Monthly Archives: September 2013

Catching Up, the Cardinals and Peronist-Fascism

1.  Sorry for the break in posts of late.  I took the Van out for a spin and parked it next to a different body of water for a while.  But I’m back in my home-base parking spot now.  Home sweet home.

2.  Yes, I saw that Karl Denninger announced that he is going quasi-Galt.  By the sounds of it I don’t think he has declared a tax strike per se, but only committed to voluntarily reducing his income in order to minimize his tax liability, but will still be filing returns, etc.  I personally do not think this goes far enough.  I think that a bold refusal to even file is what is required.  The regime clearly doesn’t care if a person or persons reduces their income – heck, the Cloward-Piven strategy and Marxism in general are all about destroying small businesses and the middle class, getting as many people out of work as possible, and running up debt until the system implodes.  Voluntary reduction of income without the clear refusal to recognize the IRS and the FEDGOV as legitimate by refusing to file, it seems to me, isn’t really sending a message of fearless resistance to the tyrannical regime.  By filing at all, there is still the acknowledgment of a deference to and a fear of the regime.  So at that point, the reduction in income is only hurting the individual and any employees, because as many have pointed out, the FEDGOV will just print that which it does not collect because currency debasement is a feature for these people, not a bug.  This question isn’t about money per se.  It is about refusing to acknowledge or fear an illegitimate state.  It is the act of moral courage and defiance that is the weapon – not the reduction in economic activity.  The analogy would be as if the man in Tiananmen Square was standing in front of the tanks in order to force the Chinese government to have to incur the cost of cleaning his blood and squished guts off of the tank tracks, and NOT making the moral statement that he was not afraid of the state, even unto the point of death, and thus the state had no real power over him.  But, having said that, I have mad respect for KD and certainly wish him well.

3.  Thanks to one and all who have sent emails sharing their experiences in the janitorial arts field.  We all agree that it is a wonderful, contemplative mode of work and time well spent.  I actually knew this before, as I cleaned the house of a neurosurgeon and his family when I was a teenager, and the quality of the “thinking time” was second only to the deep thinking that goes on in the shower.  Having a repetitive or routine task to keep the body occupied sets up the mind the soar.  I pretty much planned out my life, meaning education and career path, vacuuming those folks’ house.  I still remember where all of the electrical outlets are in that house!

4.  I heard a rumor about a month ago that I alluded to in the last post but sat on, but I think I’ll go ahead and post it here because it looks like it may be coming to fruition within the next few days.  The Pope is probably going to dissolve the College of Cardinals, and perhaps even the Cardinalate itself.  Now given the individual men who comprise the college of Cardinals today, one might be tempted to say, “Yipee!”  Indeed.  Roger Mahoney should be arrested and die in prison.  Timothy Dolan is a politicking imbecile who missed his calling as a third rate Mexican game show host.  I could go on and on.  There are literally only three or four Cardinals today who could be called “decent”.  So what’s the problem if in fact Francis dissolves the Cardinalate?

We have to understand Bergoglio’s politics first.  Bergoglio is a Peronist-Fascist.  You all know the Argentinian strongman Juan Peron and his wife Eva Peron from the musical Evita.  The closest comparison one can make of the Peronist milieu is to Mussolini’s Blackshirt Italy.  Yeah.  Charming.  Bottom line, we are talking about a Marxist variant that demands state control of private business.  Peronist-Fascism is also rabidly, rabidly anti-aristocracy and anti-clerical.  This is why when I heard the scuttlebut that Francis was going to dissolve the College of Cardinals, I thought it a very plausible scenario.  The Cardinals are an aristocracy – they are literally the Princes of the Church.

IF Francis does this, it will gin up populist support – but don’t be fooled.  This is a very common maneuver among Marxists.  What the strongman does after dissolving a body is to then reform a new body populated entirely with his own hand-picked men.  Same song, second verse.

We must also remember that Bergoglio is a Jesuit hippy straight out of the 1970s.  Hippies are defined by their hatred of authority.  Thus, as I have said from the beginning, Bergoglio has always and still does hate the central authority aspect of the Church.  This is why he referred to himself from literally his first moment as Pope not as “Pope” but as “Bishop of Rome”.  We have a pope who in his heart rejects the papacy itself.  Bergoglio does not believe that the Church should be governed by a central authority and instead should be broken up into local synods and bishops conferences who then basically “vote” on what their local “churches” hold as truth.  In short, Francis wants to turn the Catholic Church into the Episcopal “church”, which is to say, to destroy the Catholic Church from the inside-out.  If you don’t believe me, just look at this quote from his now-infamous interview with the heretical Jesuit magazine America published two weeks ago:

“The image of the church I like is that of the holy, faithful people of God. This is the definition I often use … the people itself constitutes a subject. And the church is the people of God on the journey through history, with joys and sorrows. Thinking with the church, therefore, is my way of being a part of this people. And all the faithful, considered as a whole, are infallible in matters of belief, and the people display this infallibilitas in credendo, this infallibility in believing, through a supernatural sense of the faith of all the people walking together.”

