Saturday, September 11, 2004
The Feast of Saint John Chrysostum Is Monday
The Ever-Prescient Victor Davis Hanson Calls It Correctly
Been a while since I've linked to NRO articles. But with the election looming, it is inevitable.
There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the pages of Seattle Catholic.
There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the pages of Seattle Catholic.
John Kerry: He's Soooo September 10th
Cardinal Mahony Ordered To Release Priest Files
Three Cheers For Father Sistare
Bush 51%, Kerry43%
According to the latest AP Poll.
Not bad when you consider that, with organized labor, especially the hordes of government workers who want to remain utterly idle, the faggot lobby, the "civil rights" community, the tree-hugging and animal rights fanatics, and those who push the "right" to murder babies in utero wedded to the Democrat Party like flies to horse excrement, slices of liverwurst and limberger on two-week-old bread bearing a Democrat label will get 44% of the vote.
The sad thing is that the coalition of the hopelessly corrupt is so strong.
Not bad when you consider that, with organized labor, especially the hordes of government workers who want to remain utterly idle, the faggot lobby, the "civil rights" community, the tree-hugging and animal rights fanatics, and those who push the "right" to murder babies in utero wedded to the Democrat Party like flies to horse excrement, slices of liverwurst and limberger on two-week-old bread bearing a Democrat label will get 44% of the vote.
The sad thing is that the coalition of the hopelessly corrupt is so strong.
Patriot Day 2004
Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.
V: A porta inferi.
R: Erue Domine animas eorum.
V: Requiescant in pace.
R: Amen.
V: A porta inferi.
R: Erue Domine animas eorum.
V: Requiescant in pace.
R: Amen.
Statue of the Blessed Mother Sole Survivor of Explosion At Ukranian Catholic Church In Connecticut
A miracle?
No. Just a coincidence.
If there was to be a miracle, it would have been the survival of the reserved Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle (Ukranians do keep a reserved Sacrament, right?) near the source of the explosion, not a statue in a courtyard.
No. Just a coincidence.
If there was to be a miracle, it would have been the survival of the reserved Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle (Ukranians do keep a reserved Sacrament, right?) near the source of the explosion, not a statue in a courtyard.
Friday, September 10, 2004
With the Fall, Comes the Return of the High Mass To Holy Trinity
Boston's Holy Trinity will offer for one final season before it is closed, theTraditional Latin Masses at noon on Sundays. It has been Low Mass only during the summer (except for the Assumption).
Starting with the third Sunday in September, every third Sunday of the month will be a Solemn High Mass.
And Father Jim Tucker at Dappled Things gives us some excellent tips on getting the most out of the Traditional Latin Mass.
Starting with the third Sunday in September, every third Sunday of the month will be a Solemn High Mass.
And Father Jim Tucker at Dappled Things gives us some excellent tips on getting the most out of the Traditional Latin Mass.
Can Anyone Explain this Except Through the Prism of the Reflex of Liberal Feminist Nuns To Be, Well, Liberal Feminists, and Not Catholics?
CBS Caught Fabricating Anti-Bush Documents
Sure, you can trust the traditional media.
You can trust them to always slant a story against conservatives, to select stories that fit the liberal template, to side with the Democrats when the chips are down.
You can trust them to always slant a story against conservatives, to select stories that fit the liberal template, to side with the Democrats when the chips are down.
The Memory of September 11th
I think it is important that we never forget the profound peace that was shattered by murderous barbarians three years ago today. I first offered these recollections two years ago in stream-of-consciousness form.
I was in my study doing what I did every day, watching the news on the net and the radio. I had driven to an inner suburb to drop my wife off at her school, and had come back.
I don't remember if I noticed any planes taking off from Logan that morning. I probably didn't. They are more or less always up there. Both my wife's school and our home are on Logan's varied approach and take-off routes.
