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May 2009 |
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Friday, May 1, 2009 MAYDAY! A day to consider "dis" and "less". The first of May has long been a leftist holy day. As such, it behooves us to take a moment to reflect on what the left loves most. Dante described the activities of the damned with "dis". "Dis" organize, "dis"place, "dis"trust, "dis" words describe the state that the Virus wants to corrupt all that is good, decent, and works. "Dis", however, is not as popular among the semi-left as "less". During WWII, England could not grow enough food for its people and shipments from allies did not reliably arrive. So, food rationing was instituted. That ensured that the rich could not take too much advantage of their wealth to fill their larders, which would make the problem worse. After the war, the English assumed that food rationing would disappear as it quickly did in the United States. That assumption was wrong. Food rationing finally went away in 1955, ten years after the end of the war that caused it. We see therein the very heart of the leftist soul. The left liked rationing. They liked having people line up for eggs, bread, and the very stuff of life. They liked their safe, secure jobs in the various rationing agencies. Some liked having a black market because it gave them lots of chances to prosecute their neighbors. They liked having special access to things denied their neighbors. Mostly, they just plain liked being able to boss people. Today, the same moral segment of the population wants to ration energy. To that aim, they've built vast pyramids of lies, all with the goal of keeping people from being able to buy, sell, and produce energy without the approval of some leftist with the usual inclination to say "No!" If the average electric bill in the United States is a hundred dollars a month, and there are a hundred million houses and apartments, $10,000,000 dollars a month is spent on electricity. To provide power to offices, classrooms, and factories, assume that another $40,000,000,000 is spent each month. That's fifty billion a month. Those in love with "less" think we have and use too much electricity. So, they want us to have less and pay more. To that end, they have stopped nuclear power plants from being built that produce clean, cheap electricity for about a penny and a half/kilowatt hour. Windmills produce erratic power, sometimes, at a cost of $1.20/kwh. If we built a couple of dozen new reactors, we would collectively reduce our fifty billion/month electric bill by half, giving Americans an extra twenty five billion dollars a month to spend. Those in love with less, like their food-rationing counterparts in 1950 England, simply won't allow that to happen. Amazingly, voters continue to return those who impoverish them to office.
One reason the most faithful Fundamentalists become Catholic: The following passage from John, 6, 54-56 was hard for many of the early disciples. When Jesus said: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.", many of His followers left Him. In an earthly life filled with the unusual, that statement is among His most bizarre. The Roman Catholic Church takes His words literally by providing us with the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In that Sacrament, by the Miracle of Transubstantiation, the wafer and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. If we are to be truly Fundamentalist, we have to take His Word seriously, believe in it, and obey. Failing to do so because of earthly concerns and prejudices is to miss our biggest chance at the best. At worst, this failure to take seriously and obey is a Commandment violation. Believing that Jesus is the Second Person of The Trinity, God, Himself, while ignoring what He says, is putting the lesser god of our own vanity, before Him. Not a good idea. Participating in the Eucharist shows that we are obeying His words.
Monday, May 4, 2009 Cutting off your nose to spite your face. Nearly 80% of all Jewish people in America approve of President Obama's handling of his job. At the same time, Israeli Jews are under a greater threat of extinction than ever. Beleaguered by Syrians and Iranians in the North, Gaza in the South, and the whole rest of the Arab world, the thought of Iranian nuclear weapons is a nightmare coming into the daylight. Most supporters of Israel are utterly perplexed by her lack of Jewish support in the United States, the world's richest Jewish community. Even the casual observer should have been able to tell by Obama's deep bow to the King of Saudi Arabia that Israel was in more trouble than ever. Most inexplicable is that, while ignoring the plans of Israel's sworn enemies, the 80% of Jewish Americans who approve of Obama often, and automatically, spend a great deal of effort belittling their Christian neighbors. Christian creeds are mocked, along with movies, books, and any other sign of support for the Christian idea that Jesus Christ is the prophesied Messiah. While undermining Christians and their thinking ("Thinking, you call it?", our critics respond), and by encouraging others to do so, the left-most among them cut themselves off from Israel's greatest source of support, the many Christians who are eternally thankful for the fact that the Jew preserved the Scriptures which, because they predicted the coming of Christ in great detail, are the foundation of their faith and a cause of support for Israel. Many in the women's "liberation" movement are among the 80% of Obama-approving Jews. When professional women "liberators" criticize the largely Christian "oppressors" around them, to a woman they ignore the honor killings, agonizing clitorectomies performed on young girls, beatings, mutilations, whippings, automatic divorce (most recently, by sending 3 emails, saying "I divorce you"), and virtual enslavement of half a billion women in Moslem countries. It is amazing that so many Jewish people, in the face of real horrors inflicted upon their kinsmen, prefer to attack the Christian faiths that are, in the final analysis, the only things that keep the Ishmaelite sword from falling upon them.
