Virtue signaling will carry more cachet than virtue itself. 4/1/2024, Barbara Toth, PhD, Rhetoric and Composition
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I make this entry for Laura who commented on "Temple of the Holy Ghost." My siblings and I used to make fun of the southern accent, and now I love to listen to it. "Compassion is a word that sounds good in anybody's mouth," she says. The recording in her voice is from about 1960. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" she reads and is in the Reading List. I label short stories to guide readers, but I heard her clarification.
Well, it's time to pull out my research on the renaming of San Francisco public schools. I wasn't going to publish it, but after reading the analysis rates at UC Berkeley, I decided you need to know. These changes occurred over time. The San Francisco Board of Education failed at changing names at another 44 schools, including Lowell (poet James Russell), Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson. Here is the list (white is shorthand for European descent):
Some of these schools are poor-performing institutions making claims about how 'nurturing' they are. If test scores are below average, a school is only 'nurturing' fleas.
"According to data from the University of California released on March 13, Mission High School had an acceptance rate of 43% at the flagship UC campus, the highest of any high school surveyed and almost three times the state average of 15%. …"
"Though Mission High has traditionally lagged in state standardized testing results, it surpassed a wide range of high schools throughout the state in the acceptance rankings, including private schools and San Francisco’s highly competitive Lowell High, which requires placement testing for enrollment. …" … Mission HS Percentile Score on Smarter Balanced 8.1% Lowell HS Percentile Score on Smarter Balanced 99.1% … "During the Racial Reckoning, the politicians on the UC Board of Regents over-rode the findings of the expert commission of the faculty senate and banned even the option submission of test scores by high school students applying to UC campuses." … "The UC system overall saw an increase in California students and groups that are 'historically underrepresented in higher education,' such as African American, Latinx, Native American and Pacific Islander students, UC officials said in a Jan. 25 news release." https://www.unz.com/isteve/how-to-get-into-uc-berkeley-go-to-a-bad-high-school/ The title of the statistical analysis is "How to Get Into UC Berkeley? Go to a Bad High School" What is going on? Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). This policy defeats merit-based education and everything I have done in my tutoring career, which is to improve test scores. I hope that another analysis is done to show the success/failure rate of the students receiving preferential treatment. Note #1: Latinx is a noun or adjective relating to people of Latin American origin and is used as a gender-neutral or nonbinary alternative to Latino or Latina. Using it slaps a disgusting label on young people. Frankly, using any of these labels divides people and is un-catholic. Note #2: Equity means equity of outcomes. What it really means is, if you get a C, you deserve an A because your racial background disadvantaged you in a 'white' society. This is an insult to 'nonwhites'. Headline The U.S. House has set a strict ban on congressional staffers' use of Microsoft Copilot, the company's AI-based chatbot, Axios has learned. -Axios Media Inc.
https://www.axios.com/2024/03/29/congress-house-strict-ban-microsoft-copilot-staffers Jill Biden wrote a children’s picture book to be published in June about her White House cat, Willow. Illustrations not hers. No mention anywhere of how much the book deal with Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing is worth. "Add more booty, bitter not sweet, to your purse, Jill." Libraries will buy any new crap from a celebrity, and people will 'gift' it. The celebrity, celebrity cat, and celebrity publisher aren't the fools on this April Fools' Day.
Headline White House Prohibits Children from Submitting ‘Overtly Religious’ Art for Easter Egg Roll “Under its restrictions list, the flyer noted, ‘The Submission must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.’”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/03/30/hoppin-mad-white-house-blasted-for-prohibiting-children-from-submitting-religious-easter-eggs-for-contest/ The roll was on Saturday 3/30/2024. Miss O'Connor, the greatest writer in the genre called Southern Gothic I call Southern realism, and a very devout Catholic, never married, loved birds, and died at 39 from Lupus. Probably you will have to listen to the story twice.
"She argued that she wrote for an audience who, for all its Sunday piety, did not share her belief in the fall of humanity and its need for redemption. 'To the hard of hearing,' she explained, '[Christian writers] shout, and for the… almost-blind [they] draw large and startling figures'…". https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/flannery-oconnor/ I cite the reference but don't bother reading it. I rather listen to Flannery explain herself than hear what others have to say. I've only allowed one commentary for a short story. You and I can decide if something is good without help. Only the Bible needs commentary. Rather than ask myself why or how so much evil has emerged in the Catholic Church, I'm going to wait on my Liege Lord because, and this was covered in today's sermon, out of evil He will bring forth good. The 2020 virus brought many Catholics back to the Latin Mass. Our parish, which is typical, doubled in size. I estimate we have 50 neophytes for baptisms, conditional baptisms, and confirmations, and that's not counting newborns. We are expecting one birth per month for the next few months, and we are 1,500.
Artist: Noël Coypel (1628–1707) Title: Resurrection of Christ Object type: painting Genre: religious art Date: c. 1700 Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: height 11.4 feet, width 8.4 feet (approx.) Collection: Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes Accession number: 801.5.1 If you think I am your typical modern Catholic, you couldn’t be farther from the truth. I...
And if given one good word, I can write two paragraphs in five minutes.
P.S. I can't remember much beyond last week, but good memories and friendships never fade. Typical man. If I get to Heaven, I sure as hell want Him to kiss my soul, then put His arm around me when I get my body back. Never had doubts about the faith: it's as true as outer space is black. Conventional oddballs may step to the front of the line. Sometime I will write about the labyrinthine lay hierarchies inside traditional Catholic circles. Sic semper tyrannis.
Oderint dum metuant. Aut cum scuto aut in scuto. Gladiator in arena consilium capit. Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo. If I cannot bend the will of Heaven, I shall move Hell. Yeah, that's how to deliver a speech. ★ ORIGINAL CREDITS ★ 〉Original Song: Camila Cabello
Top line is all caps. Originally, Latin (also Greek) only had capital letters. Lowercase letters developed later as script for writing quickly by hand. U looks like a V. SPQR is Senatus PopulusQue Romanum, the Senate and People of Rome. These guys spent a lot of time producing a recording like this, as evidenced by the fine vocals, orchestration, audio frequency spectrum starting at one circle and going to five, and translation that rhymes, intoning classical Latin. Title: The Vale of Tears (Tap on title for larger view and details.) Artist: Gustave Doré, b. Strasbourg 1832, d. Paris 1883 Paradise Lost
Doré did illustrations for Dante's The Inferno, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", and Poe's "The Raven". Coleridge and Poe are in the Reading List. https://www.artpassions.net/dore/dore.html From the Vulgate, from the Greek, Luke Ranieri, my man the polymath, quotes in ecclesiastical, classical, and other pronunciations, the conversation between Pontius Pilate and Jesus on Good Friday, yesterday. Latin and Greek have different alphabets but sound similar. I had a conversation with Altan and said that one day he will appreciate his Latin studies. 6 Jesus answered: My kingdom is not of this world. follow Luke
Allen Swift 1908-2010
This man owned and drove the same car for 82 years. Mr. Swift of Springfield, MA, received this 1928 Rolls-Royce Piccadilly-P 1 Roadster from his father, brand new, as a graduation gift in 1928. He drove it up until his death in 2010 at the age of 102. He was the oldest, living owner of a car purchased new. Donated to a Springfield museum, the car has 1,070,000 miles on it, still runs like a Swiss watch, dead silent at any speed, in perfect cosmetic condition at 82 years. That’s approximately 13,048 miles per year, or 1,087 miles per month. That’s British engineering for you from a bygone era. Courtesy of Rohit Singh, Quora Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silent because the King is asleep. The earth trembled, and is yet still, because God has fallen asleep in the flesh, and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and Hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him, Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: 'My Lord be with you all.' Christ answered him: 'And with your spirit.' He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: 'Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now, by my own authority, command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awaken. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in Hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person, and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden. See on my face the spittle I received to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree. I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in Hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you. Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in Heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open.' The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity. The Catholic Company La Reina Sofia presided, and this is the first translation I have ever seen. This is the real Spain. Nothing is covered up: all is rendered bare and free and safe when you stand shoulder to shoulder, and she blessed herself as He passed. not about macho men, rather, where their loyalty is
People who go to the Latin Mass and do not receive communion, their venial sins are forgiven anyway. This forgiveness does not happen in the New Mass.
