Sic Semper Tyrannis

Hey, c'mon man. I go to Mass ...

"White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki described President Biden as a "devout Catholic" after being asked about his stances on taxpayer funding for abortion.

Psaki's comments came during her first press conference Wednesday, where an EWTN Global Catholic Network reporter asked her about "two big concerns for pro-life Americans" -- the Hyde Amendment and Mexico City Policy. The former bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortion under most circumstances, while the latter restricts taxpayer funding of abortion abroad. "What is President Biden doing on those two items right now?" reporter Owen Jensen asked.

Psaki responded that the administration would have more to say on the Mexico City Policy, adding: "I will just take the opportunity to remind all of you that he is a devout Catholic and somebody who attends church regularly. He started his day attending church with his family this morning but I don't have anything more for you on that."

The Mexico City Policy, which blocks overseas funding for abortion, has repeatedly been reversed and reinstated by previous administrations. Biden, however, sent shockwaves through the media when he announced that he would reverse his position on the decades-old Hyde Amendment."  foxnews

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

Joe is a "cafeteria Catholic," or maybe  a Chinese menu Catholic (columns A and B).  He and Giuliani and all them shifty crew are Catholic when it suits their political goals.

Evidently he doesn't remember what Sister Mary Margaret taught him out of the Baltimore Catechism.  I do. The message I have in mind is that if you want to be a Catholic you follow the teaching of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.  If you don't, then you aren't.

Now, nobody is saying that Joe can't follow whatever policy he chooses.  That is what it means to have religious liberty, but, in my opinion he should stop approaching the sanctuary rail for the purpose of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.  pl 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-psaki-biden-devout-catholic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Leo_Burke

The Huron Carol

 

 

"When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise,
Than when we first begun."

Amazing Grace 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhc7MEYY-Ho&feature=fvwrel 

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

“Twas in the moon of wintertime, when all the birds had fled,
That God the Lord of all the earth sent angel choirs instead
Before their light the stars grew dim
and wandering hunters heard the hymn

Within a lodge of broken bark, the tender babe was found.
A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped his beauty round;
But as the hunter braves drew nigh,
the angel song rang loud and high

The earliest moon of wintertime is not so round and fair,
As was the ring of glory on the helpless infant there.
The chiefs from far before him knelt
with gifts of fox and beaver pelt

O, children of the forest free, the angel song is true.
The holy child of earth and heav’n is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant boy,
Who brings you beauty, peace and joy.

 

Jean de Brebeuf, S.J. Martyr and Author of

 
"The Huron Carol"

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

Christmas in Vietnam.

"The war went on in the central highlands. At Christmas time I decided to hold a detachment Christmas party. I mentioned this to the battalion commander of 3/525, MI Group, LTC Paul Langford during a visit by Langford to Song Be. As we discussed this, a five gallon water jug of home made “hootch” bubbled happily in a corner of my office under the beneficent warmth of an electric light. Pineapple juice, brewer’s yeast and a daily “feeding” of sugar were creating something within that obviously was alive. The application of sugar invariably produced a tempest in the bottle. The men began to think of it as a pet.

Langford ignored the bottle. “Are you going to leave someone to man each station?” he asked. “That’s all right then,” he said when assured. “Let’s not tell Group. They already think you and I are nuts.” I bought cases of Mumm’s Cordon Rouge and other goodies in Saigon, and on the appointed day mysterious personages began to arrive from all over the Border on Air America’s scheduled service. All in all, there were about twenty party goers. The province senior advisor, LTC Ray Suarez and the local CIA boss attended. There was much singing of Christmas carols, as well as a ham, a turkey and such cooked by the kitchen in the Special Forces "B" camp in town. The bald headed, middle aged light weapons man in the team was also mess sergeant.  He had been a feldwebel in the Grossdeutschland and later an adjutant-chef in the 2nd REI.  Like most of the men in that B Team he felt sorry for me in my exile from SF.  He and several others from the B Team were at the party.

The guests sang the "Huron Carol" (in English) to humor me.

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

“For every boot that tramped in battle,
every cloak rolled in blood,
will be burned as fuel for flames.
For a child is born to us, a son is given...”

Isaiah, 9:1-3, 5-6

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

At midnight, celebration was interrupted by the sound of machine gun fire in the distance. The revelers trooped outside to see if they were going to have to fight on Christmas Eve. There were hard words concerning the ancestry of the enemy. Across the wire, across the outpost line, across the valley of no-man’s land were the crests occupied habitually by the “opposition.” From these heights there rose a stream of green, Soviet made “tracer.” The celebrants contemplated this for a minute, and then Suarez suggested a reply. An M-60 machine gun emerged from the house, and while one man fired red tracer into the air, another held the bipod above his head and another fed the gun its belted ammunition. The streams of bullets crossed in the black, star-studded sky. The VC gun fell silent, as did the American. There was a hush as warriors waited for some sign that the hope of common humanity yet lived. The VC fire resumed. Now there were three guns shooting green stars into the blackness. The MI men’s gun chattered merrily, spilling a river of shell casings into the street. Red and green filled the night. " 

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

Every Christmas I post this excerpt from an autobiographical sketch I wrote once.  This incident is reminiscent of the legendary football game in no man's land in 1914. The men at the party were of the Third Combat Battalion, 525th Military Intelligence Group, MACV CORDS Advisory Team 94, the CIA and the 5th Special Forces Group. The place was Song Be, Phuoc Long Province. It was 1968.

There is a statue in Charlottesville, Virginia.  On the pediment is inscribed, "Love makes memory eternal."  That once was true.

The party-goers are long gone. Some never saw another Christmas. Some died a couple of months later when the men across the way nearly took the town.  

They tried for what seemed an eternity but was actually less than a week.  We killed six hundred of them in repelling their valiant effort.   Some died around my house and in the street in front of my gate.  We buried four hundred bodies found in front of and in our (US and Vietnamese) positions.   The Second Brigade of the First Cavalry Division was ordered into the fight halfway through the battle.  Without them the VC would have killed or captured us all.  PW survivors told us how many the enemy lost.  They were of the 211th, 212th and 165th VC battalions under VC Military Region 10. By that time these units were mostly North Vietnamese in their manning.  They were "foemen worthy of our steel."

God rest all these worthy gentlemen.  pl

 

 

 

 

Former papal nuncio to the US. (2011-2016), Archbishop Vigano, backs Trump.

"On this occasion, Attorney General William Barr will receive the NCPB’s Christifideles Laici Award (Christ’s Faithful Laity), named after the Apostolic Exhortation On the Laity by Pope John Paul II.

I would like to make myself present on this memorable occasion, in which I participated with great enthusiasm as Apostolic Nuncio during the years of my mission in Washington, D.C. (2011-2016).

I therefore join all the participants in this extraordinary celebration and all American Catholics, who see in President Donald Trump the greatest defender of the supreme values of Christian civilization: of life, from conception to natural death; of the natural family composed of one man and one woman and children; and of love for the homeland: One Nation under God! And, most importantly, he stands for defending the right to freely practice our Faith, thus allowing us more fully to honor God.

The presidential elections in November represent an epochal challenge, a biblical challenge, the outcome of which will be decisive not only for the United States of America but for the whole world."  Lifesitenews

---------------.  

There you have it folks.  This retired career Vatican diplomat backs Trump as the enemy of "demonic forces"  in the Deep State.  He doesn't much like Francis either.  The curia are working themselves up to take decisive action against this man.  pl

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/archbishop-vigano-trump-is-preparing-to-fight-against-the-demonic-forces-of-the-deep-state

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Maria_Vigan%C3%B2

Haggia Sophia reborn.

" The city of Al-Sqaylabiyeh in western Hama witnessed the foundation of the stone laying ceremony for the symbolic Hagia Sophia Church, which will be a replica of the mother cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Turkey.

The ceremony was held in the presence of Syrian and Russian officials, in addition to religious figures from the people of the region.

It was written on the foundation stone of the symbolic church:

“During the reign of President Bashar Hafez Al-Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic, the blessing of the Bishop of Hama and its subordinates Nikolaos Ba’albaki and the blessing of the Russian Federation represented by the commander of the Russian forces operating in the Syrian Arab Republic, General Alexander Yuryevich Chaiko, laying the foundation stone of the Hagia Sophia Church, introduction From Nabel Shafiq Al-Abdullah, on the authority of the martyrs of Sqaylabiyeh, Syria, and its allies, and a tribute to the Great Hagia Sophia.

This step was supported and blessed by the Orthodox Christian religious leaders in both Syria and Russia, and they considered it a step of solidarity with the mother Church of Hagia Sophia, and an assurance that the Turkish President will not be able to obliterate the features of this global impact on the list of UNESCO, which played a central role in Christian history over the course of 1500 years old.”"

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

The symbolic nature of this construction of a replica of Haggia Sophia is of interest.  The Syrian government is the protector of the Christian and other minorities in the country.  Many people from those minorities serve in or alongside the Syrian  Army in the fight against the Sunni jihadi monsters.

Russia will help fund the construction and the new church will have the blessing of both the Syrian and Russian Orthodox churches.

I suppose that this development will anger the Israelis, the US Ziocons and such creatures as Pompey and Jeffries.  Good!

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-city-lays-foundation-for-replica-of-hagia-sophia-cathedral/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia

A return to the cathedral - TTG

A year ago I wrote about the little patch of woods behind my house. It was just before Easter and just after the tragic fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. As I sat in my gazebo this week, I noticed the Mayapples have risen once again. It was like an invitation to visit my woodland cathedral for Easter services. 

First I had to give gratitude for the beauty of my Kwanzan cherry tree outside my front door. They have larger, pinker blooms that peak well after the neighborhood Yoshino cherries. The blooms of the kwanzan are much sturdier than those of the Yoshino. They have stood up well to the winds and thunderstorms of the last few days. Despite the carpet of pink petals on the driveway and lawn, the tree remains gorgeous. Our neighborhood Yoshinos and Kwanzans were especially welcome this year while the cherry blossoms of  DC’s tidal basin remained largely off limits.

Now to the cathedral. It’s so very close that I consider my back yard the vestibule, a soothing and soul quenching vestibule now decorated with the seasonal vestments of crabapple and redbud blossoms. It a wonderful place to meditate or read a book, but I most often follow the words of Winnie the Pooh or Satchel Page or some other anonymous philosopher. “Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits.” I just let the great variety of birds do the speaking.

This is but a small patch of woods with a small stream which eventually winds its way to the Potomac and into the Chesapeake. It will forever be here since it was declared a habitat for a protected variety of fresh water mussel. It has stayed pristine over the twenty-five years I have lived here although it has naturally changed over the seasons and years. In addition to the Mayapples, the Christmas ferns were sending up their new fiddleheads and the delicate Mayflowers were in bloom. One of our fellow correspondents, Swamp Yankee, identified those Mayflowers for me last year. This year I found some Jack in the pulpits. I have a decent patch of them growing in my back yard. These have always intrigued me since they were pointed out to me by my first grade teacher. All these plants of the woodland floor are a testament to the rebirth of Spring and the miracle of Easter. I’m certain that the two are much more related than the Church lets on.

This day I took special notice of some of the larger trees in my little woodland patch. Stafford was pretty much denuded of trees and most everything else during the Civil War. A few cedars always stand out, no matter what the season. There are also some fine oaks. I am especially intrigued by our sycamores. I’ve watch them grow from nothing to towering trees just behind my backyard in twenty-five years. Their light grey bark is striking. Older specimens achieve a more gnarled outline with great character.

As I contemplated these trees, I thought their beauty and magnificence rivaled any cathedral’s arches and stained glass windows. They sing a silent hymn to nature and God. I am blessed to have such beauty mere steps from my back door.

TTG

He is risen ...

pl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI6dsMeABpU  

"The Procurator of Judea" Anatole France

   

"Long did I seek her in disreputable alleys and taverns. It was more difficult to learn to do without her than to lose the taste for Greek wine. Some months after I lost sight of her, I learned by chance that she had attached herself to a small company of men and women who were followers of a young Galilean thaumaturgist. His name was Jesus; he came from Nazareth, and he was crucified for some crime, I don’t quite know what. Pontius, do you remember anything about the man?”"  Anatole France

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2015/04/httpfullreadscomliteraturethe-procurator-of-judea.html

PL 

 

Happy Passover

Today is Friday by Ernest Hemingway

Three Roman soldiers are in a drinking-place at eleven o’clock at night. There are barrels around the wall. Behind the wooden counter is a Hebrew wine-seller. The three Roman soldiers are a little cock-eyed.

1st Roman Soldier—You tried the red?

2d Soldier—No, I ain’t tried it.

1st Soldier—You better try it.

2d Soldier—All right, George, we’ll have a round of the red.

Hebrew Wine-seller—Here you are, gentlemen. You’ll like that. [He sets down an earthenware pitcher that he has filled from one of the casks.] That’s a nice little wine.

1st Soldier—Have a drink of it yourself. [He turns to the third Roman soldier who is leaning on a barrel.] What’s the matter with you?

3d Roman Soldier—I got a gut-ache.

2d Soldier—You’ve been drinking water.

