Headless Skeletons Help Solve Mystery

Happy Halloween

It's always nice to put a name with a face, er... body.

Catholic Carnival 143 is Up

At The Scratching Post. This week there are two torchlight posts, one kinda scary, one interesting: "Claim that Hilary Clinton Presidency is Motive for Huge New Abortion Centers" by Christine at The World...IMHO (to extend the theme from recent weeks and place front and center the one case that intellectually honest anti-Rudy types--self included--must address, i.e., the lesser of two evils argument) and "Is there such thing as a 'Catholic' Judge?" by Prof. Bainbridge at Business Associations Blog.

Bumper Sticker Thinking #3

Not really a bumper sticker, but it could be...

A Reason Why It Matters

It is pretty rare I disagree with George Will on something (although not unheard of), but I was hit by his recent stunner that, while considering it to be a reasonable proxy for a candidate's "sensibilities and sympathies," regarding abortion itself, what a candidate thinks about abortion rights is not especially important. This because even if a presidentially stacked pro-life Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, which he considers unlikely, it would only throw the question back to the states. Many states were already beginning to liberalize their abortion laws before Roe, and places like California would never go pro-life. Holy non-sequitir, Batman!

***Sidebar

Undeniable scientific fact: Abortion is the murder of a unique, individual human being. Per the Constitution, adjudicating murder is a police power reserved to the states. Ought not the question be decided at the state level?

Oh yeah, federalism is just a word we use at parties.

*** End sidebar

Judd at hangingontonothing offers this retort:

Will’s point is ridiculously errant. First, there are many states that
would have no trouble bringing back their ban on abortion, even if California
doesn’t join them in good company. While one murder is a problem none of us can
come close to understanding in our humanity, any decrease in abortions is
paramount, and any dent that Truth can put in the armor of evil is vitally
important to a revolution. Second, if local politicians are ultimately going to
be responsible for the legality of abortion and other life issues (which they
really aren’t right now), it makes local politics a whole new ballgame. As it
stands right now, people mark ballots based on the issues they feel the
candidates would have some control over. That is why we don’t ask the candidates
for City Council about their stance on the Iraq war.

To be sure there would be a long row to hoe, but isn't this where and how a true conservative, ostensibly like George Will, wants to fight this kind of battle?

Dave Hartline Interviewed by Zenit

Found this in the weekly update I get from Zenit on the weekends re The Tide is Turning. Check out the interview and get the book--it's a positive narrative that matters.

Chinese Bubble, Bubble, Toils, and Trouble

Given how bubbles are created, it is not a surprise that recent Chinese economic expansion represents one. Tom Barnett, as often is the case, has noted, among other things, another positive outcome of our "engagement" strategy, i.e., the investment of private Chinese money. He is, of course, bullish on what he sees as the pending Sino-American alliance following the inevitable bubble burst. I am a little less optimistic (but not a lot) and the false (or at least undemonstrated) premises in this passage don't help:

China will learn from scandals and crashes. The key for us, is how we mentor them in this process, because we’ve been there and done all that before.

But you look at all that uncertainty and looming new rule sets that the Party knows full well it’ll have to adopt as the country matures and moves through all these inevitable crises, and it’s little surprise to me that China has no desire whatsoever to stick its neck out on the Burmas and Darfurs and Irans and North Koreas of the world. Why pick up the quagmire when you got this much going on at home?

But the truth is--and will increasingly become--that China has no choice. The rise of the China Investment Corp is a good example: $200B of its $1.4T pile of U.S. dollars. With its development trajectory and demographic trajectory, China can’t sit on all that money and get low U.S. T-bill rates. It needs to invest like a Boomer who’s suddenly found investing religion at age 52! Aggressively.

And yet to do that, even with seeming blue chips like Blackstone, and then drop 1/6th of your investment in a few months, and THAT’S scary enough to get popular political backlash at home. Imagine what happens when the military intervention goes wrong?

The Chinese government doesn't believe it ever has to do anything, which makes them far less predictable than suggested; if they were fully rational, they wouldn't still be Communists.

The Troglodyte Top Twelve - 10/29/07

A bit of a weird week in that both USC and Virginia Tech lose games and climb in the ranking. However, the results of the Trojans' and Hokies' games against higher-ranked opponents, Oregon and BC, respectively, were already baked into the previous week's ranking--that's what it means to not be penalized for losing a game you shouldn't have been expected to win. Florida is the big surprise this week. That they could have trouble if Tim Tebow were to get dinged up was expected, but what wasn't was their having repeated breakdowns in the secondary such that 30 points on the board wouldn't be enough. Their fate (and South Florida's) is the same as Cal's and South Carolina's last week: Out of the ranking and off the bubble. Texas and Georgia take their places on the ege.

