THE TAOS TATLER.

One of the greatest musical ensembles ever was the Budapest String Quartet, extant for 50 years, from 1917 to 1967. I was a tad too young to have heard them perform in person, but their many recordings give one an idea of their superlative playing.

A wonderful quality of the Budapest was their astonishing ability to sound as one so that the listener hears them not as four musicians playing, but as one alone. Though some ensembles come close, I have yet to hear any other quartet, in person or on recordings, with that almost magical cohesiveness.

Recently, I came across the rules the founding members of the quartet adopted, and which were adhered to, with only one minor change, for the life of the group. Is it possible that the rules, posted below, might have had something to do with the excellence of the quartet? Who’s to say, but that consistent excellence for half a century makes a plausible case that the strictly adhered to rules had something to do with it.

1. All disputes, musical or business, were to be resolved by a vote. In case of a tie, no change.
2. Players were not allowed to take engagements outside the quartet.
3. Players were paid equally, with nothing extra for the leader (first violin).
4. No wives or girlfriends were permitted at rehearsals or discussions

From Newsweek‘s James Bickerton

New York City’s Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has said he wants to “shift the tax burden” to “richer and whiter neighborhoods” if he secures election in November.

A housing policy document on Mamdani’s official website includes a pledge to “shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.”

Mamdani deserves some credit here. Every left-wing politician in America has been itching to promote and engage “reverse racism” for decades, but has had to couch that desire in euphemism upon euphemism, hoping with their creative wording they can slip their laws  by the the courts.

Generally, in the states, the Left has mostly failed in their attempts, and in those few cases where they have succeeded, Federal courts have overthrown the legislation.

This blogger’s guess is that with the City and State of New York being two peas in a pod politically, and with Mamdani’s enthusiasm for punishing the middle class, he will push his legislation through with ease and then dare the higher courts to do something about it. He will be sure to taunt President Trump about it as well. It won’t stop his racist tax rates from being overturned, but it will make him a hero among, ironically, rich, white elites–and other elites, to be sure. Thus, when Mamdani choses to run for higher office–count on it–he will be held by those elites in even greater esteem than they hold him now and, Mamdani surely hopes, will be freer than ever with their checkbooks.

Another tax target we may be assured of is churches. This blogger remembers decades ago radicals wearing badges reading “TAX CHURCHES.” It was not wild surmise that the churches the radical left had in mind were not Seventh-Day Adventists or Christian Scientists. The Holy Catholic Church, on the other hand, then and now, with its highly visible real estate holdings complemented by her moral teachings they despise, may also become the object of Mamdani’s taxing mania. To no avail, of course, but again, it should garner hugs and kisses from the monied elite.

Zohram Mamdani will never know poverty, despite never having had a real job.

To the surprise of many, an upset took place in the recent New York mayoral primary, with the underdog Zohran Mamdani coming from behind and defeating the party favorite, Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo wasn’t much of a candidate, a tired, uninspired hack who rode on the coat tails of his well-known father. His record wasn’t at all distinguished, and he had other problems, especially his inability to keep his hands to himself, but with with women only, making him even more passé to the elite–so out of touch (if you’ll pardon the pun).

Then along came Zohran Mamdani, young, attractive, charming, and most important, a whacko, left-wing socialist. An added bonus is, he is a Muslim, so contemporary and chic. Cuomo didn’t stand a chance against him.

So now, New York has a good chance of electing its most radical mayor in history, should Mamdani defeat the imcumbant, Mayor Adams. This bodes disaster for the city, especially the poor and middle class. Mamdani has already proposed crushingly expensive initiatives like city-run, i.e., money losing, supermarkets in poor neighborhoods, which will push out the real markets. Another proposal is free fares on the trains and busses, creating another huge burdon on taxpayers, as well as making mass transit even more crime-ridden than it is already.

Naturally, Mandami plans sharply higher business taxes, which will drive many of them, along with their jobs, out of the city. Like all good socialists he will freeze rents, which will cause landlords to neglect their buildings or abandon them.

Mandami has lots more plans that will be to the delight of the city’s millionaire and billionaire elite while ruining the quality of life for the middle class. This is not sheer speculation; other cities in the US, Chicago and Los Angeles, particularly, have adopted similar plans while ignoring the same warnings from critics. The critics have always proved  to be right. Those two cities and many others are becoming populated by two classes only, the rich and poor. Look for the same in New York; the cost of living will skyrocket, as will crime, and the quality of life will decrease proportionately for the middle class, who will flee when they have had enough.

