The New Indulgence Calendar is now ready
The new blank calendar is available too.
If you want indulgences this is a big week as there are plenary indulgences available from Nov 1st – 8th under the normal conditions.
Archive for October, 2022
November Indulgence Calendar a Big Eight Days
Posted: October 31, 2022 by datechguy in UncategorizedReport from Louisiana: Thoughts on Halloween
Posted: October 31, 2022 by Pat Austin in UncategorizedTags: catholic, datechguy's magnificent seven, frank, pat austin, report from louisiana
By: Pat Austin
Photo by David Menidrey on Unsplash
SHREVEPORT – Today is Halloween, of course and who doesn’t love the fun of it all, and seeing the little children dressed up in their costumes?
We attend the Episcopal church along with two other Episcopal churches in the area, we have a group performing The Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28), The Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37) and the War in Heaven (Revelation 12) in the cemetery this evening. There is a bit of side-eye going on amongst those who think this is purely a pagan holiday. To clarify this, I’d like to share a post from a Catholic priest friend, Fr. Clinton Sensat:
In 726, Emperor Leo the Isaurian issued a decree banning all religious images.
He had been fighting the Umayyads, and influenced by Muslim claims, regarded images as idolatrous. That seemed plausible to him. He didn’t consult learned theologians. He didn’t study the history. He didn’t hesitate to believe that countless souls had been led astray with nary a peep from heaven.
He believed a lie told by the enemies of the Church, and so in the name of the Church (but really according to his own personal judgment) he lifted his hand to destroy something the people held dear. Countless images of sacred art precious to the hearts of his people were destroyed by Leo’s zeal – a zeal that came from believing an enemy’s lie.
The same thing happens to Halloween today. Zealous Catholics, believing the lies of an enemy, raise their own hands to savage something people love.
When we hear that Easter is really a pagan celebration of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, we rightly scoff. When we’re told Christmas is really a feast of Mithras, we roll our eyes and move on with our lives. But as soon as people are told Halloween is really a Celtic feast of the dead, we’re all wide-eyed credulity. And being credulous, people become zealous to destroy that which they don’t understand.
How can this be? The same age, the same liars, the same pseudohistory that claim Easter and Christmas are pagan claim Halloween too! But we know the first two are silliness and believe the third?!
Let’s have some facts. Halloween started in Italy, not Ireland. The date has to do with an eighth century pope consecrating a church to all the saints. The date has exactly nothing to do with Samhain.
The folk practices of Halloween came from a variety of different countries, not from secret Celts meeting for midnight covens. Moreover, they’re exactly the kinds of folk practices Catholics spontaneously associated with other major feasts.
In Catalunya they dress up as dragons and giants and fairies for Eucharistic processions. Are the people of northeast Spain secretly Irish druids?? Throughout northern Europe they burn enormous bonfires in honor of the birth of John the Baptist. Are they really worshipping Lugh of the Long Hand? I can promise you that the vast majority of Scandinavian people have never even heard the name.
Please, please stop repeating the lies our enemies invented against us as if they’re good Catholic truth. For CENTURIES anti-Catholics have claimed that Catholic practices, Catholic devotions, and Catholic folk traditions are really pagan. For CENTURIES Catholic priests and theologians have fought a bitter fight proving this is in no way, shape, or form the truth. To have Catholics themselves, even some Catholic clergy, take up the arms of our enemies against the Catholic holidays is disheartening in the extreme.
The Church loves the spooky. The Church honors the dead. The Church is not afraid of death. The Church mocks the powers of hell. All of these attitudes spontaneously gave rise to the folk practices of Halloween as we know it today. Don’t give any credence to the apostles of anxiety. Halloween has nothing to do with paganism, and everything to do with good Catholic humor.
I think highly of Fr. Sensat and think he is a wonderful priest, and he has a brilliant mind. I also think Halloween is fun for kids and adults alike.
Happy Halloween to you and have some candy! 😉
Five Quick Under the Fedora Thoughts: Mac Owes a Thank You, A Devastating Popeye’s Ad, Some Violence is More Equal than others, Musk vs Clinton, No Fraud to See Here Move Along…
Posted: October 31, 2022 by datechguy in crime, elections, nfl, politics, SportsTags: election 2022, elon musk, gas prices, hillary clinton, jets, Mac jones, New England Patriots, popeyes
Because I had to take people to the airport for 2 AM today I took yesterday off. As I never have Sunday’s off I went to my local 99’s to watch a bit of the Patriots Jets game. With under a minute in the 1st half with the Jets up 10-3 Mac Jones threw what was a pick six that would have made the game 17-3 and likely ushered in the Baily Zappe era in New England but a roughing the passer penalty on the Jets John Franklin Meyers erased said pick and Jones was able to not only manage to drive for a field goal to end the half at 10-6 but was able to lead the pats for a TD to start the 2nd half. By the start of the 4th quarter the pats were up 19-10 on their way to a 22-17 final score.
Jones should send Meyers a fruit basket as he may have single handedly saved his season.
Speaking of devastating things while I was watching the game at the 99’s the following ad played on the screen.
While it was not likely intended as such it is a devastating ad against the Democrats, An ad that reminds people of soaring gas prices (they just went up .40 in my town this week) is exactly what the Democrats don’t need playing on the most watched sporting events of the weekend.
And it didn’t cost the RNC or any conservative pacs a cent.
While I already noted that the left really would rather spend this week talking about Pelosi than the upcoming crushing defeat that the Democrats are heading for and that Don Surber wisely said he would wait till today to say anything there were some interesting exchanges on twitter where the left kept pushing the idea that people on the right aren’t worried about Paul Pelosi being assaulted. To wit:
This prompted a reply from a leftist that perfectly encapsulates what the left believes when it comes to violence.
Oh and Lt. Columbo’s questions concerning the narrative in play (two of which, the number of Hammers and Underwear are now in question) and the reason for said nutjob being at the Pelosi place not withstanding…
…nut jobs assaulting people, any people are a bad thing and I wish Mr. Pelosi a speedy and complete recovery. As for what happened, the security footage and the body cam footage from the police should clarify a lot, assuming it’s released.
Oh and for the record you only have to go back five days to see a Democrat who ran for president justifying SCOTUS justices being targeted for murder:
A lot of people took a real fit over this reply (since deleted)) to Hillary Clinton by Elon Musk.
Forgetting for a moment the speculation in the opinion piece linked, It’s worth noting that while Mrs. Clinton has 31 million followers Elon has over 113 Million, or to put it another way consider this.
If every single one of Hillary Clinton’s followers currently followed Elon Musk and then decided to unfollow him Musk would still reach over 50 million more accounts than Hillary would on twitter.
Do you really want to bait a guy with access to this many people? It can be a game changer to your narrative.
Meanwhile here is one story that all this Pelosi stuff is chasing off the front pages:
Cynthia Harris, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for District 6 commissioner in Orange County, which includes Orlando, provided a sworn complaint to the election crimes office, alleging left-leaning organizations have been perpetrating a scheme to encourage residents in black neighborhoods to apply for mail-in ballots and to fill out those ballots, which she said have been collected by paid canvassers, and sometimes altered, all in violation of state law.
In an interview with The Washington Times, Ms. Harris said she has video evidence of paid ballot harvesters operating in Orlando neighborhoods in both 2014 and 2017, and that the scheme has been going on for decades, continuing through the 2020 election and the 2022 primary.
Via Monica Showalter at the American Thinker who notes:
Ballot harvesting, for example, was pioneered by the PRI party in Mexico, which held power for 70 years as a one-party state, having maneuvered itself into this position precisely with this practice. It was not for nothing that writer Mario Vargas Llosa called this setup “the perfect dictatorship.” Democrats, many of them with roots in the Mexican illegal alien community in California, brought this practice with them and adapted it to California’s elections — the point that real Mexican nationals are appalled. One told me that California’s politics resemble Mexico’s 40 years ago, Mexico having instituted more safeguards to prevent this rigging from happening.
