Another comment about reader comments

 

Friends, several times in the past I've had to post reminders that I won't allow foul language, extremism, xenophobia, calls to violence and suchlike in my comments here.  That's one of the reasons I moderate every comment, burdensome though it is to have to revisit that section several times a day to approve or delete reader input.

I've recently seen an upsurge in what I think is "fedposting" - comments that call on us to "shoot police in the face", or attack political operatives who are imposing policies we don't like, or throw out of helicopters anyone in general with whom we disagree.  Some of them have been over-the-top foul, too, but most are seemingly just the rantings of people who've had enough, and aren't going to take it any more.

I don't believe this is simply emotion working its way out.  I think this is an organized, deliberate effort to "poison the well" for all conservative and middle-of-the-road media, by providing ammunition to declare them "extremist" or "racist" or something like that - in other words, providing justification for the powers that be to shut them down.  The same thing appears to be happening across many other social media sites;  so many that I can't believe it's coincidental.  This is planned.

Friends, I will not, repeat, not tolerate such comments here.  I deleted four of them just this morning.  This blog will remain a "free speech zone" where anyone is welcome to say anything, provided it doesn't contravene the constitution and laws of the United States or the basic Christian moral code that I observe.  Calls to kill political and other opponents are far outside both categories, and won't be published at all.  The same goes for comments that denigrate other religions or cultures or political views just because they're different, rather than providing rational, reasoned argument why they may or may not be acceptable in this, or that, or the other society.  Ditto for profanity, pornography, spam and the like.

Please, keep it family-friendly if possible, and keep it rational and reasoned, and keep it lawful and ethical.  If we all do that, there won't be any problem.  If a few don't . . . too bad.  My blog, my rules.  Start your own blog, where you can do as you please.

Peter

This opens up all sorts of possibilities...

 

I note with some bemusement that Italian bureaucrats are at it again.

Italy’s Ministry of Health has banned “puppy yoga” classes, saying only adult dogs should take part in order to protect the health of animals as well as the safety of attendees.

In a note circulated on 29 April, the ministry said it was aware that organisers often "borrow" puppies from breeders.

But because puppy yoga "improves wellbeing" it should be considered as a kind of "animal assisted therapy" - which by law can only be carried out by fully grown animals.

Puppy yoga typically involves puppies roaming freely around a yoga class and sometimes being incorporated in yoga poses, or a yoga class followed by playtime with the puppies.

There's more at the link.

Puppy yoga does seem to be a thing, judging by the number of videos of it on YouTube.  However, it also appears to be attracting questions, if not criticism.  Therefore, I'd like to offer some of our Texas critters to be used instead of puppies in yoga classes.  For example:

• Razorback hogs:  Usually a cross-breed between escaped domestic hogs, wild pigs and Russian  boars, the latter introduced in the 1930's by "sportsmen" wanting a wilder, tougher animal to hunt.  (Idiots!)  Guaranteed to make any yoga class an uplifting experience, as students climb the walls to get away from them.
• Skunks:  Particularly during February, which around here is known as "Suicidal Skunk Season" due to their habit of wandering out into the road at that time of year, getting run over, and leaving an unmistakable smell for miles and miles on local roads.  The odor of sanctity, it ain't!  Repeated application of students' deodorant to the animals may improve things.  Then again, maybe it won't.
• Armadillos:  Probably the safest animals in a yoga class.  When they curl themselves into a ball, they can be rolled up and down the floor, making avoidance techniques an interesting addition to the standard stretches.
• Grackles:  They'll add a definite musical (?) dimension to the class, as well as redecorating the studio (and the students) with artistic splotches and stripes from on high.

Readers are invited to suggest in Comments below their preferred animal contributions to yoga classes.  We'll send the lot to the Italian bureaucrats responsible for this ruling, and let them decide what's best for their needs!

Peter

Shades of "Arkell v. Pressdram"

 

I'm sure many of my readers will be familiar with the (in)famous exchange of letters in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram, 1971.  Those who aren't will find the details at the link.  (Profanity alert:  lawyers aren't always polite!)

I was reminded of that well-known case by this tweet yesterday, largely by the inclusion of a word that I've censored (given that this is a family-friendly blog, most of the time).  Clickit to biggit.

