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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

A Ray of Sunshine


Gloom and despair were blown away this morning with some really pleasant news. By the Lord Harry we need some positive  evidence that the world struggles on in some semblance of normality. And here it comes.

In a civilisation being overwhelmed with single- mothers, babies being aborted, economic wreckers wanting us to power our toasters with solar panels,  men wanting marry men, cats and dogs sleeping together etc etc, into the Tavern comes a Lady with Children and a husband.

I say children. And that's what we got.  LOTS of them. All in one family. Sitting, crawling, running around on the Patio.

None of this declining populations bizzo, but heterosexual fecundity walking proud.

And get away all that talk of 'immigrants' ruining the place. The Mum who brought them all in is Half-Jamaican.

A happy normal woman.
 
My mate JJ Ray brought her to our attention:
One can only feel sorry for "liberated" women.  My son was conceived because his mother decided that she "just wanted to be a mother"  -- despite already having 3 children.  I was delighted -- JR 
I did not have such good fortune, m'self. My son and daughter's mother was not quite so keen. But at least she produced two healthy new human beings.

But this lady deserves a medal. Her husband too. We won't get to hear from him much. The poor bugger has his work cut our supporting them all.

Tripping over four pairs of glittery pumps in the downstairs hall, I stumbled into our playroom only to be greeted by squealing laughter and an overpowering waft of nail polish. 
Tiny toes were being painted a kaleidoscope of colours and lashings of lip gloss indelicately sloshed onto sticky pint-sized pouts as three of my daughters immersed themselves in playing ‘beauty salon’.  
Upstairs I could hear the roar of a hair dryer competing against a One Direction CD, while back in the playroom, my six-year-old Helena was ordering the customers of her toy sweetshop not to touch the little lollipops on the plastic shelf without ‘paying’ first. 
Chaos? Yes. But for me, nothing out of the ordinary. For years, my house has been girls world central. With six daughters, it’s a place where bedrooms are a blizzard of fairies and Barbies and the bathroom is crammed with scented soaps and sparkly hair bobbles.

Maxine Irving had six daughters before she gave birth to son George.
 
George joins sisters Olivia, Alicia, Isabella, Lucia, Helena and Tallula


 
But suddenly, in the middle of this explosion of femininity, I catch a glimpse of powder blue. My gorgeous, chunky baby boy. George. My precious longed-for son — a baby boy born after six girls.  
My son. I still can’t believe I can say these words. I never really thought it would happen. I pinch myself every morning when I scoop him from his cot and gaze at his little boyish face. I thought we only did girls. Girls who came one after another, all gorgeous and much loved, but none of them, well, boys.  


I admit now I was prepared to keep going until we had a son. And if it meant we ended up with a houseful of girls, which we did, well, that was absolutely fine. 
It’s not that I haven’t adored having daughters — I love all the girly shopping and baking, the softness and companionship. But as one arrived after another, part of me felt a deep, desperate yearning for a boy, fuelled in part by the fact that my husband Jamie didn’t have a son — someone he could kick a ball with in the park, go to the match with, pass on the family name to. 
Whenever friends who had boys would say they were taking their sons on, say, a ‘lads and dads’ camping weekend I felt —what? — envy, sadness, longing. 
I desperately wanted a boy and my husband Jamie longed for someone he could call ‘my son’. 
But as baby girl followed baby girl, it seemed that having a son was a mere dream. That is, until September 4 last year, when the world turned blue and we were finally able to use the boy’s name —George — we’d chosen so long ago.  
Every time I fell pregnant, the name had been there, ready to use if the baby was a boy. And each time it was quietly set aside as we welcomed another gorgeous little girl into our home. How long would we have to keep going until we could use it? 
And there’s no question that our girls — Olivia, 19, Alicia, 14, Isabella, 8, Lucia, 7, Helena, 6 and Tallula, 3 — are gorgeous. They each have the perfect mix of my half-Jamaican background and their father’s blue-eyed blond genes. 
But we ached for what seemed to elude us. It wasn’t helped by the increasingly ‘disappointed’ reaction of friends, family and people we knew.    
It’s amazing how people just say things without thinking.  
Hah ! Tell me about it !
We stopped getting ‘Congratulations!’ and started to get ‘Oh, not another girl!’ 
You’d think something terrible had happened. It hadn’t, but in truth every new arrival only served as a reminder of what we didn’t have and what we so desperately wanted. And how I would have to keep going if I was ever going to be in with a chance of having a son. 

I stayed in hospital for only six hours. It had been an easy birth and I wanted to get home so that George could meet his big sisters. Their reaction was electric as they clamoured round him, squealing with delight. They couldn’t believe it. They kept saying: ‘We’ve got a little brother.’ They were as shocked as we were. 
Nothing prepared me for the reaction from friends and family. Our five-bedroom semi in Timperley, Greater Manchester, was transformed into a sea of blue — from sprawling flower arrangements and baby presents to the huge balloons heralding the arrival of our own little prince.  
Having this little bundle of blue among our brood was just incredible. The girls couldn’t stop fussing over him. And Jamie and I would just sit there looking at him.  
As a tiny baby, apart from the blizzard of blue that had invaded our house, things weren’t that different. (Well, apart from nappy changes — I wasn’t prepared for the projectile wee which goes everywhere as soon as the nappy comes off.) George had no choice but to fit in with our girly household.  
With so many children, we do our best to make sure order and routine prevail — from sitting down round the table to have dinner together at night, to homework, and systematic bed times. George was simply timetabled into this. 
But as he gets bigger, I’m really beginning to feel  
the ‘boyish’ impact he makes.  
For a start, I’m used to girly appetites. 
Then, the other day, the family sat down to their Sunday dinner only to watch in awe as George reached out for one roast potato after another. 
The toys are changing too. We’re buying football nets for the garden and George now has his first train set — though he seems just as happy playing with the girls’ dolls! We’re also going to put up a blue play house in the garden to sit alongside the pink one. 
Jamie loves tumbling about with him — the girls always seemed too delicate for that. And as he does so, he keeps calling George ‘my boy’ or ‘my son’. 
I love shopping for his clothes, from tiny jeans to crisp shirts: in fact I’ve already bought him a smart shirt and tie for Christmas Day. After years of careful bulk buying frocks or passing down clothes for the girls, it’s such fun to pick out outfits for my son. 
Everyone keeps asking if I’m calling it a day now on the baby front.  
Well, I do feel fit and healthy — I jog a few miles a couple of times a week to keep in shape — so in theory I could carry on.  
And Jamie has joked that he’d like a little brother for George.
 You can read more about this delightful lady and her crew at the link below. She was not able to stay for long. You know how it is when you have so many kids pulling you away.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2478590/After-SIX-GIRLS-meet-longed-baby-boy-Britain-Mothers-joy-baby-George-completes-family-following-years-yearning.html

What an absolute delight.

