We all know what happened. Super famous celebrity Empire talent Juicy Smollet was attacked in Chicago outside a Subway, where zhe was getting a sammich.
Yes, at 2 am, in -20* weather, Juicy was savaged by two men in ski masks who put a noose on the world famous screen idol, poured bleach on zhim, hurled racial slurs and shouted, horrifically, "This is MAGA country!" before running off into the freezing night.
What an horrendous hate crime! Except that it wasn't. Leaving aside curious anomalies like bleach freezing at -20, Juicy's story began to unravel when it was revealed that zhir attackers were, in fact, two Nigerian brothers who were Empire extras and physical trainers. Smollett paid them $3,500, by check, idiotically.
Jericho Green gives magisterial commentary on Juicy's faux hate crime here, here, and here, check it out. In the meanwhile, the hapless victim of his own risible screenplay's been found guilty by a Chicago court and has to serve 30 months felony probation, 150 days in gaol and pay a $120k fine.
Here at the Compound, Blue snarled, "I think that lying thespian fraud got off real light." I looked at the aged cow dog, curled up on a Moslem rug with his absurdly spotted tail and replied, "Quite."
As of 2022 Juicy's net worth was an estimated #MillSoc $1.5 million. So utterly oppressed.
Cheers,
LSP
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UPDATE JUICY SAYS NOT SUICIDAL
If I did this, then it means I stuck my fist in the fears of black Americans in this country for over 400 years and the fears of the LGBTQ community. Your honor, I respect you and I respect the jury, but I did not do this, and I am not suicidal. And if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself, and you must all know that. I respect you, your honor. I respect your decision. Jail time [pause]. I am not suicidal.
What?!? Why would this rich, successful, protected class thesp be driven to suicide? Did Juicy somehow annoy somebody? Magnum mysterium.
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio, contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae caelestis, in virtute Dei, in infernum detrude satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo. Amen.
Life at the Compound follows a rhythm, a pattern, and it all starts with a measured stroll to the Pick 'n Steal (PNS) via the Meth Shack. The shack's fallen on hard times, sadly, as you can see from the photo. Gone are the halcyon days of shirtless tweakers in filthy pajama bottoms decorating the porch. They're gone, along with much of the porch itself. Who knows, maybe the crew of Mexicans who've been, ahem, fixing the place up will achieve their goal.
We can but hope. In the meanwhile, a lone picker shuffled in the Shack's pecan grove, searching for nature's bounty. Good luck to him, may your harvest be plentiful. Ag exemption in mind I moved on to the Steal where, lo and behold, gas is only 3.59 a gallon. Get it while you can, kids.
One PNS coffee refill later and a pack of Marlboro Lights I was back at the patrol base and saying Morning Prayer. 1928 BCP version, thank you very much and you can get it online here. Then, no sooner was the Divine Office finished than a barrage of emails from lawyers and realtors came flooding in.
Upshot? Go to a notary, affidavit in hand. But the notary's shut because... who knows, it just is. Drive over to Land & Title, "How you doing!" what a cheery receptionist, "Good! How about you?" "I'm good, what can we do for ya?" Well, they couldn't notarize a document but they sure wanted to and were helpful as they could be. I thanked God for putting me in a Texan country town and headed over to Don Tutor's Bail Bonds.
"Hi, I recognize you from Bible Study at El Con! (an unreconstructed TexMex restaurant) What can we do for you?" So helpful, just notarize this document, please, and she did, free of charge. "What part of England you from?" I replied "London" and learned she wanted to go to Manchester, where she has an email friend. "Watch out," I admonished, "They call it Gunchester," and then felt bad, "Don't worry, you'll be alright." Good for her, so excited to visit England.
UK readers of this important mind blog, if there are any, take note: Many, many Americans hold the Sceptered Isle in very high regard, they really do. So don't scorn your brothers and sisters across the Atlantic, it's an unpleasant, snobbish and beastly trait. Just saying.
Bonds aside, go back to the Compound to regroup, eat a slice of bread because fasting and get blitzed by lawyers and realtors over the information superhighway. Think Russian Shock Army moving on the Karkov Front. We withstood the offensive, nice work team, and then Canada called, "Can you send some... :(" I resisted the urge to ignore this threat in the hope it'd somehow go away and instead replied, "Hold fire, I'm trying to sell a ranch. Offers coming in, good offers."
And so they were, result. Realtor O Group over, head to Walmart and this town's send money to the world desk (please, Canada, work this out online). The young woman who handled the transaction was friendly as you like but aghast at gas prices, "Just seen 4 bucks a gallon, 81 million people voted for that, what's gonna happen when it's $5 a gallon or 8?" I thought about that and looked her in the eye, which was hard because of all the piercings, "Maybe smart people have ammo, right?" She gave a dyed blonde grin and agreed, yet another friendly country person.
Then back to the Compound for Vespers. Question, is it just me or is the tenor of daily life becoming increasingly off-hook?
Stand Steady,
LSP
Well, not me, just the eldest, and I have to say that plate rig's pretty heavy so I gave him a hand as he packed up to return to the Fort. He's all geared up for deployment in a month or so but ticked off about the state of his battalion's Humvees.
"Dad, they go back to the '90s, a lot of 'em are gonna end up as parts vehicles when we get there." I thought about this, "So you'll be useless as a mechanized force?" No, they'll use the working kit of the units they're embedded with and the broken become supply.
In the midst of this knotty supply and logistics issue an experienced solutions provider phoned in and I explained the problem. He thought for a moment, "We had the same thing in Gulf War I. We were running WWII Jeeps, seriously, Jeeps, because the Navy was cheap. I like Jeeps, but nothing has changed."
I passed that on to kid and he felt better. Soldiers like tradition.
Your Pal,
LSP
After his baptism, Jesus goes out into the wilderness to fast and pray, to gain strength for his journey to Calvary and the Cross. Hating this, Satan attempts to divert him by way of three temptations, three "shortcuts from the Cross."
We're familiar with them, if you're the Son of God, turn these stones to bread, cast yourself down from the Temple and the angels will bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone and finally, the offer of all the kingdoms of the world on the condition Christ worshiped Satan.
There they are, the sins of the flesh, of pride, and of greed which if Jesus had succumbed to them would have hijacked his mission of redemption. Stones to bread, why go to the Cross if you can win men's hearts by feeding them? What need for the agony and shame of Golgotha when you can perform a marvel, a sign which converts the people? And why endure the agony of crucifixion when you can establish an earthly kingdom here and now?
Why not indeed. Because in all of Satan's beguilement redemption doesn't occur, the people remain in their sin and subject to death and Hell regardless of how well fed, self-sufficient and well governed they are. No Cross, no Resurrection, no life.
I like Fulton Sheen's observation. The first temptation is economic, the second a marvel and the third political; bread and circuses under the aegis of diabolic power. Perhaps this sounds familiar, as it was in the days of ancient Rome so now. But consider the second or in Luke's case third temptation.
Throw yourself down from the Temple, says Satan to Christ, throw yourself away from the Church. Who will catch you? Angels, yes, but surely fallen ones, demons, and will they hold you up in their claws and talons, elevating you above the ground of reality, of God himself? Maybe for a time, until they don't and the Faustian pact resolves on collision with the rock.
Thus warned, we pray and meditate on God's holy Word, practice fasting, abstinence and self-denial, give alms and tithe, repent and confess our sins. All the disciplines of Lent by which we beat back Satan and find unity with the Cross and from there the risen life of Easter.
God bless,
LSP
Imagine, if you can, the threat of a hostile power setting up bioweapons labs on our border with, say, Mexico. Would you feel worried, threatened, outraged? I would and I'd want to see them gone. That in mind, the US is or was apparently doing just that, running biolabs in the Ukraine, at least 11 of them.
They go under the aegis of the US Department of Defense's Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) and the US Embassy in Ukraine makes no bones about it. They're there to "consolidate and secure," but if benign why, on February 26, did the embassy purge documents from its website detailing the labs?
The US Embassy in #Ukraine has just deleted from its website all documents about 11 Pentagon-funded biolaboratories in Ukraine. I have published all these documents (now deleted by the Embassy) here https://t.co/Odc0ermmZe and in the thread below pic.twitter.com/benFmDwguI
— Dilyana Gaytandzhieva (@dgaytandzhieva) February 26, 2022
Regardless, and despite the US Embassy's healthcare euphemisms, see Planned Parenthood, would any of us for a split second expect our government to put up with this at the very least potential threat on our borders. I don't think so. Why, then, should we expect Russia to.
That in mind, it's no small thing for Putin to roll into Ukraine with all the risk that entails. So why invade? Of course he could be an unhinged, warmongering tyrant, a new Hitler if you like.
On the other hand, perhaps he recognized a serious existential threat and moved to neutralize it, biolabs and all. Feel free to disagree, but I'm not so sure Warmongering Tyrant Hitler (WTH) describes Putin.
Your call,
LSP
