The old Cardinal said, "Habemus Papam"

And he wasn't kidding!

Has anyone noticed the Pope's wardrobe? I know most people could care less but I think the Vaticanologists and religion reporters are missing a quiet revolution going on right before our eyes. More important, it seems, than what Pope Benedict writes or how Pope Benedict speaks is what Pope Benedict wears.

John Paul liked to dress down. Memories of his mega-Masses call to mind simple, solid color vestments and a no-frills style. Benedict, by contrast, presents as a pontiff straight out of the 18th Century. Consider:



This man likes being pope...

John Paul showed up everywhere in a simple white cassock and sensible brown shoes. Benedict is all about the red velvet cape (mozzetta) and brocade stolls:




And ya gotta dig the pontifical footwear:



But this is the most jarring image of all:



No, the Holy Father isn't playing Santa Claus - that red, ermine trimmed cap is called a camoura. And as far as ecclesiastical dress codes go, only the pope is allowed to wear one. Thing is, no pope has worn one publically in decades. (Even though John Paul wore the camoura for an official portrait early in his pontificate, he would not have been caught dead wearing one in public. And speaking of dead, John XXIII was buried -- over 40 years ago -- with a camoura on his head. So there ya go!)

And with the change of wardrobe came an overhaul of Vatican communications. The late pope did his writing in Polish and had it translated into Latin just before its official release. Not so with Pope Benedict. Word has it that official communications to and from the Pope are composed in Latin in the first instance. So popular, in fact, has Latin become that aspiring young seminarians have oversubscribed Latin classes at Rome's pontifical universities.

And with the uptick in Latin comes the rumor that by next Christmas, Benedict will have restored the Latin Mass alongside the vernacular in parish churches throughout Christendom.

So when that old Cardinal strode out on the balcony of St Peter's last April and announced, "Habemus Papam!", he wasn't kidding!

Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis

Out of sheer laziness, I'll just re-run the Christmas Eve post from last year. On second thought, let's not call it laziness, let's call it a blogging tradition:
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It's Christmas Eve and I'm taking a two day vacation from this pitiful blog.

Whatever you are - Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile, Muslim or Hindu, Democrat or Rebublican, good American or Massachusetts Liberal - I wish peace and goodwill to you all.

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." [St. Luke 2:1-14]

If the Sisters of Mercy knew that I used the King James text I'd get my arse swatted. But, c'mon, it just sounds so much better... "Sore afraid", ya gotta love it!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Shame of it all

New Englanders are cheap...

PORTLAND, Maine - New Englanders remain among the most tightfisted in the country when it comes to charitable giving while Bible Belt residents are among the most generous, according to an annual index.

[snip]

Using that standard, the 10 most generous states were, in descending order, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Utah, South Carolina and West Virginia.

The 10 stingiest, starting from the bottom, were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Minnesota, Colorado, Hawaii and Michigan.

But the methodology is suspect so you'll have to draw your own conclusions.

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Worth a read:

- Fish farts You can't make this stuff up... It's how Herring communicate. "Hey Marlin, pull my fin!" Link takes you to a National Geographic video.

- The Weekly Standard’s War Scott McConnell in the American Conservative.

- Forging the Case for War Philip Giraldi in, well, the American Conservative. (Hey, what I can I tell ya? It's a good issue...)

- "Intelligent Design is not science" says the Vatican's Chief Astronomer, Father George Coyne, S.J. (I'm not kidding! Go see for yourself.) This comes as no suprise to Herring...

Ummm....

AP Headline - Monday, November 7: "Bush Declares: 'We Do Not Torture'"

AP Headline - Saturday, November 5: "Cheney Seeks CIA Exemption to Torture Ban"

I don't get it but, hey, I just read that beer fights disease so there must be a God who is infinitely wise and, ultimately, capable of figuring out George W. Bush...

For those keeping score at home

God Loves Soldiers but, for some reason or another, He hates Swedes. (Brought to you by the God Hates Fags folks.)

.......... St. John 11:35

Wow, they really are fascists

I like to bandy about the phrase "Republifascists" whenever I can reasonably work it into a post. Such is my great love for that awkward little compound word. But, I gotta tell you, in this case it may be appropriate.

