Good reading for Catholics--thought provoking for all others

Here is a book on a subject that is perennially interesting to the general public--exorcism. As a Catholic myself, I have never had any doubt about the reality of the demonic. I believe that the Enemy of mankind and his minions are active in the world and it is through the willing acceptance of the Sacraments and the Grace offered by Christ that we are protected from their constant temptations and ultimately brought to salvation.

For this reason, I picked up this book with no little trepidation. Many books of this variety feed people's unhealthy fascination with the demonic and may indeed serve as a gateway to the occult. I am happy to report that The Rite by Matt Baglio is not such a book. It is mainly the story of one American priest, Father Gary Thomas, who went to Rome to train as an exorcist. Over the course of his training, Fr. Thomas got to experience dozens of exorcisms first hand as performed by experienced Italian priests. Many of these as described were fairly mundane with the victims experiencing only fits of coughing during the rite or foaming at the mouth. But a few particularly long-suffering victims had dramatic and violent reactions displaying incredible strength and incidents of the demon actually speaking.

It's hard to read a book like this and not come away with the conclusion that something supernatural is actually going on here. That said, Baglio is careful to point out that most exorcists do not make knee-jerk assumptions that everyone is possessed. In fact, one of the Italian exorcists that Fr. Thomas visited sent most of the people who came to him away with a simple blessing. When Fr. Thomas returned to America to begin his role as exorcist in his California diocese, the policy stated that anyone seeking exorcism must first have a psychiatric evaluation by a practitioner who acknowledged the possibility of possession. That struck me as a sensible way to approach the problem as most exorcists freely admit that many people who worry that they are possessed are actually suffering from a readily identifiable mental illness of one kind or another.

One item that stands out loud and clear in this book is that cases of true possession are on the rise around the world. This is due to the increasing influence of the occult both in Europe and America as many occult practices are direct gateways for demonic entrance into people's lives. Given the suffering displayed by the victims of possession as described in this book, it would be well for people to avoid even seemingly innocent occult practices such as messing with tarot or ouija boards.

The book also makes clear that there exists a dearth of priests available who can properly and licitly perform the rite of exorcism. Indeed, to their shame, many priests don't believe in possession--or the devil, for that matter--at all! Fortunately for the victims, this is a situation that is currently being rectified by the Church.

As a work of literature, The Rite is a quick and easy read. The flow of the narrative is a bit disjointed as the author introduces whole chapters on related tangents throughout the book. But as these subjects are usually interesting in their own right, this was not a major problem.

Don't Mess with Rolf

Rolf is the only son of Hiarandi the Unlucky. Most of his father's ill luck springs from the fact that he is compassionate and that his neighbor, Einar, covets his land and his spacious hall. The wicked Einar manages to get Hiarandi ensnared in legal difficulties and he is sentenced to spend a year within a bow-shot of his own hall. Not content, Einar sends his henchmen to trick Hiarandi into venturing beyond this perimeter where he will be fair game for slaughter. Hiarandi is killed, but in the process, young Rolf also kills one of Einar's henchmen. Now Rolf is made an outlaw and is forced to flee from Iceland until his sentence is complete. But Rolf will not be content until he can prove that his father was killed within a bowshot of his home--and thus make Einar subject to the law.

The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow is a truly enjoyable read. It is a story told in the style of the Icelandic sagas, even including some of the same characters, but the prose is completely approachable for a modern reader. The reading level is about age 12 and up, I'd say, but a precocious 10 year old could handle the content. The book is perfectly suited for parents to read along with their youngsters and there is plenty of fodder here for discussions about important subjects like justice, virtue, greed, the law, corruption, and loyalty.

This book has the look and feel of a "young adult" novel, but I must admit that I enjoyed it very much, even though I'm approaching 40. I read the edition published by Bethelehem Books and was impressed by the production values--it's definitely worth a couple extra dollars. I recommend it heartily to all.

De-Certify Once-Catholic, Now-Dissident Universities

As disgusting and disgraceful as Father Jenkins and the board of Notre Dame have been over the whole Obama commencement speech fiasco, it now seems clear that this invitation is part of a larger trend among dissidents within Catholic academia in America.

