Not that I’m an expert on the topic or anything (though O.D. does seem like a most intriguing organization)…but whatever he did, it seems it was extremely therapeutic…for which we’re all very glad, I’m sure…

(Reminds me that my French, never very strong, would get a whole better when I was really angry… Now THAT might be an idea to run by the Second Language Acquisition racket—ever eager for new methodologies! Huxley? Get ANGRY!!! GRRR!!! And watch yer spoken French take off!)

Now, Joe Biden is not validly married in the eyes of the Catholic Church, because Jill was divorced, and it’s not clear that it was even a Catholic marriage ceremony.

During my recent sojourn in hospital I took confession and communion from an Opus Dei priest. A real hardliner and a monumental jerk. E.g. he told me my marriage to my wife of 43 years was not valid in the eyes of the Church because she was a (lapsed) Episcopalian. He said we would have to live “non-conjugally”, i.e. no sex, until we had rectified things with the Church. Until that rectification, he said, having sex would be a mortal sin. I nearly booted him out of my room on his ass. I was so angry.

Next day I took communion from a jolly Chicago Irish Catholic diocesan priest, who also did the anointing of the sick thing with me. Great guy. Loved him, and he was a real comfort. I told him what the Opus Dei creature told me about my marriage, and he rolled his eyes and said that Fr. Opus Dei was full of shit. “That’s Opus Dei for you,” he said, laughing.

I too miss Benedict.

Who else was he to choose? DC is a den of thieves. I am sure he trusted those who advised him but “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”

You could say that this is “narrative buliding,” but I think that Reagan hit the nail on the head. It’s not that our friends on the left don’t know anything, it’s that they know so many things that aren’t so. If you “know” that the “real threat” is from the right, you try to neutralize that threat, fit every fact into that framework, and ignore the facts that are inconvenient, i.e., “fiery, but mostly peaceful protest.”

I actually don’t think that this is about mendacity for most lefitsts. I think it’s more akin to brainwashing. They’ve been indoctrinated into such a rigid ideology that they can’t think anymore.

Stripping off the first part of it, you get this, which appears to be just fine:

https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-12-04-the-fbis-breach-of-religious-freedom-the-weaponization-of-law-enforcement-against-catholic-americans.pdf

Anyone else seeing this?

I miss Benedict, too.