Prep Up - Word To The Wise

 

Ready to go? Watch this by way of caveat:

Get back home, boys.

Cheers,

LSP

City Of Brass

 

This seems appropriate on the first Sunday of Lent, Kipling's City of Brass:

Here was a people whom after their works
thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion:
and in this palace is the last information
respecting lords collected in the dust.” –
The Arabian Nights.

In a land that the sand overlays – the ways to her gates are untrod – A multitude ended their days whose gates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all!

When the wine stirred in their heart their bosoms dilated.
They rose to suppose themselves kings over all things created –
To decree a new earth at a birth without labour or sorrow –
To declare: “We prepare it to-day and inherit to-morrow.”
They chose themselves prophets and priests of minute understanding,
Men swift to see done, and outrun, their extremest commanding –
Of the tribe which describe with a jibe the perversions of Justice –
Panders avowed to the crowd whatsoever its lust is.

Swiftly these pulled down the walls that their fathers had made them –
The impregnable ramparts of old, they razed and relaid them
As playgrounds of pleasure and leisure, with limitless entries,
And havens of rest for the wastrels where once walked the sentries;
And because there was need of more pay for the shouters and marchers,
They disbanded in face of their foemen their yeomen and archers.
They replied to their well-wishers’ fears – to their enemies laughter,
Saying: “Peace! We have fashioned a God Which shall save us hereafter.
We ascribe all dominion to man in his factions conferring,
And have given to numbers the Name of the Wisdom unerring.”

They said: “Who has hate in his soul? Who has envied his neighbour?
Let him arise and control both that man and his labour.”
They said: “Who is eaten by sloth? Whose unthrift has destroyed him?
He shall levy a tribute from all because none have employed him.”
They said: “Who hath toiled, who hath striven, and gathered possession?
Let him be spoiled. He hath given full proof of transgression.”
They said: “Who is irked by the Law? Though we may not remove it.
If he lend us his aid in this raid, we will set him above it!
So the robber did judgment again upon such as displeased him,
The slayer, too, boasted his slain, and the judges released him.

As for their kinsmen far off, on the skirts of the nation,
They harried all earth to make sure none escaped reprobation.
They awakened unrest for a jest in their newly-won borders,
And jeered at the blood of their brethren betrayed by their orders.
They instructed the ruled to rebel, their rulers to aid them;
And, since such as obeyed them not fell, their Viceroys obeyed them.
When the riotous set them at naught they said: “Praise the upheaval!
For the show and the world and the thought of Dominion is evil!”
They unwound and flung from them with rage, as a rag that defied them,
The imperial gains of the age which their forefathers piled them.
They ran panting in haste to lay waste and embitter for ever
The wellsprings of Wisdom and Strengths which are Faith and Endeavour.
They nosed out and digged up and dragged forth and exposed to derision
All doctrine of purpose and worth and restraint and prevision:

And it ceased, and God granted them all things for which they had striven,
And the heart of a beast in the place of a man’s heart was given. . . .

. . . . . . . .

When they were fullest of wine and most flagrant in error,
Out of the sea rose a sign – out of Heaven a terror.
Then they saw, then they heard, then they knew – for none troubled to hide it,
A host had prepared their destruction, but still they denied it.
They denied what they dared not abide if it came to the trail;
But the Sward that was forged while they lied did not heed their denial.
It drove home, and no time was allowed to the crowd that was driven.
The preposterous-minded were cowed – they thought time would be given.
There was no need of a steed nor a lance to pursue them;
It was decreed their own deed, and not a chance, should undo them.
The tares they had laughingly sown were ripe to the reaping.
The trust they had leagued to disown was removed from their keeping.
The eaters of other men’s bread, the exempted from hardship,
The excusers of impotence fled, abdicating their wardship,
For the hate they had taught through the State brought the State no defender,
And it passed from the roll of the Nations in headlong surrender!

On point, don't you think?

Your Old Pal,

LSP

PS. Thanks, LL, for the constant reminder.

Lenten Fasting

 

This Lent I've resolved to take the fasting rule more seriously, which means eating less. No meat on Wednesdays and Fridays and daily, one very light meal around Noon and a light meal in the evening. Also, for me, no rice, pasta or bread, which is hard because I love all that, and the list goes on, just cut right back on food; no wine either except on Feast days. And there you have it, a Lenten fast.

It's not easy, at least for me, but it's a great spiritual tool which frees us from over attachment to our appetites, quite literally, and from the sins of pride and gluttony. You'll note a selfish man is a greedy man and vice versa. By counteracting this on the most basic level, by denying ourselves food, we free the soul from worldly attachment and that wickedness described by the Apostle, "their god is the belly."

