It’s December 1, and there are 24 shopping days until Christmas. For the sermonette, I thought I’d tackle St. Joan of Arc, a controversial historical and religious character. On May 30, 1431, Joan was burned at the stake in Rouen at the age of 19. Five hundred years later, she was canonized as a saint (1920). They took their sweet time figuring that one out.
Joan was born around 1412 in Domrémy, Duchy of Bar, Kingdom of France. She was a peasant girl from a landed family. She claimed to hear voices from saints and angels, including St. Michael, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret of Antioch. Nobody knew what went on in her mind. Many claim that she was mentally ill. That notwithstanding, Joan convinced Crown Prince Charles of Valois to let her lead the French army to Orléans, where they won a significant victory in 1429. Joan dressed in armor as if she were a man, which was unusual for women then. In 1430, Joan was captured by the English and their French collaborators. She was tried for heresy, convicted, and burned as a witch.
I take no position on the matter. She was present at French victories and defeats. Claiming that God was with her during victories and Satan opposed her at French defeats is like arguing the outcome of the 2024 World Series (God was with the Los Angeles Dodgers because they won. Everyone knows that the NY Yankees sacrificed a black cat before playoff games.).
The argument is often raised that if I deny that Joan of Arc was God’s chess piece, what other heresies might I be guilty of? What about Henry V on St. Crispin’s Day. God may have been with Joan of Arc on her victorious days (turning his head when she lost), but what about the English Army – starving and defeated when the French bogged their elite cavalry down in the mud in front of English longbowmen? Divine intervention or typical French bungling (See Poitiers and Crecy) on the field at Agincourt? It’s a lot like claiming to have a piece of the True Cross or a scorched bone from Joan of Arc to put in your amulet.
Feel free to take me to task for doubting if you’d like.
Bullet Points:
** It’s not too late to order your Dancing Trump wrapping paper from maga.com. It’s especially appropriate for somebody who may have supported the Ho for president.
** Financial Times: “China’s most prominent technology groups are building artificial intelligence teams in Silicon Valley, seeking to hire top US talent despite Washington’s efforts to curb the country’s development of cutting-edge technology. Alibaba, ByteDance, and Meituan have been expanding their offices in California recently, seeking to poach staff from rival US groups who could help them gain ground in the race to profit from generative AI. A US ban has hit Chinese groups on exports of the highest-end Nvidia AI chips, which are crucial for developing AI models.
** Why is it that whenever I see a bumper sticker that says, “Honk if you love Jesus,” and I lay on the horn, I get flipped off?
** Mike_C asked whose cat’s paw the US is. I know that I’m late in responding. The list is long and distinguished. We’ve acted as the cat’s paw for various mafia groups, land barons, oil companies, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Great Britain, etc. The United Fruit Company used our troops, and our intelligence service has toppled governments for the benefit of MANY private interests. Today, Wall Street has some strong tentacles wrapped around Uncle Sam’s neck, the Israeli lobby plays a wicked game, and who is playing whom in Ukraine?
** A hallmark of Russian strategy and diplomacy is that they will always threaten most loudly when weak. This was true under the USSR and remains true under Putin.
** President Trump selected Gaetz to expose the RINOs in the US Senate…it worked.
** SPAM stands for “Spare Parts All Meat.” It’s not that different from a hot dog in that parts are parts from the lips to the asshole. Enjoy. French military MREs include what they refer to as “monkey meat.” I don’t think they use real monkeys to produce their MREs, but it tastes pretty good in French fashion.
The Milk Debate
Donald Trump partly campaigned on the promise to “Make America Healthy Again.” That pledge attracted voters engaged in a growing national battle over food. They claim the government is making it hard to buy food that’s safer and more nutritious while forcing us to eat an unhealthy diet that causes chronic diseases. The debate over raw milk continues. I sense that if you know the producer and know the cow, the risk of contamination and problems from raw milk is almost non-existent. My personal preference is raw Jersey milk. If I claim openly on this blog that I can access this and drink it, I could cause an investigation to be launched. So, I make no such claim.
