This seems ill-advised.

From the New York Sun.

The man who sits on the throne of St. Peter is taking sides against Israel in the war precipitated by Hamas and its backer, Iran.

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In September, the AP notes, the Pope called Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon “immoral” and “disproportionate” — and beyond the rules of war.

Why is the Holy Father sticking his craw into this matter? The Vatican has nowhere near the intelligence capability Israel has, if it has any intelligence capability at all. Instead it looks as if Francis is relying on hard-left commentators for his opinions on the remarkably complex and deadly goings-on in the Middle East, matters this blogger believes he should stay out of. How about, Holiness, you pay more attention to the deplorable state of Catholic worship in the West, for example.

Throughout history Catholic relations with the Jews have ranged from indifference to downright hostility. Lately they have been improving; why then does the pope now take sides with a foe that hates Jews (and Christians for that matter) with every fiber of their being and want to see them exterminated. The hatred Hamas bears for its foe will not in the least be mitigated by Francis’s remarks and may well be encouraged. While Israel wishes only to be left alone, Hamas and their murderous pals want to destroy it.

The Sun offers a possible explanation for Francis taking sides here.

It’s unclear, at least so far, for what kind of investigation the Pope is calling. Or whether it is just political leftist blather of the kind this leader of the Church has sometimes indulged in.

For your Tatler, that is spot on.

From 1996: Umberto Eco on Mac & Dos, and their strange relationship to Catholicism and Protestantism

The remarkable thing about Eco’s essay is it improbably, somehow, makes sense. DOS of course is history, but Eco later addressed that in an addendum (included in this post).

The fact is that the world is divided between users of the Macintosh computer and users of MS-DOS compatible computers. I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant. Indeed, the Macintosh is counterreformist and has been influenced by the “ratio studiorum” of the Jesuits. It is cheerful, friendly, conciliatory, it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach – if not the Kingdom of Heaven – the moment in which their document is printed. It is catechistic: the essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons. Everyone has a right to salvation.

DOS is Protestant, or even Calvinistic. It allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user, and takes for granted the idea that not all can reach salvation.

the system work you need to interpret the program yourself: a long way from the baroque community of revelers, the user is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment.

You may object that, with the passage to Windows, the DOS universe has come to resemble more closely the counterreformist tolerance of the Macintosh. It’s true: Windows represents an Anglican-style schism, big ceremonies in the cathedral, but there is always the possibility of a return to DOS to change things in accordance with bizarre decisions…..

And machine code, which lies beneath both systems (or environments, if you prefer)? Ah, that is to do with the Old Testament, and it is Talmudic and kabbalistic.

Three years later Eco updated his piece with the following.

The various releases have led Windows 95 and 98 to become decidedly Catholic-Tridentine, along with Mac. The torch of Protestantism has passed into the hands of Linux. But the opposition remains valid.

From here.

With thanks to TR.

With the recent sea change in DC, may we expect LARPs and other public nuisances to just go away?

Answer: no, of course, but God willing, less and less attention will be paid to them over time

Riya Young, male stewardess

From Not the Bee:

United Airlines just received the blasting of a lifetime from this lady who is sick and tired of the trans agenda touching every area of life.

This dude, who LARPs as a lady, is allowed to pretend to be a stewardess on United Airlines flights. And given the recent history of United, we shouldn’t be shocked.

The horrors committed by this walking horror show are too numerous to enumerate here. Read the Bee‘ account of this being’s manifold sins and wickedness.

*Live Action Role-Players

Still more good news in the election aftermath

From the Free Press:

A group of alumni and former professors of Columbia University warn in a new report that the university could stand to lose up to $3.5 billion a year—or up to 55 percent of the university’s annual operating budget—if Columbia doesn’t start cracking down on campus rule-breaking. 

No argument there, but this stuck in Bickerstaff’s craw.

The report, published by Stand Columbia Society, a ‘politically neutral’ collective working to restore Columbia’s ‘rightful pre-eminence in American—and global—higher education, states the potential financial risks to the university are rooted in Trump and other Republican officials’ ‘enmity for elite institutions in general, and our alma mater in particular.’

He can’t help it, but when your Tatler sees the word “collective” as used in the context above, he, like George C Scott’s General Jack D Ripper in Dr Strangelove, smells a great big commie rat, and his suspicions are confirmed in the sentence: “The report, published by Stand Columbia Society, a “politically neutral” collective working to restore Columbia’s rightful pre-eminence in American—and global—higher education,” states the potential financial risks to the university are rooted in Trump and other Republican officials ‘enmity for elite institutions in general, and our alma mater in particular.’

