A chairde —
I had a dandy book
review all planned for this edition, but time got away from me. February is, after all, the shortest month. .
. . Yes, I know that Julius and Augustus took their days from the latter half
of the month, and this is still the first half of the month (at least as of
this writing), but any port (or excuse) in a storm.
Again, I know a lot
must be happening out there, but I’m a little too busy to see it, and not too
many people are sending in material. One
that did was Dr. Sam Nigro, a fellow “Domer” (i.e., Notre Dame alumnus), whose uncle, “Doc” Nigro (who, despite
his nickname, actually did become a physician) was a friend of that famous
Irishman, Knute Rockne.
Since Sam actually
wrote in, I put the notice of his new book in place of a review. If you publish a book, I’ll mention yours,
too.
Beannachtai!
Michael
Disclaimers
Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of
individual authors and may not reflect those of other SIG members or the SIG as
a whole. Nothing in this newsletter
should be taken as an official position of Mensa. Mensa as a whole has no opinions.
You have received this newsletter because you either signed
up for it on the website of the Irish SIG of American Mensa, or it was forwarded to you. If you signed up for the monthly newsletter,
quarterly publications flyer and occasional announcements but no longer wish to
receive them, you may unsubscribe by clicking the link at the end of this
newsletter. If they were forwarded to
you, please notify the person who forwarded them that you do not wish to
receive the newsletter, quarterly publications flyer or occasional
announcements from the Irish SIG.
Permission is hereby given to reproduce material from this
newsletter with proper attribution and credit for personal, educational,
non-profit, and not-for-profit use.
Material in this newsletter remains the property of the contributing
authors. Please assume that the author has retained copyright even if we omit
the “©” notice. Unsigned pieces are usually the work of the Coordinator, and
remain his property. You may print out copies of the newsletter for your
personal use, for free distribution, or for educational purposes as long as
proper attribution is given, and there are no alterations (except to correct
obvious typographical errors).
Submissions are welcome, but read the guidelines in the “About”
section on the website before sending anything.
We will not publish “adult” material, and we interpret that very broadly. There is no payment for published material.
Contents
Announcements
Organization,
Publication and Membership Information
Letters
News and Reports
Articles
Food
Reviews
The Fourth Page
Announcements
As a newsletter, we rely on you to tell us what’s going
on. If you have an announcement for an
upcoming event, please let us know. Just
keep in mind that we try to publish on the 17th of every month, so
get your announcements in at least a few days before that. Otherwise, consider sending it in as a report
or a news item for the subsequent month.
• The Usual Nagging Announcement. We still have a number of subscribers who are
probably wondering why they’re not getting the newsletter. It’s because they haven’t verified their
subscriptions by clicking on the link in the e-mail Google sent to their
specified e-mail address. If you
subscribed but have not received the newsletter (which means you’re visiting
the blog and are reading this there), it’s an easy matter to correct. Enter your e-mail address again, and Google
will send you another verification e-mail.
• We recently had a meeting with some folks from Catholic
Charities in the Archdiocese of New York, where A.O.H. Brother Timothy Dolan
happens to be Cardinal-Archbishop, and the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops. The meeting went very well, and
could lead to some very good things.
• The Colonel John Fitzgerald Division of the Ancient Order
of Hibernians in America in Arlington, Virginia, now meets the third Sunday of
each month at St. Thomas More Cathedral School.
There’s no bar, of course, but the meeting is easier to get to for those
of us who sing at the 11:00 Mass on Sunday at the Cathedral.
Organization, Publication and
Membership Information
What We Are
Litir Scéala an tSIG
Gaelach is the newsletter of the Irish Special Interest Group of American
Mensa, Ltd. More information about the
SIG and this newsletter may be accessed by clicking
on this link.
Resources
We are preparing to put together a list of
resources and organizations that might be useful to our members. Due to the global scope of our readership, we
are trying to limit the list to organizations that extend beyond a purely local
constituency. This is a matter of simple
logistics, due to the immense number of organizations out there. If you’re looking for a local group to get
involved with — and we encourage that — do an internet search. You may be both amazed and pleased at what
you will find. We expect to list resources
as we rebuild our membership, but right now . . . oh, you know the rest.
Who We Are
No new members this month, blah, blah. We have an increasing number of visitors and
casual readers, — no, really — but that’s not going to get the SIG reactivated
officially, however gratifying it may be personally.
Anyway, here’s this month’s membership report:
5 Members of
Mensa
2 Other
1 Institutional
Member
25 Newsletter
Subscribers
33 Total
Circulation (This does not include forwarded newsletters or visitors to the
website who have not signed up for the newsletter — nearly 900 to date.)
