Adulteri

Jeremiah 29:20-23

20 Hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon: 21 ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolai′ah and Zedeki′ah the son of Ma-asei′ah, who are prophesying a lie to you in my name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrez′zar king of Babylon, and he shall slay them before your eyes. 22 Because of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: “The Lord make you like Zedeki′ah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,” 23 because they have committed folly in Israel, they have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and they have spoken in my name lying words which I did not command them. I am the one who knows, and I am witness, says the Lord.’”

Dialectica Sinistri

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

The following was stated in a comment to the post "The Catholic Left Never Fails to Disappoint" at "The American Catholic" blog:

"...the same people who studiously deny, deny, deny the credibly sourced allegations about what Pope Francis and other Bishops did to diminish or end punishments against abusive clerics are completely comfortable swallowing uncorroborated allegations against Kavanaugh."

De Martin Luther King ab Amico in VultuLibro

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

A very devout and perceptive friend on Facebook  - James P. [the last name is designated with an initial so as to protect his anonymity] - posted the following text today regarding the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Please note before we begin that the term Reverend prefaced the title and name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This man was a Christian minister - NOT a secularist, NOT an agnostic, NOT an atheist, NOT a humanist, BUT a Christian. And it is Christianity which first recognized (in the face of Rome's libertine paganism and Athens' secularist philosophy) universal equality in dignity some 2000 years ago when St. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:11:

Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scyth′ian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.

It is ONLY because we are created in the image and likeness of God that we are equal in dignity. If we are mere animals as the secularist atheists assert, then it is strength of the fittest to survive which rules and no equality in dignity exists. Indeed, it is from a lack of God that we get racism and prejudice and stereotype and all the other social justice ills which plague mankind. Those are the things which secularism, atheism and humanism bring.

Nevertheless, before I get carried away again and without further ado, here is what my friend so wisely wrote:

"But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force."

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 8/28/63

It has taken me most of my life to appreciate what Rev. King said and did. Watching the events of the Presidency of Barack Obama has made me realize what was said back then is being unfortunately played out now. We have turned a real and rational struggle for equal rights and equal opportunity into the march of racism and vengeance. 53 years later we have had black Supreme Court Justices, Senators, Representatives, CEOs. A black man has run for and achieved the highest political office in the land. Yet we are called racist every day... Rev. King in almost a prophetic moment said:

"The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom."

Yet today we look around and see white people blamed for everything from global warming to micro aggressions. We have black activists calling for the death of all whites. We have black representatives claiming a white man cannot be president and it's racist to simply disagree with him.

Instead of all this Rev King challenged us with:

"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

"Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Now on this day I will honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King by doing my job, working, doing my best to remember to love my neighbor, and I will continue to have hope in our future.

Moderation Inmodica et Neclegentia Moderationis Eaedem Sunt

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

The last two days we discussed the constriction of excessive regulation and how that stifles innovation and growth in the nuclear power industry, preventing the replacement of fossil fuel energy with a clean, non-polluting and a far safer form of energy production. But there is a flip side to this. While excessive regulation never serves public health and safety, equally so nuclear companies playing fast and loose with current regulation doesn't either, hence the title of this blog post: "Excessive Regulation and Heedlessness of Regulation Are the Same." Three examples will be given:

• The Areva Priorization Module for Digital Instrumentation and Controls in the Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR)
• The Mitsubishi Software Engineering Plans for Digital Instrumentation and Controls in the Advanced Pressurized Power Reactor
• The GE-Hitachi Vibration Calculations for the Steam Dryers in the Economically Simplified Boiling Water Reactor.

EXAMPLE 1

Areva, a French company, was planning to build its new EPR - an advanced pressurized water reactor with active safety systems - in the United States. It had planned to use an electronic module in its instrumentation and controls to prioritize signals form safety-related systems over those from non-safety-related systems. This module used Programmable Logic Device (PLD) technology which in turn employs Boolean logic programmed onto an integrated circuit chip using Hardware Description Language (HDL) coding. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regards such technology as software simply because of the HDL code component. The NRC dislikes the use of software to prioritize safety over non-safety signals. The reason why is because of the checkered history that exists in various industries, not just nuclear, for using software to block non-safety and make safety processing a priority. While the technology is completely different, and likewise the example, back in the late 1980s Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) produced a machine called Therac-25 for cancer radiation therapy. Certain hardware interlocks were replaced with software ones. These failed to operate as intended. Patients were overdosed with radiation and died. You can read more here: An Investigation of the Therac-25 Accidents. There are more examples in the medical, aircraft, rail road, petrochemical, and nuclear energy industries. But in all these the lesson is clear: don't rely on software to prioritize safety or provide safety interlocks. So over the protestations of Areva ("it works in France," "we're great because 80% of our electricity is nuclear," "trust us because we know what we're doing," "our regulations are better than yours," etc.) the NRC rejected the prioritization module with this: Summary of NRC Staff Review of AVR-42 Priority Module Topical Report. Areva subsequently withdrew the topical report and a little later suspended its plans for an EPR in the United States.

