Your Marching Orders

To my loyal minions and fellow travellers, all party cells, and allies!

Please be advised that on this day, the Fourth day of November in the year of our Lord 2003, Duce Keilholtz has mobilized all troops for the following action, known from this point on as Operation Advent Shroud.

Whereas retailers are obnoxiously jumping the gun on Christmas earlier and earlier each year,

Whereas if action is not taken soon we will soon be confronted with Christmas trees in July,

Whereas if the Duce hears "Jingle Bells" too many times before December 25th he gets notoriously grumpy and will start ranting around the clock causing Great Consternation to the Long Suffering One,

Whereas the crass commercialization of Christmas is a disgusting perversion of the True Faith reducing the greatest gift in history to an excuse to move more cheaply made merchandise at the expense of slave labor in China,

Duce Keilholtz hereby gives orders to his minions, loyalists, allied cells, party members, and assorted schmucks walking around with their hands in their pockets looking for something to do to remedy the situation by direct action, namely throwing purple cloth over any Christmas decorations encountered before the second Friday after the celebration of the New Beaujolais.

Attached to said purple cloth should be a little card wishing the retailer well, but pointing out that jumping the gun on Christmas is short-sighted, wrong, destroys the proper season of Advent, and should cease immediately or ultimately the retailer will have to cancel his Independence Day sales in order to prepare for the Christmas rush. Furthermore, the card should urge that Christmas decorations that are shrouded until Christmas would provide great copy for local papers that are starved of interesting stories beyond the usual holiday schtick.

We had Swedish food at the cheapest restaurant with a view of the Bay (yes, they do sell furniture and houseware) and they had a Christmas tree up in the cafeteria. Then I went to the bakery today and Lakeshore Avenue is bedecked with evergreen shrubbery (they look particularly silly under the trees that are beautiful in their autumnal red, gold, and orange). I have had enough and will be making a trip to the fabric store for some purple cloth.

Right now we should be making preparations for Beaujolais nouveau, not Christmas.

Signed and commanded by the Duce through the Proper Channels.

Believe, Obey, Fight!

Friday in Ramadan

So, what to do? It seems that we should be eating extra pork on Fridays during Ramadan, except that they are, well, Fridays, and we should not really be eating meat at all. Fortunately we have the flexibility of substituting another penance!

So, by all means, substitute another penance, say your Rosary for the defeat of Mohammedanism, and eat pork heartily! Might I suggest Niman Ranch uncured bacon? Arista pannini?

Also, as per Alicia's suggestion in the comments box below, have more children and pray for those trying to have more children!

Europe and America, Arise!
Awake from your materialist slumber!
Carthago delenda est.

Revolting!

Reading the comments on various blogs about the impending Mohammedan invasion is driving me up the wall. We have a lot of Americans who are either treasonously defeatist or, even worse, gloating over the perceived Mohammedan takeover of Europe. One thing that is particularly striking is the level of ignorance on display, mostly a result of repeating things heard without any first-hand evidence.

Example number one: Christianity is dead in Europe. No one goes to mass. We have heard this chestnut over and over, but is it really true? Perhaps in the barbarian transalpine lands it is. I have not been over the Alps in quite some time, so I cannot say, but in Italy last year we only went to one mass that was less than standing-room-only full, and that mass was at the same time that the neighboring town had a large festival, which drew just about everyone away for the day.

Where are people getting these ideas? I think from the Liberal media, who have a vested interest in portraying the people as turning away from the Faith. Then the "conservatives" use them as a banner to warn the folks on the home front.

The problem is that it becomes incredibly defeatist. No Catholic should ever see the triumph of Mohammedanism as an inevitability, in fact, should recoil and foam at the mouth at the mere suggestion of it, or, even better, should think about what needs to be done about it (I am open to suggestions). The Faith could be stronger in Europe, but I don't think it is as bad as one would believe from reading the doom and gloomers.

One thing that we must remember is that we are part of Europe. No Europe, no America. We stand in absolute common cause with the Mother Continent. If Rome falls, we all fall. In the not-so-long run, I am fairly sure of the inevitability of a long and bloody war against Mohammedanism, and the fall of Mohammedanism into a local cult in Arabia and remote mountainous regions of Central Asia. If not in our lifetimes, in Amalia's lifetime, Mohammedanism will cease to be a significant force in world affairs.

In the meanwhile, the West will have some serious thinking to do on the nature of religious freedom and what it means to extend such freedom to those who have absolutely no intention of returning the favor.