I wonder if they'd also assert an equal IP right to the entire slogan, including the censored word?  That would make just about as much sense!  It's also like the computer games company that tried to trademark the expression "space marines" (despite its having been in use since the 1930's), or the comic publishers that trademarked the term "superhero".

Suffice it to say that I think the LA Police Foundation deserves the mockery.

Peter

Well, at least they have one thing in common!

 

It seems pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators have at least one thing in common.  Click this link to view video and listen to their chants.

Who says the country is too divided to be united?

Peter

Looks like 2020 all over again: same organizers, same riots

 

I'm sure many readers have noticed that the campus riots against Israel have many common features.  Many demonstrators all have the same type and color of tents in their "protest camps", often arranged in similar grid patterns.  They have professionally printed protest signs, delivered in their hundreds, rather than spontaneously-drawn hand-made signs.

Does that remind you, perhaps, of those strategically-placed and anonymously-delivered pallets of bricks that accompanied street riots in many American cities during 2020, and the unrest that led up to the Presidential election that year?  It sure does me . . .

There's also the presence of professional agitators and activists to organize the otherwise clueless students.

Mayor Eric Adams warned Wednesday that “outside agitators” had descended on Columbia University’s campus to radicalize students ... Hizzoner blamed the on-campus chaos on insurgents who have a “history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos” instead of protesting peacefully.

“There were individuals on the campus who should not have been there. They were people who are professionals and we saw evidence of training,” Adams said.

“I know that there are those who attempting to say, ‘Well, the majority of people may have been students.’ You don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-op an operation. That is what this about.

. . .

Adams said the NYPD was brought in Tuesday night to quell the unrest at Columbia after the administration acknowledged outside influencers “were on their grounds training and really co-opting this movement.”

There's more at the link.

The U.K. Telegraph provided this pen-portrait of one of the better-known radical organizers in New York City.

When Eric Adams, the New York mayor, issued a warning about “outside agitators” infiltrating the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University, his words were accompanied by video of students dutifully obeying orders from a grey-haired woman.

She was identified as Lisa Fithian, a New Yorker living in Texas, yet the 63-year-old would have needed no introduction to law enforcement officers involved with policing protests in the US for more than half a century.

Described by Mother Jones as “the nation’s best-known protest consultant”, Ms Fithian has supported a plethora of movements over the decades including opposing the Iraq war, fighting for Louisiana communities following Hurricane Katrina, Extinction Rebellion and Occupy Wall Street.

She has been arrested between 80 and 100 times yet unions and activist groups hold her rabble-rousing skills in such high regard they have paid her $300 (£240) a day to run demonstrations and teach them tactics for taking over the streets.

Video released by New York police at Mayor Adams’ briefing on Tuesday showed Ms Fithian instructing a mob of pro-Palestinian protesters as they took over an academic building at Columbia University.

. . .

After attending Skidmore college in New York, she cut her teeth as a political activist with the Washington Peace Center campaign group in the 1980s, organising demonstrations locally and nationally with a focus on anti-racism issues.

By the time she took a key role in Occupy, a social justice movement that targeted leading financial institutions, she was a revered figure among fellow campaigners.

As Occupy took over the parks of New York and Los Angeles in 2012, she was reported to have been handing out advice to younger activists on tactics ranging from proper tear gas attire to long-term protest strategies.

“When there is some conflict, or things aren’t going the way that we want them to go, or people don’t have a good long-term plan,” a twenty-something protester told Mother Jones, “I have heard others and myself say, ‘Damn it, where is Lisa Fithian?’”

Max Berger, another Occupy campaigner, said: “Nobody is going to say that what Lisa does is not badass so she is in a very strategically important position of teaching kids who want to be badass to be smart.”

Again, more at the link.  She was far from the only such organizer there.

Also, intriguingly, we find that many of the "migrants" who recently poured across our southern border, with the help of the Biden administration, may be involved in the campus riots.

The modern version of Rent-A-Mob, perhaps?

Perhaps most intriguing from my point of view, the "fact-checking" sources that almost unanimously debunked the placement of bricks during the 2020 riots, denouncing them as mere "construction debris", are also working flat-out to deny that outside agitators are at work in these campus riots.  A simple Internet search reveals the common guidelines they've been given.  They're all marching to the beat of the same drummer, suggesting that their "fact-checking" is itself nothing more than political propaganda.

