RIP Mausi die Katze

Mausi the human is in mourning this evening. Her beloved black and white cat, also Mausi, was killed this afternoon by a dog that cornered her in a field near her home. The dog belongs to a local huntsman who was unable to prevent the dog from attacking her and before he could stop the animal Mausi was dead.

She has been buried in a favourite corner of the garden and some special flowers planted over her resting place. We are both rather upset at this sudden and unexpected tragedy.

Volcanic disruption

The volcanic plume from Iceland has stopped all flying in the UK and is shutting down flying across Europe. Makes me glad I'm planning to travle to Germany later this month by car and ferry. Already the Eurostar services are overflowing and so are the rail and road services within the UK.

Looking at the pictures of the ruption this could go on, and on, and on. It looks like this volcano is going to have its say and it is certainly going to hold forth.

As yet there is little indication on the ground of the ash stopping flying, but that could change. In the meantime the weather has turned cold again...

Those magnificent men ...

Mausi and the Monk went for a ride in a helicopter on Easter Monday. The Monk's son has become a flying instructor teaching people how to fly these incredibly agile and complex machines. Think of trying to pat your head with one hand, rub your stomach with the other and move both feet in opposite movements at the same time...

The instrument panel located between the "Cyclic" controls which determine which way the rotor blades are pitched to give up, down, forward sideways or backward motion. Next the seat is the "Collective"which controls engine power and the speed and rate of climb or descent and the feet control the tail rotor and thus direction in a turn.

The Monk's son enjoying showing his father how to fly the aerodynamically impossible machine in a co-ordinatedly unco-ordinated manner. A thoroughly enjoyable outing on a blustery day.

Abuse of the law...

That well known atheist Richard Dawkins and so-called scientist (I make that charge as, if you bother to sully your mind with his diatribe against Christianity, "The God Delusion", you quickly realise that it is unresearched and based entirely in inaccuracy, misrepresentation of facts, abuse even of historically improtant events and little, if any, scientific rigour. If that is an example of his usual scientific work, then I question his claim to be a scentist!) has, according to the Sunday Times Online, instructed his lawyers to prepare a case for the arrest of the Pope on his visit to Britain for "Crimes against humanity".

Quite apart from anything else, this man has become extremely offensive in his ill-informed and frequently hatefilled utterances. He is not alone though and is almost guaranteed publication by a media which ssupports him in attempting to destroy Christianity. Even the publishing houses here in the UK refuse routinely any book based on Christianity or which shows religion in a positive light, but will rush into print garbage such as Dan Brown's depictions of the Templars and the Cathars as saints and the Christians as murderers and liars. This does beg the question, why are the literati, certain (Notably NOT all) scientists and certain politicians suddenly so vehemently anti-Christian?

I do believe that it is, in part, due to their failure to convince others of their "faith" and to the realisation that they are losing the "moral" argument. Their dream of a "religion free world" is rapidly vanishing. Religion is gaining ground, and, thanks to their efforts, the most fundamentalist forms are striding back to centre-stage. The truth is that humanity is programmed to believe in something and perhaps it is this inner conflict which drives men like Dawkins to such fury. They rail against any form of belief in anything other than their narrow vision of a creation made up entirely of random particles, nucleic acids and carbonaceous matter all randomly mixing to create life - or not. They find every platform from which to denigrate religion, frequently from a starting point outside of all religion, yet they stridently proclaim themselves "expert" in the tenets of faith, then open their mouths to prove they don't know what they are saying. Dawkins is a good example, the man HATES religion with a passion worthy of St Paul. Specifically, Dawkins hates Christianity, yet he proudly proclaims, in writing his book, The God Delusion, that he has no need to study Christian beliefs, the Bible, the creeds or anything that might inform his vocal opinion, because "he knows its false."

The author Philip Pullman who has declared that he aims to "destroy Christianity" through his writing is another of the current atheist tendency whose hatred of religion, and Christianity in particular, drives them to a vehemence and a vitriolic abuse of facts and the invention of untruths where it suits to make their point. One has to ask again, why? What is it that drives them to this frenzy of hatred. If they do not wish to be a part of a religion, fine, that is their choice. They insist that I must not be allowed to speak out in public about my faith - because they find it "offensive" - yet I am not permitted to object when they make statements, tell blatant lies and spread disinformation about my faith.

One of the ultimate ironies has to be that Dawkins is a professor at Oxford University, his post, his salary and probably even his house, all provided out of invested trusts set up by the Christian founders of his college. Likewise Pullman is awarded prizes and lauded by those who now administer the Trusts and Prizes set up by Christians such as C S Lewis. The irony there is that Pullman has deliberately set out to write an "atheist" counter Narnia, which is best described as "Pantheistic and floundering in its attempt to escape the Gospel outcome of self-sacrificing love.

