Tuesday, March 26, 2024

The Adventure of Writing a Dissertation

 As many of you reading this already know, since the end of 2020 I have been finally pursuing that doctoral degree I have been after for a while.  After a bit of a disappointment with not getting into Catholic University of America like I originally desired, my counsel with our former parish priest, Fr. John Jicha, led me to look into Liberty University, which offers online doctoral programs.  I applied in the Spring of 2020, was accepted, and started my first term in Fall 2020.  After successfully completing three years of classroom work - and maintaining a 3.89 GPA - I entered the dissertation phase last summer.  In the process, I was accepted into an online honor society (Omega Nu Lambda - an honor society for online students) and I also at the halfway point of my program was awarded a postgraduate Executive Certificate in History, both of which I received in 2022.  It has had its challenges - due to the loss of both parents during the past few years, as well as going through a divorce and also facing some financial challenges - but I am quite happy with how it is coming together.  So, I wanted to share a little of that journey with you.

As anyone will tell you who has either achieved a Ph.D. or is in the process of completing one, a program like this is in phases.  One phase of it has to do with classroom work.  These are courses that are both practical in nature as well as helping the student focus on an area of study for their final dissertation. In many ways, those courses are little different from classwork completed in a Master's program, although the research is a bit more intensive.  The second phase of my particular program was a series of 4 comprehensive reading courses, which focus on different areas in which you read a LOT of books for a particular period in history and then produce annotated bibliographies on what is read.  That phase is the most tedious and intensive of the program, and each of the 4 courses end with an essay exam focusing on a question that relates to the time period.  The final phase is actually the dissertation phase, and for me it is divided into three parts.  The first part of the dissertation phase entails gathering research and creating one's historiographic analysis, a methodology, and settling on questions the dissertation will address.  The second part is actually drafting the chapters of the dissertation itself, and can take up to several months.  The final part before defending and publishing is the revision stage, in which your faculty chair and at least two other faculty readers review each chapter, present what they feel needs work and revisions, and then after that is taken care of the actual manuscript is assembled from the revised chapters.  To be honest, it is a lot of work, especially in the first steps, but it does get easier as one goes along and understands their own material enough to defend it later.  At this point, I am at the early stages of the revision process, and have several months on that to go yet before being ready to publish and defend.  I ask for your prayers, as it is an involved process, but so far I feel good about everything. 

So, what is a dissertation?  Essentially, it entails the fruit of all the education you have had - undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral - and it is essentially a book for all intents.  It can average up to 300 pages (approximately the length of mine) and it is organized into chapters based on the research questions and also the other factors that contribute to the narrative.  A Master's thesis is similar but not the same length - I personally was not required to complete a Master's thesis in my graduate work, as my program then had a comprehensive exam at the end covering all the coursework in the program.  Many doctoral candidates do go on to publish their dissertations as a marketable book, but for the purpose of defending it the manuscript is published as a one-sided hardbound book of which a copy will be placed in the university library.  Obviously, the curiosity of those reading this will pique as to what my dissertation is about, and I will go into that now.

As my Ph.D. is in History (or will be soon), I originally narrowed my choices down to three areas of particular interest to me.  The first was Appalachian History, given I am a native of the region and the local history of my region did present a good opportunity.  The second area I had an interest in was late Roman Antiquity, meaning the last 100 years before the Western Roman Empire fell in AD 476, and then the subsequent events that followed up to Charlemagne's conquering of the Lombards in the 9th century.  However, the focus I settled upon was World War II History, which has always fascinated me.  Therefore, my dissertation has to do with the ideological influences that shaped the Nazis, and in essence I focused on four areas - occultism, eugenics/Darwinian evolution, political influences (particularly the Geopolitik of Friedrich Ratzel and Karl Haushofer, as well as the influence of groups like the Freikorps and Wandervogel), and finally philosophical influences (Kant, Nietzsche, Gobineau, H.S. Chamberlain).  Of course, as my faculty chair pointed out, there was to be something more original as a dimension to the narrative, and upon examining it I fell back on some earlier ideas that caught my attention from my Master's program - primary from Biblical hermeneutics and from Personalist Philosophy.  The hermeneutical aspect of it is also anthropological/sociological, as it entails a group "story" - a narrative of the worldview of particular group that centers around a series of ideas called central narrative convictions, or CNCs.  CNCs provide answers to four basic questions:

1. who are we?

2. where are we?

3. What's wrong?

4. What's the remedy?

That idea came to me from a book by Pentecostal theologian Kenneth Archer, whose book A Pentecostal Hermeneutic deal with these questions, which he referenced and borrowed from an earlier book by Brian Walsh and H. Richard Middleton entitled A Transforming Vision.  CNCs shape the narrative, or "story," of a particular group, and the group does not have to be good - even evil groups like the Nazis had CNCs that shaped their own narrative, albeit we would understand as a warped worldview on their part.  The second aspect of this has to do with what is unique to the Nazis as a movement as contrasted what they assimilated from earlier influences, and for this I relied on an idea I saw in Dr. John F. Crosby's book The Selfhood of the Human Person.  Dr. Crosby is the Chair of the Philosophy Department at my alma mater, Franciscan University of Steubenville, and the essence of his argument are quite fundamental.  Each individual - and in this application, each group - has two sets of attributes.  First, there are attributes which are unique to the individual or particular group, and we call these incommunicables.  Secondly there are shared or borrowed attributes common to either the individuals within a group or a group within a particular ideological sphere, and these are called communicables or universals. Like the CNCs, these attributes in both cases are not limited to just groups we consider good, as evil groups have them too.  This constitutes the second question of my dissertation - what did the Nazis possess that was unique to them, and what did they borrow from their predecessors from which they evolved?  Another question has to do with conflicting things - why the Nazis would later persecute some of their most influential allies and influences (notably Ernst Rohm, Karl Haushofer, and Rudolf von Sebottendorf)?  This is not a comprehensive summary of the entire dissertation, but it will give you an idea of what I am working on.  It also fits into what the dissertation process is all about too - it is taking things I have learned, making proper applications of them, and thus the dissertation serves as a climactic fruit of my total education.  And, in the case of my topic, it is total - this is an area I have been interested in since I was a kid in all honesty, and I came into the dissertation phase with a full background in study of this topic.  As a matter of fact, one of the chapters was an extension of a class project I did for an earlier course. Doing this entails a lot, and to be honest I have been challenged with the angles I have had to take in the final product of this whole thing.  But, it also has rewards too - the biggest reward is finally being finished with formal education after almost 50 years of it from kindergarten to my Ph.D.  And, frankly, at almost 55 years of age I am ready to retire as a student.  Hopefully in the near future my classroom work will be in front of the class teaching it rather than sitting at a desk learning it.  But, a curious mind is always learning, and we should all be lifelong students in a less formal capacity anyway. 

Upon completing and being conferred with a Ph.D., I plan on publishing the dissertation as a book for wider audiences, as well as utilizing the research for other projects - my earlier Genesis study could benefit from some of this material as I revise that later and make it a published book as well.  For those who may be interested in this, I will keep you posted. 

Thank you for allowing me to give you a glimpse into my Ph.D. journey, and I covet and appreciate your continued prayers for me.  See you next time!  


Friday, March 22, 2024

First Quarter of 2024 - Catching Up

 Due to my Ph.D. work, I have not been writing as much as I used to.  At this point, I am in the dissertation stage of my doctorate, and if all goes well, I will anticipate completing it by the end of this year. I will reflect more on that momentarily but wanted to catch up on a few other things first. 

To summarize, 2023 ended much better than it started, and although we had a few hiccups in January, for the most part the year has gone smoothly - not perfect, but at least not catastrophic.  I did finally contract COVID at the end of February, but I survived - it was really no worse than a flu, and I am no worse for the wear from it.  Barbara had caught the virus from a medical office she worked at here in town because the doctors there were frankly careless and made people work when they were sick, thus creating a huge risk of infection.  Therefore, Barbara caught it, and then spread it to me, and I found out I had it after a routine visit to an urgent care clinic for a tooth infection - I tested positive for COVID and was given the proper treatment.  I had noticed a day or two before going there that I was more fatigued, and I had also been getting a little bit of sinus pressure.  Knowing Barbara was sick, I figured I may be at high risk myself, and I was.  Again though, I survived without vaccination, without any Fauci nonsense, and I am better today.  And life goes on. 

