why we should cry for Argentina…

“They are illusions
They are not the solutions they promised to be
The answer was here all the time
I love you and hope you love me

Don’t cry for me Argentina
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don’t keep your distance
(lyrics, Don’t cry for me Argentina)

(flag of Argentina)

“Abortion happens, it’s a fact,” Fernández said in his first annual address to Congress.

“The state must protect its citizens in general and women in particular,” he added.
“Society in the 21st century needs to respect the individual choice of its members
to freely decide about their bodies.”

So read the opening to an article I caught yesterday morning.
An article that focused on a speech given by the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández.

There was a flippant remark, “abortion happens” followed by
“it’s the state’s responsibility to protect”…

So my question is…

Who protects an unborn baby?

Obviously not the state.

The article continued…

If the bill passes, the country with a population of 45 million will become the largest nation
in Latin America to do so, joining Cuba, Uruguay, and Guyana.

The culture of death advances,” Monsenor Jorge Eduardo Scheinig, an archbishop,
said in a recorded message.
“We need to pray so that in Argentina, the yes to life is stronger than death.”

Might I add this is the nation from which Pope Francis hails…

Click on the link in order to read the full article…
If you care about the unborn child…we must continue to pray— speaking both up and out!

(**and what of the irony of Madonna, Madonna Louise Cicconea, a cradle Catholic,
channeling her best Eva (Evita) Perón)

https://www.foxnews.com/world/argentina-abortion-president-bill

There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.
Proverbs 6:16-19

who doesn’t love a good mystery, but does it really matter….

“History is much more the product of chaos than of conspiracy”
―Zbigniew Brzeziński

Whenever you’re faced with an explanation of what’s going on in Washington,
the choice between incompetence and conspiracy,
always choose incompetence.
Charles Krauthammer

(vintage wartime child’s lead figure of General Montgomery with a leash around the
Führer’s neck/Julie Cook 2017)

Ever so many years, those various agencies and governmental offices in charge of all
things covert and of all things hidden begin to release aged documents…
declassifying that which was once considered “top secret.”
As somehow time works her magic and renders that which was held sacred
as to now being considered ‘non est dignum’, or no longer of worth.

The most recent and tantalizing declassification has been the Kennedy files.

Ever since that fateful November Dallas day when a young president was gunned down,
mystery and intrigue swirled in the wake of a Nation’s grief.

Did Oswald or didn’t Oswald act alone?
Was it the Soviets?
Khrushchev?
The KGB?
Cheka?
Cuba?
Castro?
The Mob?
Hoover?
The CIA?
Jimmy Hoffa?
The Republicans
The Protestants….

On and on goes the swirling madness of whodunit, what ifs and conspiracy…
all of which plays out in the vivid human imagination.

And just this very day, I caught an interesting little questionable news worthy
tidbit…of another story of declassification and some old CIA dossiers…

It seems that as late as 1955, ten years following the fall of the German Reich,
the CIA was chasing credible leads that Hitler was actually alive and maybe
not so well, living first in Colombia, then moving on the Argentina.

Our history tells us that as the Russians stormed into Berlin, Hitler,
along with his long time companion and most recent bride of one day Eva Braun,
hunkered down in an underground Berlin bunker digesting cyanid capsules with Hitler
then making certain things would end by shooting himself in the head.

According to Wikipedia…
In accordance with Hitler’s prior instructions, that afternoon their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker’s emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker. Records in the Soviet archives show that their burnt remains were recovered and interred in successive locations until 1970, when they were again exhumed, cremated, and the ashes scattered.

Accounts differ as to the cause of death; one version stated that he died by poison only and another view claimed he died by a self-inflicted gunshot while biting down on a cyanide capsule. Contemporary historians have rejected these accounts as being either Soviet propaganda or an attempted compromise in order to reconcile the different conclusions.
One eyewitness stated that Hitler’s corpse showed signs of having been shot through the mouth, but this has been proven unlikely. There is also controversy regarding the authenticity of skull and jaw fragments that were recovered.
In 2009, American researchers performed DNA tests on a skull that Soviet officials had long believed to be that of Hitler. The tests and examination revealed that the skull was actually that of a woman less than 40 years old. The recovered jaw fragments were not tested

When the Soviet soldiers advanced on Berlin, they were like a pack of wild
hungry and exhausted dogs—their enthusiasm for having crushed their mortal enemy would border on delirium.

Sections of their soot scrawled graffiti, along with holes made by grenades,
still remain on display in the rebuilt German Reichstag.

