The Joy of sex

No, that is not the title of the Pope's letter, but it is one of the alternative translations of it, as many Latin scholars have noted.

PJ Media claims the newest letter by the Pope is merely saying yes to marriage, no to gay marriage and that priests should be nice to people who fail.

Father Z likes it but notes that a lot of people especially in the MSM will simply distort what was actually written to affirm what they want it to say.

The people who would twist Francis’ Letter in such as way as to bring their own practices into a full-monty Kasperite scenario, are not the sort of people who in the past have been firmly obedient to Popes, Canon Law and the Magisterium.  What make you think that they will be now suddenly be obedient to the full-picture in Francis’ Letter rather than pick and choose the bits they like?

PJM agrees that the way the MSM will spin the letter will be a major problem for believers:

As would be expected, CNN's David Wright reported the more liberal side. "In the letter, the pope urged more common sense and less unthinking following of rules -- what he calls 'discernment' -- and writes, 'by thinking that everything is black and white, we sometimes close off the way of grace and growth.'"

Ah yes. Bishops should "discern" the dilemma of those who break the rules because black and white rules "close off grace and growth". Instead show "compassion".

Colour me cynical: Uh, guys: It was this "more compasionate" approach to "lapses of judgement" (what used to be called "sin") that pressured the bishops to accept "cured" pedophiles back in their ranks...


Only the old leftie Archbishop Cruz is a bit more cynical about letting compassion nullify those "black and white rules", because here we are Asian, and the Confucian idea of right behavior, and that bad bahavior causes disorder in the larger society,  is still strong here in Asia.

(concerning the ten commandments)...
They were in effect already written in the human mind as well as felt in the human heart.  They were then but merely verbalized and formalized so that ignorance or uncertainty there could be none. ..So it was that when duly observed, they made the individuals better, their families  happier, their communities safer, their world peaceful.  So it was that their violators were spurned and ...hurt, violated, degraded – and killed even...

The law protected the community, hence, punishing those who broke the laws, because their actions harmed others.
but Bishop! Compassion! Aren't we all good people?

Well, maybe not.

A good number of the people of today are still bent in grossly violating the Commandments. They continue living godless lives.  They consider God as but a figment of imagination.  They look at divinity as but a killjoy.
They look down at their elders as irrelevant individuals – with irreverent words and actions. They consider themselves as free from building or destroying their families.  What is pleasurable is what counts.  No killjoy, please.

So every time the Pope emphasizes "compassion",  he adds "go to confession" (i.e. repent and sin no more),

but the MSM, the average Catholic who can't dig through 200 pages of gobbly gook, and alasmany Bishops of "the church of what's happening now", will be under the impression that it says "no problemo dude, whatever" . As ALJ and Jiminy Criket say: Let your conscience be your guide, leaving a large hole for the sociopaths and the selfish to manipulate.

The result here in the Philippines will be that more pious people will join their local Evanglical church, where an emphasis on clean living (no drugs, no gamblin, no cheating on one's spouse, no taking bribes or given them) is rebuilding society in a way that gives protection to  the poor in a way that an emphasis on false "compassion" for unrepentant sinners doesn't do.

Buy a gene, change a life

LINK

more HERE. and HERE bigpharm will use it to find new drugs.

Gene based diagnostics and the idea that one can treat a person if one knows their genes has been around for awhile, but this sounds like actually using genes to treat people's genetically linked disease.

Linked for later reading and investigation.

headsup Virginia Postrel at Instapundit

Podcast of the week

An excellent podcast on the history of the English language LINK

English lost most of it's grammatical gender markers in the centuries after the Norman conquest.

And he notes that we do not need the weird constrctions like "XE" for he/she: the use of the singular "they" goes back to the days of Chaucer...

and was chosen by the American Dialect society as the word of the year.

The use of singular they builds on centuries of usage, appearing in the work of writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen. In 2015, singular theywas embraced by the Washington Post style guide. Bill Walsh, copy editor for the Post, described it as “the only sensible solution to English’s lack of a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun.”

mentioning the unmentionable

Bill Clinton has another Sister Solja moment..(viaInstapundit:)

WOW, NO WONDER OBAMA CALLED HIM A RACIST IN 2008:Bill Clinton: ‘Black Lives Matter’ Protesters Are Defending Murders And Drug Dealers.

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the world still hasn't discussed the implications of Pope Benedict's Regensburg address was about logic's place in the world. LINK

One of the basic theses presented by Benedict at Regensburg was that how we understand God’s nature has implications for whether we can judge particular human choices and actions to be unreasonable. Thus, if reason is simply not part of Islam’s conception of the Divinity’s nature, then Allah can command his followers to make unreasonable choices, and all his followers can do is submit to a Divine Will that operates beyond the categories of reason.

but he also pointed a finger at the West.

That irrationality is loose and ravaging much of the West—especially in those institutions which are supposed to be temples of reason, i.e., universities—is hard to deny. Take, for instance, those presently trying to turn Western educational institutions into one gigantic “safe space.” In this cocoon, those who maintain, for instance, that gender theory fails basic tests of logic, or that the welfare state has negative cultural effects, or that not all forms of inequality are in fact unjust (to name just some propositions which many today consider offensive), are regularly designated as haters” or some word to which the suffix “phobe” is attached. 

