Full disclosure: I have watched less than an hour of NFL football this season. So take what I have to say with that in mind.
I don’t have any idea what happened yesterday in the NFL. I don’t suppose they played the games in light of the shooting in Texas earlier that morning that left 26 people, maybe more, dead. It happened in a small Baptist church but was the worst murder ever in our history at a church or any other place of worship.
I’m kidding. I know nothing stops the NFL. I should know that by now.
Within 24 hours of Stephen Paddock’s act the Chiefs and the Redskins played their game. It was as if nothing had happened in the nation. You do remember Stephen? The church killing was by Devon Patrick Kelley. Sounds like an Irishman except the Devon sounds English. Right now the records in the United States for these particular murders are held by Paddock (most); Kelley (most in a church replacing Dylan Roof); Adam Lanza (most in a school). None of these records stopped the NFL from offering its fare.
Why should they when two days after JFK’s assassination it went ahead with their schedule. Pete Rozelle said: “Jack would have wanted it.” So I guess would all those who died in Las Vegas, Newtown, and Sutherland Springs like Jack would want the NFL to play.
I’ve often wondered how people would sit in their houses or local bars on a nice fall day and watch commercials. Then I realized that my thoughts were quite parochial. In many parts of the nation a fall day was like every other day because the weather was always pretty nice. Thinking of that I remembered wasn’t there another recent shooting in Texas where Spencer Hight killed seven people at a NFL party; and what about Scott Ostrem the registered Republican that murdered three people with Hispanic sounding names.
We’ve sort of become hardened to murders now treating them with a big ho-hum . You can’t say that about Americans attitude to the NFL. Don’t you find that odd? We care more about watching a game between commercials than we do about people with guns murdering people.
I should mention the record holders for murders all had assault weapons. The politicians who commented on Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs all talked about prayers. I thought “God helps those who help themselves.” If the pols weren’t such hypocrites they’d take these military weapons off the street. God can’t do that.
Lately, as far as I can tell the most exciting part of an NFL game occurs before the game begins. That’s when people watch as if they were members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in the Saudi Arabia to see who will not properly stand for the flag. After the National Anthem it seems all the excitement is gone, that is, unless repetitious commercials excite you.
Years ago I went to two NFL games in Foxboro. The first one I recall attending – this was before the NFL became highly addictive like gambling – left an impression on me about the fans. I thought they would be better off spending their money on dentists than on a game. I never saw so many people with bad yellowing or missing teeth. I thought most of the fans were high school drop outs. I assume that is no longer the case because because of the cost of the event.
The last one I attended I found the loud music blaring almost continually and the players just standing around on the field. I kept thinking why don’t they do something. I finally figured they had to wait because of the multitude of commercials that are interrupting the play. I was happy to leave at half time.
I write because of the juxtaposition between the church murders and the NFL hoopla happening within hours of each other. I write because the politicians in charge have nothing to offer us but prayers when they should be offering remedies. When people are worshiping God in a church and are brutally murdered because the nation does nothing about protecting them from assault weapons in the hands of disturbed people and the nation’s leaders advised people to pray to God who has to be extremely angered such a thing happened in His church prayers are going to reach deaf ears.
We need less prayers, less NFL, and more POCs – People of Courage.
Check Duke Special (Irish musician) to see the lay of a culan (glib hairstyle). Summary execution was the reward of authority for the dibearg who dared to wear it, known, as they were, for wanton conduct, and, cattle rustling. Both Norman lords, and, Irish chieftains, condemned the dibearg for living outside both English common law, and, Irish Brehon. Must have been fun.
Henry:
My last two comments are for you. I just remembered that you had questioned me, a while back, about the culan hairstyle of the dibearg (Irish outlaws). The gaelic term dibergach refers to the activities of the libidinal rebels.
