Anti Semitism in the news

StrategyPage discusses the Saudi money pushing anti Semitism and hatred of other religions.
One of the poorly covered stories on the news.

They also have a book review of Lincoln and the Jews...
not just on a personal level, but stopping institutional racism:

most celebrated intercession on behalf of Jews was his revocation, as soon as he learned of it, of General Ulysses S. Grant’s notorious General Orders No. 11 that expelled “Jews as a class” from the territory then under his command. (Purportedly directed at peddlers, the entire Jewish community of Paducah, Kentucky was forced out of their homes; it was one of their number who had traveled to the White House.)

If you read the entire review, it seems the Lincoln was using Jewish peddlers as spies, so Grant's suspicion had some basis in reality: what he got wrong was which side they were spying for.

Yes, anti Semitism was big back then (so was anti Catholicism). But again it is rarely covered.

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One frequently reads stories of swastikas being painted on synagogues in the US, but now a Swastika is being blamed for the race protests at one university.
Presumably the perpetrator thought Sammy Davis Jr lived in the dorm I guess.

Or maybe not: the entire kerfuffle just might be based on an urban legend not reality:

Multiple activists on Twitter pointed to this photo as proof that the incident occurred as reported, but a Google search for the same imageshows that it has been floating around the Internet for nearly a year. Areddit thread from November of 2014 appears to contain the earliest publication of the photo in question, meaning that it most certainly does not constitute proof of the incident alleged to have occurred at Mizzou on October 24, 2015.

and the really bad news in all of this?

Well, I'm old enough to remember that the narcissistic demonstrators of the 1960's resulted in Nixon getting elected.
I'm just sayin'...

Judgemental jerks? I hope so

GetReligion Cites the press coverage of a survey supposed to show "religious" kids are "judgemental jerks"...

well, actually it doesn't show that at all, since there is no data about the ethnicity or or customs of the societies involved.
Some societies stress sharing with family, not strangers, but here the kids who took the stickers home to share with their siblings would be considered selfish. And of course, the Chinese kids who "share" because they fear punishment by the teacher would be considered non selfish.

As for the "judgmental jerk" part of the argument that the anti Christian press is pushing:

Well, yes. And I consider that a good thing.

In American "judgementalism" is evil, because it means you might judge a person who has 300 anonymous sexual encounters a year in a bath house as less moral than a faithful husband. Who am I to judge, we hear quoted in our faces all the time.

But judgmentalism also means judging the right or wrong when you see something done that is wrong.

In the countries cited in the survey (South Africa, Turkey, Jordan, China, Chicago), the real problem is toleration for corruption, not "judgmentalism".

So these "religious" and "judgemental" kids might actually grow up to be honest businessmen and honest politicians instead of doing things the usual way (i.e. bribes, kickbacks, sleeping with the staff, pushing illegal drugs, nepotism).

That is why China's gov't quietly supports Christianity (and Confucian ethics) as a way to fight corruption.


hmm...wonder if it would work in Chicago too?

Cat Item of the day

How can you use your smart phone in the cold, and still feel cute?

Cat tail gloves. (FelissimoJp Via Toxel)

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so why is the internet ruled by Cats?

via Imrprobable research:

M/C Journal, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2014) why the internet is made of cats (with reference to the Alchian-Allen Theorem).

Supporting material here

the AlichianAllen theorem

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and who needs emojis when you can use CATS?

Nice Stuff around the net

Yes, Virginia, there actually was a Frisbee pie company whose plates inspired the Frisbee. (AtlasObscura)

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The moon isn't made of green cheese, but it was twice baked,  (BBC)  like a Chinese Moon cake?

Prof Desch also compared the new Moon model to Chinese "mooncakes" or yue bing, traditionally baked for an Autumn festival. These cakes have a moist filling baked inside a dry pastry.

Chinese mooncake recipe HERE.

not to be confused with a Moon Pie, an American delicacy.

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don't just sit there eating flies: DANCE!



Incrediblethings.

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I was outside yesterday morning, and saw two morning stars with the moon.

APOD has a photo of it  the moon with Jupiter and Venus HERE. (And the streak on the right is an airplane).

News you can use

StrategyPage has the skinny on the dirty bomb... and radiation in a "normal" environment. Radon, anyone?

they also have a podcast on the west Philippine sea confrontation.

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the latest scientific data shows that frying with lard is safer than using vegetable oil

Frying food in lard is healthier because vegetable oils release toxic chemicals which can cause cancer, heart disease and even dementia when heated, new research has found The findings, based on over 20 years of research, flies in the face of official advice that saturated fats should be avoided and polyunsaturated fats used instead. Professor Martin Grootveld from De Montfort University in Leicester found making a fish supper with corn or sunflower oil contained up to 200 times more toxic aldehydes than international daily safe limits.

an alternative? Coconut oil, which a few years ago was condemned even though it is mainly used for popcorn in the USA.

While olive oil appears to be a much better option to avoid this, butter, lard and coconut oil outperforms them all

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3309304/Frying-food-LARD-healthier-vegetable-oils-release-toxic-chemicals-heated-says-new-research.html#ixzz3r2QofXYj Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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plastic bags are good for you, because those "reusable" bags get germy.

Not to mention that when I was in the US, I would need ten bags to carry groceries on the average trip.... all those ads showing an attractive young lady carrying a single "reusable" bag are made by folks without kids to feed.

and the large plastic bags are usually "recycled" to throw out garbage.

But the small plastic bags are a problem: They fill the open air sewers and clog the pipes contributing to local flooded streets.
But the new larger drainage ditch to stop the palenke from flooding is covered, which is an improvement.

Most of the bags thrown away tend to be the smaller ones, which can't be reused for trash etc.

so would banning SMALL plastic bags help? Yes. But without a bag, how can you prove you didn't steal the stuff?

Now, if we can only encourage folks to throw the used bags into the city supplied trash containers on the streets...



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Family News and book stuff

Ruby is going to Manila for an all day class trip with her homeschool base. Since they leave a 6 am, Joy is unsure if they will leave here at 2 am or if they travel there tonite and stay with relatives overnight.

The internet has been out all weekend, so I hope the world didn't end when I was offline.