Here's Blogs for Bush (*snide little chuckle*) reverently quoting a pathetically ignorant soldier:

[...] Citizens with no military experience cannot begin to empathize with the hardships that we endure, nor can they understand the split second life and death decisions we are forced to make. Instead we’ve created a nation of hind-sight soldier critics with force fed tunnel vision.

[...] As a soldier my concern is that while Americans enjoy their freedom of speech and freedom of the press they are inadvertently weakening our defenses, damaging our nation, and negatively influencing the frontline soldiers that continue to ensure their freedoms.

Yeah, that pesky First Amendment sure can be inconvenient to those off fighting Mr. Bush's elective war of national liberation. I'll sleep better tonight knowing that Sergeant Benito is defending my "freedoms" in, well, ....Iraq. (Even though it appears that my uniformed countryman is more hellbent on curbing my freedoms than that old bugger Saddam ever was.)

But I digress. Our correspondent -- who describes himself as "Being in the minority of soldiers with formal education" (Hmmm, a whiff of elitism there, methinks. He's not being appropriately deferential to our boys in uniform. Someone alert FoxNews!) -- has much more to say. So get your brownshirt out of the closet and go have a look.

By the way, Blogs for Bush (*snide little chuckle*) says we should pass this along. I could not agree more...

A hero indeed

In a political climate that defines anyone wearing a government uniform -- from postman to Marine -- as a "hero" it's nice to be reminded that the private sector can get in the action too.

Ladies and gentlemen, Nomar Garciaparra, American hero:

"Then we heard a splash, and it sounded kind of close," Victor [Nomar's uncle] said. "We looked down and saw someone in the water [Boston Harbor], and so Nomar started running down."

Victor said he was trailing Nomar when he saw the other woman fall in, apparently hitting her head.

"When she fell, it was about a 12- or 15-foot drop, and I thought she had hit the deck of the pier, so I jumped off a balcony," he said. "I figured she was probably unconscious."

By the time Victor Garciaparra got close to the second woman, he said he reached out for her only to find Nomar already in the water with both women in his arms. Victor said Nomar swam with them before the men pulled them onto the deck.

"They were kind of combative at first," Victor said. "I think they were in shock from the fall, and one of them had a bump on her head. But then when we pulled them up, the one girl recognized Nomar and says, `Are you Nomar?'

"He didn't respond to her, and she asked about three times, `Are you Nomar? Are you Nomar?' Finally he said to her, `I think you hit your head pretty hard,' and that was about it." [Article]

Hats off to Nomah!

Who said it?

A consequential presidency my arse. Here's a mystery pundit on Harriet Miers:

[...] First, Bush has no right to say "Trust me." He was elected to represent the American people, not to be dictator for eight years. Among the coalitions that elected Bush are people who have been laboring in the trenches for a quarter-century to change the legal order in America. While Bush was still boozing it up in the early '80s, Ed Meese, Antonin Scalia, Robert Bork and all the founders of the Federalist Society began creating a farm team of massive legal talent on the right.

Ok, so who said it? Paul Krugman? Michael Moore? Nancy Pelosi?

Would you believe.... Ann Coulter? (!)

My, oh my, how times have changed. It seems like only yesterday that her crowd was smearing as "anti-American" anyone who dared second guess our hapless Emperor. Let's face it, Fox Fans, when Ann Coulter turns on W., you know the wheels have come off the bus...

And in a "true color" moment of utter desperation, Empress Laura -- taking a page from the Dem playbook -- allowed that the criticism of Ms. Miers may be nothing more than sexism.

Um, yeah...

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Also worth a read:

- Yankees Suck! I guess $208 million a year doesn't go as far as it used to...

Finally, some common sense

I never thought I'd say it but: "the federal government is right"

Rhode Island's plans to house evacuees on hold

PROVIDENCE -- The state has indefinitely put on hold plans to host 500 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said storm victims did not want to go so far from home, Governor Carcieri said this afternoon.

The state had prepared to begin housing evacuees today in former Navy housing in Middletown, but FEMA notified the state by e-mail this morning that the plans were on hold, and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the information during a morning conference call, Carcieri said.

"As a result, we are waiting for the federal government to contact us again to let us know if and when Rhode Island will be receiving guests from the Gulf states," Carcieri said in a statement.