Fordham University, a Jesuit institution in New York is hosting pro-abortion mayor Michael Bloomberg.

St. Joseph's University, another Jesuit university in Philadelphia, is hosting pro-abortion media talking-head Chris Matthews.

Yet another Jesuit institution, Georgetown Law School, is honoring pro-abortion vice-president Joe Biden.

What does all this mean? According to the NCR article linked above, it means that American "Catholic" universities:

...have declared in the bluntest terms possible that they, and not the American bishops, are the arbiters of what is acceptable conduct for an institution that calls itself a Catholic university. And as a consequence, the administrations .... don’t appear amenable even to any self-examination of their actions, let alone to any correction undertaken by the Church hierarchy.

I have a one-word term for what these institutions are doing: schism.

There is no other word for it when Catholic institutions fail to obey the clear instructions of their bishops--and by extension, the Pope. The American Catholic bishops have been dancing around this issue for so long that the heads of these Catholic-in-name-only institutions now feel strong enough to come out and issue a challenge in the open. They have thrown down the gauntlet and spit in the faces of the bishops.

I urge the bishops to pick up the gauntlet.

Take up the challenge by immediately stripping the offending universities of their Catholic identities.

Now, more than ever, it is necessary that we have "truth in advertising." The souls of young Catholics are at stake here and we can no longer allow these charlatans to continue educating young Catholics in the materialist liberation theology/Culture of Death heresy in the guise of authentic Catholicism. If they want to continue to preach it--fine. But let them do so outside of the Church!

The dissident left in the Catholic Church knows that it has lost. Time is not on their side. They have no vocations. Indeed, who would give their lives for such a pathetic milquetoast philosophy that attempts to water down and obfuscate the authentic Truth? Practically all the vocations in recent years are of young, orthodox Catholics, inspired by the Pope, who will continue revitalize the Church into the future.

But the aging and discredited dissidents are still in power in many important spheres and in order to solidify their eroding support among believing Catholics, they are hitching themselves to popular political leaders and the 'cultural catholic' support that comes with them. But because politicians are such unreliable allies who are popular one day, despised the next, the bishops should move to accelerate this process by calling their bluff and de-certifying the offending institutions. They don't behave or believe as Catholics anymore so why should they be allowed to maintain their Catholic identity?

Also, in my opinion, the Jesuit order ought to be suppressed--again. This time, for the right reasons. They have become political slaves and partisans of the Culture of Death.

Your Eminence, pick up the gauntlet!

Lives of the Most Eminent Fathers of the Church that Flourished in the First Four Centuries With an Historical Account of the State of Paganism Under the First Christian Emperors By William Cave, Henry Cary

I found this very interesting work on Google and am bookmarking it for future reference.

Lives of the Most Eminent Fathers of the Church that Flourished in the First Four Centuries With an Historical Account of the State of Paganism Under the First Christian Emperors By William Cave, Henry Cary: "OF THE MOST EMINENT FATHERS OF THE CHURCH THAT FLOURISHED IN THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE STATE OF PAGANISM UNDER THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS BY WILLIAM CAVE DD A NEW EDITION CAREFULLY REVISED BY HENRY CARY MA WORCESTER COLLEGE AND PERPETUAL CURATE OF ST PAUL'S OXFORD VOL II LIVES"

A beautiful tale of Ancient Rome and the early Christians

Twelve year old Gretorix is a slave from far off Britain. His master, Justus, has bestowed him upon Diomed, a Roman boy who is paralyzed from the neck down. The only thing keeping young Diomed alive is the hope that someday he'll be cured of his paralysis. When he hears that all Rome is abuzz with the teaching and miracles of the Galilean Simon Peter, Diomed sends his faithful Gretorix to find out all he can about the man and his God, Christus.

