Numerology Class

Some quick numbers for you

Catholics (in light of Pope Benedict resigning)

2/3 majority needed to get new Pontiff
Hope to have new pope by Easter Sunday
Expect to begin on march 17th or so
(I suspect they already know who will get it if it's going to go that quickly)

1910:291 million Catholics in world
2013:1.1 billion in world
2013:75.5 million in USA
7% reside in USA
Huge growth in Africa & china

$¢$¢$¢$

Budget Stuff

$37,829 spent per SECOND
$2.27 million per minute
$136.19 Million per hour
$3.268 BILLION per DAY

House Financial Services meeting (yesterday 26FEB2013) the Debt Clock was proposed to be removed by Rep. Maxine Waters and Congressman Keith Ellison, who consider it just a political ploy ... Yes both democrats

US DEBT=$52,000 for EVERY man/woman/child in USA

More than 1/3 of debt during Obama administration alone

2023=$26.1 Trillion National Debt (if laws do not change)

Sequester=2% of US Budget

Under CURRENT law the PRESIDENT gets to chose WHERE the 2% is coming from ... So he could pull it out of the wages of the Federal government if he wanted to ... Or from any federal program ... He has CHOSEN military, education, national security ... Obama did it!

Mea Copa ??

Pastor apologizes for anti-Catholic remarks:

"In a letter to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, Hagee wrote: 'Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and Evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.'"

Okay ... but where exactly is the apology?

It sounds more like he's just apologizing that what he said made it into the press, but actually for anything he said.

There was no ... I didn't mean what I said to sound so bad .... or ..... I realized that I said something horribly wrong ... or .... damn, my tongue got ahead of my brain (we've all done this).

Wait for it----

FOXNews.com - Archbishop of Canterbury Dismisses Nativity Scene as Nothing but 'Legend'

Wait for the fur and epitaphs to fly!
This is rather significant...there has been more and more acknowledgment from the major christian churches that the Nativity story is flawed...but no one has ever come right out and said anything that could cast real doubt on whether it really happened or not.
I have heard wonderments about the timing within the year (it was more likely than not that the birth was in the spring...based on shepherd's being outdoors and its too cold this time of year even in Nazareth)....I've heard admissions that the story was always rather minor until the church ran into pagan groups who celebrated Yule.....I've even heard that the star was simply an astrological phenomenon that happened to correspond with the birth of a child born to a Joseph & Mary who were in the City of David about the same time (according to the roman census records)
but this is the first time that I have EVER heard an official say that part of the story was "legend" and thus casting a ray of doubt which could unravel the entire thing!

We are, after all, human and if we think one part of a story is shaky then the whole story becomes inplausible.
It will be interesting to see how soon it will be before the Archbishop starts to back pedal on this one...or at least try to "clarify" his original statement.

And what a time of year to do it too!

You can't have it both ways.

FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Humanitarian Record in Meeting With Pope - International News News of the World Middle East News Europe News:

"'He was concerned that the society that was evolving would not tolerate the
Christian religion,' Bush explained at a news conference "

WHAT??? What are we supposed to do? We are helping to set up the government, yes, but this is a religious matter that needs to be addressed by their rabbis/priests/wise-men/what-have-you (I don't know what their called).

People are funny...they don't think we have the right to be there...but damn it, they want us to tell them what to do/think/feel.

c'mon....make up your minds.

and the Church wonders why people attack them...

FOXNews.com - Pope: Other Christian Denominations Not True Churches

Okay so Pope JP2 made large strides, leaps & bounds, to make peace between the Catholic Church and other demoninations...there was ever talk of eventually allowing 'open communion' which would allow non-Catholics to participate fully in the Mass...after all the point of the Mass is to take Communion....that's why service ends shortly there after...everything comes before...

But he has thrown in a monkey wrench on this one. In fact he seems to be reversing a LOT of the strides that Pope JP2 made...I knew when I saw him get in that the Church would be in trouble...now its starting to rear its head. I know that a lot of people say that prophecy states that he will be the last pope that the church will have--because he will destroy the church.

It is really tough for me to accept him on any level...I thought once of being a nun...but I now I am glad I didn't do it, I couldn't except him. Here is the latest news I've found on line:
*The pope says that the concern about global warming should never put animals & plant life over that of human beings (actually that was what I was originally going to post about...finally someone in power with speaks the "truth"...actually the first I heard of it it was reported as "pope denounces global warming")

*he has reversed the stride that pope JP2 made in elections of the pope, by
reverting back to a stron 2/3 majority for elections--now JP2 had made it so
that after a few days of locked voting that just a majority was needed to elect
the new pope...this way the church would not be without a leader for an extended
period of time...actually what the deadlocks do is leave the church in the hands
of the cardinals--and cardinals/bishops tend to get crooked (as history has
shown)

*he is going to allow Latin masses again--which I think is a good thing in
the long run...my father says he can remember in the service that no matter what
country he was in he knew he could go into the church and he would be able to
understand what was going on...by speaking latin he could communicate with the
locals even if he didn't know the native tongue.

*despite the use of Latin....Pope sounds like he is up holding the changes
made in Vatican 2--except the above references to other christian
churches.

