The Spirit's Sword

Watch this....

2012-01-27T19:10:00.000-05:00

...and, magically, you won't feel so bad about the singing at your local parish.

You're welcome.

Youth of Toronto, I Salute You!

2012-01-25T11:22:00.000-05:00

Following in the footsteps of the MIT Beer cooler in space program, and the Brooklyn Space Program, comes two Toronto Teens who put a beercooler PLUS LEGOMAN INTO SPACE.

Here's their own video of the flight.

This combines three of my favourite things: Canada, Space, and Lego.

America has NASA with scientists and billions of dollars. Canada has two teens, one of their mom's sewing machine, four hundred bucks and a few free weekends. The outcome is inevitable: We shall win!

(Except the US also has the MIT guys and a father and son in Brooklyn. This may be tighter than I thought.)

Post Script:

These programs often raise the question: Why do these people do it? The answers could be as varied as "Because we can!' or "Because we want to!" Or various declarations in the name of science and learning. To me, that is not the question. The guys at MIT showed the way for a cheap and easy near space program, made possible by a mix of old technology and new. It is easy and cheap. It could be a class project for an upper grade school class, or a science project for a family, as is the case with the Brooklyn Space Program. So the question, for me, isn't: why do these people do this, but why aren't more people doing this?

3.5 Time Outs Tuesday

2012-01-24T16:00:00.001-05:00

1

Dead, gone, buried, forgotten- manhood, that is. The stories of the Costa Concordia show that clearly enough. Best quote from the news stories:

In the words of one newspaper account, “An Australian mother and her young daughter have described being pushed aside by hysterical men as they tried to board lifeboats.” If the men of the Titanic had lived to read such a thing, they would have recoiled in shame. The Titanic’s crew surely would have thought the hysterics deserved to be shot on sight — and would have volunteered to perform the service.

2

Tied to the first post, there is now a debate as to what killed manhood, or chivalry, as it is often called. The usual suspects are the feminists. Fair enough, but the attacks and insults they heaped upon men and their values only goes so far. A woman may insult a man, but he need not abandon his values because of it. No, in the end, chivalry's death was a suicide. It is unmanly to say otherwise.

3

Watch this violinist react to a cell phone, if you have not seen this already.

3.5

G.K Chesterton quotation for today, and possibly tomorrow:

“It is an old story that, while we may need somebody like Dominic to convert the heathen to Christianity, we are in even greater need of somebody like Francis, to convert the Christians to Christianity.”

Some more statues.

2012-01-23T10:02:00.000-05:00

As I have said before:

In Toronto, you can generally tell which parishes are in the hands of the Italians: the quality of the statuary improves dramatically. Here's some photos of some of the statues from St Paschal Baylon.

Home Altar: Making a Column Part II.

2012-01-20T20:28:00.000-05:00

Continued.

Once the blank is turned to a cylinder, it is time to begin adding the details. Turning the details into wood is a little bit like Michelangelo carving a statue: You are releasing the form encased within the wood. It is simply a matter of removing the wood that doesn't belong.

The first thing to do is laying out the position of the details, and then take the wood down to the proper diameter.. The details are marked out with a pair of dividers, and the diameter is measured with a pair of calipers.

The dividers leave grooves in the wood. I have darkened the grooves with a pencil for the purposes of the photo.

The process is continued over all the details.

Once the details are roughed in, the beads are rounded over, and the cove is cut. The cardinal rule when turning decorations is to always. always go from the high to the low. That way, you will be following the grain.

With the top of the column complete, it is now time to begin turning the central column. Its straight lines actually make this the most difficult part of the entire piece. As with the beads and coves, it begins with bring the piece down to the correct diameter at key points, and then remove the rest of the wood.

The knot was a problem, but it came out fine. It is not as prominent as it was before, and I am not so concerned about hiding it.

With the central cylinder turned, it is time to repeat the process with the base details.

Lastly, the piece is sanded to smooth out the roughness, and bring it to its final shape.

Whenever possible, I like to wait at least a day before I decide that a piece is finished. Using a treadle lathe is tiring, and it is only too easy to say "good enough" for a piece. Now with the first one done, there is only three more to go, but at least this one may be used as a model.

I suspected something like this would happen eventually...

2012-01-20T17:14:00.002-05:00

...but, apparently, I was among the few.

Lifesite News has an interesting story up. Planned Parenthood is actually celebrating Tom Tebow's story, and claim it exemplifies "the health care environment that Planned Parenthood promotes — a world in which women and families are supported in the medical decisions they make for themselves and their families without government interference,"

The reaction from the Pro-life side has been, generally, outrage. Tebow has been their poster boy for prolife, and now he has been co-opted by the pro choice lobby to strike a blow against the pro life lobby. For the Pro-choice lobby to claim Tebow is actually on their side has the pro-lifers crying foul.

The pro-life side has long accused the pro-choice side of of only approving the choice to abort. The pro-choice side has now responded by saying they do respect a woman's right to choose life, and have claimed the current biggest symbol of the prolife side as their own. If this was a game of chess, they have taken a pawn.