EXAMPLE 2

Mitsubishi, a Japanese company, was planning to build its new APWR - like Areva's EPR, an advanced pressurized water reactor with active safety systems - in the United States. It had planned to use a completely digital, software controlled safety system. It based its design on work that had been done under the governance of Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission (which was discredited by allegations of collusion with TEPCO and by the results of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi, and it is now replaced by Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority). The NRC issued a very damning assessment of Mitsubishi's software engineering plans for APWR digital instrumentation and controls. Like the French Areva, Mitsubishi gave the usual excuses: "It works in Japan," "Trust us because we are experts," etc. The bottom line, however, remains the same: Mitsubishi is indefinitely delaying its plans for an APWR in the US.

ASIDE: what the reader may not realize is that Mitsubishi was involved in another debacle. It provided replacement steam generators for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS - a two unit site) in California back in the 2000s. Those steam generators developed tube leaks: primary water - reactor coolant - at 2235 psig leaked into the secondary side. The cause was vibration and subsequent tube rubbing at the upper quadrants of the steam u-tubes. Reactor coolant by definition is slightly radioactive. That made the steam side slightly radioactive. When the steam exhausted from the turbines into the condensers, air ejectors which maintain the condensers at a vacuum (for increased plant thermal efficiency) exhausted this radioactivity out the steam jet air ejector exhausts into the environment. Now the amount of radioactivity released was minuscule and non-injurious to either plant or animal life. But that fact of the matter is that it occurred, and did so on the eco-wacko left coast where liberals go nuts at the first mention of the word radioactive. All this which resulted from u-tube vibration could have been avoided had software QA been exercised with regard to the software-generated calculations which were done to analyze and predict u-tube vibration in high steam flow conditions at 100% power. But Mitsubishi screwed up [and so did Southern California Edison (SoCal), the plant owners]. Now SoCal had a plan to repair the tubes, add stiffeners to prevent vibration and rubbing, and restart one of the two units at 80% power. That plan was submitted to the NRC. But all the anti-nuke wackos for which California is so famous were in an uproar and the NRC dragged its feet to the point where SoCal without revenue from an operating plant could not keep staff employed on site for a promised restart that the NRC might never permit anyways. Thus, Democrat Governor Jerry Brown (that dropout from the latter 70s and early 80s - just remember Linda Ronstadt his concubine and the phrase Governor Moonbeam, and you got the picture) and the leftist progressives won. SONGS is now shutdown and to be decommissioned, and Mitsubishi is in large measure to blame for playing fast and loose. So of course when it came to Mitsubishi's digital I&C software engineering plans for APWR, the NRC was going to be wary. Do you, dear reader, get the point? Don't mess around with regulatory compliance. END ASIDE.

EXAMPLE 3

GE-Hitachi, a joint venture of the US General Electric Company and the Japanese Hitachi Company, have developed two different advanced reactors: the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) with internal reactor water recirculation pumps, and the Economically Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) which is all natural circulation and with completely passive safety systems. In the design of a typical boiling water reactor, control rods enter the core from the bottom, and steam separators and dryers are at the top above core internals. Since water boils in the core, steam ascends out the top. The separators remove moisture droplets which inn turn fall back into the downcomer region for subsequent recirculation into the core, and the dryers perform the last the drying out process before steam is routed out the main steam lines penetrating the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) to the high pressure turbine. "GE Hitachi allegedly made false statements to the NRC and Department of Energy about a component of the advanced nuclear Economic Simplified Boiling-Water Reactor (ESBWR) known as the steam dryer." GE Hitachi subsequently agreed to pay a 2.7 million dollar fine because of this (without actually admitting any wrong doing). The US Department of Justice statement is here. Guess how many GEH ESBWRs are being built in the United States (or anywhere in the world for that matter)? NONE. ZERO. ZIP POINT SQUAT. Now that may change if Dominion's North Anna project starts up again some day. I certainly hope it does. The GEH ESBWR plant is really a great design, and its passive safety features for a large scale (1600 MWe) reactor are unparalleled. But the less here is clear: obey the regulation, PERIOD.

