Do See "Charlie Wilson's War!"

Texas Politics generates bigger than life characters and the Charlie Wilson of this film is believably outrageous. John Fund tells us in the Wall Street Journal that "I met Charlie Wilson in his heyday in the 1980s. He was an operator and a carousing libertine. But he was honest about it, promising constituents that, if he were caught in a scandal, 'I won't blame booze and I won't suddenly find Jesus.'" The movie, in Fund's words, tells how "one ornery congressman and a few friends helped change the world." (This does not require a subscription.)



Tom Hanks played the part perfectly, much to my surprise. He has come a long way as an actor. Despite knowing Julia Roberts was in the movie, I didn't recognize her until the credits at moviesend–That's because I was so captivated by the movie and her part in it (she played it perfectly.)

Did I like it? You bet! I would love to know what some of my circle think of it: both those with security clearances and those without, those who lived through it and those who read about it in the history books.

The moral of the movie? Again in Fund's words: "Good things can happen when principle trumps partisanship."

Be forewarned: boozing, wenching, cussing, violence and a well earned "R" rating.


If you want to view the trailer click through.

Elmer Gantry

Wilfred M. McClay thinks director Richard Brooks' "Elmer Gantry" (the 1960 movie) was better than Sinclair Lewsis' original book.

What do you think?

can the Agernts of Death Kill Democracy in Pakistan?

Pakistan is a key battleground in the war between democracy and Islamist terrorism. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assasinated by a suicide bomber yesterday. Read two poignant commentaries on the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Online: Bhutto's explanaition of the necessity for face to face democracy in Pakistan written two months ago. [ http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110011046 ] Then read Bret Stephan's inteerview with her from last Ausgust [ http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110011045 ]

Requiescat in pace

Fr. Scalia warns us about the Noonday Devil

Fr. Paul Scalia teaches us about what he calls the noonday devil. This is the boredom or indifference toward the goodness of God's gifts and the spiritual life. We can too easily fall into this spiritual malaise. Read and profit from it in the Arlington Herald.

The "noonday devil" is from Psalm 91:6 in the Vulgate. Ralph McInerney wrote a novel by that same name. I have read it more than once and thoroughly enjoyed it. Andrew Greeley reviewed it in the New York Times.

Spe Salvi,: a sort of “Greatest Hits” collection of Ratzinger’s most important ideas

John Allen summarized Benedict XVI's main themes as:

• Truth is not a limit upon freedom, but the condition of freedom reaching its true potential;
• Reason and faith need one another – faith without reason becomes extremism, while reason without faith leads to despair;
• The dangers of the modern myth of progress, born in the new science of the 16th century and applied to politics through the French Revolution and Marxism;
• The impossibility of constructing a just social order without reference to God;
• The urgency of separating eschatology, the longing for a “new Heaven and a new earth,” from this-worldly politics;
• Objective truth as the only real limit to ideology and the blind will to power.

I'd say he's six for six. I doubt Allen's self styled "liberal" and aging readers are pleased.

The Cross-Fertilization Has Begun!

The cross-fertilization has begun! Benedict, whom God has blessed us with, ruled that the old mass, the mass celebrated according to the missal of John XXIII, can licitly be celebrated by any priest. A crucial part of his program is to encourage the reverence and spirituality of the extraordinary usage to leach into the practice of the ordinary usage while creating an opportunity for the true reforms envisioned by the council fathers of Vatican II to finally bear fruit. I have characterized this as the cross-fertilization of the old with the new usages of the mass.

It is happening!

Fr. Michael Kerper, a priest in New Hampshire, a true liberal, celebrated an old mass in response to a request of his parishioners. He appears to have been ordained in the mid 1980s and characterizes himself as a progressive. Cast into the role of a cipher, devoid of a personality and solely a role, he found this liberation. He made the shocking discovery that there is a spirituality most unlike what he knew and expected.

Read his very personal story in, of all places, America! I discovered this on "The Cafeteria Is Closed." Fr. Z. also comments on this as well as a critical article about the old mass.

The Cross-Fertilization Has Begun!

The cross-fertilization has begun! Benedict, whom God has blessed us with, ruled that the old mass, the mass celebrated according to the missal of John XXIII, can licitly be celebrated by any priest. A crucial part of his program is to encourage the reverence and spirituality of the extraordinary usage to leach into the practice of the ordinary usage while creating an opportunity for the true reforms envisioned by the council fathers of Vatican II to finally bear fruit. I have characterized this as the cross-fertilization of the old with the new usages of the mass.

It is happening!

Fr. Michael Kerper, a priest in New Hampshire, a true liberal, celebrated an old mass in response to a request of his parishioners. He appears to have been ordained in the mid 1980s and characterizes himself as a progressive. Cast into the role of a cipher, devoid of a personality and solely a role, he found this liberation. He made the shocking discovery that there is a spirituality most unlike what he knew and expected.

Read his very personal story in, of all places, America! I discovered this on "The Cafeteria Is Closed." Fr. Z. also comments on this as well as a critical article about the old mass.