15 October 2011. Gleanings From My Mailbag…

Editor’s Foreword:

Anything in plain type is me, italics is a correspondent… that’s so that you can keep the players straight in this here game.

BMD

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Of course, I won’t quote you… do I ever? If you love your friends, you’ll protect them. Full stop. That’s the REAL meaning of There’s no greater love than this… it’s not just dying, y’know. He’s trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored… and the phonies are running for the hills! The still has blown up and the samongonshchiki are making themselves SCARCE. In the meantime, the real people are staying watchful and being PATIENT… it’s only just begun. I wonder how many of the konvertsy are going to be left when the dust settles? When it does, it’s only the beginning… the rebuilding is going to take the rest of our lives. It’s EASY to destroy… it takes donkey’s years to build it back up. None of the loudmouths will be left… good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. You can’t go back for every crybaby and mewler. Either get with the programme or get gone, I say.

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I have no “private life” left. It’s why I’m so adamant about defending others’. They’re unscrupulous, nasty, and unrepentant. I’ve glimpsed HELL… and it often wears a riassa. Ponder that one…

They’re unscrupulous, nasty, and unrepentant. What you mean is:

They hate the truth.

Therefore:

They really hate people who tell the truth.

I’m NOT Perfect… but I’ll say this… I’d like to see them “take” a tithe of what I’ve had to deal with over the past six years. I think that they’d be caterwauling about “unfairness”. However, I’ve learnt one thing… it’s a waste of time to argue with those who’ve made up their minds. You or I can do NOTHING. If they won’t listen to Christ and His saints, what would make you think that they’d listen to sinners like us? You light a candle and pray. The night doesn’t last forever…

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Moscow is standing to the side… but a situation can become “over-ripe”… that is, the situation is RIPE for an intervention NOW. All that Moscow has to do is to rip up the Tomos and call all the parishes to union. It’s time for the OCA to die. How many souls have been trampled into the mud so far? My policy is, “Never trust ANYONE affiliated with the OCA. NO ONE”. It’s not a pleasant situation to be in, but I’m not going to run and hide. Bravery is simply refusing to punk out, no matter how much fear you may have (and I do have such… most definitely). You bite back your fear and stay the course. You may not win… you may end up dead… but you won’t end up in obloquy. They’ve forgotten that…

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You said it. Most of the principals in the bad melodrama ensemble that seems to be the Church hierarchy these days simply do NOT behave as though they are managing the temporal/eternal legacy of the risen Christ. When you come right down to it, the legacy of a two-bit bodega would demand more probity and dedication than they’ve exhibited!

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The Republicans destroyed the traditionally-open border to Canada. Why? Canada’s SOCIALIST, that’s why! There’s no American pol like the late Jack Layton… that’s for sure. Was he was an unbeliever? If so, so be it. I can understand why. Some of the nastiest people that I’ve known are priests…

Jack Layton wasn’t an atheist. He was a member of the United Church of Canada, and I believe his dad was a minister. Unlike crackpot US politicians, Canadian politicians keep their personal religious beliefs just that… personal. That’s better than Senator Craig thumping a Bible on Sunday, only to be arrested for attempted sex with another man on Monday.

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There’s one thing for certain… we’re not going to change any minds. There’s nothing more set in stone than a closed mind. Odd… the ones who scream the most about “openness” are the ones with the most stubborn conceits. Crazy, ain’t it… but that’s l’Condition Humaine. They won’t listen until their ship sinks, and some of them, not even then. All that you can do is to save those who will to be saved… the rest… you leave to God and to their fate (for you and I can do nothing of it, sadly enough). …

I prefer good-hearted people with all their errors to phoney poseurs any day of the week. …

I’m flawed… you’re flawed… we can all sit down, laugh, and be HUMAN. You can’t deal with the PERFECT. You can SMELL their condescension a mile away. As for me… I press the “enter” button too quickly all too often… leaving me with this or that to correct. I KNOW that I’m not perfect. That’s what keeps us honest… MISTAKES. Beware the perfect… they know nothing… and learn even less. Ponder that…

