More perspective how humans have changed

As so often happens, I thought of another angle to present to those of you who are interested in having a fuller perspective and context for thinking about religious, social and political matters. One area I focus on quite a bit is to explain how to interpret the Bible readings and admonitions of God in their correct context. For example, as I blogged a few days ago, it is important to understand that in Biblical times, having a family and offspring was the highest priority of any man or woman, including people who might have had gay tendencies, since sexual gratification was very far down the priority list when people literally lived from one meal to the next, one harvest to the next, or as nearly everyone did until recently, accumulate family sustainability through the work of one's hands, where "leisure time" and "paychecks" were completely unknown. I'd like to now provide some similar context in regard to people's attitudes toward what is called The Lord's Return, the Second Coming, the Apocalypse, the End of Days, or the End of Times.

While humans like to think that they are smarter, more sophisticated, and more imaginative than were the people during Biblical times, they are actually mistaken. Or, rather, I would be more precise to say that people during Biblical times were both more reality based AND more imaginative than modern people. Actually, the increased technology, sophistication, secularization, socialization and education had diminished modern humanity's two polar, but complimentary and necessary, talents of being reality based and imaginative. Instead of being superior in these regards, modern humans are actually inferior in both traits compared to Biblical humans (and by Biblical humans I mean those of any culture or belief system, not just the ancient Israelites or early Christians). Here is why, and how that is linked to humanity's ability to understand the Lord's Return.

As I have explained, but many people have forgotten, or cannot relate to due to poor education plus the pressures of taking modern life for granted, until the past century humans were extremely reality based. The vast majority of the population world wide worked daily in food production. They did not have jobs or receive paychecks, and industrialization had not created jobs that produced products unrelated to basic survival needs. There was no such thing as leisure time, and life was "real" all the time. "Reality" has actually come to mean cynicism, manipulation and unreality (performance art) in modern society. People have become very divorced from the reality of the formula for successful living and thriving and often have no idea where their food even comes from. So people in Biblical time were very reality based and while this is a risky terminology to use, they were "happier." I don't mean the mythical happy peasant toiling in the fields. What I mean is that they knew what dangers were (famine due to a crop failure) and didn't dream up imaginary fears (what if aliens arrive and they don't like humans). As a result people were extremely well balanced and firmly grounded. Children were respected as having a vital role in maintaining and contributing to the household's functioning and the thriving of the family. Children not only knew where bread and butter came from but they helped to make it. Staying close to biological reality is a critical survival skill and necessity for both the human mind and body, but also the spiritual life too. If one is "keeping it real," one is not easily fooled, depressed or deceived.

So if I say that Biblical people and humans in general until the past one hundred years were much more reality based than modern humans, then how can I say they were also more imaginative, if they had to have their noses to the grindstone all the time? Aren't people who dream up wild and crazy entertainment scenarios, great, sophisticated and/or "edgy" pieces of art, or musical compositions much more "imaginative" than Biblical people. Not so fast with that assumption, because I would explain to you that they are not. Modern people are not "imaginative," they are all like cows in a herd. That is because they are wild and crazy and "imaginative" within invisible boundaries and shared values and assumptions that limit rather than free them. For example, many think that "pushing boundaries in art" means the same as increasing the shock value or the novelty value. In other words, they are bounded by a hidden objective of manipulating an audience or media reaction. They have eliminated the mysterious in life, and when one does that one creates boundaries. It is like when people didn't realize that the lights they saw in the sky were planets and suns just like earth and "our" sun. Another saying that relates is that "when you are a hammer everything looks like a nail." Humans manipulate the same theories and activities over and over again and call that being imaginative.

Biblical people did not try to be "imaginative" at all, and therefore they were actually more imaginative in their potential than modern humans. How does this work? Biblical people believed that "anything is possible with God." They did not try to "imagine" the "wildest" or "most creative" thing that they could. They felt that God "had that covered." Look at the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. No one could ever have "thought up a plot line" where an angel would appear to a young, pure, pious betrothed girl, in the first place, tell her that she is full of grace and chosen to be the mother of the Messiah, in the second place, and shortly after prophesy so movingly and accurately as Mary did in her canticle at her visitation to Elizabeth. And what was Mary's response to the angel? Just a single question, which is "how can that be because I do not know man" (she was committed to a life of virginity). An angel appears and announces the Messiah will be born to her, and this young girl "unimaginative" and "unsophisticated" takes it all in stride, just asking how it would be done. When one is reality based yet entirely open to the power and might of God, one does not try to create one's own "imaginative creations," but one is entirely open and receptive to whatever incredible and unheard of event that God sends. Mary is a case study and model for many virtues, but she is also a cultural marker to show how a very reality based people took in stride the most incredible and mighty divine events as they happened. This is why Mary, true Mary, should never be ignored or underestimated. In addition to her model of grace and piety, modern humans have a living snapshot of how a young religious girl reacted to the greatest salvation news, brought by an archangel, that while unique to her is also instructive as being representative of how open the ancient pious people were to incredible events that defy "imagination."

