Peanut Gallery: Pope Francis calls for a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria. Mark your calendar – September 7th… and set aside time for prayer.
“There is a judgement of God and the judgement of history upon our actions, which is inescapable! Never has the use of violence brought peace in its wake. War breeds war, violence breeds violence!”
Special thanks to friends in Sweden who brought this cartoon to my attention.
by Victor Davis Hanson ~ Commentary Archives, m.townhall.com
August 22nd 2013
Two quite different 21st-century Americas are emerging. The nation is not so much divided by “wars” between the rich and poor, men and women, or white and non-white. Instead, there is the world of reality versus that of triviality.
In the vast plains of the Dakotas and the American West, thousands of men and women of all classes and colors are fracking oil and gas to create new energy for millions of homeowners and commuters — while giving America a second chance at strategic energy independence.
Yet the beneficiaries mostly ignore these elemental efforts. They instead prefer to fixate on the alleged sexual creepiness of big-city political mediocrities like Bob Filner and Anthony Weiner.
As we sleep, 7,000 miles away there are still thousands of American soldiers of all races, ages, classes and genders in godforsaken conditions fighting the Taliban to allow millions in Afghanistan the chance for an alternative to medieval theocracy and to deter terrorists.
Meanwhile, back home, the nation is focused not on such existential struggles but transfixed by racial melodramas.
Was Oprah victimized by racial insensitively in a Swiss boutique when inquiring about purchasing a $38,000 crocodile purse? Were 10 black “American Idol” contestants really victims of “cruel and inhumane” treatment because their arrest records were brought up on the show? Should a rodeo clown — whose stock and trade is humor — be sent to “sensitivity training” for wearing an Obama mask?
At the end of two years of near-record drought in California, the fate of hundreds of thousands of acres of irrigated farmlands, which feed millions of Americans and earn billions of dollars in critical foreign exchange, hinges on a snow-filled winter in the Sierra Nevada. You might never know of that razor’s edge from the state legislature. Rather than discussing new dams and canals, it debated whether transgendered youth in public schools could use the bathrooms of their choice and whether residents should need a permit to buy ammunition.
The historic role of government is changing before our eyes. President Obama is making the argument that the executive branch by presidential fiat can pick and choose which laws should and should not be faithfully executed — whether Obamacare, immigration amnesties or No Child Left Behind statutes.
The fate of the entire concept of voluntary tax compliance is currently endangered by the politicization of the Internal Revenue Service. Whether the government can monitor the communications of either reporters or average citizens depends on getting to the bottom of the National Security Agency and Justice Department/Associated Press scandals.
Instead, the media seem more interested in whether Obama is playing golf on Martha’s Vineyard.
Why is the country consumed by the trivial while snoozing through the essential?
We have become a nation of instant electronic communications — Twitter, Facebook, cell phones and the Internet — even as reading and math scores plummet in our schools, and newspapers and magazines go broke. We can communicate information at the speed of light but have trouble finding anything meaningful to send back and forth.
In prior times, writers, directors and actors endeavored to present television drama characterized by good acting and engaging scripts. Now, it is more profitable and apparently more entertaining just to film pseudo-celebrities talking, eating and agonizing over the day’s banalities, as with “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
Yet sometimes we get vicarious pleasure from watching oddballs do what most of us won’t or can’t do. Nineteenth-century-style men who cut timber, mine gold, drive big rigs and catch fish on the high seas are now big reality-television hits. Apparently, those who did not go to Ivy League schools or make a pile on Wall Street appear as more genuine Americans — at least in our dreams and fantasies.
Yet part of America’s confusion about what is important and petty begins at the top.
Reggie Love, the erstwhile presidential assistant and “body man” to President Obama recently reported on the critical moments of the mission to kill Osama bin Laden. The president apparently was not glued to live video feeds, as the photos from his re-election campaign suggested.
“Most people were like down in the Situation Room,” Love said, “and [the president] was like, ‘I’m not going to be down there, I can’t watch this entire thing.’ So he, myself, Pete Souza, the White House photographer, Marvin [Nicholson], we must have played 15 games of spades.”
The commander in chief was playing cards while Navy Seals risked their lives to kill America’s No. 1 enemy — only later to use photos of himself watching live feeds for his re-election sloganeering: “bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!”
That pretense sums up the growing void between real and trivial America.
________________________________________
Victor Davis Hanson is a noted historian and social critic whose philosophies are rooted in classicism. An author, contributing editor and professor, Victor Davis Hanson writes a world affairs column syndicated by Tribune Media Services.
Peanut Gallery: The chaos continues in Egypt and Christians are easy targets for Islamist thugs.
The Western world had pretty much abandoned Egypt’s Christians since the onset of the so-called Arab Spring… and their situation deteriorated steadily under the Morsi-Muslim Brotherhood regime. They simply could not count on the Morsi government to protect them from Islamist attacks. That’s why Coptic Christians generally supported the Egyptian military’s overthrow of Morsi.
Now it’s pay-back time for the ousted Islamists. How bad is it? In the last few days, 58 Christian churches, schools, institutions, shops torched by the Muslim Brotherhood.
See photos here… here… and here. The list below, compiled by Asia News, tells the sad story.
Is it any wonder that Christians have turned to the Egyptian military to protect them? And they have found a champion in the Egyptian military, Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi . El-Sisi has vowed to rebuild Coptic Churches destroyed by the Muslim Brotherhood. In fact, the Egyptian military broadly represents the demographics of the Egyptian people and is intimately entwined with the industrial / manufacturing / commercial community of Egypt. It is the only entity capable of stabilizing Egypt today… and has broad popular support.
PLEASE PRAY:
Egypt: Islamists Burn Down Dozens Of Coptic Christian Churches
The List of Christian Churches, Schools, Institutions, Shops Torched by the Muslim Brotherhood in the Last Few Days
Cairo (AsiaNews) – At least 58 Christian churches, schools, institutions, homes and shops have been attacked, looted and torched over the last three days by the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of Mohamed Morsi, the former Egyptian president who was deposed on 3 July . On August 14 the army has tried to evict the sit-in of the Islamists in Rabaa El Nahda Square and Adaweya. In a wave of devastating violence, over 600 people were killed and thousands injured. But violent attacks were also carried out on Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical churches as well as the homes and shops of Christians, as we have documented
The representatives of the Christian Churches have drawn up a list which we publish below. The list was handed over to AsiaNews by the Press Office of the Catholic Church in Egypt.
The following list of 58 looted and burned buildings (including convents and schools) has been verified by representatives of the Christian Churches.
Catholic churches and convents
Orthodox and Evangelical Churches
Christian institutions
Burned buildings owned by Christians
Other
washingtontimes.com -click here
When the Rev. Thomas Vander Woude learned about a young couple planning to abort their unborn baby that had been diagnosed with Down syndrome, the priest reached out and offered a deal: Deliver the child and he would help find an appropriate adoptive family.
But he had to act fast.
The woman, who has not been identified for her privacy and her protection, was just shy of six months pregnant and lives in a state that prohibits abortions past 24 weeks — which meant he had a short time to find a family willing to make a lifelong commitment.
So Father Vander Woude, the lead pastor at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Gainesville, Va., approached a volunteer who helped manage the church’s social media pages, and she posted an urgent plea on Facebook early Monday morning.
“There is a couple in another state who have contacted an adoption agency looking for a family to adopt their Down Syndrome unborn baby. If a couple has not been found by today they plan to abort the baby. If you are interested in adopting this baby please contact Fr. VW IMMEDIATELY,” the post read. “We are asking all to pray for this baby and the wisdom that this couple realize the importance of human life and do not abort this beautiful gift from God.”
The post asked people to call the church’s office after 9:30 a.m. Monday or to email Father Vander Woude.
No one expected the response they received.
“When we got in and opened up around 9:30, it was nearly nonstop. All day long, we were receiving phone calls from people who wanted to adopt the baby,” church staff member Martha Drennan said. “Father Vander Woude has gotten over 900 emails in regard to the baby.”
The offers were narrowed to three families, which the unborn child’s parents are reviewing with the help of an adoption agency.
Ms. Drennan said the church received phone calls from all over the United States and around the world, including from England, Puerto Rico and the Netherlands.
“I think it is a wonderful use of social media, that word can so quickly get all over the country and even to foreign countries and that the people who see the value of life are stepping up and saying, ‘I will take that baby and raise that baby as mine,’” Ms. Drennan said. “It was a beautiful witness all day long that so many people wanted this child and believed in the dignity of that child — Down syndrome or not.”
The president and founder of the International Down Syndrome Coalition, Diane Grover, stressed the importance of informing couples who are considering abortion for babies with Down syndrome that adoption is a viable option, pointing to the fast and overwhelming response her organization received about this one unborn child as an amazing example.
“When [couples are] in that position, a lot of people wonder if their child [with Down syndrome] would actually get adopted,” Ms. Grover said. “There’s a lot of people waiting, and we are happy to always help.”
David Dufresne, a seminary student who plans to become a priest next year, volunteered to help the overwhelmed church staff take calls.
“I was taking calls for about three hours straight, just talking to people who are willing to adopt this little baby they never knew about until that morning,” Mr. Dufresne said. “I mean, all day long, just receiving phone calls from people who were so generous and within a couple minutes made a life-changing decision. I was really inspired by the goodness of people and what they would do to save a life.”
The Peanut Gallery 
