Holy Souls Prayer Register:

It has been a number of years since I made a posting such as this. In the interest of brevity, I want to renew the substance of my last website posting on this matter and include since that time many folks who have passed who are related to me either by blood, marriage, friendship, or other esteem as well as a number of folks among the living{1}. I cannot recall everyone I would want to have remembered in prayer but God knows their names and as a reader of hearts, I trust Him to know everyone I would mention if I could think of them all.

The link to the Purgatory Project can be found HERE and I encourage my readers to check it out and register the names of family and friends.{2}

For those who have passed on:

Eternal rest grant unto their souls O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and all the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen

The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found [me]. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord on that day (2 Tim i,18).

For those still alive whose names I have included in the current name submission{3}, they have been entered for perpetual masses to be offered for their spiritual benefit as well.

Notes:

{1} As far as the new additions, I am not going to post their names here. Suffice to say, some have been mentioned before while others are new and many new ones are still among the living and are close to me by either blood, marriage, friendship, or other esteem.

{2} One should not presume that my recommendation of the above site constitutes a blanket approval of all or even many (or even most) of the other threads they have posted there. Nonetheless, they do have a good thread on explaining purgatory which can be read HERE and that I do highly recommend.

{3} See footnote one.

On Recent Funerals and Suspending My "No More Funerals" Stance of Recent Years:

I attended another funeral yesterday eleven days ago -my twenty-first in the last nine and a half years.{1} This was despite the fact that I decided to take a "no more funerals" approach to things after attending my Aunt Cecilia's funeral in the second part of 2006. At that point, I had attended twenty funerals in six and a half years and simply could not deal with it anymore. And that was not even all the family, friends, etc. who died in that span of time. But I had to suspend my stand for Jerry Dykstra, a good friend of my fathers and whose eldest son I played soccer with for six of the eight years I played in years past.{2}

I knew Jerry for nearly thirty years and was able to see him in the final weeks when he was getting to the point to where his cancer was becoming unbearable. But he always had a smile on his face, always was of good cheer, and continued to drink two rusty nails a night until recent months.{3} He was a good man and will be missed -most of all by his family of course and I told his sons if they wanted to talk about it to feel free to give me a call. No sooner did I get back than I heard from my mother that my Uncle Don passed away earlier that same day so if his funeral is in the Seattle area,{4} I will again suspend my "no more funerals" policy and go to that one.

I have known Uncle Don{5} literally all my life. I am sure he held me in his arms at least once when I was still in diapers: I note that to give an idea of how far back this connection goes. He was also a good and decent man. I had not seen either Uncle Don or his wife my Aunt Sheila{6} in probably three or four years -I think the last time was at their son Paul's wedding in 2004. But unlike in the case of Jerry of whom we knew was going to have less than a year,{7} Don's death came completely out of the blue unexpected. Jerry died three months shy of his seventy-first birthday, Don two months shy of his sixty-first birthday.

Prayers for both of them would be most appreciated.

Eternal rest grant unto their souls oh Lord and let thy Perpetual Light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. May the souls of Jerry Dykstra and Don Hellstrom along with the souls of all the faithfully departed, through the Mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Notes:

{1} In that span of time, I lost thirty-five persons either close family, relatives, close friends, etc.

{2} I covered the subjects of funerals in general around that time and also on the subject of Aunt Ceil in another thread. Here they are for those who are interested:

On Prayer Requests (circa October 3, 2006)

More on Cecilia Flynn (circa October 5, 2006)

{3} Jerry and my father used to drink rusty nails together and after my father died, Jerry would drink two a night: one for him and one for my dad. That was his story anyway and he stuck to it until for health reasons he could not.

{4} It is most likely going to be in Wenatchee, Washington though.

[Update: It was held in East Wenatchee and I did not attend due to the distance. -ISM]

{5} Basically an honourific title: Don was married to Sheila my dad's adopted sister. (It was her mom Jenny whose death in March of 2000 started this long chain of passings but I digress.)

