I'm just back from the Ron Paul rally at the Iowa Event Center in beautiful downtown Des Moines.  Since Dr. Paul, the tax reform guru and pro-life candidate, wasn't invited to a presidential candidate's forum sponsored by the Iowans for Tax Relief and the Iowa Christian Coalition, he had his own forum right next door. Very exciting to be there. About 700 people in my estimation.


Here are a few quotes from Dr. Paul's Iowa speech:

"They want to silence us -- but they now fail to invite us to their little parties, so we now have our own, bigger parties (massive applause). Those same individuals who undermine our democratic process at home are the same who send your money and your kids overseas to build democracy in the middle east."

 "Down in Arizona, my supporters were talking about a Revolution. And I like Revolution, but a non-violent one. I want to go back to the Constitution, and today that IS Revolutionary. Historically, Revolutions are startd by a select few, and are ignored by the mainstream for a long time -- until they can no longer be ignored. That point has passd, and they can ignore us no longer."

Can't remember the exact words for the first part of this one so I'll put what I remember in parentheses and RP in quotes:
(Other congressmen, the President and Vice-President say that ) "True principles are outdated. You know what is outdated? Tyranny! Authoritarianism! (massive applause)."

from Iowa Campaign Dirctor Joe Seehausen: "Today's turnout proves to the world that we are not an internet phantom".

Peace and Liberty: Ron Paul in 2008

A glitch in the sound system in Des Moines yesterday made it even better!  When the sound cut out, it just kept going! It was so cool.

It's Monday, busy and on the run, so I'll let the EXCELLENT writer Justin Rainmondo say it all. From AntiWar.com The End of the GOP.

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.

- John Lennon

Robert Duvall as Augustus McCrae


Something I saw today (here) while doing a news sprint (how much news can you read in 20 minutes?? News Sprint!!) made me think of Jake Spoon. QUOTE

Okay. Let's just get it out there, then. This is the guy for whom the Founders wrote the constitution. This is the man who would be king. UNQUOTE

It has popped in and out of my head all day, and since it's still rolling around in there I thought I'd better get it on blog. 

If you've seen Lonesome Dove, or read Larry McMurtry's novel by the same name, you know who Jake Spoon was. He's the former Texas Ranger who never acknowledges young Newt, who might've been  own son, (turns out he was Capt. Call' sson,  as an astute reader has reminded me) out of pure meanness and selfishness. He's the guy who abandons Lorrie, the hooker with a heart of gold to the abuses and ravages of Blue Duck (possibly the worst villain in all literature).

In San Antonio, Jake falls in with some cattle rustlers who persuade him to accompany them. They commit several brutal murders while riding, and Jake, with an all too brief battle with his conscience,  takes part as well.  Jake Spoon is the good cop gone bad.

Deets, one of the Rangers long time aides,  who is out scouting a path for the cattle drive, comes along the gang's track, and immediately recognizes Jake's horse's track as well. Texas Rangers Gus, Call, Deets and Pea Eye track them down and arrest them, and sentence them to death by hanging, including Jake.

Though they don't hesitate to hang the three brothers from a nearby tree, none of them can bring themselves to send off Jake's horse. Seeing their reluctance, Jake spurs his own horse, which rides off, leaving him hanging. Gus and Woodrow bury Jake and the two younger brothers, but leave the eldest hanging, with a sign around his neck identifying him as a man-burner and horse thief.

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I think that's the image - from Western fiction - that has popped back into my head over and over today. Dick Cheney, George Bush and the whole sorry neo-con cabal are Jake Spoon. They've done their share of man-burning and horse thieving, and they pretend to be wholesome Texas Rangers.  If I were them, I'd be looking over my shoulder. Gus McCrae and Captain Call, Pea Eye and Deets are coming. Listen. Do you hear their horses in the dusty road?

CalmEagle

Ron Paul for President!

Tell in like it is, bro

The Good Shepherd


I've had conversations with some of you recently on the solid position on Ron Paul regarding the current administration's abandonment of the 1000+ -year-old Christian theory of just war.  Indeed Dr. Paul has stated , in the third Republican debate, that the casting aside of this basic Christian/Catholic ethic is the premiere ethical problem of our time.

This is, at bottom, why I have cast my lot in with the good doctor in spite of being philosophically far afield from him in several much less crucial venues. If America does not immediately change leadership to one who holds with the actual doctrines of the Church on this, I fear with utter certainty we are eternally lost.

(Those of you not familiar with Dr.Paul yet, take a time-out to look at his recent appearance on the Bill Maher Show. Back to my blog in a minute:)

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Elucidating the just war high ground most succinctly is Scott P. Richert over at Taki's Top Drawer, one of my very favorite blog sites.  Here's a sample, but it's worth reading in entirety. Mutual Assured Damnation.


