Monthly Archives: February 2012
Please Sign The "Coalition For Marriage" Petition Against UK "Sodomarriage"
Incredibile dictu, even in the secularised, tepid, indifferent, “let’s be nice to each other” United Kingdom opposition is starting to form to the perversion of what is most sacred, driven from a Prime Minister for which nothing is sacred, but his permanence to power.
You can sign the petition here.
Please notice this might become more than a rearguard battle, as the number of people getting slowly but surely angry is – incredibly – increasing.
The Dancing Priest
I could have posted the immortal David Brent’s dance in the UK version of “the office”, but as we are dealing with a person alleged to be a priest I will, for this time, let it be and subtitute for something half a notch less embarrassing.
The fact is, if you go on father Z’s site you will see everything that is wrong with the Post-V II Church.
1) The room is, apparently, a church. Really?
2) The “dancing queen” is, apparently, a priest. Really?
3) A Mass is apparently going on. Really?
Of course, this could all be a joke, reminiscent of the Colbert video posted above. Tragically, it could not be one.
if this is not a joke, the kindest thing I can say to the chap is that he has picked up the wrong job. It would be atrocious enough if a politically correct priest oblivious of all that a Mass is would ask other people to set in scene such a tragic farce at mass; but that the very priest would put himself at the centre of the attention in such a David Brent-like way is really beyond contempt.
The fact is made more censurable still by the simple consideration that at mass you are not supposed to decide whether you want to assist at the performance, and are really not supposed to boo the performer (though I have my doubts on that; and some eggs might have been properly used).
One might, if he is really, really in a good mood, try to justify this obscene self-aggrandising exercise with some “celebration” or other of some “culture” which would, for reasons unknown to me, being promoted at Mass. But this really does not even begin to be an argument, as one could then decide to celebrate a bit everything wirth of “celebrating”, from Shakespeare to opera to cricket; and truly, even a batter and a bowler along the main nave wouldn’t have looked as stupid as this, not even if they had been priests.
Summa summarum, we have in front of us the cancer spread all over the Church by the V-II mentality: desire to “celebrate” pretty much everything but Christ, forgetfulness of the sacredness of Mass and of the church, acute desire for popularity both for the organisation and, most tragically here, for the priest; watering down of the religious message in an orgy of self-celebration of the community, so “embracing” and “participating”; dumbing down of the most elementary notions of sacredness, respect, reverence.
This, my dear readers, cannot be considered an isolated accident, born out of nowhere. Whilst this might well be – and I truly hope it is; nay, I truly hope this is a joke – an extreme example of V II madness, such episode could never be even conceived if the Catholic culture in Brazil had been preserved in a halway acceptable manner.
This is very bad. This is a very bad priest wanting to act an even worse Tony Manero.
Mundabor
"Miami Vice"
In this rare photo, Agents Crockett and Tubbs upset at learning the news.
This is bad news, and good news at the same time. Bad news, because a shameless behaviour went on unchecked for too long. Good news, because the scandal is out after it is clear that decisive steps have been undertaken to clear up the pig stall (and the pig stall was, apparently, of impressive proportions, and the stink mighty).
Mundabor and Kindle
No, seriously: you *need* to have one...
Invited by Defende nos in proelio to mention my three favourite Kindle books, I though it unavoidable to expand a bit on the matter and write, semel in anno, a post not directly related to Catholicism – though in the end it is, a lot -.
Firstly, let me say Kindle is a fantastic invention. It truly is. Kindle will change your life, because it changes the way you can access and enjoy books.
Have you seen those vaguely pathetic people with the huge (and I mean: huge) book on the train? Those in the airport with a sad face saying “I have just finished my favourite novel and have nothing else to read/had to carry extra weight to avoid it”? How many times have you been in front of the alternative whether to ruin your finances buying a well-printed book, and ruining your sight buying the paperback? And don’t you enjoy reading now this and now that, and change your reading as your mood carries you?
If you notice all these little things, the Kindle is made for you, because it is made for those who love reading more than they love the idea of showing bookshelves to their friends (I’ll come to that, too). It is made for those who love books too much to see the reading experience ruined by a paperback.
Say, I like reading this book for a while, but not for an afternoon. I can buy it for free (if I want to spend something and have a more elegant format and possibly better general quality, I can buy this for a pittance) and read it for as long as I want; after which, I might switch to, say, this (free!) or this (free!) or this (a pittance).
