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Okay, my fellow port swillers, I believe most of you know each other moderately well, even if only on-line. So here’s a little quiz: Who do you immediately suspect “Shirley Nagel” actually is when you read this article?
A Grosse Pointe Farms woman has doled out political tricks by refusing Halloween treats to children whose parents support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Shirley Nagel passed out candy Friday — but only to those who shared her support for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin.
Fox 2 News says a sign posted outside Nagel’s house, about 12 miles west of Detroit, served notice to all trick-or-treaters. It read: “No handouts for Obama supporters, liars, tricksters or kids of supporters.”
Nagel tells WJBK-TV that “Obama’s scary.” When asked about children who’d been turned away empty-handed and crying, she said: “Oh well. Everybody has a choice.”
Fax and phone messages were left today at numbers listed in Nagel’s name.
Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?
I meant to relate a small but amusing story about Mom:
This past weekend she was out visiting friends in her little corner of the Maine Coast. After having drink taken, the group moved off to dinner at the local hangout, a shack of a place on the main drag the next island over from her. Apparently, the subject rayther unsurprisingly swung round to the issue of politics, on which it is safe to say that Mom has some very definite opinions.
Mom says that she must have been talking louder than she realized, because suddenly the local librarian sprung up from her place at a table at the other end of the room and said, “Who? Who said that liberals don’t have any common sense?”
Mom half-rose from her chair, looked the woman straight in the eye, and said, “I did.”
After gawping for a moment, the woman sat down without another word.
[Insert Sergio Leone trademark "Ah-Ee-Ah-Ee-Aaaaaahh" here]
(Mom recounted this story to me with great glee. No offense to the dearly departed, but I get the distinct impression she is thoroughly enjoying herself since the Old Gentleman handed in his dinner pail.)
Forget about the Illuminati or the Trilateral Commission, I give you The Family:
Its core motive, as reflected in its activities over more than 70 years, is the intermingling of a shallow, unquestioning Christian fundamentalism with radical free trade, anti-New Deal, anti-trade unionist and anti-liberal passions. It has worked overseas to prop up dictators and mass murderers in support of big oil and other American multi-national corporate enterprises, as Sharlet documents in his book.
The defectors occupying the Falls Church are a regional microcosm of The Family’s conspiratorial approach, worldwide, mingling powerful political figures with fundamentalist religion and a passion for wresting control of religious, as well as political, institutions from the control of moderates or liberals by questionable means.
This became evident, in the case of the Falls Church Anglicans, only recently with information provided about [Rev. John] Yates’ close personal ties to The Family, with its headquarters at unmarked locations in North Arlington known as Ivanwald and The Cedars, and names of top Family members who are active among their ranks.
Barnes’ Weekly Standard magazine is well-known in Washington, D.C. circles as the mother of the so-called neo-conservative Project for a New American Century (PNAC) crowd, whose promotion of aggressive global unilateralism, exemplified in its push for the invasion of Iraq, parallels The Family’s so-called “worldwide spiritual offensive, whereby Jesus must rule every nation through the vessel of American power,” as Sharlet documents. PNAC operatives currently hold key advisory positions with the McCain/Palin campaign.
Gerson, known for inventing the term, “axis of evil,” as a Bush speechwriter, assailed Sen. Barack Obama relentlessly in his Post columns as Obama moved from an idealistic message to one of economic justice last spring, paralleling The Family’s insistence that the world’s problems are moral, not economic.
Other high-profile members of the church involved prominently in matters of the U.S. government include former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Secretary of the Army Peter Geren, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Porter Goss, and former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.
Another is Dennis Bakke, former CEO of Advanced Energy Systems (AES), who resigned after allegations he’d funneled AES revenues to The Family, according to Madsen. He founded the Mustard Seed Foundation that funnels millions to select evangelical causes annually, and resides near The Cedars in Arlington.
Like almost 90 percent of the members of the Falls Church Anglican, he does not live in Falls Church.
Key operational heads of The Family, which at its core is a small cadre organization that wields uncomely influence over a wider membership of mostly right-wing elected officials and others in Washington and key international capitals, are also members of the Falls Church Anglican group.
What’s interesting is that this article really differs only in degree, not in substance, from some of the 815 talking points I’ve heard served up from time to time at RFEC. I just have this hilarious vision of Martyn Minns saying, “Tonight Kate Jefferts-Schori sleeps wit’ da fishes!”
A glass of wine with Baby Blue!
So a dear friend of ours is getting married a week from Saturday. Today, she and Mrs. R met for lunch and to go over final plans regarding how the Family Robbo will take part in the ceremony.
The Dear Friend, although not especially fond of children, has been a real sport about our gels (she’s the 8-year old’s Godmother), taking them out on occasion, babysitting now and again, dutifully showing up for birthday parties and other special occasions, and just generally insisting that they be involved when we get together. And now for her wedding, she wants them to be her flower girls.
While I appreciate the sentiment very much, I can’t help being somewhat apprehensive about what the D.F. is letting herself in for. While her Goddaughter is pretty much guaranteed to beam like a searchlight, I have a nagging premonition of the 10 Y.O. getting her grouch on about something or other and glaring at the congregation like the Empress Livia on a bad morning. As for the 6 Y.O., the mind simply boggles: She is fully capable of stage-diving off the altar if not kept under heavy restraint.
Mrs. R is going to be the matron of honor, by the way, and I am going to give a reading, so we both should be well within range to “give the hook” should any of the gels need it. At least we’ve got that going for us.
Many thanks to those of you who offered to send along rosaries in response to my post the other day in which I mentioned that I hadn’t yet got one. Perhaps you would like to hear the sequel?
I was loitering about in front of my church on Sunday waiting for the noon High Mass when I decided to stick my nose into the little bookstore/broom closet that sits off the lobby, which happened to be open. It is presided over by a sweet little old lady who has been a the church forever and who I knew because she liked to come to the RCIA classes I took.
Well, as I was scanning the books and whatnot and chatting, I noticed a little corner of the shop dedicated to the sale of rosaries. Thinking on what we’d been talking about here, I picked out a nice black and silver set much like this one, only with a B-16 commemorative medal.
So there we are. Now all I need to do is track down a priest to bless it, and we’ll be fully up and running.
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