For those of you who have been around since the lighthearted days of mere koran burnings and denunciations of the financial system, you remember that music used to be a fairly significant part of this blog.  Well, let’s return briefly to those roots, and a song that many will recognize if only from the many posts I have made on it over the years.

This year, obviously, as we are living through the collapse and suicide of the post-Christian west, and most acknowledge the United States of America to no longer exist, it is bittersweet indeed to look at this performance from ARSH 1982 and realize that the world as THEY knew it had less than forty years left.  ARSH 1982 was the highly optimistic early days of Reagan’s “Morning in America”, which became the motto of his ’84 campaign which legit won 49 states.  Mondale won his home state, Minnesota, by only a razor-thin 0.18% margin. In historical terms, this was a blink of an eye ago.

This is a very Lenten song, it seems to me.  Its lyrics harken to the collect prayers of the Masses of Lent, begging God to hear the prayers of His afflicted and sinful people, to deliver them, and to supply what they are lacking in themselves.

But the HUGE allegory in this performance is MANDOLIN BOY.  Don Williams, the bass player, the keyboardist, and even the percussionist are reserved.  But then, there, ever-present in the background is MANDOLIN BOY, dressed in solid bright red, the color of the Passion, of martyrdom… and of PENTECOST.  There is MANDOLIN BOY bouncing and smiling, rocking out his mandolin solos, reminding us all that God hears the prayers of His people, and that YES, God is “planning a good day for me.” Let’s call that the understatement of the day, shall we?

I hope this helps.  #TeamMandolinBoy

Lord, I hope this day is good
I’m feelin’ empty and misunderstood
I should be thankful, Lord, I know I should
But Lord I hope this day is good

Lord, have You forgotten me
I’ve been prayin’ to You faithfully
I’m not sayin’ I’m a righteous man
But Lord I hope You understand

I don’t need fortune and I don’t need fame
Send down the thunder, Lord, send down the rain
But when You’re plannin’ just how it will be
Plan a good day for me

Lord, I hope this day is good
I’m feelin’ empty and misunderstood
I should be thankful, Lord, I know I should
But Lord I hope this day is good

You’ve been the King since the dawn of time
All that I’m askin’ is a little less crime
It might be hard for the devil to do
But it would be easy for You

Lord, I hope this day is good
I’m feelin’ empty and misunderstood
I should be thankful, Lord, I know I should
But Lord I hope this day is good

Your Excellency,

I want to thank you for banning the Traditional Latin Mass at the Franciscan University of Steubenville and for making the order effective immediately. I cannot think of a greater danger to mankind or our Church than this terrible, terrible Mass.

Your pastoral concern for all of your flock, but especially our college students is duly noted. By eliminating this Mass, you are ensuring that none of these future graduates will ever become one of those mean-spirited trads who misread Sacrosanctum Concilium’s affirmation that Gregorian Chant is highly suited for the liturgy, as if it actually said so! Your compassion on the young by erasing any semblance of reverence and sacrifice from their worshipping sensibilities is both laudable and prudent. The last thing we need in our churches are sanctimonious young people genuflecting or, worse yet, kneeling for Communion as if they are trying to be holy. The outdated ecclesiology of striving for holiness has done untold damage to otherwise normal young people who would be better served consuming contemporary media and taking more social action like spray painting graffiti on SUV’s or blowing up car dealerships in the pursuit of environmental justice.

Having said that, I sincerely hope that you intend to update the rest of your diocese to accommodate these new norms. While I am not a Steubenville resident, I have visited and it cannot be denied that St. Peter’s Church is toxically traditional. From its cruciform architecture to the central tabernacle and those oppressive stained glass windows and heavy doors, this structure is a painful reminder of the abusive past that denied us altar girls and promoted anti-feminist and anti-Semitic ideas. Perhaps the best thing we could do is just take the church building down and rebuild. I would suggest a new, rounder building with clear glass doors in the front for that “welcoming” look and an altar in the center of the circle so the community can celebrate itself. A Pachamama statue would be a nice addition too, perhaps mounted on the roof where the congregants enter.

Finally, since this dangerous version of the Mass has been banned, it is of the utmost urgency that every single Latin-English missal be burned or otherwise destroyed immediately. It is too risky that any young people might get some strange ideas by reading the rite and the accompanying prayers. I know a teenage boy who read a copy of the Prayer of St. Ambrose and it took two years of therapy before he finally got the idea of sin out of his mind and began dating. Any notion of being in the so-called “state of grace” or abstaining from the Communion all of us have a right to because of absurd pietistic notions of “mortal sin” must never see the light of day again. This way LGBT people and women in need of abortions can take their rightful place behind the altar for their inevitable ordinations.

Your Excellency, you have taken us out of the dark ages once and for all and I cannot thank you enough for your progressive leadership and protecting all of us from this terrible, dangerous Mass.

Sincerely,

Putting aside the incomprehensible fact that Lewis died an Anglican and never entered the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church (I blame, at least partially, his attachment to his invalid marriage to the American divorcée Joy Davidman), I recommend this film which is very unique in its format – an autobiography presented almost entirely as a filmed monologue with Lewis as a spectator to his own life. I would love to see other autobiographies presented in this way. Can you imagine this format applied to St. Augustine? I found it enthralling. This film focuses on the process of Lewis’ conversion from atheist to deist to Christian.

There aren’t many films these days worth a person’s time, but this one is.

“The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis”

First, watch. Nothing gory here, just pathetic.

“I’m taking over this plane!”

