Sunday, January 5, 2025

Shout The Battle Cry Of Freedom

 



Maybe you're sick of being ruled by the unelected Eagle. You know, concentrated State power, maybe you don't like that so much. Neither did the South, which fought against the Northern mercenary hordes, only to lose.


Just For Kix

Flash forward to the Denton Country Club in the early '90s. "I think," boomed my dad, he was loud!, that "I'm gonna vote Democrat." You could've heard a pin drop, respect to the old terrorist, but my, how that worm's turned. 

Sharp guy, my dad, RIP,

LSP

Imagine

 



Imagine, if you can, that you were in a Club whose members didn't give, and give generously, to the Staff Christmas fund. They don't get tips, you see. So what would you do to those miscreant malfeasants who scrooged out on loyal retainers? I leave you with the sheer, total genius of Yoko.




Out Demons, Out, what?

LSP

Epiphany Reflections

 



Listen up, heathen. Some of you may have noticed that it's the Feast of the Epiphany tomorrow or, if translated, today. Here's two reflections, the first from Benedict XVI:


The Magi worshipped a simple Child in the arms of his Mother Mary, because in him they recognized the source of the twofold light that had guided them:  the light of the star and the light of the Scriptures. In him they recognized the King of the Jews, the glory of Israel, but also the King of all the peoples.

The mystery of the Church and her missionary dimension are also revealed in the liturgical context of the Epiphany. She is called to make Christ's light shine in the world, reflecting it in herself as the moon reflects the light of the sun.

The ancient prophecies concerning the holy city of Jerusalem, such as the marvellous one in Isaiah that we have just heard:  "Rise up in splendour! Your light has come.... Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance" (Is 60: 1-3), have found fulfilment in the Church.

This is what disciples of Christ must do:  trained by him to live in the way of the Beatitudes, they must attract all people to God through a witness of love:  "In the same way, your light must shine before men so that they may see goodness in your deeds and give praise to your heavenly Father" (Mt 5: 16). By listening to Jesus' words, we members of the Church cannot but become aware of the total inadequacy of our human condition, marked by sin.

The Church is holy, but made up of men and women with their limitations and errors. It is Christ, Christ alone, who in giving us the Holy Spirit is able to transform our misery and constantly renew us. He is the light of the peoples, the lumen gentium, who has chosen to illumine the world through his Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 1).

"How can this come about?", we also ask ourselves with the words that the Virgin addresses to the Archangel Gabriel. And she herself, the Mother of Christ and of the Church, gives us the answer:  with her example of total availability to God's will - "fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum" (Lk 1: 38) - she teaches us to be a "manifestation" of the Lord, opening our hearts to the power of grace and faithfully abiding by the words of her Son, light of the world and the ultimate end of history.

So be it!

 

And the second, from Farrer:


THE Magi took the lids from their urns and unfastened their caskets, when they presented the symbols of universal homage to our infant prince.  But when a woman came to anoint the king in his royal city, she shattered her alabaster jar, that she might pour the precious spikenard on his head.  There was a sympathy between her action and the approaching Passion: the perfume of man’s homage could not be offered to God, without breaking the veined alabaster, the body of the Son of Man.  Our incense may rise, like that of the Magi, from unbroken vessels, if we present our bodies a living sacrifice.  Yet a living sacrifice is also a sacrifice, and is made so by some participation in the shattering of the vase.  Christ, sacrificing himself, joins us with him in sacrificing him; Christ, sacrificing himself, sacrifices us, for he has made us parts of him.  We come to offer our homage to Christ, but his star has brought us, and the breaking of his mortal vase has furnished all the perfume of our offering.

 

I am constantly in awe of Farrer and B16. And you'll note, per Farrer and elsewhere in Benedict's writing, that the Feast of the Epiphany is intimately bound up with the mystery of our Lord's Passion. The Magi, notoriously, offer myrrh.

God bless you all,

LSP

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Der Sterner

 



So, the Golden Golem of Greatness, Trumpissimus, got himself reelected, and with all these flagrantly Nazi policies like: A country should have a border, putting your own country first as president is a good thing, energy independence, bringing manufacturing home to the States. How very, very, very, utterly Fascist Nazi. Then there's the evil Hitler 2.0's foreign policy.

