Trump, Guns, and free thought.

You know?’  The amount of ‘hate mail’ that I receive is almost too funny.  Whose side are you on?  You are nothing but a liberal loving loony tune, jacked up to look conservative.  On the other side of the coin,.. As a Trump lover, you are nothing but a rascist, homophobic gun living maniac!  Where o where can I hang my hat?  I believe that the answer is in Truth anchored in Love.   Point final, I’m a Christian, a sinner who seeks to follow Jesus Christ and His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

These days we get labeled all too easily.  For myself, I must admit that I do enjoy playing devil’s advocate.  Ideology which in and of itself has become a disease more deadly than cancer has crept into every facet of politics and religion.  In my opinion, this has become way more dangerous than Trump, Trudeau, gun laws, freedom, religion or any other hot button issue.  In short, we have lost the capacity to think for ourselves.

Case in point, years ago the priest at my Church was somewhat of a local celebrity.  A man, whom I believe was a sincere individual seeking to do the ‘good.’  While I may have disagreed vehemently with all he stood for, I never doubted where his heart was!  This man was a ‘social justice’ warrior.  A product of his time, whereby he sought to perhaps use Faith to right any perceived or actual wrongs that he saw.  To many, myself included he was true to his mission.  He helped out tons of people made an impact.  As far as his adherence was concerned, that was another story.  Nonetheless, I am mature enough to respect his opinions, although truthfully, I wish he would join a mainstream protestant denomination for the good of his own soul and others he may lead.  Then again, I will let God judge.

Recently, the mainstream media is doing intellectual backflips trying to find a smoking gun between Trump and Russia.  My opinion is simple.   Of course Russian intelligence interfered, just like every other country’s intelligence interfered.  Under Obama, the US interfered in Israel’s electoral process as well.  Don’t we remember the George HW Bush years?  How many South American governments were taken down backed by the US?  Why is this such an issue right now?  My opinion,?.. because it’s Trump.  So far nothing significant found to link anything.  (There is an awful lot of monkey business surrounding the democrats and Hillary Clinton rigging the primaries, yet the MSM seems strangely silent.)  Up next, they dug up photos of Trump with a porn actress and subsequent ‘hush’ money.  Well, honestly is anyone surprised really?  Yet, how much coverage did the uncovered photo and hush money regarding Barrack Obama and Louis Farrakhan get?..  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hidden-photo-of-obama-and-nation-of-islam-leader-louis-farrakhan-surfaces-after-13-years/article/2647117  . Hmmm… Years ago, Julian Assange was a hero to the ‘left’ as he exposed George W. Bush’s illegal war with Iraq,.. Now, he’s the scourge of the earth, because he is going after the ‘left?’  All valid questions…

To the right and to the left,.. Have we forgotten how to think?

To the right-wing;

Do you really need an AR-15 to hunt?  All that will be left is enough meat to make a keychain.  Why isn’t a ssberg Patriot enough?  Defense?... Fine!  A 9milimetre glock.  A semi automatic for defense?  Why not a bazooka or a tank?  I need a license to drive a car, so why are so many of you against registering your firearms? 

To the left-wing;

Is gun control or banning weapons the answer?  There is a reason, we call ‘bad guys, well ‘bad guys.’  Simply put, they won’t obey the law, and a black market will explode out of it.  The innocent will be deprived of the right to defend themselves.  Remember that Church shooting in Texas was stopped by a man with a gun.

These are two examples of complex issues plaguing today.  The reason I put these two opinions out there is simply to show that we need to listen to each other, get to know each other and finally as Christians, love each other.  We all desire the good, however sometimes our intellect may be darkened by modernist thinking, or still ego.  To those of us (I point the finger at myself) more ‘theologically’ oriented, we need to carefully listen to people with other ideas.  To see, that their heart may be in the right place, even if their intelligence isn’t.  To my friends on the left of the spectrum, learn to argue ideas, instead of knee jerk demonizing people.

To conclude, I’m working on a response to Joe Rogan’s opinion of Catholicism.  No I’m not triggered, but pray that time constraits may allow me to offer a rebuttal of certain pre conceived notions and stereotypes.  By the way, I welcome authentic discourse and rebuttals,.. I have many friends who disagree, but we do so in a climate of respect.  

God bless!

Israel, Palestine and the Vatican Part 4

So many requests,.'Hey Optimus,..when you gonna get back to making us laugh?'  Soon,.perhaps next week,..but for now we will be continuing along the political science root and extrapolating (albeit very surface like..) the intricacies and theology behind the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. 

