The Same Mentality, But…

It was a gruesome sight: a YouTube video showing the beheading of a man by an Islamist.  The beheading was done, not by a swift chop of an axe, but slowly and deliberately, by someone wielding a large knife.  The victim, a recent convert to Catholicism, was on his knees, hands bound behind him, with a large hooded figure standing over him.  The hooded figure started at one side of the victim’s neck, and with a back and forth slicing motion, slowly severed the victim’s head from his body.  All the while this was going on, another man (with some sort of book in his hand) was chanting some hideously rhythmic incantation (shown in Arabic subtitles).  After the head was severed, it was held up for viewing – presumably as a “reminder” for others not to “convert.”

The video, chillingly graphic, has (understandably) since been “pulled” from the internet.  It is a testament to the zeal and especially the hatred of the Islamic militants who carry out these depraved acts – acts designed to intimidate and to strike fear into anyone else who entertains such “conversion” ideas.  But what it accomplished instead was to make its victim an instant martyr, and to reinforce once again that Islam is, in fact, a false “religion” of HATE.  Like all martyrdoms, it actually accomplishes the opposite of what it intends: it weakens Islam, for, again, it exposes it as the false religion of HATE that it is.  In the end, too, it victimizes the victimizer, for it brands him as an unthinkingly obedient stooge, doing the dirty deed for evil superiors, who always get some obsequious drudge to do their dirty work for them.  He himself is a victim of his own ignorance and gullibility – and, eventually, of his own guilt, as the reality of his demonstrably culpable act sinks in and gnaws away at his conscience.

But why do people such as this executioner do such things?  Because they have been brainwashed -- that’s why.  For Islamists, it comes easy, for Islam is a simplistic belief-system, long on emotion (especially HATE) and short on reason, that appeals to the fanatical, narrow-minded set – especially those “hormonally challenged” fools who would blow themselves up for the promise of “a hundred virgins in a garden of earthly delights.”  Islam, as a creed, stands up to neither logic nor reason* – nor to natural moral law.  As a previous article pointed out, Islam’s “holy book,” the Koran, condones – actually, prescribes – the rape and beating of women, prostitution, sex with minors, and the wanton slaughter of “unbelievers” (including women and children).  It even states that its “god” – Allah – “is all deceiving, for he has knowledge of what each does.”  No system of belief on earth would subscribe to such preposterous and evil “precepts.”  Islam, by its own written word, is functionally Satanic.

So, why do people follow it – and follow it so fanatically?  Simple: to repeat, it appeals to those governed not so much by their intellect but by their emotions. Plus, it promises “a lot for a little” – at least if you’re a man: a “garden of earthly delights” after death (with unlimited sexual “goodies”), and almost the same before death: as many concubines as one can afford, license to rape at will, to beat one’s wife, have sex with minors, etc., etc., etc. – a pervert’s paradise!  And all one has to do in return is make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in his lifetime, say (or listen to) a short list of prayers five times a day, and do a sunup-to-sundown fast during Ramadan (Islam’s “holy month”).  One must also realize that a belief-system that promises sensual pleasure is, for someone of man’s fallen nature, a powerful magnet – and an easy pill to swallow.

Now, let’s ask the same question about SGG’s parishioners: why do they follow Dannie and Tony – and why so fanatically?  The answer is also simple – and similar to that of their Moslem counterparts:  the SGG cult-masters also have a “belief-system” that appeals to the emotions rather than to reason – and definitely to the “narrow-minded set.”  Like those Islamist extremists, the culties of SGG blindly follow their leaders, no matter what.  Dannie can shrug off boys’ watching porn as “boys will be boys,” and can dismiss a boy impregnating a fellow girl student (as long as all the boys in question are the school principal’s sons).  That’s okay.  Yet a boy (who is not one of the principal’s sons) missing a homework assignment -- that’s not okay.  That boy gets beaten with a wooden paddle. And then there’s Tony: he can justify the murder (by starvation and dehydration) of Terri Schiavo.  And that’s okay.  Dannie and Tony can also set themselves up as “ecclesiastical authorities,” then use it to ban people from the sacraments (for “praying for the wrong pope” during Mass, for instance) – even though they possess no ecclesiastical authority whatsoever.  And that’s okay too.

What counts at SGG is the same as “what counts” for the Islamists.  The two mindsets are really no different: saying the right “prayers,” observing all the right “R&R” (Rites and Rubrics), and “doing their masters’ bidding” – those are the things that count.  It’s interesting to note, that in the news accounts of Islamic “suicide bombers,” it is invariably the poor, unlettered “nobody” who blows himself up -- never some rich sultan or imam.  The poor and the ignorant always do the dirty work for them, on the promise of some “eternal reward” -- while the latter are enjoying their reward here and now.  Sound familiar?  While Dannie was down in Baja, consuming “copious quantities of beef” (during Lent, no less), the grunts back home were asked to “sacrifice” and pay SGG’s “excessive heating bills,” or to chip in an extra twenty bucks a month to buy “cost-saving arches for the cloister.”  The “rank and file” at SGG -- just like their Moslem counterparts -- do the grunt work for their masters. 

