M.J. Rosenberg sums up the whole mess in the following brief analysis, so you can skip all the links below (he suggests that if Dennis Ross had offered Alaska, Netanyahu might have gone for the deal): http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/03/tell_israel_freeze_settlements_or_we_slow_down_the/#more

The White House has denied the following story. But on the grounds that the ideas were floating around somewhere (maybe in Dennis Ross’s head), we can see how desperate Mitchell, Clinton, and Ross may be as the Palestinians leave the table.

“An article published on Wednesday on the website for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy by David Makovsky, a researcher with ties to Dennis Ross, Barack Obama’s chief advisor on the Middle East, reported that Obama had written a letter Netanyahu in which Obama offered to support the presence of Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the Jordan Valley even after the establishment of a Palestinian state, if Israel would agree to a two month settlement building freeze. …

“Obama’s letter was said to include a long list of American favors in exchange for an extension of the settlement building freeze….

“Other commitments that Obama reportedly offered Netanyahu in the letter include an agreement not to ask for any more building freeze extensions, an agreement to veto any anti-Israel UN Security Council resolution in the next year, and….

“Obama’s letter was said to include additional commitments, including a series of guarantees to prevent the smuggling of weapons and missiles into a Palestinian state, a lengthy period of interim security arrangements in the Jordan Valley and a comprehensive regional defense pact for protection from Iran to follow the establishment of the Palestinian state.”

And much, much more!

The denial   http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/white-house-obama-did-not-send-letter-to-netanyahu-1.316491

The original story: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/obama-in-personal-appeal-to-netanyahu-extend-settlement-freeze-for-two-months-1.316450

And the original story, which refers to this as a “draft” letter: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=3256

And here is the NYTimes version: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/world/middleeast/01mideast.html?_r=1&hp

And there’s more: Netanyahu has rejected an offer written by: “Obama adviser Dennis Ross, who is the moving force behind the letter, is believed to have encouraged Obama to change his policy toward Netanyahu in order to come off as friendlier. Ross reportedly worked with Barak and Molho on the letter during the UN General Assembly in New York.” http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/pm-rejects-u-s-guarantees-in-exchange-for-renewing-freeze-1.316517

UPDATE: MJ Rosenberg sums up: ”So it’s back to the drawing board.  Maybe Ross can give Bibi one of the 50 states (Alaska!).”  http://politicalcorrection.org/fpmatters/201010010010

The New York Times is always very interested in the travails of the wealthy, which may explain their interest in the “Debate Over the Definition of Rich” that is allegedly being kicked up as part of arguments over the fate of the Bush tax cuts. The discussion on that topic, according to David Kocieniewski, “has also veered into a more basic matter of fairness, whether a person who earns more than $200,000 a year should be taxed at rates similar to those who make $5 million.”

At his New Republic blog, Jonathan Chait points out that this story “seems to be based entirely on a misunderstanding about how the tax code works.” This is something we took pains to spell out in our most recent editorial:

In keeping with his campaign pledge, President Barack Obama wants to extend the Bush tax cuts only for annual income below $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for households. For those who make more than this, he proposes to let the top two tax rates return to their pre-Bush levels: 35 and 39 percent—up from 33 and 35 percent. Historically, these higher rates are still quite low (in the 1950s and early ’60s, a period of sustained economic growth, the top marginal tax rate was more than 90 percent). Only the part of a taxpayer’s income above $200,000 would be taxed at the higher rates, and the president’s plan preserves some of the Bush tax cuts for capital gains and dividends. This means that the wealthiest Americans would still pay less in taxes than they did before the Bush tax cuts went into effect.

Chait breaks it down this way: Read the rest of this entry »

Just posted to the main site: “Bus to Birmingham: What I Saw at Newman’s Beatification,” by William D. Wood. Here’s how it starts:

Way back in the twentieth century, when I decided to pursue doctoral work in theology, I never imagined that I would one day teach in an Oxford college. Neither did I imagine that John Henry Newman, of all people, would come to loom large in my day-to-day life. It goes without saying that I never imagined that I would find myself boarding a bus to Birmingham in the middle of the night to attend his beatification Mass. But there I was, on the road to Birmingham, along with other representatives from Oriel College, where Newman was a fellow for twenty years.

According to our invitations, the members of the Oriel delegation were “invited pilgrims.” We had been asked to attend because Oriel was the place where Newman did some of his most important intellectual work, the epicenter of the Oxford movement in the nineteenth century—and, of course, the place where Newman decided to leave the Anglican Church for good. The pace of change is slow in Oxford, so Newman’s presence still permeates Oriel. (For example, our chaplain lives in Newman’s rooms. What in other places would be a shrine is, in Oxford, just another bedroom suite.) On the other hand, the close association between Newman and Oriel is somewhat ironic, since his conversion to Catholicism brought his official association with Oriel to an end. His very last act as an Anglican was to resign his Oriel fellowship, just before his conversion in 1845. At the time, he could not hold it as a Roman Catholic.

Read the rest right here.

That’s what they’re calling Australia’s first native-born saint-to-be after it was revealed that the outspoken nun and co-founder of a religious teaching order denounced a priest for sexually abusing children, an event that contributed to her excommunication for five months.

From my story on the events as recounted in an ABC (Australia broadcasting) documentary:

“The story of the excommunication amounts to this: that some priests had been uncovered for being involved in the sexual abuse of children,” Father Paul Gardiner, the official advocate for MacKillop’s canonization, says in the documentary.

Gardiner said that when MacKillop’s complaints led at least one priest to be disciplined, one of his fellow priests “was so angry with this that he swore vengeance.” The priest, Father Charles Horan, used his influence with Bishop Sheil to have MacKillop excommunicated.

“Priests being annoyed that somebody had uncovered it — that would probably be the way of describing it — and being so angry that the destruction of the Josephites [MacKillop's order] was decided on,” Father Gardiner told ABC.

Father Jim Martin has insights on why whistleblowers and women are later seen as saints, and the Religion News Service piece is also comprehensive.

Again, it is an open question at best as to whether this key episode in the religious life of Blessed Mary MacKillop will be cited at her canonization on Oct. 17. John Henry Newman’s problems with church authorities were not exactly highlighted at his beatification. But the thing about popular devotion is that the populace has its say, too.

From the NYT:

Deep inside the computer worm that some specialists suspect is aimed at slowing Iran’s race for a nuclear weapon lies what could be a fleeting reference to the Book of Esther, the Old Testament tale in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them.

That use of the word “Myrtus” — which can be read as an allusion to Esther — to name a file inside the code is one of several murky clues that have emerged as computer experts try to trace the origin and purpose of the rogue Stuxnet program, which seeks out a specific kind of command module for industrial equipment.

Not surprisingly, the Israelis are not saying whether Stuxnet has any connection to the secretive cyberwar unit it has built inside Israel’s intelligence service. Nor is the Obama administration, which while talking about cyberdefenses has also rapidly ramped up a broad covert program, inherited from the Bush administration, to undermine Iran’s nuclear program. In interviews in several countries, experts in both cyberwar and nuclear enrichment technology say the Stuxnet mystery may never be solved.

There are many competing explanations for myrtus, which could simply signify myrtle, a plant important to many cultures in the region. But some security experts see the reference as a signature allusion to Esther, a clear warning in a mounting technological and psychological battle as Israel and its allies try to breach Tehran’s most heavily guarded project. Others doubt the Israelis were involved and say the word could have been inserted as deliberate misinformation, to implicate Israel.

Any of you biblical scholars been getting calls from Langley?

As mentioned at Vox Nova, the Web site Catholic Vote Action, has endorsed Sharron Angle, who is running to represent Nevada in the U.S. Senate. Here’s one of her SNL fake TV ads campaign commercials:

I can’t decide which part is more hilarious: the stock footage of vaguely Hispanic-looking gangbangers (minute :21) or the two vaguely Hispanic-looking construction workers (minute: 25) who seem to be caught off-guard by the viewer–doubtless in the middle of plotting anti-Anglo violence–and glare menacingly into camera as if to say, “That’s right. I’ve got your job. What are you gonna do about it?”

But, yes, Morning’s Minion is right. Angle’s ad is pure xenophobic pandering. As the church has always taught, agreeing with the president of Mexico on immigration issues could lead to separation from Christ.

Next up, the bishops of Minnesota: Today, just in time for the midterm elections, they sent an anti-gay-marriage DVD to four hundred thousand of their parishioners. The package includes a letter from the Minnesota Catholic Conference, a six-minute video message from Archbishop Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and a twelve-minute video produced by the Knights of Columbus. The mailing was sponsored by an unnamed donor.

Here’s Nienstedt’s message:

There’s nothing surprising in the archbishop’s message. As Catholics know, the church teaches that marriage is defined by the union of one man with one woman. What some Catholics might be surprised by, however, is the way Archbishop Nienstedt frames the question of how gay marriage might be made legal:

If we are to change our societal understanding of marriage, it should be the people themselves, and not politicians or judges who should make this decision. It is for this reason that the archdiocese believes that the time has come for voters to be presented directly with an amendment to our state constitution to preserve our historic understanding of marriage. In fact this is the only way to put the one-man-one-woman definition of marriage beyond the reach of the courts and politicians…. Thirty-one states have passed marriage amendments, and it’s time for Minnesotans to have their say. A question as important as the future of this great social institution should not be decided by a ruling elite, but by the people of Minnesota themselves. The church’s position is simple: Marriage is the union of one man and one woman, and to protect this truth, it is time in Minnesota to let the people speak.