Not so fast — A Massachusetts man was subdued after a violent outburst on a Boston-bound United flight. pic.twitter.com/Sq8yM4ZbGr

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) March 7, 2023

Something I have learned over the years is how to handle drunks, druggies, gypsies and demoniacs who threaten violence in public places, especially churches. I have noticed that this sort of thing is becoming more frequent, and not merely because of any “defund the police” dynamic, but from a deeper source as satan and the demons make bolder and bolder manifestations as the world submits to their rule.

As we watch the video above, we see the male passengers of the plane sitting literally paralyzed as a clearly dangerously insane man explicitly threatens to kill them all. What has happened in our truly sick culture is that the vices of EFFEMINACY (refusing to do the virtuous good because it might reduce one’s personal pleasure and/or comfort) and SLOTH (refusing to do the virtuous good because it is difficult) have caused men to GASLIGHT THEMSELVES whenever they come under attack. That is, men, wallowing in their own effeminacy, tell themselves that what they see happening right in front of their eyes “isn’t really happening”, or is “no big deal”. It takes them far, far too long to respond, if they even respond at all, and our culture is now so far gone that men will now even DEFEND THEIR ATTACKERS purely in order to avoid acting like men and defending themselves, much less the women, children and elderly around them.

So what can one do, even a woman? It’s actually quite simple, and I’ve done this many times, the last time just a few weeks ago when a demoniac entered a church during a Mass I was attending: GIVE PEOPLE PERMISSION TO ACT. In other words, provide leadership to the point of GIVING ORDERS. Quickly scan the space and identify men who could be of help. Disqualify obvious faggots and heterosexual faggots and put them in the same category as elderly women. Then, start giving orders. TELL them, don’t ask them, to rise and approach the attacker. “YOU, YOU and YOU. GET OVER HERE NOW AND HELP.” By TELLING them to act, you have given them permission, which, as passive sheep, they require. Any sense of leadership, initiative or protective impulse has been wrung out of post-Christian man like water out of a sponge. They are incapable of generating it themselves, BUT a few are still capable of contributive action IF and ONLY IF they are given permission by a LEADER.

Once you have a group of men with at least the possibility of subduing a threatening person, give further orders: “If he lunges or touches anyone or pulls a weapon, rush him. Get him face down on the ground.” If I had personally been on that plane, I would have given orders to break both his arms and both his legs. This would completely incapacitate the man without killing him. If required, blows to the head with an improvised cudgel (I have approached threatening people with my metal water flask in hand to use as an improvised sub-optimal blackjack if necessary), or even using an improvised garrotte to knock out via strangulation a threat, is on the table.

Now, many of you reading this might think that I’m just fulfilling my own personal weekend warrior pseudo-masculine fantasies about myself. That may be part of it, but I can also tell you without the slightest doubt due to my own lived experience that some men today will respond to leadership and any semblance of genuine moral authority, EVEN IF THAT LEADERSHIP AND MORAL AUTHORITY IS COMING FROM A WOMAN. Please note the qualifier “MORAL”. It is critical to make the distinction here between the usurpation of authority and pathetic attempts at leadership by screeching harpy feminists, which is precisely the root cause of most men now being de facto castrates, and the rare and sadly occasionally required leadership and moral authority of a woman. Would that it were that I could “let the men handle the situation.” WOULD. THAT. IT. WERE. But as we see in the clip above, the assumed and reliable presence of masculinity is a luxury which our culture no longer affords.

This, once again, brings us to the question of how we present ourselves in public. If I were dressed like an average American slob, and comported myself as your typical American walrus cow feminist, I would wield no MORAL authority, and thus would not be able to effectively LEAD in an emergency situation. But because I am always dressed and comport myself with a gentility that was utterly pedestrian sixty years ago, but is now quite erroneously considered by some a form of LARPing, when I start leading in an emergency situation and giving orders (aka “permission”), it elicits a response. “Oh, crap. THAT lady just took point. This is for real….”

This exact same dynamic applies to men. A well-dressed and comported man (and by that I mean a man wearing actual clothes, i.e a shirt with a collar, pants not shorts, etc., not pajamas, who carries himself with a masculine, serious and respectable bearing) will wield authority over other men, sometimes with only a look. “Get your ass up and get over here” is quite easy to communicate solely with the eyes.

Folks, whether it be on a plane, at Mass, in a restaurant, in a store, at a sporting event, on the street, or ANY situation wherein a drunk or demoniac manifests, and this is only going to keep increasing in frequency, DO NOT do what the people in the clip do – waiting until the very last minute, or until it is too late. If no one immediately takes charge of the situation, if no one provides leadership, if no one gives permission to act, then the simple fact is that YOU are the leader, even if you are a woman – sadly. YOU must take charge, even if you are a woman – sadly. YOU must give the sheep the permission they require, even if you are a woman – sadly. Don’t be effeminate. Don’t be slothful. Don’t gaslight yourself into believing that what is happening right in front of you isn’t happening, or is no big deal, or is normal, or is JUSTIFIED (cough, CoronaScam, cough, death jabs, cough, cough). Don’t be like the people on the plane in the clip above.

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.
St. Thomas Aquinas

If you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.
St. Thomas Aquinas

Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am thy God: I have strengthened thee, and have helped thee, and the right hand of My Just One hath upheld thee.
Ne timeas, quia ego tecum sum; ne declines, quia ego Deus tuus; confortavi te, et auxiliatus sum tibi, et suscepit te dextera Justi mei.
Isaiah 41: 10

I hope this helps.