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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Thursday, June 17, 2004
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Better Register Today at the Dallas Morning News Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/17/04 07:45:16 PM |
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Two Ronald Reagan Anecdotes I decided to blog these, Faithful Reader, before they vanish down the memory hole. (Okay. Okay. My memory hole.) First, from an article excerpted from a book by Dinesh D'Souza, about the aftermath of the assassination attempt: .... He was convinced when he returned from the hospital that he had a limited amount of time to achieve his ambitious agenda. Yet his goals were not only political but also personal. With Cardinal Cooke, who came to visit him, Reagan struck a spiritual note: "I have decided that whatever time I have left is for Him." The late Mother Teresa, who visited the White House that June, told Reagan, "You have suffered the passion of the cross and have received grace. There is a purpose to this. Because of your suffering and pain you will now understand the suffering and pain of the world. This has happened to you at this time because your country and the world needs you." Reagan was speechless. Nancy Reagan wept. Second, from a blog by Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner: I just witnessed something truly touching. I'm in Anchorage on business and I was sitting in a noisy restaurant when some one turned the TV to Ronald Reagan's sunset burial service. The entire restaurant went quiet. The noisy weekend crowd full of jaded, cynical business travelers like me, went almost completely silent. When they lifted up his casket to carry it to his final resting place, the crowd spontaneously stood up. It was truly a remarkable moment. I don't suspect I'll see anything like it again. P.S. Here's another from a column by Mark Steyn, Jewish World Review, Jun. 8: .... “The Great Communicator” was effective because what he was communicating was self-evident to all but our decayed elites: “We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around.” And at the end of a grim, grey decade — Vietnam, Watergate, energy crises, Iranian hostages — Americans decided they wanted a President who looked like the nation, not like its failed government. Thanks to his clarity, around the world, governments that had nations have been replaced by nations that have governments. Most of the Warsaw Pact countries are now members of Nato, with free markets and freely elected parliaments. One man who understood was Yakob Ravin, a Ukrainian émigré who in the summer of 1997 happened to be strolling with his grandson in Armand Hammer Park near Reagan’s California home. They happened to see the former President, out taking a walk. Mr Ravin went over and asked if he could take a picture of the boy and the President. When they got back home to Ohio, it appeared in the local newspaper, The Toledo Blade. Ronald Reagan was three years into the decade-long twilight of his illness, and unable to recognize most of his colleagues from the Washington days. But Mr Ravin wanted to express his appreciation. “Mr President,” he said, “thank you for everything you did for the Jewish people, for Soviet people, to destroy the Communist empire.” And somewhere deep within there was a flicker of recognition. “Yes,” said the old man, “that is my job.” Yes, that was his job. Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/17/04 07:36:27 PM |
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Friedman on Moore Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCXVII Somebody named Roger Friedman praises Michael Moore's new "film" Fahrenheit 9/11. This piece is as tedious as they come, but don't miss the addendum. + + + + + The crowd that gave Michael Moore's controversial "Fahrenheit 9/11" documentary a standing ovation last night at the Ziegfeld Theater premiere certainly didn't have to be encouraged to show their appreciation. From liberal radio host/writer Al Franken to actor/director Tim Robbins, Moore was in his element. But once "F9/11" gets to audiences beyond screenings, it won't be dependent on celebrities for approbation. It turns out to be a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail. As much as some might try to marginalize this film as a screed against President George Bush, "F9/11" — as we saw last night — is a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty — and at the same time a indictment of stupidity and avarice. Readers of this column may recall that I had a lot of problems with Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," particularly where I thought he took gratuitous shots at helpless targets such as Charlton Heston. "Columbine" too easily succeeded by shooting fish in a barrel, as they used to say. Not so with "F9/11," which instead relies on lots of film footage and actual interviews to make its case against the war in Iraq and tell the story of