Ours is a world of coincidences and providential happenings; it is not our lot to sort them out.

Yesterday morning, a few of the Assumption Advocates for Life drove down to Worcester's Planned Parenthood to say a quick Rosary inbetween classes. My first time praying in front of an abortion mill, a staple in Catholic activism, the occasion was intrinsically unhappy, but satisfying to the passion for justice. I had expected the place to be much larger, if not more ominous, but it was only the size of a post office. Nonetheless, the place had a fairly steady traffic as we prayed in a small parking lot overlooking the grim place.

Arriving back at Assumption in time for class, it was time to discuss Part IV of Gulliver's Travels [partial spoiler alert]. There could not have been better timing. As some readers will already know, Gulliver is famously gullible, and falls in love with the Country of the Houyhnhnms, a race of equestrians who value reason above all else [we pronounced it win-ems in class]. Their version of reason, effectually the overcoming of the passions, is the singular force in their lives. As Gulliver tells us,

"...a Decree of the general Assembly in this Country, is expressed by the Word Hnhloayn, which signifies an Exhortation; as near as I can render it: For they have no Conception of how a rational Creature can be compelled, but only advised, or exhorted; because no Person can disobey Reason, without giving up his Claim to be a rational Creature." (Chap. X)

The cardinal virtues of the houyhnhnms are friendship and benevolence; while their country has little technology and no literature (which is not necessary since there is little history to record), poetry praising the virtues is in great supply, and avarice is unheard of, except in the yahoos, a primitive and beastial race of man which was long ago introduced to the island the houyhnhnms inhabit.

Conspicuously, love and attachment are absent from the Country of the Houyhnhnms- so little do families care for their deceased that deaths are non-events; they are buried in a remote part of the island, and even on the day of their passing life continues as usual for everyone except the undertaker. As I pointed out in class, their poetry, if it can be so called, must be very bland without reference to romance, valor, and the other passions. Families are arranged and planned, and houyhnhnms may only mate until they have one offspring of each sex, unless they are servants. Still more worryingly, the only subject of genuine disagreement and debate at the general assemblies is whether or not the houyhnhnms should exterminate the yahoos once and for all. While their loathing and commercial use of the yahoos may be more equivalent to the shepherd's hatred of wolves, or our consumption of meat and use of leather, the houyhnhnm's dehumanizing of the yahoos is so pervasive that Gulliver is soon wearing yahoo skins without uneasiness! This dehumanization, reminiscent of Nazi Germany's treatment of the Jews and others (making Part IV of Gulliver's Travels, which I desire to read in full someday, a fitting followup to our previous read, Viktor E. Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning), can easily be likened to the modern West's disconcern for the life of the preborn.

From what has been said, the likenesses are undeniable. The great domestic genocide, which, along with contraception, is sealing the downfall of the West by lowering the fertility rate far below replacement, has become the subject of polite political discourse. This ought to be unthinkable (and in the strict sense it still is; the issue can hardly be introduced without framing the debate as between choice and life- couching both sides in comforting terms, as if each based its beliefs in equal but competing goods, skirting the murder at issue. This would perhaps be remedied if pro-lifers more often referred to abortion by its proper name, legal mass murder, as I have done above- after all, even the most virulent pro-choicers cannot think anything better to call us than "anti-choice" or perhaps "anti-woman", even though roughly half the victims of the policy they support are women). While it is unconceivable that anyone but a doctrinaire utilitarian continues to be convinced that babies in the womb are "blobs of tissue" given the advances in embryology, the term is still bandied about to lend, explicitly or not, an air of rationality to legalized abortion, so that its opponents can be written off as unscientific or superstitious. They continue this propaganda unabated to safeguard the sexual revolution and their right to meaningless relations with the opposite sex.

Northampton used to have horse races at the annual Three County Fair. While I have missed their absence over the last few years, if they were ever reopened I would never be able to look at horses in the same way again.

[Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria]

Dreary days are always good opportunities for looking into varied monarchist movements. Howe'er small and often depressing they are, it warms the heart to know that various folks are still out fighting the good fight.