The same is true of eggs from chickens raised on a home farm, where they are allowed to run around, scratch, and eat what chickens tend to eat (insects, mice, and seed grain. Not everyone has access to those sorts of things. Maybe we should structure zoning so that they can have that access. The concept of hive cities is unhealthy, and concentrating people so that they’re distant from what they eat keeps them from understanding the ingredients they put into their bodies. Children grow up understanding that everything they eat to live was once alive. Humility comes with understanding and a connection with the Earth.
Historical Trivia
Tycho Brahe, one of the most famous astronomers of the 16th century, had a life full of fascinating quirks. One of the most unusual things about him was his nose. In 1566, while studying at the University of Leipzig, Brahe got into a heated argument with a fellow student named Manderup Parsberg over a mathematical formula. The disagreement quickly escalated into a duel, and Brahe lost part of his nose during the fight. Rather than go without, he had a replacement made from metal, which he later upgraded to gold or silver.
The prosthetic nose was a practical solution, but it wasn’t just for show. Brahe even made it detachable so he could clean it separately. Imagine seeing a man with a golden nose that he could pop off and wash between his work in the observatory. Despite this oddity, Brahe’s contributions to science, especially in astronomy, were monumental. He made detailed observations of the night sky that helped shape the future of space exploration. Tycho Crater on the Moon is named after him. (note the large impact crater, the center of the image above)
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Wray Must Go!
Sharyl Attkisson (whose husband is retired from the FBI) launched a poll online. Ninety-nine percent (99%) of respondents said Wray should be replaced. Less than one percent (<1%) disagree, believing Wray should remain in his position.
These results reflect a striking consensus among participants who are dissatisfied with the current FBI leadership. The overwhelming response highlights growing concerns over the FBI’s direction and accountability under Wray’s tenure.
With the departure of the cadre who made the FBI what it is today, the whole outfit needs a serious overhaul. President Trump nominated Kashyap Pramod Vinod “Kash” Patel (born February 25, 1980) to be the next director of the FBI. I sense a disturbance in the Force at the FBI…
Existential Issues
Jordan discusses women who are involuntarily childless. (see it here) As men and women, primarily in developed countries, decide to postpone or avoid having children, the population’s numbers are in jeopardy. Some country’s populations, such as South Korea, are headed for self-extinction.
Liberal women tend to be those who decide to abstain from reproduction, and, of course, homosexuals join that group. Some attribute it to an instinctive thing, like sick whales beaching themselves.
The first commandment God gave to mankind was, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the Earth.” (We’re back to the Sermonette portion of the blog.) It wasn’t a suggestion.
The fertility rate doesn’t depend on mortality, but the replacement rate does. If everyone started dying early, the fertility rate would need to be higher to replace the dying population. In the graph below, Oregon and New England are going the way of the dodo.
Identify the Feature Film/Series (continuing the Medieval Theme)
A
B
C
Two Clips – Where is the pellet with the poison? What is the jester’s name?
Identify the Mother Ship and the Parasite
1
2
3
End
In earlier days, during my wanderings, I ran into a guy who had a few behavioral issues. At one point, while trying something else, he managed to accidentally remove his nose. After that, whenever someone made him upset, he would take his nose off and throw it at them.
That’s really getting your nose bent out of shape!
groan
Heh.
Where’s the emergency red clown nose?
You have to break the seal on the emergency clown nose container and put it on!
I guess it let him stick his nose in everybody’s business, though. So there’s that.
Groan.
Did he spite his face?
Raw milk, it kept myself and my five brothers healthy and fueled up to do the indentured servitude that is a large dairy farm. My dad had a saying; “drink lots of milk, it’s the only thing we have plenty of!” We often went through two gallon a meal, we drank one and spilled the other!
It’s difficult to understand how hard the lot of a dairyman is unless you live it. Yes, working on an oil rig is hard and dangerous but it’s two weeks on and a week off. Firemen fight structure fires occasionally – and wildfires, and that’s hot, dirty work. But a dairyman’s lot is 24/7/365 until you die.
As a toddler hung around the milking barn (no machines all “tit pulling”) at my grandparents. Watched the barn cats get a swallow or two when my grandmother placed a spurt in their direction. I got the idea and she mainlined a couple of squirts in my direction which were pretty much on target. Drank raw milk until I was well through grade school and hopped my grandfather’s milk route on week ends and school holidays. Family and milk customers always dreaded it if the cows got into bitter weed, as you’d have to buy pasteurized milk until the weed was cut.
Identify the Feature Film/Series (continuing the Medieval Theme):
A. Prince Valiant
B. Ivanhoe
C. The Court Jester, the pellet with the poison’s in the flagon with the dragon, Danny Kaye
Identify the Mother Ship and the Parasite:
1. AAS.01/He 274, SNCASO SO.M1
2. SpaceShipOne/White Knight
3. Short S.20 ‘Mercury’ and S.21 ‘Maia’
Excellent
Those movies were beyond my [much younger] pay grade. Well done Surly.
If I was your dad, I’d make you watch Lawrence Welk re-runs all day just to torture you.
Chiffon dress overload…no thanks, saw enough of that in my youth, mom liked the specials and dad…well dad understood compromise if it was for mom (who was not unreasonable).
Anna wunna anna two uh…
New part of SERE course?
I’d rather watch two fat lesbians rut.
A. Prince Valiant
B.Ivahoe
C.Danny Kaye and its in the vessel with the pestle
What is a pestle?
Its what is used with a mortar to crush herbs and spices or the poison pellet in this case.
Ah. Of course!
It can also be used as a weapon, especially if you still have a decent throwing arm.
I saw Major League. They were supposed to sacrifice a chicken. Yankees, go figure. But on a bright note I hear Trump is deporting those who eat cats, so I take it he’s deporting Yankees too. Thank God!
Only Yankees who vote for the opposition.
Giacomo is the name of the jester and while the pellet with the poison was originally in the vessel with the pestle, but then the chalice from the palace was broken, so the pellet with the poison was moved to the flagon with the dragon, or was it? You fight him.
Best answer!
Yes it is.
That was great Jim! Say it fast three times.
An amazing cast!
So, looking at the fertility rate for Oregon and New England, there’s hope for those areas after all?
They need to import people or they’ll die off. Based on what I’ve heard of Portland today, it’s kind of a zombie town.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z_nFrqFquKs
Misplaced compassion, or deliberate malice disguised as good works?
Repairing Portland, one needle at a time.
I helped contribute to the fertility rate in South Dakota in my years there… sadly I am in Oregon now, and my effort is naught…
Based on what I’ve heard (rumor only) spreading your DNA in Portland today shouldn’t be much of a challenge. Doing it without contracting a disease that keeps on giving is far more of a challenge.
Except they kill the result indiscriminately.
Well yes, it’s what they do. And then sell the baby’s body parts for profit to Big Pharma
High School times, milked cows by hand. I didn’t like to drink the milk; smelled of cows to me. Cream and home churned butter was ok.
If people want to drink raw milk and dairy farmers want to sell it why should the government get involved? We have far too much protecting us from ourselves.
Looking at birth rates, Utah is no surprise given the large LDS population. South Dakota/North Dakota is a surprise. Perhaps there is nothing else to do in the winter.
Many young families moved to the Dakotas for the oil work that’s available. And when you’re a young roustabout and you’re off for a week, you need to catch up on the two weeks you were working, obviously.
I drank raw milk from the time I was about 4 until graduating from high school. Those were the years when my family had our own cow which I had to occasionally do the milking – I was not very good doing it.
It is a lot cleaner when coming through a well-maintained milking machine. The bucket always ended up getting a cow hoof in it.
Looks like ‘Jonathon of Arc”…effeminate/androgynous males do nothing for me…Thank the Lord!…but maybe he/she was “born that way”.
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Raw Milk etc. – Had it as a kid from our ‘down the road’ farmer. I was not harmed and probably built a better immune system because of it…well, that plus plenty dirt.
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Ex 1: Brother had a farm-to-table friend who ran his farm “organically’…team used for plowing and harvest. Had a state of the art award winning cheese operation (more stainless than I’d ever saw), and a Farm Shop (think Clarkson Farm), sold pork, beef, eggs…and raw milk. Locals loved it, local chefs bought his product. One day the grump POS Pennsylvania “Health Inspector” showed up for the umpteenth time trying tot find something wrong. “The Government” hates independence from their leviathan food delivery system…shut him down…for selling raw milk. Time to eliminate State Health Departments…fully owned by Big Ag.
