The Peaceful Gnome

Jerome was born in a little village on the Adriatic Sea around the year A.D. 345. At a young age he went to study in Rome, where he was baptized. After extensive travels, he chose the life of a monk and spent five years in the Syrian desert. There he learned Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament. After ordination at Antioch and visits to Rome and Constantinople, Jerome settled in Bethlehem. From the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, he used his ability with languages to translate the Bible into Latin, the common language of his time. This translation, called the Vulgate, was the authoritative version of the Bible in the western Church world for over 1,000 years. Considered one of the great scholars of the early church, Jerome died on 30 September 420. He was originally interred at Bethlehem, but his remains were eventually taken to Rome. [From " Commemorations Biographies ," Lutheran Service Book, LCMS Commission on Worship]

Here is Serenity at work on her latest masterpiece

From my trip to New England last year

First, check out " The Interview with God ". I won't say it only takes 45 seconds to watch, the way the person who sent it to me did :-) The length of the video, after it loads, is about 3 minutes and 50 seconds, so set aside 5 minutes of your time to watch it. Once you get past the lovely landscapes and the pious sounding platitudes what are we left with? What "god" was being interviewed? I really could not tell, it might have been Krishna or Allah or the "god" of the Mormons or any other cult. I suppose who we are talking to is the "god" of American Civil Religion, the one on the money, the vague "In God we trust" fellow. I am pretty sure it wasn't the One True God though. The One True God, the Triune God who comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ would not utter such a pile of psychologized semi-theology . No, the God who sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross would not forget to mention that in an intervi...

I've long held that the whole flu shot thing is a big money making scam and was ineffective for the most part. Now it has been shown that the only group that actually dies from the flu, people over 70, get virtually no benefit from flu shots. Everyone else just feels like crud for a few days and gets over it anyway. You can be sure the drug makers and the government will still be pushing them despite the fact that they are useless, there is just too much money at stake. Study finds flu shots do little to help most vulnerable elderly Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer Tuesday, September 25, 2007 A team of National Institutes of Health researchers has concluded that the often-touted benefits of flu shots to people over the age of 70 are highly exaggerated - there is no real proof they provide protection to the frail elderly. The conclusion published Monday in an online edition of the British jou...

I was just thinking about prayer as I was riding to work on BART today. There are different ways that Christians organize their prayer lives. I tend to go with a somewhat formal, even liturgical, way of prayer at the start of the day and at the end of the day as well. For example, I use this Morning Prayer and this Evening Prayer . I use these sets of prayers as an aid in forming and keeping the habit of daily prayer, meditation and reading of God's word. There is no "law" about it at all of course and some days I miss one or the other or even both on rare occasions. During the day I might say the Lord's Prayer, the most perfect prayer of all since it is given to us by the Lord for our use. But I also will pray extemporaneously throughout the day as the Holy Spirit moves me to pray or as I encounter difficulties or as I recognize a sin I have committed and need to repent of. Naturally since this is the way that I do things I think it is a good way of doing them :...

A singular prophet among the many in the Old Testament, Jonah the son of Amittai was born about an hour's walk from the town of Nazareth. The focus of his prophetic ministry was the call to preach at Nineveh, the capital of pagan Assyria (Jonah 1:1). His reluctance to respond and God's insistence that his call be heeded is the story of the book that bears Jonah's name. Although the swallowing and disgorging of Jonah by the great fish is the most remembered detail of his life, it is addressed in only three verses of the book (1:17; 2:1, 10). Throughout the book, the important theme is how God deals compassionately sinners. Jonah's three-day sojourn in the belly of the fish is mentioned by Jesus as a sign of his own death, burial and resurrection (Mt. 12:39-41). [From " Commemorations Biographies," Lutheran Service Book, LCMS Commission on Worship]

