Top ten Pius Blog posts, March 2014: Politics, sex, comic books, music.

At one point, it felt like that my blog's top ten posts changes.  Which is most popular and which aren't.

These are the top ten all time best blogs, as of now.

Sex and Comics?

1.  Who would Captain America Vote For? An election special. (October 29, 2012) Politics has been a major selling point for the blog, it seems.  When I did this blog post in time for the 2012 U.S. Presidential election, I had no idea that it would become so insanely popular. But then again, given the next one on the list, I guess it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise.

2. Sex, DC Comics, and ... wtf? (October 3, 2011) You remember this, right? It seems everyone has read it, probably twice. It was a study of DC Comics and their mistreatment of two of their better female characters. It includes, sex, sex, and more sex. And writing.  This is post is over two and a half years old now, and still going strong. I wonder why ....

For that answer, meet me over at #3...

3  Disasters to Marvel At: A Comic Discussion.  One of the longest-running posts on this list (Nov 8, 2010), and constantly in the top ten, this was a brief look at the past five to six years of Marvel Comics' history of absolute garbage. Looking at the top three, I need to find a way to make my blog about comic books, sex, and politics.

4. Snarky Theology 4: "Things that go boink in the night." See? Sex sells. I just need to find out how I can sell a book over how it's not sexualized. That should be fun.  Anyway, I can credit my friend Jason for this title. I mentioned I wanted the Catholic position on sex. The title was the first thing that leapt to his mind. I guess it worked.  This has been constantly popular since March of 2011. Maybe people are stopping by  JUST for the well thought-out theological discussion on the sexual nature of the human person.

Or sex.

Meet Mandy.
MY "SCF."

5. SFCS -- Strong Female Character Syndrome (August 19, 2013). This is the most recent post on the list, and it surprised me. It amounted to a simple rant of mine in which I ripped someone a new one over her idiotic interpretation of women in films. It had some valid points, but used the worst examples EVER.

I got your strong female characters right here for ya.

6. Self defense review: Zombies, Women's self defense, Barbara Sheehan (10/26/11).  I'm not sure why this one is so popular. All of the links are broken, and can't be fixed.

7. Someone has jumped the shark: women and military scifi (January 23, 2012). Tor, who seems to have become my favorite punching bag, decided to take an open-handed slap to their competition, mostly through libel.

Libel? How so? As in: "Oh, all of THOSE people are sexist, but WE are as pure as the driven snow".... give me a break.

Again, a blog about politics and sex ... sort of.

Maybe I really should find a way to make this blog about sex, politics and comic books.

8. Black Friday blog: Book shopping. On November 15, 2013, I tried to cash in for friends of mine, mostly because I really liked their books, and because people really needed to buy gifts. Books are always useful ... okay, and because I wanted to easily hock my books on twitter. Is that so wrong?  Apparently not, because a LOT of folks have shown up to take a look at this one.

9. Music: the Eye of the Storm: Fenton  This is a bit of a surprise. One part Cruxshadows, and one part killer sheep, this has been up since June 23, 2011 -- when I was going a little nutty on posting everything at once.

10. Writing A Pius Man, Part 5: A Love Story?  Okay, this one I can't explain. At all. I have no idea why people flock to this one. Is it because it's romance? Is it because it's about writing?  Is it because I used to have an amazingly stunning woman on the post? Maybe. 

Sex, politics and comic books. Oy!

So, twas the week after the election, and all through the nation, you had 19-petitions to secede, from places as diverse as Texas to New York, a wave of people want to get the heck away from Barack Obama.

What does that have to do with this blog? Nothing. Nothing at all.  Except for the fact that the top ten blog posts of all time  for A Pius Man has to do with either sex, politics, or comic books.  So, somehow, I have to link up Obama's appearance in Spider Man with the latest sex scandal, and I will have the ultimate blog post -- especially if I have a musical interlude by Two Steps From Hell.

