Jonah Goldberg swings and hits

Before I retire for a big day and week coming up, allow me to post one from Goldberg on the lunacy, the idiocy we are seeing from those who are beyond sure they are the moral and intellectual gods of all ages.  The takeaway quote:

So is it any wonder that today’s liberals have “Selma envy”? Is it a surprise they see Jim Crow laws everywhere? If your only frame of reference for moral heroism is the struggle for civil rights half a century ago, it’s no shock that you will do everything you can to bend the world today into your sepia-toned viewfinder of the past. Teach enough kids that they have to reenact Selma to be heroic, they’ll start seeing Selma in the weirdest places. Worse, the real issue won’t be the alleged injustice, the real issue will be their heroism — like kids who dig latrines in the third world so they can explain what heroes they are to the admissions counselor at Vassar. The problem is that to compare any other group’s experience to the black experience in America must of necessity be a poetic or metaphorical enterprise. The facts don’t line up for women and gays. The transgendered weren’t carted over here in the galleys of ships. (You could look it up.) This isn’t to say blacks are the only people to have suffered from historic injustices (or to say that constant dwelling on those injustices is necessarily constructive). It is to say that the constant unending desire to leach moral standing from their experience to give your own claims underserved grandeur is pathetic and shameful. And the know-nothing, often fundamentally anti-American, desire to constantly cast this country as an oppressive, evil-intentioned society, is an indication of how the Left’s intellectual gas tank is empty, and is now running simply on the fumes of megalothymic passion.

Yep.  Read the whole thing.  It's what happens when people who are actually good, moral people with brains and education are forced to stand against people - many no doubt good of heart - who have bought into some of the most mentally and morally vacant arguments of the last century.  But remember, Easter.  Not as an excuse to dodge our responsibilities.  But always as the basis for our hope when we do fulfill our responsibilities.  Happy Easter! 

‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given, us. And already, Frodo, our time is beginning to look black.' 

 The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien 

Admit that Conservatives are the sane ones in the Religious Freedom debate

As the Left scrambles over itself to shred the First Amendment and take a giant leap away from freedom, Conservatives and non-Liberals are emerging as the sane and rational adults in this.  While the hallowed halls of late night comedy and other respectable venues like rock music seem to join the sporting world in its contempt for liberty over sex, articles like this and this make clear the obvious BS and lies and foolishness and stupidity that are behind any opposition to freedom of conscience over celebration of sexual lifestyles.

American anti-religious bigotry on Holy Saturday

Thinking that America would always and forever be a free country seems to have made some people complacent about the growing movement to eliminate liberty and freedoms by replacing them with hedonism and narcissism.  The exclusive focus on the evils of America's past has also helped, since not a few who are appalled at the sudden attempt to end the First Amendment avoid action by citing their disgust and contempt for this racist, imperialist and genocidal nation we live in.  And of course there are those far more focused on the stupidity and evil of those opposed to the Leftist Juggernaut than they are the actual threats of the Leftist Juggernaut.

Thus, those who would stand up for the right thing in a common sense way and do what they can to preserve a free society for our posterity are a shrinking herd.  For those of us who do not welcome the coming darkness, and realize what the ramifications of this end to liberties and a free society actually are, just remember:

"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  

Matthew 5: 10-12.  

Happy Easter.

Jim Crow for Americans against Religious Freedom

The Gay Rights movement has, with no real science behind them, managed to convince moderns that being Gay is the same as being Black.  Therefore, if you don't condone the gay lifestyle, then you are the same as a person who hates Blacks.  Naturally, that is a powerful weapon in the war against the Bill of Rights.  After all, as has been said multiple times this week, religion is just a belief.  Note that.  The assumption being that support and celebration of homosexuality is some Newtonian law of physics.  

And just as predictably, comparisons to the KKK, Jim Crow, and Segregation have flown from all corners of the media that is squarely behind the movement to end the First Amendment.  Here is a nice little educational piece, reminding us of just how much that is essential to believe in the Leftist morality depends on being ignorant of actual history. 

Good Friday and the End of Religious Liberty, 2015

A reader sent this along.  For a Good Friday meditation.  Given the shift away from the First Amendment we've seen this week, it was apropos.  As Christians we remember that there is the eternal that we look for.  Unfortunately, many are using that to avoid standing up to the problems of our age.  I don't agree with all of the viewpoints in the following, but there is enough spot on accurate assessments of the decline of liberty in the US, that I thought it would be worth the read.  

