Devastating, dangerous, untested: NO to Article V convention

December 16, 2021

By Civic Nebraska

In 2022, the Nebraska Legislature will consider LR14, introduced by Sen. Steve Halloran, to add Nebraska to the list of states calling for an Article V constitutional convention. As an organization committed to protecting and advancing voting rights, we are deeply concerned about what such a process would most likely yield.

What’s an Article V convention?

The Constitution can be amended in two ways. The only way we’ve used so far needs two-thirds of both houses of Congress to propose an amendment, which must then be ratified by three-fourths of states (presently, 38 states). This is almost always done by a simple vote of each state Legislature, though Congress required the twenty-first amendment (repeal of prohibition) to be ratified by state convention.

In the last decade, organizations of varying political affiliations have promoted the second way to amend the Constitution – a convention – to make changes that would be extremely unlikely to make it through Congress. There is a substantial effort among progressive activists, namely Wolf-PAC, to call a convention to pass an amendment to overturn Citizens United. Wolf-PAC has passed its application resolution in five states.

The more active and imminent effort is by the Convention of States Action, a group led by conservative activist and Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler. Convention of States Action, or COSaction, supports a call to convention to:

Impose fiscal restraints on the federal government;

Limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government; and

Limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.

COSAction has successfully passed its resolution in 15 states, with active legislation in all but eight states. COSAction legislation has been repeatedly introduced in Nebraska. It is consistently defeated by a bipartisan group of senators with a range of concerns, from devastating effects on our state’s budget to unpredictable outcomes with the Constitution.

What does an Article V convention have to do with voting rights?

In short, it can strip the Department of Justice of its powers and standing to enforce voting rights.

The amendments proposed within the scope of a COSAction-style convention could expose federal voting protections to political sabotage and retribution by jeopardizing the capacity and authority, if not the very existence, of the Department of Justice.

While states have broad authority to administer their own elections, they are bound by certain baseline rules and protections designed to provide an at least somewhat uniform, accessible experience for all eligible voters. Some of these protections are enshrined in the Constitution in the fifteenth, nineteenth, twenty-fourth, and twenty-sixth amendments, but most of them come from four pieces of federal legislation – the Voting Rights Act of 1965, The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986, The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. All of these provisions are enforced by the Voting Section of the Department of Justice.

When a state violates one of the protections outlined in these laws, the Department of Justice is the office responsible for intervening. The DOJ is voters’ last line of defense against state infringement of voting rights. The DOJ’s capacity and authority to challenge voting restrictions are directly threatened by the second plank of the COSAction legislation: “Limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government.”

There is no restriction, consolidation, or elimination of a federal agency not included under this broad call to action. Restricting the DOJ’s authority to protect voters against a state legislature’s restriction, reducing the voting section to hamper its efficacy, or eliminating the voting section entirely would be entirely within the scope of this “limited” call to a convention.

The current political climate and the results of a simulated convention in 2016 raise the possibility of grave consequences for voting rights.

When we began work on this issue in 2016, it was defending against a bad hypothetical. Today, with the national rhetoric surrounding voting and elections increasingly venomous, it is easy to imagine amendments written, funded, and promulgated by the toxic and well-funded politicians and D.C. strategists determined to erode public trust and participation in our elections.

We have no doubt that much of the grassroots support for an Article V convention is driven by genuine, well-intentioned concerns about the national debt or perceived government overreach. But those intentions don’t stand a chance against the political and financial forces waiting to capitalize on this opportunity. The well-meaning objectives of grassroots supporters will be ignored entirely or accommodated, co-opted, and exploited to make anti-voting efforts even more powerful.

Our concerns about a COSAction call for a convention were validated by the organization’s simulated convention, in which legislators from all 50 states gathered in Colonial Williamsburg in 2016 to debate and advance mock-proposals to get a sense of how a convention would work and the kinds of proposals it might advance. The simulated convention, hailed as “a complete success” by COSAction, advanced the following proposals:

Raising the debt ceiling will require a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress;

Limit Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce;

Term limits on both houses of Congress;

Give the states the power to rescind federal laws and regulations with three-fifths ratification;

Eliminate all taxes on income, gifts, and estates and require a three-fifths majority in both houses to enact any federal taxes; and

Allow Congress to repeal any federal regulation unless a majority of both houses vote to affirm or adopt the regulation.

From a voting rights perspective, Nos. 4 and 6 are particularly troubling. Giving three-fifths of states the power to rescind federal law, including the aforementioned legislation providing the bulk of our election rules and protections, is a bad, dangerous policy. This could allow national protections to be rescinded by less than one-fourth of the population.

For example, if the 30 least populous states and the District of Columbia all ratified the repeal of the Voting Rights Act, those states would represent a population of 79,538,370 or just 24 percent of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, the states representing the remaining 248,492,951, or 76 percent of the population, would be overruled. We cannot allow federal protections for voting rights to be dictated by 24 percent of the population.

No. 6 – allowing Congress to repeal any federal legislation unless a majority of both houses affirm it – is equally unacceptable. This would make federal protections of voting rights especially vulnerable to the political whims of Congress. A slight majority in one chamber by one party should not jeopardize baseline federal protections.

This is a real threat.

Supporters of an Article V convention tout the high ratification threshold – three-fourths of states – as protection against any highly controversial proposals becoming law. This argument relies on either misinformed or blatantly deceitful assertions that the state’s voters will have a direct impact on a state’s decision to ratify.

Constitutional amendments are almost always ratified by an up-or-down vote of state Legislatures. Each state can create its own rules for ratification as long as they don’t interfere with the Article V process. Most states, including Nebraska, treat ratification of amendments to the U.S. Constitution just like any other resolution or bill, requiring a simple majority vote to affirm. The only other method is a state convention, which can also exclude the majority of voters from the process.

It is dangerously naive to assume that a process as high-stakes as an Article V convention can be safeguarded by the moral fortitude of 13 state Legislatures or state conventions. Our most representative measure of “the will of the people” – a statewide vote – is completely absent from the amendment-ratification process.

There are many reasons beyond endangering basic voting rights why Nebraskans should oppose LR14. But the danger to voting rights via such an untested process is urgent.

Eliminating or rendering useless the Department of Justice, voters’ last line of defense against state infringement of voting rights, is entirely within the “limited” scope of a COSAction-style call for a convention. Such a proposal could emerge under a number of guises, from “reducing spending” to “limiting government overreach,” and could be advanced from the convention and ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures despite opposition from a majority of voters. The simulated convention supports these concerns, and the current political climate around voting makes this a singularly bad time to expose our election protections.

We should not – and must not – add Nebraska’s name to this dangerous and untested idea.

Westin Miller is Director of Public Policy at Civic Nebraska.

https://civicnebraska.org/20211215-devastating-dangerous-untested-no-article-v-convention/

Information CSG-COS & COSA

2:11 PM (2 hours ago)

to me

STOP-TAKE US OFF THIS EMAIL LIST NOW!

Yours in Liberty,

Convention of States Action Team

conventionofstates.com

Donate

If you are not already involved and you would like to become one of our millions of supporters, please join our volunteer army by signing up at ConventionOfStates.com/volunteer! Besides contacting legislators, we have a number of volunteer opportunities listed on the volunteer page. Also, please check out our Be A Leader webpage if you would be interested in applying for one of our leadership positions.

conventionofstates.com

Google

Your Google Account has been disabled

0lizzysec1@gmail.com

The Google Account 0lizzysec1@gmail.com is now disabled. It looks like it was being used in a way that violated Google's policies.

We understand your account is important to you. So if you think this was a mistake, sign in to the disabled account and submit a request to restore it. You'll need to do this soon, because disabled accounts are eventually deleted, along with your emails, contacts, photos, and other data stored with Google. Learn more about Google policies.

You can also see security activity at

https://myaccount.google.com/notifications

Convention of States Action

The Prayer Warriors Team consists of people of many faith traditions who recognize that the battle for freedom in America is more than political or even cultural. There is a spiritual war being waged for hearts and minds of the American People and for the very destiny of the nation.

https://conventionofstates.com/prayer-warriors-team

Pope Addresses Congress

Blesses crowd outside the Capitol

Pope Francis addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday, Sept. 24.

The Pope, who became the first pontiff to address Congress, thanked lawmakers for their warm welcome.

"I am most grateful for your invitation to address this joint session of Congress," he said.

"Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility. Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation. You are the face of its people, their representatives."

Before the speech, House Speaker John Boehner met with Pope Francis in a room outside the House chamber, where the Pope complimented the Speaker's green tie, saying it was the "color of hope."

After his remarks, Pope Francis stopped in Statuary Hall, where he blessed a statue of Junipero Serra, an 18th century Spanish missionary, whom the Pope had canonized the previous evening. Serra is the first saint to be canonized on U.S. soil and his statue is one of two California has in the Capitol collection.

Pope Francis, Speaker Boehner, Vice President Joe Biden, and other Congressional leaders then stepped out onto the Speaker's balcony, where the Pope blessed a crowd who cheered "papa, papa."

Speaking in Spanish, he greeted the crowd with "Buenos Dias."

"I am so grateful for your presence," he told the crowd via a translator.

http://www.speaker.gov/pope [ Link changed in new Congress, content kept for historical reasons. ] Speaker Boehner's behind-the-scenes photos and video on his website of the Pope's visit.

https://www.house.gov/feature-stories/2015-9-24-pope-addresses-congress

[666] 6. 1On the side of the superior general, what will aid toward this union of hearts are the qualities of his person [G], to be treated in Part IX [723-25], with which he will perform his office, 2which is to be for all the members a head from which the influence required for the end sought by the Society ought to descend to them all. 3It is thus from the general as head that all authority of the provincials should flow, from the provincials that of the local superiors, and from the local superiors that of the individual members. 4And from this same head, or at least by his commission and approval, should likewise come the appointing of missions. And the same should apply to communicating the graces of the Society. 5For the more the subjects are dependent upon their superiors, the better will the love, obedience, and union among them be preserved."

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Head:

1. See Illness, mental

2. The superior general, head of the Society [666]"

page 463

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Revelation 13:18

New International Version

18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[a] That number is 666.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Revelation 13:18 Or is humanity’s number

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013%3A18&version=NIV

BULL of Pope Boniface VIII promulgated November 18, 1302

For, according to the Blessed Dionysius, it is a law of the divinity that the lowest things reach the highest place by intermediaries. Then, according to the order of the universe, all things are not led back to order equally and immediately, but the lowest by the intermediary, and the inferior by the superior. Hence we must recognize the more clearly that spiritual power surpasses in dignity and in nobility any temporal power whatever, as spiritual things surpass the temporal. This we see very clearly also by the payment, benediction, and consecration of the tithes, but the acceptance of power itself and by the government even of things. For with truth as our witness, it belongs to spiritual power to establish the terrestrial power and to pass judgement if it has not been good. Thus is accomplished the prophecy of Jeremias concerning the Church and the ecclesiastical power: ‘Behold to-day I have placed you over nations, and over kingdoms‘ and the rest. Therefore, if the terrestrial power err, it will be judged by the spiritual power; but if a minor spiritual power err, it will be judged by a superior spiritual power; but if the highest power of all err, it can be judged only by God, and not by man, according to the testimony of the Apostle: ‘The spiritual man judgeth of all things and he himself is judged by no man‘ [1 Cor 2:15]. This authority, however, (though it has been given to man and is exercised by man), is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him (Peter) and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven‘ etc., [Mt 16:19]. Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God [Rom 13:2], unless he invent like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us heretical, since according to the testimony of Moses, it is not in the beginnings but in the beginning that God created heaven and earth [Gen 1:1]. Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."

https://www.papalencyclicals.net/bon08/b8unam.htm

[529] C. 1The entire purport of this fourth vow of obedience to the pope was and is with regard to missions; 2and this is how the bulls should be understood where they speak of this obedience in all that the sovereign pontiff may command and wherever he may send one, and so on."

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus: a Roman work of the entire Society, 304 §2

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

What does it mean that false prophets are wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15)?

Answer

Jesus alerts us to “watch out for false prophets” in Matthew 7:15. He compares these false prophets to wolves in sheep’s clothing. Jesus also tells us how to identify these false prophets: we will recognize them by their fruit (Matthew 7:20).

Throughout the Bible, people are warned about false prophets (Ezekiel 13, Matthew 24:23–27, 2 Peter 3:3). False prophets claim to speak for God, but they speak falsehood. To gain a hearing, they come to people “in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matthew 7:15). No matter how innocent and harmless these teachers appear on the outside, they have the nature of wolves—they are intent on destroying faith, causing spiritual carnage in the church, and enriching themselves. They “secretly introduce destructive heresies,” “bring the way of truth into disrepute,” and “exploit you with fabricated stories” (2 Peter 2:1–3).

The false teachers wear “sheep’s clothing” so they can mingle with the sheep without arousing suspicion. They usually are not up front about what they believe; rather, they mix in some truth with their falsehood and carefully choose their words to sound orthodox. In reality, they “follow their own ungodly desires” (Jude 1:17–18), and “they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed” (2 Peter 2:14).

By contrast, a true prophet teaches God’s Word fully (Deuteronomy 18:20). Wolves in sheep’s clothing twist God’s Word to deceive or influence the audience for their own purposes. Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and his ministers masquerade as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:15).

The best way to guard against wolves in sheep’s clothing is to heed the warnings of Scripture and know the truth. A believer who “correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) and carefully studies the Bible will be able to identify false prophets. Christians must judge all teaching against what Scripture says. Believers will also be able to identify false prophets by their fruit—their words, actions, and lifestyles. Jesus said, “A tree is recognized by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33; cf. Matthew 7:20). Peter described false teachers as having “depraved conduct” and who “carouse” as “slaves of depravity” (2 Peter 2:2, 13, 19). If a teacher in the church does not live according to God’s Word, he is one of those wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Here are three specific questions to identify false prophets, or wolves in sheep’s clothing:

1) What does the teacher say about Jesus? In John 10:30, Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” The Jews understood Jesus’ statement as a claim to be God and wanted to stone him (John 10:33). Anyone who denies Jesus as Lord (1 John 4:1–3) is a false prophet.

2) Does the teacher preach the biblical gospel? Anyone who teaches an incomplete or unbiblical gospel is to be eternally condemned (Galatians 1:9). Any gospel apart from what the Bible tells us (1 Corinthians 15:1–4) is not the true good news.

3) Does this teacher exhibit godly character qualities? Jesus said to beware of teachers whose moral behavior does not match what the Bible says. He says we will know wolves in sheep’s clothing by their fruits (Matthew 7:15–20)

It doesn’t matter how large a church a preacher has, how many books he has sold, or how many people applaud him. If he “teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness,” then he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing (1 Timothy 6:3).

https://www.gotquestions.org/wolves-in-sheeps-clothing.html

THE ART OF EVIL:

"THE MORAL THEOLOGY" OF THE JESUITS

impostors under a veil of piety Wolves in Sheep's clothing troublers of the publick peace, men of Diabolical industry, Serpents, and very Cacodoemons... of whom all should be aware and fly from them." James I. King of England.

E LEAVE BEHIND, FOR A MOMENT, the bloody tracks of Jesuits, and come now to consider their "Moral Theology"-the rules of engagement of the 'Society of Jesus."

One ex-pupil of the Jesuits, who had studied under them for eight years, said of his former masters, "The objective of the disciples of Loyola.... Is to acquire the highest offices of state for the men they have poisoned with their maxims." What are these maxims?

If any man desires to understand what kind of being a Jesuit really is let him read their Moral Theology. The Moral Theology of the Jesuits can be summed up in the three great rules by which they direct all their affairs and great enterprises: (1) that the end justifies the means-in other words, by any means necessary; (2) that it is safe to do any action if it be probably right, although it may be more probably wrong, and (3) that if one knows how to direct the intention aright (i.c. by using good intentions), there is no deed whatever its moral character, which one may not do.

This latter motto gives the Jesuits license of acting so immense, that to add thereto were an altogether superfluous and indeed an impossible task. In short, it is an omnibus clause (covering all eventualities), containing the whole sum of the Jesuit theory: the theory "of everything." Better known as casuistry and probabilism.

These three rules, particularly the last, we find in all their great books, and they make the Jesuits extremely dexterous logician: for they are able to rationalize any position by using loose logic, creating their own

Jean Lacouture, Jesuits: A Multibiography, op. cit., p. 340. Note: Jean Lacouture is himself an ancien élève of the Jesuits-i.e. a former pupil.

CODEWORD BARBELON

morality, as the circumstances demands-when it is deemed necessary or advantageous to the Jesuits or their Order.

All of their rules, all of their great doctrines, can be summed up in this one phrase, "It is lawful if the end is lawful or if the intention is good." This includes all that decent men call crime; and of course, the lawfulness of the end is always at the Jesuit's discretion. Thus the Jesu may always justify his actions: for it is their gospel that "the end justifies the means, and that the intention is what matters, not the deed itself." With this "two-edged sword," says Wylie, "the Jesuit cannot fail to cut his way wherever he has a mind to go-right on through all the codes of earthly jurisprudence, or even the statute book of Heaven." You still don't get it?

To enable the reader to form an independent judgment on this question, it is necessary to say a few words on the subject of casuistry and the Jesuit doctrine of probabilism. Let us suppose a Jesuit considers that some good and noble end is to be served by disposing (killing) of a rival, say, for example, if he thinks he could make better use of his land; or use the income from the rival's rich estate to give more alms to the poor. May the Jesuit dispose of this rival? Yes, yes, of course-the end justifies the means! Here is an ingenious doctrine, which enables a Jesuit to justify any crime he desires to commit.

If I may use another hypothetical example to illustrate: let us say a Jesuit reads that God commands us to "Love our neighbours," the Jesuit, in order to justify some end which he desires to achieve, could use the second of their rules-probabilism-to say, "If we are commanded to love our neighbours then that probably means we can

hate our enemics."

What is my authority for these damning allegations? You want authority? Here is the authority for you: and my, what an authority it is! It is Jesuit Fathers Sirmond and Pintereau! Here is what Father Sirmond says in his book The Defence of Virtue about the great commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God: "we are not s much commanded to love him li.e. God] as not to hate him"! And

2 James Aitken Wylie, The Jesuits: Their Moral Maxims and Plots (London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1881), p. 23.

3 Blaise Pascal's great classic, The Lettres Provinciales: Moral Teachings of the Jesuit, Tome 11, (A Cologne: Chen Pierre de la Vallee, 1657), Letter XIV Apology; disguised address given as: Amsterdam, Lodewijk & Daniel Elzevier), in 2 parts, written under a pseudonym, Louis de Montalte; republished Edin., 1847; Stuttgart, 1980. Transl. by Thomas

The Art of Evil: "The Moral Theology of the Jesuite

Jesuit Father Pintereau assures us that: "deliverance from the grie yoke of loving God is a privilege of the new covenant." Thus, the Jets make void even the first and greatest commandment in the lax of God. Furnished with such rules the Jesuit can hold simulancody opinions, knowing them to be either completely contradictory or that they cancel each other out entirely.

To understand more clearly their Moral Theology and what it really means in the Jesuit lexiconography, suffer me to quote a few morsels from the most respected Jesuit authors-their best scholars and their ablest professors on the subject. To ensure correctness, I will now let these individuals speak for themselves whenever it is practicable, and consistent with brevity.

ON DEALING WITH HERETICS-A COMPLEAT GENTLEMAN

The Jesuit is a Compleat Gentleman, according to one of their books by that name. Not only is he possessed of great classical learning in Latin, the law, philosophy, chivalry and the arts; not only is he affable of manners, of remarkable adaptability and unsurpassed in the knowledge of human nature; he is also furnished with a set of subtle principles, or "Moral Theology." taught in every Jesuit seminary and college.

