TRADITIONAL Italian cookies called "ossi di morti," or bones of the dead, have been part of Sicilian customs of honoring the souls of the dead on All Souls Day. A recipe is available at Made in House.
IN POLAND, graves are decorated with flowers and the cemeteries are illuminated with candles at night on All Saints Day and All Souls Day, Nov. 1 and 2: Her family would begin preparing a week ahead of time by cleaning up the graves of their deceased relatives. The whole village would be at the cemeteries preparing the graves of all the deceased, including the graves of those who had no living relatives in the area. Later, I read that the Poles took this obligation of cleaning the graves so seriously that after World War II many would travel to Monte Casino, Italy, to pay this honor to the graves of the Polish soldiers who died there. Read more at Tradition in Action.
WILLIAM BYRD, a composer of the Tudor period, set Psalm 150 (Laudibus in Sanctis) to music in his 1591 Cantiones Sacrae and his hymn gives us a sense, though shadowy and inadequate, of the saints in heaven and their choruses of praise to a good and just God. I hope you enjoy this beautiful performance by Stile Antico. A translation:
Celebrate the Lord most high in holy praises:
Let the firmament echo the glorious deeds of God.
Sing ye the glorious deeds of God, and with holy voice
Sound forth oft the power of his mighty hand. (more…)
THE blog It’s About Time explores the Celtic origins of Halloween festivities.
And two American images from the Library of Congress:
Halloween fun fact:
Did you know that dressing up as a hobo, always a last resort for the lazy, is now considered “hurtful?” According to the ADL, a hobo costume stereotypes the poor. Gee, I didn’t know hobos were so sensitive. Here’s more advice from the ADL for schoolteachers:
Many Halloween costumes perpetuate gender stereotypes and exclude those who don’t conform to traditional gender norms, especially those who are transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming. Be mindful that you may have students who feel excluded and marginalized by the overly gendered way Halloween costumes are marketed.
Encourage self-expression, while making sure that children who venture outside of gender norms for Halloween are accepted, respected and not teased. Before a Halloween event, you might say something like, “It’s really fun to dress up and pretend. At our school, there aren’t boy’s and girl’s costumes.” (more…)
FROM Heather Mac Donald, writing about the manufactured racial hysteria in Madison, Wisconsin: Contemporary racial practice ... treats certain words as magical talismans, capable of inflicting harm on official victim groups regardless of how those words are used or even of their meaning, as protests over the academic term “master” reveal. This magical view of language has been lethal to many a career, in K-12 schools as well as in colleges and universities. It is a safe bet that the only appearance of such racial epithets in mainstream white society today is as a mention, not a use. To generate a sufficient number of racist incidents to ground the anti-racism religion therefore requires suspending the use-mention distinction. But if reinstating that distinction will itself generate a racial crisis, then it will be resurrected in the blink of an eye. And that is what happened in Madison over the last two weeks.
[An imaginary conversation based on a true story.]
ALLSWELL: Hello.
BARKLEY: Hello, is Jason Allswell there, please?
ALLSWELL: Yes, this is Jason.
BARKLEY: Oh, hello, Jason. This is Colin Barkley of the Colin Barkley Family Funeral Home.
I hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time.
ALLSWELL: Oh ….
BARKLEY: Oh, good. I tried to catch you before, but no luck.
ALLSWELL: I didn’t recognize your number. I’m on my way to work now so …
BARKLEY: Mr. Allswell, it’s been a year since your mother’s death — and let me say once again how very sorry we are for your loss — (more…)
TWO people were killed and 12 were injured at a party attended by college students in Texas. You didn't hear anything about it? That's because the media is not very interested. Paul Kersey explains why. I hope the obvious agenda behind much publicity for mass shootings will help you keep future events in perspective.