Sensibile Thinking on Dumbledore's Homosexuality

Terry at Abbey Roads 2 realizes it's bit too easy to pile on and brings a truffle quote:

Whatever the cause of homosexuality, the Roman Catholic Church does not demand that a person with homosexual inclination change his or her orientation. (Neither does the Church pretend to know the reason people are gay.) To experience homosexual orientation, or same sex attraction is not in itself sinful. The Church simply teaches that to act upon homosexual desire, that is, homosexual acts, is sinful. Unwilling to bind up heavy burdens men are unable to carry, the Church merely teaches that homosexuals are called to chastity. All men and women are called to live chastely, even in heterosexual marriage, and the single are called to live chastely and celibately, either until heterosexual marriage or for life. That is all.

So, Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, now says Dumbledore is gay. Unless she chooses to write a prequel with tales of his impropriety (fan fiction aside), there is no need to dip ourselves in holy water and flagellate about the neighborhood. Plus it's not very effective evangelization.

What may be more troubling than a main character having same-sex attraction is Rowling's statements that the books are a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and that her fans should "question authority". Does this mean the series is meant to be a paean to materialism? Well, wouldn't that just play into Frau Kuby's hands? Fortunately, the value of art is not determined solely by what the artist intends, but also by what the patron receives.

Vatican Label Promotes Canonization with DVD Launch

Santo Subito!

The first music DVD to embody the voice and images of Giovanni Paolo II. Presented in 5.1 digital surround sound. Subtitles in: polish, italian, french, Spanish, English, German and Portuguese. DVD available on Monday the 29th of October.

Do we really need to do a push for sainthood?

20 Years Ago

Willie McGee hits a little bouncer down to Gaetti, there's the throw to Hrbek ... and the Twins are world champions! The Twins are world champions!

Herb Carneal, Minnesota Twins play-by-play man

A Passing Thought

Another quote from the late Sen. Wellstone:

Sometimes, the only realists are the dreamers. Robert Kennedy once said,
'The future will not belong to those who are content with the present.' I think
the future also will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on
the sidelines. The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing
to work hard to make our country better. The future will belong to those, in
Eleanor Roosevelt's words, 'who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Does anyone imagine today's presidential candidates believe in the beauty of their dreams? Which one(s)?

5 Years Ago

This day, Senator Paul Wellstone and seven others died in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota. I rarely agreed with his political views and supported his opponents, but it was easy to respect his honesty and appreciate his optimism, which has been all too rare in recent years.

I dare to imagine a country where every child I hold in my hands, are all
God's children, regardless of the color of their skin, regardless of whether
they're boy or girl, regardless of religion, regardless of rich or poor, that
every child I hold in my hands, will have the same chance to reach her full
potential or his full potential. That is the goodness of our country. That is
the essence of the American dream.

May he rest in peace.

Want to Help SoCal?

Pray, of course, and then here's a couple of places to make donation:

Catholic Charities

Feed the Children

Catholic Carnival 142 is Up

At Play the Dad? No, be the Dad!. This week's torchlight post has the same topic as last week (and next week), Faith in Rudy? No! by RobK at Kyrie Eleison.

Paying the Piper

A recent Letter to the Editor in the Milwaukee paper speaks for many:

The Journal Sentinel is reporting that more than 2,500 child predators in the education realm have been punished for harming children in the past five years alone ("Abuse by teachers goes under the radar," Oct. 21). The ugly fruit of America's sexual anarchy is now in full flower.

 

With pornography now a multibillion-dollar business and with what Newsweek recently called the "pornification" of America's popular culture, it is no surprise that our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, our children, are paying the price. There is no longer a cultural standard for right and wrong in sexual matters. In fact, the whole idea of a fixed standard for right and wrong is scorned by a postmodern culture that wants to make up its own truth and ignore what God has commanded.

 

You cannot turn your back on eternal verities without paying a terrible price. You cannot redefine marriage, hand out contraception to sixth-graders, tolerate movies and television filled with promiscuous sex and not have our children feel the impact.

 

The greatest threat to America's future is not Iran's nukes, the economy, climate change or al-Qaida. The greatest threat to our future, and that of any nation, is moral decadence and the ever-increasing tolerance of that which should never be tolerated by any decent people.

[submitted by e-mail]

Facing the Music

Memorial of St. Anthony Claret

With the World Series beginning tonight, it's time to check my season predictions and note that I am up for remedial prognostication:

American League
East - N.Y. Yankees >> Actual: Red Sox
Central - Chicago White Sox >> Indians
West - L.A. Angels >> Angels
Wildcard - Detroit Tigers >> Yankees

National League
East - New York Mets >> Phillies
Central - St. Louis Cardinals >> Cubs
West - San Diego Padres >> Diamondbacks
Wildcard - L.A. Dodgers >> Rockies

World SeriesYankees over Dodgers >> TBD: Rockies & BoSox

Two of eight playoff teams, one division winner--I think this is the worst I've done since the (still misguided) advent of the wildcard. Ouch.

