Saturday, November 30, 2013

They're absolutely dead on!

Pravda Calls Obama a Communist, Blames his Reelection on ‘Illiterate Americans’

Oh, how times have changed. Obama is too Communist even for Pravda.

Pravda, the famous Russian newspaper most notable for being the bullhorn of the former Soviet Union, hasannounced their bewilderment at the stupidity of America for reelecting Obama. Citing his reelection as a result of “illiterate Americans,” the author, Xavier Lerma, explains that Obama is a communist through and through and shakes his proverbial head at the willingness of America to reelect a communist who aims to follow the catastrophic Soviet model.

It’s strange to say, but Pravda and I are of the same mind…

Lerma writes,

“The Communists have won in America with Obama but failed miserably in Russia with Zyuganov who only received 17% of the vote. Vladimir Putin was re-elected as President keeping the NWO order out of Russia while America continues to repeat the Soviet mistake… Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society and he is ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them. He gives speeches of peace and love in the world while he promotes wars as he did in Egypt, Libya and Syria.”

It’s sad, but true. Not everyone who voted for Obama is illiterate, but generally speaking, Obama was able to keep his job by pandering to the ignorant masses. By peddling his lies of “war on women,” promising the continuation of “free” stuff and inciting class warfare, he masterfully pulled off one of the greatest cons of the century.

Lerma continues,

“O’bomber even keeps the war going along the Mexican border with projects like ‘fast and furious’ and there is still no sign of ending it. He is a Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so. How shrewd he is in America. His cult of personality mesmerizes those who cannot go beyond their ignorance. They will continue to follow him like those fools who still praise Lenin and Stalin in Russia. Obama’s fools and Stalin’s fools share the same drink of illusion.”

Amazing; Russian media is willing to discuss Fast and Furious while our own media does all it can do to ignore it.

Lerma also notes that Obama is far left of even current Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a speech, Putin stated,

“There are no grounds to suggest that by putting the responsibility over to the state, one can achieve better results.

Unreasonable expansion of the budget deficit, accumulation of the national debt – are as destructive as an adventurous stock market game.

During the time of the Soviet Union the role of the state in economy was made absolute, which eventually lead to the total non-competitiveness of the economy. That lesson cost us very dearly. I am sure no one would want history to repeat itself.”

While Russia is on the rise thanks to a fostering of private enterprise, America is stuck in reverse as we follow the lead of a leftist who makes Putin look like Reagan. To make matters worse, now we have former Commies in Russia shaking their heads like we’re the slow kid in school who ate too many paint chips. While we sink further and further into economic ruin, our leader shouts, “Full speed ahead!” We are losing face on the world stage not merely for our apparent inability to protect our own consulates and embassies, but also because we at home are so stupid to have the majority of Americans sign up for another four years of this.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Prayer

Does prayer help us resist temptation? Talking to God boosts self-control and emotional stability, claims study

  • People turn to prayer 'as a coping response to the high demands in life' and are rewarded with an increased ability to resist temptation
  • Previous findings have shown that when people try to control their emotions, the risk of aggressive outbursts and binge drinking rises
Praying helps people stay in control of their emotions and behaviour, according to a new study.
People turn to prayer 'as a coping response to the high demands in life' and are rewarded with increased strength and ability to resist temptation, researchers said.
Previous findings have shown that when people try hard to control their emotions and thoughts, the risk of aggressive outbursts and binge drinking or eating rises.
prayer
Moment of reflection: People turn to prayer 'as a coping response to the high demands in life' and are rewarded with increased strength and ability to resist temptation, researchers said

BELIEVING IN GOD COULD HELP TREAT DEPRESSION TOO...

Belief in God may improve treatment for those suffering with depression, a study published earlier year found.
Faith in a higher being was found to significantly improve treatment for people suffering with a psychiatric illness, according to research carried out by McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Researchers followed 159 patients over the course of a year at the Behavioral Health Partial Hospital program to investigate the relationship between a patient's level of belief in God, expectations for treatment and actual treatment outcomes.
Each participant was asked to gauge their belief in God as well as their expectations for treatment outcome on a five-point scale.
Researchers found that patients with 'no' or only 'slight' belief in God were twice as likely not to respond to treatment than patients with higher levels of belief.
And more than 30 per cent of patients claiming no specific religious affiliation still saw the same benefits in treatment if their belief in God was rated as moderately or very high.
But the latest study, by German psychologists at Saarland University and the University of Mannheim, found that praying helps people maintain self-control.
'A brief period of personal prayer buffered the self-control depletion effect', wrote the team, whose findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology online.
 
