sisu

Pope reframes core message of his papacy

"In a stunning move prior to his US visit next week, Pope Benedict XVI has decided to change the words of the Nicene Creed," deadpanned priest blogger Owl of the Remove recently in a ScrappleFace "Is the pope Catholic?" moment. Before and after images above illustrate the pontiff's "clear and constructive reframing of the core message" of his papacy. Thanks to our dear friend and fellow member of the B16 Fan Club, Jill  of The Business of Life, for the heads up.

"That was a very impressive, clear and constructive flipflopping reframing of the core message of his candidacy," writes a starry-eyed Andrew Sullivan [via Brendan Loy and PJM] regarding Barack Obama's politically astute tossing of  his "spiritual mentor" yesterday in response to the tediously all-about-me Reverend Jeremiah Wright's having come right out and called a spade pandering politician a spade pandering politician. It was one thing to rant and rave behind closed church doors about America as Great Satan, but you don't step out into the sunlight and start telling the world that your former acolyte, like the politician he is, will do whatever it takes to win. Our sense is that those like Sullivan, who want to believe, will enjoy a renewal of faith in the object of their worship, while those like Thomas Sowell -- and ourselves -- who've been there and done that will not be amused. "Everything seems new to those too young to remember the old and too ignorant of history to have heard about it," wrote Sowell the other day, as usual catching the conscience of the would-be kingmakers:

There is no reason why someone as arrogant, foolishly clever and ultimately dangerous as Barack Obama should become president -- especially not at a time when the threat of international terrorists with nuclear weapons looms over 300 million Americans . . .

One of the painful aspects of studying great catastrophes of the past is discovering how many times people were preoccupied with trivialities when they were teetering on the edge of doom. The demographics of the presidency are far less important than the momentous weight of responsibility that office carries . . .

Although Senator Obama has presented himself as the candidate of new things -- using the mantra of "change" endlessly -- the cold fact is that virtually everything has says about domestic policy is straight out of the 1960s, and virtually everything he says about foreign policy is straight out of the 1930s.

On the other hand, "Conservatives ought not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. (That's liberals' job!)," writes Brendan Loy of Irish Trojan in Tennessee, arguing for "a big-picture view of this, please?":

Obama is doing the right thing here, and if he's a little late to the party, slap him on the wrist and then defend him against the coming Wright/Sharpton/etc. onslaught. And then beat him in November on security issues or whatever. But he's on the right side of this issue, and if he loses because of it, it will be a shame for everyone -- principled conservatives included.

Unfortunately, as Sowell wrote recently-- blogged here -- "The fact that Obama talks differently than Jeremiah Wright does not mean that his track record is different." Is the junior Senator from Illinois prepared to forsake the mother's milk of grievance? Sowell again:

Barack Obama's voting record in the Senate is perfectly consistent with the far left ideology and the grievance culture, just as his wife's statement that she was never proud of her country before is consistent with that ideology.

Then there's that unfinished business about Bill Ayers, Obama's Hyde Park neighbor and supporter who -- in Sol Stern's words -- "through his indoctrination of future K-12 teachers has been able to influence what happens in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of classrooms," where -- in our words -- "zombies teachers inculcated with the Marxist talking points of influential anti-capitalist propagandists like [Ayers] are, as Sol Stern wrote, assiduously working below the radar to 'turn the little ones into young socialists and critical theorists.'" Where, exactly, does Obama stand on "critical theory"? We're with Becky C of Just a Girl in Short Shorts Talking About Whatever on this one:

Dr. Ayers and his fellow latte sipping Marxists browbeat young teaching students until they accept the thoroughly discredited economic and social theories of dialectic materialism, much as the  victims of Mao's Cultural Revolution did.

Bill Ayers is just a nerdy misguided college freshman who never grew up and cannot stop playing revolution.

Unfortunately, there are way too many people, including perhaps Barack Obama, who take him seriously.

Hey, Hillary & Company, what say you take this one for an outing?

