Or, more accurately, what was wrong with this picture until recently? The answer is found in the top left-hand corner of the image, the peacock logo and all-cap letters, “NBC.” Until lately we would never have seen them and a negative headline concerning Joe Biden juxtaposed. To NBC and other news media it would have been unthinkable, as they believed it their bounden duty to shield the populace from any bad news about Uncle Joe (“he’s movin’ kinda slow”) Biden.

No longer. Virtually all news outlets that seemingly adored the man and his nation-wrecking policies have, or will have, dumped him. It finally has dawned on them their hero, with his disastrously low polling numbers, is a huge liability for the Democrats and could quite possibly enable you-know-who to take up residence again in the White House. Heaven forfend. So now our news media, playing catch up, are finally releasing yesterday’s bad news about Joe Biden to the public, in the hope it might persuade the brain dead putative leader of this country not to run again.

That will be difficult. Apparently the First Lady likes it just fine living in the White House and will not allow her husband to quit. So we may look forward to media scalawags ratcheting up, finally, reporting bad things on Biden. They’ll be carrying coals to New Castle (the one in the UK, that is), as most of us have known about the bad things for years.

This lovely album dates from 1964, at perhaps the peak of the Episcopal Church in this country. It is not likely any of the troops involved in the recording could foresee the drastic decline the institution would undergo only a few decades later, with the Cathedral’s future Bishop, the Rt Rev’d Paul Moore, Jr, tenure 1972-1989, leading the charge: not only to sink the Cathedral but, as probably the most influential figure in the Episcopal Church at the time, the entire Church as well.

How? The usual: embracing all the causes we now call “woke,” leading to the steady drain of parishioners, particularly the monied ones. There is irony here as Moore had piles and piles of the stuff himself, coming as he did from an old, distinguished family. In short, he made his money the old fashioned way: he inherited it.

Now days the Episcopal Church of the United States of America bears but a faint semblance of her former, influential self. Her numbers were never many, but the Church once was the church of many leaders in this country, both in government and the private sector.

They’re all gone now, with parishes going extinct on a regular basis. Your Tatler can’t help feeling wistful about the Church’s collapse as he was once an Episcopalian himself, with a great love for her and the Anglican worship tradition. Her sharp left turn however, and the ever-decreasing emphasis on the redemptive power of Our Lord and His teachings, at last resulted in your Tatler swimming the Tiber and becoming a Catholic–where, sadly, he is witnessing a similar left turn in Holy Church, led by Pope Francis.

That is a complaint for another time, however. Meanwhile, enjoy the splendid performances on this old LP. Despite the record’s rickety condition, not-so-great engineering, and the rumblings of IRT and IND trains underneath, it is a great pleasure listening to the fine Yuletide performances of your Tatler’s parochial alma mater. It brings forth many happy memories.

h/t RM

From the Christian Post:

The Rev. Franklin Graham slammed Pope Francis for approving a measure that will allow Roman Catholic priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples, warning that such ‘blessings’ will not ‘save you from the judgment of God . . . “

‘The Good News is that right now God will forgive sin, but we have to come to Him His way, on His terms — by repenting of our sins and placing our faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.’

Good, plain speaking here; there is no mistaking the Rev’d Graham’s point of view on this contentious matter.

Now for a depressing, yet still entertaining contrast: from the Introduction to Fiducia supplicans by Cardinal Fernandez, presumably speaking for (and like!) the Holy Father:

The value of this document, however, is that it offers a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings, permitting a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings, which is closely linked to a liturgical perspective. Such theological reflection, based on the pastoral vision of Pope Francis, implies a real development from what has been said about blessings in the Magisterium and the official texts of the Church. This explains why this text has taken on the typology of a “Declaration.”

Got that? And that is only a small sampling of the tortured, duplicitous phrasing found in the document. It seems to your Tatler the purpose of the torrent of verbiage spewing from Fiducia Supplicans is to inform Catholics and the world, in the most convoluted, oblique manner imaginable, a blessing means whatever Pope Francis wants it to mean and that priests may regard them in the same willy-nilly manner when blessing a same-sex marriage; those blessings are somehow different from the blessings bestowed on marriages between a man and woman. Or are they? Who knows?

In this matter, the very Protestant clarity of The Rev’d Graham’s holds sway.

h/t William J. Tighe.

. . .

See also: The icing on the Cake.

h/t GR.

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.