Babylon: Its Coming Destruction!

by N. W. Hutchings

CO (Lake County)

Before 'hitting the trail' I usually figure it is a good idea to acclimate for a couple of days. The Leadville area is a perfect spot to do just that. Leadville itself is located at over 10,000 feet, and there are no shortage of camping possibilities, even at higher elevations. Dayhiking opportunities are plentiful as well.

Dayhike from Wurtz Ditch Rd to Holy Cross Wilderness Area, Segment 9

After camping at Clear Creek Reservoir Campground, I got up early and drove to Leadville (about 20 miles). It was 38f in the morning but I slept well.

Wurtz Ditch Rd is accessed via a dirt road. A very small parking area is here. The hike was about 8 miles roundtrip and fairly easy. Went over 2 bridges and finally made it to the edge of meadow, which I followed for 1/2 mile or more before seeing sign for Wilderness Area. This was all below treeling but it looked like trail may go above for a little while.

I took a short break and then headed back. Saw several other hikers. Also couldn't help but notice that some of the higher peaks had 'fresh' snow on them. I hoped it wasn't a foreshadowing of things to come.

My thought was to hike back to Wilderness Area sign from other trailhead tomorrow. I scouted it out and discovered that the road was very steep and narrow but also well maintained. My car did very well up steep grade but I don't think I want to do it again tomorrow.

Overall a good day. Maybe low 60s and breezy. Mostly cloudy but no rain yet. I camped at MayQueen Campground around Torquoise Lake. My site was near a stream. A nice sunset to end the day.

Downtown Seattle, Washington

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Some Young History.

Like all the areas of the western slopes of NSW this was once the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people. Their lands covered one of the biggest agricultural regions of Australia. There was little conflict in this region and diseases more than pastoralist action reduced their numbers considerably within a couple of years of white pastoral occupation. Like so many areas beyond the declared Nineteen Counties- the legal limit of white settlement in the 1820s and 1830s - the first pastoralist was white squatter James White in 1826. This free settler established his Burrangong station on the banks of Stoney Creek on the advice of a local Aboriginal man, Coborn Jackie. James White never married but his brother joined him and the first white child born in the region was his niece Sarah White in 1830. She lived to be 107 years old. The district was rich as the soils were volcanic soils and numerous streams ran westward to the lower areas of western NSW. The area where the sheep flocks of White rested for their lambing became known as Lambing Flat. Another pastoralist Edward Taylor planted some cherry trees in 1847. In the 1840s these squatters got licensing and later leasehold rights over the land. Until the upheaval of 1860. Gold was discovered then by James White’s nephew Dennis Regan and Alexander the Yankee with it being reported in the press in August 1860.

By mid-1861 20,000 miners were at Lambing Flat including 2,000 Chinese diggers. The Chinese were resented and some argue that the origins of the White Australia Policy stem from the xenophobia of Lambing Flat. There is no direct linkage here but the sentiments foreshadowed the Commonwealth policy of 1901. A group of white diggers drove off 500 Chinese miners in November of 1860 and violence and distrust continued as they destroyed their tents. The NSW government acted quickly and a Gold Commissioner and troops were despatched to Lambing Flat two weeks later. A further group of Chinese were driven away in December. In early January a similar incident occurred but this time the diggers threatened to attack the police troops if they interfered. Despite 30 police troops at Lambing Flat a further indecent occurred at the end of January when hundreds of Chinese were frightened off the fields and their tens burnt. A Miners Protective League was formed to expel the Chinese. This did not happen on other goldfields so why Lambing Flat? No one really knows. In March the government sent 300 troops to Lambing Flat armed with cannon and a defensive compound was erected. The last violence occurred in late June and early July 1861 when 3,000 miners attacked the Chinese, cut off pigtails and stole property and burnt tents. One European miner was killed in the melee. Next they attacked the fortified gaol in order to release some imprisoned miners for violence on the goldfields. One miner was killed by the police during the riot which happened near the current main street of Young. The Courthouse and police station were burnt down by the protesters. Calm quickly returned and the police regained control of the goldfields. Were the miners influenced by their knowledge of Eureka? Is this really a foreshadowing of the emergence of the workers unions? Five miners were tried for crimes in Goulburn Courthouse later in 1861 but were all acquitted and then the NSW government passed the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act in November 1861. The miners appeared to have won the battle. The anti-Chinese banner which the rioters carried was hidden for 100 years but re-discovered in Young in the 1960s. It is now in the town museum. The Lambing Flat Folk Museum in Young has artefacts to tell the story of the Lambing Flat riots and the bushranging era. It also has the name plate of Coborn Jackie the Aboriginal friend and advisor of James White.

The town of Yong was surveyed in March of 1861 during the goldfield violence. The name of Lambing Flat was already tainted by then and the town was named Young after Sir John Young the Governor of NSW from 1861 to 1867. Town blocks were sold in May 1861 and before the end of that year Young had a Post Office, a school, a bank, an Anglican and a Catholic church and a newspaper. A hospital and a new Courthouse were erected in 1862. At that time Young was having about 124,000 ounces of gold escorted out of the town annually. But the rush was over by 1864 and less and less gold was being located by 1867. The town turned into an agricultural service centre with a saw mill (1865), a flour mill (1866), a brewery (1877) and finally railway (1885). The town then got a tannery, a soap factory, a work boot factory, a brick kiln, meat works and butter factory all before 1900. In 1889 Young became the first town outside of Sydney to have a domestic electricity supply for its residents. The arrival of the railway in 1885 allowed farmers to experiment with fruit crops as the train could speed them to markets in Sydney. Apples, oranges and plums were the first grown commercially in the 1890s and one farmer in the 1890s had a cherry orchard with 7,000 fruiting trees and 3,000 seedling cherries. Others followed suit and by 1908 Young was railing 15,000 cases of cherries to Sydney each season. Major expansion of the cherry industry occurred in the 1920s with 77 orchards near Young and it was soon the second most important cherry growing region of NSW after Orange. Young began holding a cherry festival in 1949 and still does each year in early December when picking is in full swing.

The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed known in English as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in Red Square of Moscow, and is one of the most popular cultural symbols of Russia. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, or Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. It was completed, with its colours, in 1683.

The original building, known as Trinity Church and later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight chapels arranged around a ninth, central chapel dedicated to the Intercession; a tenth chapel was erected in 1588 over the grave of the venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City. Like all churches in Byzantine Christianity, the church was popularly known as the "Jerusalem" and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the Tsar.

The cathedral has nine Onion domes (each one corresponding to a different church) and is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his book Russian Architecture and the West, states that "it is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to the fifteenth century ... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century, and it is considered as a prime example of Russian Renaissance architecture.

As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union's antireligious campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely secularized in 1929, and remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, weekly liturgical celebration and prayers to St. Basil have been restored since 1997.

This series will be the last of my uploads for the trip I took to southern Burgundy in September 2023.

Listed as a Historic landmark in 1900, the Romanesque church in the out-of-the-way village of Gourdon is one of the secret wonders of Burgundy. Not particularly outstanding from the outside, its large silhouette nevertheless foreshadows an impressive interior, and indeed it is, with its combination of a whooping three-level, Cluny-inspired elevation, its three naves and its generalized system of groin vaulting. Its collection of sculpted capitals is also famous, as are the alfresco paintings that were discovered in the 1940s as the plastering that was applied to hide them in the 19th century began to peel away. More such discoveries were made in the 1970s and restoration lasted until the early 1990s.

Located on a hilltop in the département of Saône-et-Loire, Gourdon has been inhabited since time immemorial. Valuable traces of Roman presence were found in 1845 and promptly shipped to a museum in Paris (the Cabinet des Médailles) where the are still being exhibited to this day. A monastery was founded here very early on, as there is a written trace of a dependency of the Le Puy cathedral chapter in 534, but claims that it was “a Benedictine priory” seem to me a bit overambitious, in spite of my sympathies for that order: let’s not forget that Saint Benedict died only in 547 in Monte Cassino, and I doubt that his Rule was so well-known in Gaul in his own lifetime that it could have been adopted by a small religious establishment in Burgundy... The monastery did certainly exist, though, as Saint Gregory of Tours visited it in 570 and there met with Didier (or Desideratus). About this last figure, History hesitates between the quality of abbot (that would indeed rather be prior if Gourdon were a priory back then) and that of hermit. In any case, by 1104, when the completed parish church is mentioned (there remains no trace of the in-between period), there is no further mention of that monastery, which must have disappeared in the meantime; it was probably little more than a hermitage, as by Year 1000 the rule had been largely propagated by Saint Benedict of Aniane († 821) and Benedictine houses were flourishing all over the Western world. An already existing priory would most likely never have been so abandoned and shut down. No physical traces of that establishment were ever found by archæologists.

Since around 1100, the church has been left almost intact, except for the bell tower which collapsed in 1881 and was rebuilt in 1889, exactly as it was before.

Another look at the amazing three-tier elevation in the nave. Sculpted, and often historied, capitals are everywhere! Also notice the very refined short columns (and more capitals!) at the fake triforium level: I will show one in more detail in the next photo.

Allard Motor Company Limited was a London-based low-volume car manufacturer founded in 1945 by Sydney Allard in small premises in Clapham, south-west London. Car manufacture almost ceased within a decade. It produced approximately 1900 cars before it became insolvent and ceased trading in 1958. Before the war, Allard supplied some replicas of a Bugatti-tailed special of his own design from Adlards Motors in Putney.

Allards featured large American V8 engines in a light British chassis and body, giving a high power-to-weight ratio and foreshadowing the Sunbeam Tiger and AC Cobra of the early 1960s. Cobra designer Carroll Shelby and Chevrolet Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov both drove Allards in the early 1950s.

Pre-war Allard Specials

The first Allard cars were built to compete in "trials" events – timed rally-like events on terrain almost impassable by wheeled vehicles. Built in under three weeks, the first Allard was powered by a Ford flathead V8 in a body mainly pirated from a Bugatti. The V8 was moved backward in the chassis to improve traction. The car used the American engine's high torque to great effect in slow-speed competition.[3] It debuted at the Gloucester Cup Trials, and later won the 100 miles (160 km) event at Southport Sands.

After a time the front beam axle was converted to independent front suspension. Leslie Ballamy's rather crude method was to cut the beam in half and mount the halves as swing axles and these swing axles were used on nearly all later Allard specials.

Further Allards were soon built to order. Allard's brother, Leslie, was a customer, while racer Ken Hutchinson purchased a 4.4-litre (270 cu in) Lincoln-Zephyr V12-powered version. It led to the pair forming a team, dubbed Tail Waggers, to race the car, which proved quite successful, including setting a new record at the Prescott hillclimb.

In 1937, Allard began producing modified Fords (in much the same way as the Chevrolet brothers had in the U.S.), selling them for £450 each. By the outbreak of war in 1939, twelve Allard Specials had been built. Sydney Allard's planned volume production was pre-empted by work on Ford-based trucks during the conflict. By the war's end, Allard had built up a substantial inventory of Ford parts.

Post-war models

The Allard Motor Company was founded in 1945, setting up in Clapham High Street, London. Using its inventory of easy-to-service Ford mechanicals built up during World War II and bodywork of Allard's own design, three post-war models were introduced with a newly designed steel chassis and lightweight body shells: the J, a competition sports car; the K, a slightly larger car intended for road use, and the four seater L. All three were based on the Ford Pilot chassis and powered by a fairly stock 85 hp (63 kW; 86 PS) 3,622 cc (221.0 cu in) sidevalve V8 with a single carburettor and 6:1 compression, driving a three-speed transmission and low-geared rearend, for superior acceleration. Front suspension was Ballamy swing axle, rear Ford solid axle. They were bodied in aluminium by Allard's friend Godfrey Imhof. Sales were fairly brisk for a low-volume car, and demand was high for cars in general, which led to the introduction of several larger models, the drophead coupe M and P.

Allard used "J" for the short-wheelbase two-seaters, "K" for two- or three-seat tourers or roadsters, "L" for four-seat tourers, "M" for drophead (convertible) coupes, and "P" for fixed-head cars. As models were replaced, subsequent models were numbered sequentially.

K1

1949 Allard K1

Overview

Production1946–1949

Powertrain

EngineFord Britain L-head V8

Canadian Mercury L-head V8

Transmission3-speed manual

Dimensions

Wheelbase2,690 mm (106.0 in)

Curb weight1,120 kg (2,460 lb)

Built from 1946 to 1948, the K1 used a 106 in (2,700 mm) wheelbase and was powered by a tuned version of the 221 cu in (3,622 cc) V8, with 7:1 compression, producing 95 hp (71 kW; 96 PS). The frame was made up from stamped steel channel sections by Thomsons of Wolverton specially for Allard. Side rails and cross members were designed to fit the Allard trailing link, transverse leaf independent front suspension and live rear axle. Production totaled 151 and fitted with the same engine options as the J1 the K1 could reach 86–90 mph (140–145 km/h).

This is my version of the mists in a November morning. This looks quite bright to be November up here in the north.

A year or so ago I came across this...

www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/permalink/transformers...

and having been a collector of the US comics I was intrigued and really wanted to find the image he's referencing. I gave it another shot this evening and while searching online, it occurred to me that the weekly Transformers releases in the UK seemed to be broken down from the monthly issues here. Realizing that, I went over to my dusty box of Transformers comics and started going through the later issues, seeing that is where this image would have come from.

No luck. Sadly, towards the early '90s we moved back to Charlotte and my later issues are somewhat spotted in their continuity.

This particular image came from #73. I felt that #73 was a little too early for the image that I was looking for, but was quite pleased to find this in the back. It has nothing to do with the story line of this comic. It was just a robot-fetish-pin-up or something.

I decided I needed to scan it in and share.

Unlike the guy in the linked article, I don't believe this was any sort of foreshadowing. Those are just big buildings and it's fun to imagine big robots fighting around bigger buildings.

Hmmm...

That guy on the left does look a lot like Dick Cheney though. Maybe he was on to something after all!

