Christ Is King

It has long been a common custom to give to Christ the metaphorical title of “King,” because of the high degree of perfection whereby he excels all creatures.

But if we ponder this matter more deeply, we cannot but see that the title and the power of King belongs to Christ as man in the strict and proper sense too. For it is only as man that he may be said to have received from the Father “power and glory and a kingdom,” since the Word of God, as consubstantial with the Father, has all things in common with him, and therefore has necessarily supreme and absolute dominion over all things created.

Do we not read throughout the Scriptures that Christ is the King? 

If We ordain that the whole Catholic world shall revere Christ as King, We shall minister to the need of the present day, and at the same time provide an excellent remedy for the plague which now infects society.
-Pius XI Quas Primas

Christ is Risen Christ is King

And if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable

And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth

Welp Happy Easter! Not sure about you, but this Lent both blitzed past me and was a tricky nicky one. I did my usual internet purge, and I see (tiptoeing back into it all) some folks have been busy little bees the past 40. Personally, I’m quite happy to be in Feast mode, so I say enjoy that candy and tasty beverage! Let’s be an “Easter people” soooooo annoyingly that the grumps and grinches either smile (finally) or go skulk in the metaphorical basement where they belong. The world does not feast everyday – how could it given its perpetual hangover from overindulgence? No. Only we know the glory of the fast and the glory of the Feast. And our King reigns triumphant! So give the dog a hug, the kid a pat, the wife a little pinch, that chocolate a bite, and drink ‘em if you got em and want em! Let the world take its pills to dull the hangover and anxiety. There is so much horror upon horror out there, but just today allow yourself some peace, His peace, and Joy. Put a smile on your face and unclench that jaw! If I so much as HEAR one word about crime or politics or Joe Biden or Trump or Roman intrigues Im melting down this chocolate bunny and pouring it on you. His tomb is empty, and one day very soon your tomb, dear friend, will be empty too.

Storm Troopers and Acne Cream

One of my peeves (it’s a long list) with the corporate life of modernity is that the only options for engagement are either reifying a scene from 1. Monty Python or 2. A Quiet Place. You can either be completely unserious in the most puerile, vulgar way or take tiny little wasp breaths from the basement lest the Nazis start ripping up the hardwoods.

Protestantists are Going to Hell

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The Non-Origins of Political Authority

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happines. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed… Declaration of Independence

Those who believe civil society to have risen from the free consent of men, looking for the origin of its authority from the same source, say that each individual has given up something of his right, and that voluntarily every person has put himself into the power of the one man in whose person the whole of those rights has been centered. But it is a great error not to see, what is manifest, that men, as they are not a nomad race, have been created, without their own free will, for a natural community of life.

It is plain, moreover, that the agreement which they allege is openly a falsehood and a fiction, and that it has no authority to confer on political power such great force…Diuturnum Illud, Pope Leo XIII

Feminists Just Wanna Have Fun

The phone rings

In the middle of the night

My father yells, “Whatcha gonna do with your life?!”

Oh daddy dear, you know you’re still number one,

But girls they wanna have fun…

Disliking “Barbie” meant either dismissing the power of The Patriarchy or dismissing Modern Feminism. You were either anti-feminist or too feminist or just not the right kind…you can dislike “Barbie” without hating on women. Sometimes a movie is just a movie. And sometimes, alas, not a good one. – Barbie is bad. There, I said it. New York Times 1/24/2024

First wave feminism: Girls just wanna vote

Second wave feminism: Girls just wanna work outside the home

Third wave feminism: Girls just wanna sue for sexual harassment in the workplace

Fourth wave feminism: Girls just wanna have fun

The Warp and Woof of Heaven

Setting aside all the bad theology and bad motivations and overall awfulness that I am, I believe our good boy (and good girl) dogs are in heaven. Of course we don’t need them there – we don’t really need anything in the pertinent sense having obtained the Beatific Vision. But I believe should I – please God – find myself among the Blessed, I will also find myself among my dear Scout and Scooby. Perhaps they will even talk – in a final triumphant humiliation of the subtle snake. Now, I know that, unlike good boy dogs, schadenfreude is not in heaven. However, should an Aristotelian – please God – find himself among the Blessed I wonder if his dogs will give him a scolding, menancing few barks before offering their happy heads for a scratch.

Magic Mirror on the Wall

Who’s the fairest of them all?

Zippy used to quip that political freedom means we put the right sorts of people in jail. I’m beginning to wonder if meritocracy means we put the right sorts of people in the HR “no way, Jose” file. Anyone who has been in a position of institutional leadership knows that almost always the ability to keep the really bad folks out is massively more important than the ability to get the really good folks in.

A Meritocracy of Carbs on the Adkins Diet

I have long believed that many diets – paleo, keto, Mediterranean, anti-seed oil, etc – have their dramatic effects not because of the actual things getting tossed down the hatch but because they stop folks from engorging on all that processed poisoning junk that has been sitting in cardboard and plastic for a year or so. (Shockingly, it is almost as if fasting – what does not get eaten or drunk – is much more important than what does get chomped.) That is sort of, kind of OK on a very local level, but in a larger program of societal nutritional health it likely causes more confusion and harm than good. “Meritocracy” – the position that the job should go to one who merits it – is a similar phenomena. With the recent hilariously disastrous implosion of leadership at supposed institutions of higher learning, meritocracy has been getting a lot of chatter online. Meritocracy might seem to work on a very local level, but that is likely more due to the walking dead zombies it prevents from being hired more than its benefits as a positive procedure for a successful hire. For one thing, merit is a notoriously difficult thing to define, and as a perspective of the good to the flourishing of a society “merit” will always be defined by authoritarian act.  If in its current definition merit simply means a rejection of modern race-motivated mischief making, we should just be honest about it all and not hide behind anti-authority liberal sloganeering. That is, we should be honest with what we view to be the good. The Adkins diet might be great for shedding the final 20 pounds prior to the Big Day, but literally no one wants to live like that forever.

Fiat Currency

”When Catholics pray to ‘Mother Mary’ they are opening themselves up to demonic conversation” – delightful Protestant chick on the podcast I was listening to last night

And the dragon was angry at the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed

Our Lady Undoer of Knots please undo all the Knots of our lives.

Im a horrible person. Thus when my dear mom cries as she drops me off at the airport I’m astounded. I don’t know why or how anyone could miss me so much. Father Faber recommends as powerful devotions to spiritual growth and personal understanding meditating on the Fatherhood of God the Father, the humanity of Jesus Christ, and the motherhood of Mary. Father Z recently recommended “purifying our memories.” What a wonderful thing – if I only could. My sweet little mom has a remarkable ability to “forget” how horrible I am. Mother Mary, help us to forget all that we need to forget, purifying our memories to the glory of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Let’s strive for virtue in 2024. But let’s also do it in the musical key of Catholic. Rosaries and scapulars and visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Let’s fire up a candle in the kitchen before a prayer card. Let’s be Catholic. Three Hail Marys every time the head hits the pillow, pray the Our Father more and more fervently because God Is Our Father. Our dear Mother loves us all more than we can imagine in this valley of tears. Let’s be Catholic. Cross ourselves before meals and passing a church, choose a saint for the year to emulate a virtue. Read our Lord’s words in our Bibles and our first pope’s epistles. Read Tobit. Go to confession and praise Jesus for His great mercy. Good Lord above LETS BE ROMAN CATHOLIC!