The Anchoress

Mr. President, as my dog would tell you, don’t be a chump. You gotta pull some of those knives out your back.

I know Bush honors and respects the Office of the presidency; I know he doesn’t want to dishonor it. But to my way of thinking, dealing in “good faith” with those two - this Pelosi, this egregious Reid - is now doing dishonor to that office. It’s casting the pearl of the American Presidency before swines.

They shove a shiv under your ribs while they smile and smile and be villains.

Wow, this was kind of a fun Office, tonight, on this feast of the curmudgeonly St. Jerome - the psalms really spoke to the day, even down to the prayer for our legislators in the final intercessions.

The podcast is here, and it contains all the page directives for the Breviary. As usual I’m using the breviary shown below; I love the translations, and this is the most commonly used of the breviaries for the Liturgy of the Hours.

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux, another Doctor of the Church, and since she is one of my favorite intercessory friends, I’ll be doing both Morning Prayer and Vespers.

I must say, I find the psalmody and the Divine Office puts an entirely different cast on to the whole day, and the news. You might say it helps break things down and clear away the detritus of a day, and assists in holding the long view of things. There is nothing like reading a 3,000 year old psalm and having it fit a day perfectly to make you realize that the human condition is what it is, broken, needy and forever in search of wholeness.

Note: I keep getting emails from people telling me that my voice surprises them. Most of them say that they mean it in a “good” way, but that I sound much younger than 50. I assure you, I really am 50! Which can only mean that my writing voice is very different. Immature?

While we’re offering up prayers, consider whispering one for the mighty PJ O’ Rourke, who is dealing with a cancer that sounds survivable, but I’m sure is scary.

After that creepy, creepy video below, Iowahawk gives us an entertaining palate cleanser:

Enjoy the free and unregulated internet, while we still have it.

I sniff the wind of change, and it smells noxious and it seems suffocating

This child has a lovely voice. The song is creeping me out.

“We’re gonna spread happiness! We’re gonna spread freeeeeeedom! Obama…”

It creeped me out in 2000 when people stood on a streetcorner handing out lyrics and singing songs about how Hillary Clinton was “a human statue of liberty…” who would solve all the world’s problems.

It creeps me out even more to see children exploited - to serenade and “lighten the community” - about Dear Leader Obama, and the glorious “we” who are going to spread “happiness.” Or, more accurately, the glorious “they” who will spread happiness - partly, it seems, through control of media.

Because “spreading happiness,” apparently, is the role of government. Not to protect the shores, build the infrastructure and get out of the way, but to make us “happy.”

This has more than a little whiff of Havana and Moscow about it, sorry.

And why is it that - in the end - these campaigns always go to the children? The Daisy Ad. The “Mr. Bush can I have more arsenic in my water,” ad.

Milk and meat must be rationed to stave off the looming and disastrous “climate change.”

“We’re gonna spread happiness….Obama…”

This writer says the bailout marks Karl Marx’s comeback.

I don’t know about that imperative bailout. The market is calming down all by itself, without congress passing a dubious bill. What will it mean for congress if - before they can pass the thing - we see the beginnings of a turnaround? What will it mean for the candidates?

To paraphrase Mark Steyn: when this many people I don’t trust are telling me something must be done for my own good…I don’t want it. I want to be far away from it.

We’re being sold a bill of goods, I think. I look at that beautiful child, with her lovely, lilting voice and her open mien, and I see lines for bread, lines for shoes, lines for meat, lines, lines, lines. I see the privileged few driving by the lines and giving the raised fist, encouraging the proletariat to “keep it real.”

There are extremists who behave in extreme ways - and with extreme hate - on both sides. The truth is the far right and the far left are so alike in their excesses that they are mirrors of each other, or twins of hate.

But we have never had such an extreme “leader” so close to the White House. Oh, I know, we’ve heard for 8 years about “the fascist Bush” but reasonable people know it’s hooey; they know that Bushbots have not actively organized to shut down liberal talk radio, they have not tried to intimidate, harass or suppress the many who have told lies and untruths about him. For all of the preening rhetoric about “Bushhitler” the ones spouting it have known full well that Bush was no fascist; that he was not going to shut them down, or make their ideas and films unavailable. They’ve known it. They know, too, that they’ve been projecting their own instincts to silence “patriotic dissent” on a guy who would never do it.

I think they won’t have to project for much longer.

Attention Comrades! Your glorious leader announces yet another success in calming the raging markets in our decades long international economic crisis. All praise the dear leader, and remember who the real enemy is.

I wonder if we’ll be allowed a two minutes hate?. Remember when Howard Dean said, “the enemy is George W. Bush?

