Prayers for and Thoughts on the Cathedral de Notre Dame

On Monday, April 15 a terrible tragedy befell an internationally
renown cathedral, not merely a landmark (though it certainly is),
and an iconic house of worship for the Catholics of Paris,
of France, and for the millions of Catholics from around the world
who visit and worship there when visiting Paris, and for many
others who traveled to Paris specifically to worship at this
nine century-old church, but a tribute and a message of love
to the Virgin Mary; its name is French for "Our Lady of Paris".
The Cathedral of Notre Dame suffered a major fire
which consumed much of its roof and caused further damage
to the area of the altar. Its spire, an icon in and of itself, was
destroyed along with the oak frame and the lead roof. In a sad
irony, the cathedral was undergoing some restoration work
in the very area where the fire broke out; authorities are still
trying to determine the origin of the fire as your faithful Peasant
types this post, but they have averred that the cathedral was
no more than half an hour away from complete destruction
as the structural damage would have been severe enough to
cause its complete collapse. Some of the relics and other holy
items in the cathedral were saved, including the crown of thorns
which Jesus Christ wore when he was sent to die on the cross.

In my younger days, when among other things I traveled far
and often, I too worshiped at the cathedral. Having visited
Paris twice, I made it a point to visit the vast House of God
with its flying buttresses and majestic spire, its gargoyles
perched around its structure as permanent sentries watching
out for evil spirits should they come by to menace the cathedral
and all those who pray there. Pity they couldn't do anything to
contain and quench the conflagration that rose up that recent
fateful night. I also attended Sunday Mass there; against the
ornate surroundings which included the most stunning stained
glass windows it was an exquisitely magnificent experience,
one very unique in my experience which I shall never forget.
Worshiping there in attending Mass made one feel a great
level closer to heaven, and it was among the highlights of
my 61 years of life so far. I cannot and do not want to imagine
Paris or the world without the Cathedral of Notre Dame,
and I have been praying for her and her parishioners,
her clergy, and for my fellow Catholics in France and
throughout the world. Of course there are other, many other
Catholic houses of worship in the world, including other
magnificent cathedrals; there is also the Basilica Du
Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) that I also visited and worshiped
in. But there is something uniquely mystical and other-worldly
about the Cathedral de Notre Dame which I pray can be
preserved when it is repaired. I am worried that somehow
it won't be preserved at all, or that it will be only poorly so,
because in recent years the French, like the rest of Europe,
has succumbed to the siren song of secularism, the secularism
in the sense of a society no longer recognizing their link to
their heavenly Creator and perhaps even rejecting the
existence of same. Now, I'll save my thoughts on secularism
and related things for another day but I will state here and now
that many French folk have come to regard the Cathedral
as merely a museum, a monument to a bygone time, a
tourist attraction, and I fear that when they repair the place
it will not retain that mystical quality that made it so special.
Could the fire have been a sign from God, as some of the
faithful think, that He is displeased with the people of
France for taking this tack and this catastrophe was an
"attention getter" to get them to think about the course that
they have embarked upon? As a life-long practicing Catholic,
I can't say as to whether or not that is true, but I will say that
it was a truly sad day when the Cathedral de Notre Dame
was partially engulfed in flames, and that it will take many
months to repair and restore the beautiful, medieval
cathedral which was built and consecrated to the Mother
of Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Although after the
work is completed people will be able to come visit
and worship there as before, they may not be able to
enjoy and treasure the experience that I and many others
had been able to partake of with all the fullness of its
heretofore mystical and mysterious atmosphere, for it
may well be eliminated not so much by political edict
but by a lack of understanding of and appreciation for
these spiritual qualities on the part of people who have
no use for them. While I'm happy that they want to repair
the cathedral, and French President Emmanuel Macron
has vowed to get it done, my aforementioned concern
stands. Time will tell.


MEM

Happy Easter Wishes!

The Peasant wants to wish you, my grand readers, a most
beautiful, blessed, Happy Easter! We shall resume our
weekly activities after the blessed holiday, and to that
purpose I have some news stories and topics on tap.
We'll imbibe together upon my return next week!

God bless you all, and God bless America!


MEM

One Juicy Nutburger!

