Being a Catholic I don't have a horse in this race. But I cannot help but be struck by difference in attitude toward pilgrims. The Haj was troubled by stampedes and unsafe conditions so the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques ordered great infrastructure improvements to keep the millions of pilgrims safe. He recognizes that he is the host of God's guests.
In India you have many women and children sent in packed crowds up dangerous paths among people prone to rumor and panic, and hence you have frequent stampedes. And do you see any changes take place for safety year after year after year after year after year after? Um, no. It's the caste system and mindset, like it or not, still at work. Why invest in keeping pilgrims safe when you can worship at high tech altars instead? And then the victims feel that God has let them down. Um, no, the same government and society that has the lowest caste handle raw sewage from the street since they don't build sanitation facilities at all for a billion people or whatever continues to let them down.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Read about this amazing couple, 80 yrs married
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_10081651
Nellie Grimes was 7 and Carl Herman, 6, in 1915 when they first laid eyes on each other in a one-room Kansas schoolhouse in the middle of the Dust Bowl.
They hit it off and began walking to school together from their nearby family farms. When the weather was bad, they'd jump on Nellie's dad's horse and let it take them to school.
Their friendship grew to love and on Aug. 18, 1928, Nellie and Carl tied the knot in the pastor's parsonage in Reserve, Kan.
Nellie, now 99, and Carl, 98, will be celebrating their 80th wedding anniversary in a few weeks surrounded by a family tree that has grown to more than 100 members since they got hitched.
"It's pretty incredible to think their marriage has lasted 80 years when a lot of marriages these days don't last 80 days," says Ben Herman, oldest of the couple's five children. He's 79.
It is pretty incredible - even more so when you know the humble, harsh beginning 80 years ago when a couple of kids, not yet even 20 years old, were starting a family during the Great Depression on farms smack in the middle of the infamous Dust Bowl.
If you want to put faces on the tough, pioneer spirit of this country, look at Nellie and Carl Herman.
"We stayed with both our families off and on after we were married, but it became harder and harder to raise crops in the middle of that dry Dust Bowl and support both families," Nellie says.
***
Awesome! God bless their whole family.
Nellie Grimes was 7 and Carl Herman, 6, in 1915 when they first laid eyes on each other in a one-room Kansas schoolhouse in the middle of the Dust Bowl.
They hit it off and began walking to school together from their nearby family farms. When the weather was bad, they'd jump on Nellie's dad's horse and let it take them to school.
Their friendship grew to love and on Aug. 18, 1928, Nellie and Carl tied the knot in the pastor's parsonage in Reserve, Kan.
Nellie, now 99, and Carl, 98, will be celebrating their 80th wedding anniversary in a few weeks surrounded by a family tree that has grown to more than 100 members since they got hitched.
"It's pretty incredible to think their marriage has lasted 80 years when a lot of marriages these days don't last 80 days," says Ben Herman, oldest of the couple's five children. He's 79.
It is pretty incredible - even more so when you know the humble, harsh beginning 80 years ago when a couple of kids, not yet even 20 years old, were starting a family during the Great Depression on farms smack in the middle of the infamous Dust Bowl.
If you want to put faces on the tough, pioneer spirit of this country, look at Nellie and Carl Herman.
"We stayed with both our families off and on after we were married, but it became harder and harder to raise crops in the middle of that dry Dust Bowl and support both families," Nellie says.
***
Awesome! God bless their whole family.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Important point about judgment upon one's death
Father Z has a very important posting on his blog about the reality of hell. I'm glad to see that some are being responsible and repeating that important point over and over. Especially because he makes clear the gifts of the sacraments and the ability to purify in purgatory as the free and open avenues to saving grace that they are.
