26 August 2013. Coming Attractions… Titbits from the News

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This machine’s inadequacies make it impossible to create my usual product… nonetheless, it allows me to post and to keep up with my e-mail. However, I can say that there’s been no major news story missed since my hiatus. It’s AUGUST… as a Cabinet member wrote me:

It’s August… all of France is on holiday… all of Greece is on strike… all of Russia‘s at the dacha… all of England‘s at Butlin’s and Brighton. In America, they’re still at work… the Puritan ethic, and all that, y’know.

I did notice a pro-labour statement by HH on Miners’ Day… I’ll translate it and get it up when my main machine is back, Indeed, HH’s position (and that of Pope Francisco) is antipodes away from the troglodyte rightwing vapourings of Potapov, Paffhausen, and all the other crackbrained konvertsy. Otherwise, there’s been no major news, except for some items on the Church front. Keep it focused, kids…

BMD

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22 November 2012. RIA-Novosti Infographics. Thanksgiving Day Tradition and History

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Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November. The history of this holiday goes back to one of the first English settlements in America in 1620. Escaping from religious persecution, a group of English Puritans known as “Pilgrims” set off on a dangerous journey, they hoped to find long-awaited freedom in the New World. Their first year in their new homeland was very severe. The settlers had to endure hunger, cold, misery, and disease. After a harsh winter, during which about half of the group died, they learned from neighbouring Indians how to grow corn and other crops adapted to local conditions, to distinguish edible from poisonous plants, which springs had drinkable water, and where the best hunting trails and fishing spots were. In autumn 1621, the colonists gathered a good crop for which they have decided to thank the Lord with a festive meal. This was the first-ever Thanksgiving Day. For a long time, it was an unofficial holiday. However, in 1789, the first US President, George Washington, proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a national holiday, and he requested the Congress to set a date, 26 November, a Thursday. Later, the date of the holiday changed, but one thing remains unchanged… the respect and consideration that Americans give to a date that’s closely connected with their faith and history.

22 November 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20121122/177670617.html

 

1 July 2012. Sergei Yolkin’s World. A Belgian Mojito with a Social Conscience

A Belgian Mojito with a Social Conscience

Sergei Yolkin

2011

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I’ve completed formatting all of the Yolkin cartoons to a common standard and have Photoshopped English texts in place of the original Russian. Can you believe that Yolkin takes up 2 percent of this site? Yowza! Click here to see Yolkin’s whole megillah (it’s a tag, not a link, so, its continually updated).

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We should thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them.

G K Chesterton

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The barmen at one of the clubs in Knokke, a seaside resort town on Belgium’s North Sea coast, prepard the world’s largest “mojito” cocktail. To prepare the mojito, barmen used a Plexiglas cocktail glass two metres (6 feet 7 inches) in height, with a diameter of 1.6 metres (5 feet 3 inches), containing 2,011 litres (531 gallons) of happiness. An official from the Guinness Book of World Records certified the Belgian achievement. Prior to this, the record for the world’s largest mojito belonged to an Italian group, which concocted a cocktail containing 1,300 litres (344 gallons) of fun. All comers could sample the mojito for 5 Euros (206 Roubles. 6.50 USD. 4 UK Pounds) a glass. Afterwards, barmen poured the remainder left into bottles for sale in retail outlets around Knokke, the proceeds of which will be channelled to support young families in need.

15 August 2011

Sergei Yolkin

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/caricature/20110815/417720031.html

Editor’s Note:

How much you wanna bet that it was a sincerely-religious Catholic barman (or barmaid) who came up with the idea to sell off the remainder to aid the less fortunate? Christians have no problem with social drinking; all real Christians hold the point that it’s licit ad usque hilaritatem (to the point of hilarity). We’re not joyless Born Again sectarians… we’re not prunish Puritans. Beware all those who want to ape Radical Sectarians… they’re far from the Real Thing, and get farther away the closer they come to “Evangelicals”.

Pass the jug and cheer… now, THAT’S a point of unity…

BMD 

30 July 2011. Fathausen Goes Barmy… Looks Like the Orthodox Version of the “Scarlet Letter” to Me… Methinks that JP’s a Hypocritical Dimmesdale…

What’s next? Scarlet letters for all of us who don’t merit the Elect Pietistic Konvertsy Seal of Approval? God do spare me! We’re Orthodox! We’re not Wild-eyed Sectarian nutters…

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A friend sent me the following:

The folks at OCA Truth published excerpts from an alleged letter JP wrote to his diocesan clergy. He wants to exclude parishioners from the Sacraments who refuse to acknowledge, etc sins against authentic Christian marriage, including… homosexual activity. Well… what about bishops, priests, deacons, and monastics? Besides, how will he verify whether parishioners are in “compliance?” Is he going to have his clergy do house calls to inspect everyone’s sleeping arrangements? Fathausen is really going off the deep end, now… I think it’s time for the Centre to send someone in to do the heavy lifting to clean up this mess!

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Well, kids, the only thing that I can say is, “Gad, sir, this ain’t Orthodox!” There’s none of the Love of Christ in this… it’s redolent of Puritan New England and the Salem Witch Hunt. The konvertsy are going to go out and search for all the Hester Prynnes in the Church. They’re PERFECT, dontcha know! Of course, I’m a hardened old sinner who only says, “More weight!”

It ain’t over until it’s over, but this IS too much of a muchness…

BMD