{6} I am sure my dad figured this out years back but when I was a teenager, I had a crush on my Aunt Sheila.

{7} And most likely he was slated to live for less than six months.

Please pray for the eternal repose of the souls of Thomas and Mark Girard and if you can help out their family in any way, please do what you can.

[Clarification: I intended to post this last year but for some reason it was not tended to. I am therefore posting it a year later because those who believe in the efficacy of prayers for the departed can still benefit these men in prayer. -ISM]

There have been a number of deaths in the family and among friends in this millennium. But out of all of them, there is one which stands out from the pack as being the most difficult for me to deal with. Today is the eighth anniversary of the passing of my late father Richard Dunn McElhinney. All I will say about it at the present time is what I say every year at this time; namely, that prayers for the eternal repose of his soul would be most appreciated.



Eternal rest grant unto his soul oh Lord and may thy perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace with all the souls of the faithfully departed. Amen.

Today would have been the 68th birthday of my father Richard Dunn McElhinney. As I have noted before, days like this are ones of more intense than normal reflection for me. It seems appropriate to note it here and ask the readers of this weblog if they could offer some prayers for the eternal repose of his soul. (And for those who do not believe in this ancient custom, then prayers for my mother -who still has difficulties on anniversaries such as this- and the rest of the family would be appreciated.)



Eternal rest grant unto his soul oh Lord and may thy perpetual light shine upon him...May his soul and all the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Holy Souls Masses Registration:

The following is this years scroll of the dearly departed -individuals of note and also family groupings will be noted by last name:

Richard Dunn McElhinney f
James Dunn McElhinney u
Teresa Mildred McElhinney gm
Paul Dowd McElhinney gf
McElhinney fam
Hugh Dunn gu
Dunn fam


Ed Flynn gu
Cecilia Flynn ga
Flynn fam
McCann fam
Mark Usher sgf
Virginia Usher sgm
Usher sfam
Brooks fam
Hellstrom sfam
Leta M. Allen sa


David Kanski u
Mary H. Kanski gm
Harry Kanski gf
Harold Kanski u
Kanski fam
Haluk fam
Hruby fam
Duma fam
Sharon Rogowski Colson c
Rogowski fam
Mel Denny gu
Denny fam
Omafrey fam

Ann Ripplinger ga
Ripplinger fam
Spence fam
Mel Clark sgf
Jane Clark sgm
Clark fam

James Jenner OP p
Joseph Fulton OP p
Blessed Sacrament Parish/Dom. Priory
St. Pius X Parish
Corpus Christi Parish

Jeff Cox cl
Rasmussen ext-fam
Kathy Rasmussen Hanks ext-fam
Tull ext-fam
Chris DiSomma f ext-fam
Anselmo ext-fam
Evie Baker ext-fam
St. Blogs ext-fam
Mike Mentzer t
Mentzer tfam
Arthur Jones t
Michael Jackson t
Cipriani ffam
O'Grady ffam
Bannon ffam
Ziadeh ffam
Stein ffam
Smith ffam
Tierney ffam
Mockeridge ffam
Blosser ffam
D'Hippolito ffam
Hand ffam
Roy Sabin acq
Anne Sabin acq
Tim's friend (cannot recall his name at the present but God knows)
Brittany Salzano acq

While I am sure more will come to mind than just those later on, they are what will be noted at this time. The link to the Purgatory Project can be found HERE and I encourage my readers to check it out and register the names of family and friends.{1}

Eternal rest grant unto their souls O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and all the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen

The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found [me]. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord on that day (2 Tim i,18).

Note:

{1} One should not presume that my recommendation of the above site constitutes a blanket approval of all or even many (or even most) of the other threads they have posted there. Nonetheless, they do have a good thread on explaining purgatory which can be read HERE and that I do highly recommend.

I will be sketching out my thoughts on various news stories of the past few days over the weekend but at the moment I am getting through the roughest three day stretch of the year. With that in mind and as I am not too talkative at the moment, I want to simply request from my readers to please pray for my father.