I find it hard to imagine that as triumphant as those Soviet soldiers were feeling
as they marched upon that city and finding the remains of Hitler, they would
somehow temper their enthusiasm for a hasty and impromptu burial as if some sort
of common sense suddenly prevailed and they found it important to hide the remains of madness lest any sort of shrine would eventually emerge.

I would think rather that there would be pictures taken, as soldiers would in macabre fashion, parade the now deceased and desecrated remains as some sort of trophy
and confirmation of victory….rather than the tale that the Soviets ferried off the remains, sealing them away.
This as we recall how the Italians who, finally rid of Mussolini, strung his body up
in the Piazzale Loreto for public display and desecration…
why would we expect the Soviet soldiers to show any more restraint?

So without a body, our imaginations have been left to wander and wonder all
these many years…

But what of it?

What does it matter all these many years later knowing that Hitler, who would now
be long dead, had run away?
Should we be surprised that a maniacal lunatic who was already cowering in a fortified bunker, wouldn’t consider escape? Would he be so daring enough of a coward to
have actually committed suicide or would he have run and hid if given the opportunity?

What of a president who was shot to death as our democracy played on…

Does some sort of new hidden truth change our lives or change our fate or the fate
of those gone before us?

The German Reich was over, the war soon ending with two bombs being dropped on Japan…
A president was dead as a vice president was sworn in as an assassin was soon
gunned down himself.

Our lives went forward as history turned another page.

And so man, with his most vivid imagination, races forward….
or races backward depending on who you ask.

Was the landing on the moon real?
What happens when you play a Beatles album in reverse?
Did the Holocaust really happen?
Was Jack the Ripper the Queen’s own physician?
Was it a Hillary body double?

On and on goes the often ludicrous speculations of what was, what could be
and what might have been…

But one thing remains certain…
That there is only one Truth that matters.
One Truth that stands the test of time.
One Truth that speaks to each of us consistently.

As C.S. Lewis again reminds us about the greatest
‘what if’ posed by man when he ponders the actuality that Jesus was who He claimed
to be…that of the Son of God as well as our risen Savior…..

“…He would either be a lunatic —
on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg —
or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice.
Either this man was, and is, the Son of God,
or else a madman or something worse.
You can shut him up for a fool,
you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or
you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God…”

I myself choose to fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God…
as His word is truly the only Word I believe as fact…
man may speculate on everything else in his world, but the one Truth remains…
Jesus Christ is both Lord and Savior….

“You are from below; I am from above.
You are of this world; I am not of this world.
I told you that you would die in your sins;
if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
John 8:23-24

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/11/02/hitler-wwii-escape-investigated-by-cia-bombshell-document-reveals.html

What will you leave behind

And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
Jeremiah 23:3

(the story of a piece of wood found in a cross cut knot / Julie Cook / 2015)

Recently I read a story on the BBC website about an ominous discovery. It was a story about finding, along with the subsequent necessity of diffusing, an undetonated bomb from WWII. The bomb precipitated the largest post war evacuation ever in the history of Cologne, Germany.

As is often the case, a construction company preparing a site for some new underground pipe made the frightening discovery. The unexploded 1 ton bomb was buried 16 feet below the surface.

20,000 city residents, including those from an elderly care facility along with the Zoo, several schools and surrounding businesses were all evacuated in Cologne yesterday as the Rhine River was closed to commerce as was the air space over the city as a bomb squad team was dispersed to safely unarm the bomb.

According to the German newspaper Die Spiegel it is estimated that hundreds of tons of bombs are discovered yearly littered throughout Europe, with the highest percentage being found in Germany–Thousands of undetonated bombs are either buried underground or lying on the bottom of ocean floors–from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Underneath the lives of 21st century modern-day Germans—under homes, major thoroughfares, schools, churches, synagogues, shopping centers, business. . .all unsuspecting that there is a dark reminder which lies hidden just below their now busy and peaceful lives.

Several times throughout any given year, global news is littered with stories of farmers, fishermen as well as construction crews who inadvertently make such grim and frighting discoveries. Be it the fishermen off the coast of Denmark dragging their nets to awaiting underwater remnants, to construction crews in Germany, Poland, England, Amsterdam and Russia who accidentally uncover an all too explosive past to the farmers in France and Belgium who simply labor to plant their fields which are rife with a deadly debris—all live bombs that were dropped 70 years ago which still pose a very real and dangerous threat today.

In 2014 a man operating a back hoe in the town of Euskirchen near Bonn was killed when he accidentally hit a buried bomb, triggering the deadly explosion. Eight others were injured

In 2011, 6000 citizens on the outskirts of Paris were evacuated from their neighborhood when a 1000 pound unexploded RAF bomb was discovered by a construction crew.

In 2012 thousands of citizens were evacuated in Munich when the discovery of an undetonated 550 pound bomb was found laying buried beneath a nightclub made famous in the 1970’s by the British Rock Group, the Rolling Stones.

Yet it is not only Germany or her sister countries of Europe or Russia which are sitting on top of potential catastrophes. . .
Millions of buried land-mines litter the Balkan region which spans 11 countries. In recent years, these countries have witnessed heavy and devastating flooding. . . flooding which has in turn unearthed thousands of undetonated deadly land-mines. Long buried reminders from the Bosnian War of 1992-1995.

Last year the British news agency The Telegraph ran an article about how scientists from both France and Croatia have been working together on enlisting “sniffer bees” to help “sniff” out explosives. Scientists discovered that the bees olfactory sense is on par with that of dogs and that the bees can be trained to keenly sniff out TNT. Bomb experts hope to release the bees in the fields while following their movement as they “hone” in on buried explosives.

Southeast Asia is also rife with deadly reminders of its tumultuous past as a fare share of its forgotten nightmares, those thousands of undetonated buried bombs and land-mines, all of which now litter the fields, streams and cities from Vietnam to Laos to Cambodia to Korea and even to Japan.

And then there is the Middle East. . .Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Iran. . .

The global list of the dark reminders of conflicts, police actions, as well as world wars, litter the world like a spilled bowl of popcorn.

The mainland of the United States has been left relatively unscathed when it comes to things such as land-mines and buried undetonated bombs. The US is fortunate in that the sorts of discovery of war paraphernalia is from wars fought long past. . . Revolutionary, Indian, Spanish and Civil Wars—all long before modern warfare’s use of live ammunition and bombs.
Only the wayward musket ball, arrowhead, spear, sword or cannon ball. . .

Yet there are those rare times that a country is privy to more shining historical moments such when a farmer, tending a lone field somewhere in the UK, or an errant treasure hunter detects, then digs up, a hoard of Roman coins or battle gear. There was even the recent story of the lost remains of a once dubious king, King Richard III, being unearthed from underneath a parking lot in Leicester.

These are the stories of what lurks beneath our feet. . .

Yet the question remains. . .
What of future generations?
What shall they be unearthing that once belonged to us. . .
What will our discarded, throwaway, perhaps deadly legacy be. . .
What of the dead zones such of Chernobyl or Fukushima?
What of our own Love Canal and Three Mile Island?
What of the mountains of discarded toxic trash littering Paraguay and Argentina?
Much of which has been shipped from the US to be dumped in impoverished countries.
That whole “not in my backyard” mentality.
It is the poisonous remains of our love affair with the never ending growth of technology and electronics. . .all full of lead, mercury,cadmium, dioxin. . .
Thrown out and shipped out. . .as in. . .out of sight, out of mind. . .

Hidden dark reminders of our fractious as well as industrial past, resting unsuspected and forgotten. . .until a child playing in a field finds a shiny piece of metal sticking up out of the ground and makes the fatal mistake of pulling it out. . .

The question remains, what will future generations unearth that once belonged to us and what will be the consensus?

Birthdays, ice makers and Medicare?

“I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth. ”
― Ovid

(do not buy this. . .)

(Part I / because anything dealing with the Government has to have its own part. . . as its too lengthy a topic to be included with any other thought. . .)

Did you know that just about a year before one turns 65, one begins to receive an onslaught of mailers, adverts and junk mail regarding Medicare? And not that I would know about that–I will merely be turning 55 later this year, not 65. However I am receiving an onslaught of junk from AARP but I digress and that is for another story.

It is my dear sweet husband (he felt badly I painted him in such a bad light over that whole anniversary debacle and my near death experience with the yellow jackets of which he basically exposed me to—digressing. . .) who is turning (actually just turned last week) 65. . .
but shhhhh, don’t tell anyone because he really doesn’t want anyone to know or to be reminded because one never turns an age such as 65, that’s just for parents and grandparents. . .hummmmmmmm

And as he is not one for taking the time to know or learn about things such as Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, AARP, IRA, or RIP. . .as he’s consumed with the owning, operating and managing a small town retail business, trivial matters such as insurance, Federal, State and Local matters plus medical mumbo jumbo, etc, is left to me, the one who’s suppose to be able to figure such out while making perfect sense of it all.

Are you freaking kidding me!!?
I still have a hard time figuring out decimals and percents and now I’ve got to decipher something like Medicare?! Oh dear Lord!!!

The one fact I had gleaned from the tidal wave of Medicare mail was that I had to get him registered or so said our health insurance. As a teacher for the majority of my life, our insurance is what I carried through the school, which is in turn issued through the state. So it was the state insurance folks, who joined the litany of those mailing out sign up reminders, which basically gave me a small heads up.

Question.

Why does the Government feel the need to remind us that we’re reaching some kind of magic number on the age scale?
Why did they choose 65 as that magic age?
I thought 50 was the new 30. . .wouldn’t that make 85 the now magic Government age number on their magic age scale?
Why, if they seem to know you’re turning 65, do you have to sign up?
Can’t they just automatically sign you up, since they seem to know you’re supposed to be signing up anyway?
And why do we have to sign up?
Why is there no opting out?
No choice?
Didn’t somebody run on the platform of Choice?
Oh, my bad, that was Change–and we see where that’s all going. . .digress, digress, digress. . .
What happens if you didn’t want to sign up?
What’s wrong with the insurance you already have, that is if you have insurance and you like it?
Back to the change / choice business. . .

So many questions and so few answers.
This whole sign up but no opting out and being told to sign up sounds oddly familiar—
. . .use that generic foreign accent when thinking this. . .”Ve have vays of making you sign. . .”

Ok, so we keep getting these reminder cards from every insurance company under the sun including AARP, the NRA, the Democrats, the Republicans, the Tea drinkers, Starbucks, as if anyone and everyone is in countdown mode.
You have 6 months before your 65th birthday to sign up
You have 3 months before your 65th birthday to sign up
You have 1 month before your 65th birthday, you better as hell sign up—
Well maybe it wasn’t exactly stated like that but you catch the gist.

I made a little file folder.
I tried sorting out the real reminders and information from the fake adverts and scams.
I called our insurance company.
I went on line.
I pretended I was him. . .shhhh, don’t tell, it’s what wives do who have been married as long as I have.
I got him signed up.
Or so I guess.

Do you want part A, B, C, or D?
Oooo, choice. Now you’re talking. . .
You need part A and B but maybe not C.
If you get part C then you have part A and part B but now maybe you need D?
Maybe you need to add part D, that way you’ll have every part you ever thought you’d need but does that now exclude A?
What about Social Security.
What about Social Security?
It’s still there, right?
Will you draw Social Security?
Do you have existing insurance.
Do you work?
Do you want to work?
Does your spouse have existing insurance?
Do you have a spouse?

WHAT???!!!

Use this card until the other card comes.
What other card?
Use your old card with the new card.
What new card?
What old card?
Destroy those cards and now just use this card.
Which card?

WHAT??!!

A week passed.
A very official looking letter came addressed to my husband.
I opened it.
Shhhhhh, don’t tell, remember that’s what wives do.
You owe $325 for your medicare.

WHAT???

He comes home from work.
I slowly push the letter over in his direction.
“What’s this?” he quips
It appears to be a bill.
“A bill, a bill for what?”
Medicare.
WHAT?!!
expletive, expletive, expletive
YOU MEAN YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR MEDICARE??!!
Apparently so.
“This is a one time fee right?”
I don’t think so. . .
EXPLETIVE EXPLETIVE EXPLETIVE
“What do you you mean you have to pay?
We already pay for insurance, as it’s taken out of your check every month right?
Correct.
“You mean I’ve got to pay on top of that payment???” Double insurance?”
Apparently so.
“Well if that’s the case, I don’t want it.
Just sign me out.
I don’t want that.
I’m not paying for that.
What we have is just fine”

I don’t think it works that way. I don’t think you have a choice (I’m thinking maybe somebody out there might want to think about running on the choice slogan)
“The [expletive] I don’t, I’m not paying this.”
Then they’ll just come get you (you know who “they” are, right?)
“Well this isn’t right.”
“You need to call someone.”
“If this is the case, that much more a month and we’ll never [expletive] retire!”
“Are they crazy?” (Again, you know who “they” are right?)
“We can’t afford this.”
“Write about that on that blob of yours”
That would be bloG
“That’s what I said BLOB!”
Yes, your’e right— no time to disagree

“Is your dad paying?”
(What isn’t my 86 year old dad not paying for?!)
“I thought a person signed up and Medicare was something free, something the Government did for “seniors”, not that I’m a senior. . .”

Somewhere far away voices are laughing as in the joke he just made about the Government doing something free.
That’s a good one.

Stay tuned for part II tomorrow –remember there’s a story about an ice-maker in here somewhere.