After enjoying a hearty laugh over the ludicrous blasphemy seen on the flyer above, (outrage isn’t worth the bother), your Tatler, chewing on the matter a bit, realized the last sentence overleaf: “Yes, we are awesome,” serves nicely as a credo for the increasing number of secular religions springing up over the years, filling the void as people abandon God. That is especially true and ironic when considering the correct meaning of the much–abused wordawesome: inspiring reverential fear, which in this case, appropriately, is in themselves.
Still, one must give a tip o’ the hat to those pot dealers attempting to meld their oh-so-contemporary enterprises with our Holy Mother and her Church, via audacious dialectic synthesis (sort of). Bravo, dudes.
One of your Tatler’s favorite composers, Ralph (pronounced rāfe–God bless those Brits) Vaughan Williams’s lovely Fantasia on ChristmasCarols, here receives a fine reading in an unspecified Catholic church, wanting both heat and paint, in Szolnok, Hungary. The extreme circumstances seem not to have bothered in the least the forces involved, nor the audience. Uplifting and inspiring, this is.
College enrollments are sharply decreasing according to Axios, 10% during the Covid pandemic and continuing still.
From the report:
The big picture: Higher education in the U.S. is in the midst of a sea change, forcing schools to adapt with the times.
“It suggests that there’s a broader question about the value of college and particularly concerns about student debt and paying for college and potential labor market returns,” Doug Shapiro, the executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, said earlier this year, per the New York Times.
The total number of undergraduate students in the U.S. dropped by nearly 10% during the pandemic, PBS NewsHour reports.
A majority of academic administrators, nearly 90%, say they are concerned about future enrollment, per a survey by Bay View Analytics.
Why is this possibly good news? Colleges and universities are by far the most responsible for the leftist indoctrination of young people. While most of the secondary schools in this country, both public and private, certainly do their part, it is in the cloistered environment of higher education where young charges are subjected to a four-year, non-stop barrage of Marxist-Leninist propaganda. Often these days it takes the insidious form of explicating 20th and 21st-century popular cultural references and events, e.g., the Nasir Jones Hip Hop fellowship at Harvard. Whatever makes it easier for inchoate minds to absorb, just get the job done.
After four years of the above, a good percentage of these college kids (though certainly not all) will have transmogrified from empty-headed freshman into seniors, clutching diplomas, with heads stuffed to overflowing with hatred of all things pertaining to western civilization.
My argument why this may be good news is simple (some will say simplistic): the fewer young people going to college, the fewer commies ipso facto poisoning and destroying our society. Young people rejecting higher education, going to work, and earning a paycheck (and possibly noting how much is diverted from that check to support institutions college leftists adore), are less likely, it strikes this writer, to fall into the tentacles of modern progressivism. That is good news.
This past Sunday your Tatler, for the first time in some time, attended missa antquior, the Latin mass, at a small mission church on a Tewa pueblo, joining the scholacantorum doing the chants. There were a decent number, 50 to 60, in the pews and plenty of children squealing and squawking, music to the ears of a former Episcopalian.
In the church’s bulletin however, one only sees mass times for Novus Ordo, the modern mass in bad English, even though the Latin mass is celebrated at that church weekly or more. An oversight? Hardly. His tarnished Grace, Archbishop of Santa Fe John C. Wester, a devotee of Pope Francis, has slavishly followed papal orders making it difficult, if not impossible, to celebrate the old Latin mass in his diocese though it is entirely valid.
The pope, clamping down on the old rite, antithetically insists his diktats will somehow bring “unity” to Holy Church by making outcasts of Latin rite adherents. Archbishop Wester concurs, and prosecutes the pontiff’s orders.
Other prelates however have disagreed with the pope, notably Cardinal Dolan of New York, not at all a Latin mass enthusiast, but who nonetheless ignores the anti-Latin rules from Rome, even going so far as to praise one Latin mass church in his diocese for bringing many Catholics back into the fold. In other words, ahem, bringing unity.
