They have a precious item that is there, but it is not the true Ark.
Solomon had an item made to give Menelik to take back to Ethiopia. This item was to be acknowledgement of his relationship and of the faith of the Israelites. Solomon later had drifted from stern adherence to obedience to God through his fascination with pagan wives. The creation of the Ark like but not Ark actual object for Menelik was the beginning of his drifting from solid theology and obedience to God. So the object was Solomon's creation as a type of copy to give to this son of his as an object of veneration and a way to "evangelize" the faith of the Israelites. The Qur'an even has a mention of Solomon doing metallurgy crafts that tapped not so holy sources, so Solomon veered from wisdom even as "trying" to still be the consecrated King of the Israelites. He therefore saw nothing wrong with making an ark like copy to give to his son to take back to Ethiopia and that is what exists to this day. The true Ark would never have been allowed to leave, either by Solomon or by God. The Ark left only when Israel fell.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
An old pagan saying
"Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first drive insane."
This was a common world view during pagan Roman times, and it is coming true with a vengeance in modern times. Pagans did not believe in one true good God, the deity, as was revealed to the Israelites. Pagans believed in individual "gods" with human faults and pettiness, quarreling and vengeful, who parceled up the world by human "traits." It seems unbelievably foolish when you read what I just wrote that humans, who by then had invented architecture, geometry, literature, early medicine, animal husbandry and advanced civilizations, could believe that there were supernatural beings who could be distinguished only by what greed or gluttony they were pursuing at the time. Even the goddess of "wisdom" was violent and hung up about her looks. How ignorant could humans be? And yet as people reject the traditional faiths that teach the one God, they increasingly nominate the most hideous of their own qualities to be the "new gods" that they worship. And as each generation becomes more and more convinced in this new age pagan pantheon of modern life, they are driving themselves insane, with painful and violent results.
Shall I list for you the new age gods whose worship is driving you all to violent insanity?
o Overachieving workplace stress
o "Entertainment"
o Pseudo identities on the Internet
o Inflated egos derived from your power of media
o "Hooking up"
o Addictions, all and sundry
o Pornography
o Belief in the hypothetical power of the devil but not in the real power of God
o Broken families
o Children as accessories
o Abortion
o "Real life" "entertainment"
o Making other people look stupid
o Making other people look ugly
o Making yourself look "enlightened"
o Making other people look "un-enlightened"
o Food nazis
o Excessive chemicals in foods
o Caring only about your neighbor's dirty underwear
o Demented attitudes toward human sewage
o Occult activities
o Obsession with the future and end of times
and the greatest of the lesser god new age pantheon of all:
o Stalking
I really despair that you will ever find your way back to sanity and decency. So long as you worship the gods who wish to destroy you, they will, they will indeed, for you have made them and given them the power to drive you insane.
This was a common world view during pagan Roman times, and it is coming true with a vengeance in modern times. Pagans did not believe in one true good God, the deity, as was revealed to the Israelites. Pagans believed in individual "gods" with human faults and pettiness, quarreling and vengeful, who parceled up the world by human "traits." It seems unbelievably foolish when you read what I just wrote that humans, who by then had invented architecture, geometry, literature, early medicine, animal husbandry and advanced civilizations, could believe that there were supernatural beings who could be distinguished only by what greed or gluttony they were pursuing at the time. Even the goddess of "wisdom" was violent and hung up about her looks. How ignorant could humans be? And yet as people reject the traditional faiths that teach the one God, they increasingly nominate the most hideous of their own qualities to be the "new gods" that they worship. And as each generation becomes more and more convinced in this new age pagan pantheon of modern life, they are driving themselves insane, with painful and violent results.
Shall I list for you the new age gods whose worship is driving you all to violent insanity?
o Overachieving workplace stress
o "Entertainment"
o Pseudo identities on the Internet
o Inflated egos derived from your power of media
o "Hooking up"
o Addictions, all and sundry
o Pornography
o Belief in the hypothetical power of the devil but not in the real power of God
o Broken families
o Children as accessories
o Abortion
o "Real life" "entertainment"
o Making other people look stupid
o Making other people look ugly
o Making yourself look "enlightened"
o Making other people look "un-enlightened"
o Food nazis
o Excessive chemicals in foods
o Caring only about your neighbor's dirty underwear
o Demented attitudes toward human sewage
o Occult activities
o Obsession with the future and end of times
and the greatest of the lesser god new age pantheon of all:
o Stalking
I really despair that you will ever find your way back to sanity and decency. So long as you worship the gods who wish to destroy you, they will, they will indeed, for you have made them and given them the power to drive you insane.
Sad brave story raises baby transplant awareness
When a baby dies it is heartbreaking, I know. But this story raises awareness that if bereaved parents can be courageous and give permission for organ donation, another baby's life can be saved. This story is of a baby, born to a widow, who died before he could get a transplant. Prayers for comfort to the mother and all her extended family.
http://www.sbsun.com/ci_9421767?source=most_viewed
snip
Baby dies while waiting for heart
Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 05/29/2008 08:58:27 PM PDT
The family of Jared Donald Magnus knew he could never be a football player, but they hoped the baby who was born with a fatal heart condition would at least get the opportunity to grow up.
That hope was shattered when the baby's organs gave out May 18 at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.
He was 10 weeks and 2 days old.
Jared was born March 7 to Denise Magnus, of Rancho Cucamonga, a widow whose husband died in a workplace accident.
http://www.sbsun.com/ci_9421767?source=most_viewed
snip
Baby dies while waiting for heart
Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 05/29/2008 08:58:27 PM PDT
The family of Jared Donald Magnus knew he could never be a football player, but they hoped the baby who was born with a fatal heart condition would at least get the opportunity to grow up.
That hope was shattered when the baby's organs gave out May 18 at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.
He was 10 weeks and 2 days old.
Jared was born March 7 to Denise Magnus, of Rancho Cucamonga, a widow whose husband died in a workplace accident.
3 small children, baby knifed, 2 dead
What is the mentality of someone who stabs to death a 5 year old, a 4 year old and a six month old baby who may die of its wounds too? Decades ago these things just did not happen and now they are just another daily paragraph in recording the disintegration of humanity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7428946.stm
snip
Two children have died and a baby remains in a critical condition after what police believe was a knife attack.
Officers were called at 2230 BST on Friday to Carshalton, south London.
A five-year-old boy, a girl aged four and a six-month-old girl were rushed to hospital with suspected stab wounds. The older boy and girl later died.
A 39-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman were arrested at the scene and taken to separate south London police stations for questioning.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7428946.stm
snip
Two children have died and a baby remains in a critical condition after what police believe was a knife attack.
Officers were called at 2230 BST on Friday to Carshalton, south London.
A five-year-old boy, a girl aged four and a six-month-old girl were rushed to hospital with suspected stab wounds. The older boy and girl later died.
A 39-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman were arrested at the scene and taken to separate south London police stations for questioning.
Pope supposed to allow disruptive ill kids in Mass
Are you serious? This is a local affair if a child who is disruptive to the point of danger is in any public gathering, church or not.
Some people have too much time on their hands to try to attack the Pope and the institution rather than actually doing their jobs in mental health.
It is very cynical to use the holy Sacrifice of the Mass to grandstand your personal causes, like autism.
http://www.huliq.com/60734/039act-autism039-appeal-pope-benedict-xvi-after-bertha-church-autism-ban
snip
Pope Benedict XVI has been urged to act on autism after Adam Race, a 13 year old boy with severe autism was banned from the Roman Catholic Church of St.Joseph in Bertha, Minnesota by his priest Fr.Daniel Walz. According to court documents, Fr. Daniel Walz took out a temporary restraining order on the boy with autism and his mother Carol Race on the grounds of disruptive behaviour.' They were threatened with arrest by the Sheriff of Todd County if they entered the church for Mass.
Campaigners are now calling on the Vatican to provide guidelines to all Roman Catholic Churches around the world on how the clergy and church authorities should react to children and adults with autism and Asperger's syndrome.
***
How about not using your child's mental condition and suffering? What do you think a child who is in pain and disruptive is "getting" from the Mass anyway?
I'd not expect the church to provide pain meds for post operative patients to be wheeled into Mass from the hospital every Sunday either.
Grow up.
Some people have too much time on their hands to try to attack the Pope and the institution rather than actually doing their jobs in mental health.
It is very cynical to use the holy Sacrifice of the Mass to grandstand your personal causes, like autism.
http://www.huliq.com/60734/039act-autism039-appeal-pope-benedict-xvi-after-bertha-church-autism-ban
snip
Pope Benedict XVI has been urged to act on autism after Adam Race, a 13 year old boy with severe autism was banned from the Roman Catholic Church of St.Joseph in Bertha, Minnesota by his priest Fr.Daniel Walz. According to court documents, Fr. Daniel Walz took out a temporary restraining order on the boy with autism and his mother Carol Race on the grounds of disruptive behaviour.' They were threatened with arrest by the Sheriff of Todd County if they entered the church for Mass.
Campaigners are now calling on the Vatican to provide guidelines to all Roman Catholic Churches around the world on how the clergy and church authorities should react to children and adults with autism and Asperger's syndrome.
***
How about not using your child's mental condition and suffering? What do you think a child who is in pain and disruptive is "getting" from the Mass anyway?
I'd not expect the church to provide pain meds for post operative patients to be wheeled into Mass from the hospital every Sunday either.
Grow up.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Aussies blame Pope for "possible" hunger
And the bull crap continues. Rather than report on how security reasons require a change in food for homeless programs the headline trumpets it like there is a direct correlation between the Pope visiting and "The Homeless Going Hungry" by implication.
Your hostility and stupidity is unbecoming and distracting from real social issues and solutions that everyone can agree upon.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=572000
Your hostility and stupidity is unbecoming and distracting from real social issues and solutions that everyone can agree upon.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=572000
Aussie Jews think Pope makes them look bad
Sometimes I cannot believe what I am reading.
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/108842.html
snip
A procession planned during a visit by Pope Benedict XVI could incite anti-Semitism, Australian Jewish leaders warned. Roman Catholic officials in Sydney already have cut back a Stations of the Cross procession to be staged during the pope's visit in July, from 14 stations to eight, but one segment still raises concerns, according to Vic Alhadeff, the director of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies. It is the third station, where Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin, the ancient Jewish tribunal.
"We are concerned at how this scene will be dramatized if it is to be retained," Alhadeff said after a May 20 board resolution expressed disappointment at its inclusion. "The historical and biblical questions surrounding the notion that there was a formal Sanhedrin trial argue for extreme caution and, perhaps, even abandoning the device," the resolution said.
A spokesman for the procession's organizers said that "we've accommodated them [the Jews] where appropriate, but we’re unable to change the New Testament. Ultimately, we’re acknowledging that Christ was crucified for and by all sinners."
***
How about removing the beam from your own eye?
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/108842.html
snip
A procession planned during a visit by Pope Benedict XVI could incite anti-Semitism, Australian Jewish leaders warned. Roman Catholic officials in Sydney already have cut back a Stations of the Cross procession to be staged during the pope's visit in July, from 14 stations to eight, but one segment still raises concerns, according to Vic Alhadeff, the director of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies. It is the third station, where Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin, the ancient Jewish tribunal.
"We are concerned at how this scene will be dramatized if it is to be retained," Alhadeff said after a May 20 board resolution expressed disappointment at its inclusion. "The historical and biblical questions surrounding the notion that there was a formal Sanhedrin trial argue for extreme caution and, perhaps, even abandoning the device," the resolution said.
A spokesman for the procession's organizers said that "we've accommodated them [the Jews] where appropriate, but we’re unable to change the New Testament. Ultimately, we’re acknowledging that Christ was crucified for and by all sinners."
***
How about removing the beam from your own eye?
Great Muslim commentary about Moses and God
This is one of many enjoyable commentaries that I have read on the Arab News website. This one is particularly instructive for Christians because you can see first hand that the Qur'an contains much information that is in the Christian Old Testament. The passages from the Qur'an quoted here cover the part where Moses asks for strength from God before going to Pharoah to challenge him to stop persecuting the Israelites and to free them.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=5§ion=0&article=110392&d=31&m=5&y=2008&pix=islam.jpg&category=Islam
The commentary is a very nice example of how God encourages his prophets.
This is one reason I despair of Christians who are hostile to the Qur'an and Islam in general. Here is much information about both the Israelites and Christians, and God's work among them, which is the great commonality among the faiths of Abraham. When people mock or harm the Qur'an they are harming words about Jesus, Mary, Moses and the other holy people too.
\facepalm/
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=5§ion=0&article=110392&d=31&m=5&y=2008&pix=islam.jpg&category=Islam
The commentary is a very nice example of how God encourages his prophets.
This is one reason I despair of Christians who are hostile to the Qur'an and Islam in general. Here is much information about both the Israelites and Christians, and God's work among them, which is the great commonality among the faiths of Abraham. When people mock or harm the Qur'an they are harming words about Jesus, Mary, Moses and the other holy people too.
\facepalm/
Iran press report of mango grower saves species
The Iranian press has this article about a man in India who uses a mango tree to support the continuation of 300 species of mango fruit, some of which are endangered or no longer found outside of his tree. So many times saving a crucial part of the environment falls on a single man or woman's shoulders. What a great story and I hope he finds much success.
http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0805300168201932.htm
http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0805300168201932.htm
In the field report from China by priest
This is also a very good report, giving details about Catholic survivors and those who perished, but most importantly how recovery efforts are proceeding. Notice the great contribution by nuns. Reading between the lines you can see how the Chinese government is doing a great job at getting food, water and medical care to survivors, and that nursing of their spiritual and emotional wounds are the priorities of the Catholics. You can also read how the tent donations that Catholics received were given by the Catholics to mostly non-Catholics. I'm really proud of them all.
http://www.ucanews.com/html/ucan/f_dishpatch.asp?title=%20%20Parish%20Assesses%20Human%20Cost%20From%20Quake%20As%20Catholics%20Continue%20To%20Serve%20Suvivors&ucalang=English_../news_report/english/2008/05/w5/fri/CH05086Rg.txt
http://www.ucanews.com/html/ucan/f_dishpatch.asp?title=%20%20Parish%20Assesses%20Human%20Cost%20From%20Quake%20As%20Catholics%20Continue%20To%20Serve%20Suvivors&ucalang=English_../news_report/english/2008/05/w5/fri/CH05086Rg.txt
In the field report from Myanmar by Catholic
Here is a very interesting, detailed and cautiously hopeful look at how Burmese Catholics are working to try to rebuild and help the survivors of the cyclone by a Catholic lady social worker who is a local.
http://www.ucanews.com/html/ucan/f_dishpatch.asp?title=%20%20Church%20Village%20Networks%20Help%20Church%20Relief%20Effort,%20Claims%20Social%20Worker&ucalang=English_../news_report/english/2008/05/w5/fri/MY05091Rg.txt
http://www.ucanews.com/html/ucan/f_dishpatch.asp?title=%20%20Church%20Village%20Networks%20Help%20Church%20Relief%20Effort,%20Claims%20Social%20Worker&ucalang=English_../news_report/english/2008/05/w5/fri/MY05091Rg.txt
Homeland security denies priest green card
He is an Irish priest who has ministered for years in a poor, rural area of South Dakota and the US government has denied him a green card, despite Senator Thune's request for intercession.
In a nutshell, this shows how messed up are the priorities of this government. Only the mendacity of it surprises me. I feel so bad for the parishioners who know they are blessed to have had such a quality priest guide their flock.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802933.htm
In a nutshell, this shows how messed up are the priorities of this government. Only the mendacity of it surprises me. I feel so bad for the parishioners who know they are blessed to have had such a quality priest guide their flock.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802933.htm
A nice memorial to a local TV weather pioneer
TV weatherman Bobby Nelson of Wisconsin has passed away at the age of 82. I came across the notice and a really sweet video tribute to him by WBAY, his station:
http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=8391095
***
He started broadcasting in 1953. Look at him; now that's the type of guy I remember from the 1950's and 1960's. Open faced and happy, you felt good just listening to this type of man. The video about him is also great because it shows how rudimentary TV was in those days and how yet it seemed so wonderful and full of information and contact. I have to smile too because they make a lot of his short height yet he was the exact same height (and weight I reckon) that my WWII paratrooper dad was while on active service. Anyway, I thought this was a really nice tribute and I thought I'd point out how interesting it is to read about good people, even if it's in their obituaries and memorials. Condolences to his family.
http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=8391095
***
He started broadcasting in 1953. Look at him; now that's the type of guy I remember from the 1950's and 1960's. Open faced and happy, you felt good just listening to this type of man. The video about him is also great because it shows how rudimentary TV was in those days and how yet it seemed so wonderful and full of information and contact. I have to smile too because they make a lot of his short height yet he was the exact same height (and weight I reckon) that my WWII paratrooper dad was while on active service. Anyway, I thought this was a really nice tribute and I thought I'd point out how interesting it is to read about good people, even if it's in their obituaries and memorials. Condolences to his family.
Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 19: 1-13
This passage of direct instruction by God should be food for thought for everyone. It is especially useful in having a more sophisticated view of the death penalty, vengeance, and God's mercy.
"When the Lord, your God, removes the nations whose land he is giving you, and you have taken their place and are settled in their cities and houses, you shall set apart three cities in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you to occupy. You shall thereby divide into three regions the land which the Lord, your God, will give you as a heritage, and so arrange the routes that every homicide will be able to find a refuge.
"It is in the following case that a homicide may take refuge in such a place to save his life: when someone unwittingly kills his neighbor to whom he had previously borne no malice. For example, if he goes with his neighbor to a forest to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, its head flies off the handle and hits his neighbor a mortal blow, he may take refuge in one of these cities to save his life. Should the distance be too great, the avenger of blood may in the heat of his anger pursue the homicide and overtake him and strike him dead, even though he does not merit death since he had previously borne the slain man no malice. This is why I order you to set apart three cities.
"But if the Lord, your God, enlarges your territory, as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised your fathers he would give, in the event that you carefully observe all these commandments which I enjoin on you today, loving the Lord, your God, and ever walking in his ways: then add three cities to these three. Thus, in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you as a heritage, innocent blood will not be shed and you will not become guilty of bloodshed.
"However, if someone lies in wait for his neighbor out of hatred for him, and rising up against him, strikes him mortally, and then takes refuge in one of these cities, the elders of his own city shall send for him and have him taken from there, and shall hand him over to be slain by the avenger of blood. Do not look upon him with pity, but purge from Israel the stain of shedding innocent blood, that you may prosper."
***
The Lord, in his wisdom and mercy, taught humans how to recognize the need for and designate refuge cities for correct situations of mercy. Notice, however, that the Lord says grace to prosper and have these cities only comes to those who love him and follow his word. (This is because the Lord is teaching that Israel will add lands to itself only in proportion to their obedience to God and goodness, and that a proportion of these lands shall be added with each acquisition to the number of refuge cities as a type of tithing, where a number is added as new lands are gained).
Further the Lord is very clear that those who stalk and harm neighbors shall receive no mercy and cannot use refuge cities to hide from the consequences of their deliberate and cynical hate and harm of neighbor. Cyberstalkers? Paying attention to this? Who says the Bible is not clear about modern day sins and crimes.
"When the Lord, your God, removes the nations whose land he is giving you, and you have taken their place and are settled in their cities and houses, you shall set apart three cities in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you to occupy. You shall thereby divide into three regions the land which the Lord, your God, will give you as a heritage, and so arrange the routes that every homicide will be able to find a refuge.
"It is in the following case that a homicide may take refuge in such a place to save his life: when someone unwittingly kills his neighbor to whom he had previously borne no malice. For example, if he goes with his neighbor to a forest to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, its head flies off the handle and hits his neighbor a mortal blow, he may take refuge in one of these cities to save his life. Should the distance be too great, the avenger of blood may in the heat of his anger pursue the homicide and overtake him and strike him dead, even though he does not merit death since he had previously borne the slain man no malice. This is why I order you to set apart three cities.
"But if the Lord, your God, enlarges your territory, as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised your fathers he would give, in the event that you carefully observe all these commandments which I enjoin on you today, loving the Lord, your God, and ever walking in his ways: then add three cities to these three. Thus, in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you as a heritage, innocent blood will not be shed and you will not become guilty of bloodshed.
"However, if someone lies in wait for his neighbor out of hatred for him, and rising up against him, strikes him mortally, and then takes refuge in one of these cities, the elders of his own city shall send for him and have him taken from there, and shall hand him over to be slain by the avenger of blood. Do not look upon him with pity, but purge from Israel the stain of shedding innocent blood, that you may prosper."
***
The Lord, in his wisdom and mercy, taught humans how to recognize the need for and designate refuge cities for correct situations of mercy. Notice, however, that the Lord says grace to prosper and have these cities only comes to those who love him and follow his word. (This is because the Lord is teaching that Israel will add lands to itself only in proportion to their obedience to God and goodness, and that a proportion of these lands shall be added with each acquisition to the number of refuge cities as a type of tithing, where a number is added as new lands are gained).
Further the Lord is very clear that those who stalk and harm neighbors shall receive no mercy and cannot use refuge cities to hide from the consequences of their deliberate and cynical hate and harm of neighbor. Cyberstalkers? Paying attention to this? Who says the Bible is not clear about modern day sins and crimes.
Misconceptions about Christian evangelizing
At this time I'm not going to write a scholarly blog posting with all the pertinent scripture quotes, though I might at some point. But from the news articles I see I need to get some quick talking points out because there is a lot of damage out there due to misconceptions about the exhortations to evangelize (and by implication, work toward conversions).
o Remember that Jesus himself came only to preach to the Jews. He states this clearly when a petitioner who was not Jewish had to beg/debate with him to get him to perform a miracle on behalf of her child. Jesus himself, so far as evangelizing and converting, was here only to work among the Jews. This was his role as the Messiah.
o The second role of Jesus was that of Savior. This was to found the Christian church that would be the foundation of the New Covenant with God. The New Covenant overlays the Old Covenant; it does not dispose of it. This is obvious because Jesus and the Apostles frequently quote what Christians now call the Old Testament. Therefore Jesus is the first priest of Christianity, based on the New Covenant, but the concept of the Kingdom of God and being a priest was not invented out of thin air. Jesus placed the foundation of the New Covenant firmly on the Old Covenant.
o It is only after Jesus died, resurrected and ascended into heaven that the Apostles and disciples received "permission" to evangelize and convert "Gentiles" "throughout the world." This permission was derived by both the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and also by individual exhortation by Jesus, for example to the Apostle Philip and the convert Saul to Paul.
I repeat these points to clarify some of the complexity of the relationship between Jews and Christians. It is wrong to view Jews at either extreme, which is that they have a "free pass birthright to heaven even if they live like unbelieving secularists" or the opposite that they are "conversion fodder to bring on the Apocalypse." Both are demeaning, incorrect, weak in understanding of scripture and unworthy of sophisticated Christian thought.
o The communion of saints included the Old Testament fathers and patriarchs. This is made abundantly clear in both the teachings of Jesus and events that occurred. For example, Jesus during the Transfiguration not only appeared with Moses and Elias but consulted with them (Matthew 17: 2,3). Jesus obviously did not need to "talk" with Moses and Elias, as they would without speech all be operating within only God's will and knowledge. But they spoke together so that the three Apostles present could witness that the patriarchs and fathers are in the Kingdom of God and that the mission of Jesus on earth is fully synchronized with all that the Old Testament fathers said and did. In fact, in Luke 16:20 Jesus tells relates how the beggar Lazarus is comforted in heaven by Abraham. Abraham himself is the one who speaks to the sinful rich man in hell who ignored Lazarus, allowing his suffering and death. Jesus relates how Abraham himself informs the rich man in hell about why he is in hell, why he cannot return to earth in order to warn his brothers (who are presumably sinning in a similar way as the rich man did) and Abraham is the one who has to reject the rich man in hell's request for even a touch of Lazarus' finger in water for his relief. (Notice that the rich man in hell does not dare to ask Abraham himself for water). Abraham is speaking for God. Further, during the rich man's last appeal to Abraham to warn the man's brothers who are still alive, Abraham cites Moses. Abraham explains that they had Moses and the prophets, and "let them hearken to them." Jesus clearly and repeatedly is showing that the entire faith history of the Israelites is alive and operative in God. Otherwise Jesus would have had a miraculous conversation like this one to share with the Apostles that would have gone along the lines of "and now you have Jesus to harken to and heed."
The reason that I make this point crystal clear is twofold. One is that evangelical Christians must stop thinking that the Old Testament does not count except to quote "tsk tsk" passages from it, or to perform some sort of self prophecy based on cherry picked passages that are misinterpreted. Certain evangelical Christians pride themselves in their scriptural knowledge, but they know a few trees but reject the forest. They do not understand how Jesus is a continuation of the groundwork that is laid down in the Old Testament. They only see it in terms of handy dandy quotes, or "who is in the saved club and who is not." And so my second point is that evangelical Christians are in grave error in not understanding the family of Abraham. Jesus himself details how Abraham speaks for God, seated in heaven, and instructing the rich man in hell. Abraham speaks for God, and comforts the saved who have suffered on earth in heaven. And Abraham in his turn cites Moses twice as being the living source of knowledge.
How can any of you miss the importance of this teaching of Jesus, where he relates not a fairy story but reality of dialogue that has taken place? Jesus appears with Moses and Elias in person, and he teaches how Abraham in heaven is empowered to speak on behalf of God. How can you miss that?
And so, how can you think of Jews or Muslims as being "outside" targets for evangelizing? They are all of Abraham. Abraham is the father of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. They are by definition "part of the family." This does not mean that you cannot discuss the specifics of faith and invite individuals to partake. But it is arrogant and wrong to view Jews and Muslims as either "unsaved by definition" or as "conversion targets." Christians evangelize and convert, where it is God's will, by sharing the word and setting good examples in your own lives. How can Christians evangelize to Muslims when many of you support abortion, for example? How about evangelizing to your liberal brothers and sisters first?
o Remember that "evangelizing" means bringing the word of God. Jews and Muslims already have the word of God because they are of the family of Abraham. You should spend your "evangelizing" time bringing the word to those who do not have it at all, and by setting good neighbor examples (with no hidden conversion agenda) through charity and alms. It is insulting to Abraham, and therefore to God, to characterize Jews and Muslims as being outside of the family of those who have the word of God. They DO have the word of God. In fact, most Muslims I know are more honorable in reverence in speech and thought to Jesus and Mary than secular Christians are. (And that is not lost on God, let me assure you).
o As usual the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has it exactly right. He recognizes that Catholics are very low key in their evangelizing and says that Catholics should do more. But he likewise does not characterize Jews and Muslims as "Apocalypse targets for conversion or cannon fodder" as do all too many evangelical Christians, even though they try to put a brotherly spin on it when it comes to Jews. When the Holy Father speaks of evangelizing he means it in the sense that it is taught by Jesus and Biblically supported, which is to 1) share the word and 2) perform the works. That is evangelizing, not ticking off how many pack your church or you can notch on your conversion belt.
o Notice that there is no where in the Bible that there is talk of the one true Church being the most numerous. In fact, the Israelites were extreme minorities in terms of numbers and they did not convert at all in their history. Jesus confined himself to preaching to the Jews. The Apostles received the mandate from the Holy Spirit, and the resurrected Jesus, to spread the word. But no where did Jesus imply dash board or numbers targets. In fact he says to bring the word and then if they do not listen, dust your feet off and leave. (Once you have brought the word it is up to the Holy Spirit to move souls if they can be moved). YOU don't do it. All conversion and grace comes from God. So how can you have statistical and self gratifying conversion targets? That is not scriptural at all.
o This is why many evangelicals misunderstand and slander the Catholic Church. When we are sad at small attendance at Mass it's not because we cover ourselves in vainglory over the numbers games. It's because we are sad that people are living without the communion of the saints and the sacraments. But we don't care if we "win the number game." I honestly do not care if I live to see the last one hundred Catholics on earth; God will not judge based on who has the most "believers." For example, look at Syria. Many believers lived in Syria during the time just after Jesus Christ and that is good. Fewer believers live today in Syria, but that is just numbers, it's not oppression. And that is good, as Syria has only good agenda toward their own citizens who are Christians. So I do not view Syria as "a country where Christianity did not succeed" simply because there are small numbers of people living who are Christians. First of all, it is a country that honors its Muslim roots in Abraham. And Christians are free to believe and worship. That is a successful country, not a "numbers game" "count the Christians" success or failure.
o Salvation is individual. Even the Apostles, who were the only ones to have genuine guarantees of achieving heaven with Jesus, "lived in hope." The Apostles themselves never puffed themselves up in the vainglory of numbers, being a majority, having a "megachurch" (worse, one that does not celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass as God has mandated), or of "having assurance of being saved." Evangelicals are doing no one's soul a favor when they teach that mindset.
