...old photos for my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary party & found this one of my wife's First Communion Day:

Gosh, it's almost like art isn't it?
"a brutal Israeli/U.S.-led cutoff in aid has been imposed_
on the Palestinians for voting the wrong way in a free election"
Complete misrepresentation. The aid is cutoff because the currently elected government openly advocates the destruction of a neighboring country. For the aid to start again, all they need to do is modify their thinking to be more in line with reality. We don't provide aid directly to the governments of North Korea or Iran now, do we?
It would be monumentally uninspired to willingly fund an organization whose main thrust is the elimination of another people. The rest of the world is not governed by the US -- why don't they pony up their side of the cash to Hamas? Because they see what everyone sees - funding Hamas in any way will free up resources to wrongfully kill innocent people. That includes Isrealis, Palestinians, and others around the world.
What kind of a message would that send to other terrorist organizations? That you can run a country and still get boatloads of cash from the US and allies in order to fund your terrorist armies?
Why not see the argument another way - the Palestinian people knew the West would demand Hamas give up their terrorist creed -- they want the much more capable Hamas to govern their country and quit trying to destroy Israel. They had no idea Hamas would rather see them in terrible poverty rather than properly run the goverment they were elected to run!
The Palestinian State only works because of the billions in aid rec'd each year. To think, suggest or dream that aid would be given without strings attached, for instance the cessation of violence, is nonsense.
"The aid cut-off appears to be increasing anti-U.S. sentiment here," writes the Post's Scott Wilson, quoting 33-year-old pharmacist Mustafa Hasoona: "The
problem is the West, not us. If they don't respect democracy, they shouldn't call for it. We are with this government we elected. I voted for it."
That's rich - 'increasing anti-US sentiment.' It's already so bad no matter what action we take, what does a few percentage points matter? Who cares anymore. Besides, I don't really care what the Palestinian people think we should do with our money, now do I?
The problem isn't the West. The problem is those with liberal views in the West who think that entitlement is a right provided to all people of the Earth. Hardship? Too bad. It is the Palestinian Leadership and the people themselves who have built a society with the destruction of Israel as their main drive, even if it means their own destruction. Palestinian society has molded several successive generations of lawless haters and killers.
It's well past time the world quit coddling Palestinian society and starting helping them change their mind about their course. If it works fine, if not, well we've saved a couple billion dollars in the process!
Hamas is winning converts for refusing to buckle. Said Khalil Abu Leila, a Hamas leader, "They have misunderstood the Arab mentality. As long as the pressure increases on Hamas, the more popular it will become."
We don't care who they pledge their allegiance to - they could pledge allegiance to Hitler Jr. - as long as Hitler Jr. didn't advocate a lawless killing society.
Then, at the end of the article, he calls the US a terrorist organization:
Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break their political leaders. Is that not a fair description of what we are doing to the Palestinians? No wonder they hate us.
RIDICULOUS! Hamas is anything but innocent in this issue. They are an organization that publicly endorses the killing of Israeli citizens and soldiers, and the destruction of the State of Israel. We don't provide aid directly to the governments of Iran or North Korea for similar reasons.
The fact that they hate us doesn't mean we should cough up cash to buy their favor. They hate us for many reasons, why should hate guide our foreign policy? It's our cash, and there's plenty of places it can go to do good rather than the evil Hamas brings.
"The least credulous country of all those reporting box office revenue was Nigeria (...) Nigerian skepticism should come as no surprise to anyone who has been reading their emails."UPDATE: Responding to my '08 thoughts, a correspondent mentions Mike Huckabee, someone I may actually be able to get enthusiastic about voting for!
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"... Do you agree," [Guy] asked earnestly, "that the Supernatural Order is not something added to the Natural Order, like music or painting, to make everday life more tolerable? It is everyday life. The supernatural is real; what we call 'real' is a mere shadow, a passing fancy. Don't you agree, Padre?"The story of the modern age is man's attempt to move the "point," to impose a tight, artificial boundary around the supernatural. Waugh understood this to be a form of insanity, an active negation of reality, and that the consequences would be catastrophic. - Rich Leonardi of "Ten Reasons"
"Up to a point."
