two minute hate or microaggression

Instapundit, a libertarian blog, is full of reports about sensitive students complaining of microaggression, meaning they decided their feelings are hurt.

Ah but the two minute facebook hate is about a Christian mom whose kid came home with a henna tatoo (which can last for days) in Hindu designs: She saw it as another push to paganism (although my facebook activist points out that it is merely cosmetic, and used by all religions in India).

The hatred? The stupid bigoted mom is not aware of a custom.

Or is it only microaggression, in a season when newspapers report kids learning Islamic beliefs, told to step on a photo of Christ, but not allowed to say Merry Christmas.

Other culture news is that Kentucky will allow clerks not to put their name and tacit approval to same sex unions called marriage by the Supreme court. The press is spinning this as wrong, of course, but Republicans point out that because the previous gov let her go to jail, that he lost the election in a state which is largely Democratic. Of course, the Obama war against coal might have something to do with it too, but I'm not following that part of the story, since I sort of agree with it...

In the two minute hate, I pointed out that Henna allergic reactions are not unknown, and when I was told I was wrong, posted the link from the Cleveland Clinic that reported on the problem now that this is a fad among certain groups.

But it shows that I am a yuppie: I see this as a health problem, where parental imput was not asked.

But of course, a parent who sees this as a danger to their child's soul is ridiculed...

I mean some strict churches forbid tatoos of any sort, along with body piercing.

The part of the bible that is usually ignored by those of us who agree with the guy who wrote the letter to Diogenes and said you can't distinguish Christians by their dress or how they follow benign customs, but you also will find they refuse to "expose" their children or share their wives.

Catholics takt those seriously: Or at least did until Vatican II and now Francis say "who am I to judge".

Uh, Jesus did judge a lot of people...and called them names.

On the home front, a certain party still has no money, so didn't give his employees their Christmas bonus...and sent the boyfriend home (reportedly with a couple hundred dollars as a gift).

Me, I'm going broke: I am trying to stay within the budget but this week I am short since Joy had to pay her local social security bill. I pay it for her, and have for years, but Chano didn't know I was doing it and says he wasn't aware that there is a local social security policy for employees.

Sigh.

Even Msgr Pope is worried

via David Warren. 

 Brunei is forbidding anyone to celebrate Christmas,, as "unIslamic" despite the fact that Muslims are only 60 percent of the population,

ho hum... who cares if a bunch of Pinoy OFW and Chinese ethnics lose freedom of religion?

Ah but how soon until we see Americans jailed for "micro aggression" for posting Christmas decorations? Or fired for wearing a small cross? Or fined thousands of dollars because they refuse to pay so that you can be free to kill your own child in the womb? Or forced to shut down because they want to place at risk foster children in stable homes with a mother and a father? Or fired/ thrown out of medical school because they refuse to do abortions? Or jailed because they preach about marriage being God's plan for men and women to nurture children, not a piece of paper that is anything you want it to mean and having nothing to do with fidelity, faithfulness, or what 50 thousand years of evolution devised as marriage.

It started, of course, with the big "S", but it hasn't stopped there.

I mean, some liberal commentators said the Jihadis got mad because a born again Jew posted  "anti Islamic" articles on Facebook.

Or maybe the murder was mad because it was a "holiday" party and they didn't scrub away every decoration. (Of course the attack had long been planned, requiring time to get guns and explosives and bullet proof vests,( i.e. not something you can get delivered via Amazon overnight),

And then we had articles in major US Newspapers  ridiculing people because they said they would pray for the people hurt and killed. How dare they! the writers of course assumed anyone who prayed was a gun toting Tea party bible thumper. Give up your guns first, sinners/Repent your sins of daring to want to defend yourself.

Yet DW goes on to link to Monsignor Pope's weekly article in the National Catholic Register..

The usually mellow Msgr Pope's Christmas sermon was an eye opener: about Christmas, yes, but it was not sweetness and light, but echoes CSLewis: That the nativity was not a mushy sweet baby in a gilded "cave" but the way God came to earth to fight the world's evils and give hope to men.

A paradox, by a God who seems to love pardoxes and pricking our bubbles of self.

or as one poet put it:

THEY all were looking for a king. To slay their foes and lift them high: Thou cam'st, a little baby thing. That made a womancry

When CS Lewis used the illustration, it was clearer: he wrote it in WWII, when many British agents were working with the anti Nazi underground, and the fact that a single person could form a group and overthrow evil was something quite well know.

But nowadays, when Special Forces Ops do that, they are doing it so quietly that no one notices, unless the real murderers can accuse them of something juicey for a press more eager for headlines and bashing American than finding the truth. 

no heroes allowed.

For a Christian, it means God is not "pie in the sky", nor a man with a beard who zaps you for dirty movies, but a being who is love, and who lived on earth, not as a king but as an ordinary working bloke (carpenters back then didn't just make furniture...they worked construction, just as they do now. So much for the effete Jesus of bad art).
He came to live like us, and know our pain because he too lived and suffered like that.

painting by Joey Velasco

And he showed us how we too should live...so that in our deeds, no matter how small, we are doing it as his hands.