We start with Defensio Fidei Catholicce et Apostolicae ("Defence of the Catholic and Apostolic Faith") written at the request of the Pope himself by the beloved and celebrated Spanish Jesuit Suarez, which appeared in Lisbon in the year 1613-14; and which had the distinction of being burnt both by the Parliament of Paris and of England. Suarez. who is credited as the 'father,' or originator of Jesuit Moral Theology, wrote: "It is an article of faith that the Pope has the right to depose heretical and rebellious kings, and a monarch dethroned by the Pope may be killed." "From this time forth," says Griesinger, "no Jesuit professor whatever wrote on moral theology, or any similar subject.

M'Crie. To keep these facts in these Lettres from the public, in 1660, Louis XIV banned the book and ordered it shredded and burnt. 4 Jean Meslier, Superstition In All Ages (1732), Chap. Clxxxiv, tilted- "Can We, Or Should We, Love Or Not Love God?" Transl. from the French by Anna Knoop. Meslier was a Roman Catholic priest, with thirty years of pastoral service. Rep.: University Press of the Pacific, July 2004.

CODEWORD BARBELON

without adopting the teaching of Suarez." This book the Sons of Loyola

declared to be the most God-fearing ever written!

And if we were minded to think that these doctrines were n intended to be carried out in real life, then we have the example of the Jesuit John Guignard. In December, 1594, Jesuit father John Guignard, a native of Chartres had his papers seized and examined: there was found in his own handwriting many propositions and provocatives of sedition. This Jesuit wrote:

That a great mistake had been made at St. Bartholomew Massacre of over 30 thousand Protestants] in not having opened the lue. the basilic vein, that is, in not having murdered Henry IV. And the Prince of Conde, who were of the blood royal... Jand] That the Beamnese, in spite of his pretended conversion [to Catholicism), ought to consider himself only too lucky if it were considered sufficient to shave his head and shut him up in a convent to do penance there fi.e. rather than suffer the same fate that the other unfortunate Protestants had).

When he was caught, Father Guignard was not only made to retract his seditious writings, he was afterwards hanged in the Place de Greve on the January 7, 1595. Note reader, that Jesuit Father Guignard's personal letters showed that the Jesuits had been behind the St. Bartholomew's massacre-a wave of Catholic violence against the French Calvinist Protestants, on 24 August 1572 (the feast of Bartholomew the Apostle). The slaughter lasted for several months: the number of fatalities being estimated to have been anywhere from thirty thousand to possibly one-hundred thousand Huguenots, throughout France. As one historian said, "it was the worst of the century's religious Catholic] massacres." This is the true hallmark of "the faithful."

This same Father Guignard wrote "that if the crown could not be taken from him the king of France] without war, then war must be made on him; and that if this failed... he ought to be got rid of at any price and in any way whatsoever."

The illustrious Jesuit scholar Father Hermann Buchenbaum, entirely book, the Medulla Theologia Moralis Buchenbaum declares agreed with the writings of Suarez and Father Guignard. In his own

5. Andrew Steinmetz, Vol II, p. 446 History of the Jesuits (London: G.P. Putnam's & sons, 1883), pp. 508-511; and Theodor Griesinger, The Jesuits, op. cit., p 510; C. Edwardson, Facts of Faith (1942), p. 284. H.G. Koenigsberger, George L.Mosse, G.Q. Bowler, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 2nd Edn. (Longman, 1989).

The Art of Evil: "The Moral Theology" of the Jesuits

"permission to murder all offenders of mankind and the true faith, as well as enemies of the Society of Jesus, is distinctly laid down," "This Moral Theology of Father Buchenbaum," writes Griesinger, "is held by all the Society li.e. the Jesuits] as an unsurpassed and unsurpassable pattern-book, and was on that account introduced, with the approval of their General, into all their colleges." Yes, all of their colleges and universities around the world. "A man who is excommunicated by the Pope may be killed anywhere," insists Buchenbaum, unapologetically. So frightful were its contents that the Medulla was publicly burned, at Toulouse, France, in 1757.

The celebrated Jesuit Cardinal Robert Francis Romulus Bellarmine a 'samt' and a Doctor of his Church) explains still more plainly this doctrine. In his work De summa Pontificis Autoritate he first writes: "It is not the affair of ecclesiastics, or even of monks, to kill kings through artifice. But, when they have warned the same in a fatherly way. excluded them from communion... land] when it becomes necessary... tol deprive monarchs of their royal authority and dignity... it belongs to other than ecclesiastics to proceed to execution."

This is the very same Cardinal Bellarmine (Bellarmin). Rector of the Roman College and Examiner of Bishops, who, but for his own refusal of the papal tiara, would have been elected Pope after the death of Leo XI. This Bellarmine, on the demand of the Jesuits, was declared, by Pope Pius XI to be a patron saint' in 1930. This Bellarmine is still today the most respected Jesuit teacher in the history of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, the most illustrious Jesuit training school in the world. And it is this Bellarmine whose works were published at Ingolstadt (in several editions).

Pope Gregory VII was also an advocate of the 'Bellarmian' principle. Former Catholic priest Charles Chiniquy wrote in Fifty Years in the Church of Rome that Pope Gregory 'infallibly' decreed: "the killing of au heretic was no murder." Even 'Saint Thomas Aquinas held to this

De summa Pontificis Autoritate, tom. iv. p. 180; T. Griesinger, The Jesuits: A Complete History of Their Open and Secret Proceedings... op

Cit., pp. 509, 510,

Hermann Buchenbaum (Busembaum?), Theologia Moralis (Colonie: Societatis Jesu, 1757, Edn. Mus. Brit.); in the Paris 1729, see p. 584. De summa Pontificis Autoritate, tom. iv. p. 180; T. Griesinger, op. cit.,

p. 510.

10 Jure Canonico, cited in Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy (Charles PT. Chiniquy), Fifty Years in the Church of Rome: The Conversion of a

CODEWORD BARBELON

loctrine. Almost three hundred years prior to the Jesuits Aquinas taugh hat it was proper to execute 'heretics." According to Aquinas, a "heretic' is a person who adheres to any teaching that the pope

condemns" "-a dogma still to be found in Catholic canon law!

PROBABILISM-A MOST AUDACIOUS DEVICE

What is Probabilism? Put at its simplest, the doctrine says "if one can find a single doctor of the Church who approve an opinion or action, becomes, by that single approval, probably right." With this secondary device, like the first ("the end justifies the means") a Jesuit cannot fail to cut his way wherever he has a mind to go.

The renowned Jesuit doctor Filiutius (a.k.a. Fillincius), a man greatly admired in Rome, states: "It is allowable to follow the less probable opinion, even though it be the less safe one.... A learned person may give contrary advice to different persons according to contrary probable opinions, whilst he still preserves discretion and prudence."

1900

Insofar as it is at all possible to make sense of this exercise in gross obfuscation, Filiutius is saying that one may give contrary advice to different persons, if one has contrary views on what is probably truc That is to say, it is acceptable to claim as true what one knows may well be false, depending to whom advice is to be given. The learned Dr. Wylie gives us an example. Suppose, says Wylie, a man has a rival. "who is the owner of a fine estate. It brings him a large yearly revenue. He would like much to be the possessor of his neighbour's well- cultivated lands. May he appropriate them by force." Well no, you say not if he is a Christian, for according to the law of God, we may not commit murder; nor according to the law of the land. "But stay," sa Wylie, "the man is a disciple of the school of Loyola." Does that alter the circumstances? Does this grant the license required? Yes, for the second great maxim of the Jesuits says, as long as one can find at least

Priest (London: P. L. Depository, 1886, 1884), p. 694; and by F. H. Revell Co., unedited 1886 edition. Quote taken from the abridged version by published by Chick Publications Ontario, California (1985), p. 314. 11 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, il. Q. xi, Article III, 5,6. 12 Aquinas, Summa Theologica, op.cit., Article II, Reply 3.

13 Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters, Letter V (A Cologne: Ches Pierre de la Vallee, 1657), pp. 70; See also, p. 127 of Letter V (of the 1898 edn.); Wylie, History of Protestantis, Vol. II, Bk. 15, Chap. 4.

The Art of Evil: "The Moral Theology" of the Jesuits

one doctor of the Church (and there are some thirty-three of them) who says the act contemplated is right, then it is probably right. So, avers Wylic, "On this Jesuit principle the business of disposing of your nval may be safely taken in hand."

Or, let us suppose your rival seeks to defame your character? Can you prevent such defamation by eliminating him before he is able to expose your shame? Well, we have three Jesuit doctors who say yes! And remember, we only need one doctor of the Church to be probably night. The Jesuit scholars Amicus, Airult and Bannez confirms this with a complacency that staggers the senses: "where an individual brings an impeachment before a prince or judge against another, if that other cannot by any means avert the injury to his character, on account of the scandal, because he has no other means of defending his character or good name, he may kill him secretly, if the caluminator (slanderer) should first be warned that he should desist from his slander." And Jesuit Fathers Tanner and Emanuel Sa advises us that "it is lawful to kill both the false witnesses and the judge himself, if he has had any collusion with them." Reader, I am speechless! Aren't you?

ON THE VIRTUES OF LYING UNDER OATH

The Jesuits have perfected the art of swearing falsely without sin, using what they call the rule of equivocation (or "mental reservation"). Jesuit Father Stoz says in his Of the Tribunal of the Penitent: "When a crime is secret, the culpability of the crime may be denied: it being understood publicly li.e. when crime is secret or not public, one can deny it." As Pascal said this doctrine is most useful when the Jesuits are in difficult circumstances, "for by it they can say one thing and mean another. Apply this ethical teaching to any case of crime or outrage, and how impossible to get witnesses to convict a criminal."

1 Wylie, The Jesuits: Their Moral Maxims and Plots, op. cit., pp. 27, 28. Wybe, History of the Jesuits, op. cit., quoting from, Cursus Theol., tom. 5, disp. 36, sec. 5, n. 118; Cens., pp. 319, 320-Collation faite d la requete de l'Universite de Paris, 1643; Paris, 1720.

(London: Chatto & Windus, 1898, a New Edition), p. 153. Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters, Letter VII, April 25, 1656, 17 Stoz, Of the Tribunal of the Penitent (Bamberg, 1756). 18 Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters, Letter VIII, Paris, May 28, 1656; The Original Secession Magazine (Edinburgh: J. Maclaren, 1882), p. 453.

CODEWORD BARBELON

Now read what the learned Jesuit Gury says on that very score: Amand promised, under oath, to Marinus, that he would never reveal a theft committed by the latter.... But... Amand was called as a witness before the judge, and revealed the secret, after interrogation He ought not to have revealed the theft.... but he ought to have answered: 'I do not know anything, understanding in his mind to mean), nothing that I am obligated to reveal,' by using a mental restriction for reservation].....So Amand has committed a grave sin against religion and justice, by revealing publicly, before the court, a confided secret."

So, it is a grave sin against religion and justice to tell the truth under ath? The teachings of Jesuit Doctor Sanchez on the virtues of ommitting perjury is still more plain: "A man may swear that he hath ot done a thing though he really have, by understanding [saying] within imself that he did it not on such and such a day, or before he was porn; or by reflecting on some other circumstance of the like nature; and yet the words he shall make use of shall not have a sense implying ny such thing; and this is a thing of great convenience on many occasions, and is always justifiable when it is necessary or advantageous n anything that concerns a man's health, honor, or estate."

Filiutius confirms the above testimony. In his Moral Questions, he asks, "Is it wrong to use equivocation in swearing li.e. under oath]?" He nswers, "it is not in itself a sin to use equivocation in swearing. This is he common doctrine after Suarez." "Is it perjury or sin to equivocale in a just cause?" He answers again. "It is not perjury. As, for example, in the case of a man who has outwardly made a promise without the intention of promising, if he is asked whether he has promised, he may deny it, meaning that he has not promised with a binding promise; and thus he may swear. As Wylie says, "What an admirable lesson in the

19 Professor Jean Pierre Gury, S.J., Doctrine of the Jesuits, American edition (Boston: F. Bradbury and Company, 1880), pp. 168, 169. translated from the Latin by Paul Bert, member of the Chamber of Deputies, professor at the faculty of sciences (Paris) see also, the edition by Rail Splitter Press, Milan, 1924.

20 Wylie, The History of Protestantism, Vol. II, Bk. 15, Chap. 5, p. 400. 21 Filiutius, Moral Quest. de Christianis Officits et Casibus Consciention ("Moral Questions) tom. 2, tr. 25 & tr. 29, c. 3, n. 52 (Lugduni, 1633).

The Art of Evil: "The Moral Theology" of the Jesuits

art of speaking the truth to one's self, and lying and swearing falsely to

everybody else!"

The learned Sanchez rejoins the controversy: "If anyone, by himself or before others, whether under examination or by his own accord... for any purpose, should swear that he has not done something which he has really done, having in mind something else which he has not done .c. by thinking of something other than of what he is being questioned), or some way of doing it other than the way he employed... he does not lie nor perjure himself." And "Saint Liguori, the Catholic doctor, says:

A prisoner, when lawfully questioned, can deny a crime even with an oath (without grievous sin), if as the result of his confession he is threatened with punishment of death, or imprisonment, or perpetual exile, or the loss of all his property, or the galleys, and similar punishments, by secretly understanding that he has not committed any crime of such a degree that he is bound to confess... It is permissible to swear to anything which is false by adding in an undertone a true condition, if that low utterance can in any way be perceived by the other party, though its sense is not understood." fi.c. "by inserting in your oath certain words spoken to yourself but not audible to others, which entirely changes the sense of the oath."

According to the confession of one pope, "A lie told for the purpose of misleading the enemies of the Church, is not held or regarded as a he by Almighty God." This is a doctrine maintained by more than twenty grave Jesuit doctors (Gaspar de Hurtado, Père Dicastillus, Hurtado Mendoza, Sanchez, Escobar, etc.) that, "there is no mortal sin in calumniating falsely to save one's reputation." In addition to these. Jesuit Fathers Emmanuel Sa, and Escobar advise us: "Promises are not

22 Wylie, History of Protestantism, Vol. II, Bk. 15, Chap. 5.

Thomas Sanchez, S.J., Opus Morale in Praecepta Decalogi sive Summa III, vi, n. 15. (Tr. from The Catholic Encyclopedia, XIII (1912), p. 428. Cassium Conscientiae, 2 tom. (Venice: Apud Junctas/Paris, 1615, 1922), See, too, Thomas Sanchez, in his book The Holy Sacrament of

Matrimony, 1602.

Alphonsus de Liguori, (in the Latin text). Tractatus de Secundo Decologi Praecepto; an English translation of the above statements are found in Father Charles P.T. Chiniquy's, Fifty Years in the Church of Home, op. cit. (1985 edn.), Chap. XIII; and in Protestant Magazine, April,

1913, p. 163. [Textual emphasis supplied).

25 Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters, Letter XIV, op. cit., p. 296.

CODEWORD BARBELON

binding if, in making them, you have no intention of keeping them." The learning of Cardinal Bellarmine morcover has been added to the list of these Jesuit equivocators-Bellarmine the Jesuit Doctor agrees

wholeheartedly with the 'virtues' of lying under oath.

Thus, the Jesuits have confessed to lying and perjury, and have shown a surprising disregard for strict veracity and for telling the truth. We s to these Jesuits, Habemus optimum testem, confitentem reum-the confession of an accused is the best evidence against him." As Cardinal Fleury said: "It is a species of falsehood to tell the truth by halves." Bu it is common fare among the Jesuits to favour lies of expediency, if such advances their cause, as though their position were exceptional, and they stood above all men, with the right to use falsehood as a means to achieve what they regard as a good end. They claim that even when confirmed with an oath, equivocation is no sin, because, they say, "we do not deceive our neighbour, but allow him to deceive himself.' Thus, how can we trust a Jesuit who sits as a judge, a magistrate, a Justice of the Supreme Court or a juror; or who acts as an advisor to presidents and statesmen? As James Horner remarked, "I fear the Jesuits, with all their plausibilities," even when they bring gifts.

OTHER MORAL QUESTIONS: MARRIAGE, SEX ETC.

So abominable are the Jesuits' teachings on the vows of marriage, that one writer said he would decline to offer any "comment on the teaching of the Jesuits under the head of the seventh commandment" but would only say: "The doctrines of the society which relate to chastity are screened from exposure by the very enormity of their turpitude. We pass them as we would the open grave, whose putrid breath kills all who inhale it.... The teaching of the Jesuits-everywhere deadly-is here las relate to chastity a poison that consumes flesh, and bones, and soul." Indeed, so obscene are their writings on the subject of the intercourse between the sexes that were I to dare publish some of them I would be prosecuted for outraging public decency. Here is one permissible example. The Jesuit Sanchez writes, "visum est culpam esse lethalem

26 Heckethorn, Vol. 1, The Secret Societies of all ages, op. cit., p. 291

Blaise Pascal, Provincial Letters (1898), op. cit., p. 186.

27 James M. Horner, Popery Stripped of Its Garb: Or the Work of Iniquity Checked in Its Progress (New York: J. S. Taylor, 1836), p. 44. 28 J. A. Wylie, History of Protestantism, Vol. II, op. cit., Bk. 15, Chap. 5.

The Art of Evil: "The Moral Theology" of the Jesuits

sodomiac inchoatae," that is to say "that inchoate (ie, incomplete] sodomy is a mortal sin." Thus the Jesuits teach that one must complete an act of sodomy once started. Sanchez further adds, that it is no great "sin if the husband, intending to engage in lawful coitus with his wife, to arouse himself thereto, or procure to himself greater pleasure, sodomizes her," the act he says is "only a venial sin.... las all erotically delightful coupling is permitted to spouses," Venial means a light sin

Here we see that the Papal Church gives its penitents liberty to sin in this world, and to buy their way out of purgatory' and thereby escape from the punishment of having sinned. What a delusive, dastardly deception-a vain attempt to cheat the Devil of the souls of wilful and impenitent sinners.

More eminent, and even more highly regarded, was Saint Alfonson M. de Liguori, a Jesuit, who wrote an abundance of books. This 'Saint Alfonson de Liguori, a doctor of the Roman Catholic Church, was sad to be a gentleman. He wrote his magnum opus Theologia Moralis-a work of considerable talent, but little principle. But when the Italian translation of the book was published by the Societa Editrice Lombarda in 1900, it was instantly sequestered by the Government, under the Penal Code, as "an offence against public morality"!"

This work of Liguori is still the standard textbook used in Catholic seminaries, for the training of priests, taught to ask intimate and searching questions of their penitents in the Confessional. Read for yourself what Saint' Liguori's advice is to the Catholic priests: i preti pi- it virtuosi sono costretti a cadervi almeno una volta al mese ("the most virtuous priests are constrained to fall at least once a month")." Constrained to fall into sexual impropriety at least once a month? You may think this is immoral, obscene, even vulgar-and you are right. To what depths will the Jesuit not sink? What other crapulent innovations in religion can we expect from these Jesuit doctors and priests?

Father Charles Chiniquy, a Roman Catholic priest for fifty years. wrote: "I declare to the world that very few-yes, very few-priests escape

29 Thomas Sanchez, Disputation of Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, Vol. III (Genoa, 1594/ Antverpiae apud Martinum Nutium, 1626), p. 302, col. 2; p. 217, cols. 1-2; p. 303, col. 1) in three Volumes.

30 thid, "Disputation" 17, paragraphs 4 and 5.

Alexander Robertson, The Roman Catholic Church in Italy, (London: Morgan and Scott, 1903, 1905), p. 155,

32 Ibid, p. 160,

CODEWORD BARBELON

Trom falling into the pit of the most horrible depravity the world has ever known through the confession of females." But what does the professed "Vicar of Christ" have to say about all of this? On August 28, 1879. Pope Leo XIII praised the Moral Theology of Liguori by recommending his works thus: "Although the books of the Holy Doctor, Alfonso Maria de Liguori, our beloved son, have already run throughout the whole world [to] the greatest enrichment of Christianity, it is desirable that these works and others shall be still further circulated and put into the hands of all.... To the greatest enrichment of

Christianity?

1934

The same moral degeneracy which inspired Liguori to declare that a virtuous priest is constrained to fall into sexual impropriety at least once a month, led the Jesuit Gury to take pains to extend further the moral precepts of Liguori, and to perfect them in two large volumes (see, his Compendium Theologiae Moralis). At the time of Gury's death the Compendium had reached the seventeenth edition! It would be beyond all reasonable limits of decency and endurance were I to quote even one-tenth of the "moral maxims" of these Jesuits. We could cite their doctrines ad nauseum. As the prophet Moses said: "Their wine [doctrine] is the poison of dragons, and the cruel gall of asps."

Yet, the Jesuits insist that their principii (principles) are entirely consistent with the Gospel of Christ. But who can read of these vicious villainics taught by the Jesuits of Rome without horror and astonishment? Professor Sarpi called them: "sottilissimi maestri in mal fare," "peste pubblica," and "peste del mondo"-meaning, "fine masters in the art of evil ways," "an evil sent to trouble the people," and "pests of the world." That translation will do well enough! But, alas, we ask if these "pests" are so, what shall we say of their masters? No doubt Christ would say to all of them: Serve nequam, "Thou wicked servant," reum confitentem, "thou art accused and hath confessed." Ex ore tuo te judico, "Of thine own mouth (doctrines) I judge thee, of thine own mouth (thy Equivocations) I condemn thee."

33 Charles P.T. Chiniquy, The Priest, The Woman And The Confessional,

(Montreal: F. E. Grafton, Bookseller, 1875), p. 107.

34 Alexander Robertson, The Roman Catholic Church in Italy, op. cit., pp. 157, 160; see too, Moral Philosophy of Saint Alfonso Maria de Liguori, Vol. v. of the (2 ed. Ratisbon; approved by Pope Leo XIII., 1879-81), pp- 298, 767.

35 Fra Paolo Sarpi, Lettere di Fra Paolo Sarpi (Letters), Vol. I (Firenze. 1863), pp. 142, 183, 245; Vol. 2, pp. 82, 109.

The Art of Evil: "The Moral Theology" of the Jesuits

In the Jesuits-with few exceptions-we are dealing with men whose weapons are not prayers, fasting and tears but perfidies, poisons, deadly maxims, leaden bullets and gunpowder plots. By their doctrines, all that decent men call crimes-robberies, calumnies, murders, blasphemies, seductions, treasons, etc.-flourish. In the words of one writer, "the Jesuit principle is the negation of all principle, and their moral code the subversion of all moral law." Yet, on the exterior they are unsurpassed in knowledge, allable of manners, and able to be all things to all men. But these Jesuits, as Spanish history shows, are men in borrowed robes: taking empty vows of chastity and poverty; dignified without, but seething cauldrons within; full of every sort of 'concupiscence' and equivocation. Their erudition and 'sophistication' being no more than confetti, tinsel and faisandé, adorning the deadly pit into which many innocent and well-meaning victims fall. Jesuitism is the Devil's franchise! One witty commentator summed up the Jesuit qualities thus: "unscrupulous duplicity... vicious doctrines of probabilism, mental reservation, amphibologia fi.c. double sensed words], justification of the means by the end, and many other maxims subversive of honesty and morality. And former priest Paolo Sarpi says, that when the Jesuits. *seek entrance into any place, they do not hesitate to make what lever promises may be demanded of them, possessing as they do the art of escape by lying with equivocations and mental reservations." Their cloak is religion-the fig-leaf for their vicious and shameful doctrines. For despite their pretensions, these men do not "watch and pray, but watch to prey." With a labyrinth of conceits and equivocations, and the most ghostly counsel, they are joined together at the tails like Samson's foxes and sent into the field to wreak devastation in the midst of their enemies. Even Pope Gregory IX had to admit. The Jesuit foxes have various faces, but they all hang together by their tails."

And as we shall shortly prove, the Society of Jesus (so-called) is a most virulent, noxious, and 'irreligious' organization: a monument of iniquity; the home of every unclean thing; the hold of every vicious and hateful doctrine. Now this is much, I know, but it is not all. The Moral Theology of the Jesuits is a base alloy of the most pernicious doctrines; a poisonous tree bearing the fruits of 'good' and of evil; a Pandora's box, from which every form of evil springs, and which "Jesuit

36 Constantine Labarum, Pageantry, Popery, Pillage (London: Charles J.

Thynne, 1911), p. 219.

Pra Paolo Sarpi (Professor), Letters, Vol. 2, op. cit., p. 147.

CODEWORD BARBELÓN

strongbox" it is impossible to close shut, when once the fatal box is

opened.

It was James I. King of England, who said of the baleful Jesuit brotherhood: "impostors under a veil of piety... Wolves in Sheep's clothing... troublers of the publick [sic] peace, men of Diabolical industry, Serpents, and very Cacodoemons levil spirits!... of whom all should be aware and fly from them." The aphorism of Thomas Carlyle is still true, "The virtues of Jesuitism are seasoned with a fatal condiment." Nay, more, Jesuitism itself is like the deadly Aqua Tolana which nohing can ameliorate! As Tertullian said of the second-century heretic, Marcion, "more audacious than an Amazon... more deceitful than the Ister, more craggy than Caucasus.... the true Prometheus." such are the virtues of the men called Jesuits-the reverend casuists.

These charges, be it observed, are not my views; they come from the lips and pens of those who know the Jesuits well-including many of their former pupils and ex-brethren. Is that not good enough proof for you? What more do you want? Well, there is more-the audacity of which would surprise even Popeye and make Ali Baba blush.

38 James 1, The Gun Powder Plot- The King's Book (London: Tho. Newcomb, and H. Hills, 1679), Preface. Written by King James I. id its the British Government's Official Account of the Gunpowder Plot and its

Discovery, given at Whitehall, December 12, 1678.

30 Thomas Carlyle, The Collected Works of Thomas Carlyle, Vol. XIII (London: Chapman and Hall, 1864), p. 260.

40 Tertullian, The Five Books of Quintus Sept. Flor. Tertullianus Against Marcion, trans, by Peter Holmes from the Anti-Nicene Christian Library (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1868), p. 3.

"The Art Of Evil: "The Moral Theology" Of The Jesuits"

Codeword Barbelon book One

by P.D. Stuart

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid0YJdyH6qjYFkSzD7i2RW6xqk48aWV1PeWKTqzWbKqVvzxF5JpxQvhMHsmWfNE3w8Wl

Commentary: Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism

By Beau Bown | For The Tribune

| Sep. 12, 2018, 6:00 a.m.

| Updated: 7:08 a.m.

George Washington said we must “guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” Criticizing NFL players for exercising their right to peacefully protest, attacking the judicial branch of government and implementing policies that go against the core values of a nation built by immigrants are not signs of patriotism. All of these are signs of faux patriotism because they go against the principles that this country was built upon.

Let’s start by thinking about faux patriotism in terms of football. Football is the quintessential American sport and is an important aspect of social identity for many Americans. President Trump has called the NFL players who kneel during the national anthem “disrespectful.” He even went so far as to call for a boycott on Sept. 24, 2017, when he tweeted, “If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend!”

Let’s set the record straight: Trump’s criticism of NFL players for exercising their First Amendment rights is not patriotic. NFL players are taking a knee to protest excessive police brutality against the black community, which they absolutely have a right to do. Freedom of speech is one of the many rights that men and women in the United States have fought and died to protect. The current administration’s attitude towards freedom of speech with NFL players who protest during the national anthem shows that they do not understand, nor do they respect, our rights to freedom of speech and expression.

Faux patriots point out that it is disrespectful to the flag to kneel during the national anthem, however, as former player Eric Reid pointed out, "We chose to kneel because it’s a respectful gesture ... our posture was like a flag flown at half-mast to mark a tragedy.” The protest led by these NFL players is a peaceful protest to show respect to the black community, not to disrespect the American flag.

Trump has not only attacked our country’s core principles, such as freedom of speech, but also our country’s institutions. Specifically, when Trump tweets about America’s “so-called judges,” he is undermining the very systems that are put in place to check his very own power and to improve and ensure the lives and safety of Americans.

Our nation was built on a system of checks and balances. The judicial branch of the United States government serves to prevent the abuse of executive or legislative power and, as such, the power of the courts was one of the most important concepts put forth by our founding fathers. Attacking the judicial branch means threatening our system of checks and balances.

Another proud tradition that is currently under attack is immigration. Immigrants have played a central role in contributing to many of the achievements and institutions that make this country great. However, the Trump administration has been opposing virtually all forms of immigration to the U.S., using discriminatory policies such as the travel ban and child detention centers at the border. This is directly contrary to the principles laid out by our founding fathers, which explicitly state that our country was founded on the belief that all men are created equal and we are all endowed with inalienable rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Additionally, many provisions in the Constitution use “people,” or, “person” instead of “citizen,” so the Constitution legally applies to all immigrants. Infringing on those rights violates the rule of law in accordance with one of our country’s most important legal documents. These rights applied to the immigrants who founded this country, and still apply to new immigrants today.

Last month we celebrated our nation’s 242nd birthday, and the rights and freedoms that it stands for. Recently, there has been an attack on our nation’s core values and institutions in the name of patriotism. However, I would consider this faux patriotism. True patriots should recognize our rights to freedom of speech, the importance of our government’s system of checks and balances, our national identity as a nation of immigrants, and our promise that all people are endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2018/09/12/commentary-guard-against/

I've spent years fighting the D.C. Swamp, and as a candidate for Governor of Florida, I know the states need to use Article V to take the power away from D.C. The permanent bureaucracy will never voluntarily give up an ounce of its power. Florida was the second of twelve states that have already passed the Resolution, and I encourage all other state legislatures to support the Convention of States Project and pass the resolution today.

Gov. Ron DeSantis

Migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis can sue charter flight company

Updated 5:16 PM PST, April 1, 2024

BOSTON (AP) — Lawyers representing migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard nearly two years ago by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis can sue the charter flight company that transported them to the island off the Massachusetts coast, according to a ruling Monday by a federal judge in Boston.

The 50 Venezuelans were sent to Martha’s Vineyard from San Antonio, Texas, and had been promised work and housing opportunities.

Under Monday’s ruling, the migrants can proceed with their suit against Florida-based Vertol Systems Co., which had agreed to fly them to the island for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An email to the company seeking comment after the afternoon release of the ruling was not immediately returned.

Also named in the suit is DeSantis, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for president before dropping out in January.

The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts said in its ruling that it does not have jurisdiction over DeSantis in this case.

The court, however, found that the facts of the case “taken together, support an inference that Vertol and the other Defendants specifically targeted Plaintiffs because they were Latinx immigrants.”

The DeSantis administration noted that the judges’ order dismissed the state defendants.

“As we’ve always stated, the flights were conducted lawfully and authorized by the Florida Legislature,” Julia Friedland, the deputy press secretary for DeSantis, said in a statement. “We look forward to Florida’s next illegal immigrant relocation flight, and we are glad to bring national attention to the crisis at the southern border.”

The court also said that “Unlike ICE agents legitimately enforcing the country’s immigration laws ... the Court sees no legitimate purpose for rounding up highly vulnerable individuals on false pretenses and publicly injecting them into a divisive national debate.”

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, called the 77-page ruling a major victory in the Martha’s Vineyard case.

He said in a statement that the ruling sends the message that private companies can be held accountable for helping rogue state actors violate the rights of vulnerable immigrants through what it characterized as illegal and fraudulent schemes.

https://apnews.com/article/migrants-planes-marthas-vineyard-florida-desantis-c593c1aa83155d7b935dad67b2716c0b

What shall I say of our temporal coadjutors? Are they not also portrayed in the Constitutions men of good conscience, peaceful, cooperative,

lovers of perfection and given to devotion, happy with Martha's part?"

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Martha is a feminine given name (Latin from Ancient Greek Μάρθα (Mártha), from Aramaic מרתא (Mārtā) "the mistress" or "the lady", from מרה "mistress", feminine of מרי "master"). Variants in different languages: Maata (Maori)"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_(given_name)

Both Mario and Maria (as well as their equivalents in other Romance languages) are derived from the Latin male name Marius. But, Maria was also the Latinised form of the name of Jesus' mother, which would have been, in Aramaic, מרים, or, in the Latin alphabet, Maryam or Miriam."

https://englishlanguagethoughts.com/2020/12/13/mario/#:~:text=Both%20Mario%20and%20Maria%20(as,Latin%20alphabet%2C%20Maryam%20or%20Miriam.

Marius is a male given name, a Roman family name, and a modern surname.

The name Marius was used by members of the Roman gens Maria. It is thought to be derived from either[citation needed] the Roman war god Mars or from the Latin root mas or maris meaning "male". It may also derive from the Latin word mare meaning "sea", the plural of which is maria.

In Christian times, it was syncretized as a masculine form of the unrelated feminine given name Maria, from the Hebrew Miriam, Aramaic variant Mariam, and used alongside it.

Today, the name Marius is a common given name in Romania, Norway, and Lithuania. The name is also used in the Philippines, France, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa.

The Greek name Marios (Μάριος), the Italian and Spanish name Mario, the Polish name Mariusz, and the Portuguese name Mário are all derived from Marius."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marius_(name)

Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio[b] on 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since the 8th century papacy of Syrian pope Gregory III."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis

The new Domus Sanctae Marthae is located south of St. Peter's Basilica in the area occupied by the old hospice of St. Martha. It is made up of TWO adjacent five-story buildings with a modern chapel, a large dining room, a library, a conference hall, 106 mini-suites, 22 single rooms, and a large state apartment.

The Domus Sanctae Marthae (Latin for Saint Martha's House; Italian: Casa Santa Marta) is a building adjacent to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Completed in 1996, during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, it is named after Martha of Bethany, who was a sibling to Mary and Lazarus of Bethany. The building functions as a guest house for clergy having business with the Holy See, and as the temporary residence of members of the College of Cardinals while participating in a papal conclave to elect a new pope.

Pope Francis has lived in a suite in the building since his election in March 2013, declining to use the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domus_Sanctae_Marthae

The Centennial Olympic Park bombing was a domestic terrorist pipe bombing attack on Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, July 27, 1996, during the Summer Olympics. The blast directly killed one person and injured 111 others; another person later died of a heart attack. It was the first of four bombings committed by Eric Rudolph in a terrorism campaign against the U.S. government which he accused of championing "the ideals of global socialism" and "abortion on demand".[1][2] Security guard Richard Jewell discovered the bomb before detonation, notified Georgia Bureau of Investigation officers, and began clearing spectators out of the park along with other security guards.

After the bombing, Jewell was initially investigated as a suspect by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and news media aggressively focused on him as the presumed culprit when he was actually innocent. In October 1996, the FBI declared Jewell was no longer a person of interest. Following three more bombings in 1997 and 1998, Rudolph was identified by the FBI as the suspect. In 2003, Rudolph was finally captured and arrested, and in 2005 he agreed to plead guilty to avoid a potential death sentence. Rudolph was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for his crimes.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Olympic_Park_bombing

Olympic (adj.)

c. 1600, "of or in reference to Mount Olympos," the mountain in Thessaly, believed to be the home of the greater Greek gods. Also in reference to to Olympia (khōra), a town or district in Elis in ancient Greece with a famous temple of Zeus, where athletic contests in honor of Olympian Zeus were held 776 B.C.E. and every four years thereafter. It is from Greek Olympikos, from Olympos, which in both places is of unknown origin (see Olympus). The modern Olympic games are a revival, begun in 1896. Olympics, short for Olympic games, is from 1630s.

also from c. 1600

Entries linking to Olympic

Olympus

high mountain in Thessaly, in Greek mythology the abode of the twelve greater gods, from Greek Olympos, a name of unknown origin. The name was given to several mountains and mountain ranges in Greece and the Near East. Beekes speculates that it originally meant "mountain" and is "without a doubt Pre-Greek."

Olympiad (n.)

"period of four years" (between Olympic games), late 14c., from Old French olimpiade "period of four years," from Latin Olympiadem, from Greek olympiados, genitive of Olympias "Olympian, of or pertaining to Olympus," an epithet of the muses, as a noun, "the Olympic games; a victor at Olympia; the space of four years between the celebrations of the Olympic games"(see Olympic). Used by ancient Greeks as a unit in computing time. Revived in modern usage with revival of the games, 1896. Related: Olympiadic.

To turn an Olympiad into a year B.C, multiply by 4, add the year of the Olympiad less 1, and subtract from 780. [Century Dictionary]

Olympian (adj.)

"of or belonging to Olympus," the mountain in Thessaly fabled to be the seat of the gods, c. 1600; see Olympus + -ian. The noun meaning "one of the twelve greater god of ancient Greece" is attested from 1843, from Late Latin Olympianus, from Greek Olympios "pertaining to Olympus." The sense of "one who competes in the (modern) Olympic Games" is from 1976 (see Olympic).

https://www.etymonline.com/word/Olympic

Sphinx (n.)

monster of Greek mythology having a lion's (winged) body and a woman's head; she waylaid travelers around Thebes and devoured those who could not answer her questions; Oedipus solved the riddle and the Sphinx killed herself. In English from early 15c., from Latin Sphinx, from Greek Sphinx, said to mean literally "the strangler" and be a back-formation from sphingein "to squeeze, bind" (see sphincter).

There also was an Egyptian form (usually male and wingless); in reference to this the word is attested in English from 1570s; the specific reference to the colossal stone statue near the pyramids at Giza is attested from 1610s. The transferred sense of "person or thing of mysterious nature" is from c. 1600.

The proper classical plural would be sphinges. As adjectives in English, sphingal, sphingian, sphingine, sphinxian, sphinxine, and sphinx-like have been tried.

Related entries & more

spinnaker (n.)

"large triangular sail," 1866, either a derivative of spin in the sense of "go rapidly" or based on a corrupt pronunciation of Sphinx, which was the name of the first yacht known to carry this type of racing sail.

Related entries & more

andro-

word-forming element meaning "man, male, masculine," from Greek andro-, combining form of anēr (genitive andros) "a man, a male" (as opposed to a woman, a youth, or a god), from PIE root *ner- (2) "man," also "vigorous, vital, strong."

Equivalent to Latin vir (see virile). Sometimes in later use it was equivalent to Greek anthrōpos, Latin homo "a person, a human being," and in compounds it often retain this genderless sense (e.g. androcephalous "having a human head," said of monsters including the Sphinx, which in Greece was female).

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=sphynx

Harry Truman and His 16 Cats

Harry Truman was the friendly, 84-year-old owner of the rustic Mount St. Helens Lodge on the old south shore of Spirit Lake. The lodge was his home, and his 16 cats were like family. He had spent a lifetime on the slopes of Mount St. Helens and considered the mountain a friend. Thus, when the volcano awoke early in 1980, Harry and his cats would not leave. As spring progressed, volcanic activity grew terrifyingly violent and the Governor of the State of Washington established restricted entry zones around the mountain with the intent of evacuating everyone except a few scientists and security personnel. Even then, Harry and his cats would not leave. On Saturday afternoon, May 17, 1980, state officials tried for what turned out to be the last time to get Harry to leave. He would not go. Early the next morning, Mount St. Helens exploded. The whole north side of the mountain collapsed in a giant avalanche of rock and debris that roared across the lodge at speeds near 100 mph, obliterating the lodge and burying the site to a depth of about 50 meters. No trace was ever found of Harry or his cats. Photo: Copyrighted image by Roger Werth

http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes/vtruman.html

National Catholic Reporter

The spirituality of cats — yes, cats

by Maureen Fiedler

May 3, 2018

I've never mentioned it in this space before, but I have three cats — feline friends with whom I share the house. And cats can (believe it or not) have a distinctive spirituality.

First, there is my long-time buddy, Einstein, a classic orange cat, now 18-plus years old. He lost a rear leg to cancer some years ago, but hobbles around just fine on three legs. He is friendly and never demanding. He curls up on my bed every day and lays near my head at night. His "spirituality" is quiet and contemplative and cuddling.

Then, there is Cleopatra (Cleo for short), a black and white smart aleck who arrived in the arms of a neighbor some years ago. I could not resist and took her in. Just one thing, however: she was pregnant and did not tell me! A few weeks later, she gave birth to three kittens in my bed in the middle of the night.

I kept one of the kittens, who has grown into a sizeable long-haired black and white cat named Napoleon.

Now, if you are someone who has cats — no matter how many — you may wonder how in the world these creatures can have a "spirituality." And even I will admit that there are times when I question it.

But cats can be reflective. Even as I sit here writing this, Cleo is sitting on a chair in front of a screen door watching nature. (OK, she's probably thinking about the birds, but she is also relishing the fresh air and sunshine, perhaps at some deep level, sensing that a higher Being is behind it all.) Einstein is back on my bed sleeping — as he does most of the day. He is always a "sweetheart," showing a kindness that would be called "virtue" in a human being.

And Napoleon is wandering around, looking for pets or snacks (either will do). He would make a great "mendicant" friar, since he is well practiced in the art of "begging."

Seriously though, cats (and dogs as well) sometimes do display a sense of spirituality — not often perhaps, and certainly not all the time. But they seem to sense that they were created by a higher Being and in their best moments, they know they should be kind to each other.

And sometimes, when one of them is sitting on my lap, I sense that he or she might be communicating with that higher Being and encouraging me to join in the feline prayer.

[Maureen Fiedler is a Sister of Loretto and has been involved in interfaith activities for more than three decades.]

https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/ncr-today/spirituality-cats-yes-cats

St Helen's Basilica (Maltese: Il-Bażilika ta' Sant' Elena) is an 18th-century Roman Catholic church situated in Birkirkara, Malta.[2] It is built on the baroque design by Salvu Borg and built by Mason Domenico Cachia.[3][1] The design was inspired by, and is similar to, the Mdina Cathedral by Lorenzo Gafa.[4] It was built to replace the role of the main old Parish Church of St. Mary (still parish church of the area) that was damaged in the 1856 earthquake.[5] It eventually became the Collegiate Church and then a Minor Basilica.[6] The current parish archpriest is Mons Louis Suban.

History

Birkirkara is one of the 12 Maltese parishes which existed in 1436 (close to the site of Ta' Ċieda Tower in modern San Ġwann[7][8]), the year of the Rollo drawn up by the bishop of Malta, Senatore Mello.

The Ta' Xennu Church was built in 1575 and rebuilt in 1692 on the site of the present church that was dedicated to the Assumption. The 17th-century church was demolished to make way for the present St. Helen Church when the parish church was at the time the old Santa Maria Church. A small chapel dedicated to the assumption was included and built within the design of the St. Helen Church as a replacement of the 17th-century church. The St. Helen's Church became parish church soon after its completion and then a basilica.[5] The large garden space of Vincenzo Borg's townhouse was donated by Brared to build the church's front, stairs and main square.[9] When Vincenzo died he was buried in the church's crypt.[10] The church was designed by Maltese Architect Salvu Borg (1662-1733).[11]

The parish was dedicated to St Helen, and this was also the titular saint of the church built in the 18th century and still existing today.[12] The church is also famous for housing Malta's largest church bell, installed around 1932.[13][14][15]

On 5 December 1630 Pope Urban VIII established the collegiate chapter of church through the papal bull Sacri Apostolatus Ministerio.[16][17] The present church was built in the centre of the Birkirkara[18] on a much larger scale then the previous 3 churches that stood on the site. The cornerstone of the present church was laid on 27 April 1727 by Bishop Gaspare Gori-Mancini.[19] A medal of St Helen and the names of the then Pope and bishop were also buried with the cornerstone. The church was blessed by Bishop Paul Alphéran de Bussan on 19 April 1771. The church was then consecrated by Bishop Vincenzo Labini on 20 October 1782. The church was elevated to the dignity of a Minor Basilica on 18 January 1950 by Pope Pius XII.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Helen%27s_Basilica

Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St Helens

When differences broke out between Great Britain and Spain respecting the right of British subjects to trade at Nootka Sound and to carry on the southern whale fishery, he was despatched to Madrid (May 1791) as ambassador extraordinary, and under his care all disputes were settled in the succeeding October, for which services he was raised to the Irish peerage with the title of Baron St. Helens.[1][6]

In the following year, Commander George Vancouver and the officers of HMS Discovery made the Europeans' first recorded sighting of Mount St. Helens on 19 May 1792, while surveying the northern Pacific Ocean coast. Vancouver named the mountain after the newly created Baron on 20 October 1792,[3] as it came into view when the Discovery passed into the mouth of the Columbia River.

A treaty of alliance between Great Britain and Spain was concluded by him in 1793, but as the climate of that country did not agree with his health he returned home early in 1794. Very shortly after his landing in England, St. Helens was appointed to the ambassadorship at the Hague (25 March 1794), where he remained until the French conquered the country, when the danger of his situation caused much anxiety to his friends.

A year or two later a great misfortune happened to him. On 16 July 1797 his house, containing everything he possessed, was burnt to the ground, and he himself narrowly escaped a premature death. He has lost, 'wrote Lord Minto, "every scrap of paper he ever had. Conceive how inconsolable that loss must be to one who has lived his life. All his books, many fine pictures, prints and drawings in great abundance, are all gone."[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleyne_FitzHerbert,_1st_Baron_St_Helens

Mount St. Helens (known as Lawetlat'la to the local Cowlitz people, and Loowit or Louwala-Clough to the Klickitat) is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington,[1] in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It lies 52 miles (83 km) northeast of Portland, Oregon,[2] and 98 miles (158 km) south of Seattle.[3] Mount St. Helens takes its English name from that of the British diplomat Alleyne Fitzherbert, 1st Baron St Helens, a friend of explorer George Vancouver who surveyed the area in the late 18th century.[1] The volcano is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The Mount St. Helens major eruption of May 18, 1980, remains the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history.[4] Fifty-seven people were killed; 200 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways, and 185 miles (298 km) of highway were destroyed.[5] A massive debris avalanche, triggered by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, caused a lateral eruption[6] that reduced the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9,677 to 8,363 ft (2,950 to 2,549 m), leaving a 1 mile (1.6 km) wide horseshoe-shaped crater.[7] The debris avalanche was 0.6 cubic miles (2.5 km3) in volume.[8] The 1980 eruption disrupted terrestrial ecosystems near the volcano. By contrast, aquatic ecosystems in the area greatly benefited from the amounts of ash, allowing life to multiply rapidly. Six years after the eruption, most lakes in the area had returned to their normal state.[9]

After its 1980 eruption, the volcano experienced continuous volcanic activity until 2008. Geologists predict that future eruptions will be more destructive, as the configuration of the lava domes requires more pressure to erupt.[10] However, Mount St. Helens is a popular hiking spot and it is climbed year-round. In 1982, the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument was established by President Ronald Reagan and the U.S. Congress.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Helens

Ultramontanism, (from Medieval Latin ultramontanus, “beyond the mountains”), in Roman Catholicism, a strong emphasis on papal authority and on centralization of the church. The word identified those northern European members of the church who regularly looked southward beyond the Alps (that is, to the popes of Rome) for guidance.

During the period of struggle within the church over the extent of papal prerogatives—beginning especially in the 15th century with the conciliar movement and continuing in the following centuries with the growth of strong nationalism and theological liberalism—the Ultramontanists were opposed by those, such as the Gallicans, who wished to restrict papal power. The Ultramontane Party triumphed in 1870 at the first Vatican Council when the dogma of papal infallibility was defined as a matter of Roman Catholic belief.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ultramontanism

Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus II; Italian: Giovanni Paolo II; Polish: Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛv vɔjˈtɨwa];[b] 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his death in 2005.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II

As May 18 dawned, Mount St. Helens's activity did not show any change from the pattern of the preceding month. The rates of bulge movement and sulfur dioxide emission, and ground temperature readings did not reveal any changes indicating a catastrophic eruption. USGS volcanologist David A. Johnston was on duty at an observation post around 6 mi (10 km) north of the volcano: as of 6:00 am, Johnston's measurements did not indicate any unusual activity.[9]

At 8:32 am, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake centered directly below the north slope triggered that part of the volcano to slide,[31] approximately 7–20 seconds after the shock,[9] followed a few seconds later by the main volcanic blast. The landslide, the largest subaerial landslide in recorded history, traveled at 110 to 155 mph (177 to 249 km/h) and moved across Spirit Lake's west arm. Part of it hit a 1,150 ft-high (350 m) ridge about 6 mi (10 km) north.[9] Some of the slide spilled over the ridge, but most of it moved 13 mi (21 km) down the North Fork Toutle River, filling its valley up to 600 feet (180 m) deep with avalanche debris.[31] An area of about 24 sq mi (62 km2) was covered, and the total volume of the deposit was about 0.7 cu mi (2.9 km3).[9]

Scientists were able to reconstruct the motion of the landslide from a series of rapid photographs by Gary Rosenquist, who was camping 11 mi (18 km) away from the blast 46°18′49″N 122°02′12″W.[9] Rosenquist, his party, and his photographs survived because the blast was deflected by local topography 1 mi (1.6 km) short of his location.[32]

Sound of the eruption of Mount St. Helens, as heard from 140 miles away

Duration: 44 seconds.0:44

Amateur recording of a series of booms produced by the eruption, as heard from the town of Newport, Oregon (audio filtered and amplified).

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Most of St. Helens's former north side became a rubble deposit 17 mi (27 km) long, averaging 150 ft (46 m) thick; the slide was thickest at 1 mi (1.6 km) below Spirit Lake and thinnest at its western margin.[9] The landslide temporarily displaced the waters of Spirit Lake to the ridge north of the lake, in a giant wave about 600 ft (180 m) high.[33] This, in turn, created a 295 ft (90 m) avalanche of debris consisting of the returning waters and thousands of uprooted trees and stumps. Some of these remained intact with roots, but most had been sheared off at the stump seconds earlier by the blast of superheated volcanic gas and ash that had immediately followed and overtaken the initial landslide. The debris was transported along with the water as it returned to its basin, raising the surface level of Spirit Lake by about 200 ft (61 m).[9]

Four decades after the eruption, floating log mats persist on Spirit Lake and nearby St. Helens Lake, changing position with the wind. The rest of the trees, especially those that were not completely detached from their roots, were turned upright by their own weight and became waterlogged, sinking into the muddy sediments at the bottom where they are in the process of becoming petrified in the anaerobic and mineral-rich waters. This provides insight into other sites with a similar fossil record.[34]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens

Updated May 18, 2023 Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons

Both the 2022 National Defense Strategy and the House Armed Services Committee’s bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force Report have identified directed energy as a technology that could have a significant impact on U.S. national security in the years to come. As the Department of Defense (DOD) continues to invest in directed-energy (DE) weapons, Congress may consider implications for defense authorizations, appropriations, and oversight. Overview DOD defines DE weapons as those using concentrated electromagnetic energy, rather than kinetic energy, to “incapacitate, damage, disable, or destroy enemy equipment, facilities, and/or personnel.” DE weapons include high-energy lasers (HEL) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons; other DE weapons, such as particle beam weapons, are outside the scope of this In Focus. HELs might be used by ground forces in short-range air defense (SHORAD), counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS), or counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) missions. The weapons might be used to “dazzle” (i.e., temporarily disable) or damage satellites and sensors. This could in turn interfere with intelligence-gathering operations; military cmmunications; and positioning, navigation, and timing systems used for weapons targeting. In addition, HELs could theoretically provide options for boost-phase missile intercept, given their speed-of-light travel time; however, experts disagree on the affordability, technological feasibility, and utility of this application. In general, HELs might offer lower costs per shot and— assuming access to a sufficient power supply—deeper magazines compared with traditional munitions. (Although a number of different types of HELs exist, many of the United States’ current programs are solid state lasers, which are fueled by electrical power. As a result, the cost per shot is equivalent to the cost of the electrical power required to fire the shot.) This could in turn produce a favorable costexchange ratio for the defender, whose marginal costs would be significantly lower than those of the aggressor.

Similarly, HPM weapons could provide a nonkinetic means of disabling adversary electronics and communications systems. These weapons could potentially generate effects over wider areas than HELs, which emit a narrower beam of energy. As a result, some analysts have noted that HPM weapons might provide more effective area defense against missile salvos and swarms of drones. HPM weapons have also been considered for use as nonlethal “heat ray” systems for crowd control. Directed-Energy Weapons Programs A number of countries are investing in directed-energy weapons programs. This In Focus discusses a selection of unclassified DE weapons programs in three leading military powers: the United States, China, and Russia. United States DOD requested approximately $1 billion for unclassified DE programs in FY2024. (For additional information about specific U.S. DE weapons programs, see CRS Report R44175, Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Gun-Launched Guided Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke, and CRS Report R45098, U.S. Army WeaponsRelated Directed Energy (DE) Programs: Background and Potential Issues for Congress, by Andrew Feickert.) DOD does not currently have any DE programs of record. DOD directed energy programs are coordinated by the Principal Director for Directed Energy within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD[R&E]). The Principal Director for Directed Energy is additionally responsible for development and oversight of the Directed Energy Roadmap. According to OUSD(R&E), DOD’s current DE roadmap outlines DOD’s plan to increase power levels of DE weapons from around 150 kilowatts (kW—a unit of power), as is currently feasible, to 300 kW by FY2023, “with goal milestones to achieve 500 kW class with reduced size and weight by FY2025 and to further reduce size and weight and increase power to MW [megawatt] levels by FY2026.” For reference, although there is no consensus regarding the precise power level that would be needed to neutralize different target sets, some analysts believe that lasers of around 100 kW could engage unmanned aircraft systems, small boats, rockets, artillery, and mortars, whereas lasers of around 300 kW could additionally engage cruise missiles flying in certain profiles (i.e., flying across—rather than at—the laser). Lasers of 1 MW could potentially neutralize ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons. In addition to the DE roadmap, OUSD(R&E) manages the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI), which former Principal Director for Directed Energy Dr. Jim Trebes notes is “to demonstrate laser output power scaling while maintaining or improving beam quality and efficiency.” HELSI is intended to strengthen the defense industrial base for potential future directed energy weapons by providing near-term prototyping opportunities for industry partners. Dr. Trebes additionally notes that OUSD(R&E) has completed a DOD-wide Laser Lethality Analysis Process Review to identify future needs for the Department and best practices for DE development and use. According to OUSD(R&E), DOD is also testing a Directed Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons https://crsreports.congress.gov Energy Lethality Database that is to serve as a searchable repository for the department’s DE analyses. China According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China has been developing DE weapons since at least the 1980s and has made steady progress in developing HPM and increasingly powerful HELs. China has reportedly developed a 30-kilowatt roadmobile HEL, LW-30, designed to engage unmanned aircraft systems and precision-guided weapons. Reports indicate that China is also developing an airborne HEL pod. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, China is additionally pursuing DE weapons to disrupt, degrade, or damage satellites and their sensors and possibly already has a limited capability to employ laser systems against satellite sensors. China [has likely fielded] a ground-based laser weapon that can counter low-orbit spacebased sensors ... and by the mid-to-late 2020s, it may field higher power systems that extend the threat to the structures of non-optical satellites. Russia Russia has been conducting DE weapons research since the 1960s, with a particular emphasis on HELs. Russia has reportedly deployed the Peresvet ground-based HEL with several mobile intercontinental ballistic missile units. Although little is publicly known about Peresvet, including its power level, some analysts assert it is to dazzle satellites and provide point defense against unmanned aircraft systems. Russia’s deputy defense minister Alexei Krivoruchko has stated that efforts are underway to increase Peresvet’s power level and to deploy it on military aircraft. Reports suggest that Russia may also be developing HPMs as well as additional HELs capable of performing antisatellite missions. Potential Issues and Questions for Congress Technological Maturity Directed-energy weapons programs continue to face questions about their technological maturity, including the ability to improve beam quality and control to militarily useful levels and the ability to meet size, weight, and power (SWaP) and cooling requirements for integration into current platforms. Some DE systems are small enough to fit on military vehicles, but many require larger and/or fixed platforms that could potentially limit deployment options and operational utility. In what ways, if any, are DOD technology maturation efforts reducing the SWaP and cooling requirements of DE systems? Weapons Characteristics Although HELs may offer a lower cost per shot than traditional weapons such as missiles, they are also subject to a number of limitations. For example, atmospheric conditions (e.g., rain, fog, obscurants) and SWaP and cooling requirements can limit the range and beam quality of HELs, in turn reducing their effectiveness. Traditional weapons, in contrast, are not affected by these factors. How, if at all, might HEL limitations be mitigated by technological developments, concepts of operation, or other methods? What impact might a failure to mitigate these limitations have on future military operations? Mission Utility Given the strengths and weaknesses of DE weapons, DOD is continuing to examine their role within the military. DOD is additionally conducting multiple utility studies to analyze potential concepts of operation for DE weapons and to assess the scenarios in which they might be militarily useful. How might Congress draw upon the conclusions of these analyses as it conducts oversight of DE weapons programs? What is the appropriate balance between DE weapons and traditional munitions within the military’s portfolio of capabilities? Defense Industrial Base Some analysts have expressed concerns that, in the past, DOD did not provide stable funding for DE weapons programs or sufficient opportunities for the DE workforce. According to OUSD(R&E), HELSI is intended to address these concerns by providing industry with assured prototyping opportunities. In what ways, if any, has HELSI strengthened the defense industrial base for DE weapons? What, if any, challenges does the base continue to face and how might they be mitigated?

Intelligence Requirements

Some analysts have questioned whether DOD has sufficient knowledge of adversary DE weapons systems and materials to develop its weapons requirements. DOD is currently attempting to further define its DE collection requirements for the intelligence community (IC) through the Directed Energy Lethality Intelligence initiative. To what extent, if at all, is this initiative improving connectivity between DOD’s DE community and the IC? What collection requirements, if any, remain? Coordination within DOD Pursuant to Section 219 of the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 114-328), OUSD(R&E)’s Principal Director for Directed Energy is tasked with coordinating DE efforts across DOD and with developing DOD’s Directed Energy Roadmap, which is to guide development efforts. To what extent are the military departments and defense agencies adhering to this roadmap? What, if any, additional authorities or structural changes would be required to ensure proper coordination throughout DOD? Related CRS Products CRS Report R46925, Department of Defense Directed Energy Weapons: Background and Issues for Congress, coordinated by Kelley M. Sayler. This report was originally co-authored by John Hoehn. Kelley M. Sayler, Analyst in Advanced Technology and Global Security IF11882 Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF11882 · VERSION 8 · UPDATED Disclaimer This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material"

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11882

It's hard to see how the fishing industry will pick itself up again. Takeshi is moving away from the coast as is his neighbor and fellow fisherman. His wife has refused to return here since the tsunami hit. At the age of 77, he is unlikely to be able to start from scratch. But he picks up any remnants of his fishing gear he can find, just in case. What is left intact barely fills one small basket. His neighbor finds his clock. It has stopped at 3:22pm -- the exact moment his life changed and countless others ended." Misplaced trust: 30-foot tsunami wall didn't save Japanese village by Paul Hancocks

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/31/japan.tsunami.village/index.html

Skull and Bones, The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut."

