American Halloween: Satan is dressed like Atticus Finch

"The real Satan however will look just like Jesus Christ (Revelation 13), he shall come in peaceably (Daniel 11) and he shall work wonders in the sight of mankind in order to deceive them into believing he is Jesus Christ (Revelation 13)." comments from Times of Israel

The ACLU vigorously defends the rights of all Americans to practice their religion. But because the ACLU is often better known for its work preventing the government from promoting and funding selected religious activities, it is sometimes wrongly assumed that the ACLU does not zealously defend the rights of all religious believers to practice their faith. The actions described below – over half of which were brought on behalf of self-identified Christians, with the remaining cases defending the rights of a wide range of minority faiths – reveal just how mistaken such assumptions are. ACLU

America has a devil of problem.  We believe that everyone has a right to practise their faith.  Americans have a poioumenon problem - in over two hundred years we have decided to take the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and The Devil and Daniel Webster as a metafictional taffy pull.

My twenty dollar words  roughly translate to a 'product' in which the story is about the process of creation.   Pure John Dewey - the play is the thing and it is all about the inquiry, Yo!

Take a text, an article of faith, a statement. a word, or even a gesture and make something huge out of it.  Think of a social justice defense lawyer, - a protester has a constitutional right to exercise his free speech (verbally, artistically, dramatically and confrontationally); ergo, the charges against a protester must be dropped, unless they embarrass the mayor who blesses the actions of said attorney.

It is not what the Bill of Rights actually says in the document, but what a press protected, politically paid up pettifogger can make the public go along with at the moment.

Feelings help. Appeals to the breast of a public television subscriber can't miss in America.

America no longer trusts in God and it bans prayer, religious iconography ( unless Muslim for the time being, anyway), rosaries, crosses, or even solemn looks.

However, amid all of this civitas in bella Dei,  quasi-quack collegia et Satanas Wicca vocati sunt. Satan and Wicca are welcome.

I travel to the great State of Wisconsin as often as possible.  The people the grace and simple courtesies offered statewide above the Illinois border are a tonic.

I tend to go to Monroe, Green, Lafayatte and Madison counties, lands settled by sturdy Swiss, German, Nordic and Celtic immigrants before the Civil War.  There are United Churches of Christ, Catholic parishes, and every Evangelical and Mainline Protestant houses of worship up and down the rolling hills of Dairyland.  There is at least one synagogue in Madison and more than few Mosques and Muslim Circles. It is the UCC Swiss and Mennonite Dutch and others whose dairy barns in the Swiss/Nordic counties that sport Hex signs.  

The word Hex is believed to have come from the Teutonic word Hexe, or "witch." The signs are elaborate Rosetta's, circles with interior designs of geometric shapes.  They are beautiful examples of folk art. Some believe they have more to do with flowers, than witchcraft.  Most acknowledge the pre-Christian designs as part of the Alpine German " Sun of the Alps."

I was told by a Swiss blooded American that farmers placed Hex Signs on their barns to ward off Satan - he explained that many built round barns " so the Devil had no corner to hide in."

Actually, they were very practical and sound structures.  Here is one in Dane County near Mount Horeb that was converted into a magnificent home
Mount Horeb is home to Circle Sanctuary's many tribes of 'witches' and Wiccans, shamanns, circkes of drummers and Indigenous Peoples practitioners along what is collectively called The Spirit Pathways.  

In Mount Horeb,  the "Circle comprises a network of Pagan, Wiccan, Goddess and Shamanic gatherings from around the country and the world. Directed, more or less, by Selena Fox. The Circle home page is an extensive informational site, to say the least."  That it is.

The ACLU has no beef with The Circle whatsoever. The ACLU is all over Catholics, Jews and Evangelicals ( Main-liners are totally NPR and Muslims have yet to experience the Roger Baldwining of their beliefs).


The ACLU has no problem with Satan, but sure has one with the Decalogue.