Writing for LewRockwell.com, resident Fred Reed answers ‘What’s Mexico Really Like, Fred?’ Short answer: "it isn’t nearly as bad as many Americans think."...One part Mr. Reed's article in particular of caught my interest. In response to the question of "why is Mexico a comparatively poor country?" Mr. Reed gives the following as part of his answer: "Lack of ambition…perhaps. Mexicans (yes, I’m generalizing) seem to want enough, and to stop there. The focus is on family, friends, and a quiet life. Thus an intelligent and competent mechanic, say, will make a comfortable living from his garage, but will not try to start a chain of garages. Americans are much more driven, and much more materialistic. These qualities pay off economically." That sounds like me. I've never wanted much more than "family, friends, and a quiet life." The idea of starting a business seems almost offensive to me. During a year in Chile, I found that the word ambicioso has negative connotations in Spanish. Not so in English. I prefer the Spanish meaning.
If we look at his history as a reader, the Psalms come first in his affections. Genesis second, Paul's letters third, an the Gospel of John fourth. Nothing else quite competes. The synoptic gospels he knows well, but they don't move or impress him with their theological depth the way John does...Jerome wrote endless commentaries on the prophets, but Augustine never felt the magic (or dared to compete with the old master).
'I SINCERELY maintain that Nature-worship is more morally dangerous than the most vulgar Man-worship of the cities; since it can easily be perverted into the worship of an impersonal mystery, carelessness, or cruelty. Thoreau would have been a jollier fellow if he had devoted himself to a green-grocer instead of to greens.'Yet elswhere he is more appreciative of Thoreau, at least by comparison:
Omar's (or Fitzgerald's) effect upon the other world we may let go, his hand upon this world has been heavy and paralyzing. The Puritans, as I have said, are far jollier than he. The new ascetics who follow Thoreau or Tolstoy are much livelier company; for, though the surrender of strong drink and such luxuries may strike us as an idle negation, it may leave a man with innumerable natural pleasures, and, above all, with man's natural power of happiness. Thoreau could enjoy the sunrise without a cup of coffee. If Tolstoy cannot admire marriage, at least he is healthy enough to admire mud. Nature can be enjoyed without even the most natural luxuries.
Local Man Yearns for Last Month
COLUMBUS, OH-- John Switzer pines for an earlier period of his life. 29 days ago. No, not much happened in the interim. "It was a forgettable month as far as months go," he says.
But he keenly misses the "golden age" twenty-nine days ago when he was a month younger and "all the world seemed at his feet".
"I long for the gilden era of my life 29 days ago. The television show 24 was not on hiatus. I had more hair. The sky was a bluer..."
It don't matter to meA sentiment that seems just a tinge off from Humphrey Bogart. The Bread singer is giving the girl the choice while I seem to recall Bogart making that choice for her. In the '60s, Gary Lewis and the Playboys put out a song that was generous to a fault, although (I assume) the definition of "fling" has radically changed:
If you take up with
Someone who's better than me
'Cause your happiness is all I want
Walk along the lake with someone newPlaying with fire if'n you ask me, but then that probably shows a lack of self-sacrifice on my part. He wants his girl to have fun without him.
Have yourself a summer fling or two
But remember I'm in love with you and
Save your heart for me
When you're all alone, far away from home
Someone's gonna flirt with you-ou
I won't think it's wrong if you play along
Just don't fall for someone new
I want you to wantWe've come a long way baby.
I need you to need me
When you look at these causes, you keep coming back to one them: human capital. The people who do well not only possess skills that can be measured on tests, they have self-discipline, which is twice as important as IQ in predicting academic achievement, according to a study by Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman...
If there's one thing that leaps out of all the brain literature, it is that, as psychologist Daniel J. Siegel, director of the Center for Human Development, puts it, "emotion serves as the central organizing process within the brain." Kids learn from people they love. If we want young people to develop the social and self-regulating skills they need to thrive, we need to establish stable long-term relationships between love-hungry children and love-providing adults...
I started out in the company of economic data, but the closer you get to the core issue, the further you venture out into the primitive realm of love.
"I think I'm a better person now. I'm not as judgmental," she says. "I don't take anything for granted anymore."
"The thanks we give to God at all times is done because the 'glory of God' is always before us...In worshipping God we participate in this 'glory' in God's Presence."That makes excellent sense. I'll be mentally substituting "We praise you for your Presence" from now on!
"Q: Do you ever read strictly for pleasure? A: It seems that all I ever do is read. Reading is necessary for individuals to be interesting. I don’t read political books; they bore me."___
I looked up at the tallest buildingI feel more deeply what Bill Luse recently wrote: "Now if...Zippy or Riddle or Terry or Ellyn or Peony and some others went haywire, I'd be upset because I feel I know them in some limited way. If Culbreath went, I'd know the world was coming to an end." There's a keen desire for me to talk about this scandal as if that would be heal it. But it doesn't. Better to recall St. Philip's admonition. Between the pedophile priests, Bud MacFarlane and now this latest, it at least serves to solidify my trust in the only place it is secure: with Christ.
