Dean Stockwell, Rest in Peace.

The superb supporting actor has passed away at 85. 

An underrated and versatile talent, and one who will be very much missed. 

May the Lord rest his soul. 

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

It is impossible to escape the memory hole resonances wafting off the Party in power in Rome.

Or, to be candid, the Church in general.

Gaslighting for everyone!

Consummate company man Rev. Arthur Roche asserts that popes have the power to abolish the liturgy, demonstrating his loyalty to the chap who promoted him to ultimate curial power.

He also says that the church has a new ecclesiology after The Polestar Council, and the worship offered during The Polestar Council is contrary to it. 

A more cynical fellow might think that continuity with the Tradition of the Church is open to serious question here.

Despite the previous pontiff stating the precise opposite, in closely-reasoned detail, just fourteen years ago. As the Reverend Roche is acutely aware. 

The bigger question is this: given their clearly-contingent nature, subject to revision at the whim of those in power, why would any sane human being accept any edict from Rome?

I'm not talking about Papa Krishna folks who conflate reigning popes with the Holy Spirit, unblinking, misguided clericalists who value exercises of power over reason.

No, I'm talking about people who still value reason over exercises of power. 

Why should I listen to authorities who reject any authority save themselves?

Their eagerness to shred tradition, custom and precedent leaves them with only the appeal to their own power and the will to exercise it.

Miguel de Unamuno was a Spanish philosopher and novelist who is very hard to categorize. I am morally certain he would be delighted to hear that assessment. I will have a post about this most Spanish of philosophers once I finish his vexing and intriguing Tragic Sense of Life.

Near the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, on October 12, 1936, he engaged in a debate with Millan Astray, an officer in the Spanish Legion, at the University of Salamanca regarding the War. In a quote attributed to him (1), he castigated the notion of might making right in no uncertain terms:

You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right.

And so it is here: they have the power, and that will suffice for their purposes.

But that does not mean anyone has to accept such exercises.

Footnote (1): That Unamuno said the words attributed to him is subject to serious historical question. The earliest record of these words was after the War, and Spanish researchers have recently raised doubts as to their provenance.

 

 
 

The Holy Ghost never gaslights.

 

Amy Welborn has been publishing regular essays about how the trope of "the spirit is doing a new thing!" is frequently an exercise in both political power-grabs and weaponized, spiritual bullying. 

It has been exceptionally worthwhile, and the latest installment is here.

In her latest post, she emphasizes that, despite all of the cooing moderns do into the mirror, we are fundamentally the same people as those who traversed this vale of tears before we were literally pushed into the light of day. 

We are so different, it seems. Our lives are radically different.

Aren’t they?

Yes? No?

I maintain, fundamentally, no. Fundamentally. Of course our external circumstances impact us profoundly. I’ve long believed that widespread relative prosperity and mobility have had a deep impact on the way that human beings understand themselves and the spiritual journey. Carl Trueman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self takes on these changes from a different perspective, and I largely agree with his assessment. Me, sitting here in Alabama, knowing that if I wanted to spend the money, could get on a plane and fly across the country – and then be back home tomorrow and can instantly communicate with friends around the world – is a life quite different from the woman of the past who might never have left her own village.

So yes! The externals have changed, the framework has changed, the assumptions have shifted.

But

Also no.

And that no is the reason we can read two-hundred year old novels, four-hundred year old philosophical works, eight-hundred year old plays and three-thousand year old epics and still see ourselves.

It is a shock to the system, really, the first time a young person reads the first book of Augustine’s Confessions and sees such a wildly familiar landscape, even in the strangeness of it all: she sees parents who don’t understand, parents who don’t get along, career expectations, temptations succumbed to for unknown reasons, other temptations succumbed to that leave one empty in the end, ways to waste time, education that becomes less vital the more it’s required, and of course, questions. Question after question after question. 

