We Are Not the Titans

Posted on by charliej373

Solar System

By Charlie Johnston

In the 1880’s, deceived by a string of mild winters and lured by promises that this represented a permanent climatic change, scores of settlers came to Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas to make a go of it. Unprepared for the hard winters that struck again in 1886, most were ruined and some were starved out. Almost four decades earlier, the same thing had happened in the Kansas and Nebraska plains. Each time, “scientists” had assured settlers that the climatic changes were permanent – and promised a land flowing with milk and honey all year long. For many, it was a fatal hubris.

At 63, I have lived through a host of environmental scares – from the “unstoppable new ice age” of the 70’s, to the depletion of the ozone layer, to global warming to climate change. I long ago quit putting credence into these hair-on-fire predictions that never come to pass. They always use it as a call to centralize power and money in a cadre of “experts,” (The same frauds who made the errant predictions in the first place) – and accept poverty and permanent loss of freedom or else we’re all gonna die. Yeah, right.

I am not a scientist, but I am a more-than-competent researcher. In dynamic systems such as our climate, things run in cycles. Night becomes day becomes night again, season follows season, a string of dry growing seasons is followed by a string of wet ones or, occasionally, perfect ones. Our terrestrial average temperatures are most affected by solar cycles that run in 1,500-year increments. There are complex feedback mechanisms that help the earth to respond to challenges. Five hundred years ago, short-sighted superstitious Aztec priests sacrificed young girls so the sun would come back and we would not be caught in permanent winter. They were the “experts” of their time – and carefully exempted their own daughters from the sacrifice. Now a new cadre of superstitious priest experts insists you must sacrifice your children’s freedom and prosperity to appease the wrath of Gaia while carefully protecting their own privileges. Nuts to that.

The reality is that, when it comes to the larger natural systems and cycles, we are not architects. God is. We are just custodians. We are to care for the good earth He has given us, but it is the rankest form of hubris to pretend we can control either the climate or even the weather in any large scale. Christians should know that and live it. We should care lovingly for this way-station God has given us, knowing it is not our final destination. If you have faith, you most assuredly should not be running around constantly with your hair on fire proclaiming the sky is falling unless everybody else gives you all of the power and most of the money.

Our long-time reader, Katherine, wrote a marvelous comment about what we Christians are called to and what we can have absolute confidence in. Here is that comment, in response to someone who was asking about how to deal with such primitive fear-mongering:

“Sometimes it’s enough to just explain our viewpoint well. It’s good to know facts and to be able to refute outright lies, but the heart of this matter is not about the ozone layer. It’s about who is ultimately in charge. Without acknowledging a creator, humanity becomes neurotic, fearful . . . we think that we are so smart that we can prevent and control catastrophe if we just do enough studies and control everything, gather all the tiny details and figure everything out by ourselves because we think the universe depends on us being in charge. We are not God, we can’t possibly know everything. But we all know what is at the heart of problems in the world. We can all agree that the heart of the problem is human greed, ignorance and pride. The thing is, we Christians believe that the politically correct way of going about stewardship of the planet only puts humanity deeper into these very flaws. Since we acknowledge a creator, to double down on the idea that we are in charge is foolishness and we believe that it will likely result in our own destruction and misery. If what really needs to change is the human heart, then grand scientific manipulations won’t help us anyway. It is good to honestly study the world and all of creation. We are connected to it, because we are also God’s creation, but we will not lose our peace and become fearful and thus prone to break God’s laws in order to buy security against coming catastrophes, real or imagined. Imagine how children would act if they believed that there was no grown up around to protect them, no adult to turn to. They would act according to how they thought was best, but there would be so much fear and so little understanding that whatever they could come up with would be more likely to hurt them than the disasters they are afraid of. Monsters, robbers, natural disasters . . . global warming is the monster that many are afraid of, but are we to act like children without a father, or children of a Father who guides us and protects us, even if we are not able to always directly observe or understand His protection and guidance? I don’t think God cares whether we believe global warming is a thing or not, only if the fear of disaster and the pride of self-importance has taken His place. I am more afraid of men blinded by pride and fear acting on behalf of the whole human race than I am of Global Warming or a coming extinction event. Also, from a purely scientific standpoint, there were several mass extinction events in the past, and in each case life came back in greater diversity. As a Catholic, I personally believe that each extinction was a phase initiated by our Creator as part of the preparation of the planet in order to gain the complexity of life needed to sustain humanity and also bring us joy and beauty. So something that would seem very, very bad, might be just the thing to bring about new life and hope in the end. I guess all I’m getting at here is that it’s OK to be concerned for the environment, sad at the extinction of species, want to take the plastic out of the ocean, wish for humanity to adopt a simpler way of life . . . it is not OK to take global worry onto your own shoulders as though there is no God. That way leads to coercion, manipulation, death and despair.”

It is one of the more impressive, concise comments on the matter I have seen. We are not the Titans – just the janitors.

*********

I spoke recently of the many people I speak to these days who are in such despair that they are leaving the Church. There was a piece in American Greatness a couple of days ago by Elizabeth Fortunato that encapsulated a lot of what I hear. Oh Shepherds, I appeal to you! Do not kid yourselves that if you just give lip service to problems, they will go away. Ignoring the crocodile in the room won’t make him go away; it will just whet his appetite.

Meanwhile, some of the radical sedevacantists are feeling their oats – and persuading people that the papacy has been vacant since Pius XII, that all Novus Ordo Masses are de facto invalid, and that there is nothing right in the Church at all.

Ah, the devil misses no opportunity to pull people away from the faith. For a century, he persuaded people never to criticize clerical authority no matter how compelling the evidence. This allowed a culture of corruption to grow and flourish, attacking the faith on a retail basis in all who had been abused. In the revelation of a vast culture of corruption, now he’s going wholesale: he raises up “reformers” who choose to ignore where Christ vested both authority and responsibility for running the Church. These sedevacantists think they are the most Catholic of all. Rather, they are not Catholic at all. They are just an exotic form of Protestant who do not even have the honesty to admit to themselves what they are.

Over 2,000 years we have had the Borgia and Medici Popes, we have had pitched doctrinal crises, we have had widespread corruption and worldliness in the clergy at times. We have survived it all and prospered, just as Christ promised we would. You know who didn’t survive these trials? Two sorts of people: first, those from whom the abuses came who did not repent of their abuse and; second, those “reformers” who decided that the problems were so bad that their own plan of how to vest authority superceded Christ’s command.

I respect honest Catholics, honest Orthodox, and honest Protestants. I do NOT respect those super-apostles (2 Corinthians:11) who think to substitute their judgment for that of Christ and so, try to destroy the faith from within. They are as toxic as those clerics who assault Scripture and the Magisterium openly. I am candid – and welcome candid comments about the problems, controversies and abuses within the faith. When it crosses over to denying the legitimate authority of the faith altogether, I will not have it here.

We are all under assault from those who attack the foundation of the faith, and the devil is very cleverly hiding some of his servants deceptively as super-orthodox for the same reason as he inflames the enemies of the Magisterium inside and outside the Church: to pull people away from the faith altogether that they may be lost to eternity.

We walk a knife’s edge now, assaulted on every side. We must have fortitude, prudence and patience. Our Lord promises though, that “he who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13) Time to prove our mettle.