So,.on we go supposedly,.with the British moving ahead with regards to setting up a State for the Jewish people on the land of Palestine.  In 1929,..more violence erupts as the Jews are trying to gain access to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall), here once again, the theological element gets swept inside the political problem.  For Muslims,.the Jews are considered inferior,.this is not a blanket statement,..This comes from a Hadith,..Book 041, Number 6985:

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

 The irony about the above statement is that it is also found within Hamas' (the ruling political entity in the Palestinian territoies) covenant.  Sadly,..the reality within this mindset which even exists to this day, is that it is improper for non-muslims (especially Jews) to have access to the Islamic holy places.  Remember that when the muslim army conquered they SPECIFICALLY built the Dome of the Rock on the site where the Western Wall remained as the last vestige of the temple destroyed around 70AD.  As well,..they bricked up the place where the Jews believe the Messiah would go through.  Another interesting 'nugget' is that they also built the Dome of the Rock taller than all the other Churches,..to show the superiority of Islam.   Here's a modern picture of a highway in Saudi Arabia, a country which airlifts Jewish and Christian soldiers off its land when they want to hold a religious service or a Mass.

Still in that same year was the Hebron massacre, whereby Jews were forced by the British to evacuate the cities of Hebron and Gaza.  The local Jews,.(who were Palestinians that practised Judaism) were hidden by muslim neighbours until the British forced their hand and ended up limiting Jewish immigration for fear of riots.  Nevertheless,.The Black Hand Islamist under the leadership of Izz Al-Din Al Quassam declares war on the British soldiers and the Jewish infidels.  He is killed within five years and then the Arab leadership declares a general strike which degenerates into a violent rebellion, known as the Arab revolt.  The casualites were mostly arab.  The Haganah defense group schisms itself, and splinters a more radical group called Etzel, its policy was one of revenge.

The next major issue to come about was the Peel Commission.  It was here for the first time that the British sought to partition the land and create two states,.one for the Jews and one for the native Arabs.  The proposal was unanimously rejected by the Arabs, while the Jews were divided on the issue.  The sticking point for the Jews was that this British proposal limited jewish immigration to 12 000 and thus was rejected by the Zionist commission. 

That's all for now! Stay tuned for our next exciting episode!

Our Lady of Ville Marie,.........ora pro nobis!

Israel, Palestine and the Vatican Part 3

So we left off last time still swimming in the 'historical context' wading pool before treading the ocean of socio-political firestorms.  Both parties justify religion as the basis for their claim to the land, with both parties laying a legitamite gripe as to why the land should be theirs.  Soooooo,..let's continue on shall we?

So we left off more or less with the Balfour declaration and thus cleared up any propaganda that Israel was only established in the wake of WWII because people felt guilty about the Holocaust.  This myth is widely circulated in leftist circles.  So, now here comes the immigration.  Thousands and thousands of Jews, 'Askanzi' begin to immigrate to Palestine, buying up land and establishing colonies.  This,..the Zionist mentality comes into a full blown confrontation with Arab, yes,..but Muslim nationalism as well.  Again, with Islam, we cannot separate the politics from the religion as this concept is quite alien.  Islam is the political system.  Within the system and stemming from the theological root is the concept of a land bethrowed,..( see here ).  The surrounding Arab countries tend not to view the struggle which was political as just that,. political, instead they see it as an attack upon Islam itself.  Herein lies the problem.

So begins the protests in Jerusalem, with Arab banners reading 'Our country for us' and 'Stop jewish immigration'  as battle cries.  Still in the same year, Muhammed Amin Al-Husayni incited crowds, as well Jews in Galilee were attacked.  This all led to the establishment eventually of Haganah,..a Jewish defense force, a pre cursor if you will, to the IDF.  The next year, saw what were called the Jaffa riots whereby the Jews retreated from Jaffa to Tel Aviv.  Surprisingly, there were not many casualties, yet the British(the mandated authority) were constantly trying to restore order.  Later, that year,..the true tension arrives when politics, unofficially turns religious as Muhammed Amin Al-Husayni becomes the grand mufti of Jerusalem.  The 'Grand Mufti' is seen as the highest level of religious authority within a muslim (sunni) state.  So that being said a little muslim colour is added to the mix, and the next year, Arab leaders informed the Brits,..that they will not accept the Balfour declaration.  So what was proposed in 1917,..was finally rejected 5 years later.....The Brits, because of certain political factors,.namely Arab riots, a change of government in Saudi Arabia,..clarified their position with the Churchill White Paper...(see here )

So what about the Palestinian Christians?  And what happens to the Jews?  Were Arabs kicked out of their houses during the immigration and what about Islam, Apartheid and the UN????  Find out in the next installment!!!

Our Lady of Ville Marie,...............ora pro nobis!

Israel, Palestine and the Vatican, Part 1.