Ruling elites bullying the muzzled masses. You’d almost think the people of Minnesota hadn’t elected their own legislators. Where have we heard that sort of rhetoric before…?

Two days before California was going to execute Albert Greenwood Brown, a convicted rapist and murderer, the California Conference of Bishops issued a statement calling for an end to the death penalty and clemency for the state’s death-row inmates. Today that execution was stayed by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, who ruled that the court did not have enough time to review the state’s new lethal-injection procedures. Catholic San Francisco reports:

At the Archdiocese of San Francisco, George Wesolek, director of the Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns, noted that fear reigns in our communities because they are permeated with violence. “I think many people think that the execution of criminals will stop some of that violence,” he said. “We know that instead of stopping violence, state-sponsored killing of criminals only serves to increase the atmosphere of revenge and retribution.”

He added, “Our Catholic social teaching calls for protecting the innocents in our community, but doing so by keeping the offender locked up and the community safe. Our principle of the dignity of every human life extends to even the most heinous of criminals. All of us, sinners that we are, are offered the hope of repentance, change and forgiveness.”

The Pew Research Center has just released the results of a survey of religious knowledge in the U.S. You can find their summary here, and the actual questions and answers here: I didn’t find most of the questions very interesting, but I guess they were looking for knowledge about religion, one’s own and those of others. I wish their breakdown had made it easier to tell what members of the various religions were replying to the questions. This is mentioned in the summary report but I didn’t find it broken down in the replies.  I’m always interested also in the level of education in religion that the respondents have had.

Who knew? I pass along a PoliticsDaily item I wrote about this news, which I had missed until Catholic World News reported it:

…[D]uring her vacation in Spain in August, First Lady Michelle Obama revealed that her husband — a.k.a. President Obama — “always carries a picture of Mary Help of Christians in his wallet.”

Mary Help of Christians is the patroness of the Salesian order of priests and nuns, and during an Aug. 13 visit to the Spanish city of Ronda with her daughter, Sasha, the first lady stopped at the Salesian community there.

According to the Salesian news service, she told the priest in charge that her husband “always carries with him a photograph with an image of Mary Help of Christians, to whom, those present reported, the first family of the United States has great devotion.”

Of course, as I note, Mary Help of Christians was famously invoked during the Battle of Lepanto and the Seige of Vienna, both battles of Christendom against Ottoman Turks — the Muslims. So what that says about Obama’s Muslim bona fides, I don’t know.

But this Marian devotion could be further proof of my colleague Jeff Weiss’s contention that Obama is a crypto-Catholic rather than a Morisco.

When your very best friend betrays you once again, you’ve got to wonder how come they’re still your best friend. You shower them with riches, good will, and unstinting support. Yet Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli PM, has once again told the U.S. to go **** ********! Time to find truer friends.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-envoy-speeds-to-mideast-in-effort-salvage-peace-talks-1.316122

http://www.juancole.com/2010/09/netanyahu-blows-off-us-mahmoud-abbas-pleads-for-settleme-freeze.html

UPDATE: The realist view: “One of the great myths of Middle East diplomacy is the old cliché that “the United States can’t want it more than the parties do.” This excuse for inaction is trotted out whenever the United States fails to exercise the enormous potential leverage at its disposal, and it’s just plain silly. There’s no reason why the United States can’t want a settlement more than Israel or the Palestinians do, particularly if the two sides are so mired in dysfunctional politics or old Likudnik dreams that they need to be pushed hard to make a deal. Unfortunately, this conflict isn’t just about them; it’s also about us. And when U.S. interests are at stake, we can want a solution just as much — and maybe even more — than they do.” Stephen Walt

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/27/settling_for_more_settlements

UPDATE: Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman has his own policy on negotiations: they seem to include the removal of Israeli Arabs from Israel. Didn’t we call this ethnic cleansing in Kosovo? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/world/middleeast/29nations.html?ref=world

And there’s this: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-jews-outraged-by-lieberman-s-un-speech-on-population-exchange-1.316298

I always knew she was dangerous, or at least her message was. On the other hand, she might be pleased by this news:

WASHINGTON (CNS) — A handful of Catholic Worker groups across the country were among the anti-war activists, environmentalists and animal-rights groups wrongly investigated by the FBI, according to a lengthy report released Sept. 20 by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General. According to Inspector General Glenn Fine, there was “little or no basis” for the investigations. The groups included the anti-war Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), the Catholic Worker, Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and an individual Quaker peace activist. Fine’s office reviewed 8,000 pages of FBI documents from 2001 to 2006 related to these groups in its 191-page document: “A Review of the FBI’s Investigations of Certain Domestic Advocacy Groups.” The FBI’s investigation of nonviolent civil disobedience of some of these groups placed them under an “acts of terrorism” classification, which automatically put them under government watch lists. The report concluded that these advocacy groups were not specifically targeted by the FBI, but that agents used inaccurate or insufficient reasons to open investigations and even after no basis to investigate a group was found, the agency kept the investigation open for several years. In a letter to the inspector general, FBI Deputy Director Timothy Murphy said the bureau had not targeted any groups on the basis of their First Amendment activities but instead on concerns about potential criminal acts.

In which I abuse my position with Commonweal to promote a well-reviewed, attractively priced performance of T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral at my parish in Brooklyn.

Jason Zinoman praised the show in Saturday’s New York Times, and I can’t disagree with his judgment:

The director, Alec Duffy, smartly uses his vast, upside-down boat-shaped space lighted by golden candle flames to create an atmosphere that is as authentic as it is otherworldly. What stands out most is the grand scale of the nearly 100-year-old Church of St. Joseph — no theater has ceilings this high — and the echoing boom of the actors’ voices gives the poetry a lift. While speaking clearly and with purpose, the fine cast underplays its passion, wisely, because the acoustics turn a whisper into a baritone-voiced song. A choir of 15 women adds lush vocals accompanied by a score (including organ) by Dave Malloy, who composed music for “Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage,” a recently performed thrashing rock version of the epic poem…. The almost uncanny quality [of the space] captures the sense of standing in awe of something ineffably vast but that still speaks to you. In that way, the space really serves, and perhaps deepens, the play.

As Eliot himself admitted, the play has flaws. Still, Zinoman is right: the space, the staging, the acting, and especially the superb, transporting original music (in addition to the electric organ, there’s a double bass and a couple of horns) help the medicine go down. All in all, well worth the $10 suggested ticket price (but if you can’t swing that suggestion, they’ll take what you can give at the door–even if it’s nothing).

Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas are seen here in this video of their world-record dressage performance in London.

For those new to dressage, this art and sport involve schooling a horse’s natural motion into a fluid near-ballet of precise communication between horse and rider. Teams are judged on suppleness, balance, and responsiveness. As the commentator on the video notes, this 9 year-old stallion may well be one of those “once in a lifetime” horses. Notice how still the rider seems–in fact, he is continually cuing the horse with his hands, legs and shifting his own balance in the saddle. At one point the horse seems to “skip.” What he’s doing is changing leads (the leg with which a horse steps forward in each stride of a canter,) every stride or two. The break in the middle of the exercise where the horse relaxes and walks is precisely to see if the team can shift from intense focus and collection (strides without much forward movement, like trotting in place,) to a relaxed uncollected gait, back to full working focus again. I wish my students–and I!–could make that transition so apparently effortlessly.

For anyone who has ever worked with horses, (especially stallions!) dressage at this level seems nearly miraculous. I present this video here on Commonweal (despite its lack of direct Catholic ecclessial reference,) as an interlude of stunning beauty on a sabbath afternoon. Because even though “The horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its might it cannot save,” (Ps. 33:17) still the lover in Song of Solomon compares the beloved’s beauty to that of “a horse among Pharaoh’s chariots.” (Song, 1:9.) And we glorify God not only for dappled things, but also for the grace and power of the natural world in collaboration with humankind.

Early Christian writers made much of today’s Gospel story. St. Augustine noted something we might overlook: “That rich man’s name was known to people, but not the poor man’s. In contrast, the Lord Jesus gives the poor man’s name, but not the rich man’s.” Already a sign that God’s scale of merit differs from ours. St. Augustine went on to describe the wealthy man, enjoying his earthly delights, constantly grabbing in order to increase his possessions, “drawing to himself the leaden weight that would cause him to drown. That great weight dragged him all the way down to hell…, for he had not heeded the words of Jesus: ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened; for my yoke is easy and my burden light.’ Christ’s ‘burden’ is wings, and on those wings that poor man flew away into the bosom of Abraham.”

Two centuries later, St. Gregory was reminding his people that we encounter many Lazaruses: “they lie in front of your doors and they need the crumbs that fall from the table where you have had your fill. If we look for him, we find Lazarus every day; we see him even if we don’t look for him.” Yes, he admitted, some of the people who annoy us by their begging may be unworthy, but it’s hard to tell who the unworthy ones are, and for all we know, one of them may in fact be Christ himself.

