Cheney is his usual culture of fear self. He starts talking about the nuclear deal and then regresses into regime change in Iran. 

He hasn't anything valuable to add.

Good news, the Continental Army had better readiness than the USA military today. See, all we really need is a tower with lanterns at the ready and every man with a musket. I knew Dick would have the answer.

When the Republicans accept the dissing of the USA by Cheney I really don't want to hear how the Left has the corner on hating America.

There is no consolidated forces to oppose Assad. The migration is because of the anarchy not direct threats from Assad.

September 8, 2015

New Zealand (click here) should take only women and children refugees from Syria and tell the men to return home and fight, NZ First leader Winston Peters says.
Asked about the Government's decision to bring in an emergency intake of 600 Syrian refugees over three years, Mr Peters reiterated his position that more refugees should be settled - but only if immigration levels were significantly reduced....

September 8, 2015
By Andrea Vance

Migrants headed to Germany on foot walk along a motorway in Roszke, Hungary on Monday.

The head of Auckland University's Islamic Studies Research Unit (click here) says comments by Winston Peters on male refugees are "irresponsible".
The NZ First leader said the Syrian refugees should be sent back to "fight for the freedom" of their country.
In welcoming a move by the Government to offer 600 emergency places to Syrian refugees, Peters said, "I think we can do better, but we can't while we've got mass immigration....

The problem with Syria is simply the fact the only consolidated militia/military is Assad's forces. There is no consolidation of forces anywhere else in Syria. Each settlement in Syria has it's own leadership. Daesh has not been successful in it's ability to amass larger forces under a single leader. Every camp sight along any road has it's own militia.

The large destruction of cultural icons, such as Palmyra, is as much an attempt to intimidate other groups as well as instilling Daesh as an authority without question of power. The civil war in Syria has created a struggle for survival as well as complete disruption of borders.

..."At the moment in Syria, and Iraq as well, I've seen figures of up to 1000 different rebel groups fighting. So, when you say go back and fight for your freedom - which one of these groups do you want them to join?...

The idea the struggle for power in Syria should bring sympathy is misplaced though. The migration of people out of the region into Europe has to be met with skepticism as well as compassion. There is simply no authority in Syria as there is anarchy.

In leaving Syria the migrants are finding safety. Inside Syria they face death by any number of groups and outside Syria and Iraq there is safety. Russia is backing Assad simply because there is no viable authority otherwise. The power sharing government may be met with nothing but figure heads stating they are the Free Syrian Army. If the opposition to Assad is to have a power sharing government it is a question as to how much stability can the Free Syrian Army bring to Syria?

There may be no adequate sovereignty of the Free Syrian Army. The training of that group in Saudi Arabia is proving to be a worthless effort. When McCain went to Syria to establish an opposition force to Assad there was no consolidation of any military strength, it was all a facade with no muscle. The leadership is getting a paycheck without authority.

...A decision on the humanitarian intake will be announced on Wednesday after advice is taken from Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who has been in talks with UNHCR officials in Paris and Geneva over the past two days....

The UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) is asking for commitments from all governments to disperse the load of migration from Syria. It is not a bad idea since any threat of receiving dangerous people from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan will be diluted in the randomness of location. Migrants cannot consolidate power if they are scattered and diffuse. If anything, family groups will probably remain together which would bring far better organization to end the chaos they are leaving behind.

Each country is going to have a challenge to bring order to this migration. The less resources a country has the more help they will need from the UN mission otherwise there is a potential for increased anarchy in any receiving country. That was Hungary's concern. "How does it contain disorder within it's borders if migrants were simply allowed to wander the country and it's population?"

When the migrants organized a walk, the ability of Hungary's security forces became more concentrated on a single direction movement. Hungary was correct, even if appearing a lack of sympathy, in containing the scattering of migrants throughout the country.

Simply said, the migrants have the sheer potential to cause anarchy and far more of a military response if they conduct their presence in anger rather than resolve to accept foreign control of their plight.

The West's first response to the Syrian situation and migration is compassion and understandably so, but, that compassion does no one any good if it results in a disastrous outcome. Citizens are going to have to accept the authority of it's own government to end this crisis regardless of how the rest of their neighbors view it. 

There is a question regarding the migration. Why and how can a family member return to Syria to bury the dead after fearing his own survival in order to migrate? I find that curious.

The refugee/migrant crisis has sparked greater action from The West as well as Russia.

Australia has been struggling with their own citizens finding sympathy with Daesh. The migrant crisis is causing most countries, especially democracies, to reassess the threat.

September 8, 2015

Mark Kenny and David Wroe

 

The Abbott government (click here) was expected on Tuesday night to green-light bombing runs against Islamic State targets in Syria, but the question of how many refugees Australia should take from the millions escaping the war-ravaged country has exposed ugly divisions in the Coalition party room.
While most Coalition MPs want decisive action on the crisis, some counsel against it and pressure is mounting internally for priority selection of "persecuted minorities".
Advocates of a non-discriminatory policy say this is code for helping Christians at the expense of others such as Muslims.
Among the ministers advocating a Christians-first policy were Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Senate leader Eric Abetz....

Australia has never backed away from questioning actions against citizens known to sympathize with Daesh. Nor have Australians questioned that tone within their country.

There really is far less sympathy for migrants in most of The West's leadership, regardless, of the concern by citizens.  The issue in Hungry was really about what is possible to contain the movement of migrants and not the moral dilemma. 

Cameran has been alluding to this over the past week.

More of less the migrants will impose a more urgent use against any chance Daesh leadership will find a way back home. That is the unspoken concern with the migrant problem; what to do with known citizens that have already committed treason by fighting in a foreign war with an enemy identified as dangerous to the homeland.

Most anyone would recognize this photo from months ago. Reyaad Khan is on the left.

September 8, 2015

Britain's defense minister (click here) on Tuesday said the United Kingdom was prepared to launch more drone strikes in Syria, even against its own British nationals, if there was no other way of keeping the country's streets safe from terrorists.
Britain confirmed Monday that Royal Air Force drone strikes killed two Islamic State militants — both British citizens — in Syria who were planning attacks against Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and other targets.
The attacks were the first confirmed RAF drone strikes on British nationals....

The USA is somewhat removed from the migrant crisis than the experience and concern of Europe and other allies in the region. The bizarre nature of Daesh is it's willingness to kill anyone not pleasing to it's dictator. That reality is what brings no sympathy to a militia otherwise would be viewed as part of the rebel force involved in a civil war in Syria.

7 September 2015
Shiv Malik, Alice Ross, Steve Morris and Nadia Khomami

Reyaad Khan, an Islamic State militant from Wales who once aspired to be the UK’s first Asian prime minister has instead become the first Briton to be killed by the RAF outside a British warzone.
In a statement to parliament, David Cameron confirmed that Khan died in the targeted drone strike near Raqqa, Syria on 21 August. Travelling in the same car as Khan was another Briton, Ruhul Amin, 26, who was also killed.
Both Khan and Amin had appeared in an Isis recruitment video in June 2014 alongside Cardiff-born Nasser Muthana, arguing the case for Isis. In the video, titled There Is No Life Without Jihad, Amin called on his fellow western Muslims to join Isis in Syria. “Are you willing to sacrifice the fat job you’ve got, the big car, the family you have?,” he said. “If you do Allah will give you back 700 times more.”...

OMG, Hillary Clinton can actually be a great President.

A private server is a non-issue.

Hillary Clinton did the country a favor by maintaining a server that was actually secure. The USA has been completely failed in IT. The federal government spends huge amounts of money on military hardware while the same barbarians don't spend a dime to cutting edge computer hardware.

The idea that Hillary Clinton when Secretary of State was undermining national security is a complete lie. 

It is amazing the money the federal government spends on military ideology in the F35 while the entire computer network is in the stone age. 

The entire idea Hillary Clinton was a bad girl for having a private computer server in her basement is stupidity. It doesn't even begin to address the huge favor she did the USA. It makes complete sense he would hire an employee of the State Department to set up a secure server. The employee knows the government and the best way a private server could serve the country. 

The federal computer infrastructure has proven to be completely incompetent. It showed up like a sore thumb when states tried to tie their state system into the federal interface with the federal health care hardware and software. It's stupidity to try to carry on a competent office with international relationships based on the federal .GOV infrastructure. In doing so Hillary Clinton should have published all her correspondence on an open blog. It would have been as secure as the federal system has been. 

If USA news agencies were actually interested in providing information to the electorate regarding the confusion surrounding Hillary Clinton's emails, which they rolled out, they would have told the American public that a day doesn't go by where Homeland Security is not issuing alerts to computer infrastructure.

Realize that Homeland Security has it's hands full everyday and then realize Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State actually had NO PROBLEMS with leaks of any information on her private server.

The entire idea that Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State would allow any problems to infiltrate this country's best interest or any other country the State Department has contact is completely unfounded.

OMG there is a private server.

OMG there are emails now redacted.

OMG we actually can carry on and on and on to undermine her election to President of the USA. 

OMG this entire scenario is so completely stupid.

OMG George W. Bush was right, email is the work of the devil. 

Back in 2007, the White House "lost" more than five million private emails. The story was barely covered  

Even for a Republican White House (click here) that was badly stumbling through George W. Bush’s sixth year in office, the revelation on April 12, 2007 was shocking. Responding to congressional demands for emails in connection with its investigation into the partisan firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the White House announced that as many as five million emails, covering a two-year span, had been lost.

The emails had been run through private accounts controlled by the Republican National Committee and were only supposed to be used for dealing with non-administration political campaign work to avoid violating ethics laws. Yet congressional investigators already had evidence private emails had been used for government business, including to discuss the firing of one of the U.S. attorneys. The RNC accounts were used by 22 White House staffers, including then-Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, who reportedly used his RNC email for 95 percent of his communications....

If I was a Secretary of State coming into office following this disaster of an administration, I'd have a private server set up by an employee of the State Department, too. Hillary Clinton could not wait four years to get the computer infrastructure up to date to carry out her work. 

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster 

"Okeydoke"

Leave it to FOX News to completely ignore the American workers, never say the word union except in relation to the 'union of a man and woman' and bring in the USA military, the ultimate union, to define Labor Day as one of military concern. Amazing.

Labor Day, (click here) the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

"Good Night, Moon"

The Waning Crescent

23.8 days old

32.4 percent lit











There is a lot going on in 2015 with the Moon. September is an especially busy month.

No more ritual deaths in the USA.

The Holy Father will be starting his visit to the USA on September 22, 2015 in Washington, DC. (click here)

I want to mention "Years of Living Dangerously" has received an Academy Award in 2014 (click here).

I'll finish up the Pope's Encyclical Letter next week. He is a great man. There is no doubt he is among the most noteworthy Popes of our time. 

But, I want to bring focus to a passage from a book written by James Baldwin in 1961 entitled "Nobody, Knows My Name." The New York Times was the only newspaper that reviewed it in 1961. 

July 2, 1961
By Irving Howell

Twelve years (click here) ago a young Negro writer named James Baldwin printed an impassioned essay. "Everybody's Protest Novel," in which he attacked the kind of fiction from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to "Native Son," that had been written in America about the sufferings of Negroes. The "protest novel," said Baldwin, began with sympathy for the Negro but soon had a way of enclosing him in the tones of hatred and violence he had experienced all his life; and so choked up was it with indignation, it failed to treat the Negro as a particular human being. "The failure of the protest novel * * * lies in its insistence that it is [man's] categorization alone which is real and which cannot be transcended."... 

The 1960s was a turbulent time in the USA, but, it produced a greater nation.

"Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one identity, the end of safety. And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will bring forth, one clings to what one knew, or thought one knew; to what one possessed or dreamed that one possessed. Yet it is only when one is able, without bitterness or self pity to surrender a dream one has long cherished, or a privilege one has long possessed that one is set free - That one has set oneself free - For higher dreams, for greater privileges." - James Baldwin

That particular paragraph is appropriate for many, many reasons this week. At this moment in time on Earth a black life from the past mattered and is the best messenger of the change the world is experiencing and the worry about the future.

During the past 7-days, (click here) heavy rain (in excess of 2 inches) fell across portions of the Southern Atlantic Coast region (especially the Florida peninsula, and the coasts of both Georgia and the Carolinas), the coastal ranges and Cascades of the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, Maine, and the southern Alaska Panhandle. Heavy rain also fell in portions of east-central Puerto Rico, in association with what was Tropical Storm Erika. Larger-scale areas of moderate precipitation (0.5-2 inches) were reported in the Southwest, remaining portions of the coastal ranges and Cascades of the Pacific Northwest, portions of both the Rockies and Great Plains, the north-central Mississippi Valley, the interior Southeast, parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and New England. Moderate precipitation was also reported across interior Alaska and the Seward Peninsula, the northern Alaska Panhandle, and much of the remainder of Puerto Rico.

There is some progress in the fires. The fire teams are finding success in their hard work. The current expense of fire fighting is using up 50 percent of the US Forestry budget. Where are these folks going to find vital funding to restore the forest with young trees?

National Interagency Coordination Center (click here)
Incident Management Situation Report
Sunday, September 6, 2015
0530MT 
National Preparedness Level 4

Community. Responsibility. Expression of a oneness.

V. CIVIC AND POLITICAL LOVE 

228. Care for nature is part of a lifestyle which includes the capacity for living together and communion. Jesus reminded us that we have God as our common Father and that this makes us brothers and sisters. Fraternal love can only be gratuitous; it can never be a means of repaying others for what they have done or will do for us. That is why it is possible to love our enemies. This same gratuitousness inspires us to love and accept the wind, the sun and the clouds, even though we cannot control them. In this sense, we can speak of a “universal fraternity”.

229. We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it. We have had enough of immorality and the mockery of ethics, goodness, faith and honesty. It is time to acknowledge that light-hearted superficiality has done us no good. When the foundations of social life are corroded, what ensues are battles over conflicting interests, new forms of violence and brutality, and obstacles to the growth of a genuine culture of care for the environment. 

230. Saint Therese of Lisieux invites us to practise the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship. An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness. In the end, a world of exacerbated consumption is at the same time a world which mistreats life in all its forms. 

231. Love, overflowing with small gestures of mutual care, is also civic and political, and it makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world. Love for society and commitment to the common good are outstanding expressions of a charity which affects not only relationships between individuals but also “macro-relationships, social, economic and political ones”.[156] That is why the Church set before the world the ideal of a “civilization of love”.[157] Social love is the key to authentic development: “In order to make society more human, more worthy of the human person, love in social life – political, economic and cultural – must be given renewed value, becoming the constant and highest norm for all activity”.[158] In this framework, along with the importance of little everyday gestures, social love moves us to devise larger strategies to halt environmental degradation and to encourage a “culture of care” which permeates all of society. When we feel that God is calling us to intervene with others in these social dynamics, we should realize that this too is part of our spirituality, which is an exercise of charity and, as such, matures and sanctifies us.

232. Not everyone is called to engage directly in political life. Society is also enriched by a countless array of organizations which work to promote the common good and to defend the environment, whether natural or urban. Some, for example, show concern for a public place (a building, a fountain, an abandoned monument, a landscape, a square), and strive to protect, restore, improve or beautify it as something belonging to everyone. Around these community actions, relationships develop or are recovered and a new social fabric emerges. Thus, a community can break out of the indifference induced by consumerism. These actions cultivate a shared identity, with a story which can be remembered and handed on. In this way, the world, and the quality of life of the poorest, are cared for, with a sense of solidarity which is at the same time aware that we live in a common home which God has entrusted to us. These community actions, when they express self-giving love, can also become intense spiritual experiences.

Interesting. Pope Francis believes in science. Senator Sanders is Jewish. They agree.

Everything Senator Inhofe speaks of is money. Expense. How everyone needs cheap power. He is mired completely in the cost of being responsible. He doesn't want to be responsible. He wants to be cheap. 

Senator Inhofe wants to demonize, 'the guy out there,' Tom Steyer (click here). Senator Sanders stated as long as Senator Inhofe would entering slanderous comments about a man who left his hedge fund career to take up responsibility for the environment (something Pope Francis is advocating) he would enter information about the private company of the Koch Brothers (click here). 

Senator Sanders is advocating responsibility. Senator Inhofe is advocating cheap energy. He never states his crony affections in Oklahoma, but, instead wants to continue subsidies to the petroleum industry so the energy is cheap to his electorate. That is called corruption. 

Pope Franicis wants the faithful to live in the real world. To measure one's self against reality and 'the moment.'

IV. JOY AND PEACE 

222. Christian spirituality proposes an alternative understanding of the quality of life, and encourages a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption. We need to take up an ancient lesson, found in different religious traditions and also in the Bible. It is the conviction that “less is more”. A constant flood of new consumer goods can baffle the heart and prevent us from cherishing each thing and each moment. To be serenely present to each reality, however small it may be, opens us to much greater horizons of understanding and personal fulfilment. Christian spirituality proposes a growth marked by moderation and the capacity to be happy with little. It is a return to that simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us, to be spiritually detached from what we possess, and not to succumb to sadness for what we lack. This implies avoiding the dynamic of dominion and the mere accumulation of pleasures. 

When the expression "Less is more" is used in the political paradigm of the USA it means there are cuts to such programs as Food Stamps. No lie. No joke. The self-righteous Republicans will state there are plenty of church organizations running collections of food that cuts to such programs won't matter and everything will be fine.

The Holy Father asks Catholics to look into their lives of consumerism and to do more with less. He asks this for very solid reasons that are environmental. Consumerism requires energy. Now, either consumers demand clear energy that will not cause warming of Earth or they simply don't have all the trappings of modernism in their lives in order to cut down on the use of energy sources harming other people.

He sincerely means this. He is not writing empty words for his own historical attempts at spiritual purity. Pope Francis is not a man of extravagance. He has demonstrated his humility in front of the world. He expects those that follow him to take notice of his example.

 223. Such sobriety, when lived freely and consciously, is liberating. It is not a lesser life or one lived with less intensity. On the contrary, it is a way of living life to the full. In reality, those who enjoy more and live better each moment are those who have given up dipping here and there, always on the look-out for what they do not have. They experience what it means to appreciate each person and each thing, learning familiarity with the simplest things and how to enjoy them. So they are able to shed unsatisfied needs, reducing their obsessiveness and weariness. Even living on little, they can live a lot, above all when they cultivate other pleasures and find satisfaction in fraternal encounters, in service, in developing their gifts, in music and art, in contact with nature, in prayer. Happiness means knowing how to limit some needs which only diminish us, and being open to the many different possibilities which life can offer. 

Ever reflect on ones own spiritual poverty? That is what Pope Francis is writing about. He has great empathy for the poor. But, he is now demanding all God's children to understand the spiritual poverty that exists in the kind of life that has allowed such tragedy on Earth. He called it a desert. These paragraphs are more depth and direction for the faithful. 

224. Sobriety and humility were not favourably regarded in the last century. And yet, when there is a general breakdown in the exercise of a certain virtue in personal and social life, it ends up causing a number of imbalances, including environmental ones. That is why it is no longer enough to speak only of the integrity of ecosystems. We have to dare to speak of the integrity of human life, of the need to promote and unify all the great values. Once we lose our humility, and become enthralled with the possibility of limitless mastery over everything, we inevitably end up harming society and the environment. It is not easy to promote this kind of healthy humility or happy sobriety when we consider ourselves autonomous, when we exclude God from our lives or replace him with our own ego, and think that our subjective feelings can define what is right and what is wrong. 

