The Devil and the Election

M.B. Matthews at the American Thinker asks the question Are Republicans Prepared for the Aftermath of the Red Flood? He points out that the Democrats are fully prepared to burn, loot murder, riot, cheat, indeed, whatever it takes to win. What are the Republicans prepared to do to stop the steal?

During the period from midnight November 8 to the next days and weeks, I anticipate widespread violence and election fraud. Democrats will try to claw back some wins from their losses. They have demonstrated that nothing is too outrageous, illegal, or demonic when it comes to cheating and violence, so those two tactics will be at the forefront of efforts to negate the massive Red Flood come Wednesday morning. After all, with Biden stopped in his tracks, no more of their insanity will likely get passed. So how is the uproar likely to happen?

First will come halting the vote count long enough to “find” more ballots, something that always favors Democrats, oddly enough. Then will come the protesting, rioting, burning, property destruction, harassing of politicians, doxxing, and intimidation of Republican politicians and some SCOTUS justices.

The media will go full metal jacket, “finding” instances of GOP cheating (which will not be found) and election fraud. What are Republican power brokers prepared to do? We know the radical left Democrats are generously funded by Soros et al, but who funds conservatives, and how much?

My problem with Republicans is that they rarely anticipate Democrat chaos. They always seem to be taken by surprise. They are reactive instead of proactive. For example, what precautions are being taken right now to prevent cheating, demonstrating, burning, violence, and fraud? I am not asking what Republicans will do when these things happen. I am asking them if they are anticipating these things happening. If not, what possible excuse is there for not anticipating these things? Moreover, what do they plan to do to put out the literal and figurative fires?

The Republicans have been described as the "stupid" party. by which the people making this accusation do not mean to imply that these people are literally not too smart. What they lack however is what might be described as "street smarts." But having street smarts may also be called knowledge of the way the world operates, and what is the "way the world operates" may also be described as the sin of the world. In other words, demonic.

And to make that clearer, Sean Fitzpatrick has a singular case with The Merciless Candidacy of John Fetterman. For anyone who has not been paying attention to Pennsylvania politics, John Fetterman had a stroke, which has impaired his ability to speak and communicate. Since being a voice for Pennsylvanians, representing the State in the Senate is the job, it would seem that the stroke has rendered Fetterman unfit for office. But Democrats do not seem to care.

And this is where the Fetterman debacle serves as a striking emblem of the Democratic M.O. What matters is the party’s liberal agenda, which allows people to define the terms of their own existence. Men can be women. Babies can be disposable tissue. The dysfunctional can serve in the highest functions. What matters is the party and progressive politics. Not people. Not principles. Not truth.

The most surprising thing about this is how unsurprising it is. The falsehood that Fetterman is not impaired is both shameful and shameless. There is little to no sense of embarrassment over this candidate but, rather, a shrug off and carry-on-as-normal attitude. Of course, no one could deny that Fetterman struggled and even humiliated himself. But the Left is fine with that and fine with him—and even willing to call Fetterman physically fine himself—because abortion is on the ballot.

Fetterman will vote to re-enshrine abortion in this nation, and therefore he’s fit as a fiddle. He will toe the line and that’s all that matters—not John Fetterman’s health, or his dignity, or the clumsy representation he would provide for the people of Pennsylvania. It’s the party that counts, not the person. It’s little wonder that abortion is so sacred to the Left as it dismisses personhood for the sake of power.

...snip...

Catholics have a political duty to remember that politics is first and foremost about people. Fetterman’s candidacy, like Joe Biden’s, reveals a Democratic derision for its members and for democracy by putting puppets and empty suits in place to promote their purposes, while unleashing an exploitive of media to force the vote instead of winning the vote. Anything to keep the machine grinding away. The individual cogs are of little individual concern so long as they keep the wheels of power and control turning.

When it comes to a Catholic perspective, one of the most important things to conclude in this matter of John Fetterman’s race for the Senate is that there should be a real sense of pity for secular slaves. It is a matter of the corporal mercy we owe our fellow men. We should feel sympathy for John Fetterman and pray for his recovery. We should feel sympathy for those who are so out of tune with truth and human dignity that they would put such a one as Fetterman forward and say he’s doing a fine job.

It is a sad display of the attitude of untruth and disrespect that increasingly governs our country. We should support John Fetterman as a man who needs our prayers, but no honest Pennsylvanian should vote for him. And that’s not party politics or bigotry. It’s common decency, which is a first principle of any civilized society. And Catholics must remain decent as the engines of the world promote indecency.

While we all feel sympathy for Mr. Fetterman, compassion demands that we can not support his run for office, even if his family and his wife do.

A History Lesson from Ancient Rome

 Vince Coyner has a bit of history for us in a piece at the American Thinker entitled Lessons for Voters from Rome's Decline in Britain

At the end of the 2nd century AD, Britain was a fully developed province of the Roman Empire. It was as Roman as any city in the Empire. While still largely rural, Roman Britain developed towns and cities that mirrored those found in Italy or North Africa and connected them with a spectacular roadway. They had majestic villas, sprawling estates, baths, plumbing and, of course, aqueducts. The Romans brought industrial sophistication to mining, unprecedented architectural capabilities, and improved agriculture. The province was awash in imported goods from around the Empire: Wine from Gaul, olive oil from Hispania, pottery from North Africa, and philosophy teachers from Greece; all the while exporting precious metals, agricultural products, shellfish, and salt across the Empire.

One of the extraordinary things about the Roman Empire was the unprecedented, widespread prosperity it created from the Pillars of Hercules to the Levant and virtually everywhere in between. While there had always been a market for fine goods such as silk, porcelain, and exotic foods, the Romans brought those goods to the masses. By building roads, ports, and transportation hubs, and funding the trade necessary to support the Legions, the Romans drove economies of scale and created a mass market for goods that had formerly been available only to the rich. In doing so, they created a cosmopolitan empire so thoroughly Roman that people from what are today Morocco, Britain, Germany, and Israel likely spoke some version of the same language and would have found familiar products available wherever they were in the Empire.

...snip...