After the usual stops around the Wikipedia article, browsing the international movements for the restoration of monarchs can be very fun. While many sites are low budget and rarely updated, some are abounding in regalia and Catholic things. Unfortunately, some of the best examples, like Koruna česká, Action Française, and Associação Causa Imperial (Brazil) are in their respective languages only... monarchist eye candy. There are some fine monarchist blogs, such as The Monarchist for the United Kingdom, albeit it's an Anglican blog. Catholic American monarchists include The Altar and Throne Monarchy Site and Roman Christendom.

One interesting if silly site I came across this evening is the blog of the Dominion of British West Florida, which desires to bring Commonwealth status to that geographical location. A true micronation, which can be read about in Wikipedia, it has struck coins and printed stamps- though I mostly have my eye on this adorable teddy bear.

Glory to God in the highest, for peace has been given to men of good will. As we may joyfully read at RORATE CÆLI, the excommunications of Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta of the Society of Saint Pius X have been removed this very day. As usual, our beloved pope came through for us, and at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity! Perhaps, besides the considerations of justice, the Holy Father has realized that the indifferentist "ecumenical prayer services" haven't been working too well (for my part, as always, I prayed for the conversion of individuals and nations this last week). I cannot state the significance of this event better than to say it topped the day's news at Wikipedia's English main page. Many Traditional Catholics have been on their knees praying for this since just before I was born. Either by way of the conclave which selected Benedict XVI, or a slender bit of insight given him just lately, Our Lady of the Rosary answered our prayers.

[SSPX procession in Africa]

The world, at last, is freed from the sneerings of that faction of Catholics who, in the name of loyalty to the Holy See, belittled the bishops consecrated by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the Society's priests, and even the faithful attending their masses. They who labored hardest for the health of the Church and her best traditions were endlessly scorned, but even the most hostile among their brothers in the Faith are now left without an argument in their mouths. And with note to the tones of the original proclaimation and Bishop Fellay's response, expect relations between See and Society to continue upon a friendly course.

Regretfully, while I was able to attend one of their masses once (not much to speak of compared with the devotion of their regulars), the financial straits of college made even a small donation to the SSPX unwise these past few years. I have long expected that Papa Razi would eventually lift the excommunications against the four (just as Paul VI removed the "excommunication" against Father Leonard Feeney), but I had hoped to send a few gifts their way before the fact. That way, decades from now, granddaddy could pull out his bank statements to show the youngins he was an SSPXer before it was cool. But in the days of Benedict XVI, if ya snooze, ya lose!

For all the 1-20-2009 stickers that have cluttered the Nation's Volvos over the past four years, and for all my pessimism, this Tuesday has been neither too good nor too bad. Many on campus watched the event on a big screen; I only arrived late, but I managed to catch most of the address, which I expect will be reprinted in tomorrow's morning paper. As usual, hope was tangible in the air, and many points of our President's speech drew hearty applause, though at Assumption there are always enough conservatives that some hold their peace. By first impression, the speech was better than I expected, or at least no more filled with demaguguery than the equivalent John McCain oration would be. What really irked me was the running commentary by NBC; one of the speakers said the type of CHANGE we should expect could be discerned by Obama's words, which he insisted were "post-ideological". What he meant to say was post-partisan (there were elements of that), but the word ideology was misused, as it so frequently is. Commonly, the word has come to imply unchanging devotion to one's ideas, to the effect that the principled are attacked as ideologues. More correctly, ideology is the belief in a final perfect end which is so flawless that its attainment will justify any means. The classic example is communist ideology, although laissez faire capitalism is also an ideology- as are the American exceptionalism and unfailing belief in liberal democracy which are stardard in our political discourse, including Obama's address. (The major political parties have bundles of positions in their platforms, which cannot be pursued without limit without contradicting other positions of theirs- i.e. the Republican support of the materialistic capitalism and Christian values- so it is incorrect to say they have genuine ideologies).

