BarbariansAtBay

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Mugabe, Annan & Mubarak. They Should Go.

Mugabe, Annan & Mubarak. It is time for each of them to go.

Mugabe. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fittingly describes Zimbabwe under his rule as an "outpost of tyranny". Not surprisingly, the editors of the L.A. Times think Mugabe, this "hero", merely needs a word in his ear from South African president Thabo Mbeki, "urg[ing] him to shape up". They think Mugabe should "take pride in his status as the country's liberator and avoid being remembered as yet another ruler who stayed too long and descended from hero to tyrant." Long since too late for that.

Annan.
He presided over bribes, kickbacks, oil smuggling, billions of dollars going to bad guys (not to mention the French), that dirty weasel of a son, and now we hear Volcker's report says that Kofi's toady shredded "three years of office files covering the period when the program was in place". Don't forget about U.N. personnel sexually exploiting and raping women in Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kosovo and Bosnia. Not to mention the joke which was made of the Human Rights Commission by allowing vicious tyrants onto the panel. The Europeans still support Annan and, sadly, so does the Bush administration at this time. When asked if he would step down, Annan replied, "Hell, no." Should a Secretary-General with this much stink on him step down rather than preside over the U.N. during its time of reform? Hell, yes.

Mubarak. For this thug, who took Sadat's assassination in 1981 as an opportunity to implement a never ending marshal law and whose people are now braving his brutality to protest him, I have only one word, a word which is sweeping Egypt, "kefaya" (Arabic for "enough").

Monday, March 21, 2005

"From Jesus to Christ": Newsweek is at it again.

The latest Newsweek cover story From Jesus to Christ turns on the premise that Jesus was neither the Christ nor divine and that these were just constructions that were added by the followers of a failed Jewish prophet. Nevermind "in the beginning was the Word", for these mainstream media types the Christ was just something he became, primarily in the mind of his followers. The cover story is complete with poll results showing that the overwhelming number of Americans believe Christ rose from the dead, a fact which surely bolsters the attitude of superiority and contempt held by the denizens of quarters like Manhattan and Berkeley.

The author and Newsweek editor, Jon Meacham, claims to be a practicing Christian (no doubt a "Christian" who has serious reservations about the divinity of Christ). He ends the story with a paean to modernity, "So many theological questions linger..." and, being a pious scoffer, a redacted quote from scripture, albeit one exhorting ethical behavior rather than belief in "the Way, the Truth and the Life":


'Be at peace among yourselves ... encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be
patient with them all. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always
seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give
thanks ... hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil' - wise words
for all of us, whatever our doubts, whatever our faith.

And what is the redacted portion which would otherwise be found at the first ellipsis, words which Mr. Meacham obviously does not consider wise words suitable for doubters? They are "admonish the idlers". Mr. Meacham and Newsweek, consider my admonishment done for today.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Saint Patrick - Confessions and the Lorica

Saint Patrick (died March 17, 492), the Apostle of Ireland, captured in his native Britain by pagan Irish raiders and sold into slavery - maybe the first writer in history to advocate its abolition , writes of his life in The Confession of St. Patrick:

I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.

While enslaved for years as a pig herder, his faith in God grew. Guided by a voice which told him, "You do well to fast: soon you will depart for your home country", and later, "Behold, your ship is ready", he escaped his enslavement and travelled 200 miles to a ship which he boarded. He travelled for years, being for a time taken as a slave again.

After returning home, he received a vision in a dream calling him back to Ireland:

And after a few years I was again in Britain with my parents [kinsfolk], and the welcomed me as a son, and asked me, in faith, that after the great tribulations I had endured I should not go any where else away from them. And, of course, there, in a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: "The Voice of the Irish", and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and the were crying as if with one voice: "We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us." And I was stung intensely in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke. Thanks be to God, because after so many ears the Lord bestowed on them according to their cry.

Eventually, despite the impediment of some grave sin committed in his youth, he was ordained and did return to Ireland where he played his well known part in the conversion of the country which came to be known as the land of Saints and Scholars :

So, how is it that in Ireland, where they never had any knowledge of God but, always, until now, cherished idols and unclean things, they are lately become a people of the Lord, and are called children of God; the sons of the Irish [Scotti] and the daughters of the chieftains are to be seen as monks and virgins of Christ.

How is it, indeed? The The Confession of St. Patrick is short and well worth reading.

Another writing of St. Patrick, which some scholars attribute to a later time, is his prayer known as the "Lorica" (Latin for "Breastplate" - a piece of armor) or "Deer's Cry". I find it very moving:

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength
of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion
and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience
of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet
with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the
apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds
of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to
pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's
eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to
protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From
temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a multitude.
I summon today all these powers between me and
evil,
Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against
spells of women and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that
corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ shield me today
Against poison,
against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may
come to me in abundance.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind
me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my
right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth
of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in
the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the
invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a
confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Eat An Animal For PETA Day.

According to Yourish.com, March 15, 2005 is the third Annual Eat An Animal For PETA day. These ethically stunted freaks who call a chicken dinner "Holocaust on a plate" are in desperate need of parody.

Personally, I plan to celebrate my right to eat tasty animals by having a little lamb. Maybe I'll go out and get some venison served with a raspberry reduction sauce. Mmm, Bambi tastes good. Random Access 3.0 is looking to enjoy a steak and lobster at Outback. PETA needs to be put in check and nothing gets their goat, so to speak, more than people enjoying what Yourish calls "a yummy cow dinner."

Monday, March 07, 2005

Threat of Russian and Chinese Espionage Growing.

Linking to this Washington Times story, U.S. targets spy services abroad, E-Skojec.com asks, "If Russian Communism is dead then why are they so intent on working with China to spy on us?" The WT cites as a source senior CIA official, Barry Royden, who says Russians are targeting U.S. troops in the Middle East for recruitment using very agressive tactics, including blackmail, extortion and entrapment.

E-Skojec.com linked here to an AP account of how the Chinese and Russians are increasingly cooperating; the two countries are having their first joint military exercise and China is now Russia's largest arms customer. Skojec notes France's mercenary interest in this "Nouveau Axis" pointing to French military assistance and arms sales to China, showing that France is even more in shortage of scruples than it is of deodorant. All this while the spotlight is fixed on Islamofascism.

This threat is largely ignored in the mainstream media. It took a blogger linking to the conservative Washington Times to bring it to my attention.

Friday, March 04, 2005

Los Angeles Times Acts As Apologist For North Korean Dictator.

HughHewitt is protesting the L.A. Times now for the second day in a row printing North Korean propoganda. Yesterday, "The Pyongyang Times of Los Angeles" (as Hugh calls it) or the "Los Angeles Dogtrainer" (as regular critic of the LAT Patterico refers to it) published an article about North Korea in which this hallowed institution of the California press basically acted as a mouth-piece for a North Korean communist agent. N. Korea, Without the Rancor. See also today's article, N. Korea Lists Conditions for Negotiations.

Now, not every piece dealing with a foreign nation has to be hard hitting. But this is not France we're talking about but what may be the most oppressive government in the world. It is right to ask whether Hitler or Stalin could rightly have been given the same forum. The LAT suffers from that sad modern malady which the Pontiff has previously spotlighted, the inability to call evil by its name.

I cancelled my subscription after they campaigned in their news section against Schwarzenegger during the last days of the recall. Hugh Hewitt has cancelled and urged others to do so. Please do! Call 800-252-9141. Chesterton's remark about journalism is never more true than when reading the LAT:

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Second Thoughts About Mel's Take On Fatima.

Two days ago I expressed my pleasure at Mel Gibson buying the rights to "Stealing From Angels", a novel dealing with the third prophesy of Fatima. I had some unexpressed concerns, particularly regarding comparisons of the novel to those of Dan Brown and the take that Gibson, an ultratraditionalist, might have on Fatima. The Curt Jester in a recent post linking to JIMMY AKIN.ORG: Mel's Next Film, raising doubts about how Mel will treat the subject, brought my reservations about Mel's Fatima film to the fore.

Some question whether Gibson is a schismatic and a sedevacantist. Certain folks from those quarters have a conspiratorial view of Fatima, believing that the third prophesy (about the attempt on JPII's life) has not really been revealed.
If his treatment of the Passion is any indication, my worries are unnecessary. I sure hope that's the case. Treating the Pope and the "Novus Ordo" Church (as some schismatics refer to the Church) with disrespect would certainly cost Mel some viewers.

The Effect of the EU on the Culture of Ireland.

Maggie Gallagher in a YahooNews article, IRISH EYES ON EUROPE, frets over Europe's influence on the Emerald Isle: "Europeanization has brought and will bring many advantages to the people of Ireland. But at what cost?" She likens the cultural influence of Europe to British colonialism, but notes that the Brits were always resisted, while the "Europenization" seems to mostly be docilely accepted:

A country that was ruled for 800 years by the British but never conquered is now ambivalently succumbing to both "modernization" and "Europeanization." By the former, I mean the economic processes transforming a predominantly agricultural economy into a post-industrial "Celtic tiger."

Europeanization, by contrast, means the insistent pressure to adopt the moral values promoted by the dominant civilization: in this case a rabid secularization and sensualization of Irish life, as well as the transfer of moral authority into the hands of a techno-bureaucratic aristocracy.


Gallagher sees the U.S. as an alternative cultural influence: "For the Irish resistance, American civilization has clearly emerged as a counterbalance to European cultural prestige, on moral and religious questions." She sees Europe as affecting religious observance in Ireland. Although, according to a poll reported in The Christian Science Monitor, the Irish have the highest religious observance in Europe, 56% attending religious services at least once a week (followed by Poland at 54% and contrasted with France at 8%).

There are reasons to believe that the Europeanization of Ireland will eventually wane. Mark Steyn, who in the Telegraph reiterated his assertion from two years ago that America and Europe are "engaged in a new Cold War", agrees with a new prognostication of the CIA which "predicted the collapse of the EU within 15 years". That may or may not be the case, but regardless, there are signs that secularism has reached its high-water mark in Europe. Another Monitor story, In a secular ocean, waves of spirituality, notes that this is the case:

"God is back among intellectuals," says Aleksander Smolar, a leading European thinker who heads the Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw and teaches at the Sorbonne in Paris. "You can feel there is a problem of soul in Europe; people are conscious of a void and there is a certain crisis of secularism."


Accounts like the following, Atheism worldwide in decline and The Twilight of Atheism, don't bode well for secularism either, even in Europe. So perhaps Ireland is not doomed to the fate of secular France. Indeed, France itself and the rest of secular Europe may be reevangelized in this century.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Gibson's Next Film to Concern Fatima?

Via Diary of a Suburban Priest is this report that Mel Gibson has bought the rights to the book ‘Stealing from Angels’, a novel by Brian Dullaghan which concerns appearances of the Virgin Mary at the Portuguese town of Fatima in 1917.

This is pleasant news after the Festival of the Culture of Death, also known as the Oscars (Million Dollar Baby and The Sea Inside [assisted suicide], Vera Drake [abortions], Being Julia [promiscuity], Kinsey [sexual deviance, promiscuity and homosexuality], and The Motorcycle Diaries [communism]. And this is not the first time the Oscars have been recognized as such. In 2000 it was a similar story, BBC News-Mexican church attacks Oscars: Cider House Rules [abortion], Boys Don't Cry [cross-dressing], and American Beauty [infidelity and homsexuality].