Thank you in advance for your generosity in this regard.

On Mike Mentzer's Passing and His Influence:
(Musings of your humble servant at Rerum Novarum)

As yesterday was the seventh anniversary of the passing of Mike Mentzer, a few words on this individual whom many readers to this weblog may not be aware of seems fitting. The influence he has had upon your host have been touched on occasionally and to your host he will always be someone we remember fondly.

To start with, I never met Mike Mentzer. Nor was I following his competitive career prior to his early termination of it in 1980 at the age of 29 for reasons I do not want to go into now.{2} As I noted in years past,{3} my awareness of Mike Mentzer came from a book a late friend obtained for me{4} in a trade for another book I had back in high school. Most of the book Jeff (RIP) got for me was full of the usual incoherent irrational gibberish common to the field in question.{5} However, I found myself transfixed by the parts pertaining to Mike Mentzer. His physical appearance (along with that of his younger brother Ray) coupled with the logic behind their approaches{6} to training appealed to me though (admittedly) it took me a while to set aside my foundational presuppositions on the subject at question and consider the radically different way they were proposing.

Though I dabbled with it a bit over the years coming out of high school, it was not until I was in college a couple of years and after additional study on human physiology that I decided to really put the theory Mentzer espoused into practice and set aside everything I had been "taught" on these matters from other sources. I did this and with a training partner set about within a very short span of time radically transforming my physical appearance. I noted some of this in a weblog entry back in 2003 after I ran across part of my old training journal and took a bit of a birthday indulgence reminiscing on the matter at the time.{7}

As I go off of memory now, I believe I noted in that thread how despite my intentions of approaching the matters in the radically new way I had been studying that I nonetheless had a few presuppositions which were holdovers from the other training paradigm. These factors resulted in achieving far less than my training partner and I could have otherwise achieved despite the fact that what we accomplished was nothing short of spectacular and by all "conventional wisdom" was not possible.

For a variety of reasons -including a back injury suffered in 1996{8} and few knee injuries suffered in the years 1997, 1998, and 1999 coupled with the events of real life not being much help at the time- training took a backseat for me for a number of years. However, I did continue in a variety of ways to study the principles involved and I have found diverse contexts with which to apply the basic principles involved to a variety of seemingly disconnected subjects.

I may write on that factor at some point in the future but I want at the moment to remember Mike Mentzer (d. 6/10/01) and his brother Ray (d. 6/12/01) -the latter often overshadowed by his brother's gifts and achievements but also successful and an original thinker in his own right. But tomorrow is another day of remembrance for me so I will leave it at this for now except to note that the notion of an "Anonymous Christian"{9} in some respect could be said to probably apply to Mike and Ray Mentzer in my mind even though they were both Objectivists as well as atheists. I will perhaps cover that at some point in the future but at the moment wanted to remember them both, acknowledge their positive influence on me in a few key areas, and pray that the Lord show the graciousness to them that they showed to so many others.

Notes:

{1} Unless I am quoting from something I wrote previously of course.

{2} Maybe another time if I feel so inclined but not today.

{3} But cannot recall offhand exactly where I said it.

{4} Truthfully and in retrospect, I think he stole it.

{5} Namely, weight training and fitness.

{6} The late (d. 2007) Arthur Jones quoted in the side margin of this weblog was the individual whom Mike Mentzer obtained and further refined the basics of productive exercise from. (Mike always gave Jones tremendous credit for setting him on the right path so it seems appropriate for me to note it here since indirectly Jones did the same for me.)

{7} "Turn Back the Clock" Dept. (circa October 21, 2003)

{8} See footnote eight.

{9} This is a controversial theological term which has many possible interpretations. I do not intend at this time to explain what I mean by its usage here.

Remembering Chris:

As I noted late last week, I planned to touch on this subject on the anniversary of Chris' birthday but it seemed inappropriate to do so in light of the passing of my great aunt two days before. And if I did a remembrance thread on every day of the year where there was someone in my family in recent years who had passed on -either their birthday or the anniversary of their passing- then that would involve a lot of postings and a lot of depression. For that reason, I touch on very few of them regularly and others occasionally except on the annual All Souls remembrance where quite the list is posted.

