19 August 2011. Michele “Motormouth” Bachmann Does It Again: “The Rise of the Soviet Union”… D’OH!

Here’s what she said, complete, and in context:

“What people recognise is that there’s a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union, and our loss militarily going forward. And especially with this very bad debt ceiling bill, what we’ve done is given a favour to President Obama, and the first thing he’ll whack is 500 billion (14.6 trillion Roubles. 347 billion Euros. 304 billion UK Pounds) out of the military defence at a time when we’re fighting three wars. People recognise that”, Bachmann said on conservative activist Jay Sekulow’s show.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-bachmann-soviet-20110819,0,7989785.story?track=rss

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Editor’s Snarky Aside:

By the way, the actual 2011 DoD budget was 685 billion USD (20 trillion Roubles. 476 billion Euros. 416 billion UK Pounds)… which proves that Motormouth Michele does absolutely no research or vetting before opening her Southern-fried yap. Crazy world, ain’t it? It tells you a great deal about much of America to know that many take this popinjay seriously…

BMD

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I didn’t think highly of Motormouth Michele’s intelligence before this… after all, anyone who believes “Born Again” nonsense (or is in sympathy with those who do) has a few empty rooms to let upstairs. “The rise of the Soviet Union”…? That’s boobish, even using the low standards that one must apply to unwashed Sectarian yobbos. Earth to Michele… the USSR disappeared TWENTY YEARS AGO… IN 1991… It was ALL OVER THE TV. Ms Bachmann was 35-years-old then, she wasn’t a kid; she and her hubby were running a so-called “Christian Counselling Centre”.

As an aside… I’d like to know what “Christian Counselling” is… her husband has “degrees” from Regent University and Union Institute and University, two Podunk U Born Again degree mills. That means that he can’t be an incardinated psychologist under full APA guidelines. The Union University PhD programme is a crank “Interdisciplinary Studies” charade. That is… the guy’s no certified psychologist… he’s mucking about with people’s heads without proper training. It tells you much about his wife, Michele, doesn’t it (her law degree is from Oral Roberts University (sic), another derisory Born Again degree mill)?

As I said, this is DUMB even by the abysmal standards that one must use in vetting statements by any rightwinger. Here’s the scary part… she’s NOT smokin’ kick-ass weed… she’s not drinkin’ no-nonsense samogon… this is her natural state. THIS is what the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, Barry, and Nixon has degenerated into. One can see why Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Frank Schaeffer, and C C Goldwater left the Republican Party, I certainly did. Gibbering baboons such as Kingfish Rush, Lil’ Mizz Sarah, and Motormouth Michele convinced me that the contemporary Republican Party had spat on its heritage and was embracing Boobosity with full fervour. That’s sad… but it’s the truth. This is too much of a muchness… “rise of the Soviet Union”… how much more ignorant can a supposedly-educated person get? Ponder this… it’s not going to concern her fans one bit… they know even LESS. They can vote… but so can you. Get up and do so…

A Note to All Orthodox Christians:

Paffhausen and Potapov approve of Bachmann’s emptyheaded maunderings… as do Dreher and the Coneheads at “OCA Truth” and Darling Marilyn’s clique at “OCA Laity” (will I get another prissy and snarling rebuke from Rebecca the Ad Queen? Let’s see…)… caveat lector!

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Friday 19 August 2011

Albany NY

VOR Presents… Apples Had Nowhere to Fall in Orthodox Churches

On 19 August, Orthodox Christians celebrate one of the biggest church holidays… the Transfiguration of Our Lord, which has the popular nickname “Apple Spas”. On this day, parishes serve liturgy, and, after services end, the priests bless the first-fruits of the harvest. According to custom, after the priest blesses the fruit, the people eat some of it before having a normal lunch. Blessed fruit is supposed to be shared generously with others; hence, the old proverb, “On the second Saviour’s day {Transfiguration: editor}, the beggars will eat apples” («На второй Спас и нищий яблочко съест»).

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The Transfiguration of Our Lord

St Andrei Rublyov

15th century

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The Church commemorates an occurrence on Mount Tabor associated with the earthly life of Jesus Christ. According to the Gospel, on the day that Jesus Christ was transfigured, three of His three disciples, John, James, and Peter were witnesses. Christ’s face shone like the sun, and His clothes glowed with a white light. Two of the Old Testament prophets, Ss Moses and Ilya, appeared and talked with the Lord. A cloud came down, and a voice came from it, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased; hear Him”.

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The historical event occurred in February, forty days before Easter, but the church moved the celebration to August, as marking the actual date would fall within the Great Lent.

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Through its celebration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, the Church solemnly professes and glorifies the connection between the Divine and Human Natures in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Lord used His Transfiguration to protect His apostles from discouragement, to keep up their spirits through the coming disappointments that He knew that they would have to face.