2024 has also been the year of many deaths - both my last surviving grandfather and his wife (not my grandmother as he married this one long after he and my grandmother divorced) passed on in January and February respectively.  Grandad was 98, and although there were some family issues and we were not as close over the years, it does create a realization now that I am officially the last surviving descendant of my immediate family.  Having celebrated my 54th birthday recently, I am also faced with the realization that I am not as young as I used to be.  I found that out a couple of days ago when I reorganized the shed outside and my back is still feeling that now.  It is a lot to digest.  And, with a lot of change happening in the past 4 years, I have many questions.  I guess the final verdict is that I have to trust God - he brought me this far after all, so why wouldn't I?  I does get a little frustrating waiting on answers though, but when I look back one day at this I will probably understand the reasons behind things.  And, that leads me to another very good insight I was given during my COVID experience by our parish priest.

Fr. Timothy Grassi is a short little guy with a big heart, and before he was assigned to our current parish, he was actually the priest in my hometown of Parsons, which gives us a lot to talk about.  When I found out I had COVID, I emailed him asking him to pray for us.  In his response, he said something so profound that I plan on remembering it for a long time.  He told me basically that God allowed the illness as a way of saying it's time to rest - I would have never thought of that, but it does make perfect sense.  Even in sickness - a fruit of the Fall in Genesis 3 - God has purpose in other words.  He uses our own biology to speak to us, which just reaffirms the fact that he created the universe and everything in it.  Symptoms our body gives us act as indicators that we need to make a change sometimes, and God designed our bodies in such a way that the symptoms end up being a divine revelation as well as a natural process.  I may incorporate this into my earlier Genesis study, as I could spend more time on this.  I guess the lesson is that if we really want to hear from God, we should maybe listen more closely - even our own bodies talk to us.  Really good insight, courtesy of our wonderful parish priest. 

I mentioned that I have been doing a lot of reorganization in the house, and so far we have made amazing progress.  I reorganized the kitchen cabinets for one thing - I have a new spice cabinet I bought last month, and thus it opened up space over the stove to store paper cups and plates.  I also managed to clean out underneath the sink, and got that organized - that was a project I had been wanting to tackle for some time, and thankfully it turned out wonderfully.  The big project however was the shed outside, which for some reason was a mess due to weaker small bins collapsing in there.  I spent the better part of three hours this past Wednesday repacking stuff in larger bins, and it sort of reminded me that I am not as young as I once was - trying to lift those heavy bins into place wreaked havoc on my lower back, and I feel it today.  I have had back issues off and on for at least 10 years now - on one occasion when we still lived in Lakeland, I was out of commission for a week when my back went totally out on me.  As Fr. Grassi taught me, it is a way for our bodies to tell us something that could be God's message to us - take care of ourselves and don't stress out over things.  Stress of course in this case is physical stress - when your body reaches a certain age, you have to be more nuanced in the way you handle things.  That is a lesson I am still learning, but it makes it harder when many of these jobs are things only you can do, and thus the risk for physical issues becomes more pronounced.  However, I prove resilient, and we get things accomplished despite circumstances.  Thanks be to God for that too. 

Now, let's talk about this doctorate.  I made it to my second dissertation course - 988 - and I also now have the initial drafts of all my chapters completed.  With those taken care of, I have entered an extensive revision phase for my dissertation that could take anywhere from 6 to 9 months, depending on what extent revisions are needed.  The next step after the revisions will be preparing for the defense, publication, and presentation of my bound copy to the university.  Once I successfully defend, then I will be conferred a Ph.D.  In all honesty, I am ready to wrap this up, as I have been in school since I was 5 years old and I am ready to retire as a student - although I had a few intermittent breaks between my undergraduate and Master's programs regarding a formal degree, during that interregnum in my education I was still actively learning. It was during that time I completed my paralegal certificate and some other professional coursework for jobs and such, and thus I have not had a completion of my education since kindergarten.  This Ph.D. for me is my climax to my education, and upon successful completion of that I am done with formal education.  I may still take a course or two here for professional development, but only on an as-needed basis.  In all honesty, much of this should have been finished years ago, but for most of my 30s I spent my time working and achieving a level of stability so I had no time then, hence the 16-year gap (1996-2012) between finishing my BA and starting my MA.  Fortunately, I only had two years between completing my MA and starting my Ph.D., so we have been continuously finishing degrees for about 12 years.  I do have plans with my dissertation once I successfully defend it and get my doctorate conferred.  For one thing, I want to turn it into a marketable book, so upon completion of studies I will format it accordingly and submit it for publication with my own publisher (Lulu Press has been fantastic over the past several years for my publishing needs, including a multi-volume collection of all these blog posts over the 14 years I have been writing).  Then, I can pursue other writing projects, such as my Genesis study as a book as well as a history of American dance bands, which means turning my hobby into a scholastic endeavor.  In all honesty, I plan on being busy for a while. 

Aside from getting the house in order, recovering from illness, losing family, and my schooling, my life has been otherwise uneventful.  There are things that are happening I will discuss at another time when they will be more appropriate to address, but for now those areas are still largely under construction.  With my personal things now discussed, let me address our national issues a little. 

As anyone who knows me will verify, I am fairly conservative in my political views.  I am conservative because I see a divinely authored natural law that dictates certain things are supposed to be certain ways.  For instance, if you are born a man, you cannot become a woman (and vice versa) - for a devoutly Catholic person such as myself, this whole "transgender" issue is heretical in that it asserts that God is somehow imperfect and capable of making mistakes.  These issues also embody an ancient heresy called Gnosticism - denying the tangible for some esoteric nonsense.  This makes the ideology of transgenderism also somewhat occultic, and as my dissertation shows that makes it dangerously close to some ideologies the Nazis had.  For instance, when you have weirdos such as Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels (a Volkisch occultist, former priest, and early mentor of Hitler) taking Biblical terms such as sodomy and radically redefining them, it causes some issues.  It is also true with how the precursors of this transgender movement - people such as Karl Heinrich Ulrichs and Magnus Hirschfeld - viewed homosexuality as an "evolving third gender."  With pronoun misuse and gender confusion today, you see that ideology permeating society more and more.  I know of at least three individuals who "came out" as homosexual and then all of a sudden were transgender, and it is largely based on whatever demonic spirit drives the agendas pushing this garbage.  One of them is a fellow alumnus of the university where I received my undergraduate degree, and the other two are more high-profile - the actress Ellen (who now calls herself "Elliot") Page and the freakshow who bankrupted a major beer company, Dylan Mulvaney.  Page and Mulvaney are going to some pretty ridiculous extremes with their conflicted identities, and in all honesty it is turning into a huge freakshow.  This, along with the labeling of things certain individuals who don't like them as "racist" due to bad identity politics (now, if you don't like something such as coffee, declare it "racist" and every mainstream media outlet will have their noses so far up your butt it will feel like a reverse bowel movement), has led to a serious rift in our society.  Now, also in the name of "climate change," many of these same idiots are trying to eliminate carbon dioxide (which plants need to survive, incidentally) as well as destroying pieces of priceless art.  And, now you have the outright support of actual terrorists - a lot of spoiled rich young liberal ding-dongs are actually protesting for Hamas, who last October killed close to 1300 Jewish people in Israel.  All of these things together constitute a warped mindset called "wokeism," and it is the real pandemic which is doing far more damage than COVID ever could.  Unless this is brought to heel soon, Western Civilization is in mortal danger of collapse once the loonies take over.  This is where we need divine intervention. And, there are a couple of other thoughts I want to address with this now.

