New Front in Church's Civil War

This is about as surprising as the sun rising in the East.

Responsible parenthood can obligate a married couple to use artificial birth control, a recently appointed member of the Pontifical Academy for Life has argued, basing his theory on Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia.

Italian moral theologian Father Maurizio Chiodi said at a December 14 public lecture at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome that there are “circumstances — I refer to Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 8 — that precisely for the sake of responsibility, require contraception.”...

Want that boiled down?  OK.  "THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS."

That's what he said, and that's what he means; and he takes his cue and justification from Pp. Francis' increasingly-embattled Amoris Laetitia.

Somehow, and soon, AL will be used to justify queer "marriage."  

So Last Year: (D) Elections-Commissar Rants

Oh, boy.  A commissioner (commissar) calls names.

The head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission called the leader of the state Senate a coward..

Oh huh.  I have some issues with Fitzgerald, too.  But not on this matter.  Fitzgerald wants to dis-employ a couple of the slimebuckets who worked on the old Gov't Accountability Board.  You remember that outfit:  it ran a political persecution racket including predawn armed raids, etc.  Just like old Joe Stalin's boyzzzz.

Not by coincidence, the Democrat Commissar rants:

 "Today, (Haas) has the unanimous support of the commission that he should be driving this bus for the 2018 election at a time when we know the Russian government is going to be there to try to interfere with our elections," Thomsen said....

You "KNOW" that, Thomsen?  How?  Did Vlad tell you that?  Was it in code?  Have you told Herr Mueller about your knowledge?  Did you get this information from a drunken aide to the President while he was at the Top of the Park?  Or just some drunk (D) Leggie?

Get rid of all these ticks.

McConnell, the Continuing Failure

PowerLine has a very dispiriting essay which points out that McConnell remains a failure--and a spectacular one--in his 'leadership' of the Senate Republicans.

EPA, CFPB Employees Go All Teenaged Brat

It seems that Government employees are misusing Government-provided cellphones.

Over a dozen Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees have downloaded encrypted messaging applications on government-issued phones and are potentially violating federal law,...

Same crap happened at EPA earlier.

This is right out of the Junior High School Girls' Club, which one expects at these two agencies (and which has emerged at FBI and IRS.)

So tell me: why does the taxpayer fund these cell-phones?  Don't the land-lines work in the ultra-plush offices?  And by the way, isn't it about time for another 50% reduction in the CFPB and EPA "work"forces?

Pp. Francis Goes Silly Jesuit

While the current Pope has written or spoken a number of things which are controversial--even borderline heretical--he also has a silly side.  And he proved it yesterday.

Pope Francis took a strong stand on anthropogenic climate change Monday, telling a gathering of diplomats in the Vatican that global warming is a result of human action.

We must not “downplay the importance of our own responsibility in interaction with nature,” Francis told the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See. “Climate changes, with the global rise in temperatures and their devastating effects, are also a consequence of human activity.”...

Not a 'global fall'--which was in progress until the 1970's or so?  Are the effects 'devastating'?  How do you know with Biblical certitude the post hoc/propter hoc assertion you just made?

Silly Jesuit. 

Not Too Saggy, No Wrinkles, Either!

She's really past the "harass me" age.  And she's stupid enough to show it.

These are the Morality Lecturers, eh?

WAR!! Dr. K. v. Z-Priest

Get the popcorn.

....it seems to me that people come at liturgical law and rubrics from one of two positions:

1. The Kantian: “Say the Black, Do the Red.” No more and no less.

2. The Aristotelian: “Say the Black, Do the Red, in accord with the requirements of liturgy and the pattern of tradition.”...

Prof. K. likes the Aristotelian.  Z-priest has several hundred "Say....Do..." mugs which will be worthless in the event that Prof. K. wins the throw-down.

Heh.

"Popular Catholicism" and Its Proponents; The Church's Civil War Grows

There's something out there called "popular Catholicism" (or 'popular theology').

...Pope Francis recently affirmed the importance of what he called a “free and responsible” form of Catholic theology—a “creative fidelity”—in the life of the Church. Speaking before a Vatican gathering of 100 members of the Italian Theological Association last month, Pope Francis advised the theologians to remain “anchored” to the teachings of Vatican II, by “proclaiming the Gospel in a new way” to a rapidly changing world....

OK, so?

...From the first days of his pontificate, Pope Francis has privileged a form of “Popular Catholicism” that prioritizes the insights, the beliefs, and the practices that emerge from the people themselves. The word “popular” does not refer to “prevalent,” rather, it refers to the religious practices and beliefs that emerge from the people themselves—not the priests. Emphasizing the contextual nature of all theological reflection, “Popular Catholicism” maintains that theology must always be cultural and historical....

 Oh.  Sorta like Calvinism being Swiss and Anglican being English.  Because theology cannot be just "Catholic", oh no oh no.

[Beginning in South America] ...Popular Catholicism was originally a symbol of freedom—a rejection of the colonial dominance of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain. A leader of this movement has been theologian Orlando Espin, a professor of religious studies at the University of San Diego...

Well, a full Professor at a Catholic College!!   What could go wrong??