the intertwining histories of the Bush and bin Laden families. First, I know you want to know who came to the Ziegfeld, so here is a partial list: Besides Franken and Robbins, Al Sharpton, Mike Myers, Tony Bennett, Glenn Close, Gretchen Mol (newly married over the weekend to director Todd Williams), Lori Singer, Tony Kushner, "Angela's Ashes" author Frank McCourt, Jill Krementz and Kurt Vonnegut, Lauren Bacall (chatting up a fully refurbished Lauren Hutton), Richard Gere, John McEnroe and Patti Smythe, former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Carson Daly, NBC's Jeff Zucker, a very pregnant Rory Kennedy, playwright Israel Horovitz, Macaulay Culkin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kyra Sedgwick, Linda Evangelista, Ed Bradley, Tom and Meredith Brokaw, director Barry Levinson, NBC anchor Brian Williams, Vernon Jordan, Eva Mendes, Sandra Bernhard and the always humorous Joy Behar. If that's not enough, how about Yoko Ono, accompanied by her son, Sean, who's let his hair grow out and is now sporting a bushy beard that makes him look like his late, beloved father John Lennon? And then, just to show you how much people wanted to see this film, there was Martha Stewart, looking terrific. I mean, talk about an eclectic group! Now, unless you've been living under a rock, you know that this movie has been the cause of a lot of trouble. Miramax and Disney have gone to war over it, and "The Passion of the Christ" seems like "Mary Poppins" in retrospect. Before anyone's even seen it, there have been partisan debates over which way Moore may have spun this or that to get a desired effect. But, really, in the end, not seeing "F9/11" would be like allowing your First Amendment rights to be abrogated, no matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat. The film does Bush no favors, that's for sure, but it also finds an unexpectedly poignant and universal groove in the story of Lila Lipscombe, a Flint, Mich., mother who sends her kids into the Army for the opportunities it can provide — just like the commercials say — and lives to regret it. Lipscombe's story is so powerful, and so completely middle-American, that I think it will take Moore's critics by surprise. She will certainly move to tears everyone who encounters her. "F9/11" isn't perfect, and of course, there are leaps of logic sometimes. One set piece is about African-American congressmen and women presenting petitions on the Florida recount, and wondering why there are no senators to support them. Indeed, those absent senators include John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy, among others, which Moore does not elaborate upon. At no point are liberals or Democrats taken to task for not supporting these elected officials, and I would have liked to have seen that. On the other hand, there are more than enough moments that seemed to resonate with the huge Ziegfeld audience. The most indelible is Bush's reaction to hearing on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, that the first plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Bush was reading to a grade-school class in Florida at that moment. Instead of jumping up and leaving, he instead sat in front of the class, with an unfortunate look of confusion, for nearly 11 minutes. Moore obtained the footage from a teacher at the school who videotaped the morning program. There Bush sits, with no access to his advisers, while New York is being viciously attacked. I guarantee you that no one who sees this film forgets this episode. More than even "The Passion of the Christ," "F9/11" is going to be a "see it for yourself" movie when it hits theaters on June 25. It simply cannot be missed, and I predict it will be a huge moneymaker. And that's where Disney's Michael Eisner comes in. Not releasing this film will turn out to be the curse of his career. When Eisner came into Disney years ago, the studio was at a low point. He turned it around with a revived animation department and comedy hits such as "Pretty Woman" and "Down and Out in Beverly Hills." But Eisner's short-sightedness on many recent matters has been his undoing. And this last misadventure is one that will follow him right out the doors of the Magic Kingdom. + + + + + The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes. To put some perspective on Friedman's perceptions & judgements, he is the blockhead — is that the right word? — who falsely accused Mel Gibson of keeping The Passion of the Christ out of theatres in "neighborhoods that are considered Jewish, upscale or liberal", as reported at Christianity Today, Feb. 19 (brackets in original): .... Roger Friedman published a story at FoxNews claiming that Mel Gibson was deliberately trying to prevent the movie from showing in neighborhoods with heavy Jewish populations. Soon after the story appeared, his poor research and sensationalism were hit hard by other Internet journalists. "Sometimes, a journalist makes a mistake," says David Poland at Movie City News. "And sometimes, a journalist makes a mistake that is so heinous and easily remedied by any fact checking that the person's publisher deserves to be threatened with litigation and the person in question deserves to lose their job.... This is, in entertainment journalism, as serious a breech of professional ethics as any I can ever recall." "To say that Gibson is intentionally keeping the film away from Jews and the rich is not only flatly wrong, it smacks of malice," says William Donohue, president of the Catholic League. "We look for Fox to correct itself." Barbara Nicolosi (Church of the Masses) says, "For his punishment, I would sentence Friedman to 24 hours of continuous viewing of those self-righteous [public service announcements] NBC is always running with TV stars telling him earnestly, 'Hate is not a family value' and 'When you say something negative about someone else, you are teaching your children to hate.'" .... Re: GWB on 9/11. Both Moore & Friedman ought to keep in mind a dictum from the great psychologist Viktor Frankl: An abnormal reaction in an abnormal situation is normal behavior. Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/17/04 07:08:37 PM |
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The Pope Blog Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/17/04 06:13:04 PM |
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Kerry Campaign's Religion-Outreach Director is Anti-Catholic, Socialistic Pacifist Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCXVI A press release from the Catholic League, Jun. 14. + + + + + Mara Vanderslice has been appointed Senator John Kerry’s Director of Religion Outreach. Catholic League president William Donohue finds her a curious choice: “Here’s what we know about John Kerry’s religious outreach person. Mara Vanderslice was raised without any faith and didn’t become an evangelical Christian until she attended Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its adherence to pacifism. When in college, Mara was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that supports the convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and openly embraces Marxism-Leninism. After graduating, Mara spoke at rallies held by ACT-UP, the anti-Catholic group that disrupted Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1989 by spitting the Eucharist on the floor. In 2000, she practiced civil disobedience when she took to the streets of Seattle in a protest against the World Trade Organization. In 2002, she tried to shut down Washington, D.C. in a protest against the IMF and the World Bank. “At first, John Kerry was considered too moderate for Mara, which is why she became Howard Dean’s Religion Outreach Director. She admits that she was a freak in the Dean campaign: her colleagues dubbed her the ‘church lady,’ informing her that Dean was liked precisely because he didn’t talk about religion. ‘How in the world did you get hired?’ is how one staffer put it. Unfazed, Mara contends we have a ‘collective commitment to protect the integrity of God’s creation,’ specifically citing the needs of the ‘least of these.’ Yet she supports John Kerry, a man who has never learned of an abortion he couldn’t justify. “All the polls show Kerry getting whipped badly by Bush among practicing Catholics, Protestants and Jews. Moreover, the latest edition of Time magazine reports that only 7 percent of likely voters think Kerry is a man of strong religious faith. Given all this, his choice of Mara Vanderslice as his religious point woman is confounding. Her resume is that of a person looking for a job working for Fidel Castro, not John Kerry. Just wait until Catholics and Protestants learn who this lady really is.” + + + + + [Follow-up: Democrats' New Religion-Outreach Director is Anti-"God" Female Minister.] Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/17/04 06:06:46 PM |
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"Will Baptists Abandon Public Schools?" Thanks to Margaret for notice of this Cal Thomas article, Jun. 15, at the Gulfport-Biloxi Sun-Herald: People of both political parties and many persuasions have been talking for decades about education reform. President Bush signed a huge new spending bill that is supposed to link funding to certain reforms so that no child will be left behind. Now comes what could be the most radical and most successful education reform proposal ever made. The Southern Baptist Convention — the nation's largest Protestant denomination with about 17 million members — is meeting this week in Indianapolis, and among the resolutions it is considering is one calling upon parents to withdraw their children from public schools and either educate them at home, or enroll them in private Christian academies.... Conservatives have worried more about changing decadent culture than in changing themselves and their own children. Millions of schoolchildren reared with morals, values, ethics and faith that are endangered in the government schools would do more to enrich and advance culture than all of the political movements combined. So, Southern Baptists, show the way and perhaps many will follow. Stop waiting for the world's permission to fully exercise your faith and beliefs (which will never come) and start training up your children in the ways your God wants them to go. That can't be done in government schools, but it can in yours or in your homes. It's time to give the word "exodus" a new meaning. Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/17/04 05:39:12 PM |
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It's Almost Like They Have An Agenda Deborah Orin writes at the New York Post, yesterday: .... Media analysts like Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler admit it sounds "sanctimonious" to justify publishing prison abuse photos — but not al Qaeda beheading videos — in the name of showing "the reality of war." But that is just what he did. AEI spokeswoman Veronique Rodman, puzzled by the minimal interest in the Saddam torture video, is sure that if it was a video of equally horrific torture committed by U.S. troops, the press would find ways to show or report it. Reporters have to face up to the fact that right now, if we highlight the wrongs that Americans commit but not — out of squeamishness — the far worse horrors committed by others, we become propaganda tools for the other side. This isn't to argue in any way against reporting the Abu Ghraib scandal. But reporters have to face up to the problems — and find ways to achieve a more balanced account. Saddam's torture videos may be too awful to show, but it's hard to explain the low media interest in the story of seven Iraqi men who had their right hands chopped off by Saddam's thugs — and then got new prosthetic arms and new hope in America. They're eloquent, they're available, they're grateful for the U.S. liberation of Iraq. No one can better talk about Saddam's tortures — and no one is more eager to do so. Yet, as of yesterday, the New York Times had written 177 stories on Abu Ghraib — with over 40 on the front page. The self-proclaimed "paper of record" hadn't written a single story about those seven Iraqi men. Now, Deborah. Come on. You know it's not "hard to explain" at all. Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/17/04 05:36:38 PM |
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Hitler, the Holy See, and the Jews A two-part interview of historian Fr. Giovanni Sale at Zenit. First part, June 11: .... Q: Historiography has neglected what the Catholic clergy did to oppose Hitler and National Socialism from coming to power in Germany. Can you explain how the Catholic Church conducted itself? Father Sale: With the recent opening of the Vatican Archives relating to the nunciatures of Monaco and Berlin, 1922-39, we now have the possibility to better assess how that prophetic political change of January 30, 1933, was commented upon and judged by the highest authorities of the Catholic Church at the time. A series of reports, written by Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the apostolic nuncio in Berlin, gives us the possibility to better assess those events. The first German bishop to take action against National Socialism was the archbishop of Mainz, who already in September 1930 published some norms with the objective of impeding Catholics from being contaminated by the National Socialist epidemic. However, not all the German bishops approved them, considering them too harsh in content and, in any event, they judged the episcopal document premature, as Hitler’s movement was still in the process of formation.... Second part, June 13: .... Q: The encyclical "Mit Brennender Sorge" and the fact that Hitler was not able to visit the Vatican show the Holy See's hostility to the Nazi regime. What is your opinion about Pius XI's conduct toward the Nazi regime? Father Sale: The recent opening of the Vatican Archives relating to the nunciatures of Munich and Berlin shed new light on Hitler's truncated visit to the Vatican — during his state visit to Rome in 1938 — as well as on the writing and dissemination in Germany of the encyclical "Mit Brennender Sorge," that is, Pius XI's encyclical against Nazism. The new available Vatican documentation informs us in an amazingly detailed manner on the vicissitudes linked to the reception of this encyclical by the states and the realms of international diplomacy. The sources show that the encyclical was interpreted at that time, by the majority of Western countries not linked to Germany, as a courageous act of denunciation of Nazism, of racist doctrines, and of the idolatry of the state that it professed, as well as of its violent methods of social discipline.... See also The Pope Pius XII Controversy, and "Pius the hero". (Thanks, James.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/17/04 07:02:59 AM |
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Douay-Rheims Bible Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/17/04 06:46:14 AM |
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