Tuesday, May 4, 2009 Why the continual attacks on an enemy that threatens no one? Yesterday's column discussed the puzzling attitude of the 80% of American Jews who support Obama, even while his foreign policies threaten the survival of Israel. At the same time, many of the same 80% disparage the Christians around them. Many wonder why there are such endless attacks on The Church, while the Moslems, who frequently threaten Jews with death and destruction, are ignored by the same 80%. One explanation emerges. Many with combative personalities prefer to fight with an enemy who won't fight back. If the 80% of Jewish people who support Obama were to criticize Moslems, there will be an explosion of terrorist bombers, attacks on unarmed Jews all over the world, and a further expansion of Jew-hating. Christians, on the other hand, never respond with suicide bombers or terrorists. Christians are a safe target that can be attacked without fear of retaliation. So, some seek the easiest target, but why? What, for instance, is to be gained by the endless attack of the 80% on, say, the canonization of a politically incorrect person like Pope Pius XII? Why is there the continual barrage of innuendo and slander against the Catholic priesthood? Why are Fundamentalists frequently mocked? The Church has truth and love on Her side. Those with an antipathy to both find Her to be the perfect target because they know She won't fight back.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 God has turned His face away. The Old Testament prophets, the last of which was John the Baptist, encouraged people to "Repent!" They knew better than anyone that God turns His face away from those who disobey His Operating Instructions. When He does so, those who are no longer faithful are attacked from within and without. We see that God has turned His face away from Europe. When Europe was a Christian continent, Moslem invaders were kept away. When Catholic Europe was shattered by various protesting groups, Moslem military might reached the gates of Vienna, miraculously turned back by Sobieski. Now, they are in Vienna, Stockholm, Oslo, London, Lisbon and every other major European city. Their numbers are growing, and God has sent no Sobieski or Don Juan of Austria to turn them back. The only hope for Christianity is in the Americas, particularly the United States. Here, the same moral paralysis, accompanied by endless bribes, has weakened the Christians. As our political leaders are bribed to always follow the most destructive moral position, the Moslems move in. The main reason God has turned His face away is because Europe and America has embraced both abortion and birth control, along with violations of His Operating Instructions regarding every kind of chastity. While Christian and Communist countries convince themselves that it is their "enlightened duty" to not be fruitful and multiply, the Moslems obey that part of His Operating Instructions and are both fruitful and multiplying. They are, to be sure, full of hate, but at least they're having children. Like all dying cultures, we are led, manipulated, and forced to subsidize death, both at the behest of those who manipulate the political process to get control of it and by our own, innate selfishness.
Thursday, May 7, 2009 The easy target is not always the right one. It's interesting to watch leftists attack people. Leftists never attack their most dangeous enemies. Many on the left rant endlessly against Catholics, Baptists, and Orthodox Jews. They viciously berate anyone who believes that documented life-shortening behavior hurts both them and the society that they leave at a far younger age than if they were obedient to The Programmer's Operating Instructions. Neither Catholics, Baptists, nor Orthodox Jews insult those on the left, no matter how self-destructive some of their behavior may be. They would never dream of attacking them, either verbally or physically. Many of the faithful may ask God to free those involved from their affinity to life-shortening practices. The faithful do so because they sincerely love their neighbors and want them to have long and prosperous lives, followed by an eternity of joy in Heaven. The very thought of being "prayed for" enrages those who are filled with anger at the thought that there could be a better way to go through life, and lash out at any who disagree. Moslems, on the other hand, are the real enemies of many on the left. They hunt down those with whose behavior they disagree. Then, they kill them. Many times, the painful deaths they inflict are preceded by whatever "purifying" tortures their tormentors can invent. Moslem clergy believe and teach, for instance that it is their "duty" to exterminate all the "sons of Lot" who engage in behavior they don't like. Most of us read a wide variety of websites. Rarely, if ever, do we see any far-left activists discussing the threat to their actual lives and life-styles that Moslems represent. Those with international experience know that many are in actual, physical danger from Moslems all over the world. Yet, they say nothing about it. Their fear of Moslems is, thereby, seen to be nearly palpable. It's rare to see such an intellectual dichotomy: The Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish groups who are faithful to the Bible, and who try to love their neighbors, are viciously attacked by activists. About the Moslems who threaten, injure, and kill people for not behaving as they like, the left says nothing. Their own vanity seems more important to the leftists than their very lives.
Friday, May 8, 2009 Pretending that enemies aren't doesn't help. Last night, on a Catholic television network, a leading Catholic intellectual described the difficulty of dealing with Moslems. "There's no one to talk to. There is no intellectual representative who can speak for the Moslem community. They are increasingly violent, increasingly uneducated, and, well, there's just no one there with whom we can have a dialogue to establish mutual respect." Many people come to this conclusion. They are living in a world constructed out of their own wishes. It is as if they are saying, "We like to reason things out, so they do, too. We know they really are like us, we just can't find anyone among them with any authority to discuss things and make decisions that are binding on the rest of them." As these pages have periodically mentioned, the Sons of Ishmael are best described by their ancestor, Ishmael. He was bitter and angry that Sarah had him and his mother thrown out of Abraham's wealthy household. So, Genesis, 25; 18 tells us, "He (Ishmael) set himself against his brothers." His descendants still set themselves against us. They wish no dialogue. They desire no mutual respect. Ishmaelites are, throughout history, "set against us". If we do not understand what God's Scripture tells us, we cannot even begin to deal effectively with an increasingly dangerous situation.