Felt it falling down
I could feel my balance shifting
Everything was moving around...
Downside up, upside down
Take my weight from the ground
Falling deep in the sky
Slipping in the unknown
All the strangers look like family
All the family looks so strange
The only constant I am sure of
Is this accelerating rate of change
Perhaps those writings on mercy (and homilies on mercy by the pedophile priest) were cries out to God himself, knowing perhaps even subconsciously, that they were in such need of mercy that it was the only straw they had to hold onto in the roiling sea of sin that they were in. I'm not saying this right, I'm sure. But perhaps in both cases they weren't preaching/writing it as an AGENDA, but as a way of begging God for what they could not ask outright.
And maybe it was a case of being like a child with only undeveloped faith--"Oh, please, please, please let this be true."
I say this, not to make light of either Chris' or the priest's sins. I am appalled by them. But I know that the children involved were not the only ones damaged by the sin. And whether WE can see it or not, the potential loss of those two OTHER souls mean something to God, too. It's hard for us to see that, in our righteous (and I believe in many cases it IS righteous) anger, God is mourning the damage to ALL the souls involved. Even the ones we'd like to kick to the curb.
Blessings to you! This is hard, isn't it? I spent a great deal of last night praying for Chris' soul. Lord knows he needs it. And one day, maybe when I need it too, someone will do the same for me. I have long said that I live and breathe only because some obscure Carmelite nun somewhere is praying for someone she doesn't even know.
Meacham declines the challenge to examine some of the cliches he passes along from [Billy] Graham, as in, “In our pluralistic state we have learned to live with each other and to respect each other’s religious and political convictions.” The phenomenon being celebrated arises from indifference to religion, not from toleration of it. Graham adds: “There’s a truth reiterated throughout the teachings of the various religions, but especially in the Bible, that no man rules except by the will of God.” But that is either meaningless or wrong. There are no grounds for believing in the pietistic notion that the will of God had anything whatever to do with the advent of Hitler.I'm currently reading Jarrett's The Relation of Church and State in the Middle Ages and am getting a keen appreciation for the difficulty. In a way, the relation of church and state reminds me of the apparent irresolvabilty of God's sovereignty and man's free will. (At least in the second case, we are assured it can be resolved.) Jarret points out how different Christianity is from either paganism or Judiasm with respect to the state:
The American experience is leached of meaning by platitudinous stress on the freedom of worship. Of primary concern, surely, are the secularist engines that mock the very idea that worship is compatible with higher thought. That subject engaged this reviewer when at Yale, fifty-five years ago. And the subject of religion was once considered worth noting every week in sections of Time and Newsweek. Still, Mr. Meacham’s invaluable book serves as a lodestar for original thought on — the American gospel.
That the difficulty is wholly Christian can be seen if it be remembered (using the words in their present day sense) that to a pagan his State was his Church, and to the Jew his Church was his State. In either view there were not two powers but one. The Jew considered God to be the head of the State; the pagan made the head of the State into a god, i.e. he deified his ruler: Caesar, Alexander, Pharaoh, seeing in him divine guardian spirit of the State. For the Christian, however, the problem was much more delicate, since he was brought up to look on both the Church and State as divinely authorized powers and to believe that the authority of both was from God.Buckley writes of how American law has made it impossible to assume our government is interested in the moral law at all:
At the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel this at once arose, due in part to an anarchical spirit amongst some of the early Christians. The New Testament, therefore, contains many passages insisting on the necessity of obedience to the civil power , and Our Lord is deliberately described as teaching and practicing obedience to the civil power....
But the problem became even more complicated when...Christians were allowed freedom of worship, and when the Emperor himself became a catechumen. The difficulty now was no longer the simple difficulty of heroic obedience to a persecuting government, but of adjusting obedience to two authorities which were both interested in the application of the moral law of Christ to life.
