Putting The Hurt On, Sorry, Petraeus

No one's talking much about a Benghazi cover-up anymore, they're too busy thinking about the Petraeus sex scandal, or "Cloak and Shagger" as the New York Post trenchantly announced to the world. For what it's worth, I think it's a tragedy for the former head of the CIA, his family and doubtless for Broadwell too. I wish, for their sakes, that it hadn't happened, but it did and notice the timing.

It's odd, isn't it, that Petraeus announced his resignation the same day Fox News reported that the Foreign Affairs Committee was going to call him to testify. 

Testify about what? About the Administration's actions, or lack of them, concerning its CIA annex and Mission in Libya. We were told repeatedly that it was "the film's fault." Not dissimilar, when you come to think about it, to a child confronted with a crime claiming that "a ghost did it."

In this case, the "ghost" was Mark Bassely and "white witch" Hilary Clinton was more than willing to use him as a scapegoat. “We’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted,” she told Charles Woods, father of killed SEAL Tyrone Woods.

Lo and behold, Mark Bassely was duly rounded up and found to be in violation of a parole order forbidding him to use the internet. He's in jail for a year, unlike all those other people with minor parole infringements who aren't.

Or the government, who are notoriously free at large.

As the King James Version puts it, the whole affair stinketh.

LSP

Veterans Day

Respect to all who have and are serving in our Armed Forces.

To those overseas, I pray you come home safe.

God bless,

LSP

Semper Fi

Today's the 237th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps and seeing as how this "blog" has become an excuse for LSP nostalgia, I remember a Canadian architect telling me "the U.S. army is just all these kids who're gonna run away, man."

Well think again. Respect to all our forces serving overseas and especially today to the Marines. I won't bang on about Petraeus, but the timing's interesting, don't you think?

Semper Fi,

LSP

Church of England Ruled By Grey Alien?

For the world's third largest Christian denomination, Anglicanism, there's a new boss in town, Archbishop Justin Welby.

Justin Welby

After months of gridlock, the secretive group known as the Crown Nominations Commission, have finally settled on a replacement for the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Bypassing several senior candidates, such as "Ebor" Sentamu, Archbishop of York, the Commission settled on rising star Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham.

An old Etonian and oil executive, Welby felt the call to ordained ministry in the 1980s and was ordained in 1993. He soon shot up through the ranks, becoming Dean of Liverpool in 2007 before surging through the stained glass window to become Bishop of Durham in 2011. It would only take a year before his meteoric rise to power culminated in this month's appointment to Anglicanism's top job. 

Overlord

Mainstream Media attributes Welby's uncanny ability for promotion to raw ambition, a gilded background and natural diplomatic talent to "spin fudge." According to the New York Times, the new Archbishop of Canterbury has shown himself capable of being both against gay marriage and also for it, making him uniquely suited to lead the Church of England.

A Grey?

However, Ancient Astronaut theorists are unconvinced, believing that Welby's stellar climb to become the most important Anglican in the world can only be explained by extraterrestrial agency. "We don't have the technology," said one pundit, "to take a clergyperson from Durham to Canterbury in the space of a year. It's impossible! Only advanced alien technology could pull it off."

Behold your Master

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury. Top level ecclesiastical OE, or Grey Alien spacelord puppet.

You be the judge.

LSP

Cavalry & Guards

After a bizarrely early Mass this morning my thoughts mysteriously focused on London's clubs, and not the earsplittingly loud pounding techno variety either. No, real clubs, like the Cavalry & Guards in Piccadilly.

Cavalry & Guards -- note picture on stairwell

I remember climbing up the impressive stairwell of the "C&G"with a senior member who had kindly invited me over for lunch. I noticed the picture of a cavalry charge, Scotland Forever!, I think, and remarked to my friend, "That must've taken some courage."

Death or Glory

He looked me in the eye and said, "I trained for that on the South Downs in the 1930s. Perfectly useless against tanks, you know."

I supposed it was. Earlier I'd suggested that we go to the bar, only to be turned down with "let's not, they do bellow so in there."

Omdurman

The last massed boot-to-boot British cavalry charge was at Omdurman, in 1898, when we destroyed an army of fanatical Jihadists and killed their chieftain. Winston Churchill was part of that charge.

I miss clubland.

LSP

The Horse Lost

Legalize it

I was afraid that yesterday's bucking incident was prophetic; just as JB failed to unseat her rider so too did America fail to rid herself of her Imperial Ruler. He stuck to the seat of power like magic velcro! But enough of the strained equestrian metaphor, let's get down to business.

Colorado votes Obama

The Market has tanked.

mindless drug people

Colorado has legalized pot.

Athens

Athens riots.

Good luck, America. Four more years of the same team who brought you 8% unemployment, $16 trillion in debt and counting, and a murdered Ambassador in Libya.

But don't worry, higher taxes will mean we're all better off.

LSP

This Horse Votes Republican

In a desperate bid to escape marauding gangs of Black Panthers and the din of the "Boss" singing "Born in the USA" ad nauseam, I headed out to the pasture after Morning Prayer for a ride.

truly appalling

JB did pretty well, moving around Mesquite obstacles and navigating trails like a civilized horse but then, after 45 minutes, she decided it was time to overthrow her master.

you'll do well running the country

We rounded a tree and she attempted a duck-out with a view to escaping to feed. Just the slightest indication of a one rein stop and the animal knew that wasn't going to work, so she instantly switched gears to a four feet off the ground right buck, with a good dose of leftward snaking kick. Why?

superpac

She obviously wanted to overthrow the tyranny of big LSP government. But look, horse, we're on the same team. For goodness sake. Regardless, I stayed on and finished the ride. 

Let's hope this short equestrian tale isn't some kind of lesson, or metaphor, for the people's attempt to unseat their current rider.

Good luck to the new boss, if there is one.

LSP

Pre-Election Shoot

In a brave attempt to escape our endless polling contests and the incessant racket of Jay-Z, Beyonce and "The Boss" telling us to vote for their Patron, I went for a shoot.

tighten the groups, get in the x ring, LSP

The objective was simple. Have some fun and brush up on carbine skills, which is exactly what I did. Shot off hand, mostly, from close range moving out to 100 yards and worked on speed and accuracy.

children of the sun

After all, what's the point of having a semi if you aren't able to take advantage of its rate of fire and keep on target?

I was pleased at the result, a good afternoon in the country with guns.

Nothing wrong with that, unless you're in England where Nanny would confiscate all your firearms.

LSP

Jay Z and Beyonce Illuminati Shills?

Rumors are rife that fun-loving mega stars, Jay-Z and Beyonce, are  Illuminati shills for the New World Order.

They're telling us to vote for Soros backed puppet, Barak Hussein Obama. So is "The Boss", Bruce Springsteen.

So go right ahead, buy the hopium. Obey your masters and remember, you'll be richer because you'll be taxed more.

Kick out the jams.

LSP

Excommunicate Joe Biden!

Apparently Vice President Joe Biden has woken up and realized what every serious person's been thinking for the last decade. Namely, that discrimination against transsexuals is, "The civil-rights issue of our time."

some kind of joke?

There you go. The race thing's completely settled, rumours of a growing slave class are entirely unfounded, the U.S. prison population isn't the largest in the world and we're all getting more free and more prosperous by the year. Unless, of course, you've had gender reassignment surgery, in which case it's a nightmare.

space creature

Well said, Biden. Keep on telling it like it is. 

A note to all Roman Catholic readers. Please petition the Pope to excommunicate this man, and while you're at it, work in Nancy Pelosi too.

LSP

The Benghazi Lie

Despite near total silence on the part of the MSM and, er, Facebook, the Benghazi lie just won't die, and nor should it. Here's Bob Owens commenting at pjmedia:

"Barack Obama was responsible for abandoning more than two dozen Americans to die. The buck stops with him, and every plea he’s made for 'a thorough investigation' is a bald-faced lie, intended to run out the clock until the election."

You can read the whole thing here.

LSP

The Feast of All Souls

Today is the Feast of All Souls, when we pray for the faithful departed. Atheists think that's stupid because they don't believe in souls, God, heaven or hell. Good luck with that. Some, though not all Protestants think that prayers for the dead are stupid because they believe in something called "soul sleep." 

No such thing as hell?

According to soul sleep theorists, you fall asleep when you die and if you're asleep you can't benefit from prayers offered on your behalf. More serious Protestants, such as Calvinists, believe that God has made up His mind from all eternity as to whether you're going up to heaven or down to the fiery pit. So there's no point in praying for the dead and to do so reduces the Lord's sovereignty. There is, they argue, one mediator between God and Man, who is Christ. Prayers for the departed, they feel, diminish that.

Reformers smashing it up

But soul sleep is problematic because scripture reveals the saints to be alive, albeit not on earth. We see this on the Mount of Transfiguration, where Our Lord converses with Moses and Elijah.  According to the Transfiguration, holy souls are alive instead of snoring, whether gracefully or not, under the horns of the heavenly altar.

No sleeping at the Altar

Bearing in mind the eternal simultaneity of God's knowledge, this allows us to pray for departed and ask for their prayers, which reduces the mediatorship of Christ no more than asking one another for prayers. In fact it adds to it, as all prayer, properly made, is directed to Christ and hence to the Father.

So don't be a soul sleeper, pray instead for the holy souls and ask them for their intercession.

May they rest in peace,

LSP