But he also warned us that by doing so we would face ridicule, opposition or worse, because the war is owned by Satan,

Alas, in today's world we are told to do our own thing, and if someone objects, hey they are wrong. Just ignore those hurt by our behavior and a society where children grow up without love, often without parents due to poverty, drugs or parents who don't want to become adults.

joey velasco last supper with street kids

but the fact that Msgr Pope echoed the idea in Obama's world is interesting.

I mean, isn't the President such a wonderful Christian, who wants to make the country a place for the poor to live in peace?

Then why is he busy suing the Little Sisters of the poor? Because they defend a religion that emphasizes the holiness of marriage and of sex in marriage that nurtures new life, seeing life as a blessing, not a curse? Because they take care of the neglected elderly, and if they can be pushed to give in here, they will give in later when euthanasia etc. becomes part of the agenda.

back to the good Monsignor:

The birth of Christ is (as John Eldredge one wrote in “Wild at Heart”) the Great Invasion, a daring raid by the ruler of the forces of Good into the universe’s seat of evil. Spiritually speaking, this is no silent night. It is D-Day. Behind the scenes is a deadly enemy....one of whom we rarely speak: Satan. 

Yet he is active, and involved. Yes, it is a fierce spiritual war. It is war at Christmas! It is a war that was engaged that Christmas, whose definitive victory was won on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but whose wake still ripples forth in dramatic call to choose sides! 

 Yes, fellow Catholics, there is a dragon—even at Christmas. Sorry to get in the way of the tinsel and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. But there is a Satan, and he and his followers are to blame for most of the casualties you see in your family, in our culture and back through history. 

 Yet at Christmas there is also a Son who is born to us—and we name him Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God , Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace (Is 9:6). And He shall reign forever. And thus it is a battle, terrible and yet great. 

Terrible, since it is to blame for most of the causalities we see in our family, in our culture and back through history. But great, since in its midst comes forth at Christmas our victorious Christ. He is the One who, by his grace, snatches us who have answered his call out of the great tribulation to be among those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb—yes, those who conquer by the Word of his testimony and by the Blood the Lamb (cf Rev 7:14; 12:11) Sorry for such a non-traditional message.

 But something tells me that we Catholics who remain in the midst of the current culture wars have to regain a deeper sense of what was really going that Christmas, and this one too. For the danger is that we have become too nice for our own good and that we fail to recognize the battle to which we are summoned and which was engaged that first Christmas. 

yes. One is reminded of Cardinal George's comment: "I expect to die in bed,my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr.

Actual quote HERE.

Sigh. No, his successor it being too PC to die in prison, but that's another story.

I'm not sure, however, that Archbishop Chaput won't get into hot water one of these days (those damn Potowanamies! I knew about him from our Kateri circles long before he got famous and was sent to clean up the mess left by the very easy going and popular "Uncle Tony" in Philly, whose attitude seemed to be so easy going that sin got overlooked: Stealing money? Schtupping altar boys? don't worry, be happy, let's just all get along).

Right now I am very upset at the individual with lots of money who is claims to be a Satanist and plans to desecrate a statue of Our Lady in Oklahoma City.

Why OKC?

well, first because the bishop opposed one of his stunts a few months ago with a stolen desecrated Eucharistic host, so he wants payback.

Well, it's the Bible Belt and a lot of Bible believing Christians also believe the Papists worship idols and worship Mary. So they won't protest with the Catholics, unless Rev Hagee decides to put his two cents in (but he is already in trouble for being nice to the Pope).
of course, there are a lot of good Muslims in OKC who might get upset, but of course they also don't approve of statues.

so that leaves the Catholics.

There are a few things that the stories don't seem to think important but that you should know: Oklahoma is mission territory, so the bishops of OKC and Tulsa are very devout and good pastors to their flock.

Second, a lot of Catholics are not "White" people, but are Native Americans or Mexican ethnics/immigrants who work on farms or in food processing plants.

Right now the Bishop is telling folks to calm down and pray. This is, of course, Oklahoma, and a hot head getting his shot gun out is a real danger.

But of course, there is another way:

When they threatened to desecrate a consecrated host in Boston, the Bishop sued them for theft (so they had to use a non consacrated wafer and did it in secret) But he also held a Eucharistic procession followed by a holy hour (prayer) in church.i

Against all odds, last night became a great victory for the Catholic faith in the Archdiocese of Boston. Rather than a desecration of the Eucharist, the most noteworthy public event in Cambridge was a Eucharistic procession that stretched for several blocks. At Harvard, St. Paul’s church was packed, with many people standing outside the doors, for an hour of adoration ending in Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

If everything is material, all this is nonsense.


Or is it?


this was small, but Cardinal Sin leading a million Pinoys, or the peaceful demostrations led by pastors and bishops that made the Iron curtain fall were not small.