Chris was a special case for me though due to a variety of reasons -the closeness of our tie for one and the way in which our lives played out for another. I could say more but will instead note the previous threads below for your perusal if interested. And while each has some different material in it than the others, the thread from 2005 is the most complete of the threads -encapsulating some of my remembrances of him when he was alive and also though the passing of time has helped somewhat with regrets that in some form or another I will probably always have. Without further ado...

Musings on Chris DiSomma's Birthday (circa May 23, 2007)

Remembering Chris DiSomma a Year After His Passing (circa December 11, 2006)

Remembering Chris DiSomma Three Days After His Passing (circa November 26, 2005)

Let these threads serve as a cautionary tale for those who put off tomorrow what they could do today so far as reconciliations go with others. Oh and rest in peace amigo until we (hopefully) meet again in a much better place!!!

Eternal rest grant unto Chris' soul oh Lord and let thy Perpetual Light shine upon him. May his soul rest in peace with all the souls of the faithful departed through the Mercy of God. Amen.

I did not figure on posting anything additional today but this thread is in the spirit of what I posted earlier this week with regards to my great aunt Ann as well as what I noted is on tap for probably tomorrow. Nonetheless:

Maria Sue Chapman, R.I.P. (2003-2008)

As Michelle Malkin notes in the above posting, set aside politics when reviewing what she writes above. Lots of prayer request today at Rerum Novarum but virtually no one prays enough anyway -including your humble servant who needs to do more of his share in this department as well.

My maternal great aunt Ann Ripplinger passed on two days ago at the age of 91. She was the younger sister of my maternal grandmother Mary Kanski (d. 9/25/01) the aunt of my maternal uncle David Kanski (d. 5/19/02), and the older sister of my great aunt Hattie Denny whose husband Mel passed on in early 2004 (1/25/04). I will not depress readers of this entry with a full list of those who have passed on in my family the past eight years as it would make for a depressing read -only compassion for the family and for the deceased in prayer particularly on this occasion Ann and her closest family.

[Lord, please] remember Ann Ripplinger, whom you have called from this life. In baptism she died with Christ: may she also share in his resurrection. [Roman Missal Eucharistic Prayer 2: From Masses for the Dead]

As this is a primary day, those who have tuned in expecting our usual unique perspective on these matters are in for a disappointment because frankly, I do not give a damn about any of it...not today folks.

For today is a commemorative day traditionally at this humble weblog: the sixty-seventh anniversary of the birth of my late father Richard Dunn McElhinney (March 4, 1941). As he has passed on from this mortal coil, prayers would be most appreciated. For those who do not believe in prayers for the departed, prayers for the surviving family members on this difficult of days would be most appreciated. For those who do believe in prayers for the dead, please pray for the eternal repose of his soul.



Eternal rest grant unto his soul oh Lord and may thy perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace with all the souls of the faithfully departed. Amen.
May the Lord grant mercy to the family of Onesiphorus because he often gave me new heart and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he came to Rome, he promptly searched for me and found me. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. [2 Tim. i,16-18]

We at Rerum Novarum hope that readers will offer prayers (in the next day or so) for the eternal repose of the soul of one of the greatest generals in American history who died 103 years ago today; namely, General James Longstreet. (May he rest in peace.)

Prayers by readers of this weblog for Chris Blosser's ailing grandfather Eugene would be most appreciated.

