Tag: Religious Icon

Closing Thought–01Mar21

Golden Idol For Sale

That effigy of Donald the Orange that was on display at CPAC for all the attendees to worship at the feet is now for sale….

The breakout star at the Conservative Political Action Conference taking place in Orlando is from Mexico. A gold, 200-pound statue of former President Trump has drawn a selfie-taking crowd since it arrived in a hotel lobby Thursday evening, CNN reports. As popular as it is, there’s been a backlash even to inanimate Trump. For one thing, there’s some awkwardness to a statue suggesting Trump brings manufacturing jobs back to the US—he’s holding a magic wand, a reference to a quote from former President Obama—being an import. And there’s a religious argument to be made about the sculpture that’s showing up online. Tommy Zegan, an American who lives in Mexico, per the Hill, explained his symbolism. “The coat and tie is the fact that he’s a professional, he’s a businessman,” the artist said. “The red tie symbolizes he’s a Republican. The red, white, and blue is that he’s a patriot. The fact that he’s wearing thongs and shorts is that he’s at the age where he should be retired. He should be at the beach right now.”

Online art and political critics cited the false idol teaching of the Old Testamant, in which Moses destroys a golden calf being worshipped by Israelites in his absence. God’s wrath upon the Israelites followed. Some said Republicans are worshipping a false idol through their loyalty to Trump, who falsely claims to have been reelected, per MarketWatch. “If only there were some sacred text, one most people at CPAC claimed allegiance to, that very explicitly warns against making golden idols,” one tweet said. “I know the biblical definition of an idol,” Zegan answered, per Mediaite. “This is not an idol. This is a sculpture.” The likeness displayed at CPAC’s hotel is just the fiberglass mold of the statue, Zegan said, and it’s for sale for $100,000. He’s got the real stainless steel sculpture in a warehouse in Tampa. The statue took him and helpers six months to make and cost his life savings of $50,000. “It is museum-quality, and that’s the one I’m eventually hoping to get in the Trump library,” Zegan said.

Made in Mexico?

Seriously?

Now who will be the proud owner of the golden idol of the the GOP?

On a side note…I have been waiting for all those religious bloggers to actually say something about this ‘idol’….and yet the sound of crickets prevail.

Place your bids before it is too late.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Awaiting Fate Of Statue Of Gen. Pike

These days there is a rabid attack on all the statues that commemorate the Generals of the American Civil War…..they are being pulled down, moved or otherwise vandalized.

I wrote about these statues in my op-ed blog, Gulf South Free Press…….https://gulfsouthfreepress.wordpress.com/2020/07/07/monument-for-traitors/

I am waiting to see the fate of the ONLY Confederate general to have a statue in Washington D.C…..the statue of Brigadier General Albert Pike.

For those not sure who Gen. Pike is….allow me me enlighten you.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809, Pike planned on attending Harvard but ultimately could not afford tuition. Instead, he roamed to New Mexico and eventually Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he taught law and became politically active. In 1850, he organized the Know-Nothing Party, which campaigned on anti-immigration beliefs and emphasized the use of slaves as more “efficient than farm labor.”

Pike was also pro-Indian, representing a handful of Native American tribes in settlement cases against the government. That lead him to be named the commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War, where he was then named a brigadier general.

His time as a general in the Confederacy lasted a little over two years before he was charged with misappropriating funds and letting his troops mutilate Union soldiers in an 1862 battle. 

Arguing with other Confederate leaders after being accused of treason, Pike ultimately mailed in his resignation letter and retreated to Tennessee — where civil rights leaders said he was rumored to have wrote the rituals of theKu Klux Klan, although various history blogs have said this was not certain. 

https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/items/show/476

That is right a statue of a Confederate stands proudly in DC and has yet to be mentioned in all the babbling about those other statues of Confederate generals……why is that?

He was a traitor to the United States….he was a slave owner…..even allegedly influential in the KKK……why?

Could it be a religious thing?

You see Albert Pike is one of the most famous of the Freemasons……so is it for that reason that he is safe from the indignities the rest of the Confederate statues are suffering?

Personally I do not give a shit about his religious leanings…for all I care he could worship a wagon wheel….his persona should NOT be exempt from the “purge” taking place simply because of his connection with the Freemasons….his statue should come down and be placed in the interior of that massive Temple of Doom in DC.

If other generals were traitors then so was Pike……treat him as you would treat the other traitors.

Or is this person somehow special?

Then yes….a special gutless traitor!

Learn Stuff!

I Read. I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Sucker Born Every Minute

I have written several times about the Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby, being conned in their endless search to prove the Bible is a historic document.

The family has scanned the world for artifacts that can prove the existence of everything in the Bible and in doing so has been caught with fakes and stolen artifacts…..read the story so far……https://lobotero.com/2020/03/19/theft-of-culture/

It looks like they were conned yet again…..