No, that guy looks to startled to be Cheney. Never mind,

On September 10th, 2012 I was stunned when the image of Jesus Christ appeared right in front of me. The crisis of the Mohammed film and the organized assault on the Libyan embassy unfolded the next day. Days later it began to sink in that I had seen this image before and had told a counselor about it prior to the attacks of 9/11 over eleven years ago.

I first became aware of this image as a college student and I mentioned it to the counseling center at the Boeing building near LAX where I attempted to stop the 9/11 plot. I recalled having opened my Bible to Proverbs 29 8 corresponding to the physical address of this image at 2908 Hamm Rd. Proverbs 29 8 - NIV -"Mockers stir up a city but wise men turn away anger." A modern translation - "Terrorists aim to set a city ablaze but wise men stop their plots." The original King's James Version of 1611 offers a sidenote reference of "set a citie on fire" as an alternative to "bring a citie into a snare." I feel the message advocates an active role in promoting restraint and stopping plots. It raises the importance of guardians, of those who care about saving lives over gamblers who play the odds or idealists who sell their visions with a cataclysmic lure. In times of conflict, let guardians reign supreme!

I wanted our sense of guardianship to extend beyond the pains it took to round up the insurers needed to make the earth-shaking sale of the World Trade Center possible. I was alerted to the sale thanks to the internet through a sign, quite literally a sign off the 405 for Westfield Properties. I explained how the sign had stood out as it was surrounded by a sizeable expanse of undeveloped land. I was similarly alerted to the names of the reinsurers and forwarded these names feeling that contacting them could help set us on the right course to prevent an attack.

Having lived in Japan where the first Bojinka-related murder occured, I explained that I was aware the plotters had targeted our towers and national symbols with plans of using up to 12 hijacked planes in what was known as the Bojinka plot. The term may have been derived from 'Boeing' since Boeing airliners were targeted. Multiple indicators pointed towards a resurgence of the plot. Elsewhere I have enumerated various alarming reports and quotes but at this time I'd like to shed light on the revelations that entered through my subconscious as a result of therapy. In one dream I had leaped from a tall building and on the way down saw a man falling alongside me, a description of whom is known to my counselor.

I believe the dream speaks to Ezra 9:3 where the targeting of foreign spouses and bullying has led Ezra to pull out his hair and issue a "reform" annulling a list of high-level marriages to foreign spouses. 9 and 3 would later appear as targets throughout 9/11: the flight number 93, the floor hit on Tower One, any one of the several passengers who luckily missed flight 11 would have been its 93rd occupant, the time flight 175 hit Tower Two was 9:03 and the speed of 465 knots that flight 77 reached after it spiraled down to its target is Penta x 93.

Among those Ezra grieves over are two Jehiels perhaps foreshadowing the day when many men sharing the same name would marry foreign spouses including my brother and I. In fact, 93 is my wife's nickname which means 'forever beautiful' when written using kanji letters ku and mi. She became a target of Epstein, Becker and Green. The law firm contacted the counseling center prior to 9/11 and asked for my signature on the counselor's notes so that unknown to me at the time - but made clear in the deposition taken precisely one year after 9/11 - they could target my wife. I agreed to sign under these conditions: the center would forward my pleas to law enforcement to look in our flight schools and stop the Bojinka plotters as well as heed the warnings of security experts who had tested Logan airport. I could see the center and Epstein Becker and Green desperately needed my signature and it troubled me because I had already signed a release to aid law enforcement. I wanted to make sure law enforcement was receiving my pleas to stop the plot.

As we plummeted I accepted the fact that neither this stranger nor I could fly like Superman. Realizing our lives would end in seconds, I focused on the man falling hoping to retain some detail about him. He was 7 to 10 paces away. As we fell we were somewhat facing each other but he didn't seem to be aware of my presence like I was aware of his. The building was behind and to my right and he was to my right. I sensed an emergency had forced him to jump he looked caught off-guard and trying to get somewhere safe, I did not think he was trying to commit suicide.

I was reminded of Proverbs 29 8 and the fact the Man on a Mission website I'd initiated while harassed at work was still blank. My thoughts returned to my initial assertion when I first entered therapy. I had stated that when airliners begin plowing into our buildings it would be resurgent Bojinka plotters piloting the planes not a lone, crazed Japanese pilot (like in a Tom Clancy novel) When the center wrongly asserted I had feared a single plane would target the building we were in - the Boeing building near LAX. I corrected this leading to a fuller discussion about the Bojinka plotters. I personally had decided not to fly due to the risks but the dream had brought my mission to focus. I was not in therapy to replay all the painful events in my life or stew in anger over having been assaulted. That was NEVER my mission. I was there to "turn away anger"; to give others the benefit of my experience and alert them to stop the bojinka plot.

I do regret not contacting Larry Silverstein or the Port Authority personally with my concerns however I felt my concerns were already being addressed. Between my pleas to stop the Bojinka plotters in our flight schools and the airline security agents warnings about failed security procedures, the 9/11 plot should have been stopped. I highly regret the interference of Epstein, Becker and Green and center managers. The counselor indicated meetings were occurring periodically to address the matters being discussed; therefore I cannot blame the counselor for the situation created by the managers and Epstein, Becker and Green.

I was very satisfied with what my therapist and I had accomplished over the course of the year and was happy to be working with the center in bringing the matter of stopping the plotters to the attention of law enforcement. On two occasions - at the start and at the completion of my year-long efforts - I was asked by the center to sign documents that allowed them to share this information with the FBI or any other branch of law enforcement as well as attorneys. And it didn't end there; I encouraged the counselor specifically to forward my concerns about the plotters to law enforcement using the center's established procedures and the fact I had already signed a release. "The plotters are already in our flight schools, aren't they?" I asked. "You want the plot stopped?" She replied. "Yes, I want it stopped."

I also called the attorney in Aziz v. United Airlines to voice my concern when I found out the airline company had been sued because a stewardess had said a coworker had fit part of a terrorist profile. I felt the stewardess had been unfairly scapegoated considering the very real threat flight crews were facing. After 9/11, I continued my efforts. I called atty Riley again, atty Gloria Allred, and sent e-mails to a number of Senators, Congressman, and to members of the Catastrophic Terrorism panel which met for 10 months in 1998.

My efforts finally paid off in August 2006 when over several days I repeatedly pleaded to stop the 2nd half of the Bojinka plot. The trans-Atlantic Bojinka plot was successfully foiled and yet many in the UK felt it was foiled pre-maturely while others, like Keith Olberman, unaware of the real story, conceived it was a political ploy. The fact that our airline security transformed overnight tells a different story. And so did President Bush's unusually low-key announcement. Even the FBI has admitted that while they frantically searched for but did not find a related US cell, they couldn't be certain it didn't exist. In other words, they were left with no option but to implement the counter-measures that should have been in effect even prior to 9/11.

Prior to 9/11 I had been a reliability specialist for a GPS navigation company out of Japan. I had spent many years teaching in Japan and helping others find the optimal natural language path linking their thoughts to words. Understanding the effect of words and symbols is vital not only to a successful navigation product but in all aspects of communication.

I noticed, for example that engaging in sarcasm - as temptingly entertaining as it may be - has sound-a-likes in many languages denoting darkness and could potentially lead down a path with potholes the size of Texas. To a foreign listener sarcasm is not always easy to detect and can end up communicating the exact opposite of what was intended. Listening to Michael Savage's brand of sarcasm was certainly entertaining but I was concerned that blaming liberals was not the answer and would stop no plots.

And on the left, the focus in the weeks up to 9/11 was equally misplaced. Listening to radio personality and attorney Gloria Allred rant about Bush's illegitimacy seemed horribly out of sync with how much we liberals and conservatives alike should be helping Bush stop this plot. It sent chills up my spine listening to her as I could see not only the planes coming but victims leaping to their deaths.

Nevertheless, the alarming level of scorn between left and right which Savage and Alred embodied helped to underscore the importance of my message: it was time to set aside differences and stop the plot. Even Sting's sarcasm against the senior President George Bush on Bush's home turf in 1983, "A dog bit Bush today....Dogs know best," was brought up as reminder of the international scope of the political divide; I stressed that it was important not to make assumptions but to pull together to stop the plot.

Conservative sarcasm about Islamic militants typically centers on how we can't stop their plots; how we can't do anything to disturb their precious civil liberties because of liberals. It provides a convenient scapegoat - Liberals - when things do go wrong. Scapegoating can build up steam in an organization creating its own wind and self-defeating spirals.

And liberals are just as capable of passing the buck and threading the blame, too. Following the 9/11 attacks Jamie Gorelick asked Condoleezza Rice why she had done nothing to stop the "Hit Big" prognosis revealed in early 2001 at a meeting on terrorism they both attended. The problem is our policy began veering off course much earlier when Gorelick in 1998 was one of a select group asked to join the Catastrophic Terrorism study panel which convened for 10 months. Zero experts in aviation security were invited. Threats to aviation security were not addressed at all, not even the 10-12 plane Bojinka plot which emerged while Gorelick was deputy Attorney-General of the Justice Department. After I pointed this information out, the only YouTube video of this tell-tale exchange was sadly removed by the uploader.

The Bojinka plot was unveiled when I lived in Japan after a Philippine airliner was bombed en route to Tokyo killing passenger Haruki Igekami. Senator Harrison Schmitt's dramatic 1978 Senate floor plea to stand strong against attacks on civil aircraft no matter how few the casualties reverberated in my head given that the accuracy of his forewarning became devastatingly apparent in 1983. 269 lives were lost when KAL 7 was shot down near Sakhalin Island. My senior thesis analyzed the '78 and '83 Soviet shoot-downs of off-course Korean airline flights 902 and 7.

It was during this time in which I spent hours on end in the library that I met a beautiful European princess in the periodicals room. She was not a student and spoke English not without difficulty. She left on a bus chartered only for her. I neglected my other classes as I focused on my paper; After graduating I moved overseas and met my princess in Japan.

Higher Standards

One significant motivator for stopping the plot came from having considered Senator Schmitt's reasoning. He argued that since the use of force against airliners by terror groups is illegal it follows that neither should a government have a right to use force against a civilian plane, even one that is off-course. In my research I considered the threat of hijackers who wished to use a plane as a missile and I concluded it was imperative to take threats of suicidal hijackings EXTREMELY seriously since shooting down a hijacked plane represents a complete failure of security and an unconscionable act against innocent life. Providing passengers and crew the means to destroy hijackers would be the better option. Given a higher standard of restraint and with fewer options available, it follows that high-profile threats to aviation security would not have been tucked behind a footnote in a paper on Catastrophic Terrorism but would have received the proper attention they deserved. As much as I disagree with Harvard's 1998 report on Catastrophic Terrorism, I do recognize that a pivotal historic opportunity was missed in 1978 to place the issue of hijacked airliners used as missiles and the issue of dealing with off-course airliners directly on the international stage at the UN and on the Senate floor rather than keeping the scenario hidden from robust public debate. I cannot stress enough my gratefulness to Senator Harrison Schmitt for his several attempts to prod the Senate to action in this regard. Schmitt argued that an act of terror whether committed by a government or by a terrorist group deserves the same condemnation. He argued that the act of condemning a government for using excessive force even where only a few lives were lost would have the effect of strengthening the world's resolve to protect civil aviation against future threats.

Targeting civilian planes should not be allowed under any circumstances. This stance places the onus on the airlines and the government to listen to us - the traveling public - and to listen to their own security teams in order to prevent hijackings. Frankly I'm dismayed at how few in the media and in government have given adequate thought to this subject. It was reported a female pilot was prepared to bring down one of the hijacked planes awaiting orders from above. Nobody in the media cried foul. At schools there is an ax in a glass case in case of emergencies. Will the new approach be to call in air support instead of authorizing teachers to break the glass and use the ax to free victims? Killing the hijackers while maintaining control of the plane can be achieved by a variety of technical and procedural means without having to target an entire plane and all of its passengers. It would have made far more sense to have secured emergency weapons on board given the threat levels and even more sense to heed airport security professionals own prescient warnings. There is no substitute for good screening methods. Ben Gurion Airport - Israel's international airport - has had NO hijackings in over 40 years.

As reports of screening failure surfaced, I pleaded to stop the plotters in our flight schools, to alert airport security, and the FBI. We looked in our flight schools and one man was detained, Moussaui. But officials in Minneapolis couldn't obtain a federal warrant to examine his computer. He was readied for deportation to France to start this madness all over again.. We can and should take necessary precautions to safeguard our airlines and keep terrorists at bay just as Israel does.

Moussaui was cast as unfit to be a real terrorist, a wannabee, a clown. And his handwritten writings - not likely needing a warrant to see - were over-the-top, brimming with hatred toward the Queen of England. It was perhaps not easy to understand the connection between his scorn and contempt for the Queen and his flight training in Minneapolis. But by keeping his computer off-limits, it kept the prevailing winds of sarcasm blowing and the hunter's nap undisturbed.

Overcoming Spirals of Negativity With Positive Action

"No, we must wait." Found in Genesis 29 8, it's a surprising rebuttal to Jacob's reasonable request to commence giving water to the sheep packed around the stone-covered well in the mid-day heat. The answer is "No. We must wait for all the sheep to gather..."

Jacob's only concern was in relieving the deadly effects of heat on Rachel's' tightly-packed flock, so instead of waiting for them to follow his instruction he took it on himself to remove the stone cover allowing the sheep to drink. It is the first challenge he faced in winning over Rachel. Later, as the slope of jealous resistance steepened, he is tricked into marrying Rachel's older sister and forced to work another seven years to earn his true love.

I believe the lesson here is clear. Barriers of jealousy or pride will invariably cause even the most urgent request to be denied or delayed.. We must brush off the negativity that we encounter as we pursue our dream. We must roll up our sleeves and it just may happen that our enthusiasm will catch on and save the life of a sheep or even save a nation from a disaster.

EPILOGUE - 1 Chronicles 29 8; Guardians of the Treasury

I mentioned that two Jehieli had married foreign brides and the trouble this caused. In the Bible it explains that the keepers of the treasure were Jehielites Zetham and Joel who were sons of the Gershonites who were the sons of Ladan who were sons of the Levites. Other branches of Levites were Kohath and Merari.