* * *

I have written before that as a teacher – both in the classroom, at home, and in my writing – I have long taken it as my responsibility – and great pleasure, in fact – to help students and readers dig through the initial strangeness of history, of literature, of theology and spiritual writing, of the lives of the saints, and indeed, of Scripture itself – to understand what is essentially and even eternally true there and to see that the questions posed in these works and traditions are, indeed, the same questions they grapple with. They are not alone. They are not the first to wonder. Which should, indeed, come as a tremendous relief, and a moment of yes, communion across space and time.

So the question – yet another question – remains, stubbornly. And I would pose it regularly, if I could, in person.

Why is it permissible to reflect on and benefit from the wisdom, truth and beauty in every corner of the history of the People of God and even outside of its boundaries – except in the ancient liturgical prayer of the Church, actually being prayed?

Emphasis in original.

As I said at the beginning, it is part of a recurring series, so work your way back through her blog posts on the topic--starting with this one. 

Her thinking through of the issues should be compared to the most recent corporate bishop-speak on Why We Must Flush All Of That. For example, take the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, Blase Cupich. In a blog post at Pray Tell, he explains why we all must move on, get with the Vatican II paradigm shift, embrace the break with the past and obey his pope-given pastoral authority.

Which will sound more like "authoritah" when he tosses the Latin Mass-goers out on their arses in a few months. 

He'll probably let that type have Christmas. Probably.

But this is the same guy who literally locked the FSSP out of their parish during Holy Week in 2002, so...don't bet more than your couch cushion change on it.

In return, he "may" (his word) let you have some of that equally-outdated chant crap, bits of dead language or even an additional minute or so of silence. This last most likely carefully dispersed throughout the service so as not to offend the Chief Liturgist of Chicago. If you're not bustling about like Martha, you're doing it wrong.

Of course, any parishes that do so with the Latin, etc., will be watched with the hairiest sets of eyeballs in the Windy City when they so do.

The Archbishop being who he is, he can't help but say something fatuous even as he drops heavy-handed "pastoral" thunderstorm warnings.

A second guiding principle the pope addresses in TC is that there has to be a solid unequivocal recognition on the part of all Catholics that the Second Vatican Council and its reforms are not only an authentic action of the Holy Spirit but also are in continuity with the Tradition of the Church.

Emphasis in original.

How about "no"? And "wrong"? 

Throughout history, the Holy Ghost has only guaranteed that the collected batches of mitred men and their clerical advisers gathered at ecumenical councils--who have run the gamut from capital-s Saints to perverts and heretics--will not irretrievably screw things up. 

More to the point, He certainly does not guarantee that, post-council, a much smaller group of men appointed by the pope, also running from saintly to godawful, will correctly synthesize what that larger group may or may not have wanted.

What He did guarantee is that what Catholics receive from their altar (or whatever else it might be called these days) continues to be the Eucharistic Christ--Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.

Because, really--it takes about five minutes of research to discover that what the Smaller Group of Guys produced wasn't really what was expected. For example, all vernacular, all the time! wasn't the idea, according to one of the liturgical periti writing as the Council was in session:

It is noteworthy that this question was the most discussed in all the debate on the liturgy. Eighty-one speakers were heard. Their opinions take up more than 100 solid pages. Three tendencies were manifested: 

Some wanted no concessions to the vernacular; some wanted permission to say everything in the vernacular for all who want it; some wanted to maintain the basic principle of Latin, but also to open the door noticeably to the vernacular tongue. The majority were of this middle view, which was that followed by the schema. 

Thus the way of prudence and of apostolic boldness were amicably united. The Second Vatican Council, officially introducing bilingualism into the life of the Latin liturgy, takes a memorable stride in history.

So much for "what the Council wanted," as monolingualism became the norm in 1970. Sounds like the authentic voice of the Holy Spirit was gagged, not heard.

But, of course, noting that the Emperor's floppy bits keep popping out makes one borderline schismatic and definitely out of tune with the new thing.

Naturally, then, I will push one more button. The Cardinal points to the new calendar, with "Hey, new saints!" 

I will respond by pointing to the commentary of Fr. Louis Bouyer, the most eminent liturgist on the Concilium that promulgated the spirit-protected, in-continuity-with-Tradition-honest new liturgical calendar:

I prefer to say nothing, or so little of the new calendar, the handiwork of a trio of maniacs who suppressed, with no good reason, Septuagesima and the Octave of Pentecost and who scattered three quarters of the Saints higgledy-piddledy, all based on notions of their own!

Because these three hotheads obstinately refused to change anything to their work and because the Pope wanted to finish up quickly to avoid letting the chaos out of hand, their project, however insane, was accepted!

"In continuity with the Tradition of the Church," huh?

Yo tengo muchas preguntas, arzobispo.

In the final analysis, it does not matter if the Cardinal is aware of the problems with his argument (such as it is). 

The facts are easily discoverable, and the desire for something more rooted will not go away. No matter how much he and those of like mind try to resolve the issue with a toxic mix of brute exercises of authority and patronizing rhetoric. Ordering people to move on is like ordering them to shut up--it does not work, long term. 

When you throw in the reality that your institutional credibility hovers around that of telephone scam artists from Hyderabad, it guarantees that only bad things will happen.

 

The Corona-Killing Bullet?

Maybe, but don't break out the champagne flutes yet.

Pfizer announces that its new antiviral pill cuts down the risk of hospitalization and death by almost 90 percent.

An experimental coronavirus pill reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent in high-risk people infected with the virus, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced Friday.

The effect of the drug, a five-day regimen designed to block the virus from making copies of itself, was found to be so strong midway through the study that an independent committee monitoring the clinical trial recommended it be stopped early. The data has not yet been published or peer-reviewed. Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla told CNBC that the company would submit data to U.S. regulators before Thanksgiving.

* * *

 David Boulware, an infectious-disease physician-scientist at the University of Minnesota Medical School not involved in the research said the findings were “pretty impressive.” He noted the drug was most effective when given earlier, within three days of symptoms, but it remained highly effective even when given five days after symptoms appeared — which may better reflect the real world use of the drug.

“That’s great. That’s a huge impact,” Boulware said.

Two dampeners:

1. As mentioned in the article, peer-review is necessary.

2. As a gent who got a suddenly-necessary Pfizer booster two weeks ago yesterday, understand that I am not inclined to pop corks for Pfizer's more grandiose claims. 

IF it is true, this is great and glorious news--a literal game-changing life-saver.

If so, it will turn corona into something more akin to the flu. Not to mention taking the steam out of the boiler of our society-straining vaccine wars. 

But let's wait and see.

A "good Catholic"?

So two elderly politicians met in Rome, and the less-compos mentis one reported that he had received the papal seal of approval from the one who has his stuff together.

Yeah, it's true. Despite, you know, big-footing the collegial shepherd(s) that That Council said were supposed to have authority over such matters. The Humble Pastor from The Argentine has a Boniface VIII streak that runs rampant...but you already know that. 

[Thanks to Don for the link immediately above.]

I'll admit that this latest petty political gamesmanship threw me for a loop for a few hours, then I brushed off our Roman pontiff who demands submission's latest headgames and went about my business. It was a clericalist shin-kick to the American bishops who aren't on-board with the spiritual hospice idea and nothing more. 

[I am almost inclined to think that--just perhaps--it was a misguided kindness done to a increasingly-feeble old man. After all, the meeting ran surprisingly long and our President isn't capable of enduring such. But it was at best misguided and undoubtedly mixed with baser motives.]

So I shook it off. For starters, I realized that a tardigrade could leap over this pontiff’s bar for "good" and couldn’t limbo underneath it.