Update: "This is getting no traction, writes Tom Maguire of Just One Minute:

As to where this story is headed -- who knows? I don't think Hillary's staffers are regular readers here, but they may have picked it up from Global Labor, Larry Johnson or Jeralyn Merritt, and they sure could use this now. McCain's people and the RNC ought to like this story since McCain is comfortable bashing Ayers, but September or October may be fine for them.

The MSM has done nothing here, unsurprisingly. As to Rush, Hannity, and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy -- other than Hot Air, American Thinker, and Wizbang this is getting no traction. Michael Barone wrote about how the Ayers story had broken through to the MSM, but they have a long way to go. And we call ourselves a Noise Machine!

Now that the Professor has linked Maguire, we may be looking at some legs.

Update II: Noise Machine on high volume at Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities.

The unfathomable walls of an unseen prison

Thinking about a centerpiece for our Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club Ladies' Luncheon this afternoon, we gathered branches of early-blooming shrubs from the western forty, Common Floweringquince and Forsythia, above.

Checking our inventory for the perfect vase, we considered a tall, square pink one. It had been stored in the basement, and there was a noticeably cobwebby feeling about it. Peering inside, we discovered the earthly remains of a cluster of tiny flies who had met their maker when their struggles to fulfill their destiny had been thwarted by the unfathomable walls of an unseen prison.

Calling to mind the final agonies of citizens of ancient Pompei or Herculaneum frozen in time by the ash of Vesuvius or their own prehistoric insect relatives caught in amber, their plight invites contemplation.

Update: "Sisu brings the Unfathomable Walls of an Unseen Prison,"  says DeepSeaNews.

"A deep threat to all that is human"

Babe makes a strong case for the utility of long catnaps as a survival skill on the studio couch this afternoon.

"[Theodore] Dalrymple makes a strong case for the utility of morality as a survival skill," wrote Wretchard of Belmont Club three years back [via Amba, who had linked Wretchard's essay as apposite to her own cogitations on the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI at the time]. His words sound timely echoes in the current debate over what we should make of Barack Obama's ongoing association with former Weather Underground domestic terrorist and current "radical educator with influence," Bill Ayers. More about that in a moment, but first, a few excerpts from Wretchard's "Nightfall":

[Morality] is a craft, which like hunting and gathering, was once passed on to keep people from perishing in the wilderness. Now it is disparaged; the modern welfare state has no need of it . . .

[A]s Dalrymple argues in the City Journal, the human recognition of evil normally allows us to resist so it never has us wholly in its grasp. Looking back on 14 years of service in hospitals and prisons, Dalrymple realized he was witnessing the inexorable incapacitation of human discernment; the deadening of the ability to distinguish between good and evil which is so essential to survival . . .

In nearly every case the one thing the perpetrators and victims of evil were never allowed to do was to judge their own acts. That was absolutely forbidden. The universal course of treatment prescribed by all the organs of the welfare state was to find ways to make them 'feel better about it'.

Dr. Sanity approached the topic from a slightly different angle a year ago in "The dictatorship of the do-gooders and soul murder," a rousing discourse on the "pervasive intellectual trend in the West to continually bash capitalism, private property, business and free trade while simultaneously enjoying the benefits of all of them":

Betsy Newmark links to an article that demonstrates clearly how socialism's "social justice" advocates have taken over our K-12 education system and are determinedly undermining capitalism . . . Make no mistake about it, what those teachers are doing is indoctinating their students' minds into an unquestioning obedience to the collective . . .

Capitalism's incredible production of wealth is the economic side-effect that occurs when political freedom is present. It has been argued, and I agree, that both economic and political freedom are absolute prerequisites for moral behavior.

Children propagandized by dogmatic tyrants like the ones above have had not only their capacity to think for themselves abrogated; they have had their capacity to make moral choices taken from them.

As we sat here blogging this evening, along came a spider (x 16) -- seemingly out of nowhere -- and sat down beside her, paused and then spun away on silken threads. Indoor spiders, house centipedes and tiny moths are stirring. We spotted the first cabbage moth of spring wafting through the garden yesterday and the first bumble bee this morning.

