Speaking of which, here’s a roundup

So, Andy Card has resigned. Do you care? I don’t. I expect the only people who will care are those who like to pontificate, speculate and buzz – think Chris Matthews and his pals. For the rest of us, I think this story is a big yawn, but ABP has some insider skinny and Joe Gandelman has the definative round-up.

Speaking of Who Cares, Siggy wonders if anyone cares about Sexual Abuse of Students in our Schools. I think they only care if it’s happening in a church, Sig.

Speaking of churchy stuff, there is a BIG Catholic Round Up this week – lots of reading and ruminating and praying going on.

Speaking of praying, reader “Terry” – who always sends me interesting things, at just the right time – sent me a snippet from The Song of Songs by Watchman Nee, and it looks to be pretty wonderful:

All spiritual progress involves a change of our present order. This is where the price lies. An attachment to spiritual ease is often the reason behind a rejection of higher callings. When we are spiritually at ease and our conscience does not condemn us concerning any error, and when we find ourselves having many spiritual experiences that issue from the Lord’s death and resurrection, we are reluctant to pursue after the goal Christ has set for us. We prefer to live in the same way, not spending additional effort to pursue new things and not losing our present peace.

I read that and it has personal meaning for me, but it also reminds me a little of the whole Abdul Rahman story and whether the world, particularly the Christian world, is ready to move away from its comfort zone and start confronting a hoary issue.

Speaking of hoary issues, Glenn Reynolds and Thomas Sowell are both writing on the immigration demonstrations, and the trouble they are promising to our future.

Writes Reynolds: Where I hear resentment of illegal immigrants, it’s not so much based on the idea of them taking American jobs. At the moment, at least, unemployment is very, very low so people aren’t thinking that way as much as they might if there were a recession. Instead, the resentment is based on the idea that people who come here illegally feel entitled to demand that they be treated like Americans. It’s the devaluing of citizenship, as much as the loss of jobs, that seems to upset most people at the moment.

Writes Sowell: If Mexican journalists were flooding into the United States and taking jobs as reporters and editors at half the pay being earned by American reporters and editors, maybe people in the media would understand why the argument about “taking jobs that Americans don’t want” is such nonsense.

Let’s be frank, shall we? Very few who are resentful of illegal immigrants are racists or xenophobes – they’re simply appalled to see people stroll into our country and start making demands. They see how well that’s working out in Europe. (Hint: It’s NOT). The plain fact is this problem has been brewing and growing for 30 years, and NO ONE in government, in either party has been willing to address it, because it was immediately muddied up in the strategic language of “hate” and “phobia” and “prejudice.”

I don’t see how any easy fix can suddenly be whipped up, especially if the politicians refuse to be honest. A big, fat chicken has come home to roost. I think it’s going to hurt both parties, but the Democrats have clearly staked out the “illegal immigrants are good for our base numbers” position and the GOP is – predictably, sadly, laughably, typically – divided and throwing a figurative dress over the head in distress. What leadership! What statesmanship! What impotent buffoons. And we keep sending them back to DC, so we’re as much to blame as the people we have elected.

Speaking of blame, I blame myself for not sending you over to All Things Beautiful enough. Let me correct that, big-time, right now. If you are not stopping by Alexandra’s site every day, you are missing a cyber-banquet of provocative artwork and reasoned debate with a decidedly intellectual heft to it, and she’s not afraid to take on the big issues, either, as evidenced here, here, here, here and throughout the blog. It is literally unlike anything else in the ‘sphere, left or right – and it is always good reading.

Speaking of reading, a kind reader named “David” has sent along this note:

I wanted to thank you for the recommendation to read In this House of Brede I started it as a Lenten project as “proper” reading in Lent as opposed to the usual trashy “who done its” that I usually read, in other words a penance. What a great book!! Well written, never a dull minute and now I feel guilty about having such a good time during Lent.

Did I or did I not tell you, it is a GREAT book. And what do you know, it’s available via the Bookshelf! :-)

Speaking of The Bookshelf, I just read this thoughtful piece on prayer and worship and expressed to the author how it sort of reminded me of St. Therese of Lisieux’s musings in The Story of a Soul, wherein she wrote:

(Jesus) set before me the book of nature; I understood how all the flowers he has created are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not take away from the perfume of the little violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all flowers want to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty and the fields would no longer be decked out with litte wildflowers.

And so it is in the world of souls, Jesus’ garden. He willed to create great souls comparable to lilies and roses, but he has created smaller ones and these must be content to be daisies or violets, destine to give joy to God’s glances when he looks down at His feet. Perfection consists in doing his will, in being what he wills us to be…

Just as the sun shines simultaneously on the tall cedars and on each little flower as though it were alone on the earth, so Our Lord is occupied with each soul as though there were no others like it…

Quel dommage! How could I have forgotten to include The Story of a Soul in The Bookshelf? I will, I will!

Speaking of the story of a soul, Ann Althouse has a good discussion on The Sopranos (spoilers in there, so beware) and the state of Tony Soprano’s soul. She links us to a very fervent forum at Television Without Pity. The Sopranos is an operatic morality play and Tony seems to be facing sins and possibly redemption.

Speaking of sin, Julie at Happy Catholic is looking at Original Sin and finding some helpful thoughts about it, here and here.