...so as I was digressing on, I've lately felt rather like Anakin Skywalker (and Lorenzo De Medici). I feel such a righteousness and drive to use all my [insignificant] influence to combat the errors which are being brought upon our fair country, and already fixed in my friends' minds.
Reflecting on what happened to Anakin, the trick to doing things the good, Catholic way must be to find the line between Charles Martel establishing the Carolingian dynasty after Tours and ridding France of the Do Nothing Kings, and Napoleon crowning himself Emperor of France whilst assaulting Christendom. To us powerless observers, these two courses of events appear correctly: as black against white. However, given power, the misssion of defending Church can, added some diabolic influence, transform itself into the pursuit of faceless glory. Think of Cardinal Richelieu, most of his life with Holy Orders- but also a warrior against the very Church he served. I must be careful, and maintain a healthy fear of God!

I shall type to reflect the scarcity of time, but must report on the great victories I expect to come for the general Good.

After a time of purest pessimism over the future of the Republican party, a reality check has quelled my fears. I had assumed that the conservative pessimism about a giuliani nomination was justified, but two days ago, I checked RealClearPolitics, and most of their polls of prospective Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary voters put Mitt Romney ahead by a few points. Imperfect and Mormon he is, but I know that he's been sincere in his "conversion" to the anti-abortion side, as he was definitely pro-life when he was my governor, and I've even seen some past statements of his limiting his former pro-gay views.

Now I'll get back to watching The Empire Strikes Back, one of my favorite movies. Maybe I'll talk more on that later...

Finally, I am back from work. It was busy today, and a cold/allergies made it less bearable. Luckily, I have a 44oz. Coca-Cola beside me, and a new sonnet: the big 5-0 [streamers]. Shakespeare, I'm already a third of the way there [more streamers]. Naturally, his are probably better, but I can still try.

Sonnet L~ Fluidrose Fiancee on a Nonexistant Beach

The soft hemisphere of office gray
And blue glass ocean centers is so still
From all except the brushing sunlit frill
Of liquid goldleaf triangles which at play
Resolve into the conscience of my lapse.
The "animated crystal" Virgin was
The most resplendent. Yet this figure does
In just one shade still have the heart collapse.
Yes, the green absolute level she holds
Around the center of her pear flesh calves
Is all a proof aura for those centric halves.
A meridian for constancy enfolds,
Presents her with no ice or vapers round
The circling cup edge harmonica sound.

Me? I love it! The reason is the plethora of inspirations I gathered for it. Chief among them is my favorite 20th Century artist, Salvador Dali. We two have a lot in common, both being Catholic, intellectual types. Like many "intellectuals", I have had a hard time categorizing my belief system and personality; but yesterday, it occured to me: I'm a Salvador Dali Catholic. We're both right wing, Falangist characters, we both are artsy and mysterious, and we're both [burst of nostalgia] EvilTrads by any definition. After looking at a few of his works yesterday, I completed Sonnet L.

Whereas Dali said "The secret of my influence has been that it remains a secret", I don't mind telling folks where I get my ideas. The "animated crystal" quote was from The Mystical City of God, book II passage 160, which describes the Blessed Virgin's appearance as being so bright as a crystal struck by light, thus releasing from itself the components of the rainbow. While that countenance is the most spectacular, maidens with fluidrose complexions (a term I invented, meaning their face tends to change between pale and red in blotchy configurations depending on the weather, their emotions, etc.) can still stun the eye with just one color. I have also been fascinated by the idea of an absolute water level, i.e. all the ice caps melted, all clouds were rained out, and the tides stopped. IF that happened, and assuming no groundwater, THEN no life could exist above the absolute water level.

Finally, the thing which started this work was the beautiful song "Into the Ocean" by Blue October. Ah, the romanticism in pop music could stir me to ten thousand more poems! However, as the song seems to be about suicide, I had to change the subject of the poem halfway through. I've already written a poem against suicide, and works on that subject make people worry about one's health if used too often.

I hope this has not been too boring! If you came for politics, come again tomorrow or the next day.

