China's September 11th

22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened."

Matthew 24:22

Evil abounds everywhere.  The difficulty is that so often it appears randomly, without warning, and attacks in places of peace or relative calm like a storm without warning.  History could be described almost in terms of relative periods of peace amidst long periods of war and chaos.  It never has really gone away and the damage we have done to each other, human to human, likely adds up to more than all the damage that naturals has inflicted throughout history.  A link to a sad story is below, demonstrating yet another sad event that has been dubbed 'China's September 11th."

At least 33 dead, 143 wounded in train station 'terror' attack in China, authorities say

The 'violent terror attack' at the Kunming Railway Station took place late Saturday, according to China's official Xinhua news agency. Four of the more than 10 knife-wielding attackers were shot dead, The country blames the attack on separatists from the country’s far west and vowed a harsh crackdown Sunday. 

PUBLISHED: SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014, 12:22 PM

AP

A woman reacts at the train station in Kunming after a deadly attack. 

KUNMING, China — Authorities blamed a slashing rampage that killed 29 people and wounded 143 at a train station in southern China on separatists from the country’s far west and vowed a harsh crackdown Sunday, while residents wondered why their laid-back city was targeted.

Police fatally shot four of the assailants — putting the overall death toll at 33 — and captured another after the attack late Saturday in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. But authorities were searching for at least five more of the black-clad attackers.

State broadcaster CCTV said two of the assailants were women, including one of the slain and the one detained.

“All-out efforts should be made to treat the injured people, severely punish terrorists according to the law, and prevent the occurrence of similar cases,” said China’s top police official, Politburo member Meng Jianzhu, who arrived in Kunming early Sunday, an indication of how seriously authorities viewed the attack.

AP

Police officers investigate and protect the crime scene outside a railway station in southwestern China.

The attackers’ identities have not been confirmed, but evidence at the scene showed that it was “a terrorist attack carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces,” Xinhua said. The far western region of Xinjiang is home to a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule by some members of the Muslim Uighur population, and the government has responded there with heavy-handed security.

Police in Kunming on Sunday were rounding up members of the city’s small Uighur community, believed to number no more than several dozen, for questioning in the attack and information about the assailants.

“How do we know them?” said a Uighur man who gave only his first name, Akpar. “We could not tell if the assailants were Uighurs as they were all dressed in black. We did not like the attack either.”

Most attacks blamed on Uighur separatists take place in Xinjiang, where clashes between Uighurs and police or members of China’s ethnic Han majority are frequent, but Saturday’s assault happened more than 1,500 kilometers (more than 900 miles) to the southeast in Yunnan, which has not had a history of such unrest.

LIN YIGUANG/XINHUA/ZUMAPRESS.COM

A man injured in the attack is treated at the First People's Hosptial of Kunming.

Kunming residents expressed dismay at both the attack and the conditions within China that could have allowed it to happen.

Restaurant worker Xie Yulong said the attackers were “worse than animals.” But he also expressed sympathy toward ethnic Uighurs, saying their region has come under severe security crackdowns in recent months under the government of President Xi Jinping.

“It’s the pressure,” Xie said. “Beijing has put too much pressure on them since Xi Jinping took over. They are under so much pressure they do not want to live, and they did that.”

Another Kunming resident, Jiang Hua, said the attack has made people scared to go out at night.
“I think we should chase off the Uighurs and let them be independent,” Jiang said. “And local authorities should be held accountable for providing public safety.”

AP

Police officers inspect the body of a victim. At least 28 people died in what Chinese authorities are calling 'organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack' in Kunming.  

Witnesses described assailants dressed in black storming the train station late Saturday evening and slashing people indiscriminately with large knives and machetes.

Student Qiao Yunao, 16, was waiting to catch a train at the station when people started crying out and running, and then saw a man cut another man’s neck, drawing blood.

“I was freaking out, and ran to a fast food store, and many people were running in there to take refuge,” she told The Associated Press via Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblog. “I saw two attackers, both men, one with a watermelon knife and the other with a fruit knife. They were running and chopping whoever they could.”

Alarms over a possible spread of militant attacks to soft targets beyond the borders of Xinjiang were first raised in October when a suicide car attack blamed on three ethnic Uighurs killed five people, including the attackers, at Beijing’s Tiananmen Gate.

REUTERS/STRINGER/CHINA

Police stand near luggage left at the ticket office after a group of knife-wielding assailants attacked people at Kunming railway station.

Sean Roberts, a cultural anthropologist at George Washington University who has studied Uighurs and China for two decades, said the Kunming violence would be a new kind of attack for ethnic Uighurs — premeditated, well-organized and outside Xinjiang — but still rudimentary in weaponry.

“If it is true that it was carried out by Uighurs, it’s much different than anything we’ve seen to date,” Roberts said by phone.

But he added that it is still unclear whether there is any organized Uighur militant group, and that attacks so far do not appear linked to any “global terrorist network, because we’re not seeing things like sophisticated explosives or essentially sophisticated tactics.”