Sometimes I often wonder whether by writing an editorial like this, I will anger people on both sides of this equation.  Well,..essentially that is my point and I really don't care.  I mean, I graduated with a degree in political science after all so why wouldn't I be able to weigh in at least intelligently on such a political hot potato, and why now?  Well,..over the last few days, I've received arguments from both sides, intelligent ones to boot, yet either side seems to be calling out the other ones so-called 'facts.'  As best I can,..I'm gonna try to weigh in on this issue....

Before I do, I think we all need a little primer as to what the tale of the Tape between both of these 'peoples' would read,..so for that, in brief, for today,..we'll concentrate on history...

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict cannot be understood by the Western mindset without a firm grasp of the other's theology.  In this light, both sides, claim as the source of justification that God gave to them the land.  The Israelis cite the Torah specifically Exodus,..while the Muslims understand this in terms of Dar Al-Harb vs Dar Al-Islam.  Insert into this quagmire, certain groups of Evangelical Christians adhering to dispensationalist theology, (a heresy btw..) which views the return of the Jews to their homeland as a necessary primer to usher in the third coming of Christ.  (I say 'third' because, according to their theology, Jesus will appear in the sky and rapture all true believers,..before he returns as Just Judge..)

The land located in the middle east has a long history and can be argued is one of the oldest of all to be inhabited.  Through settlements, at God's command, the Jewish people at roughly 950 bce (disputed..) established the United kingdom of Israel which later split into North and South,(Judea).  The Romans would later conquer the land in roughly 5-6 Ad,.(this pressupposes the birth of Christ at around 4-3 bce.)  yet although the Romans conquered it, as was their custom, they left it as a province so to speak and it continued to be governed by jewish authorities.  When the Roman, empire became Christian in 313ad, 'Palestine' also became Christian and thus, a center for many monks and religious.  It was during this time, that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Nativity and others were being built.

Enter the conquest,..this time, by the muslim army.  Caliph Umar enters Palestine in 638ad and a complete ransack begins.  Sorry, again to the revisionist historians who claim that life under Islamic law was nothing but candy canes, roses, rainbows and leprechauns,..again not quite true.  The time of the Crusades took place and battled for the Holy sites...To read about more of this,....see here.  You might not like Voris style,..but his sources are impeccable! 

That's all for today,..but we need this lense in order to go forward within this analysis.  The 'Religious right' don't accept the fact that we as Catholics must view this as a political matter, not a theological one.  The Catholic Church is the bride of Christ and thus the continuation of Israel as people of God.....Coming soon Part 2,..whereby I will attempt to break down key important dates stemming from the British ruled Palestine to now.....


Our Lady of Ville Marie,...............Ora pro nobis

Leftopia,..the Magical Land of Stupid...

And now for another installment of speaking with Lefties, the show where truth is orwellian and facts are hidden worse than in a 'Where's Waldo?' book!  (Funny anecdote, I always thought 'Where's Waldo?' was only in french,..'Ou est Charlie?'..Oh well...:))  This past week, during our CHRISTMAS time off, (not holiday time, or wintersoltice time, or winter festival time,..got that off my chest!)  I was innundated with emails concerning my so-called closed mindedness and lack of pastoral concern (whatever the hell that means,..) for issues of equality and justice!  You see about two years ago, I wrote a post on the evils of socialism and how it is incompatible with Catholic thought.  It basically denies the theological reality of original sin, and props up man to act as his own saviour.  Liberation theology became its bastard offspring, after having an ongoing affair with marxism.  (see here )  Now these people penetrate the establishment on all levels, politically, socially and yes even inside the Church.  They espouse Cardinal Bernadin's seamless garment crap and instead of looking at truths through a Thomistic lens, and then following suit, they equate everything in the same basket.  Example, 'Yes candidate 'A' is pro-life, but he's not taking care of the south american coffee pickers getting minimum wage!  So that must cancel it all out!' You see the logic?  No?  Because there is none!  

A few weeks back I was introduced to a Fox news commentator named Steven Crowder.  American by birth, he was raised in Canada, actually Montreal and is blowing the whistle on all this stuff!  His insights are intelligent, witty and wait for it,...FACTUAL!  Yes, the left having an issue with truth has a hard time getting its act together especially if it does not suit their marxist agenda!  Some examples,..(Let me set this up, typical university professor enters classroom wearing Palestinian 'kaffiya,' a Jack Layton hugging Barrack Obama pin and begins to lecture on the human rights violations of the US in the Middle East, Israel on everything and 'capitalism' as the 'Mein Kempf' of economic theory!  So, the students eat this stuff up!  I know, I was one of them!)  Some of the myths include;

Pope Pius XII was a silent nazi sympathizer who did nothing during WWII.  FACT:  Pope Pius XII did more than any other person to save Jews from extermination.  (see here)  The theory that he was anti-semitic arose from a protestant playwright 5 years later after his death!!!!!!  The chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli converted to Christianity because he was moved by Pius's defense of the Jewish people!!! Lefties, on this one you lose, you only expose yourselves not only as ignorant, but as a malicious parasitical cancer that grafts itself onto society!  (Yes, this one I take personally, because I've had to endure many a 'spirit' of VII priest propogating that lie!)