Today your humble Peasant takes on a wayward activist
and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. For those of you, my
fantastic readers, who may not be familiar with this fellow,
your favorite Peasant first came across Jones during one of
the times that he was a guest on Coast-to-Coast AM, a late
night talk show that tackles subjects considered taboo by
many other talk shows as well as more mainstream subjects
for discussion. Hosted on weeknights by George Noori,
Jones has joined Noori for many discussions about the
latest conspiracy theories going around, some fairly new
while others, such as who really assassinated President
John F. Kennedy, have been around for many years.
While it is healthy for not only public discourse but for
the public's right to know who is contriving to do what
which may be harmful to our country and our world,
I cannot help but think that it would serve everyone better
if these discussion were led by others with more credibility
and less, for want of a more polite term, zaniness.

The Texas born-and-bred Jones started out on his crusade
in the 1990s. hosting a show live on public-access TV.
Often taking up causes championed by conservatives, Jones
has been at the center of many controversies for his espousing
his personal takes on many subjects, some of them quite
hair-raising, i.e. his Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting
theories which boil down to the shootings being staged by
"crisis actors"; no one dead, no one wounded, just a staged
event concocted to scare the public into demanding new
and more gun control laws with an eye toward repealing
the Second Amendment. The parents of the schoolchildren
who perished at their school, and the relatives of the faculty
who were also killed or wounded have initiated a lawsuit
against Jones for his bizarre claim, and Jones has encountered
banning from some social media sites (Facebook, Twitter,
and YouTube, among others) for these and other roundhouse-
swing claims regarding other actual or alleged conspiracies.
including his belief that the Murrah Federal Building bombing in
Oklahoma City in the '90s was staged by the U.S. government
and at least some of the details of the Moon landing were
falsified.

Regarded by some as the nation's biggest conspiracy theorist,
as a raving lunatic who belongs in an insane asylum, a patriot
and a crank, a brave soul and a malicious mischief maker,
one thing about Jones is certain: he's never ever dull.
But can we take his brand of excitement? He also has hounded
government officials in public places to the point of being
considered not just a nuisance but a security problem;
plotted with political consultant Roger Stone to remove Sen.
Ted Cruz from his senate seat for his not endorsing Donald Trump
for the presidency after the 2016 election; bleated
constantly about a New World Order in which governmental,
business, and banking interests are trying to take over the world
and create a single super-state of all the nations, destroying
sovereignty and placing all under a one-world government;
blathered about nations building weather weapons to conduct
combat against each other by manipulation of the elements;
and claimed that the U.S. government is, with the Democrat
Party, plotting "white genocide" attacks (now, your beloved
Peasant, as you well know, is not a fan of the Democrats, but
to pin their plotting to slaughter millions of white Americans
for political purposes is just plain insanity of the highest
order!), and the Khan Shaykun chemical attack in Syria in 2017
was a "hoax". And these are just a few tidbits to familiarize you
Jones' brand of "news".

For good (or bad) measure, Jones has even threatened a member
of Congress not long ago, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-NY). All in his
quest to be considered a "thought criminal" against "Big Brother".

As a American, a conservative, and a patriot, your faithful Peasant
has no love for "Big Brother", the ever-growing, ever-encroach-
ing government and those who work within it to take away our
constitutionally protected freedoms. And I do want to have open
and honest discussion from the dinner tables to the coffee shops
to the schools to the town halls to the halls of power in the
state capitols and in Washington D.C., and absolutely in the media
about the topics that Alex Jones covers in his shows, his tracts, his
speeches, and on his web site InfoWars. I just wish that they were,
and would be so covered by people with more a responsible,
tempered, and fact-based approach. For one thing, it would give
these topics and its discussion participants not just credibility
but respectability, and therefore facilitate their so being discussed.
No one engaging in such discussions would be seen as tinfoil hat
wearing nutburgers, and more people would be at their ease in
joining in.

Now that would truly serve us better, don't you think?
And conservatives and conservatism would be better served by
not having these discussions headed up by a raving sensationalist.
We have a right as citizens of a free country to be able to have these
discussions; it would be more beneficial if we didn't have Alex Jones
be the moderator.