Happy Good Friday. 

"We no longer live in that society." - Kevin Willliamson

For instance:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/04/01/after-indiana-pizzeria-said-they-wouldnt-cater-gay-weddings-the-backlash-was-so-extreme-it-may-not-be-safe-to-re-open/ "Not safe to reopen." In Indiana!

No, we don't live in a society where it is safe to be unpopular. Or in other words, to be a Christian holding on to the Faith in its fullness, which always included the ancient Jewish morality that their desert-dwelling God gave to them. And it's going fast. It won't be long before Christians are back in the catacombs, or in a more American fashion, put out on a reservation somewhere in the Badlands. Oh, come on, maybe I'm too extreme, you say. Maybe.

But you know – about the fiasco in Indiana, where they passed a law designed to keep mom and pop stores from being sued by gays, and all Hell broke loose – I keep thinking that the people, the average everyday people, the people I grew up with, the people my father knew, you know, Americans, will just rise up and put a stop to it all, all the idiocy, all the special pleading for deviancy, and now all the authoritarianism that deviancy is forcing on us. 

I'm still waiting. How am I to raise kids in a world like this? We live in a sick and decrepit world where Islam emulates its reprehensible prophet by beheading people like it's the seventh century, where a Russian bigshot threatens to nuke Yellowstone in order to blow up the North American continent (have you-all heard of that one?), and where in 20 years gays have gone from a Libertarian pleading of "leave us alone" to an Authoritarian diktat "we will sue you out of existence if you don't conform". It's a world were we old-fashioned Christians and Jews are told we shouldn't judge. I guess we're just to let a secular state judge us instead? That means the reservation for us – or the reeducation camps. 

If you don't believe me I'll email a list of comments by gays that pretty much lay out their program, but here's one, from the gay Advocate, from 1985, in fact, "The teaching that only male-female sexual activity within the bounds and constraints of marriage is the only acceptable form - should be reason enough for any homosexual to denounce the Christian religion". And then there's this info from Canada, which has federal hate speech laws, and where currently a priest, Alphonse de Valk, is under indictment for Hate Speech. His crime? Teaching and preaching the Catholic faith as it pertains to sexual morality. (For background, from 2008: http://catholicexchange.com/canada-orders-pastor-to-renounce-his-faith And more recent developments: http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/canadian-human-rights-commissions-bear-down-on-christian-clergymen/ ) And apparently several cases like this exist in the UK. 

And of course the hypocrisy of it is execrable. http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/04/02/a-guy-walked-into-a-muslim-bakery-and-ordered-a-gay-wedding-cake/ Naturally he was turned down, but the Mainstream Media chooses not to make a big issue out of this because, of course, the bakeries in question are Muslim.

It's getting Old Testament time: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" Isaiah 5:20 (Even then, they had this all too human tendency to call bad good and good, bad.)

A personal story: I've worked with a number of Lesbians in the publishing biz, and some gays, but life in the office was one thing. One time ol' Josephine and I were in a bar on High Street in Columbus, an average sort of place we hadn't visited before, out speaking Irish with each other after work, checking the various bars round about. Three young office worker-type women were at the end of the bar, and after a while it was plain they were getting drunk. I told Josephine I thought they were maybe having a mini-class reunion. Wasn't long, though, before they were kissing each other in a serious way. Soon they all three went back to the bathroom. Ol' Josephine couldn't believe what she was seeing so before we left the place she went back to check it out, and yep, an toilet orgy was underway. And of course, Mike Finn here will tell you how it was in the downtown Lazarus store back 30 years ago, with the gays doing their thing in the store's bathrooms. I know they had to close a road-side rest down on Route 33 some decades ago because the gays wouldn't stop using it as a hangout. (For some interesting gay-related statistics,  see: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/291357 "Intimate violence greater for gays, lesbians than heteros")

But things have progressed beyond such old-fashioned, small-time events. There's more afoot, more to it. As Paula Ettelbrick, (ex-legal director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund), says, “Being queer means PUSHING THE PARAMETERS of sex, sexuality, and family, and in the process transforming the very fabric of society…”. 

