It has been a while

I should be paying more attention to this blog, but, unfortunately there are things happening within my life that means I do not have the time to read and then write about current events.

The title of this blog is “A world at war”. There are many levels on which there is war and it allows a very wide variety of content. For example I have seen a lot of material about Daesh but have not been inspired to write about what has made me feel quite sick.

Lately, feeling sick has been more literal that I prefer in my life. Last week I spent almost a week in hospital. I was admitted via A&E at my local hospital (it is 1km as the crow flies but about 5 km by car).  I was a very sick woman and my situation was quite dangerous. I had a procedure that failed because I gagged when they tried t put the camera in my throat, even though the last time I had a procedure with the use of a camera I had tolerated the same without gagging. As a result I was transferred to another hospital on the Thursday evening and the following day the procedure was repeated under a general anaesthetic.  A stent has been used so that the bilirubin has been released and now I do not look like an Oompah Loompah (reference to Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory).  I was discharged from the hospital on the Saturday by the surgeon who took over my case. It is not over!!

On Monday I made an appointment to see the specialist for 2 weeks time. I visited my GP and then went shopping. My husband became anxious because “You have form when it comes to going to the doctor and not coming home” Really? On Tuesday I managed to mess up an appointment so I did a little bit more in the way of shopping!!  On Wednesday I repeated the appointment and had a CT scan of my abdomen and pelvis. I have had 2 blood tests during the week. It seems that the vampires keep going after my blood. Actually, what was amusing to me, and I admit that I was delighted to see the woman, is that I had the vampire who was doing the tests on the ward, do a requested test from my surgeon specialist. I was very happy to see her because she really was very nice.

The situation at present is that I am still not 100% where wellness is concerned. I have gallstones and it is highly likely that my gallbladder will be removed. The emergency was caused by what is known as jaundice stricture. The cause was not found meaning that it was not a gallstone in the bile duct. I continue to have pain which is in fact stronger than when I was in hospital.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I intend to celebrate it in style. I have my birthday present in advance :). This item will go with me to hospital the next time I have to present myself for the purpose of surgery. Hopefully I will not end up with pin pricks all over my arms.

Next week I have a lot of appointments and it will be a busy time.

I hope to get blogging again when I am feeling better.

Why I believe that the latest Encyclical should be withdrawn

This is a very difficult topic for me, because normally I have no problem with the Encyclicals that have been released by the Catholic Church. I am a Catholic. However, this time I believe that the Encyclical should be withdrawn and that the passages relating to climate change should be removed.

The reason that I believe that those passages should be removed is that I believe that what has been written is in fact contrary to what comes from Scripture and that it has nothing to do with faith and morals. There are other reasons for thinking that these passages should be removed.

I do agree with a lot of the content of the Encyclical, especially what I have seen of the published document. I agree that those who are responsible for destruction of the rainforests should in fact heal what they have destroyed, or in other words they need a tree planting program to replace the rainforest that they have destroyed.  I agree with comments about pollution for example, but I would have added a few riders because in some countries the pollution levels have improved. My last visit to New York has proved to me that it is not as bad as I originally thought and the pollution levels had dropped to the point that I was not plauged by a sinus headache like my first experience. Ditto for going to Sydney and Melbourne in Australia. The pollution levels have definitely dropped over a 30 year period.

Where I vehemently disagree is that we have to been concerned about the lie that is the climate change ideology. Pope Francis’s reliance upon the science is in fact contrary to the Scriptures. Please note I am not anti-science at all, and I do not believe that Scripture is totally anti-science. My concern here is that in some circles science is pitted against Scripture in such a way that science is seen by atheists as the be all and end all. In other words the atheists have replaced God with science in their short-sighted world. On top of that, the person responsible for the climate change screed in the Encyclical is an atheist.

In my view, the world is not in danger from what is called climate change. Over a a lifetime I have not seen or felt anything that could change my mind on this matter. Australia, for example has always had floods, bushfires, drought etc. etc. Some years are worse than others. It is necessary to point out that the policies of Councils can in fact influence the outcome of bushfires. I point to the most serious bushfires in my lifetime that killed more than 20 people in Marysville and elsewhere in Victoria as an example as to how stupid policies can be deadly.  Recently in my location, we experienced a cyclone. I knew that it was a cyclone because of the way that the trees were swaying as I looked out from the safety of my home. The cyclone was not named because it was unexpected. I note here that this is my second experience with a cyclone. Some people have tried to exploit this cyclone by claiming it as an extraordinary event. However, the locals say differently. It is something like a one in 10-20 year event in the region and is therefore not evidence of a change in weather patterns.

