Election Pre-Gaming: Part I

Elections, my good Americans, are fast approaching, and as AC's resident athletic prodigy I, Atobe, have seen is meet to write a pre-game report so YOU can know what to expect on November 2.

The weather has been good--observe my seasonable and stylish denim jacket--and the forebodings for next Tuesday have been no less auspicious. While, as a fellow political animal reminded me, we cannot count our chads before they catch--that would be political pre-gaming--as a friend of the President Obama once said, "You don't need a weather man to tell which way the wind's blowing"--especially when it's filled with cherry blossom petals. As I, Atobe, see it, the question is not whether we shall celebrate, but until what hour in the morning the party shall last. The time has come, after years of losses thanks to unpopular neoconservative wars and immoral, ineffective Keynesian economics, for a resurgence by a hopefully reinvigorated Republican party. The time has come, to put it otherwise, for a Republican party!

No: I, Atobe, shall not deign to predict whether America's party of the Right can regain control of the House of Representatives or Senate. Political websites already do a fine job forecasting such generalities. While certainly important, especially given the influence of committee chairs, there are usually enough principled mavericks, pandering moderates, and plumb sell outs to make complicate important votes beyond the numerical advantage of one caucus or the other. Rather, I shall briefly note a few fave hopefuls of interest to good traditional Catholics like me and hopefully you, great candidates with a chance to win it all, a few popular, but most under-reported. For months now, Atobe has kept an eye on:

1. Paul LePage. Remember when Maine was supposed to vote for gay "marriage" in 2008? This year, it looks like Maine might also muster the gusto to defy the social liberals in the gubernatorial race. When I first read about LePage, a Catholic, I thought, "How did this guy slip under the liberal outrage radar?" A Tea Party-backed candidate, LePage won the primary as a social conservative, and hasn't backed down. When I, Atobe, read his "Traditional Values" page, which begins, "As the eldest son of eighteen children, and a parent of five children, Paul knows how important it is to protect the traditional Maine values that have created strong communities and strong families across the state," I thought, WHOA, 18 CHILDREN! As a Jap, trust me, that sounds even cooler to me. Sadly, LePage's family growing up was "dysfunctional", but unlike some he hasn't let a sour childhood turn him into a psychopath, and is rearing a brood of his own. Both pro-life and pro-marriage (if in wishy-washy terms, but give him a break--he could be the next Chris Christie), LePage would be a better executive than a New England state deserves.

By the Grace of God, LePage has a strong lead. According to a recent poll, LePage is at 40%. Doesn't sound promising, but the Left is evenly split--a clean 26% each--between Democrat Libby Mitchell and liberal Independent Eliot Cutler. Both of the prospective losers are for "marriage equality" which, according to St. Paul, is a contradiction in terms.

2. Bill Brady. Though a production of the bad guys, this one was too good to pass up. Illinois is definitely NOT one of the great states in this union. As politicos will recall from February, the horrendous liberal Mark Kirk won the Republican Senate primary with little opposition. However, Providence saw fit for them to have a gubernatorial candidate even better than Paul LePage. Yes, Chicago liberals have met their match. If you liked LePage, you'll love Brady; if you didn't, no help will be availing. See, that same February day, a slew of indistinguishable Chicago city boys appeared were vying neck-and-neck for the nomination, but out of nowhere Brady won. A backwoods boy, the severe fragmentation of the field allowed him to win with just 20% of the vote; and he beat the next contender by 155,527 to 155, 334, a difference of just 193 votes!

Brady, another Roman Catholic, is a too-good-to-be-true candidate. Not only is he against abortion without the usual exceptions, but he, a state senator, introduced a bill to prohibit gay "marriage" and civil unions after he won the primary, so you know he's for real. Besides supporting gun rights as above, he also wants to get the death penalty alive and kicking again. Though Brady usually does better in the polls that the ignominious candidate Kirk, one of the latest polls has him leading Democrat Pat Quinn by but 5%, so keep him in your prayers, and remind all the Bulls fans in your life just what's at stake here.

