Due process or don’t process.

News item:

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s 2024 front-runner, was booted off the primary ballot in Colorado Tuesday night after four Democrat-appointed state Supreme Court justices ruled that he was ineligible for the White House . . .

However, the majority also noted that Trump has not been convicted of inciting an insurrection by a jury, and the Colorado Supreme Court did not have the right to subpoena records or compel witnesses to testify — among other rights afforded to criminal defendants.

Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1896):

The king turned pale and shut his notebook hastily. “Consider your verdict,” he said to the jury in a low, trembling voice.

“No, no!” said the queen. “Sentence first—verdict afterward.”

“Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly. “The idea of having the sentence first!”

“Hold your tongue!” said the queen, turning purple.

“I won’t!” said Alice.

“Off with her head!” the queen shouted at the top of her voice.

UPDATE: An astonishing and rare display of smarts by the Republicans.

The Colorado Republican Party said it would start using a caucus system rather than participating in a primary election if the state supreme court’s decision banning former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot remains in place.

Would that we could see such bold action and spine by the Republican Party as a whole.

– – –

UPDATE 2: Looking Glass justice seems to be catching on.

A friend sent this along, a polemic of the first rank by the estimable John Zmirak of the Stream. It concerns the Pope’s recent decision to approve blessings of same-sex marriages by priests. Zmirak condemns it, and in no uncertain terms, but then goes further.

Francis seeks a similar transformation [the sexual radicalization] of the Roman Catholic Church. He doesn’t want to frighten all the horses. He wants Catholics who still cling desperately to exaggerated notions about God guiding the pope day to day to hang on … by a thread. People who still believe that Catholics must treat every papal statement as “possibly infallible” and therefore beyond any question got thrown a tiny wishbone.

Continue reading “Calling it as it is: the Deterioration of the Papacy.”

They tried to ban Stations of the Cross on private property owned by a Church organization.

Part of the planned Stations of the Cross prayer trail in Genoa Township, Michigan.

Michigan township can’t ban Catholic group’s Stations of the Cross, court rules

From the Catholic News Agency:

A federal appeals court panel has unanimously ruled in favor of [Catholic Healthcare International] . . . that a local government in Michigan violated federal religious freedom law when it blocked the use of the group’s 40-acre property for a Stations of the Cross trail.

“Now this 40-acre rural property can be used again for religious worship and religious expression. We’re obviously very pleased by that,” Robert Muise, senior counsel and co-founder of the American Freedom Law Center, told CNA Sept. 12.

“When you’re not being allowed to use your land for religious worship to display religious symbols, that obviously impacts the right to religious freedom,” he said.

Gee, you think? Thank God, there are still some sane judges sitting on the bench. I wonder for how much longer.

A rarity.

Your Tatler is moving from a condominium unit into a house nearby. There are several reasons for the move, but the overriding one is residents from a neighboring condo complaining about my sweet, gentle dog–unlike the President’s ill-bred Major (and his ill-bred progeny, too)–venturing on their hallowed ground without a leash. My reaction to the complaints? Move. Find a house with land around it for the dog to play on. When one doesn’t have children, he spends all his attention, and money, on the dog.

In any event, while boxing up a considerable number of books, I noticed the one seen above; one I had been aware of before, but never paid much mind. It’s rather remarkable. The author, Alexander Ross, was inter alia chaplain to Charles I and a prolific author, having published many histories and scientific works. The book in question is titled, “PANSEBAEIA or a View of all Religions in the WORLD,” which it is and includes an entertaining annex on “Notorious Hereticks,“ including Mohomet. Ross later translated a French translation of the Koran into English and published it, likely making it the first Koran in English.

Ross, with his Catholic leanings, as well his chaplaincy to Charles I, eventually found himself on the wrong side of the English Civil War and, not surprisingly, met a sad end.

The book would probably have some value were it in better condition, but as it is, the front board is dis-attached and the pages have been cropped. It is however, quite readable. Someone in our clan must have read the whole thing, as there are light pencil marks throughout. How it got into our possession is anyone’s guess. On the frontispiece someone has printed “1658,” which happens to be the year our bunch arrived in New Amsterdam, but it’s highly unlikely a Huguenot refugee from Catholic France would have carried across the Atlantic a book by Charle I’s chaplain, so it probably came to us generations later.

Seen at a Fairfax County public school playground.

Here is something one would expect to find in places of the kind described in Rich Men North of Richmond. You have to wonder how many of the denizens of Fairfax County deign to even set foot in a public park (“why they let anybody use them.”), but the doyens of Fairfax, no doubt worried over lawsuits from hoi polloi that do use the parks, put their legal people to work to constrain such effrontery (it won’t work, of course. As my late father would say in his clear, simple English: “You can sue anybody for anything.”)

Regardless, gaze at the beautifully crafted masterpiece of bureaucratic verbiage seen above, and read of it at the link. Just for fun, also wonder how many billable hours went into its creation.

The classical world sinks into vulgarity and correctness.

From the article:

‘Vulva’ is the Latin term for female genitalia. It is used in anatomy lessons at medical school and has no wider social or literary application. It designates the entire body area of the female genitals.

