Online Audio Books

I may be a little bit behind. I just discovered through one of my many geek resources an online provider for public domain audio books -- LibriVox. With mature search capabilities and a growing selection of books, they cover a wide range of topics. Each book contains a link to the e-text as provided by Gutenberg. The even provide an RSS feed of New Releases.

I am currently downloading The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis. Other interesting finds include P.G. Wodehouse, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare.

This site is a very nice distraction from the rest of the stuff that I normally look at online.

Huckabee for President

Just got an email from the Home School Legal Defense Association's Political Action Committee regarding their endorsement of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

Interesting statistics/views:

• As governor, he was the first to appoint a homeschooler to the Arkansas State Board of Education.


• He is adamantly opposed to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child


• He supports traditional marriage.


• He believes that the Internal Revenue Service should be abolished and replaced with the Fair Tax.


• He believes and is willing to say that Islamic extremism needs to be understood as a theologically driven threat.

Mike on faith and politics:

My faith is my life – it defines me. My faith doesn’t influence my decisions, it drives them. For example, when it comes to the environment, I believe in being a good steward of the earth. I don’t separate my faith from my personal and professional lives.

Mike on the 2nd Amendment:

I was the first Governor in the country to have a concealed handgun license, and of course I’m a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association.

Mike Huckabee sounds like a pretty good guy, with real-life governing experience -- not some wannabe that popped his head out of the Senate.

And best of all, Mike is not a prig:

Huckabee, 51, enjoys playing bass guitar in his rock-n-roll band.

I will definitely be keeping track of Mr. Huckabee throughout the U.S. Presidential Campaign.

Car on Fire

I own a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle. Vehicle Identification Number 371. Great summertime car. Not so great in the winter.

I really, really want to love this car. It is fun to drive, looks great, and sounds like a classic VW. I get honks and waves on the highway, and complete strangers start up conversations at the gas station.

Cecilia

However, I think that I am in an abusive relationship. For everything that I have given her, she continues to spurn my affections to the tune of a $200 fuel line replacement, $1200 engine rebuild, and $100 on tires. She now needs some transmission and/or clutch work done, and so she was parked in the side yard awaiting the proper funding.

And then her engine caught on fire.

Seriously.

While mowing the lawn yesterday, I was going to move the car out onto the street to get the final edging complete. After backing the car out onto the street, I saw flames coming from the engine compartment via the rear-view mirror. I quickly pulled the car into the parking spot, killed the engine, and doused the flames.

So if you are looking for me, I am the one curled up in a little ball on the front lawn, sobbing like a little girl.

CMRI Meltdown?

One of the leading sedevacantist groups in the U.S. is starting to come apart at the seams. Some of the CMRI sisters who do not hold to the sede position are "forcibly resigning" (my term) from the Congregation.

A representative of the Spokane Diocese recently forwarded to them the attached letter. In it, Fr. Barnett addresses the issue of sede vacantism and the impossibility of its resolution:

First, there is no mechanism for the valid election of a successor to Peter. I [Fr. Barnett] was told by Fr. Casimir that, as the Church has always advanced throughout the world by means of miracles (cf. St. Augustine), we must pray for a miracle by which a Pope would be made known to us. In other words, we are to pray that the visible structure of the Church be restored by means of a miracle which requires circumventing those very structures. Thus, an invisible, extra-sacramental miracle is required to restore the visible, sacramental structure of the Church! It is a supreme irony that the possibility and desirability of such an invisible Church is the very position of the Protestants against which St. Charles Borromeo argued so strongly in the Catholic Reformation. Yet that is the basis of the theological position to which you [the Sisters of the CMRI] are asked to subscribe
...
But there is a deeper and more dangerous reason the the Apostolic See will remain vacant if you profess the sede vacantist position: no Pope is possible because no Pope will be accepted. In reality, the Apostolic See will and must remain vacant until Bishop Pivarunas decides that it is occupied. Without a Pope, he is autocephalous, and remains the highest authority in the Church.
...
Third, no Pope is possible for the CMRI because sede vacantism is based upon a fundamentally Protestant premise. It is based upon the false notion that an individual person has the power of the Magisterium to decide how to interpret Scripture and Tradition. This is the exact position taken by most Protestants, who retain the "right" to interpret Scripture according to their own standards. Such a premise is also an inherent component of the secular and modernist thinking so rampant today.

Even Bishop Terence Fulham agrees.

A defining quote from Bishop Mark Pivarunas:

Our Congregation's very existence is based on the vacancy of the Apostolic See.

The Domestic Monastery

Later this month, my wife will be attending the 8th Annual Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educators Conference in Denver, Colorado. While making plans for her attendance, I noticed that Kelly Roper will be presenting the concept of the Domestic Monastery.

Since becoming interested in Benedictinism over 10 years ago and reading the Rule of St. Benedict, I have often thought of adapting the Rule to a "Rule for Families". Obviously, I am not the first to have considered this. Without getting into too many specifics, many other writers have drawn comparisons between the Benedictine Order and the Restoration of Christendom. The concept of the Domestic Monastery works at restoring the very building blocks of civilization -- the family.

My wife will be returning with a recording of Mrs. Roper's talk. I will post copious thoughts and impressions at that time.