Gonna Take More Than That

The U.N. secretary-general has warned that violence levels against women are "hideous" in some countries mired in conflict, and the U.N. Security Council is deeply concerned that its repeated demands for an immediate end to violence against women caught in armed conflicts have gone unheeded. So what should we do? Here's Secretary-General Ban's answer:

Together, all of us need to strengthen our collective and individual response to it.

Well, that helps. And here's U.N. Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno:

[C]ombating rape and other forms of sexual violence calls for concerted, robust and ongoing action on the part of both national actors and also the international community at every level of engagement.

Oh, that's much better... except such institutional hand-wringing isn't getting it done. Assistant Secretary-General Rachel Mayanja does offer one bit refreshing bit of much needed clarity:

Impunity for perpetrators and insufficient response to the needs of survivors are morally reprehensible and unacceptable. Sexual violence in conflict, particularly rape, should be named for what it is: not a private act or the unfortunate misbehavior of a renegade soldier, but aggression, torture, war crime and genocide.

More urgent and persistent prayer is needed to aid the women and girls of places like the Congo and Darfur; not only for changes of heart fo the sexual terrorists in those nations, but for those who would suppose to lead the world clear of such atrocities.

John Paul the Great on the Christian Life #5

Memorial of St.John of Capistrano

True holiness does not mean a flight from the world; rather, it lies in the effort to incarnate the Gospel in everyday life, in the family, at school and at work, and in social and political involvement.

To Catholic Charismatics, 1996

Deal with the Devil

In response to a tongue-in-cheek website's goal of "to help continue the Bush and Clinton back-and-forth political dynasty into perpetuity," Regular Guy quips:

For this reason alone, the Democrats should not nominate Hillary Clinton for the
presidency. In return, I'll promise never to support Jeb Bush for President.

Sorry, Paul. I'm not sure I can go with you on that one. Ol' Jeb would've been my guy had he had the proverbial "fire in the belly" this time around. No doubt the costs of a Hillary presidency would be steep, but cutting out Mr. Bush solely because of his surname seems a little too pricey.

Or You Could Just Say, "No"

No, those are the really spoiled girls.

Brian Finn, of St. Paul, a parent quoted in the Strib when a limousine pulled up to Minneapolis' Target Center and it was asked whether it was Miley Cyrus.

Mr. Finn's drawing a laugh from nearby parents betrays a weakness in our culture. It has become fashionable of late locally to gripe about the high ticket prices for yesterday's Miley Cyrus/alter ego Hannah Montana concert, where scalper's prices reached $200 apiece, as if it's someone else's fault. The modern American parent is its own worst enemy sometimes.

After all, if people, weren't willing to pay it, the price wouldn't stay that high. Ah, but we must do it "for the children," you know, "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity." And that makes those evil ticket scalpers the ones who are, well... evil. Yeah, right.

Of course you could take the whole family to a local corn maze for about the same price as a single, moderately over-priced (two-figures) ticket, have a blast for about five hours, and then go home and watch a Hannah Montana re-run for the 17th time--and have something better to remember and something they'll carry with them for a lot longer. But that would be mean.

The Troglodyte Top Twelve - 10/19/07

The shuffling on the back half continues, and the bubble gets bigger. The top five remains unchanged while Cal and USC-east get dumped not only from the top twelve, but from the bubble, as well, for their second losses against teams they should have handled. We're deep enough in to the season where the ranking isn't all about talent and base schemes; demonstrating the ability to get it done matters, particularly on an off day, thus the entry of Kansas and ASU. The top of the bubble rises to #8, as the number of clear teams between it and the top shrinks: VaTech, WVU, ASU, KU, SFU, UK are now joined by Missouri and Hawaii, with Texas and Virginia on the edge.

The Line is Drawn Here

Memorial of Ss. Isaac Jogues, John de Brébeuf, and Companions

With the pending announcement from Sam Brownback that he's withdrawing from the presidential race, I have come to grips with the fact that I am unlikely to end up endorsing someone from the short list, which is something I've been contemplating for a little while, anyway; Sen. Brownback was the closest to getting my endorsement. I've also been delaying something because I preferred to come out for someone before I came out explicitly against the candidacy of someone else. Well, it is time to make a move.

I still believe that primaries are primarily about ideas, so I'm working on a way to advance my support for the remaining "non-negotiating" candidates (ref. here and here), but in the mean time: I stand in opposition to the candidacy of Rudolph Giuliani for President of the United States.

Update:
Brownback's withdrawal is official now.

Bumper Sticker Thinking #2

Liberal Principles

Linda Hirshman has finished her mid-wifing trilogy (part 1, part 2, & part 3) of liberal political philosophy for the re-birth of the left. To that end, her interest has been to answer the question of what should liberals believe about what is important about being human and how such humans should live together. Ms. Hirshman's answer is four principles:

1. People are political animals--Why else would we have both speech and reason?
2. Political altruism--It's the redistribution, stupid.
3. Minimal altruism for everyone else--Helping others shouldn't be a suicide pact.
4. A prudent foreign policy--Easy virtue bad.