But trouble is brewing in the Eternal City. The profligate emperor Nero is at the height of his decadence, and the people are grumbling over the exorbitant taxes he requires to live his lifestyle. When a huge fire breaks out in the city, Nero desperately searches for someplace to pin the blame. With advice from his wicked Praetorian, Tigellenus, Nero falsely accuses the followers of Simon Peter--a shadowy sect known as Christians.

Originally published in 1963, City of the Golden House is a beautifully written novel that blends historical fact, legend, and fiction into a compelling and evocative story. Well suited for children ages 11 and up, the book includes an appendix with some historical data about ancient Rome and early Christian practices. This makes it ideal as a starting point for introducing your kids to this tumultuous period in history.

Highly recommended!

Starbuck nails it

Anyone who's a child of the 1980s like I am knows who Dirk Benedict is. He was Starbuck, the hot-shot Viper pilot on the original Battlestar Galactica. He was also Face, the wisecracking, lady-killing member of the A-Team.

Well, ol' Starbuck has a few things to say about Hollyweird that made me stand up and take notice. He wrote an article called "Lost in Castration" [warning: R-rated content] that appeared recently on Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood site. In the article, he slams the new 'reboot' of Battlestar Galactica as having a completely different--and lame--moral tone from the original series. Benedict writes:

“Re-imagining”, they call it. “Un-imagining” is more accurate. To take what once was and twist it into what never was intended. So that a television show based on hope, spiritual faith and family is un-imagined and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and family dysfunction. To better reflect the times of ambiguous morality in which we live, one would assume.

This is something I complain about all the time. The fiction, movies, TV shows, etc. that are released today are all morally repellant. Every character is a scoundrel and one's virtue is determined by how "tolerant" he is of someone else's "differences" [assuming, of course, that those "differences" are this week's talking-points memo of acceptable beliefs or behavioral fetishes]. Perhaps that's why I spend most of my TV-hours these days watching Korean historical dramas like The Great King Sejong [This show is vastly superior to anything on American TV, btw. If you can tolerate the subtitles, check it out].

Today, another article has appeared about Benedict, this one written by Mark Hemingway of National Review Online. And man, is this article ever littered with great quotes, among them:

“Hollywood attracts people who want to be famous,” Benedict says. “It attracts people who are insecure in who they are, and their identification comes from pretending to be other people. But it’s really a profession for 14-year-olds in terms of the intellectual demands on an actor — which is why children are so good at it. It’s difficult for adults to grow up and still be a 14-year-old.”

“Even up in Montana I’ve spent the last 20 years defending the right of my boys to throw a frickin’ snowball, to climb a tree, to jump off a little cliff, to go out in the canoe off my dock without a life jacket,” he says. “All the little boys that refused to give into that were put on Ritalin. The future warriors of America are all on Ritalin in the second grade.”

“The only thing I wanted to do was raise my boys. And I’ve done it. They are a joy to behold, and they are my contribution to the world and I can die happy tomorrow because of what I’ve done,” he says. “They understand this culture that they live in. They’re equipped. I’d rather have that than 25 Oscars.”

Go read the article that puts these quotes in context. It's a beauty. I hope Dirk continues to speak out on these issues--now more than ever, voices like his are desperately needed.

Boston College -- Where young Catholics go to lose their Faith (assuming they ever had it to begin with)

It's good to know that BC is doing such a bang-up job catechizing the students in its care in the basics of Catholic moral teaching. In a recent article in the BC student newspaper, The Heights, it was reported that 89% of the voters in the recent school-wide elections approved of a "sexual health" referendum. According to an article by Alexi Chi in The Heights, this ballot question was:

added to the ballot by a group called BC Students for Sexual Health and calls for support for affordable sexually transmitted infections testing, the availability of prescription birth control medication, and condoms on campus.

Don't you just love the terminology? "Birth control medication"?

Referenda like this are a clear indictment not only of the so called Catholic identity of Boston College, but also of the cultural Catholic parents of the students who voted. One must assume that if 89% of the student body at BC votes against basic Catholic moral teachings, then:

1.) nearly 9 out of 10 students at BC are no longer functionally Catholic, and
2.) that the university itself is doing an absolutely wretched job of catechizing young people and helping them understand that giddily following the pied piper of pop culture depravity is a sure path to both earthly and eternal misery.

