New Encyclical Soon?

B16’s first encyclical has been hotly anticipated ever since he was elected as the successor of Peter.

I’ve been coming across rumors on what it’ll be about. One that I saw in print was from the Catholic News Service and said:

The sources told Catholic News Service Oct. 20 that the encyclical was a 46-page spiritual meditation focusing in large part on "eros" (love) and "logos" (the word) and their relationship to the person of Christ [SOURCE].

When I saw this, I looked at it cockeyed since it is exceedingly unlikely that Pope Benedict would write an encyclical on the relationship of eros and logos.

While eros is one of the Greek words for love, it has all the wrong conotations (it’s where we get the word "erotic" and was the name of the god of romantic love), it has not played a significant role in the history of Christian theology, and it never appears in the Bible.

So I didn’t know what to make of that–whether it was bad reporting or bad sourcing.

But now CNS has published a much more plausible report on the forthcoming encyclical:

The only certain big thing on the horizon is the pope’s first encyclical, a 46-page meditation titled "Deus Caritas Est" ("God Is Love"), which takes its inspiration from the first letter of St. John. It will be published in early December [SOURCE].

We should know in the next couple of weeks if the report is true.

Born In Arizona. Moved To Babylonia.

King_tutToday–November 26th–back in 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter and his employer Lord Canarvan entered the tomb of King Tutankhamun, becoming the first people to enter it in 3000 years since it had been overlooked by graverobbers.

Precisely because of its overlooking, it contained a wealth of aristic treasures (and junk) that had been stripped from every other pharonic tomb we’ve unearthed.

Precisely because of these treasures, the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb became a media sensation, with people standing in line to see the boy king.

Mystery also surrounded his death at the unusually young age of 19. Had he been murdered? (No, it seems he died from gangrene after breaking his leg.)

Mystery also surrounded the deaths of some of his discoverers. Was there a curse on his tomb? (No, it seems that there is no statistically unusual death rate among those who visited the tomb.)

Tutankhamun’s role in Egyptian history is somewhat interesting. Though undoubtedly due to his advisors since he was only a boy at the time, his reign saw the undoing of his predecessor’s monotheistic reforms.

The Pharaoh Akhenaten banned the previous Egyptian polytheistic cult and instituted his own monotheistic worship of the deity Aten (note the last part of his name; it’s theophoric). Consequently, Tutankhamun’s birthname wsa Tutankhaten.

But when he became pharaoh, he undid his predecessor’s religious reforms, meaning that Akhenaten is now remembered as Egypt’s "heretic king" instead of as a great religious reformer. This makes Tutankhamun a kind of Egyptian "Julian the Apostate"–only a successful one.

He was able to turn Egypt back to its polytheistic roots (which it was all too willing to do since Akhenaten’s reforms were so short lived) and he changed his name to Tutankhamun after the god Amun.

His name means "Living Image of Amun" (ankh = life; tut = image), but for non-specialists the discovery of his artifacts has provided the most important living image of ancient Egypt that the modern world has seen.

As a result, he is now the most famous of the pharaohs, outshining many more historically important ones (like Rameses II or Seti I or Khufu) and the only one to have a popular nickname: King Tut.

Image King indeed!

With his P.R. skills, he could have won a Grammy.

Easy.

LEARN MORE.

2029: The Asteroid Apophis

Apophis_pathOn April 13, 2029 the Earth will have a close encounter of the asteroidal kind.

The asteroid in question was initially thought to have a possibility of hitting the Earth or the Moon (a.k.a. "Luna" for those who have never lived there).

However, further observations reveal that it won’t hit either body but will snake its way between them (see image on left).

There is, however, a 1 in 5560 chance that the asteroid will smack into us exactly 17 years later, on April 13, 2036.

When it swings by in 2029 the asteroid will be big enough to see with the naked eye. If it hits in 2036 it’ll look even bigger.

The asteroid was discovered by a group of astronomers reportedly including fans of the show Stargate SG-1, which may have affected the name they gave to the asteroid: . . . Apophis.

But if these guys are really fans of Stargate, shouldn’t Asteroid Apophis instead be named Asteroid Anubis?

MORE ON ASTEROID APOPHIS.

Godzilla Bleg

GodzillaI’m frustrated.

For some reason I cannot fathom, though there are TONS of Godzilla movies out on DVD, the original version hasn’t been released–so far as I can tell.

I’m not talking about the Raymond Burr-infested American release of Godzilla King of Monsters. I’m talking about the ORIGINAL Raymond Burr-free Japanese version from 1954 (titled Gojira in Japanese).

It’s supposed to be much less campy, much more artistic, and much more gooder.

Yet I can’t find it!