Of course, you can say that you know many gays who aren't like that. I know others say all the Muslims they know aren't jihadis. Yes, and I myself can say I've known a number of Germans over the years and none of them were Nazis. It doesn't mean anything, because with human beings, a minority organized, ruthless, and prepared to be brutal, always dominates the peaceful majority. I've seen this in grade school classrooms and read of it occurring throughout history. That's just the way humanity operates. Unless such groups are stopped by intentional, coordinated action, they always win. 

Oh brave new world that hath such creatures in it....  Lent may be over, but then again, a more permanent form of it may just be beginning.

And here is a copy of the article that was being referred to: 

The War on the Private Mind

By Kevin D. Williamson — April 1, 2015

There are two easy ways to get a Republican to roll over and put his paws up in the air: The first is to write him a check, which is the political version of scratching his belly, and the second is to call him a bigot. In both cases, it helps if you have a great deal of money behind you.

Tim Cook, who in his role as chief executive of the world’s most valuable company personifies precisely the sort of oppression to which gay people in America are subjected, led the hunting party when Indiana’s governor Mike Pence signed into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, while Walmart, a company that cannot present its hindquarters enthusiastically enough to the progressives who hate it and everything for which it stands, dispatched its CEO, C. Douglas McMillon, to head off a similar effort in Arkansas, where Governor Asa Hutchison rolled over immediately.

There are three problems with rewarding those who use accusations of bigotry as a political cudgel. First, those who seek to protect religious liberties are not bigots, and going along with false accusations that they are makes one a party to a lie. Second, it is an excellent way to lose political contests, since there is almost nothing — up to and including requiring algebra classes — that the Left will not denounce as bigotry. Third, and related, it encourages those who cynically deploy accusations of bigotry for their own political ends.

An excellent illustration of this dynamic is on display in the recent pronouncements of columnist and gay-rights activist Dan Savage, who, in what seems to be an effort to resurrect every lame stereotype about the shrill, hysterical, theatrical gay man, declaimed that the efforts of those who do not wish to see butchers and bakers and wedding-bouquet makers forced by their government at gunpoint to violate their religious scruples is — you probably have guessed already — nothing less than the consecration of Jim Crow Junior. “Anti-black bigots, racist bigots, during Jim Crow and segregation made the exact same arguments that you’re hearing people make now,” Savage said. Given the dramatic difference in the social and political position of blacks in the time of Bull Connor and gays in the time of Ellen DeGeneres, this is strictly Hitler-was-a-vegetarian stuff, the elevation of trivial formal similarities over dramatic substantial differences. The choices for explaining this are a.) moral illiteracy; b.) intellectual dishonesty; c.) both a and b.

Adlai Stevenson famously offered this definition: “A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.” We do not live in that society.

Barack Obama can run for office as an anti-gay-marriage candidate — which he did, more than once — and that is a ho-hum business, because nobody believed him to be sincere. Brendan Eich was driven out of the company he helped found for holding a substantially identical view sincerely — and that sincerity is an unforgivable sin in a society in thrall to the teapot-totalitarian temptation. When there is no private property — the great legal fiction of “public accommodation” saw to its effective abolition — then everything is subject to brute-force politics, and there can be no live-and-let-live ethic, which is why a nation facing financial ruination and the emergence of a bloodthirsty Islamic caliphate is suffering paroxysms over the question of whether we can clap confectioners into prison for declining to bake a cake for a wedding in which there is no bride.

The people who have hijacked the name “liberal” — the étatists — always win when social questions are decided by the state rather than in private life, because the expansion of the state, and the consequent diminution of private life, is their principal objective. The self-styled progressive sets himself in rhetorical opposition to Big Business, but the corporate manager often suffers from the same fatal conceit as the economic étatist — an unthinking, inhumane preference for uniformity, consistency, regimentation, and conformity. It is no surprise to see Apple and Walmart joining forces here against the private mind. There is a reason that the atmosphere and protocols of the corporate human-resources office are a great deal like those of the junior-high vice-principal’s office: All reeducation facilities have a little something in common. 