Whatever you read, Kindle will allow you to read it with a quality only the best printed books could give you. This, my friend, and no other is the best among the many advantages of switching to the new age of book-loving (yes: book-loving!): hHours or uninterrupted reading pleasure without straining your eyes. You wouldn’t (come on: in fact, you don’t!) spend a patrimony to buy – provided you find them – the best hardcover editions of your classics, just to massacre them on the train, in your pocket, in your office bag, in the rain, in the mess of life. What you would and in fact did buy were… the paperbacks! Bad printing quality, worse reading quality, a challenge to your health, and as near a disposable book experience as you can get. Plus, you can’t switch. Plus, it weights, and takes place. Plus, it’s generally ugly, or it soon becomes it.
Kindle is different. The very same extremely high reading quality is with you everywhere, and you have hundreds of books at your disposal at all times, in a light and elegant format, even with your leather pouch. You can have (as I do) books you’ve always loved in your kindle, just to read some lines from them whenever the fancy takes you (and I do!) . Prosa, poetry, and religion always with you. You wouldn’t carry a bible always with you for the case you have a fancy to read some lines out of it, would you now? I have it in several languages. Kindle is a book lover’s dream come through. Nay, Kindle surpasses everything a book lover could have dreamt of!
Then there are those among us who know – or love, or would like to improve – foreign languages. In past times, before Amazon, we went to specialised bookstores and spent there sums which made us cry. Amazon improved this a lot, but it still was a hassle, and not entirely cheap.
In the new kindle world, you can buy this for £2.68! Which is rather expensive, because in Germany it costs EUR 0.99! Unreal! And you know what? You really read it! You don’t have to decide “today I will read Kafka” before you leave home. You can read Kafka for 20 minutes, and switch to this in a second (the last one, I just bought! £0.77. Yes, seventy-seven pence, for stunning reading quality!).
Would you get out in the morning thinking “today on the train I will read Shakespeare’s sonnets”? How many do? Now you can, and it doesn’t even cost.When you long for something different, you can always switch to this.
I could go on until tomorrow, but you get my drift.
And what about the beautiful book, you will say? My answer is that no innovation ever did so much for beautiful books like Kindle. Freed from the necessity of spending money for crappy paperbacks and clogging your bookshelves with them, you can now dedicate your financial and shelves resources for what is really beautiful: for elegant illustrated books, leather-bound ones, miniature ones, and all those objects which always made – as opposed to a paperback – the tactile and visual pleasure of a book. To lament the demise of the paperback because of the kindle is to me the same than to lament the disappearance of junk food because everyone starts to eat in a fine way. The paperback never was “the book”. The paperback never was anything comparable to the pleasure of a book. You bought the paperback for the content, and the content is what you have now in the kindle, with vastly better quality and incomparably better reading pleasure, at a tiny fraction of the cost, with vastly increased flexibility.
Well then, what are my suggestions? Let me say first I will exclude religious books (too easy and predictable), and in my three choices there’ll be no Italian or German books. But I will at the same time be showing you how Kindle changes the way you read.
My suggestions are, therefore, as follows:
1. The complete Sherlock Holmes.
Pick an edition you like among the many available. I mean the complete editions. This is the age of Kindle and there’s no scope in buying these things in installments. I read all Sherlock Holmes in Italian, many years ago. Paperback. Then I bought a big hardcover here in England, of good printing quality, which I couldn’t bring with me on the train because the pain would have been too much. Then I bought the Kindle, and am now re-reading all Sherlock Holmes at my pace and in my time, without the hassle, and when I feel like it. Kindle is simply amazing.
2. The complete Anthony Trollope
I have bought this. All Trollope for less than a big coin. I had read the complete “Barsetshire” cycle on paperback (you order on Amazon; wait a couple of days; then have a bad reading experience and aching eyes). I am now reading the “Palliser” cycle, all delivered to me instantly and wirelessly, in excellent quality. A dream.
Please don’t read Dickens in 2012. It’s so banal.
3. The Lord of the Rings
Not sure there are good Kindle editions of this, but this is only a matter of time. I know it may sound trite, but greatness doesn’t become less great just because some superficial hollywood flick was made of it. Tolkien could last one a lifetime, and one would be able to discover ever new depths in him after forty years. A wonderful Catholic, too. Here too, to have a ponderous work like this in your kindle is a thing of beauty. Don’t look like the chap near you with the huge brick.
