The Necropolitan Sentinel

This week Roman Catholics across the U.S. began using the new translation of the Mass. It is a closer translation of the Latin Mass, which is in actuality the only “official” Mass of the Church.

There are quite a few changes, and I swear our priest took real joy in catching us saying things like “and also with you”—as opposed to “and with your spirit”—but looking at the Eucharistic Prayers and so forth, he actually has an awful lot more to get used to than the rest of us do.

At Morning Mass on Monday the gospel reading was the story of the Centurion with the sick servants; our priest talked about welcoming changes not only in the words of the mass but of the population in the church. This is rather ironic, since my parish was started by a Sicilian community that was pretty much from the same town in Sicily, but now it hosts a monthly African Mass in Swahili.

Speaking of the Church, yesterday I met a young lady named Judy Owiguno who had come here from Kenya 15 years ago; she moves back next week. I interviewed her last night.

Our visible culture, as projected to the world, is dominated by the Left. There are people who know the U.S. only by what they see on CNN International or the BBC. Actually living in America really provides a counter balance.

Then again, if you got your news from CNN, BBC and the like you would think that Obama was going to cruise to victory, that the Occupiers had broad public support, and that the general public was clamoring for Jon Huntsman to enter the Presidential race.

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Speaking of the Occupod, this morning L.A. is ejecting them from the areas they’ve occupied for the last couple of months.

It’s rather amazing: Los Angeles under mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is as liberal as it gets—yet even in this liberal Mecca the Occupiers are now personae non grata.

I haven’t been in front of the TV constantly, but I have to say it hasn’t gotten a whole lot of media attention. The entire process is still unfolding, but I would think there would be more on the news concerning this development. I guess it doesn’t fit the template about the Occupiers’ popularity.

The European media apparently has a different template; take a look at this piece from John Sexton on how the Europeans are portraying OWS:

Given that the founder of OWS, Kalle Lasn, runs an explicitly anti-capitalist magazine, should this really be such a controversial term? And what about the attempt to shut down shopping on Black Friday, and the coming attempt to do the same at Christmas (Occupy Xmas). At some point, isn’t it fair to note that Occupy is anti-capitalist? Reporters in Europe think so. Why not here?

Anti-capitalist? Outside of conservative blogs, that message doesn’t get reported on this side of the pond.

Amazingly, the stories about the homeless mixing in with the Occupiers hasn’t got much play either, but then again if that were reported, it would be an admission that homelessness exists in Obama’s America.

Rest assured that the MSM will rediscover the homeless shortly after the next election, unless somehow Obama wins next year.

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William Jacobson has noticed something interesting:

After hundreds of articles at Politico, what do we know about the specific accusations against Herman Cain which gave rise to Politico’s original reporting?—Nothing.

After hundreds of articles at Politico, what do we know about the specific evidence against Herman Cain which gave rise to Politico’s original reporting?—Nothing.

Truly incredible.

Not incredible at all; the purpose of these articles was to derail the Cain train, not to break any kind of story.

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And how about the second batch of ClimateGate e-mails that was recently released? If your only news source is the MSM, you don’t have any idea that they even exist.

Of course, not existing is what Phil Jones just might have had in mind when he wrote this:

Mike [Mann],

Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise… Can you also email Gene [Wahl] and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address. We will be getting Caspar [Ammann] to do likewise.

Cheers, Phil

Willis Eschenbach comments:

You not only destroyed emails subject to an FOI request that contained the evidence of your misdeeds. You warned all of your friends to do likewise. Gene Wahl admitted that he destroyed emails at Michael Mann’s behest.

And now you want us to believe that you never destroyed emails under FOI request? That claim doesn’t even pass the laugh test. The Information Commissioner said of your emails and actions that it was not possible to imagine “more cogent” prima facie evidence of contravention of the FOI Act. Unfortunately, as the Commissioner pointed out, the statute of limitations had run out on any crime by that time, so you were off the hook. But the evidence is still there, and the public’s statute of limitations on lying scientists hasn’t run out.

Read the entire post; it is scathing, and you won’t see a trace of it in the MSM.

Oh, and did you hear that Canada is pulling out of Kyoto?

If you read the MSM, I’ll wager you didn’t.

This isn’t journalism, this is Journo-list-ism.

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At Publius Forum, Dr. Don Boys asked “the question of creation”—that is, if God didn’t create the universe, where did it come from? Some of the quotes from leading atheists defending the emergence of everything out of nothing as a “scientific” notion are . . . interesting.

There is a technical term we theists use for creating everything out of nothing. It’s “miracle.”

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That also seems to be the explanation for yet another Denver/Tim Tebow win as the Chargers managed to miss a field goal that would have won the game for them in overtime.

Now I don’t for one minute believe that God takes sides when his children play, any more than Mr. Harbaugh, Sr., took sides when his sons were coaching against each other on Thanksgiving Day—but I suspect that the notion of Divine favoritism is starting to get into the heads of Denver’s opponents.

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The NBA has apparently finally decided that it would rather have something instead of nothing.

It seems that players and owners will have a 50-50 split. That it took this long to end up with a 50-50 split is incredible.

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And here’s another miracle: just as I finished this piece the word came that Barney Frank is retiring. I will have full post on that later, but here is a photo:

. . . and a clip:

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The Twilight Saga continues to rake in the money at theaters. I have managed to miss all of these movies, and will continue to do so. Stephenie Meyer at PJ Media would probably not be surprised; she has described the entire series of movies as “Porn for Women”:

Her ideal scenario is to be with Edward while having Jacob around to dote on her within the boundaries she sets. She treats Jacob like some kind of pervert for not being satisfied with this arrangement. In this way, the dynamic between Bella, Edward, and Jacob is not unlike that between a husband, wife, and mistress. Bella wants to marry Edward but have Jacob as a kept man. The only difference is that Jacob satisfies her emotionally rather than sexually.

All I know is, it is making money hand over fist.

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Finally blogger and online writer James Joyner from Outside the Beltway (a site that has given me heartburn on more than one occasion) had a horrible shock this week. His 41-year-old wife of six years, Kimberly, died in her sleep—leaving him with two young children.

We spend a lot of time online going on about one problem or another and how we have to deal with this life issue or that—but our concerns mostly drop into insignificance next to the reality of two girls growing up without their mother, and James going on without his wife.

In this Christmas season, let us pray for the comfort of James and his children; let us also look at our own wives, husbands, and kids and remember: for all the petty annoyances we deal with, we are thankful for every moment we get to share together.

Peace be with you.