Satanists have found a haven and coven in Salem, Massachusetts , home to full-blooded nut job and 1/2,6789th Cherokee Senator Bessie Warren.  Salem was where deplorables and abolitionists burned witches at the stake in 17th Century, inspiring Hawthorne's Hester Prynne to proudly sport the Big A and causing Arthur Miller to attack McCarthyisms with the Crucible. Roger Baldwin's ancestors ran Catholics and Baptists to Maryland and set the tone for  ACLU the American bed and breakfast industry  

Located one-mile from historic sites tied to Salem’s 1692 witchcraft hysteria, the building — a former funeral home — was inaugurated last month by activist Malcolm Jarry, a self-described “secular Jew” who co-founded The Satanic Temple (TST) in 2013. Jarry is a pseudonym, and he refuses to be photographed.The temple houses an art gallery in honor of Baphomet (see above), a “sabbatic goat” representing the universe. Behind the two-story building, an eight-foot tall statue of Baphomet sits in a plain shed, where visitors can pay to view it.
With up to 50,000 members in chapters around the world, TST has garnered colossal media attention in the last three years. Chief among Jarry’s causes are marriage equality and women’s reproductive freedom. Any issue related to the government using religion to restrict individual freedom is also likely to engage temple leaders, some of whom staged a 2014 “Black Mass” at Harvard University to push the envelope on religious freedom.
Outside of New England, TST has taken legal action against the placement of edifices of the Ten Commandments in civic settings, including statehouses. To illustrate how such displays violate religious freedom, the temple has insisted it be allowed to erect goat-headed Baphomet statues in the same locations. TST is also planning to take on some schools’ use of isolation, denial of bathroom access, and corporal punishment of children. Times of Israel (emphases my own)

Man, talk about outdoing the public relations of NPR and the Unitarians!  Satan is a Progressive and dresses up like Atticus Finch for go-to-meeting duds, I'll Elizabeth Warrant !

The establishment of a religion?  No. the State sponsored destruction of religious liberty.

Happy Halloween!

The Settled Science of Silliness 2008 to Present (ex libris Hickey)

Minds are settled.

The New York Times ran a TV commercial  a few years ago in an attempt to capture more subscribers by way of touting the Weekender. The people in the ad are universally obnoxious, prissy, snotty and self-absorbed. To me and nearly every person I come into contact with every day, real people cops, foremen,teachers, City workers and the odd billionaire, all of the actors playing real New York Times readers seem like they were hand-picked by the DNC. One of the 'real readers' is an faux bald obnoxious goof in a turtleneck glasses sweater and horn rimmed who hisses 'It's in the Times and that settles it.'

That settles it. Think no more, search no more, accept a prissy meme and be happy.  All is well.

The problem is . . .there are more settled minds in America than is healthy.

Political discourse was fun at one time.  Since Obama took the White House and even a little before, chats about culture, religion, science and public policy artists at the City, County, State, National and International levels devolved into this dialog I had with an old friend in July 2008 at a fund raiser for a sick child at 115 Bourbon Street.

" Hey, Hickey! How's your McCain work going?"

I'm not working on McCain's campaign.  I plan to vote for him, if he gets the nomination.

" He's nuts!   You met Obama; how could you not be for him?  You've been a Democrat all your life."

I still am a registered Democrat.  Yes, I have met Obama, as head of the Woods Fund, at the Snow Flake Ball before Bobby Rush handed him his ass, at several family parties  and when he asked me how the hell I expected him to get into a boxing ring, when there is "No Gate!"  Obama is a very dumb guy, but looks like he could open a box of Wheaties without a tutorial and I can not stand the people behind him.

" Oh, like me?"

No. Like Abner Mikva and all of Hyde Park creeps running Richie Daley. Look he is run by Valerie Jarrett who is one of the nastiest vipers on the edge of the public trough.Only today, the Sun Times had the story of Obama's $1.1 million dollar gazebo giveaway to a connected pal in Englewood and we could not get the goof to endorse a grant for us at Leo, the entire time he was in the State Senate.  He tossed $100,000 to a campaign worker for a gazebo that doesn't exist.    It is in the Sun Times today.

" Awhh, @#$% You and all your right-wing pals!'

My right wing pals?  I don't ever drink tea.