Put all that together, and the "demonstrations" begin to look more and more like the George Floyd protests of 2020:  a technique for political intimidation, rather than a "spontaneous" outburst.  These riots are far too well organized and coordinated across the country for that.

I think I have a solution, though.  Let's gather up every organizer we can find, plus the "student leaders" who are looking to them for guidance, and drop them all into the middle of the biggest concentration of Hamas terrorists we can find in Gaza.  Let them discuss solidarity and fellow-feeling all they like, while the rest of us watch.  It might make for a sell-out pay-per-view experience.

Peter

Adjustable?

 

I did a double-take when I came across this video.  I've used a chiropractor's services myself, but I had no idea they were applicable to something this big!

I suppose it's logical that they should work on giraffes as well as on humans, but it's still a bit mind-boggling.  I wonder how much force he had to exert to move the vertebrae?

Peter

A politician I'd love to see in office in this country

 

I can get behind President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador whole-heartedly.  We recently discussed his crackdown on narco and gang violence in his country, leading to his re-election with an overwhelming majority of the vote.

His next step?

The 'unapologetic dictator' and 43rd President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele launched an anti-corruption investigation into the entire executive branch of his government. Just like Anil Kapoor-starrer Bollywood movie 'Nayak', the businessman turned politician ordered every single official to gather in an assembly, where he announced the decision to inquire them for bribery. The move is seen as a strike against graft back home in the Central American nation.

The video of Bukele asking the Attorney General to investigate the entire executive branch including the cabinet members for corruption has gone viral online. The faces of the officials sitting and gathered at the assembly could tell that they were shocked and taken aback by the move.

There's more at the link.  You'll find a video recording of President Bukele making his announcement here.

I love it!  It would be marvelous if we could do the same thing in Washington D.C., not to mention every one of our fifty State capitals.  The only problem would be to find enough uncorrupted investigators to do the work!

Peter

Gov. Kristi Noem was (and is) right

 

There's been an enormous, emotional reaction to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem's revelation that she shot an errant dog after it had killed a flock of chickens and then appeared to turn on her.  If you've missed the story, you can read about it here.

My first point is, if the incident is as she described it, she did exactly the right thing.  One of her dogs had inflicted death and destruction on another person's animals.  There's no "miracle cure" for that;  once an animal starts down that path, it'll continue unless and until it's stopped the hard way.  I've seen it many times before, and twice have assisted a friend to shoot packs of dogs that had "graduated" to chasing cattle, biting at their legs and throats, trying to bring one down to kill and eat it.

My second point is that far too many people today have lost sight of the basic facts of life.  They're living in a cocoon, an emotional fuzzy ball of fluff that's insulated them from reality.  As "Ragin Dave" put it at Liberty's Torch:

The people freaking out about this are people who have never once been outside of their protective bubble. Sometimes real life demands hard choices. When I read the story, I just shrugged and went “Yeah. So?” I think it would do this country a world a good if many of those pampered bubble dwellers had to actually see where their food comes from, and perhaps harvest that food themselves. The first time I helped harvest and butcher an animal I became much more appreciative of the food on my plate, and the people who work to put it there. I think that lesson needs to be taught to an entire generation these days.

True dat.  Life is full of hard choices.  Killing an errant, dangerous animal is just one of them - and by no means the most difficult.

Choices are often hard in the abstract, but a heck of a lot easier in the concrete.  It's easy to say, "Oh, I could never shoot someone!" when asked what one would do if a criminal attacked one's spouse or child.  When it actually happens - when one's spouse or child is subject to a brutal, relentless attack that can only result in her death or serious injury - it's a whole lot easier to justify shooting, and even killing, the attacker.  That also tends to change one's whole outlook on life.  Shooting an errant, dangerous animal is part and parcel of the same response.

I remember a young lady I knew back in South Africa.  She was one of the anti-violence, peace-and-rainbows-and-unicorn-farts people, nice enough as a person, but without much of a clue about the darker side of the world.  When I invited her to join a class I was presenting on defensive firearm use, she recoiled in horror, as if I were some sort of monster.  (I was more than a little surprised that her husband, a shooter and hunter and outdoor type, had married her;  but he obviously saw beneath the surface to the real person, who hadn't yet revealed herself.)