CONCLUSION

In each of these examples (and there are others, like KEPCO's APR1400) the companies involved played fast and loose, acting as though they get in interpret the regulation, and behaving as if their design is so safe that regulatory scrutiny is an afterthought. Well here is the truth of the matter: for better or for worse the US NRC makes the regulation. It is the arbiter and decider and interpreter of said regulation. It is the height of arrogance for a company to act as the interpreter, deciding what is right and what is wrong. Doing so is just like a Christian deciding he gets to personally and individually interpret Sacred Writ, contrary to what St. Peter says in verse 20 of chapter 1 in his first epistle: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation." The Magisterium of the Church (the Pope, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Bishops with them) determined at the Council of Rome (A.D. 382) and Third Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) what Books would be in the Bible and what would NOT be. Books like the Shepherd of Hermas and the Didache while valuable and salutary to read were rejected, and Books like James, Jude and Revelation while argued about were accepted. The Magisterium determined that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Magisterium is the authentic interpreter, NOT the reader. In the same way no company (like Areva or Mitsubishi or GEH) gets to interpret the regulation. Rather, unflinching obedience and verbatim compliance is required and demanded. It's that way for the Christian for the safety immortal souls. And it's that way for the nuclear energy professional for the safety of mortal bodies.

Now unlike Sacred Writ - and here is where the analogy breaks down - regulation isn't perfect. That's why in a free Republic (NOT a Democracy - you do NOT get a vote) we have a process for changing regulation by petitioning the regulatory directly, by going to Congress which oversees the regulatory body, and by appealing to the President. Regulatory constriction should be addressed at that level and not by simply ignoring or reinterpreting it to one's personal profit and satisfaction. If the NRC is wrong in being strangulating - and it is - then equally so are the nuclear companies wrong for playing fast and loose. This is a two way street and both sides are equally responsible, and should be held accountable by both the voter and the consumer (who are often one and the same).

Confidentia Salutatis Publicae

NuScale SMR

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

The title of this blog post is "The Assurance of Public Safety." As discussed in yesterday's post, NuScale Hand Delivers 12,000-Page SMR Application To NRC:

Next generation nuclear power plant developer NuScale has requested a regulatory review of its small modular reactor (SMR) design for commercial application, submitting its nearly 12,000-pages of SMR plans to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the company announced Thursday.

It must have taken three to four years for NuScale to get to this point in its design for a small modular passively safe nuclear reactor. And now it will take a few months for the US NRC to decide on whether or not to even accept this application, let alone review it. Then once it decides to review the application, that process will take up to two years and involve thousands if not tens of thousands of requests for additional information. Then once NuScale answers all of those questions to the satisfaction of whoever in the US NRC is doing the asking, it will take the US NRC another two or so years to write its safety evaluation in order to conclude that this design is safe to build. Our civil servant has become our civil master.

In the meantime tens of thousands of people within the United States will die from the after effects of pollution off fossil fuel. While the US NRC acts in an obstructionist fashion regarding the construction and operation of a pollution-free source of electrical power, fossil fuel will kill tens of thousands. You don't believe me? Then behold the Number of Deaths per Terawatt Hour by Power Source:

Deaths per Terawatt Hour by Energy Source

Now tell me, cari amici, what is at the bottom of the list in number of fatalities per terawatt hour? Do you see nuclear at 0.04 deaths per terawatt hour, but natural gas (which is what will be used to replace 2000 MWe from Governor Andy Cuomo's shutdown of IPEC) is 20 deaths per terawatt hour? That's a 500 fold increase in fatalities! Why is that acceptable to the Federal Government but new nuclear generation must go through a mind-numbing amount of dissection and inspection before permission can be granted to even start building the first new plant? New gas fired generation doesn't go through nearly this amount of safety reviews and it is demonstrably UNSAFE.

