Have a Blessed Sunday

golden void

Tried to get as much riding in as possible before flying off to the hopefully far cooler North. This means getting up earl and, on Saturday, driving to Miltdown Arabians with the sun at my back. Beautiful, there was even some rain, which was a godsend. 

Had a right workout, 'round poles and barrels at a canter/hand gallop, Western style. Total enjoyment and a good change to put some different horses through their paces.

ridiculous

Apart from horses, there was an interesting Gospel text this morning, in the feeding of the 5000, which serves as a type of the Eucharist. But why 5 loaves and 2 fish? 5 signifies the Law (5 books of the Pentateuch), which is fulfilled and sanctified by the twofold nature of Christ who is "true God and true man". The spiritual sustenance of this renewed Law is Christ Himself, who states "I am the bread of life", and is the acrostic in Greek for fish (Jesus Christ Son of God Savior). 

He will be the nourishment of the faithful whose number is 5000; as we are reminded in Acts, "The number of those who believed were 5000." These are the multitude of the new Law and constitute a new Israel, signified by the 12 baskets of food left over - fed by none other than Our Lord.

When I was a child, Rev. Ronnie Loyd, a Welshman, taught us that the real miracle and the spiritual meaning of the text, was that Jesus persuaded the 5000 to share their lunches, making it the "miracle of the bag lunches". 

hippys

Not dissimilar, I suppose, to a hippy "be-in" but without the thieving and general knavishness. I mentioned this interpretation to the congregation and denounced it trenchantly as, "Rubbish!"

God bless you all, not least in the Sacrament of the Altar.

Canada tomorrow.

LSP

Beware the Boar

Escape from New York

Team LSP NYC had to escape the summer rigor of 'the Isand' for Turkey and stumbled upon the ruined temple of Artemis (Diana). It was one of the Wonders of the classical world but not much remains today after successive earthquakes, fires and looting. 

Artemis could be difficult at times and wasn't above alliance with wild hogs. Here's an excerpt from Ovid:

"‘This shall not pass unpunished. No!’ she cried, ‘I may be seen unhonoured, true, but never unavenged!’

"The smarting goddess sent a giant Boar, huge as the bulls that grassy Epiros breeds, dwarfing the bulls of fertile Sicula (Sicily); his eyes ablaze with fire and blood; his neck solid and steep; his bristles long and sharp, rigid as spearshafts; his broad sweeping flanks flecked, as he hissed and snorted, with hot foam. His mouth flashed lightning and his burning breath seared the green leaves. Now the young growing corn he trampled in the blade... The people fled..."

And who can blame them? Then up springs Ancaeus:

"‘Learn how far the weapons of a man surpass a girl’s and leave this task to me! Even though Latonia [Artemis] shields him from the blow, despite Diana [Artemis], mine shall lay him low!’ Such was Ancaeus’ braggart brazen boast, and raising in both hands his double axe he balanced on his feet and stood tiptoe. Brave and bold! but the beast struck first and plunged both tusks high in his groin, the shortest road to death, and down he fell and, disembowelled, his guts gushed out and soaked the ground with gore."

Moral of the story? Kill the hog with the first shot and don't disrespect women. Or something like that.

Cheers,

LSP

PS. Why Piers must go back from whence he came - see Guido.

Piers Morgan - Please send him back.

Twister

Hailed at Crack.com as "one of the most unpopular journalists working in the UK," Piers Morgan was once editor of Britain's left-leaning Daily Mirror, until he was fired for running fake pictures of British troops abusing Iraqi prisoners.

But he had made lots of money through shrewd investments in the stock market, and moved to America, where he interviews Oprah on CNN and does Simon Cowell impersonations on America's Got Talent. 

Now it seems as if the media mogul's past is catching up with him.

James Hipwell, a former journalist at the Mirror during 'The Dark Lord's' tenure, has claimed it was "inconceivable" that his old boss didn't know about 'phone hacking at the tabloid.

Morgan has vehemently denied the accusations, stating, “I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, nor to my knowledge published any story obtained from the hacking of a phone. I am not aware, and have never seen evidence to suggest otherwise, that any Mirror story published during my tenure was obtained from phone hacking.”

Dark Lord

But Piers seems to have said something different in 2009 on the BBC's Desert Island Discs, "...people who rake through bins for a living, people who tap people’s phones, people who take secret photographs, who do all that nasty down-in-the-gutter stuff... How did you feel about that?

"Mr Morgan replied: 'To be honest, let’s put that in perspective as well. Not a lot of that went on. A lot of it was done by third parties rather than the staff themselves. That’s not to defend it, because obviously you were running the results of their work.

