Apparently, the Obama – “they better not bring my wife into it” – Campaign has decided that it’s okay to go after spouses, now – translate that: just John McCain’s spouse. Confederate Yankee notes some out-and-out lying at the Washington Post.
I’m sure the reporter just doesn’t know how to um…investigate stuff, like that blogger does.
Well, who has time to check facts when there is a victory party to plan or winnings to be collected ‘way before the fact.
The Obama team is sending the media marching band out to the field before the game is won (H/T Bookworm):
The press seems very distracted. They barely notice the 200,000 shenanigans in Ohio, or the sordid little scandal down Florida-way, which – two years ago – gave great offense when the congressional seat involved an (R) instead of a (D).
We’re still 20 days out from the election. I’m watching the press, and reading these overanxious twits who are so eager to get going on their agenda (it’s been (mostly)delayed, after all, these 8 years) that they want to make an end-run around the constitution, and begin governing on November 5, and I’m thinking, “they always overplay their hands…”
Democrats routinely overplay their hands. Of course, they’ve got the press at their backs like a mighty wind. They feel unstoppable. (Shrug) maybe they are. But it all feels like an illusion to me, like any second the whole thing is going to dissolve and reveal something else.
Just a feeling. Could be wrong. I reminded my kids last night, though, that Carter was presumed to be the shoo-in in 1980 until three days before the election, that nothing is “over” yet.
The Obama camp knows this. They know it’s not over. They know he hasn’t closed the deal – it’s one of the reasons they’re ‘acting as if” it is over. The “act as if” philosophy has been part of the campaign since its inception. It’s an old self-help trick: “Act as if you’re already president, and people will begin to believe it; you will begin to believe it.” “Act as if you’ve already won, and people will believe it; you will believe it.” You make a thing happen by believing it already has.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Let’s keep watching. There are master illusionists all over the place, and they’re all trying to misdirect your attention and keep you unfocused. I have no idea who is going to win this thing in 20 days, or 40 days. Neither does anyone else. Not really.
A friend of mine, noting the Buckley endorsement of Obama on the slimmest of notions, said, “there is a strange undertow of events, lately.” Yes. Things are so strange because there is disorientation – and this disorientation is because the supernatural is in play – it’s been in play for a long time, of course, but the painless coup is almost complete and there is almost an anticipatory frenzy on the side of the presumptive victors. Mistakes get made in a frenzy.
The Mad Hatter is fasting and praying for discernment, for the nation, for her own vote. I am doing this also – have been doing it since October 1. We have had a bit of fun on this blog, with the fasting, and with people tempting me with pie recipes, but what I have not written about this regimen is that these 16 days have brought such a sense of interior peace that I almost cannot describe it.
Grounding myself in prayer, examining every odd yearning (and not just for food) and choosing to surrender that yearning rather than gratify it has had an empowering effect, and a clarifying one.
What I am reminded, repeatedly, is that time is a construct – that everything is happening simultaneously. Right now, I am writing at my computer. Right now, I am voting at my local school. Right now, Christ is dying on a cross. Right now, He is making a covenant and receiving a kiss. Right now, Napoleon is heading to Waterloo. Right now, George Washington is facing defeat for the umpteenth time. Right now, I am being needlessly cruel to someone. Right now I am being born. Right now I am 78 years old and grousing that my kids never visit me. Right now, Obama has won the election. Right now John McCain has won the election.
This is why prayer has power. In the quantum world, where everything is occurring all at once, prayer changes things. Sacrifice changes things. Wisdom knows this – it is why every religious tradition, Eastern or Western, encourages prayer and sacrifice – because this is how you pierce illusions.
Last week Pope Benedict XVI said: ”He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand”…money vanishes, it is nothing. All these things that appear to be real are in fact secondary. Only God’s words are a solid reality”.
Yes. Everything is happening, all at once. What appears to be solid and three-dimensional would does not even exist between its busy atoms. That which the world regards as most ephemeral, and least grasp-able, is actually the solid platform upon which all illusions spin.
About a year ago, out of the blue – a friend of mine – a social studies teacher who is politically “interested” but not active, and who does not go to church – said to me: “I get the feeling that George W. Bush is going to be the last American president of “old” America, and Benedict is going to be the last pope of the “old” Catholic church.” She had a sense of things cresting, of a cusp being reached.
Right now, a typesetter is laying down the words Dewey Wins! Right now, Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democrat nominee. Right now, George Washington is refusing a crown. Right now, Barack Obama is training ACORN workers. Right now, Margaret Sanger is preaching eugenics. Right now, a Pole is made Pope. Right now, Nero is watching Rome burn. Right now, Peter, that city’s first Bishop, is being crucified and turned upside down.
