Today's warfighter has to deliver mission critical, cutting edge solutions in a fast-paced, high threat environment. That's why I sent the Specialist on the Compound's justly famous Jungle Warfare Training School (JWTS).
Some people go to Belize, others to SE Asia, but here in Texas we do it in house. "Take this cutting edge to the enemy, son," I announced with typical paternal affection, "And knock down the green menace. Chop, chop. That hedge won't cut itself." Quite.
Arboreal,
LSP
Here we are on the porch, with the light shining in darkness, back from Fort Hood with a happily off-duty Specialist. "Hey, dad, we're off work at 1300, can you pick me up? I'll serve Mass on Sunday," some kind of bribe?
Regardless, off I went only to return to the sylvan groves of this small but steadfast farming community, at the Compound. But maybe trouble is brewing, a cloud's on the horizon, perhaps.
You see, the troops are excited, ecstatic and enthusiastic about the vax mandate. They're veritably lining up to get the jab. Like my kid, who got in early and nearly died because of it. No. Kidding. "What happens," he asked on the outskirts of Temple, "when a third, a quarter or even an eighth of Command refuses to take the jab in the face of a dishonorable discharge?"
I told him him to keep his head down, get the degree (CS) which starts in October, and see where the wind blows. "We're in uncharted waters, son, and bombarded with so many lies that it's hard to keep track. And who knows, the Pentagon might strike a deal like the postal workers."
Go figure. You can be a "postie" and don't have to take the vax, but a soldier? Don't even think it. Illegal immigrant? No vax for you, no, of course not. That'd be racist. Again, here we are at the Emmys, maskless, rich, cavorting and free, unlike our waitserf underlings. Which forces us to wonder if the whole thing is utter BS.
Wonder? There's no wonder in it at all except in the sheer magnitude of the deceit and the success of the thing. People are, still, consumed with fear of imminent death from a batflu with a >99.70 recovery rate. It's almost as if they wanted the STATE to control them.
That said, Truth, with a capital T, has a way of winning out. Take heart in that. And so we do, The light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.
God bless,
LSP
I love the Church of England, with all it's glorious patrimony, stately worship and beautiful buildings. So very awesome. But what's the point of it if nobody goes? To fix this knotty conundrum, the venerable CoE spent >$248 million on "renewal and reform." between 2017 and 2020. The result? Fewer people going to church.
What a dismal fail. According to Breitbart "typical Sunday church attendance fell to 690,000 in 2019 from 740,000 in 2016." So strange, and despite all those millions.
Maybe the English, or anyone else for that matter, aren't convinced by the Baphomet Rainbow. Maybe they're not drawn to the 1st Church of Trans, and who knows, could it be that all those wymyn bishop figures don't cut it when it comes to souls in church, on an actual Sunday.
Readers may recall that the Church, writ large, has been saying for decades, "Unless you conform to the age no one will take you seriously and the pews will empty." My, how that worm's turned. And go figure, why should any Guardian/NYT/NPR zombie go to church to have their disbelief reflected back on them.
Well the proof's in the data. No one, much, is. What does this mean? That the libs, like parasites, will destroy their host and a righteous remnant will remain. Against this, all you jaded cynics, the gates of Hell shall not prevail.
Cheers,
LSP
It's a hard life. When not watching inspirational videos of Eva Peron who could, per LL, launch several B 52s, it's all about Vespers or Evening Prayer.
Speaking of which, do you remember our bizarrely incompetent retreat from Afghanistan? How much money, we have to ask, was paid to the "big guy," and why aren't the people he paid in full control of the Panjshir Valley? Apparently they're not. "Ban, ban, Taliban," as the song goes.
Let's see how the resistance plays out. In other news, more and more people are getting sick from the vax, China's facing a Lehman moment and Biden's popularity is tanking, which is weird, coz he's the most popular president ever in the history of popularity.
And lest we forget, the millionaire celebrities at the Emmys were exempt from masking because they're "performers." Quite unlike you, the serf. Maybe we need some frontier justice?
Your Old Pal,
LSP
Not only is it beautifully cool in north central Texas and even rained, miraculously, but it's also the Feast of St. Matthew. We all know how Matthew was converted and went from being a wicked tax collector to a holy man of God, an Apostle. Less well known is the great saint's mission to Ethiopia, in which the Apostle confronted two sorcerers, Zaroes and Arphaxat.
Zaroes and Arphaxat were in the habit of secretly enchanting people, causing them to be immobile and then, cunningly, curing their paralyzed victims. It's possible that the adepts used magically conjured snakes in these acts of occult chicanery, regardless, they were hailed as Gods by the incredulous and doubtless made a lot of money.
Matthew, no stranger to fiduciary malfeasance, occult or otherwise, saw through Zaroes and Arphaxat's trickery and went out to meet the sorcerers. These mountebanks of the dark side proceeded to set their two dragons on the Apostle, who promptly put the reptilians to sleep. A 13th century Legend describes the encounter:
Then said Matthew to the enchanters: Where is your craft? Awake ye them if ye may; and if I would pray our Lord, that which ye would have committed in me, I should soon execute on you. And when the people were assembled, he commanded the dragons that they should depart without hurting of any, and they went anon.