So do as the Bible and Jesus exhort and preach the good word. But where it is not accepted, leave without grudge, and leave it to the Holy Spirit. And be Christian in deed and works and not just words.
o Remember that Jesus himself came only to preach to the Jews. He states this clearly when a petitioner who was not Jewish had to beg/debate with him to get him to perform a miracle on behalf of her child. Jesus himself, so far as evangelizing and converting, was here only to work among the Jews. This was his role as the Messiah.
o The second role of Jesus was that of Savior. This was to found the Christian church that would be the foundation of the New Covenant with God. The New Covenant overlays the Old Covenant; it does not dispose of it. This is obvious because Jesus and the Apostles frequently quote what Christians now call the Old Testament. Therefore Jesus is the first priest of Christianity, based on the New Covenant, but the concept of the Kingdom of God and being a priest was not invented out of thin air. Jesus placed the foundation of the New Covenant firmly on the Old Covenant.
o It is only after Jesus died, resurrected and ascended into heaven that the Apostles and disciples received "permission" to evangelize and convert "Gentiles" "throughout the world." This permission was derived by both the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and also by individual exhortation by Jesus, for example to the Apostle Philip and the convert Saul to Paul.
I repeat these points to clarify some of the complexity of the relationship between Jews and Christians. It is wrong to view Jews at either extreme, which is that they have a "free pass birthright to heaven even if they live like unbelieving secularists" or the opposite that they are "conversion fodder to bring on the Apocalypse." Both are demeaning, incorrect, weak in understanding of scripture and unworthy of sophisticated Christian thought.
o The communion of saints included the Old Testament fathers and patriarchs. This is made abundantly clear in both the teachings of Jesus and events that occurred. For example, Jesus during the Transfiguration not only appeared with Moses and Elias but consulted with them (Matthew 17: 2,3). Jesus obviously did not need to "talk" with Moses and Elias, as they would without speech all be operating within only God's will and knowledge. But they spoke together so that the three Apostles present could witness that the patriarchs and fathers are in the Kingdom of God and that the mission of Jesus on earth is fully synchronized with all that the Old Testament fathers said and did. In fact, in Luke 16:20 Jesus tells relates how the beggar Lazarus is comforted in heaven by Abraham. Abraham himself is the one who speaks to the sinful rich man in hell who ignored Lazarus, allowing his suffering and death. Jesus relates how Abraham himself informs the rich man in hell about why he is in hell, why he cannot return to earth in order to warn his brothers (who are presumably sinning in a similar way as the rich man did) and Abraham is the one who has to reject the rich man in hell's request for even a touch of Lazarus' finger in water for his relief. (Notice that the rich man in hell does not dare to ask Abraham himself for water). Abraham is speaking for God. Further, during the rich man's last appeal to Abraham to warn the man's brothers who are still alive, Abraham cites Moses. Abraham explains that they had Moses and the prophets, and "let them hearken to them." Jesus clearly and repeatedly is showing that the entire faith history of the Israelites is alive and operative in God. Otherwise Jesus would have had a miraculous conversation like this one to share with the Apostles that would have gone along the lines of "and now you have Jesus to harken to and heed."
The reason that I make this point crystal clear is twofold. One is that evangelical Christians must stop thinking that the Old Testament does not count except to quote "tsk tsk" passages from it, or to perform some sort of self prophecy based on cherry picked passages that are misinterpreted. Certain evangelical Christians pride themselves in their scriptural knowledge, but they know a few trees but reject the forest. They do not understand how Jesus is a continuation of the groundwork that is laid down in the Old Testament. They only see it in terms of handy dandy quotes, or "who is in the saved club and who is not." And so my second point is that evangelical Christians are in grave error in not understanding the family of Abraham. Jesus himself details how Abraham speaks for God, seated in heaven, and instructing the rich man in hell. Abraham speaks for God, and comforts the saved who have suffered on earth in heaven. And Abraham in his turn cites Moses twice as being the living source of knowledge.
How can any of you miss the importance of this teaching of Jesus, where he relates not a fairy story but reality of dialogue that has taken place? Jesus appears with Moses and Elias in person, and he teaches how Abraham in heaven is empowered to speak on behalf of God. How can you miss that?
And so, how can you think of Jews or Muslims as being "outside" targets for evangelizing? They are all of Abraham. Abraham is the father of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. They are by definition "part of the family." This does not mean that you cannot discuss the specifics of faith and invite individuals to partake. But it is arrogant and wrong to view Jews and Muslims as either "unsaved by definition" or as "conversion targets." Christians evangelize and convert, where it is God's will, by sharing the word and setting good examples in your own lives. How can Christians evangelize to Muslims when many of you support abortion, for example? How about evangelizing to your liberal brothers and sisters first?
o Remember that "evangelizing" means bringing the word of God. Jews and Muslims already have the word of God because they are of the family of Abraham. You should spend your "evangelizing" time bringing the word to those who do not have it at all, and by setting good neighbor examples (with no hidden conversion agenda) through charity and alms. It is insulting to Abraham, and therefore to God, to characterize Jews and Muslims as being outside of the family of those who have the word of God. They DO have the word of God. In fact, most Muslims I know are more honorable in reverence in speech and thought to Jesus and Mary than secular Christians are. (And that is not lost on God, let me assure you).
o As usual the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has it exactly right. He recognizes that Catholics are very low key in their evangelizing and says that Catholics should do more. But he likewise does not characterize Jews and Muslims as "Apocalypse targets for conversion or cannon fodder" as do all too many evangelical Christians, even though they try to put a brotherly spin on it when it comes to Jews. When the Holy Father speaks of evangelizing he means it in the sense that it is taught by Jesus and Biblically supported, which is to 1) share the word and 2) perform the works. That is evangelizing, not ticking off how many pack your church or you can notch on your conversion belt.
o Notice that there is no where in the Bible that there is talk of the one true Church being the most numerous. In fact, the Israelites were extreme minorities in terms of numbers and they did not convert at all in their history. Jesus confined himself to preaching to the Jews. The Apostles received the mandate from the Holy Spirit, and the resurrected Jesus, to spread the word. But no where did Jesus imply dash board or numbers targets. In fact he says to bring the word and then if they do not listen, dust your feet off and leave. (Once you have brought the word it is up to the Holy Spirit to move souls if they can be moved). YOU don't do it. All conversion and grace comes from God. So how can you have statistical and self gratifying conversion targets? That is not scriptural at all.
o This is why many evangelicals misunderstand and slander the Catholic Church. When we are sad at small attendance at Mass it's not because we cover ourselves in vainglory over the numbers games. It's because we are sad that people are living without the communion of the saints and the sacraments. But we don't care if we "win the number game." I honestly do not care if I live to see the last one hundred Catholics on earth; God will not judge based on who has the most "believers." For example, look at Syria. Many believers lived in Syria during the time just after Jesus Christ and that is good. Fewer believers live today in Syria, but that is just numbers, it's not oppression. And that is good, as Syria has only good agenda toward their own citizens who are Christians. So I do not view Syria as "a country where Christianity did not succeed" simply because there are small numbers of people living who are Christians. First of all, it is a country that honors its Muslim roots in Abraham. And Christians are free to believe and worship. That is a successful country, not a "numbers game" "count the Christians" success or failure.
o Salvation is individual. Even the Apostles, who were the only ones to have genuine guarantees of achieving heaven with Jesus, "lived in hope." The Apostles themselves never puffed themselves up in the vainglory of numbers, being a majority, having a "megachurch" (worse, one that does not celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass as God has mandated), or of "having assurance of being saved." Evangelicals are doing no one's soul a favor when they teach that mindset.
So do as the Bible and Jesus exhort and preach the good word. But where it is not accepted, leave without grudge, and leave it to the Holy Spirit. And be Christian in deed and works and not just words.
Cardinal George apology not far enough
Cardinal Francis George is an admirable man and I'm a fan of his. He gave a prompt and worthy apology for the conduct of manic rogue priest Rev. Michael Pfleger regarding his improper endorsement of a political candidate and mocking of the candidate's opponent (at a pulpit no less, though thankfully not at a Catholic Church).
However, how can anyone consider allowing this so called Rev. Pfleger to continue to hear confessions, if he does actually do so? How can anyone represent Jesus Christ in the confessional while he slobbers with manic energy mocking a crying woman? Do YOU want such a mean and un-Christlike person hearing YOUR confession? And do you think it would be valid if he dispenses according to his manic identity problem? He doesn't seem to remember being a priest, he's too busy being Rev. Jackson's twin brother or something.
I think Cardinal George should forbid the so called Rev. Pfleger from hearing confessions until he undergoes some serious reforming of his vocation. What a creep. I'm sorry, but a Catholic priest should be better than that, since his JOB is administering the sacraments as stand in for the perfect love of Jesus Christ, and I saw hyper manic slobbering scorn from him. What an example. Not.
However, how can anyone consider allowing this so called Rev. Pfleger to continue to hear confessions, if he does actually do so? How can anyone represent Jesus Christ in the confessional while he slobbers with manic energy mocking a crying woman? Do YOU want such a mean and un-Christlike person hearing YOUR confession? And do you think it would be valid if he dispenses according to his manic identity problem? He doesn't seem to remember being a priest, he's too busy being Rev. Jackson's twin brother or something.
I think Cardinal George should forbid the so called Rev. Pfleger from hearing confessions until he undergoes some serious reforming of his vocation. What a creep. I'm sorry, but a Catholic priest should be better than that, since his JOB is administering the sacraments as stand in for the perfect love of Jesus Christ, and I saw hyper manic slobbering scorn from him. What an example. Not.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Champion pony euthanized
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/28/sports/OLY-EQU-Theodore-OConnor.php
***
I rode a pony only once. It was when I was a little girl in Germany, visiting my grandparents. I was sad because my father had died. They knew someone with a pony and I could sit on the pony and have my picture taken to cheer me up. She was a black pony named Sabina. Those pictures are still in the family album. How nice to know someone was that kind to a little girl whose father had died.
***
I rode a pony only once. It was when I was a little girl in Germany, visiting my grandparents. I was sad because my father had died. They knew someone with a pony and I could sit on the pony and have my picture taken to cheer me up. She was a black pony named Sabina. Those pictures are still in the family album. How nice to know someone was that kind to a little girl whose father had died.
I will explain once more, simple and direct to you
When I discover a variation or a old event on the same old sly secret sneering cult activities, and I am either personally hurt or angry, it's not me that you should be worried about. Consider me your hearing aid.
Because all of you must be deaf and stupid beyond belief to think that any and all of your actions and thoughts, no matter how small, are ever hidden from the Lord. God does not "find out" when I "find out." So when I rant about how doomed, dead and un-saved you are for doing these things, it's not me that's making an original announcement. I am furious in shock at the peril you have put yourselves and others in throughout, as God has known what I may not know all along.
So when I rip you a new one think of me as your hearing aid as to what you should have been hearing from God all along throughout these years of your offenses. You would have heard them if you weren't deluded, drugged, full of ignorance and hubris, brainwashed, wicked, misled and therefore deaf to goodness and truth for whatever combination of excuses you favor hiding behind. But the Lord cannot be fooled or hidden from. I cannot begin to tell you how many of your "spiritual" family, pals, guides, stooges, or whatever you want to call them are already roasting for an eternity in hell and not laughing quite so much about the sly behind the scenes cult activities they participated in or originated. Whether it's L Ron Hubbard or just some average Joe's uncle who thinks he knew the secrets of the universe, they are stuck in that unbearable hot place for all time, and it had nothing to do with whether I knew what they were doing or not. God knew. Yes, God knew.
Because all of you must be deaf and stupid beyond belief to think that any and all of your actions and thoughts, no matter how small, are ever hidden from the Lord. God does not "find out" when I "find out." So when I rant about how doomed, dead and un-saved you are for doing these things, it's not me that's making an original announcement. I am furious in shock at the peril you have put yourselves and others in throughout, as God has known what I may not know all along.
So when I rip you a new one think of me as your hearing aid as to what you should have been hearing from God all along throughout these years of your offenses. You would have heard them if you weren't deluded, drugged, full of ignorance and hubris, brainwashed, wicked, misled and therefore deaf to goodness and truth for whatever combination of excuses you favor hiding behind. But the Lord cannot be fooled or hidden from. I cannot begin to tell you how many of your "spiritual" family, pals, guides, stooges, or whatever you want to call them are already roasting for an eternity in hell and not laughing quite so much about the sly behind the scenes cult activities they participated in or originated. Whether it's L Ron Hubbard or just some average Joe's uncle who thinks he knew the secrets of the universe, they are stuck in that unbearable hot place for all time, and it had nothing to do with whether I knew what they were doing or not. God knew. Yes, God knew.
Father Michael Pfleger needs Confession badly
It's one thing to favor a candidate, to think of one's self as an extra special liberal social activist, and even to be a loudmouth.
However, I really do not appreciate the behind the scenes game playing (with New Age tones) that I detect behind Father Michael Pfleger's actions for many years now.
This latest rant and mocking of Hilary Clinton (a fellow Christian, I must remind Father Pfleger... though maybe he doesn't consider himself a Christian) is about as un-Christian an act as anyone can do. Father Ffleger should be deeply ashamed of being a puppet for not Obama, but having assigned to himself some sort of numinous secret role in affairs of state, and I bet he knows exactly what I mean. I'd be happy to tell him to his face, though I think he ought to do some confessional work first with his superiors. And before his parishioners get all indignant, let me tell you that you deserve someone who is 100% Catholic and not serving two masters, one of whom is not Christian (and again, I don't mean Obama).
However, I really do not appreciate the behind the scenes game playing (with New Age tones) that I detect behind Father Michael Pfleger's actions for many years now.
This latest rant and mocking of Hilary Clinton (a fellow Christian, I must remind Father Pfleger... though maybe he doesn't consider himself a Christian) is about as un-Christian an act as anyone can do. Father Ffleger should be deeply ashamed of being a puppet for not Obama, but having assigned to himself some sort of numinous secret role in affairs of state, and I bet he knows exactly what I mean. I'd be happy to tell him to his face, though I think he ought to do some confessional work first with his superiors. And before his parishioners get all indignant, let me tell you that you deserve someone who is 100% Catholic and not serving two masters, one of whom is not Christian (and again, I don't mean Obama).
What is worse than a monster among humans?
A robot, a human who has made of himself a totally artificial form of life and theology is worse than a monster. When one disconnects the basic principles of humanity there is nothing through which God can make his appeal for the person's salvation. Judas was "savable" if he had turned to God for forgiveness. Even Hitler could have been "savable" if he realized his delusion and turned to God before the end. But a robot can be told to his face that all he has to do to be saved by God is to become "real," to be human and acknowledge his failure, no matter how heinous the past sins or crimes, and that robot will still reject the facts that would give him salvation. When a human creates a robotic existence for himself and those around him he has removed the wiring through which God can make his appeal. The robot believes that he alone understands what is "really" going on and will defy God's appeal and God's timetable for the matters of the universe. A human monster still has the wiring to potentially bow his knee to the stronger power of God. The robot has unplugged that circuitry not only for himself but for others who support his artificial world. It is the most terrible and saddest thing I have ever seen. Those of you who participate in that robotic world are as much to blame as the "head" robot him or her self because you are unplugging God's grace and God's timetable from each other, including the children. This is part of what Jesus meant when he warned that sins against the Holy Ghost are unforgivable. Jesus was warning that those sins were essentially unplugging the capacity for salvation both for yourself and for others who follow or enable your example. It's not the same as "hanging up the phone" on God during a time of spiritual darkness, genuine unbelief or despair. It is far worse because it is removing the circuitry for the calls from God to even be made, for yourself and for your larger community of puppets, enablers and followers. To see people do this kills me in spirit far worse than anything physical or emotional that people have done, and continue to do, to torment me personally. Hell has infinite capacity and it is being filled with new members by the hour of those who promoted or benefited from this reduction of human capacity to communicate with God to robotry and disconnect. Plenty of "nice" people who deliberately disconnect from God go to hell along with the obviously depraved and wicked.
In the Gospel Jesus tells the story of the rich man named Lazarus (not the friend of Jesus who was raised from the dead) who went to hell because every day he passed by a starving man at the city gate. Lazarus wanted to warn his brothers still alive about the reality of hell, but that is not possible. Notice that Lazarus is in hell because of that one man he did not care about to stop and feed. Lazarus could very well have been an upright citizen and giver of alms in the rest of his life for all you know, because Jesus does not say and only refers to that one particular starving man whose wounds were even licked by dogs until he died. It is because Lazarus refused to feed THAT man, who GOD put there in his plain sight that Lazarus ended up in hell. Lazarus could well have given a big fat charity donation in his every day life but he refused to minister to the person GOD wanted him to help. Lazarus might even have been a "good family man" and "patron of the arts." But he refused to help the suffering man who was right in front of him that God counted on Lazarus to help. And so "good guys" end up in hell if they disconnect from the communication with God and pursue their artificial life. This is the horror and the reality that the dead and placed in hell Lazarus wanted to communicate to his still living brothers but cound not because there is no communication between hell and earth. This is one of the most important lessons that Jesus teaches and far from reaching people many, and you know who you are, have made a fake and plastic life around refusing to go where God wishes you to go and helping those that God wishes you to help. You worship your own sick pagan timetable instead of answering the RIGHT NOW for the HIM or HER of God. What has happened to the roboticizing of humanity is worse than any individual monstrous person or event that I know of throughout human history.
In the Gospel Jesus tells the story of the rich man named Lazarus (not the friend of Jesus who was raised from the dead) who went to hell because every day he passed by a starving man at the city gate. Lazarus wanted to warn his brothers still alive about the reality of hell, but that is not possible. Notice that Lazarus is in hell because of that one man he did not care about to stop and feed. Lazarus could very well have been an upright citizen and giver of alms in the rest of his life for all you know, because Jesus does not say and only refers to that one particular starving man whose wounds were even licked by dogs until he died. It is because Lazarus refused to feed THAT man, who GOD put there in his plain sight that Lazarus ended up in hell. Lazarus could well have given a big fat charity donation in his every day life but he refused to minister to the person GOD wanted him to help. Lazarus might even have been a "good family man" and "patron of the arts." But he refused to help the suffering man who was right in front of him that God counted on Lazarus to help. And so "good guys" end up in hell if they disconnect from the communication with God and pursue their artificial life. This is the horror and the reality that the dead and placed in hell Lazarus wanted to communicate to his still living brothers but cound not because there is no communication between hell and earth. This is one of the most important lessons that Jesus teaches and far from reaching people many, and you know who you are, have made a fake and plastic life around refusing to go where God wishes you to go and helping those that God wishes you to help. You worship your own sick pagan timetable instead of answering the RIGHT NOW for the HIM or HER of God. What has happened to the roboticizing of humanity is worse than any individual monstrous person or event that I know of throughout human history.
Temple elephant killed by lightning
The actress Sharon Stone would probably say it was bad karma.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/temple-elephant-killed-by-lightning-in-kerala_10054380.html
Thrissur (Kerala), May 29 (IANS) An elephant belonging to the Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple in Kerala was killed in a lightning strike Thursday evening. The sixteen-year-old tusker Unnikrishnan was at the elephant home run by the temple when the incident happened.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/temple-elephant-killed-by-lightning-in-kerala_10054380.html
Thrissur (Kerala), May 29 (IANS) An elephant belonging to the Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple in Kerala was killed in a lightning strike Thursday evening. The sixteen-year-old tusker Unnikrishnan was at the elephant home run by the temple when the incident happened.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
What is the "Lions Club" up to?
This poor man was not Daniel.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,359523,00.html
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Police say six caged lions left only fingers and intestines after eating a worker giving them water.
The lions attacked the 49-year-old man Tuesday after he went inside their cage to deliver water, police said Wednesday.
The man had been working at the Uitspan game farm in northwest South Africa for at least two years, police said. No one witnessed the attack.
Environmental affairs was called to the game farm, which cages lions and other animals for tourists' viewing, to discus the fate of the lions.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,359523,00.html
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Police say six caged lions left only fingers and intestines after eating a worker giving them water.
The lions attacked the 49-year-old man Tuesday after he went inside their cage to deliver water, police said Wednesday.
The man had been working at the Uitspan game farm in northwest South Africa for at least two years, police said. No one witnessed the attack.
Environmental affairs was called to the game farm, which cages lions and other animals for tourists' viewing, to discus the fate of the lions.
Not a good day for "green lines"
Boston:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/sns-ap-boston-train-accident,0,6241311.story
snip
NEWTON, Mass. - Two commuter trains collided during the evening rush hour outside Boston on Wednesday, hurting several passengers and trapping the seriously injured operator of one train, authorities said.
There were "multiple injuries" in the above-ground accident on the city's "T" system near a station in suburban Newton, said Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
snip
There was no immediate word on the root cause of the crash, which occurred on a branch of the Green Line, part of the MBTA system serving greater Boston.
The Boston crash came just hours after an elevated train derailed in Chicago, sending several people to hospitals. Officials quickly blamed the derailment on operator error.
Chicago:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-train-derailment-web-may29,0,185486.story
snip
Errors by a 31-year CTA veteran caused the derailment of a Green Line train on the South Side Wednesday morning, CTA President Ron Huberman said.
The preliminary finding of operator error was based on the unidentified motorman taking the train through a red signal, Huberman said. Fourteen people were injured, but none of the injuries was believed to be serious, fire officials said.
The red signal indicated that the track switch at the junction ahead was not properly set for the train, which was bound for the East 63rd/Cottage Grove branch of the Green Line. A red signal, like a red traffic light, instructs the operator to stop.
The train operator proceeded anyway...
Bottom line:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cta-derail-riders-web-may29,0,6156135.story
(snip)
'I just thank God it didn't fall off the edge.'
Passengers recall moments after CTA Green Line train derailed
"Everyone was screaming and hollering for their lives," Jackson said. "I just thank God it didn't fall off the edge. It was chaos. Everyone was hysterical."
He said it took about 5 minutes for police officers to arrive, and firefighters followed shortly after. The two women who fell appeared to have hurt an arm and a knee, respectively, and were taken off the elevated tracks in a fire department ladder basket, Jackson said. "The woman who hurt her arm was groaning," he said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/sns-ap-boston-train-accident,0,6241311.story
snip
NEWTON, Mass. - Two commuter trains collided during the evening rush hour outside Boston on Wednesday, hurting several passengers and trapping the seriously injured operator of one train, authorities said.
There were "multiple injuries" in the above-ground accident on the city's "T" system near a station in suburban Newton, said Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
snip
There was no immediate word on the root cause of the crash, which occurred on a branch of the Green Line, part of the MBTA system serving greater Boston.
The Boston crash came just hours after an elevated train derailed in Chicago, sending several people to hospitals. Officials quickly blamed the derailment on operator error.
Chicago:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-train-derailment-web-may29,0,185486.story
snip
Errors by a 31-year CTA veteran caused the derailment of a Green Line train on the South Side Wednesday morning, CTA President Ron Huberman said.
The preliminary finding of operator error was based on the unidentified motorman taking the train through a red signal, Huberman said. Fourteen people were injured, but none of the injuries was believed to be serious, fire officials said.
The red signal indicated that the track switch at the junction ahead was not properly set for the train, which was bound for the East 63rd/Cottage Grove branch of the Green Line. A red signal, like a red traffic light, instructs the operator to stop.
The train operator proceeded anyway...
Bottom line:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cta-derail-riders-web-may29,0,6156135.story
(snip)
'I just thank God it didn't fall off the edge.'
Passengers recall moments after CTA Green Line train derailed
"Everyone was screaming and hollering for their lives," Jackson said. "I just thank God it didn't fall off the edge. It was chaos. Everyone was hysterical."
He said it took about 5 minutes for police officers to arrive, and firefighters followed shortly after. The two women who fell appeared to have hurt an arm and a knee, respectively, and were taken off the elevated tracks in a fire department ladder basket, Jackson said. "The woman who hurt her arm was groaning," he said.
It's hard to imagine a more positive lady than she
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/28/iron.lung.death.ap/index.html
(excerpt)
Woman dies after life spent in iron lung
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- For almost 60 years, Dianne Odell lived inside a 7-foot-long metal tube, unable to breathe outside it but determined not to let it destroy her spirit.
From her 750-pound iron lung, she got a high school diploma, took college courses and wrote a children's book about a "wishing star" named Blinky.
"I've had a very good life, filled with love and family and faith," she said in 1994. "You can make life good, or you can make it bad."
Odell, 61, died Wednesday when a power failure shut off electricity to the tube and stopped the pump drawing air into her lungs.
Family members were unable to get an emergency generator working after a power failure knocked out electricity to the Odell family's residence near Jackson, about 80 miles northeast of Memphis, brother-in-law Will Beyer said.
"We did everything we could do, but we couldn't keep her breathing," Beyer said. "Dianne had gotten a lot weaker over the past several months, and she just didn't have the strength to keep going."
Odell, who contracted polio when she was 3 years old, lived with her parents, Freeman and Geneva Odell, and their house was equipped with an emergency generator designed to fire up immediately in a power failure.
"But for some reason, it didn't come on," Beyer said.
Family members even tried an emergency hand pump attached to the iron lung. "Everyone knew what we were supposed to be doing," Beyer said. "It just wasn't working."
Capt. Jerry Elston of the Madison County Sheriff's Department said emergency crews could do little to help. The local power company reported spotty power outages in the area because of storms.
Odell was afflicted with "bulbo-spinal" polio three years before a polio vaccine was discovered and largely stopped the spread of the crippling childhood disease.
Her care was provided by her parents, other family members and aides provided by a nonprofit foundation.
"Dianne was one of the kindest and most considerate people you could meet. She was always concerned about others and their well-being," said Frank McMeen, president of the West Tennessee Health Care Foundation, which helped raise money for equipment and nursing assistance for Odell.
Odell accepted her life with grace, McMeen said.
"Everyone she encountered came to her because they cared about her," he said, "so she grew up in her 61 years thinking every person is good."
***
To those of you of the younger generation remember that this is one reason that people fought to have immunization innoculations against illness. Those of my age grew up seeing black and white films of thousands of people who were stricken as toddlers with polio and forced to spend their entire lives in a lung machine lying on their back. In the article you can see a picture and read some of the history. So those of you who think that innoculations are some sort of insane conspiracy or the "cause" of illnesses, take a look at this lady and remember that this was common not so long ago before an immunization was developed.
(excerpt)
Woman dies after life spent in iron lung
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- For almost 60 years, Dianne Odell lived inside a 7-foot-long metal tube, unable to breathe outside it but determined not to let it destroy her spirit.
From her 750-pound iron lung, she got a high school diploma, took college courses and wrote a children's book about a "wishing star" named Blinky.
"I've had a very good life, filled with love and family and faith," she said in 1994. "You can make life good, or you can make it bad."
Odell, 61, died Wednesday when a power failure shut off electricity to the tube and stopped the pump drawing air into her lungs.
Family members were unable to get an emergency generator working after a power failure knocked out electricity to the Odell family's residence near Jackson, about 80 miles northeast of Memphis, brother-in-law Will Beyer said.
"We did everything we could do, but we couldn't keep her breathing," Beyer said. "Dianne had gotten a lot weaker over the past several months, and she just didn't have the strength to keep going."
Odell, who contracted polio when she was 3 years old, lived with her parents, Freeman and Geneva Odell, and their house was equipped with an emergency generator designed to fire up immediately in a power failure.
"But for some reason, it didn't come on," Beyer said.
Family members even tried an emergency hand pump attached to the iron lung. "Everyone knew what we were supposed to be doing," Beyer said. "It just wasn't working."
Capt. Jerry Elston of the Madison County Sheriff's Department said emergency crews could do little to help. The local power company reported spotty power outages in the area because of storms.
Odell was afflicted with "bulbo-spinal" polio three years before a polio vaccine was discovered and largely stopped the spread of the crippling childhood disease.
Her care was provided by her parents, other family members and aides provided by a nonprofit foundation.
"Dianne was one of the kindest and most considerate people you could meet. She was always concerned about others and their well-being," said Frank McMeen, president of the West Tennessee Health Care Foundation, which helped raise money for equipment and nursing assistance for Odell.
Odell accepted her life with grace, McMeen said.
"Everyone she encountered came to her because they cared about her," he said, "so she grew up in her 61 years thinking every person is good."