The big headlines in the weekend's Manila Bulletin was that Tacloban and the Visayas are still a mess two years after being hit by Yolanda.
Well, duh. But the politicians are richer...

I am now busy listening to the Outlander series.
I read part one years ago, but I downloaded an interview last week by the author.... and when I checked I found that someone had posted the audiobook of several books of the saga on youtube, which I downloaded.

I'd lend it to Ruby, but it is full of "bodice ripping fun" so maybe when she is a bit older. I did buy her the latest Rick Riorden book, which is now about the Norse gods living in Boston. His earlier Percy Jackson books are  a good way for kids to learn about Greek and Roman mythology.... and when you see how those gods act, you can understand why the locals preferred to convert to  friendlier religion.

On Scribd I finished the book about Jefferson's black family connections: the Hemmings family.
The main problem was that it lacked context: racism emphasized, but other items such as religion, economics, the political background of those days, or how African culture which emphasized extended family were not explored in detail.Although she did explain that the Jefferson probably was not influenced by the religious revivals that encouraged setting free one's slaves...

I am also working my way through Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version and audiobook)...
No, I have nothing in common with Elizabeth Bennett, and would have been bored S***less if I lived back then.
Mary Wollstonecraft is more my style.
Of course, nowadays I am also a lady of leisure like Lizzy was, without any work to do, but of course, that is after being a workaholic for 40 years...

Musical interlude of the day

from the movie: The Mission.

headsup TYWKIWDBI

The Hat is Back

Family News

The funeral of Pempe's son is today... I will probably skip it due to the heat, because I tend to faint in church, but Joy says she will go to represent the family.

Don't grab me bro or pushy people blecch.

Uncle Orson has a scathing essay on "ambush hugging: people who grab him and say he needs a hug.

Yeah...like in the US when strangers who won't give you the time of day outside church grab you to give you a hug when they have the "kiss of peace" at mass, instead of merely shaking your hand...

he also has a good review on the film The Martian, which still hasn't opened here in the Philippines.

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and then EdDriscoll at Instapundit quotes an article about the black list that has this sentence:

Yes, there’s no excuse for the blacklisting of communists by Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s. Just as Scott Eckern, Orson Scott Card, and Brendan Eich should not be deprived of their livelihood for their political views...

Uh, they weren't "political views": They are religious views. and one could argue the same views held by non religious societies such as Rome, China and Mesopotamia, so don't say it is "religious" bigotry or I will throw Confucius at you. .

So why were they being boycotted? Coercion. To send a message to the rest of us that we too are vulnerable to be called haters if we insist on traditional morality  or even basic modesty, we too can lose our livelihoods.

At least the article is "liberal" enough to mention that the blacklist was for folks who supported a murderous dictator who killed millions and also supported the overthrow of the American government to impose a similar dictatorship...and openly used their positions to push their ideology on others around them.

In contrast, Eich kept his opinions out of the workplace, and Card's sci fi includes sympathetic gay characters.

and I refuse to link to the source, which was founded by a woman who wrote that she openly loathes Christians.

Family news

Joy will go to Manila on business, and maybe work on the Veteran widow's pension for me if she has time.

Ruby has a cold and is staying home since Joy will travel by bus.

The pickup truck broke down in Manila yesterday...we are waiting to see how much it will cost to fix.

We are due for a brownout today. AGGGH>>>>

Chicken post of the day

I'm getting too serious

So let me link to Improbable research, on the scientist who figured out how T Rex and his buddies really walked.

The Clinic published an interview [in Spanish] with Bruno Rossi, who (together with colleagues) was awarded the 2015 Ig Nobel Prize for biology, for observing that when you attach a weighted stick to the rear end of a chicken, the chicken then walks in a manner similar to that in which dinosaurs are thought to have walked.

original article HERE.

Quote of the day

Damian Thompson:

We’re two and a half years into this pontificate. But it’s only in the past month that ordinary conservative Catholics, as opposed to hardline traditionalists, have started saying that Pope Francis is out of control.... No pontiff in living memory has awakened the specific fear now spreading around the church: that the magisterium, the teaching authority vested in Peter by Jesus, is not safe in his hands.

then there is this one, from the National Catholic Register:

STATEMENT OF THE BRITISH CONFRATERNITY OF CATHOLIC CLERGY
 ...(we) expresses gratitude to the Fathers of the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod on “the Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and in the contemporary world”, for affirming, in a climate of challenge and confusion, Christ’s unchanging teachings and the Church’s constant doctrine regarding marriage, the family, and the true meaning and purpose of human sexuality. 

Both from Father Z's blog.

Since Vatican II, few sermons have been preached against divorce (the last time I saw a big kerfuffle where bishops actively opposed divorce was when a bishop opposed Pennsylvania making divorce easy back in the 1960's).

but the bad news is what is also not being preached: That everything we do is serving the Lord, and that marriage and love making and nurturing children is a vocation, not just a part time job that shouldn't interfere with our real work, i.e. career. (and yes, I plead guilty. But I also plead that I had bills to pay and couldn't stay home, so I worked part time while raising kids).

Ironically, only JP2 and Andrew Greeley (and Benedict's encyclical on Love) emphasize the eros of God's love and how it is mirrored in marriage.

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related item:

compare and contrast: TheOtherMcCain's report on Salon's favorite pedophile complaining of hate speech which greeted his essay pleaning for understanding on that liberal forum.

. Announcing himself to the world as a Creepy Dude Who Wants to Have Sex With Kids was not the kind of gesture for which pedophile Todd Nickerson could have expected to be praised, and yet the creepy dude nonetheless pretended to be shocked — shocked! — by the angry reaction:
I’m a pedophile, you’re the monsters: Myweek inside the vile right-wing hate machineMy pedophilia essay outraged the right. My attempt tohumanize a real problem brought out their nastiest rageYou see? According to Salon-dot-com, you have nothing to fear from theCreepy Dude Who Wants to Have Sex With Kids. Instead, Salon-dot-com would have you believe, the real danger is “the vile right-wing hate machine.” 

well, his website is full of crazy hate, much of it not by the blogger but when he directly quotes feminists.

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what the Pope sees in the family meeting is the hurting person, and he wants to welcome him and say he is loved. Fine.

What he doesn't see is the harm done to those around them, be it the innocent person whose philandering husband or wife divorced them, to the kids growing up fatherless, or the family who is manipulated by the alcoholic/druggie in their house.

And the Pope ignores that there are sociopaths who use sentimentality and guilt to manipulate people. And if you oppose them, you are full of hate.

Don't get me started: I see this in my own home.

China's stories being ignored

twenty year ago I read a book about the shiny new China emerging, written by the wife of a famous NYT editorialist, who at the end of the book admitted she hadn't noticed their one child policy.
Well, now the press is hailing that their gov't will now allow some folks to have two kids.
Only Spiked is obnoxious enough to notice: Hey this is a major violation of the human rights of millions of people.
of course it's not noticed because the powers that be are aiming to depopulate the earth of untermensch.

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Gizmodo discusses a university analysis of China's ghost cities, where lots of empty buildings exist, and then insists many of these are occupied only one season a year, i.e. vacation resorts so it's okay.

Uh, isn't there a government office that should have such information?

and resorts that are only open a few months a year are not financially viable: Are these places rented or owned? Yes by the middle class who are investing in them...but do they make a profit on the? Who pays for the upkeep?

This housing bubble is an ominious sign for China's economy/


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Again,the NYT finally noticed the lie: (via Gizmodo) China is burning a lot more coal (and producing a lot more pollution) than the gov't there said it was producing.

The figures, which come ahead of the international climate talks to be held in Paris at the start of December, appear in a a new energy statistics yearbook published by China’s statistical agency, reports the New York Times. They reveal that the quantities of coal being burned in the country have been underestimated since 2000.

It's not that they lied: governments always lie. But when stories laud China as being a leader in "green energy" based on official reports, one suspects that an agenda is being pushed. Especially since much of the "Green energy" stuff uses rare metals and the factories are a major source of local pollution.

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StrategyPage on China's takeover of the seas, something that ignores international law.

Stories below the fold

CNN has photos of the Bronze age grave found at Pylos.

Also in the shaft tomb was a unique necklace of box-shaped golden wires, gold and silver goblets, and more than 50 intricately carved seals -- made in the style of the Minoan culture of the large island of Crete, to the southeast -- depicting goddesses, reeds, altars, lions and men jumping over bulls

Wikipedia article on the area...note that the area was essentially depopulated at the time of the Peloponesian war, but because it was in a valuable area, it has a lot of people fighting in the area.

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Death rate among middle aged white Americans with a low education is up. Mainly due to alcohol, drugs, suicide and "liver disease" (which is often related to drug use or alcohol).

cultural reasons are killing people.
So where are the churches? Approving their vices by denying sin and being non judgemental, or trying to rescue them from the gates of hell?

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In Zimbabwe, often farmers burn off the dead grass/hay left in the fields after harvesting, to prepare the fields for new grass or replanting.

One such veldt fire has spread to the visitor center at the GreatZimbabwe monument.


similar "Slash and burn" fires are causing a haze emergency here in Asia.
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BBC article admits that although people "support" China's one child policy, that there are a lot of stories that suggest it harmed many many people.

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scientists are often geeks. Well, duh.

but now if you are a geek, they say it's autistic like personality.

Stretching the diagnosis of autism is one reason that we have many more cases... in the past the large percentage of those with full blown autism were called childhood schizophrenic or just mentally retarded with behavioral problem.

 

TEOTWAWKI rant

Usually a few of the blogs I keep an eye on are pessimistic, but today, even the usually thoughtful ones are pessimistic on the fate of the world.

Oh well: Look at the bright side: That "Haloween asteroid" that looked like a skull missed the earth so we're still here.

Much of the zombie/walking dead etc. stuff seems to be young folks shooting things, so I don't tend to watch them, but it does make you wonder if it is mirroring what is going on.

on the other hand, the Martian was a hit (and it must be a hit somewhere because it hasn't reached Manila yet).

and the latest Vatican scandal is actually old news: They've been trying to clean up the Vatican bank since they put a hit out on JPI (which is why JP2 avoided the bureacracy who undermined him and kept him from doing things). One conspiracy theory behind Benedict's resignation was so that the next pope could clean up the mess easier, since the new guy had permission to accept every one's resignation.

Wolves in sheep's clothing and whited sepulchres are old news: Even Jesus protested the kickbacks by the Temple's merchants, Amos and other prophets were always complaining about corruption, and one conspiracy theory behind Ikhnaton was that he wasn't really a crazy monotheist: he was trying to break the monopoly of the priests of Amon who held much of the land in Egypt so it couldn't be taxed.

Nor is today's corruption limited to the Vatican, as the InC scandal in the Philippines shows, or the latest televangelist scandal shows, or the well known corruption of the mullahs who run Iran shows.

Nor is such corruption limited to churches, as the kleptocracies of socialist states like Venezuela, Cuba or Zimbabwe show.

Oh well.

the big thing now is new age ideas that "we" are evolving to a bright new world, where we can fulfill our dreams. This might be called the church of Oprah.

in the meanwhile, ignore the social destructiveness of the media and the Obama administration, who push inclusiveness by saying right is wrong, morality is hateful, and that gender is whatever you say it is, never mind the guy having erections when he shares your daughter's locker room.

As for TEOTWAWKI: Most of the blogs seem to be about weapons, not really about survival.

If you are to survive, you need a community, not live as a hermit. That is the lesson of the LDS settlers in Utah: cooperation and helping each other (and polygamy because there are more women than men). But only OSCard has post apocalyptic novels that posit life in Deseret might be an alternative to the usual violent dog eat dog world of sci fi.

Here in the Philippines, we also have this: Reliance on extended families. So when the war started, Lolo and his mom went to their farm to hide until the battle was over. Even those in Manila usually would flee home if there was a mega earthquake (and the bad news is that we are close enough to the city to be affected by both the earthquake and the post earthquake refugee exodus).

So how do you survive? Drugs are the real problem: I always worried that without his blood pressure medicine, Lolo would die quickly of a stroke or heart attack. Me, I only rely on Motrin and anti histamines so can live (albeit uncomfortably) without them.

