March 2 was the 185th anniversary of Texas’ declaration of independence from Mexico. On that day in 1836, at Washington-on-the-Brazos, the founding fathers of the nascent Republic of Texas were busy deciding what to do. Because on this day in 1836, almost 200 Texians, Texicans, and Tejanos were in San Antonio, defending the Alamo.
Those in Brazos were not all in agreement as to what to do but all were under no illusion as to what General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was going to do. Declaring independence is no easy thing. It was just 60 years earlier, in Philadelphia, when Benjamin Franklin told the Founding Fathers that “Gentlemen, we must all hang together, or assuredly, we shall all hang separately”.
General Antonio de Padua Maria Severino Lopez de Santa Anna y Perez de Lebron, the self-styled “Napoleon of the West,” was also the President of Mexico. The irony was palpable: Santa Anna had earlier led the Mexicans in their quest for independence from Spain (after first opposing secession) and then backed the Mexican monarchy, only to revolt against its emperor (Augustin de Iturbide). In any event, he was very much a “man of destiny”, much like other larger-than-life figures in the Americas (such as Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston). So much so, that the first half of the nineteenth century is rightly called “the Age of Santa Anna”.
This is not idle talk: as Caudillo, he commanded one of the largest armies in the world and governed an empire that stretched from South America to Oregon. And he was in no mood to have the Texicans do to him what he earlier did to the King of Spain and then the Emperor of Mexico. And so within sight of the Alamo, he flew the black flag, informing the defenders that no quarter would be given to them.
Thus, as far as the delegates at Washington-on-the-Brazos were concerned, independence was not something which they could enter into lightly. One of the leaders of the Texans, Lorenzo de Zavala, was himself a hero of Mexico’s war for independence.
It’s one of the great ironies of history that de Zavala, who was one of the leaders of the Mexicans’ drive for independence, would now lead the Texans in their quest for secession from Mexico. In any event, he helped write the Texas Constitution and then served as the first vice president of the Republic of Texas.
Of course the Marxists today are having none of this. The usual anti-American blather is all we can get from them. Even the chairman of the Texas State Historical Association wants us to forget all about the Alamo and concentrate on more pressing issues. Like, what? Probably something to do with men being able to use women’s restrooms. (Seriously, these people are loons.) This academic’s knowledge about the basics of the Alamo itself calls into question his historical bona fides.
Therefore, I won’t dignify him by mentioning his name and thus spare him the embarrassment of the many justifiable criticisms leveled against him. Instead, I will direct you to this wonderful scene from The Alamo:
Oh, I can’t help myself. Listen to this stirring speech by Lt Col William Travis, the commander of the Alamo. They poignantly describe what Texas meant to those who were willing to face certain death there:
I imagine those who are not patriots cannot understand what lies in the beating heart of those of us who love our country. Whether that country is Texas, the Confederacy, or the United States of America. Nor does the list end there: most all of our ancestral countries likewise have valid claims on their people’s hearts. And justifiably so.
The modern progressive, liberal or globalist does not –indeed, cannot–understand what animates the souls of those of us who love the land which birthed us, whether that land is in this hemisphere or the other one. They are cosmopolitans who merely reside on a spot of land and not native to it. The stars all men see at night are the same everywhere, but they mark the contours of familiar territory for those who love the land on which they were born. The hills, the trees, the rocks, and the rivers, are not only the landmarks of territory, they are what define a populace native to a land.
“But wait!” you might interject, “Isn’t patriotism just another word for nationalism? And isn’t that contrary to the Christian worldview?”
Far from it. If I may direct your question to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphriy of Kiev: “Nationalism breeds division, while true patriotism is manifested in love of God and others.”
He goes on to explain this distinction further thusly: “A patriot is one who loves his father and mother. ‘Patre’ means father. We should all be patriots because we should love our father and mother. It’s written in the commandments…If a man honors his father, then he honors others as well…I honor my father, but I also honor your father, because I know that it’s your father, and through him, God gave you life…” (www.orthochristian.com/130912.html)
It is thus with a heavy heart that I ask why so many in our own Church’s hierarchy cannot comprehend the wisdom of Metropolitan Onuphriy’s words? (Perhaps this is why he is so beloved in his own land?) In certain precincts of the OCA (for example), some pine for recognition by the bishop of a near-extinct See of a now-extinct empire. Why? To what purpose? The sanctifying work of the Saints of North America was done on this continent, by men who were committed to evangelism. They may have been from other countries but they were under no illusions about ever returning to their homelands.
Regardless, it was here where they left their relics. They did not evangelize in order to convert the natives to a colony of an overseas empire.
Those men came to this continent a little over two centuries ago. Forgive me for being so blunt, but where are the relics of those clerics sent here from Istanbul? Where are their missions to the natives?
As for Greek Orthodox Christians in America, perhaps this explains why so many unknowingly recoil from the thought of having one foreigner after another placed in a position of authority over them. After all, we are talking about people who have existed in this land for many generations. A people who have contributed Senators, Congressmen, generals, and admirals –a Vice President even. A people who, in fact, have fought in every one of this country’s wars. That this same patriarchate upholds the fantasy of a lost empire while treating this country as a mere colony only adds salt to our wounds.
At the monastery of St Anthony-of-the-desert in Arizona, there is a wonderful icon of the Blessed Virgin called he Arizonitissa (Our Lady of Arizona). Would that someday soon there will be another icon like it at Holy Archangels monastery in the Hill Country of Texas; perhaps it can be called he Texana (Our Lady of Texas)?
Be that as it may, our work is before us. God will raise understanding bishops in His own time. That doesn’t mean that we have to buy into the globalist nonsense that is the religion of those who should know better. Because in the end, these elites –whether they be secular or ecclesial–shall fail. Because they don’t understand the meaning of patria.
May the Lord hasten the day.
In the meantime, God bless Texas!
“Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d,
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.”
By: Sir Walter Scott
From: ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel’, Canto sixth
George, I have on my icon wall an icon of The Saints of North America. It was written before the canonization of St. Raphael. All are either Russian or intimately connected to the Russian Church. St. Raphael was Syrian but was sent here by the Patriarch of Russia.
No Greeks.
Our Orthodox patrimony is overwhelmingly Russian. Yet we remain in the thrall of Russian = Communist. The genesis of the OCA I believe.
Perhaps the Orthodox Church in this land will always be stunted until we truly honor our Fathers in Christ and the land from which they came.
I have had it with the damned ecclesiastical Greeks. Perhaps they will be driven out as St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki sent packing the emissary of Constantinople when he came to steal the saint’s relics.
God forgive us and have mercy on us.
I’m afraid Orthodoxy will only grow when we experience martyrdom on a massive scale. I dare say all Christian confessions will have to undergo it as well.
Doctor Mocks Anti-Vaxxers While Getting Experimental COVID Jab – Dies Days Later:
https://thewashingtonstandard.com/doctor-mocks-anti-vaxxers-while-getting-experimental-covid-jab-dies-days-later-video/
Goes to show we should all guard our tounges. Please forgive my out burst against the Greek hierarchy. As, I ask each of you, I also implore God to heal all of our hearts, especially me
“Goes to show we should all guard our tounges.”
While that is good advice in general, it is rather missing the particular dangers of the mRNA vaccines.
Experimental vaccine death rate for Israel’s elderly 40 times higher than COVID-19 deaths: researchers:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/experimental-vaccine-death-rate-for-israels-elderly-40-times-higher-than-covid-19-deaths-researchers
…mRNA experimental vaccine from Pfizer killed “about 40 times more (elderly) people than the disease itself would have killed” during a recent five-week vaccination period. Among the younger class, these numbers are compounded to death rates at 260 times what the COVID-19 virus would have claimed in the given time frame.
Here’s an article that debunks your debunkers! http://www.nakim.org/israel-forums/viewtopic.php?t=270812&s=The_uncovering_of_the_vaccination_data_in_Israel__reveals_a_frightening_picture
If snopes.com had been around early enough,
I’m sure it would have ‘debunked’ Galileo and the Gospels.
Ah yes, the Galileo myth, a man who got so upset that the inquisition found his theory to be possible but not proven that he insulted the Pope and got put under house arrest, thereby becoming a martyr for science. Te truth is his theory was, at the time, possible , but unprovable (no one was able to detect the parallax of the sun at that time) and Galileo was a jerk with no idea how to behave. Seriously, if you live in a kingdom, don’t insult the king.
Words to live by.
Eppur si muove
Ah Snopes, home of fake news. Please list a credible source next time and not a front for Mr. Soros.
Seriously, Saunca, Snopes has been held up for so much ridicule that there’s this new meme that’s been making the rounds: “Snopes is for dopes”.
I don’t mean to be snarky but I’ve been following Snopes off and on for a decade now and from the very first, something didn’t feel “right” about their so-called debunking. For one thing, it was always to the benefit of the Left. Whenever some “objective” news outlet always comes down on one side or the other, then you can be sure that it’s subjective and partisan.
It’s like in the USSR, when they had Pravda and Izvestia. Whenever they would be called to task for the failure of Lysenko’s genetic theories or the latest five-year plan, they’d resort to “Well, you know they lynch Negroes in America”. It worked for awhile but people caught on eventually.
Snopes has become a joke. Even liberals are beginning to pull away from it.
Plus, the two people who run it are weird.
I stopped using Snopes over 20 years ago as it was no longer credible then. But, George, I am weird so that hardly is a cogent reason for not going there.
RE: “I am weird so that hardly is a cogent reason for not going there.”
Sometimes you make me laugh out loud, Michael! This is one of them. You could be a comedian with your turn of phrases.
Gail, some folks think I am a comedian when I am being serious. One thing I learned about comedy when I was doing theater was that laughter can be induced simply by the timing of what one says.
Still, I do appreciate that you had a good laugh. Genuine laughter rebalances the body’s biochemistry and reduces stress. Especially when one learns to laugh at one’s self.
It is not far from there to sincerely asking God for forgiveness.
I’m not a particularly serious person. Just ask George. He will tell you I’m only “focused” when I’m in my “project management” mode. The following is more me.
* * *
FB 10/23/20
When was the last time you pulled a “Karen” and asked to speak to the manager? So this wasn’t the last time for me because it happened a very long time ago, but it was certainly the most memorable.
I was 9 months pregnant with my son, Chase, and my husband took me to see E.T. I was a size 10 when I went into my pregnancy but by this time, and had gained 75 pounds and looked like I had swallowed a watermelon.
As I recall, I didn’t even want to go see the movie but, well, there we were on a Saturday afternoon, eating popcorn.
E.T. kind of grows on you. He is cute, and he’s nice so I’m hanging in there through his travails on Halloween.
And then he gets sick. When it gets to the part where the mother walks in, his sick little face lights up, and he says, “Mooooom!” I completely lose it.
My maternal hormones, which had no place to go, exploded all over the theater. I’m surprised the fire alarms didn’t go off.
And then there were all those people on the screen poking him and hurting him and he was dying and this rage came over me like none other I had ever experienced before or since.
E.T. was going to die!!! I DID NOT WANT TO SPEND MY SATURDAY AFTERNOON LIKE THIS!!!
So, I waddled up to the front of the theater, as quickly as my fat legs would carry me, and demanded to speak to the manager. (I’m pretty sure my husband ducked under the seat at this point.)
The poor manager shows up. He looks like he had been taking a nap. He was a kid about 19, wearing his requisite “manager” clothes, that either had shrunk in the dryer or had been handed down to him by another employee who had since moved onto better things. He stood perfectly still and watched me as I had the biggest meltdown I have ever had in my life.
“How DARE you show that movie to a pregnant woman,” I screamed! “I want my money back, right now!” “Can’t you see I’m pregnant?! Are you deaf and blind? E.T. said, “Moooom!” He needed his MOTHER, and did I tell you I’m pregnant?! Cause if I didn’t, I’m pregnant.”
The pimply kid didn’t say a word until I was done. He leaned down and in a barely audible voice whispered, “Ma’am, you can go back in now. E.T. is going home.”
OK, so I guess I overrated a bit. Did I tell you I was pregnant?
Gail, I can’t stop laughing!
🙂
Quite the opposite. People think I’m serious when I’m being a comedian. It’s led to some problems.
Decades ago there was a Hallmark Hall of Fame titled, “The Last Comedian”. The premise was that in a future time, being a comedian and making other folks laugh was against the law. Indeed, a capital offense.
Carney played the last known comedian. He was on the run when he met a young boy to whom he taught his art.
The final scene is Carney being arrested and being taken away in chains BUT in the culvert right below them, the boy is practicing the art.
I saw the show in the 1950s. I cannot find a single reference to it on the internet.
But in the same vein I share another jewel of my youth discovered on a 78 rpm record my mother had kept that I really enjoyed. Totally politically incorrect: https://g.co/kgs/axUT8E
Hoagy Carmichael.
Enjoy
Basil, hang in there.
Not at all, Michael! I didn’t realize that Snopes had been selling their snake oil for that long.
“This has been debunked and the link to the “study” therefore disabled in most publications. ”
Covid has been debunked by countries like Belarus never masking up and locking down. It has been a year now, and all your Covid pushing “most publications” and “debunking” sites have been totally discredited. If, at this point, a mass die off of people does actually begin, the almost certain cause will be the bogus vaccines for the bogus disease.
I hate to tell you this Saunca, but Snopes and other so-called “fact checkers” do nothing but “debunk” sometimes exaggerated, sometimes oversimplified or imprecisely quoted real statements made by various people that then make their way into Social Media. Their “debunking” is itself often oversimplified, although sometimes technically correct in stating that “so-and-so” never said the precise words they are reported to have said.
“It promotes propaganda, conspiracy theories, and consistently publishes misleading, inaccurate information to further its underlying, extreme right agenda.”
Sexual dimorphism is considered “propaganda, conspiracy theories,” and “misleading, inacccurate information” that has been debunked, debate over. Could you even tell me what isn’t an “underlying, extreme right agenda” in 2021? Because, apparently that includes 2 x 2 = 4, and Dr. Seuss, and that’s just the last week.
Pfizer Lawsuits
“Pfizer has faced thousands of lawsuits filed for medical injuries caused by some of its most popular drugs. It has also set a record for the largest fine paid for a health care fraud lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Pfizer paid $2.3 billion in fines, penalties, and settlement for illegal marketing claims. …”
https://www.drugdangers.com/about-us/
Brought to you by Seeger Weiss LLP
‘ The Seeger Weiss firm currently numbers approximately 20 attorneys operating out of offices in New York City, NY; Ridgefield Park, NJ; and Philadelphia, PA. It focuses on mass tort and class action litigation, with particular emphasis in the areas of products liability, pharmaceutical injury, consumer protection, environmental and toxic tort, securities fraud, antitrust, insurance, ERISA, employment, and qui tam litigation. ‘
Be careful what you say about Seeger Weiss.
To Saunca:
I am hoping this will be helpful.
Google: VACCINE KILLS MORE PEOPLE THAN COVID. You will see the opinion of one fact-checker after another and very little else.
Then Google: DUCKDUCKGO. When you get to DuckDuckGo, enter the same thing in the search box. You will see the occasional fact-checker, but you will see a lot of other information Google has suppressed.
Frankly, it is the long-term risk of taking the vaccine that is concerning. As many will recall, in previous animal studies the animals appeared to do well with the vaccine, but later died when confronted with coronavirus in the environment.
Since Israel is the first to vaccinate 99% of its population, this is where we’ll begin to see the long-term effects of the vaccine first. By the end of summer, if we start hearing of seemingly healthy people dying in record numbers due to organ failure, we will know the vaccine is not safe. But by then it will be too late.
How much better it would have been to extend the human trials for at least 6 months to a year so we could be sure. Got to wonder why they didn’t.
“Got to wonder why they didn’t.”
Bill wants to reduce the population by vaccination.
Did he not tell us on his TED Talk?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQNz9ocoCTM
Yes.
I can’t remember where I said it, but some Israeli news outlet called it “another Holocaust.”
So maybe Pfizer will start paying reparations…
The irony behind that is Israel is mass vaccinating it’s entire population
Michael,
your “out burst against the Greek hierarchy”
is good for the soul of our Greek Hierarchy and indirectly of the modern Greek people.
We have forgotten that our Greek fathers fought the Turks in 1821 “for the Faith first, and secondly for the Country”. Nowadays, unfortunately, we Greeks are mostly Greek and after that, Orthodox etc.
Keep up the good work in Christ!
Ioannis, thank you but I know I stepped over the line. I would be better off remembering the the example of a Greek priest who was in my parish for many years. He was a saintly man who, because he was shamefully treated by his Bishop came to us. It was a joy to know him. His gentle kindness and warmth were always a blessing.
Father Dean Dimas, of blessed memory was an inspiration and example on how to respond to injustice. He was living proof, every day that his superiors had no clue. I am sure he prayed for them every day.
May his prayers continue and the mercy of God prevail.
http://deathtotheworld.com/articles/stop-saying-glory-to-god-for-all-things/
I would learn that all things I encounter and suffer in this world would lead me to give glory to God for His mercy.
I cannot help but think that if we did that our parishes would be fully open and the priests would be exhausted from hearing confessions.
Even if we also had funerals we would be set apart and greatly blessed.
Myst, correlation does not mean causation. Still it is unsettling.
This morning I read an article which described the very early Hebrew understanding of the world. . “The Hebrews realized neither the world nor the people in it are governed by the erratic whims of warring deities but by a sort of law. This law, they observed, always worked, always worked the same, and always worked the same for everybody. It was one with the universe but also ran the universe, and thus outranked the universe and thus must have also governed the creation of it. This natural law they called the Word of God. “
From. How the Bible. Works, by Abarim Publications
I think the technological age we live in has so far separated us from natural law that we are lost.
Nationalism, racism, globalism, all these isms are made up modernist gibberish. They shift their meaning to be used however possible. If Dr Seuss is a racist, then the word means nothing.
The reason those whom Jesus called the children of Satan oppose monarchy is because it’s the only system of government that is difficult to subvert, because it is the only system of government based not on ideology but on heritage and nation.
The Tradition and the Bible have a lot to say about not showing partiality, but there is exactly nothing about our modern concept of racism, and anyone who conflates the two blasphemes the Holy Spirit.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Colossians:2:8
I have to agree with AM to a large extent. I’m amused at the “forgetfulness” of modernist types who condemn ethnocentrism and nationalism. It is as if they had never read the Old Testament and the story of “the chosen people”. Without old Israel, there can be no new Israel.
Our God is quite ethnocentric and nationalist. The only problem arises when it is taken to the extreme of violent subjugation of other nations. But Christian Nationalists tend to be against foreign entanglements, as opposed to secular globalists. It is modernist globalists who reject nationalism as unprofitably protectionist, standing in the way of their economic exploitation of the middle and lower classes, and seek to impose their values through imperialist foreign interventions. But that has nothing to do with Orthodoxy.
Even the anti-phyletist council of 1872 was in no way ecumenical or doctrinally binding. Its hypocritical condemnation of Bulgarian nationalism was simply self serving of Greek nationalists and, contrary to the assertions of the modernists, established nothing normative. Were it taken seriously and literally, it would render most canonical Orthodox as heretics given our jurisdictional ethnic balkanization in the Americas and Western Europe.
Holy Orthodoxy is an ally of emerging Christian Nationalism and we should thank God for that. That the Phanar is not on board is too precious for words, given the assumed prerogatives of their “genos”.
While I prefer the term “patriot” as opposed to “nationalist”, I will, arguendo, accept both as interchangeable. in this sense: nationalists are more peaceable. They are so because they do not ordinarily like to attack other nations for a variety of reasons:
1. they do not want to absorb foreign ways (call this the Spartan model).
2. they do not want to mix with other peoples.
3. they do not have the resources to sustain a conquest. And
4. they are scared that they could lose and thus have their own ethnicity and culture subjugated and/or wiped out.
You seem to infer that nationalism develops from inherently negative causes – fear, scarcity, ignorance, and maybe even hatred. I disagree, as I think nationalism derives from a place of love.
Patriotism and nationalism are interconnected, but not the same. Patriotism is the natural and God-given love for one’s nation and its people – an inherently spiritual and virtuous quality – while nationalism is the practical application of it in the political and social spheres.
What we should be averse to is chauvinism, which is the uncritical, my-country-right-or-wrong approach and hatred for everyone else that leads to irrational xenophobia and imperialism.
A real nationalist wants what’s best for his country and people, and respects other countries doing the same thing, whilst pursuing an insular, non-interventionist foreign policy. The chauvinist essentializes his culture and way of life and seeks to implement it over everyone else, while sucking them dry of their resources to feed his own agenda.
Basil, I will take your critique into consideration.
http://byztex.blogspot.com/2021/03/oca-antiochian-heads-meet.html?m=1
Who are “the extremists within the Church”?
People who don’t actually believe in their religion are much more sensible, don’t you think? Can’t we all just follow the zeitgeist and enjoy the masquerade?
You and I, probably. Despite your disagreement with some of my positions, we’re in this together.
I agree with their condemnation of BLM, Antifa, and the traitorous Democrat Party.
Basil, I would be honored.
See you in the gulag, brother.
Forgive me, shouldn’t we all be extremists and fundamentalists regarding our love and faith in Christ?
The two hierarchs’ phrasing is, frankly, stunning: “We strongly condemn extremism and fundamentalism, whether in the Church or society . . . ”
I refer readers of this blog to my article in Touchstone Magazine in May / June 2017 titled, “Three Trojan Horses: Insider Attempts to Disorient the Orthodox.” The first “Trojan Horse” is the use of the term “fundamentalist”–usually by the radical leftist Orthodox among us–to dismiss and insult the rest of us.
https://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=30-03-016-c
Remember when the Greek economy was imploding and bailed out by the globalists? This sounds like Greek is an occupied country:
“Most residents in the Greece can only leave their homes using a number-categorized permission system, normally requested and granted via SMS. Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said that starting Thursday, permission to visit banks and supermarkets would only be permitted for a 2-kilometer radius of each person’s home, while those wishing to exercise could not use their vehicles or public transport for that outing.”
See: https://news.yahoo.com/greece-tougher-lockdown-rules-target-173819766.html
We had more freedom of movement under the Turks.
While I deeply appreciate and honor the incredible achievements of Greek thinkers and creative minds of the past. Since the over throw of the monarchy things have gotten really wiggy.
I do not know what it was really like but the latent sense of paranoia I saw in the exiled Royal Playwrite of Greece whom I met in 1967 was sobering. He was working it out in a play he was writing about a mysterious all knowing/controlling man named Mr. Boby.
Scary dude, Mr. Boby. The playwright’s PTSD was bad. I wish I could remember his name
Maybe some of the Greeks here can comment on my theory.
Things were better for the Greeks under the monarchy. That’s all I can say.
George, you ever see the 1969 movie “Z”?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(1969_film)#:~:text=With%20its%20dark%20view%20of,president%20from%201985%20to%201990.
It was about the assisination of Grigorios Lambrakis in Greece in 1963. I came out of that movie which I had seen in a shopping mall here in Wichita, looking over my shoulder.
I think it portrayed the fear that ruled Greece under the junta. The scariest movie I have ever seen.
That was 60 years ago, but the constitution they suspended was never restored.
Yes, long time ago. I vaguely remember it. The problem is one of anachronism: Lambrakis was killed in 1963 while the junta took over in 1967.
As unappealing as the junta was, they were viewed at that time as a necessary corrective to all the student riots that had been plaguing the Greek kingdom. Also, I can give you this anecdotal piece of evidence: when I first went in 1967, no one that we knew had a television set, and the roads in my dad’s village were covered in donkey dung. (Believe it or not, it didn’t smell bad.)
When we returned in 1972, everybody had a TV and the roads were cleared of donkey dung.
We had more freedom of movement under the Turks.
An Old Man in a Chair: Dr Vernon Coleman on Masks:
https://www.vernoncoleman.org/videos/vital-revelations-about-how-masks-damage-children-permanently
[10 min video]
‘ My message to children who don’t wear masks – for whatever reason – is simple. You have courage and my respect. You may suffer discrimination and even abuse – but remember, every month that goes by you will gain several percentage points, both physically and mentally, on your mask wearing school mates.
Evidence shows that those who wear masks become physically debilitated and mentally weaker. And this is more true of children than of adults. … ‘
How do we turn this train around?
SKY News Pressures Waterstones & Amazon
To Ban Anti-vaccine Books
[SKY TV is UK equivalent of FOX – both owned by Murdoch]
https://principia-scientific.com/sky-news-pressures-waterstones-amazon-to-ban-anti-vaccine-books/
‘ SKY News is pressuring booksellers to stop selling books written by medical experts. In a segment running hourly today, SKY claims that Waterstones, Amazon and Foyles are selling books which contain anti-vaccine medical misinformation.
The report references a book written by Dr. Vernon Coleman entitled;
Anyone Who Tells You Vaccines Are Safe And Effective Is Lying.
The book has received hundreds of 5-star reviews on Amazon’s website.
Dr. Vernon Coleman is a medical expert.
His books have topped best-seller lists around the world and he was a national newspaper columnist for many years. SKY asked the booksellers to explain why they were not “providing annotations” to suggest that Vernon’s book contains disputed claims.
SKY’s report doesn’t provide a single example of a “disputed claim” in Dr. Vernon Coleman’s book. ‘
They’ve come for the Old Man in a Chair.
I’m beginning to think that free speech can only be found on blogs. I wonder how long it’s going to take them for them to try and take them away.
So far there has been more debate on this thread concerning vaccine-related issues and Orthodox Church controversies than about the events at the Alamo. Nevertheless, here goes: What is everyone’s favorite Alamo-related movie?
I think the 2004 movie was probably the most accurate, but I still enjoy the 1955 Walt Disney version.
John, I suspect George wrote his piece as an extended metaphor of our current situation with the Federal government/clueless bishops taking the role of Santa Anna.
The rest of us are the out manned, out gunned defenders.
My question, What are we defending?
Thought for the day from St. Athanasius in “On The Incarnation”
“Before the Divine Sojourn of the Saviour, even the holiest men were afraid of death, and mourned the dead as those who perish., But now that the Saviour has raised His Body, death is no longer terrible but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ knowing full well that when they die, they do not perish, but live indeed and become incorruptible through the Resurrection. But the devil, who of old wickedly exulted in death, now that the pains of death are loosed, he alone it is who remains truly dead.”
Texas was founded by Freemasons. The San Jacinto monument is a huge Egyptian freemasonic symbol. This is the work of satan. A Christian cannot support the State of Texas, knowing it is totally satanic at the core. Give what they require, and no more.
William R. Denslow, author of 10,000 Famous Freemasons, writes: “It is said that Santa Anna owed his life to the giving of the Masonic sign of distress, first to James A. Sylvester; secondly to Sam Houston; and thirdly, to a group of Texas soldiers, among whom were John A. Wharton, George W. Hockley, Richard Bache, Dr. J. E. Phelps and others.
In his book, Masons In Texas, History and Influence to 1846, Dr. James D. Carter holds another view: “It may be that Masons saved the life of Santa Anna but if so, they did not act because he made claim to their mercy as Masons. All of the Masons to whom he appealed knew that Santa Anna disowned Masonry; that further, his many offenses against Texas and Mexican Masons had placed him outside the protection of any Masonic obligation. Santa Anna was saved because the Texas leaders considered him worth more to Texas alive than dead.”
https://grandlodgeoftexas.org/san-jacinto/
http://freemasonsfordummies.blogspot.com/2013/04/from-todays-sacramento-bee-texas.html
And all the nations on earth (save Israel) were founded on pagan foundations. That doesn’t mean that we can’t –or shouldn’t–baptize them. (As well as the modern nation-state of Israel.)
God bless Texas!
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/04/07/Texas-governor-Greg-Abbott-bans-use-coronavirus-passports/8311617772544/
Texas Covid Crashes – Fauci Dumbfounded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH_zZSvHQGA&t=13s
[33:20 video]
Ron Paul and his fellow presenter on Ron Paul Liberty Report
have a great time dismantling Fauci and his pretensions.