The Fourth Crusade

Today is April 12th; the anniversary of the Crusaders' attack on the city of Constantinople in 1204AD. I wonder how many Christian churches will be celebrating their massive victory? Probably not very many of them. The last thing a Christian preacher wants to do is remind his flock that the Christians of 800 years ago were as cruel and depraved as the ISIS terrorists today. Even worse, this particular Crusade finished up with Christians killing Christians so the apologists can't even shift blame onto their usual scapegoat; the Muslims.

Here are the high lowlights that occurred in the days following April 12th, 1204:

• Thousands of Christians were killed by the invading Christians.
• Bronze statues dating back to the time of Alexander the Great were melted down and sold for cash.
• Constantinople Library utterly destroyed.
• All the churches were looted.
• The tombs inside the St Apostles church were desecrated.
• Civilian women (and also Nuns) were raped and killed.

Pope Innocent III was really pissed off. He had paid cold, hard cash for the Crusaders to go down to Jerusalem and beat the shit out of the Muslims, but here they were in Constantinople killing Christians. He gave them a real talking-to:

It was your duty to attend to the business of your legation and to give careful consideration, not to the capture of the Empire of Constantinople, but rather to the defense of what is left of the Holy Land and, with the Lord's leave, the restoration of what has been lost. We made you our representative and we sent you to gain, not temporal, but rather eternal riches. And for this purpose, our brethren provided adequately for your needs.

The Pope also had some harsh words to say about the rape and murder committed by the holy Crusaders. He wouldn't have minded so much if the victims had been pagans, but this time they were Christians - and he thought that was a bit harsh:

As for those who were supposed to be seeking the ends of Jesus Christ, not their own ends, who made their swords, which they were supposed to use against the pagans, drip with Christian blood, they have spared neither religion, nor age, nor sex. They have committed incest, adultery, and fornication before the eyes of men. They have exposed both matrons and virgins, even those dedicated to God, to the sordid lusts of boys.

But the thing that really upset the Pope more than the rape and murder was the Crusaders' stealing valuable treasures from the church...

Not satisfied with breaking open the imperial treasury and plundering the goods of princes and lesser men, they also laid their hands on the treasures of the churches and, what is more serious, on their very possessions. They have even ripped silver plates from the altars and have hacked them to pieces among themselves. They violated the holy places and have carried off crosses and relics.

http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1204innocent.asp

A Cynic Predicts

India Temple Fire: 

Kerala Disaster Leaves Over 100 Dead, 200 Injured

A massive fire broke out during a fireworks display in a Hindu temple in south India early Sunday, killing more than 100 people and injuring at least 200 others, officials said.

The fire started when a spark from the unauthorized fireworks show ignited a separate batch of fireworks that were being stored at the Puttingal temple complex in Paravoor village.

The temple holds a competitive fireworks display every year.

This year, district authorities denied permission for the fireworks display, Chief Minister Chandy said.

The state's High Court had earlier mandated that fireworks must be stored more than 100 yards from temples — orders that were flouted at the Paravoor temple.

"We will be investigating how the orders were flouted and who was responsible for the decision to go ahead with the firework display," Chandy said.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/india-temple-fire-kerala

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What would happen if a gang of street thugs set fire to a temple; killed hundreds of innocent victims and injured hundreds more? Each member of the gang would receive the maximum penalty allowed by the law - execution. Even if the gangsters successfully appealed against the death penalty they would surely spend the rest of their life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But this time the killers are board members of a Hindu temple...

So here's my prediction: The Government will make a huge show of questioning all of the temple board members and eventually a small number of them will be arrested for a variety of minor charges (probably no-one will be charged with murder). That will be enough to satisfy the public - and later, when the publicity has died down, most of the charges against the killers will be dropped (probably for "lack of evidence").

In a couple of years from now, when you check back on this story, you will find that a few of the lower level board members will have received prison sentences of less than two years while everyone else has been set free with not a stain on their character.

That's my prediction ... There is no way the Government will dare to severely punish a bunch of wealthy Hindu board members - for the simple reason that wealthy Hindus are much more valued and respected than the hundreds of working class nitwits who got themselves killed or injured in the temple fire.

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Update:
It's even worse than I expected. Authorities arrested five people as decoys (factory hands working for the fireworks company) thus giving the Hindu board members time to run away. All fifteen of them have now disappeared. And now that they are out of harm's way the police have released the decoys who were arrested earlier.