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the Muslim shopkeeper in the UK who wished a Happy Easter to his Christian neighbors was killed for it.

But he was an Ahmedi Muslim. They are Islamic reform movement, trying to bring Islam back to the early days of the religion, when following God and peace were the aims of Islam.

That is why they are being actively persecuted in Pakistan by terrorists.

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are you tired of the PC Bathroom war againts modesty and safety?

Reality check:
Prekerfuffle statistics on what bathrooms women would avoid has this dirty little secret:

36 percent of women would avoid unisex bathrooms

20 percent of women avoid using gas station restrooms (which often are on the side or back of the facility, where a criminal could attack you).

10-20 percent of women avoid all public restrooms.

Transgender people make up 0.3% of the population.

 But perverts are a dime a dozen, and no one wants to admit that this law will quickly be exploited by perverts  (or simply by mischevious teenage  peeping Toms) pretending to be transgender people.

and this doesn't include the toilet seat problem (men, ask your wives).

Which is why I am boycotting paypal.--

Factoid of the day

painting on velvet is an ancient custom:

via AtlasObscura

As early as the 13th century, Marco Polo reported seeing painted velvet portraits of Hindu deities in India, with religious images continuing to appear on velvet canvases throughout the Middle Ages. Transcending time and modernity throughout 14th-century Kashmir, 16th-century China, and 19th-century England, black velvet paintings finally attained full-on cult status in the 20th century. By that point, Jesus appeared just as frequently as matadors, unicorns, hula girls, and, of course, that otherKing — Elvis.

and you can still buy them on Ebay

Corruption Headlines below the fold

StrategyPage on the use of poison gas by Syria, and more recently by ISIL.

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Austin Bay of SP says the Panama papers remind one thata lot of politicians are corrupt

 Clients include companies and individuals sanctioned and blacklisted by the US government for doing business with drug cartels, terrorist organizations and rogue nations. Some files address "the offshore holdings of drug dealers, Mafia members, corrupt politicians and tax evaders..."
Such awkward revelations. Yes, crooked politicians worldwide -- many of them staunch socialists, government interventionists and populists! -- filch millions of dollars, billions in some cases, via graft, extortion, bribery or outright theft. Then they stash their dirty money in hidden bank accounts and trusts.

something to remember the next time you hear about climate reparations to small countries: much of it will only make the crooks rich, not help the poor.

Even help for our typhoon victims ended up being stolen.

well, duh.

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

Cannibis use in pregnancy linked to low birth rate.
of course, so does alcohol and crystal meth...


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Bangladesh dug deep wells to stop diarrhea deaths and ended up with an arsenic poisoning epidemic. This story is 20 years old...
But why hasn't the arsenic been purified out of the water? AlJ quotes Human Rights watch, who point out the problem is Corruption...

more HERE

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AlJ will be releasing a video on the Duterte campaign for the Philippine presidency.

Filipinos love an action man, not just in the movies but in politics too. And you can't get more of an action man than politician Rodrigo Duterte.
His hometown, Davao City, was once a violent no-go area overrun by criminals. But he turned it around when he became mayor, wielding brutal tactics including, allegedly, death squads.

of course, he'll probably lose

But to put it into perspective: Here in the north, our politicians have private armies that kill their political opponants, not thugs.

Snowflakes see priest, panic

A Dominican priest, in full habit, walks around saying his rosary in the evening, so some idiot student decides he is a KKK member holding a rosary.

I have a question: Here some of our Muslim neighbors walk around in a similar long robe. If a Muslim in his traditional dress had been reported, would that have been hate speech?

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update: public_policy@paypal.com

if you want to complain to paypal for their anti Christian bigotry.

not to mention that I object to Paypal pressuring states to tell us old ladies to share the loo with men.

A Reminder who the bad guys are

From http://whoiskillingciviliansinsyria.org/

via Belmont club.

who reminds the clueless: Destroying nuclear weapons or WMD is not about destroying the hardware, but about removing the ruthless who would use them.

As a practical matter Assad and Saddam, rather than the aluminum tubes, were the WMD programs. If one wants to control the WMD danger, the only chance is to control bias, not things.  It is the toxic regimes of MENA and the proliferation of toxic ideologies which most menace the world.

of course, this reality check won't be noticed by the PC types, where war is peace, civilization defending itself is brutality and brutality by the PC is good....

President Obama got it exactly wrong when he argued in a Washington Post op-ed that "as the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons, the United States has a moral obligation to continue to lead the way in eliminating them."  What he should have written instead was "as the only nation ever to refrain from using nuclear weapons gratuitously when it had the monopoly on such weapons, the United States has the moral authority to lead the way in regulating them."

What gives the US moral authority is bias, the improbability of it using nuclear weapons in time of peace.  You can be sure the USAF won't nuke Chicago, or Brussels or Kampala tomorrow, even if it physically could, because of civilizational bias. The reason why Obama's unilateral reductions in the American nuclear arsenal as gestures to nuclear disarmament are meaningless is because he's not actually reducing any of the risk.  All the danger is on the other side, where the bias goes the other way for aggression, conquest and world domination.  That is what he seems unable to reduce.