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The Transfiguration in Russia is known as the “second” or the “Apple” Spas, as we bless new ripe apples at this time. Of the three “Spas” holidays… “Honey” (Procession of the Honourable Wood of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, 14 August), “Apple” (Transfiguration of Our Lord, 19 August), and “Walnut” (the Wonderworking Icon of Christ “Not Made by Hands”, 29 August)… the Three August Feasts of the Lord, this is the most important one.

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On this day, believers bring fruit to the services to be blessed.

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According to the Orthodox calendar, Apple Spas comes during the Assumption Lent, but believers can eat the apples and other fruits blessed after the end of services on 19 August.

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Traditionally, for Apple Spas, people bake apple pies and cook up batches of apple preserves, and they share these with one another. The old peasant belief is that Apple Spas is the end of summer heat, and that autumn coolness starts soon afterwards.

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The Transfiguration is ever joyful, always peaceful, and full of bright hope; the clergy wear white vestments on this day.

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19 August 2011

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/photoalbum/54883649/

19 August 2011. RIA-Novosti Infographic: New Organisational Structure of the Russian Armed Forces

19 August 2011

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20110819/165732960.html

“Contemporary Mankind Needs Transfiguration No Less than the Apostles on Mount Tabor Did”: Patriarch Kirill

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On Friday, the Feast of the Transfiguration, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias wished that people would find a sense of God’s presence in their lives. “To believe, you don’t need prodigious miracles; all you need is to see God in the world around you”, the Patriarch said after serving Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. In his view, if a person needs to see great miracles to believe, they’ll have a smaller chance of seeing God’s real miracles. “If their mother were to rise from the grave, they wouldn’t really believe in it… even if they fancied themselves believers. God doesn’t stun us with wonders that would compel us to believe in Him. If God were to use miracles in such a way, He’d deprive us of our freedom of choice”, Vladyki Kirill said.

He thinks that contemporary mankind no longer sees God in the world around them because “modern godless civilisation denies people the opportunity to see God, it conjures up an imaginary vision of human strength and supremacy. How many people are unbelievers because everything in their surrounding milieu tells them that there’s no God? Everywhere that modern man looks, he sees mankind’s works. We marvel at what the human mind’s produced, the inventions of our technological development astound us… all of our wonder, all of the things that strike our mind today are due to human activity “, His Holiness stated.

Meanwhile, he pointed up, the feast of Transfiguration of Our Lord teaches us, “The eternal and incomprehensible God is ever-present among us, even though our human limitations mean that we can’t always apprehend that. The Lord gave a vision of His immanence on Mount Tabor. The Transfiguration of the Saviour was not by chance; He revealed His divine nature to His disciples to orient them in anticipation of His Passion, to show them that He was the Son of God. This was so that they would feel that closeness to God themselves”, His Holiness said. He went on to say, “Contemporary mankind needs transfiguration no less than the apostles on Mount Tabor did; God isn’t just something that we dust off once a week, He’s the centre of our lives. If we realise that, we come to terms with the great miracle of the Transfiguration. Then, we won’t need flamboyant miracles… we’ll see God in every facet of our lives, in everything that we do. Moreover, we’ll see God’s presence in history, which means that we’ll understand the signs of historical events; we’ll not have to rely on history as modern commentators relate it. These people all offer us clashing interpretations, based on their individual fancies and political ideology, to try to explain historical events”.

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According to tradition, on 19 August, the Feast of the Transfiguration, popularly known as Apple Spas {Yablochny Spas is literally “untranslatable”, being “Apple-ly Saviour”; the closest we can come is “Apple Day of the Saviour”: editor}, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias blessed the fruits of the new harvest. On Friday morning, the blessing of fruit brought by the faithful occurred at Christ the Savior Cathedral, after Patriarch Kirill served liturgy for the feastday of the Transfiguration. As the official MP website noted, today was the 15th anniversary of the lower church at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, dedicated to the feast of the Transfiguration.

The feastday of the Transfiguration commemorates when Christ took three of His disciples, John, James, and Peter, to Mount Tabor, and was transfigured before them… His face shone like the sun, and clothes became as white as snow. In this action, forty days before His crucifixion, Christ revealed His glory to His apostles, so that they wouldn’t despair when they saw His Passion on the cross. The Gospel text makes it clear that the Saviour was transfigured before his disciples in February, forty days before Easter, but the church moved this celebration to August so that it wouldn’t fall during the time of the Great Lent. Tradition places the venue of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor in Galilee in northern Israel. In the Fourth Century AD, Empress Helena built a church there in honour of the Transfiguration, and introduced the custom of celebrating this event. The custom of blessing the first-fruits of the harvest on this day dates back to the Eighth Century AD. The Church aligned this with the feastday of the Transfiguration because the first stage of the harvest in the New Roman world was coming in, the most important of which were wheat and grapes, as Christians used them for the Eucharist. In Russia, in August, the grapes aren’t ripe in all places; therefore, apples replaced them, hence, the popular name for this holiday in Russian, Яблочный Спас (Yablochny Spas: “Apple Spas”).

19 August 2011

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=41909

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=41911