Hey, geniuses, no consideration that of all the Ivies, Columbia (Bickerstaff’s alma mater, for what it’s worth) has the largest percentage of Jewish undergrads? That Jewish alums and charities, as well as goyim, might take offense that Columbia’s administration [sic] has stood by doing little or nothing while spoiled lunatic Jew haters wearing kafiyehs have been disrupting and vandalizing university property, as well harassing and attacking other students, with their seemingly constant takeovers of campus grounds and buildings? To lay blame at Trump and Republicans for the loss of revenue is preposterous, when the source of their ire is right in front of them.

That said, the best way to stop the hemorrhaging of revenue because of cowardly  administrators afraid to appear pro-Israel, is no doubt the most effective way to stop this nonsense. Trump and Republicans are merely the bearers of bad news. Those of you with book larnin’ look up “cause and effect.”

h/t WJT

The good news in the election’s aftermath continues

From Fox News: “No Trump bump: MSNBC hemorrhaging viewers since Election Day, sheds more than half of primetime audience. ‘It’s a stale product no one will want to listen to going forward,’ Curtis Houck says

MSNBC host Joy Reid discussed how White women were failing to come out in support for Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election.

They still cannot accept that “white women” didn’t “fail to come out,” they rejected the product being offered, which explains why

MSNBC averaged 1.1 million viewers during the month of October but plummeted to an average audience of 736,000 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week following President-elect Donald Trump’s historic landslide victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. MSNBC’s remarkable 31% drop comes as Fox News Channel’s viewership grew by 61% over the same time period. 

Yesterday’s news holds little appeal for most people–except of course to the overpaid staffers at MSNBC, who see their gravy train’s locomotive heading into the roundhouse for good.

The sad decline of St Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan

Paralleling the decline of Episcopal Church.

St Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, where your Tatler was a parishioner long ago, used to be one of the richest parishes in the US. Now it is going broke. Attendance is way down, 36% since 2019, and still declining. Donations are down as well and its once substantial endowment is dwindling away, owing to the church dipping into it to pay the bills.

Hardest hit is the church’s boarding school, which trains boys for its celebrated choir, one that rivals the finest in Britain, including the King’s College Choir, Cambridge. The school is turning over its boarding operations to an outside firm in hopes of freeing up funds. Meanwhile, capital projects are being deferred or cut back, which is the kiss of death for organizations like this unless it can find a way to boost revenues, a difficult task when attendance and donations are in steep decline.

How did this formerly well-to-do institution find itself in the hole? COVID is partly to blame, but attendance did not rise to former levels when the virus had run its course, meaning those absent parishioners are worshipping elsewhere or, a common malaise in the Episcopal Church, staying home Sundays or going to the golf course instead.

This is speculation on Bickerstaff’s part, but the fact is the church, formerly Orthodox Anglican, has gone soft, with its clergy staff including two openly gay priests living together, as well a woman priest who is married to the rector (the church is also over-staffed). As is often said, “go woke, go broke,” a fate that has befallen many formerly rich Anglican parishes both here and abroad.

Veteran reporter of Orthodox Anglican churches David Virtue provides far more details on the miserable state of finances at St Thomas Church.

Thanks to WJT

Rediscovering a recording classic

E. Power Biggs, Gregg Smith Singers, The Edward Tarr Brass, Texas Boys Choir, The Gabrielli Consort La Fenice, Vittorio Negri, Conductor

This remarkable recording was released way back in 1968 and was recorded in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. It was the pet project of E. Power Biggs, who along with producer John McClure, persuaded the powers at Columbia Masterworks to bestow their blessings on the production, despite massive cost overruns and obdurate Venetian bureaucrats who threw up one hurdle after another (Mr McClure referred to them as “the macaroni curtain”), which Messrs Biggs and McClure patiently dealt with as they arose. That was no easy feat in Italy in 1968, but they managed to get the job done and the album was released to great acclaim from musicians, music historians, and critics.

Truly amazing is, the recording has been in the catalogue (now Sony Music’s) for over four decades and never has been dropped. While some of the performance practices of the time may sound a little dated to modern scholars, most listeners will not find them egregiously anachronistic, and the wonderful antiphonal back and forth of choirs and brass, seem to anticipate by decades the “surround sound” recordings of today. They sound, along with their high quality audio, truly marvelous when played on a good modern audio system. 

The recording also helped bring to the world’s attention the sad condition of the San Marco Basilica back then, propelling a successful movement to restore it.

You can find The Glory of Gabrielli on the Qobuz and Spotify streaming services, which sound fine indeed, as well a posting of it on YouTube, which also sounds fine.

Perhaps most important, this recording serves to show not only the glory of Gabrielli, but the glorious legacy of Catholic liturgy and music in general and sadly highlights how far it has descended in our time, to today’s god-awful mediocrities, like “Gather us in,” “I am the Bread of Life” and other atrocities, that far too manyof today’s Catholics consider typical church music.

It isn’t and it’s well worth your time to listen to the Glory of Gabrielli.