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Ex 2: Last year (I believe) Colorado enacted — well, they’ve enacted a lot of subversive garbage under Polis et al…like .27c per ground delivery tax on top of fuel taxes that is now MAGICALLY .29c…but I digress — they weirdly demanded all eggs sold in the state be labeled “organic”, whatever the hay that’s supposed to mean. Couldn’t get eggs for a while, until suppliers decided to simply print “ORGANIC” on the boxes and cartons. More Idiot Bureaucrats running amok creating higher prices for We The People.
***
SPAM has a half-life of about 50 years when stored in a cool dry place, whereas my PA upbringing had Scrapple (fridge only or it turns to Penicillin). It’s sort of similar to SPAM only likely scraps from below hotdog grade, and lots of spices. Sliced 1/2 thick, fried in butter 5 minutes per side over medium heat, add a maple syrup drizzle…yum. Scrapple is not the same as Pork Roll, which is a notch or two above hotdog grade “materials”, and a pork roll breakfast sandwich with melted cheese and mayo/salad dressing…don’t even need an egg…perfection between two pieces of toasted Wonder Bread. Life doesn’t get any better (as long as it’s with good diner coffee in a proper mug).
I like scrapple.
It’s good for you, puts hair on your chest (as dad would say as mom rolled her eyes).
Why wasn’t the crater named Brahe?
Fertility: I do not believe the stats for Oregon; the Mexican population is increasing at a prodigious rate, and not just by attracting the river-swimmers; elementary school teachers are required to be fluent in Spanish
I would have named the crater after myself rather than Tycho, not because I deserved it but because I feel entitled, victimized, and marginalized because of my gender and race.
Totally off-topic
https://www.euronews.com/travel/2024/11/29/cruise-passengers-stage-hunger-strike-after-antarctic-stops-cancelled-due-to-engine-failur
I just can’t understand why they don’t convert to sail: totally “Green”.
Sail to the North Pole during the winter. It was tried before….
I can’t understand why anyone thinks a hunger strike might be effective.
My reaction is always “hooray the morons who disagree with me are committing suicide”.
*
– Kle.
X2
Federal regulations shut down the local dairy farms. I worked with a man that had no family business to inherit after his parents were forced to bring their farm to compliance, or stop production. They didn’t have the money to meet the regulations, nor the money to adapt. If you know the area, and recognize the structures, you can still find the masonry block buildings scattered here and there that were once part of the small milk producers.
They do it with a chastened holy joy. It makes their actions all the more odious. Smug bureaucrats that “dictate” to me, learn to regret it. I make it personal, and without going into details, it takes all the fun out of being a petty, smug, bureaucrat.
Regarding catspaw-ism: So we’re practically required to hate United Fruit (dirty colonizing exploiters) and we’re encouraged to hate Wall Street (dirty capitalist pigs). But we are not allowed to hate a shocking proportion of the leading individuals of Wall Street. Thank god for Jamie Dimon being Greek. It’s still okay to hate a Greek.
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I don’t make the rules. I don’t even like many of the rules, but in the West we labor under “our own” conventions of ordnung muß sein beyond the wet dreams of even the most pickelhaube-wearing of Teutonic hardasses. It’s all so tedious and hypocritical.
Mike_C, are you suggesting that “I” can’t hate Wall Street Mandarins, or are you using the royal “We”? Of course, I take your point. I don’t know that all sacred cows can ever be eliminated. My oldest daughter hated and, at 43, still hates the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Leprechauns. She tolerated Santa Claus. I hate televangelists not with a passion or extreme revulsion, but I’m none to fond of them.
Here’s a go and I worked in the factory We had work cells for the robots that we programmed and maintained. One of the cells had three friends of mine and of course when nothing was broken they would sit and talk. One of them, Rick, had recently rededicated himself to Christ and was all on fire. Another friend who is Jewish and a socialist and previously a card carrying communist ventured over to talk to them. His name is Bob.
Rick challenged Bob to renounce his atheist socialist lifestyle. Bob started to chew him up and down with biblical quotations. I wasn’t there but I heard about it later. I was reminded of the seven sons of Siva who had attempted an exorcism and were torn up by the demon who said, Jesus I know Paul I know but who are you?