I had to go down to the Cellar to the Grail Crypt and give thanks.

May the Good Lord continue to shower this family with Blessings.

Pax Dei.


Monday, October 28, 2013

Do you really Think you Think?

Cogito ergo Sum: Oh yeah?  It is not often that people go from dismissive guffaw to tears in half an hour, passing through deeply confronting insight on the way.  But here is your chance.

WARNING:
Do not watch the video below if you are scared of yourself.
 
That would be the ONLY reason to not watch it.
 
 
There are some fascinating lessons in it, especially how to get people to look at what they think and say. But I will get to what to look for below, just before the  video. 

The guffaws occurred within a few minutes of  a chap giving us a talk in the Spirit Bar last night. Ray Comfort is his name. He raised the hoary old Nazi argument. You know....

 'if you mention Hitler in an argument,  
you have lost it already'.

Except of course there are far too many who do not want to remember Hitler and even more people who have no idea who he is or was.  And that was his opening point.

And it wasn't just about Hitler or Nazis or Jews (even though he had to bring them in) it was about ..

YOU, and ME and our Reluctance to actually THINK.
 
 
It starts by asking quite a few American young people if they knew who Hitler was. Hardly any knew. But is wasn't about Hitler. It wasn't even about American young people.
 
It was (almost) about ignorance. But that wasn't the point either.
 
 
It developed. The early opening set a scene very different from the landscape of our own minds; a place rarely visited with open eyes. The questions turned 180 degrees.

The tears were not for the victims of that genocide.

It was for ourselves; for our young people; for our continual stupidity that damages ourselves, makes fools of ourselves and steals our Humanity.  Our civilisation is committing slow suicide.

It was (almost) about who we vote for and the total lack of thought we give to the stupid people that we elect.

Almost, but not quite. That was just a side issue.

It was (almost) about our moral choices and how we make them glibly and on the basis of what everyone else does.

Almost, but not quite. That was a side issue too.

Neither of those brought the tears.

What caused the Tavern Keeper to turn around and wipe the hanging bottles was self-recognition of the many times I have just not thought.

I look in the mirror quite often and it is not because I am a pretty face. Indeed, I am a damned handsome fellow. I also look into the mirror of me, my mind. I rarely allow a thought to get out without being 'subjected' to some further thought. But do I go far enough?

Do I turn away too quickly?

Do I 'rationalise' as easily as the people in the video? Excuse? Switch logical 'form' from one matter to another to avoid a Truth?

Of course, not many people want to look in a mirror. Not many want to really think about what they think about. Many do not even know what questions to ask, let alone how to ask them.

Someone has to ask the questions when we are too lazy to ask them ourselves; to ask them OF ourselves.

But this chap did and he did a fairly decent job of it too.

My side column says that you should ask old men questions. I put it there. It says that there are Fundamental Questions you have to ask. It does not tell you what they are. Just the Big One. There are many others along the road before you get to even understand what that one is. You have to find them and ask them. Some will show the way to the Grail.

Many answers do not.

When asking people to 'think' it can get their backs up. Most people do a rough and ready job of questioning and even their face gives away 'judgement'. People responding do not like that.

But here is a history lesson and a 'Logic' lesson too. Ray asks his questions in the manner of Socrates. He gets his respondents -quite a few 'ordinary and one or two extraordinary people to state their views. The 'Major Premiss'. He 'works them toward minor premises and conclusions with each respondent creating their own syllogisms from their own statements. Their view of matters and their ways of thinking.

Having established the logical 'form' he takes them to other premises. It is instructive to watch them baulk and squirm when confronted with their own thinking.

You, watching, can easily be misled by the subject matter. You have your own views of course. You have a view of him, and of them too.

But what is your view of yourself and your thinking?

Can you hear yourself in their words? Can you hear the mantras we use that prevent us really thinking of what we profess?

Note also that he does not criticise, but eventually gives each person a critique based on their own views. He does not condemn them for having outrageous views - and some do have outrageous views as you will see. He does not 'judge' them. He lets them judge themselves.

Have a drink. Don't let 'hoary old subject matter' distract you from what is going on here. Sit back and watch for half an hour.

If you dare.

 
Oh, my tears? Yes, well you may weep too in sympathy with the people who suddenly realize the implications of their thinking. They are all genuine in their shock and often sorrow. Their realizations. 
 
Some, of course, are beyond saving.
"180" Movie
 
 
 
There are so many questions you can ask of yourselves in light of this very hard-hitting video. It does hit hard; not deliberately; not with any intent to hurt.
 
Questions such as
 
Who is screwing up the minds of Western Civilisation?
 
Ask MORE of your own.
 
Like: Who are my politicians? What have I said to them about this? Why on Earth did I vote for this 'ordinary' person who thinks as badly and carelessly as I do?
 
Because, just as our lives and those of others are the
 
Consequences of our choices,
 
WE are accountable for our choices.
 
So copy the Link to this post and send it to them.
 
Ray makes the case better than I do, and probably better than you, too.
 
Get your pins against those thought balloons. Make some noise.
 
Are you seeing the blasted landscapes yet?
 
Weep.
 
 
Pax Dei Vobiscum
 


Friday, October 25, 2013

Conscience and Remote-Controlled Killing.

Killing foreigners has always been part of the Human Condition. Our 'fear' of interlopers is well established and while in many instances may be irrational and prejudiced, it is all too often justified.

Today is St Crispin's Day. Let us consider War. And Honour.

Considering  'dark' matters has to be done, even in a Tavern.  It has been pointed out by those close to me that this account of the goings on in the Tavern often deals with unsavoury matters. The world is complex with much 'dark' to contrast with the light of Goodness and many people who cannot tell the difference.

There is Ying and Yang people. Good and Bad. You can walk a fine line between them but we are apt to fall one side of that line or the other.  Make sure you know what you fall into.


Chimpanzees will patrol their territory and kill any monkey that they find, often eating the poor sod too. They do not 'fear' monkeys: they hate them. It is in their genes. And we are very closely related to Chimps, so we are told. Something we have learned by close observation and biological sciences.

Indeed the main difference between humans and chimps is largely confined to the male chromosome, the 'Y' that feminists hate so much. We have learned that too. Fine haters, feminists: its the Chimp in them. Men seem more finely human, discriminating more carefully.



That's another hatred of feminists: they do not want anyone to discriminate.

To them, Good and Bad are just 'relative'. Discrimination though is always 'Bad'. Odd how good an bad matters 'relatively' too.

Armies do not like their troops to discriminate too much either, despite the overarching message of the Nuremburg Trials. "Obey" is far easier to teach than, "use your Conscience". It is especially easy with young men brought up in the awful, mind-denying education system so Dominated as it is with those caring, nurturing, conflict-resolving psychos we call teachers.