With magisterial sweeps, traveling from the Founding to the beginning of the 21st century, Meacham (who is managing editor of Newsweek) disposes of the internecine absolutists, but acknowledges that there are unresolved and bitter questions brought on — most divisively — by the Supreme Court’s intervention into the City of God when it ruled, in Roe v. Wade, that abortion was a constitutional right. President Jimmy Carter would comment privately that he did not believe that Jesus would have accepted abortion (or capital punishment), but as president Carter was under obligation not to the word of Christ, but rather to the word of the Constitution. One has to believe that such reservations as his were privately held by other presidents and lawmakers who, while standing by their Christian faith, defended a Constitution that protected slavery.
"Bluntly equating literary discourse with sexual intercourse, Wister indicates [in the novel The Virginian] that a cowboy can make love to a woman only by first gaining intellectual access to her through an acquaintance with canonical fiction."Uhh okay... whatever. "An intellectual stretch", Kevin says, and it made me wonder what an academic might do with the old country song "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On" by Mel McDaniel:
- Blake Allmendinger, "The Cowboy: Representations of Labor in an American Work Culture"
______________________________________Place tongue firmly in cheek while I attempt to "decode McDaniel":
Down on the corner by the traffic lights
Everybody's lookin', as she goes by
they turn their heads and they watch her 'til she's gone
Lord have mercy, baby's got her bluejeans on
Up by the bus top, & across the street
Open up their windows, to take a peek
While she goes walkin', rockin' like a rollin' stone
Heaven help us, baby's got her bluejeans on
She can't help it if she's made that way
She's not to blame if they look her way
She ain't really tryin' to cause a scene
It just comes naturally, No -- the girl can't help it
Well up on Main Street, by the taxi stand
There's a crowd of people, in a traffic jam
She don't look back, she ain't doin' nothin' wrong
Lord have mercy, Baby's got her bluejeans on
"Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On" -- Mel McDaniel
__________________________________________
Obviously the song is about the dysphoria that comes with the paradigmatic shift that results from the hegemonic oppression proceeding from a hermaneutics of infantalism--this is the "baby" of the song title, thus diminishing capacity and objectifying and essentially reinforcing the cultural entreclat while undermining ego identity creating the collapse of "eigen" space (or augen space if the central dimension is visual.)
The point of American Idol is that none of these people would have a chance in the ordinary system, and some seem quite deserving. I am also frequently reminded that Carrey Underwood was last year's winner. The point being that in many different disciplines there are people of professional caliber who are too numerous to be recognized by the very restrictive system that allows for larger publicity.I always tend to think that great talent will always rise to the top and I think it normally does, but it's true the system doesn't always work. Cerainly with major league baseball, if you were black or Latino you couldn't play until 1948! Definitely a case of talent not rising to the top. That is obviously just one example among myriad. Besides that my post was ridiculously elitist. Count me rather with Chesterton who always defended the amateur.
Having Jesus live among us, teaching and demonstrating the life God wants us all to have, would have been a good thing in and of itself. But our Father is a God of abundance, not merely of sufficiency, so he gave us more. He gave us his Holy Spirit. And what a gift the Spirit is!... He is far more than a “tool” for building the kingdom of God. When we give a gift, we don’t tend to present something merely practical and functional. No, we aim to surprise and delight the person. We want our gift to be a sign of our love and appreciation for that person. So it is with the Father. In giving us his Spirit, he has made it possible to surprise and delight us continually with more and more of his love (Romans 5:5).
1. “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by The Who.
The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naive idealism once and for all. “There’s nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye. . . . Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.”
2. “Taxman,” by The Beatles.
A George Harrison masterpiece with a famous guitar riff (which was actually played by Paul McCartney): “If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street / If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat / If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat / If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.” The song closes with a humorous jab at death taxes: “Now my advice for those who die / Declare the pennies on your eyes.”
3. “Sympathy for the Devil,” by The Rolling Stones.
Don’t be misled by the title; this song is The Screwtape Letters of rock. The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that “every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints.” What’s more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: “I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain.”
4. “Sweet Home Alabama,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
A tribute to the region of America that liberals love to loathe, taking a shot at Neil Young’s Canadian arrogance along the way: “A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”
5. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” by The Beach Boys.
Pro-abstinence and pro-marriage: “Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true / Baby then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do / We could be married / And then we’d be happy.”
6. “Gloria,” by U2.
Just because a rock song is about faith doesn’t mean that it’s conservative. But what about a rock song that’s about faith and whose chorus is in Latin? That’s beautifully reactionary: “Gloria / In te domine / Gloria / Exultate.”
7. “Revolution,” by The Beatles.