So with this in mind, consider now how modern humans are constantly seeking signs, omens, clues, indications and "opportunities" in the promised Second Coming of Christ at the End of Days. If you detect that I'm disapproving of this tendency, you are right. But, you would object, didn't the Apostles constantly ask Jesus about it and write about it themselves? Yes, indeed they did and the Second Coming (and associated Apocalyptic topics) were very important and "hot" during the time of Jesus and for some decades afterward. But here are the differences in mindset and mentality between Biblical people and modern humans.

1. Biblical people were still incredibly reality based even as they had these conversations. Remember that the apostles were fishing to feed their families within days after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. Saul, who became Paul, continued to make tents while he evangelized in order to have an income to sustain his preaching. They could discuss the loftiest theology and prophecy, but they still were firmly rooted in subsistence living, just as everyone was throughout most of human history. So Mary, even bearing the Savior, hurried to help her pregnant cousin who was further along in her pregnancy by six months. There were no armchair philosophers; everyone had to work the land with the sweat of their brow even as they accompanied Jesus and spread his message. Many modern people have no clue or remainder of reality, since they get paychecks, hop into cars, have food they purchase, buy ready made clothes, buy houses and furnishings. Modern conveniences create an inevitable air of unreality in modern humans that absolutely did not exist in even the relatively wealthier families of Biblical times.

2. Modern human "creativity" and "imagination" is actually a narrowing of choices and scenarios rather than what they think, which is an expanding and broadening endeavor. Here's what I mean. St. John saw a great vision when he was brought by an angel toward heaven, which he documents in the Book of Revelation (also called The Apocalypse). He was strictly a "reporter," though he did ask the occasional question. Incredible and mysterious things are shown to him. Now, fast forward to modern times. People start digging and digging and digging at what is in this and other books trying to "match" what John saw to anything real or imaginary that people can think of, regarding people, places, timing, events and materials. But by doing that they are by definition "limiting" themselves to speculating about a small set of things that they either have knowledge of or can "imagine." In their arrogance they figure that they can "work out" what God "means." How can anyone think that? How can anyone think that trotting out the usual tired suspects of aliens, asteroids, bad Muslims, bad Catholics, war in this country or disease in that country, demonizing loud mouth politicians as being the anti-Christ brings anyone actually closer to what God in the infinite fullness of HIS time and HIS will can or will do to fulfill what is seen in these or any other prophecy? How puny is the imagination of humans compared to what God sees and knows. Biblical people did not dare assume that they can "work the angles" and "think of all the scenarios" of what God will wrought during the End of Days or any time else. So as a result, Biblical people are more imaginative in potential because they know that people cannot predict or even mimic the mindset of God in the fullness of his power and his divine will.

3. So we see the Biblical people and their descendants be able to be extremely interested in the Second Coming and End of Days, and be anxious to be "ready" (as in judged worthy to be saved and brought resurrected to the New Kingdom), yet on the other hand, "get on with positive living." What do we see modern humans doing in increasing numbers? "Give up" and almost gloat and hope for the End of Days or what I describe in my previous blog posting as "Jesus comes back to close up shop." Modern people have totally skewed what "being prepared" means. Biblical people understood that they will not know when the end comes, so they need to live worthy lives. This doesn't mean shuffling along thinking, "Ha, I'm a blameless Christian and so 'I'm covered.'" Even the Apostles who had every right to think that did not do so, and emphasized only the hope and trust in God through Christ Jesus. Modern humans are not increasingly interested in the Second Coming because they have perfected their grace and charity and are "ready to go." They are increasingly obsessed with the Second Coming because they have given up on so many of the terrible problems of the world and the failings of humanity to exercise good God given free will judiciously. So there is this odd detachment from the End of Days being what it really is THE END to thinking "Oh, this is when the fireworks begins and Jesus fixes everything." Thank God that no matter how intense the Apostles' interest was in the Second Coming that they did not draw the same conclusions as modern humans.