Stephen Colbert testified today at the House judiciary subcommittee hearing on immigration and farm labor. Or was it “Stephen Colbert” testifying? The whole thing was a preview, perhaps, of the dueling “rallies” of Daily Show and Colbert Report fans planned for next month in Washington — comedy and political commentary conjoined in ever more confusing ways.

The hearing was focused on a proposed agricultural jobs bill designed to improve the poor conditions for migrant workers. Colbert’s testimony was linked to a stunt from The Colbert Report where the host spent a day doing farm work as part of the United Farm Workers of America “Take Our Jobs” awareness-raising campaign. He testified in the character of his blowhard television persona — although he had submitted a far more irenic text [PDF] ahead of time. And he got off a few very good lines. “I’m not a fan of the government doing anything,” he said, “but I’ve gotta ask: why isn’t the government doing anything?”

The New York Times‘s Ashley Parker has a writeup, which notes that Colbert broke character when questioned after his testimony: Read the rest of this entry »

In 1831 Newman preached a sermon on “Christian Manhood,” that is, Christian adulthood, which had for its text: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Cor 13:11). Here is the central paragraph:

It is very common for Christians to make much of what are but petty services; first to place the very substance of religious obedience in a few meagre observances, or particular moral precepts which are easily complied with, and which they think fit to call giving up the world; and then to make a great vaunting about their having done what, in truth, every one who is not a mere child in Christ ought to be able to do, to congratulate themselves upon their success, ostentatiously to return thanks for it, to condemn others who do not happen to move exactly along the very same line of minute practices in detail which they have adopted, and in consequence to forget that, after all, by such poor obedience, right though it be, still they have not approached even to a distant view of that point in their Christian course, at which they may consider themselves, in St. Paul’s words, to have “attained” a sure hope of salvation; just as little children, when they first have strength to move their limbs, triumph in every exertion of their newly-acquired power, as in some great victory. To put off idle hopes of earthly good, to be sick of flattery and the world’s praise, to see the emptiness of temporal greatness, and to be watchful against self-indulgence,—these are but the beginnings of religion; these are but the preparation of heart, which religious earnestness implies; without a good share of them, how can a Christian move a step? How could Abraham, when called of God, have even set out from his native place, unless he had left off to think much of this world, and cared not for its ridicule? Surely  these attainments are but our first manly robe, showing that childhood is gone; and, if we feel the love and fear of the world still active within our hearts, deeply must we be humbled, yes, and alarmed; and humbled even though but the traces remain of former weaknesses. But even if otherwise, what thank have we? See what the Apostles were, by way of contrast, and then you will see what is the true life of the Spirit, the substance and full fruit of holiness. Read the rest of this entry »

Are the Democrats any good at politics? Jonathan Chait calls their fetal decision not to hold a vote on tax cuts a sellout. That’s about the size of it.

Here’s the really crazy thing. Moderate Democrats worry that passing a tax cut for income under $250,000 would be portrayed as a tax hike, because it allows rates to rise on income over $250,000. As I’ve noted several times, that could be solved by holding a separate vote. But the moderate Democrats’ solution is not to hold a vote on any tax cuts. In other words, they’re worried that failing to vote on a tax cut for the rich will be portrayed as a tax hike on the middle class. Answer: decide not to vote on a tax hike for the middle class either.

If this winds up with a total stalemate and no extension of tax cuts for anybody, it’s a huge policy win. At the same time it’s sheer political suicide. Just one of the nuttiest decisions, on pure political grounds, I’ve ever seen.

Recently I wrote a blog post that mentioned that some people posit that humans have, in effect, two brains.  We have a primitive “lizard brain” that reacts instantly to immediate danger.  And we have a nice big rational brain, evolved later, that we use to make sense of the world.  The lizard brain reacts more quickly than the rational brain in part because compared to the rational brain, the lizard brain is not very bright.  The lizard brain is an animal brain that is designed to look at the world directly in front of one’s face and decide either “danger-yes” or “danger-no”.  If the lizard brains sees “danger-yes” it responds with the overwhelming but purely automatic physical responses that we associate with the stress produced by an immediate and dire emergency.

It seems that in modern society we tend to have more lizard brain type stress reactions than are warranted by actual episodes where we immediately need to fight something to the death.  So it may be that our rational brain takes real but distant negative possibilities and reframes these as immediate threats.  It then feeds these to the lizard brain over and over again and this is why we find ourselves operating under so much adrenaline pumping stress all of the time.  If follows that we may be able to train our rational brains, which we may be said to experience as our “inner voice” to learn how to “calm the lizard” by in effect reassuring our lizard brain that our problems are not in fact lizard brain type threats serious problems though they may be.