Wind Turbine Fire

Yet eco-activists will then point out that solar and wind should be used instead. Let us momentarily disregard the fact that an abysmal capacity factor of less than 30% alone makes that proposal ludicrous - every new solar station, every new wind farm is a new gas turbine facility providing spinning reserve backup for 70% of the time that there is no sunlight, no wind. Let us instead consider just safety. From the chart above there are 0.1 deaths per terawatt hour for solar and 0.15 deaths per terawatt hour for wind. Those figures constitute an increase in the rate of fatalities by 2.5 and 3.75 respectively over nuclear energy's fatality rate of 0.04 deaths per terawatt hour. Thus well earned is the epithet of green power, black death.

Confidentia Salutatis Publicae - that is demonstrably what the US NRC does NOT do. It's time to change the Regulator. President -elect Donald Trump has stated that for every new regulation which a Federal agency enacts, two old ones must be removed. That policy alone would prove to be a boon for nuclear energy. It is time to level the regulatory playing field. All purveyors of energy must be held to the same standard as nuclear. If you can't get your fatality rate down to nuclear's level, then you get appropriately penalized. If you can't sequester your releases of pollution as nuclear has to sequester its releases of radioactivity, then you get appropriately penalized. And no government funding for any source of energy without distinction - let the free market work under a levelized regulatory playing field. And guess what, cari amici? Nuclear will win hands down every time. Every single time.

Praesentatio Applicationis Certificationi Deformationis a NuScale ad Commissionem Nuclearem Dominativam

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

NuScale Submits First Ever Small Modular Reactor Design Certification Application (DCA). This submission was made today in Washington, DC (actually Rockville, MD) at the headquarters of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Once within a couple of months the US NRC accepts the DCA (and we all pray that happens), then comes RAIs (Requests for Additional Information). This could span a two year period of time (as it did at GE-Hitachi, Areva and others). RAIs are questions the US NRC has about the application, and NuScale has to answer those questions to the satisfaction of the Regulator. These could easily number into the thousands if not tens of thousands. Then once the US NRC accepts the answers to all the RAIs (after two years), the process of writing a Safety Evaluation Report commences. That could take the US NRC up to another two years if experience at other NSSS (Nuclear Steam Supply System) organizations is any indicator. So basically it could be four years from now before NuScale gets the official word from the Federal government that the design is "safe to build." And years have already been spent writing this application (as you can see from the new announcement) with concomitant Regulatory scrutiny. This reminds me of Dr. Jerry Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy:

First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisers in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.

Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.

The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.

Increasing this bureaucratic constriction has ever been the aim of anti-nuclear power activism which operates under the guise of the precautionary principle:

If an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public, or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus (that the action or policy is not harmful), the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking an action that may or may not be a risk.

Because of the misapplication of this principle - don't do anything unless you can prove it's 100% safe - nuclear power plants are being shut down within certain areas - invariably controlled by Democrats - of the United States. Edward McGaffigan, a former US NRC Commissioner who sadly died of cancer in 2007, dealt with this in the following statement:

The commission’s mandate, Mr. McGaffigan emphasized, is to “provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection, not absolute assurance of perfect protection.”

 “When they change the law to require absolute assurance of perfect protection,” he said, “there won’t be a lot of nuclear reactors in this country. Also, there won’t be a lot of cars or McDonald’s.”

Yet perfect safety has ever been the rallying cry of all the anti-nuclear activists. On the left coast, because of fears of recurrence of steam generator tube leaks, the San Onfore Nuclear Generating Station is permanently shut down, and for different reasons in a few years the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plants will be shutdown, fulfilling Governor Jerry Brown's desire for the denuclearization of California.. And in the liberal progressive northeast Governor Andy Cuomo is shutting down the Indian Point Energy Center in a few years, and already Vermont Yankee has been felled to Senator Bernie Sanders' socialists in the State of Vermont. And the Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station has long been in the eye of Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts for chopping, being now scheduled for permanent shutdown in a few years also.

Meanwhile in the Republican southeast where free enterprise is encouraged two Westinghouse AP-1000 units are being built at VC Summer and two more at Vogtle. And Watts Bar Unit 2 is the first large nuclear power plant to have been put into operation in decades.

The irony in all this is astounding. Republican conservatives are skeptical of anthropogenic global warming from carbon emissions off fossil fuel power plants (for good reason - consensus isn't science), yet they support nuclear energy, the only means of replacing base load fossil energy on a 24 / 7 / 365 basis. But Democrats who believe in anthropogenic global warming with a passion that only the religious possess have shut down nuclear power plants right and left (and that is par for the course on the part of pagan worshipers of the goddess Gaia). While they install so called green energy like wind turbines and solar cells, these have capacity factors of less than 30%, which means that spinning fossil fuel reserve is required 70% of the time when there is no wind, no sun. And that fossil fuel emits the carbon pollution that Democrats say they hate. Fathom the hypocrisy.