Philippine news

StrategyPage has a long article about the Philippines today

the Chinese are attacking fishermen again.

he Filipino fishermen involved tell it differently and describe how they were forced from their traditional fishing areas by Chinese warships on March 5 th and 6 th . One fishing boat shows damage from being rammed by a larger (Chinese coast guard) ship. China complains that they felt threatened by fisherman waving knives and firebombs at nearby Chinese coast guard ships and demand that the Philippines apologize. This is not an isolated incident

Oh my: Fishermen carried knives. Who wudda thot? But that part about "Firebombs" sounds like they had dangerous weapons, but the dirty little secret is that a lot of fishermen use hand grenades to fish (see opening scene in Crockadile Dundee II).

They also note that the annual Fil/Am military exercizes are going on.

I thought they had started when I heard a helicopter, but later I identified it as a civilian one, and the cook told me it was the local governor campaigning and he used it to avoid traffic (not just because it took time, but because attacks on cars is a favorite way to kill politicians).

This year, SP says several countries are participating.

But so far, no helicopters or planes here. Usually the Phil Special forces teach outsiders jungle warfare/survival at the local military base, so we hear planes but rarely see any outside troops. However, traditionally outside troops run medical clinics in poorer and more isolated areas while they are here.

the rest of their news is about the usual clashes, mostly in the south. And farmer riots in the south because of drought devestating their crops.

Why riot for drought? uh, irrigation is lousy? I'm not sure. We spent a fortune to irrigate the fields because of lack of rain for our second season rice crop, which we are now harvesting.

there was a big brownout in Manila over the weekend that shut down the major airport there for several hours. The politicians are pointing fingers, but as one comment notes: It means no one is bothering to check the backup generators.

Racism: A white male tried to hit Manny Paquiao outside a restaurant in Hollywood.

Oh not racism. Manny belongs to a cult that believes homosexual activity is wrong (not that gays are bad...there is a big difference, which is usually ignored in the US propaganda outlets aka MSM).

and this week, we celebrate the Day of Valour, commemorating our WWII veterans. Most of those who died in the Bataan death march were local soldiers.

and the big story about the Panama papers here notes that (guess what) a lot of Chinese VIPs are on the list.

BEIJING—At least eight current or former members of China’s Politburo Standing Committee, the ruling party’s most powerful body, have been linked to offshore companies, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)....

ICIJ noted that between $1 trillion and $4 trillion in untraceable assets had left China since 2000....

(here is the backstory)

Xi has led a high-profile crackdown on corruption since taking over as the leader of the ruling Communist Party in 2012 and as president in 2013.

the Inquirer story also notes:

Offshore companies are not illegal and can be used for legitimate business needs. But they commonly feature in corruption cases, when they are used to secretly move ill-gotten gains abroad....

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/777895/top-chinese-execs-in-panama-papers#ixzz44zo3e1Gf
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

some in the US are saying: hey, hiding money from tax men is legal. What's the big deal?

What they don't seem to ask is: Where the heck did a politician get all that money from?

we could say the same about some US politicians.
I mean, we know Trump is a shyster (is that word PC? Sorry) and Bernie is poor, but where did Hillary get all her money from?

Here they practice skimming and gifts to the nth degree...
and the connections between the ruling families make it hard for an outsider to break into politics. Hence the importance of Manny Paquiao, who like Erap would win an election for president in a landslide if he runs.

We are again on the watchlist for violence for the election. I didn't see the military out yesterday when I went out shopping but they are here on and off.

we are keeping our fingers crossed, since the guy running  against our preseent mayor is from the family that the mayor's father put out a hit against...or maybe two hits against, since another hit against that family came after he died but a week after his daughter took office. The first killed our nephew in the crossfire...

yup. It's the Hatfields vs the McCoys here.

the Snail disease that affects 250 million people but no one ever heard of it

Can you say "Schistosomiasis", children?

as Wikipedia notes:

In tropical countries, schistosomiasis is second only to malaria among parasitic diseases with the greatest economic impact.^[11] Schistosomiasis is listed as a neglected tropical disease.^[12]

There are several varieties of this disease, which is caught from contaminated water, and requires a snail for it's life cycle.

One type is present in the southern Philippines.

We saw a lot of the version that nests in the bladder and GU tract in southern Africa  but there are several types, all with low grade symptoms. In other words, like other parasites, it weakens you and sometimes makes you sick, but usually is not fatal: you just are too weak to fight off other infections.

the wikipedia artice blames modern irrigation for the presence of the snail and disease, but since humans have been using irrigation water for 5000 years, it has been around for a long time. PDF article on the investigation of the disease in ancient days.

live science article about the disease in ancient nubia 2000 years ago.

no, I will not include a picture of the disease or of the life cycle. Disgusting disease.

and yes the Gates foundation is making grants to countries to investigate the control of the diease and also to doctors to find easier treatments.

Yum! Filipino Snails

the problem? some snails are not native here and have become a major pest in rice fields, eating the small rice plants. The

The golden apple snail is considered a major problem of rice. If no control measure is taken, they can completely destroy 1 m2 of field overnight. This damage could lead to more than 50% yield loss.

link2 how to control them: lure them with certain leaves or sticks to climb, collect them when you drain the field and eat them or feed them to the ducks  chickens or pigs etc. and at harvest time the ducks will eat the small ones you miss

Handpicking is recommended for large adult golden snails as these are not fed upon by ducks.