The fact remains that world has been experiencing a long hiatus from both warming and cooling. There has been a pause that is now about 17 years long. This is not an indication to me that we are in danger of being fried to death.

The climate change charlatans are not scientists. They use computers and computer models. They manipulate the data in order to come to the conclusion that they want. This includes manipulating the data for our summers claiming that they are the hottest ever when in fact it is not the case at all. Giving these charlatans money to prove their point has led to a lot of junk science conclusions. Over and over again there have been reports that conclude that some disease or other will be on the increase because of climate change when in fact this is not the case. This includes studies on the pattern of malaria outbreaks. It is all junk because the “scientists” do not bother looking to all of the factors involved

Basically, what I am saying is that this particular Encyclical is flawed because of the reliance upon an atheist junk scientist who has written the portion on climate change. The report does not meet any stringent standards in regard to its content. People who are opposed to the current climate change hysteria were not given a voice in order to display the contrary view.

On the other hand, we who are handpicked by God to be on this earth have a role as guardians of the earth and in particular of the flora and fauna that also occupy the earth. As the guardians of all these things we are responsible for tending them. In our suburban life that means maintaining a garden, and if we have animals it means caring for them, and not allowing them to be starved or the subject of cruel actions.

The frustration of a broken computer

For months I had a problem with my computer because it was continually switching off. The first time I took it for repairs I was without it for a week.When the computer came back I had to start all over again. However, the problem was not totally fixed. The computer was shutting down but it was still running. In other words I could do nothing because there was no connection to the keyboard mouse and monitor. I endured this issue for several months until the blue screen of death struck.

As it turned out, during the time that the computer was in for a refurbishment I was kept busy with appointments and looking after my grandchildren.  Yesterday it was the grand-daughters again which meant a long day and a trip to Sydney. I am not complaining because I got to play with the girls.

The frustration right now is that I have to rebuild my subscription list on Feed demon. This is going to take time.

My computer is back and I am now ready to go!!

The political landscape in the U.K.

First of all, it is a relief to know that the British Labour Party will not be returned to power because David Cameron, and the Conservative Party succeeded although the British Press wanted the Tories to fail. The win means that the Conservative Party can rule in its own right and does not need a coalition partner. This is the best result since the John Major win last century.

However, this is not the reason that I am writing this piece. My reason for writing is that I find it somewhat confusing that people who should know better bring up that the UKIP got a national vote of more than 12% but only 1 seat, whereas the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) ends up with something like 56 seats with a smaller percentage vote.

There are some differences between the Australian system and that of the British system, but where they are similar is in constituencies. A big difference is that in the UK there is a first past the post system and in Australia we have both a compulsory system as well as one where all votes are counted until the preferences are exhausted. On the national level in Australia we have to number all the squares, in NSW we only have to number one square.

Of course the above does nothing to help understand why the SNP gets more seats in the Parliament than the UKIP. The reason for the difference is in fact parochial. Scotland is allocated 59 seats in the UK parliament with seats also going to Wales, Britain (the majority of seats) and Northern Ireland. All of the Northern Ireland seats go to a party that has some kind of alliance to the Socialists of one kind or another. Even Sinn Fein comes under this category, as does the Alliance Party. In Scotland you had the Scottish Labour Party as distinct from the British Labour Party, although they are united, as well as the Scottish Nationalist Party.

A good comparison would be that between Scotland and Tasmania or Scotland and South Australia. At the Senate level, Tasmania is over-represented and this means that Tasmania has a lot of influence in the Australian Senate (most of us think that they have too much influence!!). Scotland has a small population like that of both South Australia and Tasmania. The percentage of the vote going to the SNP is only representative of the vote for the SNP in Scotland. They got no vote in the rest of England. The UKIP on the other hand was vying for a place in the Parliament in Great Britain rather than in Scotland, they had to vie for seats in a lot of constituencies if they were to have any chance of winning through on a lot of seats. The 12% vote that they obtained was a vote in only the constituencies where they put up candidates, and where they came in second place.

