Wonderful Matters

Felt like adding a note from the last post to clear up something I'd thought a reader might consider. I'd mentioned that this ISIS Islamic terrorist group was "powerful." Yes yes, I know, it really isn't that  powerful. It really is just a punky mealy-mouthed band of ruffians who are -- at least by the accounts we hear -- reasonably organized and full of devoted followers -- but really no different from any of the other dozen prominent Islamicist groups doing things like marauding about in favor of Sharia law somewhere. The fact is, they are  powerful simply because the World System makes  them such. How often do you behold the media shouting "Lions and tigers and bears oh my!!! " any time they mention them? How often do you hear accounts designed to raise your rage levels when thinking about them? I'm not saying they aren't doing rotten things somewhere somehow. But they sure get a lot of traction screeching through Americanists' psyches

A couple things I thought about looking at current events these days. One, this "ALS Challenge" thing that's sweeping the country. People are being doused with ice water like the winning football coaches, only this is for the cause of finding a cure for ALS. The thing I thought about was, hmm, seems like a baptism to me. Getting baptized is what one does after declaring his/her belief on Christ. It is public demonstration of that commitment, much like a wedding is for a man and woman who wish to be married. I was interested in just how explosive this is promotion is. What does it mean? What does it mean for people doing it, issuing the challenges? One of my questions is, if ALS is so bad and it can be addressed with some ample funding, why not just do that? Why not just fund it? Why the showy displays of concern about it? Two, a kidnapped journalist was beheaded in a video-taped act of terrorism, and this barbarism has received the greatest amount of denunciation

Tomorrow it will be ten years to the day that I opened my webzine The Catholicist Nation . It is a somewhat bittersweet note to make here, and I am making it today instead of tomorrow because I have a full day of worship and family activities in store. Still, the completion of this day makes it a full ten years of webzine ministry. The bittersweet part about all this is that even much earlier in that ten year time period I'd thought there'd be far more people in the mix of engaging conversation and vibrant interaction about it, and perhaps even committed action on the principles elucidated there. Alas, I haven't seen it. There are a few who see it, read it, send me a note about it. But not many. I'd like to think much of it is because I just haven't taken the time to put together a more comprehensive and expansive web design and marketing program. Most of that is just that I don't have the time or money to do that. I do believe most of it is simply that peop