Forever Behind, Forever Catching Up

I love to read but I have so much that I want to read, that I am always dealing with piles of books and magazines. On a recent trip I decided to take several issues of Weavings, A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life which I had not gotten around to reading even though I love this little magazine.

The issue called The Price of Wisdom yielded these gems: 

“Truly precious, priceless things are often mined from deep, dark places.” With what our country, and indeed our world, is doing currently- slowing sliding towards violence and war, hard times the likes of which we have never seen seem inevitable. But the quote above offers a ray of hope. In coming dark times and places, things which are precious will be found - qualities of character, development of ideals worth dying for, sight which sees what is truly of lasting importance. We have lived such a shallow life in the last years; skating along day to day without looking or striving towards anything of substance- just picking up the pretty stones which lie on the surface of life, so we have missed the precious things that are indeed hidden in the deep, dark places. We have been collecting fool's gold, not the real, precious metal found in the depths. However there may be something even better than our hard won treasures. Wisdom says in Proverbs 8:10-11, “Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold; for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.” Will we chose folly or wisdom?

“If we are truly at the end of our strength, then there is no more possibility of self-rescue. It is only God who meets us with redemption there.” Part of our national character is independence and self reliance but that is also part of our weakness. “If we are truly at the end of our strength, then there is no more possibility of self-rescue. It is only God who meets us with redemption there.” “Therefore those who follow Him and serve Him also find His true power exerted in their weaknesses, sufferings, and defeats.” I have the strong feeling that we are soon coming to a time when our own strength will not be equal to what we face. Only knowing that there is strength beyond our own gives us hope for the future. God provides the way through, not the way to avoid problems and difficulties.

Here is something philosophical to think on as well: How do you know it's not a disaster when good times come? How do you know it is not a blessing when difficult times descend? “God works in mysterious, counter-intuitive ways.” His ways are not our ways; He tests us all the time and that does not mean He does not love us. I have written about acceptance before; “acceptance is not a glamorous virtue.” Here is the goal of acceptance: “Always intend good. Never wish harm to anyone. There is power. Let it do what it will do. Trust God’s goodness, whatever happens.”

The issue called Do Not Lose Heart yielded these gems:

“The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.” I've been feeling exhausted with all the political debate. It's important, it's essential even and yet because it has gone on so long, I am weary of it. I think if you are truly engaged - wholeheartedly - engaged, then you don't give up because you care deeply about the outcome.

Mark Burrows and John Ohlson, in the article called, Love is a Direction share this: “Discerning the right direction - a thoughtful description of what love is at its core - enables us to move ahead not with optimism but in hope.” In our very confusing and obscure world, we have having a hard time, or at least I am, in finding the right direction. I badly need hope but I had not seen before that it might be possible to have hope without optimism. I am not optimistic! They go on to say, “In such precarious and demanding conditions, what we need most is a compass and not a map, a directional guide that can help us locate our bearings.” So very true! It seems everyone is screaming, “I know the way!” and it can't be that they all do since some lead in one direction, others in the opposite way. I think our principles are intended to be our compass and the Bible our moral compass. In order to go some place else, you need to know where you are now. And if we are blind, as wisdom suggests, then how are we to find our way? 

One way is to let everything happen to you: beauty and dread. The authors go on:
“The point is that everything will happen to, us, whether we will it or not. Storms will come in our lives, interrupting our certainties and destroying our plans. We will confront crises in our lives. Unexpected storms will obliterate the path we’ve chosen. We will face the temptation to lose heart. In the midst of all this, the practice we most need is one that keeps our attention on the journey immediately at hand—particularly when the familiar way seems lost or taken from us. The practice that helps us find our heart begins with our attention to the next step we must make. It reminds us to attend to what we can do in the present moment, given the finite conditions we face.”

Rainer Maria Rilke says, “In life one cannot awaken often enough the sense of beginning within oneself. There is so little external change needed for that since we actually transform the world from within our hearts.” I think that means that you must start out from within yourself. You can’t go anywhere without making a change within yourself, even if it is just a change of intention. Love is not a destination, it’s a journey. It is from within that we decide to proceed on that journey, with hope.

Robert Corin Morris writes in The Heart is Always Beating, “Hope may spring eternal, but heart comes first. Without our human capacity to ‘take heart’ or ‘summon courage’ our hopes are powerless at best, utterly hopeless at the worst. But how does the heart revive in the face of discouragement? What is the emotional and spiritual alchemy that transforms trepidation into boldness, fear into courage?” I was very interested in how a renewed heart or courage might be found. He says that is is found within because the wellsprings of courage are built into our very nature but at the same time we are built to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. Our heart, which is seen as the ground from which both our intentions and actions arise, “can move us toward action even in the face of challenge, overriding the power of the fight/flight mechanism that would paralyze us. Though inner voices may say ‘run and hide,’ and the signs of the times may urge us to lose heart, the God-rooted power at the center of our nature may give us courage.” This is well expressed in the spiritual “There Is a Balm in Gilead”...“Some times I feel discouraged, and think my work’s in vain, But then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again...”


While I was waiting to board my plane, an email newsletter by Rabbi Daniel Lapin arrived. What he had to say also brought hope to my heart.

“It is a time to strip away the illusion that we are independent and self-directed and to recognize how much of the wrong way that we think and act is a function of following the crowd,” reflected Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

“We are not only influenced by others, but we are also the influencers. When I succumb to complaining, cowardice or anger, I affect my spouse, children, neighbors and co-workers. Contaminated by my attitude, they will be more likely to behave the same way. If I lower my standards and speak rudely or profanely, others will more easily do so as well.”

 

“It is wrong to think of peer pressure only as negative. When we smile despite our pain, we also influence others. When we express gratitude and are gracious to others, the effects of that ripple outward as well. If we are courageous and cling to standards, immune to what ‘everyone else’ is doing, we make it easier for others to do so as well.”

He ended with this quote, which I have seen before: When we change ourselves, we change our families. When we change our families, we change our communities. When we change our communities, we change our country. When we change our country, we change the world.

So by the end of my trip, I found that I had hope renewed and courage found when they had been misplaced.

Homeland Security the American Gestapo?

I found this last night and it is very troubling. How can we avoid being manipulated in the way described? Knowledge is power. Be informed!


Obama administration, including his czars and his closest Progressive supporters, are planning a manufactured insurgency against America. Using the media to garner both sympathy and support for his unfinished goals
The planned re-election of Obama, revolutionary style


- Doug Hagmann  Monday, May 7, 2012 


HomelandSecurityUs.com

The Contact

It was not the proverbial 3:00 a.m. phone call, but close enough. And it was not made to the White House, but to my house, which is not white, nor is it in DC. It was about 2:30 a.m. on 25 April 2012, and the call itself was somewhat unexpected. I had anticipated the telephone call from my DHS insider much earlier the previous day, but our schedules didn’t synch up. I was traveling on an investigative assignment, while my source was in meetings all day. I had just fallen asleep, and was slumbering no more than 20 minutes when the phone rang.


In most households, a ringing phone at that time of night causes concern for everyone who hears it. In my household, it seems to surprise only my surly, 140 pound light-sleeping German Shepherd. He let out an objective grunt as I stepped over him to take the call in another room. It was “Rosebud,” the code name given my insider source.

About Rosebud
Just a little bit here about my source and his “super-secret code name.” I’ve known this government insider since 1979, when he first became a municipal patrol officer. He took a job in a bigger city and had a very successful run as a cop. Before retirement and after the events of 9/11, he was tapped by the feds, where he worked in various capacities under the umbrella of DHS. He worked his way up, and suddenly found himself in what he terms the inner sanctum of the “TEC” building. TEC, he explains, is an acronym for what he calls “The Estrogen Challenged,” which houses the upper echelon of the Department of Homeland Security. I’ll leave it at that.


As far as his code name, it originates from an incident that occurred at the end of the disco era. It is something that we both privately laugh about, but rarely ever talk about. His “code name” is known to him, me, and at the time, a young woman who has since vanished amid the glitter of disco balls and constant replays of the Bee Gees in a dark nightclub some 32 years ago, and has no “cloak and dagger” origins.

But he is real, his position serious, and his knowledge vast. Unfortunately, that’s what makes the whole situation frightening and deadly serious.

The information
It began on Wednesday, 2 May 2012 with a 45-minute interview on TruNews with Rick Wiles when I first disclosed the information I received the previous week from my source. The information I relayed “went viral,” as they say, across the internet.

To support the statements I made during that interview, I am showing my handwritten notes taken contemporaneously during our conversation. My notes consist of two pages and are, at various points,  admittedly difficult to decipher. I ask that points not be deducted for my penmanship given the time of the morning which they were taken.

According to my source, there is talk among the highest levels of the uppermost echelon of the Department of Homeland Security, which he describes as effectively under the control of Barack Hussein Obama. During this call, he said that the DHS is actively preparing for massive social unrest inside the United States. He then corrected himself, stating that “a civil war” is the more appropriate term. Certain elements of the government are not only expecting and preparing for it, they are actually facilitating it,” stated my source.

“The DHS takes their marching orders from the Obama administration, from Obama himself, but mostly from his un-appointed czars. And Jarrett, especially Valerie Jarrett. Don’t think for a minute that the administration is doing anything to stabilize events in the U.S. They are revolutionaries, and revolutionaries thrive on chaos,” he added.

My source stated that he has not seen things this bad since he began working within DHS. “It’s like they [DHS agency heads] don’t care about what the American people see or feel about what the DHS agencies are doing. They figure that if the average American will put up with being “sexually groped and nuked” just to fly, they’ll accept almost anything. “That’s why their actions are becoming more overt.  “It’s in your face and the brass actually chuckle about it” said my source.

