274 BILLION PEOPLE: JUST . . . WAIT

In the face of the Corona virus —

— people just want to be safe.   A flimsy brick wall erected across the street of your neighborhood will probably not keep people out, let alone the virus.

I wanted to write more about the spread of the Corona Virus,  the 2019 n-CoV,  but on each day that I gathered figures,  the figures were changing throughout the day — and not all in the same direction.  Sources are not in agreement, to say the least, and situations were in flux.

One day I jotted down that an airplane with Americans from China was “at this “moment”   approaching San Francisco’s airport   (SFO)  . . .  but before I finished taking notes, that airplane had been diverted to the large airport at Ontario, California . . .   and a couple hours later, the plane was finally permitted to land at a nearby military base.

And so it went all week, as I tried to figure out what really is going on.   I’m no wiser, in spite of some really spiffy charts and diagrams:

A  “parabolic” increase in cases?   –

 

Looks like it.    For whatever it’s worth, we ought to keep at least one eye on charts like this.

And here’s a spreadsheet which discusses the R0 —

“R0” is actually the letter R and a zero,  often pronounced “R-nought,”  with nought meaning zero.   It is the rate of spread of the virus, the higher the number,  the faster the spread.     1, 2,  or 3  isn’t too bad.   Over 3 is serious.   The latest I heard is it’s 4.08 –  so that’s concerning.

I left the numbers of the spreadsheet very small because although it accurately shows the math involved with the reproduction cycles, with an R0 of 4.08 after 20 quick cycles, you reach the absurd number of over 274 billion people infected with the virus –  on a planet of 6.5 billion.

We can just . . .  wait.   Either this will diminish sometime in the next month, or it will continue to grow slowly and be part of the human experience like other viruses, or it will become a very dangerous, terrible problem.

By what we know for sure now,  we don’t know for sure which one it will be.

I don’t think I’ll be commenting on this story very much anymore.  I’ll just . . .  wait.

 

 

IN BRIEF, DO WE REALIZE . . .?

 

Do we realize what we might almost be getting into?

Two  BRIEF  facts:

Fact One –

.1.   Every socialist dictatorship has engaged in purges of their political enemies;  that is the “conviction” and often execution of those government officials who came before the newly “elected” political group.

We know that happened, notoriously,  in the Soviet Union, by  Kerensky, Lenin, Stalin,   even Khrushchev and Brezhnev . . .    It happened when regimes changed in Communist China and in North Korea, as well as South American countries who changed over into socialism.

Fact Two –

.2.    Today,   Ms. Sen.  Elizabeth Warren stated that when she is president,   she will set  up a commission to investigate any criminal activity of government officials in the (previous) Trump administration.

Hope you see a problem here.

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(And I won’t even mention the vile things spoken and caught on video threatening gulags, re-education camps, and guillotines . . . ”  for their political enemies.      Nor will I mention the state senators in Connecticut who are proposing that their State Police have a department to go after “extreme right wingers,”   a rather loose and slippery term for those on the Left to use.)

 

I believe that’s a quote from George Orwell.

(Inform, warn, and vote.)

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“TELEPHONE” – AN ALMOST IMMEDIATE EXAMPLE

This isn’t an “informative” post, more like just a little rant on my part.   I mean,  I like learning things, I like finding new information,  putting new facts into the greater context of things.   It’s satisfying;  like  the momentary pleasure of having the perfect banana split sundae.

Well, oh . . .  a little more  chocolate and pineapple, please

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So . . . like all of you,  I’m interested in the development of the 2019-nCoV  coming out of China.    Where’d it come from?    What’s it do?  How’s it progressing?   Where may it go next and how fast?

And the  human interest stories.

But the information stream is breaking down — as per my writing on Playing Telephone in the last post.

You’ve seen the pictures of the empty streets in the very large city of Wuhan.    The overcrowded  hospital waiting rooms:

cell phone shot  of a hospital waiting room

The  people lying face down in hospital corridors:

Even a doctor, collapsing in a hallway:

If you get attention in the hospital,  which few reportedly do,  your medical staff will look like this:

Scary HAZMAT suits.

Even out on the street,  there are photos of people collapsing onto the sidewalks . . .

Or not.     Official denials are being sent out.

People are finding their photos, tweets, and messages being removed from the Internet, almost as fast as they put them up there.    This is either happening, or it isn’t.

Officials are putting out the word that these are fake videos and photos.

Some people say the streets aren’t that empty.   Airplanes can be seen leaving the main  airport . . .     Officials say people are exaggerating the situation.

And yet –   roads out of the city are being  barricaded in an attempt to keep 11,000,000 people inside the city.    Where  there are no roadblocks,  dirt is being dumped to prevent cars from leaving.

Even smaller country  roads are being blocked:

Extraordinary efforts are in place to contain this virus –  so something must be up.  People say that the huge efforts don’t seem to match the small numbers given officially.

The numbers of infected people are all over the place.   Residents reporting on their cell phones say you can take whatever the official numbers are and  add a zero – or maybe two –  to the number given.   2,000 infected.  3,000.  9,000.  90,000!     There is fear and panic on the faces of those reporting what they see.