The first sketchy report that a plane had struck the World Trade Center came to me from WBZ News Radio, Boston, a little before 9:00 am. At first, I passed it off as a small plane and an accident. In November, 2001, we saw how little damage a small plane in Tampa did to an office tower. Probably not a big deal. My first thought was that it would send the equities markets lower.
The reports quickly become more disturbing. Four planes unaccounted for, jetliners, two from Logan. Reports (false) of car-bombs at the State Department. Military aircraft being scrambled. The Pentagon hit by a plane and on fire.
The second tower of the World Trade Center struck, no longer any possibility of an accident. We are now at war. Another Pearl Harbor.
Fox News is on TV. Then the second tower to be struck collapsed.
A knock at the door. A suspicious package was found in the alley behind our building, and the police wanted the building evacuated. It just seemed natural. It was only 5-10 minutes before the police verified that it was nothing.
The first tower to be struck collapsed.
It was to be a welcome-back-to-school night at my wife's school. Tried my wife's cell number. Since she keeps her cell phone turned off, I contented myself with talking to the school's secretary, who said that the back-to-school night was still on (it was cancelled later). That seemed to be enough confirmation that everything was OK there. A small Catholic school in the suburbs isn't much of a target, right? Still, I wish I could talk to her.
Back to the TV. Shots of people jumping out of the towers before they collapsed. Can't they get helicopters up to rescue them? People running away from the scene covered in dust. Fifty thousand people work there. Only a few thousand could possibly get out. Tens of thousands of people could be dead. Telling this to the cat while choking back tears. He is looking at me oddly, sensing something amiss, sitting o the floor with his tail tucked tightly under him.
A quick calculation. Two planes, loaded with jet fuel for cross-country flights; were the two explosions combined equal in force to the detonation of a nuke? Can't do the math. Depends on the nuke, I suppose.
Wonder if anyone I went to prep school, college, or law school with worked in the World Trade Center. Scenes of the Pentagon on fire. President Bush en route to an undisclosed location. A brief and unsatisfying word from Barksdale AFB. Financial markets closed. End of work for the day. No air traffic in the skies for days except fighter jets.
My wife got a chance to call during a free period. She saw the coverage in the faculty lounge. Seems calm enough for now. Why are there tears in my eyes? Capitol Hill and the White House evacuated. US Supreme Court not in session (not the first Monday in October yet). All of Washington on edge.
Every city in the country suddenly on a war footing.
One plane unaccounted for. Did I know anyone flying today? US Air Force fighters to shoot down the remaining plane once they catch it, and rightly so. All air traffic stopped. The last plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
In-laws checking in from Anchorage. Some worries about a plane there, otherwise all well. TV reporting cell phone calls from the planes and from the World Trade Center to 911 and to loved ones. Heart-breakingly sad. Barbara Olson.
Other buildings near the WTC might collapse. Manhattan locked down.
What about all those tanks full of aviation fuel, or heating oil, or whatever in Chelsea, Everett, Revere, etc.
Lists of names of the passengers scrutinized. Did the passengers on Flight 93 mutiny against the bastards? Good for them. Palestinians cheering the news. Make those baby-killing poxed maggots pay for that in blood later. Let the Isrealis do what they would really like to with them for a few weeks with no one doing anything to stop it, and no accounting afterwards.
Retrieved the car from the Common. Police everywhere. Security guards at the Museum pacing around out front. Picked up my wife and exchanged news and hugs. Police guarding the courthouse/registry complex.
The TV is back on. My wife hates the coverage. I'm glued to it. A lot more people than they thought got out of the WTC. Logan Airport a crime scene. All the cars parked there being towed away.
People looking for information about family members, friends, room mates. Not as many people in the hospital as you might think. Reporters in the rooms the hijackers were staying at in Florida, talking to their neighbors.
A cell operating in Boston. Al Qaeda and bin Laden. Afghanistan. Attending flight school and not being interested in landing procedures. Hijackers were Saudis and Egyptians (maybe, but who knows who they really were?).