1st Soldier—Try some of the red.

3d Soldier—I can’t drink the damn stuff. It makes my gut sour.

1st Soldier—You been out here too long.

3d Soldier—Hell don’t I know it?

1st Soldier—Say, George, can’t you give this gentleman something to fix up his stomach?

Hebrew Wine-seller—I got it right here.

[The third Roman soldier tastes the cup that the wine-seller has mixed for him.]

3d Soldier—Hey, what you put in that, camel chips?

Wine-seller—You drink that right down, Lootenant. That’ll fix you up right.

3d Soldier—Well, I couldn’t feel any worse.

1st Soldier—Take a chance on it. George fixed me up fine the other day.

Wine-seller—You were in bad shape, Lootenant. I know what fixes up a bad stomach.

[The third Roman soldier drinks the cup down.]

3d Roman Soldier—Jesus Christ. [He makes a face.]

2d Soldier—That false alarm!

1st Soldier—Oh, I don’t know. He was pretty good in there today.

2d Soldier—Why didn’t he come down off the cross?

1st Soldier—He didn’t want to come down off the cross. That’s not his play.

2d Soldier—Show me a guy that doesn’t want to come down off the cross.

1st Soldier—Aw, hell, you don’t know anything about it. Ask George there. Did he want to come down off the cross, George?

Wine-seller—I’ll tell you, gentlemen, I wasn’t out there. It’s a thing I haven’t taken any interest in.

2d Soldier—Listen, I seen a lot of them—here and plenty of other places. Any time you show me one that doesn’t want to get down off the cross when the time comes—when the time comes, I mean—I’ll climb right up with him.

1st Soldier—I thought he was pretty good in there today.

3d Soldier—He was all right.

2d Roman Soldier—You guys don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m not saying whether he was good or not. What I mean is, when the time comes. When they first start nailing him, there isn’t none of them wouldn’t stop it if they could.

1st Soldier—Didn’t you follow it, George?

Wine-seller—No, I didn’t take any interest in it, Lootenant.

1st Soldier—I was surprised how he acted.

3d Soldier—The part I don’t like is the nailing them on. You know, that must get to you pretty bad.

2d Soldier—It isn’t that that’s so bad, as when they first lift ’em up. [He makes a lifting gesture with his two palms together.] When the weight starts to pull on ’em. That’s when it gets ’em.

3d Roman Soldier—It takes some of them pretty bad.

1st Soldier—Ain’t I seen ’em? I seen plenty of them. I tell you, he was pretty good in there today.

[The second Roman soldier smiles at the Hebrew wine-seller.]

2d Soldier—You’re a regular Christer, big boy.

1st Soldier—Sure, go on and kid him. But listen while I tell you something. He was pretty good in there today.

2d Soldier—What about some more wine?

[The wine-seller looks up expectantly. The third Roman soldier is sitting with his head down. He does not look well.]

3d Soldier—I don’t want any more.

2d Soldier—Just for two, George.

[The wine-seller puts out a pitcher of wine, a size smaller than the last one.

He leans forward on the wooden counter.]

1st Roman Soldier—You see his girl?

2d Soldier—Wasn’t I standing right by her?

1st Soldier—She’s a nice-looker.

2d Soldier—I knew her before he did. [He winks at the wine-seller.]

1st Soldier—I used to see her around the town.

2d Soldier—She used to have a lot of stuff. He never brought her no good luck.

1st Soldier—Oh, he ain’t lucky. But he looked pretty good to me in there today.

2d Soldier—What become of his gang?

1st Soldier—Oh, they faded out. Just the women stuck by him.

2d Roman Soldier—They were a pretty yellow crowd. When they seen him go up there they didn’t want any of it.

1st Soldier—The women stuck all right.

2d Soldier—Sure, they stuck all right.

1st Roman Soldier—You see me slip the old spear into him?

2d Roman Soldier—You’ll get into trouble doing that some day.

1st Soldier—It was the least I could do for him. I’ll tell you he looked pretty good to me in there today.

Hebrew Wine-seller—Gentlemen, you know I got to close.

1st Roman Soldier—We’ll have one more round.

2d Roman Soldier—What’s the use? This stuff don’t get you anywhere. Come on, let’s go.

1st Soldier—Just another round.

3d Roman Soldier—[Getting up from the barrel.] No, come on. Let’s go. I feel like hell tonight.

1st Soldier—Just one more.

2d Soldier—No, come on. We’re going to go. Good-night, George. Put it on the bill.

Wine-seller—Good-night, gentlemen. [He looks a little worried.] You couldn’t let me have a little something on account, Lootenant?

2d Roman Soldier—What the hell, George! Wednesday’s payday.

Wine-seller—It’s all right, Lootenant. Good-night, gentlemen.

[The three Roman soldiers go out the door into the street.]

[Outside in the street.]

2d Roman Soldier—George is a kike just like all the rest of them.

1st Roman Soldier—Oh, George is a nice fella.

2d Soldier—Everybody’s a nice fella to you tonight.

3d Roman Soldier—Come on, let’s go up to the barracks. I feel like hell tonight.

2d Soldier—You been out here too long.

3d Roman Soldier—No, it ain’t just that. I feel like hell.

2d Soldier—You been out here too long. That’s all.

CURTAIN

"The Middle East is a complicated place" - SWMBO

This is the Iranian government erected memorial to Jewish Iranian soldiers who were killed  fighting in the Iranian Army in the Iran-Iraq War. 

According to the latest data there are still about 8,500 Iranian Jews resident in the country and quite a few synagogues. 

As a reminder, there are no Jewish "citizens" of Saudi Arabia and of course there are no synagogues there.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Iran#Islamic_Republic_(since_1979)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_synagogues_in_Iran

"Voices of Syria - Rev. Ibrahim Nseir of the Arab Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Aleppo"

https://youtu.be/bwA2Sfo3HIc

Tulsi Gabbard at the Presbyterian Church in Aleppo, Syria, 26 January, 2017

pl

Soleimani and Al-Muhandis are being mourned in Aleppo churches

(Tehran Armenian Cathedral)

Mike Pompeo was on the TeeVee today scoffing at those who do not agree with him and the Ziocon inspired "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran.  It must be a terrible thing for intelligence analysts of integrity and actual Middle East knowledge and experience to have to try to brief him and Trump, people who KNOW, KNOW from some superior source of knowledge that Iran is the worst threat to the world since Nazi Germany, or was it Saddam's Iraq that was the worst threat since "beautiful Adolf?"

The "maximum pressure" campaign is born of Zionist terrors, terrors deeply felt.  It is the same kind of campaign that has been waged by the Israelis against the Palestinians and all other enemies great and small.  This approach does not seem to have done much for Israel.  The terrors are still there.

Someone sent me the news tape linked below from Aleppo in NW Syria.  I have watched it a number of times.  You need some ability in Arabic to understand it.  The tape was filmed in several Christian churches in Aleppo where these two men (Soleimani and al-Muhandis) are described from the pulpit and in the street as "heroic martyr victims of criminal American state terrorism."  Pompeo likes to describe Soleimani as the instigator of "massacre" and "genocide" in Syria.  Strangely (irony) the Syriac, Armenian Uniate and Presbyterian ministers of the Gospel in this tape do not see him and al-Muhandis that way.  They see them as men who helped to defend Aleppo and its minority populations from the wrath of Sunni jihadi Salafists like ISIS and the AQ affiliates in Syria.  They see them and Lebanese Hizbullah as having helped save these Christians by fighting alongside the Syrian Army, Russia and other allies like the Druze and Christian militias.

It should be remembered that the US was intent on and may still be intent on replacing the multi-confessional government of Syria with the forces of medieval tyranny.  Everyone who really knows anything about the Syrian Civil War knows that the essential character of the New Syrian Army, so beloved by McCain, Graham and the other Ziocons was always jihadi and it was always fully supported by Wahhabi Saudi Arabia as a project in establishing Sunni triumphalism.  They and the self proclaimed jihadis of HTS (AQ) are still supported in both Idlib and western Aleppo provinces by the Saudis and the present Islamist and neo-Ottoman government of Turkey.

Well pilgrims, there are Christmas trees in the newly re-built Christian churches of Aleppo and these, my brothers and sisters in Christ remember who stood by them in "the last ditch."

"Currently there are at least 600 churches and 500,000–1,000,000 Christians in Iran." wiki below.  Are they dhimmis?  Yes, but they are there.  There are no churches in Saudi Arabia, not a single one and Christianity is a banned religion.  These are our allies?

Mr. Jefferson wrote that "he feared for his country when he remembered that God is just."  He meant Virginia but I fear in the same way for the United States.  pl

https://twitter.com/i/status/1214223383635857409

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Iran

Happy Chanukah!

pl

Shia orphan chorus singing "Silent Night in a Beirut church

"La chorale des orphelines de la Fondation de l’Imam Moussa al-Sadr venue chanter Noel à l’église Saint-Elie de Beyrouth en est la parfaite illustration. Ce spectacle, a priori anodin, peut représenter un exemple à suivre pour les autres pays, notamment en Europe, où malgré les vaines tentatives de formatage artificiel des esprits, les uns et les autres vivent dans une méfiance réciproque sans cesse grandissante."   claudeelkhal blogspot

 

http://claudeelkhal.blogspot.com/2016/12/le-liban-cest-ca-aussi-une-chorale.html?

"Ornament of the World" PBS

This is an excellent narrative of the 'Ummayad Caliphate of Cordoba which ruled for so long what are now Spain, Portugal and the Balearic Islands as al-andalus.  i recommend it to all.  pl

https://www.pbs.org/show/ornament-world/

Borovski and the Haredim

 

 

"Borovski said she left behind the ultra-Orthodox, known in Israel as the Haredim, never having opened a bank account, ridden a bus, applied for a job or talked to a stranger.

She has done all of those things now, in what she describes as a sprint to make up for the decades she spent in a cultural cocoon, never wandering more than 500 yards from the house where she said she and her 12 brothers and sisters learned nothing of science or math, or of history outside of religious texts. Borov­ski — who belonged to the Satmar Hasidic group, known for its especially strict religious adherence — said she wasn’t just denied television, radio and the Internet but was unaware of their existence.

“I’m trying to catch everything now,” she said during a break from a lesson on cell structure, part of a remedial studies program offered by Hebrew University of Jerusalem to students who missed out on basic schooling. “I don’t think I have enough time.”"  Washpost

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

Yes, I know, pilgrims, the Haredim have a right to live however they please, just as Mormon schismatics, cloistered monks and the Amish/Mennonites do, but it is nevertheless interesting that this woman and those like her emerge into the "light" of the 21st Century as though they had just come from the womb.

As many of you know I was the chief intelligence liaison from DIA to the IDF General Staff intelligence service for seven years.  Because of that I spent a lot of time in Israel wandering around when not working and talking to IDF people about the Haredim among other things.  I don't think I ever ran into an IDF officer who had other than disdain for the Haredim.  A lot of the IDF were kibbutzniks, products of structured life on a collective farm in a socialist secular setting.  They thought the Haredim were ignorant freeloaders who used their cultist beliefs to hide out from the draft while collecting comfortable stipends from the government as "religious scholars."   In some Haredi groups the women shave their whole bodies and when out in public accompanied by a male relative wear funny looking curly synthetic hair wigs.  This was interesting.

Chacun a son gout the old maid said as she kissed the cow.  pl

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/shed-never-seen-a-smartphone-or-heard-a-radio-before-she-fled-shes-racing-to-catch-up/2019/12/04/c6347cf0-0709-11ea-9118-25d6bd37dfb1_story.html

Pope Francis may be removed from office

"The priests and scholars “protest against and condemn the sacrilegious and superstitious acts committed by Pope Francis, the Successor of Peter, in connection with the recent Amazon Synod held in Rome,” and they give detailed evidence of the different incidences of pagan worship during the Amazon Synod.

Most prominently, Pope Francis hosted a pagan ceremony with Pachamama statues in the Vatican Gardens on Oct. 4 and even blessed one of the statues. Additionally, he prayed in front of the Pachamama statue at St. Peter's Cathedral on October 7 and then accompanied it in procession into the synod hall." lifesitenews

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

Pope Francis appears to be intent on re-defining the Catholic body of teaching as understood and developed for two millennia.

He agrees with the Sheikh of the Al-Azhar mosque/university that God welcomes a diversity or religions.  This is a direct contradiction of Catholic belief in the singular nature of Christianity in God's "eyes."

He told an Italian communist atheist author friend that he does not believe that Jesus Rose as an actual man and in his own body which later ascended into heaven.   He said that "a spirit" resembling Jesus rose from the tomb on Easter.  The belief in the Resurrection is the central tenet of the Catholic Faith.  I wonder what he thinks happened to the body since the Gospel is quite clear that the tomb was empty at Easter.

And now he has sponsored the worship of an animist cult within the precincts of St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Gardens and blessed one of their idols.

IMO, unless he is willing try to pronounce ex-cathedra as to the orthodoxy of his faith, he has a limited future as pope.  pl

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/nearly-100-priests-lay-scholars-call-pope-francis-to-repent-for-pachamama-idolatry-at-amazon-synod

Heresy? Or new dogma?