I look for new stories several times a day,  but strangely,  there are few new videos now.  And for one eighteen hour period, there were no new news stories,  just new headlines put on the older stories.   International medical experts speak and answer questions for ten,  fifteen,  twenty minutes, but in the end, when you think about it,  they’ve given little or no information – just:  don’t worry,  there’s a system in  place, and we’re following the system.

It’s what I wrote in the last post:     Something happens, it is a reality, a fact. Then professional “news” people choose what facts or what aspects of the fact is worthy of reporting.   These carefully chosen ‘facts’ are then passed on to ‘trusted’ news reporters.  And so on.

So, it’s really huge, or it isn’t.  Yet.  It either spreads easily, or it doesn’t.    It either has a high death rate, or it doesn’t.    We have the DNA of the virus sequenced, or we don’t.

I know it’s early on in this event,  but  you really have to work hard to get reliable information  –  and then you can’t trust its reliability.    The more information we have access to,  the less we can rely on it.  

A lesson, for all current events in general.    Including politics.

Patience, me, have patience.

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LET’S PLAY “TELEPHONE” !

“News”  “reporting”   —

Like the man in the classic movie “Rear Window” who sees something horrific through the window at the rear of his house,  my body also confines me to home, for now, looking out, not a window, but looking out through the great world-wide window of the Internet,  and I’ve seen some pretty horrific things too –  which I’ll write about next time.

 

But for now,  I want to “share” with you an interesting summary of how we get our information.

 

So . . .  “Let’s Play Telephone!”     One person calls up and reports some information.  That person calls someone else and passes on that information.  Then the third person passes on the information… sort of.     You know the game,  each time the information is used by a caller, it gets more and more distorted from the original message.

This was a favorite game of my first-graders.  We’d sit in a circle.  I would whisper in the ear of the student next to me some sentence, some information.  Then that child would pass it on in a whisper to the one sitting next to him,  etc. , all around the circle.

Now,   I had to introduce the idea of Winner –  we would all win if the the end result was the same as the beginning sentence.   Otherwise, we’d have some deliberate silliness.  If the end result was not the same, well . . .  we didn’t lose, we just had fun.

So here we go in real life today:   Each time you read the “news”  on social media, hear it on TV or on the radio,  wherever the “mainstream media”  lies,  you’ve just played Telephone!

Here is why:

Something happens,  it is a reality, a fact.    Then professional “news” people choose what facts or what aspects of the fact is worthy of reporting.

These carefully chosen ‘facts’ are then passed on to ‘trusted’ news reporters.

They get passed on to their cautious editors who in turn hand them over to producers concerned about the bottom line.   (Conformity to a politically correct, currently accepted agenda increases the value of the bottom line.)

Those producers will curate the words we finally hear.

The final details far removed from the original facts.

Voila!    You’ve got the news!

And if you take such “news” uncritically,  at face value, then you’ve just played the game.

JANUARY 21st, REDUX

January 21st:     An act of regicide and the cry of ‘Vive la Republique!’

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Loki has a message for you:

 

Wow!   On this day, January 21st, someone is having fun with us humans.    It’s either the Fates, or Karma, or maybe the dangerous Trickster giant feared by my Scandinavian ancestors, Loki . . .

 

I began the day with “This Day in History,” and a good account of January 21, 1793, the last day of the good and pious King Louis XVI.      However, under his reign, the Revolutionary Radicals, the Leftists of his day, had been allowed to go way too far.   They were a force majeure.     They lied and bullied the French population into a state of hysteria.

(Remember the hysteria of the entertainment-news media yesterday who tried to convince us that we were about to be under siege by the Peaceful Gun Rally participants? Yikes! Noooooo guns! These people are dangerous and must be stopped – or legislated out of existence!)

Using  clever slogans, promises, and murderous force, the Leftists of the late 18th century got their way and produced a bloody, violent revolution which resulted in regicide.  They triumphantly brought King Louis to the guillotine!

(Remind you of some female entertainer holding up the head of Pres. Trump?)

Here are some words of the king’s last official letter, knowing he was falsely accused and unjustly tried:

Dec. 1792 – I, Louis XVI King of France. . . involved in a trial the end of which it is impossible to foresee, on account of the passions of men, and for which one can find neither pretext nor means in any existing law, and having no other witnesses . . . (allowed by the House) . . .

 

And so what is happening today?

The unjust, unfair, politically motivated impeachment trial is starting today, January 21st.     According to an observer (John Ratcliffe from Texas) : “The House Democrats had a weak case even on a slanted playing field where they made the rules, changed the rules and broke the rules to their advantage.”

But even more eerily, James O’Keefe (of Project Veritas) released yet another tape of Democrat Party operatives  calling for the destruction of their enemies and sending “billionaires” to the guillotine!

You don’t think they mean Mayor Bloomberg,  do you?  Tom Steyer?  Bezos?  Zuckerberg? Any of the super-rich Democrats we know?

Nope. I think they’re referring to the same man they are trying to remove from his office,  the leader of our country   . . . so far in an “unbloody” manner.

These Democrats on video  were  calling for a violent overthrow of the US government and the executing of their political enemies once their Revolution succeeds. (Their words.)

But, sheeesh, you guys.   Be careful what you wish for! Civil War and Revolution is no laughing matter.