As I've noted before, I can't agree with her conclusions, or her assessment of conservatism. Nevertheless, there is plenty to take away from this process. Here's her closing truffle passage:

I was a big James Carville fan at the time, but turns out it wasn't the economy stupid after all. The Clinton administration was just a passing fancy. If Democrats are going to move back into the hearts and minds of a meaningful majority of American voters, they are going to have to do it with a vision of our personhood and our obligations to one another more robust than the anemic social contract tradition that went out of fashion in other advanced western societies years ago. The picture of individuals agreeing to cooperate and abide by the majority's votes, so beloved of our commenters at TPMCafe, are both too strong and too weak for functional liberal politics. Too strong, because its majoritarianism is boundless all the way to social tyranny and too weak because its individualism is crippling all the way to callous heedlessness.

Liberal Principles is an effort to put the principles before the policy, before the cart-driven horses run into another smashup.

I still say the right could use a similar effort.

Deep Water Killed the Glaciers

In this week's edition of Science, a chronology of the end of the last glacial period is proposed based on marine sediment samples from the western tropical region of the Pacific Ocean. It goes without saying that understanding large, historical climate changes requires "precise knowledge of both the forcing and the regional responses." In this analysis the data indicate that deep-sea temperatures warmed by 2°C between 17 and 19 thousand years ago and more than 1000 years before an increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ocean surface temperatures in the tropics. In other words, the end of the Earth's last glacial period caused by deep-water warming does not lie within the tropics, but began near the south pole, and cannot be attributed to a build-up of carbon dioxide.

OK, so let's review the bidding. The last glacial period 20 thousand years ago was ended by a warming of the ocean deep below the surface more than a millennium beforehand, for reasons we do not fully understand. Global temperatures increases and decreases follow approximately a 1500 year cycle (here and here) going back millions of years and likely associated with the sun. Global temperatures were warmer 500 years before industrialization began than they are today. Three-fourths of the warming since industrialization occurred before WWII. The increase in global temperature observed in the last few decades roughly correlates to that on Mars, although possibly for other reasons regardless of how much they may sound like epicycles upon epicycles.

Please, tell me again how we're so damn sure we have a firm enough grasp of what the factors of global climate change are that we understand the causes of a recent, historically slight increase in global temperature so well as to demand draconian socialist "reforms" lest we need rapidly to develop chimeras with gill plates to perpetuate some semblance of the human race beyond 2030.

Making Bad Investments

Feast of St. Luke

According to a recent report, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), through its Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) mutual funds, has millions of dollars invested in companies who participate directly in, profit from their association with, or philanthropically support organizations involved in pornography, or abortion, not to mention embryonic stem cell research. For one example, according to its semi-annual report, the CBIS Catholic United Investment Trust has a significant position (see p. 29) in GlaxoSmithKline, who has a stated policy of using and partnering with other organizations' use of embryonic stem cell research. This despite having a stated policy that is seemingly to the opposite effect. Now, to be fair, CBIS does do some investment screening. (Just for the record, the Southern Baptist Conference is in the same boat.)

So where does it leave us who know we shouldn't, and who don't desire, to finance evil through our financial investments? My 401(k) at work does not offer value-investing options. Does that mean I should forgo the company match benefit and roll it into one of just a few choices for another vehicle, like an Ave Maria fund, that, in addition to limiting my contributions, may not have similar flexibility, diversity, or opportunity to build retirement resources for me to fulfill that moral obligation to the same level? After all, that level of extra effort does not appear to be necessary for the USCCB.

We can expect a range of answers on that , just as I was recently taken to task by a commenter for not joining the boycott of Miller Brewing for their sponsorship of the Folsom Street Fair. While I think I was on pretty solid ground in that case given the efficacy (or lack thereof) of that particular boycott, the prudential question remains the same: Where does material cooperation end and scrupulosity begin?

[submitted by e-mail]

Cross-posted at Catholic Dads.

Perhaps Finally a Home Field Advantage

Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch

DeLaSalle has been the biggest influence in my life.

So said local business owner, Skip Maas, at the groundbreaking ceremony for an athletic field at DeLaSalle Catholic high school in Minneapolis after handing over a check for more than $2 million to foot the bill for construction. The Islanders may finally have a home game; I had several friends who went there and always had to play their games somewhere else. (Predominantly lefty) critics claim the new facility will be a blight on Nicollet Island, where the school is located and which has had a rebirth of sorts in recent years. Predictably they have filed suit to stop construction.

What should not be lost is that the field is privately funded and will be made available for public use. Nor should it be forgotten that DeLaSalle has a rich history in the city of Minneapolis for over a century and was the primary inhabitant of the island for decades when the rest of the island was in fact blighted. The plan for the field has been vetted for four years and has included many changes to address public concerns. It's time to bring in the bulldozers.

