War

 

We've pulled out of Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, a happy day for looters, and an outward and visible sign of the end of our 20 year war in that country. Did we win that war? Apparently not, the Taliban look set to take over, which raises a bigger question. Why do we keep fighting wars we don't win.

Korea and Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, not exactly victories. It's curious, we're obviously up for a fight but we're not prepared to close the deal, and actually win. Why? Big question. Money, war is a racket, political chicanery, lack of will, the list goes on and we can parse the issue till the Eschaton, but I will say this.

If we're going to fight, we should fight to win, 100%, sure of the rightness of the cause. Anything less is a betrayal of our soldiers and the people they're supposedly fighting for. To say nothing of the betrayal of our country by its rulers, and the people whose lives they've catastrophically ruined.

Is the problem fixable?

Your call,

LSP

Happy Independence Day!

 

One of the many things I like about Independence Day, when it falls on a Sunday, is being able to say to the faithful, "Today we celebrate our freedom from the tyrannous yoke of the English." 

It's a good way to start a homily and sets you up for "what is freedom?" The positive power of thinking and acting according to what's right and true, of choosing the good. Hats off to St. Augustine.

What does this look like? I liked this, from LL: 

Embrace freedom... promote smaller government, and lower the decision-making to the lowest possible common denominator. Make representatives accountable to those that they represent. We are not their servants. They are ours. It is only this way that we can be independent.

 

And John Adams had this to say, via WWW:

It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

 

Right on, and now for some pork chops, given that no one can afford steak apart from our elite "let them eat 16 cents" rulers.

#2A,

LSP

Get On Parade!

 

Years ago, get on parade would've meant lots of stamping, shuffling, as in open order right dress and all of that. These days it means stroll off the porch to cheer on this small country town's 4th of July parade, which was held on the 3rd, today.

Good result. Antique cars, floats, mini-motorcycles, a few horses and ATVs. No kidding, there was a squadron of the things and they weren't shabby. Not at all, and they played music, it went like this: I'm proud to be an American... 

I am, despite a second passport. Good work, boys. That in mind, there's something about a small town parade which I love. Maybe its overall awesomeness, see Randy Newman and beyond.

God bless,

LSP

Freedom

I found this remarkably prescient and excellent, you might too, from the then Cardinal Ratzinger:

"The feeling that democracy is not the right form of freedom is fairly common and is spreading more and more. The Marxist critique of democracy cannot simply be brushed aside: how free are elections? To what extent is the outcome manipulated by advertising, that is, by capital, by a few men who dominate public opinion? Is there not a new oligarchy who determine what is modern and progressive, what an enlightened man has to think? The cruelty of this oligarchy, its power to perform public executions, is notorious enough. Anyone who might get in its way is a foe of freedom, because, after all, he is interfering with the free expression of opinion. And how are decisions arrived at in representative bodies? Who could still believe that the welfare of the community as a whole truly guides the decision-making process? Who could doubt the power of special interests, whose dirty hands are exposed with increasing frequency? And in general, is the system of majority and minority really a system of freedom? And are not interest groups of every kind appreciably stronger than the proper organ of political representation, the parliament? In this tangled power play, the problem of ungovernability arises ever more menacingly: the will of individuals to prevail over one another blocks the freedom of the whole."

He continues:

"Freedom, if it is not to lead to deceit and self-destruction, must orient itself by the truth, that is, by what we really are, and must correspond to our being. Since man's essence consists in being-from, being-with and being-for, human freedom can exist only in the ordered communion of freedoms."

Wisdom. Read the whole thing here, and you should.

God bless,

LSP

Good Evening

 

God smiled upon us this evening and sent calming rain, relaxing thunder and enough lightning to keep things exciting, and way cooler than the preheating oven weather effect that is North Central Texas in July. So I went on the porch and texted LL.

"I call this installation "White Privilege."

"It does have that country club Illuminati vibe. Is JEB! around?"

"No, he's not. I had to ban him for bringing our members down and being utterly useless. JEB! can't yell, one of the reasons he's banned."

"He only yelled 'Mama!'"

"And 'waiter!' Regardless, the DLC Mess doesn't mix with people like that. But we do like a good dish of Beef Chow Mein."

"From Lee Ho Fooks?"

"Exactly."

 

 

The rain's stopped now, leaving this part of Texas beautifully cool while the cicadas susurrate into the night. Calming, but don't be fooled. We stand guard, vigilant.