A cursory reading of the press will show that over the past 20 or so years, the dictator Erdogan in Turkey has been getting more extreme in his rhetoric.  It is as if he wants a restored Ottoman khalifate with himself as leader, and he is stopping at nothing to make that happen.   While many think Putin is the ultimate bad guy in world leadership (in reality, he isn't), many ignore Erdogan because he fits their agenda.  Erdogan, if he had his way, would wipe every Armenian off the face of the earth - he is a genocidal freak.  Yet, what is so weird about him now is that all of a sudden he is supporting Hamas also, and defending Palestinians while threatening Israel.  I called that years ago, because that is essentially Ezekiel 38-39 playing out.  Erdogan is also hypocritical - he condemns Israel for "genocide" against Palestinians, when in reality his own nation was guilty of the greatest genocide of an indigenous population back a century ago.  No one seems to mention the Armenian Genocide much, do they?  This despite the fact that Erdogan's Azeri "soul bro," Aliev, is carrying out his own genocide against Armenians by attacking the Nagorno-Karabagh corridor (also known as Artsakh in Armenian, and traditionally a part of Armenian territory).   There are a couple of very strong observations I want to make here.  If Erdogan is concerned about Israel, he has two problems.  For one, Jews are actually indigenous to Israel - Turks are not indigenous to Turkey.  Secondly, he accuses Israel of "genocide" (an allegation with no basis in fact) while at the same time supporting actual genocide against Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians in his own country, all of whom are indigenous to the geographical area called "Turkey" now.  I see that same attitude with other Turks even in the US, particularly leftist political pundit and loudmouth Cenk Uygur of "The Young Turks."  Cenk loves throwing the word "genocide" around when it comes to Gaza, but then seethes in anger at the mere mention of the genocidal legacy of his own people.  That being said, I have a couple of further observations.

First, I am not what you consider to be a "Zionist."  I have some Jewish ancestry, I believe that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people, and I think Israel as a state has every right to exist.  However, I also think that many so-called "Palestinians" come from two origins.  Many of them are the descendants of Arab Beduin tribes from the Arabian desert who came with Mohammed to conquer much of the Middle East and Islamize it in the 7th century.  However, this is not true of that entire population, as many "Palestinian" communities in Israel do share common DNA with their Jewish neighbors - my theory on this is that they may be actual Israelites by ancestry - could be even part of the lost 10 tribes in all honesty - who were Arabized and Islamized over the centuries.  That means that the land of Israel is their home as well, and by all means they also have a birthright there.  Bottom line, if one really studies that intensely, the conclusion is that the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is a sibling squabble then, albeit a very intense and dangerous one.  That means that meddling globalists in the West may need to keep their noses out of it.  Secondly, because I am not technically a "Zionist," I also don't agree with all of Israel's policies either - for instance, their support of Aliev's regime in Azerbaijan against Armenians is a bad policy move, no different than the way our current administration supports a corrupt neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine right now.  Jews and Armenians should by all indicators be natural allies, in that they suffered many of the same atrocities over the centuries and have a lot more in common with each other than they do with anyone else.  Yet, because Israel supports Azerbaijan against Armenia, that has damaged relations between these two great nations.  Hopefully, Erdogan's genocidal psychosis and his close ties to Aliev will begin to change Israel's policies in this regard, and maybe the Israeli leadership will wake up to reality on that one.  I am also not overly thrilled with the way some Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel treat Christian communities - I have heard stories of Armenians, Copts, Greeks, and others being spit on as they leave their churches by Orthodox Jewish rabblerousers, and also how Israel at times targets innocent Christian communities who are trapped in the crossfire.  While Hamas and similar groups are corrupt and evil and do use innocent victims as human shields, that is no excuse for Israel to randomly target areas where Christians may live.  That is something Israel does need to sort out.  

For now, that is all I have to share, but hopefully I can be back soon with more insights.  God bless everyone who gets to read this, and see you soon!


Friday, December 22, 2023

The Wayward Pope

 As if the Catholic Church hasn't been through enough, we have been hit with another "surprise" from Francis this past week - the document Fiducia Supplecans, a declaration issued by the Dicastery for the Deposit of Faith.  This piece of true garbage sanctions "blessing" couples in irregular (particularly "same-sex") relationships in an informal way without actually performing a matrimonial or liturgical rite, but it still has fundamental problems.  Given this was issued essentially on the back of Traditiones Custodes, which essentially limited celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, and the punitive measures Francis has been taking against more orthodox clergy such as Cardinal Raymond Burke, Bishop Joseph Strickland, and Father Frank Pavone, the suspicious nature of such a document is well-justified.  I wanted to address this today because it does raise some fundamental questions about the overall future of the faith, and it is an integral issue to all Catholics. 

Let me first explain myself.  I am not an exclusive TLM Mass devotee, and I also do not totally reject everything in Vatican II - I think the Council was legitimate, and there were some good things that came from it. That being said, I also am not opposed to the celebration of the TLM either, and although not part of that myself, I tend to hold a lot of convictions which the TLM proponents share, and I am definitely supportive of their right to celebrate the Mass in that very valid form.  I consider myself a traditionalist as well, although I also do have some convictions that would not be shared with my TLM brethren although they are relatively minor.  I attend a parish that is very soundly orthodox and does use a very reverent form of the Ordinary (or Novus Ordo) Mass, and I find it to be spiritually good for my own faith and its practice. Reverence in religious practice is vital, and should be based on our faith in Jesus Christ, and that is what is vital as well as being what the Church has affirmed for its 2000 years of existence.  This is known as Christocentricity, and everything about the faith we as Catholics practice should always lead us to Christ.  It is because of this that I have growing concerns with Francis and his regime as Pope, because I am not sure if God allowed Francis to be in power to test us, or if Francis is a plant of the enemy to attempt to destroy the Church - or, it could be a combination of both.  I am reminded however of the words of the Apostle in Romans 8:28 - all things work together for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. This means that there are some takeaways we need to keep in mind as this whole situation continues to unfold. 

First, the true Church will never be destroyed.  She is the eternal Bride of Christ, and if we read the end of the story, she prevails.  Scripture itself reminds us of this in Matthew 16:17-19, where Our Lord commissions St. Peter as the first Pope, and in doing so He makes the proclamation "on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."  What this means is quite profound actually - even though the Church will be tested, and apostasies may happen, the true Church will always stand, even if only a faithful remnant.  The previous Pope, Benedict XVI, expressed this when he said that as Pope, he desires a Church that is small and faithful over one that is large and unevangelized, and in all honesty, the late Pontiff may get his wish if Francis keeps acting like the proverbial bull in the china shop with Church teaching.  This leads to my second takeaway.

Many orthodox faithful Catholics - both TLM proponents as well as sound conservative Catholics who attend good Ordinary Form Mass parishes - are questioning what to do right now.  Should we go to movements such as the SSPX or the sedevacantists?  Do we split off from the Holy See, declare Francis an illegitimate Pope, and do another "Babylonian captivity" scenario such as what happened with the Avignon Papacy several centuries ago?  These are serious questions to ponder, but there is a simple answer.  Dr. Taylor Marshall and others I listen to essentially say to stay put, pray, and that God will prevail in the end, and that is a good point.  I will go one step further however by saying this - if schism happens, I will always be on the side of orthodoxy, and will align with the side that maintains traditional doctrine and faith.  Simply, the sound, orthodox Catholic way is the true way, and it is the one that Catholics who love the Church and take their faith seriously should pursue.  Also, if Francis does cause a schism, there is something very important to keep in mind - it will not be us leaving the faith, but rather Francis by promoting heresies and abhorrent garbage.  While his faction may have all the wealth and control the Vatican and the infrastructure, it is important to remember that those things are temporal in the greater scheme of things - wealth is fleeting, and it will not benefit us much in eternity in all honesty, so let's not labor under the impression that holding onto the great cathedrals and other treasures the Church has been steward of for centuries will somehow make whoever possesses them the valid party.  God sees things much differently.  Plus, cathedrals can be rebuilt, and even at some point the material treasures of the Church could be restored, so let's not focus on that.  Our focus is ultimately beyond temporal things - not that there is anything wrong with those, as we are not Gnostics who deny the material because we are too "spiritually-minded" or something - and those can be easily replaced or even recovered.  Our eternal soul, however, is much more precious - saving that is a greater treasure than any riches on the earth, which Lent reminds us of every year.  We need to focus on the greater vision, and if that means exile from some aspects of the Church's historic holdings, then we must make that sacrifice.  We can learn a lot from what has happened to some Protestant and Anglican groups in recent years - they went through this same stuff more intensely and with greater sacrifice than we have thus far as Catholics, but they prevailed.  As a former Anglican myself, I remember when the Anglican Communion split essentially over the very issues Francis is trying to promote now - there were orthodox Anglicans locked out of their parishes, some of which were hundreds of years old, and they in many cases were forced to meet in storefronts and funeral homes to preserve their faith as the "powers that be" seized their assets and even tied some of their parishes up in court (this led to many of them seeking out orthodox bishops in Africa, and founding communions such as ACNA and AMiA).  The same thing recently happened to two Protestant groups - the United Methodists and the Church of the Brethren.  Both of these denominations suffered fracturing, but the ones who were more committed to an orthodox expression of their faith formed new and more vibrant fellowships (the Global Methodist Church and the Covenant Brethren Church, respectively).  Will Catholics face a similar issue?  It remains to be seen, but that still small voice of Our Lord is whispering to us now, "Trust me."  Ultimately, trust in Our Lord is the best remedy we can hope for in these uncertain times. 