I am an alumnus of Boston College. BC was a moral sewer when I attended over 15 years ago. It's sad to see that little has changed--indeed, it appears that things have gotten even worse.

In years past, few parents knew that "Catholic" schools like BC had rotted from the inside out. Today, it couldn't be more clear--as referenda like this one so stunningly demonstrate. For that reason, none of my children kids will even consider Boston College when the time comes.

If you are one of the 11% of actual Catholics left in the student body at BC, I implore you: get out now. There are several excellent, authentically Catholic universities across the country who'd be happy to have you--Christendom, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Thomas Aquinas, Ave Maria University, Magdalene, and the new John Paul the Great University in San Diego, CA.

Don't waste any more of your time and money at a university that people jokingly refer to as "Jesuit, but not Catholic."

Frank A. Lupo, Jr. -- 1971-2009

A dear friend of mine, Frank Lupo (center), passed away suddenly last week at age 37. I knew him from my high school days at St. Joseph's Preparatory school in Philadelphia and we had kept in contact over the years. The get-togethers became less frequent once we started having children, but Frank was the kind of guy who would always treat you like his best friend, even if he hadn't seen you in years. I immensely enjoyed getting together with Frank and his family and watching our children play together.

Frank was a true character--the life of any party. You knew when getting together with him that you were going to spend a lot of time laughing. But there was a lot more to Frank than just his sharp wit and his uncanny ability to come up with just the right zinger on any given occasion. Frank was also a blackbelt in Taekwando and could engage in a theoretical or intellectual conversation with the best of them. He was an absolutely voracious reader.

I always thought that we'd have more time to get together with Frank and his family as as our kids got older, but alas, God had a different plan for him. As it is, I will remember the good times we had and pray that I will be worthy to see him again some day in the Heavenly Kingdom.

Frank leaves behind a wonderful wife and three beautiful children under age 7. I ask anyone who reads this blog to:

1.) Pray for the repose of Frank's soul.
2.) Pray that the Holy Spirit comforts his wife and children in their grief.

Here is a link to the obituary.

If you feel moved by God to render assistance to the family during this awful time, contributions may be sent to:

The Lupo Children Fund
c/o Madison Saurman, Trustee
Smith Barney
12 Terry Drive
Newtown, PA 18940

Book Review: The Hidden Treasure of Glaston

Young Hugh is the lame son of an English nobleman--and not just any nobleman. Hugh's father was one of the murderers who struck down Archbishop Thomas Becket. Forced to flee the country, Hugh's father leaves his 12-year-old son in the care of the studious monks of Glaston abbey. Hugh soon discovers, however, that prayer, bookbinding, and care for the poor aren't the only things that engage the inhabitants of Glaston. Mystery abounds and Hugh, the oblate Dickon, and the hermit Bleheris, are soon caught up in a quest for a magnificent treasure hidden for hundreds of years.

The Hidden Treasure of Glaston is a lovely little tale, written in pithy, flowing prose that will easily hold the attention of even the most distracted reader. Written by an author who is obviously comfortable in her historical milieu, the story offers abundant positive messages for both young readers and old, chief among them being the importance of forgiveness and the virtue of detachment from material goods.

Well-suited for kids ages 10 and up, the book is also a quick and easy read for adults. It is a good one to read and discuss with your kids and can serve as an introduction to the history of medieval England and the monastic life that dominated Christendom at a time when Europe actually possessed a culture it wasn't ashamed of. Highly recommended.

God bless Alveda King

There's at least one member of MLK's family that got some of the slain civil rights leader's courage.

Alveda King placed 1,400 flowers in front of the White House today, in honor of the estimated 1,400 Black babies that will be slaughtered today thanks to legalized abortion. In a LifeSite News article, King was quoted as saying:

"Over 45 years ago, my Uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote from a Birmingham jail cell that ‘[i]njustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ Today, there is no greater injustice than that suffered by the 4,000 babies, 1,400 of them black, who die on any given day at the hands of abortionists."

