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Blog Mirror: You Must Learn to Shoot Your Own Dog

 

You Must Learn to Shoot Your Own Dog

Lex Anteinternet: Ezekiel and the Synod on Synodality.

Lex Anteinternet: Ezekiel and the Synod on Synodality.: 

Ezekiel and the Synod on Synodality.

Icon of Ezekiel.

This was written over a period of time, and posted prior to this past Sunday:

Lex Anteinternet: Dread and the Synod on Synodality.: This has, I guess, turned into a post on the Synod on Synodality. The Synod on Synodality is a three-year process of listening and dialogue ...

The first reading, this past Sunday, was this one:

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 127

Reading 1

Ez 33:7-9

Thus says the LORD:

You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel;

when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me.

If I tell the wicked, "O wicked one, you shall surely die, "

and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way,

the wicked shall die for his guilt,

but I will hold you responsible for his death.

But if you warn the wicked,

trying to turn him from his way,

and he refuses to turn from his way,

he shall die for his guilt,

but you shall save yourself.

The principal Gospel reading was this one:

Jesus said to his disciples:

"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that 'every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.

Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

As previously noted, the young parish priest delivered his homily on the first reading.

Canon lawyer Edward Peters, having reflected on the same reading, noted on his Twitter feed:

Edward Peters

@canonlaw

·

19h

I am edified to think back on how many priests have told me that today’s first reading keeps them awake at night. I am saddened that I can’t recall there being more such clerics. To say nothing of bishops, of course. And, yes, I include parents among those warned by this passage.

The priests' homily was, as usual, a little blunt, warning us that as a priestly people, we were bound by Ezechial's charge ourselves, an uncomfortable thought, but that's not why I noted it here.

Rather, I note it as while the upcoming Synod will not, I'm certain, radically refine any doctrine, it could create confusion in an era when we have plenty of that already and give comfort, through the voices of progressives in the Church who would suspend the Gospel's difficult parts, to those who would not bear their crosses.  Plenty of that is going on already, with a well funded German church angling to adopt a modern view of personal sin to some degree, rather than the more difficult, but more natural one, that St. Paul sets out.

Vatican II opened with the following prayer:

Almighty God, we have no confidence in our own strength; all our trust is in you. Graciously look down on these Pastors of your Church. Aid their counsels and their legislation with the light of your divine grace. Be pleased to hear the prayers we offer you, united in faith, in voice, in mind.

Mary, help of Christians, help of bishops; recently in your church at Loreto, where We venerated the mystery of the Incarnation, you gave us a special token of your love. Prosper now this work of ours, and by your kindly aid bring it to a happy, successful conclusion. And do you, with St. Joseph your spouse, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, intercede for us before the throne of God.

To Jesus Christ, our most loving Redeemer, the immortal King of all peoples and all ages, be love, power and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Perhaps the Synod, each day, should open with Ezekiel.

Lex Anteinternet: Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLVIV. Fatigue.

Lex Anteinternet: Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLVIV. Fatigue.: 

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLVIV. Fatigue.

September 3, 2023.

U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, R-Florida, and articles of impeachment, and issue/culture fatigue

Apparently, Rep. Mills has nothing to actually do.  Perhaps somebody can find something for him, so he has real problems to work on.

I can't help but note that District Attorney Willis in Georgia made a suggestion of that type to Representative Jim Jordan, expressing what is undoubtedly a widely held view that people are really tired of Congress acting like a bunch of children all the time.  

Most people are tired of this.  And by that, I mean a Congress that is monkeying around with bills that aren't going anywhere and are of the nature of throwing gasoline on a fire. We know that this impeachment is going nowhere. We know that a recent bill to do away with the Department of Education isn't either. We know that shutting the government down, which is going to happen soon, just causes the government to lose money.

Some people out in the audience of society may believe that all of this serves to get something done, but it sure isn't obvious.  Most people are simply tired.  Of course, this helps whip up a pre convinced base even though nothing is actually going to happen on a lot of these things.

Relating to fatigue, on another topic I posted on, that being the upcoming Synod on Synodality, I suspect a lot of Catholics are tired of this topic:

Dread and the Synod on Synodality.