Any other voting or electoral system is still no guarantee that the UKIP would have more members in the Parliament than the current 1 member. The UKIP have to work harder to get more people interested in following them to the point of voting for them when it really counts in elections.

Indonesia executes drug smugglers

Two Australian men were among those who were executed by Indonesia this week. Of the others, there was one from Brazil who was schizophrenic and did not even know that he was to be executed.

I am not necessarily against the death penalty, at least in the most horrific of circumstances. I  certainly believe that someone like the backpacker murderer should have been sentenced to death. However, when it comes to two men managing to rehabilitate themselves I feel a little differently. That rehabilitation should have been recognized by the Indonesian president the Joke Widodo.

Yet this is not what is on my mind regarding these executions. I think what is really on my mind is the manner in which the executions were carried out, as well as the fact that Christians were singled out for execution. It bothers me that the posts to which the prisoners were to be tied were in fact crucifixes. The men who were executed had their arms stretched out, just like Jesus had his arms stretched out on a cross.  It seems to me that the crosses used for the executions were symbolic in some way.

Indonesia is a Muslim nation. One of the two men, Andrew Chan became a Christian pastor during his time in the Bali jail where he had been held. The other man, Mayuran Sukamaran became an artist and completed a fine arts degree. He was helping other prisoners with art classes. Chan on the other hand was leading prisoners in prayer and Bible study. It is this last piece of information that might have sealed Chan’s fate, because in a Muslim country it is not permitted to preach Christianity, let alone convert to being Christian.

Sukamaran and Chan had spent 10 years helping other prisoners turn their lives around. It is very sad that this fact did not see them get clemency. It is as if Widodo was in a hurry to execute these Christian prisoners not just because they were drug smugglers who had been caught, but because they were also Christian. If what I am thinking is verified in the future, then I will know for certain that Indonesia continues to pose a threat to Australia’s existence as a Christian nation.

To my mind those executions should not have been carried out, especially when the prisoners had turned their lives around to the point that they were helping Indonesian prisoners to reform.

I note here that Widodo proved himself to be a hypocrite because he was busy asking for mercy for Indonesian prisoners whilst at the same time remaining hard of heart against those Australian men.

Justice is seen to be done

Chancey Luna has been found guilty of the murder of Australian baseball player Christopher Lane. He was found guilty in the first degree and has been sentenced to life in prison.

The three teenagers who were responsible for the murder of Christopher Lane claim that they were bored. However, there are other factors that should have been considered. First were they trying to get into a gang? One of the initiations into some gangs is a murder. Second: were they polar bear hunting? This is something that has been going on in the USA and has been on the rise since 2008. Blacks have been deliberately hunting down white people to murder them. Third: were they so angry about the death of Trayvon Martin that they decided to take out a white person in retaliation?

Since none of these possibilities were brought up in the trial there is no telling what the truth might be. It definitely was not because the teenagers were bored.

Christopher Lane’s family and his girlfriend, plus her family now have closure. Those responsible for his death are behind bars. The jury in the case made the right decisions.

All “religions” are not the same, and religious people are not tribal

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a new friend. It seems that this person is a non-believer where God is concerned, whereas I am a believer and I practice my Catholic faith. Like so many others this person makes some fundamental mistakes in her thinking.  These fundamental mistakes are the same that I hear from Atheists who think that their poop does not stink!!

First of all, all religions are not the same. For example within Christianity there are cults that claim to be Christian but when one takes a very close look at them, they are cults claiming to be Christian. An example is the Westboro Baptist Church. Other examples include the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses and that is only the start. What sets these cults apart are the things that they force upon their adherents and that they were started by a man or a woman. Within the Catholic Church there are also other cults that have existed up until the 21st Century. Two Australian examples are “the Maginificat Meal Movement” and the cult started by the “Little Pebble”. These cults involve a certain amount of extremism as well as the founder claiming to have had visions either from Mary or Jesus Christ.

