How many times have I heard or read the so-called “conservative blogosphere” declare that “Obama” or Hillary Clinton are “going down for this one”?  How many times have these people been caught not just in lies or petty crimes, but full-blown capital offenses meriting immediate arrest, speedy trial and, upon conviction, execution for treason and/or crimes against humanity?  Hell, they openly admit to capital crimes now, because they know no one will ever do anything about any of it.  Just wait for the 36-hour news cycle/attention span to pass, and it’s like nothing ever happened – EVEN AMONGST “conservatives”.  I know the same will happen here, again.  I know that an entire nation and civilization will be distracted by the shocking, shocking news that a Jewish NBA franchise owner has a less-than-stellar personal regard for black people.  Also, water is wet, and the sun rises in the east.  Look!  SQUIRREL!!  And it will all be forgotten by Friday.  And “Grandma Hillary” will continue to be the *assumed* continuation of the Putsch regime in D.C.

But still I rail and scream.  

Originally penned and posted on May 10, ARSH 2013 with a few updates.

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Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, along with the rest of the regime players, murdered Ambassador Chris Stevens. It was a hit. It wasn’t incompetence. It wasn’t deer-in-the-headlights collective inaction. It wasn’t a kidnapping plot gone wrong. It was a hit.

The whole incompetence argument is simply the domain of moral and intellectual cowards who insist upon seeing the world through rose colored glasses and deny objective reality. My contempt for these people knows no bounds. It’s one thing to be stupid. It is quite another to be a coward. Cowardice is a pure moral choice. This is why courage is the fruit of the Third Sorrowful Mystery (the crowning with thorns). If courage was a genetic phenotype, as baseline intelligence largely is (as opposed to willful ignorance), then Our Lord would not desire that we pray for the grace of courage every day. Show me someone arguing that the Obama regime is incompetent and I’ll show you a quivering little coward.

Next is the whole “kidnapping plot gone wrong” argument. Sorry. It doesn’t hold water. First, the theory that Obama wanted to do a prisoner exchange of Ambassador Stevens for the Blind Sheik right before the election in order to look like some sort of hero is simply ludicrous. Americans would have been repulsed and disgusted by such a move. Americans don’t cotton to capitulation to kidnappers. And releasing the Blind Sheik? No, this would have worked against Obama in public opinion. The fact of one of our Ambassadors being kidnapped at all would have come off as a sign of profound weakness, and releasing the Blind Sheik would have pegged the needle on the ol’ wimp-o-meter.

Next, this kidnapping scenario assumes that the Obama regime was relying on fairly contested elections, had no election fraud teams in place in the major metro areas of the swing states, and/or was truly Nixonian in its desire for a unanimous victory. Again, nope. They clearly weren’t going for a unanimous or near-unanimous electoral college sweep as Nixon was trying to do. They were all about targeted fraud in the swing states. They had no care or concern about winning Kansas, Wyoming or Oklahoma. The motives simply don’t match up.

Finally, we have to ask why the Clintons were co-conspirators in the murder of Stevens. WHY are the Clintons a.) participating in the initial murder of Stevens and b.) not throwing Obama and Jarrett under the bus? The Obama machine stole the 2008 primaries from Hillary, and both Bill and Hillary personally loathe Obama and his Chicago crew. Why this unholy demonic alliance?

Because Chris Stevens was a lynchpin in the running of arms by the Obama regime and Clinton’s State Department in full cooperation with each other to the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda through Libya. And yes, it is absolutely sane and appropriate to assume that Huma Abedin (Hillary’s consigliere and daughter of high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood leaders, and possible lesbian concubine of Hilary) figures into this.

Both Obama’s White House and Hillary’s State Department were mutually and equally tied to this arms running, and both of their bacons were equally in the fire. The Obama White House, I am convinced, has plans for the retention of power beyond 2016, and Hillary thinks she is going to be POTUS from 2017-2025. The bottom line is that the duumvirate of the most dangerous, evil psychopaths on the face of the earth decided for slightly different reasons that Ambassador Stevens needed to be dead in order to cover the gunrunning to the Muslim Brotherhood, and so together, they had him killed. They withdrew all of his security (at the behest of the State Department), told the Muslim Brotherhood that it was all-clear, guaranteed that there would be no response or retaliation to an attack (only the Oval Office could issue the stand-down order), and even put the cherry on top by instantly framing the entire hit as some sort of musloid blasphemy propaganda. That was just gratuitous. Sickeningly gratuitous.

Look at this video.  This is my koran burning, subtitled in Arabic by Coptic Christians in Egypt, posted in April of ARSH 2011.  When Benghazi happened in September of ARSH 2012 and I heard the instantaneous, carefully pre-planned lies about the mohammed video motive, I pulled this video up on YouTube.  At that time, it had over 650,000 views, most of which were in North Africa, more than quadruple the views of the alleged “motive” video.

Here’s the direct link.  As you can see, it’s at 708,000 views today.

If Benghazi had been a kidnapping plot, Chris Stevens would have been KIDNAPPED. Remember, he had almost no security in the end. He wouldn’t have been gang raped, killed and then had his dead body gang raped again.

The Clintons have a long history of having people murdered, all the way back into the early 1980′s in Arkansas. Vince Foster. Ron Brown. These people are psychopaths and murderers. You have to deal with this.

The Obama machine, being neo-Stalinist, is also murderous, having seen to the assassination of at least three of Barry’s sodomy partners from Trinity UCC cult on the South Side of Chicago.

Purely as an aside, don’t you think that it is odd that an attention whore like Jeremiah Wright saw three members of his cult murdered within just a few weeks of one another and never said a WORD publicly about that? No demands for a full FBI investigation on the front steps. No march through the streets with Jesse Jackson and Fr. Pfleger demanding that justice be done and that the targeted killings of his flock be given the highest priority by law enforcement. Nope. Nothing. It’s almost as if Wright was neither surprised nor alarmed by the rapid serial killing of his “parishioners”. I wonder what POSSIBLE EXPLANATION there could be for that?

Sadly, Chris Stevens was just another “expendable faggot” in the eyes of the Obama-Clinton-D.C. combine. He was a dead man the day he accepted the position. And doesn’t it seem odd that the Obama-Clinton machine would send a known sodomite man to be the ambassador to an unstable, backward muslim country to begin with? Again, it was probably done intentionally as a hedge, an ace-up-the-sleeve as it were. Stevens could be killed, and then turned into some sort of sodomite martyr as a last-ditch plan. But, they didn’t need that. They had the “blasphemy video”. Eyeroll.

