Category: The Dish

A beagle stages a coup.

The decision by Boston’s Catholic Charities to give up all adoption services because of being required by the Vatican to break state law and refuse any and all gay adopters is one of the saddest things I’ve heard about in a long time. A reader comments from a particular perspective:

"I was raised Catholic, but, incidentally, I’m also adopted from South Korea through none other than Catholic Charities. I would have grown up in an orphanage in Korea, as that used to be the solution to children like me who were born out of wedlock, except that my biological mother decided to put me up for adoption. Her one specific request, and I feel it’s an important and notable one, given the circumstances, was that I was to be raised Catholic. I’m not entirely sure why, but I’d like to think it was because of how they treated her and their reputation, both of which are sterling in terms of adoption.

My Mom’s Irish and my Dad’s Italian-Lithuanian and a career military doctor, so I would have to say that I feel as American as anyone else and, for all the trouble I’ve had with my faith, especially in recent times with all of the Church’s misguided decisions, pronouncements, and corruption, I still long to actually and truly believe. But, to hear this, even though I have not grown up in a homosexual family, tells me that clearly the Church’s priorities are so skewed, if not outright bankrupt, that I almost feel inclined to pursue a different branch of Christianity. It seems inconceivable that this is their excuse to dismantle such an important part of Catholic Charities, and, for a student currently studying abroad like me, it is just another push in the long chain of events that give me great misgivings about the Church, especially in America, and about our treatment of homosexuals."

Dan Savage has some choice points to make on the subject here. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: one day the Church will apologize to gay people for the wounds it has inflicted on their souls and psyches. Not in my lifetime, perhaps. But one day. And now, they’re punishing children to maintain their doctrinal purity. May God forgive them.

That’s Trent Lott’s description of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference straw poll this weekend. Seems like they’re off to a constructive start …

From Omar:

"Sheikh Usama said today that the "Nakhwa" 4,000 man-strong tribal force he’s supervising has succeeded in capturing yet another 169 infiltrators coming mostly from the Jordanian borders during the past week.
The sheikh also spoke of disbanding 9 terror groups working with Zaraqawi’s al-Qaeda in Iraq and confirmed that the recently captured infiltrators were mostly non-Iraqi Arabs with some Iraqis guiding them in and providing logistics and that they brought weapons, explosives and sophisticated maps with them with a selection of targets pointed on those maps:

‘Our main problem is the vast size of Anbar as well as having shared borders with 3 countries; Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria and recently we have that more and more infiltrators are coming through the borders with Jordan rather than the other two countries‚ĶWe have rid about 90% of the province of Zaraqwi’s criminal thugs and we are coordinating our work with the ministries of defense and interior and we had several meetings with Iraqi officials as well as General Casey. Now we believe Zarqawi had escaped to Salahiddin province and we are cooperating with the tribes of Salahiddin to find out where this criminal is hiding.’"

We’ll have to wait and see if this pans out. But it’s encouraging to see such apparently successful cooperation between Iraqis and coalition forces; and to hear an Iraqi speak so candidly of the government war against terrorism.

"Where no discipline is enforced in war a state of things results which resembles far more the wars recorded in Froissart, or Comines, or the thirty-years’ war, and the religious war in France, than the regular war of modern times. And such a state of things results speedily, too; for all growth, progress, and rearing, moral or material, are slow; all destruction, relapse, and degeneracy fearfully rapid." – Francis Lieber, "Guerrilla Parties Considered with Reference to the Laws and Usages of War," (1862).

Hey, stuff happens.

Too many hate him, I fear. And the factions who hate him – the factions who defeated him in South Carolina in 2000 – are among the most vicious and shameless in the country. I don’t know the full story about the Tennessee Conference, but if it’s a prelude to the future, the bitterness still seems alive.

Drudge is trying to say something, I infer. He’s right. Here are some remarks by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Secretary of the Guardian Council in Iran, at Tehran University, and the appropriate conversational response:

"Jannati: The Koran tells us about the Jews in the early days of Islam: "They destroyed their homes with their own hands, and with the hands of the believers." It says: With their very hands and with the hands of the believers they are destroying their homes. This is exactly what is happening now. They destroying their homes with their hands and with ours…

You have made homosexuality official and legal. I spit in your face. The world should be ashamed of your deeds. Humanity should be ashamed. Your shamelessness should cause humanity to sweat in shame. A boy marrying a boy…

People are prepared to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Prophet. There is no doubt about it. We’ve sacrificed so many martyrs. You insult him…

Crowd: Death to America.

Death to America.

Death to America.

Death to America.

Death to America.

Death to America.

Death to America.

Death to America.

Death to America."

Which part of those three words do we not yet understand?

(By the way, how long before religious right leaders urge a ban on gay marriage because it is inflaming Islamist terrorism? Or will Mickey get there first?)

From the archives:

"I have absolutely nothing against the countless patriots in the blue zone, as my tribute to New Yorkers and the rest of the essay shows. I was talking about a few intellectuals and their cohorts who clearly do feel ambivalence about America fighting and winning this war. But these broad categories of "blue" and "red zones" can be misleading and unhelpful. I won’t use this shorthand again. Ditto the shorthand of "fifth column." I have no reason to believe that even those sharp critics of this war would actually aid and abet the enemy in any more tangible ways than they have done already. And that dissent is part of what we’re fighting for. By fifth column, I meant simply their ambivalence about the outcome of a war on which I believe the future of liberty hangs. Again, I retract nothing. But I am sorry that one sentence was not written more clearly to dispel any and all such doubts about its meaning. Writing 6,000 words under deadline in the heat of war can lead to occasional sentences whose meaning is open to misinterpretation."

– yours truly, September 19, 2001.

James Lileks has a fascinating post on this McCarthy era photograph that has been doctored to remove the name of a politically incorrect director and actor. See if you can see what’s been fixed. Lileks fills you in here. (Hat tip: Clive Davis.)

A newspaper has been shut down by the government for having the courage to print cartoons that comfortable Western media punted on. Here’s their latest plea for support. Here’s the latest news on the trial of the editors. The editor-in-chief may be facing the death penalty. Where’s PEN? Or the Western press associations? At least Amnesty International was there.