Diogenes spots the usual "Women Priest" junk, gives his standard response...

Oh, and did I mention I am Poet Laureate of England?

On Patriotism

Since I won't be posting tomorrow, I figured I mind as well put this up. I was about to give a little dissertation on patriotism, but lo and behold! the Catechism of the Catholic Church reared its head.



Read the whole article - it places patriotism in its larger context, namely in the Fourth Commandment. After all, it is accurate to call our country "fatherland," even when describing the country in feminine terms.



ARTICLE 4 - THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

Can life get weirder?

The one thing necessary for the survival of the human race encourages religious belief!

Uncanny coincidence? Malicious plot of Fate? You decide.

Blithely unaware of their having sold out to the Loony Left....

The Vatican gets solar power.

Of course, it's probably motivated by strictly economic motives. With which I have no problem. I'd prefer less of my donations to the Vatican to go to electric bills and more to go to worthwhile projects like feeding the poor and commissioning some decent musicians for new hymnals.

Well, well, well.

The Catholic presence in America was negligible until 1830. Yet we have a half-dozen saints.

Brazil was majority-Catholic since 1700 or thereabouts....and it's only had its first saint canonized.

I ascribe it to geography. The nearer you are to Rome, the more likely you are to be canonized, and Brazil is further from Rome than the USA is, at least in practice (easier to go through the North Atlantic than the doldrums, even now.)

Apparently the Catholic Church in Latin America isn't toast yet

Although I would like to get a strategic alliance with these Pentecostal/Evangelical folks. We might be able to get them on our side.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

...but I thought Sandra Miesel was, like, a nice lady...

I've read one of her books (The Da Vinci Hoax, to be exact) and I didn't notice anything that remotely suggested she'd be like Jadis the Witch of Narnia...

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut...I NOW KNOW THE TRUTH! NOT ONLY IS SHE AN EVIL KID-ATTACKING LADY FROM CHARN, SHE USED TO LIKE SCIENCE FICTION! UTTER, PURE EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She looks reeal nice, though! "A dem fine woman," as it says in The Magician's Nephew.



Speaking of Science Fiction: I'm reading the book version of "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Various pictures

The Great Depression started in 1929. Coincidence? I think not!

From the movie The Deadly Mantis. Mystery Science Theater 3000 commented on this scene: "Gentlemen, this looks delicious."

One thing the Sucrose Inquisition isn't getting, sure as God made little green apples! Actually....that's a drum aerator, and used for moral purposes - namely putting holes in the ground.

Nothing like strategic insights for bathroom reading!

Searches

Various folks got to my website by an internet search over the last 100 visits, and I just feel like making comments upon them. Some searched for:

brave new family chesterton ebook - I would buy the print version, personally.

G.K. Chesterton poem calvary - Never heard of it, but it sounds interesting.

"the prayer of the frog" socrates - Socrates wouldn't be caught dead praying to some freakin' frog. Cut it out!

france nuclear doctrine - Hmmmmm. I'm guessing it's "hit Alta California, Spain, and every other wine-producing region in the world so we can establish a monopoly." It's just a guess. Then again, maybe it's this.

franky brother bad canadian border hospital blood blood - Sounds like either a big fan of "Highway Patrolman" or some autobot typed that in.

Oh well.

---------------------------------

Just Easter Sunday I remarked to my pastor: the reason so many churches resemble gyms is that, in case of persecution, we will be accustomed to clandestine worship ("Aw, honey, I'm just going to the health club...where else would you go on Saturday morning?").

Fourth Week of Lent Bulletin

That's what you get for lovin' me

That's what you get for lovin' me-eee

Everything you had is gone

As you can see

That's what you get for lovin' me.

Apropros to nothing - just thought I'd put them on. Bob Dylan sounds pretty nasty, doesn't he.

Anyhow, I'm at the tail end of a sickness. It hit me on Sunday, and laid me up in bed until Wednesday. Everyone else was sick too, even H.L. Crawdad, whom you can see above in my bookbag. "Just bury me here, Dom," he said. "NOT IN MY BOOKBAG!" I yelled. "IT'LL STINK UP MY SCHOOLBOOKS AND...oh, sorry, H.L. Shouldn't have been yelling." Anyway, H.L. Crawdad got over it. Here he is on my newly cleaned table.

I'm not actually in the NRA. H.L. is.

We haven't heard, seen, or osmoted anything concerning the Church of Jumbuck for quite a while. As you remember, the last news was that the Sucrose Inquisition was after them. Perhaps they got sick in mid-attack.

Here's some pictures:

The "Hatchet Window" of my parish.

The enclosed bit rather looks like a knife, does it not?

More pictures in another post. It's hard to handle these pictures and text.

Important News! I read The Wealth of Nations! Many the time I feared they would find my bones by the eBook I was reading it from, but I finished it. All five books. I grew to like it, but I'm not reading it again until they make me study classical economics in college. And it's got five stars now. Once I get back on my feet, I'll write a review.

Another Important News! I will be visiting Christendom College in July. When it comes along, you'll hear all about me and Crawdad's adventures in real time, via this blog! You'll hear all about the quaint customs of the locals of Virginia, the incidents and studies at Christendom, and (hopefully) a bit on Washington, D.C., where I hope to visit. Speaking of the locals, aren't they the ones who invented wampum?

Maybe I should stop making fun of Virginians. They started the Civil War, and I've got relatives up there.

I read America: The Last Best Hope by William J. Bennett while I was sick. It's a history, but only the first installment is published. It goes from discovery to World War I. It gets five stars (although the style occasionally is annoying). And it's awful informative.

Well, that's all. Happy belated St. Patrick's Day and Erin Go Bragh!

Embrace the Prayer of the Frog

What about the worship of the Wasp-God?

It goes as follows:

1. Find somewhere with wasps - my family's compost pile, f'rinstance.
2. Get some food scraps - eggshells, coffee grounds, orange peel, etc.
3. Hold a bowl full of the food scraps while standing before the place with wasps.
4. Stand on your left leg.
5. Start spinning around on your left leg (not letting your right touch the ground) while chanting, "Oooolooolooolooo...ooolooolooolooo..."
6. Fling the food scraps in the direction of the wasps.
7. Run like the dickens.

Scattershooting v2

"Besides things like the five golden rings obviously refer to the Olympics - duh."

THAT is why I like the Curt Jester.

One of the altar boys at our parish, Ray, is entering the Army on December 26. So we had a enchilada lunch at church on Sunday in his honor, as well as some group shots before Mass left off. For those, Father changed out of his You-know-what-color vestments and donned purple.

Next you know, he will call himself Gaius Paulus Caesar, Imperator Romanorum.

I figured out why Easter does not get the hoopla and fuss Christmas does in our culture. Christmas' theme can be transmuted to great religious principles like Generosity to People You Know Nothing About, Flying-in-the-face-of-reality Idealism about Family, Food, and Wasting Money on Baubles. (Not that there's anything wrong with such themes, but they're not too important.) Did I mention Religious Conversion a la Ebeneezer Scrooge, gargantuan turkey and all?

Easter, however, is unique. The only new thing under the sun, in fact. Nothing can be connected to the spectacle of Christ crushing death. Nothing there to give a warm fuzzy feeling, though. And warm fuzzy feelings sell stuff - which is why so many cookies and pies are sold under the name "Grandma's," in defiance of physics, common sense, and time constraints.