Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

Some Catholic Thoughts Under the Fedora: Pope Nails One, And Another, Trouble in Germany, Practical Reasons to support Priestly Celibacy and the Post Christian Experiment

Posted: March 16, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine, culture, under the fedora
Tags: , , , , , ,

The Pope had something to say about all this Transgender Nonsense.

“Gender ideology, today, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations,” the pope said in an interview to Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper. “Why is it dangerous? Because it blurs differences and the value of men and women.”

Always good to hear him get one right. He also has been strong on coining a phrase:

He has frequently used the term “ideological colonization” in reference to cases in which influential organizations and governments require developing countries to accept abortion, contraception and Western values before they can receive aid money. For example, he lamented to Catholic bishops in 2016 that schoolchildren were being taught that they can choose their gender. “Why are they teaching this? Because the books are provided by the people and institutions that give you money.”

That nails it.

Even better Francis is two for two

“With great respect, I have no choice but to think about a derangement (“desequilibrio”) in the person who leads [Daniel Ortega]. There we have an imprisoned bishop, a very serious, very capable man. He wanted to give his testimony and did not accept exile. He is a something that is outside of what we are experiencing, it is as if it were bringing the Bolshevik communist dictatorship of 1917 or the Hitlerite dictatorship of 1935, back to life… They are a type of rude dictatorships, or, to use a nice distinction from Argentina, “guarangas” (vile), assured the Pope in the interview published on Friday.

Via Babalu Blog who notes how this contrasts with his treatment of Cuban communists:

 In its 64 years of existence, Castro, Inc. has committed millions of crimes, and its cruelty dwarfs that of Daniel Ortega. Yet, Papa Che [Francis] has never uttered a single word of condemnation — or anything close to it — against Cuba’s communist dictators.

Its’ a fair critique but it’s such a nice change to see him get things right I’ll take it.

Meanwhile in Germany things aren’t so good:

The German Synodal Way has voted to adopt “implementation texts” related to same-sex blessings, lay preaching during Mass, and a request for Pope Francis to reexamine the discipline of priestly celibacy in the Latin-rite Catholic Church.

If you think that’s bad it gets worse

While the Vatican has not explicitly condemned the Synodal Way’s promotion of heterodox proposals related to same-sex blessings and women’s ordination, the Holy See has been increasingly clear about its rejection of this form of ecclesial governance, which involves bishops and laity “sharing responsibility.” In the German proposal, laity could even overrule a bishop (or bishops at the national level) with a two-thirds majority.

Hey who needs confession when the sinners can just vote to cause sin to be legit?

Pray for these folks they need it.

There is one issue that these folks have brought up that I have mixed feelings on, that’s priestly celebacy.

This is because it was introduced as a reform to stop the practice of heredity parishes and dioceses which is no longer a problem.

I do have some practical objections.

Given the workload of most priests I don’t see how a married Priest would have time for a family and given the commitments a family involves I don’t see how you could make time for the 24/7 nature of priestly duties.

My primary objection to the idea is that as a parent I would not want priests to be in a position where there is a conflict between church and family. Furthermore the insurance costs for families might be prohibitive, particularly at a time when there is so much trouble in supporting retired priests.

Then again Anglican priests who have converted and kept their wives and families have managed to pull it off.

Anyways those are the practical objections I see, but in terms of theology I see no objection to the Vatican changing the rules, just as long as they think long and hard about it because if they think this is a solution to the sex scandals that are primary homosexual they’re wrong.

Finally one of the advantages of being my particular age is I’ve been able to observe the difference between a Christian culture and a “post Christian” culture.

We see the promotion of vice, the sexualization of children, the redefinition of basic terms we have understood for centuries. We see people unable and unwilling to deal with basic situations that our society was able to cope with less than 50 years ago without issue.

We see youth confused and unable to cope, we see people without direction grabbing different fads, dissatisfied with themselves and their positions in life without hope.

Put simply the world, as it does by it’s very nature, is chewing people up and spitting them out because they can’t cope.

One can only think of this verse from scripture:

At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.

Matt 9:36

That is what happens always happens when you remove Christ from the picture. Because he respects our free will if you choose the world he will step back and let you face it alone if you choose, but fortunately he always has a hand extended if you change your mind. No person or nation is ever so far gone that God will not bless it if it repents.

Review: Van Morrison’s Moving on Skiffle

Posted: March 12, 2023 by John Ruberry in covid, culture, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

By John Ruberry

Last Friday, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Van Morrison released his 44th studio album, the exuberant Moving on Skiffle. 

What is skiffle? Well, the first time I heard of it was in was in an unusual place–maybe not for an American–in the movie This Is Spinal Tap. Before joining the band that would become the heavy metal act Spinal Tap, David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) was a member of a skiffle group.

Wonderful observation, you might be saying, but once again, what is skiffle? In the late 1920s, it developed as an offshoot of jug music, a genre of the American South and performed mainly by African Americans. The original skiffle was a bit country, a bit folk, and a bit delta blues. Then skiffle died once the Great Depression hit. 

