Politickles

Feel free to publish, post, or pass on Your Weekly Politickle by F.R. Duplantier:

SHELL SHOCK
Dining out and plan to grab
Lots of oysters, shrimp, and crab?
Remember the Spill
Has raised the bill:
Let your partner pay the tab.

From the archive:

OOH LA LA!
A fried turkey injected with spice,
Shrimp-stuffed mirlitons and dirty rice,
Pecan pie, oyster dressing –
How we rush through the blessing!
Yes, a Creole Thanksgiving is nice.
(2008)

Last week’s limerick:

O SPILL
With dispersants and skimmers and booms,
We’ll contain the contaminate blooms,
Stop the Slick from Chicago
More toxic than Blago,
And avert the disaster that looms.

Mass times and readings

There is a simple reason why the gay rights lobby is trying to rush through repeal of the Pentagon’s homosexual exclusion policy. They know that a comprehensive review of a proposed change would disclose the substantial evidence that admission of open and active homosexuals would put our troops in further danger through exposure to tainted blood. – Cliff Kincaid

The Gulf oil spill is a case of epic failure for a liberal administration that has force-fit environmental concerns into all aspects of government policy. This is a far worse ecological tragedy than anything caused by global warming, and unlike that bugbear, this is a real, rolling disaster that is causing harm now. Mr. Obama’s response to the oil spill has not been very slick. – Washington Times

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is a perplexing beast. While the agency remains hellbent on regulating colorless, odorless and likely harmless greenhouse gas emissions, it has been utterly incapable of living up to its name with respect to the Gulf oil spill. – Steve Milloy

Obama is a typical socialist. He can create a crisis out of nothing and make a real crisis worse. What he can’t do is make anything better.

Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has arrived on Louisiana’s shore and is now impacting more than 45 miles of our coast. State agencies continue their work to protect our coastline, our people and abundant natural resources and Louisiana’s way of life. More than 1,100 members of the Louisiana National Guard participate daily in missions to protect our shores. Scientists from the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries regularly monitor environmental conditions and LDWF and the Department of Health and Hospitals are testing seafood for negative effects due to the oil spill. – emergency.louisiana.gov

Thank God for Bobby Jindal and his can-do attitude. What a pleasant contrast to Blanco and Nagin! If only he’d known not to rely on Obama and the feds in the first place! Let this be a lesson for other states.

Seafood lovers, have no fear: Louisiana crabs, shrimp, crawfish, and oysters are the best — and always will be.

We are living through what Fr. Francis Canavan, S.J., called “the fag end of the Enlightenment,” the collapse of the effort by philosophers and politicians, over the past three centuries and more, to build a society as if God did not exist. That Enlightenment culture is built on three lies, secularism, relativism and individualism. They are components of what Benedict XVI called a “dictatorship of relativism . . . that recognizes nothing as absolute and which leaves only the ‘I’ and its whims as the ultimate measure.” Those three lies are weapons deployed by our enemy, Satan, the father of lies. – Charles E. Rice

Feel free to publish, post, or pass on Your Weekly Politickle by F.R. Duplantier:

O SPILL
With dispersants and skimmers and booms,
We’ll contain the contaminate blooms,
Stop the Slick from Chicago
More toxic than Blago,
And avert the disaster that looms.

From the archive:

CRY FOWL!
If it looks like a duck, it’s a duck!
If it swims like a duck, it’s a duck!
Is the question instead,
Is Obama a Red?
If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck!
(2010)

CHANGE AGENT
“I’m a master at deceivin’,
At wigglin’, waffllin’, weavin’;
And when I create
A socialist state,
You’ll have change you can believe in.”
(2008)

Last week’s limerick:

CROP FAILURE
Yes, we try to be “part of the team,”
But we find ourselves wanting to scream
When what rose to the top –
So-called “cream of the crop” –
Is a rancid and foul sour cream.

Mass times and readings

I’m 53 years old and have had a pretty amazing career, but it’s been episodic rather than progressive — full of ups and downs, now being one of the downs — and I’ve reached the stage of life where I no longer have great expectations. My family life is splendid, however, and that’s where my focus lies. Nothing else really matters to me. I just want to be able to pay my bills and be left alone.

As the son of two writers — and having made my living as a writer, such as it is, for 35 years now — I am destined to continue on the path laid out for me, profitable or not.

Though I’ve often thought about stopping, I’ve continued to write and distribute a weekly politickle every week for over 13 years. In 2000, I published a collection of politickles, but the book was never promoted by the publisher and I received not a single royalty check.

During my annual, month-long Politickles fund drives, I have never raised more than enough to cover a week’s worth of living expenses.

Why do I do it then?

That’s simple. Begging for contributions is an exercise in humility for me (especially since I do it so badly), and an opportunity for a few of my faithful readers to demonstrate their generosity.

I appreciate that generosity — and the kind words and counsel that come in the mail, with or without monetary contributions — more than I can say. It helps to remind me that I’m not invisible after all, and that somebody’s really out there, paying attention.