3.Tom Tancredo. Perhaps there will be a Constitution party also. The former-Republican congressman and presidential candidate, who needs no introduction, is within striking distance of getting elected Governor of Colorado over the Democrat and a Republican he's totally overtaken in the polls. Besides the usual pro-family goodies I, Atobe, expect of candidates, he's so strong on immigration that even I, Atobe, in these United States on a mere student visa, cower in fear at Tancredo--but of course, he is merely imitating us Japanese in all his salutary policies. If he wins, there shall be no more illegals in Colorado: a clampdown will surely round up those fool enough not to flee. On the downside, Tancredo lost the faith of his youth and is now a Protestant heretic, so pray for his conversion unto the one fold of the one true Church.

Part II coming soon! Until then

Be awed at the sight of my prowess!

Life must have been boring these last two weeks without my beautiful writings to reflect on. Verily, life without the Beautiful is mere drudgery, as a video series I simply must insist you watch reminded me yesterday. Now, I hate the way embedded videos look on a weblog, but these are for more than kicks. Courtesy of Kevin Alfred Strom, whose art gallery I recommended some time ago, the Aesthetic Underground presents The Banishment of Beauty, a four part series by painter Scott Burdick in which he considers and soundly refutes those modern artists who reject beauty as the end to their art, and faults the critical/curatorial establishment that has brainwashed the public into believing the works they promote worthwhile. Yes, I speak frequently these days about brainwashing, perhaps too frequently for some tastes (and indeed my own patience). But I ask: When will it end? For you, now. After a well-placed investment of time (better brew the tea or coffee now), not only will your appreciation of improve (art majors will want to watch too, since Burdick critiques a standard modern art text I've seen students toting around campus), but you'll regain the innate candor to dismiss cons as adulated as Picasso with a laugh of pity. His Weeping Woman (which will not be shown here for ugliness) gets several cameos, perhaps to illustrate the apprehension of such "artists" at being exposed as frauds. Enjoy!

[And I note that, looking back on the political situation when I first mentioned Strom's art gallery last year, the improvement in the Right's political fortunes since then, which even a cursory glance at the polls will confirm, fills me with joy.]









[Approximately one hour later, dear reader,] to be fair, even this novice knows Picasso could've done something more with his God-given talent, as we can see from his Communion which he produced at but fifteen years of age. But no such luck. The commie squandered his talent, and, we hope in Christ, is headed for the garage sale of history. Indeed, perhaps the best part of the series is a thought question posed at the very beginning of video 2 (in case you didn't follow the instructions and watch it yourself):

Imagine walking through a junkyard and finding some work without its frame, signature, or any explanation. The average person would instinctively rescue the Michelangelo, Schmid, Edgar Payne, Lyon, etc. from the scrapheap. Its innate value would be obvious without anyone to tell them it didn't belong alongside garbage, while even the trained art critic would have no way of identifying the modern artwork from junk. Beauty is rare. It forces us to stop and take notice, to preserve it when stumbled upon. Who, after all, would be able to tell that this Jackson Pollock was a work of art worth tens of millions of dollars, rather than just a simple drop cloth?

Ain't it the truth! Methinks this directory rant may, if there are any influential art snobs reading, be the ticket to realizing my life-long dream of getting added to the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of hate groups. (Now that Atobe's on board too, even though much of his net worth resides in similar pricey refuse, A Blog from Atobe does indeed qualify as a group). If they can't pin this traditional Catholic for actually hating anybody, they can at least accuse him of hating bad art.

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To move swiftly from Occident to Orient, [we have surely reached the "kicks" I mentioned above] I must pay early praise to a wonderful new anime I've been following from the first episode, conspicuously named The World God Only Knows. Christian ears may perk at the title, but as one familiar with anime, I was not much surprised to learn that the only "god" in question is just the pictured protagonist. Read up:

Katsuragi Keima is known on the net as the god of getting the virtual girls, thanks to his popular gal game website 'Fallen God', while in real life he's known as 'Otamegane' and hates all '3D' girls, believing them inferior to girls of the game world. He is approached by Elsea, a devil from Hell who has heard of his legendary girl-capturing skills, to help her in catching runaway spirits that hide in girls. These spirits only hide in the crevices in women's hearts, and the only way to get them out is to make the host fall in love so that the gap in the heart will be filled. And if Keima fails to do so . . . he will lose his head.