Only my second day out of public schools, and I've accomplished so much already. Yesterday, I broke my 1-day reading record again, first finishing the last six cantos of The Divine Comedy (31 pp.), then a 13-page chapter of The Mystical City of God, and I finished off with reading, in two sittings, Senator Edward M. Kennedy's America Back on Track (200 pp). That totals out at 244 pages, plus just enough of The Remnant to make me depressed.
Now, Ted Kennedy is just about my least favorite politician because, like his brother, he believes in "absolute" separation of Church and State, which leads him to choose the wrong side on every issue. However, he's my father's favorite, so I gave him the book last Christmas, and I've been meaning to read it. I have concluded that Mr. Kennedy intends well, but fails to see the disadvantages of socialism, has too dialectical a view of the effects of government aid, and does not realize how high taxes would have to be to implement his entire platform. God guide him, but at least his fairly easy read pushed me over the record.
So, what next to read? i would go for some Dickens, but that would be too soon. And, just my luck, an offer came in my last Human Events for former Senator Rick Santorum's infamous It Takes A Family. The price: $17.50, plus a book by his wife.
Indeed, Santorum has always been my kind of guy. One of those Americans with a family so picturesque, you just KNOW they have an SUV that gets 10 miles to the gallon. Even though I knew it was inevitable, I was so saddened when he lost reelection in 2006- he would have made a fine president. Unlike Ted Kennedy (Ann Coulter refers to him as Drunkennedy), Rick Santorum would provide a fine role model for American Catholics. Now, unless Sam Brownback can break through at the polls, it looks like we'll be stuck with another pseudo-Catholic dud. i sincerely hope that if Giuliani gets the nomination, all the real Catholics (and the right wing schismatics) will vote for the Democrat of for third party candidates, so that we can give Rudolph the most resounding defeat since Barry Goldwater, and prove that the Grand Old Party needs the Religious Right to persevere.

I'm in an activist mood today, so I've placed a linking icon below my "The Allies" sidebar. According to The Remnant, the Postal Service has decided to raise the price of postage on small publications- with a plan developed by Time Warner. I ask my readers to sign the petition, as small Catholic and conservative publications could be significantly hurt, and if you are a leftist just visiting The Young And Once Good Pundit, you should also sign the petition. As you will read at the protest site, it will also harm liberal publications, and the John Edwards '08 Blog has already spoken out against the hike.
This is a shameful move by the Postal Service, which has ironically become a pawn of the establishment media (I figured it out when they started putting Disney characters on stamps); combatting this, we should all be able to agree, it vital to defending the First Amendment. So spread the word!

Humphrey Bogart. That's me, for now.
Today was my final day at Northampton High School. Thus, I pursued relentlessly the signing of yearbooks customary to said time. After one of my friends, the one girl I've ever gone out with, signed my yearbook, we had an emotional parting. As she left the guidance library, a friend from my AP Micro Economics class approached. Neither of us had a class. I felt just like Bogart's Rick Blaine character at the end of Casablanca. After the plane flew off, Rick and a minor character make plans to move off to Brazzaville. I said to my friend,
"Do you know who I feel like?"
"Humphrey Bogart."
"NO WAY! I was just thinking of..."
I went on to suggest ESP, although it's obviously just a weird coincidence. The entire thing was overplayed on my part, as I saw the lady later in the day.

Also of importance, I went to my last Republican Club meeting. The fellow mentioned in the last post took my invented oath of office, and later led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. He had some good news to share with us, because earlier in the day he had debated a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, and won easily. I have great confidence in his ability to advance the Cause.

Later on, I read the chapter of The Mystical City of God communicating the happenings around the Annunciation. Even though I know that part of Mary's life better than others, Mary of Jesus' writing lost the monotony it had sometime acquired, and was philosophically quite beautiful, bringing me inspiration and peace. The Annunciation image here is the best resolution anywhere, and features a little Japanese text. Wow, even if he did paint The Birth of Venus, Botticelli was still an excellent and worthwhile artist.

Word on the street's that Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain, will be converting to Catholicism once he quits office. My thoughts: great for him; he'll get a shot at eternal Paradise, but he'd better get ready so serve the Church on earth. Not only has he supported the homosexual lobby at PM, but he's been quite the leftist on everything else (except, unfortunately, joining the initial invasion of Iraq). He's been outspokenly pro-EU, even supporting replacing the Pound Sterling (which can trace it's history to ROMAN times) with the Euro (whose history can be traced to the 1990s, or possibly to post-WWI pan-European feelings).
There's a good chance, though, that Blair may change. Napoleon Bonaparte rediscovered the truth of the Catholic Church while on St. Helena, and [after two decades of warring against the Church in Europe], he was fairly pious. More recently, Sam Brownback entered into communion with the Church of Rome a few years ago, and he has since moderated his support for the death penalty. I just hope Tony doesn't turn out like some of the folks from my RCIA class, who retained their pro-abortion, pro-homosexual views after being received into the Church's bosom [the instructors did nothing about it, even scaring away a potential conservative with their ecumenical views].
A good saint to invoke for Mr. Blair would be St. Edward the Confessor (and don't forget to pray for the Queen's conversion too!)

In a haste earlier today, I wrote this piece for a good friend, of mostly British blood, who will graduate with me:

Sonnet XLVIII: That art which Art

The airs which rushed the roses in the fields,
Charmed magic forests, and sought Prince Charles
From his Gaelic hills: that which, soft, startles
Three thrashing devils, bores within thee, yields
By thy trumpeting heart the greatest love.
O' woman, whose linked margins are one chart,
An essence her own and borrowed, which art
The oriental romanticist dove
Born so quixotic for her common world.
But friend, was all art in its purpose gaged,
Dickinson's verses are all records staged
On heirloom paper boats in darkness twirled.
In distorted letter thou place thy mind,
And by this beauty found, that voice is kind.

The dame of subject, an anime kid with graceful doodles on her every notebook page, has indeed been a friend of mine, even though she is a pagan/atheist. [It's too bad, because the only two animes I like (The Vision of Escaflowne and Le Chevalier D'Eon) are low on her list].
I haven't much more to say, but I would like to say, God bless Comcast, for putting the Japanese version episodes of Escaflowne on On Demand!

I have just read another excellect column by Pat Buchanon, on none other than Giuliani the Apostate. After seeing the interview of Playboy conservative Sean Hannity worshipping Giuliani played and replayed, a strong, authority-graced voice against that fraud is always a relief. But now the situation seems worse than ever; I had been unaware of the support America's Mayor gives to "affirmative action"/unmollified racism.

Now, I'll be fair. Rudolph Giuliani was an exceptional mayor of New York City. He cut the crime, the welfare rolls, and to be sure, the guns. He even acted in ways worthy of a Roman Catholic, fighting immorality at the cost of free enterprise and liberal artsy jerks. If only he could have remained in that Elba, the Big Apple!

If, as the terrifying polls show, Giuliani wins the G.O.P. nomination for the presidency, it will be a surrender of principles unseen on the Party's history. In the 1876 capitulation to the Democrats, the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes received the disputed 20 electoral votes, on the condition that Reconstruction end, which resulted in Jim Crow laws and violation of the 14th Amendment for nearly nine decades. This new, coming betrayal of Republican principles, which will allow flagrant, state-funded genocide to continue on American soil, is even more despicable.

I, for one, will never vote for this traitor. Some Marxists aren't even that bad, like the noble Daniel Ortega. Rightly ousted by the contras two decades ago, he has at last realized the evil of abortion. Yet Giuliani, a member of America's broadly conservative party, and a member of that same Holy Church as Ortega, could scarcely care less.

But maybe he deserves to be president of the United States of America, a land where most Christians will compromise with evil, hoping for a few easy tax cuts and safety from terrorists under Giuliani, rather than putting up a real fight for the lives of millions of their countrymen.

With how the Right is looking, I predict abortion in this land will only be illegalized by leadership from the Left, from an MLK of sorts. Why, why why hasn't the G.O.P. a strong successor. Unless House and Senate Republicans keep up resistance to Giuliani's laxity [if he is elected], the Party will collapse like Franco's Falange did when el Caudillo died.

Francisco Franco, ora pro nobis.

The great Omnibus Post is begun. Virgo Maria, please guard it from rant status.

Having finished an enjoyable, work-free day of school, where we watched Mulan in AP Euro (and I was made jealous of the attention ancestor worship got in the movie, whereas Christianity is utouched in virtually all Disney films), I was ready for some quality blogging, and planned to post a poem, which will be below. To my surprise, I learned that I received the "Thinking Blogger Award" from Thermidor Rising yesterday. His rationale was

I really enjoy reading ~'s blog. Although he is so far right as to be almost a "monarchist", he is obviously a very talented writer, and a devout Roman Catholic. It is always worth taking some time to read about what ~ has been up to, recently...

I am stirred with joy by this nomenclature: far right is so cavalier, so ultramontane in its tone, and this despite it being obvious in my case! Thank you, Thank you.