However, I ran across this really important list that people don't  usually put on their emergency stash list: It will come in handy in case you get hit by a typhoon etc and have to survive. Hairpins and diapers and safetypins and portable blackboards. Sounds about right.

luckily for us, when we have been shut down by typhoons, we have a generator, and more importantly there was gasoline available to run them. We also live in the country, and have a good supply of rice parked on a hill on the farm (a lot of local folks were borrowing rice when the flood hit last month because although the water level went down quickly, their rice was stored on the first floor). And usually within a day or two, the deliveries of veggies and meat to the Palenke resumed. (In the US, usually I shopped in bulk, but here everything is fresh and has to be bought daily. We don't store, and rarely use canned or frozen veggies or food...Which is why we have a full time cook).

Theoretically we could run the diesel generator/car on biofuel.. no, we don't have wind power or solar generator due to the cost. So if the roads/distribution ability went down, we eventually would be in trouble.

and if worse came to worse, we still have a waterbuffalo.

Hmm...I wonder if George the killer lab would be able to pull a dog cart?

Family news

Lolo's will will finally be processed in early December.

I ran into Pempe's daughter, who is here for the funeral. She lives in Canadian, married to a Canadian. One more relative arrives tomorrow and then they can have the funeral. The other brother is out on bail and will attend, since it was sort of an accident.

Joy is at a business meeting again.

The harvest was last weekend but I didn't hear if it was good or poor.

Yeti story of the week

BBC relates stories of people who saw yetis, yet notes that few people see them nowadays.

Why?Because people don't invade their habitat anymore, thanks to modernity.

Now, says Norbu, people don't need to go up to the mountain to collect wood or graze their animals. They cook on gas rings, and farming patterns have changed. The villagers spend more of their time growing cash crops such as potatoes and oil seeds.
Where sundown used to be the end of the day, now, with electricity, villagers weave late into the evening - making rugs and shawls to sell at craft markets as far away as the capital Thimpu.

Creepy space stories

This radar image of asteroid 2015 TB145, which NASA says is likely a dead comet, was captured using the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on Oct. 30, 2015 with a resolution of 25 feet per pixel. The skull shaped asteroid flew by Earth on Halloween (Oct. 31).
Credit: NAIC-Arecibo/NSF

from Space.com

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via DavidReneke:

two minute fame story: Student claims she wants to have the first baby on Mars, so she gets her story in all the tabloids. The mission is a big scam, but never mind.

The student obviously sees the baby not as a child to be loved, but as something to get publicity; what's wrong with this picture?

And it sounds like she's never actually cared for a baby: Ah, the wonderfulness of baby poo odor in a small space habitat.

On the other hand, think of all that nice fertilizer for the potato plants.

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Reneke also has the REAL story of the first dog in space.

Sad.

Family news

Yesterday was All Saint's day, when everyone goes to the graves of their loved ones to clean the graves up, put flowers there, light candles, and have a small picnic.

I went to Lolo's grave after 5:30 am mass, and already there were families unloading flowers etc. in the cemetery, but because it was early, we could go to the grave in the tricycle (but the cops were there for traffic control, meaning they'd probably stop you and make you go on foot later in the day, unless you were old or couldn't walk that far).

The Vendors were already there at the cemetery gate. In the older part of the cemetery, where poor people are buried and it tends to be very crowded, the smaller vendors set up between the graves.

Lolo is in the new cemetery, where graves are in plots and often in houses or with a roof over a concrete box (due to high water levels). Lolo wanted a roof only, but since there were house type graves on either side, it means his grave is not in the open. He also wanted to be buried below ground, US style...so you have to step up to the floor of the grave since he is essentially buried at ground level and the dirt is piled over his casket, and then the floor and then a roof.

Now if the contractor will only finish the floor. Photos from my cousin's cellphone:

The alternative was his first choice: To be buried in a concrete box over his mother's grave in the old cemetery. But since in the last few years two other relatives have been buried in that site, it was getting too crowded, with five people already buried in the small family plot. So the new plot will fit six in the ground, and if we have to, another six or 12 in boxes over the ground.

So, anyway, I went to his grave early and then came home.

Joy and Ruby went after their church service and lunch, and stayed there for awhile as is the custom. They also visited the graves of Lolo's mom and Dr. Ito, and talked with the relatives.

I'm feeling snarky today

Jesus wouldn't join the NRA? 

Maybe not, but Peter obviously was a member of the NSA (National Sword association)...

like most celebrities, Jesus had a body guard, i.e. Peter, who had a sword and knew how to use it.

and I am pro gun control.

the dirty little secret is that most gun deaths in the USA are minorities and/or drug gang related, and not among this group of law abiding gun owners.

As for the Big Guy:  it is one thing to say "Turn the other cheek" when you are attacked: It's another thing to turn the other cheek and let the bad guys attack the innocent.

If robbers attacked Jesus and his group, not just Jesus but his disciples, including the women mentioned in the Bible who accompanies them and did the cooking etc.  would have been murdered.

Hence the sword.

So why did Jesus warn Peter to put his sword away in the Garden when he was arrested?

Because they were cops: legally authorized to arrest him, and Jesus was not a revolutionary but one who respccted authority...and fighting could have started a rebellion.

If a lot of this sounds cynical, it is because elections are coming to the Philippines, and we expect more politically motivated murders in our town... Already a mayor and a barangay captain were shot in the last few weeks in our area... and our mayor is the daughter of the mayor behind the hit on his rival that killed our nephew, and as soon as she won the election, there was a hit on one of the witnesses to the crime who was on the way home from our cousin's funeral. So now everyone wonders what will happen next.

But private crime still is a problem, including gun crime:

So right now, we are mourning a cousin who shot his brother in a fight (maybe self defence, since the dead brother was drunk and attacked him). So maybe he'd be alive if no gun was involved.

Yes, we have strict gun laws here in the Philippines, but most guns are not registered.

I know Lolo's guns were unregistered, but Chano, being a law abiding Baptist, made him give them away when we moved back here,  because he wouldn't break the law.

Sigh.

Oh well, I still am protected by George the Killer Labretriever, and at night we now have a young man with a machete guarding us.