*********

Next week is likely to prove a very consequential one in David Daleiden’s battle with Planned Parenthood(PP), the National Abortion Federation(NAF), and the California Judicial system. Frankly, the advocates of the culture of death have been floundering badly there, so I have been reticent to write much about it. Never interrupt an opponent who is self-destructing is a principle I live by. Things have gotten so bad that the three biggies; PP, NAF, and federal judge William Orrick appear to be scrambling to try to scapegoat one another for the impending meltdown. I suspect PP will somehow manage to put the biggest onus on NAF. These guys have no loyalty to their allies when the chips are down.

Daleiden did a marvelous interview with Breitbart a few days ago. While I link to it, I have to put up my favorite excerpt from the interview:

“We’ve seen how it persecutes basically everybody at this point — both right-of-center, middle of the road, it doesn’t matter — if you don’t subscribe and bow down and burn incense to their politically correct orthodoxy and dogma they will persecute you, whether it’s Pinterest and Facebook and the social media giants, whether it’s Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra and their jackbooted thugs at the attorney general’s office in California, or whether it’s any number of crazy things that come out of the de facto capital of the California political establishment, which is San Francisco,” Daleiden said.

“They’re not about freedom,” continued Daleiden. “They’re not about liberty. They’re not even about being liberal. They are about power and control, and they have a very narrow view of what a good [and] evolved person is to be in 2019, and they will be ruthless in trying to enforce that, which is what they’re doing to me and what they will try to do to many others.”

I had hoped early in the summer that revelations of her abuses as Atty. Gen. coming this fall would put an end to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. Alas, it looks like she has already torpedoed herself. But perhaps the coming revelations could be the coup de grace.

Pray that the culture of death may be toppled and the culture of life newly ascendant. You will begin to see some real fireworks on it next week.

*********

One of the men I most admire in these times is Dan Lynch. For nearly three decades he has steadfastly manned his post, working to spread devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of America, and Jesus, King of all Nations. He has begun a series on the Mystery of the Divine Indwelling, which I much admire. I hope you will take a look at it.

 

188 thoughts on “We Are Not the Titans”

  1. Charlie, amen to all of this.

    About “climate change” (formerly called “global warming” until big blizzards and cold spells started happening, necessitating a terminology change): I confess, I attended earnest talks about this, read earnest articles, and even collaborated on an article about this in 2007. I am not a scientist. I trusted some of the sources. Then I noticed, especially in the last few years, that the dire predictions were not panning out. In fact, where I live, we’ve had heavier-than-normal winters with deep snow in the past three years. I started reading other scientific analyses. This summer has been pleasantly mild. Facts on the ground match more closely with scientific observations that a solar minimum (fewer or no sun spots) has begun its natural cycle, and that such things ~ not human activities ~ are the major factors in climate changes. All of this has made me suspicious of governmental efforts ~ state, federal, international ~ to control and TAX activities over which, being naturally occurring cycles, they really have no control.

    About the Church: In the past few days, as more stuff has come out about corrupt and even evil deeds done by our leaders (alas, I believe there’s more and worse to come), I have felt more anger than usual. They have hurt not only individual innocents but also the Church, whose people in the pews are put on the spot to answer for the sins of our leaders. Some in the pews are scandalized, and they leave. While conferences of bishops and many individual bishops appeared to address the problems in the 1990s and early 2000s, it seems that the corruption at high levels continued. This has scandalized and demoralized not only the faithful but all who might no longer give credence to anything the Church has to say about faith and morals. Given this reality, I remember a wonderful talk given to a group of members of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. The Vincentian priest giving the talk told us, “It is the laity who are called to save the world.” We are called to know and live our faith (thank you, Saint JPII, for the Catechism of the Catholic Church); to support our bishops and priests who are faithful to their callings; and to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to all whom we encounter. Well, we didn’t ask for this mission in this age of uncovered corruption, but here we are. Do not leave the Church. It is for such a time as this that we are called to be faithful in our mission.

    About David Daleiden vs. the culture of death: Pray for all who have promoted or participated in abortions. When the scales fall from their eyes (and we pray that the scales do fall), the pain and guilt can be excruciating. This is exactly the time when the Lord calls them to repentance, conversion, and healing. Many of those who have undergone this transformation have become the most compelling advocates for Life. We need to be there for those who are coming home to the Author of Life.

    That’s all for now. Thank you for a great post, Charlie ~ and Katherine.

    Liked by 21 people

    2. Hi. Charlie , Beckita , and everyone here . I have not written for quite some time . I do appreciate coming here to find common sense things to read in this current time of confusion in both the political. And church times .

      My family and I have been going through very difficult personal circumstances . My wife filed for divorce a year ago . Things have been strained between us for years . We have 10 children . So much turmoil . I attend church regularly I have come to say the rosary almost daily , sometimes more than once a day ,so I think it. Averages to be daily
      I was watching a video about a Marian apparition and I just felt called to share an experience I recently had , hopefully to show how Mary is here to help us . I believe that is what happened to me .

      I do not believe I am a holy person . I am a sinner , but I do my best to keep getting back up and trying again .

      I work with cattle daily and recently I was sorting some bulls in a yard , I was alone and one of the bulls , a 4 year old bull that weighed a ton attacked me . He got me down and mauled me pretty good . I always carry a rosary And my cell phone in one shirt pocket , an electric fence tester and my calving book in the other shirt pocket . I had a pair of pliers in a holster on my belt my hat and glasses on .

      He pushed me 50 to 60 ft across the yard and back again . When he quit. I was hurt ,but although pretty bruised up nothing broken . He was standing close watching me , so I didn’t move much ,but I knew my phone was gone . However when I looked down at my hand that rosary was laying in my hand . I closed my hand around it and felt so comforted . About 15 minutes later I would guess another bull came and started pushing him around and he walked away and I was able to get up and out of the yard . When I looked back all those items were scattered all the way along where he had pushed me . So what were the odds that rosary would’ve been laying in my hand ?

      Trust in Jesus and Mary . They never said it would be easy ,but they will not abandon us either .

      Liked by 6 people

      1. What a wild day on the ranch, sodakrancher! And what a story of our Mother remaining with you through it all! Thanks so much for this encouragement. It’s great to hear from you. Prayers ascending for you and all your family as you navigate the trials.

        Liked by 4 people

      2. Prayers for your safety and family SKR; (and please consider getting a belt holster pouch for your phone so it doesn’t go flying again. -Amazon prob. has for every model; I’ll go back to minding my own business now). Thanks for sharing your story.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. sodakrancher, thanks be to God that you are alright. I love your witness story and the joy you share in the midst of trials! Thank you for taking the time to remind us that we are not ever alone. I will keep your and your family in prayer. ❤

        Liked by 2 people

      5. Hey there rancher!! I was wondering where you were just a couple weeks ago. Man!!!! – beaten up by the bull not to mention life. Will offer prayer of miraculous trust for you and your family. Glad to hear from you. FYI arnica salve is good for bruises – just sayin’.

        Liked by 3 people

  2. I liked Katherine’s repost.

    It just like the devil to play both extremes in order to shake people off the narrow path…

    Sadly, the leftist media up here in Canada is praising abortion & lgbt rights as virtues and villainizing any conservative viewpoints before our fall election.

    Liked by 10 people

    2. Al ~ I, for one, am still praying for Canada~Praying for Australia and NZ and our neighbors to the south. I am praying for all those who are holding on, keeping the faith and taking the next right step.
      God bless!
      katey in Oregon 🙏🏼✝️

      Liked by 7 people

  3. Great post Katherine. You and David D. get my “most clear and concise” award this week. You’d get it too Charlie, except for that I have to go look up what “sedevacantists” means.