Only it didn’t completely perish. 

Like a sprout from an errant wildflower seed, skiffle surprisingly blossomed again a couple of decades later in Great Britan. The UK’s biggest skiffle star was a Scotsman, Lonnie Donegan. Another skiffle performer, Chris Barber, a British aficionado of New Orleans style jazz, often recorded with Donegan. 

Growing up in 1950s Belfast, Morrsion was one of many UK youths listening to skiffle on the radio. Soon Morrison joined a skiffle band, but by the mid-1960s he was fronting Them, a blues-rock act best known for “Gloria,” before going solo in 1967. Well, you probably know the rest of his story.

Just as skiffle quickly reemerged in Britain, it all but vanished as a popular music phenomenon in the early 1960s. Only its disappearance wasn’t mysterious. The tsunami of the Beat Groups–known as the British Invasion in the United States–which included Them, was the culprit. 

The Belfast Cowboy maintained his love for skiffle thru the decades. Morrison recorded a live album with Donegan and Barber, The Skiffle Sessions – Live in Belfast 1998.

For Moving on Skiffle, Morrison issues a double album of additional classic skiffle songs–there are no repeats from the live collection.

Morrison, who turns 78 this summer, has been newsworthy of late because of his fervent opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns.

In 2021, Morrison released Latest Record Project, Volume 1, a double album. Many of the tracks, including “Stop Bitching, Do Something” and “Why Are You on Facebook?” pushed back on government and Big Tech power. Last year, on What’s It Gonna Take?, Van the Man more directly challenged the lockdowns and creeping totalitarianism, in such tracks as “Dangerous,” which was in response to comments made by Northern Ireland’s health minister, Robin Swann, about Morrison’s anti-lockdown stance. Swann has since sued Van the Man, Morrison has counter-sued. 

On what will likely be remembered as his”COVID albums,” Morrison penned all of the tracks. Moving on Skiffle is a covers collection.

Morrison, who is not a doctor or a scientist, has been proven, in my firm opinion at least, to be correct that lockdowns would not be an effective defense against COVID-19. The harm of lockdowns, such as an overall increase in mental illness and declining school test scores, is apparent.

Yes, COVID, along with pre-exisiting conditions, killed millions, despite lockdowns, masking, and vaccine mandates. But Florida, which didn’t pursue an aggressive lockdown and masking policy, didn’t see a higher COVID death rate compared to lockdown states like New York.

Moving back to Moving on Skiffle, this sparkling collection stays away from politics, except for the strongest track on the collection, “Gov Don’t Allow,” a reworking of the 1920s folk standard “Momma Don’t Allow,” with new lyrics authored by Morrison.

“Gov don’t allow any freedom of speech in here,” he sings, “but I think it’s going overreach–gov don’t allow any freedom of speech in here.”

Now that I have politics out of the way, let’s discuss the rest of Moving on Skiffle.

Other highlights of this ninety-minute collection include another musical reworking, “This Little Light of Mine” becomes “This Loving Light of Mine,” where Morrison adds “Amen” verses. “Gypsy Davy” has a Celtic feel, and there are two Hank Williams songs, “Cold Cold Heart” and “I’m So Lonely I Could Cry.” 

Overall, the collection has a Creedence Clearwater Revival flavor, partly because of the inclusion of Lead Belly’s “Cotton Fields,” which CCR covered on Willy and the Poor Boys. Their hit from that album, “Down on the Corner” has a classic has a jug band feel. 

If you are a Van and Man enthusiast from way back, you’ll adore the final cut on Moving on Skiffle, “Green Rocky Road,” a nine-minute-long track that echoes Morrison stream-of-consciousness gems such as “And The Healing Has Begun” and “Listen to the Lion.”

Skiffle has many definitions. So if you’d prefer you can define Morrison’s latest work possibly as an Americana collection, albeit one with gospel music overtones. 

Oh, I nearly forgot. As with all Van Morrison albums, the singing here, including the work of the backup vocalists, as well as the musicianship–down to the washboard–are spectacular. 

Moving on Skiffle can be downloaded from iTunes or purchased at Van Morrison.com.

Related post:

As Van Morrison turns 77, here are his ten best albums

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

J6 Tapes, Weinstein, COVID and Epstein it’s all the Same Issue for the Media/Deepstate/Left

Posted: March 8, 2023 by datechguy in culture
Tags: , ,

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Open government, Prime Minister. Freedom of information. We should always tell the press freely and frankly, anything, that they could easily find out some other way

Yes Prime Minister: The Grand Design 1986

For two days now the left has been on full attack mode on Tucker Carlson for showing part of the J6 tapes that had been withheld from public view by the Democrat left.

There were a lot of adjectives thrown around by people who should know better but because they have become balkanized, jumped in two feet to express their condemnation at the images shown.