Wanna bet Goldstein is Dubya?

Spreading happiness….

I’m more and more convinced that only prayer will rid the world of this constant menace. But it can’t be a prayer along the lines of “destroy them,” so much as “let Your light, and Your goodness prevail.”

Unfortunately, we can’t control how all that may come about. As I’ve said before, the church is never more fervent and holy than when it is suppressed. Heaven only knows what is ahead. Apparently, another election full of fraud is on tap.

Ed Morrissey is as creeped out and disgusted as I am, and he has more creepy videos, and smarter thoughts. He wonders when the Sing for Change “grassroots” effort will get an hour long television special.

UPDATE: I’ve already had my first email from someone telling me that the “so-called exploitation” of children for the purpose of politics is less creepy than the “indoctrination of children to prop up religion.”

Interesting. One is about teaching children about worship and the love of a merciful God. The other is assigning all-goodness (and placing all-hope) unto a mere human being. But Jonah Goldberg has the definitive response to that nonsense.

Kim at Wizbang sees nothing grassroots about the pedigree of the vid
Confederate Yankee says yes, the source is pretty elite
Bookworm:is not liking the way this feels and what it reminds her of.
Pursuing Holiness is co-incidentally thinking about the two-minutes hate, too.
AJ: Paging Goebbels!
Roger L. Simon says this video disturbs him more than anything he has seen in recent years. Yup.
Jammie Wearing Fool calls them future members of the MSM
Malkin: creeeeepy
Fausta: if this ain’t “dear leader” talk, what is?

Glenn Reynolds has this from a media newsroom:

A READER AT A MAJOR NEWSROOM EMAILS: “Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true. We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona. Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae. Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. People cheer when CNN or NBC run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into obama is derided or flat out ignored. The fix is in, and its working.” I asked permission to reprint without attribution and it was granted.

I have a couple friends who work in the MSM, too, and one of them tells me the newsroom is (exact words) “unbelievably cavalier” about any complaints viewers register about their reports, what they ignore, their bias or the way they edit Republicans vs. the way the treat Dems. “Cavalier” as in the fix is in and they don’t even have to pretend to care what half the country thinks or wants.

I suppose this is why print media and the press in general don’t care about their tumbling revenues; when The Pelosi gets the regulated internet and restricted Congress that she wants, and Obama gets his thugs and his Justice Department monitoring, intimidating and shutting down alternative media (and the dissenting voices we’ve been told are “patriotic” when a Republican is in the White House) the incestuous mainstream press will go back to being the only game in town. Pravda West.

(Shrug) everyone sees it coming; the voters don’t seem to want to stop it.

I’m praying. It’s all I can do.

By the way, this friend of mine - and remember this is a person in media - cannot understand (as I cannot, either) why the McCain/Palin campaign is still playing by the old rules with a press that clearly hates them and will do all it can to hurt them. At the very least, the campaign should be recording absolutely every inter-action with journalists - print or television - to protect themselves. As I’ve said before, Archbishop Chaput has been doing that for years, because the press has earned the distrust.

But I wonder if any of it matters. It seems it does not.

Meanwhile, Ann Althouse goes to Obama’s site to see what he’s saying about the financial “crisis” and the bailout vote. She finds a whole lotta nuthin’.

Instalanch! Thanks, Prof. Reynolds, and welcome visitors. My rant for the day: Spiteful Pelosi Cannot Lead. And Exploiting Kids for Obama/the 2 minutes hate

I got an email from someone sneering about today’s vote, “…the republicans had their widdle feelings hurt and decided to punish the country rather than pass the bill…Pelosi should probably have played nicer, but the GOP acted like babies…”

First off - all the headlines are blaming the House Republicans for killing the bill - that is wholly predictable of the press - but it was The Pelosi’s own Democrats who backed away from the bill and kept it from passing. The Democrats could have done this on their own, and did not. If the bailout bill was everything good they said it was - and it was apparently good enough for the fearless leader Obama to claim all the credit for it - then Pelosi-the-Vicious should have had her usual lockstep results from her crew; she did not have that.

Secondly, Any regular reader of this column knows I have no great love for the GOP in either house, but I don’t know that I agree with the assessment that the party was out to “punish” the country. Perhaps instead they were trying to demonstrate something.

Pelosi got up there and insulted the very people whom she insisted give her political cover on a bill she said she WOULD NOT JUMP for without the GOP; she then proceeded to play politics and lambaste them. The GOP gave two messages with this vote:

The first to Pelosi: “don’t shit where you eat, and don’t poison your meal ticket…”

The second to the rest of us: “yes, this is urgent, but there is also some political opportunism at play, so read into that what you will….”

