How The Mighty Fall

David Vitter was a Rhodes Scholar. He should have known better. He could have taken a lesson from his own State of Louisiana's recent history from Rep. Bob Livingston, or he could have gone back further to the late 19th century.

From Roger in the comments, here's a link to an article at Huffington Post by Karen Dalton-Beninato, on past shenanigans by one Louisiana politician which led to his untimely death at the hands of a prostitute:

It was 1870, and State Sen. Beares was shot by famed New Orleans Madam Hattie Hamilton. His obituary in the Ouachita Telegraph read:

"State Senator Beares, of Catahoula, died recently in the same city from the effects of a pistol wound received under rather mysterious circumstances. His mistress, Hattie Hamilton, was arrested for complicity in the act, but was released. Catahoula and Winn parishes are without a Senator."

Hattie had a colorful history before she became involved with Senator Beares. She must have been quite a woman because Sen. Beares "fell hard" for her in spite of the fact that Hattie had "a glass eye and other infirmities."

It's a puzzle to me why folks strive to gain high positions and then proceed to risk everything by engaging in activities that can bring them down. I suppose that once they're in positions of power, they begin to see themselves as invulnerable. Those who judge and excoriate others seem to be most prone to this type of behavior.

According to my friend Oyster, conservative Louisiana bloggers are now calling for Vitter's resignation.

Near the end of the HP piece is this quote from Bertrand Russell's "The Conquest of Happiness":

"People who wish to have a high opinion of their own moral excellence have therefore to persuade themselves that they have achieved a degree of unselfishness that it is very unlikely they have achieved, and hence the endeavor after saintliness comes to be connected with self-deception of a kind that easily leads on to persecution mania."

The Daily Office - With Grandchildren

Last night, we had a sleepover with five of our grandchildren and no parents to help mind them, just Grandpère and me. Yes, we are crazy. My three grandsons from New Orleans were staying the night, and my son's children wanted to be with them, so we had them all.

Of course, it was lively. We took them out to eat, because I thought it was better to let them make the mess in someone else's place. I had to take the youngest outside for correction - a stern talk - twice, but we made it through the meal. I believe the folks who ran the restaurant were happy to see us go. The children weren't that bad, just noisy, but, thank heavens, the pizza place was pretty noisy, too.

Later that evening, getting them settled for the night in the two spare bedrooms upstairs was the next challenge. Everyone had a preference that seemed to conflict with someone else's preference, but we finally got them sorted out - we thought. Grandpère and I breathed a sigh of relief and went to bed.

The next morning, when Grandpère went to check on them, he found all five of them sound asleep together in one queen-size bed. It seemed that some heard noises and became frightened, and somehow they all ended up in the same bed, three at the top and two at the bottom. If I had told them that they all had to sleep in the same bed, they would have howled, but there they were five angels sleeping.

I cooked them waffles for breakfast, which pleased them greatly.

Today, I did not make it to church. I had too much compassion for Grandpère to leave him alone with all five, and I did not have the energy to supervise all of them to have them ready to go with me. Since I did not attend church, I read Morning Prayer from The Daily Office in the same room where all five were playing and chattering - sometimes arguing - and, in the midst of the din, I still found much to appreciate.

Hymn

Every morning we will raise
to our God our songs of praise.
Every morning we will raise
to our God our songs of praise.

Antiphon

Alleluia. The earth is the Lord's for he made it: Come let us adore him. Alleluia.

Psalm 148 Laudate Domi

Hallelujah!
Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise him in the heights.
Praise him, all you angels of his;
praise him, all his host.
Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, heaven of heavens,
and you waters above the heavens.
Let them praise the Name of the LORD;
for he commanded, and they were created.

From the Gospel

Matthew 23:37

..."Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"....

A Prayer of St. Chrysostom

Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.

Hymn

God be with you,
God be with you,
God be with you till we meet again.
O---
God be with you,
God be with you,
God be with you till we meet again.

Now they are all gone, and it is very quiet. Thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God for the noise and for the quiet.

Bring The Troops Home Now

From the New York Times:

BAGHDAD, July 14 — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki declared Saturday that Iraqi forces could secure the country on their own “any time” American troops decided to withdraw, his first response to the White House report this week that found his government falling well short of many political reforms and military goals sought by Congress.

....

“We say with confidence that we are capable, God willing, of taking full responsibility for the security file if the international forces withdraw in any time they wish,” Mr. Maliki said.

As our president tells us so often, Iraq is a sovereign country and a democracy. Remember the purple fingers? The US is now an occupying force. If the prime minister of Iraq says about us that we can "withdraw in any time they wish," then the vast majority of the American people wish to begin an orderly withdrawal now. How orderly the withdrawal can be at this point is questionable.

Mr President, Mr. Vice-President, members of the US congress, hear the voices of the American people. Bring the troops home now!

Angelina And Brad Update

By way of the rumor machine, we hear that Angelina, Brad, family, nannies, and other helpers have moved into their house on the bayou. The road was blocked off to allow the unloading of their possessions - not an auspicious beginning to joining the neighborhood.

The word is that they have registered their children in the small Roman Catholic school across the bayou from them. Perhaps Angelina and Brad believe that the paparazzi will not follow them here. If the press do follow, in the summer, it will be quite as much fun for them in the small town near the AB ménage as it is for the White House Press Corpse camped out in Crawford, Texas.