An education system that produced Brandon Bryant.

He may well have been a nice young man. He certainly retained some vestige of conscience despite the massive pressures of an anti-boy schooling and a thuggery Military. But it was not enough to have him say 'NO' to what seemed to be 'Lawful Orders'.

As a soldier his orders from above were to Kill people: the enemies of the State. Heck, as a Knight I can understand that. On a wall in the Tavern hangs a Commission from Her Majesty the Queen, addressing me as her 'Trusty and Well Beloved' and authorising me to go forth and kill her enemies. I did rather well.

Fortunately I was also mentored by strong men with a conscience still very much in fine working order. They taught me to pray over the slain; not to hate them. My enemies were close and shooting at me. Killing was a survival issue.

Brandon was in a far more 'technical' force, able to kill people thousands of miles away.

Retired US drone operator tells of the turmoil he feels after killing by remote control 

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/retired-us-drone-operator-tells-of-the-turmoil-he-feels-after-killing-by-remote-control/story-fni0xs61-1226746447041
 
"I WATCHED him die. It took a long time."  
These are the chilling words of a retired US drone operator, describing his actions in Afghanistan. 
The former US air force drone controller told GQ how he is haunted by the horror of killing people thousands of miles away as he sat in safety in a US command bunker.
Airman First Class Brandon Bryant, who spoke out in a bid to raise public awareness, describes a string of disturbing incidents - including being told to cover up his fears that a child had been killed, after photo checks showed the blurry body could have been a dog.
He tells of one incident in detail - beginning when he took over control of a MQ-1B Predator drone's weapons systems as it circled quietly miles above the Afghan countryside.
Bryant himself sat in a padded chair in a darkened booth in the Nevada desert, lit only by the big-screen monitors on which the following scenes unfolded. Alongside him sat the drone's pilot. 
 Matthew Power tells us:
Confessions of a Drone Warrior 
He was an experiment, really. One of the first recruits for a new kind of warfare in which men and machines merge. He flew multiple missions, but he never left his computer. He hunted top terrorists, saved lives, but always from afar. He stalked and killed countless people, but could not always tell you precisely what he was hitting.  
Meet the 21st-century American killing machine, who is still utterly, terrifyingly human.


Now, before we go on, let me make something clear. Personally.

I am not 'against' war, just as I am not 'against' any tragedy. I have great and careful sympathy with all human beings in this vale of tears we call Life.

The drive to the development of our technologies is also written into our genes.  I am not against Drones, nor their useful deployment. There have always been people, regimes, wickedness that we must resist, fight, destroy. That means we have to do many unsavoury things. With clever technologies.

But as Human Beings, with a Soul, with Conscience, we are Individually accountable.
While Bryant considers leakers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden heroes willing to sacrifice themselves for their principles, he’s cautious about discussing some of the details to which his top-secret clearance gave him access.  
Still, he is a curtain drawn back on the program that has killed thousands on our behalf.
For Bryant, talking about them has become a     
sort of confessional catharsis,  
a means of processing the things he saw and did during his six years in the Air Force as an experimental test subject in an utterly new form of warfare. 
But it is not enough. A 'sort of confessional' does not heal the Soul.

Only the Sacrament of a True Confession, to God, in-front of a Priest, can do that.

But Obama recently even tried to forbid priests to give the Sacraments to Soldiers like Brandon.

Evil tries every crack in a man's armour.
Read More http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/201311/drone-uav-pilot-assassination#ixzz2ihrbqIFX

Bryant was tracking three men walking down a dusty dirt track.
He instructed the drone's cameras to zoom in an effort to pick out the finer details of the suspects. He was told they were carrying rifles, but from that height he could not tell weapons apart from a simple shepherd's staff.
Then came a tinny, remote command in his headset: "Shoot."
IR mode: Check.
Laser designator: Check.
Countdown: Three ... two... one.. "Missile off the rail".
The $95,000 Hellfire missile leapt from underneath the Predator drone, powering up to supersonic speeds in seconds as it plunged towards its unsuspecting targets.

The operator watched. The men walked on, unaware.
The IR cameras lit up with flame.
Bright. Silent.
"The smoke clears, and there's pieces of the two guys around the crater," he told GQ.
"And there's this guy over here, and he's missing his right leg above his knee. He's holding it, and he's rolling around, and the blood is squirting out of his leg, and it's hitting the ground, and it's hot. His blood is hot. But when it hits the ground, it starts to cool off; the pool cools fast. It took him a long time to die. I just watched him. I watched him become the same colour as the ground he was lying on."
 
Now, Bryant is speaking out in an effort to raise awareness of the cold killings drone operators such as himself are expected to conduct.
He says he regards leakers Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden to be heroes for standing up for their principles. 
But Bryant himself will not discuss the details of his job which were classified "top secret".
Bryant's testimony has added fuels to the flames of controversy surrounding the United State's  drone wars.


The administration insists that operations intended to kill top terror leaders -  which can take drones deep inside the airspace of nations unaware of their presence - are legal under international law.
Amnesty International disputes this, earlier this week declaring such actions amount to "war crimes".
At this point one smells a rat so follow it up through the main links.

Amnesty is often taken as a 'sound' organisation of 'good' people, but was started by a British Communist Party Cell in London pre-WW2 and funded by Comintern. It propagandised for the Communists imprisoned during the Spanish Civil War but ignored the equally ill-treated Republican prisoners. It remains consistent in its mendacity, pretending to be fair-minded, but rarely does it criticise the Left.

Amnesty lives in a ménage a trois with Feminists and Cultural Marxists and is frequently seen around with other unsavoury leftists on the side extolling same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia. Frankly they have supported far more murders than a drone operator.

One has to pull a fresh pint whenever they have sent a glass sliding down the bar and into someone's lap.
Pakistan. Yemen. Afghanistan. All have experienced drone over-flights intended to find and kill those the US assert are a threat to its security.
The US has carried out nearly 400 drone attacks in Pakistan's restive tribal districts along the Afghan border since 2004, killing between 2500 and 3600 people, according to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Even in his climate controlled bunker, Bryant felt the impact of the wars raging thousands of kilometres away.
In Iraq, he was tasked with following an insurgent commander through his electronic eye-in-the-sky.
The suspect pulled over and dragged two girls out of his car.
"They were bound and gagged," says Bryant. "He put them down on their knees, executed them in the middle of the street, and left them there. People just watched it and didn't do anything."
 
Nor did Bryant. The order did not come, this time.
Many of his tasks he regarded as vital, such as supporting troops in the field. Others, he agreed, were necessary.

"We were going after top dudes. They started showing us PowerPoint presentations on who these people (we were targeting) are," he said. "Why we're after him, and what he did. I liked that. I liked being able to know shit like that."
But there were also incidents which made him doubt the role of his winged robotic killers.
He related one such incident: 
"Missile off the rail.. (then) this figure runs around the corner, the outside, toward the front of the building. And it looked like a little kid to me. Like a little human person." 
The intelligence operative overseeing the mission reported the victim in his official statement as being a dog.
The operators themselves became little better than the machines they operate, he said, frequently slipping into an emotional "zombie mode". 
Bryant was not immune, sitting in safety thousands of killometres from the scenes of destruction he initiated.
He has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. 
It is an affliction common to many ex-US military drone operators.
Now, the US Air Force cannot get enough volunteers to man them.
 
Dirty. Dull. These are the key words that fill the minds of those approached to take on the task.

For a pilot, nothing matches the thrill of air beneath one's own wings.  
For a weapons operator, the fear is burnout after round-the-clock shifts sitting behind flickering monitors - striving to make sense of what is going on half a world away.
And they know what they do is controversial.
Regardless, US officials reject any and all criticism of the drone program: To not attack "terrorists" this way would be tantamount to inviting more attacks on the mainland United States, they say.

The Issue is not the controversiality, but the lack of conscience.

Young men such as Brandon are sat in a machine which gives then vast amounts of information but much of which is redundant and irrelevant. It does not identify individuals.

He is ordered to kill people who are not shooting at him. Indeed not shooting at anyone.

Yet, as we see, when he does get 'true', incontrovertible information, actually seeing an execution of innocents, no 'Order' come to tell him to intervene.

A Man must follow his Conscience FIRST.

His Conscience MUST have precedence over 'orders'.

St Augustine made it clear 1400 years ago and there has been enough time passed for everyone to know it and to have grasped it.

A Man of Good Conscience MUST DISOBEY any human authority that instructs him to do 'Bad'.
 
 
That is assuming that the education he has been given in his youth has taught him anything.
 
But  Cultural Marxists and Feminist Chimps dominate education.
 
War has always taken young men to its filthy bosom. Young men are all-too-easily swayed. Cannon Fodder. Expendable.
 
Not just their bodies, blasted to bits on some foreign field, but now we can kill at a distance with their bodies safe, we are still happy to blast their Souls to Hell.

 
 
God for Harry and St Crispin. Help us all to do it Right.
 
 
Pax Dei Vobiscum.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Thou Shalt Not Publish these Names. Oh yeah !?


Pushed across the bar of the Tavern with a wink and a nod - and a tap on the side of the nose just to make sure, - a note from the British Government. I say to them, you have fallen.

Via that scourge of reckless-oppression-buster, Guido.

I am more than happy to help him.

From the Attorney General's Office:
 
Media Advisory Note: strictly not for publication
17 October 2013
 
Current LIBOR trials 
Former Citigroup and UBS Trader Tom Hayes has been charged with eight counts of conspiracy to defraud. These charges arise from the on-going LIBOR investigation. A Plea and Case Management Hearing is listed for the 21st October at Southwark Crown Court. Two other defendants charged with LIBOR related offences, Terry Farr and James Gilmour, will also be appearing on that date.
 
Editors and publishers are reminded of their responsibilities under the Contempt of Court Act 1981.The Attorney General is conscious that this case will be of particular interest to City and financial journalists who may be less familiar with the law of contempt then colleagues who more regularly report on the criminal courts. The Attorney General asks that editors and publishers take steps to ensure all online and hard copy editions of their publications avoid any commentary or reporting which may pose a risk of breaching the Contempt of Court Act.
 
In particular, the Attorney General draws attention to the risks in publishing material that asserts or assumes, expressly or implicitly, the guilt of an accused person or that otherwise interferes with the administration of justice in this case - such as by pre-empting the decision of the trial Judge or Judges as to the evidence to be called before the jury.
 
Editors and publishers should take legal advice to ensure they are in a position to fully comply with the obligations they are subject to under the Contempt of Court Act 1981.
Guido says at:

http://order-order.com/2013/10/18/libor-media-advisory-note-strictly-not-for-publication/

Ironically you can read the names that the Wall Street Journal were forced to pull from their website by a court order in that bastion of freedom China. 
 
They are printed in the WSJ Asian edition..
 
Neo-Guido | October 18, 2013 at 11:11 am | Tags: Freedom of the Press, Media Guido, WSJ | Categories: default | URL: http://wp.me/pvx79-DIJ

My hand is on the sword under the bar.

The other hand is pulling a pint for Guido Fawkes: and in remembrance of who he is named after.

So from the biggest Bank Fraud in the past ten years, arrests have been made but the press if forbidden to name the accused.

Thank goodness for the Chinese.

Governments; stuff your restrictions on who says what.

Try TRUTH and TRANSPARANCY.




"I do not Answer to the State".


The joys of standing in the bar include speaking 'in vino veritas'. Even if someone overhearing might take offence.

The Tavern welcomes critical speech, even offensive speech. Only if someone pees on the carpet do I get annoyed. Free Speech is the cornerstone of Liberty and does not stain carpets. It is a matter of Principle.

There are many however who would stop you speaking. There are those in low places who would stop you speaking, like the rent-a-mob spoken of just the other day who tried to stop people raising concerns about killing babies: and there are people in high places that you would not imagine as stopping you speaking until you hear them speak.

James pointed out someone just today.

At the end of the war, many Christian people invested their hopes in the new international organisations, such as the Council of Europe, the EEC and the United Nations, literally out of the goodness of their hearts. They would certainly have been less trusting, if they had known the sort of people who were being appointed to positions of great power and influence – people like Brock Chisholm, the first Director General of the World Health Organisation . He wrote -
 “To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism, loyalty to family, tradition, national patriotism and religious dogmas.  
The reinterpretation and eventually the eradication of the concept of right and wrong which has been the basis of child training; the substitution of intelligent and rational thinking for faith in the certainties of old people, these are the belated objectives of practically all effective psychotherapy”.

James was actually reading out from someone else's work so you can check back yourselves,
http://nourishingobscurity.com/2013/10/17/origins-of-the-eu/
but he (they) went on to say...

That is as near to pure evil as it is possible to get. It is a totalitarian inversion of all the things which make men and women truly human, moral beings.  
Neither should we forget that many people in positions of great power and influence were under the spell of Marxist communism, a quantitatively far more murderous creed than Nazism or fascism.  
The eminent Marxist historian, the recently deceased Eric Hobsbawm, never denounced the crimes of Stalin yet he was held in high regard in high places in this country. The cultural Marxists of Gramsci’s school have captured most of our institutions of higher learning and much of local and national government.  
They themselves called this 
“the long march through the institutions”.
 Many politicians, not just Labour, have accepted his pernicious doctrines. It is to them that we owe the  
manias of  
“political correctness” “equalities” and  
“human rights”  
 

How is a chap or chapess going about their God Given Rights occasions to deal with the oppression coming from all sides?  Those sides are now replete with 'Tribunals' that are Laws unto Themselves. They are manned mostly by women of the sort I showed a month or so back and her outrageous interrogation of a Father who as concerned for the safety of his daughter taken away from him and given to a vicious, lunatic mother. Let me remind you.


The spread of these pernicious doctrines and people are now everywhere. Even in staid, cool Canada, where Mark Steyn - who was here just a day or two ago - told us of his latest attacks by the 'Yooman Reichts' mob. As Nazi an organisation as can be dreamed up and passed under our noses.

Five years ago, I and my fellow right-wing blowhard Ezra Levant were in the midst of a spirited campaign to rid Canada of its disgusting censorship laws and restore a centuries-old tradition of free speech to a land that, in the name of “human rights,” had surrendered it too easily.  
The Canadian Islamic Congress had brought simultaneous complaints before the federal, Ontario and British Columbia “human rights” regimes against Maclean’s magazine for publishing an excerpt from my book. Despite the advantages of triple jeopardy, they struck out all three times, and at the federal level their suit so damaged the reputation of “Section 13” (the national censorship law with a 100% conviction rate) that last year Parliament finally repealed it. 
But the urge to litigate disagreement is never far from the surface in contemporary discourse. So both Ezra Levant and I find ourselves back in court yet again. In my case, I’m currently being sued in the District of Columbia by Dr. Michael Mann, the eminent global warm-monger, for mocking (in America’s National Review) his increasingly discredited climate-change “hockey stick.” So Dr. Mann has sued for what his complaint to the court called “defamation of a Nobel prize recipient.”
It is worth all of the read, so here's the link yet again. !

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/10/16/mark-steyn-sticks-and-stones/


Ezra, whom he mentions took the opportunity when he was interrogated by some apparatchik woman to film the process, and to show us all how to deal with these Kommizars. 

Listen and learn.

http://www.standwithezra.ca/?page_id=136 
Ezra has been fighting censors for many years.  
Watch videotape excerpts of his interrogation by the Alberta Human Rights Commission, for the “hate crime” of publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed.
In these short extracts, Ezra cogently addresses the outrageous questions from some jumped-up femi-prosecutor, spelling out the Principles that we here in the Tavern would recognise. And hopefully, you will too.

The lady interrogator waffles and prevaricates when challenged with the usual nonsense one gets from EVIL apparatchiks full of their own Agitprop. She has no idea that she is In Thrall. She is simply a paid agent.

What was your intent?
 

I don't answer to the state

Attributes of free speech




It is a matter of principle.

You and I HAVE to stand up to the State.

We have to Know how to Speak to Power.

But while you are waiting to be hauled before some trumped-up Tribunal infront of a jumped-up Femi-Kommizar, stand at the bar and have a drink on the Tavern.

Pax Dei Vobiscum




Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Question Everything


Outside the Tavern are all sorts of scary people trying their damnest to scare one another. And scare you. They range along a dimension of interferers, with busy-bodies and do-gooders at the modest, pointy end and ranging through greenies, to environmental terrorists, socialists and possibly the worst of the lot, feminists at the blunt end.

They will impose their 'creeds' religiously, through persuasion, manipulation, coercion, mendacity, lies and, of course Laws. They will use mendacious economics. They will create false histories and false statistics.

Inside the Tavern we drink deep of Truth and Integrity.

As does a gentleman who came by today and told us of what he had found when he Questioned the conventional wisdoms of today.

Ivo Vegter took us from Bananas and MSG to Nuclear power and Fracking in a seamless expose of the cant and crap we are fed daily by the scaremongers.

 And he showed us just what the cost is of believing the cant and crap.

The Pin and Balloon Bar customers were near deafened by the banging - and the laughter. Ivo is quite entertaining.


(Until You Tube gets its act together and releases the right video to Blogger,
you will have to go there to YT to see Ivo's speech to the TED )






What Happens when all the Fathers are Gone?


Do you not believe it can happen? When the only Father left is God the Father and no-one believes in Him either? It IS happening. 

What will America be like? Will there be a Nation there at all? The darkness is creeping over.



The Princess of Lies has her wicked way.

Fathers have been and are being pushed out of the Family. They are demeaned, denied and jailed. They are vilified, blamed, dispossessed and dismissed.

The Father's role of protector has been shattered. Mother's have the only rights.

 Over One Million babies are murdered in the womb by mothers in America each year.

Fathers have no say.

Fathers have no Right to even know which baby was to have been theirs.

And this anti-male, anti-family, anti- woman - yes, women suffer too -  disease spreads.

Complain, object, stand up, argue and you too will be vilified as 'Intolerant' of 'diversity';  Patriarchal; even Homophobic.

Marriage is dismantled, diluted, trivialised, stolen by people who cannot marry, hate marriage and wish to see the State Control instead of Men and Women Love as One.

Only Fathers can stand against the State. So the State has outlawed Fatherhood.

A new Dark Age is almost upon us.

It has been slowly creeping up on us for the past 50 years.
 
 

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against Principalities, against Powers,
against the Rulers of the Darkness of this world,
against Spiritual Wickedness in high places. “








Freedom of Speech


It is high time we tackled a subject of such Great Importance. The Freedom of Speech. Indeed, of Thought as well. We are surrounded by the Thought Police and dark forces have been very busy restricting our God-Given and Man-Fought-for right to speak our thoughts.

It is not just the Rent-a-Mob so regularly employed by the Socialists and feminists that shout down people's opinion, but Governments too.

A regular here in the Tavern, Andrew Bolt - a fine chap - was hauled before a Court and found guilty of simply asking a question, in which he implied that some people just might not be what they claim to be.

Why would someone claim to be other than who they are, you might ask.

Money. Of course.

Taxpayers' money.

A superb International commentator from Canada (yes they do have one) spoke up in defence of Andrew. It is not likely that enough people heard his speech, which must surely be one of the finest on the subject ever given in the past ten years.

Humorous too.

I invited him to come and have a few bevvies with us and entertain the customers with some serious speechifying. He did not disappoint.

So, to keep this post from the Tavern short and sweet, Ladies and Gentlemen, Heroes, Heroines and Saints, The Knight & Drummer Tavern is pleased to bring you....

 Mr. Mark Steyn.
 
(He spoke just for the drinks)
 
 
 
 
I think Mark deserves Hero status, don't you.
 
 
 
 
 

 

Sunday, October 13, 2013

The Forces of Darkness gather and Spit venom


 The view from the Tavern over the past few days has been seeing spite, nastiness, sheer spits-in-the-eye of good people on both sides of the Pacific. In Australia and in America, the heart wavers watching the sheer banality of evil. But it does not falter.

There are still Good people who will fight for what is right. They need our prayers. They need our resolve. The taps in the bar are being pulled as I speak.