***
To those of you of the younger generation remember that this is one reason that people fought to have immunization innoculations against illness. Those of my age grew up seeing black and white films of thousands of people who were stricken as toddlers with polio and forced to spend their entire lives in a lung machine lying on their back. In the article you can see a picture and read some of the history. So those of you who think that innoculations are some sort of insane conspiracy or the "cause" of illnesses, take a look at this lady and remember that this was common not so long ago before an immunization was developed.
Linkage between mental thoughts and healing
There is a great link between the mind and the body's health and well being, and one does not have to be a new age kook to think that. I mentioned yesterday a concern that I had when I blogged about the tumors, some cancerous and some not, where some people are so unbalanced that they blame cancer on other people using freaky concepts such as karma, past lives and so forth. While these are ridiculous, dangerous and mean accusations (and show no more civilization than people in Africa who accuse schoolchildren of being 'witches') do not underestimate the connection between one's own mind and one's own matter. Here are a few thoughts that I hope are good guidelines for healthy mind to body connections.
We all know that there is an Eastern medicine known as acupuncture. Acupuncture theorizes that there are meridians (channels) in the body through which energy, called "chi" flows, much like currents of water within the ocean. An acupuncture therapist uses needles to intercept or manage the flow of this chi in order to remedy physical disorders or as pain management. Sometimes it works really well and other times it's not so helpful. That's because it correctly understands that there is a flow of energy in the body, and a body to mind connection, but it is not a precise physical phenomenon that can be medically relied upon, such as blood pressure. Everyone has blood pressure and it is reliably measured. Chi flow is more of a stance or position that the body has rather than a literal physical quality or quantity. Another example I can give is that it's like how the same pain feels different if you are doing well or if you are doing poorly. If you hit your finger with a hammer but you are otherwise in a splendid mood and good health it is painful but not devastating. But if you are sickly or depressed, that same hammer hit with the same force and potential pain can be devastating, even leading to a heart attack in the most extreme of situations. It is the same pain on the same nerve endings, but for someone who is doing fine it is an "Ouch!" while for someone doing poorly it could be "the last straw." This is an example of the real but unmeasurable and highly individual linkage between mind and body.
That is why people who have poor attitude or wicked thoughts can have a real literal impact on their own body or that of others. Many scientific studies have shown a correlation between mental outlook and physical health. However it is not as simple as being about someone's "mood." For many years people who are sad when they are sick are blamed and "studies" were cited that those who were feisty or "positive" were more likely to survive their illnesses. Many of those studies, though, turned out to be bogus. Not so long ago there were some articles detailing how it was an unfair added pressure on people to tell them that they should be strong happy campers when "fighting" an illness, as if they are somehow to blame for being sad. And in fact scientific studies showed that there was actually no difference in survivability between people who were sad by their illness and those who were more "positive" or combative. So while there is a linkage there cannot be a simplified formula to describe this linkage. This is the crux of what I am concerned about as people have some strange attitudes and misunderstandings about this body to mind connection. A poor attitude is not necessarily a sad attitude. A poor attitude might actually be a combative or overly energetic attitude.
Here is an example. I received a head wound (on my forehead) during a very sad time in my life. I did not get stitches and there was some discussion about whether I'd have a scar there, and my workplace doctor wondered about a little plastic surgery needed. What I did not tell anyone, though, is that very soon after my injury I spent a regular amount of time every few hours visualizing that area of wound "knitting and healing." So even though I was "sad" I was sending soothing and steady signals to the skin and muscle cells around the wound encouraging them to heal. I healed in no time and people were astonished that I had no scar at all only weeks after the injury. So while my "mood" was "sad" my mind to body linkage regarding this wound was soothing and positive. I did not have a combative attitude toward the wound or overly dramatic. Every few hours when I'd think of it I'd spend a few seconds in soothing thought about the wound knitting itself together using its normal biological functions and capabilities.
So one of my concerns is to convey to you that "being a fighter" and having a combative attitude toward your own body when you suffer from a condition such as cancer may not be of benefit and may in fact be detrimental. Virus illnesses and conditions such as cancer are, by definition, situations where the body is already under attack, from either a virus or the cancerous cells. If you stimulate your mind to be combative in turn you might actually stimulate rather than diminish that physical response in your body. If you are going to have a conscious attitude toward your condition or illness you should gain as much factual information from your doctor as possible and then visualize support for your body's hoped for natural response. I mean, with my forehead scar example, I'd hardly envision smacking around the scar more. I had a soothing and supportive attitude toward how the body naturally heals wounds. So I caution people who are interested in this topic to guide your mind in less dramatic and more natural and supportive responses according to what your doctor tells you your body is trying to achieve on its own (or with treatment) to regain health. Statistics show that "fighters" do not heal better than those who are sad or neutral. Giving up is another matter entirely and that is what I was conveying in the hammered finger example. Sometimes people just go through too much and their ability to be resilient and to heal is severely compromised.
I mentioned wicked thoughts up above. Let me go back to the acupuncture example. When I was learning kung fu of course all the young men want to know about the dark stuff, even if they'd never do it. For example there are stories of kung fu masters who had "the death touch" called Dim Mak or something like that. According to the legends and stories these masters could kill a person just by touching them with a finger strike on one or more certain spots on the body. Books treat it as a big secret taught over years to the elect, blah blah blah. My ex husband was curious enough to buy a Chinese book on the subject. It only took me one glance to see what it was, even though they would never discuss (if they even know) "how it works" in theory. It's negative acupuncture. Just as an acupuncturist can place a therapeutic needle to encourage and manage chi flow and to manage pain, it's obvious that some people somewhere would have the thought occur to them that they can use the meridians and chi as points of attack. So I believe that where the stories of "death touch" masters were true and not bogus legends that the way they achieved this capability (and get themselves hell for it, by the way) is to attack the points of the body where chi flow can be harmed or stopped rather than encouraged and healed or managed. It's really no different than a doctor who goes wrong and uses his or her medical knowledge to harm rather than heal.
It's then not a large step to realize that while death touch masters use a finger to touch or poke their victim in order to disrupt chi flow that some people can direct their malicious thoughts in that direction to harm another person. I myself have a lump on my right knee since 1996 that puzzled me because I could tell that the body "thought" it was being injured in that spot. I saw a dermotologist and had the lump removed since I had recently had surgery and was in a very alert mode, but the spot refuses to heal. Later I realized that the reason that spot of my knee "thinks" it is being harmed is because someone very close to me had continual angry thoughts of harming my chi in that area. And so it goes.
This is why I want to caution people about their own mindsets toward their own or family healing. Forget even open hostility as I describe above. Subliminal feelings can interfere with your own or your loved one's healing. It is better if you do not have this type of thinking AT ALL. I really worry about the proliferation of reiki and other so called spiritual and mental cures. I believe that they are doing a huge amount of mostly unintentional damage. I know for a fact that "what goes around comes around" in that people who emit interfering thoughts and energies may find to their surprise that they do not just reach their target, but also rebound back to where they came from or to others in one's family, community, around the world, or in one's own "coven" (LOL). Leave medical matters to doctors and spiritual matters to genuine religions that believe in one true and good God. It could save your own life (to say nothing of your actual soul).
We all know that there is an Eastern medicine known as acupuncture. Acupuncture theorizes that there are meridians (channels) in the body through which energy, called "chi" flows, much like currents of water within the ocean. An acupuncture therapist uses needles to intercept or manage the flow of this chi in order to remedy physical disorders or as pain management. Sometimes it works really well and other times it's not so helpful. That's because it correctly understands that there is a flow of energy in the body, and a body to mind connection, but it is not a precise physical phenomenon that can be medically relied upon, such as blood pressure. Everyone has blood pressure and it is reliably measured. Chi flow is more of a stance or position that the body has rather than a literal physical quality or quantity. Another example I can give is that it's like how the same pain feels different if you are doing well or if you are doing poorly. If you hit your finger with a hammer but you are otherwise in a splendid mood and good health it is painful but not devastating. But if you are sickly or depressed, that same hammer hit with the same force and potential pain can be devastating, even leading to a heart attack in the most extreme of situations. It is the same pain on the same nerve endings, but for someone who is doing fine it is an "Ouch!" while for someone doing poorly it could be "the last straw." This is an example of the real but unmeasurable and highly individual linkage between mind and body.
That is why people who have poor attitude or wicked thoughts can have a real literal impact on their own body or that of others. Many scientific studies have shown a correlation between mental outlook and physical health. However it is not as simple as being about someone's "mood." For many years people who are sad when they are sick are blamed and "studies" were cited that those who were feisty or "positive" were more likely to survive their illnesses. Many of those studies, though, turned out to be bogus. Not so long ago there were some articles detailing how it was an unfair added pressure on people to tell them that they should be strong happy campers when "fighting" an illness, as if they are somehow to blame for being sad. And in fact scientific studies showed that there was actually no difference in survivability between people who were sad by their illness and those who were more "positive" or combative. So while there is a linkage there cannot be a simplified formula to describe this linkage. This is the crux of what I am concerned about as people have some strange attitudes and misunderstandings about this body to mind connection. A poor attitude is not necessarily a sad attitude. A poor attitude might actually be a combative or overly energetic attitude.
Here is an example. I received a head wound (on my forehead) during a very sad time in my life. I did not get stitches and there was some discussion about whether I'd have a scar there, and my workplace doctor wondered about a little plastic surgery needed. What I did not tell anyone, though, is that very soon after my injury I spent a regular amount of time every few hours visualizing that area of wound "knitting and healing." So even though I was "sad" I was sending soothing and steady signals to the skin and muscle cells around the wound encouraging them to heal. I healed in no time and people were astonished that I had no scar at all only weeks after the injury. So while my "mood" was "sad" my mind to body linkage regarding this wound was soothing and positive. I did not have a combative attitude toward the wound or overly dramatic. Every few hours when I'd think of it I'd spend a few seconds in soothing thought about the wound knitting itself together using its normal biological functions and capabilities.
So one of my concerns is to convey to you that "being a fighter" and having a combative attitude toward your own body when you suffer from a condition such as cancer may not be of benefit and may in fact be detrimental. Virus illnesses and conditions such as cancer are, by definition, situations where the body is already under attack, from either a virus or the cancerous cells. If you stimulate your mind to be combative in turn you might actually stimulate rather than diminish that physical response in your body. If you are going to have a conscious attitude toward your condition or illness you should gain as much factual information from your doctor as possible and then visualize support for your body's hoped for natural response. I mean, with my forehead scar example, I'd hardly envision smacking around the scar more. I had a soothing and supportive attitude toward how the body naturally heals wounds. So I caution people who are interested in this topic to guide your mind in less dramatic and more natural and supportive responses according to what your doctor tells you your body is trying to achieve on its own (or with treatment) to regain health. Statistics show that "fighters" do not heal better than those who are sad or neutral. Giving up is another matter entirely and that is what I was conveying in the hammered finger example. Sometimes people just go through too much and their ability to be resilient and to heal is severely compromised.
I mentioned wicked thoughts up above. Let me go back to the acupuncture example. When I was learning kung fu of course all the young men want to know about the dark stuff, even if they'd never do it. For example there are stories of kung fu masters who had "the death touch" called Dim Mak or something like that. According to the legends and stories these masters could kill a person just by touching them with a finger strike on one or more certain spots on the body. Books treat it as a big secret taught over years to the elect, blah blah blah. My ex husband was curious enough to buy a Chinese book on the subject. It only took me one glance to see what it was, even though they would never discuss (if they even know) "how it works" in theory. It's negative acupuncture. Just as an acupuncturist can place a therapeutic needle to encourage and manage chi flow and to manage pain, it's obvious that some people somewhere would have the thought occur to them that they can use the meridians and chi as points of attack. So I believe that where the stories of "death touch" masters were true and not bogus legends that the way they achieved this capability (and get themselves hell for it, by the way) is to attack the points of the body where chi flow can be harmed or stopped rather than encouraged and healed or managed. It's really no different than a doctor who goes wrong and uses his or her medical knowledge to harm rather than heal.
It's then not a large step to realize that while death touch masters use a finger to touch or poke their victim in order to disrupt chi flow that some people can direct their malicious thoughts in that direction to harm another person. I myself have a lump on my right knee since 1996 that puzzled me because I could tell that the body "thought" it was being injured in that spot. I saw a dermotologist and had the lump removed since I had recently had surgery and was in a very alert mode, but the spot refuses to heal. Later I realized that the reason that spot of my knee "thinks" it is being harmed is because someone very close to me had continual angry thoughts of harming my chi in that area. And so it goes.
This is why I want to caution people about their own mindsets toward their own or family healing. Forget even open hostility as I describe above. Subliminal feelings can interfere with your own or your loved one's healing. It is better if you do not have this type of thinking AT ALL. I really worry about the proliferation of reiki and other so called spiritual and mental cures. I believe that they are doing a huge amount of mostly unintentional damage. I know for a fact that "what goes around comes around" in that people who emit interfering thoughts and energies may find to their surprise that they do not just reach their target, but also rebound back to where they came from or to others in one's family, community, around the world, or in one's own "coven" (LOL). Leave medical matters to doctors and spiritual matters to genuine religions that believe in one true and good God. It could save your own life (to say nothing of your actual soul).
World War II scholars need to be careful
Actually all historians and scholars need to be careful to be accurate, obviously, and to speculate responsibly. However the fascination and horror regarding Hitler, Pearl Harbor and the entire World War II events, especially the Holocaust, has particular temptations to be less than logical or factual.
This is on my mind because I heard a brief interview with Pat Buchanan on CNN about his controversial new book that speculates about how World War II could have been avoided. I think it is always useful to look at historical events from different perspectives and engage in responsible "what if" thinking. In this case Mr. Buchanan was focused on England's actions in committing to protecting Poland due to a treaty. Now, I've not read the book, obviously, and I'm not likely to since I tend not to read most political or speculative history books; they just aren't my thing. So I'm not going to jump to any conclusions about what Mr. Buchanan says on the whole. But I want to teach, as part of my series on logical thinking and tools for better scholarship, people how to engage in the most productive scholarship, such as book writing, and being a "consumer," such as reading such a book.
One thing you have to remember that most of those who lived during the times that led up to World War II are long dead. But I grew up and was educated in school when many average citizens had first hand knowledge and experience of the times that led up to the war. These insights have been preserved and taught. But there is a temptation to be "revisionist" in history in the course of pursuing valid attempts at "new insights." You need to be careful to build your "new insights" on top of the solid scholarship and first hand testimony of what happened, however, not as a substitute.
