The Cult of Climate

A few years ago a boffin passing himself off as a scientist, well he did attend courses and was matriculated a few times so technically is a scientist, by the name of Mann rolled out a noteworthy graph.  It even got put into the IPCC report on climate change.  What a wonderful graph it was for it was the one true sign that Man was causing the globe's temperatures to rise. It was called the Hockey Stick.

When other scientists clamored and did beseech of Dr. Mann to release his data and models so they could replicate what he had discovered, a most curious thing happen, Dr. Mann locked the data up and refused to share.  Which caused much vexation and litigation until the sacred instruments of divination were pried from Dr. Mann's jealous grasp.

And like peering under the flooring where the Pythia held audience in Delphi, a most curious thing or two emerged from the liberated instruments that birthed the Hockey Stick.  Namely that any data fed into Dr. Mann's wondrous algorithms always produced the famous Hockey Stick.  Another disquieting fact that snuck out was how tiny the crucial data set was that built the House of the Hockey Stick, no more than a dozen trees in one tiny spot of Siberia it was revealed.

But unlike a true scientist welcoming other scientists ' papers that showed his original premise was terribly flawed, Dr. Mann has acted more like an Inquisitor being questioned on matters of faith by Copernicus.   He has roundly and volubly denounced all who have proven the errors of his beloved Hockey Stick in terms that would have endeared him to Torquemada whilst causing a minor daemon or two to blush.  He attacks not their scientific work but their lack of faith in Climate Change.  He carelessly tosses out the word 'denier' and threatens punitive actions against those he labels such.

For you see dear reader in truth Mann is not a scientist but a high priest of a false religion.

Whispers of Vipers

I should not be surprised that within 48 hours of the nomination of Pope Francis I to lead the Roman Catholic Church that some think they have found dirt on the Pontiff.  Accusations of Bergoglio being a collaborator with the military junta in Argentina.

The first article is written by Heracio Verbitsky and posted online at Alternet.org, a site funded by the Tides Foundation and George Soros' Open Society Initiative.  The other article is posted online at Huffington Post and is based upon the reporting of another Argentinian journolist Olga Wornat.

Both articles share one accusation, that Bergoglio actively helped the military junta in the kidnapping of Jesuit priests.  Wornat claims to have concrete proof that he was a collaborator including from Jesuits, but does not name anyone.  Verbitsky does name the two Jesuits, in fact unlike Wornat who just says the Jesuits in question worked with the guerrillas, he does go into detail saying Bergoglio told the Jesuits to stop what they were doing when Peron fell from power but they persisted and were picked up by the new military government.  And Bergoglio tried to get them released and after six months of harsh imprisonment the two Jesuits were released.

Verbitsky however must be considered a very biased writer in this regard.  A hostile witness perhaps or the Bill Ayers of Argentina.  He freely admits to being a communist guerrilla and did participate in shootings and quips 'luckily no one died.'  He was also accused of being involved in a plot that resulted in the death of 21 people in 1976, charges against him were only dropped due to the statue of limitations.  Strange for a person living in a glass house to accuse another.

Wornat's critical thinking processes are a bit challenged.  She claims to be Bergoglio's intimate and knows what he is thinking due to a book she wrote.  Which must come as a surprise to the people who have read Bergoglio's books.  Perhaps Wornat is trying to puff up her credentials by lying to the Huffington Post writer?  Looking at her list of publications, Wornat seems more in line with Kitty Kelly - writing unauthorized and titillating books.  Her book on Christina de Kirchner on the other hand seems to be a paean to Mrs. Kirchner.

What is really odd about the interview is Wornat's attitude in the Storni case.  Storni was an Argentine archbishop who had fled the country to seek sanctuary in the Vatican due to molestation charges.  Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, sent Storni back to Argentina to face justice.  Wornat seems to have issue with the Church paying for Storni's lawyer, was she expecting the Church to be unfair and merely throw Storni to the wolves?  Deny him the due process that Verbitsky enjoyed?  What the whole story does highlight is how Rome treated the case most seriously and also of Bergoglio being a fair man.  Hardly the dark past Wornat alludes to.

