Chris

Chris fell in love with mankind after reading Caesar's "History of the Gallic Wars" in Latin at the age of 8. Chris has since devoted himself to the maxim "Peace Through Pacification". A recipient of the Croix de Guerre, Chris has distinguished himself with Her Majesty's Black Watch Honour Guard, and has ridden in full regalia with the Golden Horde of Inner Mongolia. He is a lifetime member of the NRA. Chris studied engineering so that he could bring rural electrification to central Africa. But first, he had to depose and pacify several recalcitrant warlords. He subsequently gained their trust and became their catechist. Chris completed his medical training and now performs over 500 cleft palate surgeries per year at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He is a founding member of Doctors Giving Orders. Chris started Mazurland Blog in order to further spread the love.

Chris can be reached at Christopher.T.Mazur@valley.net



 Marty

Referred to as "the Ancient One" by his younger siblings, Marty was not born, but rather issued forth. A "Throne and Altar" Catholic, Marty has accommodated himself to muscular Hamiltonian federalism while awaiting the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. Rendered cranky by the state of the world and the unavailability of Balkan Sobranies, Mazurland's choleric curmudgeon nurses his  dyspepsia by proffering sage and sanguine advice to pilgrims to the Comments Pages. At 51, Marty reads at the 53 year old level. As a hobby, Marty has mastered several Finno-Ugric languages. He is an honorary member of the Tallinn Philological Society and is currently working on translations of Pan Tadeusz and La Commedia Divina into Estonian.

Marty can be reached at mxm14@psu.edu .


 Paul

The luminous Paul is the spiritual beacon of Mazurland. Always the seeker, Paul started his spiritual quest as a Shinto acolyte and quickly mastered the way of the Samurai. He became famous throughout Japan for choreographing the epic final battle scene in Hokaido Pieces, Akira Kurosawa's comedy of manners loosely based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. Escaping the bustle of the Tokyo film scene, Paul entered a Buddhist monastery, where he attained satori in record time. Paul became bored with the endless chanting and annoyed by the "haunch etiquette" of some of his fellow monks. He shipped off for Easter Island where, practicing his own brand of Mandala meditation, he in short order became a stone monolith. By lowering his metabolism, Paul is still capable of a dead-on impersonation of a snowman. Paul's personal journey to Damascus was fulfilled through the salvific grace of Christ, our only sure hope.

Paul can be reached at paulmazur@insightbb.com.






 Hank

Hank is a Mazur Brother, separated at birth, and raised on the mean streets of the Riverside section of Buffalo within sight and smell of the roiling waters of the Mighty Niagara. Brotherhood called his name early and often. First the Christian Brothers tried making something of the volatile raw material at their disposal, but soon had to call in the Marines. The Corps remade Hank, who is forever grateful. And so is Mazurland. He was a valued commenter almost from the beginning, but was drafted into full service when Mazurland needed some quality reinforcements. No sooner had he received his orders than Hank stormed our shores and planted his flag. Hank has a take-no-prisoners attitude. But he wears his heart on his sleeve (along with the blood of the last person to cross him) and pens some of the most heartfelt and insightful meditations to appear on Mazurland Blog.

Hank can be reached at kaczmarek@charter.net.



 Ben

Brother Ben is the youngest Mazurland author, but has a long lineage in the opinion racket. Ben was born a tumbledown shack in East Chocktaw, Arkansas. His great-great-great-grandfather Jeremiah Habakkuk Thompson fought for Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812 and was later a frontier judge in Izard County (now Fulton County). His consideration for appointment to the Supreme Court by Jackson was spiked by Jackson’s political opponents when they read Thompson’s legal treatise Taking a Hickory Switch to the US Banking System. Ben’s forbear Andrew “Cracker” Thompson became known as “the most opinionated dadgum feller in Ouachita County”, famously holding forth over a cracker barrel in the Camden General Store. Thompson later started the Pulaski Prairie Picayune, which had a fourteen page editorial section. Ben’s family was also on the frontier of multicultural marriage. In 1879, Garford Thompson married Miriam Morganstern of a prominent East Coast Jewish family. Their firstborn son Schmuel Ben-Thompson formed the Hot Springs Hebrew School, the first Orthodox Jewish seminary in the South. Though the Jewish line of the family has since disappeared, both Ben and his brother Samwell were named in Schmuel’s honor. Ben is mostly self-educated, having been thrown out of his Jesuit high school for out-arguing his teachers. He is a theoretical control systems engineer, a Greek scholar, an inveterate gamer, and is sometimes accused of being a crypto-Catholic in denial. And in his spare time, Ben also holds forth on his other blog. Ben is married to the former Yoanna Flor de la Montaña Matamoros Sánchez-Gómez, a Mexican Grand Champion Fencer, and has two children, Isabella Consuelo Poteet, and Isaac Schmuel Montoya.

Ben can be reached at benjamin.b.thompson@gmail.com.






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