So unless NuScale is planning to build in the Republican southeast, its prospects for success (especially in liberal Oregon where it is based) is poor indeed. If a 2000 MWe facility like IPEC can't pass economic muster, then how shall a 600 MWe facility comprised of twelve 50 MWe SMRs pass muster? Now that said, UAMPS (Utah Area Municipal Utilities) does have a plan to use the NuScale design, but that organization is a conglomeration of many different small municipal utilities with no nuclear experience. However, embedded within the UAMPS web site is its Carbon Free Power Project featuring the NuScale design. Good luck is sincerely wished to them.

Now in all this I fully acknowledge that both sides of the political aisle in Oregon and Washington State have been positive regarding NuScale's endeavor. But to those on the left of the political spectrum - whether senator or representative, whether state level or federal - when will you deal with politicians like Cuomo and Markey and Brown and others in your own political party who are virulently anti-nuclear? Failure to persuade them to support nuclear or, failing that, to eject them from your political party and from political office endangers our Republic in the long run because continuing to pollute the air with fossil fuel excretions will have unintended and unpredictable consequences. I write that as a global warming skeptic, yet I am not so foolish as to posit that NO results will occur from dumping billions of tons of pollutants into the atmosphere every year. Solar and wind and other so called green energy schemes cannot and will not ever work. If solar were so great, then why don't we still bake bricks in the sun as the ancient Sumerians did? If wind were so great, then why don't we still use sailing ships to cross the ocean as the ancient Vikings did? It's a joke: green energy, black death. If we want real non-polluting energy, then we will go nuclear full tilt, and the first step is an SMR like NuScale's design - passively walk-away safe. This should NOT be a partisan issue, so prove that it isn't and do something about the likes of Cuomo and Markey and Brown et alias.

In conclusion, below are some great videos from NuScale explaining its design in simple, easy to understand terms. This design can and will work. But somehow regulatory constriction and anti-nuclear obstruction must be eliminated. We are NOT a Democracy. We are a Republic where rule of law is sacrosanct. The ignorant have no right to obstruct.

Noli Sinere Civilitatem Tuam Esse Supra Fidem Tuam

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Today is the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church.

ASIDE: I highly recommend reading the the writings of these two great men (and the rest of the fathers of the early Church) at The Fathers of the Church located on the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. The writings are alphabetized by person's name. END ASIDE

Today's Scripture readings include the following:

• Liars, Eternal Life and God's Children in 1st John 2:22-28
• Praise the Judge of the World in Psalm 98:1-4
• John the Baptist’s Testimony to Himself in John 1:19-28

The title of today's post - Noli Sinere Civilitatem Tuam Esse Supra Fidem Tuam - means:

Do not permit your politics to be above your faith.

This title follows the homily which Father Kirby gave at Our Lady of Grace during Daily Mass. I won't bother to reproduce everything Father explained because I am unable to do his homily justice. But I do want to get a few thoughts down.

Father explained that he will be absent for the next two days because he was invited by Mick Mulvaney, a parishioner, to the inauguration of the 115th Congress of the United States on January 3rd. Mick Mulvaney was re-elected to represent South Carolina's 5th District.

Father then led into the main topic. Holiness - the fulfillment of charity (the Latin caritas or the Greek ἀγάπη) must always come first. How can we as Catholics - indeed, as Christians - support or advocate things that are contrary to the Gospel? It is unfathomable that people who claim the title Catholic would support abortion, or oppose immigration, or support the death penalty. Normally, when I hear topics like immigration, death penalty, and others lumped in with intrinsic evils like abortion, I bristle. The reason why is because Pope Benedict XVI already explained that certain matters do not rise to the same level of importance as the five nonnegotiables:

• No abortion
• No homosexual marriage
• No euthanasia
• No embryonic stem cell research
• No human cloning

But does that mean that issues like the death penalty and immigration are completely unimportant? As Father was talking I had to recall what the Catechism of the Catholic Church actually says. Regarding the death penalty, paragraph 2267 states:

Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically nonexistent."

And regarding immigration paragraph 2241 states:

The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.

Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.

So really, what's my problem? Do I place my politics ahead of my Faith? Yes, Romans 13:1-7 does provide justification for the State to have recourse to the death penalty, and the Catechism acknowledges that. But maybe the greater command is Ezekiel 18:32:

For I find no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies—oracle of the Lord GOD. Turn back and live!

