The Ark and The Dove

Great internet find

You know the Gutenberg Project, that puts etexts of good old public-domain books on the net?  I just ran across Mutopia, a site that does basically the same thing for sheet music.  Want free printable sheet music of music that's worth playing?  Go have a look.

Catholics Against Rudy

Hey Al, here are some Catholics against Rudy links - 'Anti-Rudy Catholics Plan Their "Assault"' (my scare quotes) and a Catholics Against Rudy blog (is Dismas Mr. Dillard from Southern Appeal?) that doesn't seem to have started yet.

Yeah, I haven't exactly decided whom I want to be our next president yet, but Giuliani has made it easy for me to say no to him.  Just like Kerry, only worse.  At least Kerry seems to have had the (poor) excuse of being utterly clueless about Catholicism, whereas Giuliani doesn't seem to be under the impression that Pope Pius XXIII [sic] and the Vatican II [sic] endorse pro-culture of death politicians.  Anyway, since it's not un-PC to bash on a Republican, and Republicans aren't supposed to get their feewings hurt just because people don't like them, does that mean we don't have to be so nice to him? 

I wonder if I'd be able come up with anything as good as the Bizarro Theory of John Kerry.  Maybe the Bizarro Rudy is against abortion and torture and he's the one we want for the Republican nominee instead.

Boos for American Idol

Isabel and I sat through last night's American Idol award ceremony in its entirety. It was one part lounge act, one part minstrel show, and one part fraternity hazing. The "Golden Idol" gag awards, or whatever they were called, were exploitive, uncomfortable, and (in the hands of Ryan Seacrest) horribly mean-spirited. A program that should have been a two-hour celebration and parade of talent, became a cruel freak show. Who thought it was a good idea to haul the grossly overweight, infantilized African American woman on stage to get a fake award? The next recipient was an African American male, who they then asked to sing without a microphone and then cut him off, complaining how bad he was. I'm surprised Ryan Seacrest didn't come out in burnt cork doing a number from the Jazz Singer. But it wasn't as if the show was racist. Not at all. They mocked white people as well...the two white guys who obviously have some kind of physical abnormalities (and was the one mentally handicapped?). "You guys are good sports," Seacrest nervously said to try to make the viewers feel slightly less uncomfortable. Bad form. I would have been embarassed if I were one of the finalists. Indeed, the mockery is what I remember most from the program. I vaguely recall the finalists having some interesting musical numbers, and I remember covering my ears when Bette Midler horrifically tortured her own song -- but what I remember most wasn't the congratulations for the winner, nor the tremendous talent of the singers. What I remember most was the carnivalesque freak show, and the insipidly boring and elongated speech about how many records American Idols previous contestants have sold.
On the good side, this means I now get to make Isabel sit through something really geeky...I'm thinking possibly the straight-to-DVD Robotech movie...the Transformers movie doesn't count because she wants to see it more than I do...

Religion versus the State

When I got up this morning the radio show I had turned on was discussing whether or not your first loyalty to should be to the US or your religion.  They seemed to approve of the current crop of candidates and previous presidents who declared their first loyalty to the state.  So I called, and said, "Despite Congress's best efforts they can't get me into heaven."  The hosts, one of whom is a former Congressman, thought it was pretty funny and I seemed to have a positive impact on their conversation.  But I would submit that if you aren't a Catholic first, then you aren't a Catholic.

Moral Convenience

"One can regard the fetus in its early stages as close enough to an innocent human being for us to abhor its destruction, but not close enough for us to deny the would-be mother the freedom to terminate it."

It's pretty binary, either the fetus is an innocent human being or it is not.  What does "close enough" even mean?  Isn't this argument the underpinning of every genocide?

The author's right, one can make that argument.  But that's just because people hold muddled and self-contradictory positions all the time.

Giuliani drives me nuts.  He no doubt thinks all sorts of government regulations concerning our bodies are good, but somehow gets in touch with his "principled libertarian" side when it comes to abortion?  The government says a woman can't smoke pot but she can kill a human being if it resides in her.

Giuliani's pro-torture and pro-abortion positions make it impossible for me to vote for him.  If he's the Republican nominee I'm voting for Testudo.

Omnivorous for a Reason

Alert read Therese let me know that unbalanced diets can and do kill.  Soy's okay occasionally, but it does up your estrogen levels.  And it's not nearly as good as a steak.  I like health food, but it is funny how when you go to the Commie food store on MD's campus, the shoppers there don't look especially healthy.  When I was a student I never saw any athletic looking people eating there.  I know some people don't like eating meat, but I think their fundamental mistake is in equating human pain with animal pain.  As Mark Shea pointed out today if we're supposedly just another animal species, then why do we worry things like overpopulation and cruelty?  No other species worries about these things.  (Yeah it's a ramble, but that's what blogs are for)

Noah Clue-ah

Via Drudge: Environmentalists are evidently building a memorial to Noah's Ark on Arrarat. This is supposed to be some kind of publicity stunt to warn people about the theorized consequences of global warming I can't help but think that it shows a deeply immature approach to exegesis. Imagine reading the story of Noah to someone and having their response be: "Boy...I sure would be afraid of rising water levels! I'd hate to drown. I better make sure I have an ark, too!" It's like a third grader's superficial response to plotpoints.

The point of Noah, last time I checked, was that he was the last good and obedient man in a world gone bad. And when the story is over, God seems to have enjoyed none of it and says He is never doing that again.

The irony is that most of these environmentalists are probably also advocating precisely the kinds of lifestyles that God and Noah  rejected. But it shouldn't come as that much of a surprise if they try to deconstruct the ark into a environmentalist symbol...just look what they did to the rainbow, which (according to the Noah story) was supposed to be God's sign that He wouldn't let the Earth be destroyed on account of human actions:

 

"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark. I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth...This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you:I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings. As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings--all mortal creatures that are on earth."

Now the Ark is reduced to a green logo, the rainbow is reduced to a gay pride bumper sticker, and God has been stripped of any power over His own physical creation.

And that's why you don't bite!

Though most of you probably didn't need to be told this, if you're one of those parents who bites your kid back to make him stop biting people, don't go berserk and bite the heck out of him.

And If You Thought My Last Allegory Was Troubled...

Maybe you should take a peek at Caleb Grimes's Star Wars Jesus book.

Yep. As if the messianic symbolism in the Star Wars movies wasn't writ painfully large enough in the prequels, someone had to go and point it all out to us in a book. Something that Albertus and Thomas and I do for free every couple of weeks on this blog and over dinner, somebody else gets paid to lecture and write about...

Incidentally, this is NOT a hint to any of my friends to buy me this book in the future. I have a long list of Star Wars items I wouldn't mind getting, though...this is not one of them.

Ugly Mugs

This is just a screen capture I did from Drudge. He's running a link to an article that says women prefer to date "ugly" men because handsome men are "boring." The text appears right above a completely unrelated and extremely unflattering image of Tarantino (who's also looking decidedly ecclesiastical). That would be funny enough, but I'm pretty sure Drudge is being intentionally ironic. Funnier by means of sheer coincidence is that the headline also appeared next to the faces of McCain and Kennedy in a random advertisement link...