Finally, I would like to reiterate that the ultimate “expendable faggot” is Barry himself. I worry. I worried terribly after he showed up stoned to the first debate. I continue to worry now. Barry the man is in no way any sort of intellectual driver behind the regime. He is a puppet, a facade, a lazy imbecile and sodomite and nothing more. If the drivers decide that he is worth more dead than alive, assassinating their “expendable faggot” would be the mother of all Reichstag Fires, and would likely result in instant suspension of the Constitution and martial law.

IF BARRY IS ASSASSINATED, THE FIRST THING THAT A TEXAS, A KANSAS, AND ANY OTHER REMNANT STATES LOYAL TO THE CONSTIUTION SHOULD DO IS SECEDE. LIKE, WITHIN MINUTES.

And you people keep paying taxes into this.

Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

The Resurrection, Francesco Buoneri (“Cecco del Caravaggio”), ARSH 1619-1620, Art Institute of Chicago.

This is my favorite image of the Resurrection.  I have seen it in person as it is now housed in the Art Institute of Chicago.  If you get the chance to see it, do.  The overshadowing strength and virility of Our Risen Lord is indeed breathtaking as you stand before this enormous canvas.  Remember the “overshadowing shoulders” discussion?  That was in the context of the Crucifixion.  Now here are OVERSHADOWING SHOULDERS in the context of the Resurrection – full circle.

But what is equally striking about this image as you stand before it is the angel.  He is pointing upwards, but looking straight out at the viewer, and let me tell you, when you are standing in front of it, it feels like that angel is looking at your very soul.  His gaze makes you blush.

And now what has, over the past year, become one of my very favorite pieces of music, good ol’ Cherubic Hymn No. 7.  The words are sublime (even if the translation is a bit of a fudge), paired with sublime vocal harmony.  Happy Easter to one and all.  Christ is truly risen!  Yay!

Come, let us cast off all earthly care
And forget every vain employ
For the King of All comes in triumph
By unseen hosts of angels brought
To us that bid Him welcome
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

(Originally penned and posted on Christmas Eve, ARSH 2011.)

Christmas is about the Incarnation, and I think that the Incarnation is one of the most under-appreciated and glazed-over concepts in Christianity. God became a man. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity took on human flesh. Jesus is fully God and fully Man. Born in a manger. Sweet Little Baby. Angels. Shepherds. Wise men. Presents. Isn’t that nice? Moving right along . . .

Not so fast. In order to really enter into Christmas and shake the secular cultural disaster of consumerism and greed that it has become, one needs to ponder the Incarnation. Deeply. And it seems to me that the key to understanding the Incarnation, and thus Christmas, lies not in the manager in Bethlehem. No, the keystone that ties it all together and allows us to begin to grasp the infinite terror and majesty (yes, I use the word “terror” very thoughtfully) of the Baby laying in a feed trough is actually 33 years later in the Garden of Gethsemane. If you really want to understand what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown, look to the Garden. But I warn you, it isn’t happy. If you like Christmas as it is and just want it to remain a secular gift exchange with tacky sweaters and delicious baked goods, STOP READING. Because my intention is to plant concepts and images in your mind and soul that you will never be able to remove. Every time you see or hear anything that reminds you of Christmas, I want these seeds to flare up and burn your soul. Not all burning is bad. Burning purifies. Purification makes us better. If you’re not interested, STOP READING RIGHT HERE. Merry Christmas!

______________________

The key to beginning to understand the Incarnation, God becoming Man, is Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. If you recall, after the Last Supper in the Upper Room, Jesus and the apostles, except for Judas who was on his errand of betrayal already, went to the Garden of Gethsemane. John tells us that Jesus went there with the apostles frequently to pray, and thus it would be one of the first places Judas would have known to look for Him. The wheels of the Passion are in motion. Jesus knows exactly what is coming, and that it is coming within a matter of hours. He withdraws a short distance from the apostles to pray, but close enough that they can still see Him. He asks the apostles to simply stay awake (because it is now the middle of the night) and to watch and pray. Jesus withdraws and begins to pray. But what the apostles see is horrifying. Jesus isn’t calmly and serenely kneeling in prayer. Jesus is literally laying on the ground, curled up in a ball, writhing in agony. Our Lord is a quivering, trembling, sobbing mess. Jesus is in such stress and agony that the capillaries in the sweat glands in His scalp and forehead are bursting, and there is blood in the sweat that is running down His face, mingling with His tears, and dropping on the ground. This is the first bloodshed of His Sorrowful Passion.  Sobbing and shaking, Jesus BEGS the Father to let the events of the next twelve hours pass from Him if at all possible, but resigns Himself to the will of the Father. Reading this, some may be unimpressed with Jesus. Afterall, many, many men and women have gone to their torture and execution fully aware of what was coming, while managing to maintain their composure. Some men, especially, might be tempted to view Jesus and being somewhat cowardly in the face of His Passion, and thus be a bit turned-off by the whole scene.

Yes, Jesus is terrified. He is more terrified in this moment than all of the terror felt by mankind in all of history combined, rasied to the power of infinity. His terror is literally testing the limits of the human body. If any of us felt anything even close to the sort of fear that Jesus felt, we would drop dead. People can and have died purely of fright and/or intense psychological stress, usually by means of a heart attack precipitated by massive adrenaline production.

But the real question is, “What is He afraid of?” His terror and agony are NOT purely centered around the physical means of His death. He is not trembling and sobbing because he is thinking solely of the pain of being scourged, or the pain of being crucified. He is curled up in a ball crying so hard that He is sweating blood because He is thinking about WHO is going to torture and kill Him.

When God took on human flesh, He took on EVERY ASPECT of our existence. He experiences things the same way that we do – except with complete purity and at an infinitely amplified level. And that includes love. And being that He is also completely God, He is in Himself infinite knowledge and infinite love. In a nutshell, this means that Jesus went through His entire life on earth completely in love with every single person. Every person He saw or passed on the street He had known from all eternity; He had created that person atom-by- atom accordingly in the fullness of time; He had intimate knowledge of that person’s every thought, desire and deed; He was infinitely in love with that person.