QUOTE Those who gave us Christian just-war theory-from Augustine to Aquinas, from Vitoria to Suárez-understood that it was possible to be victorious even in physical defeat, provided that we have acted with justice in the pursuit of the truth. Today, for too many Americans who call themselves conservatives and Christians, that seems a ridiculous notion. "What good does it do to follow just-war theory if we might cease to exist?" they ask. The question is rhetorical, of course, since they have no desire to hear the obvious answer: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matthew 16:25-26). UNQUOTE

With a motu propio, Benedict XVI established that the current norms for the celebration of Mass are for "ordinary" use, however the "extraordinary" use of the Missal of Pius V is possible too. A letter written to bishops across the world highlights the concern to rebuild the unity of the Church, broken by the modernist revisons after Vatican II, especially interpretations which took place in the 1970's.

Bascially this means that those who love the beauty and sanctity of the classic Latin Mass will be brought back from the shadows of near-criminalization they have suffered under for many years.  I'll blog more on this soon. But for now HOORAY!  This is a cause for lovers of truth and beauty everywhere to celebrate, not just Catholics. Don't listen to those who rail and smear this decision, or if you do, listen with a grain of salt. Trust me, this  is a good thing.

I'm going to pour a big glass of wine!

A good column by Casey Khan over at the always-excellent Lew Rockwell.com, Time to Fire Jack Bauer.     I watched that TV show once for about 30 minutes, and turned it off, deeply disturbed by what I saw, only halfway through. It was telling me something I didn't want to hear. It was telling me that the huge crowds that tune into it every week have stopped being Americans and have become something else...something much more cruel and mortally dark.

QUOTE Not until the Holocaust was all over did it become clear that the unbelievable had actually happened ...... They looked back at the steps taken down the long road to death and asked,  How could anyone have overlooked the signs? UNQUOTE    - a Holocaust Survivor

Whether we shall have the moral fiber to stand tall and confront this spectre remains to be seen.  The Ron Paul enthhusiasts have made a start,  and the Catholics and Buddhists and others have held the torch high. But how about the rest of us?


QUOTE The late great Pope John Paul II, speaking magisterially in Veritatis Splendor, mentions physical and mental torture, as well as arbitrary imprisonment, as intrinsically evil acts, condemned by the Church. According to Augustine and Aquinas, evil is essentially the lack of good. Not the opposite of good, but the lacking of it. In his work On Evil, Aquinas states that evil "harms a good composed of potentiality and actuality insofar as evil takes away from such a good its perfection" (p.57). Both torture and arbitrary imprisonment are acts which always take away from and individual the potentiality and actuality of their human dignity. Waterboarding takes place when one is tied to a board and loads of water are dumped down the throat to cause a gag reflex and simulate drowning. Short of the psychotic, all know that this act performed upon themselves, to be a violation against themselves. Further, all know, from their own hearts, arbitrary imprisonment to be wrong as well. Therefore, one need not be a Catholic or a Christian to understand what evil acts of waterboarding or random imprisonment are. UNQUOTE

Often out-of-step with the trend setters, Nebraska once again does me proud.  In the prairie tradition of  this attitude:  "yes, as a matter of factn, I am my brother's keeper." 

Class act?  This is how it's done, folks.

A rare weekend for me, I actually went to a theater on BOTH Saturday and Sunday, and saw two fine films. Both had the efect of dilating the heart to point of near physical feeling: one with joy, one with sorrow.

Last night, Knocked Up  is the one which pulsated with humor and affirmation of life without being saccharine.  An amazingly funny look at a sober reality, unexpected pregnancy, it's a true sleeper. When I saw the title I didn't even consider going to see it, but then I started reading the reviews. Popcorn muncher of a summer sweetheart, and if you don't leave the theater in a great mood I'll eat my ticket stub.

I'm not  in the business of naming a performance ''award-worthy,'' but La Vie en Rose, with its fulltilt boogie acting by Marion Cotillard as French chanteuese Edith Piaf - which has been called  less a performance than a possession, has Best Foreign Film, Best Actress, Best Soundtrack etc. written all over it's waiflike French face.  Careening out of control and impassioned, driven by some of the best pop music ever recorded, this intense and unkempt biography is a true experience.  - See it. If you don't know Edith's music, well, you will after you see the flick. And  yes, come awards season - mind my words.

I find it poignantly weird that Billie Holliday and Edith Piaf were born the same year. Lord, lord, the stars were uncharitable that year, liives filled with tragedy. But what voices....

Tomorrow , wherever you are, help "fire the grid" by praying, meditating in Light, and using Light work and Reiki and traditional healing ways to bring blessings of healing and God's light/Life/Love to all people and to Mother Earth.  It happens at 11:11 Greenwich Mean Time, find out what time where you are HERE: