Summorum Pontificam Networking Database

If you are interested in networking with other like-minded individuals who want to take advantage of the new Latin Mass rules, go here and enter yourself into the database.


Hat tip Universal Indult Blog.

Inner City Pressure

Another Conchords song. These guys are cracking me up. I might have to break down and get cable. I love the passerbys mouthing the lyrics and the dude counting pennies at the 7-11.



I still have some of my brother-in-law's old underwear. But I shouldn't have told you that.

Yes, It's Nativism

From the Catholic League:

July 11, 2007 -- SAN DIEGO MINUTEMEN DRAW BIGOTED SUPPORT -- The decision of a suburban San Diego Catholic Church, St. Peter’s in Fallbrook, to welcome day laborers has unleashed an anti-Catholic response on the part of the San Diego Minutemen (an independent Minuteman group). We have asked for all parties to the dispute to exercise civility. Unfortunately, some of our critics are now unleashing their own hate-filled screeds. Herewith is a sample of the invective that has reached our office:

• "I'd be putting a mine field on the border—warn them of course and then do it."


• "You compound your embarrassing blindness by attacking the messengers of these facts with petty name calling, and even go so far as to call for a 'Catholic Jihad' against those who are concerned about the impact that these very real issues will have...."


• "I don’t understand how the Catholic League can support a church that is harboring felons."


• "I am also very angry that you're issuing your news releases in Spanish! Why does the Catholic League need to explain itself to these people!"


• "South America and Mexico are pushing on my country and as an American citizen... It is against the law for churches to help day labor services because of the separation of church and state."


• "By this sweeping and arrogant elitist attack on the people who oppose the illegal invasion of our country from the south, you are putting yourself in the same league with the overwhelming leftist, gay-friendly, California Amchurch hierarchy which hopes to replenish its dwindling flocks with illegal Mexicans."


• "I also wanted to register my total shock and annoyance at your first-time ever, as far as I'm aware, use of Spanish as if it were incumbent on Catholics to explain to Mexicans in America in their language various situations as opposed to them learning, understanding and speaking English."

Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows:

"Fair criticism of the Catholic Church’s position on any public policy issue is welcomed. This kind of nativism is not."

There are some other press releases on this over there at the CL site. One links to this article which shows a priest with a "Satan head" as part of a demonstration outside the church on a Sunday. This is the first thing some children saw after making their First Holy Communion. Nice.

It's true that some Bishops have made some silly remarks in the past about illiegal immigration policies, but in this instance the Church is just making an attempt to minister to these people, not to provide shelter from immigration laws.

Rev. Edward "Bud" Kaicher, the church's pastor, said the Minutemen should protest the federal government, not the church. He said that offering the workers a safe place to gather is part of the church's mission, and he plans to continue do to so.

But if Father Bud, who seems to be in the right, is guilty of breaking some law or engaging otherwise in some conspiracy, this anti-Catholic nativist propaganda is still just that. It hurts the anti-illegal groups when they show these "colors", in my opinion.

"Love is the very strongest adhesive"

Hat tip to Kathleen. These guys are really funny, they've got a show on HBO, you can check it out online. Uhhhh.... not for kids, obviously.



Here's a small sample of their talent.



This stuff reminds me slightly of a film which I never saw, but a few of it's major fans described it to me at length in a pizza place in Pittsburgh years ago, kind of a precursor to Spinal Tap; if you liked either flick or Waiting for Guffman, Fear of a Black Hat, etc. you should dig this. Lot of massively flawed humans. Well, what can I say -- we all need to be "stuck together with the tape of love", baby.

That was really good pizza, too, as I recall.

Carp & Cube

Jonathan comments to the last post:

I do not think writing for the National Review is what it used to be anymore. Sure, Dreher wrote for the Review but so did Gary Wills. He came up with concept of "Mater Si! Magistra No!" Look also what he had to do to get on the News Hours. He has checked his values at the door. Tell me the last article he wrote supporting Pro-Life views or for diversity in the media? Never! However, because he is against the war and tells enough Bush bashing jokes he gets included in with the other elites. Quite an example if you ask me.

Also can someone tell me of a Conservative Catholic who gets the status of Dreher, Kuo et.al.? Their isn't any. It has all the diversity of the Pravda.

Cubeland Mystic responds:

Jonathan, A liberal friend once said to me "Why do gay people want the Catholic Church to accept them? They should just go off and do their own thing. It is so much easier."

Well she was right. They should do their own thing, and start their own institutions rather than anger the people who dominate the institution they are trying to corrupt.

We should do the same thing here. We should have our own institutions including the media. Pauli posted on a man who is buying a radio station in San Fran. Are we all supporting him? Do we all support EWTN?

I get some of my news here at Est Quod Est. Why do we even care about diversity and liberal hypocrisy? We should apply ourselves to making the institutions we have successful.

I've mentioned to Jonathan in public posts and private emails in the past that I agree whole-heartedly with his assessment of the MSM. But I think Cubeland's point need to really be taken to heart. The "media" as a whole is diverse, probably moreso now than ever. Sure, it's irritating that the old liberal dinosaurs still have plenty of power and are too stubborn to change much. They're all like "dogs who returneth to their own vomit" in this regard, Dreher's vomit is Catholic Church bashing, Kuo's vomit is outright liberal goofiness posing as Christian charity.... Big name media clowns like Chris Matthews have even more disgusting rainbow-colored vomit featuring abortion rights pimping, military bashing, Republican baiting, Clinton-worship and those are just the big chunks....