"In the latest edition of La Repubblica, Pope Francis' longtime atheist friend and interviewer, Eugenio Scalfari, claims that the Pope told him that once Jesus Christ became incarnate, he was a man, a "man of exceptional virtues" but "not at all a God."

The teaching of the Catholic Church and most Christian churches is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was incarnated as fully man and fully God.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man. During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it. (464)"  cnenews

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Scalfari writes that Pope Francis denied the divinity of Christ during his existence on earth as a man.  It has been very basic Catholic teaching that Jesus was both God and man and the second entity in the Trinity that is God.  This doctrine emerged as a stabilizing force after several centuries of dispute among Christians as to the nature o Christ.  The doctrine that became official was probably fostered by the Eastern Roman emperor to put an end to what was a constant source of violent dispute within his realm.

If Pope Francis really said that Jesus was not God while living as a man, this is a major thing, something like a constitutional crisis in the US.  Men and women died in the Middle Ages for adopting similar positions.

Is Pope Francis a heretic, or is he proclaiming new doctrine ex cathedra?  pl

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/scalfari-pope-francis-told-me-jesus-incarnate-was-man-not-all-god

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heresies_in_the_Catholic_Church

The Plot Against Pope Francis

"Donald Trump, who has publicly criticized Francis, has not interfered as his surrogates, who include former White House strategist Steve Bannon; Cardinal Raymond Burke, the former Archbishop of St. Louis; Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States; and others have conspired with the powerful fascist-oriented Opus Dei sect of the church to undermine Francis’s authority. Trump’s eyes and ears inside the Vatican – US ambassador to the Holy See Callista Bisek Gingrich – is the wife of Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, a convert to Catholicism, and a major Trump political ally.

Francis, a former bar bouncer in a tough working-class neighborhood of Buenos Aires, has not been a shrinking violet whe       n it comes to fighting back against his right-wing enemies. Francis’s Italian parents were escaping Benito Mussolini’s fascist rule when they emigrated to Argentina. For Francis, defending the church against the fascist Opus Dei and its allies is a battle worth fighting.

Francis’s enemies have taken a page from the Trump political book. Francis vowed to clean up the church of pedophile priests but he has been charged by his right-wing enemies, including Vigano, Burke, Bannon, Opus Dei, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, and from behind the scenes – Benedict – of tolerating pedophiles and homosexuals in the church. This is the same sort of gaslighting to which Americans have become all-too-accustomed under Trump.

In order to limit Cardinal Burke’s international reach, Francis suspended him from the post of patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), an autonomous international charity entity in Rome that issues its own passports and maintains diplomatic relations with 107 countries and maintains permanent observer status at the United Nations. In 2017, Francis came to the assistance of the Grand Master of the SMOM, Albrecht von Boeselager, after discovering that Burke and Opus Dei were conspiring to oust Boeselager, a member of a German royal house, as Grand Master. Burke and the rightists wanted to sack Boeselager for distributing condoms to people in Myanmar."  Strategic-Culture

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Well, pilgrims, now this is interesting.  There are some fell people amongst those mentioned, people who would shrink from little to defend their vision of The One True Church.  Edwin O'Brien, mentioned in the article is Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre  (an order senior in precedence to SMOM) in which I hold the rank of Knight Commander.  I know nothing of this matter.

Wayne Madsen ,the author, is a bit uneven in his writings.  pl

 

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/10/08/plot-overthrow-pope/

Some News this Sunday - October 5, 2019

The Plot

"A second whistleblower is now considering filing a complaint about President Donald Trump’s conduct regarding Ukraine, the New York Times reported Friday.

This whistleblower has “more direct information about the events than the first whistle-blower,” according to the Times. It’s a claim that, if true, could bolster the credibility of the initial complaint that triggered the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into whether Trump solicited election interference from Ukraine.

The first whistleblower’s complaint, which was released in redacted form to the public in late September, alleged that on a July 25 phone call Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to push for investigations into potential 2020 rival Joe Biden."  Vox

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The lawyer representing this person states that he has "multiple whistleblowers" as clients.  Ah! How clever!  Are all these public spirited citizens career employees of the CIA?  Little birds still twittering in the trees in my back garden tell me they are.  This sounds like a CIA conspiracy designed to force Trump from office.  The WH and NSC staffs are peopled by some political appointees and a horde of career people detailed from various departments of the Executive Branch; CIA, Defense, State, Justice , Treasury, etc.  The lending agency selects the people who are lent.  The opportunity for someone like Brennan who still has a lot of faithful followers at CIA to plant a group of informants and operatives in Trump's WH has been evident and remains so.

My instincts and the application of Occam's Razor lead me to the conclusion that there is an "operations room" somewhere that is coordinating the efforts to remove Trump from office in what does amount to a "soft coup d'etat."  A fair minded person looking back over Trump's term will see that the attempts to undermine and bring him down began the day after his inauguration and have continued ever since in wave after wave of accusations and press induced frenzies.  This cannot be accidental and it will continue through his second term if he has one.  Trump is leader of a counter-revolution of the Deplorables.  From the point of view of the Globalist Left Trump must be removed and prevented from doing things like packing the federal judiciary with pro-Deplorable judges.  Stay tuned. PL

https://www.vox.com/2019/10/5/20900088/trump-ukraine-impeachment-second-whistleblower

********

Married Priests

The Vatican conference supposedly focused on the ecology of the Amazon River basin opens this week.  The shortage of priests in that region has led the conference to raise the subject of ordaining married men as priests.  The "old guard" of ancients who supposedly spent their lives in celibacy and chastity (doubtful in many cases) are in an uproar about it.  The Catholic Church in spite of being an absolute monarchy in structure in fact functions most of the time on the basis of consensus among the "good old boys" at the top of the pile of black, purple and red robed old men.  If Francis wishes to make a change that big he will have to act like the successor of Peter in fact, as well as in title.  pl

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-opens-debate-on-celibacy-requirement-for-catholic-priests-11570352167

The Wealth Tax Proposals

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have the same two outside advisers to thank for shaping their wealth tax proposals: University of California, Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman.

Each Democratic presidential candidate wants to tackle wealth inequality by raising trillions of dollars in revenue from taxing the wealth — in addition to the income — of millionaires and billionaires, an idea that is backed up by research from Saez and Zucman.

There are competing explanations for the rise in inequality. Those on one side argue that wealth concentration is natural as a result of globalization, technology gains, and economic growth, which give enormous rewards to the smartest, innovative, and most hardworking people. Drastically increasing tax rates, they say, would discourage innovation and hurt the economy.

The other camp sees rising inequality as unfair, immoral, and a threat to society.

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

Say what?  A couple of imported lefty French professors are the gurus on which Sanders and Warren base their insistence that one's possessions be confiscated as well as one's income?   One of them is 35 years old.  Well, pilgrims, this may be thought of as a grand idea in Europe but it will not sell well in the US.  Americans like the idea of BECOMING rich.   Most people want that rather than re-distribution of other peoples' money.  A smart Trump would want to run against the Confiscators rather than against Biden, someone who IMO wants to be really rich.  If that is what Trump wants he is quite perceptive of the realities of the 2020 election.  pl

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/the-berkeley-economists-advising-both-warren-and-sanders-on-their-groundbreaking-wealth-tax-proposals

"Will bishops at last be held to account in abuse cases? We’re about to find out." Washpost editorial

" ... the published list had been whittled down by the bishop and church lawyers to exclude, among others, accused priests who had been left in ministry or restored after a suspension. In one case, a church lawyer wrote to the bishop that a priest alleged to have had sex with a teenage girl in the 1980s should be dropped from the list because including him “might require explanation.” (The priest, Fabian J. Maryanski, who has since been placed on leave, denied the allegation.)

Under the church’s new policy on accountability for bishops, it has fallen to Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, to decide whether to launch an investigation of Mr. Malone. As Mr. Dolan mulls that question — his office says an announcement is expected soon — other revelations have surfaced involving Mr. Malone’s less-than-assiduous attention to abuse victims. In an audio recording of a conversation from August, leaked recently by one of his former top assistants, Mr. Malone is heard worrying that “this could be the end for me as bishop.”"  washpost editorial board.

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Despair is an unforgivable sin.  Unforgivable because someone in despair does not believe in the possibility of forgiveness and therefore does not repent.  On that basis I am in a lot of trouble because I despair for the ability of the Roman Catholic Church to purge itself, cauterize the resulting wounds and move on.  I know that I should not despair but I do.

Because of the essentially late Roman Empire structure of the Church the chain of command runs from the Pope to metropolitan archbishops who head eccesiastical provinces and then to suffragan dioceses subordinate to the metropolitan archbishops.

In the case of this fellow Malone, he is the subordinate of Archbisop Dolan in New York City because Buffalo is a diocese within the province which Dolan heads.  So, the buck stops (for the moment) at Dolan's Desk with regard to the question of what to recommend to the Pope about the careerist who sits in the bishop's chair in Buffalo, New York.

"This will finish me as bishop" Malone is quoted as saying of the result of his inaction and harboring of evil priests in Buffalo.   What an unworthy sentiment!  What greater evidence can there be of careerist ambition driven failure as a pastor of souls.

Dolan is a mystery to me.  I have seen him on "Fox and Friends," sprawled in a chair actinng the role of a basic New York City street guy.  He does not inspire me with the vision of a spiritual guide for all those souls spread across his province.

Is Dolan called now to decide about another careerist cleric when he may not be much different?  We will see,  pl

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/will-bishops-at-last-be-held-to-account-in-abuse-cases-were-about-to-find-out/2019/09/19/149ef946-da65-11e9-ac63-3016711543fe_story.html

An apostasy? I doubt it would be that,

“The Instrumentum Laboris burdens the Synod of Bishops, and finally the pope, with a grave breach with the Depositum fidei (deposit of the faith), which in its consequence means the self-destruction of the Church or the transformation of the Corpus Christi mysticum (Mystical Body of Christ) into a secular NGO with an ecological-social-psychological mandate," said the cardinal. "We are witnessing a new form of the classical Modernism of the early 20th century.” (Emphasis added.)

Rev. Erwin Krautler, bishop emeritus of Xingu, Brazil, who will be reporting on the synod for the bishops, summarized the objectives of the gathering in Rome. As reported by Tradition, Family and Property, the objectives are,

• Fostering an appreciation for “lay ministries”
• Allowing women deacons
• Finding “alternative rituals” for the Eucharist
• Establishing a new model of “priesthood” not reserved for men
• Promoting an “enculturation” of the Sacraments, i.e., reinterpreting them from an indigenous perspective
• Reinvigorating the grassroots Basic Christian Communities that served as the “militant arm” of liberation theology
• Rejecting any industrial development of the Amazon region
• Internationalizing the Amazon

h/t LifeSiteNews.com 

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This post may not be of great interest to non-Catholics but it is of great interests to people like TTG and me.  This synod of bishops will meet in Rome in October and after deliberation, contemplation and hopefully prayer, will deliver recommendations to Pope Francis who will, I am sure, be awaiting them with "bated breath."

Also included in the "package" is a provision for married male priests.  Somehow that did not make the bolded list above.

My initial response is to favor much of this agenda if that it be.  Perhaps I spent too much time in the 3rd World with people for whom the trappings of the medieval Roman Church were an obstacle to faith.  This agenda would IMO represent a rehabilitation of at least the spirit of liberation theology.  The possibility of a lapse into Marxism lurks in some of these agenda items and should be avoided.  Marxism and its communist variant both block the ability of the poor to rise in prosperity and should be shunned.

The boldest of these agenda items is the idea of "alternative rituals for the Eucharist."  I have often listened to missionaries speak of related issues.  These were people who had long lived among indigenous tribal populations and who found communal sharing of everything in life to be such a noble life that for these priests it was not clear who should be feeding whom spiritually at the Eucharist.  To understand that I suppose one must understand that the sacrament of the Eucharist in transubstantiation is the central feature of Catholic life, the giving of the Lord's body in communion.

I can understand that Cardinal Burke and other old men in red and purple have a very hard time accepting changes that at least have the appearance of spiritual loss, but this agenda does not seem to me to represent spiritual loss.  PL

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/us-cardinal-document-upcoming-vatican-synod-apostasy

Who knew that eating garlic was haram, or maybe just discouraged in Islam? Not me.

"A shooting at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California injured 15 people and killed 3 more, bringing a horrific end to the popular annual event attended by thousands.

A 6-year-old boy was one among those killed, his father said.

“My son had his whole life to live and he was only 6,” the father of Stephen Romero told NBC Bay Area. “That’s all I can say.”

The wounded were taken to multiple hospitals, and their conditions ranged from fair to critical, with some in surgery Sunday night. At least five were treated and released.

Gilroy police said at a press conference that officers engaged the shooter in less than a minute, though the scene was still considered active and nearby areas were kept on lockdown into the night."  usatoday

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/29/gilroy-garlic-festival-shooting-what-we-know/1854727001/

*********

‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb (may Allah be pleased with him) is reported to have delivered a Friday sermon. In it he said: “O people, you eat two plants that I only find offensive: onion and garlic. I saw the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and if he detected their odor on a man in the mosque, he would order [the man] to be taken out to Al-Baqī‘. So anyone who [wants to] eat them, let them eliminate [their odor] by cooking.''

Explanation

‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) told those who were attending the Friday sermon that they “ate two offensive plants: onion and garlic”. Arabs use the word ''offensive” for objectionable and reprehensible words, actions, possessions, food, or people. This is established in a Hadīth that Jābir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported from the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) who said: “Anyone who eats from this offensive tree let them not come close to our mosque.” [Muslim] “…onion and garlic”: Everything that has an offensive odor, such as radish, leeks, tobacco, and cigarettes are included here. Onions and garlic are mentioned in particular because they are eaten often. Leeks are stipulated in a Hadīth reported by Jābir ibn ‘Abdullāh (may Allah be pleased with him) and narrated by Muslim. So if anyone smelled of onion or garlic in the mosque, they would be ordered to be taken out as far as Al-Baqī‘, because it offends not only people but also the angels, as was related in an authentic Hadīth. In Ibn Mājah, we read: ''At the time of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) if a foul odor was detected on a man, I would see him seized by the arm and taken out to Al-Baqī‘.” “So anyone who [wants to] eat them, let them eliminate [their odor] by cooking.” This is because cooking eliminated the odor and if the odor is eliminated, one may enter the mosque because the reason for the prohibition no longer exists. Cooking onion and garlic thoroughly is required if someone wishes to enter the mosque for prayer or any other purpose. If it is not time for prayer, one may eat them raw. The command to cook them is meant to prevent offending others.  hadeethenc.com

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Well pilgrims,  SWMBO and I visited the fair town of Gilroy, California many years ago whilst studying Arabic at the Defense Language Institute at Monterrey, California.  She has always been diligent in researching and directing our visitations throughout regions where we have lived.  Gilroy bills itself as the garlic growing capital of the universe, although I think there are parts of Syria which could have contested the title before the outbreak of civil war.  Driving through little towns in central Syria it was interesting to see many shops and homes adorned with hanging bundles of white garlic. 

I, personally, love the "stinking rose."  For me, a dish without garlic is a disappointment.  There are exceptions. Strawberry shortcake may be one.  Garlic is widely used in Lebanese and Syrian cooking.  There is a lovely white dipping sauce eaten in Lebanon that reeks of garlic. I love it and always ask for more of this to be brought to the table.

But, alas, there ARE several hadiiths in different "books" (collections) of hadiths that strongly express opposition to eating raw garlic and/or onions.  Evidently the Prophet did not like the smell of either and told the originator of these various hadiths that if people ate either they should stay away from the mosque lest the angels themselves be offended by the odor.  Well, someone recounted that he had said that.  On the other hand, his favorite wife, Aisha let it be known that the last meal He ate had garlic in it. 

For those uninformed or generally uninterested Islam generally considers both Qur'an, (the uncreated literal thought of God transmitted to the Prophet), and hadith, (stories supposedly recounting the utterance and practice of the Prophet and early community [Umma]) to be scriptural bases of all else in the faith, jurisprudence, etc.)  There are, of course a wide variety of collections of hadith accepted as valid by differed consensus (ijma') groups.  And, as someone will remind me, the Ibadhis do not think the Qur'an to be "uncreated."

In any event it seems odd that this rifle toting scoundrel cut his way through a security fence to avoid the guards and police. Once inside the perimeter he opened fire at random targets with some sort of semi-auto rifle firing in bursts of three or four rounds that sound like a "bump stock." Or not. 

The police killed him quickly but as of this writing he remains unidentified.  It will be interesting to find out what this Garlic Avenger had in what passed for his mind.  pl

https://hadeethenc.com/en/browse/hadith/8953

Confessions of a latent SJW - TTG

A while back we were discussing the merits of a liberal arts education and the sad state of our current education system. As part of that discussion, I looked at the current curriculum of my old prep school to see if it changed much from when I was there. To my surprise and joy, it changed very little. Students are still required to take four years of theology… good Jesuit theology. I was struck by the entry for the current theology department at Fairfield Prep and now present it below.

In light of the current discussion about the rise of the new bolsheviki in the Democratic Party, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the Ignatian approach to Roman Catholicism. I’m pretty sure many of you will consider the black robes to be quite red. I, on the other hand, find the teachings and example of Saint Ignatius of Loyola to be far more profound and worthy of emulation than anything Marx or Lenin ever dreamed of.  

——————

What is theology? Fundamentally, it’s about conversation.

The Greek word Theós (God) combined with logos (word, or reason) describes what happens in theology classes at Fairfield Prep. Talking about God, discovering God in the person of Jesus Christ, asking questions, having discussions and debates, and exploring the truths of other world religions are some of the many things that happen in theology. Through exegetical analysis of Scripture, learning the philosophies of the Saints (in particular, St. Ignatius of Loyola), contemplation, and reflection, theology students at Fairfield Prep are drawn to a more intimate experience of the Divine in their own lives.

In the classroom, students are exposed to the teachings of Christ regarding the Gospel imperative – the care of the poor. Theology students are inspired to work for equality and social justice in their local and global communities.

In the spirit of Christ, through Ignatian practices, students are encouraged to grow spiritually and religiously by orienting themselves towards others. Practically speaking, students are called to “Find God in All Things.” By recognizing the presence of the Divine within others and the universe we live in, students may be inspired to develop a deeper appreciation and love for Creation – in particular, care for our environment.

Morality, ethics, philosophy, history, science – they are all present within discussions of theology. Regardless of faith background (or lack thereof) all students are encouraged to express their beliefs and share their life experiences in their own ways. In theology, we are constantly working towards discovering Truth in our lives. Through science, history, literature, Scripture, and the Sacraments, we understand that God can be found in all things and in all ways here at Fairfield Prep. Join us as we continue the discussions, the questions, the reflections, and the actions that will make this world a more loving place for all.

- Mr. Corey J. Milazzo

Chair of the Theology Department

——————

It’s still there, the call to find God in all things and to be a man for others. I graduated a few years before Father Pedro Arrupe presented his dissertation and made his presentation which became known as his “Men for Others” thesis. But his ideas already ran through the halls and faculty of Fairfield Prep by the end of the 60s. Community service was an integral part of the curriculum back then as were frequent retreats based on the Ignatian spiritual exercises. They still are. The Jesuits molded us into men for others, social justice warriors, but with a keen sense of self-examination (the examen). When we graduated in the rose garden of Bellarmine Hall under a beautiful June sun, we were charged with the familiar Jesuit call “ite inflammate omnia” (go forth and set the world on fire).

That phrase in itself is provocative. It goes back to Saint Ignatius of Loyola himself. It may go back much further, back to Saint Catherine of Siena. One of her most repeated quotes is “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” Setting the world on fire must have a different meaning back then. It sounds down right revolutionary these days.

In more recent times, Jesuits participated in the development of liberation theology, a blending of the Church’s professed preference for the poor and Marxism that is unsettling to many both in and outside the Church. This expression of strident social justice was never supported by the Vatican, especially when liberation theologists aligned themselves with armed Marxist revolutions. Even Pope Francis was not a fan although as Father Bergoglio he said,  "The option for the poor comes from the first centuries of Christianity. It's the Gospel itself. If you were to read one of the sermons of the first fathers of the Church, from the second or third centuries, about how you should treat the poor, you’d say it was Maoist or Trotskyist. The Church has always had the honor of this preferential option for the poor.” Pope Francis seeks reconciliation with rather than expulsion of the liberation theologists. This doesn’t surprise me considering the Jesuits' firmly held faith in the primacy of conscience, the belief that an informed conscience is the ultimate and final authority on what is morally permissible, and it is the obligation of the individual to follow their conscience even if it contradicts or acts against Church teaching. I believe that, but I also believe the liberation theologists could benefit from a more rigorous examen to reach a higher sense of discernment and a truly informed conscience.

I think the 1986 film “The Mission” captured some of these ideas and struggles very well with the interplay of Father Gabriel, Roderigo Mendoza and both the secular and religious authorities of that time. As  a product of a Jesuit and Special Forces education, this film resonated with me.

TTG

DOL - AMDG

"Dear Hearts Across the Seas" by W. Patrick Lang

“For 14 hours yesterday, I was at work—teaching Christ to lift his cross by the numbers, and how to adjust his crown; and not to imagine he thirst until after the last halt. I attended his Supper to see that there were no complaints; and inspected his feet that they should be worthy of the nails. I see to it that he is dumb, and stands before his accusers. With a piece of silver I buy him every day, and with maps I make him familiar with the topography of Golgotha.”
Captain Wilfred Owen, The Manchesters 
Killed in Action, Nov. 4, 1918

This famous quotation from the work of the soldier-poet Wilfred Owen sums up both the awfulness and the beauty of a combat soldier’s life. It is particularly meaningful to those who have been given the chance to train and lead men in war. I came to know Owen’s work a few years back through Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory. Professor Fussell was badly wounded in World War II and is still filled with the righteous outrage that fills most combat men. God bless him.

Many will recoil in horror from the idea that there can be beauty in the life led by combat soldiers, the immortal “grunts” and Grognards who live in historic memory. It is all too easy to see nothing but the pain and the misery of loss, wounds and experience so horrible that it scars for life. Perhaps the worst is the memory of suffering necessarily inflicted on others whose motives are often no more base or lacking in what the Romans called pietas than our own. Not political enough for you? Go talk to a soldier and see if he agrees with you.

Comrades in Fear and Friendship

On the good side of the ledger there is the fact that there are no better friends than those with whom you have been deeply and comprehensively afraid. “Go tell my mother,” says Private Ryan in Spielberg’s exquisite film. “Go tell her that I will stay here, with the only brothers I have left.” This rings so true that it requires no explanation. Those ties bind unto death, until “the last jump,” as I have heard World War II paratroopers express it. The friendship and indeed love of comrades often long gone is, perhaps, the greatest “good” in war. It is often said that war brings out the best and the worst in people. This is profoundly true. Men who in civilian life would not have crossed the street to help a stranger often fall in the effort to help near strangers. There are many good things to be remembered. All of them have to do with comrades.

These days we are served by professionals and militia soldiers of the National Guard and reserve. These are men and women who bring to mind Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle’s description of the infantry soldiers of Lee’s army at Gettysburg. Fremantle was a Coldstream Guards officer who had come to America to observe. He got a bellyfull of observing, but said of “Lee’s Miserables” that they were “simply beyond praise.” Our people are like that now. A friend’s son is now on his way back overseas for his fourth tour of duty in the Asian war against the jihadis. Soon, his experience will not be unusual. Forty-five years ago his father and I, looking down the barrel of another war, would never have believed that we would see this. We were short-sighted, blinded by the myopia of youth. What is the old saw from Plato? “Only the dead have seen the end of war....” Really? My word....

No Need for Boosterism

I sometimes receive letters from people who are filled with a great and high-minded attitude about war. “Well, that is why soldiers exist....” “Losses are worth their pain in a good cause....” “Our soldiers will prevail through their skill and the great weapons we buy them.” I would say to such people that the soldiers already know that. They do not need your boosterism to help them do their duty. They will do their duty to the last, as so many of our soldiers have done. Just let them get on with it without suffering the indignity of your remarks.

Just after the war in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, an Army chaplain said Mass one Memorial Day in the post chapel of the Presidio of Monterey. Since America is a Jesuit magazine, it is fitting to mention that he was a Jesuit, as so many other Army chaplains have been. He had served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He had served with many infantry units. The infantry are the people who always do the serious, up-close killing and dying. The Army reckons that over 90 percent of all combat deaths happen in the infantry.

During his homily this priest looked out at the congregation, overwhelmingly populated with combat men and their families. He said that he wanted the people of God to remember their brothers asleep in the Lord’s embrace. He wanted them to remember how each man died alone, alone in fear, alone in misery, usually with no one to comfort him, often in the dark, with his life running out through mutilations that left little doubt of the outcome. He asked them to pray for their brothers, for the brothers who had died for us all as Jesus died for us all. The congregation sang. “In the beauty of the lilies/ Christ was born across the sea,/ with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me./ As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free./ His truth is marching on.”

A Memorial Day Prayer

Nothing has changed. The wounds inflicted by improvised explosive devices are appalling. Go to Walter Reed or Bethesda and see for yourself. The troops are not complaining. They never complain, and so nobody has any right to be less committed to the eternal mission of the soldier than they are.

This Memorial Day, remember that the cemeteries and physical therapy wards are full of men and women who gave their all for you, and who in many cases ask nothing more than to be allowed to go back and do it again. Pray for them. Please.

“I have eaten your bread and salt.
I have drunk your water and wine.
The deaths ye died, I have watched beside,
And the lives ye led were mine.

Was there aught that I did not share
One joy or woe that I did not know,
Dear hearts across the seas?

I have written the tale of our life
For a sheltered people’s mirth,
In jesting guise—but ye are wise,
And ye know what the jest is worth.”

- Rudyard Kipling
“The Rifleman”

This article also appeared in print, under the headline "Dear Hearts Across the Seas," in the May 29, 2006 issue.

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2006/05/29/dear-hearts-across-seas-memorial-day-prayer

Salvator Mundi

Sacred Places - TTG

I experienced a strange coincidence on the day of the fire at Notre Dame. The air was cool and the sun was bright so I decided to decided to venture into the small patch of woods behind my house. From my gazebo I could see that the mayapples were out and I wanted to take a closer look. I came upon a spot barely twenty meters behind my garden shed and a feeling came over me of entering a sacred space. There was nothing spectacular or particularly notable about this spot, but the spirits of the forest and my God spoke to me in harmony. This harmony may seem odd to most, but it is quite natural among many of Lithuanian descent. We were the last pagans of Europe becoming Christianized only late in the 14th century. Among the peasantry, the old ways held sway much longer. Some of us never fully abandoned the old ways. The forest spirits are as real as the saints and the Holy Trinity.

   

My minor forest cathedral brought forth this harmony and that gave me great peace. The mayapples were up, but not yet in bloom. The fiddleheads of the Christmas ferns were rising from the fallen fronds of last year, how appropriate for both Spring and Easter. The forest floor was carpeted with a small white flower which I have not yet identified. The small flowers were accented by subtle and beautiful rose colored lines. I meditated upon their beauty. The taller trees have only just started to leaf out allowing the perfect sunlight to bathe the forest floor. Such beauty and tranquility. Feeling rejuvenated, I returned home. 

A few hours later I watched the news of the fire at Notre Dame. I experience the same shock and feeling of loss as most, although certainly not to the same extent as many. I thought back to my lone visit to that cathedral back in 1982. As I climbed the spiral stone steps to the bell tower I remember feeling like Quasimodo. I was impressed by such an ancient and sacred place. Even then I thought back to an ancient and sacred place of my youth. There was a massive boulder, a glacial erratic, deposited on the crest of a ridge by the last retreating glacier very close to my Connecticut home. I would often make the pilgrimage to this boulder, climb to the top and contemplate its frozen journey from far to the north. I felt the same miraculous sense of awe meditating in that sacred place as I did serving mass with Father O’Dea as he consecrated the Host. Somehow I reconciled this duality of faith. I still do.

TTG     

Ave Maria

"A gutted roof, blackened stone and a gaping hole where the spire once stood.

The scale of the damage caused by a devastating fire that tore through Notre Dame cathedral on Monday has been revealed by dramatic images shot from a drone above the 850-year-old church.

The pictures, taken by Lana Sator, show the interior of the medieval Catholic church exposed to the elements, and the impact caused by the dramatic collapse of the structure's spire.

French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to rebuild the cathedral, one of Paris' most-famous landmarks."  CNN

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The miracle of what remains is astonishing.  Those who criticize les pompiers de Paris are just bitching against brave men and women who did their best.

The flying buttresses held under all that pressure from heat and stone expansion.  What a marvelous thing!  The Rose windows survived!  Another miracle!

And then there was the hero priest, the chaplain of the firemen, who led some of his flock into the burning medieval building with tons of dried wood above them to save holy relics but most importantly for them the consecrated Host from the altar.  We Catholics believe that the consecrated Host is the actual Body of Christ transformed at the Consecration through trans-substantiation.  To die in the attempt to save that was surely to be saved.

And then there was the spectacle of so many young French people gathered in the streets to mourn and sing the praises of Jesus' mother for whom the cathedral is named.

This was nothing like defeat for France and her remaining Christian people. No, it was a moment of renewed hope.  pl

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/17/world/gallery/notre-dame-aerials-intl/index.html

40 Martyrs Cathedral reconsecrated in Aleppo

"The Forty Martyrs Armenian Cathedral in Aleppo was re-consecrated on Saturday, four years after the jihadist rebels ransacked the building.

His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, visited the historic church after its reconstruction meant it could be opened again after Jabhat Al-Nusra razed parts of the compound back in April 2015."  AMN

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Let us remember that the Syrian Arab Republic's recovery of Aleppo City after ferocious and prolonged combat made possible the re-construction of this ancient Armenian cathedral.

The Syrian Arab Army's front against al-Nusra just west of Aleppo City protects this cathedral and all the good people of Aleppo while re-construction continues.

Let us remember that al-Nusra is the Syrian branch of al-Qaida.  They destroyed as much of this cathedral as they could manage while they held that part of the city.  The al-Nusra were John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman's good friends.  The three senators often visited them as well as the other FSA unicorns who were under al-Nusra's control.  According to these three fools anything was better than the Syrian government.  Now, who would have given then that idea?

And then there is the matter of the Borgist and neocon insistence that the US and our SDF allies defeated IS in Syria all by our selves.  The fierce fighting done by the Russians and the SAA/allies is simply ignored by the swampies in DC.

Well, pilgrims, Reuters says that Bolton torpedoed the Hanoi meeting by persuading Trump to stiffen his terms at the last minute.  Bolton is also leading the US toward a major geopolitical defeat in a failed attempt to remove Maduro in Venezuela.  How long is Trump going to put up with this fool and his sidekick "ole first in his class" at State? 

Perhaps a change in faces might result in different policy.  pl

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/600-year-old-aleppo-cathedral-re-consecrated-after-jihadist-destruction/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Martyrs_Cathedral

Mike Pence made Ellen Page cry ...

OK.  You can watch it yourself.  Ellen Page, the Nova Scotian lesbian hobbit, appeared on Colbert's anti-Trump show and wept because of the cruelty and indifference to suffering that she said Mike Pence's whole career epitomizes.  She said Pence would prevent her from being at the "side" of her beloved wife if he could manage it.  Whether Pence (the self-described Evangelical Catholic) knows that about himself is unclear.

Having been accused a number of times of possessing a heart of stone in matters of  war, peace and policy, (although not about Sapphic marriage), I feel his possible pain at the condemnation she flung at him.

Hey folks, Pence and I like dogs.

I used to think Ellen was kinda cute, although I would have been fearful of suspicions of child molestation ... 

She was adorable in "Inception." Unfortunately, in the scene in which the team attacked the winter castle wearing snow camouflage, she looked like a ten year old in a white snowsuit,  But, she was still very cute.

Mike Pence could make a statement, something addressed to her, stating that he really does not mean to be cruel to people in general and she in particular in spite of her life of sin in the eyes of the Great Jehovah.

Perhaps he and Karen, could invite the happy couple over for dinner.  pl

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ellen+page&view=detail&mid=C73314E6C2BBD79B2F09C73314E6C2BBD79B2F09&FORM=VIRE

A seditious conspiracy ...

"McCabe blithely went about meeting with the president, continued to do his normal work, and said nothing about it publicly. Is it reasonable to believe a career law officer wouldn’t shout from the rooftops, and even risk his job, to blow the whistle on such a catastrophic potential national security risk? McCabe and his cabal knew that the entire Russia collusion narrative was bought and paid for by the Clinton campaign. We know McCabe knew this from the congressional testimony of former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr, who swore under oath (and he, unlike McCabe, was not fired for lying) that he told McCabe and others at the FBI that the Steele dossier was being pushed by a Trump-hater and should be relied upon with caution.

By May 2017, McCabe implies he was in a state of panic on behalf of the gullible nation led by a Russian asset — but as Ohr said, McCabe and his cronies were aware that the explosive claims in the dossier were unverified. How could there be panic about unverified allegations? "  The Hill

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"If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

For a seditious conspiracy charge to be effected, a crime need only be planned, it need not be actually attempted."  wiki on seditious conspiracy.

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20 years, pilgrims, 20 years AND a fine perhaps.  McCabe is an interesting case, a senior civil servant who believes that he and his fellow mandarins ARE the government of the United States in much the same way that many Catholic clergy believe that THEY are the church rather than the people in the pews, the actual People of God.

Club Fed won't be all that bad. There are lots of opportunities for self-improvement.  McCabe and Rosenstein could study American Government in a seminar made up of their fellow conspirators with a few Bubbas and Bros thrown in for "seasoning."  That would be a good way to meet new friends to help pass the time in jail.

If McCabe is truthful in this the studied arrogance involved is memorable, but .. I remember much the same kind of attitude, the "Yes Minister" mindset from the time when I was an SES.

The former priest Theodore McCarrick has been laicized (de-frocked) by Pope Francis.  What took so long?  It has been widely known for a long time among the clergy, hierarchy, and lay hangers-on of the RC church apparat that Teddy was madly, wildly gay.  I sat in a number of meetings that he chaired and must say that it was a very creepy experience. The leprechaun act was painful to watch.

Let's see if the new AG has as much, or hopefully more guts about this as Francis.  pl

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/430318-mccabes-shocking-claims-prove-the-bloodless-coup-rolls-on

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seditious_conspiracy

Bishop Foys says he was "bullied."

"The bishop of the Covington Diocese in Kentucky claimed that he and Covington Catholic High School were “bullied” into condemning the behavior of students engaged in a controversial encounter with a Native American elder.

In a letter to parents, the Most Reverend Roger Foys said that he apologized to high school junior Nick Sandmann, who was filmed in a face-to-face-encounter with Native American elder Nathan Phillips near the Lincoln Memorial.

"We should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely, and we take full responsibility for it," Foys wrote in the letter cited by news outlets. "I especially apologize to Nicholas Sandmann and his family, as well as to all CovCath families who have felt abandoned during this ordeal."  Newsweek

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I had a friend once who in spite of being an Opus Dei type still had his head screwed on right most of the time.  I remember him saying that "when they send the trucks to take people to the camps for being Catholic, you should hope that your name is on the list ..."  It doesn't appear from his behavior that Foys is someone who would seek martyrdom for the faith and/or his integrity.

There are, unfortunately, far too many Catholic clergy and bishops in the US who are mere careerists, sure that THEY are the church rather than The People of God whom they seem to think of as an enormous cash cow there to be milked regularly in service of the clergy's protected lifestyle.

Foys was not alone in condemning Sandmann and the other Covington Catholic High School Students.  It seems that several other Kentucky bishops joined early in excoriating members of their flocks apparently inspired by media attacks by enemies of the Catholic Church.  For shame!

The Catholic Church in America suffers from an infestation of men who should never have been priests.  Foys seems to be an example.  pl

https://www.newsweek.com/bishop-claims-he-was-bullied-apologising-maga-teens-involved-encounter-native-1306516

The Story of Hanukkah

The story of the Maccabees is one often recounted in Catholic worship and it has always been a favorite of mine.  pl

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"The Festival of Lights' history begins almost two and a half millennia ago, when Antiochus, a Syrian king, ruled Judea. He attempted to assimilate the Jews into Greek culture, commanding them to worship Greek gods while oppressing Jewish culture and religion. One priest in particular, Mattathias, was asked to participate in a ceremony of bowing to an idol and eating the flesh of a pig, both forbidden acts. He refused, but another villager stepped forward and volunteered to do it instead. Angered, Mattathias killed the man and the officer who had asked him to take part in the ceremony. His five sons and other villagers followed suit and killed the other soldiers.

Mattathias' family went into hiding and were soon joined by a large number of Jews who wanted to fight the Greeks. A year later, Mattathias died, but before he passed away, he put his son, Judah Maccabbee, in charge. Led by Judah Maccabee and his brothers, the Jewish people, after a three-year struggle, overthrew their Syrian oppressors.

When they reclaimed Jerusalem's Temple, the Hebrews found it defiled by statues of the Greek gods and other religious artifacts. As part of their campaign of oppression, the Greeks had systematically defiled any Jewish religious item they could find. The Hebrews cleared out the foreign icons and rededicated the temple on the 25th day of Kislev. When the time came to light the N'er Tamid, the Eternal Light of the Temple, the Jews could find only one sanctified jar of oil marked with the seal of the High Priest. It was only enough to last one evening. The lamp was lit with this small jar of oil and, miraculously, stayed lit for eight days, until more oil suitable for the temple was made."

Happy Hanukkah.  pl

Jack Keane doesn't know that the Al as-Saud ARE the Wahhabis

 

"Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab had concluded a formal agreement in 1744: according to one source, Muhammad ibn Saud had declared when they first met,

"This oasis is yours, do not fear your enemies. By the name of God, if all Nejd was summoned to throw you out, we will never agree to expel you." Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab replied, "You are the settlement's chief and wise man. I want you to grant me an oath that you will struggle with me against the unbelievers. In return you will be imam, leader of the Muslim community and I will be leader in religious matters."^[12]

Ibn Saud accordingly gave his oath.^[12] The descendants of Muhammad ibn Saud, the Al Saud, continued to be the political leaders of the Saudi state in central Arabia through the 19th and into the 20th centuries, and eventually created the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.^[9] The descendants of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, on the other hand, have historically led the ulema, the body of Islamic religious leaders and scholars,^[13] and dominated the Saudi state's clerical institutions.^[14]

The agreement between Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad ibn Saud of 1744 became a "mutual support pact" and power-sharing arrangement between the Al Saud and the Al ash-Sheikh, which has remained in place for nearly 300 years.^{[15][16][17][18]} The pact between the two families, which continues to this day,^{[citation needed]} is based on the Al Saud maintaining the Al ash-Sheikh's authority in religious matters and upholding and propagating the Wahhabi doctrine. In return, the Al ash-Sheikh support the Al Saud's political authority ^[19] thereby using its religious-moral authority to legitimize the royal family's rule.^[20] In fact, each legitimizes the other.^{[citation needed]}This alliance formed in the 18th century provided the ideological impetus to Saudi expansion and remains the basis of Saudi Arabian dynastic rule today.  ^{[21]  wiki on Wahhabism}

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General (ret) Jack Keane Fox News' "Senior Strategic Analyst" said on the air yesterday that the Saudi government "needs to distance itself from the Wahhabis."  this statement displayed a breathtaking lack of knowledge and understanding of Saudi history and actual religiopolitics.

 A few thoughts:

1.  Islam as an idea system does not recognize the legitimacy of secular rule.  Most majority Islamic countries have secular government of some sort.  These governments are the result of exposure to Western political thought through colonial experiences or prolonged exposure to such thought by education in Europe or America.  That admixture of ideas does not replace the ideal of theocracy in Salafi (purist) Islamic thought which continues to hold secular rule to be impious.

2. Islamic culture does not normally legitimize the concept of kingship. (malikiya) or rule by a sultan or shah (Iran).  Islam as such seeks a worldwide Islamic community ruled by scholars and judges of the Islamic law (sharia).  A sultan is someone who merely holds actual power to control land, population and territory.  The term does not denote legitimacy from the Islamic point of view.  Islamic history is dotted with individuals with title of secular rule who claimed Islamic legitimacy because they were also head of some dissident Islamic sect. An example would be the Sultan of Oman who protects the dissident and from the Sunni point of view heretical and apostate Ibadhi sect.  The Jordanian and Moroccan kings are generally accepted as legitimate rulers only because they are believed to be Alids, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and endowed with a special barakat (grace) from God.  The Ottoman Sultan derived his supposed legitimacy from being both sultan and caliph (commanders of the faithful)  The Ottomans created this dual status in the 16th Century CE precisely because they sought a plausible claim of Islamic legitimacy as head of the 'umma.  The lack of a plausible claim to Islamic legitimacy was IMO the major weakness of the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran This weakness made possible effective resistance to them that eventually resulted in the rule of the mullahs and wilayet al faqih (rule of the scholars).

3.  The Al as-Saud (the Saudi royal family) have none of that.  As stated in the text quoted above, their claim to Islamic legitimacy derives entirely from their 300 year old relationship with the Wahhabi cult.  They and the Wahhabi 'ulema are locked in an embrace that has been until now utterly unbreakable because the general internal consent to their "kingship" is based altogether on the Al as-Saud's role as protectors of what has been seen among the Wahhabi masses as the only true form of Islam.  They and the Al as-Sheikh family are a kind of moiety, a duopoly related by function and often marriage in the control of what became Saudi Arabia in the early 20th Century.

4.  Saudi Arabia is a medieval state adorned with modern infrastructure.  Their society never experienced anything like the Renaissance that brought Europe out of the medieval mindset.  The Saudi rulers think the ideas of statehood that emerged following the Treaty of Westphalia to be a joke that the Europeans and Americans claim to believe in.  They see the rest of the world, including non-Wahhabi Muslims as "the other," enemies to be thwarted, tricked ad exploited .  The notion that they will be shamed by what Mister Bone Saw did is ludicrous.

5.  IMO Trump, Pompeo et al are seeking a way to preserve the relationship of the US with this demoniacal relic of the medieval past.  My WAG on this is that MBS and company will construct a suitable fall guy group from whom confessions will be extracted claiming them to be "rogues" and then the "conspirators" will be executed, probably in public.

6.  The Al as-Saud will then wait to see if the West is mollified.  IMO they will not accept any form of punishment for what they see as just retribution visited upon Khashoggi.  If threatened they will try to retaliate.

For those who would actually wish to understand all this I would recommend "The Social Structure of Islam" by Reuben Levy and "The Venture of Islam" 4 vols. by Marshall Hodgson.  Both these works are concerned with the high culture of Islam.

pl 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_ash-Sheikh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanbali

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism

The killers are associated with MBS

 

"On October 16^th, unnamed Turkish officials reportedly provided the Washington Post with scans of passports supposedly carried by seven men who were part of the 15-person team suspected in the disappearance and likely killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The passports add to the public information provided by Turkish officials as it seeks to fill out gaps in the narrative of what purported after Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate on October 2^nd. The Washington Post published the passports, but obscured the names and faces of the suspects, because it reportedly had no time to verify the people’s identities.

Turkey maintains that Jamal had been killed and dismembered within the Saudi Arabian consulate. It also claims that a 15-man team dispatched from Saudi Arabia played a major role in the killing. One man from the group is the head of the medical forensics department in the Saudi ministry of interior.

Turkish officials also reportedly confirmed that the 15 names reported in the Daily Sabah are the actual names of the suspects."  SF

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Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy.  There is no constitution.  There is no legislature.  Instead, there is "consultation."  There are no laws that are not royal whims or Wahhabi Hanbali Sharia.  Ah, no, my bad!  There is also 12er Sharia in the Eastern Province for the Shia second class subjects (not citizens) who live there.

Turkey clearly is intent on "outing"Saudi Arabia as the butchers who killed Khashoggi and cut up his body in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, thus preparing it for re-export to The Kingdom.

Why are the Turks doing this?  IMO, the Erdogan government wants to establish itself as the leading power in the world Islamic community, the 'Umma.  the Ottoman Sultan Caliph was effectively that in Sunni communities and Erdo seeks to "restore" Ottoman times. 

Donald Trump has one hell of a problem, largely of his own and Jared's creation, but, to be fair, also the product of 70 years of IMO misguided US insistence that the Saudis were a normal, post Treaty of Westphalia country that thought of the US as an ally rather that an alien entity to be manipulated and deceived whenever possible.

The Turks evidently really have "the goods" on MBS who is effectiely both head of state and head of government in SA.  IMO they will drive the evidence home with the world media seeking to force an acknowledgement of their position in the world by Trump.  pl

https://southfront.org/suspected-assasinators-of-khashoggi-appears-to-be-from-close-circle-of-saudi-crown-prince/

Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches to re-build sites in Syria.

"The Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches have begun implementing a plan aimed at reconstruction of Christian churches and monasteries destroyed during the years of Syrian war, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the chairman of the Department of External Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, told TASS on Saturday.

“We have taken on reconstruction, and some churches and monasteries are being rebuilt now. In particular, restoration work is nearing an end in Maaloula. It is one of the major holy sites in the Antioch Orthodox Church, a nunnery built in the location where the Aramaic language was spoken not long ago,” the bishop said. “The nuns were forced to leave the place, but we are hoping now they will be able to return.”"  AMN

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Well, pilgrims, do you think this would be happening if the jihadis and US supported semi-jihadis of the Free Syrian Army had won the war?  pl 

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/russian-orthodox-church-vatican-team-up-to-rebuild-christian-sites-in-syria/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Syria

Yemen as exemplar - Re-published 7 June 2018

"Yemeni Shi'ite Muslim Houthi fighters backed by government forces drove the local wing of al Qaeda from one of its last strongholds in central Yemen on Friday in intense fighting that killed at least 35 people, tribal sources said.

The Houthis' Ansarullah movement has become the main political force in Western-allied Yemen since capturing Sanaa in September and then pushing south and west into the Sunni Muslim heartland of al-Bayda province, where Ansar al-Sharia has allied itself with local tribes. 

Yemen has been in turmoil since 2011, to the dismay of neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, and of the Western powers who want to prevent instability in the Arabian peninsula threatening their crude supplies or giving al Qaeda a base for overseas attacks. 

Tribal sources said the Houthis had met stiff resistance as they pushed towards the village of Khobza district using Katuysha rockets and heavy artillery. 

They said at least 25 Houthis and 10 Ansar al-Sharia and tribal fighters had died in the fighting, which began on Thursday afternoon. Ansar al-Sharia and its allies withdrew to Yakla district, on the border with Maarib province."  Reuters

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Full disclosure - I was once DEFATT in Yemen at Sanaa.

 A primer on some aspects of Yemen:

- Zeidi (fiver) Shia  Muslims are so conservative (restrained) religiously that they are sometimes thought of as a fifth Sunni mathab.  Their theology and general view of the religious sciences follow the mu'tazilite tradition.  They are quite distinct from and have little allegiance to the 12er Shia in Iran, Lebanon and other scattered places.

- From a few miles south of Sanaa to the northern reaches of the country where it "borders" Saudi Arabia the country is almost altogether Zeidi Shia in population.  Those people are tough little mountaineers, who are extremely tribal in their lives and who are generally aligned in two major tribal confederations, the Baqil and the Hashid.  These tribal confederations are the real power in Yemen north of Sanaa.  they possess a lot of military equipment that was mainly stolen from the government when officers who are members of these confederations defected back to their true allegiance taking their gear and often soldiers with them.

- The former president, Ali Abdullah Salih, was a Zeidi tribesman of the Sanhan minor tribe of the Hashid confederation.

 - From Sanaa south, Yemen is primarily inhabited by much less tribal villagers who are Sunni and usually of the shafa'i mathab.  These folks are the recruiting ground for AQAP, Ansar al-Sharia and similar Sunni salafi jihadi groups for whom the Zaidi tribesmen of the north are just another kind of murtadoon (heretics) to be fought to the death.

- Further complicating the mozaic of groups that is Yemen is the lingering effect of British possession of the Aden crown colony for many years.  In the course of that period a lot of Yemenis from Aden attended such schools as the London School of Economics where they became  both atheistical  and left wing politically.  Such people are still on the scene in the cities and continue to be active in the government of a united Yemen.

- The Houthis are a Zeidi Shia reformist movement that draws solely on the Zeidi population of the north.  It does not have and cannot have any friendly relations with the Sunni jihadi groups of the south.  The movement started in the al-houthi clan and has since spread to the two major confederations of Zeidi tribesmen.  The Houthis as a cult prefer not to fight if it can be avoided and captured the capital, Sanaa, with very little violence.  Salih, a Zeidi tribesman understandably sides with the Houthis as opposed to the Sunni, left oriented people now running the government of the United Yemen.

- A government of national unity has been formed among; the Houthis and their army, the national army and the nationalist/left dominated functionaries now in office in Sanaa.  This coalition is actively and successfully fighting the Sunni jihadis.

The US government response to all this is to denounce the Houthis and Salih as interfering with stability and the integrity of the Yemeni state.  This reflects the ignorant, obsessive, insistence of the American foreign policy establishment that "one size fits all" in terms of the norms of governance across the world with the implication that the US embassies in such countries as Yemen are actually pro-consular outposts from which the ambassador/governor guides and controls the province/country in which he/she is located.  When this attitude, derived from notions of "exceptionalism," is accompanied by the IR/Poly Sci paradigm of foreign relations now so evident in the US government, the result is the noxious self-defeating  environment in which US decisions are now made.  pl  

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/14/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0IY1Q120141114

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansar_al-Sharia_(Yemen)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houthis

 

Translation of the Houthi logo:

"God is Great

Death to America

Death to Israel

Rejection by God of the Jews

Victory for Islam."

 

You should not take the words in this too seriously.  This is standard populist cant in the Muslim World.  pl

 

"Emic" and Etic" Knowledge of Reform - Re-published 5 June 2018

 

"Once you get the genie out of the bottle, you cannot predict what will happen," says Mohamed Kamal, a political science professor at Cairo University and a member of the influential Policies Secretariat in the ruling National Democratic Party.  "When you use a religious discourse, no one can counter your argument or argue against you," he says. "In that case, you'll be arguing against Islam and against the Koran. You'll no longer be a political opponent. Rather, you'll be an infidel.""  Shadid

Salman Rushdie recently wrote that the time is ripe for a transforming "Reformation" within Islam.  He said that the time had come for Muslims to see their revelation as occurring within history rather than above it.  Rushdie is probably more directly interested in the possibility of this kind of Reform than most people since he has been the target of several "fatwas" declaring him to be outside Islam, an "apostate" and therefore not protected from the wrath of the Believers.

One might ask if his opinion in this matter is shared by many of the Believers, especially since the opinion is his. There have been any number of attempts in Islamic history to place Islam on a more "rationalist" and less "pietist" course.  In the first centuries of Islam, one of the most powerful competing schools of philosophy, theology and law in the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad was that of the "Mu'taziliin" (my own peculiar transliteration).  They sought to relate the message of the Revelation to the knowledge they had acquired of classical Hellenistic and Byzantine learning through their conquests.  For a time they prospered, and there was at least one Caliph who was a member of their school of thinking.  Then, the forces of reaction came to the fore, the "Mu'taziliin" were overthrown with much bloodshed, crucifixions, beheading etc, and "pietism" became the guiding force of Sunni Islam and has  remained such to this day.  Oddly enough, the thinking of the "Mu'taziliin" survives only among the Zaidi Shia of Yemen and in Indonesia.  As I mentioned, there have any number of attempts at reform, some of them claiming large numbers of adherents, and having the protection of princes lucky enough to live beyond the reach of majority opinion.  All of them failed in the end.  As a result, Sunni Islam remains a faith so closely wedded to scripture, precedent and a consensus of conformity that it has changed little in form or doctrine in a thousand years.  It is not surprising that pious Muslims still speak of the Crusades, they are still living in the mindset of that time.  Some will argue that we are as well.  I think not.