Can you imagine what simply going into town and walking through the market must have been like? Every face He passed was His beloved. Every person who brushed by Him was a souce of simultaneous joy and the pain of unrequited love. Every laugh He heard was a laugh He wanted to share, and every whimper of sadness was sadness He wanted to share, every struggle was a struggle He wanted to help, and every bit of pain was pain He wanted to soothe. And not in an abstract, altruistic way. He wanted to engage these things personally, as we would with our intimate beloved. But He couldn’t. Can you imagine having all of that love pent up inside of you, with your beloved so near, and have to hold it all inside?  Are we starting to get an idea of how terrible and wonderful the Incarnation is? Remember all of this.

Let’s go back to the Garden. Jesus takes a couple of breaks from His prayer to go back and talk to the apostles, who are His best friends. Yes, He loves everybody, but the apostles are different. They know, to a small extent, who He is. They have spent many days and evenings together working, playing, eating and just talking. Jesus has told them who He is, and He has told them in no uncertain terms that He loves them. And they have assured Him that they love Him too. Their relationship is not one-sided. Jesus – God Incarnate – has gotten to experience reciprocal human friendship and love with these men, infinitely lopsided though it may have been.

Jesus has just spent a considerable amount of time in agony a stone’s throw away from His beloved friends, and when He comes back to them, He finds them all asleep. He is dying. (My soul is sorrowful even unto death.) He asked them, His beloved best friends, to simply stay with Him, watch, and pray. And they couldn’t even stay awake. And this happened twice. Heart. Ache. This is the reality of the Incarnation.

Now here comes Judas. As with every other person, Jesus is loves Judas infinitely. Judas is the person Jesus loves most in the world (and that goes for every person because Jesus is God and thus has infinite capacity.) And Judas has sold Him out. It is one thing to be betrayed by an enemy. It is quite another to be sold for 30 pieces of silver (which assuming one ounce pieces would equate to just under $1000 today) by the person you love most in the world. And just to make it as terrible as possible, Judas has told the guards that the man he kisses, the man to whom he gives the gesture of FRIENDSHIP and LOVE, is Jesus. And so when Judas kisses Him and Jesus says to Judas, “You betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” there is agony there that can not be described. This is the reality of the Incarnation.

The guards. Every single one of them is the subject of Jesus’ infinite love.  And they despise Him. Jesus could have stopped it all at any time, not by some act of miraculous violence, but by asking the commanding guard if he remembered that certain tree he used to climb as a child, or that certain toy. He could have frozen them in their tracks by simply reminding them of their own experiences and feelings – which He had already shared with them because He had been with them the whole time. But He didn’t, because He couldn’t. If He didn’t let them kill him, there would be no hope of ever being with them in heaven. Agony. This is the reality of the Incarnation.

Now before the High Priest Caiaphas. Same thing. Except Caiaphas, and the rest of the Sanhedrin, have been as their entire vocation and purpose in life, praying for the coming of the Messiah. They have been praying to Jesus (unwittingly) for Jesus (unwittingly). And Jesus has heard their prayers, and the prayers of all of the priests for generations past, and is finally, finally now standing in front of them. And remember, He loves them each personally. They look Him up and down and utterly reject Him. “No, no. You’re all wrong. You’re not what we want. We want a big macho-man king to vanquish the Romans and sit on the throne and then make us all rich by association. LOOK AT YOU. YOU’RE ALL WRONG. WE DON’T WANT YOU. Go to hell and good riddance.”  Agony. This is the reality of the Incarnation.

Pilate. Selfish indifference. “Look man, I neither know nor care who you are or who you say you are, and frankly, I think you’re just another loon. I have a lot on my mind and I simply can’t deal with crap like this.”  Agony. This is the reality of the Incarnation.

The Roman scourgers. Jesus was whipped and flagellated until most of His skin was gone by men whom He loved infinitely and intimately. Can you imagine how He felt as he walked to the pillar, turned and saw the faces of his scourgers, and seeing the face of every human being looking back at Him? Can you imagine being slowly and brutally whipped to the brink of death by the person you love most in the world? Say your spouse or best friend? It would be one thing to be whipped by a total stranger. But to be tortured by the person you love most in the world? Unfathomable agony. This is the reality of the Incarnation.

The crowds. Everywhere there were crowds of people looking on – the scourging, the trial, the streets he walked while carrying His Cross to Calvary. Every single face was intimately loved. And every single face, excepting Mary, John, Mary Magdalene and a few other women, were either viciously hostile or completely indifferent. I wonder which was worse? The reason I ask is because the opposite of love is NOT hate, as most would assume. The opposite of love is indifference. There is no greater blow that can be made to a human soul than indifference. How many people saw Jesus that day – locked eyes with Him – and honestly didn’t give a rat’s @$$ either way. “Live. Die. Whatever. Just don’t bother me. You’re messing up my plans. YOU’RE MAKING MY LIFE HARD. Now I’m going to have to go completely out of my way to get around You and this damndable mess You’re making.”  This may have been the worst agony. This is the reality of the Incarnation.

Almost everyone treats Jesus with indifference to one degree or another. We are all inflicting that agony on Him. How, you ask? By sinning. We know that our sins hurt Him infinitely, but we commit them anyway. Few people sin because they actively HATE Jesus and want to hurt Him. A few do, but not too many relative to the broad population. No, most people are just indifferent. There He is at the pillar, and our sin is the next lash. And we do it anyway. CRACK! Because we’re indifferent. And again, and again.

“Live. Die. Whatever. Just don’t bother me. You’re messing up my plans. YOU’RE MAKING MY LIFE HARD. Now I’m going to have to go completely out of my way to get around You and this damndable mess You’re making.”

“But I love you.  This is all for you.”

“That’s your choice, and your problem, Buddy.”

Agony beyond words. This is the Reality of the Incarnation.

That is why Jesus was sobbing in agony in the Garden. He didn’t fear the physical pain. He feared being utterly, completely and totally rejected to the point of toture, execution and the indifferent witnessing of this by the person He loved most in the world, which is YOU. And ME.

He feared not being tortured and killed, but being tortured and killed by the person He loved most in the world. And despite this, He still chose to go through with it all. He went all the way to the end, just so there would be a CHANCE that one day we might knock on HIS door and say, “I love You, too.  Have mercy on me, a sinner.”