I notice a typical erroneous assumption in many of the comments which I must correct (as I have before on this blog). Modern people do not understand that when they die God "judges" them as in renders the verdict. Modern people think that they are giving some sort of "trial" or at least "final summation" in dialogue with God when they die. No, that's not what judgment means. Your entire life is your "trial" and the state of grace (or not) that you die in IS YOUR "final summation." You do not get the chance to "accept the mercy of God" after you die, doofus. Jesus and the Apostles make that abundantly clear in the Gospels. God's mercy and forgiveness are extended while you are alive, dolts, not when you die and can no longer recompense the sins you have done against God and to others. There is no "dialogue" or bargaining when one is dead; it is the final rendering of the verdict based on everything up to your moment of death.
Life: all of one's deeds, sacraments, graces, sins up to the moment of death and the moment of death = "the trial and jury deliberations"
After death judgment = "the reading of the verdict"
Here is a quick example. Suppose you have a horrible sinner, I mean, a real jerk. But one day he sees a child drowning and he jumps in, and loses his life in her rescue. He dies and finds to his horror that God is real and that the jerk's entire life has been hell bound. However, God tells him immediately, without saying a word, "Your sins are forgiven because you gave up your life for that girl child."
The minute that a soul appears in front of God everything that could mitigate a life has already happened, including the death. There is no "Oh Wow! You really exist! Wow I don't want to go to hell! Gee, I therefore accept Jesus Christ as my Savior!" No, that does not happen, there is only the judgement. But God's mercy is unknowable and one can only have hope and do the best one can. That is why I give the example that even a terrible sinner can (intentionally or unintentionally) actually redeem himself in full in the manner of his or her death (in a genuine set of circumstances, not a manipulated "death bed charity act.")
***This is an important analogy***
People keep imagining "what they are going to say to God" when they die. They aren't going to say anything at all; they are just going to hear their judgment from God.
Think of what you do your entire life AS "what you are going to say to God when you die" because that's actually the way it is. So everything you say and do and think WHILE ALIVE up to and including the moment of death ARE "what you are going to say to God when you die." By the time you die God's "already heard it all from you."
So you cannot "argue your case" because you are no longer alive (the "exhibits" and "the deeds" are all gone). You just hear your verdict.
That's why deathbed confession and genuine repentance is no joke. It's literally one's "last chance" and "final summation" before hearing your judgment for all eternity.
I notice a typical erroneous assumption in many of the comments which I must correct (as I have before on this blog). Modern people do not understand that when they die God "judges" them as in renders the verdict. Modern people think that they are giving some sort of "trial" or at least "final summation" in dialogue with God when they die. No, that's not what judgment means. Your entire life is your "trial" and the state of grace (or not) that you die in IS YOUR "final summation." You do not get the chance to "accept the mercy of God" after you die, doofus. Jesus and the Apostles make that abundantly clear in the Gospels. God's mercy and forgiveness are extended while you are alive, dolts, not when you die and can no longer recompense the sins you have done against God and to others. There is no "dialogue" or bargaining when one is dead; it is the final rendering of the verdict based on everything up to your moment of death.
Life: all of one's deeds, sacraments, graces, sins up to the moment of death and the moment of death = "the trial and jury deliberations"
After death judgment = "the reading of the verdict"
Here is a quick example. Suppose you have a horrible sinner, I mean, a real jerk. But one day he sees a child drowning and he jumps in, and loses his life in her rescue. He dies and finds to his horror that God is real and that the jerk's entire life has been hell bound. However, God tells him immediately, without saying a word, "Your sins are forgiven because you gave up your life for that girl child."
The minute that a soul appears in front of God everything that could mitigate a life has already happened, including the death. There is no "Oh Wow! You really exist! Wow I don't want to go to hell! Gee, I therefore accept Jesus Christ as my Savior!" No, that does not happen, there is only the judgement. But God's mercy is unknowable and one can only have hope and do the best one can. That is why I give the example that even a terrible sinner can (intentionally or unintentionally) actually redeem himself in full in the manner of his or her death (in a genuine set of circumstances, not a manipulated "death bed charity act.")
***This is an important analogy***
People keep imagining "what they are going to say to God" when they die. They aren't going to say anything at all; they are just going to hear their judgment from God.