The ancient rival to étatism in the Western world is the church militant, both in its formal institutional expression and in the relatively newfangled (and thoroughly American) choose-your-own-adventure approach to Christianity. For the culture warrior, bringing these nonconformists to heel is a strategic priority. Gay couples contemplating nuptials are not just happening into cake shops and florists with Christian proprietors — this is an organized campaign to bring the private mind under political discipline, to render certain moral dispositions untenable. Like Antiochus and the Jews, the game here is to “oblige them to partake of the sacrifices” and “adopt the customs” of the rulers. We are not so far removed in time as we imagine: Among the acts intended to Hellenize the Jews was a ban on circumcision, a proposal that is still very much alive in our own time, with authorities in several European countries currently pressing for that prohibition.

“I expect to die in bed,” Francis Eugene Cardinal George famously remarked. “My successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” Perhaps it will not come to that. But we already are on the precipice of sending men with guns to the homes and businesses of bakers to enforce compliance with dictates undreamt-of the day before yesterday.

Yes, render unto Caesar, and all that. But render only what is Caesar’s — and not one mite more.

— Kevin D. Williamson is roving correspondent for National Review.

The New Liberal Tolerance

Is best illustrated in this cartoon:



For some insights into this most horrible and unprecedented of Laws, read here.  I don't know enough to say if the article is correct or not.  But I've learned from the Left that everything the article says could easily be true.  And that alone speaks volumes.

The American Freedom from Liberty Movement continues to gain steam

In our own neck of the woods, Bexley, which is one of the affluent suburbs of Columbus, is about to make it official: Your rights spelled out in the Bill of Rights are nothing, only those rights properly read between the lines matter.  One of the cruxes of the big Leftist revolution is to convince us that the Bill of Rights is a secret code, meant to be interpreted in order to find what is really protected, since what it actually says is more or less irrelevant.  Like my boys said, it took the most educated generation in history to be this stupid.  But stupid we are.  And as my boys likewise observed, when you have a nation where all but the poorest people have big screen TVs, social media, and automobiles, you'll have to do better than Bread and Peace, or Meat and the Circus if you want to turn freedom to tyranny.  It will take Sex and Drugs.  And lots of it.

Now, read Genesis 25.34 to understand how right the Founding Fathers were to think the biggest threats to liberty might just be us after all.

In a reminder about the nature of the geek culture

Gen Con, the Vatican of all that is comic book, fantasy and sci-fi geekdom, is threatening to walk from Indiana over that state's attempt to protect religious conscience.

A friend of mine from my pastor days once said that sci-fi and fantasy types are more intelligent than most people.  I've come to realize that is not true.  Perhaps they have a high intelligence score, but in many cases I've seen over the years, they tend to lack in the world of high wisdom scores.  Pretty impressive use of fantasy RPG terms, huh?

Anyway, in addition to living in sometimes strange parallel versions of reality by assuming their own peculiar hobbies should define the way one lives, most are simply not on the traditional, Christian Western team.  As my boys have discovered, since they are quite into the world of fantasy, sci-fi and comics, most in that sizable world are quite frankly liberal, secular, or pagan or heathen, and quite proud of it.

Many apparently envision a world of endless orgies with buxom heroins in form fitting outfits, and ending this force of evil that is organized religion and traditional Western values.  Even publications now, such as that flagship product of the movement, Dungeons and Dragons, appear to read like a propaganda pamphlet for leftist, secular, post-Christian perspectives, where characters are more worried about going green than killing goblins.

Naturally, that game was never in line with your average Sunday School publication.  But given its origins, it did assume some basics that would still be in line with ideals and values that most Christians shouldn't have been offended by.

But now, Gen Con clearly knows its market and its audience.  There will be none who is part of its ritualistic gatherings who fail to conform to the True gospel of the Left.  And any law that seeks to protect the dwindling world of rights and liberties for non-liberal non-conformists, will find opposition from the lords of Gen Con and their +5 declarations of leftist intolerance.

The great gay trap continues to close

Indiana is doing just what the Leftist Juggernaut was hoping.  It has passed a law that, even to my novice eyes, seems filled with problems and issues.  This was hoped.  Because now a very good case can be made that it should be repealed, or at least changed.  And once we go down that path, any hope for resistance will crumble.

This was the beautiful part of the Leftist strategy.  Having promised that nobody would ever make people violate their religious conscience, in the wake of legalizing gay marriage, agents promptly went to work, seeking out religious photographers, bakers, and other entrepreneurs to force their hands and make them violate their religious conscience. Of course there are plenty of bakers and photographers and others who would gladly serve a gay wedding.  But that obviously wasn't the point.  The point was to set up a showdown like the one Indiana has stumbled into.

