I’d hate to engage in stereotypes (ok, no I don’t) but when you first heard that six West Virginians brutally assaulted a young woman in a trailer, isn’t this EXACTLY how you pictured them?

It’s straight out of central casting…

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Away for a few days and, as the six goons above would say, posts’ll be rare as hens teeth. (Although I’d wager that hens have significantly more teeth than the lady in the lower right hand corner)

I’ll be spending Friday, September 14th at Fenway Park watching the Red Sox beat the Yankees while, hopefully, destroying any remaining post-season pretensions that Yankee fans may still possess.

On the Ecclesiastical calendar, September 14th is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and it is the day that Pope Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum  — on the use of the Traditional Latin Mass — takes effect.  From that date onward, the old Latin Mass will be “liberated” from forty years of relative obscurity.

For those of you with an interest in Latin, Gregorian Chant, or liturgy, the Catholic cable network EWTN will be broadcasting a live Solemn High Mass according to the old rite at 8:00 AM (EDT) on Friday morning. (To be re-aired at 6:00 PM and 12:00 AM)

You can download and print a Latin-English booklet Missal for this specific Mass here. (N.B. the document also includes explanatory notes for those unfamiliar with the rite.)

Anyone watching should clearly be remembering Red Sox post season hopes in their prayers…

by way of Tennessee!

My name is Steve and I am a package-tracker…

Whenever I’m expecting something from FedEx or UPS I track it incessantly! (It’s a disease) I am transfixed by the technology and I must have (at least) twice hourly updates on the parcel’s progress.

So when a package was dispatched from New Hampshire yesterday afternoon, a dedicated browser window was immediately established to track the package several times an hour as it made its way through Massachusetts to my home.

Imagine my surprise this morning when I saw the circuitous route my little parcel of love took to reach its ultimate destination:
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Had this been the USPS at work — rather than FedEx — this post would have been dedicated to bashing government inefficiency. But if a private company chooses to route a package going from New Hampshire to Connecticut through Tennessee then so be it. It must make sense…

By the way, for package-tracker wannabes FedEx is, hands down, the best in terms of frequent updates. Not surprisingly, the worst system, in that regard, is the United States Post Office.

There, I was able to work in a government slam after all!

(p.s. Yankees Suck)

Ok, then, I’ll say it.

Larry Craig is a disgusting little pervert who has forfeited his right to hold high office.

There.

Anyone who trolls filthy public restrooms for anonymous sexual encounters with strangers deserves a bed in a mental institution – not a seat in the United States Senate.

I know it’s unfashionable to speak of homosexual behavior as a psychological issue but if sex in a filth ridden public mens’ room – with all of the attendant sights and smells — gets you off then you need professional help now. (My advice would be to seek out spiritual counseling with an exorcist but, hey, I’d even be happy if you saw a shrink.)

Here’s bathroom sex apologist , Andrew Sullivan, on Larry C:

Yes, he deserves criticism for poor judgment, for trying to use his position to get out of a sticky situation, for opposing gay equality and dignity, while being gay himself. But this was a victimless incident, in which no one tried to harm anyone else; and he also needs support and help and compassion.

To Mr Sullivan this is, disturbingly, a victimless incident. It’s an indication of how far this country has fallen when a gay activist describes the public betrayal of a wife of four decades as a victimless incident.

And what of Craig’s children and family who have been thoroughly humiliated by a 63 year old man with the maturity of a grapefruit and the sexual proclivities of an alley cat? Are they victims?

Larry Craig’s family deserves — in Sullivan’s words — our support and help and compassion. Larry Craig deserves intensive inpatient care at his friendly neighborhood psych ward…

Part the First: Our German Shepherd

The Pope looks good.  You would think that an 80 year old man with crushing responsibilities would be hobbled and drawn two years into his pontificate, but Pope Benedict looks surprisingly well.

A full head of hair, an unlined face, and a certain aura of serenity seem to suggest that Poping agrees with this man.

Ad Multos Annos!

Part the Second: Freedom

My friend Chris beamed me over a September 2003 article by [Farmer] Joel Salatin entitled, “Everything I Want to Do is Illegal”.  Salatin bemoans the fact that government now intrudes into every facet of his life.

In part, it reads:

Any power tool — including a cordless screwdriver — cannot be operated by people under the age of 18. We have lots of requests from folks wanting to come as interns, but what do we call them? The government has no category for interns or neighbor young people who just want to learn and help out.

We’d love to employ all the neighboring young people. To our child-awning and worshiping culture, the only appropriate child activity is recreation, sitting in a desk, or watching TV. That’s it. That’s the extent of what children are good for. Anything else is abusive and risky.

Then we wonder why these kids grow up unmotivated and bored with life. Our local newspaper is full of articles and letters to the editor lamenting the lack of things for young people to do. Let me suggest a few things: digging postholes and building a fence, weeding the garden, planting some tomatoes, splitting some wood, feeding the chickens, washing eggs, pruning grapevines, milking the cow, building a compost pile, growing some earthworms.