Police detained five workers for questioning about fireworks stored at the site, hoping to learn more about who owned the fireworks and who had contracted the pyrotechnical display, police constable R. Unnikrishnan Nair said. The five were later released, but Nair did not say whether they were able to help authorities track down any of the 15 temple board members who fled after the accident.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/

Latest figures: 110 dead, 380 wounded.

Don't Make Me Laugh

It's not just the King of Queens. In nearly every American sit-com I've ever seen the characters will reach a point where they are screaming and shouting at each other. It's as if the producers have decided to use the popularity of the program to teach life lessons to the audience instead of making them laugh.

Here's another argumentative episode from King of Queens. The audience laughs a few times but only because the applause light was turned on in the studio. There's no actual jokes worth laughing at - just shouting and screaming.

Don Woody - Rockabilly Legend

Here is Don Woody singing 

"Make Like Rock'n'Roll" in 1956.

Here he is more than 50 years later 

singing the same song in Las Vegas in 2007

Not bad for a seventy-year-old, eh?

And the legend continues. Later this month (just a few weeks before is 80th birthday) he will be appearing at yet another Viva Las Vegas concert; performing all of his his songs from the 1950s. This from the Don Woody Official Website:

I am excited to announce that I'm going to participate in "The Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend #19" on April 16th 2016. Will be performing "Bird-Dog, Morris Code, Make like a tree and leaf" and of course Barking up the Wrong Tree. Also on the "Original Stars of Rockabilly" some really great singers. Lew Williams, Billy Harlan and Sleepy Le Beef. It's a really cool weekend with many many acts performing. I'm honored to be there.

http://www.hot.ee/donwoody/index.html

War Stories My Dad Told Me

When war broke out in 1939 my father was one of the first to volunteer for service. He and all the other volunteers were sworn-in at the army barracks and fitted out with their new uniforms. Then they were given leave for the rest of the day and told to report back to barracks the following morning. Most of them (including dad) headed into town where they spent the night drinking in the bars and nightclubs. Sometime during the night dad was stopped by the military police (probably for being drunk) and they began to question him:

Show us your leave pass.

I haven't got one.

What unit are you in?

Buggered if I know.

Who's your commanding officer?

I wouldn't have clue.

OK smart-arse get in the van.

And that's why dad's first day in service to the country was spent in a jail cell.

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Dad was fighting at El Alamein during the North African campaign when suddenly everything went quiet. The Germans were no longer firing at them and nobody knew what was going on. Eventually an order came down to the men in dad's trench: "Get up on the parapets and see if you can draw some fire."

Even as a child I realised that was a pretty dangerous situation to get into and immediately thought to myself that I would never have obeyed that order. "Gee dad, what did you do?" I asked him.

"Well we got up on the parapet and walked around to see if we could draw some fire," he said.

As it happened the Germans had already left their positions and were retreating to the West - but if they'd still been there, dad would have copped a bullet in the head.

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It was during WWII when an Australian man was trying to steal goods from a railway truck in a small country town. A local policeman found him and a foot chase ensued. "Stop or I'll shoot," yelled the policeman and the thief immediately stopped and raised his arms in the air.

Back in those days, petty criminals of this type were often given a choice: They could be imprisoned for their crime - or they could join the army without having a conviction recorded against them.

This particular thief chose the latter option and finished up at El Alamein fighting alongside my father. One day while the Germans were attacking and they were hunkered down in the trenches with machine gun bullets flying all around them, the thief said to my father: "If I'd known how many bullets they could fire at me without ever getting a hit, I would have never surrendered to that fucking copper back in Australia..."

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I once asked dad if he had ever got close to being killed in the war. He said that one day he was peering over the top of a trench when a bullet landed about an inch from his cheek and sent up a cloud of sand around his head - a sniper! Dad kept his head low for the rest of the day.

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Dad's battalion was landing at a beach in New Guinea. They weren't under Japanese fire but they were desperate to get all their supplies onto the beach before the enemy arrived.

So there was dad and a couple of his mates, pushing a jeep that had got stuck in the mud above the high tide mark. It was hard work and they were exhausted, but they needed all the food, fuel, and ammunition they could get, so they kept on pushing.

And then one of the boxes fell off the back of the jeep. The lid flipped open and the soldiers noticed that it contained a china dinner service for the officer's mess!