INSIGHTS from George Neumayr at The American Spectator on the Amazon Synod and the Pachamama idols:
Under a post-Christian pope, the Vatican has lost both its mind and soul and thus has neither the rationality nor the faith to distinguish between good and bad in culture or religion. The relativism implicit in the refusal to make judgments about culture and the willy-nilly blending of religions is like an acid that burns through everything it touches; the Church has shriveled in proportion to its exposure to it. Unwilling to stand for anything, relativists prostrate themselves before everything, including Amazonian paganism.
What is presented to us as “cultural respect” is in fact contempt for culture — the careless condescension of liberals who reduce everything from the Pieta to Pachamama to the same meaningless level. Forbidden to make judgments about Amazonian culture, multiculturalists must treat everything in it as the same, which means they never truly appreciate what’s good in it. (more…)
ROBERT FRIEDMAN'S 2000 book Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America provides extremely important and, though almost 20 years old, timely background to the underworld of organized crime figures currently in the news. From the book's introduction: In North America alone there are now thirty Russian crime syndicates operating in at least seventeen U.S. cities, most notably New York, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Denver. The Russians have already pulled off the largest jewelry heist and insurance Medicare frauds in American history, with a net haul exceeding $1 billion. They have invaded North America's financial markets, orchestrating complex stock scams, allegedly laundering billions of dollars through the Bank of New York, and coolly infiltrating the business and real estate worlds."The Russians didn't come here to enjoy the American dream," New York state tax agent Roger Berger says glumly. "They came here to steal it. This book is must reading. I don't know how else to put it: It will blow your mind.
ALAN writes:
Here are a few things I have seen since the year 2000:
— A jewelry store is selling “braclets.”
— Sign on movie theater building that is closed: “CLOE.”
— Sign at meeting hall: “Large crowd excepted.”
— Sign on church: “Enterance.”
— I can find “RASIN BRAN” cereal on sale at Walgreens.
— A newspaper death notice reports that a woman has “joined the angles.”
— Sign at doctor’s office: “No controlled drugs are kept on these premesis.”
— A Burger King restaurant is offering “Crossiants.” (more…)
E. MICHAEL JONES in this interview with Henrik Palmgren psychoanalyzes Greta Thunberg, the climate activist who became a star after going through a period of serious psychological turmoil. He speculates that her unhappiness and political activism were caused by her famous mother's absence from the home. "Greta's sitting at home watching her Mommy get famous," says Jones. "....What we see, I think, is the downside of Swedish feminism which is the children who are at home without Mommy." At the age of 11, when she is undergoing sex ed and sexual assault at school, Greta stops eating, which quickly draws her singer mother, Malena Ernman, back home, as described in the mother's book, Scenes from the Heart. "It's like Greta is on the train and she pulls the emergency brake, she's on the train of Swedish social engineering and socialism and she says,'I'm not eating anymore.'" It's an interesting theory. Of course, children with mothers at home can develop mental problems too. But Jones makes the case that Greta created chaos to get her mother back. She refuses to eat anything but five gnocchi a day. Climate activism ultimately unites the family and imposes order "on a world that is completely out of control." One cannot help but feel compassion for this girl, her plight and the way she is used for a political agenda. Swedish modern culture and its social gospel are driving its people insane.
SOMETHING Greater: Finding Triumph Over Trials, is a memoir by Donald Trump's "spiritual advisor," Paula White-Cain, who prayed at his inauguration and is gearing up to support him for another round. Here is a little taste: "The world knows my name, which I share with a thriving ministry that impacts millions worldwide. "A soaring, powerful voice erupts from my petite frame on the stage. My blond hair is short, cut in a bob with bangs just above the eyebrows. My purple robe is loose and royal; my words are sharp and understandable. There is a rhythm to the sentences I use, a cadence to my words. There is an unexpected fire in my preaching. "This true self is valuable and unchangeable. I have authentic wisdom to share with others." There's no doubt this woman has real talent and that she went through difficult experiences in life. Shallow, materialistic, narcissistic and charismatic, Preacher Paula is the perfect spiritual match for Donald Trump. Some people have too little confidence in God. And some people have far too much.