Enter stage left the above-mentioned Bill Ayers, former Weather Underground terrorist and current "Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago." Sol Stern blew the professor's cover in a must-read City Journal article just under two years ago, linked today by The Barrister of Maggie's Farm, who headlines with "A cruel (Gramscian) hoax,":

This Ed School stuff is straight from Gramsci's handbook, and it represents a conspiracy to keep the "masses" poor and stupid -- and angry, hopeless and helpless. In other words, ripe for "rescue" by The State.

"Ayers’s spectacular second act began when he enrolled at Columbia University’s Teachers College in 1984 [where] he experienced an epiphany in a course taught by Maxine Greene, a leading light of the 'critical pedagogy' movement," wrote Stern:

As Ayers wrote later, he took fire from Greene’s lectures on how the “oppressive hegemony” of the capitalist social order “reproduces” itself through the traditional practice of public schooling -- critical pedagogy’s fancy way of saying that the evil corporations exercise thought control through the schools . . .

The education professors feel themselves anointed to use the nation’s K-12 classrooms to resist this oppressive system. Thus Maxine Greene urged teachers not to mince words with children about the evils of the existing social order . . . In other words, they should turn the little ones into young socialists and critical theorists.

"[Bill Ayers] has much more influence than he did in the sixties. He's a rock star in the educational establishment," Sol Stern is telling Sean Hannity, adding that "the entire Democratic establishment years ago decided to legitimize him," making Obama's association with the radical leftist perfectly logical within the local political context. Missing the point as ever, Hannity's brain-dead liberal sidekick Alan Colmes asks his guest whether there's any evidence that students are being brainwashed by anti-American educationists promulgating critical pedagogy. "I don't know what it has to do with Barack Obama anyway," he adds. No, you wouldn't.

But until Ayers' association with Oprah's man -- Barack Obama -- came to light, few outside of academia and the Chicago Democratic machine were paying much attention to this particular Gramscian fellow traveler. Bill O'Reilly on Fox asserted earlier this evening that the professor's only significance to the American political debate is his association with Obama, but like Colmes, he misses the point, as Stern wrote yesterday in "Obama’s Real Bill Ayers Problem":

The more pressing issue is not the damage done by the Weather Underground 40 years ago, but the far greater harm inflicted on the nation’s schoolchildren by the political and educational movement in which Ayers plays a leading role today . . .

Instead of planting bombs in public buildings, Ayers now works to indoctrinate America’s future teachers in the revolutionary cause, urging them to pass on the lessons to their public school students.

The insidious Gramscian infiltration of our culture marches on:

Gramsci posited that because Christianity had been dominant in the West for over 2000 years, not only was it fused with Western civilization, but it had corrupted the workers' class. The West would have to be de-Christianized, said Gramsci, by means of a "long march through the culture." Additionally, a new proletariat must be created. In his "Prison Notebooks," he suggested that the new proletariat be comprised of many criminals, women, and racial minorities.

The new battleground, reasoned Gramsci, must become the culture, starting with the traditional family and completely engulfing churches, schools, media, entertainment, civic organizations, literature, science, and history. All of these things must be radically transformed and the social and cultural order gradually turned upside-down with the new proletariat placed in power at the top.

Is it too late to save our soul?  A former liberal mugged by reality may be the one to lead us out of the desert. As E.J. Dionne wrote upon Cardinal Ratzinger's election to the papacy on April 19, 2005:

Ratzinger is a brilliant, tough-minded intellectual who started out as moderately liberal and -- like so many American neoconservatives -- developed a mistrust of the left because of the student revolt of the 1960s. He once said that "the 1968 revolution" turned into "a radical attack on human freedom and dignity, a deep threat to all that is human."

"Relativism means this: Power trumps," wrote Michael Novak in his must-read-and-reread "Culture in Crisis" [again via Amba] just after Ratzinger became Benedict XVI:

In his most formative years, Ratzinger heard Nazi propaganda shouting that there is no truth, no justice, there is only the will of the people (enunciated by its leader). As its necessary precondition, Nazism depended on the debunking of objective truth and objective morality. Truth had to be derided as irrelevant, and naked will had to be exalted . . .

Ratzinger experienced another set of loud shouters in the 1968 student revolution at Tubingen University, this time in the name of Marxist rather than Nazi will. Marxism as much as Nazism (though in a different way) depended on the relativization of all previous notions of ethics and morality and truth — “bourgeois” ideas, these were called. People who were called upon by the party to kill in the party’s name had to develop a relativist’s conscience.