Saturday, May 9, 2009 59 59 is a very unusual number. Called "beautiful" by the ancients, it is several types of prime number. There are, in one lunar month, fifty nine days and nights. Babylonians and Chaldeans knew that the "great year", after which the sun returned to its path among the stars, was fifty nine years long. These fifty nine years were composed of 729 lunar months of 59 days and nights, for a total number of 43,011 days and nights. 729 is the cube of 9, for 9 x 9 x 9 equals 729, as does 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 which the Pythagoreans thought practically magical. When 729 is divided by two, which is the one night plus one day equalling one 24 hour day, the ancient astronomers were abe to get very, very close to the actual number of days in a solar year, 365.5. The number 59 was crucial in helping the ancient astronomers relate the lunar and solar years. These brief paragraphs on 59, with a couple of additions, are abridged here for two reasons. First, it is utterly fascinating. Secondly, much of it comes from A. T. Olmstead's History of the Persian Empire, published in 1948. It was a work of deep, but popular, scholarship, the like of which is as foreign to our own age as the languages of Persia. In reading that book, one notices many dozens, if not hundreds of times, that the empires of the Middle East were better at destroying the Western Democracies by bribing their leaders rather than fighting them in battle. The number of times that public officials in Europe were bribed by Persians is astonishing. That process continues, as does the invasion of the West by the Sons of Ishmael.
Sunday, May 10, 2007 Some are put off, if not repelled, by the phrase, "You must be born again." Many intelligent people don't like to hear phrases like, "You must be born again.", or "I am a born-again Christian." Their reaction is hostile enough to keep them from even trying to understand the underlying validity of the message. Hostility to the message increases with education. Among the highly educated, disparaging the phrase "born again" is practically a password among the enlightened. To hardened sinners, being "born again" is a notion to be shunned above all others. Catholic Fundamentalists understand that many good people with good educations have a difficult time dealing with the phrase without an immediate negative reaction. So, we say, "To get to Heaven, we have to be re-programmed to fit into The Program." Those who respond negatively to "You must be born again." may consider the description from our own age: "The Unprogrammed Programmer is able to program particles and compile them into systems and beings. He programmed a world in which we'd have free will. To access The Programmer, we have to download His Program. In the Iron Age, they called this 'being born again.' That's how pre-computer people described replacing our human programs with His Program."
Monday, May 11, 2009 The Rationers. Scarcity makes prices go up and makes profits go up even more. As a result, powerful forces always work to promote scarcity, even when there is plenty. Many are willing to impoverish their neighbors to enrich themselves, forcing them to pay more than they need for all they buy. Energy Rationers. The energy sector of the economy shows several good examples of manufactured scarcity. As most of us know, nuclear reactors produce cheap, clean energy for about a penny and a half per kilowatt hour. Wind energy costs about $1.20/kwh, and solar costs nearly as much. It is physically impossible for either of these sources to meet the real needs of our homes, offices, schools, and factories. The Energy Rationers intentionally ignore this basic truth. They know that by making energy more expensive, their own profits skyrocket. One part of the energy sector is concerned with hydro-carbons extracted from the earth. These run the gamut from natural gas to tar. Hydro-carbons are produced deep underground, and forced to the surface by the huge thermonuclear reactor that is the earth's core. Oil seeps in one short stretch of Pacific coastline pump out the equivalent of 50 or 60 Exxon-Valdeze tankers of oil every day. Instead of admitting this, The Rationers have convinced the left-hand 95% of the bell curve that hydrocarbons are "fossil fuels" that come from decaying organic materials. This vast lie allows them to tell people that "we're running out of oil and natural gas", and gouge us accordingly. Energy rationers hire pseudo-intellectual goon squads to lie for them. A vast media, peopled by proven liars, spreads their lies on a daily basis. The scariest lies are often the most effective.
Knowledge Rationers. Once, Americans largely taught themselves to read, write, and do arithmetic. Some communities built small schools, often one room, holding the near-by children who were taught by a school-teacher hired by some of the local parents. Today, with the internet, there is absolutely no need for any child to have to go to a "school" and learn less than could be learned at home. Innocent parents wonder why schools don't, for instance, teach reading with the proven method of phonics. Instead, bizarre, failed methods are used in order to keep children from learning to read. By rationing the amount of knowledge, and slowing down the rate at which it is imparted, children can be kept in schools for longer periods of time. That provides increased funding. More public "educators" than ever have made lucrative jobs for themselves. The more they can slow down the speed with which students learn, the more jobs they make for the kind of people who want that sort of "work". Knowledge transfer is now so abysmally slow that high school students, who were once conversant with Latin, Greek, calculus, and had real math skills, today need four more years at a "college" or "university" to catch up to where their grandparents were by the time they left high school. Rationing the transfer of knowledge has succeeded in producing generations of children whose abilities are limited to jobs in other rationing agencies.