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You KNOW how the Church rightwingers are… they simply CAN’T reach any lower. You accept such things, as harsh as they are (surely, you can’t hate… then, they win). So… what else can they do? They’ve aired my past… they’ve made it clear that they think I’m disturbed… what can do they do next? It’s NOT pleasant in the least… but that’s what it takes. My question is… shall others do likewise? Think on that… but the American people’s rejection of the Tea Party haters gives me HOPE… not only for the country, but for the Church too…

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The more that the REAL Church stands to the left… the more the konvertsy turn to the RIGHT. They’re not of us… do you notice how they WON’T listen to His Holiness, and they refuse to acknowledge that people like Fr Vsevolod and Archbishop Mark exist? I know… Fr Vsevolod is friends with THOSE REDS and Bishop Mark is in favour of PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD. Oh… the humanity! A showdown’s coming… and it WON’T be pretty. There’s going to be plenty of blood on the floor… but it has to be done… otherwise, Satan wins. Take heart…. Occupy Wall Street has captured the popular imagination more than the phoney Tea Party ever did. The oligarchs are scared… what do they know that we don’t?

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Remember, you’ll amplify the power of the Green Weenie if you wave the Terrible Towel at the same time! If you don’t have a Terrible Towel, take any bright yellow towel and wave your hands over it, saying:

Seem-seem-salla-beem! Be a Terrible Towel for my team!

That should do the trick…

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Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 15 October 2011

Albany NY

15 October 2011. Some of My Favourite Things… on von Karajan… and What The Assault on His Memory Means for Us

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This is the famous Hungarian March (Rákóczi March) from Part I of Berlioz‘s La damnation de Faust, Op 24 as interpreted by the inimitable Herbert von Karajan leading the Wiener Philharmoniker (I think so… the orchestra’s A is tuned a tad higher). There’s no shilly-shallying about… it’s a MARCH, after all. There are some who want exile Herbert’s memory to the outer darkness because he “collaborated with the Nazis“. Such people should get a life. Von Karajan was a musician… he didn’t participate in the madness. It’s much like Jeff Smith… I still have the Frugal Gourmet books he wrote, and use them. You separate the work from the person. One thing you don’t do is to enact a damnatio memoriae on someone’s memory. Even if someone’s a bastard, their misdeeds contain a lesson for us… therefore… we can’t pretend that Schmemann, Feodosy Lazor, Pierre l’Huillier, and Dmitri Royster didn’t exist. They did exist… their actions existed… we averted our eyes… how many were hurt? No one knows… does anyone care? Am I alone in wondering… WHY? If we continue to lie about these men, we’ll learn less than nothing… we’ll not only do the same things over and again, we’ll be told, “Ignore it… for the good of the Church”. I think it’s time that stopped…

BMD

15 October 2011. Where in the World is Dickie Wood?

You can’t find out anything about Dickie and Velencia? Take heart… NONE of us can. Syosset screams about “openness” and “transparency” (especially Stokoe and his pals)… and THIS is what we get…

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According to oca.org, Dickie Wood is supposedly on a “leave of absence” with no mention of a suspension or any other information. That’s confirmed here. What I hear is that Mel Pleska has washed his hands of the whole banana (not just the Wood saga)… he doesn’t want to be tarred with the same brush as the Chancery Gang (which does include Stokoe… Mark’s nothing but Lyonyo’s internet sock-puppet). Apparently, there’s nothing that Mel can do about Lyonyo’s ambitious little cabal… and he’s stuck between the people and the apparatchiki, taking heat from both ends. It looks like he’s taking “a pox on both of your houses” attitude… we’ll see at the Sobor, won’t we?

As for Dickie… the question’s still open. Is he suspended? Is he in good graces? Is he in charge of the podvorie? If Dickie’s not in charge at the podvorie, who is? Can Dickie serve? Why was there a “leave of absence” in the first place? You’ll note that the other LOA is clearly labelled “for medical reasons”. There’s no mention of a temporary replacement in the “Pastoral Changes”, which is odd. I think that Bishop Mel saw this too, but that he stayed silent to screw the Syosset crowd. In short, this document not only doesn’t answer any of the outstanding questions, it adds a few more as seasoning to it all. If that wasn’t all, not only is the Dickie Wood saga unresolved, Raymond Velencia is still listed as a member of the OCA clergy on oca.org here (scroll down, you’ll see it). I’d say to the Winnipeg magistrate, “You’re a damned fool if you believe ANYTHING coming out of the mouth of ANY OCA clergyman (Velencia was supposedly “released”)”. Note well that a clergyman violated the law (“pastoral confidentiality” is a legal not canonical concept) and the OCA dilly-dallies about doing anything of the situation.

Before we go… Lazar Puhalo posted an impassioned defence of Seraphim Storheim in Stokoe’s comboxes. Puhalo was an uncanonical clergyman who was brought into the OCA as a “retired bishop” by Seraphim (that’s odd in itself). In short… Puhalo’s an “interested party” in legal terms… he and his monastery would be in the “outer darkness” if it weren’t for Storheim (Puhalo was part of the schismatical “Patriarchate of Kiev“). Puhalo’s smarmy attack on Cappy Larsen and Mel Sokoda wasn’t justified. We really have to stop making excuses for abusive clergy… whether they’re child abusers or just abusers of power. How many cases like that of Mme Plas and Kristi Koumentakos must there be until we realise that?

Pass me the jug… the world’s not stopped being crank in the last 24 hours. How much longer, dear Lord?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 15 October 2011

Albany NY

15 October 2011. Do Something CONSTRUCTIVE Tomorrow When JP Has His Booksigning… Put the Power of the Hex of the Big Green Weenie on Him!

Tomorrow, between 14.00 and 15.00 EDT, JP’s going to have a “booksigning” at St Nick’s in the District. It’s going to be St Nick’s Fall Bazaar… you see, he couldn’t get a real-world venue at a Barnes & Noble or a reputable indie bookseller. So… he’s got to use an inhouse event totally under his control. Here’s what you do. Firstly, dye a hot dog or kielbasa green (the latter’s bigger… it’ll have more oomph as a hex). OK… that’s a bit much… wrap it in a green cloth or towel, then. If you live near the District in Virginia, Maryland, or Delaware, drive up to St Nick’s, park for a moment, bring out the Green Weenie, wave it around like a magic wand, and say:

I call down the power of the Big Green Weenie on this misbegotten bishop, all of his moth-eaten works, and all of his cockamamie friends. 

That’s all. Don’t dilute the power of the Green Weenie by being too prolix. Hmm… you can get extra points by waving your Terrible Towel, though. Of course, I’m being humorous (if not bitingly sarcastic and acerbic)… remember, these guys are drop-dead serious about their crackbrained ideas… yes, they DO believe in them, and they want to ram them down our throats. Well… it’s time to show that good Ol’ Time unreconstructed po-nashemu spirit. Our forebears knew how to LAUGH in the face of Hard Times that make today’s crisis look like nothing. These people had grit… they had gumption… they’d kiss a bishop’s hand… then, they’ve give him twenty different kinds of hell in three different languages. It’s time to act like Baba and Dede… and to hell with jerks like John Garvey, John Jillions, George Washburn, and Meletios Webber. It’s time to recapture our heritage… the mines and mills made us STRONG. Let’s NOT act like the bunch of greasy eunuchs in the Chancery.

Here’s a point of practicality. Have your Green Weenie ready for 14.00 EDT tomorrow… that’s 13.00 CDT, 12.00 MDT, and 11.00 PDT. If you can’t make it to the District, wave your Green Weenie at the proper time. Just think of it… a thousand people putting the hex of the Big Green Weenie on Fathausen! We all know what tomorrow’s event really was intended to be… it was to be a small group of like-minded bozos… Darlin’ Marilyn, Freddie M-G, Dreher, Mattingly, Potapov, and some of the Moonie crowd from the Washington Times. THAT’S why you should smile and put the hex of the Green Weenie on ‘em! Oh… after you’re done… kielbasas and hot dogs ARE edible. You know what to do (but don’t you dare put ketchup on it… that’s against everything sacred to God and man).

Y’ never know… it COULD work…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 15 October 2011

Albany NY