This is not Ratzinger talking.  This is the not-terribly-bright South American Jesuit Bergoglio talking, so we must unpack this statement as such.  This is Bergoglio falsely painting the popular will of the people as infallible, and truth as a derivative of the people.  The Truth is Jesus Christ, and the Church and every person that ever has or will exist is a derivative of HIM.

Francis wants to de-centralize the Magisterium, reduce to nothing the teaching authority of the Church, and essentially put things up to a vote in order to make himself and the post-Vatican II “newchurch” popular in the world, which is his entire metric of success.  Souls attaining the Beatific Vision or being lost to hell?  Not so much.  Stop and think about that.  90+% of ethnic Catholics of breeding age contracept, which is a mortal sin.  53% of ethnic Catholics in the U.S. voted for an antichrist in the 2012 election.  It is now thought that more than 50% of ethnic Catholics in the U.S. and Europe favor sodomite faux-marriage, and reject the notion that sodomy is even a sin.  Fewer than 20% of Mass-attending Novus Ordo Catholics in the U.S. and Europe know or believe that Jesus Christ is physically, substantially present in the Eucharist.

And now a truth that many of you will find deeply unpleasant.  Democracy is a terrible system that rapidly devolves into the tyranny of the mob who then, without fail, install a tyrant.  The founders of the now-dead American republic were quite open about this.  Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  Yup.  And the American republic didn’t even survive 240 years.  The best system of government is a meritorious aristocracy that elects a monarch.  Think about it.  Shouldn’t the good, moral, intelligent people be elevated to positions of power irrespective of their family ties?  And then, shouldn’t those people elect from among their ranks a “chief executive” who serves as a final authority when needed?  Because as we all know, SOMEONE has got to be in charge; the buck has to stop with someone or else utter chaos ensues.  Remember the term “subsidiarity”?

Bergoglio and his Jesuit-hippy milieu reject this truth.  They gin up popular support by declaring that the “poor” are intrinsically morally superior to the “rich”, and that the “poor” should call the shots and the “rich” should be suppressed.  The problem with that is that a healthy society does tend to stratify in terms of economics, academics and administration along intellectual and/or moral lines – note I said a HEALTHY society, which our modern society clearly is not.  Today in the West imbeciles and psychopaths prosper in business and government while intelligent people of morality are marginalized if not destroyed, and genuine academia is destroyed while a faux-academe becomes a propaganda arm of the state.

While I will be the first and loudest to concede that the College of Cardinals today is a wretched hive, the STRUCTURE is good.  The unworthy men inside the College should be purged and replaced with men who actually MERIT the title “Prince of the Church”.

IF Francis actually does dissolve the Cardinalate, don’t kid yourselves – there will still be a ruling body – in fact, the new ruling body will be far, far more “powerful” and compact, and will be composed entirely of a close circle of pure idealogues hand-picked by the top man who will be hailed and glorified as a hero of the people, and will, no doubt, attempt to impose their modernist agenda, all the while trumpeting that it is all the “infallible will of the people”, and being done for “the good of the people”, and the world and its Prince will love them for it.  There is nothing new under the sun.  History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes without fail.

Sweet Jesus, please let me be wrong, and please grant your Church relief from the Gates of Hell which are pressing down on us harder every day, even though we richly deserve hell for our faithlessness and tepidity.

Starting Monday Off Right

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

St. Jerome, patron saint of grumpy people.

St. Jerome, patron saint of grumpy people.

One of my favorite St. Jerome quotes:

“The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes, without speaking, confess the secrets of the heart.”

I Am Black But Beautiful ….

Yes.  It has finally happened.  I have joined the New Black Panther Party.  Y’all dirty crackers can call me Queen Beyonce Shabazz henceforth.  Hotep.

Nah, I just want to take this opportunity to put one of the more edifying books of scripture in front of y’all dirty crackers, er, excuse me, sorry — in front of y’all gentle people as we all navigate these dark and frightening days in the Church.

If you aren’t familiar with the Canticle of Canticles, aka the Song of Songs, aka the Song of Solomon, dude, get about it.  The depth and aching beauty of this love poem, and the jaw-dropping prophecy in every single phrase is something that could, by itself, convert people, if only people would explain it and talk about it.

Yes, it is erotic poetry.  Darn right, because as I have tried to explain many, many times, love, sex, boy-girl and then husband-wife relationships and all of that good stuff is of enormous importance and is one of the most powerful means that God uses to help us understand Him and His relationship to us in our earthly lives.  The reason why satan uses these very same things as his number one tool in destroying lives and ruining souls is precisely because erotic love and the marital sex act itself are so good and powerful, and thus able to be corrupted and turned into such horrific evil, to wit: sodomy.  The best way to combat satan in his use of the marital embrace  and erotic love is NOT to pretend that sex doesn’t exist, or that it is intrinsically evil.  The best way to combat satan is to explain it so that people can see the beauty and most especially the POTENTIAL HOLINESS uniquly imbued into erotic love and the marital embrace.  Sadly, I think most Christian people today have a warped view of the marital embrace as an embarrassing yet necessary physical process akin to the elimination of waste.  And don’t get me started on how the feminist culture has nearly destroyed courtship and marriage.

Anyhow, the Canticle of Canticles is a dialog between Jesus Christ and His Bride, The Church.  Again, most people don’t know this, and the dialog isn’t demarcated so you have to pay close attention to catch the shifts in the voice between Our Lord and His Bride.

I post this today because literally the very first verses in the Canticle speak directly to those of us who are looking at what is going on in the Church today, namely the chastisement that is Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ and the Successor to the See of Peter, and the majority of bishops and priests today who are themselves also a “most terrible castigation” upon the world, to quote St. John Eudes, and may be tempted to despair.

The first thing I would remind one and all of is the fact that we richly, richly deserve this.  As I said back in March when Francis was elected, if we had gotten the Pope we actually deserve, we would now have Pope Snoop Dogg.  God is Just.  And God is angry.  Very, very angry.  With us.  The world slaughters at least 50 million innocent babies per year, with cheerleader and financier numero uno being the Former United States of America.  Sodomy is everywhere, with cheerleader and financier numero uno being the Former United States of America.  Fornication is everywhere.  Blasphemy is everywhere.  Apostasy is everywhere, with cheerleader and financier numero uno being the Former United States of America.  What do you expect?  What kind of God would He be if He not only sat back and allowed all of this, but continued to BLESS His faithless, degenerate, apostate people in the Former U.S. and everywhere else in the now-defunct “Christian World” who haven’t just turned their backs on Him, but are actively in league with satan, fighting Him tooth and nail?  And since basically NO ONE is doing any penance or making any real effort to seriously fight evil and turn back to God, y’all can expect things to get MUCH, MUCH worse.

Second, Our Lord told us that “the gates of hell will not prevail” against His Church.  If there was ever anything that one could “take to the bank”, that’s it.  Now, we have our faces smushed up against the gates, and it seems like more and more pressure is being exerted and the smushing is getting more and more intense, but the Church Militant will exist, uninterrupted, until Our Lord returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, no matter what Francis says or does, and guys, I suspect there are things coming from Bergoglio that are going to make it appear that he is literally attempting to dismantle the Church from the inside out.  More on that soon.

And now to the Canticle:  I’ll paste the key bit here with the footnotes, but I really encourage you to go over to DRBO.org and read the whole thing WITH THE FOOTNOTES, which truly illuminate the allegorical phophecy and make clear which voice – Our Lord or The Church – is speaking.

Let me add one header note – and this is so cool.  Whenever mention is made of “breasts” or “two breasts”, that is referring to the two Great Commandments:  Love God and Love thy Neighbor.

This is chapter one, verses one through five and is The Church speaking to Christ:

Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth: for thy breasts are better than wine, smelling sweet of the best ointments. Thy name is as oil poured out: therefore young maidens have loved thee. Draw me: we will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments. The king hath brought me into his storerooms: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, remembering thy breasts more than wine: the righteous love thee. 
I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Do not consider me that I am brown, because the sun hath altered my colour: the sons of my mother have fought against me, they have made me the keeper in the vineyards: my vineyard I have not kept.

[1] Let him kiss me: The church, the spouse of Christ, prays that he may love and have peace with her, which the spouse prefers to every thing delicious: and therefore expresses (ver. 2) that young maidens, that is the souls of the faithful, have loved thee.

[3] Draw me: That is, with thy grace: otherwise I should not be able to come to thee. This metaphor shews that we cannot of ourselves come to Christ our Lord, unless he draws us by his grace, which is laid up in his storerooms: that is, in the mysteries of Faith, which God in his goodness and love for mankind hath revealed, first by his servant Moses in the Old Law in figure only, and afterwards in reality by his only begotten Son Jesus Christ.

[4] I am black but beautiful: That is, the church of Christ founded in humility appearing outwardly afflicted, and as it were black and contemptible; but inwardly, that is, in its doctrine and morality, fair and beautiful.

Is that not just amazing?  Oh, man.  “The sons of my mother have fought against me…” says the Church to Our Lord.  It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.  And then you think about all of the poor ignoramuses who have fallen for the “black church” con-artists like Jackson, Sharpton and Wright using this passage as some sort of black supremacy battlecry, and it is JUST. SO. PATHETIC.

Yes, some foolish people are probably going to apostasize over Francis.  Those are the same people who deep down probably don’t believe in the Real Presence (er, how could anyone possibly abandon Our Lord in the Eucharist if they actually believe and know that He is there?), and go to Mass as a mere vector for socializing and/or personal glorification.

But, if you get blue, as will be only natural, I strongly, strongly recommend reading the Canticle of Canticles for a reminder of just how much Our Lord loves His Church, no matter how blackened she may be made by those men inside her fighting against her.

Our Lord and His Bride, The Church.   Aw.

Our Lord and His Bride, The Church.
Aw.

 

A Little St. Catherine

From Letter 16, St. Catherine of Siena:

I beg you to make it so, so that hard word will not be said to you as a reprimand from the First Truth, saying, “Cursed be you who were silent.” Oh, be silent no more! Cry out with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that, through being silent, the world is spoiled, the Bride of Christ has paled, her color taken from her …Don’t sleep in negligence any longer. Act at the present time, however you can. I believe that there will come a time when you can no longer act; but now, at the present time, I invite you to strip your soul of all self-love, and dress it in hunger and real, true virtue, to the honor of God and the health of your soul.

St.-Catherine-of-Siena-10

On Jibberish, Flattery and Francis

I’ve had this piece bouncing around in my mind for a while.  If I stall around long enough, an email comes that acts as the perfect launch.  Well, here it is.  Emphases mine:

Dear Ann,
Thank you so much for this post!
I am a 21 year old woman who is in the process of figuring out my vocation. I have attended the Latin mass all of my life and find it incredibly difficult to be faithful to Catholicism in my relationships with non-Catholics and my Catholic friends who do not take their faith as seriously as I do. I am trying to be a good example to them while allowing our relationships to flourish and continuing to grow in my faith, but I’ve found that my commitment to my friendships is having a negative impact on my faith. I’m being forced to choose which is more important and I find that extremely painful. It is exactly as you say, my desire for human love and affection is interfering with my faith and principles; not on a serious level ….yet! But I do see that it is setting me up for bigger compromises down the road. This article clearly and uncompromisingly defines true love as Our Lord’s love for us, ie. selfless love solely for the sake of those beloved and doing what is best for THEM, regardless of the physical, mental, and emotional cost to HIM, the Lover.
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain a vital piece of Catholicism that has been hiding in plain sight all of my life! I’ve been trying to imitate Our Lord, but so far, I’ve been confused as to what I’m supposed to be imitating. There are so many twisted and warped ideas out there that have been messing me up, namely the media and the culture of “nice” that has seeped into me and all of the people around me. This non-contingent Christlike love is what I should be striving for in all of my relationships. I finally have the answer to a question that has been burning in my mind since I was fourteen years old. That question is “What is true love?” You’ve laid the answer out for me in black, white and red. For that I am eternally grateful!!

Why do you people all come here and read what I write and say, whether it be on financial markets, politics or theology?  How many of you came here due to one topic – say the MFGlobal meltdown – but now come and read my posts about Catholicism?  Or vice versa?  How many of you disagree with me, but still read every word I write and listen to every audio interview or video presentation I do?

The answer is because whenever I speak I always SAY SOMETHING CONCRETE, and I say it in extremely clear, even BLUNT language.  I make points.  Clear, explicit points.  I lay out a foundational premise, build a logical, rational framework on top of it, cite examples, make direct instructional analogues, and before you know it, we have all learned something.  This is called “rhetoric”, which is the art of discourse.  For some reason, I am really, really good at rhetoric, and good rhetoric is attractive.

There were never any conversations around a family dinner table that honed my rhetorical skills when I was a kid.  I was basically silent in school.  I just listened.  I suppose in all of that listening I learned how others successfully framed arguments and presented information in a compelling way and merely copied those techniques.  And, perhaps, I get help sometimes.  I will admit to having the experience while speaking extemporaneously before groups of listening to myself almost as an observer and – God forgive me – being impressed with something I said that had never occurred to me before the moment it came out of my mouth.  “Wow.  That was good.  Gotta remember that.”

Now there is an important catch in this.  There can be “attractive” rhetoric that is all lies, and great speakers who are utter loons, or worse.  Hitler comes to mind.  Hitler was making clear points, which were lies – but stated with great bluntness and clarity, and made logical progressions that were built completely on false premises, and was obviously a captivating speaker, and he was evil to the bone.  Just because the rhetoric qua rhetoric sounds “good” doesn’t mean that it is TRUE.  Always remember that.

Okay.  Enough of the self-congratulation.  Let’s talk about this modern problem of people speaking in mindless platitudes and even abject jibberish and being hailed as geniuses for doing so.  Two obvious examples of this are Obama and Francis.  I will be focusing on Francis, because I think we are all probably on the same page with regards to Obama’s mindlessness.

Last week a letter Francis wrote to an atheist journalist made headlines because in it Francis said something like, belief in God is not necessary – you only need follow your conscience.  He has said things like this before – do good works and we’ll meet each other there, etc.  The press picks these things up, splashes them all over every paper and website all over the planet, enormous, incalcuable damage is done to human souls by them, and never ONCE has Pope Francis made ANY effort whatsoever to clarify these horrific, horrific blunders and mis-statements.  And spare me the wailing and moaning – if you need 60,000 words on advanced Aristotelian or Thomistic thought as it applies to a pagan living in the Amazon River Basin in the third century Before Christ in order to make Pope Francis’ statement even MILDLY conform to, er, CATHOLICISM, then the problem is his, and it isn’t a problem of being “too smart”.  It is exactly the opposite.  Pope Francis is a theological and rhetorical idiot.

I actually read the entire text of the letter Francis sent in response to the inquiries of the atheist journalist about Christianity and the Church.  Several times.  It is utterly incomprehensible jibberish from beginning to end.  It is a series of buzzwords and catchphrases pasted together until something resembling paragraphs form.  I assume that the atheist journalist has a brain in his head, and has now received a letter from the Vicar of Christ in direct “response” to his questions about the Faith and the Church, and there isn’t a cogent, direct answer in the entire thing.  If I were the atheist journalist, I would now walk away from Christianity forever with a smug feeling of certitude that it is all nonsense, because the pope himself couldn’t even form a single lucid, much less persuasive point or explanation in response to my inquiries.

And the press and the politicians and the neo-con “Kathy’s” in the commboxes read this tripe, and being so eager to appear “smart” and “deep” and to build up (particularly the press) a man who is a veritable wrecking ball against the “brick-by-brick” attempted reconstruction of Christian Culture, SWOON and fawn over it, just as the people swooned and fawned over the buck-naked emperor as he paraded down the street.  What these people are doing is the sin of flattery.

It’s jibberish.  It is intellectual bluffing.  He is a contra-educated South American Jesuit.  There’s no “there” there.  These guys were taught Marxism and pop psychology in seminary, and then ordained priests.  They were taught to ruthlessly disdain and resent EVERYTHING “old”, including the Church Itself, and instead to stare intently down at their own navels, marvel at the lint, and then build a “newchurch” out of that lint.  Bluffing is all they can do, and edifices built out of lint can only ever collapse – but they are taught that these edifices of lint are vastly superior to anything before, and even to relish in their “nuanced dialogue”, aka jibberish, with the world.

I will leave you with two quotes.  The first is Pope Francis speaking yesterday.  The second is from the thirteenth chapter of the book of Ezechiel.  Be sure to read the footnotes.
Kyrie eleison.

“I dare say that the Church has never been so well as it is today. The Church does not collapse: I am sure of it, I am sure of it!”
Pope Francis, The Vicar of Jesus Christ on Earth, Successor to the See of Peter

–**–

Even the prophets of Israel that prophesy to Jerusalem, and that see visions of peace for her: and there is no peace, saith the Lord God. And thou, son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people that prophesy out of their own heart: and do thou prophesy against them, And say: Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to them that sew cushions under every elbow: and make pillows for the heads of persons of every age to catch souls: and when they caught the souls of my people, they gave life to their souls. And they violated me among my people, for a handful of barley, and a piece of bread, to kill souls which should not die, and to save souls alive which should not live, telling lies to my people that believe lies. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I declare against your cushions, wherewith you catch flying souls: and I will tear them off from your arms: and I will let go the souls that you catch, the souls that should fly.  And I will tear your pillows, and will deliver my people out of your hand, neither shall they be any more in your hands to be a prey: and you shall know that I am the Lord. Because with lies you have made the heart of the just to mourn, whom I have not made sorrowful: and have strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his evil way, and live. Therefore you shall not see vain things, nor divine divinations any more, and I will deliver my people out of your hand: and you shall know that I am the Lord. 
Ezechiel 13: 16-23

Sew cushions: Viz., by making people easy in their sins, and promising them impunity.

They gave life to their souls: That is, they flattered them with promises of life, peace, and security.

Violated me: That is, dishonoured and discredited me.

To kill souls: That is, to sentence souls to death, which are not to die; and to promise life to them who are not to live.

Starting Monday Off Right

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

That's St. Basil in the background cheering.

That’s St. Basil in the background cheering.

We have covered St. Mercurius (who was born Philopater) before.  This is him slaying Julius the Apostate.  Check the two-fisted technique.  And those are his BACK-UP systems.  He has already deployed his spear.

Saints Basil and Mercurius, pray for us!

This Is Why I Keep Doing This (401k Happy Story)

I posted a template letter here for folks to use when requesting that their employer let them out of their 401k and actually take possession of their money last August 23rd and received the following email today:

Miss. Barnhardt:
 
Thank you so much for being “a voice crying in the wilderness”. Prior to your warnings I liquidated any and all assets held in the U.S. marketplace.  The only place I was unable to rescue my family’s money was my 401k.  When I called the brokerage I was informed of the few and limiting reasons my 401k plan allowed withdrawals; I fit none of them and in-service wasn’t one of them.  So I prayed to God and “let go” of the money emotionally by offering it to Him.
 
Then you posted the form letter which requested the plan change to allow in-service withdrawals.  I formatted that letter to fit my situation (company names, etc.) and sent it to my company’s finiancial officers.  This week I was informed that they had approved my request and the plan will be amended to allow withdrawals.  I am grateful to you for all of your writings and example.
 
My wife and I pray for you.  May God’s peace be with you all the days.
Hooray!  Yay!  If that’s the only good I ever do, then it has all been worth it.  Yay!!  Here is the template again with a couple of minor additions:
—————————————–

This was drafted and sent in by a reader, and I think it is a great template for anyone who wants to petition their employer to let them out of their 401k. I would recommend sending it via certified mail – let them know you’re dead serious, and try to get as many of your co-workers to do the same as you possibly can.

*****MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU REPLACE THE BRACKETED AREAS WITH INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOU AND YOUR COMPANY. FAILURE TO DO THIS WILL RESULT IN YOU MAKING A FOOL OUT OF YOURSELF AND DRASTICALLY REDUCING THE CHANCES THAT ANYONE WILL LISTEN TO YOU OR TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY.******

———————————————

To: [PLAN SPONSOR]
[PLAN SPONSOR ADDRESS]

Dear Plan Sponsor,

I am writing to petition that the [LEGAL NAME OF THE PLAN] be amended to allow in-service withdrawals. As the plan stands now, the only way for actively employed participants to retrieve money is through a 401K loan or a Hardship Withdrawal. Neither of these two options allow participants full access to their assets. While I understand the purpose of the [LEGAL NAME OF THE PLAN] is to encourage savings for retirement, I fear that my assets are not entirely safe from fraud and theft and will not be available to me at retirement.

Numerous recent examples indicate the financial markets are rife with fraud, often at the peril of the individual investor. From what I gather of recent events I do not feel that my money is safe and currently have no recourse to move my assets from the [LEGAL NAME OF THE PLAN] to other investment vehicles.

Examples of recent fraud and theft in the financial industry:

MF Global

MF Global was a global commodities brokerage that declared bankruptcy in October of 2011. It was discovered that approximately $1.6 Billion in customer segregated funds were stolen and used to meet capital requirements in the weeks leading up to bankruptcy. To date, no one stands to face criminal charges.

Peregrine Financial Group (PFGBest)

In July of 2012 it was discovered that PFGBest stole approximately $220 million of customer funds. While claiming to have over $200 million in bank accounts, it turned out that PFGBest held only close to $5 million. The fraud appears to have spanned multiple decades despite the firm being regularly audited. The PFGBest government-backed auditors were not independently verifying the bank account balances and were instead using forged documentation provided not by the bank, but by the firm itself.

Sentinel Management Group (SMG)

In August of 2007, Sentinel Management filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Investigators found that Sentinel leveraged over $500 million in customer funds as collateral for a loan from Bank of NY Mellon. This loan was used to fund in-house speculative trading. The National Futures Association (NFA) was the auditor of Sentinel, and has admitted to signing off on audits despite not fully understanding the books or the accounting method used. The NFA admits that it didn’t audit SMG properly.

However, what is most frightening is the recent ruling in the Sentinel Management Group case by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled that the Bank of NY Mellon be placed first in line ahead of customers seeking the return of their money.

“That Sentinel failed to keep client funds properly segregated is not, on its own, sufficient to rule as a matter of law that Sentinel acted with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud its customers.”
U.S. Circuit Judge John D. Tinder

This ruling shows that not only does the Bank of NY Mellon move to the front of the line, but that using customer segregated funds as collateral is no longer considered a crime, and that co-mingling customer segregated funds with proprietary funds is no longer considered fraud. This ruling implies that customer assets held at a bank or trust are the legal property of any counterparty to loans the depository institution takes.

LIBOR Rate Manipulation

Last summer, Barclay’s Bank admitted that it tried to manipulate the LIBOR during the financial crisis in 2008. This rate is used as a reference for a range of financial products like car loans, adjustable-rate mortgages, student loans and credit cards. During the Barclay’s Bank inquiry it was discovered that many other banks may have also been manipulating LIBOR rates. This means that hundreds of millions of consumers, investors and businesses have been paying a manipulated interest rate.

Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (Nationalizing 401K Assets)

In 2010 the Employee Benefits Security Administration solicited feedback from plan administrators and other fiduciaries on the idea of whether or not they “could or should enhance, by regulation or otherwise, the retirement security of participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans and in individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) by facilitating access to, and use of, lifetime income or other arrangements designed to provide a lifetime stream of income after retirement.” This idea has also been called “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts” and been proposed by Vice President Biden and others in the current administration, with preliminary Senate hearings having been held on this plan in 2010. The core of the proposal is to force IRA and 401K plans to offer an annuity of sorts so participants are guaranteed a return on their assets in perpetuity. The preferred investment asset would likely be United States Treasury notes. As America stares down almost $16 Trillion of debt, conservatively projected to increase to $20 Trillion in 2016, forcing 401K and IRA assets into Treasury notes would be a tempting solution to shore up our nation’s dire financial situation.  In Europe, Poland just confiscated 50% of all private retirement accounts and pensions.

Source:
http://webapps.dol.gov/FederalRegister/HtmlDisplay.aspx?DocId=23512&AgencyId=8&DocumentType=1

As you can see, despite stringent controls that were placed on the financial industry following the collapse of Enron (Sarbanes-Oxley) and the 2008 financial crisis (Dodd-Frank), rampant fraud not only still occurs, but has increased exponentially, and the regulators charged with protecting the investor are either complicit or negligent. When there is a collapse the individual investor cannot find justice through the courts as Dodd-Frank has imparted a statutory “super-priority” to all megabank counterparties that makes recovering collateral from any institution or fund holding derivatives in its portfolio impossible.