Yum! Snails!

from Firebox:
why have a gold fish for a pet, when you can
Grow your own Escargot!

link

•  Everything you need to rear your own cute (and delicious) snails
•  Care instructions included (along with tons of scrumptious recipes)
•  Way less boring than other pets (ready to eat in 4-6 months!)

headsup Dave Barry

factoid of the day

SKYR is Icelandic yogurt.

Skyr was brought from Norway to Iceland more than 1100 years ago, and though the tradition died out in most of Scandinavia, it lived on in Icelandic culture, and parts of Norway.
Traditionally, skyr is made with raw milk, however modern skyr is made with pasteurized skimmed milk. A small portion of skyr is added to the warm milk, to introduce the right bacteria, such as Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. Rennet is sometimes added as well, and the milk is left tocoagulate. The skyr is then strained through fabric to remove the whey(mysa in Icelandic) and the milk solids retained

I was taught by a friend in India to make yogurt this way, and she also taught me how to strain it to make a type of soft cheese.

The headsup for this is via Dave Barry, who linked to a protest in Iceland about their president's corruption.

The first punch has been thrown in today’s anti-government protest – in the form of tubs of Icelandic cultured yoghurt thrown against the parliament building.
Thousands of angry protestors are expected to gather from 5pm today to demand the resignation of the government and early general elections, following yesterday’s Panama Papers revelations.

 yes, the lowly Philippines isn't the only place with corruption: Someone hacked a lawfirm in Panama and found all sorts of politicians in all sorts of countries had their fingers in the pie stealing money. as the UK Guardian notes:

The documents show the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes. Twelve national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens.

the lost moral vocabulary

see previous rants link personhood without rights  link2 losing our common ethical consensus link3 BMJ wants infanticide
 link4 secular takeover of Catholic hospitals  link5 some of us take the Hippocratic oath too seriously

Now read the Spectator article on how IVF etc has brought back Eugenics (linked via PJMedia)

The era of designer babies, long portrayed by dystopian novelists and screenwriters, is fast arriving. According to Hank Greely, a Stanford professor in law and biosciences, the next couple of generations may be the last to accept pot luck with procreation. Doing so, he adds, may soon be seen as downright irresponsible. 

Lots of sci fi about this, which is often more thoughtful than PJM points out. I would have thought "wrath of Khan" a better cautionary tale than then HG Wells. (The survivors in the original Khan story were fleeing the eugenics wars that devestated earth).

But the core idea behind the problem is the religion ghost (as GetReligionBlog calls it). Since I'm old, I am using the older definition of "man" as "generic human being".

Is man just the result of blind evolution, or is he made in the image and likeness of God?

Is man a being precious to the creator, or just a thing to be used in the machinery of state/business for profit and power?

Is man completely malleable, and can he be what he wants to be? Are we born in complete charge of our lives, or are we born with innate weakness that needs a higher power to overcome?

Is man unique, or just an animal? If he is an animal, does that mean we should stop killing all animals (as animal rights folks insist) or does this mean we can kill humans who are inconvenient (as Peter Singer, an animal rights expert, also claims).

Are we free human beings, allowed to do anything we want, or are we part of a network of relationships, with ethical and moral restraits that encourage such relationships? Confucius pointed out that to save society, first save the family. But modern libertarians see people as free and in charge of their lives, and socialists see people as free individuals who rely on the government for help (see "Julia" film) not as members of a family and neighborhood where mutual help is how one makes it through life.

Is there a God who cares for us? Or are we mere ciphons and God doesn't care: he only does the "big picture".

Or is there no God, and we can do it ourself (meaning the rich and powerful can do it themselves, and they can run reality without those nasty religious folks who stand in their way,(as they have always done, from Thomas Beckett to Thomas More to Bishop Von Galen to Gandhi)

Are children to be planned by us, a commodity chose to fit into our lifestyle, as we desire, and do we have the right to aborted/discarded (e.g. in IVF) if that child is imperfect, unwanted, or just conceived at an inconvenient time? or are children a gift of God sent for a purpose: and even if the child is not perfect, maybe he is there for a purpose.

This is not a Christian idea: it is the idea of karma, or that we all have a path in which we have to tread, and that there is a reason behind everything that happens to us, good or bad.

This old fashioned but now probably radical idea that even imperfect children are beloved of God and sent to earth for a purpose was best expressed by Pearl Buck who wrote:

It can be summed up, perhaps, by saying that in this world where cruelty prevails in so many aspects of our life, I would not add the choice to kill rather than to let live. A retarded child, a handicapped person, brings it's own gift to life, even the life of normal human beings. That gift is comprehended in lessons of patience, understanding, and mercy, lessons that we all need to receive and practice with one another, whatever we are.

Personhood

EdDriscoll at Instapundit notes

as NewsBusters noted last night, AP and the New York Times have memory holed “Mrs. Clinton’s seven damning words, ‘the unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.’”

she is technically correct.