    Liked by 8 people

    1. Agree with you that Charlie, Sister Bear, Katherine, and David all explain it so nicely. Andy, your are right on with your comment on Charlie, lol! I can always feel my vocabulary expanding after I read one of his posts! My wife, consequently, flat out tells me she can’t follow the posts that easily, so she lets me read them and then we discuss them… ha!

      I posted the soundcloud link to the interview for David on Facebook and got some instant heated and liberal feedback, but not because of the content… unfortunately because it was from Breitbart… they wouldn’t even listen to it or read it because they feel everything on Breitbart is “made up” and “broken”. How unfortunate how blinded some get by their false facts and alternate reality…. I pray that something I say simply and level-headedly can help them to consider a different perspective…..

      Prayers for everyone’s scales to fall! Agree totally. I surely hope some events unfold next week in the case – it will be very telling and hopefully it is covered nationally (as some people only get their news from network TV still…..).

      Hope you all have a safe, blessed, and enjoyable Labor Day weekend!

      Liked by 4 people

  4. The term “sedevacantism” is derived from the Latin phrase sede vacante, which means “with the chair [of Saint Peter] vacant”. The phrase is commonly used to refer specifically to a vacancy of the Holy See from the death or resignation of a pope to the election of his successor

    Liked by 8 people

  5. Charlie, Your intuition about the hopeless unreliability of climate prediction at its edges (even with the Sun being the primary driver with its cycles fairly well estimated), is mathematically valid. In HS, we all learned about solving linear equations of the form Y = AX + C. But the logically best climate models are not in this linear form, because what happens next from minute to minute, day to day, cycle to cycle, depends on the starting point and feedback to determine what happens next. This modeling is in the form of a feedback looping system, and so it uses what’s called non-linear dynamic modeling, popularly called chaos theory modeling.

    It turns out, because prediction using chaos modeling runs thru thousands, and hundreds of thousands of modeling cycles, that the results are extremely sensitive to the initializing data, such as temperatures recorded at different locations in sea, on the ground and at different altitudes. The slightest bit of inaccuracy in the initial measures leads to wild swings in results calculated if the initial data were adjusted for accuracy (or for political reasons), as the measurement error at the start leads to increasing unreliability across the many calculation cycles. The unreliability of such modeling is also popularly known at the butterfly effect, meaning that the slight disturbance in wind measurement due to even a single tiny butterfly dramatically affects climate prediction. To make matters worse, it has also become notorious in academe that modelers fudge the variable coefficients to get the desired results. Bottom line is climate modeling has been more of a political exercise done to please funding sources (governments and allied groups) than to achieve scientific accuracy. There are some honest scientists who have reported this problem about climate prediction and its common service to political interests.

    Liked by 12 people

    1. Thank you Jack for this post. Global “alarmist” constantly rely on “models” instead of measurement. Socialist are hoping that Climate Modeling will be their ticket into the White House.

      What upsets me the most is the propaganda being fed to our children. They are scaring them to death. Evil.

      Liked by 9 people

  6. Kudos to Katherine, E. Fortunata, and David D; good work all.

    Thanks for a meaty post Charlie.

    I bookmarked Lynch’s website. I was very heartened to read the doctrine on Sanctification matches what I deduced from Scripture and experience. New to me is the use of fasting.

    I fast during my workdays at the day job, but that is to lose weight, not for sanctification. This week I will be adding a day for the Lord to see what happens. Also, its nice to do things for God even if we don’t understand them.

    God bless.

    Liked by 14 people

  7. I love Katherine’s statement. I was getting messages from friends the other day about the Amazon burning. I just said one word, “propaganda”. It’s not that I don’t feel bad about the Amazon burning, it’s just that the frenzy I saw was a political ploy. It’s a ploy to fear monger and politically destabilize. Later it came out that some of the photos were over 20 years old. I am surprised it wasn’t blamed single handedly on President Trump.
    These days I find Satire sites telling more truth than the regular new media.

    We don’t have control. God does.

    Liked by 13 people

    1. I read this morning that most of the Amazon fires were started by farmers clearing land, which they do all the time. Not sure of the veracity since I don’t know the “truth scale” of Vox.com. It seemed reasonable though?

      Liked by 1 person

  8. When I was reading this post, Charlie, I was thinking that it’s like walking a tightrope these days and then you mentioned the knife’s edge. Exactly. Taking TNRS on the knife’s edge is tricky. Holy Spirit, guide us!

    Liked by 9 people

    1. “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13, 14)

      Both the ways of doing whatever you want and finding some formulaic way that you think answers all and resolves you of responsibility are wide ways. Followed well, acknowledge God, take the next right step, and be a sign of hope is a navigational aid to the narrow way. But boy, oh boy, does the devil have a passel of tricks to lead us astray!

      Liked by 12 people

    2. And I have quite the fear of heights and vertigo…you know God is in control…truly a miracle that i am on this knife’s edge.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. St Faustina:
    When I submit to the holy will of my God,
    a deep peace floods my soul.
    O my Jesus, You do not give a reward for the
    successful performance of a work,
    but for the good will and the labor undertaken.
    Therefore, I am completely at peace,
    even if all my undertakings and efforts should be
    thwarted or should come to naught.
    If I do all that is in my power,
    the rest is not my business,
    And therefore the greatest storms
    do not disturb the depths of my peace;
    the will of God dwells in my conscience.(#952)
    Just wanted to share! Ave Maria

    Liked by 16 people

  10. Well once again, Charlie and “all” here, you’ve helped me to “take the next right step”.

    Last night, my grown Nephew, came over to discuss “global warming” alarmist propaganda. I didn’t know if he wanted to “sell” me on it, or because he’s fraught with fear. It was a little of both. I believe he was given a “nudge” to come to me because of my faith and witness–which happily has not gone unnoticed as I had thought.

    Anyway, it was a good discussion and I pray that it opened a door to his heart. This morning I sent him Charlie and Katherine’s wonderful perceptions on the subject– I couldn’t have said it any better than that.

    Thank you for your support and guidance.

    Liked by 11 people

    1. p.s. I chuckled with the running around with your “hair on fire”—that came out of my mouth a few times last night at dinner.

      Liked by 9 people

      1. Sigh. Seems if I don’t look at all the videos on global warming that he sends me, he can’t be open to God’s call. Please pray for this lost soul. I told him, What’s the point? God is in charge. Also, I said if you don’t believe in eternal life (Heaven and Hell) then what’s the problem…..don’t you just close your eyes and go to sleep? No, he knows that there is more, because his anxiety is telling him so.

        Liked by 2 people

  11. I think, what I have thought for some time, that for the USA/Christendom to be saved & renewed something Big has to shake The West. The “Old Guard” is dying off and the legions of misguided, ignorant and rudderless young are growing … godless Socialism is a horrific Pied Piper as recent history has proven …… ;-(
    To save “Band-Width”, I’m just goinf to provide “links” …. unless one can’t figure out the subject matter form the link address….. Merry Labor Day 😉

    https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2019/08/29/pence-declares-va-hospitals-will-not-be-religion-free-zones/

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democratic-party-nonreligious-voters

    https://www.nationalreview.com/news/survey-45-percent-of-college-students-want-in-god-we-trust-removed-from-currency/

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/08/lgbt_and_fourth_graders.html

    https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/va-catholic-bishops-call-gov-northam-rescind-appt-anti-catholic

    https://townhall.com/columnists/leapatterson/2019/08/28/courts-have-chance-to-end-government-hostility-toward-religious-families-and-schools-n2552271

    https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2019/08/29/why-socialism-and-why-now-n2552303

    https://townhall.com/columnists/bobbarr/2019/08/28/democrats-broke-higher-ed-now-they-want-a-bailout-n2552274

    https://freebeacon.com/issues/largest-u-s-teachers-union-endorses-abortion/

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274693/getting-pbs-hate-out-classroom-daniel-greenfield

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

    Liked by 9 people

  12. IBD

    Investors Business Daily had a article (hope I linked it correctly), quoting U.N. officials unmasking the Climate Change agenda as a means to redistribute wealth. Follow the money and power grabbing to see their true colors.
    I wear the Jesus, King of All Nations medal from Dan Lynch’s site and when I read stories like this, I find myself fingering it to hold onto the truth of who really is “large and in charge.” I second Charlie’s statement of gratitude for Dan’s work.