That changed in the small hours of the morning she found an intruder climbing in through the window of her two-year-old daughter's bedroom.  According to her (somewhat bemused) husband, she stormed into the room (pushing him aside in the process), pepper-sprayed the intruder in the eyes, waited until he'd put his hands up to his face, kicked him hard in the unmentionables, and proceeded to beat him unmercifully about the head with her daughter's favorite wooden stool (so hard that she broke it).  According to him, when the cops arrived, they stood around scratching their heads and saying things like "Ma'am, why did you call us?  You were doing just fine on your own!"  Kipling warned us about the female of the species . . . and I suspect he was right, particularly when the female in question is the mother of a young child.

I heard about the incident at five o'clock that morning, when she called, woke me out of a sound sleep, and demanded to join my next shooting class, at once if not sooner.  She learned well, and persuaded her husband (who, already a shooter, needed little persuasion) to buy her a Colt Commander lightweight .45 pistol, which she proceeded to carry everywhere with almost religious fervor.  She'd learned the hard way that life happens, whether we like it or not - and she was determined to make sure it worked out in her (and her child's) favor next time.  The rest of her (former) circle of friends were horrified at her transformation, needless to say, and promptly turned their backs on her;  but her husband (and yours truly) were all in favor.  It did their marriage no end of good, too.

So, I fail to see why all the fuss about Governor Noem's actions with respect to her dog.  She did what was necessary, when it was necessary.  I have no idea whether or not she's a good governor, as I live a long way from her state and have never had the need to do any research about her:  but the story makes me more likely than not to consider her favorably, as a politician who's walked the walk as well as talked the talk.  Readers who know more about her can tell the rest of us in Comments if that's a reasonable assessment.

Peter

A tad careless of them, wouldn't you say?

 

The BBC reports that Colombia's armed forces are missing a whole bunch of ammunition and weapons.

Colombia's military has lost millions of bullets, thousands of grenades and several missiles, the nation's president has said.

Gustavo Petro ... said the missing items came to light during surprise visits to two military bases - Tolemaida and La Guajira - on 12 February and 1 April, respectively.

At Tolemaida, there was a shortfall of more than 808,000 bullets and nearly 10,000 fewer grenades than the inventory listed on official records.

Meanwhile at La Guajira, the discrepancies included nearly 4.2 million bullets and more than 9,300 grenades. Mr Petro also said the base had lost two Spike missiles, 37 Nimrod missiles and 550 rocket-propelled grenades.

He told reporters that the military supplies would have been passed on to armed groups within Colombia, but could have been smuggled to Haiti or the international black market.

There's more at the link.

I'm sure the personnel at those military bases were delighted (NOT!) to have snap inspections of their facilities, giving them no warning and leaving them no time to cover up the missing items.  I'm sure many of them made a lot of money by diverting them to weapons smugglers.  I hope it'll be enough to compensate them for the years in prison that will likely be coming their way.

That sort of chicanery is a real problem in the drug wars.  Mexico's cartels are armed with full-auto military weapons that they've largely obtained from the Mexican armed forces and those in countries to the south.  When they have so much money at their disposal, it's not difficult to bribe those in charge of the weapons to turn a blind eye to wholesale theft.  Trouble is, those cartels then turn their weapons against their own authorities, and against the US as well in the form of ambushes directed against the Border Patrol, Customs officers and other law enforcement personnel.  Many such weapons have been found smuggled into this country, and in the possession of local cartel distributors.  The latest one I heard of amounted to more than 20 full-auto assault rifles, more than 100 magazines and over 5,000 rounds of ammunition, plus several hand-grenades and a rocket launcher.  That's enough to give any local police force conniption fits.  They're severely outgunned.

Of course, the gun-grabbers' answer is to blame private firearms owners for "allowing" their guns to be stolen, or selling them to the cartels.  That's largely not the case.  Private owners seldom own full-auto weapons, and almost never explosive devices.  Those are sourced from corrupt militaries more than anywhere else.  It's not a comfortable thought that law-abiding citizens like you and I might have to face up to criminals armed in that fashion.  I feel outgunned already.

Peter

A Japanese oncologist speaks about the explosion in cancer rates after the COVID-19 vaccine

 

Prof. Masanori Fukushima, a leading Japanese oncologist, discusses the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine on cancer rates, particularly rapid-onset cancers.  Here are some excerpts, posted on Twitter.

