I have my own websites, and other blogs. I've always liked Townhall, saw this 'blog' feature, and figured to add my opinion here, as well.

My opinion stems from a base of 'religious' Catholicism, that is, Catholicism as practiced up till Vatican II. I consider the Holy See to be vacant and the recent Popes frauds for saying to orthodox Jews that 'their messiah' has not yet come. Catholics, and Protestants, confess that Jesus Christ was Savior of all, Jew and Gentile, alike. The early Church followed the Messiah. The early Church was composed of Jews who formerly had worshipped at the Temple. And no real Pope would say what these 'popes' are saying. And never mind the wholesale and diabolical changes also made in the name of Ecumenism. It says simply that those calling themselves, Catholic, are heretics and apostates, and would be schismatics were there a valid Pope. They are the Arians that Athanasius confounded by saying - sure, you have the churches, but we, we Catholics, we have the Faith. St. Basil and others also fought the heretics of the 'era of Constantine', so that the real Church emerged, and not one stolen by its enemies. And Athanasius is now remembered as great church father, a great Saint, and one of the Doctors of The Roman Catholic Church.

Politically I'm obviously a Reagan Republican. I understand that Reagan imbided of a militant Protestantism at times, and may have even been more than merely an honorary freemason. He made many mistakes in trusting, but failing to verify, the irony of his famous line not lost on me. Yet of the simple tenets he proscribed, these have worked and conform with the understanding of our founders, who themselves in turning from The Church, studied the worldly empires of the pagan past.

Reagan believed in a government that provided as it ought, particularly for the common defense in ways that this country only embraced really after WW II, not even WW I. He embraced a simple morality ringing in his ears, that homosexuality was destructive and not an 'innocent' or 'victimless crime', for he saw the constant efforts to force acceptance of homosexuality on every sphere of life by the courts and by legislation. He knew permissive abortion was wrong. And he allowed for disagreements on the secular bounds when it came to rape or incest, though such children themselves continue to be innocents. He was the only President to write a pro-life essay while presiding in the Oval Office, quite a change of opinion from his days as CA Gov. not a decade before.

But his principal concern always seemed to be the 'evil empire', particularly the Soviet Union. Reagan was one to believe in freedom. He fought in Grenada, in what might have been far worse had he not - though having won, it became a 'token war'. He wasn't sure about Lebanon, and then with certainty withdrew after the bombing, which he admitted was yet another of his many mistakes.

He was a classic orator, speechwriter, politician. When he died, and a state funeral began, his enemies in the press, among the Democrats and the left, were stunned at the public outpouring for a man whose legacy they were still busy rewriting. Day after day, crowds were seen everywhere. More state leaders from the day appeared to pay their respects than had been anticipated. The last they had remembered from the man was a letter he published, when he spoke about the disease that soon made it difficult for him remember the least thing. The man of the quick comeback, the all-American self-defacing humor, was fading. And it was a most eloquent letter.

So while under no illusions about the man, and seeing all his many failures for what they were, for his trust and failure to verify, for his trust of a Democrat Party that even in the 1980s had proven they did not deserve the public trust with which they are still constantly granted, I am a Roman Catholic, in exile, and a Reagan Republican behind the lines.

And that's where I'm-coming-from.