Can't Think Won't Think

So it's a good thing we have Cardinal Ratzinger doing the heavy lifting for us, from Truth and Freedom, 1996:

"Ye shall be as gods." This promise is quite clearly behind modernity's radical demand for freedom. Although Ernst Topitsch believed he could safely say that today no reasonable man still wants to be like or equal to God, if we look more closely we must assert the exact opposite: the implicit goal of all of modernity's struggles for freedom is to be at last like a god who depends on nothing and no one, and whose own freedom is not restricted by that of another. 

"Once we glimpse this hidden theological core of the radical will to freedom, we can also discern the fundamental error which still spreads its influence even where such radical conclusions are not directly willed or are even rejected. To be totally free, without the competing freedom of others, without a "from" and a "for"—this desire presupposes not an image of God, but an idol.

"The primal error of such a radicalized will to freedom lies in the idea of a divinity conceived as a pure egoism. The god thought of in this way is not a God, but an idol. Indeed, it is the image of what the Christian tradition would call the devil—the anti-God—because it harbors exactly the radical antithesis to the real God. 

"The real God is by his very nature entirely being-for (Father), being-from (Son), and being-with (Holy Spirit). Man, for his part, is God's image precisely insofar as the "from," "with," and "for" constitute the fundamental anthropological pattern. 

"Whenever there is an attempt to free ourselves from this pattern, we are not on our way to divinity, but to dehumanization, to the destruction of being itself through the destruction of the truth. The Jacobin variant of the idea of liberation (let us call the radicalisms of modernity by this name) is a rebellion against man's very being, a rebellion against truth, which consequently leads man—as Sartre penetratingly saw—into a self-contradictory existence which we call hell."

Because I'm a nuanced commentator I'll just say this, nails it.

Best,

LSP

Behold The Grinning Satans

Check out these satans grinning it up as they sign their baby killing law into effect in New York. Just one of some 13 other states getting ready to advocate murdering a baby at the point of birth.

All in the name of what? Freedom, of course, the freedom to be absolute No Gods No Masters in control of yourself and your baby, which you've just murdered. Well you can't get much freer than that; state sanction to kill your kids and throw off the tyranny of biology. 

Go on then, break the chains of oppression, wimmyn, but what will you say when the child you've killed looks you in the face in the timeless instant of eternity? Bad second of forever, but take heart.

Remember the repentant thief and throw the first stone, then go away and sin no more.

Sermon aside, what's with the Dems boosting full Moloch all of a sudden. Is this strategy or Satan overplaying his hand? Serious question.

Your friend,

LSP

Trump Beat 'Em Like A Drum

Did you watch the State of the Union? How President Trump beat the outwitted Democrats like a drum? There they were, with no choice but applause.

Except the #Resistance weren't too keen on clapping for the lowest ever minority unemployment, and no wonder. Low employment = government benefits and Democrat votes. Get paid to play, and don't say votes.

And they didn't like:

We are born free and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a Socialist country.

But other people did, as in most of the country.

So what does it mean? The President struck a common chord with the people and made his opposition look weak and foolish. Melania, on the other hand, was beaming.

She wore black.

Trust the plan,

LSP

SOTU Country Interlude

Not so long ago, a man went down the road to bring peaches to a woman friend while another man crouched, hiding behind a bush. He had been warned that morning against taking matters further, but to no avail, the warning meant little to him.

His pistol exploded in the night and the rounds struck home.

"Don't shoot me no more! I'm done to die."

He did, but not before another man emerged on the porch.

"You shoot him one more time, I'll blow your head off."

And there it is, a short episode in the ongoing story of country life in Texas. Speaking of which, how'd you like the long delayed SOTU? I enjoyed America will never be a socialist country, but that's just me.

Sunny Hello,

LSP

The Bleached Lie Of Gayness

Shocking video evidence of Jussie Smollett's crazed racist attackers has finally emerged, thanks to surveillance camera footage handed over to Chicago police.

One fascist thug appears to be wearing appalling plaid trousers while the other sports the distinctive garb of a Klansman. 

Smollett is a beloved GaySoc actor, famous for his starring role in the multi-season, smash hit series Empire. His savage, bigoted, Subway-sandwich-scorning assailants are believed to live in Virginia.

The Governor's mansion declined to comment.

LSP

Sunday Genius

Thanks to a tip from GWB it's stahlhelms off to Super Steve Mcclellan. Get those holes fixed and while you're at it, the NFL.

Readers, all two of you, there's genius and there's genius. 

Donate,

LSP

Candlemas

I'm tempted to reflect on the strange double standards of the age we live in. How it's not OK for Justice Kavanaugh to have an immature excerpt in his high school yearbook but it is OK for Governor Ralph Coonman Northam to go all Grand Wizard in his. 

Weirder still, it's apparently terrible to separate children from their parents at the border but it's a triumph to separate them from their lives at the moment of birth. Surely no one's benefiting from the sale of body parts. That's all too unthinkable, except that it isn't.

It's almost as though there's two different sets of laws or standards at work here. One for the Rainbow Moloch and another for everyone else. But let's not go there; here's the collect for Candlemas:

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, we humbly beseech thy Majesty, that, as thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, so we may be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts, by the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Light up those candles and pray, it's needed.

God bless,

LSP

Crying Towel And Axe

Consideration of the virtues not aside, an old pal who's been boss of a seminary in Oxford for ages says that his students tend to be "fragile." 

I can believe it, such is the snowflake generation who cry at the drop of an incorrect personal pronoun but seem to be down with Pink Moloch infanticide.

Whatever. Here at the Compound we're all about solutions and staying positive in the fight, so here's some helpful advice from Texas via the Mine.

A weepy student requests a "dialogue." Aristotle, Ze feels, is "systemic racism." Big problem. Solution? No need for words, pass the little snowflake a crying towel and indicate the door. But what if the snowflake's been harmed by someone's insensitivity and wants to tell you, the Principal, all about it?

Easy. Produce a plastic rodent and put it on the desk, then take an axe and chop it up exclaiming, "No one likes a rat." Pass the bits of severed rat to the student and instruct them to take it home. Throw in a towel for good measure, why not, there's no "rule."

Thanks again for the retreat, RW. 

Illuminatio Mea,

LSP

Virtues And Gifts

Our diocesan retreat's over and the conferences were excellent. A classical exposition of the virtues, theological and cardinal, and their perfection under the impulse of the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit. 

So for example, the gift of understanding perfects the infused virtue of faith, giving us profound insight into divine truth. And on; thank you Fr. Ward for bringing Aquinas to Texas along with the tried and true application of the matter in hand to the lives of the Saints, living icons of the Spirit's munificence.

It was all good but I was struck by this. The gift of fortitude or courage perfects the moral virtue of the same name, seen by Aristotle as courage in battle for the good end/telos of the city, elevated or "taken into a larger room" in the context of the Faith. Now we face danger or death for the good of the heavenly city as opposed to Athens or, say, Abilene.

Yes indeed and we can see how the gift of fortitude, and it is a gift, impels the martyrs and all heroes of the Faith. Stick with it, don't give up on your journey to the beatific vision. Obvious enough, if a mystery, and we can see why this bravery extends to all the virtues. But consider.

First Crusade. Result.

Fortitude applies to our earthly struggle. It's not easy to stick with the program when Pink Moloch strides like Behemoth across the land. No doubt, but the gift also extends to the heavenly. 

We need courage to face the next life, our moving on to something entirely, radically, utterly new and with it a total detachment from earthly things, all that we've known. That takes bravery and it's given us by the Spirit.

Thank you, Fr. Ward for the insight and many more. If you want to learn more about this and you should, see here and here and go from there. 

Not Fortitude

So don't give up, readers, like some kind of pathetic beta and run in panic for the nearest safe space, onesie or crying towel.

FORTITUDE,

LSP

Retreat!

Retreat? Yes, but not in a bad way. There aren't any dancing wimmyn priests, guitar playing nuns or trans naming rituals at the Diocese of Fort Worth's annual clergy retreat. No, we're not here to worship Pink Moloch and the rainbow driven horde.

Typical Clergypersons

Instead we've had an excellent series of addresses on the gifts of the Spirit and their relation to the virtues. Good work, Fr. Robin Ward, sound as you like and uplifting to boot. More on that later.

In the meanwhile, it's good to get away and refocus on the interior life. And in case you missed it, today's the Feast of King Charles the Martyr, who rode into battle at Edgehill at the start of the English civil war in a suit of golden armor. I always feel as though that marks the end of Medieval England.

God bless,

LSP

Hillary 2020

News is in that Hillary's thinking about a 2020 run for the Presidency. She's emboldened by her Deep State friends arresting Roger Stone.

Will the FBI secure the election of their candidate, avenging this?

Or is the toothpaste outta the tube? Because it's Sunday, I'll suggest something spiritual. We're in a war of light against darkness, life v. death, good v. evil.

If you doubt me, see New York and it's latest homage to the demonic death god, Moloch. Scary, yes, but victory's assured and in the meanwhile, whoever said it wouldn't be tough sledding.

Don't fear the reaper and in the meanwhile, Hillary 2020? Yes, please.

Your friend and ally,

LSP

State Of The Union

'Coz everything's just fine in the land of the free and brave. Infographic via Borepatch who thinks things might get nasty.

I put it to the fighting monkey who promptly put on a spiked hat and marched about the living room singing "Erika." Vicious little alt-right beast.

But seriously, since when did we become some kind of Stasi Soviet and how long are we going to put up with it?

My feeling, for what it's worth, is that tempers are... frayed.

Love and Peace,

LSP