[snip]

The government has no pigeonhole for this: “I’m a 17-year-old home-schooler, and I want to learn how to farm. Could I come and have you mentor me for a year?”

What is this relationship? A student? An employee? If I pay a stipend, the government says he’s an employee. If I don’t pay, the Fair Labor Standards board says it’s slavery, which is illegal.

Read the rest here.

Part the Third: Apologies

Just before I went away, Vache Folle tagged me with a meme that went unnoticed until my return.   I extend my sincerest apologies for my breach of blog etiquette and promise to respond promptly to all future tags.

Spent a few days at the beach and while I’d intended to blog from the shore, it just never happened. One look at the ocean and this blog was the farthest thing from my mind.

Now it’s back to the salt mines.

I try to keep Sunday postings inclined towards the spiritual as much as possible. These guys may look like a mid-90s Seattle garage band but wait until you hear what they can do with Palestrina’s Adoramus Te, Christe (We adore Thee, O Christ)

I thought they might be a Catholic schola/choir but, from what I can tell the Farther Along Octet hails from Goshen College – an institution in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. I wish they’d convert…

Here they are performing Palestrina’s Sanctus:

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HT: Jeff Tucker at the New Liturgical Movement

In 2006, five year old Mariya was unfortunate enough to be in a nearby vehicle when the Israelis launched a missile attack on the car of an Islamic Jihad activist.

Mariya was left paralyzed from the neck down and her mother, brother, grandmother, and uncle were killed instantly.

Since sustaining her injuries, the Israeli Ministry of Defense has paid for her care in a Jerusalem hospital (Bravo!) but now they’ve decided to end her care and ship her off to a pathetically inadequate West Bank hospital that lacks the ability to address her intensive needs (not so bravo).

Her father, Hamdi Aman, has brought an action in the Israeli Supreme Court asking that her care be continued in the specialized childrens’ hospital in Jerusalem. Said Mr. Haman, “I’m not asking for compensation for my dead son – I’m asking that my daughter be kept alive.”

Very moving sentiment but it can’t hold a candle to this:

She has also learned to chatter away in fluent Hebrew to her dedicated Israeli therapists. “I have always avoided telling Mariya who aimed that missile at us,” says Aman. “How can I explain that the people who hurt us are the same people who are helping us now?”

Israeli law holds the state immune from responsibility in these situations and, as a matter of law, I’m willing to stipulate that the Ministry of Defense has no obligation to continue caring for this poor child. As a moral matter, however, they have every responsibility to provide the best possible care for this broken little girl who lost her mother and brother in the same attack that left her paralyzed. The glory of Judaism is its emphasis on justice and I hope the Supreme Court acts accordingly.

Should the court rule against Mr. Hamdi, I say we bring the family to America. (Maybe we can deduct the cost of her care from the fat check that we send to the Israeli Ministry of Defense) After all, our tax dollars supplied the weapons used in the attack and, as such, we bear some moral culpability in this tragic episode. (The real reason that they hate us)

If you’re one of those bible toting, venom spewing people who worship the Prince of Peace while simultaneously advocating endless war, you don’t have to look at this as an act of mercy for a five year old Muslim child. Think of it instead as a good PR move for the USA (a.k.a. Zion, the Promised Land, the New Jerusalem, or whatever the hell you call America on Sunday mornings) and a stroke of political genius for the GOP.

Our magnanimity in helping a little terrorissss will earn us kudos from abroad while the Bush Administration brings democracy to the Middle East one family at a time…

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Read the entire article in the current issue of Newsweek

You get eMail from Richard Viguerie

When you’re the dean of conservative fund raisers you know how to get it done…

…but there’s a bear in the woods.

First the Kremlin sponsors procreation camps to encourage Russian youth to breed for the Motherland. The same Russian youth who are starting to believe that Stalin may not have been so bad after all.

I can live with that. Negative population growth gives leaders the jitters and a bleak economic outlook might spark some xenophobia and nostalgia here and there, but THIS worries me:

RAF fighter jets were sent to intercept a Russian bomber which was heading towards British air space over the North Atlantic, it emerged this evening.

	Eurofighter intercepts the bomber

Two Typhoons were sent from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire to meet the Bear-H aircraft after the early warning radar system detected it heading towards UK territory, according to the Ministry of Defence.

It is the first time the Typhoon Eurofighters have been scrambled since they took on operational duties on June 29.

No more details have been released about the incident, which took place last week, but it is bound to heighten tensions after a number of assertive acts by Moscow.

Iraq’s a quagmire; Cheney wants to bomb Iran; China’s rising; energy prices are soaring; and now Russia’s on the move.

Two words: BUY GOLD