Deep Red

 

My strongest memory of freshman film class (save revisiting Sergio Leone's oeuvre) is discovering Italian slasher movies. I didn't care for Mario Bava's rococo craftsmanship but Dario Argento's stylish gialli hit the spot. The American slashers who shamelessly copy them pale in comparison.

Deep Red (1975) is probably Argento's best film. Like the best horror movies its rich subtext and impeccable style overwhelm the paper-thin plot. Combining the twisted psychology of Alfred Hitchcock with Michelangelo Antonioni's voyeur preoccupations, it packs a bloody punch.

Mark Daly (David Hemmings) is a jazz musician-turned-teacher living in Rome. He witnesses the murder of psychic Helga (Macha Meril), who'd had a vision of a long-ago crime. With the help of flirty reporter Gianna (Daria Nicolodi) and wastrel friend Carlo (Gabriele Lava) Mark edges closer to the truth. The killer stymies Mark by offing key witnesses and threatening him. Grim discoveries at an abandoned mansion finally lead Mark towards the killer - just not in the way he expects.

Deep Red is a triumph of style. Argento employs skillful POV shots, with the killer watching a psychic conference or surveying their weaponry. He matches this with ocular imagery: one chilling medium shot has a single eye open within a dark closet. Argento crams scenes with occult symbols, garish paintings, classical statues, cavernous mansions and an eerie lullaby leitmotif (complemented by Goblin's rockin' techno score). Having co-scripted Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, it's not surprising Argento uses similar fragmented flashbacks.

Indeed, Argento plays the homage card extensively. Besides Hitchcock's Psycho, he uses imagery from Rebecca and The Birds. He borrows from Antonioni's Blow-Up, with David Hemmings witnessing an ambiguous crime scene. Argento differs from Antonioni in making the murder real, but having Mark misremember a crucial detail. Sources as disparate as Edgar Allan Poe (the wall-entombed body) and Charade (a dying message scrawled on steamed glass) also get shout-outs. Deep Red blends these borrowings into a pleasingly nasty cocktail.

Deep Red delivers some twisted death scenes. One unlucky victim gets scalded in a bathtub, another harassed by a ventriloquist dummy before being bludgeoned. Both villains meet decidedly gruesome ends, including a unique decapitation. That's not even mentioning unfortunate birds and lizards. Blood aside, its sheer nihilism may put viewers off.

If Argento and Bava owe Hitchcock a huge debt, American slashers pilfered them even more flagrantly, borrowing the murders while missing their skill. John Carpenter lifted Argento's image of a child pondering a bloody knife for Halloween, while Friday the 13th outright stole several murders from Bava's Bay of Blood. Deep Red is positively tasteful compared to dreck like Saw and Hostel, where sadistic defilement is the only attraction.

Using Psycho as a template, Argento probes psychological trauma that makes Norman Bates look well-adjusted. Gender identities are constantly at play: after Mark asserts masculine superiority, Gianna beats him at arm wrestling! Carlo proves a closeted gay with a drinking problem, his mother (Clara Clamai) a bit too close. One clever twist comes when Gianna is non-fatally stabbed; the real killer wouldn't be so, erm, impotent. This isn't mentioning the creepy little girl (Nicoletta Elmi) impaling lizards on straight pins...

Deep Red skilfully uses humor to set up deaths. One subplot largely cut from earlier releases sees Mark harassed by a boorish police inspector (Eros Pagni). Indeed, Argento implies that an impending police strike forces Mark to do their work! Painful irony dominates: a crack about Mark bashing the piano keys like his father's teeth turns sour when a murder victim meets that very fate. Similarly, Mark gets scalded by an espresso machine shortly before the bathtub encounter.

Admittedly the story takes a familiar whodunnit track: if nothing else, the limited cast narrows the suspect field. Yet Argento transcends this with a double-twist and misleading clues. By employing such rich visuals, Argento sneaks subtle hints undetectable at a naked glimpse. It's chilling to revisit the initial crime scene with foreknowledge of its twist. A grisly drawing at the mansion is a red herring yet leads Mark indirectly to the real killer. Deep Red misdirects the audience with uncommon skill.

Acting is not Deep Red's strong point. David Hemmings (Charge of the Light Brigade) plays Mark snide and sarcastic, a less appealing take on his Blow-Up protagonist. Daria Nicolodi (Mrs. Argento) is charming but her character seems inconsistent: one scene playful, the next ambitious, finally romantic. Gabriele Lavia makes Carlo a pathetic sad sack while Clara Clamai broadly overacts.

Deep Red isn't everyone's cup of tea: it's short on story, likeable characters or nuance, and full of bloody mayhem. Yet Argento's intoxicating direction elevates this butcher's yard into something like art. From a blogger who usually loathes slasher flicks, that's saying something.

Sandy

I'm not saying Hurricane Sandy was an 'inside job', but its an interesting coincidence that in 1997 a simulation was conducted for the National Hurricane Center and that Hurricane was called, incredibly, Sandy.

The path of this hurricane of 1938 used to simulate what would happen in 1997 was rather similar to the path of the real 'Frankenstorm', Sandy. It's worth noting that Dr Frankenstein's monster was a man-made creation.

I'm not saying much more, because I will be derided as a first class loon of the highest order. All I'd say is it is important to keep an open mind about it. The technology to create hybrid superstorms is possibly there.

Weather modification technology can be used for warfare against other nations, population control and to win or cancel elections.

Don't you think its just a bit of a coincidence that a Category 1 hurricane has hit New York a week before the Presidential Elections?

Have you not noticed how elements in the media are crying out that this is Mother Earth issuing her terrible warning to mankind to stop breeding and polluting now?

It's not important to know or believe who or what gave Sandy its incredible and devastating power. It's important that we pray for the victims and those without power and clean water. It's also important to be aware that if this kind of technology exists, that it is not just the weather that could be manipulated, but voters also.

Exclusive: Bishops Conference Memo on Battles Church Can Win

I have been passed a private and confidential memorandum passed between the Bishops of England and Wales on those battles that the Church can win.

Catholics have been assured that there are some battles that are not worth getting upset or worried about because we can't win them.

So, here they are, as we enter a new phase of the battle to keep faith in the public sphere, the battle to defend the sanctity of human life and to preserve those vital humanity-continuing institutions, such as marriage, from destruction and redefinition by the State...here are the battles we can win.

