Sunday, August 31, 2014

Bison top Iowa State for fifth straight victory over FBS team



AMES, Iowa – New head coach, new starting quarterback and a primarily new offensive line, but the same old Bison.

North Dakota State gained 503 yards to power past Iowa State for a 34-14 victory Saturday in NCAA Division I college football at Jack Trice Stadium before 54,800 fans.

“We have new coaches, but the tradition stays,” said Bison senior safety Christian Dudzik, who had an interception. “The preparation is exactly the same. … The culture here is not going to change.”

The Bison extended their winning streak to 25 games, setting an FCS record. They surpassed Montana (2001-2002) and Penn (1992-95), programs that each won 24 in a row.

The three-time defending FCS national champion Bison opened their season with a win against a Big 12 opponent for a second consecutive season. They won at Kansas State last season. NDSU has won five consecutive games against FBS teams and is 8-3 overall against the top division in college football.

http://www.inforum.com/content/bison-top-iowa-state-fifth-straight-victory-over-fbs-team

The Apostles' Creed

Triquetra Symbol of the Trinity


Apostles' Creed:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.

He descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.

Amen.

------------

An explanation from the Book of Concord, Small Catechism, http://bookofconcord.org/smallcatechism.php:

The Creed

As the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household.

The First Article.
Of Creation.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

What does this mean?

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my limbs, my reason, and all my senses, and still preserves them; in addition thereto, clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and homestead, wife and children, fields, cattle, and all my goods; that He provides me richly and daily with all that I need to support this body and life, protects me from all danger, and guards me and preserves me from all evil; and all this out of pure, fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me; for all which I owe it to Him to thank, praise, serve, and obey Him. This is most certainly true.

The Second Article.
Of Redemption.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

What does this mean?

I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won [delivered] me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, in order that I may be [wholly] His own, and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.

The Third Article.
Of Sanctification.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; one holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

What does this mean?

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.

------------

Origin of Apostles' Creed. http://cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=e&word=ECUMENICALCREEDS

1. This creed was not formulated by councils of theologians but grew spontaneously out of the needs of the living ch.

2. The tradition that the Creed was composed on Pent. or shortly thereafter by the 12 apostles, each contributing an article, is stated, e.g., by T. Rufinus* ca. 403 in Commentarius in symbolum apostolorum and in the Explanatio symboli ad initiandos, usually ascribed to Ambrose.* This view was embodied in the Catechismus Romanus (see Roman Catholic Confessions, A 3). Some Luths. defended the tradition. The theory was attacked by L. Valla* and D. Erasmus* and ultimately proved false on basis of intrinsic improbability, silence of the Scriptures, silence of ante-Nicene fathers, and various forms extant in the early ch.

3. The Creed grew from NT beginnings (e.g., Mt 10:32–33; Jn 1:49; 6:69; 11:27; 20:28; Acts 8:37: 14:15; 2 Co 13:14; 1 Ptr 1:2). The confession of Peter (Mt 16:16) and the baptismal formula (Mt 28:19) influenced the development of the Creed esp. More developed creedal statements are found in such ch. fathers as Ignatius of Antioch (see Apostolic Fathers, 2) and Justin* Martyr. For a long time the Creed was usually memorized but not written (disciplina* arcani). It was explained to the catechumens in the last stages of their preparation. The ante-Nicene fathers called the early forms of the Creed the “rule* of faith,” “rule of truth.” “apostolic tradition.” and “symbol.” Such “rules of faith” are mentioned by Irenaeus,* Tertullian,* Novatian,* Cyprian* of Carthage, and Origen.*

4. That the Creed developed indep. in different regions is shown by the differences existing among early creeds. The Old Roman creed read: “I believe in God the Father Almighty; and in Christ Jesus, His only (begotten) Son, our Lord; and in the Holy Spirit, the holy church, the forgiveness of sins, (and) the resurrection of the flesh.” A longer form finally became standard in the West. T. Rufinus* gives a Lat. version; Marcellus* of Ancyra gives it in Gk. Later additions were made (“descended to hell” in a 4th c. creed; “catholic” from Eastern usage; “communion of saints” [see Communio sanctorum] in a commentary on the creed by Niceta[s]* of Remesiana) until the present form triumphed in the W (6th–8th c.) as a result of RC efforts.

5. Though secondary in the E Ch., the Apostles' Creed is a strong bond of union bet. all ages and sections of Christianity. It was highly regarded e.g. by Augustine* of Hippo, M. Luther,* and J. Calvin.* Attacking this creed is tantamount to attacking Scripture.

When all else is gone, attention focuses on the Pastor



Strangely enough, those who are uncomfortable with ritual and ceremony, even those who believe in the salutary use of the liturgy, are often suspicious of ritual and ceremony because they think it draws too much attention to the Pastor.  They believe in a liturgical minimalism as an antidote to what they find to be too much of the spotlight upon the Pastor and his actions as president of the Eucharistic assembly.  They tend to think too much is made of art and beauty as well.  There is nothing wrong with them, per se, but there is no real need for these either.

