Kinky Friedman for Rick Perry

Barack Obama is in trouble now. He might as well go back to Chicago if Texas' most famous Jewish cowboy, a lifelong Democrat, has endorsed Rick Perry. Do read the story. Kinky Friedman seldom fails to entertain:

'As a Jewish cowboy (or “Juusshh,” as we say in Texas), I know Rick Perry to be a true friend of Israel, like Bill Clinton and George W. before him. There exists a visceral John Wayne kinship between Israelis and Texans, and Rick Perry gets it. That’s why he’s visited Israel on many more occasions than Obama, who’s been there exactly zero times as president. If I were Obama I wouldn’t go either. His favorability rating in Israel once clocked in at 4 percent. Say what you will about the Israelis, but they are not slow out of the chute. They know who their friends are. On the topic of the Holy Land, there remains the little matter of God. God talks to televangelists, football coaches, and people in mental hospitals. Why shouldn’t he talk to Rick Perry? In the spirit of Joseph Heller, I have a covenant with God. I leave him alone and he leaves me alone. If, however, I have a big problem, I ask God for the answer. He tells Rick Perry. And Rick tells me.'

Fr. James E. Coyle, 1873-1921

I have known most of my life that a Catholic priest was shot dead on the front porch of the rectory of St. Paul's Church on 3rd Avenue North in Birmingham, but I am now reading a book that tells the story of the shooting, Hugo Black (who successfully defended the shooter), the Ku Klux Klan (which funded his defense), Catholicism in Alabama in the early days of the 20th century, and what life was like in a Southern steel town full of heat, smoke, and fear after the Great War.

I am reading about Fr. Coyle in Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America. The author is Sharon Davies, who is a former prosecutor, law professor at Ohio State, and excellent storyteller. Here she is interviewed on EWTN by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J.

Fr. Coyle's life was celebrated at St. Paul's recently with a Mass on the 90th anniversary of his death. (My old friend Jim Pinto helped organize the event, and representatives from both the Alabama Jewish Federation and the United Methodist Church attended as well as Fr. Coyle's grand niece.) I have driven and walked up 3rd Avenue all my life, but I now feel the presence of a martyr. More about Fr. Coyle here in an Irish source.

Packing to move during World Youth Day and other important events...

Readers of this blog know that posts have been sparse since my mother died in March. I wish I could do better, but the federal stimulus money for my writers, editors, and photographers never came, despite my keen connections in Washington.

My wife and I are packing our stuff to move to my home state of Alabama. I am working hard and living, for at least a couple more weeks, in two cities.

The Anchoress has a good post on Catholic education and a round-up on World Youth Day.

Evangelical Catholicism v. Counter-Reformation Catholicism

I have to agree with George Weigel that the rise of a dynamic Catholicism based upon preaching the Gospel rather than institutional preservation is a welcome development.

The news media does not get it. NPR's reporter conjectured the other day that Archbishop Charles Chaput was appointed to the vacant seat in Philadelphia in order to help the Republicans in the next presidential election! (FYI- The Republicans have not carried Pennsylvania since 1988.) I can assure you that Archbishop Chaput, whose brother's family was one of the first gung-ho Catholic families I got to know, has much higher goals. He wants no less for the fire of the Holy Spirit to make Philadelphia truly a city of brotherly love, where the widows and orphans are embraced and sheltered, the unborn are given love by their families, the prisoners are reformed by love, the poor are clothed and fed, the suicidal and addicted are given hope, and a Beatific Vision is lived. He wants the culture of Pennsylvania transformed by the love of God. Pennsylvania's electoral votes are very small oysters in comparison.

Anglicans going to Rome

Not in droves, but they will leaven the loaf as their liturgy, music, and aesthetics blend into the heavenly chorus in union with the Holy See.

"The Healing of Memory"

Pentimento has another good post and reflects on an excellent post by Fallen Sparrow. An excerpt from FS re the madness of the French Revolution:

'[R]eading those books and seeing the horrifying historical result of man's quest for Enlightenment on his own terms, absent any consideration other than exertion of force and scientific rationalism, I sensed through the smoke blowing uptown from Ground Zero my own mortality.

'Somewhere in the midst of that I became a religious man. Not a churchgoer, not yet, but I met God in the music of men who loved Him and sought to walk in His ways. In the midst of the bleakness of alcoholism and Enlightenment philosophy and history I found consolation in listening to J.S. Bach and Joseph Haydn. I fell asleep every night listening to Bach's 2nd Partita for Solo violin. At times when I was tempted to jump in front of a subway train, I remembered that I would never get to hear Bach again, and so I stepped back from the platform edge.'

St. Simons Island- 2011

I attended a law conference and took my family on a brief vacation. We ate at Barbara Jean's in the Village (among other good places); I recommend it. We got up at 6 a.m. on Saturday, Sunday, and today to watch the sun rise at low tide.

I only wish I had time to read. I'm working on Alexander Solzhenitsyn's August 1914 and St. Therese's Story of a Soul but did not have any sittin' time, though I did get some sleep.