Your Right Hand Thief

I know that I kinda, sorta took the pledge against posting further about David Vitter's present tribulations, but the New Orleans bloggers are on a roll. Does it count if I use only quotes from others?

While I'm waiting for your answers, I give you Oyster again:

We constantly hear "Well, if David Vitter's wife forgave him then so should we".

No we shouldn't.

Wendy Vitter's forgiveness of her husband simply doesn't matter to me. It doesn't! Repeat with me "It just doesn't matter, it just doesn't matter...".

Why doesn't it matter? For myriad reasons, of course, but let's just remind everyone that Vitter is our political representative, not our husband. We don't have kids with Vitter, we have our own kids to worry about.

Happy Bastille Day!

Thanks to Ormonde and Dennis for the reminder. Ormonde at Through The Dust has the words for the "La Marseillaise" in French and English on his blog. Go read them. Oy!

Miss Potter

Patience, patience, for I seem to be morphing into a movie reviewer. Last night, I watched the movie, "Miss Potter" on DVD, a movie about Beatrix Potter, who gave us the charming children's books. I'm not a great fan of Renée Zellweger, who played Potter, especially when she plays Englishwomen. Her best work that I've seen was in "Cold Mountain", when she played the earthy farm woman. She has very full cheeks - not her fault, I know - but her makeup made her look quite ruddy, too ruddy, and enhanced the puffy look, rather than disguised it. Also, there was a shine in her face that was not becoming at all. I thought that the purpose of movie makeup was to diminish the focus on the less attractive aspects of our appearance.

I know, I know, this is nitpicking, but these thoughts were running through my mind in the first minutes of the movie to the point of distracting me from the story. With all that's at an actor's disposal to make her/him look good, why not take advantage? I sound like a high school mean girl, don't I? Mea culpa.

Finally, I got into the story. I did not know much of Potter's life, but the movie makers, make it clear early on that the love story between Zellweger and Ewan McGregor will not have a happy ending, by giving the viewer a dose of not so subtle portentousness. Potter's mother was a harpy, trying to make an advantageous marriage for her with dreadful rich men, and her father, although a nice man, had whiskers that were absolutely alarming.

I didn't quite get her talking to her animals, although there was some charming animation in the movie when the animals talked back.

The scenes from the Lake District were gorgeous. I've been there, so I know that the picture-postcard beauty of the place is genuine, but there was a bit too much lingering on the scenes, as though the film were a travelogue.

The movie made good stab at promoting feminism, showing the relative powerlessness of women at the time, but, as to the quality of the movie, it was not up to the standards of "The Queen". But then, not too many movies are.

NOTE: Minor editing for clarity.

Two Youngest

Here's a picture of my two youngest grandsons in the baby pool at the beach. Click on the picture to get a better view.

I think the woman reading her book would not care for my picture.

Update: Thanks Ann. The woman is out of the picture.

Another Afternoon At The Movies

This is my summer of movies for children, a reminder of the days of long ago, when I went with my own children. The choice for my grandaughter and grandson on Wednesday was between "Transformers" and "Ratatouille". I was pulling for the rat movie and - Yay! - that's what they picked.

My one rule this time was for no blankets at the movie, because we came to such grief over blankets the last time we went. In the sweltering heat that we are experiencing now, my GS carried his heaviest padded jacket, which was fine. He never put on the jacket.

Compared to our last outing at the movies, this one was relatively uneventful, except for one fight in the back seat, which began when GS messed up GD's hair and mutual slapping followed. I responded, of course, with aplomb, using my innate gift for practicing good child psychology, shouting to the back, "If I have to stop the car, I will never take you to the movies again!" Calm ensued. It seems that empty threats work, so long as you don't use the same empty threat over and over. Constant creativity is the rule in the nurturing of children.

My GD's friend came with us, so I asked her to ride in the middle seat on the way home as a buffer between sister and brother.

They enjoyed the movie, as I did. The movie makers are realizing either that children are smarter than they once believed, or that the adults who accompany the children need the occasional sop thrown in for their appeasement at having to spend an outrageous amount of money to take the youngsters to a movie. At least, Wednesday was $5.00 day, and as my reward for spending so much money with them, I was given two free bags of popcorn - no small gift.

My GS is taking a remedial handwriting class this summer, and when my son has the children, I take him to the class. Yesterday, I tried to call their house to remind the baby sitter to have him ready and dressed decently for the class when I went to get him. No one answered the phone, so I left a message, without much hope that anyone would listen to the message before I got there.

I left early, allowing myself time to get him presentable for the class. What I had not prepared for was finding him with a face painted entirely blue, bright blue. They were playing with my GD's make-up and decided to give him a blue face. And, of course, he was not otherwise presentable. I prayed, "O God, please let this make-up come off easily." God loves me, and he is always with me, right? Therefore, I pray about every crisis, large or small.

My GD was trying something on his face to get the blue off, which was not working well, so I grabbed an old washcloth and wet it, and - Voila! - the blue came off. He changed clothes, and we were off to the class. What is it that Shakespeare said? "All's Well That Ends Well."

The Ascension

The Ascension - Sano di Pietro Pinturicchio

Fresco - Borgia Apartments, Hall of the Mysteries of the Faith

Image from CGFA.


Luke 24:36-53

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

I have heard and read these words many times, but today they came alive for me in a special way, especially these words, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."

From the Lectionary.

And I wanted to get a post up over the dead horse.