Connecticut and Massachusetts have also put reception plans on hold and I think that's a swell idea.

Has anyone given any serious thought to the problems that would be created if evacuees were re-located thousands of miles from home -- away from family and familiar surroundings -- to spend their days with nothing to do but lie on Army surplus cots and count ceiling tiles?

It's a bad idea...even by government standards!

I think it would make much more sense to support them in Louisiana and Mississippi and allow them to get back to as normal a routine as possible.

Creating a massive, internal diaspora is a very bad idea indeed.

Ok, enough already...

I own Red Sox mugs, Red Sox shirts, Red Sox pins, Red Sox cards, Red Sox posters, Red Sox banners, A Red Sox clock, Red Sox stickers, Red Sox magnets, a Red Sox license plate surround - and in my lifetime, they could have bought a middle reliever with all the hats I've purchased.

But now they've gone too far for this Red Sox fan:

After the 2004 Red Sox championship season, the entire field was replaced and the infield was preserved. Under the watchful eye of MLB authenticators, portions of the field were removed, transported and transplanted on a turf farm in Rhode Island.

A limited amount of Fenway Championship Sod is now available to become a part of Red Sox fans' lawns and gardens.

Your piece of Red Sox history
The sod will be cut into 18" x 9" rectangles and can be purchased for $150 (plus 5% sales tax).

Fans will be invited to pick up their sod at 9 a.m. on September 24, 2005 at Fenway Park Gate B. Parking will be available in the Brookline Avenue parking lot across from the Red Sox ticket office. Sorry, orders cannot be shipped.

They want 150 bucks for an 18" x 9" piece of freakin' dirt... and they won't even guarantee that Nomar walked on it?!!!

They've now officially crossed the line between capitalization and exploitation.

Talk about balls...
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Worth a read:

- The way Great Grandpa Knew Baseball: Old-Fashioned Version of America's Pastime Catches On Across the Country.

- America's Not Worth Saving: A new Harris poll confirms that the New York Yankees (a pox on them) are America's favorite team.

Here's the top 10:

FAVORITE MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM: 1999 – 2005

"What is your favorite Major League Baseball team?"

Base: Follow Major League Baseball

	Rank 1999	Rank 2003	Rank 2004	Rank 2005
New York Yankees	2	1	1	1
Atlanta Braves	1	2	3	2
Chicago Cubs	3	7	2	3
Boston Red Sox	8	6	4	4
New York Mets	12	3	14	5
St. Louis Cardinals	4	14	13	6
Los Angeles Dodgers	7	8	=9	7
Cincinnati Reds	13	10	=19	=8
Pittsburgh Pirates	18	=18	=9	=8
Chicago White Sox	20	27	27	=10
San Francisco Giants	26	9	7	=10

Well, look on the bright side, public opinion can't count for much in a nation that handed George W. Bush a second term...

God save us all....

Even the Red Sox.

See, this is what happens when you sign guys from Missouri...

They gathered in a makeshift house of God -- a brick-walled retreat in Fenway Park otherwise reserved for postgame interviews -- and prayed for dead and dying loved ones. They prayed for American troops in hot spots abroad. And for the poor souls in the path of Hurricane Katrina.

As the Sunday baseball crowd streamed into the park less than an hour before the defending world champions played their 128th game of the season, a dozen members of the Red Sox -- the largest group of evangelical Christians on any team in Major League Baseball -- joined an equal number of coaches and staffers in sharing a bond of faith that is fast becoming the stuff of national renown among religious figures in sports.

[snip]

Trot Nixon, Mike Timlin, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, Curt Schilling, Doug Mirabelli, Bill Mueller, Matt Clement, John Olerud, Mike Myers, Tony Graffanino, Chad Bradford: Each Sox player considers himself an evangelical Christian who believes in the sacred authority of the Bible and the promise of Jesus Christ as his savior. [Emphasis mine]

Ok, we're the reigning World Champions and we go into September at the top of the AL East so maybe Jesus DOES love the Red Sox but can't these guys leave it in church (or Missouri) where it belongs?

All this Red State extremism in the hub (pardon the pun) of Blue State America is just unseemly...

Ironically, the player who styles himself after the Savior of the World (Johnny Damon, center) is, happily, a once-born kinda guy.