The question of what this rational internal voice itself is would seem to me to be the subject of 3,000 years of fascinating philosophical, psychological, sociological and artistic discussion.  The mere existence of such a discussion tells me that there may be relatively good or bad rationalities; positive or negative sources for ordering the world; and potentially more or less successful ways with which to approach life with this inner voice.

But what fascinates me are all of the mystical discussions that, while very respectful of the development of moral reasoning, claim that regardless of what this inner voice is or where it comes from, there is another even more real world that cannot be accessed via the inner rational voice, but only by shutting this voice off and plunging into the Great Silence.

So asks our newest columnist, Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, in “Trivial Pursuits,” just posted to the home page. Here’s how it starts:

Republicans were few—you could count them on one hand—in our Chicago neighborhood. The one on our block, Bob O’Rourke, was the Republican counterpart to Ann W. O’Brien, the Democratic precinct captain and my aunt. O’Rourke, always dressed in suit and tie (even on the hottest days), had an office job. He was invariably polite and genial, though a bit reticent around my father and his fierce Democratic loyalties. O’Rourke had the duty, as did my aunt, to get his voters to the polls—few though they were. This was more time-consuming for her than for him; even so, she never failed to help him out on other precinct-captain duties, negotiating the repair of potholes, arranging garbage pick-ups, and removing fallen tree branches. Now and again, my aunt may have turned one of his voters to her own purposes by offering a very special favor (a city job). As far as we know, he never turned one of hers. He was too upright: a model Republican, full of probity and gravitas—the Dwight Eisenhower and Robert Taft of Carmen Avenue.

That probity and gravitas long served as a counterweight to the transgressions and rowdiness of the Democrats. But today there are few Republican exemplars of either probity or gravitas: only Richard Lugar of Indiana comes immediately to mind. Most of his congressional colleagues are not serious about governing; too many are just, well, clownish.

Read the rest here. For more on the GOP’s incredible vanishing moderates, check out E. J. Dionne’s “Extreme Makeover.”

P.S. Don’t miss Kurt Orzeck’s take on California’s looming elections, “Midterm Exam,” also posted to the homepage, which, in case you haven’t noticed, is updated regularly with new articles. Visit early and often.

Every year corporate CEOs spend literally billions of dollars on human resource consultants and airport bookstore management books trying to capture what I shall call the Unconquerable Nut.  The Unconquerable Nut is that space in every working day made up of all the inefficiency, slackness, boredom, pilfering, resistance, poor morale, day dreaming, prayer, hangovers, anger, laziness, joking around, gossiping, and fear.  In the American Corporation, the Unconquerable Nut is viewed like the mercury in the body of the mighty salmon.  Every single one partakes of the toxin to a greater of lesser degree, but since every one has at least some of it, no one can taste the poison any more.

Most of the working day of any line manager is spent attacking the Nut.  One thing about the Nut is that the smaller it gets, the harder it gets.  This is a physical law.  One can sometimes change the size of the Nut, at least for a while, but no one can ever kill it.  I have worked in, observed, or read about hundreds of companies and there is only a single case that I know of where someone even came close to conquering the Unconquerable Nut.

And it all started with a dozen missing boxes of frozen chickens.

Read the rest of this entry »

Though the book is not “out” until next Monday, Obama’s Wars is getting a lot of pre-publication review.

NYTimes: “Woodward Book Says Afghanistan Divided White House.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/world/asia/22policy.html?ref=politics

WashPost: “Bob Woodward book details Obama battles with advisers over exit plan for Afghan war.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706.html?hpid=topnews

Mike Allen, “Playbook,”The book is net-positive for Obama, portraying him as thoughtful, decisive, seeking advice, and knowing what he knows and what he doesn’t.” I guess we’ll see about that. http://www.politico.com/playbook/0910/playbook1181.html

The reigning conspiracy theory has been that Petraeus & Co., in securing a troop increase, boxed in the President; these stories suggest that Woodward has a different story to tell.

The impact on the Afghanistan review in December looms large and the promised drawdown in July 2011 even larger. We shall see! Anyone here actually read the book yet?

If you’ve been enjoying Joseph A. Komonchak’s many “Newmania” posts here at dotCommonweal, consider them an appetizer course for the latest issue of the magazine. It’s online now, and you can all click here to read Fr. Komonchak’s survey of the writings and theology of newly beatified Cardinal John Henry Newman.

Also in this issue, Frank Oveis reviews the new biography Newman’s Unquiet Grave, by John Cornwell: ‘Credo in Newmanum’. And the Last Word essay by Mary Frances Coady reports on a visit to Newman’s rooms in Birmingham and reflects on his relationship with fellow convert Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Upstairs Room (subscriber log-in required).