Dirk Obbink seemed eerily calm when a reporter knocked on his door near Oxford University last year. “I’d like to tell it,” the scholar said of his alleged role in a major antiquities scandal. “But I’m under a duty not to speak about the matter while it’s under investigation.” But that reporter, Ariel Sabar, has untangled the byzantine tale of how Obbink—a world-renowned classicist from Nebraska—allegedly made millions selling stolen papyri to US evangelicals, including a New Testament fragment that set the world of biblical studies on fire. In Sabar’s Atlantic piece, Obbink is portrayed as a legitimate papyrologist enticed by money. And in the Green family, who own the craft-store chain Hobby Lobby, he appears to have found the perfect mark.

The gospel fragment is one of several Obbink apparently sold to Hobby Lobby for the Green family’s Museum of the Bible and falsely dated to “circa 100 AD,” making them unique—the only New Testament fragments from the century in which Jesus is said to have lived and showing how his earliest chroniclers portrayed him. But those documents weren’t Obbink’s to sell. The scholar was arrested in April and accused of selling artifacts from Oxford’s Sackler Library, which was housing ancient texts on loan from the Egypt Exploration Society, per ArtNet. Now Obbink is out of an Oxford job and facing an uncertain future. But he maintains his innocence, saying that incriminating documents “have been fabricated in a malicious attempt to harm my reputation and career.” Click for Sabar’s full article.

Apparently this family has never heard the saying “buyer beware”…..ignorance and greed work well together and the Green family is proof of how profitable ignorance can be.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–13Feb20

Does anyone remember Jim Bakker and the Praise The Lord (PTL) club……if not then a quick update for you…..

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were among the most famous televangelists in America, living a life of luxury with multiple houses, expensive cars and more money than God, when their empire all came crashing down amid sex and financial scandals.

By the mid-’70s, the Bakkers were becoming household names through their TV show, “The PTL Club” — PTL stood for “Praise the Lord” or “People That Love.” Initially it aired on a small North Carolina station owned by media mogul Ted Turner.

“What [Bakker] really wanted to do… was create a Christian version of ‘The Tonight Show’,” said John Wigger, author of “PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire.” “Which was really the first of Bakker’s big innovations, the Christian talk show.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/scandals-brought-bakkers-uss-famous-televangelists/story

Prison and financial ruin could not stop Bakker….and thanx to the new virus he is back…..

Right Wing Watch reported that televangelist Jim Bakker is urging his followers to drink a solution of colloidal silver to protect themselves from coronavirus — and a guest who was selling it promised that a dose will cure them and strengthen their immune system within 12 hours.

“Well, let’s say it hasn’t been tested on this strain of the coronavirus,” said his guest. “But it’s been tested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours. Totally eliminate it, kills it, deactivates it. And then it boosts your immune system, so then you can support the recovery, because when you kill the virus, then the immune system comes into action to clear it out. So you want a vibrant immune system as well as an ability to deactivate these viruses.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/televangelist-urges-people-to-drink-liquid-silver-to-stave-off-coronavirus/

Drink silver to fight the virus….kinda like the days when drinking mercury was suppose to cure syphilis….

Anything for a buck huh Jim?

Please do not let this snake oil salesman sell you anything especially a cure for this virus or your trip to Heaven….he is LYING!

Do not waste your money Because according to our Imperial majesty the virus will be gone by April.  (another lie no doubt)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–22Apr19

Happy Earth Day!

The news out of Paris about the fire that destroyed Notre Dame has gotten crazier than I would have thought……

First, the conspiracy that it was a cover-up of a terrorist attack……this is silly….there have been several attacks in France and they were not “covered up”…

Next as the donations pour inthere is a bit of controversy…..

The $1 billion raised to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral is now receiving a dose of controversy. The Washington Post is among several outlets reporting that criticism is mounting in regard to income inequality about the large donations that came from billionaires like Francois-Henri Pinault and Bernard Arnault. While most want to see Notre Dame restored to its former glory or beyond, critics see the donations as proving “social problems could be quickly addressed if the wealthy were motivated to do so,” per USA Today. “If two men … can provide [$337 million] to restore Notre Dame, within six hours, then there is enough money in the world to feed every mouth, shelter every family and educate every child,” writes Carl Kinsella at Joe.ie. “The failure to do so is a matter of will, and a matter of system.”


Adds journalist Simon Allison, who is based in South Africa: “In just a few hours today, 650 million euros was donated to rebuild Notre Dame. In six months, just 15 million euros has been pledged to restore Brazil’s National Museum. I think this is what they call white privilege.” Critics were pointing to other examples, including the need for money to ease the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Though the French government usually grants corporations a 60% tax deduction on culture donations, Pinault and Arnault say won’t get any such deduction. “It’s pretty dismaying to see that in France you are criticized even for doing something for the general interest,” Arnault says, per Reuters. It’s “an act, which in many other countries, we’d be congratulated for.”

(Now we know why Apple has donated so much, right?)

As usual everyone is looking for the cause of the fire……and culprit may have been found……a computer?

…. the cathedral’s rector said a “computer glitch” may have been behind the blaze, though Patrick Chauvet did not elaborate. “We may find out what happened in two or three months,” he told local business leaders. The fire burned through the centuries-old oak beams supporting the vaulted stone ceiling, dangerously weakening the building. The neighborhood was blocked off as stones continued to tumble off the sides of the cathedral.


Investigators said an electrical short-circuit most likely caused the fire. The Parisien newspaper has reported that a computer glitch might have misdirected firefighters responding to the initial alarm. The unsourced report said investigators are also looking into whether the fire was linked to temporary elevators being used in a renovation. Chauvet said there were fire alarms throughout the building, which he described as “well protected.” As Catholics carried out the Way of the Cross ritual near the cathedral to mark Good Friday, President Emmanuel Macron met with officials from the United Nations’ cultural agency. UNESCO representatives have offered their technical expertise to help with the reconstruction

 

Now for some good news from the fire of the century……

 

The 180,000 bees that live in three hives in the cathedral’s roof have been discovered alive, Nicolas Geant, the monument’s beekeeper said.

“I am so relieved. I saw satellite photos that showed the three hives didn’t burn. I thought they had gone with the cathedral,” he said.  

Mr Geant has looked after the bees since 2013, when they were installed as part of a city-wide initiative to boost declining bee numbers.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/notre-dame-latest-180000-bees-living-in-hives-in-cathedrals-roof-found-alive-after-inferno-a4122321.html

I am sure there will be more news as the situation develops and IST will be there to report the findings……

 

In Search Of The Grail

This post kind of goes along with the day…..the celebration of Easter.

And as I am a history buff I shall post on something that has a tie in with the Easter celebration….the Search for the Holy Grail…..

The Grail Legend (also known as the Grail Quest, Quest for the Holy Grail) developed in Europe c. 1050-1485 CE. It most likely originated in Ireland as folklore before appearing in written form sometime before 1056 CE in The Prophetic Ecstasy of the Phantom, an Irish tale. The concept was popularized by the French poet Chretien de Troyes (l. c. 1130-1190 CE) in his Perceval or the Story of the Grail (c. 1190 CE) which he left unfinished and was completed by other poets in the work known as the Four Continuations.

Chretien’s story features a mystical castle, a grail (at this time a platter, not a cup), a strange procession, a woman who changes form, and a visiting hero who is expected to ask a question which will break a magic spell; all elements found in the earlier The Prophetic Ecstasy of the Phantom. Chretien’s grail was transformed into the cup of Christ at the last supper by Robert de Boron (12th century CE) in his Joseph of Arimathea and later writers would continue this tradition. The grail’s association with Christ’s cup was standardized by Sir Thomas Malory in his Le Morte D’Arthur (1469 CE), which is how it is best known in the modern day.

https://www.ancient.eu/Grail_Legend/
 
Personally as I have said many times…if the grail exist it will not be some jeweled gold goblet….we are talking about itinerants with little cash…..so any drinking vessel would be wooden or pottery……it is a pipe dream….. it is a metaphor and does not exist.
 
I do hope that all my readers and followers have a good day whether you celebrate Easter or not……embrace life and give someone a hug…..
 
Peace Out My Friends!
 
Again Hally Easter everyone……enjoy your day with family and fun…..

Closing Thought–17Apr19

Fire has destroyed a cultural icon….Notre Dame and the world has pledged to have it rebuilt…..

“Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral went up in flames on Monday evening, a blaze that devastated the landmark, destroying its wooden-beamed roof and collapsing the iconic spire in a searing loss for Paris and France,” Reuters reports.

“President Emmanuel Macron pledged to rebuild the Gothic masterpiece, and within the first 24 hours after the fire began, tycoons, companies and local authorities stepped forward with large donations,” Reuters reports. “French billionaire businessman Bernard Arnault’s family and his LVMH luxury goods group said they would donate 200 million euros to help repair the cathedral.”

“French luxury and cosmetics group L’Oreal, along with the Bettencourt Meyer family and the Bettencourt Schueller foundation, will donate 200 million euros in total,” Reuters reports. “CEO Tim Cook said on Twitter Apple would donate an unspecified sum to rebuilding efforts.”

At the exact time that Notre Dame was burning so was the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem….has anyone stepped forward to offer help?

How about those black churches in Louisiana?