'These results are consistent with and contribute to a growing body of work attesting to the beneficial effects of praying on self-control.'
Praying has already been linked in the past to reduced levels of infidelity and alcohol consumption.
The German authors recruited 79 people, of whom 41 were Christian, 14 atheists, 10 agnostic and 14 belonged to other religions.
Participants were each left alone for five minutes and asked to either pray or think freely about one thing as intensely as possible.
Next they all watched a funny film clips with half told to react normally and half required to try to suppress their emotions and control their facial reactions.
Finally, they took part in Stroop tests, where words describing colours appear in different coloured inks, such as the word blue written in red ink.
drink
Previous findings have shown that when people try hard to control their emotions and thoughts, the risk of aggressive outbursts and binge drinking or eating rises
Participants must respond to the ink colour, not the written word, which requires self-control as our instinct is to read the word in front of us.
Those who thought freely in the first part of the test and then tried to suppress their emotions during the film clips were found to struggle with the Stroop task.
But this was not the case for participants who prayed at the start of the study - showing they still had high levels of self-control at the end.
The authors also found those who first prayed had tried just as hard to suppress emotions during the film clips 'but did not become depleted'.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2515637/Does-prayer-help-resist-temptation-Talking-God-boosts-self-control-emotional-stability-claims-study.html#ixzz2m5ppbFEi
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WDTPRS 1st Sunday of Advent: true Advent preparation

WDTPRS 1st Sunday of Advent: true Advent preparation
by frz@wdtprs.com (Fr. John Zuhlsdorf)
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Advent begins a new liturgical year.  Each year Holy Church presents the history of our salvation and the mysteries of the life, death, resurrection and the return of the Lord.  Each year we ourselves are a little different. The unchanging mysteries touch us in a fresh way.  Through His Church, Christ, the true content of our prayers, the true Actor in the liturgy, shapes us so that we in turn can shape the world around us.
How important it is to pray and hear what the Church is really praying!
The Latin Church’s liturgy is officially in the Latin language.  As a result, liturgical translations bear the burden of what the Church, from divine inspiration and human wisdom, desires to convey to us and say to God.  The translations we had until 2011 were dreadful.  The current translations are not perfect, but they are better by far.  They reflect more accurately what the Latin prayers really say.
Today is, liturgically, in these United States the 2nd Anniversary of the implementation of the new translation.
Many of the orations in the Latin Missale Romanum are ancient in origin, either in whole or in some of the bits recycled by those who in the 1960’s welded together the so-called Novus Ordo.  Today’s Collect is a new composition for the Novus Ordo, the Ordinary Form, based in part on a prayer in the 8th century Gelasian Sacramentary.
Let us see now the very first oration of the new liturgical year.
COLLECT (2002MR):
Da, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, hanc tuis fidelibus voluntatem, ut, Christo tuo venienti iustis operibus occurrentes, eius dextrae sociati, regnum mereantur possidere caeleste.
Voluntas is “will, freewill, wish, choice, desire, inclination”, but in our Collect it has also the nuance of a “disposition” toward a thing or person.  Occurro is “to run up to, run to meet”.
AWKWARD SLAVISH VERSION:
Almighty God, we beseech You, grant to Your faithful this disposition of will, that, those rushing with just works to meet Your Christ, now coming, may, united at His right hand, merit to possess the heavenly kingdom.
OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):
All-powerful God, increase our strength of will for doing good that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming and call us to his side in the kingdom of heaven.
CURRENT ICEL (2011):
Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom.
This Collect harks to last week’s Solemnity of Christ the King, honoring His future Second Coming at the end of the world, even while it prepares us for celebrating His First Coming at Christmas.
Advent is mainly focused on our preparation for our personal encounter with the Just Judge and King at the Second Coming (or at our death, whichever comes first).  This season is also about other ways in which Our Lord comes to us.  For example, the Lord comes to us when the priest says, “This is my Body.”  He comes in Holy Communion, actual graces, the words of Scripture, the person of the priest, and in all who need our “righteous deeds”, especially corporal and spiritual works of mercy.  With His help we must “Make straight the paths!”, as the liturgy of Advent cries out with the words of Isaiah and John the Baptist.
Our Collect describes us as rushing forward (occurrentes), readying the path for our King by our righteous deeds.   We should start the smoothing and straightening now, in our earthly days, while we still can.  When the moment of truth arrives for us all, Christ will come by the straightest path whether we have prepared His way or not.
I am reminded of the image of an street-sweeper.  Not the kind with the trigger.  Neither the street-sweeper with the cart going about collecting litter.
Rather, the sweeper, more accurately “crossing sweeper“, in the ages before paved streets and adequate drainage.  After a rain the roads would be a sea of filth and water and muck that could suck the boots right off your feet.  Poor boys or men would go backwards before a person, sweeping at the repulsive goo like crazy, trying to clear a less problematic path to get across the street.  On the other side, the boy would get a coin from the crosser.
We don’t earn our way into heaven by works alone, but the image is still apt, I think.
Spend time examining your conscience and think about the Last Things.  The image is still apt, I think.
We the baptized, the faithful in the state of grace, are new creations and God the Holy Trinity works in us.  We cooperate with God’s gifts.  Our good or just works, our righteous deeds, do not by themselves merit anything.  Once we are transformed and renewed by sanctifying grace, “gathered at His right hand” already in this life, our works merit an increase of grace and the reward of heaven because they are actually His even while they are truly ours.
St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) preached that,
“When God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts” (ep. 194, 5, 19).
We merit salvation on the foundation of habitual, sanctifying grace, through the virtuous works which we perform.  Living in grace and virtue while striving in good works is how we rush forward to meet the Lord.  This is true Advent preparation.
We begin our year with a language of deep humility: “Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God.…”
Straighten all the paths by which the Lord comes to you.

I LOVE THESE GUYS - BE SURE TO THANK ANY YOU SEE WITH THE "BACA" EMBLEM!

And This Is Exactly Why You Never Judge Someone By Their Looks. Whoa…

November 26, 2013Stories
Bikers strike fear into the hearts of many. They’re seen as rough thugs… but there is more to a biker than you think. This gang, for instance, is happy to intimidate people. However, they only intimidate people who dare hurt children. They are the Bikers Against Child Abuse International. And they mean business.
These bikers aren’t looking for trouble. The only thing they want to do is make sure innocent children don’t feel so alone, or so powerless.
“It’s scary enough for an adult to go to court,” he says. “We’re not going to let one of our little wounded kids go alone.”

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Only God Could Create Such Beauty

Frost Flowers: Nature’s Exquisite Ice Extrusion


It is As beautiful as it is rare. A frost flower is created on autumn or early winter mornings when ice in extremely thin layers is pushed out from the stems of plants or occasionally wood. This extrusion creates wonderful patterns which curl and fold into gorgeous frozen petioles giving this phenomenon both its name and its appearance.

Conditions have to be just so for frost flowers to form.  Early winter and late autumn are the optimum time to come across them as although the weather conditions must be freezing it is vital that the ground is not.

As the temperature gets to freezing or below the sap in the stem of the plants will expand.  As it does so the outer layer of the stem comes under increasing pressure and microscopically thin cracks, known as linear fissures, begin to form.  These will finally give way under the pressure of the sap and split open.

Water is continuously being drawn up the plant’s stem while the ground remains unfrozen. It travels up the plants external structural axis (stem!) and reaches the split or splits.  As it does so, it oozes slowly out and it freezes.  Yet more water is coming behind it.

This new water reaches the cracks and it too freezes, pushing the previous slither of ice away from the stem.  In this manner the amazing ‘petals’ that you see in these pictures are formed.  

Incredibly, the frost flower effect can happen to wood even when it has been made in to a fence or a gate, as seen above.  In this case the water is extruded through the pores in the wood rather than cracks.  

The frost flower has a number of other names: you may know them as frost castles, ice castles, ice blossoms, or even the very scientific sounding crystallofolia. Yet the name is something of a misnomer:  frost is created by water vapor. Frost flower, on the other hand, are formed from liquid water.

If you come across one – be careful!  Rather than attempt to pick it up, if you have a camera or a phone with you take a picture instead.  Frost flowers are incredibly delicate and will more often than not shatter when touched. 

Not only that, as they are made of such thin sheets of ice, they will melt away as the sun rises higher in the sky.  You may get frost flowers again the following day, but unless the conditions are just right the chances are your first glimpse may be your last.