I say a game rather than a debate. A debate has rules. One can challenge the honesty and veracity of a statement. One uses rhetoric and logic to score points and sway the audience. There are almost no public debates any more, not in politics, not here. What is happening here is jargon, cant, euphemism and the repetition of slogans. In our world, slogans trump truth. One side shouts the other down. A move is made, then countered. A game, perhaps, but one with no rules, no endgame, and huge stakes: life itself on one side, billions of dollars on the other.

I am not a good chess player, but I do understand a little of the strategy involved. A weak player will make a move, and hope the other guy doesn't realize what is happening, and fails to respond. A strong player will make their moves in such a way that the other player is forced to make the moves the stong player wants them to. A fool makes a move and expects no response at all.

So Planned Parenthood has done what Pro-lifers has always said it didn't: pay honour to a woman's right to choose life. They have countered a prolife move with one of their own. To say: "hey, that's not fair!" or start calling them liars and deceivers or otherwise calling them names for them doing exactly what we said they wouldn't do is not a really good move. A better move may be to say: "'without government interference'? You mean, like getting hundreds of millions of dollars from the government sort of interference?" Or some other move. Make it a good one. And do understand that, eventually, they will make a response.

Some Canadian Women Are Unhappy With The Way Brown Canadian Women Are Using Their Right to Choose.

2012-01-19T09:19:00.002-05:00

Those of us who are old enough will remember the days when Judy Rebick was the leader of the Status of Women council, and how every time she ever stood in front of a microphone the words "And I speak for all Canadian women..." would come out of her mouth. The quote would be printed in newspapers, and within days there would be dozens of letters to the Editor, either agreeing with her or saying, in essence, "I am a woman and she does not speak for me!"

Women being spoken for is, I believe, the issue at the heart of feminism, although I often find it skewed. Their view of history and society and the structure of power is one of male domination of women. I do not wholly agree or disagree with this view. My own view is not so much male over female as much as it is the few dominating the many. But yes, men in many cases did have rights over women, even the power to speak for them. Women regaining their voice and speaking for themselves was one of the major achievements of feminism. Except it doesn't quite work out that way.

This was one of the things I was thinking about when I read this article. I will reproduce it here, and save my comments for the end.

Why are Canadians aborting female fetuses?

by Katharine Watts

If you think the practice of aborting unwanted girls only happens in Asia, think again.

Due to immigration to Canada from Asian countries where there is a preference for sons, thousands of unwanted girls are aborted each year in Canada, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Luckily, a new editorial in the Canadian Medical Journal suggests a viable way to put a stop to sex selection in Canada.

"The solution is to postpone the disclosure of medically irrelevant information to women until after about 30 weeks of pregnancy," wrote Doctor Rajendra Kale, CMJ's Interim Editor-in-Chief.

Parents are typically told their baby's gender as soon as the information is available—at about 20 weeks of pregnancy—which leaves time for an unquestioned abortion.

By making it mandatory to withhold the gender of a fetus until after 30 weeks of pregnancy, we would prevent gender from being a catalyst for abortion, because after 22 weeks, doctors only perform abortions in life-threatening situations.

While embracing culture and encouraging diversity is part of what it means to be Canadian—so too are equality and women's rights. This extreme form of sexism should not be tolerated. That being said, neither should racial discrimination—and that means the law would apply to all women, not just those of Asian descent.

"The execution of a "disclose sex only after 30 weeks" policy would require the understanding and willingness of women of all ethnicities to make a temporary compromise," wrote Kale. "Postponing the transmission of such information is a small price to pay to save thousands of girls in Canada."

I couldn't agree more. After all, who better to save the future generation of women than the current one? As women, we have a responsibility to stand up for our rights—and that means not abusing the ones we currently have (like the right to an abortion).

While it is a woman's right in Canada to continue only wanted pregnancies, exercising rights and abusing them are two very different things. Making an inherently sexist decision based on the fact that it's your right as a woman is definitely an abuse of that freedom.

Compared to China and India, where millions of female fetuses are aborted, and many girls who are born are told they are unwanted, the problem may seem small—but that doesn't make it less important.

Do you think a law delaying the disclosure of a fetuses' gender would help prevent female feticide? Would you be okay with waiting 30 weeks (instead of 20) to learn your baby's sex?

First, note the language. On the one hand, they speak of the "fetus", the term used by pro choice advocates as opposed to "baby". But whereas pro-choice advocates almost always refuse to note that the "fetus" was anything other than a bunch of cells, here the fetus has a sex. The fetus is something. It will become something. They will be the future generation. The pro choice women are stuck within their own wording and logic, and are finding it insufficient to the task at hand. It isn't fully human, but it is fully female? It's not an abortion, but feticide. When did pro-choice advocates begin to care about feticide?

Second, note that this is a Canadian woman speaking about limiting the ability to choose of women of colour, even though, judging by the name of the doctor quote for the majority of the article, the original suggestion comes from a woman of colour. Let me take you back a few years, to what used to be called "The White Man's Burden" The White Man's Burden was to carry all the other races, because they just didn't know as well as us. It was our job to teach them and lead them into the future, even as we took their resources, turned them into second class citizens in their own lands, etc etc. Here is the Woman's Burden: stop women of other races who are insufficiently enlightened from making "sexist" choices. They are imposing their beliefs upon another for no other reason than they deem themselves superior: they know better: exactly the same resaon why men justified dominating women politically, or the "white man" justified dominating, well, everyone else. They knew better. The claim that making this policy extend to women of all races makes the policy not racist is bosh: the article and proposal clearly state that the reason this proposal is being made is on account of the choices being made by women of Asian origin.