And so now it is Indiana getting the law involved to protect hate and bigotry, while allowing discrimination.  Which is exactly how the Left frames it.  And since the Left holds monopolies in the pop culture, media and educational institutions of our country, that is how it will be presented.

And because from all appearances, there are problems with the law as it stands, the inevitable defeat will occur down the road.  The law will be changed, repealed, something.  And once it is, those hoping to resist will splinter, give up hope, join the Left, and leave only a shard to keep the faith against growing resentment toward any who dare to resist.  Well done Indiana.  Heart in the right place.  But you can't always hope for good results against a power of darkness willing to throw all morals and righteousness out the window to achieve goals that are themselves wrong, if not evil.

Phil Robertson does it again

He enrages liberals and flushes out many non-liberals (of various sorts ) who will gladly jump on board with liberals in their contempt of other conservatives who offend liberals.

For what it's worth.  I don't defend Robertson per se.  What he said was heavy handed, and the type of thing best reserved for Bill Maher, Comedy Central, some talk radio and other venues of ill repute.  Nonetheless, the idea that liberals are shocked that someone would point out, however sloppily, the facts about what liberalism so sloppily promotes (moral relativism) is laughable.  This is a movement that has no problem unzipping and pissing on anything and anyone that gets in the way.

It's basically Rush Limbaugh being offended that some radio host might be biased.  It's a football fan complaining that rugby is too violent.  It's a die hard Trekkie accusing a Harry Potter fan of being a geek.  In short, the left has absolutely no place to yell offense at what Robertson said.  I hear worse said about opponents of abortion or gay marriage by respected news anchors.  It goes down from there.

Sure, what Robertson said was not altogether accurate.  It deserves better than he gave.  But then, the moral relativism that was shoveled into the mainstream over the decades often lacked substance as well.  Many argue for that relativism in ways that make Robertson seem like a Rhodes Scholar by comparison.  And in the most basic level, Robertson is right.  He just didn't say it well.

But I will not join the post-modern conservatives whose favorite sport is shoving daggers into the backs of fellow opponents of the Leftist juggernaut.  Smart conservatives would use this and build on it to point out where he was right, and defend him against attacks from outlets and individuals who have no problem saying far worse about people who disagree with them.  It remains to be seen what post-modern conservatives will do.

Evan Sayet swings and hits

Watch the video.  And then visit a liberal website or blog.  Huffington Post, Catholic and Enjoying It, Daily Kos. The Friently Atheist. Any will do.  Heck watch MSNBC or CNN. And compare.  Find where he is wrong.  I'm sure he's not right about everything.  But boy he hits close to the mark more often than not.

Two weeks of penance and counting

So I visited CAEI today.  In addition to reminders about one of two radio shows and another speaking engagement, there were only a couple posts.  One, in typical fashion, repeating the MSNBC meme that the GOP is not only idiotic, but also vile and wicked as well.  In fairness, Mark like many of his readers, is a proud non-conformist and sees calling a pox down on both houses as the only acceptable Catholic position.  So Democrats get no better, though in recent years Mark has been more friendly to moderate Republicans and Democrats in a pinch.

But the post that caught my eye was his take on the story that women want to take Andrew Jackson's picture off the 20.00 bill and replace it with a feminine hero.  At the rate we're going, most will likely be women and minorities within a generation, so I guess this is the first step.  Mark mostly makes fund with it, but he drops the 'Jackson as crazy racist' that is common in progressive and non-Anglo-European, Catholic views.  That is, America was pretty much a racist, imperialist, genocidal men who were wicked and evil and devoid of much value.

I decided to play a little, and suggested that racism as a deal breaker means rethinking my statement that racism shouldn't be a strike against Chesterton's popularity contest canonization.  The results are predictable.  Of course Jackson was evil, a genocidal murderer, a tyrant, evil, a liar, dishonest, and unworthy of any regard.

The fun was watching the usual liberal stereotypes, childish responses, and hilarious attempts to remain consistent while explaining why suddenly racism may not be that big a deal, when set against American genocide.  I only took it somewhat seriously.  But it shows the absolute plummet of credibility that marks the blog, and unfortunately, a fairly large swath of Catholic apologetic media today.  But this is ground zero for the bizarre evolution, so there I will remain for a couple more weeks.

My Lenten Penance

This year has been a struggle, as I work things out relative to the shifts that have happened in Catholicism since I've been Catholic.  The last vestiges of pre-progressive culture have been swept behind us, except for those sexual issues that would likely not impact celibate men.  Everything else is increasingly along the lines of modern, Western, progressive and even secular social and political theory.

That is enough right there.  Add to it the slammed doors on any hope that I will be able to act in the capacity of a minister of the Gospel, and it's been tough.  What to give up?  What to sacrifice?  What to commit to?

Well, I decided, a few weeks into Lent I admit, that my penance will be a daily visit to Catholic and Enjoying It.  That may sound strange.  But here is why.

In my early days of looking at non-Protestant Christianity, I stumbled on CAEI largely by accident.  I was searching for some free downloadable articles by Scott Hahn, without success.  Then I found an article by someone named Mark Shea.  It dealt with the strange aversion many Protestants have regarding Mary.  It was direct, but nice.  Even respectful.  There were some clever zingers, making the point without offending.  But the point was solid, fair, and truthful.

I went back, found his website, and gobbled up the articles.  They were almost all wonderful.  Here was a conservative American Catholic, not afraid to point out when Conservatism wasn't following the path of Christ.  He was also fair when liberalism was correct.  His blog was a little more raucous.  But those were usually the readers.  Mark himself was often the goalie, stepping in and stopping things before they went too far.  Even telling his friends to back off.  No personal attacks or accusations were allowed.  Those would get you the door.

There you had it.  You could be conservative and Catholic.  The stereotype of Catholicism and Liberal Socialism voting Democrats as the sacramental calling of modern Catholicism was not universal.  You could love America, admit it sins, but not emphasize them (which Mark pointed out was often a very un-Christian thing to do).  You could respect the heritage of Western Civilization. You could evenly boldly declare "Why We Must Fight" following 9/11.  He even liked Tolkien, and the books I liked.  And his humor and mine were not too far off each other.

Perhaps it was my own fault that I saw in Mark's rather balanced approach as what Catholicism was, rather than looking further.  But that was well over ten years ago.

Today, the Church has changed in just the time since we came into it.  The generation that had welcomed Protestant Clergy Converts into the fold have passed to retirement.  With some exceptions in the priesthood, most now in charge (Boomer age) seem to want little to do with us, unless we can design webpages or raise money.  And it isn't hard to see that Oprah style liberalism and the growing pronouncements about reality from Church leaders sound increasingly the same.  The Bishops' willingness to almost in one voice support the Democrats in all things, as long as they don't screw the Church, and the shift toward accepting the Secular narrative are hard to miss.

True, Pope Francis is a horse of a different color.  But those who have studied liberation theology and the Marxist influences in South American Christianity will recognize at least some influences there, even if what he is willing to take a stand against other forms of radical leftist morality (again, usually where sex is concerned).

On CAEI, the change is even more pronounced.  It's almost an entirely different world.  An entirely different blogger.  Most regulars of old have long since moved on.  The readers are either post-modern non-conformists cheering on their own superiority over all those loser "tribal Catholics", or clearly hard to the Left progressives, with varying degrees of anti-abortion and non-gay marriage support.  In fact, opposing gay "marriage" is about the only thing that separates much modern talk about homosexuality in the Church from your average LGBT rally. And CAEI echoes this.

CAEI is a strange mixture now of Jack Chick, Glenn Beck, Huffington Post progressive thought, and a reminder that Catholics are, whether we want to admit it or not, heirs of the Inquisition.  For a couple years, many regulars tried to warn that there was little to do with enjoying anything on CAEI, and a growing discrepancy between a man who claims to be conservative, and a man who increasingly seems to love liberalism but hate conservatism.  One by one, those readers have apparently given up and moved on.  Only a handful remain.  God love them.

For me, who has been accused of horrible things by the stock readers and by Mark himself - including not caring about murdered children at Sandy Hook and desiring to increase human slaughter - there is little joy or happiness now.  The anti-Western, anti-American, anti-Traditional and anti-Conservative narrative fully embraced has made me more of an outcast there than I was at the Huffington Post.  And to be honest, I've been called far worse on CAEI than I was at the Huffington Post.  And it was leaving HP (as well as being banned for not being liberal) that was one of the reasons I started my blog!  Which is always a possibility at CAEI, since the thing that gets you banned now is pretty much defending traditional and conservative viewpoints, with rare exception.