Ms. King has put her finger on a issue that many in the major media, and even in the so-called Conservative media, won't touch with a 20-foot pole--the connection between abortion, racism, and the suppression of minority groups.

When it is mentioned at all, this subject is usually presented by abortion advocates in coded language, i.e., "If not for abortion, crime would be way up." But I got to witness the reality of the situation close up yesterday while praying in front of an abortion mill. The clinic, located in a predominantly wealthy White suburb was doing a brisk business. And of the 20 or so cars that I saw entering and leaving the parking lot, only a single one had White people inside it. The rest were piloted by various members of the 'rainbow coalition'--the majority were Black. Does this happen by accident? I don't think so.

The irony that the first Black president is also the most pro-abortion president in history could not be more tragic. His policies will directly encourage more people of his race to destroy their own children. I pray that my Black brothers and sisters in Christ will open their eyes to this hideous fraud.

Cyclopædia of Universal History Being an Account of the Principal Events in the Career of the Human Race, from the Beginning of Civilization to the Pr

Cyclopædia of Universal History Being an Account of the Principal Events in the Career of the Human Race, from the Beginning of Civilization to the Present Time ... By John Clark Ridpath: ""

EWTN To Air 2009’s Historic “March for Life/Walk for Life”

The secular media has made an annual tradition of ignoring one of the largest protest rallies in the nation--the March for Life which takes place every January 22. Apparently, 200,000 people marching on the National Mall isn't news if their cause isn't one the elite media agrees with.

That's where media outlets like EWTN are so valuable. They will be broadcasting the March live. Here's an excerpt from their press release:

With President-elect Obama promising his first act in office will be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops vowing to aggressively oppose this, the 2009 March for Life could be one of the biggest and most important in history.

EWTN will offer viewers the most complete coverage available on any platform of both Washington, D.C.’s March for Life and San Francisco’s Walk for Life. Coverage of the Jan. 22 events will include live Masses, walking processions, rallies, interviews, panel discussions, and speeches from pro-lifers around the country.

You can also watch or listen to these historic events live on our website at www.ewtn.com/audiovideo). Further resources can be found at www.ewtn.com/prolife. But that’s not all.

Our state-sponsored media

What do you call it when those in the so-called "free press" see their responsibility as primarily to exalt and defend our elected leaders?

Hat tip to Newsbusters for finding this.

Here's what Chris Matthews said back in November in the aftermath of Obama's electoral victory:

Yeah, well, you know what? I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work...My job is to help this country.

Sure, Chris. Just like you wanted to help this country when Bush was president by trashing him every opportunity you got.

Now, we've got Tavis Smiley saying something very similar on Morning Joe: "We're all working for Barack Obama," Smiley said, "we have to help make Obama a great president."

So there you have it. Any pretense of impartiality is out the window. The next four years are going to witness some of the most crass and outrageous regime-inspired propaganda the world has ever seen.

Obama has already shown himself adept at creating strange government offices that never existed before in American history. Given his giddy approval of government take-overs of failing industries, and the precarious financial situation of much of the American media, one wonders how long it will take the Great Obama to nationalize the media and rename it the Ministry of Propaganda.

At this point, that would be a more fitting appellation.

Burying talents in Albany

Yet another northeastern diocese is planning to close and consolidate a large number of Catholic churches. This time, it's Albany which for the past 32 years has been withering under the inept rule of Bishop Howard Hubbard. According to an article in the Times Union, roughly 20% of the parishes in Hubbard's diocese would be closing. Fortunately, the good Bishop has assured everyone that the abandoned churches would be sold and put to good use:

First preference, Hubbard said, would go to religious uses. Second would be nonprofits, and third would be the commercial sector.

"Religious uses"? Like what? I'm sure there are some folks who get a nice warm fuzzy feeling when they think of a lovely old Catholic church serving as a mosque or a Mormon temple, or a church of Scientology--but I'm not one of them.

Who's to blame for this disaster? Well, the Times Union seems to be blaming demographics:

Albany, like other dioceses across the Northeast, is grappling with urban flight and a shortage of priests. Since 1960, the city of Troy has lost 34 percent of its population, Albany declined 27 percent, and Schenectady dropped 25 percent.

There are many reasons for urban flight--high taxes, crime, bad economy, etc. I don't know Bishop Hubbard's record on these issues but there's little he can practically do about them. But I do know for a fact that Hubbard has done an exceptional job driving devout Catholics out of his diocese. And let's face it--if a bishop has been in control of a diocese for over 30 years, he has no one to blame but himself if 1.) vocations are almost nonexistent and 2.) Catholics are leaving the Faith in droves.

In short, Bishop Hubbard's excruciatingly long tenure has been an abject failure by any appreciable measure. And this round of closings is the logical conclusion of his failure to uphold and teach the Catholic Faith.

It's long past time for Catholics to start demanding accountability from their bishops. In my opinion, if a bishop has reigned for 10 years and his diocese is still a mess in terms of the faithful leaving the Church and shortage of vocations, he should be forced to resign.

Bishop Hubbard's efforts have been like those of the servant who buried his talent in the ground, to whom our Lord would say:

Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed...Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents. For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Hubbard should resign immediately before he does any further damage, and his diocese should be given to a prelate who knows how to increase the harvest of souls.

A dog returning to his vomit

The Obama administration is already looking like Clinton redux, so one would expect that among the first things our fearless leaders will do is demand that our armed forces enlist "out and proud" homosexuals. Of course, they won't do it as ham-fistedly as Bill Clinton did in 1992, but if you put your ear to the ground, you can already hear the wardrums beating on this issue.

As our leftist overlords won't be able to resist this opportunity for institutional deconstruction, I'm am taking the moment to post the inevitable outcome of such a move. In a "gay friendly" military, expect many more incidents like this one: Colonel Discharged Over Homosexuality [NY Times, July 27, 1997].

In brief, according to this NY Times article, Lt. Col. Loren S. Loomis, a bronze star recipient then age 50, was dishonorably discharged after his house burned down. The discharge was enforced after firefighters discovered that Col. Loomis had videotapes of himself engaging in sex acts with other men.

Oh, the injustice! Right?

Not exactly. Col. Loomis's house was set on fire by a 19-year-old Army private. Why? Because Loomis had taken nude photos of the private and the young man had burned the house down in an attempt to destroy the pictures in Loomis's possession.

Does this sound like the kind of distraction/fraternization we need in the military? Does anyone doubt that allowing open homosexuals to serve will result in a proliferation of this kind of behavior?

If you do, you might want to refer your opinion to the Catholic Church. Not too long ago, our bishops thought it would be a good idea to allow homosexuals to become priests....

Thank God for Pope Benedict XVI

Segements of the press exploded with vitriol against Pope Benedict XVI this week. Why? Because he took the knife to one of their sacred cows--sexual license--in his Christmas greeting. Here are some quotes from an article posted on LifeSiteNews.com:

During his exchange of Christmas greetings with the Roman Curia this morning, Pope Benedict XVI noted that the Church "cannot and should not limit herself to transmitting just the message of salvation to her faithful." It must also he said "protect the human being against self-destruction" - a destruction which comes from a warped understanding of marriage and human sexuality.

"It is necessary to have something like an ecology of the human being, understood in the proper manner," said the Pope. "It is not a surpassed metaphysics when Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman, and demands that this order of creation be respected."

Unless we "listen to the language of creation" he said, we end up with "destruction of the work of God." The Pope suggested that the gender ideology which seeks to redefine the sexes to allow for homosexuality, transgenderism and such things are examples of mankind separating himself "from creation and the Creator." With such attempts to decide for himself, mankind "lives against the truth and the Spirit of the Creator."

Appealing to concern for the environment to heighten awareness of the gravity of the matter, Pope Benedict said, "Yes, the tropical rainforests deserve our protection, but man, as a creature is no less deserving" of protection. Rather than a limit of our freedom, the Pope emphasized that it was a condition of that freedom.

