Showing posts with label Notre Dame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Notre Dame. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Brent Musberger: Dirty old man


All that needs to be said about Brent Musberger's dirty-old-man faux pas during ESPN's coverage of the Alabama-Notre Dame game last night was said by a friend on Facebook this afternoon:
So THIS is what it took for ESPN to finally apologize for Brent Musburger?
Musberger is just silly and superficial, not to mention ignorant. Gals who look like A.J. McCarron's Miss Alabama girlfriend are a dime a dozen in the SEC. And I'm assuming you don't have to be a national-championship college quarterback to snare one.

If that's what you go for.


Me, I think tons of women are stunningly attractive. Much of that comes from the inside, not from a beauty spa or something. Not that that's dawned on Brett and Kirk Herbstreit, who are idiots. Did I mention that?

I'd trust their judgment a little bit more if they had made their pronouncement after talking to Katherine Webb for 20 minutes. Is what I'm saying.

Monday, January 07, 2013

Rammer jammer, y'all!


As a loyal Tiger, I normally don't use this sort of language on this here blog, but there's an exception to every rule.

The exception is that Alabama is kind of like the brother you can't stand, but you're gonna back him up anyhow, 'cause he's family. Especially against Notre Dame. I hate Notre Dame.

And you know what else? "Touchdown Jesus" isn't signaling a touchdown -- he's motioning for those sanctimonious, insufferable Irish to put a frickin' lid on it!

So, for those and more good reasons that I'll come up with later, here goes:

Rammer Jammer, Yellowhammer, give 'em hell, Alabama!


 ***

UPDATE: Alabama 42, Lucky Charms 14.

Hey, Irish! Hey, Irish! Hey, Irish! 'Bama just beat the hell out of you! Rammer Jammer, Yellowhammer, give 'em hell, Alabama!

That is all.

The Saban hate resumes tomorrow. The Irish hate continues 24/7 on this Revolution 21 station.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Notre Dame des Douleurs

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It's over, at long last.

Maybe in more ways than one.

Sunday, President Obama journeyed to Notre Dame. He came, he saw, he divided, he conquered. And America's Catholic bishops sat helpless on the sidelines as the university named "Our Lady" bestowed high honors upon the country's most powerful proponent of key elements of the "culture of death."

When it all was over, death had emerged as just another good-faith solution to life's problems -- including the "problem" of life itself -- and 2,000 years of unchanged and uncompromising Catholic doctrine about the right to be born as the wellspring of all other rights had the patina of something held fast only by fanatics, fools or both.

Over and out.

Catholic academics like Notre Dame's president, the Rev. John Jenkins, are quick to employ half-hearted rhetorical nods to what the Catholic Church proclaims about the "culture of life." But it's more informative to watch what they actually do.

WHAT THEY DO is bestow honorary degrees upon uncompromising supporters of abortion, partial-birth abortion, government funding of abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and government funding of embryonic stem-cell research. What they do is give those uncompromising proponents of the Expendable Human a bully pulpit to undercut the Catholic Church's clear teaching . . . on the church's dime.

What they do is throw protesters in jail for pointing out the obvious spiritual and intellectual treason these Catholic academics commit against their church and their God. Assuming, of course, we're still talking the God of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph here.

What they do is teach Catholic young people -- and others in their spiritual and intellectual care -- to regard gospel, doctrine and tradition as the most regressive among a panoply of lifestyle choices and public-policy options.

While Catholic educators like Father Jenkins at Notre Dame prattle on about "academic freedom" and "open dialogue" with policymakers and the broader culture, what we invariably end up with at occasions such as Sunday's commencement is a monologue. And it ain't Jesus or one of His spokespersons doing the talking.

FRANKLY, it would be nice to see a little "open dialogue" and engagement with the popular culture. Unfortunately, I don't see Barack Obama accepting any invitations to a freewheeling debate sponsored by the University of Notre Dame. More unfortunately, I don't see Notre Dame sponsoring such a debate and inviting the president to take part, either.

There are two sides to this cultural divide and this abortion argument. A prominent fixture of one side got to make his case at Notre Dame's graduation.

The other side . . . largely is in jail. Notre Dame officials keep putting it there.


INSTEAD, this is what we got at Our Lady's university -- the Blessed Virgin Mary's namesake -- in the name of cultural engagement and open dialogue. Roll the videotape . . . or The Associated Press account, as the case may be:

On campus, Obama entered the arena to thunderous applause and a standing ovation from many in the crowd of 12,000. But as the president began his commencement address, at least three protesters interrupted it. One yelled, "Stop killing our children."

The graduates responded by chanting "Yes we can", the slogan that became synonymous with Obama's presidential campaign. Obama seemed unfazed, saying Americans must be able to deal with things that make them "uncomfortable."

THAT, MY FRIENDS, was a real-life metaphor. It was symbolic. And I'm half inclined to believe it wasn't an accident -- not in the cosmic scheme of things.

One of the uncouth and divisive protesters makes the unreasonable request to stop killing the most defenseless of our children. Then, as police drag him away, the graduating class of this Catholic university starts chanting "Yes, we can!"

"Yes, we can!" Kill our children.

"Yes, we can!" Thumb our noses at the church.

"Yes, we can!" Blow off the protests of a compromised and feckless episcopate . . . which in this instance happens to be absolutely right. (Ultimately gutless, but nevertheless right on the biology, theology and ecclesiology.)

"Yes, we can!" Eat the forbidden fruit.

"Yes, we can!" Be as gods!

Father Jenkins professes a commitment to dialogue. Unfortunately, the church of John Jenkins has nothing constructive to say.

To be more specific, the church of John Jenkins has had all the wrong things to say to its children. It has lost a couple of generations and now is going for the trifecta.

IN A WORLD choking on "Yes, we can," the church Notre Dame has come to represent is "about as useful as teats on a boar hog," as we used to say down on the bayou. It is time the ordinary responsible for what has become a lethal embarrassment to the Catholic Church do something useful himself and put Notre Dame out of our misery.

There is one Catholic truth. Notre Dame's leadership apparently doesn't see it that way. So, can we end the charade that one has anything to do with the other?

Yes, if Bishop John D'Arcy tells Notre Dame it no longer can call itself Catholic, the American church might take almost as big a hit as the Blighting Irish. But then again, the Catholic Church took that hit decades ago.

Catholicism took that hit when its leaders stopped leading . . . stopped teaching . . . stopped caring about raising Catholic children in the faith. The only thing left to do now is to start re-establishing that, yes, it does mean something to be Catholic.

Right now, the world thinks being Catholic means standing before the president of the United States and asking, in effect, "What is truth?" Let's not allow the Class of 2009's enthusiastic embrace of that sentiment be our Final Answer.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

'Dialogue' from a South Bend jail


At the same time, and born of the same duty, a Catholic university has a special obligation not just to honor the leader but to engage the culture. Carrying out this role of the Catholic university has never been easy or without controversy. When I was an undergraduate at Notre Dame, Fr. Hesburgh spoke of the Catholic university as being both a lighthouse and a crossroads. As a lighthouse, we strive to stand apart and be different, illuminating issues with the moral and spiritual wisdom of the Catholic tradition. Yet, we must also be a crossroads through which pass people of many different perspectives, backgrounds, faiths, and cultures. At this crossroads, we must be a place where people of good will are received with charity, are able to speak, be heard, and engage in responsible and reasoned dialogue.

-- The Rev. John Jenkins,
president of Notre Dame

Lies, damned lies and Notre Dame PR


I am saddened that many friends of Notre Dame have suggested that our invitation to President Obama indicates ambiguity in our position on matters of Catholic teaching. The University and I are unequivocally committed to the sanctity of human life and to its protection from conception to natural death.

-- The Rev. John Jenkins,
president of Notre Dame

Notre Dame's actions belie its bull


"Woman, behold your son."

Thus said Jesus to Our Lady -- the Virgin Mary -- just before He died on the cross. What did Jesus say next?

A) "Remember, woman, that dialog is paramount, and you must not be doctrinaire. Pilate, after all, made a compelling point about truth."

B) "Always look on the bright side of life."

C) Speaking to John, "Behold your mother."

D) "Arrest him!"