It should not be too much to expect the Speaker of the House, when she is looking for political cover from the right, to be able to suspend her hyperpartisan game-playing for one vote. She couldn’t do it. She shows herself to be no leader, and to have her priorities a bit screwed; she puts party before country. And her friends even before her party. After all, Democrats in challenged seats? She gave them a pass on the vote.

The Democrats have done nothing but gameplay, distort, politicize and misinform on this issue and within this process. The Congressional GOP is no bag of winners, but I’ve never seen a less competent, less wholesome, less trustworthy bunch than this crew assembled by Leader Pelosi.

Let them go back to the drawing board, and maybe - just maybe - this time Pelosi can manage to lead with a bit of maturity and civility and actually put the interests of her country before those of her party. I doubt it, actually. I don’t think she’s capable of it because I suspect she is deranged by her power and her hate, and her insecurity - which causes her to overcompensate - and maybe by something else, too.

Increasingly Vicious Pelosi reminds me of the chihuahua that used to sit on my neighbor’s porch and snarl at everyone in her rhinestone collar. We children used to wonder what it would be like to just walk up to that creature and boot her in the ass - to send her sailing across the road. But none of us had the nerve, or the stomach, to kick a dog.

The woman is incompetent, petty and unworthy of her high office. She should be made to step down. Put Hoyer in her place. I believe he’d manage to lead responsibly.

And now the House will not reconvene until Thursday. That’s some crisis, isn’t it? One they can take days off for?

Glenn Reynolds: If things get better over the next couple of days, it’ll make it harder to do a deal and make them look irrelevant; if things get worse it will make them look like they slacked off at a crucial time.

Allahpundit: Pelosi wins! Dems now get to make the bill as expensive and horrible as they want, and the GOP must vote for it. I dunno. Will The Pelosi add ACORN back to the mix? If she does, the GOP should - for once - come together in the sort of unity we routinely see from the Democrats, and say, “you want it this way? Now it’s all yours, honey!” Let her vote it in with her party, and face the consequences.

Dr. Mark Perry, Prof. of Economics & Finance at U. Michigan takes a look, makes a few graphs and wonders where is the credit crisis?

Yeah. And you know…if things get better without them, there’s the whole credibility issue. As if they have much, now.

David Berstein talks about the kind of speech you give, when you are in leadership, that matter is “urgent” and you want something from the other side. It was not the speech The Pelosi gave.

Meanwhile, Obama is still talking out of both sides of his mouth and still getting away with it. Go figure.

Related:
Small Dead Animals
AJ: Since Obama wanted all the credit, doesn’t he get all the blame?
Jeanette thinks there are some smoke and mirrors, too.
Ace is in a milder mood than me. He also notes that Barney Frank, who should be resigning his place on committee, also thought it was time to play more games.
Kim at Musing Minds has The Pelosi’s transcripts
Obi’s Sister says Impeach Pelosi! Well, hell, throw Reid and Frank into the mix, then.
Michelle Malkin: about as angry as I’ve ever read her
Megan McArdle Pelosi Screwed up. Big time.

Pelosi cut a deal in which, as far as I can tell, every single Republican in a safe seat had to vote yes so that the Democrats could maximize their no votes. Given that the Republican caucus is pretty much in open revolt, this was beyond moronic. She then spent a week openly and repeatedly blaming the Republicans and the Bush administration for the current crisis. The way she set things up, it was “Heads I win, tails you lose”: vote for the deal and I’ll paint you as heartless reactionaries bailing out your fat cat friends. If you’re going to do that, you’d better make sure you have some goddamn margin for error in your own party. She didn’t. Then she got up and delivered yet another speech blaming the Republicans for the bailout deal she was about to pass.

Perhaps this primer would be useful to the artless Mrs. Pelosi

Me? I praying.

UPDATE: Nancy Pelosi poisoned her own meal ticket.

I said it on September 26, and I think I said it first: I am sure that things are in deeply serious and yes, something needs to be done, but there is also something illusory at work here. I wrote:

It seems to me that there is an illusion being worked in the middle of all this frenzy; if during this crisis, the Democrats can still worry about laying themselves out for ACORN, and Harry Reid can take the time to try to sneak a ban on oil shale mining into new legislation, then that tells me something. It tells me there is time and room, here, and that more is driving this than we can see. It makes me wonder if we should not hit the brakes before we go over a cliff, because we couldn’t clearly see the bend in the road.