Tuesday, April 12, 2009 Medicine Rationers. The first medicines to be rationed were pain killers. Until the early 1900s, people suffering from pain could go to the drug store and buy pain-killing drugs. When Ben Franklin was crippled by the pain of kidney stones, he would buy opiates from the nearest pharmacy and deaden the pain enough to work on the Constitution. Doctors realized that they were missing the opportunity to charge self-medicating people for office visits. Their lobbyists prompted legislation that kept people from killing their own pain. Laws were passed to make people suffer their pain unless they paid money to a certified physician for a prescription. Once the idea was established that licensed professionals were the only ones allowed to relieve pain, an important nanny-precedent was established that made doctors far wealthier when antibiotics became available. Rather than trusting people to simply go and buy antibiotics at the drug store, which is legal in many countries, we are forced to pay doctors to write prescriptions that any nurse, and most people, could take care of on their own. Home rationers. Until the mid-1900s, people could build the buildings they wanted. That allowed Americans to build their own houses, offices, factories, and buildings without a lot of interference. We see by the number of well-constructed older homes and buildings that builders, even without being plagued by armies of regulators and inspectors, were able to build solid, sturdy structures all by themselves. Over time, many people found that they were far more prosperous if they moved from the city into the country. When cities and inner suburbs found themselves with huge salary bases to maintain, they lobbied legislatures to make it more difficult for their residents to build in rural areas. The Building Rationers developed septic requirements, water well standards, zoning, and building codes to make it nearly impossible to move to freer areas.
Wednesday, April 13, 2009 Truth Rationers Rationers don't like truth. They are unable to keep truth completely hidden, but will always use little snippets of it to bolster their lies. Other times, they use truth like a hunter uses duck decoys. Their agencies will tell the truth about something. Then, they see who embraces that truth. Then, they get rid of them. As we get older, we gain greater knowledge of how many, many lies and liars there are. This should not be discouraging. The free will that God has programmed into the system allows huge numbers of lies and liars to exist in order to separate sheep from goats. As mankind's production capacity increases, fewer people are needed to supply needed goods and services. That gives more people a chance to make a living by lying. When we listen to professional liars, we see and hear the skilled, polished commentators and announcers whose ability to lie well has promoted them to positions where they can tell lies to hundreds of millions. When we see such convincing people, many of us are not able to say to ourselves, "They are lying to me every time they say anything." Our inability to realize "I'm being lied to." encourages them to lie more frequently. That, of course, ensures that their poor souls will be found so offensive to God that they will spend eternity even farther from Him.
Thursday, April 14, 2009 The biggest Truth is not merely rationed, but made to disappear. Finally and ultimately, the Catholic Fundamentalism position that God, or the Unprogrammed Programmer, has the ability to program particles and compile them into systems and beings and did so is, whether true or not, an idea that no one on the other side wants to consider. Any idea that even considers God to be a real, living Entity is hated by the other side. That is as it should be. Even more hated is the thought that God is a real, living, being Who is concerned about us and what we do. More hated than that is the idea that He had His prophets write down His Commandments and what would happen in the future. The most hated idea among the legions of the lost is that Jesus Christ was, and is, the Son of God. That, too, is as it should be. As Catholic Fundamentalism understands, Scripture is right, The Church is right, and we who have been chosen to believe are right. All else is error. Jesus Christ, Himself the greatest possible attack on human vanity, is why the very idea of truth is rationed, as well as truth, itself. No one on the other side wants souls to be moved toward truth, because such moves bring them closer to God.
Friday, April 15, 2009 The West is dying. Why? What to do about it? Reading the Old Testament shows that Israel was destroyed by Babylon because the chosen people had turned away from God's Commandments. More clearly than anyone, the Israelites had been explicitly told how God wanted them to behave. He gave them a set of specific Commandments that told them what He did not want them to do. They ignored Him, and did as they pleased. As a result, He allowed their enemies to capture Jerusalem and exile the descendants of Judah and Benjamin. Not only had the two Southern Tribes ignored God, but also, they ignored what God had done earlier to the Ten Northern Tribes, who'd been dispossessed of their lands and sent into exile in 720 B.C. Their crime, like that of the Jews which followed 140 years later, was the same; they had chosen to disobey God's teaching. Today, the same child sacrifice that enraged God is taking place. Worse, unborn children are now sacrificed by chemicals, in the privacy of their mothers' homes. Far more common than the chemicals that are openly bought and sold simply because they cause babies to be aborted are the birth control pills that destroy even tinier babies. Between abortion and birth control, we are killing far more children than the Babylonians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and all the other followers of evil demons who demanded their tithes in death. While the children of Ishmael are preoccupied with exterminating non-Moslems, they do, at least, have children of their own. Their societies are not free, never democratic, and extremely tyrannical. But, they do not kill their unborn children. Though they take pride in ignoring Christ's command to "love your neighbor as yourself", they are obeying the injunction to "be fruitful and multiply." We, as individuals opposed to abortion, are not doing enough to stop it. Many of us try, but the Culture of Death is powerful, consistent, and unyielding. It is as if we are besieging a castle by throwing popcorn at it. The weakness of democracy is that it allows the organized death lovers to take control of vast, powerful organizations that are impervious to love and truth. They have taken control. We, as Christians and Jews, will soon be reduced to the slavery that Spain knew for seven hundred years, if we aren't slaughtered, first. One response is to dedicate ourselves to having "one more child". Such a solution is not difficult, and rewarded with a lifetime of joy.
