Babylon Bee: Press Conference From Hell

 

Farmers' Protest

 You heard it here first:

Yesterday

St John The Baptist Feast

 I actually wanted to write about in on Saturday, but I've been so incredibly busy lately. It used to be a very important feast in pre-Reformation times, as explained in this article and still is for Catholics. 

It's like a Christian form of Midsummer celebrations and it's exactly 6 months before Christmas, which Catholics and Lutherans over here always celebrate on the Christmas Eve, that is the evening of December 24th. 

It's interesting that we've always had festivals around this time of the year, except in the corona period. In Germany, for instance, they celebrate Midsummer and I think, in Scandinavia, too. This year we've got 2 festivals, last weekend it was the Viking market, this past weekend we had a beer festival, with live music and a sort of fair. It was quite nice, though not so widely visited as in previous years, by some reason.

I guess some folks are still afraid of Covid or something. Anyway, it was fun. And now we've got that behind us, it's nearly vacation time again:)

A Serious Question

 Why are Americans, especially women and young women at that, often so horribly overweight? I've been looking at the videos of protesters against the overturn of Roe vs Wade and it's the first what catches the eye. 

Also, yesterday we were at the zoo. Now we have our own share of plump people, what you normally would call fat. But there was a young woman sitting in a restaurant next to us, with a toddler and a group of people and she wasn't just ordinarily fat, she was well, like a mountain. I was intrigued, but then I heard them all speak English with an American accent and thought, "Oh, OK, now I understand."

Folks like to talk about "standard American diet" and stuff like that, but here she was living in a Euro country where most people don't look like this and still managing to reach such a size. So it must be some cultural thing, I guess...

History Was Made Today

 Roe vs Wade was officially abolished:

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.," wrote Justice Samuel Alito in the Friday decision - the May 2 leak of which led to widespread protests and an attempted murder against Justice Brett Kavanaugh - the court overturned the 1973 case which guaranteed access to abortion nationwide.

This is a huge victory for Pro-life movement, congratulations, guys!

The Golden Calf Still Stands

 

I'd argue that it has become even worse now. At least, at the time when this opera was composed many folks were still genuinely poor and there was little if any done to provide some sort of safety net so they tried to gather wealth as a form of insurance against disease and old age.

While nowadays when hardly anyone in the West goes without, even churches don't preach against consumerism and often encourage abandoning babies in the care of others as long as it's "to have a nice semi-detached" in the suburbs, away from these icky sinful city inhabitants (and by the way, here in Western Europe cities are perfectly safe, with some exceptions) or to be able to afford multiple vacations...

P.S. If the subtitles don't appear automatically, just click on cc

Energy Tax

Some good news for a change.Yesterday I got an email from our energy company informing us that the government is temporarily lowering the taxes from 21% to 9%, to offset the rising prices. I hope they'll do something about high benzine prices next!

Summer Solstice

Today is the longest day of the year. When I went to bed at 11.30 p.m. yesterday, the sky was still light grey. It's never really dark around here in June, and at 4 a.m. it's getting light again. The nights are very short, like 4-5 hours total, but it will soon be over.

We had a Viking market last week, to celebrate Midsummer. It wasn't very big, but still fun. Congratulations on the 1st day of summer!

Happy Father's Day!

 

Father's Day Prayer

Let us praise those fathers who have striven to balance the demands of work, marriage, and children with an honest awareness of both joy and sacrifice. Let us praise those fathers who, lacking a good model for a father, have worked to become a good father.

Let us praise those fathers who by their own account were not always there for their children, but who continue to offer those children, now grown, their love and support. Let us pray for those fathers who have been wounded by the neglect and hostility of their children.

Let us praise those fathers who, despite divorce, have remained in their children's lives. Let us praise those fathers whose children are adopted, and whose love and support has offered healing.

Let us praise those fathers who, as stepfathers, freely choose the obligation of fatherhood and earned their step children's love and respect. Let us praise those fathers who have lost a child to death, and continue to hold the child in their heart.

Let us praise those men who have no children, but cherish the next generation as if they were their own.

Let us praise those men who have "fathered" us in their role as mentors and guides.

Let us praise those men who are about to become fathers; may they openly delight in their children.

And let us praise those fathers who have died, but live on in our memory and whose love continues to nurture us.

~ Kirk Loadman

Courtesy of this website