I am the most senior medical oncologist in Japan.  I was the first to open a cancer outpatient clinic at Kyoto University, and before that, in Kyoto University, in 2020, I was the head of a section at the Aichi Cancer Center, all positions were at the Aichi Cancer Center Hospital. I established the first course in pharmacoepidemiology at Kyoto University in Japan.

...

People are saying about what's being called "turbo cancer," a type previously unseen by doctors, characterized by its incredibly fast speed. By the time it's discovered, it is already in stage four, advanced cancer, and such cases are starting to sporadically appear in consultations. Thus, doctors began sharing information about these extraordinary cases that are different from before. So, this has gradually become the situation since last year or the year before that. Indeed, doctors have been sensing from the field that something unusual related to cancer may be happening. They were feeling it on the ground. 

...

Moreover, the results of our analysis show, surprisingly, that specific types of cancer, in relation to the vaccination, seem to be experiencing excess mortality. Firstly, cancers such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, thyroid cancer, and then statistically, esophageal and lung cancer. These are, and another one is prostate cancer in men. Such cancers are specifically observing excess mortality. This phenomenon cannot be simply explained by disruptions such as early screenings being unavailable due to the pandemic, or lost opportunities for treatment.

...

It's as if we've opened Pandora's box and are now encountering all sorts of diseases. We're facing them. Autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and infections. All of these, including rare and difficult diseases, even those rare conditions are happening. Even diseases unheard of are being encountered by ordinary doctors.

...

This isn't science; it's more akin to faith, hysteria, or even cult behavior, in my opinion. Opposing vaccines doesn't make one a heretic like Galileo; it's become like being treated as a complete outcast. That's the situation. This is madness.

...

 We really must take these damages seriously and address them earnestly. Any efforts to dismiss these damages as if they didn't happen are, frankly, the work of evil. This is a quintessential example of the evil practice of science.

...

Therefore this vaccine was from the beginning based on misconception, misconduct, and evil practices of science, totally defective, founded on misconceptions, leading to a totally false production, a false product, I believe.

...

We must confront this directly again and shine the light of science on it, so the WHO should lead a comprehensive outcome research on this gene vaccine used on humanity on a large scale for the first time, and all countries should cooperate with it. We should never again use such vaccines. This is a shame for humanity. It's a disgrace!

The full video interview with Prof. Fukushima may be found at the link.  It's less than ten minutes long, and is worth your time.

I'm no longer active as a pastor and chaplain, except when individuals ask me for counseling or wish to discuss something.  However, I'm still in touch with those "on the front lines", so to speak:  and unanimously they report a significant increase in the number of people being diagnosed with rapid-onset cancers, appearing almost out of nowhere and progressing at a viciously fast rate.  Some of them are only detected when they're at Stage 3 or Stage 4 (the latter usually meaning survival is unlikely).  I'd love to know why the mainstream media, in the US and elsewhere, is ignoring or censoring this ongoing reality.

In this case, forewarned is not forearmed, because there isn't much one can do about such rapidly progressing illnesses:  but one can at least watch one's health carefully, in the hope of detecting anything dangerous before it becomes unstoppable.  I hope we can all take warning from that.

Peter

So did it ever happen?

 

I was intrigued to read an article at The Aviationist.

65 years ago today on April 24, 1959, legend has it that an aviation stunt so bizarre it defies belief actually took place in the Mackinaw Straits between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan.

A U.S. Air Force RB-47E Stratojet reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Strategic Air Command pilot Capt. John Stanley Lappo was said to have flown underneath the Mackinaw Bridge where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron converge. As history records the event, no photos of the aircraft flying under the bridge exist, but the stunt, if it actually did happen, created enough buzz that a legend was born.

According to the thisdayinaviation.com website and the Wikipedia page for the Mackinaw Bridge, fitting a Boeing RB-47E Stratojet under the Mighty Mac was a tight squeeze with little margin for error. The highest place between the water surface in the Mackinaw Strait and the bottom of the Mackinaw Bridge is 155-feet at the center. The tail of an RB-47E stands 27-feet, 11 inches off the ground. If you do the math, that leaves about 127-feet of space between the water and the bottom of the bridge to play with. Considering the RB-47E stall speed in these conditions may have been as slow as 150-190 MPH, the plane would cover that distance in altitude in just over a second or two.