...Highly respected by left-leaning national and international theologians, Espin was awarded the highest honor last year from the Catholic Theological Society of America—the world’s largest professional society of Catholic theologians. Receiving the John Courtney Murray Award for his “lifetime of distinguished theological achievement,” Espin, a priest of the Orlando diocese who no longer appears to function as a priest, and is currently married to his same-sex partner, thanked his “husband,” Ricardo Gallego, during his acceptance speech....

Oh, yah.  THAT could go wrong.

Well, certainly, with Pp. Francis and the CTSA award-winner being proponents, there can be no opponents of any merit, right?

....Both Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict had spoken harshly about the dangers of a Church that was “born of the people.” Pope St. John Paul II gave a stern rebuke to the Latino theologians in 1983—publishing a letter to the Nicaraguan bishops denouncing the “people’s church” in especially harsh terms. In a speech that was reported on the pages of The New York Times on March 5, 1983, the pontiff predicted that “The Church born of the people is a new invention that is both absurd and of perilous character … only with difficulty, could it avoid being infiltrated by strangely ideological connotations.” In 1984, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger offered An Instruction On Certain Aspects of the Theology of Liberation in which he warned about the dangers of the “diverse theological positions,” and the “badly defined doctrinal frontiers” of this movement.....

Ummmnnhhhnnn.  Oh.   OK, so, how could this possibly happen?

...The confusion in the Latin Church today results, at least in part, from the importation of the antinomian culture of the 1960s into the very sanctuary, in the form of an open-ended liturgy with options, inculturations, adaptations, and a vastly impoverished code of rubrics. Whatever may be its social merits or demerits, antinomianism is an unsustainable liturgical philosophy.....

Or, looking at the same problem (the liturgy) with slightly different lenses, you have Cdl. Burke:  

...Burke remarked on December 15 that the liturgy was damaged after Second Vatican Council by anthropocentrism, a concept of the liturgy not as a gift of God to us but as a creation or invention of our own.....

These “harmful experiments” have entered into the liturgy, along with a very worldly vision of the liturgical action “that is antithetical to the liturgy and extremely harmful.”

Antinomianism doesn't work well in theology, either, people.

Pray.  Oremus.  Pray. Semper Oremus.

With "Protection" Like This.....

Fauxcahontas is the principal adorer of this outfit.

No wonder.  It's a fraud, just like her.

Renovation costs for the brand new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters have skyrocketed, posting 25 percent in cost overruns — significantly above the original budget set by the General Services Administration, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.

Original cost estimates for the CFPB’s renovation were estimated at $55 million, but the bureau ran up the proposed cost to $216 million....

These assholes better be careful or they will replace EPA and Dept of Ed as the most-hated Federal agency.  

Not that they care what the Deplorables think......

You Know It's a Long Line...

You know it's a long line at the car-wash when you can hear Strauss' Til Eulenspiegel AND two of the Four Last Songs while you wait.

And by the way--the difference between the Madison Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony is pronounced.  No wonder old Phone-It-In commuted from Madison to take the Milwaukee job.

Here's a Warning Flare

You can bet that every dairy farmer in the US has this pasted to their refrigerators--and most of them are importuning their Congress-slime about "Amnesty" or "Guest Workers".

A Michigan dairy farmer is to spend a couple of years in federal prison and owes a six-figure fine for hiring undocumented immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington on Thursday, Jan. 4, sentenced Denis Burke to two years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. Ludington did not order Burke taken into custody on Thursday, but gave him time to self-report to the U.S. Marshals Services.

The judge also ordered Burke to pay a fine of $187,500 and an assessment fee of $100....--quoted at Ticker

Don't feel sorry for the guy, except that as Ticker remarks, there's always Smithfield and Purdue if DoJ is actually looking for targets.

Fauxcahontas Fail: Gun Sale Myth

Not only is Fauxcahontas a money-grubbing racist opportunist, she's also a complete failure when attempting to prove a lie.  (Most Democrats simply assert lies, but are not stupid enough to attempt to prove them.)

In yet another embarrassment for the gun control lobby, a government investigation of online gun sales designed to determine “whether private sellers would knowingly sell a firearm to an individual prohibited from possessing one” determined that … no, actually, they would not. In 72 attempts undertaken over 2 ½ years, undercover agents trying to buy guns through readily-accessible Internet sites failed exactly 100% of the time to complete a sale when the seller had reason to believe the buyer was prohibited or lived in another state....

[The study] was commissioned by three staunchly anti-gun members of Congress. Leading the charge was Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, who was joined by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

---NRA/ILA via HotAir.

Oh, well.  She still has the Consumer "Protection" racketeering thing going at the Fed Reserve--for the time being.

Earmarks! Mother's Milk for Swamp Creatures

Sure enough, they're thinking of bringing back earmarks.

Ryan, to his eternal credit, nixed that gambit in 2016.  But the Urge to Spend Money is nearly as strong as the Urge to Procreate (or whatever) in Congressional offices....

....But here’s the conundrum in the upcoming earmark debate: what some constituents and lawmakers view as crucial is seen by others as a boondoggle.