Nonetheless, the sheer happiness of all the liberals was nice to see. I will enjoy seeing the previously bitter Left in a cheery mood as their dream boy Barack H. takes the Oval Office and their pariah George W. leaves the international stage. Obama will need (and surely desires) the prayers of the loyal opposition. And all the same, Bush will continue to need our prayers, especially since the rumor from a while ago which said he was considering Catholicism. However, I don't expect to hear much from him unless he plans on writing memoirs. Insofar as his persistent hope to be vindicated by history, I predict that he will, but for the wrong reasons (the Wilsonian globalists will praise him as one of their own).

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Speaking of making people happy, I recently finished a long requested sonnet for a friend. A poet, and a VERY GOOD poet, I knew it had to be good. As two months drifted by, I received no inspiration until two nights ago, when I composed

Sonnet CVII

This all is time that holds the balsa barks
Traversing over through the waiting earth.
Their captains reason, trusting in the worth
Of maps that lend no sailor to the marks
Of craggy prominences on the sea,
And never to the shores of fertile lands.
When vessels sail to bottom by their hands,
The traces vanish ever, so that we
May lack their tales for telling on our deck.
And that is where the poet fitly serves,
Who gives the claiming seas above their curves,
Decides the eulogized their rest, or wreck,
With letters vivifies the orient
Their riggings had while going where they went.

Wow. This is the greatest commercial of all time. It also happens to be a commercial for the Roman Catholic Church.

As is our wont, my mother and I were watching The Journey Home on EWTN. Although the program usually features converts, like us, and hence it's of great interest to the two of us, for the lack of actual converted ministers the guests are occasionally former fallen away Catholics. Or in the case of Tom Peterson, the designation was "former nominal Catholic". A regular at Mass, raised in a pious family, he was never very involved or passionate for the Faith until he attended a retreat that was truly a St. Paul "I see the light!" experience. Experienced in advertising, he has since started catholicscomehome.org to spread the Faith he has since discovered (he also has a pro-life media ministry, virtuemedia.org). It has been said that the best argument against Catholicism is Catholics [I can't remember by whom], and likewise until his "conversion" Peterson knew little of the history of the Church, or the beauty of its teachings. For my part, I am often asked to describe those things which attracted me to the Catholic Church. When I saw the above ad, my heart exclaimed, "That!"

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On the flip side, the propaganda in the local environs has only become more despicable. One week from the inauguration of Barack H. Obama, some of the most popular shops among the city's airheads are newly festooned with multicolored placards of everyone's favorite president-elect. Not the one pictured- that would go down better at Assumption College- but the effect is the same. We will see how many of these fawning posters are still up this time next year, when the liberals' inflated, vacuous hopes for the coming administration come crashing down. I mean, everyone expects CHANGE, and I doubt that an expanded economic stimulus package is what everyone had in mind.

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One more thing. My brother and I saw Gran Torino two days ago, and agreed that it was one of the best movies we had seen out in a long, long time. Eastwood's masterpiece is patriotic, socially aware, and a Christian story of redemption all at once. I definitely recommend- if I could I would order- that you see it while it's still on the silver screen.

The days click along at a good pace, though they remain full of natural wonder. As I was walking to town this afternoon, the landscape from the ground below my feet to the miles distant foothills formed one uniform, oceanic expanse. Just a few degrees Fahrenheit above freezing, the snow banks glistened like salt-lain sand dunes, while the pavement was everywhere covered in stagnant slush and water, a sea without the effects of the moon. With the unslowed traffic passing, there was even a fine seaside mist. It was enough magical realism to satisfy even my senses. Later it began to snow moderately, and the earth has cooled, presenting a more typical winter appearance.

Since I had the fortune to meet a good friend of mine, I invested myself with a good mood, and have not yet been disappointed. Checking the news just now, I was startled to find that, above all else in importance, one of the inventors of the Pill has acknowledged that his creation has created a "demographic catastrophe". Before today, I have scarcely heard criticism of artificial contraception from without the Catholc community (or rather the Catholic remnant, given the indifference of most believers to Church doctrine); perhaps this turnaround of sorts, reminiscent of the conversion of Norma McCorvey, will get the secular world's attention, at least more than the prescient preachings of Pope Paul VI did. (When I was talking with my friend, the blessings of children came up. I related how, during last Sunday Mass, the church was filled with lightly crying babies, eight or ten perhaps, that were likely about to be baptized. While she imagined ten babies about would be a nuisance, I explained my philosophy on the issue- "It is fitting that babies are the only distractions from the holy service, since they are the only things important enough to merit such an interruption.")

Other good news, also courtesy of the Remnant by the way: homeschooling in America is on the increase. Homeschooling, of course, gives children not only, often, a better education than the public schools can provide, and keeps their malleable minds away from the rampant godlessness therein. This development reminds me of something that came to mind as I was reading William F. Buckley's God and Man at Yale over the last few days. When I speak of the atmosphere and character of the professors at Assumption College, not only does it sound far more conservative and down to earth than my Mother's alma mater, it sounds rather better than Yale in the late 1940s, although this is perhaps to be expected given it's a secular university. Having been quite in the trough for a while, the future is very slowly starting to look better. Nonetheless, one can't get too excited, since this is just the reaction to the progressive decline of the public schools. But in these times, every little blessing is worth the counting.

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One last thing. Ron Paul has given worthwhile words of wisdom on the fighting in Gaza. As you listen, remember that this man could've been our president.

Happy Octave Day of the Nativity, and New Year. If 2008 was a bad year- thanks to Creative Minority Report for vindicating my judgment that 2008 wasn't so swell- I expect still less from the newly begun circuit of the sun. 2009: the number itself seems much less self-assured and uncertain than 2008; indeed, 9, while it does multiply prettily (18, 27... 72, 81), always looks prone to toppling in a good breeze. If we get into Roman numerals, whereas last year was MMVIII, a long, strong, vertical number (the Is remind me of a sturdy old fasces), MMIX looks downright clumsy, and I cannot help but think of the Twix slogan from just a few years back: It's all in the MMIX.

Sed contra and numerical ruminations aside, something stupendous is happening in the world of numismatics. In recent years, the US Mint, following the lead of other mints, has exponentially increased the volume of products offered, while simultaneously lessening the importance of each event commemorated, and creating new products for the sole purpose of profit. A good example were last year's commemoratives for the American Bald Eagle (which has already appeared on our coins continuously since America has had its own coins), allegedly struck to commemorate their recovery on- get this- the 35th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. God forbid they go without commemoratives during a year without important anniversaries, so they found an excuse to strike attractive though meaningless coins on an anniversary people don't even celebrate as special in their own lives and marriages. I have never heard of the big 35th. However that, again, was 2008. This year, the Mint is releasing, admittedly two years after the actual 100th anniversary of its original release (1907), America's most beautiful coin: the ultra high relief Augustus Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, or $20 gold piece. Notably, the centennial striking also uses the Roman numeral.

The coins were originally introduced at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who desired to improve the designs on America's coins; the cent and the gold denominations (in those times, gold $2.50, $5, $10, and $20 coins were struck for circulation) were redesigned first, and the other denominations were redone in the coming decade and a half. Although the themes of the redesigned coins were quite diverse, I find they are characteristically bolder and more energetic than their predecessors. This particular coin, like several of the designs, portrays a confident, striding Liberty, in a style reminiscent of Roman imagery. The ultra high relief design required multiple strikes per coin, and the coins didn't stack well; consequently the relief was lowered once and then again before arriving at the design which proved satisfactory until 1933. On the up side, unlike the original, which (at the President's request) did not feature the words In God We Trust, the re-release features the national motto, which was soon later to the circulation strikes by demand of Congress.

While I cannot hope to acquire one of the above-described masterpieces any time soon, I have always been a fan of depictions of Liberty, not only on American coins, but also from Latin American and French issues. Lately I picked up a Brazilian 1931 2000 reis piece, .500 silver, for only $10. Since I could find few images, the one below is from a different date. A gorgeous coin, it resembles the contemporary Mercury dime, in use in America, in that the obverse depicts an attractive Liberty head, while the reverse features a fasces, a symbol frequently used in coinage before it became associated with fascism. Interestingly, Brazil did have a corporatist government in 1931, but the design had been in use years before the regime change. If one thing is amusing about Latin American coinage, it is the seamless continuation of the same designs through string upon string of coups d'etat.