Sorry, Toibin

I think the reason that so many of us Catholics love Bill Donohue is because he states what we are all thinking. Especially about the sort of irreverence displayed in "The Testament of Mary":

Bill Donohue comments on “The Testament of Mary,” which ended its Broadway run yesterday:

The play, based on the book by Colm Toibin, opened on April 22 and was scheduled to run through June 16. But instead of lasting 12 weeks, it lasted only two. On the day it opened, I said, “it is not easy to see who is going to be drawn to this play.”

The play bombed. That’s why it closed. Quite frankly, there aren’t enough people who want to spend their evenings watching a dark performance about a fanciful Virgin Mary who rejects the divinity of her son. My only regret is that we don’t have the results of a psychological battery of tests performed on those who like this kind of stuff.

The Irish Times’ Fintan O’Toole is furious that the play bombed. He blames capitalism. “The most basic truth about Broadway is that it’s about money. It is the raw, ruthless marketplace to which some people would like to reduce all artistic endeavour. It is a primal form of capitalism: enormous risks in pursuit of enormous rewards.”

In O’Toole’s world, plays he likes should have a long run on Broadway, even if no one wants to pay to see them (no doubt he would like to get some stimulus money to subsidize his leisure). But one of the great things about capitalism is that it accurately gauges public sentiment, rewarding what people want, and discarding what they don’t. A market economy, I am happy to say, doesn’t necessarily reward what the elites want. Which is why they hate it.

Sorry, Toibin. Looks like there aren’t enough O’Tooles out there to enjoy your angry discourse on Catholicism.

So you take libel about the Blessed Virgin Mary, turn it into slander and when it bombs you blame capitalism. "Sorry" is about the only word we have for you, or for people who spend years studying and promoting Esperanto as a language.

Natives React To Rod Dreher's Ruthie Leming Book

Kudos to Keith for this valuable link. Kathleen predicted this last year, maybe even a year ago, that not all was going to be hunky dory with the natives of Starhill and St. Francisville once the book came out. Here are some highlights:

I don't think people in Starhill & SF realize how Rod is painting them to the rest of the country on his AmConMag blog. Basically as quaint, eccentric goobers from Hooterville, or Honey Boo-boos in the making, or the next Buck Wild. Rod's pals all over the north and easy coast eat this stuff up & he's feeding them all they can chow down. Nothing like the ever changing adventures of the little wogs in their native environment. Reading about SH & SF is like visiting the zoo. Heck, maybe others can get a swamp people reality show and make some big bucks clowning for the nation like Rod has.

Woah! Feel the love there. Then the commenter, billfr, is pressed for a link to support his claim and he posts this one, which I guess is supposed to be a picture of countrylad, one of Rod's cheerleaders and the original poster of the Topix thread. Billfr goes on:

I just kind of feel bad for the people. I grew up in a parish not far east of you but I've spent many a happy day fishing False River and Old River and camping out up over Thompson's before they put all those houses out there & been through SF a bunch of times. It's just too bad the people there don't get portrayed as the good solid people they are rather than having some carpetbagging blogger paint them as one-legged strippers and goofballs just to score Ripley's believe it or not points with the east coast university crowd.

It's your town CL you do what you want with it. Maybe you can make some money off of Ruthie Leming too.

Then we have Openyoureyes:

And making so much money by portraying the community to look like a bunch of backwoods rednecks. Says something about a person who exploits the death of a loved one for a pocket full of money.

Ten pockets full, more like. I'm telling you, this is the way all normal people view this book, especially those who know a little about Rod Dreher. Ruthie's death is a vehicle to transport the standard Dreher sermons and get a big paycheck in the process. Commenter readthebook concurs:

I too thought the book was a little "preachy". It seems he took his sisters death and his popularity with the right people and made a book deal. People lose loved ones everyday but books aren't made about it. She wasn't gone long and he had already had a book ready to be published.

Figure it out chimes in:

I have been seeing Rod Dreher in various print and just this morning I heard a story about "him" on National Public Radio (83.9 FM). It appears to me that Rod is more interested in promoting himself than he is in eulogizing his sister or trying to promote his little book. He has always had a high opinion of himself. I just didn't realize that it has reached stratospheric proportions.

You realize that this following comment from beenthere is accurate if you read the book. There is a lot of tattling of this sort under the guise of "showing the human side" or whatever.

Yeah, everything he's blogging now is about how he was so misunderstood by his daddy and sister. Now he gets to try her in the court of public opinion without having to worry about her talking back. A few faint praise compliments. A lot of how human and not a saint. Backhanding her with sweet faint praise.

Of course we know this isn't the first time that tendency has been exposed by Dreher. Finally...

He is making money off of a terrible situation. He didn't have a relationship with his sister and anyone else as I recall. He always thought he was better than anyone else in school. I am in awe that he is being promoted with this book about a wonderful and loving person. Ruthie was a piece of St Francisville and a piece of our school. Rod would never know that. He left because he was BETTER than the hicks here. Everyone loved Ruthie and Mike. They are Good people and represented what a REAL family looks like. It absolutely disgusts me and makes me sick in my stomach to think one would use a family members passing to make money. I guess old relationships don't change.

We're in awe, too, selfishRod.

Another guy talks about going home (literally and figuratively)

When you have an hour or so, treat yourself to a conversation with Justice Thomas.  He describes his Catholic education including his time in the seminary, his Catholic faith, his embracing of his family's values after having "eschewed" them and his long-felt desire to go home to Georgia, what happens to blacks who openly disagree with the opinions of the "elites", and much much more.

His stories about what the nuns taught him and the other children at an all-black school in a poor part of Georgia are heart-warming and touching (especially the story about the nun he visited recently at the retirement center).

Justice Thomas has been a hero of mine for quite awhile now.  Whenever you have the opportunity to hear him speak at length on CSPAN or wherever, I recommend it.

The media have described him since his confirmation as unqualified. They obviously have not heard him speak (nor do they care to) -- but not to worry, he understands why, and he says so in this conversation.

Frozen Fire

Rest in peace, Ol' Possum

The great George Jones passed away today.

Try to keep a dry eye during this one:

Put this lady on TV every day

I want to see this lady on television all the time. Muslim murdering maniac mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaev. I want everyone to see her and hear her rant because it's the exact same victim mentality shared by millions of Muslims worldwide. Her sons are murders and she says it's America's fault. Uh-huh. Please, media, please put her on every day, every hour. Interviews: Piers Morgan, Barbara Walters -- whoever. Get her wound up and let it all spill out. She stole $378? I'll pay it. Just make sure everyone sees that this is what happens to YOUR BRAIN ON ISLAM. And maybe your kids, too.

Kermit Gosnell Special To Air On Fox News

This is from an email I just received.

Help break the media silence about this case.

Please forward to all your contacts.

Fox News To Air One-Hour Special this Sunday (4/28) on the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/24/fox-news-will-air-one-hour-special-sunday-on-kermit-gosnell/

Other than Fox News, the major media have almost totally ignored this trial. The  atrocities that have been brought to light in the trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell have been compared to the "Jack the Ripper" Story of the 19th centaury, and to the horrors of the Nazi death camps of WW II.  

Last week CBS Devoted Just 13 Seconds to Gosnell Trial; ABC, NBC Ignore It altogether. ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today on Wednesday failed to cover any developments in the case. Neither broadcast network has aired one second of reporting on the Gosnell trial on their morning and evening newscasts. See:

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/25/cbs-devotes-just-13-seconds-to-gosnell-trial-abc-nbc-ignore-it/

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/04/24/jury-will-consider-hundreds-of-counts-against-abortionist-gosnell/

Big city, turn me loose and set me free . . .

Let's see what Merle has to say about several current topics around here (including leaving big cities, and "folks who never work and they've got plenty"):

I thought so.

(The Mrs. & I saw Merle live a couple of years ago, probably about the time of this vid.  He's certainly on in years -- but after the first couple of songs he got his voice and put on a great show.)