The recent American wars against what is euphemistically called "Islamic Extremism" have placed Islam under great stress.  The survival and prosperity of the Islamic Community is always at the front of the minds of Muslims.  The level of pressure and violence against Jihadis is seen by a lot of Muslims as something that threatens to spill over into a general hostility to Muslims.  This frightens them.  As a result, there is now great ferment among the 'Ulema (scholars) of the Sunni world to include such centers of fermentation as al-Azhar and al-Zeituna in Cairo and Tunis respectively.  The relevant discussion there seek a new consensus (Ijma') centered around the question of what it means to be a Muslim in the  21st Century CE.  What could be a more important question?

Are the "moderate" Islamists of the type described in this article also seekers for a "reasonable" answer to the same question or are they just "shamming" in order to reach power so that they can impose their constipated view of religion and  law on the unfortunate inhabitants of Islamic countries?  There are a lot of Islamists (both Sunni and Shia) who wear nice, Western clothes.  A lot of them are "shamming."  The goal of every Islamist I ever met was ultimately to impose Sharia law.  Those of you who were trained in anthropology know the difference betwee "Emic," and Etic" knowledge.  This distinction is particularly important in this case.

Let us not be so foolish as to believe what they say of themselves.  Let us find the truth before we accept their words.

Pat Lang

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/07/AR2005080701000.html

Mezvinsky on Zionism - re-published 4 June 2018

 
Having read with interest David Habakkuk's article,I am motivated to write a brief comment on Zionism. (I may post another comment at another time about the advocacy of a two state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.)

Habakkuk opines categorically that "the whole Zionist enterprise was hopeless from the start." The growth and development since 1948 and the present strength of Israel, even with its internal and external problems and its oppressive policies and actions, make Habakkuk's statement wishful thinking rather than proven fact.

I am personally inclined to think (or perhaps guess) that the Zionist state will ultimately fail. As an historian , not a prophet,however,I neither believe failure is imminent nor absolutely certain to occur in the foreseeable future. I realize that United States backing and support has been essential for Israel's survival to date and will almost certainly be necessary for continued survival of that state. Although changes have occurred and are continuing to occur in United States public opinion concerning Israel, the United States government remains overwhelmingly supportive and protective of the Zionist state.

 

Twelver Shiism and Political Power by Patrick Lang - Re-published 1 June 2018

In a number of different settings I have recently heard the opinion voiced that Ithna'ashari  (Twelver) Shia 'Ulema (scholars) have traditionally chosen to hold themselves apart from political power in whatever state they have inhabited and that they believe in something akin to the Western notion of a proper separation of church and state.  Usually, the same speaker or writer will accompany this with a description of the late Ayatollah Khomeini as a "heretic" for holding a different view of this matter.  I find these positions to be inadequate in both statements for two broad reasons:

-Historically

Shiism began as a movement of the underdog in Iraq in the first century of the Islamic era.  The Arabians who defeated the Sassanian Persians at the Battle of Qadisiyah under the beduin general Muthanna believed that the spoils of empire were rightly theirs.  In Iraq they established garrison towns like Kufah and settled down there amid a captive Mesopotamian population to enjoy the fruits of victory.  To divide the "loot" they devised a list of the "entitled" called the "Diwan."  One's placement on this list determined how large an annual subvention one received.  The higher you were on the list, the bigger the share. This position was determined by a number of factors.  Most important of these were the date of your acceptance of Islam (the earlier the better) and secondly the level of your prominence in Meccan, Medinan or other Arabian society.  In conformity to one's position, a regular payment was received from the treasury (beit al-mal) of the community.  Over time more and more of the conquered population were converted to Islam, accepting in the process the many intangible benefits brought by being a member of the Islamic community. Unfortunately for them, this did not generally include inscription in the "Diwan" or the payments from the public purse that went with this.  As a result, the converted, "mawali" in Arabic felt cheated of what they thought to be their rightful share of the money.  This led to great bitterness among the "mawali" against the Arabians and especially against the "Ummayad" Arabian dynasty of Caliphs soon established in Damascus.  This bitterness led to adoption by the Mawali of the cause of the rights of the family of the Prophet whom they believed had been wrongly deprived of the succession to the leadership of the Islamic politico-religious community, the "Umma."  In the early period the family of the Prophet was represented by the Caliph Ali who the Shia incorrectly believe was murdered in Najaf by agents of the Damascus (Sunni) crowd, then by the subjugation of Hassan, Ali's son and the Prophet's grandson.  The "grand finale" for the Mawali (who were also known as “Shiat Ali – “The party (Shiat) of Ali”) was the battlefield death of Hussein, Hassan's younger brother at Karbala at the hands of the Sunni general 'Umar ibn Sa'd (of malodorous memory).  Following Hussein's death, the "Shiat Ali" (Party of Ali) were beaten into submission by the Arabian Sunni 'Ummayad Caliphs ruling from Damascus and remained a more or less permanent underclass in the 'Umma until the 16th Century C.E.  Sunni Caliphs came and went, first the 'Ummayads, then the Abbasids ruling from Baghdad.  Throughout this period, the Shia 'Ulema were deprived of political power, not because they preferred to be without political power, but because they were not able to seize it.  Islam in its pure form envisions a world theocratic state in which all aspects of life are integrated into a whole, a "seamless garment."  These Shia of the Middle Ages (al-Qurun al-Wusta) were people living as best they could in the direction of this ideal.  In this period there lived nine more leaders of the Shia community whom they considered to be "divinely selected."  They were descendants of the Prophet and thought to be vessels of special grace from God.  The Shia would have liked nothing better than to install these "Imams" as they called them in supreme political power, but they lacked the means.  The Sunni 'Ummayad, and Abbasid Caliphs stood in the way as did a variety of Sunni Turkish Sultans who often wielded the real power behind the Caliphs.  Faced with this situation, the Shia retreated into development of their religious sciences within the "Ghettos" of Najaf and Karbala and accepted the status quo with what grace they could muster.

 

A Primer on Islam - Marguerite and W. Patrick Lang

"Who are Muslims? What do they believe? Are their ideas and traditions so alien there cannot be reconciliation between them and Christianity? Are they united in their beliefs and attitudes? Are they uniformly and permanently hostile to the West? In the last five years, these have become important questions for us all. Once, the nature and theology of Islam were the concern of Orientalist scholars, but no more. 

Roots.  Islam appeared suddenly in the seventh century after the birth of Christ, emerging in a world long ravaged by war between the Christian Byzantine and the Zoroastrian Sassanian Persian empires. These two great powers had fought to a state of mutual exhaustion and were incapable of resisting armies of desert Arabs, who, driven by drought, overpopulation and faith in a new revelation brought to them by Muhammad — a merchant of the city of Mecca — swept north, east and west from the Arabian Peninsula.

According to Islamic teaching, the angel Gabriel facilitated Muhammad’s reception of maxims, which when compiled constituted the final revelation from God to a sinful world. This was the Quran, the central Islamic scripture.

For Muslims, Muhammad is the last in a long series of prophets that includes the prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus of Nazareth, whom Muslims revere as a messenger of God.

The new faith was sternly monotheistic, admitting the legitimacy of Judaism and Christianity, but holding that the Jewish tradition had been superseded by the “descent” of the Quran while Christians had misunderstood the New Testament, distorting it in such a way that they believed Jesus was one element of a triune God. Muslim intensity on this issue led many of the Church Fathers, who encountered Muslims in Syria and Egypt, to believe Islam was not a new religion, but a Christian heresy, specifically the “Arian” heresy. This was the view of St. John of Damascus, who lived at the court of the Umayyad caliphs.

 

Trump kicked the Islamic world in the teeth today, and loved doing it.

 

"President Trump said Thursday that U.S. aid to the Palestinians won't continue until they're willing to "sit down and negotiate peace."

At a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Trump said that the Palestinians "disrespected" the U.S. a week ago by not allowing Vice President Mike Pence to see them on his trip to the Middle East. He suggested, therefore, the aid money is on the table.

"This was never brought up by any negotiators," Trump said, "But it's brought up by me."

Mr. Trump alluded to his decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's official capital, breaking the U.S.'s longstanding policy that the city's final status should be determined by peace negotiations.

"We took Jerusalem off the table so we don't have to talk about it anymore," he said Thursday. "What I did with Jerusalem was my honor.""

-----------

As I have written before Trump is a total disaster in the ME.  He has no policy other than that of the extreme nationalist right in Israel.  He is evidently completely in thrall to his daughter and her Zionist husband.  Perhaps his toady behavior toward Israel is a combination of that influence and a desire to suck up to all the people in New York City who treated him with contempt and hostility for many years.

He told the world today, while sitting next to his soul mate Bibi that the Palestinians are not truly human, have no human rights and that he has "taken Jerusalem off the table" so that the Palestinians will have to settle for some portion of the Holy Land allotted to them by Bibi and company.

He took the Holy City off the table?  Who gave this man the right to do such a thing?  pl 

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-holds-bilateral-meeting-with-netanyahu-at-davos-live-stream/

The fate of Jerusalem is not a Manhattan real estate deal

 

"... we have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table.  We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don't even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel," Trump tweeted. "We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?" CNN

 

"We are not taking a position on any of the final status issues including the final boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem," Trump said last month as he made his Jerusalem announcement. "Those questions are up to the parties involved. The United States remains deeply committed to helping facilitate a peace agreement that is acceptable to both sides."

Trump's statement at the announcement was intended to reassure Palestinians and the broader Arab and Muslim world that the US was not giving away control of Jerusalem to Israel or forsaking Palestinian claims to the holy city."  CNN

 

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

 

DJT's statements concerning the effect of his recognition of the Holy City as Israel's capital are nonsensical.   The Israelis, the Palestinians, the Europeans and every Muslim in the world understand that by taking Jerusalem "off the table" DJT has effectively eliminated the possibility of a negotiation over the city that would in any way relate to the real world.

 

Evidently DJT thinks that an issue like this that concerns the essential identity and self image of millions and millions of Muslims can be handled as though the adversaries in this dispute are business people in a contract discussion.  In that setting a feature of the proposed contract that cannot be agreed on is removed from consideration so that closure can occur on the rest.

 

Well, pilgrims,  the ownership of Jerusalem is not a hotel or skyscraper deal.  Trump's evident belief that the US has hired the Palestinian people through USAID projects and budget support is altogether incorrect.  His belief that the Palestinians are effectively his employees and therefore must settle for a Bantustan created out of some part of what is left without Jerusalem is delusional.

 

The Israelis and other Zionists, like Kushner and Ivanka, have long held the Palestinians in contempt as inferior beings fit only to be cheap labor in the Israeli economy.  That they could have sold that idea to Trump is the measure of the man.  pl

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/02/politics/trump-palestinian-aid/index.html

al-ghazali would be saddened.

   

"Sufism is a strand of Islam that eschews materialism and emphasizes the inward search for God. Sufi adherents are responsible for some of Islam's most famous and beloved literature, including the poems of Rumi. Followers promote values such as tolerance and pluralism.

[Egyptian army launches air raids after at least 305 were killed country’s deadliest extremist attack]

Sufi believers can be Sunni or Shiite, though the majority of Sunni. They see Sufism less as a sect than as a way of being, a set of beliefs and practices that lead followers closer to God. “It is nothing more than the spiritual dimension,” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told the New York Times. “It is Islam, but we focus on meditation, on chanting sessions, which enable the Muslim to have his or her heart open. The myths people have about Sufis are analogous to the myths people have about Muslims.”"  Washpost 

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/25/why-muslim-extremists-attacked-this-mosque-in-egypt/?utm_term=.632f67939730

****** 

"Salafism is associated with literalist, strict and puritanical approaches to Islam. In the Western world it is often associated with the Salafist jihadism ^[2] Sufism is associated with the use of prayer, music, dance and the teachings of Sufi masters—who may serve as an intermediary between God and humans—to achieve a spiritual sense of the meaning of God.^[3]

While there are Muslims who believe that Salafism and Sufism "overlap", the "standard" Salafi response to Sufism has been called "polemical".^[4] According to various observers, Salafists have been "usually ... unrelentingly hostile to devotional Sufi practices",^[5] arguing that Sufism is "irreconcilable with true Islam",^[4] and one of the elements "corrupting" modern day Islam.^[6] Relations between the two movements have been described as one with "battle lines drawn",^[7] or a "rift" found in "practically every Muslim country",^[8] and in "the Muslim diasporic communities of the West"^[9] as well."  wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi%E2%80%93Salafi_relations

*******

 "Sufis were characterized by their asceticism, especially by their attachment to dhikr, the practice of remembrance of God, often performed after prayers.^[16] They gained adherents among a number of Muslims as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad Caliphate (661–750)^[17] and have spanned several continents and cultures over a millennium, originally expressing their beliefs in Arabic before spreading into Persian, Turkish, and Urdu among dozens of other languages.^[18] According to William Chittick, "In a broad sense, Sufism can be described as the interiorization, and intensification of Islamic faith and practice."   wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism

-------

The great Muslim scholar al-Ghazali successfully devised an argument for reconciliation between the intensely personal devotion of the early sufis of the Abbasid period and the pietist, scripture obsessed majority who wrested control of the caliphate from the Mu'tazila faction of scholars.  The Mu'tazila argued for what might be called an adaptationist understanding of Islam in which the Gate of Ijtihad (new understandings) would never close.  The Mu'tazila had been the dominant force in Sunni Muslim thinking during the reign of several caliphs but were bested politically and lost all influence.