For most youth, life in a fían was simply a transitory stage until they could re-enter the túath once they turned 20 and were considered legal adults. However, this didn’t happen with everyone, since one could only re-enter the túath if they possessed the requisite amount of wealth and purchased a bride. For the large majority of the fénnid, this wealth was acquired by inheritance with the death or retirement of one of their relatives, usually the father. Upon gaining this inheritance, they would leave the fían, find a bride, and rejoin the general society. For some, however, they either had no claim to inheritance in the first place, or they were so far removed from the main family that they inherited an insufficient amount of wealth to purchase their own property. In cases like these, the fénnid would generally stay in the fían until they either acquired the wealth they needed, of if they never did, for the rest of their life.[6]
However, any fénnid who had to stay past 20 could attempt to become a fergnia — a man at arms, sometimes called a fían-champion, who had to pass certain tests to gain the title. The fergnia was generally a senior fénnid in the service of a king, helped in cases of litigation as needed, generally to aid in the process of athgabal, and in general as an enforcer of law and order within the túath. Besides having such a powerful position, the fergnia enjoyed a noble status equal to that of an aire déso, and led a band of five members, employed by the túath, who would exact revenge against neighboring regions when necessary.[7]
Cool stuff. How do I get a degree in the study of head bumps?
An article by Katherine Simms argued that certain Irish tonsures and
hair styles were associated with a revival of a pagan warrior cult
sometime after the Norman invasions. She specifically mentioned the
hairstyle known as cúlán as being a mark of a díbergach.
” Things will work out . They always work out because they have to work out .” President Donald Trump … throwing a full box of fish food to the Imperial Japanese Coy only after the Japanese President emptied his … Edited by all major media to look like colossal Trump gaffe …. And large and confidently American in charge in Asia speaking in South Korea of their estranged North Korean brothers.
Anyone that has fed koi knows that the real rush is when you throw a big handful of food in all at once. I use to hit the trout hatchery in Sandwich and put about twenty nickels in the fish food dispenser and chuck the whole lot in. Trump knows the meaning of manhood. Start a feeding frenzy then sit back and enjoy.
Abe , don’t be Koi . You display ,through such ready and mischievous anecdote , a lifelong ability to amuse yourself . DEATH AT THE HATCHERY by ” Abe ” Jesus Angleton . Good on you Abe Twenty Nickels !
I have never been bored.
Abe , ticklish point . If you have never been bored then you have no reference point regarding this metaphysical/psychological ” boredom ” that you have never been affected by . More likely , you have experienced it. It is a universal existential experience . Whether you settle in with those feelings …and recognize their true insubstantiality … Or make it rain down at the Trout Hatchery , is of course what is of moment .
Buddhist Nun Pema Chodron writes a lot about this experience of touching and letting go of unsettling thoughts or uncomfortable feelings during meditation . It is in the inability just to sit with what is that people create a cycle of flight . The chattering monkey mind can be simply given a job : Watch The Breath .
Speaking of bored; it looks like we in Northern Virginia were bored with the GOP. The whole state, for that matter, said, “Go away!” Check out some of the statewide results from yesterday and tell me about how Trump is affecting politics here. Loudoun County, where Gillespie won two years ago (and I will be banging nails in about an hour), banished him by double-digits. Plus, we elected a tranny! Can’t beat that with a stick.
On another subject, I picked up a copy of Elmore Leonard’s “Fire In The Hole and Other Stories.” Fire In The Hole was the basis for the TV show Justified. Its a fine collection of his short stories. I’m still reading detective stories about a Turkish eunuch. Good stuff. What you been reading?
Pema Chodron . She has written a good deal . Glad your interest in the Turkish Eunuch , Yasmin the Detective , has not fallen off . Stick to it . It is the City of Constantinople that is the main character there . Bruce Jenner , Gold Medal Olympic Decathlete , twirling in a black one piece on a Southern shore and crooning ….. ” Free , Free , Free … ” to a rapt public’s camera . The GOP backlash and tranny Guv are complete anti-climax . We are living in Felinni’s SATYRICON .
“We are living in Felinni’s SATYRICON .”
Or Caligula’s Rome? Its not pretty. It has its beauty marks, but some mornings I read the front page of The Post and refuse to look inside at the rest of the articles. I don’t want to know how they end.
I may have mentioned this on a previous post. I was in Cape May the first two weeks of October. When I wasn’t birding I read In Cold Blood. Have you read it? Any thoughts? I got to go to work. For real.
Absolutely . Read it many years ago . It is stark . Capote was tight with Margaret Mitchell . Some critics say he was actual author of Gone With The Wind. Capote played the campy fag , but he had a steel spine . Like many of his tribe I have observed over the years he had many more parts to him than the obvious ones .