Letters
We had a few admin notes back and forth between the
Coordinators, but nothing earth-shaking.
Evidently, none of our members or subscribers have anything to report.
• We’re working on an article/book review of a tome that
shall remain nameless until it gets accepted.
This is in the letters column because someone sent us a copy of the book
after we stated repeatedly we didn’t want to read it. Like we’ve got nothing else to do but read
books that violate the most fundamental precepts of common sense before you get
off page 1? Hint: if you want a
favorable review of a book, don’t manipulate somebody into doing one. It won’t be pretty — especially if the book
really is crap. Dorothy Parker was wrong
. . . in limiting herself merely to throwing books with great force. Some of them should be burned with much
drinking, smoking, and swearing.
• Much more welcome was the news that Guy S., who sent us
the copy of Venerable Fulton Sheen’s God
and Intelligence (1925) — an incredible tome, by the way — is sending us a
treasured copy (to keep, not as a loan!) of Sheen’s Communism and the Conscience of the West (1948). At least I think it’s 1948. Yup. I
checked. I’d say some nice things about
Guy, but he just ticked me off by sending me an e-mail telling me to get back
to work. “Back” to work? I never stopped.
News and Reports
Members of the Irish SIG don’t usually belong only to the
SIG, but to other groups with an Irish orientation as well. This is all to the good — the more society
becomes more social, the better
chance we have of influencing our institutions in a positive way and carrying
out “acts of social justice” aimed at improving the common good for
everybody. We want to encourage your
community participation and then report on local events in which SIG members
took part.
• Recall that last month I got a copy of Venerable Fulton
Sheen’s God and Intelligence. (If you can’t recall, I just mentioned it
again, above.) There’s a foreword by G.
K. Chesterton, which inspired me to reread Chesterton’s The Dumb Ox (1933) and run down rare copies of stuff G. K. wrote
between 1933 and 1936, when he died. I
noticed something interesting. It seems
to me that the warnings about the necessity of using reason and thinking
logically increased dramatically after Chesterton introduced Sheen’s book in
1925. Maybe this was some kind of
warning to “distributists” and “Chestertonians,” many of whom seem to get a
little vague when it comes to logic and reason, becoming very emotional, even a
trifle hysterical if you suggest something that might contradict what they want
to believe. I even had one prominent “Chestertonian”
tell me that I shouldn’t try to understand good ol’ G. K. using reason because he was so poetical. So much for Chesterton’s own thoughts on the
subject. What did he know?
Articles
Feature Article: A “Virginia-Only”
Currency
Two weeks ago (February 6, 2013) an article appeared in the Washington Post about Virginia Delegate
Bob Marshall’s proposal to study the possibility of reinstituting a specie
currency (gold and silver) as a means of stabilizing the money supply and
preventing the growing federal debt from crushing the economy. In light of Ireland’s ongoing financial woes,
this piece can be read with an eye to adapting the concept to Ireland —
naturally. It would be a natural.
Anyway, while we fully sympathize with Mr. Marshall, it’s a
plan that can’t work — and it’s been tried before. If he wants to know how to put things back on
an even keel monetarily, Bob really ought to be talking to Norman Kurland (he
has the phone number) about ways to do what he wants without the potential for
disaster his current proposal embodies.
Why don’t you suggest to Bob that he give Norm a call? Bob’s e-mail is “delegatebobmarshall [at]
hotmail [dot] com. Here’s the letter we
sent him:
Dear Mr. Marshall:
Both as a Certified Public Accountant and a citizen of
Virginia, I have grave reservations about your proposal to institute a “Virginia-only”
currency as reported in today’s Washington
Post.
Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution
prohibits the individual states from creating money: “No State shall . . . Coin
Money [or] emit Bills of Credit.” Much
to the surprise of a number of people, the federal government does not have the
power to create money, either.
The first draft of Article I, Section 8 gave Congress the
power to “emit bills of credit” — the “constitutional” term meaning “create
money,” a bill of credit being, “A bill or promissory note issued by the
government of a state or nation, upon its faith and credit, designed to
circulate in the community as money” (Black’s
Law Dictionary). This had been in
the Articles of Confederation as well.
The power to emit bills of credit was, however, removed
during the debates. This was on the
grounds that it would give the government too much power. With the debacle of the Continental Currency
in very recent memory, the delegates were fully aware that it was much too easy
for a government to abuse the money power, as recent events have demonstrated.
So where does the power to create money reside? As Alexander Hamilton made clear in his Opinion as to the Constitutionality of the
Bank of the United States (1791), and understanding that “money” is broadly
defined as “anything that can be accepted in settlement of a debt” (“everything
that can be transferred in commerce” — Black’s
Law Dictionary), the money power resides in the people.