I mean, think about it: this is a guy who boasts of robbing a corpse at a funeral, committed simple battery on an altar boy because the latter was holding his hands folded in prayer, calls gossip "terrorism" while constantly engaging in vicious gossip about people he doesn’t like, expressed schadenfreude about a dangerously-ill colleague and said that anyone who criticizes him does "the work of the devil." And that’s just five examples off the top of my head.

Then there's that whole "handing over millions of the faithful to communists in return for nothing and not uttering a peep in their defense" thing.

He’s an abusive gaslighter who likes to push buttons. Like all such, he revels in throwing you off your stride if you don't fight into his cookie-cutter understanding of what "good" is. If you overdo, he'll blab about it on his next airline flight or at the next Jesuit gabfest.

So don't let him get your goat. And pray very, very hard for this wayward, worldly man. Every single day.

It's the one thing he says that is unassailably correct: he is a sinner in need of prayer. And we need to pray for him for our own benefit as well as his. It helps us avoid drinking some form of spiritual poison (e.g., wrath, pride) in response to his antics. Plus, we have logs in our own eyes that need a robust chainsaw.

I will say that the pontiff's games prompted this thought: is there a definition of "good Catholic" that, say, ten million representative Mass-attenders selected from the nations of the world could agree upon, an irreducible minimum beyond which no one could transgress?

I haven't come to a conclusion yet. For example, the Creed is essential, but not sufficient, according to Our Lord in His Sermon.

But the one thing I can say is that the pontiff's chat on Friday didn't bring us any closer to "good," let alone The Good.

So, look to the Lord, Scripture, His Saints and Tradition. The last especially with an eye to the works of mercy.

And try to tune out the player in Rome, even though that will prove impossible to do short of living off the grid.

The food price increases are here--and more are on the way.

 As was said on my favorite sci-fi television show:

"The avalanche has started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."

Yes, you can say "but it's convenience food. Not staples." 

Bagel Bites are not the product of Old World Craftsmanship™: it's all basic food and supply chain inputs.

 

When bad things happen to bad people.

This blog has had a special dislike for Clinton bagman and unrepentant pro-abort Terry McAuliffe, stretching back to February 2007.

Back then, McAuliffe was being considered for membership in the pre-Anschluss Knights of Malta. A storm arose, led by the formidable and much-missed Kathy Shaidle. 

Mirabile dictu, McAuliffe was denied membership.

[For the unclear, this was back in the day when the Catholic Church still occasionally taught there could be eternal consequences for political actions. 

Or eternal consequences for anything short of being a mafia assassin. 

Frankly, maybe not even then, given the functional universalism coursing through the ecclesial veins.

It's hard to explain, and a story for another time.]

But anyway, more bad things happened to Terry McAuliffe almost fifteen years after the formerly-independent Knights said no: the voters of Virginia emphatically said "NO" to being governed again by this unpleasant hustler.

This calls for the playing of one of my favorite 45s from my youth.

45s being another concept difficult to explain to the yutes, but no matter:

 

Now if only our town voted to save our history museum from being defenestrated by our once-sensible mayor...but we won't know for sure until later today.

 

If this is supply-driven inflation, then there's little the central banks can do.

 A good "explainer" from Ramesh Ponnuru, who usually gives me a case of the "mehs."

Essentially, there are two types of inflationary pressure: demand-related and supply-related. The Staggering '70s experienced the former, which was broken through sky-high interest rates.

We, on the other hand, seem to be enjoying the latter.

For a textbook example of demand-side inflation, imagine that a central bank makes a surprise announcement it is going to manage interest rates and undertake asset purchases so as to engineer a doubling of total spending throughout the economy over the next year. If people believe it will hit that target, they should expect that in a year’s time, prices, including wages, will be about double what they are now.

This inflation would transfer money from lenders to borrowers (including most mortgage holders). The real value of a fixed debt will drop in half. Inflation would also raise the effective burden of capital-gains taxes as investors pay taxes on assets that look twice as valuable but aren’t. Restaurants would have to order new menus. And the transition could be rough.