Israel is an evil country which must give back land to the Palestinians in the occupied territories.  FACT;  Can anybody name one country that wasn't formed through violence?  Number two, can anybody name one country whereby when it was formed, another country was formed specifically for the people living there at that time!  (Jordan was formed in 1948, for the people eventually known as the Palestinians.  Why eventually?  Because prior to 1948, there was no such f'n thing as a 'Palestinian!' )  It sucks that both people can't live in harmony, it really does, but when the 'Palestinians' refuse negotiations with Israel, thereby claiming it as Islamic land, and will only settle for a ten year truce, (Remember 'prophet' Muhammed, that peaceloving kind of guy, broke his ten year truce in two years instead!) and will never recognize Israel's right to exist!  It really is sad for the Arabs living there, but how about fighting this war through education, reign in your terror groups, or maybe do a little introspection on the metaphysics of Islam?  Just sayin,..The 'Left' love to tell you about how Israel attacked Syria and Egypt in the six day war, but forget to mention that those two countries already amassed their troops right on the bourder!  Wait a minute, after the asskicking Israel gave them, they still gave back land!!!!  Does anyone not see the irony?

Just two examples of pothead stupidity that we are forced fed through CBC, BBC and of course Hollywood, because we know how politically savvy they are, Sean Penn?  C'mon,..not exactly Ben Stein!  Critiquing anything the Obama administration is failing at brands you as rascist!  Back to Crowder,...I'll be putting a link up to his site, and I truly suggest you check out his youtube videos, he even has a 'Quebec Corner!'  I won't even mention that the producers of Jon Stewart's 'Daily Show' basically admitted Stewart's bias in an email concerning Crowder...Ooops,..just did!  Hehehehe...(Look it up!)

Blessed John Paul the Great,.........Ora pro nobis!

L'Eglise Quebecois,..

Living in 'La Belle Province' certainly has its fair share of unique characteristics.  To the outsider, things like the 'language police' (OLF) and Law 101 conjure up images of George Orwell's 1984.  Now of course it isn't really that bad,..but there are times when you just want to,..well,..either scratch your head quizically or just up and move to Ontario!

Growing up,.I was fluently bi-lingual, (tri-lingual if you count Italian as well, but my italian leaves much to be desired,.) and my parents lived in LaSalle which was/is a working class italian influenced section of the greater Montreal area.  My schooling up until 9th grade was done primarily in french and then from grade 10 to grade 12, mostly in english.   When I was a month away from my 18th birthday, I remember it all too well,..the year 1995,..the year of the REFERENDUM.   What happened?  Basically Montreal and the Outaouias regions along with parts of Quebec City voted No!  The rest of the geographic landscape voted OUI!  So let's imagine the Church of Quebexico as it would be today had the seperatists won,..Now for those who understand why politics and the Church in Quebec are intermingled, you need only a little history lesson on Maurice Duplessis.

Quebec,..2011(Fiction)

Montreal's empty Churches have nearly all been sold as the Quebec schism took place shortly after the 1995 referendum,..Pauline Marois was installed as the first Queen of Quebec amidst an internal conflict over whether or not she'll also lead the Quebec Church.  The Churches that weren't sold, also double as mosques, to house Quebec's nearly one quarter muslim population in order to better dialogue, because as long as 'les musulmans' s'exprimes en francais, there is really no problem.  The local Bishops are now elected in by the people to create there own creed and there own objective reality.  The Grand Seminaire has been hijacked by the diocese and turned into a centre for ecumenical dialogue and commitee meetings focusing on pottery, baking and just being nice,..(except to anglos,..)  The english side of the diocese chose to remain with Rome except for a few sellouts adhering to the poltergeist known as the 'spirit' of Vatican II.  Soooo,. Vatican II is ruled intolerable and therefore incompatible with 'le peuple Quebecois.'  Consequently the english are exiled to the deepest part of the west island and oppressed by the Queen Pauline.  The Church headed by Fr Tiffany immediately attempts to ordain woman, marry gays, ban all english, alow abortion/contraception in the name of tolerance, again unless your an anglo whereby they just sterilize you.  Convents are turned into Reiki wellness centres focusing on Tai Chi healing, Yoga and Voodoo.  The Latin Mass has however been banned because its not open enough...All this in the Quebecois Church!  Isn't being open fun?  Vive Pauline!!!

Marie Reine du Monde,.........prier pour nous.