The Pope’s here. Did you realize the Catholics too are torn in a worship war? You would think that a historical, hierarchical, traditional-to-a-fault church that dogmatically defines (again, to a fault) every detail of worship could avoid debates over “worship styles.” But no. In fact, as I know from experience, contemporary Catholic worship is even worse than contemporary Protestant worship, the songs even more banal and the music even more sappy. In further fact, at least one scholar (was it John Pless?) has traced the unravelling of traditional worship practices in all traditions, including those of Protestant evangelicals, and their replacement with contemporary modes to Roman Catholicism, specifically, to the worship “reforms” of Vatican II.

Anyway, here are some telliing lines from the article Between Medieval And Folk, Two Mass Audiences - washingtonpost.com:

Imagine a bizarro world where all the 25-year-olds want Mozart and all the 60-year-olds want adult-contemporary. The kids think the adults are too wild. The backlash against “Kumbaya Catholicism” has anyone under 40 allegedly clamoring for the Tridentine Mass in Latin, while the old folks are most sentimental about Casual Sunday (even more rockin’, the Saturday vigil Mass), and still cling to what’s evolved from the lite-rock guitar liturgies of the 1970s. The result, for most parishes, has been decades of Masses in which no one is entirely satisfied, and very few enjoy the music enough to sing along.

A marketing company has analyzed the different candidates’ appeal and related them to that of various products. This article describes the process for McCain. (The findings for the other candidates was given in a box in the Washington Post, but I couldn’t find it on the website.)

According to this marketing research, if John McCain were a product (I am granting how idiotic that is), he would be a Ford pickup; Wrangler jeans; and a Timex watch.

Hillary Clinton would be a Volvo station wagon; Microsoft software; and the New York Yankees.

Barack Obama would be a BMW Z4 convertible; Apple computer; and Chicago Cubs.

I have a Ford pickup and wear Wranglers, though my watch is not a Timex, though it’s fairly equivalent. So that would put me 2/3 for McCain, which is pretty close.

I am 0/3 for Clinton. That is a highly accurate summary of her appeal for me.

I compute with Apples, so that would make me 1/3 for Obama. As I have said, I have a certain fondness for Obama that I cannot fully account for, though I couldn’t vote for him, and I guess it has to do with some of that Macintosh mystique.

Does this branding account for your own political preference?

Europe’s right-wing scene–including its FAR right-wing scene–is undergoing some interesting changes and some new popularity. The anti-semite (that is, the anti-Jewish) parties are finding favor with Muslims! Other groups are building on the public’s unease with the Islamisation of their countries by appeals to traditional European culture. There are also some new anti-immigration, anti-Islamic parties grounded in libertarianism that are becoming more and more prominent. See this article, Islam and the Evolution of Europe’s Far Right.