As the story goes, and is told in several media outlets, Capt. Lappo was, “Reported by his navigator” to some higher authority after the bridge fly-under. The legend claims that Lappo was, “charged with violating a regulation prohibiting flying an aircraft below 500-feet”. No great aviation tale is complete without details, and the story is that Capt. Lappo was permanently removed from flight status by the Commanding General of the Eight Air Force, Lieutenant General Walter Campbell.

. . .

Most stories about the alleged fly-under appear on the internet after 2019. Before that, there is no verifiable report of the incident. Given these results, all the features of an urban legend exist here. This is not to say the story is impossible.

There's more at the link.

I can see a fighter or fighter-bomber flying under that bridge, just as has been done to other famous bridges around the world (for example, see the Tower Bridge Incident in London, England in 1968).  However, the much larger, less nimble and maneuverable B-47 bomber would be very difficult indeed to fly through such a confined space.  If it was done, one can only tip one's hat to the pilot in admiration.

The question is, did it ever happen?  There seems to be no conclusive evidence out there.  I would think an incident like that would have attracted attention and headlines from all over, so I'm confused.  Was there an orchestrated cover-up by Strategic Air Command, so as not to encourage any of its other pilots from trying the same trick?

If any reader can shed any further light on the subject, please let us know in Comments.  I'm sure I'm not the only one intrigued by this rumor.

Peter

Always they cry "Racist!" instead of accepting the facts

 

A proposed city separation in Louisiana has all the usual suspects screaming "Racist!" (as usual).

Wealthy white Baton Rouge residents have won a decade-long court battle to split from poorer neighborhoods and form their own city with plans for better schools and less crime. 

The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the new City of St George could move forward with incorporation, splitting off from the rest of Baton Rouge. 

St George will have 86,000 residents across a 60-square-mile area in the southeast of East Baton Rouge Parish and will have its own Mayor and city council.

Supporters of the new city say that the existing city-parish government is poorly run, with high crime rates and bad schools. 

Opponents say the movement is 'racist' and will create a 'white enclave' as it separates a wealthy area of the city from the majority Black city and school district.

There's more at the link.

I lived in Louisiana for more than a decade.  I know Baton Rouge reasonably well.  I'm pretty sure you'll find those living in the proposed City of St. George are not primarily whites objecting to sharing the city with blacks.  I'm confident you'll find they're simply sick and tired of paying the highest rates in the city, only to receive exceptionally poor treatment at the hands of the municipality, which has for years (decades!) taken that money and used it to employ, service and subsidize poorer people in the city while neglecting "the goose that laid the golden eggs".  Now that the goose has decided it will no longer put up with that, and instead wishes to improve its lot in life, they're screaming that the problems are the goose's fault - racism, rich vs. poor, haves versus have-nots, and all the rest of the usual slogans.

The same scenario has played itself out in other American cities, notably Buckhead in Atlanta, GA.  In every case of which I'm aware, the same allegations of racism, elitism, etc. have been leveled against those who want to escape the poorer morass that's absorbing their high rates and leaving them with almost no return on their money.  That applies particularly to security.  Criminals from the poorer areas target those living in the rich areas, because that's where the money is - but the city police do nothing extra to protect those targeted areas, often under instruction from the City Council to do so.  It's understandable that the victims of crime feel more than a little aggravated by it, and want something done about it.  They've finally decided to do it themselves, since they can't rely on the city's leaders to do their job.

When will the progressive left learn that if you steal the goose's golden eggs for long enough, it'll take itself off to where it can lay its eggs in safety, free from your rapacious clutches?  Why should the richer suburbs subsidize the poorer without any return for themselves?  If they were treated fairly and equitably, they probably wouldn't mind so much:  but when they're basically robbed blind to pay off poorer areas, they get a mite tetchy about it.  In their shoes, so would I.

I hope the City of St. George will serve as a wake-up call to other Baton Rouges around the country.  Don't push your greed too far, or it may come back to bite you right on your fundamental jujube.

Peter

That's the way to do it!

 

It was a sad occasion, but marked with honor and community support.

You probably remember 17-year-old Cameron Blasek. He's the Indiana teen who refused to take the American flag off his truck when triggered [school] administrators demanded he do so.

