Sunday Message

 

This one's via Dostoevsky to Maikov in 1870:

Exactly the same thing happened in our country: the devils went out of the Russian man and entered into a herd of swine, into the Nechaevs (nihilists)… These are drowned or will be drowned, and the healed man, from whom the devils have departed, sits at the feet of Jesus… And bear this in mind, my dear friend, that a man who loses his people and his national roots also loses faith in his fathers and his God. Well, if you really want to know – this is in essence the theme of my novel [Demons].

Note the seer-like precision of will be drowned. Take heart from that, but know, great will be the fall of it.

Cheers,

LSP

Happy Juneteenth!

 

I don't know how you celebrated Juneteenth or even Kwanza, but here at the Compound it just seemed right to clean a couple of shotguns which had cleverly swum back from their watery grave in the mighty Brazos.

And what filthy beasts they were! You see, it's all very well to have guns but if you don't clean them they don't work, they jam, seize up and fail. Just the other day I watched a friend unleash his Remington 870 on a clay. Boom, smoked it, and then what? 

A Gun

Nothing, the gun failed to extract, and all because the chamber hadn't been cleaned in a years worth of Sundays. Net result? Shell stuck in chamber, gun useless except as Zulu style club. And we all know spear chuckers can be deadly but properly functioning firearms deadlier still, so set about those guns with Juneteenth fervor. Let's see 'em shine, inside and out.

A Juneteenth Angel

And shine they did. Excited, I texted a friend in England who had been in the Army (TA) and he asked if it brought back memories. It did, of course. Weapons cleaning, running, endless shaving and ironing, a Sergeant directing our parade attention to a "Colour" ambling largely along the edge of the Square, "Look at that, boys. Too fat to F***ing fight. Get OFF MY SQUARE. YOU'RE F***ING TILTING IT." 

Another Gun!

"That story," remarked my pal, "has stuck with me, indelibly." And same here, but of course I was there, back in the mists of time. Text convo over, Eduardo tipped up on the porch, he runs a chicken operation behind the Compound and has bad English, "Mi Padre, favor?" he asked, eyeing gleaming shotguns. "Car no good, drive to liquor store?"

Yet Moar Gun

Off we went, and he bought a case of beer for Fathers Day. Well done that man. And with that, all three of you gentle readers, all was well with the world on this great, awesome, holy and wonderful holiday that is... Juneteenth. Gun rights.

Your Pal,

LSP

UFO MENACE?

 Tic-Tac

Here in Lspland we take UFOs seriously and so does the Pentagon itself, which is why the Department of Defense is briefing Congress later this month on some 120 UAP (Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon) incidents going back several decades. Why the sudden interest?

Because of a series of Pentagon verified videos from Navy pilots, showing unidentified craft maneuver with capability that's seemingly far beyond our own. Such as the famous Tic-Tac, Sphere and Acorn, as well as the Metallic Blimp and a random flying pyramid.

Acorn

Some politicians, like Senator "Rat Claw" Rubio, believe the UAPs  are a threat, "The facts are that there are things flying over our military installations. They don’t belong to us. They seem to evidence some technological advancement that we don’t have and have never seen. That would be one heck of a technological leap and a huge strategic surprise, so we have to know what this stuff is."

You might be forgiven for thinking that Rat Claw's beating up some kind of war drum hysteria with his vicious little hands. That uncomfortable image aside, what is this "stuff"? Secret US, ChiCom or Russian tech, visitors from another time or dimension? Literal space aliens? Who knows, maybe it's Space Nazis operating Tesla drive craft, Aryan Vimanas?, out of the center of our hollow earth. Or demons, some people think they're behind the mysterious UAPs.

The Blimp

For what it's worth, I'm inclined towards the US tech point of view, who knows what we've got going on out there on the far reaches of dark money and arcane science. And for goodness sake, the scamdemic's nearly over, so it's high time for another crisis to keep the serfs in order and the profits flowing. 

But the problem with this is that the Pentagon's UAP record goes back a long time, to well before our current microchip utopia, much less hypersonic, gravity defying flyers. Sure, capitalize on the phenomenon and lock the people down forever, but the things which were flying in the '70s and before can't have been ours, surely. Or the ChiCom's or the Russians'. The tech just wasn't there.