All that being said, it must be pointed out that the average Moslems (especially the “middle class” who live in pluralistic societies) lead functionally Christian lives: they are monogamous, and – more often than not – they live by Christian moral precepts: they don’t beat their wives, engage in prostitution (or sex with pre-teen girls) – and they’re not out to behead their non-Moslem neighbors.  It is only the rich and jaded who can afford numerous concubines, or who can buy pre-pubescent girls for “wives”; and it is only the poor, ignorant “camel jockeys” who are gullible enough to blow themselves up for the promise of an “after-life sex orgy.”  The average Moslem, like the average traddie, actually leads a fairly “normal” life; it is the brainwashed among them, egged on by self-serving masters, who are the ones that go to “extremes.”  Again, “sound familiar”?

Yes, they are very similar to those culties at SGG: for every poor Moslem schmuck who blows himself up, there is an SGG stooge who deprives himself to underwrite the dynamic duo’s lifestyle.  And for every Moslem who rationalizes the Koran’s irrational precepts, there is an SGG cultie who rationalizes Tony’s una cum nonsense (or his Schiavo lunacy).  What both need to do is to stop rationalizing and start getting rational.  Intelligent, thinking Moslems need to come to the realization that the Koran, by its own words, preaches that which is inherently wrong – and they need to reject it.  And SGG’s faithful need to come to the realization that, although their cult-masters often (but not always) preach what is right, they don’t practice it – and they need to be rejected too.

Many Moslems, then, lead normal, decent lives -- but not because of Islam, but in spite of it.  Morally right behavior is a Christian – not Moslem -- precept.  Actually, it’s a Catholic precept, for Protestant Christianity, like Islam, falls short of the mark.  It is Catholicism that has (to use Belloc’s phrase) “set the tone” for moral behavior throughout the world.  Protestantism preaches that only “fides sola” (faith alone) is needed for “justification” (salvation), i.e., good works are not necessary for salvation.  Islam goes one step further: it guarantees salvation even if one performs deeds that are inherently evil; it even prescribes them.  So, with either Protestantism or Islam, there is no accountability.  Now one might think that traddies are exempt from that indictment.  Well, not really: they preach accountability – but in practice, they have none – at least at the cult-master level.  They say all the “right” things, but do the wrong things.

Traddies need to realize that a man is measured not by how many Hail Mary’s he says but by how he treats his fellow man.  Rational, well-meaning Moslems must realize this too -- and that the creed in which they’ve been brought up, because it proclaims wrong, is wrong.  Dead wrong.  A true God bids us to “love thy neighbor,” not “behead thy neighbor”; and a true God is not – in the Koran’s own words -- “all deceiving,” but one Who “can neither deceive nor be deceived.”   And a true religion is spread by example, not by the sword.  Realizing this, they must then take the next logical step: subscribe in fact to that which they already subscribe in practice – Catholicism.  Protestants – and yes, traddies – need to do the same, for what they practice is not “the real thing.” 

Of these three groups, then, who are the most likely to subscribe to real Catholicism?  Protestants have already demonstrated that they don’t.  And traddies?  The cult-masters of SGG don't.  Dannie and Tony have already shown their contempt for real Catholic principles, and are in it for one thing: MONEY.  And the culties?  They’re in it for one thing, too: THE SHOW.  They don’t care what their amoral cult-masters’ do or say, so long as they get their “show.”  In fact, some who at one time defected from SGG have swallowed their principles and returned, because they had to have “their show.”  Moslems, on the other hand, are not so spineless: they are sincere in what they believe -- like the man in the video, who braved martyrdom for his new Faith.  One wonders how many of SGG’s holier-than-thou Gerties would do the same.  Not many, we suspect.

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*Some might remark, “But if Islam doesn’t appeal to ‘reason,’ why then have so many ‘rationally-thinking’ Christians – including one reportedly ‘raised Catholic’ -- joined the ranks of Islamic extremists?” The answer to that is simple, too: for one thing, these “Christians” are, by and large, people whose own faith was not very well rooted (or who had no faith at all) to begin with.  And in such a intellectual vacuum, they often latch onto “causes” such as Islam to “put some meaning back into their lives.” The other thing is that they see the real injustices that have been done to Arabs at the hands of Israel and the Zionist=controlled West (such as, Israel’s butcher job in Gaza City, or our unsolicited incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan), and that many of the Arabs’ claims are legitimate; hence, they rightfully blame the West for both its moral bankruptcy and these injustices.  