So while you’re opening your presents and unstuffing your stockings tomorrow morning, be sure to think about that Sweet Little Baby and the infinite agony of love that He has signed up and gone all-in for by being born in Bethlehem, because that is what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

In Thy sight are all they that afflict Me; My heart hath expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with Me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort Me, and I found none.

Psalm 68: 21-22

I find it stunning how many emails I receive from protestants excoriating me for mentioning Our Lord’s Passion, or for any feelings of wanting to make reparation for my sins and the sins of the world, or for wanting to comfort Our Lord in the Garden, in whatever hamfisted way possible, because “it is already done” and “nowhere in the Bible does it say anyone has to suffer for anyone else’s sins.”

I find these emails to be the saddest of all. I can understand how there can still be people emailing me asking if they should get out of their 401k or IRA. I can understand how people can walk around with zero understanding of the financial system, and even of simple arithmetic. It is terrifying, but I can understand it.

What I cannot understand is people who proudly proclaim their deep, intense “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” having absolutely no interest in or compassion for Him personally. I tell you over and over again that the Eucharist, that is the consecrated bread and wine is ACTUALLY PHYSICALLY, SUBSTANTIALLY JESUS CHRIST, and there is ZERO INTEREST. None. Zip. I tell you He is here physically and you can not only go be in His physical presence, but you can also physically take Him into your body if you enter into the Church.

Not interested.

Because, you know, when you are in a deep, intense “personal relationship” with someone, you have NO INTEREST in seeing them, being close to them, or being physically intimate with them.

And beyond that, when you are in a deep, intense “personal relationship” with someone, when they are suffering, the only thing that matters to you is whether or not you caused the suffering, and if so, are you legally dispensed from the liability.

I’m not a sodomite. I didn’t actually kill any of those babies with my own hands. It is His job to bear that guilt. He chose to go into the Garden and take it. He chose to sob until His capillaries burst. This is a purely legal question. If I didn’t do it, or if He legally contracted to suffer for my sins, then it is all on Him, and I’m certainly not going to dive back into any suffering with Him … I mean, that would be missing the point, right? I’m saved. He took it, and so, LET HIM HAVE IT.

It seems to me that the only “deep, personal relationship” in that is with one’s self.

Our Lord is a Person. A Divine Person. He is also the Person Who engineered and created the universe. Time is one of His engineered constructs. For Him, all of time is one, big NOW. Thus, everything that ever has happened or ever will happen is perpetually present and happening to Him. He is perpetually in the Manger in Bethlehem. He is perpetually in the Garden in agony. He is perpetually on the Cross. He is perpetually resurrected. He is perpetually ascended to the Father.

We meet Him upon the Cross at every Mass, in which He folds time so that we can all be physically at the foot of the Cross. Why does He do this? Because He looks for one that would grieve together with Him. He is comforted by the compassion of the very people who put Him on the Cross, and He provides this ability for temporal transcendence so that EVERYONE who loves Him can be with Him at Calvary, not just the few people who were there 1981 years ago. He does this so that Peter and the rest of the Apostles who fled could be there. He does this so that the little peasant woman in 9th century France could be with Him. He does this so that we can be with Him.

On Holy Thursday, He is especially comforted by those who truly, truly love Him, not as a piece of contract law or legalistic device, but as He is, a Person, and He affords us the chance to be with Him in the Garden; to approach Him as He lies prostrate in the dirt, sobbing, shaking, and already bleeding from the inside out, and ask to stay with Him and suffer with Him.

You do realize that is what the word “compassion” means, right? “Com” means “with”. “Passion” means “suffer”. To have compassion is to desire to “suffer with” another person.

It seems to me that if you really have a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ, then the thought of NOT going to Him in the Garden, not just on Holy Thursday, but every single day of your life, is intolerable, regardless of who caused His agony, or whether or not it is “legally covered”. If you are indifferent to the suffering of another, please stop lying to yourself and the world by claiming that you are engaged in a “deep, personal relationship”.

“… And I looked for one that would grieve together with Me … I sought for one that would comfort Me …”

1.  First, I just have to say that with regards to the Bundy Ranch situation, the PAIUTE INDIANS have been unavailable for comment.  Just had to get that out there.  Someone had to say it.

2.  The best source I have yet seen on the whole mess is the Brietbart piece that includes all of the legal filings and really even-handed explanations of the issues.  Nobody’s clean in this.

3.  I was happy to see Karl Denninger chime in.  The comment thread (as is often the case at Market-Ticker.org) is quite informative as well.  KD confirms that he has received THREATS from loons over this, and he hasn’t really said much at all about it.  While I haven’t received any explicit threats of violence from pro-Bundy people, I have received a veritable mountain of hate mail and the usual accusations of being a lesbian, a JOOOO and of being on the FEDGOV payroll – simply for not falling IMMEDIATELY and WITHOUT QUESTION into line and elevating Bundy to instant hero status.  Yeah, no red flags there.

4.   Even more troubling is the large volume of hate mail that conveys a profound DISAPPOINTMENT that blood was not shed.  Attention to all of you guys and ladies who are genuinely a part of the “first responder” or “minuteman” community:  There are a hell of a lot of people who view what is going on and what WILL eventually happen in the former U.S. as a big reality show or form of entertainment.  And guess what?  Y’all are the “entertainers”.  I have alluded to this in terms of the sports and entertainment culture, as well as the general societal disconnect from and inability to grasp REALITY many times before.  Before you get drawn into a theater, much less a hot engagement, just remember that a bunch of those commenters hiding behind handles are loons who just want to see a bunch of people get their heads blown off.  Are you ready for your close-up?

5.  Which leads to my next point.  TRUST YOUR GUT.  Intuition is a gift from God, but we have all been conditioned by the “culture of nice” to ignore it and even be racked with guilt about it.  If your stink-o-meter is pegged, HONOR THAT.  Let me run through some of the things that pegged my stink-o-meter:
A.) Alex Jones pushing the narrative.  Alex Jones is an INSTANT massive warning that much, much more information is needed, because his outfit is every bit as unreliable as CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and FOX.  If Alex Jones said, “two plus two equals four”, dude, I’d reach for my calculator JUST TO BE SURE.  His target audience is people with mental illnesses who will believe any looney-tunes conspiracy theory that they hear.  It’s sick.
B.) Early emails coming in from drooling, frothing anti-semites, contrail nutters, Planet X nutters, you name it.  People who want to “finish what Hitler started” are an extremely reliable counter-indicator. ‘Nuff said.
C.)  Bundy is one of those “sovereign citizen” nutters.  You know, the people who think that birth certificates are legal incorporation documents and all that.  I ran across several of those types over the course of my career and it was always indicative of either mental instability, or a need to deflect personal responsibility for either failures or sleazy behavior.  Either way, homie don’t play dat.
D.) Another lesson I learned in the cattle business was that the guys who were always talking about being screwed were the guys who could be trusted the least.  You never, ever did a handshake deal with the guy who was constantly claiming that he was being screwed.

6.  What I find especially scary is the inability of people to grasp that BOTH parties in a conflict may be unsavory.  Again, I attribute this to the modern mindless “sports culture” in which everything is either Team A or Team B.  Furthermore, YOUR team never commits a foul.  YOUR team never travels.  YOUR team never double-dribbles.  YOUR team never camps in the lane.  And that is simply dishonest, but that “dishonesty in the name of team loyalty” is considered a cardinal virtue.  We all agree that the Obama regime and the FEDGOV of the Iniquitous Gutter Republic are bad, bad, bad.  But is it really wise to then say that ANYONE or ANYTHING on the “other side” of the Obama regime is therefore “good, good, good” and worthy of life and limb?  This extremely shallow thinking, devoid of any real prudence or nuance, is why “conservative” people are swooning over the KGB tyrant and neo-Soviet dictator Putin.  Well, if he’s against Obama, he MUST be teh awesome, right?  Only if your thermostat and IQ read the same.  Remember, in a relatively recent macro context, Patton was assassinated for having a thorough and nuanced grasp of the Germany-Soviet Union dynamic, namely that Uncle Joe was every bit the enemy that Hitler had been, if not more.

7.  Finally, I hope that when the time comes, that leaders of men who show prudence and an insistence on assaying counterparties, gathering intel, and NOT sending men (and probably women) at the drop of a hat to lose life and limb based on sketchy sources and “herd think” are not instantly fragged.  Based upon this episode, which near-miraculously came to a bloodless, albeit temporary, impasse, I worry tremendously about the ability to establish any sort of respected chain of command, and equally marvel at the ability of men in times and civilizations past to come together, establish and recognize command structures, and then to obey orders.  Throughout history guys would muster, be ranked and sorted into outfits, and then go do (or NOT do) what they were told.  Can you imagine that happening in today’s world?  I gotta tell you – I struggle to envisage it.  I hope I’m wrong.

EPILOGUE:
While this was all going on last week, my bank account was swept again.  Within 48 hours of the legal case against me that I told you about regarding the Home Owner’s Association at my old office/condo in Lone Tree, CO and the fines for having the Epiphany Blessing in 1.5 inch chalk letters above my front door, a garnishment and seizure of the balance of my bank account was executed.  Less than 48 hours.  For chalk symbols that could have been wiped off with a wet sponge.  They didn’t get anything close to the haul the IRS got, but they got a little as the last remaining bills that I have to pay all hit between the 10th and 17th of the month, so I had a little money sitting in the account to pay bills – and call me crazy, but I still believe in paying bills and staying as square as I possibly can.  (Getting totally off the grid is almost impossible.)  Apropos indeed to the topic above, zeroes and ones on computer servers simply cannot be defended.  I look forward to all of the “Ha-ha, you deserved it!” emails.  Sigh.  Of course.  Because ten 1.5 inch chalk letters over a door invoking God’s blessing and protection of a domicile is exactly the same thing as 20 years of grazing hundreds and hundreds of cow/calf pairs.  Exactly the same.  No difference at all.  Ah, well.  All is well in Riverville.  As I was washing the dishes last night, I was able to quietly bask in a profound contentment.  I reckon if washing the dishes inspires a keen awareness of one’s own beatitude, then one just might be moving in the right general direction.  I hope so, anyway.

Here’s your history lesson of the day, and it’s a duzy. Do you all remember the department store chain Montgomery Ward? It was in the same class as JC Penney and Sears, and like Penney’s and Sears had a robust catalog business in the 20th century. The catalog ended in 1985 and the stores closed in 2000. The incident we are going to talk about happened during World War 2, in 1944. When I read this it initially put my jaw on the floor, but when I thought about it for a moment, I realized that it put all of the pieces together regarding Marxist tactics and motivations.

In early 1943 employees of Montgomery Ward went on strike in seven cities: Jamaica, New York; Detroit; Chicago; St. Paul; Denver; San Rafael, California and Portland, Oregon. (For the sake of brevity, I will henceforth refer to Montgomery Ward as “Wards”, which is what people casually referred to them as back in the day.) Wards stood their ground and refused to recognize or capitulate to the union thugs in these seven locations.

Now get this. On April 26, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered U.S. Army troops to storm and seize Wards’ corporate offices in Chicago. Yes, you read that correctly. FDR deployed the Army against Americans on American soil, physically captured occupied their property and even had Wards’ chairman, Sewell Avery, forcibly carried out of his office by US Army troops. FDR then installed his Secretary of Commerce, Jesse Holman Jones, as manager of Wards’ Chicago facility. FDR justified this action by citing his power as Commander-in-Chief AND his authority under the Smith-Connally Act.

The Smith-Connally Act, which was also called the War Labor Disputes Act, was passed in June of 1943. It was hastily rammed through congress, touted as an “emergency measure” (sound familiar?) after 400,000 coal miners went on strike. Why did the miners go on strike? They went on strike because of the high inflation that was being experienced at the time. (Sound familiar?) They wanted a $2 per day wage increase in order to pace the inflation. Interestingly, FDR vetoed the Smith-Connally Act but Congress had a super-majority and overrode FDR’s veto. This threw me for a moment when I first read it, but let me explain. The Smith-Connally Act gave FDR massive dictatorial power. So why did he veto it? Optics. FDR knew that he had a super-majority in Congress, so in order to appear like the innocent, blushing maiden, rather than the Marxist dictatorial wolf that he was, he vetoed it. Congress promptly overrode the veto and FDR was then free to wield the power which was handed to him by Congress and which he falsely claimed to protest. In other words, “Hey, you INSISTED on giving me this power. Now you can’t complain when I use it.”