The Satanist remind me of Facebook, where I can read a daily "two minute hate" about some terrible "christian" (out of context of course, often minor and exaggerated, but good for beating up enthusiasm and letting one feel superior to the stupid idiots, aka normal people who have homes and families and worry about making ends meet, not politics.)

I understand Twitter's two minute hate is worse: which is why I don't follow twitter.
how does that phrase go? Haters gotta hate.

 Alas, reports of blood etc on altars and desecrating churches is not unusual: But the cases are rarely publicized, so as not to encourage copy cats.

But throwing blood on statues in public is the next step upward: because it required government approval.

Something is very wrong when the government allows someone to desecrate an image of a woman sacred to one billion Catholics, one half million Orthodox Christians, and a billion plus Muslims.

Why isn't this considered hate speech? Because only politically correct minorities are not allowed to have their feelings hurt (and I don't mean poor inner city minorities, but SJW from affluent families who seem to be busy making all the noise).

One must alas await common sense to come back.

Or maybe not.

I tend to be paranoid: But when Cardinal Dolan and now the very moderate Msgr Pope are warning to be prepared for something bad, one does wonder.

As for me: I'm here safe in the Philippines, and can only pray.

But a note of hope: Cardinal Dolan's full quote:

"I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history."

Sin is real?

an excerpt from an article about Discworld

when Granny brings all that power to bear on the world, it’s in the defense of a simple, humble view of what goodness and evil are. In Carpe Jugulum, she winds up arguing about right and wrong with a novice preacher, who is fearful of making absolute statements — committed to seeing all the shades of gray. Granny rebukes him:
“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”
“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes—”
“But they starts with thinking about people as things …”
Reading that as an atheist, it was the first time I’d seen a definition of sin that didn’t sound like, as Francis Spufford describes our modern use of the word in Unapologetic, a kind of “enjoyable naughtiness” that seemed mostly to do with sex or very expensive chocolates...

But the kind of sin that Granny talks about isn’t an indulgence in something harmless, luxurious and secret. And it’s not the world-shaking evil of a monster or a murderer. It’s a seemingly small rejection of creation and the particular place our fellow people have in it. It’s not always choosing hatred; it can be putting aside love for indifference.But it’s an insidious sort of error that harms me along with the person I’m rejecting. They’ll be hurt by the way I treat them, but I’m wounded by my self-inflicted blindness. I’ve robbed myself of the chance to see the other person as God does, and to love them in his way.,,,
Instead, the work that is left to Granny, and to all of us, more closely resembles St. Therese of Lisieux’s advice to “miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word, always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” In the moment, Pratchett’s heroes are a little more curmudgeonly than Therese, but they keep doing the next right thing: refusing to discard others or see them as things. 

Blasphemy 2.0

  his essay at the Catholic Thing  HERE 

It was a day to ignore the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. For the “Year of Mercy” was being kicked off, in this media circus, with a message too political to leave any room for religion, except in the sense that “climate change” is, itself, a political religion.
Sponsorship and support came from various environmentalist organizations, also active in the cause of “population control.” So far as I follow, the Catholic Church supplied only the endorsement – the pulpit for their preaching – while Our Lady stood neglected, aside.
This incredibly extravagant propaganda display, toggling back and forth between sweet images of animals and nature, and simplistic depictions of threats to them, was reminiscent of the great son-et-lumière demonstrations before the crowds in pre-War Italy and Germany. It is political theatre designed to appeal to the child-like: to mobilize them into some kind of “children’s crusade.”

Two articles by David Warren on the light show to worship Global warming on the most important feast of our Lady (and the opening of the "year of mercy".

But his blog HERE reminds us:

On the very day of the Feast of Our Immaculate Lady, the Mother of God was displaced by that gnostic Nature Mother, in a spectacle projected upon the façade of the first church of Christendom. And this after Catholics had been commanded by the bien-pensant inside to pay obeissance to the strange new gods: to make a shameful sacrifice of their faith and their intelligence, to the beat of the monkey drummers at “COP21.”“The choice is clear,” as Barry Bafflegab loves to say. … It is between putting our faith in the Word of God, and putting it in the hands of miserable, deluded, vicious little men.There was never a conflict between the Church, and genuine scientific inquiry. There will always be a conflict between the worship of God, and the worship of “science” (which is the definition of scientism). The two Lords vie for the same souls, and for the world that only God created.But in the battle with that devil, Christ will win.Remember this, gentle reader I beg, through the Gaudete Mass of His Advent, tomorrow: that the high gnostic priests will die away, and Christ will reign triumphant.

my take?


when I saw the monkey on StPeter's, I thought of how Brother Charles would go out at harvest time with his gun to shoot the local baboons that raided the fields.

There weren't enough men in villages to guard the fields, and the baboons could badly injure the women and children who traditionally guard the crop.

So he would shoot a few, put their bodies on poles around the field, and usually that would solve the problem...