Some Have Hats

Das Boot?

Missing Bees

The following video is recommended for mature audiences who aren't squeamish about some bleeped-out-but-obvious language and the sight of a women dressed as a honey bee holding an unfurled condom.  If you can live with all of that, it is very clever and funny.  And true. 

(As one of the "bees" points out, we'll all be dead in four years without them. Maybe we should start obsessing about that and leave the polar bears alone for awhile?)

A Special Post For Cuz Kim

I've been doing some research on great-great-great-to-infinity-and-beyond Grandpa John Lawson and you'll never believe what I found.  The following, from his book:

Congaree Recipe for Hickerie-Nut Soop

compiled by John Lawson

Ingredients:

Hickerie-Nuts
Water or Meat Broath

Beat the Nuts betwixt two great Stones.  Sift them and add to water, or a Meat Broath , preferably venison.

The small Shells will precipitate to the Bottom of the Pot. The Kernel, in Form of Flower, mixes with the Liquor.

Cook.

Yield: A curious Soop

Little did we know we were carrying on a family tradition!  (Or that the well was a "great stone.")

I'm thinking this would be really good on the buffet next Thanksgiving.  You bring the great stone, I'll bring the venison.

(Apparently the inability to spell is a proud family tradition as well.  Don't know about you, but I feel better!)

[p.s. I have not yet stumbled upon a recipe for G.H. Soop, but I will keep you posted.  Meanwhile, check out the John Lawson Digital Exhibit!]

 

Hooked on Phonics

My friend Catherine sent me the following. (And someone else must have sent it to her, because she doesn't have any five year-old students.

My five year-old students are learning to read. Yesterday one of them pointed at a picture in a zoo book and said, "Look at this! It's a frickin' elephant!" 

I took a deep breath, then asked, "What did you call it?"

"It's a frickin' elephant! It says so on the picture!"

And so it does...   

"African Elephant"

Hooked on phonics. Ain't it wonderful?

Lawson Blood

We went hiking on Grandfather Mountain again today, from whence comes the Caleb quote of the vacation:

"I've got Lawson blood, I don't need my parents helping me over rocks."

Well.

I guess I should take comfort in the fact that I have done a good job of passing down the family stories, not to mention the spirit of adventure.

Now I just have to keep him alive long enough to pass it on to the next generation!

I'm My Own Grandpa

The latest joke from my mom, who -- as you can see -- is an intolerant hate-monger such as myself:

City Hall in a California city:

'Next.'

'Good morning. We want to apply for a marriage license.'

'Names?'

'Tim and Jim Jones.'

'Jones? Are you related? I see a resemblance.'

'Yes, we're brothers.'

'Brothers? You can't get married.'

'Why not? Aren't you giving marriage licenses to same gender couples?'

'Yes, thousands. But we haven't had any siblings. That's incest!'

'Incest?' No, we are not gay.'

'Not gay? Then why do you want to get married?'

'For the financial benefits, of course. And we do love each other.

Besides, we don't have any other prospects.'

'But we're issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples who've been denied equal protection under the law.. If you are not gay, you can get married to a woman.'

'Wait a minute. A gay man has the same right to marry a woman as I have.  But just because I'm straight doesn't mean I want to marry a woman. I want to marry Jim.'

'And I want to marry Tim, Are you going to discriminate against us just because we are not gay?'

'All right, all right. I'll give you your license. Next.'

'Hi. We are here to get married.'

'Names?'

'John Smith, Jane James, Robert Green, and June Johnson.'

'Who wants to marry whom?'

'We all want to marry each other.'

'But there are four of you!'

'That's right. You see, we're all bisexual. I love Jane and Robert, Jane loves me and June, June loves Robert and Jane, and Robert loves June and me. All of us getting married together is the only way that we can express our sexual preferences in a marital relationship.'

'But we've only been granting licenses to gay and lesbian couples.'

'So you're discriminating against bisexuals!'

'No, it's just that, well, the traditional idea of marriage is that it's

just for couples.'

'Since when are you standing on tradition?'

'Well, I mean, you have to draw the line somewhere.'