But the mistake they make is that they blame “Christianity,” when in fact it is the non-Christian West -- secularized inhabitants and “Zionist-friendly” governments -- who are to blame.  And since most Arabs are Moslems, they equate the one with the other, and they join the Islamist “cause.”  The irony is that these Westerners who “don’t know their faith” really don’t know what Islam is all about either.  If they had any inkling of what Islam really condones and prescribes, they’d recoil in horror.  Again, our Zionist-controlled mainstream media tell them only about Islam’s “happy face” – not its reality – and in fact report about “past Christian injustices against Moslems,” when just the opposite was true.  And they swallow it.

Lastly, another sad irony to keep in mind is that it is the Zionists themselves – the leaders of the state of Israel – who are the real “bad guys.”  Any injustices done by the “West” towards the Arabs are orchestrated by them, and done at their bidding.  The West, it must be understood, is just as much a pawn in the Zionist chess game as are the Islamic extremists.  This is the paramount thing to be kept in mind.  Otherwise, no sense can be made out of what is happening.

“Flip-Flops” and “Flip-Flopping”

A female acquaintance recently attended Mass wearing what one might call “flip-flops”: open-toed shoes (similar to sandals) with no strap in back (to fasten them to the heels).  Now in many parts of Traddieland, this is a “no-no” (aka “inappropriate attire”).  It seems that, to some cult-masters, women’s “uncovered” heels are too “provocative” (i.e., sexually stimulating) – almost the equivalent of “showing too much bosom.”  And to some of these cult freaks, even any kind of “open-toed” or “sandal-like” shoe falls into the same verboten category.

First off, let us say that anyone who considers “open heels” to be too “provocative” (or who gets “turned on” by them) is 1) some kind of sexual pervert, 2) a moron, or 3) both.  Folks, Our Lord wore sandals.  His mother wore sandals.  Mary Magdalene wore sandals.  Caesar Augustus wore sandals.  EVERYBODY wore sandals.  I don’t think that any of them were “put out” (or “turned on” by the fact that anyone – man or woman -- wore sandals, “uncovered-heel” or not.  The cult-masters’ preoccupation – or make that obsession – with sandals and “strapless heels” is not only odd, but SICK.  It’s just one more manifestation of their “dress code” fetish – their puritanical, warped notion of what constitutes “propriety.”

But with all of this talk about “flip-flops,” it also occurred to this writer that “flip-flop” is not only a noun but a verb as well.  As a verb, “flip-flop” means to change one’s position about an issue (usually to suit one’s purpose at the time).  It is also interesting to note – actually, humorously ironic to note – that, although Daniel Dolan and Anthony Cekada are opposed to wearing flip-flops, they are not opposed to flip-flopping.  Dannie and Tony are experts on flip-flopping; it is “mother’s milk” to them.  A good example of their “flip-flopping” was illustrated in a recent Pistrina article that exposed one of Tony Cekada’s “inconsistencies”: he was “reminiscing” about a Mass he had attended back in his seminary days -- a Mass that was a 1962 “Pope John XXIII” rite -- which Tony later condemned in his train wreck “opus,” Work of Human Hands, as “a radical break with tradition.”

But this is not the first time that Tony (or Dannie) has “flip-flopped.”  Perhaps his biggest and most blatant “flip-flop” had to do with an article he wrote back in 1990, entitled A Question of Authority (which is no longer in print: he removed it, because it is now a source of embarrassment for him).  In his article, he chided those on both sides of the “sedevacantism” debate for condemning “various non-sedevacantist groups declaring sedevacantist groups ‘schismatic,’,,,” and “various non-sedevacantist groups declaring sedevacantist groups heretical or schismatic...”  Apparently, it was okay to take either position, and still be a “Catholic in good standing” – but now it is not.  Now, it is not only verboten to be a non-sedevacantist, but to assist at an “una cum” Mass (where someone whom they consider an invalid pope is being prayed for in the canon).

In the same article, Checkie stated that “No traditional clergyman, remember, be he priest or even bishop [our bold emphasis], possesses ordinary jurisdiction – power from the Church to command subjects, make laws, interpret them authoritatively, conduct trials, issue judgments, settle legal disputes, and inflict canonical penalties.”  Yet, since then, Tony has “issued judgments” on everything from the validity of Dannie Dolan’s one-handed “ordination” (in which he went against official papal teaching) to the pronouncements of his amateurish, error-riddled Work of Human Hands -- and, of course, his already mentioned nonsense about “una cum” Masses being “invalid.”  And Dolan, his “boss,” has barred people from receiving the sacraments simply because they attended an “unauthorized” ([SSPX] chapel.  In addition, several parishioners were even barred from church property (by police order) simply because they disagreed with Dolan on a non-church related matter.  What kind of “ordinary jurisdiction,” we ask, enabled them to do all of this?