The unborn child is a person, who does have rights "endowed by the Creator" to "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

But the US Supreme court decided that these are not constitutional rights, so abortion is legal up to 9 months when the child is half born.

Since the Republicans argue the same lack of "constitutional" rights to those in Gitmo or for non citizens, I wouldn't say they can do a "gotcha" thing here.

But the dirty little secret is that in medical ethics, there is a meme that started being pushed 30 years ago that a person lacking certain criteria "lacked the criteria for personhood", including the senile, mentally handicapped, and children under the age of 2.

When I first read this and wrote to a professor of philosophy if that was true, and did that mean we could kill/use for experimentation/use for organ transplants those who did not meet the criteria, he said alas I was correct.

And then he pointed out that according to the most modern philosophical trends, there were no logical reason that anyone had rights.

Recent high profile cases in the news that verified the urban legend that people scheduled for transplant later woke up have started making rounds on the paranoid anti vaxer type sites against organ donation.

Just paranoia, of course? But 25 years ago, ethicist Arthur Caplan wrote a letter to JAMA noting that when he moved to a state where "organ donor" was on his driver's license, the clerk warned him not to check the box,  "because then they'll let you die".

back in the 1990's, the ethics committe of the AMA suggested organs be taken from anencephalic babies. A public outcry stopped them, since these children cry, suckle and look like a normal child, although they usually die at birth (We had one who lived two weeks). The practical reasons also were against the policy in 1995 LINK,

Ethical concerns opposing organ donation from living anencephalic infants include the following (14,15):

• application of similar arguments in favour of organ donation from other seriously brain-damaged living patients;
• serious risk of loss of public trust in transplantation programs;
• serious deleterious effects on families and staff involved in such cases; and
• risk of loss of public respect for the intrinsic value of all human life.

but that hasn't stopped others from proposing the same.

But the bigger concern is euthanasia. Canada will now allow it for non dying patients by non doctors. European cases are often not reported, and anecdotal reports of unwanted killing have been reported in the media since the early 1990's.

In England, the "liverpool pathway", a way to sedate dying patients to keep them out of pain, has been used for the sick who might not have died if actually treated for their disease, and now we are seeing medical journals suggest how to essentially use this for euthanasia requests.

Makes me glad I'm retired and living in the Philippines.

another of the Greatest Generation has gone to his reward

Chief Joseph Medicine Crow has died.

Medicine Crow, 102, was the last Crow war chief as the result of his military accomplishments. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor awarded to a civilian in the United States, by President Barack Obama in 2009.

 He was a teacher story teller, and tribal historian, a WWII veteran, and worked for the BIA.

Notice he has the title "Chief"? Unlike most people who use the title, his is genuine.

So how did he get the "war chief" designation?
LINK

 Joseph Medicine Crow became the last Plains Indian war chief ever after completing all four required tasks while fighting in Europe during World War II. These included touching an enemy soldier, stealing his weapon, leading a successful war party, and stealing an enemy’s horse. 

LINK2 has more details of how he "counted coup" on his enemies making him eligible for the title "war chief", and and has more details of his life.

Religion as bigotry

The argument that pious people with religious beliefs can be punished for obeying their conscience is only starting.

Newsbusters has a long article that shows the nuances of believers (something usually ignored in the MSM). It also shows how this is ignored, but will be spun by the MSM for propaganda purposes

Read the whole thing.

This is not just about gay marriage: it has implications about the Little Sister's Lawsuit, and the imposition of medical rationing/futile care treatment and an agenda of euthanasia.

Now, Smith says we have already lost the ability to argue because the language has changed.



longer rant moved to my bitchblog.

 and now the BMJ proposes if they are coerced into dying want to die, or their relatives say they wanted to die so kill them, then hey, let's take the organs out first.

The moral discussion here is similar to that opposing taking organs from death row inmates: it encourages the practice, and encourages society to see death as a good thing.

For example, it would subtly influence juries to impose the death penalty since life in prison is expensive, but death would be a twofer: (Dead thug but a "good" person will live from their organs).

and given several recent high profile cases where brain death was declared but the person lived or woke up, this is merely another reason people will avoid signing organ donation cards.

Factoid of the day

The Amazon DASH button

The Amazon Dash Button is a small electronic device designed to make ordering products easier and faster. The Dash buttons come in packs; each device contains an embedded button and is emblazoned with the name of an oft-ordered product. Users can configure each button to order a specific product and quantity, via the user's Amazon.com account, and mount the buttons, using adhesive tape or a plastic clip, to locations where they use the products. Pressing the button would send a Wi-Fi signal to the Amazon Shopping app, and automatically order new stock of whatever product the button is configured to order; the click would also send a message to the user's mobile phone, and the user would have a half-hour window to cancel.

and there are now over 100 Dash buttons.

headsupInstapundit.

and get the spelling right or Homeland Security will be knocking at your door: DASH. Not to be confused with DAESH. 

Bruce Francis was unable to pay his dog walker when Chase Bank flagged the transaction to the US Treasury Department over the ‘suspicious’ name. He added the name of his dog, Dash, as a reference when attempting to complete the online banking transaction, prompting the bank to stop his cheque.

The bank explained they did not process the payment because the name of his nine-year-old pitbull mix pet sounded a bit like Daesh, another term used for the self-declared Islamic State.

Dash the dog, not Daesh CREDIT: KTVU

Yum! Second breakfast

Food in the Hobbit.

Bilbo as Mr. Bennett? and an explanation of the difference of high tea vs low tea.

A lot of people (if not most) have the wrong idea about what a Victorian (1800s) ‘high-tea’ is, when people say high-tea, they actually mean low-tea … it has been wrongly termed for nearly 70 years because to us ‘high’ sounds more upper class than ‘low’ … Yet high-teawas a working man’s hearty tea and supper after a long, hard day of manual labour. It was the combination of afternoon tea and the evening meal, of various dishes and cold cuts of meat and cheese, eaten on a high table, (usually the only table in the house).
Afternoon tea on the other hand would often be served for guests sitting around smaller, lower tables in the parlour with dainty desserts and fine china on them, and was always referred to as low-tea. This was the tea preferred by the upper classes, who had a much later evening meal in the separate dining room on the higher tables.

includes recipes.
page 2
page 3

includes this 18th century instruction on how to brew a proper cuppa tea:

Mrs Beeton in 1861 has this to say about tea:There is very little art in making good tea; if the water is boiling, and there is no sparing of the fragrant leaf, the beverage will almost invariably be good. The old-fashioned plan of allowing a teaspoonful to each person, and one over, is still practised. Warm the teapot with boiling water; let it remain for two or three minutes for the vessel to become thoroughly hot, then pour it away. Put in the tea, pour in from 1/2 to 3/4 pint of boiling water, close the lid, and let it stand for the tea to draw from 5 to 10 minutes; then fill up the pot with water. The tea will be quite spoiled unless made with water that is actually ‘boiling’, as the leaves will not open, and the flavour not be extracted from them; the beverage will consequently be colourless and tasteless,—in fact, nothing but tepid water.

Note: Mrs. Beaton's book on household mangement can be downloaded from Project Gutenburg

or listened to from Librivox


headsup Scifi writer Sarah Hoyt at instapundit:

More China links to Phillipines casino cyberheist (plus local election commentary)

from the Inquirer: two high rollers from China probably got the money and ran.

More HERE.

But China will use the "bad relationship" with the Philippines as an excuse not to arrest them.

Never mind that the money was stolen from Bangladesh.

Apparently this heist was the tip of the iceberg: Drudge has two headlines about a leak of papers showing corruption by many big shots in various governments involved in this stuff.

LINK LINK2 LINK3
Infowarslink here...

the problem, of course, is that for Wikileaks, the west (and Russia) are the enemy, but the corruption in China is not part of the story.

as China officially becomes part of the NWO elite, expect more money to go there, where the great firewall of China and the anti western bias of the Wikileaks types will let them keep it safe.

So if Trump wins, will that be good news or bad news for China? They are frothing at the mouth at his candidacy, but on the other hand, Trump Tower in New Jersey (by his company not by the Donald) is partly financed with Chinese money.

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the rest o this is a rant, so you can stop reading here.

I almost laughed when Reuters reported the Philippine bishops opposed "gambling" after the casino heist.

The MSM finally noticed? The bishops have been opposing gambling for years: Our "local" election a few years ago had the bishop in a tizzy against the governor for his plans to build a casino here, in the middle of nowhere, for example, because it would seduce locals into prostitution and drugs. (and indeed, in the last 3 years, drugs have become a huge problem here: before it was lowgrade and not noticed, but now we are frequently reading about bodies dumped, probably drug related murders and there has been an increase in robberies by druggies).

Even the use of lottery money was opposed by the bishop of a nearby province because he pointed out that the local gov't pushed it as a job for local poor people to make money when actually it diverts money from the poor who desperately buy tickets for a tiny chance to get rich, while the a lot of the lottery money that is supposed to go for projects for the poor gets diverted.

Backstory is that PNoy, who came in as a "reform" candidate actually went after some politicians, but he mainly was popular with the US because he decided for pushing free birth control and the rest of the Obama moral agenda...so now we see free BC in gov't clinics used by the poor. But one third of the ladies deliver at home with midwives or hilots, and not at clinics, so those who "need" it the most won't get it.

I have argued elsewhere the village "pill lady", using private, not public, funding, would be a better approach, but hey, that won't allow coercion of poor people to stop having babies. (note: the population increase here is slowing, from a fertility rate of 6 to under 3 kids per woman over the last 20 years, but the aim of the NWO is negative population growth hence coercion is needed.)

But the backstory is that the elites, pushed by American social media and American money, see the Catholics as the enemy of modernity (duh).  Pope Francis' comments are a blessing to them: the comments can be cherry picked and manipulated to push their agenda...

Tagles, of Manila, is part of the modernistic push, but not all bishops will bow down to the NWO...So expect more push to find corruption in the church (duh) or in anyone who opposes the NWO.

The irony is that these NWO agenda and the active social media are trying to try to seduce the elite "Catholics" into New Age fuzzyness...no helping poor folks or social gospel needed.... just feng shui and food to make you live forever, and other trendy new age fads.

In the meanwhile there is manipulation to try to push the (anti Catholic) evangelical community to help them destroy the Catholic church.

