The Sacred Weblog of the Universal Inquisition

The iRack

2007-07-06T01:03:00.000-05:00

Lew Rockwell on Government Interventionism -- Both at Home and Abroad

2007-05-21T02:12:00.000-05:00

Ideology is such a powerful force that it has propped up policy inconsistency for more than a century. The left has a massive agenda for the state at home, and yet complains bitterly, with shock and dismay, that the same tools are used to start wars and build imperial structures abroad. The right claims to want to restrain government at home (at least in some ways) while whooping it up for war and global reconstruction abroad.

It doesn't take a game-theory genius to predict how this conflict works itself out in the long run. The left and the right agree to disagree on intellectual grounds but otherwise engage in a dangerous quid pro quo. They turn a blind eye to the government they don't like so long as they get the government they do like.

Enviro-Idiots

2007-05-21T00:48:00.001-05:00

Antiwar.com Has a Good Idea for Future GOP Debates

2007-05-20T17:48:00.000-05:00

Click above.

Former Head of the CIA's bin Laden Unit Agrees With Ron Paul -- Not With Giuliani!

2007-05-20T16:48:00.000-05:00

This is really no surprise, because Dr. Paul was only quoting from the CIA and the 9/11 Report, anyway, but here's even more evidence that Giuliani doesn't know what he is talking about:

I thought Mr. Paul captured it the other night exactly correctly. This war is dangerous to America because it’s based, not on gender equality, as Mr. Giuliani suggested, or any other kind of freedom, but simply because of what we do in the Islamic World – because ‘we’re over there,’ basically, as Mr. Paul said in the debate.

Antiwar.com has the scoop.

The GOP Debate According to Bill Maher

2007-05-19T23:24:00.001-05:00

We don't often agree with Bill Maher, but this is priceless.

Is Ron Paul Crazy?

2007-05-19T23:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, folks, it's true. Let's face it. Ron Paul IS insane. The man is crazy. He's willing to go in front of a South Carolina audience at a Republican debate hosted by Fox News -- a "perfect storm of stupidity," as Bill Maher has said -- and tell people the truth. But one thing we have learned in our years on this planet is that, often times, people are not crazy because of what they say, necessarily, but because of their willingness to say it, and that is exactly the dynamic with Dr. Ron Paul.

The Real Giuliani

2007-05-19T21:42:00.001-05:00

There are sooooooooo many reasons why this man simply should not be our next president.

Buchanan Weighs in on Paul

2007-05-18T02:01:00.000-05:00

Here's the money quote:

Ron Paul is no TV debater. But up on that stage in Columbia, he was speaking intolerable truths. Understandably, Republicans do not want him back, telling the country how the party blundered into this misbegotten war.
By all means, throw out of the debate the only man who was right from the beginning on Iraq.

Click above for the whole thing.

Saul vs. Paul

2007-05-18T00:45:00.000-05:00

The head of the Michigan GOP, Saul Anuzis, is trying to silence Dr. Ron Paul. Here is an e-mail we have sent in protest:

Mr. Anuzis,

Shame on your for trying to silence the lone voice of reason in the Republican Party, Dr. Ron Paul. Apparently, you have not learned anything from the heavy losses the GOP faced in 2006. One can only hope that whatever swine you put forth in 2008 will share the same fate.

Sincerely,

Inquisitor Generalis

Please click on the link above for information on how you, too, can bombard this man's office with e-mails and phone calls.

Dr. Ron Paul at the Second Debate

2007-05-17T22:47:00.000-05:00

Dan McAdams has said it the best:

Ron Paul has put himself up for personal ridicule at the hands of his inferiors just to show all of us that there is an alternative to the direction we are headed. Which of us would have the courage to do the same? He won? Irrelevant. His every word to the national audience is worth a million blows of the hammer on the stone of authoritarianism. God bless him.

How to Say Grace Before Meals

2007-05-14T02:51:00.000-05:00

California Academy of Sciences... Skulls!!!

2007-05-12T02:21:00.000-05:00

Vox Clamantis has given us a link to a website devoted to one of our favorite things... Most of you can guess what that is.

Gee, Isn't Gun Control Great?

2007-04-17T01:18:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have been paying attention to the news, once again, the progressivists have blood on their hands. Note how proud Virginia Tech was of being a gun free zone.

The Mark of a Pseudo-Intellectual

2007-04-15T18:19:00.000-05:00

Any time you hear someone use the terms "medieval" or "Dark Ages" as insults, you're generally dealing with someone who thinks he or she knows something, but really doesn't. As the title to this post suggests, these folks are properly called pseudo-intellectuals. And pseudo-intellectuals can be far more dangerous than run-of-the-mill stupid people.

Altar-ation

2007-04-15T18:02:00.000-05:00

Further proof that things that can be changed can always be changed back...