Who knew about it in advance? Saddam Hussein? Khadafy? Arafat? China? Time to clean up the world neighborhood anyway. Time to put out the world's trash for good, at least until the next batch of trash starts to fester and stink. Guess we just became the world's policeman, like it or not.
The entire world is watching this. Chilling thought; this isn't like a battle where the number of injured exceeds the number dead by 4-6 to one. The people who didn't get out of the building are dead or dying. Intense fire. Hundreds of firemen and police among the dead.
A prayer service with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at Saint James that night, like the people streaming back to Church after the news of Pearl Harbor. Comforting, healing prayers in the presence of the Sacrament. An annoying reporter from some radio station with a mike in my face as we leave.
More phone calls and e-mails with my wife's family. Sleeping little. A possible cell staying at a hotel in Copley Square. Police and FBI outside the hotel room. How do you fight in Afghanistan with hostile powers all around it?
I don't think I've written in stream-of-consciousness since a high school exercise. I didn't intend to, or even realize I was, until I was a few paragraphs in. I'm not even sure if I did an historian's first job of getting the chronology right. I left it that way, because it seemed appropriate.
I haven't read any, but I'm sure hundreds have recounted their memories of the day in this format. Nihil Obstat can have a field day with the grammar of it.
Even though I didn't know anyone who died that day, I still choke up when I think of the enormity of the murderous rampage these people were able to inflict.
Everyone, especially on the East Coast, has memories like this stored up.
Never forget how the peace of this great nation was hacked at by barbarians who could not master the use of toilet paper.
It is three years ago now. Memory fades, other concerns step to the front. The war seems to be dragging on interminably, with troops being killed by the same barbarians in Afghanistan and Iraq on almost a daily basis (though we are killing 40-50 of the maggots for every brave soldier we lose).
And there are so many more fronts in this war that have not even been opened yet. But the war must be fought, and it must be won, and not just declared a victory and moved on from. We owe ourselves and our children and grandchildren the peace that only victory can bring.
We have a job to do in this election. Either we vote to "move on" and ignore the fact that there are still lots of Moslem fanatics, upset at the technical and cultural superiority of the West and the backwardness of their own mudpond religion, who are looking for an opportunity to kill us or convert us to false Islam, or we support the waging of implacable war until all our enemies are dead or so cowed that they will not dare raise their heads for a century or more.
God bless America!
Let's roll!
I was in my study doing what I did every day, watching the news on the net and the radio. I had driven to an inner suburb to drop my wife off at her school, and had come back.
I don't remember if I noticed any planes taking off from Logan that morning. I probably didn't. They are more or less always up there. Both my wife's school and our home are on Logan's varied approach and take-off routes.
The first sketchy report that a plane had struck the World Trade Center came to me from WBZ News Radio, Boston, a little before 9:00 am. At first, I passed it off as a small plane and an accident. In November, 2001, we saw how little damage a small plane in Tampa did to an office tower. Probably not a big deal. My first thought was that it would send the equities markets lower.
The reports quickly become more disturbing. Four planes unaccounted for, jetliners, two from Logan. Reports (false) of car-bombs at the State Department. Military aircraft being scrambled. The Pentagon hit by a plane and on fire.
The second tower of the World Trade Center struck, no longer any possibility of an accident. We are now at war. Another Pearl Harbor.
Fox News is on TV. Then the second tower to be struck collapsed.
A knock at the door. A suspicious package was found in the alley behind our building, and the police wanted the building evacuated. It just seemed natural. It was only 5-10 minutes before the police verified that it was nothing.
The first tower to be struck collapsed.
It was to be a welcome-back-to-school night at my wife's school. Tried my wife's cell number. Since she keeps her cell phone turned off, I contented myself with talking to the school's secretary, who said that the back-to-school night was still on (it was cancelled later). That seemed to be enough confirmation that everything was OK there. A small Catholic school in the suburbs isn't much of a target, right? Still, I wish I could talk to her.