But it backfired recently, because the Evangelicals have no problem with birth control, or even divorce, but do draw the line at gay marriage.

Which is why born again Manny Paquiao was dropped by Nike for "anti gay" remarks. No one here worries about local gays, who keep to themselves, but the growing corruption and promiscuity (including an HIV epidemic, mainly in the gay community) in gay friendly Makati and the idea that it is okay for the rich to seduce our boys is another corrupting influence.

How dare Pacman notices the huge gay tourism push against our boys! (CNN had an article touting the country as a gay friendly place for sex tourists, so it's not exactly a secret).

The NWO types are making the most of demonizing Pacman as a bigot, and using the HIV epidemic to push condoms in our high schools to heterosexual girls, along with the idea that sex before marriage is okay. Sure, couples always have had sex before marriage, but now the idea of sex education is that it is not wrong to play around as long as you are "safe"...next step, abortion for the "whoops" babies, instead of marriage.

The irony, of course, is that poor girls who become bar girls i.e. prostitutes is not the same thing: it is part of the "family oriented" ethic of the Philippines, becausethey don't do it for pleasure but to support their family, and hey, some of them do get the blue ribbon and get a rich husband that way.

Indeed, there was a minor kerfufle when the former US Ambassador was caught by wikileaks saying ten percent of tourists coming here were sex tourists, (usually heterosexual). How dare he say that (like "second wives", it is not something one talks about).

The poor people think the girls are just trying to make a living, and hopefully snare a rich husband, but the feminists and left populists rejoiced when the US bases left and the bar scene that seduced our girls near the bases lost their customers.

But now it is back:  the dirty little secret is that the casinos spread prostitution and drugs into the areas where they are present. The girls often end up with a sad life but hey their pimps make a fortune.

and even here in the provinces, drugs and murder and corruption get worse.

We are in election season, anfid worrying that there will be more politically motivated murders. we are considered the "wild west" of the Philippines, which is why so many Duterte posters are up (although the local left supports Poe)

Duterte is Marcos lite, a law and order type who says he'll get the bad guys, and Poe is seen as American and anti corruption, and running with a VP who actually mutinied against our lovely ex pres Gloria.

It's the corruption stupid. But the dirty little secret is that the rich families will still run the place, and in the provinces, whoever wins gets first dibs on diverting the money.

Pun of the day

LINK

Factoid of the day

According to Improbable research, an undertaker invented the telephone switching idea because an operator was directing business to a competitor.

link at 99percentinvisible has the whole story of the invention of the Strowger switch.

what do women want? Medieval Edition

medieval.net has a list of five romances that were beloved in medieval times.

several of these romances were discussed in the Faerie and fantasy course by the Tolkien professor HERE.

and if you wonder what women really wanted, any woman will tell you:

Gawaine promise (to marry the hag Ragnell if she tells him the secret), and Ragnell reveals that what women want most is “To have the rewlle of the manlyest men” (“To rule over the manliest men”.

Safety tips for grandmothers

From an email from TiaMaria:

Written by a Lady Cop for Our Own Safety

 1. Tip from Tae Kwon Do : The elbow is the strongest point on your body. If you are close enough to use it, do!

 2.. Learned this from a tourist guide. If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse, DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM. Toss it away from you.... Chances are that he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you, and he will go for the wallet/purse. RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!

3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy.. The driver won't see you, but everybody else will. This has saved lives.

4. Women have a tendency to get into their cars after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit (doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc. DON'T DO THIS!) The predator will be watching you, and this is the perfect opportunity for him to get in on the passenger side, put a gun to your head, and tell you where to go. AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR , LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE.. If someone is in the car with a gun to your head DO NOT DRIVE OFF, Repeat: DO NOT DRIVE OFF! Instead gun the engine and speed into anything, wrecking the car. Your Air Bag will save you. If the person is in the back seat they will get the worst of it. As soon as the car crashes bail out and run. It is better than having them find your body in a remote location.

5. A few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot, or parking garage: A.) Be aware: look around you, look into your car, at the passenger side floor , and in the back seat. B.) If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door. Most serial killers attack their victims by pulling them into their vans while the women are attempting to get into their cars. C.) Look at the car parked on the driver's side of your vehicle, and the passenger side.. If a male is sitting alone in the seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back into the mall, or work, and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out. IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)

6. ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs. Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot. This is especially true at NIGHT!)

7. If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, ALWAYS RUN! The predator will only hit you (a running target) 4 in 100 times; and even then, it most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ. RUN, Preferably in a zig -zag pattern!

8. As women, we are always trying to be sympathetic: STOP It may get you raped, or killed. Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking, well educated man, who ALWAYS played on the sympathies of unsuspecting women. He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often asked 'for help' into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which is when he abducted his next victim.

9. Another Safety Point: Someone just told me that her friend heard a crying baby on her porch the night before last, and she called the police because it was late and she thought it was weird.. The police told her 'Whatever you do, DO NOT open the door.' The lady then said that it sounded like the baby had crawled near a window, and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over. The policeman said, 'We already have a unit on the way, whatever you do, DO NOT open the door.' He told her that they think a serial killer has a baby's cry recorded and uses it to coax women out of their homes thinking that someone dropped off a baby.. He said they have not verified it, but have had several calls by women saying that they hear baby's cries outside their doors when they're home alone at night.
 10. Water scam! If you wake up in the middle of the night to hear all your taps outside running or what you think is a burst pipe, DO NOT GO OUT TO INVESTIGATE! These people turn on all your outside taps full blast so that you will go out to investigate and then attack.
 Stay alert, keep safe, and look out for your neighbors!

more tips here.