If one is to believe social media, there is no allowing for a middle of the road approach. I have right-wing friends who are somewhat sane-ish (no one I know is completely sane), but some of the left-wingers were so loud for so long with some pretty heavy-duty insults, I had to defriend some of them, and block at least one altogether from Facebook.  There was a "worship Obama and watch only MSNBC" or "you're an evil, right-wing homophobic 1%-er with no human decency, and that goes double if you're Catholic."  And if you're Catholic, you're old-fashioned and stupid.

And after Obama won, it got worse.

And, of course, whenever someone was called out on it -- such as "I hold the belief you're pissed off about, you think I'm evil?" -- the reply of everyone is a standard, "Oh, I don't mean you!"  But after a while, when they make no distinctions between "you" the "friend" and all of those people who are evil for even holding an opinion contrary to their own .... yes, they do mean you. I mean, hell, when they say that you're a threat to humanity, you hate people (women, puppies and Christmas), and you start to get the impression that if a church filled with Catholics were blown up, they would celebrate, and maybe shed a tear or two when they found out you were in it.

After Kathey Giffords was shot by deeply psychotic Jared Loughner, we were all told that rhetoric kills, and we all have to be civil.  Where did that go?

If you're now wondering about my politics, I covered them here, so you can save your disparaging remarks.  Frankly, I'm on the side of civility, and right now, the loud, utterly psychotic ranting is coming from the left side, and I see no one on the left throwing a net over their more insane members. Read through the article on my politics and when I'm no longer being labeled as evil for even having opinions on these topics, then we can talk.

Now, if the current atmosphere keeps up, I'm sure I can get more blog viewers by tacking hard to one political end or the other. I'd rather not, because I like holding onto what sanity I have with both hands, and maybe my teeth.

I'm also sure I can get more readers by introducing sex as a topic more often... but, again, I'd rather not.

And I stopped reading comic books a while ago.

If I do not hear back from Chesterton Press by the end of the year, I will give self-publishing a try on A Pius Man.  It'll take me a while though. So, we'll see what goes on here. And, with any luck, it'll work.   But I'd much rather not. Really, I'd rather not.

I'm out. And I'll talk to you all later. Hopefully, I'll have a topic next time, as opposed to these vague meandering posts that barely have a point.

A little politics, a little chat

My world has gotten a little interesting lately.  I might have another book published, I might get a full time job, I might have .... well, a lot of little things going on.

Normally, I hate discussing politics on the blog, but, since I had my Examiner.com articles yanked out from under me, I figured one post will not go amiss.  especially since my novel, A Pius Man, involves a lot of things that have intersected with the real world as of late -- politics, world affairs, government and religion clashing, that sort of thing.

LOCAL POLITICS
For example, did you see that VP debate? You had two "Catholics" going up against each other.  The quotation marks are mostly for Joe Biden, whose rictus grin and high pitch giggle made the last three incarnations of the Joker seem perfectly reasonable and sane.  One of the issues that came up intersecting politics and faith involved the HHS Mandate.**

Let us ignore that Biden was on "smiling, scoffing jackass" mode that evening.  His general performance is so variable, it's almost like he's schizophrenic.  The one part that makes it relevant to this discussion is where he talks about how he was on the side of the Catholic church "on all social issues," he's such a great Catholic, that over three dozen Catholic institutions have filed suits against the Obama administration, and that's what I noticed several months ago.  Two were dismissed, and about 40 are still active, last time I checked. There seems to be very little middle ground on this-- either the administration is being malevolent, or there is the party of "screw the Catholics, Paul Ryan evil," etc.

But that ignores that Orthodox Rabbis and Southern Baptists have joined with the Church against the government over this thing. Even Chris "tingle up my leg" Matthews compared President Obama to some of the biggest anti-Catholic tyrants in history when the HHS mandate was first announced -- Henry II (who had St. Thomas Beckett killed), Henry VIII (who had St. Thomas More and a few hundred others killed), are just two of them.

Biden's reaction was just to dismiss the entire issue.  And dismiss Ryan. And dismiss pretty much everything Ryan had to say.  Supposedly, Ryan won on points in the debate, but I wonder how Ryan could have won any points since he was interrupted over a hundred times -- 82 times by Biden himself. I have issues with someone who can't even let his opponent finish a thought.