Instead, they could have lofty conversations about the Return of the Lord on one hand, but get on with day to day reality based life making the world a better and safer place for their children and grandchildren, and for the generations after them. They went on to build the Church. Can you imagine what would have happened if every time a bishop was martyred that the early Christians would "figure" that "this was a sign of an imminent arrival of the end of days?"

And not just Christians but people around the world in the past two thousand years have only worked to better their lives and those of their children, not "wait around" and "decode" when the miserable and glorious "end" will finally come. Every time someone is obsessing about a modern event being "part of Revelation" I want to say, "Well, Einstein, while you were doing your book promotion tour another thousand babies were aborted, and another ten thousand children died of famine, and more of the oceans have been depleted of their fish because no one's working on restocking, and etc. etc. etc." It's not like God is in a hurry to allow the end to the much loved creation that he himself has made! So why are people such depressive do nothings? Because they have lost contact with the reality of life, and they have lost their spiritual way.

Brothers and sisters, the Biblical people were much more better prepared for the Second Coming and the End of Days than these so called good modern people are today. Both Jesus and the Apostles said to live in hope. That's "live" in hope, not sit around in stagnation waiting for God to clean up the mess. "Live" in hope, not hang around waiting for the best. "Live" in hope, not figure "I'm OK, you're OK." "Live" in hope, not force bad things to happen to people thinking that will help "trigger" the Second Coming. Biblical people and indeed pious people through the centuries had it right as they retained their optimism and hopes for themselves, their families, and their children, even when the world went through a soul breaking experience such as the Holocaust. No one, not even those who had the biggest right to feel despair, sat around after surviving the Holocaust and "hoped" that the world will end and "God will fix it." They pieced together their shattered lives and families and said, "Never again," not "Oh well, this sucked, let's wait for God to destroy the world and rapture or resurrect us and our friends and family." World War II veterans and survivors had more optimism and "get going and make it better" than any generation has since then. How have modern humans become such a bunch of depressives that the end of the world sounds like "a good idea?" Well, basically they shattered the family, became a culture of death, and lost contact with the reality of biological life and how to make it thrive.

I hope this helps to provide some valuable context and perspective. God knows it is desperately needed.

The Meaning of Life

It is not surprising to observe that humanity is in a terrible time of crisis. There are many reasons for the specific crises but there are two underlying causes of all of human’s problems and questionable future. One is diminishing rather than increasing understanding of what a human being is and the human’s relationship with God. The other cause is the wounded (imperfect) nature of human being, which only increases as humans think they are becoming more superior. This blog posting is meant to shed some loving but very clear light on “what is the meaning of life.”

When a human is conceived, the moment that the embryo “quickens” is when God sends a soul into that human’s body. Quickening refers to the attachment of the embryo to the mother’s inner uterine lining, and then its first growth to indicate the process of life is engaged, which is the first division and growth of cells. At the moment that the embryo is attached to the wall of the mother’s womb, it goes into “growth” mode, where cells start to divide and multiply in order to start the growth of the human. It is at that very moment that the embryo is considered at the start of its human life and is “viable” in God’s eyes. At that first step of growth, the quickening, God sends a newly born soul into the body plus assigns a guardian angel. That is the beginning of the life of a human in God’s eyes. The guardian angel, by the way, is the one who will shepherd and guide an infant who dies before being self aware to heaven. So no infant, even the pre-born, dies alone, and they are brought to heaven by their angel.

Now, here is the surprising part, though it should not be if anyone really reads the scriptures and thinks about it. With that first implanted and quickened embryo starts an eternal life. Once a soul is created it is eternal. So the implantation and quickening of an embryo, receiving a soul, embarks on an eternal life. The soul starts out in a body, yes, one that will live on average to be at the most one hundred and twenty years in length, as stated in the Bible thousands of years before geriatric medicine was invented. God put a “cap” on human’s life because of original sin, where humans demonstrated that they think they can put their will and bad behavior ahead of God. Now that’s not punishment, but compassion as I’ll explain in a bit. First let me remind the readers that one hundred and twenty years is a good long time, but not even a speck of sand in size compared to the infinite timelessness of eternity. So in reality, all of a human’s lifetime, whether one hundred and twenty years, or dying before one is even given birth to, is actually the preborn infancy of one’s eternal life. In other words, one’s entire life is the process leading up to being born, and when one dies, one is born to God.

