Non-Baptised And Stained With Original Sin Causes Stupid And Boorish Behaviour Usually Ending In Bodily Injury Or Death Of Some Sort. Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, Heretics And Atheists Of All Sorts!
Donald Trump's 11-year-old son Barron reportedly saw his father's severed head on television, courtesy of a shock-value photo shoot starring D-list comedian Kathy Griffin, and thought it was real.
First lady Melania Trump said that '[a]s a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing.'
'When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it.'
People close to the Trump family told TMZ that Barron panicked at the make-believe sight of his beheaded dad and screamed for his mother Melania.
'He's 11. He doesn't know who Kathy Griffin is and the head she was holding resembled his dad,' one source said.
The president lashed out at Kathy Griffin on Wednesday morning, saying she 'should be ashamed of herself' for posting video of the photo shoot on social media.
'My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!' Trump tweeted.Daily Mail Read More>>>>>>
New Year’s Eve personality Kathy Griffin has a message for Donald Trump: she wants to hold his bloody severed head in her hands. Griffin’s hyperviolent “art” photography holding the simulated Trump head will rightfully put a spotlight on the culture of violence leftists have cultivated in America follow the President’s electoral victory. But it should also serve as a reminder that Griffin is not alone on Hollywood’s female comedy A-list in feeling comfortable using the suffering of non-white people around the world to make money and generate headlines. Too many of Hollywood’s liberal white female comedians see their suffering as joke fodder for new movies, sketches, or stand-up routines. Griffin’s “beheading” photo plagiarizes an aesthetic popularized by the Islamic State, in which jihadis hold up photos of severed heads and smile into the camera, beaming with their trophies. Toddlers in terrorist training camps start off with dolls or teddy bears before graduating to human heads. The most aggressive jihadi teachers have their children holding up bloody heads before age 10. Breitbart Read More>>>>>>>
'Hey everybody, it's me, Kathy Griffin.
'I sincerely apologize. I am just now seeing the reaction to these images.
'I'm a comic. I crossed the line.
'I moved the line. Then I crossed it. I went way too far. The image is too disturbing.
'I understand how it offends people. It wasn't funny. I get it. I've made a lot of mistakes in my career. I will continue. I ask your forgiveness.
'Taking down the image. I am going to ask the photographer to take down the image. And I beg for your forgiveness. I went too far. I made a mistake and I was wrong.' Daily Mail Read More>>>>>>
Muslim man offers free hugs in response to Manchester terror attack
Video blogger Baktash Noori put on a blindfold and headed out into the city centre to hug as many people as possible. Source
The man – a recovering heroin addict – was receiving methadone as part of a replacement therapy treatment.
But when he fell ill and was unable to attend his methadone clinic, he feared he would suffer withdrawals, which can be life-threatening.
In the shocking clip, the American man explains: “I was going to methadone clinic for the last four-and-a-half months and was staying clean. I passed every drug test they gave me.
“I got sick one Friday night and wasn’t going to be able to make it into the clinic until Monday and I knew by then I would be having withdrawals.
“So I bought a bag of heroin and I did a shot and this is what happened. The flesh-eating bacteria got into my arm, I guess the tip of the needle was dirty.” Source
whip-its. 1. (N) Small canisters of compressed nitrous oxide intended for cooking and baking purposes, which are inhaled for a momentary high.
Three weeks after Terry Backus allegedly stomped a homeless man while inhaling “whip-its,” he used a commercial grade metal container to strike a 76-year-old man in the head, police say.
Backus, a self-styled Bible-quoting preacher from North Carolina, admitted to Key West Police Officer Carter Sims he indeed struck Mustafa Abadal-Khallaq Tuesday afternoon while in a small park at 200 Front St. in Truman Annex. Backus was booked on a charge of felony aggravated battery.
“He spoke of God and how he was a holy man, etc.,” Sims wrote.
A witness said Backus struck Abadal-Khallaq in the head with the container and was “ranting about Jesus Christ the savior and how this was his world,” Sims wrote.
Abadal-Khallaq was bleeding from a head wound, and his shirt and pants were coated with blood. He was unsure whether he wanted to press charges against Backus, saying it was just a violent, unprovoked attack.
Backus earlier Tuesday had been released from jail after a prior incident in which police said he stomped a disabled man at Mallory Square after doing whip-its, the practice of inhaling a dose of nitrous oxide found in the cartridges that power whipped cream cans.
Backus’ bond was set at $5,000 and he was in the Stock Island Detention Center on Friday.
Abadal-Khallaq is a longtime popular musician who performs at the Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square. Asked about his condition, he gave a light-hearted answer.
“I am able to perform yet not very effectively with a large Band-Aid on my forehead, so says Phillip, my tip bucket,” Abadal-Khallaq wrote in an email message. “Appearance is everything in show biz I guess, even if I’m only the accompaniment to the sun’s setting.” Source
Rocker Chris Cornell, who gained fame as the lead singer of the bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, has died at age 52, and police said Thursday that his death is being investigated as a possible suicide.
Cornell, who had been on tour, died Wednesday night in Detroit, Cornell's representative Brian Bumbery said in a statement to The Associated Press. Cornell had performed a Detroit concert with Soundgarden that night.
Bumbery called the death "sudden and unexpected" and said his wife and family are in shock. The statement said the family would be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause and have asked for privacy. Detroit police spokesman Michael Woody told AP Thursday morning that he couldn't release details about why police are investigating the death as a possible suicide, but noted there were "basic things observed at the scene." AP
Another famous person dies by means of Auto-Erotic Asphyxiation.
Grunge rocker Chris Cornell found dead - police investigation: possible suicide.
As was with most who die by means of Auto-Erotic Asphyxiation - the body is found with a rope, or a belt around the neck, pants down etc. The police will claim that the death is an apparent suicide.
Better to commit suicide than to die while masturbating.
Definition of Autoerotic Asphyxiation. : a state of asphyxia intentionally induced (as by smothering or strangling oneself) so as to heighten sexual arousal during masturbation.
Famous people dead by means of Auto-Erotic Asphyxiation:
On Mothers day Joshua Webb decapitated his mother then drove to grocery store carrying the head and a knife & stabbed the clerk:
Joshua Webb then showed up at a Thriftway in downtown Estacada, about 12 miles to the north. When he entered the small grocery store, he was covered in blood, had a large "kitchen-type" knife and was carrying a severed human head, authorities said.
He began stabbing a store employee, but he was quickly overwhelmed by other employees, who held him until police arrived, authorities said. Source
Know that the vessel which the serpent broke was and is not; but he whose fault it is may rest assured-God's vengeance fears no hindrance.
The eagle that had left its plumes within the chariot, which then became a monster and then a prey, will not forever be
without an heir; for I can plainly see, and thus I tell it: stars already close at hand, which can't be blocked or checked, will bring
a time in which, dispatched by God, a Five Hundred and Ten and Five will slay the whore together with that giant who sins with her. And what I tell, as dark as Sphinx and Themis, may leave you less convinced because-like these- it tires the intellect with quandaries;
but soon events themselves will be the Naiads that clarify this obstinate enigma- but without injury to grain or herds.
Take note; and even as I speak these words, do you transmit them in your turn to those who live the life that is a race to death.
And when you write them, keep in mind that you must not conceal what you've seen of the tree that now has been despoiled twice over here.
Whoever robs or rends that tree offends, with his blaspheming action, God; for He created it for His sole use-holy.
For tasting of that tree, the first soul waited five thousand years and more in grief and longing for Him who on Himself avenged that taste. Purgatorio XXXIII
67. In the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth. One also senses the urgent need to find innovative ways of implementing the principle of the responsibility to protect and of giving poorer nations an effective voice in shared decision-making. This seems necessary in order to arrive at a political, juridical and economic order which can increase and give direction to international cooperation for the development of all peoples in solidarity. To manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority, as my predecessor Blessed John XXIII indicated some years ago. Such an authority would need to be regulated by law, to observe consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, to seek to establish the common good, and to make a commitment to securing authentic integral human development inspired by the values of charity in truth. Furthermore, such an authority would need to be universally recognized and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights. Obviously it would have to have the authority to ensure compliance with its decisions from all parties, and also with the coordinated measures adopted in various international forums. Without this, despite the great progress accomplished in various sectors, international law would risk being conditioned by the balance of power among the strongest nations. The integral development of peoples and international cooperation require the establishment of a greater degree of international ordering, marked by subsidiarity, for the management of globalization. They also require the construction of a social order that at last conforms to the moral order, to the interconnection between moral and social spheres, and to the link between politics and the economic and civil spheres, as envisaged by the Charter of the United Nations. Benedict XVI Caritas in Veritate
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Metropolitan Government has filed a complaint seeking an injunction to permanently close a controversial swingers club in Madison.