In A Pius Man, I have issues with stuff like that. When governments start dictating to religions, this is a problem.  Consider that this is not the first time that the Obama administration had tried to take over a religion; the Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran church recently had to go up against the EOCC because the EOCC tried to tell Hosanna-Tabor who to hire as a minister. This is actually a tactic the People's Republic of China  has used against the Catholic church.  At least with the PRC, it's dictatorship by committee, like the Soviet Union, in the United States, who exactly does the EOCC answer to?  Oh, that's right, President Obama.

THE MIDDLE EAST
Everyone has probably noticed that there have been some issues in Libya lately. Now, I don't know what's been going on in the State Department lately, what the hell is going on with the security arrangements on the ambassador there, or why there wasn't a marine detachment guarding him, even though ambassadors to Barbados and France have a full, armed marine guard.   The answers given don't make sense, and the stories that have been given are so confused and uncoordinated, it's sort of worrisome.

Now, I fully expect my government to lie to me. It's expected.  Classified information almost requires lies told to the population. I expect my government to lie to me when things are (seriously) in everyone's best interest.  However, the narrative of the Benghazi attack on September 11 has turned into a deranged game of cover your ass, and it looks like the Oval Office versus the State Department are wrestling for the chance to throw each other under the bus.

And, honestly, I can't figure out why any of this is happening in this fashion.  If one part of the administration is going to make an out-and-out lie to the general public, then it should at least coordinate with everyone else so that they all have their stories straight.

When Biden came up with a story that blamed Paul Ryan for cutting $300,000 from the budget, we knew that this had the air of the Mad Hatter's tea party.  In a budget that's measured in the billions every year, a story that goes "we were going to either guard the ambassadors of Barbados and France, or the ambassador to Libya," holds about as much water as your average sieve.

One Democratic acquaintance of mine suggested that President Obama had taken an ambien before the first Presidential debate. Given the response of the entire administration this past month, that seems to summarize everything that's been going on.

Unfortunately, as a writer, I look at everything that's been going on, and all I can think is "damnit, stop stealing my novel" ... long story.  I hope to say "read the book" at some point in the near future, but until then, let's just say that life is starting to imitate art, and I generally don't consider my writing art.

Sadly, if it continues to imitate my book any more, there will be machinegun fire involved.  And explosions.  And a lot of bodies on the deck.





**If you followed my Examiner.com posts when they were still up, you would know that part of Obamacare has a mandate from the department of Health and Human Services that all employers must pay for certain "medical services" -- which means that any religious organization that hires or serves anyone not of that faith must automatically pay for abortions, sterilizations, contraceptives, and other things that multiple religions are morally opposed to.

Month in review, February, 2012. Thank God it's over.

Another month shot to Hell.

So far, this is possibly the most stressful, and the worst month in my recent memory.  It's also involved the most politics, so my bet is that there's a connection there.

My first blog of the month was the review of last month, but the first real article was on making a villain. It's simpler than one might think... and far more complicated.

There looked like there was going to be a problem with my writing .... and I'd like to thank Karina, among others, for their support .... but I managed to struggle through.

I started with a little filler -- a Catholic news roundup in the middle of the month, mainly because there was so much stupidity floating around.  Remember what I said about too much politics?  This was it.

I did an anatomy of a breakup, using one of my own collapsing friendships to illustrate the point. I thought it was appropriate for Valentine's day.  First the initial incident, then the emotional fallout, and then wondering what to do about all the promises made and debts unfulfilled.

Then I went into hiding.

Thankfully, I still had even more articles to summarize, in The War On God.

Music blogs.

This was the month of Lindsey Stirling, really.  She did a beautiful version of Lord of the Rings, and followed it up with one of her own works.  It's quite lovely all around, really.

Self Defense

There were almost no Self Defense posts this month, but they talked me into it.

The How-To Columns of self defense.

There is a local law enforcement seminar, if anyone in New York is interested

And, there's something on how to punch someone.

That's it.  Be well everyone.  By next Monday, I hope to have some good news.  Because in 11 hours and 55 minutes, I'm going to be sending another book off to a publisher. Here's hoping.

Catholic news roundup, February, 2012: the War on God

Yes, I'm back.  And, yup, I picked an overly inflammatory title in an attempt to pander to my audience and get readers. So sue me.

