Happy Birthday, Israel! (UPDATED)

God grant you many years!

So many commemorations today,so much to reflect on, so much misunderstanding, some perhaps innocent but- most usually- willful. Not to mention outright malignant evil.

A long, but very comprehensive and worthwhile post is here at Sigmund, Carl and Alfred. Worth the read, I think.

Additional good links, not so lengthy but equally essential reads, found at Powerline blog:

“Israel is a beacon of freedom and humanity in the world’s toughest neighborhood. In every area of modern life the country boasts a genius that on a per capita basis must be unrivaled. Among the many articles and posts worthy of consideration regarding Israel’s anniversary are those by Bret Stephens on “Israel’s sixty-year test,” Michael Oren on Israel as “America’s best friend,” Alan Dershowitz finding Israel “So deserving of praise,” Andrew Bostom on “Israel at 60,” and Steve Felder and Robert Sklaroff on “Israel at 60 — give or take a few thousand years.”

A new Israel Symposium at NRO.

Conservative tide continues to rise… except here?

Huge electoral news from Britain this weekend- their Labour Party (left-of-center) got pummeled/ bloodied/ trounced, not even able to make second place.  Yikes!  From the BBC:

“Gordon Brown’s Labour Party suffered its worst electoral performance for at least 40 years in the English and Welsh local elections. Labour had a net loss of 331 seats and their projected share of the vote at 24% was the lowest recorded and left them in third place.[...] The big winners are undoubtedly the Conservatives. Their share of the vote, 44%, put them 20% ahead of Labour and they gained 256 more councillors”.

So, let’s see where this brings the tally up to:

Germany- Left -> Right
France- Left -> Right
Italy- Left -> Right
U.K.- Left -> Right
(Help me out here, is there another one I’m missing?)

As Dennis Prager repeatedly points out, the world does not hate the U.S.- the Left hates the U.S.; where Leftists are in power, you get anti-American rhetoric, and our homegrown Leftists eat it up and wail about how we’ve lost the world’s admiration, how those too-cool Europeans don’t respect us anymore. Looks like the facts are telling a somewhat different story.

As for the U.S. election year outcome, who knows how that will turn out? Our own Republican Party appears to have lost all self confidence and thinks it’s only hope is to run to the left. Aren’t we supposed to be following the lead of those sophisticated Europeans?

U.S.- ? -> ?

The Folly of Faith-Based Science

I had heard that adult stem cells (ASC) were already being used in medical treatments, and were proving to be far more promising than embryonic stem cells (ESC)in many hundreds (or was it thousands?) of studies. It didn’t surprise me that this would be under- or unreported in the general media. However, I hadn’t realized how great the superiority of ASC’s is, and how remote the promise of ESC is until reading the article by Michael Fumento in the April issue of The American Spectator. Did you realize (quotes from the article):

- “ASC’s have been treating human cancer (via bone marrow transplants) since the 1950’s, and today are used in over 70 treatments or cures. They are being tested in over 1,300 human clinical trials, with the number growing monthly”.

- “Meanwhile, [...] it remains that they [ESC's] have rarely been tested on animals and never on a human. Outside the petri dish, there’s been virtually no progress towards curing or treating the over 70 diseases ESC backers say lie in the future of their research”.

- that the “dirtiest of the dirty secrets in the ESC research closet is that according to many top experts in biology, science writers, and even those whose entire work and reputations concern the field, promises of cures are nowhere closer to being redeemed than since they were first made. In fact, the trend appears to be towards lengthening the predicted day of deliverance to anywhere from ‘decades’ to perhaps not even in our lifetimes”.

- “The magic word as to when we’ll get the cure for Alzheimer’s or Parkinsonism or diabetes has always been ‘decade’, as in ‘a decade away’ or ‘a decade off’[...] Few seem to have noticed that the ‘decade away’ schedule kees getting bumped. In fact, it began over a decade ago.”