The violence in Kunming came at a sensitive time, with political leaders in Beijing preparing for Wednesday’s opening of the annual legislature, where Xi’s government will deliver its first one-year work report.

LIN YIGUANG/XINHUA/ZUMAPRESS.COM

The exterior of Kunming Railway Station on March 1. At least 28 individuals are dead and another 113 are wounded after an unidentified group of people rushed into the station and started attacking bystanders, state media reported. 

Willy Lam, a political observer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the attack coming so close to the National People’s Congress dented Xi’s message of a “Chinese Dream” coalescing under his rule.

“Pockets of dissatisfaction, groups of people with grievances, appear to be increasing. After 1 1/2 years of more heavy-handed control (in Xinjiang), the report card does not look good,” Lam said.

Xi called for “all-out efforts” to bring the culprits to justice. The Security Management Bureau, which is under the Ministry of Public Security, said in a statement that police would “crack down on the crimes in accordance with the law without any tolerance.”

The attack was the deadliest violence attributed to Uighur-Han conflicts since riots in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi in 2009, in which Uighurs stormed the streets of the city, targeting Han people in seemingly random violence that included the killing of women and children. A few days later, Han vigilante mobs armed with sticks and bats attacked Uighurs in the same city. Nearly 200 people died.Weibo users took to the service to describe details of what happened, though many of the posts were quickly deleted by government censors, especially those that described the attackers, two of whom were identified by some as women.

Others condemned the attack.

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On a somewhat related topic, another quote summarizing how two separate cultures have differed in their response to the fallibility of man and natural inclinations for man to oppress their fellow man.  America has its problems, but one is not the Constitution, which has remarkable stood the test of time and helped serve as a backbone to allowing individuals to rise above tyranny and express themselves, however difficult that has been at times.     

Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America, writing in 1835:

"There are two great peoples on the earth today who, starting from different points, seem to advance toward the same goal: these are the Russians and the Anglo-Americans.

Both have grown larger in obscurity; and while men's regards were occupied elsewhere, they have suddenly taken their place in the first rank of nations, and the world has learned of their birth and of their greatness almost at the same time. 

All other peoples appear to have nearly reached the limits that nature has drawn and to have nothing more to do than preserve themselves; but these are growing: all the others have halted or advance only with a thousand efforts; these alone march ahead at an easy and rapid pace on a course whose bounds the eye cannot yet perceive. 

The American struggles against the obstacles that nature opposes to him; the Russian grapples with men. The one combats the wilderness and barbarism, the other, civilization vested with all its arms: thus the conquests of the American are made with the plowshare of the laborer, those of the Russian with the sword of the soldier. 

To attain his goal, the first relies on personal interest and allows the force and the reason of individuals to act, without directing them. 

The second in a way concentrates all the power of society in one man. 
The one has freedom for his principal mans of action; the other servitude. 
Their point of departure is different, their ways are diverse; nonetheless, each of them seems called by a secret design of Providence to hold the destinies of half the world in its hands one day."

-Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop translation, at the end of Vol. I: p 395-96.

Tracking your DNA via a Bio-signature

As if we are not being tracked enough.....on the heels of a recent article documenting how law enforcement is trying to use street lights to track you down, we get this article documenting attempts to track us via DNA.  The article is vague and details lack, so it appears to be more fear mongering by the WND staff, which published this article.  Nevertheless, biotechnology tracking systems are being developed, particularly of interest is the likes of an implantable device like 'veri-chip.'

FEDS WANT TO TRACK YOUR DNA LIKE A LICENSE PLATE

Seek 'biosignature' spying ability to 'identify, locate specific individuals'

The federal government doesn’t just want the ability to track down your car; it wants to be able to track down your body as well.

Just as details are emerging about a controversial, nationwide vehicle-surveillance database, WND has learned the federal government is planning an even more invasive spy program using “physiological signatures” to track down individuals.  The goal of this research is to detect – as well as analyze and categorize – unique traits the government can exploit to “identify, locate and track specific individuals or groups of people.”

According to the program’s statement of objectives, “The scope of human-centered [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR] research spans the complete range of human performance starting at the individual molecular, cellular, genomic level.”

Documents WND located through routine database research reveal the ability to follow people by detecting “certain characteristics of operational interest” is designed for U.S. military and intelligence-gathering superiority.

It remains unknown when such capabilities might transition to the realm of domestic counterterrorism or law enforcement operations; however, the feds – through the Air Force Research Lab, or AFRL – are recruiting private-sector assistance in order to make this “biosignature” spying a reality.

Existing ISR systems are “ideal for identifying and tracking entities such as aircraft and vehicles, but are less capable of identifying and tracking the human,” the lab says in a planning document known as a Broad Agency Announcement, or BAA.

The Human-Centered ISR Leveraged Science & Technology Program will seek to develop, with outside help, technologies that the government can use “to identify, locate and track humans of interest within the operational environment,” according to solicitation No. BAA-HPW-RHX-2014-0001.

Research specific to fusing and analyzing sensor data has undergone consistent growth, but such efforts have been “system-centric” and fail to “adequately address the human element.”