These Jehieli brothers had charge of the treasure of the house of the Lord. The most special treasure of all were precious stones given to the treasury. Coincidentally in 1 Chronicles 29 8 we find that these stones were entrusted to Jehiel, the Gershonite from among the sons of Ladan who were descended from Levites. In Ezra, perhaps we see the results of a creeping mistrust of those guarding the treasures as a result of marriages to foreigners.

Bin Ladan means son of Ladan. It is not difficult to imagine how empty a treasury would soon become if every Jehieli had a dozen wives and 50 offspring to feed and clothe. In Ezra, the target is foreign spouses. Some have speculated that the Ladans of the Bible were ancestors of the Bin Ladans of today.

To be fair, it's conceivable that Ezra 9:3 speaks to a crisis that had less to do with marriage to foreigners than with the issue of polygamy. In other words, unable to address social problems created by the sacred cow of polygamy, marriages with foreigners became the scapegoat, the annulment of which was seen as the most expedient way to release social tension. Having two wives Ezra himself was polygamous but this figure pales in comparison to Solomon who had 700.

When the foreign wives and their children were expelled it would seem certain they took the names given by their fathers with them. What's significant is the pain this causes Ezra as he considers the families he is forced to divide and the children who may forever be removed from either their mother or father.

Ezra played a mediator's role as well as a judge; he was in no position to challenge the authorities in this matter so in anguish he pulled out his hair, ripped his vest, and looking harried and disheveled, he proceeded in silent protest not of God but of the men whose orders he must follow. As a starting place for reconciliation and healing I suggest we give some thought to Ezra 9:3 and consider the harmful effect abuse causes whether to it is done for the sake of winning a case and perfectly "legal" or done under great duress due to the pressures of peers, superiors, or adjudicators.

The following is taken from the Expositor's Bible: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther by Walter F. Adeney:

"Ezra's harsh reformation in the expulsion of foreign wives must have

struck the divorced women as a cruel and insulting outrage. Driven

back to their paternal homes with their burning wrongs, these poor

women must have roused the utmost indignation among their people. Thus

the reformer had stirred up a hornets' nest. The legislator who

ventures to interfere with the sacred privacy of domestic life excites

the deepest passions, and a wise man will think twice before he

meddles in so dangerous a business. Only the most imperative

requirements of religion and righteousness can justify such a course,

and even when it is justified nobody can foresee how far the trouble

it brings may spread."

Adeney places this commentary not in his chapter on 'Foreign Wives' but rather in a later chapter he has appropriately titled, "The Cost of an Idealist's Success." I find it odd I to have had to reach way back to 1900 to find a commentary on Ezra worth its salt; in fact I find the level of thematic congruence between his commentary and mine astonishing. I have italicized his use of 'burning wrongs' to point to his possible use of sarcasm to describe a repeating ritual of behavior suspected as sinful. Sarcasm, if it only humiliates and degrades, is unwise and if it's unclear, it confuses.

I think Adeney uses sarcasm here perhaps as a mirror to reflect back on a premise - made in his chapter on foreign wives - that no such commandment ever existed requiring such an extreme measure despite Ezra's assertion to the contrary; Ezra has tortured himself and associated God's will with this misguided idealistic plan born of man so as to make its enforcement an easier pill to swallow. With each garment ripped and hair uprooted Ezra foreshadows the coming grief of the affected families.

It is interesting to note that when one attorney described our culturally mixed marriage as 'strange' I felt compelled to point out the differences between my family and our culture and the radical Islamic culture whose plots I was urging us to stop. Their culture seeks dominance by having as many offspring by as many wives as possible and is not shy about embracing terrorism. My culture encourages having one spouse, two kids, with the only vice perhaps being too many hours spent watching television.

In Islamic tradition, specifically in Jami` at-Tirmidhi there are 72 virgins awaiting the faithful in heaven, a lure necessary to a culture embracing polygamy.. In contrast, the Bible offers a cautionary tale of 72 brothers in Judges 9:3, seventy of which are murdered by their brother of a concubine mother. The conspirator becomes king Abimelek for a bloody spell marked by his setting fire to the tower of Shechem killing a thousand men and women before either a millstone or a chamber pot full of excrement was tossed from a high wall onto his head by a woman. To spare him the dishonor of being killed by a woman, the dying king's assistant finishes him off.

I bought the domain names princeofearth.org and erthe.com reflecting my sense of having fought an age-old battle and won and ready to celebrate the success of my mission to stop our enemy's plots to use Boeing airliners as missiles. Epstein, Becker and Green targeted my wife and drew the wagons around the abusers. Henry 'Scoop' Jackson was jokingly dubbed the 'senator from Boeing' - a moniker he fully embraced - and he died shortly after Flight 7 was shot down. He had been suffering from a flu he'd caught in Asia. A social liberal and fiscal conservative he was the kind of man that refused to get caught up in petty partisan mudslinging which is often designed to obscure the most important issues at hand.

I could hear his voice of moderation and others because I had bothered to stop what I was doing and listen. When people speak, it's not just the words they use, there's a treasure trove of information that we can learn from. I could hear the many voices and signs saying to stop the plot because I had given not only those college years but seven years teaching in Japan to listening attentively to what others were saying and where words failed, to understanding their hearts. A Bush appointee was family and my wedding's volunteer videographer. Another family member, a 33rd degree Freemason, gave his services as well. My father was a retired NASA engineer. Though I was many states away from my family in Texas, the center connected me to our government, to law enforcement, and the means by which to stop the plot.

Epstein, Becker and Green came to the Boeing building in defense of abusers and they tossed out everything I had accomplished in therapy and in my life on their stone-age witch hunt for the "burning wrongs" of my foreign wife. And leading this charge were local women. It raises questions of interpretation and the possibility Ezra may have been acting on the social pressures of local wives' burning upset over their polygamous husbands' foreign spouses. It's an unexplored chapter as to what motivated Epstein, Becker and Green.

While 9/11 brought people back into the church it had a different effect on me. I had been going to church twice a week in the year before 9/11. And several churches. But 9/11 left me in shock and disbelief: I could not have been any more clear that I wanted the bojinka plot stopped. I did not wish to act in anger but to prevent another attack. After a letter I wrote explaining my efforts to stop the plot Alex Jones asked me to join his efforts but I declined. I wrote him asking him to recall when he first learned about the Bojinka plot and he has yet to respond to my request and neither has Philip Zelikow.

My only concern was in repairing our initial response and stopping another plot. The Truth Movement was co-opted; it put the focus on laser weapons, no-plane theories, 40-year old wild-hair scenarios against Castro, the kind of garbage that brings viewers but actually takes the pressure away from the people who need to feel the squeeze the most - the policy makers advising both parties.

Unconvinced that PNAC's Pearl Harbor assertion represented a pivotal moment of error in our policy, I dug deeper in the stack of papers published on terrorism prior to 9/11. That led me to focus instead on Harvard, The Kennedy School of Government, and the Catastrophic Terrorism Study Panel's conclusions. I wrote a critique of their report and wrote her members asking for feedback to help correct the heading that resulted from the wide-spread dissemination of their report among influential political, military, and intelligence leaders through the prestigious journal Foreign Affairs. Some Senators responded. But even where there was no response it would be wrong to assume my efforts had no sobering impact.

I wish I could explain why I couldn't bring myself to see the image of Christ above for 11 long years and why it completely astonished me last September. A few years ago I picked up a mirror from a clothing store that was closing and placed it on the fireplace. Its borders were covered in stickers. lostprophets, ezekiel, es, THINK, and Savier, the last of which were in the upper-right corner of the mirror next to the image of Christ. And still years went by before finally, in one startling moment last September on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the attacks I saw the image as Christ. After a few days the memories begin to resurface, Had I blocked them out for all these years due to stress? I don't know.

I am happy my pleas coincided with the insuring of the World Trade Center. Yet I truly regret the new owners and insurers were unable to receive the message to stop the plot coming from the Boeing building next to LAX. It was with heartbreak that after 9/11 I learned an attorney from Epstein, Becker, and Green had represented Silverstein's interests with Willis Holdings in regards to the World Trade Center deal. Our national security flew out the window as the abusive were protected by the firm while my therapy was invaded and my wife was targeted. When idealists have their "win" cap on, nothing gets in their way, not the truth, not the facts, not the evidence, not the witnesses, nothing. And the clock means nothing to them. They have unlimited time for themselves and yet no time for thoughtfulness. In times like these we need guardians, not gamblers; we need concentration, not dreams of cataclysm.

Precious stones excite romance, reveal a mystery, bring a smile to a face; we marvel at these tiny fragments of the Universe's creation, but the most precious gift of all is within our hearts, our kindness to one another, and our willingness to look after one another, even those in other tribes, so that in love and trust, we may experience the wisdom that God has set like a beautiful stone right before our very eyes.

... une forme de décomposition, de dissection et de recomposition d'un géant en un monstre. C'est, selon Jean-Louis Ferrier, une toile où « un gigantesque corps humain se déchire lui-même, s'écartèle, s'étrangle, grimace de douleur et de folie ».

Une main est à terre dans la poussière tandis que l'autre dressée vers le ciel serre un sein. Elles montrent toutes deux une raideur et couleurs cadavériques. Les bras forment un angle et se prolongent en une sorte de jambe reliée à un bassin. Sur le bassin, un pied en décomposition et sa jambe dressée forment avec les parties précédemment citées un immense trapèze dont le grand côté est surmonté d'une tête grimaçante levée vers le ciel. L'ensemble est soutenu par un pied coupé et morbide et une table de chevet minuscule, tous deux posés entre des haricots bouillis disséminés sur le sol. Sur le bassin, à droite du pied, figure un étron.

Dali commenta lui-même la présence de ces haricots qui justifie le premier titre de l'œuvre :

« La structure molle de cette énorme masse de chair dans la guerre civile, je l’ai garnie de haricots bouillis, parce qu’on ne peut s’imaginer avalant toute cette viande insensible sans l’accompagnement même banal de quelque légume mélancolique et farineux »

En fond, le paysage est rocailleux, aride et montagneux. Le ciel montre des formes extraordinaires ; certains nuages sont verts clairs et bleu roi. La scène se déroule dans l'Empordà, région de Cadaqués, de Port Lligat et de Figueres qui servent généralement de décors aux scènes daliniennes.

C'est une des œuvres les plus agressives de l'histoire et qui montre l'horreur d'une guerre civile que le peintre avait pressentie et qui éclata six mois après l'achèvement de la toile. Elle fut commencée à Paris en 1936, alors que la multiplication des troubles armés en Espagne ne laissait que peu de doutes sur l'avenir immédiat du pays. Le peintre raconte dans vie secrète de Salvador Dali comment, en 1934, lors de la déclaration de la république catalane, Gala et lui avaient fui Barcelone pour Paris, entre barrages des anarchistes et la déclaration d'indépendance de la Catalogne. Leur chauffeur avait été assassiné sur le chemin du retour.

ENGLISH :

In the background, the greater part of the canvas is occupied by the sky. On the earthy and sunny ground appears one huge being with grinning face and an absurd anatomy The whole is seen in cons-diving. Dali realizes in this canvas a form of decomposition, dissection and recomposition of a giant monster. That is, according to Jean-Louis Ferrier, a canvas where "a gigantic body tears, dismembers, and chokes itself grimacing of pain and madness."

One hand is on the ground in the dust while the other pointing skywards clamps a breast. They show both stiffness and cadaveric colors. The arms form an angle and extend in a kind of leg connected to a basin.

On the basin, a decaying foot and erected leg form with the parties mentioned above a huge trapezoid whose wide side is topped with a grimacing head raised towards the sky. The whole is supported by a cut and morbid foot and a tiny bedside table, both posed between boiled beans scattered on the floor. On the basin, on the right of the foot, appears a turd.

Dali himself commented on the presence of these beans that justifies the first title of the work:

"I garnished with boiled beans the soft structure of this enormous mass of flesh in the civil war, because we can not imagine swallowing all that insensitive meat without the accompaniment even banal of some mealy and melancholy vegetable '

In the background, the landscape is rocky, arid and mountainous. The sky shows extraordinary forms, some clouds are bright green and royal blue. The scene takes place in the Empordà region of Cadaqués and Port Lligat Figueres generally used for daliniens scenery scenes.

This is one of the most aggressive works of history and shows the horrors of a civil war that the painter had foreshadowed and which broke out six months after the completion of the canvas. It was started in Paris in 1936, while the multiplication of armed unrest in Spain left little doubt about the immediate future of the country. The painter says in his "Secret Life of Salvador Dali" how, in 1934, during the Declaration of the Catalan republic, Gala and he fled Barcelona for Paris among the anarchists dams and the declaration of independence of Catalonia. Their driver was killed on the way back.

Some Young History.

Like all the areas of the western slopes of NSW this was once the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people. Their lands covered one of the biggest agricultural regions of Australia. There was little conflict in this region and diseases more than pastoralist action reduced their numbers considerably within a couple of years of white pastoral occupation. Like so many areas beyond the declared Nineteen Counties- the legal limit of white settlement in the 1820s and 1830s - the first pastoralist was white squatter James White in 1826. This free settler established his Burrangong station on the banks of Stoney Creek on the advice of a local Aboriginal man, Coborn Jackie. James White never married but his brother joined him and the first white child born in the region was his niece Sarah White in 1830. She lived to be 107 years old. The district was rich as the soils were volcanic soils and numerous streams ran westward to the lower areas of western NSW. The area where the sheep flocks of White rested for their lambing became known as Lambing Flat. Another pastoralist Edward Taylor planted some cherry trees in 1847. In the 1840s these squatters got licensing and later leasehold rights over the land. Until the upheaval of 1860. Gold was discovered then by James White’s nephew Dennis Regan and Alexander the Yankee with it being reported in the press in August 1860.

By mid-1861 20,000 miners were at Lambing Flat including 2,000 Chinese diggers. The Chinese were resented and some argue that the origins of the White Australia Policy stem from the xenophobia of Lambing Flat. There is no direct linkage here but the sentiments foreshadowed the Commonwealth policy of 1901. A group of white diggers drove off 500 Chinese miners in November of 1860 and violence and distrust continued as they destroyed their tents. The NSW government acted quickly and a Gold Commissioner and troops were despatched to Lambing Flat two weeks later. A further group of Chinese were driven away in December. In early January a similar incident occurred but this time the diggers threatened to attack the police troops if they interfered. Despite 30 police troops at Lambing Flat a further indecent occurred at the end of January when hundreds of Chinese were frightened off the fields and their tens burnt. A Miners Protective League was formed to expel the Chinese. This did not happen on other goldfields so why Lambing Flat? No one really knows. In March the government sent 300 troops to Lambing Flat armed with cannon and a defensive compound was erected. The last violence occurred in late June and early July 1861 when 3,000 miners attacked the Chinese, cut off pigtails and stole property and burnt tents. One European miner was killed in the melee. Next they attacked the fortified gaol in order to release some imprisoned miners for violence on the goldfields. One miner was killed by the police during the riot which happened near the current main street of Young. The Courthouse and police station were burnt down by the protesters. Calm quickly returned and the police regained control of the goldfields. Were the miners influenced by their knowledge of Eureka? Is this really a foreshadowing of the emergence of the workers unions? Five miners were tried for crimes in Goulburn Courthouse later in 1861 but were all acquitted and then the NSW government passed the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act in November 1861. The miners appeared to have won the battle. The anti-Chinese banner which the rioters carried was hidden for 100 years but re-discovered in Young in the 1960s. It is now in the town museum. The Lambing Flat Folk Museum in Young has artefacts to tell the story of the Lambing Flat riots and the bushranging era. It also has the name plate of Coborn Jackie the Aboriginal friend and advisor of James White.

The town of Yong was surveyed in March of 1861 during the goldfield violence. The name of Lambing Flat was already tainted by then and the town was named Young after Sir John Young the Governor of NSW from 1861 to 1867. Town blocks were sold in May 1861 and before the end of that year Young had a Post Office, a school, a bank, an Anglican and a Catholic church and a newspaper. A hospital and a new Courthouse were erected in 1862. At that time Young was having about 124,000 ounces of gold escorted out of the town annually. But the rush was over by 1864 and less and less gold was being located by 1867. The town turned into an agricultural service centre with a saw mill (1865), a flour mill (1866), a brewery (1877) and finally railway (1885). The town then got a tannery, a soap factory, a work boot factory, a brick kiln, meat works and butter factory all before 1900. In 1889 Young became the first town outside of Sydney to have a domestic electricity supply for its residents. The arrival of the railway in 1885 allowed farmers to experiment with fruit crops as the train could speed them to markets in Sydney. Apples, oranges and plums were the first grown commercially in the 1890s and one farmer in the 1890s had a cherry orchard with 7,000 fruiting trees and 3,000 seedling cherries. Others followed suit and by 1908 Young was railing 15,000 cases of cherries to Sydney each season. Major expansion of the cherry industry occurred in the 1920s with 77 orchards near Young and it was soon the second most important cherry growing region of NSW after Orange. Young began holding a cherry festival in 1949 and still does each year in early December when picking is in full swing.

Some interesting buildings in Boorowa Street and vicinity are:

•In Zouch Street is the Gothic Anglican Church built in 1893. Architect was Edmund Blacket. The first Anglican Church was built on this spot in 1865. Adjacent is the red brick 1937 Rectory and the 1866 Anglican school room.

•Continue along Cloete St. Take next left into Lynch St. Here is the Methodist Church built in 1909. Now the Uniting Church. Built in Arts and Craft style with horizontal banding bricks, tower etc. The first Methodist Church was built in 1865. Turn around and go along Lynch Street.

•On the corner is the 1928 neo classical style Courthouse with Doric columns.

•Next to it is the much altered Post Office and clock built in 1878. The original Post Office stood here when built 1862.

•Cross the roundabout to see the School of Arts building and library. Built in 1904 as a single storey with two gables.

•Next door is the former AMP Society building on the corner. Built in the 1920s with a curved Doric pillared entrance with the AMP statue logo above. A friend in times of need.

•Opposite is the Presbyterian Church. Built in 1920 of greenish grey coloured feldspar quartz. Young’s first Presbyterian church was built in 1871. Turn around and turn right at the roundabout into Boorowa St.

•On the corner is the Baroque style Commercial Bank of Sydney built in 1890. Two different style porches for the entrances.

•On the right painted grey is The Great Eastern Hotel built in 1904. A typical Australian hotel but with triangular pediments.

•At the next roundabout is the Commercial Hotel. Built in 1930s in Spanish Mission style in red brick.

•Next on left is Millard’s Department Store built in 1917. A major three storey edifice in the street.

•Opposite is Young Town Hall built in 1875. In 1922 the Soldiers War Memorial Clock tower was added. Turn around and go back to the roundabout and turn right. Just along the road is the marked Federation building built around 1901. It has a stepped pediment along the roof. It is important as it was the store of one of the last 19th century Chinese traders in Young – Billy Hayes (anglicised.) He ran it to the 1960s.

•Turn right here next you will see on the right the five storey red brick Millard’s flourmill. Cross the creek.

•You will see St Mary’s Catholic Church. Gothic in style and erected 1874 of local granite with Welsh slate roof. Granite addition to the nave made in 1934. Just behind the church on the side street is the Catholic Convent built in 1891. Gothic looking gables and excellent cast iron lacework on balconies. Now part of the Catholic College.

•Opposite is the Lambing Flat Museum in the old original town school. It opened in 1883. The first town school began in 1861 with the first government school on the site on the present railway station.

•Beyond the park is Young High School. It began as the first Courthouse on these goldfields in 1861. A second grand classical Greek temple building Courthouse opened in 1886 at a cost of £12,000. It was given to the Education Department in 1924. With additions it opened as the Young High School in 1947.

•Young railway station. The railway reached here from Harden in 1885 when the Gothic station was built. It is now the Information Centre.

A large layer of fog in the morning, to foreshadow a sunny day.

Uma grande camada de neblina pela manhã, a prenunciar um dia ensolarado

Without even realizing the foreshadowing implied by this image, GCRM's ex CB&Q E-9A #9913 looks so good in the crystal clear sky that I couldn't pass up a photo of it.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile has captured the most detailed image ever taken of the Medusa Nebula (also known Abell 21 and Sharpless 2-274). As the star at the heart of this nebula made its final transition into retirement, it shed its outer layers into space, forming this colourful cloud. The image foreshadows the final fate of the Sun, which will eventually also become an object of this kind.

A couple YN2 GEs lead some new BNSF power at Mccool, IN in 2006

The last old-school Santa Fe searchlight signal bridge in the Southwest rests on the BNSF main line in Riverside, California, on the early morning of November 8, 2020. Its replacement stands in the background.

Judges' comments: As railroads continue to modernize their network signal systems, this series of three images elegantly depicts a changing of the guard. The judges admired this photographer’s ability to artfully capture the story of transition from veteran searchlight signals to new “Darth Vader” colorlight signals. The first image convincingly captures the “before” while foreshadowing the “new” lurking beyond the signal bridge. The scrapper's torch highlights the second image, with the bridge again in the background. Perhaps most memorable, the third image portrays the fallen soldier with the upgraded system towering above. The judges also noted the photographer’s adept skill with ambient-light night photography in a variety of conditions.

Read more about the 2021 John E. Gruber Creative Awards Program: railphoto-art.org/awards/2021-awards/

The fresco, painted in Fourth Style, shows Perseus in the act of freeing Andromeda after killing the monster to whom the young girl had been destined as a punishment. Andromeda is shown still tied to the rocks with a ring on her left wrist; her head is slightly bent to the left, and her right shoulder is lowered so that the chiton, slipping down her side, leaves her right breast bare. With her right hand, she lifts the hem of her dress as she descends from the rock, helped by Perseus, who touches her left elbow with his right hand. The naked hero, with a chlamys and winged sandals, looks down to the left towards the sea monster lying in the water and hides the Gorgon’s head from Andromeda; the head hangs from the harpé, the curved sword that he had used to cut it off, which the hero holds in his left hand. The theme of the liberation of Andromeda by Perseus is one of the most widely depicted in antiquity: in Pompeii alone, there are six copies arranged in different compositions. This fresco, the largest to survive, seems to be the closest to the model of Nikias, the Athenian painter of the late classical period, upon whose work the Roman copies are based. Nevertheless, while the older frescoes in the Third Style depict a greater number of events, with minor mythological figures (from Cassiopea to Cepheus), the later ones concentrate on the two most important figures, Perseus and Andromeda, foreshadowing the future sentimental relations between them. In this fresco, despite the limitations of the amateurish pictorial technique employed, it is possible to observe the admirable attempts to rework the theme, exemplified in the accentuation of the chiaroscuro, in the softness with which the clothes are depicted and in the skilful use of light.

Source: cir.campania.beniculturali.it/museoarcheologiconazionale/...

Compared to previous years this has been a strange and limited year for me geographically.

To begin with the immediately concrete, I’ve hardly gone outside in the past week and a half, thanks to an extended episode of my right foot being stiff and swollen from gout. This time it struck without warning or provocation, unlike the previous time earlier this year, which you can see foreshadowed on the map as a day of biking around exploring West Oakland and then to Berkeley. The next day I could barely walk, and I haven’t dared to ride a bike in months.

My daily routine has been dominated all year by getting between home and MacArthur or Rockridge BART stations and between Civic Center BART and the Mapbox office on 9th Street. There are also many short walks from 16th Street BART for the Friday morning ritual of geobreakfast, and some longer ones taking advantage of some extra time in the morning to walk between 16th Street and Castro or Church stations instead of going straight to work. Another couple of early mornings I went to Glen Park and Noe Valley just to count pedestrians.

The long straight lines in the Oakland Hills are GPS tracks from airplanes. The rules changed and now you can use a GPS receiver during takeoff and landing, but it’s still hard to get a good signal. The trips were to Boston, to speak at the OpenVis conference (and then from there to Maryland to visit Steph’s family), and to Minneapolis, to speak at Eyeo Festival. Not visible on the map are two trips to visit my parents in southern California.

Locally, I talked at the Macro City conference at the Brava Theater, at Swissnex on Montgomery, at the National Association of City Transportation Officials at SPUR, and to a cartography class at San Francisco State, gave lunch talks at SFMTA and Gehl Architects, and was in SPUR’s Urban Cartography exhibit.

One Saturday I took the F Market around the Embarcadero to go to the library book sale at Fort Mason and came away with seven bound volumes of the Armed Forces Song Folio, monthly compilations of popular sheet music issued by the military in the 1940s and 50s. By systematically working through them, I’ve finally become a competent “fake book” pianist, able to play songs I’ve never heard before from the written melody and chords, although playing full standard piano arrangements is still beyond me.

I think the only new infrastructure reflected here is trying out BART’s Oakland Airport Connector on its opening day.

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In general, black is walking, red is bicycling, blue is cars or buses, and green is above-ground rapid transit or freeways. (Color is from speed, not from an actual record of transportation mode.) Not shown: tunnels and subways. How big is your world?

Other people doing similar things: Nicole Aptekar.

Weikersheim Palace and Gardens, Weikersheim, Tauber Franconia (Baden-Wuerttemberg)

Some background information:

Weikersheim Palace is a stately home in the town of Weikersheim. Both palace and town are located in the Baden-Wuerttemberg region of Tauber Franconia (Tauberfranken) near the federal state boundary of Bavaria.

Set in the scenic landscape of the Tauber valley, Weikersheim Palace (Schloss Weikersheim) lies at the heart of the small town of Weikersheim. The palace embodies the Renaissance ideal of a country estate. Together with its glorious baroque garden and the orangery Weikersheim Palace is regarded as the most beautiful stately home in the whole area, which was the sphere of influence of the Franconian noble dynasty of Hohenlohe.

The moated castle of Weikersheim was first mentioned in a document in 1153 as the home of the lords of Wighartsheim. But most likely the castle was already built some decades earlier. Konrad and Heinrich of Wighartsheim were the ancestors of the family of Hohenlohe. Konrad of Wighartsheim renamed himself Weikersheim, whilst his brother Heinrich renamed himself Hohenloch after the village Hohlach, which was situated nearby. Later Hohenloch turned into Hohenlohe by phonetic change. The former castle of Weikersheim was a curtain wall castle with a broadly conceived castle moat and a keep.

After Count Wolfgang of Hohenlohe had taken up residence in the moated castle of Weikersheim in 1586, he promptly ordered the construction of a new palace. With an unusual three-sided floorplan, the palace reflected the Renaissance style of that time, but also already foreshadowed the Baroque era that was to come. The richly decorated knights' hall of Weikersheim Palace is a highlight of Renaissance architecture in southwestern Germany. Dating from 1600, it is one of the best preserved halls from that era. The vast panelled ceiling with its colourful hunting scenes is famous, likewise the three-dimensional painting of an elephant, which was made from the painter after narrations only, without ever having seen an elephant in the flesh or allegorised at least.

It was count Carl Ludwig of Hohenlohe, who gave the palace and garden the form that they have retained to this day. Carl Ludwig lived from 1674 to 1756 and inhabited the palace for over fifty years. The eye-catching garden was designed on his instructions, receiving a crowning touch: the orangery, which provides a picturesque backdrop.

The most distinctive features of the palace grounds are the many Baroque statues that populate the garden. Of these, the whimsical Weikersheim dwarfs are the best-known. Count Carl Ludwig had the members of his court preserved for posterity in this unusual ensemble. While these grotesque creatures lurk at the edge of the garden, the elegant statues in the parterre portray classical figures such as Apollo and Diana. There are also allegorical representations of the planets – including Mercury, Saturn, Venus and Mars.

After Carl Ludwig had died without having an offspring the palace passed to different lines of the Hohenlohe dynasty, falling into a deep sleep at the same time. But Constantin of Hohenlohe-Langenburg awakened it again after World War II. He established an art school there and the Jeunesses Musicales International, a youth music festival, whose mission was and still is "to enable young people to develop through music across all boundaries". But Constantin of Hohenlohe-Langenburg also renovated both palace and gardens. In 1967 he sold the estate to the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, which puts up the funds since then that are necessary for the preservation.

Weikersheim Palace is open to the public and can be visited all year round. But unfortunately it is not allowed to take photos of the palace’s interior.

Weikersheim is a small town in the Main-Tauber district. It was first mentioned in a document in 837 as an estate of Fulda Abbey. Today Weikersheim has more than 7,000 residents and attracts visitors by its palace, its historic town centre and the well-preserved remains of its town walls.

On the day when 'The Bay' takes it's last breath and under a different name, Flight Stop, this 1979 iconic art installation may have foreshadowed what was to come with the disintegration of Canadian retail.

blogged here: djenglandphotography.blogspot.com/2025/06/photo-of-week-2...

Location: Urban Sector - Slums, World of Ruin

Shadow, after finding the Motor Bike in the Forgotten Alleyway (Chapter 1 - Episode 3), rides off into the unknown.

An evil presence lurks in the distance, ever watchful, but always unseen.

This is not a numbered episode in the series, just a deeper look into the lore of the story, and foreshadowing what is to come.

Aftermarket parts are from Brick Forge, Brick Arms, Brick Warriors, Cape Madness, Amazing/United Armory, and Tiny Tactical.

Faves, comments, and feedback are appreciated, thank you!

Amsterdam NL, harbour area - At the end of the Strekdam in Amsterdam, beside the grain-silo-turned-housing-complex, MVRDV has built a ten-floor housing complex in the water. The project Silodam started in 1995. It has become a truly metropolitan housing complex comprising 135 owner-occupied dwellings, 14 rental dwellings and 1,400 m2 of commercial space. To achieve a degree of transparency and preserve views of the river IJ from the Houthaven, three large 'holes' were made in the volume. One was intended as a dock, the other two as semi-public spaces for residents and users of the complex.

Pontsteiger, Houthavens Amsterdam, NL - arons en gelauff architecten

The building is located at the end of a 200 metre dam that projects into the water of the river IJ. The unusual form was designed with apartment dwellers’ preferences in mind: residential demand is highest either at the top of high rises (penthouse views) or at the base to connect to the liveliness at city level. In the Pontsteiger design concept the part in between is simply minimized. The large building consists of a six floor low rise block that wraps around a plaza on the waterfront. Two slender 60 metre towers at the open end of this block frame the river view. The towers carry a bridge spanning 48 metres rising to a height of 90 metres above the city. The result is an iconic building that foreshadows Amsterdam’s growth of high rise buildings around the river IJ.

www.freemoviescinema.com/science-fiction/video/latest/con... Full Feature

See more photos in set.

Starring Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy, Phil Foster, William Redfield, William Hopper, Benson Fong, Ross Martin, Vito Scotti. Directed by Byron Haskin. Producer George Pal gave us the sci-fi landmark Destination Moon in 1950. He then gave us the timeless classic War of the Worlds in '53. This, his third epic, was a grand effort, but fell shy of his earlier triumphs. On paper, it should have been another mega-classic. The team members from the earlier hits were reassembled. Pal as producer, Haskin directing, Lydon on screenplay, O'Hanlon writing. Conquest was also based on a popular book. Yet, despite all this pedigree, something fell short. Conquest would not go on to be remembered as one of the 50s mega-classics. Some of this obscurity may be due to Conquest being in the "serious" science fiction sub-genre, like Destination Moon and Riders to the Stars which tried to depict a plausible space-traveling future. Audiences were becoming much more entranced with saucers and weird aliens.

In some ways,Conquest is a remake of the basic story line from Destination Moon -- a crew are the first to land on a celestial body. They struggle to survive and yet courageously return. This time, instead of the moon, it's Mars. As a remake goes, however, it's worthy. The Technicolor is rich and the sets well done. This is an A-level production which at its release was the 2001: A Space Odyssey of its day. All the melodrama, however, starts to get in the way of the techno-gee-whiz.

Synopsis

Based aboard a rotating wheel space station, workmen prepare a big flying wing of a rocket ship. A group of potential crewmen train for what they think will be a moon landing mission. As the work nears completion, they find out that the real mission will be a landing on Mars instead. While aboard "The Wheel", we're introduced to the phenomenon of "space sickness" -- a mental breakdown due to workload and confinement for long periods. One of the crew candidates is scrubbed because of one such breakdown. Nonetheless, the multinational crew are chosen and embark for the long journey to Mars. After departure, it's found that General Merritt's old friend, Sergeant Mahoney, stowed away. On the way to Mars, a communications antenna is damaged and must be fixed via spacewalking crewmen. Just as the repairs are completed, the customary meteor arrives, threatening to hit the ship. General Merritt manages to fly the ship out of the way, but one of the crewmen on EVA is hit with micrometeoroids (like bullets) and killed. The General is also starting to show odd behavior, doubting whether their mission is proper or is an affront to God. Their evasive action puts them behind schedule, but they arrive at Mars. While attempting to land on Mars, the General has another bout of delusion and tries to abort the landing. His son, Captain Merritt, manages to take control and brings in the flying-wing lander to a rough but successful landing. The others go out to explore, but the General, now fully delusional, is venting rocket fuel in an attempt to blow up the ship. His son discovers this and the two struggle. The General's pistol discharges, killing him. Mahoney comes on the scene just then and accuses Captain Merritt of murdering the General. The rest explore a bit more, but pronounce Mars a dead planet. Despite this, Imoto discovers that his earth flower seed sprouted in martian soil. Earthquakes cause the escape rocket to shift off of perpendicular. They get it righted and blast off. On the way home, Mahoney and Captain Merritt make up and declare that the dead General was a hero, the man who conquered space. The End.

The color, the sets, models and background paintings are very visually rich. The whole image is a great snapshot of the future as people in the mid-50s imagined it would be. More tidbits in the Notes section below.

There is actually a subtle anti-war tone to the movie. No overt talk of nuclear dangers or menacing enemies. It is notable, however, that among the conspicuously international crew candidates, there is no Russian. Americans would "conquer" space with a few other nationals along for the ride, but NO Russians. There is also a poorly explained urgency to the mission. What's the hurry? Back in the Cold War, it was pretty common that WE had to get something before THEY did.

In 1949, Willy Ley wrote the book "The Conquest of Space," which speculated about how mankind might travel to other planets. This book was illustrated by space artist Chesley Bonestell. This book would become the inspiration for the movie.

From 1952 to 1954, Collier's magazine ran a series of stories about mankind conquering space. These were repeats by Ley and Bonestell of their 1949 book, but this time Collier's added material from "rocket scientist" Werner von Braun. Bonestell's new illustrations were clearly the prototype for the look of Conquest. People felt that mankind was on the verge of taking to the stars. The Collier's series expressed that giddy optimism.

The screenplay for Conquest added weak human interest sub-plots which almost negate the gee-whiz optimism that the visuals convey. The screenwriters were all experienced in their craft, so it's puzzling why such amateurish characterizations are so prominent. The comic relief moments are almost cartoonish. The whole leader-gone-mad sub-plot seems out of place.

A possible "message" to Conquest is that man is a fragile creature who may not be ready for the rigors of space travel. Certainly, people wondered about this, and other movies touched on the theme too, such as Riders to the Stars ('54). Our not being mentally ready yet was cited by the aliens in It Came From Outer Space ('53). General Merritt's dementia was foreshadowed in the breakdown of Roy early in the movie.

One thing that strikes the viewer is how much life aboard the space station is presumed to duplicate life aboard a navy ship. It's not overtly stated that the military should (or will) be the agency which "conquers" space, but from the ranks and uniforms and the navy-life scenes, that message comes through. Space ships will be like earthly ships.

On the surface, it seems like Conquest is blasting Christians as dangerous religious fanatics. This notion, that anyone who believes in God simply MUST be wacko, would be much more popular in later decades, but it was uncommon in the 50s. For that reason, the General's dementia deserves a closer look.

Actually, General Merritt was not the stereotypic religious fanatic. His son comments that he had never seen him carrying around and reading the Bible before. Instead of headaches or paralysis, the General's "space sickness" took a paranoid turn. He had rational misgivings about the Mars mission from the start, pre-dementia. His repressed misgivings are expressed in Bible verses dealing with sinners being punished by God. He once quotes from Psalm 38, then later from Psalm 62.

Throughout all this, God is not mocked. Indeed, only the "religious" man had the courage to go outside and give the dead Fodor a proper burial. The other non-relgious crewmen were at a loss for what to do.

The notion of impudent mankind trying to meddle in God's domain, is treated as a credible issue. In this, the pattern of the Tower of Babel is drawn. Prideful mankind thinks they can build their way into God's realm. God foils that plan. General Merritt's dementia seems motivated by a fear that this divine retribution could be coming again.

The writers of Conquest imagine a multinationalism in space. Most notable are two former enemy nations: Imoto is from Japan and Fodor is a German-accented Austrian, (as a stand-in for Germany). Imoto gets to make a little speech about why Japan went to war (lack of resources). Fodor gets to be seen as the cherished son of a classic "mama". By 1955, it was starting to become okay to look beyond World War 2.

At one point, the crew of The Wheel are watching a movie with many scantily clad dancing girls (much like sailors aboard a ship). The movie is a lavish musical number with many gold bikini clad pseudo-harem girls dancing while Rosemary Clooney sings about love "...in the desert sand." This clip is total non-sequetor to the high-tech space environment. What's interesting, is that it's NOT stock footage recycled. Clooney had not done any such movie. This dance number must have been staged and shot just for this scene in Conquest. Random act of musical. Gotta love 'em.

Bottom line? Conquest is an almost-epic. It's definitely an A-grade sci-fi movie, so it's well worth watching. The human story part gets in the way sometimes, but the visuals more than make up for it.

41/365

Which Religion is the ONLY true one?

Because there are so many different religions all with conflicting beliefs, many people find it confusing and difficult to decide which one they should follow.

Would a God really want to make it difficult for us to find the truth? Surely the truth has to be available for all humankind - - - for the simple and humble, as well as the clever, the intellectual and the theologian? So, it makes perfect sense to conclude that it must be possible to discern the truth through simple logic.

Firstly, it is easy to see that God has made his existence clear, through reason and logic to those who are open-minded and genuinely desire to seek the truth. [The evidence for the existence of a single creator God, is overwhelming. i.e. an intelligent, single, first cause, itself uncaused, and not subject to the laws of nature (Supernatural), can be demonstrated to the satisfaction of any truly, open-minded person through simple logic and science… for example, the laws of: Cause and Effect, Biogenesis, Thermodynamics, Information Theory and Intelligent Design... all point to a creator.]

Thus monotheism - - belief in one supernatural, eternal, creator God is easy to deduce by those who are open-minded and really wish to seek the truth.

See: (Atheism revealed as false - why God MUST exist:

www.flickr.com/photos/truth-in-science/24321857975

AND

The real theory of everything...

www.flickr.com/photos/truth-in-science/34295660211

Once we have used reason and logic to establish that the Creator God can only be: one, supernatural and eternal, we know that all non-monotheistic religions are automatically ruled out as intrinsically untrue.

Of course, polytheistic or pagan religions may have some teachings which appear good, but it is obvious that they are all based on a false premise.

The true religion has to profess belief in only one, supernatural God and Creator.

We are left with only three major world religions that are strictly monotheistic.

They are: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

So the true religion has to be one of these three.

It is a fact that these three religions have many important doctrines which conflict with each other, for example; Christians and Jews believe in monogamous marriage, while Muslims believe in polygamy.

Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, while Judaism rejects Jesus and teaches that the messiah is still to come.

Likewise, although Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet and a messiah, they reject many of His teachings, including His teachings on marriage, divorce, Heaven, drinking wine, love of enemies etc. and, even more importantly, His Divinity and His Crucifixion.

Muslims believe that Muhammad was an authentic prophet while both Jews and Christians would refute that.

God is truth, so as these three religions disagree fundamentally with each other - - - - it is obvious that it is possible for only one of them to be completely true in all its doctrines. So how can we decide conclusively which of these three religions is the only true one?

By asking the following question - - - we know that the Creator of the universe (the first cause of everything) must be infinite (unlimited). So everything about God must be perfect, his love is perfect and without limit (all love existing in the world originated from God), so too is his justice (his justice cannot be cheated).

Therefore if God is infinitely and perfectly just, and we have all offended his infinite majesty by sin, how can anyone hope to be saved?

Only because God is also infinitely merciful and loving.

But here we have an apparent contradiction, perfect justice demands that the full price is paid for every sin, whereas perfect mercy and love demand extreme leniency. - - -

HERE IS THE QUESTION: - - -

How can God overcome the apparent contradiction between His perfect justice and perfect mercy?

To clarify ... How can God (who cannot deceive, nor be deceived) satisfy his infinite justice, which demands a price equal to the *offence, yet at the same time enable us to be saved through his infinite, unfathomable, mercy and love?

*[the seriousness of an offence can be judged to be commensurate with the status of the person offended against. In the army, if a private were to insult a fellow private it would not be considered very serious, but if a private were to insult or disobey an officer this would be much more serious and the seriousness would increase the higher the rank of the officer. A sin against a perfect and infinite God (our Creator) is of the ultimate seriousness. Therefore perfect justice demands infinite reparation for an offence against God].

Christianity is absolutely unique. It is the only religion that has a satisfactory answer to this question. And this question is crucial to salvation. Put the same question to the followers of any other religion and they will be unable to give you a credible answer.

THE AMAZING ANSWER - - - Jesus Christ said “I am the way the truth and the life” and “no one can come to the Father except through Me.” Jesus backed up His claim by suffering an agonising death on the Cross for the salvation of all humanity.

Why?

Atonement.

Animal sacrifice, as practiced in the Old Testament, was an imperfect, forerunner to the prophesied, perfect sacrifice.

Only God, Himself, in His infinite mercy, was able to provide an acceptable ‘scapegoat’ to fully satisfy perfect, divine justice. A pure sacrifice, both fully human and fully divine.

Jesus, although completely innocent of all sin Himself, suffered for the sins of all humankind.

He was crucified, as an atoning sacrifice, for the redemption of His enemies, as well as His friends. We are all sinners and have all offended the infinite goodness of god. No one deserves heaven entirely on their own merit.

Everyone is defiled by sin, and nothing defiled can ever enter heaven. An offence against the infinite goodness of an infinitely loving, but also an infinitely, just God, can only be redeemed by an infinitely, good sacrifice. So only a Divine sacrifice can satisfy the demands of infinite, Divine justice. only the sacrifice of the true, spiritual Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, incarnated as man (as prophesied in the Old Testament) is sufficient to save us all from the consequences of sin, to open the gates of heaven and restore eternal life to the whole human race.

This was even foreshadowed in the Old Testament (Book of Genesis), when God asked Abraham (as a test of his obedience) to sacrifice his only son Isaac on a pile of wood at Mount Moria. This Mount Moria is believed by some to be in the same place as Golgotha, the site of the sacrifice of God’s only Son on the wood of the Cross. God prevented Abraham from carrying out the sacrifice of his son , at the last minute, But, because of his steadfast obedience, Abraham became the symbolic, earthly father of all who follow God.

Because of the Incarnation and sacrifice of the Son of God, Jesus, God became the spiritual Father of all who follow Him.

The Cross of Jesus now represents the new tree of life, because it has restored the possibility of eternal life to the whole human race. Access to the original tree of life was removed from Adam and Eve and the rest of the human race because of original sin. The Cross of Jesus is a restoration of the tree of life. It promises eternal life to those who accept its saving message. The new fruit is the bread and wine of the holy Eucharist.

Only those whose garments have been ‘washed white by the Blood of the Lamb’ are fit to enter heaven. The debt of our sin has been paid by Jesus - and His saving sacrifice is offered as an unsurpassed, loving and free gift to us all. We simply have to gratefully acknowledge and accept that gift in a spirit of humility and repentance.

By His supreme sacrifice, Jesus atoned for every sin ever committed, and thereby opened the gates of Heaven to the whole human race. Without His unique sacrifice, no one of any religion could ever enter Heaven. It matters not whether you are the most devout Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist or follower of any other faith, ultimately you will rely not on any of the rituals or customs of these various religions, but on the sacrifice of Jesus to enter heaven. All who enter heaven do so only with a passport provided by the merits of Jesus’ sacrifice. Without His sacrifice on the Cross you would never get there, whatever your religion. All other sacrifices or religious offerings, rituals etc. are as dirty rags before the Divine majesty of Almighty God, they cannot pay the price for sin that God's perfect justice demands.

This is the unavoidable truth, whether you like it or not.

Of course, we should all have free choice to follow any religion we choose, but once we know that it is only the sacrifice of Jesus that can make us fit to enter heaven and eternal life, we will surely wish to love and follow Him. It would be foolishness indeed for us to choose to follow any religion which refuses to acknowledge this, but would rather pretend that we can redeem ourselves by following its manmade doctrines and rituals.

Death entered the world through the sin of disobedience of one woman and one man (Adam and Eve), but sin was pardoned and eternal life restored through the obedience of one woman (Mary) and the death of one man (Jesus).

The ancient Hebrews used the blood sacrifice of an animal as a symbolic scapegoat to bear the punishment for their sins. The old animal sacrifices of atonement ended with the destruction of the temple. Animal sacrifice was simply a precursor to the only acceptable sacrifice of the true Messiah, Jesus. They were intended to show the necessity of atonement, repentance alone is not sufficient. Atonement for sin is essential. There is no atonement for sin in present day Judaism or in Islam.

Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, (true man and true God) became the real scapegoat who bore the punishment (by His Crucifixion) for the sins of the whole world. His death on the Cross was a perfect, holy, once and for all sacrifice, sufficient to atone for every sin ever committed. It is re-enacted in remembrance, with bread and wine, every day, by Christian priests all over the world. It is known as the Holy Eucharist which is part of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. God is reminded at every Mass that Christians trust in the perfect atonement made by Jesus.

Only God Himself could pay the enormous price that God's perfect justice demands for sin, but as it is man who is responsible for sin, in true justice, it is man who should pay the price. Therefore only someone who is both God and man (God made man) would be able to pay the price for sin. So the only possibility of salvation for humankind had to be provided by God Himself, and that is exactly what He did. That is why Jesus has to be God incarnated as man. Those who deny that Jesus is God, or deny the Crucifixion of Jesus, have fallen for the lies of Satan, his false prophets and false religions and, sadly, they deny the only possibility of salvation.

Abraham (the representative, earthly father of all followers of God) showed he was willing, when asked by God, to sacrifice his only son Isaac to God, as reparation for sin (it didn’t happen, because God stopped it at the last moment). And God, our heavenly Father, (who cannot be outdone in love or generosity) offered His only Son (Jesus) as a sacrifice for our sin.

Prophesies from the Old Testament.

Isaiah 53 New International Version (NIV)

1. Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2. He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3. He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4. Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

5. But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

6. We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

7. He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

8. By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was punished.

9. He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

11. After he has suffered,

he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

12. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53 New International Version (NIV)

___________________________________________

Psalm 22 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Suffering, Praise, and Posterity of the Messiah

22 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

Why are You so far from helping Me,

And from the words of My groaning?

2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;

And in the night season, and am not silent.

3 But You are holy,

Enthroned in the praises of Israel.

4 Our fathers trusted in You;

They trusted, and You delivered them.

5 They cried to You, and were delivered;

They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.

6 But I am a worm, and no man;

A reproach of men, and despised by the people.

7 All those who see Me ridicule Me;

They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

8 “He trusted[b] in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;

Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”

9 But You are He who took Me out of the womb;

You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.

10 I was cast upon You from birth.

From My mother’s womb

You have been My God.

11 Be not far from Me,

For trouble is near;

For there is none to help.

12 Many bulls have surrounded Me;

Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.

13 They gape at Me with their mouths,

Like a raging and roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water,

And all My bones are out of joint;

My heart is like wax;

It has melted within Me.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

And My tongue clings to My jaws;

You have brought Me to the dust of death.

16 For dogs have surrounded Me;

The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.

They pierced[c] My hands and My feet;

17 I can count all My bones.

They look and stare at Me.

18 They divide My garments among them,

And for My clothing they cast lots.

19 But You, O Lord, do not be far from Me;

O My Strength, hasten to help Me!

20 Deliver Me from the sword,

My precious life from the power of the dog.

21 Save Me from the lion’s mouth

And from the horns of the wild oxen!

You have answered Me.

22 I will declare Your name to My brethren;

In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.

23 You who fear the Lord, praise Him!

All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,

And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!

24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;

Nor has He hidden His face from Him;

But when He cried to Him, He heard.

25 My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;

I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.

26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;

Those who seek Him will praise the Lord.

Let your heart live forever!

27 All the ends of the world

Shall remember and turn to the Lord,

And all the families of the nations

Shall worship before You.[d]

28 For the kingdom is the Lord’s,

And He rules over the nations.

29 All the prosperous of the earth

Shall eat and worship;

All those who go down to the dust

Shall bow before Him,

Even he who cannot keep himself alive.

30 A posterity shall serve Him.

It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation,

31 They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born,

That He has done this.

Psalm 22 New King James Version (NKJV)

____________________________________________

Babylonian Talmud: "The Messiah --what is his name?...The Rabbis say, The Leper Scholar, as it is said, `surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him a leper, smitten of God and afflicted...'" (Sanhedrin 98b)

Midrash Ruth Rabbah: "Another explanation (of Ruth ii.14): -- He is speaking of king Messiah; `Come hither,' draw near to the throne; `and eat of the bread,' that is, the bread of the kingdom; `and dip thy morsel in the vinegar,' this refers to his chastisements, as it is said, `But he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities'"

Targum Jonathan: "Behold my servant Messiah shall prosper; he shall be high and increase and be exceedingly strong..."

Zohar: "`He was wounded for our transgressions,' etc....There is in the Garden of Eden a palace called the Palace of the Sons of Sickness; this palace the Messiah then enters, and summons every sickness, every pain, and every chastisement of Israel; they all come and rest upon him. And were it not that he had thus lightened them off Israel and taken them upon himself, there had been no man able to bear Israel's chastisements for the transgression of the law: and this is that which is written, `Surely our sicknesses he hath carried.'"

Rabbi Moses Maimonides: "What is the manner of Messiah's advent....there shall rise up one of whom none have known before, and signs and wonders which they shall see performed by him will be the proofs of his true origin; for the Almighty, where he declares to us his mind upon this matter, says, `Behold a man whose name is the Branch, and he shall branch forth out of his place' (Zech. 6:12). And Isaiah speaks similarly of the time when he shall appear, without father or mother or family being known, He came up as a sucker before him, and as a root out of dry earth, etc....in the words of Isaiah, when describing the manner in which kings will harken to him, At him kings will shut their mouth; for that which had not been told them have they seen, and that which they had not heard they have perceived." (From the Letter to the South (Yemen), quoted in The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish Interpreters, Ktav Publishing House, 1969, Volume 2, pages 374-5)

Rabbi Mosheh Kohen Ibn Crispin: This rabbi described those who interpret Isaiah 53 as referring to Israel as those: "having forsaken the knowledge of our Teachers, and inclined after the `stubbornness of their own hearts,' and of their own opinion, I am pleased to interpret it, in accordance with the teaching of our Rabbis, of the King Messiah....This prophecy was delivered by Isaiah at the divine command for the purpose of making known to us something about the nature of the future Messiah, who is to come and deliver Israel, and his life from the day when he arrives at discretion until his advent as a redeemer, in order that if anyone should arise claiming to be himself the Messiah, we may reflect, and look to see whether we can observe in him any resemblance to the traits described here; if there is any such resemblance, then we may believe that he is the Messiah our righteousness; but if not, we cannot do so." (From his commentary on Isaiah, quoted in The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish Interpreters, Ktav Publishing House, 1969, Volume 2, pages 99-114.)

www.chaim.org/rabbis.htm

Why the Isaiah 53 prophesy cannot refer to Israel.

www.chaim.org/nation.htm

Why Isaiah 53 cannot refer to the nation of Israel, or anyone else, but must be the Messiah

1. The servant of Isaiah 53 is an innocent and guiltless sufferer. Israel is never described as sinless. Isaiah 1:4 says of the nation: "Alas sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity. A brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters!" He then goes on in the same chapter to characterize Judah as Sodom, Jerusalem as a harlot, and the people as those whose hands are stained with blood (verses 10, 15, and 21). What a far cry from the innocent and guiltless sufferer of Isaiah 53 who had "done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth!"

2. The prophet said: "It pleased the LORD to bruise him." Has the awful treatment of the Jewish people (so contrary, by the way, to the teaching of Jesus to love everyone) really been God's pleasure, as is said of the suffering of the servant in Isaiah 53:10 ? If, as some rabbis contend, Isaiah 53 refers to the holocaust, can we really say of Israel's suffering during that horrible period, "It pleased the LORD to bruise him?" Yet it makes perfect sense to say that God was pleased to have Messiah suffer and die as our sin offering to provide us forgiveness and atonement.

3. The person mentioned in this passage suffers silently and willingly. Yet all people, even Israelites, complain when they suffer! Brave Jewish men and women fought in resistance movements against Hitler. Remember the Vilna Ghetto Uprising? Remember the Jewish men who fought on the side of the allies? Can we really say Jewish suffering during the holocaust and during the preceding centuries was done silently and willingly?

4. The figure described in Isaiah 53 suffers, dies, and rises again to atone for his people's sins. The Hebrew word used in Isaiah 53:10 for "sin-offering" is "asham," which is a technical term meaning "sin-offering." See how it is used in Leviticus chapters 5 and 6. Isaiah 53 describes a sinless and perfect sacrificial lamb who takes upon himself the sins of others so that they might be forgiven. Can anyone really claim that the terrible suffering of the Jewish people, however undeserved and unjust, atones for the sins of the world? Whoever Isaiah 53 speaks of, the figure described suffers and dies in order to provide a legal payment for sin so that others can be forgiven. This cannot be true of the Jewish people as a whole, or of any other mere human.

5. It is the prophet who is speaking in this passage. He says: "who has believed our message." The term "message" usually refers to the prophetic message, as it does in Jeremiah 49:14. Also, when we understand the Hebrew parallelism of verse 1, we see "Who has believed our message" as parallel to "to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed." The "arm of the Lord" refers to God's powerful act of salvation. So the message of the speaker is the message of a prophet declaring what God has done to save his people.

6. The prophet speaking is Isaiah himself, who says the sufferer was punished for "the transgression of my people," according to verse 8. Who are the people of Isaiah? Israel. So the sufferer of Isaiah 53 suffered for Israel. So how could he be Israel?

7. The figure of Isaiah 53 dies and is buried according to verses 8 and 9. The people of Israel have never died as a whole. They have been out of the land on two occasions and have returned, but they have never ceased to be among the living. Yet Jesus died, was buried, and rose again.

8. If Isaiah 53 cannot refer to Israel, how about Isaiah himself? But Isaiah said he was a sinful man of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5-7). And Isaiah did not die as an atonement for our sins. Could it have been Jeremiah? Jeremiah 11:19 does echo the words of Isaiah 53. Judah rejected and despised the prophet for telling them the truth. Leaders of Judah sought to kill Jeremiah, and so the prophet describes himself in these terms. But they were not able to kill the prophet. Certainly Jeremiah did not die to atone for the sins of his people. What of Moses? Could the prophet have been speaking of him? But Moses wasn't sinless either. Moses sinned and was forbidden from entering the promised land (Numbers 20:12). Moses indeed attempted to offer himself as a sacrifice in place of the nation, but God did not allow him to do so (Exodus 32:30-35). Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah were all prophets who gave us a glimpse of what Messiah, the ultimate prophet, would be like, but none of them quite fit Isaiah 53.