Back to the TV. Shots of people jumping out of the towers before they collapsed. Can't they get helicopters up to rescue them? People running away from the scene covered in dust. Fifty thousand people work there. Only a few thousand could possibly get out. Tens of thousands of people could be dead. Telling this to the cat while choking back tears. He is looking at me oddly, sensing something amiss, sitting o the floor with his tail tucked tightly under him.
A quick calculation. Two planes, loaded with jet fuel for cross-country flights; were the two explosions combined equal in force to the detonation of a nuke? Can't do the math. Depends on the nuke, I suppose.
Wonder if anyone I went to prep school, college, or law school with worked in the World Trade Center. Scenes of the Pentagon on fire. President Bush en route to an undisclosed location. A brief and unsatisfying word from Barksdale AFB. Financial markets closed. End of work for the day. No air traffic in the skies for days except fighter jets.
My wife got a chance to call during a free period. She saw the coverage in the faculty lounge. Seems calm enough for now. Why are there tears in my eyes? Capitol Hill and the White House evacuated. US Supreme Court not in session (not the first Monday in October yet). All of Washington on edge.
Every city in the country suddenly on a war footing.
One plane unaccounted for. Did I know anyone flying today? US Air Force fighters to shoot down the remaining plane once they catch it, and rightly so. All air traffic stopped. The last plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
In-laws checking in from Anchorage. Some worries about a plane there, otherwise all well. TV reporting cell phone calls from the planes and from the World Trade Center to 911 and to loved ones. Heart-breakingly sad. Barbara Olson.
Other buildings near the WTC might collapse. Manhattan locked down.
What about all those tanks full of aviation fuel, or heating oil, or whatever in Chelsea, Everett, Revere, etc.
Lists of names of the passengers scrutinized. Did the passengers on Flight 93 mutiny against the bastards? Good for them. Palestinians cheering the news. Make those baby-killing poxed maggots pay for that in blood later. Let the Isrealis do what they would really like to with them for a few weeks with no one doing anything to stop it, and no accounting afterwards.
Retrieved the car from the Common. Police everywhere. Security guards at the Museum pacing around out front. Picked up my wife and exchanged news and hugs. Police guarding the courthouse/registry complex.
The TV is back on. My wife hates the coverage. I'm glued to it. A lot more people than they thought got out of the WTC. Logan Airport a crime scene. All the cars parked there being towed away.
People looking for information about family members, friends, room mates. Not as many people in the hospital as you might think. Reporters in the rooms the hijackers were staying at in Florida, talking to their neighbors.
A cell operating in Boston. Al Qaeda and bin Laden. Afghanistan. Attending flight school and not being interested in landing procedures. Hijackers were Saudis and Egyptians (maybe, but who knows who they really were?).
Who knew about it in advance? Saddam Hussein? Khadafy? Arafat? China? Time to clean up the world neighborhood anyway. Time to put out the world's trash for good, at least until the next batch of trash starts to fester and stink. Guess we just became the world's policeman, like it or not.
The entire world is watching this. Chilling thought; this isn't like a battle where the number of injured exceeds the number dead by 4-6 to one. The people who didn't get out of the building are dead or dying. Intense fire. Hundreds of firemen and police among the dead.
A prayer service with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at Saint James that night, like the people streaming back to Church after the news of Pearl Harbor. Comforting, healing prayers in the presence of the Sacrament. An annoying reporter from some radio station with a mike in my face as we leave.
More phone calls and e-mails with my wife's family. Sleeping little. A possible cell staying at a hotel in Copley Square. Police and FBI outside the hotel room. How do you fight in Afghanistan with hostile powers all around it?
I don't think I've written in stream-of-consciousness since a high school exercise. I didn't intend to, or even realize I was, until I was a few paragraphs in. I'm not even sure if I did an historian's first job of getting the chronology right. I left it that way, because it seemed appropriate.
I haven't read any, but I'm sure hundreds have recounted their memories of the day in this format. Nihil Obstat can have a field day with the grammar of it.
Even though I didn't know anyone who died that day, I still choke up when I think of the enormity of the murderous rampage these people were able to inflict.
Everyone, especially on the East Coast, has memories like this stored up.
Never forget how the peace of this great nation was hacked at by barbarians who could not master the use of toilet paper.
It is three years ago now. Memory fades, other concerns step to the front. The war seems to be dragging on interminably, with troops being killed by the same barbarians in Afghanistan and Iraq on almost a daily basis (though we are killing 40-50 of the maggots for every brave soldier we lose).
And there are so many more fronts in this war that have not even been opened yet. But the war must be fought, and it must be won, and not just declared a victory and moved on from. We owe ourselves and our children and grandchildren the peace that only victory can bring.
We have a job to do in this election. Either we vote to "move on" and ignore the fact that there are still lots of Moslem fanatics, upset at the technical and cultural superiority of the West and the backwardness of their own mudpond religion, who are looking for an opportunity to kill us or convert us to false Islam, or we support the waging of implacable war until all our enemies are dead or so cowed that they will not dare raise their heads for a century or more.
God bless America!
Let's roll!
Pats Won, BC Won, Sox Lost a Game On the Yankees
The Pats just beat the Colts 27-24 in their season opener at Foxborough.
BC won their first game last weekend, but face a tough Penn State this weekend.
The Sox, so hot of late, lost 7-1 in Seattle, while the Yankees won, dropping the Carmine Hose to 31/2 back in the AL East (they have the second best record in the American league still).
That is all anyone needs to know about sports.
BC won their first game last weekend, but face a tough Penn State this weekend.
The Sox, so hot of late, lost 7-1 in Seattle, while the Yankees won, dropping the Carmine Hose to 31/2 back in the AL East (they have the second best record in the American league still).
That is all anyone needs to know about sports.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Would Like To Know All That Was Said
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
We Have Suffered Our 1,000th Loss In Iraq
Mark Windsor at Vociferous Yawpings puts that number in perspective:
1,000 casualties in Iraq represents roughly –
- 1/4th the number of casualties from the American Revolution
- ½ the number of casualties sustained during the War of 1812
- 1/13th of those killed or injured in the war with Mexico
- 1/624th of the number killed in action during the Civil War
- 1/3000th of the number injured during the Civil War
- ½ the number of casualties in the Spanish / American War
- 1/116th of the total number of casualties from World War I
- 1/405th of the total number killed in action during World War II
- 1/36th of those lost in Korea
- 1/58th of those lost in Viet Nam
- 1/54th of the casualties lost between July 1 and July 4, 1863, at the battle of Gettysburg
- 1/4th of the casualties lost on December 7th, 1941 at Pearl Harbor
- 1/5th of the casualties on June 6th, 1944 at Normandy
- 1/3rd of the noncombatants lost on September 11th, 2001
Just to add a few Patton's Third Army lost some 250,00 total casualties between September 1 and December 15, 1944, mostly in the Alsace/Lorraine Campaign.
The Brits lost as many men in and around greater Boston between April 19, 1775 and March 17, 1776. And they lost.
We have lost less than a reinforced battalion in conquering a country with enormously valuable oil resources, and one of the best armed forces outside Europe. Actually, ion conquering it, we lost less than a reinforced company. We have lost less men in Iraq since we deposed the government and took over than we did in occupied Germany over the first 15 months after Germany surrendered.
1,000 casualties in Iraq represents roughly –
- 1/4th the number of casualties from the American Revolution
- ½ the number of casualties sustained during the War of 1812
- 1/13th of those killed or injured in the war with Mexico
- 1/624th of the number killed in action during the Civil War
- 1/3000th of the number injured during the Civil War
- ½ the number of casualties in the Spanish / American War
- 1/116th of the total number of casualties from World War I
- 1/405th of the total number killed in action during World War II
- 1/36th of those lost in Korea
- 1/58th of those lost in Viet Nam
- 1/54th of the casualties lost between July 1 and July 4, 1863, at the battle of Gettysburg
- 1/4th of the casualties lost on December 7th, 1941 at Pearl Harbor
- 1/5th of the casualties on June 6th, 1944 at Normandy
- 1/3rd of the noncombatants lost on September 11th, 2001
Just to add a few Patton's Third Army lost some 250,00 total casualties between September 1 and December 15, 1944, mostly in the Alsace/Lorraine Campaign.
The Brits lost as many men in and around greater Boston between April 19, 1775 and March 17, 1776. And they lost.
We have lost less than a reinforced battalion in conquering a country with enormously valuable oil resources, and one of the best armed forces outside Europe. Actually, ion conquering it, we lost less than a reinforced company. We have lost less men in Iraq since we deposed the government and took over than we did in occupied Germany over the first 15 months after Germany surrendered.
The Memorare
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with with confidence, I fly to thee, O virgin of virgins, my Mother. To thee I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy, hear and intercede for me.
Amen.
Amen.
Saint Augustine On the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
From one of St. Augustine's sermons:
The hoped-for day of the blessed and venerable Mary ever a Virgin has now come; therefore let our earth rejoice with great gladness, illuminated by the birth of so great a Virgin. For she is the flower of the field from which came forth the priceless lily of the valley; by her child-bearing the nature inherited from our first parents is changed, their fault wiped out. In her that sentence passed on Eve was remitted which said, "In sorrow shall you bring forth children," for Mary brought forth the Lord in joy.
Eve sorrowed, but Mary exulted; Eve carried weeping in her womb, but Mary carried joy, for Eve brought forth a sinner, but Mary innocence itself. The mother of our race brought punishment into the world, but the Mother of our Lord brought salvation into the world. Eve was the source of sin, Mary the source of merit. Eve by was a hindrance, Mary by giving life was a help. Eve wounded, Mary healed. Obedience takes the place of disobedience, faith makes up for faithlessness.
Mary may now play on her instruments, the Mother strike the cymbals with swift fingers. The joyful choruses may sound out and songs alternate with sweet harmonies. Hear, then, how she sings, she who leads our chorus. For she say, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid; for, behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed; because He who is mighty has done great things for me." And so the miraculous new birth takes away the cause of our increasing burden of sin, and Mary's song puts an end to the weeping of Eve.
Found via the Confraternity of Penitents
The hoped-for day of the blessed and venerable Mary ever a Virgin has now come; therefore let our earth rejoice with great gladness, illuminated by the birth of so great a Virgin. For she is the flower of the field from which came forth the priceless lily of the valley; by her child-bearing the nature inherited from our first parents is changed, their fault wiped out. In her that sentence passed on Eve was remitted which said, "In sorrow shall you bring forth children," for Mary brought forth the Lord in joy.
Eve sorrowed, but Mary exulted; Eve carried weeping in her womb, but Mary carried joy, for Eve brought forth a sinner, but Mary innocence itself. The mother of our race brought punishment into the world, but the Mother of our Lord brought salvation into the world. Eve was the source of sin, Mary the source of merit. Eve by was a hindrance, Mary by giving life was a help. Eve wounded, Mary healed. Obedience takes the place of disobedience, faith makes up for faithlessness.
Mary may now play on her instruments, the Mother strike the cymbals with swift fingers. The joyful choruses may sound out and songs alternate with sweet harmonies. Hear, then, how she sings, she who leads our chorus. For she say, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid; for, behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed; because He who is mighty has done great things for me." And so the miraculous new birth takes away the cause of our increasing burden of sin, and Mary's song puts an end to the weeping of Eve.
Found via the Confraternity of Penitents
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
What A Surprise!
It seems that liberals disliked Zell Miller's excellent speech at the RNC last week.
Thought it was fine, myself. And so did President George Herbert Walker Bush.
Thought it was fine, myself. And so did President George Herbert Walker Bush.
Eve of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Blessed John Duckett