    Ottmar Edenhofer: co-chair of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on Mitigation of Climate Change from 2008 to 2015
    “One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole.”
    So what is the goal of environmental policy?
    “We redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy,” said Edenhofer.

    Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change:
    Feb 3, 2015
    “This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history.”
    “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution.”

    Liked by 8 people

    1. Those quotes you included are ablaze with irony. Not only are they enjoying the fruits of their labor and distributing same as they see fit, they admit to the intent of usurping that right from most others –– denying en masse the very same freedom. Again, it’s the 70 lb. weakling bullying the great, strapping mass of humanity. How does this end, humanity?

      THROW A PUNCH!

      Liked by 7 people

      1. My paternal grandfather was the physically strongest man I have ever known – and also, perhaps, the gentlest and kindest. But heaven have mercy, you did not want to step on his last nerve when he was trying to be conciliatory, for if you forced a fight you would lose quickly. You’re starting to remind me of my dear departed grandfather.

        (I inherited Poppo’s temperament, but his strength just passed me by – except for my legs).

        Liked by 7 people

        1. I think of family often. Maybe as a consequence of these times, I especially think of those just beyond the veil. That they’re so close –– and palpably so –– tells me more than their words ever could.

          Liked by 8 people

      2. Isn’t it interesting how Jesus threw a punch by being beaten and killed? Talk about a paradox. As God He had all the power but chose to abandon them and take the form of a slave. So why did He do this? Because WE are the slaves to the powers that be. By example He related to us our proper position to the Father and by abandoning our selves to the power of the Father we become proper in our position of weakness and by our weakness we are then made strong!(2 Cor 12:10).

        Liked by 8 people

        1. There is a season to everything. A time to be born. A time to die. Somewhere in there is a time to throw a punch. I’m not missing the opportunity.

          Liked by 7 people

            1. That punch can come in many forms;
              Noah’s Ark, Moses’ Staff,
              David’s sling, Samson’s jawbone of an ass, Gideons lamps and horns, Joshua’s Jerico march, Judith’s Beauty. They all ended up defeating thier enemies not just by sheer force of thier own but by the power of God through thier faith. The events are amazing in thier methods and miraculous in thier outcomes. The unorthodox method was so God could prove to His people that He Is who Is (I Am who Am). He showed the signs demanded by the Jews (1Cor 1:22) as to His sovereignty over all things and how “ the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men”.(1 Cor 1:25).
              These came about by the persons trust in God and this motivated them to defend the faith and the faithful by an impetus of the Father.
              In the New Testament, Jesus showed us a non-combative way where the wrestling occurs inside the person against his fallen nature and “not against flesh and blood”
              (Ephesians 6:12) and how these spiritual consequences spill out into our physical actions causing us to be “defiled”(Mark 7:23). He also commanded us to “turn the other cheek”(Mat 5:40) but not in a proud or cowering way but through a brotherly compassion for the weakness of men acknowledging the mercy of God who suffered blows and spittle upon his cheeks in order to remove the consequence of these transgressions against Himself!
              All this does not diminish the fact that He “chastises those He loves”(Hebrews 12:6-7) and uses His and man’s justice to accomplish these things.
              I tell my children that no matter what punishment I or society inflicts upon us nothing is worse than eternity in hell. So we must use all forms of justice to ultimately lead a person to eternal salvation or to protect those who need to be defended toward this end.
              So, whether spiritually or physically, with good will and intention for the salvation of our brethren….go ahead and throw that punch!

              Liked by 6 people

          2. When I read your punch comment, MP, couldn’t help but smile wondering if your brother Bro.Gideon has the same ‘sock it to ’em’ propensity? OR is he more meek n mild, praying you don’t throw too many punches… and saying, “Ok MP, you made your point, take it easy now.”

            Liked by 3 people

            1. Oh, that’s probably one of my annoying habits, Maggie. I say something like “throw a punch” at the family table, and some who prefer a certain way of speaking don’t get my meaning. Imagine a big round table with a whole bunch of us, Brother Gideon included, all in the same vein. Funny thing about big families, you not only learn to hold your own when you want to make a point (amping up the volume if necessary), but you also become a good listener –– and a lover of silence. Quite the mix.

              Whenever we got too boisterous, dad would pound his fist like a gavel on the bench, giving the floor to whoever had been the most patient about trying to get a word in edgewise. We didn’t mess with dad’s authority, so you could hear a pin drop while all eyes turned to that sibling. That kind of pressure often tongue-tied the speaker (in which case they missed their opportunity). If they were quick, sometimes they’d improvise with something funny to break the awkward tension and we’d all bust out laughing (in which case dad’s laugh was always the hardiest). No matter what, my folks saw to it that each child had their say by the end of the meal (in which case I’d see a deeply calm and satisfied look on my dad’s face). For the record, Bro. Gideon has a sharp wit.

              Liked by 3 people

  13. How I look forward to fireworks next week, Charlie. I just love to see the evil exposed and wish it would happen more quickly. Hope K. Harris is even further “torpedoed”.
    Re “climate change”: we have one wonderful local TV station that has conservative stories and views that the others don’t have. They had a weatherman, the late John Coleman, who was the, or one of the, founders of the Weather Channel. He did a big story one time on the myth of global warming and just one little example was the way thermometers and recorded temps were left out of reporting if they were in the high altitude/cold locations. Of course it’s about redistribution of wealth.
    Wow, it’s enough to make one’s head spin! So much going on, and seeing so many being brain-washed. Thank God our grown children learned from our views at home; grandchildren are getting a whole other warped view in school.

    Liked by 10 people

  14. I always thought that Pope Francis seems to put too little faith in Jesus whenever he aligns himself with the people who say we need to save the world from climate change. Man cannot change the climate and I find it unbelievable that people actually believe man can do this. It is all about power, control and redistribution of wealth. This was a great article, Charlie.

    Liked by 10 people

  16. Thank you for using my comment, I have to admit I feel like a kid whose picture got put up on the family fridge :). Many of my friends are anxious or depressed about what is going on in the world on many different levels to the point where it affects their daily lives. Happily, they are clinging to God as best they can, but it’s true that learning to trust in God deep in your soul takes time and practice through prayer and meditation. It is important to learn not to first look for God active out there in the world, but to get used to experiencing how He is active in your own life and soul. If we can see Him in the details of our lives, we will see Him easily everywhere.

    Liked by 17 people

  18. The Good News ;-):

    http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/healed-aneurysm-investigated-as-possible-miracle-for-creole-nuns-beatificat

    https://www.catholicleague.org/bigot-resigns-from-virginia-gov-post/

    Back to de “Swamp” ;-(

    https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2019/8/28/this-is-all-about-politics-of-course-a-deep-and-boiling-anger-soaks-into-american-life

    Scrap the Jesuits and start over
    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/89142

    https://www.foxnews.com/media/miranda-devine-marissa-brostoff-abortion-conservative-racist

    https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/30/dnc-democrats-religious-group/

    https://nypost.com/2019/08/29/if-charged-with-racism-you-must-be-guilty-thats-the-lefts-new-rule/

    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/08/the_lies_of_the_1619_project.html

    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/green-new-deal-preview-texas-town-environmentalism-chuck-devore

    https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/satanic-temple-more-50-our-membership-lgbtq

    Which begs the “Question” how many of our Gay Cleric Class really belong to The Satanic Temple? …… Democrat Voters? ….. “They” will call US Crazed God-n-Gun Clingers when we ask such questions but their Name Calling Campaign is faltering …… Evil On Parade …Now!!

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274765/jihad-christian-cemeteries-raymond-ibrahim

    https://gatesofvienna.net/2019/08/civil-war-comes-to-neukolln/

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

    Liked by 7 people

    1. Always enjoy your links CrewDog.

      “This is all about politics, of course: ‘A deep and boiling anger’ soaks into American life”

      Anger. Everybody’s angry these days.

      “Those changes come amid a stark generational divide over which VALUES are seen as most important.”

      Patriotism down
      Religious Belief down
      Anger Up
      Anxiety Up
      Pessimism Up

      Do we see a trend here?

      “A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that 70 percent of Americans say they’re angry at the political establishment

      WASHINGTON — The political and cultural upheaval of the last four years has divided the country on ever-hardening partisan and generational lines, but one feeling unites Americans as much as it did before the 2016 election.

      They’re still angry. And still unsettled about the future.

      The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that — despite Americans’ overall satisfaction with the state of the U.S. economy and their own personal finances — a majority say they are ANGRY at the nation’s political and financial establishment, ANXIOUS about its economic future, and PESSIMISTIC about the country they’re leaving for the next generation.

      … Those who say that “patriotism” is very important slid from 70 percent two decades ago to 61 percent now. The share citing religion decreased even more, from 62 percent in 1998 to 48 percent now.

      Those changes come amid a stark generational divide over which values are seen as most important.

      Among those who are either Millennials or Generation Z (ages 18-38), only 42 percent rate patriotism as a “very important” value, while 79 percent of those over 55 say the same.

      Just 30 percent of the younger group cite religion or belief in God as very important, while 67 percent of the older group does. And just 32 percent of those under 38 years old call having children very important, while 54 percent of those over 55 agree.

      I don’t know about you, but I am never surprised when Americans are angry about politics.

      I am surprised, however, that Americans — young Americans in particular — are this angry and despondent about God and even the wisdom of having children.

      So here is my question: Are the political numbers the most newsworthy angle in this rather depressing set of poll numbers? Why did journalists think that these numbers were the ones that mattered the most?

      Just asking.”

      …… Just 30 percent of the younger group cite religion or belief in God as very important, while 67 percent of the older group does. And just 32 percent of those under 38 years old call having children very important, while 54 percent of those over 55 agree. …..

      So, which comes first …. the chicken or the egg?

      Does Anger, Anxiety, Pessimism and Division derive from a loss of Patriotic and Religious VALUES?

      or,

      Does loss of Patriotic and Religious VALUES derive from increased Anger, Anxiety, Pessimism and Division?

      My guess is it’s the latter. And if it is the latter then it begs the question: is Loss of Patriotic and Religious Values an objective, goal or target? And if so by whom and toward what end?

      I have been concerned about my growing anger for some time now. Why? Because I am firmly convinced that there are NO ANGRY MEN in Heaven. You can’t carry anger, anxiety, pessimism or a spirit of division and disharmony including Lack of Peace or Joy in your heart into Heaven with you after death. Completely inconsistent with Communion with the Trinity, the Angels and the Saints. Completely inconsistent with eternal life experienced inside the beatific vision.

      Heaven and filial relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is an ANGER FREE ZONE. No packing such heat and obtaining admittance. One way or another all that negative value stuff has got to be purged before we appear before the throne in adoration and in joy and peace.

      If you are looking to divert the journey of souls to Heaven what better strategy and tactical approach then to layer your prey down with Anger, Anxiety, Pessimism and a spirit of Division? Tricky and effective and seemingly QED for a determined hunter.

      Personally, in my case, I can feel it coming on in a predictable MO. It begins as some kind of IRRITATION (can be a very little thing indeed) which leads to FRUSTRATION which leads to ANGER.
      Call it a progression. This pattern recurs in connection with personal relationships and it can occur through interaction with and exposure to the broader world through the corrupt news media, infected and polluted social media, deranged Hollywood and TV productions.

      What triggers me? All the stupidity leading us all to ruin.

      Had a confessor tell me that “Anger is the sin of old age.” Got to think about that one for awhile. Less tolerant. Less flexible. Hardening of the arteries? Physical factors? Less able to abide nitwits and nitwit thinking and illogic. Maybe.

      But, if Anger is theSin of Old Age, then man we have an enormous number of really, really old young people. We are all, old and young, for whatever reason putting our souls in jeopardy by succumbing to the temptation to Anger, Anxiety Pessimism and a Spirit of Division.

      ….. it begs the question: is Loss of Patriotic and Religious Values an objective, goal or target? And if so by whom and toward what end? …

      If we are the prey who is the hunter? What are his weapons? What are his tactics? How do we evade and escape? The hunter has lethal weapons. They are Anger, Anxiety, Pessimism and Division.

      Momento Mori

      Liked by 4 people

    2. Why socialism sucks… awesome video! This guy entered America illegally and is a hero from his actions. This is the type of person we need in America. He is so thankful of freedom and liberty, he enlists in the military and served overseas,

      Liked by 1 person

  19. Thoughts?
    (edit by Beckita: Little One, I deleted the link to the tweet because the comments below it speak of difficult things in ugly ways. I did, however, paste the text of the tweet here.)

    The Pope has nominated Mgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò, as Vice-Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, with a specific competency on the area of communication. Viganò infamously censored a letter of Benedict, in order for it to appear to praise the theology of Pope Francis.

    Liked by 3 people

      1. Beckita, I totally trust your judgement in all these matters. When I say I am little. I truly mean it. I am not as knowledgeable as all of you. And that is okay because I look to you for direction and information. Thank you.

        Liked by 5 people

        1. Oh Little One, I love you and your presence here. I think you asked an honest question as you noticed the appointment in the tweet. I hope the article helped shed more light on the development.

          Liked by 4 people

                1. Thanks Steve. Feeling a lot better, but slow going. My resistance wore down due to a crunch at work. I’m traveling to Europe for a week, coming home for the weekend and then it’s off to Medjugorje on Tuesday.

                  Liked by 4 people

                  3. Prayers for you doug…I feel bad lately too..just want to sleep 24/7 and lungs feel off..Mike too..I’m thinking maybe the change of season and allergins are the culprit 😣anyhoo..get well soon friend and plz tell Our Lady Of MEDJUGORJE that I love her so much🤗😇😘

                    Liked by 2 people

  20. Stir up your hope!
    I belong to a charismatic covenant community celebrating its 48th anniversary. We were a motley crew back then, aflame with the Holy Spirit. We worked to restore family life and start schools to raise our kids. We raised our kids in our “level of holiness” and then they grew far beyond most of us. God is about rescuing His people. Many of our first generation became leaders and missionaries. I spent an hour with a “second generation” woman and was blown away by her sanctity and sense of purpose. They have so far surpassed us old timers, it is breathtaking. One of our discernment points is “would it give you joy to do (whatever).”

    Someone had a vision early on that we were lying down in a line and our children were running and leaping over our backs. We are in three poor neighborhoods where some of them have married and are raising their children….and the Kingdom is unfolding in those previously undesirable areas. After 20 years folks there are learning to live joyful peaceful community. We are starting to bring Jesus into a fourth area. As in bible times ,it is to the poor in dire straits that Jesus comes. And here God started to raise up new leaders for his people 48 years ago.

    Liked by 8 people

  21. On Environmentalism and its Origins:

    Defending the Free Market—The Moral Case for a Free Economy.
    The Rev. Robert. Sirico, President of the Acton Institute.

    “Chapter 9. Caring for the Environment doesn’t have to mean Big Government

    Environmentalism as an extension of Marxism

    I was in Nicaragua immediately after the fall of communism there in 1990. On the day that the new President Violeta Chamorro was being inaugurated, I noticed some pro-Sandinista demonstrators across from our hotel with large signs and gigantic puppets. I went over to speak with them. They could see that I was a priest but did not know that I was there supporting their new president. We began to speak about the demise of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua and discussed how it had come to this. I asked what they were going to do now that the communist Sandinistas were out of power.

    One of these young comrades told me: “We are going back to the United States to get involved in the environmental movement.”

    The moment he said that, I saw the whole scenario. Although environmentalism was raising some legitimate concerns about the abuse of the natural world, I perceived that it could also be a continuation of the failed socialist revolution. The props and actors are different, but the plot is the same.

    Marx’s idea is that society is rife with conflict and hostility, mainly between workers and capitalists. As the well being of workers and capitalists alike improved under capitalism—and indeed, the lines between the two groups were blurred—that idea grew less and less viable. So the Marxist model has morphed into the belief in an intractable conflict between man and nature—which also, like the intractable conflict between workers and capitalists, just happens to require turning more and more power over to the state to protect the vulnerable against the evil machinations of capitalism.

    The Marxist taxonomy is quite resilient. The problem, of course, is that it represents a complete repudiation of the Jewish-Christian worldview—and COMPLETELY FAILS TO ACCOUNT FOR REALITY. [there’s that word again.]

    Marxism was going to do away with private ownership. On the contrary, it is right—and a great contributor to the flourishing of the human planet and the good of the planet—that human beings exercise their stewardship responsibility on earth over nature through OWNERSHIP. St. Augustine articulates an early Christian understanding of the difference between us and other creatures. “When we hear it said, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ we do not take it as referring to trees, for they have no sense, nor to irrational animals, because they have no fellowship with us. Hence, it follows that the words, ‘Thou shalt not kill’ refer to the killing of man. Augustine directly rejected the idea that plants and animals have rights equal to those of people. He ridiculed the idea that killing animals is the same as murder. We acknowledge that not a sparrow falls to earth without God’s knowledge. Yet we demand the HUMANE treatment of animals, not because they have rights—we must not be abusive to them because it debases us. We must not treat animals as animals treat each other.

    Just as there is a natural interdependence between the owner of productive property and the worker, so there is between man and nature. It is in our interest to have a clean environment, but the way to do this is to unleash creativity and human intelligence. Wen we over-regulate the market and thus obstruct the free flow of knowledge, we cause people to overuse things that are relatively scarce and to overproduce things that are not as needed or valued. This is the source of many environmental problems. Consider the environmental history of communist Europe—the Soviet Union and its satellites had a truly atrocious record of stewardship of natural resources.

    Professor White did get several facts right in that seminal essay—among them, that Christianity played a crucial role in sparking the scientific revolution. That great leap ahead in technology and living standards came about because Christianity views man as the creative steward of a rational creation, a creation that we can explore and understand because we are made in the image of the rational God who formed the cosmos. Copernicus—a Catholic cleric—reflected something of the mindset of many of the founders of modern astronomy when he wrote about searching out “ the mechanism of the universe, wrought for us by a supremely good and orderly creator.”

    This understanding of God, man, and creation, and the scientific evolution it helped to germinate has blessed the human race in countless ways. Though White largely ignores the positive side of this revolution, he is correct to say that the scientific revolution gave humanity new powers over its environment. One needs not be a partisan of any ideology to recognize that this newfound power can be used for good or ill. The question then becomes what kind of political order functions best to channel the power and energy of science and human endeavor toward environmentally positive activity and away from what is destructive?

    Despite what the Marxist protestors I met in Nicaragua may have thought as they packed their duffel bags to go join the environmental movement in the United States, it isn’t socialism. In fact, it’s precisely those systems that fail to defend private property rights that are the most inclined to abuse the earth. There’s a name for this in economics—“the tragedy of the commons.” Private property is the best preserver of creation, and no greater environmental spoilage has been witnessed than in the old socialist Eastern bloc countries, where private property was abolished. Indeed, the communist regime in China has also had a horrendous track record on environmental protection.

    The market economy, in contrast, is a forward -looking system of economic organization in which the scarcities of the future are imputed back into today’s prices, which thereby signal the proper use of resources today. If there’s a scarcity of some resource looming on the horizon, prices will rise, telling people to shift consumption in a more affordable direction, while simultaneously attracting would-be entrepreneurs to see if they can discover or create more of the scarce resource in order to sell it at the rising price.

    We absolutely do have a duty to future generations. But that duty is more easily fulfilled by a system of rationing driven by price signals in a free economy than by bureaucratic edicts. The United States overbuilt houses in the previous decade, and China is now in the middle of a massive overbuilding campaign. Both resource-wasting housing booms were driven not by price signals in a capitalist economy but by government financial engineering aimed at “stimulating the economy” and, in the process, dismantling and distorting the information built into prices in a free economy.

    Political and economic freedom leads to an ownership society, as opposed to a rental society—and also as opposed to the kind of pseudo-ownership society created by the “liar loans” and other abuses that emerged during the government-inspired housing bubble. Real private ownership carries with it a different set of incentives from the incentives that arise from any other way of managing property. We can see this in the example of America’s national forests. Although the general public assumes that the US Forest Service acts with the best interests of the environment in mind, the reality is far different. The incentive for forestry personnel is to maximize their budget not to protect forests or even to maximize general revenue. Thus there is a greater emphasis on lumber harvests than would be expected under either an environmental ethic or a profit motive, because lumber harvesting means road building, and road building means big budgets for the Forest Service and lots of work for its employees—even though the Service usually loses money on its timber harvest operations. In essence, timber companies’ cutting of trees in our national forests is subsidized by taxpayers. No private owner would tolerate such waste.

    An additional and significant environmental advantage of preserving the freedom of the market economy is its capacity to generate wealth, which in turn gives society the latitude to take care of the commons such as rivers and lakes in ways that are not possible in more desperate circumstances. In most cases it will be very difficult to get people in extreme poverty stirred up about the health of the river downstream from them. And rightly so—in impoverished areas, most people are just trying to survive. This is why efforts to protect the environment that jeopardize economic progress should be viewed with skepticism. If we foster the conditions of economic development, and have a consistently high regard for private property, environmental sensitivity will come. When the basic needs of human beings are met, a growing care for our natural surroundings follows, particularly in an ownership society.”

    Defending the Free Market—The Moral Case for a Free Economy.
    The Rev. Robert. Sirico, President of the Acton Institute.

    ” I asked what they were going to do now that the communist Sandinistas were out of power. …. One of these young comrades told me: “We are going back to the United States to get involved in the environmental movement.”
    Circa 1990

    Liked by 5 people

    1. “We can see this in the example of America’s national forests. Although the general public assumes that the US Forest Service acts with the best interests of the environment in mind, the reality is far different” (ST Ed)
      I see this here in Florida which in its northern third has large tracts of timber. The land “managed” by the forestry service logs the trees periodically. When they do, they put up a large billboard sized sign that reads “reclamation project” with a bit if information and a time frame for the process to take place, inferring that they are returning the land to it’s historical condition. The signs are used predominantly along busy highways where protesters may see the logging and complain.
      Interestingly, thy are properly reclaiming some of the forests here and there, but many of the other areas are not getting the reclaimation work the signs promised and are left to go to “seed” looking more like a mangled bushy hedge than the forest it once was.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. NH was 90% deforrestated at the end of the 19th century. It is now over 90% forrestated. I can actually get a tax break on my 55 acre land if I harvest trees.

        Like

    3. Too bad Pope Francis still doesn’t let go of his marxist ideas. Perhaps this is the abomination of desolation sitting on the throne of Peter.

      “…In this way, the environment itself is endangered: something good in God’s eyes has become something to be exploited in human hands. Deterioration has increased in recent decades: constant pollution, the continued use of fossil fuels, intensive agricultural exploitation and deforestation are causing global temperatures to rise above safe levels…”

      http://m.vatican.va/content/francescomobile/en/messages/pont-messages/2019/documents/papa-francesco_20190901_messaggio-giornata-cura-creato.html

      Like

      1. “This season of increased prayer and effort on behalf of our common home begins today, 1 September, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on 4 October, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. It is an opportunity to draw closer to our brothers and sisters of the various Christian confessions. I think in particular of the Orthodox faithful, who have celebrated this Day for thirty years. In this ecological crisis affecting everyone, …”

        I searched for the world day of prayer… and found this website:

        http://www.creationjustice.org/history.html

        Like

    1. Why am I not surprised that you have siblings as amazing as you, Kim?! A sign of hope are they. Love your sister’s tenacity in overcoming the reading challenges. Where can I go to get the flash cards? I looked and every site I tried seems to no longer have them. Is the app available as well? Bravo for your sibs!

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Thanks, Beckita! Robin is very dyslexic and when she was in elementary school, she thought she was retarded because she had no idea how to read, when everyone else was getting it. My folks’ unrelenting determination to figure it out coupled with her fierce determination to understand how to learn in her own way, resulted in her obtaining a master’s degree in special education. She has helped innumerable students gain self esteem and knowledge, overcoming their learning disabilities to experience success. She developed these math reminders as she taught and realized what her kids needed. Their website is mathreminders.com. The ap for the “cards” is on there. I’m so proud of her!

        Liked by 7 people

        2. Well, Kim, total awesomeness is clearly a Moore family trait. Y’all got some mad skills!

          I was also wondering how to get my hands on some flash cards. Gonna hop over to their website right now. Thanks for the link.

          Liked by 1 person

    3. Kim, thank you for sharing the clip of your siblings’ TV appearance showing the math app. I wish I had them for teachers and their math help cards back when I was a student! It is great that they are making a real difference in young lives. My husband, who is an engineer, helps me with easy math when playing cards during the long winters…like always asking me when recording the score, “What’s the differential?” Ha! It’s actually helped me. God bless you and your siblings!

      Liked by 5 people

  23. Charlie…this is a random question…Michael had to buy a new pair of shoes for our daughters wedding next sat.. he opted for a cool pair of Johnston and Murphys. .we told the wonderful man, who by the way, reminded us of you… about you…then it dawned on us the shoe name..Johnston. with a “t”…hahaha… any familial connection there??? The shoes date back to 1850 and he said ALL presidents wore them, and Lincoln was actually shot in them…he was a wonderful gent..true haberdasher!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Interesting, Linda. TNRS Trivia Time:
      There are Mudds in Missoula who are descendants of Dr. Sam Mudd who was imprisoned after it was discovered he had tended to the leg injury of John Wilkes Booth, following the assassination, and failed to report it – until about 24 hours later. Suspicion of his involvement was increased because Mudd was a companion of Booth before the assassination. The Mudd family here was working with the Mudd family on the east coast to exonerate Mudd’s name… which was done in a mock trial, so no official pronouncement has ever been made. Here’s the story of the mock trial. From this man came the expression: “Your name is mudd.”

      Liked by 4 people

      1. My husband wears Johnston Murphy. Talking about history, my husband’s ancestor was the first governor of Tennessee. He led troops in the Revolutonary war battle of King’s Mountain. He was also an Indian fighter. I have Indian ancestors so I kid him that his ancestors might have killed my ancestors. Oh well…no hard feelings!

        Liked by 4 people

        1. Ha, Kim! Some of my husband’s ancestors were slave owners, and some of my ancestors were slaves. He sometimes he points out that some of his ancestors may have owned some of mine. I respond that he has already paid me reparations… by busting his tail to pay off my law-school loans (I quit my job after our first child was born). 🙂

          Liked by 3 people

          1. Way to go, Mick! Love it. You chose the best job– being mom! I know you could have made a boatload of money as an attorney. My daughter is a CPA but chose to be a stay at home mom– I just believe there is no more worthwhile and rewarding calling.

            Liked by 2 people

          2. That’s amazing, Mick, and I love your humorous thinking about reparations. Just before we took off for our Peace Corps service in the mid-seventies, one of my brothers had started some genealogy work and my paternal line went back to slave traders in the Carolinas. I was 24 and horrified at the news and there we were headed to Liberia, West Africa. In the spiritual way of reparation, I was actually glad to have the opportunity to be headed there because our youthful hearts were brimming with a spirit of wanting to bring support and goodness to people.

            It was there, in Africa, where I observed black man oppressing black man, that I realized oppression isn’t so much a race issue as it is a function of our fallen nature.

            My son and a niece shared their DNA testing results with me several years ago. I was amazed to see the measure of DNA traced to sub-Saharan Africa – most likely Sierra Lione or Liberia.

            Liked by 1 person

            2. Cooincidentally, 2 weeks ago, Lambzie just talked with a half sister for the first time in her life. She got a message from her because her half sister’s daughter did the DNA test on ancestry.com and Lambzie came up. Aparently, the daughter had no idea of her Mom’s back ground as this was a family secret. Well, the daughter got a strong DNA hit on Lambzie and could not find any ancesteral connection and kept pressing the mom how this could be or where there was a connection. Well, the mom (half sister) had to finally explain the family secret.

              Lambzie talked to her half sister for about two hours on the phone when they connected. They share the same biological father. It was a good talk. Lambzie learned her half sister has MS and explained her symptoms which sound a lot like what Lambzie is suffering now. So we are now going to move forward to look at testing for MS.

              Liked by 2 people

              3. Oh Lambzie, I am so sorry! I can offer a ray of hope. Forty years ago I was diagnosed with MS. A chiropractor said I was just reacting to gluten/dairy. I was furious and exploded at my summer roommate. She said, “it is not stupid. I will make sure you are g/f.” She was a university hospital dietician. Ever live with an intelligent Dragon? After about six weeks of very strict g/f my friends informed me I now walked normally, read my assignments, could take notes,my speech was understandable, I was continent, and was swimming a quarter of a mile daily. I hadn’t really noticed the improvement. B-12 helped too. And MS type folks have a much higher need for salt. I ended up with a wonderful job teaching junior and senior high school. Diet works much better than the MS drugs. It can take as long as three months. I am sure Beckita has my contact info if you want to talk.