Your Pal,

LSP

Rebel Yell

 

Reflection on the bloodbath that was the Civil War aside, note two things. The voices of the men then were more civilized than our own today, we've devolved. Secondly, the Yell sounded a lot, maybe completely, like a game call. These men were hunters.

Tyranny might want to reckon on that spirit.

Peace and Love,

LSP

The West is Best

 

I like the town of West, population 2,860. It's the Czech capital of Texas and justifiably famous for its kolaches. Pull off I35 on the way to or from Waco and get some, worth the stop. But that's not all, there's plenty of bars, see LL's franchise, and restaurants, which gives the place a happy, small town country vibe.

Plenty of Hardware, no Bullets

But I wasn't there for that, I was after ammo at True Value, which is a hardware store that sells guns and ammunition. At least it did, and even in the days of the infamous Obama bullet shortage this store was always stocked with ammo at normal prices. Maybe history would repeat itself, I walked through the door to find out.

Looking West

No. A few rifles, mostly Henry levers, nice, but hardly any bullets and what there was wasn't affordable. A solitary 500 round "value pack" of .22 LR for $80? Sorry, guys, not gonna do it. The pleasant young Czechoslovakian woman behind the counter apologized, "I'm sorry, nothing is normal now." I agreed, and we looked each other in the eye, "Ain't that the truth." A meeting of minds, for sure, but no bullets.

West is Catholic And Has More Fun Than Other Towns

So I headed back down the speedway deathtrap that is I35, and in a few short minutes was back in the rural haven of the County Seat itself. At its Walmart, in fact. Maybe this evil Chinese incursion onto US sovereign land would have bullets.

A Typical West Street Scene

Sure enough, there they were! Boxes of 12 and 20 gauge, .22 LR, .22 Mini Mag, .22 WMR and .17 HMR, and all at normal price. Shocked and astounded, I bought three 50 round boxes of CCI .22 WMR to go through the Marlin I don't have, and looked at a Savage bull barrel .17. Nice looking gun for 212 bucks, then again, so were the levers at True Value. Hmmm.

Look at Those Bad Boys!

And that was that, a short excursion into ammoland in North Central Texas. Now it's time for Hamburgers, to celebrate the victory of it all.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Vegas!

 

I've never been to Vegas, the City of Lights, but Ma LSP, BW and Bo have. In fact they're there right now along with a couple of friends. Bo, my middle sister and a Byzantine classicist(?) by education was struck by the imperial grandeur of it all and sent in this photo essay. Here it is, Las Vegas June 2021:

Look, Imperial Rome, at 11 a.m.

Varus, where are my Eagles?

And what fresh hell is this? Ostia?

But note the Eagle and Orb of Imperium, held aloft in a darkening, cerulean sky.

And a homely Tuscan villa.

And Ma LSP enjoying St. Mark's Square. 

Feminae, beware the monstrous bird! Good thing it's not angry. Readers, do you see it, lurking?

But upwards, ascendite! to what? The domus aurea of the desert and the casinos of the Gods. Yes, enter at your peril.

Quod scis et divum Augustum et Tiberium Caesarem ad deos isse.

Quite a thing, eh? Imagine, if you can, looking out on the Eternal City from the Palatine Hill and the wreckage of the palace of the Caesars in, say, the 7th Century AD. 

You'd see a sea of ruins, a city that's declined from over a million people to around 20,000, stricken by plague and war but nonetheless home to the great, holy, Patriarch of the West, Gregory, gens Anicii.

There's a parable here, if you care to draw it,

LSP

Feast of Ss. Peter & Paul

 

It's the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul today, which is a very great thing. Several verses from the Decora Lux, based on Boethius' wife's 5th century poem, are sung today if you have a Schola, I don't, annoyingly. English translation by Dom Gueranger, OSB:

Aurea luce et decore roseo,
Lux lucis, omne perfudisti sæculum:
decorans cælos inclito martyrio.
Hac sacra die, quæ dat reis veniam.

O Light of light (Jesus), thou hast inundated every age  with a golden light and with a ruddy beauty, adorning the heavens with a glorious martyrdom, on this sacred day, which gives pardon to the guilty.

Janitor cæli, doctor orbis pariter,
Judices sæcli, vera mundi lumina:
Per crucem alter, alter ense triumphans,
Vitæ senatum laureati possident.