Be smart, and buy a Kindle.
Mundabor
P.s. there will be no invitation to other bloggers. I am too reserved for these things. But I thank for the invitation to talk about Kindle, as I am really a fan.
What Price Prostitution?
The claret was particularly good: David Cameron
David Cameron is a little harlot of politics, the slut of every movement he thinks can help him to get or stay in power and the prostitute of every political or pressure group he thinks is in his way of reaching his aim. Like the real slut, Cameron has a calling for sluttishness: his is not the behaviour of the politician who, obtorto collo, accepts some of the sad realities of democracy, but the enthusiastic adherence to a lifestyle for which prostitution is the only way, and the satisfaction of his perceived paying client the most natural behaviour on Earth.
One thing Cameron loves to do, is to please sodomites. Whilst not being – for all we know; and it wouldn’t be the first time we end up knowing we knew it wrong – a sodomite himself, in his relentless pursuit of political prostitution he seems to think the so-called “gays” are a wealthy, well-paying client of his. In Camerons’ world, there is no downside in lending his political backside to those who, well …. He will get the enthusiastic support – or so he thinks – of a group perceived as “influential”, without causing the ires of Christians. He thinks he will only need to mention the usual mantras of XXI century’s Britain (“tolerance”, and the like) to keep the ones well under control whilst he makes himself beautiful with the others.
It might – just might – appear this game is slowly going to an end. Cameron has already expressed himself in favour of the recognition of sodo-”marriages” (I do not mean “civil partnerships” here, which in my book is pretty much every bit as bad; I mean the full monty) delighting, as always, in being more “progressive” than Labour. He thought – as he is certainly well justified in thinking – the sums would add up and he would easily brand as intolerant neo-fascists everyone who dared to go against his “new Tory”, lavender mantra.
It might – just might – not be so easy.
First of all – and this must be said for our friends overseas, who might be justified for not closely following the events in what used to be a proud Empire, and now has his soldiers taken prisoners in Iran – Cameron’s position has been rather wobbly for a while. Whilst there is no open revolt – yet – it is clear the man grates more than some within his own party and is very probably more popular among his girlfriend’s acquaintances than among his own Members of Parliament. The unprecedented humiliation received just a few months ago in Brusseler matters – another topic where he thought he could silence the opposition with some barking and some trite slogans – ended very badly for him and showed the desire to get rid of him is much bigger than he himself expected. He survived the shock, but he survived in the same way the Chinese Empire survived the British (and French) march on Peking: badly, and with his reputation irretrievably damaged.
How damaged, the next months will show. Cameron, who had started his last trollop-crusade on the recognition of so-called gay marriages, now finds himself if not positively attacked, certainly opposed by several sides: the former Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury (apparently, one who still cares a bit for Christian values; in striking contrast to Rowan Williams) has chosen open confrontation; among the MPs dissatisfaction is wells-spread; and even the Catholic Church now begins – as Vincent “Quisling” Nichols really cannot shut up anymore – to utter some timid meowing.
Cameron gave an interview to some sodomite magazine a couple of days ago, where he showed all the extent of his incompetence and confusion (I might write about it, but take it from me: a harlot who didn’t make her homework before meeting her client) but where he basically had to admit he might have to leave his MPs free to vote according to conscience about this. In plain English, this means he fears he can’t force them to follow the line, as he knows a second loss of face would possibly cost him the job.
What might be happening in the next months is that the country finally awakens and decides Toryism (and Christianity) can not possibly have anything to do with Cameron: whilst the so-called Church of England has pushed herself into quasi-irrelevance, she can still damage the conservative credentials of our little trollop, and if you add powerful sponsors and the revolt of rural England (which might well be in the card, though I wouldn’t bet my pint yet) things seem to look very bleak for him.
Prostitute that he is, Cameron will try to do what he always does: please everyone and look for the way of least resistance. But this is exactly his weakness: the man is not made for resistance, but wired for prostitution. He has no values, only clients. He will do whatever keeps him in power and if in order to do so he has to suck up to Neo-nazis, he’ll do so without blinking.
The petition in defence of traditional marriage, which started just days ago and already got more than 50,000 signatures could be a serious problem for Cameron, and his backers seem to be more organised and with bigger coffers than he bargained for. They don’t seem to be sufficiently focused yet, but if you can judge the day from the morning the potential is there, and the day a couple of powerful sponsors decide they want Cameron’s scalp and are ready to pay for it the game might become interesting indeed.