                As a bonus I have proof that the Eucharist is really the Body and Blood of Jesus because the wheat in the host does not cause a reaction. After a friend witnessed a Eucharistic miracle I asked Jesus to receive Him in the host and He said yes.

                Liked by 3 people

          3. Centuries ago in Europe (800 AD) persons could be made slaves or indentured servants by crimes or derogatory political statements.
            My ancestors, the Frank’s, signed a treaty to never be made a “slave” by any politically incorrect statement we made as part of our inheritance from the great deeds of Charlamagne. This led to the phrase “let me be frank” which means “free to speak my mind”. So any one of our ancestors Mick could have been slaves or slave holders because of past laws enabling this. This reality is one of the more stable reasons why paying out money for past atrocities is ridiculous. If paying retribution for historical wrong doings is considered a right, where does it all end…with Adam and Eve?

            Liked by 2 people

            1. Ha, Phillip! Just a couple of days ago, my 9-year-old son said, “Well, we’re ALL related because of Adam and Eve, right?” Out of the mouths of babes….

              To be frank (see what I did there?), I think that reparations is one of the dumbest ideas that the left has ever come up with. But they have so many cockamamie notions and plans that it’s hard to keep up.

              Liked by 2 people

            2. Yes Phillip! You are right. Adam and Eve caused all this chaos by their one bad decision. That’s it I’m lawyering up. Let’s see? Which chain of their offspring should I go after?

              Liked by 1 person

        2. Well Mike could have bought a cheeper pair that were totally uncomfy, or the Johnston Murphy that felt like a cloud…the first he would never have worn again, the latter will last a lifetime. .lol…150 yrs of shoemaking is a pretty good record, eh??? Lol

          Liked by 2 people

      1. hehehe… a haberdasher is a gent who helps other gents look good! lol.. Amazing from teaching you how to hang a suit, know what colors to put together etc etc etc.. really classy guy

        Liked by 3 people

  24. Good News still difficult to find ;- … Merry Labor Day 😉
    https://www.lifenews.com/2019/08/30/missouri-ag-appeals-decision-striking-down-ban-on-abortions-of-babies-with-beating-hearts/

    https://nationalinterest.org/blog/skeptics/world-war-ii-turns-80-today-aftermath-changed-america-forever-77211

    A citizen’s question & reply from Ben Franklin after Constitutional Convention/1787
    “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”
    “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

    “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams 1798

    https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2019/09/01/things-are-worse-than-we-imagined-in-china-n2552258

    http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/08/breakpoint-from-forcing-nuns-to-freeing-nurses/#

    https://www.wfla.com/news/national/a-black-vote-for-trump-is-mental-illness-baptist-church-sign-says-in-alabama/

    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/09/when_obama_tried_to_red_flag_vets_and_seniors.html

    https://www.foxnews.com/faith-values/high-school-tennis-religious-liberty

    https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2019/08/31/photos-straight-pride-parade-boston

    https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/gabriel-hays/2019/08/30/shhhh-media-downplay-mit-study-finding-no-gay-gene

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7415169/Religion-political-ideals-replaced-dogma-turned-beliefs-hate-crimes.html

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

    Liked by 3 people

  25. Latest Medjugorje Message, September 2, 2019 – Apparitions to Mirjana

    https://www.medjugorje.ws/

    “Dear children, Pray! Pray the Rosary every day-that wreath of flowers which, as a mother, directly connects me with your pains, sufferings, desires, and hopes. Apostles of my love, I am with you through the grace and the love of my Son, and I am asking for prayers of you. The world is in such need of your prayers for souls to be converted. With complete trust, open your hearts to my Son, and in them He will inscribe the summary of His words-which is love. Live in an unbreakable connection with the Most Sacred Heart of my Son.

    My children, as a mother, I am telling you that it is high time for you to kneel before my Son to acknowledge Him as your God, the centre of your life. Offer gifts to Him-that which He most loves-which is love towards neighbour, mercy, and pure hearts. Apostles of my love, many of my children still do not acknowledge my Son as their God; they have not yet come to know His love. But you, with your prayer pronounced from a pure and open heart, by the gifts which you offer to my Son, will make even the hardest hearts open.

    Apostles of my love, the strength of prayer pronounced from the heart-a powerful prayer full of love-changes the world. Therefore, my children: pray, pray, pray. I am with you. Thank you. ”

    Liked by 4 people

  26. Dear Doug: I am getting old. A haberdasher was the proprietor of a men’s clothing and accessories store when there used to be separate shops for such things. When I was very young there were still haberdasheries in the small city where I lived. I remember my mother taking my brother and I there each August to get a new pair of Buster Brown’s for school and church. President Harry Truman was a haberdasher before he got involved with politics.

    Haberdasheries are another cultural landmark that are gone with the wind.

    JT

    Liked by 2 people

    3. JT, my father-in-law was a haberdasher. He owned his own shop, and he did all the tailoring on the men’s suits (at 83, he can still sew a mean hem).

      Liked by 4 people

      2. Oh my gosh!!! Soooooo cool, Charlie… I especially liked the way he (haberdasher Eric) showed Mike how to hang his pants and suitcoat…there’s a real method to it!!!😁

        Liked by 1 person

  28. I love it when the Holy Spirit guides and teaches in themes. And here we are with a robust thread on Family.

    Rejoiced over the video highlighting the work of Kim’s siblings. Praying for our friend Patrick as he makes his way over parts East on a mission of family healing. Praying for Lambzie, reunited with her long-lost sibling. Praying for Linda’s Mike, lover of fine footwear and ice cream, and haberdashers everywhere. (btw – never skimp on footwear or underestimate a good set of boots.) Remembering Poppo’s, Papa’s, Grannies and wee ones of all shapes and sizes.

    Finally, joyful (and laughing heartily at my family’s thread), as excerpted from this morn’…

    Older Sister #2 (posts this shot):

    Ma: Beautiful! (followed by prayer hands icons)

    Me: [Older Sister #2] has upped her sunrise shot game.

    Youngest Brother: I had a dream about cutting down part of the lime farm and creating a bowling alley. If I do that, the bowling masters from the past will come out of the lime trees and play.

    Me: I just got back from there and intend to write about it. For now, the left hand wizard Earl Anthony says he might come and throw some magic.

    Youngest Brother: My future brother in law thinks I’m nuts.

    Ahh, ain’t family grand!

    Liked by 4 people

    5. Awwww thanks for the prayers MP and all the fun musings in ur post here…lol…my whole family thinks I’m crazy too..lol…no worries we really are all a bit off but that’s what makes us human I think…lol…

      Liked by 2 people

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Published by charliej373

Charlie Johnston is a former newspaper editor, radio talk show host and political consultant. From Feb. 11, 2011 to Aug. 21, 2012, he walked 3,200 miles across the country, sleeping in the woods, meeting people and praying as he went. He writes on cultural, global and political issues from an orthodox Catholic perspective. He emphasizes that we find God most surely through the ordinary, doing the little things we should with faith and fidelity. His constant refrain is that, to live real joy, we must acknowledge God, take the next right step, and be a sign of hope to those around us. He lives in the Archdiocese of Denver in the United States.