Wonderful Matters

I've been reading some on the history of the Jesuits, as I sometimes do, and I am always amazed at how much they have done to portray themselves as persecuted. What is even more interesting is how few people seem to see that all the whining about their disestablishments, ostracisms, and even martyrdoms is deliberately designed to direct even more attention to their plight for the purpose of keeping their work relevant. And relevant it is, for it is the very work of Cain's administration. While so few see it for what it is, even more rail against it. If on the other hand they express enthusiasm for the Catholic cause, they'll still excoriate some disfavored government official for some awful thing they're doing. But it is no different. Cain's officers will do Cain's work, whether in their ecclessiastical capacities or their political ones. I saw Frost/Nixon tonight, and it was a very good movie, I enjoyed it. What struck me about this film was how much so many p...

Yesterday U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter announced he was retiring from the highest bench at the still sprite age of 69. It is notable what he once said about his work on the court, quote: "When the term of court starts, I undergo a sort of annual intellectual lobotomy and it lasts until the following summer, when I sort of cram what I can into the summertime." What? The delightful dances these guys do with THE LAW just aren't ever-so fun and wonderful? I love how people always boast "We're a nation of laws, not of men." But, um, isn't this a democracy ? Where the people have the power? Guh? Errp? Ooop? Yes, indeed, to actually try to sort all that out would require a lobotomy of sorts. If you've ever even looked at the volumes and volumes and volumes written through the ages about laws and the massively turgid attempts to get it right, you'd wonder why everyone in law or politics doesn't have a lobotomy. Or maybe they do? Souter sa...