So embarrassing!!!

Sometimes, we know people who do stupid things. It happens. Sometimes, we’re associated with a place that the makes the news for stupid reasons. My Alma Mater, Loyola University New Orleans, has prompted a few eye-rolling moments from me over the past couple of years, but this really takes the taco.

Professor Call Cops on Cop-Student, for being a Cop.

No, for real! A current student, Sgt. Josh Collins of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, didn’t have time to change out of his uniform and safely secure his sidearm one day, so went to class wearing both. Another student, presumably named Speshall Snoflayk, whined to a professor, who then called the cops– that’s right, more dudes with uniforms and sidearms– about the student in a uniform with a sidearm.

St. Ignatius and All Companions, pray for my patience! I’m not able to donate much money to many causes at the moment, but if I ever sell a story for a lucrative movie deal, Loyola New Orleans is currently OFF the “To Donate” list. I hope that this is a smack in the face to the administration that has allowed this stupidity to grow and fester. It was bad enough when I was there back at the turn of the century, but what I’ve seen over the past 12-24 months is a campus culture going off the rails. Because this line, while damning, is pretty reflective of what I’ve been seeing:

At the end of the day, Loyola University is little more than a daycare for young “adults.” $52,000 a year is a bit much to spend for daycare, even if you’re living on campus.

This is embarrassing as an alum! Hey, Society of Jesus: For years I’ve been trying to defend my beloved “Jebbies” from blanket accusations of Marxism and Heresy, but if you guys don’t get your shit straightened out, get some Catholic back into your Catholic University, some Academics into your School, and some Actual, Biblical Jesus back into your Society, I’m gonna give up! I know there are some younger members of the order with a firmer grasp on Orthodoxy and Doctrine, and I pray you don’t run them out and or ruin them before their formation is complete. But in the meantime, it’s like you’re trying your damnedest to prove all the worst accusations and conspiracy theories correct!

Get your shit together, Jebbies, and straighten out your institutions before it’s too late, if it isn’t already!

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Time for Another Confession

I’ve . . . well, I was going to write another post, but then realized that I had to write this one first.I’ve a confession to make, something I need to be published, along with my reasoning, for the sake of honesty and transparency.

I voted for Donald Trump. I wasn’t going to, I didn’t want to, and living where I do, it really didn’t matter anyway, but I did. And I’d like to explain why I did so that there is no question later, for good or ill.

Originally, I was a Cruz supporter, because I actually believe in the ideals and ideas behind the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution, I believe they should be upheld, and I though Cruz was the best bet. I liked most of the Repubs running in the primary, to be honest, through was distinctly disliked a few, among them Trump and Jeb who were, to me, the Twinned Pinnacles of Establishment. My initial dislike of Trump was further inflamed by the behavior of many of his supporters among my friends. Their feverish, unquestioning supports was too reminiscent of the 2007-Present support of the Obama-Otaku, and disturbed me greatly. That and I was starting to see and hear things about some of the people that support him that disturbed me. (More on that with a post to follow, regarding my personal look into the “alt-Right”.)

Still, he won the nomination, so after one single day of expressing my dismay after the Convention, I kept my mouth shut. By then, it was looking like Hillary would get the Dem nomination and, despite my misgivings about Trump, I had sorta sworn Eternal Vengeance on Her for Reasons Not Limited to Benghazi. So while I wouldn’t support him, I dang sure well wasn’t going to do anything to help her. He may be a con-man and a swindler, but she’s a conniving, murdering b*tch.

But now a new dynamic started up, and (almost) all my lefty friends started working to Do Their Part for Her! The sheer amount of casual bigotry, hatred, lying and blithe-passing-along-of-lies that I saw every single damn day so disgusted and sickened me, that I started considering voting for Trump just because they didn’t want me to. But I didn’t want my vote to be decided by spite (I may have sorted Slytherin, but acting on emotion is not really considered Best Practices among our House). So, being the (somewhat) decent Catholic girl that I am, I prayed about it. And I mean, on my knees, with actual tears, begging God to let me know how to exercise my civic duty without completely offending Him. I begged, “Lord, please, just, hit me with a rock or something, You know how flipping clueless I am. . .”

For months, I assumed that when I got into the booth, I would go third party. Despite that Johnson and Weld were sh*t Libertarians, and awful candidates, I was reasonably sure they’d get my vote. Otherwise, the choice seemed between Civil War (Trump), or Wold Wide Nuclear War (Hillary). Both seemed really quite awful. But still, I prayed.