'Who says? There's no logical reason to limit marriage to couples. The more the better. Besides, we demand our rights! The mayor says the constitution guarantees equal protection under the law. Give us a marriage license!'

'All right, all right. Next.'

'Hello, I'd like a marriage license.'

'In what names?'

'David Deets.'

'And the other man?'

'That's all. I want to marry myself.'

'Marry yourself? What do you mean?'

'Well, my psychiatrist says I have a dual personality, so I want to marry the two together. Maybe I can file a joint income-tax return.'

'That does it! I quit!! You people are making a mockery of marriage!!'

 

Catholics Against the Church

This comment from my combox was just too good to leave there:

The vote was unanimous 11-0. An 11-0 vote against the Church by the Supervisors of San Francisco is something all Catholics can be proud of.

Remind me again why the Church is afraid to say the word schism out loud? Because if we could just admit what is already so, then so the ones of us who actually are Roman Catholics could go to Mass and have pot luck suppers together, and the American Catholics could throw darts at icons of St. Paul and have Leather Bingo Nights and praise themselves for their holy tolerance. And we could stop warring over who the "real" Catholics are.

Instead, we go on and on and on being held hostage, for fear of creating a schism that already exists.

I'm Okay, You're Disgusting

Poor St. Francis.

On today's WorldNetDaily I was greeted by an article with the huge headline, "Major U.S. City Officially Condemns Catholic Church."  My immediate thought was not, "Wow, really? Which city and why?"

A San Francisco city and county board resolution that officially labeled the Catholic church's moral teachings on homosexuality as "insulting to all San Franciscans," "hateful," "defamatory," "insensitive" and "ignorant" will be challenged tomorrow in court for violating the Constitution's prohibition of government hostility toward religion.

Resolution 168-08, passed unanimously by the City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors two years ago, also accused the Vatican of being a "foreign country" meddling with and attempting to "negatively influence (San Francisco's) existing and established customs."

Here's my favorite part:

It said of the church's teaching on homosexuality, "Such hateful and discriminatory rhetoric is both insulting and callous, and shows a level of insensitivity and ignorance which has seldom been encountered by this Board of Supervisors."

Ummm... Oh, never mind.

The board's resolution urged the city's local archbishop and the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to defy the Vatican's instructions, concluding with a spiteful reminder that the church authority that issued the ban was known 100 years ago as "The Holy Office of the Inquisition."

The resolution also took a shot at Levada, the former archbishop of San Francisco, saying, "Cardinal Levada is a decidedly unqualified representative of his former home city, and of the people of San Francisco and the values they hold dear."

Point of fact. Dental dams are a "value." Freedom of religion is a Constitutional guarantee. Minor point, I know, but I haven't had my coffee yet.

But wait, there's more.

The cultural, and now political, straight-arm to adherents of the Christian faith in San Francisco has been increasingly public in the last two years. Just one week after the anti-Catholic resolution was passed, the San Francisco Board issued a similar resolution against a mostly evangelical group.

Following a gathering of 25,000 teens at San Francisco's AT&T Park as part of Ron Luce's Teen Mania "Battle Cry for a Generation" rally against the sexualization of America's youth culture by advertisers and media, the board spoke out formally again.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution condemning the "act of provocation" by what it termed an "anti-gay," "anti-choice" organization that aimed to "negatively influence the politics of America's most tolerant and progressive city."

Openly gay California Assemblyman Mark Leno told protesters of the teen rally that though such religious people may be few, "they're loud, they're obnoxious, they're disgusting, and they should get out of San Francisco."

Let's track this. A gathering of teens who don't want their faces rubbed in hedonism is disgusting. Not to mention loud and obnoxious. Unlike those quiet, tasteful gay pride gatherings?

The Chronicle also reported on a San Francisco protester against the evangelical youth rally carrying a sign that may sum up the sentiment: "I moved here to get away from people like you."

A very salient point, and I'm glad he brought it up.

Where can I go to get away from people like him?

Whew!

It is with great relief that I report that I am NOT 1/4 English. My relatives were right when they continued to insist, despite all evidence to the contrary, that we are Scottish.