Holy Souls Masses Registration:

This years scroll of the dearly departed -individuals of note and also family groupings by last name:

Richard Dunn McElhinney f
James Dunn McElhinney u
Teresa Mildred McElhinney gm
Paul Dowd McElhinney gf
McElhinney fam
Dunn fam
Flynn fam
McCann fam
Mark Usher sgf
Virginia Usher sgm
Usher sfam
Brooks fam
Hellstrom sfam
Leta M. Allen sa

David Kanski u
Mary H. Kanski gm
Harry Kanski gf
Harold Kanski u
Kanski fam
Haluk fam
Hruby fam
Duma fam
Rogowski fam
Denny fam
Omafrey fam
Ripplinger fam
Spence fam
Mel Clark sgf
Jane Clark sgm
Clark fam

James Jenner OP p
Joseph Fulton OP p
Blessed Sacrament Parish/Dom. Priory
St. Pius X Parish
Corpus Christi Parish

Jeff Cox cl
Rasmussen ext-fam
Tull ext-fam
Chris DiSomma f ext-fam
Anselmo ext-fam
St. Blogs ext-fam
Mike Mentzer t
Mentzer tfam
Arthur Jones t
Michael Jackson t
Cipriani ffam
O'Grady ffam
Bannon ffam
Ziadeh ffam
Stein ffam
Smith ffam
Tierney ffam
Mockeridge ffam
Blosser ffam
D'Hippolito ffam
Roy Sabin acq
Anne Sabin acq
Tim's friend (cannot recall his name at the present but God knows)
Brittany Salzano

While I am sure more will come to mind than just those later on, they are what will be noted at this time. The link to the Purgatory Project can be found HERE and I encourage my readers to check it out and register the names of family and friends.{1}

Eternal rest grant unto their souls O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and all the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen

The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found [me]. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord on that day (2 Tim i,18).

Note:

{1} One should not presume that my recommendation of the above site constitutes a blanket approval of all or even many (or even most) of the other threads they have posted there. Nonetheless, they do have a good thread on explaining purgatory written by Jimmy Akin which can be read HERE and which I do highly recommend.

On Blogging in General, My Approaches To It, Remembering Two Musical Legends and Three Major Influences, Etc:
(Musings of your humble servant at Rerum Novarum)

[This thread was predominantly drafted back in early September but due to time constraints was not able to be finished until now. -ISM]

I would be remiss in not mentioning at the start of these musings that September 3rd was the birthday of blues legend Freddy King. I wrote in some length on him last year and encourage readers to review that thread to learn more{1} about the late great "Texas Cannonball" (may he rest in peace).

On the subject of blogging, there are many ways of going about writing on a blog or in other online mediums. I have gone over this a few times in the past and probably will in the future the approaches I use to draw ideas for blogging. One of them is that I am by nature a bit of a contrarian and always have been. That in and of itself is a departure from most people but frankly if you are not to some extent unique -either in your views, your approach to explaining your views, how you go about discussing the subjects you want to discuss, etc.- then it is difficult to be perceived apart from the general mass of those with similarities in their outlooks as yours.

The blogging medium itself is one that I consciously recognized early on{2} had a number of ways to do it and I did not want to approach the way many others do. Or as was noted in a weblog posting within the first year of blogging and when the weblog was still in an early part of its growth:

[Blogging a bunch of links] is not something that interests me for many reasons - though I do have my days on occasion when I am in the mood to mostly post links without much commentary.
...

I can track stuff down with the best of them but my problem is that I cannot simply post a lot of links and not comment on them. And my reason for this is [due to] the tendencies of the media to try and paint people [of a generally conservative disposition] as either criminal or weird. And if I can do my part to make "a dent in public discourse" then I will do that. But one way I cannot do that is to simply be a vending machine of links.

For if I did do that too regularly, why would I provide any incentive to actually read Rerum Novarum and not Instapundit??? And why read Instapundit and not the two columns on the front page of Investors Business Daily??? I could deconstruct this into near-infinity so I will stop at this time as I am sure you get the idea. My goal is simply to muse on whatever strikes my fancy. In short, there is a reason that you will seldom see breaking stories at this humble weblog.[...]

I tend to prefer to let others bring up breaking issues and then I respond to them. There are tactical reasons for this as well as practical ones. Part of the reason is that I am too critical of journalism in general of rushing to print anything they think can make a story and then if they err on A1 - which happens more frequently than most people would believe, they correct themselves on Q14 where no one sees it.[...]