It is common knowledge that World War II happened in large part because of the damage and hard feelings that resulted from World War I. Responsible history classes cover this in great detail, but I can't be sure what they are teaching in the schools today though *sigh.* So here is some general but first hand information that everyone needs to understand when either producing or enjoying written or visual works about World War II.
World War I was "the first" in many ways. It wasn't just the first world war, the definition of which is a war that pulls in many countries into active conflict, rather that being between two combatants. It was the first war that used "attrition" as a strategy, which is to kill off as many of each other as possible. Before then battles took place as individual strategies and wars were conducted based on conquering and defeating individual units of military or population centers. People planned to conquer city X or defeat army unit B. In World War I the armies dug into land that had no significance at all and then slaughtered each other for days on end, piling up bodies by the thousands. This had never been seen before in human history. An entire generation of British men died in World War I, as did many Germans and French. So World War I brought the idea of a war of attrition (who kills the others the most) into reality.
The second way that WWI was a "first" is that technology became a tool for conducting this attrition. While guns and artillery existed before then, they became more predominant, the advantage of airplanes started to emerge but most of all, war stopped being between "gentlemen" or "officers" and ethics went out the window with the introduction of poison gas. There used to be an ethics of war. But with the concept of the war of attrition, atrocities such as poison gas became vehicles for conducting slaughter. Men were horribly killed and maimed and feelings were very hard and angry as a result, understandably. Germans thought they were "leveling the field" by using poison gas to make up for having less artillery and other resources. It was a horrible mistake.
The third way that WWI was a "first" was that it was the first war to be fought for no reason. It erupted after an assassination of a minor noble because many countries had a complex set of treaties that forced each other to come to the aid of someone somewhere in the food chain if an event occurred. So this ridiculous and horrible war erupted for no reason whatsoever; not to conduct a national strategy (like go after oil), or because of ethnic/racial tensions, or because of a border conflict, or as a land grab, or to overthrow a dictator... there was no reason whatsoever.
The fourth way that WWI was a "first" was that feelings were so high and the indignation so fierce that when Germany was defeated and surrendered it was punished on a scale that had also never been seen in modern warfare. The terms of surrender were deliberately humiliating and made to crush with financial burden the average citizen of Germany, right down to the peasantry. So not only was the country defeated but the entire populace was punished. This is all documented and factual and has been covered in books, the classroom and even PBS types of programming. I'm not giving a great insight here but teaching those who have never had a chance to learn about this in the classroom. Germans were humiliated and crushed under "war reparations" and punishment so that the average citizen suffered enormously, even though they had nothing to do with this stupid war in the first place. A terrible inflation took place in the 1930's and I have members of my family that told me what it was like. The money was totally worthless. It would take a wheelbarrow of money to buy one loaf of bread (and that's literally, not a figure of speech). No one could afford toilet paper so they used the money bills as sheets of toilet paper. They could not afford wallpaper so they pasted money to the walls when they had to patch an area. I have in storage a few of these like "million marks" bills that my family had kept from those times. The defeated citizens of Germany suffered and seethed.
It is those reasons that led to people listening to the dangerous bum Hitler who never would have listened to him otherwise. Hitler tapped into the suffering of the people and their zero self-esteem in order to build them up in this Teutonic superhero image. It's much like what kids do today when they pretend to be superheroes in video games except Hitler convinced an entire people that they too were meant to be superheroes, and not the humiliated and degraded conquered people that they were as a result of their defeat in World War I. This is a well known fact and was taught in many classrooms, including those I attended as a child and later as a college student, and it was taught as a cautionary tale about what happens if you humiliate a defeated people. You better be careful because they will come back with a vengeance and look for someone to blame and kick back in return for the kicking that they have received.
Carl Jung found a way to describe this in his psychoanalytical and mythological terms. Jung argued that the people self hypnotized themselves into being "possessed" by the Norse god Wotan. This is a perfectly valid, though not terribly useful, way to view how the defeated German brains were receptive to Hitler's mental video game of the Teutonic superhero. I say it is not helpful because it does not inform public policy matters in a practical way. We don't really need to know just what brain circuits and emotional buttons Hitler pressed. Those circuits and buttons would not have been there if the factors I listed above that preceded Hitler in World War I had not happened: a war of attrition of millions of deaths, poison gas and the abandonment of wartime ethics, going to war without a cause due to mindlessly following alliances and treaties, and punishing the populace after the defeat of their government and military.
So any "analysis" of the "cause" of Hitler and World War II would be totally inaccurate if it is not building on top of the facts that I have explained above. It's not like there was a decision or an event that was a sliding door about World War II and the Holocaust, "yes" or "no." World War II was a direct continuation of the breakdown of military ethos that took place in World War I. The concept of being "a gentleman" and "battlefield ethics" and "justifiable war" fell completely apart in World War I. Once there was "no holds barred" warfare, as in World War I, that laid the field for the exponential horrors of World War II with one difference. The battlefield in World War II cleaned up (no poison gas, no slaughters as military strategy) in Europe, but it was Japan's turn to have a breakdown of their military ethos, causing the horrors that they perpetrated in the Pacific theater of World War II. So basically Japan had the mental breakdown of military ethics in World War II that Europe had in World War I. In Europe the breakdown of the military ethos became a breakdown of civilian ethos, where Hitler tapped the humiliated and bankrupt people of German to turn on each other and their neighboring countries. So for Europe World War I broke the military "code of conduct" and World War II was "revenge upon the innocent" and therefore the breakdown of civilization "code of conduct." So you can see Germany obeying Geneva conventions and having military POW camps while at the same time tearing all sense of decency apart through the invasion and oppression of other countries for "elbow room" as they called it and the internal and external Holocaust.
Remember that Hitler killed the weak and disabled (both mentally and physically) first. People who lose their moral balance and are trying to "uplift" themselves tend to do it by feeling "superior" by raising themselves up and pushing "someone else" down. That's human nature, where someone with issues will tend to pull down someone around them in order to feel better than themselves. But this was on a monstrous scale because as I explained World War I broke the military ethos and code of conduct, which then allowed the breakdown of "gentlemanly" or "civilized" behavior. Remember that Hitler sneered at civilization, as he turned the country away from the bastions of civilizations (church and code of conduct) and toward the past, which is paganistic beliefs. Pagans killed the weak in sacrifice too. So Hitler started by killing the weak, the "flawed" (physically disabled, mentally disabled, and 'undesirables' such as homosexuals) and the religious. So he killed Catholics and Jews alike. Hitler leveraged prejudice but in a way that was designed to raise the German psyche up from the mud and become some sort of purified pagan superhero. Jews were persecuted in a large part because they were part of the fabric of civilization. Jews were "cultured" pious and venerated learning, even if they were of the peasantry. Hitler sought to smash all vestiges of "civilization" just as World War I had done so on the battlefield. He felt that he could turn the dial back to a "purer" time, but what he was doing was going to a pre-civilization time of paganistic "values." This is why it is so VERY dangerous to think that because something is "older" or to put it in haughty language "more ancient" that it is better. People who want to do that for "spiritual" reasons are usually doing so so that they can throw off some sort of civilized boundary that is chaffing them. Hitler very successfully promoted and enforced a national delusion as a result that had very real and terrible consequences. Whenever someone asks "Why did this happen to the Jews?" they are asking the wrong question. Remember that he closed down Catholic schools, seminaries and churches too, and killed the priests in their own concentration camp area. If Buddhists were there he would have done it to them too. Hitler was seeking a pre-ethos and pre-civilized time, thinking that the nation could tap into it as a vengeful way to strike back as superheros against those who had defeated them in World War I.
Well, I hope this helps. I really wonder what the schools actually ARE teaching students nowadays, but that's a different subject. This has been a problem for a long time. I remember that my niece who graduated from high school in the 1980's asked me and my ex-husband "what a Jew is." She honestly did not know what they were. She managed to graduate from high school without knowing that a Jew is a follower of the religion of Judaism. Yes, the answer was as simple as that. She did not know that "Jewish" is a "religion." So I guess in some ways what they are teaching today must be better than the 1980's except that where they have the facts and international exposure better nowadays, people are teaching who have no understanding of the development of human civilization and probably view it as a whole politically incorrect topic anyway. What a mess.
This is on my mind because I heard a brief interview with Pat Buchanan on CNN about his controversial new book that speculates about how World War II could have been avoided. I think it is always useful to look at historical events from different perspectives and engage in responsible "what if" thinking. In this case Mr. Buchanan was focused on England's actions in committing to protecting Poland due to a treaty. Now, I've not read the book, obviously, and I'm not likely to since I tend not to read most political or speculative history books; they just aren't my thing. So I'm not going to jump to any conclusions about what Mr. Buchanan says on the whole. But I want to teach, as part of my series on logical thinking and tools for better scholarship, people how to engage in the most productive scholarship, such as book writing, and being a "consumer," such as reading such a book.
One thing you have to remember that most of those who lived during the times that led up to World War II are long dead. But I grew up and was educated in school when many average citizens had first hand knowledge and experience of the times that led up to the war. These insights have been preserved and taught. But there is a temptation to be "revisionist" in history in the course of pursuing valid attempts at "new insights." You need to be careful to build your "new insights" on top of the solid scholarship and first hand testimony of what happened, however, not as a substitute.
It is common knowledge that World War II happened in large part because of the damage and hard feelings that resulted from World War I. Responsible history classes cover this in great detail, but I can't be sure what they are teaching in the schools today though *sigh.* So here is some general but first hand information that everyone needs to understand when either producing or enjoying written or visual works about World War II.
World War I was "the first" in many ways. It wasn't just the first world war, the definition of which is a war that pulls in many countries into active conflict, rather that being between two combatants. It was the first war that used "attrition" as a strategy, which is to kill off as many of each other as possible. Before then battles took place as individual strategies and wars were conducted based on conquering and defeating individual units of military or population centers. People planned to conquer city X or defeat army unit B. In World War I the armies dug into land that had no significance at all and then slaughtered each other for days on end, piling up bodies by the thousands. This had never been seen before in human history. An entire generation of British men died in World War I, as did many Germans and French. So World War I brought the idea of a war of attrition (who kills the others the most) into reality.
The second way that WWI was a "first" is that technology became a tool for conducting this attrition. While guns and artillery existed before then, they became more predominant, the advantage of airplanes started to emerge but most of all, war stopped being between "gentlemen" or "officers" and ethics went out the window with the introduction of poison gas. There used to be an ethics of war. But with the concept of the war of attrition, atrocities such as poison gas became vehicles for conducting slaughter. Men were horribly killed and maimed and feelings were very hard and angry as a result, understandably. Germans thought they were "leveling the field" by using poison gas to make up for having less artillery and other resources. It was a horrible mistake.
The third way that WWI was a "first" was that it was the first war to be fought for no reason. It erupted after an assassination of a minor noble because many countries had a complex set of treaties that forced each other to come to the aid of someone somewhere in the food chain if an event occurred. So this ridiculous and horrible war erupted for no reason whatsoever; not to conduct a national strategy (like go after oil), or because of ethnic/racial tensions, or because of a border conflict, or as a land grab, or to overthrow a dictator... there was no reason whatsoever.
The fourth way that WWI was a "first" was that feelings were so high and the indignation so fierce that when Germany was defeated and surrendered it was punished on a scale that had also never been seen in modern warfare. The terms of surrender were deliberately humiliating and made to crush with financial burden the average citizen of Germany, right down to the peasantry. So not only was the country defeated but the entire populace was punished. This is all documented and factual and has been covered in books, the classroom and even PBS types of programming. I'm not giving a great insight here but teaching those who have never had a chance to learn about this in the classroom. Germans were humiliated and crushed under "war reparations" and punishment so that the average citizen suffered enormously, even though they had nothing to do with this stupid war in the first place. A terrible inflation took place in the 1930's and I have members of my family that told me what it was like. The money was totally worthless. It would take a wheelbarrow of money to buy one loaf of bread (and that's literally, not a figure of speech). No one could afford toilet paper so they used the money bills as sheets of toilet paper. They could not afford wallpaper so they pasted money to the walls when they had to patch an area. I have in storage a few of these like "million marks" bills that my family had kept from those times. The defeated citizens of Germany suffered and seethed.
It is those reasons that led to people listening to the dangerous bum Hitler who never would have listened to him otherwise. Hitler tapped into the suffering of the people and their zero self-esteem in order to build them up in this Teutonic superhero image. It's much like what kids do today when they pretend to be superheroes in video games except Hitler convinced an entire people that they too were meant to be superheroes, and not the humiliated and degraded conquered people that they were as a result of their defeat in World War I. This is a well known fact and was taught in many classrooms, including those I attended as a child and later as a college student, and it was taught as a cautionary tale about what happens if you humiliate a defeated people. You better be careful because they will come back with a vengeance and look for someone to blame and kick back in return for the kicking that they have received.
Carl Jung found a way to describe this in his psychoanalytical and mythological terms. Jung argued that the people self hypnotized themselves into being "possessed" by the Norse god Wotan. This is a perfectly valid, though not terribly useful, way to view how the defeated German brains were receptive to Hitler's mental video game of the Teutonic superhero. I say it is not helpful because it does not inform public policy matters in a practical way. We don't really need to know just what brain circuits and emotional buttons Hitler pressed. Those circuits and buttons would not have been there if the factors I listed above that preceded Hitler in World War I had not happened: a war of attrition of millions of deaths, poison gas and the abandonment of wartime ethics, going to war without a cause due to mindlessly following alliances and treaties, and punishing the populace after the defeat of their government and military.
So any "analysis" of the "cause" of Hitler and World War II would be totally inaccurate if it is not building on top of the facts that I have explained above. It's not like there was a decision or an event that was a sliding door about World War II and the Holocaust, "yes" or "no." World War II was a direct continuation of the breakdown of military ethos that took place in World War I. The concept of being "a gentleman" and "battlefield ethics" and "justifiable war" fell completely apart in World War I. Once there was "no holds barred" warfare, as in World War I, that laid the field for the exponential horrors of World War II with one difference. The battlefield in World War II cleaned up (no poison gas, no slaughters as military strategy) in Europe, but it was Japan's turn to have a breakdown of their military ethos, causing the horrors that they perpetrated in the Pacific theater of World War II. So basically Japan had the mental breakdown of military ethics in World War II that Europe had in World War I. In Europe the breakdown of the military ethos became a breakdown of civilian ethos, where Hitler tapped the humiliated and bankrupt people of German to turn on each other and their neighboring countries. So for Europe World War I broke the military "code of conduct" and World War II was "revenge upon the innocent" and therefore the breakdown of civilization "code of conduct." So you can see Germany obeying Geneva conventions and having military POW camps while at the same time tearing all sense of decency apart through the invasion and oppression of other countries for "elbow room" as they called it and the internal and external Holocaust.
Remember that Hitler killed the weak and disabled (both mentally and physically) first. People who lose their moral balance and are trying to "uplift" themselves tend to do it by feeling "superior" by raising themselves up and pushing "someone else" down. That's human nature, where someone with issues will tend to pull down someone around them in order to feel better than themselves. But this was on a monstrous scale because as I explained World War I broke the military ethos and code of conduct, which then allowed the breakdown of "gentlemanly" or "civilized" behavior. Remember that Hitler sneered at civilization, as he turned the country away from the bastions of civilizations (church and code of conduct) and toward the past, which is paganistic beliefs. Pagans killed the weak in sacrifice too. So Hitler started by killing the weak, the "flawed" (physically disabled, mentally disabled, and 'undesirables' such as homosexuals) and the religious. So he killed Catholics and Jews alike. Hitler leveraged prejudice but in a way that was designed to raise the German psyche up from the mud and become some sort of purified pagan superhero. Jews were persecuted in a large part because they were part of the fabric of civilization. Jews were "cultured" pious and venerated learning, even if they were of the peasantry. Hitler sought to smash all vestiges of "civilization" just as World War I had done so on the battlefield. He felt that he could turn the dial back to a "purer" time, but what he was doing was going to a pre-civilization time of paganistic "values." This is why it is so VERY dangerous to think that because something is "older" or to put it in haughty language "more ancient" that it is better. People who want to do that for "spiritual" reasons are usually doing so so that they can throw off some sort of civilized boundary that is chaffing them. Hitler very successfully promoted and enforced a national delusion as a result that had very real and terrible consequences. Whenever someone asks "Why did this happen to the Jews?" they are asking the wrong question. Remember that he closed down Catholic schools, seminaries and churches too, and killed the priests in their own concentration camp area. If Buddhists were there he would have done it to them too. Hitler was seeking a pre-ethos and pre-civilized time, thinking that the nation could tap into it as a vengeful way to strike back as superheros against those who had defeated them in World War I.
Well, I hope this helps. I really wonder what the schools actually ARE teaching students nowadays, but that's a different subject. This has been a problem for a long time. I remember that my niece who graduated from high school in the 1980's asked me and my ex-husband "what a Jew is." She honestly did not know what they were. She managed to graduate from high school without knowing that a Jew is a follower of the religion of Judaism. Yes, the answer was as simple as that. She did not know that "Jewish" is a "religion." So I guess in some ways what they are teaching today must be better than the 1980's except that where they have the facts and international exposure better nowadays, people are teaching who have no understanding of the development of human civilization and probably view it as a whole politically incorrect topic anyway. What a mess.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Missouri town has cluster of brain tumor cases
This is an interesting and scary article.
http://www.kmbc.com/health/16330197/detail.html
snip
Town Sees Cluster Of Brain Tumor Cases
More Than 12 Brain Tumor Cases Diagnosed In 7 Months
snip
Doctors are only required to report cancerous brain tumors to the Health Department. Most of the tumors in Cameron are large, but benign. So there is no official agency collecting the data.
Drinking water is one thing all of those diagnosed have in common. That is why a local reservoir, a source of the drinking water, will likely be one focus of the investigation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it will look at any possible runoff near the reservoir and any possibility of contamination from a nearby hog farm. The CDC asked about manufacturing in the area past and present. Insulation used to be produced at a plant on the outskirts of town. Investigators will also look at pesticide use and the combination of chemicals that might be present, and anything those diagnosed with brain tumors have in common.
Cameron's city manager said the city is not jumping to any conclusions, saying maybe it is just an anomaly or an unexplained cluster. But he said the city is fully aware of what he called the recent "flurry" of brain-tumor cases. He said the city clerk is one of those diagnosed.
In the last few days, the Department of Natural Resources had a crew out collecting air, water and soil samples.
Eckerman said that she has been in contact with the majority of people who have come forward with a brain tumor in Cameron or their loved ones. Some are still recovering from brain surgery. Some have had setbacks. Two residents who wanted to tell their stories on camera are back in the hospital and were not able to talk.
***
OK, I have a few reactions to this incident and suggestions to make or things to highlight. The first is that you should notice that it is citizens themselves who tend to notice these things. Public health and government or medical officials tend to do squat about noticing odd and concerning clusters of illness. For example, notice the state Health Department does not track benign tumors, only the cancerous ones, even though a benign tumor is obviously a serious condition too. People who get benign tumors are ill, need surgery etc just as much as those whose tumors end up being cancerous, yet their numbers are not reported or tracked at all. The point I want to make is that US citizens have grown up with some sort of assumption that officials are looking out for the public health and welfare while in fact they are not since they don't even collect many of the basic statistics.
It reminds me of the huge controversy about thirty years ago when the first statistics for cancer were really collected and discussed and clusters of breast cancer were discovered in parts of Long Island, New York. It seems to me that as a country we have not really progressed much from those days when citizens themselves are the ones to notice clusters of concern and then it gets in the media, but there are few answers and many questions. I think that if anything public health is less a priority these days than it was several decades ago in this country. People need to start asking questions and become self empowered and informed on a grassroots level. (I feel so old typing this. "Grassroots" level advocacy was so much the catch word thirty to forty years ago.) However, it seems that we really need to once again have a grassroots movement toward self and community monitoring of health issues.
Another point I want to make is to have you notice the variety of things the officials will explore that are environmental factors. This shows that there are many things that may or may not be significant and it is very hard to find a "smoking gun" when one is studying cancer. I may have mentioned this before in my blogging but it is worth repeating. Around thirty years ago when people really turned their attention toward the proliferation of breast cancer (First Lady Betty Ford being such a ground breaker in this topic) there were studies that showed that Japanese women had very little breast cancer, while American women had high rates of breast cancer. Some studies showed, however, that as Japanese women moved to the United States their rate of breast cancer started to increase. This set off a lot of speculation about the impact of diet. Years later researchers in general look toward genetic influences too. It is very likely that cancer has a component that is genetic tendency and a component that is environmental trigger. So the people in this town of Cameron have a really complicated situation to analyze. Often the researchers never really reach a single factor or conclusion, to the pain and frustration of those who are suffering from an illness.
Larry King had an interesting show tonight about whether cell phones have an influence on the anecdotal increases in brain cancers that many are observing (for example this show had the widow of the attorney Johnny Cochran). I've been very uncomfortable for many years with the proliferation of cell phones and also wireless devices. I noticed that doctors on the Larry King show danced around saying "yes" or "no," but admitted to using earpieces and so forth to mitigate possible effects. Rural and small town people need to look at this too as they explore possible causes of clusters of brain tumors.
Another thing to keep in mind is that it is difficult for pollutants and organisms to get into the brain. This is why antibiotics usually do not work for infections above the neck region, since the body has a strenuous barrier against chemicals, organisms and pollutants from getting into the brain. If you think about this, it ought to make you cautious about engaging in behavior that can stimulate overcoming the brain and head area's natural defenses. For example, smokers and those who use marijuana or other substances are basically stamping down a pathway between your body and your brain via the substance abuse. Same with alcohol. When researchers look at the causes of brain tumors they need to keep that in mind. Something as harmless as having once been a cigarette smoker may have weakened the natural protective barriers that exist in the brain and head region since the smoke is basically forcing a way into the body and through the bloodstream to the brain. For lack of a better word, think of certain substances as being "abrasive." They roughen up and overcome a body's natural balance and defenses. These must be really soberly considered in any thorough research. So as everyone is, correctly, speaking more about brain tumors, especially in the light of the Ted Kennedy revelation of his condition, people need to also think back over diet and behavior patterns, not in a blaming way, but to have a complete picture of the dynamics that may have caused an individual case or more importantly what might be behind a clustering of cases.
I've offered a number of pointers about how to analyze a problem like this, and the article lists a number of environmental factors that will, correctly, be explored. So you can see there is no shortage of potential causes and triggers of cancers in general, and specifically brain tumors, both benign and cancerous. There is no need to bark up the wrong tree by thinking about "mystical" and "magical" or "karma" causes. It is sad to say that many research dollars toward cancer research have been wasted because there are often secret beliefs of even those who seem the most scholarly on the surface about ridiculous "causes" of cancer, including "astrology" and "past lives." It sounds insane and I agree, and I would never have guessed it until I overheard that I was actually accused of "causing" people to get cancer. People are so much more ignorant, primitive, deluded and sorcery obsessed than any time in their history, and that includes Colonial times. I can't really explain it except to say that it is true that "nature abhors a vacuum." When there is an empty space, such as the space that has been created by the rejection of organized religion and God's role in the public square, other things rush into the vacuum to fill the space. Superstition and sorcery return, sucked into the vacuum in the human spirit caused by their pushing away of God. Then the boundaries between delusion and fact break down. Religion and faith in God used to occupy a well understood component of human life. One could be, and often was, for example, a very faithful and believing man or woman and simultaneously a well educated doctor or researcher. But when one rejects God and organized religion, one soon contaminates the rational and scholarly part of your life with superstition and magical thinking. ("Magical thinking" is the belief that non factual influences cause real events. For example, children go through a magical thinking phase as part of their growing up until they learn how the world around them actually works. Like they will see something impossible in a cartoon and believe it until a certain age when they realize it can't be done but is simply there to be funny.) Many adults in this generation have fallen into magical thinking and it has infested even the scholarly circles that humans rely on for protection in public health matters. Don't waste your time, money and your lives or your loved ones' lives any further with supporting maniacs who think "cancer" can be "determined" to be in someone's astrology sign, for example. I wish I was joking or expressing hyperbole how common this magical thinking epidemic has become. But I'm not.
Hope you found this blogging posting helpful.
http://www.kmbc.com/health/16330197/detail.html
snip
Town Sees Cluster Of Brain Tumor Cases
More Than 12 Brain Tumor Cases Diagnosed In 7 Months
snip
Doctors are only required to report cancerous brain tumors to the Health Department. Most of the tumors in Cameron are large, but benign. So there is no official agency collecting the data.
Drinking water is one thing all of those diagnosed have in common. That is why a local reservoir, a source of the drinking water, will likely be one focus of the investigation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it will look at any possible runoff near the reservoir and any possibility of contamination from a nearby hog farm. The CDC asked about manufacturing in the area past and present. Insulation used to be produced at a plant on the outskirts of town. Investigators will also look at pesticide use and the combination of chemicals that might be present, and anything those diagnosed with brain tumors have in common.
Cameron's city manager said the city is not jumping to any conclusions, saying maybe it is just an anomaly or an unexplained cluster. But he said the city is fully aware of what he called the recent "flurry" of brain-tumor cases. He said the city clerk is one of those diagnosed.
In the last few days, the Department of Natural Resources had a crew out collecting air, water and soil samples.
Eckerman said that she has been in contact with the majority of people who have come forward with a brain tumor in Cameron or their loved ones. Some are still recovering from brain surgery. Some have had setbacks. Two residents who wanted to tell their stories on camera are back in the hospital and were not able to talk.
***
OK, I have a few reactions to this incident and suggestions to make or things to highlight. The first is that you should notice that it is citizens themselves who tend to notice these things. Public health and government or medical officials tend to do squat about noticing odd and concerning clusters of illness. For example, notice the state Health Department does not track benign tumors, only the cancerous ones, even though a benign tumor is obviously a serious condition too. People who get benign tumors are ill, need surgery etc just as much as those whose tumors end up being cancerous, yet their numbers are not reported or tracked at all. The point I want to make is that US citizens have grown up with some sort of assumption that officials are looking out for the public health and welfare while in fact they are not since they don't even collect many of the basic statistics.
It reminds me of the huge controversy about thirty years ago when the first statistics for cancer were really collected and discussed and clusters of breast cancer were discovered in parts of Long Island, New York. It seems to me that as a country we have not really progressed much from those days when citizens themselves are the ones to notice clusters of concern and then it gets in the media, but there are few answers and many questions. I think that if anything public health is less a priority these days than it was several decades ago in this country. People need to start asking questions and become self empowered and informed on a grassroots level. (I feel so old typing this. "Grassroots" level advocacy was so much the catch word thirty to forty years ago.) However, it seems that we really need to once again have a grassroots movement toward self and community monitoring of health issues.
Another point I want to make is to have you notice the variety of things the officials will explore that are environmental factors. This shows that there are many things that may or may not be significant and it is very hard to find a "smoking gun" when one is studying cancer. I may have mentioned this before in my blogging but it is worth repeating. Around thirty years ago when people really turned their attention toward the proliferation of breast cancer (First Lady Betty Ford being such a ground breaker in this topic) there were studies that showed that Japanese women had very little breast cancer, while American women had high rates of breast cancer. Some studies showed, however, that as Japanese women moved to the United States their rate of breast cancer started to increase. This set off a lot of speculation about the impact of diet. Years later researchers in general look toward genetic influences too. It is very likely that cancer has a component that is genetic tendency and a component that is environmental trigger. So the people in this town of Cameron have a really complicated situation to analyze. Often the researchers never really reach a single factor or conclusion, to the pain and frustration of those who are suffering from an illness.
Larry King had an interesting show tonight about whether cell phones have an influence on the anecdotal increases in brain cancers that many are observing (for example this show had the widow of the attorney Johnny Cochran). I've been very uncomfortable for many years with the proliferation of cell phones and also wireless devices. I noticed that doctors on the Larry King show danced around saying "yes" or "no," but admitted to using earpieces and so forth to mitigate possible effects. Rural and small town people need to look at this too as they explore possible causes of clusters of brain tumors.