I do not feel that my 401K assets are safe at this point and strongly believe that in the event of a collapse of the trustee [NAME OF THE TRUST WHERE ASSETS ARE HELD] I will have no recourse to recoup my investment. At this point I do not have the ability to withdraw any of my assets held by the plan. Therefore I petition you to consider adding an in-service withdrawal option to the [LEGAL NAME OF THE PLAN] that would enable participants like me to withdraw our assets entirely.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
[NAME]
[ADDRESS]
[EMAIL]
[PHONE]

Confirmation from the former Commandant of the US Army War College

Retired Army Major General Robert Scales in his piece from the Washington Post:

“Over the past few days, the opinions of officers confiding in me have changed to some degree. Resignation seems to be creeping into their sense of outrage. One officer told me: “To hell with them. If this guy wants this war, then let him have it. Looks like no one will get hurt anyway.”

Soon the military will salute respectfully and loose the hell of hundreds of cruise missiles in an effort that will, inevitably, kill a few of those we wish to protect. They will do it with all the professionalism and skill we expect from the world’s most proficient military.”

As a former commandant of the War College, Gen. Scales is himself personally responsible for the culture of effeminate capitulation, obsession with power and money, and abject moral cowardice that is the veritable hallmark of the United States military officer corps today.  This pathetic culture has been inculcated in the service academies and military academic centers (US Army War College, Command and General Staff College (CGSC), School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), etc.) by a culture planted and fertilized by the Communist infiltrators of the U.S. dating all the way back to the mid-20th century.  If you don’t believe me, just stop and consider how the leading tip of the “politically correct” culture today is the United States military.  Every day it seems there is a new moral outrage involving the celebration of sodomy, the protection of islam and the suppression of Christianity within the US military and service academies.

I erred in my recent interview with Elijah Jonson when I said that not a single man in the US Military was willing to stand up and call out the Obama regime.  LTC Terry Lakin did it.  And Terry spent five months in the Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth.  But beyond that, he lost his pension.  As a Lieutenant Colonel flight surgeon, that loss in lifetime benefits was estimated at over $2.5 million – and that was for a field grade reservist.  I apologize to LTC Dr. Lakin for my mistake.

Military personnel can retire after 20 years of active duty service. A military member who retires at 20 years of service receives 50 percent of his/her monthly base pay. For each year served over 20 years, the military member receives an additional 2.5 percent, up to a maximum of 100 percent of their base pay, at 40 years of service.

Additionally, the base pay used is called “High-3”, meaning that it is the average of the three highest years of the man’s career.  AND a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) tied to the CPI (Consumer Price Index) is added to the pay schedule every year.

We are talking about considerable amounts of money, easily into the seven figures for most of these guys, and remember, most guys retire young enough that they can embark on a “second career” and essentially have a double income in middle and/or late middle age.  Corporations are falling all over themselves to have retired Generals sitting on their boards, and those are basically meaningless figurehead positions.

Here is the 2013 pay table.  Scroll down as there are multiple pages.  As you can see, flag officers are generally looking at a five-figure per month lifetime pension.  That is the carrot these guys are all chasing and none are willing to sacrifice (LTC Lakin excluded, of course.)

What’s a man’s price?  Apparently the promise of a five-figure per month pension to be paid out by a cadre of neo-Stalinist oligarchs running a totally and completely insolvent, illegitimate government that likely won’t survive more than a few years, much less decades.

Good luck with that, gentlemen.

True Love is Not Contingent on Reciprocity

Have you ever loved someone who hates you?

If you haven’t, or don’t, then you’re missing out on one of the greatest graces in the earthly human experience.  I’m not sure how one could even begin to understand Christ Crucified if they have never shared in the foundation of His Passion, what I will henceforth call “non-contingent love”.  To look upon a crucifix is to look upon Love, but not just reciprocal love as most people experience it:  I love you, but ONLY IF you love me back.  If you don’t return my love, then I will stop loving you.

That is NOT love.  That is egoism, in all of its narcissistic glory.  And yes, here is where Ayn Rand’s “rational self-interest” gets smashed to dust and why her little world is every bit as disordered and doomed to failure as the Marxist world.

Let’s go through examples that everyone can easily relate to.  First, the love of parents for children.  Infants do not love.  Infants are completely self-centered and are incapable of self-sacrifice for another.  They are totally, completely dependent on others for their survival, and are incapable of feeling or showing gratitude, and beyond that will keep the people who provide for their survival up all night with no thought for their reciprocal well-being.  Any yet… parents love their children.  Grown adults in their prime feel such profound love for these screaming little poo factories that they would without hesitation die in order to save the lives of their children who as of yet do NOT reciprocate their love.  This is a form of non-contingent love.