Grandstanding

Or your fifteen minutes are used up.  That is what I think when I contemplate Dr. Karen King's possibly earth shattering discovery.  Dr. King claims this scrap of papyrus has Coptic writing and is from the 4th Century. 

Side note Coptic Christianity is separate from Roman Catholic/Christian and Eastern Orthodox but shares more with Eastern Orthodox.  It is a faith predominately found in Egypt.

Dr. King says this fragment refers to a woman named Mary as being Yeshua bin Yusef/Jesus's wife.  That would be a monumental upheaval to more than one billion Christians worldwide if verified.  Therein lies the rub.  Dr. King has not yet exercised due diligence in verifying the papyrus is authentic.  She has not examined the ink to see if it matches known 4th Century examples.

Until Dr. King actually does some research and investigation, I advise all Christians to treat her 'blockbuster revelation' with a Lot's wife sized grain of salt.  I fear this maybe another Hitler's diaries forgery. Or Talpiot.  If this turns out to be such a forgery, then I suggest Harvard have someone outside conduct a review of Dr. King's other research.  If they do not do that, then they will be under the same cloud as Dr. King.  That of con-artist.

Render Unto Obama

And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him.

   -- Mark 12:17

Got a birthday, anniversary, or wedding coming up?

Let your friends know how important this election is to you—register with Obama 2012, and ask for a donation in lieu of a gift. It’s a great way to support the President on your big day. Plus, it’s a gift that we can all appreciate—and goes a lot further than a gravy bowl.

 --- The Gospel of Obama

 Methinks Obama and his fawning minions have well and truly crossed the Rubicon into insanity with this.  It's one thing to donate scrap metal in times of war to help defend your country.  Its a very different thing when you. the citizen are exhorted, to donate to a person, this ranks right up there with making sacrifices for Stalin or Pol Pot.

False Prophets

Was watching a bit of Fox News last night and was well gobsmacked by an commercial with this woman who called herself a 'Cultural Catholic.'  What?

Then she proceeded to try the classic Democrat strategy of scare the voter.  Claiming it was the Catholic Bishops who sought to take away their religions freedom.  Really?

First off what is a 'Cultural Catholic?'  Is that someone like Nancy Pelosi who fully supports killing the unborn in direct opposition to the tenants of the faith she claims to follow?  You know what, I have far more respect for the people who walk away from the Catholic Church.  They are standing up and saying aloud I can no longer abide what is going on.  They have guts, the strength of their convictions unlike 'Cultural Catholics' who try to dress up in the robes of faith while committing evil.

Second, who is trying to destroy religious freedom?  Obamacare is.  The limitations being imposed upon Catholic institutions are so strict that to comply, it would force the charity to ask the person in need if they are Catholic.  If the person says no, the charity must turn that person away least they lose their tax-exempt status.  This is why the Catholic charities are suing over Kathleen Sebilus' insurance mandate for contraception.

So once again I come to a painful conclusion.  Democrats can only advance their malignant causes if they lie and twist words.  When examined with logic and rationality, their farrago of lies falls apart.

Judecca

How else to talk about this bit of news but to revisit Dante's Inferno and its circles.  Of the Ninth Circle and its suburb called Judecca.  Those who betray their benefactors are eternally locked in ice and must gaze upon one of the three faces of Lucifer.

Pope Benedict's butler Paolo Gabriele was arrested.  He has worked since 2006 in this capacity and is one of the few people with unrestricted access to the Pontiff's desk.  The reason he was arrested and now awaits a judicial fate is because an Italian author just published a book detailing private memos and letters that could only come from just a few people.  They found in Paolo's apartment such documents.

For all of you would-be James Bonds out there, this case shows you how not to handle classified documents.  There was a limited number of people with the right access and the author extensively quoted from these documents.  So the Vatican only had to put the microscope on a few people.  If the author had perhaps paraphrased these documents along with unearthing other data to support the paraphrases, then the Vatican might not have discovered the mole.  Because Nuzzi eschewed such spy craft, Gabriele is in the dock awaiting trial.