Right now, in prayer and in fasting, one may penetrate the illusions of the world and, touching eternity, impact them.
Obama may win this election. Obama may lose this election. McCain may win this election. McCain may lose this election. No matter what happens, we are entering a new era, and I believe everyone knows it. With the prayer and fasting, I am “in training” making myself ready for whatever comes, because whatever comes is going to be very different; it will jar us from all of our complacencies.
So, yes, I feel very peaceful right now, and my prayer and fasting continues. I hope you’ll consider joining me in this training, in whatever measure you may. And yeah, I’ll do a Vespers podcast, later.
Vanderleun sends over a link to what could almost be called a bookend to these thoughts.
The extraordinary instability in the world cannot long endure — and I fear we are ill-prepared in the extreme for the abyss which will follow. We have raised generations to believe they are entitled to ease, wealth, and prosperity; we have taught them through our easy divorces and casual shack-ups that commitment only lasts as long as it feels good, and that love is all about sex; we have failed to provide any framework of character, morality, integrity, and perseverance upon which to rest when all we have taken for granted — the wealth, the comfort, the false security, the easy irresponsibility — crumbles to the ground.
And just think, all of it brought down in a mere 50-or-so years. Don’t miss it.
Also curiously related: Zombietime on the Left’s big blunder
Meanwhile, Spiritual Things Matter lives up to its name.
Very good post, Anchoress. I would agree that things are definately changing, and the world I raise my daughter in is not the world I was raised in. I think this is always the case, to an extent…but this seems more than normal
Right now we are at Calvary. Nothing like meditating on eternity to put the present into perspective. What a wonderful post.
I’m with you on this Anchoress…at your suggestion, I started fasting one day a week. I have been passing the thought along to my friends and my bible study…mostly I get quizzical looks and “are you for real” questions but it has put my heart at ease knowing that I have left it in God’s hands and that I am doing my part…
Throughout this election season I have been thinking that God must have his own reasons for what is going on. We cannot know His mind. Why allow an infanticide supporting flyweight phoney socialist to potentially win the presidency of the United States? A dishonest man, a crafty, craven politician who knows how to cast a spell and whose campaign manager is a Machiavelli. Then the financial crisis hits. And I become very calm and reflective too. God is either giving the country a warning to change our secular, selfish, morally relative ways or he has something else in mind we do not understand. It is wonderful to be a person of faith in trying times. When things are better again I hope I do not forget to be grateful for the gift I have been given. How lonely it must be not to have a faith in God.
Well, I’ve never done any fasting before, unless it was before a lab test or two… But it might be good practice for me, because if reports are correct, the famine is coming…
[No, no, no pregnant women do not fast! Sacrifice something else! My little Mariana Elizabeth (or Kateri Elizabeth! Do you like Kateri Elizabeth?) must have food. And chocolate! You like Katharine Elizabeth? - admin]
What a fantastic post. You just hit it out of the park with the bases loaded. Thank you.
I gotta tell this group: I’m feeling lonely right about now. During the last election I lost four good friends. “Lost” meaning they don’t want to keep the friendship up anymore; I guess we disagree on too many issues. Since I am a fairly conservative person working in higher ed, I have always had to be able to keep up conservations with people with whom I disagree. Just part of life.
This time around, I had dinner last week with five girlfriends and one in particular hasn’t written me back all week. Maybe she’s busy. But another friend is also taking some distance.
I don’t broadcast my politics but don’t nod politely either. If I disagree I say so, particularly on abortion or on making fun of the “flyover states,” a phrase that, as a New Yorker, I have always been completely incensed by. I think my sin last week was not bashing Gov Palin. Sometimes I’m just quiet about a topic discussed (to keep the peace), but things have gotten to where if you don’t join the “O bandwagon” you’re an outsider. For a person who is usually never daunted by things like this, there are so many of them this year that I cannot help but to notice.
I, too, have been especially reflective these last few years, and want to be better and remember God in my life more. That also is setting me apart.
I remember, Anchoress, when you said you don’t pray for a particular outcome to this election. Neither do I. I pray God continues to shine His grace upon our Country. That’s enough for me. But it’s not an easy position to take, on the day to day. All the more reason why blogs like this are so important.
PS: And I have been dying for a soft serve vanilla Carvel all day! For a few days in fact. This post talked me out of it!
