The Jesus Rifle

Oh No! It is the end of the world. The war is lost! (be sure to watch Rachel Maddow's video at the end of the post) But for $660,000,000.00 I will stop talking about Jesus.

"If a boy fires off a gun, whether at a fox, a landlord or a reigning sovereign, he will be rebuked according to the relative value of these objects. But if he fires off a gun for the first time it is very likely that he will not expect the recoil, or know what a heavy knock it can give him. He may go blazing away through life at these and similar objects in the landscape; but he will be less and less surprised by the recoil; that is, by the reaction. He may even dissuade his little sister of six from firing off one of the heavy rifles designed for the destruction of elephants; and will thus have the appearance of being himself a reactionary. Very much the same principle applies to firing off the big guns of revolution. It is not a man's ideals that change; it is not his Utopia that is altered; the cynic who says, "You will forget all that moonshine of idealism when you are older," says the exact opposite of the truth. The doubts that come with age are not about the ideal, but about the real. And one of the things that are undoubtedly real is reaction: that is, the practical probability of some reversal of direction, and of our partially succeeding in doing the opposite of what we mean to do. What experience does teach us is this: that there is something in the make-up and mechanism of mankind, whereby the result of action upon it is often unexpected, and almost always more complicated than we expect."

The Superstition of School, by G.K. Chesterton

The quotable Mr. Chesterton

While trolling my local Catholic bookstore, I spotted several copies of a new - 2009 -book - The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips & Cracks from the Pen of G.K. Chesterton.

It's edited by Dave Armstrong (of Biblical Evidence for Catholicism).

Some 359 pages of Chesterton quotations? Of course I bought it.

I know I can find many of the quotations on line, but it's nice to have a hard copy in hand.

The book is organized by topics, which makes it easy to find apt quotations. I've been diving through, enjoying discovering or rediscovering the Great One's wit and wisdom.

A quibble though. "The Very Best" - yet no sign of two of my favorite quotations:

"You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion."

and

"Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."

Ah well, I have eclectic tastes.

Maybe there's a second collection in the works. I'll buy that one, too.

But for now, I'll enjoy this wonderful collection - while eating cheese and rubbing my beard.

Ratcheting it up a notch

As long as I can remember I have never heard the Bishops tell their flock to explicitly vote one way or the other or support one bill or the other. They have given us a teaching and told us to vote our conscious. So you can imagine my surprise and delight when, after hearing that the Knights are having a wing fry and the Rosary Alter Society is looking for new members, I heard this:

“Congress continues to debate health care reform. While the House passed a health care bill that prevents the federal government from funding elective abortions, and includes provisions making health care affordable and accessible for all, the Senate rejected this and passed a bill that requires federal funds to help subsidize and promote health plans that cover elective abortions, while forcing purchasers to pay directly for other people’s abortions. These two bills must now be combined into one bill that both the House and Senate will vote on in final form. The U.S. bishops continue to strongly oppose abortion funding, while calling for critical improvements in conscience protection, affordability for the poor and vulnerable, and access to health care for immigrants.
In your pews/bulletins today, you’ll find a flier/bulletin insert from the U.S. Bishops Conference asking you to please contact your congressional representatives immediately and urge them to address these moral issues. The flier/bulletin insert includes a web address that allows you to send an email message to Congress with a click of a button. The bishops have asked for our swift action and our prayers. Thank you for your help. We can help make sure that health care reform will protect the lives, dignity, conscience and health of all. Health care reform should be about saving lives, not destroying them.”

We were then given a link to go to: www.usccborg/action this site allows you to send a prewritten letter to your representatives and through the magic of the internet it sends this letter to your specific rep.

After this announcement we all said the Saint Michael's prayer for the conversion of abortionists. You can get the prayer card here.

Please go to this site and send your message. Like the Bishops said at the end of their letter Act today! Thank you!

more sci-fi on the way but not so much fi

In H.G. Well's novel The Island of Dr. Moreau He tells the tale of a man making human/animal hybrids. Makes for a good story.

"Dr. Moreau and his assistant perished at the hands of their experiments. Prendick escaped and returned to England. And, as the novel concludes, Prendick, in England, said that, as he looked at the people around him, he could not help feeling that he was still amongst the beast-people of Dr. Moreau's island; and, that they might, at any point, turn on him, the way that the creatures of the island had."

The island is closer than you think. here and here just to name a few

Bukowski clerihew

Charles Bukowski
finished his whiskey.
While waiting for another
he wrote about eyeing his friend's mother.

When I first heard about AVATAR I was not in hurry to see it but after reading all the buzz about it on the blogosphere, especially by Catholics> Again I saw a huge popular media event brought everyone out to defend or condemn the "religious" ramifications on our culture. Most of it you can read on Mark Shea's bolg.

I needed to judge it for my self. My feelings on not wanting to see this film were based on the fact that James Cameron does not make great movies. And my $10.00 could be used elsewhere. Yes, he makes visually stunning cinematic experiences but really is a second rate story teller. Seeing AVATAR did not change my opinion on that.

Anyone over sixteen years old could see the borrowed plot line (Pocahotas, Dances with Wolves, and even Ewoks vs. Strom troopers) and stereotypical characters. Cameron not only tells a shallow story sans sub text he telegraphs each upcoming event. There are never any surprises or plot twists in his films. A second or third viewing will add nothing to your understanding to the film or of the human condition. But. BUT it was absolutely, with out a doubt, the best visual candy I have eaten in a long time.

In this way he is not unlike Thomas Kinkade who creates an pretty imaginary world where the viewer would like to live and everyone is happy and at peace. It also seems that Cameron borrowed Kinkade's color palette. (the picture on this post is Kinkade's and not from the film). It is a pastel world without hard edges. Even when there is sudden and bruttal death in a Cameron movie it does not make your cheeks pouch together because it is all about the visual which is only 1% of reality.

You might wish you were one of his characters, (who wouldn't want to fly a giant lizard!) but you never get emotionally attached to his characters. Which I guess that is what escapism is all about. I have heard some say that the Na'vi are blue skinned to represent democrats no no it is that they needed to be pastel and green skin was to much of a cliché even for Cameron.

However casting Sigourney Weaver was a great joke. Even when we first she her she is coming out of the "box" and asks for a cigarette. Watch the first 10 minutes of ALIEN if you need a reminder. (OK, I was the only one in the theatre to laugh).

And really who believes the corporation is just going to give up and leave all that potential money. Can you say sequel? And yes I will go see the sequel and be dazzled for a few hours. I love circus side shows too.

Speaking of Genomes part 2

In the, for lack of a better word, battle between science and religion some voices of reconciliation are being heard. Not because of their volume but from where they speak. Francis Collins is one such voice. He is one with impressive credentials being the director of the Human Genome Project and all; that little hobby of his that mapped the vast vocabulary of life's indwelling "grammar". Collins calls this grammar the language of God.

In his book, The Language of God, Collins systematically lays out a philosophy that science and religion are not only complementary but are both essential for a complete understanding of the world.

Yea, yea I know the premise of the compatibility of God and reason has been expressed elsewhere and with better poetry as with Thomas Aquinas, " For Faith is not opposed to reason but is of that which reason cannot reach." Or as JP2 said, "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth..."

The cool thing about this book is how he came to write it. Collins was homeschooled in an non-religious home - "freethinkers". Religion to him was something quaint and unrealistic so atheism was his logical choice for a world view. That was until he became a doctor and noticed the difference between the religious and non religious patients in how they faced grave and mortal illnesses. The religious ones faced it bravely and peacefully the later spent their time in a panic. When one of his patients asked him about his belief system he knew, as a scientist he could only answer this question with research and careful consideration.

His study led him to Christianity. True, that's an old story but I never grow weary of hearing it. Collins openly credits our friend C. S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity for his spiritual Big Bang moment.

True not all of his writing and many of his other views do not square-up to orthodox Christianity but he is still young in this strange new land and he is courageous.
As he is willing to debate all comers on what Collins calls BioLogos, including Richard Dawkins.

For you Homeschoolers Collins' book would be a good addition to your science library and its a good read for us science groupies.

Speaking of Genomes part 1

In 2004 Svante Paabo, a paleogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, announced he was going to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome. He has yet to succeed in that but is getting close and has a rough draft of the sequence complete. This sequence came from several cells from different samples. But he has yet to find a complete fully intact DNA specimen. But that has not stopped some of the groupies of the scientific community to speculate, "Will we ever clone a caveman?"

Since my son and I are Sci-fi nuts this prompted a lively discussion. Since Neanderthals are not considered human is there an ethical question? If the non-human speculation is correct they would not have souls? But what if the assumption is wrong - who decides? (These questions got batted around but they were beyond our pay grade and won't help with our screen play anyway. Where is Michael Crichton when you need him?)

How do you find a woman to carry this cave man to birth? The reality show fame alone would attract hundreds. "We could easily get those girls who want to sleep with Flava Flav." my son said.

