SecretAgentMan's Dossier

Miscellaneous Notes

I'm washing the dog's blankets and beds. Right now they're in the dryer. Before I go back to the laundromat, I thought I'd post a few things I've been meaning to mention for awhile.

Hope for a Great Joan of Arc Movie Apparently, Ronald Maxwell is going to make a film about Joan of Arc. It's titled, "Virgin Warrior," and you can read about it here. Maxwell, as you may know, directed Gettysburg and Gods and Generals. In my opinion, those are the finest films ever made about the War Between the States, if only because Maxwell's scripts allow Southerners speak for their cause instead of infusing the story with whatever Yankee Zeitgeist is fashionable this year. (I once listened, jaw to the floor, when Jesse Jackson Jr. told a campaign audience that George Meade's army was fighting for abortion rights and the environment "even though they didn't realize it.") Perhaps medieval Catholicism will get the same salutary treatment from Mr. Maxwell.

Jester's Best Here's the best of Curt Jester, 2004. Laugh all over again at "Fallen Nature Monitor," the "Porpoise-Driven Life," "The Secularizer," and the nationally-acclaimed (and belly-laughed) "MS Forger." It's astonishing that all this was just for 2004. If Tom Monaghan ever buys NBC, he couldn't do better than making the Jester responsible for Saturday Night Live.

Crimson Tide A new blog's made it to my blogroll. It's called Crimson Catholic and, although it's just started, is displaying a lot of erudite, thoughtful commentary on various issues including a review of Dave Armstrong's The Catholic Verses. It's worth a visit.

Good to Find this One The second new blog I've found is Ithilien, a blog by Edwin Tait, one of the most thoughtful fellows I've run across on the Internet. His blogging tends to be sporadic, but he always offers brisk opinions from a new perspective. Take this one as an example:

The good Fr. Kimel, host of Pontifications, has finally (after many clear hints) delivered himself definitively of the view that lay Episcopalians should get out without further ado ("Fly, you fools!"). To help us make up our minds where to go, he's invited two ex-Episcopalians, one currently an Orthodox priest and the other a Catholic priest, to explain their respective choices. The Orthodox priest. Fr. Freeman, wrote a wise and eloquent account of how he came to Orthodoxy. The Catholic, Fr. Hart, shocked everyone by announcing that he wasn't really that thrilled with Catholicism but it was the "default." It is in continuity with the early Church, and papal primacy allows Catholicism to adapt itself to various cultures while retaining its integrity.

Not impressed? A bit shocked, perhaps? Read on:

Now perhaps it's a measure of just how jaded I've become that all of this seemed quite sensible to me -- indeed I found Fr. Hart's candor refreshing. Too many people choose Catholicism or Orthodoxy as one takes up a hobby, because it's exciting and enjoyable. If the claims of either of these Churches are true, then whichever of them is true is not a hobby but a home, not a mistress but a mother.

Like I said, it's a blog worth visiting. Edwin, please post more frequently!