Nuzzi has two paths of action now that Gabriele is in a cell.  He can offer up the name of his real source thus clearing Gabriele but forever destroying his career as he betrays a source.  Or he can remain silent, let Gabriele stand trial, pray he is not summoned to testify under oath, and possibly allow Gabriele be convicted - thus destroying his career because he let a man hang.

So the question becomes, is fame worth the price of another man's freedom?

Incense and Georgetown

This Friday Georgetown University signaled how far they have strayed from the Jesuit path to knowledge and wisdom.  They allowed HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to give a speech.  She tried to wrap the whole outrage about Obamacare mandates into the context of John Kennedy and his Catholic faith while running for President.  We will not detour into discussing how Kennedy was a socialist's idea of a Catholic at this writing as it has been covered too well already.

Ms. Sebelius seems to want to follow in her boss' footsteps.  Tell half-truths and hope no one bothers to read the original speech.  So her lies could then stand.  Alas for her, too many of us can still think.  John Kennedy in his speech was warning about the things Obama and Sebelius want to do, "It was Virginia’s harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson’s statute of religious freedom.  Today I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you — until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril."

 Now the author of The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty, and others are taking Georgetown University to Washington DC Diocese Court of Canon Law to argue that this institution should be stripped from calling itself Catholic.  That the university has failed to hire Catholic teachers and has failed to teach morality while failing to follow Church doctrine. 

The comments are priceless in the above article.  One such commentator obviously slept through their classes on religion.  Followed by sleeping in the pews every Sunday and Holy Day assuming they ever went to Church once they left their parents house.

Prinhart1 - Better call Father Merrin, Mr. Blatty is possessed. Anytway, who is anyone to define what exactly a catholic should be? You've got people of faith who are homosexuals, who are pro choice, and hell, when I was in Catholic school, we only learned about evolution and we had sex ed.

Luckily there are others who are having none of the above inclusive prattle from the uninformed.

Autotec127 - The comments so far show just what Mr Blatty is talking about. You want to call yourself Catholic here is what Catholic's believe. Here is what you have to accept and believe to be a Catholic. Being a Catholic is a free choice each person can accept or reject. What you can not do is declare yourself a Catholic and then demand that the tenets of the church must change to fit your "enlightened" new age thinking. If you do not believe what Catholics believe you are free to leave. But what we get is whining and thumb sucking from liberal babies who have discovered that they are the smartest people who have ever walked the face of the earth. I myself an not a Catholic, so I am free to tell you what a good Catholic would not say to you liberal brats. Shut that F**K up and go to hell.

As for Prinhart1 and others like them, since they are unsure of what the Catholic Church stands for and they don't want to stir themselves on a Saturday or a Sunday to attend Mass, I suggest they buy a recent copy of a book called Catechism of the Catholic Church.  It might do them a world of good.  And when they questions they could talk to the parish priest.  It could be an eye opening experience.  Or you can decide not to read the book, its called Free Will.  But willful ignorance of a faith is inexcusable and gives lie to any claims to being educated.


As for the Jesuit school of Georgetown.  Perhaps they do need to get out the incense, Holy Water, crack open a Bible, and then examine themselves.  Then they just might discover the log in their eye and remove it.  Might find again the path St. Ignatius of Loyola set out for all Jesuits.  And as a result - Go forth and set the world on fire.

What Do You Stand For?

The above video is powerful and its message is not just about Catholics and President Obama's health care package; a package that has granted waivers to two whole states and exempted the Amish and Muslims from even complying because neither faith has a fundamental objection to the concept of insurance.  So right there this is an un-Constitutional law since it is implicitly denying equal protection.

Then it gets far worse.  This whole package of rules and regulations endangers all vestiges of the separation of church and state.  In fact this back door in the dark of the night party line passed legislation is going to erases that boundary.  It grants to the federal State the totalitarian power of being the final arbiter of what should be or should not be taught by any faith or creed.  This is why Catholics, Christians, and Jews are all standing up and saying no, it makes them subservient to the secular State.

Twelve Dreams of Egypt

It does seem the curtain on Egypt's future is closing as we speak.  The extreme Muslim Brotherhood has now said it will seek the Presidency, breaking a promise.  And the last direct link between Egypt and Ottoman Turkey, Princess Nesliash Sultan, has passed away.  Tourism at the Giza Plateau is extinct because of the political turmoil, an objective the Muslim Brotherhood had sought to destroy during the Mubarek government in order to topple him, it seems they have won this battle just when it seems they are on top politically. 
 
And the war against the Coptic Christians continues apace. Even as Pope Shenouda III was being laid to rest, the Salafists were hurling insults that remind me of Westboro and other extremists in their hatred - "We rejoice that he is destroyed. He has perished," Ghoneim said on March 18, the day after Shenouda died at the age of 88. "May God have His revenge on him in the fire of hell -- he and all who walk his path."

But there is good news on the Giza Plateau as several tombs are being re-opened for tourists.  All of them are minor tombs but I hope the writer of this article learns proper English before he publishes again.  Or I will think he is related to the sign maker in the Valley of the Kings who in 1997 created such amusing English signs as the following -

The wall is Oecorated with The Book of

the DeadBook of the

Book the Book BookBook.

pg. 178, The Lost Tomb, Dr. Kent R. Weeks, 1998

I will end with something from brighter days of modern Egypt.  Jean Michel Jarre's concert at Giza to celebrate the arrival of the year 2000 A.D. and the hope of a new age.

Egypt's Pope

March 17th, 2012 will be a solemn day for Coptic Christian Egyptians.  The Pope of the Coptic Church in Egypt passed away.  Pope Shenouda III was 88 when he passed away.  He was the 117th Pope of Alexandria since his ascension to the post in 1971.

Let us pray for this man and the repose of his soul.  We also pray that the Coptic Christians be comforted, sheltered, and guided by G_d during this transition.  The nation of Egypt has been convulsed with revolution, violence, and other changes before the passing of this man.  May G_d bless and guide the person selected to be the 118th Pope of Alexandria. 

Fluke's Followers are Fools

The media circus abound the Obama administration and Catholic charities continues.  The Catholic charities have dug in their heels because the ruling threatens their very existence.  Democrats have tried to shift the focus from the threat of government diktat to it to be a threat to a right they hold sacred, access to birth control with the testimony of Democrat activist Sandra Fluke.  Meanwhile HHS, IRS, and other alphabet agencies involved in this effort have just issued a call for suggestions on how to improve/change this contentious issue.

About page 10 of that document something becomes clear, even though President Obama promised accommodations right now, HHS has another idea.  They will review and accept advise on this accommodation but any change will not happen until the expiration of the one year grace period which they call a safe harbor time.  Which can also mean these agencies could decide at a later date not to implement any accommodation. Perhaps after the November election which sees Obama re-elected or Obama sent packing.  It kicks the problem down the road while hoping everyone falls for the promise the controversial issue has already been taken care of.  This is the peril of administrative law, no Congress enacting the specific law while a cabal of bureaucrats decide to enforce a law of their creation.

But lets get back to Sandra Fluke.  She testified under oath to Congress that contraceptives costs for law students at Georgetown like her will cost $3000 during her whole time at school.  She says this a hardship.  Lets guess she will be at law school for the average three years.  That is thirty-six months.  Now divide the $3000 by 36.  The monthly cost then should be $83.34.  My question is, like many others, is why is this a hardship for Ms. Fluke and where is she shopping?  The costs for attending Georgetown are very expensive as this listing of tuition and fees show, perhaps she is tapped for cash. However as the Wall Street Journal article I link to shows she could have visited Wal-Mart or Target for contraception pills, spent about $150, and have enough pills for three years of frolic.  Ms. Fluke's grasp of costs seems a bit flawed which raises questions of what her billing practices will be when she is in the real world, unless she just wants to work for the government where it seems costs are never a factor.

Of course the worse thing about Ms. Fluke's testimony is the damage it does to the concept of female empowerment.  She is refuting everything Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox are singing about in this video about Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves.  It seems the song Ms. Fluke sings is "I Want Someone Else to Pay for Me."  She wants to be a kept woman, this time kept by the government and paid with other peoples money.  Yes she has come a long way, right back to dis-enfranchisement.