What about the the new modern life of this cave man? Can you see him in public schools? A boy scout making his first fire? What about when he enters Junior High and the peer pressure to look good makes him ask his Mom for a piercing? Can you say sitcom?

As an adult he would have a career as commercial actor for insurance or a great career as a NFL linebacker.

Lear Clerihew

Thanks to Edward Lear
I no longer fear
any beard-nesting fowl
(except, perhaps, an owl).

Bethlehem - (Charles Williams)

Bethlehem
A Poem

A star of travel shines above,
The small town sleeps below,
How shall I find the Mother of Love,
As through the world I go?
The emperors sit at their table bright,
To bring great things to pass,
But the Mother of Love is hid in the night,
With the ox and the ass.

How shall I find the Mother of Love
Amid all heads defiled
And her holy hands of succour that move,
About her holy Child?
Her eyes are lit and her footfall sings
As Eve's through Eden grass,
But she dwells to-night with all toil-worn things
And the ox and the ass.

What are the days that walk with her,
That shall be friends to me?
Days of incense and gold and myrrh,
Days of epiphany,
Days that follow a noble vow,
And the heavy days that pass
In labour of hammer and pen and plough,
And the ox and the ass.

If Love at last by cruel men
And the spear of Fate be slain,
Who shall bear witness to him then
Till he shall come again?
The Mother of Love, and the marching guilds,
And the priest that sings the Mass,
And the man that ploughs and the man that builds,
And the ox and the ass.

A Christmas Carol poem by G.K.Chesterton

The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world's desire.)

The Christ-child stood on Mary's knee,
His hair was like a crown,
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C.S. Lewis summed up Christmas in one sentence:
'The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God."

We can all stand around the pole.

For us Christians a unity tree?
Next will be the family candelabra for the Jews.
But, thankfully, they have left Festivus alone. This will become the new national early winter celebration.

The Copenhagen Synod Part 2

Well the synod has concluded and to continue their religion mapping they even created a secret society that may or may not have the power to put countries, which do not go along with them, on double secret probation but we shall see.
"The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment” – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalized this week.”

"The circle of commitment" has a nice ring to it don't cha think? Dan Brown could not have done better.

Also one of the goals of this group was to help (give money to) poorer members to deal with the effects of global warming. No one has yet to explain what it means to deal with these effects and they remind us it is not for us to understand - for their ways are far above our ways.
Archbishop Al Gore tells us in 5 years the polar ice caps will melt so maybe the money will be used to help Santa move his world headquarters.

And at the Church of the Presumptuous Assumption of the Blinding Light. Sent up a hymn:
Oh blinding light,
Oh light that blinds,
I cannot see,
Look out for me!!

As Michael Jones tells us "You cannot be a skeptic on “Climate Change,” but only an ignorant “Denier,” You’re either quivering with salvation from seeing the light of wisdom, or you’re an ignorant knave in need of re-education."


At the synod the U.S. Secretary of the Environment singlehandedly spoke from on high by labeling CO2 emissions as health hazards . "This changes the conversation to health concerns and away from the endless squabbling over science between global warmers versus deniers."

That darn pesky science thingy. "Let it be done unto us according to your word."

But the synod could not, in good faith, outlaw exhaling.

However, since this pantheon takes their godhood quite seriously they did the next best thing by adding a population control measure to the overall agreement which would limit the number of people exhaling. After all gods have the power to decide who lives and who dies and they intend to exercise that power.
"Dealing with climate change is not simply an issue of CO2 emission reduction but a comprehensive challenge involving political, economic, social, cultural and ecological issues, and the population concern fits right into the picture," said Zhao, who is a member of the Chinese government delegation. Zhao said that China's population program has made a great historic contribution to the well-being of society. As a result of the family planning policy, China has seen 400 million fewer births, which has resulted in 18 million fewer tons of CO2 emissions a year, Zhao said. "

Maybe they do have a creed after all: Save the trees. Kill the babies.

The Copenhagen Synod

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless, minority; keen to set brush fires in people's minds..." -Samuel Adams

"Comparative religion is very comparative indeed. That is, it is so much a matter of degree and distance and difference that it is only comparatively successful when it tries to compare. When we come to look at it closely we find it comparing things that are really quite incomparable. We are accustomed to see a table or catalogue of the world's great religions in parallel columns, until we fancy they are really parallel. We are accustomed to see the names of the great religious founders all in a row: Christ; Mahomet; Buddha; Confucius. But in truth this is only a trick; another of these optical illusions by which any objects may be put into a particular relation by shifting to a particular point of sight."
-GKC Everlasting Man


There is a small group of very tireless vocal people who want to radically to change our society (you know, them or they) to what they want to change it to has been hard to pin down. Oh yea, and they are pissed off because we can’t accept and embrace this change just cause we don’t want to bow down to an ambiguity.

Most of those in the vanguard of this group have taken a comparative religion class in college and saw that religion/s changed the society in which they flourished. So they began to remold their message in the shape of a religion. They learned that to be a religion all you needed were certain elements to parallel the other established religions. Most of these items were already floating around in their message they just needed to be codified into a cannon if not a creed.

President Barack Obama said in Turkey : "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation...... "

They are still having a problem with the name of this religion it’s either secular humanism or moral relativism but they have established the basic elements (which they will defend to the somewhat uncomfortable) which are as follows:

Creation story - random chance evolution

A God – The Individual (“… your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who will know what is good and what is bad”.) Although some individuals are more god than others

Priests – Scientists (we know the truth) and Politicians (“vote for me and I’ll set you free”.)

Sacraments – sterile sex (the source and summit of life) and abortion

Original sin – Racism

Mortal sin – Rudeness, Being alone and Disagreeing with priests

Venial sin – individual wealth (you can have lots of money but you have to feel bad about it)

It would be easy to expand this list both horizontally and vertically but you get the idea. However, until recently they were missing a key element, one that would tie it all together and bend people to their will: AN APOCOLYPS. Ta-Da Global warming. No. Wait. Climate Change. Thus they are complete.

And it absolutely does not matter if the science is wrong because it fits the theology: since man is god, god can destroy man and since man is god, he can save himself from himself. Pretty neat huh?

The world must take action on climate change at Copenhagen even if the science is not correct, Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister has suggested.

Also note this quote from Mormon Roots Joseph Smith by Byron Marchant:
"When my then teen daughters asked if they could be baptized into the Mormon church I asked if they knew it was a hoax and they said it didn't matter."

Hugo, Tony, Barrack, Hillary have also taken a page out of Joseph Smith's book as they are all talking through their hats.

How long will it be, I wonder, before the Leftist Church of Perpetual Angst declares Al Gore the Galileo of the 21st century.

Uncle Gilbert again:

"Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural."

"Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction to suit ourselves."

"But the great towns have grown intolerable solely because of such suffocating vulgarities and tyrannies. It is not humanity that disgusts us in the huge cities; it is inhumanity. It is not that there are human beings; but that they are not treated as such. We do not, I hope, dislike men and women; we only dislike their being made into a sort of jam: crushed together so that they are not merely powerless but shapeless."

"The wise men know what wicked things
Are written on the sky,
They trim sad Lamps, they touch sad strings,
Hearing the heavy purple wings,
Where the forgotten seraph kings
Still plot how God shall die."

"The rich do mainly believe in divorce. The poor do mainly believe in fidelity. But the modern rich are powerful and the modern poor are powerless. Therefore for years and decades past the rich have been preaching their own virtues. Now that they have begun to preach their vices too, I think it is time to kick."

And some are now starting to kick.

An Advent Story

As my daughter and I were making paper cutout snow flakes she said to me, "Ya know Christmas is Jesus' birthday". She said this as if she was the only one to figure that out.
"Yes it is. Should we send him a card?"
"Oh yes that would be great!" (she loves making cards) at this she stopped with the snow flakes and got out her crayons and markers.
About half way through with this masterpiece she asked, "How old is Jesus"?
"He is going to be 2009 years old give or take a little."
She gave me that concentrated look to see if I was kidding or not.
"Fur real?" she asked.
"Fur real." I told her.
"Mom! Is papa right?"
"Yes, dear."

Later that night as I was tucking her in to bed she said, "You know he doesn't look that old."
"Who doesn't?" I asked
"Jesus."
Trying not to laugh I said, "Yes. He has held pretty well."

When You Sing You Pray Twice

"The modern evil, we have said, greatly turns on this: that people do not see that the exception proves the rule." GKC Eugenics and Other Evils

It is like this: the wall is the rule and the gate is the exception that proves it. The gate proves there is a wall the wall does not prove there is a gate. So the evil Chesterton is talking about is now we have a great expanse of gates and very little wall left.

There are many "social issues" today that bare this out including but not limited to the acceptance of the new Eugenics of assisted suicide.

But this is Advent so let us just look at one expanse of gates; Christmas Songs.
You can do any search for the top 10-20 or 25 Christmas songs and only one (some lists have 2) song talks about Jesus. The winner on most lists was The Little Drummer Boy followed by Silent Night. But then again how can they compete with Santa Baby and I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.

The weeks before Advent the Church had been telling the story of the Macabee's. I know the protestants don't "do" those books because Luther cut them due to the fact that they contradicted his personal theology and Henry-duh-8 kept them cut cause the story was a dangerous one for him. The story however is important for us today as it has ever been. It is a story where the people of God finally say "Enough! The government is not our religion and the king is not our God."

Of course I'm not suggesting we do what they did and go into prairie dog town and shoot some holes. But I am saying that we need to speak up and stop the madness.

Changing this simple song list is not as hard as trying to stay safe behind a barrier of gates. And songs have a powerful effect on how we view the world. Call your local radio station and request a true Christmas song. Do it once a day, have your friends do it and then their friends so without a single letter to the editor we can rebuild the wall.

The League of Bearded Catholics

Being a bearded fellow, I naturally have a certain affection for anyone who promotes facial hair.

But when they drag in Tolkien, Lewis, Belloc, and Chesterton, and adopt St. Nicholas as their patron saint, well, they have my attention.

T(olkien)he
L(ewis)eague
of
B(elloc)earded
C(hesterton)atholics
is a new blog that celebrates the four cited writers - and beards.

As they explain about themselves:

The League is meant to be held together by nothing much more than a sincere and spontaneous appreciation for Catholic culture, for authentic Catholic manhood and for the company of Catholic men and the women who tolerate them. If there is a chewy center to the Tootsie Roll Pop that is The League, it is an appreciation and gratitude especially for the lives and literary work of Tolkien, Lewis, Belloc and Chesterton - TLBC - (not necessarily in that order).

So, TLBC stands equally for The League of Bearded Catholics, and for Tolkien, Lewis, Belloc and Chesterton. You may have noticed that they are all dead British guys, and all important Christian writers of the twentieth century. You may also have noticed that not all of these gentlemen wore beards.

The last point is an important one. External beards are not required. Belloc was the only one of the four who had a beard (later in life). Chesterton had a moustache. Tolkien and Lewis were clean shaven. (The official position of the The League at this time is that, in spite of their smooth cheeks, both men sported a beard on the inside, which is the important and crucial thing. After all, some men - through no fault of their own - can't grow a beard, and we would not want to see them excluded from the fellowship by any mere accident of nature.)

They go on to explain, with tongue firmly in cheek (a beard-covered cheek, or course): The purpose of TLBC, then, is the same purpose for which God made wine... "To gladden the heart of man." We are glad to be alive, and our gratitude is expressed in what used to be called "merriment". The League is just a good-natured romp, even if our other goal (saving Western civilization) might sound to outsiders fairly grave and ambitious. If Western Civilization can be saved by beer, we stand ready to give it our best effort.

Excellent.

They even have bylaws, including:

1) The League is not a ministry and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any ecclesiastical body, however, we are guided in all things by the creeds, teachings and laws of the Catholic Church.

2) Membership in The League is open to all adults who are not witches or devil-worshipers or some such, so long as they can abide by the dictates of Rule #1.

3) Membership in The League places no obligation on any one. Meetings are strictly for the purpose of enjoyment, both the enjoyment of the literary tradition of the Four Patrons (Tolkien, Lewis, Belloc and Chesterton) , and that of meeting together with others of like mind. Preferably over drinks and good food. Or drinks, anyway.

5) *Though membership is open to all, individuals wishing to gain admittance to meetings must be bearded. For those without a beard, one will be provided, but it is the duty of the Sergeant at Arms to make certain that each who begs entry must wear a beard. Friendly non-members are welcome at meetings and some may even attain the exalted rank of Designated Driver.

6) Members attending meetings must also bring a passage (by one of the Four Patrons, or in the same tradition) which is to be read aloud - or even cooler, recited from memory. In addition, members are encouraged to make the fullest use of other media - movies, television programs, the internet, music, etc... . By the end of each meeting, a rough plan of the next meeting should be agreed on, with one or another member.

11) The League highly encourages and wishes to promote the creative projects of members, whether they be writing, art, video, music, cooking, brewing or other ventures. The colorfully written exploits of local chapter meetings and activities are especially coveted by the Homely Office, and will be published on the TLBC blog, probably.

Chesterton, of course, famously stated, "You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion." I suspect you could form a bearded league in a moment of passion, though whether such a thing would survive long once the passion abated is questionable.

Anyway, don your beards and check out The League of Bearded Catholics.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Proclamation

[New York, 3 October 1789]

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

St. Francis would have liked GKC

It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look. - St. Francis of Assisi