This new research scheme seeks to strengthen the ability of intelligence analysts by placing the human component at the forefront of their efforts.

AFRL’s research could have implications for a variety of domains, such as air, space and cyberspace, it says. The program’s outcome also will broadly apply to other U.S. Department of Defense organizations and the intelligence community.

A second component of the AFRL initiative is the Human Trust and Interaction Program, which will conduct research into human-to-human and human-to-machine interactions.

This program segment entails several sub-areas, including Trust and Suspicion, which will focus on “the recognition of suspicious activities in the cyberspace realm.”

This segment will examine open-source data such as social media. It also will continue to leverage “more traditional intelligence sources.”

AFRL says it anticipates awarding three or four initial contracts for the overall initiative, which has an estimated program value of about $50 million.

The goal of this and other AFLR programs typically start out as largely theoretical, similar to the approach taken by the more widely known Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which created ARPANET, the defense-system predecessor to the Internet.

The Department of Homeland Security, on the other hand, merely has to solicit bids from industry for a National License Plate Recognition, or NLPR, database system.

While DHS is soliciting this service specifically for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, functions, the breadth of this NLPR service encompasses the gathering of transportation-movement data from major metropolitan areas nationwide.

This database, which would be fed with information gleaned from multiple sources, would “track vehicle license plate numbers that pass through cameras or are voluntarily entered into the system,” according to the program solicitation.

The vehicle tracking-data then would be “uploaded to share with law enforcement.”

The database will be compatible with smart phone technology, enabling law enforcement offices to download thousands of listings – as well as close-up photos – of vehicle license plates.

Once DHS secures this service, the contractor must retain and make available data from previous months, as well as update the system with “new and unique” data monthly.

DHS anticipates awarding a one-year contract with four one-year options by May 14. It did not disclose the estimated cost.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/feds-want-to-track-your-dna-like-a-license-plate/#oAogf9Wc5cdt4Pw3.99

Police State: La Americana style

The DHS also recently awarded the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority $7 million dollars to outfit its buses with high tech 360 degree surveillance cameras. The federal agency is simultaneously supporting the rollout of ‘Intellistreets’ lighting systems that double as surveillance hubs which can record conversations.

The large leaks by NSA contractor Edward Snowden shook the world and gave the public a glimpse into just what enormous amount of surveillance is being performed on the unsuspecting public.  There has always been a trade off between liberty and security; however, in today's digital age, the line has been blurred to the point of in-distinction.  There's so much data and surveillance everywhere , one practically doesn't even know where it starts and stops.  

The Department of Homeland Security has been building a national database of information for some time, of course under the notion to track terrorists around the globe.  The ability to use this database in real time though takes on a new dimension if a police officer can simply use their smart phone, take a picture of a car's plates, and then immediately know who you are.  The newest technology in google glasses apparently can do the same thing.  Additionally, as this article points out, cameras and listening devices are also now being incorporated into street lights!

Forget about anonymity!

Homeland Security to Activate ‘National 

License Plate Recognition Database’

The Department of Homeland Security is set to activate a national license plate tracking system that will be shared with law enforcement, allowing DHS officers to take photos of any license plate using their smartphone and upload it to a database which will include a “hot list” of “target vehicles”.

Image: License Plate Scanning Camera (Wikimedia Commons). 

The details are included in a PDF attachment uploaded yesterday to the Federal Business Opportunities website under a solicitation entitled “National License Plate Recognition Database.” 

The system will “track vehicle license plate numbers that pass through cameras or are voluntarily entered into the system from a variety of sources (access control systems, asset recovery specialists, etc.) and uploaded to share with law enforcement” in order to help locate “criminal aliens and absconders.” 

In other countries that have activated license plate tracking networks, such as the United Kingdom, political activists have been targeted by having their vehicles added to a “hotlist” after attending protests. One example led to a man being questioned under anti-terror laws after he traveled to take part in an anti-war demonstration. 

As the image above illustrates, the cameras are also used by local governments in Australia to keep records of people who violate parking restrictions. Critics of the system in Australia have condemned it as “a Pandora’s box for abuse of power, mistakes and illegal disclosure,” stressing that the technology allows authorities to record “your number plate at a certain time and location,” allowing police to “compile an extraordinary amount of data about you. This includes your name, address, contact details, driving history and licence status.” 

“Innocent people are increasingly being treated with suspicion due to the tiny chance that some offence may be committed,” writes David Jancik. 

The DHS’ database will allow authorities “to determine where and when the vehicle has traveled,” using data compiled “from a variety of sources nationwide,” including “metropolitan areas” within the United States, suggesting the system may be linked in with regular surveillance cameras as it is in the UK. 

The system will also allow DHS officials to take a picture of any license plate via their smartphone, upload it to the database and immediately receive an alert if the plate is on the watchlist.
“The NLPR data service should provide details on clarity of photos provided. The Government would prefer a close-up of the plate and a zoomed out image of the vehicle,” states the solicitation. 

