Back in Dallas

 

Here we are, punters, back at Dallas HQ for Easter Monday and it's not bad. Birds sing, the sun shines and all's well in this small urban haven, a far cry from the race  track chaos of the 'sprawl. In fact, it's more peaceful than the Country Compound because there's no roosters here. Don't get me wrong, roosters play their part and add a kind of problem farm authenticity to the scene, but they're mighty loud. Maybe not as loud as shrieking peacocks, but still.

In other news, you may have followed the pretty remarkable rescue of one of our downed pilots, all kinds of hyper specops action, and some say more than that. They think the raid was a play to get at the mullahs' uranium, and maybe they have a point. But what do I know? Nothing. Why? Because SECWAR Hegseth hasn't been returning my calls. C'mon, Pete, pick up the 'phone.

What if America is already far richer than anyone in the swamp is allowed to admit?

What if the real drag on the Republic isn’t taxes, isn’t debt, isn’t even the deficit, it’s Europe?

What if NATO was never a mutual defense pact, but a 75-year subscription America forgot to…

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) April 6, 2026

Speaking of Persia, 47's been blowing up the airwaves with all kinds of mad bomber incendiarism, "Praise be to Allah!" and dropping an F Bomb on the Straits of Hormuz, It'll be a "GUSHER," and on. What do you make of this? Serious question.

My take, for what little it's worth because SECWAR's apparently blocked me, is something like this: Team Trump hoped for a quick fix. Bold call, didn't get it. So pump up the volume and the bombs and the threats until the other side gets it and walks away before a JDAM hits their bedroom. 

Quite the message. But oh dear, Team Mullah refuses to bend the knee, with their blend of zero sum perverse martyr Islamic sensibility. Next step, 47 gets really loud in the probably doomed expectation that IRGC gets that memo, Viz. if you don't step away from the country we're going to utterly destroy you.

As you know, gentlemen and gentlewomen, the US is more than capable of carrying out the threat of destroying Iran as a functional country. 47, it seems, would prefer we didn't but isn't afraid to go Godzilla all-in if that's what it takes. That's the message, as I see it, Pete might agree, I don't know, he isn't answering calls, perhaps he's busy.

Personally, I'd love it if the Islamo-Marxists who run Persia were taken down, whether we do it remains to be seen. Whatever the case, it's one heckuvva gamble, not least with people's lives, and I hate that. Granted, wars must be fought given our fallen imperfection, but we, as Christians, are about life not death. We build, they destroy. Let's pray the US is on the right side of this Eastertide equation.

Forgive the ramble and feel free to comment on the sit. In other words, what's your take? Over to you.

Cano Arma Virumque,

LSP

Evening Prayer

 

Look here, you heathen, it's important to read, mark and inwardly digest the Word of God because His Word informs our word, the thoughts of our hearts. And this means, in the first instance, making the actual effort to read the, you know, Bible.

Good job, we've got this far, but how to do it, what's the training program? Try this, Morning and Evening Prayer in which you're taken through the Old and New Testaments, canticles, psalms, epistles and gospels and on, and all within the framework of a daily discipline of prayer.

Maybe this seems boring to you, as in "prayer, how very boring." Think again. If you want to confront and fight evil, gear up for the higher battle, against the demonic powers of the air, of evil in high places. And you can do all of this, or part of it, in the Daily Office. 

I like the 1928 BCP form and you might too. I tell you, give it a spin and you'll be rewarded. Not kidding. Say the Office.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Churches I Like

I haven't celebrated Mass there for years but I love the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, in Norfolk. I believe the place has deep sanctity.

The Shrine was a great center of pilgrimmage during the Middle Ages until its destruction at the Reformation. The 16th Century Arundel Ballad laments the loss:

Oules do scrike where the sweetest himnes

Lately wear songe,

Toades and serpents hold their dennes

Where the palmers did throng.

Weep, weep O Walsingam,
Whose dayes are nightes,
Blessings turned to blasphemies,
Holy deedes to dispites.

Sinne is where our Ladye sate,
Heaven turned is to helle;
Sathan sitte where our Lord did swaye,
Walsingam, oh, farewell!

But the tragedy of Walsingam's despoilation was reversed when Fr. Hope-Patten refounded the Shrine in the 1920s-30s and it continues as a popular place of pilgrimmage and devotion today.

Go there if you can and take time out to enjoy the pubs, if they haven't been banned, but be warned - conversation waxes theological.

God bless & Good Shooting,

LSP

PS. For an interesting take on the Reformation, and the new breed of millionaire it produced, check out Mr. Belloc's "What was the Reformation?"