Sorry, getting a little too realistic there. We can only spend so much time cursing the darkness before we get back to lighting candles. Or M-80's. (Wow, haven't seen one of those suckers in a while.)

I'm one to also predict the new push for the so-called "fairness doctine" is going to ultimately end up in nowheresville. There are many reasons for this, but the most blatant one to me is MONEY. If anyone thinks that all the people pulling down the swag from the El Rushbo/El Hannitybo Industrial Complex are conservative Republicans then you know less about American business than Wendell Berry.

"Big Latex Tent" Proposal for the Vatican

In November of last year, Mark Shea commented on blogger David Kuo ("Very Encouraging Editorial") saying that he "seems like the real deal" as a Christian who is "starting to look at putting discipleship to Jesus, rather than power, first." Mark ends by saying he's "going to keep an eye on this Kuo guy".

Well, I know Mark is busy, blogging, working on books, films, etc. So I'm taking up some of the slack in terms of keeping an eye on the "Kuo guy". A month or so ago he wrote the following on his blog:

Yesterday ubermodel Giselle Bundchen spoke out against the Catholic church's condom ban during Rio's Fashion Week. That isn't terribly surprising. I'm with her and we both may be with an increasing number of people inside the Vatican who are questioning the policy - possibly even the Pope. I find it horrifying that condoms that can save lives throughout the world are spiritually banned. [italics mine]

(I removed Kuo's link to the 26-year-old model's home page. A Google image search of her last name will yield a page of near occasions of sin for most red-blooded males and that's with the safe-search option on.)

I'll opt to not pick on the tender age of Ms. Bundchen. St. Catherine of Siena, a model of sanctity, wasn't much older when she famously advised Gregory XI on moving back to the old 'hood.

But in regards to the advisory content of this other model, we should recall what we learned from Sesame Street years ago, i.e., "one of these things is not like the other." This wasn't prudential advice regarding the proper Papal residence, this is a matter of moral doctrine and the church's teaching on human sexuality. Someone who sells her body for big bucks to big business wouldn't be the first person I'd ask to comment on the topic, even though like many models, her mouth seems to be disproportionately big. No doubt she is a big commentator on moral theology among the runway crowd.

But we must go back to Mr. Kuo, who has often been characterized as a Christian conservative involved in politics who is both more Christian and more conservative than many others like, say, the Bush administration for whom he used to work. Last fall he was all over talk radio and 60 minutes expressing sadness that the White House seemed to have jettisoned the whole Faith-based Initiative thingy, which was his specialty, shortly after 9/11. (Does everyone here remember 9/11? I thought you might. Yeah, that 9/11.)

This obviously doesn't stop him from asking the Pope to jettison Catholic teaching in favor of what one might term the Gospel of the Almighty Condom. (Hey, that can be entry number one in the Pauli lexicon!) I'm not sure he doesn't realize how much he is wasting his time or whether the whole thing is his method of climbing aboard the "It's-all-the-Catholic-Churches-fault" bandwagon, and he doesn't expect the Church to change. Assuming he is sincere, sure, the Vatican has said "We'll take a look at the issue," but it's the same Vatican that issued this document highlighting the "condom failure" among other matters both moral and practical. So bloggers and super-models shouldn't hold their breath for a big change on the teaching.

But let's look at this practically. Africa has this horrible AIDS problem, spread by irresponsible multiple-partner sex which is condemned by the Catholic Church, and we're supposed to believe that if the Vatican changes it's teaching that guys will start wrapping it up? I. Don't. Think. So.

"I find it horrifying that condoms that can save lives throughout the world are spiritually banned." I've been out of the blogging loop as of late, so I don't know if Mr. Kuo has been taken to task on this by his Catholic or once-Catholic friends in the blogosphere already. I would place the J-Walker in the camp of conservatives that criticize other conservatives more often than they do liberals. That's OK, but I think because of this, they should undergo the same level of scrutiny when they stray from what is Christian or conservative, or in this case, even what is sensible.

UPDATE: I started writing this post almost a month ago. More recently, Mr. Kuo has demonstrated that he has his own brand of the last acceptable prejudice:

At a time when the Christian church faces extraordinary opportunity and extraordinary peril, it appears the pope has decided to fiddle in matters of minutia.

Why is it necessary to slap protestant denominations across the face? Why is it necessary to belittle their churches and their history and their love for Christ?

This feels like the equivalent of President Bush commuting v. pardoning Scooter Libby....

I wonder; is the "fiddle" comment supposed to evoke images of the Emperor Nero? Unclear. But this is a good clarification of his view of the Catholic Church, if nothing else. The Pope is obviously supposed to supply "bread and circuses" (and condoms) and not mess around with, you know, all this "theology junk" that no one really cares about.

"Do as I do, not as I say"

File under "heh".

Hey, I'm all for Democrats shooting bad guys in their private lives even if they have to oppose deadly force in their public life to be politically correct. Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, and justice is a virtue, last time I checked. Justice is what the man was dealing out here.


Plus the robber threw a pocket knife at him? What a moron, he deserved to get shot.

Like Peanut Butter & Jelly: Nihilism & the Democrats

Sisyphus on some of the lesser known of the 300 Congressional Investigations which the Democrats have opened in the last 100 days. For the math-challenged, that's 3 per day. No wonder their approval rating is lower than Bush's.

My favorite was number 9 until I read number 5: "Has George W. Bush been injecting politics into politics?"

BTW, President Bush made a visit to Parma today, can you believe that? I'm speechless.... I've never been to Slyman's deli, I must confess. I'm sure it's primo. The downtown place is reputedly the place to get your corned-beef for St. Pat's