The system must also have the capability to “flag license plates and conduct searches anonymously so that other law enforcement agencies may not have access.”
Given rampant concerns that the Department of Homeland Security, which is ostensibly introducing this system in the name of catching illegal aliens, is in fact an increasingly bloated federal bureaucracy designed to target the American people, the notion of the DHS enjoying access to a fully integrated nationwide license plate tracking grid is chilling, especially given the fact that the agency has funded reports which characterize “liberty lovers” as potential terrorists. 

The DHS also recently awarded the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority $7 million dollars to outfit its buses with high tech 360 degree surveillance cameras. The federal agency is simultaneously supporting the rollout of ‘Intellistreets’ lighting systems that double as surveillance hubs which can record conversations. 

“Do not kid yourself. This is tracking of an individual that can be accessed at a whim,” writes James Smith. “Yearly, officers are terminated for accessing the LEDS/NCIC database for looking into the histories of ex-lovers, future spouses, and potential sons/daughters-in-law. And with license plate tracking toy (not a tool), they will know where you are, as long as you have driven into the cross hairs of this new weapon for tyranny.”

Immigration Bill includes Universal Biometric Security System

Another call for a massive biometric database from a member of congress:

Hatch Calls for Fingerprints

Washington » The federal government would start collecting fingerprints from foreigners at the nation’s busiest airports under a plan sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch.

The Senate Judiciary Committee accepted the Utah Republican’s amendment to a broad immigration reform bill Monday, saying it is a financially feasible step toward a universal biometric security system at all land, air and sea ports.

“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security"   ---Ben Franklin

A previous article and commentary also pointed this out:

Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf)  is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.

Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo.

 If you thought the PATRIOT act, in response to 9/11 destroyed what was left of privacy, wait until a national database with your fingerprint, iris, and other biometrics are put into some massive database.  Credit cards and other payment forms could, who knows how soon, be replaced by fingerprints as a form of payment.  We already have cameras practically everywhere monitoring our every move and smart phones with GPS tracking technology integrated with our everyday life.  It may not be too long in the future when a system like this gets created.

Biometric Database Being Created in USA

For the inquiring mind:

Although still in its infant development stage, this type of database has the potential to forever change how society is monitored---technology on this level would do more damage to the Constitution and personal freedoms than any political party could muster.  Combining a database like this with law enforcement along with surveillance cameras would give government an unprecedented power to watch over the lives of its citizens. 

Any future 'mark of the beast' that the Revelator John prophesied about long ago, will almost certainly include some sort of bio-metric integration. 

--On this topic:  Much of the world is ditching the metalic strip on credit purchases in favor of RFID technology.  Can you see a world in 10 years using a combination of RFID and Biometric technology for everyday purchases?  It seemed like science fiction 50 years ago, but today it doesn't seem so far fetched.

Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform

• By David Kravets

Illustration: National Institutes of Health

The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.

Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf)  is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.
Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo.

This piece of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is aimed at curbing employment of undocumented immigrants. But privacy advocates fear the inevitable mission creep, ending with the proof of self being required at polling places, to rent a house, buy a gun, open a bank account, acquire credit, board a plane or even attend a sporting event or log on the internet. Think of it as a government version of Foursquare, with Big Brother cataloging every check-in.

“It starts to change the relationship between the citizen and state, you do have to get permission to do things,” said Chris Calabrese, a congressional lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union. “More fundamentally, it could be the start of keeping a record of all things.”

For now, the legislation allows the database to be used solely for employment purposes. But historically such limitations don’t last. The Social Security card, for example, was created to track your government retirement benefits. Now you need it to purchase health insurance.
“The Social Security number itself, it’s pretty ubiquitous in your life,” Calabrese said.

David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees with the ACLU’s fears.
“The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do certain activities and it can be used to restrict activities,” he said. “It’s like a national ID system without the card.”

For the moment, the debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee is focused on the parameters of legalization for unauthorized immigrants, a border fence and legal immigration in the future.
The committee is scheduled to resume debate on the package Tuesday.

Pope Francis: Malachy Prophecy: Connection?

 Pope Francis History's Final Pontiff:  Intriguing article from WND.  Worth a read.  SO far however, the connection between the final pope and the new pope Francis is sketchy at best. 

From the WND:

St. Malachy, an Irish saint and the archbishop of Armagh, who lived from 1094 to 1148, described the “final pope” this way: “In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the City of Seven Hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his peopl

His book examines St. Malachy’s “Prophecy of the Popes,” said to be based on a prophetic vision of the 112 popes following Pope Celestine II, who died in 1144.
Malachy’s prophecies, first published in 1595, culminate with the “final pope,” “Petrus Romanus,” or “Peter the Roman,” whose reign ends with the destruction of Rome and the judgment of Christ.

Horn has said a pope of Italian descent would fulfill the prophecy, noting Bergoglio is the son of Italian parents and a Jesuit.

“Being a Jesuit is a very important aspect of our prediction in our book,” Horn told WND in an email.