Saturday, April 16, 2009 Lies are viruses. Viruses destroy. Catholic Fundamentalists see God as the Unprogrammed Programmer. He programmed particles, organized them into systems and beings, and used them to provide all vast and wonderful processes and structures necessary for us to have free will. Separating us from that knowledge are lies created by the virus. We see them, nad their underlying mentality when our computers are attacked by viruses, causing them to crash. Lies, like computer viruses, also cause systems to crash. The disruptive tendencies of The Virus find welcome homes in destructive human beings. They download viruses of all sorts to cause every possible working system to collapse. First, those who want to destroy operating systems must create the destructive spiritual viruses that do their ongoing work of system destruction. Then, they must download those viruses into as many other systems that they can. The section of The Program, for instance, of Monogamous Marriage is attacked endlessly by dozens of viruses that tempt people to download them and replace the Monogamous Marriage program with more destructive alternatives. The efficient program of a nuclear power plant, or any kind of productive facility, is attacked by viruses that seek to destroy it and profit thereby. Many leftist unions., for instance, duplicate the work that destructive environmentalists do to wreck productive systems. The two types of destruction above represent the two types of viruses. Some, like striking unions, attack directly, disrupting the organized flow of men and materials that they hate. The environmentalist kind of destroyers often launch their attacks indirectly. They do not attack the nuclear plant, itself, but attack, instead, the idea that cheap, clean electric power is a good thing.
Sunday, April 17, 2009 The Catholic-Muslim Alliance. "For instance, the Vatican — newly allied with conservative Muslim nations — blocked reference to contraception and family planning at a U.N. conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This alliance also disrupted proceedings at a 1994 U.N. conference in Cairo, where any reasonable discussion of abortion was impeded." Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2003
John Paul II showed that he could do basic arithmetic. It was easy for him to realize that the governments of formerly Christian countries were murdering, by abortion, millions of children every year. When those governments used the bloodthirsty bureaucrats of the United Nation's organizations to try to destroy even more unborn children in countries being looted by those same bureaucrats, agencies, and organizations, the Pope reached out to the Muslim community. He knew that their theology did, and does, result in a thousands of "honor killings" every year, but understood it to be a drop in the bucket when compared to the West's Culture of Death. This Catholic-Muslim pro-life alliance was able to stop some of the additional murders so beloved by the Culture of Death. This sudden unity between forces that had been fighting each other for 1300 years was a huge historical change that's as ignored as it is misunderstood. The Pope, the Vicar of Christ on earth, told the world he was on the side of life, and the Muslim unification with him showed that they were, too. By implication, the man with the keys to Heaven told the world that those who opposed him, the bureaucrats of the West, were, essentially, damned. Western leaders, living in the faded shadow of almost 2,000 Christian, pro-life years, were shocked. Their hatred for the Pope quickly boiled to the surface. "How dare he side with the Muslims against we who are so enlightened?", they demanded to know, little realizing that the more they fought for death, the deeper into the pit their own souls would be sent.
Monday, April 18, 2009 More on the Catholic-Moslem Relationship. There are significant differences and similarities between Catholics and Moslems.
Similarities Catholics: Moslems: Monotheists. Monotheists Pro-life Pro-life Deviance is sinful Deviance is sinful Importance of Mary Importance of Mary Importance of Abraham Importance of Abraham
Differences Love your neighbor Kill those with different beliefs Divorce is difficult Divorce is easy Monogamy Polygamy Tolerant Intolerant Democratic tendencies Authoritarian Jesus is Son of God Jesus is another prophet God, the Father God not seen as Father Trinity, One God, Three Persons One God, no persons Freedom Slavery Female body protected Female genital mutilation Mercy, kindness, understanding Destroy those who disagree Building on the similarities may help. There is, unfortunately, an underlying hatred that goes back to Ishmael, who, Genesis tells us, "set himself against his brothers". This hatred has become part of many Moslem establishments, and makes communication difficult.
Tuesday, April 19, 2009 Abel and Cain, Isaac and Ishmael, The Church and Mohammedism. Things don't change much. The difference between Isaac and his brother, Ishmael, reflects the difference between brothers Cain and Abel. While the separation between Catholicism and Mohammedism seems unbridgeable, it is not. The two disparate systems are, finally, the gulf that must be crossed. Both sides are stubborn. The Church is inspired by the blood of martyrs, the Mohammedists by spilling that blood. The hatred of abortion is the strongest similarity between the two sides. As long as both sides prefer life to the death of innocents, there is room for love to overcome hate. The Virus has never wanted the sons of Isaac to deal directly with the sons of Ishmael. It has placed many barriers between the two groups. We of Isaac's line have been distracted for the past four hundred years by various divisions, but they are disappearing as the Protestant denominations continue dividing and shrinking. Then, for the past three hundred years, we have been distracted by the levelers who gained power, first in France at their revolution, later in Russia, at theirs. Many of our distractions were funded by Moslems, anxious to avoid a direct confrontation between the hate and death so many of them embrace with the love of neighbors that Christians claim as the only road to salvation. Now, the Protestants are increasingly less effectual as a political and social force. The Communists, under whom the levelers made their greatest progress, have replaced the oneness of their society with hierarchies of their own, and their influence is waning, as well. So, the sons of Isaac, centered on The Church, are now dealing directly with our Moslem brothers and cousins. Except for a few fringe earth worshippers, the contest is finally clear. There are no more non-combatants in the way. Militarily, Isaac is winning. Politically, Ishmael is making strides invading the countries formerly dominated by Isaac. But, the two sides are finally talking, just as Isaac and Ishmael did when they, alone of Abraham's children, came home to bury their father.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Cause and effect. Each of us analyzes cause and effect many times an hour. Being able to tell what will cause a bad effect and avoiding it is a sign of intelligence. The biggest mistakes in our analyses cause the worst effects. Investing in gold in an inflationary period is generally cause for good effect. Selling gold as inflation heats up is generally cause for a bad effect. Buying a car is often cause for increased expenditures. But, if prices are going up, the same purchase may soon be seen to be a bargain. Billions of us carefully examine our daily investments in everything from breakfast to mortgages and try to achieve a good effect from what we cause to happen. Intelligence, ultimately, is based on how well we analyze cause and effect. Some believe that we make better choices if we follow God's Operating Instructions. He gives us a broad overview of what to do and not to do to get the best effect. Viruses, on the other hand, encourage people to make bad choices. They try to make life painful, poor, and short. Many allow themselves to be corrupted by viruses that destroy them. They also may try to get others to accept, even approve, their choices. That cause which provides the best effect for the least amount of effort should be the cause and effect we prefer. To analyze cause and effects and embrace a cause with bad effects is a violation of the natural law that was programmed into each of us. If we find ourselves making mistakes, it is because we are choosing to make them. That means our CPUs are infected with viruses.