The problem with removing statues is that the Pastor becomes the only statue left.  Remove the art, stained glass, and liturgical painting and the Pastor is the only real imagery left.  Removed the ritual and ceremony and the Pastor is left.  Remove the liturgy and the Pastor is still left.  Remove the lectionary and the whim of the Pastor rules.  In other words, the liturgy with its incumbent ritual and ceremony does not emphasize the Pastor but insulates the people in the pew from the tyranny of worship in which the Pastor is the only focus.  Those who are suspicious of clericalism and those inclined to be wary of the cult of personality should be the folks most in support of ritual and ceremony.



read more at: http://pastoralmeanderings.blogspot.com/2014/08/when-all-else-is-gone-attention-focuses.html

Climate Change Hoax Again Exposed As Polar Ice Cap Increases By 43 Percent

Seven years after former US Vice-President Al Gore’s warning, Arctic ice cap has expanded for second year in row

“Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie.” Job 6:28
In 2007, faux “Climatologist” Al Gore dazzled the liberal world with his Inconvenient Truth PowerPoint presentation, and made hundreds of millions of dollar off the suckers. His main argument was that the world was warming so fast, that he boldly declared that in 7 years the polar ice cap could be completely gone (gasp!). Well, here we are in 2014, 7 short years later, and the polar ice cap has just been measure as having thickened and increased by over 43% in just the last 24 months alone. That, Mr. Gore, is a very (for you) inconvenient truth…is it  not?
polar-ice-cap-shelf-has-increased-43-percent-since--2012-al-gore-liar-climate-change-global-warming-hoax
“The ice cap is falling off a cliff. It could be completely gone in summer in as little as 7 years from now ” – Al Gore
The problem with peddling a lie, is that once started, it has to be constantly maintained. If you recall, “global warming” underwent a marketing modification some time back when it was discovered that the earth we live on was actually getting colder, not hotter. So “global warming” magically became “climate change”. (you there, do not look behind that curtain!).

read more: http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=24587

Leftist Lawmakers and Enviro-Extremists Created CA Water Crisis


by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly 30 Aug 2014, 8:34 AM PDT at http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/08/30/Corruption-and-Mismanagement-Created-California-Water-Shortage

On Friday, the California State Assembly outdid itself. You can always count on the leftist leaders of what is supposed to be the “people’s house” never lets a crisis go to waste.

With the passage of AB 1739 (Dickinson-D), SB 1168 (Pavley-D), and SB 1319 (Pavley-D), 100 years of history was reversed. The authors painted a grim picture of California’s groundwater future. Most of what they said is true. The only problem they didn’t bother to tell you two key truths:

1.It was these same so-called leaders who give up our seat—the property owner and the farmer’s place at the table—to the enviro-extremists. The fish now have more water rights than do the farmers and ranchers who by making a living off the land, feed this state and this country.

2.By wasting surface water and letting 800,000 acre-feet go out to sea instead of capturing and storing it for the bad years, California’s dysfunctional policies combined with uber-restrictive Federal endangered species protections have created over-dependency on groundwater.

These bills, which obliterate private property rights and local control, are being sold as a port in a storm, when the reality is that they are the recipe for the perfect storm. By granting the State Water Resources Control Board, the last vestige of control over all our water, the farmers and ranchers who were denied their allocation of water from the State Water Project, will be at the mercy of a merciless government. The tactics of the left never vary. They use a government created crisis such as the drought, which is the culmination of years of their own mismanagement and corruption, to consolidate power.

Now, the basic right of a citizen to draw water for support of himself or his family is non-existent. Once a state agency gets control over something, they are like a great white shark. They never let go. Now a board that sits just a few blocks away from the State Capitol will have more say than your local governing body over how much groundwater you can use. Don’t be fooled by the proponents of this bill who are doing this to “help recharge the groundwater.” There is nothing in this bill that will address the groundwater crisis facing California. Almost every one of the provisions of these bills will not be in force for years to come.

This is about power and government control. Whoever controls the water, controls the people. Every time the government takes more control over a natural resource, the price goes up. In this case, the cost of food and energy will be inflated by government, not the marketplace. When government is the source of inflation, it is only a matter of time until cheaper sources make their way to market from less-regulated states or nations.

California has long been known as the “bread basket of the world.” If Governor Jerry Brown signs into law this evil trifecta, the government that created a dust bowl out of the once-fertile Central Valley, will preside over the death of agriculture as the number one industry in our state.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

The Pros And Cons Of Militarizing The Police: Satire

The Pros And Cons Of Militarizing The Police: Satire

Here are the cases for and against outfitting local law enforcement with military-grade weapons:
PROS
  • Same tactics used successfully in Afghanistan, Iraq
  • Modern law enforcement simply cannot do their job properly by relying on handguns, tasers, and tear gas alone
  • A real shot in arm for nation’s ailing weapons industry
  • Look on driver’s face when tank pulls up beside Mini Cooper always fun
  • Local photojournalists now able to capture fog of war at home
  • Nice surprise treat for veterans to see weapons they used in war pop up on their hometown streets
  • Never a bad idea to put a more powerful gun in someone’s hand
  • Actually going to seem pretty quaint when compared with police armaments 20 years from now
CONS
  • Most police officers have proven fully capable of violently subduing protesters without any military-grade weapons
  • It actually very hard to recite Miranda rights while holding 40-pound grenade launcher
  • There no longer any middle ground between community watch and military
  • Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles only get 5 miles per gallon
  • Jesus, just look at this shit
  • Military-style helmets limit peripheral vision while firing indiscriminately into crowd
  • Could potentially be abused if put in lesser hands than America’s historically honest and virtuous police departments
  • Takes away that personal touch of beating a suspect to death with bare hands
http://www.infowars.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-militarizing-the-police-satire/