Stop fighting wars, which have nothing or little to do with American security and everything to do with the MIC. Wow. Sheer. Nazi. What about annnex Canada. That's a war of liberation from RainbowBloc tyranny, surely. Liberate England? From rape gangs? About time. And while we're at it, let's have Greenland and the Panama Canal.




Greenland and Panama are a security issue, obviously, Canada and the UK are all about spreading democracy, freedom of speech and all of that. Liberation, if you will. So very, totally, indubitably National Socialist and, probably, Putinist to boot. Perhaps you remember that. Putinism.

For four long years, 45 was under investigation for being a Russian Spy, that's right, a Nazi Russian Spy (NRS). It's almost as lame as an E8 blowing up a Tesla truck in front of Trump Tower with a bootload of fireworks in Vegas, yet here we are.




That aside, since when did a country having a border and its president wanting to put his people first become Fascist? Oh, I know. Since the people who waxed stratospherically rich from asset-stripping our country co-opted the Left. There's an axiom there, if you care to draw it.

Cheers,

LSP

Friday, January 3, 2025

A Short London Pitch

 

Beautiful, Look What We've Lost


What's you favorite city? The DFW Metrosprawl, New York, Chicago, DC, Paris, Rome, Venice, Detroit? They're all great in their way, though some more so than others, but for me it's London, perhaps because I lived there for years and see it as something of a home town.

These days I like central London, which, for me, means that area going West from St. Paul's to St. James, encompassing Clerkenwell, Holborn, Bloomsbury, Covent Garden and the Strand, the Embankment, Soho, Piccadilly, and the Mall. Knightsbridge and South Ken seem a bit far West and perhaps always has done. Still, Solemn High Mass at the Oratory is a must, followed by Sunday lunch at the East India Club. Delicious.



Oh My, We've Devolved

After that, you can stroll down Shaftsbury Avenue to Bar Italia in Soho and enjoy a coffee or two, followed by an RV with old pals at a welcoming pub, maybe the Coach and Horses or French House in Soho, maybe somewhere else, like the Lamb in Lamb's Conduit Street, or wherever. Big fun, then stroll back through the genuinely Olde Streets of old London Town to your setup. 

Perhaps that's the top floor of the Farmers Club on Whitehall, most congenial and affordable to boot. Here, have a look from it's rooms today, from Whitehall Place looking East:


Behold

There it is, London. The center of town's changed, for sure, since the far-off, halcyon days of the '90s, when I last lived there, but still, it doesn't seem so very off, and the grandeur and history of the place are very much alive, albeit swarmed by tourists. You can avoid those, though, if you nav away from their game trails. As in Leicester Square, etc.


See That Little Cupola Onna Terace? Favorite Place. There'll Always Be An Agra

When you get tired of the hurly burley, and there's plenty of that, fall back to the NatLib on the Embankment and setup in serenity on the Terrace cupola. Right congenial. When you get tired of that, retreat to the Farmers Club for a delicious sandwich at the bar and stroll over to Soho, which may or may not involve rickshaws and associated hi-spirits.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Excuse Me. What's Going On?

 



Now look here, you lot, what's going on? The New Year's barely upon us when some crazed Moslem from Hubbard, Texas, of all places, goes all out jihad in New Orleans. Yes, there was an ISIS flag involved, body armor, various weapons and bombs, and all of that. US Army vet Shamsud-Din Jabbar killed 15 people in this terrorist attack. The FBI is, I think, claiming "he acted alone." Uh Huh.




Then, the very next day, another soldier, this time an active duty Spec Ops guy on leave, blows up a Tesla truck outside Trump Tower in Vegas. Errrr, OK. E8 Matthew Livelsberger's body was apparently burned beyond recognition, unlike his military ID. He was evidently active in UKR training in Europe and in recruiting contractors for the ongoing war.




Both men, curiously, worked at Fort Bragg, but that aside, what's going on? For example, why did Livelsberger shoot himself in the head before his truck blew up and, given his family claims he was a Trumpist, why the Trump Tower blast, maybe he just really, really hated Elon Musk?

I don't know about our boy from Hubbard (what, excuse me?!) but Sergeant Tesla Truck seems mighty peculiar. Armchair Warlord suspects UKR and blackmail, but that's just him. What's your take? Serious question.