SAY not the struggle naught availeth,
         The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
         And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
         It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
         And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
         Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
         Comes silent, flooding in, the Main.

And not by eastern windows only,
         When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
         But westward, look, the land is bright!
 
Bearing that hopeful message in mind, let's look at staid old Melbourne first.
 
People who Love, marched in Melbourne yesterday, peacefully, quietly, respectfully, for the souls of babies, victims of abortion. They marched peacefully for the souls of their killers too.
 
They were met with hatred.
 
Andrew Bolt tells us....
 


Pro-Abortion Thugs @ March for the Babies 2013 - Melbourne, Australia 

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_left_is_the_home_of_the_modern_totalitarian/
 

They are socialists who say they stand for peace and tolerance. They are feminists who want equal dignity and opportunity for all.  

Now watch these modern barbarians intimidate, abuse, assault and steal from people who are trying to peacefully express a different point of view on abortion:
 

What was planned as a silent walk by peaceful people was assaulted with high volume noisy music, some with filthy lyrics, played by people on bikes who were repeatedly  riding into the crowd and knocking people over; nasty young people wearing communist t-shirts, Feminist signs crudely written on t-shirts, even the ubiquitous 'Peace' symbol, tearing the caring and loving signs from people's hands and stamping on them and the knocking over of signs on the steps of the building.

And so the pro-choice rent-a-crowd 
showed themselves for what they are. 


 



 


 

A Victorian MP says he was assaulted and egged when pro-choice and anti-abortion groups clashed in Melbourne on Saturday. 


 

 

An organiser of the anti-abortion march, Liberal MP Bernie Finn, says he and others from his group were assaulted by pro-choice activists who held a counter-demonstration.
 
The Left is the home of the modern totalitarian. It is the excuse for the bully.

John Jalsevac came by to give an account.
 Australian March for Babies turns violent:  pro-life activists, MPs assaulted by pro-abortion mob
HTTP://WWW.LIFESITENEWS.COM/NEWS/AUSTRALIAN-MARCH-FOR-BABIES-TURNS-VIOLENT-U.S.-PRO-LIFE-ACTIVISTS-MPS-ASSAU
MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct. 12 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) –  
American pro-life activist Bryan Kemper says he is bruised and sore, but recovering, after a mob of pro-abortion counter-protesters attacked him and his team of pro-life activists during the March for the Babies in Melbourne, Australia.  
Kemper, the founder of Prolife Stand True Ministries, told LifeSiteNews.com today that he was thrown to the ground and repeatedly kicked. Several other members of his team were also roughed up. 
Pro-life Victoria Member of Parliament Bernie Finn also told the press that he was “belted in the head” and pelted with eggs, and that fellow pro-life MP Andrew Elsbury was thrown to the ground and stomped on. 
“What we saw today was literally a  
public mugging on the streets of Melbourne and Victoria Police let it happen,”  
Finn fumed. “We had people being assaulted, being kicked, being stomped on and they sat back and watched.” 
Trouble began brewing even before the march began, said Kemper. When the pro-life activists tried to begin the march, they were blocked by the mob of about 200 pro-abortion protesters.  
So we all sat in protest and started praying,” he said. “Then the police let them start attacking us.”  
The pro-abortion protesters steal the pro-life signs from the stage set up by the March for Babies organizers.

After this the pro-lifers tried to begin marching again, but the counter-protesters pushed back, preventing them from doing so. The standoff continued for over an hour, before the pro-lifers decided to change their route.  
But that was when things started to get really ugly.  
“As we got to the stage the pro-aborts took over our stage and starting stealing banners and signs,” said Kemper. “That is when I was knocked to the ground and kicked and stepped on.”  
“Eventually we got our stage back and finished but many of our people were assaulted. But we never gave up and I gave my speech.” 
“The police were useless,” Kemper said.  
Kemper sent out an emergency appeal on Facebook during the event, pleading for prayer. “Near riot situation we are being attacked as we march. Prayers please. Very bad. I've been hit many times already,” he said. “They are surrounding us. Police won't arrest them. I am in front protecting our people. This is the craziest thing ever. Over a thousand. This is scary."   
Despite the violence on the part of the pro-abortion protesters, no arrests were made. A spokeswoman for the police downplayed the seriousness of the day’s events in remarks to Sky News.  

“No one has been charged with assault and no matters have been brought to the attention of police," she said.  
The organizer of the pro-abortion rally, Liz Walsh, admitted that there had been a “scuffle.”  
“Part of that was standing our ground and not wanting to be intimidated by people who want to shame women for having control over their own reproductive lives,” she said. 
Let's just read that again, shall we.

We should find Mz Walsh and tell her that it is not about 'shaming': it is not about 'having control':

IT IS ABOUT THE LIVES OF BABIES 
   
The annual March for Babies marks the passage in 2008 of the Abortion Law Reform Act, which organizers of the event describe as “one of the most extreme abortion laws in the world.”  
The law legalized abortion in the state up until the point of birth.
The first sign that this year’s march might not go as smoothly as previous years came the night before the march, when Kemper was delivering a speech to the Youth for Life dinner. 
 
A group of pro-aborts burst into the room and started chanting.  
“I stopped the talk and cleared a whole table of people and asked them to sit down, have some food and wine and join us,” Kemper wrote on the Stand True Facebook page shortly before the March.  
“They did. They sat there for about 10 minutes listening before getting restless again and they left without incident. 
“It was obvious they did not expect to be welcomed and loved instead of yelled at, I can't wait to see them all at the Australian March for Life today and talk to them.”
If you can find the video on your tube (I have seen it there) you will see their tactics. Loud noise; swearing; screaming in faces; body-bumping; tearing down banners.

Bill Muehlenberg had this to say, succinctly:

So This Is What “Pro-Choice” Really Means 
Now that we all witnessed firsthand what the “pro-choice” mob is all about, at least we now have a crystal clear picture of what choice actually means for these folks. Now we can see exactly what they think of choice, and how they use it. 
It is now perfectly demonstrable that choice for these guys means this: 
-choosing to terrorise innocent men, women and children
-choosing to disrupt legal and peaceful events
-choosing to damage, vandalise and destroy other people’s property
-choosing to scream, shout, yell and curse at the top of one’s lungs
-choosing to use profanities and blasphemies nonstop
-choosing to bully, harass and assault innocent children and elderly people
-choosing to spew hatred and vile bile to everyone in sight
-choosing to close down democracy and destroy our very freedoms
-choosing to be as ugly and barbaric and demonic as possible
-choosing to attack police, show contempt for authorities, and vilify all who disagree
-choosing to steal thing, wreck things, trample on things and destroy things
-choosing to intimidate, persecute and attack all those who dare to think differently
-choosing to shut down entire city centres
-choosing to violate one law after another
-choosing to act like spoiled brats and utterly selfish infants
-choosing to promote hate as goodness, intolerance as tolerance, and vice as virtue
-choosing to behave like feral animals and never have to apologise for it
-choosing to hold society to ransom for one’s diabolical agenda
-choosing to treat the public with contempt
-choosing to take no responsibility for one’s action
-choosing to take away other people’s choices in the name of choice
-choosing to use mindless and relentless violence in the name of non-violence 
But this has always been how the pro-choice crowd has been. They are of course part of the larger world of the secular left, and this group has long been known for its real hatred and contempt of anything decent, worthwhile, and of virtue.  
They champion everything that is ugly, hideous,  
demonic and anarchistic.
We have seen exactly the same when speakers try to deliver men's rights talks in Canadian Universities.
 