Let me see.  To start with, I already covered a large part of this in my Catholic news roundup two weeks ago.  However, guess what -- I made a news roundup into a news post.  So, if you've ever heard of this stupid little thing called an HHS Mandate involving Obamacare, you can read all about it here.

If you want to be amused, and slightly terrified, after months and months of Occupy Wall Street people running roughshod over public places, you will be happy to know that there have finally been arrests of a whole protest movement.  However, they were arrested for praying in front of the white house.

Let's see.... you've probably heard of a really stupid phrase going around lately called "The war on women."  I covered it a little here.  However, I have a take on the precipitating incident you may find interesting.

And, finally, I was allowed to step AWAY from politics.  I covered Fat Tuesday, FAQs about Lent (last year's readers may remember how well that went over), and Karina Fabian has a book she wants you to look at for lent this year.

And, and interesting article inspired by recent stupidity -- Do Catholics Believe in Birth Control?  The answer is ... sort of.

I also discussed the Million-dollar ripoff of the New York archdiocese -- and you thought the priests were the problem. I then did a brief examination of Occupy wall street and the revenge of the Vatican ninjas -- just when you thought you were safe, huh? Then Proposition 8 was overturned -- my only note there is that it might be a little soon to pop the champagne.

Be well all.

Osama's death. One week later.

If you are sick and tired of listening to anything to do with Osama bin Laden, I recommend my short story from Saturday, "One Way to Stay Out of Jail." It has action, humor, and staying one step ahead of both cops and robbers.  Enjoy.

Now, onto this week ......


As more and more details leak out about Osama bin Laden's death, the situation becomes more, um, interesting.

I will, for the moment, ignore conflicting reports.  One report had Osama using a wife for a human shield. Another said he was simply shot outright, and the wife was still alive. We had help from Pakistan. Pakistan knew nothing about it. Pakistan supports our efforts, Pakistan threatens to blow us out of the sky if we ever do that again .....  One report by Eric Holder said that bin Laden's assassination was in "national self-defense." Bin Laden wasn't olding launch codes to a nuclear arsenal, and, to some accounts, didn't even have a weapon inside the mansion he was living in. If this was "national self defense," it must have been a "preemptive strike."  Or it was simply an assassination. So, we'll see exactly how the details shape up in the long run.


Fun Facts: Assassination

When I say assassination, I don't mean that as a derogatory term. There is a defense in Texas that is known as "he needed killing." I'm relatively good with that idea. I'm going to cry no tears for bin Laden. I personally believe all life is sacred up to the point when one person desecrates that sanctity. I don't care if you call it the code of Hammurabi, justice, revenge, or retribution (meaning "to repay," or "to pay someone what they are owed," or "payback"). My preference, as stated last week, is that we might have taken bin Laden alive. He had intelligence we could have found a use for.

However, I think justice was served. As I noted last week, Osama himself would have been put to death under Koranic law, if some people weren't just using it for their own convenience. And in a modern fashion ... where would we have put him? Solitary confinement in Guantanamo Bay for the rest of his life?  Maybe in general population somewhere in New York ...

Given those options, two to the head is the most merciful anyone could have been to him.

What is odd for me is the general reaction.  While it is not V-AQ day (as opposed to V-E or V-J day), I have the feeling this is as close as we're going to get. There will be no signing of a peace treaty with al-Qaeda, they keep saying as much.  So, the War on Terror will probably end with what's left of al-Qaeda hiding in the mountains in a few more years, and no one will notice.

German's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has taken fire because she was "glad" the mission was a success. Some Europeans castigated her because the attitude wasn't "Christian" -- which is odd coming from a continent that told Pope John Paul II to shove Christianity where the sun don't shine.  And they're obviously ignorant of Christianity, since St. Thomas Aquinas even admitted that there is an argument for tyrannicide. And since Osama was the tyrant of his own little terrorist empire, I'm thinking he qualifies.