Ratzinger wishes to defend the imperative of seeking the truth in all things, the imperative to follow the evidence. This imperative applies to daily life, to science, and to faith. The great Jewish and Christian name for God is connected to this imperative -- one of the Creator’s names is Truth. Other related names are Light, and Way. Humans are made seekers after truth . . .

The culture of relativism invites its own destruction, both by its own internal incoherence and by its defenselessness against cultures of faith.

"And yep, you feel it."

Update: Steve at Modulator wants to defend the imperative of seeking the animals in all blogs. Friday Ark #188 now boarding.

Update II: "So obviously, I agree with Dr. Sanity up to a point," writes Amba in a provocative response to the good doctor's thesis that "both economic and political freedom are absolute prerequisites for moral behavior," and "captialism is actually good for the soul":

On the contrary, people need another, prior source of morality in order to handle the freedom of capitalism responsibly, and not go off the deep end of corruption, ruthlessness, and greed. "The pursuit of their own particular happiness" isn't morality -- which is based in concern for others "as thyself" -- it's utilitarianism.  Capitalism doesn't restrict choice, and that's good, but it sometimes rewards immoral, amoral, or just plain trashy choices.

We guess it depends upon how  you interpret the assertion that morality is "based in concern for others 'as thyself.'" Adam Smith's invisible hand comes to mind. Check out her comments for our full response.

Update III: An asylumful of deep threats to all that is human at Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities.

"And, yep, you feel it"

"Boy, the pope must have REALLY liked it, to stand up and walk toward him," observes Tuck after watching Papa Ratzi's response to Placido Domingo's singing of Cesar Franck's version of St.Thomas Aquinus's Panis angelicus (The Bread of Angels) for him at yesterday's mass in Nationals Park. Or maybe it was relief at hearing his kind of music amidst the multi-culti cacophony of musical tributes to the Vicar of Christ. Above, Benedetto applauds following the world-renowned operatic tenor's performance.

"His body language is a little self-protective. He does not run out to meet you . . . instead, he draws you in, and his sweetness and transparent kindliness run completely counter to the whole 'rottweiller narrative,' which I think is taking a beating," writes The Anchoress in one of her glorious, link-rich -- including us! -- appreciations of this Holy Father who seems to be winning American hearts and minds, Catholic or not, left and right:

Did it seem to you, as it did to me, that we watched Benedict loosen up or break free a little bit at this mass? Watching him exit he seemed bigger and bolder to me, as though he was growing into his part.

I was inclined to like him, of course, through his writings, but I didn’t know if I would be put off by his manner. After half a lifetime watching the effusive, playful and outgoing John Paul II, I wondered if Benedict, in person, could manage to inspire in the same way. He does . . .

A “liberal catholic” friend of mine emailed: Don’t tell any of my liberal friends (that is, everyone) but I’m starting to really like the guy.

I think that sense of surprised delight is going both ways; I get a sense that just as we’re discovering we like the guy, the pope is also feeling like he likes us. I say that from an introvert’s standpoint (because I am one).

"Two things that strike you when you're 18 inches away from the Pope," writes Rocco Palmo of Whispers in the Loggia: "1. He's got a tan you can't really appreciate on TV; 2. The shoes are . . . red. Blazingly so. And, yep, you feel it. No question." Above, Placido Domingo definitely feels it.

"He does not run out to meet you . . . instead, he draws you in." That's just how it was for us back in April of 2005 when Cardinal Ratzinger first gave us "a glimpse of the clearing" through that much-cited homily before the College of Cardinals the day before he ascended the Throne of Peter:

We are building [misquoted by Fox at the time and then promulgated by us as "moving toward"] a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires..

Once Ratzinger became Benedict XVI, he "drew us in" further when we discovered his soulful love of cats and Mozart and sealed the deal when we learned that the dictatorial left was apoplectic.

Update: Screenshot from Fox News.

No caption necessary.