Cameron saw a bigger challenge to his un-Conservative ideology take shape in October and November. He reacted with a “triple whip”, the severest form of enforcement of party discipline known to the British parliamentary system, and in doing so he made for himself several dozen sworn enemies at no cost, and got a “bitch-slapping” of proportions never seen before. I wonder what he learned.
David Cameron is nothing more than a little filthy prostitute terrified of discovering his clients have deserted him. Let this become big enough, and don’t bet your pint he’ll try his luck again.
A rather long shot, I know, but stranger things happen at sea…
Mundabor
Please Sign The “Coalition For Marriage” Petition Against UK “Sodomarriage”
Incredibile dictu, even in the secularised, tepid, indifferent, “let’s be nice to each other” United Kingdom opposition is starting to form to the perversion of what is most sacred, driven from a Prime Minister for which nothing is sacred, but his permanence to power.
You can sign the petition here.
Please notice this might become more than a rearguard battle, as the number of people getting slowly but surely angry is – incredibly – increasing. More than 50,000 citizen have already signed, and the tom tom can make this thing become huge with – if they wake up to the huge lie called “David Cameron” - vast support in rural England, which is absolutely vital to the Tories’ permanence in power; or, more to the point, to Cameron’ s permanence at the head of it.
I will write about the situation separately. Please send the link everywhere, tweet it, forward it, mail it, let it come into the furthest corner of the British Isles.
I doubt Cameron will be stopped as I can’t imagine Labour not helping the lavender “Tories”; but he should be made to pay at least a high price, so that more and more people understand what a disgrace he is.
Please sign the petition.
Mundabor
Ten Reasons For The Anonimity Of Catholic Bloggers
Big Brother Is Googling You...
In the last days, objections have been made to the fact that many of those who write about Catholic matters do so anonymously. As always, there is no scarcity of people who indulge in easy accusations of what they don’t like, and can’t control. Let us examine what this is all about and the many valid reasons for anonymity on the internet.
The Sensitive Catholic
Save a prayer with me for the Sensitive Catholic.
The Sensitive Catholic is committed to Catholicism, until it becomes disagreeable. He is full of his own goodness, and desires all the world to know about it. The problem is, if one wants all the world to know how good he is, chances are some people will be offended by his goodness. At that point he is in front of a choice: being good and hated, or not-so-good and loved.
The Sensitive Catholic always chooses the second way. His opinion is always expressed provided you are not opposed to it, in which case a tsunami of tolerance and dialogue will take the place of asserting Catholic values. Generally, though, he will avoid coming in that situation in the first place, as the Sensitive Catholic has already noticed this attitude will get him a deserved reputation as a coward among the real Catholics.
Therefore, the Sensitive Catholic will take refuge in utterly non-controversial matters: peace, justice, dialogue, peace, the saint of the day, Jesus The Uncontroversial Whatyoulike, peace, prayer, penance, peace and, of course, peace.
The Sensitive Catholic is extremely attentive no one should consider him intolerant: he’ll consider the vicar a person with holy orders (even if he/she/it isn’t) and will happily discuss about his distributing communion (even if he/she/it doesn’t). Most of all, the Sensitive Catholic wants you to like him. He’ll do whatever he thinks contributes to the result, and will leave whatever doesn’t.
In its extreme form, the Sensitive Catholic will talk (with other Catholics) about the necessity for the Church to go underground and transform into a small group of people who are oh so good (like him/her, of course) without having to give any public witness of their Christianity. This way, he’ll signal to you he/she has no intention of ever fighting any battle with relatives, friends or colleagues, but has no intention to depose the self-made halo for that. In fact, I never met a Sensitive Catholic who didn’t think his halo was just the ticket, and never to be touched by any controversy because they could crease it.
I would smile at the Sensitive Catholic, if he/she were just an occasional manifestation of the usual Don Abbondio- mentality requiring from one that he/she doesn’t quarrel with anyone, and gets along with the enemy with a smile. But the problem is that the Sensitive Catholic seems to have become representative of a good part of the Catholic population, people whose motto seems to be “my truth will make me beautiful only as long as it does not conflict with yours, at which point I’ll happily ditch it because otherwise what’s the use…”.