Friday, May 22, 2009 Praying provides access to The Programmer. In the days before men knew what "programming" was, apostles told us that the only way to access the Father was through the Son. In our age, as we begin to think of God as The Unprogrammed Programmer, we naturally search for passwords to access Him. Scripture tells us that the only way to reach The Unprogrammed Programmer is to download The Program. Catholic Fundamentalists visualize the Son as the perfect, loving, obedient, Program in human form. So, our thinking ties in with the apostles'. We just use more technologically meaningful words to describe what others have known for millennia. We, therefore, see God the Father as The Unprogrammed Programmer. He is not some sort of automaton, but our loving Father in Heaven. If His Program were to be summed up in one word, it would be "love". All that He programmed, remember, He can program particles, and compile them into systems and beings, exists for each and every human being to choose, or to reject, loving Him and our neighbors. One way to access Jesus Christ, The Program, is by loving both God and neighbor. Starting to do that opens the door to an eternity with The Unprogrammed Programmer, The Program, and the Holy Wireless Connector who makes us a part of His Program, even as we are still living among the lesser programmed entities.
Saturday, May 23, 2009 Rich uncle. All of us are smart enough to ingratiate ourselves with a "rich uncle", particularly if he has no obvious heirs. In fact, a wealthy rich uncle who's a bachelor can be more greatly beloved by nieces and nephews than their own parents. This is a normal, natural appreciation of the potential flow of assets into our own possession. "Uncle Bob is so nice, kind, loving, intelligent, wonderful, and one of the finest human beings it is my great privilege to know." may seem to be laying it on a bit thick, but, as Disraeli said, "Flattery should be laid on with a trowel." Most of the time, the proverbial rich uncle will be twenty to thirty years older than we are. Most do not realize that he is very aware both of the flattery he receives and the reason for it. Still, most rich uncles enjoy it and are not about to shut it off by saying "In my will, I'm leaving every penny I have to _______ , a cause which is much more important to me than any person in the world." He may say that as a test. Those who then ignore him, and try to find greener pastures, may be the ones cut out, while those who continue to profess the desired admiration are selected as heirs. We simply don't know what he'll do, but the smarter people keep on trying. Now, our rich uncle, being twenty or thirty years older than we, will probably die when we have twenty or thirty years of our own lives remaining. We may find that we have spent well over half our lives kissing up and be disappointed. He may lose his money in bad investments, he may marry a younger woman and have children, or, worse yet from the prospective heir's point of view, marry a younger woman who has children and who is using all her wiles to her, and their, advantage regarding the estate. Nonetheless, collectively, billions of hours are spent every year by people kissing up to someone who may be able to give them something that they may be able to enjoy for, at most, two or three decades. There are more unproductive ways to spend one's time. On the other hand, if Catholic Fundamentalists, and most Christians, are right, our Father in Heaven, is far wealthier than any rich uncle. He can provide us with an eternal joy that far surpasses any short-term earthly pleasure. We may consider spending even a tenth as much time seeking His favor as our "rich uncle's".
Sunday, May 24, 2009 Pity the poor leftist. Most unhappiness comes from childhood. Leftists, rather than being taught to be thankful for what they do have, are raised to blame others for what they do not have. Leftists usually have the same intellectual abilities as anyone else. Their unhappiness, bitterness, envy, and lack of joy let them be easily led by those who are able to use such traits for their own purposes. We can look at any leftist position on any subject and see that each observable human activity is a call for "action", which invariably involves making more people more unhappy about the way things are. This, with surprising consistency, is used to provide votes for legislation to ensure the wealth of those with the skills to manipulate the angry, bitter, and envious. We see Arabian oil interests subsidizing angry environmentalists to "stop the drilling to save the earth." We see abortionists pushing for "the right to choose". Coal miners pay activists to worry about "the ongoing hazards of nuclear waste". Those involved in, and profiting from, various perverse activities are in favor of "being unchained from the moral slavery of the past." Every large organization on earth has an obedient herd of angry leftists, clamoring and shilling with all its might for some end or another. Those who run such organizations actually despise those whom they manipulate. They make fun of them behind their backs, snickering when, for instance, their mindless patsies can be convinced to go to beaches and wipe spilled oil off rocks. To their owner-operators, the common, garden-variety, run-of-the-mill leftist is an object of derision and scorn. To Catholic Fundamentalists, they are lost souls who may be saved.
Sunday, May 24, 2009 Ferris wheels. Most of the time, people get on the ferris wheel when the car they're riding stops at the bottom of the circle that the car travels. Most of the time, they get off the ferris wheel at the same point in its cycle. When we compare the travels of a ferris wheel to the progress of our own soul, we may see the advantages of getting off at the top of the cycle and going to Heaven. Since most of us move in and out of sinful thoughts, words, and deeds, we realize that we do not want to leave the ferris wheel in that state. Some fairs have double ferris wheels. Each car describes both a circle, and then, magically, is lifted far higher, where we follow a higher arc. Being a Catholic is like being in such a ferris wheel. Once we are lifted to the higher circle, while it matters where we get off, we are still above the ground.
Monday, May 25, 2009 Soccer, manifestation of despair. Lots of people play soccer. Worse, many encourage their children to do so. Parents feel good about getting their children involved in soccer. Affinity groups emerge around soccer, and all children's organized sports. Usually, such groups do little actual harm, but all tend to keep participants from doing as much for their own real good as they otherwise might. The saddest thing about soccer is the brain damage caused by heading the soccer ball. While no parent would put their computer on the ground and drop a soccer ball onto it from three stories in the air, they will encourage their children to hit the same hard, heavy, fast-moving soccer ball that imparts similar amounts of shock to their heads and all within. When told about this, and the permanent, unavoidable damage to their children's brains, eyes, and ears, many will become angry. That anger is a perfect illustration of the human to value social status more than avoiding harm. One may see that encouraging children to engage in an activity proven to cause brain damage shows that parents have given up on the idea that intellectual ability is worthwhile. The same peoples whose ancestors invented every single modern convenience have now condemned their children to a lifetime of intellectual mediocrity. "What is the point of being able to think as well as possible?", they ask with that decision. Few things indicate the despair that leads to extinction as well as fields full of young soccer players.
Monday, May 25, 2009 Frauds, including the biggest. Many believe that Global Warming is the biggest fraud in history. It, like the Global Freezing Fraud that preceded it, certainly is a sizable fraud, but doesn't hold a candle to the biggest fraud of all, the idea that the universe is dozens of billions of years old. Buttressed by libraries full of the Darwinian lies of evolution, the idea that the universe is something that just "is" and that all appearing therein is but a compilation of accidents is designed to separate people from God by leading them to believe that, if He exists at all, it is as some sort of distant, uncaring being with little, if any, concern for human beings. This colossal fraud has been surprisingly effective, leading whole continents away from belief. The notion that Jesus Christ came to save us from such drivel is as hated today as when first propounded, by Him. But, that's the way it is. That's the way He wants it, free will for each of us. Catholic Fundamentalism, as frequent readers know, puts forth the notion of God as The Unprogrammed Programmer. With His ability to program particles and compile them into systems and beings, He has provided an escape hatch from the deal-dealing liars who renounce not only Him, but also the fact that He loves us, and that we are each programmed with a soul that can know the joy of being close to Him for all eternity. The virus works mightily to keep us from knowing anything that is good and decent. The virus provides temptations and distractions to separate us from He Who programmed all, and did so in less than a week. As we begin to explore the idea that God can program particles, then compile them into systems and beings, just the way humans program computer games with increasingly realism, we begin to see that we really cannot deny the possibility that God can do so far, far better, and, in fact, has done so.
Tuesday, May 26, 2008 Blinded by the world. The Uprogrammed Programmer has programmed each of us to be tempted by the entities He programmed. In life, we may choose to attempt to grow closer to programmed entities or to The Programmer. It is difficult to do both, though many try. Sometimes, we meet people who are utterly oblivious to the God Who told us to be as cunning as snakes. The other day, my daughter was home. She and I went to see my father, who's older and worldly. He had the last six months of National Geographics stacked neatly on a table next to where I was sitting, and, like being in a doctor's office, I thumbed through them waiting for my turn to talk. One issue had a picture of its cover that was taken at night. It showed the lights of a vast suburb, illustrating the "dangers of light pollution", which was the lead story inside. "Leftist drivel.", I said, out loud, on seeing the cover. My father said of my comment, "It must be sad to go through life like that." I gave it to my daughter, and asked her if the article was more about political correctness than anything else. She skimmed it for less than half a minute, and said, "Yes. It's just political correctness." My father, after more than eight decades of conscious, reasonable thought, was actually startled. He actually spent three quarters of a century believing that the National Geographic was more interested in truth than in propaganda for well-read leftists. He believes almost everything that's provided by media authorities, and, like most, represents a degree of innocence that ignores Christ's injunction to "be as cunning as snakes". He does not believe in a living God Who loves him, and epitomizes what Chesterton said, "The man who believes in nothing believes in everything." I keep saying, "Dad, it's time to start cramming for your finals." He chuckles, and goes on preferring to read the National Geographic.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 Allegory: The bird is any of our souls. At any time of our life.
The cold-blooded, devouring sin has snuck up from behind. The fangs, if we look closely, are dripping with venom. Also, in this allegory of spiritual battle reflected in the lesser world, it can be seen that the devouring spirit that motivates the snake has its greedy mouth so far open that its eyes can no longer tell if its target is still in front of its mouth. Since the snake's head is at the end of its arc, and has no power to change its trajectory, one can only hope that the bird's guardian angel, seeing what's going on from our angle, suddenly prompts it to "Move!" Even more fervently, we can hope that our own guardian angel will protect us from being swallowed by such an attack by having us step out of the way, hopefully, hopping up, toward Heaven and safety. We may even hope that the snake, after having lost its prey, lands, stretched out, an easy target for a higher power, like an avenging hawk. It's easy for us to picture in our minds the claws of that hawk dropping toward the snake's endless neck even now, about to grasp it in those powerful claws we hope are about to constrict around the snake, a nano-second before it lands on the unsuspecting bird. We can be sure that we, like the bird, are being endlessly stalked by at least seven kinds of destroyers, Pride, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, Anger, Lust, and Sloth. Each in the horde of demons in those seven tribes is looking for a chance to pounce, trying to devour us, feeding upon our souls as the snake feeds on more visible flesh. How many such devouring demons are there? The Irish used to say that, before St. Patrick, there was a demon for every blade of grass in Ireland. After St. Patrick, it was believed that there was an angel for every blade of grass, and not a single snake crawling among those blades.
Thursday, May 28, 2009 The bird above is a little bit to blame. The bird, sitting there, minding its own business, is thinking about things that are less important than the possibility of sudden death, is a lot like most of us. If the bird had followed Jesus's advice, "be as cunning as a snake", it wouldn't be sitting there for so long, exposed to danger from a slow-moving reptile. When we stay in one spiritual place too long, we become prey for the destructive spirits that have time to gather their strength and plan their ambush. If we are still, and listen closely, we will feel temptations crawling through our own minds, toward our souls, temptations that, if we let them get too close will do to our souls what the snake will, barring a miracle, do to the bird. Just as the bird may still save itself by hopping into the air and flying upwards, so we at any time, must be ready to do the same thing. No reason to wait for the threat to become visible, after which it may be too late to save ourselves. As long as we keep moving upwards, we are safe.
Friday, May 29, 2009 The snake and bird also illustrate a larger allegory. Nations that do not fear and love God are destroyed by those who hate Him. Europe has grown weaker since the fragmenting of The Church by those greedy for political and economic power. Europe is, in fact, on its death bed. Canada is not far behind, and the United States is almost irreparably weakened. The formerly Christian nations, like the bird above, do not see, and do not want to see, and are unable to fight against the destroyer who is striking hard at them.
Saturday, May 30, 2009 Turn back to Me, and be saved. This plea, from The Loving, Unprogrammed Programmer to us, His most complicated programmed entities, shows us the only way we can be saved. When we examine the Old Programming Log, we see that sometimes, as with Err and Onan, He is merciless. Their deaths followed their disobediences quickly. The great city of Ninevah repented, turned back to obeying The Programmer's operating instructions, and was saved. Time after time, the apostate kings of Judah and Israel were destroyed. Their peoples were taken from their homelands and deported, losing nearly everything. The Books of Kings and Chronicles are fascinating history that show the inexorable judgment of God. When kings of The Culture of Death ruled, things were bad. But, when good kings would obey the Operating Instructions, people were better and things were better. Now, the men and women of the west helplessly watch the continual invasion of those who will destroy them. Their governments have gone whoring after strange gods (no more insanely destructive idol than "climate change" ever existed, and we are lost. We can find ourselves by remembering what angered God the most. It was the sacrifice of children. When we see how awful our own Culture of Death is, and embrace life, God will save us. We must turn from abortion and birth control to life and self control. It is not too late, but time is running out.
Sunday, May 31, 2009 Pentecost Sunday is a perfect day to get with The Program. This is one of the most important Holy Days, commemorating the Descent of The Holy Spirit, on, in Catholic Fundamentalism terms, "The Opening of Access to The Holy Wireless Connector". We may consider the following passage (elsewhere on this site, the Church's Weekly Readings are "translated" into words reflecting The Father as The Unprogrammed Programmer, etc.) today. Today's reading, Acts, 2;11: "Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, (the "roar" from the previous verse) they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them (those with sudden access to The Holy Wireless Connector) speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, Right in front of them, the linguistic confusion downloaded at Babel was miraculously reversed, showing that God had erased the divisions between peoples to two, those who would be saved and those who would not. We may profitably apply this passage to Pascal's idea of Scripture and the Jews. He thought it was one of the greatest mysteries of the Bible, and one of the greatest manifestations of God's power, that the earlier Judaic establishment whose revelations from God built the faith then rejected Jesus, "the Cornerstone". Mysteriously, they were responsible for distributing the Sacred Scriptures to so many places in the world where those Scriptures would later be used provide the theological and intellectual base by which those who would be saved could have it shown directly to them that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the prophets. Making all those copies of the First Download was expensive. Sheep had to be raised, skinned, their skins prepared, ink had to be made, and endless hours of expensive writing had to be produced, edited, and sent to Temples throughout the world, and all that cost a lot of money. One understands that The Holy Wireless Connector had, for thousands of years, been "connecting" God's chosen among the chosen people with accurate knowledge of future downloads. That realization was so powerful that many left the powerful religious/economic structure of Judaism and embraced this miraculous new Download and the new Operating Instructions therein provided. Indeed, one may see from Pascal that the Jewish establishment was "hoist by its own petard", providing, as it did, the means for believers to leave the Old Operating Instruction for the New.
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