The Constitution clearly asserts it’s up to Congress to direct federal spending. That lack of focus means unnamed federal bureaucrats at agencies decide how to spend taxpayer dollars instead of elected representatives.

Ask voters if they want invisible bureaucrats calling the shots -- or their members of Congress....

How about this idea:  STOP THE SPENDING!   Buy guns and ammo for the Pentagon, fund the USPO, and go home.

Economy in Uptick?

While the editorialist here is concerned with inflation (rightly so), there's another story:  economic growth.  Note Copper, which is the "old farts' indicator" is on a tear.

How long it lasts is another thing, of course...and this is worldwide, not just US. 

Also noteworthy is the editorialist's concern over interest rates.  If they start moving up faster, US bonds and notes (and bills) will be paying more in interest.  That's OK until the US has to re-write its budget to pay the interest.  Then things could get ugly.

Hmmmm.

"St." Comey, a Profile in Cowardice

Andrew McCarthy hits it right on the button here.

....in April 2016, when the Clinton-emails investigation was in full swing but before it was anywhere close to completion, President Obama gave a nationally televised interview in which he made clear that he did not want criminal charges brought against his former secretary of state — and the already certain Democratic candidate to succeed him. Obama made two duplicitous points: Mrs. Clinton (1) had exhibited “carelessness,” but nothing worse, by using a private, non-secure email system to conduct State Department business, and (2) had not intended to endanger American national security when she stored and transmitted classified information on this system.

The FBI has taken the heat because it ultimately applied these disingenuous guidelines publicly and without apology. But it was the political leadership of the executive branch that called the tune — which seems like news only because the media’s revulsion over presidential attempts to influence criminal investigations would await Donald Trump’s inauguration....

Well, yes--Obama, the Alinskyite/Marxist 'called the tune.'  But his FBI Director licked his boot and did the wrong thing, becoming a Profile in Cowardice. 

That's not how one obtains sainthood.

Only When Congress Meets??

Grabbed from the headlines:

...Wednesday the Washington Post reported that the number of complaints about rats is up sharply in Washington, DC...--from HotAir

Look for concentrations near K Street and large law offices.  Check for synchronicity of Congressional sessions.

Yup. She's a Cat Lady

"Sr." Jeanine Gramick, notorious queer advocate, is a cat lady.

This is an insult to cat ladies, by the way, who are generally harmless if a bit odd.

Just Shout "FLUSH!!"

Mr. Crapper never imagined this.  (Go ahead, look up 'water closet' and 'Crapper'.)

Kohler has introduced a new line of products called Kohler Konnect that enables consumers to automate everyday tasks in the kitchen and bathroom. 

According to a press release, the new platform offers a personalized experience with the products via app presets, motion control and voice-command. ...

Of course, we know that Bluetooth and Alexa have large security holes.  You could come home to find all sorts of interesting activities going on in your kitchen and bath.  Or find that the NSA is monitoring your water usage.

To be clear:

Dope-Smoker Warns Trump. Oh, My.

Some guy who draws funny pictures likes the weed--and therefore, doesn't like Trump.

Now there's a national crisis, eh?

Once Again With Feeling: TEXT MATTERS!!

When one is closely involved in church music--as we have been for decades--the priority of the TEXT is unquestionable.  Then-Cardinal Ratzinger made the point eloquently and forcefully in his 1988 lecture in Vienna, likening the music to the 'enfleshment' of the text-bones.  Most telling is his deliberate play on "Word"/'word'.  Think about that.

Another way to understand it is this:  the music (merely) illuminates the text.

This is what sets Chant and much of polyphony apart from hymns.  Hymns have great melody, and for the first verse, the melody often "illuminates" the text.  But in the second, third, fourth verses?  Not so much.

Anyhow, back in the early 1900's another guy--an Anglican--said the same thing.  This should not come as a surprise, unless you don't understand church music at all.

...12. DON’T be satisfied with merely a correct rendering of the pointed psalter, but aim at an intelligent rendering of the psalms…put the words first, and let the chant—whether plainsong or anglican—be your humble and obedient servant, not your master…

13. DON’T be too fond of the double chant; singles are usually preferable. What more destroys the rhythm of a psalm or canticle than the repetition of the second part?...we must bear in mind that in all church music WORDS matter most. The Church does not exist for choirs, but choirs for the church…

52. DON’T forget that rhythm is the soul of music...The three fundamental principles of rhythm are: (1) Accent, (2) Time, (3) Grouping. And now to acquire rhythmical singing—first of all sing less music that has been built in brick-wall fashion, and sing more “free” music of the Palestrina school, sing also Missa de Angelis and Merbecke, above all sing Plainsong.

And to sing modern music rhythmically—(1) think less of strong, weak, medium, weak, in quadruple time, and let the words bear their right accent: (2) try not to see the bar-lines, forget their existence as much as possible: (3) observe and mark the balance of the sentences, catch the antiphonal spirit…

But I can show-and-tell at least two area parishes whose music programs are run by multi-degreed people that have never learned this.  Or at least, they don't act like it. 

Sad, ain'a??