Update II: "He's saying good and important things and irritating the right people" says our beloved sub rosa blog buddy Binah of Kavanna. He and ourselves both were brought up as Unitarians. He then embraced Judaism, and we are still agnostic, even as we are in thrall to the pope that loves cats and Mozart.

Update III: Bloggers are irritating the right people at Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities.

"To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak"

Baby -- AKA Mr. Cuddles -- takes time out from working Tuck's dinner plate for some heavy petting.

Quotation of the Day #1 from our imail correspondent:

[Pope Benedict XVI] is a good man. Like Bush, everything he does and says is reported through a left-wing lens. Your posts are very valuable in highlighting the similarities of mission and ethics and not the namby-pamby sandbox fights of the Left.

Then it's back to employing the Think System -- and an occasional bit of outreach on the part of Mr. Paw -- to procure bits of Spring Chicken Delight and a host of small portions of colorful sweet and savory side dishes from the Cold Turkey Cookbook.

Quotation of the Day #2 from blogfriend Pam of Pamibe:

As a fallen-away Catholic, it’s not surprising that most of what I know about Pope Benedict XVI comes from another blogger: Sissy Willis. She has followed ‘Papa Ratzi’s’ career at least since his election three years ago and will not disappoint during his current visit to the U.S. Love the Matthew Cavanaugh photograph - pure joy!

Quotation of the Day #3 from another non-practicing Catholic, fellow sub rosa blogger Teresa of Technicalities in Pam's comments:

I do believe he will cause the libs to gyrate in dervish-like circles -- always fun to watch.

Quotation of the Day #4, one of our own in an email to fervently energized Catholic blogpals MB of Miss Kelly, Jill of The Business of Life and Gayle of And you thought YOU were cranky:

Like music itself, he hath charms to soothe the savage breast.

It was a thrill to see our own Papa Ratzi lead the local news this morning. 'Will have to see how it balances out during the coming hours between the TRUE lead story -- the Beacon of Light that is the Holy Father shining back upon the City Upon a Hill -- and the NOISE -- the so-called Dem debate last night and multiple wives' sob stories.

Quotation of the Day #5, Jill's response to #4:

To hear him speak is like a long, cool drink of water after being parched for too long. I'm amazed at the meat and substance of what he says and his way of making it so fresh and new.

You're right. He is a beacon of light, and everything else seems so noisy and tawdry. What an extraordinary man, probably the most erudite man on the planet. How lucky we are to have him, the Vicar of Christ.

Quotation of the Day #6, Gayle's response to #4 (she lives in DC):

Today has been a really good day for me on a lot of levels. Slew a few dragons, shed a few tears of joy, watched a very holy man transform -- at least for a brief time -- a very unholy city. AND the nightmare traffic that was predicted -- did not materialize.

I am traveling on a little Papal Energy Boost!

". . . To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."

Update: We were gratified to recall that our very first "Pope Blogging" post, "Against a dictatorship of relativism" -- published the day before Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI -- referenced the same words echoed yesterday by President Bush in his South Lawn speech:

We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.

Our own conclusion in that post foreshadows a theme we have revisited often:

Whether or not you're a Catholic, the Cardinal's words ring true on a fundamental human level. "True joy" can come only from striving towards a goal higher than "one's own ego and one's own desires."

If a Leader of the Free World and a blogger reference the same things, there must be something true?

Update II:  There's more than one way to soothe the savage breast. Friday Ark #187 at Modulator is now boarding.

Mugged by Pope Benedict XVI

Not having a photographer's birdie on hand, we used the classic kitty-treat-in-the-mug trick to prompt Tiny to give us Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment."

Our Pope Benedict XVI Teddy Bear Mugs arrived this morning. Cute as a button. We're sipping a cuppa from one of them this very minute as we await Papa Ratzi's 10:30 a.m. arrival at the White House for South Lawn activities before approximately 5,000 people. Click here to order a mug or two of your own.

Update: Take-home quotation:

Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience -- almost every town in this country has its monuments honouring those who sacrificed their lives in defence of freedom, both at home and abroad.

He quotes his predecessor:

In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, [John Paul II] reminded us that history shows, time and again, that "in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation," and a democracy without values can lose its very soul.