Fires that destroyed three predominantly black Baptist churches in St. Landry Parish in the last 10 days are “suspicious,” the state’s top fire investigator said Thursday, adding that they’ve discovered several “patterns” at the three crime scenes.

But it’s too soon to classify the fires as arson, State Fire Marshal Butch Browning said at a press conference, walking a tight line without actually linking the three blazes.

“There certainly is a commonality,” he said. “Whether that leads to a person or persons or groups, we just don’t know. And that’s not unusual for us not to know at this point.”

The fact that it is three black Baptist churches in the same parish is obviously a pattern. “And there are several other patterns,” Browning added.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/04/05/3-black-churches-10-days-burned-louisianas-st-landry-parish/3384344002/

Has Apple stepped forward to help in these reconstruction efforts?

What makes Notre Dame more important than al-Aqsa or the churches in Louisiana?  All are houses of worship none more important than the others.

Looks like Apple goes where they can get the most PR bang for their bucks….I was considering an Ipad but now Apple can…….. kiss my ass!

Enough said!

People have steeped up for the churches in Louisiana……

Less than 24 hours elapsed between President Macron’s call for donations to rebuild Notre Dame and nearly $1 billion being pledged, reports Time. In comparison, a nearly week-old campaign seeking funds to rebuild three historically black churches destroyed by arson in Louisiana within the last month had raised only $93,000 as of Tuesday morning, reports the New York Times. A day later, that number has skyrocketed to more than $1.1 million thanks to social media promotion from journalists, pro athletes, and politicians, including Hillary Clinton, reports the Hill. “As we hold Paris in our thoughts today, let’s also send some love to our neighbors in Louisiana,” Clinton tweeted alongside a link to the GoFundMe campaign from the Seventh District Baptist Association, which includes the three Baptist churches gutted in fires on March 26, April 2, and April 4.

More than 21,000 people have donated as of this writing, with funds to be split evenly between the churches in St. Landry Parish, each more than 100 years old. “It’s a total, complete loss at all three sites,” association president Freddie Jack tells the Times. Mount Pleasant Baptist in Opelousas fared best, but at St. Mary Baptist in Port Barre and Opelousas’ Greater Union Baptist Church—which had taken out a mortgage to cover a recent renovation—”all you see is charcoal.” The fund seeks $1.8 million total; Jack notes insurance coverage is limited and strict building codes have been put in place since Hurricane Katrina. The money raised so far is “a blessing,” Rev. Gerald Toussaint of Mount Pleasant Baptist tells CNN. “What the devil meant for bad, God’s going to turn it into something good.”

I am pleased to see that the money is helping but sad that it took the fire in Paris to start the wheels moving……

Rasputin….Rasputin…..Let Down Your Hair

Or was that Rapunzel?

This post is not a nursery rhyme instead about the history of Russia early 20th century…..and one of my favorite figures in Russian history.

Grigory Rasputin…..a Russian monk that became the center of Russian foreign policy……the story goes that he was so hated that a few Russian military officers invited Rasputin to a party knowing he would not resist because of his love of drink and fast women…….Rasputin got drunk and the officers poisoned him, stabbed him, shot him and eventually drowned him…..any way his influence over the tsarina was eliminated……

But his life until his death was fascinating……

Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin (1872-1916) was the infamous ‘holy man’ whose ability to heal the Tsar and Tsarina’s son Alexis led to his being adopted as a supreme mystic at court.  Growing in influence to the point where he effectively dictated policy he was eventually assassinated by a group of court conspirators in December 1916.

Born in 1872 at Pokrovskoye in Siberia to a peasant family, Rasputin’s limited education left him without the ability to either read or write. Even at a young age he earned himself such a reputation for devoted debauchery that his actual name of Grigory Yefimovich Novykh was replaced with the surname ‘Rasputin’ – Russian for ‘debauched one’.

https://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/rasputin.htm

His life is interesting but the circumstances around is death and damn well fascinating……

The mysterious Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, a peasant who claimed powers of healing and prediction, had the ear of Russian Czarina Alexandra. The aristocracy held negative views about a peasant in such a high position, and peasants disliked the rumors that the czarina was sleeping with such a scoundrel. Rasputin was seen as “the dark force” who was ruining Mother Russia.To save the monarchy, several members of the aristocracy attempted to murder Rasputin. On the night of Dec. 16, 1916, they tried. The plan was simple. Yet on that fateful night, the conspirators found that killing Rasputin would be very difficult indeed.

The next time you play Triaval Pursuit and the hstory question is….who in history was strangled, stabbed, shot, poisoned and finally drowned?  You will know the answer.
History is just great stuff…..plus it is always good to learn stuff…..
A New Year and more history to delight some and dismay others……
Class Dismissed!