Wildfire Fighters

Goats get a bad rap in the Bible, what with always being separated out from the sheep and sent off in shame. But in California, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is rejuvenating the goats’ image by turning nature’s lawnmower into wildfire fighters:

"From hilly San Francisco to more rural settings, California landowners, business and officials have hired the voracious animals to devour the grass and brush that fuels wildfires.

"Last year, more than 5,500 fires blackened over 168,000 acres in the most populous U.S. state.

"’Goats are just another tool in the toolbox for California and we try to use as many tools as possible,’ California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Michael Jarvis said in an interview last week."

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The meek who inherit the land will have the goats to thank.

Happy Birthday, Thomas Sowell!

Sowell1Yesterday, June 30, Thomas Sowell turned 75.

Normally I’d put a birthday listing in the "Current Events" category, but I decided to put this one in history because Sowell chose to celebrate his birthday by writing a column in which he reflects on the seventy-five years he’s been alive and all that’s happened in them.

They form one third of the time the United States has been around, and a lot has happened, both here and abroad.

His conclusion?

There is much to complain about today and to fear for the future of our children and our country. But despair? Not yet.

We have all come through too much for that.

GET THE STORY.

NOTE: I make a conscious point of listening to my elders, and for a very simple reason: They know stuff that I don’t. I recommend the policy generally, and it’s a treat to have someone like Sowell reflect on the events of his life–so far!

Many happy returns, Dr. Sowell!

Introducing Bennifer

Bennifer

On the off-chance that any of you follow our national reality soap opera As Tinseltown Turns, JimmyAkin.org can save you the outlay on next week’s People magazine. (Or, if you’d rather start up another Hollywood marriage betting pool, we’ll give you the scoop you need for that, too.) The couple known as Bennifer — Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, not Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, in case your People subscription lapsed recently — have married:

"Jennifer Garner has gone where no woman has gone before — down the aisle with Ben Affleck.

"The twosome, who are expecting their first child together this fall, exchanged vows Wednesday at the Parrot Cay resort in the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos.

"’They’re married and they’re expecting their first child,’ the newlweds’ reps, Ken Sunshine and Nicole King, said in a sparse but official statement.

"The surprise nuptials were attended by Garner’s Alias costar, Victor Garber, who looked on as the white-clad bride kissed her new husband following a sunset ceremony, per the National Enquirer."

GET THE STORY.

Congratulations, many happy returns, stay together ’til death parts you, and all that.

Now. Will someone please tell me why this news deserved up-to-the-minute front-page coverage at Yahoo? I haven’t looked around at other news sites, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were breathless newsflashes up on those sites too. And another question: Why is this country so shallow that we must entertain ourselves through voyeuristic peeks into the private lives of people who are paid outrageous sums of money to pretend to be other people for a living?

The Freakanomics of Tinseltown…. Now that would be an interesting economic analysis.

This Rock Giveaway

A friend writes:

I’ve been slowly going through the endless piles of "stuff" that I’ve accumulated over the years, and I have decided that I am going to get rid of all my back issues of This Rock.  (I’ve already distilled out of them whatever material I will need.) 

I haven’t done an actual tallying, but I’m sure that I probably have the past 10 years or so–in full.  Do you know of anyone who would want these back issues?  (Or do you know where they could be best used?) 

I am willing to give them away, but there is one hitch.  It would probably be somewhat costly to ship them, and I’m not really in a position to do that at this time.  So whoever is going to get these magazines would have to pay for shipping.

If folks want to call dibs in the combox, I’ll forward the names and e-mail addresses to the friend doing the This Rock giveaway on a first come, first served basis (i.e., if for any reason it doesn’t work out with the first person who calls dibs, I’ll send him the second persons’s name).

These This Rocks have a lot of uses. Not only can you use them for yourself, you give them as gifts, use them for evangelization, turn more folks on to This Rock, send them to prisoners, etc., etc.

All yours just for the asking (and the shipping)!

Compendium Excerpts

Earlier today I linked a couple of Zenit stories on the release of the Compendium of the Catechism. Zenit also carried a story excerpting certain questions from the Compendium. Here goes:

3. How is it possible to know God only with the light of reason?

Starting from creation, that is, from the world and the human person, man, with reason alone, can know with certainty a God as origin and end of the universe and as the highest good, truth and infinite beauty.

23. What unity is there between the Old and New Testaments?

Scripture is one, as the Word of God is one; the salvific plan of God is one, the divine inspiration of both Testaments is one. The Old Testament is a preparation for the New, and the New is the fulfillment of the Old: both illuminate one another mutually.

32. How should non-Catholic Christians be regarded?

There are many elements of sanctification and truth in the Churches and ecclesial Communities, which have distanced themselves from the full communion of the Catholic Church. All these goods come from Christ and lead to Catholic unity. The members of these Churches and Communities are incorporated to Christ in Baptism: for this reason, we recognize them as brothers.

171. What is the meaning of the affirmation: "There is no salvation outside the Church"?

It means that all salvation comes from Christ-Head through the Church, which is his Body. Therefore, those cannot be saved who, knowing the Church as founded by Christ and necessary for salvation, do not enter it and do not persevere. At the same time, thanks to Christ and to his Church, those can attain eternal salvation who, without fault, do not know the Gospel of Christ and his Church, but seek God sincerely and, under the influence of grace, try to do his will known through the dictates of their conscience.

471. Why must society protect every embryo?

The inalienable right to life of every human individual, from his conception, is a constitutive element of civil society and of its legislation. When the State does not put its force at the service of the rights of all, and, in particular, of the weak, among whom are the unborn conceived, the very foundations of the State of law are undermined.