In Tasmania the evil powers are introducing laws that would fine and jail the pro-life marchers, not simply have the cops stand by and let pro-abortionists kick the peace-seekers and knock them over.
Fines of $65000 and a year in jail is planned for anyone even praying silently near the main abortion mill in central Hobart.
 

But meanwhile across the oceans in America, President Obama is trying his evil best to make people suffer. Vulnerable and honourable people like veterans - and catholics.

Steve brings us the news....

http://www.catholicvote.org/military-priests-face-arrest-for-celebrating-mass-in-defiance-of-shutdown/
Military Priests Face Arrest for Celebrating Mass in Defiance of Shutdown
Our government is out of control. 
First, it was the World War II veterans who had to break down barriers to see the open air, un-attended memorial erected in their honor.  A memorial which is on public land but is supported – including the National Park Service fee – with private funds.  
This week there was more security surrounding this memorial — just to keep elderly veterans out — than there was at our embassy in Benghazi the night it was attacked. 
And for what? To inflict as much pain as possible through this government shutdown. It’s called Washington Monument Syndrome, and it’s pure political theater.
First he came for the Veterans, and you did nothing:
then he came for the Catholics and you did nothing:
then he came for YOU.

But now there’s a story just coming to light that takes things even further.  
According the Archdiocese for Military Services, GS and contract priests (who are paid by the federal government as independent contractors in places where there aren’t enough active-duty priests to meet the needs of Catholics in military service) are being forbidden from celebrating Mass, even on a volunteer basis. 
If they violate this restriction, they face possible arrest.    
FOR CELEBRATING MASS.  
From John Schlageter, General Counsel for the Archdiocese:

 
There is a chronic shortage of active duty Catholic chaplains. While roughly 25% of the military is Catholic, Catholic priests make up only about 8% of the chaplain corps. That means approximately 275,000 men and women in uniform, and their families, are served by only 234 active-duty priests.   
The temporary solution to this shortage is to provide GS and contract priests.   These men are employed by the government to ensure that a priest is available when an active duty Catholic Chaplain is not present.   
With the government shutdown, GS and contract priests who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work – not even to volunteer.   
During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so. 
As an example, if a Catholic family has a Baptism scheduled at the base chapel at Langley AFB this weekend, unless they can locate a priest who is not a GS or contract priest, they should consider it cancelled.    
Likewise, a Marine who attends Sunday Mass at the Quantico Chapel will have to go elsewhere this weekend.  If you are a Catholic stationed in Japan or Korea and are served by a Contract or GS priest, unless you speak Korean or Japanese and can find a church nearby, then you have no choice but to go without Mass this weekend.   
Until the Federal Government resumes normal operations, or an exemption is granted to contract or GS priests, Catholic services are indefinitely suspended at those worldwide installations served by contract and GS priests. 
At a time when the military is considering alternative sources of funding for sporting events at the service academies, no one seems to be looking for funding to ensure the Free Exercise rights of Catholics in uniform. Why not? 
This shutdown impacts Catholics in the military worldwide. In the DC-metro area, it specifically impacts bases like Quantico. On the Facebook page for the Archdiocese, Catholic military members commenting on the story are not happy. Comments include:
“This is outrageous!!! Especially threatening them with arrest to voluntarily do their job.” 
“Unbelievable! I was worried about this because our priest is contracted as well. It is bad enough to be furloughed but to not have a Mass to attend, is a real downer,” 
“Just one example, a couple is getting married tomorrow at a large Air Force Base that is staffed by a Contract priest. That priest did all of their marriage prep, and has gotten to know the couple very well over the past few months. But with the shutdown, he cannot perform their wedding. Instead of the priest that the couple has come to know and love, an active duty priest has to be sent in to perform the wedding of two people who are strangers to him and he to them.” 
” Is anyone up there going to start a protest?! A rosary ?!?!? A nice Catholic riot maybe?! PLEEEAAASSEEE?! SOMEONE?! ANYONE?! Any real Carholics out there?!!!!???!”
 
This is outrageous.  
It is a violation of the First Amendment.  
It is a prohibition of the free exercise of religion to order priests under penalty of arrest that they cannot volunteer their time to offer Mass to the faithful on base.  
This cannot be allowed to stand. 
As of this writing, I have not yet received a response to my inquiry to the Archdiocese for Military Services as to what specific action steps we can take to get this problem addressed. Until we have a path to resolution, please share this story as widely as possible.  
Make people aware that Catholics serving our country are being forcibly denied access to the sacraments.  
These are the lengths the administration and the Democrats in Congress are willing to go to in order to continue inflicting as much pain as possible on the American people during the shutdown. 
UPDATE – 10/4/2013 @ 12:34PM: I received a response from the Military Archdiocese. Mr. Schlageter writes with a correction and additional information from the original release: 
There will be Mass at Quantico because of the terms of service of the contract for the priest at Quantico.  Nonetheless, 3 Masses have been cancelled at local Fort Belvoir.  I have been told but cannot confirm that Mass has been cancelled at the Navy yard.  In one situation a couple that is to be married at an Air Force Base this Saturday and did all of their preparation with a GS priest will now be married by an active duty priest who is being taken in from somewhere else.  This means that the priest that the couple got to know over the past few months will not be able to witness their marriage.   
One priest in Virginia Beach will be celebrating Mass in a local park off base. 
We are also learning that some chapel musicians will not be able to play at Sunday Mass during the furlough. 
I think that the best thing people can do is to get the message out.  I would suggest that they contact their local members of Congress, but in those cases where parishes are located next to a military base that will not have Sunday Mass, that people be kind and welcoming to their military brothers and sisters and their families. 
Please do contact your local member of Congress and welcome our service members into your parishes. And continue to spread the message about these restrictions.  
Fr. Chris Mann says:
October 10, 2013 at 2:10 pm 
 
I write this as a Catholic priest, a former active duty Marine and a veteran of the Gulf War. in the early 90s. In all three of these capacities, I have been and remain a loyal American, a citizen of the United States of America.  
My relatives have served in every war since the American Revolution, and some have died. Some of my ancestors were immigrants from multiple counties. My great grandmother on my dad’s side was a Native American. Through and through, my blood runs red, white and blue. 
Sadly, many of our politicians don’t seem to know what loyalty means.  
Yet more regrettable is that our president and commander-in-chief is leading the charge–it’s about the only thing he’s leading.  
It was in a Catholic school that I learned to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America . . . One nation under God. I also went to public school; oddly we did not pledge allegiance there.
In Marine Corps basic training we were drilled to be “Semper fidelis” (always faithful)–faithful to God, to our country and to our Corps–in that order! 
 
