Obamaland

I started to title my post "Obamanation," but of course somebody more clever than I came up with that, and it would be such obvious plagiarism that it would ruin the great credibility I've established already. Plus it might be a copyright infringement. I'm not sure, and it doesn't really matter. I'd have to cough up treble damages. Three times zero is still zero

Anyways, although I'm disgusted with Obama, anyone who stumbles upon this blog is too. No point in dwelling on that, huh?

I'm disgusted with the American public, who swallow wholesale empty sophisms about "hope" and "change." No point in dwelling on that, either. Whatever general notions of virtue, sobriety, and whatnot once characterized the American public back in our agrarian days (or are mythologized as part of our American civic psyche) we couldn't expect more from the TV-addled, denatured populace that votes under the new sufferage of the illiterates now.

I'm disgusted with the so-called conservative "talking heads" like Laura Ingram (Ingraham?) who talk about how we need to restore and rebuild the conservative movement and at the same time adulate the Bushie neocons who brought us to this point on the road to serfdom where Obama can so easily read us the rest of the way.

I'm disgusted with the blue-collar yahoos who are so drunk with jingoist patriotism that they sent their sons to be cannon-fodder in the military and abetted our empire-building over the last century, and continue to do so now.

I'm disgusted with the half-educated academics and the white-collar-and-tie professional crowd that never connected the lunacy we're experiencing now with the lunacy of the 1920s and 1930s, and showed the world that the same old solutions that failed then are simply being recycled now.

I'm disgusted with the evangelicals who are so caught up on the myths of our supposedly-God-fearing American heritage that they can't see the secular protestant seeds of distruction were planted in the Eighteenth Century.

I'm disguested with the proponents of Zionism (in particular, the Christian proponents) who've put the existence of the State of Israel ahead of the interests of our own country, and ahead of the interests of those who called Palestine their home prior to 1948.

And I'm convinced that, as a people, the United States have gotten exactly the President we deserve. And as individuals, so have a massive majority of the citizens of the several states--a majority that extends not just to those who voted for Obama, but also those who supported and voted for John McCain, Rudy Guiliani, etc.

And I'm convinced that the Catholic Bishops, as a body, got exactly the President they wanted.

Remember, though, that the revolution eats its children.

Unfortunately, it's gonna probably eat the rest of us, too.

Just a....an....another day in the police state.

Suddenly I find myself flying more often. Before, I did it only one or twice a year. Lately, it's been once or twice a month.

And in a way, it's good for me. Flying keeps me in touch with the dreadful state of our country. And in a way, it's bad for me. It feeds that choleric wrath that I'm always fighting. Going through airport security, getting groped and dyhydrated by the TSA goons, arguing whether my little plastic baggie is a quart or more, and whether my hair gel is hair gel (it's freakin' hair gel you two-bit martinet!!!) or making my take off my jacket and shoes like I'm some @#($*&# prison inmate...it all keeps the state of our country in focus.

First it keeps it obvious that we live in a police state. The men behind the curtain (the CIA? Mossad? The lodges? Aren't they all one and the same?) come up with pretext after pretext to box us in, make weaken our sense of liberty, to control us. It's been going on....let's see....since that reprehensible bastard Abraham Lincoln, set out to "save the Union by destroying it." (I'm sure there's an earlier case to be made against Alex Hamilton and friends, but you get the point).

And second, and worse, it makes it obvious that we will continue to live in a police state. As I work my way through the gauntlet, I watch other travelers blithely submit to being treated like cattle, and I see them look askance at me as I object to it and speak to the TSA goons as they deserve to be spoken to. Those other travelers are so @$(*% worried that some Arab (who's justifiably pissed off that we're over there killing their friends in Palestine through our proxies) might bring 5-1/2 ounces of Sterno in his hair gel tube, or that he might light a black cat in his shoe heel, or that he might break into the cockpit and give the pilot a pedicure with his nail clippers, that they don't recognize the real enemy. The real enemy isn't some Koran-toting towel-head. The fact of the matter is that if you're someone worthy of being an American, you've got more in common with that "terrorist" that you do with the TV-watching dolts you're standing in line with, or the vermin in the TSA uniforms who are about to make you undress, grab your crotch, and pour your coffee out.

At least the "terrorist" believes there's something bigger than him...something worth living for, and worth dying for...something more important than his own comfort. Sure, he's wrong about the particulars, in a very tragic way. He's worshipping a false God, or at least a false understanding of God. He's directing his efforts against innocents, rather than the guilty folks (which is no better than the Mossad/CIA/AOFM method). But he believes in something bigger than himself. Not so your fellow traveller. Not so your TSA goon. All the former cares about is his own physical and emotional comfort--being entertained, being told he's safe. All the latter cares about is that sense of power he must get by being an instrument of the almighty state.