Can’t you feel it? The necessary level of societal madness has been reached. Everything is about to change. We’ve hit critical mass. An apocalyptic moment awaits, just around the next bend in reality. Fading hallucinations are all that’s left of our tired dying world. Dissolving sanity preservers . Enjoy them, while, they last.
The same things were said in 1920. Didn’t you frighten enough people on Halloween? We hit critical mass when Eve took a bite.
I wasn’t around for Eve’s bite of apple, but , I can remember 1968 quite well. Reality’s in flux, people are rejecting the stale imagery of the status quo. They’re squeezing through the ideological bars confining consciousness. To sin is to be free. Glorious Leader lights the way. Nietzsche would commend Trump for his lack of a moral compass.
Correction: “cracking her skull”.
He’s also been accused of animal cruelty.
He was consumed by Evil.
Devin Kelley was a professed atheist and a professed hater. He beat his wife, his infant (cracking its skull), spent a year in the brig and received a Bad Conduct Discharge.
He hated religion. Computer evidence exists of his affinity for Antifa.
Devin Kelley, psycho-sociopath, hated traditional American values: God, religion, country, military, family, service, self-sacrifice, community, commandments, and moral codes.
The following quote is from Scott McKay’s article today on American Spectator website:
“The story should contain ample supplies of anguish for everyone in America, and most of all a great introspection surrounding who we are that this, so soon after the Mandalay Bay massacre last month and the Arlington baseball practice shootings in June, could happen here. Perhaps it should contain particular fuel for pause that in all three incidents horrific crimes were perpetrated against obvious possessors of traditional American values — Republican congressmen in Arlington, country music fans in Las Vegas, Baptist churchgoers in Texas.”
Matt
I have a friend in the South End that will be drafting legislation to end life without
parole Mass laws in the next session.
His name is Lloyd Fillion and he is in the Boston phone book.
I told him you might sign off on the bill. call him.
In other news
http://www.sinor.ru:8104/~che/birthmarks.htm
Dr. Ian Stevenson’s
Birthmarks Article
Note: This article by Dr. Ian Stevenson, published in an academic journal in 1993, provides amazing graphic evidence that physical traits somehow can carry over from a past life to a present life. It also give a sample of Dr. Stevenson’s thoroughness, and of his academic style. It’s not easy reading. But it is, in my opinion, the strongest proof yet of reincarnation.
The “forthcoming book” that Dr. Stevenson mentions, and on which this article is based, is now available. If you want to dig into this amazing work further, I recommend you get the shorter summary book, Where Biology and Reincarnation Intersect from Amazon.com (it probably is not in your local bookstore).
Following is the complete text of the article.
Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased Persons
By Dr. Ian Stevenson
Dr. Ian Stevenson is the head of the Department of Psychiatric Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia.
This paper was presented at the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration held at Princeton University. June 11-13, 1992.
Abstract
Almost nothing is known about why pigmented birthmarks (moles or nevi) occur in particular locations of the skin. The causes of most birth defects are also unknown. About 35% of children who claim to remember previous lives have birthmarks and/or birth defects that they (or adult informants) attribute to wounds on a person whose life the child remembers. The cases of 210 such children have been investigated. The birthmarks were usually areas of hairless, puckered skin; some were areas of little or no pigmentation (hypopigmented macules); others were areas of increased pigmentation (hyperpigmented nevi). The birth defects were nearly always of rare types. In cases in which a deceased person was identified the details of whose life unmistakably matched the child’s statements, a close correspondence was nearly always found between the birthmarks and/or birth defects on the child and the wounds on the deceased person. In 43 of 49 cases in which a medical document (usually a postmortem report) was obtained, it confirmed the correspondence between wounds: and birthmarks (or birth defects). There is little evidence that parents and other informants imposed a false identity on the child in order to explain the child’s birthmark or birth defect. Some paranormal process seems required to account for at least some of the details of these cases, including the birthmarks and birth defects.
Figure 1.
Hypopigmented macule on chest of an Indian youth who, as a child, said he remembered the life of a man, Maha Ram, who was killed with a shotgun fired at close range.
Figure 2
The circles show the principal shotgun wounds on Maha Ram, for comparison with Figure 1. [This drawing is from the autopsy report of the deceased.]
Introduction
Although counts of moles (hyperpigmented nevi) have shown that the average adult has between 15 and IX of them (Pack and Davis, 1956), little is known about their cause — except for those associated with the genetic disease neurofibromatosis — and even less is known about why birthmarks occur in one location of the body instead of in another. In a few instances a genetic factor has been plausibly suggested for the location of nevi (Cockayne, 1933; Denaro, 1944; Maruri, 1961); but the cause of the location of most birthmarks remains unknown. The causes of many, perhaps most, birth defects remain similarly unknown. In large series of birth defects in which investigators have searched for the known causes, such as chemical teratogens (like thalidomide), viral infections, and genetic factors, between 430/0 (Nelson and Holmes, 1989) and 65 — 70% (Wilson, 1973) of cases have finally been assigned to the category of “unknown causes.”
Among 895 cases of children who claimed to remember a previous life (or were thought by adults to have had a previous life), birthmarks and/or birth defects attributed to the previous life were reported in 309 (35%) of the subjects. The birthmark or birth defect of the child was said to correspond to a wound (usually fatal) or other mark on the deceased person whose life the child said it remembered. This paper reports an inquiry into the validity of such claims. With my associates I have now carried the investigation of 210 such cases to a stage where I can report their details in a forthcoming book (Stevenson, forthcoming). This article summarizes our findings.
Children who claim to remember previous lives have been found in every part of the world where they have been looked for (Stevenson, 1983; 1987), but they are found most easily in the countries of South Asia. Typically, such a child begins to speak about a previous life almost as soon as it can speak, usually between the ages of two and three; and typically it stops doing so between the ages of five and seven (Cook, Pasricha, Samararatne, Win Maung, and Stevenson, 1983). Although some of the children make only vague statements, others give details of names and events that permit identifying a person whose life and death corresponds to the child’s statements. In some instances the person identified is already known to the child’s family, but in many cases this is not so. In addition to making verifiable statements about a deceased person, many of the children show behavior (such as a phobia) that is unusual in their family but found to correspond to behavior shown by the deceased person concerned or conjecturable for him (Stevenson, 1987; 1990).
Along similar lines; My sister and I had the same teacher in Milton, Mass. One of the teachers we both had two years apart, her before me. She and many others recall the late morning class where the teacher became agitated. His left leg began to hurt to the point of distraction during the class. He started to limp around the room and eventually asked a neighboring teacher to stand in the doorway between the rooms and keep an eye on his class. He wanted to go to the men’s and check on his throbbing leg. The pain was between the knee and hip. It leveled off to the point where he could remain in class. The next day he told everyone that his leg was fine and his identical twin was in a car accident the previous morning, in southern California, and suffered a broken femur in his left leg.
I’m just sayin’.
“And what about Scott Ostrem the registered Republican that murdered three people with Hispanic sounding names.”
You are a genius. You have honed in on a relevant predictor of criminal behavior. It could help to caution the public of those who should be avoided. Every news article about a criminal should publish that which is relevant – the political party that the felon is registered in. It should should be constantly brought to the attention of the general public. In the header or the first sentence of the article. It is that important.
Earlier this year the riot provocateur governor of Virginia Terry MacAuliffe unconstitutionally attempted a mass pardon of convicted felons in order to add them to voter rolls. We can rest assured that he did it to beef up the GOP election machine and to contrast it with the party of the pious Billary charity foundation.
Fact: Most murderers and violent felons register and vote Democrat given the opportunity and you know it. That is why the Democrat party everywhere solicits felony voter registration.
Criminals rely on fellow criminals. The Clintons are a case in point.
Scoring own goals is not a winning strategy.
I hope you are kidding.
Its election day. It use to be, “Vote your conscience.” People’s brains are a bit more vapid and rife with kerdomeletia these days. I would change that old quote to, “Do the world a favor. Form a conga line and dance off a cliff.” Maybe all polling places should be next to sheer cliffs when possible. Or bottomless pits.
Edit*: Since you mentioned scoring own goals as not being a strategy and the Clintons just before that. Scoring own goals is a great strategy…….if you have a bet on the other team.