Prayer and fasting works. It works, as the Christ Himself said, when nothing else will. I’m having anemia issues this 24 hours and have not been fasting because of them, but I am still praying. Praying that God will pour out Wisdom on our nation and our world, that He will reveal the Truth, and that I will trust him for the outcome. I will go back to fasting tomorrow. I must go back to fasting tomorrow. “This kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting.” And the kind of evil that I am seeing and feeling these days, MUST BE cast out.
God bless you, Anchoress.
Myssi (still offering up that bourbon pie – I am making that thing for Thanksgiving)
Again, as usual, you miss the point. Cindy McCain sought to resolve an old problem — the lack of cellphone coverage on her remote 15-acre ranch near Sedona, Ariz. Verizon and ATT were more than happy to comply. WHY???? One might ask. I will tell you why.
John McCain’s Senate chief of staff Mark Buse, senior strategist Charles R. Black Jr. and several other campaign staff members have registered as AT&T lobbyists in the past. AT&T Executive Vice President Timothy McKone and AT&T lobbyists have raised more than $2.3 million for McCain. AT&T employees have donated more than $325,000 to the Republican’s campaigns, putting the company in the No. 3 spot for career donations to McCain, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
For a ‘politician’ who is against lobbyists I guess John is right on the mark and has all the makings of a typical Washington politician who accepts gifts from his lobbyist’s friends at Verizon and ATT. Oopps! Excuse me, my mistake. Cindy McCain received the ‘benefits’ but we all know why.
\Speaking of Cindy McCain. I’m surprised that no one mentioned that the outfit that she wore at the RNC costs more than the average home in America. I think that if Cindy would donate her wardrobes to some folks they’d be able to save their homes. So much for constructive criticism. At least I don’t resort to name calling, which proves infantile at best.
[I didn't miss the point. I think you did, though.
As to the rest, I'm also not a class warrior. I'm always amused by folks who act like being rich is somehow a terrible thing. So what if McCain wants to spend a lot on clothes? You think Teresa Kerry didn't? Who cares? The poor are not more noble because they're poor (and I've been dirt-poor, so I know that) and the rich have their place in the scheme of things, too. Who but a rich man like Joseph of Arimathea could have paid off the soldiers to get in to see Pilate, or used his influence to take control of Jesus' body and lay it in a proper tomb? So please don't play those class-warrior games here, they are as pointless and infantile as namecalling. As I've said before, when you come in here with talking points, you're not very likeable. When you come in here without them, and with your own reasoning, you're much more likeable. You should stay out of places that make you unlikable!
- admin]
This essay by zombietime ties nicely into this post:
http://www.zombietime.com/lefts_big_blunder/
Anchoress—How are you fasting? What are your guidelines? Do you mind telling?
[I'm fasting as I feel called to - I can't tell anyone else how to do it. For me, it means, no snacks, no inbetween meal stuff, one meal on Friday, no sugars, sweets, pastas or breads (all of which I love) nothing I really, really crave. So, while Oatmeal, for example, would be okay for me to eat, the fact that I love it so much and want it so badly means I do not eat it. Instead I eat what I am not so fond of and "offer up" the stuff I really want!
-admin]
Right now a young man carrying three White Owl cigars is boarding a Navy transport to take him and thousands of others to France. The cigars would not be used as his firstborn died at childbirth while he was thousands of miles away. (I read my Dad’s diary last night and I cried). I’m sure he did too. Thank you.
I think there may be a “class” thing going on, but it’s not based on money per se. Instead, it’s based on the distinction between the Ivy League knowing elite and the rest of us proles. That’s the only way I can make sense of Chris Buckley’s support of Obama – and I use his sneering at Sarah Palin as evidence I’m right.
dellbabe68, it’s a tricky situation to be in. I’ve found that people who have good reasons for their beliefs are comfortable having those beliefs challenged–because they are comfortable defending them. People who cannot defend their beliefs are uncomfortable and get angry when their beliefs are challenged. Liberals, who as a group are extremely intolerant of intellectual diversity, do not like to spend time with conservatives.
So you are in an unfair position, but a position any conservative in liberal surroundings deals with on a daily basis. There is an extra burden on you to disagree without being disagreeable, but it can be done. As a wise man once said to me, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. When I put forward conservative ideas or disagree with liberal ones, I try to do two things–always give the other person a face saving way to respond (by avoiding any “right or wrong” formulations and emphasizing the uncertainties) and also try to avoid couching my thoughts in liberal vs. conservative terms (which is possible both because I don’t consider myself a conservative and because very few liberals know much about liberalism).