The two renegades, Dannie and Tony, have set themselves up as authorities on just about everything – and demand obedience from their flock on everything they say or do.  When Kathleen Plumb (the editor of a traditionalist newsletter (The Four Marks) “crossed” them, her paper was black-balled by them as “an occasion of sin”; and SGG parishioners were ordered not to read it.  Yet, back when Dannie and Tony broke away from the SSPX to start their own group, it was okay for them to break their vow of obedience to their SSPX superiors.  Apparently, it was okay for them to disobey the SSPX, but not for their parishioners to disobey them.

Some people who were once invited to speak at SGG, are now personae non gratae.  For one of them (Gerry Matatics, who has his own ministry), it wasn’t so much a case of his “crossing” them, but of “getting in the way” – of their purse strings, that is. He was seen as a "threat to business” – of siphoning revenue away from the SGG coffers – so he was never invited back.  Another man, the late Abbot Leonard Giardina, was bad-mouthed by Cekada because he was too “popular” (i.e., too financially successful), so he had to be “downgraded” (in Cekada’s Quidlibet) – which was unnecessary, because the poor man had just died, and was therefore no longer a “threat” to Tony.  But that’s the way it is, folks, when you get in Dannie’s or Tony’s way:  “One minute you’re hot, the next minute you’re not!”

As the Pistrina article pointed out, Tony is a true “chameleon” – and so, of course, is Dannie.  They say one thing one time and the opposite the next; and the reason is simple: it’s all about MONEY.  Back in 1990, when “sedes” and “non-sedes” were pretty much equally divided, he had to appeal to both to maximize gate receipts.  But as time went on (and more and more of his big donors leaned in the “sede” direction), he and Dannie saw more profit in going that way – so they did.  Not only that: Phony Tony eventually refined their “sede” theory by dreaming up his “una cum” fiction to further keep what sheep they had left in the pen.

Meanwhile, they hope and pray that the culties have not detected (or that they have conveniently forgotten) their “position swings” over the years.  And, of course, they try to keep these things hushed up so that the culties won’t notice (or, they “erase the evidence” whenever they can, as Tony did by deleting his 1990 article from SGG’s archives).  One wonders what new “switch” they’ll pull next, as circumstances dictate. 

For the near term, what Dannie will probably do is to latch onto some popular “cause” and milk it for all it’s worth – such as, to ride the wave of the latest popular sentiment against Islam.  (This is our hunch as to what he’ll do, because he’s been giving it some lip service of late; note his words in a recent Bishop’s Corner about “holding back the beheading Mohammedan hordes.”)  Dannie knows that the average traddie, just like the public-at-large, gets all emotionally charged up about “beheading hordes” (as a recent Lay Pulpit article pointed out); and Dannie probably figures (and certainly hopes) that this lip service will give him some currency -- that it’ll enhance his standing with the culties.

Whatever they do, you can count on the master chameleons adapting themselves to whichever situation comes along, and “blowing whichever way the wind blows” – to do whatever it takes to maximize their material benefit.  Count on it.

Misinformation: The Engine of “Divide & Conquer”

In a previous Lay Pulpit article, we stressed the importance of keeping a cool, level, charitable head in combating Islam, and of the importance of creating the right “atmosphere” for doing so – but also how the campaign of misinformation waged by the media makes that so difficult to do.  Is there any evidence that “misinformation” is doing that?  You bet there is.  More than one acquaintance of this writer thinks that the “solution” to the problems over in the Middle East is to “carpet bomb the entire region”  -- men, women, and children alike.  Indeed, U.S. vice-president Joseph Biden advocates using drones over there to do pretty much the same thing, with little regard for “collateral damage” – and many, including several “traddies,” agree with him.

What has helped bring them to this sort of thinking is, no doubt, the spate of recent atrocities that have occurred there in the Mideast (including the beheadings of two U.S journalists).  There is nothing so graphically riveting as a beheading to inflame one’s emotions of hatred and to enkindle one’s desire for “retaliation.”  But, gruesome as that sort of thing is, it is not justification for unbridled vengeance.  “Retaliation” or “tit for tat” is an “Old Testament” thing – what the Jews of old practiced -- and what, unfortunately, the Jews of today are doing (as they just demonstrated in the recent Gaza City fighting: a dozen or so Israeli dead (and negligible property damage) vs. over twelve hundred Palestinian dead (and billions of dollars in property damage).