Having listened in growing anger to Stephen Fry and another atheist on BBC "Hard Talk" lambasting the Roman Catholic Church with hyperbole and histrionics, I found it remarkable that they can trot out unchallenged such utterances as "the Catholic Missionaries were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands - if not millions - in their conquest of South America. Naturally the carefully selected "Studio audience" dutifully declared that the "Catholics were a bad thing" in the end of show voting. Big surprise, the predebate vote showed that the outcome was a forgone conclusion - especially after the impassioned, but utterly factless performances of the two "Abolish the Church" speakers. Great tragedies certainly did follow the conquest of the South Americas, but these were hardly the result of the Christianisation of the populace, but rather of the greed of the Conquistadori who never bothered much with religion anyway, except when it suited them. In fact, to call some of these soldiers of fortune "Christian" is to use the term very loosely.

The truth is that, in the last Century, the Atheist/Humanist/Socialist movements currently driving Western Civilisation to destruction were responsible for more genocide, murder and cruelty that can be laid at the door of any church in the last two thousand. For the record Prof Dawkins et al -

Lenin/Stalin - Between 30 and 40 million Russians plus an unknown number of other nationalities including 25,000 Polish PoWs and around 2 million German civilians and PoWs who "vanished".

Mao Tse Tung - some estimates put his score at between 50 and 100 million Chinese

Pol Pot - Between 2 and 5 million Cambodians

Hitler - 6 million Jews, gypsies and homo sexuals

It makes a pretty impressive total, and remarkably, though this same coterie of angry and hate filled atheist are quick to accuse the Roman Catholic Church of "conniving" with Hitler, they seldom acknowledge that he and all the other mass murderers in this incomplete list, were atheist-socialist-humanists...

Perhaps that is why they hate Christianity with such passion, we are proof that religion does moderate behaviour...

In a later report on the BBC web page I note that this report is now claimed to be a "joke". Either that, or the University Council has finally seen where his continued vitriolic and insane campaign is likely to lead them, and called him to heel. I certainly wouldn't count on his obedience for too much longer though, this is a man blinded to everything by his hatred.

A profound paragraph that says it all

The following statement sums up my feelings on "Socialism" and its philosophy of draging everyone down to the lowest common denominator - except for the "leaders" of course -

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for,that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

The simple analogy given here is apochraphyl, but is a perfect example of the demotivation of able individuals caused by the application od Socialist Principles. It strikes a cord with me precisely because I can recall listening to a group of students holding forth on the subject of "equality" of wealth. Their proposal was that everyone, from CEO to floor sweeper should receive the same pay...

An economics professor at a local college made the statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

It could not be any simpler than that.

THE PRAYER THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD

The prayer used by the Rev Joe Wright when he was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate caused a stir in the "governing" classes. The Senators and their psychophants were expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good", but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost

our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

• We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

• We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

• We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

• We have shot anti-abortionists and called it justifiable.

• We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.

• We have abused power and called it politics.

• We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

• We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

• We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

• Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!"

The response was immediate from the "Politically Correct" legislators and showed their contempt for the morality the Rev Wright represented. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest.

The Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls in the following six weeks with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India , Africa and Korea .

Commentator Paul Harvey aired the prayer on his radio program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

Why the fuss? It appears that our "movers and shakers" in the various legislatures around the world are trying to run counter to the feelings, experience and understanding of those they purport to "represent". Political Correctness has become the new "morality" in their eyes, and they have failed to understand that the people they claim to govern disagree very strongly indeed. This is not unique to the US, it is rampant in the UK and in Europe, where the Atheist/Humanist and Anti-Christian Lobby are utterly determined to erase anything religious or based on religion, from the face of our civilisation. They are a minority, yet they control the legislatures, the media and thus the minds of those who refuse to think and consider what is happening around them and to them.

If you believe in nothing, you do not cease to believe, you merely find that morality gets a little screwed up because it becomes what you like or don't like.

Polish tragedy

The crash today in Smolensk has added poignancy to the event they were travelling to attend. That it has killed the Polish President and almost every head of the Armed Forces and all the senior members of the government must be the supreme irony of the Katyn Forest - the scene of Stalin's murder of all the Polish leadership - 25,000 officers of the Polish nation in 1942. He intended then to "behead" the Polish nation, deprive them of leaders and turn them into a subject nation. He failed then and this crash will no doubt fail to do it as well.

It is, however, a tragedy the Polish nation could do without. We shoud all pause to pray with them for the future of their democracy and their nation.