Thank you St. Jude

for favours granted.

Sorry, can't blog today

All my irony fuses got blown in one go today:

Pope invites Tony Blair to Vatican summit to discuss Church's fears that politics is losing its religion

Yep. You can't make this stuff up.

You can be sure that there will be a press conference, and little ol' me will be there with my handy voice recorder in hand. "Sir, how do you respond to having been given the nickname of Britain's "principle architect of the culture of death"?

Now, Nick Pisa plays it with a straight face, but I think the headline writers at the Mail got the joke.

Melanie Phillips certainly got it some time ago:

...his government either directly promoted or did nothing to stop the long march through Britain’s institutions — the systematic undermining of the country’s fundamental values and traditions, in line with the cultural Marxism strategy of the philosopher Antonin Gramsci.

...

Obama has talked about remedying what he sees as the flaws in the U.S. Constitution which promotes only “negative liberties,” or freedom from something rather than positive rights to something. Well, [under Blair's New-Britain Programme] through human-rights legislation Britain has exchanged its historic concept of “negative” liberty — everything is permitted unless it is actively prohibited — for the ‘positive’ European idea that only what is codified is to be permitted.

As a result, freedom has shrunk to what ideology permits. Equality legislation has cemented a “victim culture” under which the interests of all groups deemed to be powerless (black people, women, gays ) trump those deemed to be powerful (white people, men, Christians). Since this doctrine holds that the “powerless” can do no wrong while the “powerful” can do no right, injustice is thus institutionalized, and anyone who queries the preferential treatment afforded such groups is vilified as a racist or bigot.

But We're evil because ...we don't ordain women....

Have I got it right Mr. Mainstreammedia?

A Saudi court of cassation upheld a ruling to behead and crucify a 22-year-old man convicted of raping five children and leaving one of them to die in the desert, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

A brief history of the storage of books

Some time ago, a friend of mine, a priest, sent me an email complaining that his book situation was a "major disaster", with books piled on the floor and on every available surface. I wrote him a note saying, "I understand that 'shelves' were thought to be very useful to store books for quite a long time before they invented 'computers'."

Just recently I've been debating whether to make the long and complicated trip to Rome's Ikea, which I'm told is almost inaccessible by transit, but which I know has book cases for sale and, at least in other countries, delivers.

I have some of my books still in boxes (which same are serving as end tables for tea cups and my bedside reading lamp, clock and phone recharger) and some are stacked up on the floor gathering dustbunnies the size of tumbleweeds.

It all reminded me of a little tale I wrote once.

Once upon a time, some people who wore funny hats and had very good tans, thought they ought to figure out a way to make a living without working. There were three or four of them, (the chronicles are sketchy) and their names were Fred. (In those days there weren't very many people and they hadn't invented very many names. They all knew each other though, so it was all right.)

One of them, a bright fellow named Fred, decided that the best way to do this was to hit the peasants up for something he had just thought of that he called 'taxes.' His friends liked the idea but said, quite sensibly, that it would be difficult to collect these 'taxes' from the peasants without a system of enforcement, since in those days, pretty much everyone was a peasant, including Fred. "What we need is a 'class system'!" said Fred. This met with general agreement, but since 'class systems' hadn't been invented yet, no one quite knew how to go about making one.

After puzzling it out for a while, someone suggested that they form a city state. Everyone agreed that this was a great plan. So, being smart fellows, they started getting up very early every day, even before their mums had put the kettle on, and by thinking very hard, they made up a religion, laws, mathematics, astronomy, agriculture, engineering, a military, surnames, an economy, wheeled carts and beer. All of this was to be organized according to the 'class system'. When they had all this, they started building very tall buildings to make sure everyone for miles around knew that they were not merely having everyone on, but really meant it about inventing this great new thing.

They decided to call it 'civilization.'

Well, it really caught on. People liked it a lot and started to copy it and before you knew it, everywhere you looked, there were buildings and wheeled carts, and long surnames, and numbering systems and a couple of completely new things, 'trade' and the 'middle class'.