Think of what you do your entire life AS "what you are going to say to God when you die" because that's actually the way it is. So everything you say and do and think WHILE ALIVE up to and including the moment of death ARE "what you are going to say to God when you die." By the time you die God's "already heard it all from you."
So you cannot "argue your case" because you are no longer alive (the "exhibits" and "the deeds" are all gone). You just hear your verdict.
That's why deathbed confession and genuine repentance is no joke. It's literally one's "last chance" and "final summation" before hearing your judgment for all eternity.
1961 pop song I liked by Freddy Boomx2 cannon
That's Freddy Boom Boom Cannon.
http://www.top40db.net/Lyrics/?SongID=61252&By=Year&Match=
She's my transistor sister
With a radio on her arm
No one can resist her
Cause she's loaded with
A musical charm
It's Presley, Darin, and U.S.Bonds
And it's Fats and Connie and Orbison
She's my transistor sister
Playing her radio
Yeah, now early in
The morning til late at night
She's in tune with the local D.J.s
Sings all the words to the latest hits
Right along with the records they play
Whoa, oh, transistor sister
Transistor sister
Transistor sister
Playing her radio, whoa, oh
She's my transistor sister
Boy, you've got to love her a lot
The guys just can't resist her
With a fifteen thousand watt
If you got it right you get no static
The time and weather is automatic
My transistor sister, playing her radio
Yeah, now early in
The morning til late at night
She's in tune with the local D.J.s
Sings all the words to the latest hits
***
I liked this song when it was a hit in July 1961, not because I had a sister, but I could relate because I listened to all of this music while my older brother listened on HIS transistor radio.
The chorus is cool because he'd sing: Trans-sis-sistor, playing her ra-dee-O!
http://www.top40db.net/Lyrics/?SongID=61252&By=Year&Match=
She's my transistor sister
With a radio on her arm
No one can resist her
Cause she's loaded with
A musical charm
It's Presley, Darin, and U.S.Bonds
And it's Fats and Connie and Orbison
She's my transistor sister
Playing her radio
Yeah, now early in
The morning til late at night
She's in tune with the local D.J.s
Sings all the words to the latest hits
Right along with the records they play
Whoa, oh, transistor sister
Transistor sister
Transistor sister
Playing her radio, whoa, oh
She's my transistor sister
Boy, you've got to love her a lot
The guys just can't resist her
With a fifteen thousand watt
If you got it right you get no static
The time and weather is automatic
My transistor sister, playing her radio
Yeah, now early in
The morning til late at night
She's in tune with the local D.J.s
Sings all the words to the latest hits
***
I liked this song when it was a hit in July 1961, not because I had a sister, but I could relate because I listened to all of this music while my older brother listened on HIS transistor radio.
The chorus is cool because he'd sing: Trans-sis-sistor, playing her ra-dee-O!
Friday, August 1, 2008
Syrian Grand Mufti invites Pope, has wise words
http://www.zenit.org/article-23389?l=english
snip
Syrian Mufti Hopes Pope Visits for Pauline Year
Notes Wish That Vatican Can Help Bring Peace to Mideast
By Mirko TestaDAMASCUS, Syria, JULY 31, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The grand mufti of Syria is hoping for a visit from Benedict XVI during the Pauline Jubilee Year.
Ahmad Badr El Din El Hassoun invited the Pope to visit his country in the context of a meeting in Damascus with a group of journalists, on a trip following in the footsteps of the Apostle to the Gentiles.
"What I would like to say to the Holy Father is that at present, Damascus is the capital of Arab culture and, at the same time, the capital of the Year of St. Paul," Hassoun said. "I will be exceedingly happy if the Holy Father decides to accept our invitation to visit Syria in this year."
and
The grand mufti also expressed the hope that "the Vatican might play a role in planting the flower of peace in the Middle East."
"Deep down, among religious intellectuals, there is no quarrel but dialogue and discussion," the Muslim leader contended. "And I hope that the Holy Father will play a fundamental part in the peace of the world."
The great mufti recalled Pope John Paul II's urgent appeal not to erect walls but build bridges of dialogue, in reference to the wall of separation built between Israel and Palestinian territories.
