Feel the Burn

Sound Money

Tally sticks - Image Source

"King Henry expanded the use of tally sticks to include the collection of taxes by local sheriffs, creating a demand for them, and the sticks began to circulate as a form of money as a result. Revenues owed to the Crown were collected in this manner, and the tally stick system formed the basis of the British Empire until the formation of the Bank of England at the end of the 17th century. Tally sticks found their way into medieval courts as evidence, and into the works of William Shakespeare, who referred to them in Sonnet 122.2 from Henry VI: 'nor need I tallies thy dear love to score.'" --Money Matters: The Tally Stick System

"More than in the Vatican Gardens, with their beauty..."

your goodness is the place where I dwell: I feel protected."







H/T: Dr. Dawn Eden Goldstein

Money is not a store of value

Value is already decided, and set, the minute anyone even thinks about engaging in a transaction. And if they aren't thinking of engaging in a transaction, it is still the projection of transaction that decides value.

Each has his needs and wants, and each recognizes that there is another who has needs and wants. Transaction is thus born.

Attempting to make "sound money" is complete idiocy.

The only way that money ever comes into existence, no matter what, is through a transaction.

A transaction involves two or more parties.

Money does not preexist. Money does not exist prior to the transaction by which it comes into existence.

All the money you own and have ever owned came into existence because of some transaction. All the way right to the very beginning of that money is a transaction. The money began as a transaction. No matter what form of money. If it's "gold money" it came into existence in the very same way.

An economy is a social construct no matter what.

There is what we as individuals ascertain as having value and there is what society together ascertains as having value. This is called the common good. It actually benefits the individual. Very often, in fact, more often than very often, what the individual ascertains as having value and what society together ascertains as having value are harmonious, if not one and the same. Very often what the individual ascertains as having value comes directly from what the common good has already decided.

Everyone needs food. Everyone needs shelter. Everyone needs clothes. More than these, everyone has something positive to bring about, linked to their unique vocation, but are unable to do so because their basic needs cannot be met, or met in a way that is sane and proportionate in time.

Oh, but value doesn't really exist unless we make the money transactable between owners of gold! Yeah, good luck with that. LOL!

Money is a store of value? LOL!

Stonewalling Benedict and Stoning Francis

The Novus Ordo is the Traditional Mass

...It is not appropriate to speak of these two versions of the Roman Missal as if they were “two Rites”. Rather, it is a matter of a twofold use of one and the same rite. ...

...There is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. ...

 And if the Novus Ordo is said in Latin, then it is the Traditional Latin Mass.

Euthanasia is an intrinsic evil

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Euthanasia

2276 Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.

2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.
Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded. 
 
2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "over-zealous" treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected. 
 
2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged. 

 
Suicide
 
2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law. Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.

Panhandling is legal and safe
since the meridian walker blocked
with a black permanent marker
the il and the un, ushering in
new law. Officialdom's clown
comes in signs proclaiming codes
warning of infringements along roads,
but vandalized, or outright knocked down;
or else tarnished by the wear of weather,
tortured with the shit of birds;
gravity swayed in sundry manners
like passing vehicles and too close turns,
where codes of conduct meet end-term
of living experience, that has gone before,
goes now, and will go on, as rotating earth.
One can hope that man is getting on well
or better, and be a future leader
like Sam on his return to the Shire.
I'll add some more - if you desire -
to your confounded list of charges:
"Calling your Chief Names, Wishing
to punch his Pimply Face,
and Thinking you Shirriffs look a lot of Tom-fools."
One can imagine that simple, funny picture
by the artist Cor Blok of Bill Ferny
getting Sam's apple smack in the face;
and Bill the pony was not aware
of a no-kicking rule. Even in the face
of herbicidal rule, weeds continue
to cultivate the asphalt, where
the meridian walker blocked
with a black permanent marker
the il and the un, now legal and safe.

Guardians

Like their subjects were the barest eyes
that should never be let to dry, or turned
to stare in the sun of this world -
the desiccating zeitgeist - in every
instance fall to their custody
a dew, and think a thousand score
ahead, every husk split considered,
mind-sustained, every thorn encroach
and approach of crows; they unfurl
like wind to the neck and ear, an appeal
to their creator's ever speaking, silent word.

Such a dumb film

Such a great film

You will ride eternal, shiny and chrome.

LOL.

Imagine

Can you imagine if it was Pope Francis who headed the installation of the solar panels at the Vatican instead of Pope Benedict?

Oh, the orthodox howling about how eco-socialism is overtaking the hierarchy under Bergoglio! LOL.

Oh, the stats that enterprising know-it-alls would start citing about how solar panels are a high maintenance money-eater and this is all just for show and why isn't that money going to the poor? LOL.

Oh, the profound and prophetic voices declaiming Francis the Underminer as pawning off Holy Mother Church to the carbon-credit depopulation agendas of the ruling elite! Impostor! LOL.

Can you imagine if it was Pope Francis, instead of Pope Benedict, who criticized on a number of occasions the industrial farming of chickens and other animals?

Oh, the orthodox howling about how this ambiguous leader refuses to talk about the issues of abortion and euthanasia! LOL.

And remember how Francis as Cardinal spoke critically about the two top things that western society spends money on?

Cosmetics and pets?

Yes, the good old orthodox crickets.

That's hitting a little too close to home I guess. LOL!

Can you imagine if Pope Francis was asked by some authorities "What should we do?" and he replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely--be content with your pay"?

Oh, the orthodox howling about how he ignored the issue of exposing babies on the Roman steps and how he's a false prophet!

Just imagine!

It's easy if you try!

I wonder if you can!

LOL.

Stupid is as stupid does,
and I know this well because
Forrest Gump with a box of chocolates
sat beside me for the length of an epic
on a white bus bench where a floating feather
came down softly in the balmy weather;
for it was far down south you see,
down in Alabama where a breeze
in summer is highly prized
as anywhere else, like the fireflies,
only there they are lightning bugs,
and stupid is as stupid does.

And somebody shot that nice man
and one day Gump just up and ran,
and a big fat cheque goes to the family of Bubba
and shrimp is just all kinds of hubba hubba.

That's supposed to be the refrain, if you will;
kind of whatever, as just for fill;
the main thing is that a millionaire
who bought into early apple shares
thinking it was a company for fruit
still mows the football field - that is a hoot!
and taught Elvis Presley his retard dance,
gyrations and swivels, legs askance,
a newfangled thing like chili fries,
only this is not for children's eyes!
Simply put, keep your hair a close-shaven buzz,
and well remember, stupid is as--

and somebody shot that nice man
and one day Gump just up and ran,
and a big fat cheque goes to the family of Bubba
and shrimp is just all kinds of hubba hubba.

Is it catching yet? Doesn't matter.
What matters is the serious matter
of Forrest Gump's first kiss--
I'll make it rhyme with Zemeckis.
There, that is all that mattered
in that particular most serious matter.
Something else that Gump said to me
is that life is a lot like a hive of bees;
they swarm you and sting you until you die
and then people find you all swollen there where you lie;
isn't that nice, now have a chocolate, you know
mama always said life is a lot like--

and somebody shot that nice man
and one day Gump just up and ran,
and a big fat cheque goes to the family of Bubba
and shrimp is just all kinds of hubba hubba.

So far so good, ignore the meter,
scansion is for pedantic losers
and the rhyme nazis.
But one good thing about Forrest Gump
in addition to all of the above,
is the song by Weird Al Yankovic called Gump
in which he parodies a song by The Presidents of the United States of
America called Lump.
This is all very 90s and dated of course,
like why would I write about this old horse?
It doesn't matter simply because
stupid is as stupid does.

And somebody shot that nice man
and one day Gump just up and ran,
and a big fat cheque goes to the family of Bubba
and shrimp is just all kinds of hubba hubba.

The Pope of Conversion

We are in a jubilee of mercy.





How do you interpret the language of mercy?

Perhaps you don't understand the language properly because you haven't allowed yourself to be fully embraced by mercy? You haven't allowed it to reach to all those nooks and crannies, which may in fact be the main areas of God's attention? You reject mercy immersion?

What do you know of mercy when you haven't allowed yourself to receive it? To receive it in the same exhaustive manner in which Jesus died?

What we know of mercy is proportional to our receiving it.

It is impossible for us to see the extent and reality of our sins without mercy. It is impossible for us to grow in holiness without mercy.

For it is precisely mercy that allows us to see that reality without illusions. Those illusions can be wishy-washy and evasive or they can be severe in a homespun kind of way; our own strength making a facsimile harsh assessment - self-enclosed: no worries over here Lord, I got this all covered, see how severe a judge I am with myself? I'm good on my own. The pangs of conscience are killed by our own strength, but enlivened by grace. Not by our own initiative or strength. It is the grace of mercy by which we have knowledge of sin.

It is only in mercy that one can fully fathom the reality of one's sins while having total hope and trust in God, which becomes more real a reality than anything one has known before. Mercy is conversion; to believe conversion is a one-time target is to deny sin and to limit God's graces and riches.

People are so stupid to regard mercy and particularly this jubilee of mercy as just some devotional thing, or some squishy "pastoral" thing.

How stupid to regard mercy as merely and exclusively the abstention of justice, such that every time you hear about mercy you immediately think of some negative carbon copy of justice, wherein we sort of just "get a pass", a wink and a nod. Both the right and the left got it wrong.

That is not what mercy is.