Catholic Carnival 141 is Up

At 50 Days After. This week's torchlight post is Giuliani vs. Clinton: The Lesser of Two Evils by Richard at eyehackerblog, if for no other reason, then so I can take the occasion to disagree with his conclusion to pull the lever for Rudy because:

1.) It is not clear that Rudy Giuliani will do things like appoint judges who will make decisions aligned to the pro-life perspective, and

2.) Not having a pro-life candidate at the top of the GOP ticket will set the pro-life movement politically backwards by marginalizing it--I've seen how the party platform effectively becomes what the candidate wants it to be, regardless of what planks may get adopted in some side room.

Vienna to Host "Divorce Fair"

Memorial of St. Hedwig
Memorial of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

In what is perhaps the world's first such event, a "divorce fair" is set to be held the weekend of October 27-28 in Vienna. It is targeted for those considering divorce and will offer expert advice to estranged couples on their rights, obligations, and legal options, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

Among the host of lawyers, counselors, and the like, the Archdiocese of Vienna will have a booth at the fair, no doubt given the "target rich environment" for ministry.

Another Example of How Bubbles are Created

From USA Today:

[Grain] Prices are being pushed up by bad weather in a host of countries,
surging world demand and a drive in the USA and abroad to devote
more acres to corn for ethanol production, which has tightened
supplies of some grains and tied crop prices more closely to energy
prices.

emphasis added

Or how anti-subsidiarity hurts the little guy.

(HHT: FEE)

A Pleasant Surprise

By analyzing site hits, it seems I attracted some above-average traffic via Google searches yesterday by blogging a post on Ann Coulter by Linda Hirshman. Going from these search reslts, I came across a lefty idea blog, TPMCafe, and the first two parts of a series (here and here) by Ms. Hirshman examining liberal principles by starting with a recent post on an attempted philosophy of environmental policy and working backwards (please pardon that sentence's construction). What a pleasant surprise.

Now, I don't know why I had never really noticed TPMCafe before now, given I've had TPM on the blogroll for years (other than I just don't have a lot of time for lurking in leftist haunts), but they basically do stick to the examination of ideas; contrast this to typical liberal pablum like Paul Krugman's recent "analysis" of the "modern right-wing political machine."

Now, of course, while it is largely internally consistent (something I always appreciate), Ms. Hirshman's examination is riddled with false premises--something I'm not going to go into here--so I cannot agree with many of her conclusions. Nevertheless, she makes several good points and hers is an exercise worth reviewing and, frankly, the kind of effort (re-examining first principles) that appears to be lacking sorely on the right. (Someone please prove me wrong on this last point.)

Reminder

My hit rate for things I blog is probably less than 10% of those stories I find interesting. Check out the tumbleblog, Troglodytic, for all those that went into the hopper only to have the vast majority of them not come out.

Update:
I've added a feed to Troglodytic to the right sidebar.

French President's Marriage May Be Ending

Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus

Rumors swirled this weekend that the occasionally stormy marriage French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, is again in trouble. Count me in the camp that civil divorce (there is no such thing as sacramental divorce) is rarely good. Regardless, the truffle quote from the editor of L'Express magazine, Christophe Barbier, points to a greater problem that sadly is not unique to France:

All passions come to an end. They are living through what millions of French people go through every year.

Of course, not all Passions come to an end.

Judging a Culture by Its Book Covers

I'll use the occasion of the latest Ann Coulter kerfuffle (Christians are "perfected" Jews--you know what she meant) to pass along an observation from the Guardian's Linda Hirshman. (By the way, I don't buy for a second Deutsch's naivete as Mark Shea describes it.)

Hirshman notes how with each new book, the cover shows more of Ann than the previous time around:



Now, we all know that sex sells, which undoubtedly is what is behind the trend. (Obscure reference alert) And if Joseph Ratzinger and Karl Rahner could agree on, for example, methods of biblical study, for completely different theological reasons, then we ought not be surprised that she could put herself at odds with many in the conservative movement on which she sides, like Laura Ingraham who has taken up the campaign against the pornification of society in her latest book:



The real danger, beyond her too clever by half schtick growing stale, is the extent to which Ann's objectifying herself with succeedingly skimpier cover outfits (and cable news pundit attire) reinforces and extends the left's misguided boilerplate that those on the right hate women (albeit for different reasons).

Update:
Hirshman makes a parting shot in her article that I was going to ignore about the takeaway from Coulter's latest offering. Ignore, that is, until I saw the add for the book in the current issue of National Review. Here's the actual pull quote:

Hillary wants to be the first woman president, which would also make her the
first woman in a Clinton administration to sit behind the desk in the Oval
Office instead of under it.

There is a strong streak of smart aleck-ness that's been running in the Clan for generations, and, therefore, a developed appreciation for the well-crafted barb. In that context, I find this tagline to be more slow-footed than sharp-witted, which is too bad because she's better than that (or at least used to be).

Getting There

The site remodeling is again proceeding, now that the work from the latest misadventures with Blogger largely has been replaced (recovered is not the right word). It's all about the blog roll right now. The format changes will kick in after that. Please let me know if you have suggestions. If things go well, it could all be done by the end of the month. We'll see...

