Month: May 2004

Last week, Boston erupted in fury over the news that nearly every major road into Boston would be closed from 4PM to midnight for the Democratic Convention, July 26 through July 29. To get an idea of the impact, take a look at this map. The only route left is the Mass. Pike, Rte. 90, from the west. Since Rte. 93, the Central Artery, will be closed, you can still get to the airport through the Ted Williams Tunnel, but if you’re expecting to go anywhere near the Fleet Center and the convention, forget it. The Democrats had better be awfully thirsty, because all the bars and restaurants that were counting on the out-of-towners were not counting on losing their normal clientele.

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Call to Action has an optional celibacy campaign. Considering that this is a Chicago based organization, I thought it might fit here. Of course if they contacted Most Reverend Michael Wiwchar who has offices a measly 3.7 miles (thanks, yahoo maps) away, they would find that anybody who was married and wished to enter the priesthood would be able to go to the good Bishop and become a Catholic priest. Anybody who wanted more churches with married priests would be able to support the diocese (and the many other dioceses headed by bishops who permit married priests) with their presence and their funds.

There is no need for lobbying, campaigns, petitions, or anything. If the people want it, they merely have to go where it is offered, as it has been since the beginning, in the Catholic Church.

For anybody from Call to Action who might be reading this, step out of HQ on W. Roscoe and walk towards lake Michigan for 0.2 miles. Turn right on N. Damen Ave and take a brisk 3.2 mile constitutional. Turn right on W. Rice St. and go about 3 blocks to number 2245.

Along the way, they can wrap their heads around this specifically:

These individual Churches, whether of the East or the West, although they differ somewhat among themselves in rite (to use the current phrase), that is, in liturgy, ecclesiastical discipline, and spiritual heritage, are, nevertheless, each as much as the others, entrusted to the pastoral government of the Roman Pontiff, the divinely appointed successor of St. Peter in primacy over the universal Church. They are consequently of equal dignity, so that none of them is superior to the others as regards rite and they enjoy the same rights and are under the same obligations, also in respect of preaching the Gospel to the whole world (cf. Mark 16, 15) under the guidance of the Roman Pontiff.

Three point seven miles away from their solution and these guys won’t take a walk to solve their desire for married priests.

Dr. Frank has a funny post about the new movie “Troy.” Even for the unintentionally funny parts, I wouldn’t give a nickel for anything with Brad Pitt in it. I started to write a comment, but it turned into a rant I decided I’d put on here instead.

One guy in the comments mentioned Jason and the Argonauts. Ray Harryhausen. The BEST. Now THAT is ancient Greece, man. The Gods stride amongst the mortals. Giant beings shake the Earth. Dynamite babes frolic about in togas. Heroes slay monsters. Still an utter masterpiece. Showed it to my kids a few years ago. One kid was so scared by the winged harpies she had an “accident” right there in my sister’s living room. The skeletons coming out of the ground. Oh man.

Another guy suggested that Mel Gibson should make the movie in literal, word-for-word ancient Greek. Funny, maybe, but …

That could be the TRUE and perfect Iliad movie. Yes. I can see it, almost. A 60 hour long, all ancient-Greek version directed by Mel Gibson would DOMINATE. Grunts, shrieks, running men, sweat, blood, dirt. Fleeting glimpses of spears being flung or thrust, of huge stones whistling down and splintering skulls, of limbs crunching under chariot wheels. Disembowellments, lower jaws hewn off, spears piercing thighs, bladders, lungs, eye sockets — each and every one of the harsh clinical, medical details of Homeric butchery. And the resonant Greek (with subtitles) of a voice-over of all of Homer’s incredible capsule biographies of one doomed warrior after another as he steps up for his moment of truth, only to be immediately felled into the dust by Ajax, or Hector or one of the other Heroes. Only an instant before a son, a husband, a father, a proud, strong man in the flower of youth, and now only food for the birds of the air and the wild dogs which prowl the edges of the battlefield. Death is never anonymous in Homer. Each one is personal. Each one has a story and a name. Each one hurts.

Strictly speaking the movie would be unwatchable. And not only because it would be a pitiless, unremitting cacaphony of screaming, bloody horror. The movie would also be way too long to watch even in a marathon session. We’d have to watch it in three hour segments over several months.

It would be the film equivalent of the Iggy & the Stooges Complete Funhouse Sessions — way, way too much for anyone entirely sane to want to listen to, but far, far too good to not eventually listen to it all.

All we need is someone with Mel Gibson’s money and contacts to take leave of his senses, and in an act of abject commercial lunacy embark on this cinematic dream quest for the perfect movie version of the ur-document of Western civilization. It will always remain only a theoretical possibility, I fear.

But I’d buy the DVD set for sure.

I don’t think [the Bush adminstration’s preemption strategy] means a repudiation of containment and deterrence. And the Bush strategy statement has been pretty explicit, that you still want to practice those strategies when you’re dealing with states. But the problem is, states are no longer the only problem we face. Non-state actors, gangs, are the problem, as well. And to try to contain someone who is invisible or to try to deter somebody who is prepared to commit suicide doesn’t make much sense. So something more is needed, and that’s been the argument of the administration.

(John Lewis Gaddis on Booknotes [emphasis added]. Read the whole thing. I’ll eventually get to the book.)

So Michael Moore’s latest “documentary” won the big prize at Cannes.

Not too surprising, considering that Cannes is in France.

Maybe I should make a muck-raking fantasy full of lies and half-truths. As long as I bash the current administration it’s sure to be a hit.