At the end of the process, though, the real value of most people’s wages should be roughly the same as before: They will have twice the take-home pay, but each dollar will go half as far as before.

Supply-side inflation works differently. The economy sees the same amount of dollars spent, but they’re spent on fewer things at higher prices. Companies still have to change their prices as supply conditions fluctuate. But borrowers don’t come out ahead. Wages do not, even over time, adjust so that they are the same in real value. Taxes on capital won’t rise, but only because asset values won’t either. All of the inflation represents a reduction in economic activity. It’s pure loss for the economy overall.

To make matters worse, the central bank can’t do anything about it. If it wants to avoid the dislocations of our hypothetical demand-side inflation, all it has to do is call off its plan to double spending.

If, on the other hand, prices are higher because ports aren’t operating efficiently, what is it to do? Engineering increased spending will raise prices further. Reining it in will reduce output further. Neither loosening nor tightening money will get cargo moving through the ports any faster. The supply issues have to be tackled directly.

Easier said than done, unfortunately. It's not solvable from on high. Executive orders have either (1) not had any impact or (2) are threatening to make it much, much worse through forced layoffs.

The past two years have been far too interesting for my taste.

 

Something good in 2021.

 

A determined group of New York volunteers cleaned up and restored the grave site of Union General George H. Thomas and his wife Frances.

That it had fallen into disrepair is both disheartening and unsurprising. And quite possibly a source of grim humor to Pap Thomas in the hereafter.

"Typical."

But good on the residents of Troy for honoring a man deserving of far more honor and esteem than historical memory has yet to accord him.

 “A lot of people don’t know a lot about Oakwood Cemetery. It’s a gem. A cemetery a gem? People don’t think about that,” said Dave Dziewulski who is with Sons Of Union Veterans Of The Civil War.

He, as well as a small army of volunteers and donors, just completed a renovation of the final resting place of one of Oakwood Cemetery’s most famous residents: Civil War Union Army General George Henry Thomas.

Thomas was known as the “Rock of Chickamauga” for holding the line during the battle of Chickamauga Creek.

“Because he stood like a rock, and was able to hold the line, he prevented a total rout of the Union forces,” said Dziewulski.

The native Virginian’s family were slave owners and shunned Thomas after the he chose to join the Union Army. The war hero married a woman from Troy, and after dying of natural causes, was buried in the Collar City.

But time and the elements wore down the sculpted sarcophagus where Thomas and his wife are interned, as well as their family plot.

So, Dziewulski and his fellow volunteers, some of them with the Sons Of Union Veterans Of The Civil War, got to work and removed rotting trees and replaced broken iron fencing. They also added new finials to replace stolen ones and chemically washed away years of tarnish.

Now it’s restored to its original beauty.

 

Sure, it's 2021--this might as well happen, too.

 Michigan has a shortage of snow plow and salt truck drivers.

"And so it's a little more critical to get on top of it in a very busy urban area, like Detroit or Grand Rapids," said Mark Geib, administrator of the Transportation Systems Management Operations division at the Michigan Department of Transportation. "It's not just for the traveling public, but it's also for emergency services, the ambulances, and police and fire and all that. So, you know, we need to keep the roads clear so people can get around, especially in emergency situations."

Geib said he hasn't seen a snowplow driver shortage anything like this during his 30 years at MDOT.

The Michigan Department of Transportation contracts out the responsibility to counties for about 75% of the roads and manages the other 25% themselves, according to Mark Geib, administrator in the Transportation Systems Management Operations division. 

Individual counties, like Oakland, Wayne and Macomb, are also struggling to fill their rosters. 

That's on top of budgetary decisions which have limited plowing and salting to larger snow events (5" or more). Which were probably going to be even more limited with the fuel price increases--especially for diesel. 

If it's a mild winter like last year's, manageable. 

If it's like 2013...hoo, boy. The Expedition is on its last legs as it is.

 

Quote of the Day.

"Historic continuity with the past is not a duty, it is only a necessity."

--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.