Again:     Wow – on this day, January 21st, someone is having fun with us humans. It’s either the Fates, or Karma, or maybe the dangerous trickster giant feared by my Scandinavian ancestors, Loki . . .

No.

I think it’s more likely that they who don’t know history are DOOMED to repeat it.

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If you don’t get the connection,  thank a teacher:

 

Yes, our Red-Communist-Socialist trainers of our children.

END TIMES IDENTIFICATION MARK

This is a post about the many hoaxes we have to live with.

Lies lead to Hoaxes.    Hoaxes often lead to very dangerous results.

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So many sources reflect the growing conviction that we are in the End Times –  “something has to give.”    For religious people of the three major religions,  this means the coming/return of the Messiah.

I don’t know for sure,  but I do remember a teaching in the Bible that describes people living in such End Times will “love iniquity”  (doing bad, immoral things) and they will “not love the truth” —  “therefore, God will send them the operation of error so that they will believe lying.”

“They will believe lying”!

Now, the version I learned as a child says it like this,  that these people in the End Times “loved not the truth” –  “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”  *  

That was always chilling to me,  because if you’re deluded,  then how do you even  know you’re not being given the truth?   But they’ll love the lies more than the truth. God will let them have it.

Lies Lead to Hoaxes

Hoax (dictionary):  a  trick  in which someone deliberately tells people that something bad is going to happen or that something is true  when it is not

You take a lie, and then you run with it to achieve a particular purpose.

No one is immune

No one and no normal person  is immune to employing a “little white lie”  once in a while,  or shading the truth a little, exaggerating to make you or your cause look better ,or to make your opposition look worse.   That’s why wise people said things like:  “Know thyself!”    And then,  that’s why Confession is there for us . . .  (unless you like to be the one who “excuses”  your own self.)

But habitual, profligate liars  is of another breed altogether.   We have so many examples today!   Note this sour press piece from the Vatican:

The pope “offered in a speech to the Weisenthal Center –   “a systematic, “connect-the-dots” thought experiment tying selfishness to anger, anger to populism, populism to hatred, and hatred to antisemitism.”

What is populism?  What do the populists want?    The Dictionary again:  populism is “politics that represents the interests and opinions of ordinary people.”   They want the equal application of law for everyone;  a level playing field that allows anyone to achieve their full potential.     They want fairness for ordinary people,  not advantages given to the political elite or the wealthy or special interest groups – to the detriment of the interests of ordinary people.

Well, I  kind of think that populism is a normal, healthy desire.   I don’t want anyone to be disadvantaged in the public arena.   Populism isn’t “hating”  anyone!

But this movement scares our World Rulers.   It scares the present-day occupant of the See of Peter because he works with our World Rulers.     And so they must malign the populists, make populism a dirty word,  populists dangerous people.  Just,  think about that.   There are powerful forces encouraging these lies, and powerful forces picking up the lies to propose hoaxes.

Who are some populists?   The Gun Rights Lobbying movement in Virginia today, for example.    Such “dangerous” people!     Executive Orders had to be invoked to protect the government from their likely violence!   You  can think of more common hoaxes:

Joe Biden, at a segregated Black church this weekend promoted and affirmed the hoax that President Trump called Nazis  “very fine people.”      No matter how many times this hoax has been debunked,  there are some people who “love not the truth …  and believe lying.”

  Two Democrat political candidates are apparently calling each other liars.  As one political cartoon said:     Bernie Sanders saying to Elizabeth Warren —  I would never call a Native American woman a liar!”

 

Perhaps the most troubling and maddening current hoax of all is spoken out on the “airwaves” by local news on the radio, on local TV,  on national TV –  many, many times a day:     President Trump pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival Biden and threatened to withhold (or did withhold)  American aid unless he does so.

That’s an impeachable offense!, they assert.    (It isn’t, actually)

And it didn’t happen.  None of it is true.  Each of the parts of the statement is an outright lie.    Each component is verifiably  false,  and that information is out there for anyone to see.

And the enemies of America and America’s president are perpetrating a hoax based on these  lies.   What is their end game?

Is there any punishment for these liars?   Is there any legal redress for the American people?

I don’t know.   Who controls many of the courts?   the entertainment-news media?  the education system?   the flow of information?   the flow of funds?    newspapers, TV,  social media?

Here’s another Catholic  prophecy for the End Times, from Our Lady of Good Success:  “In those days, those who should speak out will remain silent.”    You don’t  have to be Catholic to be a part of that!

I’m going to leave this world soon.    I don’t need any more on my conscience to add that to my  list of deficiencies.

 

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.*   II Thessalonians 2:10

 

 

 

 

3 LARGE GROUPS THIS WEEK

There are three large groups of mostly Americans this week which will be exercising their First Amendment rights.   First Amendment -good;  but not all groups are good.

I’ll help you sort out the issues that brought about one group.

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The first group  is a woman’s protest march in the nation’s capital and various capitals around the country.  It looks rather nasty and emotion-based according to their signs and speeches.

The second group  is publicly lobbying the state government in Virginia to protect their Second Amendment rights.

The third group is a cleaner, gentler group that is calling attention to the tragedy of over 800,00 deaths of Americans in 2018  –  by abortion!    (Although not all states are required to report all abortions and not all types of abortions are included.)   W.H.O.  estimates 40-50 million abortions per year, worldwide.  That March For Life group will be on January 24th.