*he wants countries to accept refugees....but his definition of "refugee"
is vague enough to include illegals who simply claim that they are fleeing
poverty which could be considered "true life-threatening dangers"...a refugee to me is someone who is misplaced due to political upheaval, war,
or civil atrocities....there's a slight difference there.

*he is moving St. Patty's day 2 days earlier next yr. because it
clashes with Holy Week....I've always wondered--why does St. Patrick get a
holiday but no others do?? Well St. Nick, yeah, but only because the
church needed an image to take over for the Oak King in order to sway the
pagans....that's why they look so simular. Why doesn't St. Jude or St.
Michael the Archangel get their own major holiday? I think they are more
important than a saint that just tooted some snakes away.

*he is clarifying the church standing on Limbo--that place where the unborn
and unbaptized children go when they die--he is giving hope that they will be
able to get into heaven. I'm sorry I was always told by my mother who was
seriously considering on becoming a nun (really serious, only two things kept
her out--her love of ice-skating and meeting my dad) that God would never keep a
child out of heaven just because they weren't baptized...we were raised with the
belief that while we might be born with Original Sin we wouldn't be punished
until we acted upon it.

*the emissary to Isreal will now be allowed (perhaps told) to attend the
annual ceremony remembering the victims of the holocast--seperate post for thst
story, btw.

well that's it for now.

Can you really blame them??

FOXNews.com - Vatican Ambassador Attends Holocaust Memorial Service in Boycott Reversal:

"Yad Vashem believes that it was inappropriate to link an issue of historical
research with commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust,' she said."

Okay, I can understand the outrage of the Jewish people over the church not taking a firm stand....I can even totally understand the church trying to canonize the pope at the time...but what I can not understand is why the museum would put up something they know would upset the catholic church and then call them in to look at it.

Sorry that's just rude. Even after the church has told them that their research is wrong and offered other proof that the church was helping behind the scenes in such a way as to be able to save thousands instead of coming straight out and shutting off those lines of escape.

While we can look back now and say "you were wrong", at the time, the move put the church in great danger and was probably the best way to handle things.

What really gets me is the quote above by the museums creator...if he really felt that it was wrong to link historical research to the mouring for the victims--why didn't he just take down the offending blirp next to the pope's photo????? because he doesn't really believe it!!

I don't blame the church for wanting to boycott it....in fact I wouldn't blame ANY of the countries who are being lame-basted for not showing up.

While we should never forget the horrors or how it happened....a good host never embarrasses their guests on purpose...and this is definately on purpose.

Check out the story for the exact wording they used to describe the pope's actions....more than slightly inflamatory!!!

H.G. Wells--a man before his time

Mars Rover Finding Suggests Once Habitable Environment - New York Times

Oooo, so war of the worlds could really happen?

Oh no, wait....this just gives credence to Scientologists like Travolta and Cruise....NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Seperation of Church and State???

Okay....a few years ago I would have been on the extreme side of this issue, but now I can see the grey in it.

So there is an athiest group who says that not only are memorial crosses set up by states a violation, but by allowing family members/friends put up the crosses on public property...such as along highways where their family member died...it is also a violation.

Okay I can see this point for when a group takes a presumption move to do a cross for all/everyone who died on that stretch--after all, they would take offense if some one put up, say, a cresant&star or star's of David or pentacles for a friend/family member of theirs.

I still remember the contriversy, and rightly so, about Mormon groups who were performing "baptisms" over graves without permission or regards for the families.

Now like I said--if the groups were to ask the families if they minded a cross to go up I think it would be different--although I also think they need to be willing to put up a different religious symbol if the family so desires it.

Oh an in case anyone is wondering--yes there is an accepted symbol for Athiests. According to the Pentagon...at least the symbols they use on headstones...the symbol looks like a representation of an atom (see below, oh and that's a letter A in the center).

Now some of you might be going "cool peice of trivia" but really its more than that....it means that the military--who just went thru 0ver 20yrs of court fighting the wiccans over their symbol under the basis that there was no national representation--recognizes Athiests as an orginized group of people with a like belief system...to me that sounds like, um, a religion!!!!

But this issue while interesting will have a bigger impact for the taxpayer---

IF the courts find that putting crosses, and therefore any symbol is a kin to the government promoting a religion, and therefore can not happen....then the taxpayer will have to pay to replace every military headstone across the US and any that are located in other countries.

So we will be talking every headstone that was produced since at least the Civil War if not before that. We are talking millions, if not a billion, headstones....each-if we chose to be conservative-costing round $300.

Now I know that in the grand scheme of the national budget....it doesn't seem like much...but in Fort Snelling alone there were 172,000 graves in 2006--@ $200 each, that would be $34,400,000!

In Arlington Cemetery--possibly the best known military cemetery--the only number I can find for there is "over 300,000" with average of 28 new graves added everyday--so we are talking at the very least $60,000,000!

Now you have to remember that there are National Cemetaries in the 48 continental states + Hawaii & Alaska...but there are also cemeteries in Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Phillippine Islands---139 in all....and that does not include the State military cemeteries, because they are ran by the states the VA doesn't keep records for them.

So you see....it is a very conveluted but relavent discussion we should all pay attention too.

So where do you stand on the issue? Would love to have some comments...I just ask that we kee the evangelical responses to a minimum--we are discussing not "witnessing" here.