Libyan Thanks

Kudos to Powerline for this very sad tale.  There are cemeteries in Benghazi, Libya where the fallen soldiers and airmen of the British Commonwealth are buried.  According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission there are over 1,500 buried there.  They are sons, brothers, husbands, fathers from across the Empire - United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and even the Sudan Defense Force - all are buried here.  At least one Victoria Cross recipient is interred here.  All killed during World War II resisting Nazi aggression.  Even Italian war graves have also been attacked.  No word if the British war cemeteries at Tobruk or Knightsbridge have been attacked.

And now their resting places have been brutally attacked and defaced, over a hundred known so far.  The perpetrators?  The same people the RAF, USAF, and their NATO allies helped to liberate last year from the tyranny of now deceased despot Gaddafi.  They even filmed themselves toppling gravestones with Crosses and Stars of David while calling the deceased warriors dogs.  Even the Cross of Remembrance has been smashed as seen in the video that Powerline has.

The reaction from the United Kingdom government has been diplomatic and couched with the caveat that Islam does not condone destroying graves.  The Libyan transitional government has offered apologies.  The Australians are not as diplomatic, calling it a desecration and sickening though no word if any Australian graves were smashed.

I am sorry England, there are graves and then there are the graves of infidels.  All these men are infidels to their defilers and hence they do not belong in any land claimed by the faithful warriors of Islam. 

The Western nations need to tell the Libyans to clean up their mess.  To hold accountable to the fullest measure these criminals.  If little or no action is done to these vandals, then Libya should be allowed to slide back into the 7th Century they seem to desire.

Post script -  Talking about Libya and WWII always brings up the mystery of Lady Be Good, a B-24 Liberator that vanished with her crew during a bombing mission against Italy.  To this day the body of SSGT Vernon Moore has never been found, he is presumed lost in the vast southeastern desert sea that comprises the border between Libya and Egypt.  As for the plane's wreckage, it was last seen in 2001 in a Libyan police impound yard.

Revelations 10:1

Revelations 10:1 King James Version:

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.

Image source - NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day.

He Doth Object Too Much?

There is so much wrong with this story, where to begin? I will stick with the facts instead.

In June 2011 Mr. Abdo was granted conscientious objector status by the US Army. Mr. Abdo had claimed after studying the Qu'ran and Islamic law that he could not fight in Afghanistan or Iraq. Then on the weekend of July 4th Mr. Abdo went absent without leave [AWOL] from Ft. Campbell KY after being charged with possession of child pornography. He was arrested near Ft. Hood, TX in his motel room. A citizen called in to police saying a man had smokeless gunpowder and other items in his hotel room. Mr. Abdo is now in jail in Kileen TX on the child porn charges. FBI does not think anyone else was involved.

Time for soapbox rant. I think the US military should boot out anyone who asks for conscientous objector status. They should be treated worse than anyone who has failed basic training. A thank you letter for trying and nothing else, no benefits or GI Bill. Zilch. After all they volunteered to join and then got cold feet. Being a weak sister should not be rewarded in any way with benefits or even a Entry Level Seperation. Rant off.

July 29, 2011 Update - Adbo in his court apperance on charges of possessing an unregistered destructive device gave a shout out for Nidal Hassan, the butcher of Ft. Hood. Firing squad sounds like a good idea for both pieces of filth.

Ten Commandments 1956 Trailer

This is a very fascinating and informative trailer that Cecil B. DeMille produced to promote his masterpiece The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston. Run time is just over ten minutes. Enjoy.

New Year, Same Terror

For those only now recovering from the New Year celebrations, terrorists have rung in the new year with their idea of fireworks. Twenty-one Coptic Christians were killed in a bomb blast in Alexandria Egypt outside a church. Seventy-one Copts and eight Muslims were injured in the vicious and cowardly attack. President Mubarak of Egypt vows to fight the 'foreign hands' behind the attack. The Copt population in Egypt is seething over the attack. Pope Benedict in Rome has condemned the attack.