New Information
Astounded by the information my source provided “going viral,” I spoke to him again early Sunday morning. This was a scheduled telephone call (as noted on page 2 of my notes) based on a high level meeting of DHS personnel that was scheduled for and took place in Chantilly, Virginia, on Saturday, 5 May 2012.  He hoped to provide me with more information to supplement that which he already given. Although he was not personally present, his source was. While he would not say who was at the meeting on Saturday or give its precise location, he said that the many of the names would be recognizable. He spoke to his source late Saturday night.

I contacted him on his cellular phone early Sunday morning to get the promised update.

“Geez, nice job on getting the word out about what’s really going on at DHS and in this administration,” were the first words out of his mouth, followed by “thanks a lot.” I asked him why he would be thanking me. “I just wanna’ tell you that I’m going to have to hire someone to start my car, and I’m surely not going for any rides in small planes in the immediate future,” he said with a bit of nervous laughter. “I hope no one finds out who I am or it’s going to be more than my pension I’ll have to worry about.”

“I can tell you word is getting out that people are starting to wake up, which is causing a lot of ‘pissed off brass.’  I can’t tell if they are more desperate or upset about the exposure, but the tone is starting to become a lot more tense. I hope that we’re having something to do with that,” he added.

With that, he provided me with additional information to supplement that which he already given me on 25 April. For clarity purposes, I have combined the information together from both contacts. The following information includes the updated information provided to me Sunday morning.

Obama the revolutionary
Metaphorically speaking, there’s a revolution going on in the U.S., propped up by three legs. Economic chaos, chaos through racial division, and chaos through class division, all joined by one core element: Barack Hussein Obama and his stable of unelected czars. Obama is using the lessons learned in 1968 as the template for 2012, and many of those who were active in the late 1960s are now calling the shots for 2012.

“The Obama administration and many of the un-elected ‘czars,’ either directly or indirectly, are engaged in covert activities with the occupy movement, various labor protests, and other subversive activities inside the U.S.,” stated my source. Using untracked campaign funds, they are paying people to infiltrate the various movements to cause physical destruction of property and disrupt commerce. That began last year, but has increased ten-fold already this year,” stated this source. He added that they are using some lower level DHS agents to make the payments under the context of tracking subversives, but they are the unwitting subversives. “It’s like Fast & Furious” but in the social realm,” he added.

“Obama is using some high profile people as pawns to foment the revolution. I heard several times through very credible sources that [Louis] Farrakhan is on the CIA payroll. Other have been named as well, but I’m not prepared to identify them yet. Farrakhan is to coordinate the Blacks and the Muslims to prepare for riots this summer, using any means necessary.”

“Mentioned at the meeting Saturday were methods to use pawns to simulate the rioting in the Arab Spring countries, but to the benefit of this administration. A controlled chaos thing,” stated my source. They envision rioting starting in the urban areas first, such as New York and other major cities, followed by a disruption of business and commerce. This will allow the DHS to mobilize their various teams into the streets of America without objection of the people,” stated my source.

“They want to restrict travel, if not through high energy prices, then by checkpoints and curfews mandated by rioting and unrest. They understand we are the most well-armed nation in the world, yet they are aware of our vulnerabilities and intend to fully exploit them,” he added. The whole purpose is to keep Obama in office for another term, no matter how unpopular he is, as he is not finished changing our country from a Constitutional Republic. This is the run-up to the 2012 elections, or perhaps causing enough chaos to delay them - indefinitely.”

One statement that rattled me more than anything was that a great number of those already in power, whether in appointed or elected positions, actually want to see Obama stay in power, according to this source. “This is what we’ve been working toward and we’re closer now than we’ve ever been. If we lose now, we might not have another chance.”

This chilling common goal also explains the lack of interest in the Constitutional legitimacy of Obama. It is common knowledge that Obama is not an American, and neither is his agenda. Of course, criticism of his bona-fides feeds into the cries of racism, despite the massive fraud perpetrated on the American people. Party lines are meaningless when the common objective is the revolutionary overtaking of America.

Obama, the professor of Keynesian economics
“The Obama administration is working closely with Bernanke, Geithner and others not to save our economy, but to outright destroy it. He is not the first or only one to try this, but the most effective and most vetted for that purpose. Do you actually think that the fact that Timothy Geithner’s father worked with Obama’s mother in Indonesia was coincidental,” stated my source rhetorically. “What we’re seeing now is the fourth quarter of a game that started long ago, which also currently involves the Clintons. Obama would not be where he is if it were not for the Clintons, and to a lesser extent, Bush, but that’s for other reasons.  Don’t be fooled, the Clintons never left or lost power,” he added.

“There are file drawers full of papers, heavily guarded papers at the ‘TEC building’  so I can only imagine what’s in them, about international financial dealings going back decades. I do know, or at least I was told, that they involve organizations that are the so-called conspiracy fringe groups, such as the Bilderberg group, the Trilateral Commission, and people including George Soros, Henry Kissinger, and current leaders of big industry. Some are fossils. They’ve been around a long time. Others are up-and-coming. They’ve got one thing in common, though, and that is to put in place a global system of governance, including a common currency. Economics is a huge part of this revolution, and they want to replace the dollar, to see it collapse. They expect, that is, they are working toward this very goal, and when this happens, it will cause chaos like never seen before in the history of this country.”

“Why do you think Jon Corzine is not only walking around, but heavily involved in Obama fundraising? They know it’s just a matter of time that Europe will implode economically, and when it does, start counting the days before we see massive hyperinflation and the ultimate collapse of the U.S. dollar,” stated this insider.  “What will it look like in the streets of America when the general population realizes that there is no money? That’s right, chaos.”

Obama & the planned racial divide
According to this insider, the Trayvon Martin case is just the tip of the iceberg. “You certainly don’t have to be a genius to understand how Obama and his team played the public on this issue, and it’s far from over. But that’s not the sole element of what we’ll see this summer.”

“Remember the shots fired at the White House not too long ago?” asked my source. There was an element of outrage that was squandered, according to ‘team Obama.’  In fact, Obama and some of his closest advisors, especially [Valerie] Jarrett were incredibly angered that the outrage was seemingly tempered. It should have been an opportunity to use our force against the Tea Parties, the gun clingers, the Constitutionalists, and everyone who has complained about Obama. DHS should have stepped in right then, and used that event to start the clampdown,” this source stated about White House comments.

This source stated that from that point on, the DHS must become more responsive and aggressive.

Watch for a false flag event against Obama or his family, something that will outrage ‘black America.’ It will be carefully choreographed, but executed in a manner that will evoke the ugliest of reactions and create racial chaos in this country that will make the Watts riots, 1968 and the Rodney King riots pale in comparison. That’s the third leg in this.”

The planned end-game
Does Obama look worried about the upcoming elections? Look at his lavish vacations, his limited work schedule, and those with whom he is working.  This is a very dangerous man who has, as his closest advisors, people who have orchestrated the revolutions of the 1960s. They know the “trigger points” in America.

The Obama administration, including his czars and along with his closets Progressive supporters, are planning a manufactured insurgency against America. He is using the media to his advantage to garner both sympathy and support for his unfinished goals. He is desperately seeking a way to remain in office, even if it means the surreal prospect of an indefinite postponement of elections - if it can be pulled off. So far, he’s got the support of the majority of the DHS “brass” behind him, according to my source.

“They’re power hungry, and they want to remain in charge,” stated this source.

The “surreal” aspect of suspended elections won’t look so surreal when you see any or all of the “trigger points” take place in the not-so-distant future.

“The end-game plan for America is its destruction as a Constitutional Republic, with the assistance of the agencies under the umbrella of the DHS.”

My sourced stated one more thing that seemed to tie things together. He urged me to recall the quote by Henry Kissinger who was speaking at a Bilderberg meeting at Evian, France, on 21 May 1992:

Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government.

That threat need not be from beyond. All it might take is a world of starving, broke and desperate people.

Note: My source promised more information at a later time. Stay tuned.


Doug Hagmann 

Copyright © Douglas Hagmann
Douglas J. Hagmann and his son, Joe Hagmann host The Hagmann & Hagmann Report, a live video Internet program broadcast each weeknight from 10:00 pm to midnight ET on the Liberty Broadcasting Network. Watch their broadcast live nightly.

Douglas Hagmann, founder & director of the Northeast Intelligence Network, and a multi-state licensed private investigative agency. Doug began using his investigative skills and training to fight terrorism and increase public awareness through his website.

Doug can be reached at:director@homelandsecurityus.com

What Goes Around, Comes Around Again

I have seen this before but now it looks to me like what is slowly happening in America right now. How does it make you feel when you read it? Are we the frog being set to boil to death in lukewarm water? All that is needed for evil to triumph is that good men (and women) do nothing.


America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World.
Don't Let Freedom Slip Away

By Kitty Werthmann 

The author of this article lives in South Dakota and appears to be very
active in attempting to maintain our freedom.  Google Kitty Werthmann and
you will see articles and videos.

 
What I am about to tell you is something you've probably never heard or will
ever read in history books. 
  
I believe that I am an eyewitness to history.  I cannot tell you that Hitler
took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.  We elected him by
a landslide - 98% of the vote..  I've never read that in any American
publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and
took Austria by force.
 
In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression.  Nearly one-third of our workforce
was unemployed.  We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates.
 
Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily.  Young people
were going from house to house begging for food.  Not that they didn't want
to work; there simply weren't any jobs. My mother was a Christian woman and
believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of
soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people - about 30 daily.
 
The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each
other.  Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna , Linz , and Graz were
destroyed.  The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let
them decide what kind of government they wanted.
 
We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in
power since 1933.  We had been told that they didn't have unemployment or
crime, and they had a high standard of living.  Nothing was ever said about
persecution of any group -- Jewish or otherwise.  We were led to believe
that everyone was happy.  We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We
were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back. Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.
 
We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had
candlelight parades.  The new government opened up big field kitchens and
everyone was fed.
 
After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we
suddenly had law and order.  Three or four weeks later, everyone was
employed.  The government made sure that a lot of work was created through
the Public Work Service.
 
Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women.  Before this, it was a
custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home.  An
able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn't support his
family.  Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could
retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.
 
Hitler Targets Education - Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children: 
  
Our education was nationalized.  I attended a very good public school.  The
population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The
day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find
the crucifix replaced by Hitler's picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our
teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn't pray or
have religion anymore.  Instead, we sang "Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber
Alles," and had physical education.
 
Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first
time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.  The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination.  The rest of the day we had sports.  As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had. 
 
My mother was very unhappy.  When the next term started, she took me out of
public school and put me in a convent.  I told her she couldn't do that and
she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful.  There was a
very good curriculum, but hardly any fun - no sports, and no political
indoctrination.  I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every
once in a while, on holidays, I went home.  I would go back to my old
friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing.  Their loose
lifestyle was very alarming to me.  They lived without religion.  By that
time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.  It seemed
strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I
realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn't exposed to that
kind of humanistic philosophy.
 
Equal Rights Hits Home: 
  
In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. All food was
rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps.  At the same time, a
full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn't work, you didn't get a ration card, and if you didn't have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn't have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.
 
Soon after this, the draft was implemented.  It was compulsory for young
people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps.  During the
day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their
barracks for military training just like the boys.  They were trained to be
anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps.  After the labor
corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.  When I go
back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are
emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors
of combat.  Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an
air raid attack.  I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go
into the labor corps and into military service.  
 
Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare: 
 
When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government
immediately established child care centers.  You could take your children
ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a
week, under the total care of the government.  The state raised a whole
generation of children..  There were no motherly women to take care of the
children, just people highly trained in child psychology.  By this time, no
one talked about equal rights.  We knew we had been had.  
 
Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under Government Controls: 
  
Before Hitler, we had very good medical care.  Many American doctors
trained at the University of Vienna .  After Hitler, health care was
socialized, free for everyone.  Doctors were salaried by the government. 
The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for
everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people
were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full.  If you
needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn.  There
was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. 
Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left
Austria and emigrated to other countries.
  
As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income.  Newlyweds
immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a
household.  We had big programs for families.  All day care and education
were free.  High schools were taken over by the government and college
tuition was subsidized.  Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as
food stamps, clothing, and housing. 
 
We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables.  Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar.  He couldn't meet all the demands.  Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.
 
We had consumer protection.  We were told how to shop and what to buy. 
Free enterprise was essentially abolished.  We had a planning agency
specially designed for farmers.  The agents would go to the farms, count the
live-stock, then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.
 
"Mercy Killing" Redefined: 
  
In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps .  The
villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were
closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.  So people intermarried
and offspring were sometimes retarded.  When I arrived, I was told there
were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good
manual work.  I knew one, named Vincent, very well.  He was a janitor of
the school.  One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others
getting into a van.  I asked my superior where they were going.  She said
to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write.  The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.  They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.  
 
As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a
natural, merciful death.  The villagers were not fooled.  We suspected what
was happening.  Those people left in excellent physical health and all died
within 6 months.  We called this euthanasia. 
 
The Final Steps - Gun Laws: 
 
Next came gun registration..  People were getting injured by guns.  Hitler
said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by
matching serial numbers on guns.  Most citizens were law abiding and
dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms.  Not
long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in
their guns.  The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not
to comply voluntarily. 
 
No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away.  We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.
 
Totalitarianism didn't come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria .  Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath.  Instead, we had creeping gradualism. 
Now, our only weapons were broom handles.  The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.
 
After World War II, Russian troops occupied Austria . Women were raped,
preteen to elderly. The press never wrote about this either. When the
Soviets left in 1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole
factories in the process.  They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what
they couldn't destroy, they burned.  We called it The Burned Earth. Most of
the population barricaded themselves in their houses.  Women hid in their
cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized.  Those who couldn't, paid the
price.  There is a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who
were massacred by the Russians.  This is an eye witness account.
 
It's true..those of us whose families sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a
country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity, but how long will it stay that way?