Dad and his mates stopped pushing and left the jeep where it was. It probably stayed there for the rest of the war.

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It's Funny - Yet Somehow Tragic

Here is US Senator John Milkovich speaking to his countrymen on Tuesday March 29th, 2016.

Original video here:

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/03/

Transcript

Scientific research and developments and advances in the last 100 years — particularly the last 50, 20, 10 years — have validated the biblical story of creation by archaeological discoveries of civilizations in the mid-east that seculars said did not exist and further archaeological research determines are true. There's some research - published research - that an ark or a large boat was found on top of Mt Ararat. And then, in addition, the point that the notion of instantaneous creation has been validated by the scientific study of heliocentric circles in rocks which is consistent with an instantaneous - or I guess I’m asking this: Are you aware that there’s an abundance of recent science that actually confirms the Genesis account of creation? 

Let's go through it point-by-point. The Senator's words in black and my comments in red.

Scientific research and developments and advances in the last 100 years — particularly the last 50, 20, 10 years — have validated the biblical story of creation

Completely untrue. Never in all of modern science has there ever been a research paper that includes the bible (or god) as part of the answer. Not one scientific paper has ever "validated" the biblical story of creation. Not one!  

advances in the last 100 years ... have validated the biblical story of creation by archaeological discoveries of civilizations in the mid-east

Notice that he starts by talking about "the biblical story of creation" and then suddenly lapses into a discussion about ancient civilizations.

He states that the biblical creation is validated by the existence of civilizations in the mid-east. That's like saying the story of Hansel and Gretel is validated because ice-cream is cold! They are two different things with no connection between them.

 
... archaeological discoveries of civilizations in the mid-east that seculars said did not exist and further archaeological research determines are true.

I think I know what he is talking about (even if he doesn't).

The bible mentions a tribe of people called the Hittites and for many centuries the seculars (his cute term for non-Christian) had no idea who those Hittites may have been. They didn't fit easily into the historical record and many scholars assumed that maybe the bible had got it wrong; maybe the Hittites never existed.

Then, more than a hundred years ago, the archaeologists discovered that the name Hittite referred to the Hatti tribe that lived in the kingdom of Kheta.

So what is the Senator trying to do here?

He is saying that non-Christians once said that the bible was wrong (about the Hittites) and later the bible was proved to be correct. He then goes on to imply that the wisest course of action would be to assume that the bible is always true and the non-Christians are always wrong.

 
There's some research - published research - that an ark or a large boat was found on top of Mt Ararat.

Utter codswallop. There is not now, nor has there ever been, an ark perched on top of Mount Ararat. As for "published research"; on a Creationist website perhaps, but not in any peer reviewed scientific journal.

And then, in addition, the point that the notion of instantaneous creation has been validated

Firstly, as mentioned above, the notion of instantaneous creation has NOT been validated.

So why is the Senator harking back to his earlier claim about the biblical creation story and why is he now trying to trying to combine it with the just mentioned "published research"?

He is trying to convince his audience that scientists with expertise in completely unrelated areas all agree that the bible is true. He is suggesting that there is evidence piled upon evidence and all of it attesting to the truth of the bible, where-as, in fact, the Senator is merely telling lies for Jesus.

... has been validated by the scientific study of heliocentric circles in rocks

This is complete and utter piffle.

Our solar system is "heliocentric" and the word cannot be sensibly used in any other context. There is no such thing as "heliocentric circles in rocks". Once again the Senator is telling lies for Jesus. He doesn't know what heliocentric means - but it sounds clever - so he chucks it into the conversation for no other reason than to make himself sound important.

 
... heliocentric circles in rocks which is consistent with an instantaneous...

An instantaneous what? He probably meant "instantaneous creation" but he stopped in mid-sentence so we can't be sure.

Or I guess I’m asking this: Are you aware that there’s an abundance of recent science that actually confirms the Genesis account of creation?

He seems to be working on the principle that if he says it often enough then it will become true. All I can do is repeat myself and tell you that it is not true. Science has NOT "validated the Genesis account of creation".

There's not even a debate about it. Every reputable scientist on the planet agrees that the "Genesis account of creation" is nothing more than myth and legend. Even scientists who have accepted Christ as their saviour agree that the Genesis story is pure legend.

Looking to God

A Christian seeks answers about Life, The Universe, and Everything

It's so much easier than this: