Photo of the Day: Mass in Wartime

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Al Gore Wants your Twitter and Facebook for a Day

Via the Acts of the Apostasy:

Al Gore’s latest climate crisis alarmist claptrap is coming up next week – called “The Event”, courtesy of the “Climate Reality Project”. Sounds like a digital religious revival, with the Goracle presiding. Here’s a quote from the site:

24 Hours of Reality will focus the world’s attention on the full truth, scope, scale and impact of the climate crisis. To remove the doubt. Reveal the deniers. And catalyze urgency around an issue that affects every one of us.

Al Gore

“Reveal the deniers”? Sounds like Inquisition-speak to me. See – it is a religion with these folks.

But the kicker has to be allowing AlGore and his ilk to use your Twitter and Facebook accounts to help spread the word. You don’t have to do anything – just “donate” 24 hour access to your personal pages and and let him spread the wunnerfulness about his personal income-increasing, wealth-growing, pocket-lining international boonswaggle. He’ll put up the messages, he’ll spread his Guileful Gospel Of Global Gloom-n-doom, right there under your name. And you get squat (except for that gooey feeling of having helped to “save the planet” – isn’t that special?) while AlGore gets to spread the donations amongst his ‘friends’ – and his wallet…

… A sign of the encroaching barbarism – a return to the Dark Ages of nature worship and pantheism that expresses no remorse in contributing to human misery…

Rest here.

Apparently a lot of people have already signed up. Not a good idea, at all…

The Condition of Libya’s Antiquities

CNN reports:

Before Moammar Gadhafi, there were the Phoenicians. And the Greeks. The Romans. The first Arabs. They’re a reminder that no civilization — and no leader — is forever.

The Libyan transitional leaders have a lot to deal with once they stop being rebels, and begin shaping a new Libya: Keeping law and order, setting up a rudimentary government, dealing with money — and oil.

But what about Libya’s other wealth? Its archaeological treasures?

They are all over the country.

In the south, in Acacus, rock paintings 12,000 years old cross an entire mountain range.

In the east, the city of Cyrene holds a thousand years of history — Roman general Mark Antony once gave it to Cleopatra.

And along the coast, the splendid ruins of Leptis Magna that were buried for centuries under the sand was said to be one of the most beautiful cities of the Roman Empire.

What will happen to these sites in the days ahead? If you look at history, their fate does not bode well.

“We’re very worried,” said Francesco Bandarin of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO…

Read on here. There is a rather nice slide show too.

John Corapi is Nothing if Not Modest

Writes Mark Shea:

In this updated and expanded version of John Corapi’s life story, entitled “Don’t Look Back”on DVD, you can glean few insights into his life. From his early days, to his ordination as a priest by Pope John Paul II, to his twenty years’ labor for the sake of the Gospel, to his untimely and tragic betrayal and dismissal from the Catholic priesthood, you will learn things not previously known. During the time of his ministry, it is arguable that he was the most effective preacher and teacher the Catholic Church had. Why was he seemingly cast into the gutter almost overnight with no recourse, no hearing, no consideration for the very substantial contribution he made over a twenty year period? A synthesis of his autobiography, “THE BLACK SHEEP DOG…CROSSING THE
RUBICON,” you won’t want to miss hearing the expanded version of his classic “Personal Testimony.”

Um. He was not dismissed. He quit, vamoosed, bailed on his vows, ditched his vocation, defied and smeared his bishop and investigators–in order to stop the investigation of his drugging, whoring, sexting and unfitness to be a priest, as the findings showed. And that lie is all the warning you need that the latest phase of Fr. Corapi’s career is to begin attacking the Church and laying victim as he continues his attempt to rebrand himself as the chaplain to Right Wing Generic American Civil Religion. His whole “I was the greatest Catholic of my time, but was shocked at the corruption and the Powers That Be had to silence me” schtick is taking shape.

I reiterate: the real hero of this whole sham is Bp. Mulvey.

Are the Four Gospels Historically Verifiable? (Arguments in Favor).

Dr Taylor Marshall was an Episcopal priest who is now a member of the Catholic Church. He blogs at Canterbury Tales and I find myself linking to his site often. Today, he asks: Are the Four Gospels Historically Verifiable? (Arguments in Favor):

Some claim that the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are not historical or are later documents not actually written by St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke, and St John.

Here are some quick facts demonstrating the historicity of the Four Gospels:

1. The Didache (written between AD 70 and 100 quotes the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It also refers to the “gospels” (plural) revealing that there already more than one.
2. Saint Clement (the fourth pope circa AD 96) in his epistle to the Corinthians contains ten quotations from both Matthew and Mark.
3. The Epistle of St Barnabas (circa 90-130) quotes Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
4. St Ignatius of Antioch (d. AD 108) quotes Matthew, Luke, and John.
5. Papias (circa AD 120) spoke of all four Gospels and said that Matthew first wrote the words and acts of Christ in the Hebrew language which was later translated into Greek.
6. St Justin Martyr knew all four Gospels and refers frequently to Luke.
7. Tertullian (ca. AD 200) spoke of the Gospels “of Matthew and John the Apostles and Mark and Luke the disciples of Apostles.”

There is literally no other literary work that has this much early testimony to support it. The writings of Cicero and Caesar do not even come close – to say nothing of Plato and especially Homer. The Gospels are the best attested historical documents known to mankind. The Gospels have more historical witness than even the Old Testament, which is rather amazing when you think of it.

The Dalai Lama is On the Way to South Africa

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Those Who Scrum Salute you

With the Rugby World Cup all but on us (it starts on Friday), I found this a rather interesting article:  How similar are gladiators and rugby players?

Two thousand years after Romans flocked to big arenas to watch the gladiators, Kiwis are heading to stadiums in the hope our gladiators, the All Blacks, will win us a world title.

Two award-winning lecturers from Victoria University have decided to explore the similarities and differences of those two times and places in a two-part public lecture tomorrow.

Associate Professor of classics Matthew Trundle will look at the complex relationship Romans had with gladiators and the allure of big arena events.

Dr Trundle says a huge business sustained the arena spectacles of ancient Rome – much like rugby today. “As Rome grew and the power of Roman elites grew with it, the shows put on for the urban poor became more elaborate and bloodier. But the gladiators had a much more complex relationship with their fans than the modern-day All Blacks.

“Gladiators were the ultimate outsiders, unmentionable slaves, yet central to Roman identity. Their blood was said to cure epilepsy; their touch brought fertility.”

Associate Professor of Psychology Marc Wilson will talk about the importance of rugby to New Zealanders and speculate on what could happen if we won or lost the World Cup.

Dr Wilson says a major focus of the lecture is how these two forms of sport differ or connect.

“[Dr Trundle] would argue that they might look the same, but actually the gladiatorial games were just not about the sorts of things I think rugby is about.

“It’s a lot about religion. They weren’t put on for people, they were put on for the gods.”

Dr Wilson says rugby is central to many New Zealanders’ sense of self-worth.

“One of the reasons is that we are good at [rugby] and psychologically how we value ourselves benefits from associating ourselves with things that other people think are good.

“Therefore we get a boost to our own self-esteem from identifying with the All Blacks. Of course, the downside is that when you lose our self-esteem takes a massive blow as well.”

(HT)

The All Blacks will be tough to beat, especially with a home ground  advantage. But then again, we (South Africa) are the World Cup Champions, twice in a row. Now we’re looking for the third…