If you recall, he doubled down and covered his entire truck with the flag, thanks to a Cincinnati graphic design company.

He hasn't stopped there.

Last Thursday, out of the blue, Cameron got this heartfelt message from someone in Oklahoma asking for a favor. Turns out, it was from the family of Jaxon, a 13-year-old kid who had decided not to continue with chemo after fighting cancer from the age of two.

Jaxon's last wish?

He wanted to ride to his final resting place in Cameron's truck, decked out in the Stars and Stripes.

Without thinking twice, Cameron and his dad hit the road for that long 16-hour haul to Oklahoma. Cameron's mom wrote on Facebook that this is one of those favors you "drop everything you thought was important and say yes to without a second thought."

There's more at the link.

Here's a TV news report about the incident.

Well done, Mr. Blasek and family!  I wish we had more like you in our midst.

Peter

When will the Catholic Church ever learn?

 

I've written extensively about the Catholic Church's clergy sex abuse scandal in these pages.  As regular readers will know, the way it was mishandled led me to withdraw from that Church's ministry.  Today's discussion will discuss the latest development in that scandal.  A word of warning:  I remain Christian, and will provide a believer's perspective on the issue.  If you're not Christian and/or not a person of faith, you might prefer to skip this article.

A report from New York illustrates the core of the Catholic Church's problem, which is with us still, and will be unless and until the hierarchy of the Church returns to its joint and several roots and remakes itself in Christ's image, instead of the world's.

On Tuesday, [the New York State] Appellate court’s First Department reversed a ruling dismissing Chubb insurance’s assertion that its policies did not cover child sexual abuse claims that church leaders enabled and covered up for decades... Chubb insured the Archdiocese of New York, which serves 2.5 million Catholics, and its affiliated parishes and schools between 1956 and 2003.

. . .

The appellate court’s decision affirms Chubb’s position that it shouldn’t have to defend the Archdiocese if the organization “had knowledge of its employees’ conduct or propensities,” the company said in a statement.

“The Archdiocese must now disclose what it knew and when it knew about child abuse perpetrated by priests and employees,” the company contended. “That disclosure is critical to determining whether the [Archdiocese of New York’s] knowledge and cover-up precludes coverage.” 

The Archdiocese called the ruling “disappointing” and “wrongly decided,” claiming, “If allowed to stand, the decision will permit insurance companies to evade the contractual obligations of the policies they issued.”

There's more at the link.

The last paragraph cited above illustrates the core of the problem.  The Archdiocese of New York is not responding to the news as a body of faith, as the Body of Christ on Earth.  It's responding as a business organization, just another corporate entity talking to the courts and other corporate entities on their terms.

This is not what the Church is called to be.  It's definitely not Biblical, it's not Godly, and it ignores the calling of Christ for His church to be His bride.

There are those who'll say that of course the Church must respond to corporate issues in a corporate way;  that to do otherwise would be nonsensical.  However, think about it.  Did Christ ever tell His apostles to establish a corporation?  Hire lawyers and managers and administrators, and actually use ordained ministers of faith in those occupations, rather than as messengers of the Gospel?  What's the priority here?

Bob Mumford, a Pentecostal evangelist, once defined secular humanism as "what you get when the world evangelizes the church".  That was a prophetic definition, IMHO, and we see its results in far too many Christian churches today.  They are run as businesses rather than houses of faith;  secular corporations rather than guardians and beacons and emissaries of Christ's truth.  Christ told us to "preach the Gospel to all nations" - not erect corporate entities that would administer the secular possessions of the Church while, effectively, relegating her Divine mission to second place (if that).

That's also what gave rise to the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal in the first place.  Seminaries were allowed to become secular in focus, concentrating on psychology, sociology, anthropology and other approaches to human life instead of inculcating the transformational, transcendental calling of Christ to his followers in their students.  Worse, the seminaries were staffed by those who shared that perspective, including many who were morally degenerate.  Anyone not sharing it was either not appointed to the staff, or removed as quickly as possible.  Furthermore, students were selected for the seminary according to their conformity with secular perspectives and liberal/progressive "spirituality", and again, those who did not demonstrate this were quickly removed.

For a thorough discussion of those issues, see the book "Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church" by Michael S. Rose, published in 2002.