Further digging revealed that the Lawsons were banished to the north of England for being "an unruly clan." So we were indeed Scottish when we got on the boat in England.  (The URL where I found that information saved me a fortune in good Scotch.)  Now I understand why my family's constant "We're from Scotland!" always sounds like a battle cry.  And why it is so often repeated.  Last night I called my mother to get some help on the lemon chess pie I was making and I mentioned meeting the Lawsons at the clan tent. I said, "They had heard of Rowland Lawson." Her immediate response was, "He was from Scotland." I can now imagine a couple of hundred years of Lawsons in Northern England snapping, "We're Scottish!" at passers-by.

We were also very Catholic and diehard Jacobites, with the exception of a couple of branches of the family who are on record as having been disowned for having married Protestants. My branch being one of them. My great-great-great-great grandfather John Lawson, a famous botanist, explorer and surveyor who was tortured and killed by the Tuscarora Indians, was an Anglican and his son married a Hardie ("The Hardies came from Scotland!") and the Hardies were Methodists who became Presbyterians and have drifted back and forth ever since.  (My brother is a Methodist minister and my mother is Presbyterian. I was raised Methodist by a Methodist father and a Presbyterian mother, who went to the Methodist church every Sunday, but not without complaining about having been wrenched from her Presbyterian roots.  And I sat in church and, starting at age eight, came home every Sunday saying, "Something is wrong."

I wonder why the Jacobite ancestors chose me, when they decided to whisper in someone's ear.

Anyway...while my internet is working (for some mysterious reason), here is a photo of me and the Lawsons I met at the Highland Games. Is it my imagination, or do we all look amazingly alike?

How I Procrastinate in North Carolina

To tell the truth, until yesterday I hadn't fired a gun in a couple of years. I always say I'm going to, and then I always end up bailing because I've got too much work.

All things considered (like the fact that the wild turkeys on my property might have to become Sunday dinner if the economy continues to collapse) it seemed like a good time to brush up on my Annie Oakley skills.

So here's my target. And no, I didn't fire a few dozen bullets into trees. They're all on this cardboard.

If I could see, I might be impressive. But I figure if a bad guy ever breaks into my house with the intention of doing something unpleasant to me or my kids, I'm not going to tell him to hang on a second while I dig through my purse to find my glasses.

For the record, the target was about 30 feet away. Not an impressive distance but, as I mentioned, I'm half blind.  (In the case of the bad guy, I'm just going to have to ask him if he'd mind stepping a little closer. I haven't figured out the turkey yet.)

The Pope is a Genius

This arrived in my e-mail.

*****

Published on National Catholic Reporter Conversation Cafe (http://ncrcafe.org)

'Kind' and 'reliable' Jesuit named to Vatican's top doctrinal post

By John L Allen Jr Weekly
Created Jul 11 2008 - 07:08

Last week brought a Vatican appointment that didn't exactly cut in the direction of what I call "affirmative orthodoxy," meaning Pope Benedict XVI's strong defense of the faith coupled with a gentle, positive style. Archbishop Raymond Burke, named as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, instead has a profile as something of a cultural warrior.

This week Benedict XVI returned to form, with a nomination to a post arguably more consequential than Burke's. On Wednesday, the pope named Jesuit Fr. Luis Ladaria, a Spaniard, as secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

By all accounts, they don't come much more "affirmative orthodoxy" than Ladaria.

The vacancy was created when, on the same day, Benedict appointed Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the CDF since December 2002, as the new prefect of the Congregation for Saints. The move puts Amato, 70, in line to become a cardinal, a typical Vatican way of rewarding loyal service. Given that the result has long been taken for granted, the more interesting question was always whom Benedict would tap as Amato's successor. In many ways, serving as secretary of the CDF -- traditionally known as La Suprema, or the "supreme" congregation -- is one of the most important jobs in the Vatican, especially under a pope who cares passionately about the theological underpinnings of policy choices.

A Jesuit, Ladaria was born in 1944 in Manacor, Spain, part of the Balearic Islands off the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula. He took a law degree at the University of Madrid in 1966, then a theology degree at the Jesuit-run Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt. He earned a doctorate in theology at the Gregorian University in Rome, also run by the Jesuits, with a dissertation on "The Holy Spirit in St. Hillary of Poitiers." That background may have recommended Ladaria to Benedict XVI, very much a man of ressourcement, or a return to the sources of the church, especially the Fathers. Ladaria's interest in Christology may also be part of the picture, given that Christology has been a key doctrinal interest both of the CDF and of Benedict personally in recent years.

Ladaria taught the history of dogma at the Pontifical University of Comillas in Spain until his appointment to the Gregorian University in Rome, or the Greg, in 1984. There he put in a stretch as vice-rector from 1986 to 1992. His curriculum vitae includes 20 books and 83 academic articles. His current book project is El Dios vivo y verdadero: el Misterio de la Trinidad (The Living and True God: The Mystery of the Trinity).

Ladaria served as a member of the International Theological Commission, the main advisory body to the CDF, from 1992 to 1997, and became a consultor for the congregation in 1995. In March 2004, he was named general secretary of the ITC.

As rumors of the appointment began to circulate early this week, I reached out to Ladaria's colleagues at the Gregorian and on the ITC for a "read" on who he is, and what one might expect from him at the CDF. It's telling that the two most common terms Italians used to characterize him were gentile, meaning "kind," and affidabile, meaning "reliable" -- both in the generic sense that he's a responsible, hard-working person, and in the more narrow ecclesiastical sense that he's strongly committed to church teaching. As I listened, it struck me that affidabilità gentile could serve as a rough Italian equivalent of "affirmative orthodoxy."

Here's a sampling of what I heard about Ladaria from various sources, some of them fellow Jesuits, some fellow theologians, and some Vatican personnel who've had dealings with Ladaria. The comments span the spectrum of theological positions, cultures, and languages:

"He teaches Trinity in the first cycle, and he's probably the most popular theology professor at the Greg. I would attribute that to his very lively and clear lecture style, his language skills, and his cordial behavior toward students, including those whose research he directs. The more 'classical' first-cyclers (American and French seminarians especially) also delight in Luis' clear orthodoxy … He'll be a great loss."

* * *

"Luis is a good man, learned and responsible … He is a popular and well respected teacher/lecturer at the Greg. He is also a genial and understanding member of our Jesuit community … Theologically, I would describe him as a 'moderate conservative'. He is not tied to any particular theologian."

* * *

I know him quite well and I have great respect for him. He is a top shelf theologian, extremely hard working, and a very popular lecturer at the Greg. His optional courses draw as many as 150 students, and he directs a huge amount of theses. He is also very human. He laughs a lot, and is very gracious with the women who clean our offices etc."

* * *

[Ladaria] was sent by his Spanish Jesuit province for basic level theology to Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt, where he learned the basics very well, studied the thought of the 20th century classics, and was steered to prepare for teaching systematic theology by deep study of a church Father. (He was influenced by H.J. Sieben, THE scholar of church councils). He did his doctorate at the Greg under Antonio Orbe (a world specialist on gnosticism and Irenaeus) on Hillary of Potiers (attracted by his Christology, perhaps). … By the early '80s he was full time at the Gregorian and gradually became a highly respected teacher and productive theologian. He turned out books in the areas he taught, more recently on Trinitarian theology, to which he shifted in the '90s. He was known for lucid presentations of complex theological topics and issues. Right now he's the best theological mind at the Greg and will be hard to replace. … We used to think of him as a bit fragile, but he's developed an overall strength for multitasking, being on every important committee at the Greg, consulting for the CDF, joining the ITC, all while teaching and writing. His work as secretary of the ITC was going well in handling meetings and the work coming in from members on their different projects, which was his testing for the new job. He's good in the languages -- Spanish, English, French, German and Italian. Theologically he's centrist, I would say. Reserved, but in personal exchanges quite ready with grounded critiques of both positions taken at the left and right.

* * *

He's a very sensible, fair kind of man and always approachable: a 'can-do' character. He chaired most of the ITC meetings. He never intruded his own theological views on any discussion -- in fact, I am not entirely sure what he thinks. All in all, I would be more uplifted than downcast by his appointment to the CDF. Indeed, I hope that the ITC does not lose his good offices.