Yet, in all the long debate about abortion, I do not recall pro-choice advocates accepting any restrictions whatsoever on their power to choose. They would accept absolutely nothing less than total freedom to accept or reject motherhood. Anyone who argued against them was told, in no uncertain terms, that, no matter how involved they may be with the woman or her pregnancy, they had no part whatsoever in her choice. It was her choice, and hers alone. So why do they now seek to involve themselves in another woman's right to choose, the very choice they laboured so very long and so very hard to procure for all women? Because their reasons aren't good enough? Because the reasons aren't up to their standards?

Third, the author's statement that it a woman's right to continue only wanted pregnancies, what makes her believe that a woman will want this pregnancy? The problem that girls will be told that they are unwanted that occurs in other countries will occur here as well, whether there is a mandatory deception or not during the pregnancy. This point is null and void: the author is, at best, deceiving herself.

So, women do not have an absolute right to choose, however, instead of meeting the standards of men, they must meet the standards of other women. It comes down to power,. Who has it, and who doesn't. and who can speak, and who doesn't, and who gets to speak for whom, whether they like it or not. The feminists used to have a slogan which they stated often, and painted on banners for all to see: "Women Speaking For Women". While not untrue, it would be more accurate, and more honest, to have said "Some women speaking for the rest." In the end, we still have the few dominating the many, or, as The Who put it, "Meet the new Boss. Same as the old Boss." For many women, there is still someone out there who claims to speak for them, and when someone speaks for you, you are spoken for.

And yet, after panning this rank stupidity and hypocrisy, such is the state of Canadian law and abortion, I would welcome even this minimal protection for the unborn, for at its heart, and against pro choice will, this would recognize that a "fetus" is not just a collection of cells, but a human being, and further recognizes that there may be a legitimate reason to protect them from "choice."

Home altar: Making a column, part one.

2012-01-18T10:08:00.000-05:00

Work continues on the home altar. I decided to do a post on making one of the decorations of the altar- one of the long columns for the upper section.

The column is made on a lathe. Turning on a lathe is about the most fun you can have in a shop. It was so popular, in fact,t hat years ago noble men had their own lathes made, and would do their own turning for their own enjoyment and relaxation. One of Tolstoy's noble characters is often found with his lathe, for instance. However, a nobleman would not be turning wood: their lathes would be used for ivory.

I have two lathes: an old beaver lathe I use for turning large pieces, and my treadle lathe, which I generally use for smaller pieces. At twenty four inches long, the blank for the column is the limit for a piece the treadle lathe can handle.

As can be seen, the blank is made from three pieces of wood laminated together. As I have said before, almost all the wood I use these days comes from whatever I can scavenge- old furniture, pallets, fallen trees. The main reason is that I am broke, however, I am a bit of an environmentalist, though I avoid that word. Let me say a word or two (or a paragraph) on that subject.

Let me begin with the case of Charles Dickens. Dickens was possibly the greatest social reformer in the Golden Age of Busybodi- I mean, the Golden Age of Social Reform., yet he eschewed the term and actually distanced himself from other reformers. His reason was that he disagreed with their methods, and believed they often brought discredit to otherwise righteous causes. Although I cannot pretend to be a Dickens, the principle is the same. I believe we should wisely use our resources and make a conscious effort to preserve them to the best of our abilities. In that I am like many environmentalists, but so many of the environmentalists are so obnoxious they push away more people than they convince, and bring discredit on anyone who even remotely mentions the environment. For myself, to put it bluntly, I do not believe we were meant to be Creation's Tyrants.

These days, there are quite a few woodworkers and cabinet makers who, like me, use scrap and found wood. Essentially, we go through the garbage, looking for something that may be useful. Many of them flaunt their source material, and their work is quite sought after in some quarters. To my eye, though, it still looks like garbage, and I suspect it will eventually be like 1960's art pottery: a fad, expensive in its day, now worth a few pennies at a garage sale. I do not try to flaunt my source material, but I do not hide it, either. I try and create beauty to the best of my ability. Perhaps I should emulate them: their sales are better.

Moving on.

The lathe is based upon a design by Roy Underhill published in Popular Woodworking some years back. It is a simple design. The tailstock, visible in the upper photo on the right side of the blank, is held in place by a wedge....

...which is tapped in place with my mallet. The whacking, unfortunately, knocks the headstock a little out of alignment, which must be tapped back into place with the mallet. The parts occasionally break from all this pounding, but, since I made this myself, I can rebuild any part of it whenever necessary

One of the modifications I made was the addition of an idler.

The idler moves up an down to adjust the tension on the rope, to keep it nice and taught. However, slippage is still a problem with the rope. Roy Underhill recommends using Maple Syrup, as it is nice and sticky. I, however, regard Maple Syrup as one of nature's most perfect bounties, and would never commit the sacrilege of pouring this precious liquid out upon a rope. I use a glue stick instead.

With the rope nice and sticky, the blank secured, and the lathe tapped into alignment, turning can begin. Turning is a rather delicately balanced affair on this lathe. I stand balanced on one foot, pumping like mad with the other, while holding sharp tools to a rapidly rotating piece of wood. It is good exercise. Interesting note, and often a bit of a surprise to first time users of a treadle lathe: The leg that gets tired is not the one you think. It's the leg you're standing one.