Not here in the Archdiocese of New Mexico, though. Here, we who love the old mass are invisible. Our mass is invisible. Our celebrant is invisible. Our servers are invisible. Our worshippers are invisible. We were kicked out of our first church to a much more out of the way mission.. In Archbishop Webster’s diocese, we are personae non gratae, but still come to mass and donate substantial fungible dollars. Only those are visible to the Archbishop, who never stops clamoring for more of them to pay the legal bills and awards for the sinful behavior of clerics under his watch.
On a grimly optimistic note, our archbishop, as well as the pope, are well into antiquity, which brings to mind your Tatler’s oft-expressed aphorism: there is nothing wrong with the Holy Catholic Church that cannot be remedied by a good flu epidemic.
This lovely creature, Mx Samuel Brinton, draws a salary from our federal government, having a position in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. Seemingly well educated–very, Mx Brinton holds dual graduate degrees in nuclear science and engineering from the Technology Policy Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering with a nuclear engineering focus.
Alas, despite all that book larnin’, the poor dear seems to have been absent those days at school where the young charges were instructed, at least until recently, such basic civilized behavior such as it’s naughty to steal and tell lies. For, you see, Mx Brinton, apparently not content simply effecting a bizarre appearance, elected recently to engage in bizarre behavior as well.
FromThe Epoch Times: (Bad link before, now fixed–Thanks to WJT).
Law enforcement officers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport were alerted on Sept. 16 to a missing suitcase by a woman who said her checked bag was not on the carousel despite being scanned as arriving at the airport.
Officers obtained video surveillance for the carousel in question and observed a suspect remove the bag from it. The suspect, later identified as Brinton, removed the tag from the bag and quickly left the area, according to a statement of probable cause obtained by The Epoch Times.
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[The victim] provided an itemized list of its contents. Officials estimated the value of the contents and the bag itself came to $2,325.
The bag was full of clothing–women’s clothing, it hardly seems necessary to relate.
Brinton was charged with felony theft and faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 if convicted.
Your Tatler, without wishing to appear overly skeptical, strongly suspects the perpetrator, being, we assume, of a protected class that cancels out his/her/its crime of being white, will not spend even five minutes in jail, let alone five years and will probably work out a deal with the District Attorney, to reduce or eliminate the fine, to donate time to charity. Here’s guessing that lucky organization will be the likes of an anti-conversion therapy organization or something of that sort.
In the past, Bickerstaff would wait well into Advent before putting up the Christmas tree. This year he asked himself, why the wait? Not coming up a with a good answer, save perhaps for lingering protestantisms informing his thinking, your Tatler decided Advent I being today, the tree goes up today.
Another decision was made, which might be deemed Ambrosian, viz., “When in Rome, do as the Romans” (Si fueris Romae Romano vivito more). Being in New Mexico, the fir Christmas tree of tradition back east and abroad seemed not appropriate. A visit was made to the nearby Mexican tin shop and the ersatz tree you see above has taken its place. To these eyes, it is lovely.
An English institution brought to this country by thePilgrims.
Writings of the Pilgrim Fathers.
Edward Winslow.
[O]ur harvest being gotten in, our governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a speciall manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labours ; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoyt, with some ninetie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governour, and upon the Captaine and others. And although it be not always so plentifull, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plentie.
William Bradford.
They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; fFor as some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no want. And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids venison, &c. Besids, they had about a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corn to yt proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained, but true reports.
William Hilton.
At our arrival in New Plymouth , in New England, we found all our friends and planters in good health, though they were left sick and weak, with very small means; the Indians round about us peaceable and friendly; the country very pleasant and temperate, yielding naturally, of itself, great store of fruits, as vines of divers sorts in great abundance . There is likewise walnuts, chestnuts, small nuts and plums, with much variety of flowers, ro ots and herbs, no less pleasant than wholesome and profitable better . . No place hath more gooseberrries and strawberries, nor Timber of all sorts you have in England doth cover the land, that affords beasts of divers sorts, and great flocks of turkey, quai ls, pigeons and partridges; many great lakes abounding with fish, fowl, beavers, and otters great plenty of all excellent sorts of sea. The sea affords us fish, as the rivers and isles doth variety of wild fowl of most useful sorts . Mines we find, to our t hinking; but neither the goodness nor quality we know . Better grain cannot be than the Indian corn, if we will plant it upon as good ground as a man need desire . rentWe are all freeholders; the day doth not trouble us; and all those good blessings we have what we list in their seasons for taking. , of which and Our company are, for most part, very religious, honest people; the word of God sincerely taught us every Sabbath; so that I know not any thing a contented mind can here want . I desire your friendly c are to send my wife and children to me, where I wish all the friends I have in England; and so I rest Your loving kinsman,
The Pilgrim’s religion was far from the Catholic religion. Nevertheless, they were God-fearing souls of good character who made peace with the natives and treated them well, who in turn did same for them. They also gave us a holiday all Americans can and should celebrate, even if modestly or even just the reading of the 107th Psalm (106th in the Vulgate).