I Just Can't Stay Quiet

I wrote the following in response to two columnists who wrote in support of the liberal nuns which our Archbishop Sartain must oversee now. I really do not know why non-Catholics feel the need to weigh in on matters of the Catholic Church. It is not the fact that leadership is male that makes the Church take exception to what various orders of nuns are doing, but rather that the nuns are doing things, promoting things, like ordination for women, which the Catholic Church says it cannot do, not because it desires to degrade women but because it has believed since the beginning that God arranged things how He wanted them. Feminist views in culture today are not sufficient to opposed the will of God and the Church will not. It is not discrimination to not allow everyone to do what they want. That's not freedom, it's license. The Church has based the role of women in the Church on Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven. This is no small role but never does Mary pine to be equal with  God or her son. To say that there are actual differences between the sexes is not discrimination. God created them male and female, they are not twins! The genders have different things to do. Do men have babies? Is that gender discrimination? No. Women don't have the strength of men physically, but is this discrimination? Again, no. You seem to take exception with dogma that is divinely ordained. Are we to ignore what we believe God tells us in favor of public opinion? And further, you seem to say that because other denomination don't believe as the Catholic Church does, the Church must be wrong, be making wrong interpretation of scripture. However, as the original Church founded by Christ, and writers of the new testament, I think she, more than any other church knows what is meant in scripture. Interpretation is not, over the centuries, a matter of human interpretation as you suggest. Therefore, the fact that the Holy Spirit has inspired men to understand what is meant is God's will, not man's will. It is not the providence of any person or group of people to try to make the Catholic Church's teachings more "equitable." That is certainly not the goal of the Church. It is the goal of the church that all should be holy. The Church's only ancestor is Christ and I am sure that He does not promote injustice. In fact it was He and the Church who established the dignity of women who before that were considered property. The so-called Church systems were not human creations as Sister Maricarmen-Bracamontes believes but instituted by Christ. The Church is not political but neither will it say that any part of life is outside of the realm of faith. Faith makes a difference in lives or what difference does it make to have faith? Therefore the redefining of marriage to be any two who want to live together will not be accepted by the Church, which understands that it was God who instituted marriage between men and women only. And if you think that you have seen the last of those who want to further redefine marriage, you are mistaken. Multiple people of any sex, children, maybe even animals will have their proponents who want marriage to include them too. "But we love each other!" is their battle cry, followed by "You're discriminating against us!" Marriage was intended to be the foundation of society, providing stability to society and to future generation by providing a strong nurturing family unit which taught values and moral behavior to their children. The Church has always supported and defended children. Contraception is saying no to babies in general but some forms are even acting like abortion drugs, killing a specific child in the womb. Outright abortion is killing babies. In no instance has a pregnant mother given birth to anything but a human child. That child is a separate being with perhaps different coloring, different blood type and differing DNA, all sure signs that this is a distinct person. You can't tar the issue with the word "political" and say the Church must not get involved. Morality is to be lived out therefore the Church is well within her proper domain to speak out against such an egregious error. There is talk on this issue of women's right but they are not rights, they are demands. God gives rights, as the Bill of Rights spells out, not the government, not the courts, not the culture. God has never given people the right to kill one another. Let the sisters be free indeed! Free to leave the Catholic Church to find another church which will espouse their views. These proud, rebellious, disobedient nuns are Catholic in name only and a cancer in the Church.

Marriage: What is it? And why

It has been on my mind to create this post for a long time but I have had a hard time finding the time to sit down and think through what I wanted to say. Marriage has been in the news a lot lately and it seems to me that the media and the government want to allow only their definition and call anyone who disagrees a hater or bigoted or worse. I am Catholic so it seems to me that the government is focusing on trying to force the Catholic Church to go along with  the current culture, which it never has in all its years.

And yet, even in the Catholic Church, there are many who want to say that it is our job to be inclusive and the surely Jesus would not have excluded anyone. They are not remembering that he called the Pharisees and Sadducees “You brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” so he clearly didn't include everyone no matter what they were doing.  Inclusiveness is tantamount to saying that God has no standards and that His holiness can tolerate everyone being welcomed in Heaven. I think it is pretty clear that God does not do that. He says instead, “Be holy as I AM holy.” I heard Mother Angelica at EWTN say that inclusive language is satanic. It seemed an extreme statement but when she explained that it is Satan who wants to separate us from the relationship of father and child that we have with God, I can see her point. If God is feminine or “it” and not masculine, then there can be no familial relationship which is the foundation of Christianity.

When it comes to marriage, God created man and woman in His own image, and said that when they marry, they become one. I do not believe that two men or two women can become one. Neither can they create new life which is one of the essential parts of marriage. My children are adopted so I understand about getting children that way. But with marriage being the foundation of society that it is, marriage can not strengthen society without producing new children. And it has been proven that a solid, healthy family is a family that stays intact, and has a mother and a father for the children. Divorce is the bane of our existence, which is why the Church bans it. The sad reality is that people marry for the wrong reasons and that leads to faulty marriages which were never valid to begin with or which are not strong enough to stand the testing that every family goes through.

Our society, beginning in the 60s with the introduction of contraception, has separated sex from marriage which has not been good for people or for marriage. Men and women are indulging in casual sex and undermining the best chance for a strong marriage by living together first and likely having children first too. The “hook-up” culture demeans the person and makes the frequently resulting baby seem like a mistake. Contraception (which is birth control not birth prevention) says “I do not want babies” and it is a very short step indeed to abortion, which says, “I do not want this baby.” 1.5 million babies are aborted every year in the US and there are twice as many abortions among blacks as among whites.

It takes 2.1 births per couple to maintain the current population but very few countries are maintaining that birth rate due to the high abortion rates and the poor economy. In 2011 the United States dropped to its lowest level ever, below the replacement rate. If it drops to 1.2 the country is in serious decline and no country thus far has recovered from a birthrate of that level. Japan is currently in that place. For comparison, back in the 1950s the birthrate was 5 children per family. The society that figures out how to restore the economic foundation of the family to society will own the future. Right now the Obama administration is working hard to destroy the economic foundation of the family unit so it seems unlikely that the United State will own the future unless things change drastically.

Neither society or the economy can thrive if the family is not strong. And if marriage is not the foundation of society, then the society is crumbling. With the current attack on marriage in the United State, and around the world, it is the very foundations of society that are under attack and society is foundering. Defining marriage as one man and one woman is essential to maintaining the foundations of society.

Another structure of safety

At mass recently I realized that the cross represents another structure where there is safety. To stay within Christ's commands is to live safely.

Worship the idol?

Heather King had a Lenten reflection which said in part, "Much more dangerous is the love of money so overriding that it reduces our very bodies to a marketplace (emphasis added) for pharmaceutical companies, for scientific "progress," for sex." Our bodies as a marketplace really struck me. We do sell our bodies to drugs, to sexual pleasure, to gluttony. And woe to anyone who tries to say that it is not right or shouldn't be done. Voices cry out, "We have a right to..." Our bodies have become idols who must be sacrificed to with every demand of the sensual life. God said early on "You shall have no other gods before me." but sadly, we do in this culture, and it is true all around the world. We have chosen to be slaves to our bodies. St. Paul warned about living in the flesh, which leads to death. What will it take to get us to change our ways?

The Structure of Safety

I was thinking this morning about God's laws and commands and why people for the most part don't want to obey them or even consider them at all. What I see them being like is a very simple structure like the crude one I have drawn here.

It is like the frame of a house and roof but there are only beams in the corners and for the roof. One can easily go in and out of it because there is nothing to stop you. I think it represents God's commandments which are there for our safety and well being. It is just as easy to go in and out of obeying God's commandments because there is nothing to stop us, only our own desire to obey and to stay safe. G.K. Chesterton: “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing—they believe in anything.”

Christ says, “You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.” I believe we have chosen to ignore what God has asked of us in order to embrace the tradition that society is pushing: things like - live together outside of marriage, murder through abortion unwanted children, refuse to accept the children God would give us through contraception, refuse to limit what our eyes see on TV and in movies. Basically believe that any limitation is bad, that we should be free to do anything and everything. For the un-churched this is forgivable but for those who call themselves Christian, how dare we say we follow Him and yet do these things?! And for those with high visibility, it is a scandal. Jimmy Akin advises, “While there is no lack of unworthy and traitorous Christians in the Church, it is up to each of us to counterbalance the evil done by them with our clear witness to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.”

I remember hearing years ago on Focus on the Family about a playground study. What they found was when there were no fences, the children stayed close to the center, well away from the edges. But when there were fences, they played right up to the edge of the playground because the place of safety was clearly marked. I think the commandments of God are like the playground fences. They actually give us more room, not less, because we can freely use the whole area of our lives within that structure of safety.

In Galatians 6:14 St. Paul says he is crucified to the world and the world to him. That means to me that he has decided to live within the structure of safety, God's commands, and what is outside is as if it doesn't exist, is dead to him. This is what God wants for us, that we chose to believe that He does have our best interest at heart (aren't we the apple of His eye?) and that the limits (structure) He imposes actually give us more freedom, not less. Does your pride prevent you from really being free as God desires, not as the world tempts you to be? I hope not.

Baal in Our World

I listened to Glenn Beck and Rabbi Daniel Lapin last night. They were talking about the God of this world, Baal, the ancient (pre-biblical) god of war, weather, sex and the body. I see that what I was writing about in my last post really was about Baal's influence on our societies now, in this present age.

They presented the idea of going up in an elevator and how much energy it takes to go up. To go down takes no energy at all - you can slide down to the basement before you know it.

God in his wisdom has said that in order for people to do well and be the best that they can be, they need to work on it and they need to have some things that they just don't do because the end results are bad. Baal, on the other hand, says “if it feels good, do it!” And we have been doing what feels good from about 1960.

What changed in the 1960s? Well contraception came in and separated sex from marriage. And like pornography, enough is never enough, sex outside of marriage has gotten to the point of casual hook-up, devoid of meaning but injurious to the woman who is still seeking relationship, and she may get pregnant as well. What to do with all these unintended babies? Well, not take responsibility for the life created but rather seek to kill the person who shows so clearly what one has been doing. Make no mistake, this is a separate person whose life is ended, not some blob of tissue. Before the woman even knows that she is expecting, the baby's heart is beating. Check out this video on YouTube, Genesis by Ramos David  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iItjtWd0SpE&list=FLsjCPNdB-A2aGj6V-e_-FnQ&index=1&feature=plpp_video

So we in the last 50 or so years have taken the easy road, the wide road that leads to destruction. Many are worried and anxious about where the world is going. But are we worried and anxious enough to change our lives? To begin the hard work of moving up, not to a better life but to a secure one, guaranteed by God?

Mary at Medjugorje had this to say recently:
Dear children;  I am with you for so much time and already for so long I have been pointing you to God’s presence and His infinite love, which I desire for all of you to come to know.  And you, my children?  You continue to be deaf and blind as you look at the world around you and do not want to see where it is going without my Son.  You are renouncing Him - and He is the source of all graces.  You listen to me while I am speaking to you, but your hearts are closed and you are not hearing me.  You are not praying to the Holy Spirit to illuminate you.  My children, pride has come to rule.  I am pointing out humility to you.  My children, remember that only a humble soul shines with purity and beauty because it has come to know the love of God.  Only a humble soul becomes heaven, because my Son is in it.  Thank you.  Again I implore you to pray for those whom my Son has chosen - those are your shepherds.

I think Mary is giving us good advice. Not easy advice but life-saving advice.

Obedience?

This morning I was reading the scriptures for Mass and one part of the scripture, below, leaped out at me: “The body is not meant for immorality...”

1Corinthians 6:13-20
[13] ....The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
[14] And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
[15] Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!
[16] Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two shall become one flesh."
[17] But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
[18] Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body.
[19] Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own;
[20] you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 

That set my mind to musing on what has been going on in societies all over the world. Pretty much everywhere people have decided that they can do whatever they want, very little is considered  immoral, and certainly almost nothing concerning the body and sex. Sadly, even Christians seem to act this way. Since the 1960s when so called sexual freedom became the norm, people have done what ever they wished with their bodies, the above scripture forgotten, God's injunctions against sex outside of marriage forgotten, consequences forgotten. Each one decided they knew best, an attitude God allows when people are willfully sinful. So sleeping around, bootie calls, living together, friends with benefits became accepted practice in societies around the world.


And the chance of pregnancy or the pregnancies that resulted from this immoral behavior were dealt with by birth control and abortion. I have always felt that it is a very short step from contraception’s “I don’t want babies” to abortion’s “I don’t want this baby,” which tie the two behaviors together. So now the people have forgotten that they are members of Christ and that everything they do in their immorality, they make Christ do. No longer do they glorify God in their bodies. Abortion has almost become birth control. Women are told it is a blob of tissue but science advancements have shown that at no time is the unborn baby a blob of tissue, the DNA is always human. Before the woman even realizes that she is pregnant, the child looks human and has a beating heart. Talk about the miracle of birth - what sort of miracle could it be that at the moment of birth this blob of tissue becomes a human child?! Women are mislead into killing their babies. There is no other way to look at it. Mothers (and, yes, they are mothers from the moment of conception) willfully murder their children and society says it is fine to do that.


Now society is looking at marriage. Already weakened by divorces brought on by failure to understand the sacredness of a union where two become one, and the inevitable cheapening of marriage by, in some cases, years and years of living together, the institution, which is the foundation of society, is crumbling. With sacred marriages on the wane, society has looked at the institution and said, “Why limit this sad affair to a man and a woman?” Anyone can be married to anyone if they but “love each other.” Beware! the worst has not yet come.


Soon there will be pressure to say that several may be married, as Mormons formerly did and some cults still do. And why not a man and a boy? How about a woman and her monkey? Why not two men and two women? They “love each other” and isn’t that the defining criteria for marriage? Can “love” be limited?


So where does this leave God? Must He stand by while we ignore His commands? How long will He wait to chastise us for our sins? What will we have to say for ourselves at the final judgement? Just what are your excuses for doing as you pleased with your body and your life? And if you call yourself Christian, even more so, what will you say to your Lord when you see Him face to face?


If societies all over the world are crumbling, facing degeneration, disaster and war, financial ruin, seemingly unexplained  natural disasters- tsunamis, hurricanes, volcano eruptions, earthquakes, etc - can it be that God is expressing His displeasure? Will His people continue on their merry way to the end of time? I hope not, I pray not!