Poor New York. It’s come a long way down from the days of Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, and it doesn’t appear it will be getting better anytime soon.

Pista ni San Juan, Basaan or Wattah Wattah Festival

Your correspondent wrote in an earlier post that he had come to the conclusion he would never know all there is to know about the Holy Catholic Church, as he did not have enough time remaining. That said, though, he’s just learned of a lovely, if odd custom in the very Catholic Philippines, observed on the Feast of St John the Baptist: the throwing of water at one another: the Basaan festival, or the delightfully named Wattah Wattah festival. It shouldn’t be difficult to surmise where the latter got its name, and it is also easy to reckon how this custom came about; the remembrance of their baptisms, as well as that saint who baptised our Lord. The question is, though, does this particular way of celebrating a saint’s day have the concurrence of Holy Church?

The answer is yes and no. The Church never disapproves of her flock enjoying itself on feast days, so long as the partiers remember what they are celebrating, and use the occasion to deepen their faith. Should the water throwers prove to be a nuisance or annoyance, however, then of course the Church frowns upon it. Dignity should always be the byword; in other words, by all means enjoy yourselves, but keep in mind the occasion. Attending Mass that day, of course, is never discouraged.

“The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:

“damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;

“all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective; there must be serious prospects of success;

“the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

“These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the “just war” doctrine.

“The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.”

***

Though there are certain to be those who disagree, to this blogger, the conditions in the Catechism for making war appear to have been met concerning the bombings of Iran.

According to Don Surber, Democrats on Capitol Hill have a nickname for Donald Trump: TACO, Trump Always Chickens Out. The silly nickname came about because the president seemingly makes statements saying he will do this or that and then backs off. They don’t seem to understand that Trump is a deal maker, probably because they have mostly gotten everything they wanted from time immemorial.

Trump got rich in the private sector, unlike most Dems, who get rich while in public office. Furthermore, Trump made his money in New York City real estate, a nastier business you’ll have difficulty finding. Trump’s modus operandi from the beginning has been confounding his opponents; to make them believe he will do one thing while conspiring (there is no other word for it) to do the opposite. He also learns from his mistakes. His first term, while successful, was not the roaring success he his enjoying in his second term.

David M. Friedman, US  Ambassador to Israel in Trump’s first term, describes his former boss’s successes with elegant simplicity (Don Surber has re-arranged Friedman’s words for greater impact).

Clinton: The US Embassy will move to Jerusalem

Bush: The US Embassy will move to Jerusalem

Obama: The US Embassy will move to Jerusalem

Trump: I have moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem

Bush: Israel cannot make peace with any more Arab nations without a Palestinian state

Obama: Israel cannot make peace with any more Arab nations without a Palestinian state

Trump: I have brokered peace deals between Israel and four Arab nations without a Palestinian state

Clinton: Iran cannot have nuclear weapons

Bush: Iran cannot have nuclear weapons

Obama: Iran cannot have nuclear weapons

Biden: Iran cannot have nuclear weapons

Trump: I have destroyed Iran’s nuclear weapons

Seeing a pattern here?

Donald Trump knows exactly what he is doing, which includes making his Democratic opponents look like the whimpering idiots they are.

h/t Don Surber

From the Catholic News Agency:

Widow, mother of 4 nuns and a priest, takes perpetual vows

Sister Maria Zhang Yue Chun made her perpetual vows on May 13 at the convent of the Augustinian Recollects in Vitigudino, Salamanca province, Spain. Her prioress, Sister Berta, said she is “an example” for her community.

Born in Shangqiu, Henan province, China, Maria lived without any connection to Catholicism. She was married and took care of her five children. During a serious illness, however, the support provided to her by a community of active Augustinian Recollects opened her eyes to the faith.

Being a convert for only 17 years, I confess having to look up the Augustinian Recollects and a worthy order they are. Still, your Tatler wonders if he will ever know everything there is to know about the Holy Catholic Church. Most doubtful, he’s too old, but it is a worthy goal to attempt, and even if unsuccessful, as is likely,  omniscience will be his in a better place, Deo volente.

Continuing onto the story above, this saintly woman in China taking perpetual vows, a convert, happy to note, who gave her children to Holy Church, and completed her mission by giving herself to the Church, is an inspiration for all. Her tale reminds us to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength,” to quote in the Elizabethen English of my old Prayer Book.