That settled any future exchanges unrelated to weather and the robust state of my physical health.

Settled.  People who ask you what you think are not even remotely interested in your thoughts - You know the reified things that used to bus us to the conclusive idea, or opinion we hold at moment.

"How do you like my Onion and Garlic Cake with Maple Syrup?"

( generous exploratory mouthful and swallow) Gee, I think I am about to vomit.

" Awhh, @#$% you and your Food Channel pals!"

We are settled.  Settled things that require absolutely nothing more than a conclusion.

• Climate Change?  Settled  
• Science? Settled.  
• Donald Trump?  He's Really, really, really honest and thoughtful!  
• Mayor Rahm Emanuel? Fiscal Sophistication and Great for Organized Labor! 
• Abortion Videos ?  Please. 
• Pension Problems?  Politicians are Crooks and Not Our Fault, Because We Only Voted for Them!  
• Blackhawks' Patrick Kane?  Guilty!  
• 9/11?  Bush Killed Millions More - Noam Chomsly said So! 
•  Patriots' Deflatgator Tom Brady? Guilty?  
• Black Lives Matter? Shut the@#$% Up, Racists!  
• Cops? As if! Haven't You Been Watching CNN/MSNBC?
• Obama's Iran Deal?  No Wars Ever!

Facts and shared truths?  See Talking Points Memo, or Rush Limbaugh

I am unsettled.  Ask me.

Gay Marriage Illinois Will Make War on Faith, Rep. Fran Hurley.

My State Senator Billy Cunningham voted for Same Sex Marriage SB 10 and State Rep.Fran Hurley seems about to do so.


“SB 10 will force religious people and organizations into years of legal fights, likely against the Illinois government, to defend their rights to practice their faith.” Thomas More Society letter to Illinois House of Representatives May 29, 2013

If passed, SB 10 would allow same-sex couples to marry in Illinois. The bill passed the Senate and a key House committee, but has not yet been debated or voted on by the full House. While this bill extends legal marriage rights to Illinois’s same sex couples, religious institutions would not be required to recognize same-sex marriage or perform same-sex marriage ceremonies. State Rep Fran Hurley June 28th 2013

On this Gay Pride Parade Sunday, I was was struck by the gospel message at Mass.   

  

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. 

When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?"  Jesus turned and rebuked them,  and they journeyed to another village.  As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." 

And to another he said, "Follow me." But he replied, "(Lord,) let me go first and bury my father." 

But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

And another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home." 

(To him) Jesus said, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God."  Saint Luke 9:51-62. 

I'm one of those guys,  "I will follow you Lord, but first let me check my Beverly Bank bank balance - Wells Fargo mortgage, Peoples Gas, ComED, County Fair, Gas, walking around money, Rahm's Water bill, vehicle plate sticker, Rahm's sticker, . . .sorry, pal, can't make the trip. Catch me after next year's tax return and we'll do some good."

I do some small good, I think.  Pay day is every two weeks.  Money matters, especially if you have kids living at home.  My income for the last forty years has been as a Catholic school teacher and a pretty good one at that - never been fired and never did any gypsy job hopping.  As a Catholic, I believe in the teachings of the Church, despite the flaws, scandals and the opinions of others. I am also a Democrat.

I remain a Catholic, because I believe in what it teaches despite the folly and crimes of the past.  I remain a Democrat in the hope that the party will snap out of its folly and crimes past current and future.  I voted Republican in 2008 and 2012, because I believe the candidate and President is summation of those follies and crimes.  Same sex marriage, which is not about civil rights, much less personal fulfillment, is the worst example of folly with the crimes against faith and conscience only months away. 

