June 30, 2009, 7:41 pm
Do this! Don’t do that! Eat this repulsive vegetable. Stay away from that tantalizing pastry. Don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t enjoy any unauthorized pleasure. Don’t make value judgments. Don’t confuse us with facts and logic. Do what you’re told. It’s for your own good. Wear your seatbelt, wear your helmet, wear a pink ribbon. Smile! Nag, nag, nag. Know-it-alls and busybodies everywhere. Aren’t you sick of them? – “Random Thoughts on Guardianship,” F.R. Duplantier
Get used to being told what to do. Our government is going to take better and better care of us in the years ahead.
June 29, 2009, 9:25 am
Feel free to publish, post, or pass on Your Weekly Politickle by F.R. Duplantier:
REELECTION RECIPE
Take a crony-claimed “stimulus” stash
And an influx of overseas cash
(Use to cover expenses);
Add an ACORN-cooked census
For an edge in the 2012 clash.
From the archive:
MIGHTY HOAX
Assigning bailout blame
Can be a cryptic game,
One must be deft,
Read on the left:
Now you know the name.
(2008)
RIGHT FROM HUANG
How can you help but adore
A guy with the gall of Al Gore?
He admits to no wrong
Taking money from Huang,
Then swears that he’ll do it no more.
(1997)
Last week’s limerick:
FATHER TIME
Twenty years ago I lost my dad
And the loss to this day makes me sad,
But I’m glad he was there
In my formative years
And can cherish the time that we had.
June 27, 2009, 12:05 am
Peace to you and your lovely family! Some times you make me laugh. Today you made me reflect, on my own dad. You dads are awesome. Thanks for what you do. You are “what’s right with America” (the name of my next book). My cap is off to you. — Fathiyyah
This was a good week for feedback. Got the note above from one of my favorite longtime subscribers, in response to the Father’s Day limerick I sent out Monday:
FATHER TIME
Twenty years ago I lost my dad
And the loss to this day makes me sad,
But I’m glad he was there
In my formative years
And can cherish the time that we had.
And this note came in from another longtime subscriber, who’d fallen off my list in January after changing email addresses:
Am I still on your list? Or have you quit posting them? The last one I received was in January. I enjoy them so well, I hate to not receive them any more. — Odell
Odell is back on the list, and catching up on missed Politickles in my 2009 archive.
June 26, 2009, 8:01 pm
“Today there arises the risk of a serpentine secularization even within the Church, which can convert into a formal and empty Eucharistic worship, in celebrations lacking this participation from the heart that is expressed in veneration and respect for the liturgy.” – Benedict XVI
How many Masses have I attended so raucous and irreverent that they might have passed for hootenannies or pep rallies? How many sermons have I heard so stupefyingly insipid that they actually obliterated the message of the Gospel? How many times have I myself been completely focused on the mysterious transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ? Ah, well, that’s another question — and the one that really matters. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
June 24, 2009, 8:59 pm
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has launched a new website devoted to news and information about legislative proposals that Congress is considering for a national catastrophe fund. CEI experts say that the proposal amounts to a “beach house bailout” that could put taxpayers on the hook for bailing out the beachfront property of the super-wealthy: nobeachhousebailouts.org. “Currently, Congress is looking at foolish legislation that would create a taxpayer burden to bail out wealthy celebrities like Madonna, O.J. Simpson, Bernie Madoff, and Anna Kournikova,” explains CEI Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer. “We want to expose the absurdity of this kind of government intervention in the property insurance market.”
Amazing, isn’t it? The corruption in Congress is becoming more brazen every day, but, as Obama promised, we haven’t seen anything yet!
June 23, 2009, 2:49 pm
My favorite dish . . .
. . . and my favorite waitress . . .
. . . at my favorite restaurant
Casablanca closed last week. Now where will I go when “I need a gyro”?
No More Heroes?
June 22, 2009, 8:39 am
Feel free to publish, post, or pass on Your Weekly Politickle by F.R. Duplantier:
FATHER TIME
Twenty years ago I lost my dad
And the loss to this day makes me sad,
But I’m glad he was there
In my formative years
And can cherish the time that we had.
From the archive:
POOR DAD
“I’ve been poor since the day of my birth
And may die with a negative worth;
Though I live on the skids,
With my wonderful kids,
I’m the wealthiest man on the earth!”
(2007)
FATHERS STAY
The third Sunday in June will be gray
For the sons and the daughters who may
Not remember the dad
That they never quite had
‘Cause he left them and went far away.
(2006)
Last week’s limerick:
POSTNATAL ABORTION
Oh, the wailing could hardly be shriller
For the murdered abortionist Tiller:
How those pro-choicers burn
With such tender concern
For an infamous serial killer!
June 20, 2009, 12:09 pm
To the Most Holy Virgin I entrust this Year for Priests. I ask her to awaken in the heart of every priest a generous and renewed commitment to the ideal of complete self-oblation to Christ and the Church which inspired the thoughts and actions of the saintly Curé of Ars. It was his fervent prayer life and his impassioned love of Christ Crucified that enabled John Mary Vianney to grow daily in his total self-oblation to God and the Church. May his example lead all priests to offer that witness of unity with their Bishop, with one another and with the lay faithful, which today, as ever, is so necessary. Despite all the evil present in our world, the words which Christ spoke to his Apostles in the Upper Room continue to inspire us: “In the world you have tribulation; but take courage, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). Our faith in the Divine Master gives us the strength to look to the future with confidence. Dear priests, Christ is counting on you. In the footsteps of the Curé of Ars, let yourselves be enthralled by him. In this way you too will be, for the world in our time, heralds of hope, reconciliation and peace! – “Proclaiming a Year for Priests,” Pope Benedict XVI
These are a few of my favorite priests: Fr. Jacques, who taught me geometry in high school and once sent me to “punish hall” for wearing argyle socks; Fr. Mike Alchediak, who heard my confession the day before my wedding and preached a sermon on the Prodigal Son the next day; Fr. Tonner, his concelebrant, who christened my wife as an infant and 27 years later gave our eldest daughter her First Communion; Frs. Perrin and LeBlanc, co-pastors at Sacre Coeur Church in Brockton, Mass., our first parish as a married couple; Fr. Quilligan, who brought my father-in-law back into the Church on his deathbed; and Frs. Benedict and Ralph at St. Anselm in Creve Coeur MO, our current parish, who between them have given First Communion to five of our six kids.
