conspiracy theory of the week

 

a bit over the top like all conspiracy theories. 

But as we were taught in Psychiatry class: if a person says the Mafia is after them check first if the mafia is after them: sometimes these theories are true. Or partly true.

He notes correctly that covid was predicted so maybe it was planned.

Not really: A lot of the diseases out there are a possible danger. (and remember: A lot of their predictions never came true, such as monkeypox or bird flu becoming  major epidemics). 

And many really scary epidemics that actually happened never got into the western MSM headlines ( the more recent Ebola epidemics in Central Africa, which were also stopped by vaccines come to mind).'

Lots of books out there about the threats of new (or old) diseases causing epidemics.

There was even a minor outbreak of yellow fever awhile back in Angola that spread to the nearby Congo and a few cases were diagnosed in China was stopped by vaccines and routine mosquito control. At the same time a minor epidemic in Brazil happened and the problem was they almost ran out of vaccines... that also was stopped by routine mosquito killing and vaccine. 

Yellow fever could easily have been spread to the USA, where there are similar mosquitoes (no, not from global warming: Philly had an epidemic in 1790s)...

This danger got few headlines in the USA...

Yet Zika, a much less serious infection, spread by the same mosquito, was trumpeted by the MSM. Why? to pressure Brazil and other South American countries to legalize abortion on demand.

So relying on the MSM for epidemics is flawed, and often has more to do with political agendas than with reality.

As for those meetings on possible epidemics: these are for planning so that weak points in response are identified and plans to cope are developed. Think Logistics.

Holding war games is a common way for the military to identify weaknesses and develop plans on how to respond. Todays NYTimes article notes that Israel's invasion trying to stop Hamas rockets and catch terrorists did not have such plans and discusses the problems the troops faced (and of course the danger to the innocent caught up in what is called the fog of war).

 Similarly, emergency drills, often regional ones, train EMTs and hospitals how to respond to emergencies.

We had one such disaster drill that posited a tornado hit the town. a very real danger in some areas of the USA. That doesn't mean some evil globalist agenda used HAARP to produce tornadoes or that our disaster drill caused a tornado.

 One backstory of the `1989 Sioux city airplane crash was that the post crash emergency response went so well because they had had such a regional emergency drill shortly prior to the crash, so the ambulances and hospitals had a coordinated response that probably saved many of the injured.

Ironically, conspiracy theorists point to the war gaming of anticipated epidemics as if this planning a threat, when actually these meetings are planning a response to a well known possible threat,

The dirty little secret: There are threats out there. The trick is to guess which ones will come true. So you make plans for all sorts of threats, so the logistical planning in in place when the caca hits the fan.

one of the first war games of epidemics was done before 911, and was based on a theoretical release of small pox in a truck stop in Oklahoma.

So after 911, our public health clinic was sent instructions on how to respond to a  smallpox release, and how to isolate patients and do ring vaccinations. 

Since I had worked in Africa, I was the doctor assigned to read this in case something happened, and I was impressed: It was similar to how we doctors in Africa were instructed on how to respond to a nearby cholera epidemic: stuff like to use schools for isolating patients outside of hospitals, how to do ring vaccinations to stop the spread etc.

But of course smallpox was never released (only a strain of ordinary anthrax, which was supposed to have been released by a crazy doctor who had access to the germ, but did not have access to equipment to weaponize the spores to make them lethal, but never mind. Comey needed to close the case. But that's another story for another rant)...

similarly, bird flu was war gamed in 2016 but luckily for the world that virus, although humans have caught it from infected birds, has not yet evolved to human to human spread.

Covid is similar to SARS and MERS, but has a lower mortality. You control it by screening, isolation, and ordinary protective equipment. No problem...yet it spread widely. Why? Because it was covered up for at least two months, letting it spread to Europe and parts of the USA before a rogue Chinese doctor left a message on a public discussion board that there was a dangerous viral pneumonia out there that was killing people in Wuhan.

There are a lot of scientific arguments that it was accidentally released and the release was covered up not just by China but by the WHO.

well, China lies to save face. 

But why the WHO pretended it was not spread person to person for weeks after this was known is a major scandal.

And why did the press condemn Trump for pointing out it was coming from China as racism.

But the plans to respond to a SARS like epidemic were already there: And the plans became more important than the reality. 

Trump, by letting the governors decide the response, did provide some flexibility in the response, but the idea that the plan was science and could not be criticized became the rule in the MSM, and most states and medical organizations went along with the plan.

Why? Because rules  science.

One result was to forbid doctors to prescribe certain drugs that might have helped, and an almost total blackout when some public health doctors pointed out the overwhelming bad effects of shutting down society.

The idea that rules were more important than reality can be seen in the nursing home deaths.

Nursing homes didn't allow visits, fine, but out of date Medicare rules said patients released from hospitals were mandated to get readmitted into their nursing homes.

That is the reason that both New York and Pennsylvania let infectious covid patients back into their nursing homes, causing many deaths.

Cuomo eventually got blamed for the 9000 New York deaths, but for some reason the Pennsylvania public health doctor who allowed infectious patients back into nursing homes was rewarded with a high government position, probably not for his botched response to covid but because he is trans and trans cannot be criticized you bigot.

So yes, the ministry of truth stuff that this video is discussing has a lot of truth in it...a bit overdone of course, but that is what happens when you distort the truth and censor the story: truth erupts with a vengeance. 

that is why the lack of coverage about the WHO saying they want to control what countries do because health, is really scary, because theoretically it means that a UN linked organization that lied about the source of covid, lied for awhile about the human to human infectivity of the virus, and botched the Covid response will be in charge of the world.

their treaty overrides all other laws in every country, but hey, don't discuss this, or you will be called an evil racist right wing MAGA extremist.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/036/277/meemaw.jpg

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update:

the frustrations of fake news

 Was the George Floyd story manipulated?

..restraints of people fighting you is dangerous for both the patient and the caregiver/cop, (those who never worked with violent people naively don't realize this).

and of course, with a criminal, it could be a ploy to escape.

but pressure on the lateral neck does not impede the airway. and saying you can't breathe doesn't mean you can't breathe.

The danger of fentanyl overdose is that when you pass out, your tongue falls back and you can't breathe. So to stop this you either have to open the mouth, pull the chin forward and insert an airway, (something very hard to do with a combative patient)... the alternative is to put the person on their side to keep the airway open and it also makes it easier to clear the vomitus from the mouth.

this is called the recovery position.

..Now I know this and indeed any medically trained person who has worked with combative overdoses knows this....did anyone write about this when the story happened? You have to remember that I live in the Philippines so don't have all those cable news channels discussing such things so it makes me wonder.

......

the UK Economist: asks if the NYTimes lost their way.

every one of his (Trump's)  political lies became more powerful because journalists had forfeited what had always been most valuable about their work: their credibility as arbiters of truth and brokers of ideas, which for more than a century, despite all of journalism’s flaws and failures, had been a bulwark of how Americans govern themselves.

The average Yank who saw Trumpieboy on his tv shows knows he bullshits a lot, so you don't take him seriously when he exaggerates. Indeed, if you read his books, he teaches this as a negotiating tactic in business.

But one does expect the MSM to be a bit more truthful...

It is sort of like when I read AlJezeerah on Gaza, I know they are based in (Iran friendly) Qatar and will be biased and not question the narrative, so I take what they reports are true but not the whole truth. They truthfully report the Hamas press releases, and have articles by reporters who admit they are in Gaza to report on the bad Israelis. In other words, one side of the story, and maybe from Hamas liars (500 killed in a hospital that was bombed? whoops. Make that half a dozen in the parking lot killed when a nearby missile misfired). 

Indeed, a lot of the lies about Gaza are by folks crying genocide: based on Hamas press release. Without verification.

Attention: Wars are nasty and a lot of innocent people are killed in the crossfire. But when one side aims to keep weapons in civilian areas, stop civilians from fleeing, and to use civilian dead as propaganda, maybe they aren't the good guys they are pretending to be.

And I have nothing but contempt by those crying genocide... probably half of the dead are soldiers, and  ten thousand dead from a population of two million is not genocide...

Ah but the anti semites in the US are ignoring the real genocides in the area in Syria, Lebanon, against the Kurds by Turkey, not to mention the Rohingye and Uighars.sigh.

attacking normal people doesn't bode well for the Democrats, but only John Fetterman (!) dares to warn them. 

Me, I remember 1968... and that is how you got Nixon.

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

I won't go into all the censorship on covid, where real experts were censored and even lost their jobs for not going along with the narrative.

Sigh.

I did read the book Work Racism.

The problem? I was working class and indeed there is racism out there. But the Archie Bunker racists tended to work with other races and cultures, and much of their crude language was not echoed in their deeds.

But for the upper class white elite, it is good that someone points out the errors in this mindset.

But when doctors lose patience with poor people who are destroying their lives with bad behavior, you can see how this could be twisted into a racism meme, even though the druggies etc. in many areas are white. It is economic bias.

That is why I understand where my patients come from, but I will not be silenced when the PC pretend not shutting down mass demonstrations in the midst of a Covid epidemic, or nowadays not shutting down gay raves spreading monkeypox because of political correctness, or the failure to point out the severe side effects of hormones and GNRH antagonists on both the body and emotions is quite severe and might be part of the reason for the high suicide rate in the children who are trans (or maybe claiming to be trans because doing so gets you a lot of emotional support and positive feedback). 

Sigh

never mind.

Deceit from Pope Francis minions? Say it isn't so

synodality? 

I saw this type of manipulation in medical school, where we had encounter groups supposed to let us communicate but actually a way to try to persuade us to agree with the leader's agenda.

Apparently Francis is doing the same thing, but what was pointed out by the radical trads in the past and a lot of us who are not radical trads but cynics are now being discussed openly.

and if this report is true, a lot of those attending the meetings are not falling for the pretend agenda. Why do I say pretend? Because the decisions are already made, and the latest blessing of sin might have been released because those attending these meeting just weren't playing along.

Why should this be important news? Even if one does not believe the idea of God being the guy behind the scenes but only on a secular level, it means controlling the church's institutions: Hospitals, universities, schools etc.

it also has geopolitical implications: the pushing of liberation theology got a lot of MSM praise in the 1970s when missionaries were pushing uprisings by communists and shipping weapons to theses groups (a friend told me about this). But in reality, the locals who disliked the oligarchy running the government were being bullied by these groups, and one way they spoke with their feet was that they became good protestants.

in Latin America, this huge increase in Protestantism is influencing elections, and as Francis continues to dismantle the Catholic church from a religion into a social network for left wing groups, you will see this trend continuing.

One article the other day noted that Israel is now getting backed by some countries in South America because Protestant theology is sympathetic to Israel.

Peace in our time... oh never mind

Al J reports:

Egypt has presented what is described as an ambitious plan to end the war in Gaza with a ceasefire.

The proposal, which was presented to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments on Monday would see Israel fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip, all captives held by Hamas, and many Palestinian prisoners, freed, and a united technocratic Palestinian government installed in the enclave.

never mind. They already turned it down.