I begin by rounding the blank. I start near the tailstock, turn it round, and then move back to the headstock.

In the above photo, you can see a knot in the wood. If this blank were a single solid piece of wood, I would have to cut the wood short at the knot, as structurally unsound and unsuitable for turning, and found another blank for this piece. However, as this piece is laminated, the other boards will be strong enough for the column, and I will hide the knot by placing the column so the knot faces the back of the altar.

I continue rounding the piece until the entire blank is a rough cylinder.

Now that the blank is round, it is time to start adding the details, which I will discuss in the next post.

3.5 time outs Tuesday

2012-01-17T08:47:00.000-05:00

LarryD started this. I thought I'd give this a shot, just this once.

My first (and possibly only) Sheavalanche has drawn to a close. I had over four hundred hits in one day last week. At one point, according to the stats, I had more hits in one hour than my daily average. I have had other spikes in bygone years. A few times I have had hundreds of hits because of comments and links I have left in comboxes at Fr Z and NLM. I stopped doing that, because it felt dishonest to use them to boost my stats. I also had a huge hit spike - I believe it was bigger than when Shea linked to me- when Augustinus over at The Cafeteria is Closed linked to an article I wrote on Gather Us In.

In Celebrity News: Last week, the world was shocked at the news that Bryan Ferry, 66, lead singer of the band Roxy Music, had married a thirty year old woman, whom had previously dated his son. Debate ranged aver whether it was creepier that he had broken the rock star/younger wife age rule (the youngest you are supposed to go is half your age plus one, which would have been thirty four in this case) or that his son had also dated her, and thus has most likely had sex with his step mom.

Really, who'd a thunk a man who sang a love song to a blow up doll would do something creepy? Sing it man! "I blew up your body/ But you blew my mind!"

In Canadian Government News, there is... nothing. Frankly, I love it when the government does squat.

3.5

One of the things I am not looking forward to in having Frodo is the prospect of being stuck watching more children's shows on television. What happened to the good old days of cartoon critters dropping anvils and dynamite on each other? Hacking up each other faces with razor blades? That was hilarious! These days, cartoons are such pallid, white bread, can't we all be nice to each other, and spoiled kids with understanding, patient parents, or kids with big heads and big eyes who speak like every little thing is the MOST. EXCITING. THING. EVER. I'm looking at you, Dora and Diego. And, from another show, I'm still waiting to see an episode entitled Caillou Gets a Whuppin'.

That's it for today. Tomorrow I hope to do another post on the home altar.

No post at the moment...

2012-01-16T09:24:00.000-05:00

... So here's Frodo playing with his nonna's cat.

Renovations and history at two Toronto churches

2012-01-13T11:45:00.001-05:00

Whilst on my perambulations about town, taking the photographs of the nativity scenes below, I had a chance to have another look at some of the ongoing renovations and restoration efforts at two of Toronto's more beautiful churches, St Michael's Cathedral and St Mary's. Naturally, since I already had my camera in hand, I snapped a few photographs.

St Michael's is undergoing very extensive and very expensive restorations, in part to repair the ravages of time and restore the Cathedral, but also in part to bring it up to the current fire and safety codes. That necessity is behind one of the more noticeable, at least at this point, changes: the removal of the organ and the choir loft.

Both are going to be rebuilt and replaced at some point. The problem with the loft, as I understand it, (and any reader who knows better than I may chime in and correct me on this point, with my gratitude) is that it was condemned as unfit for the size of the choir- as provided by St Michael's Choir School- and that it had only one small exit, deadly dangerous in the case of a fire. The organ, the only Warren organ of its size still in existence (Warren was once an important local organ maker. Both St Michael's and St James, the Anglican Cathedral, originally had Warren organs) has been removed and will be restored and installed elsewhere. Where, I don't know. Part of its problem was that it's pipes obscured the stained glass window at the back. Another organ, a Casavant, from a church in Quebec that has closed, and with an arrangement of pipes that will not cover over the window, has been purchased and will one day be installed.

The Narthex is also been undergoing its own restoration work. All the plaster has been stripped, revealing the brickwork that has been hidden for almost a century and a half.

These bricks were possibly laid by Irish famine refugees, many of the them volunteers, as they made this strange land their new home. Or perhaps not. A curious fact about the bricks is their colour- red. The exterior of the Cathedral is made of yellow brick, as is the majority of the older buildings and homes in the city. That's because yellow is the colour of the clay that was found and used at the Don Valley Brick works, which provided much of the bricks that built the city. That gives rise to the question: where did these come from, and when?

The stripping of the plaster from the area around the main doors has revealed this:

There were once windows there, possibly stained glass, covered over for years. Or perhaps niches for statues, as the outside shows no sign of these windows. Why covered over, I can't say. There would have been another on the other side of the door. What will be done with them now? Covered over again, and left for another generation in some future restoration to rediscover, I imagine.

I also visited St Mary's and took a few photographs of that church. It's spire, It's most noticeable and prominent feature, is still hidden behind scaffolding. What I found that was most interesting in the church was a pile of calendars, made to be handed out to the congregation, at the back of the church. Most of it was filled with pictures of processions and parish groups from the past, but it also had one very interesting photo which answered an old question I had.