Non-Newman highlights include Birth Rights, Eduardo Peñalver’s report on the campaign against the Fourteenth Amendment and “birthright citizenship,” and our editorial on the GOP’s enthusiasm for tax cuts, An Expensive Loyalty. And subscribers can log in to read a terrific essay by Jeffrey Stout, Liberty for All, on what is required of a republic committed to “liberty.”

For access to all of that, plus a brace of reviews of film and books (and poetry, and letters…), subscribe now. Online-only subscriptions are only $29, and you can sign up for a print subscription here to get Commonweal in its handy paper format. Thank you as ever to our loyal subscribers; we can’t do all this without you.

You know you want ‘em:

Despite the fact that the used car lot was a full fledged capitalist operation, one that by the Iron Laws of Capitalism could be deemed successful because it hadn’t failed yet, it couldn’t really be called a model of efficiency.  Efficiency is about the effective management of time.  But there is a problem when different members of the staff are addicted to different kinds of chemicals and therefore experience time in their own personal way.  Put a drunk, a coke head, a doper, and a meth addict in a room and ask each of them what time it is and you won’t get an answer.  But each one will not be answering for a different reason.

Compounding this time problem was the assembly line issue.  Unlike a relatively more efficient Japanese auto plant where a new part rolls past your face every 7.5 seconds, the speed of the used car conveyor belt depended on what kind of customer was sitting on it at the time.  Fast Eddie outlined the science of it, and it would have made Frederick Taylor, the founder of Scientific Management proud.  Or at least amused.

Read the rest of this entry »

In Trastevere, Sept. 19, 2010:

At the Prayer Vigil last evening in Hyde Park, Pope Benedict began his homily with these words:

This is an evening of joy, of immense spiritual joy, for all of us. We are gathered here in prayerful vigil to prepare for tomorrow’s Mass, during which a great son of this nation, Cardinal John Henry Newman, will be declared Blessed. How many people, in England and throughout the world, have longed for this moment! It is also a great joy for me, personally, to share this experience with you. As you know, Newman has long been an important influence in my own life and thought, as he has been for so many people beyond these isles. The drama of Newman’s life invites us to examine our lives, to see them against the vast horizon of God’s plan, and to grow in communion with the Church of every time and place: the Church of the apostles, the Church of the martyrs, the Church of the saints, the Church which Newman loved and to whose mission he devoted his entire life.

And this morning at the Mass during which the Beatification was proclaimed, he concluded his homily, as was most appropriate, with the prayer/poem of Blessed John Henry Newman:

Praise to the Holiest in the height, and in the depth be praise; in all his words most wonderful, most sure in all his ways!

Update:

Having spent some hours this weekend watching, thanks to EWTN, Pope Benedict’s interaction with individuals and groups in Scotland and England, and pondering his words, I conclude with Austen Ivereigh’s on the spot summation of the apostolic visit on the America blog:

Although he had come with a fierce message about the vital importance of the place of faith in public life and education, it had been framed, throughout, in terms and language and symbols which pointed to the value of dialogue and respect. It is this, perhaps above all, which floored his critics. The Pope’s was a message which all could instantly recognise as the true humanism.

He leaves a Church invigorated and unified by his visit; a Church more proud and confident than it was last Wednesday; a Church which will be pondering some magnificent texts for many years to come – -and images of a Pope whose smiling, gentle countenance speaks of the kind of humanism Britain will need to prosper.

Pope Benedict, before the Vigil of Prayer in Hyde Park in preparation for the beatification of John Henry Newman, visited a home for the elderly conducted by the Little Sisters of the Poor.

He spoke very personally to the residents, telling them:

Life is a unique gift, at every stage from conception until natural death, and it is God’s alone to give and to take. One may enjoy good health in old age; but equally Christians should not be afraid to share in the suffering of Christ, if God wills that we struggle with infirmity. My predecessor, the late Pope John Paul, suffered very publicly during the last years of his life. It was clear to all of us that he did so in union with the sufferings of our Saviour. His cheerfulness and forbearance as he faced his final days were a remarkable and moving example to all of us who have to carry the burden of advancing years.In this sense, I come among you not only as a father, but also as a brother who knows well the joys and the struggles that come with age. Our long years of life afford us the opportunity to appreciate both the beauty of God’s greatest gift to us, the gift of life, as well as the fragility of the human spirit. Those of us who live many years are given a marvellous chance to deepen our awareness of the mystery of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity. As the normal span of our lives increases, our physical capacities are often diminished; and yet these times may well be among the most spiritually fruitful years of our lives. These years are an opportunity to remember in affectionate prayer all those whom we have cherished in this life, and to place all that we have personally been and done before the mercy and tenderness of God. This will surely be a great spiritual comfort and enable us to discover anew his love and goodness all the days of our life.