More “hope and change” hypocrisy. This reminds me of Obama’s promise to fire anyone who went after Palin’s kids. Couple of days later, one of his top finance people is on TV… busting on Bristol Palin.
On a more sober note: I think big things are moving, too. Sometimes the veil gets pulled back.
It would be better to stick with the reason why Verizon and ATT supplied Mrs. McCain with the services that they did instead of running off on illogical tangents.
[An illogical tangent. Did you notice that the Secret Service requested it? But you know what? That's fine. You want come here and tell me how it would be better for me to think, or write or run my blog? You don't have to be here, anymore. I'm a pretty accommodating girl, but I'm about out of patience with your rudeness. First I get a nasty set-down for "blocking" you when you were trapped in the spam filter and now I'm told that I am apparently incapable of logic? You're rude by half, and I think I've had enough. -admin]
I am beginning to get my hope back! I think you hit the nail on the head here… The Obamanationists have become pretty confident, but there is one thing they forgot… America votes on November 4th! I think Sen. McCain is still in this. Keep hope alive!
Wellstone Memorial?
Dear Anchoress,
Mysticism becomes you.
“And the fire and the rose are one.”
– T.S. Eliot. “Little Gidding”.
Your faith is comforting and encouraging. With God’s help I will join you in prayer and fasting.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God….”
– Romans 8:28
Sorry I’m late to this post, but my own site was down for 12 hours yesterday and I was dealing with that and when I tried to come over here nothing would load but your background.
I know what dellababe68 is going through, as I have the same problem except my adversaries are in my own extended family.
We had a friend in rural Connecticut who was negotiating with two cell companies to lease his land for towers until he died. Cell service these days is a necessity and the Secret Service obviously knows it.
The plumber’s union will blacklist Joe the plumber now and he won’t be able to get work or his boss’ company won’t be able to and then Joe and the rest will have to take unemployment and other government goodies to survive if Senator Government has his way.
Obama is the dirtiest politician I have ever seen, and makes Nixon look like an altar boy.
I have first hand knowledge of how unions work. My father in law couldn’t get a job without the union’s approval and they made him pay dues but didn’t allow him full membership for over 30 years. In some places in the North you don’t work if the union says no.
I was a union officer here in the South and because I was on the Executive Board I saw how the system works. “Let’s approve a couple of thousand dollars to rent busses to take people to the polls. We have to take anyone, but we know where our voters are. Wink, wink, nod, nod.”
Because it was known I was not of their political persuasion I was ridiculed at every opportunity and have now turned against unions except on the workplace level since that’s where I could actually help people.
I worked my career for AT&T and I was never asked or told to contribute to any political candidate, so if employees are donating it’s because they want to.
God knows what I want in this election and I am guilty of asking that McCain get elected but always say “Not my will but Yours be done, Father.” My husband disagrees with that and says I shouldn’t ask God, but I know God has His reasons for everything and He also knows my mind.
As for fasting, I’m a diabetic, but fasting does work. It cleanses the body and makes the soul ready to “hear” what God is saying.
I always go back to 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
May God continue to bless America.
Your blog sometimes attracts me, sometimes not. Lately more of the former. My problem, not yours.
I too have been fasting and praying. My non-Catholic wife belongs to a web church as well as attending a local real one. She has internet chats with Christians all over the world. And all over the world Christians are fasting and praying for us and this election. Scary stuff. Sometimes I can almost hear it: a great roaring, groaning cry going up to God. A cry so intense and deep that surely the earth itself is joining in.
I too sense that things cannot continue as they are and that God is about to do a mighty work. But since it will be God’s work and not ours, will we even notice it when it happens? God’s mightiest work of all, Jesus’ redeeming suffering, death and resurection, stirred barely a ripple at the time and still today many do not let themselves be moved by it. That is God’s way; to give us freely the greatest of gifts and to freely let us accept or reject them. But maybe God will be more explicit this time; more than just a stern word kindly said. More like letting a willful and rebellious child suffer the consequences of his own bad judgement, said child having proved himself impervious to any other kind of instruction.
I have not listened much to my usual political sources lately. I find myself more drawn to prayer instead. I don’t know what will happen, but I am praying that I will have the courage, faith and trust to handle it whatever it is.
Thanks for all the time, talent and treasure you put into this blog. Its attractive!
Mark Helprin:
Well, I may have just been spam-filtered, but I just put in an apposite quote from Mark Helprin’s Winters Tale. Google “Nothing is Random” Helprin, you can find it.
Dante Explorer wrote, “Right now we are at Calvary.”
No. We’re still at Gethsemane. But Calvary could be just one or two footsteps away.