Secondly, we must realize, again, that all the “reports” coming out of the Mideast are coming from our media – which should make us very suspect.  To repeat what we said in a previous article, “that should worry us.”  True, we have a moral obligation to fight injustice and to “do the right thing”; but we must do that and no more – and we must not be too hasty in deciding what constitutes “the right thing.”  Acting hastily and emotionally in a “knee-jerk” fashion invariably produces the wrong results; it usually brings on, not resolution, but escalation.

Also, we need to look “beneath the surface” and take in the whole picture: the Islamists, bad as they are, are not our ultimate enemy: the Zionists are.  (Yes, Satan is the real “ultimate enemy”; but his main instruments here on earth are the Zionists.)  The Moslems, just as we, are simply fellow pawns in the Zionist chess game.  It is the Zionists who are orchestrating things over there (and here*).  Just as the Zionist-controlled media misrepresented the facts in the shooting of an “unarmed teenager” in Ferguson, Missouri, they are doing much the same in the Middle East: they are doing their best to foment hatred on both sides, and to cause as much confusion and misunderstanding as possible. And right now, many inflamed Americans – including many traddies – are being “sucked in” by this; they cannot see the Zionist forest through the Islamic trees. 

One of the Zionists’ reasons for stirring up this “ISIS” trouble – or, rather, for orchestrating it -- is that they needed to divert attention away from themselves: they had just taken a lot of criticism from European public opinion (in spite of the fact that they control much of Europe’s media) on their handling of the recent events in Gaza; and they needed to take the “heat” off themselves, and focus it somewhere else.**  But their main reason is that “stirring up trouble” is just part of their overall “divide and conquer” strategy: they themselves are too small in number, so they must set others at one another’s throats to do the “dividing and conquering” for them.  And, of course, who is more easily manipulated to do just that than a bunch of fanatical Islamic militants?

In today’s world, “dividing and conquering” is going on almost everywhere – and it is in high gear.  Under the guise of “egalitarianism” and “civil rights,” the races are pitted against one another, women against men, and children against parents – not to mention, “discrimination” against someone based on one's “sexual preference” (homosexuality). Even harming an animal can get one a prison sentence, while killing an unborn baby is a “right” protected by law.  Meanwhile, morality is disintegrating on all fronts.  The traditional family, as we know it (i.e., husband, wife, and children) is disappearing.  In fact, the word “family” itself is now going through an Orwellian transformation: homosexuals can now get “married” and call themselves a “family,” and can even adopt children.  And if anyone objects to such an arrangement, he can be convicted of a “hate crime.”

More importantly, because of the mainstream media’s relentless campaign of misinformation, people are actually getting used to and accepting “such arrangements.”  More and more, people once violently opposed to homosexuality are coming to look on it as “acceptable” and as merely “an alternate lifestyle” – and to actually condemn anyone who thinks otherwise.  The misinformation juggernaut, which began as a trickle, is now a torrent: things like abortion and homosexuality, universally condemned evils not all that long ago, are now not only accepted, but are rights protected by law.

And, as said before, the scary part is that people are accepting all of this.  Actually, they’re embracing it.  But that should not come as a surprise; that is today’s mentality: short memory spans, and a propensity to accept anything heard through “official channels.”  And if it “looks good” or “sounds good,” they’ll go for it – especially if it’s repeated often enough.  A prime example of this is traddieland -- especially the culties of SGG.  They have fallen “hook, line, and sinker” for the pontifical pageantry of Dolan and the faux “scholarship” of Cekada, because the former looks good and the latter sounds good – even though neither one is good.

They can't see that Dolan’s pageantry and his pious “sweet nothings” served up weekly in his Bishop’s Corner are only so much window dressing -- cosmetics.  They fail to see that if he were truly Catholic, he wouldn’t dismiss the SGG principal’s sons’ watching porn as “boys will be boys,” he wouldn’t tolerate the brutal treatment the SGG school children at the hands of that same principal, and he wouldn’t ask his parishioners to pay for SGG’s heating bills while he himself is away enjoying winter junkets to Argentina and Baja.  And if Cekada were truly Catholic, he wouldn’t have justified the murder of Terri Schiavo (where he violated just about every Catholic moral precept regarding the dignity of human life), nor would he have so vindictively (and arrogantly) denounced all those who opposed his monstrous position on Schiavo.

But to the culties, none of this matters.  To repeat, they go for the stuff that looks and sounds good – for the cosmetics.  That’s why things such as “dress code” and “rites and rubrics” count, but Catholic principles don’t.  And, consequently, that is why SGG’s culties can swallow Cekada's Schiavo swill and still fall for the dynamic duo's sanctimonious drivel.  That is why they can conveniently disregard Dolan's laissez faire attitude about the porn -- because they have been mesmerized by all the pomp and pageantry that these two impresarios put on.  And that is why they can continue to bankroll the dynamic duo’s luxurious lifestyle and not complain – because these two hucksters put on a good show.

