Sermonette

Caption: Beauvais Cathedral (Cathedral of Saint Peter of Beauvais) in France, renowned for having the tallest Gothic choir in the world. Construction began in 1225 under Bishop Milon de Nanteuil with the ambitious goal of outperforming all other cathedrals. The vaults soar to an incredible 159 feet high.

It’s also the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

Sermonette Trivia: On the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ temples, a gilded statue of an angel stands atop with a trumpet in honor of Rosh Hashanah.

Narcessism

If you really want to crush a narcissist, it’s very simple, and I haven’t heard many discuss this strategy. I’ve used it at work.

All you do is disagree with them, contradict them, tell them they are wrong, but immediately after, do not engage in an argument; walk away, change the subject, or tell them you don’t want to speak about it.

When the narcissist speaks, it isn’t to be useful or to share necessary or wanted information; it’s to show their superiority or a high level of expertise, which they usually don’t have. So, when you calmly tell them they are wrong, their data is incorrect, or they made a mistake, it’s a profound insult to their huge ego because of their delusional superiority. They might get highly frustrated and even verbally aggressive. Do not engage; that’s very important. Just leave, or avoid confrontation at all costs, but rest assured that this strategy will hit their weakest point with full force.

Grief

The veil covering her face is carved entirely from marble.

Created in 1856 by Italian sculptor Giovanni Battista Lombardi, this funerary monument in Brescia’s Cimitero Vantiniano depicts Carlotta Rota, who commissioned the work in memory of her husband, Federico Dossi.

Lombardi carved the life-size mourner with her face visible through a seemingly transparent marble veil, while her right hand reaches toward the tomb’s partially open door —turning the threshold itself into part of the scene of grief.

Bullet Points:

** A San Bernardino County, California man was arrested late last week on a federal grand jury indictment charging him and two other defendants with paying people on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles to sign petitions using stolen identities of registered voters to qualify initiatives on ballots in California elections. James Brass, 47, a.k.a. “Lord,” of Victorville, was arrested and is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Riverside. The two-count indictment also charges two petition circulators who worked for Brass: Courtney Price, 49, of Jacksonville, Florida, and Jateisha Herron, 33, of Boron, California. All three defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit identity fraud in furtherance of a state felony. Brass and Price are charged with an additional count of identity fraud in furtherance of a state felony.

** Boating, with EdB.

** SCMP– A discussion of the new Silent Anvil US torpedo. Long-range, persistent, torpedo captor mine – of sorts.

** Citizen Free Press reported, “A Nigerian chieftain billed Medicaid more than $36 million, then snapped up luxury properties in California and built a magnificent palace in Abatete, Nigeria—including a golden statue of himself.” And we wonder why Nigerian princes still email us.

** Beating his meat? President Trump told Republicans at the Convention about James Talarico, “He ran a campaign to ‘beat meat.’ He called it ‘beat meat.’ I don’t know what the hell he meant by that. He wants to ‘beat meat?’ I’m getting myself in trouble.” Bud’s Meat Hut, Santa Ana, California, circa 1985: No one can beat my meat. There was one of those enormous plastic cows on top of the butcher shop. Are Talarico and Beto O’Rourke the best Texas Democrats can do? Would you hire either of them to rake leaves at your house?

** Zerohedge – More Than 62,000 Arrested For Speech-Related Offenses In Britain, Report Finds.

** In May 2026, Vladimir Putin met Xi Jinping seeking a breakthrough on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, but left empty-handed as Beijing demanded rock-bottom gas prices. Cut off from Western markets, Russia’s economic and industrial survival increasingly hinges on China. From dual-use technology imports to shifting territorial influence in Central Asia, discover how Beijing is transforming Moscow into a subordinate junior partner.

Reserve Currencies

Oil, copper, wheat and gold are quoted in dollars, making the dollar the ruler against which everything else is measured. Change the ruler and every measurement changes with it. Reserve currency status conveys jurisdiction. If your currency is everywhere, so are your courts, your regulators and your sanctions office. The dollar is not just currency. It is a legal system with a global footprint — magnificent, right until the world decides it prefers a different legal system.

The denarius arrived around 211 BC and ran the Mediterranean’s books for five centuries. Under Augustus, 98% silver. Under Nero, quietly clipped. Under Caracalla came the antoninianus — stamped as two denarii, containing the silver of one and a half, an early triumph of branding over content. By the 260s the “silver” denarius was a copper token with a wash so thin it rubbed off in a merchant’s pocket. The interesting part is not the debasement but the panic. Diocletian’s Edict on Maximum Prices in AD 301 fixed the price of some 1,200 goods, with death for profiteers. It collapsed within a few years, as legislation against arithmetic tends to. Goods vanished from the official market; a barter economy appeared. Rome learned what every issuer learns: you may decree the price of your money, but not the willingness of foreigners to take it. Even so, the denarius did not die of inflation. It died when the Western Empire stopped existing. That is the pattern throughout. Currencies expire with the political order that gave them meaning.

The guilder was the first modern reserve currency. Amsterdam had the Wisselbank from 1609, a bourse, a bond market, a multinational with its own navy, and — decisively — a legal system that treated a foreign merchant’s deposit as belonging to the foreign merchant. Holland became the world’s clearing house not because it was powerful but because it was boring and safe. The reign ended with the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War of 1780–84: the moment neutrality-as-a-business-model turned belligerent.

Britain then held the crown for a century and a half on the Royal Navy, the City’s bill market, gold from 1821, and the fact that by 1913 some 60% of world reserves passed through London. Two world wars, financed by borrowing from the country that still had money, ended it. Note the cause of death. Sterling was never debased — it was on gold. Britain simply spent its external assets on war and emerged owing Washington the difference.

Hot, Straight and True

At about 5:30 on April 9, 1942, PT-59, Lt. Charles A. Mills, Jr., USNR, in command, departed Melville, Rhode Island, for a cruise around Narragansett Bay. The boat skirted Dyer Island, and then changed course southward for some practice torpedo runs. This entailed setting the keys into the firing switches and cranking the launchers so that they pointed a few degrees outboard. All seemed in order, and Mills ducked below for a few minutes to check his charts, to be sure he headed for the proper practice area in Rhode Island Sound, beyond the submarine nets that prevented Hitler’s U-boats from entering Narragansett Bay. He was below for hardly a minute or two when he heard a loud noise, felt the boat shudder, and through a porthole espied a trail of smoke and a spinning propeller vanishing over the rail. An officer-in-training on the bridge had turned the firing key for one of the torpedoes the full 90° necessary to fire a torpedo!

Mills ran the few steps up to the bridge, quickly determined the track of the torpedo, and gave chase. Although concerned, neither Mills nor any of his crew were overly worried. The torpedo was a 21-inch Mark 8. Although the World War I-vintage 21-foot-long Mark 8 carried 320 pounds of high explosives at 35 knots for as much as ten miles, it had a reputation for unreliability. At least half the time, the torpedo rolled erratically, nose-dived, went off course, or even began turning in circles. Alas, PT-59’s Mark 8 fired did none of these things. In fact, it ran proverbially “hot, straight, and true.” Tension began to rise. One sailor called out, “Come on, screw up. Every other one does!” But the torpedo was a good one.

Mills followed the torpedo at some distance, fearful of getting too close, lest it explode prematurely. He also radioed the Harbor Defense Command to warn them of the danger. Not surprisingly, personnel at that headquarters thought he was making a very bad joke, and it took several tries before Mills convinced them of the danger. Meanwhile, the torpedo headed straight for the anchorage off Jamestown, across the bay from Newport Harbor.

With considerable good luck, the torpedo passed off the southeastern end of Prudence Island, just missing a pier loaded with depth charges. Three miles into its run, the torpedo struck the USS Capella (AK-13), a 4,000-ton Navy supply ship that had just anchored off Jamestown on Conanicut Island. The resulting blast sent a column of water into the sky, as cargo and a floatplane were blown into the water. The stricken ship began listing to starboard and settling by the stern.

Reacting quickly, Mills brought his boat up alongside Capella’s port side, while his crew passed a 6-inch line over to the stricken vessel. Working together, the two crews fashioned a spring line. Once the two vessels were tied together, Mills revved his engines to 1,400 rpms. By maneuvering the spring lines, PT-59 shifted Capella to shoals, where she grounded.

Identify the Ships

1 & 2

(you have hull numbers to work with)

Identify the Aircraft

3

4

End