A short time later, I noted some skepticism from The Volokh Conspiracy. Then I noticed Glenn Reynolds observe:

You know, it would be easier for me to believe this was a crisis, if the people in charge were acting like it was a crisis, instead of just an opportunity for graft. Then again, to some of these people, everything is just an opportunity for graft.

Just now, out driving, I heard Rush Limbaugh open his show with a musing that - while we are clearly in a serious situation - the people running in hysterics about the “crisis” are still not acting like there is a “crisis” - that Mrs. Pelosi and her crew could have done what they wanted without looking to the right for “cover,” and a true “crisis” would have demanded that she do exactly that. Nearly ten days into the frenzy - breathlessly reported by the same cheerleader press who cried through Katrina (but not Ike) and never corrected their reports of murders in the Superdome - we still have no legislation.

Harry Reid was able to say, “We need, now, the Republicans to start producing some votes for us. We need the Republican nominee for president to let us know where he stands and what we should do.” then turn around and play presidential politics with it.

It’s all presidential politics. I’m convinced of it. I became most convinced of it when Barack Obama went on the Sunday shows yesterday and took full credit for the “bailout” plan he now says he is giving only “cautious support.”

Hello? If it’s your baby, Sen. Obama, or the brilliant brainchild of your own party, why are you being so “cautious” with your support? Hello? If all of this about more than simply beating up your candidate with an inconsistent stick, why aren’t you behind this thing? Why - during this “terrible crisis” - are you comfortable playing politics and circling around in a holding pattern (working it for all the political advantage you can squeeze) and attempting to develop a narrative on what you are calling “McCain’s Katrina-like response”? Did you miss the part, Sen. Obama, where Harry Ried begged McCain to come back, and he suspended his campaign? Is there time for building narratives and circling around - dragging things out as close to the election as possible - if we are in a time of unprecedented “crisis”?

Hello? The GOP leadership says were it not for McCain the Democrats would have steamrollered them. So, why did the Dems insist on GOP support at all, except for a need to blame, blame and blame?

I’m disgusted.

Everyone says we need the bailout. Fine, yes, we must do something. But I’m convinced the frenzy we’ve been fed for the last ten days is theater; I’m not buying into it anymore. This is precisely the “presidential politics” the execrable Harry Reid was so egregiously, disgustingly quick to accuse of John McCain.

Hmmmmm….Dr. Mark Perry, Prof. of Economics & Finance at U. Michigan takes a look, makes a few graphs and wonders where is the credit crisis?

UPDATE: Watch this video of Rep. Paul Ryan, (R) Wisconsin.

Related: Jimmie Bise wonders if McCain is putting the country before his campaign?

Ace: Did Paulson 700 Billion out of his ass?. No, out of yours and mine, actually.

Dennis Miller on the egregious Reid

Reposted from 2006:

At morning prayer, the psalms seem suited to the archangels. Psalm 29 for Michael, the power of God: “The Lord’s voice resounding on the waters, the God of Glory thunders; the Lord on the immensity of waters…” And for Gabriel, Psalm 25, a quiet prayer of hope and trust. For Raphael, a psalm that I love, 147: “The Lord builds up Jerusalem, and brings back Israel’s exiles. And heals the broken-hearted; and binds up all their wounds.”
Michael - who is as God; Gabriel - God’s messenger; Raphael - God’s healing. They say what angels always say, “Do not fear.”
- Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk

My son Buster has a particular devotion to the Archangel Michael, and took his name at his confirmation. Even when he was very small he would “talk” to St. Michael, and on the rare nights when he would awaken from a bad dream, we would talk together about the powerful angel of God, the mighty warrior who puts down all that is evil and scary - dragons and such, and Buster would be able to get back to sleep, comforted by the knowledge that such a creature was on the job. When he was 11, an uncle gave Buster an Icon of the Archangel Michael, and he was amused - no, actually, he was rather stunned - to see Buster beam and clutch it to his chest in heartfelt gratitude. On the drive home, Buster fell asleep in the car, still clutching Michael to his breast. “I’ve never seen a kid react to something religious like that,” his uncle said. But Buster and Michael go back a long way. “There is history, there,” as Buster would say. It’s personal and private history. But I rather like knowing that my son has an angel with whom he feels friendship…or something.

An angel was standing near the altar in the temple; in his hand was a golden censer, and a large amount of incense was given to him. From the angel’s hand the smoke of the incense went up before God…
- Revelation, Chapter 8

When my Elder Son went away to college, along with his crucifix, I slipped into his packs an Icon of Gabriel, God’s messenger. He put it up in his room, but wondered about it. Why Gabriel? I wondered about it, too, until I remembered that Gabriel is the messenger…my firstborn was going away, and I’m sure on some level, I was afraid I would never hear from him again. I think I hoped Gabriel would help keep the communication lines open.

