Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter

King's Day 2022

 It's like corona never happened. My husband had to work, unfortunately.

Not Everything Is A Conspiracy

 Speaking about the French election, folks on the Telegram and Gab keep pushing this conspiracy nonsense about it being "rigged". Honestly, it just makes our side look stupid. There was nothing fishy about Macron winning, in fact, I didn't expect any other outcome and the margin was wide enough.

Actually, we can thank boomers for this victory; you know, the first generation to live better than their parents and their children. They voted for him in bigger numbers than the immigrant youths. He got like 71% of the votes of those over 70. 

Yes, there were protests about the election outcome and riots, which is again, very typical. When you look at the Round One, you'll understand why. The communist/far-left candidate polled nearly as high as M-me Le Pen, and it's his voters who are protesting. They were carrying banners saying, No to Macron, No to Le Pen. More people abstained from voting or left a blank sheet than those who voted Le Pen so it's hardly surprising. 

I have a feeling sometimes that many Right-wing online personalities live in a bubble comparable to that of the lefties. Because their online echo chamber agrees with them, they think that secretly everybody thinks the same. While the truth is, that there are plenty of liberals and progs out there who find the present status quo great. 

Also, Marine Le Pen is hardly a great conservative hero, as far as I know she isn't even married to the father of her kids whom she basically left in the care of others to further her career. It's quite feasible that she would slow the decline but I don't believe she'd be able to reverse it. Is it even possible without the spiritual revival? It would mean returning to the basic tenets of Christianity which aren't the same as the current Western "values" such as fornication, abortion, feminism etc which I'm not sure where Marine stands at. 

Her being a woman probably didn't help, either, because despite the years of equal rights many people still think that being a president isn't a job for a female. In general, this outcome was quite predictable and is hardly a reason for the current hysterics. It's worse for us over here, believe me, because unlike the Americans and the British, we are stuck with the guy who wields quite a bit of influence in the EU. But, whatever shall be, shall be. Tomorrow is another day...

St. George's Day

 Congratulations to my English/British readers on St.George's Day:

 Take a close look at the English flag. That red cross over a white background has meaning. It’s actually St. George’s Cross — a symbol so closely intertwined with English national identity that St. George has his own national holiday.

The legend of Saint George and the Dragon describes the saint taming and slaying a dragon that demanded human sacrifices. We celebrate St. George’s Day on April 23 — the anniversary of his death in 303 AD.

The patron saint of England has captivated British imaginations since the Crusades and the Hundred Years’ War. Perhaps the most British of all holidays, this special day is a chance to let your English flag fly, literally and figuratively.

Read the whole story over here. 

Breaking News Of The Day

 Rod Dreher is going to divorce:

 It pains me more than I can say to announce that my wife recently filed a petition of divorce, and I have agreed unreservedly to her request for a mutual, and amicable, parting...

  I can say (and she has approved everything in this statement) that infidelity was never, ever an issue, on either side. There is plenty of blame on both sides.

Here is what I think. I don't believe in amicable divorce. That's an oxymoron. In divorce there is always a guilty party and an innocent party. It's not only my personal view. That has been the view of the Church and of the secular laws for a very long time, until we got the abomination of no-fault divorce. It's still the view of the Orthodox Church of which R. Dreher is a member. 

While I don't know how it is in the USA, traditional Eastern Orthodox Churches only allow divorce for adultery and abandonment, with the guilty party being not allowed to remarry in the church, as a punishment for breaking their vows. Of course, modern Western Christians don't believe in punishments for anything. If there is no adultery and abandonment, or severe addiction or physical abuse, then the one who files for divorce is the guilty party.

It's the party who betrays you. How can you ever feel amicable towards a person who figuratively speaking, stabs you in the back? In this situation, one should fight tooth and nail for the custody, for the property, for anything. Don't let an oath-breaker come off easy. One of the reasons for the downfall of the Western society is our refusal to enforce standards and hold people accountable for their actions.

Is LOTR A Christian Story?

 So many things to write about, so little time:) So I'll try to keep this short. Most Christians except the fundies will argue that LOTR is a Christian novel, based on the fact that its author was a Catholic, even those who generally dislike the Catholic Church. They will point out the fact that the series is clean, the characters have good morals, women are all chaste and there is no moral relativism of any kind. It also deals with resisting  temptation which could be interpreted as resisting the power of sin. 

On the other side of the controversy, those of the more fundamentalist bent will say that LOTR promotes so-called white magic as something positive and that various New Age groups love the story even though they are often virulently anti-Christian. 

Considering  magic, one could say that the positive characters which use it, like Gandalf or Galadriel aren't really mortal (Gandalf for instance, is some sort of an incarnated angelic being) so it's not the same as witchcraft or sorcery but more their innate powers which mere mortals don't possess; though the example of Aragorn calling up the army of the dead is borderline. Yet their second argument deserves more consideration. 

While it's quite possible for pagans and Christians to like the same books, isn't it strange that someone like Varg V. (whose Twitter name is Gandalf) who hates and despises Christianity and everything connected with it, is at the same time such a fan of a supposedly Christian story?

In fact, what makes a book explicitly Christian? Characters performing good works or being moral and chaste? You could find these things in other religious traditions, too. What makes Christianity different, is the person of Jesus. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 

This verse, in its turn, points us to the Genesis and the Fall of Man. Sin brought death into the world and the only way to get saved and have an eternal life is to accept that Jesus died for you personally, for your sins. That is the main tenet of Christianity. With this in mind, let's look at the LOTR universe.