The recent kerfuffle about the World Trade Center site and how far is far enough curiously avoided the state and content of the site as it now exists. Joe Nocera in this week’s installment of “Talking Business,” brings us up-to-date.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/business/18nocera.html?_r=1&ref=business

“Cor ad Cor Loquitur:” this phrase of Saint Francis de Sales, which Newman took as his own when he became Cardinal, is the theme of Pope Benedict’s Apostolic  Voyage. This morning in the cavernous Westminster Cathedral of the Precious Blood, that is dominated by an immense suspended Crucifix, the Pope used the striking image to  focus his homily visually. He said:

The visitor to this Cathedral cannot fail to be struck by the great crucifix dominating the nave, which portrays Christ’s body, crushed by suffering, overwhelmed by sorrow, the innocent victim whose death has reconciled us with the Father and given us a share in the very life of God. The Lord’s outstretched arms seem to embrace this entire church, lifting up to the Father all the ranks of the faithful who gather around the altar of the Eucharistic sacrifice and share in its fruits. The crucified Lord stands above and before us as the source of our life and salvation, “the high priest of the good things to come”, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews calls him in today’s first reading (Heb 9:11).

It is in the shadow, so to speak, of this striking image, that I would like to consider the word of God which has been proclaimed in our midst and reflect on the mystery of the Precious Blood. For that mystery leads us to see the unity between Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, the Eucharistic sacrifice which he has given to his Church, and his eternal priesthood, whereby, seated at the right hand of the Father, he makes unceasing intercession for us, the members of his mystical body.

After the lovely Mass (which contained two prolonged periods of silence — after the homily and after communion), the Pope went outside the cathedral to greet a host of young people come from all the dioceses. He was greeted by a young black teenager, representing the parishes of London, who spoke movingly of the commitment of young people to the faith.

The Pope said, addressing the young people:

I ask each of you, first and foremost, to look into your own heart. Think of all the love that your heart was made to receive, and all the love it is meant to give. After all, we were made for love. This is what the Bible means when it says that we are made in the image and likeness of God: we were made to know the God of love, the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to find our supreme fulfilment in that divine love that knows no beginning or end.

And he continued:

I ask you to look into your hearts each day to find the source of all true love. Jesus is always there, quietly waiting for us to be still with him and to hear his voice. Deep within your heart, he is calling you to spend time with him in prayer. But this kind of prayer, real prayer, requires discipline; it requires making time for moments of silence every day. Often it means waiting for the Lord to speak. Even amid the “busy-ness” and the stress of our daily lives, we need to make space for silence, because it is in silence that we find God, and in silence that we discover our true self. And in discovering our true self, we discover the particular vocation which God has given us for the building up of his Church and the redemption of our world.

Most moving of all was the embrace that was exchanged between Pope Benedict and the young man who had welcomed him. It was a prolonged and heartfelt exchange: “heart speaks to heart.”

The homily and words to the young people are here.

Today was a historic day. Not only did Pope Benedict address Members of Parliament and civic and cultural leaders in the very hall where Thomas More’s trial took place, he also celebrated Vespers with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey. Those who were able to watch both events saw the magnificence of the settings.

In his address at the Vespers Service, Archbishop Williams invoked Pope Saint Gregory the Great. He said in part:

For Christians of all traditions and confessions, St Gregory is a figure of compelling attractiveness and spiritual authority – pastor and leader, scholar and exegete and spiritual guide.  The fact that the first preaching of the Gospel to the English peoples in the sixth and seventh centuries has its origins in his vision creates a special connection for us with the See of the Apostles Peter and Paul;  and Gregory’s witness and legacy remain an immensely fruitful source of inspiration for our own mission in these dramatically different times.

The rest of his reflection is here.

Pope Benedict concluded his own remarks by invoking the great English saint and scholar, Bede the Venerable:

Gathered in this ancient monastic church, we can recall the example of a great Englishman and churchman whom we honour in common: Saint Bede the Venerable. At the dawn of a new age in the life of society and of the Church, Bede understood both the importance of fidelity to the word of God as transmitted by the apostolic tradition, and the need for creative openness to new developments and to the demands of a sound implantation of the Gospel in contemporary language and culture.

This nation, and the Europe which Bede and his contemporaries helped to build, once again stands at the threshold of a new age. May Saint Bede’s example inspire the Christians of these lands to rediscover their shared legacy, to strengthen what they have in common, and to continue their efforts to grow in friendship. May the Risen Lord strengthen our efforts to mend the ruptures of the past and to meet the challenges of the present with hope in the future which, in his providence, he holds out to us and to our world. Amen.

The Pope’s full text is here.