So, if I have advice for my fellow Catholics, it is this.  Let Francis Bergolio play his little games while kissing his Pachamama idols and watching drag queens get validated by the likes of apostate priests like "Father" James Martin, and in time it will come back to haunt him, either in this life or the next.  We stand firm as faithful Catholics against these tricks of Satan, and there are ways we can express this that are wise and nuanced.  For one, if an orthodox priest is asked by a gay couple living in an irregular relationship to "bless" them, the priest can be creative and give them a "blessing" - that their hearts are converted, that they live chaste, celibate lives, that grace will elevate, heal, and fix their concupiscent nature, and that God will convict their hearts and examine their consciences.  The document does not prescribe what blessing to give, so this will be a way to deal with an issue like this.  Secondly, for those in bondage to the vice of "same-sex attraction" or gender dysphoria, it is important that they be loved and treated with compassion as human beings like the rest of us.  These individuals are being deceived into thinking that what they feel and are even practicing is somehow "good" and "normal," and we need to pray God opens eyes and hearts for transformation.  These types of feelings and behaviors are a symptom of the concupiscent nature mankind has had since the Fall, and as we strive to be the person God called us to be, it is important to let his grace work in us to elevate, heal, and perfect us.  This is true not only of these particular vices, but also anything - stealing, pride, hatred, addictions, etc.  We all have sinful inclinations of some sort we struggle with, as we are part of a fallen world.  The question is whether we are open to surrendering ourselves and letting God's grace work in us? That is what true Catholicism will encourage us to do. 

Any rate, I wanted to just address this and share thoughts on it.  Time does not permit me to really examine this in detail, but at least you get the idea of where I stand.  May God bless you and give you a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones, and please remember to keep in mind the reason we celebrate this holy season.  


Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Year-End Review

 Although it is officially still the beginning of December, I feel it is appropriate both in concord with my schedule as well as just practically speaking to do my year-end perspectives.  There are many things about 2023 I am glad to see go, some I will miss, and others I will just build upon.  So, let us start the conversation and see where it goes.

On a broader level, 2023 has been a challenging year for our nation - with godless Democrats still wielding power, the economy in the US is worse than it has been in a long time.  Then, our government's own failures in East Palestine, OH, as well as in Maui, compounded with the fact we have Establishment hawks beating war drums to provoke World War III in either the Pacific or in Eastern Europe, have made many people somewhat disillusioned.  Add to that the failure of "woke" policies, which are still being pushed on us despite the fact they are increasingly unpopular and also just stupid.  I get sick of hearing about what "pronouns" to address people with, especially when an obviously male individual puts on a dress and wants to be called "her."  Thankfully, "woke" ideology is being shown for the failure it is - the huge corporate example of Bud Light is a case in point.  For those who may have been blissfully unaware of that issue, several months ago Bud Light hired a freak named Dylan Mulvaney to be its "spokesperson," and that proved to be a disaster for the corporation.  Dylan Mulvaney is a gay man who all of a sudden decided he was a woman, and he did so in a very ridiculous way - for instance, glorifying tampons (which most real women would not dream of doing) and acting like a real horse's ass in the public arena.  The most recent thing about Mulvaney is that while he is still identifying as "her," he decided he was attracted to women and wanted to get pregnant!  So, here is the thing - a guy who likes girls (normal so far) decides to be a girl (getting weirder), and then says he wants to be with a girl (he wants to be Chris Hayes in other words, a male lesbian??), and wants her to get him pregnant!  By this point, a normal human being is probably ready to beat their head against the wall trying to figure this all out and is muttering "what the hell???"  But, for the leftist elitists, it is perfectly natural (these are the same people who engage in "puppy play," or "furry culture," a sexual fetish where a person identifies as an animal like a dog).  My advice is to just cynically mock it for being obviously ridiculous and go on with your own life - the freaks and weirdos of "wokeness" will destroy themselves in due time, so I don't let it worry me.  Any rate, that, as well as a clinically senile President who has all the cognizant ability of a Christmas cactus, is where we are at in our nation.  However, it is also important to remember that ultimately God is in control, and in the end everything works out for the better one way or another.  It is just one hell of a ride getting there. 

It is true that to some degree our individual lives are a microcosm of the society around us, and in the case of the economy, that has been very apparent this year.  I have faced probably what is one of the most intense financial situations this year I have had in a long time, and to be honest I was really caught up in uncertainty.  Having limited income, my financial situation has affected even my basic expenses, but overall things are starting to come together now which is good.  A realization came to me just a month or so ago when a friend of mine I was praying with observed that God is telling us to contend for what is rightfully ours, as there are forces out there trying to destroy us.  I need to clarify some concepts in this, because by contending for what is rightfully ours, I am not speaking of the heretical "blab it and grab it" garbage that people like Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen teach millions of gullible people. What I do mean is that for things you have rightly achieved and earned, one should be entitled to stake a claim on that.  For example, let's say you are due a settlement from something that would be a significant amount.  Legal documents and correspondence have confirmed you are to receive that compensation, but there is bureaucratic red tape and other issues tying it up while you may be struggling just to make your rent or mortgage payment every month.  The bureaucratic structure holding the benefit back is a hindrance orchestrated by the enemy, and there needs to be an offensive launched to reclaim what is rightly yours.  The difference between this and the "blab it and grab it" teaching is a fundamental one - in the right case, it is an asset you know about, are aware of, and is technically yours as established by legal authority.  In the case of the "blab it and grab it" mentality, those people are telling you to "claim" things you may not have a right to, nor may you actually need - for instance, "claiming" a fortune of millions of dollars and a Rolls Royce is stupid and not grounded in reality, unless you legitimately acquired the fortune and it is being held back by some hindrance.  Also, no one needs millions of dollars or a Rolls Royce, and Philippians 4:19 tells us that God supplies our needs and not some crazy obsessions.  When my friend and I discussed this, it made perfect sense, and we both began to reclaim what was taken from us, and within a week or two later, I get this letter from my university saying that I was awarded additional financial aid, and it could not come at a more perfect time - I was behind on my rent, and was struggling to figure out how to take care of holiday expenses and other things, and God provided for that.  The same week, I also got another unexpected blessing too.  A devout Catholic donor who was of some means wealthwise had decided he was going to bless a number of Catholic people with a very beautiful gift.  So, around the first of November I get the notification that I was having two huge packages delivered to me by Fedex.  I was puzzled by that, as I had not ordered anything, so it made me very curious.  Turns out the packages were a very beautiful Nativity set that this guy had bought several of and was sending out all over the nation to different people, and somehow I was chosen to get one.  This was not a little set either - each piece was over 25 inches high, and the whole set together weighed 42 pounds.  I have the beautiful set displayed now in my living room, and my prayer is that whoever the person was who blessed me with that will be abundantly blessed as well, as that individual has a good heart and he may have made a difference in many people's lives.  Any rate, as I write this now I have a very good outlook for 2024, and if I have learned anything in the past couple of years, it is that I don't have any choice but to trust God - somehow, he always comes through, even when I get upset and impatient waiting on him.  That was something for the year I wanted to share and hopefully it will be an encouragement to others. 