I am not a theologian. My field of expertise is nuclear energy. When it comes to nuclear energy issues, I expect that those who know nothing about nuclear science to defer to those who do. So maybe in theological matters I should defer to the experts who point out that mercy should be shown to everyone since I expect mercy for myself. That includes the convicted criminal and the illegal immigrant. Let's face it: I am a sinner too and I know what I deserve. My AA sponsor early on in sobriety would tell me, "Lucius, you should be dead under a rail road bridge with a heroin needle in your veins. The only difference between you and the guy in prison is that he got caught and you didn't." His sponsor, a Franciscan priest and my priest-confessor in early sobriety, always seemed to be standing behind him when he said something like that, smiling ever so beatifically. Then we would go on an outgoing AA meeting to the Fishkill State Penitentiary in downstate NY just so that he could drill the point home. So the thought I had in my head when I left Mass today was this:

Noli Sinere Civilitatem Tuam Esse Supra Fidem Tuam

Being to the right of Attila the Hun, I needed that reminder.

Dexter et Sinister

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

In lingua Latin the word for "right" is "dexter" which becomes our English word dexterous, and the word for "left" is "sinister" which becomes our English word sinister. It is there no wonder that those on the political left would in Latin be called "sinister politicus." Consistent with that is a recent post at St. Corbinian's Bear entitled, "How Trump Exposed the Left," where a photograph of a Trump supporter having been beaten and hospitalized for his exercise of free speech is displayed.

I did not agree with Donald Trump, nor, having voted for Darrell Castle from the Constitution Party as President, did I vote for him. However, I was never a part of that ridiculous "Never Trump" movement, nor would I have ever preferred that murderous pathological liar Hillary Rodham Clinton over Donald Trump. Yes, Trump is an unprincipled, foul-mouthed playboy gambler, but his soon to be predecessor, Barack Hussein Obama, is a baby murderer and a sodomy sanctifier, and so was his opponent Hillary. Now having lost the election, the millennial spoil brat delicate snow flake flower children of indolence and imbecility expose for all to see their hatred of any position, opinion, speech or thought diverse from their own even while they proclaim diversity from the house tops. As the Bear states:

The infantile and hysterical reaction of the Left, however, bears comment. They have been using the word "hate" for so long they are starting to believe that anyone who votes for a different presidential candidate than their choice can only be motivated by mustache-twirling evil. Trump, as the focus of evil in the world, is a non-person to them. Dangerously, they are creating an environment where people feel justified in doing him harm....
...The irony is, it is the Left that is defined by Hate. If there was no Right, against which they could use the word "Hate," the Left could not exist. They would be unable to publicly preen their motley feathers of civic virtue as "the virtuous ones who are not those haters."

The Left are the haters. They have become a unfunny political vaudeville act all over the world. Leaders - secular and religious - who align themselves with the Left and its propositions will be pilloried by history. The biggest irony of the day is that the Left is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Westboro Baptists, the Klan, and every other group who might be fairly associated with Hate.

Haters of a feather flock together.

This can be seen at one's place of work. Here is a possible example. A young, very intelligence and well educated woman is unable to withstand to hear any point of view other than the liberal progressive feminist one which she had been taught in today's Academia. She walks away from a conversation about Trump which she had started, and the next day when it comes to a strictly work-related topic having no relevancy to anything political, she puts her feet into the mud and will not budge to compromise on something that has nothing to do with the previous day's topic. She becomes insulting and condescending, and there is nothing to be done because being a woman in today's environment, all she has to do is cry: "Woman abuse; he's hurting my feelings." These feminists say that they want to be treated like men, and when they are, the offense is too great to bear. Hate is their only response.

Megyn Kelly versus Newt Gingrich

Amici, Americani et Compatriotae,

The American Catholic blog has an excellent post entitled, "October 25, 2016: Newt Gingrich v. Megyn Kelly." Here is the video of the dust-up between a liberal progressive feminist and a former Speaker of the House of Representatives:



I shall be honest. I do not like Megyn Helly. She epitomizes everything that's wrong with the feminist movement. She cries against the objectification of women, yet she has had photos like those depicted below taken of her.

