Action Hero?

You scored as Neo, the "One". Neo is the computer hacker-turned-Messiah of the Matrix. He leads a small group of human rebels against the technology that controls them. Neo doubts his ability to lead but doesn't want to disappoint his friends. His goal is for a world where all men know the Truth and are free from the bonds of the Matrix. Neo, the "One" 67% Batman, the Dark Knight 63% Indiana Jones 54% Lara Croft 54% James Bond, Agent 007 46% Maximus 38% The Amazing Spider-Man 33% The Terminator 33% William Wallace 33% Captain Jack Sparrow 25% El Zorro 21% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

On a lighter note...

HEINEKEN... "GOTH"

Tri-cornered hat tip to Alison...

Tallis is dead, and music dies...

Following the death of Thomas Tallis in 1585, William Byrd wrote in his consort song Ye sacred muses "Tallis is dead, and music dies", thus capturing the esteem and veneration in which Tallis was held by his fellow composers and musical colleagues in the sixteenth century and, indeed, by the four monarchs he served at the Chapel Royal. Tallis' claim to the 'crown' of English music is justified by his lasting influence on English musical composition.

Read more here.

Defeat...

We lost proposition 73. Apparently even common sense isn't popular these days. Things out here in CA are bad, folks. Organizations like Planned Parenthood are so powerful. 30 other states already have similar laws. But it wasn't a sound defeat -- it only lost by 52%. We will keep fighting.

The other propositions didn't fare so well either. Arnold doesn't have much choice left but to raise taxes.

Say what?

As in this line written by "W" over at Traditio in Radice blog:

I think it is beyond doubt that every member of the Communion of Saints (with the possible exception of St. Escriva, if he truly is a saint, but that is a whole other point of discussion which I shall not pursue here) would attend the Traditional Latin Mass. If any of the great saints whose pictures I have posted this week attended a Novus Ordo, they would think they had wandered into a Protestant service or at best would not recognise what they saw as a Catholic mass. They would, however, be right at home in any chapel with the T.L.M.

I hope I'm misreading this, and perhaps I should just defer to that doubt... but with all due respect to W's preference for the Tridentine mass, this statement seems, well, downright dangerous. Whatever one's argument for preferring the old mass over the current ordo missae, the reality is that we are all united around the same One Sacrifice of Christ. This is what the Saints in Heaven see. Let us be careful that we do not only see and elevate what is external and changeable and miss what is intrinsic and unchangeable, no matter how trite the language or sappy the music. Yes, I have my liturgical preferences as well. However, I count myself profoundly fortunate that I can even participate in this most glorious act, this most awesome mystery, even though I attend a Novus Ordo parish that happens to be in communion with my Archbishop and the Bishop of Rome. God's grace is abundant there.

Quotations by Pierre Abelard

O quanta qualia sunt illa sabata,
Quae semper celebrat superna curia!

-- Hymnus Paraclitensis

O how great and glorious are those sabbaths which the heavenly court for ever celebrates!

Under the pretext of study we spent our hours in the happiness of love, and learning held out to us the secret opportunities that our passion craved. Our speech was more of love than of the books which lay open before us; our kisses far outnumbered our reasoned words.

-- Historia Calamitatum

and other quotations...

Deep Thoughts...

by Jack Handey (Note: some crude language!)

Before a mad scientist goes mad, there's probably a time when he's only partially mad. And this is the time when he's going to throw the best parties.

Anytime I see something screech across a room and latch onto someone's neck, and the guy screams and tries to get it off, I have to laugh, because what is that thing?

On Truth

Why does truth call forth hatred? Why is Your servant treated as an enemy by those to whom he preaches the truth, if happiness is loved, which is simply joy in truth? Simply because truth is loved in such a way that those who love some other thing want it to be the truth, and precisely because they do not wish to be deceived, are unwilling to be convinced that they are deceived. Thus they hate the truth for the sake of that other thing which they love because they take it for truth.

They love truth when it enlightens them, they hate truth when it accuses them. Because they do not wish to be deceived, and do wish to deceive, they love truth when it reveals itself, and hate it when it reveals them. Thus it shall reward them as they deserve: those who do not wish to be revealed by truth, truth will unmask against their will, but it will not reveal itself to them. Thus, thus, even thus, does the human mind, blind and inert, vile and ill-behaved, desires to keep itself concealed, yet desire that nothing should be concealed from itself. But the contrary happens to it - it cannot lie hidden from truth, but only truth from it. Even so, for all its worthlessness, the human mind would rather find its joy in truth than falsehood. So that it shall be happy if, with no other thing to distract, it shall one day come to rejoice in that sole Truth by which all things are true.

Confessions of St. Augustine, Book X, Chapter XXIII.