We Marines didn’t always like each other, but we always knew that our brother in arms had our six (our back). Loyalty is inculcated into the moral fabric of every Marine. 
What I learned in Catholic school and in the Marines about loyalty and courage helps me to serve as a priest, and it is becoming more and more necessary to exercise great moral courage to remain “always faithful” both to God and country.  
It used to be that remaining loyal to God did not mean being disloyal to one’s country. One could do both. The trouble is that it’s becoming such that being loyal to God or loyal to country, to be American, are mutually exclusive. This is highlighted by the recent and unreasonable demand that GS and contract priests are not allowed to serve God’s people who just happen to live on a military installation. They can’t even volunteer, and they may even be arrested. 
I could offer a litany of other examples. I’ll only add the Obama Care’s faux conscience exemption and the fact that military chaplains can no longer mention the name of Jesus Christ for fear of being offensive.
I say thank you to all you priests who serve our Marines, Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen! I thank you and pray for you.
 
Stay faithful to God and to the true American way we all learned to pledge our allegiance to. Be courageous. Semper Fi! This too shall pass. Politicians come and go. Jesus Christ yesterday, today and forever!
In the Tavern we think it is OUTRAGEOUS ! St Augustine is clear. An unjust Law - that is, one that goes against God's Will-  MUST be disobeyed by men of good conscience.

ALL military Officers and Troops that are catholic MUST disobey.

ALL other non-Catholic Christians MUST support them.

Steve also told us....
 
From the Trenches: Priest Threatened With Arrest, Says Mass in Park 
http://www.catholicvote.org/from-the-trenches-priest-threatened-with-arrest-says-mass-in-park/
 
Despite Saturday’s 400-to-1 House vote in favor, there’s still no word from the Senate on the reinstatement of priests affected by furlough at American military installations. I’ve heard from several current and former service members who have either seen their chapels closed or would have been unable to make it to Sunday Mass without access to alternate transportation. Joshua Mercer mentioned some others this morning. 
Of course, we’ve seen how flexible the shutdown restrictions really are. Despite the theatrical (and in many cases completely unnecessary) closing of national parks, memorials, and monuments, the National Mall was not only opened yesterday, but a giant stage was erected, all to host a pro-immigration rally organized by — you guessed it — friends of the Obama Administration. And naturally, President Obama’s preferred golf course at Andrews Air Force Base remains open, despite the commissary being closed. That the ongoing unnecessary furlough of those serving the spiritual needs of our nation’s service members continues is, simply put, an affront to decency. 
This morning, I got an email from a retired Marine Major whom I know personally.  
A priest he served with — Navy Chaplain Fr. Paul Shaughnessy, S.J. — has been impacted by the furlough, and was threatened with arrest if he celebrated Mass on base.  
Fr. Shaughnessy is assigned to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in the Virginia Beach area (formerly NAB Little Creek). According to the base’s website, it is “the major east coast operating base supporting Overseas Contingency Operations”. I’ve also been told that it is a base where at least two Navy SEAL teams are stationed. 

Fr. Shaughnessy is no stranger to conflict. He has served in active combat situations around the world, and his efforts to minister to soldiers caught in a firefight in Iraq were featured in this AOL series, Home of the Brave:
For a man who has offered sacraments under fire, one imagines government bureaucracy is not a very intimidating challenge.  
Undeterred by the restrictions he faced against saying Mass on base, Fr. Shaughnessy found a way to serve the soldiers he is so dedicated to. The following email was sent to chapel parishioners at the base last week: 
“Father Shaughnessy asked me to send you the following which explains the impact of the government shutdown on Mass this weekend on Base. Please give this information to those in your ministries and others in your network of parish members. 
NOTE : If by some miracle Congress ends the government shutdown, then Mass will return to its normal schedule. 
Catholic Mass has been declared non-essential by the Base, so contractor priests are not allowed to perform Mass on military installations during the government shut down. 
I am however required by the Church to conduct a personal Mass daily, so I invite you to join me for an outdoor Mass at Bayville Farms Park Pavilion 1 as I fulfill my religious obligations at:
1730 (5:30pm) Saturday Oct 5
0900 (9am) Sunday Oct 6
1230 p.m. Sunday October 6
 
Father Paul Shaughnessy, S.J.

All I can say is, GOOD FOR FR. SHAUGHNESSY! But note the language: “If by some miracle Congress ends the government shutdown, then Mass will return to its normal schedule.” Because that’s what Catholics on base have to pray for to get their sacraments back. I’ve heard rumblings that some military chaplains feel as though they are being increasingly targeted under this administration. Creative priests like Fr. Shaughnessy are finding ways to fulfill their priestly obligations without directly violating the legal restrictions put in their way, but it shouldn’t have to come to that.
 
Some have argued that no priest would be arrested for celebrating Mass, and that the ADA has never been very strictly enforced. That priests are reporting being directly threatened with arrest tells us that this time, it’s different. We’ve already seen veterans arrested for refusing to leave a war memorial in New York – not the first time it’s happened, but a particularly sensitive issue with news of the barricades and police presence in place to keep our veterans away from memorials in their honor.  
A jogger was fined $100 for just running through Valley Forge. Private businesses and homeowners that lease space or have property on federal land are being barricaded and kept from doing business or even going home. Cones were placed along the side of the road near Mount Rushmore to keep motorists from pulling over to view the monument when passing by.  
Parts of the Florida Bay have been closed down to boats and fishermen. The Grand Canyon is closed despite the State of Arizona offering to pay to keep it open. Evidently they’ve found enough staff to fine people for entering the park, however. 
These draconian measures are intended to inflict pain on the American people. Just as the President tried to talk down the markets last week — an extremely irresponsible thing to do for a man warning about the impact of US economic actions on the global financial system — his administration and those who side with his stance of “we will not negotiate” continue to rebuff attempts to restore normalcy and ease the pressure on those most impacted by the ongoing partial shutdown.

We need to keep the pressure on them. Keep sharing these stories with your friends and social networks, keep contacting your members of Congress, keep fighting the good fight. This is a critical time. We need to stand together.

 

 
The Barbarians are here. But the Gates of Hell itself shall not prevail against us.