Back to Wards. In the summer of 1944 the National Labor Relations Board (Sound familiar? Boeing? South Carolina? 2011?) tried to organize a Wards union again, but Wards STILL stood its ground. As a result, FDR issued an executive order (sound familiar?) ordering the Secretary of War (which is now called the Secretary of Defense) to seize ALL Wards property nationwide in order to force Wards to capitulate to the unions. This seizure was upheld by the Court of Appeals. No joke. I’ll tell you how the story ended in a minute.

I have one more anecdote about the tyrannical use of the Smith-Connally Act by FDR. This one is complex because there were wrongs on both sides, and it actually involved FDR turning against the unions, but we’ll think our way through it. In 1944 the Philadelphia Transport Workers Union went on strike because Philadelphia Transportation Company decided to integrate the skilled positions on trains and trolleys, namely motormen and conductors by promoting and training black porters and other existing employees in menial positions, but who were already experienced with the trains of trolleys. This integration was spurred not by altruism and a spirit of Christian brotherhood, but because there was a shortage of labor due to the war. Because of this, the whites-only union went on strike. Yes, everyone’s motives were sleazy. But, I want you to focus on what FDR did, because the issue in question is the lawless tyranny of the state. The true racism of the unions is a given. We don’t need to re-invent that wheel.

FDR ordered his then-Secretary of War (again) Harry L. Stimson to seize the Philadelphia Transportation Company and installed US Army Major General Philip Hayes as CEO. That’s right. FDR forcibly seized and handed a private company to the United States military by executive fiat. When the union didn’t agree to Gen. Hayes’ terms, Hayes deployed 5000 troops to seize and run the PTC trains, with armed soldiers riding the trains as “security”. Oh, but it gets even worse! On August 5, 1944, Gen. Hayes issued an order that unless the unions returned to work by 12:01 am on August 7th, they would be fired and all between the ages of 18 and 37 would lose their military draft deferments. Yep. He threatened to draft them, which during World War 2 carried a very high risk of being killed.

FDR was one of the most dangerous men in American history up until Obama. If FDR had been ten years younger than he was and had lived, I honestly think that he could have become a full-blown dictator. FDR died in April of 1945 after having just been sworn in to his FOURTH term as President. Harry Truman then became president and after the conclusion of the War appointed the Hoover Commission which promptly recommended the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution which limited Presidents to two terms. Truman knew that we had dodged a bullet with Roosevelt and made certain that a tyrannical dynasty like FDR’s would never happen again. With regards to Montgomery Ward, Truman terminated the government seizure of Wards almost immediately after being sworn in as President in 1945. Remember, Truman was a Democrat whom FDR picked to be his Vice President knowing that he probably wouldn’t survive his fourth term. Can you imagine Joe Biden being elevated to the Presidency (in whatever circumstance) and then immediately repealing ObamaCare and calling a commission on eligibility requirements resulting in a Constitutional amendment? Of course not. Why? Because Joe Biden has no personal integrity. None of them today do. None of them.  They are, ALL OF THEM, whores and psychopaths. But Truman had a shred of integrity and reversed Roosevelt’s imperious tyranny. That was a different time, a different culture, and literally, a different country. The U.S. was able to shake off Roosevelt’s brand of Marxism and get back on track because the halls of government were still walked by men with a backstop of integrity and morality. That backstop no longer exists, which is why we are screwed.

Finally, a quick word on how Marxists relate to Unions. The unions think that the Marxist ruling class is “on their side” . . . right up until the bullet actually enters their cranium. Marxism DESPISES the middle class. Marxism is all about destroying the middle class – but the middle class is actually split into two separate parts. The first part is what we call the “upper middle class”. You may have heard the French term “bourgeois” (buzh-wah). The noun form of “bourgeois” is “bourgeoisie” (buzh-wah-ZEE). That’s the upper middle class. Marxists use guilt to induce self-loathing among the upper middle class. Many of them, especially those who do not have strong faith in God, fall for it and thus essentially hand themselves over to the Marxist elites. Sound familiar?

For those in the upper middle class who don’t fall for the self-loathing Marxist agitprop, persecution and death comes early in the Marxist revolution process. The self-loathers are the second group to be eliminated. Academics, clergy, artists, business owners and politicians outside the elite cadre, even though they supported the Marxist elites, are killed early in the purging process. Why? Because the Marxist elites know that once these people figure out that all of their “social justice” talk is complete bee-ess, these people COULD turn on them and expose their fraud to the lower-middle class, or “proletariat”. So, the Marxist elites eliminate that risk. For the love of God, PLEASE read the history of the Soviet Union. Lenin and Stalin eventually killed damn near EVERYONE who ascended through the Communist Party. They had to keep continually elevating and then murdering people in order to maintain their decadent lifestyle and fraud without being ratted out to the suffering proletariat who would certainly revolt against the Marxist elites if they knew the truth.

The proletariat, or lower-middle class, is a bit different. In the beginning of the revolution process the Marxist elites rely heavily on the lower-middle class, blue collar workers. They agitate and organize workers and form unions. Josef Stalin was a union organizer. They do this by stirring up class envy between the lower middle class and the upper middle class. (Sound familiar?) Every business owner is cast as a “greedy fat cat”. “Equality” and “fairness” are the buzzterms used to incite the workers against their employers. The Marxist elites promise the proletariat “equality and fairness” if they will only give them power and loyalty and support the Marxist revolution. But it is all a lie. The Marxist elites don’t give a crap about the proletariat – in fact, they DESPISE them. They view them as expendable animals whose only purpose is to deliver the Marxist elites to power. Once the revolution is complete, the proletariat – now fully integrated into the destitute lower class – no longer serves a purpose. Not only do they not serve a purpose, but they are a massive drain on the Marxist oligarchy’s government. They eat and get sick and use resources. They also get disgruntled when they realize that the elitists used them, promised them the moon, and then delivered poverty, starvation and disease. In order to maintain power, Marxists have to squash the proletariat under the jackboot of a police state driven by violence and terror.

And so, in FDR’s tyrannical actions from 1943-1945 we see a microcosm of the agitation-suppression cycle of the union-elitist relationship. The Marxists start out all kissy-kissy with the unions, but then transition to threats and brutality as soon as they have accumulated power. This is why Marxists began their infiltration of our culture 50 years ago in the SCHOOLS. It is critically important that both the lower middle class and the upper middle class today have NO KNOWLEDGE of history and thus cannot recognize what is happening, and more importantly how it is going to end. These pathetic union members honestly believe that Barack and Michelle Obama, who take multi-million-dollar vacations on a near-monthly basis, actually care about them when the truth is that they despise them and laugh at their gullibility. And none of them have the foggiest idea who Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong or Pol Pot were, much less that these four men alone consciously murdered well over one hundred million (100,000,000) of their own people in roughly 60 years.

Layer on top of this the fact that the Union oligarchs have stolen wages and looted “retirement and pension” accounts for into the TRILLIONS of dollars – accounts that simply WILL NOT pay out because the money IS NOT THERE – a dynamic which did not exist 70 years ago, and you see that while there is nothing new under the sun, this is indeed a whole ‘nother level of evil.

The rotors are spinning at full speed, the manure is loaded into the trebuchet and the slack is out of the firing trigger.

Nervous? Troubled? Afraid? Don’t be. There is Someone who is thoroughly in charge. And no, it ain’t Valerie Putin or Vladimir Jarret. (Yes, you should be laughing. It’s okay.)

Deep breath. Read this and remember it tomorrow and next week. Your sanity may depend on it.

———————————————————

And Jesus came and touched them: and said to them, Arise, and fear not.
-Matthew 17:7

There are 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) stars in our galaxy.

It is estimated that there are 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) galaxies in the universe.

That means that there are 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10 sextillion) stars in the universe, or so I estimate.

Our sun, which we will consider an average star, burns 607,000,000 (607 million) tons of hydrogen per second in fusion reactions.

If we take the 10 sextillion stars in the universe multiplied by an average hydrogen burn of 607 million tons per star per second, we get a universal hydrogen burn of:

6,070,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (6.07 nontillion) tons of hydrogen per second.

1 gram of hydrogen contains 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (602 sextillion) atoms. Remember “moles” from chemistry class?

There are 454 grams in a pound.

There are 2000 pounds in a ton.

Therefore, there are 908,000 grams in a ton.

If we take the 602 sextillion atoms in one gram of hydrogen and multiply that by 908,000 grams per ton, we get:

546,616,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (546 octillion) hydrogen atoms per ton.

Multiply the 546 octillion atoms per ton by the universal hydrogen burn of 6.07 nontillion tons per second, and you get:

3,317,959,120,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (3.318 novemdecillion) atoms of hydrogen consumed every second in the universe.

Because every fusion reaction is fusing 2 atoms of hydrogen into one atom of helium (plus an energy yield), we divide 3.318 novemdecillion by 2 and get:

1,658,979,560,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1.659 novemdecillion) fusion reactions per second in the universe.

God is specifically and infinitely conscious of every single one of those fusion reactions because He is the cause, driver and sustenance of every single one of them. If He doesn’t will it or permit it, it doesn’t happen.

This is the same God that spends every nanosecond of your life in a state of burning, aching, consuming love for YOU. Correction. He didn’t start loving you when your life began. He has loved you FOR ALL ETERNITY. There has literally never been a “time” when He didn’t love you. This is the same God that is so desperately and – dare I say it – pathetically in love with you that He died for you. In fact, He let YOU kill Him, because that was the only way that His love could be consummated.  It had to be. And He knew it had to be that way from all eternity. And He still willed you into existence and knit you together atom by atom, cell by cell, in you mother’s womb WHILE He was driving 1.659 novemdecillion fusion reactions per second – just so you could maybe look up into the night sky and see this:

The Perseus Cluster. Every point of light in this image is NOT one star, but one GALAXY.

Please remember this the next time you see Him.

1.659 novemdecillion fusion reactions per second… dwarfed in comparison to His love for you.

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

The Virgin and Child Appearing to St. Francis of Assisi, Francesco Vanni, ARSH 1599.

Today, Friday in Passion Week, is also the Commemoration of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin are:

1.  The Prophecy of Simeon in Luke 2
2.  The Flight into Egypt
3.  The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple
4.  Mary Meets Jesus as He Carries His Cross to Calvary
5.  The Death of Jesus on the Cross
6.  The Piercing of Jesus’ Side and His Deposition from the Cross
7.  The Burial of Jesus in the Tomb

There are many excellent works of art depicting various saints having visions of the Blessed Virgin holding the Infant Jesus.  I find all of these paintings to be especially striking and moving because the saint is either reaching up toward or already holding the Infant Jesus, and the Blessed Virgin is handing or has happily handed Him over.

Think about that.

We’re all sinners, even the saints, with the singular exception of the Blessed Virgin herself.  Thus, every one of these people, and every one of us through our sins, killed Her Baby.  And not only does she love us and want to be our Mother, she will even let us hold Her Baby despite the fact that we are His killers.

Please remember this the next time you hear someone attempt to trivialize or denigrate the Blessed Virgin.  Her love for us is unfathomable.

Never say you weren’t warned.  Here they are, now beating us over the head with obvious, objective reality, because they now know that they can.  They know that no one will ever fight back.  Until Our Lord returns in Glory (which may yet be thousands of years hence – nobody knows) they have won, because civilization failed to field a team and counter this is any way, and thus forfeited.  And still nearly all will claim they were tricked.  No, you weren’t tricked.  You just didn’t give a shit.  And now you, and your children, and their children, will wallow in it.

Via IOwnTheWorld.com

Lesbian Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen speaks openly about eradicating marriage at the 2012 Sydney Writers Festival.

“I agree. It’s a no-brainer that we should have the right to marry, but I also think equally that it’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist (crowd cheers loudly)….  Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there — because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change and it should change, and again, I don’t think it should exist.”

1.  In your charity, if you could offer a prayer for the repose of the soul of an excellent gentleman whom I met last fall, who tragically drowned accidentally earlier this week, and also for his family, most especially his wife and two adult children.  A Requiem Mass will be said for him today (Wednesday) at 12:30pm EDT.  The consecration of the Host and Chalice will be at approximately 12:55pm EDT, if you would like to set an alarm.

2.  Regarding the cattleman in Nevada: I would strongly discourage you all from hitching your cart to this particular horse.  While I have all manner of criticisms of the BLM and certainly of thuggish FEDGOV tactics, it is essential that one pick one’s battles very carefully, and this is NOT a good battle to pick.  The guy in question has been grazing his cattle at essentially zero feed cost for upwards of twenty years (well, THAT makes the cattle business easier, doesn’t it!) because he stopped paying the BLM any lease charges.  Again, we can debate all manner of things including the ridiculous rules about closing land to grazing in order to “protect” lizards or prairie chickens or whatever the fake “endangered species” du jour is, and certainly we can debate the existence of the BLM itself, but there is no free lunch; everyone else pays to graze.  This guy is claiming, as I understand it, some grandfathered right to the land through the Mormon cult (again, BIG red flag), but I don’t buy it.  This situation stinks all around to my refined sniffer, and I would NOT die on this hill.  Since so many have asked, that is my read.  Just be careful with this one.

3.  I am going to post the “Psychopathy Checklist” that has been going around for the past week or so.  Read it and tell me that my characterization of politicians as psychopaths isn’t accurate.  I’m telling you, these people are all psychopaths and you simply CANNOT deal with psychopaths as if they are normal people.  They are playing a completely different game with a completely different rulebook, and unless you savvy to this and respond appropriately, they will lay waste to entire nations and civilizations without batting an eyelash.  I think that the most critical point may be point 12 below – psychopaths are devoid of any sense of shame.  They cannot be shamed, and thus things like “censures” or even public humiliation (think Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner) are useless against them because they genuinely do not care.  They have to be physically stopped and restrained, sometimes permanently.  This is why capital crimes must be punished as such.  I know it is unpleasant to face this fact, but there is no escaping it.

I can’t help but comment on the last sentence in point 14.  I look back at my life and recognize that one key indicator about people is how they treat waitstaff at restaurants.  I know that sounds rather trivial, but it is so true.  I remember meeting a couple when I first moved to Denver.  We went out to dinner, and it was wonderful.  HOWEVER, they were both extremely rude and dismissive to the waitstaff.  When a waiter or busboy would come to the table this couple would ignore them – literally not look at them or respond, and would not look the waiter in the eye when ordering (ALWAYS watch the eyes).  I alone spoke to the waitstaff, even though I was the “lowest ranking” person at the table by far.  I noted the behavior because it was so egregious, but blew it off, which was pure weakness on my part.  In retrospect, I could just kick myself a million times for that, and I have seen the same thing over and over again.  Watch how people treat those in weaker or service positions.  It is a highly reliable indicator.

I’ll link to Jesse’s Cafe Americain because his commentary at the end is spot on.

  This is from sources on the web, and is based on Robert Hare’s psychopathy checklist.

1. Look for glib and superficial charm. A psychopath will also put on what professionals refer to as a ‘mask of sanity’ that is likable and pleasant.   It is a thin veneer.

2. Look for a grandiose self perception. Psychopaths will often believe they are smarter or more powerful than they actually are.

3. Watch for a constant need for stimulation. Stillness, quiet and reflection are not things embraced by psychopaths. They need constant entertainment and activity.

4. Determine if there is pathological lying. A psychopath will tell all sorts of lies; little white lies as well as huge stories intended to mislead. Psychopaths are gifted or dull, high functioning or low performing like other people. An untalented psychopath may harm a few; a highly talented psychopath may lay waste to nations. The difference between the psychopath and others lies in their organic lack of conscience and empathy for others. The sociopath is trained to lack empathy and conscience. The psychopath is a natural.

5. Evaluate the level of manipulation. All psychopaths are identified as cunning and able to get people to do things they might not normally do. They can use guilt, force and other methods to manipulate.

6. Look for any feelings of guilt. An absence of any guilt or remorse is a sign of psychopathy.  They will often blame the victim.

7. Consider the level of emotional response a person has. Psychopaths demonstrate shallow emotional reactions to deaths, injuries, trauma or other events that would otherwise cause a deeper response. Other people are satisfaction suppliers, nothing more.

8. Look for a lack of empathy. Psychopaths are callous and have no way of relating to others in non-exploitative ways. They may find a temporary kinship with other psychopaths and sociopaths that is strictly utilitarian and goal-oriented.

9. Psychopaths are often parasitic. They live off other people, emotionally, physically, and financially. Their modus operandi is domination and control.  They will claim to be maligned or misunderstood to gain your sympathy.

10. Look for obsessive risk taking and lack of self-control. The Hare Checklist includes three behavior indicators; poor behavior control, sexual promiscuity, and behavioral problems.

11. Psychopaths have unrealistic goals or none at all for the long term. Either there are no goals at all, or they are unattainable and based on the exaggerated sense of one’s own accomplishments and abilities.

12. Psychopaths will often be shockingly impulsive or irresponsible. Their shamelessness knows no bounds. You will ask, what were they thinking? And the answer was, they weren’t because they did not care.

13. A psychopath will not genuinely accept personal responsibility. A psychopath will never admit to being wrong or owning up to mistakes and errors in judgment, except as part of a manipulative ploy.   They will despise and denigrate their victims once they are done with them.  If they have any regret it is that their source of satisfaction supply has ended and they must seek another.

14. Psychopaths lack long term personal relationships. If there have been many short term marriages, broken friendships, purely transactional relationships, the chances the person is a psychopath increase. Watch especially how they treat other people in weaker positions and even animals.

15. Psychopaths are often versatile in their criminality. Psychopaths are able to get away with a lot, and while they might sometimes get caught, the ability to be flexible and adaptable when committing crimes is indicative.

If you should find yourself in a business or personal relationship with a psychopath, the best advice is seek counseling if you need, obtain assistance if you must, and run if you can. You are a diffused and multi-faceted person with many interests. A psychopath is powerfully focused on obtaining what he wishes from others, without many prohibitions or distractions. Avoidance is the best policy. Long term confinement is their best treatment.

I do not think the repetitive sociopathic behaviours and psychopathic tendencies of the Roman imperial leadership to be accidental. The mad emperors kept recurring because they were the creatures of what that culture had become, and they stood as emblems at its apex.

Men are social animals, and can go mad in groups, as well as alone. Psychopathy can be the black hole at the center of a whole galaxy of madness and sociopathy under the right conditions, and the results can be flamboyantly destructive, as we most recently saw in several places during the 20th century.  The psychopaths can thrive anywhere that deception is an advantage, but their prime hunting ground is a system in crisis, a controllable chaos lacking a well defined rule of law.