The anger of the left over this assault on their narrative was impressive but the source of these attacks is the fact that there is one word that can’t be credibly used to describe these images:

“FALSE”

That’s because those images came directly from McCarthy and furthermore said images, like the origins of the COVID virus, the actions of Harvey Weinstien and even the actions of Jeffrey Epstein were known to many who are now screaming bloody murder over them being seen by you because the problem it poses for them is the same.

They don’t care if J6 wasn’t the insurrection they claimed or if COVID did come from a lab in china funded by Fauci or that Harvey Weinstein was making actresses bang him for parts or even if Jeffrey Epstein was pimping out underage girls for the rich, powerful and connected to use as their playthings. These are facts they’ve known for years and have ignored them or used the false narratives for their own ends.

What they object to is YOU knowing these facts because once these facts are publicly known they have to publicly react to them in a way that at best doesn’t reward them and at worst puts them and their positions at risk.

In other words these facts reveal them for what they are cowards, scum or just indifferent to their fellow man.

Pray for them.

Postscript: This observation from Mr. Hoge is worth noting

At the end of 2020, various friends from around the country asked me for advice about the where to stay in the DC area and the best routes in and out of town. They were all coming for rallies on 6 January. I gave my opinions on accommodations and other logistics—and I advised them to stay away from the Capitol Building and to let Congress do whatever it would do. Given that the Democrats were in control of both houses, it seemed to me that they had some sort of trap set for any demonstrations that strayed onto the turf under their exclusive control.

Thus far, nothing on the surveillance video aired by Fox has surprised me, and I presume the worst is yet to be revealed.

Definitions Under the Fedora: Safe, Woman, Illegal, Disinformation and Truth

Posted: March 6, 2023 by datechguy in abortion, covid, culture, the courts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I wasn’t aware of the suit against Pfizer claiming they violated their contract with the Government over the COVID vaccine and thus doesn’t have immunity over their delivered vaccine. Given the ads constantly be running on radio about watching for signs of heart issues that are sponsored by them (ads we didn’t see three years ago) they might be worried but all of this depends on how the court defines “Save and effective”. If they make sure it’s defined in their favor it all doesn’t matter.

In Minnesota they’re having fun adjusting definitions of “woman” as a Transgender Powerlifter has won in court against the US Powerlifting federation. Apparently under Minnesota law, at least according to the court, to stop a man who believes himself to be a woman from competing against other woman is discriminatory and traumatic.

Hey if at least one justice on the Supreme Court can’t under oath define what a woman is how do you expect judges on the Minnesota courts to do so.

If they lose their appeals my advice is to drop all segregation by sex in powerlifting. I suspect once the prospects finishing in a medal round disappear so will these “woman” from competition.

Over at Legal Insurrection there is a piece about Germany banning protests against abortion as the “40 days for life” movement has come there and made quite a splash.

The left fear is always a good sign but there was something in the piece that jumped out at me:

Currently, abortion is illegal in Germany, but women and their doctors do not face penalties if the pregnancy poses a health risk to the woman or in cases of rape. There is also a loophole under which an abortion may be carried out within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (14 weeks since the last period) after mandatory counseling.

emphasis mine

That seems a rather flexible definition of the word “illegal” in my books, but to a person of a certain age Germans finding a loophole allowing them to kill undesirables is almost tradition.

The Twitter files keep coming out an the government’s use of the word “disinformation” to justify their actions is looking worse and worse as the New Neo reports:

Maybe GEC’s involvement was a secret, but it was no secret – to anyone paying attention – that vast numbers of Twitter accounts were being censored for fairly ordinary viewpoints, the majority of them on the right. It wasn’t limited to Twitter, either – YouTube was heavily involved.

I can vouch for the Youtube censorship but to me the real key line of the story (other than this being,surprise an Obama initiative is this:

The center has a budget of roughly $74 million and “reportedly gave to at least 39 different organizations, whose names were redacted” in an inspector general report.

I submit and suggest that this was, and still is, all about funding leftist front groups to point to their political enemies to have them censored.

Land of the free my ***

Just over two thousands years ago Jesus Christ said:

you will know the truth, and the truth will set you fre

John 8:32

Apparently Scott Adams has confirmed this is true

This makes this particular bit about the Scott Adams story, via Roger Kimball, particularly interesting:

Oh, the howls of outrage that comment elicited! The woke beast was awake and on the prowl. “Dilbert has been cancelled from all newspapers, websites, calendars, and books,” Adams said. Why? “Because I gave some advice everyone agreed with. (My syndication partner canceled me.)”

Once whetted, the appetite of the woke beast is insatiable. A day or two later, Adams reported, “My publisher for non-Dilbert books has canceled my upcoming book and the entire backlist. Still no disagreement about my point of view. My book agent canceled me too.”`

It is true, by the way, that “everyone agrees” with the point that Adams made. Everyone knows it is true. But no one is supposed to admit that it is true. Adams made it all worse by observing that “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps . . . then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.” Oh, wait. I got my notes confused. That wasn’t Scott Adams. That was the professional black Jesse Jackson in 1993. 

Perhaps the word “cancelled” might have to be redefined

Older Entries
Newer Entries