Saturday, September 14, 2013

Sheriff Exam

A young Texan grew up wanting to be a lawman.

He grew up big, 6' 2", strong as a longhorn, and fast as a mustang. He could shoot a bottle cap tossed in the air at 40 paces.
  
When he finally came of age, he applied to where he had only dreamed of working: the West Texas Sheriff's Department.

After a series of tests and interviews, the Chief Deputy finally called him into his office for the young man's last interview.
  
The Chief Deputy said, "You're a big strong kid and you can really shoot. So far your qualifications all look good, but we have, what you might call, an "Attitude Suitability Test", that you must take before you can be
accepted.
  
We just don't let anyone carry our badge, son."
  
Then, sliding a service pistol and a box of ammo across the desk, the Chief said, "Take this pistol and go out and shoot:

six illegal aliens,

six lawyers,

six meth dealers,

six Muslim extremists,

six Democrats,

and a rabbit."

"Why the rabbit?" queried the applicant.
  
"You pass," said the Chief Deputy. "When can you start?"
  

I LOVE TEXAS 

What is Roodmas?

September 14:  Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrates three historical events: the finding of the True Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of the emperor Constantine; the dedication of churches built by Constantine on the site of the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Calvary; and the restoration of the True Cross to Jerusalem by the emperor Heraclius II. But in a deeper sense, the feast also celebrates the Holy Cross as the instrument of our salvation. This instrument of torture, designed to degrade the worst of criminals, became the life-giving tree that reversed Adam's Original Sin when he ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.

Quick Facts:

•Date: September 14
•Readings: Numbers 21:4b-9; Psalm 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-87, 38; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17 (full text here)
•Other Names for the Feast: Triumph of the Cross, Elevation of the Cross, Roodmas, Holy Cross

History of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross:

After the death and resurrection of Christ, both the Jewish and Roman authorities in Jerusalem made efforts to obscure the Holy Sepulchre, Christ's tomb in the garden near the site of His crucifixion. The earth had been mounded up over the site, and pagan temples had been built on top of it. The Cross on which Christ had died had been hidden (tradition said) by the Jewish authorities somewhere in the vicinity.

According to tradition, first mentioned by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem in 348, Saint Helena, nearing the end of her life, decided under divine inspiration to travel to Jerusalem in 326 to excavate the Holy Sepulchre and attempt to locate the True Cross. A Jew by the name of Judas, aware of the tradition concerning the hiding of the Cross, led those excavating the Holy Sepulchre to the spot in which it was hidden.

Three crosses were found on the spot. According to one tradition, the inscription Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum ("Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews") remained attached to the True Cross. According to a more common tradition, however, the inscription was missing, and Saint Helena and Saint Macarius, the bishop of Jerusalem, assuming that one was the True Cross and the other two belonged to the thieves crucified alongside Christ, devised an experiment to determine which was the True Cross.

In one version of the latter tradition, the three crosses were taken to a woman who was near death; when she touched the True Cross, she was healed. In another, the body of a dead man was brought to the place where the three crosses were found, and laid upon each cross. The True Cross restored the dead man to life.

In celebration of the discovery of the Holy Cross, Constantine ordered the construction of churches at the site of the Holy Sepulchre and on Mount Calvary. Those churches were dedicated on September 13 and 14, 335, and shortly thereafter the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross began to be celebrated on the latter date. The feast slowly spread from Jerusalem to other churches, until, by the year 720, the celebration was universal.

In the early seventh century, the Persians conquered Jerusalem, and the Persian king Khosrau II captured the True Cross and took it back to Persia. After Khosrau's defeat by Emperor Heraclius II, Khosrau's own son had him assassinated in 628 and returned the True Cross to Heraclius. In 629, Heraclius, having initially taken the True Cross to Constantinople, decided to restore it to Jerusalem. Tradition says that he carried the Cross on his own back, but when he attempted to enter the church on Mount Calvary, a strange force stopped him. Patriarch Zacharias of Jerusalem, seeing the emperor struggling, advised him to take off his royal robes and crown and to dress in a penitential robe instead. As soon as Heraclius took Zacharias' advice, he was able to carry the True Cross into the church.

For some centuries, a second feast, the Invention of the Cross, was celebrated on May 3 in the Roman and Gallican churches, following a tradition that marked that date as the day on which Saint Helena discovered the True Cross. In Jerusalem, however, the finding of the Cross was celebrated from the beginning on September 14.


Why the First Christians Abhorred The Cross

To the eyes of the first Christians, a cross had no beauty. It stood outside too many city walls, decorated only with decaying corpses, as a threat to anyone who defied Rome's authority—including Christians who refused sacrifice to Roman gods. Although believers spoke of the cross as the instrument of salvation, it seldom appeared in Christian art unless disguised as an anchor or the Chi-Rho until after Constantine's edict of toleration.

Early in the fourth century St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ's life. She razed the second-century Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior's tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher over the tomb. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.

The cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century, according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus' head: Then "all the people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on."

To this day the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica's dedication. The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.

Saint of the Day

The Cab Ride

I arrived at the address and honked the horn.
after waiting a few minutes I walked to the
door and knocked. 'Just a minute', answered a
frail, elderly voice. I could hear something
being dragged across the floor..

After a long pause, the door opened. 
A small woman in her 90's stood before me. 
She was wearing a print dress 
and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned
on it, like somebody out of a 1940's movie.

By her side was a small nylon
suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had
lived in it for years. All the furniture was
covered with sheets.

There were no
clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils
on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard
box filled with photos and glassware.

'Would you carry my bag
out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase
to the cab, then returned to assist the
woman.

She took my arm and we walked
slowly toward the curb.

She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I
told her.. 'I just try to treat my passengers
the way I would want my mother to be
treated.'

'Oh, you're such a good
boy, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave
me an address and then asked, 'Could you drive
through downtown?'

'It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly...

'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 
'I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice. '

I looked in the rear-view mirror. 
Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have
any family left,' she continued in a soft
voice.. 'The doctor says I don't have very
long.' I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.

'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.

For the next two
hours, we drove through the city. She showed me
the building where she had once worked as an
elevator operator.

We drove through the neighborhood 
where she and her husband had lived
when they were newlyweds She had me pull up in
front of a furniture warehouse that had once
been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she'd ask me to slow
in front of a particular building or corner and
would sit staring into the darkness, saying
nothing.

As the first hint of sun was
creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm
tired. Let's go now'.

We drove in silence to the address she had given me.
It was a low building, like a small convalescent home,
with a driveway that passed under a portico.

Two orderlies came out to
the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were
solicitous and intent, watching her every move.
They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to
the door. The woman was already seated in a
wheelchair.

'How much do I owe you?'
She asked, reaching into her purse.

'Nothing,' I said

'You have to make a living,' she answered.

'There are other passengers,' I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. 
She held onto me tightly.

'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she
said.  'Thank you.'

I squeezed her
hand, and then walked into the dim morning
light.. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound
of the closing of a life..

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove
aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that
day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had
gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient
to end his shift?  What if I had refused to take the run, 
or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything
more important in my life.

We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve
around great moments.

But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully
wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY
WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID ~BUT~THEY WILL
ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM
FEEL.

You won't get any big surprise
in 10 days if you send this to ten people. But,
you might help make the world a little kinder
and more compassionate by sending
it on and reminding us that often it is the random acts of
kindness that most benefit all of us.

Thank you, my friend...

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.



Friday, September 13, 2013

Battle of Clontarf - 1,000 Years Ago This Month

 1,000 years ago this month, the lead up to the battle of Clontarf began.

Around September 1013, Brian Boru's forces began their unsuccessful siege of Norse Dublin. 

This directly lead to Clontarf the following year.
 
Listen to the great story in this podcast here. http://irishhistorypodcast.ie/2012/02/27/1000-1022-brian-boru-the-battle-of-clontarf-and-its-aftermath/
https://fbstatic-a.akamaihd.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif

Top 10 Foundations Opposing Traditional Marriage

Meet The Top 10 Foundations Giving to LGBT Causes
JACOB LONG SEPTEMBER 11

Some organizations have been throwing tens of millions of dollars at the LGBT community — least we can do is learn a little about them.

In 2010, $72.6 in global philanthropy reached the doorsteps of LGBT people, figuratively speaking. That’s out of a total $1.2 billion of worldwide philanthropy, as reported by a new study from the Foundation Center. The Center was established in 1956 and claims to “maintain the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grant makers and their grants.” It partnered with The International Human Rights Funders Group(IHRFG) — a global network of donors and grant makers — for the June study, “the first research report of its kind.”

Arcus Foundation
Ford Foundation
Gill Foundation (Denver)
Eveyln and Walter Haas Jr. Fund
Open Society Foundation (George Soros)
Astrea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
Proteus Fund
Tides Foundation
American Jewish World Service
Been Around Since: 1997
This one’s a doozy. More than $4 billion in grants since its inception (and it’s still got just under $3 billion in its coffers). It’s a charitable arm of an investment firm and ranks in the top 25 foundations in the country — it also claims to give money in every state and “almost” every country.  They made claim to this list without even focusing on LGBT issues, their grants going to programs focused on anything from religion to environmental issues.  Learn more at http://bit.ly/19E9ZCN.


Why 9/11 Occurred on September 11

Why 9/11 Occurred on September 11
11 Sep, 2008

Very few people seem to be aware of why it was that Al-Qaeda chose September 11 for the date of a devastating, carefully planned attack on the United States, but the information is illuminating and worthy of discussion. A better understanding of what drives Islamic terrorism assists in helping to understand why most Westerners' lack of any sense of history is dangerous. Conversely, Islamic terrorists are driven by events that occurred hundreds of years ago. They comprehend that Islam and Western Culture have been locked in mortal confrontation for approximately 1,400 years with a brief interlude that has caused Western culture to forget what is at stake and what is at risk.