While the narrative of Frodo and the Ring starts somewhere at the end of the Third Age, the Middle Earth and the world around it are much older, and the story of their creation is a subject of another book, Silmarillion, which few have read. Silmarillion describes a distant Creator God Illuvatar who leaves his Creation unfinished and sends his representatives Valar who could be described both as the incarnate angels (but more powerful than Gandalf or Sauron or Saruman who were Maiar) or lesser gods to finish it. Their efforts are undermined by Melkor, the fallen angel whose servant Sauron takes over when Melkor is banished into the utter darkness at the end of the First Age. 

Then we learn about the story of the elves who are called the first-born, because  Illuvatar created them first. They are immortal and the chief of them have powers close to those of Maiar, like Galadriel. Elves don't die from old age, they can be killed but theoretically could reincarnate as after their death their souls are gathered in a certain place by one of the Valar. 

Then the first men wake up. Elves are shocked to learn that they are mortals and that Illuvatar gave them natural death as a gift (it's called the Gift of Men throughout the books) and Valar cannot change this decree. Which fact leads to the fall of Numenor where the ancestors of Aragorn lived, in the Second Age. 

The Numenoreans wanted to have an eternal life like elves who were their blood relatives to a degree (long story but Elrond was born of a mortal man and an Elf woman and he was allowed to choose which way to go and chose the immortality of elves while his brother Elros chose the life of men and he was the first Numenorean king) so that they attacked Valinor (the island of Valar) and got destroyed as a result.

While Tolkien himself apparently stated that LOTR is supposed to portray the world many thousand years before Christ, the world he created leaves really no place for Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross. Because, the elves are already basically immortal and have an eternal life, while the death of men is not the last enemy to be defeated as the Scriptures tell us, but rather a Gift of God to them (sounds kinda blasphemous when you write it down like that). 

So while I'm not saying that Christians should avoid LOTR (it's still a great book), personally I don't believe that it's a Christian story. In fact, though C. Lewis had suspect theology in many ways, his Narnia books are much more explicitly Christian. Well, that's my opinion and I think I made a good case for it. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Valkenburg Easter 2022

 It's like corona and the flood never happened:)

Christ Is Risen

28 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

² And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

³ His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:

⁴ And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

⁵ And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

⁶ He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

⁷ And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.

⁸ And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

⁹ And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

¹⁰ Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

¹¹ Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.

¹² And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,

¹³ Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.

¹⁴ And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.

¹⁵ So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.

¹⁷ And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.

¹⁸ And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

¹⁹ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

 Scripture quoted from here. 

Have a blessed Easter, everyone!

Britain Exhibiting Some Common Sense

People who enter the UK illegally may end up being relocated to the African country of Rwanda, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced...

The first people to be relocated to Rwanda will receive formal notifications within weeks, the government said, with the first flights expected to take place in the coming months.

Talking at a press conference in Kent on April 14, Johnson said the agreement is “uncapped” and Rwanda will have the “capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead,” including those who have arrived illegally since the start of the year.

Johnson said that while Britain has generously provided sanctuary to countless people fleeing conflicts and persecution, “we cannot sustain a parallel illegal system.”

“Our compassion may be infinite, but our capacity to help people is not,” he said.

“We can’t ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here.”

 This comes from leaving the EU, I guess. Now if only they follow through with the scheme...

Good Friday

 

Source here.

Easter Decorations

 

Palm Sunday

 

Today Western Christian churches celebrate Palm Sunday. 

According to the Gospels, Jesus Christ rode on a donkey into Jerusalem, and the celebrating people there laid down their cloaks and small branches of trees in front of him, singing part of Psalm 118: 25–26^[18] – Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord.^{[2][9][10][11]}

The symbolism of the donkey may refer to the Eastern tradition that it is an animal of peace, unlike the horse which is the animal of war.^[1]

 

Student Debt Issue

 Voxday is on fire again:

We Made It Happen

Debt cancellation also called a jubilee is a Biblical concept, unfortunately forgotten by modern "conservatives" (who conserved exactly nothing).

 Deut15KJV:

At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.

² And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the Lord's release.

Here is the same text in a more modern translation:

Deut15NIV

At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. ² This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.

And the commentary by Matthew Henry:

 Here is, I. A law for the relief of poor debtors, such (we may suppose) as were insolvent. Every seventh year was a year of release, in which the ground rested from being tilled and servants were discharged from their services; and, among other acts of grace, this was one, that those who had borrowed money, and had not been able to pay it before, should this year be released from it; and though, if they were able, they were afterwards bound in conscience to repay it, yet thenceforth the creditor should never recover it by law. Many good expositors think it only forbids the exacting of the debt in the year of release, because, no harvest being gathered in that year, it could not be expected that men should pay their debts then, but that afterwards it might be sued for and recovered: so that the release did not extinguish the debt, but only stayed the process for a time. But others think it was a release of the debt for ever, and this seems more probable, yet under certain limitations expressed or implied.

 Notice also that M.Henry adds to the text saying if they were able, they were afterwards bound in conscience to repay it. I guess we loved our predatory money-lending practices already back then. 

This attitude of "f*** you, I got mine!" so many on the Right exhibit isn't exactly Biblical, either. Here is the continuation of the passage from KJV:

 ⁷ If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:

⁸ But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.

⁹ Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee.

¹⁰ Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.

¹¹ For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

 How very liberal of Moses...

Cat Memes On Gab

 

 

They have a whole cat group over there, more than 100 000 members. Is anyone on Gab? 

15 Men And A Bottle Of Rum

 Musical interlude:)

They Did It!

 The maniacs did it:) They lowered the fuel tax yesterday. Benzine costs now about 2 euros per liter! I wonder how much it is in Belgium, they were planning the same. Since we are going this direction today, we'll probably see...