Monday, August 18, 2014

Mosul Christians: And Then There Were Nun

Nun


That’s the Arabic letter pronounced “nun.” The genocidal Muslims of ISIS used it to mark Christian houses, businesses, and properties in Mosul, according to a report (with photographs) in Rorate Caeli. Why ‘nun’? Here:
Nun (Ù†), the 14th letter of the Arabic alphabet (the equivalent of letter N in our Roman alphabet), is the first letter of the word Nasara (نصارى : Nazarenes), the way Muslims have called Christians since the beginning of their invasion of the Christian world in the 7th century — Christians under Muslim rule never called themselves thus, since the intent of Muslims was to portray Christians as a contemptible and disobedient sect.
Rorate Caeli goes on:
They mean it as a mark of shame, we must then wear it as a mark of hope: Yes, we are in the army of the Resurrected Nazarene, the Master and Lord of the Universe, the Man who is God Almighty, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. You may kill our brethren and expel them, but we Christians will never go away.
Read the whole thing, including an excerpt of the interview with the Syriac Catholic patriarch, who confirms that the last Christian families were just driven from Mosul.
In another post, Rorate Caeli says what many of us are thinking:
For two thousand years, our dearest brethren saw it all from Mosul: Romanized Greeks, Hellenized Persians, Hellenized Romans from all origins later called “Byzantines”, Armenians, Arabs from the desert with a religion of the sword, Egyptians, Crusaders, Mongols, Turks, French and British, “Independence”… Then the clumsiest Empire in history, an Empire unwanted by most voters, unwarranted by the Republic’s own Constitution, led by bellicose hawks motivated by God knows what, justifying their actions on untruths, arrived, upsetting a balance that was not the best, but was best of all possible outcomes. Two Vicars of Christ had cried their hearts out in vain warning of the grave danger of an intervention, of the, “extremisms that could stem from it.”
Things were never the same.
For years, we have been warning that support for terrorists in neighboring Syria would surely end badly. But even we could not imagine that it would end so badly so fast and over such a vast area. And yet, the insane Empire-builders are still handing billions and billions, and hundreds of millions of dollars to “moderate” terrorists! Where’s the outrage? Have you contacted your congressman, senator, president, MP, prime-minister expressing your outrage, begging this madness to stop?
If anybody knows how we can get aid to the Christian refugees, please post it in the comboxes.


http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/nun-the-sign-of-genocide-mosul-christians/

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Number of Churches That Left the ELCA From 2009 to 2013



This information comes from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America "Report of the Secretary," April 2014.

"ELCA Disaffiliation Votes"

"(T)he numbers of ELCA congregations disaffiliating for the past five years are the following:

2009 - 10
2010 - 302
2011 - 298
2012 - 49
2013 - 16

Total - 675

Nine hundred fifty-four congregations took a first vote. Several of these took multiple first votes. We still get occasional requests for explanation of the process of disaffiliation. These are referred to the appropriate synod office."


from: http://www.elcatoday.com/witness-stone-blog/number-of-churches-that-left-the-elca-from-2009-to-2013

Ferguson: When Stupid and Evil Reign, It's Good to Own a Gun



Society has broken down in Ferguson, Missouri. It's not the Zombie Apocalypse but a toxic stew has left law-abiding American citizens helpless. Thank God and the American Constitution some of those citizens own guns.

The gentlemen pictured above reportedly guarded their business establishment during last night's rioting. This morning they still have a business. Others weren't so lucky.

I don't know what happened when Michael Brown, an unarmed 18 year-old was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer. We have to wait for the facts to judge. Decent people wait for facts.

The indecent do not.

And the indecent are Ferguson's looters, rioters, and the mainstream media that enable them.

I don't think there's any question that the Ferguson police are in over their heads. But there's also no question that the media are gleefully pouring gasoline on the fire because the political upside that comes with race-baiting can oftentimes be huge. The 2014 midterms are only 80 days away. Nothing like a little racial toxicity to get out the Democrat vote.

One day the media and Democrats argue that only police should own guns.

The next day the media and Democrats argue that the police shoot unarmed citizens.

It's all a hustle.

They want you helpless.

In Ferguson … in America, looters and arsonists are on the loose. The cops are running around in circles. For political purposes, the nihilistic left-wing media is doing everything in its power to intentionally make things worse…

Incompetence and evil sometimes prevail. Even in America.

We can’t control stupid and evil.

We can buy firearms and learn how to safely use them in order to protect ourselves, our property, and our families.

Stupid and evil will tear apart a society whenever given the chance. You have an obligation to prepare yourself.

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/08/16/Ferguson-When-Stupid-and-Evil-Reign-It-s-Good-to-Own-a-Gun


'There are no police': Ferguson store owners guard businesses; cite lack of police response










Looters in Ferguson, Mo., were met with little police resistance Friday night and store owners say they were forced to protect their businesses with their own guns, Fox2Now.com reported.

"I think the first message is to remind all law enforcement that they are hired to serve and protect and if they’re going to sit back and watch looting, they're not serving us; they’re not protecting us," Pastor Robert White told the station.

A reporter from the station tweeted that police cars were seen driving past some of the stores being looted and did not respond. It rained in Ferguson Friday night and protesters could be seen outside until 6 a.m.

Two store owners, standing outside their business holding guns, told Fox2Now.com that when they called 911, they were sent from one police agency to another, and got no response.

One of the owners, with a large black gun resting on his shoulder, told the station that police were lined up blocks from the looting, and did not engage looters making off with large boxes from these stores.

"There's no police," he said. "We trusted the police to keep it peaceful; they didn't do their job."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/16/there-are-no-police-ferguson-store-owners-guard-businesses-with-own-guns-lack/

Saturday, August 16, 2014

OLD AMERICA (Moccasin Creek Official Video)



One more video to support these good ol' boys.

One of the blonde-haired Yazidi girls whom ISIS has threatened to impregnate in order to rid them of the blonde-haired, blue-eye gene


Somehow, this little girl doesn’t look too happy about her future as a sex slave for Islamic jihadists.

ORIGINAL STORY: islamic-state-isis-terrorists-want-to-impregnate-yazidi-women-to-eliminate-blonde-haired-blue-eyed-bloodline

According to the Kurdish intelligence sources, the girls and women are being sold to traffickers to work in bordellos across the Middle East. They also say they’ve received information that the captured women are sold for a price of between $500 and $43,000 US dollars. Other reports say some other women have been forced to marry ISIS terrorists, who have captured thousands of women including at least 1200 of them from Sinjar.