I find if I let others break the story, I can benefit from their efforts and also circumvent the problems that can come with seeking to "break" a story before anyone else. And of course letting others hash out the main points provides an opportunity to approach the subjects in a way that is to some degree different than anyone else.

...

Criticism is sometimes justified but usually those who make a habit of it are incapable of separating legitimate criticism from childlike rantings. I believe we do a reasonable job of that separation here; however that does not mean there is no room for improvement of course. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa June 11, 2003)]

I should probably note that even early on I was not predisposed to post a lot of links without commentary but I did it to a greater extent early on than I subsequently have. There are a few reasons for this but rather than go into that now, there are many strengths to the approach I take. One is that it makes it easier to focus on the real underlying issues of a subject and not so much of the trivial surface stuff that most people focus on. However, one of the problems with imposing on oneself a degree of contemporary ignorance of media overexposure is that stuff one would be interested in if they heard of it gets lost as well. The strengths I could list for my overall approach to these matters are legion. The weaknesses while few are nonetheless worth noting and I will give three such examples at this time of news stories I did not hear of until weeks after the fact.

The first example is this thread from the New York Times from a couple of weeks two months ago:

Max Roach, a Founder of Modern Jazz, Dies at 83

Now the only reason I know of this link is that I saw on the cover of a jazz periodical at the library an article about the late great Max Roach, God rest his soul. That got me to do a google search and the above article was found on him. I am a music connoisseur of many styles but one style I like where my overall knowledge is not that good is jazz. Having said that though, one cannot be even minimally familiar with jazz and not know about Max Roach. He was unquestionably the greatest jazz drummer ever. Indeed, his influence went beyond jazz with some of the greatest rock and roll drummers of the '60s and '70s being unquestionably influenced by Roach either directly (i.e Ginger Baker and Neil Peart) or indirectly (i.e. John Bonham, Keith Moon).

Within the last couple of days weeks we saw pass on also the greatest tenor since Enrico Caruso, Luciano Pavarotti. As he is much better known than Max Roach, I will not say much on him that has not been said by others far more competent to discuss that genre of music than myself. I refer of course to fellow musicians including his opera peers and fellow Three Tenors performer Jose Carraras and Placido Domingo who were involved in a musical memorial and who (along with numerous others) spoke fondly of him here. And it seems fitting to include a clip of the great Pavarotti (RIP) so here is one of him singing Nessun Dorma. In three words: he was phenomenal.

Also a missed news story in that time span was the death of Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace). Those familiar with your host's love of beer, wine, and other spirits may well know whom I speak of -suffice to say it is not the same fella who owns Neverland Ranch. Lovers of fine beer will hopefully join me in lifting a glass to his memory -if not for Michael Jackson and the world of fine imports he either exposed me to or encouraged me to seek out and try, my knowledge of beer would be so much less than it is to say nothing of my appreciation for the truly good stuff which is most assuredly not made in America.{3}

Finally, there is the passing of Arthur Jones -founder of Nautilus and a certified renaissance man in many respects. The influence he had on my intellectual formation -both directly and particularly by the influence he had on one of my major intellectual mentors- cannot be emphasized enough. He was one of those who taught me and others who fell under the sway of his influence to not passively accept "conventional wisdom" on anything and indeed that lesson (learned at a young age thankfully) has served me well lo these many years later.

It is my hope that these great men (both the recently as well as not-so-recently deceased) will rest peacefully with the souls of the faithfully departed in the bosom of God for their utilization of the tremendous gifts they gave to others. Perhaps if I had been a little less media ignorant than I had been in the past couple of months{4} I would have caught these events sooner. But even if I had been, the possibility of missing them was still a significant one and considering how much garbage one has to sift through to find the wheat amongst the chaff. (Due to the overstressing nature of 24/7 news cycles.)

Notes:

{1} For those interested in more about Freddy King, here and here are a couple links of him playing live.