Musical Interlude of the day

David Warren's essay on the ancient hymn:

It comes back to me in the memory of my flesh. My Down-syndrome child, listening with me; the sense of his presence in my arms and lap. One’s heart breaks sometimes, around such recollections: my child, Matthew, at age of two or three; so fragile and so perfect in his untutored love. So I played the music on my little machine, just as I had then: the Ave maris stella. It has plainsong at the top, and the verses fall out of it, exchanged between choirs in alternating rhythms as a mystical dance. I love the music but not so well the recording, whose forceful instrumentation makes the Christian hymn too courtly. I had remembered it as choirs, only; with solos less poised. But it is still sublime. We need to renew our appeal, to Our Lady, seen in the vision as star of the sea. For here we are in the chains of the guilty, in the darkness of the blind, weighed down, weighed under. Break chains, bring light, and purge us: O Mary, meek and chaste. Lead us to thy Son.

lyrics HERE

Stories below the fold

China is ending it's "one child" policy, but folks there might not be able to afford a second kid.

in the future: Depopulation, and probably their small occult euthanasia of the handicapped and eldely will go into full swing...

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Remember Voyager1? It entered interstellar space in 2012 and is still sending back data to puzzle the scientists.

Voyager 1’s crossing into interstellar space meant it had left the heliosphere — the bubble of solar wind surrounding our sun and the planets. Observations from Voyager’s instruments found that the particle density was 40 times greater outside this boundary than inside, confirming that it had indeed left the heliosphere. But so far, Voyager 1’s observation of the direction of the local interstellar magnetic field is more than 40 degrees off from what other spacecraft have determined. The new study suggests this discrepancy exists because Voyager 1 is in a more distorted magnetic field just outside the heliopause, which is the boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium. 

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SUPERCHICKENS!

https://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/superchicken.jpg

evolving faster than scientist said they should

and there is an ongoing debate if they arrived in the Americas via Columbus, or via Polynesian visitors.

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PhysOrg reports that the NM National Guard helicopter transports a dinosaur skeleton.

Sgt. 1st Class Terrill Lee, from left, Sgt. James Ray and Staff Sgt. Noe Amador, secure the remains of a Pentaceratops, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015, in the Bisti-De-Na-Zin Wilderness area south of Farmington, N.M. The fossils are encapsulated in heavy plaster jackets. They're being trucked to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque. (Jon Austria/The Daily Times via AP)

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NYT: asking questions your grandmother used to answer:

Is it safe to eat moldy bread?

If you want to preserve some of the bread, Ms. Gravely said, “cut away a big section surrounding the mold with a healthy margin around it to make sure you got all of it.”

well, DUH.

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the good news you probably missed: In Colombia, peace is breaking out all over.

Over a decade of efforts to suppress criminal gangs and leftist rebels (and local militias organized to resist the rebels) has paid off. The drop in election violence is not surprising to most Colombians because it is in line with the general decline in criminal activity and lawlessness since 2000. After three years of negotiations FARC appears to have really made peace with the government and is preparing to demobilize its 7,000 armed fighters. ELN, with about 2,500 armed members, is willing to talk but has not actually begun peace negotiations yet. ELN is apparently feeling the heat from a population fed up rebellions and related drug gang violence that has left nearly 300,000 dead since it all began in the early 1960s. 

this was an area where some of the communist insurgents, who did a lot of the killings, morphed into drug gangs.
 the article has a lot of stuff about the socialist paradise, Venezuela, which like most socialist countries is slowly falling apart.

and the fact that the US is fracking, resulting in low oil prices is hurting too...

the low oil prices are an uncovered story, because one could say that the US (and to a lesser extent Saudi) is using the low prices as an economic war to hurt Iran, (and also Russia).

StrategyPage also has an article on the ongoing drug violence in Mexico and an opinion article on the US traveling the sea routes close to China's manmade Islands in the West Philippine Sea.

China is squaking about the US trying to use international sea lanes that they are trying to steal quietly...no it won't go to war: they sell the US too much stuff and even an embargo could tank their economy. Of course, Tony Blair representing the NWO and China are discussing how the world will drop the US dollar and let China take over the world's economy, so don't xpect a nuanced discussion on this.

Obama will blink first, so the Philippines will be the real loser in all of this. And those running for president are all from the usual families, so don't expect much change here.

By the way: I haven't heard a lot of squaks from the ecowarriors protesting this destruction of our reefs and fishing grounds by dredging and building fake islands.
Ditto for lack of protests when Russian bombers hit civilian hospitals in Syria.

The ecowarriors and anti war protests are only against pollution if it is done by capitalist or by America.

Don't mind me: I'm getting cynical in my old age.

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And no, I didn't watch the debate last night when the Republicans finally pushed back against the MSM bias.

Heh. If Romney had done this to Crowley, he'd be president today...

and Hillary might not be in trouble now for lying to cover the President during an election year, i.e. when he blew Benghazi by refusing protection and firing the Admiral who attempted to rescue them... and then blamed it on a video, when every gamer (and those who read the Wired article) knew Sean Smith left a message on a gaming site that he had seen professional terrorists casing the joint for an attack several hours before the bad guys arrived...

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Podcasts of the week

InOurTime podcast on the BBC is back. This week: The Empire of Mali.

I don't know if they will mention the controversy if Mali's navy reached the Americas (before Colombus), but the controversy that they inspired the Olmec heads is off about two milleneum.

on the other hand, there is a lot of stuff out there about DNA showing other DNA coming to the Americas... no, the Kennebec man was related to local tribes, but what about that funny "indigenous Australian" DNA in the Amazon basin? A lot of detail still has to be found...


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on a lighter note, ProfessorBob's podcast this week is about Napoleon redecorating his house in Elba...

pumpkins?

Wikipedia commons

Pumpkins are not big in the Philippines (and in Africa the Pumpkins were what the US would call green squash).

But hey, thanks to globalization, one can get Pumpkin spice Latte at the local Duncan Donuts!

the CSMonitor has an article on the pumpkin spice fad in the USA.

and food blogger  Stephanie Ong has the recipe for both pumpkin spice and how to make pumpkin spice latte.

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but here, except for a few people, the big weekend holiday is Undas, to pray for the dead on Nov 1.

(in Catholic calender, it is All Saint's day on Nov1 and all Souls day on Nov 2) and visit the graves in the cemetaries to clean them up, place candles and flowers on the grave, and have a small picnic while you do that. Also to attend mass (although I might skip this: if it is too crowded and hot in church I tend to faint or get sick).

if you forget food, usually there are vendors who can sell you water/softdrinks and various snacks (and small toys or baloons to keep the kids from being bored). Usually the cemetaries are so crowded that you have to part outside and hike in to the grave.... Lolo couldn't walk that far, so the cops usually let us get inside using a tricycle (not car)....(elders are respected here in the rural Philippines).

Lolo's grave is not quite finished: After the second payment, they stopped working on it, and I refuse to pay them the final payment until the ceiling and floor is done. I had to get one of our staff to paint the metal pipes holding up the roof, because it was rusting and looked terrible, and I planted some bushes to make the front look a bit better. One of these days I'll post a photo.

Farts and fires and rice fields oh my

I hate to go to Manila because of the air pollution exacerbates my asthma.

And the huge traffic jams don't help. They have "alternate day" driving (according to your license) but it doesn't do much good.Possibly using electric jeepneys or hydrogen based ones will help a bit, but most local rich people use SUV's, and of course trucks are there delivering stuff and contribute to the pollution. What is helping is the new transit systems, using overhead trains that link to buses/jeepneys for local trips.

So when Joy and Ruby go to Manila, they have been staying with her relatives and commuting to Ruby's homeschool base for her extracurricular activities.

One result: Joy now has sore knees, from climbing up and down the stairs.

but below, I joked that farts and rice fields in rural area also contributed to global warming. (In cow/sheep rich New Zealand, the tax on animals who emit methane is called the fart tax by annoyed farmers).

And of course, organic rice etc is pushed by the gov't, but to kill weeds for organic rice you flood the paddies so that the weeds are destroyed and the rest are easly to hoe out of the soft mud. This results in a lot of the greenhouse gas Methane...The alternative is a dry way to farm, using herbicides...China did this in many areas and reduced their greenhouse emissions.

but now the "traditional" agricultural methods are coming to the world's attention: Slash and burn agriculture in Indonesia is polluting the air and even shutting down airports in SEAsia..

Mother Jones has a report.

 Indonesian President Joko Widodo cut short a visit to the United States and headed home to oversee efforts to extinguish a rash of epic wildfires that have engulfed his country.
Joko was in Washington, DC, for a photo op with President Barack Obama, to talk about climate change, and to promote Indonesia as a choice venue for foreign investors. His trip was also supposed to include a stopover in San Francisco for meetings with tech industry executives. But Joko's decision to return to Indonesia early underscores the challenges his country faces in stopping the worst deforestation on Earth—deforestation that is playing a critical role in global climate change.

MJ blames the fires on palm oil plantations, but this is outside my area of expertise, and they don't mention how many fires were started to plant palm trees and how many fires were started by local farmers needed fresh soil to grow food (something that could be reversed if they developed ways to enrich the soil using fertilizers etc).

Zombies and werewolves and bezerkers? No, only mentally ill.

From Medievalnet, an article on mental illness as described in the ancient Icelandic sagas.

and another article on zombies.

in other news: A grave of one of Nestor's ancestors has been dug up in Pylos....more HERE.

Family newsfa

One of the sons of a distant cousin shot and killed his brother last night, so the family is very upset. Sigh.

In better news: We went out for Pizza on Sunday to celebrate our brithdays. Afterward, I fell asleep and ended up missing Angi's birthday party.

Ruby and Joy went to visit her relatives Sunday...they came back yesterday afternoon to help with a pastor's conference, and afterward Ruby held a party with her friends from the church youth group.

We had pancit and cake for the staff to celebrate the birthdays here so I did sort of have a party.

Stories below the fold

MariaElenaVidal, from TeaAtTrianon, is planning her next book about her Filipina grandmother, and asking for donations to visit her relatives here

Sounds like her grandmother's life would make a good book, and there is a dearth of good books about Philippine life (most of the books in English are either written from a western point of view or else by locals who imitate the nihilistic style novels of the west in order to get published).

 I've only read one of her books (the Night's dark shade, via Scribd) and they are light but well researched historical fiction: easier to get through than the violent books by Bernard Cornwell et all and less porn than the Angelique series.


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Related item: Heneral Luna (the movie) is up for a foreign language oscar, and Ruby and most other folks here loved it.

She said unlike most local movies, which over do the heroics, it was very funny in parts but also sad.



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 DavidWarren has a "how the Irish saved civilization" type post, reminding Catholics that even if the West and the western church degenerates, that it will spout again, from the least likely places you could think of...

 Well, if the church in the USA survives, blame an Italian American nun in Alabama who took on the PC "amerchurch" types and got into deep trouble for it.

 When Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles issued a pastoral letter she thought watered down the Real Presence, she critiqued him, point-by-point, on television -- and refused to offer a false apology, even when Cardinal Mahony's machinations got her threatened with interdict (the loss of the Sacraments) and the closure of her community. When still other bishops tried to gain control of EWTN and stifle her loudly orthodox voice, she famously said, "I'll blow the damn thing up before you get your hands on it." 

 But not all Catholic Christians live in the American Bible Belt: Cardinal Sarah pretty well said the same thing.

 “I have absolute confidence in the African culture. I have absolute confidence in the African faith and I am certain that Africa will save the family, that Africa will save the Church. Africa saved the Holy Family (cf. the flight into Egypt, ed.).

alas, I am not sure that the Philippines will side with them. Tagle is famous for being nicey nice and for "loving the poor" but unlike the now retired old leftie Bishop Cruz, I haven't seen him in court for libel because he called out the nefarious corruption by local politicians (or rather, the husband of a local politician).  Instead, he seems to be defending the "process" (read the rigging of the synod by the PC church)

full report here. Heh. 2/3rds of the bishops remain true to Jesus's position on marriage, so I guess it's not as bad as it seems.
But their editorial on the synod of the family, which is full of mushy double talk,  is only partly about that problem: Half of it is about climate change.

I wonder if the bishops realize that methane emissions from flooded rice fields is a major contribution to global warming? Ditto for waterbuffalo farts.

as for corruption: Not a peep.

I mean, it's nice to preach to "help the poor", but am I the only one who notices that this constant messages is aimed at the rich? Who preaches to the poor? Things like the nobility of hard work, don't steal, don't drink, be faithful to your wife, and that caring for your children and elders is a way to serve God? Or that these ideas not only help you serve God, but get you a job to get your family out of poverty?

Ah, but there are a lot of Protestant and Pentecostal types who do just his...So expect more pious Pinoys to turn Protestant in the coming years.

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if I remain Catholic, it is because of the Eucharist:

The Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ, and receiving communion is literally receiving Christ into ourselves, so that we can grow in holiness. Not just a symbol, or a psychological vague "receive Jesus"in our hearts" but an actual deed of receiving Jesus into our hearts, minds, and body (sacraments are using material things to help us grasp the spiritual reality).

The family: Moynihan facts vs Francis fuzzymindedness?

I'm still on my first cup of coffee, so I am bookmarking for later reading.

Father Z has links to all sorts of stuff on the conference on the family.

Cardinal Pell is not pleased...uh oh. 

My opinion? splitting the church into regional offices is only good if the churches remain Christian (i.e. like the Russian or Greek Orthodox churches, not like the "old catholic" churches or the British Anglicans, who have embraced all sorts of modern stuff, i.e. obeying the King or the cultural leaders rather than being an independent voice).

and I wonder if they discussed the old fights of church independence from governments, a problem that has split the church in China into a government obeying group and one who is Christian...

and why is the council on families discussing dismembering the church anyway?

I will have to read and ponder. There are many prophecies, both Catholic and Protestant, that the church will schism again, but again for Catholics: Been there, done that.

As for family: The NewBooks podcast has one on the Moynihan report.
that report was on the breakdown of the black family in the USA, and it was controversial, possibly because as a sociologist he described what he saw instead of describing what they thought he should have reported. And his dire predictions came true, and family breakdown has spread to the  lower class white community. Again, saying this is an insult and judgemental, but one wonders if the church, instead of talking about compassion and breaking up the church to let the PC Germans rewrite the bible, might have talked about family breakdown, including the economic problems that exacerbate it.

Many of my patients didn't marry their boyfriends because he didn't have a job. The jobs were exported. And this was part of the plan of the globalists, if I read Robert Reich's book on globalism correctly.

Here in the Philippines, the problem is that fathers and mother work overseas, and kids are brought up by extended family. Ah, but what happens for the next generation

And this overseas problem is spreading: Not just India, Pakistan and the Philippines, but now the migrants are from Nepal and various African countries. Africa already had a problem since colonial times from men working in mines, etc,
where wives were not allowed.

Was this discussed?

probably not since a group of bishops a few days after the conference came out with a resolution for the world to go carbon negative. Economic collapse. Way to go fellahs!

and the Pope tweeted that "corruption is evil", so I guess the church is against corruption. Now if the bishops should only name names (although, when the old leftie Archbishop Cruz here did name names here a couple years ago. he got sued for libel. He was lucky he wasn't shot, as some Protestant ministers were...)

anyway, if you read the MSM it sounds like the conference was about making the western yuppies comfortable in their sins rather than recognizing the stresses on families. But then I haven't read the full report.

In summary: I'll have to read more before despairing, but I did get my rosary out last night to pray the church survives.

Why? Well, Pell shows how a conference can be hijacked

You had this year 45 papal-appointed delegates who appeared to swing the vote. It’s said those controversial paragraphs on divorce and remarriage probably wouldn’t have passed without those papal appointees.That’s very possible

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/cardinal-pell-on-the-synod-the-final-report-and-decentralization/#ixzz3poEO4sE8

Film of the week

The Destiny. If you have good bandwidth, watch it in HD...it's lovely and sad

Bilbo plants a tree

Just for nice...an outtake that didn't get into the extended edition.





no, it's not Tolkien, it's Peter Jackson trying to put a "quiet" moment in the battle to remind us what is at stake. But alas it probably didn't fit well into the movie's flow and was cut.

history Stories around the net

David Reneke writes about when a meteorite hit German in 1492, and was seen as a bad omen...
the article includes information about the yearly meteor showers.


another blogpost: don't tell Mark Watney: Maybe we can't colonize Mars.

but this estimate was from students at a VIP university. Given the history of Russian and American astronauts making due with what was available (Watney wasn't the only one who survived by using duct tape) one wonders if the students are a bit naive here.

for example:

according to the MIT graduates, over the course of 130 months, the need for spare parts would consume 62% of the payload space on resupply missions. This leaves little room for the essentials, such as food and medicine.

why couldn't they just use a 3D printer for a lot of these parts? Wouldn't that take less room than storing all those parts?


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attention GWTW fans:

the real Melanie 

Melanie’s character is based on Margaret’s cousin Mattie Holliday of Jonesboro.... Many know the story of the star crossed cousins Mattie and John Henry and how Mattie Holliday became a Nun and took the name, “sister Mellie” and John Henry left Georgia because of his poor health and found fame as John Henry (Doc) Holliday of Tombstone, Arizona

heads up TeaAtTrianon

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when is genocide not genocide? When it's against people who are not politically correct. From CIC:

• In 1644, England’s Puritan-dominated Parliament ordered that any Catholic found in arms in occupied Ireland be executed, thereby initiating a genocidal campaign against the indigenous people.

yeah. This always comes to mind when I hear about the outcry against ISIS. Uh, history anyone? This was only one episode of British genocide against Ireland (and others in the UK who didn't agree with them. Not just the Pilgrims and the genocide against English Catholics, but eventually the Highland clearances).

an aside: I am listening to an audiobook about the Hemings (The black relatives of Thomas Jefferson). on ScribD...

 Two things came to mind:

One, in the introduction the author was aghast about how he alloted blankets and food to his slaves, which she interpreted as treating slaves like inferiors who should have no choice in the matter.

