Posts Tagged ‘pat austin’

Report from Louisiana: Thoughts on Halloween

Posted: October 31, 2022 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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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! 😉

Report from Louisiana: Low Water

Posted: October 24, 2022 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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Low water in the Atchafalaya Basin: all that green? That should be well under water.

By: Pat Austin

ARNAUDVILLE LA – We have been in south Louisiana this week, around the Atchafalaya Basin which is absolutely the lowest I’ve seen in years. There is dry land out there where I have never seen dry land before. It is much the topic of conversation around here; for some, the fishing is great because of this. Others lament cancelled cruises and others worry about the effects on their businesses.

It is a bit shocking to see dry, cracked land and cypress stumps that have previously been completely under water.IA large part of this is due to the ongoing drought throughout the entire country which has resulted in low water in the Mississippi River.

Everything is connected.

No rain throughout the country means water levels in the northern end of the river are the lowest since 1988. Down closer to the Gulf, it is reaching 2012 low water levels. This is all problematic because now barges struggle to get through the river. Fewer barges can go through and the barges must carry lighter loads. Barges that ignore the low-water restrictions find themselves grounded, stuck in mud. Supply chain disruptions are the result.

The USS Kidd, a WWII era destroyer and now museum and tourist attraction, sits on dry land in Baton Rouge due to the low water.

Low water in the Mississippi means low water in the Atchafalaya Basin. This affects the fishing and seafood industry, tourism industry, and much more.

There is precious little humans can do about all of this; what is needed is rain, of course. Jeff Graschel of the National Weather Service explains:

“There’s not any long-range models that are giving us any occasions for rainfall that’ll generate runoff to help and alleviate low-water conditions right now,” he said. “Obviously everybody’s watching that very closely.”

He explained that the rain would need to occur in the upper section of the river valley, such as Illinois, for the effects to be felt further south. Rain that falls in south Louisiana does not drain through the Mississippi, save for what lands directly in the river.

For now, all anyone can do is wait for rain.

Report from Louisiana: 2023 Gubernatorial Election Early Outlook

Posted: October 17, 2022 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By: Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – The Louisiana gubernatorial election is not until next year but there is already a good bit of buzz and a flurry of activity.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has officially thrown his hat into the ring. According to the Louisiana Hayride blog:

“Several members of the LAGOP Republican State Central Committee … have told us they’re being directly wooed by Landry’s campaign. The sense is that Landry probably already has better than half the RSCC willing to vote to endorse him, but he’s going for a vast consensus if not a unanimous vote as soon as possible… What we’ve heard is that Landry is offering himself as a disruptive change agent where state government is concerned, and that he wants to bring a more comprehensive reform agenda than anybody’s seen since perhaps Huey Long’s time.”

This move is designed to shut out any challenge by Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser who has yet to commit to the race. While everyone expects him to run, Nungesser says he won’t make it official until January. By that time, Jeff Landry will have solidified much of the support, and a lot of the money.

The Louisiana Illuminator seems to think Nungesser is the more electable of the two:

Nungesser might well be the closest thing the state GOP has to a unifying force. Louisiana’s Republican Party has suffered from its own fractures and mismanagement in recent years. Although Nungesser isn’t as conservative as some of its far-right members would like, he has the ability to appease the party’s deep-pocketed donors.

And we still have the John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy factor. Popular opinion says that Senator John Kennedy will run for governor if he loses his senatorial re-election campaign (which seems unlikely).

What does NOT appear to be strong is a lot of Democratic candidates. The Democratic party chairperson offers New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno as a strong candidate. Moreno “says she has been getting pushed to run in the wake of the Supreme Court’s historic anti-abortion ruling but hasn’t committed to the race.”

Anyone coming out of NOLA government can’t be seen as a great choice now that NOLA is the Murder Capital of the United States.

It is still early and we still have mid-terms to plod through, but even at the early date I think it’s safe to color Louisiana a red state in 2023.

Report from Louisiana: Baseball is Life

Posted: October 10, 2022 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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Photo by Jose Francisco Morales on Unsplash

By: Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – Random, unconnected thoughts about baseball.

I am writing this on Sunday evening while watching the Mets v Padres. It’s not looking good for the Mets at the moment. But as I watch, I am thinking about the proposed MLB rule changes for next year. And a big thumbs down to that from me.

I am by no means whatsoever the baseball expert that my friend Liz is; she is a Pirates fan from waaaayyy back and can quote stats, dates, and important events for all the players. It’s incredible. I am a different kind of fan; I just watch because I love baseball. I don’t even have a favorite team! I have some I like and follow more than others, but I’m not die-hard for any one team.

So maybe that negates my opinions on the matter. Who knows.

But I’ll express them anyway. I’m not a fan of a pitch clock. At all. Baseball is a game of strategy and the dance between a pitcher and the batter is a beautiful thing. Putting a clock on it is criminal. You think the game lasts too long? It’s not fast enough for your video-game-aged-mind? Too bad.

And another thing.

This man-on-second thing when the game is in a tie at the end of the ninth…what the heck!  I hate it. Hate hate hate. Can we say unfair advantage?! Let the teams duke it out…give me those old tie-breaker games that lasted all night! These guys are athletes, professional athletes making lots and lots of money. We aren’t talking about a T-ball game. This is professional baseball!

I really wish we would quit expecting a homerun derby every time we watch a game; batters going for the fences every time does not equate to better athleticism for me. There are merits to be found in “small ball,” in the well placed ground ball, for example. Moving the runners around the bases. You want to see a homerun derby, tune in at All-Star time and you can find one. Leave the rest of the games alone.

And this one will be really unpopular, I’m sure, especially coming from a female, but I do not like a female baseball announcer. I’m so sorry, feminists, but man, listening to some former softball player chick try to tell me what is happening in a Major League baseball game just irritates me. Fight me.

Baseball is the purest, best game we have. Leave it alone. There is no other game more American, more beautiful, than baseball. The history! The poetry! The show! I love it, even though I can’t quote stats and even though I don’t bleed team colors, I love baseball. I hate to see the season end. Spring training is circled on my calendar. Winter is long and dark.

To be honest, I love minor league baseball and even the college leagues even more. If you don’t know about the Clarinda A’s, look it up. What an amazing story!

Rule changers: sit down. Leave it alone.
Baseball is Life.

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