In less than a century, Roman Britain went from a rich, flourishing cosmopolitan province with bustling urban centers and goods from across the known world to an economic and cultural backwater where modern architectural, plumbing, and farming techniques seemed to have disappeared along with most of the imported goods.

Most of the people living on the island in the middle of the 4th century probably assumed, as most 2022 Americans do, that civilization’s advances move only in one direction—upward. They expected to continue to enjoy inexpensive food and pottery and clothing from elsewhere while selling their wares in return. The government would continue to protect them and maintain the ports and roads that facilitated trade.

While the United States is not the Roman Emmpire, we have some of the same advantages. But the climate change alarmists' war on energy will cause us to run out of diesel fuel soon. Electricity blackouts are predicted because we have an inadequate supply of natural gas to run our power plants, and because so called "green" energy is not reliable. Yet we depend on both. Without diesel, trucks can't make deliveries to stores, so our food runs out. And think about all of our devices that use electricity: telephones, computers, cooking our food, pumping our water supply, pumping our gasoline, and on and on. In many ways, we are more vulnerable than the British were at the end of the Roman Empire.  If population declines as it did in Britain when Rome collapsed, we can expect 200 million deaths.  

What you have to understand is that the chaos, death and destruction that climate change alarmism is bringing is a feature not a bug.  That is the goal.  People who can not produce anything themselves want power.  This is all about power for those who call themselves our elites.

The Left Destroying Our Ability to Think

 Henry P. Wickham and George P. Harbison have a must read article at the American Thinker entitled Toxic English Departments and the Students Who Now Avoid Them. As the authors point out, studying English, its rich heritage of literature, the grammar of the English language and how to write to most effictively espress your thoughts, is no longer taught at most English Departments. Instead, what is taught is a steaming pile of made up grievances and faux resentments. The Left, as the authors note, always ruins everything it touches. It always sucks the joy and meaning out of everything, and replaces it with what Rush called male bovine excrament.

The decline in the study of undergraduate English proves the proposition that the Left ruins everything it touches There has been a precipitous drop in the number of English majors across the country, and our "progressive" professors have only themselves to blame. The National Center for Education Statistics publishes its annual Digest of what undergraduates study. In 1970 there were roughly 840,000 undergraduate degrees conferred in the United States. Of these approximately 64,000 were degrees in English Literature and Language. This made it the fourth most popular major across the country. Since 1970 there has been a vast increase in the number of undergraduate degrees conferred: over two million in 2020. Yet, despite this huge influx of students, the number of degrees in English has dropped to just over 38,000 in 2020.

...snip...

When we were undergraduates at Kenyon College, it had an English Department as formidable as any. The professors were serious about literature, its criticism, and the quality of our written expression. They weren't interested in nurturing resentment, grinding axes, psychotherapy, or the creation of like-minded political cadres. The materials were chosen based on what Mathew Arnold called "the best that has been thought and said in the world." We read the best and worked to understand the authors as they understood themselves. English was a very popular major.

Here is what now passes as a semester course in English literature (English 214) at Kenyon: (Trigger Warning: Take a deep breath and try to get through this; it won't be easy.)

"How do you read gender? How do you read sexuality? How and in what ways have gender and sexuality been written and rewritten? This course serves as an introduction to queer and transfeminist theories and practices in gender and sexuality studies. Conceptualized through its intersections with race, ethnicity, coloniality, class, and ability, the sex/gender system of oppression has long served as a taxonomizing apparatus. And yet, the literary, in league with anticolonial, civil rights, and LGBTQ social movements, not only sheds sharp light on how gender and sexuality are regulated and troubled, but also animates the liberatory potential of imagining embodied relations otherwise. At once world-building and world-shattering, representations of gender and sexuality can leverage critiques against normativity in the same gesture as they bow to reproducing it. Taking our transnational cue from subjugated knowledges and intersectional epistemologies, we’ll constellate the diverging genealogies and methodologies that have shaped the politics and aesthetics as well as the ethics and affects (sic) of gender and sexuality. Against the traffic of binary opposition, we’ll index the possibilities of intimacy and performativity that determine desiring subjects and their objects. As a class collective, our aim will be to read and reread as well as write and rewrite texts that interrogate and complicate how gender and sexuality, as contested sites of pleasure and pain, are embodied and experienced. The geographic and generic focus of this course may vary; for more information, students should contact the instructor. This counts toward the methods requirement for the major and an elective for the women's and gender studies major. Open only to first-year and sophomore students. Prerequisite: ENGL 103 or 104."

when I was in college, I had a natural minor in mathematics, and a second minor in English. But I would never have taken a course described as the above. Now, most engineering students consider English to be unnecessary, but my mother was an English teacher so I knew the need for effective language in any profession. One has to explain what one is doing in in language common people can understand.  Besides, it was interesting. 

But now? Clearly the Left wishes to destroy students ability to speak and write well. But more importantly, language shapes one's thoughts. The better one understands his language, the better one can think. And I don't think the Left wants us to be able to think clearly, since it wants to destroy the United States.

Another Chance to Exercise Courage

At Townhall.com today, Salena Zito has an article entitled Religious Liberty Once Again Under Attack by Cultural Elites. She is specifically writing about the 600 Catholic Hospitals, which mostly serve underserved and minority communities and treat 1 out of 7 patients. But, while they provide healing to both body and soul, they don't perform abortions of surgeries to make people appear a different sex from that of their birth.

Zito starts out by describing the Sisters of Mercy hospital, established in Pittsburg in 1847.  At the time, Pittsburg was a frotier town, and a hospital was  a major boon to a place like that.

But back to the Sisters: Their Pittsburgh hospital, which now sits on a bluff on the edge of the central business district, has served the city through the Civil War, two world wars and several deadly pandemics. It remains Pittsburgh's only Catholic hospital with specialized services, including neurosurgery, a Level I trauma unit and state-of-the-art burn services.

For most of its existence, the neighborhood it occupies, the Bluff, has been a mix of immigrants, minorities and students attending the adjacent Duquesne University, also a Catholic institution.