* * *

Now, it would be considered unseemly, and rightly so, if a male group were to call itself the Phallus Quartet, or the Membrum Virile.

So why apply a different standard to a female ensemble?

Because it’s just Latin and no-one knows what it means?

Wrong message.

I’m afraid the estimable Norman Lebrecht is clueless here. The message is exactly the right one for its intended recipients, the CRT, DEI, LGBTQIA2S+-×÷§∆π~® crowd. It’s a virtue signal, telling them: “We’re different. We may be playing Bartok, the Mozart Haydn Quartets and Late Beethoven, but we’re at a far remove from those other string quartets part of the fascist-racist white-male power structure. So show your support by coming to and being seen at our concerts, even if you’re bored to death by chamber music. Bring your ear pods and listen to whatever you want, but be there.”

I’m sure the Vulva Vocians would want to put the above in different words, but the message will be the same, whatever words they choose.

Scroll down to read the featured post.

(Note to readers: your Tatler is moving from a condominium to a house. This is the result of complaints from inmates of a neighboring condominium over my dog, who occasionally would stray on their hallowed turf, though not causing any harm or messiness. The house sits on three acres, which should prove a happy solution to the problem.

Meanwhile, the dreary task of preparation for the move is taking its toll by depriving this blogger of any inspiration to crank out new posts. Matters should improve the middle of next month, upon the closing on the sale of my present digs and the purchase of the new ones. Meanwhile, I ask your forbearance.)

The above not withstanding, the little item below was enough to rouse the Tatler from his lethargy.

After a couple hours on the Rehoboth beach, @potus was asked about the rising death toll in Hawaii

“No comment,” he said before heading home pic.twitter.com/Y0UmXirju9

— Justin Sink (@justinsink) August 13, 2023

Obviously, the most powerful man in the free world (for the near future, at least), without his minders present, was unable to respond to a sycophantic reporter’s gentle lob, to be used in yet another valentine to the putative president; this in the guise of a news item to demonstrate his compassion. Nope, he couldn’t manage it without assistance.

This is not to say the president’s eunuchs aren’t on the case. They no doubt are busy researching the matter of the Maui fires at this writing, assessing it from the perspectives of racism (obligatory, no matter what the issue), global warming, blaming the Republicans, as well, it goes without saying, Donald Trump. They will not fail us and upon their briefing of Mr Biden, we may expect soon to hear pearls of wisdom emanating from the great man’s lips concerning Maui fires, referencing of course the matters his programmers have plugged into his dessicated brain.

For most mainstream media, even the increasingly rare conservative press, a nasty dog in the White House is hardly page-one material. Thankfully, the New York Post, though technically a part of MSM, hearkens back to a nearly extinct branch of the press, the brash and outspoken tabloid.

Amusing as the headline is, the Post also performs a service printing the story because it makes a point most other media refuse to acknowledge and usually cover up, which is there isn’t a single aspect of Joe Biden, his administration and his kleptocratic kin which doesn’t stink. He and his clan when faced with making a decision, no matter how minor, inevitably make the wrong one. This is especially true when lucre is involved (“what’s in it for me,” is their by-word), but also when it concerns only an ill-behaved dog.

A biting dog, even in the White House, should not be a big deal, but becomes one when the poor creature, instead of being provided training and discipline, à la Barbara Woodhouse (“No Bad Dogs”), is permitted instead to continue its egregious behavior, thus causing mayhem and grief to the already beleaguered White House Secret Service detail. Naturally, in the Biden manner, it has been covered up (parallels to Hunter Biden, anyone?).

Assuming our nation survives this God-awful presidency, historians (real ones, not left-wing propagandists), will likely make comparisons of the Biden Administration to earlier corrupt administrations; specifically, those of Presidents Grant and Harding. They would not be fair comparisons, though. Both Harding and Grant (the latter a true war hero), despite their crooked staffers, were good men themselves, but were either too weak, incapable of, or unwilling to rein in the bad guys.

The Biden administration is unique in our country’s history as having an executive as rotten to the core as the cretins who report to him. It is to our never-ending shame we allowed this terrible man take office.

Conservatives are in a pother because Fox Corporation has been contributing, under the table as it were, to noisome left-wing organizations like the “Satanic Temple, the Trevor Project, Planned Parenthood and the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

Come now, how can they be surprised and outraged by such a revelation? Fox Corporation is a publicly traded company and there is hardly a publicly traded company in America that doesn’t contribute to horrid organizations like those. There are surely squishes on Fox’s board, as well among its shareholders, who insist in the name of democracy [sic] the company help support these instruments of the devil. Besides, the contributions result from matching gifts by employees and are fairly minimal, no higher than a grand per coven.

Instead of attacking the vastly less than perfect Fox Corporation, conservatives should instead broadcast loud, far and wide the names of the beneficiaries of Fox’s largess. Just imagine, for example, the squirming by directors of the SPLC when an ill-bred indignant at the organization’s annual meeting starts screaming at them for sucking at the teat of the Fox; Marvelous to behold.