The Troglodyte Top Twelve - 10/15/07

It just keeps getting more interesting. Well, the new ranking is fairly straightforward, with the exception of South Florida--I'm not quite ready to drink the Kool-Aid yet. We'll get a much better idea of how good they are in the next two weeks with road games at Rutgers and UConn, so I'll hold out the possibility of their jumping into the top five should they win the next couple. USC, dropped two notches and are flirting with the bubble for having looked iffy for the third straight week, and they have to be looking forward to visiting the Golden Domes to get healthy again. Speaking of the bubble, VaTech, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Kansas, and Arizona State are all right there; don't be surprised if there's shuffling week-to-week for slots ten thru twelve.

Protection from the Great Unwashed

A ray of snarky mirth shined down on a recent game of "Gotcha," where a Democratic staffer highlighted last month the "unusual need for whomever attending [then upcoming NASCAR events at Alabama's Talladega Superspeedway and North Carolina's Lowe's Motor Speedway] to be vaccinated against hepatitis A and B," as well as "the more normal things - tetanus, diphtheria, and of course, seasonal influenza," prompting the expected doses of indignation from Republicans and other officials, including Humpy Wheeler, president of Lowe's Motor Speedway:

The very idea of immunization is laughable. It's like taping your ankles to go to the mailbox.

Related:
Jen of Et Tu? has an excellent mushroom harvest on the question of vaccines developed from aborted fetal tissue cell lines as discussed recently at Catholic Dads. In this case, those staffers seeking hepatities A and B immunizations may have needed too seek alternative vaccines to remain ethical on this count. Of course, as Democratic staffers, I imagine the chances they actually cared were pretty low.

Gore Shares a Piece of Prize

Re the joint winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Price, the Troglodytrix summed it thus:

Good for him. Now he can afford some more carbon offsets.

The Troglodyte Top Twelve from 10/8/07

Oh, yeah. I didn't provide any explanation for last Monday's poll, so here 'tis... USC didn't look good two weeks in a row, but I still don't see them being worse than Oregon. Florida doesn't get penalized for losing to a higher-ranked (and better) team, LSU, despite their two losses. My misgivings last week about Wisconsin now look (somewhat) prophetic. And I still don't know what to make of South Florida.

Light the Troglodytic

Something of a tumblelog for The Troglodyte is up and running. It's where I'll try keeping a virtual stack of stuff. I run across a lot of things on the web I might like to blog, but, for whatever reason, something(s) prevents me, or at least delays me, from getting to it, just like has happened this week. Well, now it will get stuffed here, along with other miscellaneous items. Perhaps I'll get to it, perhaps not.

One thing I've noticed is that I'll find that after seeing something interesting, but not having the time to blog it, I'll let it go only to find the same topic, or a later one pops up perhaps several times over the next few weeks. Instead of losing it to the ether, I will now have it safely tucked away on the log site, where it will be slightly more accessible than the Ark of the Covenant (just like my desk at work!). Anyway, I've seen other blogs use something similar, so we'll have a go at it and see what happens.

Catholic Carnival 140 is Up

At Book Reviews and More. This week's torch light post is "What is Catholic sensibility?" by Fred at Deep Furrows.

Flight of the Hamsters

For Troglotyke #1's amusement...

Flight of the Hamsters How far can you get them to fly?

(HHT: Dom Bettinelli)

Uggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's bad enough that I haven't been able to blog because I was at our company's semi-annual technical business conference (in town) for the last three full days, but then when I'm twiddling with the site lay-out as part of a slow-moving remodeling project for The Troglodyte, Blogger deletes about two weeks worth (off and on) of work. I have rebuilt about 80% of it, so far.

Culture Precedes Economics Precedes Politics

Feast of St. Faustina Kowalska

Family Memorial

 

Radhi Hamza al Radhi, former head of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, is claiming that corruption has cost the country tens of billions of dollars, with about a half billion dollars being siphoned for terrorism through Sunni and Shiite militias.

I want people to know that real corruption— from the highest to the lowest levels of government— is destroying my country. It is impossible to have both democracy and corruption at the same time.

California Democrat Henry Waxman, with whom I rarely agree, is also on it:

One of the keys to political reconciliation is combating corruption. ... An honest assessment of corruption in Iraq will provide insight into whether political progress is possible.

Indeed. Radhi is now seeking US asylum following threats against him and his family and against those of the other families of commision members.

 

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Lingering Legs of the Phony "Phony Soldier" Story

USA Today has a good round-up of the (I can't believe it's still) continuing Rush Limbaugh controversy. I don't think I could come up with a better illustration of the sea gull characteristics of the MSM.

 

(HHT: Mullings)

 

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Terra Firma

Feast of St. Faustina Kowalska

 

It's still early in the race, but St. Louis archbishop, Raymond Burke has affirmed his stance from the 2004 presidential election that anyone administering Communion is morally obligated to deny it to Catholic politicians who support an abortion-rights position contrary to church teaching.