{2} After I adjusted to it and the degree of freedom here which as I admitted back in May did not happen automatically or without a degree of "growing pains":

[L]ife itself is a process of growth and development across a broad continuum. This includes weblog writing and interests.

We have no problem admitting that it took a bit of time before this weblog really started to take a discernable shape and some of the features and/or principles which have become standard or typical over time were in the "finding their feet" stage early on. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa May 15, 2007)]

{3} This is not to deprecate some of the microbrews that are made in various locales mind you; only that my operative presupposition with beer is that foreign brews are to be preferred whenever possible except for Japanese beer which has the singular distinction of being the only nation where the mass-produced beers are worse than those made in America.

{4} I have been gradually imposing a greater media ignorance on myself than I normally have and deliberately for reasons I may touch on at some point later on. I have actually explained recently.

Notification of Four to Seven Upcoming Posts and a Prayer Request:

Yesterday came and went with no start to the oft-mentioned (in recent weeks) dialogue which will be taking place. Work projects have intervened to an unexpected degree and I decided to get a few other postings out of the way before devoting my attention to that endeavour. Blogging has been sporatic and in bunches as is our tendency here but prior to the Wednesday after Labour Day, I anticipate completing and posting at least four and possibly as many as seven pieces to this weblog. Those threads will be as follows:

--A thread on the resignation of Karl Rove.{1}

--A thread on "distributivism" and responding to an email from a couple months ago when the latter subject was revisited on this weblog.{2}

--A thread on Able Danger which came to mind when writing on the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the credibility of George Tenet earlier in the week.{3}

--Two "points to ponder" threads from James Madison and Alexander Hamilton to complete the Founding Father series of quotes started in July of this year.{4}

--A thread on the strengths and weaknesses of my approach to blogging in general and a case example of the sort of casualty that is the result of my approach to this medium.{5}

--A post on an anniversary event or two.

I am not sure if it will be four, five, six, or seven threads which are posted at this point but I wanted to give a bit of a heads up as to what is on tap for the coming week. There is also a sports posting in draft form which could conceivably be posted in that span too (it is nearly finished) but I am likely to hold back on that one for at least a couple of weeks.

As far as the prayer requests go, there is another family death to report -the twenty-fifth in six and a half years if I count both sides of my family. The good news for me I suppose is that I do not feel anything for this person because I did not know them well at all. (Last time I saw them I was probably ten.) Nonetheless, every death in a family takes some toll and those who can offer some prayer for the eternal repose of the soul of Alice Romanick and for her family in their hour of grief it would be most appreciated.

Notes:

{1} This post was finished a couple of days ago and just needs a final read through and minor revisions before it is ready for posting.

{2} This post was finished and formatted back in late June. I will therefore have to review and make minor revisions to it before it is ready to be posted.

{3} This post was drafted last September and never finished. I found it when looking for it to link to in the Gonzales posting and discovered that it was unfinished. As it stands now, it is probably 90% done or more and needs to be updated since September of 2006 before it is ready to be posted.

{4} These threads are done and ready for posting as of this writing.

{5} I started drafting this one Thursday night. I am unsure as to where I want to go with it at the moment but it is probably 75% done and should be ready for posting by Monday or Tuesday.

My father passed on six years ago and my mother still has difficulties on days such as this one which would have been their forty-first anniversary. Any prayers the readers could offer for my parents on this occasion would be most appreciated.

Miscellaneous Musings:

There are four points briefly that I want to touch on so here goes...

--I plan to write in the coming week on the absurd "impeach Alberto Gonzales" chants from those who are playing the "get Bush at any cost and by any means" game. Others have called it Bush Derangement Syndrome and I cannot say I disagree with this assessment. The aforementioned subject will be covered in a general posting on various hints that the Democrats are starting the process of engraving the tombstone on their control of Congress in 2008.