Cheers,

LSP

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

New Years Shoot

 



Let's go for a shoot, offered a young Sergeant, and I weighed up his rambunctious proposal. Is it sunny? Yes. Is it wet? Not very. Do you have guns? Obviously, and it's New Years Day to boot. So, "Yes, let's go," and off we went via Walmart and a purchased box of skeet to the range.

The range being about 15 minutes drive into the country, just past Brandon. And what a great little 100 yard range it is, with a small shooting house, a bench, and an all 'round berm. There you are, out in the field, under the Texan sky with plenty of room to swing a shotgun, which is what we did.




In this case, a CZ Drake O/U 20 gauge. It's light, at 6 pounds 9 ounces, swings well, has a generous white polymer front sight, and gets on target like a champ, and all for around 600 bucks. Field & Stream thinks it's great value for money and so do I. Hey, this light, attractive but nothing fancy field gun works. And work it did.

After a few moments of nostalgic reverie, we've been shooting here for 15 years, we opened up a box of White Flyer and got down to business. I went first, with Sergeant LSP as thrower, "Ready!" he'd shout by tradition, and I'd shout back, "Pull!" and up goes the orange adversary and boom goes the gun. Clays smoked. Result.




What a lot of fun, and we shot well, pretty much a 100% hit rate; if it'd been a dove hunt there would've been a tailgate full of birds. As it was, a field full of shattered skeet, and there's nothing wrong with that either. On the contrary, keeps your aim in and getting out in the field's a good in itself.




We finished off with a gentle Ruger American .22 plinkathon, targeting steel plates, the smaller the better, a Red Bull, yuck, can and a rusty old aerosol spray paint can. I tell you, those enemies met their match and then some. Shoot over, we headed back to the Compound, mission accomplished.

Happy New Year,

LSP

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Happy New Year

 



May God bless you all in this new year, which will surely be better than its wretched precedent. We're just about ready to launch SERIOUS fireworks. You know what it's like.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

New Years Eve - Almost

 


Please, dear readers, ignore Bob Wier's shorts, but do psych up for a grand New Years celebration. That is all, for now.

Best,

LSP

Truckery

 

The Old Offender


Keen-eyed readers, all four of you, might remember that the Compound's motor pool took a serious hit when a 2018 F150 went badly wrong on its way to Dallas for Thanksgiving. No joke, the malfeasant rig juddered and quaked on I35's fast lane into the 'sprawl. Pull off the road, LSP, park up at a sketchy Motel 6 and... the 5.0L V8 beast wouldn't restart.

Long story short, the Waxahachie Ford House wanted to charge a whopping Merry Christmas 16k to swap out a busted long block. Huh. No. Tow the broken offender back to base and hand it over to local mechs. They duly turned up and ran a diagnostic, hoping that 1. There was an easily fixable problem, like a bad fuel pump control module, or 2. The old engine was salvageable.


Wretched Malfeasant - There's a Story Here

No to 1 and 2. A rocker had busted and fallen into the body of the engine, the timing chain had snapped and catastrophic failure ensued. Not unlike the Church of England, when you think on it. Solution? Pull out the old engine via tractor and chains, drop a new/used one in. And that's exactly what happened.

Everything back together, we took the truck for a test drive through the sylvan boulevards of pleasantly sunny rural Texas and, lo and behold, the beast purred along with its newly installed engine, which came from a vehicle with 77k on the clock. So it's a young engine, let's see how it pans out in the New Year.


Skulduggery

Ah, but LSP, I hear you think, trenchantly, what happened to the RAPTOR? Good question, and here's the answer. If this year of our Lord, 2025 A.D., comes in golden, then a jolly old Raptor's on the cards and a Sergeant can have the refurbed One Fiddy. That's one timeline, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Cheers,

LSP

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Another Day

 



Just coz.

Bless you all,

LSP

This & That

 



Here's the deal. An ebullient Sergeant's walked through the door, a couple of Churchmen have dropped a new/used 5.0L V8 motor into the rig and all is well, so far. And guess what, the new engine even works, and didn't throw any codes when fired up. Yes, it married the transmission.




That in mind, hope you all had a beautiful Sunday, worshiping God who is Word from Word, Light from Light, very God of very God. Yes, ET INCARNATUS EST. And we beheld his glory, full of grace and truth. Is there, per St. John's Prologue, a more majestic piece of Scripture? I doubt it.

Love & Peace,

LSP