So, what is the motivation in demanding continued funding for such speculative research (ESC) with such distant (and possibly non-existent) payoff, when doing so takes money away from perfecting and expanding procedures (ASC) that have proven effectiveness right now?  Tell me, whose science is “faith-based”?

Sad brightness/ bright sadness

We helped bury a baby last night.

On Bright Monday, the very day following the year’s most joyful feast, an expectant mother in our community went for a routine prenatal sonogram, only to learn that her baby, 20 weeks along in the pregnancy, had died.

Incomprehensible. Unfathomable.

We gathered at the cathedral at 9 o’clock , then processed across the street to the cemetery, following our priests and the icon of the Resurrection. No pallbearers needed but the father alone, cradling a heartbreakingly small coffin in his arms. He and the mother were acccompanied by their three young sons, the youngest only a toddler himself.

After some prayers the father placed the little coffin in it’s grave. We sang Paschal hymns of the Resurrection and filed past the grave to toss in our handful of earth. Simple, even minimal of necessity; what oration or sharing of stories could their be for a child unmet and unknown in this life?

But the child was known to God, and now is with God. He had a name, and was accorded the full and proper dignity of personhood as he deserved. What more than that need there, could there have been? It sufficed.

In the ongoing infanticide of abortion, and the growth of single- or two-child families, experiences such as this must be increasingly rare. I have two sisters and a brother, and I remember mother telling us that she had miscarried three times, once between each of us four. When you look at the tired faces peering out of old family photos from earlier generations, you realize that it wasn’t only tiredness from raising six, eight, ten or more children, but the emotional and spiritual costs of coping with the much more frequent occurrences of miscarriage and infant mortality.

Christ IS risen, He HAS trampled down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowed life. “Memory eternal!” little Lazarus… in God’s memory is our life eternal, and we will meet you right soon enough in the fullness of time.

[The title of this post is from Fr. Alexander Schmemann's book Great Lent].

Right: The cemetery of St. John’s, with the golden cupola of the St. Sergius chapel visible through the trees

Not exactly the dialog he had in mind, ya think?

Prefacing first with a cautionary old joke…

Two devout old Irish Catholic immigrant women had been feuding their entire lives. One Sunday morning Mary O’Shaunessey is just leaving St. Patrick’s after the Mass, still on the very steps, when she’s confronted by her nemesis Mary O’Haggerty, who promptly begins haranguing and reviling her.

Mary #1 draws herself up and indignantly replies, “Why, isn’t this just like you to be takin’ advantage o’ the situation, revilin’ me while I’m still in a state of grace!” Then her face clouds over and she begins wagging her finger as she advances on her foe; “But don’t you worry- I shan’t be in a state of grace for long, and then you’d best be watchin’ yer back!”

The humor comes from the recognition of how close that story comes to the feelings we’ve all had of being pulled back into the “same old same old” mundane reality, after having just left a transcendent worship experience feeling all blessed and blissed. It’s one reason I like to take off Bright Monday from work each year after Pascha, and why I enjoy and appreciate the tradition of observing Advent and the twelve days of Christmas- to revel in the joy of the feasts, the encounter with the true Reality, and postpone my return to the pseudo-reality.

It would be too depressing to think that I was returning to nothing more than the same level I had started from. As one hip poster from the hip era said, “The only Evidence of Life is Growth, and the only Evidence of Growth is Change”. I would hope that I not only end each year, or each feast, but even each day with at least some growth, that I never step into the same river twice, as they say.

Having said all that, I emerge from the most recent season of fast and feast, and look at the current state of the Presidential campaign. How can I not smile, unworthy man that I am?

This Washington Times article is titled, “Obama: ‘Voters tired of Wright issue’“. Oh, doesn’t he just wish they were! Having disowned the man he only recently and so nobly avowed that he could never disown, he obviously hopes that he has effectively disengaged himself from any future (and predictable) rants of Rev. Wright. Better late than never, but the question- totally valid- remains… why so late? Why only now? And isn’t it still valid to ponder how this reflects on your campaign theme of “Judgment to Lead”? Can we risk hoping, as one pundit wondered, whether you’ll be more attentive to your daily National Security Briefing than you were to your pastor’s preaching for 20 years?