475. When are scientific, medical or psychological experiments with persons or human groups morally legitimate?

They are morally legitimate if they are at the service of the integral good of the person and society, without disproportionate risks for life and the physical and psychic integrity of the individuals, opportunely informed and with their consent.

482. What is required for peace in the world?

It requires the just distribution and protection of the goods of people, free communications between human beings, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, [and] the assiduous practice of justice and fraternity.

502. What are the offenses to the dignity of marriage?

They are: adultery, divorce, polygamy, incest, free unions (living together, concubinage), the sexual act before or outside of marriage.

514. To what type of work does every person have a right?

Access to secure and honest work must be open to all, free of unjust discrimination, in respect of free economic initiative and a just compensation.

533. What is man’s greatest desire?

Man’s greatest desire is to see God. This is the cry of his whole being: "I want to see God!" Man attains his authentic and full happiness in the vision and the blessedness of the One who created him out of love and attracts him to Himself by his infinite love.

SOURCE.

Now, I don’t know how the official English translation will come out, but if it reads like this one in some places, the Compendium will not–as advertised–be suitable for all people of all ages. Seven year-olds are not going to find it easy to memorize and understand what it means to say that "The inalienable right to life of every human individual, from his
conception, is a constitutive element of civil society and of its
legislation."

The answer to question 514 also gets progressively more unintelligible as it goes. I’m thinking that’s just a translation problem, though.

In any event, thanks to Zenit for giving us this glimpse into the Compendium!

In The Name Of The Force…

Kenobi_3

More and more, churches are turning to gimmicks to draw worshippers. Since popular culture sometimes seems to have a larger following than Christianity these days, the gods of pop culture are pressed into service to entertain Christians bored with Christ. You may have heard, for example, of a Protestant church that organized a "Harry Potter service." Harry Potter may yet make a comeback when the new book is released on July 16, but, in the meantime, behold the "Star Wars service":

"A long time ago in a church, far, far away, [an Anglican] vicar and his flock sang their final hymn to the theme tune of the Star Wars saga. Well, not that long ago, or far away, really. Last week, in fact, in West Yorkshire, a parish church held a special service to mark the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

"It seems that in an increasingly secular Britain, vicars are turning to the Force to keep church attendance figures high, and to attract that crucial youth market.

"Reverend Paul Walker explained that the service was inspired by the children of the Parish, who explored the ideas in the film in their catechism class, The BBC reports.

"Walker said that the service covered the ideas of good and evil, resisting the temptation of the ‘dark side’, and what it means to have the force of God in your life. ‘We wanted a special service to bring these themes together and celebrate the victory of good over evil,’ he added."

GET THE STORY.

Please note the Reverend Walker’s comment, "We wanted a special service to bring these themes together and celebrate the victory of good over evil." Uh huh. Because the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ fails so miserably at accomplishing that, you know. After all, when a feature-length film was made in the United States last year that depicted the last twelve hours of Christ’s life, did anyone bother to go see it?

Dangerous Species

DeephotojpgYesterday I had a close encounter with an animal of the same kind you see here. Though briefly shaken, I was unconcerned until I read in AARP Magazine’s July/August issue (sorry, story not available online) that deer account for more human deaths in the U.S. than any other animal.  Dogs? Shark attack? Not even close.

Here is the breakdown, with the number of human deaths per year:

  • Deer       –    150
  • Dogs       –    18
  • Snakes    –    15
  • Sharks    –     2
  • Bears     –    .5

Now, I am sympathetic with those who would put deer into a different category because, after all, they don’t really "kill" people (or do they?…). I am even reluctant to call them a nuisance when we are the ones driving into them at half-a-hundred miles per hour. I would sure rather die in a collision with a deer than be mauled to death by zombie dogs.

Still, I didn’t know there were so many human deaths associated with deer wrecks. As Michelle has said, be careful out there.

Happy Tunguska Event Day!

Tunguska01Today, June 30, in the year 1908 was the day something really mysterious happened over the Tunguska region of Siberia. It also flattened a lot of trees in the area.

Folks in the region saw a fireball streaking across the sky, following which there was a huge explosion and half the sky lit up. Then there was a shockwave that knocked them off their feet and broke window panes 400 miles away from the explosion.

The sky didn’t get dark that night in Europe. There were "skyglows" for several nights, and on the first people said it was so bright that you could read newspapers without artificial light.

Nobody knows what caused this–not for sure, anyway. When folks finally got around to investigating the site (20 years later!), they didn’t find any obvious impact crater, suggesting an airburst event fairly high up in the atmosphere.

Leading theories are that it was a meteorite that exploded in the air–or a comet fragment.

More exotic (and less likely) theories include a chunk of antimatter or a small black hole or an alien spaceship.

LEARN MORE.

(Also, SPACE.COM HAS A STORY ABOUT SOME FOLKS STILL ADVOCATING THE SPACESHIP THEORY AND CLAIMING WRECKAGE WAS RECOVERED.)

ALSO TODAY IN HISTORY:

On Jordan's Filthy Banks

Your travel tip for the day: If you go the Holy Land, scratch "Swimming in the Jordan" off of your To-Do List:

"The Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptized, is heavily polluted with sewage and is in danger of drying up after decades of conflict and intense agricultural use, environmentalists said on Friday.

[…]

"’The Jordan River will disappear if nothing is done soon. More than half of it is raw sewage and runoff water from agriculture. What keeps the river flowing today is sewage,’ Munqeth Mehyar, chairman of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FOEME), an Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian group, told Reuters."

GET THE STORY.

Glad I didn’t know any of this when I went to the Holy Land on pilgrimage in the Jubilee Year 2000. It would have sucked some of the magic out of being sprinkled with Jordan River water while we renewed our baptismal promises.