If the question [of denying Communion] is about a Catholic who is publicly espousing positions contrary to the moral law, and I know that person knows it, yes I would.

In that case, it was John Kerry who brought the question high profile, and this time around, of course, it's Rudy Giuliani:

I can't imagine that as a Catholic he doesn't know that his stance on the protection of human life is wrong. If someone is publicly sinning, they should not approach to receive Holy Communion.

Related:

Archbishop Burke is on Relevant Radio this hour.

 

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Walking in the Pope's Shoes

Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi

 

From the AP:

Some of Minneapolis' homeless are now walking in the pope's shoes.

 

The boxes arrived from Rome after the Rev. Joseph Johnson, rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul gave some visiting friends from the Vatican a tour of Sharing and Caring Hands, a homeless mission in downtown Minneapolis.

 

Pope Benedict XVI received the shoes from an Italian shoemaker and asked that they be distributed to the poor.

 

When she opened the boxes, Sharing and Caring director Mary Jo Copeland found several dozen pairs of the handmade shoes, but didn't know who had donated them.

 

"Father (Johnson) says, 'That's from the pope.' I said, `What do you mean?,'" said Copeland.

Tasha Allen, who received a pair of the shoes, said, "It's a blessing for everybody. All the kids love them. The parents love them, too. I just can't stop smiling. Thank you, pope."

 

Copeland also received a note from the Vatican and a picture of the pope.

 

"The pope is praying for me," she said. "I know I'll keep going."

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Catholic Carnival 139 is Up

At Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering. This week's torchlight post is Me, Myself and I at Tinabell. Actually, this post deserves to be shined with the light of two torches.

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Truffle Primer

In case you were afraid to ask, Portfolio.com has a lesson in what to look for in truffles and how to enjoy them. Truffles are the second-most expensive raw foodstuff in the world, after saffron, so you should really savor those truffle quotes.

(HHT: Luxist)

So What's the Big Idea?

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee delivered the homily at the annual Red Mass in Washington, DC, on Monday. Zenit has it in its entirety. Here's a truffle passage:

Ideas have consequences, don't they? Convictions have corollaries. And God's Word today, from Genesis and St. John, enchants us with one of the most profound ideas, one of the most noble convictions, of all: that we are made in God's image and likeness, that God actually abides in us, and we in Him, that deep in our being is the very breath of the divine.

...

This stunning belief -- that we actually hold in our heart the spark of the divine -- while dramatic in Jewish and Christian revelation, is also part of other great world creeds.

As a matter of fact, this gripping conviction, while explicit in revealed religion, is really evident in the very nature of man. So we have the towering intellects of civilization, philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Seneca and Cicero, themselves unaware of the God of Abraham, the Father of Jesus, still write convincingly that human beings hold within them the light of eternity, a destiny beyond this life, a supernatural brand-mark, an exalted identity which elevates them qualitatively above the rest of creation. True, they never viewed Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, depicting creation, but they would sure nod in agreement at the inspired words of Genesis in this morning's first Scripture reading,

"God created man in the image of Himself, in the image of God He created man, male and female He created them ... and God saw that this was good."

And they would beam at the chant of the psalmist,

"What is man that you should spare even a thought for him,
the son of Man that you should care for him?
Yet, you have made him little less than a god,
You have crowned him with glory and splendor."

This noble tenet -- that human nature reflects God's own nature, that God looks at us and smiles with delight, that a human being shares in God's own life and is destined for eternity -- this soaring conviction which resonates in the human heart, that was made explicit in God's Word, which animated the thinking of our most normative philosophers, and is a constant of Judeo-Christian humanism, this grand idea has particularly cogent consequences for the Republic we call home, for the country we love.

We citizens of the United States of America are so gratefully and humbly aware that our country was founded on this very conviction, that part of our birthright, as Ronald Reagan would often quote John Winthrop, is "to be a city set on a hill," where respect for the pinnacle of God's creation, the human being, would be the premier characteristic.

The rest is highly recommended.

Short List Update

Not much has changed beyond a little whittling...

Short List
Empty

Watch List - (5nn*, support above zero, secondary criteria**)
Fred Thomspon - (TBD, yes, A)
Sam Brownback - (OK , no, OK)
Tom Tancredo - (OK, no, TBD-B)
Alan Keyes - (OK, no, OK)

*5 Non-negotiables:
1. Abortion
2. Euthanasia
3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research
4. Human Cloning
5. Homosexual "Marriage"

Secondary criteria**:
A. Meaningful executive, or organizational leadership, experience,
B. A compelling American vision to project from the bully pulpit,
C. An appreciation of subsidiarity and solidarity,
D. A dedication to the proposition and an understanding why governments are instituted among men.

Any Thoughts on the Three-panel Design?