* * *

Ladaria was a great worker for Ratzinger for years, as a consultor at the CDF from the 1990s. He's a patristic scholar, a world-level expert on Hilary of Poitiers. At the Greg he taught various courses in systematic theology, for example on the Trinity. Both he and Amato were opposed to the book of Dupuis, but Ladaria is superior to Amato as a theologian.

(Note: the reference in the last comment is to the late Belgian Jesuit Fr. Jacques Dupuis, whose book Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism drew a critical notification from the Vatican in 2001.)

It was impossible to find anyone who doesn't seem fond of Ladaria on a personal level -- for his work ethic, his scholarly achievement, and his warm disposition. Most say that Ladaria is robustly orthodox, open, and prepared to extend the benefit of the doubt to views with which he disagrees. One difference between Amato and Ladaria may be that Amato taught at the Pontifical Salesian University, while Ladaria was at the Greg, where he likely would have been exposed to a wider range of theological outlooks.

Three conclusions seem to follow.

One, in some ways what we are seeing under Benedict XVI is a return to the old days when the pope himself ran the Holy Office. Until 1968, in fact, the pope was formally the prefect of the Vatican's doctrinal office, appointing a cardinal to serve as secretary (later the title became "pro-prefect"). Benedict XVI has staffed the CDF with people who were close to him while he served as prefect, ensuring broad continuity with the direction he set.

Two, Benedict XVI's litmus test for key appointments is not simply orthodoxy, but also content-area competence. Burke, for example, was named to head the Apostolic Signatura not primarily because of his tough stand on communion for pro-choice politicians, but because he's known as one of the best canonical minds at the senior level of the church. Ladaria likewise is known as an accomplished theologian who also is able to coordinate the work of other scholars effectively.

Three, the most sensitive jobs in the Holy See under Benedict XVI are generally going to "affirmative orthodoxy" personalities. In the end, I suspect this will be remembered as a defining feature of Benedict's papacy -- his intriguing way of blending the bitter with the sweet, of combining doctrinal clarity with personal dolcezza.

* * *

Finally, three quick reflections on the significance of naming a Jesuit as secretary of the CDF.

First, one can't help but see the appointment as another sign of reconciliation between the papacy and the Jesuits. Benedict XVI now has two Jesuits in his inner circle: Ladaria and Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson. The pope may not have intended the appointment to have broader significance -- after all, he appointed Ladaria to the job, not his entire religious community. Nonetheless, given the well-known tensions between the Jesuits and John Paul II, the choice of Ladaria will be seen as a vote of confidence. That's an especially tempting interpretation in light of the warm reception Benedict XVI gave the Jesuits at the end of their General Congregation back in February, when the pope told the order: "The church needs you, it counts on you, and it continues to trust you, especially your ability to reach those physical and spiritual places where others can't go."

Reacting to the Ladaria appointment, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, Superior General of the Jesuits, issued a statement saying, "We accompany Fr. Ladaria with our prayers and our support. We hope and pray that he may help to build ways of dialogue in the service of the faith."

Second, while such expressions of gratitude and support from the Jesuits are no doubt sincere, they cannot completely mask a degree of ambivalence about seeing one of their own assume an administrative position in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the historical successor to the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. As is well known, St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, was twice imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition and questioned about his beliefs. While everyone recognizes that today's CDF is a far cry from the Spanish Inquisition (which, incidentally, was distinct from the Inquisition in Rome), nonetheless some Jesuits may feel a nagging sense that Ladaria's appointment is not exactly what Ignatius had in mind. One put it to me this way: "Ladaria is a great guy, and I would be thrilled with his appointment to the CDF -- if he weren't a Jesuit."

Third, this is the second time in a decade that the Vatican has deprived the Gregorian of a popular teacher and a workhorse faculty member. The first came in the late 1990s with the investigation of Dupuis, which effectively ended his teaching career. Now Ladaria has been scooped up, though obviously on a much more positive note. The Greg is already struggling to attract young Jesuit scholars, many of whom prefer to teach at places such as Louvain or Georgetown, or even at secular institutions such as Harvard or the Sorbonne. In his statement on the Ladaria appointment, Nicolás indirectly alluded to this difficulty: "On the part of the society, I am confident that once again the generosity of the provinces will provide theology professors of competence and spiritual quality to continue the work of Fr. Ladaria at the Gregorian University," he said.

