Saturday, February 27, 2010

What about Tilikum

Tilly is 7 tons of testosterone cooped up in a relatively tiny tank by himself except for when he’s servicing cows or doing tricks for Scooby Snacks. It goes without saying that he is insane, and therefore unreleasable. It ought to be obvious to anyone with a heart and a brain that he is angry. Only God knows how controlled his anger is---and even so, he’s killed three humans---at least one of whom he was apparently very fond of. He’s miserable and he has no way out. What kind of a money grubbing unprincipled moron would ignore his declaration of despair by keeping him alive in his misery? Well, obviously the good people at Seaworld.
I know it’s fun, but is it worth being in collaboration with people who obviously respect neither animal nor human life? Let them know you just can’t justify their racket. Stay away from Seaworld this year. Nothing can justify killing people and torturing animals. And they are doing it for the almighty buck. Don’t help them. And speak up for Tilly by demanding his death. Please.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Just unbelievable...

Watched the “bipartisan” health care meeting yesterday---just long enough to become amazed and appalled at the absolute arrogance of our president. He is not accustomed to not having his own way and it shows. He is quite…put out… about having his plans and desires in any way curtailed… Being a child of privilege, a political pet in a politically correct era, he is understandably outraged at the concept of anyone, including the American People, disagreeing with him. In addition, he honestly doesn’t understand the big deal about “sharing”. Having never been forced to sacrifice himself, he doesn’t understand the anger of people who have worked hard and made difficult choices all their lives in order to achieve a measure of comfort and autonomy in their grandparent years. He assumes that all financially secure people got that way the same way that he did: by being the right color in the right place at the right time, eloquently articulating the right philosophy. And in this, he differs very little from most politicians.

“We’re not campaigning anymore, John. We’ve had the election,” he told Senator McCain. It was a nasty, catty little remark, but it wasn’t really Obama’s fault---it was McCain’s. We wouldn’t be going through any of this if McCain had vetted Obama, as was his duty.

What was clear throughout was the fact that the President intends to get his way whether we like it or not. Because, you see, he is ever-so-much smarter than we are. People have been telling him so for years.

I was going to attack Glen Beck as well, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I can’t stand to think about these people for too long…

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Serve with humility, in obscurity

There are things upon which I disagree with the renowned Anglican write C.S. Lewis---the foremost of which is the Holy Catholic Church—but one of his observations I have to hail as a little morsel of astuteness amid a chaotic pot-luck of sentimental nonsense. Lewis did not pay attention to current events. He didn’t read newspapers. He avoided keeping up with world crises because he knew that too much tragedy desensitizes us. He knew that if you hear too many stories about the naked, hungry children in India, you will lose the ability to see and to be affected by the barefoot child who actually stands before you.

We are bombarded every day with the most horrendous horror stories. We are inundated with constant appeals for money and more money---we are, in fact, panhandled on an hourly basis. These appeals are presented as if we were not already being robbed at gunpoint to subsidize what someone else has decided is the entitlement of people whom we do not know except as numbers. There is no charity here. There is no grace, no virtue, and very little, if any, good. The only people who benefit are the “benefit” organizers, the employees of the bloated governments, and certainly the corrupt officials of the countries wherein reside the poor objects of our concern.

Charity begins at home. The corruption of Charity is not limited to the National and International realm---it can occur in a rural county or small town. It can occur amoung “Church Ladies” of any sect, and amoung Catholics as well. It happens when we begin to desire not merely to help others but to be seen to help others. It occurs when we lose sight of the very clear fact that our little unremarkable good deeds are done more for our own pleasure than for the benefit of others. It escalates when we demand that other people adopt our personal and very arbitrary little priorities.

For instance, I know some people who are irritated by the fact that I spend a bit more for free range eggs. I haven’t always done so. When I was feeding five children, pennies counted. Well now I’m older and I have more money. I choose to buy eggs laid by hens not locked up in tiny cages---not because I think chickens are the most important creatures in the world, and not because I am an obsessive advocate of animal rights, but because I rather enjoy the prospect of the little hens running around in the grass and eating bugs. I like chickens. And I rather think that God enjoys the little hens running around enjoying themselves as well…I dare to think that having created these charming yard birds, and having given them all kinds of little virtues and personalities, He gets satisfaction from seeing them at their happiest. It makes me happy, so I do it. I know the difference in a child and a chicken, ma’am, but I do not wish to give, instead, to your very well-publicized campaign to feed the children of Somalia, although, if I could GO to Somalia and have my way for a few days, I would gladly give whole herds of chickens to the hungry people so that they could have chicken stew. But I won’t contribute to your charity. For one thing, I really don’t think it’s doing those children much good, and I can see that it’s very bad for you. Your children, your own dear children borne by you, are bored bullies in school because you’ve made them hate charity---it takes so much of you that you have nothing left to give them. I’ve seen the contempt on your face when poorly dressed, poorly behaved dirty children pass too near you in the grocery store. You don’t love them. How can you love the children of Somalia? Oh, How you love humanity with love so pure and pringlish, as Chesterton opined…

I like to think of what it would be like if every one of us behaved for only one day as if no one could see us except for our guardian angels. Would we notice the child standing before us who needs us emotionally or physically? Would we notice the merriment inherent in all of creation? Could we stop acting long enough to be TRULY virtuous?

Please take a day this Lenten season to cut yourself off from the admiration of the world and see a child---any child, even your own---who needs something now, whether a gentle word of encouragement, a cookie, or a pair of shoes. And give that child what he needs. And don’t let ANYONE else know what you’ve done. Keep that wonderful little joy and cherish it in your heart. Then go watch a chicken play, and praise our Loving Father for his incredible providence.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Sincerity of the APE (Atheist Power Elite)

[I have given up social networking for Lent---I need to spend more time blogging, and actually THINKING and less time just visiting...]

The problem with the Pelosis, the Reids, the Obamas, the O’donnels, the Garafolos, ad infinitem, is very simple: They have rejected God, they have rejected His laws, and they have totally rejected the concept of eternal reward and punishment. Yet, being the creatures that He made them, they still innately yearn for justice. I don’t think they are a bunch of sociopaths, although they certainly behave that way. No, they are truly concerned with justice---but it is a justice from which they have excluded God and everything that represents Him. So the only authority they have to go on is their own confused and directionless sense. They truly want to punish the evil and reward the good---in this life, because there is no other---and they have no arbitrary authority to appeal to. The so-called Conservatives of the same metaphysical stripe appeal to the “Constitution” and the “Founding Fathers” to avoid involving God, although the have invented a complex fiction regarding the founding fathers’ spirituality in order to appease the average American, who still, in his heart of hearts, believes in and defers to the Almighty. But all these practical atheist elites do what they do because they believe that they are God. That no one else knows what’s best. That the individual should turn to them, and not himself, in making personal determinations. Because they are compassionate, but not wise, they embrace the “downtrodden”. Period. Without regard to why he is “downtrodden” or whether he could become otherwise, and because they embrace the downtrodden, they assume that someone else is treading on him, and they foolishly assume that it must be the successful, the moral, the people with religious conviction. They have made conviction the cardinal sin—almost the ONLY sin--of their tragic communion: the sin of “Intolerance”. It is a fatal misnomer, for “tolerance” is the very thing they hate: in order to tolerate a thing, one must have a conviction against it, and this is the thing the Atheists in Power will not allow.
The frequent show of real intolerance from their own ranks is not mere hypocrisy. They are God. They must be allowed judgments which are denied those unfortunates who fall under their “providence”.
The entire thrust of their creed is in reality the justice they instinctively yearn for. The success of those in opposition to them is, in their minds, injustice. Taking money from those who have earned it and giving it to those who “need” it is, in their minds, justice. There is no sense in pointing out that they themselves live well. Their luxuries are mere necessities for facilitating their godhood. They are obsessed with injustice, and eaten alive by it. The question “why do good things happen to bad people” haunts them---and remember that “bad people” are simply those who do not share their creed.
As a Catholic, I don’t have to worry about eternal justice---I only have to be kind to whoever or whatever shows up at my door or falls under my sphere of influence---small as that may be. As a Catholic, I am required to practice courtesy, largesse, and defense of those weaker than myself. I am required to be an example of nobility, so that those I touch will hopefully be influenced to go forth and act accordingly to those THEY touch. I am required to use wisdom and true charity, not simple sentimentality in my giving to others both of my time and my material possessions. And I am allowed to sleep peacefully at night, because the ultimate question of Justice is not up to me.
When “Bob Rogers”, the mafia don, stands before the Judgment and hears “Eternal Damnation” he will protest, “But GOD! I was always kind to animals and my mother!” and God will say, “YES, Bob---yes you were. And that’s why I gave you that big house and all those cars and boats.”

Syler