For the entire period of Ramadan, I am going to devote significant space on this blog to the battle against Mohammedanism, and will offer suggestions as to what we, as common laymen can do.

First, during each day of Ramadan, we should pray a decade of the Rosary, for the intention of liberating the followers of Mohammed from the errors of Koranism and one decade for the increase of the True Faith in Europe and America.

Carthago delenda est.

Authority

Over at Alicia's blog there is a lively debate going on over obedience to authority. Obviously I am firmly on the side of authority, but having been a teenager, I can understand the appeal of the rebel side.

The problem stems from the fact that the United States was born of revolt. The French have a similar problem. Until we change our mythology, or at least the slant of the mythology, we are doomed as a people to constant flux and a desire for perpetual novelty.

The solution to this problem lies in the Declaration of Independence. The document speaks of inalienable rights that had been violated by the British colonial government. Basically we need to read our founding mythology with the British recast as the Rebels. God is the ultimate authority and all rights come from Him and Him alone. When Parliament callously violated those rights, it was following in its tradition of Rebellion against the Law of God.

When the founding fathers finally saw the need to cast off Anglo high-handedness, they had already used all of the avenues of petition. Thus their war was one of restoring the Law, not violating it. Unfortunately some bad ideas wormed their way into the fabric of this new nation, and a most unfortunate mythology was created at the same time, and we have been paying the price ever since.

Natural Law is not based on a social contract, as we are taught in the government schools. Some of the framers of the Constitution understood this, but Endarkenment ideas became enshrined as ultimate Truths (hence the peculiar notion found amongst most college students (and professors) that Truth is negotiable, or even so individualized that it bears slight resemblance to what we as Catholics recognize and rightfully call the Truth).

As a result we have a perpetual revolution, and an unfocused legion of rebels without any cause beyond the joy of the revolt. Our so-called conservatives enshrine this in their laissez-faire policies. "Get the government off our backs" translates equally well into "get the government out of our bedrooms" as well as "get the government out of the marriage business." Our leftists want the government out of our medicine cabinets, as long as the government pays for what goes inside them (leftists are essentially teenagers who want Dad to pay for the car, the insurance, the gas, not to establish a curfew, and to pay for the abortion afterwards).

For democracy to work on any level (and in spite of my love of Franco, I believe very much in democracy at the local level), it must be built on an understanding of Natural Law and a healthy respect for due authority, which can be in the form of a parent, a teacher, a mayor, the President, a King, whatver structure is best suited for that particular people. The trick, of course, is to keep the lawful authority from rebellion against the higher law (in short, to also respect due authority).

The Constitution has some good ideas on that, although a runaway judiciary that confuses policy with law may be the Achilles heel of our system. I have given up on trying to figure out the system that is best for these United States. We may be approaching an age where the whole spaghetti is ungovernable. We may have to break it up into five or six countries. I really don't know.

I do know that nothing lasts forever, and that someday Pax Americana will end. I believe that the end is a lot closer than we suspect, and I fear what will come to replace it, as we have federalized too much of the power that should reside in more local levels (the Department of Education comes immediately to mind), leaving our local government structures completely unfit to govern effectively without the massive Washington-based structures they depend on like little chicks peeping for bits of regurgitated worm.

If we are to salvage representative democracy we need to build the notion that authority is good, even when it is imperfect, which it always is. I am reminded of a story about St. Francis. When asked what he would do if he knew that the priest saying mass kept a concubine, Holy Father Francis said, "I would go up to the altar and receive the Body and Blood of my savior from his annointed hands." The priest may be completely unworthy of his office, but the office remains the same. So it must be with our other authorities.

Certainly we must safeguard our rights, as that is our supreme right and duty, but we must do so by respecting due authority and respecting the basic humanity of our authorities and by resorting to and advocating extreme solutions only when the circumstance is extreme and dire and our cries to higher authorities are ignored.

I can think of times when I advocated various revolts in high school and cringe at the knowledge that I never attempted to address the issues through legitimate means (and our principal, a Knight of Columbus and a thoroughly decent man, was always available to students), but I was operating under a glorified image of the lone wolf, the righteous rebel with the sword of Justice (or at least the sword of sex, drugs, and rock and roll).