As far as my doctoral work goes, at the end of 2023 I am officially in the dissertation phase of my program now, which translates to almost being at the finish line.  I am honestly very happy about that, for I can officially "retire" from school after being constantly working on my education for well over 50 years now - that is taking my whole academic history from kindergarten to the Ph.D.   It has been a lot of work, and with drafting the dissertation and anticipating revisions, I still have a bit to go yet, but I will get there.  At this moment, I have 5 of the 7 chapters (about 200 pages) of my initial draft done, and will be working on the last two chapters starting in January.  If I keep up the pace, I may finish strong and can have a "Dr." in front of my name by this time next year.  It still amazes me how far I have come, and again, it is by the grace of God I have done so well.  In addition to my Ph.D. program, I have also done coursework in German language (which I needed for approval to advance to the dissertation phase), as well as earning a certificate in Podcasting and successfully completing a Tax Preparer course through Jackson Hewitt.  I am currently also finishing up a course in Tagalog I am taking for personal reasons (all in good time, but I will have an announcement at some point next year), and may pursue some software programming and Montessori education coursework to enhance my marketable skill set.  I will be busy for a while, but the good thing is that this coming Saturday I will be seeing some fruits of my effort, and I will share that now. 

A few months back, there was a call for papers to be presented at a small academic conference over in Charles Town dealing with the Catholic contributions to American History.  The chief organizer of the conference, author and historian Stan Williams, is a major researcher on the whole Wizard Clip legacy that plays an integral role in West Virginia Catholic history.  The Wizard Clip incident happened in the late 1700s at the site of the conference, a retreat center operated by our parish called Priest Field, and essentially it is a story of evangelization and conversion.  A Lutheran farmer who had settled the area was having some issues with unusual phenomena occurring on his property, and he sought the counsel of a Catholic priest, Fr. Gallitzin, to remedy it.  Fr. Gallitzin, if I remember the details correctly, came and performed an exorcism on the property, after which all the weird manifestations ceased.  Moved by this, the farmer and his family converted to Catholicism, and history was made for the Church in West Virginia.  On my other blog, I documented the Wizard Clip story a couple of years ago, so feel free to read that if your interest is piqued (also, it will clarify any errors here that I may have accidentally made in the facts).  The conference for me will entail presenting a paper on the significance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and it is a topic I did the same paper for as a class project back in 2016 for a Mariology course at Steubenville.  I am a little nervous about my first conference participation as a speaker, but it is experience that is crucial to my career, so I gladly take all opportunities like this as God providing me some background which will benefit a possible instructor position later.  I may or may not create a post on the conference next week - we'll see how the schedule goes. 

We also had a few tragedies as well - I lost three finches this year, and Barbara lost her cat Mallory in September. Mallory was originally her sister's cat, but when she passed away in 2020, Barbara adopted both Mallory and her brother Mickey and brought them back. Both of these cats are really old cats too, as I still recall when my ex-sister-in-law got them in 2008 and they were adorable kittens.  Mallory had been declining healthwise for several months in that somehow she had sustained a nasty injury to her jaw and it became infected - the infection spread into her body, weakened her, and that is what I feel took her out.  Mickey is still alive and very healthy, but Mallory is now resting in her final spot in the back yard.  Any rate, it was a loss, and I am sorry for Barbara that it happened. 

There are many more details I could share, but I am on a tight schedule with many things I need to do as well, so we'll have to talk about those some other time.  Thank you for allowing me to visit with you virtually, and my prayers for a blessed holiday season for each of you who read this.  

Saturday, November 4, 2023

Updates and Venting

 I am not able to write as much as I used to these days due to being busy with several things - doctoral dissertation, a tax preparer course I am doing for some extra income, and preparing a paper to present at a conference next month.  However, it is important that I keep updated on the aspects of my life that matter, and I wanted to just do that briefly today.  And, I also wanted to just sound off on a couple of things that have been bugging me lately too. 

The major challenges I have had this year have been financial - my income sources have been drastically reduced from what they were, and as a result it has added some additional concerns to me personally.  The one area that really has caused me some issues has been trying to obtain the means for making income.  You would think that I - having 25 years of office experience, an advanced degree, etc. - would have no issues finding suitable work to substantiate my income, but unfortunately that is not the case.  There are times I actually have felt sort of "blackballed" from employment because it seems as if I am getting passed over for even jobs I would have perfect qualifications for.  All is not lost however, as recently I got the blessing of having a tuition-waved tax preparer course offered to me, and I am about 50%  through it now.  Once I finish it, I can be a certified tax preparer and make decent money during tax season with a well-known tax management company.  There are other things though that bug me about trying to earn income, and I wanted to briefly address those now, as I am sure some of you reading this will relate.

With the proliferation of the internet, it is now possible to access almost anything, and there are some evil scuzzballs out there who want to take advantage of that situation.  In the past, we all know about the so-called "Nigerian Prince Scams," but in recent years scamming has gotten much more sophisticated.  Two areas are what I want to focus on now, as they represent some of my own encounters. 

The first are these listings on job boards such as Indeed and LinkedIn - the job listed will look so good, such as a remote data entry position that pays $30 hourly, and of course when you are looking for work like yesterday it means that this will definitely catch your attention.  So, you apply for the opportunity, and within a day you hear back from someone saying you are "perfect" for the opportunity, and they then will tell you to give them some contact information and they will cut a check to send you for "purchasing equipment."  What makes this scam more convincing is that it will hack a legitimate company, and then use its logo and contact information, but there is a telltale sign of a potential scame when you examine it more closely - the web address or email they give you does not mesh with the actual business, and they will ask you to correspond on a gmail account with them for more details.  A true business manager usually will not correspond with gmail, especially if they have a personal account.  This should immediately send a red flag, and at this point it would be wise to contact the actual company they are trying to pose as - if you can do that, the legitimate business will often inform you that this is not them, and that they do not typically employ people this way. It is quite a let-down for the first few times too - you have been on an endless job search for weeks, and your funds are depleting and bills are due, and you need income fast.  Then this crap comes up.  In a moment, I will get into what I believe should be done with such individuals who try to rip off others like this, but there is another type of scam that I wanted to address first. 

The second type of scam is a little more subtle, and in many cases it can be accessed with a click or two on your smart phone.  I am sure you all have seen these game ads, in which you play the game and supposedly rack up some money you can cash out and it will lead to automatic wealth.  In reality, these games - many of which generate via companies in China - are very misleading, and while you are playing them you rack up tremendous wins - all well and good until it comes time to cash out.  First, you are told you have to reach a threshold, which could be anywhere from $100 to $1000, and that you cannot cash out unless you do so.  Withdrawal thresholds are not an issue per se, as there are legitimate survey sites (Zap, Survey Junkie, etc.) that set minimum cashout limits of $10 - there is a reason for that, and it probably has to do with some regulation or something.  I have made a few bucks here and there from survey companies like this, and they are generally very good at paying out - I have made about $30 or so on those in a month.  The legitimate survey sites are not the problem - these games are.  So, the game sets the threshold, and let's say you keep playing until you reach that - this often involves enduring endless ads for more bogus games like this - and you go to cash out.  They then put another stipulation on you - in order to cash out, you have to watch in excess of 20 ads, each a minute apiece.  So, let's say you do that, and you think you can now access those winnings - hold on!  Yet another stipulation will pop up saying you have to do a minimum of 5 "tasks" to cash out.  At this point, it is starting to get frustrating, but let's say you take that on.  You do what you are asked, and finally a cashout can happen, but there is a problem - in order to cash out, you have to pay a fee for "processing."  At this point, most people have figured out that something is not right, but let's say you do pay the fee, and then try to cash out again. You are then told you are in a queue and that you are the 5000th person who will be processed.  It never happens. The real winner in this is the Chinese scammer who just ripped you off about $10.  After once or twice being fooled by these shenanigans, you begin to see the pattern with these bogus games - they are out for themselves and they are not going to give you anything.  This is where frustration starts to set in, and now I want to talk about what should be done with such nonsense. 