Megyn Kelly In GQ: Fox News Anchor’s Revealing Spread (PHOTO)

Here is the problem with the feminism of women (and emasculated men) like Megyn Kelly. It says women and men are equal in function instead of dignity, and suggests that women may have sex just like a man without worrying about having a baby (just use contraception or abort the baby if contraception fails). It is the opposite of the nobility and virtue of true femininity because it degrades and debases all that is august and honorable in authentic womanhood. Look at those photos. Look at the kind of woman Megyn Kelly has portrayed herself as. Even the finest whores of ancient Rome and Athens would be green with envy to be regarded as such. The old saying that people who live in glass houses should not cast stones comes to mind. Let Megyn Kelly know that by her own willful photos she fully merits Donald Trump's and Bill Clinton's objectification of woman. And she claims to be a life-long devout Catholic. I wonder what the great women saints of the Church - Faustina, Mother Therese, Catherine of Siene, Joan of Arc, etc. - would say.

Adnuntiatio Democratis

A message to all Democrats: Christ wins, you lose.

Conlusio inter Democratas et Diurnarios

Donald Trump Quaesit Remissionem

Bill and Hillary
Adulterer and Murderess

Amici, Americani, et Compatriotae,

I was a nuclear submarine sailor some 40 years ago. The things we said when women were out of earshot are far beyond what Donald Trump said in that video in 2005. Get over it, you outraged liberal progressive feminists. As sailors we talked about fornicating with any woman we could and it was all fictional braggadocio. Bill Clinton - Hillary's husband - did exactly what we bragged about doing and never had done, and Hillary did everything she could to conceal his adultery while vilifying his victims. As a young lawyer she even defended a rapist and ruined the life of a young girl, his innocent victim.

I do NOT excuse Donald's language any more than mine of 40 years ago. And eventually at Confession I had to repent of my filthy mouth and clean it up. Further, if I ever did anything like what I bragged about doing, then my Filipina wife would do to me with the machete of retribution what St Paul told the agitators at the Church in Galatia to do to themselves in Galatians 5:12.

Now let's examine WHAT gives power to male machismo vulgarity. It is feminism - taking what is truly feminine in women and replacing it with equality in function. It is telling women that since they are equal in function with men, then they can wallow in heat and not have a baby. What does Pope Paul VI say about this in the 1st paragraph of section 17 in his encyclical Humanae Vitae?

Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.

We should not expect women to be respected when we do not treat them equal in dignity but vainly try to make them equal in function. If we tell people that they can wallow in heat like a mindless non-sentient baboon, and we teach in public school that humans are nothing but apes evolved from chimpanzees and gorillas, then we should expect the mindless animal behavior that we see. Thus we see the consequences of liberal progressivism's removal of Judeo-Christian morality from the public square and replacement with the secularism of the religion of scientism. Oh the irony when it then complains that the inevitable happens: no limits on male machismo vulgarity.

This all said, now a note to any of you who may be liberal progressive Democrats. Get over your pretense at indignation and your false piety and your self-righteousness. None of us are without sexual sin. None. Not one. Certainly not you baby-murdering, contracepting pagan worshipers of eco-goddess Gaia. Donald Trump has repented and we are to accept it until proven otherwise. Bill and Hillary Clinton have NEVER EVER repented of their sexual filth and their murders. That's the difference. Grant forgiveness when forgiveness is asked, and punish the unrepentant.

Donald Trump Dicit Quod Bill Clinton Facit, sed Donald Quaesit Remissionem et Bill Mentitur de Eo

Amici, Americani et Compatriotae,

Donald Trump says what Bill Clinton does, but Donald apologies and Bill lies about it. Nevertheless, we must remember the lesson of 1st Samuel chapter 8, except with this difference. The two candidates whom we have for President simply reflect each side of our faces as a people whereas King Saul's face fully reflected his people.

Cyrus Magnus Persa

Amici,

Cyrus the Great, a pagan Persian monarch who lived from about 600 to 530 BC, ruled over Persia (modern day Iran), Babylon (modern day Iraq), Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and the rest of the Near East in the mid-sixth century before Christ was born. The Jewish prophet Isaiah says this about him in Sacred Scripture (44:28-45:7):

[The Lord] says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
and he shall fulfil all my purpose’;saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
and ungird the loins of kings,
to open doors before him
that gates may not be closed:
“I will go before you
and level the mountains,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut asunder the bars of iron,
I will give you the treasures of darkness
and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I surname you, though you do not know me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I gird you, though you do not know me,
that men may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe,
I am the Lord, who do all these things.