Citing his book, Horn said the name “Petrus Romanus” in the prophecy “implies this pope will reaffirm the authority of the Roman Pontiff over the Church and will emphasize the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Faith and the Roman Catholic Church above all other religions and denominations, and its authority over all Christians and all peoples of the world.”

Horn pointed out the Jesuits order was organized “to stop Protestantism from spreading and to preserve communion with Rome and the successor of Peter.”
He also sees significance in Bergoglio naming himself after Francis of Assisi, an Italian, or Roman, priest whose original name was Francesco di Pietro (Peter) di Bernardone, “literally, Peter the Roman.”

As WND reported, Horn and his co-author, Cris Putnam, predicted in their book Benedict would step down, making way for history’s “final pope.”

GK on Gay Marriage: It's not Gay or Marriage. Supreme Court rules on Gay Marriage.

The battle for marriage is the pressing issue of the moment.  The Supreme Court has been debating this week the arguments for and against Proposition 8, which amended the CA constitution to define marriage as one man and one woman, and the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which is a federal act prohibiting same sex couples from receiving marriage benefits.


The marriage issue has gone political, as seemingly most important issues are of the day, and the whole question as to whether homosexuality is in fact normal is lost in the bickering of whether the government should be involved with defining marriage, states rights, or some other issue.  An article below summarizing the old English theologian, GK Chesterton's take on the matter puts things into perspective.  A quote from the article below.

But Chesterton's prophecy remains: We will not be able to destroy the family.  We will merely destroy ourselves by disregarding the family.

Homosexuality, Birth Control, Divorce, State-sponsored education: all these issues are related and attack the basic order of the family.  What is right and what is wrong?  Is that not the question we should be asking?  These issues deal with morality and what determines morality, when God is removed from the equation, is whatever we feel like at the moment.  And at the moment, we live in a culture that is forgetting more and more about God and accepting more and more formally abnormal behaviors as normal. 

Thus, the debate becomes superficial and does not really address the underlying important issue.  As GK points out, just because marriage between gays is legalized, this does not mean it is right or normal.  The culture needs to be changed in order for these laws to be changed as the laws on the books really reflect cultures view on morality, ethics, what's right and wrong.  Ones view on morality ultimately depends on how one sees Truth, ones internal compass, view of God and religion, etc.

Many on the right and in the faith try to defend marriage, but have removed themselves from culture and have allowed Hollywood to the Media to define what is normal behavior, thus their voice is being drowned out of the picture. Society has forgotten God over time and has instituted a self-centered morality, with free love, no-fault divorce, and birth control pills removing any need for love or responsibility from sex. 

Sure the court may rule in favor of homosexuality.  But even if they legalize it, that doesn't mean it is right.  The battle for Truth continues.  Faith in God and responsiveness to faith and virtue will need to take place first before we can expect to see change in our laws.  In the meantime, culture continues to become more and more secular and Christian ethics and norms continue to be eroded and replaced with more secular versions of morality.


From the WSJ:  Court Weighs Gay Marriage

Marriage is between a man and a woman.  That is the order.  And the Catholic Church teaches that it is a sacramental order, with divine implications.  The world has made a mockery of marriage that has now culminated with homosexual unions.  But it was heterosexual men and women who paved the way to this decay.  Divorce, which is an abnormal thing, is now treated as normal.  Contraception, another abnormal thing, is now treated as normal.  Abortion is still not normal, but it is legal.  Making homosexual "marriage" legal will not make it normal, but it will add to the confusion of the times.  And it will add to the downward spiral of our civilization.  But Chesterton's prophecy remains: We will not be able to destroy the family.  We will merely destroy ourselves by disregarding the family.

Good read from CatholicEducation

G.K. Chesterton: It's Not Gay, and It's Not Marriage

DALE AHLQUIST

Chesterton was so consistently right in his pronouncements and prophecies because he understood that anything that attacked the family was bad for society.

G.K. Chesterton 1874-1936

One of the pressing issues of Chesterton's time was "birth control."  He not only objected to the idea, he objected to the very term because it meant the opposite of what it said.  It meant no birth and no control.  I can only imagine he would have the same objections about "gay marriage."  The idea is wrong, but so is the name.  It is not gay and it is not marriage.

Chesterton was so consistently right in his pronouncements and prophecies because he understood that anything that attacked the family was bad for society.  That is why he spoke out against eugenics and contraception, against divorce and "free love" (another term he disliked because of its dishonesty), but also against wage slavery and compulsory state-sponsored education and mothers hiring other people to do what mothers were designed to do themselves.  It is safe to say that Chesterton stood up against every trend and fad that plagues us today because every one of those trends and fads undermines the family.  Big Government tries to replace the family's authority, and Big Business tries to replace the family's autonomy.  There is a constant commercial and cultural pressure on father, mother, and child.  They are minimized and marginalized and, yes, mocked.  But as Chesterton says, "This triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it."
This latest attack on the family is neither the latest nor the worst. 

But it has a shock value to it, in spite of the process of de-sensitization that the information and entertainment industries have been putting us through the past several years.  Those who have tried to speak out against the normalization of the abnormal have been met with "either slanging or silence," as Chesterton was when he attempted to argue against the faddish philosophies that were promoted by the major newspapers in his day.  In 1926, he warned, "The next great heresy will be an attack on morality, especially sexual morality."  His warning has gone unheeded, and sexual morality has decayed progressively.  But let us remember that it began with birth control, which is an attempt to create sex for sex's sake, changing the act of love into an act of selfishness.  The promotion and acceptance of lifeless, barren, selfish sex has logically progressed to homosexuality.

Chesterton shows that the problem of homosexuality as an enemy of civilization is quite old.  In The Everlasting Man, he describes the nature-worship and "mere mythology" that produced a perversion among the Greeks.  "Just as they became unnatural by worshipping nature, so they actually became unmanly by worshipping man."  Any young man, he says, "who has the luck to grow up sane and simple" is naturally repulsed by homosexuality because "it is not true to human nature or to common sense."  He argues that if we attempt to act indifferent about it, we are fooling ourselves.  It is "the illusion of familiarity," when "a perversion become[s] a convention."

In Heretics, Chesterton almost makes a prophecy of the misuse of the word "gay."  He writes of "the very powerful and very desolate philosophy of Oscar Wilde.  It is the carpe diem religion."  Carpe diem means "seize the day," do whatever you want and don't think about the consequences, live only for the moment.  "But the carpe diem religion is not the religion of happy people, but of very unhappy people."  There is a hopelessness as well as a haplessness to it.  When sex is only a momentary pleasure, when it offers nothing beyond itself, it brings no fulfillment.  It is literally lifeless.  And as Chesterton writes in his book St. Francis of Assisi, the minute sex ceases to be a servant, it becomes a tyrant.  This is perhaps the most profound analysis of the problem of homosexuals: they are slaves to sex.  They are trying to "pervert the future and unmake the past."  They need to be set free.

Chesterton points out that balance that our truth must not be pitiless, but neither can our pity be untruthful.

Sin has consequences.  Yet Chesterton always maintains that we must condemn the sin and not the sinner.  And no one shows more compassion for the fallen than G.K. Chesterton.  Of Oscar Wilde, whom he calls "the Chief of the Decadents," he says that Wilde committed "a monstrous wrong" but also suffered monstrously for it, going to an awful prison, where he was forgotten by all the people who had earlier toasted his cavalier rebelliousness.  "His was a complete life, in that awful sense in which your life and mine are incomplete; since we have not yet paid for our sins.  In that sense one might call it a perfect life, as one speaks of a perfect equation; it cancels out.  On the one hand we have the healthy horror of the evil; on the other the healthy horror of the punishment."

Chesterton referred to Wilde's homosexual behavior as a "highly civilized" sin, something that was a worse affliction among the wealthy and cultured classes.  It was a sin that was never a temptation for Chesterton, and he says that it is no great virtue for us never to commit a sin for which we are not tempted.  That is another reason we must treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with compassion.  We know our own sins and weaknesses well enough.  Philo of Alexandria said, "Be kind.  Everyone you meet is fighting a terrible battle."  But compassion must never compromise with evil.  Chesterton points out that balance that our truth must not be pitiless, but neither can our pity be untruthful.  Homosexuality is a disorder.  It is contrary to order.  Homosexual acts are sinful, that is, they are contrary to God's order.  They can never be normal.  And worse yet, they can never even be even.  As Chesterton's great detective Father Brown says:  "Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil.  That road goes down and down."

Marriage is between a man and a woman.  That is the order.  And the Catholic Church teaches that it is a sacramental order, with divine implications.  The world has made a mockery of marriage that has now culminated with homosexual unions.  But it was heterosexual men and women who paved the way to this decay.  Divorce, which is an abnormal thing, is now treated as normal.  Contraception, another abnormal thing, is now treated as normal.  Abortion is still not normal, but it is legal.  Making homosexual "marriage" legal will not make it normal, but it will add to the confusion of the times.  And it will add to the downward spiral of our civilization.  But Chesterton's prophecy remains: We will not be able to destroy the family.  We will merely destroy ourselves by disregarding the family.

America's Divison of Labor: Congress & Wall Street

Jorge Bergoglio and Malachy Pope Prophecy

It's official.  White smoke and a new pope. The race now to determine how Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina fits into the St. Malachy pope prediction now begins.   More questions than answers right now....

The prophecy can best be summarized as follows:  St. Malachy was visiting Rome in 1139 when he went into a trance and received a vision. Malachy wrote down this extraordinary vision in which he claims to have foreseen all of the popes from the death of Innocent II until the destruction of the church and the return of Christ.  St. Malachy wrote briefly, in Latin, on each succeeding pope of the future, and then gave the document to Pope Innocent II, who had it placed in Vatican archives where it remained for several centuries. It was rediscovered in 1590 and published.

Here is the official wordage of the final prophecy:

In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock among many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city (Rome, the seat of the Vatican) will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. THE END.

Questions:

• He's not from Rome, but Argentina
• He also took the Francis Papal name, not sure how this connects
• He's 76. Speaks spanish, italian, german.  
• First Jesuit pope. 