Having accomplished this the pietists turned their attention to the sufis of the day.  There was a great persecution in which sufis were crucified, burned alive, dismembered alive and so forth.  al-ghazali stopped this by successfully arguing that the claim of the sufis to know and experience God was not blasphemy as the pietists insisted but rather was a description of experience of the reflection of God's nature in his creations. (Reflection of a  lamp in a window, etc.)  This made sufis tolerable to Sunnis in general.  (They were  almost always tolerable to Shia muslims) 

Now the wahhabi salafi takfiris have revived the persecution of the sufis.  My SWAG would be that this congregation were of the  Shadhili tariqa.  They are numerous in that part of Egypt and many of them are of a beduin tribe who understandably has resisted the IS devils.  There will be more abominations like this.

If my explanation does not satisfy specialists in these phenomena I can only say that I am not writing for them.  pl 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadhili

"The jihadi war will last forever." - Republished 4 June 2017

I have been asked to put something up that states my position as to "why they hate us."  I have written a lot about this kind of thing.  you can find all that in the SST archive.  pl

-------------
Implicit in the rhetoric concerning this new phase of anti-jihadi warfare is the notion that "jihadism" is a passing phenomenon that can be destroyed and which will disappear as irrelevant to "modern" life.  It is also said that jihadism is "un-Islamic," a distortion and misrepresentation of a great religion.  In fact, jihadism is inherent in some views of what Islam is.

Islam, as I have often said, is a religion of laymen.  It has no hierarchy, no clergy, no sacraments.  There are only groups of Muslims of varying size who agree on what Islam and most especially what Islamic religious law (sharia) is.  This process of forming consensus (ijma') groups is endless and inevitable.  Some will say that Shia Islam has a hierarchy.  It does not.  In fact, The howza ("college" of Shia scholars) is merely another expression of consensus, in this case of consensus among scholars "elected" by acclamation from among their fellows.  The "authority" created by such acclamation is fleeting as each man's opinions are automatically disregarded after his death.  Much the same thing is true of the great Ulema (scholars) of Sunni Islam.

Therefore, for one group of Muslims, however large, to say that the consensus of some other group of Muslims is invalid or "un-Islamic" is merely vanity on a grand scale.  That is particularly true if the smaller, armed and violent jihad inclined group of Muslims are willing to fight, kill and die for their views.  Perfumed and elegantly dressed Muslim ladies are frquently heard expressing such disapproval of jihadis.  More vanity is expressed in this.  More vanity.

The spokesmen for the various parts of the US governnment are now engaged in telling the world that this unfavored group or that unfavored group are un-Islamic or the like.  More vanity.

The corpus of Islamic scripture contained in the Qur'an and the wildly varying collections of hadith (traditions of the early Muslims) is so vast that it contains ample justification for any sort of view desired.

We can kill our way to a state of relative quiet in which the jihadi impulse is suppressed for some time, perhaps a long time but that is all we can do.  Until the Muslims taken as a whole themselves see the futility of the unending struggle against the kuffar (unbelievers) we will always face the prospect of more violent jihad.  pl

He is Risen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI6dsMeABpU

pl

The nature and varieties of Islam - WP Lang - Re-published 20 Februry 2017

 

 Download CNEWA ArticleonIslam

Download Varieties of Islamic Faith revised II

Download Islamic Religion and Arab Culture

Seems like a good time to re-publish some of this.  I am the author of this material.  pl 

Deplorable in Paris - by Fred

A journey in the cold snows of winter, to the land of my forebears. A light snow fell as I walk to the cathedral my ancestors prayed in before they embarked on their journey to a new life in the New World. A day much like this; at the end of one year, before the birth of the new. Long ago when the world was lit only by fire.

I wonder what they would make of the lights of ours? Electric lamps and guards before the door to the house of God. They would recognize what was within; the joy at the birth of the hope of salvation. Even now, in the winter of such contentment, the song and the joy remains the same.

Such was the day on my arrival in the City of Light that Christmas Day. A chill wind and soft snow with just enough warmth to threaten a thaw. No throngs of gawking tourists; just a long, thin, line of worshipers moving ever forward past the barriers and the watchful eyes of the CRS. Few seats were vacant. Only a few were filled with visitors from distant lands. A sermon in French and in Latin. My ancestors would recognize the temper of our times.

Such a different day, just two days later, at that other cathedral of the City, St. Sulpice. A paved road stretches forth from the Luxembourg Gardens to Place Saint Sulpice. 

Guards and tourists too at one end. At the other? No throngs at the door, no CRS, no guards visible at all. A few tourists, a few parishioners. Just we few, we happy few. Lost souls hearing the echo of the Word. The soft baa, baaing of the black sheep is heard within the cathedral, though most do not know their condition, nor how close damnation - or salvation, lies. For there at the edge of the Nave stood Mephistopheles with - a bag of cookies. His hand out stretched in temptation to his pupils. His eyes gleaming as he tempts in mockery of the communion.

How close to evil we come, so close, when an anger equal to that of pagan Achilles rises in our breast. Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil, so goes the prayer. A softer passion moved me. I took a few short steps when at the edge of the transept I was brought to a stop by what I beheld at a nativity display. Just beyond the velvet rope, stretched out full length, giving coins and prayers to the baby Jesus, a woman of middling age. Tears ran down her faces; and down the faces of the French women who stood in amazement, in compassion. They crossed themselves and spoke soft prayers to God. Life played out before me in all its sadness and hope and glory. The third calendar day from the one we mark as the birth of our savior. A trinity indeed.

It was a short walk, though one long in contemplation, toward the Cluny and the Medieval Age. How did Goethe put it? Das Ewig Weibliche zieht uns hinan?  Long I stood in contemplation in front of her. “I’m with her” has such different meaning here.

Hours later a different longing, a secular one? A primal one? Growling out, from the stomach. A simple longing, for mothers cooking? Such a shift from food for thought, and the soul. I ventured out again, on a different road, one well paved, well traveled:


A few turns, a darkened street, a single lite. So much like that first night in France, in the century passed. 

Here it lies, just beyond....an adventure.

This must be the place, for romance, 

for, shall I say it, dinner?

Mmm, mm.  A full day, a full belly, satiated I journeyed forth again, to find just how late the hour.

Even the night owls had ventured home to bed. An example I was looking forward to follow. Just a few steps more, a minute or two only from this very cafe. It was then, so unsuspectingly, at the very threshold of the Inn that I was set upon so suddenly - by a fierce beast with black hair and white fangs. I thought can it be, the hound, the Hound of the Baskervilles!? Why here is the scoundrel:

Well, he is a hound. More Puppy of Paris than diabolical beast. Lemon (pronounced the French way) the Puppy of Paris. Well there is only one thing to do after being set upon by such as he. Uphold the tradition - of Americans abroad. I took him (with the owners permission)  into the courtyard for a round of fetch. It was then the urge struck me; and yes, I did the deed, just like so long ago with Lil' Yeller. I taught a young dog a new trick. There were some hastily concealed smiles, betrayed by flashing eyes, from the ladies behind the counter when they heard young Lemon sound forth the proper greeting to the master when he returns home: "Baarrrooooo!".  I wonder how that greeting sounds in French? At least in the future no one will mistake him for a puppy. I know, it was, in a word, Deplorable.

Thus concluded the most important events in the tale of a winter journey. 

The limestone bench is still there ...

"Researchers have continued their investigation into the site where the body of Jesus Christ is traditionally believed to have been buried, and their preliminary findings appear to confirm that portions of the tomb are still present today, having survived centuries of damage, destruction, and reconstruction of the surrounding Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City.

The most venerated site in the Christian world, the tomb today consists of a limestone shelf or burial bed that was hewn from the wall of a cave. Since at least 1555, and most likely centuries earlier, the burial bed has been covered in marble cladding, allegedly to prevent eager pilgrims from removing bits of the original rock as souvenirs.

When the marble cladding was first removed on the night of October 26, an initial inspection by the conservation team from the National Technical University of Athens showed only a layer of fill material underneath. However, as researchers continued their nonstop work over the course of 60 hours, another marble slab with a cross carved into its surface was exposed. By the night of October 28, just hours before the tomb was to be resealed, the original limestone burial bed was revealed intact."  National Geographic Society

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

Having been in the edicule many times, including once on the company of a Chief of Staff of the IDF (Amnon Lipkin-Shahak), I find this very interesting. 

The basilica of the Holy Sepulchre is a purpose built building constructed in the time of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to cover the sites of the rocky knob of Golgotha and the nearby site of the "rock cut tomb."  There had earlier been a much larger church built in the time of Constantine the Great.  This had been destroyed by the Fatimid Caliph Hakim the Mad who was the Shia ruler of Egypt and Palestine.  Hakim had also destroyed a previous version of the edicule by having workmen break it down with sledge hammers.  That being the case there was little expectation that anything would be left of the tomb itself.  This is a massive surprise.

There is a rival tomb site outside the medieval walls of Jerusalem.  Evangelical Christians find the basilica to be too medieval for their taste and prefer the other site.  I find the archaeology that supports the basilica as the site of the crucifixion and entombment to be convincing.  Much of it was done by very competent and well trained Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land.  In recent years a lot of secular European scholars have been involved and they seem to be unanimous in accepting the basilica as the correct site.

At the time of Jesus the site was a quarry just outside the walls of the city.  Several hillocks of stone had been left standing in the quarry because of the poor quality of the stone in them.  Some of these had been made into stone tombs for well off Jews.  There were also more tombs carved into the perimeter of the depressed area that was the quarry.  Those are still there and I have explored a good many of them.  One of the existing tombs is said to have been donated by a sympathizer for Jesus' burial.  One of the stone hillocks was used by the Romans for crucifixions.  For this purpose they cut square shafts in the top so that the butt of a cross could be put in them.  Fifty years or so after the death of Jesus the walls of Jerusalem were expanded and the site was then within the walls.   After the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity, Constantine built his immense church on the site.  In the process, the stone walls of the tomb were trimmed back as was the hill of Golgotha.  That was done to make the site more convenient architecturally.  A small building was put up over what remained of the tomb.  This was the first of four edicules.

The basilica was under the sole control of the RC Church and the Franciscans from the time of the Ayyubids until the Ottoman government decided in the 18th Century to divide control among its various Christian dhimmi populations.

I am a member of the papally protected order of chivalry that is entrusted with the welfare of the basilica and other Christian interests in Holy Land.  pl 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/jesus-christ-tomb-burial-church-holy-sepulchre/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre

The Russians and Sultan Tayyip?

 

It is not clear to me what, if anything, the Russians and Sultan Tayyip have agreed on.  The battle east of Aleppo City out on the green plains of the fertile crescent seems a muddle.  I don't see evidence of Russian participation, for or against the Turkish invasion of north Syria.

The offended party in the muddle, other than the Kurds themselves, seems to the US.  Joe Biden was treated like a dog by Erdogan, and rose to the occasion by licking his master's hand and attempting to order what he evidently thought were other (Kurdish) dogs back to their kennel east of the Euphrates.  It seems that the public example from Havana and Riyadh of how to deal with the Obamanites was absorbed at the renovated Sublime Porte.   And now Obama plans to meet with Erdogan privately?  He plans to do what, talk him down out of the tree?  Obama is a city boy.  He will find that this quarry has the measure of him. 

The Russians are a different matter.  They threw Erdogan a bone in lifting Russian tourism restrictions on people who want to go to Turkey.  If they try to pressure Russia by not honoring the Montreux Convention on passage of the straits, they risk war with their northern neighbor.  If they send their own forces into NW Syria they risk war with the Russian expeditionary force fighting as part of R+6.  If they keep sending their surrogates into Idlib Province to be chopped up by R+6 they weaken their hand generally in the Syria struggle.

OTOH, if they seem to cooperate with Russia, the potential gains could be great even if their promises are false. 

The sausage making machine at the SW corner of Aleppo City grinds on.  If I were in command there I would want to continue that for a while until I estimated that exhaustion of means and will had set in on the unicorn/jihadi side.  At that point I would go over to the offensive and pursue, pursue, pursue ... 

At the same time, the unicorn/jihadi position seems to be collapsing around Damascus.  Interesting.  pl         

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21689871-under-recep-tayip-erdogan-and-his-ak-party-turkey-has-become-richer-and-more-confident

http://www.agsiw.org/gulf-islamists-praise-erdogan-victory-prophesy-revival-of-the-ummah