WHATEVER the science and politics of Covid, or what the World Economic Forum chillingly refers to as “The Great Reset,” whatever you believe and whatever is true, the tremendous good that can come in the aftermath of this worldwide series of events is undeniable and staring us right in the face.

Millions — no billions — of people have had their lives turned upside down. Some have faced almost no negative consequences, some have even benefited, but many more face, have faced, or will face in the near future, extreme hardship.

That means there is unprecedented opportunity to do good.

I know readers of this website are kind and compassionate. I’m sure most of this has already occurred to them, and they even have better ideas, but I’ll just mention a few things to remind anyone who has gotten to feeling helpless because relentlessly annoying bloggers are always pointing out the bad things and the overwhelming power of stealthy government at this moment in time.

We are not helpless. We have enormous power.

The first and most pressing thing we can do is pray, for those here because we owe them the most, but also for those around the world. We can pray for those affected by the illness itself, of course, but those hurt by the actions of government and by fear-mongering propaganda are far, far more numerous. In India and parts of Africa, people were beaten by police with clubs if they left their homes at wrong hours of the day. The word “draconian” is an understatement for the harshness of the restrictions there. Many people in poor countries are expected to starve to death in the months ahead. There is not one too many on the face of the earth, but the depopulation agenda is most definitely in effect. A virus is not the killer.

Please turn your hearts in sympathy and prayer to these victims. Please weep for them if you can — but not with despair or hopelessness.

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A FRIGHTENED MAN is much more dispiriting than a frightened woman.

Peggy Hall talks about men in masks. (more…)

FROM the Religion News Service on July 7, 2020 comes this report:  Thousands of churches and other religious organizations received forgivable loans of up to $10 million to make up for pandemic losses, according to limited government data released this week by the U.S. Treasury. The vast majority of religious organizations listed in the data received between $150,000 and $300,000 as part of the federal Paycheck Protection Program intended to help small businesses maintain payroll and other approved expenses during the pandemic. The data did not list businesses and organizations that received less than $150,000. At least two dozen religious organizations received the highest tier of funds, between $5 million and $10 million. Among them were two megachurches — Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and Life.Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. Several Protestant denominations, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), also received between $5 and $10 million, as did a dozen Roman Catholic entities, mostly dioceses, and at least two Jewish organizations, the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. The data released did not specify the exact amount each entity received. Instead, it broke down the data into five broad ranges or tiers: $150,000 to $300,000; $350,000 to $1 million; $1 million to $2 million; $2 million to $5 million; and $5 million to $10 million. A total of 661,218 small businesses and nonprofit organizations were…

L.R. writes:

Third world jails like in my country Panama are far more dirty than in America; each tiny cell is fully packed with several inmates and many times with members of rival gangs. Food most of the time is very bad; bathrooms are never in sanitary condition; guards are corrupt and collaborate with powerful, high-ranking gangs members, etc. For many years the media in Panama has been criticizing the bad conditions in jails and how the inmates live, but that has never changed.

Anyway, it makes sense, given these conditions, that these jails would be overwhelmed by the virus, right?

Well, I was taken by surprise last week when the media reported just two deaths and two people hospitalized so far.

Meanwhile, in the outside general population that is not trapped in those deplorable jails and have freedom to go outside to buy the necessary things in stores, the death toll and hospitalizations are much worse! Deaths are 1,000  and hospitalizations are 900+ so far!

It doesn’t make sense!

So there are two possible explanations of this strange virus statistic: (more…)

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ALAN writes:

Carondelet Park is a large park in south St. Louis. It has two lakes, many hills, and winding paths for walking or bicycling. For me, it is also a park of many memories. I go there often to visit some of the higher animals (as Twain might have worded it): Ducks, geese, cranes, bluebirds, cardinals, red-winged blackbirds, butterflies, rabbits, squirrels, and woodchucks.  It is a temporary refuge from the preposterous idiocies of the lower animals in the city around it.  A bench in a quiet setting in the park is an excellent place to sit, think, and remember.

I am always alone when I go to the park, except for the ghosts who accompany me everywhere. One morning the melody and words of Duke Ellington’s 1934 “Solitude” occurred to me unexpectedly as I sat on a bench overlooking one of the lakes. That was fitting but odd, because I had not listened to the song since the mid-1980s when it was played on some St. Louis radio station featuring Big Band music.

In years long past, passenger trains came through the park. Many school picnics and band concerts were held there. A hundred years ago, boys liked to go fishing and swimming in one of the park’s lakes, until they were run off by “Big Bad Bill”, the park-keeper.

St. Louis newspaperman Jim Fox recalled how he and his wife and friends pulled their children in coaster wagons to the park in the 1950s, where they rode down the hills. (more…)