"TOBIAS, one of the captive Jews at Ninive, a good and faithful servant of God, when old and blind, remembered that he had lent a sum of money to a relative named Gabelus, living in the city of Rages, in Media, and wished to send his son, the young Tobias, to collect it. But unwilling to send him alone, he bade him go and seek a travelling companion to bring him safely to the place of his destination and back again. Hardly had the youth gone into the streets of Ninive, where he lived, to seek one, when he saw a beautiful young man standing girded as if ready to set out on a journey. This youth, as will be seen, was St. Raphael. Tobias asked him who he was and if he knew the road to Rages. Raphael answered that he was the son of the great Ananias, and knew well the way to Rages, and had made his abode with Gabelus, an inhabitant of that city. Tobias rejoiced and told it to his parents, who called the youth before them, and asked him whether he would conduct their son to Rages and back again for fair wages. Raphael consented, promising to do as they desired. The two youths then set out on their journey. After the first day's march, Tobias rested on the bank of the river Tigris, and when he went to wash his feet in this…
TOTAL American consumer indebtedness is over $13 trillion -- and growing. Americans are more and more in debt. They are in debt not because they are lazy and unproductive. To the contrary, they are in debt precisely because they are so productive. When a solid company is profitable, it distributes a dividend to its workers. When a modern nation is profitable, it sends its workers to the bank for loans. Oliver Heydorn and Chas Pinwill explain why this is so and what the solution is: a national dividend. If you think this is a fantastic proposition in an age of skyrocketing taxes and mortgages, think again and try to understand the systemic problem. Indebtedness is harming the family, and it is worth considering solutions. "President Nixon ... said that the American people will never believe anything that they haven't seen on television," said Pinwill. "Now television has never told us that money creation has been stolen away from the public. It's never told us that we're profitable and we just don't share the profit. These critical things are not discussed." You can read more about the social credit dividend here. By the way, why do banks push multiculturalism so aggressively? (See Wells Fargo commercial below.) When people see themselves as rootless individuals, they don't care as much about social problems. The issue of indebtedness is one of the common good.
A BRAVE man today threw pagan idols blessed by "Pope" Francis into the Tiber River, as shown in this video. Used by the indigenous tribes of the Amazon as part of their nature worship, the Pachamama idols, depicting a bare-breasted, pregnant woman, were near the altar of the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome. Catholics have been observed prostrating themselves before the image in front of "Pope" Francis. Read more here about the incident, which has been dubbed "Splashamama" and called an episode of "theological racism." The statue first appeared at a prayer ceremony in the Vatican Gardens on October 4 and has created a social media frenzy. On Saturday, the image was again present at the Via Crucis procession on Saturday, which included the participation of several bishops from the Synod on the Amazon. Following the incident, Paolo Ruffini, the head of Vatican communications, repeated that the image resents “life, fertility, mother earth.” Ruffini said the incident “seems to me to contradict the gesture of dialogue” that the Synod should represent. [Crux]
SHE’S too young to have been put in the limelight. But still this is a funny meme, thanks to Andy S.
1975: ‘global cooling’
1985: ‘acid rain’
1990: ‘hole in the ozone layer’
2004: ‘global warming’
2012: ‘climate change!
2015: ‘CO2′
2018: ’12 years to avert climate change catastrophe’
2019: ‘NO2’
And it’s all for one purpose: global government. (more…)
JOE A. writes:
Trump employs one of the oldest object-counters used in salesmanship, probably older than written language: Agree. And Forget.
Most people do not want to be “sold” or told what to do. They want to demonstrate personal agency and therefore combat the seller. An easy way to diffuse that nervous emotional energy is simply to agree with whatever the prospect says. Let him get it off his chest. Then promptly “forget” it completely and pick up where you left off in your closing effort.
Few sales prospects will remember and fewer will care. They will instead buy from you as this simple act defuses their ability to object.
Always give Trump three days before judging anything he says. Better yet wait to see what he does. So far, he has not followed through on any of “cave ins” or flip flops or consortings with the enemy. But he has taken the winds out of many Marxist-Socialist sails in his three years. (more…)