Niqabs You Say

It seems the funny and irreverent blokes of the immensely popular BBC series Top Gear have found a demographic that is not amused by them. Whilst trying to follow the route of the three wisemen of the Bible, one of their cars got stuck in sand in Syria. As they tried to pull it out, James May, aka Captain Slow, got knocked off his feet by the tow rope. As the blood poured forth, they carted him off to a hospital. Here is where the story gets a bit dodgey as the other two decided to don the niqab to drive. Infidels in disquise, oh my. So after the Boxing Day airing of the episode, guess what happened.

But their choice of attire caused a storm online on Twitter and other discussion sites.
On the Yahoo! forum, someone wrote, 'Death to America', which another, called Rebecca Liberty, said mocking burkas is 'ugly'.
But a user called BussW spoke up for the show and said: 'Why are so many people offended. it's just a piece a clothing. the Burka is not in the Quaran at all. if people are so offended why dont they switch over the TV?'
Some viewers also took to Twitter to blast the burka stunt with one saying: This is probably the worst top gear special. Y the f*** r they wearing burkas!!?’

Naturally the BBC is reviewing the whole mess and has not issued an official statement. I guess the US version won't try this stunt, though they may go the whole nun habit route since that has been done so many times in mockery its passe now.

P.S. I hope Clarkson and company dumped the whole shoddy attire before they got to Israel. Bloke over six feet tall with a pot-belly in a niqab? Even the TSA would be thinking there is something wrong with this picture.

Christmas 1968

Thoughts of the Moon or Luna have been recently re-awakened in me. With Bay's butchery of Apollo 11 to sell Transformers 3. Then the lunar eclipse some of us got to see. Plus looking through many of the Apollo mission images. All of this made me turn to one special Apollo mission, Apollo 8. It was a bold decision by the likes of Kraft at NASA to say we will orbit three men around the Moon. The deaths of Grissom, Chaffee, and White in the Apollo 1 fire at KSC still hung over the whole Apollo program, filling many in and out of NASA with doubts. Apollo 7 was still in orbit proving the newly redegined Apollo CSM would work when it was decided that Lovell, Anders, and Borman would take their ship CSM-103 around the Moon. And the Saturn V rocket that would carry Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins to the Moon in July, 1969 would have its first manned mission with Apollo 8. Nor was this the last of the firsts recorded by Apollo 8. Apollo 8 performed the first Trans-Lunar Injection and the first Trans-Earth Injection. First men to see an Earthrise while orbiting the Moon. First men to see the darkside of the Moon. And of course the first men in history to orbit another celestial body. And of all these firsts, Apollo 8 is most famous for one broadcast the astronauts did while orbiting the Moon. Here it is.



Merry Christmas everyone.

Simply Mad

Vandals have managed to mangle yet another Christian symbol. Villagers at Glastonbury this morning woke up to a horrendous sight. Overnight a large thorn tree, Crategus Monogyna Bi Flora, that legend says grew from Joseph of Arimathea's staff was sawn apart until only the metal cage protected trunk remained standing.

Glastonbury Mayor John Coles rushed to the tree site after he heard the news.
Mr Coles, 66, said: 'I'm stood on Wearyall Hill looking at a sad, sad, sight. The tree has been chopped down - someone has taken a saw to it.
'Some of the main trunk is there but the branches have been sawn away. I am absolutely lost for words - I just do not know why people would want to do this.

There is some good news. Cromwell's Roundheads hacked this tree down and locals secreted the roots. They managed to save the tree and replanted it in 1951. Other cuttings from the same tree still exist. Though the vandals have tried to strike this tree down, it will surely rise again to bloom twice a year as it always has - at Easter and Christmas.

"A flash of gold."

That phrase brings to mind the excited discoveries of Carter in the Valley of the Kings peering into Tutankhamun's glittering tomb. Or Heinrich Schliemann unearthing that beaten gold mask at Mycenae.

In this case the story is from England and a four year old boy name James Hyatt. James and his father Jason were testing out the boy's new metal detector and they got a strong buzz. Digging down a few inches and there was "a flash of gold." It seems they have found a small gold reliquary from the 16th Century with the Virgin Mary and the five wounds of Christ on it. If this item is listed for sale and a buyer is found, this item could be worth about $4million US. The proceeds would be split between the Hyatts and the owner of the land where the item was found.

Story and video can be found here. Good show James, may your life be always golden.