Victor Davis Hanson on the subject, here, along with reflections on the paranoid element in the Obamas’ worldview. I recall the old Cold War era sci-fi movie “Them!“, particularly the title-derived scene where the little girl, traumatized into a near-catatonic silence by an attack of giant mutant ants, smells their scent and shreaks “Them!”. Now, substitute in Barrack or Michelle Obama for the little girl.

This is not simply the pleasure at seeing a normal, standard issue opponent publicly embarrassed and discomfited. It is a great sigh of relief and hope (audacious or otherwise) that the absurdly hyperinflated adulation of a mortal man, almost deified by his partisans, must (surely must) now come to it’s richly deserved end.

I missed Michelle Obama’s speech back in February about how her husband President Obama would fix our souls (see this column). Folks, this is profoundly disturbing stuff, and frightening that this was said back in February, and instead of being hooted off the national stage he went on to amass more and more millions in donations, more primary victories, more fawning media coverage. God help us.

In any event, things aren’t going quite as hoped for in the Obama campaign. Maybe the Rev. Wright’s rants, and those of his apologists, actually will succeed in sparking the great national dialog on race that Obama prescribed for us- but it certainly won’t be the kind of dialog he imagined! No indeed…

Here are the sobering numbers (lots and lots of them) from today’s Rasmussen Presidential Tracking Poll. Yikes, as they say.

G. Rodriguez, Hispanic columnist in the Los Angeles Times, wonders what kind of great national debate Obama had in mind if his reaction to hearing someone speak his mind is to disown him. Good question, but unfortunately… who cares? No one took it seriously anyhow. Just political manuevering and damage control.

Holy Reenactors

I’m enjoying Bright Monday at home, as I’ve done for as many years as I’ve been able to. How jarring it would be to drop back into the routine workday world after experiencing the transcendent joy of the Great Feast.

All the elements that contribute to making Orthodox worship so powerful are present with particular force during Holy Week- actually, beginning with Saturday of Souls the day before Palm Sunday. With not only the sights, sounds (and silences), smells, and- not least- our physical involvement in making the sign of the crossing, our kneelings, our prostrations, the lifting up of our hands in prayer, we not only- not “merely”- remember the events of 2,000 years ago, but in that mystical transcendent reality outside of our human linear time, in God’s timeless time, we become “holy re-enactors” and, even more, participants.

This occurred to some time during the Holy Friday or Holy Saturday services. I remembered the time I was living in North Carolina and went to watch a friend take part in a reenactment of a small Civil War skirmish that took place there. If you’ve ever visited one of these, you know how important authenticity is to the people involved. Some of them spend large amounts of time and money researching and producing authentic clothing and accouterments, and will refuse to break character while on location.

I also remembered visiting a Living History village in Illinois with my two daughters many years ago. They were of that age in which they were totally humiliated that their Dad actually did what visitors are expected and encouraged to do- talk with the staff people who are manning the exhibits and reenacting the life of the period being featured- in this case, an Illinois pioneer village of the 1820-1850 era. Ah well, isn’t the chance to embarrass your kids one of the rewarding “paybacks” we get for all the pain they inflict on us? Sure it is!

Anyhow, these were the memories that occurred to me during the services. Not by any merit of ours, but by God’s divine grace alone, the priest declares at the consecration of the bread and wine- “The holy gifts are for the holy!”. We in turn declare, “I believe, oh Lord, and I confess [...] that this is truly your own immaculate Body, and this is truly your own precious blood”. By His unknowable good pleasure and unsearchable purpose, He is pleased to permit us to be His co-workers, co-creators, and holy reenactors- not in dress up make believe, but in a divine and mystical reality.