Lex Iniusta - Marco Rubio de Lege Dei

Amici, Romani, Compatriotae,

Martin Luther King Jr., breaking out the St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas - who knew?

“One may well ask, ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’” King continued. “The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’

“Now, what is the difference between the two?” wrote King. “How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.”

Marco Rubio Says to Ignore SCOTUS Decision

Marco Rubio
Candidatus Republicanus pro Munere Praesidentiae

Responsum Praefeci Obamae Impetis Islamicis in Lutetia, Gallia

Amici, Romani, Compatriotae,

The response of President Barack Hussein Obama to the recent Muslim terrorist attacks in Paris, France is frankly beyond belief. He is the epitome of effeminate, weak-kneed, yellow-bellied, cowardly liberal progressivism that typifies the Democratic Party in the United States.



There is however only one proper response to Islam, but a decadent secular humanist politician is incapable of such a response:

Discrimen in Ecclesia et Discrimen in Rebus Publicis

President Barack Hussein Obama

Amici, Romani, Compatriotae,

President Barack Hussein Obama has succeeded during his term in office of creating and exacerbating harmful divisions within our Republic that no President before him has done. His deference to Islam, his promotion of sterile sexual filth, his criticism of local constabularies, and his inciting of racial hatreds have all created a dangerous atmosphere of antagonism and distrust. If during the next Presidential election a Republican is elected, few if any Democrats will tolerate it for it will mean the end of the promotion of sodomy and lesbianism, and government financing of the infanticide of the unborn. And likewise if a Democrat is elected; Conservative Republicans are at the end of their patience in being ridiculed, marginalized and misrepresented in the popular media.

Pope Francis
Jorge Bergoglio

In the same fashion Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, has succeeded during his occupancy of the Sedes Petri in exacerbating the divide between traditional conservative orthodox Catholics and liberal progressives who want to normalize the adultery of second civil marriages and both sodomy and lesbianism. Time and again Pope Francis has ranted against doctors of the law who insist on conformity tot he clear commands of Christ in Sacred Scripture. These rants are little different in tenor and tone than those which President Obama issues against conservative Republicans. And just as Democrats and Republicans can no longer tolerate each other, so also can traditional conservative orthodox Catholics and liberal progressives no longer tolerate each other.

Concerning these things the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:34-39 are quite clear:

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it."

Yes, we should and must pray for both our Pope and our President. But at the same time, as Jesus said in Matthew 10:16:

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

The following is a modification of several prayers from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer:

A Prayer for The President of the United States, and all in Civil Authority.

ALMIGHTY God, whose kingdom is everlasting and power infinite; Have mercy upon this whole land; and so rule the hearts of thy servants THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Barack Hussein Obama, The Governor of this State of South Carolina Nikki Haley, and all others in authority, that they, knowing whose ministers they are, may above all things seek thy honour and glory; and that we and all the People, duly considering whose authority they bear, may faithfully and obediently honour them, according to thy blessed Word and ordinance; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

A Prayer for Congress.

MOST gracious God, we humbly beseech thee, as for the people of these United States in general, so especially for their Senate and Representatives in Congress assembled; that thou wouldest be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations, to the advancement of thy glory, the good of thy Church, the safety, honour, and welfare of thy people; that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours, upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be establish among us for all generations. These and all other necessaries, for them, for us, and thy whole Church, we humbly beg in the Name and mediation of Jesus Christ, our most blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

A Prayer for the Clergy and People.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift; Send down upon Pope Francis, our Patriarchs, Metropolitans, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests and Deacons, and upon the Offices, Jurisdictions, Dioceses, and Congregations committed to their charge, the healthful Spirit of thy grace; and, that they may truly please thee, pour upon them the continual dew of thy blessing. Grant this, O Lord, for the honour of our Advocate and Mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Paraphrasis Lectionis Hodiernae Evangelii

Amici,

Below is a paraphrase of the first part of today's Gospel reading:

"In the course of his teaching Jesus said to the crowds, 'Beware of the politicians, who like to go around in fancy suits and ties, and accept greetings on television sets, seats of honor in Congress and the White House, and places of honor at election fundraisers. They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext recite lengthy orations. They will receive a very severe condemnation.'"

So let us ask ourselves this: why do liberal progressives advocate socialism which places more power into the hands of these avaricious politicians, purportedly as a means of fairly distributing social justice to all, but which only serves to impoverish everyone equally into poverty?