According to what I have just written very briefly about those “Christian sects” that are in fact cults, it is not hard to see that Islam can also be defined as a cult. However, Islam, a cult started by the man, and cattle thief Mohammed is also what we know as a theocracy. In this case it is the Mullahs that control Islam. One must remember that around the time that Islam was created, the Catholic Church had ended up in a role where it was controlling a lot of the politics within the world as it existed at the time. This was due to the fall of the Roman Empire which had caused a void where authority is concerned. There is a very real lesson to be learned from this particular period and to me it is the reason that we must have separation of Church and State.

Islam came about because Mohammed claimed to have visions…. well so did Joseph Smith who founded the Mormon Church. Mohammed claimed to have had visions from the Archangel Gabriel…. and so did Joseph Smith. Mohammed wrote the ramblings that makes up the Koran… and Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon which he also claimed to have been given to him from the Archangel Gabriel.  The truth is that Mohammed had listened to Christians who were heretical as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, as well as listening to a Jew who taught him about the Torah. Mohammed saw it as a means to take power. The adherents of Islam also see things in the form of taking power.

The word “Islam” does not mean PEACE as we understand the word “peace”. It means “SUBMISSION”. Mohammed invaded various cities and everyone had to either submit and convert to Islam or they had to pay a special tax and remain second class citizens. In Islamic lands Christians who were there first, are not allowed to build churches. On top of that there are Muslims who have been bombing Christian churches, especially in places like Nigeria and Egypt and other coutnries in the Middle East and Africa.

Al Qaeda, Al Shabab, IS and all the variants are following what is in the Koran. When people say that these extremists are not a part of Islam, they are lying to us. Everything that has been happening in those regions of the Middle East and Africa by such groups as Boko Haram and Al Shabab are precisely the kind of things that Mohammad did when he was alive. Peace only comes when the people submit to Islam.

Christianity is an exact opposite of Islam. Christians are not perfect and due to the Reformation which caused splits within the Christian community as well as bigotry, the imperfections of Christiaity have been on display. It is because we are sinners that we do these things. It is because we are sinners that we have egos that need to be tamed. The troubles in Ireland are due to the way that Catholics had been treated by the Protestants, and they finally fought back against the repression that was enforced upon them. However, the Catholics of Irelaland are not without sin, especially those who belong to the IRA and who have participated in bombings etc. etc. What they have been doing has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The message of Jesus is Love of God and Love of neighbour. The Ten Commands are all that is needed to follow this message.There is no need for food laws or any other laws that impose things on people. and cause them to unwittingly sin by not following all of the unnecessary laws.

As a Catholc I worship God. I believe that Jesus was born of a virgin name Mary. I believe that Jesus died so that we would be saved and that his death and resurrection opened the gates of heaven for us. I believe in Eternal life.

If I was to try and spend time making comparisons between ISlam and my Christian faith I believe that I would find Islam to be wanting. Islam as practised by the likes of IS is all about death. rather than life.

There is no comparison between Scott and Brown.

The latest in a series of deaths where a white police officer has killed a black man should never have happened. The police officer at the centre of this particular situation is Michael Slager. There are many cases where the death is in fact justified, and I will use the death of Michael Brown as an example where the actions were justified because Brown had in fact committed a strong armed robbery moments before he was shot and killed. In Brown’s case there is definite evidence that he attempted to take the policeman’s gun and it was only fair that the Grand Jury refused to send his case for trial. Michael Brown was charging at Police Officer Wilson at the time the fatal bullet pierced his brain and killed him. That scenario was not repeated in the Walter Scott case.

First of all, there is a witness. He is also a black man and as a witness he acted to video tape the whole scene. He did not see either police officer attempting CPR on Walter Scott. The young man who is the witness spoke to the two police officers and then he fled to his job because he did not trust them. He feared for his life. Interesting!! Second, the drip feeding has begun with regard to the former police officer Michael Slager, who has in my view been rightfully charged with murder.

Another man has come forward regarding an incident in 2013, that involved Michael Slager using excessive force on yet another black man. In this case the man, Mario Givens was the wrong person. There are witnesses to the whole incident including the woman who filed a complaint against the brother of Mario Givens. She stated that she gave a description of the man who had entered her room and that the brother of Mario is much shorter. Michael Slager ignored her and her friend when he used the taser on Mario Givens.

Now that the Givens case has come to light, with the AP investigating the incident including trying to find out why that case was closed with Slager being exonerated, the truth regarding that incident and the fact that Michael Slager was in the habit of using excessive force against black men will start to shine a light on police operations in North Carolina.

There is no need for the “Black Lives Matter” people to get involved in either case. Justice has been done because Slager is facing a murder charge. However, there is a need for the people of the town to come together and talk about the issues surrounding how both Scott and Givens were treated, and why the police closed the Givens case by exonerating Slager. It seems that the police were turning a blind eye to the use of excessive force.

Each case is different in my opinion. If a criminal is caught in the act of a crime, and that criminal is shot and killed by a police officer then of course the circumstances need to be examined so that anything that was untoward will not be allowed to happen again. If the police department had completed a proper investigation into the Givens case, perhaps Walter Scott would still be alive today. He did not deserve to be shot in the back.

I need to add here that “All lives” matter, not just those of black people. There are black police who also kill black criminals, and there are black police who also gun down white, Asian and Hispanic people.

Whenever there is an incident involving a policeman shooting a person, and that person dying, there needs to be an investigation into the circumstances. The relatives of the dead person might not always be satisfied with the result of such an investigation, but they need to “suck it up princess” and accept that the person was at fault for their own demise, as was the case for Trayvon Martin. Every incident needs to be properly documented and if there has been evidence of excessive force then yes, the police person involved should be charged with a crime.

We are now in the 21st century and it is time to end any of the endemic racism that exists. I am not talking about the absurdity of what is called “Islamphobia” but I am talking about ending the black racism against whites and white racsim against blacks. The civil war ended in the 1860s and it is high time that people adjusted to the fact that there is no longer a slave force. However, I know that it is impossible to have an end to such attitudes when I also hear of how Arabs and others continue to enslave people.

A Belated Happy Easter

I have been away. I had a wonderful time in Berrima, Bowral, Mittagong, Kangaroo Valley and Berry. On Friday I got to see my family before we headed to Berrima and Bowral for a model train convention.

I want to wish my readers a Happy Easter and please remember “HE IS RISEN”.

Mohammed did not rise from the dead, but Jesus did.

Mohammed never performed miracles, but Jesus did.

Mohammed brought violence but Jesus preached the real meaning of peace.

Mohammed never respected any woman, but Jesus put women on a pedestal.

There are many of these comparisons that can be made. Please think on them and remember that only one person has saved us from our sinful natures.

The Threat in the Middle East

This is a short post because I want to spend some time analysing the current situation. At the present time the biggest threat in the Middle East is not Islamic State, it is Iran.  The issue remains Shia vs Sunni. Iran is Shia and Saudi Arabia is Sunni.

The current crisis is not the one in Syria and Iraq, it is in Yemen. For the first time Saudi Arabia have sent in their military to bomb Houthi positions in Yemen. They claim it is because they were asked by the President of Yemen to help him fight against the Houthi. The claim sounds plausible but it is not necessarily the truth.

The Houthi are backed by Iran, just like Assad is backed by Iran. The Iranian Guard has been in Yemen, just like the Iranian Guard has been in Syria. Yemen is a new and very threatening front for Saudi Arabia. The threat is very real because if the Houthi cross the border into Saudi Arabia there could be a terrible conflict.

We still do not know the full extent of the secret negotiations between the Clown in the White House and Iran. If the Clown is giving the go ahead for Iran to produce nuclear weapons, then this is an extremely serious situation that is being developed. It seems that other negotiators are indeed quite upset about the actions of the U.S. Israel is left feeling very vulnerable because of the anti-Israel, and anti-Nethyanu diatribe that has come from the Clown in the White House.  It is not just Israel that is feeling extremely vulnerable. The Saudis are now talking about producing nuclear weapons. Up until now they have been secretly relying upon Israel but they are feeling so vulnerable that they seem to think that they need to take this step to permanently stop the aspirations of Iran.

Make no mistake, Iran wants Mecca. This is the reason that Saudi Arabia feels so vulnerable.

There may be other developments in the Middle East and I am not on top of them at the moment. Those developments relate to the activities of Egyptian President Al-Sisi, who in my book is a good man blessed by God.