These things occur every week in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, but during Holy Week the frequency, rigor and length of the services produces almost an anxiety of anticipation. Each day the Scripture readings recount the entire history of God’s dealings with mankind, from Genesis to the Last Supper. On Friday the nearly life-size cross and crucifix are brought out, before which we make our prostrations and veneration. On Saturday the cross is removed and replaced by the “burial shroud”; with it we process around the church and, on re-entering the church, pass under the “shroud”, vividly symbolizing our baptismal “burial” with Him. And then, the grand finale of preparation at Saturday evening’s service, last minute preparations at home and a few hours sleep (for the fortunate ones), followed by…

… waking at 3AM, dressing hurriedly and hurrying to church, finding a place in the crowded darkness. The lights are extinguished, and it seems you are aware even of the vibration of the air molecules. The candle of the Presence over the altar is slowly lowered; the priests light their candles from it, turn to face the congregation, and then sing the haunting melody of the first Paschal declaration-

“Come take light from the Light,

That is never overtaken by night;

Come glorify Christ,

Who is risen from the dead!”

And it just keeps getting better! The day is like none other…

Glory to God for all things! May your Bright Week be bright indeed, and illumine your path through all the days of the year, and years, that lie ahead.

Due to Global Warming, maybe?

Friday, April 25th. When I got up to walk the dog at 5:30AM, it was 42 degrees, and I expected the last little patches of snow in our yard to be gone by evening. By 9AM the temperature had dropped to 34 degrees and it had begun to snow. Six hours later it is still pouring down, no sign of ending anytime soon.

Hey, was Al Gore scheduled to give a Global Warming lecture at the University today? Had to ask…

See the new photos at the bottom of my previous post, here.

New pictures here, too- three views of the front yard from a second story window, and a view out the back window:

and the back yard:

We’ve had snow on Pascha before, but in March, not the end of April! Oh well, “Glory to God for all things!”

UPDATE: The official tally, by the National Weather Service, as reported in the Anchorage Daily News-

West Anchorage 16 inches

Hillside 18 to 20 inches

Muldoon 22 inches

It was the third biggest snowfall in a single day in Anchorage — midnight to midnight — since record-keeping began in 1915.

1. March 17, 2002 22 inches

2. Dec. 29, 1955 15.6 inches

3. April 25, 2008 15.5 inches

And it was by far the largest single-day snowfall after April 1 since 1915.

1. April 25, 2008 15.5 inches

2. April 2, 1955 8.3 inches

3. May 3, 2001 5 inches

Our governor’s new baby- Profiles in Courage (UPDATED)

(Photo courtesy of KTUU Channel 2, from the Anchorage Daily News article here).

World, meet Trig Paxson Van Palin. Trig, meet the world.

Governor Sarah Palin went into labor about a month early while at a national Governors’ conference in Texas, necessitating a hasty return to Alaska , but mother and child are reportedly doing well. He is the Palins’ fifth child and second son.

The name “Trig” is from the Norse heritage of his father’s family, and has the dual meanings of ‘true’ and ‘brave victory’.

“Paxson” is the name of a small community that is a popular spot for snowmachiners, of which his dad is a champion competitor.

And finally, guess which rock star lead singer from the ’80’s inspired them to add the third name, “Van”? Cute, eh?

However, the family announcement revealed a far more serious side to this new life, and an inspiring witness to his parents’ sanctity-of-life beliefs. It reads:

“Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives.”

They have not yet specified what those “special challenges” are, or their severity or potential impact on his development. However, the point is that they did not use these negative tests as a “search-and-destroy” operation. Trig is not a tragic burden on them, but a privilege and a God-entrusted gift. God bless them for that!

Today is Lazarus Saturday, and the eve of Palm Sunday. Lent has passed, and now Holy Week is upon us. We are in the final approach to Great and Holy Pascha, the Feast of Feasts, the Day above all days, and there is that undercurrent of mounting excitement and blessed anticipation.

I know that the big Pennsylvania primary is coming up on Tuesday, but I’m just not going to be that caught up in the affairs of the world this week. I’ll write again later. To my Orthodox readers, may your Pascha be holy, and wholly joyful!

