Maggie's Farm

Ratzinger's Homily

The focus of the homily is on Friendship with Christ. Thanks to Hugh Hewitt:

CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGER

HOMILY AT THE MASS FOR THE ELECTION OF THE ROMAN PONTIFF

At this hour of great responsibility, we hear with special consideration what the Lord says to us in his own words. From the three readings I would like to examine just a few passages which concern us directly at this time.

The first reading gives us a prophetic depiction of the person of the Messiah - a depiction which takes all its meaning from the moment Jesus reads the text in the synagogue in Nazareth, when he says: "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4,21). At the core of the prophetic text we find a word which seems contradictory, at least at first sight. The Messiah, speaking of himself, says that he was sent "To announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God" (Is 61,2). We hear with joy the news of a year of favor: divine mercy puts a limit on evil - the Holy Father told us. Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: encountering Christ means encountering the mercy of God. Christ's mandate has become our mandate through priestly anointing. We are called to proclaim - not only with our words, but with our lives, and through the valuable signs of the sacraments, the "year of favor from the Lord." But what does the prophet Isaiah mean when he announces the "day of vindication by our God"? In Nazareth, Jesus did not pronounce these words in his reading of the prophet's text - Jesus concluded by announcing the year of favor. Was this, perhaps, the reason for the scandal which took place after his sermon? We do not know. In any case, the Lord gave a genuine commentary on these words by being put to death on the cross. Saint Peter says: "He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross" (1 Pe 2,24). And Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians: "Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree,' that the blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (Gal 3, 13s).

The mercy of Christ is not a cheap grace; it does not presume a trivialization of evil. Christ carries in his body and on his soul all the weight of evil, and all its destructive force. He burns and transforms evil through suffering, in the fire of his suffering love. The day of vindication and the year of favor meet in the paschal mystery, in Christ died and risen. This is the vindication of God: he himself, in the person of the Son, suffers for us. The more we are touched by the mercy of the Lord, the more we draw closer in solidarity with his suffering - and become willing to bear in our flesh "what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ" (Col 1, 24).

Blogs

Wondering how folks find the time to keep up with their Really Big Blogs, like Powerline and LGF. Must take hours every day to produce those things. Must be an obsession or ego trip or writing compulsion or whatever. Or probably just a wholesome hobby. But don't quit, guys - we rely on ya. Stay crazy.

Here, we just do what we can, semi-sanely, with good humor. But the b-world is wonderful, democracy in action, a writing universe for the unpublished and unpublishable.

What a wonderful world !

"The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without it there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments."

Benjamin Rush

Monitors

Holy Cow. I always thought the computer was the important thing. Really like my new Dell flat whatever 17 or 20" monitor or whatever it is. It makes 8 pt. type legible at a distance. Dell slams you for the height-adjustable feature, but I don't know why they bother making them without it. Who wants to have to look up at a screen? I am always behind the tech curve. If you are too, check here.

The Holy Grail of Ancient Greece

Not a minor story. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, rescued from the dump, have had a breakthrough, with possibly early versions of the Gospels, not to mention Homer, Hesiod, the Greek playwrights, etc.:

"Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed."

Read entire here.

A rarity in New England, Julian took this photo on Saturday in Deep River, CT. First record in 20 years. A hell of a photo. This bird is lost - they tend to be Fla. breeders, but are mainly South American birds. Read more about this beautiful hawk here.

"A pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood."

Gen. George Patton

from Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord is God!
It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

A Work of Art

1965 Farmall Model 605.

A fine, elegant machine; a masterpiece of industrial design. Other appealing items in background.

Rubber looks in decent shape.

As I sit looking out of a window of the building
I wish I did not have to write the instruction manual on the uses of a new
    metal.
I look down into the street and see people, each walking with an inner peace,
And envy them--they are so far away from me!
Not one of them has to worry about getting out this manual on schedule.
And, as my way is, I begin to dream, resting my elbows on the desk and leaning
    out of the window a little,
Of dim Guadalajara! City of rose-colored flowers!
City I wanted most to see, and did not see, in Mexico!
But I fancy I see, under the press of having to write the instruction manual,
Your public square, city, with its elaborate little bandstand!
The band is playing Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov.

from The Instruction Manual, by John Ashbery. Read entire: Click here: [minstrels] The Instruction Manual -- John Ashbery

"Constitution Not a Living Organism"

says Scalia. Funny figure of speech, brings odd images to mind. But of course he is right. It's a legal document - a contract between the people of the states and the federal government. As is said about the Ten Commandments  - "It's not the Ten Suggestions." Without that contract, there would have been no real union, just a confederacy. Piece on Scalia's speech here.  How did so many get hoodwinked into thinking that a contract was a living organism, anyway? Surely not lawyers? If you want to change it, you amend it.

The Coming Showdown

Please remind me again...Who won the election? The coming showdown over judges and the courts, and of course, the Supremes. HH gets the real story here.

More France and the EU

Chirac defends EU as polls turn negative:

"Mr Chirac said the treaty was needed to keep the EU "strong and organised" and defend its interests against the power of the US or of India and China." Read entire here. 

Doug TenNapel:

"Life would be so much easier if I could just ditch this religion crap and swallow atheism...but I'm not a man of faith. "

Read his short but pointed piece here

"Diplomacy is the art of letting the other fellow have your way."

Lester Pearson

France and EU

More on the possibility of France rejecting the EU. Good post by Belmont Club here.

Eider, R.I.P.

Dear Bird Dog,

Wanted to let you know I finally had to put Eider down. I know how fond you were of him, and some of his best points on grouse were birds you shot. Lots of fine memories.

Here's the painting.

Best,

Craig F

(note from Bird Dog - Eider was a Large Munsterlander who wouldn't quit, and a sweet guy too. Many fine hours in the Maine, Ct, NY, Saskatchewan, So. Dakota, etc. fields, marshes, and woodlands.)

Cost of Living

"WASHINGTON, DC—A report released Monday by the Federal Consumer Quality-Of- Life Control Board indicates that the cost of living now outstrips life's benefits for many Americans.

"This is sobering news," said study director Jack Farness. "For the first time, we have statistical evidence of what we've suspected for the past 40 years: Life really isn't worth living.""

Read entire here.

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more,
No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.
Well, he hands you a nickel,
He hands you a dime,
He asks you with a grin
If you're havin a good time,
Then he fines you every time you slam the door.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.

Dylan, from Maggie's Farm
Buy the book

Quick Thinking

"...thinking, Gladwell tells us—or, more precisely, thinking too much —can trip us up. Consider the curators at the Getty Museum who were offered the opportunity to purchase a rare sixth-century Greek marble statue of a young man. After a year of sophisticated archaeological and geological analysis that included core sampling and electron spectrometry and X-ray diffraction, they handed over nearly ten million dollars, cer-tain that the piece was authentic, a find. Meanwhile, two leading art historians, Frederico Zeri and Evelyn Harrison, and Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, each came to a different conclusion after simply eyeballing the piece: even in the face of such compelling scientific data they felt it was a fake. And they were right:

In the first two seconds of looking —in a single glance—they were able to understand more about the essence of the statue than the team at the Getty was able to understand after fourteen months. "

Thus begins Susan Halpern's review of two books which deal with "intuition" and unconscious thinking, one by Malcolm Gladwell and one by Elkhonon Goldberg. The point, I suppose, is that we don't know what we know..but you already knew that, right? We bring much more to bear on decisions that we are aware of, so that quick decisions - not impulsive decisions - can be pretty good ones. An example from relationships:

"as Gladwell reports, there is speed dating, where unclaimed singles scurry around a room sizing up potential mates in a couple of minutes. Gigerenzer's work shows that most people need not spend a lot of time, or encounter a tremendous number of new prospects, to find a suitable partner."

Re the latter - duh. How about anyone who would talk to you. Read entire interesting but long piece in NY Review of Books here.

"A man's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor."

Proverbs 29

Romantic and graceful, the Mute Swan is an elegant but unwelcome pest in areas of the country, such as southern New England, where it thrives.

Originally introduced from Europe to ornament ponds on the estates of the wealthy, they are highly aggressive towards our native waterfowl, and turn vegetated bottoms into bare mud.

They are reputed to be delicious to eat, and there are efforts to control their populations in areas where their numbers are destructive.

Mute Swan's orange or yellow bill distinguishes it easily from North America's two native swans, the Tundra Swan and the Trumpeter Swan. Plus the fact that it is mute. Read more: Click here: All About Birds

Canadian Politics and Missile Defense

"Condi has just handily taken one of those butt-kicking, knee-high leather boots of hers, sunk it into lil’ Paulie Canuckistan’s back bacon, and drop-kicked him into a state of irrelevancy. By adopting his position against the missile defense program, the Prime Minister has essentially guaranteed that Canadian business will be his cell mate in passive-aggressive hell."  Read entire here.

Mondovino

The movie is said to be the anti-globalist Fahrenheit view of the wine world. Kerry Howley reviews the documentary on US and French wine, which opened last week in NY:

"Almost thirty years ago, nine French wine critics gathered in Paris to preside over a face-off of French and American wines. Chardonnays battled with white Burgundies, Cabernets sought to displace Bordeaux. The French had always said fine wine was primarily a function of place—and that place was France. But following the blind tasting, the critics found they had chose a Californian Cabernet as the top red and placed three Napa Valley whites within the top four. As he downed a 1972 Napa Chardonnay, one critic reportedly gushed, "Ah, back to France." " Read entire here.

Sierra Club Sells Out

Is this called "The ends justify the means?" How the SC determines it's position on immigration here.

"We are a nation that has a government - not the other way around."

President Ronald Reagan

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Too cool. Thanks, CL, for retrieving the link. Every edition of the famed Brooklyn Daily Eagle from 1841-1902, on line, thanks to the Brooklyn Public Library. Back then Brooklyn was its own town - an NYC suburb with farms. You could easily waste hours on their site. Remember how difficult it used to be to review old newspapers? Microfiches? Awful things. Ain't the internet grand?

Osprey

My neighborhood Osprey is back - as of yesterday. I don't see it, but hear the screechy call. He/she/they will be screeching out my window for the next few months, and the babies will be crying for fish all day long. Will need to do an Osprey Bird of the Week...As annoying noises go, what could be better? Twenty years ago, you would never see one in these parts.