All this sounds strange and repugnant to North American ears because our culture, if you can call it that, is geared towards self-indulgence, to gluttonous pride. We see the outward and visible sign of this on the outskirts of our cities where we're welcomed by forests of plastic fast food signs. Eat moar! But I won't bang on, here's St. Isaac the Syrian via Orthodox Christianity:

As satisfying the stomach is the beginning of any evil, so fasting is the basis of any virtue and the holy way to God. The fast is the protection of virtue, the beginning of self-sacrifice, a wreath of abstinence, the beauty of virginity and holiness, the shine of chastity, the basis of a Christian life, the father of prayer, the originator of chastity and wisdom, the instructor of silence, and the leader to everything good...

Fasting is the weapon prepared by God for us. Whoever neglects it is not right. For if the Law-giver Himself fasted, is it not also necessary for those for whom the law is given to fulfill the fast? For a long time the human race was not able to win, for a long time the devil did not test the defeat of our nature; but at the very beginning he was weakened by this weapon. Our Lord was the leader and the first conqueror. He first delivered the victorious crown of our nature. Since then, whenever the devil sees that some one has this weapon, immediately he is afraid, immediately he imagines and remembers that defeat which he underwent by the Savior in the desert: his power is destroyed and disappears.

Take heed, fasting is the weapon prepared by God for us, we should use it.

God bless,

LSP

Domestic Extremists All Helpfully Label Themselves For FBI

 

Via The Bee:

U.S. — Law enforcement officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation were overjoyed this morning to discover the nation's most dangerous domestic extremists had helpfully labeled themselves with a strange black "X" on their foreheads.

"Wow. This makes our job so much easier," said FBI Domestic Extremism Investigator Chet O'Grady. "This morning our field offices across the country reported they had observed hundreds of people arriving at various suspected extremist locations, where some strange guy wearing robes marked them with ashes on their foreheads. Now we have thousands more suspects to monitor this year. Jackpot!"

The bizarrely marked potential insurgents will be monitored for terrorist activity, such as attending school board meetings and praying outside abortion clinics. "These sickos are capable of anything," said O'Grady. "America can rest assured that we will be watching them very closely."

At publishing time, the FBI had nabbed several suspected terrorists at a local church basement fish fry.

What can we say, those dangerous domestic terrorists get everywhere. The Vatican is working in full cooperation with the ongoing investigation.

Thanks for the tip, Swankenstein.

Your Friend,

LSP

Ash Wednesday

 

Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris 

Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou

hast made and dost forgive the sins of all those who are

penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that

we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our

wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy,

perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our

Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Have a holy and blessed Lent,

LSP

Yellow Rose of Texas

 

Dam straight

Cheers,

LSP

Warning Order

 

Do you dare think, for an instant, that the way we live now will not be judged, that our so-called society of grift, scam, malfeasance, self-idolatry, fraud and worse, will somehow go on forever? If so, think again. Such wickedness cannot and will not stand.

Take note, a Day of Wrath is barreling down the pike at us faster than you can say "national debt at interest" or "money laundering crooks." So prep up, and begin with the spirit. Lent is our opportunity to do so.

Dies Irae,

LSP

Yet Another Tranny Shooter

 

All the world knows Joel Osteen's megachurch was shot up the other day but the shooter wasn't a crazed right-wing extremist. No, on the contrary, the crazed would be killer was an MTF (male to female) trans immigrant from El Salvador, Jeffrey Moreno.

Jeffrey was stopped by local LEOs before he could do much harm and appears to have a long criminal history , including weapons charges. Also, the crazed wannabe killer seems to have been more trans successful in the past.

So what went wrong, did the trans drugs become somehow unavailable and tip the already mentally ill Moreno into psychotic desperation as he/she discovered she/it was becoming more masculine? Maybe so, but we do know this. 

The dysmorphic potential killer had a "Free Palestine" message on its rifle. Expect this story to be memory-holed as though it had never happened. Keen-eyed readers of this fantastical mind-blog will recall several other tranny shooters.

Cheers,

LSP

A Short Sunday Sermon - Transfigured

 

If you follow the new-fangled ABC, tripartite Lectionary you'll have heard St. Mark's account of Our Lord's transfiguration this morning. Here:

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.

And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

 

Next we see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, he is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and Peter speaks out, "Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."

It seems a strange thing to say and Mark admits as much, "For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid." But hold on. Some days earlier Peter had made his confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And now, before his eyes, Christ was transfigured; the Messianic age had arrived with supernatural glory and power. What were God's people to do? The Psalmist tells us, exalt "in the tents of the righteous."

Again, look to the Feast of Tabernacles, during which faithful Jews set up tents in memory of their journey in the Exodus wilderness, all the while looking forward to the time God would tabernacle with men in the person of the Messiah. It must have seemed to Peter that the time had come, there was Christ, transfigured, the Majestic Glory. 