Not the usual Christmas movies

 I like Christmas movies but you know, all those G rated Hallmark Christmas romances seem to be clueless. Doesn't anyone in Hallmark land (or barbie land) go to church? It is all about decorations and happy romances between attractive people who never get their manicured nails dirty.

But there are a few stories out there that seem to remember the meaning of Christmas .

Here is one Anime one with various themes that would be considered PC today except that it is Japanese and made years ago:

.....

Based on the old movie Three Godfathers

......

I read somewhere that LesMis was written because some objected to the evil priest in the Hunchback of Notre Dame: so the author knowing that most priests were good, decided to write a good priest into his plot: and that it is actually based on a bishop in one of the poorer areas of France.

if my fondness for such films seems to go against my screeds against the gay relationship blessing, it is because I suspect Fernandez actions are not about charity but about pushing the gender agenda that certain affluent Europeans have been behind for the last 30 years...i.e. a stealth way to destroy the idea of sin, and along the way will destroy the family (divorce, abortion, euthanasia) and the sacredness of the Mass and the Eucharist (downgrading it from Christ's body and blood to merely a symbol for anyone to take).

So in the midst of a scandal which threatens to break up the Catholic church, why have hope?

Christmas is about hope: About renewal, about family. and how God renews our life, and about the hope in times of despair, and the renewal of life that every child brings into the world.

...

here everyone who can will return to their homes to celebrate Christmas with their families. The roads near Manila are full of traffic, and people are crowding the rail and bus terminals to get home. And not just from the cities to their rural villages:

PhilInquirer headline:

Near 60,000 daily arrivals in PH as holidays approach

some are tourists but most are Philipinos who are OFW working overseas on temporary visas, or who have immigrated overseas to find jobs and live in their new country: Many support their families here but try, like my husband Lolo, to return yearly to keep up family ties.

,,,,

and remember; as you give, so shall you receive:

but remember: there are always second chances in life.

Family News: covid, chicken pox, and parties

We grow organic brown rice Kuya and Joy are busy getting last minute rice deliveries to Manila. This includes brown rice in gift packages both for folks to buy, and as gifts to the business owners. They are also buying gift baskets (with groceries) for the employees and farmers who work with us.

Ruby is back from going to her cousin's graduation in Korea, and will stay here for school break: She is teaching in Manila, but since the salary is low, is seeking an overseas job, preferably in Asia so she can visit home frequently. 

She came down with a bad case of the flu, mainly sore throat and diarrhea, and low fever. It lasted five days, but she is now over it and luckily none of the rest of us got sick. Flu or covid? Who knows. Nobody is testing unless they are sick enough to go to the hospital.

Both illnesses are going around, and today's count shows 440 cases of covid in the Philippines, but no deaths. However, a news article notes that population screening shows that there is a lot of covid going around.

December 22 2023 DOH reported 557 new Covid-19 cases, 0 deaths, 318 recoveries 5569 active cases. 18.1% 7-day positivity rate. 235 cases in NCR. Projecting 500-600 new cases on 12.23.23 #COVID19 @dzbb @ali_sotto @AthenaImperial_ @wengsalvacion @DrTonyLeachon @DZAR1026 pic.twitter.com/jUQ9Rk1Y8k

— Dr. Guido David (@iamguidodavid) December 23, 2023

In other news: Lots of parties at the local Plaza every night...we live one block away, and so the local trash in the street is worse now, since people coming home from the plaza are dropping uneaten food and dirty paper etc in the street on the way to their cars which are parked all over the side streets near our house... So there have been more rats than usual.

So when my oldest dog Gigi got sick, we took her to the vet who diagnosed leptospirosis. Sigh. She did get shots for this, but I didn't keep the dogs shots up to date after covid hit. The vet had our other dogs put on antibiotics just in case, and they seem okay but Gigi has died, and we buried her in the front garden.

Sigh.

The dogs have recently been killing one or two rats a week, which is bad news since we store our rice here.

we will have to put out poison again. But the danger is if the local feral cats or dogs could accidentally get poisoned...In the meanwhile, traps will have to do.

In other pet news, our white dog Baby had six puppies last month, and this time they all lived, maybe because this time she bred with the neighbor's dog instead of the dogs in our compound, who are related to her. When the puppies open their eyes and start wandering around, they will get moved out to the living room, and I'll try to put up a photo. 

This time she had the puppies in the side room closet, next to Joy's room and when Ruby came to stay, she bit Ruby who got too close to her puppies. 

We don't have any weapons for safety, but everyone has dogs for protection.

We have six dogs at present located in different parts of the property, which contains several apartments, guest rooms, storage room, a business center and a meeting room.

The dogs are medium sized (we no longer have George the Killer Labrador) but when three or four of them come in a rush and bark at you, they do frighten visitors.

I take them with me when I answer the door, for protection.

In other news: There is a chicken pox epidemic in town. The secretary's son has it and I warned her that her preschool child will probably come down with it by Christmas, which of course means no parties for them. The maid's teenage son has it too.

Lots of traffic going by the house, and in the evening lots of cars parked here for those going to the Plaza for partying.

transhumanism

 mainly posted so I can listen to them in my leisure

,

taken in small amounts, this is good.

But of course, it is all about the rich elite. 

Somehow I can't see our farmers, who barely can make a living let alone ten cents a day to pay for their blood pressure medicine, suddenly being given brain transplants to live forever.

But never mind.

as St. Paul said so long ago, “God is not the author of confusion but of peace.”

the Pope is busy blasting everyone who dares to question his latest double talk which is obviously deliberate move to push confusion over sexual sin

quote of the day:

Characterizing fidelity to Catholic belief and practice as “fearfully sticking to rules”—the words belong to PBS, but the intent is clearly the pope’s—is irresponsible and false. The faithful deserve better than such treatment.

It’s also worth noting that heading down “unexplored paths and new roads” can easily lead into the desert rather than Bethlehem. Over the past decade ambiguity on certain matters of Catholic doctrine and practice has become a pattern for the current pontificate.

That is Archbishop Chaput. I am familiar with Archbishop Chaput long before he was sent to Philadelphia to clean up the pedophile mess there. He never got to be a Cardinal because he was too Catholic for this Pope. But never mind: He does have the intellectual ability to discuss what is going on, and why this blessing of "irregular unions" (not the blessing of individuals in such unions) is causing so much confusion.

I am familiar with the good bishop because I worked with the IHS: He is a card carrying Potawatomie, and often gave talks to Native American Catholic groups.

He is also media savvy: Once when the NYTimes misquoted him in an interview to discredit him for backing those evil Republicans, he notified them that he had taped the interview and insisted they correct the story.

It is ironic that the usual suspects of the rich but mainly empty European churches, love the Pope's ambiguity and of course are interpreting this as gay marriage lite...

but the Eastern Catholics and African bishops are saying no.

and one does not have to be a conspiracy theorist to suspect that many American bishops will pretend nothing is happening here...but one does wonder why the Bishop's conference released a notice that the bishops approved of doing this so fast that one suspects that no one in that office bothered to ask the bishops their opinion. But never mind: the press will pretend that this is the consensus of all the Catholic bishops in the USA and ignore those who say wait a second I wasn't asked if this was my opinion.

Yes America has good bishops: but what will happen in areas run by the clueless bishops?

Will good priests could be punished for saying no because their bishop won't back their decision? Or in today's world, will they be sued for damages if they refuse to give such a blessing.

Sigh.

it is interesting that Archbishop Chaput ends his essay, not with a screed against being gay, or even pointing out the sexual agenda that denies biology, but pointing out that the Vatican is busy pushing ideas that make lay people confused while ignoring the broader intellectual trend that is about to be released that is destroying humanity:

The most urgent challenge that Christians face in today’s world is anthropological: who and what a human being is; whether we have some higher purpose that warrants our special dignity as a species; whether we’re anything more than unusually smart animals who can invent and reinvent ourselves.

italics mine.

Such ideas require deep philosophical analysis, and bishops who are willing and able to teach this....but instead, as the good bishop points out:

And yet our focus for 2024 is a synod on synodality.

ah yes. 

Must spread confusion... must spread confusion... 

Sigh. 

musical interlude of the day

blessing sin is okay because charity

Tea At Trianon is upset because too many people criticizing the Pope lack charity and are expressing hatred.

Alas probably true: There is a lot of homophobia out there.

But some of us who are criticizing the Pope are doing so because we see him destroying the church.

Read the document, she says.,

but of course that is the point: The document is written ambiguously so that few lay folk untrained in theology will understand it, and allows everyone to decide what it means. Getreligion discusses here.

We are misreading it?

well, maybe not just us:

the heterodox German Bishops, the progressive bishops in the USA, and the MSM are rejoicing and say: hey this is the first step to gay marriage and is destroying all those old fashioned laws against fornication.

I should add that TaT does quote an ex Anglican priest who is a blogger, who knows where this is going:

In that sense, at the parish level, it’s business as usual. However, I can see that Fiducia Supplicans will have other effects in other places.

Firstly, although the document states, “From a strictly liturgical point of view, a blessing requires that what is blessed be conformed to God’s will, as expressed in the teachings of the Church” it is unavoidable to conclude that the blessing of “a couple in an irregular relationship” implies approval of that relationship.

Also, the document says that blessings of same sex couples should not be liturgical or cause confusion with marriage ceremonies. From my experience in the Anglican Church, this is a piece of naivety on a monumental level.

Italics mine. 

I agree: You would be naive to think it will stop here.

But what is disturbing is that the usual suspects (especially European bishops who want to go along with society's latest fashions) are ignoring the parts that caution using the blessing to hint that sin is no big deal, and openly rejoice in the chance to bless the sin in public. 

and most of the Bishops? They also will ignore the long term and public dangers by cherry picking the parts they like.

So they are saying: bless all sorts of things, so what is different with blessing a gay couples in public, they insist.

Ignoring that this is not blessing a person: it is blessing the illicit relationship. Implying that that relationship is okay with God.

And it goes beyond gay couples of course: it essentially okays a formal blessing marriages after a divorce, marriages outside of church, polygamous marriages, people living together without getting married. etc. 

Now, I know good Catholics who are in this group. And traditionally the answer to them is to repent, stay chaste, and leave the relationship.

But in the case of second marriage and polygamous marriage, this might leave the abandoned new spouse and the children involved in financial stress. So often the priest counsels: Stay chaste in the relationship, and if that is not possible, continue to go to church but not receive the sacrament, and then hope in God's mercy.

You see, there is a difference between sin of weakness where we know we are sinners but ask for God's mercy, and going around sinning openly and saying proudly: we aren't sinning see even the Pope says so...and you are evil right wing extremists for hinting this is wrong.

No, Ms Vidal: this is not hatred nor is it homophobia. Indeed, this goes a lot deeper than the gay part: It is about the Pope openly winking at public sin by promoting approval of sin with a public ceremony.

What's next? Blessing burglars? Getting photo ops with pro abortion politicians?

There is deep the anger at watching a pope slowly destroy the church. and anger at the bishops for staying silent while he does it,,,,,

Looking forward to bishops - especially those online - engaging with this latest...development. "Principal teacher of his diocese" and all that.
Here's the thing - if you don't want the Big Bad Laity to dominate the discourse on these matters...speak up. Do your jobs.

— Amy Welborn (@amywelborn2) December 18, 2023

 This is about laypeople confronting sin because those in the church prefer not to see it.

However, one should point out that minor criticisms of Pope Francis can get you thrown out of your job, or get your pension canceled. 

not to mention being criticized in the MSM, having the PC nuns and priests working in your offices oppose you, and (most horrifying) being the victim of mean tweets. 

St Athanasius would understand why they will just go along with those in power, laity be damned if they don't like it. 

Here in the Philippines, being gay (or having a second wife on the side) is no big deal because, unlike the feminists and gay rights types in the US, gays are just seen as part of the family, and Families come first. And God is part of the family. 

So Gays, and men with second wives, and alcoholics, and drug addicts, and people who steal or take bribes go to church anyway. 

But they keep their sins quiet: because to flaunt your sinful ways is is showing you are walang hila, without shame. And so their actions do not undermine the family, as these policies have done in more advanced western countries.

The big sin here in the Philippines is corruption.

The strict anti libel law (and very real fear of violence) stops too many priests and bishops from openly confronting this problem, but they do try. 

Let me tell you about our murderous ex-mayor.

Before he was indicted, he dared to sit in the front of church in a seat of honor, at the mass for the town fiesta, a mass presided over by the local bishop...

Here those with larger donations usually take them to the front of church after the Gospel, 

So when our cousin Chona took her donation up to the altar, she had to pass the mayor who was behind the hit that killed her brother in the crossfire... she had to pass him to go back to her place, but as she passed him, she turned and shook her fist at him, saying "You.... YOU!"

the bishop stayed silent (and presumably gave the mayor communion). 

But Chona's accusation did push the bishop to move. He couldn't accuse a non indicted mayor for a crime, but he could teach the politicians that offing their political opponent is wrong.

So a few weeks later, he got all the politicians at a mass and had them pledge that they would not do anything violent during that year's political campaign.

And it worked... there were not more shootings and the campaigns stayed peaceful..

the next political hit attempt didn't happen until two weeks after the campaign ended.

Sigh.

It's not easy being a bishop.

But one does wish that a couple US or European bishops would openly hold a mass and ask the pope's minions to pledge not to destroy the ten commandments, at least until the next conclave.

(/s).

Musical interlude of the day:

the case of the lost space tomatoes

Those who read the book or watched the movie The Martian knows about the importance and difficulties of growing food in space:....

  .

...so on the international space station they grew some tomatoes. 

YEAH! 

but then: the tomatoes.... disappeared.

WTF?

then hurray they were found. Scitechdaily reports:.

 Astronaut Frank Rubio’s experiences with lost tomatoes and growing dwarf tomatoes highlight the challenges and advancements in space farming....

The experiment uses hydroponic and aeroponic techniques to grow plants without soil or other growth media and could provide suitable solutions for plant systems needed for future space exploration missions.,,, 

so voila: Space tomatoes.

But then a few went missing. Were they eaten? Inquiring minds want to know.

Alas, no: just mislaid. 

Two rogue tomatoes have been recovered nearly a year after astronaut Frank Rubio accidentally lost track of them while harvesting for the XROOTS experiment, proving Rubio did not eat the tomatoes as they previously suspected.

The rogue fruit was found in a plastic bag dehydrated and slightly squished with some discoloration but with no visible microbial or fungal growth.

Musical interlude of the day

 

Legacy: Destroying the church is a legacy?

 There is a back story to the Vatican suddenly approving of blessing same sex relationships. 

It has been a plan implemented slowly by a group of mainly European bishops and theologians to change the church

Yesterday's AP headline:

Pope Francis’ 87th birthday closes out a big year of efforts to reform the church, cement his legacy

apparently the death of Pope Benedict has let Francis push his reforms full speed ahead. 

(Pope Benedict's) death has seemingly freed up Francis to accelerate his reform agenda and crack down on his right-wing opponents....

aka Catholics who believe what Christians have believed for 2000 years.

For starters, Francis presided over the first stage of his legacy-making meeting on the future of the Catholic Church. The synod aims to make the church more inclusive and reflective of and responsive to the needs of rank-and-file Catholics.

actually no: it is more likely to make more people flee the church of Francis to join Orthodoxy, schismatic Catholic churches, the local Bible believing church, or just stay home and lose their faith.

The synod stuff is fake: run and attended mainly by activists with an agenda. 

It is coverup to change things, sort of like the encounter groups that we had to attend in the 1960s, where all were welcome to put in their opinion but in reality it was a way for the leaders to manipulate those in the meeting to agree with them (and if you dared say: NO, you were subtly ostracized as not being cooperative with the group's opinion).

 And of course, Francis is pushing out all those who questioned his manipulations.

Bishop Strickland and Burke come to mind. Who is next to get the Vatican hatchet?

But of course his latest is to approve of blessing of same sex unions.

The German bishops are ecstatic, but the press rarely mentions that no one goes to church in Germany.

And the press who is ecstatic about this hasn't noticed how a similar decision has split the Anglican church.

but someone in this article recognized that the spin was upsetting a lot of folks, so hey gaslighting alert: they claim that the Pope really really didn't approve of blessing same sex relationships.

Except he did. No one in their right mind thinks it will stop with a mere blessing. 

CatholicThing vlog parses the document for you and they disagree.

the key here is Gresham's  law: Bad currency drives out good currency.

When I see stuff about "inclusion", I interpret it as saying I am not welcome,

I figure God's mercy covers a lot of sins, especially when we repent and try to do the right thing. Nevertheless, blessing open sin is not a good idea and will scandalize believers.

but anyway, the so called Catholic press and alas a lot of the Bishops hesitate to call out the destruction caused by the Pope. Loyalty they say.

pfft:

can you say narcissistic manipulation children?

as for the Pope being infallible (although this document wouldn't be under that definition). Well, that modern Jeremiah AnnBarnhart's argument that a forced resignation and manipulating the conclave by some very suspicious Cardinals (McCarrick anyone?) means that maybe he was a false pope. It wouldn't be the first time this happened in the church.

dancing in the streets and other dangerous protesters

protests have been going on for months in Iran but are rarely mentioned in the US MSM. 

 An Iranian woman protester who won the Nobel Prize is going to trial later this week, but that also has been pretty well ignored by the western MSM. 

 But finally the NYT  (headsup AnnAlthouse) and other MSM have noted the latest street dance protests in Iran: 

Straits Time report.

People are dancing on the streets, in shops, at sport stadiums, in classrooms, malls, restaurants, gyms, parties and everywhere else they congregate.

In Teheran, traffic was stopped in a major highway tunnel for an impromptu dance party to the song. Young women, hair uncovered and flowing, dance in parks, and young men performed a choreographed hip-hop dance.

“It’s obvious that joining this dance trend sends a strong message,” Mr Mohammad Aghapour, 32, a DJ who goes by the professional name DJSonami, said in an interview from Teheran. “It’s a way of protesting and demanding our freedom and happiness.”

 

خواستید گیله‌مرد ر خفه کنید، صدای شادی او، آااوو آااوووو آاوو آاااووو کنان و‌ رقصان در گوشه نقاط کشور تکثیر شد:)
عو عو زدن شما هم میبینیم؛))#صادق_بوقی pic.twitter.com/kuLB6ng3tK

— مجید آذرپی 🏴 (@majidazarpey) December 10, 2023

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in other protest news, Jimmy Lai, media leader, businessman and a pro democracy leader of Hong Kong, is going to be tried and put into jail by China. 

his crime? Lai is charged with colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring with others to publish seditious publications.

don't mess with China. Not only will they threaten you via their police stations in foreign lands, but if a country dares to imply that covid came from their lab, China will organize a spontaneous consumer boycott of your products...

 Conspiracy theory? Just ask Italy about why they can't sell China their good wine. (China did the same thing to the Philippines in 2012 with a banana boycott ).

OTHER NEWS

some in the US Congress are asking the government to stop perscuting Julian Assange for leaking secrets. It is a bipartisan group of troublemakers.

The bipartisan resolution introduced Wednesday was co-sponsored by Reps. James McGovern, D-Mass.; Thomas Massie, R-Ky.; Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.; Eric Burlison, R-Mo.; Jeff Duncan, R-S.C.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Clay Higgins, R-La.

The article blames Trump for the charges of course but ignores that hounding him goes back to the Obama administration, and and that one big leak threatened the campaign of Hillary Clinton... many suspect that leak came from  Seth Rich about the Democratic party's shennanigans.

Conspiracy theory of course, just like the conspiracy theory about the now debunked story about Russian Collusion by Trump or the story that the Covid virus came from a Chinese lab whose research was funded by Fauci via ecohealth

a lot of stories out there about how the green meanies are going to destroy your way of life, (sorry about that jeepney drivers too poor to buy into the scam)... 

But just wait: it's not just the ecotyrants doing this:

The UN WHO, the ones who covered up the covid story, have plans for your future too:

sigh

ah, but don't worry: dissidents in the USA will be safe from such threats of arrest and being jailed and taken away in handcuffs for misdemeanors:

UhOH:

Who wudda thot that the Babylon bee is so dangerous to the present regime?

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

of course, the well funded antifa protests have morphed into anti Jewish protests in the USA, (gee, don't these guys have a job?) and get a lot of positive press when they block roads, harass Jewish restaurants or threaten Jewish teachers. 

your tax dollars at work.

................................

a clue to how to stop this: Accordions:

.altogether now:

Art lesson for today: the Night Watch

One of my favorite commercials, advertising the 2013 opening of a museum that was exhibiting Rembrant's famous painting of the Night Watch ...

.............

backstory of how the commercial was made:

...............

more about the painting and why it is considered a masterpiece:

PhysOrg has an article about the technique behind the painting: 

New research has revealed that Rembrandt impregnated the canvas for his famous 1642 militia painting "The Night Watch" with a lead-containing substance even before applying the first ground layer.

.... it was a way to protect the painting from moisture.. the large canvas was intended for a damp outer wall of the great hall of the Kloveniersdoelen (musketeers' shooting range) in Amsterdam.

It had been reported that under humid conditions the common method of preparing the canvas using animal glue could fail. A contemporary source on painting techniques written by Théodore de Mayerne suggested impregnation with lead-rich oil as an alternative. This may have inspired Rembrandt for his unusual impregnation procedure to improve the durability of his masterpiece.

the original picture darkened with age, but restoration has given it a rebirth to show it's original colour.

And now, Art News reports that AI is being used to restore the edges of the picture.

The museum tapped its senior scientist, Rob Erdmann, to head the effort using three primary tools: the remaining preserved section of the original painting, a 17th-century copy of the original painting attributed to Gerrit Lundens that had been made before the cuts, and AI technology.

Wikipedia has a history of the painting including it's many travels and the UKGuardian tells the story of how it was hidden from the Nazi art thieves, and about it's restoration after the war and the repair of areas damaged by time or previous restorations.

so why it is this painting so important? Aside from it's artistic value I mean:

This UKGuardian article from 10 years ago points out that the picture is a symbol of Dutch democracy. Notice the clothes worn are not uniform? Notice the faces are all different?...

The Night Watch was painted in the 17th century as a group portrait of a militia company led by one Frans Banning Cocq. Companies of urban militia were part of the everyday life of the Dutch Republic,...

The human, all too human company stand together against encroaching shadows. A soft, enfolding fog of night surrounds them. The light that illuminates them is a flash in the dark. They are all the more heroic for being so vulnerable, flawed and eccentric. Most of all, they stand together, as a human community...

While these ordinary people stand guard, we feel a bit safer in our collective defiance of the dark.

Musical interlude of the day

wikipedia article on the Trolley song.

more explanation of the meaning of the song here:

Hugh Martin drew inspiration from his own experiences and memories of riding the trolley in his hometown. He wanted to capture the thrill and energy of those moments in song....

What is the overall theme of The Trolley Song? The Trolley Song captures the exhilaration and giddiness of new love. It celebrates the thrill of falling in love and the joy it brings.

The complicated story of Black Indians

The story of the Osage murders is finally getting to screen thanks to a recent book and a recent film:

and many of us know about the trail of tears, when Andrew Johnson decided to force the civilized tribes in the southern USA to what is now Oklahoma.

there is still a small settlement of Cherokees in the Mountains of North Carolina, of those who hid successfully. But most settled in Oklahoma and are there today. 

Ironically the Osage were not part of that group: they were fleeing from their homes in Nebraska and bought a plot of land from the Cherokees to settle in.

ThomasOklahoma has a video channel with a lot of history of Native American tribes, from their point of view.

Much of the history was left out of the history books and now the nuances are usually left out of the history books because too often the histories are written to please the latest intellectual fad in the white community (white superior culture in the past, racism and victimization of poor Indians in today's history books.) 

And yes, there is a lot of racism against Native Americans: I ran into this especially in Minnesota and South Dakota when we would be stopped by cops for nothing, or would not be served in restaurants who would lose our order. And we had to be careful of who we referred our patients to, because of the cultural nuances were not understood by our referral doctors. (not just Indians, of course: I turned down one job offer because the German immigrant doctor made a remark about the Jews. And don't get me started on the racism of doctors against blacks).

well, anyway, the latest scam right now is some black Americans are saying that they are Indians, or the ancestors of Indians.

Probably harmless, although one does wish they would learn the history of the  many African empires, or the trade routes that connected sub Saharan African cities to the Middle East, something the Islamic countries wrote about but were left out of the history books when Europeans decided to divide African between them... 

But anyway, some activists are saying they want to get the privileges of the tribes under treaties signed by the US government with the Native American tribes, and some Native Americans are a bit annoyed at this, just like they tend to be annoyed when white folk claim Tribal heritage to get jobs etc.

To complicate matters, just like a lot of white folk in Appalachia have Cherokee ancestors, many Blacks do have Native American ancestry: and others who are descended from slaves owned by tribal members were granted tribal citizenship. So they have CDIB cards and are eligible for free medical care at IHS hospitals where I worked.

well, anyway, ThomasOklahoma has a short video today about the complicated story of the Black Cherokees, and yes this includes the background for the notorious Tulsa Race riots.

Musical interlude of the day

musical interlude of the day

 Come Lord Jesus: a Tagalog Advent hymn:

Curing the poison from the coal mines

 When I worked in Appalachia, we could see the slag heap from our house. They had planted trees in it to prevent the minimountain from collapsing, but the run off meant that the stream was red with pollution from the run off. 

Upstream, however, the stream had trout, and the mountains were full of game: Deer, pheasants, wild turkeys and at one point, a colony of beavers decided to dam the stream. After locals destroyed their dam twice, those busy beavers tried a third time, leading to a mini lake and the locals gave up. 

Much of this forest around the stream had been farms: one could find the foundations of their houses and we would find small areas with herbs and flowers that were not usually seen in the wild, including apple trees that survived after they left. 

The forest was legally state game lands, and the locals all had rifles and hunted deer. The first day of deer season was a school holiday. And often one would see the deer hanging from the rafters in the garden (and if you looked carefully, a few illegal deer might be hung up in their garage). No, deer hunting was not just a sport but a way to get meat on the table.

the dirty little secret is that this area was once farms, but the soil, you see, was not good, so like a lot of places in the mountains of the Eastern USA, the people left their un-productive farms to move west, and the forest returned.

 In one area, an Amish sect moved in and bought some of these farms, so if you went off the main road, you would find signs warning you to watch for their buggies.

But the mines allowed some of them to move to town and find work. And many of the coal miners who moved in were immigrants from Italy or Eastern Europe. 

The mines closed and opened according to the economy: 

During the Carter administration, when the Arabs made oil and gasoline hard to get, the mines had reopened. But by the time I was living there, the mines had reclosed and the men had moved to find work elsewhere: often seasonal work in construction, and so they left their families behind, since they owned houses in the town, and the housing in the affluent areas where they were doing construction was too expensive for them, and of course construction work does tend to move from place to place. 

Others worked in the local prisons. 

But a lot of the older mines had black lung or injuries and were retired. So there was a lot of alcoholism and drug use in those left behind.

Many needed narcotics for chronic pain from injuries and then started using it to get high. Hence the high percentage of illicit drug use.