Yo-ho yo-ho a pirates life for me, We pillage, we plunder, and rifle and loot, drink up me hardees, yo ho, We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot, drink up me hardees, yo ho! Yo-ho yo-ho a pirates life for me, we extored we pilfer we bilch and sack, drink up me hardees, yo ho, maraud and embezzle and even hijack, drink up me hardees, yo ho! Yo-ho yo-ho a pirates life for me, we kindle and char and flame and ignite, drink up me hardees, yo ho, we burn up the city, we're really a fright, drink up me hardees, yo ho, we're rascals, scoundrels, villans and knaves, drink up me hardees, yo ho, we're devils and black-sheep, really bad eggs, drink up me hardees, yo ho! Yo-ho yo-ho a pirates life for me, we're beggers and blighters and nere' do well cads, drink up me hardees, yo ho, Aye, we are loved by our mommies and dads, drink up me hardees, yo ho !

Make sure to check out this YouTube Video of Bach Passacaglia in C minor BWV 582 being played on a carillon . Part 1 Part 2 That is just way cool... In My Humble Opinion.

A one liner I saw this morning: [Name of person being insulted] wouldn't know the truth about where his butt was if it had a venomous snake hanging from it by one fang... Well, I found it amusing :-)

Well rats. I asked everyone to switch from using Feedburner to Blogarithm and it suddenly stops working right. All of a sudden the names of the blogs in the emails and in my Blogroll were turned to "Forbidden" for all of the blogspot domains. Ah well. I suspect this is only a temporary glitch so I'm not going to dump it, though I'm tempted to just go back to the Feedburner system. Well wait, in fact... lets do that right now. I think the full emails will be fine since most things go with it. The one time it didn't work the way I wanted it to was when I embedded a video from Youtube and I don't do that all that often anyway. So I'm going to try and get my family and friends to sign up with Feedburner. Besides, if the story just shows up in an email people are probably more likely to at least glance at, one more click is just one more chance you won't see the post. Which may be a good or bad thing depending on your attitude about the angry gnom...

September 20, 2007 Dear friend, Our American way of life is under attack. And it is up to us to save it. The world's elites are busy forming a North American Union. If they succeed, as they were in forming the European Union, the good ol' USA will only be a memory. We cannot let that happen. The UN wants to confiscate our firearms and impose a global tax. The UN elites want to control the oceans with the Law of the Sea Treaty. And they want to use our military to police the world. Our right to own and use property is fading because bureaucrats and special interests are abusing eminent domain. Our right to educate our children as we choose is under assault. "No Child Left Behind" is seeing to that. And our right to say "no" to forced mental screening of our school-aged children is nearly gone. The elites gave us a national ID card. They also gave us the most misnamed legislation in history: The Patriot Act. And these same people are pushing to give amnesty t...

Emperor Bush demands that the puppets in congress rubber stamp a few things for him... First, finish off that pesky 4th amendmant, if you don't have anything to hide why would you object to us looking through your things, we know who the evildoers are and warrants are too much trouble to get... Bush Calls for Expansion of Spy Law By DEB RIECHMANNThe Associated Press Wednesday, September 19, 2007; 12:55 PM FORT MEADE, Md. -- President Bush said Wednesday that a law hastily passed in August to temporarily give the government more power to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign terror suspects must be made permanent and expanded. More . Then there's that pesky Habeas Corpus thing, dude, we already said we know who the evildoers are, why should we have to put them on trial and go through all the expense of actually filing provable charges? Don't you TRUST us? Senate Rejects Expanding Detainee Rights By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, Septembe...

One of my big complaints about the American Imperial Propaganda Corps (US Media like CNN, FOX, MSNBC etc.) coverage of the several wars we have going on right now is the sanitized and whitewashed way they present things. My most persistent complaint has to do with the use of the term "Private Contractors" when referring to the mercenary forces we hire to do the really dirty work in Iraq. It was, therefore, a pleasure to see this article in Spiegel Online today, it really is important to get news from sources other than just those directly controlled by the Empire: BLACKWATER BLACKLISTED 'Whores of War' Under Fire By Marc Pitzke in New York Mercenaries have become indispensable in Iraq. But after Blackwater employees killed 11 civilians on Sunday, the government in Baghdad wants them out. The problem is, private security companies operate above the law -- and the US wants to keep it that way. AFP Mercenaries in Iraq are under fire. They were ...