A Typical Space Nazi

So maybe it's demons except that why would evil spirits who can move at the speed of thought bother to use a Metallic Blimp for transport, or a Tic-Tac? No, not demons. Then there's Space Nazis, from Hollow Earth. Tempting. Still, we know the Fourth Reich is all about blitzkreig and conquest, and the UAPs haven't done this, fortunately.

That leaves extra dimensional visitors, time travelers or space aliens. So what's the score?

Your Call,

LSP

Midweek Message - Peace Be Still

Listen up:

The holy fathers instruct us that God is not to be found in the storm or the noise of this life, but in stillness by awareness of our thoughts and the unceasing remembrance of Christ in our minds.  When we fill that sacred space, where God should abide, with material things, worldly cares, anxieties, and distractions including television, music, or idle conversation, God’s gentle presence is masked so that we are no longer able to perceive Him working within us.  If we desire to quell bad thoughts, habitual sin, we must strive after this peace and be still.  

The world offers us distractions that temporarily anesthetize the mind and deaden the nous all the while keeping God’s presence distant from us.  As Saint Seraphim of Sarov told his spiritual children, “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved. Where there is God, there is no evil. Everything coming from God is peaceful, healthy and leads a person to the judgment of his own imperfections and humility.”

Peace, be still,

LSP

Free Falling!

 

Free falling or what? And then there's this. 

So very awesome.

Your Pal,

LSP

Roofy

 

The Compound doesn't have a tower, sadly, but it does have several roofs, and with roofs comes, ahem, responsibility. You have to keep them in order, or else an historic Texan house becomes an historic Texan ruin. To prevent that, I climbed up on the roof.

Trees needed cutting back, gutters had to be cleaned, and a malfeasant air conditioning exhaust somehow fixed. The evil beast was leaking water all over the roof and that had to be stopped before it caused catastrophic damage. 

miserable offender

Fortunately, it was a simple blockage and easily cleared, thanks to a couple of holes cleverly cut into the PVC for just that purpose. Well done, far-sighted HVAC tech of yesteryear.

Plumbing job over, I surveyed what's fast becoming a sort of double canopy (?) forest of Pecan, Crepe Myrtle and more besides. This is good, it provides shade, and that's no small thing when our Old Enemy the Weather does its level best to imitate a blast furnace.

sylvan groves of Olde Texas

Sylvan reverie over, I cut into the invading jungle with a vengeance, clearing the green invader from the very roof it was threatening to destroy. Take that.

infographic

Next step? Clean out the gutters. This is a nasty job, especially when you haven't bothered to do it in over a year. And you should, because if you don't, the backed up gutters will send water up under the roof, into the fascia, onto the soffit, and before you know it the whole leading edge of the thing is rotted out. And that's a nightmare.

typical Texan roof scene -- sort out the downspouts, LSP

Even more of a nightmare than the job itself, which got done, mostly. And that, punters, is the story of that. It was good to get up on the top of the world and survey the wonder of sylvan Texas. 

Good, too, to get some preventative maintenance done. It beat, let me tell you, reading about the ongoing, wicked clownshow that is the governance of what used to be Christendom.

I file this, vaguely, under country life in Texas and more specifically, under "roof."

Do good every day,

LSP

Mirror Mirror - Who's The Fakest President Of Them All?

 

Zeros

Surely not Joe Biden, because he got more votes than any other presidential candidate in history. He didn't even have to campaign! And he's a really good Catholic Christian, which is why he champions abortion, transsesxualism, and gay marriage. Such famously Christian doctrines.

Buffoons

Biden's also about helping the poor, so he's opening our southern border because a massive influx of cheap labor is guaranteed to bring wages up. Just you wait and see. Another thing Biden's famous for is his deep, personal, heartfelt concern for the African American, for blacks. They're almost as important to him as transsexuals. That's why Biden never, ever,  boosted a Grand Wizard.

Mountebank

He's concerned with the climate too, the "greatest existential threat" our nation faces. That's right, the weather. As opposed to a gang of self-serving crooks, shills, and hucksters inside the Beltway.

No Klansman in This Photo!

Joe Biden, easily the most popular President ever at 81 million votes, is a socialist with a mere fortune of $8 million. Where did all the rest of the cash disappear? Maybe he just spent it all. Coz, you know, living ain't cheap.

Chicanery & Fraud

What an utter, no-holds-barred, unmitigated fraud. And we have to ask, is anything about this huckster and the governing uniparty he's waxed large on, to the tune of millions, at any point honest or even held accountable?

I'd argue no, it's not. So who's the fakest president of them all?

You, the reader, be the judge,

LSP

A World Of Clowns Crooks And Mountebanks

 

Clowns & Crooks

There they are at the G7, the most powerful politicians of the world, clowning it up  for the cameras with "arm-bumps," only to hug and back slap off stage. What a venal crew of mountebanks, to say nothing of the agitprop arm of the State, corporate media, which laps it up.

Is anyone fooled? Yes indeed they are, note the Left, which is now firmly on the side of Big Pharma, Big State, and big loss of freedom. Wear your mask! Our sponsors demand it! Speaking of which, surely it's time for BLM/ANTIFA to put corporate logos on their riot gear, like Nascar but radical revolutionary with it. 

Mountebanks 

You can imagine the gushing reportage, "Today's peaceful protest burned down Baltimore's Inner Harbor in an act of solidarity with oppressed transsexual people of color everywhere, brought to you by Bank of America and Pfizer." Pan out to eatery on fire and a rainbow flag waving gaily in the victorious dollar-driven winds of profit.

Maybe the Enemy will die Laughing

But not to worry, our military's finally being repurposed to face the greatest threat facing America. Not China, Russia, Islamic terrorists, space aliens (what? stay tuned...), inflation, poverty, ballooning crime, stagnant wages, a pathetic standard of education, 5th Column nihilist revolutionaries, the breakdown of the family, and a government run by corrupt, multi-millionaire, self-serving, stooge oligarchs of the NWO. Is that the threat? No, that's it is not, it's climate change and a lack of "diversity."

Well Done Nottingham

What utter, shameless, errant,  bought-and-paid-for malfeasance. Still, in the midst of this florescence of chicanery, Nottingham appears to have got it right. Thanks, Jules, for the uplift.

Cheers,

LSP

Bonnie Blue

Notice General Lee's discomfort. But regardless, a battle for local rights, autonomy and freedom against the dead hand of DC tyrants. Today? Where will it end? Your call.

Deo Vindice,

LSP

Roman Art

 

I know what you're thinking, just what was the quality of imperial Roman art, the aesthetic sign of that civilization's soul or ethos. Good question and worth asking, not least because it's interesting in itself, and because history rhymes, we can draw lessons from it. 

That said, we don't have much pictorial art to work with, it's mostly gone because of its perishable medium, wood, parchment/vellum and other materials. Still, we have wall art, mostly from the cities entombed by Vesuvius and a few examples elsewhere, like Nero's Domus Aurea, his Golden House. What do we see?

Several dimensions of artistry, from trompe l'oeil architectural painting, to landscapes, depiction of mythic themes, portraiture, military Triumphs and more. Although Pliny decries the descent of art from realism to a kind of impressionist decadence, we're nonetheless left with the impression that Roman artists were concerned with painting things and people as they were, albeit to effect.

And what an effect it was! Heroic, mythic and classical, yes, but also garish to our eyes. They would think us bleak and starved of visual uplift, a drab, monochrome society. We would think them, I think, in bad taste. Too much bourgeois ebullience?

But here's the rub, the Romans, for all Pliny's criticism, produced art to please the eye and uplift the mind. We don't. Our art destroys the eye and depresses the soul. It's filth. So who's the decadent in this equation?

Your call, but don't say Rome.

SPQR,

LSP

Wisdom

 

 I was struck by this today, by Romano Guardini:

He simply commands us to follow his instructions. Only from the depths of a great faith is it possible to obey. One must be utterly convinced that such obedience evokes a divine reaction in our relationship with God, that when we act according to his will we participate in the divine creation, in the forming of a new world, for it is creative conduct that is commanded here.

When man so acts, he not only becomes good in himself and before God, but the divine goodness dormant in him becomes active power. This is what the Lord means when he speaks of "salt" that has not lost its flavor, "light" which lights the whole house.

 

The divine goodness dormant in him becomes active power; the seed of grace, God's life, unfolds with tremendous, unfathomable, brilliance in the souls of the faithful. Those with eyes to see will have have seen this light.

God bless,

LSP

A Parable

 

Have you noticed that an Italian artist has sold nothing for 18k? Make of this parable what you will. In the meanwhile, here's a random all hail Lord Curzon.

Your Pal,

LSP