As founder and artistic director of the ChesterBelloc Drinking and Debating Club, I am proud to note that Mark Shea blogged about our recent meeting, which happened last Friday, on Chesterton’s feast day, in Springfield, Illinois.

The ChesterBelloc Drinking and Debating Club.  I am center in the red Cardinals cap presiding over the Official Sean Dailey Chair.  The Sean Dailey Chair is sedevacant, as Sean Dailey stands beside it next to me.

What Shea does not tell you is that we drunk-dialed him at midnight Central Time.  Except we really weren’t drunk – at least most of us.  Still, we had a fun chat and many of our members got to tell Mark Shea what they really think of him.

We also drunk-dialed Dale Ahqluist, but he was smart enough to let it go to voice mail.

Dale Ahlquist, nobody’s fool when it comes to cell phones

These are the official rules of the ChesterBelloc Drinking and Debating Club, written by me, except for the last one.

1. No sharing.

2. We are trying to discover the truth.

3. Use reason if that faculty exists in you (i.e., women not allowed).

4. If a member says something stupid, the other members are free to correct said member using shame, ridicule, and excoriation.

5. General bitching will not be tolerated, but rational conversation and drunken rambling are encouraged.

6.  There is no rule six.

7. Say, very loudly, “Are you freaking kidding me!?” every time Kevin O’Brien tries to voice an opinion.

The only one all members keep religiously, for some reason, is Number Seven – the only rule I didn’t write.

The ChesterBelloc Drinking and Debating Club Rules have also been adopted for the annual Four Man Feast, in honor of Hilaire Belloc and his book The Four Men.  I don’t recall who made this tablet of wood, though I suspect Mt. Sinai and Moses were somehow involved.  That’s how most rules get to us, you know.

And things went well on Friday, with some members having come from as far away as Philadelphia, nearly 1,000 miles distant.

The only problem is the group was too homogenous.  We all pretty much agreed with one another (despite the drinking), except for one member, who proudly announced that we were fools when it came to Lying.

I don’t see what the problem is.  All you’ve got to do is define what Lying is and then see if the actions of Lila Rose conform to it.

He said.

To which I responded,

That was the first thing we did two-and-a-half years ago when this all began, and people haven’t dropped the fight since.

It’s always fun to see the naive faith in man’s use of reason display itself, when those of us on the internet have long known better.

***

After the CBDDC, I went to Confession and Mass at this beautiful church in rural Pana, Illinois.

And then onward to perform We’re Off to Kill the Wizard with Dorothy (Maria Romine) in even more rural Westervelt, Illinois.
Dorothy on Main Street, Westervelt, Illinois

If anybody is willing to photo-shop a tornado in the background of this picture, you’ll get an invite to the next meeting of the ChesterBelloc Drinking and Debating Club – or the ChesterBelloc Drinking and Debating Club Ladies’ Auxiliary, as the case may be.

As founder and artistic director of both the ChesterBelloc Drinking and Debating Club and its Ladies’ Auxiliary, I have plentipotentiary power and can therefore do whatever I like and people have to obey me.

It’s kind of like being married.  (I wish).