I read Khaled Hosseini's book, Kite Runner , a couple of years ago. It was one of the best books I've read in many years. It is one of those stories that makes you feel joy and weep at the same time. I have just noticed that a movie based on the book is due out in November. Here is a story in the BBC about the reaction to some of the more disturbing scenes in the book by some of the Afghan actors who were in the film. Kite Runner flies into controversy By Charles Haviland BBC News, Kabul Ahmad...

No matter what the "wise" say, death is never a good thing, though at times it may be the lesser of evils. From Weedon's Blog: Patristic Quote for the Day Brothers, how wrong those authors have been who have tried to write about the good of death. And what is so surprising about that? In this case the worldly-wise think that they are great and remarkable if they convince simple folks that the thing that is the greatest evil is the greatest good…. But these things, brothers, truth dispels, the Law banishes, faith attacks, the Apostle censures, and Christ blots out, who, while restoring the good that life is, discloses, condemns, and banishes the evil of death. - St. Peter Chrysologus, Homily Old Lutheran Quote of the Day You may think that you do not fear death, but have you ever looked directly into its smirkin...

I have long maintained that traffic is over regulated and that 99.99% of traffic lights and stop signs actually cause more problems than they solve. Much like almost all laws on all subjects do. Now in Europe some towns are putting the idea of no regulation resulting in better saftey to the test. Check out this story in Der Spiegel : "The radical philosophy has already been implented in the town of Drachten in the Netherlands, which has abolished its road signs and traffic lights. Accidents there have declined dramatically since the new regime was introduced."

Today's Higher Things Daily Reflection deals with sacraments a bit Daily Lectionary: 2 Chronicles 35:1-7, 16-25; Colossians 3:1-25 This Week’s Readings: St. Matthew 6:24-34 “Your heavenly father knows that you need all these things.” (St. Matthew 6:32) You are normal, and you are sinful. You are normal in that you worry and fret about lots of things. And in that worry lies the truth that you are sinful as well. Where is your trust? Dear baptized one, in Christ, God has promised to take care of you and clothe you much more than the lilies of the field which neither toil nor spin, much more than the grass of the field which is gone tomorrow, much more than the birds of the air. He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to take your sins upon Himself and die in your place. In Christ you mean as much to God as His dear Son, for you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He has given you the robe of righteousness, the clothing of the bride of Christ...

Commemoration of Cyprian of Carthage, Pastor and Martyr Cyprian (A.D. ca. 200-258) was acclaimed bishop of the North African city of Carthage around 248. During the persecution of the Roman emperor Decius, Cyprian fled Carthage but returned two years later. He was then forced to deal with the problem of Christians who had lapsed from their faith under persecution and now wanted to return to the church. It was decided that these lapsed Christians could be restored but that their restoration could take place only after a period of penance that demonstrated their faithfulness. During the persecution under Emperor Valerian, Cyprian at first went into hiding but later gave himself up to the authorities. He was beheaded for the faith in Carthage in 258. [From " Commemorations Biographies ," Lutheran Service Book, LCMS Commission on Worship] ________________________________________________________________ This morning I am listening to a bible study on 1 Corinthians on my way to wo...

While most people seem to accept that the state in general has some God like attributes, power over life and death, power over all property and so on, in China they take it to the extreme and the state dictates the next life as well as this one. It's pretty funny really... From Newsweek: BeliefWatch: Reincarnate By Matthew Philips Newsweek Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious es...