'I’m quite happy to be parked in the corner of tabloid beast and to have to sit here defending all these things I used to get up to, and I make no pretence about the stuff we used to do,' he told the programme's host, Kirsty Young.

'I simply say the net of people doing it was very wide, and certainly encompassed the high and low end of the supposed newspaper market.'"

"I simply say the net of people doing it was very wide..."

Maybe "The Mad God" will be summoned back to England by its masters?

You can read all about it in the Telegraph and Guido.

Cheers,

LSP

Come on. Move to Detroit.

Detroit

It's tempting to write something about the crazed Norwegian Templar(?!) and the Jihad, or Amy Winehouse, or the peculiar speech delivered by Barak 'He's less of a man than Putin' Obama last night. 

Evil Madman

But the recent 'cash incentives to live downtown' caught my eye.

'Cash incentives to live downtown?' you ask, 'Where?'

Motor City

Detroit, of course. Under a new $4 million scheme to revitalize Motown, first time home buyers will get a $20,000 forgivable loan and renters a grant of $3,000 spread over two years. That's not all, existing owners living in Detroit's post-apocalyptic urban wasteland will be eligible for a $5000 'exterior improvement' grant.

Tempted? Neither am I. Though my old friend 'Red'  (why didn't he get in trouble for firing off a shotgun in an abandoned house last year - why?) might think of applying for the 'home improvement' money.

I'll suggest it when I visit next week before crossing the river to Canada and the comparative safety of Windsor.

Pray for rain.

LSP

Evil, Satanic Dinosaurs!

Buck-Toothed Evil Spirit

Normally I reserve Alien Head Awards for Bishops, like Sean Manchester, Desmond 'little rascal' Tutu, or Jefferts Schori. But the net's been widened.

You see, there's a whole new class of off-world tomfoolery doing the ecclesial rounds; evil dinosaur theorists. Their theology goes a bit like this:

Dinosaurs aren't mentioned in the Bible, they were fierce, bloodthirsty and strange looking. Satan was a snake, similar to a dinosaur, but smaller. Satan created the dinosaurs but God got fed up with their wicked antics, so He destroyed them. That's why they didn't get a place in the Ark, obviously.

Here's an excerpt from Royce & Zolot's seminal work, "Did God Destroy the Dinosaurs?" 

"... Satan turned Earth into a freakish, hellish nightmare world drenched in the blood and gore of violence, death and destruction, an obscene parody of what God had intended. ... His bloodlust became insatiable. Lucifer abused his creative powers by creating a planet with a steamy, wet, tropical climate, a planet populated by dinosaurs, sea reptiles, flying serpents and other abnormal, grotesque creatures and monstrosities. ..."

Who knew? Now we do.

Royce, Zolot, you get an outstanding ten Alien Heads - so do your catholic friends in DFW, but I won't name names.

Well done. Carry on.

LSP

x10

Bishop, Alien, Monkey?

Ingham

Villagers in China have made a shocking discovery, a strange creature that could be one of the long lost Bishops of ACoC. (Anglican Church of Canada) 


Mrs. Mao Xiping thought it was a harmless rabbit until she noticed that the creature had an 'alien face'. Her neighbours agreed it was like nothing they had ever seen before and thought it acted 'a lot like Bishop Ingham, gobbling up everything in sight.'

Space Aliens

After devouring cucumbers, peaches and local churches, the creature was caged in a washing basket and taken to police, who arrested it.


'It has a voracious appetite,' said Mrs. Mao, who remains convinced that she caught ACoC's litigious Bishop of New Westminster.


But experts aren't convinced. 'It could be a Canadian Bishop, or an alien, or a monkey,' said one scientist, 'It's hard to tell.'

Monkey

When last seen, the tiny ACoC was heading into the icy vastness of deep space.


Archbishop Fred Hiltz was unavailable for comment.


LSP

Honestly

Yatesy

Drudge via Reuters:


"Is Britain more corrupt than it thinks?


No, never.


LSP

LSH

Strathcona

Too hot to do much except post an important picture of Lord Strathcona's Horse parading through Calgary. I understand the men, tanks and horses of that outstanding unit are well behind the popular movement to Give Kate Canada.

Loyal

Just sayin'.


Try not to melt.


LSP

Scorcher

Incredibly hot, something like 107 by 10 am this morning, but that didn't stop a drive over to JB's new pasture and a ride.


A few months ago she would have regressed back to being flighty, hard to catch and generally difficult, which was what I expected.

Not at all; JB was easy to catch, saddle, bridle and ride. We got up to some simple walk, trot, canter exercises until the heat got even more searing than it already was. So I was pleased with that, had a good shoot afterwards too, never mind the heat.


