Spirit and exercise

Pastor Paul's mention of working for his father while he looks for a new pulpit brought to mind this scene from Pale Rider. If you gotta wear a collar, you might as well wear it with this kind of style.

Preacher (Clint Eastwood): How about putting me to work?
Hull (Michael Moriarty): No, I couldn't ask you to... Maybe if there was something spiritual...
Preacher: The spirit ain't worth spit without a little exercise.

And then he goes on to prove it. For a man of the cloth, he can pure down swing a hammer. All directions.



I especially like how he helps Richard Kiel back on his horse after it's all over with. Although under the circumstances, I'm not sure putting him on a saddle is an act of mercy.

Wow.

That's all I can say at this point. Just... wow.

I can't wait for the press conference to find out the details.

More Ted Kennedy stuff

Eulogies all over Medialand and its blogospheric outskirts are referring to Ted Kennedy as "the lion of the senate." Patrick's objection notwithstanding, I'm sort of inclined to agree with that assessment. Especially when you consider how encounters between Christians and lions have traditionally turned out.

Okay, that's all the snark I'll come out with. As Christine says, the grave-dancing on some blogs is disgusting. The man's dead, for Gossake! There's nothing to be gained by pointing out his faults now that he's beyond mending them.

Kennedy's funeral mass is happening even as I type. I hadn't thought to wonder about his eligibility for a Catholic funeral (given his support for the slaughter of innocents), but canon lawyer Ed Peters naturally has. He offers some reason for hope.

Still, I feel a little violated that Barack Obama is going to deliver a eulogy at a Catholic church. That's my church. Do I come to his mosque and talk pretty about Salman Rushdie?

(I know, cheap shot. But Obama's still alive, so I'll joke about him all I want. Report me if you like.)

May Ted Kennedy rest in peace

Yes, I do mean that. He wasn't always sold out to the sacrament of abortion, and it may be that he repented of his part in the abortocaust before the end. Or it may be (indeed, probably is) that God's mercy is bigger than I think. In the end (as Terry Mattingly points out:

Only God and his father confessor — if he maintained such a relationship throughout his life — have any right to claim inside information about the state of his soul and neither will be granting interviews today.

My hope is that purgatory was a welcome relief and that Mary Jo Kopechne was there at the gates to greet him. That should be the hope of every Christian. This isn't politics we're talking about now; this is eternity.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

Yee-haw!

Because it's Fair Week and the rodeo is in town, and because I'm so out of it today, this just seems to sum it all up.

No, but He's supposed to be coming back soon

My friend Patti is married to a Tejano man who's legally named Jesús, but usually calls himself "Jesse" out here in Gringoland. That's pretty common; I know a Venito who's called "Benny" and a Lionel (pronounced Lee-o-NEL) who goes by "Leo." If nothing else, it can draw a line between the people who actually know you and those who have your name on a list.

So Patti takes a phone call this morning from an officious woman who asks, "Is Jee-zus there?"

"He sure is," says Patti. "In my heart, at all times."

Click.

What else could she say?

Virginia Davis travels in elephants

The very first Disney actress has gone to that great Cartoonland in the sky. It's kind of interesting to read about her; I had no idea she was still alive. I thought the name sounded familiar when I saw the obit on the wire. I never saw the Alice cartoons, but I remember her as an unusually good child actress in Three on a Match. (Which I highly recommend, if you can find a copy. Excellent cast, excellent acting, all around impressive early talkie.) I usually hate watching child actors of that time, as they lisp and overplay the cuteness. As I recall, little Virginia didn't do that. She spoke her lines clearly and with some semblance of realistic inflection. Unlike too many child stars, she didn't (a) hang around Hollywood trying to parlay cuteness into an adult career or (b) spend the next several decades consuming various chemicals and turning her brain to orange sherbet. She and Uncle Walt stayed good friends after her career fizzled, despite their disagreement over her taking the lead in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Here's the third cartoon she made with Disney. I can't watch it at work (kind of hard to disguise it as productivity), but I will when I get home.

Good morning, you lying, racist bastards.

When the wonderful Cassandra starts off a post like that, you know you're in for a treat. Sure enough, A Few Words from Nan Pelosi on Health Care captures the liberal position to a T:

[B]efore we foist an unread bill of historic proportions on the American people, we must conduct a inclusive and robust debate in which only our side is heard. The failure of every single previous attempt to nationalize health care proves the need to exclude unAmerican liars from our national dialogue.

Of course, when I say the facts be heard, I mean "our facts must be heard". And no one can hear our facts when there's too much free speech going on. Too much information confuses people...

Read it all. Unless you're a liberal, in which case, you'll want to avoid it like the plague. Too much information confuses people.

Goodbye to a class act

Eunice Kennedy Shriver travels in elephants. I'll bet the crowds were lined up three deep to greet her at the pearly gates.

She refused to sell out with the rest of her party, when sacrificing the inconvenient became a requirement for being a Democrat. Instead, she left politics behind and cared first for the least of these, with no exceptions. She fought with gracious force to give them dignity and a place of respect in the world that nobody could take away. The world is better for her presence and poorer for her passing.

Rest well, ma'am.

This is a threatening phone call?

Don't make me get all American on your [hiney], now!

Evil, evil earworm

It's not bad enough that I'm shackled to a desk for 14 hours a day this week. No, I've also had this song stuck in my head for the last three days. And as everyone knows, the only way to get rid of an earworm is to share!



Sorry, Internet friends!