 Answers:

Not a whole lot.  Here's one hilarious attempt.


Argentina. From the Latin Argentum -- "silver".
Silver is a metal, dug out of rocky mines.
Malachy said that the last Pope would be Peter.
Peter comes from the Latin Petrus -- "rock"
Rock in a mineral.
The man from Argentina is the man from minerals/rocks.

An ongoing blog can be found here at the freerepublic regarding the discussion of what this all means........

Argentine Jorge Bergoglio elected Pope Francis

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope Wednesday, becoming the first pontiff from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium. He chose the name Francis, associating himself with the humble 13th-century Italian preacher who lived a life of poverty.

Looking stunned, Francis shyly waved to the crowd of tens of thousands of people who gathered in St. Peter's Square for the announcement, marveling that the cardinals needed to look to "the end of the earth" to find a bishop of Rome.

In choosing a 76-year-old pope, the cardinals clearly decided that they didn't need a vigorous, young pope who would reign for decades but rather a seasoned, popular and humble pastor who would draw followers to the faith. The cardinal electors overcame deep divisions to select the 266th pontiff in a remarkably fast, five-ballot conclave.

Francis asked for prayers for himself, and for retired Pope Benedict XVI, whose surprising resignation paved the way for the conclave that brought the first Jesuit to the papacy. Francis also spoke by phone with Benedict after his election and plans to see him in the coming days, the Vatican said.

"Brothers and sisters, good evening," Francis said to wild cheers in his first public remarks as pontiff from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica.

"You know that the work of the conclave is to give a bishop to Rome. It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of the earth, but here we are. Thank you for the welcome," he said.

Across the planet, Latin Americans burst into tears and jubilation at news that the region, which counts 40 percent of the world's Catholics, finally had a pope to call its own.

"It's a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was worth the wait," said Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar at the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico.

Bergoglio had reportedly finished second in the 2005 conclave that produced Benedict - who last month became the first pope to resign in 600 years. The speed with which he was elected pope this time around indicates that - even though he is 76 and has slowed down - he still had the trust of cardinals to do the job.

After announcing `'Habemus Papam" - `'We have a pope!" - a cardinal standing on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday revealed the identity of the new pontiff, using his Latin name, and announced he would be called Francis.

The longtime archbishop of Buenos Aires is the son of middle-class Italian immigrants and is known as a humble man who denied himself the luxuries that previous Buenos Aires cardinals enjoyed.

He often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited the slums that ring Argentina's capital. He considers social outreach, rather than doctrinal battles, to be the essential business of the church.

Catholics are still buzzing over his speech last year accusing fellow church officials of hypocrisy for forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes.

Bergoglio has slowed a bit with age and is feeling the effects of having a lung removed due to infection when he was a teenager.

In a lifetime of teaching and leading priests in Latin America, which has the largest share of the world's Catholics, Bergoglio has also shown a keen political sensibility as well as the kind of self-effacing humility that fellow cardinals value highly, according to his official biographer, Sergio Rubin.

He showed that humility on Wednesday, saying that before he blessed the crowd he wanted their prayers for him and then he bowed his head amid the silence from the crowd.

"Good night, and have a good rest," he said before going back into the palace.

In choosing to call himself Francis, the new pope was associating himself with the much-loved Italian saint associated with peace, poverty and simplicity. St. Francis was born to a wealthy family but later renounced his wealth and founded the Franciscan order of friars; he wandered about the countryside preaching to the people in very simple language.

He was so famed for his sanctity that he was canonized just two years after his death in 1226.

Francis will celebrate his first Mass as pope in the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, and will be installed officially as pope on Tuesday, according to the Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

Lombardi, also a Jesuit, said he was particularly stunned by the election given that Jesuits typically shun positions of authority in the church, instead offering their work in service to those in power.

But Lombardi said that in accepting the election, Francis must have felt it "a strong call to service," an antidote to all those who speculated that the papacy was about a search for power.

Tens of thousands of people who braved cold rain to watch the smokestack atop the Sistine Chapel jumped in joy when white smoke poured out a few minutes past 7 p.m., many shouting "Habemus Papam!" or "We have a pope!" - as the bells of St. Peter's Basilica and churches across Rome pealed.

They cheered again when the doors to the loggia opened, and again when Bergoglio's name was announced.

"I can't explain how happy I am right now," said Ben Canete, a 32-year-old Filipino, jumping up and down in excitement.

Elected on the fifth ballot, Francis was chosen in one of the fastest conclaves in years, remarkable given there was no clear front-runner going into the vote and that the church had been in turmoil following the upheaval unleashed by Benedict's surprise resignation.

A winner must receive 77 votes, or two-thirds of the 115, to be named pope.

For comparison's sake, Benedict was elected on the fourth ballot in 2005 - but he was the clear front-runner going into the vote. Pope John Paul II was elected on the eighth ballot in 1978 to become the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

Patrizia Rizzo ran down the main boulevard to the piazza with her two children as soon as she heard the news on the car radio. "I parked the car ... and dashed to the square, she said. "It's so exciting, as Romans we had to come."

Bergoglio's legacy as cardinal includes his efforts to repair the reputation of a church that lost many followers by failing to openly challenge Argentina's murderous 1976-83 dictatorship.

Many Argentines remain angry over the church's acknowledged failure to openly confront a regime that was kidnapping and killing thousands of people as it sought to eliminate "subversive elements" in society. It's one reason why more than two-thirds of Argentines describe themselves as Catholic, but fewer than 10 percent regularly attend mass.

Under Bergoglio's leadership, Argentina's bishops issued a collective apology in October 2012 for the church's failures to protect its flock. But the statement blamed the era's violence in roughly equal measure on both the junta and its enemies.

"Bergoglio has been very critical of human rights violations during the dictatorship, but he has always also criticized the leftist guerrillas; he doesn't forget that side," Rubin said.

Unlike the confusion that reigned during the 2005 conclave, the smoke this time around has been clear: black during the first two rounds of burned ballots, and then a clear white on Wednesday night - thanks to special smoke flares akin to those used in soccer matches or protests that were lit in the chapel ovens.

The Vatican on Wednesday divulged the secret recipe used: potassium perchlorate, anthracene, which is a derivative of coal tar, and sulfur for the black smoke; potassium chlorate, lactose and a pine resin for the white smoke.

The chemicals are contained in five units of a cartridge that is placed inside the stove of the Sistine Chapel. When activated, the five blocks ignite one after another for about a minute apiece, creating the steady stream of smoke that accompanies the natural smoke from the burned ballot papers.

Despite the great plumes of smoke that poured out of the chimney, neither the Sistine frescoes nor the cardinals inside the chapel suffered any smoke damage, Lombardi said.

From St. Malachy's Pope Predictions

111 popes prophetically predicted in succession. What are the odds that one man predicted them all correctly in succession? This man's vision was not serendipitous fantasy, but Spirit inspired revelation.

St. Malachy was a Catholic Archbishop of the 12th century who wrote a startling accurate list of every pope until the end of time. St. Malachy was a bishop who lived in Ireland and on a trip in Rome in 1139 AD he was struck by a vision of the future. In it the long list of illustrious pontiffs who were to rule the Church until the end of time were revealed. His writings of each pope were succinct, spelled out in latin, and written in symbolic representation.

Many of these prophecies are considered to be way too precise to be mere coincidence. Look at these examples: (The prophecy's English translation in parenthesis)

1. Religion Laid Waste (Religio Depopulata). BENEDICT XV. 1914-1922.
During this Pope's reign we saw Communism move into Russia where religious life was laid waste, and World War I with the death of millions of Christians who were carnage in Flanders Field and elsewhere.
2. Pastor Et Nautam (Pastor & Sailor) John XXIII. 28 Oct.1958 – 3 June 1963.
Before becoming Pope in 1958 he was the patriarch of Venice--a marine city.
3. De Laboris Solis (The Sun's Eclipse, the sun's labor) 1978 - 2 April 2005. Amazingly, Pope John Paul II was the only pope who was both born the day of an eclipse of the sun, and entombed the day the sun was eclipsed.

The final pope on the list. 111th: Gloria Olivae. (From the Glory of the Olives) This is the current pope, Benedict XVI

Then, after short latin prophetic sayings throughout his prophecies, he utters an ominous closing latin phrase.

In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock among many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city (Rome, the seat of the Vatican) will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. THE END.

Is it mere coincidence that prophesies from multiple sources: the Bible, Mayans, Nostradamus, and even St. Malachy are all coming together at the same time?

LINKS:
A whole list of the incredible Prophecies about the last 10 popes can be found at this site.
Other good sites include: St Malachy's Prophecy of the Pope and the Last Pope.

"For I know that the Lord is great and our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases He does, in heaven and in earth. In the seas and in all deep places He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries." Psalm 135: 5-7.

Fourth Horseman (death) Egyptian riots. Full Original Video

This video presents a unique image, that appears to be an apparition of some sort---IF you think it is a real. It could be a fine video editing job.

Fourth Horseman (death) Egyptian riots. Full Original Video A mysterious, pale green figure seen in televised news coverage of the Egyptian riots has prompted some viewers to ask, “Could this be the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse?” The footage, provided by Euronews and subsequently seen on MSNBC, CNN and uploaded over a dozen times to the popular video sharing site YouTube, captures the fiery, violent protests in Cairo this past week … and something else. Between the crowds of protesters and barricades, the video shows a flowing, pale green image that resembles an erect rider atop a horse in Medieval-like barding. The ethereal figure remains for a few moments before floating over protesters’ heads and off the screen. The last of the biblical Book of Revelation’s Four Horseman of the Apocalyse, the “pale rider” is said to be the bringer of death and the forerunner of “hell” on earth. Are all these events the natural order of things, or warnings of the end times described in the Bible? This DVD probes the answer … The strange image can be seen beginning at the 1:19 mark of the following video: