This morning, I was pleasantly surprised by the New York Times. I practically choked on the typically too acidic Taylor fountain soda when I saw the headline- "McCain Rejects Broad U.S. Aid on Mortgages" [I can no longer access the article for free, so you'll have to pick up the Times to read it]. My man for president has finally taken an economic view that is not an embarrasment to an advocate of small government like myself. In the article, Mrs. Clinton remarked that "It sounds remarkably like Herbert Hoover". I would have to agree. While John McCain's plan sounds remarkably like the corporate volunteerism and Fordism Hoover advocated during the early years of the Great Depression, he does not favor direct government involvement; when Franklin Roosevelt tried that, the Depression dragged on and the economy didn't fully recover until World War II ended. If he had favored a government bailout of the failed investments, the effect would simply have been to shore up foolish and unsound investments (many relied upon future growth in property value as their expected means of paying off their mortgage) at the taxpayers' expense; like virtually all government spending projects, the benefits would be artificially focused, and the costs spread about more generally. That's socialism for you.


That will suffice as today's argument for [begrudgingly] voting Republican in 2008. McCain may not be Ron Paul, but he still misunderstands the economy to a lesser degree than Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

While I appear to lack that comic manner which lets a man get away with saying anything, because his audience understands that it is at least partially in jest, today I came across a passage from the Live Journal of one John C. wright that sent me into quite the laugh attack:

Now that I am a Catholic... suppose I want to be an albino assassin flagellant from Opus Dei, sent by the magisterium to separate (or "incise") the familiar spirit of science fiction author Phillip Pullman from his daemon, effectively robbing him of his humanity, before turning him over to the secular arm, but an opportunity arises to dirk to death the girl-messiah known as Aenea from the planet Endymion, marked for death by the Cyberpapacy. How do I reconcile this with the Christian injunction to turn the other cheek, and the benediction that blesses the peacemakers?

And he gets away with his parody on all these supposed evils of popery- so why can't I get in a few insights on the probable eternal fate of the souls of SixMen's residents without being accused of careless assertions? The view of SixMen expressed in "Sonnet LXXVIII" are not novel; worse has been said by those who have ventured to the dorm in question. And can it be expected that a writer is serious when he says
that a dorm will fall "to the devils' cheer" by way of a "fiery chasm" like the one which swallowed up Core (Numbers 16:31-33)? I will make no charges against any of the individual residents of that dorm, but I think common knowledge will vindicate a claim that a disproportionate amount of the eight drinks per week per student are consumed thence. When I begin running into fellow students who will insist "No, in fact, SixMen is not iniquitous; it is surely the Nault of the Valley," then I will cease in my notably non-serious remarks about the Demons' Den. People, you are getting too sensitive and easily offended!

Also, those maintaining lists of the current "hate groups" will be doubly offended, for I've come across a nice little column that is rather unfavorable to the Souhern Poverty Law Center, which has listed The Remnant, Saint Benedict center, and virtually every Catholic Traditionalist institution in the United States in the dubious category denoted above. As the author says,


Among the many hate groups declared to be so by the omniscient SPLC's Intelligence Project are Roman Catholics who participate in the Latin Mass. So the largest Christian denomination in the world is a “hate group” for what, you ask? The answer is, for a prayer in the Good Friday services that includes a request for Divine Intervention in the conversion of the Jewish people to Christianity. Nothing says “hate” quite like “I want to spend eternity in heaven with you.”

Why can't we all just get along? Apparently the old duties of praying for nonbelievers and admonishing sinners are now forbidden.

Now, I need to clear up just one thing before writing about Easter. As many are aware, le Provocateur has published sophomore Pat McDonald's response to my recent letter to the editor. While I was initially teed off by the response (as can happens due to the regrettably short fuse I sometimes carry), a bit of continued examination has led me to conclude that this is a mere misunderstanding, and so I will simply clarify my thoughts on tolerance in light of McDonald's letter.

In the original, my statement that tolerance has become a form of weakness (a quote from Emmanuel d'Alzon; I forgot the closing quotation mark) was said in the context of a. Modernism and allowing doctrines to change with the times, and specifically b. compromising Catholic teachings on homosexuality because of changing values in society. In short, these examples are instances of tolerance being used as an argument for permitting errors and sin to flourish, which is a form of weakness; it is my belief that evil has no rights and should not be tolerated whenever possible. The examples McDonald provided, Dr. King and Nelson Mandela, were of men urging tolerance of what ought to be tolerated. Discrimination by race is irrational from the Christian perspective because we all share the same first parents. When men come to realize this irrationality, there is hardly a need for toleration of desegregation, etc. because there is no reason those men would oppose it. With the same line of reasoning, I agree with McDonald's quotation from Nostra Aetate, and "reject nothing that is true and holy in these [other] religions"; nowhere in my letter did I assault anything the Church holds to be true because another faith also holds it to be true. A hatred of truths which other faiths share with our own would be equally irrational, like rejecting monotheism because it is also a tenet of Islam. However, this can be no excuse for not rejecting and indeed combating every error which these other religions hold and promote. Remember, for me it is always the same (when pragmatic considerations are removed): be tolerant to the Truth, and intolerant of lies. Finally, the reason intolerance leads to "deadly religious conflict" in Islam but not Traditional Catholicism is because of our Faith's rejection of religious war against the misguided followers of Islam; it would be sinful to do violence to civilians or engage in offensive wars, and therefore religious violence is, to Catholics, as intolerable as other forms of error.

On the point of John 4, McDonald can't expect me to preempt his response by reminding readers that Jesus was indeed Jewish. But this has lately been restated so often that many have forgotten that Jesus intended to form the Catholic Church, and that even while He remained within the Jewish religion, which was the religion of God until the Crucifixion (remember, Jesus had said he would "destroy the temple of God, and after three days... rebuild it"- Matthew 26:61), Christ was already offering His message of forgiveness and salvation as if there were "...neither Jew nor Greek... bond nor free... male nor female"- Galatians 3:28. My point is, when Jesus interacted with the Samaritan at the well, it was not despite the sin of doing so; Christ came to fulfil the Mosaic law, and did no wrong by breaking barriers which had once been legitimate (the Jews had had a problem with syncretism due to interaction with their pagan neighbors, and their previous attitude of isolation had been justified).

This will hopefully be an adequate answer to McDonald's earnest criticisms. I hope that he enjoys his Easter and is blessed by the Lord.

*************

Ahh, that's over! Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, that is all I desire. Easter, Christmas, and other holy days just have that wonderful effect on Christians: we may be fighting a spiritual or political Antietam, but a benign passion for a much-needed truce usually wins out as we join together in humble acknowledgement of the Resurrection of our Lord, and refocus our efforts to love God and neighbor more perfectly. I am happy to report that such an atmosphere prevailed after the beautiful Easter Vigil Mass at St. Mary of the Assumption. While St. Mary's is not usually as tightly knit of a community as a parish should be (I'm thinking Saint Benedict Center, which has a community brunch after the Traditional Rite of Mass), this evening was an exception. A spirit of righteous celebration filled the parish center as old friends caught up and the four individuals who were received into the Church were given a warm welcome. And me? I quickly became friends with a young lady who, like me, was picking out the licorice jelly beans from the rest of the bowl; as "scavengers of black jelly beans" (as I put it) we became quick friends.

Of course, I am a happy camper because I can again enjoy my very favorite beverage, Coca-Cola, as I ceremoniously did earlier yesterday at my favorite restaurant, Jake's.

I just had to include this. My friend Meghan Donahue is, as her poster says, a "Piglova", and her SGA buletin board is stuffed with swine. Because I have already been added to two of the four SGA boards (one for a poem, the other for the letter of mine which I discussed at the beginning of the post), my ambitious nature has pressed me into attempting to get onto all four. Meghan said that if I got a picture of myself with a pig, she will put it on her board. However, there are no petting zoos or accessible farms in the area, so I decided to use my brother's adorable piggy bank instead. I can only hope it will pass piggy muster! [If you're wondering why all my pictures are black and white, I come up with all my photo ideas after sundown, when there isn't enough light for a color photo].

If Assumption College were the setting of a The Legend of Zelda video game, the final dungeon would be SixMen. Although formally named Authier, the hall is commonly called SixMen for its six person flats, and is renowned for drunkenness, mad partying, and many perils to the soul which I cannot relate on this blog. Having, like many freshmen, never entered SixMen's halls, the evils and villanies which go on in that refuge of demons are shrouded in mystery to me.

The particularly vile legends and lore about SixMen inspired this poem, written by request for an acquaintance of whom I only knew that she 1. is an RA, 2. likes the Yankees, and 3. recently gave up a diet.

Sonnet LXXVIII- The Playoffs, 2010

In the thick breath of verboten Busch Light
Choking out the Febreezes on her floor
-- steps in, to wheel out one keg more
And, in the thick of her preferred team's plight
Said "Jeter, score a run!" A thing so fool,
For soon "F the Yankees" was on her tail:
Fenway's fury, clad in their sweat and ale,
Barging into the black October cool
She could not outrun in her forced foray.
"Holy Jesus," she cried, "please change my fate!
For without my diet, I've lost not weight."
Then, as she fled the grounds of Authier,
A fiery chasm broke to --'s rear
And all SixMen fell to the devils' cheer.

Of course, the poem is just for laughs. In reality, the subject could probably gain about thirty pounds and still be considered thin; diets are the paranoid scourge of women, impressed upon them by our corrupt media, so in real life I spend my time telling women they don't need to diet to look attractive... or run fast. But SixMen falling into Hell- when the Second Coming happens I say to you, it shall be more tolerable at that day for Sodom, than for that dormitory.

*************

Luckily, Holy Cross is about to get some fair warning before that Day. According to this article, it seems the College of the Holy Cross is on the short list of colleges to get slammed by His Holiness during his much-awaited crackdown on American Catholic universities and colleges. I acn just see the Jesuits heading for the hills at the first word of Benedict XVI's clarion call for orthodoxy!

Holy Week is one of those essential components of Catholic culture which ought have a place in every culture but which, in my experience, is not adequately represented in American culture. And even we Catholics, when we need to deplore the absurd lack of devotion in the Anglican church, call them not the Easter & Christmas Church, which would be theologically sensible, but the Christmas & Easter Church, opting from chronology over order of importance. I can still remember when I was having a theological discussion with my mother and one of her friends a few years back, and I was flabbergasted to learn that for Catholics Easter is a more important feast than Christmas. From the way we learned the relative importance of holidays as children, i.e. how many goodies we received, a plethora of new toys under a plastic tree beat out a basket of jelly beans any day! And while Santa Claus was at least interesting, who ever liked the Easter Bunny and didn't work for Cadbury? Even in our child's minds, the Easter Bunny never made sense; from what friends with better memories have told me, while most of us bought into Santa, no one was ever silly enough to believe in the Easter Bunny. So, I'm still learning the ropes of Holy Week and Easter devotions.


While Mass at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit had some nice music, as usual the majority gave the impression of a jazz club. My suggestion: remove the percussion; just because the Kingston Trio did a few good gospel songs with drums doesn't mean you can too, Chapel Choir. While we have an organ, it's only used a few times during the Mass; maybe we don't have the best acoustics, but back at St. Mary's we use the organ for every song, to delightful effect not only for the ears but for the soul as well. However, Mass ended with reverent silence, and was a fitting commencement to the most important week in the liturgical calendar- or any calendar- so kudos for that.

On the personal side, I have little work to do, and have been eagerly counting the minutes until 12:00PM Saturday, the end of Lent. Although the pace hasn't picked up at Assumption, I did have a rather lighthearted, fun argument with a friend a little while back. She is going to move to Spain eventually, so we always talk Spanish politics. After expressing my grief over the recent elections (Mariano Rajoy, the Popular Party candidate and challenger to Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero, their Socialist president to whom I can hardly compare even Segolene Royal without insult, lost), I reminded her of how Spain, due to its Catholic heritage, is very dear to my heart. After mentioning Franco, we went on the old tirade about el Caudillo. After a few words, she said,

"But Franco made women stay at home, and made them have children..."

"You mean, encouraged large families, I guess. And Spain has 1.1 children per couple now. My, I thought you were going to list bad things about Franco, but to me these are yet more reasons to support what he did."

Yes, she did get a laugh out of that. After I spoke a little on feminism, we had to stop chatting because she needed to study. As I walked away, I once again thought to myself, If this is what Spain is like now, ~, imagine how bad it would have been without Francisco Franco.

It's nice to finally have some time to write this week. Besides how busy I was- and I kept busy; Wednesday and Thursday I was working in the library from 7:00PM till closing time- there hasn't been too much going on, and there won't be until Holy Saturday [when I will finally be able to have sweets and soda again; Lent has been tough this year, but I feel I have built a stronger relationship with God] and the April Student Government Association elections, when I will run for reelection. The only political news lately has been the downfall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, which caught me off guard; overall, I think it was a fortunate revelation, revealing as it did that in New York state prostitution is still an unacceptable activity for politicians [not so in Massachusetts, where we still have Representative Barney Frank], and also because the state's Senate Majority Leader, Republican Joseph L. Bruno, will be the new Lieutenant Governor. From everything I've read (I used to read the New York Post a few times a week, he's not the conservative diehard that I am, but he's much better than anyone we have in the Bay State, and is a reliable opponent of gay marriage and illegal immigration. So I'm happy for him.

Life finally got more interesting yesterday. At the Solomon Pond Mall, I picked up my first new CD in weeks, the Backstreet Boys' Never Gone, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. To the credit of those who say only those of the fair sex like boy bands, I must confess I found it amusing that their "A special thanks to all our fans around the world" picture in the lyrics booklet had, out of c. 100 fan pictures forming a globe, only eight guys. Someday, that someday we will discover the simple joys of pop! However, subsequent to my purchase, I began to suffer from MAMS (Man At Mall Syndrome~ you get bored once loitering at the bookstore/CD store gets old), and couldn't think of anything to do but hang out with a few friends until the bus came. Despite my dazed mind, I was able to finish a sonnet about the Annunciation,

Sonnet LXXVII- The Droplet

As nimbuses with nail and jaw would crawl,
While rain with vanity pursued its end
Even striving to perfectly descend
One Exception within the shadows' shawl,
One Droplet, trembling, crossed the threshold.
Maintaining herself, waiting for the Light
She neared the ceiling and the heavens bright;
Translucent as a slide, that light was doled
To one molecule showing with the sun.
Like a fragile star of blood's crimson hue,
To the gray earth that tone she would imbue
When nine times had the moon her circuit run.
For this was she placed in the starry vale,
More spirited than vapor, pure as hail.

I suppose I had a bit of trouble with the sentence which runs from lines 9-11. Any helpful suggestions? Meteorological corrections?

Although I am the type to appreciate the gray weather we've been having, the prospect of returning to Assumption tomorrow and having to catch up with my work has made me a bit blue. To cheer myself up, I wrote an octet about a blue of a different kind.

My Morninglight

The fringe of blue that coats the mountain range
Envelops Creation in just the way
That laughter's sung in every place she'll stay.
A sunburst spreads all through the silent, strange
Laspe in machinations once the joke's done:
My sole desire is to see that glare
About the lady with the child's stare;
I hope her slender smile might be won.

That, then, is all for now.

Lately, it has been so rainy in the region that pools of water are everywhere enclosed in the snow, and the dry wells are overwhelmed a day after the stronger storms have ended. A pleasant atmosphere for a walk, in my opinion. From my admittedly superficial observation, Northampton has been getting along well, except that the unattractive bronze nudes are still on the courthouse lawn. As always, a man can't advance thirty feet without passing a solo musician cheerfully drudging out tunes, or running into an old friend. Its always a pleasure to stroll through that lively city, her streets never empty, her architecture above par.

[A view of the famous Steps, often occupied by Herrell's and Starbucks customers who prefer the eating outside. As usual, I didn't take it.]

On the intellectual side, I have just finished Gaétan Bernoville's biography of Emmanuel d'Alzon. It was a worthwhile read, although it did get a bit dry, and was too sympathetic to Félicité Robert de Lamennais. But d'Alzon is a genuinely fascinating figure, and is especially relevant to us Americans. While he was an amazing priest of indubitable courage and orthodoxy, which shone clear during the anticlerical regimes of Louis Philippe, Napoleon III, and the Third Republic, all of which he lived through, he was an advocate of popular government at a time when most of Catholic France was Legitimist. He even went so far as to call himself a "Catholic Republican" when the Second Republic was proclaimed. He held that democracy was the form of government most in line with Catholic principles- I would no go that far, but these are the beliefs of most American Catholics. Emmanuel d'Alzon was able to do so much good for the Church, and to live a saintly life. He had a great deal in common with us, and is a good model to follow. As one could garner from my recent letter to the Provoc, Father d'Alzon did not espouse the same weak-kneed, Enlightenment "tolerance" so many moderns accept without thought. From his closing address at the 1868 General Chapter,

We love him [Jesus Christ] with the love that made the Apostle say, "If anyone does not love Jesus Christ, let him be cursed" (1 Cor 16:22). This may not be very tolerant, but you know that those who love much tolerate little. Properly speaking, true love is revealed in the power of a noble and frank intolerance. In these days, with no energy left for either love or hate, men do not see that their tolerance is just another form of weakness. We are intolerant, because we draw our strength from our love of Jesus Christ.

My, I can't get over the power of his words- cymbals of common sense in a vacuum! Wake up people!

To finish up for the night, I give my congratulations to Senator John McCain of Arizona, who just secured the delegates needed to go assure his nomination at the Republican National Convention. Although my words for that man have nearly all been harsh of late, I have warmed to the possibility of voting for him- I really don't want a Clinton or Obama presidency. While McCain is weak on immigration and cutting taxes, and wrong on the Iraq War and campaign finance reform, he has a good record on spending, doesn't favor universal healthcare (a plus over his former rival Mitt Romney), and is at least better on the courts than either of the prospective Democrats. And the Constitution Party, my favorite third party, isn't on the ballot in this state anyway. Still, I am a confused man: despite my strong and certain beliefs, I never can decide what the best course of action is based off of them. I pray that Jesus will guide me (and all of us!) in this matter, so that we might follow the course most favorable to the recognition of the Social Kingship of Christ in the political sphere.

Regular perusers of my blog and those who know me in person are quite familiar with my unqualified, perhaps hyperbolic praises of NSYNC and the BackStreet Boys. As somewhat of an aesthetic relativist, no barriers exist to steal the joys simple, popular music from my life. One can even gain a philosophical insight from Pop: the manufactured yet exciting, automatic yet amusing beats that are the exoskeletons of Pop songs serve to remind us, or at least me, of the uniformity of Nature and the conformity of all to her Law, with the exception of miracles. Certainly, this was not the intention of the infamous production companies, but so far as I'm concerned, epiphanies sprung from thinking too hard are legitimate. Indeed, in a letter to a friend, I summed up my thoughts on NSYNC in succinct, comic form, approximately: NSYNC was a band composed of Justin Timberlake, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, and JC Chasez, brought together by Divine Providence, that is- was [sob] rightly adored by teeming millions, until their "friends" peer-pressured them into liking Heavy Metal and Rock instead of Pop. Exaggeration, but there's more than a grain of truth to it!

