Autumn in LA

"Autumn in LA,
it can be so exciting.
Autumn in LA
it can be so inviting..."

Actually, the original lyrics for "Autumn in New York" are much better, conveying the pleasant cool, crispy bright days that only an East Coast Autumn can produce.

Not so in LA. This, pictured above, is our fall. You in other places get flaming leaves of scarlet and gold. We just get flames.
You all in civilized climes get brilliant days of inviting cool.
We get overcast with chance of ash.
You get the smell of leaves and harvest.
We get the stentch of arcid smoke and destruction.

In other parts of the country, fall marks the beginning of the end of the year.

Here, fall often resembles what the beginning of the end of the world is supposed to look like.

Seriously, the way the sky looks much of the time with a blood red sun and the smell of scorched earth, one would not be at all surprised to see the "sky rolling back as a scroll" together with the bodies of those who have died in Christ popping up like popcorn from the local cemetery and flying off to meet him who is surely coming in the clouds at any minute.

It'd look just just like one of those pictures of the rapture that the 7th Day Adventists used to protray so well in their bible books for children. My dear 7th Day Adventist Grandma exposed to me to this notion of apocalytic terror back when I was growing up Methodist. The Methodists did not preach on this and so the thought of all hell busting loose like that was news to me.

And now I'm living in one of those pictures. Lord have mercy!

Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, pray for us!

Today is the remembrance of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, a Catholic priest who in the truest sense of the word followed the example of Christ by laying down his life for another.

From Wikipedia:
During the Second World War he provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews whom he hid from Nazi persecution in his friary in Niepokalanów. He was also active as a radio amateur, with Polish call letters SP3RN, vilifying Nazi activities through his reports.
On 17 February 1941 he was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and on May 28 he was transferred to Auschwitz as prisoner #16670.
In July 1941 a man from Kolbe's barracks vanished, prompting SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13[10] (notorious for torture), in order to deter further escape attempts.[11] (The man who had disappeared was later found drowned in the camp latrine.) One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family, and Kolbe volunteered to take his place.
During the time in the cell he led the men in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe and three others were still alive. He encouraged others that they would soon be with Mary in heaven. Each time the guards checked on him he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered, while the others lay moaning and complaining, on the ground around him. He was murdered with an injection of carbolic acid.[12] Some who were present at the injection say that he raised his left arm and calmly waited for the injection.[13] His remains were cremated on the Assumption of Mary.

Upon the occasion of his first arrest by the nazis, the saint was quoted thus:

“Courage, my sons. Don’t you see that we are leaving on a mission? They pay our fare in the bargain. What a piece of good luck! The thing to do now is to pray well in order to win as many souls as possible. Let us, then, tell the Blessed Virgin that we are content, and that she can do with us anything she wishes” (Maximilian Mary Kolbe, when first arrested).

May I be as brave as this when my time comes! St. Maximilian, pray for that I might have your courage and more importantly, your love.

Mad as hell

I just figured it out this morning; all the yelling, the shouting and screaming that have been going on in the "town hall" meetings over the proposed and so called "healthcare reform bill."

If you look at most of the shouters, you'll note that they are mostly age 45 and above, mostly above.

This got me to thinking: these are not the sort of people who just have meltdowns and scream and rant like most left wing libbys are wont to do at the drop of a hat.

No, these folks are more likely to write letters, send emails, make phone calls or try to get appointments to see their local elected official face to face. But here they are, showing off tonsils and dental work, one vast yawning sea of open mouthed rage.

And then it hit me! It is precisely because of the letters dumped unopened into the trash, the emails deleted, the phone calls hung up on and the appointments that never happened that has caused Joe Sixpack to unleash and go vocal to the extreme at these meetings. They're doing what the left has done for years, throwing a hissy fit to get immediate attention. Sort of the squeaky wheel getting greased school of political activism.

But unlike the left who, like any spoiled child, eventually gets what they demand, these people, these average, law abiding, taxpaying citizens are becoming demonized for their efforts. They're being called "un-American" and "racists". They stand accused of carrying "swastikas" and other signage of the nazi regime into meetings.

We the people have become we, THE MOB that, per dear leader, must "shut up!" and "get out of the way!"

Of course at today's "O"-bot town hall, one citizen had the nerve to actually carry a gun, an utterly legal thing to do in that state, as was his right to carry his sign stating that the tree of liberty needed watering from time to time. This little display of free speech and the right to bear arms nearly caused a mass electrocution over at MSNBC where some commentators nearly wet their pants and the surrounding power cables in concern.

I should also note that this citizen was kept outside with the rest of the angry mob. Only those with adoring and worshipping gazes and reverent tones around dear leader where allowed inside to be in his most august presence.

As a poster over at a certain site posted:

"This is a trillion dollar infomercial for Obama and his death squad."

Couldn't have put it better myself.

It's Bush's fault!!!

From one of my favorite down and dirty websites, GLP, (God Like Productions):


"Just imagine if the Bush White House put this up on the White House web site
Quote

There is a lot of disinformation about the Iraq war out there, spanning from control of Iraqi oil to it being just a war of distraction. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about the Iraq war that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov"

Using this point of reference, does THIS make it any more clear for some of you all???