There is a tendency among Catholics to pick the examples of saints and examples from the Scripture that reaffirm our own worst traits. Those of us disposed to "taking on" hierarchies love the image of Christ with the money-changers or rebuking the Pharisees. Those of us who delight in sharp words take comfort in St. Jerome's personality. I think that a restorative is to develop a devotion to a saint who repulses us. For me this has been Ste. Therese de Lisieux. Quite frankly, she leaves me cold. Her example sets my instincts to run or at least to roll my eyes, yet she has been proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by our Holy Father, so I force myself to read her writings, to study her example, and to do so with charity and the desire to be corrected. I find myself often floored by her when I approach her with an open mind and heart.

I am not saying that I am completely converted nor that I no longer have an urge to giggle once in a while. I still am much more attracted to the examples of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Dominic and those great men of action who threw the book at the heretics and could roll up their sleeves and fight it out with the Albigensians, but I cannot say that my reading of Therese has been without benefit.

Since we cannot hope to transform our society without transforming ourselves first (or more correctly, without blocking the Holy Spirit in the work of transforming ourselves), I propose this sort of thing as the first step in rebuilding sound government in the West (Western Europe is just as much in the thralls of this idiocy as we are this side of the pond).

Har har har!

So, after all that on professional sports, provided Melanie still has extra tickets, Ann and her husband, Jaime, are going to come up to Oakland tomorrow to investigate this professional sports thing. We will be noticing whether or not the A's or the Marinaters have women on their teams, or if any of their players throw like girls. If so, we will duly note it and report tomorrow night or something like that.

I really like baseball but have not been as active a fan this season: too much other stuff to do for the most part. I am also annoyed at the extraneous stuff that one is constantly bombarded with: stupid contests, constant noise, loud "music", incessant promotions, etc. All of this stuff almost completely ruins the inherent serenity of the game. If the whole hype factor were eliminated, and the only sounds one heard were necessary or spontaneous ones, baseball would allow for more contemplation, more reflection, and would be a much superior pastime.

Leave the noise and roaring to football.

Professional Athletics and Women

In the comments box of the post gloating over the demise of the WUSA, I was asked what is wrong with women in professional sports, so here it goes! I should first clarify that I see no problem with women playing sports, particularly ones that do not come out of combat training, or ones that are full contact sports. While basketball is a contact sport, I have no objection to women playing basketball in high school (I object to ALL college sports programs for men and women, simply as a corrective to the over-emphasis that is put on them at too many colleges). However, such sport, when the level of competition is boosted by the addition of money, becomes grotesque when done by women. It is completely contrary to the dignity of women to dress in shorts and to run around acting as men in battle, all to scrounge for money. Games like golf and tennis, on the other hand, where the point isn't to have the bodies of the participants slam into each other in brute force, are perfectly suited to the dignity of women, although golf should only be played with a few rounds of single malt at the 19th, and that is questionably appropriate for women in public, so perhaps golf is not the best idea for women.

Men, on the other hand, have the duty of taking up arms if needed to defend the common good. Since sporting contests like football, basketball, etc. come out of the training for combat, it is entirely appropriate for men to hone these skills to the level needed for professionalism. Men keep their moral for combat up by undertaking contact sports. They are intended to take the blows of enemies to protect women and children, so it is perfectly fine for them to compete in these regards, even at a professional level.

Now, to take excessive interest in professional sports of any sort is a perversion of the right order, and should be avoided.

If you ever want to see how professional athletics distorts the dignity of women, take a look at your local women's football team. That is not how women should look. Period.

Storming Heaven

In this post Michelle suggests entrusting Terri Schiavo's case to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. This is a capital idea, and I have linked to Michelle's site. We should also pray for the conversion of the judge, as well as for repentance of the adulterous would-be murderer husband, Michael Schiavo.

Beyond that, I am still open to suggestions as to what can be done. Storming Clearwater? I don't know.

The Culture of Death

I have not blogged yet about the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case, mostly because the topic has been covered so well by Peony and Pansy, as well as by many others. Since the Kapo, I mean Florida judge, has sentenced her to death by dehydration and starvation, I am really at a loss as to what to say about where our society is headed. In 30 years over 40 million have been killed by the tragedy of abortion. Paul Hill was executed because he killed to show that killing was wrong (the sort of perversion of justice at every step of this shows how twisted our society has become).

This woman, who is clearly not brain dead, is going to be murdered by her husband with the full cooperation of the State of Florida, and the "civil liberties" community is going to remain silent, not wanting to take a stand for the basic protection of human life, because it might rock the boat with their other pro-death positions. I am sure that they will remain silent at every step as the Culture of Death advocates expand their web: Down's Syndrome children, people with Cerebral Palsy, eventually will it come down to those who do not have blue eyes?

"Really, it is better that they not live rather than have the horror of untermensch features. There. There. One shot in the arm and it will all be over."

I am known for the occasional bit of hyperbole, but this isn't it. The West fought Hitler and won the battle, but surely the number of untermensch babies murdered in their wombs, as well as this case would have brought great delight to the little housepainter with the funny moustache. Our birthrates are declining to perilous levels, we (and I include, especially include Europe in this) are threatened with Mohammedan expansion at every turn, and, as a culture we just do not seem to care.

Overall I find the whole business quite depressing, to tell the truth. I have signed petitions, but I do not know how much good they do. Certainly I pray, but I feel like I am dropping the ball on fighting the Culture of Death, like there is something more that I should DO. I am not sure about the efficacy of protesting, I actually don't think that a political solution will work. Certainly an armed uprising or any other desperate moves like that are doomed to only bring about more misery. I am convinced that we need a cultural solution to this mess, but I really don't know what it is. Massive street corner evangelization? Dropping pamphlets around town?

Sometimes I think the best is to do what we do in our daily lives and just be alert to ways to at least insert a germ of truth in the minds of our coworkers, friends, associates, etc. But that gets to be depressing, as well, when you know too many intelligent people who fall for the traps of relativism, materialism, paganism, and assorted tomfooleries and humbugs. I am not sure what is bleaker, to encounter a Catholic who consults a horoscope (or you can't find a major daily paper without one) or to encounter someone who has left the Catholic faith to join the Wiccans (after a brief pause with "scientific" naturalism).

California Uber Alles

Eve Tushnet, an otherwise bright young blogger from DC writes some typical comment about California: "Let them fall into the sea already." About once a week I encounter this sort of balderdash in the blogosphere. I generally comment on it with a snide remark like, "fine, we'll leave, but then who will you get to pay your state's relief bill, to supply you with vital defense aerospace industry, to entertain you, to feed you, etc."

I especially get this attitude when dealing with the District of Subsidia or Byrdland or other such regions that seem to survive solely on the largess of states like California that contribute way more to the federal tax collection than they get out of it.

I am not saying that California is perfect, but to have someone from a City that elected Marion Barry as mayor, after he got out of prison is absurd. Sure we have terrible politicians, and we pass dumb laws out here. Attack those politicians, attack those dumb laws, but PLEASE do not go out later and follow our dumb example, then have the gall to complain about us.

These attitudes are a little too much like encountering a Frenchman who complains about American culture, yet sees every Hollywood Schlockbuster, listens to Madonna Ciccone, patronizes EuroDisney, etc.

If you are not in California and think our ideas are stupid, then you had better make sure that your state does not follow suit in two years! Generally bad ideas start in Berkeley, Santa Monica or Davis. They get justly laughed at. Oakland follows in a year, then San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, then the rest of the state, then New York, then Washington, Minnesota, Massachussetts, and then the rest, with the exception of Nevada, Montana, and maybe Alabama, who hold out until it becomes federal law.

But even better than griping about us, or even fighting our ideas when they land in a statehouse near you, is working to change our culture right here in the Golden State. Imagine what would happen if California were turned around. Then you would see the fruits in your own land in just a few years.

Wishing that we would leave the union or fall into the sea will only make us angry, and you will not like us when we are angry.

Good News!

I am not opposed to professional sports in general, except that I have been known to turn on baseball when I am stuck in Giants traffic trying to get to mass or Lectura Dantis (I normally love baseball). Once the weather is cooler, I like football, especially on Monday nights with pizza and beer. I am probably somewhat neutral to soccer, although I like to watch Italy do well in World Cup (especially against Argentina, although it is even better when Argentina doesn't qualify).

However, I am totally opposed to professional women's athletics (OK, I'll give a pass to tennis and golf, and some sports I object to anyone doing for money, so those are not gender issues). They are quite simply wrong at just about every level. So, it is with great joy that I pass on the news that the women's soccer league has suspended operations.

Beyond my obvious glee at the demise of any professional women's sport league, I am wondering what the organizers were thinking. Soccer is primarily a sport for children in this country (most of whom never really get the game and grow out of it in high school), so why they thought that they would popularize it by boosting women into it is a mystery. Obviously they should have listened to me earlier, but instead sank money into it and encouraged antics like that young woman who ran around the field half naked in celebration of her athletic prowess (yuck, I repeat, yuck). So we can only hope that the promoters of this degrading spectacle lost tons of money in it, and that the young women involved in the whole thing escaped with some semblance of their dignity left.