If you answered A, B or (especially) D, you probably are an administrator at the University of Notre Dame -- the university of Our Lady. You long ago stopped contemplating what it means to be a Catholic school named for the Mother of God and, truth be told, you probably think Jesus was a sucker for turning down a devilish deal after 40 days in the desert.

Then again, we live in interesting times, and it should be no surprise to us that evil should roll in and out of Catholic chanceries and colleges like trains roll in and out of Grand Central Station. Or would if Amtrak were half as efficient as Beelzebub.

ANOTHER hell-bound train left the station Friday. Left the station named for the mother of Jesus.

After meeting at the front gate for prayer and speeches, Alan Keyes, a conservative politician and commentator, pushed a baby stroller onto the Notre Dame campus.

Two hundred feet past the front gate, he and 20 other protesters were arrested.

Keyes — a long-shot candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, 2004 and 2008 — came to Notre Dame on Friday to protest the University's invitation to President Barack Obama to speak at commencement.

"We are walking onto this campus of people, visiting what ought to be a kingdom of God," Keyes told a gathering of about 75 who met outside the campus gate, "but instead has been a kingdom of darkness."

As two dozen students looked on, Keyes and the other protesters pushed the strollers — each containing a doll covered in stage blood — along the sidewalk shortly after noon. Officers, who had been waiting for protesters to enter campus, quickly stopped the procession.

THAT'S the South Bend Tribune's short version of events. The video above is the protesters' long version. And if you search YouTube, it's not difficult to find videos of Notre Dame security officials confronting Keyes, et al, outside the university gates -- on public property -- to forbid them from stepping on campus.

Leave aside for the moment that Alan Keyes is a well-known nutwagon and, in fact, is matched in the "their zeal consumes them" department by Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, arrested a week earlier on the Notre Dame campus. What the video shows is security forces stopping an understated, peaceful and prayerful protest march against abortion . . . on the campus of a Catholic university.

Cops, with paddy wagons standing by, busting up a protest against abortion by a bunch of Catholics praying the Rosary. Busting up the protest and arresting the protesters on the orders of a Catholic priest.

What's wrong with this picture?

ALAN KEYES DOES one thing in his life that's not marred by intemperate rhetoric or -- let's face it -- plain old crazy talk, and the president of the country's most prestigious Catholic university makes sure he goes to jail for it. All because Keyes and his band of protesters find it offensive that the Catholic academic, the Rev. John Jenkins, will honor a notoriously pro-choice president at his Catholic institution in defiance of the nation's Catholic bishops.

Imagine, if you will, Bull Connor as a regular at the faculty club. Fascist repression over brie and a tasteful chablis.

The pictures of peaceful Catholics being arrested on a Catholic campus for upholding Catholic teaching speaks louder than any of Notre Dame's public-relations bunkum in defense of its giving props to Pilate. One's gut can recognize evil when it is encountered, and sophistry thus can persuade no longer.

And it no longer matters that Alan Keyes and Randall Terry love TV cameras like a hog loves slop. It becomes irrelevant that PR-challenged yahoos are driving around -- and flying over -- South Bend with giant pictures of aborted babies.

IT'S ALL DWARFED by a single spectacle: prayerful Catholics being set upon by cops under orders from a priest, all because the prayerful Catholics had the temerity to insist that a Catholic university not render unto Caesar -- a Caesar with the blood of innocents on his policy prerogatives -- the blessing of an institution dedicated to the Mother of God.

Notre Dame. Our Lady.

Now back to that devilish deal in Matthew, Chapter 4:

8
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,
9
and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me."
10
At this, Jesus said to him, "Get away, Satan! It is written: 'The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.'"

NOTRE DAME is prostrate. Has been for a while now. And it doesn't even have the kingdoms of the world to show for it.

Or, for that matter, a decent football team.

Notre Dame sits within the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. And it is within the purview of Bishop John M. D'Arcy, who is boycotting the university's graduation exercises, to decide which institutions within his diocese may -- and may not -- call themselves Catholic.

Given the university's recent actions -- actions which follow a pattern over the past quarter century -- is it too much to ask that the good bishop put Notre Dame, at long last, out of our misery?