But then someone realized there was something that wasn't going to work out about all this. He knew, though would never admit, that their gods were not really very powerful. They were OK for bringing in a harvest, most of the time, and for winning wars - another new thing which people also liked quite a lot, (this was before tobacco)- but their gods were not going to make anyone immortal. Not even the priestly/mathematician/engineering class.

What to do? Well, you see the problem don't you? If the people who invented all this stuff were going to die some day, how would anyone in the future know how to fix the carts, or when to sacrifice the virgins, or keep up with the tax laws, or remember who they are supposed to be at war with? And, most importantly, who was going to brew the beer?

Everyone was quite worried about this, (except the peasants who suddenly found themselves quite busy) then one day, an especially clever chap whose name I can't remember, but was most likely Fred, and whose parents were potters, was fooling about with some clay and thought, "Gosh, I bet I can invent cuneiform!"

Well, this thing, 'cuneiform' caught on really well. Some people even liked it more than beer and war and they decided to become a new thing: 'scholars.'

After all this, everyone was really happy. Especially the scholars who really felt that all the hard thinking had paid off since they now had a really great way of making a living without working. (Of course, after a while, people started thinking that calling it 'cuneiform' was a bit of a mouthful, so it was shortened to 'journalism'.)

Now everyone was having a wonderful time. Peasants were being hit up for lots of taxes, and new ways of making a living without working were being invented all the time. Soon, someone decided to invent lawyers, and university professors, politicians, accountants, liturgists and pastoral counsellors. Everything was just great!

The only trouble with all this was that there were now so many cuneiform tablets around that they were blocking the drains and spoiling the scholars' gardens and making a mess all over. So a bright young scholar (whose name was certainly not Fred, since people were much more sophisticated now,) decided to go about collecting them all in what he called a 'library.' For this new thing, the same bright young guy made these very useful contraptions, a bit like the scaffolding that was used to build the buildings, except a bit smaller.

He decided to call them 'shelves.' And he put his books on them and spent many happy years organizing and re-organizing the books on the shelves. He called this 'work,' but really just to please his mother who thought he ought to have joined the army.

Young people these days!

Just explain to me what it is with the younger generations these days. They seem to know nothing at all about classical culture. Their own culture.

Imagine not knowing who Kang and Kodos were! I think schools need to run remedial programmes in pop-culture for those who just haven't kept up.

A sad day has come when young people don't get the pop culture references in the Simpsons.

Well, I for one welcome our new Cephalopod European Overlords

All blocks to Lisbon now removed:

Mr. Klaus added his signature to the treaty, even as he expressed his continuing objections, just hours after the Czech Republic's high court ruled it compatible with the country's constitution. The move means the Treaty, already ratified by the other 26 members of the bloc, can go into force on Dec. 1.

In related news,

Japanese fishing trawler sunk by giant jellyfish:

A 10-ton fishing boat has been sunk by gigantic jellyfish off eastern Japan.

No, really.

Each of the jellyfish can weigh up to 200 kg and waters around Japan have been inundated with the creatures this year. Experts believe weather and water conditions in the breeding grounds, off the coast of China, have been ideal for the jellyfish in recent months.

Choice!! Choice!! It's all about CHOICE DAMMIT!!!

She said she began to feel uncomfortable with Planned Parenthood's business philosophy after the organization, suffering from the economic downturn, told her to try to bring more abortions in the door. "The money wasn't in family planning, the money wasn't in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that," said Johnson

.

"Oh, did I say 'referendum'?

I meant...err...well..."

Open Europe:

Senior Conservatives are now saying that instead of a referendum on Lisbon, they will seek to renegotiate several of the changes it implements. The paper quotes a Conservative source saying: "It is clear that a post-ratification referendum is simply not possible."

"We will look at the parts of the treaty that are not acceptable and seek to renegotiate them."

The Times reports that David Cameron will also pledge to write into law that no British Government will ever again be able to push through a European Treaty without a referendum...

Let's get that barn door closed, once and for all!

Cameron said that once the Treaty is endorsed by all 27 EU members and comes into force, it will "not be a treaty" and will instead be part of European law...

"...so, you know, it won't actually be reneging on my most important platform plank. Cause, if there's no Treaty to have a referendum on, we can't really have a Treaty referendum, right?"