At some point, constant change and the search to change things wears people down.  A good argument can be made right now that after Covid, and after a lot of people, would just like things to calm down for a while.  That's part of the reason, I suspect, that younger people are looking back to more traditional times, and maybe that the whole culture is, except in certain quarters.

That may explain why the leaders of the Church, or some of them, are keen on a synod on synodality, as difficult as it is to figure out what that means, while globably, in the pews, only at most 2% of Catholics participated in the survey process.  That alone should give the participants in the synod pause, as it may very well mean that the 2% that responded doesn't reflect anywhere near a statistically signficant number of Catholics.  It may well be that the maybe 5% or whatever of Trads in the parish this morning do.

Of course, part of the reason changed, including unwanted ones, occur is that most people are just busy living their lives. That means people who have what a lot of us do not, surplus time, tend to be reflected in change.  In some instances, that's because of the way that people are employed.  It's ofen noticed by some that institutions are resistant to change, but by the same token, change can be forced on members of an institution simply becuase somebody in charge wants to change things, and everyone else just has their shoulder to the wheel and can't really take note until the change arrives.

On people in different quarters, and obviously wanting things to be different, Saturday I was driving up a really busy city street and saw, on the sidewalk headed towards the center of downtown, which was far away, a young woman riding a bicycle.

She was probably around twenty, fairly thin, had a large tattoo running up her side, and was topless.

It was impossible not to see, and I wonder if she had done it before, as quite frankly she looked nervous.  She probably should have, as she wasn't like the late middle-aged woman, now deceased, who used to ride a Vespa around here topless.  It was always a shock to encounter her, but as impolite as it may be to say it, she wasn't attractive. This young woman was, and for any normal male, she was going to be noticed, an impact added to by the fact that she was well-endowed.

My guess is she was headed to David Street Station, where her breasts were going to be oggled at by many.  And the look on her face belied the fact that she no doubt would maintain that she was there to make some other point.

Another reason we really need to put the brakes on things until we take a look at Chesterton's Fence on all sorts of things.

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

Indeed, something of this type, although not quite of this type, lead commentator Amy Otto, in an Op Ed written some years ago, to maintain "Men Did Greater Things When It Was Harder To See Boobs".  The caption on the article, which was flippant but which addressed a serious topic, if not idential one, not too surprisingly went viral.

Also not too surprisingly, this is a topic that's been pretty widely studied and the entire observational nature of this is hard-wired into men.  That some don't get this is another defiance of science.

And one putting all the burden, I'd note, on men.  I don't really want to be in the position of taking note of some 20-year-old woman's bare breasts, and I don't want to be seeing something that only a spouse should.  But now I have, and I can't get that back, nor can she, nor can the probably hundreds of men, most with fewer reservations than me, that saw her on Saturday and whose thought went where every they let them go.

US Suicide Rates at all-time high

US suicides hit an all-time high last year

• By MIKE STOBBE - AP Medical Writer
• Updated 44 min ago
• 0

About 49,500 people took their own lives last year in the U.S., the highest number ever. That's according to new government data posted Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet calculated a suicide rate for the year. But available data suggests suicides are more common in the U.S. than at any time since the dawn of World War II. Experts caution that suicide is complicated, and that recent increases might be driven by higher rates of depression or limited availability of mental health services. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says a main driver is the growing availability of guns.

A horrific story, to be sure.

It occured to me for some reason that all things being equal, a record number would likely to be set every year, as the American population continues to grow.  Having said that, the rates are very high, which is referenced in this article.

Predictably, the reporter blames it on the "growing availability of guns", but firearms have been easy to get throughout American history. Availability has grown from the mid 20th Century, which saw a lot of gun control provisions come in which have later faded, in part due to being found unconstitutional, with the 1970s probably the high watermark of that, but if we go back prior to the 1930s, we'd find that things were, in most places, wide open.  Even children could buy firearms in most of the US prior to the 1950s.