Dr. Paul With Bill Maher

2007-03-31T19:38:00.000-05:00

This is sort of a waste of time, due to the silliness of Bill Maher's question (his main concerns were global warming and Dr. Paul's views on the Civil War), but Dr. Paul's performance in putting up with this nonsense is commendable.

The Donald

2007-03-20T00:47:00.000-05:00

Yeah, yeah, we know, a lot of you out there probably don't like Donald Trump. But just watch this. Trust us, it's good.

The Tossers' Latest

2007-03-11T01:28:00.000-06:00

This is the latest from The Tossers, whose next CD comes out soon. We're playing this now, because we're big fans of Irish traditional music, and St. Patrick's Day is coming. Remember, The Tossers will be playing with The Pogues in NYC that night.

Are the Neo-Con Youth Our Future?

2007-03-06T00:47:00.000-06:00

Thomas DiLorenzo takes on the recent juvenile antics of the Neo-Cons, primarily recent comments from Ann Coulter:

Do we need any more proof of the complete and total abandonment of any belief in ideas or principles on the part of today's conservatives? In addition to war, war, war, kill, kill, kill, they are teaching "conservative" youth to be bigots and name callers. Never mind educating yourself in economics, history, philosohy, or almost anything else, they tell these high school and college students. Instead, just spend your time thinking of nasty words to describe Democrats. And remember above all else the Coulter/Limbaugh/Liddy/Hannity/etc., etc. motto: Republicans always good; Democrats always bad. Class dismissed.

Another One From the Combox

2007-03-05T14:41:00.000-06:00

Here is a reaction from a poster on our support for Dr. Ron Paul:

How can you be Catholic and insular at the same time? You are supposed to be a member of the Universal Church not some newly-minted protestant sect in some Oklahoma backwood.

Aprove the war and immigration and oppose abortion.

This kind of statement really says more about the person who posted it than about us or Catholicism. What kind of mindset would one have to have in order to think opposing war is "insular" and "protestant"? This thinking is especially bizarre when one considers just how much the Iraq War has done to alienate us from the rest of the world and how virtually all Catholic churchmen -- both the traditionalists and the liberalists -- opposed it, and how low church protestants almost universally supported it. Black is white and up is down with these folks, apparently.

The Only Good Candidate

2007-03-04T01:37:00.000-06:00

Yes, yes, many of you will find his words "Americanist," but Dr. Paul is the only candidate who makes any sense at all on anything. He's against the Iraq War, against immigration, and against abortion. In other words, he's like us -- whatever it is, he's against it. That's why he's called "Dr. No" (he's a medical doctor who votes "no" on everything). Many of our readers may oppose the U.S. Constitution that he defends, but it enshrines into law a much better system than that of the current regime.

The Cadaver Synod

2007-03-03T22:19:00.000-06:00

One of our favorite moments in Church history. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains it in detail:

Under Stephen VI, the successor of Boniface, Emperor Lambert and Agiltrude recovered their authority in Rome at the beginning of 897, having renounced their claims to the greater part of Upper and Central Italy. Agiltrude being determined to wreak vengeance on her opponent even after his death, Stephen VI lent himself to the revolting scene of sitting in judgment on his predecessor, Formosus. At the synod convened for that purpose, he occupied the chair; the corpse, clad in papal vestments, was withdrawn from the sarcophagus and seated on a throne; close by stood a deacon to answer in its name, all the old charges formulated against Formosus under John VIII being revived. The decision was that the deceased had been unworthy of the pontificate, which he could not have validly received since he was bishop of another see. All his measures and acts were annulled, and all the orders conferred by him were declared invalid. The papal vestments were torn from his body; the three fingers which the dead pope had used in consecrations were severed from his right hand; the corpse was cast into a grave in the cemetery for strangers, to be removed after a few days and consigned to the Tiber. In 897 the second successor of Stephen had the body, which a monk had drawn from the Tiber, reinterred with full honours in St. Peter's. He furthermore annulled at a synod the decisions of the court of Stephen VI, and declared all orders conferred by Formosus valid. John IX confirmed these acts at two synods, of which the first was held at Rome and the other at Ravenna (898). On the other hand Sergius III (904-911) approved in a Roman synod the decisions of Stephen's synod against Formosus; all who had received orders from the latter were to be treated as lay persons, unless they sought reordination. Sergius and his party meted out severe treatment to the bishops consecrated by Formosus, who in turn had meanwhile conferred orders on many other clerics, a policy which gave rise to the greatest confusion. Against these decisions many books were written, which demonstrated the validity of the consecration of Formosus and of the orders conferred by him (see AUXILIUS).

We only dispute the term "revolting" to describe the above scene.

From the Combox

2007-03-03T21:12:00.000-06:00

An astute reader got the very point we were trying to make with our Godfather tidbit down below:

Somehow a Marty Haugen tune and a full emersion dunking by Father Limp Wrist would not have highlighted the dichotomy sufficiently.

Apparently, New York...

2007-03-03T19:55:00.000-06:00

...is the place to be for St. Patrick's Day this year.