MEM

A Miraculous Victory

Well, by now you, my great and wonderful readers know about
the results of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election; Judge Brian
Hagedorn won a thrillingly close race against Judge Lisa Neubauer.
The judges, both colleagues on Wisconsin's Court of Appeal,
District II, had a bruising battle of judicial philosophies, constitutional
views, and the question of whether someone with a particular set of
religious views is fit to be on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Conservative Judge Hagedorn, an evangelical Christian, had a
contentious moment in the debate with Judge Neubauer over the
aforementioned question. At this juncture she stated that "the voters
need to look at (Hagedorn's record of decisions) and say can they
trust this person to be fair, impartial, and independent or will (he)
have an agenda, an ideology, a thumb on the scale?" What Judge
Neubauer was referring to in a veiled manner was Judge Hagedorn's
religious faith and would it have undue influence on his decisions
on the state's high court. Quite reminiscent of John F. Kennedy's
candidacy for the office of President of the United States in 1960,
when some people from both major political parties questioned his
fitness to be the nation's chief executive since he was a Roman
Catholic. Some wondered aloud if JFK would be the Pope's
puppet, forcing catholic doctrine upon the American people as
law. one would have thought that, after nearly sixty years, the
country would have permanently put aside all such prejudices
toward people of certain religious faiths, especially concerning
candidates for public office. Apparently, some on the Left seem
to harbor these poisonous sentiments.

Judge Neubauer's campaign team also raised considerably more
money than did Judge Hagedorn, especially from outside of the
state; former Attorney General Eric Holder headed up a fundraising
group to assist Neubauer's candidacy. Planned Parenthood's
national headquarters contributed much to the pot. And various
left-of-center PACS chipped in as well. All while Neubauer criticized
out-of-state money having a roll in a statewide race (unless, apparently,
it's her own race). She thus outraised and outspent hagedorn by a
14-1 (!) margin. Judge Hagedorn meanwhile faced other challenges:
further bedeviling Judge Hagedorn's efforts were endorsements
rescinded and campaign contributions once promised then withheld
by some in-state sources with deep pockets when they were intimidated
by claims from the Neubauer side regarding Hagedorn's faith and
how it could or would affect his decisions on the high court, and
giving the impression that he is a religious fanatic more likely to
rule on cases biblically rather than constitutionally. They didn't want
to be thus associated with Hagedorn; well, now that he won the
election they certainly won't be associated with his stunning victory
and the Herculean effort to secure the victory in the face of daunting
odds or the man himself, nor do these cowards deserve to be.
The Wisconsin Realtors Association along with Wisconsin
Manufacturers and Commerce are the yellow-bellied organizations
who deserted Judge Hagedorn's candidacy because they were scared
off by the groundless rhetorical missiles fired from the enemy.

But it was largely a quickly stepped-up grassroots effort that saved
the day for Team Hagedorn. Although Judge Hagedorn received
some funds from the Koch Brothers, entrepreneurial and politically
involved siblings, through their group Americans for Prosperity,
the tide and the race turned with the work and the smaller but very
numerous monetary contributions from the grassroots activists.
Moreover, Team Neubauer shot themselves in the foot with their
nasty assaults on Hagedorn's faith and character, alienating many
Wisconsin voters who didn't want to elect someone so enveloped
in bigotry and nastiness. Perhaps they questioned her own fitness
for the state's highest court regarding her opinions about her
opponent and how they could or would influence her opinions
on the top court? Would she have an agenda, an ideology, a
thumb on the scale?

Finally, after such a hotly contested race concluding in a close
finish, Judge Neubauer and her cohorts are mulling over whether
to ask for a recount; that is certainly their right to so ask. They
must, of course, realize that the margin of votes between Judges
Neubauer and Hagedorn is just outside of the range in which the
state would not charge Neubauer's team for the cost of a recount.
What this means is that they would have to cough up the cash for
the cost themselves. Maybe they could appeal to their big-monied
out-of-state pals once more, this time to foot the bill for a recount
which, according to historic data, is not very likely to help them
to get enough votes to close a gap of over 5,900 votes and clinch
the win. Maybe the sun will begin rising in the west and setting in
the east. maybe pigs will fly --- piloting Boeing jets. Meanwhile,
the Hagedorn victory increases the conservative majority on the
Wisconsin Supreme Court to a 5-2 advantage, and the strong
likelihood of their majority sticking around for quite awhile.

Congratulations, Judge Brian Hagedorn. You'll be a fine Justice
on Wisconsin's highest court, and a strong part of a judicial buffer
against any political mischief making by Gov. Tony Evers and the
state's Democrats.


MEM