I know we have freedom of speech in this nation, and that the internet is largely unregulated, and that means that any conceivable scan or con will be out there.  They grow more sophisticated by the day too, and they are where you least expect them to be.  But, is this really a First Amendment thing?  How do scammers and con artists fall into free expression?  And there is the fundamental issue.  To be honest, free speech is not absolute - if it is speech or behavior that infringes upon another's rights or safety, it should be regulated.  However, of course we should never go to the other extreme and just censor everybody like the leftist "wokists" try to do, but there needs to be a standard regardless.  The extremes of letting scammers run amok in the name of "free expression" and the complete suppression of any free expression will not solve the issue.  So, there has to be some boundaries in place to regulate this stuff.  While a recipient of a scam email has every right to block, report, and delete the communication in question, in all honesty it does little to stop such people - on a daily basis I literally get hundreds of scams and cons in my email accounts, and while most are easily deleted or "spammed," they still present a serious issue in that on occasion one can be crafted so sophisticated that it will even snag the most aware person.  Scammers are not stupid - they are scumbags, they are corrupt, and they can be dangerous, but they also know how to dangle the right bait in front of potential targets. The key to this is more in-depth research to fight such parasites, and in doing so we can more effectively eradicate them from cyberspace.  These issues are quite serious, and now I want to share a couple of thoughts as to why.

The one thing about these scammers that makes no sense whatsoever is that they often target individuals with little to spare - the person who is investigating that game on the Google Play apps for instance, probably has a real threat of having their power disconnected or being evicted from their home, so they are desperate.  The person who comes across the bogus job listing on a platform is also the most vulnerable - more than likely that person has been unemployed for some time, and their assets are dwindling and they need real work ASAP.  This is the stupid thing about scammers - what do they hope to gain from taking advantage of disadvantaged people???  The answer is quite obvious - the scammer is a selfish parasite out to enrich themselves, and they have no regard for the situation potential targets may be in.  They have no job to offer, and they are not going to pay you $3000 from game winnings - they are the ones who will benefit, and that benefit comes at the expense of the most vulnerable demographics (unemployed, elderly on fixed incomes, etc.).  These parasites need to be rained in quickly, and in all honesty they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law that addresses their behavior.  If no such law is applicable, it is time for our government leaders to create one that is.  The problem with these scammers is that they are not just hurting the vulnerable targets they are after, but often they make legitimate businesses victims by hijacking their logos and masquerading as these businesses.  When that happens, it can cost the business thousands of dollars in lost revenue, and also creates expenses for upgrading their security to prevent being targeted by scammers who masquerade as them. If you ever have a question about a job listing, your best recourse would be to Google the actual business, contact them, and let them know what is going on.  That way, you do them a service and they can nip the scammer in the bud before real damage is done in their name.  Scammers who masquerade as legitimate businesses are engaging essentially in a form of identity theft on a corporate level - they are committing crime, in other words.  They need to be targeted, prosecuted, and brought to an end.  Any rate, hopefully this will resonate with some of you, and I would also strongly encourage you to get in touch with your local representatives in government to press them to look into the issue and find ways to address and combat it.  We live in tough economic times now, and scammers are a risk not worth taking and must be exposed for the frauds they are. 

I went into that lengthy discussion because this year I have had my own set of financial challenges, and some of what I just described I have personally experienced and want to share my insights to hopefully help others.  Due to some factors outside of my control, I have been somewhat restricted in looking for substantial means of income, and this is a thing I am even tackling now as I write this.  Fortunately, I have been able to keep myself busy with various things, and my doctoral dissertation is one of those.  At this writing, I have drafted 4/7 chapters of my dissertation, am starting the fifth in two weeks, and will finish the last couple of chapters by mid-February 2024.  After that, it will be mainly revision work I will be doing on the chapters to craft the dissertation itself, and that will be a process that will at minimum take another year.  Beginning next year, I will be sharing some of my research findings on the dissertation here, as ultimately I want to use the dissertation as a resource to educate others on a more personal level by having academic underpinning. I do have a good facilitator as a faculty reader for the dissertation, but there are some challenges with that too I want to address, so let me do so now with an illustration. 

Imagine you are taking a leisure trip from, let's say, Virginia Beach to New Orleans.  There are two ways to initiate the trip, and those also apply to writing a dissertation or other book.  The first would be to just have the objective as destination, and if you are doing that, more than likely your travel will be all on the interstate system.  You will arrive there fast, but there is another alternative too.  The second approach would be to simply drink in the journey - instead of just going on the interstate, take some back roads, stop at some nice little shops along the way, and eat at some new places that have interesting cuisine.  It may take a little longer to get to where you are going, but you will have a more memorable trip with a lot of detailed account. In many cases, even the best Research Directors for one's doctoral dissertation tend to be destination-focused - they want a complete conclusion to the whole project when you may still be only researching the first chapter of it.  I have had to tell my own RD a couple of times to hold onto his britches because we are still on the journey and will get there soon enough - just enjoy the ride, in other words.  Maybe they have to do this, I don't know, but they fail at times to realize that doing a monumental project like a dissertation does not happen overnight - it takes time, and you may hit some unexpected turns in your findings as you go along, and that needs to be taken into account as well.  If I were an RD, here is how I would approach it - obviously, there needs to be clear questions the research addresses, and there does need to be a basic methodology - these can both change too as the dissertation progresses.  A good RD will understand that and work within that context, thus making the process much less stressful for the person working on the dissertation.  That is one area of contention I have faced, but there is another. 

RDs are often professors and scholars who have done their own research in what are probably unrelated areas.  In my case, my RD has actually written an insightful book on an area of interest he has explored, and it is commendable.  The problem with an RD though is that they are almost trying to inject their interest into yours, and it may not be relevant to your topic.  For instance, if you are dealing (as is the case with my own dissertation) with ideological factors that shaped the Nazis, it is not going to matter so much what the German Protestant Churches during the Third Reich era did to either respond to Nazi policies or adapt to them (which is what my RD wrote his own book on).  There could be areas where it might be an ancillary issue (for instance, Hitler and other leading Nazis couching their propaganda in "Christian" language to appeal to the masses, despite having a more mythological/occultic worldview themselves), but it is not the primary question to answer.  Your RD or faculty chair needs to understand that and perhaps this needs to be addressed if they are causing an issue with it.  I respectfully told mine (and he is a nice guy and capable professor too) that I don't need to be focusing on things not relevant to the question I am addressing, and while he reluctantly accepted it. at least he knows boundaries.  The RD or faculty chair needs to remember that this is your dissertation and not theirs, and they need to let you write it - their job is to help you shape, streamline, and edit so that it can have the necessary revisions incorporated to make it a sound and professional document that could be potentially published.  We always should welcome constructive guidance, but there are boundaries to keep in mind as we do so.  That leads to one further issue.

In doing doctoral research, there is an emphasis on what are called "peer-reviewed sources."  What these entail are academic-level writing that has been vetted and endorsed by leading scholars in the field it addresses, or it has been published and disseminated in a relevant venue.  While there is a certain level of merit to this, and in the past it was probably more valuable, in all honesty today being "peer-reviewed" is overrated in all honesty.  Let's go back to the example of the leisure trip.  In this case, the "peer-reviewed" sources represent direct interstate routes - they will get you there, but you don't have much significance as all you are looking at are multi-lanes and exit signs.  Sometimes, it is good to get off the "exits" and explore a bit, and there are sources one can use which are not "peer-reviewed" but may actually have more value to research.  Some of the authors of these works may be somewhat controversial, or they may be presenting a worldview in their writing, but we cannot outrightly dismiss them.  While we may disagree with their more dialectic approach, often in those types of sources there is to be found a wealth of primary source material that may be valuable to one's own research.  In other words, unless it has some relevance, you don't necessarily cite such non-peer-reviewed sources extensively, but you use them to hunt for other relevant and valuable material.  If one sticks to strictly "peer-reviewed" sources, one will miss out on what could perhaps be new perspectives brought to the proverbial table.  This leads to one other criticism of "peer review" I want to address.