It is one of those very unique places in the world of medicine where patients receive spiritual healing and benefit from the best cutting-edge technology in the health care world. All the while, it maintains its mission of welcoming everyone since the day it opened, regardless of race, nationality, age, gender or religion.

Now, the Biden administration, together with Planned Parenthood and other cultural elites want to force the hospital to violate the religious beliefs of those who run it, namely Catholics. Why? Religious freedom, after all is the first of the items listed in the First Amendment. But imagine if the administraion can get Catholics to literally de-moralize themselves by submitting to these proposed regulations.  Do you think the Evil One may  be at work here too?

It began this summer when Biden's appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services planned to revise Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to add pregnancy termination, sexual orientation and gender identity to already existing "protections against discrimination on the basis of sex."

In short, the proposal would reverse the Trump administration protections that sought to allow health care professionals to opt out of performing procedures, such as abortions or gender reassignment surgeries, that violate their beliefs.

The usual groups against traditional faith piled on. Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading provider of abortions, now offers hormone therapy for transgender and gender-nonconforming patients, so it issued a statement immediately praising the Biden administration rule that would punish such Catholic hospitals.

The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, in turn, condemned the proposed rule, saying it threatens the Catholic Church's ability to carry out healing ministries by mandating that health care workers perform life-altering surgeries to remove perfectly healthy body parts. The bishops also expressed their doubts that the HHS rule provided adequate religious-liberty protections: "Assurances that HHS will honor religious freedom laws offer little comfort when HHS is actively fighting court rulings that declared HHS violated religious freedom laws the last time they tried to impose such a mandate."

The bishops' conference called on HHS to disavow any such intent.

Fat chance that will happen, but one can hope. This is another case where the entire Church needs to stand courageously and say we will not violate our faith.

The Serpent in the Garden

Monica Showalter today comments on a Vatican think tank (that) becomes hotbed for pro-abortionists. The think tank in question is the Pontifical Academy for Life establish by Saint Pope John Paul II. It was designed among other things to stem the tide of abortion on one end of life, and euthanasia on the other end. The operative prinicpe here is that God created each of us. He knew us before the world began. How wonderful to think of it. But, only He, as our Creator, has the right to take a human life. Now, there are execptions to this rule, but in general, abortion and euthanasia are morally wrong. The Church consideres them very very serious offenses against God.

But now Pope Francis has appointed two pro-abortion academics to the Pontifical Academy for Life:

Most of these people have lots of fancy accolades and awards for their roles in secular academic institutions for promoting those institutions' values. Some of them put out pro-Joe Biden tweets, and this nonsense has been going on for years, actually. Now the Vatican is "borrowing" them for its own academy, which was founded to be something different by a man who's since been made a saint in part for his unyielding defense of life, and now the place looks like any old leftwing institution you can find anywhere. More disturbingly, these guys are, according to Wikipedia, citing Church documents, are "responsible for the development and promotion of many of the Catholic teachings on questions of medical ethics including procreation, IVF, gene therapy, euthanasia and abortion."

So instead of the pope, we have these guys who are supposed to be our teachers and developers of Church doctrine. Any questions as to why there's so much drivel coming out these days from the Vatican? It's not Catholics making Catholic policy anymore, it's secular atheists and other characters who have a thing against traditional Catholicism, and Pope Francis goes right ahead appointing them to the academy to set Church doctrine, telling us all what we are supposed to "think."

What on earth is this nonsense? For most Catholics, if we wanted to go to the Church of Princeton or Harvard or the University of Ilinois, or Podunk U, we'd beeline to those places direct -- we wouldn't wait for the Vatican to recyle them.

It's sad stuff because this institute was supposed to be special, a reaction to all the academic lunacy and junk thought going on in the world. Instead of striking out on its own and doing something different, the academy opts to blend in with the other academies just like them. How ... generic.

It is sad to realize that abortion, euthanasia, Communism, Socialism, Fascism and all the offshoots including homosexual behavior, CRT, BLM, Antifa are all of a piece. People think they are being "progressive," espousing the latest thing, when really they are promoting the oldest of things, the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. What is sadder still is that the Serpent has infiltrated the Church to the highest levels. Fortunately it is finally being recognized and spoken about. Please watch Fr. Robert Altier's homily, now somewhat old, but accurate nonetheless.

Father Altier sums it up with St. Peter's words to Jesus in John 6:68: But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."  The world needs Pope Francis loudly proclaim the Gospel of pur Lord Jesus Christ, and him crusified.

Prayer and Courage will save us.

 J. B. Shurk has a post today, following onto yesterday's post, but puts the religious talk in more familiar terms.  The article is entitled Win With Wisdom.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus argued, "A man's character is his fate," by which he meant that we are all capable of shaping our futures. It is also true that a nation's character is its fate and that countries prosper or perish by their own hands.

Taking these two truths together, it is easy to look around today and lose hope about what lies ahead. Western civilization is in moral peril and spiritual decay. Increasingly authoritarian political leaders have abandoned Enlightenment principles recognizing the sanctity of individual rights and a social compact ensuring that legitimate government arises only from the "consent of the governed." Virtue is maligned, while sin is lauded. Constitutional protections and inherent freedoms are ignored. Manipulated language and propaganda supplant both meaning and the pursuit of truth. Surely, we are damned.

Please understand that when Shuk speaks of "chaos," "sin," and such words, he is speaking of the effects of the Evil One. We have been convinced by the Evil One that the Devil does not exist. But he does. Totalitarianism is a thing of the Devil. totalitarianism shuns God, because it sees itself as a god.

Totalitarianism demands absolute conformity with the ideology. It can not be from God, because God wants a relationship with us. Relationship requires a two way street. It requires freedom.  We have to want a relationship with Him. He wants it badly, but if we don't want it, he is quite willing to let us go our own way, which is straight to the Evil One and totalitarianism.

I will tell you now that the West will survive only if America survives, and America will survive only if enough Americans awaken to the real threat of encroaching totalitarianism quietly descending all around them. Speech codes, thought police, digital tracking, universal surveillance, political persecution, unrestricted government power — these are the calling cards of tyranny. Either Americans will wake up to the bitter reality that their lives and liberty are already on the line, or they will one day be woken up by the same jackbooted enforcers who always come knocking on the insufficiently indoctrinated's doors. In the space separating these two possible futures, there will be a moment — a spark, if you will — that will either catch fire in the hearts and minds of Americans everywhere or be extinguished before it takes hold. That moment will decide everything.

The question for anyone alive today is this: what will you do with that moment? Will you let it slip by because you have convinced yourself there is nothing to be done? Will you throw up your hands in despair at overwhelming odds? Will you hope that someone, somewhere does something in your stead? Or will you dig deep and armor your resolve with iron courage?

I say that for a large number of Americans, iron courage will take the day. I say this because deep down in Americans' souls is an indomitable yearning passed down from one generation to the next demanding to be free. It may lie dormant or even unknown to those who have yet felt it coursing through their veins, but there is an American spirit burbling just below the surface of polite society packed with feral energy and begging to be released. When Americans realize they're being trapped and prodded and backed against the wall, righteous anger will transform into unmitigated and unrelenting rage. The tormented will rise and finally have their say.

There it is again, that Christianity requires courage; even "iron courage." We must all face the possibility of death if we are to save ourselves and our posterity. What Shurk says is true: that this is a war of wills. But it is not a war where guns will save us. Still, we must have guns, but they will not save us. Prayer will save us, and courage that comes from sure convictions.

Our Only Hope in This World and the Next

Gentle readers may have noticed that the language I use in this blog and indeed, the subject matter of this blog has changed of late.  I feel I need to explain myself to you.  A number of years ago, my friend, Francis W. Porretto, who at the time ran a blog titled "Eternity Road" and now writes for "Liberty's Torch" advised me that to reach a largely non-religious audience, I should not rely on Biblical truths and arguments to make my points.  Thing is, there is no truth but Biblical truths.  And frankly, the time for convincing people has long past; the time of talking is over.

I started this blog limiting it to the topic of guns and self defense.  I started writing to leave a different pattern of thought for my grandaughter some 13 years ago.  I wanted her to have an alternative to the materialism and atheism she would get from the schools, the mainstream media and entertainment companies.  She is now nearly a grown woman, and for better or worse, has her own ideas.  I would tell her not to make my mistakes, but to be original and make her own, but she is beyond listening to an old fart.  And besides, the older I get, the less I know.

Of course, the God of Abraham, of Issac and Jacob, the Father of the Son who died on that cross to take away the sins of thw world is no pacifist.  He takes His own side all things, and we hand better hope we are on His side.  There really was war in heaven.  Lucifer, Commander of the Hosts of Heaven had so much pride, he thought he could be God.  Lucifer and a number of angels were cast out of heaven.  Now, unlike people, angels can not repent.  So, Lucifer is forever against God.  He stalks this world looking to tempt people away from God, and from doing God's will.

Being Christian is not about being pacifist either.  Christ was God's Son, after all, so was perfectly aligned with His will.  It is not about being nice, or kind, though loving and forgiving your neighbor is required.  Go read the Gospels if you don't believe me.  And it is not about making the world a better place.  The early Church fathers recognized that this world must pass away.  What it is about is starting each day praying "Have mercy on me, a sinner.  Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of your mercy,  Not my will but thine be done,"  Then listen closely for His will.

All that is prologue to Scott Hogenson's article at Townhall.com entitled The Courage to Proclaim Biblical Wisdom, Courage is a Christian virtuem of course.

Here’s a fun exercise: President Theodore Roosevelt is credited with observing, “A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.” Imagine the reaction if he’d said that today.

Academia would suffer an emotional meltdown of epic proportions. Campus grief counselors would be booked solid through 2025. Reactions on Twitter and Facebook would break the Internet.

Media fact checkers would feverishly write about how people with graduate degrees in LGBTQIA+ Studies earn more money than Presbyterian ministers. CNN and MSNBC would enjoy a ratings spike of such magnitude, they wouldn’t have to fire any more anchors.

Roosevelt didn’t say this because he was some closet theocrat who wanted to oppress the nation into a dystopian Handmaid's Tale. He said it because he had the courage to articulate a simple truth: The Bible provides more than just a basis for Christianity. It also provides biblical wisdom, a foundation of morality for our personal lives and a civil society that promotes individual liberty.

And it wasn't just Roosevelt. It seems George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Truman thought the Bible was essential reading. Now, you may think that back then, expressing such sentiments required no courage. But I have to tell you that people are the same today as they were then.

Still, they were courageous men and it takes courage to say such things today. Speaking the truth in 2022 is risky business. Many of us simply do not possess the fortitude to withstand the withering criticism that can accompany something as ordinary as noticing that the Bible has many very good ideas about how to live our lives and structure society.

...snip...

When George Washington said it’s impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible, he was saying God’s law is greater than Man’s law and that our elected leaders are accountable to God. These are principles from scripture, amplified by the Reformation, and put into civic practice through the American founding.

So, I mean to ignore Francis Porretto's advice, well meaning as it was, and exercise in some small way a bit of courage, for I sincerely believe it is our only hope in this world and the next.

In the world, but not of the world

 Patricia McCarthy has a post at the American Thinker today, that could be an actual article, so thorough is it in explaining that No Longer a Two Tiered System, There Is No Justice in America. One commenter to her essay wonders if we can vote our way out of this mess. In fact, I do not think so. So thoroughly has the Left infiltrated the Presidency, the Congress, and the "Deep State," and the Courts, that I do not think it is possible. I will expand on this shortly. For now, let Mrs. McCarthy explain:

Now it is easy to see why people have come to believe that the once-vaunted justice system in the US became two-tiered; one for favored elites and one for those the elites loathe. There are countless examples of this: peaceful pro-life demonstrators have been raided and charged with serious crimes that they did not commit, while those who fire-bomb pregnancy centers are not even investigated, let alone charged. Among the hundreds of violent protesters who burned their own cities down in the wake of the George Floyd debacle, few were charged with the crimes they committed and most of those that were had the charges dropped.