This is obvious under the 10th Amendment, which
provides, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or
to the people.” Nor does a central bank
infringe on this right per se, as we
can infer from Justice Marshall’s decision in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819).
Until 1863, it was legal in the United States for private
individuals to mint their own coins and, if organized as a bank under state
law, issue banknotes. Due to some
sleight-of-hand by Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase (who wanted to be
president), the federal government figured out a way to circumvent the
Constitution and emit bills of credit to finance the Civil War.
Nevertheless, despite the prohibition against private
individuals and companies minting coins and issuing banknotes, any person,
natural or artificial, who is competent to enter into a contract can still
create money. All money is, in fact, a
contract, just as all contracts are, in a sense, money.
Commercial banks were invented to purchase these contracts
(called “bills of exchange”), using promissory notes issued by the bank. Where these promissory notes were originally
used to back small denomination banknotes used as currency, they now back
demand deposits that function as a currency substitute.
The problem under the current system is that no commercial
bank will purchase a bill of exchange (a process called “discounting” or “rediscounting”)
unless the drawer or maker of the bill is “creditworthy.” To be creditworthy, a borrower (the maker or
drawer of the bill) must have collateral.
A mortgage is secured with the present value of existing
marketable goods and services, while a bill of exchange is secured with the
present value of future marketable
goods and services. Since future
marketable goods and services do not yet exist, a bank requires that the
borrower have other wealth that can be seized in the event the borrower does
not redeem the bill on maturity.
To enable people without collateral (savings) to finance new
capital formation, Louis Kelso proposed that capital credit insurance and
reinsurance be substituted for traditional forms of collateral. If the new capital failed to generate its own
repayment out of future profits, the bank could collect on the insurance policy
instead of seizing other assets belonging to the borrower.
It would thus be much more advantageous for the Commonwealth
within the framework of existing law to foster free enterprise and productive
activity without attempting the questionable expedient of instituting a special
currency for Virginia. Sponsoring
legislation to establish private sector capital credit insurance and
reinsurance companies in Virginia would make it much more financially feasible
and reduce risk significantly for banks to lend so that they can begin
financing new capital formation again.
A capital credit insurance and reinsurance program would
encourage investment in new, broadly owned capital formation, focusing on
current federal law that encourages up to 100% leveraged Employee Stock Ownership
Plans or “ESOPs.”
At present, for example, a Subchapter S corporation that is
100% owned by the workers through an ESOP trust pays no state or federal
corporate income tax. According to
studies reported by the National Center for Employee Ownership in Oakland,
California, worker-owned companies that have profit sharing and participatory
management are significantly more profitable than otherwise comparable
enterprises.
Restricting the capital credit insurance program to
companies that broaden capital ownership would create jobs, create a private
sector asset-backed money supply generated locally through Virginia-based
commercial banks, and increase incomes to secure the independence of
individuals and families.
I urge you to talk to Norman Kurland at your earliest
convenience about structuring a capital credit insurance and reinsurance
program for Virginia.
Yours, etc.
Food
Rice
This is an important one, because it is one of the vital
components to Irish Chicken and Rice (it’s orange, white, and green — sort of)
that is going to be featured one of these days.
You probably already know how to cook rice, but you might try this for
something different.
Ingredients
1-2 Tablespoons of cooking oil. Olive oil is, of course, good, but canola or
even peanut oil should be okay, or any of the others.
A sprinkling of “Hispanic” yellow food coloring. You DON’T want bright yellow food coloring,
but the stuff that looks saffron. (Okay,
that’s misleading when talking to a bunch of Irish. The “saffron” mentioned in the old texts was
actually a bright, daffodil yellow, according to Seamus MacManus, not the shade
we think of as saffron today. For this
dish, you do not want bright yellow.)
1 of those big, soft chicken bullion cubes for a pint, or
homemade defatted chicken broth to that amount.
You know what I mean — Knorr is one brand, but I use the cheaper (and
just as good) “Hispanic” ones.
1 cup long grain rice.
Be careful. Don’t use parboiled,
quick or anything other than plain old long grain. Not short or medium, but long grain. Medium grain is perfect for risotto or
paella, but we’re making something different this month.
2 cups water.
Instructions
Put the water in a pot, put in the bullion cube and the food
coloring (it’s usually a powder), cover, and turn on the heat to high to bring
to a boil.
While waiting for the water to boil, put the oil in a frying
pan and “toast” the rice once the oil gets hot.
It probably won’t turn color, but keep stirring. It should be ready and pretty hot by the time
the water is boiling.
When the water reaches a boil, remove the lid from the pot,
pour the toasted rice into the water (which should start boiling furiously if
the rice was toasted right), put the frying pan back down on the burner (it
should be really hot), reduce the
heat under the rice, give the rice a quick stir, and cover. Set the timer for ten minutes. Once the broth is fully (or almost fully)
absorbed, turn off the heat and let it sit steaming for 10-20 minutes.
I’ve tried this a number of times, and it has always worked
perfectly.
Reviews (Announcement, Really)
This notice should not be taken as necessarily representing
the views of the Irish SIG, the editor of the newsletter, or anybody other than
the author of the announcement — who is also the author of the book. If you want to complain, buy the book and
discuss it with the author. I’m just
glad somebody sent in something for me to publish.
Soul of the Earth
by Samuel Nigro
February 14, 2013
To RE-EDUCATE and RE-CONVERT. . . by really new intellectual
understanding of the Roman Catholic Church and spiritual life, necessary for a
culture which supports and sustains the U. S. Constitution and any “civilization”
worthy of the name. This is an
innovative development that is faithful to Thomistic and Traditional
understanding but contrary to the atheism of contemporary science,
contradictory to the virtueless moral nihilism of the new barbarism, but
co-optive of secular humanism by the introduction of the Flag and Motto of
Mankind.
Soul of the Earth does
this and details why ONE SHOULD BELIEVE in spite of the flood of press &
media barbarisms against Nature and Spirit and in spite of impositions from
traitorous detractors and prurient know-it-alls.
Beginning with eight basic constructs of elementary physics,
matter is spiritualized to the “eight” Last Words of Jesus on the Cross—from
no-religion to salutary-spirituality.
The first chapter cogently refutes atheism. The second chapter ensouls the Anthropic
Principle by a totally new spiritualization of matter into the community
universals, the sacraments, the virtues, the interactional variables of human
relationship, and then metaphorically summarized by the Last Words. The next eight chapters begin with an
elaboration followed by innumerable examples and supportive quotations which
bridge the gap between mind and cosmos and between spirit and quantum
theory. Even “sex” will be de-titillated
and prurience reduced by blunt insights.
Soul of the Earth
is truly a new way of thinking but firmly in concert with science, philosophy,
and theology…It is so new, it will require effort to grasp and process, but
once done, daily spirituality can be readily lived consistent with the well
being of the planet and an unlimited future of Love. And that is what the Roman Catholic Church is
all about.
ISBN13 Hardcover:
978-1-4797-3005-6
ISBN13 Softcover:
978-1-4797-3004-9
ISBN13 e-book: 978-1-4797-3006-3
Order: 888-795-4274
ext. 7879
(I don't know why, but Sam left off the prices. According to the listing on Amazon, it's $34.99 in hardcover, $23.99 in
softcover, and $3.99 in Kindle.)
The Fourth Page
The Geraldines of
Ireland, VIII: “This Man Must Rule All Ireland”
The new Lord Deputy,
Lord Grey, began gathering forces in Wales to put down Kildare
VIII, but the Great Earl still had a strong party supporting him in Ireland.
Now on the bad side of the new Lord Deputy, Kildare’s party openly opposed him.
Grey was supported by the Bishop of Meath and the Chief Justice, Philip
Bermingham. However, when the new Lord Deputy arrived in Dublin, the constable
of Dublin Castle garrisoned the castle against him, broke down its bridge, and
refused to admit him. Sir Roland FitzEustace, the chancellor, absented himself
from the Lord Deputy and deprived him of the use of the Great Seal of Ireland,
while the sheriffs of Dublin and Louth ignored the writs of summons to
Parliament.
In the face of this opposition,
Grey returned to England, and was soon followed by Kildare VIII and virtually
his entire party, who obtained a safe-conduct on the grounds that they were
coming before the king to discuss matters “concerning the peace of the land.”
The result was, in effect, a vindication for Kildare VIII, with him
subsequently appointed Lord Deputy, assuming his duties in mid-1479, and
remaining Lord Deputy, except for brief periods, through numerous changes of
Lord Lieutenant until early into the reign of Henry VIII.
Returning to the southern
Geraldines, in 1484, Richard III, being concerned with the peace of the
kingdom, and, apparently, not quite the monster later painted by the Tudors,
sent Thomas Barrett, Bishop of Annaghdown, as an emissary to the “English
rebels” of the south-west and west, as well as to make peace in Ulster. This
was primarily directed toward James FitzThomas FitzGerald, eighth Earl of
Desmond, whose father (Desmond VII) had been, “estorciously slayne and murdred
by colour of the lawes within Ireland…ayenst alle manhode, reason, and good
conscience.” This olive branch may very well have been the result of Kildare
VIII exerting some influence on behalf of his wronged cousin. The Bishop was
instructed to inform Desmond VIII that his oath of allegiance would be accepted.
As for the unfortunate execution of Desmond’s father, similar things had
happened in England, and His Majesty deplored it and wished to make amends for
the actions undertaken in the name of his royal relatives.
To wean Desmond VIII away from
Irish ways, the king intended to find him a suitable English wife, and he was
to abandon the wearing of “the Irisshe arraye” and put on English clothing
instead. The Bishop was supplied with a wardrobe of gowns, doublets, shirts,
hose, hats and tippets, and, to complete the ensemble, a collar of gold, which
Desmond VIII was to receive when he promised to don Saxon garb. Similar offers
were made to the O’Neill and the O’Donnell, but nothing appears to have come of
any of them, for it was fairly soon after, on August 22, 1485, that Richard was
killed at Bosworth Field as the result of a usurpation by the last (though
extremely tenuous and doubtful) Lancastrian heir, Henry Tudor, now to be known
as Henry VII.
Ireland remained strongly Yorkist,
but Henry VII was very insecure on his throne, and could ill-afford to
antagonize the powerful Norman-Irish lords of the Pale. Kildare VIII continued
on as Lord Deputy, and virtually the only change was the return to favor of the
Butlers, almost the only great family in Ireland to espouse the Lancastrian
cause. Kildare VIII found it politic to marry his second daughter Margaret to
Pierce (“Piers”) Butler, the cousin and heir to the Earldom of Ormond, who
eventually did become the ninth earl. However, the Earl of Kildare was by this
time so powerful that he probably did not need to take this prudent step.
The Great Earl kept court in
all-but-royal state, even issuing coins with his crest on them, normally
considered a prerogative of the sovereign. As these are all somewhat rare, they
were probably issued for propaganda purposes rather than out of any real need
for coinage. That they were all groats (4d) and half groats (2d) bears this
out, as the larger flans made for a better display of the FitzGerald arms and
promoted the issuer. The coins bear no reference to Henry VII, presumably Lord
of Ireland at this time, but those issued in Wexford, a pro-Lancastrian Butler
stronghold, have a tiny “h” below the lowest of the three crowns that make up
the obverse design. This was probably inserted locally, similar to the way in
which an accountant in Canada during the Rebellion of 1837 inserted rebel
symbols (a star and a liberty cap) into the design of the “Bouquet Sous” (1/2d)
bank token issued by the Bank du Peuple of Montreal (and yes, all the spellings
in this sentence are correct).
Such was Kildare’s power and
strength by this time that he even came out of the Lambert Simnel affair
virtually unscathed, even though his own brother took an active part and was
killed at Stoke. The Great Earl continued to hold out, and it was due to Henry’s
obvious need for a strong hand at the helm who was tolerant of, if not
sympathetic to his rule that he is reputed to have said, “since all Ireland
cannot rule this man, this man must rule all Ireland.” He confirmed Gerald “Garret
Mor” FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare, as Lord Deputy, and Kildare VIII proceeded to
manage Ireland and legislate in it as he wished for the rest of his life. To
secure the Great Earl’s support, Henry Tudor even gave him his own sister in
marriage, as his second wife.
While the situation would change
as Henry VII consolidated his power, early in his reign he simply did not have
the strength to deal with powerful Yorkists as he no doubt wished. This was
probably also the reason why even Lambert Simnel’s life was spared, after a
short period of imprisonment. It would have needlessly upset people to execute
a young boy, whom Henry VII was well aware was little more than a dupe of the
Yorkists, as the Tudor was probably the one to have the real Edward murdered in
the tower.
In November, 1491, the Yorkists put forth another pretender,
Perkin Warbeck, whom they asserted was Richard, Duke of York, the other prince
murdered in the Tower by Henry Tudor. Warbeck asked for and obtained the
support of Desmond VIII. He probably also asked for Kildare’s support, but it
is extremely unlikely that he received it. Naturally, however, when the Warbeck
affair was finished, Kildare’s enemies made haste to inform the king that he
had, indeed, offered his support to the pretender. When he found this out, the
Great Earl made immediate representations to the king of his innocence, with
the result that he received a general pardon for himself, as well as pardons
for his cousin Desmond VIII and Desmond’s brothers and others a month later, 10th April 1493. Kildare VIII was temporarily
removed as Lord Deputy, even though he succeeded in his efforts in bringing
Desmond VIII to take the oath of allegiance and give hostages for his good
conduct.
#30#
