If you are on Facebook or a member of a church, you see or hear a lot of prayer requests. You might be one of great faith, little faith or no faith. You might be in a yoga pose, clutching your beads, or looking at today's request for the president.

Agnostics and atheists have studied prayer. And guess what? Prayer has been scientifically proven potent. Even I have difficulty believing the results (being a Christian I suppose I prefer my tradition to be the one that works).

 
Today I was reading Erling Olsen's book, "Meditations in the Book of Psalms," specifically Ps 86. He had a popular radio show during the Great Depression which was later turned into a book. He quoted and commented on the 1935 book, "Man, the unknown," by Dr. Alexis Carrel (still available in print and also in the Internet Archive in digital form). He says Carrel wasn't a Christian (don't know if he was of any faith family, being a scientist), but he wrote:

"Prayer should be understood, not as a mere mechanical recitation of formulas, but as a mystical elevation, an absorption of consciousness in the contemplation of a principle both permeating and transcending our world It is incomprehensible to philosophers and scientists, and inaccessible to them. But the simple seem to feel God as easily as the heat of the sun or the kindness of a friend." He goes on to say, "There is no need for the patient to pray or even to have any religious faith. It is sufficient that someone around him be in a state of prayer." He comments on the miraculous results he has seen in patients from TB to abscesses to cancer.

This reminds me of a double blind study I read back in the 80s that I've never forgotten. People of faith and unbelievers were assigned to pray a certain number of minutes a day for patients they didn't know, or even know what the problem was, or where they were. The researchers also didn't know who was matched with whom. But the patients who were prayed for had better outcomes.

So when you see or hear a frantic or sad message (or in the church bulletin) it's a comfort for the requester for you to dash off an emoji or "thinking of you" note, but also take a breath, slow down, and actually pray about the elderly parent, or accident of a friend, or a pregnancy in distress, or a financial problem. You don't have to be a believer, nor does the person in trouble. According to science.

The hypocrites in the Biden Administration

Maxine Waters promoted attacking Republican "public servants" like Sarah Sanders, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, but they get away with it. When Mrs. Soccer Mom raises her voice because no one on the school board cares about her kid, then she's a domestic terrorist. Democrats are systematically trying to destroy the 80 million people who voted for Trump in 2020--11 million more than voted for him in 2016. Hillary Clinton whined and raged for 4 years after 2016--and the media gave her a pass. The J6 event has been played up as worse than the Civil War. The media, print and social, are not our friends, they are co-conspirators with Pelosi's Gang.

Here are six videos of Democrats calling for violence or physical confrontations that are still active on Twitter | Washington Examiner

Illustrated History of the Diocese of Columbus--today's new book purchase

 

Dear UAPL:

This is not a purchase suggestion; I'd like to donate it for circulation.  There are 9 copies in the system, none in UAPL and 5 are non-circ. I purchased it today at VOA for 90 cents.  Published in Italy in 2001, it is in prime condition with good quality paper and color photos. I'm not a Catholic, but enjoyed reading it due to the local history and excellent photos of local churches including St. Andrew, St. Timothy, St. Agatha, plus local schools like Ready and Watterson, Ohio Dominican and the Josephinum.  It also has photos of local works of art. It's not really a reference book, or even just local history (the diocese is huge and covers many communities) which is why I'd like to see it in your circulating collection. The UAPL does not have a good collection on Christian denominations, the history of Christianity or even Christian values or ideas, and I believe this would be a valuable addition to your collection.

Radiance Foundation calls out Lancet for treatment of women

WASHINGTON D.C. — British medical journal “The Lancet” is dealing with the ongoing controversy regarding the September 25 journal cover which labeled women as “bodies with vaginas.” People in Britain and around the world are condemning the controversial language, with one critic stating, “This framing makes it sound like a coincidence that ‘bodies with vaginas’ have been neglected by medicine, as if it were not the product of a discrimination and oppression specific to the female sex… Medical misogyny exists—and refusing to acknowledge women perpetuates it.” Another critic commented, “It’s really difficult to imagine why any medical researcher would want to submit their paper to a Lancet journal when they are happy to refer to women on their front cover with language which would be considered inappropriate even in a red-light district.”

Richard Horton, editor-in-chief at The Lancet, issued an official apology for the cover, saying that the journal accidentally “conveyed the impression that we have dehumanized and marginalized women” and that they “apologize to our readers who were offended by the cover quote and the use of those same words in the review.” Many critics are unsatisfied with this response, arguing that this choice of words promotes female erasure and bows to transgender ideology.

Ryan Bomberger, chief creative officer and co-founder of The Radiance Foundation (Radiance, www.theradiancefoundation.org), commented on this concerning trend in the medical field. Bomberger stated, “The Lancet is following the disastrous and dangerous trend in the medical field of denying basic biology. The American Medical Association has called for the erasure of gender from birth certificates. The Director of the Centers for Disease Control officially refers to women as ‘pregnant people.’ All of these semantic euphemisms, which only confuse communication, are simply political capitulations to a powerful and well-funded LGBT activist movement. The abhorrent objectification and erasure of women is nothing new. The medical field needs to stop serving special interest groups and start serving the public who needs honest healthcare.”

The Radiance Foundation is a faith-based, educational, life-affirming 501c3 nonprofit organization. Through creative ad campaigns, powerful multimedia presentations, fearless journalism, and compassionate community outreaches, The Radiance Foundation affirms that every human life has God-given purpose. Radiance has helped to lead congressional briefings and summits on Capitol Hill on abortion, adoption, and racism, as well as spoken to thousands of students on campuses around the world including Harvard, Trinity College, Princeton University, University of Notre Dame, Mizzou, Columbia Law School, Penn State University, Eureka College, and Arizona State University, among others.

Missing children recovered

 More than 100 people arrested, 10 missing kids recovered in human trafficking operation (msn.com)

More than 100 people were arrested as part Operation Ohio Knows, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced on Monday.

Yost, who was joined by law enforcement agency's from Franklin, Montgomery, Portage and Summit counties announced 161 men have been arrested for trying to buy sex. The attorney general said three of the men were arrested for trying to buy sex from a minor.

"This is the largest human trafficking sting in the history of the state, to date--a city councilman, a teacher, a professor, and a firefighter were part of the group.

The Biden welcome mat--for foreigners, not Americans

And many more are coming. Caravans. Leftist NGOs supplying transportation, food, water, clothing, diapers. "Y'all come," says Biden. We'll just bus you around the nation or wherever you want to go. Americans don't want to work because of Biden's generous stay at home policies. Now he has to find those who are willing and eager to work. Who knows, employers may be exempt from all those pesky vaccination laws if there are no documents. Americans also don't want to have babies--can't even figure out their own gender! Border jumpers seem to have that figured out and will help the population problem.

7 Ways You Can Help Undocumented Immigrants In The US Right Now (globalcitizen.org)

PORTLAND REFUGEE SUPPORT GROUP - HOME (pdxrsg.org)

Biden Hires Group to Help Bring Expelled Illegals Back to U.S. (breitbart.com)

Soros-Funded Group Launches App to Help Illegal Aliens Avoid Feds | Judicial Watch

Biden nominee, Saule Omaova

Communists are slow learners, but they know their public--gullible, and always eager for something for nothing. "Entitlement spending isn’t the only radically progressive news out of the White House. The [WSJ] editorial board warns about President Biden’s nominee for the Comptroller of the Currency, [Saule Omarova, who wants to eliminate banks] who has fond memories of the Soviet economy and advocates a total overhaul of the U.S. banking system she'd regulate."

Who in the world is pulling the Biden strings?

Biden Nominates Literal Communist To Be In Charge Of Banks And Currency – Def-Con News (defconnews.com)

Terrifying: Biden Is Nominating Soviet-Trained Radicals Now – PJ Media

October's bright blue weather

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.  It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November wouldn't it?  Anne of Green Gables.  Yesterday's blue skies have turned to grey and the tiny yellow leaves of the locust tree outside my window are twirling like golden snow. 

O suns and skies and clouds of June, 

And flowers of June together, 

Ye cannot rival for one hour 

October's bright blue weather.

And today October 3 is Respect Life Sunday.  From the tiniest unborn to the oldest person in a care facility or in your own home, respect life.  You were once that little one and you will someday be frail in need of tender care.

We will soon be welcoming a great-great nephew (grandson of our niece) and would wish all children could be so celebrated.

Biden and buddies in Google--ban virus information

Google owns YouTube, so by analogy, owns President Biden. This is a clear definition of Fascism. Where government uses private businesses to control its citizens. It's definitely not sending mean tweets or making deals with Israel or asking Mexico to keep illegals behind the border which some of my Democrat friends got hysterical about and drew moustaches on cartoons of Trump . While allowing some of our most serious enemies abroad, and vicious Leftists who claim to be Americans to keep a platform to spew lies and violence, YouTube has removed 130,000 videos which they claim are "misinformation" about vaccines. Even Robert Kennedy Jr.

YouTube bans all anti-vax content, not just COVID-19 related (nypost.com)

Why 80 million Americans like Trump

I posted this a year ago, and nothing has changed, except the man in the White House is a puppet and a bumbling fool who took us all down in August over Afghanistan. We have sunk so far since January.

"Some people are with Trump because he's the only president who has ever been strongly pro-life. (me)
Others support him because he's the only president who has come through with solid, constitutionalists for all the courts (plural).

Others support him because he won't steal their legally owned guns.

Others support him because they want their good health insurance back which Obama stole from them.
Others love that he has done what no others have been bold enough to do with Israel and her enemies that surround her.

Others realize he's right to call out identity politics, critical race theory and the racists on the Left. It's systemic Marxism.

Others like him because they didn't elect the administrative state (aka deep state) to run the country.

Others know he doesn't judge by skin color or ethnicity but looks at skill, character, and quality.

Others love that he isn't wasting our tax dollars on international agreements that never benefit the U.S.

Others like him because he pushes back on behalf of the little guy."

More money for failed Head Start in the budget bill

"Since 1965, Head Start has been a sinkhole for taxpayer dollars and an ineffective education program for children. And yet, proponents—hand in glove with Congress—want to model hundreds of billions of dollars in the $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending package on it."

It now costs more than $10,200 per participant.

Pre-K Funding in $3.5T Spending Bill Is Modeled After Failed Head Start (dailysignal.com)

One of the problems I see in all Biden's programs is the "no legacy" legacy of Barack Obama.  If there were ever evidence for this administration being Obama 2.0, it is the trillions now being thrown at Obama's failures in the Build Back Better spending bill.  It includes a $3 billion “tree equity” outlay for planting saplings and $25 million on “anti-discrimination and bias training” in the healthcare industry — as well as nearly $79 billion for the Internal Revenue Service to step up its enforcement of tax laws. (Don't spend more than $600 or you might get audited.)  And now this boondoggle.  The belief apparently is that it was lack of money, not lack of history, of common sense, and his own racism.

September 30 is the feast day of St. Jerome, patron saint of librarians and libraries as well as archivists, translators and encyclopedists. It is celebrated in the Catholic Church for this canonized saint and Doctor of the Church and as a day of commemoration in Lutheran churches. I was aware of this since I was a librarian, but it was not until 2009 and we were on a tour of the Holy Land that I visited his cave where it is said he translated holy scripture into the language of the people, which was then Latin. It took him 30 years. According to St. Augustine, St. Jerome had a remarkable knowledge not only of Latin and Greek, but also of Hebrew and Chaldaic, and had read almost every author. He translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew, and, at the command of Pope Damasus, the New Testament from the Greek. Besides this, he translated into Latin the writings of many learned men, and enriched Christian learning from his own pen.

 
He wrote many letters over 50 years which document the history of religious controversies and squabbles among Christians about scripture (imagine that!) and also his own sarcastic and sharp temperament.

 
And today we think we've accomplished something if we send a text or hit send on a blog or Facebook post. Even librarians, who should know better.

https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/saints/jerome-625

Our medical ethics, rules and Covid

In 1974 President Nixon signed the National Research Act which established the National Commission for the Protection of Human subjects, requiring Public Health Service to promulgate regulations for the protection of human subjects. This was necessary because until the 1970s, our government was engaged in some pretty dicey research, like experiments on living aborted humans removed from the womb by c-section, testing products and procedures on mentally challenged adults, and perhaps the most famous, the Tuskegee syphillis study on black males. But in over 40 years, we haven't moved the needle that far. Primarily, because academics and bureaucrats are so smart and devious.

I am vaccinated, and will wear a mask if the venue requires it or if there are crowds. (Even though I know the research on masks is contradictory and confusing and almost useless outside a medical setting.) That said, I believe the mandates, passports and cancel culture attacks on anyone who suggests treatments rather than vaccines is in violation of laws already on the books.

 
You see, elected Democrats (they believe stealing our rights is "progressive") and some very unethical Republicans are willing to go around all our protections, and the unelected bureaucrats (like Fauci) and lobbyists (Big Pharma, Big Tech) don't seem to be constrained by any code of ethics, laws, regulations or even common sense. And we have no way to get rid of them.

Biden's record of disaster

Earlier this year, Twitter expelled President Trump from its platform, citing the danger that he would incite violence. As Kabul fell in mid-August, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted updates on the progress of his comrades. His account has been active without interruption since 2017. R. R. Reno, First Things, Oct. 2021.

This makes Twitter a supporter of the Taliban, and Biden a fascist. Fascism is a form of government which rules through private businesses to achieve socialist goals.

As the MSM get a bit squeamish wondering who is in charge, the real reporters like Lara Logan are taking the pulse of Afghanistan and noting the slaughter of minor tribes and an underground railroad to help those who Biden left behind that is quickly running out of food and water.

 
Bush made a terrible mistake thinking he could infuse democracy into a medieval state controlled by fundamentalist Muslim warring tribes. Obama made it worse by increasing the troops to 100,000. Trump ran on getting out, and we know from his love of country and his Christian values he would have never left Americans behind.

 
Then Biden jumps in, he creates a hasty exit, leaving a disaster not only for Americans, those Afghans who helped us, all the nations who worked with us, but also all those other vulnerable countries in the Middle East.

If there was ever a President who wanted to tear down the United States, its reputation and its values, it is Biden--or whoever is pulling the stings of the puppet government with his demented persona as spokesperson.

The big reveal

 

He's mad at the people destroying America, and there are many

Michael Smith has a good analysis of the footsteps we're walking in.  From Facebook post.

"I've been reading and studying a number of economic collapses from history - from the crash of tulip bulbs to Venezuela - there are certain aspects, certain markers, that were easily recognizable before each of the collapses.

The US has a lot of those markers, three of of the most significant are an incautious, incestuous involvement between government and industry, a national leadership who chose to ignore the markers and an opposition party that simply stood by and did little to nothing to change direction.

The Biden administration is building upon the rotten foundation of the Obama years to create some real structural deficiencies in our economy and are building in crises for the future - and there are giant corporations who have signed on to help.

Electric car mandates are an example. The auto industry is killing the internal combustion engine at the behest of government. The fossil fuel sector is being dismantled - both at the same time when electricity generation is predicted not to be able to keep up with demand. This guarantees future shortages of electricity - and likely rolling blackouts, something more common in third world countries than in a nation that has led the world for over a century.

It's not just Biden, there are many powerful forces (foreign and domestic) that have been cheering for decades for America to fail.

The next 18 months are going to be bad, I fear.

The fall can be stealthy - you may have the same job and a paycheck, but each week that pay will buy less and less (that same theft by erosion will happen to your savings). You may be able to do most of what you used to do, but over time, more will be forbidden to you.

Look, 9/11 shut down our national transportation systems. The mortgage bubble burst and collapsed our financial systems. The reaction to Covid 19 shut down our supply chains, shut down a national economy and locked us behind closed doors. Cyber attacks and ransomware are in the news weekly for shutting down hospitals, agricultural and energy transmission businesses.

Imagine all of those happening at the same time.

I get accused of being pessimistic - and that is a fair assessment, because I am - but it isn't a violent pessimism, it is more of a resignation, a "better get ready" sort.

 
Better have enough space for a garden, better have a few critical things stocked up, better know a few basic SHTF (sh*t hits the fan) skills, better be ready to protect yourself and your family and have the equipment and supplies to do it, better transfer your investments into hard assets, better know where your loved ones are and how to communicate with them when cell phones no longer work.

I wake up every morning with a burning anger toward the people who destroyed my America and stole the good life I have had from my children and their children.

But more than that, I'm like one of those movie characters that has been shifted in time. I can see the explosion about to happen but nobody can hear me yelling at them.

My Spidey Sense is tingling, telling me there is something wrong. I can't put my finger on it, but it sure feels that something wicked this way comes.

The Durham Report and Hillary Clinton

"We already know about Hillary Clinton’s attempted takedown of the Donald Trump candidacy and presidency in the Russia hoax. We know a government lawyer lied to the FISA court in order to get a warrant to spy on the Trump campaign. We know about Christopher Steele’s fake “dossier,” the spying on the Trump campaign by the FBI, and the deployment of Democrat apparatchiks to conscript their Leftist media transcribers to plant or amplify the fake news in the service of The Party."

Latest Durham Indictment May Make Russiagate the Most Corrupt Scandal in U.S. History – PJ Media

No wonder the Democrats and their henchmen in the media want to keep you focused on a protest on January 6, calling it an insurrection. The biggest scandal in our history is their candidate and former FLOTUS. No wonder they want to scare the daylights out of you with Climate Change and Covid and buy you off with a $3.5 trillion "infrastructure" bill, which is totally unneccesary. Democrats in Congress are crooks and the Republicans in Congress are enablers and wimps.

An old, old story

 Social media--e-mail and Facebook and Instagram--will never give you joy in memories 80 years later--those pixels will be long gone (unless you've printed them), and the next time I get a new computer, most of what I saved from my sister, cousin, and friends will be gone. But generations before this had the post office. I've seen the letters that my great-grandfather received from his parents in Pennsylvania after he settled in Illinois in 1848. And until recently when I repacked all my old letters, I had a birthday card from my mother written in 1995 that I would re-read. She died in 2000 so I loved looking at her handwriting.

Sept. 18, 1995

Dear Norma--This card will probably be late for your birthday, so we can look at the date this way.  You were born several days--one or two--early.  Dr. Dumont gave me the hurry-up treatment of castor oil and something on the evening of the 19th so the baby would come quickly and allow him to go on the fishing trip scheduled for the next day.  There was no harm done and one or two minutes before midnight you were on the scene.

Of course, that quick journey  left you a most beautiful baby, not red and wrinkled.  So you became "Peachy" at a very early age and you probably would have had September 20th or 21st as a birthdate!

Who trusts government when Biden is in charge?

I was reading through the comments of yet another expert, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Virus Expert Just Issued This "Sobering" Warning (yahoo.com)  He is baffled by 2 things--the fast increase in cases among children, and the distrust of the government mandates. I have no idea either why it is increasing among children, but have an opinion on the federal mandates.

 
During the Trump administration, the media and "experts" were insulting and lying about him, and his supporters. Trump supporters were called deplorable racists, white supremacists and stupid. That transfers to the entire country. You can't expect a complete turn around when for four years Democrats have been telling people they can NOT trust the government! The flip flopping by Dr. Fauci, who after all did advise Trump as well as Biden, has been stunning.

 
The mismanagement at the border and the disaster in Afghanistan certainly haven't caused Americans, even Democrats, to trust Joe Biden! Renaming "infrastructure" and slapping a $3.5 trillion bill (our money) to build up the Democrat party doesn't help. Saying Climate Change is the no. one problem when other things are more pressing and more difficult is also a terrible mark against federal mandates. That ill will that Democrats have seeded for years is bearing fruit, and it just may be costing lives. It's bleeding into the minds and hearts of the American people.

Perhaps this is a charity that can help save NYC

New York City, spends $28,000 per student -- half-a-million dollars per classroom! Private charities step up to the challenge to send kids to charter schools. John Stossel features Student Sponsor Partners, or SSP, a nonprofit that helps low-income students go to Catholic schools.  Not only scholarship money, but mentorship.

Jeniffer Gutierrez, a parent in the Bronx, was ecstatic to get SSP's acceptance letter. "I cried so hard when I received that letter because I knew it was an opportunity for my son. ... High schools in the Bronx are violent. There's no discipline. There's no education."

https://youtu.be/-qPSxp7Fy-g  Stossel explores the issues--he has been a mentor and donor for SSP, a way out for poor children.