But principles do count.  In fact, they’re the ONLY things that count.  Catholic “trappings” without Catholic principles are NOTHING.  SGG’s parishioners ought to know this; but, apparently, they don’t.  And that is why they really aren’t Catholic – because they want the former but ignore the latter.  If they really were Catholic, they’d heed those principles -- and would probably pack up and leave SGG in a heartbeat.  But they won’t, because, at SGG, they love their “Show” too much.  For them, it’s “The Show” that counts. 

Just as the American public-at-large has been manipulated and misled by misinformation, so too have SGG’s parishioners been manipulated and misled by the dynamic duo’s own brand of misinformation: saccharine sanctimony and pretentious pageantry, specious dogmatism, cult-like intimidation – and the emphasis on things like “dress-code” while at the same time flagrantly disregarding basic Catholic moral principles.  This is a strategy that cost SGG half its parish in 2009, and that continues to “divide and conquer” them to this day – a process which needs to be reversed.   And the best way to arrest and reverse that process is simple: just stop giving the cult-masters your money; keep it in your wallet.  That is the “divide and conquer” strategy to follow.

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*In the U.S. (and, through it, just about every developed country in the world) it is a well-documented (but little-publicized) fact that it is Zionists who control (and manipulate) just about every facet of our society: the motion picture industry, TV, the press – and especially our financial institutions.  Just about every major bank -- both here and abroad -- is headed by individuals who are professed Zionists, including the present head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, and her three immediate predecessors (not to mention, the vast Rothschild banking empire overseas). 

And, one has only to look at U.S foreign policy over the years to see that America has been (and still is) the world’s chief apologist for Zionism and its secular state (Israel), beginning with our formal diplomatic recognition of that country fifteen minutes after it was “formed” -- and formed by wresting Palestine from its Arab inhabitants, who were dispossessed of their land to accommodate the Israelis’ two thousand-year-old “biblical” claim to it.  Ever since then, the U.S has been Israel’s chief supporter, and has put Israel’s national interests above even its own.  In fact, several key figures in our government (including Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz) hold dual U.S-Israeli citizenship (as did Henry Kissinger, who served as U.S. Secretary of State under presidents Nixon and Ford) – something which the average American is probably unaware of.  [For a more extensive list of persons holding (or having held) dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, click here.]

** Our press reported that Israel “retaliated” against Hamas rocket attacks; but in their “retaliation,” over 1200 Palestinians died (most of whom were civilians) vs. a dozen or so Israelis (most of whom were soldiers).  The unprovoked bombing of civilians – including children in hospitals -- by Israeli forces was so blatant that it was roundly condemned -- even by our “Zionist-friendly” press.  But not to worry: our media did their “damage control” best to minimize its impact; and it was quickly “deflected,” explained away, and then forgotten by all – when all the “ISIS” “news” came out.

But was it really retaliation?  ”Deflection” or “explaining away” of Israeli aggression is routinely done by our media – and easily done: many times, Israeli “retaliation” is actually a case of them committing the initial act of aggression – but an act which goes unreported (what else would one expect a Zionist-controlled press to do?).  Then, when Hamas (or some other Arab combatant) responds, that same press reports it as an “unprovoked” act, thus requiring “an Israeli response.”  And when they cannot possibly hide an Israeli-instigated aggression, they try to put a “positive spin” on it, or to mitigate it in some other way, as they did in Gaza City.

In all fairness, it must be admitted that the Israelis do not have a monopoly on this sort of subterfuge; it is done all the time, by all nations -- ours included.  Declassified documents, for instance, show that we routinely fired on German U-boats prior to our formal entry into WWII, in an effort to provoke a response.  And when there was a response, our press reported it as an “unprovoked act.”  This, though, is to be expected: it’s called “war propaganda.”  One expects one’s own press to back it up.  But what sets today's biased reporting on Israel apart is that it’s not their press but ours (which is supposed to be “neutral”) invariably taking Israel’s side. 

“The Age of Information”

Our history books tell us about the different “ages” of mankind: the “Stone Age,” the “Bronze Age,” Iron Age,” and so on.  More recently, we speak of “ages” such as the “Industrial Age” (or “Industrial Revolution”) and today’s “Computer Age.”  Computer technology has, amongst other things, enabled us to produce (and reproduce) unprecedented amounts of data, to a degree that Johann Gutenberg never dreamed possible -- ushering in what has been hailed as a wondrous new “Age of Information.”  But has it?

Gutenberg’s invention of movable type certainly made the dissemination of information more plentiful -- and easier and cheaper; but technology, like anything else, can be a double-edged sword: it can be used to do good or evil.  Technology is an “enabler,” but not necessarily an improver.  What it does is to provide a multiplier effect.  But it also has a concentrating effect.  It can multiply anything – like power – but it also tends to concentrate that power.  And when power gets concentrated in the wrong hands, it can be a dangerous thing.  And right now, that is what seems to be happening.

For instance, as Lay Pulpit’s last article noted, the media have already been using their power to misrepresent information – both by disseminating the “wrong” information, and withholding the “right” information -- in the case of the “Ferguson” (Missouri) shooting, and in the Middle East, for instance.  And this, of course, is nothing new: “official channels” have been feeding us misinformation on a regular basis for generations.  Misinformation, as a matter of fact, is as old as mankind itself: the first bit of it had to do with an apple and a serpent – and it produced disastrous results.  And why is it done?  It is usually done because its perpetrators think that it will be to their material advantage to do so – that it will net them material gain.

But misinformation, just as it did in the Garden of Eden, invariably produces disastrous results – for all concerned.  Just about every war, for instance, is the result of “misinformation.”  One has only to look at our own history for that: “Remember the Maine” was a trumped-up pretext (by William Randolph Hearst) to get us into the Spanish-American War, as was the Lusitania sinking (to get us into World War I), and Pearl Harbor to get us into World War II (declassified documents show that FDR was informed about the impending Japanese attack beforehand; but chose to ignore it, because he wanted to get us into the war).  Even our Civil War was a “trumped up” thing: Lincoln knew that Fort Sumter couldn’t be held, but ordered the garrison there not to surrender, thereby forcing the South’s hand, i.e., making them attack, and thereby making them – the South -- the “aggressor”).  And Vietnam?  Does the phrase “Gulf of Tonkin” ring a bell?  Or can anyone explain our “reason” for going into Iraq and Afghanistan?  Better still, can anyone explain what we’ve “gained” for the trillion-plus dollars we’ve spent there (and the young men’s lives we’ve sacrificed)?

Misinformation bears bad fruit – and we are “up to our eyeballs” in it right now.  We are now told by our media that the “ISIS” Islamists (who are “Sunni” Moslems) are the “bad guys” (and they probably are – at least for now), and that the others (who are predominantly Shiite Moslems) are the “good guys.”  But it wasn’t all that long ago that it was the Shiites who were the “bad guys,” and the Sunnis the “good guys.”  Yesterday’s “bad guys” become today’s “good guys” (and then, perhaps, tomorrow’s “bad guys” again).  Many may remember that, when the Afghans were fighting the Russians, the Mujahideen were “freedom fighters.”  Now that we are fighting over there, they are our enemies.  And in Iraq, we once considered Saddam Hussein our ally.  (The irony is that he was our ally, and was thoroughly against Islamic extremists.  But he somehow “became” our enemy, and we had him hunted down and executed.)

The point here is that we really don’t know who the “good guys” are, or who they will be (and how long they will be!); and, more importantly, we don’t know if the “good guys” really are good and that the “bad guys” are really bad -- because we cannot be sure of the “information” that we’re being fed.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to discern what is “wheat” and what is “chaff” (not to mention, separating the one from the other).  Today’s world is one of Orwellian Newspeak, of Machiavellian duplicity, of double standards (and double talk), of manipulation and intimidation -- where confusion reigns and yesterday’s wrong is today’s “right” (and vice versa) – and where appearances, not reality, are what count.

And this is happening at the “micro” level as well as the “macro.”  One has only to look at today’s traddie world – and at Southwest Ohio’s cult-center in particular, to see where, again, misinformation is dished out aplenty, and appearances are what count.  For instance, “inappropriate attire” is condemned, but inappropriate behavior is condoned: it’s verboten for women to wear dresses whose sleeves and hemlines are too short, but it’s okay for the school principal’s sons to watch porn and animal torture videos (“boys will be boys”) and for one of those sons to impregnate a fellow student.  It was also okay for the principal to mistreat the school’s students; but when irate parents complained to the pastor about it, he defended the principal’s actions, and told the parents (that they could take their children elsewhere.*

Meanwhile, the SGG ”show” goes on: pontifical pageantry, “triple play” Masses for big donors, and elaborate processions with elaborate “props” (including a donkey on Palm Sunday).  And the misinformation goes on too: Daffodil Dan’s syrupy (and meaningless) sanctimony, and Phony Tony’s flat-footed attempts at playing the scholar (including his monstrous drivel about Schiavo, his dead-on-arrival Work of Human Hands, his failed defense of Dannie’s one-handed “ordination,” and his “una cum” nonsense).  And, of course, they use shibboleths like una cum to exact “compliance” from their flock: if a priest “prays for the wrong pope” during Mass, that Mass is “invalid”; and anyone who goes to such a Mass is denied the sacraments (as Mr. “A” – who now lives in Nova Scotia -- was), or, in some cases, even barred from the premises -- by police order).