"There is a secret that binds the two men who would be the next leader of the free world. President George W Bush and Senator John Kerry both spent a portion of their youth laying bare their sex lives in Gothic rituals presided over by a human skull and the skeletal remains of various other animal species in a windowless building known as the Tomb. They also formed an unusual attachment to the number 322, which holds a special resonance for the club's members." Skeletons in the closet

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/may/20/usa.internationaleducationnews

"It is perhaps worth noting, in light of George W.'s controversial episode at Bob Jones University and the specter of anti-Catholicism, that at one point in the proceedings every initiate kisses the slippered toe of the "Pope." At last the initiate is formally dubbed a Knight of Eulogia. Amid more raucous ritual he is cast from the room into the waiting arms of the patriarchs."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/george-w-knight-of-eulogia/304686/

"A major landslide occurred 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Oso, Washington, United States, on March 22, 2014 (3/22/2014), at 10:37 a.m. local time. A portion of an unstable hill collapsed, sending mud and debris to the south across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, engulfing a rural neighborhood, and covering an area of approximately 1 square mile (2.6 km2). Forty-three people were killed and 49 homes and other structures destroyed."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Oso_mudslide

Published: 10 October 1996

Russian documents Set out 'tectonic weapon' research

Carl Levitin

Moscow. The first official details have emerged in Moscow of ambitious research into 'tectonic warfare' carried out by the former Soviet Union and subsequently by the government of Russia, and involving atte mpts to stimulate 'artificial' earthquakes as weapons of destruction. According to documents obtained by the newspaper Moscow News, two research programmes, the first known as ' Mercury ' and the second as ' Volcano', were aimed at creating new earthquake epicentres by using underground nuclear explosions . Geophysicists are aware that impending earthquakes may be triggered by underground nuclear explosions . But Western geophysicists remain sceptical about tectonic warfare and have all but abandoned research after two unsuccessful phases of activity in the 1960s and 1980s, says Roger Clark, a lecturer in geophysics at the University of Leeds. Clark is not at all surprised that th e Russians tried to create earthquakes and control their location electromagnetically, however. "This sort of science is very much part of their heritage. We don't think it is impossible, or wrong , but past experience suggests it is very, very unlikely. "

The programme , which was secretly launched by the Communist rulers of the former Soviet Union in 1987, and has been unofficially known to Western geophysicists for several years, is now believed to have been abandoned. It would certainly contravene the terms of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which Russia signe d at the United Nations in Geneva last month . The Mercury project was launched in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, but came to a halt when the republic became independent. It was superseded by the Volcano project. Three underground nuclear tests are believed to have taken place at sites in Kyrgyzstan.

According to the documents, the Mercury project was launched by a secret decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. The objective was to "develop a methodology for remote operation on an earthquake epicentre by using weak seismic fields and research possibilities of transferring the seismic energy of an explosion ".

The documents say that the Mercury project involved 22 scientific and industrial organizations, including the Geological Institute of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences in Baku. The remit extended to developing the electronic equipment to be installed aboard space satellites that would control the tectonic weapon. The scientists were given three years to complete research, with testing planned for 1990.

During the research phase, Azerbaijani scientists grew increasingly confident and, according to the documents, were sure that " after [a] nuclear explosion, subterranean energy may accumulate at huge distances from the epicentre and reach massive capacity, after which the next directed explosion can release it all ".

Underground testing began at the town of Batken in Kyrgyzstan, and was directed by lkram Ke rimov , of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. The documents say that scientists detonated an underground nuclear charge and tried to control the direction of seismic energy release d using British-built equipment known as 'system 9690 ' .

A report prepared by the Mozhaisky Military Engineering Institute concluded that the test had been a success. But progress slowed considerably following Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union. At about this time , Russia embarked on a more comprehensive tectonic warfare programme known as the Volcano project. The Earth Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) became the project headquarters .

Research was scheduled to be completed in 1992, with underground testing beginning the following year. The final test was carried out at a place code-named S36NZ-0Kh; Moscow News believes the letters 'NZ' refer to Novaya Zemlya, where Soviet nuclear testing began in the 1950s."

https://www.nature.com/articles/383471a0

Extrusive (Volcanic) Rock Classification

Volcanic rocks are classified based on their chemical composition as determined by analytical techniques that identify the proportion of major elements found in them. Unlike for plutonic rocks, it is not possible to classify volcanic rocks based on the minerals found in them.

Some volcanic rocks contain some crystals (phenocrysts) that grew in the magma chamber prior to eruption, but others contain no crystals at all or are volcanic glass (obsidian).

In addition to the mafic (low silica) basalt, and the silicic rhyolite, several subdivisions exist between the two compositional end members.

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/igneous.htm

THE CONCLAVE OR CELESTIAL CITY

Containing an epitome of the twelve degrees of the Philosophic Chamber of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.

The twelve degrees preceding the Rose Croix are as we have shown, associated with the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

From these fixed signs, the Rite passes to the Sun, Moon and the Planets.

From these the Rite looks to the four elements or four components of man, etc., and from these it considers the spirit and matter, or infinite and finite of the Universe and of man.

In the Rose Croix Degree, we have seen the son of masonry and heard the promise of universal peace and joy. Now let us proceed to seek the methods of realization, and learn how to restore the lost Eden and reedify the Celestial City."

Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated

THE COMPLETE RITUAL OF THE

Ancient AND Accepted Scottish Rite,

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED.

Volume 2

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/scotchritemasonr02blan/scotchritemasonr02blan.pdf

2030-2031 APPARITION CHARACTERISTICS

Another general rule for predicting oppositions of Mars is from the following: the planet has an approximate 15.8-year periodic opposition cycle, which consists of three or four Aphelic oppositions and three consecutive Perihelic oppositions. Perihelic oppositions are also called "favorable" because the Earth and Mars come closest to each other on those occasions. We sometimes refer to this as the seven Martian synodic periods. This cycle is repeated every 79 years (± 4 to 5 days) and, if one were to live long enough, one would see this cycle nearly replicated in approximately 284 years. The 2031 Mars apparition is considered Transitional (between Aphelic and Perihelic) because the orbital longitude at opposition will be 68.4° from the aphelion longitude of 70° Ls and 111.6° Ls from perihelion (250° Ls).

NOTE: Ls is the planetocentric longitude of the Sun along the ecliptic of Mars’ sky. 0° Ls is defined as that point where the Sun crosses the Martian celestial equator from south to north, that is the planet’s northern hemisphere vernal equinox. The other Ls values that define the beginnings of Martian northern hemisphere seasons are: summer, 90° Ls; autumn, 180° Ls; and winter, 270° Ls. For Mars’ southern hemisphere these values represent the opposite seasons. Distance (A.U.) - Distance from Earth to Mars in astronomical units, where one (1) A.U. equals 92,955,807.267 miles or 149,597,870.691 km.

Opposition occurs 11 months after conjunction when Mars is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. At that time, the two planets will lie nearly in a straight line with respect to the Sun, or five weeks after retrogression begins. Opposition will occur at 1157 UT on May 04, 2031 (138.4° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 16.7 arcsec. Mars will remain visible for more than twelve months after opposition and then become lost in the glare of the Sun around May 31, 2032 as it approaches the next conjunction (July 11, 2032). The cycle is complete in 780 Earth days.

Closest approach occurs at 0350 UT on May 12, 2031 (142.1° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 16.9 at a distance of 0.5533578 astronomical units (AU) or 51,437,823 miles (82,781,152 km). During closest approach in 2031 the apparent diameter of Mars will be 2.4 arcsec larger than it was at the same period in 2029; however, it will be 17.1 degrees lower in the sky - not quite as good for observing the Red Planet for observers in the northern hemisphere. It should also be noted that closest approach between Earth and Mars is not necessarily coincident with the time of opposition but varies by as much as two weeks.

https://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/2031_MARS.htm

DAY JESUS DIED SET AS APRIL 7, 30 A. D.; Biblical Texts Scholar Says Daniel's Prophecy Pointed Out Exact Time of Death

Share full article

By Arnaldo Cortesi

special To the New York Times.

April 12, 1952

ROME, April 11 -- Jesus Christ died on the fourteenth day of Nisan, according to the Hebrew calendar, and scholars have been disputing for centuries over the exact date on the Gregorian calendar to which the fourteenth of Nisan corresponds. The claim is now made that Daniel's well-known prophecy of the "seventy weeks" [Daniel, IX, 24] points conclusively to the seventh day of April in the year 30 A. D.

https://www.nytimes.com/1952/04/12/archives/day-jesus-died-set-as-april-7-30-a-d-biblical-texts-scholar-says.html

Fourteenth Rule. Although there is much truth in the assertion that no one can save himself without being predestined and without having faith and grace; we must be very cautious in the manner of speaking and communicating with others about all these things.

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YC_luOfFWl0Bm0BWkbANKZGC1kkmdHQf/view?usp=sharing

14We ought to act on the principle that everyone who lives under obedience should let himself be carried and directed by Divine Providence through the agency of the superior 15as if he were a lifeless body, which allows itself to be carried to any place and treated in any way; or an old man s staff, which serves at any place and for any purpose in which the one holding it in his hand wishes to employ it. 16For in this way the obedient man ought joyfully to employ himself in any task in which the superior desires to employ him in aid of the whole body of the religious order; 17and he ought to hold it certain that by so doing he conforms himself with the divine will more than by anything else he could do while following his own will and different judgment.[3]"

page 221

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Other opinions

Ages exactly 2,000 years each

Many astrologers find ages too erratic based on either the vernal point moving through the randomly sized zodiacal constellations or sidereal zodiac and, instead, round all astrological ages to exactly 2000 years each. In this approach the ages are usually neatly aligned so that the Aries age is found from 2000 BC to AD 1, Pisces age AD 1 to AD 2000, the Aquarian Age AD 2000 – AD 4000, and so on.[20] This approach is inconsistent with the precession of the equinoxes. Based on precession of the equinoxes, there is a one-degree shift approximately every 72 years, so a 30-degree movement requires 2160 years to complete.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_age

The Arab Spring (Arabic: الربيع العربي, romanized: ar-rabīʻ al-ʻarabī) or the First Arab Spring (to distinguish from the Second Arab Spring) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation.[1][2] From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya in 2011, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012) or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.[3] A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām! (Arabic: الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام, lit. 'the people want to bring down the regime').[4]

The wave of initial revolutions and protests faded by mid-2012, as many Arab Spring demonstrations were met with violent responses from authorities,[5][6][7] pro-government militias, counterdemonstrators, and militaries. These attacks were answered with violence from protesters in some cases.[8][9][10] Multiple large-scale conflicts followed: the Syrian civil war;[11][12] the rise of ISIL,[13] insurgency in Iraq and the following civil war;[14] the Egyptian Crisis, election and removal from office of Mohamed Morsi, and subsequent unrest and insurgency;[15] the Libyan Crisis; and the Yemeni crisis and subsequent civil war.[16] Regimes that lacked major oil wealth and hereditary succession arrangements were more likely to undergo regime change.[17]

A power struggle continued after the immediate response to the Arab Spring. While leadership changed and regimes were held accountable, power vacuums opened across the Arab world. Ultimately, it resulted in a contentious battle between a consolidation of power by religious elites and the growing support for democracy in many Muslim-majority states.[18] The early hopes that these popular movements would end corruption, increase political participation, and bring about greater economic equity quickly collapsed in the wake of the counter-revolutionary moves by foreign state actors in Yemen,[19] the regional and international military interventions in Bahrain and Yemen, and the destructive civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.[20]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They were created with the aim of "peace and prosperity for people and the planet..."[1][2][3] – while tackling climate change and working to preserve oceans and forests. The SDGs highlight the connections between the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable development. Sustainability is at the center of the SDGs.[4][5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals

Spring 2030 in United States

Spring Starts: Wednesday, Mar 20 6:51 am PDT

https://www.calendardate.com/spring_2030.htm

Easter in 2030

Date: April 21, 2030

Day: Sunday

Elon Musk: “We’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”

Eric Berger – Jan 3, 2025 9:28 AM | 1.1k

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/elon-musk-were-going-straight-to-mars-the-moon-is-a-distraction/

Dates of Moon Phases in 2030 Year

New Moon

Apr. 2, Tue 03:04 PM

https://www.calendar-12.com/moon_phases/2030

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (or simply New Moon) is a 2009 American romantic fantasy film directed by Chris Weitz from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2006 novel New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.[2] The sequel to Twilight (2008), it is the second installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Saga:_New_Moon

Countdown to the Messiah

Daniel 9:24 gives the Hebrew Nation a 483 year countdown to the year that the Messiah would arrive on the scene (column 2 row 3 of our next table). Luke records that Jesus began to be about 30 years old when he was revealed as the Messiah at the Jordan River baptism.

it is forty years before the total Desolation of the Temple and the Nation by the Roman army, the people of the prince that shall come, as foretold by Daniel and Jesus. If any period of time deserves the title, “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” it would be this forty years. And if those days had not been shortened no flesh (Jacob) would have been saved, but for the Elect's sake (those obedient Hebrew's who would spread the gospel) those days of persecution were shortened to prevent the annihilation of even the elect. Many try to apply this verse to the days preceding the return of Messiah but this is not logical because the elect will all be resurrected at that time so those days will not need to be shortened for their sake. Because first century Christians were a sect of the Jews it was necessary for the Elect to survive the desolation of the Hebrew Nation at the end of that century.

The Rapture Will Be Cancelled

by Nicklas Arthur

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hwvsMLXT7Z35KlbSdXw6x5EH0VLHPZsM/view?usp=sharing

Very soon now, it will no longer be a mystery of 'when' these events will take place; they will have become a terrible reality. Where then, will each of us stand on these issues, when the onslaught actually begins? Quickly it will be seen that the New Ager's counterfeit messiah, Lord #Maitreya, is also the same person as the #Pontifex Maximus pope of Rome, who then will take the reins of the New World Order. The deceptions will mesh wonderfully together, as the "World Harmonic Convergence" accomplishes new values for mankind in the cooperation, collaboration and unification on behalf of the "Spirit of the Earth." For those of you who read this book, be patient, it won't be long and you will know that it revealed to you the truth.

Also, it is only a matter of time when Pope John Paul II, old and tired, will succumb to his great age, and his mantle will then go to a more younger and aggressive pope. By him, a work will now be accomplished, known as the "Era of Reseeding" when major population areas will be 'thinned out' and the human population will be resettled. Finally, will come the "Era of the New Harmony" and the "Crystal Kingdom" of the earth will be set up. This is the glorious version of Rome's final victory and total conquest of humanity. But there is one last crowning act that is needed to make this masterpiece of deception complete.

FALSE MESSIAH OCCUPIES JERUSALEM

The counterfeit surpassing all other counterfeits, Rome has now fulfilled its grandest dreams. The entire world lays in shambles at its feet. "Order out of Chaos" ,was its beloved motto.

Now the 'great pretender' , the Pontifex Maximus pope declares himself to be God over all the earth! Not content with just being ruler of all the earth - but "is worshiped; so that he as God sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."

Only a Luciferic mind could think like that.

After usurping the very exalted position of grandeur, magnificence, majesty and sovereignty of God Himself - what other place would he choose to locate his Crystal Kingdom headquarters - other than where the God of creation has placed His own Holy name Jerusalem; where else? Rome has always had its covetous eye set on Jerusalem. The Crusaders were sent there to conquer it, after which, the Knights Templar were named after its temple. And now the Pontifex Maximus pope, dripping in blood of the world's innocents, claims this city as his too; to be the headquarters for ruling his New World Order.

Does all of this sound like some grotesque farcy tale or the terror of some fearsome nightmare? Oh my friend, how I wish that could really be the case; that we could actually wake up and none of this would really be true, and I could be called a liar. What I wouldn't give, if I could make that be so. But for all the sadness and horror it brings, it must be acknowledged that it is the truth. Not because man says so, but because God's Word has declared it. There is only one way to face the onslaught that is just ahead. We must fully trust our life into the hands of God, and then resolve in our minds that we are going to be killed; forgetting entirely the thought that we might be fortunate enough to escape. That is how thoroughly God's people are going to be rooted out. Know for sure in your own mind - they can kill your body ever so dead, but they can never take your life - if it is in Christ Jesus. That belongs to God alone.

Very soon, God's people are going to be confronted with the exact same experience as our Lord and Saviour. To know and look straight into the face of death - and yes, by the very same executioner - Rome. But our Lord loved you, dear reader, and me, and all, that He gave up His own life for ours. We must now respond to that love and be resolved to die also for Him, standing firm for His truth, as He died for us. And Rome can not kill us so dead, that our mighty God can not raise us back up to life. Not the miserable life we know now but incorruptible life for eternity. A quick calculation will tell you, that if one third of the earth's population, or nearly two billion people, are going to be slaughtered, only a minuscule fraction of that amount are fundamentalist Christians . That means a huge amount of people are going to die that are not Christians. Sadly, beyond any comprehension, they will have died for a very lost cause.

From all the horror, misery, and bloodshed, people universally, will become utterly paralyzed from sheer shock.

And to the overwhelming majority of them, sadly, this life is their only world, as they watch it being ripped apart; everywhere, nothing but chaos and devastation. They are terrified. They just do not understand! But there are a people that do understand; as they watch now with solemn awe, events occurring that they had known about and anticipated for many many years. This is what gives to God's people "hope". They know that God does not lie. God has given to His people promises, predictions, and prophecies that have never ever failed. That, dear friend, is wonderful, unselfish, and abiding love! - that builds unswerving trust. And no other promise is so deeply embedded into their hearts, than the one given that

Christ will soon return and redeem His people out of this wretched world. It buoys their spirits, as it assures them precious

'hope'.

Five hundred years before Jesus Christ walked the earth, God revealed to His people that Rome's false messiah, in the very end times, would "plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain." In other words, Jerusalem. (Daniel 11:45) What an incredible God we have! But notice how God describes it. He calls Rome setting up its New World Order headquarters in Jerusalem the "abomination that maketh desolate." In fact, Christ Himself prophesied that Rome would invade Jerusalem soon after His departure from earth, which it did in A.D.70. And this first invasion was to become a "type" for when it would occur again, with vengeance, in the very end time."

CHAPTER 17 "TWO OCCULT POWERS UNITED FOR FINAL WORLD

CONTROL"

The Grand Design Exposed

by John Daniel

http://www.granddesignexposed.com/contents.html

Today in History: October 1, Las Vegas music festival shooting

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published 9:00 PM PST, September 30, 2024

Today in history:

On Oct. 1, 2017, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, a gunman opened fire from a room at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel in Las Vegas on a crowd of 22,000 country music fans at a concert below, causing 60 deaths and more than 850 injuries.

https://apnews.com/today-in-history/october-1

Mount St. Helens Erupts After 18 Years

By Tomas Alex Tizon

Oct. 1, 2004 1:36 PM PT

Times Staff Writer

SEATTLE — A giant plume of steam shot up into the sky above Mt. St. Helens this afternoon in what has been the most dramatic sign yet of the recent increase in volcanic activity on the mountain.

Scientists said the column of steam and some ash rose about 15,000 feet high and was drifting southwest in the direction of Vancouver, Wash. and Portland. However, the steam cloud posed little threat to residents and was expected to result at most in a light dusting of ash, officials said.

Television cameras captured images of the white and gray plume that erupted about noon and rose into clear blue skies. Most of the cloud had dissipated within an hour.

Earlier in the day, scientists said that they were examining images of cracks on the glacier inside the volcano crater to determine if it was connected to existing activity.

Officials on Thursday said there was a 70% chance that Mt. St. Helens, which erupted in a huge and deadly explosion 24 years ago, could experience a small to moderate eruption.

https://www.latimes.com/la-100104volcano_lat-story.html

October 1, 2004 Explosion at Mount St. Helens

USGS

May 6, 2013

http://gallery.usgs.gov/videos/682

[no spoken words]

On October 1, 2004, an explosion in the crater of Mount St. Helens sent ash and water vapor several thousand feet into the air. It was the dramatic beginning of an eruption that continued for the next 3+ years. The explosion fractured Crater Glacier and hurled rocks for at least one-half mile across the western half of the glacier and the 1980-1986 lava dome. USGS scientists on a helicopter flight captured the explosion on video. The view from the air is to the west.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1NDvy-PrzA

Luxor Las Vegas

The hotel includes 4,407 rooms.[49] It originally opened with 2,526 rooms, all of them located in the pyramid.[50] The rooms line the pyramid's interior walls, and walkways outside the rooms overlook the atrium.[51] The interior of the pyramid uses inclined elevators, traveling at a 39-degree angle, to bring guests to their rooms.[11][7] The structure features eight elevators, with two at each corner of the pyramid.[6] The two additional hotel towers added in 1996 are located just north of the pyramid.[21][23] The ziggurat-shaped towers,[23] designed by Klai Juba Architects,[52] are 22 stories and added nearly 2,000 additional rooms.[21][23] The exterior of the hotel structures, including the pyramid, is made up of black glass panels.[48]

The Luxor includes a 65,214 sq ft (6,058.6 m2) casino.[53] Upon opening, it featured 2,500 slot machines, many of them Egyptian-themed. The casino also included 82 table games, a poker room, and race and sports books.[11] A high-end gaming pit was added in the 1996–97 renovation.[21] Giza Galleria, a small retail mall with 18 tenants, was also opened.[23][54][26] In addition, the Mandalay Place mall is located on a skybridge that connects Mandalay Bay with the Luxor.[55]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor_Las_Vegas

Obsidian (/əbˈsɪdi.ən, ɒb-/ əb-SID-ee-ən ob-)[5] is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.[6]

Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminum, sodium, and potassium. It is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows. These flows have a high content of silica, giving them a high viscosity. The high viscosity inhibits diffusion of atoms through the lava, which inhibits the first step (nucleation) in the formation of mineral crystals. Together with rapid cooling, this results in a natural glass forming from the lava.[7]

Obsidian is hard, brittle, and amorphous; it therefore fractures with sharp edges. In the past, it was used to manufacture cutting and piercing tools, and it has been used experimentally as surgical scalpel blades.[8]

Origin and properties

The Natural History by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder includes a few sentences about a volcanic glass called obsidian (lapis obsidianus), discovered in Ethiopia by Obsidius, a Roman explorer.[9][10][11][12]

Obsidian is formed from quickly cooled lava, which is the parent material.[13][14][15] Extrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools rapidly at the edges of a felsic lava flow or volcanic dome, or when lava cools during sudden contact with water or air. Intrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools along the edges of a dike.[16][17]

Tektites were once thought by many to be obsidian produced by lunar volcanic eruptions,[18] though few scientists now adhere to this hypothesis.[19]

Obsidian is mineral-like, but not a true mineral because, as a glass, it is not crystalline; in addition, its composition is too variable to be classified as a mineral. It is sometimes classified as a mineraloid.[20] Though obsidian is usually dark in color, similar to mafic rocks such as basalt, the composition of obsidian is extremely felsic. Obsidian consists mainly of SiO2 (silicon dioxide), usually 70% by weight or more; the remainder consists of variable amounts of other oxides, mostly oxides of aluminum, iron, potassium, sodium and calcium.[21][22] Crystalline rocks with a similar composition include granite and rhyolite. Because obsidian is metastable at the Earth's surface (over time the glass devitrifies, becoming fine-grained mineral crystals), obsidian older than Miocene in age is rare. Exceptionally old obsidians include a Cretaceous welded tuff and a partially devitrified Ordovician perlite.[23] This transformation of obsidian is accelerated by the presence of water. Although newly formed obsidian has a low water content, typically less than 1% water by weight,[24] it becomes progressively hydrated when exposed to groundwater, forming perlite.

Pure obsidian is usually dark in appearance, though the color varies depending on the impurities present. Iron and other transition elements may give the obsidian a dark brown to black color. Most black obsidians contain nanoinclusions of magnetite, an iron oxide.[25] Very few samples of obsidian are nearly colorless. In some stones, the inclusion of small, white, radially clustered crystals (spherulites) of the mineral cristobalite in the black glass produce a blotchy or snowflake pattern (snowflake obsidian). Obsidian may contain patterns of gas bubbles remaining from the lava flow, aligned along layers created as the molten rock was flowing before being cooled. These bubbles can produce interesting effects such as a golden sheen (sheen obsidian). An iridescent, rainbow-like sheen (fire obsidian) is caused by inclusions of magnetite nanoparticles creating thin-film interference.[26] Colorful, striped obsidian (rainbow obsidian) from Mexico contains oriented nanorods of hedenbergite, which cause the rainbow striping effects by thin-film interference.[25]

Occurrence

Obsidian is found near volcanoes in locations which have undergone rhyolitic eruptions. It can be found in Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Australia,[27] Canada, Chile, Georgia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Scotland, the Canary Islands, Turkey and the United States. Obsidian flows which are so large that they can be hiked on are found within the calderas of Newberry Volcano (Big Obsidian Flow,[28] 700 acres) and Medicine Lake Volcano in the Cascade Range of western North America, and at Inyo Craters east of the Sierra Nevada in California. Yellowstone National Park has a mountainside containing obsidian located between Mammoth Hot Springs and the Norris Geyser Basin, and deposits can be found in many other western U.S. states including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Washington,[29] Oregon[30] and Idaho.

There are only four major deposit areas in the central Mediterranean: Lipari, Pantelleria, Palmarola and Monte Arci (Sardinia).[31]

Ancient sources in the Aegean were Milos and Gyali.[32]

Acıgöl town and the Göllü Dağ volcano were the most important sources in central Anatolia, one of the more important source areas in the prehistoric Near East.[33][34][35]

Prehistoric and historical use

The first known archaeological evidence of usage was in Kariandusi (Kenya) and other sites of the Acheulian age (beginning 1.5 million years BP) dated 700,000 BC, although only very few objects have been found at these sites relative to the Neolithic.[36][37][38][39][40] Manufacture of obsidian bladelets at Lipari had reached a high level of sophistication by the late Neolithic, and was traded as far as Sicily, the southern Po river valley, and Croatia.[41] Obsidian bladelets were used in ritual circumcisions and cutting of umbilical cords of newborns.[42] Anatolian sources of obsidian are known to have been the material used in the Levant and modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan from a time beginning sometime about 12,500 BC.[43] Obsidian artifacts are common at Tell Brak, one of the earliest Mesopotamian urban centers, dating to the late fifth millennium BC.[44] Obsidian was valued in Stone Age cultures because, like flint, it could be fractured to produce sharp blades or arrowheads in a process called knapping. Like all glass and some other naturally occurring rocks, obsidian breaks with a characteristic conchoidal fracture. It was also polished to create early mirrors. Modern archaeologists have developed a relative dating system, obsidian hydration dating, to calculate the age of obsidian artifacts.

Europe

Obsidian artifacts first appeared in the European continent in Central Europe in the Middle Paleolithic and had become common by the Upper Paleolithic, although there are exceptions to this. Obsidian played an important role in the transmission of Neolithic knowledge and experiences. The material was mainly used for production of chipped tools which were very sharp due to its nature. Artifacts made of obsidian can be found in many Neolithic cultures across Europe. The source of obsidian for cultures inhabiting the territory of and around Greece was the island of Milos; the Starčevo–Körös–Criș culture obtained obsidian from sources in Hungary and Slovakia, while the Cardium-Impresso cultural complex acquired obsidian from the island outcrops of the central Mediterranean. Through trade, these artifacts ended up in lands thousands of kilometers away from the original source; this indicates that they were a highly valued commodity.[45] John Dee had a mirror, made of obsidian, which was brought from Mexico to Europe between 1527 and 1530 after Hernando Cortés's conquest of the region.[46]

Middle East and Asia

In the Ubaid in the 5th millennium BC, blades were manufactured from obsidian extracted from outcrops located in modern-day Turkey.[47] Ancient Egyptians used obsidian imported from the eastern Mediterranean and southern Red Sea regions. Obsidian scalpels older than 2100 BC have been found in a Bronze Age settlement in Turkey.[48] In the eastern Mediterranean area the material was used to make tools, mirrors and decorative objects.[49]

The use of obsidian tools was present in Japan near areas of volcanic activity.[50][51] Obsidian was mined during the Jōmon period.

Obsidian has also been found in Gilat, a site in the western Negev in Israel. Eight obsidian artifacts dating to the Chalcolithic Age found at this site were traced to obsidian sources in Anatolia. Neutron activation analysis (NAA) on the obsidian found at this site helped to reveal trade routes and exchange networks previously unknown.[52]

Americas

Lithic analysis helps to understand pre-Hispanic groups in Mesoamerica. A careful analysis of obsidian in a culture or place can be of considerable use to reconstruct commerce, production, and distribution, and thereby understand economic, social and political aspects of a civilization. This is the case in Yaxchilán, a Maya city where even warfare implications have been studied linked with obsidian use and its debris.[53] Another example is the archeological recovery at coastal Chumash sites in California, indicating considerable trade with the distant site of Casa Diablo Hot Springs in the Sierra Nevada.[54]

Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans' use of obsidian was extensive and sophisticated; including carved and worked obsidian for tools and decorative objects. Mesoamericans also made a type of sword with obsidian blades mounted in a wooden body. Called a macuahuitl, the weapon could inflict terrible injuries, combining the sharp cutting edge of an obsidian blade with the ragged cut of a serrated weapon. The polearm version of this weapon was called tepoztopilli.

Obsidian mirrors were used by some Aztec priests to conjure visions and make prophecies. They were connected with Tezcatlipoca, god of obsidian and sorcery, whose name can be translated from the Nahuatl language as 'Smoking Mirror'.[46]

Indigenous people traded obsidian throughout the Americas. Each volcano and in some cases each volcanic eruption produces a distinguishable type of obsidian allowing archaeologists to use methods such as non-destructive energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence to select minor element compositions from both the artifact and geological sample to trace the origins of a particular artifact.[55] Similar tracing techniques have also allowed obsidian in Greece to be identified as coming from Milos, Nisyros or Gyali, islands in the Aegean Sea. Obsidian cores and blades were traded great distances inland from the coast.[56]

In Chile obsidian tools from Chaitén Volcano have been found as far away as in Chan-Chan 400 km (250 mi) north of the volcano, and also in sites 400 km south of it.[57][58]

Oceania

The Lapita culture, active across a large area of the Pacific Ocean around 1000 BC, made widespread use of obsidian tools and engaged in long distance obsidian trading. The complexity of the production technique for these tools, and the care taken in their storage, may indicate that beyond their practical use they were associated with prestige or high status.[59]

Obsidian was also used on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) for edged tools such as Mataia and the pupils of the eyes of their Moai (statues), which were encircled by rings of bird bone.[60] Obsidian was used to inscribe the Rongorongo glyphs.

Current use

Obsidian can be used to make extremely sharp knives, and obsidian blades are a type of glass knife made using naturally occurring obsidian instead of manufactured glass. Obsidian is used by some surgeons for scalpel blades, although this is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on humans.[61] Well-crafted obsidian blades, like any glass knife, can have a cutting edge many times sharper than high-quality steel surgical scalpels: the cutting edge of the blade is only about three nanometers thick.[62] All metal knives have a jagged, irregular blade when viewed under a strong enough microscope; however, obsidian blades are still smooth, even when examined under an electron microscope.[63] One study found that obsidian incisions produced fewer inflammatory cells and less granulation tissue in a group of rats after seven days but the differences disappeared after twenty-one days.[64] Don Crabtree has produced surgical obsidian blades and written articles on the subject.[62] Obsidian scalpels may be purchased for surgical use on research animals.[65]

The major disadvantage of obsidian blades is their brittleness compared to those made of metal,[66] thus limiting the surgical applications for obsidian blades to a variety of specialized uses where this is not a concern.[62]

Obsidian is also used for ornamental purposes and as a gemstone.[67] It presents a different appearance depending on how it is cut: in one direction it is jet black, while in another it is glistening gray. "Apache tears" are small rounded obsidian nuggets often embedded within a grayish-white perlite matrix.

Plinths for audio turntables have been made of obsidian since the 1970s, such as the grayish-black SH-10B3 plinth by Technics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian

The Black Stone (Arabic: ٱلْحَجَرُ ٱلْأَسْوَد, romanized: al-Ḥajar al-Aswad) is a rock set into the eastern corner of the Kaaba, the ancient building in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is revered by Muslims as an Islamic relic which, according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time of Adam and Eve.

The stone was venerated at the Kaaba in pre-Islamic pagan times. According to Islamic tradition, it was set intact into the Kaaba's wall by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 605 CE, five years before his first revelation. Since then, it has been broken into fragments and is now cemented into a silver frame in the side of the Kaaba. Its physical appearance is that of a fragmented dark rock, polished smooth by the hands of pilgrims. It has often been described as a meteorite.[1]

Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba as a part of the tawaf ritual during the hajj and many try to stop to kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that Islamic tradition records that it received from Muhammad.[2][3] While the Black Stone is revered, Islamic theologians emphasize that it has no divine significance and that its importance is historical in nature.[4]

Physical description

The Black Stone was originally a single piece of rock but today consists of several pieces that have been cemented together. They are surrounded by a silver frame which is fastened by silver nails to the Kaaba's outer wall.[5] The fragments are themselves made up of smaller pieces which have been combined to form the seven or eight fragments visible today. The Stone's exposed face measures about 20 centimetres (7.9 in) by 16 centimetres (6.3 in). Its original size is unclear and the recorded dimensions have changed considerably over time, as the pieces have been rearranged in their cement matrix on several occasions.[1] In the 10th century, an observer described the Black Stone as being one cubit (46 cm or 18 in) long. By the early 17th century, it was recorded as measuring 140 by 122 cm (4 ft 7 in by 4 ft 0 in). According to Ali Bey in the 18th century, it was described as 110 cm (3 ft 7 in) high, and Muhammad Ali Pasha reported it as being 76 cm (2 ft 6 in) long by 46 cm (1 ft 6 in) wide.[1]

The Black Stone is attached to the east corner of the Kaaba, known as al-Rukn al-Aswad (the 'Corner of the Black Stone').[6] Another stone, known as the Hajar as-Sa’adah ('Stone of Felicity') is set into the Kaaba's opposite corner, al-Rukn al-Yamani (the 'Yemeni Corner'), at a somewhat lower height than the Black Stone.[7] The choice of the east corner may have had ritual significance; it faces the rain-bringing east wind (al-qabul) and the direction from which Canopus rises.[8]

The silver frame around the Black Stone and the black kiswah or cloth enveloping the Kaaba were for centuries maintained by the Ottoman Sultans in their role as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The frames wore out over time due to the constant handling by pilgrims and were periodically replaced. Worn-out frames were brought back to Istanbul, where they are still kept as part of the sacred relics in the Topkapı Palace.[9]

Appearance of the Black Stone

The Black Stone was described by European travellers to Arabia in the 19th- and early-20th centuries, who visited the Kaaba disguised as pilgrims. Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited Mecca in 1814, and provided a detailed description in his 1829 book Travels in Arabia:

It is an irregular oval, about seven inches [18 cm] in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly well smoothed; it looks as if the whole had been broken into as many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared to me like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellow substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown approaching to black. It is surrounded on all sides by a border composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel of a similar, but not quite the same, brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth, and rises a little above the surface of the stone. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above, and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.[10]

Visiting the Kaaba in 1853, Richard Francis Burton noted that:

The colour appeared to me black and metallic, and the centre of the stone was sunk about two inches below the metallic circle. Round the sides was a reddish-brown cement, almost level with the metal, and sloping down to the middle of the stone. The band is now a massive arch of gold or silver gilt. I found the aperture in which the stone is, one span and three fingers broad.[11]

Ritter von Laurin, the Austrian consul-general in Egypt, was able to inspect a fragment of the Stone removed by Muhammad Ali in 1817 and reported that it had a pitch-black exterior and a silver-grey, fine-grained interior in which tiny cubes of a bottle-green material were embedded. There are reportedly a few white or yellow spots on the face of the Stone, and it is officially described as being white with the exception of the face.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone

BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with US$11.5 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2023.[1] Headquartered in New York City, BlackRock has 70 offices in 30 countries, and clients in 100 countries.

BlackRock is the manager of the iShares group of exchange-traded funds, and along with The Vanguard Group and State Street, it is considered to be one of the Big Three index fund managers.[3][4] Its Aladdin software keeps track of investment portfolios for many major financial institutions and its BlackRock Solutions division provides financial risk management services. As of 2023, BlackRock was ranked 229th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue.[5]

BlackRock has sought to position itself as an industry leader in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in investments.[6] The U.S. states of West Virginia,[7] Florida,[8] and Louisiana[9] have divested money away from or refuse to do business with the firm because of its ESG policies. BlackRock has been criticized for investing in companies that are involved in fossil fuels, the arms industry, the People's Liberation Army and human rights violations in China. The company has also faced criticism for its close ties with the Federal Reserve during the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackRock

Academi, formerly known as Blackwater and Blackwater Worldwide, is an American private military contractor founded on December 26, 1997,[2] by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince.[3][4] It was renamed Xe Services in 2009, and was again renamed to Academi in 2011, after it was acquired by a group of private investors.[5] In 2014, Academi merged with Triple Canopy to form Constellis Holdings.[6][7][8]

Constellis and its predecessors provide contract security services[9] to the United States federal government. Since 2003, it has provided services to the Central Intelligence Agency.

In 2007, Blackwater received widespread notoriety for the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, when a group of its employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured 20. Four employees were convicted in the United States and later pardoned on December 22, 2020, by President Donald Trump.[10][11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_(company)

Black project is an informal term used to describe a highly classified, top-secret military or defense project that is not publicly acknowledged by government, military personnel, or contractors.

United States and black projects

In the United States, the formal term for a black project is an unacknowledged special access program (SAP). Black projects receive their funding from the black budget.

The US depends on private defense contractors to develop and build military equipment. The two most notable examples are Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The R&D department of Lockheed Martin is commonly referred to as Skunk Works; it is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified R&D programs, and exotic aircraft platforms.

Two well known sites for testing of black projects are the Nevada Test site and Area 51.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_project

Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat.

As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a threat to do something that would cause a person to suffer embarrassment or financial loss.[1] By contrast, in the Commonwealth its definition is wider: for example the laws of England and Wales and Northern Ireland state that:

A person is guilty of blackmail if, with a view to gain for himself or another or with intent to cause loss to another, he makes any unwarranted demand with menaces...[2][3]

In popular culture, 'blackmail' involves a threat to reveal or publicize either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to family members or associates rather than to the general public.

Acts of blackmail can also involve using threats of physical, mental or emotional harm, or of criminal prosecution, against the victim or someone close to the victim.[4][5] It is normally carried out for personal gain, most commonly of position, money, or property.[4][6][7][8]

Blackmail may also be considered a form of extortion[4] and may be covered in the same statutory provision as extortion.[9] Although the two are generally synonymous, extortion is the taking of personal property by threat of future harm.[10] Blackmail is the use of threat to prevent another from engaging in a lawful occupation and writing libelous letters or letters that provoke a breach of the peace, as well as use of intimidation for purposes of collecting an unpaid debt.[11]

In many jurisdictions, blackmail is a statutory offense, often criminal, carrying punitive sanctions for convicted perpetrators. Blackmail is the name of a statutory offense in the United States, England and Wales, and Australia,[12] and has been used as a convenient way of referring to certain other offenses, but was not a term used in English law until 1968.[13]

Blackmail was originally a term from the Scottish Borders meaning payments rendered in exchange for protection from thieves and marauders.[6][11][14] The "mail" part of blackmail derives from Middle English male meaning "rent or tribute".[15] This tribute (male or reditus) was paid in goods or labour ("nigri"); hence reditus nigri, or "blackmail".

Etymology

Objections to criminalization

Some scholars have argued that blackmail should not be a crime.[17][18][19][20] Objections to the criminalization of blackmail often rest on what legal scholars call "the paradox of blackmail": it takes two separate actions that, in many cases, people are legally and morally entitled to do, and criminalizes them if done together. One American legal scholar uses the example of a person who threatens to expose a criminal act unless he is paid money. The person has committed the crime of blackmail, even though he separately has the legal right both to threaten to expose a crime and to request money from a person.[21]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackmail

Ultramontanism is a clerical political conception within the Catholic Church that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope. It contrasts with Gallicanism, the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by the monarch's or state's authority—over the Church is comparable to that of the Pope.

History

The term descends from the Middle Ages, when a non-Italian pope was said to be papa ultramontano – a pope from beyond the mountains (the Alps).[1] Foreign students at medieval Italian universities also were referred to as ultramontani.

After the Protestant Reformation in France, the concept was revived but with its directionality reversed to indicate the man "beyond the mountains" in Italy: the Pope. The term ultramontain was used to refer to Catholics who supported papal authority in French affairs – as opposed to the Gallican and Jansenist factions, who did not – and was intended as an insult implying lack of patriotism.[1] From the 17th century, ultramontanism became closely associated with the Jesuits.[2]

In the 18th century the term came to refer to supporters of the Church in any conflict between church and state. In Austria ultramontanists were opposed to Josephinism, and in Germany to Febronianism. In Great Britain and Ireland ultramontanists resisted Cisalpinism, which favored concessions to the Protestant state in order to achieve Catholic emancipation.

In eighteenth-century Spain, the Bourbon monarchs began implementing policies of regalism, which expanded the power of the monarchy and sought to bring the Catholic Church under its jurisdiction in all matters except the spiritual sphere. Charles III of Spain's ministers, Count of Floridablanca and the Count of Campomanes rejected the arguments of the ultramontanists that the Church had inalienable rights in the secular sphere.[3] The regalist reforms that the Spanish crown sought to implement were not completely successful, and the resistance to them were attributed to support for the Society of Jesus, which had been expelled from the Spanish Empire in 1767, but prior to that were educators.[4]

In Canada, the majority of Catholic clergy despised the French Revolution and its anti-clerical bias and looked to Rome for both spiritual and political guidance. There were many laymen and laywomen who supported these ideals as key to preserving Canadian institutions and values. For this reason they were called ultramontanists. The ultramontanes distrusted both the Protestant anglophone and francophone politicians, but the Church found it easier to deal with British governors, who appreciated the role of the Church in containing dissent, than with the francophone liberal professionals who were secularists.[5]

First Vatican Council

Main article: First Vatican Council

According to Catholic academic Jeffrey P. von Arx,

The threat to the Catholic Church and the papacy through the 19th century was real, and the church’s reaction to that threat was understandable. Indeed, the church remained threatened on all sides. On the left, secular liberals sought to reduce or eliminate the role of the church in public life and civil society (by suppressing church schools, for example, and expelling religious congregations). The more radical heirs of the revolution and the socialists and communists into whom they evolved remained committed to the church’s utter destruction. But the threat was also from the nationalist right. Otto von Bismarck’s Kulturkampf was aimed directly at the Catholic Church, imposing state supervision of Catholic schools and seminaries and government appointment of bishops with no reference to Rome.[6]

The response was a condemnation of Gallicanism as heretical:

[W]e condemn and reject the opinions of those who hold that this communication of the supreme head with pastors and flocks may be lawfully obstructed; or that it should be dependent on the civil power, which leads them to maintain that what is determined by the apostolic see or by its authority concerning the government of the church, has no force or effect unless it is confirmed by the agreement of the civil authority.[7]

The council also asserted papal primacy. In July 1870, it issued the Dogmatic constitution Pastor aeternus, defining four doctrines of the Catholic faith: the apostolic primacy conferred on Peter, the perpetuity of this primacy in the Roman pontiffs, the meaning and power of the papal primacy, and Papal infallibility.

[W]e teach and declare that, by divine ordinance, the Roman Church possesses a pre-eminence of ordinary power over every other Church, and that this jurisdictional power of the Roman Pontiff is both episcopal and immediate. Both clergy and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, both singly and collectively, are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, and this not only in matters concerning faith and morals, but also in those which regard the discipline and government of the Church throughout the world.[8]

Von Arx compares this to "the great empires and national states of the 19th century, which used new means of communication and transportation to consolidate power, enforce unity and build bureaucracies".[6] "Cardinal Henry Edward Manning in Great Britain thought unity and discipline within the church were of the utmost importance in protecting the church and advancing its interests in a liberal, democratic state, and so he was one of the strongest advocates of the ultramontane position."[6] The English bishops at the council were characterized by their ultramontanism and described as "being more Catholic than the Pope himself".[9]

Reaction

Other Christian groups outside the Catholic Church declared this as the triumph of what they termed "the heresy of ultramontanism". It was specifically decried in the "Declaration of the Catholic Congress at Munich", in the Theses of Bonn, and in the Declaration of Utrecht, which became the foundational documents of Old Catholics (Altkatholische) who split with Rome over the declaration on infallibility and supremacy, joining the Old Episcopal Order Catholic See of Utrecht, which had been independent from Rome since 1723.[7]

As with previous pronouncements by the pope, liberals across Europe were outraged by the doctrine of infallibility and many countries reacted with laws to counter the influence of the church. The term "ultramontanism" was revived during the French Third Republic (1870–1940) as a pejorative way to describe policies that went against laïcité, a concept rooted in the French Revolution. The French philosopher Jacques Maritain noted the distinction between the models found in France and the separation of church and state in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. He considered the US model of that time to be more amicable because it had both "sharp distinction and actual cooperation" between church and state, what he called "an historical treasure" and admonished the United States, "Please to God that you keep it carefully, and do not let your concept of separation veer round to the European one."[10]

After Italian Unification and the abrupt (and unofficial) end of the First Vatican Council in 1870 because of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, the ultramontanist movement and the opposing conciliarism became obsolete to a large extent. However, some very extreme tendencies of a minority of adherents to ultramontanism – especially those attributing to the Roman pontiff, even in his private opinions, absolute infallibility even in matters beyond faith and morals, and impeccability – survived and were eagerly used by opponents of the Catholic Church and papacy before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) for use in their propaganda. These extreme tendencies, however, were never supported by the First Vatican Council's dogma of 1870 of papal infallibility and primacy, but were rather inspired by erroneous private opinions of some Catholic laymen who tend to identify themselves completely with the Holy See.

At the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, the Catholic Church's teaching on the authority of the pope, bishops and councils was further elaborated. The post-conciliar position of the Apostolic See did not deny any of the previous doctrines of papal infallibility or papal primacy; rather, it shifted emphasis from structural and organizational authority to doctrinal teaching authority (also known as the magisterium). Papal magisterium, i.e. papal teaching authority, was defined in Lumen gentium No. 25 and later codified in the 1983 revision of Canon Law.

Controversy

Some, such as the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, have claimed the Catholic social teaching of subsidiarity can overrun ultramontanism and has the potential to decentralize the Catholic Church,[11] whereas others defend it as merely a bureaucratic adjustment to give more pastoral responsibility to local bishops and priests of local parishes.[12]

Challenges to ultramontanism have remained strong within and outside Roman jurisdiction.[13] Ultramontanism has particularly overshadowed ecumenical work between the Catholic Church and both Lutherans and Anglicans.[14] The joint Anglican-Roman Catholic International Consultation published The Gift of Authority in 1999, highlights agreements and differences on these issues.[15]

Position of other traditional churches

Ultramontanism is distinct from the positions adopted by the other traditional churches, particularly the Anglican communion, Eastern Orthodox communion, the Oriental Orthodox communion, the Old Catholic Church, or the Church of the East. These churches regard the pope as having been primus inter pares when the churches were united in full communion, and generally still acknowledge that status today, albeit in an impaired form due to disunity; similarly they do not recognize the doctrines of infallibility or the pope's alleged universal jurisdiction over patriarchates and autocephalous churches other than that of Rome itself, except insofar as this is part of the concept of primus inter pares.[16]

In the joint agreed statement "The Gift of Authority" (1999) the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion were agreed on the collegial nature of the life and work of bishops.[17]: 148 Similarly both churches acknowledged the role of episcopal primacy within the college of bishops.[17]: 151 On the question of the universal primacy of the Pope, the joint report found common ground, and stated that a "particular conclusion" of their discussions had been "that Anglicans be open to and desire a recovery and re-reception under certain clear conditions of the exercise of universal primacy by the Bishop of Rome";[17]: 159 nonetheless a clear distinction remained between the Anglican view of a universal primacy exercised within a universal collegiality, and the Catholic view of a universal primacy with actual universal jurisdiction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramontanism

XXVII

ABOVE ALL GODS AND "SHEWING... THAT HE IS GOD"!

Sedet super universum ("He sits above the universe").

ND LEST SOME SCRUPLE SHOULD OCCUR TO my reader, that the aforementioned delineations could apply to some other power besides the Catholic Church, then read how God in his wisdom, to further identify ANTI-CHRIST, with pin-point accuracy, tells us through St. Paul.

We are told that the "mystery" woman seated on the beast (or power) nth seven heads (or forms of governments) would have at her helm a man." This man St. Paul calls "the son of perdition" who "opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." Paul ays that "he as God sits would sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (II Thess. 2:1).

The temple of God here referred to, where the representative of Anti-Christ was to have his seat and from where he would reign, could not have been the Jewish Temple which had already been destroyed. The Christian Church only could form a theater for such a display," writes Thomas Watson.

Here, II Thess. 2:4, the Apostle Paul is understood to have been speaking prophetically about a male figurehead behind this power the woman with the golden cup), for he speaks of the man "Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God" "shewing himself that he is God." (to quote the King James).

Said Grattan Guinness, "The distinctive names given by Paul to the great head of the apostasy are expressive of his character. They are the "man of sin," the "son of perdition," and "that wicked" (or the lawless one). Paul's "Man of sin," was to be a Roman, because the imperial government seated at Rome needed to be removed in order to make way for its rise and dominion. It was to be the successor of the Caesars at Rome. They have the same geographical seat...." Grattan continues a few lines later: "In the Douay (Catholic Bible, with notes, issued under Romish authority, and bearing the signatures of Cardinals Wiseman and

H. Grattan Guinness, Romanism and the Reformation, op. cit. p. 98,

177

CODEWORD BARBELÓN Bk 2

Manning, the "man of sin" is interpreted as follows: "He sitteth in the temple of God,' etc. By all these words is described to us the grea antichrist.... according to the unquestionable authority and consent of the ancient Fathers." The Catholic Church thus accepts our interpretation of the "man of sin" which Paul foresaw, "and admits th power to be the antichrist," concludes Guinness. These personages representing Anti-Christ were to be as Judas, because Paul states, "Forl know this, that alter my departing shall grievous wolves cuter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your ownselves shall men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them" Wet

20:30).

What power or personages have ever been bold enough to advance so audacious a claim-even to the extent of "shewing thimselves to be a God"? This surely can only apply to the popes (the succession of themt "He exaltheth himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped." Not only have the popes lifted themselves above earthly magistrates, bishops and primates, kings and emperor, nay, not only above kings and emperors, but also above Jesus Christ, and God himself! Roman Catholic cannon law of 1918 confirms this fact precisely: "The Roman pontiff [the popel is... not a... man, but very God." Here is an exa fulfilment of the prophecy concerning the Anti-Christ system of the popes. Reader, we have found the genuine article! To quote one author, the clear light of this prophecy flashes full on the face of the Papacy!

How is it that the pope goes about "showing himself that he is God? By "affecting divine titles, and asserting that his decrees are of the same or greater authority than the word of God," says Bagster and Clarke. To confirm the assertion, the Apostle Paul also tells us in his Epistle to the Thessalonians that this "man of sin" who is allied to Ant-Chr (the corrupt woman) would sit as a leader of a religious system, "sing in the temple of God [viz., he presides in a church]" (II Thess. 2:0).

The pope alone can be that "man" referred to in II Thess. 21, for who else could it be? "There is NO ONE LIKE HIM, who exalth himself above every god; no one like him, who sitteth as God in the temple of God; there is no one like him who shows himself that he God, and even above God"! Reader, what an excellent antidote to the poison of popery are these illustrious proofs of Divine revelation! In Bible prophecy a "woman" is almost always used as a symbol of a

2 Grattan Guinness, Romanism and the Reformationop, op. cit., p. 98.

178

Above All Gods And "Shewing... That He Is God"!

church, and here the Apostle Paul say that this "man of sin," the visible figurehead of Anti-Christ would "sit in the temple of God" and claim to be God, usurping God's rightful place! Strong's Concordance (NT#500 & NT#473) defines 'antichrist' as "a usurper."

"SITTING IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHEWING THAT HE IS GOD."

Now, perchance the reader is not convinced by the above, here is the mystery solved! Mark these words "he as God sitteth in the temple of God." that is to say "presides in the temple of the Lord." I quote Grattan Guinness, who in turn quotes Picart:

I took them from Picart's description of the Roman ceremonial, a Roman Catholic authority. It is the Romanists themselves who use this significant phrase of the Papal pontifl: he "PRESIDES IN THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD."

There reader! The exact words used by the Apostle Paul are adopted by the Church of Rome. Do you still require more proof?

St. John also describes Anti-Christ as the avouos-viz., a power that exalts itself above all gods (Rev. 13:4-6). One can read volumes of Catholic writings that refer to the pope as God, even referring to him as, "The Lord God the Pope."

Does that leave you numb? From another source we read: "The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, Himself, hidden under the veil of flesh." Reader, that would be a most stupendous metamorphosis indeed!

But the pope's sycophants deny that the above statement was made by Pope Pius X, instead they aver that it was "from an English Protestant publication (of Oct. 3, 1895), not a Catholic one."

But what say they to this statement from Pope Leo III, who, on June 20, said this of himself and the entire machinery of the papacy: "We

See, Jer. 3:8; Matt. 9:14-15; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32; Rev. 19:7-8. Pope John XXII (Cum. Inter, title 14, chap. 4, Ad Callem Sexti Decretalium, Column 140, Paris, 1685); in the 1612 Paris Edition of Extravagantes. In an Antwerp edition of the Extravagantes, the words occur in column 153. See also, Z. T. Sweeney, New Testament Christianity, Vol. III. (1930), p. 529

Catholic National, July of 1895.

179

CODEWORD BARBELÓN BK 2

hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty"? Agam, the amphibologious Catholic priests tell us this quote is "cherry-picking a quote out of context." Cherry-picking or not, this last statement of Pope Leo XIII is interesting for another reason-it is a virtual copy of a

statement made by that other proud imposter, Satan."

But, as I said, the papists deny the above quotes as meaning that the pope claims to be God on earth. Very well. Let it be so. For he is But what do they say to this statement by the Jesuits, in answer to the question, "What is the Pope?" The Jesuit Catechism replies." He the Vicar of Christ, King of Kings, and Lords of Lord, and there is l ONE JUDGMENT-SEAT BELONGING TO GOD AND THE POPE" Reader, a truly whimsical assertion, if ever there was one!

As we read before, in one of their books they go even further: "Al the names which in Scripture are applied to Christ by virtue of which a is established that He is over the Church, all the same names are applied to the Pope." Or what about this one: "The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth.""

The following is another fact of significance which shows the point we have been making. "Bianchi Gioviui, editor of the journal l'ition." had been "condemned by the tribunals of Turin to a month's

Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae ("The Reunion of Christendom"), Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894; The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII (1878-1903) (New York: Benziger Bros. 1903/ Charlotte, NC: TAN Books, 2009), p. 304; Double Cross (Chick Publications), p. 27. See the Pope's 1894 letter here:

www.space.net.au/-nethow/Sede/encyclicals/Leo13/L13PRAEC.HTM 7 A figure of speech where ambiguous meaning is deliberately created through grammar, often including mispunctuation.

8 Lucifer: "I will be like the most High." see Isaiah 14:14. See also Iss 42:8, "I am the Lord: that is my name... my glory I give no to another." 9 See, Roy Livesey, Understanding the New Age: World Government a World Religion (Chichester, England: NewWine Press, 1998), p. 104. 10 Robert Bellarmine (Jesuit Cardinal-archbishop of Capual. Othe Authority of the Church Councils, Vol. 2 (1619 edn.). p. 266, chap. 17 Bellarmine was an authority on ecclesiology and was canonized, 1930 See, too, De Cone. Auct., L. 2, c. 17, p. 266, II., T. I.; John Harvey Theat Johann Augustus Bolles, and G. H. Housee, The Catholic faith of Doctrines of the Church of Rome; and also, Disputationes de Controversiis, Tom. 2; Controversiarum de Conciliis, Liber Secundis 11 Pope Pius V, quoted in Barclay, chapter XXVII, p. 218, Cities Petrus Bertanous; A Journal of Church and State, vol. 3 (Baylor University. J.M.

Dawson Studies in Church and State, 1961), p. 176.

180

Above All Gods And "Shewing... That He Is God"!

imprisonment, and Jal 600 francs fine for having said that the Pope was neither God nor the Vicar of God. While he was in prison he complained of his sentence in his journal, and for this he was condemned again to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 But, if all the above facts are not proof enough for you, franes." consider this Popish averment:

The Pope is not simply the representative of Jesus Christ. On the contrary, he is Jesus Christ Himself, under the veil of the flesh.... Does the Pope speak? It is Jesus Christ who is speaking. Does he teach? It is Jesus Christ who teaches. Does he confer grace or pronounce an anathema? It is Jesus Christ Himself who is pronouncing the anathema and conferring the grace. Hence... when one speaks of the Pope, it is not necessary to examine, but to obey..... there must be no cavilling at the declared will of the Pope.... no preconceived opinions must be brought to bear upon it: no rights must be set up against the rights of the Holy Father to teach and command; HIS DECISIONS ARE NOT TO BE CRITICIZED, or his ordinances disputed.... no matter how august the person may be- whether he wear a crown or be invested with the purple, or be clothed in the sacred vestments: all must be subject to Him WHO HAS HAD ALL THINGS PUT UNDER HIM."

Read next the words of Jesuit Cardinal Dr. Robert Bellarmine in Latin, which is translated below on the right:

Nam fides Catholica docet, omnem virtutem ease bonam, omne vitium esse malum: si autem l'apa erret praecipiendo vitia, vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona, et virtu- les malas, nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare. Tenetur enim in rebus dubiis Ecclesia acquiescere judicio summi l'onti- sicis, et facere quod ille praecipit, non facere quod ille prohibet ac ne forte contra conscientiam agat, tenetur credere bonum

e quod ille praecipit; malum quod ille prohibet.-De kom. Pont., 14, c. 5, col. 974. C. Disput., T. 1, el. 1601.

For the Catholic faith teaches that every virtue is good, every evil is bad: but if the l'ope should err by enjoining vices, or forbidding virtues, the Church would be bound to believe vices to be good and virtues evil, unless it would sin against conscience. For in things doubt- ful the Church is bound to acquiesce in the judgment of the Supreme Pontiff, and to do that which he enjoins, and not to do that which he forbids; and lest she should act contrary to conscience, she is bound to believe that to be good which he enjoins, and that to be evil which he forbids

Evangelical Christendom, Vols. 11-12 (Evangelical Alliance, July 1.

1867, p. 275.

13 Evangelical Christendom (London: J. S. Phillips, January 1, 1895), p.

15. http://biblelight.net/Sources/Evangelical-Christendom-pg-15.gif

181

CODEWORD BARBELON BK 2

Ferraris Ecclesiastical (Catholic) Dictionary offers this justification and explanation of Bellarmine's doctrine that the pope can declar

EVIL TO BE GOOD AND VICES TO BE VIRTUES:

The Pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that HE IS NOT A MAN, but as it were, God, and the Vicar of God.... The POPE ALONE is deservedly called by the name "Most Holy He likewise the divine Monarch and supreme Emperor, THE KING OF KINGS. Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of the lower regions.... the superiority, and the power of the Roman Pontiff... by no means pertain only as heavenly things, to earthly things, and to things under the earth, b are even over angels, of whom he is greater...."

We could quote many more such statements ad nauseam. Reader never was the dignity of the Almighty so degraded by such low similitudes as the above! The pope as God, judging angels, and declaring evil to be good and vices to be virtues? No wonder Paul calls him, that "wicked one."

I say, as did, Martin Luther: "Oh, Christ, my Lord... bring upon us thy day of judgment, and destroy the brood [litter] of Satan in Rome where)... sits the man of sin." Yes, that "brood of Satan" in Rome-the pope, cardinals, bishops, curates, vicars, sacristans, canons, deacous sub-deacons, and choristers; besides shavelings of all kinds, seminants friars, lay-brothers, novices, clc., etc., who may be compared to the ammunition men and powdermonkies."" No, delicate reader, I do not believe these to be odious comparisons.

Reader, the pope is that "man of sin," for he substitutes other mediators for Christ; he encourages the invocation of the dead in the name of saints; he insists on the worshipping of images, the adoration of the wafer host, the selling of pardons and indulgences; and he pervers the worship of God into grossest superstition and idolatry." No, I do not exaggerate at all. Are you not also disgusted with the absurd pretens

from the pontifical chair? Will Catholics now demand of the Pope that

he publicly renounce these usurped and fictitious claims? Will yo

protest both against him and his doctrines? Will you rid yourselves of

14 P.F.L. Ferraris, Ecclesiastical Dictionary, article 'On the Pope."

15 Luther's Works, vol. 2. p. 281.

16 Evangelical Alliance, May 1, 1857, the Editor.

17 To quote Samuel Bagster (1843).

182

Above All Gods And "Shewing... That He Is God"! this tyrant in the Church, "SITTING IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHEWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD"?

God says, "I am the LORD... the Holy One of Israel... before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.... I AM GOD" (Isa. 43:3, 7, 10) and "... beside me there is no God" (Isa. 44:6-8). But the Catholic Church says, Nol: "The Roman pontiff (the pope) Is... not a... man, but very God." What profanity; what proud impicty: what an insufferable arrogation, nay what wicked, nefarious and bold- face audacity! What pretentious indignity! that a sinful man would lower and dehase the majesty of his Creator by claiming to be "very God"!

God responds, "Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus.... Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I AM A GOD, I sit in the seat of God.... YET THOU ART A MAN, AND NOT GOD, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God... Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords... and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and THOU SHALT DIE the deaths of them that are slain "(Ezek. 28:2-8)!

do the high altar of a P

Roman Catholic cannon law of 1904 and 1918: sec, Corpus Juris Canonice (2nd Leipzig ed., 1881), col. 99: (Paris, 1612), vol. 2.

183

CODEWORD BARBELON BK 2

In the foregoing illustration we see the pope in the Dark Ages, sitting in the Temple of God as though he were God; "upon a throne, hid

and lifted up" (Isaiah 6:1).

Today, nothing has changed.

Centuries later, and the Pope still sits "in the temple of God." high and ed

"shewing himself as if he were God."

Yes, even in this day of great enlightenment and democracy, the present Pope still claims worship, as did his fellows. Guinness gives the following commentary and rebuke:

Exalted to this position, he is incensed, and the cardinals, one at time, in solemn, deliberate state and idolatrous submission, is le land, his foot, and even his stomach. He is surrounded by candi archbishops, bishops, abbots, priests, and princes. Enormous fas peacock's feathers are carried on either side of his chan, as used to be done to the pagam monarchs of olden times, He directs the affairs of the greatest empire upon earth, governing by an almost infini

184

Above All Gods And "Shewing... That He Is God"!

number of men, whom he keeps constantly in subjection to himself, and from whom he demands frequent periodical account. He distributes spiritual gifts, and exalts to the highest preferments, not only on earth, but also in heaven: for is it not his to make bishops and archbishops, to canonize whom he will, and to decree their perpetual memorial and worship in the world? All power is delivered unto hum He forgives sins, he bestows grace; he cancels punishments, even in purgatory; he restores the lapsed; he excommunicates the rebellious he can make that which is unlawful, lawful; he cannot err, lis sentences are final, his utterances infallible, his decrees irreformable. O DREAD DOMINION! O DIZZY HEIGHTY O BLASPHEMOUS ASSUMPTION! O SUBLIME, SATANIC TYRANNY! WHO IS LIKE UNTO THEE, THOU RESUSCITATED CAESAR, THOU FALSE CHRIST? Lord of the conscience, thou sittest there as a very deity. QUASI DEUS ("as God"). Thou sittest supreme, as thine own words are witness, "in the temple of the Lord"!"

O, pope, your "tongue is a little member, but it boasteth great things! It is a world of iniquity; it defileth your whole body, and it is set on fire of hell: it is truly an unruly evil, full of deadly poison" (James 1:5,6,7,9).

O, what Devilish ambition you have, pope. Was it not your master Satan who first said: "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I WILL BE LIKE THE MOST HIGH" (Isa. 14:14)?

Away with you! You have a devil. We had our suspicions of you before, but this excess in your arrogation assures us that you are not only a rogue, but incurably anti-Christian as well. How much longer, I beg, will you abuse our patience, pope of Rome, with your swelling words of arrogance? How true, that old saying: the smaller the Mind the greater the Conceit! As one author has said. "It is only weak trees and the tottering houses that need to be constantly propped up."

Papa, I will use-with the necessary modifications-the language of one of your great sons, Sir Thomas More, whom you made a saint in 2000": "Our Saviour when he returns will say to you Popel: Thou art

19 Cited in Henry Grattan Guinness, Romanism and the Reformation, op cit., pp. 106,107. This quote of Grattan Guiness was taken from Monsieur Picart's Religious Ceremonies and Customs... vol L. p. 270-271. "Pope Elevates Sir Thomas More as Patron Saint for all Politicians," on November 5th-Guy Fawkes Night!!: The Catholic Herald, 3rd conspired with several Jesuits to blow up the British Parliament. November 2000. On Guy Fawkes Night (1605) a British Catholic

185

CODEWORD BARBELON BK 2

ccursed, thou son of the devil; for neither flesh nor blood hath taus hee these heresies, but thy own father, the devil" (see Matt. 16:17) Yea, Pope, your coming was aptly predicted by the prophet Daniel who says of you as the figurehead Anti-Christ: "he shall speak grea words against the most High" (Dan. 7:25). Indeed, Saint Paul told that you would exalt yourself "above all that is called God" (II Thes 2:1). And John in Revelation 13:5 depicts you as having a big "MOUTH SPEAKING GREAT THINGS AND BLASPHEMIES"! Therefore, you portion is with the hypocrites (Matt. 24:51). AWAY WITH YOU!

21 Robert Chamber, English Literature: A Selection of the Choicest i (New York: Sheldon, Blakeman, And Company, 1856), p. 73. Productions of English Authors, From the Earliest to the Present Time, vol

186

Codeword Barbelon book Two

by P.D. Stuart

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid0Vj4i6EEjC4CGdMd19f29uKfSH4A1VhfX9C7VFYj5chS6nhitBMM1XEXToxGia1Wfl

Is papal infallibility biblical?

Answer

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the pope is infallible when he speaks from his position of authority on a particular issue or doctrine (speaking ex cathedra). Many misunderstand “papal infallibility” as indicating that everything the pope says is infallible. This is not what the Roman Catholic Church means by “papal infallibility.” According to the Roman Catholic Church, this infallibility of the pope, only when speaking ex cathedra, is part of the Roman Catholic Church’s Magisterium, or the “teaching authority of the Church” which God gave to the “mother Church” to guide her infallibly. This “teaching authority of the Church” is made up of the pope’s infallible teaching ability, the infallible teaching ability of church councils assembled under the authority of the pope, and the “ordinary” Magisterium of the bishops. This “ordinary” Magisterium involves, among other things, bishops in various places beginning to teach the same particular doctrine (for instance, the teaching that Mary was conceived without sin), and that if this teaching gains acceptance throughout the church as a whole, it is an indication that the Holy Spirit is working through the bishops and that this teaching is from God. The pope may later recognize this and proclaim infallibly that it comes from God and is to be accepted by all Roman Catholics.

The question is whether this teaching is in agreement with Scripture. The Roman Catholic Church sees the papacy and the infallible teaching authority of “mother Church” as being necessary to guide the Church, and uses that as logical reasoning for God’s provision of it. But in examining Scripture, we find the following:

1) While Peter was central in the early spread of the gospel (part of the meaning behind Matthew 16:18-19), the teaching of Scripture, taken in context, nowhere declares that he was in authority over the other apostles or over the entire church (see Acts 15:1-23; Galatians 2:1-14; 1 Peter 5:1-5). Nor is it ever taught that the bishop of Rome was to have primacy over the church. Rather, there is only one reference in Scripture of Peter writing from “Babylon,” a name sometimes applied to Rome, found in 1 Peter 5:13; primarily upon this and the historical rise of the influence of the bishop of Rome come the Roman Catholic Church teaching of the primacy of the bishop of Rome. However, Scripture shows that Peter’s authority was shared by the other apostles (Ephesians 2:19-20) and the “loosing and binding” authority attributed to him was likewise shared by the local churches, not just their church leaders (see Matthew 18:15-19; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 2 Corinthians 13:10; Titus 2:15; 3:10-11). Thus, the foundation of papal infallibility—the existence of the papacy itself—is not scriptural.

2) Nowhere does Scripture state that, in order to keep the church from error, the authority of the apostles was passed on to those they ordained (the Roman Catholic Church teaching of "apostolic succession"). Apostolic succession is “read into” those verses that the Roman Catholic Church uses to support this doctrine (2 Timothy 2:2; 4:2-5; Titus 1:5; 2:1; 2:15; 1 Timothy 5:19-22). Paul does NOT call on believers in various churches to receive Titus, Timothy, and other church leaders based on their authority as bishops, but rather based upon their being fellow laborers with him (1 Corinthians 16:10; 16:16; 2 Corinthians 8:23). What Scripture DOES teach is that false teachings would arise even from among accepted church leaders and that Christians were to compare the teachings of these later church leaders with Scripture, which alone is cited in the Bible as infallible. The Bible does not teach that the apostles were infallible, apart from what was written by them and incorporated into Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:18-21). Paul, in talking to the church leaders in the city of Ephesus, makes note of coming false teachers, and to fight against such error he does NOT commend them to “the apostles and those who would carry on their authority”; rather, he commends them to “God and to the word of His grace” (Acts 20:28-32).

3) Nowhere in Scripture is the “teaching Magisterium,” or mastery of bishops, taught and treated as of equal weight with Scripture. What history has shown is that, when any other source of authority is treated as being of equal weight with Scripture, that second authority always ends up superseding Scripture (such is the case with the Mormons' other accepted writings and the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Watchtower). So it is with the Roman Catholic Church. Repeatedly, Catholic Catechisms state that many of their doctrines are not found in or based on Scripture (e.g., Mary being Co-redemptress and Co-mediator, sinless, and conceived without sin; Mary’s ascension; praying to saints and venerating them and images of them; etc.). For Roman Catholics, it is the “mother Church” that is the final authority, not Scripture, no matter that they say that the Magisterium is the “servant of Scripture.” Again, the Bible teaches that it is Scripture that is to be used as the measuring stick to determine truth from error. In Galatians 1:8-9, Paul states that it is not WHO teaches but WHAT is being taught that is to be used to determine truth from error. And while the Roman Catholic Church continues to pronounce a curse to hell upon those who would reject the authority of the pope, Scripture reserves that curse for those who would teach a different gospel from what had already been given and recorded in the New Testament (Galatians 1:8-9).

4) While the Roman Catholic Church sees apostolic succession and the infallible Magisterium of the church as logically necessary in order for God to unerringly guide the Church, Scripture states that God has provided for His church through:

(a) infallible Scripture (Acts 20:32; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Matthew 5:18; John 10:35; Acts 17:10-12; Isaiah 8:20; 40:8; etc.),

(b) Christ’s unending high-priesthood in heaven (Hebrews 7:22-28),

(c) the provision of the Holy Spirit Who guided the apostles into truth after Christ’s death (John 16:12-14), Who gifts believers for the work of the ministry, including teaching (Romans 12:3-8; Ephesians 4:11-16), and Who uses the written Word as His chief tool (Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:17).

In summary, the Bible speaks of only one abiding, "tangible," infallible guide left by God for His church. It is the written word of God, not an infallible leader (2 Timothy 3:15-17). And, as He gave the Holy Spirit to bear holy men along in the writing of those Scriptures (2 Peter 1:19-21), so He has given His Holy Spirit to indwell, fill, guide, and gift members of His church today for the purpose of directing His church through the proper interpretation of that written word (1 Corinthians 12 and 14; Ephesians 4:11-16). That there are schisms and false teachings today should be no surprise, for the Bible also warns us that there would be false teachers who would twist the written word (2 Peter 3:16) and that these false teachers would arise from within the churches (Acts 20:30). Therefore, the believers were to turn to God and the "word of His grace" for their guidance (Acts 20:32), determining the truth not by who said it, but by comparing it with the gospel already received by the early church, the gospel recorded for us in Scripture (Galatians 1:8-9; see also Acts 17:11).

https://www.gotquestions.org/papal-infallibility.html

1 Peter 5

1599 Geneva Bible

5 1 He warneth the Elders not to usurp authority over the Church, 5 willing the younger sort to be willing to be taught, and to be modest, 8 to be sober and watchful to resist the cruel adversary.

1 The [a]Elders which are among you, [b]I beseech which am also an Elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed,

2 [c][d]Feed the [e]flock of God, [f]which dependeth upon you, [g]caring for it not by constraint, but willingly: not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind:

3 Not as though ye were Lords over God’s [h]heritage, but that ye may be examples to the flock.

4 [i]And when that chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive an incorruptible crown of glory.

5 [j]Likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the Elders, and submit yourselves every man, one to another: deck yourselves inwardly in lowliness of mind: [k]for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

6 Humble yourselves therefore [l]under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

7 Cast all your care on him: for he careth for you.

8 [m]Be sober, and watch: for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

9 Whom resist steadfast in the faith, [n]knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your [o]brethren which are in the world.

10 [p]And the God of all grace, which hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a little, make you perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

11 To him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen.

12 [q]By Silvanus a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, have I written briefly, exhorting and testifying how that this is the true grace of God, wherein ye stand.

13 [r]The Church that is at [s]Babylon elected together with you, saluteth you, and Mark my son.

14 Greet ye one another with the kiss of love. Peace be with you all which are in Christ Jesus, Amen.

Footnotes

1 Peter 5:1 He describeth peculiarly the office of the Elders, that is to say, of them that have the care of the Church.

1 Peter 5:1 He useth a preface touching the circumstance of his own person: to wit, that he as their companion, communeth with them not of matters which he knoweth not, but wherein he is as well experienced as any, and propoundeth unto them no other condition but that which he himself hath sustained before them, and doth still take the same pains, and also hath one selfsame hope together with them.

1 Peter 5:2 The first rule: He that is a shepherd, let him feed the flock.

1 Peter 5:2 He saith not, Offer for the quick and dead, and sing patched shreds in a strange tongue, but (Feed.)

1 Peter 5:2 The second: Let the shepherd consider, that the flock is not his, but God’s.

1 Peter 5:2 The third: Let not the shepherds invade other men’s flocks, but let them feed that which God hath committed unto them.

1 Peter 5:2 Let the shepherds govern the Church with the word and example of godly and unblamable life, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, not as Lords over God’s portion and heritage, but as his ministers.

1 Peter 5:3 Which is the Christian people.

1 Peter 5:4 That the shepherds’ minds be not overcome either with the wickedness of men, or their cruelty, he warneth them to cast their eyes continually upon that chief Shepherd, and the crown which is laid up for them in heaven.

1 Peter 5:5 He commendeth many peculiar Christian virtues, and especially modesty: which admonition all of us stand in need of, but especially the younger sort, by reason of the outwardness and pride of that age.

1 Peter 5:5 Because pride seemeth to many, to be the way unto the glory of this life, the Apostle witnesseth on the contrary side, that ignominy and shame is the reward of pride, and glory the reward of modesty.

1 Peter 5:6 Because those proud and lofty spirits threaten the modest and humble, the Apostle warneth us to set the power of God against the vanity of proud men, and to hang wholly upon his providence.

1 Peter 5:8 The cruelty of Satan, who seeketh by all means to devour us, is overcome by watchfulness and faith.

1 Peter 5:9 The persecutions which Satan stirreth up are neither new nor proper to any one man, but from old and ancient time common to the whole Church, and therefore we must suffer that patiently wherein we have such and so many fellows of our conflicts and combats.

1 Peter 5:9 Amongst your brethren which are dispersed throughout the world.

1 Peter 5:10 He sealeth up as it were with a seal the former exhortation with a solemn prayer, again willing them to ask increase of strength at his hands of whom they had the beginning, and hope to have the accomplishment, to wit, of God the Father in Jesus Christ in whom we are sure of the glory of eternal life.

1 Peter 5:12 Continuance and perseverance in the doctrine of the Apostles, is the only ground and foundation of Christian strength: Now the sum of the Apostles’ doctrine, is salvation freely given of God.

1 Peter 5:13 Familiar salutations.

1 Peter 5:13 In that famous city of Assyria, where Peter the Apostle of the circumcision then was.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%205&version=GNV

Search This Blog

Protestant Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus

Devastating, dangerous, untested: NO to Article V convention

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fox News Host Faults 'The Native Americans' for California Fires

Raoul and The Kings of Spain

Why Trump can’t build iPhones in the US