Random Thoughts for Monday

After dedicating his life to eradicating segregation, would Martin Luther King be thrilled by black students today demanding segregated dorms and spaces?

I'm glad Donald Trump is being tough with the Korean dictator, but I wish he'd stop calling him "rocket man." It's funny, but poking a madman may not be too prudent. It's kind of like poking a mad dog with a stick.

 Just wondering: Will Pope Francis respond to the 62 signatories, clergy and laity, who issued a "filial correction" for his "propagating heresies" or will he give them the Dubia treatment?

Do You Want to Understand the Past? Examine the Witnesses!

Investigators know that if they interview ten witnesses to an event they are likely to get ten different reports. Figuring out what really happened requires sifting through the data and finding the agreements, determining who are the most credible witnesses, etc. To arrive at an accurate picture of an event is not so easy as evaluating one testimony or one photograph and extrapolating from that to the big picture. That's how dishonest historians evaluate the past. Honest historians study the big picture.

And that's how it is with understanding the Civil War, or as one book is titled, The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War by John J. Dwyer and other contributors. A broad and deep study is necessary. I've just begun the book, but I'm already impressed by the author's approach and common sense. He speaks of the war as a "Fifty Years' War" that involved numerous factors: economic, religious, regional. Slavery was one issue among many, a factor yes, but not necessarily the most fundamental.

I found this in the introduction particularly interesting:

The Myth of the Great Emancipator: Lincoln was a White Supremicist

I'm a little tired of the historical ignorance about the conflict that led to the Civil War. Let's deconstruct the myth of the evil South and the saintly North...starting with Abraham Lincoln. In a PBS documentary on Lincoln, black historian Henry Gates discusses his disillusion with Lincoln after reading the text of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. And here's a clip from the documentary that shows some balance about the South. It's time to recognize that the history of every major conflict is complicated. And that, friends, is an understatement.

The Voice of Experience: Daughter Raised by Lesbians Says LGBT is an "Extremist Minority"

Their goal? To eliminate gender altogether.

We're all interchangeable, right? Like leggos you can just take us all apart and put us back together in any configuration you choose. Pop off the breasts and the...well...you know what. Play with the hole-y pieces and put them...well...you know where. And voila! The next gender. How about a gender with breasts AND male genitals. That would be fun and different.

Sir Mohammed Churchill and the new Evie Littlechap

Sir Winston Churchill would be appalled to know that the top baby name listed for London and Britain's West Midlands is "Muhammad" - in all its various spellings: Muhammad, Mohammed, Mohammad, not to mention Hamid, Ahmad, Mahmoud, Mehmet and Mohamed. I'm not certain where the name "Winston" is on the list, or Desmond or Clive, or even William or Harry. Sir Winston wasn't enamored of Islam therefore no serious Muslim would name their baby boy after him.

Islam creeps in under the disguise of "friendly peaceful poor Muslim refugees escaping Islamic countries hell holes." This - the Islamification of the West by immigration - is called Demographic Jihad which is what's happening in England and Germany, Sweden and Norway and Finland and France and Denmark and Belgium and Spain and Italy. All of the former Christian West including Canada and soon the USA.

Detraction is a Sin against Justice

When in doubt, shut your mouth!

I wonder how many people today ever give a thought to the sin of detraction. I've been thinking about it ever since I read Maria Santos Beir's article unnecessarily revealing the past sins of Fr. William Aitcheson, her childhood pastor, when he was a member of the KKK forty years ago. I tweeted Maria about her article and got this reply:

I never got the sense from your newsletter that you were opposed to exposing fellow Catholic sinners.

Ah, nothing like trying to change the subject to deflect attention from yourself.

My Sympathy Basket is Completely Empty

My reaction to this Danish photo? A giant yawn 

because my sympathy basket is completely empty.

Friends just returned from a trip across Canada said that Muslims are EVERYWHERE. A friend just returned from Europe said that Muslims are EVERYWHERE. Where Muslims are EVERYWHERE, Islam abounds. Where Islam abounds, jihad accelerates. Where jihad accelerates, people die. When people die, the state does what? Lies that Islam is peaceful. That Muslim culture- enrichers enrich the native culture. Because why? Because the former peaceful nation state and its peaceful native people were a peaceful civilization and needed violence and death to spruce up the economy? 

The Danish government now admits that the country is going through the worst situation since WWII because of Muslim migrant crime. Muslim migrant crime and jihad are the same thing, the equation being C = J, J= C. Therefore the Danish government is saying that because they let in hundreds of thousands of young male migrant Muslims who commit crimes, Denmark is now an unsafe country because of Islamic jihad committed by young male migrant Muslim jihadists whose gangs have taken over the streets of Denmark.

Hexing Trump: Sally Quinn Really is One Sick Puppy.

Sally Quinn to Donald Trump: "Ill get you, my pretty!"

I received this email from a friend yesterday. Good grief. Sally Quinn really is one sick puppy. Please, readers, pray for her as my friend suggests. And thanks, Maria, for the heads up!

Dear Mary Ann,

I thought this article reveals once more what you said about this poor woman in your outstanding article on her.....You might have seen it, but .... just in case you haven't ...   How very sad....I must remember to pray for her and for Lady Gaga too.  Lots of blessings to you and yours!

Journalist Reveals The Bizarre Way She Could Kill Trump

"Et Tu, Brute?": Maria Santos Bier and her Detraction against Fr. Bill Aitcheson

"Et tu, Brute?" The most unkindest
cut of all comes from a "friend" who
recalls you fondly.

For the past few days I've been reading all the online material in the saga of my friend and former pastor, Fr. William Aitcheson which began with an article by Maria Santos Bier, How I discovered my childhood priest was in the Ku Klux Klan. Maria assures us that Fr. Bill always treated her kindly and that "I recall him fondly." Well, that's a relief! It was she who unnecessarily exposed Father's sins of forty years ago, of which he's clearly repented. I can only imagine what she would have written if she thought of him un-fondly. This is surely Fr. Aitcheson's "Et tu, Brute?" moment.

For a person to do what Maria did is a serious sin of detraction. For a Catholic to do it is unconscionable; but maybe Maria has never heard of detraction. (Detraction is publicly revealing the sins of a person, not commonly known, that destroys his good name.)

You can almost feel Maria's excitement over her "scoop" as she tells the reader about discovering the juicy information. Googling Fr. Bill's name, she found a 1977 article about a college student in the KKK and recognized Father by the accompanying photo. Then Maria tells us:

"Always track the hurricane yourself." - Me

The media spinning Irma

The three safest places to be in Florida during a hurricane are (listed in official order) Leesburg, Orlando and Sanford which form a triangle in Central Florida. We live directly in the center of that triangle. Central Florida is safer because when a hurricane moves inland, its intensity weakens from no longer being fed by ocean waters. However, it still dumps many inches of rain and causes wind damage before finally dying out.

Before and during Hurricane Irma I spent 5 days telling a panicked friend who had evacuated from Jacksonville to our home NEVER to listen to the news during a hurricane because it's all about ratings and NOT the truth. The media had frightened her so much that she drove from Jacksonville to our home in Central Florida and, as it turned out, closer to the eye of the hurricane because when she first heard the news - "DOOMSDAY FOR FLORIDA!" - the media had no clue where the hurricane was or where it was going. 

The Perfect Artist for This Period in History! Hieronymus Bosch

A friend and I were chatting this morning about the perfect artists for these nutty times. My friend mentioned Hieronymus Bosch. His fantastic and macabre paintings perfectly represent the macabre mainstream of the 21st century as do those of Pieter Bruegel who was influenced by Bosch. I'm sure you recognize some of the characters in these paintings: the party boat full of drunks, the angry, the gluttons, the murderers. You can easily find examples of the seven deadly sins in these paintings. Bosch and Bruegel were obviously well aware of mankind's failings. But you can also find the pious and prayerful. We will be sorted on the last day. 

Heironymus Bosch, Temptation of St. Anthony