My State Representative, from the time I moved back to Chicago was Democrat Kevin Joyce, who resigned to take a position with Ave Maria University in Florida and feed his wife and eight children.  Kevin represented our community, which is largely Catholic, without apology and without the support of Planned Parenthood and its allies.    Kevin was never replaced - he was succeeded by State Sen. Billy Cunningham and now Fran Hurley.  Both support the initiatives of Illinois Boss Terry Cosgrove. Cunningham voted for Senate Bill 10, which is the most hostile bill of any same-sex marriage bill in the country.  Fran Hurley sent this response to my letter asking her to vote against this bill in the Illinois House:

Dear Pat,Thank you for reaching out to me about the same-sex marriage legislation proposed in the Illinois legislature.If passed, SB 10 would allow same-sex couples to marry in Illinois. The bill passed the Senate and a key House committee, but has not yet been debated or voted on by the full House. While this bill extends legal marriage rights to Illinois’s same sex couples, religious institutions would not be required to recognize same-sex marriage or perform same-sex marriage ceremonies.I continue to listen to constituents on this important and contentious issue. I will keep your thoughts in mind as we debate these issues in Springfield and will keep you updated as this issue progress.Again, thank you for contacting me about this very important issue. I appreciate your feedback and hope that you will contact me if you would like to discuss this or any other issue facing the state.Sincerely,Fran HurleyState Representative, 35th District

Thank you for the form letter, Fran.

Candidate Fran Hurley took money and the endorsement of Illinois Personal PAC ( the abortion industry and same sex marriage) , I would assume  because she believes in its mission, or that someone or some people directing her career told her to do so.  Kevin Joyce would never have done so. 

Rep. Fran Hurley clearly will vote for Senate Bill 10.  Why,  because she is using the language of the Party Meme - the one used by Steve Chapman and the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune.   The Supreme Court decisions last week did not so much clear the way for conjugal happiness universal. as it did setting the tone for the redefinition of marriage and the national legal defining of bigots, haters, traitors, mopes and dummies - thought criminals.  I am a Democrat and a Catholic and a citizen.

I will not be defined by Justice Kennedy, Windy City Times, Terry Cosgrove, or IL Senate Bill 10.  I will have my liberties challenged.

True dissenting faiths will not be compelled to perform non-Euclidean Marriages, but Catholics, Calvinists and Contrarians will be compelled to swear that the circumferance of circle is a right angle alone. 

SB 10 would make Illinois the most hostile state in the country to the religious freedoms of people of faith,” says Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel of the Thomas More Society, a national public-interest law firm. “SB 10 would generate years of litigation and cause those who faithfully practice their religion to be mislabeled as ‘discriminators,’ stripped of government benefits, and subjected to fines and penalties simply because they abide by their sincerely held beliefs. Legal scholars have urged on a bipartisan basis that SB 10 in its current form be rejected. Illinois legislators should heed this bipartisan call.”
The letter cites numerous examples of businesses and organizations that are being sued around the country for actions taken in compliance with their religious beliefs. The letter concludes by stating, “Instead of being a ‘Religious Freedom’ bill, SB 10 will devastate the liberties of individuals, businesses, religious organizations and religious charities all across our state of Illinois.”

The Party meme holds that I will not be forced into a same sex marriage, nor will my parish be forced to sanctify a same sex marriage and therefore I and my co-religionists have nothing to fear.

St. Cajetan Parish does, if it does not 'permit' a gay marriage party in its hall - woe betide St. Cajetan.
Little Company of Mary sure does if it does not provide full same-sex insurance benefits to employees
Leo High School, Brother Rice, Mount Carmel, St. Rita and Mother McAuley will face penalties if state mandated approval of same sex marriages in curriculum and instruction.

If any citizen or institution refuses to accept same marriage that person will be judged a 'discriminator.'

If the Illinois House votes to pass Senate Bill 10, there will be a great deal of discrimination against religion and religious people.

Jesus took a tough path to Jerusalem and warned us - that's gospel.

Chicago's Pleonastic Schnook and the Science of Snobbery Against Faith

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe."

John 20:24-25

Religious zealotry is alien to me —but I understand that lots of people are fired up by their own creeds, and hot to impose them upon anybody and everybody, eagerly using any tool at their disposal, from little tracts left in bus station restrooms to fanciful doctrine jammed into public education disguised as legitimate science.