The filing made Thursday in General Sessions court, states that a permit had been issued to operate a church at 520 Lentz Ave in Madison, but instead the owners have been operating a sex club.
The complaint states that Freedom 4 All, Inc. is "maintaining a public nuisance by permitting acts of lewd conduct" and is in violation of city ordinances and state law which prohibit operation of the club within 1,000 feet of a school
In March, two inspectors from the city's Codes department paid $40 each to enter the club where they witnessed numerous sex acts being performed inside. The four page report gives explicit details about what those inspectors observed during a recent visit to The Social Club or TSC.
Metro's Zoning Administrator Bill Herbert said of the report, "I was shocked, quite frankly. I was shocked. Maybe I'm naive. I did not expect it to be as graphic as it was."
Herbert said the inspectors found rooms with beds, some with foot and hand rests and some rooms had partial walls allowing for viewing while the inspectors also noted sexual activity throughout the building.
"They witnessed sex acts and other acts that indicated that the property was not being used as a church," Herbert stated. Source
Goldsberry had paid women to strip at his neighbor’s house near 185th and Indiana Streets. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said he told a deputy that he masturbated from inside his home while watching the stripteases.
The visits from the strippers occurred at least 75 times.
The neighbors, a couple in their 30s with sons ages 3 and 1, said the stripper visits began about a month after they moved into their house.
Sometimes they were alerted to the visitors by a kick on their door or their doorbell ringing. Sometimes pimps peered into their windows. Sometimes the women became upset because they expected someone at the house to pay them.
Fabian also noted that some of the young women who showed up at the house may have been 16 or younger.
The family that lives across the street from Goldsberry’s house has sought a protection order against him. Source
A man was indicted Thursday for "masturbating vigorously" outside of New Avenues for Youth in downtown Portland on May 3.
Court documents say that when a Portland police officer responded to a complaint of public indecency at the location, the officer saw Terry Lee Andreassen, 59, "with his erect penis exposed to the public."When Andreassen saw the officer, he "put his penis back in his pants and began to walk away." Documents say that when the officer asked Andreassen whether or not it was appropriate to masturbate in public and why he was doing it, Andreassen told the officer that he was on meth and wanted to go back to prison, because he "f--ing hates Portland."
This is not Andreassen's first time acting inappropriately in public. He has convictions for public indecency going back to at least 2001.
An affidavit from a 2014 felony conviction for public indecency says that on Aug. 30 of 2014 Andreassen was observed "laying on the sidewalk on NW Couch between 1st and 2nd Ave...across from the exit of Jones Bar."
The affidavit says Andreassen was observed "stroking his penis outside of his pants" and that he was "staring at several females in the bar that were standing in line." Andreassen was observed doing this for two nights in a row.
Andreassen is currently booked at the Multnomah County Inverness Jail. Source
If there is no Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God in Space then there is no need to have an Invisible Interior Sacrifice of the heart to God.
Simple observation.
The most popular blogging Catholics are Star Wars and Star Trek fanatics - why the obsession?
Deep down inside these top blogging Catholics hate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and would rather play with their Star Wars figurines, and imagine a world without having to attend a Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God. But they also know that their are obligated to attend Mass every Sunday and Holy days so they trek to mass with no invisible interior sacrifice to God.
Would Rather Play With Star Wars Figurines Then Attend Mass
You can tell these men do not have a love of God and that their spiritual life is a mess. These men are Antichrists.
Too harsh?
No. Not at all.
Do you understand that at the time of the actual Antichrist the Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God will be abolished for 3 1/2 years? And that the reason for the destruction of the world at that time is because of the disappearance of the Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God?
Men of old explained that when the Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God. is taken away this world will be destroyed - just like when a body dies as the soul leaves.
Most of you don't know this. You do not know how powerful a protection the Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God truly is for our world and all of mankind.
Some men will be glad when the Antichrist abolishes the Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God.
The forerunners to these wicked men have the same desire to see the destruction of the Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God. You see it in their desire for space travel and populating other planets. You see it in their obsession with Star Wars and Star Trek - a world completely deviod of the Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God - just like in the time of the Antichrist.
Who are these wicked men who love to see a world with no Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God?
Mark Shea
Steve Skojec
And most top blogging Catholics who attend either the new Mass or the Latin Mass - don't be fooled by these men - their desire is a Star Wars world or Star trek world in which there is no need to have a good Invisible Interior Sacrifice of the heart to God to match the Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God?
Go ahead and observe these men - would you trust your spiritual life to these men who still wear Star Wars pajamas?
You know and I know these men are not spiritual men. They are goofballs who are mocking the Blessed Trinity desiring a world without a Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God.
Most of you think its cute when these perverted souls vomit their Star Wars or Star Treck view of the world on their blogs.
Its not.
Here is Steve Skojec trying his best to convince you that Catholicism is Star Wars, and Star Wars is Catholicism. He has to use 10,000 words in order to convince for the need of a world devoid of the Exterior Sacrifice of the Mass.
Remember, Star Wars is devoid of the Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God.
And in Stevie's article on Star Wars, Stevie doesn't mention the Visible Exterior Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to God once!
Not ONCE!
Star Wars: Catholic Ethos, Universal Appeal
To say that I grew up with the Star Wars franchise is no exaggeration; it is a literal statement of fact. I was present in the movie theater for Episode IV: A New Hope, but in utero, the sounds of light sabers, blaster pistols, and the explosion of Alderaan no doubt filtering their way through my mother’s body to be among the loudest first noises to reach my nascent ears. I vaguely remember the snowy landscapes of Hoth from Empire Strikes Back splashed across the big screen as I squirmed across laps and beneath the seats, chasing Jujubes as a toddler. Five months before my sixth birthday, I made myself nearly sick with anticipation as I waited all day for my parents to be ready to take me to Return of the Jedi. Every moment was agony. I just wanted to go see it. That Christmas, I unwrapped portions of that universe reincarnated in plastic — a Rancor monster, a speeder bike that disintegrated in a spring-loaded explosion at the touch of a button, a wampa, Boba Fett.
There was never a time in my childhood where the presence of George Lucas’ cultural epic wasn’t felt. Never a stick in the yard that couldn’t be imagined as a light saber. Never a time when a wise man or mentor might not be compared to Yoda, or speaking too close to the mouth of a cup didn’t make me think of James Earl Jones’ unforgettable vocal performance as Darth Vader.
I grew up in a science fiction-friendly home. My father’s book shelves were lined with volumes from Asimov, Heinlein, Ellison, Zelazney, and others, along with superhero comic book anthologies from both Marvel and DC. We were never fanatical about any particular series, but over the years before I left home for my own adventures, we watched The Twilight Zone, almost every iteration of Star Trek (I preferred The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine), the entire nine-season run of the X-Files, Farscape, and Alias, and others. Our favorite movies included titles like Labyrinth, Flight of the Navigator, The Rocketeer, Short Circuit, The Last Starfighter, Willow, and The Black Hole. Nothing, however, ever came close to the appeal of Star Wars. It was a perennial favorite — a classic you could come back to again and again without ever really getting tired of it. My immediately younger brother watched our VHS recording of Return of the Jedi almost daily one summer, until he just about wore out the tape.
So what is it about this ecclectic series of movies featuring unknown actors and setting its stories in “a galaxy far, far away”? What did we see in the fertile imaginings of the unassuming Lucas, who despite a phenomenal gift for world creation demonstrated serious impediments as a director and storyteller? Why is the Star Wars universe so popular with so many people around the world, even now, almost 40 years later, that the franchise is about to launch a brand new installment under the direction of an entirely new crew of filmmakers that will nonetheless undoubtedly become the highest-grossing movie of all time?
I think the answer is simple: beneath the dazzling set pieces and amazing starships and glowing laser swords, which are all fun to look at, Star Wars presents us with a universe where good and evil are clearly distinguishable. Where nobility, virtue, and discipline matter. Where people care enough about doing what is right that they will fight against overwhelming odds in the hope of achieving it. Where rather than rabid individualism (“One Man, With One Mission…!”) a group of the sort of people (and droids. And Wookie.) we might least expect to find success against such an overpowering force come together as a Tolkien-esque fellowship and do exactly that. A story where even some of the most evil villains — individuals who fell into cruelty and darkness through vice and selfishness — can find redemption.
In a word, Star Wars has a decidedly Catholic ethos.
Now anyone who knows anything about Lucas knows that Catholic isn’t a term he would ever use to describe his world view. He grew up Methodist, and as he became more interested in studying comparitive religion, tried to infuse his straight-laced Protestant sensibility with Eastern religious philosophy. His study of Asian cultures is where, in fact, we get the word Jedi — a derivative of the word Jidaigeki, the Japanese cinematic term for samurai-filled period dramas set in feudal Nippon. The concept of The Force — no doubt influenced by the Asian concept of Chi — also derived, in part, from American Indian mythology, and their idea of the Great Mystery — a universal spiritual force that could be found and communed with through nature or by participation in certain rituals and ceremonies. “May the force be with you” sounds an awful lot like the familiar liturgical refrain, “The Lord be with you”; and of course, not a few Catholic eyebrows were raised at Lucas’ ham-fisted dialogic explanation of “midichlorians,” by which the Star Wars anti-Messiah, Anakin Skywalker, was somehow conceived without a biological father.
But if Lucas’ theology is a jumbled mess, the Protestant Christian influences on his thinking remain at the core of his work — and those influences are ultimately derived from the Catholic Christian culture that gave rise to them. In his 1999 book Mythmaker: The Life and Work of George Lucas, John Baxter (as cited here) explains something that was on the mind of Lucas as he rose to prominence in Hollywood:
His public pronouncements have come to have overtones of the mesianic. In 1981, breaking ground on the new USC Film School, to which he contributed $4.7 million, he lectured the audience on their moral shortcomings: ‘The influence of the Church, which used to be all-powerful, has been usurped by film. Films and television tell us the way we conduct our lives, what is right and wrong. There used to be a Ten Commandments that film had to follow, but now there are only a few remnants, like a hero doesn’t shoot anybody in the back. That makes it even more important that film-makers get exposed to the ethics of film.’
And it was this sense of ethical behavior that Lucas, then two movies into the original Star Wars trilogy, was seeking, however clumsily, to encode into his films. Baxter relates that
However seductive its technology, Star Wars needed much more if it was to succeed. Artless adventure wouldn’t prevail against the mysticism of Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Universal’s reader had been right: understanding ‘the rights and wrongs’ of the story was crucial. Lucas needed a rhetoric, a philosophy, a creed.
Apologists for and interpreters of Star Wars insist that ‘the Force,’ the all-pervasive power on which the heroes rely to defeat the Empire, was there from the start, and provided the primary motive for making the films. Lucas fosters this idea. ‘There was no modern mythology to give kids a sense of values, to give them a strong mythological fantasy life,’ he said later. ‘Westerns were the last of the that genre for Americans. Nothing was being done for young people that has real psychological underpinnings and was aimed at intelligent beings.’
But in fact Lucas had no such intentions at the outset. If anything, the whole idea of religion was alien to him. He had gone to church as a boy [at a Methodist church], and even attended Catholic mass a few times at USC, but the last time he’d been in church was to be married.
Patchwork religious sensibility or no, there was a definitive moral character to his stories and their protagonists. Another of Lucas’ big influences was the late Joseph Campbell. Campbell, an expert in global mythologies, is the author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces – a work that examines the recurring themes in the hero-journeys that inevitably appear in myths and stories from every culture around the world. Campbell himself summarized the so-called “monomyth” as follows:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
Campbell — who was himself raised Catholic — documented this “Hero’s Journey” in a way that resonated with many artists and writers around the world. Lucas was so profoundly inspired by the theory that he sought Campbell out, and the two became friends. But if the Hero’s Journey is in fact a universal theme found in every culture’s myths and legends, it seems also to apply to the hero par excellence – Jesus Christ. It would not be a large stretch to postulate that every hero who follows this arc is, in fact, a type of Christ, and that this is why they resonate with us – they are in fact resonating with the love of the True God that is inscribed on our very hearts.
There is another aspect of Star Wars that no doubt contributes to its universal popularity: while it follows the traditional and ubiquitously loved model of the Hero’s Journey, it does so with a relative innocence that allows parents to feel safe with the fantasy world in which their children want to immerse themselves.
If pressed, [Lucas] disclaims any personal vision, referring back to the body of myth, the thirty-two basic plot situations enumerated by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, or the accumulation of racial memory evoked by Carl Gustav Jung. ‘I took off from the folk side of things,’ he told the New York Times, looking back on Star Wars from the perspective of a quarter-century, ‘and tried to stay with universal themes apart from violence and sex, which are the only other two universal themes that seem to work around the world. My films aren’t that violent or sexy. Instead, I’m dealing with the need for humans to have friendships, to be compassionate, to band together to help each other and to join together against what is negative.’
Since 1977, every generation of filmmakers and storytellers has sought out the magical recipe behind the phenomenal and unprecedented success of Star Wars. And until Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4 billion, the phrase “the next Star Wars” was only ever seen applied to new, often derivative franchises that fell short of capturing whatever mojo Star Wars effortlessly exudes. Lucas damaged his own brand with endless tinkering and an uninspired and often embarrassing set of prequels that even the most devoted of fans couldn’t watch without flinching. Wooden performances, cringe-inducing dialogue, and characters so annoying and infantilizing that even children wanted to see them killed off made the prequel trilogy a visual feast with nothing for the soul. Perhaps Lucas had himself strayed too far from his Christian roots, becoming more concerned with appearances than with creating characters with whom his audience could connect. Perhaps it was simply that the Anakin Skywalker story was the inverse of the Hero’s Journey — the very journey that made the original trilogy such a runaway hit. Lucas had given birth to a cultural phenomenon, but he proved unworthy of the task of nourishing it beyond its infancy. He had changed, and he wanted his universe to change with him. Like the post-conciliar Church, he was unable to see that what wasn’t broken didn’t need fixing, and he had set himself to the task of constant innovation at the expense of fundamentals.
Disney, on the other hand, got it. Sometimes, the only way to keep the magic of a thing is just to accept it for what it is. To love it, to care for it, and to follow the time-trusted formula. When The Force Awakens — which will be released in American theaters tomorrow — was announced, many fans, still feeling let down by three unworthy prequels, were skeptical. Despite the entertainment value and box office success of the superhero movies put out by Marvel Studios — another Disney-owned company — there was a huge legacy on the line. George Lucas, despite his failure to stay faithful to his vision, gave us that vision in the first place. Could a new director and new corporate oversight bring to bear something worthy of what made Star Wars a household name in the first place? The trailers certainly seemed to capture the old-school vibe:
Early reports from the red-carpet premiere in Hollywood were also overwhelmingly positive. But perhaps most convincing thing I heard came from my friend and 1P5 contributor, Hilary White, who had grown increasingly skeptical in the weeks leading up to the film’s premiere. In Italy, where Hilary lives, the movie was released yesterday, and she saw it on opening day. On Facebook, she posted:
OK, JJ Abrams, I officially forgive you for rewriting Star Trek.
Thank you. Thank you for giving me back my childhood.
If you’re one of the few people left alive who don’t understand why Star Wars is the juggernaut it is, you might scoff at such a statement, or why I’d even devote an entire article to this. But for many of us, Star Wars was the universe we lived and played in all of our lives. It was a universe full of possibilities and imagination. It was also an easy, nearly-universal frame of reference when we were grasping for metaphors about good and evil (“yeah, ever since that guy went over to the dark side…”), about the potency of a person’s potential (“the Force is strong with this one!”), or what it’s like to stand against all odds (“we traditional Catholics just need to form a rebel alliance…”). There’s even an entire Facebook group with over 1600 fans dedicated to Star Wars-related Catholic memes. It is — and I don’t believe this is an exaggeration — the mythology of our generation. It fills a void that Christian culture once did, where we all had reference to the same symbols, idioms, and themes. Where we could all rely upon a common background, a common ethos, and a shared set of beliefs.
It’s a sad thing to contemplate when a work of fiction all-but-supplants something as spiritually and historically significant as Christendom. But it also presents an opportunity: if a universally-loved phenomenon exists that crosses cultural and ideological boundaries, and draws heavily upon the very themes of good and evil, nobility, chivalry, and virtue that were once a fundamental part of the Christian West, it may actually represent a starting point for evangelization. I know it sounds crazy, but where an atheist will argue passionately with me about belief and doctrine, he is far more likely to agree with me about Star Wars canon. He is comfortable within the confines of a made up system of belief and history in exactly the way he is not in a real one. But there are elements of truth in the stories, elements that can be developed and expounded upon.
Han Solo famously quipped, “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.”
It was a line that represented the ever-growing (and entirely needless) conflict between science and religion, between believing in things one cannot see versus putting one’s faith in only that which is empirically verifiable. It was a line that made you smile and shake your head. You liked Han — you were supposed to — but you knew that on this point, he had it wrong.
George Lucas may or may not have consciously realized what he was saying or the impact it would have, but he touched a nerve in the consciousness of 20th century man. I would argue that the resonance of these stories, far from something merely coincidental, is rather a manifestation of a deeper need for a universe where right and wrong are clearly understood, where antiheros are defeated by actual heros, where faith is a powerful force to be reckoned with, where redemption is possible even at the moment of death, and where in the end, despite everything being stacked against it, good prevails.
If that’s not Catholic, I don’t know what is. Source
Yeah ....THERE IS NO VISIBLE SACRIFICE OF THE HOLY MASS IN SPACE!
Shocking cell phone footage has emerged showing the moment two airline passengers start a vicious brawl just after their flight touched down in California.
One man was arrested after the pair started fighting on board the Oakland-bound Southwest Airlines jet during a stopover in Burbank after arriving from Dallas, Texas, on Sunday.
This is just the latest in a string of airline horror stories that have come to light since a passenger was forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight last month.Burbank police identified the suspect as Chaze Cable, 37, according to ABC.
Cable was charged with two counts of misdemeanor battery and pleaded not guilty in court on Tuesday.
According to police, the suspect assaulted another passenger, leaving the victim with a bruise to his left eye, a cut to his nose and a chipped tooth.
A statement on Tuesday from the Dallas-based air carrier said the incident happened Sunday aboard Flight 2530 during deplaning at Burbank Bob Hope Airport in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Los Angeles. Daily Mail Read More>>>>>>
Two passengers got into a fight on a Southwest flight shortly after the plane landed in Burbank, California.
Southwest flight 2530 had traveled from Dallas and was on a short layover at Hollywood Burbank Airport before continuing on to Oakland. But as the plane taxied to the gate, two men began fighting, Burbank Police said. The altercation worsened as fellow passengers were attempting to get off the plane at the gate, according to Southwest Airlines.
Cellphone video of the incident surfaced on social media. In the video, the two men appear to be jostling for position near a row of seats, when one man forces the other over the backs of the seats in front of them. Leaning over his opponent, the man can be seen unleashing a series of punches before fellow passengers rush in to stop the fight.
The suspect was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery, while police said the victim suffered a contusion to his left eye, a laceration to his nose and a chipped tooth.
Burbank police identified the suspect as Chaze Mickalo Cable, 37, of Lancaster. He was arrested for assault and battery and held on $50,000 bail. Air Live
Canceled flights leave Spirit Airlines passengers brawling in Fort Lauderdale
Canceled flights led Spirit Airlines passengers to scream, shout and throw punches at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Cellphone video shows a crowd of riled-up passengers swarming the ticket check-in counter for Spirit Airlines Monday evening after nine flights were canceled, leaving hundreds stranded. In one clip, at least two women start swinging at Broward sheriff’s deputies. Another video shows one of the woman being led away and someone held on the ground by deputies.
BSO arrested three people for disorderly conduct, inciting a riot, trespassing after a warning, and resisting arrest with violence.
Deputies said Desmond Waul, a 22-year-old from New York, was screaming at airline employees, threatening them and challenging them to step outside and fight. According to the arrest report, he was handcuffed “after a physical struggle.” Janice Waul, 24, and a third New Yorker, 22-year-old Devante Garrett, were arrested on the same charges. Their arrest report narratives are the same as Desmond’s.
“The atmosphere which WAUL and co-defendents caused was one that resembled the start of a riot,” deputies wrote. Miami Herald Read More>>>>>