I would add: If you see a flashing light in an isolated area, drive slowly using your emergency flashers until you are in a town or occupied area, preferably with a street light before you stop.
We had a rapist who posed as a cop who stopped women on a road near our rural town in the US who did this.

And beware of "fender benders" in isolated areas or at night. Often they kidnap you or steal your car when you stop to exchange information about the accident.

In our prayers

Tornado season has started in the USA. Some hurt in the Tulsa area where I used to live.

Been there, done that....in Oklahoma, hiding out from tornadoes in our neighbor's storm celler (along with three women, four men, five kids and six pets) was something we did several times a year.

Ironically, however, I have also had close calls in Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota and Pennsylvania. The difference is that usually these are small, not the dangerous F4 and F5 ones that hit the plain states.

AlJ  notes:

At least seven people were injured as storms brought devastation to several Midwestern states of the US.
Twelve tornadoes - including a number that touched down in northeastern Oklahoma - damaging hail and torrential rain smashed through homes and businesses, reducing them to a pile of sticks over two nights.

and before the obnoxious SJW start tweeting and commenting they deserved it, because it is God's Punishment for voting for Trump, please note: Oklahomans voted for Cruz and Bernie.

Non Humans invited to rally against trump

In case the tweet link disappears, it says they plan a rally against Trump, saying: "we welcome non people of colour allies but the rally will be a POC safe space"...

Yes, all non people who oppose Trump are welcome at Emory student rally...

(for those who are ESL students, the correct grammar is "People of non colour" not "non people",. In English, the modifier is put in front of the noun it is describing... so non people,  implies animals or extraterrestrials, and the adjectival phrase "of colour" describes the noun, which here is "non people.


or as the Professor said: Bless me! What ARE they teaching students in school today?

now, would someone tell me why college snowflakes have "safe spaces" but modest women are not allowed a safe space in the toilet?

anyone? Anyone?


y

Answering Questions no one is asking

ImprobableResearch blog asks: Can (or should) Ostriches Eat Horseshoes? 

The Queen Mary Psalter, 1310-1320. London, British Library,

more HERE at the Medieval Animal Data NetworkBlog.

answer: They eat stones, nails and anything else they can swallow. No data about horseshoes however.

I should make a comment on humans eating weird things: It is called "PICA" and is often found in those in cultures where snacking on clay etc is an acceptable alternative in the days before potato chips etc. But we also find it with iron deficiency anemia, who lack minerals, and of course the mentally ill.

Just for nice

as you do unto others take two

As you do unto others, it will be done for you

Cat item of the day

A second language comes in handy sometimes.



or this one:
 

Weird stuff in the news, as

Father Z reports that the Vatican news story on Pope Francis' new "inclusive" foot washing on Holy Thursday still discriminates:

The traditional requirement for twelve men will be discontinued as an impediment to the inclusiveness of the ceremony. People of all nationalities, religions and sexes are now encouraged to participate.
Applications are invited from marginalised or disadvantaged groups worldwide. Priority will be given to the differently abled. All applicants are respectfully reminded that they should have at least one functioning foot.

Douglas Bader could not be reached for comment...

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Goodbye Riceballs and dried fish.
YUM! Hamburgers!

StrategyPage has an article about MRE's, and how the Asian military is copying American military food preparation.

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Stephen Curry turns down a Nike endorsement to have his logo on a different sneaker.
GetReligion notes that the MSM ignored the religion backstory of the deal.
But a more important story is being ignored: Nike, by dropping Manny Paquiao for criticizing gay promiscuity here, has sent a "headsup" that Christian athletes are not welcome.

so Nike's new slogan: Sweatshops good, Christians bad?

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The "don't bite the hand that feeds you" story off the day:
Instapundit reports Starbucks chairman calls for civility, 
 No, it has nothing to do with the bottom line.

PJMedia thinks maybe they jumped the shark when they went overboard supporting the astroturfed BLM kerfuffle.

Even a far left columnist at NBC, ...thinks that Starbucks attempting to "start a dialogue" about racial "awareness" is a pretty dumb idea:
Just saying.

People tend to get nasty, when all they want is a cup of Columbian roast, and you give them your take on Ferguson.

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The "what does not kill me makes me stronger" post of the week:

Oh, the wonders of camplobacter infected raw milk


related item: If your deli doesn't clean your meat slicer, you are at risk for Listeria.

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Blame the dirt story of the day:

HomoHobbitus went extinct 50 thousand years ago, not 11 thousand years ago. more HERE.

Apparently the dirt moved around, and the old bones were covered with newer dirt. They redid the dig and found the rest of the bones were in older dirt, that had not moved.

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Depressed rats respond to psychotherapy

http://lowres.jantoo.com/families-therapist-therapy-compensating-rodent-rat-73930945_low.jpg