The Gregorian, as is well known, is where a broad swath of future leaders in the church are trained, including a disproportionate share of bishops. For the sake of both the society and the church, one hopes that Jesuits around the world respond affirmatively to Nicolás' call.

This Could Explain Everything

This year at the Highland Games, I am spending the genealogy portion of the event tracking down my "Lawson" line. The Lawson who got on the boat was named Rowland Lawson. He got on the boat in 1638, along with all of his brothers. Actually, I don't know if they all came at the same time. I do know that his parents were John and Sarah Lawson, and that they had four children, all sons, and all of the sons came to America.

The Lawson sons were Rowland, Richard, Epaphroditus and Christopher. Rowland married Letitia (don't ask me where that name came from in the early 1600s) and they had eight children. I'm in the process of trying to figure out which one of the eight children is my direct ancestor. I'm having to sort through a lot of Lawsons in that process, but that's fine because it's very interesting reading.  Especially the entry I just now happened upon:

Thomas Lawson, a priest, SJ. born at Burgh Hall 8 December 1666 entered the Society of Jesus at Watten when 18 years old, professed in 1702 was Chaplain at Burgh and for some time confessor to James III, the son of the exiled King, the Old Pretender, father of Bonnie Prince Charlie". In 1721 he was declared Rector of Watten and Master of Novices and in 1724 ----- of the English Province, but during May of that year he resigned the office in order to be Chaplain to the Duchess of Norfolk (at her special request), was at Castle Howard Co. Yorks. In 1728 was Executor with Robert Goodall to his brother William Lawson Esquire Will. On New Years Day 1734 he was again appointed Rector of Watten and Master of Novices and so remained until September 1740 when he was succeeded by Father John Bodenham. In 1741 he was made Confessor and Spiritual Father of St. Omers and died there 18 Decmeber 1750, aged 84 years.

Needless to say, you will be hearing more about this.  Could this be the cause of my mysterious Jesuit obsession?

Here is the source, in case there are any skeptics reading this. And below is a picture I found of the place where he was born. Now I know the destination of my fantasy pilgrimage.

This is all very exciting, except for the discovery that I am 1/4 English. It's going to take a lot of Scotch for me to get over that.  (The family folklore has always maintained that Rowland Lawson came from Scotland. And perhaps he did. But he was fully English when he got on the boat in Scotland. So I guess it is still the Hardie blood that calls me to the Highlands.  And knowing the Hardies as I do, it does not surprise me that their DNA drowns out all others.)

Upon googling, I found a lot of material about Thomas Lawson, SJ. Stay tuned.

A Bullseye For Fr. Martin

The "frackin' cracker" episode...

What can you even say about it? Well, one of the reasons that I really like Fr. James Martin's piece on it is that he begins by making that point:

Not a lot of ink needs to be spilled on this.  Nor does this blogpost require too many keystrokes.  "Res ipsa loquitur," as the saying goes: The thing speaks for itself.

And then he connects the dots brilliantly:

For me the most fascinating part of his offer is something else entirely: the original name of his post: "It's a Frackin' Cracker." 

The "F-word" he's using is "Frackin'," slang that was popularized by the SciFi Channel's hit television series "Battlestar Gallactica."  But why use "Frackin'"?  The most likely explanation is that Prof. Myers is concerned about offending others by using the actual "F-bomb" in his post.  That would be offensive to many people, and so in respect for their sensitivities he, rightfully, refrains from doing something offensive.

It is an indication that he takes other people's feelings seriously. 

Read the rest here.

For my money, he just frackin' nails it.

Absolute Unmitigated Heaven-Can't-Be-Any-Better-Than-This Joy

Yesterday was a PERFECT day. Here is a picture of my perfect lunch.

I have a lot of great pictures, but no time to post them. And the internet access here in the mountains is such that it is operational about 20% of the time. But I'm headed back to L.A. next week, so I will be posting new photo albums soon.

More about why I'm headed to L.A. as soon as I am at liberty to post it.