The following are the battlefronts that Catholics can expect the Bishops of England and Wales to be fighting. These are exciting times to be Catholic and a dreadful time to be an enemy of the Church. Hear our Shepherds roar! Begone, vile enemies of Christ the Lord, for on these grounds, we shall defeat you!

Tiddlywinks. No game of tiddlywinks is easy. We all know how heated and tense this battle can be. However, the memorandum circulated around our Bishops suggest that, so long as Catholics only play tiddlywinks with each other - and don't try to take on people outside of the Church who might outperform them - this is a battle that Catholics can win!

CAFOD: There is a war going on and part of the war is overseas development. The Bishops see that the battle to ensure the sustainable development of overseas nations can be won, as long as we play by the rules. Thankfully, the rules have been set by the UK Government, so the battle is not with them - no the battle is against poverty and ecological disaster. Here, the Bishops see the battle can be won. It doesn't matter if, in the heat of battle against want and famine, we allow CAFOD to use condoms to win these battles. To complain against the widespread distribution of condoms by CAFOD staff to black people is pointless because if we did that we wouldn't be playing by the rules and, thankfully, the Government set the rules, along with such supranational institutions as the UN Population Fund. We can win this!

The Cuts: The Bishops see inroads can be made in this battle. The Left are angered by the Government's cuts. Apart from the scandalous effect this will have on Britain's poor, there is nothing that hurts the modern Church more than seeing over-sized bureaucracies being cut, streamlined and made more effective. The whole point of the public sector is that it makes jobs out of thin air for the middle class! As long as the Church joins with the Labour Party, trade unions and The Guardian, She will keep her 'right on' image, become more popular with Polly Toynbee and defend public sector jobs to boot. Fight the good fight, my Lords! Of course, the Bishops could battle against the NHS who have been temporarily sterilizing school girls without their mums and dads' permission and murdering the elderly by starving them to death. But hey. Let's not pick fights we can't win, because nobody has ever taken on the NHS and won...especially not Catholic nurses who don't want to assist in the performing of abortions. Be careful with your battles, my Lords. Pick the ones you can win - that way, success is guaranteed! We all know the only thing that makes the Lord Jesus (who sacrificed Himself in order to win no small battle Himself - the redemption of the World) happy, is the sight of pragmatic Catholics willing to compromise with the forces of evil in order to preserve public reputation, respectability and safety.

The Environment: Despite the calamitous 'Climategate' saga in which leading scientists were revealed to have doctored research results on the climate, in the public mind, carbon is still a force for evil in the World. When Bishops fight evil, evil cowers and runs for the hills.

By joining forces with the misanthropic Greens, who absorbed most of the hard left after the discrediting of communism, the Church can win the battle for Mother Earth, encourage Catholics to take every measure possible to save the environment and avoid persecution when the UN tells countries to adopt a two-child policy. That way, not only do we avoid persecution, but we win the battle against carbon emissions with the help of eco-fanatics! None of the faithful thought much of Humane Vitae anyway. Most people think its a brand of mineral water. It's a win!

TV Talent Shows: Susan Boyle confirmed that Catholics have the potential to win talent shows. The Bishops intend to set up a Catholic talent training academy so that Catholics can battle on the front line of glitzy wannabe shows like X-Factor and Pop Idol. This is a battle Catholics can win! A battle for minds...and hearts!

Catholic Quiz Night: The Bishops see one battle that can be won, almost certainly, in setting up a monthly Catholic Quiz Night in which members of Parliament and the civil service are invited over for dinner to be followed by a scintillating quiz. As long as Bishops tell their liturgy and music advisors to come up with the questions for the Quiz Night, a Catholic Quiz Night against atheists and agnostics is bound to be a battle that the Church can win. As well as prominent Bishops taking on members of the British State, in the Catholic team will be the editorial team and trustees of The Tablet. So long as no Catholic Quiz Night questions involve any Catholic trivia concerning the events in the Church before 1967, or much about the documents of the Second Vatican Council themselves, then this is one battle the Church can finally win...and against the State at that!

The Battle Over Marriage: Ah yes, the big one! The Bishops see the battle over marriage to be a tricky one to win, but - and hear me out here - but only if you look at it from a traditionally Catholic perspective.

The memorandum I have seen suggests that this battle over marriage can indeed be won, so long as the Church's public criticism of same-sex marriage is so quiet that people believe there is no resistance to it whatsoever.

In order to win the battle over marriage, all we have to do is lay-low for a few months until this stuff gets passed in Parliament. Hedgehogs hibernate. We can hibernate too! After that, we can all come out of hiding and adopt a new and enlightened way of thinking about the institution formerly known as marriage. Admittedly, it's a risky strategy because the Pope wouldn't like it, but we all know that there are far more Bishops in the Church than there are Popes. This is a battle the Bishops can win! All the Catholic Church in England and Wales has to do is quietly switch sides! It's a similar policy to that which the Bishops adopted over the Equality Act and the loss of Catholic adoption agencies. Just pretend the problem isn't there and it does, eventually, go away. It is a similar policy to that adopted when Summorum Pontificum was released. All you have to do is lay low and not open anything from Rome for a while and, hey presto, you're such a force to be reckoned with you can even take on the Pope! See, also, for further examples, the Act of Supremacy, 1559.

Thanks be to God that our Bishops have the good sense to pick their battles wisely. Our Shepherds are leading us to a new and glorious vision of the Church and State relationship. One of friendliness, warmth, interaction, of endless dialogue and victories in several key areas, as highlighted above. May God always keep them even more faithful to Christ and His Church, today, as this exciting memorandum suggests they were yesterday.

A question for school lay chaplains......

......When they plan their visit to the local Mosque.

How do you set about filling in the statutory risk assessment form?

                       A thorny problem for Chaplins

If the Bishop's were Executives, they'd have been fired long ago

Mulier Fortis and Countercultural Father report on Bishop Kieran Conry's latest outpourings that are, frankly, mystifying.

+ Conry casts aside recorded history to give his distorted take on things.

Elsewhere we have Bishops shutting churches in a style more akin to Chairman Mao than to a Prince of the Church.

For years they (their lordships) have trundled out tired and weary nuances that have weakened the faith of many and led them down the path of relativism.