So why keep going?  Because, as I've said before, Mark stepped in and helped our family when we needed help.  He also helped us by sending us drafts of his Mary books when we were asking questions, before I even visited his blog.  And I do think that, deep down, Mark is a sensitive, thoughtful individual.  It's just that he seems to get his comfort from being entirely obedient to the Vatican, the Vatican now, as opposed to "Cafeteria Catholics" who aren't.  And as the Church shifts to the Left, what can he do?  Openly disagree? Perhaps the tension between realizing the Church's embrace of modernity and his deep down preference for more Conservative ideals is the cause of the rancor.  Perhaps he was never really that conservative.  Maybe he did think Conservatives were equal to God, and had a meltdown when he realized the truth.  Who knows?  But he's become successful in this new incarnation, and it's unlikely now that he will change and go back.

So I've committed myself to one more round.  I will visit everyday, and try to post at least one post each day.  I will avoid anything that will bring the accusations and condescension from readers whose bizarre level of lunacy and leftist judgemental intolerance appears to be accepted, if not supported, by Mark.  If it happens, it happens.  Then, come the great celebration of Easter and the Resurrection, I too will rise from the dregs that have embraced the worst of our post-modern culture, and move on to where I can once again find joy and happiness in the historic Faith, not despite this or that blog, but because of this or that blog, if I decide to find another one at all.

Is canonization a popularity contest?

The Atlantic writes about the possibility of a Saint Chesterton.  It should be no surprise to those who frequent the Catholic Blogosphere that in some circles, Chesterton did everything short of dying on the cross for humanity.  I thought Beatles fans were a fanatic group.  Compared to that quarter set on venerating Chesterton, they pale in comparison.  And it all seems based on nothing other than a drive no different than the celebrity worship one sees at a rock concert or red carpet event in Hollywood.

Much talk is given toward Chesterton's attitudes toward Jews and race in general.  An attitude that, based upon our modern sensitivities, was clearly racist and bigoted.  As were almost all who lived before the modern era and were cursed with light pigmentation.

For me, I certainly would have no problem with that, since I tend not to judge previous generations as mercilessly and brutally as modern progressive sensitivities demand.  The strange this is how many Catholics who give no quarter to others, especially Protestants or just about any American (including, especially, our Founding Fathers), in this case suddenly say race is just one of those things.  No big deal,.  Bigger issues.  Let's move on.

That, children, is what the charge 'Superior by Catholic' means.  That is, when Catholics are at their worst, it's no big deal.  Forgive.  We're all just sinners.  Move on.  But when non-Catholics, especially those rascally Protestants, are only 99% holy, then a pox upon their houses!  That is deplorable!  Shame and merciless judgement on them all!

Sometimes I think I'm too consistent to be a good Catholic.  Fortunately, much of the worst stereotypes are only affirmed in that parallel universe of the Blogosphere.  Unfortunately, as the Atlantic article suggests, that quarter is the one with increasingly disproportionate influence.

FWIW, it wouldn't be his timely attitudes toward race that would bother me.  It's just that it's 1. all seems to be a popularity contest, and 2. he was so often so wrong about so many things.  Especially entertaining is reading his musings that suggest he believes all was right with the world until Protestants came by and ruined it all.  Apparently he didn't have access to books written about history of Catholicism before the 1500s.

For my boys

Especially my 16 year old, who is trudging through the world of Calculus.  Years old, and I still love watching it.

St Patrick's Feast 2015

In our ongoing attempts to make different seasons special, we had our annual St. Patrick's Day feast. Despite the hijacking of the celebrations by the militant Left, we remember the traditions of the Old Country.  We watch Irish videos (yeah, videos).  We listen to good old authentic Irish music.  Maybe, if we're lucky, we catch a showing of Disney's should-never-be-forgotten fantasy classic Darby O'Gill and the Little People.  And we have our feast.  This year, owing to schedules, we moved the meal to Sunday, instead of Tuesday.  I took Monday off of work, and my wife, still looking for full time work, has Monday off.  So that was a day buffer to recoup.