True biblical belief in angels can be no hindrance in our journey to God, it can only be a help. Belief in angels makes us more aware of God’s providential love, of God’s greatness and glory. Never does an angel intrude between God and us. Angels are completely devoted to God, completely amenable to the divine holy will. They never act on their own, never transgress the limits of their instructions from on high. All their activity is found int he performance of divine commands. When they speak, their words ask faith in God and obedience to God. And when we are moved tot hank them, they point us to God and say, Worship God! So spoke the archangel Raphael to Tobias, whent he latter sought to thank him for his kind assistance, for the archangel said: Praise God, adn give Him thanks in the presence of all the living.
- From the sermon, Angels: Spirits Magnificent and Mighty by Abbot Athanasius Recheis

Who are better examples of obedience and trust than the angels?

For my own reasons, I have a particular fondness for Raphael, his Icon is near my desk, and his appearance in the Book of Tobit has been very instructive to me on many personal levels. When my brother S was dying, Raphael kept all of us company on the journey, and even at the funeral.

I ended up at the book of Tobit, which has long been a favorite of mine, although I don’t know many people who have read it. I’ve used it personally when I’ve felt particularly alone or suffered through a bit of acedia, as it is a book that brings much hope. I like it because the people within it are ordinary. They are standard-issue people who do kind, thoughtful things, without seeking glory, or who grieve and wonder why they should go on living, or who celebrate the marriage of their children with happiness, even as they acknowledge some sadness at the transitions of life. Just like us, just like real life. The archangel Raphael figures prominently in the book, too, as he provides safe passage for someone and also gives a bit of advice regarding healing and the uses of what is created to bring about healing. [...]

I think every parent can identify with this: Chapter 5:17-23 (Tobit) called his son and said to him: “My son, prepare whatever you need for the journey, and set out with your kinsman. May God in heaven protect you on the way and bring you back to me safe and sound; and may his angel accompany you for safety, my son.”

and Chapter 12, Raphael reveals much about angels:

Raphael called the two men aside privately and said to them: “Thank God! Give him the praise and the glory. Before all the living, acknowledge the many good things he has done for you, by blessing and extolling his name in song. Before all men, honor and proclaim God’s deeds, and do not be slack in praising him.
A king’s secret it is prudent to keep, but the works of God are to be declared and made known. Praise them with due honor. Do good, and evil will not find its way to you.
[...]
“I will now tell you the whole truth; I will conceal nothing at all from you. I have already said to you, ‘A king’s secret it is prudent to keep, but the works of God are to be made known with due honor.’
I can now tell you that when you, Tobit, and Sarah prayed, it was I who presented and read the record of your prayer before the Glory of the Lord; and I did the same thing when you used to bury the dead.
When you did not hesitate to get up and leave your dinner in order to go and bury the dead, I was sent to put you to the test. At the same time, however, God commissioned me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah.
I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who enter and serve before the Glory of the Lord.”
Stricken with fear, the two men fell to the ground.
But Raphael said to them: “No need to fear; you are safe. Thank God now and forever.
As for me, when I came to you it was not out of any favor on my part, but because it was God’s will. So continue to thank him every day; praise him with song.
Even though you watched me eat and drink, I did not really do so; what you were seeing was a vision.
So now get up from the ground and praise God. Behold, I am about to ascend to him who sent me; write down all these things that have happened to you.”
When Raphael ascended they rose to their feet and could no longer see him. They kept thanking God

Do good. Praise God. Thank God. Be not afraid. The constant advice of the angels, in every age. Especially in our own.

Pope John Paul II (St. Peter’s Square, Sunday, April 24 1994):
“May prayer strengthen us for the spiritual battle we are told about in the Letter to the Ephesians: “Draw strength from the Lord and from His mighty power” (Ephesians 6:10). The Book of Revelation refers to this same battle, recalling before our eyes the image of St. Michael the Archangel (Revelation 12:7). Pope Leo XIII certainly had a very vivid recollection of this scene when, at the end of the last century, he introduced a special prayer for St. Michael throughout the Church. Although this prayer is no longer recited at the end of Mass, I ask everyone not to forget it and to recite it to obtain help in the battle against forces of darkness and against the spirit of this world.”

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who prowl through the world, seeking the ruin of souls.

If you say you want the Vespers for the feast, I’ll really try to get to it today.

I love, love, love the graphics Julie has chosen for the day here, and she’s keeping a whole bunch of angel posts atop her site, today.

Also: Deacon Greg God cannot be left in the pew

My Own: Feast of the Holy Archangels, 2005