--I believe I have found an actual person with the right disposition to be able to have a proper dialogue on the morality of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who has claimed to have fulfilled the pre-qualification criteria I set down in July of 2007. Due to the short time frame I initially set down for this (August 6th-August 21st) and considering that we do not have in place yet everything needed to start on August 6th,{1} I hereby abrogate my original time frame on this. I do intend to keep the time this is done relatively short but the latter is a normative concept to some extent. Anyway, I will notify you of when this will start if it does at all -I will not say it will for sure but I am very optimistic based on what I have reviewed from that person thus far that it will.

--I am unfortunately not surprised that some of the usual suspects are jumping to conclusions about who was or was not responsible for the bridge collapse in Minnesota and why. The most laughable one is that the money would have been there if not for the Iraq war and the $$$ sent over there for stabilization and rebuilding after the war. These are the same people who are rather mum about the trillions of dollars spent in the past forty years on the so-called War on Poverty which has made matters worse overall instead of better.{2} It is an example of the sorts of people who claim to care more about others but in reality they place ideology ahead of actual compassion and the latter is but a tool used to advance their ideology whenever it is convenient for them.

--After reading some news about the deaths of some{3}, the tragedies of others, and reflecting upon the subject of various evils and injustices in general, I found myself remembering something that I read many years ago from St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogues which in my mind was the best answer to the question of those who doubt the existence of God because of what they see as evils and injustices in the world. The Dialogue has God saying the following words to St. Catherine of Siena OP:

I ask you to love me with same love with which I love you. But for me you cannot do this, for I love you without being loved. Whatever love you have for me you owe me, so you love me not gratuitously but out of duty, while I love you not out of duty but gratuitously. So you cannot give me the kind of love I ask of you. This is why I have put you among your neighbors: so that you can do for them what you cannot do for me--that is, love them without any concern for thanks and without looking for any profit for yourself. And whatever you do for them I will consider done for me. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa January 19, 2003)]

This is a principle that is often overlooked and seemingly in direct proportion to those who blow the trumpets the loudest for what they "do for the poor." As I noted last year in a Christmas musing{4}, this is precisely the wrong attitude to have.

Ultimately, the reason why catastrophes happen and injustice of any kind actually exists is because it is only through having compassion on others{5} that it is possible for us to show the virtue of charity. The latter is the only prism we are granted with which to see God as long as we view things "indistinctly as in a mirror" (cf. 1 Cor. xiii,12): the best we can ordinarily expect to see in the present age.

Notes:

{1} Including the person in question sending me an outline of their own position or something similar enabling me to understand where they are coming from and their foundational presuppositions. (This is needed so that I can do well by them in accordance with the principles I have set down for how I want my own position treated.)

{2} By the way, my request for a rolling clock showing the $$$ spent on the War on Poverty since 1965 remains: anyone know where I can find one to post to this site???

{3} Including Karen Marie Knapp who was someone whose weblog we read on occasion with great appreciation for her overall Gerard Seraphinesque kind of approach to issues. Rest in peace Karen and please remember those of us below in prayer.

{4} [R]emember my friends: those who try to make themselves look the most compassionate among us usually give less than those who give in silence without others knowing about it. And because they draw attention to themselves in doing so, they have already received their reward as Jesus said. Do not be like them. Do not draw attention to yourself when helping other people. Keep it between yourself and God. But by all means, help out however you can in accordance with your means to do so. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa December 22, 2007)]

{5} I refer here to genuine compassion and not the pseudo-"compassion" of those who blow a trumpet to tell others what "great people" they were or who "thank God" they are not like the rest of us "publicans" or whatever.

I have shelved what I planned to blog at this time after getting a call from my mother about another family member passing on today. If I could ask for prayers for the eternal repose of the soul of Sharon Colson at this time, it would be most appreciated. (And those who do not believe in the efficacy of prayers for the dead to please pray for her family.)

Lord please remember Sharon Colson. In baptism she died with Christ: may she also share his resurrection, when Christ will raise our mortal bodies and make them like his own in glory. [Roman Missal: Eucharistic Prayer III From Masses for the Dead]