"Vows" Trivia from the Highland Games

As I've mentioned a time or two, my Vows protagonist is named "Crae" -- short for MacRae (which can be spelled a variety of ways), which is a Scottish surname common to the North Carolina High Country where  our cabin is located.

I've always loved the name, and the reason I've been aware of it for most of my life is the guy in the photo. Crae Morton is the nephew of my friend Catherine Morton. Catherine and my husband and I have been friends since our high school years in Chatham, Virgina, when Chris and Catherine were students at the two local swanky private schools, and I was the townie they allowed to hang out with them.

Catherine's father Hugh Morton is a longer story than I have time to tell you right now, but you can read about him here.  (Or see him interviewed by Charlie Rose here.) His full name was Hugh MacRae Morton, and the Crae in the photo with me is Hugh MacRae Morton III.

You can read an interview with Crae here, and see a photo of him in regular clothes.  (He doesn't sit around his office in a kilt. Nor do I wander around the mountain in my tartan, lest I be shot by a rival clan. Catherine took the photo of us yesterday, during the Highland Games.)

Crae looks not entirely unlike Kenneth Branagh, no?

I should also point out that Crae is completely unhappy about my attempt to immortalize him -- which is absolutely as it should be.

Catholics for Infanticide

Diogenes has taken on, and smashed like a bug, the "seamless garment" argument of Catholics for Obama.  It kills me not to reveal the punchline, but if I did, I should have my WGA card revoked.

GO READ IT.

Trying to Understand the New World

A wise Jesuit friend said to me recently, "We are now worried about saving people from despondency rather than damnation."

He is right.  In today's world, it's all about feelings, and about not offending anyone.  We'll do anything to keep from offending someone.  We will spare a person's feelings at the expense of their eternal destiny.

How this translates as "love" is a mystery to me.

We'd never be able to sell that logic except for the fact that in the last few decades, people have created a God who doesn't exist. A God who makes no demands, has no rules and therefore, has no concept of justice.

"Justice" is a word that has become interchangeable with "tolerance."  "Tolerance" means that we must cheerfully applaud any peversion on the planet, and in the process, we must dump 6000 years of sacred history and tradition. If you refuse, you are a hatemonger ... And God, who has no problem whatsoever with fornication and abortion and cloning and anal sex and fisting and dental dams and gay orgies on the beach in Cape Cod, will be thoroughly disgusted with you.

Again, my logic may be off. I'm new at this and just trying to keep up.

But THIS is ... Love?

It is just getting downright impossible to keep up.

Gay right supporters boycott Manchester Hyatt

SACRAMENTO - Leaders of the gay and lesbian community, along with their union allies, plan to boycott the Manchester Grand Hyatt because its owner, Doug Manchester, has contributed $125,000 to an initiative to ban same-sex marriage.

Donations from Manchester and several other prominent San Diego residents provided the extra money needed to put a constitutional amendent to ban same-sex marriage, now called Proposition 8, on the ballot in November.

"This is someone who has given an exorbitant amount of money to write discrimination into the constitution for the first time," said Fred Karger, who heads Californians Against Hate, which seeks to defeat Proposition 8.

Karger said his group wants Manchester and other prominent donors to Proposition 8 to have to pay a business loss for their actions.

"We want to make it a little uncomfortable for people to donate," he said.

Read the rest here.

Let the Games Begin!

I have been afraid to say anything about the Highland Games, because I knew I could get snatched up by Show Biz at any moment. But we're about to leave for them in an hour, so I think I'm safe.

Here is a photo I took earlier in the week.  The photos I take today will look very different.

Untangling the Logic Knot

Okay, help me out with this.

Boycotting a fast food chain because of its substantial and publicly declared support for the furtherance of an agenda that you find to be contrary to your religious/moral beliefs or just because some mysterious gut instinct is screaming at you ... that is HATE.

But this:

Those who oppose homosexuality for religious reasons are participating in "hate," according to an official for McDonald's, the worldwide purveyor of Big Macs and Happy Meals.

"Hatred has no place in our culture," corporate spokesman Bill Whitman told the Washington Post in response to a campaign by the American Family Association for a boycott of the burger-and-fries outlets because of the corporation's advocacy for the homosexual lifestyle.

That is not hate.

[source]