Pax vobiscum.

Update: Miss Kelly in the comments:

What a great ceremony on the White House lawn! The crowd spontaneously singing "Happy Birthday" to the Pope . . . President Bush tapping his toe to the drum and fife corps . . . the gorgeous singing of the Battle Hymn of the Republic and the Our Father. We get too little of this kind of pageantry.

I saw Archbishop Sean O'Malley in the crowd and local imam Talal Eid too.

Love the Pope's wave to the crowd, he puts his hands up and wiggles his fingers. The EWTN correspondent likened it to playing the piano in the air.

Our friend has a reporter's eye for detail and a believer's eye for the glory of the Lord.

George W. Bush, our first Catholic president?

"One of the key principles of Catholic social thought is known as the principle of subsidiarity," the Acton Institute explains. "This tenet holds that nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organization which can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization . . . [It] is a bulwark of limited government and personal freedom. It conflicts with the passion for centralization and bureaucracy characteristic of the Welfare State . . . In spite of this clear warning, the United States Catholic Bishops remain staunch defenders of a statist approach to social problems." Photo series features Tiny expressing her personal freedom this evening in a rousing game of superball on the court that is the dining room's parquet floor.

"He has wedded Catholic intellectualism with evangelical political savvy to forge a powerful electoral coalition," writes Daniel Burke in what for us was an eye-opening WaPo article [via The Anchoress] that makes the case for George W. Bush as "the nation's first Catholic president":

Shortly after Pope Benedict XVI's election in 2005, President Bush met with a small circle of advisers in the Oval Office . . . the president remarked that he had read one of the new pontiff's books about faith and culture in Western Europe.

Save for one other soul, Bush was the only non-Catholic in the room. But his interest in the pope's writings was no surprise to those around him. As the White House prepares to welcome Benedict on Tuesday, many in Bush's inner circle expect the pontiff to find a kindred spirit in the president . . .

Yes, there was John F. Kennedy. But where Kennedy sought to divorce his religion from his office, Bush has welcomed Roman Catholic doctrine and teachings into the White House and based many important domestic policy decisions on them.

"His political base is solidly evangelical. Yet this Protestant president has surrounded himself with Roman Catholic intellectuals, speechwriters, professors, priests, bishops and politicians" [Who knew?]:

Bush has also placed Catholics in prominent roles in the federal government and relied on Catholic tradition to make a public case for everything from his faith-based initiative to antiabortion legislation . . . Even before he got to the White House, Bush and his political guru Karl Rove invited Catholic intellectuals to Texas to instruct the candidate on the church's social teachings . . . Many Catholics close to him believe that the approximately 300 judges he has seated on the federal bench -- most notably Catholics John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court -- may yet be his greatest legacy.

"Bush also used Catholic doctrine and rhetoric to push his faith-based initiative, a movement to open federal funding to grass-roots religious groups that provide social services to their communities":

Much of that initiative is based on the Catholic principle of "subsidiarity" -- the idea that local people are in the best position to solve local problems."The president probably knows absolutely nothing about the Catholic catechism, but he's very familiar with the principle of subsidiarity," said H. James Towey, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives . . . "It's the sense that the government is not the savior and that problems like poverty have spiritual roots."

Saint Hillary, Saint Obama and Neocon puppet-master conspiracy theorists were unavailable for comment.

Update: Mind of Mog links:

I never knew he surrounded himself with so many Catholics and was influenced by their doctrine. Her post’s a must read. And not just for the cat pics which are exquisite.

That doesn’t bode well for that border fence. But I can see where he’s coming from. One could do with far worse role models.

I admire the Pope cause he hasn’t gone around changing church doctrine to follow the whims of the people and holds to moral values.

Like St. Peter himself, Papa Ratzi is a rock.

The angel has landed

As Tuck and ourselves leaned forward in our seats, focussing our gaze at the TV screen, suddenly, there Papa Ratzi was in fluttering white cape and red shoes. It happened so fast that we missed the shoes, caught by professional EPA photographer Matthew Cavanaugh.