In fairness of course odds are the Media would be ignoring this story completely even if this Pelosi story never existed.
Solid support by Democrats for Biden and Fetterman betrays their biggest fault–their causes are more important than good results
Posted: October 30, 2022 by John Ruberry in congress, culture, elections, media, News/opinion, politicsTags: Da Magnificent Seven, datechguy's magnificent seven, election 2022, Fetterman, john ruberry, larry krasner, MSNBC, Oz, pennsylvania, senate
By John Ruberry
The warning signs have been there for many weeks. Shortly before winning the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman had a stroke. How severe was the stroke? We don’t know, because Fetterman, who appears to be morbidly obese, hasn’t released his medical records.
But he’s a solid leftist Democrat, and that’s all that his party leadership and the people working on his campaign need to know. But can Fetterman perform the job as senator?
His brief public appearances have been filled with gaffes and non-sensical statements, such as this one, made during an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, in response to this question, “I just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing?” Fetterman’s response was, “I’m doing fantastic, it’s not about kicking balls in the authority or anything.” Earlier this month Fox News reported that since his stroke, Fetterman had participated just four interviews with a national media outlet-all with MSNBC. Possibly in reaction to that story, Fetterman reached out to NBC. Dasha Burns interviewed him–and the candidate was aided by a teleprompter. As part of her report, Burns said that Fetterman had issues engaging in “small talk” prior to their interview. There was no teleprompter until the cameras were switched on.
The left-wing Twitter blue-check media army attacked Burns; Fetterman’s wife said that she should face “consequences” for doing her job, which in this case was providing information to Pennsylvania voters so they can make an intelligent choice on who to vote for in the Senate race.
Fetterman’s campaign says as a result of the candidate’s stroke–oh, once again, where are those medical records?–he suffers from auditory processing challenges. And if Fetterman doesn’t improve, how will he be able to understand what is going on in a Senate committee hearing?
Last week’s sole debate between Fetterman and his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, was a debacle for the Democrat.
“If this had been a boxing match,” Laura Ingraham said of the debate on her Fox News show, “the referee would have called this in the first sixty seconds.” Fetterman’s opening remark was, “Hi, good night, everyone.” Like his other post-stroke campaign appearances, the debate with Oz was another gaffe-fest for the Democrat. Fetterman was particularly ghastly when trying to explain his position on fracking. His campaign blamed the closed captioning on the candidate’s teleprompter. The network that broadcast debate strongly dismissed that complaint.
But to leftists, none of this stuff matters. That’s because Fetterman is “right” on all of the issues, well, maybe not fracking anymore. Maybe. He’ll vote “correctly,” the leftists believe, presumably with the help of his teleprompter, on the Senate floor. After all, under the protection of pandemic restrictions–they were overblown in my opinion, but I want to stay on topic–a frail and obviously mentally feeble Joe Biden was able to win the presidency while hiding in the basement of his Delaware home.
If the basement bunker tactic worked for Biden, leftists probably believe, it can work for Fetterman too.
But we are in the middle of a disastrous presidency, which includes a humiliating military defeat, high inflation, and a likely recession.
Back to Pennsylvania and Fetterman: If it were Dr. Oz who had suffered a stroke, state party leaders, and possibly his campaign staff, would call for, perhaps quietly, Oz to step aside in time for a replacement candidate to appear on the general election ballot. While conservatives of course have core principles, our side consists of many more pragmatists. That’s how we roll. For instance, how many conservatives do you find in academia? Or in the arts? The Democrats are the party of noble intentions. The GOP is the party of good results.
And Dems continue to hammer away on unworkable and unpopular polices, such as attacking fossil fuels, confronting inflation with even more government spending, and conducting catch-and-release so-called prosecution of criminals. Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner is one of the worst proponents of such prosecutorial malpractice.
Which means the hardcore support by the left for John Fetterman makes sense. A twisted sense, that is.
When you vote in this year’s general election–vote for pragmatism. Vote Republican.
As for you Pennsylvania voters–you need to say “good night” to Fetterman.
John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 