Needless to say, the dragons went on their way, Matthew preached a remarkable sermon, the occult mountebanks were thrown in prison, and the Apostle retired to the Queen of Ethiopia's palace. Yes, the enigmatic Candace was his patroness.
He then raised the king's son from the dead, converted the nation, and was promptly martyred by the king's successor for challenging the monarch's sexual immorality. How dare you take the Virgin Ephigenia?
The evil king then imitated Herod, beheaded the Apostle and burned Ephigenia alive. Perhaps conscience got the better of him, as the Legend tells us he "slew himself with his own hand by the sword." Our friends Zaroes and Arphaxat survived, curiously, and fled to Persia.
Their spirit is evidently alive, well and kicking. Just ask any country whose money is an IOU at interest to a privately owned bank.
St. Matthew, pray for us and vanquish the sorcerers and their dragons.
God bless,
LSP
After the French surrender, Wintle demanded an aircraft (with which he intended to rally the French Air Force to fly their planes to Britain and continue fighting Germany from British air bases); when refused, he threatened an RAF officer (Air Commodore A.R. Boyle) with a gun. It was alleged that he had threatened to shoot himself and Boyle, and for this he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
My life in the Tower had begun. How different it was from what I had expected. Officers at first cut me dead, thinking that I was some kind of traitor; but when news of my doings leaked out they could not do enough for me. My cell became the most popular meeting place in the garrison and I was as well cared for as if I had been at the Ritz. I would have a stroll in the (dry) moat after breakfast for exercise. Then sharp at eleven Guardsman McKie, detailed as my servant, would arrive from the officers' mess with a large whisky and ginger ale. He would find me already spick and span, for though I have a great regard for the Guards, they have not the gift to look after a cavalry officer's equipment. The morning would pass pleasantly. By noon visitors would begin to arrive. One or two always stayed to lunch. They always brought something with them. I remember one particularly succulent duck in aspic - it gave me indigestion - and a fine box of cigars brought by my family doctor. Tea time was elastic and informal. Visitors dropped in at intervals, usually bringing along bottles which were uncorked on the spot. I don't recall that any of them contained any tea. Dinner, on the other hand, was strictly formal. I dined sharp at eight and entertained only such guests as had been invited beforehand. After a few days of settling in, I was surprised to find that - as a way of life- being a prisoner in the Tower of London had its points.
Sir:Frank Bower was not always able to eject unwanted patrons from El Vino (Letters, 1 May). One morning in the late Fifties, a West Indian workman entered what he thought was a pub and asked the proprietor for a pint of bitter. Empurpled with rage, embroidered waistcoat at bursting point, Bower was hustling him into Fleet Street when interrupted by a crisp military command from the back of the bar: 'That gentleman is a friend of mine. I have been expecting him. Kindly show him to my table.' Colonel Wintle - celebrated for inspecting the turn out of his German guards when a prisoner of war and for debagging a solicitor - had spoken.Rising to greet his guest, Wintle trained his monocle on Bower and ordered, 'Pray bring us two small glasses of white wine.' When this had been drunk and a convivial conversation concluded, the Colonel and his new friend rose, shook hands and went their separate ways.
St. James says, "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
At enmity with God, what a terrifying position to be in, and isn't that where we are now as a nation. For example, how many billions of dollars were made in profit over 30 years of war, which we curiously didn't win, and how much of that money was spent on the love of God and neighbor? None, to speak of. On the contrary, the cash flowed into the pockets of our rulers and their puppets, making them even richer than they were already.
Again, can you imagine any country claiming with any legitimacy that they worship God when they subsidize abortion to the tune of over $600 million annually. That's almost $2 million dollars a day, to kill children in the womb of a mother. A country which does that doesn't worship God, it worships some other thing.
I'll cut to the chase. America, to say nothing of any other country, Anglosphere, we're looking at you, has become worldly. We've become, as a nation, friends of the world, and people who love the world do all in their power to possess as much of the object of their desire as they can.
Thus, driven by prideful greed and vainglorious ambition, the worldly heap up for themselves money, possessions, power, and influence. After all, what's the point of all that cash when you can't fly your private jet to Davos and scheme the greater imposition of your will upon others. And the result?
James is clear. Discord, fighting, division, killing, and every kind of "vile practice." Is that not us, as a country, right now? I'll spare you the examples, all you have to do is throw a dart at the internet and pull out a story. But suffice to say, America's at enmity with God.
The worldly, who rule and influence us, promote pride instead of humility, hatred instead of love, disbelief instead of faith, division instead of peace, death instead of life, and iniquity instead of righteousness. They are, when we pause to reflect, against the qualities which Christ revealed to us on the Cross.
They hate that, they're opposed to it, and mock, deride and blaspheme it, they are enemies of God. What a terrible position to be in, not least on account of its telos or end. Writing to the Philippians, St. Paul describes their character and fate, "They are enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their god is the belly and they glory in their shame."
St. James is no less fierce, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire."
The end of the way of the cross is paradoxically very different. As Christ teaches his uncomprehending disciples on the way to Capernaum, “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”
He will rise, triumphant over Hell and death.
The way of humility, faith, love and righteousness is the way of life, the way of the Cross. Choose that and live by the grace of God.
Here Endeth the Lesson,
LSP
PS. Do you not think "Friends of The World" sounds like a Soros funded NGO? Just sayn.
