Geez. Blogland is weird. Someone posted a link to the Joseph walking pictures at the Libertarian Samizdata Blog with the link "Balance is such a tentative thing - Real life Tellytubbie at work". Result? My website crashed. Too many visitors to see those (frankly unimpressive - I wish I'd worked harder at them!) photos. But I fixed it. But I couldn't fix Joseph, who is annoyed beyond belief that his feastday had to end with the global community of Libertarians thinking of him now and forever as a freakin' Telletubby!

I am not a Telletubby...he cries...I am a man!

Even amid the growing number of calls to clean house (William Bennett being the latest), some Catholic voices, here and there, are beginning to waver. They're saying that lawyers are partially responsible for this sexual abuse mess. That the press is acting, not out of a desire to help the Church, but to harm it.

So?

Of course not all the players in the current very public stage of this horror are interested in building up the Body of Christ.

Again, so?

Here's the news: God works through it all. Read Genesis 50:20, the words of Joseph to his brothers:

Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve his present end, the survival of many people.

Words whose meaning resonate throughout that long, purgative journey we call "Salvation History" and that echo with particular power around the gruesome injustice at Golgotha.

Consider the alternatives. What if the press hadn't picked up on this story? What if the Boston Globe hadn't forced the Archdiocese to open up its files? What if victims didn't sue? What would the situation be? Really. Honestly.

Sometimes we need to be kicked into action to do the right thing. Even by forces whose interests aren't totally commensurate with our own. But you know, that usually happens when our interests have wandered off from what our real interests should be.

Baby In Motion Photos here.

Joseph's happy. Today is his feast day, the feast of St. Joseph. He hasn't told me how he wants to celebrate, but I've no doubt it will involve applesauce or maybe even mashed potatoes.

By the way, yesterday was a day full of peek-a-boo. There is nothing much cuter than a baby first learning to play peek-a-boo: thinking he's hidden when he just ducks his head and closes his eyes, peering around the corner of the couch.

St. Joseph is a special protector of the Church, just as he was the protector of Jesus. So it's particularly fitting that we offer our prayers to St. Joseph in these wretched times, asking his prayers for all of us and our leaders, especially. Here's a pretty good one.

Lists are always interesting. Here's one to get you thinking today:

The 100 Best Characters in fiction since 1900.