In recent decades, many academic disciplines have been hijacked by political liberalism, and it has tainted their perceptions of scholarship.  Take, for instance, an organization like the Appalachian Studies Association.  One would think that a group like this would love the opportunity to focus on distinctly Appalachian topics, especially when they are proposed by native scholars of the region.  But, in reality, here is what the ASA really is.  The ASA currently is headed by Dr. Rebecca Scott.   Rebecca Scott teaches Sociology at the University of Missouri.  She is a native of California, and she received her Ph.D. in 2007 at the University of California - Santa Cruz.  Her areas of "expertise," according to her profile on the UM website, are "cultural studies, environmental justice, gender, race, and class."  Looking at what she has published, she is a political Leftist, and like many academics she has a bias against conservative values.  In other words, she is not really what represents scholarship in Appalachia. Unlike true Appalachian scholars (such as Dr. Loyal Jones), Rebecca Scott has no connection to the region, did not grow up there, never experienced what people living there have, and she has no clue as to what being authentically Appalachian is all about.  This became evident recently when I submitted a paper to their journal dealing with the history of mining, lumber, and railroad "ghost towns" in the region of West Virginia I grew up in.  I composed this paper as a final project for a research seminar class at my current university, and the professor (who comes from the same area I do) really was impressed and gave me a perfect score on it.  But, I was told by the "eminent" Dr. Scott that my paper was more suited essentially as a travel brochure for a historical society, and it did not meet her criteria for Appalachian topics.  So, what did meet her "criteria??"  Well, for that, let's look at the ASA meeting held this year in Huntington, WV - it featured a "drag show" and some weird papers about racial intersectionality, and the role of lesbian dancers in Nashville or some crap like that.  What is true of the ASA is also now true of other "scholarly" societies in the US - they are largely politically-motivated, cater to "woke" politics, and are largely devoid of actual scholarship. Yet, today when something is "peer-reviewed," these are the "peers" reviewing it.  That is another reason why I don't take "peer-review" as seriously anymore.  Just because something is "peer-reviewed" does not make it a credible source, in other words.  Just read the academic journals of some of these groups and see it for yourself. 

These are just a few insights I wanted to share today about my own experiences in recent months.  I have a busy schedule coming up, as I will be presenting a paper on Our Lady of Gudalupe at a local conference in December, and I also will be finalizing the initial draft of the first five chapters of my dissertation.  I face many other challenges now too, and covet your prayers.  Thank you, and have a nice week ahead. 

Saturday, October 7, 2023

To Sleep is to Dream?

 Last night, I had probably what was one of the craziest dream sequences ever.  It was a series of two dreams.  In the first, it was late-night talkshow personality Greg Gutfeld.  Now, I love Gutfeld's show, and I do watch it regularly, but because I don't have conventional cable television I watch it the next day on Rumble on my TV.  Any rate, Gutfeld is fun to watch, but not something I have as a high priority mark in my life though.  But, last night, I had an odd dream about him that defies logic frankly.  In the dream, I was in Gutfeld's studio with a bunch of other people - the studio bore striking resemblance to a shopping mall corridor.  We were all settling down for a short sleep in this studio, and prior to that, Gutfeld instructs me to wake up in 20 minutes and meet him in the main area.  So, I do, and as it turns out, I was to be married to this beautiful woman that looked a lot like the actress Tiffany Amber Theissen.  I show up though, and I have no pants on!  So, after several delays Gutfeld is officiating at this apparently civil marriage, and then I wake up briefly.  Upon falling back to sleep, I am now dreaming about a class I am taking in the dream on children's literature, and very oddly the teacher - who is on a face-cam on computer (talk about high-tech in dreams!) looks like Nancy Pelosi!  My crazy sequence of dreams led me to write this today, as sort of a continuing series of talks on personal reflection and developing habits for self-help that are sound.  Like the journaling article I wrote recently, these things are all interconnected too, so it is important to view them in that context as well. 

Everyone has dreams at some point - if you don't, then I would question your humanity.  Dreams can be familiar, bizarre, or disturbing, or they can just be pleasant experiences.  All a dream is essentially is your mind at work while you are sleeping - while the rest of your body rests, your brain works to keep everything functioning.  So, what often happens is that a person's dreams are pulled from their thoughts or subconscious memories, and often they are sort of hodgepodged together in a strangely familiar but strangely eclectic mosaic of things which create the dream.  There are reasons people have dreams, and I have concluded based on my own experience that there are three of those:

1. A dream is a coping mechanism for stress.  In life, the more stressed I get, it seems the more vivid my dream cycles get at night.  God did that for a reason, as those dreams do help us to sort of have a mental vacation as we sleep from the mounting pressures we face during our day. 

2. A dream can also carry some significance.  Symbolism in dreams is something worth paying attention to, as it may be God trying to talk to you.  This is especially true if a vivid, specific detail sticks out to you in the dream and you tend to dwell on it.  

3. A dream may also be just a result of eating something that messed with your system.  Those types of dreams can be absolutely bizarre, and also can be nightmares too.  The best remedy for that is to lay off the spicy foods before sleeping. 

Documenting dreams is a very essential practice to cultivate.  As Fr. Pedro Meseguer writes in his book The Secret of Dreams (Fort Collins, CO: Roman Catholic Books, 1996) on page 69, he cites Hervey de Saint-Denis's studies in noting that it is essentially a cultivated discipline to record one's dreams that takes practice and also a special interest in the dreaming to cultivate.  The point here is something we all experience when we wake up in the morning - if we had a dream the night before, it is often forgotten unless we somehow collect the details while they are still fresh in our minds.  This can be a challenge, because not everyone has a notebook and pen beside their bed, and also you have grogginess and a bit of fuzziness in your head until that first cup of coffee kicks in.  Fr. Meseguer recommends recording the dream with the same urgency as if you were trying to memorize a speech - that way, you can capture more details of it to analyze and reflect upon later.  I tend to agree with Fr. Meseguer on this, as if we are not careful we can easily miss things that may be significant in our dreams.  Now, on occasion, after some time down the road you may instantly recall some detail of a dream you had months (and even years) ago.  If that is the case, if you do keep a regular journal, be sure to document it.  These are very practical and common-sense things most of us should be able to do, but it is just the matter of motivation to make it happen. 

Dreams are often dismissed as being too trivial for serious inquiry, even by psychologists as well as religious authorities.  Unfortunately, this has led to the subject of dreams being hijacked by occultists and New Agers, and as a result, any discussion of dreams - in particular dream interpretation - is seen as too esoteric for serious inquiry.  In reality though, the Bible is chock full of examples of where God speaks to people in dreams, and that cannot be dismissed.  The problem is when we try to seek out meanings and we do online research, all we often see are occultic and New Age pages about dream interpretation.  It is the enemy's way of corrupting a good thing by turning it into superstition, and that should not be tolerated.  It will take some work, but seek out more sound sources dealing with dreams, either from Christian sources or even from more secular psychological studies.  Those tend to be balanced and are largely free of occultic nonsense.  

In summary, dreams are good things.  Do not dismiss them as just the result of too much pepperoni on the Friday night pizza you had for dinner.  And, always document those dreams, as there could be something in them that may be a source of revelation or comfort.  Thank you for allowing me to share until next time. 

Monday, October 2, 2023

Allegations and Politics

 As you may have noticed lately, my posts here have been taking on a more political dimension, and with good reasons, of which I will give two.  For one, trends in culture do have a personal dimension - what is happening in the wider culture will affect individuals on a personal level one way or another.  Secondly, it is a practical thing on my part, as over the next few years I am seeking to more or less consolidate three blogs into one, as my doctoral dissertation and other responsibilities are not affording me the opportunity to write as much as I once did.  That being said, let me get into the topic at hand. 