On a less sanguine front, unless you happen to be a gold investor, is this (from the Daily Telegraph via Drudge). It's a statement from Peter Hambro, chairman of the U.K's biggest gold listing:

"One of the big US banks texted me today to say that if QE3 actually happens, we could see gold at $5,000 and silver at $1,000. I feel terribly sorry for anybody on fixed incomes tied to a fiat currency because they are not going to be able to buy things with that paper money."


We're all doomed.


Stay on the horse.


LSP

Preston Benediction - Remarkable.

Rarely post videos because I find it a nuisance, but I was struck by this one. Sent from GWB, linguistic philosopher and all round sportsman.

God bless,

LSP

Putin v Obama

Vladimir Putin rides, shoots and likes to hunt whales, from a Zodiak, thank you very much.

Our leader likes to 'get out in the field' too.

Putin has his own cult, which worships him as the reincarnation of a Tsar and St. Paul. 

Of course we're immune from that sort of thing, here in the States.

Cheers,


LSP

Good Arabs

I know it's odd, but both LSP missions are heavily populated by shooters and riders, which means I get to combine pastoral visits with guns and horses and, lately, drive off to Waco where a member of the congregation has a stable of Arabians.

Arabs

They're fine, well trained, intelligent animals and a real pleasure to ride; I took off on Saheem the other day - walk, trot, canter, gallop, run! We sped along, fast and flat. Exhilarating. 


Then it was off to Lake Waco at a more relaxed pace, interspersed with the odd theology conversation.


Rider 1: "So, LSP, are you a Plato/Augustine man, or an Aristotle/Thomist?"
LSP: "Aristotle/Thomist, old chap."
Rider 1: "Thought so."
LSP: "But both are good. Unlike Hauerwas."
Rider 2: "He's bad. Got it all from Yoder."
Rider 1: "Yoder? They worship him at Duke."
LSP: "Useless. Saheem - canter!"

Saheem

And so on. Got into an informal race on the way back, chasing after my Platonist friend, "Rider 1". He has a book out on Just War Theory - sure to be a hit in LSPland.


A big vote of thanks to Miltown Arabians for the pleasure of a great ride - hopefully the first of many.


Stay on the horse,


LSP

Hippy Witches

Albion and Raven

Before settling down to the serious task of travelling backwards in time to meet a "go to press" deadline, I had a quick gaze at the All Seeing Eye's excellent blog. Two witches, Albion and Raven, have been terrorising a Warwickshire town with their scary seances and attempts to communicate with the dead. They've even opened up a "witch shop", the "Whispering Witch".


It seems the terrified locals aren't too keen on this experiment and have taken to using the "Whispering Witch" as a kind of outdoor "privy". You can read about it here.


The All Seeing Eye thinks they're "running" from something/somebody; perhaps they are, but then again, maybe the unholy duo are simply run-of-the-mill Episcopalien clergypersons.


Spark up the fire.


Hope your 4th of July was fun,


LSP

Happy Independence Day!

Back in the day, I used to look out across the Detroit river on Independence Day, watch the fireworks, then listen to the running gun battles breaking out across the Motor(way) City; all from the safety of an apartment in Windsor. The next day you could read all about it, "In a brisk firefight outside the Bastille Bar and Grille, five midnight revelers were killed when assailants opened fire with AK 47s and Uzis. Another seven bystanders were wounded in the ensuing exchange of shots.A further unspecified number of persons were admitted to hospital throughout the night, suffering from gunshot wounds. These are mostly believed to have been caused by the 4th of July custom of discharging firearms into the air..." etc.


Perhaps you think I'm somehow "making that up"? Well, think again.


Whatever the case, have a blessed Independence Day and don't get into any tomfoolery with guns.


Cheers,


LSP

Hog Poem

It's that time of year again, hog poem time:

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the hog wallows,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust. And a shot, the hog is dead.

Apologies to Mr. Eliot.


Hot enough to roast hog on the sidewalk.


LSP

States' Rights

I stumbled across an article by Kirkpatrick Sale, writing for Chronicles. He's against "excessive federal power", which "is so overreaching that it is incompetent and inefficient, and it is so corrupt that it is clandestine and uncontrollable."

This federal power, for Sale, constitutes an "assualt on our liberty" and leads to the following:


"The system we confront is, for all its ineptness and misguided flailing, a powerful one and practiced in the ways of advancing its interests. But resistance is the only sane, intelligent, moral, and practical course. And the only agency, the only locus, for that struggle is to be found in the individual American states. It is not to be found in the family, the neighborhood (where such a unit still exists), or even in the so-called transition towns... all too limited, too powerless."


He quotes John Randolph, "And it is the power of the states to extinguish this government at a blow. They have only to refuse to choose members for the [Senate] or refuse to send electors for the President and Vice President, and the thing is done!"