The monarchist part brings up an important, complex detail. Until roughly three years ago, I was a vocal monarchist, looking on Louis XIV and James II as examples of the advantages of rule by one hereditary, Divine Right monarch. However, I later learned of such great figures as Gabriel Garcia Moreno, De Valera, and Dolfuss: great Catholic leaders who were elected. And today, of course, we have Poland, Malta, and (still) Ireland as examples of pro-Catholic republics. More importantly, I concluded that a dogmatic support for monarchy is little different from the dogmatic republicanism which both Republicans and Democrats have pursued in foreign policy, much to the detriment of justice. I also realized that, unlike France and Portugal, where the still legitimate ruling houses of those nations were overthrown, places like the Americas, Switzerland, much of Italy, and most of the Third World never had ancestral monarchies.
My epiphany was that forms of government are unimportant: only policy matters. Something with a similar note came up in my most recent Remnant-

"Where the people are Catholic and submissive to the laws of God... democracy may be a good form of government; but combined with Protestantism or infidelity in the people, its inevitable tendency is to lower the standard of morality, to enfeeble the intellect, to abase the character and to retard civilization, as even our short American experience amply proves. Our Republic may have a material expansion and growth, but every observing American... sees that in all else it is tending downward and is on the declivity to utter barbarism"-
Orestes Brownson, 19th Century

It is official. America is retarded. We are only about one quarter Catholic, including those who never attend Mass. Now, I am refraining the normal Traditionalist lines, but even once America is a Catholic nation, nothing will change with the venomous, Voltairean paradigm our people hold toward the "separation of Church and State".

*******

On a completely unrelated topic, I wrote this poem about a friend of mine who will attend Rice University in Texas after we graduate:

Rice Horse Meteors

The hardly scalloped plains bore, like a psalm
Their eloquence and love for one person.
Lest silver depravity might worsen
Absent her unaccented counsel's calm,
Texas brought her within its one-starred shrouds.
The crisp infinity shot bars so fine,
Blessings from a cavalier porcupine
Over the deep burgundy hearted clouds.

The inspiration was from a friend, who wrote the phrase "rice horse meteors" on a slip of paper for no apparent reason, during a state of sleepy semiconsciousness. Inspiration came quickly, and now I have a nice goodbye octet to write in a friend's yearbook. Other inspiration, I admit, came from the beat of a Simon and Garfunkel song.

The Evil Traditionalist is no more. Once found on my sidebar, that blog, run by [formerly Evil] Steve, was one of my most frequent reads and inspirations. Gone are the days of the Dark Lord and his EvilTrad minions- the papist Justice League/scourge of his Kansas City hood- putting schismatics, atheists, and Clown Mass presiders through the tormentos, their very name the shadow-embellished terror of Modernist heretics.

He has a new, serious blog. The name's Uncovering Orhodoxy. As always, Steve's worth a read.

Hopefully, my sidebar will be adequately revised soon.

Here is a sonnet I wrote about a gorgeous, rectangular religious medal a Big Lots customer wore last Sunday:

Sonnet XLVII: The Medallion

My blue hands did not clasp, although each pail
Of Etched glass drops, with their close alliance
Thinned and met their mark in willed compliance,
Dust blown off, as if from the new torn veil,
Venerated He who traced Calvary
With the exposed unfractured brush handles
Drawn from His side, spooned pen. Like candles
Strewn out for a lower death's dowry,
My Lord gleamed before the eight triangle hearts
Delicate as celestial steeples
Smoothed silk soft by black cloaked, cliched peoples,
All crafted best in the medallic arts.
I hold, compass the golden field of frost
Which in my palm's a symbol of life's cost.

This work is several days old. I am worried about finding new inspiration after I graduate (hey, maybe I would have time to go out int nature and...).

Sometimes, I forget about the good Democrats that exist. True, there aren't many, but those who break with their party's pro-choice stupidity deserve special mention. To your left, you'll see Mark Paul Samson, a pro-life representative in the Maine legislature. Not only that, but he's vocal about his view. Sadly, I know less than ten area Democrats who are the same way (if someone in Norhampton isn't a Democrat, that's the start of gossip, lies, and unladylike chit-chat among the intellectuals).

I wish someone around here who had guts would take on Rep. Peter Kocot, Noho's legislative dude. The one "Republican" who perenially challenges him, an economics professor named John Andrulis, has never told any source I've seen [in this case, I followed the campaigns and read all here was to know about them] that he opposes abortion. Massachusetts politicians ignore the real issues. How can we even be sure they know what's happened to 1,000,000 of our brothers and sisters at each year's end? My guess- it has slipped off the Starbuck's tables of their memories, either due to selling their souls for some of said organic coffee, or to the Mary Jane smoke wefting from the environs of the high school.

And this strategy makes little sense for Andrulis. He's lucky if he receives one of eight votes cast. Him winning is as likely as Chuck Hagel becoming president, so can't he loosen up and annoy the local liberal establishment? If they pick on him for declaring things true, like they did to Tommy Thompson, he'll be my hero for the next 45 minutes!

I have not posted in a week- and what a week it was! Nicholas Sarkozy won the French election, and although I'm not crazy about him, the usual roundup of leftists at NHS was in tears. At least it demonstrates that France, the heart of the Enlightenment has still not fallen into absolute multicultural mayhem.
In my own life, high school is almost over...not much more to do than take AP exams and think of good yearbook messages. Luckily, I have gotten the mailing addresses of a few friends, so sentimental old me won't lose contact with all of them.
Let me see; aside from that, I finally finished reading the Bible. I have not yet thought of an interesting, non-chronological method of study I like. But to be honest, reading of scripture has taken second place to other worthwile works.
One of my best friends at school, Hannah Spiro, whom I have nothing in common with besides literary and philosophical interest, recommended Divided Minds, which I just finished, an autobiography by her two aunts, Pamela Spiro Wagner [who writes exceptional poetry and runs a blog heavy in rants but of interest] and Carolyn Spiro. Now, Pamela has schizophrenia, and that is the focus of Divided Minds; it is, to avoid annoying reviewing cliches, a very good book. Although mentioned only marginally in the book, the depressing read's most cheeful light comes from Carolyn's life. After a lifetime of vague theism, she converted to Catholicism in 2003.

In the book's recollection of Pamela's life with schizophrenia, one thing which really surprised me was the diabolic nature of the affliction. Even though Pamela is not of Christian background, her voices refer to themselves as men of Satan several times. There is even mention of a hallucination of a nun telling her "Remember St. Sebastian and the arrows, remember" after she had done an art project on a work of his martyrdom (P. 77). Because this is the only mentioned hallucination with a pious figure, I interpreted it as a warning about how her life would be with schizophrenia. From all I've learned, it seems that schizophrenia is such a horrible, debilitating disease that it is administered by devils. Many would disagree, but I remind them of evidence of medical miracles at such places as Lourdes. Certainly, Satan and his minions use their angelic powers to do ill in certain people, whether or not they disease itself is caused by them. Therefore my hypothesis is reasonable.

I encourage all to pick up copies of Divided Minds. And the to pray for those afflicted with schizophrenia.

The days of the presidency have worn on George W. Bush, but he has proven that he's still got it. Having just vetoed the timeline/supplement bill, showing he is willing to fight his war against the terrorists to the end, he has- much more importantly- made it known that he will veto H.R. 1592 when it reaches his desk. This bill, voted on yesterday, would make "hate speech" against homosexuality a crime. We all know where this will lead. The European Union, and even Canada have seen the arrests of many men for merely proclaiming the Gospel to those afflicted by the homosexual disorder.

Preventing a similar rainbow-centric fascism in the United States of America would be George W. Bush's greatest legacy. And this veto will likely do more to that effect than his appointment of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. A Rosary for the intentions of the President is in order.

While I was searching for a good Bush image, I found this beautiful picture. If I were the dictator of Massachusetts (since I oppose the nationalization of education), one of my decrees would be to implement a strict dress code...and all the ladies would more or less dress this way! Hotness and Decency unite! Plus, most of them are wearing flats; I hate high heels!! Oh, it would be spectacular if they would stop dressing like men, as they now do. And all the gentlemen, if the less pure sex deserves that name, would dress like- me!

Back to sonnets! Here we go!

Sonnet XLVI

Wisdom hold our silk, nonexistant veil,
It's paper folds, which --'s heart can be
Or Luigi Mario his Rosary,
Unread, should Probability entail
Unseen self-realization of the dark.
Yea that spiraling, tightly held quartz pin
Was less on each coin tosser's list to win
Than its same, soft opposite, kindred ark
Which her softly joined hands formed on my back.
For if one were less by her alibis,
Whose reefer'd minds You would not circumcise,
The Virgin Mary's soul would something lack.
We'll both allow, and seek out now her hug,
She who for You won't supplant any drug.

The subject lady, yet, yet another cute Jewish girl, requested this poem yesterday. Now, I'm not trying to demean Luigi for praying his rosary (if he holds the ancestral Faith of Italy), but he sure does keep his religion to himself, and as see from Super Mario Bros: The Movie, he and his little big brother Mario believe in evolution.

On a more serious note, Bush has vetoed the Iraq supplement/timeline bill. My, I applaud his resilience, facing the Defeatists on the left and al Qaeda in Iraq (AND several of my TRAD blogging pals) at once. Still, unless our Nation wises up and stops hating the President and his agenda, I fear we will be left with something much worse than the "quagmire". I mean, he should be getting credit; the troop surge has brought down casualty rates in Iraq, but instead...