Check your daily New Mass missal if you have one, and probably you don't. I reproduced that throw-away paper once before in another entry, not this time. Forgiveness is important to people who cannot attend Mass for any reason, such as a disability, or those watching Mass online and making a spiritual communion. People watching the Latin Mass (and supporting it) will hear those words. Words matter, which is the reason so much care was given to the Latin Mass and to translations, and the reason I study words and carefully choose them, and the reason editors scrutinize them.
Let's make some connections. Penitentiary comes from the Latin paenitentia, meaning "repentance." A penitentiary is a place you are sent to make repentance for a crime committed. Penitentiary also can be used as an adjective to describe something done to show penance, as in the penitentiary scarlet "A" on Hester's chest, The Scarlet Letter, by Hawthorne, and check out Leavenworth Penitentiary in "Hearts and Hands" in the Reading List. Now, think. What bread is unleavened? Jerome on unleavened bread... Jerome: “Or otherwise; The woman who takes the leaven and hides it, seems to me to be the Apostolic preaching, or the Church gathered out of diverse nations. She takes the leaven, that is, the understanding of the Scriptures, and hides it in three measures of meal, that the three, spirit, soul, and body, may be brought into one, and may not differ among themselves. Or otherwise; We read in Plato that there are three parts in the soul, reason, anger, and desire; so we also if we have received the evangelic leaven of Holy Scripture, may possess in our reason prudence, in our anger hatred against vice, in our desire love of the virtues, and this will all come to pass by the Evangelic teaching which our mother Church has held out to us. I will further mention an interpretation of some; that the woman is the Church, who has mingled the faith of man in three measures of meal, namely, belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; which when it has fermented into one lump, brings us not to a threefold God, but to the knowledge of one Divinity. This is a pious interpretation; but parables and doubtful solutions of dark things, can never bestow authority on dogmas.” Wikipedia treats St. Jerome better than any other source. Amazing it is, too, that I have felt more loved outside the Church. I have no explanations. 1846 New Orleans, LA Poe had 35 addresses, dropped out of West Point, and never visited Italy. Writers have said that there are three story cities: San Francisco, New York, and New Orleans. If you want to know more about this man Poe, visit The Fordham Ram
https://thefordhamram.com/20302/news/fordham-students-explore-the-home-of-edgar-allen-poe/ I write about various topics, sometimes political, but I am reminded that conservative-minded people and liberal-minded people alike can fall victim to the following:
Several men are robing and disrobing in the locker room of a golf club. A cell phone lying on a bench rings. A man engages the hands-free speaker function and begins to talk. Everyone else in the room stops to listen. MAN: “Hello.” WOMAN: “Hi Honey, it’s me. Are you at the club?” MAN: “Yes.” WOMAN: “I'm at the shops now and found this beautiful leather coat. It’s only $2,000. Is it OK if I buy it?” MAN: “Sure, go ahead if you like it that much.” WOMAN: “I also stopped by the Tesla dealership and saw the new models. I saw one I really liked.” MAN: “How much?” WOMAN: “$90,000.” MAN: “OK, but for that price I want it with all the options.” WOMAN: “Great! Oh, and one more thing. I was just talking to Janie and found out that the house I wanted last year is back on the market. They’re asking $980,000 for it.” MAN: “Well, then go ahead and make an offer of $900,000. They’ll probably take it. If not, we can go the extra eighty thousand if it’s what you really want.” WOMAN: “OK. I'll see you later! I love you so much!” MAN: “Bye! I love you, too.” The man hangs up. The other men in the locker room are staring at him in astonishment, mouths wide open. He turns and asks, “Anyone know whose phone this is?” Chopin was a Polish patriot. Eighty-eight black and white rapid-fire shots.
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