Germany's Siegfried Kauder said "I would not have formulated it in that way. Those are thoughts of revenge that one should not harbor. That is from the Middle Ages."  So is Maga Carta, movable type, an a whole bunch of other nifty stuff. Call it the "Dark Ages" all you like, buddy, but ignoring everything that happened from the fall of Rome to Rousseau is to miss a lot of stuff. Then again, he also said it was against international law .... and that the UN should create international law.  When international law is created, Mr. Kauder, get back to us.

Even the Dali Lama said it was okay the nail the bastard.

Fun Facts: Waterboarding.

How many people has the United States waterboarded? With all of the political jabbering, I figured that the CIA must have waterboarded every last person in Guantanamo Bay, and every prisoner in Iraq, Afghanistan, and whoever we could kidnap.

The final number .... Three.  Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.(The CIA says that KSM was waterboarded over 183 times. KSM himself says it was only 12 ... someone's math is screwed up.)


With a little research, I've discovered that nobody of consequence on the Right has argued that waterboarding, or any other form of coercive interrogation, should be even the first recourse in interrogation (or at all with legitimate prisoners of war). It's something in an interrogator’s toolkit for hard-core senior terrorist leaders, that's about it. And when I say nobody of consequence, I mean no one from the head of the RNC, down to friggin Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

The usual critics of waterboarding have insisted that the tradeoffs involved don’t need to be debated, because coercive interrogation never yields any information of any use in any situation....

By waterboarding in 2007, the US got the name of a certain bin Laden courier. It was by following this courier that the US was able to find bin Laden.
So, never say never.

I don't know if you've ever been waterboarded. It's simple. Basically, put yourself into a position where you are upside down, or at least slanted on an angle so you're close enough. Pour water down your nose. Not a lot, maybe an ounce or two. Breathe through your mouth. Congratulations, you've been waterboarded. I've waterboarded myself once, and possibly more than the time and water limit suggested by CIA guidelines. It sucks, but it's not lethal, and there is no possibility of drowning.
Yes, I waterboarded myself for research. I'm a little wierd.

Fun Facts: Iraq.
 
Okay, KSM was waterboarded into getting us the courier who we followed to Osama. Iraq was an utter waste of time ....
 
Umm.....
 
According to Wikileaks, there was a fellow named Hassan Ghul (does anyone else want his first name to be Naz?) who added the final bit of intelligence that led us to the courier, and to Osama.
 
Where did we get this Ghul?  Iraq.
 
Damnit, more politics.
 
I know I'm going to get branded as being a member of some sort of right-wing organization, be it the Taxed Enough Already party, the Republican, the Glenn Beck party, what have you.  I've made my political statement, so you can label me what you will.
 
I am a very traditional person.  You could say I follow the Geneva convention, which states that illegal combatants have no rights.  However, that is a position under the traditional rules of war. Anyone who works for the enemy, who operates in your terrotory, and does not wear a traditional uniform, used to be given the label of "spy," and was eligible for a quick ticket to the afterlife.  And I don't mean a trial, I mean a field execution.  The traditional rules of war made certain everyone played by the rules, because violation meant death.

During the Cold War, we developed the concept of spy swaps. Everyone came home alive. But that was during a non-shooting war, and, somehow, those rules have expanded to every aspect of war.
 
I've been told by people I respect, that the United States is the civilized country, therefore we should give terrorists trials, and all the rights afforded to US citizens under the constitution. Considering that every other country on the planet does not extend their rights to non-citizens, I think that's a little daft, but what the hell.
 
The problem is that we it is a historical oddity to give trials to soldiers for acts of war. War criminals, even in Nazi Germany, were mostly civilians, or operating non-military organizations. We tried people who operated death camps, not soldiers fighting against other soldiers.

Most terrorists are not soldiers. They are illegal combatants. Had the Iraqi army stood and fought during the Iraq war in 2003, they would have fought other soldiers, and no one would have been prosecuted for defense against an incoming army.... unless, of course, they spent their time under Saddam killing unarmed civilians, in which case, they were screwed either way.

But I'm the sort of person who waterboards myself for research, so I'm a different sort of daft.
 
Personally....

Back to bin Laden a moment.
 
