Waiting for the color of spring

Here she comes
Silent in her sound
Here she comes
Fresh upon the ground
Come gentle spring
Come at winter's end
Gone is the pallor from a promise that's nature's gift
Waiting for the color of spring
Let me breathe
Let me breathe the color of spring
Here she comes
Laughter in her kiss
Here she comes
Shame upon her lips
Come wanton spring
Come for birth you live
Youth takes it's bow before the summer the seasons bring
Waiting for the color of spring
Let me breathe you

But it's for research!

Big news today over on the Dreher blog. His self-help book on Dante (the theme and apparent working title being How Dante Saved My Life) apparently calls for additional research -- specifically, a week's trip to Tuscany with a buddy. To better learn how The Divine Comedy can help each of us in our lives, of course. Even his commenters are seeing through this one.

Dreher asks for suggestions from the gang:

So, readers, help me plan our itinerary.  We know the Dante places to see in Florence and Ravenna, but where else would you recommend?

Where else would I recommend Dreher go to research The Divine Comedy?



Yeah, I know. Too easy.

(And no, we certainly do not wish that Rod Dreher actually loses his soul. . . .)

Hispanics are not "one issue voters"

Michael Barone explains why Hispanics aren't as supportive of Obama as they had been.

Two trends in polling also point in this direction. One is that Hispanic voters don't seem hugely preoccupied with immigration. The Pew Research Center reports that many more focus on education, the economy and health than the one-third who say immigration is "extremely important" to them personally.

The other is that the president's job approval among Hispanics has been falling sharply. He got 71 percent of their votes in 2012, but fewer than half approve his performance today.

It's not hard to see why. The sluggish economy has hurt Hispanics more than most Americans. Obamacare and big government policies have not helped them as they apparently have hoped.

This suggests that non-passage of comprehensive legislation won't hurt Republicans as much as predicted. And inaction, always the easier legislative course, would prevent a debate in which the cries of angry opponents, gleefully highlighted in mainstream media, could antagonize Hispanic voters.

The emphasis at the end is mine. I'm one of those "soft on immigration" conservatives, and while I understand the enforcement-first argument, I literally hate the rhetoric that often accompanies it. I cringe when I hear Rush say "All these people are going to be Democrat voters!!" Well, they are if you write them off that way. Yes, the media is disgusting in the way they bait Hispanics, but we're supplying free chum. The least we can do is keep quiet while Obama is melting down with his own base.

If we're going to say anything it should be to point out—as Barone does—that Obama didn't care about immigration reform when Democrats had Congressional super-majorities at the beginning of his presidency. All Americans—including Hispanics—are paying now for his ridiculous economic policies that he crammed through then, and they're paying attention to recent history now as his reign continues to crumble and stumble toward a close.

Hey, you!

Dymphna just posted this excellent artwork on her blog. I won't republish her humorous comments; go read them yourself.

I have often thought my guardian angel has "bumped" me when I'm suppose to be waking up but have hit the snooze button, or when I'm not paying attention while driving. I once heard a theologian point out that one of the striking features of the angelic salutation to the Virgin Mary is how the angel doesn't deal with her using the customary angelic brusqueness. For example, the angel busting St. Peter out of prison in Acts 12 is almost explaining to him how to put on his clothes like one might do with a 3-year-old. In fact, maybe that is what the angel is saying in this painting to St. Jerome—"Get some clothes on, for God's sake." They are used to barking out orders at us; that's their job. I, for one, hope I learn to listen.

More Menacing Mannequins in the Macabre Moonlight

Latest installment of Caspar & Lonnie is here, folks, and in this one we meet a Non-Domiciled Indigent Person. Every great story from the Holy Gospels to Happy Gilmore features a Homeless Dude, right? Here's a teaser:

"Don't worry, Lonnie. They are just mannequins." said Caspar with relief. His excellent "sixth sense" told him that no demons were possessing these laughing mannequins, and there was nothing to fear. And Lonnie didn't feel anything tingling in his hands. Nonetheless, both ghosts were very unnerved by the horde of mannequins who, in the weird lighting, appeared as if they were laughing at them for their misfortunes.

I am sure that once Hollywood acquires the film rights to this excellent story of mine, the screen writers will probably juice up parts of it to make it more terrifying. So I imagine that here they would turn it around so that the mannequins Caspar and Lonnie saw were all demon possessed as well, and consequently they would all start walking towards our two friends in the most menacing way possible. And this would be a spot where the CGI lab could add gee-whiz special effects to accentuate the terror of it all. But really, nothing like this happened in this case. Sometimes the mannequins are just mannequins.

[other posts on Oengus Moonboones.]

"It's not even close."

I feel somewhat like I'm waking up from a weird dream, an alternate reality. I've been driving to western Michigan and back every week for five months. It has kept me extremely busy. I wanted to spend every spare moment with my wife and kids and my weird hobbies which have nothing to do with scribbling on the internets. Now this contract is ending and I have all these thoughts in my head, like puddles after the rain, from the first half of 2014 which I never commented on here, though I wanted to. So forgive me if some of this stuff is "old news", old by our modern news-cycle standards at any rate.

Here's the first thing I wanted to remark on. Yes, Bloomberg is quite a thing. And obviously his new anti-gun project is something which I detest and I hope turns ultimately into a huge waste of time, money and resources. So I was going to opine that I suspect my hope is correct. There are plenty of Democrats who detest gun-grabbing and I believe this group is playing to a rather small gallery.

But when I got to the last two paragraphs, I thought I'd wandered into an amateur comedy club. The focus of my derision shifted as Bloomberg went full retard into religion:

Mr. Bloomberg was introspective as he spoke, and seemed both restless and wistful. When he sat down for the interview, it was a few days before his 50th college reunion. His mortality has started dawning on him, at 72. And he admitted he was a bit taken aback by how many of his former classmates had been appearing in the “in memoriam” pages of his school newsletter.

But if he senses that he may not have as much time left as he would like, he has little doubt about what would await him at a Judgment Day. Pointing to his work on gun safety, obesity and smoking cessation, he said with a grin: “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”

Stand back, St. Peter! The former Mayor of New York is heading straight in!

Al E. quipped that two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. Then he added the disclaimer that he wasn't sure about the universe. I'm wondering something. If you could earn a place in Heaven―and I don't believe you can―would you be able to if you weren't even sure Heaven existed? In other words, you weren't sure there was a God to be worshiped on earth? And if everyone in Heaven knows everything there is to be known as perfectly as each of their minds can grasp knowledge, will there be interviews at the Pearly Gates? Even with people as important as Michael Bloomberg? Possibly; journalists and video crews who make it there might not know how to do anything else.

I hope Bloomberg does go to Heaven, but I don't think he'll like it. There won't be any government and no ability to run anything or ban anything. There will be smokers there, no doubt, and obese people like St. Thomas Aquinas and plenty of firing of guns for fun, since they won't be able to hurt anybody. (Trust me on this last point.) But maybe Bloomberg's first meeting with G. K. Chesterton would be worth capturing on video.

He desires to no longer be Catholic,

therefore he isn't.

Wannabe anti-individualist individualist Catholic rejectnik Rod Dreher, still confused and lost in a dark wooden head.

Just my speed

Believe me, I'm into anything which can save my life and if I can pull it off for half price, that's even better. So I picked this book up at Half Price Books earlier today.

It's a graphic novel version of The Divine Comedy by the famous award-winning cartoonist/artist, Seymour Chwast. Virgil and Dante are both wearing fedoras and there's stuff like typewriters and machine guns in it. So I suppose it's a little bit updated, but not too much. Also it's competely written in English. So he either translated it from the original Italian, or he might have merely pulled some pieces out of the English cliff notes version. It's very abridged, to put it mildly, but it hits the main points, e.g., magicians have their heads on backwards, sodomites get their faces erased, Judas, Brutus and Cassius are in the middle, etc.

I've read it for about 15 minutes and I'm halfway through. I am feeling a little bit healthier, but I still need my glasses to see. My favorite thing about it so far is how natural Chwast pulls it off. Dante is dressed like a gumshoe detective, the whole bit with the overcoat and Virgil is wearing a tux. It just feels right to me.