What has really changed is a society within any kind of foundation whatsoever.  In the entire Western World, the culture built on Catholicism, but heavily impacted by the Reformation, has seen the foundation attacked and dismantled to be instead one that's now centered on radical individualism.  It's not healthy, and it's killing people.  Added to that, the increasing corporatist culture work in a box life throughout the developed world, that removes people radically from nature, is levying a toll. The combination of both is deadly.

Everyone claims to want to do something about this, which seems to amount to doing something about it sort of clinically, rather than existentially.

Storm Warning

At least 55 people died on Maui. Residents had little warning before wildfires overtook a town

• By TY O'NEIL, CLAIRE RUSH, JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER and REBECCA BOONE - Associated Press
• Updated 2 min ago
• 0

Maui residents who made desperate escapes from oncoming flames have asked why Hawaii’s famous emergency warning system didn’t alert them as wildfires raced toward their homes. Officials have confirmed that Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens were triggered before devastating fires killed at least 55 people and wiped out a historic town. The blaze is already the state’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1960 tsunami. The governor warned the death toll will likely rise. Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest integrated outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world. But many of Lahaina’s survivors said in interviews that they only realized they were in danger when they saw flames or heard explosions nearby.

I really have to wonder how long a large segment of American society, and the official leaders of the GOP, are going to continue to pretend there's nothing going on climate wise.  It's extremely difficult to grasp why they won't face reality on this, unless of course it's an example of worshiping money as if it was as religion.

People are now dying. Shouldn't this be taken seriously?

Without fail, one of our state's Congressional delegation comes on television or other media to promote fossil fuels and at least two out of the three like to talk about "Biden's radical climate agenda".  Keeping a natural climate isn't a "radical agenda" and simply refusing to discuss this topic is foolish.

Speaking of the Maui fires, some real goofballs are claiming that it was caused by a "direct energy weapons", which they also claim the last devastating California fires were.

It's scary to realize that people who believe something so idiotic have the right to vote.

Lil Tay is not dead.

I'd never heard of Lil Tay, aka Tay Tian, aka Claire Hope, aka Claire Eileen Qi Hope, but this line from her Wikipedia entry says a lot:

Tay's father and manager sought for Tay to become more focused on professionalism, suggesting a music career for her, though her mother and half-brother encouraged her to continue her original boastful character.

Keep in mind, she hit the music scene as a foul-mouthed rapper at age 9.

That's frankly sick, and not "sick" in the good pop culture lexicology way.  Her parents deserve a dope slap for letting that happen in the first place.

Whatever her legitimate name is, her story illustrates the poverty of values in the Western World.  Her parents were simply shacked up over a prolonged time, never married.  At some point, they separated and shared custody of the child.  Somehow, they allowed her to enter into the world of hip hop, which is marked for its celebration of criminal culture and high death rate. That made the stories of her death seem pretty credible.  Hardly a week goes by without some hip hop artist with a made up name dying young, in all the ways that tragic young deaths occur.  Just this week, it might be noted, one such artist was sentenced for shooting another, the victim of the shooting being Megan Thee Stallion (yes, that's a made up name).

When it was revealed she wasn't dead, I wondered if it was a PR stunt.  I'ts being claimed her social medial was hacked.  I see I'm not the only one who was speculating on the stunt possibilities, however.

Regarding Tay, even at age 9 to 14 she's an interesting example of a certain public pseudonym phenomenon.

Entertainers have always affected false names, often due to being required to do so by reporters.  Actors with Jewish names, for example, almost had to take another name early on. Paul Newman, an exception to so many rules in the acting community, is notable here as his real name actually was Paul Newman.

That's pretty much stopped as cultural prejudice of that type diminished.  A peculiar modern phenomenon has been people, particularly women, of mixed Asian and Euro-American heritage adopting their Asian mother's surname as a stage name.  It seems clear enough that Chinese American Tay was given the name at birth of Claire Eileen Qi Hope, i.e., Clair Hope, a pretty generic European name, and when she was drop-kicked into hip hop she became Tay Tian, or at least around there somewhere she did, taking her mother's last name. Priscilla Natalie Hartranft, a Korean American, took her mother's name Ahn, becoming Priscialla Ahn for the stage.  The surprising exception is the very successful Michelle Zauner (Michelle Chongmi Zauner) a Korean American born in Korea, who has kept her given name.  Zauner is the front for Japanese Breakfast, which is eclectically named, however, as Koreans are not particularly fond of hte Japanese.

I guess that takes us to Asian Pop, or maybe K Pop.  It's bad, but seems huge.  I don't know why.  Like a lot of Japanese group, K Pop tends to be very Kwaaii

But not all Japanese music actually is:

While I should not note it, by the way, I'm going to note it anyhow.  And what I'm going to note is that the children of European ethnicity people and Asian ethnicity people look very Asian as a rule.

It's simply an observation. But as a genetic observation, the genes that contribute to appearance are obviously dominant for the contributing Asian partner.

When I was in college, I knew a student whose father was British and mother Japanese.  He looked very Japanese.  Zauner looks Korean (and yes, I've been to Korea).  Ahn also looks Korean, and Tay looks Chinese.  This is merely an observation.

Last Edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLVIII. Library withdrawals.

Lex Anteinternet: Blog Mirror: Welders, Fishermen and a Pope

Lex Anteinternet: Blog Mirror: Welders, Fishermen and a Pope:  

Blog Mirror: Welders, Fishermen and a Pope

 Welders, Fishermen and a Pope

Lex Anteinternet: Distributist Notes. Note 1. Distributist Notes. Note 1. A distributist or more distributist society makes democracy work.

Lex Anteinternet: Distributist Notes. Note 1. A distributist or mo...: 

Distributist Notes. Note 1. A distributist or more distributist society makes democracy work.

The more money that is vested in a middle class, with a very broad middle class, and the less that's vested in remote corporate boardrooms, means that the economy itself is vested at the widest possible self-sustaining level.

Jefferson's yeoman, so to speak.

"San Augustine, Texas. A meeting of the town council to discuss buying a new water tank to replace the one which was destroyed by the March tornado. Left to right around the table: Troy Mitchell, city manager; J.W. Ritchie, tinner; H.D. Clark, department store owner; Mayor Alonzo Rushing, druggist; Mr. Ramsey, city attorney; R.V. Hall, grocer; Clyde Smith, grocer; and Frank Phillips, city secretary".  April, 1943.

Conversely, if your economic well-being depends on a giant corporate employer with headquarters far away, you will none the less be inclined to vote their interests, irrespective of whether they are your own.

Lex Anteinternet: Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part VIII. Sugary things.

Lex Anteinternet: Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part VIII. The high..

Truly, this is absurd:

September 6, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukraine has designates PepsiCo and the Mars candy company as :international war sponsors" due to their continued operations, and continued tax payments in and to Russia since the start of the Russo Ukrainian War.

PepiCo has operated in Russia, if you consider the USSR its predecessor, since 1974, as opposed to Coca-Cola which did not until 1985.  It has nineteen plants in the company and employs 20,000 people directly, and 40,000 agricultural employees indirectly.  It's Russia' fourth largest food and beverage company.  Since the war started, it's net profits have increased by 333%.

Mars profits have increased 59% since the start of the war.

To give an illustration of the absurd nature of consolidation and market domination in corporate capitalism, PepsiCo trademarks (brands) include the following (list courtesy of Wikipedia):

• Agousha (Russia)
• Alvalle (Spain)[3]
• AMP Energy
• Aquafina
• Aquafina Flavorsplash
• Aunt Jemima/Pearl Milling Company
• Baconzitos (Brazil)
• Cap'n Crunch
• Cheetos
• Chester's
• Chipsy (Egypt, Serbia)
• Chudo
• Cracker Jack
• Crunchy
• Diet Mountain Dew
• Diet Mug
• Diet Pepsi
• Diet 7UP (only outside of the United States)
• Diet Sierra Mist
• Domik v Derevne (Russia)
• Doritos
• Duyvis (Netherlands)
• Elma Chips (Brazil)
• Emperador (Mexico)
• Evervess (Russia)
• Fandangos (Brazil)
• Frito-Lay
• Fritos
• Fruktoviy Sad (Russia)
• Frustyle (Russia)
• G2
• Gatorade
• Gatorade Zero
• Grandma's
• Imunele (Russia)
• Izze
• Ivi (Albania, Greece, Cyprus, Serbia)
• Kas
• KhrusTeam (Russia)
• Kurkure (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan)
• Lay's
• Life
• Lifewater
• Lubimy (Russia)
• Manzanita Sol
• Marias Gamesa
• Matutano (Spain, Portugal)
• Marbo (Serbia)
• Mirinda
• Miss Vickie's
• Mountain Dew
• Mountain Dew Code Red
• Mountain Dew Game Fuel
• Mountain Dew Kickstart
• Mug
• Munchies
• Naked (naked?)
• Near East
• O.N.E.
• Paso de los Toros (Uruguay)
• Pasta Roni
• Pepsi
• Pepsi Max
• Pepsi Next
• Pepsi Zero Sugar
• Pioneer Foods
• Propel
• Quaker
• Quaker Chewy
• Rice-A-Roni
• Rold Gold
• Rosquinhas Mabel (Brazil)
• Ruffles
• Russkiy Dar (Russia)
• Sabritas
• Sakata (Australia)
• Saladitas
• Sandora (Ukraine)
• Santitas
• 7UP (only outside of the United States)
• 7UP Free (only outside of the United States)
• Sierra Mist
• Simba (Southern Africa)
• Smartfood
• Smith's (Australia)
• Snack a Jacks
• SoBe
• SoBe Lifewater
• SoBe V Water
• Sonric’s
• Stacy’s
• Star
• Starry
• Stiksy (Brazil)
• Sting
• SunChips
• Tonus
• Tostitos
• Trop 50
• Tropicana
• Tropicana Farmstand
• Tropicana Pure Premium
• Tropicana Twister
• Twisties (Oceania Region)
• Vesely Molochnik
• Walkers (United Kingdom)
• Ya (Russia)
• Yedigün (Turkey)

Hopefully that list will help reduce their profits.

Mars, which also owns Wrigley, is also gigantic, and its brands are:

• 3 Musketeers
• Ben's Original
• Bounty
• Celebrations
• Cirku
• CocoaVia
• Combos
• Dolmio
• Dove
• Ebly
• Ethel M
• FLAVIA
• Fling
• Flyte
• Forever Yours
• Galaxy
• Galaxy Bubbles
• Galaxy Minstrels
• A Twix bar
• M-Azing
• M&M's
• Maltesers
• Marathon
• Mars
• Masterfoods
• Milky Way
• Munch
• Promite
• Revels
• Seeds of Change
• Snickers
• Topic
• Tracker
• Treets
• Twix
• 5 gum cobalt packaging
• 5 (gum)
• Airwaves
• Alpine
• Altoids
• Big Red
• Bubble Tape
• Doublemint
• Eclipse
• Eclipse Ice
• Excel
• Extra
• Freedent
• Hubba Bubba
• Juicy Fruit
• Life Savers
• Lockets
• Orbit
• Ouch!
• Rondo
• Skittles
• Spearmint
• Starburst
• Surpass
• Tunes
• Winterfresh
• Wrigley's

Mars also manufactures products for pets, including:

• Pedigree dry dog food
• ADVANCE (Australia and New Zealand only)
• Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
• Buckeye Nutrition
• Cesar
• Chappi
• Crave
• Dreamies/Catisfactions
• Dine (Australia and New Zealand version of Sheba)
• Exelcat
• Eukanuba
• Exelpet
• Frolic
• The Goodlife Recipe
• Good-o
• Greenies
• Iams
• James Wellbeloved
• Kit-e-Kat
• My Dog
• Natura
• Natusan
• Nutro Products
• Optimum
• Pedigree
• Pill Pockets
• Royal Canin
• Schmackos
• Sheba
• Teasers
• Techni-Cal
• Temptations
• Trill
• Whiskas
• Winergy

Obviously, the two companies are hard to avoid, and people can make their own judgements, but even from an economic social justice standpoint, this is absurd.