The question regarded this altar.

I had found an old picture of the interior, and there seemed to be a different high altar. I wondered if the current high altar was original, or if the main altar out front was new, or a portion of the old altar. The calendar answered the questions.

The high altar is new, and the sanctuary has been redone and laid with a new floor. I still can't say for certain that the current altar is part of the old high altar, but it looks old, older than the current high altar, and, were I a betting man, I would gladly lay a dollar that it came from the old one. Also, notice the stenciling under the arches, now painted over.

This puts St Mary's in a rather unique category for the churches in Toronto, for it is the only church I know of that ripped out a beautiful high altar and replaced it with... a beautiful high altar. (I am assuming the current high altar is in fact an altar and could be used as such.) Most other older churches in Toronto lost their high altars years ago, to be replaced by more plain structures. I know of one church which still has two side altars flanking the main one, complete with rood screens. The side altars are identical and Gothic in style, and should flank a larger similar altar. Instead, there is not much in the center. The new altar and sanctuary isn't hideous, just out of place for the setting, disappointing, rather like an orchestra performing a dramatic buildup for the solo, only to have the tenor merely clear his throat. St Mary's, on the other hand, has moved from beauty to beauty. I am not interested in arguing which is better. I will say that this is how it should be.

Seeing restorations like this remind me that a church is and always will be a work in progress. One generation builds it, another decorates it, another keeps it standing, and adds its own little touches. It is never finished, and never will be.

Sometimes, the previous generation, by which I mean the one before ours, is regarded as a generation of iconoclasts. I don't know if that was universal. In Toronto, much destruction was visited upon church interiors that was not visited upon the churches I have seen in Quebec, for example. There seems to be a difference betwee what that generation did, and all others, but at times I don't know if it was a difference in kind or quality. In man ways, they were stuck in a bad situation: church attendance declining, church activities which used to raise money for the church falling away as other secular institutions start doing the same thing as the church, only bigger- bingo comes to mind- and they had an old building that needed fixing. In some cases, they had to decide between hiring a very expensive professional to fix the old stenciling, or get a big bucket of cheap paint and a roller. In others, the changes were more extensive, and they were different in kind, I believe, for they tried not merely to add their own touch to the church, and hand it on to the next generation, but to destroy any evidence that there was ever a generation other than theirs, and then make it so no succeeding generation could change what they had done. They had their say, and now all others must be silent.

But nothing lasts forever. We fix and repair, add a touch of ourselves, and hand what is the best of us on to those who come after with a smile, and tell them it is now their turn to do their best, create their beauty, and, when the time comes, hand it on again.

Update: Reader and good friend Vox Cantoris sent along a picture of where the choir loft met up with one of the pillars. With the removal of the choir loft, some decorations are revealed. This would have been some of the very earliest of the decorations, from the late 1840's, early 1850's. Also interesting, it appears from this photo that the pillar was made from wood, (The rest of the pillars appear to be of stone) but I would have to get a closer look to say for certain.

Nativity scenes around the city.

2012-01-12T10:08:00.000-05:00

A welcome to any who have come here from Mark Shea's blog. Feel free to hang out and have a look around.

I finally got around to downloading my photographs onto the computer. It took a while. Among other problems that occurred over Christmas, my laptop's motherboard died on boxing day- exactly one year and one day after I got the computer. In short, the warranty was over. I didn't repair the computer, as it would be quite expensive, and it is almost the same cost to buy a new one, but I didn't buy a new one either. That left the old desktop standby, which, while reliable, is slow and clunky. Veeerrrry Sloooooow. So downloading pictures, which on the laptop was nigh instantaneous, takes a lot of time.

That aside, here are photos of nativity scenes from a few parishes around the city.

St Michael's Cathedral

St Patrick's.

St Mary's on Bathurst

St Cecilia's

St Clare's

A few thoughts...

2012-01-11T13:26:00.001-05:00

On the latest Voris controversy. I know, I know- after saying I had no interest in this matter, I am now going to post on it. What has piqued my interest is Voris' response to the Archdiocese of Detroit. My interest is not in the content so much as his rhetoric, as rhetoric was my old field. I am not going to address the question of whether he is right or wrong as much as I am going to look at how he constructs his position as the right one. I have transcribed his statement. or, more accurately, the statement he read, for purpose of examination.

But first, a few observations. The debate, such as it is, (and I believe that it really isn't a debate at all, but I'll get to that in a moment,) turns on a few points: first, whether or not Detroit has jurisdiction in this matter; second, whether or not RealCatholic is in violation of Canon 216; third, a curious argument over why the Diocese has or has not gone after other groups which also have seemingly run afoul of Canon 216. This is either the crux of the entire matter, or irrelevant. Voris' supporters say that the diocese has not gone after the others, the supporters of the Diocese point out that the bishop has gone after some of them. More on this later.

My focus will not be on his arguments, such as they are, but rather on the way he forms and the terms into which he puts them: how he goes about constructing his position, and how he attempts to persuade the reader or listener that he is right. At its heart, rhetoric, the art of persuasion, is about power, and the ability to persuade and even control one's audience.

Now, on to the statement, with my observations.