Part of the motivation of Islamic terrorists is to reverse the trend of decline in the Islamic world relative to Western culture that many trace as far back to September 11, 1683 when a large Turkish army was humiliatingly crushed by Europeans at the Battle of Vienna.

In 1683, the Ottoman Turks attacked Vienna. The Turks viewed Vienna as the gateway to hegemony over all of Western Europe. The resulting battle of Vienna was a watershed moment in history. The Turks had made elaborate preparations and had assembled resources and Jihadists eager for booty from throughout the Ottoman Empire. Europe was quite vulnerable as it was fractured into warring kingdoms and weakened by internecine squabbles that nearly allowed the Turks to conquer the European continent. However, the Turkish preparations were so elaborate that they could not be hidden and the Europeans were able to form agreements or treaties to assist each other against the Turks that proved decisive and which changed the course of human history.

The Battle of Vienna was a hard-fought war with an uncertain outcome. The Turks nearly conquered the city. All that saved Europe was the arrival of a relief force headed by Polish King Jan Sobieski. Jan Sobieski and his troops won a major victory against the Turkish forces on September 11, 1683. The victory was so compete that Polish King Jan Sobieski purportedly described the windfall in a letter to his wife as follows:
"Ours are treasures unheard of ... tents, sheep, cattle and no small number of camels ... it is victory as nobody ever knew of, the enemy now completely ruined, everything lost for them. They must run for their sheer lives . . ."

Educated, fundamentalist Muslims feel the sting of the defeat hundreds of years later. In their view, they are the recipients of Allah's final revelation and it is humiliating to them that their "perfect" Islamic culture has declined relative to Western culture. They seek to reverse the trend and September 11 was carefully chosen to try and reverse the course of history and create a new September 11 that the Islamic world could celebrate. . .

http://www.islam-watch.org/Stunich/Why-9.11-Occurred-on-September-11.htm

Why bin Laden picked the September 11 date?

Blog - Matt K. Lewis
Why bin Laden picked the September 11 date
There is no shortage of information about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Yet, I find that few people realize the apparent reason bin Laden chose that particular date. Lawrence Wright’s terrific 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Looming Tower,” implies the date might have been symbolic.
“Why did these men turn against America, a highly religious country that so recently been their ally in Afghanistan,” Wright asks rhetorically, before explaining:
… To [al Qaeda], the Crusades were a continual historical process that would never be resolved until the final victory of Islam. They bitterly perceived the contradiction embodied by Islam’s long, steady retreat from the gates of Vienna, where on September 11–that now resonant date–in 1683, the king of Poland, Jan III Sobieski, began the battle that turned back the farthest advance of Muslim armies. For the next three hundred years, Islam would be overshadowed by the growth of Western Christian societies. Yet bin Laden and his Arab Afghans believed that, in Afghanistan, they had turned the tide and that Islam was again on the march.



Sep 12: Happy Chrysostom Day

St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople

St. John Chrysostom is considered to be one of the greatest of the early Church fathers. He was born around 344 to Christian parents in the city of Antioch. After ordination to the priesthood, he earned the title Chrysostom, meaning golden-mouthed, because of his eloquent and bold preaching.
Later, he was elected archbishop of the great city of Constantinople. Despite suffering many illnesses throughout his life he kept up his daily preaching, corrected sinful customs, and earned the enmity of the nominally Christian Empress Eudoxia, who sent him to exile.
We have over 700 sermons and 246 letters of St. John Chrysostom’s, plus biblical commentaries, moral discourses, and theological treatises.
When St. John died September 14, 407, a terrible hailstorm fell on Constantinople. Four days later, the empress died as well.
This quote from St. John applies to every bishop: “If others lose their savor, then your ministry will help them regain it. But if you yourselves suffer that loss, you will drag others down with you. Therefore, the greater the undertakings put into your hands, the more zealous you must be.” 

—St. John Chrysostom’s homily on Matthew’s gospel; Liturgy of the hours IV:121

Sep 12: Why you should have coffee and croissants today

Back to the Battle of Vienna
One thing I noticed very early on in the development of joepastry.com was how often I kept coming upon references to the Battle of Vienna. It seemed like every time I delved into the history of this or that piece of Viennoiserie I found one. “The development of this bread can be traced back to the Battle of Vienna in 1683.” The croissant, the brioche, the bagel…all of them are tied to it. That was one momentous, baking-intensive battle, no?

But what exactly was the Battle of Vienna? Though most people today aren’t familiar with it, the Battle of Vienna was possibly the critical battle in modern European history — the point at which the Ottoman Turks, who at the time seemed poised to overrun all of Europe and extinguish once and for all Christian rule, the nation state system and emerging concepts of individual rights and democracy, were routed by a combined army of Habsburgs and Poles. As I said we don’t think much about the battle now, but at the time it was considered, you know, important.

So where do the breads come into it? Folks who’ve followed the site for a while already know the story: It was a gloomy night in Vienna. For two long months the Ottoman Turks under Pasha Kara Mustafa had been laying siege to the city. Supplies were dwindling, morale was low, the aura of doom was palpable. Down to the last of their precious flour stores, a group of bakers worked methodically onward in their shop that abutted the city wall. It was the wee small hours of the morning when suddenly: tap, tap, tap…tap, tap, tap. The bakers looked up at one another. What on Earth could that be? And then suddenly they realized: the Ottomans! They’re tunneling into the city! Quick! Raise the alarm! No — wait! Let’s bake something! An edible symbol of impending doom!

Well OK, so they don’t always bake first (except in the croissant version). Some iterations have them running out and sounding the alarm. In others they pick up whatever implements are at hand and take on the Turks themselves, presumably impaling the bad guys on whisks and icing spatulas. But the story always ends with the Turks defeated, the populace grateful, and the bakers given sole rights to baking and selling the whatever-they-came-up-with by royal decree.

I gotta admit, it’s a fun story. Personally I like the image of swarthy, bare-chested Austrian bakers toiling away in their shop, just waiting for an excuse to go kick some Ottoman can. It offers me the happy illusion that instead of being fussy foodie primadonnas, we pastry types are actually widow-makers in waiting. That inside every Jacques Torresthere’s a Chuck Norris waiting to get out. Yeah, well, a guy can dream.

Like just about every other phony food history story, these tall tales have interchangeable parts. They can take place either in 1683 during the Battle of Vienna, or in 1529 during the Siege of Vienna. Both pitted Europeans against Turks, though in the Siege of 1529 there was a lot more tunneling (the battle is also called the “Siege of the Moles” for that reason). Alternately, it can happen during the Battle of Buda(pest) in 1686, though in that battle it was the Europeans who were besieging the Turks. Well heck, Turks like bagels too don’t they? Don’t they?



Sep 12 - Why you should say a "Hail Mary" today

The Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, or simply the Holy Name of Mary, is a feast day in the Roman Catholic Church celebrated on 12 September to honor the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has been a universal Roman Rite feast since 1684, when Pope Innocent XI included it in the General Roman Calendar to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Vienna in 1683.

Meaning of the name
 
In Hebrew, the name Mary is Miryam. In Our Lady's time, Aramaic was the spoken language, and the form of the name then in use was Mariam. In the book, The Wondrous Childhood of the Most Holy Mother of God, St. John Eudes offers meditations on seventeen interpretations of the name "Mary," taken from the writings of "the Holy Fathers and by some celebrated Doctors".   The name of Mary is venerated because it belongs to the Mother of God.

Meanings ascribed to Mary's name by the early Christian writers and perpetuated by the Greek Fathers include: "Bitter Sea," "Myrrh of the Sea," "The Light Giver," "The Enlightened One," "The Light Giver," and especially "Star of the Sea." Stella Maris was by far the favored interpretation. These etymologies suppose that the Hebrew form of the name is Maryãm, not Miryãm. The Hebrew name of Mary, Miryãm, (in Latin Domina) means lady or sovereign.

Veneration

Mary’s name occurs in the first part and in the second part of the Hail Mary.

At Rome, one of the twin churches at the Forum of Trajan is dedicated to the Name of Mary (Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano).

Promoters of veneration of the Holy Name of Mary include: Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.

Feast day

The feast is a counterpart to the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (January 3).   Its object is the Blessed Virgin Mary; the feast commemorates all the privileges given to Mary by God and all the graces received through her intercession and mediation.

The entry in the Roman Martyrology about the feast speaks of it in the following terms:
The Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a day on which the inexpressible love of the Mother of God for her Holy Child is recalled, and the eyes of the faithful are directed to the figure of the Mother of the Redeemer, for them to invoke with devotion.

History

The feast day began in 1513 as a local celebration in Cuenca, Spain, celebrated on 15 September. In 1587 Pope Sixtus V moved the celebration to 17 September. Pope Gregory XV extended the celebration to the Archdiocese of Toledo in 1622.  In 1666 the Discalced Carmelites received the faculty to recite the Office of the Name of Mary four times a year. In 1671 the feast was extended to the whole Kingdom of Spain.

Before the Battle of Vienna in 1683, John III Sobieski placed his troops under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the following year, to celebrate the victory, Pope Innocent XI inserted the feast in the General Roman Calendar, assigning to it the Sunday within the octave of the Nativity of Mary.

In the reform of Pope Pius X, the liturgy of the Sundays, which previously had been generally replaced by celebrations of saints, was restored to prominence. The celebration of the Holy Name of Mary was therefore moved to 12 September. 

Later in the same century, the feast was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969, as something of a duplication of the 8 September feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.but it did not cease to be a recognized feast of the Roman Rite, being mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on 12 September. In 2002 Pope John Paul II restored the celebration to the General Roman Calendar.

The day was commemorated in Vienna by creating a new kind of pastry and shaping it in the form of a half-moon. It was eaten along with coffee which was part of the booty from the Turks.

A number of parishes and schools are dedicated in honor of the Holy Name of Mary.



9/11/1683 - The Day Europe Stopped The Islamists

September 12: The Battle of Vienna

In 1683, the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire were at war.  Vienna had been under siege for months.  On 11 September a coalition of Christian forces, a Holy League blessed by Bl. Pope Innocent XI, arrived with Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland, to lift the siege.

When he saw that the Turks were about to breach the walls of the city, Sobieski attacked earlier than he had intended.

On 12 September at 4 am the battle was closed.   Sobieski had called on the protection of Our Lady of Czestochowa before the battle.

He sent his forces of 81,000 against the Turks’ 130,000.  In the afternoon Sobieski led a downhill charge which broke the Turkish line and then seized the abandoned tent of the Ottoman general who had fled.

The Battle of Vienna halted the spread of the Ottoman Empire into the rest of Europe.

Bl. Innocent XI commemorated the victory at Vienna by extending the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, which had been observed in Spain and by the Carmelites, to the whole Latin Church.  One of the pair of churches in Rome near the Forum of Trajan is dedicated to the Name of Mary.

Today is the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, which in part commemorates the defeat of the Islamist Ottoman Turks by Jan Sobieski at the walls of Vienna.

Concede, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus: ut fideles tui, qui sub sanctissimae Virginis Mariae Nomine et protectione laetantur; eius pia intercessione a cunctis malis liberentur in terris, et ad gaudia aeterna pervenire mereantur in coelis.

Holy Mary, Mother of God…




For It Is Mary

September 12: Happy Feast of the Holy Name of Mary

My mother’s name was Mary . . .
1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy, with James Cagney and Joan Leslie.
It’s a grand, old name.


Mary's A Grand Old Name
Written by George M. Cohan and introduced by Fay Templeton in "45 Minutes From Broadway" during 1906.

My mother's name was Mary
She was so good and true
Because her name was Mary
She called me Mary, too
She wasn't gay or airy
But plain as she could be
I hate to meet a Mary
Who calls herself Marie

For it is Mary, Mary
Plain as any name can be
But with propriety, society will say Marie
But it was Mary, Mary
Long before the fashions came
And there is something there that sounds so square

It's a grand old name

Quotes About Manliness





Bad Moon Rising

Did you know that there is a bad moon rising?



10 Most Fascinating Facts About Costco




Important Stock Information

Normally I avoid discussing any advice regarding buying or selling of stocks, but I felt this is important enough to share and warn you since this explosive situation might prove to be yet another ENRON.


Please review any holdings you might have in the following stocks:  American Can, Interstate Water, National Gas Company, Northern Tissue Company.

Due to uncertain market conditions, I advise you to sit tight on your American Can, hold your Water, and let go of your Gas. You may be interested to know that Northern Tissue touched a new bottom today, and millions were wiped clean.

It's a tough market out there.  Be careful!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Help Obama Start World War III

Humorous Parody Asks You To Help Obama Kick Start World War III


Eternal Life (funny)

Funny, if it weren't so true.

A guy is walking along a Florida beach when he comes across a lamp partially buried in the sand. He picks up the lamp and gives it a rub.

A genie appears and tells him he has been granted one wish.

The guy thinks for a moment and says, "I want to live forever."

"Sorry," said the genie, "I'm not allowed to grant eternal life."

"OK, then, I want to die after the Democrats  balance the budget and eliminate the debt."

"You crafty little bastard," said the genie. . .


A Conservative Wins in Australia

If only the USA could wise up and follow Australia’s example . . .

Thank You, Australia by Daniel Hannan

Tony Abbott Elected Prime Minister Because Australians Trust Him

People of his sort are not supposed to win elections. Abbott believes in God, supports free speech, wants to crack down on illegal immigration and once called global warming "crap". He opposes same-sex marriage, though in courteous and temperate language (his sister, who is gay, campaigned for him). He has no time for the notion, favoured by some Melbourne cleverdicks, that Australia is an Asian power.  His country's alliances with Britain, the United States and the other Anglophone democracies are central to his world-view.

How did he do it? One word: integrity. Of all the insults hurled at Abbott by his opponents, one which you almost never hear is "liar". His beliefs are not everyone's cup of tea. Indeed, his paternalistic social conservatism is a long way from my own brand of free-trade, small-government Whiggery. But people trust him to deliver what he promises, and with reason.

If you followed the Australian election, however cursorily, you'll almost certainly have picked up the idea that Abbott was sexist.  What Abbott's detractors really mean by "sexist" is that he is Roman Catholic and opposes abortion. Not that he plans to ban or restrict it – he did neither as health minister – but that is personal views are somehow unacceptable. There is a hint of anti-Catholicism here, of the Richard Dawkins kind: how, we are invited to ask, can we elect someone who believes in fairy-tales?

It is here that bien pensant commentators make their error. Few Australians share Abbott's strong religious convictions. But – and this is the point they miss – you don't have to be a Christian to see the use of Christian politicians. Voltaire, who loathed the Catholic church, once remarked that he wanted his cook, his accountant and his barber to be Catholics: that way, he said, he'd be less likely to be poisoned or robbed or have his throat cut. The same applies in spades to prime ministers. Plenty of committed atheists can see the benefits of putting people in government who believe that they are answerable to a higher power.



Like Father Like Son

This child’s parents probably have to go to parent-teacher meetings all the time. . .




America’s Red Lines - Foreign Policy Blunders by Conrad Black

Interesting perspectives from this Canadian . . .

America’s Red Lines - Foreign Policy Blunders by Conrad Black

In Vietnam
In the terrible debacle in Vietnam, force levels in a combat zone were raised to 550,000 draftees, with the Americans regularly taking 200 to 400 dead per week, on dubious legislative authority. The war was ambivalently pursued and militarily mismanaged. In the aftermath, all ability to enforce the peace agreement was cut off, dooming the entire effort and condemning millions of Indochinese to a gruesome fate.

In Desert Storm
In the first Gulf War, following the naked aggression of Saddam Hussein in invading and occupying Kuwait, a mighty alliance was assembled, 957,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen were transported to the approaches to Iraq and armed to the teeth. The war cleared Iraq out of Kuwait, and the record for the disparity of casualty levels between two fighting forces — previously set at the nearby Battle of Gaugamela in 331 B.C. by Alexander the Great — was surpassed. (Alexander allegedly took 1,300 casualties in killing 50,000 Persians and capturing 300,000, a considerable feat with swords, spears, and arrows; while the Gulf War Allies suffered a thousand casualties while killing, wounding, and capturing about 350,000 Iraqis.) But Saddam was allowed to continue as Iraqi dictator. He violated almost all the terms of the ceasefire, Iraq’s Kurds were violently subdued despite the imposition of a no-fly zone, and Saddam strutted about the Arab world as a virtual David against the great American-headed Goliath.

In Bosnia
In the Bosnian conflict, after the Europeans got over the hubristic illusion that it was “the hour of Europe,” Republican Senate leader Robert Dole denounced the European arms embargo, correctly, as a plan to enable the Serbs to massacre their designated opponents, and pushed the U.S. into the conflict with his lift-and-strike legislation. President Bill Clinton and his advisers then developed the dubious concept of the war worth killing for, but not worth dying for: Allied aircraft flew at 30,000 feet to avoid any possibility of ground-to-air fire from the Serbs while bombing that country into backwardness, and the commander-in-chief publicly wept when one American airman’s plane crashed and he was captured alive by the Serbs. On this arithmetic basis, many of the world’s greatest statesmen, including Lincoln, Churchill and Roosevelt, would have drowned in their own tears. (To make the Clintons a matched pair in histrionics, Hillary Clinton fantasized that she had been under heavy sniper fire at Sarajevo airport while being presented with posies by curtsying schoolgirls — and later attributed this complete fabrication to jet lag).

In Fighting Terrorists in the 1990s
As terrorist outrages against the United States occurred in the late 1990s (the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, in 1996; the bombing of U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998; and the attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen, in 2000), the Clinton administration responded with half-measures: cruise missile attacks that rearranged the rubble around an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and took the roof off an aspirin factory in Sudan. Such feeble gestures later prompted George W. Bush to say: “When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt.”) This under-response led directly to the 9/11 attacks and the Iraqi and Afghan actions that followed.

In Iraq
In the 2003 Iraq War, Saddam was ousted just as quickly as the Gulf War has been won in 1991, and with a fifth of the forces. He was captured and executed, but in the greatest military blunder in modern U.S. history (except the failure to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Vietnam War), the American authorities laid off the 400,000 members of the Iraqi army and police forces but allowed them to retain their weapons and munitions, as if they were going to set up target and quail-shooting clubs around Iraq and not rent themselves out (as they did) as private armies and factional death squads. George W. Bush’s dream of democracy in the Middle East has wilted; the Maliki government in Baghdad is unstable, ungrateful and undemocratic (though an improvement on Saddam).

In Afghanistan
President Obama decisively raised the American commitment to Afghanistan, where Western forces had been floundering after George W. Bush decamped to Iraq for no reason that has ever been adequately explained. But the West has almost nothing to show for this effort either, and the United States has been reduced to truckling to the Taliban whom it deposed, and paying Dane geld to America’s gallant Pakistani ally, which passes on some of the American assistance it receives to the very same Taliban forces that are busily engaged in killing American and NATO servicemen.

In Syria
Barack Obama has positioned cruise missile-equipped vessels off the coast of Syria that could deliver conventional warheads precisely on Syrian targets. Yet as he has done this, he has engaged in vigorous public discussion about the dangers that would await the United States in Syria. Last week, for instance, he told CNN that he was wary of “being drawn into very expensive, difficult, costly interventions that actually breed more resentment in the region.”  It is an unusual (and, among the leaders of Great Powers, probably unprecedented) gambit, to muster a nation’s war-making potential while publicly musing on the inadvisability of engaging in war-like acts. It is the ultimate spectacle of the narcissist: All the world must watch while I pull the petals off this daisy.

Should the USA Attack Syria?
Opponents of an attack on Syria say that American munitions can’t target Bashar Assad’s poison gas stocks without releasing them; and that any punitive attack that weakens Assad would facilitate the triumph of his Jihadist enemies. This analysis suggests that nothing should be done except “punishing” Assad for his use of chemical weapons … without actually hurting him in any militarily significant way. That’s the sort of Bill Clinton tokenism that led directly to 9/11.  It is paralysis by analysis: the antics of people who don’t want to decide, who feel something must be done but don’t want to do anything.



Syrian Slapstick by Conrad Black

This is what happens when you elect a community organizer as the leader of the free world.   You become a laughingstock with no credibility.

Syrian Slapstick by Conrad Black

Not since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and prior to that the fall of France in 1940, has there been so swift an erosion of the world influence of a Great Power as we are witnessing with the United States.

What we are witnessing now in the United States, by contrast, is just the backwash of inept policy-making in Washington, and nothing that could not eventually be put right.

But for this administration to redeem its credibility now would require a change of direction and method so radical it would be the national equivalent of the comeback of Lazarus: a miraculous revolution in the condition of an individual (President Barack Obama), and a comparable metamorphosis (or a comprehensive replacement) of the astonishingly implausible claque around him.

What is more worrisome than the fact that the United States has an inadequate president, is that the public still accords the incumbent a significant degree of support. If the American people, who have responded to intelligent leadership so often within living memory, has become so morally obtuse that it buys into this flimflam, the problem is more profound than I imagined.

What American will need in 2016 is a new president who enunciates a clear policy: foreign intervention only to prevent genocide, to avenge extreme provocations, or to preserve world peace, and in accord with constitutional and international law.

The Americans show no sign of wanting their country to be regarded as absurd in the world, and they are so America-centric, and so suffused with the heroic mythos of America, that they seem unable to grasp the possibility that it is.


Cotton Candy Christianity

Joel Osteen’s Gospel of Neutrality and Omission

Maybe you’re a fan of Joel Osteen. You may have read his books and have watched him on TV and are having a tough time accepting this. I strongly encourage you to pray about everything he or anyone teaches. If you sincerely seek God’s truth,He will reveal it to you. Osteen pres­ents a kind of self-help program under the guise of Bible instruction. There’s nothing wrong with optimism,but pastors [and teachers] need to stick with the Word of God.

People who follow Osteen’s happy formula and then fail to get the positive results he promises end up disillusioned and worse,get mad at God and fall away from him. Don’t you think Christians are responsible for telling people what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear? You won’t get that from Mr. Happy. Smooth talk. Positive vibes. Prosperity and abundance. Flattering speech. Deceptive doctrine with a smile…. Cotton Candy Christianity.



Pastor Joel Osteen feels it is not his calling to get deeply into the Bible or to talk about sin. He also prefers not to think too much about other religions, but he believes Mormons are Christians. He focuses on the positive and promotes a word-faith the­ology that the more you do or say something, the more you will get as a result. I know this teaching well because I followed it for several years in my early Christian days. It is both addictive and deceptive. Who doesn’t want to be happy and “up” all the time? Most of us realize that not only is this unbiblical; it is not realistic.


The tragic thing is hoards of people are being influenced by Osteen’s limited theology, and they end up looking at God as some kind of genie. On page 306 of Your Best Life Now, Joel claims, “It’s our faith that activates the power of God.” When the emphasis is on the power of our own words instead of the power of the resurrec­tion, something’s wrong. He goes so far as to say it’s more important to speak to your problem than pray about it (pg. 124).

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Texas Is Preparing To Become An Independent Nation If USA Falls Apart

It’s good that Texas is planning ahead . . .

Texas Politician Says State is Preparing to Become ‘Independent Nation’ In Case Union ‘Falls Apart’

A prominent Texas politician, who is running to be the state’s next Attorney General, said this week his state is actively preparing to secede from the union and become an “independent nation” if the U.S. “falls apart.”

Barry Smitherman, currently the Texas Railroad Commissioner, made the comments in an interview published in World Net Daily (WND) on Monday.

“Generally speaking, we have made great progress in becoming an independent nation, an ‘island nation’ if you will, and I think we want to continue down that path so that if the rest of the country falls apart, Texas can operate as a stand-alone entity with energy, food, water and roads as if we were a closed-loop system,” Smitherman said. . .




Syrian Rebels Execute Two Children

And Obama wants us to support these Islamist murderers . . .

Report: Syrian Rebels Execute Two Children
Islamist rebels in Syria reportedly execute two children deemed to be the wrong side of the conflict. (Warning: graphic images)




14 Peaceful Celebrities May Have Been Kidnapped

Shockingly, nothing has been heard from these 14 anti-war celebrities about Syria.  
Why haven’t we heard them condemning violence as they did when President Bush was in office?  They seem to have disappeared.
14 Principled Anti-War Celebrities We Fear May Have Been Kidnapped
Our government is yet again marching us towards a “war of choice” in the Middle East and these non-partisan, peace-loving celebrities have gone missing since late 2008. We fear the worst.

The only explanation for their continued silence must be a large, organized kidnapping. To whoever is responsible for their disappearance, please post pictures of them holding a recent newspaper so we know they’re okay.

Here is the last known information on these 14 peaceful souls:



The best obituary you will ever read

Obituary from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Mullaney, Mary A. “Pink”

If you’re about to throw away an old pair of pantyhose, stop.

Consider: Mary Agnes Mullaney (you probably knew her as “Pink”) who entered eternal life on Sunday, September 1, 2013. Her spirit is carried on by her six children, 17 grandchildren, three surviving siblings in New “Joisey”, and an extended family of relations and friends from every walk of life.

We were blessed to learn many valuable lessons from Pink during her 85 years, among them: Never throw away old pantyhose. Use the old ones to tie gutters, child-proof cabinets, tie toilet flappers, or hang Christmas ornaments. Also: If a possum takes up residence in your shed, grab a barbecue brush to coax him out. If he doesn’t leave, brush him for twenty minutes and let him stay. Let a dog (or two or three) share your bed. Say the rosary while you walk them. Go to church with a chicken sandwich in your purse. Cry at the consecration, every time. Give the chicken sandwich to your homeless friend after mass. Go to a nursing home and kiss everyone. When you learn someone’s name, share their patron saint’s story, and their feast day, so they can celebrate. Invite new friends to Thanksgiving dinner. If they are from another country and you have trouble understanding them, learn to “listen with an accent.”

Never say mean things about anybody; they are “poor souls to pray for.” Put picky-eating children in the box at the bottom of the laundry chute, tell them they are hungry lions in a cage, and feed them veggies through the slats. Correspond with the imprisoned and have lunch with the cognitively challenged. Do the Jumble every morning. Keep the car keys under the front seat so they don’t get lost. Make the car dance by lightly tapping the brakes to the beat of songs on the radio. Offer rides to people carrying a big load or caught in the rain or summer heat. Believe the hitchhiker you pick up who says he is a landscaper and his name is “Peat Moss.” Help anyone struggling to get their kids into a car or shopping cart or across a parking lot. Give to every charity that asks. Choose to believe the best about what they do with your money, no matter what your children say they discovered online. Allow the homeless to keep warm in your car while you are at Mass. Take magazines you’ve already read to your doctors’ office for others to enjoy. Do not tear off the mailing label, “Because if someone wants to contact me, that would be nice.”

In her lifetime, Pink made contact time after time. Those who’ve taken her lessons to heart will continue to ensure that a cold drink will be left for the overheated garbage collector and mail carrier, every baby will be kissed, every nursing home resident will be visited, the hungry will have a sandwich, the guest will have a warm bed and soft nightlight, and the encroaching possum will know the soothing sensation of a barbecue brush upon its back. Above all, Pink wrote – to everyone, about everything. You may read this and recall a letter from her that touched your heart, tickled your funny bone, or maybe made you say “huh?”

She is survived by her children and grandchildren whose photos she would share with prospective friends in the checkout line: Tim (wife Janice, children Timmy, Joey, T.J., Miki and Danny); Kevin (wife Kathy, children Kacey, Ryan, Jordan and Kevin); Jerry (wife Gita, children Nisha and Cathan); MaryAnne; Peter (wife Maria Jose, children Rodrigo and Paulo); and Meg (husband David Vartanian, children Peter, Lily, Jerry and Blase); siblings Anne, Helen, and Robert; and many in-laws, nieces, nephews, friends and family too numerous to list but not forgotten.

Pink is reunited with her husband and favorite dance and political debate partner, Dr. Gerald L. Mullaney, and is predeceased by six siblings. Friends (and strangers she would love to have met) can visit with Pink’s family at the Feerick Funeral Home on Thursday, September 5, from 3 until 7 PM with prayer service at 6:45 PM. Mass of the Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Monica’s Catholic Church in Whitefish Bay on Friday, September 6, at 3 PM. Dress comfortably with a splash of pink if you have it. In Pink’s memory donations may be made to Dominican High School, 120 E. Silver Spring Dr., Whitefish Bay, WI 53217, or Saint Monica Parish, 160 E. Silver Spring Dr., Whitefish Bay, WI 53217, or any charity that seeks to spread the Good News of Pink’s friend, Jesus.

Valet Parking in front of the funeral home on Thursday.