Can I at least be glad that we have checked Osama off the "to do list"? My first thought is more a matter of "About bloody time. We got the sucker. Whew."  Can I be glad that he won't be planning anything more? He won't be killing anyone else anytime soon? Assuming he's been doing anything lately? That this is the closest to justice he's ever going to get?

Though I am curious. How much of this exuberance is that he's dead, and how much is V-J day, 2011? How many are under the mistaken impression that his death means the end of every terrorist extremist psycho out there? Because that overblown rhetoric is the real danger. "Osama is dead, the threat is over." If that's the case, reality is going to become most unpleasant.  It's not V-J day. Or V-AQ day. It's a good start, though.

El-Alamein was the middle point of World War II, when things started to look good for the Allies. What Churchill said "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
The end of Osama is not the end. But this may, hopefully, be the beginning of the end.

And, while it will not be V-AQ day for at least a few more years, I suspect this will be the only time to have a party. Osama's death is a milestone. I'd have a party if he was captured. That he is taken off of the chessboard of the war is a reason for partying, no matter the method.

Osama is now a martyr.  But martyrs can't release video tape.

Postscript

Last week Nancy Pelosi credited President George W. Bush for getting Osama bin Laden. 

He was castigated for allowing waterboarding.... It got the name of the courier.

He was castigated for taking his eye off the ball and going into Iraq. It gave the US the "linchpin" to getting close to the courier.

Nancy Pelosi is saying good things about George Bush.... It may be the end of the world.

Catholic Conspiracies II: Revenge of the Vatican Ninjas.

Last week, I mentioned that the vast, massive conspiracy theories about the Catholic Church amuse me. I discussed some specific issues and theories, but I find them all funny, almost no matter the details. Why?
Dear God in Heaven, where do I start?

The theories are so ludicrous, I hardly know where to begin.

SECRET SOCIETIES

One running theme of most of the conspiracy theories is that there is a “conspiracy of silence” running around within the Vatican, the hierarchy, an order, pick one or all. This pops up in almost any fiction where a Catholic priest appears.

Given the news of the last decade, anyone should see an immediate problem. Not only does the Church of Rome write everything down, they never throw anything out. This is a bureaucracy that has held onto the divorce petition from Henry VIII of England, written in the early 16th century.  We've held onto it for nearly five hundred years, and we haven't thrown it out yet.

If there were a conspiracy in the church, there will likely be paperwork to document it, and they'd hold onto it with their dying breath. Bad habit for a conspiracy.

But, the way I look at it, the Vatican is essentially the world's biggest marble office building, complete with Dilberts and the occasional pointy-haired boss … or pointy-hatted boss.

In the current day and age, any bureaucracy can keep a secret for a few years. But two thousand? Really?

Catholic Conspiracies: The Illuminati Polka and the attack of the Vatican Ninjas.

 

I have decided to make this a comedy posting. Why?

Recently, I went looking for a book on one end of the crazy spectrum. The book had been (loosely) based on an episode during World War II, and it was supposed to “prove” that Pope Pius XII could not qualify as “Hitler's Pope.” Instead, this conspiracy theory had Pope Pius XII using the Jesuits to assassinate Adolf Hitler in World War II.

It was called Vatican Assassins.

On the one hand, it really covered an actual incident during the war: where German Generals who wanted to kill Hitler had expressed a desire to use Pius XII as an intermediary. The Generals thought that Pius XII could be a neutral party when talking to the British, laying the groundwork for a truce after they had assassinated Hitler. Obviously, the plan didn't work, since Hitler killed himself years later.

Vatican Ninja, by Matt

On the other hand ... Vatican Ninjas?  Are we serious?

Okay, Vatican Ninjas would be cool, but that's next week....

Or I can show a very well done photo by Matthew Funtime, for extra gratuitous coolness....

As for Vatican Assassins, I had originally stumbled across this work six years ago, when I first researched the entire matter of “Hitler's Pope” for a graduate paper. This was a few months before I even started writing A Pius Man. Perhaps an entire year before the book.

Recently, I wanted a laugh, and I wanted to see if anything had happened with this particular nutjob and his Vatican Ninjas.

So, I put Vatican Assassins into an Amazon search, and then Google …

Oh my dear God, the results I got…