I'd say there was sympathy for that point of view in Texas.


LSP

Bag Head

some bag head

The Episcopal Church (TEC), under the leadership of Jefferts Schori, the litigious 'boy bishop' of 815 2nd Ave, is in bad decline. It seems that people just don't want to be included in 'inclusivechurch'. To make things better, 'Vestrypersons' met for a church growth seminar. Here's an excerpt:


"The first half-hour was devoted to coffee and meeting one another as the various parish groups assembled. A large circle was then formed, and individual statements were given about hopes for the day. Then the program, or rather the games, began. The stated purpose was to relax us, to get to know one another’s names, and to produce an atmosphere of teamwork. Paper bags covered heads, and people had to form a line or persuade a stony-faced person to smile, etc., for two hours [italics original].

...the leader asked us to show hands if we believed as individuals we would die. Then she said that since death was inevitable, the church too would inevitably die, so we shouldn’t worry about church maintenance and growth. Since we would die, we were “free to live!” It was pointed out that there was a difference between our attachments to 1) the church and 2) bricks and mortar."


Well done.


Carry on,

LSP

Riding

random dog

Sometimes being a Parson can get a little intense; you see, there's a lot of driving to Waco to visit the sick in hospitals and the general business of, by the grace of God, leading two missions to growth. All that to say nothing of selecting bad prelates for the coveted Alien Head awards. Burdensome on the mind, I can tell you.

horse that mysteriously went from $500 to $3000...

So to get back down to earth, I like to shoot and ride, especially the latter and preferably in combination (albeit Dragoon style). I find it clears the mind, keeps up fitness and gives a fine sense of achievement; after all, it's no mean thing to chart the progress of training a fast horse and count the success in the increasing pleasure of the ride.

Food!!

Speaking of which, I've felt far more confident in JB -- after last year's nasty rib-cracking fall -- and have begun to canter/hand gallop her again. She's much smoother in her gaits, with far less tendency to duck, swerve and snake-out, which is a testimony to a 'back to basics' training approach. Since December all we've really done is concentrate on walk, trot and movement around obstacles and she's reacted well to this. But that makes sense, you have to walk before you can run and patient consistency is essential to building that foundation.

JB

I suppose JB has taught me a little of that, which is no bad thing, but I'll spare you the burdensome 'horse lore'. And the reward? Increasing harmony of man and beast, at increasing speed, over the hot Texan countryside. As SBW (great blog) says, Top Result. The next step? More of the same.

Head for Home

Have a blessed Sunday, even if it's hot enough to ignite magnesium in the shade.

LSP

Good News

Free

Got back from an enjoyable ride and shoot to learn that Geert Wilders has been cleared by a Dutch court of "hate speech". His crime? Daring to suggest that Islam isn't some kind of Buddha-meets-Gandhi, pacifist poetry slam, but a "totalitarian political ideology disguised as a religion," whose Koran mandated goal is "to establish the realm of Allah in this world, if necessary by force."

Wilders is free now and I'd say that was good but Mark Steyn's comments on Gates of Vienna are telling:

"And at the end the awkward fact remains: Geert Wilders lives under 24-hour armed guard because of explicit death threats made against him by the killer of Theo van Gogh and by other Muslims. Yet he’s the one who gets puts on trial."

Maybe people like Wilders will help the West understand that a religion founded by a warlord who married a nine year old girl, when not cutting off Jewish heads at Medina, might just, possibly, have something other than peace on its agenda.

In the meanwhile, have a blessed Corpus Christi,

LSP

Bad News

There was a mighty storm here last night, so I stood on the the front porch and watched the sky light up with lightning as the rain lashed down. Like being on the prow of a ship in a gale.

Then, in the morning all was calm and blissfully cool. Pleasant. I made myself some tea and went out back to relax, only to see... that a large tree had fallen on my neighbour's house from the church car park. Disaster! No one was hurt, thank God.

Speaking of disaster, I just learned, via Ballylong and David Kearns, that Fr. Kit Cunningham had a bad past. It's on Damian Thompson's blog -- I've removed my post and agree with DT's comments. I wish I could think of something uplifting to say about this, but I can't.

Watch out for falling trees.

LSP

Texas Beats South Ken

Pit Stop

Back in the olden days, I used to enjoy lounging about in South Ken with the Fact Compiler. He'd say, "But LSP, America is so provincial!" That's absurd. We have "Mojo's".

Cold Air?

We have "Valley Mills",

Dirt Road

the road to Waco,

JB

horses

tasty

and Beer Can Chicken.

+ we can own pistols without being thrown into jail.


I like all those things. A lot. The moral of the story? Texas beats South Ken.


Every blessing for Trinitytide,


LSP