Yet we, the poor old sheep in the pen, put up with it all ad infinitum.

If George Orwell was alive and writing Animal Farm today he would not be focusing on Communism but on the Catholic Church.

Just think, for one minute, of the track record of  the Bishops over the past forty or fifty years.

Catholic Schools are a disgrace, abortion on demand goes unheeded,  marriages and baptisms have nose dived, adoption by homosexuals accepted, foreign priests drafted to prop up parishes in a lazy attempt to maintain the status quo and the seminaries sniff out any candidates that might have a touch of sanctity about them.
In fact, the old Noel Coward joke could be adapted along the lines of:

 Bishop interviewing prospective seminarian: "Tell me, are you a homosexual?"

Prospective seminarian: "I'm sorry My Lord, I didn't realise it was an entry requirement"

In a business world, the Bishops would have received an appraisal interview 12 months into the job.
The object would be to identify weaknesses or flaws in performance and give firm guidance and objectives with the aim of helping the Bishop to become more proficient.

This is not be a spiritual exercise, it concerns management and administration matters.

How to plan effectively, how to overcome issues such as the lack of vocations, how to motivate your priests and how to inspire your flock by your words and deeds.

And then, at the end of year two and on the occasion of the second appraisal interview, if objectives had not been achieved, the Bishop should be told to go, and quickly.

That goes part of the way to ensuring a vibrant and strong Church.

The other part is, of course, the spiritual element.

NB - an apology. After experimenting with Disqus I have reverted (hopefully) to the original comments format. In the process it appears as if I've lost a great number of comments and responses, sorry.

No Sunday Mass for 3 years

Sorry, but if you are a member of the Parish of St Winefride in Aberystwyth, Welsh gateway to the North, it looks as if you will just have to go without a Sunday Mass until some time in 2016, or possibly, 2015 if providence smiles on you.

The Bishop of Menevia, Thomas Burns, has closed the parish church deeming it unsafe and unsound.

As far as I can ascertain, from speaking to a leading parishioner, no information has been imparted to them other than the fact that the church is closed as of last Sunday.

No more Masses and, apparently, no Diocesan contingency plan.

No pastoral guidance to parishioners as to how and where they may fulfil their Sunday obligation and attend Holy Mass.
Nothing. Zilch. Dim.

The poor parish priest has been confined to barracks in Swansea some 70 or so miles distant and he is only allowed to be in Aber on Sundays, but no one knows if there will be a Mass in a hall, a community centre or under a hedge somewhere.

With the best will in the world that appears to me as being pretty dismal leadership.

Bluster and threat and asking parishioners to tell those opposing the new church to politely back down smacks of insecurity and incompetency.

Certainly, it is not Christ like behaviour.

Say a prayer please for the Bishop and his priests and the outcast parishioners of St Winefride's.

That time of year thou may'st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold;
Bare ruin'd choirs where late the sweet birds sang.

Paris comes to Aberystwyth

In a move reminiscent of Paris in the 90s when traditional French Catholics 'took over' a well known church to stage a six week sit in, parishioners of St Winefride's have occupied their parish church in an attempt to block the Bishop from proceeding with plans to demolish and rebuild.

This protest is only designed to last until the Feast of All Souls but, according to BBC reports, the protestors are also considering taking their cause direct to Rome.

Bishop Burns, meanwhile, has appealed for prayer in an attempt to resolve this issue.
Trouble is, it looks very much as if someone has been a shade terminologically inexact and that these plans to demolish and rebuild out of town, have been on the agenda for a long time and, if that is true, then any subsequent process of consultation with parishioners has been a sham and a cynical exercise.

Eye of the storm

I'm sure my American readers are aware of Hurricane Sandy, the historically huge hurricane currently pounding the East Coast. New York and Atlantic City are flooded, eastern PA is completely shut down, and there's blizzard conditions in West Virginia and Tennessee. I'm on the very periphery of the storm yet still possibly to endure 50 mile an hour winds, flooding rains, power outages and possibly even snow over the next few days.

One bit of movie-related news: the HMS Bounty, the replica sailing ship built for the 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty, has apparently sunk off the coast of North Carolina. 15 of the 16 crew were rescued, with the 16th missing.

I'll be back on Halloween (hopefully) with new reviews. Stay safe everyone.

G4S..and this is the Tip of the Iceberg

Revisiting an old bugbear of mine. Crikey, they're like mice aren't they?

Why the Latin Mass is so important

More important than pooja, sarat or metta karuna - more important, in fact, than any single thing on earth.

The Mass in the Extraordinary Form has rightly been described as the most beautiful thing this side of Heaven.

Watch this video and weep - and, hopefully, agree

NEWSFLASH.........PRAY FOR NORTH AMERICA IN THE FACE OF ADVANCING STORMS - PRAY FROM YOUR LATIN MISSAL, PRAY THE ROSARY BUT, ABOVE ALL ELSE, PRAY!

(Message from Father Z)

I do not have access to my missal at present but here is a prayer I found online from the 

St Louis Catholic Blog:

V. From lightning strikes, hail, and violent storms.
R. Deliver us, O Lord Jesus Christ.


V. Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy.
R. And grant us Thy salvation.


V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come unto Thee.


V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.  We beseech Thee, O Almighty God, through the intercession of Holy Mary, the Mother of God, of the holy angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, widows, and of all Thy saints, that Thou show us Thy continuing protection, permit tranquil winds, and also pour out to us, Thy unworthy servants, Thy safety from heaven above against lightning strikes and violent storms, and that Thou remain always protective of the human race and crush down the aerial powers by the right hand of Thy power.  Through the same Christ our Lord.


R. Amen


V. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
R. Now and forever.


V. Our help is in the Name of the Lord.
R. Who made heaven and earth.


V. May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Ghost, descend upon you, this place, and the fruits of the earth and remain forever.


R. Amen.

Essential Viewing For Those Who Cherish Freedom

Anyone concerned by the trends towards a totalitarian State in Britain, as evidenced, most recently by the Government drive to implant 14 year olds with contraceptive implants, should watch this video by a political group exposing the role of Common Purpose in Government and society.

You can visit their website, Common Purpose Exposed here.

Most interesting to me was this speakers ability to join the dots in the personnel involved in the removal of democracy and freedom in the UK and his proof that major banks, including Rothschild Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are funding the entire operation.

We desperately need a new political party in the United Kingdom because as far as I can see, all the mainstream political parties are up to their necks in this subversion of democracy.

A note to school chaplains*

"When was the last time you invited a group of Muslims, Hindus or Sikhs to attend Mass in your parish church?"

I ask in all seriousness because it seems to me that the ecumaniacal movement is a one way street, with the Catholics going one way - to the shrine or the mosque.

Some commentators on my previous post have accused me of being a bigot and a racist (at worst) and uncharitable (at best).

And quite a few generous souls have leapt to my defence including bloggers such as Mundabor,
A Catholic comes Home and Left Footer - I thank them and will remember them in my Rosaries this week especially.
And I shall also remember my critics - equality for all I say!

As to the criticisms.....let me just say that I have a Muslim son-in-law and that part of my formative years included having an indian student living as a member of the family, he became another older brother for me.
So, not too much bigotry or racial hatred there then.

My reasons for writing as I do, reflects on the fact that I had an absurdly normal childhood and adolescence. I did not rebel or shout at my parents or shock them by appearing with a ring through my nose and tattoos all over my body.
I was boringly boring.

So now that I am, how shall I put it? - a tad older, I think that all that suppression of emotions and repressive freedom has resulted in a rebirth of adolescence.

Another chance to shock and appal my fellow man.

That might have a touch of truth in it but I also cannot abide cant and stupidity and all this pathetic political correctness.

Sadly, many in my Faith have gone down this route and, in so doing, have damaged the Faith and worse, I suspect, offended Almighty God who cannot be too pleased at the fact that young minds are being exposed to false religions in a manner that may lead them to believe that 'we are all members of the same club'.

That comment was made to my wife recently by a leading Catholic laywoman.

All members of the same club?................a good job that's it's Sunday or I might have used the rude, round and plural word.

* I mean lay chaplains, of course.

If you must visit a mosque or temple, here's what you must do

                       Granny Linen's Ecumenical Pork Pies are always popular


This is a key list of essential items or acts that you should  take with you or do if you are unfortunate enough to attend a school that has a lay chaplain or be a member of a parish that has a nutjob as a parish leader who desires to lead you down the rose petal strewn pathway to Perdition.

If you are going to do this visit, at least do it well, here's your list:-

1. Rosary - to be worn openly around your neck

2. Bottle of holy water - 'sprinkling' is widely accepted as a sign of friendship

3. Selection of foods, pork pies and bacon sandwiches are especially popular

4. One or two bottles of Reverend James or some lesser brew - it's ecumenical to share

5. Carry a copy of Geoffrey Hindleys 'A brief history of the Crusades' under your arm

6. Remember to hug and kiss your hosts enthusiastically one both cheeks,
     ten times - the kiss of peace is internationally welcomed

7. Hand out copies of "The Catechism of the Catholic Church" to all you meet

8. Sing the 'Salve Regina' loudly as you leave

9. Finally, and most importantly, remember to carry your "I am a Catholic, please inform
    a Catholic priest in the event of an accident" card.

Compare and Contrast

I've seen two A-Board headlines from The Argus in one week that were attention grabbers.

The first was The Argus's report, which on first sight I imagined concerned 'gay marriage'. It was entitled, 'Is it The End for Mr and Mrs?'.

If you read it, you'll see this news report in fact concerns a Councillor who would like to see all council forms and paperwork to be 'gender neutral' for the public. What a quirky idea!

Talking of how cumbersome gender is in the modern world, the Council's Deputy Leader, a Green chap, I believe, says:

“Trans people aren’t necessarily male or female and sometimes they don’t want to be defined by their gender. Putting Mr and Mrs on a form is completely useless. This is an issue that concerns most institutions from banks to mobile phone companies. Why is Mr on my debit card, for instance? I don’t understand why it’s there. We should at least examine the issue and we will have the recommendations early next month.”

Burning issues, indeed! Something for everyone there. Hmm...moving on, and perhaps more importantly, the other was, 'Brighton and Hove in Grip of Poverty Crisis.'

Read them and you'll be able to compare and contrast what strange ideas obsess those in political authority, even at a local level, and the reality of the profoundly distressing economic situation for many, many people living in Brighton and Hove who scrape by, often with the assistance of charities, just to eat a meal and feed children.

Then, extend this trend of politicians talking up issues relating to the homosexual predilections of a few and the desire (though I'm yet to be convinced that many desire this) of these to enter into marriage and you have politicians who are completely out of touch with voters not just at a national level (like we didn't know that), but at a local level too, certainly in Brighton.

I might add that Caroline Lucas MP and her Earth-preserving at the expense of people entourage, as far as I know, since the closure of St Patrick's nightshelter, have done jack diddly squat for the homeless and poor of Brighton and Hove.

Soldiers for Christ...

...only fight battles they can win?

If what the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton says is true, it explains quite a lot about the Bishops' Conference's lack of willingness to boldly fight and proclaim the truth on a range of issues including...

Abortion...
Human Embryology Research...
Civil Partnerships...
Mental Capacity Act...
Equalities Act...


...which battle did we win?...which battle did we try to win? All is pretty mild on the SSM front too.

Thank God we didn't think like this at Lepanto...

What's it to be - Latin Mass or Pooja?

First of all, following my recent post on the parish of St James in Reading, I received a response from Bishop Phillip Egan of Portsmouth.

It was a kind response but, unfortunately, he had assumed that I was a parishioner and, therefore, his advice was for me to go and consult my PP.

OK, I said that it was a kind response, I did not say that it was a good one.

One of the main things about being a good leader in my book is that you accept a certain level of responsibility. 

If something smells fishy you conduct a bit of a search until you find that, bingo! there is no smell source or.........there is. 

What you do not do is tell the person enquiring to go and ask elsewhere. Let's leave it there.

Kali is not one of the most ecumenically inspired Hindu gods

                                                      

Now, I hear that a Catholic School Chaplain (a young man) believes that it's a jolly good idea to go and mingle with those of heathen faiths. 

Here is what he has said:

"What an excellent opportunity for young catholics to gain an understanding of their Hindu neighbours. 

I myself am planning a trip to XXXXXX mosque with our Year 8s and 9s." 

So, why? - I keep asking myself this question. 

Why, oh why are the modernists so keen to lovey up to those of pagan faiths?

Let me put it another way, here are 4 questions for those in favour of taking parishioners or school pupils to visit temples, shrines and covens (covens? well why stop at temple and shrines?):-

1. Have you taken your parishioners or pupils to witness a Sung Latin 

    Tridentine Mass? If not, why not?

2. Have you taken your parishioners or pupils on pilgrimage to a Catholic shrine?

3. Have you arranged for an Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 

    or Benediction for your parishioners or pupils?

4. Have you taken your parishioners or pupils to visit the Mother Church 

   (the national Cathedral)?

The point of all this is, that I suspect that the pupils (certainly) and the parishioners (possibly) have not experienced any of the above and it just seems rather sensible to me that young minds should first be well grounded in their own Faith before enquiring about others.

And another point is, what steps should the organiser of such a visit take (if it has to take place) to ensure that the Catholic visitors do not get drawn into a worship alliance once they are there.

By that I mean having the red spot (bindi) placed upon their foreheads, bowing towards their gods and so on.

Not only would such involvement be very, very wrong and in breach of the First Commandment but, I strongly suspect that, should a reciprocal visit take place and Hindus be invited to a Catholic Church, no request would be made for them to bless themselves or for the men to remove headgear.

But then, that's how the modernist mind works isn't it?

And, just in case any school chaplains happen to be reading this blog and require a bit of spiritual recall, here it is:-

I am the LORD your God,  who brought you out  of the land of Egypt,  out of the house of bondage.

You shall have no other gods before me.  You shall not make for yourself a graven image,  or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,  or that is in the earth beneath,  or that is in the water under the earth;  you shall not bow down to them or serve them;  for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,  visiting the iniquity of the fathers  upon the children to the third and the fourth  generation of those who hate me,  but showing steadfast love to thousands of those  who love me and keep my commandments.

Argo

Ben Affleck's Argo (2012) is a pleasingly creative thriller. Part "incredible true story" satire and part intense thriller, it depicts a truly bizarre scenario: a Hollywood-CIA conspiracy to rescue refugees from the Iran Hostage Crisis. Besides its timeliness with recent Middle East violence, it's a cracking good movie.

Six American diplomats escape the Iranian takeover of America's embassy in 1979. While the world focuses on the greater hostage crisis, CIA extractor Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) focuses on rescuing these six from the Canadian embassy. His plan: disguise the hostages as a Canadian film crew scouting locations in Iran. This involves convincing Hollywood producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) and makeup man John Chambers (John Goodman) to manufacture Argo, a science fiction epic with a screenplay, advertisements and even a press event. The early stages work flawlessly, but indecision by the hostages, executive meddling and suspicious Iranians make their getaway no easy task.

Like Charlie Wilson's War, Argo's covert ops are an expose reshaped as farce. Hollywood (or at least a chunk of it) is shown in bed with the US government, who engineer a dummy film with no one batting an eye. At the end, when higher-ups call off the plan, Mendez disobeys orders, short-circuiting the whole chain of command. At the end, the CIA successfully covers its tracks, allowing Canada to take credit. Beyond a fleeting reference to the Mossadegh coup, Affleck opts not to probe the story's darker implications.

And why should he? The story's mix of farce and derring-do deserves celebration. Affleck and writer Chris Terrio provide a perfect balancing act, mixing satire with thrills. The Hollywood scenes crackle with pointed barbs, with Siegel and Chambers using bluff and guile to arrange a "fake hit." The best scene has Siegel confronting a hack screenwriter whose value is exponentially inflated by the crisis. Unionized and cliquish Hollywood proves thornier than the Ayatollah's regime.

Argo flawlessly shifts gears in the second half. We get glimpses of Iranian repression to raise the stakes, while early exposition establishes the Carter Administration's uneasiness with Mendez's plan. Afraid of an embarrassing catastrophe, the State Department nearly scrubs Mendez's plan. The last half hour is an exercise in tension, with brilliant inter-cutting between the hostages's escape, bureaucratic muddle and near-misses with Iranian authorities. It's amazingly gripping, so intense that the sappy finale barely registers.  

Ben Affleck's wooden acting isn't too big a drawback: playing an intense G-Man minimizes his woodenness. John Goodman and Alan Arkin are perfectly cast as archly cynical movie big shots: their scenes are alone worth the ticket price. Bryan Cranston gets a meaty role as Mendez's boss. The excellent supporting cast includes Victor Garber, Bob Gunton, Phillip Baker Hall, Zeljko Ivanek, Titus Welliver and Isabelle Adjani.

Argo is a resounding success. It proves again that Ben Affleck should stay behind the camera instead of take up space in front of it.

Feast of Christ the King this Sunday

What will you pray for on this great feast?

Remember that, in 1925,  Pope Pius XI instituted this feast on the last Sunday of October in the Extraordinary Form, 25th November in the novo.

He created this feast as an antidote to secularism and we certainly need to remember that fact today.

But on this, one of the greatest days of HMC, surely our pleas to the Almighty will be heard with extra concern. Ask and you shall receive - so then what will you ask for?

I have a suggestion; ask for the return, the liberal return, of the Tridentine Latin Mass.
Made available to us in every parish on every Sunday.

Phew! That's a big ask.....................but not for Almighty God......the thing is that we ask Him, and on His very special day.

And, to aid the return of the EF Mass could I beg a favour? A friend is working on a project that, if successful, will advance the cause of the Latin Mass in Britain and Ireland certainly, and quite possibly a great deal more of the world.

Please pray for the success of this project. All will be revealed in due course but for now, given the enemies we have that oppose the Mass of all Time, keep it under your biretta.

Please offer up your Mass this Sunday to this cause.

Also.........

The news from the organisers of the petition to the Holy Father requesting that he celebrates the old Mass in public is that it was lodged at the beginning of the month. They, the organisers, could not leave it at the office where it would have stood a chance of moving forward, instead it was taken from them at some other, lesser place - that's all I know.
Not great news but then, a prayer, a penance, a small sacrifice and who knows what could result.
More Rosaries need.

China by the Back Door

United Kingdom: Here is your future...

These are confusing times.

A Conservative minister is planning to use the power of the State to encourage a sector of the population to stop breeding. The name of that minister is Iain Duncan Smith and that minister is a Catholic.

It just goes to show that you can use the welfare state to economically manipulate people into a two-child policy.

The reaction of 'the right' in the UK is to say that these people can get jobs. Of course they can get jobs, but how do a man and a woman with little education and a CV that says they've had little work experience earn enough to have more than one or two children, pay for Council Tax, heating and water bills, food and electricity?

How does IDS, a Catholic, suggest these 'problem families' limit their breeding? With artificial contraception and abortion, perhaps? So, we see now, that abortion and artificial contraception, that procedure and those products advertised as a woman's 'choice', could well become an economic necessity when the State deems some families too expensive to prop up. Of course, if poor families become poorer, I suppose the role of Social Services will widen and deepen with those children not aborted but financially impossible to support are voluntarily given into the care system that turns out disturbed teenager after disturbed teenager.

Interesting, isn't it, that a creature of 'the right' can, in times of economic hardship become a creature of the hard left?

Just to remind you, both David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith have four children each. Who pays their wages?

You do!

Who is propping up their lavish lifestyle and their families which, by modern day standards are large?

You are!

Who abused the expenses system in Parliament allowing them to claim housing benefit for various homes?

Why, our beloved Parliamentarians of course! God bless 'em!

Perhaps he hasn't thought about it, but really IDS, the Catholic Conservative, is introducing the UK to China by the back door.

A short history of the past 60 years of Britain:

The 'Left' hand created the instruments for the creation of a dystopia.

The 'Right' hand finished off the job and enacted its final phase, including the introduction of the Marxist cultural hand grenade of 'gay marriage'.

Makes you wonder whether there are people above our politicians 'pulling the strings' doesn't it? Well, we should ask the question, who got us to where we are now, this time of 'economic hardship'? Was it the poor? Was it people on benefits? Single mothers? Was it even politicians? Nope. It was banks...

All the politicians are doing is responding to the crisis.

As for work, well, admittedly things aren't quite as bad here as they are in Spain, with 25% unemployment...yet.

The Pink Economy

They say that 'gay marriage' won't affect natural marriage if it is passed, yet it is clear that already marriage as traditionally understood is no longer promoted.

Gay marriage, on the other hand, is. Already there is an imbalance in the promotion of marriage and the legislation isn't even here yet.

Marriage is not promoted in schools, but we're assured that 'same-sex marriage' will be. So, quite how marriage as an institution will be treated after 'SSM' comes in is hardly an unknown. It is a fate already known.

Clearly, what Government wants is a 'pink' workforce, not because of the sexual liberation of its workers, but so that its citizens will not concentrate on building a family, but on economic slavery. In fact, a new book, written by a feminist, called The End of Men is a boast by the authoress that the outcomes of feminism has led to successful women and a depressed sector of the population - men - who find their experience after the sexual revolution as one of depression, lack of purpose and role and disempowerment.

Still, though, for most men and most women, the result is the same. Both have the dignity of work - yes for both sexes - but also the accompanying daily grind of wage slavery too - for both sexes. The promotion of SSM is an added boon to those who seek the continued wage slavery of the whole population into an economic machine.

By opting for the promotion of gay marriage and many childless couples, more men and more women are co-opted into the 'pink' pound. But here's the thing - the economy is becoming so child unfriendly - so anti-family - that you don't even have to be homosexual or lesbian to join into this economic slavery. So long as couples are sterile in their outlook, the populace are drawn into an economic slavery in which the pursuit of wages and money becomes more important as the cost of living rises. For a couple to be open to more than one or two children requires, now, a supernatural trust and faith in Providence.

Marriage isn't just being redefined in this process as 'gay' or 'straight'. It's being redefined as simply a 'loving relationship'. What this redefinition doesn't include is the procreation of new life. Children are actually being written out of legislation. What its doing is promoting more childless couples, more men and women co-opted into this idea of the 'pink economy', more men and women encouraged into wage slavery as people reject family for money and survival.

The great victory for the architects of the sexual revolution was making women into taxpayers and consumers too, in the process destroying the vocation of motherhood so much that women were encouraged into economic slavery. It is slavery now, because now couples face economic hardship if a mother decides to stay at home and raise children. In fact, there even exists a sense of stigma - especially by the poor - if women decide to stay at home and raise children, despite the fact that it is well known that for women to 'do it all' and be superwomen chasing careers and having children is incredibly difficult.

Destroying the family was essential to economically enslaving the West. Destroying the vocation to motherhood was essential to this. Destroying marriage and replacing it with something sterile serves the interests of our economic masters all too well.

It seems to be about reshaping and redesigning what human beings are for. We were about human relationships, family, marriage and new life. Now, we are about loving relationships that don't stop us in any way from remaining - all of us - remaining as economic slaves, consuming, paying tax and contributing to what is becoming a 'pink economy'.

You have to ask the questions:

• Why is it that whenever marriage is promoted by Government and media today, the word 'gay' appears before it? 
• Why is the institution of marriage never promoted in schools, in the media, or in society, but 'gay marriage' is and will continue to be promoted?
• Is there any guarantee that after SSM has been passed that we'll ever see marriage promoted without this prefix again since marriage? 
• Is it not interesting, and should we not be suspicious, that Government seldom promotes marriage itself, but is happy to promote something that destroys its very meaning and definition? 
• How can this not be social engineering, not just nationally, but on a global scale? 

'Gay marriage' is not just the extension of 'marriage rights' to a minority - it is a dramatic rearrangement of the entire social order, to the benefit of none but a few.

How to have a Catholic Hallowe'en

Halloween is not a festival of ghouls and witches and horrible corpses with blood coming from their nostrils, although, you might be forgiven for thinking so when you walk around the stores and see the weird mix of costumes and masks on sale.

                                Cut a cross shape in your pumpkin and leave Freddy K to RIP

What are we thinking of? We howl and scream at Jimmy Savile's alleged abuses of young girls and then we shove our children out on to the streets to trick or treat or to some macabre party. Ugh!

Hallowe'en is really All Hallows Eve as I am sure all readers of this blog know too well.

It is All Holy Eve, the night before we celebrate one of the great feasts of the Church, All Saints' Day.

So dress the little dears up as saints, have plenty of fun by all means (though adults might wish to fast and do penance in readiness for the following Feastday), eat sausages round the fire and cut potatoes into halos, stars and crosses - that's all good, clean fun.

Thanks to Gail for the picture.

Pro Life Melbourne stands up to the antis

                        Watch this if you watch nothing else today


I have good memories of 4 weeks spent in Melbourne with my son and his family earlier this year.

And of the morning we spent outside an abortuary with the 40 Days for Life group.

The good work carries on as you can see from this most moving clip.

Whoever made this film deserves a medal.

Tagging with G4S

Reading the Metro the other day, a newspaper so bad they give it away at the station, I came across an article concerning the 'tagging' of offenders.

Whatever you think about the effectiveness of current 'law and order' policy in the UK, it is hard not to be a little bit concerned by the obvious human rights issues associated with 'tagging'.

As with the various ASBOs on offer to the courts with which to limit the freedom of people who commit 'anti-social behaviour' like begging and street drinking (how would mendicant friars cope in modern day UK?) 'tagging' offers the authorities a half-way house procedure between locking someone up and depriving them of their liberty in penalty for a crime and leaving the offender to walk around in freedom having committed those offenses which contravene British law.

With prisons full to overflowing, one can certainly see the appeal of this half-way house for the authorities, but I personally do not like the half-way house measure. To me it smacks of a Big Brother solution to offenders. Of course, you are free to disagree with me, especially in the light of recent cases in the media highlighting the sexual predators who were left to roam around the country seeking out who they could devour, even, apparently, in the middle of Mass.

There's another reason, however, why I don't like the idea of electronic tagging of offenders, aside from its Orwellian method and its failure to categorise men as free or imprisoned, but somewhere eerily in-between. The reason is that I get a sneaky suspicion that our 'law and order' policies are going the way of our 'defence' policies. In other words, policies get designed in order to satisfy the makers of bombs, armaments and ammunition. There's no point building all these things that blow people up unless Governments around the World are going to use them and blow people up. So, contracts are won and what decides certain policies could be influenced by what people call the 'military industrial complex'.

So it is with those technologies which grow out of what at first becomes a 'terror State' and becomes a 'police State'. Of course, it is vital that 'tagging' be something that happens to the 'nasty types' before it can be used on others who could become enemies of the State in years to come. Every product needs a market and the 'tagging' technology already has one - repeat offenders and unsuspecting criminals as well as 'anti-social behaviour types'.

Perhaps I'm not explaining my thoughts very well. I think what I mean is that G4S make electronic tagging equipment and fit them. They need to win contracts to get this stuff more out there and fitted onto the ankles of repeat offenders so, obviously, they market it to Governments around the World. Our Government buys a load of electronic tagging devices off G4S and gives G4S, who due to their global reach can battle Somali pirates while manning your local Jobcentre, more contracts to rig up convicted men and women to a call centre somewhere where their every movement can be tracked, surveilled, monitored and so that the security firm at the heart of the Olympics can come along in a van or alert police that the Government would like to privatise and sell off to G4S to arrest or check up on the criminal if he breaks his 'curfew' or if he's on an ASBO, has wandered into an area from which he is banned.

As the Metro article makes clear, Governments can get away with doing 1984 on criminals or repeat offenders because everyone wants law and order and for Government to be tough on crime - not many people like criminals. I think we need to be aware, however, that I guess authorities can keep a man monitored long after his 'debt' to society has been repaid and I guess these things could be put on for life depending upon how 'dangerous' the fellow is perceived to be. And, obviously, this could get out of hand. For instance, as attitudes towards pro-lifers harden, it is not impossible to see a kind of criminality or 'public order offence' being attributed to certain groups, or indeed, anyone who the State deems to be 'dangerous'.

Let me know your thoughts. My feeling is that Government policy is just being driven by lucrative contracts awarded to big companies - rather than developing a coherent strategy towards crime reduction. This way, domestic policy becomes something akin to foreign policy.

Ecumenism or ecumania?

I have received news that the parishioners of St James's Church, Reading are off on an ecumenical jolly shortly.

No, they are not going to Canterbury to share an altar in a joint service, neither are they off to have a sing-a-long with the Episcopalians, it's something far more exotic than that.......

they.....are......going to......a Hindu Temple!

But...but....Hindus are not Christians, there is nothing that we can share with them and, if my sense of prophecy is in working order, I think that those good Catholic parishioners from St James will be drawn into some sort of Hindu ceremony on the evening.

Maybe a bit of bindi along with the Hindi?

That is not on, not on at all and I am sure that Bishop Egan, newly elected to Portsmouth Diocese, will have something to say about it.

Why not ask him what he thinks? He is visiting the parish on Friday 14th December when he will preside at a Mass of Thanksgiving - an excellent opportunity I think.


This is taken from the parish newsletter:-

INTERFAITH VISIT TO HINDU TEMPLE,
112 Whitley Street, Reading RG2 0EQ
on Tuesday, 30th October at 6.00pm.
The aim is to provide the catholic
group with an experience of Hindu
worship in the Temple. All are
welcome.

Will there, I wonder, be a future visit to a Muslim mosque?.........now that would be interesting.

You may also wish to email His Lordship...it's by form HERE


My thanks to GM for this post

Lord Christopher Monckton on the Rio 2012 Environmental Conference

"...and for your penance drink two flat whites"

Gluttony is an ugly word and, worse, an ugly sin.

Quite rightly, in my view; it comes second only to Lust in the listing of the Seven Deadly Sins and above Greed.

I am not given to the sin of gluttony in a mortal sense; just an occasional extra slice (or two) of cake or an extra glass of Possum's Spleen, I hope that such transgressions register only on the venial scale.

The thing about gluttony is that it can kick in with relatively small (venial sin) amounts or with massive (mortal sin) quantities.
I can't imagine that with lust or sloth for that matter. You cannot surely only be a little lustful or a little idle.
You lust totally and laziness is not a sin of half measures, whereas gluttony can be.

A flat white, or rather two, can lead to black sin

What brings me to this topic is coffee, what is called in Australia (where, I believe it hails from) a flat white.

A flat white is a most delicious form of coffee comprising two shots of good quality espresso followed by hot milk that has been infused with steam so that its nature changes and it takes on a marvellous creamy appearance.
But, it doesn't end there. The steam enhanced milk must be married to the coffee taking the milk from the bottom and not the top of the jug.

The result is a coffee par excellence.
I became addicted to this style of coffee when visiting Australia and it became so bad that I had to have a caffeine fix every morning before 10am and thereafter at 2 hourly intervals.

So when my local branch of Marks & Spencers featured flat whites on their menu, I was there in a flash.

Suddenly, I was volunteering to do the shopping; I became, in a short space of time, a veritable shopaholic.
But the reality was much more sinister. I was hooked on flat whites once more.

It reached a peak last week when I decided that they were so good that I would order two cups at the same time.

Luckily, I have nerves of steel and so was able to withstand Mrs L's snorts of derision and open laughter when I arrived at the table bearing my two cups, in a rather jealous fashion I do admit.

I had reasoned with my conscience, (as a Catholic aspiring to goodness) and theorised that, as I had worked hard for 50 odd years, I could be allowed to drink two coffees one after the other; it was, I decided not a vice and it was even my actual duty to do so. The caffeine would liven me up and stop me nodding off at 30 minute intervals.

And so it was I duly quaffed the coffees with great speed and relish.

And then, and then, I felt something akin to a punch in my chest from the Klitschko brothers followed by severe palpitations.

How dreadful, I thought, to have a heart attack in M & S and shuffle off my mortal coil between ladies underwear and kitchen utensils. I had such high notions for a final exit, and they didn't include a department store.

Soon my forehead was bathed in sweat and a dull pain took over my frame and then, the realisation hit me.

It was the effect of drinking 4 shots of espresso ultra prestissimo.

Never again, I vowed while my wife rocked silently with cruel laughter, and, true to my words, I have not touched a flat white since.

This form of gluttony is, I reflected, self regulatory.

You commit the sin and then penance is dished out instantly - but I think I shall still have to add it to my ever increasing list ready for confession proper.

Mountains of the Moon

Mountains of the Moon (1990) is a unique historical epic. Director Bob Rafelson (Five Easy Pieces) proves an inspired choice to adapt William Harrison's Burton & Speke: Moons is a tale of ambition and personality clashes on a monumental scale.

In the 1850s, explorer Sir Richard Burton (Patrick Bergin) enlists ambitious John Henning Speke (Iain Glenn) to help discover the source of the Nile River. Their initial trip falters after an ambush by hostile natives, but both men are adamant on returning. On their second expedition the men suffer much hardship, braving hostile climates, dangerous natives and disease. Speke locates the source at Lake Victoria, but can't confirm it without Burton's expertise. When Speke returns to England he's goaded to speak before the Royal Geographic Society. Speke becomes a celebrity taking credit, an affront Burton views as betrayal.

Explorers were Victorian England's premiere celebrities, mixing the awe-inspiring wonder of astronauts with the panache of rock stars. Motivated by personal ambition, Christian charity, scientific inquiry or simple curiosity, these men scoured Africa's "dark continent," charting rivers, mapping mountains and enduring horrendous hardship in pursuit of knowledge. The source of the Nile was the explorer's holy grail, a mystery unsolved since Herodotus. Burton and Speke were feted by English society, their books devoured by an adventure-hungry public, media covering (and exaggerating) their every move and statement. Yet as Mountains of the Moon painstakingly shows, these men earned every ounce of celebrity.

Mountains of the Moon dilutes its spectacle with hardship. Roger Deakins' photography paints an Africa beautiful but harsh, mixing arid scrub lands, raging rivers and torrential jungles. Native tribes are more frequently curious than hostile, though Burton gets caught in a tribal power struggle at one point. Nature and disease prove the biggest threat: lions menace the porters, Speke is deafened by a beetle crawling in his ear, while Burton's diseased legs swell to hideous size. The sheer physical toll is unbelievable.

Mountains frames its drama through apposite protagonists. Burton is a truly remarkable Renaissance man, fluent in 23 languages, a master of disguise (he infiltrated Mecca disguised as an Arab), a dab sword fighter and sensuous lover. Between voyages he pens memoirs, translates The Arabian Nights and romances Isabel Arundell (Fiona Shaw). He baffles prospective in-laws by extolling Eastern religions, and bonds with David Livingstone (Bernard Hill) by comparing scars. He represents an earthy, unorthodox breed of explorer, free of moral pretensions, absorbing native customs and viewing his travels as purely knowledge-based.

Speke is Burton's opposite. Priggish, presumptuous, disregarding African superstitions and endlessly ambitious, he represents English imperialism, using knowledge to expand empire and exploit its subjects. He matches Burton's tenacity but his amateurish methods cast doubt on his findings and frequently endanger his colleagues. He worships Burton with an affection bordering on love but proves eager to make his own name. That Speke's proven right about Lake Victoria seems almost incidental.

Rafelson and co-scripter Harrison cast this personal struggle against a broader backdrop. Burton's hedonism and Anglo-Irish background make him an embarrassment to the British establishment. Speke seems an ideal candidate for the conservative Royal Geographic Society, a proper gentleman explorer. Publisher Laurence Oliphant (Richard E. Grant) turns Speke against Burton through a lie. The Society arranges a debate between the two men, placing the two philosophies in direct opposition. Yet tragedy forestalls their clash, leaving posterity to judge the protagonists.

Of course, Mountains isn't the last word in historical accuracy. Tim Jeal's book Explorers of the Nile argues Speke deserves the lion's share of credit, with Burton posthumously smearing his partner's image. Even pro-Burton authors like Alan Moorehead point up his racism and throbbing ego, traits conspicuously absent from the film portrayal. But Rafelson can't be faulted for effective dramatic license.

Patrick Bergin gives Burton a perfect mix of intelligence, swaggering independence and fortitude. Iain Glenn flawlessly captures Speke's obsessive ambition and ultimate regret. Fiona Shaw invests Isabel with fiery devotion and playful sexuality. Paul Onsongo makes an endearing Man Friday while Delroy Lindo provides a striking debut. They're backed by a rich supporting cast: Richard E. Grant (The Iron Lady), Bernard Hill (Valkyrie), Roshan Seth (Gandhi), Anna Massey (Peeping Tom), Peter Vaughan (Straw Dogs), James Villiers (The Ruling Class) and Roger Rees (TV's The West Wing). Omar Sharif appears unbilled.

Mountains of the Moon is a vastly underrated movie. Without eschewing the spectacle of a traditional epic, it frames Victorian exploration as a personal tragedy.