The board of St Michael's media has requested that the following statement be issued by me in response to the recent spat of press releases from the Archdiocese of Detroit.

His first step is to distance himself from the actual statement. He is reading at the request of the board. Also, notice the clear view of the letterhead at the start of the statement: "St Michael's Media: Overcoming the Darkness." Though not read out loud, it is prominently displayed, and may be considered part of what is to follow. They are fighting the darkness. Also notice he is not using the name "RealCatholic", the name which has started the whole affair. Watch how that name pops up later. Also notice how he has minimized what has started this affair: mere press releases. Documents with no real power whatsoever.

St Michael's media and its President, Michael Voris, request all of the faithful of the Archdiocese of Detroit to pray for Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron.

Well and good. Pray for the Archbishop.

Elements within the Curia, as well as forces outside, continue to impede the Archbishop from effectively dispelling grave doctrinal dissent and deep seated moral depravity. (cf Catechism of the Catholic Church section 2357)

Here he has set up an opposition: The Archbishop is opposed, not by RealCatholic or St Michael's Media (who ask that everybody pray for him), but by 'forces' within the Curia and without. These forces are not named yet, and are left vague. Voris is here setting up an opposition: Bishop vs forces within the Curia and without.

St Michael's Media and Michael Voris have been, and remain, the repeated targets of those same hostile elements as the former strive to see realized the reformation of the Archdiocese of Detroit and be of service to the Universal Church and her Supreme Pastor, Pope Benedict XVI.

Here the statement returns to its support of the Archbishop, and now claims to be fighting the same fight as the Archbishop. The use of the word 'former' in this sentence is curious: the verb 'strive'- rather than 'strives' indicates that former refers to St Michael's media, rather than the bishop. He and St Michael's Media have been striving to reform the Archdiocese. He is subtly equating his efforts with those of the bishop. The opposition between the archbishop and the Curia and forces without is now expanded: Archbishop and Voris et al along with the Church and the Pope vs. forces within the Curia and without. This theme is going to be worked on and expanded by Voris. But first, a statement to the point.

Neither St Michael's Media nor Michael Voris are in violation of can. 216 of the Code of Canon Law.

If this were a debate, then here is the heart of the matter. This is the only sentence in this statement which addresses the issue which started this affair: Is Voris and Company in violation of Canon Law? Voris baldly states the answer is "no". He does not expand at all on this, merely states it as a fact. The reason?

They underline that the "burden of proof falls upon he who makes the allegation" against them. (cf. can. 1526, 1 CIC)

He doesn't have to.

Whether or not this is the correct interpretation, and whether or not the burden of proof has or has not been met is not a question I am qualified to discuss. I am not a canonist. Voris' defence, the only words to speak to the point, is to claim he and the group of which he is the president is not in violation of the law, and he doesn't have to say anything more about that. He does, however, have more to say on other things, like the forces that oppose him.

Neither plan on providing fodder or canonical arguments to self-serving or simply misguided bloggers who fail to see how easily they are being manipulated into giving aid to the enemies of Jesus Christ and Holy Mother Church, who rejoice at seeing internecine bloodshed among the fold.

Having allied himself with the Archbishop, the Pope, and the Church as a whole, Voris now draws the natural conclusion: Opposition to me is opposition to the Church. Oppose me, whether it is for self-serving reasons or simple mistake, and you are being manipulated and allying yourself with The Enemy.

It is for this reason that I don't call this a debate. This is a conflict of competing narratives, filled with what would be non-sequitors and irrelevancies in a formal debate. Take, for example, the most common themes that come up in other blogs. Voris' supporters ask why the diocese hasn't condemned other groups which have also used the word Catholic in their name? Diocesan supporters point out that the Bishop has condemned several such groups, only it has not gotten as much press as this dust up with Voris. For a debate, this is irrelevant to the question. Let me use an extreme analogy as an example to illustrate this point: the police arrest a man on a charge of petty theft. The man says "Why are you picking on me? Shouldn't you be arresting murderers?" to which the officer replies: "What do you mean? We arrested a murderer just last week." Both the original question and the response are irrelevant to the case at hand. But they are relevant to a narrative, and what Voris is pushing here is a narrative.

St Michael's Media and its President call upon all the faithful of Detroit to be real Catholics (emphasis mine) by adhering entirely to the Deposit of Faith as taught authoritatively only through the Magisterium of the Popes and the Bishops of the Catholic Church in Union with him.

Voris here finally invokes the name that sparked this little dust-up in the most surprising- even shocking- way, and it cannot possibly have been accidental. Voris has carefully constructed a narrative in which the Curia, which issued the original release, is on the side of Satan, and he is allied with the Bishop, the Pope, and the Church. He has now invoked the name of his company as the true name of the Church. Oppose me, and you oppose the bishop the Pope and the Church itself. After all, if you accept his narrative, he is not disobeying the ordinary of the archdiocese which issued the first statement, but with the forces of Satan within the curia who are the real forces which oppose him and who, presumably, actually issued the statement.

So Voris offers no logic and no debate, and instead offers a narrative that may be accepted or rejected on faith, and has to be, as he offers no proof. I have nothing more to say on the matter, really. I leave it to the readers to agree or disagree with Voris as they please. I have my own thoughts about what will happen, eventually, but which I will keep to myself at this time. I will say that, as my old interest was rhetoric, I will conclude by saying a few more words about Voris' rhetoric.