My interpretation: Well, if they were better off than the Irish peasants, where landlords didn't know or care if their workers had food and blankets...and on top of that, he could throw them out and tear the house down when they couldn't pay the rent.

another question came to mind: ah, but what happened when the slaves were "liberated"?Many ran away (of course). But where did they go, what did they eat?

This NYTimes article suggests an untold story of starvation and disease:

At least one quarter of the four million former slaves got sick or died between 1862 and 1870, Professor Downs writes, including at least 60,000 (the actual number is probably two or three times higher, he argues) who perished in a smallpox epidemic

more here.

Similar to the deaths of the fleeing Irish after the potato famine, thrown off their land with nothing to eat, dying by the side of the road or in coffin ships.

Stuff to remember when Europe hyperventillates about the refugees fleeing to a safe haven away from the middle eastern wars...

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there is a "meme" going around asking if it would be ethical to kill Hitler as a baby, and maybe save lives 50 years later.

well, the answer of course is no.First of all, you don't kill innocent babies, no matter what (remember that next time you read PeterSinger saying infanticide is ethical).

Another practical reason: Given slightly different circumstances maybe he would not have been a bloody tyrant. (maybe he could have won that art scholarship, or maybe been killed in WWI, maybe if he had been a better Catholic,  he wouldn't have caught syphilis as a student, a disease which may have caused his mania in the 1940's,  or maybe if he hadn't been so crazy, then Gellie would have married him instead of killing herself or getting him mad enough to kill her in a fight)

And of course maybe if he was dead, another "leader" would have arisen.

But here is another question for you: What if Jefferson Davis' mom had used birth control?

From CIC:

• Jefferson Davis’ middle name was “Finis,” apparently conferred by his parents to indicate that he would be the last of their children, of whom he was the tenth.

It's not just ISIS and the Ukraine

China is slowly stealing the west Philippine sea from the Philippines, Brunai, Viet nam etc.

of course it's illegal (treaty of 1994? What treaty of 1994?)

and the ghost in the story:

 China will back off when the United States (or even Japan or Taiwan) move through disputed waters with warships but will continue to go after unarmed “intruders”. The Philippines and its neighbors need an ally who is willing and able to stick around and get China to back off. So far, such an ally has not appeared.

here, things are back to almost normal.

we have a partial harvest in our higher fields, which is good news

Bookmarked for later reading

I am catching up with all the worldly news I missed when living (literally) off the grid. So bookmarking for later reading (on my tablet).

GetReligion analyzes the way the MSM reported the Pope's synod, and questions if the name calling is a quote or just the opinion of the reporter:

Where did this "tea party" image come from? Who is being quoted here?
Who, precisely, is comparing the vast majority of the bishops from Africa with the Tea Party Movement (which in American media is usually code language for racism and other forms of irrational bias)? Is this a quote or material provided by the Post team itself?

FatherZ 's latest comments are HERE.
the Pope as Saruman? Works for me....

The Pope excoriates bishop's with closed hearts.

He said the synod had “laid bare the closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families”.

all of this sounds nice, until you realize it was the soft headed hearted bishops who forgave (over and over again) then reassigned those poor "wounded" priests who schtupped young boys...

Forget those thorny problems of sin that are harming people.... notice the ravages of the sexual revolution that decimated families, aborted babies, left millions of kids fatherless (and in poor countries, left them living as street kids).

Let's get into the real problems of the day: climate change.

and no, unlike that hard hearted stuff about adultery and marriage, it isn't based on what Jesus said: it is just their political opinion so you can disagree with it and remain a good Catholic.

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there are so many meetings about climate change that one never hears about. AViewFromHere reports on the latest preconference from Bonn.


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Millions of girls aborted in China, so the young men lack wives. No problem, says one professor: Just legalize polyandry...

there is a poorly reported back story about buying wives from SE Asia, or kidnapping girls from rural China to marry men in China. In Korea, a lot of rural farmers marry such brides...

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AnnAlthouse also has a link to an article lauding the feminist ideals of "talking circles"...and genderless pronouns.

Hmm...Tagalog and Shona have common pronouns for a person, but they don't seem to have a problem distinguishing men and women...

The problem is of course that outsiders viewing a new culture don't see the subtleties, but project their own ideas into the culture.

. Discussion circles are not exactly democratic in reality because too often the weak are pressured into not giving their opinion. (for example, young married ladies rarely have a say in the circles, which are run by the elder wives who have power over them in real life i.e. mother in laws or the senior wife. Oppose them in public, and your life at home is made hell).

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Instapundit links to a blog quoting Heinlein's 1973 speech to Annapolis graduates about the need for warriors, and it's not exactly politically correct (but alas it's true).

One of their (the pacifist's) favorite quotations is: ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’ What they never mention is that the man who made that sneering remark was a fat, gluttonous slob who was pursued all his life by a pathological fear of death.

uh, tell us what you really think, Mr Heinlein...

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first Abraham Lincoln, now Elizabeth Bennett:



What is it with zombies in culture? A subconscious idea that maybe things are out of control and big brother won't help you when things get bad?

I don't know, but when it was dark here after the typhoon, and I was alone (the family was caught in Manila and couldn't get back) I do wish I still had Lolo's submachine gun in the closet, or at least my 9mm pistol instead of just the 70 year old 90 pound cook guarding the entire home/business compound at night...

almost back tonormal

City electricity and water came on last night.

school open and palenke is crowded with folks replacing stuff.

next weekend is AllSaints day so everyone will come home and visit cemetaries.

 we got up to signal 4 but our area was only signal3....heavy rain, and some trees down. But then they opened the gates of the irrigation dam upstream...and it flooded badly.

our house had 2 inche but luckily our bedroom did not flood....but we moved upstairs to sleep, along with about 20 neighbors. By 8pm the flood passed and they went home. The family was flooded out since they are closer to the river, but Lolo built our house on a small rise about3 ft anove the street. The neighbors also parked their cars in our garage, and I opened the partition into our meeting hall and two more went in there
no electricity, but we have a generator
No city water, but we restarted Lolo's deep pump and it pumps to ground level but not up to the rooftop tank, so we only have water when the generator is on.

so we are fine.