Nonetheless, it would be unrealistic to give a 90s Pop group the title of Best Band of All Time. While some would be inclined to say the Beatles were the best, I am not among their number. While they clearly managed to attract a more lasting audience (though the crowds they drew in the 1960s weren't too different from the followings more recent "boy bands" acquired in the 90s, at least demographically), and certainly enjoy it from time to time, there is just something about them that's not quite right. Most likely, they're simply too anti-Christ for my tastes. 90s boy bands, though of less enduring appeal to most, at least avoided impiety, and actually gave God His rightful place in many songs. So then , the common answer, the Beatles, is out.

While I certainly don't know enough about music to grant the Best Band of All Time award yet, I have lately given it some thought. One possibility I was enjoying earlier today is the Kingston Trio. My father's long, long been a fan of the Kingston Trio, and I figure he raised me right, because I've also appreciated them since my childhood. I can remember to my dad listening to "Reuben James" in the other room as I did my homework on one particularly pleasant evening in elementary school. That's always the first memory which comes to mind. A personal favorite is "Greenback Dollar", which goes like this:

Some people say I'm a no 'count. Others say I'm no good.
But I'm just a nat'ral-born travelin' man, doin' what I think I should, O, yeah. Doin' what I think I should.

[Chorus:]
And I don't give a damn about a greenback dollar, spend it as fast as I can.
For a wailin' song and a good guitar,
the only things that I understand, poor boy, the only things that I understand.

When I was a little baby, my momma said, "Hey, son.
Travel where you will and grow to be a man
And sing what must be sung, poor boy. Sing what must be sung."

[Chorus]

Now that I'm a grown man, I've traveled here and there.
I've learned that a bottle of brandy and a song,
The only ones who ever care, poor boy, the only ones who ever care.

[Chorus, repeat first verse and repeat Chorus]

You'd have to hear the song, originally from their 1962 album New Frontier to appreciate it. One of the reasons I adore it so is the theme of practical individualism. Now, as Catholics, we're much more community-oriented and respectful of authority than the Protestant heretics, who believe in private interpretation and sola Scriptura despite the Bible's own words.

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.- II Peter 1:19-21, King James Version

Nonetheless, as a Traditional Catholic without the privilege to live in St. Marys, Kansas or Richmond, New Hampshire, and even as a man trying to be just in a corrupt world, one must remove himself from the dominion of the secular world and her ideas in order to survive, often to a degree resembling the American ideology of individualism. What else can our fundamental attitude, adopted from necessity, be besides a form of individualism? Although I was lucky enough to be received into the Catholic Church a few weeks after Pope Benedct XVI came in, giving Traditionalists their first reliable ally at the top since the second Vatican Council, our situation remains that of a remnant loyal to a hierarchy that could hardly care less, and in some cases detests our actions. For the sake of loyalty to higher principles, we must rely on our resilience to remain pure in our actions, with recourse only to God.

Individualism may be a theme of "Greenback Dollar", but individualism with loyalty to some exterior principle. While "But I'm just a nat'ral-born travelin' man, doin' what I think I should" may sound like moral relativism, the speaker's mother would not have told him to "Sing what must be sung" if there were no objective Truth or righteous cause to pursue. In this light, "Greenback Dollar" recalls the righteous self-reliance in Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Fred Zinneman's High Noon; the former is my favorite film, period. For this reason, the Kingston Trio deserves moral kudos for the song, laden with meaning and still so accessible to the American mind. Of course, there are other excellent songs from the Kingston Trio which deserve a listen; to my fellow Bay Staters I heartily recommend "M.T.A.", though its message will serve as an indictment of the fee-raising regime Mitt Romney put in place.

Given my parents' permission, I plan on borrowing some Kingston Trio CDs to listen to when I return to Assumpion next week; fans of folk at AC seem to be few in number, and many could use an intro to the Trio.