We can only hope that the WNBA and the Women's Professional Football League follow in the WUSA's footsteps!

Sample Ballot.

Today our sample ballot arrived. You should see all the names. I have decided to support the recall. The only problem I had was the precedent it sets, but I think that the precedent was set once the thing qualified. As for people to apply it to, I can't think of a better candidate than Gray Davis. I think at this point I would rather have had Feinstein as governor, and I do not like Feinstein.

Hey Hey Ho Ho Gray Davis has got to Go!

I was going to write more about the California situation, but now I have to study the ballot. There are some interesting names on this thing.

Three Cheers for Kazan!

Let's get something very clear. If I suspect you of being a Communist, and there ever is a government agency that is doing its job and keeping track of Communists, then I will supply your name to said agency. Don't go whining "betrayal!" I think that the hype over the supposed victims of the Red Scare is outlandish. What, some writer who thought Stalin was swell had to use a nome de plume to collect a princely sum for writing a screenplay? My eyes are supposed to get moist over that? Or someone was asked to come into an office to answer a few questions? That is persecution?

Uh-oh, I am going to hear from my father about that last one. You see, he was indeed asked to come into an office to answer a few questions, and, guess what? He was indeed a pinko. If I had been in charge of the army, I'd probably have thrown him in the brig in that era. He was at an army base that had a notorious and well-publicized problem of Communist infiltration, and he had been spending a lot of time with known subversives.

The amazing thing is that now he is no longer a pinko. I am not saying that the investigation made him see the light, but perhaps it began to nourish the seeds of doubt. However, in spite of the absolute and unqualified gratitude that he should show towards HUAC, he still has these funny ideas that it was somehow wrong.

If you ever meet him you should make him tell you the story, because it is priceless: the army handled the investigation with all of the ham-fisted antics in the book (e.g. on the way to the interrogation they passed through a room of brass who immediately stopped talking). Stuff that inspires me greatly as I plan my dictatorship in my demented little mind. Of course my models are more Latin, but there is something charming about American military brusqueness.

But anyway, that is his story, and if you meet him have him tell it to you, since it is interesting. When he is done you can ask him what sort of beliefs his friends had and what sort of ideas were being bandied about in the publication whose list was subpeonaed. I know these leftist friends and they are charming people, once you get beyond the admiration for Stalin, and I have been on mailing lists that probably should have been brought to the FBI's attention, so I am not advocating torture for people who flirt with goofy ideas. Just a few questions in a quiet office now and then. Just to make them think and to discourage them from acting rashly.

The main point of this is that I was doing my required reading of the entertainment press. Obviously a label that puts stuff out like this is not going to be regularly featured in Entertainment Weekly or Us Weekly, but these publications do hire real writers who occasionally sneak a good record review in, and it is important for me to know something of what is going on in the general music world.

Now I have learned from reading this crap that "courage" is a euphemism for giving absolute assent to anything Brbra Streisand says, especially in matters of sexual perversion or stating the bleeding obvious and linking it to the patently false: AIDS causes suffering, therefore homosex should be celebrated. Are these people serious?

Speaking of serious, I have had more and more trouble discerning serious garbage from the parodies. Is Jewel intentionally funny? How about Fischerspooner? Has anyone heard of Fischerspooner? It must be a joke, no? I have also learned that Cher is looking more and more like a charicature of a warped Barbie doll by the minute. But the catalogue of what I have learned from fluff journalism is not really what I want to get into right now, rather my hero, the brilliant director and front line liuetenant in the war against Communist infiltration in Hollywood, Elias Kazan.

There was a surprisingly balanced little bit about Kazan. Usually he is portrayed as the bad guy who sold his friends up the river just because they cared about society. You know, Robeson suffered so that Kazan didn’t have to.

I say "hogwash!" These Hollywood Communists were vehement, nasty Stalinists, many taking direction from Moscow, looking to push Communist ideology into the films. The emphasis has shifted, but it is still the same thing. Now it is the free-love side of things that gets pushed, and since the major corporations are more than happy to make a buck off of it, the Dempublican government will do nothing about it. But whether it is free sodomy or Commie chains, does anyone doubt that the left has been using Hollywood to further its agenda for the last 50 years?