A Happy Thanksgiving and grateful thanks to all my readers and contributors.
This video has been making the rounds and for good reason; few cannot be genuinely touched by it. A female monkey, having undergone a C-section during birth and separated from her newborn while under sedation, obviously believes her baby is lost until discovering he is not. Her ecstatic joy is wonderfully apparent. This writer, not being a mother, cannot empathize fully with this one, nor any others, animal or human, but close is close enough and we may all rejoice in this mother’s joy.
There are other lessons here, but your Tatler’s readers may easily discern them for themselves, thus no further remarks are needed, save for: God is good.
Environmentalists in Germany have succeeded in pushing through a law forcing farmers to eliminate 50% of their livestock, as part of the fight against global warming emissions (of course).
Farmers have been protesting the decision in the same way they recently did in the Netherlands this summer, but the initiative is moving forward beginning this year [italics added ]. . .
[T]he German Meat Industry Association has reported that the country will be facing a severe meat shortage by the time spring arrives and consumers should expect prices to skyrocket, potentially doubling in some cases. It would appear that some people in the German government have never heard of something called the law of supply and demand.
As you might expect, that will not be the only negative effect.
But on top of that, the domestic supply of natural fertilizer will be cut in half. . . The lack of natural fertilizers (i.e. manure) will force farmers to switch to more expensive artificial fertilizers. As a bonus to all of this badness and madness, the artificial fertilizers require the use of large amounts of ammonia (which is converted to urea), and all of that ammonia is produced via a process that requires the burning of significant amounts of natural gas, thereby negating much of the carbon reduction goals that are driving this decision.
If every environmental law and regulation in history were thought through entirely, none would have passed. The Greens know this, which is why they resort to trickery and lying to get their way.
But wait, it gets even better.
So to sum all of this up, in its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, Germany will bankrupt many of its farmers, have less meat available for consumers who will be paying nearly twice as much for it, and they’ll significantly increase the amount of fossil fuels they burn. And all of this will be happening at a time when German consumers are already struggling with high rates of inflation and rising prices.
Hmm, rising prices and inflation in Germany: why does that ring a bell? Didn’t something like that occur before in Germany? If memory serves, it led to some unpleasantness. But that was then, wasn’t it?
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There were once liberals in the entertainment business who were actually funny (it was a long time ago), Terry Southern, Jules Feiffer, and Woody Allen come to mind. To that number, we should add singer-songwriter-MIT mathematician, satirist Tom Lehrer. One of his most scathing ditties concerned Germany, on an entirely different matter from the above of course, but as you may discern, it still resonates today.
This wretched personage, Caroline Ellidison, is or was intimately connected with both FTX and its chairman Sam Bankman-Fried and an exemplar of our new ruling class, who produce and sell nothing concrete, yet still possess staggering amounts of other peoples’s money. This they use to live high on the hog and make substantial donations to politicos and organizations pledged to eliminate class differences in our society, organizations mostly staffed by people just like her and her boss.
Reading her tweets, however, it is clear Caroline Ellison, despite her young age and billions, is, to borrow from Pope Leo XIII, “absolutely null and utterly void.” She likely senses, accurately your Tatler suspects, she has little to look forward to in the future. If though, were she to open her mind some, she might discern she does, whatever earthly troubles she may face in the near future.
THE TAOS TATLER. 