Note to American bishops--speaking the truth to power like Pope Benedict is doing here is part of your job description. Please take heed.

Book Review -- The Whiskey Rebels

Not long ago--certainly within the living memory of anyone approaching the age of 40--nearly every novel, movie, and television adventure show featured a white male hero. When people outside that mold appeared at all, they were invariably either victims to be rescued, sidekicks, or villains. But within the past 20 years, that paradigm has been completely turned on its head. In The Whiskey Rebels we see what happens when the postmodern cult of the anti-White male reaches its absurd climax and history must be tortured to accommodate it.

The Whiskey Rebels is a decently written novel. It is a page-turner in the worst sense of that term. That is, the author's prose is sufficiently punchy to keep you turning pages to see what happens next. Unfortunately, what usually happens next is "not much." The plot is disjointed and full of unsurprising surprise twists. The dialog is what you'd expect from a "made for HBO" type historical adventure. There are scenes that make the reader groan out loud thanks to bizarre and totally unnecessary sexual imagery.

My real problem with this book, however, was the characters who were little more than pawns acting out a morality play in the 21st century mode. The "hero" is Captain Saunders, a wrongfully disgraced Revolutionary War officer. About two-thirds of the book is written from his perspective and he sees himself as an exceptionally dashing and clever fellow. The reader soon discovers, however, that he is a scoundrel and a drunken boob who, unbeknownst to him, is being manipulated by the other characters in the book.

The other third of the book is told through the eyes of Joan Maycott, a brilliantly self-educated woman who moved to the frontier with her husband. Though cheated and brutalized by the local aristocrat and his thugs, the Maycotts and the other hearty frontier folk find success in developing a new way to make whiskey. But the imposition of the federal tax on whiskey exacerbates tensions on the frontier and Maycott is left a widow seeking revenge on the federal reprobates and speculators who ruined her life. She and her Whiskey Boys infiltrate Philadelphia and launch a complex financial scheme to utterly destroy the creature they feel most responsible for their plight.

The other major protagonists in the book are as follows: Kyler Lavien--a kind of Jewish ninja in the employ of Alexander Hamilton who has neatly compartmentalized his idyllic family life from his day job as a spy/assassin; Leonidas--Saunder's slave who is presented as ten times the man his master is; Dalton and Richmond--two whiskey boys who the author "outs" inelegantly and then puts forth the ludicrous idea that everyone on the frontier was perfectly fine with their arrangement; and Skye, an older Scottsman and one of the whiskey boys whose main purpose in the novel is to be a rejected suitor for the widow Maycott.

The villains are all, without exception, rich white males.

So the old trope has now been completely inverted. Once you realize this, the course of events is easily predicted.

Let me just say that I find tales like this to be just as tedious and uncreative as the ones of yore in which only rich, white men could be the heroes.

A couple of the Founding Fathers pass through the pages of The Whiskey Rebels. Alexander Hamilton is presented enigmatically--of course, he is shown sneaking off to visit his mistress. George Washington appears in one scene, though the author seemed fixated upon Washington's false teeth more than anything else.

So in short, this book was a disappointment. Not exactly a yawner, but simply annoying in that the author seems to be nothing more than a politically correct trend-follower. Personally, I'm tired of those.

For those of you interested in the true history of the Pennsylvania frontier, which is infinitely more interesting than this book, I recommend going to some of the primary sources which are easily available these days. Try the Early Colonial Bookshop for a good list.

Abortion not linked with depression?

A news article is floating around today claiming that there is no link between abortion and depression:

A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reviewed 21 studies involving more than 150,000 women and found the high-quality studies showed no significant differences in long-term mental health between women who choose to abort a pregnancy and others.

"The best research does not support the existence of a 'post-abortion syndrome' similar to post-traumatic stress disorder," Dr. Robert Blum, who led the study published in the journal Contraception, said in a statement.

Worse, the academics behind this article simply declare that evidence to the contrary is "low quality" and "politically motivated."

How about a little transference with your baloney sandwich?

But hey, maybe these clowns are on to something. There may be less evidence of depression among post-abort women because many of these poor totured souls opt to commit suicide instead.

Suicides after pregnancy in Finland, 1987-94: register linkage study

Here's the money quote from this article:

The mean annual suicide rate was 11.3 per 100 000. The suicide rate associated with birth was significantly lower (5.9) and the rates associated with miscarriage (18.1) and induced abortion (34.7) were significantly higher than in the population.

I reckon this is one of those "low quality" studies Dr. Blum was referring to above.

Wouldn't it be nice if the medical and mental health communities got back into the business of actually helping people and not making immoral, counter-intuitive or just obviously wrong political statements?

No freedom of choice for Catholics -- Why FOCA is evil

FOCA, the so-called "Freedom of Choice Act" is anything but.

This wicked bill will immediately declare all reasonable restraints on abortion (the killing of a baby in the womb) null and void. Gone will be any common sense limits passed by voters in the individual states on partial-birth abortion, parental notification for abortions performed on children under the age of 18, and most ominously of all, the ability of pro-life physicians and medical personnel to opt out of performing abortions for reasons of conscience.

This bill is anti-Democratic, anti-American, and supremely evil. Catholic bishops in the US are already threatening to close hospitals rather than comply with this act. Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Chicago made the following statement regarding FOCA:

"There are grave consequences. If Catholic hospitals were required by federal law to perform abortions, we'd have to close our hospitals."

Nearly 100 Catholic bishops across America are echoing these words.

We should all keep in mind that nearly 1/3 of our nation's hospitals are Catholic-run. Can you imagine the crisis that closing even a fraction of these hospitals would cause?

FOCA must be defeated. Urge president-elect Obama to denounce the bill in no uncertain terms.

Book Review: The Man Who Was Thursday

To this point in my life, I've now read three works by Chesterton. I enjoyed his epic poem Ballad of the White Horse a great deal. His bio of Saint Thomas Aquinas left me somewhat befuddled. After I finished it, I felt I knew no more about the great saint than when I started. However, I had read something — a lot of something, in fact — just don't ask me to tell you what.

The Man Who Was Thursday is a completely different work from the abovementioned pair. It is subtitled "A Nightmare" and that's exactly how it reads. It starts out like a quirky spy/detective novel, but as the plot progresses, it becomes obvious that this is no typical pot-boiler. It is well to keep in mind when reading this book that Chesterton was a master of paradox. In an interview recorded in a biography by Maisie Ward, Chesterton once summarized the book by saying: "In an ordinary detective tale the investigator discovers that some amiable-looking fellow who subscribes to all the charities, and is fond of animals, has murdered his grandmother, or is a trigamist. I thought it would be fun to make the tearing away of menacing masks reveal benevolence."

To summarize the plot is to give away much of what makes this book an enjoyable read, so I will refrain. And to my mind, the plot is almost coincidental to what makes this book interesting. It is a mere plastic tree (if an oddly shaped one) upon which Chesterton hangs a myriad of literary ornaments. The book is simply littered with gems which sparkle even out of context. Here are a few of my favorites:

"We deny the snobbish English assumption that the uneducated are the dangerous criminals....We say that the most dangerous criminal is the educated criminal. We say that the most dangerous criminal is the entirely lawless modern philosopher. Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially moral people."

"The modern world has retained all those parts of police work which are really oppressive and ignominious....It has given up its more dignified work, the punishment of powerful traitors the in the State and powerful heresiarchs in the Church. The moderns say we must not punish heretics. My only doubt is whether we have a right to punish anybody else.”

"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."

The Man Who Was Thursday can be read and appreciated on two different levels--as an entertaining bit of absurdity that, in some sections, prefigures a Monty Python routine, or as an allegory with significant theological depth. I enjoyed it a great deal on both levels.

To conclude, let me simply say that this is the kind of book that I will need to re-read at some future point, perhaps a couple times, to make sure I didn't miss anything. Fortunately, Chesterton's prose is so merry and brisk that the re-read will be a pleasure rather than a trial.