The real enemy is within. The real enemy is the the government and its bank stoolies that track every significant financial transaction you make. The real enemy is the goverment and the thugs that can detain you on a whim, prevent you from traveling around the country without being monitored. The real enemy is the government that can freeze your bank accounts without cause, can take your property away from you so some &^%$ can build a car dealership or open another PF Chang's or a furniture store, can take your children away from you because you refuse to submit them to the Brave New World in education, can keep you from smoking in your own building, and can (and does) expropriate 40% or more of your income and 1-2% of the value of your real property every year.

So to the two bit-TSA moron who thinks his service to the federal government in Iraq exempts him from the laws of civility and obliges me to thank him for being an ass: Hey $@#*, it's none of your !#$& business who I am, or where I'm going, or what I'm drinking, or what I put in my hair, so just #$*&$% your #$%$% in @#@#*!. And no, I'm not worried about my safety or yours, and I don't want your @!#$% protection, so why don't you go out on the tarmac and get yourself sucked into a running jet engine!

And to all of you who are happy you're being "protected" from the natural consequences of the federal government's (your federal goverment, they tell us) meddling in other people's business and its funding of the Zionist experiment, if you want to be treated like a slave, move to China, and let those few of us who still value our liberty continue to enjoy our liberty.

And for those of you who are as angry as I am, let me know who you are. I'm thinking of a bumper sticker, or some sort of campaign to wake people up. Here's a draft, open to your suggestions for improvement. How many can we get on cars?

Southern Poverty Law Center Smear

As those of you who hit the Remnant site for traditionalist news know, the despicable Southern Poverty Law Center has come out with a pack of lies about the traditionalist movement and the Remnant in particular. Do read the Remnant's initial article and Chris Ferrara's comments on it. Know thy enemy.

But, amidst the rage one naturally feels at being helpless to stop the evil of the world from closing in on the Church, even while one's shepherds are napping...or worse...one sentence near the end of Ferrara's article did cheer me:

...a few crackpots who call themselves traditionalists are nothing compared with the legions of crackpots who have celebrated the sacking of the Roman liturgy and the near-total destruction of the Church militant over the past forty years. They comprise a movement all Catholics, not just traditionalists, should have been opposing from the moment it began.

Sebelius Watch

OK, we read some strong words from Archbishop Naumann about Sebelius' pro-death platform last year. Whatever became of it? I'm sure most of the people who read this aren't hanging out at Assumption parish in Topeka (or whereever it is that Sebelius goes to Mass, when she goes), but is she still receiving Holy Communion? Is there any evidence that anything was actually done about the Sebelius scandal? Or is Naumann taking the weak, Wuerl-oriented approach to the matter (we dare not stop the sacrilege if it won't read well in the papers, dare we?)

Jim Stowers loves you, too, honey....

"It would be a relief to know that my eggs were being used to find medical cures," she says, "rather than being used to produce additional kids for well-to-do American families."

Suddenly the mainstream media folks are all "concerned" about the dangers of young women injecting themselves with hormones, to pop out their ova. Of course, the focus is on those attractive girls with high SAT scores who are doing it to sell a few eggs to IVF couples. We only get hints of the big new clone & kill market that's sprung up.

When you go look at this article, don't forget to click on the gay "marriage" sidebar!

John Wilkes Booth was several years too late.

Today is the birthday of one of the most evil men to ascend to the upper eschelons of power in the United States, but of course, most of the damned fools who comprise the modern mob--who are the victims of government education--and Catholic education, come to think of it--think he's a hero.

He was a reprehensible excuse for a human being. A scoundrel. A wretch. A tyrant. A murderer.

Every evil that we suffer today in this country has advanced because of him, in furtherance of his dream of turning a federation of sovereign states into a single monolithic government, with handouts for pet industries (then the railroads; now Halliburton). Although the politically correct academy won't dare tell the real story of the Civil War and Reconstruction, he was to the United States what Lenin was for Russia, save only that the succession of Stalin is happening here only by degrees and by decades. He was a bastard.

It would be a sin for me to publicly speculate that he's in hell, and even a more serious sin for me to take any pleasure from the thought of his eternal punishment. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other reason not to engage in such speculation, or such pleasure. But of course, that's enough reason, so I won't.

But suffice it to say that when the government of the United States finally collapses, as did Rome, if nobody beats me to it, I'll be there in Washington with a bulldozer powered by whatever diesel I can barter, to reduce his memorial (and Grant's) to rubble.

Sisters of Selma?

Well, that's nice that you went to hang out with all the white hippies who wanted to be seen with MLK "where the action was" in Selma back in the Sixties. You were politically correct before the term even came into existence? And modern? No nun is more modern than you.

But one question....

...has your first focus all these years been on saving souls, or on a worldly political agenda? While other nuns who hadn't kicked the habit were teaching children their Catechism, or nursing the terminally ill to a holy death, or praying and fasting for the salvation of those lost hippie souls you were schmoozing with, what were you doing, other than shouting slogans?

Gratitude?

I'm working on a mega-post on the Wyandotte County church-closin' fiasco, but it's taking way too long. But I did see the Kansas City Star article today about the results that were previously published in the Leaven.

Three observations with more detail to follow....someday:

A. First, as to the schools, everything I heard and saw that was associated with Alan Meitler was about numbers, numbers, numbers (and they weren't necessarily the right numbers...more on that later). No where in the process did anyone I knew hear Meitler talk about what the systemic problems were with the parishes and schools of the Dotte. It was all about numbers. Not identifying the real problems that cause the bad numbers. Not about identifying solutions that would raise the numbers. Just talking about how to reshuffle the numbers. Particularly with the schools. Lemmie tell ya what Meitler wouldn't (and I'll do it for free, which I'm sure Meitler wouldn't):

1. People don't fill the schools up because they're contracepting.
2. People don't fill the schools up because they're run on an expensive model, that involves amenities, full-fare lay teachers instead of nuns, "experts" and other staff that don't actually teach full time, and the folks in Wyandotte County couldn't afford them, even if they were the greatest schools that ever wuz. I heard a wise fellow talk at one session about the "scandal of the cost of Catholic education." Damned straight. Parishes, and schools and the diocese should be directing their financial resources to the schools, not for goofy stuff, and not for archdiocesan taxes to maintain a huge chancery staff.
3. People don't fill the schools up because they're contracepting.
4. People don't fill the schools up because they don't see the value in Catholic education...at any price. Catholic schools have been running on the fumes of fond memories and unfounded reputations for infusing morality and building character. They really don't do that these days, and mostly haven't done so for a couple of decades, and parents (many of whom suffered, like me, as students in the early years of confusion) are finding out otherwise. The modest, mantilla-clad schoolgirls in plaid, and the pious altar boys, genuflecting and mumbling with the priest in Latin, are replaced by kids leaving (maybe) the Gameboy in the pew while they saunter up for communion in the hand, standing, at their one-a-week or once-a-month kiddie Mass. If you read some of the stuff in the Leaven or the Catholic Key about the crap going on (which is presented as good stuff, not crap), you know what I'm talking about. As Bishop Finn said (most likely knowing his schools weren't), our schools have to be unabashedly Catholic, in every subject, and each teacher needs to see it as his duty to pass on the faith (not just the spirit of Vatican II or pious-sounding redistributive politics, the FAITH). They're not doing that. You can't trust Catholic schools to teach the Catholic faith; instead of praying the rosary or teaching the Baltimore catechism, they're having pseudo pagan rituals to build self esteem. I haven't been in schools on the Kansas side, but that's what I've seen in Missouri and that's what I hear from folks with experience on the Kansas side.
5. People don't fill the schools up in the Dotte because the masonic, evil federal government has incentivized suburbanization and have lured people out of their Catholic neighborhoods into the moral wasteland of Johnson County (or in the case of some families in Holy Family and St. John the Baptist parishes, they've bulldozed families out of their homes to make way for the Interstates.
6. People don't fill the schools up because they're contracepting (have I mentioned that?).

B. Second as to the churches, I don't expect we'll get a bouquet of flowers or anything, but the continued existence of St. John the Baptist, Holy Family, Blessed Sacrament and St. Mary-St. Anthony in particular, and the decision not to close Ss. Cyril and Methodius immediately, is due in part to the "threat" of the Latin Massers. You remember us, don't you? The folks who more baptisms than even the oldest parishes have funerals? The folks who have the most generous collections per family? The folks with the vanloads of kids? The folks that will actually talk to you about the faith (because they actually know their faith)? The folks who have the highest Mass attendance? (Well, you wouldn't know all that, because Meitler conveniently "forgot" to add the data to his presentations, several times in a row). You might know us as the mere tenants of Blessed Sacrament, balancing ourselves on our knees where the altar rail used to be, begging to keep our 6:30 am Mass time, and being erroneously referred to as the "Latin Rite" group (What are the rest of you? Byzantines?). The fear that they couldn't justify closing a church without flack for not putting it in our care is probably what kept your buildings open and (with the exception of Ss. Cyril and Methodius) kept your parishes canonically intact. For that we're happy to oblige. Really, we're not carrion birds; we don't want your carcasses so much as we want the Archbishop's authorization to go out and do things on our own.