Seen in this light, Peter's outburst makes a kind of sense, but no, the time had not yet come. Return to Moses and Elijah, conversing with Jesus, what did they talk about? St. Luke tells us, of our Lord's "imminent departure" in Jerusalem, of his exodus through the Red Sea of the Passion and Cross to the promised land, the glory of the Resurrection.

Our Lord's transfiguration signifies and foreshadows this, but the time had not yet come, first the Cross. Accordingly, Jesus does not answer Peter but the Father does, the cloud of glory descends upon Tabor and the Father speaks, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." And so we must, he is the living Law, the Torah Incarnate.

Peter, in his Epistle, is adamant that this happened, "we do not follow cunningly devised myths" but beheld the Majestic Glory on the holy mountain. The vision was real and it's real for us, we too are invited to climb the mountain.

For Peter, James and John the ascent was physical. For us it's mostly spiritual, an ascent which begins in the foothills of humility and repentance, blessed are the poor in spirit and those who mourn, and climbs upwards through righteousness and its enactment, mercy, to purity of heart and the vision of God.

What do we see there? Christ, who shone in the darkness from the beginning, the light of the world in whom there is no darkness at all, who was light on Tabor. Seeing Him, we too become light and will shine like the sun in the kingdom of heaven.

God give us grace to climb the mountain,

LSP

Tucker Interviews Putin

 

Did you  watch the historic interview between America's last journalist and Russian strong man, Vladimir Putin? I did, after Mass, and was immediately struck by one thing. Viz. Putin knows history and can speak coherently, without notes, for two hours and then some.

Can you imagine any one, any one of our 2024 presidential candidates doing such a thing? I can't. Wow, a world leader who actually knows history. Far out.  Here in the States we got rid of history a long time ago. Look at us now.

That in mind, it was good to see a journalist doing journalism and it certainly doesn't hurt to hear Putin's point of view, not least this: Russia strove for decades to find a constructive commonality with Europe and the West, only to be lied to and attacked. Feel free to disagree but I'd say he has a point.

Here's another thing. Granted our beloved Inside-The-Beltway rulers have millions, perhaps billions of dollars invested in the Ukraine adventure,  what was in it for BoJo? What did Boris Johnson stand to gain by derailing the Istanbul peace accord? For that matter, what did he stand to lose by not doing so.

Regardless, the floppy haired ex-Prime Minister's accused Tucker of "treason." Huh. Perhaps BoJo will send what's left of the Royal Navy to seize Mr. Carlson and carry him off to the Tower for due punishment. Watch out, Tucker, like no fooling. And note, Putin's an accelerationist with a belief in soul.

Cheers,

LSP

Is This For Real?

 

Here's William Lundy helmeted up in front of a F-100 Super Saber at Eglin AFB in 1955. He claimed to have served in the Confederate cavalry (Company D 4th Alabama Cavalry Regiment) from March 1864-1865, joining up at the age of 16. 

If true, that'd make Lundy a remarkable 107 years old at the time of the photo, but his story's disputed. Census records suggest he was actually born in 1860, which would make the alleged veteran a posing old fraud, albeit with a venerable visage.

I like this old man a lot

Who knows. I'd like to believe the story's true because there it is, a very old man who lived in the horse-drawn age standing next to a jet fighter in the 1950s. How cool is that? Very. And even if Lundy wasn't the veteran he claimed to be, he was still a stand-out from another age. A person who lived across the transformation of America and Western civ into something approaching the way we live now.

Ahem, RHSM, maybe we need some "fast movers"?

You can imagine his dismay, if he were alive to see it, at our devolution into the hideous, banal, ersatz, wicked, dumb-as-you-like-then-some barbarity of the 21st century. As it is, he had his moment with a Super Saber.

So, is the photo and all that's with it real? You be the judge.

4ACR forever,

LSP

A Fourth There Shall Never Be

 

Moscow, the Third Rome, a fourth there shall never be. Now look, I get the Cold War animosity, I even remember it, and I get geopolitical rivalry, but surely Christians should band together against the heathen? Then, it was the godless Soviets. Today it's the demonic transnational elite against everyone, not least you.

They hate you, they doubtless hate themselves, and they hate Christ. Russia turned its back on this Bolshevik evil, we, on the other hand, have embraced it with usury. Here's a video by way of antidote:

With a tip of the biretta to Seamus. Are these people not our brothers? Shouldn't we be aligned with them towards the creation of a Christian commonwealth, in which everyone flourishes, freed from the banksters' greed? Call it Pax Americana or something like that, but no, we're at war. 

We must thank God, literally, that the war is proxy, unless you're a conscript in the actual fight.

Your Pal,

LSP