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Not much  media coverage for that third group,  but lots and lots of coverage for that second group.   Here are the issues that brought it about:

1.    Our World Rulers and the Democrat Progressives in America NEED to have an unarmed population.    Otherwise control of people would be dangerous to them.

2   Recently, the voting districts in Virginia were “rearranged” in a way to give Democrats the majority vote in their state governing bodies,  including governor    (The one that escaped Democrat criticism of wearing blackface and posing next to a K*/K*/K  costume sometime in his past…)   Is redistricting for political ends fair?

3.    Newly- elected Democrats went to work issuing dozens of gun control laws, which Virginian’s rightly recognize as oppressive,   dangerous,  and abrogating their Second Amendment rights.*

4.    So the citizens of Virginia are  holding a public Lobbying Effort  – ordinary citizens, good people, concerned people, to show their opposition to the new oppressive gun laws.    The Lobbying Effort/Rally is attracting attention from concerned people around the country.

5   The Democrat Progressive left is opposing their Lobbying Efforts by  discrediting their citizens,  by lies, insinuations, exaggerations, by conflating this rally with what happened at Charlottesville – which was about taking down statues and deleting local history, not at all about gun rights.   This is a deceptive, inflammatory tactic of the Left.   Saul Alinsky would be proud.

6.   To be dramatic, the governor has issued fearful warnings about what “may” happen. He has used an executive order to strip away legal gun carrying rights of individuals, decreeing that guns  cannot be taken to the place of the lobbying efforts….because he fears, what, Charlottesville?   Which was not about guns at all.**

7.  He and the Democrat Progressives also fear White Supremacists groups…of which there are very few in America …. They are powerless, except for the supposed “power” given to them by the imaginations of the Left.   So, three White Supremacists were duly found and arrested.. their leader being an illegal immigrant from Canada .

One man the FBI arrested for his alleged involved in a white supremacist hate group is a Canadian national living illegally in the U.S.       ….
Authorities took three men — who are suspected of belonging to a neo-Nazi organization known as The Base — into custody Thursday morning, The New York Times reported. The men reportedly had weapons in their possession and considered attending a pro-gun rally in Richmond, Virginia, on Jan. 20 in the hopes of partaking in a possible race war.

Prosecutors charged all three in Maryland for numerous federal crimes. (DailyCaller)
…..

 

Anything can happen during that rally.    Anything –  because the entertainment-news media is actively trying to look for and encourage violence.

Because.    Gun.  Owners.  Are.  Violent.  People.   Dontcha know.

That is the message our World Rulers would like you to know.

 

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*  Virginians recognize the danger,  but many Americans also understand that if the lawmakers of Virginia succeed,  these oppressive gun control laws will spread generally throughout the United States.

.**   Remember when Nancy Pelosi stood in front of a microphone and tearfully begged the Tea Party people not to harm her?

 

LIARS WHO FIGURE

Some “scary ”  charts below.

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We all know the old saying:  “Figures can’t lie, but liars can figure.”    A helpful comeback when debating someone about something.

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Well, honest to Pete!     I just read yet one more story about a father who reports that his seven-year-old son is scared to death about the world ending –  due to Climate Change –  and evil people are doing it!

Although it’s gratifying to read several times a week  that yet another highly-regarded scientific organization expresses doubt for and even objection to the idea that  human activity can influence the climate of the earth,    I don’t know how else this  nonsense will stop   until every thinking human being talks back to these people –  challenge their statements,  throw facts into their face, object to their arrogant certainty,  and above all,  expose the global goal behind this Climate Change  Hoax.

That might means confronting your child’s teacher, or contacting your local TV news repeating the required climate statements, or writing to your state legislators, or – hardest of all – gently objecting/correcting  when your neighbor or friend mindlessly repeat stories about climate danger.

We just can’t allow life-changing policies and ruinous taxes to be imposed based upon   false science.

Here are some visual examples of Liars do their Figuring:

Does this chart scare you?  It’s supposed to!This chart records the average annual  measured high temperatures in the “thermosphere” –  the sky above us.  Look how much the temperatures rose since 2010!

Wow!    Wow,  if that’s all they show you,and  not including all the peaks and valleys from 1950 onwards.    Nah,  just look at the last inch of that chart.

The year 2019:

 

The blues and dark blues show where record cold temperatures were recorded in our country.    Looks like the southeast had some record warm temperatures.  What is usually shown to people is a similar chart during the summer months showing widespread record high temperatures, here and there.  In the summer.

They’d be partly right.

HEAT WAVES!

The following chart has been used to show that it’s  getting hotter and hotter:   “2019 was the second hottest year on record . . .  and we can be certain that human activity is causing it.”      (Actually heard on the radio and local TV this week.)

They usually show the public only those bars in red.

CLEVER CHART CLIPPING:

Have you been aware of the big forest fires we’ve been having lately?   Summers get dry,  people are not allowed to pick the kindling off the forest floors, the Forest Service is not allowed to create fire breaks in  forested acres. . .  and the results are heartbreaking and costly.

But — have we been having more?   Are human beings creating the conditions for more and bigger forest fires?

About a hundred years’ worth of forest fire statistics.    We’re doing all right today.  We have less forested areas is part of the reason today’s numbers are low, as well as more forest fires used to have to burn out on their own,  covering larger areas.

Now see what the Figuring Liars showed us in official publications, including books for our children:  (same graph)

Only the part in the rectangle is given.   Looks like maybe we should be scared of increasing forest fires!

With all this talk about heat and fires, no wonder people can be talked into believing the world’s ocean levels are rising.

But — should we really be concerned?

Yes!  Wow!   Look how sea levels have risen from 20,000 years ago to 8,000 years ago!     The oceans are rising!     Way back then.   Presumably before man-made industrial activity.

Where was all that water before the ocean levels rose?    That water was locked into world-wide glaciers.   Whatever catastrophe made those glaciers  melt all at once, relatively speaking,   the glaciers gave up unimaginable volumes of water – without human help, quite nicely.

THE REAL CAUSE FOR GLOBAL WARMING:

Well, just read this, one of many similar quotations you can find.  You’ll see the Official Reason for promoting the world-wide scare about the climate:

 

“Climate Policy”  is the means to redistribute wealth.    Your wealth (small as it might be,  it’s still yours).    Human-caused climate change harms the environment?   Don’t worry.   This official says it has nothing to do with the environment.   The very authoritative and prestigious United Nations and the International Panel on Climate Change say so.

 

 

NANCY PELOSI, THE MAESTRO

Ms. Rep. Pelosi has been conducting . .  .  something.    It’s been an entertaining couple of years….

At least she has a plan now, to bring it all to a close:

 

 

So, this is the week that she “might be ready” to hand the impeachment papers over to the Senate,  where they will act like the Senate and not act like the House of Representatives.   And that will make  Ms. Rep.  Pelosi angry,   but at least maybe the first movement of this never-ending symphony will be over.

TODAY, ON OUR CALENDAR

One thing we in the Western world lost, since our government Rulers and our pop cultures have divorced themselves from Christianity, is the charming progression of familiar events as we go through each year.

We’ve also lost free time in the mad dash to keep up with the demands of our secular culture. We work far too much!  Far too long hours!   No time out for common festivities and holidays!

What’s to celebrate?  A new gadget? A new electronic device?  A new car? . . . . A new entertainment experience?    Hmmmph.  That “newness” doesn’t last long.

How about a festivity with depth and love and charm and decency – and lasting and eternal significance?

Today is January 12,  the day we celebrate the Holy Family;  Joseph,  Mary, and the Child Jesus, in their home, together.  We have a subtle, inborn desire to be part of this family.

Working at home.  Learning at home.  Happy little visitors to the home.  Security and stability and love.
We have a whole day at least to contemplate the charms of  home life, and this particular home, which Jesus chose to be a member of.    Why?    How many whys!!   How many hows!!

This is my favorite depiction of the Holy Family:

St. Therese of Lesieux is at the door, scarcely daring to enter.  She always thought of herself as a rather little nobody, although she longed to be holy and worthy of being included in the picture.

And that gives us hope too, if we also desire to be holy – and worthy of notice by the Holy Family.   “He that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.”

A Christian is part of a great big “holy family.”  We belong!   The pope put it more  meaningfully and profoundly —

Reflecting on the Feast of the Holy Family Pope Benedict XVI observed:

“When he was 12 years old, [Christ] stayed behind in the Temple and it took his parents all of three days to find him. With this act he made them understand that he ‘had to see to his Father’s affairs.’ …This Gospel episode reveals the most authentic and profound vocation of the family: that is, to accompany each of its members on the path of the discovery of God and of the plan that he has prepared for him or her. Mary and Joseph taught Jesus primarily by their example: in his parents he came to know the full beauty of faith, of love for God and for his Law, as well as the demands of justice, which is totally fulfilled in love. From them he learned that it is necessary first of all to do God’s will…”

 What an antidote to the sadness of today’s society!

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TRUMP’S MARRIAGE – AND MY EXPERIENCE

I’m being a little personal here, and rather speculative.  Maybe.   But: “Random thoughts” for the Spruce Tunnel, as it says.   Thoughtful weekend reading here.

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“TRULY”  IN LOVE

Let me be a little personal here:  once I was a young, very young woman;  tall, blonde, blue-eyed, and I was told “pretty.”   I became engaged to a young man: blond, blue-eyed,  good-looking,  and the popular leader of our evangelical youth group. He also sang solos in church, and he sang tenor in his men’s gospel trio.  They invited me to be their piano player-

BANG- Bang- Bang a-Banga-  bang – bang-  babababang – Bang – BANG- BANG!!!!   

(notice “blurry”  fingers!)

So.  Much.  Fun.  ….   on those piano keys!!

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That young man and I were so much in love, as the manner of young people is;  a kind of out-of-your mind fervency, eyes only for each other.

But then he suddenly found himself far away  in Biloxi, Mississippi, for basic training at Keesler Air Force base.

His parents saw our devastation, and when Basic was over and he was allowed to have family visitors,  his mom and dad graciously drove me down with them for a visit.  Oh, my!!!  To see him in uniform!!!    Guys,  a uniform just does something to a young woman!

 

CIVILITY

Now,  here’s where there’s a “Trump nexus”  —

While in Biloxi, I received the very reluctant permission of the officer in charge of my young man’s choir.    Later on, my fiance told me that they were all under strict orders to clean up their language in my presence –  and that went for the choir director too!   I was a lady and was to be protected from such coarseness.

That impressed me but it also taught me what “locker room”talk is – and how common, it is.   My fiance did not swear, as far as I knew, but . .. well, young men do, sometimes,  just to impress their friends.

I did not marry that young man, I married Hubbie instead, and it certainly was God’s will that it happened that way.

CAN A PERSON CHANGE?

Now think of about twenty years ago, when a younger Donald Trump was recorded (unknowingly) with a friend doing their “locker room” talk, boasting about what young women “like.”

You know the story… “grabbing some…”    Mr.  Trump was a Democrat then, thick with Hollywood type people. He was   “one of the boys.”    (He was certainly different from my fairly saintly evangelical fiance!)

Things developed, and he eventually married Melania, a Catholic who takes her religion seriously, especially now, I would imagine,  since she has a son.

Do you believe a husband or a wife can have an influence on his spouse?

 

Let me intersperse a Bible verse here….. I Corinthians  7:14 – “For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified because of her husband . . .”      A wife can help her husband become changed; saved; sanctified. According to Catholic teaching, it is an important secondary duty of a husband and wife to help each other get to heaven.

She certainly has a modifying effect on Donald Trump.     Don’t underestimate the power of the presence of someone’s sincere faith.

Donald Trump was ‘modified” in his outlook and changed in other ways.   Still a successful businessman,  but  God is not against rich people – perhaps rich people need God even more than poor people, and God can certainly use their money for good.   Poor people are not saints by definition.

Donald Trump eventually became a Republican and, seeing the many problems our country has and being a problem solver himself,   he ran for president
Without any political backing from the politicians, of course.

THE RALLIES

I heard a guy on the radio last night say that when Trump speaks at a rally,  he is speaking to people as though they were all sitting around a table, “smoking a cigar,” having a good talk.   I don’t know about the cigar thing, but people do like what he says. It’s normal talk.   It’s realistic, and usually spoken in crude New York-ese.    It sets forth simply the things he has accomplished for us, the American people, and the great genius of our country.     And people who go to his rallies like that.

He’s still not  a polished politician.  And that’s a good thing to me.

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CAN A PERSON CHANGE?

Or are we defined only by our worst behavior?

The genius of America is that it is eventually self-correcting.  We need not be identified with the worst in our history.

Can a person change and begin to acknowledge God – sincerely?  ( If not, then we are all doomed.)

SOME “HUMOR” FROM THE OTHER SIDE

Thought I’d do two humor posts in one day:

It’s true the Left has control over our media, our movies, our comedy shows, and all our entertainment,  but their “humor”  is definitely of another stripe.    There is NO moral  equivalence here;  there is no “the other side does it too….”:

(Seen in a triumphant Leftist newspaper)

This  was a comment on the “impeachment” proceedings.

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There was a Giggle Moment at a press conference today.    The oh-so serious Leftist lawmakers were talking about causalities this week in Iraq and Iran.     But the two young beauties in the background could not restrain their giggles over some shared joke.

When confronted later on with the inappropriate giggles,  Rep. Omar explained that she was suffering from PTSD.     Also not too funny.

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Here is a statement recently made by someone famous among the Leftists:

“Just Joking,”  right?  “I don’t think he’ll even hire a hit man to do it….”   Really?

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How about a Left-Wing comedienne:

No visit by the Secret Service.  It was “just a joke, again”  right?

I had forgotten her name until I saw this and realized our enemies are watching:

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I think this was meant to be funny –  again, I forgot this guy’s name –

Truly,  he’s having “fun.”

(Trump disrespected women too?    Right?    But, remember,   he was a Democrat way back then, and it was before he was married to Melania,  a Catholic.  No moral equivalence.)

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Is this supposed to be a joke?  In today’s news:   Bernie Sanders just got the endorsement of a new voter:

Can  this  be a joke?

The headlines say these two are tied for the “most admired” in America.  Oh –  I guess it’s the poll that’s the joke.

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More anti-West humor:    I hope everyone finds this guy’s humor un-funny.

Faid  Zreika

This is Faid Zraika,  a M  o  s  l  e  m,   just after he was arraigned in Australia for starting one of the deadly brush fires.   Released from jail until a “trial.  Apparently he  has many compatriots doing the same thing down there.    Over a hundred arrested –  that’s no laughing matter.

Ever hear of the For es t Ji- h- ad?   That is a deliberate policy to start forest fires in Europe, Australia – and the United States.   It’s been quite effective – and costly.

well,  Faid  finds something funny.

Remember,  there are those in our country who hate America.  They are hoping for a Civil War . . .

Civil Wars are definitely not funny.     But they can happen.

 

 

A LITTLE HUMOR?

News from Iran and Iraq this week is no laughing matter,  but humor sometimes makes a point.

Depending on your point of view, that will either evoke a little smile — or it will provoke exaggerated righteous indignation.

What were they doing?

Here’s another humorous observation:  Ever notice that whenever President Trump says something or does something new, anything really,  then the anti-Trumpers disappear for a few hours or for the rest of the day?

What were they doing?    They were having small-group meetings to decide:  “How can we make Trump look really bad about this?”

Then after they reach a consensus,  they come out in front of microphones and put the worst possible spin on the new events, often using the same vocabulary, the same words and phrases.   Doesn’t matter if they are factually untrue;  it’s just important to get the anti-Trump chorus out there in front of the public — or whoever still watches the entertainment-news media.

It’s almost funny.

“How can we put him in the worst light?”         Ha ha ha ha     At least they stopped using the orange spotlight on his hair and face!    Also funny.

President Trump has  a Scottish heritage.   Many Scots have that reddish gold/butterscotch color hair.    But now enhanced by our anti-Trump media with orange coloring, either by adding color afterwards or by overhead lighting.

Any of you remember the time they showed him sitting at a dinner party and the lady next to him was also partially smeared with an orange color?  Half of her hair and her arm were . . .  orange!!

Caught!

Headlines:     “TV editor Sacked for Making Trump Appear More Orange and Making His Tongue Loll Out during Speech.”

Maybe that passes for “entertainment”  on the entertainment news media.

Although that was reported by a British newspaper — and the British are usually taught to hate President Trump.

Who’s telling you what to think?

TO SEEK OR NOT TO SEEK

I think it’s still January 6th, somewhere in the world.   I was physically unable to blog sooner, but there is something I really want to tell you about this day –  January 6th,  Epiphany.

  Epiphany is when something is revealed to us;  not just shown to us,  but  something that brings deep meaning.

He had an “epiphany”!

 

In this case,  we celebrate the coming of the Wise Men to the Christ Child — where after a long journey, the Son of God was truly  revealed to them.   That’s what we would tell a five year old:  “The Wise Men came to see Jesus and bring Him gifts.”   That’s quite enough to set the story in his mind and to spark his imagination.

When the child  is a little older, we might tell him what those gifts were, and what they mean.   The child would understand “gold” – a gift fit for a king.   But “frankincense”? that’s for a priest to use.   And “myrrh”?     Why would you give a baby something to bury him with?     These questions set the stage for a much deeper realization as the child matures, an understanding that the Holy Infant is our King,  our Priest,  and our Sacrificial Victim.

How many Wise Men were there?  How far did they come?     Most importantly,  why did they travel?    After all, they were from Persia, most likely,  a sort of intellectual capital; and they were seeking a Jewish baby, not one of their own people.

They had access to many kinds of religious texts.  Not that they are all of equal value,  but most of them seemed to hint at a specially appointed Child, an Anointed One, a Messiah, sent from heaven above.   A divine King.   A divine Savior.   But it was the Jewish Scriptures which had the most detail and urgency, and the Jewish Scriptures indicated that they should travel West, to somewhere near Jerusalem.

So here’s an epiphany for us all:    Wise Men take this prophecy seriously and seek this divine King.   Everyone else just goes about their business,  finding pleasure,  finding fulfillment,  seeking whatever it is that interests them.    If they’re lucky, they have a pretty nice life.

But they are not “Wise.”  It is a narrow way to seek out God.  It is uncommonly narrow to care about what happens after death.   It is a narrow and precious way to come, bringing praise and glory to the  Son of God.

Two kinds of people:   those who seek Him and those who don’t really care about their eternal life, which is sure to come to us all.

“To seek or not to seek.” 

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ALL THOSE BEGATS

This week we celebrated the feast day of the Holy Name of Jesus.

Before Jesus was born,    before He was even conceived,   “His name is Jesus.”    He has many names, actually,  all appropriate, all referring to His power or the salvation He procured for us humans, and there are entire books devoted to these names.  Only one day for this! —  but if  you  read and contemplate any of these books, you will have a rich interior life indeed!

When I was a little girl,  six or seven years old,  my  Sunday School class was promoted from  “Nursery”  into the “Primary”  department.    We were all handed a gift:  a real Bible all our own, given to us by our loving teachers.  The expectation was that now that we could read,  we should read and would read the Bible.

I’m not sure if my basement Sunday School class looked exactly like this,  but no one there ever even hinted that the Bible was too “old” for us children,  too complex,  too hard to understand.  No!    Read it.  It’s a message for you!  Do your Sunday School lessons with it.  I’m no longer Protestant since I discovered how many ways Protestant teaching contradicts its own Bible, but I will remain ever grateful to my sincere and loving teachers who taught me the contents of the Bible.

I do remember hearing bits and pieces of adult complaints about the Bible.  ” The language is hard to understand.”    (Not really.)   “Too many obscure words!”    (Once you learn the meanings of some words,  it’s easy.)    And:  “All those boring begats!”   Why are they in there?!

(Actually sounds like “childish”  complaints.)

I’ve become convinced that Jesus appears on every page of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.     If not the name,  then every page is about Him.   * (see two books below)

A father  (Jacob) with his many sons:

So why all the Begats?   Where is Jesus in those long lists of Begats?     He is there in the DNA of every name we read.  So and so begat this person; this person begat that person;   that person begat  . . .  etc.     Each name a living person who had a child,  all carrying the DNA that would one day become Mary,  the Virgin Mother of Jesus.

See?  “Virgin”   Mother.   No father’s DNA.   As prophesied.   Jesus took on human nature through the mother who gave Him a body, life, a birth.      One Man,  two natures,  human and divine.  No man could accomplish that.  No man can become God.    But God could become a man –  unless you’re limiting the power of your “God.”

Then, to quote Francis Shaffer,  “your God is too small.”

Now,  why all this through a mother,  a Woman?     To  fulfill prophecy, yes,  but also in God’s  supreme graciousness and loving kindness,   Woman who first succumbed to temptation by that reptilian-Serpent thing is given the privilege of of undoing the damage to the human race — or, as we put it,  untying the thorny knots that resulted from our Fall  away from God.

It’s spiritually “symmetrical,”  in a way.   The Hebrew pronoun is unspecific as to grammatical gender.   When God speaks to that Satan, thing (Enemy of God and the human race)  He  reveals that “you shall bite at his heel,  but   she/he  shall crush thy head . . .”

Again,  such richness in the words!    The Woman shall give birth to the Savior of the human race….

And His name, after all those “boring begats”   shall be called Jesus.

The Church tells us to think about that on at least one day!

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is within thee bless His Holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all He hath done for thee.    (Psalm 102:1)

Remember:    Jesus is a “begat”  too!   “For God so loved the world that he gave His only  begotten Son . . . .”

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Two of the many books you can choose from:

 

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AN ALMOST-COMIC INTERLUDE

“Interlude,”  because I’m not quite done with Christmas remarks,  but when I saw this, news article I had to write about it!

I travel.  I like to drive cross-country.  For several years after Hubbie died I regularly racked up 10,000 to 15,000 miles from one side of the country to another.   It all came to a screeching stop when I got sick,  but I still wish to drive — there’s so much to see in our country!!

One day I was on some Interstate out West, and something big and fuzzy rolled across the road right in front of me.   And then another!   I looked to the left where they were coming from and saw across the plains  big balls of tumbleweed rolling towards me!

It was so fun!!   That old western song,  “Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweed”  came to mind.  I could just hear that singer’s voice.     Freedom!    It’s a whole culture!!  Out west you just . . .  go where you want to.    “Don’t fence me  in.”

So this is what tumbleweed looks like,  I thought that day!   Some shacks and barns had collected quite a few tumbleweeds, but my tumbleweed experience didn’t last too long.

However!!!!  —  I saw this recent photo of a blue car — And I drive a pretty little blue car!

Completely overcome by a whole lot of tumbleweed!!!    That’s just not something we deal with here in the Far North!

Looks like it can be quite a dangerous problem:

That’s a semi-truck on its side.   Lost the battle with the tumbleweed.

Just the idea of tumbleweed is fun,  but I’m sorry for the difficulties it brings.

“911?   Yeah,  we’ve got some cars buried in tumbleweed again.”

Here,  have some fun –  Enjoy!

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CHRISTMAS GIVES WAY TO A NEW YEAR

 

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I like seeing that,  I like saying that.

There is a kind of quiet, steady rhythm to anticipate within each new year.  The holidays and  the feast days of the  year pass by,  some of them major, some of them minor –  but they all help mark the comforting passage  of expected milestones of each year.

We can start with today, January 1st.   It is the Octave of Christmas,  the day we commemorate the Maternity of Mary,  who is the Mother of Jesus,  and therefore the Mother of God the Second Person of the Trinity.   Many good writings about that, accumulated for nearly two thousand years.       Wisdom and insight offered, for those who want it and understand their value.

It is also the day in which the Infant Jesus becomes Eight Days old.  According to the Law of God,  a baby is circumcised on his eighth day.   Yes, it still happens today.   Here is a modern-day family gathering for the occasion:

And, no, baptism is not the “new circumcision.”  The two have different purposes and meanings.

When I was young, I was always curious about “why the eighth day”?

Well, I worked on a pediatrics floor of a hospital during my college days, and I often took my coffee breaks near the shelves of medical textbooks.  One day I came across some medical instructional information about circumcision.   There was a chart printed on those pages, a chart showing the incidence of possible pain, discomfort, and infection for the  baby boys.  Very small –  it hardly ever happens.  But much to my surprise,  the chart showed a drastic dip in any complications on the eighth day of life!    First time I ever experienced the confirmation of science for something in the Bible.

So,  this first day of the new year gives us a feast day with a couple of things to think about.  Each is an actual physical event . . .  each has spiritual significance, rich and complex, and able to make one a better person.

Remember the post I just wrote about the Babe lying  on the Wood of the manger, foreshadowing the Man lying down on the Wood of His Cross?  The Baby came to die; sent, as we say,  by God the Eternal Father to save our souls.

The Passion of Christ will come up a little later in this rhythm of this new year’s holy days,  but we still see a foreshadowing here.   “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin and guilt” is what we are told in Hebrews 9:22.

All the Old Testament sacrifices were for this purpose of atonement with God, forgiving our sins.     These bloody animal sacrifices are no longer necessary since Jesus gave Himself to be our sacrifice.     All New Testament – present day – Masses look back to His one sacrifice in a non-bloody offering of Himself for us.

Same sacrifice:  animal,  Christ Himself,  and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.      Jesus could not have done it any other way.

He gave His whole life to redeem  us;  and His work begins with His first shedding of blood — a tiny little bit at his circumcision.

Much to ponder here.

Then we can look forward to January 6th –  the Epiphany!  May Light dawn on all of us and we have an “epiphany”  of understanding!