"The Vatican had a fundamental role in the fall of the Berlin Wall," he said, "and I hope it will be able to play a similar role to demolish the wall being built in the land of peace."
***
These are very generous words and a very worthy and gracious example by a man of God toward another man of God. I would love to see such a dialogue and visit to take place!
snip
Syrian Mufti Hopes Pope Visits for Pauline Year
Notes Wish That Vatican Can Help Bring Peace to Mideast
By Mirko TestaDAMASCUS, Syria, JULY 31, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The grand mufti of Syria is hoping for a visit from Benedict XVI during the Pauline Jubilee Year.
Ahmad Badr El Din El Hassoun invited the Pope to visit his country in the context of a meeting in Damascus with a group of journalists, on a trip following in the footsteps of the Apostle to the Gentiles.
"What I would like to say to the Holy Father is that at present, Damascus is the capital of Arab culture and, at the same time, the capital of the Year of St. Paul," Hassoun said. "I will be exceedingly happy if the Holy Father decides to accept our invitation to visit Syria in this year."
and
The grand mufti also expressed the hope that "the Vatican might play a role in planting the flower of peace in the Middle East."
"Deep down, among religious intellectuals, there is no quarrel but dialogue and discussion," the Muslim leader contended. "And I hope that the Holy Father will play a fundamental part in the peace of the world."
The great mufti recalled Pope John Paul II's urgent appeal not to erect walls but build bridges of dialogue, in reference to the wall of separation built between Israel and Palestinian territories.
"The Vatican had a fundamental role in the fall of the Berlin Wall," he said, "and I hope it will be able to play a similar role to demolish the wall being built in the land of peace."
***
These are very generous words and a very worthy and gracious example by a man of God toward another man of God. I would love to see such a dialogue and visit to take place!
Another big pop song dragged out for eclipse
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/YOU
You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't You?
Well I hear you went up to Saratoga and your horse naturally won
Then you flew your lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not you're with
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend
Wife from a close friend, and...
You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't You? Don't you?
***
I liked Carly Simon back when this song was a hit, and admired the pathos of much of her content. But I admit, I really grew to dislike this song when I found out "new age" cultists are so into eclipses for occult reasons and actually use eclipse dates to ruin people's lives. So that ruined not only this song for me, but also the eclipse part of astronomy too. Not astrology, astronomy. I'm not even interested in the science or aesthetics of the eclipses anymore because cultists have made total dog poop (that's pop with an extra "O") out of one of God's beautiful natural creations.
You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't You?
Well I hear you went up to Saratoga and your horse naturally won
Then you flew your lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not you're with
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend
Wife from a close friend, and...
You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't You? Don't you?
***
I liked Carly Simon back when this song was a hit, and admired the pathos of much of her content. But I admit, I really grew to dislike this song when I found out "new age" cultists are so into eclipses for occult reasons and actually use eclipse dates to ruin people's lives. So that ruined not only this song for me, but also the eclipse part of astronomy too. Not astrology, astronomy. I'm not even interested in the science or aesthetics of the eclipses anymore because cultists have made total dog poop (that's pop with an extra "O") out of one of God's beautiful natural creations.
Huge pop song in 80's invoked hate and "Lord"
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/In-The-Air-Tonight-lyrics-Phil-Collins/ABC688E89BC59C604825689000218070
I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
And I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord, oh Lord
Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand
I've seen your face before my friend, but I don't know if you know who I am
Well I was there and I saw what you did, I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you've been
It's all been a pack of lies
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
Well I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh LordI can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
Well I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord, oh Lord
***
When this song became a huge hit and a "classic" (because it is great song writing) I was very worried. This is a song sung by a man (Phil Collins) presumably therefore about a woman, who he would not save if (she) were drowning, and is full of some sort of imaginary self righteous hate, while actually having the nerve to invoke "Oh Lord" throughout.
This was used for a hit hypocritical show called "Miami Vice" that pretended to fight drugs while promoting a drug chic lifestyle. They called it "New Wave" culture and music and it ran for five seasons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Vice
By the way, it's kind of obviously a nod at Scientology since "head cool cop" lived on a boat docked in Florida with a gator on a chain. Think about it. This stupid series ran from 1984-89 and brainwashed many kids, on the soundtrack of this hateful but very talented song.
The undercurrent for this song was always obviously some sort of hallucinatory belief in past lives and vengeance. I spotted it when I first heard it, and I despise all of you who have now polluted so thoroughly the sanity of people through the media, promoting your disgusting psychopathic violence and imaginary beefs. Phil Collins has come up with many "explanations" for this song. Yeah, right. We all know that song writing is, how shall I put it politely, a "collaborative" effort for decades now. Look at the today songs "written" by people who can barely speak a whole sentence (without using cursing) or who can barely write, I mean please, just because everyone else is stupid doesn't mean that I am (or that the Lord, the real Lord, does not know about this brainwashing and money making).
So sing the song, boys and girls, just sing along and rake up more blood money, as we read about a nut in Wisconsin who in camouflage guns down and kills three teenagers who are just swimming in a lake. SING SING SING all you society destroyers.....SING SING SING!!!!!!! You've done your work so well.
(Conservative Muslim friends: beware, beware. Study this example and stick to your principles of keeping occult and sexualized "entertainment" out of your societies. If you ever raise up in your society a "song writer" who writes a song about hating someone because of some imaginary past deed, and how the singer would not save her if she were drowning, all the time chanting "Oh, Allah" at the end of each sentence, and then using that song for a "sex and drugs" TV show, if I were you I'd ... well, use your imagination, but I would use some severe editing devices.)
I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
And I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord, oh Lord
Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand
I've seen your face before my friend, but I don't know if you know who I am
Well I was there and I saw what you did, I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you've been
It's all been a pack of lies
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
Well I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh LordI can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
Well I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord, oh Lord
***
When this song became a huge hit and a "classic" (because it is great song writing) I was very worried. This is a song sung by a man (Phil Collins) presumably therefore about a woman, who he would not save if (she) were drowning, and is full of some sort of imaginary self righteous hate, while actually having the nerve to invoke "Oh Lord" throughout.
This was used for a hit hypocritical show called "Miami Vice" that pretended to fight drugs while promoting a drug chic lifestyle. They called it "New Wave" culture and music and it ran for five seasons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Vice
By the way, it's kind of obviously a nod at Scientology since "head cool cop" lived on a boat docked in Florida with a gator on a chain. Think about it. This stupid series ran from 1984-89 and brainwashed many kids, on the soundtrack of this hateful but very talented song.
The undercurrent for this song was always obviously some sort of hallucinatory belief in past lives and vengeance. I spotted it when I first heard it, and I despise all of you who have now polluted so thoroughly the sanity of people through the media, promoting your disgusting psychopathic violence and imaginary beefs. Phil Collins has come up with many "explanations" for this song. Yeah, right. We all know that song writing is, how shall I put it politely, a "collaborative" effort for decades now. Look at the today songs "written" by people who can barely speak a whole sentence (without using cursing) or who can barely write, I mean please, just because everyone else is stupid doesn't mean that I am (or that the Lord, the real Lord, does not know about this brainwashing and money making).
So sing the song, boys and girls, just sing along and rake up more blood money, as we read about a nut in Wisconsin who in camouflage guns down and kills three teenagers who are just swimming in a lake. SING SING SING all you society destroyers.....SING SING SING!!!!!!! You've done your work so well.
(Conservative Muslim friends: beware, beware. Study this example and stick to your principles of keeping occult and sexualized "entertainment" out of your societies. If you ever raise up in your society a "song writer" who writes a song about hating someone because of some imaginary past deed, and how the singer would not save her if she were drowning, all the time chanting "Oh, Allah" at the end of each sentence, and then using that song for a "sex and drugs" TV show, if I were you I'd ... well, use your imagination, but I would use some severe editing devices.)
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