Time to pick a side, stand up, and do something - El Cid

read more: http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/08/15/one-of-the-blonde-haired-yazidi-girls-whom-isis-has-threatened-to-impregnate-in-order-to-rid-them-of-the-blonde-haired-blue-eye-gene/

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

What Did the Saints Say about Islam?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3192145/posts

For Islamic scholars, there is a statement in the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, which is particularly troubling:

Faced with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for true followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalisations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence. (p. 253)

As the situation in the Middle East escalates, and the violence of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) spills rivers of innocent Christian blood, this statement seems incongruous with reality.

Popes are certainly free to have personal opinions. A Pope’s opinions, however, when shared with the public, carry more weight because of the authority of his office than would the opinions of another, lesser prelate. His words — particularly when expressed not through an interview or sermon, but an official document — signal, at least implictly, that his opinion is in fact the belief of the Church. This has a real impact on the understanding of whatever issue is being touched upon, for both Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Particularly in a modern context, where global news is instantaneously available, papal opinions spread far, and fast. Once an idea is out in the wild as something “the pope said”, it becomes difficult to ever take back. There is even a not entirely uncommon misconception that papal opinion, when it touches on any subject related to faith, rises to the level of infallibility.

It seems that there has never been so much division within the Church over basic doctrine. Catholics today argue over long-established teachings which, as recently as fifty years ago, were accepted without dissent. This division appears to permeate the Church, and can be seen not only amongst the laity, but also within the ranks of Catholicism’s highest prelates. This division relates not only to our own internal understanding of teaching about articles of faith and sacramental beliefs, but the way in which the Catholic Church should deal with other religions. It is particularly worrying that this comes at a time when Islam is rising in power, having recently exterminated the Catholic Faith from Iraq, with ever greater numbers of Muslims answering Islam’s call to jihad against Christians.

As I have taken note of the most recent round Catholic infighting over how to view the Muslim faith, I found myself revisiting a question I began pondering during my graduate studies of this growing religion: What do the saints have to say about Islam?

The following is a brief list of quotes from Catholic saints about Islam and its founder, Muhammad. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it is illustrative of how Catholics — particularly those favored sons and daughters of the Church we now know to be in heaven – viewed the Muslim faith in prior generations:

“Whoever does not embrace the Catholic Christian faith is lost, like your false prophet Muhammad.”

-St. Peter Mavimenus (d. 8th century), martyr from Gaza. Response reported in the Martyriologum Romanum when he was asked to convert to Islam by a group of Muslims.

“There is also the superstition of the Ishmaelites which to this day prevails and keeps people in error, being a forerunner of the Antichrist…. From that time to the present a false prophet named Mohammed has appeared in their midst. This man, after having chanced upon the Old and New Testaments and likewise, it seems, having conversed with an Arian monk, devised his own heresy. Then, having insinuated himself into the good graces of the people by a show of seeming piety, he gave out that a certain book had been sent down to him from heaven. He had set down some ridiculous compositions in this book of his and he gave it to them as an object of veneration.”

-St. John Damascene (d. 749), Syrian Arab Catholic monk and scholar. Quoted from his book On Heresies under the section On the Heresy of the Ishmaelites (in The Fathers of the Church. Vol. 37. Translated by the Catholic University of America. CUA Press. 1958. Pages 153-160.)

“We profess Christ to be truly God and your prophet to be a precursor of the Antichrist and other profane doctrine.”

-Sts. Habenitus, Jeremiah, Peter, Sabinian, Walabonsus, and Wistremundus (d. 851), martyrs of Cordoba, Spain. Reported in the Memoriale Sanctorum in response to Spanish Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd Ar-Rahman II’s ministers that they convert to Islam on pain of death.

“Any cult which denies the divinity of Christ, does not profess the existence of the Holy Trinity, refutes baptism, defames Christians, and derogates the priesthood, we consider to be damned.”

-Sts. Aurelius, Felix, George, Liliosa, and Natalia (d. 852), martyrs of Cordoba, Spain. Reported in the Memoriale Sanctorum in response to Spanish Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd Ar-Rahman II’s ministers that they convert to Islam on pain of death.

“On the other hand, those who founded sects committed to erroneous doctrines proceeded in a way that is opposite to this, the point is clear in the case of Muhammad. He seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh goads us. His teaching also contained precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom. Indeed, the truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrines of the greatest falsity. He did not bring forth any signs produced in a supernatural way, which alone fittingly gives witness to divine inspiration; for a visible action that can be only divine reveals an invisibly inspired teacher of truth. On the contrary, Muhammad said that he was sent in the power of his arms—which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants.”

-St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), Theologian and Doctor of the Church. Quoted from his De Rationibus Fidei Contra Saracenos, Graecos, et Armenos and translated from Fr. Damian Fehlner’s Aquinas on Reasons for the Faith: Against the Muslims, Greeks, and Armenians (Franciscans of the Immaculate. 2002.).

“As we have seen, Muhammed had neither supernatural miracles nor natural motives of reason to persuade those of his sect. As he lacked in everything, he took to bestial and barbaric means, which is the force of arms. Thus he introduced and promulgated his message with robberies, murders, and bloodshedding, destroying those who did not want to receive it, and with the same means his ministers conserve this today, until God placates his anger and destroys this pestilence from the earth.

[…]

(Muhammad) can also be figured for the dragon in the same Apocalypse which says that the dragon swept up a third of the stars and hurled down a third to earth. Although this line is more appropriately understood concerning the Antichrist, Mohammed was his precursor – the prophet of Satan, father of the sons of haughtiness.

