You dug deeper than I did. Seems you’ve found “color”. Keep panning that stream. Got a sluice box? A Golden Fleece? Looks like it. Nice work.
I’m a perpetual dilettante. Wide but shallow is my little pond of knowledge. I’m onto the desert fathers now and I’m getting nuggets, so I keep working that claim. Hasn’t played out yet.
But who was Fulcanelli? — Frank Zappa
I did a bit of deep inquiry into transmutation of matter and other “pre-scientific” arcana. Including ancient metrology which was,I must say fascinating. Isaac Newton had thousands of pages of research and documented many experiments into these subjects. I think after seriously inquiring into it that cooking mercury without appropriate ventilation is a recipe for becoming a “mad hatter”. It’s certainly possible, as the “Freemasons” claim some pre-diluvian civilization had technology far in advance of our own, and some residues were deposited for later decoding in mythologies, as is referred to in Enochian literature, especially concerning observational astronomy regarding equinoctal precession but I don’t think the medieval Europeans were doing nuclear fusion as is sometimes asserted. So, imho alchemy is a dead end at best, and intentional misdirection at worst. Rumplestiltskin not withstanding. I’m also not too keen on John Dee’s “scrying” by gazing into crystal balls and black mirrors for contact with “angels” which allegedly instructed him to wife swap with his chief assistant. What better way to bed a credulous hottie than claim supernatural forces demand it? People are unworthy. Demons are very clever and very very deceptive.
Yep, but directionality and effort are still worthwhile endeavors. Nobody becomes truly virtuous by their own efforts. Neither Epicurus nor Epictetus claimed to have fully realized virtue. Plotinus maybe made such a claim but he’s an exception. Grace from God is absolutely and demonstrably necessary, but you gotta at least meet Him half way. Nobody’s praying between tequila shots at the strip club, if you know what I mean.
I’m giving people the benefit of the doubt that they had proper foundation for marriage from the beginning. That they intended to have a family and raise children in a stable structured wholesome environment.
If along the course of life one person’s susceptibility to temptation, in its various forms, compromises the partnership, then the opportunity for spiritual growth arises. Assessing what made the temptation seem desirable, as in “What do I really want?” Or else it all goes kaflooey which is not uncommon.
If people get married because she looks hot and he’s got money and children are an unintended afterthought there wasn’t a lot to start with and it was doomed before it began. More kaflooey, and I’d never advocate a lifetime enduring such a mess. Counseling would be laughably useless. One can’t help but be sympathetic to the kids stuck with these people.
All of life’s dramas provide opportunities for spiritual growth. Or our stupid choices get repeated time after time and we die ignorant fools unaware of our own foolishness blaming everyone else for our misery.
I’m plenty stupid and have had some awful marriages. Much damage in my wake. I’m truly sorry. They ended badly and gave me opportunities to reflect on where I went wrong. It took some time, but I finally got it right. And I got lucky and found a good woman. It’s made me smug. Sorry. I’m such an asshole. I have too high regard for myself. It’s my character flaw, but at least I recognize it, and I do work at being better. I’m old as dirt, (and twice as ugly) so I better get busy repenting while I’m still able. Thanks for helping me try to improve.
Darn good shootin’ if it was staged. “Just nick the ear of his turning head”. Sure. Also kinda too bad for those who were collaterally damaged. Rest in peace Corey Campatory.
God’s not finished with DJT just yet. He wasn’t saved from these demons just to stroke out now, or anytime soon.
Being married is part of spiritual development for married people. Your final form (in Heaven if you make it) is selfless saintliness, but sometimes it feels like we’re crawling over cactus to get there. Gotta learn to laugh at those pricks against which we’re all so prone to kick. As a divorced person one is constantly searching for a more suitable spouse the second, or third, or…time around. If you haven’t changed for the better, possibly learning some humility and seeking God’s help in rising above the cactus patch, you’re just gonna repeat the same errors, until you learn your lessons. It’s hard to see it as a blessing while you’re bleeding, I know, but you’ll look back on all your suffering as both necessary and proper parts of the process of sanctification. It doesn’t mean be a doormat. It requires courage to speak truth.
Or you’re a hedonist interested only in gratifying immediate needs and wants, in which case I suggest live and learn, or don’t. It’s permitted. You choose. Nobody can become virtuous, which even Epicurus advocated as producing “eudaemonia”, that is “happiness” or “the good life” on their own.
Thanks. Yeah. Trouble is; transhumanism and the competing factions propelling it with delusional aspirations for a techno utopia have seemingly unlimited funding. They can afford to manufacture a “person” and position him for advantage. That there are competing factions, though both are undesirable may be a good thing.
It was pressed home to me recently by a guy in a cassock with a pillbox hat and a big cross medallion that our job is to pray. It was asserted that if we weren’t already praying things would already be much much worse. Have faith in faith. Lord have mercy.
Please forgive the sermonette. It’s still Sunday….
Sundance just did an expose on Vance. I was shocked. I guess depending on how one feels about Peter Thiel and Palantir creating a political image to market to us would be a factor, but it deserves our attention. He’s as much a created character as Obama. Or Vivek Ramalamadingdong, another Thiel protege. JD Vance isn’t even his real name. It’s not even his first not real name. I do hope he’s not handed the keys to the kingdom without close examination.
“The Continental Op” by Dashiell Hammet “The Long Goodbye” by Raymond Chandler “Ladies in the Parlor” by Jim Tully “The Case of the Vagabond Virgin” by Earle Stanley Gardener
All those guys have written lots of other books. If you start reading them you may find you can’t stop.
I’ll mention two other writers who are more recent but really catch the spirit of the age. Elmore Leonard and John D McDonald.
I read a lot of old pulp fiction. Vintage stuff from 1920s-30s. So called “white slavery” is a common theme. Opium dens were fashionable among the tony set going slumming. Many young ladies were fast tracked into “mattress backs”. That time period saw a massive rise in criminality. Not just illicit alcohol, but gambling and prostitution as well with the attendant extortion and murder as a result. Prohibition created the mafia and corrupted public officials at every level. Thanks to women getting the vote! Read Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler, even Earle Stanley Gardner. It’ll open your eyes.
Right you are. He was fast tracked to leapfrog HRC as well. It seemed to me that the overarching object was to get control of “healthcare”. When WJC was first elected she had declared her intention to change America over to the British model with national health service. With much fanfare she convened a working group to implement her plan but it, for reasons never specified never got off the ground. So it was left to Obama to take over “healthcare” instead of her. 08 was supposed to be her turn, and the whole reason she married Clinton in the first place. They switched Barry in then and she had to wait for 16. Her bitterness must be unbearable. Good.
The forces behind all this will, at some point be exposed. Something about saving something for last comes to mind….
The Russiagate coup attempt isn’t worse than watergate. Watergate was worse because the coup worked. Same stuff, crooks at FBI leaking to media inspiring impeachment. Nixon was really a phenomenon. Hyper-Conservative yet institutes wage and price controls?
Perhaps he has to submit his work to some 3 letter agencies to make sure he’s not blowing some embedded operative’s cover. Maybe just let them know what they’ve found so perpetrators don’t flee when the news drops. One could only imagine the conversation he’d have if he messed up some ongoing investigation. Exposing ACORN (Obama’s community organizer organization) in ‘08 by posing as a pimp trying (and succeeding) to get help getting Medicaid for his string of underage illegal alien prostitutes was as good as journalism gets. Horrifying expose meets Candid Camera. He’ll never top that, but Obama still got elected.
“Obviously Trump is a Pootin’ Puppet. Gotta be stopped by any means necessary. The KGB clearly interfered by hacking the DNC emails and they killed Seth Rich who had discovered their intrusion. Obviously John Podesta’s emails were fabricated in Moscow probably by Konstantin Kolemnik in association with Carter Page. And you can’t prove I wasn’t motivated entirely by patriotism and would do anything to save the country.”
—- Mark Elias.
I tried our local branch. Sister in law had received a free gift card and wanted to pretend to be generous by expending it on us. Old sign still displayed. Food was awful. Service was lackluster. Cost nothing. Worth every penny.