The "heir to Blair" indeed!

Reformation Day

Here in Rome, it is difficult to go to the movies (still haven't seen the new Star Trek) because, naturally, most of the movies are dubbed into Italian. There are a couple of theatres what play movies "versione originale or lingua originale" but they are few and the offerings aren't always what you might want.

Bookstores are also rather dull; while there are usually English language sections, they are small and the offerings usually relegated to the latest chic-lit novelistic rubbish, vampire books for teens, Rome guide books and books about the wonders and glories of Obama.

So, one often has to make one's own fun.

Reformation Day is apparently something that is observed in some parts of Europe and no less in Santa Marinella. October 31 comes close enough to November 5th that I had the idea of combining the two celebrations.

Naturally, we wouldn't dream of burning an effigy of the "only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions," but there are quite a few other candidates who richly deserve the posthumous memorial.

So, we put some names in a hat, and burned Elizabeth I instead.

As a fully paid-up member of the Facebook group, "Elizabeth I: Heretic, Usurper, Tyrant"

and the founder of the Facebook group "The English Reformation was a Crime Against Humanity," I was happy to provide the venue, ie: I have a really great outdoor fireplace/barbeque at my place.

A bunch of friends came over and we had a jolly afternoon making an effigy:


looks just like her! (Note ruff)


making toffee apples,

eating hamburgers and then


the big event: an old fashioned Auto da Fe.

Pius (V) Bishop, servant of the servants of God, in lasting memory of the matter, says:

"Elizabeth I, by the grace of God, Queen of England, you have been found guilty of the following charges:

"Prohibiting with a strong hand the use of the true religion, which after its earlier overthrow by Henry VIII (a deserter therefrom) Mary, the lawful queen of famous memory, had with the help of this See restored, you have followed and embraced the errors of the heretics."

Readying the flames.

you have..."oppressed the followers of the Catholic faith; instituted false preachers and ministers of impiety; abolished the sacrifice of the mass, prayers, fasts, choice of meats, celibacy, and Catholic ceremonies; and have ordered that books of manifestly heretical content be propounded to the whole realm and that impious rites and institutions after the rule of Calvin, entertained and observed by yourself, be also observed by your subjects.

You have dared to eject bishops, rectors of churches and other Catholic priests from their churches and benefices, to bestow these and other things ecclesiastical upon heretics, and to determine spiritual causes; has forbidden the prelates, clergy and people to acknowledge the Church of Rome or obey its precepts and canonical sanctions; have forced most of them to come to terms with your wicked laws, to abjure the authority and obedience of the pope of Rome, and to accept you, on oath, as their only lady in matters temporal and spiritual;

Sentence pronounced.

We, seeing impieties and crimes multiplied one upon another the persecution of the faithful and afflictions of religion daily growing more severe under the guidance and by the activity of you, Elizabeth...

Stripped of the crown.

And moreover (we declare) you to be deprived of your pretended title to the aforesaid crown and of all lordship, dignity and privilege whatsoever.

Crown jewels removed.

Therefore, resting upon the authority of Him whose pleasure it was to place us (though unequal to such a burden) upon this supreme justice-seat, we do out of the fullness of our apostolic power declare you, Elizabeth...

...to be a heretic and favourer of heretics, and your adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of excommunication and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ.


Even upon contemplating the terrible fate ahead, she refuses to repent.


"By the judgment of this court, you are sentenced to be consigned to the flames.


And may God have mercy upon your wretched soul."


Give her a poke, I think she's done.


The light of the True Faith prevails.

(A message for Nick Trandem: You may consider yourself tagged.)

technical difficulties

Someone told me this weekend that he can't view the Youtube videos I post here. Is anyone else having this trouble?

When I put a video up, I normally just use the "embed" thing that Youtube provides. I've never run across this problem myself, either on my own computer or when looking at the blog from someone else's.

Not being very computery, I don't really know how to solve the problem, except to put at the bottom of the embedded video a link to the original page on Youtube.

If other people have had this trouble, my apologies for my lack of nerd qualifications.

HJW