Matt
Do you see this troubled nation EVER implementing strict gun laws. Its sickening just how many tragedies and lives are lost due to guns. With that said the sickest part of America is that its a capitalist nation and the government only cares about money. The government has no interest in serving the people. Its ridiculous just how many innocent lives are loss in this “right to bear arms” nation. What a joke
On a side note anything new brewing regarding Whitey Bulger/Steve Flemmi/Frank Salemme? Anything to post about on your blog?
There are a lot more guns than people in this country. Where could it start if we were to try and control guns? The battle over the Second Amendment started long, long ago. There are a couple million factors involved in the debate. Both sides in this debate have to decide what the debate will be. Its not just gun ownership. That is kind of etched in stone. A large part of the population will always be allowed to own guns. Its all those contradictory and dichotomous issues that remain. (Decorated veteran Timothy McVeigh didn’t need a gun to kill 168 people. Just his vast knowledge of explosives he acquired while serving his country.)
So if you come up with a viable plan to make this country gun safe there are a lot of people around this area (inside The Capital Beltway) that would love to hear all about it.
The DNC and Hillary paid for the Fake Russian dossier.
This country needs more prayers and more spirituality not less. Congress can pass all the laws in the world and they won’t eliminate crime or sin. 50 thousand drug overdose deaths a year. How have the drug laws Congress has passed failed to impact that? Remember when that Bernie Sanders Democrat tried to kill 25 Republican Congressmen at a baseball practice. It was only the armed Police that stopped him. The Police shot the NYC truck terrorist and stopped him. An immigrant in Nashville killed a woman at a church and tried to kill others but was stopped by an armed member of the parish. Most of the gun deaths in America are inner city gang members shooting each other. None of them lawfully possessed their weapons. 2. 65 years ago the Rosenbergs were executed for selling atomic secrets to Russia. Essentially they sold the recipe to the atom bomb. Julius and Ethel Clinton sold the ingredients to that atomic bomb to the Russians in the Uranium One deal. Does the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution mandate a similar sanction? 3. Would the people who voted for Hillary do so again knowing that she was a close friend of the major Democratic fund raiser Harvey Weinstein who Time magazine says is a sex predator? Would the participants of the Jan. 21,2017 Womens March do so again knowing that Harvey Weinstein was marching with them? Did you know that a woman reporter named Waxman had a NY Times piece thirteen years ago exposing Weinstein’s misdeeds but the paper put the story on the spike and never published it permitting that fiend to sexually assault additional young women? She also paid for the Fake Russian dossier. 4. The NFL is being humbled. As the Bible says the exalted shall be humbled. They let the inmates run the asylum and they are reaping what they sowed. What a shame.
Correction:
Long ago I incorrectly posted that 14,500 Russians were killed in the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-89.) Subsequently, I learned that among the Soviet dead were 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers (monument in Kiev), 1,532 Uzbek soldiers and 732 Byelorussian soldiers. Still, Soviet casualties were predominantly Russian.
To err is human.
Matt, I agree.
Good to see you posting, again.
The first time I posted on facebook in three years was to advocate boycotting the NFL for the players/owners’ disrespect of the flag/anthem.
The Texas Church shooter, because he was dishonorably discharged (for beating his wife and child: 12 months in the brig.) therefore was not allowed by law to own a firearm. How did he acquire his weapon? How do we keep arms out of criminals’ and insane hands?
2. In 2013, NFL had an unfavorable rating of @ 18%; today, post-kneeling, NFL unfavorable is 41% with 13% having no opinion. Less than half view NFL favorably.
3. As for guns: 90% of gun murders in US (FBI stats) are committed by handguns; about 4% rifles, 4% shotguns. Three times as many are murdered by knives as rifles. (Note: FBI statistics for 2014 list about 1,900 murders “weapon unknown.”
4. A Florida professor has estimated that annually the defensive use of a gun prevents over 2 million crimes annually.
5. The U.S. murder rate (per 100,000) does exceed by factor of three or four the rate in UK, Australia, Canada. US has about 4/100,000; other modern states about 1/100,000).
I offer no simple solutions. Strict gun control in Chicago, Detroit, DC, don’t seem to reduce high murder rates.
ALWAYS GOOD TO HEAR YOUR VIEWS, EVEN WHEN WE DISAGREE!
strict gun control “doesn’t”
to grammatically err is human