And why do they do all of this?  For the same reasons that their “macro” counterparts do: for material gain, that’s why.  Dannie must keep the sheep in the pen, so that they can continue to bankroll him and his life-style.  That’s also why he makes repeated pleas to them for money (such as, to replace a poorly-designed roof that continues to leak, to buy “cost-saving arches” for a cloister that already has arches, and to pay “excessive” winter heating bills) – so that he can go on “apostolates” to Argentina and Baja during that same winter – and, of course (as we predicted), to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a “brief summer respite.”**

Eventually, the misinformation (and misdeeds) of both the “macro” and “micro” scoundrels will come to naught, because they do not have truth and justice on their side.  “That,” as they say, “is the good news.”  But the bad news is that it will be a hard battle – especially against the “macro” contingent.  But stopping the micro scoundrels is a relatively easy task: all one has to do is simply to not support them – to keep one’s wallet in one’s pocket – because the agenda of these hucksters is a simple one: they want la dolce vita – and that takes MONEY.

Right now, they have a pool of gullible givers on their side; but, again, they don’t have truth on their side. Misinformation, i.e., lies, only works for so long.  Eventually, they’ll get caught in their own tangled web, and people will start seeing the truth. Eventually, their pool of gullible givers will dwindle, because they’re beginning to recognize that truth -- and becoming “less gullible” in the process.  And as the truth sinks in, they’ll leave of their own accord (or they will get to the point where they can no longer ignore that truth, and will be shamed into accepting it).  And to that end, we will certainly keep “hammering home” the truth to them until they do. 

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*Several children were mistreated by the school principal; one was even beaten with a wooden paddle for missing a homework assignment.  Of course, the misdeeds of the principal’s sons went unpunished: when an SGG parishioner complained to the pastor about the principal’s sons watching porn and animal torture videos on the school computer, his reply was, “boys will be boys.”  He also took no action against the son who impregnated the girl; the boy was, in fact, feted not too long afterward in a subsequent SGG Newsletter article for his expertise in playing the organ.  

We sincerely hope that such behavior by the principal and his family no longer goes on at SGG.  But if it has stopped, it is only because it had to -- because it was “bad for business”: after the aforementioned scandalous behavior occurred at the school (around 2009), half the parish left – including SGG’s largest benefactor (who almost single-handedly bankrolled SGG’s entire West Chester operation) -- taking their money with them.  For the principal (and his sons) to continue this sort of behavior would have been disastrous for SGG’s financial survival (i.e., for the cult-masters’ and the principal’s survivals).

However, the scandal may still be going on, but “underground” – being patiently borne by those who remain at SGG.  This is a distinct possibility: the people who would not take that kind of crap have already left, leaving behind the credulous, subservient bootlickers who would.  After all, if sadistic behavior wasn’t enough to drive them away before, why would it afterwards?  It is amazing what obsequious, brain-washed people will endure to get “the show” – even mistreatment at the hands of a sadistic martinet.

**It seems that Dannie cannot let a summer go by without getting out to sunny Santa Fe (we’re not sure if Tony went with him).  In the Bishop’s Corner of August 24, 2014 (make that “Fr. McGuire’s Corner” – because Dannie was on vacation at the time), “Checkpoint Charlie” mentioned that Dannie was on a “brief summer respite.”  [Charlie’s “column” was, by the way, a pathetically crafted parody of Dannie’s column: the same sort of fluff, but full of punctuation and grammatical errors, and with an embarrassingly large assortment of syrupy, sugary platitudes that – although not as “polished” as Dannie’s – did “hit the mark” in capturing some of the latter’s celebrated sanctimony and trademark hypocrisy.]

We had predicted that the “respite” was in Santa Fe; and – bingo! – we were right: Dannie confirmed it in his Bishop’s Corner the following week, mentioning “beautiful Santa Fe”  and the “shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe” -- and “watching the sun rise over the Sangre de Christo mountains.”  Dannie, was that view of the mountains from your hotel room window at the Bishop’s Lodge, or from its ShaNa Spa?  And also, Dannie: what’s the “big deal” about going to Santa Fe?  Why do you have to keep going there?  There are plenty of shrines closer to your cult-center (including the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio – about a 150 mile drive).  Of course, Carey doesn’t have a “spa” or any of the other “goodies” of the Bishop’s Lodge, nor does it have a view of the Sangre de Christo Mountains; but it’s probably a lot cheaper – and Tony can drive you there!