C. As to the parishes that are being moved towards consolidation, don't think you're in the clear just yet! The chancery people might still put you out of business (or get ahold of your money) when no one is looking. Before you know it, you might be at Mass in the church down the street, while your own church is being converted to lofts or somesuch thing.

Ahem. Well. There it is.

Ascension on Sunday?

Sure, it's nowhere near the feast of the Ascension. But we can anticipate it, can't we? Every year I get bugged about it, and this year I'm getting bugged about 100 days early. Seriously, if we start talking about it, and whining to our bishops about it NOW, maybe they'll have had enough by the time they and their other provincial bishops get together and he'll fix the latest mistake in the novus ordo calendar.

Anyways, what's this about? Well, I know it's 100 days ahead of the liturgical schedule, but I just got the bishops' new translation of the novus ordo readings for this year's feast of the Ascension (Luke 24:46-53), which are based on Latin texts which were not available to St. Jerome, or even the more recent translators of the Neo-Vulgate:

[Jesus] said to them: "Thus it is written that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. In His name, penance of the remission of sins is to be preached to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this. See, I send down upon you the promise of my Father. Remain herein the City until you are closed with power from on high."

Then He led them out near Bethany, and with hands upraised, blessed them. And as He blessed, He began to leave, but James, the brother of Jesus, spoke: "O Lord, it is but the the fortieth day since your Resurrection from the dead, and but the fifth day of the week. It would not be fitting to mark such a common day such as this for Your Ascension; rather, you should wait to ascend on the first day of the week, verily, a much holier day than the fifth day.

And Andrew grasped the garment of Jesus as He began to rise to heaven and said "Teacher, please don't leave us until the forty-third day, as truly the Father's chosen People wandered the desert for forty-three years, and the the rain fell upon Noah for forty-three days, and you yourself fasted in the desert for forty-three days before you commenced your ministry."

And Jude said, "O Lord, if you were to leave today my family might not be able supp together. And some disciples might neglect the commemoration of your glorious ascension and instead remain home to watch television. Should you leave on this day many disciples would neglect to commemorate it. If you wait until the first day of next week, the day of your glorious resurrection, it shall be Mother's Day and the disciples might attend Holy Mass to please their mothers. Please remain with us."

And Simon-Peter said, "Teacher, I beseech you to wait until the forty-third day, for John, the apostle whom you love, has scheduled a haircut and has not come with us to witness this."

And the other apostles grasped His robes and pulled Him to the ground and bid Him "Yea, Lord, do not leave us on such an inconvenient day. Truly if thou art the Christ, the Son of God, Thou canst delay Thy departure to a day more suitable for us."

And thus, my friends, we have Ascension Sunday. What a shame Holy Mother Church was so wrong for so many centuries! To celebrate it on a Thursday? Bah!

If you offended by this....well, if you're offended by it....well, write your bishop about it; don't write me.

What happened to the Curmudgeon?

Okay, we've been waiting for over 60 days for the return of the Curmudgeon. He's made a few whimpers, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that the Cave has fallen in on him.

And a shame it is.

What happened? Was he uncovered and silenced by the Archbishop or the Kansas City chancery rats? Did his pastor, or another one of his clerical friends silence him? Did Mrs. Curmudgeon threaten him with a cast-iron pan, or lock him out of the computer? Did he get distracted by his paying job? Or perhaps he got coopted? Maybe somebody "bought him off" with promise of worldly honors, or a Best-Buy giftcard or a bottle of cheap blended Scotch, or something like that.

Wouldn't it figure?

Anyways, given the importance of some of the stuff going on in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, the Latin Mass Community of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, and heck, the rest of the wretched world and the stormweary Church, the sudden disappearance of the Curmudgeon is rather suspicious, eh? Well, someone needs to pick up where he left off. I've waited over two months for someone more qualified than me to do it (any just about anyone would be more qualified than me), but nothing has happened to date. So I guess it falls on me.

So...until the Curmudgeon returns...if he returns...here we go....