May God bless Sister Maria Zhang Yue Chun.

From the Free Press:

Last Thursday, as Israel expanded its military campaign, Iranian authorities at the Fordow nuclear complex in the country’s northwest dispatched 16 cargo trucks to the underground site’s primary tunnel entrance. These vehicles proceeded, over the next 24 hours, to move unidentified equipment a kilometer away, while working to fortify the mountain-covered crown jewel in the Islamic Republic’s atomic program . . .

***

“I wish the Israelis had moved quicker to disable Fordow,” David Albright, a former United Nations weapons inspector, told me in the aftermath of the American bombing campaign of the facility. “It’s still a mystery exactly what was in those trucks. But any highly enriched uranium at Fordow was likely gone before the attack.”

The Free Press and Jay Solomon are generally on our side, but these purported concerns strike this writer as hog wash. Haven’t events of late shown us Israeli and US military intelligence have such such a thorough knowledge of the Iranian military that they likely know what kind of toothpaste each one of them uses; that our spooks, and Israel’s, know  in copious detail what is in every one of the 16 boxes “snuck” out of Fordow?

Even releasing the precise number of 16 boxes, suggests that our side knows a lot more about them then related, but because no Democrats  involved in this operation (thus can’t leak information to the New York Times and MSNBC), there is a tight lid kept on details like these.

If there had been even the remotest possibility there was bad stuff in those boxes, the US and Israel would have blown them, and those toting them, to smithereens. Not for an instant would Trump have “held off,” as reported by the media, thus risk the success of the mission.

La Cappella e la Musica dei Papi, Massimo Polombella, Director, Deutsche Gramophone DG 479 6131

Many years ago, your Tatler, before being received into the Church, heard over the radio a short take of an Eastertide performance of the Sistine Chapel Choir. It was, (one could say) excruciating. The men’s vibrato was plain embarrassing, and the boys were shrieking, not singing. [Update: a friend who lived in Rome for a time informs me the choir were called the “Sistine Screamers.”] Neither boys nor men seemed terribly concerned about being at least approximately on pitch. I remember marveling at the time that the music of the mighty Catholic Church could be so appallingly bad (it wasn’t until my conversion that I learned Holy Church took a top-to-bottom approach in that regard).

While looking for a recording of a particular choir today, I mistakenly streamed one that, to my great surprise, turned out to be of the Sistine Chapel Choir. It was gorgeous. Since the recording, shown above, was made ten years ago, I can only surmise some time after my first hearing of the group and the making of this recording, someone in the Vatican carefully listened to the choir and promptly hired a real musician, (director Massimo Polombello, perhaps?) to clean up the mess. [Note 2: the same friend advises Pope Benedict had a hand in improving the choir.]

The choir, much improved as it is, still isn’t quite up to the standards of the finest Anglican choirs. There is still a tad too much vibrato for a Renaissance group, but the Choir may have improved even more since this recording, their first (on the Deutsche Gramophone label, no less), was made. Further investigation will be necessary. Another complaint is with the miking. The antiphonal choir is so softly mixed in that you can barely hear it in the vast acoustic. The program, though, is wonderful, a fine sampling of motets and chants by Renaissance composers.

Recommended.

Listen to the Sistine Chapel Choir on Qobuz https://open.qobuz.com/track/26467198

Encouraging words from Cardinal Raymond Burke.

From the Catholic News Agency:

Cardinal Raymond Burke said he has asked Pope Leo XIV to remove measures restricting the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in dioceses. 

Burke spoke at a London conference organized by The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, telling attendees that he hopes the new pontiff will “put an end to the persecution” of Catholic faithful who want to celebrate Mass using the “more ancient usage” — “usus antiquior”  — of the Roman liturgy. 

This is can’t be the first time His Eminence has urged restoration of usus antiquior to a pontiff, but the last one probably stuck his fingers in his ears, singing in no particular key, la la la, I can’t heeeeear you while His Eminence was making his suggestion. Or, put a tad more seriously, his suggestion was not well received.

Pope Leo appears to be more receptive to the Latin Mass. Most TLM-ers would agree even if he only revokes Pope Francis’s moto proprio, Traditiones Custodis, and the further restrictions later on, making celebration of the Latin Mass difficult to impossible, it would win, His Holiness their grateful thanks.

h/t John Beeler