Even as children grow older and become adults and fall into drugs and crime and perversion, some of whom viciously betray their parents in the process, most parents report that a wounded yet unshakable love always persists.  They can never, ever truly hate or be completely indifferent to their children, no matter how horrific the childrens’ descent and betrayal may be.  Sadly, many children are put on the path to ruin by parents who do indeed inordinately desire reciprocal love from their children and thus do not properly form and discipline the children in their formative years.

Now you might be wondering how this could possibly apply to marriage.  How could spousal love NOT be contingent upon reciprocity?  Isn’t reciprocal love the point in marriage?  Not according to the vows.  Proper, traditional marriage vows actually STRESS non-contingent love between spouses.  For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, ’til death do us part. 

If your spouse comes down with Alzheimer’s Disease and in the early-to-mid stages becomes cruel and hateful toward you (as is not uncommon among Alzheimer’s patients), do you stop loving them?  Once your spouse is incapable of returning your love due to some physical limitation does your love for them then automatically evanesce?  The answer should be “no”.  “Divorcing” a stricken spouse is, of course, morally illicit and betrays the deeply flawed nature of the love between the two when both were in full health.

I heard a very moving anecdote once about a traditional Catholic woman who was stuck in a Novus Ordo parish with, naturally, an extremely poorly educated priest.  As is sadly common these days, the woman’s husband left her out of the blue after 30 years of marriage and took up with another woman.  This woman’s parish priest urged this lady to get an annullment and join the parish’s “mature singles” club and “move on”.  This was the woman’s reply:

Father, I am still married and will be married until the day either I or my husband die.  Just because my husband has chosen to not honor our perfectly valid marriage vows and no longer loves me does not alter the validity and permanence of those vows or my love for him.  Just because my husband has chosen to commit adultery within our marriage, this does not void our marriage and certainly does not give me some imagined “right” to also commit adultery.  I am Mrs. John Q. Smith, Father, and I would appreciate it if you would kindly remember that.

Pow.  While reciprocity in marital love is certainly a wonderful thing, even marital love should NOT be contingent upon reciprocity.

And this brings us to the true manifestation of caritas (charity, or love) in the world.  We must love people in TRUTH and in HONESTY, not allowing our desire for our love to be reciprocated to prevent us from loving in ways that appear or seem “unkind”.  If your toddler child is about to drink from a bottle of drain cleaner, do you not lunge at the child, yelling, and then smack the bottle out of the child’s hand – even though the child will speciously perceive your actions to be “mean” or even “violent” and then cry in anger at your reaction, which was borne completely on love?

In the same way, do we not tell the drug addict, the sodomite, or anyone else engaging in physically and/or spiritually lethal behavior that what they are doing is wrong and it is imperative that they stop even if that admonition means a reduction or elimination of their esteem for us?  How is their reciprocal esteem for us even relevant at that point?

True, non-contingent love yields honesty.
False, narcissistic love is a seedbed of lies and manipulations.

We cannot properly understand Christ’s admonition to “turn the other cheeck” unless we understand non-contingent love.  “Turn the other cheek” does not mean that we must allow evil and lies to run unchecked.  “Turn the other cheek” does not mean commit de facto suicide before stating harsh truths, and this includes imposing justice, which is itself a fully-enclosed subset of Truth.

“Turn the other cheek” means that we do and say what we must in true charity, and then KEEP LOVING even when our love is returned with a blow, be it physical or emotional.  The emotional blow can be either in the form of hatred, or in the form of indifference.  The point is, the more you love someone in truth, the more likely it is in this fallen world, and particularly this day and age, that your love will NOT be reciprocated, and then *THE MORE YOU MUST LOVE THEM* with no expectation or demand that they ever love you back.

Given all of this, consider our current political and social system.  Is our culture not totally contingent upon reciprocal esteem and quid pro quos?  Is not every word and every action measured by the amount of popularity it generates, with power and wealth coming behind as corollaries?  Is the need to be “liked” not central to most people’s existence?  No one will do the right thing or stand up for the truth because to do so would mean public scorn and ridicule, followed by loss of wealth and property, and THAT is the worst possible outcome according to this horrificly perverted culture.

Oh, it hurts.  It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.  It hurts when your beloved is indifferent toward or hates you.  But think of how Christ feels, and then realize that YOU are the one who callously and maliciously refuses to return His love with every sin and every ingratitude.  Then realize that He still burns with unquenchable love for you, and use that realization to turn around and love others without requiring or demanding reciprocity.

He told us.  Repeatedly.   He told us that we would be hated by the world.  He told us that we would be persecuted, both in macro contexts and in little ways in our individual day-to-day lives.  And then He showed us by dying for us at our own hand, never for a second depriving any of us of our freedom to choose our own actions or whether or not to Love Him.  Only tyrants demand reciprocal “love”, which is no love at all, and is at its core, extremely cowardly.  Be brave.  Love.  Ferociously.  And when your love is not reciprocated, persevere, love more.  That’s how you know it’s genuine.

 

 

Starting Sunday Off Right

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

St. Nicolas.  Wielder of assault weapons and righteous puncher in the mouth of heretics.  Sigh....

St. Nicolas. Wielder of assault weapons and righteous puncher in the mouth of heretics. Sigh….