UPDATE: Palin family confirms diagnosis of Down’s Syndrome. Article in today’s ADN here.

It’s not fairrrr! Call a “Wah”mbulance!

Isn’t this priceless? A picture truly worth a thousand words… neatly sums up all the grievance-mongering, entitlement mentality, victim status clamoring, and now, the reaction to last nights debate.

[Image source: MichelleMalkin.com]

These so-called Presidential primary campaign “debates” have been so predictably sanitized and uninformative that I’ve never wasted my time watching them. Given the reports from last night’s event in Pittsburgh, I’m almost (almost) sorry I missed it.

Sounds like the Dems are in an outraged snit that their candidates were subjected to the type of hardball questioning that is supposed to be reserved for the Republicans. How dare they! Not only were they asked substantive questions, the moderators declined to let them tap dance away with the usual boilerplate non-answers.

Wasn’t it utterly shameless how the moderators tried to sidetrack the debate with attempts to nit pick about minutiae like associations with an unrepentant American terrorist, or a twenty-year membership… make that “mentorship”… under a racist minister. We’re supposed to get questions like “Mrs. Clinton, do you prefer pearls or diamonds?” (so reminiscent of the question posed to candidate Bill all those many years ago- “Mr. Clinton, do you wear boxers or briefs?”)

Lord have mercy.

I heard one clip of Obama engaging in the Dem’s now standard practice of creating their prefered reality by the simple act of asserting that it is so. Lather- Rinse- Repeat… endlessly… and folks will swear it must be true. Said he, “Our foreign policy is in shambles”.  Really? How so? Because the world doesn’t respect us anymore! Really? Let’s see if I can get these in the right order; first, Germany elects a pro-American prime minister, then France elects a pro-American prime minister, this week Italy elected a pro-American prime minister, and then today the British prime minister- a Labour Party man, mind you, not a Conservative- declares that “the world owes George Bush a huge debt of gratitude” for his actions against terrorism.

Some shambles.

UPDATE: Listened to NPR (can’t help myself) and heard that Obama had dismissed the need for another debate prior to the N. Carolina primary.  Said he, “I can probably quote all of her campaign lines, and she can probably quote all of mine”.

So can we all, Senator, so can we all.  Nevertheless, he whined to crowds after last night’s debate:

“Last night I think we set a new record because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people,” Obama told the North Carolina crowd. “Forty-five minutes before we heard [everything we've already heard before] about health care, 45 minutes before we heard [the same irresponsible drivel] about Iraq, 45 minutes before we heard [the same jaw-jaw-jaw] about jobs, 45 minutes before we heard [the same old same old] about gas prices.”

All together now, 1…2…3…”Waaaaaaah!”

Pope Benedict and the crisis of the West

Another Papal visit to the U.S., and of course I have nothing to comment on about it. The Washington Times has what looks like a good “Special Edition” web site to track all things related to his visit, here.

National Review Online also has many excellent articles; naturally, if you are yourself Catholic you already know where many other good sites are, too.

Shortly before becoming Pope Benedict, Cardinal Ratzinger published an article touching on matters related to the prospects for the survival of European civilization. It is titled “If Europe Hates Itself”; it is short, and is worth a read- I found a copy here.

The interplay of faith and culture- specifically Christian faith and Western culture- is a significant question. My first post on this blog was a purposely provocative question… would it matter if America became Islamic? I was influenced by the memory of a C.S. Lewis essay I’d read many years ago that he published in 1940, titled “Christianity and Culture”. His conclusion, summed up, was that:

“I think we can still believe culture to be innocent after we have read the New Testament; I cannot see that we are encouraged to think it important”.

While looking for a copy of that essay I found this excellent article, in which the author argues effectively that “in later essays Lewis would go on to develop much more fully not just the innocence but also the positive values of literary culture.” The full essay is here, and that shall be the final citation of the evening.

Pax Deus vobiscum!