “managed” by the Feds.
This is exactly like the Nazis did - “Private ownership” of resources (like the railroads leading to the death camps - they kept head counts, as they got paid by the head, I believe).
September 19th, 2007 at 11:54 am
TASER GUY
Cops would have been negligent NOT to taser this violent guy.
And his prolonged OW OW OW after the brief shock was play acting - taser shocks are brief.
HILLARY CARE
Nazis did similar - government micro managing “private” industry.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Re: Kathy Griffin
Lauren Green has a point, though I took a different line with it after I read the stories on it.
I just couldn’t get myself that excited about it. It’s just not surprising to me, and her cute joke is probably much more true than she realizes.
September 19th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I really didn’t pay much attention to Kathy Griffin. Look at the bright side: at least we all know which god she truly worships… right?
I loved the winner of the toilet paper wedding dress contest! Classy! Now, if it is ever used, better make sure that it’s not raining out there!
Oh, I’m so sick of O.J.!
September 19th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
[...] (H/T) [...]
September 19th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
RE: Hillary, she scares me to death. RE. Bryn, I had the rare honor of hearing him sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on one of their Christmas specials. I know why dear Lady A swoons over him! Re. Cathy Griffin, yes I know it’s spelled with a k but cat seemed more fitting, she was so close to the truth as to be scary. Profane and rude is no way to go through life. RE Taser guy, some day he’ll grow up I hope. and last but not least Buster, WE’re so glad he is well and busy, when they are so busy at collage they tend to stay out of too much trouble. Not that he would mind you, but……
September 19th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
OT: I recently found out the movie “Becket” was released on DVD in May. If you liked “A Man for All Seasons”, you’ll like this. For previews see http://www.becketthemovie.com. I apologize that this sounds like spam, but I’m not connected with the movie in any way. I just like it and I think you will.
September 20th, 2007 at 5:33 am
RE: Wedding dresses made of toilet paper. I always wondered if there could be another use for them. A bride wears it once, maybe twice if the reception is held on another day than the ceremony and then what? It stays in her closet or storage for years, never to be used again.
Now another use suggests itself, you only need the right material in the making of the dress. Helps cut down on the cost of a vital household item also, something a lot of newlyweds would appreciate.
September 20th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Callooh! Callay!’ she chortled in her joy. Despite the best efforts of the thruthophobic liberal powers that be to keep it hidden under a metaphorical hajib, your commenter Hubbard (in a previous post) found a link to Michael Kelly’s “Saint Hillary,” excerpted by a blogger from Kelly’s book:
http://semper-fido.blogspot.com/2007/08/saint-hillary-excerpted-from-things.html
September 20th, 2007 at 7:47 am
Callooh! Callay!’ she chortled in her joy. Despite the best efforts of the truthophobic liberal powers that be to keep it hidden under a metaphorical hajib, your commenter Hubbard (in a previous post) found a link to Michael Kelly’s “Saint Hillary,” excerpted by a blogger from Kelly’s book:
http://semper-fido.blogspot.com/2007/08/saint-hillary-excerpted-from-things.html
September 20th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Yes, yes, blame ME for sending you pictures that sent you off into www-land for an adventure! Next time I’ll just send chocolate!!! LOL
September 21st, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Les Soixante-Huitards
Poachers turned Gamekeepers
Aloha, Anchoress, my fondest compliments; your blog is a big part of my day. I am reading this Michael McGrade essay, Les Soixante-Huitards, Poachers turned Gamekeepers. I thought you would relish it. I have not seen a reference to this site from yours?
I found this site by chasing an agw-hysteria thread: http://www.christianorder.com/editorials/editorials_2006/editorials_oct06.html
” … But why would any Catholic, never mind consecrated souls and successors of the Apostles, want to cuddle up with the melange of godless globalists and self-serving fellow-travellers who dictate and distort environmental concerns today? Clearly, no longer enamoured with Christ’s Vicar, whose ecological prouncements they shamelessly misrepresent and undermine, they prefer the gospel espoused by Green Luddites … This sort of treacherous lunacy was once the preserve of liberal Protestants … ”
I apologize for the length of the post. Poha
http://www.christianorder.com/features/features_1998/features_nov98.html
Les Soixante-Huitards
Poachers turned Gamekeepers
Michael McGrade, November 1998
” … In France they call them the soixante-huitards [’68-ers]; perpetrators and fellow-travellers of les evenements de Mai, the epochal Paris student riots of May 1968. Now middle-aged and more bourgeois than the hated bourgeoisie they sought to bring down, the soixante-huitards and their counterparts around the globe have spent this thirtieth anniversary year of the evenements romanticising or justifying the rebellious and detrimental domino effect their riots set in train … as the hedonistic West sinks further and faster into unprecedented moral, social and spiritual degradation … a basic level of intelligence and reason which existed in public debate prior to ’68 disappeared in a fury of adolescent outrage and unintelligible babble thereafter; trampled in a rush to say n’importe quoi (”anything”) as long as it was dans le vent (”trendy”) … These thinkers are shown to be impostors, who abuse the terms and theories of modern science in order to deceive the reader into thinking that they are thinking when in fact they are doing no such thing.” … Their role, in fact, was to subvert the thinking of others. All the products and producers of May ’68 treated by Sokal and Bricmont had a political agenda which dictated everything they wrote. As Scruton puts it: “Their goal was to undermine the ideas and values of the ‘bourgeoisie’ – anyone who upheld law and order, the family and the Christian religion of France… The impostors were in the business of undermining the moral order, and putting the intellectuals on top. In effect the soixante-huitards formed a priesthood of unbelievers. They assumed the absolute right to say, think and act as they chose, and to invent the ideas and words that would justify their mischief. It didn’t matter if the ideas and words were gobbledegook. What mattered was the flair with which they were handled, and the offence that they caused to bourgeois decencies.” Worst still was the “moral imposture of these parasites who lived in bourgeois security while sneering at the bourgeoisie.” …
… the nihilistic spirit of the soixante-huitards remains contagious, omnipresent and powerful. Ultimately, it has created a moral vacuum in the corridors of power that no amount of interminable bleating about Party “principles” and “family values” can hide … opted for pop-religiosity in lieu of genuine spirituality while neither believes in anything with sufficient conviction to defy what the polls and publicists tell them is the mood of the moment … political Peter Pans still intoxicated by the puerile and decadent ambience of their formative years. “Within everyone of my generation,” … “there’s an aspiring rock singer waiting to get out.” … the opinions of drug-users, transvestites, homosexual activists et. al. are sought in formulating government policy.(2) … the overriding philosophy of the soixante-huitards(3) - is antithetical to that pursuit of truth and virtue in which genuine intelligence, wisdom and moral courage – real substance - is rooted. The ability to redress vexing economic, social, and ethical issues, in other words, is simply not in them …
ECCLESIASTICAL ALIGNMENT
The release of Humanae Vitae in July 1968 saw this rebellious scenario replicated with a passion inside Holy Mother Church. Just at that critical juncture when Her priestly sons were needed to defend the Faith as never before - to unite in opposition to the evil exploding about them - a multitude of ecclesiastics turned, instead, and manned the barricades with all the adolescent fury, non serviam arrogance and pseudo-sophistication of their secular counterparts.
The principle Prima sedes a nemine iudicatur ["The first See is judged by none"] disappeared overnight. … From that point on, disobedience became endemic among Latin Rite Catholics as conscience operating by the light of private judgement was made the supreme rule of morality, by and large with episcopal blessing.(5) … “