St. Maximos' Hut

I suppose in the midst of Lent, no member of the clergy, particularly overly-excitable priests of the shouthern variety, should be reading things other than spiritual texts. There doesn't, however, seem to be a fasting rule applicable to the American Spectator-at least not yet. So it is that I read a message from a parishioner this morning with this provocative title, and I just had to have a look.
Apparently, Damon Linker who was once an editor at First Things, the neoconservative journal edited by Father Richard John Neuhaus, recently left the magazine, landed a book deal with Random House, and a has cover spot on the New Republic. Linker's new book, called The Theocons, is about "secular America under siege" by people like, well, Richard Neuhaus. According to Linker in the New Republic,

In Neuhaus's view, what was happening in the United States could only be described as "the displacement of a constitutional order by a regime that does not have, will not obtain, and cannot command the consent of the people." Hence the stark and radical options confronting the country, ranging "from noncompliance to resistance to civil disobedience to morally justified revolution."

I always am intrigued by stories of opportunism, particularly those in which folks totally abandon longstanding positions to sell papers (or books). It is an even more attractive read when there is a conspiracy theory involved. This one is a particularly flamboyant example of a species we so commonly encounter here in Washington. Perhaps he shall next run for elective office!
Oh well, in the words of St. Sam Spade in the film the Maltese Falcon, "The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the pattern."
A full exposition of this little bit of self-interest mingled with paranoia, written by Mark Judge, is on-line at www.theamericanprowler.com (Sorry, gang, but the link function isn't working today!)I also am as sure as the sun rises in the morning that Fr. Neuhaus will have a suitably acidic rejoinder.
Now, I'll just return to working on instituting an American theocracy. It's just that it is ever so hard to get the Vatican representatives, Neocons, Bavarian Illuminati and the Trilateralists to agree on a lunch venue, though.
Lenten blessings, y'all!