So what can we conclude? Isaiah 53 cannot refer to the nation of Israel, nor to Isaiah, nor to Moses, nor another prophet. And if not to Moses, certainly not to any lesser man. Yet Messiah would be greater than Moses. As the rabbinic writing "Yalkut" said: "Who art thou, O great mountain? (Zech. iv.7) This refers to the King Messiah. And why does he call him`the great mountain?' because he is greater than the patriarchs, as it is said, `My servant shall be high, and lifted up, and lofty exceedingly' --he will be higher than Abraham...lifted up above Moses...loftier then the ministering angels..." (Quoted in The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish Interpreters, Ktav Publishing House, 1969, Volume 2, page 9.)

Of whom does Isaiah speak? He speaks of the Messiah, as many ancient rabbis concluded. The second verse of Isaiah 53 makes it crystal clear. The figure grows up as "a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground." The shoot springing up is beyond reasonable doubt a reference to the Messiah, and, in fact, it is a common Messianic reference in Isaiah and elsewhere. The Davidic dynasty was to be cut down in judgement like a felled tree, but it was promised to Israel that a new sprout would shoot up from the stump. The Messiah was to be that sprout. Several Hebrew words were used to refer to this undeniably Messianic image. All the terms are related in meaning and connected in the Messianic texts where they were used. Isaiah 11, which virtually all rabbis agreed refers to the Messiah, used the words "shoot" (hoter) and branch (netser) to describe the Messianic King. Isaiah 11:10 called Messiah the "Root (shoresh) of Jesse," Jesse being David's father. Isaiah 53 described the suffering servant as a root (shoresh) from dry ground, using the very same metaphor and the very same word as Isaiah 11. We also see other terms used for the same concept, such as branch (tsemach) in Jeremiah 23:5, in Isaiah 4:2 and also in the startling prophecies of Zechariah 3:8 and 6:12.

Beyond doubt, Isaiah 52:13-53:12 refers to Messiah Jesus. He is the one highly exalted before whom kings shut their mouths. Messiah is the shoot who sprung up from the fallen Davidic dynasty. He became the King of Kings. He provided the ultimate atonement.

Isaiah 52:13 states that it would be the Messiah who will "sprinkle" many nations. What does that mean? What was Messiah's ministry to be toward the nations? The word translated "sprinkle" or sometimes "startle" is found several other places in the OT. The Hebrew word is found in Leviticus 4:6; 8:11; 14:7, and Numbers 8:7, 19:18-19. The references cited all pertain to priestly sprinklings of the blood of atonement, the anointing oil of consecration, and the ceremonial water used to cleanse the unclean. Is Isaiah 52:13 telling us that the Messiah will act as a priest who applies atonement, anoints to consecrate, sprinkles to make clean? (This vision of the Messiah as both priest and king is also found in Zechariah 6:12-13). But, priests were to come from the tribe of Levi and Kings from the tribe of Judah! What kind of priest is he? David told us Messiah would be a priest of the order of Melchizedek (see Psalm 110 and Hebrews chapters 7-9).

Isaiah 53 must be understood as referring to the coming Davidic King, the Messiah. King Messiah was prophesied to suffer and die to pay for our sins and then rise again. He would serve as a priest to the nations of the world and apply the blood of atonement to cleanse those who believe. There is one alone who this can refer to, Jesus, whom millions refer to as Christ, which is from the Greek word for Messiah. Those who confess him are his children, his promised offspring, the spoils of his victory. According to the testimony of the Jewish Apostles, Jesus died for our sins, rose again, ascended to the right hand of God, and he now serves as our great High Priest who cleanses us of sin and our King. Jesus rules over his people and is in the process of conquering the Gentiles. The first century Jewish disciples were willing to die rather than deny they had seen the risen Messiah. Only if one has presupposed Jesus cannot have been the Messiah can one deny that which is obvious. Israel's greatest son, Jesus, is the one Isaiah foresaw.

(c) 1997 Fred Klett

___________________________________________

The many paths to God lie.

‘There are many paths to God‘ has become a politically, correct catchphrase, used by the liberal establishment to imply that all religions and beliefs are equally worthy.

Of course, you don’t need a degree in common sense to work out that this is illogical.

Everybody is aware that even the major religions disagree on many important issues. Therefore, simple logic dictates that they cannot all be right. Where they all disagree on a particular belief (if any are right) it can only be ONE that is right.

It is obvious then that all those religions that are wrong in any belief cannot be equal in merit, or equal as a path to God, as the one that is wholly right. So to insist they are all equally worthy is to be unjustly biased against the one that is true.

Error should never be given equality with truth.

Therefore it is inexcusable that our society should not to make every effort to discern, and then to officially recognise the truth in this matter.

For anyone to contend that ERROR should ever be entitled to equal endorsement and support by the state as TRUTH is unjust, prejudiced, morally reprehensible and downright stupid.

Western civilisation was founded and built on the commendable notion that truth really matters and should be encouraged and supported.

For centuries, it was accepted and agreed by the most learned persons and rulers, that the beliefs of Christianity best represent spiritual truth. Whilst also providing superlative spiritual and social benefits for citizens and society. And therefore it was agreed that Christianity should be entitled to official recognition and special support by society and the state. The traditions, heritage, laws and culture of Christendom were founded on this generally, accepted precept.

It is not hard to understand why?

Christianity really is special.

Jesus Christ taught love, peace and forgiveness.

Jesus is the role model for Christians. Although they are not always completely successful, the teaching and example of Jesus Christ are what every genuine Christian aspires to. Those things are eminently conducive to the moral, spiritual and material good of society. They are the fundamentals of Christianity and a Christian society. We hear a lot today about religious fundamentalism being something bad, but in the case of Christianity the opposite has to be true. The more fundamental a Christian seeks to be, the more like (the Christian role model) Jesus they hope to become.

In a nutshell Jesus taught - love God above all and love your neighbour as yourself. and seek to advance the welfare of all, materially and spiritually - be humble, not proud or envious, be prepared to serve others, not lord it over them - love and forgive even your enemies and do not seek revenge or bear grudges.

Saint Augustine.

“Let those who say that the teachings of Christ are harmful to the State find armies with soldiers who live up to the standards of the teachings of Jesus. Let them provide governors, husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, kings, judges, taxpayers and tax collectors who can compare to those who take Christian teachings to heart. Then let them dare to say that such teaching is contrary to the welfare of the State! Indeed, under no circumstances can they fail to realize that this teaching is the greatest safeguard of the State when faithfully observed.” (“Epis. 138 ad Marcellinum,” in Opera Omnia, vol. 2, in J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, col. 532.)

A major problem today is that the term 'religion' is cynically used by secularists rather than 'religions'. The effect is to lump all religions together and stereotype them as though they are a single entity. Which means if one religion is perceived in some way as not conducive to the public good, people are led to believe that all religions are a problem - that 'religion' is a problem per se. This sort of stereotyping would be unlikely to be tolerated in any other field. But it suits the aims of militant atheists and the liberal, secular, politically correct agenda.

There is no question that the twentieth century was the bloodiest century in the history of the world. It was in this century that the major nations of Christendom began to abandon Christian beliefs, principles and heritage. And, in the misguided name of progress, began to embrace a variety of pagan, atheistic, materialist, Darwinian, Marxist and socialist ideologies. As a result we were subjected to 2 world wars, numerous other wars, including the Spanish civil war, and an horrendous, mass murder as a result of the German nation adopting the national, socialist policies of a crazed, Darwinian inspired, anti-Christian, pagan occultist named Hitler. An even greater, mass slaughter was carried out by atheistic, socialist revolutionaries in pursuit of their proposed ‘paradise on earth‘. The historical record of the twentieth century is absolutely horrendous, the atheistic, Marxist, socialist regimes of; Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were together responsible for the brutal slaughter of an estimated thirty six million people. In addition, we have seen millions of war deaths, countless murders carried out by other, atheistic, socialist regimes and various other tyrannies, and millions of unborn babies callously slaughtered in state approved and funded, abortion mills.

We hear a lot today about equality, which sounds admirable. And true equality certainly is admirable and a God-given right. However, false equality is not admirable, it can be discriminatory against truth, goodness and, if enforced by the state, can result in an evil tyranny. Error should never be equated with truth and evil should never be equated with good.

So what is true equality?

Every human person is of equal value and should be equally respected and cared for, regardless of gender, colour, race, disability, wealth, influence, intelligence or power. That is true equality.

What is false equality?

False equality is the idea that everything any human person does or believes, is equally valid. The idea that all lifestyles, beliefs, traditions or cultures (that are not against whatever the state decides should be legal) are equally valid and worthy of equal respect.

In post Christian, secular society, while it is demanded by supporters of the liberal establishment that all religions, beliefs and lifestyles should be treated by the state as equally worthy, with no preference or special status given to any. In practice, we can see this is completely ignored in one respect, because there is an exception, inasmuch as it is now the beliefs of 'atheism' that actually receive special recognition and status in most, Western nations. This is evident in the state approved and funded, promotion and teaching of the (unscientific) naturalistic beliefs of Darwinian evolution and spontaneous generation of life, as though they are ‘scientific truths’ (they are treated as sacrosanct - with no alternative, scientific views or contrary evidence, permitted in any state funded or approved, educational curriculum).

The modern, secular state's 'enforced' equality demands that all beliefs etc. are treated as equally worthy, regardless of truth or merit. But, in practice, the liberal mind-set is that all beliefs/religions are inferior to the atheist/secularist ideology, which is perceived as the pinnacle of rationality and arbiter of 'scientific truth' which benevolently deigns to grant (a false) equality to every inferior, belief system. And religions should all be grateful that the secular state grants them equality with each other.

All religions and religious beliefs are thus lumped together as

being equal (the crazy with the not so crazy - the logical with the illogical - the true with the patently false) with no intelligent, or logical discernment permitted.

And so we are led to believe by a secular state (which doesn't recognise God) that there are:

‘Many paths to God’ -That all religions and beliefs are equally valid.

But are they?

Anyone who agrees with this automatically rejects the claims of Jesus Christ, who stated; “I am the way, the truth and the life” and “no one can come to the Father except through Me.”

Uniquely, Jesus backed up his claim by suffering an agonising death on the cross as a sacrifice for the salvation of all humanity. The words of Jesus means you cannot be a Christian if you claim or believe there are many paths to God, or that there is any path to God other than through Jesus Christ.

The fact is that Jesus (although completely innocent of all sin himself) suffered for the sins of all humankind, He was crucified for the redemption of His enemies as well as His friends. We are all sinners and have all offended the infinite goodness of God, no one (not even a saint) deserves heaven entirely on their own merit. Everyone is defiled by sin, and nothing defiled can enter heaven. An offence against the infinite goodness of an infinitely loving, but also an infinitely, just God can only be redeemed by an infinitely, good sacrifice. So only a divine sacrifice can pay the price justice demands for our sins.

Only the sacrifice of the true, spiritual messiah, Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, incarnated as man, is sufficient to save us all from the consequences of sin, open the gates of heaven and restore eternal life to the whole human race.

Only those whose garments have been ‘washed white by the blood of the lamb’ are fit to enter heaven.

The debt for our sin has been paid by Jesus and His saving sacrifice is offered as an unsurpassed, loving and free gift to us all. We simply have to gratefully acknowledge and accept that gift in a spirit of humility and repentance.

Jesus requested that a remembrance of his sacrifice should be celebrated (the Eucharist). This unites us with Him and His sacrifice, and is the only sacrificial ceremony for sin which is truly acceptable to God. All other sacrifices devised and offered by humans are as ‘dirty rags’ before the divine majesty of the almighty creator.

Only the sacrifice of the true messiah, God made man

(as prophesied by Isaiah in the old testament), is acceptable to God.

By his supreme sacrifice Jesus paid the price for every sin ever committed, and thereby opened the gates of heaven to the whole human race.

Without His sacrifice, no one of any religion could ever enter heaven.

It matters not whether you are the most devout Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist or person of any other faith, ultimately you will rely, not on any rituals and customs of these various religions, but on the sacrifice of Jesus to enter heaven.

All who enter heaven and eternal life do so only with a passport provided by Jesus, without His sacrifice you would never get there.

This is the truth whether you like it or not.

Dr James Tour - 'The Origin of Life' - Abiogenesis decisively refuted.

youtu.be/B1E4QMn2mxk

Basswood leaf catches the light along the river.

Subject: Reh, Emma

       Science Service

Type: Black-and-white photographs

Date: 1935

    1935?

Topic: Journalism, Scientific

Local number: SIA Acc. 90-105 [SIA2009-2153]

Summary: As she was growing up in Washington, D.C., Emma Reh (1896-1982) contributed many prize-winning essays and drawings to local newspapers, foreshadowing a lifelong interest in communication. She joined the staff of Science Service around 1924 and continued as a frequent contributor throughout the 1930s, reporting on archeological excavations in Mexico, as well as the social and political situation in that country. In 1935, she began work for the Soil Conservation Service and then later at the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, writing about food consumption and distribution problems

Cite as: Acc. 90-105 - Science Service, Records, 1920s-1970s, Smithsonian Institution Archivess

Persistent URL:Link to data base record

Repository:Smithsonian Institution Archives

View more collections from the Smithsonian Institution.

I'm going to feel really bad about this title when World War III starts in three days.

Saint Basil's Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox church erected on the Red Square in Moscow in 1555–1561. Built on the order of Ivan IV of Russia to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, it marks the geometric center of the city and the hub of its growth since the 14th century. At that time It was the tallest building in Moscow. The building's design, shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, has no analogues in Russian architecture: "It is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to fifteenth century... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century.

The church has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely secularized in 1929 and, as of 2011, remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990.

It is very beautiful and bright building.

HDR was made from 3 handled shots. See HDR Cookbook

d810| 58g

Ava as young Miss Havisham who, in Chatles Dickens' "Great Expectations," is a decrepit old woman who has never taken off her decades old wedding dress since her fiancé stood her up on their wedding day.

Here, young Miss Havisham awaits the arrival of her beloved Mr. Compeyson who told her that he would meet her for a picnic the day after Easter...

Miss Havisham began the day in a state of happiness and excitement. "I have prepared such a wonderful picnic that will so impress my Mr. Compeyson. He will think of it as a foreshadowing of a blissful married life."

"I wish we had been able to spend Easter together; but next year, I shall be Mrs. Compeyson and we shall never be apart. In a way, I suppose that I'm celebrating the end of holidays without my beloved."

As hours go by, Miss Havisham is bewildered that Mr. Compeyson has not yet arrived...

As more time goes by, she is frozen in a state of embarrassment. She is not angry with her fiancé--"Something very important must have caused this delay," she thinks. She is, however, panic-stricken by what others--particularly her cousin Matthew who has warned her that Compeyson does not love her--will think of her if they know of her terribly disappointing experience.

Soon, she is more fixated on fabricating a story to tell Matthew in order to save face than she is on Compeyson's standing her up...

"I must find a way to make it seem that everything turned out beautifully. I shall say that Mr. Compeyson did come, though he could only stay a short while. I shall also declare that our little picnic was a veritable paradise!"

Though relieved, Miss Havisham still cannot bring herself to pack up all of the delightful sandwiches, pastries and drinks which she intended her fiancé to see as a demonstration of her love.

Day turns to evening as the ravishing young woman sits frozen in place at the picnic site, failing to notice the army of ants marching over the little feast into which she had put her heart....

I saw this fallen tree along the creek near my home back in March. I found the many twists and angles intriguing. Turns out this fallen old timer foreshadowed the loss of many if its kind in the tornadoes that blew through earlier this year. I think it is very well worth viewing large as there is some interesting color and detail in tiny yellow blossoms and even a bit of greenery growing in the top left part of the large trunk and the upper part of the young un's trunk.

By the way every time I stare at the center of this thing I see a different image. Some beautiful and some rather frightening...

One of my SM favorites to go along with this image: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMuEw-9t9Xs

Thanks for your comments, invites and faves! Still fighting a dragon but expecting my life to be normal from now on. Have a great Tuesday!

Earlier in the trip Alex got a Big Mac and special ordered an extra patty on it. I guess it was foreshadowing what we would end up seeing later that week. A loaded coal train broken up into two sections waits for clearance to double up their train and enter the main at the mine in Portage. There were 2 more Macs in DPU service on the end of the other cut. Unfortunately it was dark by the time there was a break in the traffic on the Pittsburgh Line so we only saw it idling on the spur.

If you look closely 7207 is still sporting some Conrail paint in the grill on the back.

Train: NS C47? with NS 7201, 7207, 7209

DPU 7208, 7202 (SD80MAC).

NS Spur in Portage

Portage, PA.

After getting talked by a red signal, CSX L452 pulls by East Medora with an overhauled SD70AC leading. As seen in many other places, East End Medora also has the X of doom spray painted on the mast, foreshadowing what's to come.

Subtle foreshadowing

The approaching danger of the summer monsoon season is foreshadowed with fierce skies illuminating a 12,000 foot peak in Colorados high country near Telluride.

© Michael Greene’s Wild Moments 2010 | All Rights Reserved | Please do not use without my permission. Please Note: My images are posted here for viewing enjoyment only. Please contact me if you are interested in using this image or purchasing a print.

Website: www.wildmoments.net

Blog: wildmoments.wordpress.com/

"Hot Travel Tips to Avoid Crowds in the National Parks"

DP Turpin, Brakeman of UP Train LSI55 27, an acquaintance of mine for several years has a smirk on his face. It's foreshadowing his next outburst, which regarded the ambient temperature, and how the lack of heat was far too inadequate for these activities.

Pat's been out here a long time, we first spoke probably 20 years ago when he was on this same local, but I believe that was off the extra board at that time. I used to ride with them when I was little kid in this very place.

Locomotive: UP 1475

2-28-15

Poplar Bluff, MO

The Thorny Path is Couture's satire of decadent French society. A courtesan drives a carriage pulled not by animals but by four male captives who represent different ages and states of society. The naked old man leading the procession is flabby from indulgence; the troubadour following him, a symbol of young love, parodies the medieval ballads popular in nineteenth century France. The old soldier bends his head in self-reproach, and the young student writes as he walks, symbolising the educated nobility's ignorance of the realities of daily life. The thistles and thorny plants along the road suggest the painfulness of their journey. The decrepit figure seated at the rear of the carriage with a bottle of wine in her basket foreshadows the courtesan's future. Finally, Couture signed his initials on the stone figure at centre, which seems to be laughing at the entourage.

[Philadelphia Museum of Art - Oil on canvas, 130.8 x 190.5 cm]

gandalfsgallery.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/thomas-couture-tho...

cattle grazing and cirrus foreshadowing rain[????]

Some Young History.

Like all the areas of the western slopes of NSW this was once the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people. Their lands covered one of the biggest agricultural regions of Australia. There was little conflict in this region and diseases more than pastoralist action reduced their numbers considerably within a couple of years of white pastoral occupation. Like so many areas beyond the declared Nineteen Counties- the legal limit of white settlement in the 1820s and 1830s - the first pastoralist was white squatter James White in 1826. This free settler established his Burrangong station on the banks of Stoney Creek on the advice of a local Aboriginal man, Coborn Jackie. James White never married but his brother joined him and the first white child born in the region was his niece Sarah White in 1830. She lived to be 107 years old. The district was rich as the soils were volcanic soils and numerous streams ran westward to the lower areas of western NSW. The area where the sheep flocks of White rested for their lambing became known as Lambing Flat. Another pastoralist Edward Taylor planted some cherry trees in 1847. In the 1840s these squatters got licensing and later leasehold rights over the land. Until the upheaval of 1860. Gold was discovered then by James White’s nephew Dennis Regan and Alexander the Yankee with it being reported in the press in August 1860.

By mid-1861 20,000 miners were at Lambing Flat including 2,000 Chinese diggers. The Chinese were resented and some argue that the origins of the White Australia Policy stem from the xenophobia of Lambing Flat. There is no direct linkage here but the sentiments foreshadowed the Commonwealth policy of 1901. A group of white diggers drove off 500 Chinese miners in November of 1860 and violence and distrust continued as they destroyed their tents. The NSW government acted quickly and a Gold Commissioner and troops were despatched to Lambing Flat two weeks later. A further group of Chinese were driven away in December. In early January a similar incident occurred but this time the diggers threatened to attack the police troops if they interfered. Despite 30 police troops at Lambing Flat a further indecent occurred at the end of January when hundreds of Chinese were frightened off the fields and their tens burnt. A Miners Protective League was formed to expel the Chinese. This did not happen on other goldfields so why Lambing Flat? No one really knows. In March the government sent 300 troops to Lambing Flat armed with cannon and a defensive compound was erected. The last violence occurred in late June and early July 1861 when 3,000 miners attacked the Chinese, cut off pigtails and stole property and burnt tents. One European miner was killed in the melee. Next they attacked the fortified gaol in order to release some imprisoned miners for violence on the goldfields. One miner was killed by the police during the riot which happened near the current main street of Young. The Courthouse and police station were burnt down by the protesters. Calm quickly returned and the police regained control of the goldfields. Were the miners influenced by their knowledge of Eureka? Is this really a foreshadowing of the emergence of the workers unions? Five miners were tried for crimes in Goulburn Courthouse later in 1861 but were all acquitted and then the NSW government passed the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act in November 1861. The miners appeared to have won the battle. The anti-Chinese banner which the rioters carried was hidden for 100 years but re-discovered in Young in the 1960s. It is now in the town museum. The Lambing Flat Folk Museum in Young has artefacts to tell the story of the Lambing Flat riots and the bushranging era. It also has the name plate of Coborn Jackie the Aboriginal friend and advisor of James White.

The town of Yong was surveyed in March of 1861 during the goldfield violence. The name of Lambing Flat was already tainted by then and the town was named Young after Sir John Young the Governor of NSW from 1861 to 1867. Town blocks were sold in May 1861 and before the end of that year Young had a Post Office, a school, a bank, an Anglican and a Catholic church and a newspaper. A hospital and a new Courthouse were erected in 1862. At that time Young was having about 124,000 ounces of gold escorted out of the town annually. But the rush was over by 1864 and less and less gold was being located by 1867. The town turned into an agricultural service centre with a saw mill (1865), a flour mill (1866), a brewery (1877) and finally railway (1885). The town then got a tannery, a soap factory, a work boot factory, a brick kiln, meat works and butter factory all before 1900. In 1889 Young became the first town outside of Sydney to have a domestic electricity supply for its residents. The arrival of the railway in 1885 allowed farmers to experiment with fruit crops as the train could speed them to markets in Sydney. Apples, oranges and plums were the first grown commercially in the 1890s and one farmer in the 1890s had a cherry orchard with 7,000 fruiting trees and 3,000 seedling cherries. Others followed suit and by 1908 Young was railing 15,000 cases of cherries to Sydney each season. Major expansion of the cherry industry occurred in the 1920s with 77 orchards near Young and it was soon the second most important cherry growing region of NSW after Orange. Young began holding a cherry festival in 1949 and still does each year in early December when picking is in full swing.

Some interesting buildings in Boorowa Street and vicinity are:

•In Zouch Street is the Gothic Anglican Church built in 1893. Architect was Edmund Blacket. The first Anglican Church was built on this spot in 1865. Adjacent is the red brick 1937 Rectory and the 1866 Anglican school room.

•Continue along Cloete St. Take next left into Lynch St. Here is the Methodist Church built in 1909. Now the Uniting Church. Built in Arts and Craft style with horizontal banding bricks, tower etc. The first Methodist Church was built in 1865. Turn around and go along Lynch Street.

•On the corner is the 1928 neo classical style Courthouse with Doric columns.

•Next to it is the much altered Post Office and clock built in 1878. The original Post Office stood here when built 1862.

•Cross the roundabout to see the School of Arts building and library. Built in 1904 as a single storey with two gables.

•Next door is the former AMP Society building on the corner. Built in the 1920s with a curved Doric pillared entrance with the AMP statue logo above. A friend in times of need.

•Opposite is the Presbyterian Church. Built in 1920 of greenish grey coloured feldspar quartz. Young’s first Presbyterian church was built in 1871. Turn around and turn right at the roundabout into Boorowa St.

•On the corner is the Baroque style Commercial Bank of Sydney built in 1890. Two different style porches for the entrances.

•On the right painted grey is The Great Eastern Hotel built in 1904. A typical Australian hotel but with triangular pediments.

•At the next roundabout is the Commercial Hotel. Built in 1930s in Spanish Mission style in red brick.

•Next on left is Millard’s Department Store built in 1917. A major three storey edifice in the street.

•Opposite is Young Town Hall built in 1875. In 1922 the Soldiers War Memorial Clock tower was added. Turn around and go back to the roundabout and turn right. Just along the road is the marked Federation building built around 1901. It has a stepped pediment along the roof. It is important as it was the store of one of the last 19th century Chinese traders in Young – Billy Hayes (anglicised.) He ran it to the 1960s.

•Turn right here next you will see on the right the five storey red brick Millard’s flourmill. Cross the creek.

•You will see St Mary’s Catholic Church. Gothic in style and erected 1874 of local granite with Welsh slate roof. Granite addition to the nave made in 1934. Just behind the church on the side street is the Catholic Convent built in 1891. Gothic looking gables and excellent cast iron lacework on balconies. Now part of the Catholic College.

•Opposite is the Lambing Flat Museum in the old original town school. It opened in 1883. The first town school began in 1861 with the first government school on the site on the present railway station.

•Beyond the park is Young High School. It began as the first Courthouse on these goldfields in 1861. A second grand classical Greek temple building Courthouse opened in 1886 at a cost of £12,000. It was given to the Education Department in 1924. With additions it opened as the Young High School in 1947.

•Young railway station. The railway reached here from Harden in 1885 when the Gothic station was built. It is now the Information Centre.

Another in the Series... Again 2 shots stitched together.

This is the chapel inside the walls of the huge Chateau in the Bois de Vincennes - France. The light was so fantastic I had to put it to good use!

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) oil on canvas at the National Gallery of Art in London. Written near the painting: The subject is taken from the Greek myth Hero and Leander. Hero looks on as her lover Leander begins his daily swim across the Hellespont. Sea nymphs who were thought to control the waves are shown on the right. The brewing storm foreshadows Leander's drowning.

SMC Pentax-A 50mm 1:2.8

The papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, located on Rome's Esquiline Hill, dates to the fifth century, perhaps replacing an earlier church. According to a popular tradition, the site was chosen after a miraculous snow storm in early August was sent by the Virgin Mary. Dedicated by Pope Sixtus III, it was one of the first churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary after the Council of Ephesus declared her Theotokos, or Mother of God, in 431.

The basilica is decorated with mosaic panels lining the walls of the central aisle. Each panel represents one or more scenes from the Old Testament, taken from the Pentateuch.

This panel shows the encounter between Abraham and Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High, which is recounted in Genesis 14:18-20. Melchizedek is dressed as a priest with a short tunic and cape . In the sky above, Jesus Christ looks down and blesses the encounter. According to many church fathers, when God appeared or spoke in the Old Testament, it was God the Son. Melchizedek is also considered a type or foreshadowing of Christ in the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews.

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Patient passengers at Hellifield await their traction as a foreshadowing 158 approaches.

For every new smartphone, there is a first photo. While walking to San Diego neighborhood Hillcrest, I detoured off Washington onto Normal to avoid sidewalk congestion. There I passed this helmet, which unusual placement beckoned to be shot.

Considering ongoing overtures of war, as the United States spars with China and substantially backs Ukraine against Russia, I wondered: Will helmets like this someday soon be as standard wear as were surgical masks during the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdown period? Call the moment unwanted foreshadowing.