Gojira_1I’ve tried going to the Amazon.co.jp site to order it from Japan (I’ve used the British and German Amazons to order stuff from overseas before), but the Japanese writing system is just too much of a barrier at present for me to find what I’m looking for.

So I was wondering: Could someone who reads Japanese check the site and let me know if they’ve got an original DVD version of the film–preferably with English subtitles?

Or if anyone knows of a western release of the original version, I’d love to know about that, too.

Thanks much, folks!

They Held Their Noses And Ate

What a great history of Thanksgiving food the NYT has today!

EXCERPTS:

The native American food that the Pilgrims supposedly enjoyed would
have offended the palate of any self-respecting English colonist – the
colonial minister Charles Woodmason called it "exceedingly filthy and
most execrable." Our comfort food, in short, was the bane of the
settlers’ culinary existence.

The reason is fairly simple. Hale and her fellow writers seem to
have forgotten that their Puritan forebears migrated to New England
with strict notions about food production and preparation. Proper
notions of English husbandry generally demanded that flesh be
domesticated, grain neatly planted and fruit and vegetables cultivated
in gardens and orchards.

Given these expectations, English migrants recoiled upon discovering
that the native inhabitants hunted their game, grew their grain
haphazardly and foraged for fruit and vegetables. Squash, corn, turkey
and ripe cranberries might have tasted perfectly fine to the English
settlers. But that was beside the point. What really mattered was that
the English deemed the native manner of acquiring these goods nothing
short of barbaric. Indeed, the colonists saw it as the essence of
savagery.

No matter how hard [the colonists] tried, no matter how carefully they tended
their crops and repaired their fences and fattened their cattle and
furrowed their fields, colonial Americans failed to replicate European
husbandry practices. Geography alone wouldn’t allow it.

The adaptation of Indian agricultural techniques not only sent
colonists deep into the woods galloping after game and grubbing corn
from unbound, ashen fields, it also provoked severe cultural
insecurity. This insecurity turned to conspicuous dread when the
colonists were mocked by their metropolitan cousins as living, in the
words of one haughty Englishman, "in a state of ignorance and
barbarism, not much superior to those of the native Indians."

This hurt. And under the circumstances no status-minded English
colonist would have possibly highlighted his adherence to native
American victuals – even if the early Thanksgiving holiday had been a
genuine culinary event. Indeed, it wasn’t until after the Revolution,
when the new nation was seeking ways to differentiate itself from the
Old World, that these foods became celebrated as a reflection of
emerging ideals like simplicity, manifest destiny and rugged
individualism.

GET THE (DELICIOUS) STORY!

 

Holiday Tip: Low Carb Mashed Potatoes!

Mashed_potatoesThis is another "wish I’d thought of this sooner" post. If it comes too late for you to use this Thanksgiving, consider it for Christmas.

For hard-core low-carb folks who will keep the discipline even on holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas (which is to say, people like me), here’s a way to approximate traditional holiday cuisine a little bit.

Some things like turkey and ham are, of course, no problem as long people don’t mess them up with carb-laden additives.

But how is it possible to get a low-carb equivalent of that holiday favorite, mashed potatoes?

Actually, there’s more than one way. I’ve seen mixes for low-carb equivalents to mashed potatoes, but there’s a very simple way to do it that just uses what you can get in an ordinary grocery store.

Here’s the secret: Make mashed cauliflower instead.

Like potatoes, cauliflower brought to the right temperature gets nice and mushy, so you can then mush them up. It’s also simliar in color to potatoes but–unlike the latter food–it is quite low carb. A 3 oz. serving of it has like 2 grams of digestible carbs and 2 grams of fiber and only 20 calories.

So just get some cauliflower–frozen or fresh–and nuke it until it’s really soft (I just tested a package of fresh cauliflower florettes in a bag and after 7 minutes on high it was quite mushy)–the mush it up with a spoon and you’re ready to go.

Since cauliflower–like potatoes–has a relatively neutral taste (not the same as potatoes, but still pretty bland) it’s really just a flavor vehicle for what you put on it.

So what can you put on it?

Exact same stuff you put on mashed potatoes: milk, butter, gravy, mushrooms, chives, cheese, salt, pepper–none of those are problems from a low-carb perspective (as long as you use low-carb milk or half-and-half or heavy cream and as long as the gravy isn’t loaded with carbs; many commercial gravies aren’t bad carb-wise at all), so have at it!

When I was a boy my mom would do fancy things with mashed potatoes on holidays, like form them into individual, ball-like servings (with a point on top) and brown them in the oven before serving. I haven’t verified that that would work with mashed cauliflower, but I imagine it would, so if your family’s into that kind of thing, you might try it, too.

Good luck with your holiday low-carbing!

A Victim Of Sexual Abuse Shares His Perspective

A reader writes:

I have been following the lengthy comments on the arrest of the LifeTeen founder on sexual abuse charges.  I thought I might add my comment as a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of religious (in my case a Christian brother). 

It has taken me many years to deal with the effects of this.  I have also quietly observed the news and instances that have surfaced over many years.  I strongly feel that this is NOT a failing of the Catholic Church.  This is a failing of individuals.  We are all sinners. 

In hearing reports of Catholic abuse, I am profoundly saddened and where it is proven to be fact, strong measures MUST be taken, but I also hear about abuse in other Christian groups, by hockey coaches, by babysitters, and in many other circumstances.  These are all tragedies, but they are the failings of individuals who sin in an act that victimizes the most vulnerable. 

We must all be on guard to come to the aid of those in this situation – in all instances where it occurs. 

We must also understand that evil could lurk on both sides of the equation, where priests might well be unjustly accused. 

I was a Catholic then and remain a Catholic now.  I love the Church and I will not let the all too human failings of man color my understanding of the truth and authority that is Christ’s Church.

May I say that the reader shows a remarkably healthy and balanced perspective on the subject. I am certain that it has been a painful cross for him, but it is a cross that he appears to have born well.

It has long struck me that one of the most important parts of recovering from a personal tragedy (whatever the tragedy may be) is internalizing the resolution: "As bad as this tragedy was, I am not going to allow it to wreck my life." It sounds to me like the reader has internalized this.

My hat’s off to him.

 

Zarqawi An Ex-Terrorist?

I’m starting to think that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may be dead.

(For those not following this part of the news, he’s been the head al-Qa’eda villain in Iraq.)

I mean, at first I was skeptical.

Some Arab TV station was reporting that he and seven others blew themselves up in Mosul to avoid getting caught.

Yeah, right. What some Arab TV station says plus ten dollars will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Then several more Arab TV stations reported the same thing.

Okay, put ’em all together plus ten bucks and you can still get that steamysweet cup of frappuchinomochococoalatte.

But y’know what?

There really WAS an incident in Mosul where a bunch of terrorists in a house blew themselves up to avoid capture.

And it appears that the group included people from Zarqawi’s immediate leadership team, so maybe he was there, too.

And now the U.S. military has announced that they’re doing DNA tests on the bodies from Mosul to see if any of them are Zarqawi.

And then there’s all this Zarqawi not being all over the news personally the last few days.

I mean, if you’re a terrorist mastermind waging an insurgency campaign and a rumor gets out that you’re dead then the first thing you’d better do is blow something up and then issue a statement to prove that you’re still alive, y’know?

I mean, you just can’t let those "Zarqawi is dead" rumors get very far. Not if you want to retain command and control of your organization and keep . . . well . . . inspiring terror in people.

People stop being afraid of someone who they think is dead.  (I mean, unless he’s Dracula or something.)

So where’s Zarqawi?

I’m thinking that he may have shuffled himself off this mortal coil, joined the infernal choir invisible, and become an ex-terrorist.

GET THE STORY.

Also, even if he’s not dead,

HE JUST HAD A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO-GOOD, VERY BAD WEEK.

Doubt & The Real Presence

A reader writes:

My friend’s Mother who has been a Catholic all her life and will stay in the Church, has been having problems believing in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  Any reading you know of she can do?

It’s a little hard to know what to recommend without understanding more precisely what the source of her difficulty is (i.e., which objections to the Real Presence she finds troubling).

In general I would recommend the material in the library and This Rock archive at www.catholic.com that deals with this. It hits about every objection that I’m aware of to the Real Presence.

If the problem is just a general psychological difficulty of accepting something that is contrary to the senses then some of the following points may be helpful for her to contemplate:

  1. There are many times in life where appearances are misleading and we need to act on what we know to be the case, appearances notwithstanding.
  2. We have Jesus’ word on this really emphatically in Scripture.
  3. It’s been the unbroken faith of the Church ever since.
  4. We can have faith in God to guide his Church into correct beliefs.
  5. God is omnipotent and even the things that seem unimaginably hard to us are equally easy for him as the smallest acts. It is as easy for God to make Jesus present in the Eucharist as it is for him to create a single atom or pick up a piece of paper or cause a gentle breeze to blow. Being omnipotent, God does not expend resources when he does things and so all things are equally easy to him. He is completely un-strained by everything he does since he has infinite resources to draw upon (that’s what omnipotence does for you). Something may seem hard to us, but that’s because of our limited resources. It’s not hard to God. For him, everything is easy. It’s just a question of what he chooses to do, and he’s told us that he’s chosen to do this.