As I said earlier, rhetoric is about power, an exercise in power and control. It has many tools. One possible tool of rhetoric is logic. However, as C.S.Lewis stated in his Screwtape Letters, where three hundred yerars ago, people knew when a point was proven and when it wsan't, and an educated man was ready to change his life baed on a chain of reasoning, now people barely know the first thing about logic at all. Jargon, slogans and cant are more effective tools of rhetoric than logic. Another common tools these days is narrative. People may know nothing about logic, but they still like a good story, and Voris tells a good one.

Voris's narrative is a narrative of power. He is claiming a great amount of power to himself, and you must accept his claim if you are to accept his narrative.The claim to power is the very assumption that underpins his statement. The assumption that Voris has the power to say who is to be obeyed and who is not; who has the power to speak, and who has not; who is right, and who is not; and who is Catholic, and who is not; and who has the right to say who is Catholic, and who does not. This all began when the Archdiocese of Detroit, in response to question, issued a statement which said, in short, that Voris and RealCatholic television does not speak for the Church. Voris' response is "Yes, I do. In fact, mine is the only group that speaks for the Church."

As a last note, here is Voris' statement as he read it, with his own intonation and emphases.

I need this. If you have testosterone, so do you.

2012-01-06T18:40:00.000-05:00

An oldie but a goody.

Wish I had gotten one for Christmas.

I knew this was going to happen sooner or later

2012-01-06T08:43:00.000-05:00

Having just said below that I don't write about news, I will now write about some news.

Archbishop Thomas Collins has been elevate to the college of cardinals. Toronto will once again have a voting Cardinal in the college.

Our archbishop doesn't turn up in news or blogs all that often, which, all things considered, is not such a bad thing. Running a diocese as large and as various as Toronto- or perhaps I should just say 'Toronto', as there may not be another one like it- must be enough of a headache without having the various media peering over your shoulder and evaluating your every move.

At any rate, prayers for our new cardinal, he'll need them, congratulations, and perhaps a celebratory drink. I suggest a mixture of

2 oz gin
1 oz lemon juice
1 tsp superfine sugar
3 oz club soda
1 maraschino cherry
1 slice orange

I'll bet he's never head that joke before.

The post you haven't been waiting for.

2012-01-05T21:46:00.001-05:00

I have been busy at work since returning Tuesday. Work, for me, means spending seven hours a day in a place I hate doing things I don't like while surrounded by people I can't stand. Today there was an argument at work between the know it all and the pothead. It was exactly like a modern version of Socrates taking down the Sophists, except for the fact that it was nothing like it at all.

I have thought about why I blog, and the future of this blog. I have a few thoughts for posts and have been taking a few of my wretched photos, but I have little will to comment on any of the more pressing issues of the day, whether recent bishop scandals (take your pick), or the Michael Voris kerfuffle (not particularly interested), or Anglicans coming over (in general, it's good) or some peculiar things reporters say about the Church. People make mistakes, politicians lie, sinners sin and haters hate. If you have ever read one story of such things, I don't know that you ever need read another. Once you know the principle, the particular expression is of little interest. This puts me out of step with most other bloggers. Probably explains why this blog has almost no readers.

So I have taken a few photographs, I hope to take a few more and will post them soon. I have also been taking pictures of the construction of one of the elements of the home altar, and will have another post up as soon as I have actually finished the piece, followed by actually having some time to write the article. And then, I don't know.

Another year gone

2011-12-31T19:37:00.000-05:00

It's easy to see how depression kicks in at this time of year. Like birthdays, it's another signpost marking the passage of time. Another year has gone with nothing to show. Another lousy year, with the promise of another one just like it, or worse. stretching out ahead. Hemmed in by non choices, impossible choices, or the decision between bad and bad, or bad and worse, or no choice whatsoever.

Happy new year.

Prayer Request

2011-12-28T23:43:00.001-05:00

Someone close needs to get to a doctor soon, but refuses. Have been praying for years on this. No dice. May be too late.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T16:18:00.000-05:00

Preach it, brother Linus.

O Holy Night

2011-12-23T08:24:00.000-05:00

Joan Sutherland.

That top note is killer.

Joan was well known for having an incredibly beautiful voice and for being totally incomprehensible. True story: My singing teacher was listening to he radio the day after she died, and they were playing an all day tribute to Joan. They played a song by her he had never heard before. At first he thought she was singing in Italian, then he thought it was German... no wait, Italian... it could be German... and so on. When the song ended, the announcer came on and revealed the song had been written by Handel, and was in English.

Another version by another great, the incomparable Leontyne Price.

You may now return to earth, and Merry Christmas.

Breaking for Christmas

2011-12-19T09:41:00.000-05:00

Taking a break from blogging and all that for the holidays. Merry Christmas everyone.

Sensitivity training

2011-12-15T14:35:00.007-05:00

A note I sent to one of the managers yesterday regarding our training pamphlet on the new currency and its security features. (For those who don't know, Canada is issuing new polymer fifty and one hundred dollar bank notes, mainly to try and deter counterfeiting. I don't much care, as long as they keep the Mr Spock five.)

Dear xxxx

While the photocopies you handed me on the subject of security features in the new currency were useful, I found the instructions a little vague when it came to the subject of informing a customer that the currency they have handed over is not of the realm, and I believe it possible- nay, likely- that the other bookstore associates and cashiers have the same problem. Fortunately, resident expert Senator Vreenak has helpfully supplied us with a video explaining how to sensitively and courteously explain to a customer that their money may quite possibly have been forged.

Feel free to share this information with the rest of the staff.

You are welcome.

bear

It's the most overdone time of the year

2011-12-14T23:40:00.000-05:00

From Straight No Chaser, the guys who brought us The Twelve Days of Christmas, comes another soon to be classic, The Christmas Can Can!

Christmas in the Workshop

2011-12-13T23:16:00.003-05:00

I am not one of Santa's elves, but at this time of year I do a reasonable impression.

This year, I am making a couple of hope chests for my daughters.

As I mentioned a few posts down, when speaking of the altar, the hardest woodworking is straight lines and flat surfaces. Any mistake will be glaringly obvious. You may, for example, remember this piece of woodwork that was rather famous a few years back:

Most people, I imagine, looked at it and thought: "Big deal. It's a flat box, nothing fancy." Woodworkers look at it and think: "Wow! It's a flat box! Nothing fancy!" We say that because we know how incredibly hard such simple perfection is to achieve. The very flatness and plainness of the coffin mean that the joinery must be perfect, and it was. The corners are joined at non-square angles, and the joints are perfect. Several woodworking magazines wrote pieces on this coffin, and more than a few tried to locate and interview the cabinet maker who created this. While I can't say this is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, I can say that this piece could only have been made by a master of the craft.

My own joints are pretty good, if I do say so.

After you cut about four or five hundred dovetails, it starts to get a little easier.

The chests are made primarily out of recycled materials, or 'garbage' as it is more commonly known. In this case, a coffee table and a few headboards and a chest of drawers have provided virtually all the wood. This morning I realized I didn't have enough for both the lids, and I had to go to the store and get a little wood, so thus far I have spent $25 on the chests. I still have to buy hinges and some aromatic cedar for the lining. Still, cheaper than buying new.

To the kids: I'd love to get you some new computers and iphones, all pimped out with the latest gee whizzery, but I am having a little trouble 64 bit microprocessors out of wood.

Update: Well, that just figures. I have been watching my usual sources for wood for the lids for over a month, and nothing suitable shows up. Yesterday I went and bought some boards for one of the tops, and today I someone tosses out a pine shelving unit.

Christmas is coming

2011-12-11T23:05:00.002-05:00

I got nothin'. The relentless cheer of the season depresses the heck out of me. Here's a few random thoughts.

***

A Catholic Bucket List.

Shea had one up a while back. I thought of writing my own, but didn't come up with much of anything. At any rate, the Catholic Bucket List should include feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoners, comforting the sick, sheltering the homeless, burying the dead. Any other kind of Catholic bucket list would have to assume that any good Catholic would have to want to do something other than this. Such a thing is surely impossible.

***

On the other hand...

I am not very good at this Catholic thing, so with that my list would include-

-visiting the great cathedrals and churches. You know the list- Chartres, Notre Dame de Paris, St Peter's, the major basilicas of Rome, Lincoln, Yorkshire, St Paul's London (I know, Protestant, but still stunning architecture, and there is no rule against visiting an Anglican place of worship, as long as it is not to take part in the worship.)

-Take a vacation that involves staying at a monastery. Preferably one with monks.

-Punch a Walrus in the face. (There's nothing in the Bible that says I can't. Besides, they have it coming.)

-Attend a Mass by a Pope.

***

Secular Christmas music stinks.

It's all about nostalgia, how everything used to be better way back when, the time when your Christmas gift from Granny was a pair of socks, and you were grateful, by golly, and Christmas dinner was roadkill, and Mom died giving birth to your sister and Daddy was crushed in the factory, and a toothache was potentially fatal, and coal burned in the fireplace, if you had any, you'd pee in a pot, if you had one, and toss it out a window, if you had one, and the streets were covered in manure.

Or the songs are about let's get together and feel warm and fuzzy towards one another, because That's What It's All About, Isn't It? and wouldn't the world be a better place if we were all a nice to each other? Because That's What It's All About, Isn't It?

No wonder the black dog is barking.

***

Christmas shopping seems to be cutting into my hits. My hits peaked on Wednesday- at a whopping forty two- then fell by half the next day, and by even more, to less than twenty. At least, I hope it's Christmas shopping and getting ready for the Holidays that's keeping people away from the blog. The alternative explanation is that this blog really sucks.

***

Most popular hit remains the altar.

Many people come here looking for plans. If I had written any up, I may have been able to sell a plan or two. There are programs for that. All it requires are people who are as crazy/crazier than me to fork out some cash and buy them.

Then again, my attempts in the past to sell stuff people were interested in were all failures.

***

This blog does suck. Years of chattering and forty hits in one day is the high point? It's time to shut this stupid thing down and be done with it.

***

I don't have a snowball's hope in hades of doing anything on that list. Not even the Walrus thing.

***

I used to joke that one day we would be selling cards that said: "May you experience sensations appropriate to whatever time of year you believe this to be." It's not much of a joke any more.