"A writer once said that angels can fly because they don't take themselves too seriously. Maybe we could also fly a bit if we didn't think we were so important," we recently quoted Pope Benedict XVI, who flew in to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland this afternoon, right on schedule.

Screen shot as we watched, rapt, the pope who loves cats and Mozart welcomed by President Bush at Andrews Air Force Base this afternoon.

Some make history. Others make a mockery of it.

Screen shot as the Holy Father, the Leader of the Free World and Jenna and Barbara Bush strode joyously towards the terminal building. From there the pope would travel by limousine to the Vatican Embassy near the Vice President's residence.

"It was a thrilling moment, and I was deeply honored to be the first American face for him to see," US Chief of Protocol Nancy Brinker told a Fox News anchor:

We've been planning this in meticulous detail since early 2007.

Everyone is not only excited about this visit . . . but has deep emotional feelings about it.

He has a peaceful strength about him. I'm not a Catholic, but I really felt very, very touched when I met him. 

Shall we dance? (EPA/Matthew Cavanaugh photo)

"Both hold the same principles, I think," writes our imail correspondent, adding "Trust me, history will vindicate GW . . . if the world lasts that long.

Before the big lie has a chance to put its pants on

"The blogosphere may be turning the Twain/Churchill formula* on its head," we blogged way back in July of 2004. "In that instance, it was the Sandy Berger Trousergate scandal, where bloggers took early AP reports and ran with them, while the New York Times hadn't had time -- indeed had no inclination -- to put its pants on." (Yousuff Karsh photo December 1941)

"Doesn't the fact that Bush is literally 'picking Benedict up' at the airport say something unusual?" emails The Anchoress:

It's never been done before. I get the sense that Bush wants to be in his presence for as long as he possibly can.  And I really am starting to believe he will convert when he leaves office.

"I have a similar feeling," we replied:

Not only to be in his presence -- who can blame GW? -- but also to make it known to the world that the Leader of the Free World is humble before the Vicar of Christ . . .

"Yes, exactly, A great point!" says she:

A GREAT point - you should write that!

The culture war is a war of ideas and images. The imminent images -- touchdown about a half hour away! -- of President and Mrs. Bush welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to the land of the free and the home of the brave will travel all the way around the world before the big lie has a chance to put its pants on.* You're da man, Mr. President.

*Truthiness ain't nothin' new:

Mark Twain: "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."

Winston Churchill: "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

Update: Miss Kelly links.

Update II: The Anchoress links, teasing out the meaning of our use of the word "humble" for the President's deference to the Vicar of Christ:

Sissy Willis and I exchanged emails and wondered -- and we are not the first to do so, obviously -- if President Bush, who is inarguably the most “Catholic” president we’ve ever had, will pull a Tony Blair and enter into full communion with the Catholic church after he leaves office . . . Some might argue the use of the word “humble,” but I do think it demonstrates the leader of the free world “making way” for the Vicar of Christ. And it is very dramatic. It’s a little earthquake, really, but not everyone will feel it.

As we said in her comments, we "thought twice before using the word 'humble' but decided it was the proper choice in the dictionary sense of 'not proud or arrogant; offered in a spirit of deference'":

God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. (James 4:6, King James Version)

That sounds SO George Dubya, something he would have learned at Barbara Bush's knee:

“My mother taught us fundamental things: ‘Don’t brag.’ ‘Think of the other guy.’ ‘Be kind to people.’"

It's an old-money thing, and class will out.

"The answer they have secretly always been asking for"

The pale green, heart-shaped leaves of Phytoterrorist garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) insinuate themselves among the grass-like leaves of star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) in the patchy urban forest at the edge of the upper forty of Chelsea-by-the-Sea. Googling Star of Bethlehem, a member of the lily family, we were delighted to learn that its "flower essence" is a major ingredient of Bach's Rescue Remedy®, "an all natural form of healing that can reduce everyday stress" and is "effective in virtually any situation that causes stress or anxiety."