The Sensitive Catholic is always either vain and disproportionately attentive he is popular, or else irretrievably cowardly. After V II, the Sensitive Catholic has come into fashion, and he/she now seems to me just what the V II doctor ordered. If you aren’t a Sensitive Catholic, there’s something wrong with you.
The Sensitive Catholic is, I would say, by far not as bad as the Sensitive Nazi.
But he is the Nazi’s most useful ally.
Mundabor
Cameron Backs Sodomite "Unions"
Mundabor's personal gift to the PM
If you ever had any doubt that David Cameron is the enemy of every Christian in this country, every doubt must have been dissolved after the chap revealed of being strongly in favour of so-called “gay marriages” and to want to start consultations to introduce it next March.
Cameron’s behaviour – certainly not approved by many among his own people, but very probably accepted as part of the effeminate cowardice now become prevalent within the once glorious Tory party – is fully in line with the Cameronian idea that bed-and-breakfast owners who do not want faggots to sleep…
The Sensitive Nazi
A Sensitive Nazi caught in his natural habitat
One concept I shall never tire to express is that every Nazi needs to show himself sensitive. In fact, I do not recall many examples in history (the Vikings are certainly one; some Redskin tribes another; but these examples are few and far between) of populations and ideology making of cruelty an accepted part of social behaviour.
Generally, even the most cruel people will want to show themselves sympathetic, and desirous to help.
Take the killing of babies. Monstrous, right? Certainly so, until The Sensitive Nazi appears on the scene. Being he/she a Nazi, the child who is to be killed is conveniently put in the background, and substantially ignored. He is immediately downgraded to collateral damage of the Sensitive Nazi’s goodness. But you see, the Sensitive Nazi is so good: he thinks of the suffering mother, and will create pitiful stories about abortions obtained with the most atrocious means – in Italy the knitting needles are very popular for the purpose; apparently, in the UK cloth hangers are preferred. That a child should not be aborted in the first place is completely set aside, forgotten, ignored. This has the same logic as to complain that as your robber doesn’t have the money to shoot you in the head, he should be sympathised with when he skins you slowly with a kitchen knife, and we should find ways allowing him to kill you in a humane way and at no discomfort for your killer. With the not irrelevant difference that you are not likely to be killed in an extremely painful way by a robber armed with a knife, whereas an army of babies is killed in an extremely painful way by the likes of Planned Parenthood.
At this point, the Sensitive Nazi has already managed to put the real victim very much in the background, and to put in the centre stage the “suffering” of the one who wants to kill him. I know, there is no logic or humanity in this; but again, this is why they are Nazis.
Once come at this point, the Sensitive Nazi will proceed to introduce his plan by installments. Let us admit abortion only in some extreme cases, they will start to say. In case of rape, say. This is very interesting, because the Sensitive Nazis knows once you have put the foot in the door, there is no way to avoid, in time, a complete opening. If you allow abortion in case of rape, which girl who sees herself terrified by her pregnancy will admit she has, well, not been raped? And when you have decided that life is sacred, but not always, how will you avoid the ambit of this “disposable sacredness” to be widened more and more with the time?
As always, if you compromise with the principle at the beginning, you will end up losing the entire principle at the end: divorce in cases of horrible cruelty and bla bla becomes divorce at will; abortion only in strictly circumscribed cases becomes abortion on demand; decriminalisation of scandalous sodomy becomes “civil partnership” and from there, the step to the “homo marriage” is but a short one; next on a screen near you, the euthanasia initially practised with the thousands safeguards now promised everywhere becomes killing by order of those who are deemed to be in charge for the poor old man or woman.
You don’t believe it? Strange, because this is exactly what happens already in the case of abortion.
The Sensitive Nazi is around you. He talks in a mealy-mouthed way about being tolerant and progressive, and sensitive to the suffering of people. He will sell all that is Christian one bit at a time, telling you all the time how good he is. In England, he is Prime Minister and is planning to attack another mainstay of Christian civilisation – marriage - in order to show himself oh so tolerant, and sensitive.This, after he commented favourably a sentence forcing the Christian owners of a bed-and-breakfast to have sodomites under their roof.But you see, he presents himself as the “sensitive” guy all the time. Seriously: what a little Nazi bastard.
After the end of Communism, the Sensitive Nazi is the biggest single threat to Christian civilisation.
Mundabor