The book documents everything that I've said about seminaries, and goes into a lot more detail.  It might as well be sub-titled "How Satan Subverted Future Priests", because that was the net effect of such policies on so many students for the priesthood.  I suppose we'll never know how many potentially holy, faithful and apostolic priests we lost thanks to those policies.  I'm betting it was a bunch, and then some.  Even worse, American bishops did nothing to stop this corruption.  It was their responsibility under Canon Law:  indeed, even when the seminary/ies in question were run by religious orders, and nominally not under local episcopal control, the local bishop could have suspended the sacramental faculties of professors, reported the matter to Rome and demanded action, and taken other steps to ensure orthodoxy of teaching.  As far as I'm aware, none did.  I would not like to stand in their shoes at their Judgement . . .

(It's with considerable pleasure that I recently read complaints from some liberal and progressive sources that most priests being ordained today are orthodox in their faith and loyal to the traditional spiritual and theological teaching of the Church.  I hope they're right.  If so, I guess it's the Holy Spirit restoring the church and her clergy to what they should be.)

So, the secular approach to the world epitomized in the Church's seminaries carried over to (and may even have originated in) the Church's administration.  Almost every bishop and his deputies (the Vicars General and Chancellors of dioceses, and other positions) were focused on the Church as a business, as a corporate entity, rather than the Church as the living body of believers.  They spent their time in meetings, writing memoranda, allowing accountants and lawyers to "help them" to conform the Church's structure and administration to "good business practices" - without considering their real and primary calling.  That calling became subordinated to their jobs . . . and that's why things went so appallingly wrong with the Church and some of her clergy.

We see precisely that approach reflected in the Archdiocese of New York's statement after the New York appeal court's ruling:

“If allowed to stand, the decision will permit insurance companies to evade the contractual obligations of the policies they issued.”

Not one word about whether or not the Archdiocese knew about any of the claims over which it's being sued.  It did, and we know it did, because that's come out in innumerable reports over the more than two decades that this scandal has been in the public eye.  Chubb is absolutely correct to try to avoid the costs of those claims, as the appeals court has just ruled.  Its insurance policy/ies contained a liability clause:  in so many words, if its clients knew about a potentially harmful or dangerous situation before the incident(s) occurred, and did nothing to prevent or avoid it, their insurance cover was/is forfeited.  That's a stock-standard clause in any and every liability insurance policy I've ever read.  (I might add that I hold a Master's degree in business, and was a manager and company director before I was ordained a priest, so I know what I'm talking about.)

That's also demonstrated in the public reactions of the Catholic Church in America when the clergy sex abuse scandal broke.  They instantly went into a defensive huddle and called in lawyers, psychologists, public relations specialists, and a host of other secular disciplines to help craft a defensive strategy.  Few if any bishops publicly accepted responsibility for the catastrophe, and those that did . . . well, let's say I doubt that all of them meant it whole-heartedly.  Considering the "inside information" that many priests heard at the time, that was not the impression we gained at all.  Indeed, the national programs implemented to "resolve" the issue reflected that insincerity.  Not a single one of the measures proposed and enforced did anything to deal with the roots of the problem.  Instead, they had the effect of making priests feel that their own bishops considered them to be the source of the problem, and that they were seen as guilty until proven innocent!  I've discussed in depth my reactions to the bishops' measures in an earlier article, so I won't repeat them here.

So now we have the Archdiocese of New York protesting because its former insurer is insisting on enforcing the liability clause(s) in its contracts.  As far as I'm concerned, the Archdiocese appears to be trying to force Chubb to pay for its debts and liabilities, despite the Church having failed to keep its side of the bargain.   To me, that's not only legally wrong, but morally as well.  We know the Archdiocese knew more about these scandals than it ever admitted, until it was forced to acknowledge at least some part of that knowledge in previous court proceedings - yet even now, it's trying to avoid acknowledging that reality by simply refusing to talk about it.  Honesty?  Moral uprightness?  Acknowledging sin?  Where are those Gospel realities in the arguments of the lawyers for the Archdiocese?  Non-existent.

As far as I'm concerned, if the Archdiocese of New York is forced to declare bankruptcy and sell off its physical assets, that might even be a blessing.  Perhaps then the Archdiocese and its priests could get back to living and preaching the Gospel, in season and out of season, rather than focusing on banks and lawyers and accountants and insurance policies more than they focus on the mission God has given them.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 207

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.