Secondary guesses on the primary

Fox has a pretty steady 53-54% share running for Hilary with 35% of precincts reporting. If that holds, then she's somewhat undershot the punditry's bar for her. Now she and her folks will have to blab it up as a triumph of epic proportions. In fact, they already are. The race goes on. And Barone is now saying that this will give her a very slight lead in total popular vote--a significant benchmark in itself, if you play the right games with Florida/Michigan.

National Review's eye on the exit polls has her getting a 10% bump from cross-registering Republicans. I'd like to see some more corroboration of this, but if true does it mean Ms. Clinton owes her win to Operation Chaos? That's world-class mischief....

Also, saw a pointer to this article on McCain's polling "ceiling" in The Atlantic. I'm not sure that 45% is a ceiling, considering the early date, his "background" status right now, and the unpredictability of independent voting pending the lack of a final Democrat candidate. One might be able to make a case that it's more of a floor than a ceiling. It's just too early.

The team we're supposed to see

Today's 6-4 victory displayed the Astros team we're supposed to see: contributions from hitters up and down, good selectivity by the hitters, getting men on base (Matsui in the 2-spot helps a lot), competitive pitching, and the closer, Val Verde, in something resembling closer form.

Do that again.

Ba-racky vs. Apollo Clinton

Click the title to view this little spoof. No further comment.

Two ugly losses for the Astros

Scores: 10-2 and 11-5. Just when you think something might come together for the local nine, it gets murky. Backe and Sampson looked like they were serving batting practice, and the fielders looked like they were taking fielding practice. It's not hopeless yet, but the team has to maintain focus.

The Holy Father's visit, so far

As I watch the Liturgy from St. Patrick's, one conclusion for sure: this Pope IS what he says, and seems to be a gentleman of transparency and humility. Highlights:

• This visit is a working visit. All those gaps in the public, televised schedule mean, of course, that a great deal of Church and Church-State business is being transacted. Not that that doesn't go on as a matter of course with such visits, but it seems more so this time. And, there are surprises that confound the secular press: the visit with the abuse victims.
• With liturgies at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and St. Patrick's Cathedral, we're also reminded that the visit is to the historic Catholic Church in the United States as well as today's faith family. We have some pretty worship spaces here, new and older.
  
• In the UN address: It is not fitting that a believer should set aside religious conviction in order to participate in the full exercise of citizenship. A truthful, pointed and courageous note in a fascinating exposition of natural right and natural law. He didn't hide his learning here, but gave us a peek into the brilliance of his scholarly insight.
  
• The homily at St. Patrick's: The concluding point was that the clergy and faithful should be models of humility, leaders in resolving and setting aside all ancient sources of conflict. There was something beautiful here. Perhaps those dioceses in the decaying Northeast will find hope and renewal. The Church as a society must rebuild from the ground up in many of these areas.
  
• The Liturgy at Nationals' Stadium: There was an intimacy about it, highlighted by the closeness allowed the faithful as the Holy Father walked the last leg of the processional and recessional parades. He also appears to have a great serenity at these moments, something which requires trust, fearlessness and a love of the faithful.
• A little bit of Latin and "romanism," but graceful and not over-bearing. I think the point is to give a model for the future, and an invitation. There are those who expected something more heavy-handed in this regard. Befitting the environment, there was some incredible classical hymnody and sacred music at St. Pat's.
• Pope Benedict seems to be more at ease as the journey continues. He is a young 81 years old.
  
• The multi-dimensional, multi-faceted complexity of the Catholic Church in this country is on display, reflecting and even providing a paradigm for the carrying forward of the American experiment. The Holy Father did say something about this in the St. Pat's homily. A harmony that is forged out of the creative tension of diverse elements and interests will be better and stronger in the long run.
• Speaking of unity and disunity, his point about the post-Vatican II Church was interesting. I don't recall this tone from anyone else, even John Paul. Both Wojtyla and Ratzinger were very involved in the Council. (There is available on the internet a photo of Joseph Ratzinger and Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner taken at the time of the Council. They're both in secular business suits.) They seem to have different takes on it. Benedict is certainly correct at least in this: it remains a strong and urgent need to find the deeper unity at the heart of the Council's inspired documents, and build from there. As with the facing of the abuse crisis, his honest acknowledgment of the present situation clears the way for an integral, rather than formal, collegiality in the Church. There are seeds for the future here.
• On the point of renewal: the older nuns present are the Vatican II sisters, in their secular "American" dress and intense address to the world; the younger nuns are the ones in traditional habits, serene, joyful and multicultural, yet very purposeful in the exercise of their communities' charisms.
  
• "My answer to all you have given me in this visit is my blessing at the end of the Holy Mass."
• Father Neuhaus: "a real pastoral intervention."
  

"We must move forward together in hope."

Please, please, stop talking about religion.

Goodness. The more these politicians talk about their faith--or anyone else's, for that matter--the deeper the logical, contextual and cultural holes they dig themselves into. It's certainly OK for a candidate to have or not to have an articulate personal faith, but to prate about some religious or moral principles that neither they nor their party currently finds to be anywhere near their core ideology, is just, as the younger folks say, lame. They deserve all the grief they get when they say things that turn out to be completely odious as they pander to whichever group they think is listening at the moment. It would be nice to have time--perhaps before November--to parse some of their current position statements.

By the way, for some competent talk about faith issues and moral principles, follow what Pope Benedict says this week. That's probably not a fair comparison to everyday political discourse, but why not study the best and work to model our principles on that. At least, no one will EVER accuse Benedict XVI of pandering to the audience of the day.

The Veils Are Dropping

One thing about Mr. Obama: his philosophical underpinnings are never far from the surface. Nothing esoteric here--

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama said. "And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

It appears that religion, respect for the second amendment, and the law of nations are just outdated prejudices, equivalent to racial and ethnic hatred. No cause to take back what I said in mid-February about one of Mrs. O's speeches: "soulless Marxist rhetoric." Save ALL of this for the fall, assuming his nomination.

The Astros' New Beginning...

...again.

Pleasant surprises:
**Tejada's fielding;
**Wandy's good game tonight;
**The starting pitching overall;
**Towles' fielding and hitting;
**Bourn's fielding, speed and savvy.

Concerns:
**Chemistry with Coop;
**Roy O.--what's wrong?
**Relief pitching.

"Nothing is happening as planned."

The words of Olympian Stephane Diagana, one of the torchbearers for the 2008 Olympic torch as it was carried through the streets of Paris. It was apparently more of a daylong scuffle, as protesters of China's violent abuse of freedom-minded Tibetans impeded the progress of the parade and tried to make the point that China's hypocrisy in this matter merited a serious re-thinking of how the world's nations will approach their participation in this summer's Games. Now we're beginning to hear Olympic movement officials speak about their hesitations--at least those concerning the long procession of the Torch around the world. All of this encourages the Tibetans and confounds and embarrasses the Chinese tyrants.

Just saving this... but you're welcome to read

An article by David Gelernter on the future of cyberinfrastructure. It's pretty radical but may have some prescient items. You'll have to scroll down and click to go to the article, then scroll down again to the "Manifesto" itself.

Choosing boys over girls

Jeff Jacoby's analysis in today's Boston Globe is right on the mark, and has (as Secretary of State Kissinger once said) the added benefit of being true--based on some factual study. It is now a given that women around the world are using abortion--sometimes in response to government mandates to limit family size--to gender-select their children. However, they choose boys instead of girls with statistically significant regularity. I don't know the demographic mechanics of this, but it sounds like a disaster in the making. Jacoby worries that American women may be doing the same. I'm sure it proves nothing one way or the other, but I have known more than one family over the years whose sole reason for having that second, third or later child was that the earlier children were all girls.

I'll simply say that humankind's deeper moral intuitions, around which later codes of law are constructed, may embody serious truths. And truths will defeat ideology every time, in the long run. Facts are what remain, no matter how inconvenient they may seem to one's own prejudices or to the prevailing winds of opinion.

Another perhaps random thought: when I was young, the older ladies would say, upon hearing that so-and-so had had a male child, that it seemed there had been a lot of boys born lately. At that point, someone would take the cue and chime in: "Well, it looks like there's going to be a war." Is a tale told by old wives necessarily an old wives' tale?

Asian Cultures Reading Project and List

OK, here's the reading list. Plenty of selection, all readable. Follow your interests. I physically saw a good number of these at Barnes & Noble, but you can get them online and probably at other places, too. The links are to Amazon, where you can find reviews, but use your own judgment about where to buy these.

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson (Paperback - Dec 18, 2007)

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Hardcover - May 22, 2007)

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Paperback - Jan 30, 2007)

Staircase of a Thousand Steps by Masha Hamilton (Paperback - May 7, 2002)

Snakes and Ladders by Gita Mehta (Paperback - April 13, 1998)

Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman (Paperback - Oct 12, 1987)

Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now by Jan Wong (Paperback - May 19, 1997)

The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family by Duong Van Mai Elliott (Paperback - April 20, 2000)

Daughters of the River Huong by Uyen Nicole Duong (Paperback - Aug 1, 2005)

The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan by Eiko Ikegami (Paperback - Mar 25, 1997)

Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World (California Studies in Food and Culture, 11) by Theodore C. Bestor (Paperback - Jul 12, 2004)

The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and Her Family by Elisabeth Bumiller (Paperback - Oct 29, 1996)

City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple (Paperback - Mar 25, 2003)

As I mentioned in class, I'll have the requirements for the written paper available for you when we meet on the 24th.

P.S.--
Meanwhile, I ran across this article in Friday's Houston Chronicle about new demonstrations and a harsh Chinese crackdown in Tibet. There are some interesting comments following the article, too. There have been some updates as of Saturday, 3/15--at least 10 dead, according to the Chinese (which probably translates to 1000 in reality).