But a two-tiered system suggests that there are different levels of justice depending on one’s status within the establishment, the bureaucratic state. For years it has been very obvious that a two-tiered system of justice was being implemented; charge conservatives with made-up crimes, let the real criminals back out onto the streets.

Now we must face the fact that there is actually no justice to be had in America in 2022. Trump Derangement Syndrome has led inexorably to what we now see occurring daily in our once great nation: The proven guilty go free and the innocent have their homes raided by a pack of armed FBI agents who seem to delight in traumatizing law-abiding citizens.

...snip...

So, it is with both great sadness and furious rage that we must admit there is no justice in America anymore. There is only the knowledge that, under the Biden regime, we are experiencing a version of totalitarianism that would make the Founders recoil in horror. Our thoroughly corrupt FBI and DOJ have spent millions of dollars tracking down anyone who may have been present at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 even as it becomes apparent that what happened that day was a carefully orchestrated set-up. The powers that be have done this with all manner of illegal surveillance tactics -- raiding, assaulting, arresting and charging these mostly patriotic, non-violent Americans who knew the 2020 election had been stolen.

I promised to expand on te idea that we may not be able to vote our way out of this mess. Here is why. The Left, wherever it takes root, is a product of the modernist heresies of materialism (which is the belief that the material world is all there is) which leads to atheism, nihilism, scientism and historicism. Atheism features prominently in Soviet and Chinese Communism, less so in Nazi and Italian Fascism, and of course in our own strain of Socialism. Each of these "isms" wants the people to look to the state, not to God. Each insists that you must trust the state, and is against the Church. Indeed, that is why they can not, will not leave you alone.  You must be made to submit.

It has always been this way, though. These "isms" may have modern names, but they are very old. Go read the Old Testament book of Daniel. But they are older than that. They are, at heart, the result of the Evil One influencing people to turn against God. Satan has tempted people with the things of this world, a Faustian bargain if you will, for power, money, sexual pleasure, whatever they want as long as they turn away from God.

So, what is to be done?  Well, first we must all repent (which means to turn around.)  we must face God and admit that we have been led astray, and we will do better.  This is not easy, as the distractions of the world are powerful.  We must dedicate everything we do to the glory of God (in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.)  Go ahead, cross yourself as you repeat it, and do it often even in public.  Do not be ashamed of Him.  If you are not baptized, become baptized.  As St. Paul says, put on the full armor of God.  And pray for our leaders both in the Church and political.  I can attest that prayer works.  No, it doesn't change God, but it does change us for the better.

Mostly, we must remember that we are intended to be in the world, but not of the world.  

Has Biden "Disappeared" a Journalist?

 The website American Liberty has a post raising the question as to whether the Biden administration has "disappeared" a journalist at Journalist Writing About Biden's Afghan Distaster Goes Missing After FBI Raid. The government over the last decade has managed to violate every single article in the Bill of Rights except perhaps the 3rd Amendment. Now they ahve "disappeared" a journalist? How Soviet.

Here on earth, we must demand retribution

Kurt Schlichter has a piece at Townhall.com today entitled Civilization Cannot Exist Without Righteous Retribution. Kurt is spot on here. You can not forgive criminals, who don't want it anyway, without exacting a price. Somethimes, that price is execution. 

The only thing about the fact that a jury found that the degenerate scumbag who murdered seventeen people should not be executed is that it was just one nimrod juror who held out not to give the vermin the death he deserves. Statistically, even in a red state like Florida, it’s difficult to find a group of twelve people without a moral illiterate or two. In blue venues, it’s hard to find any moral literates at all.

Here's the thing – a civilization that cannot come up with the moral testicularity to execute a creature who murders over a dozen of its children is a civilization in serious trouble. The minimum standard for any culture that intends on surviving – and surviving means dealing with the barbarians within and without – is to take its own side in the fight for survival. Eventually, there will be a backlash. The only question is how ugly it will be.

...snip...

And then there is the spectacle of family members of murder victims “forgiving” the criminals as if forgiveness was a simple act and not a process that demands action by the person being forgiven. This bizarre misunderstanding of Christianity is mixed with what seems to be a desire to front to the world as somehow enlightened – “I want to announce that I forgive the barbarians who raped and murdered my daughter. They did not repent, they did not seek forgiveness, and they have not yet been punished, but I’ll do it now anyway. Look at me.” Not that you want to take theological hints from a guy who grew up a Californian Methodist, but the forgiveness of God does not just manifest out of the blue; the one receiving grace needs to take steps to obtain it. These moral posers – and it is posing, sad and horrifying, but posing nonetheless – demand nothing to obtain forgiveness, so the forgiveness they offer is meaningless narcissism.

Schlichter is absolutely correct. Jesus offers forgiveness, but there are conditions. One doesn't just willy nilly forgive. That is not Christianity; it is as Schlichter says, narcissism. Forgiveness depends on the one being forgiven realizing what he has done is wrong, and repenting. He must feel and show remorse and shame. Only then can he ask for forgiveness. Sometimes, he must then do something to make it right, to the extent that he can. For example, if he stole from someone, he must pay it back, or at least make a good faith effort to do so. Perhaps if he can not pay it back, pay it forward to some worthy cause. Murdering 17 children would seem to require that one should offer up his life.

Here on earth, we are not yet in the Kingdom of God.  We fight a constant battle against the Evil One.  God can forgive even the most evil thing, if one does what is necessary, but society for now must demand retribution.  It is what we have until Christ comes again in glory to bring justice.