[…]

Even if all the things contained in his law were fables in philosophy and errors in theology, even for those who do not possess the light of reason, the very manners (Islam) teaches are from a school of vicious bestialities. (Muhammad) did not prove his new sect with any motive, having neither supernatural miracles nor natural reasons, but solely the force of arms, violence, fictions, lies, and carnal license. It remains an impious, blasphemous, vicious cult, an innovention of the devil, and the direct way into the fires of hell. It does not even merit the name of being called a religion.”

-St. Juan de Ribera (d.1611), Archbishop of Valencia, missionary to Spanish Muslims, and organizer of the Muslim expulsions of 1609 from Spain. Quoted in several locations from his 1599 Catechismo para la Instruccion de los Nuevos Convertidos de los Moros (my translation).

“The Mahometan paradise, however, is only fit for beasts; for filthy sensual pleasure is all the believer has to expect there.”

St. Alfonsus Liguori (d. 1787). Quoted from his book, The History of Heresies and their Refutation.

What is obvious from these statements is that represent a very different view of Islam than we’ve heard from the Vatican in recent years. The recent dormancy of Islam has led many in this generation to believe precisely as Pope Francis does: that it is only Muslim extremists who pose a threat, and that the religion itself is more or less praiseworthy. The experiences of most of the saints throughout Church history, however, taught them the opposite — namely, that Islam and its practices are antithetical to the Catholic faith and those who seek to live it.

Hilaire Belloc, the great 20th century Catholic historian and poet, warned in 1929 that Islam would make a return to the world stage:

We shall almost certainly have to reckon with Islam in the near future. Perhaps, if we lose our Faith, it will rise. For after this subjugation of the Islamic culture by the nominally Christian had already been achieved, the political conquerors of that culture began to notice two disquieting features about it. The first was that its spiritual foundation proved immovable; the second that its area of occupation did not recede, but on the contrary slowly expanded.

[...]

In my own youth the decaying power of Islam (for it was still decaying) in the Near East was a strong menace to the peace of Europe. Those old people of whom I speak had grandparents in whose times Islam was still able to menace the West. The Turks besieged Vienna and nearly took it, less than a century before the American Declaration of Independence. Islam was then our superior, especially in military art. There is no reason why its recent inferiority in mechanical construction, whether military or civilian, should continue indefinitely. Even a slight accession of material power would make the further control of Islam by an alien culture difficult. A little more and there will cease that which our time has taken for granted, the physical domination of Islam by the disintegrated Christendom we know.

As Catholics, we need to understand this situation much better than we currently do. When it comes to the variances between what the Church and her saints used to say about Islam and what is being said now, we need to square the circle. With Islamic violence sweeping the Middle East and growing Muslim populations in many formerly-Christian nations, being able to see the reality we face with clarity and truthfulness is critical to our ability to evangelize Muslims.

As Christians in Iraq and Syria are learning at their own peril, it may also be the only way we’ll learn to survive them.

Legendary actress Lauren Bacall dies at 89


Legendary actress Lauren Bacall dies at 89Silver screen siren Lauren Bacall, who starred in classic films like “The Big Sleep” and “How to Marry a Millionaire,” died on Tuesday, according to reports. She was 89.

The actress had a fatal stroke Tuesday morning in her home, TMZ reported.

Born in the Bronx, the husky-voiced actress rose to fame in 1944 after starring in Howard Hawks’ “To Have and Have Not” alongside her future husband Humphrey Bogart. Bacall became a favorite leading lady of the film noir genre, appearing in “The Big Sleep,” “Dark Passage” and “Key Largo.”


--------------

Or as remember by my generation, "If Baby wants rabbit, Baby get rabbit." - El Cid

Monday, August 11, 2014

Obama adjusts Iraq narrative, now blames Bush for troop withdrawal



President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about developments in Iraq, Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, from his vacation residence in Chilmark, Mass., during his family vacation on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Obama is giving his approval to the appointment of a prime minister to replace Nouri al-Maliki and urging the formation of a new government in Iraq as soon as possible. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)The president who spent years touting the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq suddenly has had to distance himself from that action.

At the White House on Saturday morning — less than 48 hours after authorizing airstrikes against Islamist militants and humanitarian air drops to save the lives of trapped Iraqi civilians — President Obama blamed his predecessor, George W. Bush, for the absence of American troops in Iraq and rejected the assertion that he could have left a small peacekeeping force in the war-torn nation.


He uttered those after three years, and a successful re-election campaign, in which the full removal of U.S. forces from Iraq was cast as this White House’s most significant foreign policy achievement and one Mr. Obama had promised all the way back to the earliest days of his first presidential campaign in 2008.
Now, however, with the terrorist force the Islamic State running roughshod through Iraq, capturing key territory, slaughtering Christians and promising to “raise the flag of Allah at the White House,” Mr. Obama has begun to adjust the narrative.

“What I just find interesting is the degree to which this issue keeps on coming up, as if this was my decision. Under the previous administration, we had turned over the country to a sovereign, democratically elected Iraqi government,” Mr. Obama told reporters just before leaving for a two-week vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. “So let’s just be clear: The reason that we did not have a follow-on force in Iraq was because the Iraqis — a majority of Iraqis did not want U.S. troops there, and politically they could not pass the kind of laws that would be required to protect our troops in Iraq. So that entire analysis is bogus and is wrong. But it gets frequently peddled around here by folks who oftentimes are trying to defend previous policies that they themselves made.”

Mr. Obama’s new take on the 2011 troop withdrawal quickly came under fire from a number of political pundits who pointed out the irony of a president moving away, at least in part, from his signature foreign policy achievement.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/11/obama-adjusts-iraq-narrative-now-blames-george-w-b/#ixzz3A91y63QR
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Hiroshima's Lessons for the War on Terror

In the summer of '45, the United States concluded a war that had come to be seen by some as unwinnable after the carnage at Iwo Jima with a bang.

On August 6th, the bomb fell on Hiroshima. And then on the 9th, it was Nagasaki's turn. Six days later, Japan, which had been preparing to fight to the last man, surrendered.

For generations of liberals those two names would come to represent the horror of America's war machine when they actually saved countless American and Japanese lives.

The two bombs stand in stark contrast to our endless nation-building exercises in which nothing is ever finished until we give up. Instead Truman cut the Gordian Knot and avoided a long campaign that would have depopulated Japan and destroyed the lives of a generation of American soldiers.

That we can talk about Japan as a victory, that the famous couple was caught kissing in Times Square rather than sighing in relief, is attributable to that decision to use the bomb. Without it, Japan would have been another Iraq or Vietnam, we might have eventually won at a terrible cost while destroying our willingness to fight any future wars and that would have given the USSR an early victory in Asia.

Professional soldiers understand the humanitarian virtue of ruthlessness. The pacifist civilian may gasp in horror at the sight of a mushroom cloud, but the professional soldier knows that the longer way around would have left every Japanese city looking far worse than Hiroshima.

More people died in the Battle of Okinawa on both sides than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 9 out of 10 buildings were destroyed. As much as a third of the island's population committed suicide, fled into caves that were bombed, were used as human shields or were killed when American soldiers found themselves unable to distinguish between Japanese soldiers posing as civilians and actual civilians.

And all that was in a part of Japan that was not fully aligned with its national identity. It does not take much to imagine what trying to capture Honshu would have looked like. Take the worst horrors of Vietnam and keep multiplying until you run out of imagination. If you run low, remember that at Okinawa the military was handing out grenades to civilians and its home defense plans involved encouraging the civilian population to commit suicide attacks.

The United States military did not understand the fanatical mindset of its enemies, but it did understand that they had to be fought with equal ruthlessness.

And now on another hot August, we find ourselves in another unwinnable war.  It isn't really unwinnable, but there is the sense that we have done everything possible and all we can do is live with it. As the left will tell us, more Americans died in car accidents in 2001 than on September 11.

Doubtlessly more Americans died in some assortment of accidents in 1941 than at Pearl Harbor. Instead of calling it a day that will live forever in infamy, FDR could have put their deaths into perspective by comparing them to the number of Americans killed by Polio and given a typical Obama speech warning the public not to jump to any conclusions.

Read more: http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2014/08/hiroshimas-lessons-for-war-on-terror.html

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Paul Young - Come back and stay 1983


Christine Tasin Convicted of Sacrilege Against Islam

Last year, during a confrontation with a Muslim bully on the street in Belfort, Ms. Tasin stood her ground. She acknowledged matter-of-factly that she was an Islamophobe, and told him, “L’Islam est une saloperie”, which is translated here as “Islam is crap”, and previously as “Islam is filth”.

Ms. Tasin was tried, convicted, and fined by a French court for those words. As she says in the video below, this means that a French court has applied sharia law, and has punished her for a crime not seen in France since the reign of Charles X (1824-1830).

She’s a gutsy woman, and she’s going to appeal her conviction all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary. I don’t have a link to any legal defense fund for her, but those who can read French may be able to find one at the Résistance Républicaine website.

Many thanks to Oz-Rita for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:


Translation of the fixed text on the screen:
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Video transcript:

00:00 In France there is at least one Islamic Court.
00:04 It is the Court of Belfort. The judges of Belfort
00:08 have just applied Sharia in France.
00:12 They have decided to apply Article 22 of the
00:16 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam,
00:20 that is, Freedom of Expression is
00:24 granted within the limits of Sharia. The judges of Belfort
00:28 have just sentenced me to a fine of €3,000
00:32 (€1500 suspended) for saying that ‘Islam is
00:36 crap’. It is evident that with this
00:40 they are restoring the criminal offence of blasphemy.
00:44 Even better: they restore the crime of sacrilege,
00:48 which was used for the last time in France under the reign of
00:52 Charles X. We are in an unbelievable regression,
00:56 an unbelievable barbarism linked to Islam,
01:00 because let’s remember it is only everything
01:04 concerning Islam which has such consequences.
01:08 Everyone can say that Christianity is
01:12 crap, that Buddhism is crap; no-one
01:16 will find themselves in court. In France
01:20 one cannot say that Islam is crap. 13 years ago
01:24 Houellebecq was acquitted for saying that Islam was the
01:28 most idiotic religion. In 13 years we have regressed
01:32 to find ourselves in the era of Mohammed.
01:36 All this at the very moment where they sell Christian
01:40 girls and women in Iraq, in the name of Islam.
01:44 They sell them as slaves in the name of Islam. And they want to condemn me
01:48 because I say that Islam is crap? All this at the very moment
01:53 where the Islamists of Boko Haram kidnap
01:57 little girls, force them to ‘marry’ and make them slaves in the name of Islam.
02:01 And one wants to forbid me to say that
02:05 Islam is crap? The fact of the matter
02:09 is that Islam is indeed a gigantic pile of crap!
02:13 who could doubt it, seeing the examples I have
02:17 just cited, and God knows they are legion. In the name of Islam
02:21 they cut throats all over the world. In the name of Islam they kill.
02:25 It seems that Muslim associations,
02:29 instead of filing complaints against me, should
02:33 fight so that Islam is not all that,
02:37 and not to prevent me from expressing my concern,
02:41 the danger to me and my refusal of this barbarism.
02:45 So it is obvious that I will appeal. One cannot
02:49 accept that in FRANCE one is condemned for saying
02:53 that Islam is crap. This would mean that
02:57 this judgement would create a precedent and that freedom of
03:01 of expression would be dead for everyone from then on in this country.
03:05 Of course we count on you
03:09 friends, supporters, militants,
03:13 and friends of human rights to help us in this second battle
03:17 Please send your donations to “Resistance Republicaine”
03:21 Thank you everyone.

http://gatesofvienna.net/2014/08/christine-tasin-convicted-of-sacrilege-against-islam/

LBJ ‘Destroyed African-American Families’: Former NFL Player Reveals

He took a lot of hits playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys, and now he’s not pulling any punches in politics.

Garry Cobb, the 57-year-old former NFL linebacker, is running as a Republican for Congress in New Jersey, and he recently sat down with Newsmax TV to explain why he has rejected the Democrats.

“We started out poor,” Cobb said. “As a kid I could remember eating mayonnaise sandwiches, ketchup sandwiches and drinking sugar water, but we were able to go out and do better than our parents and that’s what my parents dreamed of.”

A major reason his family succeeded: his dad was around.“All my brothers and sisters have gone to college,” Cobb said. “The reason we were able to have some success was our dad was there, there was some discipline in the home.”

While Cobb said he was a Democrat in his youth, he has since realized that many other black families did not have a father in the home because of the actions of Democrats.

He pointed to President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” anti-poverty programs, saying that since single mothers were afforded more aid under the programs than intact couples, many black fathers were tacitly encouraged to leave their families.

“[LBJ's anti-poverty programs were] an incentive for the man to leave the home, and it’s destroyed African-American families throughout the country,” Cobb said.

Now he’s running for Congress in a bid to turn things around and get government out of areas in which it has no business interfering.

“African-American communities throughout the country are doing horribly under Democratic-run cities and that’s why I want to put an end to it,” Cobb said.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/08/09/lbj-destroyed-african-american-families-former-nfl-player-reveals-what-led-him-to-the-gop/

Mexico vs United States Laws - Guy From Boston

Vulgarity Warning

A Public Service Message Regarding Our Colonization

Sorry for the language, but the Guy From Boston has it right regarding illegal immigration — just like our neighbor to the south:



Meanwhile Mexican politicians bleat with a disgusting combination of sanctimony and piteous victimhood whenever they feel that we aren’t facilitating their colonization of our country with sufficient obsequiousness.

Found at: http://moonbattery.com/?p=48967

Friday, August 8, 2014

An Open Address to the Elders and Princes of the Judaeo-Christian Ecumene by Seneca III



from: http://gatesofvienna.net/2014/08/an-open-address-to-the-elders-and-princes-of-the-judaeo-christian-ecumene/#more-33966

I stand before you this day as man, never more than a man and often less, and I acknowledge in all love and humility that you are also men, mere mortals like me. However, I also acknowledge that you are different from me — different in the sense that the burden you carry, your vocation together with its obligations, is far heavier and has far greater and far more reaching consequences than any burden that ever has or will fall upon my shoulders. So, it is with a heavy heart and no great certitude as to the outcome that I address you, the Lord’s senior servants, as I do hereunder.

If you look around you with eyes fully open you will see that your Flocks — those simple, decent people who look to you for temporal guidance and protection as well as spiritual — are not simply being decimated, they are being exterminated or, in the case of the not so lucky few who survive the swords of Islam, enslaved. From the Middle East through Africa to the Far East the ravening savages of the Prophet of Mecca and Medina are on the march again in pursuit of their eternal quest, the global Caliphate, and the tides of blood grow higher each day.

And you, with a few notable exceptions, what do you do? Well, I will tell what you are seen to be doing — or rather not doing — and how your actions reflect in the eyes of the common man as he watches these same hordes gathering in less than quiet readiness in our Western homelands.

Time after time after time after time when faced with this catastrophic sequence of events you do not take Islam and its proponents openly and firmly to task, except on the odd occasion where then you shortly thereafter retract and apologise for speaking truth in daylight. Instead you seek to compromise, to mollify, excuse or appear to close in some form of professional ranking with these purveyors of death and destruction. In so doing we, your Flock, lose ground and lives with every backward step you take. Can you not understand that to a Muslim turning the other cheek is but a way of presenting your and our necks for severance?

Why do you not understand this?

Surely you must be aware that the Imams, Ayatollahs, Mullahs, Muttawas of Islam and their lay proselytisers within and without the Ecumene are well-practised in the black arts of disinformation and dissemblance. Indeed, their Book mandates such procedures in their dealings with you and us, we whom they refer to as Kuffar, and yet you persist, even after fourteen centuries of exposure to this practice, in either failing to recognise or refusing to acknowledge the reality. Again and again it is we that end up paying the ultimate price for this dereliction of your moral and spiritual duties.

And yet, and yet, as the butcher’s bill rises by an order of magnitude almost daily, still you gentlemen in the main continue to play dice with your own immortal souls, seemingly unknowing or uncaring that one day you will have to stand before the Gates and answer for the way those dice rolled as below you the black cloud of slavery only slightly muffles the sound of clanking chains and the crack of whips.

Gentlemen, I am of a mind that the answer to what I presume to be your dilemma, and our physical salvation, lies in your relocating some of your moral vertebrae, and, like your predecessors did so many times in the past when confronted by the ancestors of these same barbarians, become again the Church Militant.

Furthermore, I suggest, even beg, that henceforth your only refrain should be…
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire! *
…and I do not mean in any metaphorical sense either, please note.

Thank you for listening. Please bear in mind that I expect nothing of our political classes but I would hope for so much more from you.
Seneca III
in Middle England as we approach the Ides of August 2014 CE.

* William Blake, from “And did those feet in ancient time”, 1804
For links to previous essays by Seneca III, see the Seneca III Archives.


Thursday, August 7, 2014

Chaldean Christian leader: ISIS 'Systematically Beheading' Children In Iraq



ISIS Beheading Children

A prominent Christian leader of the Chaldean community unveiled the "systematic beheading of children" and other horrendous crimes committed by ISIS. He said that the Sunni extremists are committing genocide against Christians in Iraq and with the aim to instill the Sharia Law as the law of the land.

In the interview with CNN's Jonathan Mann, Chaldean-American businessman Mark Arabo said that the "world hasn't seen an evil like this for generations."

"There is a park in Mosul, where [ISIS] they actually beheaded children and put their heads on a stick and have them in the park," he explained. "More children are getting beheaded, mothers are getting raped and killed, and fathers are being hung."

Speaking from San Diego over Skype, Arabo called for the international community to offer asylum to the more than 300,000 Christians fleeing and living in neighboring cities.

- See more at: http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/52128/20140806/chaldean-christian-leader-isis-systematically-beheading-children-in-iraq.htm#sthash.nvgUJLJg.dpuf

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Christianity Is Its Own Culture ...



It seems that for too long Christianity has been in search of a culture. There was a time when it was inconceivable that Christianity would not be seen as its own culture but all that seemed to disappear along with a great many other good things in the 1960s and beyond. Somehow or other we got the strange notion then that Christianity was culture-less and that it was either compatible with other cultures or in need of an infusion of culture from the world around it.

Certainly this was impetus for the strange liturgical innovations of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Certainly this was the mission ideal of churches who sought more to reconcile the culture of the people they were evangelizing with Christianity rather than introduce the culture of Christianity to those who did not know it. Now, so far from that time, we have ended up with an evangelicalism that has sought to reinvent Christian culture but has chosen to model that culture after the world around us. Even the world is not so stupid as to see this for what it is. So the world is not so impressed with a faith that borrows heavily from everything else while offering little more than the name of Jesus and the promise of happiness as its own unique Christian contribution.

Both the Western church and the Eastern church have been building a Christian culture for two-thousand years. While there are some distinctions and differences between East and West, there is also remarkable convergence. Music, the visual arts, architecture, liturgy -- even literature -- are all a part of this emergence of a Christian culture that is at one and the same time exclusive to the Word and Sacraments and inclusive to those from various cultures. Christianity has a language and a culture -- the way we address the faith to the world. All of this includes how we see God but also how we see ourselves, creation, our place within creation, and our baptismal vocation in service to God within the world.

So, when churches reject this churchly culture of the faith, they are left when only two options. Either adopt the culture of the world around them or invent a new culture of Christianity. Some have insisted that this is exactly what must be done. They have falsely judged the culture of the Church as being out dated, irrelevant, and incompatible with the modern world. In this respect it is fair to say that worship wars or culture wars has been about a high culture versus low culture -- not because the Church has framed it this way but because those who reject the culture of Christianity have characterized it in this way. It is not valid and only trivializes the Gospel but that is indeed how much of evangelicalism has framed the issue.

See more at: http://pastoralmeanderings.blogspot.com/#sthash.Csu2AGiL.dpuf

As the World Burns – IFL 2014 N3


Saturday, August 2, 2014

More Minnesota Attacks against North Dakota

Atlas Shrugged & Ayn Rand were right on. 

Minnesota attack against freedom and prosperity in North Dakota:

Gov. Dayton speaks out against F-M diversion, calls Minnesota impact 'unacceptable'

MOORHEAD – Gov. Mark Dayton and his administration will “do everything to ensure that Minnesota’s best interests are not trampled” by the proposed diversion project to protect Fargo-Moorhead from severe floods, a spokesman said.

Dayton stands squarely behind the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which recently sought to join a lawsuit by upstream opponents of the $1.8 billion project.

Minnesota’s action was taken after the Diversion Authority began building a ring dike this spring to protect the communities of Oxbow, Hickson and Bakke subdivision, all on the North Dakota side of the Red River. The communities would otherwise be flooded when the diversion is used during floods.

http://www.inforum.com/content/gov-dayton-speaks-out-against-f-m-diversion-calls-minnesota-impact-unacceptable

And yet another attack against North Dakotan decency by Minnesota criminals:

St. Cloud women accused of robbing john in Fargo they claim refused to pay prostitute

FARGO – Two St. Cloud, Minn., women are accused of using a Taser to rob a man who they claim had stiffed one of them on the bill after he’d agreed to pay for sex.

According to charges filed Thursday in Cass County District Court, Fargo police responded about 1:46 a.m. Thursday to a report of a robbery at 1524 27th Ave. S.

They met there with the alleged victim, who told officers that when he called an escort service, a young woman calling herself “Dream” came over.

Dream, whose real name is Gabrielle Louise McGuire, 22, according to court documents, discussed prices with the victim and told him she would text another woman to come to the apartment.

McGuire then asked the man if he remembered her, and he didn’t, he told police.

She told him the last time they met for sex, he failed to pay her. She pulled out a stun gun and told him she would use it if he moved, according to court records.

The other woman, Vivian Elaine Hager, 33, had arrived by then and took the stun gun from McGuire, sparking it intermittently to intimidate the victim, he told police.

The two women took his Xbox 360 and his 26-inch TV, then left in a silver SUV.

When police interviewed McGuire, she allegedly told them she had sex with the man for money a couple of weeks before, but he didn’t pay her so she came back with a stun gun to rob him.

McGuire and Hager are both charged with one count of conspiracy to commit robbery, a Class B felony. If convicted on the robbery charge, they would face a mandatory minimum of four years in prison.

Courts records show the alleged victim hasn’t been charged with any prostitution-related crimes in North Dakota. Neither have either of the women charged with robbery.


http://www.inforum.com/content/st-cloud-women-accused-robbing-john-fargo-they-claim-refused-pay-prostitute

Friday, August 1, 2014