Then it was off to the car mechanic Monday morning to find out in $513.00, I'll get a new axle repair.  Which can wait.  And for our situation, that's not bad. So good tax news, and at least acceptable car news, all we need now is good health news, and we'll be able to kick in and get some serious praise and thanksgiving to the Almighty.

So here are some shots of our dinner, our awesome meal, which was made up of Dublin Coddle, baked cabbage, soda bread, potato and leek soup, and whiskey glazed carrots, seed cake, with of course an obligatory shot of our boys at the Warren Harding memorial.  The stuff that life is made of.

The family getting ready to dine, green Kool-Aide and Guinness accompanying

The whole of what awaited me - it was as awesome as it looks

A close up of the main dish; Dublin Coddle, a traditional Irish course.  It was filling. 

A seed cake that Bilbo would be proud of

The ever camera attracting boys, on a chilly morning 2015

How to succeed as a Catholic apologist

Don't admit you are one first.  Following the Comedy central or Glenn Beck approach, just say you're some nobody important slob laity throwing out opinions.  This allows you the forum of a pundit or apologist, with the post-modern desire to avoid accountability.  Which fans love.

Then, know your audience.  In the end, the Catholic Church, in America at least, is hard to the Left.  Most Catholics are more liberal than conservative.  And it isn't hard to see the Church is making strides in that direction.  You want numbers, you go for the largest market.

Now if you really want to get a following, then declare yourself a conservative and then spend almost all of your time trashing conservatives.  That is important.  It's common today.  Declare your demographic to be as bad as everyone else says.  Those not in the demographic love it.  And then take the next step and praise the demographic you insist you have nothing to do with!  Look at how Ron Paul and McCain were loved by the press.  The Media love them.  At least until you run for office.  And if you aren't running for office, then there's no reason to change.  It is also beneficial because you can insist it's all just part of being a bold non-tribalist.  Another important factor in the new 'non-hyphenated Catholics' movement.  That is, everyone is a tribalist, but I'm just pure, unblemished Catholic.  Many wishing to thank God for not being like those hyphenated Catholics over there will surely flock to the banner.

And of course, dispense with the old 'let's reason together' approach to discourse.  Lay it on, judge ruthlessly, and declare that there are only two groups: those on board with the Truth (that is, your interpretation of things), and the stupid, evil people.  If the bulk of those stupid, evil people are your own demographic, you'll have quite a fan base, and do quite well - as witnessed by the sheer uptick in engagements and venues you'll be offered.

FWIW, when you have multiple sources of income, and are seeing an average of three or four speaking engagements a month at $2,000.00 to $3,000.00 base per engagement according to your own website (even assuming some are for free for charity sake), however, I'd suggest that the description 'lower middle class' no longer applies.  Even assuming living in a high expense city and 1099 income.  At least in the world of the Faith. In the world of media driven polemics and self promotion?  Who can say.

It's Pi(e) day!

In case you missed it, you can catch it again.  Make sure you eat the appropriate desert.

UPDATE: Here is what we had for Pi Day, courtesy of our oldest son/resident baker:

Good stuff!

Milestone!

I've officially lost 50 pounds!  Woohoo!   That's one of those things that has been occupying my time for the last few months.  Since November, when I was diagnosed as borderline diabetic, I've been hitting the YMCA and cutting back on the vittles.  I don't plan to super diet for long, settling into a more steady intake to maintain rather than lose, but I still have a few pounds left to get to my optimum. Still some good news on the old scale this morning.

On the prayer side, I have to get some tests done.  A few issues came up in my physical yesterday, and they need to figure what's going on.  The C-word was dropped, albeit as a slim likelihood.  Still, once that is said, all thoughts go to that until the tests come back.  So prayers would be appreciated.

Someone's face has been edited onto my body!

Scott Walker kills unborn babies

According to the always balanced and reliable CAEI.  Warning: The post-modern is strong with this one.

UPDATE: It looks like Mark has pulled this vile post.  Though an apology and explanation would have been better, I'll take its removal.  It was one of the worst accusations I've ever seen, and I can't think of anyone in media, save for possibly a couple of the most vitriolic contributors on MSNBC, that would say such a thing.  If even then.  So well done Mark.  Next time try not to post such things in the first place.