And on Thursday, 03 November 2016, that prayer was answered, via the work of Wikileaks. Mind you, I don’t entirely trust Wikileaks, don’t entirely trust Mr. Assange, not as far as motives are concerned. Perhaps I’m too cynical to believe that their motives are as stated. But I also acknowledge their pretty-damn-sterling record in terms of accuracy of their releases. So, what was it in the releases that caught my eye? Well, if you’re familiar with any of my older writings, you would likely guess the whole Spirit Cooking thing. And you’d be right.

Spirit Cooking is the term used for the Occultic Work of Marina Abramovich. This is the sort of thing that Alex Jones has been raving about, and even I (who should have known better!) dismissed. But now we had actual evidence. No longer hearsay, we now have video, emails, actual evidence to back up all the worst emails . . . These following video is disturbing, but it is still just an intro to the subject:

And I can’t believe I’m actually adding an InfoWars vid, but this is also useful:

Myself, I didn’t really need the explanations, or the quotes. I just needed one email and two pictures, before I recognized the sick-sweet, metallic smell of hardcore, black occultism. Likewise the fetid morass that results from prolonged exposure to such ritual.  I always skirted the edges in terms of organized occultism, was never directly involved with any group save for some like-minded over the internet and, of course, K-Sensei. But the groups I knew of in New Orleans had no interest for me, nor I for them. But. . . I was aware of them. And I know their scent.

While I was never personally involved with such groups, I am not a stranger to the use of pain and blood, my own at least. Only ever in very small quantities, used as amplifier and seal. But this. . .

This was Whole ‘Nother Level of Evil. This was the Rock that I’d asked the Lord to toss at my cranium, and it hit with a resounding Gongggggg! It was no longer a matter of not supporting Her, it was now imperative that She, and those around Her, be kept out of the White House. Is Trump of the same “elite” set? Maybe. The difference was that now we had proof that one side definitely was into some Very Bad Things, but only speculation-by-association for the other. She had to be kept out, no matter how much I was not a fan of Trump.

So, I voted for him, even though I felt my stomach turn as a I did so. And when, against all my expectation, he won, I determined to withhold further judgement until after his inauguration– just as I did in 2008 when Obama won despite my meaningless opposition. I don’t trust politicians, or much of anyone in a position of “power”. So of course I’ll keep an eye on him.

But having Her at least temporarily out of the picture is a Good Thing, no matter how his time turns out.

A Great Upending in the Year of Mercy

Yes, it’s been quite a while. Which will be sort-of addressed in the following paragraphs.

2015 was a year of internal change. Of figuring out my goals, my direction (or lack thereof), of realizing my vocation (at long-bloody-last!). In mid December, I knew what items I needed to really change things in 2016: A good planner, and a couple good books on organizing one’s life. Because if there’s one thing the developments of 2015 showed me, it’s that I had no organization in my life, and was getting horribly overwhelmed every time I tried to get things together. I needed guidance, a system, something to keep me from drowning in my own chaos. [I’m very good with chaos, but Chaos is, almost paradoxically, a static state. Chaos may grow, but it never progresses. Likewise with the other extreme, perfect order, because the only perfect order, the only perfect peace, is the heat-death of the universe. So, also not-desired. What is needed is the careful balance of Chaos and Order, the friction of which provides movement in a direction.

So. First I found the Top-Down Planner. It was a bit pricier than I expected for a planner, but I could tell that this was exactly the sort of organization and focus I needed. Basically, instead of  devoting all the space to schedule with maybe a small little square for goals, this planner devotes most of its space to your working out and planning your goals, with a schedule space at the bottom of the pages. I find the space is sufficient for my scheduling needs, but the focus on goals is fantastic.

After shopping around both online and off-line, I found nothing that even came close to this focus and layout. So I went with it. It came in last week, and I’ve been working with it ever since. I love it!  I spent a couple of days last week just working on the first pages, where it takes you through a series of exercises designed to first help you identify the values you life your life by, and then the goals you have for your life. The results of these exercises are then used to set the focus for the rest of the year, first on a month-by month basis, then as a week-by week basis, around which you then schedule your days. This focus on life values and life goals really helps to highlight which parts of your life are the most personally fulfilling, and which are just filling time. The Goal focus of the planner has already really helped me focus my own efforts around my selected goals, and the steps needed to progress toward their achievement.It has also started the crisis of the week, though it’s a good and necessary crisis. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Second, I found two highly rated (on Amazon) organization guides, both by Jennifer Ford Berry– Organize Now! A week-by-week guide to simplify your space and your life, and Organize Now! Think and Live Clutter-Free; A week-by-week plan for a happier, healthier life. I purchased them because they were highly rated, spiral bound, took things in small increments over the course of the year, and started with organizing one’s self before organizing one’s space. The first two weeks of the first book are “Organize your mind & Life Vision”, and “Organize Your Priorities”. The first two weeks of the second are “Organize Your Priorities”, and “Organize a Vision Board.” You can see there’s some overlap (and, they both dovetail very nicely with the work being done in the planner). Each week is only a few pages long, and includes checklists of things to think about, schedule, or do. I sit down on Sunday evenings and read the chapter for the coming week. If there are things to schedule, I add them to my planner. Otherwise, I just think them over for the next week, implement what I can, and then on Saturday evening, evaluate the developments of the week and where to go from there.