Marl Lewis Almost Hits the Mark

 Mark Lewis has a post today at Towhhall.com that hits close to the mark. The post is entitled Some Dispicable Aspects of the Left. Lewis, who is an historian, points out that the "The Left judges previous generations by their current moral vision" which is constantly changing. I deliberately avoided the word "evolving" because the changes are not improving.  If anything, their moral vision is devolving.  "They judge people by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character" while screaming "racism" at everyone who doesn't agree with them. "They deny true human nature, believing only in a naturalistic, materialistic universe without spirit" but man is uniquely both spirit and animal. We are, as Genisis tells us, created from the earth but in the image of God which is Spirit. Finally, liberals do not believe in God. Therefore the is no truth in them.  But, 

...if you disagree with them, you’re not only in error, you are evil (as they define it, though “evil” cannot objectively exist without free will), and you are a deplorable, despicable sub-human, condemned by their perfect moral standard, which is ever-evolving, but never arriving. But, even as it is changing, it can be used to justify any barbarity they wish to commit and condemn everyone who has ever lived, even people in another time and culture who have been dead for hundreds or thousands of years. Even God (if they even believe in Him, which most of them don’t) is to submit and recognize the superior wisdom and knowledge of the Left. “God, you thought you created man and woman. But we are here to tell you that you didn’t do that...” Since there is no room for God in the modern Left’s view of the world, government becomes the final arbiter, the ultimate power source, the director, and the guide of all human affairs. And anyone who balks is to be mercilessly crushed.

It is the pride of the Evil One, which drives the Left. That pride creates prejudice that they are right, and so they desire power to exert their will on everyone. I said at the start that Lewis had come close. Perhaps as close as one can come in a publication meant for the general public. But what he is describing is the Evil One, Satan, Lucifer, Moloch...he goes by many names. He is the Sin of the World. If only the liberals understood that the Holy Rosary is not a weapon against them, but a weapon to smash the Evil One, and all his works and ways. It works by praying for them.

Give Me That Old Time Religion

Our problems, at heart, collectively and individually, are the result of every man trying to exert his own desires on the world. We have bitten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and we are reaping the results. History tells us this. Christ entered history in the fulless of time to save the world from its sin.  We are warriors in the war against evil.  That is what Christ freed us to do, to fight the Evil One.  Tat is the meaning of human life.

 It pains me, but I have come to realize that my Lutheran beliefs are not enough, though they have satisfied for now 70 years. Lutheranism at least has the Eucharist at the center of its worship. But as protestantism strayed from the Catholic faith, it steadily delivered less and less spiritual nourishment to the people. And it lost some of this meaning to human life.  In truth, we need the complete Faith, including the ancient traditions embodied in the Catholic Church. Moreover, we need to be united in an age in which so many seem entirely secular. We can not do our job fighting the Evil One if we are fighting among ourselves.

So, it was interesting to read Fr. John Perricone's article at Crisis Magazine entitled Vatican II at 60: Stop the Cheerleading. Fr. Perricone questions George Weigel's book To Sanctify The World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II. Because, after 60 years of losing Catholics and increasing secularity in society, it seems clear that Vatican Council II has failed to deliver what it promised. The younger Catholics seem to be flocking to the Ancient Faith, the tradition Latin Mass and not to the Novus Ordo (new order) Mass.  They want the fully leaded version, so to speak.

Mr. Weigel seems to be parroting the Old Thinking of the septuagenarian and octogenarian Shepherds in the Church. This Old Guard is presently splenetic at the cry of young Catholics for the undiluted Ancient Faith rather than the Synodal Way that is so giddily embraced (and tightfistedly enforced) by their betters.

How could someone as gifted as Mr. Weigel repeat without embarrassment Roncalli’s indictment of 500 years of Post-Reformation Catholicism as “guarding a precious treasure as though it were an antiquity”? He knows better than most St. Paul’s mandate to Timothy: “custodi depositum” (guard the deposit). Yes, the Church jealously “guards” so that she can boldly proclaim. And, indeed, she did. And she did it with supernatural gusto during all those centuries to which Mr. Weigel happily bids a fond farewell.

People change, though seldom for the better. Society changes. But God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. His plan for mankind has always been the same. We need to be united and we need that old time religion to fight the Evil One. I agree that the Catholic Church needs to take a step back, repudiate Vatican II and begin to agressively fight for the souls of faithful Catholics.

Biden's WW III

 Selwyn Duke has an article today at the American Thinker today entitled As Nuclear War Looms: Does Russia Have a Right to Its Own Monroe Docrtine? Duke makes the case that for Putin, the current war in Ukraine is an existencial threat. At the same time, for Biden and the idiots who are running him, Ukraine is just a gpower paly. Russia can not back down. If we don't want this to end in global nuclear war, it will probably have to be us. Otherwise, it seems we are heading for WW III, and this time, it will be Biden's fault.

At Crisis Magazine editor Eric Sammons has an article Understanding the Roots of the Ukraine-Russia Conflict.

What is The Narrative regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? It states that the war is the result of the unbridled expansionism of Vladimir Putin, who wants to recreate—and enlarge—the old Soviet Empire. He’s a modern-day Adolf Hitler with paranoid delusions of Western aggression, a man to whom negotiations would be fruitless. In The Narrative, the West is spotless in its dealings with Russia, and this invasion occurred within a vacuum, with no history behind it.

While this Narrative, like every Narrative, might contain a few truthful elements, it is not the whole story. In fact, it leaves out so much as to essentially give a false story. What is the actual history behind this conflict, and what has been the role of America and the West in fostering it? That’s the subject of an excellent new book by Benjamin Abelow, “How the West Brought War to Ukraine.”

...snip...

In his short book, Abelow examines how Western arrogance toward Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union—expanding NATO to Russia’s borders, unilaterally abandoning nuclear arms treaties, placing missile installations within those new NATO countries close enough to destroy Moscow within 15 minutes, ignoring repeated warnings from Russia about Ukraine’s entrance into NATO, and assisting in a coup that overthrew the pro-Russian leader of Ukraine in 2014—all laid the groundwork to today’s conflict. 

Understanding this history is vitally important for the cause of peace. Like Abelow, Catholics should not mindlessly follow The Narrative when it comes to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, but instead should seek to understand what has led to it, for this is the way to peace... .

Isn't peace what we all want?

Putin's 100 megaton weapon is on the move

 At the American Thinker today, Ed Timperlake says The US Navy is taking Vladamir Putin very seriously. Certainly some of the people at Fox News are not taking him seriously. But they need to.

Russian president Vladimir Putin put the world on strategic nuclear alert with an ominous message. He linked his threat to use nuclear weapons with justification of the U.S. ending WWII by bombing Japan with two atomic bombs.

MOSCOW, Sept 30 (Reuters) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States had created a "precedent" by using nuclear weapons against Japan at the end of World War Two, in a speech filled with hostility towards the West delivered from the Kremlin on Friday. Fears of nuclear war have grown since Putin said last week he was "not bluffing" when he said Russia was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend its territory.

Best take note: if someone is threatening to kill you, believe him — and Putin was building up to putting nuclear weapons front and center even before he invaded Ukraine.

The past is prologue, because he had previously announced in 2019 that his military, specifically his naval submarine force, has essentially developed an operational nuclear doomsday 100-megaton torpedo.

Timperlake points out that the US Navy has stood up the 2nd Fleet, and that fleet is commanded by serious men. But looking at the news, I see that Biden is selling more of our strategic reserve. Hmmmm...don't most of the ships in the 2nd Fleet run on diesel? The 2nd Fleet doesn't do us much good if it is stuck in port.

Gentle readers please go and read Timperlake's post. Oh, and pray for our Navy, especially the men and women serving in the 2nd Fleet as they embark on another Battle of the Atlantic.

Bill Gates: Preventing People From Eating Meat Is 'Too Difficult'

 The Epoch Times has an article by Naveen Athrapully entitled Bill Gates Says Preventing People From Eating Meat Is 'Too Difficult'. Hmmmm...and why would Bill Gates be concerned about what you or I put in our mouths? Bill Gates and his buddies at the World Economic Forum really do want to determine every detail of your life.  They want you to eat bugs!

“Anyone who says that we will tell people to stop eating meat, or stop wanting to have a nice house, and we’ll just basically change human desires, I think that that’s too difficult,” Gates said in an interview with Bloomberg. The billionaire went on to point out that such things do not necessarily have to play a key role in fighting climate change.

Rich nations only make up a third of global emissions, with the remaining two-thirds coming from “pretty basic” things like shelter, calories, transport, and the use of goods, Gates said.

I would note that the whole idea of cow farts causing climate change is flawed thinking, and anyone who can earn billions of dollars SHOULD be able to figure this out, or have someone on his staff explain it to him. Grass takes up carbon dioxide to form the cells that make up the structure of the plant. The cows eat the grass, and release part of the carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. But then that carbon dioxide is taken up again by grass. All cows do is recycle the carbon dioxide that is already in the atmosphere. They don't add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, therefore make no difference to climate change.

But, it gets worse, for ruminants like cows actually can improve the land, and can be managed to increase the anount of grass land, while reducing desertification of land. A more useful thing for the Gates Foundation to do is study and educate farmers in better herd managememt to improve the land while yielding food for their communities, and raising the stardard of living.

Now, it turns out that meat may be a better food source for man that eating a vegan diet.

Eating meat is beneficial to the human body. One study conducted by researchers from the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), Australia, found that selenium, a mineral found in meat and some other foods, has the potential to reverse the decline in brain function from old age or poor health. Another study conducted by researchers from the University of Adelaide looked into the health effects of total meat consumption in more than 170 nations. They found that consumption of energy from meat does result in greater life expectancy.

Personally, I eat about 60% quality fats, maybe 30% leafy vegetables, and 10% meat. I do tis to stay healthy and at a healthy weight. I don't eat any grains or most fruits.

Can you know what you really think and believe?

 I was unsure which article to highlight today.  They all warn of terrible evil.  The first is from Daniel Greenfield as Sultan Knish where he writes an article entitled Biden's Defense Department Urges Killing U.S. Babies for National Security. The title encapsulates what is contained in the story. This notion was put forward by a Rand Corporation report. Did these people read the report before issuing it? Do they even listen to themselves? The idea is monstrous.  I an sorry if it offends gentle readers, but I urge you to read the report and perhaps that will inform your vote. I simply can not understand how human reason can come to these conclusions without demonic influence.

The second article is by Patricia McCarthy at the American Thinker and is entitled Democrats Split on Family Values. I will let McCarthy state the theme of her article::

It should be abundantly clear to all Americans by now that the Democrat party's agenda is to destroy the nuclear family by any means necessary. And yet Joe Biden can hardly open his mouth without touting his own family values by praising his sons, Beau, who passed away, and Hunter, who is criminally inclined on various fronts. But the party continues to aggressively promote all manner of sexual deviancy; the mutilation of children who even for five minutes question their gender; inserting pornography into schools, even elementary schools; and the imposition of Critical Race Theory that divides Americans into two groups, the oppressed and the oppressors. They make no attempt to hide their contempt for parents who want some knowledge of and control over what their children are taught in school. The tyrannical A.G. Merrick Garland has deemed such parents "domestic terrorists" and sought to have them arrested if they speak at school board meetings against the left's curriculum.

In short, it has long been the goal of the globalist left to destroy the nuclear family. Young people must become disembodied so the evils of artificial intelligence can be introduced, inserted, welcomed. Biden just signed an executive order that commits billions of dollars to this end. These are very evil people, these family-destroyers and mutilators of children; these people who mean to remake men into women and women into men. The institution of marriage will go by the wayside, as intended. For the first time, just over 50% of babies born in the U.S. are born out of wedlock. There are no "family values" among Democrats. It is now a phrase they use to indict all conservatives for being insufficiently woke.

It is clear, is it not, that all of the sexual grooming, the critical race theory, the pronouns, the drag queens, and teachers with green hair and tattoos no less, are all demonic in origin? None of this has any bearing on traditional family values. But by confusing children about their true natures as individuals, made in the image of God, male and female, the people behind the Democrats are working toward a generation prepared to accept being made what is called Transhuman, which at its core is Satanic.

In the Garden of Eden, mankind had perfect freedom, with this one exception: that we were not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Our original sin was to disobey God and eat of that fruit. In disobeying Him, we showed that we didn't love Him enough, nor trust Him.