But this ploy must be resisted. Primarily because we live in a diverse society now. This issue lingers because not everyone has gotten that memo, and pools of fervent consensus exist — lots of fundamentalist villages in Tennessee, apparently. This encourages the grouped faithful to convince themselves that everybody thinks the same, or should. They don’t and shouldn’t. That’s why science is appealing — the atomic structure of hydrogen is unchanged whether you are Protestant or Catholic, Jewish or Muslim.

Neil Steinberg- Chicago's scornful schnook

The dimensions of the atom which forms its structure is a function of radiation power change that the atom undergoes. As the atomic component masses in a material are initially accelerated to near light speed there is a mass change and a shortening of its dimensions,(The electron orbital radius is relatively responding accordingly)
This is relative to the atomic temperature energy changes.The mass structure changes phase as a function of temperature power and the time that the radiation power that the atom in the mass structure responds to.
Never the less the architecture of the atom keeps its form unless a Nuclear fusion occurs due to extreme gravity field pressure and temperature energy changes between interaction of the atoms.

An good example is Hydrogen nuclear fusion which causes a new structure assembly into Helium atom transformation.

Some Science guy. ( emphases my own -of course)

Religion and religious beliefs are targets of bullies. You see religion is big to most folks and the end of religious belief is God and no one is Bigger than God - but science. Immanuel Kant, a guy who never travelled more than forty miles from his Prussian Königsberg, is the grand daddy of scientific zealotry, evident in our Chicago lummox's column.

Science was once the means of getting to the Truth. Science was used by Franciscan Schoolmen in the 13th Century as means supporting Faith. Muslims, Jews and Christians had a big part in this effort all the while slaughtering one another in the Holy Land.

These days people of faith are zealots, bigots, Rubes and people of science are better dressed, thinner, and handy with the babes.

Science in the West can be traced to John Scotus Erigena, Duns Scotus, William of Occam, and Roger Bacon, insular Irish and Brits - the last three gents belonged to the Order of Friars Minor -Franciscans.

All of these guys got in Dutch with Popes and Princes and it is believed that John Scotus Erigena ( Irish John from Ireland) was murdered by monks unhappy with this works on the Psuedo Dionysius, or that he gulped down the last of the beer.

Faith and science had a bumpy road, we got here.

Religion can be blamed for the Inquisition and Science can be blamed for Chernobyl.

Neil Steinberg seems to be painting with a very broad brush again - Religious Zealots, he warns, are asking that the Bible might get a mention in a science class. Chilling? Well, to the thin blooded I suppose.

Science errs. Ask the rocket boss in North Korea, if he is still drawing breath.

Religion can be a huge pain in the ass - ask any Coptic Christian in Post Spring Egypt.

Consider the words of Thomas the Twin in today's Gospel "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe." Now that is Pure Empiricism that would made Immanuel Kant plotz."Ja! Out stehen! Es bleibt immer ein Skandal der Philosophie und universelle menschliche Vernunft, dass die Existenz von Dingen außerhalb von uns ... haben sollte, lediglich auf Glauben angenommen werden, und dass, wenn es jedem auftritt, daran zu zweifeln, sollten wir nicht in der Lage, ihn mit einer hinreichenden Nachweis zu beantworten. " ("It always remains a scandal of philosophy and universal human reason that the existence of things outside us ... should have to be assumed merely on faith, and that if it occurs to anyone to doubt it, we should be unable to answer him with a satisfactory proof.")

That particular Koingsberg goof required certainty.

It is said that the citizens of Königsberg set their clocks according to the position of the gray presence of Professor Kant on his daily walk down and back the same street every day. It is said that the only time he missed his walk at the exact same time was when he first discovered Rousseau's book, Emile, and became so engrossed that he forgot his walk.

Imagine this - Kant would walk his dachshund while immersed in prolegmnas of intense import. He would return home after verifying each and every Linden tree, wrought iron fence, post and building on the route - several trees were removed and Kant could not find his way home with any certainty. It rained. Some religious zealot had to go out bring the man of science home and in out of the rain.

Dr. Samuel Johnson said, "Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."


http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080925193830AAkTPrI

http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/paschons/language_http/essays/Kant.html