As you might imagine, this has lead to my goals and priorities being on my mind quite a bit over the past month, and especially over the past two weeks. What am I supposed to accomplish in this life? Why am I getting nowhere with the things I really feel a need to do?

When I was working on the initial pages of the planner, I ended up setting out 4 Goals. [I should note first, in case you don’t know me personally, or haven’t known me personally for a long time, that I often tend to think and express myself in symbolic terms. Not everything I say is meant to be understood literally. Sometimes I’m short-handing big concepts or ideas. Sometimes my expression is halfway between symbolic and literal, or both. I guess it’s understood through context. Or asking me. That works, too . . . sometimes.] The 4 Goals I set out were 1) Maintain/ Enhance Life Order, including Finances (because nothing else will work out well if the bottom falls out of everything), 2) Become a Ninja, 3) Establish the Clan and 4) Establish and Promote the Ninja-verse Fandom. There is a significant amount of overlap between some of these, but that’s okay.

Clearly, “Become a Ninja” is not exactly literal. But it’s not purely symbolic, either. It’s a list of things I want to learn, or become proficient at, to be more self-sufficient, and more capable of being of use in an emergency situation (this is where my physical fitness goals are categorized). To be more the person that gives aid, than the person that needs aid. “Establish the Clan” is about family and homesteads, the philosophical and physical needs of establishing and maintaining family connections and networks (and yes, there are steps involving finding Prince Charming-future-co-Clan-Chief). “Ninja-verse fandom” is all about my writing, which is something I love, even when scenes are frustrating me. I’ve always loved telling stories– childhood friends may remember that I’ve always loved telling stories. I love all the work that goes into crafting a good story– the research, the world building, the character creation, the plotting, time lining, the actual scene and chapter writing. Telling and writing stories is, I think, my vocation. It’s what I’m supposed to do. To play with ideas and express them as adventure, as romance, as Ninjas-in-Space! Awww yeah!

Once these goals are set out, and steps listed for each, there comes the inevitable process of comparing what one has been doing, to the goals and steps written down. What are your current commitments, and how well do they match up with your goals and needs? For instance, on average, adult humans need 7 hours of sleep a night. This is true for me, so I need to be getting to bed no later than the 9:30-10PM time-frame. Also, I am very much an introvert– I need time alone, time to let go of everything and re-charge. Any chore that adds mental stress negates the fact of being alone. These are things that can’t be changed– they can be “Dealt with”, but cannot be changed. I have to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and have to go to church on the weekend. These are the non-negotiable items. This means that all mornings except Saturday are booked solid, from the start, with maybe some room on the occasional Sunday if I go to Mass on Saturday evening.

So. . . all of this has been on my brain. Then a Mormon friend posted this article to her facebook feed: When We Try to One-Up the Lord’s Standards: Culture vs. Commandments. I’m not Mormon myself, but I still really resonated with a lot of what the author had to say. I am intimately acquainted with the feeling that I’m not doing enough, that I’m constantly falling short of what the Lord desires of me, that I should always be striving to do more for the Lord. That I’m not devoting enough time or resources to charitable endeavors, to helping others. So this article got things really ticking in my brain– perhaps part of my problem is not that I’m not doing enough for the Lord, but rather that my a priori definition of Doing the Lord’s Work has somehow included: “Whatever you’re doing, if you enjoy it, it’s Not the Lord’s Work. If it’s not directly working with the Poor, it’s Not the Lord’s Work.” You can see where this might become problematic. Not everyone is called to serve the Lord in the same ways. Bot somehow, my understanding of such work was narrowed down to the High-School Service Hours definition. Working at a soup kitchen, or a homeless shelter would count, but freely contributing what small amount of Beauty I could into the world most assuredly did not. No amount of singing for free could amount to one hour in a soup kitchen. My writing, or work on it, would never count because no matter what I wrote, no matter what theological ideas I worked with and tried to express, it wasn’t directly helping the poor, and in addition, I plan to try to sell the stories, and if any money is made, then it’s right out of consideration.  But not to sing, and not to write, was to squander the Talents He gave me. So, I had to do both, and the soup kitchen and homeless shelter and more, because the Gifts I was given were not, by my definition, suitable for His Work. (We’ll not even talk about the spiritual angst involved with not having started a family yet. That’s a whole other can of tangled worms. . .)

Yes, I see now how stupid it was to be thinking such things. I suspect, however, I am far from the only person to have fallen into this trap. We elevate charitable work, but have such a narrow view of what “counts”. . .

Then, David Bowie died. Then Alan Rickman died. Two men who wielded immense influence over my development as a musician and as a storyteller.  Both were severe shocks, and surprisingly personal losses. Bowie was the man who influenced the men who influenced me, the root cause, so to speak, of my development as an artist. His ceaseless exploration of ideas and self, no matter how weird or unusual, is the root of my ceaseless exploration of ideas and self. I am no Bowie, but in the end, I learned the pursuit of Truth No Matter What from him. Rickman portrayed some of my favorite villains, as well as Metatron and Professor Snape. His portrayals of his characters, from Hans Gruber, to the Sheriff of Nottingham, Metatron, and my beloved Professor, helped me learn how to craft characters of interest and depth. Both deaths were unexpected, seemingly sudden, a painful reminder of the ticking clock. . .

. . . And of those goals that need addressing. . . an indication that one cannot “wait for life to sort itself out” to get on with what one should be doing. I cannot wait– I spend so much of the year saying “things will calm down once ______ has passed, then I’ll get ______ done”, only to find that the expected calm never comes. It’s one thing after another– End of Fiscal Year, this holiday, that big convention, this other event. . .  things never calm down, because after every event, all the things I was desperately postponing crowd back in. It’s too much, not if I’m to accomplish what I’m supposed to accomplish. I’m constantly juggling commitments– all things I enjoy, but not all actually furthering any of my goals. My house is a mess because I have no regular time for chores. My fitness progress is always stalled because too many days, I chose between working out (and thus not having time to make my own meals), or making healthy meals (and not having time to work out). I don’t get to sit down to write until 8 or 9 pm (or 10 or 11pm), by which time my brain is so tired I hardly can type a sentence.

Yesterday, I made a list of all my Not-Work and not Actual Church Service Commitments, and the frequency of these commitments. They are as follows:

1. Choir 1 — weekly plus concerts
2. Choir 2 — weekly plus certain holidays
3. Charitable Organization — monthly, plus additional
4. Charitable Organization 1a — monthly
5. Big Convention — yearly, plus ~ 1 week, plus sick time after
6. Little Convention — yearly, plus ~ 1 week
7. Community Emergency Response Team 1, Local level — quarterly
8. Community Emergency Response Team 2, County level — monthly
9. Community Emergency Response Team 2, State level — monthly
10. Community Emergency Response Team 3, State level — monthly
11. Exercise/ Physical fitness — daily, except Sunday

Yes, there is scheduled time for expected illness. (sigh). These can also be broken down as follows:

1. Daily Commitments: 1
2. Weekly Commitments: 2
3. Monthly commitments: 5
4. Quarterly Commitments: 1
5. Yearly Commitments: 2

Two commitments in a day means I cannot cook, or do other household chores for that day, as the whole day will be spent in commitments and the driving to and from them. More than 2 days of 2 commitments in a week starts to effect diet, exercise, sleep, chores, and anything else I might possibly try to be doing with my life for the entire week. Missed sleep is not made up until maybe Saturday but, sleep too late on Saturday, and that cuts into the one day I have to catch up on everything else. If you look at the frequency breakdowns, you can see how this starts to become a problem. My weekly commitments plus my physical fitness needs max me out at the beginning, but then 5 monthly commitments means 1-2 additional commitments per week, plus quarterly and yearly when they come around.

This is untenable, but it’s how I’ve been going about my life for some time. Taking the first list, I compared it to my goals. Some of them fit into my goals. Some do not. I enjoy all of them– it’s the only reason I do them. I enjoy what I’m doing and I love the people I’m with. . . but I’ve got to cut back. Some things, those that are part of some of my goals, can be scaled back a bit (and to heck with anyone who gives me crap about it. Seriously, screw ’em.), some other things may have to go entirely. For commitments I’ve made through the end of February, I’ll be keeping almost all of those, because I don’t want to bail on people with such short notice. But beyond that. . . there will be cutbacks and cut-outs. Simply because there are things I’m supposed to be doing, but I’m so over-committed, that it’s a special occasion when I make any progress at all with them. And my health can’t take it– I can’t get in shape if I don’t have time to exercise, time to clean my house ,time to defrost my freezer so my fridge will work again, time to make my own meals, time to get my needed hours of sleep. . .

So, look. . . to everyone who will soon be seeing less of me: I am sorry. Please believe, this isn’t because I don’t like what we’ve been doing. And this isn’t because I’m “pussing out.” I will definitely miss these things, and the people involved, but these cuts have to be made. This is because I have my own priorities, my own goals, and I have to pursue them. There’s no point to my life if I do otherwise.

11 April 2014 News

D’oh!

First off, a correction:Yesterday’s link regarding the slaughter of Christians might be a fake. Sorry, just learned about that. However, here’s a link to something real, from one of the most credible people on the planet.

 

Related: Brandeis disgraces itself with its treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Kinda related: Is it me, or is Walid Shoebat starting to lean a bit Catholic? Look a this blog, and find the entries written by Walid Shoebat. . .

Capitol Hill Doings:

Lois Lerner Found in Contempt of Congress. Well, du~uh, and long past time for it too. Not that it’ll do much, but I appreciate the gesture. Although, I gotta say, everytime Trey Gowdy opens his mouth, I swoon like a teenaged girl meeting Jensen Ackles. ..

Sebelius resigns. She was given a crap job and no support, did the best she could with a turd sammich, tried to polish it nice for her d-bag boss. . . Truth be told, I ain’t gonna miss her, but I do have a bit of repect for the terrible position she was in.

The Bundy Ranch Seige

Attack Dogs and Tasers

Calling on the Sheriff to Arrest the Federales

The Next Waco (or Ruby Ridge, for that matter)

Bundy Ranch Blog (this goes right to the donation page)

There is word that the Militias are startign to arrive in numbers, now. I’ll try to post when I have something more solid.

Other updates:

09 April 2014 News

Here’s a good way to take advantage of our overload of lawyers. Sue the schools that abuse our children.

If there is only one thing you read today, read about these amazing, heart wrenching efforts to save children from sex slavery rings.

[While we’re on the subject, let me just note that I hate the term “Human trafficking”. Even if it’s technically correct, it seems to me to be a politically correct softening  of the term “Slavery”. That’s what this is, plain as day. We should name it with the ugliest terms we have. We should be absolutely clear what we’re talking about. This is slavery. The people who do it are slavers. Those who support it in any way are supporting the slave trade.]

My favorite actor of Lucifer calls out Obamacare over its attack on freedom of conscience. Turns out, he’s a bit of a libertarian. Who knew?

Also inappropriate: Strippers at nursing homes. Really? Ugh. Like Mrs. Scalia, I’m not comfortable with strippers in general as it is, for pretty much the reasons  she notes. How crass and insensitive do you have to be to call them into a nursing home?

This is gonna make my job even more tedious. Let’s just add more red tape. That’ll help women. . .

 

A Saucy Chick After My Own Heart!

So, a friend sent me this story about a tattooed mummy from Egypt. The whole areticle is worth reading, but my friend sent it to me because of this:

One of the mummies, whose remains were found just seven years ago, was so well preserved that archaeologists could almost make out the tattoo on her skin on the inner thigh of her right leg with the naked eye. Infra-red technology helped define it more clearly.

The woman, aged between 20 and 35, had been buried wrapped in a linen and woollen cloth and her remains had mummified in the dry heat. The tattoo has been deciphered by curators and spells out in ancient Greek – M-I-X-A-H-A, or Michael.

The owner of the tattoo was a woman who died in about AD 700 and lived in a Christian community on the banks of the Nile.

The tattoo represents the symbol of the Archangel Michael, who features in both the Old and New Testaments. The symbol has previously been found in ancient churches and on stone tablets, but never before in the form of a tattoo.

“You can see her tattoo really clearly using infra red reflectography,” said Dr Antoine, “The tattoo on her right inner thigh represents a monogram that spells Michael in ancient Greek.

“She is the first evidence of a tattoo from this period. This is a very rare find.”

The woman was about 5ft 2in tall and was found in 2005 on an archaeological dig in a cemetery in Sudan. Other ancient Egyptians who were mummified had their organs removed before being preserved.

“The scan of the Sudanese mummy showed her internal organs are remarkably well preserved,” said Dr Antoine. “We can only speculate why she had a tattoo. Perhaps for protection.”

A valid reason. Bit still kinda saucy.

I approve!

Read the whole thing: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/museums/10717154/1300-year-old-mummy-and-her-intimate-tattoo.html

2 Dreams from the Past

It seems much of my impetus for non-fiction writing recently is my conversations with ChrissyTheHyphenated. In the combox for post Why a Rapture, I wrote of my dream about my someday-to-be-dog-friend, Anubis. As I wrote, I recalled another dream, definitely Revelations flavored, and featured a grassy hill. So, I’m gonna write about it, and then as a bonus, relate a funny dream that only Grunt and Lephael have known about until this point.

Dream 1: This was dreamed about 12-13 years ago. At the time, I hadn’t studied much at all in the way of prophecy (Christian or otherwise), but I dang well knew about angels, as angelology was a hobby of the time.

I’m standing on a field, the grass a bright, rich green. Bright like the sun is shining on it. The sky is dark and clear– not quite night-time dark, but I can see the stars in my peripheral vision. I’m looking at the horizon, at my eleven o’clock. From beyond the horizon, I see two fireworks shoot up and explode, one white, one red. The burning flecks radiate out, but instead of dissipating and falling, they elongate and grow brighter, becoming missile-like things headed right for where I (and others) are.

Somehow I know that they aren’t missiles, even before the unfurl/unfold. I know almost immediately that they are angels– the red are Seraphim (because Seraphim burn, yanno, so red), the white are Cherubim (because the cherubim–not putti!– are very intellectual sorts. Logic and Reason. Clear. White).

So, these angels come and land on the field, and line all us humans up into queues– one Seraph facing the head of each line, multiple Cherubim managing each line. I’m so distracted by all the angels all around (because Angels! Pretty! Shiny!!!) that I don’t pay attention to what’s happening at the front of the lines as we shuffle through. Before I realize it, I’m at the head of the line, with something coming right at my head.

On instinct, I lift my left hand to my forehead to block, and get a handful of sealing wax, imprinted with a design I can’t exactly remember. Part of the wax seal is on my forehead, but most of it is in the palm of my left hand. The Seraph with the self-waxing stamp gives me a level look as I mutter “Oh, crap! I’ll never be able to use this hand again!”

The Cherub to my right gently pats my shoulder with a somewhat rueful look. “It’s okay,” he says. “We all know who you are and where you go.” The implication is that I have something of a reputation among the angels, and that reputation is something along the lines of “Easily distracted, somewhat flaky klutz.” As I can think of far worse reputations, I don’t mind.

The Seraph huffs at the Cherub, and the latter points me to a hillside not that far away, and says “Your friends are over there.” I go, somewhat gingerly cradling my left hand, and sit down next to some very good friends of mine, who pass me a bread-basket full of popcorn. “We got good seats,” one says. “We’ll be able to see everything!”

End of Dream 1

Dream 2: I’m adding this because it’s funny and deals again with angels– or a rather specific one in this case. First, before we get to the dream, if you’re not familiar with Michigan J Frog, you need to be familiar with this:

The running joke with the frog is that he only ever sings in front of that one guy– if anyone else comes along, he reverts back to normal frog behavior. And then starts singing again when they go away.

This dream happened in late May of 2004– I was in the hospital, the first time I’d stayed overnight in a hospital, in the process of being diagnosed with cancer. I was not yet relocated to the “cancer ward”, still in the general unit with a roommate that was, I think, dying. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on– they’d run enough tests to seriously alarm the docs, but the biopsy wasn’t to happen until the next day. But they wanted to keep me, because they were afraid that I’d slip into respiratory arrest at any moment.

So, being the amateur angelologist that I was, I knew that when you were sick or in need of healing, the number one angel to ask for was Raphael. He’s known a the Divine Physician, the Top Angel when it comes to Healing. He also has a reputation as being the “chummiest”, “most approachable”, and “goofiest” of the angels.

So that night, I finished out my nighttime prayers with the following: “And, God, if it isn’t too much trouble, and if he’s got a spare moment or two after his real work, and if it’s okay by You, tell Raphael he’s always welcome to come by. Even the smallest bit of help would be deeply appreciated. Thanks.”

That said, I snuggled down and went to sleep.

I dreamed I woke again in that same room, and in came Raphael, bright and shining, dressed in a tux with tails, and spats, and a top hat and cane and white gloves, singing that same song and dancing that same dance as the frog! Followed by all his Malachim helpers!

It was so ridiculously silly that I started giggling uncontrollably, and woke myself up I was giggling so hard! From that moment on I knew I’d be okay. It was something I couldn’t explain to the doctors or nurses, or even my distraught mother and father– though I did tell mom years later. I knew I’d be okay, because Raphael came by and made me laugh (it is the best medicine, after all).

And he seriously is the goofiest angel, ever. [Even keeping in mind that he whupped Asmodeus’ butt barehanded and locked him in the desert until the end of time. Mmhmm! He’s not one of The Magnificent Seven for nothing, you know!]

The American Covenant

The Warning

It started 31 January 2012. According to my journal, Gold was $1,747.04/ oz that morning, and silver was $33.66/oz. The rest of the entry for that morning reads as follows:

Jay Carney says WH has no rush re: Iran. Since the man is a liar, we may assume the opposite.

FL primary today.

Rumor Mill News

Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn The Harbinger

Debka is reporting that Syrian Prez Bashar Assad may start regional war if UN tells him to step down.

One of these things is not quite like the others. . . that day, in the morning, I’d come across an interview with Rabbi Cahn on YouTube, and it “pinged” in my brain. Something made me take notice. I run across odd, cool and crazy things on YouTube all the time. Sometimes I post them on my blog. But this was different enough to have me scribbling a note in my journal with ink on paper– a more real “noting of” than simply copy/pasting electrons via computer. So I scribbled it down and put it out of my mind.

On 12 March 2012, in addition to my usual market entries, I wrote the following

On Saturday, bought a new pair of work shoes (1st time in 3 years). Then on a whim, went to the neighboring bookstore. There, in front, on display, was that book I’d noticed a couple of weeks ago –> The Harbinger. So, I bought it, and just finished reading it. And it’s very troubling. Ref. Isaiah 9:10-12, in relation to events of 9/11 and all that follows. Crap–> this means responsibility of some nature that I must uphold.

[Oddly enough, that was the last entry until near the end of June, even though the journal is always in my bag.] Due to my experiences in life, when something presents itself before me and sticks in my brain, I make note of it. When it keeps presenting itself, I take that as a message from above, that He wants me to take notice. It would be a long, long tale to describe that training, but He trained me thusly, and so this is how I respond.

It’s odd, for me, as a Catholic. Prophesy and things related are generally avoided, save those referring to Jesus. End-times prophesy is so very. . . protestant, you know. Best to not meddle around with trying to interpret anything. Que sera, sera, and all that. But then, I’ve always been the nutter in the choir loft, and I’ve had a passion for all the “Strange but True” stories featured on Unsolved Mysteries and The X Files. So I never really followed the traditional Catholic manner of dealing with the Book of Revelation or various Old Testament Texts. To my mind, too many theologians have been involved in the Catholic view of such things. There’s a strain of Catholicism (to which I have long exposure) that holds that Biblical Prophesy has been fulfilled, or else is not to be interpreted, because we’d just get it wrong anyway. This same strain looks askance at the events of Fatima and buys the Vatican line about the 3rd Secret.

So you can imagine that when contemplating ideas bridging ancient Israel to modern America, the voices of 500 theologians (and the dubious eyebrows of my father) cry out all at once in my head. But luckily, my inner musician rises up in reply and says “If the melody and chord progression are the same, the rhythm similar, it means it’s the same Opus, by the same Composer!”

For instance, when I first saw The Fellowship of the Ring in the movie theater, I realized before I saw the credits that the composer of the soundtrack was the same guy who composed the soundtrack for The Matrix. How did I realize this? Because Howard Shore, the composer, used a chord, broken into an descending arpeggio descending for The Matrix, and used the same chord, broken but ascending, for Lord of the Rings. It was a signature. It was possible that the music was written by two separate people– but unlikely. My ear heard that one pattern was simply the inversion of the other, and identified it as the work of the same person.

Because of this musical training, I’m pretty good at spotting patterns. If someone else spots the pattern and points it out, I can validate it pretty quickly. This is what happened with the book mentioned above. Rabbi Cahn noted a pattern between the events starting around Isaiah 9:10, and their super-eerie correspondence to the exact same things happening with 9/11 and the events that followed. There is a clear pattern shown, a pattern even more detailed thanks to Rabbi Cahn’s Jewish background and understanding of the Jewish Calendar and traditions.

I’ll not spell out the pattern int his post– if you are interested, that can be another post. Or you can get the book yourself. However, the main point, at least as far as this particular essay goes, is this: That God is very much active in the events around us, That God is very much involved in the continuing history of the American people, and that God is very much trying to get our stupid, wandering attention, and we really ought to start paying Him some mind. . .

The Covenant

Having read that book in the spring, it’s implications knocking around in my skull for a few months, I was well primed when about a month ago, I heard of another book, this one called The Covenant: America’s Sacred and Immutable Connection to Ancient Israel, by Timothy Ballard. [Allow me to give a few disclaimers: First, I have not yet finished the book, so what I write today is based upon what I have read so far. Second, this book was a re-write of two other books that had been written for an LDS readership– Ballard removed all the LDS material for this book so that it would be accessible to a broader audience. Third– the author references the writings and research of other authors. I’ve not had the chance to check out these writings, though I’m interested, so I cannot say, for myself, how trustworthy these sources are. That said, the ideas presented are intriguing and worth considering, so I cannot dismiss them outright.]

Basically, The Covenant takes the microcosmic idea of The Harbinger and enlarges it– not only is 9/11 an echo of past events– the entire history of America is tied with that of Ancient Israel (which is why the Harbingers show themselves now as they did then). Ballard (this is where he references works and authors I’m unfamiliar with) starts with the Old Testament prophesies concerning the descendants of Joseph– the famed lost tribes of Israel, who disappear from canon before the prophesies are fulfilled. Through hints found in linguistics and archaeology, Ballard theorizes some of the movements of these lost tribes northwest through Europe. Then using the writings of Columbus and others, he shows how the discovery, settlement, and Founding of America were always seen as something ordained by God in the Bible, and that God was active in the discovery, settling and founding of the nation.

This then explains American Exceptionalism, the instinctive feeling of kinship with modern day Israel and the near obsessive need many American’s feel to protect Israel, the need to reawaken our common religious sensibilities, whatever our religion may be, and why we absolutely, positively, cannot allow the secularists to have their way in removing God from the American Consciousness. This is why it is so very important for all Americans to know and understand the words of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution/ Bill of Rights– these are the documents that write out the American Covenant. These set up the human half of the equation– they state who we are as a people, what we desire, and the rules which shall bind the powerful among us. In return, just as with Ancient Israel, God will bless us with protection (life), liberty, and prosperity (the pursuit of happiness). However, should our part of the Covenant be broken, should we forget our part, God will withdraw His blessings not so much to punish us, but to get our attention, to remind us of the covenant, and to call us back to Himself.

Zophiel’s Ponderings

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being very intrigued with the idea. I can’t say I entirely buy it (those 500 theologians would make my head explode if I tried) . . . honestly, I have more research to do before I can properly weigh various arguments and make my decision on what I believe in this regard.  However, it is worth considering as we look at the tragedies befalling our dear nation everyday. When we see all three branches of our government betray us, our economy stumbling and crawling, our news peppered with reports of flesh-eating zombie-people and the reports aren’t jokes. When we consider the old-guard “conservatives” who focused more on policy with a mention of religious texts much like one would reference any other work or literature, when we consider just what is being taught in our schools– and not taught.

But here’s what it comes down to. I’ve read the fist book, am about halfway through the second. I’ve been considering these ideas for months now. And these things keep shoving themselves in front of my attention. I’ve gone and read. And I’ve considered the ideas. And still they present themselves. Which, according to my past experience, means this: It is not enough to read and ponder, I have to share.

I hate that part the most. I can ponder whatever crazy idea I want in the privacy of my own brain. But sharing the nuttiness? Oh my. That’s entirely different.

So, here I am, sharing, hoping that this is sufficient for His purposes. Hoping that I can finish the one book and then move on to something else, and not have these things vying for my ever wandering attention. I have presented to you the idea that America, like Ancient Israel, is a Nation Under Covenant with God, and that means that we have responsibilities and duties to uphold, or else the pattern of Isaiah 9:10 will continue out to the finish.

Let’s hope we get things back on track before that happens.

(Update: Forgot to add the link for Intercessors for America)

28 June 2012, St. Irenaeus of Lyons

Big News Day. See below for some SCOTUS and Colorado Fire coverage.

Let’s get to the rest:

The House votes 255-67 to hold Eric Holder in contempt. Ace writes that since 17 Dems voted for contempt, that means it’s a bipartisan move. And:“The Democrats staged a walk out. From WI and IN to the House of Representatives, when Democrats don’t get their way they walk away like spoiled little brats.”

UPDATE: Missed this earlier– Fulton Sheen declared “Venerable”. Heck to the yeah, man! Next step, Beatification!

Soros-Funded Group Plans to Undermine Fortnight for Freedom Campaign | Women of Grace

From Women of Grace

Soros-Funded Group Plans to Undermine Fortnight for Freedom Campaign

The memo contains “talking points” on how to handle the bishops, what kind of questions to ask them to trip them up and otherwise make them look bad in the public eye.

Read the whole thing.