Cute, eh? One glimpse of Elsea and I was hooked. The opening theme, aptly titled "God Only Knows", is graphically pleasing, and as I listen to it a few times through, mysteriously soothing. Well, in a world of uncertainty, our refrain, too, shall be naught but "God only knows"...

Thanks to Christopher Columbus, whose statue before Worcester's Union Station is here shown, a long weekend is now begun. Howe'er nice it would be to be home already, I cannot return until late tomorrow, so Atobe (it would be less than practical to fly to Tokyo and back over a holiday weekend) and I plan to take advantage of the afternoon to watch an Assumption home football game. Our team's been playing well this year. Go Hounds!

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A fortnight ago, after awing a roomful of officers and their adjutant lessers with a poetic selection, I received a commission for a sonnet about Assumption's Campus Activities Board. Hardly the usual request, I was initially unsure what to write about. Almost every college, after all, has a CAB; what makes ours special? Pondering this upon a visit to the CAB office I saw, within that newly furnished and colorfully upholstered environ, a notice that a certain many-pillowed couch was designated, in Washingtonian fashion, "Jordan's Couch."

Sonnet CXLVI- the CAB Luxuriant, the CAB Jordanian

Assumption, as a college, has a CAB.
Its office, freshyears immemorial,
With autographs of artists magical
And musical was hung. But colors drab
Consigned aesthetics ancient to their fate—
For while you almost would expect, in CAB,
A football signed by Donovan McNabb,
Aged scribbles, they know, make no office great.
A cushion fringe and satin mania,
Burlesque oasis for the college day,
Now greets the student-guest on his foray.
Within this apricot Arabia,
A lounger, day relaxer, beckons him
A friend, unmoved from couch Jordanian.

As I wrote in the epigram, all CAB needs now is a hookah. Despite the intended subject and recipient, the poem is perhaps more truly a tribute to the estimable Jordan Dembishack, member of both CAB and its supposed rival SGA. As I discovered upon inquiry, the man recently took a nap there, which event was memorialized in a fashion worthy of our first President. The event confirmed that the room's fresh trappings were indeed the baggage of the Near East.


I should like to see the "CAB" at Holy Cross match that.

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[Black Pond at Camp Woodstock]

It sure didn't look like this when we were there. In case distant readers wonder what became of the aforementioned Letter to Le Provocateur, the eruption of controversy which succeeded it was better than I could have hoped for, and fits perfectly into my plan. While there have been the expected criticisms, the acclaim and agreement given me by thankful readers has been overwhelming. Let all know: the sole purpose of the Article is to end student leadership camp once and for all. Given the scale of the operation, the number of participants, and the wide commitment by administrators to continuing camp, the most effective and sensible way to achieve this end was to provide a critique which not merely undermined the rationale of camp, but emboldened my fellow student leaders and all concerned greyhounds to turn their intermittent grumblings into a tempered revolt, and I think I have succeeded as well as I could have on that. For a progress report, our SGA's VP for Academic Affairs plans to assemble an ad hoc committee to investigate the relevant concerns, and I shall before long meet with a higher-up to discuss the matter. Courage, Christian soldiers! With a mustard seed of faith, we may yet move mountains!

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In other news--to say evokes my happiness!--Assumption is finally getting a club for anime and manga lovers! First meeting on October 21, I think. Under my influence, the organization will surely render fine service to our Catholic college as well as enrich our student life. As I was watching another fine episode of Cardcaptor Sakura some hours ago, I was delighted when the sweet protagonist Sakura Kinomoto, asked by her father (a professor of archaeology) what were her wishes for New Year's, gave an example worthy of emulation by dutiful Christian children. Said she:

Well, that you don't get hurt during a dig, Dad...

And that my math score gets a little better...

And also, that I can learn to sew well...

That I become better at twirling the baton...

How many virtuous wishes she would have expressed if her brother had not interrupted! Finer cares of affection for one's father, purer determinations to improve feminine virtues, have hardly been uttered. Ah, the world does not understand, and even seasoned otakus too often forget that while the characters and kimonos are pretty, their souls are often no less admirable.


Until Christ be formed in you... by anime!!