"Like so many others on the left, Obama rejects 'stereotypes' when they are stereotypes he doesn't like but blithely throws around his own stereotypes about 'a typical white person' or 'bitter' gun-toting, religious and racist working class people," writes Thomas Sowell. Not to mention stereotypes about a spiritual and "racist" middleclass person like ourselves, as we blogged back in December of 2006. Sowell continues:

Like so much that Obama has said and done over the years, this is standard stuff on the far left, where guns and religion are regarded as signs of psychological dysfunction -- and where opinions different from those of the left are ascribed to emotions ("bitter" in this case), rather than to arguments that need to be answered.

In politics, the clearer a statement is, the more certain it is to be followed by a "clarification," when people react adversely to what was plainly said.

When the delicate-looking flowers of mustard garlic first bloomed in our garden, "we mistook this Lucrezia Borgia of the plant world for 'a lovely intruder,'" we wrote a couple of years back in our post "Phytoterrorism in our own backyard," noting that "scientists have discovered the devious methods used by the weedy garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata, AKA Alliaria officinalis) to invade and destroy our native hardwood forests."

Ironically, something similar can be said of Pope Benedict XVI's statements among those who would willfully misunderstand the Holy Father for their own political purposes. Benedetto is known for the intellectual rigor and precision of his thought and speech, yet, to borrow Sowell's phraseology, the clearer a papal statement is, the more certain it is to be followed by demands for an "apology" when people react hysterically to what was plainly said. Muslim street riots in response to perceived slights in Papa Ratzi's Regensberg speech are the most obvious example, but the will to misunderstanding runs deep and dark in the human psyche, as The Anchoress explicates in her tour de force "The Reality of Pope Benedict" at Pajamas Media this morning:

Then, preaching to his fellow cardinals just before the conclave, Ratzinger further annoyed many of the chatterers by warning against “building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires."

Not much liking that, Notre Dame’s Fr. Richard McBrien sniffed: “If Cardinal Ratzinger were really campaigning for pope, he would have given a far more conciliatory homily . . . He’s too much of a polarizing figure.”

In fact, Benedict is less “polarizing” than simply consistent in his faith and his philosophy; having experienced a life with which few of his critics could ever identify, he dares to stand for more than “whatever . . .”

Now back to you, Thomas Sowell:

It is understandable that young people are so strongly attracted to Obama. Youth is another name for inexperience -- and experience is what is most needed when dealing with skillful and charismatic demagogues.

Those of us old enough to have seen the type again and again over the years can no longer find them exciting. Instead, they are as tedious as they are dangerous.

But even as throngs of dazzled wet-behind-the-ears Americans succumb to the razzle-dazzle display of Dr. Obama's Magical Mystery Tour, others are drawn to a brighter light in the Eastern sky -- The pope will have been in the air four out of a total of about 10 hours of the flight from Rome to DC as we blog -- as "Young Catholics from across the country are flocking to Washington and New York to see Pope Benedict XVI on his first U.S. visit as pope," reports PBS:

Many of those tickets will go to young people, as Pope Benedict XVI is using this visit to reach out to young Catholics, according to Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl.

"One of the things he said early on was the church is always young. It's always there for young people. I think young people see that in this pope. They hear in his message words of hope, words of challenge," Wuerl told the Pittsburgh newspaper.

Back to The Anchoress for the final word:

In the current age, which would prefer God to fit into its plans rather than the reverse, Benedict is preaching a radical message that he knows many -- blessed with free will and beholden to the age -- will reject. Far from displaying an “enforcer” mentality, the pope accepts that rejection with pragmatism and ultimately with trust. “The Church,” he said as Joseph Ratzinger, “will become small, and will to a great extent have to start over again. But after a time of testing, an internalized and simplified Church will radiate great power and influence; for the population of an entirely planned and controlled world are going to be inexpressibly lonely … and they will then discover the little community of believers as something quite new. As a hope that is there for them, as the answer they have secretly always been asking for.”

Be sure to read the whole thing. Do it for the children.

Update: The Anchoress links with proof of the pudding:

As if making my point for me, Newsweek has two pieces on Benedict . . . The first piece, by George Weigel, I recommend to you because although it glows for Benedict, it also gives you an excellent sense of how deeply this pope may effect our age. The second, by Lisa Miller, is your basic predictable condescension about how Benedict does not “connect” with Catholics.

Let "Dem Bells" ring!