The normal gestation of a human baby is nine months, until the baby leaves the womb and becomes a physically separate human being. What I am explaining that everyone’s lifetime is that “nine months.” If a person lives to 65 years old, he has gone through his “nine months” in the womb. If a child lives to only 10 years old, she has gone through her “nine months” in the womb. If a lady lives to 120 years old, she has gone through her “nine months” in the womb. If a man lives to 99 years old he has gone through his “nine months” in the womb. If a baby is aborted, he or she has gone through her “nine months” in the womb. The life span that each person lives is their time in the womb before being born to eternal life. This is why it’s not a matter of being “fair” or “unfair” as to the span of a person’s physical life, because all are born equally into God when they die and pass from this life. God is not being “cruel” but rather, is guaranteeing the ultimate equality. No matter if pre-born or born, if young or old, the entire span of a person’s life is simply the giving of a soul and an angel to a new person and their gestation before being born to eternal life.

Jesus often spoke of the harvest, likening each human to fruit, or grain that grows from a seed until harvest. It is then that the worthiness of the harvest is assessed for the nature of its eternal life. Some people will be as ripe and healthy grains of wheat and they will be harvested for eternal life in heaven. Others will be like an apple which may be small and tart in taste, yet they have in them their own vigorous seeds for their children walking in righteousness… and these apples will be harvested for eternal life in heaven. Some people will be like a pomegranate that grows beautifully, but is bruised by life and perhaps trampled upon, or thrown to the hogs. Those people will be harvested into heaven. But woe to the people who allow worms to grow within them, or who chose to be weeds. For the willfully rotten fruit and the weeds that grow within the wheat will be harvested and thrown into the eternal fire. The Qur’an is consistent with the Bible and with the teachings of Jesus because the Qur’an often describes heaven as the garden that thrives where the righteous are at rest.

So whenever people, either faithful or atheist, are bitter toward God because of the shortness or hardness of a human’s life, they totally do not understand that a lifetime is an “easy” or a “hard” birth, dependent on the circumstances of one’s life. Let’s look again at the trodden pomegranate person example, and imagine this person as a woman suffering in Sudan. Her entire life is a hard birth, and an unjust one, because she is being afflicted by other people. As much as the fruit of her life is being bruised, she will find salvation at the end of her hard birth. But those who oppress her are blackening and rotting with worms their own harvest of their own birth, and they will be flung into eternal fire by angry and righteous angels who will harvest them out.
Therefore while there is no consolation for injustice, there is consolation in the knowledge that this physical life is “only” the birth process, hard or easy, for eternal life. This does not mean that like a human baby in the mother’s womb, however, one is only along for the ride and can claim the ignorance of the baby for whatever deeds one performs. Adam and Eve threw that right away as they decided they could make their own choices. Animals still have that right, because all that they do is innocent, because it is for their survival and reproductive imperative. They are not trying to outplay or outwit God. Yes, Jesus Christ died as the Messiah to wash away, with baptism, original sin. But remember an event from the life of Christ that many have puzzled over. This is when Christ cursed the fig tree that did not bear fruit when Christ was hungry and needed food. The meaning of that event was not that Christ was “unfair to the tree, who has rights” or “in a bad mood” or is “discriminating against figs” but to underscore that food is no good if it is not available when the people hunger. Likewise, all people are equal in their opportunity to yield a harvest that through grace and works merit heaven. Grace gives every human being a soul and an angel, and the opportunity to be righteous and good, and yield a good fruit or grain for harvest, even if humble, bruised, or small. Grace provides that potential and the garden bed. Works determine if the fruit is at the end rotted or at the end worthy of eternal sustenance. The deeds that one does determines if a human chooses to allow themselves to grow as a weed, from start to finish, or to start as a good fruit, but allow its heart to be blackened and rotted through ill deeds toward others, or one’s own internal corruption.