This is another plug for blogarithm.com This service sends you a short summary of any blogs you want to follow, like this one ;-) Then when you click on the link in the email it takes you right to the blog itself. I like this better than sending the full story for two reasons, first because some content, like videos, don't travel with the email, and second because I'd rather have comments on the blog itself rather than in email, that way it becomes more of a public discussion. So, sign up for this and the other blogs you read and you won't miss a post, or waste time going to a blog only to find it hasn't been updated in a week ;-)

From Aardvark Alley : During the reign of Constantine the Great , the first Roman Emperor to profess the Christian faith, his mother Helena went to Israel, hoping to find the places especially significant to Christians. Having located, close together, what she believed to be the sites of the Crucifixion and of the Burial (at locations that many modern archaeologists think may be correct), she then had built over them the Church of the Holy Sepulcher , which was dedicated on 13 September 335. On the next day, the purported section of the cross was brought outside the church for others to view. Thus began a day for recognizing the cross of Christ in a festal atmosphere that would be inappropriate on Good Friday. It stands as a symbol of triumph, as a sign of Christ's victory over death, and a reminder of His promise, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. ( John 12:32 )" Read the whole story here.

Here is an awesome story from Mises.org about how a culture can function without any central government. Needless to say the American Empire and the UN are both determined to destroy this system and reestablish tyranny in the Horn of Africa... The Rule of Law without the State By Spencer Heath MacCallum Posted on 9/12/2007 Were there such a category, Somalia would hold a place in Guinness World Records as the country with the longest absence of a functioning central government. When the Somalis dismantled their government in 1991 and returned to their precolonial political status, the expectation was that chaos would result — and that, of course, would be the politically correct thing to expect. Imagine if it were otherwise. Imagine any part of the globe not being dominated by a centra...

My sister sent me this article that was written by Chuck Swindoll: THOUGHTS by Charles R. Swindoll Philippians 4:8 Thoughts are the thermostat that regulates what we accomplish in life. If I feed my mind upon doubt, disbelief, and discouragement, that is precisely the kind of day my body will experience. If I adjust my thermostat forward to thoughts filled with vision, vitality, and victory, I can count on that kind of day. Thus, you and I become what we think about. Neither Dale Carnegie nor Norman Vincent Peale originated such a message. God did. “For as [a man] thinks within himself, so he is” (Prov. 23:7). “Therefore, prepare your minds for action” (1 Peter 1:13). The mind is a “thought factory” producing thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of thoughts each day. Production in your thought factory is under the charge of two foremen. One we shall call Mr. Triumph, the other Mr. Defeat. Mr. Triumph specializes in producing reasons why you can face life victoriously, why y...

I have always hated cars. For much of my adult life I did not even own one of the evil contraptions. Several years ago, in 2003, I purchased a used 2002 Toyota Corolla with fewer than 25,000 miles on it. This is the nearest thing to a new car I've ever owned. I bought it because my bike was stolen from a BART station and I was fed up with having to rent a car if I wanted to go on a trip and with having to borrow one to get larger items from stores. Now the thing is almost paid off, I only have four more payments to make and it's mine free and clear. It still runs great and is in good condition inside and out. I don't use it for that much, going to church or the store for the most part. I usually ride my bike to BART these days since it's only 2 miles of flat bike path each way. Why this post though? Because my daughter Lora has confiscated MY car! When she came here a few months ago she arrived in a beat up car that we determined probably would be difficult to m...

For the last 5 weeks I've been eating a vegetarian diet. The idea was to lose weight and also to not eat the flesh of dead animals which sounded sort of gross. So, in the first 2 weeks I "lost" 8 pounds. Since then I have lost nothing but my mind. OK, so I'm sitting here with a stiff neck from sleeping wrong last night, I had a bad day at work, and just drank a glass of wine that seems to have gone straight to my head, but still the whole vegi idea seems a bit lame at the moment. Ineffective to say the least. I think that I'm going to return to "Free Range Grazing" starting tomorrow. Not that I intend on eating lots of meat, I don't, but I'm giving up the "low fat and vegi" thing that I was working on. It just isn't working for me. I suppose portion control and exercise will have to be it from now on. :-(

1 Corinthians 10:1-5 (ESV) 1 I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. [1] [1] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. Paul comes right out and states that the Red Sea crossing equals baptism, and it seems clear that the spiritual food and drink, that is Christ, is the Holy Communion! Paul also seems to be refuting the idea of "Once saved always saved" that some denominations proclaim. I just never noticed that before so I'm pointing it out, sorry if it was glaringly obvious to everyone else already :-) Later in the same ch...

I am making a change in the way the email subscription works. The reason for this is that some content doesn't make it through in the full email feed, like the link to Youtube I put in the other day didn't come through on my email. A second reason is that when you get my blog via the Feedburner email service you get the whole blog, maybe two or three or four posts, all in one big email. I'd rather people actually go to the blog on the web to read and comment on the posts. So, I am going to eliminate "Feedburner" emails in a couple of weeks. In the meantime I urge you to go to the blog and subscribe via Blogarithm. I have been using it to track a couple of blogs and it works very well. What happens is that rather than send a complete copy of the blog to your email it sends a couple of lines with a link. This service is now linked from my blog so please switch over now. You can unsubscribe to the Feedburner emails yourself or ask me and I'll stop them righ...

THE PEOPLE'S REPORT A response to the Petreaus Report on Capitol Hill Written with the help of Phyllis Bennis, Erik Leaver, and Saif Rahman at the Institute for Policy Studies, United For Peace and Justice is publishing the People's Report. Feel free to print this report and share it with your Congressional Representatives. "The so-called Petraeus Report-actually written within the White House-is supposed to evaluate "progress" in the U.S. war and surging occupation of Iraq based on a set of congressionally-determined benchmarks. Those evaluations will ostensibly provide an overview of how far along U.S.-occupied Iraq is in achieving "stability," "democracy," "equity between groups," and more." "But however the White House draf...

I have something I call my "Cold Fusion" files. It is a place in my mind where I stash cool science that I suspect will come to nothing but that seems exciting for the moment. :-) Here is one I came across today: An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century. John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn. The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel. (The whole story is here) There is a clip on You Tube that shows Kanzius actually burning the water

I was thinking today about vocation, what it is that God has called me to do in this life. Once I thought that to "really" serve God I needed to be a pastor or a teacher or something along those lines. Then, for a time, I thought that a monk would be the best way to serve God, I could dedicate myself to prayer and study of the word, how better to serve God than that? Then I thought I should be out helping the poor or the homeless or something of that sort. All of that was prior to returning to the Lutheran church. Since I have been attending Messiah Lutheran I have gained a new understanding of vocation. Vocation is not necessarily what we choose to do for God but what God has chosen for us to do for our neighbor. Our vocation rightly is what we are doing in our daily lives. It is what we do for our family and our employers. It is what we do as we interact with all of those God sends into our lives each and every day. We have no need to go looking for "things to ...

" Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! " ~ A famous troublemaker I made you look with that title, didn't I? Seriously, though, it's time for liberty lovers to take a step back and re-think a few things about these 18th century aristocrats. The reason why libertarians cling to folks like Washington, Madison and Jefferson is because of their views about liberty and how the government is the opposite of liberty. Hey, I share that view as well. My beef with them is not their theories so much as their actions. Let's suppose that for a long and uncomfor...

This morning, as I was reading the newspaper, I came across several stories that got my dander up a bit. But, this being Sunday and the Lord's Day, I have decided that the Angry Gnome will not respond to this ever growing pile of idiocy spewed forth by the Empire. I'll save them for tomorrow instead ;-)

A few weeks ago I changed my registered political party from Libertarian to Republican for the sole purpose of being eligible to vote for Ron Paul in the California Primary next spring. Ron Paul is the ONE and ONLY true alternative to the neo-fascist (pretty much all Republicans other than Paul) and neo-socialist (pretty much all the Democrats) branches of the ruling party! Ron Paul is Anti-War, War and Foreign Policy The war in Iraq was sold to us with false information. The area is more dangerous now than when we entered it. We destroyed a regime hated by our direct enemies, the jihadists, and created thousands of new recruits for them. ( Read more... ) Ron Paul is Pro-Life, he is that rarest of all creatures, a consistent and principled politician. Life and Liberty The right of an innocent, unborn child to life is at the heart of the American ideals of liberty. My professional and legislative record demonstrates my strong commitment to this pro-life principle. ( Read more...