Do these people extolling the virtues of the hammy actor and cornball singer Robeson not care about how bad Stalin was or do they not know? This should clear up any questions.

As far as I am concerned one of the only figures in Hollywood to show true courage (and not in the modern "oh, George Michael showed a lot of courage last night when he said that AIDS was bad and he should be allowed to marry Elton" sense of the word) was Elias Kazan. He knew that there were active Communists planning to use Hollywood to promote their agenda, and he did the right thing.

These liberals would be better off shedding tears for Itzhak Pfeffer, the poet who was betrayed to death by Paul Robeson (you can read Robeson’s boy’s whitewash here), rather than for some folk-revivalist who had to play to audiences of thousands rather than tens of thousands because he thought Stalin was just OK.

Kazan did his duty to humanity and to our culture. Would that Hollywood had a hundred Elias Kazans! He was a fine director, too.

Inferno!

Ralph Nader

On the pie incident in San Francisco, I know that many of you probably are assuming that I did it.

I have a confession to make.

I didn't do it. I am heartily sorry. I didn't even realize that he was in the area. Frankly, until Larry Flynt declared that he was back in politics, I have given the award of sleaziest politico to Nader. I am not sure he still does not retain the title. Of all of the bad ideas that washed ashore on Plymouth Rock in 1620, the worst seemed to have concentrated in Nader's brain.

I would take a million Clintons over a single Nader. That is how bad of an influence I think Nader is. Even though he helped defeat Gore, I still can't show the man the slightest bit of gratitude to this loathesome figure. Nader is the sort of darkness that controls an empire not for personal gain, no, that would be too human for Nader, rather to impose his sterile, smoke-free, safe and vegetarian vision of life on the whole world. His PIRG volunteers, those mindless automata that spread from college campuses, where they prey upon the confused to lure freshmen into their clutches, his Center for Science in the Public Interest, his Green Party, all are borrowed straight from Satan's playbook.

I am terribly sorry that I was not the one to launch the pie.

Which brings us right back to praying for the likes of the Hussein boys.

Even as we utterly and completely reject everything that a Ralph Nader or an Uday Hussein publicly stand for, we can never loose sight that they, too, are human beings, created in the image of God. It would please God (and should please us) if Nader were to be converted. It should please us if Uday repented at the moment of death.

As much as he resembles it, Ralph Nader is not one of Satan's demons. He certainly deserves at least a pie in the face, but we still must love the SOB. Not like. Jesus never commanded us to get along with asses like Nader, but we do have to love them.

If you did not need that last part of the sermon, please realize that it was directed primarily at me. Sorry.

Should I? Shouldn't I?

I am not asking myself this question, but it seems that everyone else in the State of California is (and I think they are all opting for the former). I cannot be Governor because I cannot promise to uphold the laws of this State. You see, there was a silly bit of legislation on the ballot that made eating horsemeat a felony. Not only eating horse, but selling a horse out of state, if you knew that the horse was going to be used for human consumption. I would not enforce such idiotic laws.

In fact it was with great joy that I barbecued horse steaks for the family in Italy last year. My Mom said, "great, this is the pony that I always wanted as a child." It went well with pici with mushrooms.

It is not that I dislike horses. I love the sight of a horse running, standing, walking, rearing, etc. They are magnificent animals, but they are that: simply animals. I love bull bovines as well, especially when they are in the ring participating in the art of the bullfights. I also love them in boef gardienne de la comargue. None of this precludes my love of the sight of a wild bovine grazing on the hillside, tossing its horns through the air, roaring in May, charging other bulls for supremacy. It is all a matter of order and proportion. The proper place for animals in an animal-human relationship is to serve and be used by humans for food, clothing, shelter, art, entertainment, transportation, etc.

We must thoroughly repudiate any and all claims to "animal rights." One time I encountered a fellow who said, "oh, I definitely think that animals should have more rights." How do you respond to such a defective view of natural rights? He views rights as a function of a social contract and then wants to extend that to creatures incapable of entering into a contract. At the same time he believes abortion to be a good.

If only this fellow were a freak, a moron, someone who slipped through the cracks of our education sysytem. Instead his understanding is the understanding most people have in our society about the nature of government. They talk about inalienable rights without understanding what that means. They wish to extend "rights" at the same time they wish to trample natural rights.

And that is what most of the candidates for governor are going to be offering. Ugggh.