Another thing to keep in mind is that it is difficult for pollutants and organisms to get into the brain. This is why antibiotics usually do not work for infections above the neck region, since the body has a strenuous barrier against chemicals, organisms and pollutants from getting into the brain. If you think about this, it ought to make you cautious about engaging in behavior that can stimulate overcoming the brain and head area's natural defenses. For example, smokers and those who use marijuana or other substances are basically stamping down a pathway between your body and your brain via the substance abuse. Same with alcohol. When researchers look at the causes of brain tumors they need to keep that in mind. Something as harmless as having once been a cigarette smoker may have weakened the natural protective barriers that exist in the brain and head region since the smoke is basically forcing a way into the body and through the bloodstream to the brain. For lack of a better word, think of certain substances as being "abrasive." They roughen up and overcome a body's natural balance and defenses. These must be really soberly considered in any thorough research. So as everyone is, correctly, speaking more about brain tumors, especially in the light of the Ted Kennedy revelation of his condition, people need to also think back over diet and behavior patterns, not in a blaming way, but to have a complete picture of the dynamics that may have caused an individual case or more importantly what might be behind a clustering of cases.
I've offered a number of pointers about how to analyze a problem like this, and the article lists a number of environmental factors that will, correctly, be explored. So you can see there is no shortage of potential causes and triggers of cancers in general, and specifically brain tumors, both benign and cancerous. There is no need to bark up the wrong tree by thinking about "mystical" and "magical" or "karma" causes. It is sad to say that many research dollars toward cancer research have been wasted because there are often secret beliefs of even those who seem the most scholarly on the surface about ridiculous "causes" of cancer, including "astrology" and "past lives." It sounds insane and I agree, and I would never have guessed it until I overheard that I was actually accused of "causing" people to get cancer. People are so much more ignorant, primitive, deluded and sorcery obsessed than any time in their history, and that includes Colonial times. I can't really explain it except to say that it is true that "nature abhors a vacuum." When there is an empty space, such as the space that has been created by the rejection of organized religion and God's role in the public square, other things rush into the vacuum to fill the space. Superstition and sorcery return, sucked into the vacuum in the human spirit caused by their pushing away of God. Then the boundaries between delusion and fact break down. Religion and faith in God used to occupy a well understood component of human life. One could be, and often was, for example, a very faithful and believing man or woman and simultaneously a well educated doctor or researcher. But when one rejects God and organized religion, one soon contaminates the rational and scholarly part of your life with superstition and magical thinking. ("Magical thinking" is the belief that non factual influences cause real events. For example, children go through a magical thinking phase as part of their growing up until they learn how the world around them actually works. Like they will see something impossible in a cartoon and believe it until a certain age when they realize it can't be done but is simply there to be funny.) Many adults in this generation have fallen into magical thinking and it has infested even the scholarly circles that humans rely on for protection in public health matters. Don't waste your time, money and your lives or your loved ones' lives any further with supporting maniacs who think "cancer" can be "determined" to be in someone's astrology sign, for example. I wish I was joking or expressing hyperbole how common this magical thinking epidemic has become. But I'm not.
Hope you found this blogging posting helpful.
Have "vampire" novelists to the young no shame?
I cannot believe that people are still "writing" and peddling romance/young people's "novels" that have characters that are vampires.
Is not the culture of the young depressed and empty enough without perpetuating the empty mythology of spiritual or physical vampires?
There is nothing else that you can write about but someone who is a vampire?
You have no responsibility for taking children's money and filling their minds with the angst of an existence of characters they care about that happen to be blood or spirit sucking vampires?
Have you no shame at all? You should. And you are so untalented and morally bankrupt that you cannot think of any other themes than vampires? You disgust me.
By the way, I know where many of you "authors" get your ideas from about "vampires" and just because someone who is your muse has tormented and depraved misbeliefs and thoughts does not mean you should believe them, encourage them, profit from them, and poison the minds of the young with those thoughts of your own. Our young have enough stress, despair and depression coupled with substance abuse and suicide temptations without your adding to the culture of death and the feeling of inability to tell reality from fantasy.
You are just pimps of despair in my opinion. Enjoy your money and your "glory" as an "author."
Is not the culture of the young depressed and empty enough without perpetuating the empty mythology of spiritual or physical vampires?
There is nothing else that you can write about but someone who is a vampire?
You have no responsibility for taking children's money and filling their minds with the angst of an existence of characters they care about that happen to be blood or spirit sucking vampires?
Have you no shame at all? You should. And you are so untalented and morally bankrupt that you cannot think of any other themes than vampires? You disgust me.
By the way, I know where many of you "authors" get your ideas from about "vampires" and just because someone who is your muse has tormented and depraved misbeliefs and thoughts does not mean you should believe them, encourage them, profit from them, and poison the minds of the young with those thoughts of your own. Our young have enough stress, despair and depression coupled with substance abuse and suicide temptations without your adding to the culture of death and the feeling of inability to tell reality from fantasy.
You are just pimps of despair in my opinion. Enjoy your money and your "glory" as an "author."
Monday, May 26, 2008
Continue to be so pleased with China officials
I continue to be so impressed and pleased with the collective and individual responses and participation of the Chinese government officials. They are reacting with leadership, sincerity and warm heartedness to the earthquake victims and community during the disaster and recovery, and are thus showing much honor.
Here is an up to date example of what I am speaking about, the visit, with pictures, of China's top legislator Wu Bangguo:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/26/content_8257780.htm
I am also so very pleased that the government has moved swiftly to announce relaxing of the one child rule for those parents who have suffered the loss or injury of their child. They have shown much compassion at quickly making this announcement to ease the pain as best they could of loving parents who are suffering so very much.
As I read of the brave men who are each one marching with over twenty pounds of explosive to try to break dangerous quake lake debris jams and clogs I continue to marvel at the courage and strength all of the rescuers demonstrate with hardly any rest.
I know that everyone is going through a terrible time, especially with continuing aftershocks. The area is very unstable and will continue so for a while. I know that the government and volunteers will do all that they can to soothe those who have survived such terrible trauma and are physically and emotionally scarred. I have always had a very warm place in my heart for the Chinese people and I continue to pray for your safety and recovery, and for continuing wisdom by officials as they make crucial decisions for the next few years of recovery and rebuilding.
Here is an up to date example of what I am speaking about, the visit, with pictures, of China's top legislator Wu Bangguo:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/26/content_8257780.htm
I am also so very pleased that the government has moved swiftly to announce relaxing of the one child rule for those parents who have suffered the loss or injury of their child. They have shown much compassion at quickly making this announcement to ease the pain as best they could of loving parents who are suffering so very much.
As I read of the brave men who are each one marching with over twenty pounds of explosive to try to break dangerous quake lake debris jams and clogs I continue to marvel at the courage and strength all of the rescuers demonstrate with hardly any rest.
I know that everyone is going through a terrible time, especially with continuing aftershocks. The area is very unstable and will continue so for a while. I know that the government and volunteers will do all that they can to soothe those who have survived such terrible trauma and are physically and emotionally scarred. I have always had a very warm place in my heart for the Chinese people and I continue to pray for your safety and recovery, and for continuing wisdom by officials as they make crucial decisions for the next few years of recovery and rebuilding.
Many die who never once turn to God
There are many sad deaths in the news. Some are religious and faithful people, and some are not. No one should draw conclusions about this, assuming that faith or lack of it makes a difference in whether a person becomes ill, or experiences an accident or natural disaster. What it should do is give you pause if you are a person who has never once had a moment of connection with God and your faith. It is very problematic when materialistic and smug secular people die who have never once referred to God, except as a punchline in a joke or in a curse. I read about someone who overdoses, for example, and there's no mention of a church or faith in God in their obituary. That's not why they overdosed, but what I am saying is that many people suddenly run out of time. That is why children are supposed to be raised within faith, so they have that relationship with God, should their time suddenly be cut short. Obviously they should be raised with faith and religious instruction so that they have better and more meaningful lives too. But in this time of many disasters I have to remind people that responsible parents do not "leave it to them to decide" and thus have children grow up without knowledge of God or their own faith. You can't send them to "catch up faith school" if they suddenly are gone. I've never read so many obituaries where the people have clearly not even had the name of God on their lips once in their life or in their minds. It's not a good thing, and God has to dispense accordingly when each person dies, circumstances notwithstanding.
Smokers next door
I live in an apartment and have "new neighbors" who constantly smoke cigarettes and cigars, the smoke of which sometimes fills up my apartment for hours on end. It's part of their bad neighbor policy to do this, so what can I say.
It has made me nostalgic for when my ex-husband used to smoke too much cigarettes, and when it would bother me he would switch to a pipe smoking Prince Albert tobacco. That had a really nice aroma. He was the one who told me the classic joke about "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" I think of him when I see that product on store shelves. Pipe smoke just is not as deliberately aggressive and acrid as is cigarette and cigar smoke. So obviously that also gives some insight into pipe smokers having better character than cigarette and cigar smokers. Probably less pipe smoking mass murderers and perverts than those who smoke cigarettes and cigars, I reckon.
It has made me nostalgic for when my ex-husband used to smoke too much cigarettes, and when it would bother me he would switch to a pipe smoking Prince Albert tobacco. That had a really nice aroma. He was the one who told me the classic joke about "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" I think of him when I see that product on store shelves. Pipe smoke just is not as deliberately aggressive and acrid as is cigarette and cigar smoke. So obviously that also gives some insight into pipe smokers having better character than cigarette and cigar smokers. Probably less pipe smoking mass murderers and perverts than those who smoke cigarettes and cigars, I reckon.
Einstein letter
I had a quick look at an article about a letter that Albert Einstein wrote a year or so before his death where he referred to God and scripture in disparaging ways. People have leaped onto this, just as they have on his previous favorable comments about God when he was younger.
Are you all total idiots? Do you not understand that even a genius like Einstein goes through phases of life and thought too? It's like you have been glued so much to TV that you think everyone is cut out of celluloid at birth and just gets wrinkles needing botox as they age. You have no concept of how people have cycles and moods throughout their lives, and have moments of feeling one way or the other about many things, including God. Einstein had relationships with people, including a woman, near the end of his life that he did not have in his earlier days. His day to day involvements would also inform his mood about God. When people, even geniuses, have challenging personal situations, they start to look for wiggle room in their belief in God and his instructions for humans as expressed in the scriptures. Who cannot understand that? Goodness. I really despair of where human insight and intelligence has gone.
Are you all total idiots? Do you not understand that even a genius like Einstein goes through phases of life and thought too? It's like you have been glued so much to TV that you think everyone is cut out of celluloid at birth and just gets wrinkles needing botox as they age. You have no concept of how people have cycles and moods throughout their lives, and have moments of feeling one way or the other about many things, including God. Einstein had relationships with people, including a woman, near the end of his life that he did not have in his earlier days. His day to day involvements would also inform his mood about God. When people, even geniuses, have challenging personal situations, they start to look for wiggle room in their belief in God and his instructions for humans as expressed in the scriptures. Who cannot understand that? Goodness. I really despair of where human insight and intelligence has gone.
Humans do not deserve to keep the Bible
Yesterday while at prayer I came to the realization that while humans have never merited grace, that grace only comes from God, they have now sunk to such a new low in their civilization that they no longer even deserve the word as written in the Bible. As I had this contemplation during my prayer, I have to tell you that God did not disagree.
If every single Bible disappeared off of earth (a Bible rapture) it would serve all of you right. You don't appreciate it when you have it, so why should you have it anymore? You are constantly writing your own sects, cults, "secret gospels," digging up pagan belief and restoring idolatry so obviously the Bible gives you no comfort or information anymore. So you might as well not have it at all.
Oh, does that suddenly feel a bit disconcerting? Can you imagine a world with no Bible, even if you yourself are ever so spiritual and wise that you don't need to believe in the Bible or look at it yourself? Does not that image of this world with no Bible give you a sickening feeling? Well, it should.
If every single Bible disappeared off of earth (a Bible rapture) it would serve all of you right. You don't appreciate it when you have it, so why should you have it anymore? You are constantly writing your own sects, cults, "secret gospels," digging up pagan belief and restoring idolatry so obviously the Bible gives you no comfort or information anymore. So you might as well not have it at all.
Oh, does that suddenly feel a bit disconcerting? Can you imagine a world with no Bible, even if you yourself are ever so spiritual and wise that you don't need to believe in the Bible or look at it yourself? Does not that image of this world with no Bible give you a sickening feeling? Well, it should.
Mormon "proxy baptism" is a CULT belief
This article reports how the Catholic Church has forbidden parishes from providing birth and other records to Mormons for use in their genealogy database due to the Mormon desire to "baptize" into their LDS faith everyone, including the dead.
http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_9363471?IADID=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dailynews.com
***
Friends, as Jesus said, those who are not against us are with us, when he told the disciples not to attack non-followers of Jesus who were nonetheless baptizing people in the name of Jesus. So I have refrained from being critical of the Church of Later Day Saints because I understand their love of Jesus. But the LDS Church is based on invalid personal revelation and further, proxy baptism is an example of their CULT non-Christian practice.
This is why it is CULT practice. To assume that baptizing someone who is dead has any disposition at all over their soul is assuming that your human actions have precedent over the judgement that God has already rendered on the soul upon the death of the person. The soul is not hanging around in some waiting room for a measly human to "decide" to "offer" them a baptism. The instant that a person dies they are rendered by God, PERIOD. To think that you have any control over or contact with a soul is an outrageous cult belief. I really have no patience with this.
Oh, and to those "inconvenienced" in their genealogy research? Screw your frigging genealogy research. It's not your ancestors that matter but how you live your life now. I like doing amateur genealogy research too, but I don't give a frig for doing it through them if it is just a front for cheap amoral cultists putting themselves over God.
http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_9363471?IADID=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dailynews.com
***
Friends, as Jesus said, those who are not against us are with us, when he told the disciples not to attack non-followers of Jesus who were nonetheless baptizing people in the name of Jesus. So I have refrained from being critical of the Church of Later Day Saints because I understand their love of Jesus. But the LDS Church is based on invalid personal revelation and further, proxy baptism is an example of their CULT non-Christian practice.
This is why it is CULT practice. To assume that baptizing someone who is dead has any disposition at all over their soul is assuming that your human actions have precedent over the judgement that God has already rendered on the soul upon the death of the person. The soul is not hanging around in some waiting room for a measly human to "decide" to "offer" them a baptism. The instant that a person dies they are rendered by God, PERIOD. To think that you have any control over or contact with a soul is an outrageous cult belief. I really have no patience with this.
Oh, and to those "inconvenienced" in their genealogy research? Screw your frigging genealogy research. It's not your ancestors that matter but how you live your life now. I like doing amateur genealogy research too, but I don't give a frig for doing it through them if it is just a front for cheap amoral cultists putting themselves over God.
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