If so, please shoot me a note because, in the dust, I seem to have misplaced the comments sections.

Secrets of Sputnik

Memorial of the Guardian Angels

Everybody knows that the launch of Sputnik was born out of the Cold War. With the launch's 50th anniversary this week, Boris Chertok, one of the founders of the Soviet space program, and other veterans recently told the behind-the-scenes story of how it was launched--it was not the grand coordinated effort we were all led to believe.

In a charming piece from AP, Chertok, 95, gives full voice to his pride at the pivotal role he played in the history of space exploration. Here's a truffle quote any engineer worth his salt would appreciate:

Each of these first rockets was like a beloved woman for us. We were in love
with every rocket, we desperately wanted it to blast off successfully. We would
give our hearts and souls to see it flying.

Read the whole thing, including why the Soviet's didn't think they could compete with the US in the race to the moon.

Would You Like Paper, or Plastic?

No longer relegated to adult book stores, in-home parties, and the internet, consumers can look to spice up the action at home with a simple trip to the corner store. Walgreen's has joined CVS, Osco, and Albertson's in offering shelf-space for sexual "health and wellness" products, which are generally limited to vibrating rings, for now. Here's a truffle quote from Carol Carrozza, vice president of marketing for device-maker, LifeStyles:

The time has come, because of the influx of Generation Y - who has grown up with
condoms in their lives - to take some sexual-enhancement products and put them
on mainstream retailers' shelves. Now, people are more comfortable going to the
store shelf and looking for it. They don't have to go into the brown-bag world
and find these products.

But wait, there's more:

It's a part of the desensitization process," she said. "Now that retailers have
created sections, like sexual health and wellness, they are more open and
receptive. This is the first of many more ... to come.

I have to presume pun is intended. Be that as it may, we have more proof we are finally "growing up." Oh, goody.

Catholic Charities' Employee Drug Benefit Must Subsidize Birth Control

Memorial of St. Therese of the Child of Jesus

 

What happened to all those cardinals on the bench we were told about after the Supreme Court upheld the partial birth abortion ban? The Supreme Court let stand today a New York court ruling upholding a state law that requires religious-based social service agencies that offer employee prescription drug coverage benefits to include contraceptives.

 

Catholic Charities and other religious groups had argued that New York's law forces them to violate religious teachings (contraception being sinful, in this case) that violates their First Amendment right to practice their religion and will create a precedent for having to subsidize employees' abortions. The New York Court of Appeals had ruled unanimously that the groups had to comply with the law because, as social service agencies, they did not qualify for the exception provided in the law for churches.

 

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Naughty Nuns

Memorial of St. Therese of the Child of Jesus

Italian Archbishop Giovanni Battista Pichierri has received permission from the Vatican to close the 44-year old Santa Clara convent near Bari, Italy following a physical altercation last July amongst the convent's final three members. The archbishop concluded in August that the nuns had "clearly lost their religious vocation" and asked the Vatican for permission to close the convent.

This, of course, gives credence to Sally Field's claim that there would be no war if (real) mothers ran the show. The Catholic Church has to expect these kinds of things when they don't allow sexually active women priests.

The Troglodyte Top Twelve - 10/1/07

A new feature, with the redesign in process, is that the Top 12 ranking now appears on the sidebar. The usual prescient analysis will continue to be provided in a weekly post.

There is quite a shake-up this wee, as you'd expect, with half the list losing this week. The long and the short of it, is that it's a crapshoot trying to sort numbers 3 through about 15. Here are a few jottings: I was right about saying a lot of the teams could be had (I just didn't think that list included a healthy Florida); Still, Florida's last-second loss was better than Oklahoma's; As per usual, Oregon has not been penalized for losing to a team higher in the ranking (Cal); Ohio State, Cal, Wisconsin, and BC all feel to me like they are ranked too high; And I don't know what to make of South Florida and Kentucky, yet.

I am Not Getting This

There's another dust-up at Catholic Dads re breast feeding in public. Now, this is a fine blogging and discussion topic, although I doubt there is any real, profound disagreement among Catholic dads. But this is what the Catholic Dads blog is supposed to be (from the profile):

Here we can hang. Share stories. Debate the issues of the day. Give advice.
Talk politics. Discuss sports. Share our faith. You know, guy stuff.

Sure, the issue has popped up recently with the lactivists in the news and the Applebee's ordeal, so I guess that could make the general topic an "issue of the day." And if someone's wife was being confronted in public and made uncomfortable, then that might be an occasion for advice. Fine. But for crying out loud, there have been more discussions on breast feeding than posts that even mention "BBQ." Are we not men? Bring forth racks of ribs and spices, do we not rub?

Pope Benedict's Prayer Intentions for October

General:

That the Christians who are in minority situations may have the strength and
courage to live their faith and persevere in bearing witness to it.

Missionary:

That World Missionary Day may be a propitious occasion for kindling an ever
greater missionary awareness in every baptized person.

For more info, see the Apostleship of Prayer.