The First Commandment is to love God with all our hearts, and minds and souls. And if we did, we wouldn't need the other Commandments because we would automatically do those things. The idea of implanting devices in our brains to make us make us supposedly "more human" also sadly makes us less human.

We already know that twitter, for example, has an unknown number of "bots," essentially artifical computer programs that simulate real people, and are used to amplify certain expressions approved by twitter. We can assume the same thing happens on other social media. So, if someone has say a million apparent followers, one has to ask if 999,999 of those followers are bots or not? Now imagine that this is implanted in your brain. Can you under such circumstances know what you truly think and believe?

Make a cup of coffee or tea, and sit down and read the highlighted articles.  The one at Singluarity Weekly entitled Transhumanism is Satanism With A Brain Chip is long, but well worth the read.

Pray, and do the Will of God

 Yesterday, I posted about a story that had not been much reported in the mainstream media.  Today, I want to report another item you will not see in the MSM, or even on Fox News.  Indeed, if you are not a reader of the Old Testament, you will not be aware of the importance of this story.

Today, at Townhall.com Jonathon Feldstein tells us of The Miraculous Return of the Red Heifer to Isreal. Numbers 19 concerns ritual purity, and one of the things mentioned is the need of a red heifer to be sacrifieced for the ritual purity of the Tabernacle. The Temple worship of course was the successor of the Tabernacle. The Jews have not been able to worship in the ways of the Old Testament since 70 A.D, when the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. This is a Big Deal.

Jews read the verses longingly, praying for the opportunity to be able to rebuild the Temple and, with it, the ritual purification from the ashes of a red heifer needed to resume the Temple services. But for two millennia, the whole idea was simply a fantasy, until last year when these five red heifers were born in Texas, and now, have arrived in Israel.

...snip...

There are different perspectives about the significance of the red heifers’ arrival as it relates to rebuilding the Temple. Some say that now the Temple can be rebuilt. Jews have prayed for that daily for nearly 2000 years. Some say that their arrival is the heralding of the Temple being rebuilt, a nuanced difference. And not mutually exclusive, some see the red heifers’ arrival as laying the foundation for the arrival of the Messiah, and end times among Christians. Either way, what is clear is that even if the Temple were to be rebuilt tomorrow, or descend from the heavens as some believe (since God can do anything and the restoration of the Temple is among the prophesies related to the return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem), without the red heifers the Temple service cannot be reinstated because they are necessary in the ritual purification that’s required for all Jews involved.

Regardless of the cause and effect, what is sure is that now there’s a possibility, the first time since the year 70 AD, that Temple service can be restored. I tend to be of the school that whenever and however it does happen, it’s all in God’s hands. This is just a key ingredient needed to make it all happen. A big one. That alone is significant, and a rare glimpse of Biblical prophesy in our modern time.

All very interesting. But I am a Christian. The following is my view, and I have no expertise on theological matters so take everything I say here with a grain of salt. Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, the anointed one who would save first Isreal, then the World from the sins of the world. In the Old Testament, Jews sacrificed animals for their sins against God. But then God sent hs Son into the world to suffer and die an excruciating death, only to rise again on the thrid day. Jesus sacrifice was for all people, if they were baptized and believed in Him. There was no need any longer to sacrifice animals. I believe that is why God used the Romans to destroy the Temple.

Meanwhile, Christ had made many converts in Judea and Samaria through the Apostles, and many more among the rest of the world. God had given the Jews that stubbornly clung to the Old Testament 40 years to get with the program, just as he had given their ancestors 40 years in the wilderness. It was time. Israel was now the Church, the Body of Christ, which daily sacrifices the Eucharist for the forgiveness of the sins of the World.

My thoughts? The arrival in Isreal of the red heifers is a sign of Christ's Second Coming. I don't know, or think that it is imminent, but it is important. When people can believe that men can become women and vice versa, against all evidence to the contrary, there is something very wrong. When even medical doctors tell us that men can become pregnant, again against all evidence, our society is in deep trouble. The Church itself while full of faithful Christians, has been infiltrated by the Devil. We see bishop against bishop, cardinal against cardinal, and the Pope often saying and doing confusing things. People in powerful positions who claim to be faithful Catholics advocate for abortion. There is not a lot we can do but pray, and try to do God's Will.

We the People are not going to get the justice we deserve

 I apologize to gentle readers for not posting anything this week.  I have been busy elsewhere.  However, I have been keeping up, sort of, with current events.  Most current events, however, show how far down the slide towards hell on earth we have gone.  Our "president," seems giddy to have us all blown up with nuclear weapons, along with half of Europe.  But what I wanted to highlight today is a little reported story.

John Durham, <sarcasn on>intrepid crusader for truth, justice, and the American Way<sarcasm off>, seems to be wrapping up his investigations, and it seems it will end with a whimper. Pete McArdle at the American Thinker has an article entitled Thanks for nothing, John Durham:

Raise your hands, anyone who thought special counsel John Durham's probe into the outrageous treatment of President Trump by the Obama FBI, DOJ, CIA, and State Department was ever going to amount to anything.

Anyone?

No one?

Me neither.

As Durham's investigative "work" finally wraps up, it's embarrassingly obvious he's just another swamp creature with a nice suit, a bad goatee, and no spine.

McArdle summarizes the slow, deliberate investigation, as well as the minor miscreants who seem to have gotten off with either a slap on the wrist, or scot free. And none of the high profile players like Comey, Wray, McCabe, Stzrok and Page all were even implicated, let alone indicted. and then there are Brennan and Ckapper...well, you know. Obviously Obama and Hillary weren't even considered.  For all the sturm und drang of Durham's investigation, he has acheved effectively zero, zilch, nada.

It appears that all the injustices perpetrated against President Trump for nigh unto seven years now will be swept under the rug. No one will be punished, there will be no justice, and the swamp creatures will laugh long and hard at the special counsel's long, drawn out, and thoroughly useless "investigation."

To John Durham, on behalf of the American people, I say, "Thanks for nothing!"

And of course, what does this have to do with We the People? I think it does not bode well for representative government. We as much as Trump himself deserved justice, and we are not going to get it.

As McArdle says, thanks for nothing.