This brings me back to the comment about 120 years being, in general, the maximum to be hoped for life span being a gift rather than a punishment. If you think about it, particularly as society is evolving toward more selfishness and depravity, a long life span only allows the fruit to be exposed to more chance to rot, or to be replaced by weeds. I’ve noticed that even good people are increasingly sucked into the spiritual sewage around the neighbor’s garden. When the great Patriarchs of the Old Testament lived for hundreds of years-sometimes to amazing ages-that is because they allowed their personal garden’s fruit to be permeated with the Holy Spirit, through the physical presence of God, who still walked much among them. So these few people could live a long life span and not risk being corrupted over time because they permeated themselves with only the wholesomeness of the Holy Spirit. Times changed, though, with the bringing of humankind’s “civilization.” I’ve noticed that those who are now young or middle age who crave cures and life lengthening technologies increasingly do not look forward with faith and joy in their birth into God, but want to seek self gratifying activities to go on forever. It is one thing to be kind to the elderly and prolong life, which I completely agree with. It’s another thing to view extended lifetimes as being the “be all and end all” of one’s own self gratification.

So I hope that this blog post causes a much needed radical shift in thinking to clarify what is the meaning of life. Physical life is the initiation of one unique soul, accompanied by an angel, which is a birth process during the lifespan that leads to a harvesting into eternal life. If the person has a birth, easy or hard, that yields good fruit, then the person is harvested into heaven and eternal life of bliss and rest. The vast majority of people in heaven didn’t make themselves the biggest, smartest, or most successful apple in the barrel. Many were humble people living simple lives, trying to do the best they could, raising or being participants in families, who simply remembered that they are the harvest, not the harvester. When a person tries to be the biggest, smartest, or most successful apple in the barrel, like Adam and Eve, they start confusing who is the harvest and who is God, the harvester. This is not so difficult to understand, as the Bible and the Qur’an both spell it out through the generations. Because of human’s inevitable egotism, however, it seems to be increasingly difficult to understand and to live as the good harvest, in the process of a lifetime of being birthed. It’s not exactly a secret. Both the Bible and the Qur’an speak of Prophets who explained and warned, yet were persecuted and thus harvested as good fruit by those who allow their own yield to be rotted. This is why the Catholic Church preaches so much about the blood of martyrs in the harvest. If is not a need to be gory, but rather recognition that the martyrs set the ultimate example of their understanding that life, long or short, is a birthing that brings on death a good harvest, if righteously lived. Even children went willingly to martyrdom, and it’s not because they didn’t have video games to self actualize in their time. Christian martyrs demonstrated that long or short life, easy or hard, that the time alive on earth is of vital importance because it is the gestation of the fruit at the end of life.

The sad slide into abortion society

Here I'm responding to a post on the Right Reason blog, that invites people to speculate as to Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's unclear position on abortion. While I use philosophy and logic a bit in my reply, I think that putting it in perspective of the times and inviting fresh and radical alternatives to abortion is valuable for the thought process.

I'm "of an age" so that I've been able to observe the whole sad slide into the current situation of millions of abortions from the 1960's to now. I think Giuliani is a good example of someone who has traveled that path where now the entire argument is, unfortunately, a binary tree. Things were more complex in the 60's-80's and attitudes/ laws/ social services evolved in a way that reduced this complexity into only two contentious positions. For example, a recent study shows that positive attitudes toward adoption have plummeted. This is an incredible statistic. Nowadays, people are actually responding more positively to killing a baby in an abortion that giving up that baby for adoption. I can remember in my lifetime the exact opposite being true. So as attitudes changed, the social network to provide that alternative dried up. So this branch of what should have been a three alternative decision tree/ argument died away:

o Abortion is legal but so repugnant that it is rarely used and alternatives flourish.

I believe that a confluence of social and anarchy forces created the artificial situation of the binary argument of:

o Abortion legal, or

o Abortion illegal

Those who advocate the overturning of Roe v. Wade are seeking a third alternative, but rather than addressing the social moires and practical ways to support unplanned births, the third "alternative" becomes:

o Abortion legal or illegal on a state by state basis

People under 40 years old will not really remember a time when nearly every family knew a family who "helped someone out" by adopting a baby. This was especially common as a result of inevitable unplanned pregnancies during and after World War II. In the 1970's adoption was still such a desirable activity that the hotbed argument of the time was "Which is best for the baby, adopting within race or is adopting a different race baby better than the child having only foster parents?" I remember the heated arguments, but all of them assumed a living baby being given up for adoption! Now society has devolved so that this argument barely exists, because millions are aborted.

Like so many things, the technology and the trend toward liberated morals overcame society's ability to develop a richness of alternatives. It's like the Internet, where access to vile material is a problem because the pace of the technology outstripped the stewardship role of society and family.

Now, many who were uncomfortable with the "abortion: yes or no" absoluteness of argument bought into the "let's not have any unwanted babies by promoting birth control" argument. Understanding human sexuality and moral trends? Not so much! But this is the slippery slope that many got onto in the 1980's with donations to Planned Parenthood, NOW and other organizations. People who donated in the 1980's and 1990's believed that their donations were primarily going to the "family planning" (ha ha ha, excuse me for laughing but that is what it was called) side of the organization, rather than the abortion side. My ex husband, who was extremely liberal and from the "Workman's Circle" tradition, was proud of his donations (as a cool man) to NOW and Planned Parenthood on "our" behalf. I, as a lifelong Catholic, oppose abortion. But I found that because of this incredibly fast downward spiral of the family, of social moires, and the incredible mainstreaming of abortion, few people could even follow my argument of, "Let's not worry about putting women in jail or back alley abortions, but let's make so many lovely alternatives that the vast majority of women will have even their unplanned babies, even if it means an enormous adoption effort." So I donated on "our" behalf to foster family types of organizations, and I focused on communities where there was still the desire to have a baby rather than abort (such as Native American communities). I've contributed financially to the upbringing of at least 20 children. I'm not bragging, but I'm explaining the logic of those times. There is so little of the way that I chose that it's not even statistically significant, although I applaud and praise every mission for unwed mothers and every effort to save a baby. Legally I opposed rancorous and insulting protests outside of abortion mills, because no woman needs that type of pressure. However, I believe mightily in prayerful demonstrations outside of abortion mills, where the faithful can provide a safe and loving alternative so that a woman might, even at the last minute, choose life.

So Giuliani is like everyone else, stuck in that reductionist cleft stick of argument: abortion legal or abortion illegal. Attempts to drown society in birth control so "no unwanted babies" not only fell by the wayside, but the AIDS crisis further shifted the focus from families/adoption to safe sexual freedom. The most broad minded anyone seems to be able to be now is to postulate that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, that a state by state preference can be expressed, and that indeed would be better than the horror show that exists now. And things like donations to organizations that support abortion are very common from the generation who thought, well, at least subsidizing birth control will solve the problem. And of course, 42 million abortions later, it has not. Abortion has become "birth control."

I wish with all my heart that the legal but repugnant and extremely rare approach had "won" but it never had a chance to develop because point-counterpoint, yes-no, protest, and litigate became the only tools that the majority of people learned to use, overlaying the demise of the family. So even though I oppose abortion and believe that people simply cannot seem to do the right thing and help a woman out who becomes pregnant in a life giving way, I can understand very well how Giuliani's position developed, and I also understand how the stem cell discussion could well have been an eye opener for Mitt Romney. And with pictures of babies in the womb, and the improved viability of preemies, for once technology is helping to re cultivate a social context for the legal fight. But because people can't seem to do the right thing, while I understand "choice" people, I believe that to save society in the long run, abortion should be illegal except in rare exceptions. I've become very disillusioned with people's lack of social charity, in that few followed my example of subsidizing unplanned pregnancies so that babies are carried to term and live. The fact that this approach has completely fallen off the social map, and that people actually "prefer" abortion over adoption should be a wake up call beyond the legal ramifications.

The Real Titanic: Abortion, Infant and Child Abuse

No offense to survivors and relatives of those who perished, as their grief is genuine and honored, as is that grief of any tragedy and loss.

Having said that, besides the bona fide mourners, why do people (Hollywood and OCD types) care more about the Titanic than current day "Titanics?"

How about the lives of the aborted children, in the millions, whose love will never have a chance to "go on"?

How about the daily horror stories of physical and sexual abuse of babies, young children, and the helpless innocent?

Darfur, Darfur, Darfur....

Iraq... how about that country as the Titanic?

Goodness. I know everyone needs a hobby but I wish people would get a grip and stop worshipping at the watery grave of one set of people.

These same worshippers never give a moment's thought to the many who sank beneath the waves defending the world from Nazism and fascism in World War II. I wouldn't mind so much if there were endless movies, theme songs, on line resources, and memorial "goods" produced in their name and memory!

Rant ooooooooover!!