I don't see this as a matter of radical change. I see this as a call for awareness AND MOVEMENT. Pope Francis is asking the faithful to come to terms of their own willingness to ignore what they believe they have no control over. Lacking personal control is an excuse from Pope Francis. He understands God and the faith, his demands are just and reasonable. He wants the faithful to reach more deeply into a life of dedication to GOODNESS on the path of faithfulness. It is not about prayers alone, although there are two prayers within this document to help personal reflection. It is about changing the way we do things without excuses. He stated to view the world from within and not without. Pope Francis firmly believes spiritual reflection will change the world. I believe he is correct. A person can change their world when they live what they believe. 

225. On the other hand, no one can cultivate a sober and satisfying life without being at peace with him or herself. An adequate understanding of spirituality consists in filling out what we mean by peace, which is much more than the absence of war. Inner peace is closely related to care for ecology and for the common good because, lived out authentically, it is reflected in a balanced lifestyle together with a capacity for wonder which takes us to a deeper understanding of life. Nature is filled with words of love, but how can we listen to them amid constant noise, interminable and nerve-wracking distractions, or the cult of appearances? Many people today sense a profound imbalance which drives them to frenetic activity and makes them feel busy, in a constant hurry which in turn leads them to ride rough-shod over everything around them. This too affects how they treat the environment. An integral ecology includes taking time to recover a serene harmony with creation, reflecting on our lifestyle and our ideals, and contemplating the Creator who lives among us and surrounds us, whose presence “must not be contrived but found, uncovered”.[155] 

Spirituality can be revealed in the moment and not in things. Spirituality is a matter of thought and not materialism. It can only be REVEALED with contemplation. Sincere seeking often brings people to their leaders, in this case priests. Those that already made the trip. 

226. We are speaking of an attitude of the heart, one which approaches life with serene attentiveness, which is capable of being fully present to someone without thinking of what comes next, which accepts each moment as a gift from God to be lived to the full. Jesus taught us this attitude when he invited us to contemplate the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, or when seeing the rich young man and knowing his restlessness, “he looked at him with love” (Mk 10:21). He was completely present to everyone and to everything, and in this way he showed us the way to overcome that unhealthy anxiety which makes us superficial, aggressive and compulsive consumers. 

227. One expression of this attitude is when we stop and give thanks to God before and after meals. I ask all believers to return to this beautiful and meaningful custom. That moment of blessing, however brief, reminds us of our dependence on God for life; it strengthens our feeling of gratitude for the gifts of creation; it acknowledges those who by their labours provide us with these goods; and it reaffirms our solidarity with those in greatest need.

Revelations is amassed in symbolism. The lion is Jesus Christ and the lamb is he being given to mankind for their slaughter.

I am going to take this opportunity to clear up some language from the bible.

There is sometimes said there is a 'sign' from God in Revelations that precedes the apocalypse or culling of souls.

That is incorrect.

The passage appears in Isaiah 11:6 and there are as many differences in the wording as their are bibles.(click here)  But, this blog has been quoting "The American Standard" and this is the passage:

American Standard Version
And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

New American Standard 1977
And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
            And the leopard will lie down with the kid,
            And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
            And a little boy will lead them.

But, I found this scholarly intepretation of the experssion the best:

Question: "How should we understand the Lion and the Lamb passage?"

Answer: Typically, when someone is thinking of the “lion and the lamb,” Isaiah 11:6 is in mind due to it often being misquoted, “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together.” The true “Lion and the Lamb” passage is Revelation 5:5–6. The Lion and the Lamb both refer to Jesus Christ. He is both the conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Lamb who was slain. The Lion and the Lamb are descriptions of two aspects of the nature of Christ. As the Lion of Judah, He fulfills the prophecy of Genesis 49:9 and is the Messiah who would come from the tribe of Judah. As the Lamb of God, He is the perfect and ultimate sacrifice for sin.

The scene of Revelation 4—5 is the heavenly throne room. After receiving the command to write to the seven churches in Asia Minor, John is “caught up in the spirit” to the throne room in heaven where he is to receive a series of visions that culminate in the ultimate victory of Christ at the end of the age. Revelation 4 shows us the endless praise that God receives from the angels and the 24 elders. Chapter 5 begins with John noticing that there is a scroll in the “right hand of him who was seated on the throne.” The scroll has writing on the inside and is sealed with seven seals.

After giving us a description of the scroll, an angel proclaims with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” John begins to despair when no one comes forth to answer the angel’s challenge. One of the 24 elders encourages John to “weep no more,” and points out that the Lion of the tribe of Judah has come to take and open the scroll. The Lion of the tribe of Judah is obviously a reference to Christ. The image of the lion is meant to convey kingship. Jesus is worthy to receive and open the scroll because he is the King of God’s people....

The passage is an issue in some extremist faiths whereby such zoo scenes can be misinterpreted as a sign of the second coming. 

Pope Francis has said plainly, this is man's making and it is man who is most responsible for the pain and suffering occurring in our century.

III. ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION

216. The rich heritage of Christian spirituality, the fruit of twenty centuries of personal and communal experience, has a precious contribution to make to the renewal of humanity. Here, I would like to offer Christians a few suggestions for an ecological spirituality grounded in the convictions of our faith, since the teachings of the Gospel have direct consequences for our way of thinking, feeling and living. More than in ideas or concepts as such, I am interested in how such a spirituality can motivate us to a more passionate concern for the protection of our world. A commitment this lofty cannot be sustained by doctrine alone, without a spirituality capable of inspiring us, without an “interior impulse which encourages, motivates, nourishes and gives meaning to our individual and communal activity”.[151] Admittedly, Christians have not always appropriated and developed the spiritual treasures bestowed by God upon the Church, where the life of the spirit is not dissociated from the body or from nature or from worldly realities, but lived in and with them, in communion with all that surrounds us.

217. “The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast”.[152] For this reason, the ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion. It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment. Others are passive; they choose not to change their habits and thus become inconsistent. So what they all need is an “ecological conversion”, whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience. 

Americans have become demoralized to the devotions of their faith that demands they be aware of poverty and need. Pope Francis is defining this demoralized society as deserts. Internal deserts. Interesting, isn't it? 

218. In calling to mind the figure of Saint Francis of Assisi, we come to realize that a healthy relationship with creation is one dimension of overall personal conversion, which entails the recognition of our errors, sins, faults and failures, and leads to heartfelt repentance and desire to change. The Australian bishops spoke of the importance of such conversion for achieving reconciliation with creation: “To achieve such reconciliation, we must examine our lives and acknowledge the ways in which we have harmed God’s creation through our actions and our failure to act. We need to experience a conversion, or change of heart”.[153]

219. Nevertheless, self-improvement on the part of individuals will not by itself remedy the extremely complex situation facing our world today. Isolated individuals can lose their ability and freedom to escape the utilitarian mindset, and end up prey to an unethical consumerism bereft of social or ecological awareness. Social problems must be addressed by community networks and not simply by the sum of individual good deeds. This task “will make such tremendous demands of man that he could never achieve it by individual initiative or even by the united effort of men bred in an individualistic way. The work of dominating the world calls for a union of skills and a unity of achievement that can only grow from quite a different attitude”.[154] The ecological conversion needed to bring about lasting change is also a community conversion.

The use of "...utilitarian mindset..." has some journalists going crazy. They cannot get over the idea this Pope has a good message. They are counting their coins as money changers and can't stand the idea this Pope has spoken in moral ways the wealthy simply cannot consent. 

This is from "The Telegraph." They simply can't deal with a call for moral perspective. I think it is the most amusing thing I have ever read. 

Pope Francis’s 'green’ encyclical preaches only to the converted and is unduly gloomy (click here) 

I can just hear the panic. But, but, but, Father...the pure panic is such music to my ears there are no words. 

Pope Francis needs to be reassured one of the greatest militarizes of all time is on his side. He should feel very secure. 

220. This conversion calls for a number of attitudes which together foster a spirit of generous care, full of tenderness. First, it entails gratitude and gratuitousness, a recognition that the world is God’s loving gift, and that we are called quietly to imitate his generosity in self-sacrifice and good works: “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing… and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Mt 6:3-4). It also entails a loving awareness that we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion. As believers, we do not look at the world from without but from within, conscious of the bonds with which the Father has linked us to all beings. By developing our individual, God-given capacities, an ecological conversion can inspire us to greater creativity and enthusiasm in resolving the world’s problems and in offering ourselves to God “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable” (Rom 12:1). We do not understand our superiority as a reason for personal glory or irresponsible dominion, but rather as a different capacity which, in its turn, entails a serious responsibility stemming from our faith.

221. Various convictions of our faith, developed at the beginning of this Encyclical can help us to enrich the meaning of this conversion. These include the awareness that each creature reflects something of God and has a message to convey to us, and the security that Christ has taken unto himself this material world and now, risen, is intimately present to each being, surrounding it with his affection and penetrating it with his light. Then too, there is the recognition that God created the world, writing into it an order and a dynamism that human beings have no right to ignore. We read in the Gospel that Jesus says of the birds of the air that “not one of them is forgotten before God” (Lk 12:6). How then can we possibly mistreat them or cause them harm? I ask all Christians to recognize and to live fully this dimension of their conversion. May the power and the light of the grace we have received also be evident in our relationship to other creatures and to the world around us. In this way, we will help nurture that sublime fraternity with all creation which Saint Francis of Assisi so radiantly embodied.

Pope Francis may not realize the USA military predicted all that is occuring these days.

I noticed Pope Francis has asked Europe to be compassionate to the migrants. But, the USA military stated there would be these challenges with the climate crisis. Now, some of this is understandably caused by a brutal and faux religion to form a calphate. But,...

...in a series of media presentations Thomas Friedman explored the underlying causes of the Syrian revolution.

May 18, 2013
By Thomas Friedman

...As we were driving back to the Turkish border, I noticed a school and asked the driver to turn around so I could explore it. It was empty — of students. But war refugees had occupied the classrooms and little kids’ shirts and pants were drying on a line strung across the playground. The basketball backboard was rusted, and a local parent volunteered to give me a tour of the bathrooms, which he described as disgusting. Classes had not been held in two years. And that is what terrified me. Men with guns I’m used to. But kids without books, teachers or classes for a long time — that’s trouble. Big trouble.

They grow up to be teenagers with too many guns and too much free time,...

...I came here to write my column (click here) work on a film for the Showtime series, “Years of Living Dangerously,” about the “Jafaf,” or drought, one of the key drivers of the Syrian war. In an age of climate change, we’re likely to see many more such conflicts.

“The drought did not cause Syria’s civil war,” said the Syrian economist Samir Aita, but, he added, the failure of the government to respond to the drought played a huge role in fueling the uprising. What happened, Aita explained, was that after Assad took over in 2000 he opened up the regulated agricultural sector in Syria for big farmers, many of them government cronies, to buy up land and drill as much water as they wanted, eventually severely diminishing the water table. This began driving small farmers off the land into towns, where they had to scrounge for work.

Because of the population explosion that started here in the 1980s and 1990s thanks to better health care, those leaving the countryside came with huge families and settled in towns around cities like Aleppo. Some of those small towns swelled from 2,000 people to 400,000 in a decade or so. The government failed to provide proper schools, jobs or services for this youth bulge, which hit its teens and 20s right when the revolution erupted....

In realizing the extent to which the USA military had this right, there was absolutely no preparation for these events. Wall Street priorities overshadowed everything, including our nation's security.

How often does the average American hear their spiritual leaders talk about the climate crisis?

213. Ecological education can take place in a variety of settings: at school, in families, in the media, in catechesis and elsewhere. Good education plants seeds when we are young, and these continue to bear fruit throughout life. Here, though, I would stress the great importance of the family, which is “the place in which life – the gift of God – can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed, and can develop in accordance with what constitutes authentic human growth. In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life”.[149] In the family we first learn how to show love and respect for life; we are taught the proper use of things, order and cleanliness, respect for the local ecosystem and care for all creatures. In the family we receive an integral education, which enables us to grow harmoniously in personal maturity. In the family we learn to ask without demanding, to say “thank you” as an expression of genuine gratitude for what we have been given, to control our aggressivity and greed, and to ask forgiveness when we have caused harm. These simple gestures of heartfelt courtesy help to create a culture of shared life and respect for our surroundings. 

The culture of life is sincere where Pope Francis is concerned. He doesn't slice up the idea that a culture of life is political dogma that is about pregnancy so much as the entire lifespan of a human being. The culture of life Pope Francis speaks of is all inclusive. It honors others, animals and the ecosystems of Earth. Basically, the Republicans of the USA dishonor the culture of life by secluding all aspects of their definition away from Wall Street definitions. The USA Republicans define their culture of life as a woman's pregnancy, but, all else is off limits. Pope Francis and the USA Republicans are eons different in their embrace of the culture of life.

214. Political institutions and various other social groups are also entrusted with helping to raise people’s awareness. So too is the Church. All Christian communities have an important role to play in ecological education. It is my hope that our seminaries and houses of formation will provide an education in responsible simplicity of life, in grateful contemplation of God’s world, and in concern for the needs of the poor and the protection of the environment. Because the stakes are so high, we need institutions empowered to impose penalties for damage inflicted on the environment. But we also need the personal qualities of self-control and willingness to learn from one another.

215. In this regard, “the relationship between a good aesthetic education and the maintenance of a healthy environment cannot be overlooked”.[150] By learning to see and appreciate beauty, we learn to reject self-interested pragmatism. If someone has not learned to stop and admire something beautiful, we should not be surprised if he or she treats everything as an object to be used and abused without scruple. If we want to bring about deep change, we need to realize that certain mindsets really do influence our behaviour. Our efforts at education will be inadequate and ineffectual unless we strive to promote a new way of thinking about human beings, life, society and our relationship with nature. Otherwise, the paradigm of consumerism will continue to advance, with the help of the media and the highly effective workings of the market.

Where is your moral gravity?

212. We must not think that these efforts are not going to change the world. They benefit society, often unbeknown to us, for they call forth a goodness which, albeit unseen, inevitably tends to spread. Furthermore, such actions can restore our sense of self-esteem; they can enable us to live more fully and to feel that life on earth is worthwhile. 

Pope Francis in this paragraph asks us to change our definitions of moral rewards. He asks that we define our sense of self and our definition of esteem differently. He does not see moral content in lavishing energy use regardless of the suffering of others well within our understanding of world conditions.

Understand that. It has a great deal of depth. It is about the morality we FEEL toward each other. He is not asking to only donate money to charity, he is actually asking up to change our CHARACTER to bring about relief from the climate crisis as it relates to the rest of the world. 

What kind of person are you? 

How do you use energy?

Can you do better in energy usage that would facilitate a better climate to others?

Pope Francis is not asking up to have our children sleep in cold beds at night. Although, the winter in the northeast and the midwest has been brutal and frequently with loss of power/energy to bring heat to hearths. Pope Francis is asking everyone to reflect on the choices we make as it effects others. He finds it necessary to ask this. Conceive the asking as a definite sign of needing to do better is within it the lack of compassion he perceives. That is huge. 

We are all energy paupers to end the pollution.

II. EDUCATING FOR THE COVENANT BETWEEN HUMANITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT 

209. An awareness of the gravity of today’s cultural and ecological crisis must be translated into new habits. Many people know that our current progress and the mere amassing of things and pleasures are not enough to give meaning and joy to the human heart, yet they feel unable to give up what the market sets before them. In those countries which should be making the greatest changes in consumer habits, young people have a new ecological sensitivity and a generous spirit, and some of them are making admirable efforts to protect the environment. At the same time, they have grown up in a milieu of extreme consumerism and affluence which makes it difficult to develop other habits. We are faced with an educational challenge.

210. Environmental education has broadened its goals. Whereas in the beginning it was mainly centred on scientific information, consciousness-raising and the prevention of environmental risks, it tends now to include a critique of the “myths” of a modernity grounded in a utilitarian mindset (individualism, unlimited progress, competition, consumerism, the unregulated market). It seeks also to restore the various levels of ecological equilibrium, establishing harmony within ourselves, with others, with nature and other living creatures, and with God. Environmental education should facilitate making the leap towards the transcendent which gives ecological ethics its deepest meaning. It needs educators capable of developing an ethics of ecology, and helping people, through effective pedagogy, to grow in solidarity, responsibility and compassionate care.

211. Yet this education, aimed at creating an “ecological citizenship”, is at times limited to providing information, and fails to instil good habits. The existence of laws and regulations is insufficient in the long run to curb bad conduct, even when effective means of enforcement are present. If the laws are to bring about significant, long-lasting effects, the majority of the members of society must be adequately motivated to accept them, and personally transformed to respond. Only by cultivating sound virtues will people be able to make a selfless ecological commitment. A person who could afford to spend and consume more but regularly uses less heating and wears warmer clothes, shows the kind of convictions and attitudes which help to protect the environment. There is a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions, and it is wonderful how education can bring about real changes in lifestyle. Education in environmental responsibility can encourage ways of acting which directly and significantly affect the world around us, such as avoiding the use of plastic and paper, reducing water consumption, separating refuse, cooking only what can reasonably be consumed, showing care for other living beings, using public transport or car-pooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights, or any number of other practices. All of these reflect a generous and worthy creativity which brings out the best in human beings. Reusing something instead of immediately discarding it, when done for the right reasons, can be an act of love which expresses our own dignity. 

Was that dignity I read? Oh, yeah, it was. Imagine that social acceptance of ecological dignity as prestige.

 212. We must not think that these efforts are not going to change the world. They benefit society, often unbeknown to us, for they call forth a goodness which, albeit unseen, inevitably tends to spread. Furthermore, such actions can restore our sense of self-esteem; they can enable us to live more fully and to feel that life on earth is worthwhile.

Pope Francis has an affection for animals. His life experience may be very different than than of The West.

It's Sunday Night

September 6, 2015
By Janet Hall

An unusual fund-raising idea is putting two charities in the pink. 
Silvermoor Equestrian Haylage is selling bright pink bales with all the proceeds going to cancer charities.
The Denwick-based business has made more than 100 haylage bales wrapped in pink plastic for sale to horse owners, stables and livery yards.
It is part of a national initiative which has seen haylage and silage producers across the country jumping on board....

 
September 3, 2015
By Farm Press Staff

The 2015 Southeastern Hay Contest (click here) has expanded its prize offerings greatly. Part of the Sunbelt Ag Expo, the contest will offer hay and baleage producers in the Southeast cash prizes and, in some cases, free use of Massey Ferguson hay equipment.
Since 2004, the SE Hay Contest has been spotlighting high quality hay and baleage production in the Southeast. The Cooperative Extension programs in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have organized the SE Hay Contest since its inception.
“We hope every high quality hay producer from Texas to Virginia will enter for a chance to win. Our goal is to demonstrate the potential to produce high quality hay and baleage in the Southeast. Just as important, we want to highlight the technology that makes it all possible,” said Dennis Hancock, University of Georgia Extension forage specialist and the contest’s coordinator this year.
Forage growers in the Southeast have increased the quality of their forage because of unprecedented prices in most livestock sectors, great demand for their products, and a need for efficiency due to high input costs. “The key to success has always been timely management,” Hancock said....