A Public Service Announcement from Cthulhu

Cthulhu would like to offer Its congratulations to the lot of you little vermin. You have now made it possible, if not inevitable, that the Dread God will be able to rise from Its deep city of R’lyeh, to wipe your miserable species from the face of this paltry planet, and to restore the Old Ones to their rightful place as rulers of the universe. At the very least, you have made far more plausible and successful Cthulhu’s campaign for the presidency of the United States.

Petrus Romanus

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Sometimes I think that it’s not so much that Calvin was playing God, as it is that God is now playing Calvin. Between the ecological degradation that is going on these days, a level of species obliteration which has not been seen since the Cambrian extinction; together with what appears to be automata in the process of becoming sentient, and those same robots becoming corporations, er, artificial persons, with far more rights under the law than us allegedly human critters, well, it’s beginning to lead even the most sanguine of hearts to the belief that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Whore of Babylon, and the Beast Itself are about to take the stage of the world, and enact a Shakespearean drama on our sorry backsides.

Yet one more straw loading this particular camel’s back, at least for me, was the election of Pope Francis the First to the Papacy. And no, I don’t think that I’m suffering from what many are coming to call ‘Francis Derangement Syndrome’. I actually like the guy. On the day that His most recent Holiness was elevated, I thought to myself, “It looks like Monsignor Quixote has entered the Vatican”. With perhaps one exception, I have thought that just about everything that he has said or done (as opposed to what the media and other gossipers have said about him) has been really nifty.

So, no, I don’t think that Pope Francis is the Antichrist. I fear, however, that His Holiness is in the process of becoming someone far more ominous than that.

A Letter to the Editor

I found a link in the World Wide Web to this page, suggesting that we make use of the Traditional Latin Mass, even though it is mostly a silent affair. Silence, after all, is golden. So they say. We should avoid flashy, noisy things. So they say.

I have a different perspective. Here it is.

Remedial Education, Year 1, Week 4

I managed to go the weekdays of last week without alcohol, and found both my will power and intellect increased. I limited alcohol on weekend days to three drinks per day. I’m beginning to realize that I’ve basically been on a bender for the past forty or so years. It’s been long since time that that should stop. On the other hand, I found that weaning myself from the booze left me tired for a few days. As a result, there has been considerable progress, of a sort. Also limited internet use to checking e-mail for morning, noon, and evening. Thus, here is the tally:

Grammar: Little progress. Must re-double efforts on Greek and Old English.

Music: Reviewed lessons 1-3 of Ghezzo’s Solfege and read all the musical lines using solfege; did little with guitar (again, must redouble efforts on this front); Read chapters 1,2,4 and 5 of Miller’s Structure of Singing, and have begun writing my primer on vocal production: outline and introduction completed. Twenty two chapters to go. Engraved all six weeks of Wednesday stichera from the Menaion  (February 11, 18, 25, March 3, 10, 17) for Great Lent Presanctified services.

Mathematics: Reviewed the introduction and first chapter of Hogben’s Mathematics for the Million; memorized times tables up to 30 for the numbers 1-10; factored the numbers up to 100.

Theology: Failed to read the first thirty chapters of the Book of Genesis (five chapters per day). Read The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation, by Alister McGrath; currently preparing book review of same.

Philosophy: Read Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo.

The Sin of Satan

I was singing this last Sunday at St. Andrew Russian Catholic Church, in El Segundo, CA, and was taking part in our small choir, a quartet with Martha on soprano, Anne on alto, me on tenor, and Gabriel, our choir director, on bass. And I came nearer that day than I had ever done before in committing the sin of Satan.

Remedial Education, Year 1, Week 3

I have gotten a bit further ahead with my attempts at a self tuition, but have been hampered by the fact I was ill for much of the last week. 

Remedial Education, Year 1, Week 2

Well, I’ve completed this week with a near complete failure to accomplish any of my goals.