The doctor's dilemma: give them pain medicine or let them suffer, or worse, know that they would buy medicine on the streets risking overdoses. 

We usually supplied narcotics to our patients with chronic pain with a contract that included drug testing and frequent visits to monitor their behavior, and hoped the FDA didn't try to pull our medical license. The problem of chronic pain that goes untreated ia one of the issues not being addressed. 

https://libquotes.com/emily-dickinson/quote/lby1l9d

So a sad area, which probably has gotten worse in the 30 years since I left that area.

But a beautiful area.

and good people.

 But some are trying to revive the land. 

and some are trying to entice jobs into the area to keep the towns alive. 

One way is making old rail lines to hiking trails: Rails to trails. 

This brings in tourism, which helps with jobs for restaurants and antique stores and hotels. And of course, in winter there is skiing.

But what about the environment?

TheNatureConservatory blog has an article about reviving the land by fixing the soil so that the natural habitat can come in. 

The article seems to be about restoring the devesation of the more modern strip mines rather than the legacy of decades of mining from underground mines that leave behind a lot of toxic slag. But it shows that the natural environment can be restored, which is a first step in reviving the area.

the first step in restoration was decompacting the soil, or what many conservationists I spoke with called “ripping it up.” The idea is to get water infiltrating the soil, to create conditions where seedlings would sprout.

Then came the tree planting. More than 6 million trees have been planted on Central Appalachian mine sites so far. But even that number is only part of the story, Shallows says. “This is about more than planting trees,” says Shallows. “It’s an impressive number. It feels good to plant trees. But we are focused on restoring whole ecosystems here. We want a healthy, functioning, diverse forest.”

 

This is good, but I am reminded of Lolo's comment: you can't eat the scenery.

But with a decent environment, other ways to revive the economy can be done, since a decent environment will entice the kids, who now leave to work elsewhere, to return home to work in hospitality, in ecology, in caregiving, and in the IT industry.

Musical interlude of the day

LYRICS

What can I give Him, 

Poor as I am? 

If I were a shepherd

 I would bring a lamb,

 If I were a wise man 

I would do my part, 

Yet what I can I give Him, 

Give my heart.

whoops. Solar storm coming

Movie of the week

 a quiet story about those who love books, wikipedia page:

84, Charing Cross Road is a 1970 book by Helene Hanff, later made into a stage play, television play, and film, about the twenty-year correspondence between the author and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co antiquarian booksellers, located at the eponymous address in London, England...

Dec 8: Mama Mary's feast day

 December 8 is a feast day for Mama Mary. The official name is that of the Immaculate conception, but that fancy name confuses people: Mary was conceived normally, but without the stain of original sin.

Original sin is Catholic lingo for human beings innate weakness that make us prone to sins (not just sexual, but sins of pride, gluttony, envy, anger, etc.). Calvin insisted men were born bad, but Catholics just say we are born good but with an inborn flaw and call that flaw original sin, having it's origin in Adam's rejection of God.

Like most of the beliefs about Mary, this idea is not so much about Mary but about Jesus.

The Arc of the Covenant was made of gold and precious wood because it contained the presence of God. So early Christians believed since Mary was to give Birth to Jesus, you can't have a baby who is God (or holy) spend his first nine months in a sinful environment.

The actual intellectual formulation of what this means was done of course by the Catholic theologians who love to parse trivial, but a similar idea about Mary being holy is believed by Eastern Christians, and even in Islam, 

Mary of course is the antidote to the bible thumpers who threaten us with hell.

Yes there are proud narcissists who sin with glee (been there, done that, but repented).

But most people sin out of weakness, and try their best. So how do we get to heaven? Well, Mary ordered her son to make wine for a party, so we figure Jesus will listen to her when we ask her to pray to her son to give us a break and forgive our sin: or as the prayer goes:

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

This is one good thing about Pope Francis, that he stresses mercy for sinners. 

Well anyway, small shrines to Mama Mary are common here in the Philippines: and this includes the statue of our Lady of Peace, that commemorates the Peaceful People Power revolution against Marcos, where a million Filipinos led by the Cardinal carrying a statue of Mama Mary and singing hymns marched down the main street in Manila to protest Marcos trying to steal the election, and to block Marcos troops from arresting General Ramos (a Protestant by the way), and the demonstration was the reason Marcos (with a little push from Reagan) decided to flee to Hawaii and let Tita Cory take office. 

So they erected a Madonna in front of a shrine on the EDSA highway: albeit not without opposition from other political parties. (indeed, Marcos Junior is trying to eliminate the holiday to commemorate the protests, but that is another story altogether).

Bishop Gabriel Reyes & Archt. Francisco Mañosa
EDSA Shrine: God’s Gift, Our Mission

Small shrines to Mary are not just found in the Philippines, but in the USA. As I mentioned before: Our next door neighbor in Pennsylvania, a disable coal miner with five coal mining sons, had one in his garden, as thanks to not being killed in a mine accident.

Such shrines are not limited to the back yards. If you go through Montana, you might see high up in the mountains a shrine of Our Lady of the Rockies.

Erected, not with taxpayer money, but by donations of money and donations of work by locals.

one more piece of trivia:

In the US, Pearl Harbor day was Sunday, December 7, and many people were at church when that attack happened. 

But here in the Philippines, the attack happened on December 8, and many Filipinos were at church because it is a feast day.

And VJ day? That was August 15, which also just happens to be a feast day for Mama Mary.

Coincidence? Or a subtle message that even though terrible things would happen, that ultimately God is in control and will wipe our tears away.