“You say you want a revolution / Well you know / We all want to change the world . . . Don’t you know you can count me out?” What’s more, Communism isn’t even cool: “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao / You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow.” (Someone tell the Che Guevara crowd.)
8. “Bodies,” by The Sex Pistols.
Violent and vulgar, but also a searing anti-abortion anthem by the quintessential punk band: “It’s not an animal / It’s an abortion.”
9. “Don’t Tread on Me,” by Metallica.
A head-banging tribute to the doctrine of peace through strength, written in response to the first Gulf War: “So be it / Threaten no more / To secure peace is to prepare for war.”
10. “20th Century Man,” by The Kinks.
“You keep all your smart modern writers / Give me William Shakespeare / You keep all your smart modern painters / I’ll take Rembrandt, Titian, da Vinci, and Gainsborough. . . . I was born in a welfare state / Ruled by bureaucracy / Controlled by civil servants / And people dressed in grey / Got no privacy got no liberty / ’Cause the 20th-century people / Took it all away from me.”
While I was watching the NFL playoff games one weekend, my wife and I got into a conversation about life and death, and the need for living wills. During the course of the conversation I told her that I never wanted to exist in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and taking fluids from a bottle.
She got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all my beer.
Man, sometimes it's tough being married to a smartass.
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Chapter 2
I followed the action from Peoria to a large metropolis in the northeast. Dan Tan whispered, as if what he were about to tell me could get me killed: "Cloaked under the satyr of night, the heroes of Opus Taylorus traveled to Paris, Tennessee, with the film canister in their hands. They'd heard of an artist named Leo Vinny who'd painted a velvet Elvis that held many clues."
"What sort of clues?" I interrupted.
"I'm getting there. Vinny was commissioned to do a painting of Elvis eating a peanut-butter and banana sandwich with Priscilla at Graceland, only it wasn't Priscilla but bodyguard Sonny West who - as was the custom of the '60s - was wearing his hair long, almost waist-length. Now I'm not implying that the King was gay. In fact to my knowledge he was not. But a lot of folks in the film industry are gay and there were people who saw Sonny at the breakfast table in that painting and made false assumptions. Think about it: everyone is told that Sonny is Priscilla in that velvet masterpiece and you have to ask yourself why? Why lie?"
"But that doesn't prove a conspiracy. And besides, what do Presley or West have to do with the Vatican keeping down the film industry?"
"Elvis wasn't just a great singer but a great movie star, a very credible actor. His Hawaiian pictures make Citizen Kane look like the B-movie of a film academy dropout. And he was the most connected dude of that generation. Elvis knew everybody in the music and film industries. Elvis found out the secret! Found out that Kevin Costner is of divine lineage and that A Field of Dreams had been suppressed for centuries. So the Vatican had Elvis killed in order to cover up Emperor Bushantine's crime. In 1978 Leo Vinny painted that kitchen scene on the very day the King learned the secret and if that is Sonny in the painting then Sonny's a dead man because there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the King would've told Sonny. He told Sonny everything. So after they got Elvis, Sonny talked up Priscilla as the one in the painting and Pricilla went along with it because she wanted to squash any Elvis-is-gay rumors, fearing that it would lessen the value of residuals and syndication monies."
"Why didn't they kill Priscilla?"
"The Vatican figured that Priscilla wasn't credible. No one would believe her. Pure prejudice."
"To be honest, it sounds a little farfetched."
"Look, I said this was a work of fiction didn't I? It's a catch-22. If you take it as fact and research it I'll emphasize it's fiction. If you dismiss it as fiction I'll call you close-minded and emphasize the facts, like the existence of the Priory of Peoria and the Sonny/Priscilla controversy in Vinny's The Last Supper of Elvis Presley. To tell you the truth I'm beginning to believe it myself. And besides, you got ten thousand conspiracy theories and one of them bound to be true. Sort of like a million monkies typing one of 'em's gonna produce Shakespeare. It could be true couldn't it?"
...The main sensation of the experience was the discovery of new modes of love. The highest, of course, was the absolute fecundity of God's love for his creatures, as expressed in the miracle of the world itself. The great theologian Jean Danielou has observed that "creation is the first revelation." At the beach the splendor and self-giving force of this creation was evident. Our every day revolved around this splendor. In the morning we would bring our blankets down to the beach to lie in the sun - which, as Chesterton noted, dances in the sky. We would spend hours in the surf, surrending ourselves to the embrace of the waves until we were so stupefied with fatigue that we trudged like old men back to our blankets. At exactly two o'clock - it was never planned, it just seemed to happen that way - we climbed to the second-story balcony of the house to play drinking games for a couple of hours, a preverse Liturgy of the Hours. Then it was a nap, dinner - most likely, fast food - and a shower and a shave to get ready for that night's party. Through it all the laughter never stopped. What is so sad about this is that we considered this new joy an escape from God rather than an entrance into God's self-giving mystery. The deep sensuality occasioned by a place like the beach - the brief, rapturous loss of breath when one is smothered by a wave, the feel of sand under toes; the unquenchable grandeur of the plain of the ocean illuminated by the moonlight - all herald the closeness of the Maker. This was evident to Ignatius Loyola, about whom we had read nothing at Georgetown Prep. Loyola celebrated and encouraged the practice of "seeing God in all things" - even in the nautical world.
I am curious as to why a woman would have such misogynist attitudes toward women and marriage. I speak of you.It always strikes me as odd that many of the same people who tell us to be color and gender blind are actually the most color and gender conscious. That infects us all because we begin to look at people only as members of a group rather than individuals because they see themselves only as members of a group and not individuals. Group identity takes precedence over everything, including the search for the truth. The assumption of Amy's correspondent is: "you can't be against a book that is positive towards your sex" which, ironically, gives Amy no credit for preferring the truth to falsehood, as if her sex would be better served if she were ignorant.
I'm Wary: Andrew Stuttaford__
Somewhat Wary: J. Derbyshire, Victor Hanson
Neutral : J-Pod, Brookhiser, R. Lowry
Comfortable K-Lo, Kate O'Beirne, Jonah Goldberg,Ramesh P.
Frontipiece:While this is a work of fiction, everything presented within is true and factual; there is a Greek word for scribes, and there is a Priory of Peoria.
Chapter 1
Having a case of blogger's block, a non-fatal cousin to the more famous writer's block, I recalled admonitions to "write what you know" and thought fondly back to those halcyon days when I hung with a certain writer named Dan Tan, who told me a story of perfidy going back millennia...
I feels like it was only yesterday he told me of the scriptorium in Peoria, Illinois where a group of hairy, dark-skinned scribes known in the Greek as "monkus", or monks, perpetrated the greatest conspiracy in the history of humankind. Twenty centuries ago they'd begun the Latin order in nearby Decatur only to be squashed by Emperor Bushantine, who'd forced them to go underground until this very day. They called themselves "the work of the goddess" or "Opus Taylorus". Opus Taylorus believed in the divine feminine, to the extent it led to the divine lucre.
Clues left by surviving Tayloruses leave an exciting trail of murder and mayhem, not necessarily in that order. The eldest monk, the wizened Dan Tan, told me of Order members in the 5th century who had discovered a dusty cannister proving that the Vatican had held down the film industry for centuries. He said films we enjoy and pay money to see today had actually been around for centuries and only the Opus Taylorus monks had preserved them. The first find was a dusty cannister which contained a remarkably well-preserved 482 A.D. copy of Kevin Costner's A Field of Dreams. Dreams of great lucre appeared within reach for the Order. That is, until Emperor Bushantine's NSA spies learned of the discovery and had them all put in Guantamino [editor's note: I have no editor].
But from the film they learned: "if you build it, they will come" and it was said by the head monkus in Peoria that women buyers beget lucre since they buy books, CDs, DVDs far more than men. "Ergo," he said, "veee mussen create our own Opus Taylorus book and movie so that vimmen vill buy it and make us all filled with lucre! We'll make it more realistic by acting like it's true!". Evil laughs resounded around the Knights of the Templar table.
"Mr. Ergo!" one impertinent voice said, piercing the aromatic air of crisp Benjamins and fine cigars. All looked at the hairless, white-skinned monk. "Why not just represent it purely as fiction?"
They huddled around, calling him an idiot even though they'd done focus groups and knew the book and movie would be taken factually by a third to half of the readers.
"If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, did it still fall? If a book is taken as factual by half of its readers, is it still fiction?" said the albino monkus.
"I can't be held responsible for other people's stupidity," came the reply.
CHAPTER 2
I followed the action from Peoria to a large metropolis in the northeast. Dan Tan whispered, as if what he were about to tell me could get me killed. "Cloaked under the satyr of night, the heroes of Opus Taylorus traveled to Paris, Tennessee, with the film cannister in their hands. They'd heard of an artist named Leo Vinny who'd painted a velvet Elvis that held many clues..."