Over the past couple of weeks, two very high-profile individuals - online influencer Andrew Tate and actor Russell Brand - have become targets of sexual scandals.  In recent decades, this has been an effective weapon to wield by certain people against others, especially when it entails discrediting what they say because the powers-that-be disagree with them.  It is a fruit of what we call now "cancel culture," and it is running rampant.  I know very little about either Tate or Brand, except that they are eccentric figures who are saying things that certain people don't agree with, so these certain people are trying to shut them up.  The presumption of guilt or innocence is not even the issue in this instance, but rather the fact that someone obviously is uncomfortable with what people like these guys are saying - by what I have seen of both Andrew Tate and Russell Brand, they tend to talk about the need for men to act like men for instance, and they also have said some other things that resonate with most normal people but the elitists in the major institutions find unsettling because it could be a threat to the power those institutions hold.  Institutions such as the media, Hollywood, the major universities, mega-corporations, and the Federal bureaucratic Kraken that controls our government.  Many of those institutions are in the hands of an elitist group of oligarchs who all think alike, and they have an agenda that seems to be lifted right out of the playbooks of Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World.  We heard it recently when one of these high-profile oligarchs, the sinister-looking Klaus Schwab, declared at a meeting in Davos in Switzerland of the World Economic Forum in so many words what the agenda - they call it "The Great Reset" - entails.  In the creepy German accent he has, Schwab essentially said this "You vill eet zee bugz, you vill live in ze pods, and you vill own NOTHING and be happy!"   While Schwab has all the charisma of a fictional cartoon villain from the 1970s, it must be understood that these guys are dead serious about what they want to do - many of them are multi-billionaires, and they are trying to envision and make a world in their image that the majority of normal human beings would find dystopian.  And, they have many world leaders in their back pockets to experiment with their ideas - I am of the opinion that the whole COVID-19 mess was a test run for what they wanted to do.  Therefore, if anyone stands in the way of their vision of "progress," they must be removed, especially if the offending individual happens to be a high-profile celebrity who dares break from the "herd" as both Tate and Brand have done.  It is one reason also I believe why Donald Trump has been targeted with a virtual litany of indictments, and it is also a reason why one other prominent billionaire who also broke with the "herd," Elon Musk, is a target for destruction.  The powers-that-be do NOT like being challenged for their dystopian fantasies, and they throw their wealth and influence around in order to eliminate any potential threats to the agenda they want to impose on mankind.  One effective means of doing this is sexual misconduct allegations, and that is their weapon of choice against certain celebrities and others who break rank with the accepted narrative. 

I am a regular viewer of Michael Knowles' podcast on The Daily Wire, and in watching that one day last week, Knowles made a very important observation.  He essentially said that the sex allegations really don't mean much in the greater scheme of things, as many of the accusers are guilty of worse stuff in many cases.  Many of these individuals, for instance, had season passes to Epstein Island, and some reports I have heard have suggested that the meeting places of these oligarchs - Davos, the UN headquarters in New York, etc. - often prove to be lucrative business opportunities for the local pimps and pushers, as these billionaire playboys like to indulge in copulation with whores and indulging in copious amounts of mind-altering drugs in the orgies many of them attend.  Despite the fact that they themselves engage in such practices, they are also astute enough to know that most of the general public still is disapproving of these behaviors and activities.  So, what they will often do is encourage their "friends" to indulge in as much sex, alcohol, drugs, and other activities as they want, and as long as they tow the official line no one bats an eye.  But, if one of them breaks ranks, then all of a sudden there are pictures, spurious witnesses, etc., who allege that such an individual took advantage of them with sex and drugs, and this then tarnishes that person's reputation and in turn "cancels" them.  In his book Speechless - Controlling Words, Controlling Minds (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2021), Michael Knowles notes that many of these twenty-first century leftist ideologues get this idea from the writings of Herbert Marcuse, and the premise is rooted in Marcuse's idea that dissenting opinions are somehow "dangerous" and "violent" and therefore are not to be tolerated and disagreement with the established narrative is to be eliminated by any means necessary (Knowles, 64-65).  The effective tactic of doing so, it seems, is to exaggerate charges of "immoral conduct" (despite the fact the accusers are essentially amoralist), and thus in the eyes of a shocked public, it effectively neutralizes any opposition to the agenda.  Brand and Tate are not the first ones to be targeted in this way, as it seems to be a tactic employed over several decades, and even goes back to Saul Alinsky utilizing fake "Klan" outfits to discredit Nixon and other Presidential candidates as "racists."  One other prominent example who parallels Brand in particular is the case of Bill Cosby a few years back, and I want to talk about that now. 

Many of us grew up with Bill Cosby's talents - as a child, I remember the Fat Albert cartoons, in my early days of collecting vintage records I also amassed a good collection of his comedy LPs, which I still enjoy, and in my later teens The Cosby Show was one of the biggest and most popular sitcoms on TV.  Also, there was his marketing of the Jello Pudding Pop, which really did a lot to boost sales.  Cosby was a legend of his time, and honestly, he was a real role model for Black kids in particular as he always communicated positive values to kids in a humorous way.  Now, around the year 2007, Cosby wrote a very insightful book entitled Come on People - On the Path from Victims to Victors (Nashville:  Thomas Nelson, 2007).  One thing Cosby really makes a point driving home is in regard to the situation of young Black males in the US, and on page 25 of the book, he comes out and says this: "It's much more comfortable to have someone to blame other than ourselves. That's just human nature."  Of course, he is right, but in the context he said it, and we see that on pages 46-47:  "But for all the talk of systemic racism and governmental screw-ups, we must look at ourselves and understand our own responsibility."  What Cosby is saying is simply this - we have to stop playing the victim, blaming things that don't exist, and take responsibility for our own actions and own it.  The Political Left hates this mentality, because what it does is it liberates people to be who they should be as individuals and not be stuck in some sort of societal pigeon-hole that blames external factors for something we have the power to change ourselves.   If you want to know the real reason for Cosby being cancelled, there it is - he said something the oligarchs did not like.  This now deserves more reflection. 

Like Russell Brand, who said something similar in regard to men in general, Cosby is not necessarily personally a paragon of perfection.  As a flawed human being, he may have done some stupid and irresponsible things in his younger years - who hasn't?  I think too even Cosby himself would be quick to acknowledge that.  But what happened was almost beyond belief - they more or less soiled Cosby's reputation, stripping away many of his honors he rightly received over the years, and they threw the poor man (who was approaching his 80s) into jail!  Ironically, though, another Bill and his wife were literally getting away with murder on a free pass from their friends at the same time - we are talking about the Clintons.  If there was actually a case for "White privilege" that everyone seems to scream about on the Left, this is it - Bill Cosby was thrown in jail in disgrace due to a lot of stuff that I believe was spurious at best, yet Bill Clinton and Hillary still act corrupt, and God knows how many women Bill Clinton actually molested.  That also doesn't take into account how many "accidental deaths" (Vince Foster, Jeffrey Epstein, etc.) happened to individuals closely associated with the Clintons.  Is that conspiracy theory perhaps?  Maybe, but there are things that just don't calculate. Apparently, to the Leftist elites, a Black actor is not as important to them as a White demagogue who happens to be part of their little elitist club.  Bill Clinton still has his billions of dollars, all his ill-gotten honors, and he is still looked upon as a "statesman."  Yet, what of Bill Cosby??  Ahhh...the classic tale of "Two Bills!" Recently, Cosby was released from jail, and as it turns out, many of the things he was accused of may not actually be true.  Yet, you don't see all the big universities restoring his honorary degrees, nor do you see his career being vindicated either.  As a matter of fact, I find it disturbing that even conservatives among us still presume Cosby's guilt, and I find that unsettling.  Many of those same conservatives basically ignore what Cosby actually said in his book just before all these allegations began to crop up, nor did they listen to a speech he gave just prior to these things surfacing which would immediately cause questions to be raised about the allegations themselves.  I feel that Russell Brand is at least getting a fairer shake, but maybe it is time to re-examine our position on Bill Cosby too based on the same situation.  I think that once responsible conservatives start examining the evidence for themselves (and I would encourage them to read Cosby's book as a start) they will come to a different conclusion about Cosby and maybe stop parroting the talking-points against him which originated largely from the Left yet were gobbled up by lazy conservatives who failed to do their due diligence.  As a professional paralegal, the sloppiness in which many conservatives have adopted the "official" narrative about Bill Cosby would get them fired if they were in my profession.  Crap like that has sent innocent people in the past to the electric chair.  If recent events and the proliferation of this "wokeness" crap taught us anything, it should be that perhaps it is time we exercise some "fact-checking" of our own against established narratives.  We might surprise ourselves. 

Any rate, I just wanted to address this, as you can also read an earlier article a few years back specifically dealing with Cosby for more information.   Have a good week ahead and thank you for allowing me to share.