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...