The door-keeper of heaven, as also the teacher of the universe, the judges of the world, the true lights of the earth, the one conquering by the cross, the other by the sword, crowned with laurel, both take their seats in the senate of life.

Peter and Paul, pray for us,

LSP

You Miserable Offender

 

Look at this miserable offender. Yes, a burned out front indicator bulb, Sylvania #3157A, which gave up the ghost on the way to Made-in-China-Mart, right as the heavens released a relentless barrage of rain.

Park up, test the turning signal, listen to its ADHT fast click, watch the rain pound down, look up the part on your handheld computing device, and then wade through the flood to the store. Find a replacement bulb, look at empty ammo shelves - who knows, maybe they'll magically fill up if you stare hard enough - and head over to groceries for supplies. After all, a man's gotta eat.

That in mind, it's a very good thing that "man does not live by bread alone" because the price of food's skyrocketed, especially steak. It's around 30% more expensive than it was a year ago; just imagine the price if there was any inflation. Well done, prog-left, corp-sponsored oligarchy, everything's more affordable now because it's way more expensive. Awesome work, Socialists.

Back at the Compound, the downpour slowed to a gentle rain and then stopped, so I took advantage of the lull to swap out the busted bulb. It's not hard on an '08 F150. Pop the hood, reach behind the headlight housing, turn the bulb fixture counterclockwise, pull it out, replace the bulb and return the thing to its rightful place. If the recalcitrant anarchist mutinies, pull the headlight unit and teach the beast who's boss, which I ended up doing, annoyingly.

One working front turn signal light later, it seems only right to celebrate this small but important victory with hamburgers. Steak would be better, but that's too pricey. Thanks a lot, commies.

Cheers,

LSP

What A Good Day!

 

Every day is a good day in the great Republic of Texas, but today was especially good. Mass #1 went well in an early morning kind of way, and the Senior Warden surprised me afterwards, asking, "What're we going to do for the Feast of Mary in August, because we're St. Mary's." I looked at GH and he looked at me, a man of few words.

GH's Dad, Rest in Peace

"The Feast of the Assumption?" I asked, "That's right, August fifteenth, I reckon we should get together for a cookout the day before. Hamburgers."  Easy decision, "Good idea, let's do it."

And so we  have a plan. Just so you know, GH raises Polled Hereford's on the side and is a good man. I've spent many a happy hour shooting pistols with his father (RIP), against hay bale berms and shooting dove in season on their land. Big fun. Setup in a treeline behind some Mojo decoys and wait for the avian acrobats to brave the flak barrage of #8 shot.

Typical Texas Country Pistol Scene

Mass #2 went well too, with lots of kids, a mercifully brief LSP homily on the remarkable, moving, powerful miracle of Jairus' daughter being raised from the dead, maiden, arise, and then an outstanding potluck after the service. Slow cooked ribs, turkey, pulled pork and more sides than you could count. All delicious. Just a really enjoyable country church lunch after a spirited Eucharist.

Then, as everyone was enjoying themselves, the heavens opened and rain shot down with frontier intensity on the parked rigs of the faithful and the baked Texan land. Seriously, it was pretty much zero viz for an hour or two. 

A Random Firearm

It's raining now, though less furiously, and I like that, cools things right off and smells good to boot. You see, sometimes our old adversary The Weather is our friend. But Climate War aside, what a good day.

God Bless,

LSP

Shouldn't Do That

 

Steal an election. Shouldn't do that, just don't do it. Pretend you're for the working poor as you open the border to low paid labor and cause a scamdemic to make yourself even richer. Shouldn't do that either. It's wrong, very wrong. Ship all your industry overseas to fund that beach house. Not ethically sound. At. All. Shouldn't do that. 

Watch your cities turn into urban hellholes while you sit back on the profit, but don't worry, trans bathrooms and gay flags. Big mistake. Shouldn't do that. Kill your babies in the womb in the name of freedom. You most especially shouldn't do that, you utter satans.  

Go on, blame your egregious breach of social contract, of governors to governed, on imaginary third parties and watch, Versailles-style, that illusion come crashing down. 

To put it another way, their chicanery, malfeasance, greed and deceit has within itself the seeds of its own undoing. A house built on sand cannot stand and, when it falls, great will be the fall of it.

So be prepared. Space Rock forever,

LSP