I later asked Bob where he got all of his scripture references from and he told me it was from watching televangelist all day for the entertainment value. Tammy Faye and Jim Baker in particular.
Figures.
I don’t know where all/many of these Jewish kids received their Socialist/Communist training. My Dad left Czechoslovakia to come here in ’29; I was born in ’41.
I was brought up American Jewish Conservative as were almost all of my friends.
Our Hebrew School teacher was a WWII fighter pilot: “There is no country like/better than the United States.”
This was the NYC ex/suburbs. I just don’t know where/when/how these kids/my co-religionists were converted.
The conversions started in High School, and continued in the Universities.
*
It was pretty easy to find non-Marxist teachers and professors in the ’70s,
but by the ’80s they were getting pretty thin on the ground.
*
– Kle.
Ed, you have great stories…need your own “Shorts” edition.
Funny follow up. We had befriended a young missionary, Ben, who was ready to go out in the field and we took him to dinner.
I asked him how he paid for college.
He had applied to a family that wanted a live in nanny for their kids.
They weren’t keen on Ben because he was a Christian and they were Jewish, but they liked him and he was part of their family for four years.
I told Ben the story about Bob, but did not mention him by name.
I later found out that it was Bob and his wife who Ben had nannied for!
@LL: You can hate whoever you want. Just so long as you know that whatever you think or do is WRONG on account of you being at the bottom of the intersectionality hierarchy. PS “Mandarin” is triggering. PPS: I don’t hate televangelists, but growing up in the 80’s, I despised them. Especially that little shit Jim Bakker. Of course, now we have far worse problems.
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@boron: [eh, you know what, I’m not even touching that one. Never mind.]
My wrongness is part of my charm.
Which part? (Heh)
Obscure food products, we always had something called Braunswager sandwich spread in our fridge. After developing a taste for liver and onions, it wasn’t too bad. My friends always thought we ate ribeye steak every night since we had so many Holstein’s, but we milked them until they either didn’t breed back or had some other malady. We would show up at Hap’s frozen food bank, our local butcher, and Hap would look at the 10 year old gummer in the back of the trailer, and ask my dad; “what do you expect me to do with this thing?” Dad would tell him; “make it all into hamburger and save the liver! Let’s get her inside while she can still walk!”
Hamburger hides a multitude of blemishes. I prefer venison burger blended with cowburger to straight venison. The same is true of bison.
Braunschweiger is Liverwurst. My parents used to snack on that on crackers and cheese.
We always had a tube of Liverwurst in the fridge…mom loved it and made us Liverwurst sandwiches for school. Trading lunch bags was an art form.
I still eat it. Rye bread, a little brown mustard, and yum!
.
Sweet Little Wife thinks it’s disgusting, but buys it for me anyway…
X2
Just in…Biden pardons Hunter. “Hey, I’m still _Resident, I’ll pardon my entire Crime Family, heck, why not, maybe they’ll still invite me in for ice cream.”
Can’t make this stuff up.
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Day 1, Jan 20, 2025 Trump pardons Every.Single.Jan6th detainee, with prejudice, and makes their lives as whole as feasible with some of that money The DOGE Team re-appropriates…then, on day 2, charges his newly “adjusted” DOJ & FBI to “delve into” the perp’s dealings (“Hey Liz, hearing footsteps yet? You should.”)
♥️♥️
That would be a start. The political prisoners from Jan 6 are a stain on the nations soul that may never go away. There must be consequences for this monstrous injustice.
The US can keep prisoners of war and criminal convicted prisoners but never political prisoners.
In two minds about Joan. On the one hand, she seems to have been a catholic mystic of her time, and a warlike one. On the other, people thought her visions satanic, to say nothing of her “Voices,” which she attributed to Angelic and Saintly power.
I’m suspicious of the Voices. Mohammad had similar. Still, if not a saint, a remarkably brave patriot, and I like that.
500 years after the fact, the mists of time obscure a great deal.
I imagine Hunter threatened to roll over if he didn’t get one.
I’ve heard a few interesting ideas how this can play out going forward.
I’ll be surprised if anything comes of it.
I think it’s a dead issue at this point.