Had W.C. Fields been British and became a Yeoman Warden conducting tours of the Tower of London, it might run something like this.
[via]
This is Part II of a four-part series posted on the Utoobage. Part I is good, too (and includes an explanation of why some turds float and others sink). Check out the other parts of the tour, but only after The Overnight Open Thread.
This will most likely not surprise anyone, but Christians and Jews are being persecuted- mainly in muslim countries. It’s amazing that wherever these muzz parasites show up, they demand, and usually get, their hosts to give them special rights that NO other religion gets.
Yet in countries where the followers of this cancerous disease called islam are the majority, not only do other religions not any special rights, they usually get none whatsoever, and are lucky if they aren’t murdered by the ever-tolerant members of the “Religion of Peace™” for daring not to convert to that gutter religion that worships a child-molester as its prophet and prays to a “God” that can only be described as what the Old and New Testament calls Satan.
Turkey is usually portrayed by the libturds in the media as an example of “tolerant” muzz country willing to allow those of other religions to live peacefully among its mostly muzz population. Don’t you believe that for a second!
While the Turkish government might claim to be more “tolerant” of Christians and Jews, its citizens don’t seem to be very tolerant. The following video is a speech from Austrian Parliament member Ewald Stadler to the Turkish Ambassador stating that “People are Sick and Tired of the One-Way Street Tolerance Babble Which You (muslims) Feed On”, and goes on to describe the stabbing and beheading of a Roman-Catholic Archbishop named Luigi Padovese, who was stabbed eight times and then beheaded by one of those tolerant followers of the ROP™ screaming allahu akbar as he cut off the man’s head.
But of course, when it comes to the muzz swine persecuting Christians and Jews, we’ve got more.
In the Vatican’s annual statement of peace delivered right before Christmas, Pope Benedict XVI said:
“Christians are the religious group which suffers most from persecution on account of its faith,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote in the Vatican’s annual Peace Day message. The pontiff chose not to single out the most notable perpetrators of this persecution, but previous Vatican statements and numerous human rights surveys point the finger at Muslim-majority countries. In most of them, Islam is the official state religion and source of law. In those places, there is no appreciation for the Western practice of freedom of worship. Indeed, free exercise is the very thing that can lead to violence.
The case of Asia Bibi – a 45-year-old Pakistani Christian mother of five sentenced to death in November for allegedly blaspheming against Muhammad – has gained wide press attention. Less noticed is the case of the Rev. Wilson Augustine, a 25-year-old Pakistani Christian evangelist who was beaten with clubs and belts and set on fire for preaching the Gospel in villages near the town of Sargodha. In Egypt, there is rising violence against members of the ancient Coptic Christian community, which existed in the country centuries before Islam was founded. In January, six Christians were killed when three Muslim gunmen opened fire on worshippers attending a Coptic Christmas Mass. In another case, a Christian named Farouk Attallah was killed by four Muslim men who were outraged that his son was romantically involved with a Muslim girl. They were arrested, but the case was thrown out for “lack of evidence.”
In many Muslim countries, Christians face institutional discrimination regarding marriage and inheritance laws, taxes, government employment, and time, place and manner of permitted worship. Conversion to Christianity is frequently a capital offense, and in Saudi Arabia, Christian worship of any kind is banned. Those carrying Bibles or other religious materials are subjected to police harassment and confiscation of the dangerous devotional items. Dissenters from these Shariah-based violations of religious freedom face charges of blasphemy and stringent punishments. According to an October study by Freedom House, such blasphemy laws reach well beyond their purported purpose of protecting religious dogma and are used to stifle all manner of expression and political dissent.
Click here to read the rest
Then there’s this:
ADLERSTEIN & MOELLER: Iraq’s Christian ‘religicide’
Christmas is time of fear, flight for ancient faith communityReligious tolerance is under attack. The targeting of Christians in Iraq threatens not only a historic community of hundreds of thousands of souls, but the very heart of Western democracy.
Tolerance to all religious groups was one of the founding ideas of the American way. We can take pride in having exported it to large areas of the globe. All people have benefited from this, not just minorities and people of faith. Generally, governments that refuse to extend full protection to religious identification and expression are governments that take personal liberties lightly. Experience has shown that those governments cannot be trusted to keep to agreements, making our efforts on their behalf worthless. The health of religious liberty is therefore a good test of where to commit our resources. It should be intolerable to us to have spilled the blood of thousands of American troops to stabilize a government in Iraq that cannot protect a Christian community that is almost 2,000 years old, allowing its members to be slaughtered.
The al Qaeda-linked Oct. 31 attack on Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad killed more than 60 people, including two priests. In 2004, this cathedral was among six churches attacked across Baghdad and Mosul. In recent years, Iraq’s Christians have been targeted for kidnapping, extortion, killing, bombing and assassination. Al Qaeda has declared that all Christians are its legitimate targets.
While we enjoy our holidays, Iraq’s Christians can look to a future of even greater danger. On the eve of the 2003 American-led invasion, its Christian population was nearly 1 million. Today, that number has plummeted to an estimated 350,000. More flee daily.
This “religicide” of Christians holds disturbing parallels to a previous systematic, intentional effort to eliminate another religious community from Iraq. In 1941, Haj Muhammad Amin al-Husseini, grand mufti of Jerusalem and Adolf Hitler’s ally, used radio broadcasts to incite the population against their Jewish neighbors. For 48 hours, Jews were murdered in the streets, raped, tortured and mutilated. Iraq’s Jewish population was subjected to systematic persecution for parts of the next decade; by 1951, 100,000 were forced to leave for Israel. Staged trials led to the public hanging of Jews in the aftermath of Israel’s Six-Day War. Today, virtually nothing remains of Iraq’s once-vibrant Jewish community. Unless the world takes action, this is the fate that awaits Iraq’s Christians.
Click here to read the rest
And the muzz scum wonder why so many normal people despise them and their gutter religion of murder and mayhem.
The only wonder I have is why so many seemingly normal people want to tolerate and celebrate these mostly uneducated, illiterate, parasitic leeches coming to their countries.
But then every time I see that America-hating POS living in the White House, and realize that over 60 million people actually voted for the scumbag, I know why.
The above image is Saint Nicholas of Myra Saves Three Innocents from Execution by the famed Ukrainian artist Ilya Repin. Another work by Ilya Repin is featured here.
The “Santa Claus” celebrated in Western pop culture is a myth that has been built up around a real historical figure, namely Saint Nikola of Myra, known and loved by the Serbs as Sveti Nikola.
Why are we telling children to wait for “Santa Claus” to arrive on Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer, when the truth is far more inspiring?
Instead, we should be teaching children and adults to follow the real “Saint Nick” as a role model. Not only did the good Saint spend the entire fortune that he had inherited on helping the poor, but he also was a brave man who fearlessly fought for truth and justice.
From the website of the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George in Des Moines, Iowa:
One story about Nicholas tells us that, while visiting a remote area, the saint received news that the ruler of Myra, Eustathius, had condemned three innocent men to death. Nicholas rushed home and arrived in time to physically intervene in the execution by grasping the executioner’s sword and throwing it to the ground. He ordered the condemned men freed from their bonds. Approximately 1500 years later, in the 19th century, a controversy arose over capital punishment in Russia. Russian artist Ilya Repin studied ancient icons of Nicholas grasping the blade with his bare hand and used the images to make his own painting (in a realistic style instead of an iconographic style) depicting the incident and making his own comment about the controversy through art.
Such was the reputation of the good Bishop of Myra that the executioners immediately set free the three condemned men. Later, when Eustathius had repented of his wrongdoing and had performed a suitable penance, Saint Nicholas forgave him.
Below is one of the traditional Russian icons of the type that Ilya Repin studied for his own art:
Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of Russia, of Greece, and of many other cities, regions, occupations, and circumstances of life. Most famously, he is the patron saint of children, of boatmen, watermen, mariners, and sailors, of travellers and pilgrims, and of students and scholars. He is also the patron saint of judges, of repentant thieves, and of those victimized by injustice.
Originally published on 1389 Blog.
St. Nikola of Myra is venerated on December 6 (civil calendar) or December 15 (in Orthodox jurisdictions that follow the Old Calendar).
1. St Nicolas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia.
This saint, famed throughout the entire world today, was the only son of his eminent and wealthy parents, Theophanes and Nona, citizens of Patara in Lycia. They dedicated to God the only son He gave them. St Nicolas was instructed in the spiritual life by his uncle Nicolas, Bishop of Patara (see below), and became a monk at ‘New Sion’, a monastery founded by his uncle. On the death of his parents, Nicolas distributed all the property he inherited to the poor and kept nothing back for himself. As a priest in Patara, he was known for his charitable works, fulfilling the Lord’s words: ‘Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth’ (Matt. 6:3). When he embraced a life of solitude and silence, thinking to live in that way until his death, a voice from on high came to him: ‘Nicolas, set about your work among the people if you desire to receive a crown from Me.’ Immediately after that, by God’s wondrous providence, he was chosen as archbishop of the city of Myra in Lycia. Merciful, wise and fearless, Nicolas was a true shepherd to his flock. He was cast into prison during the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximian, but even there continued to instruct the people in the Law of God. He was present at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325, and, in his zeal, struck Arius with his hand. For this act, he was removed from the Council and from his episcopal duties, until some of the chief hierarchs had a vision of our Lord Christ and His most holy Mother showing their sympathy with Nicolas.
This wonderful saint was a defender of the truth of God, and was ever a spirited champion of justice among the people. On two occasions, he saved three men from undeserved sentences of death. Merciful, trustworthy and loving right, he walked among the people like an angel of God. People considered him a saint even during his lifetime, and invoked his aid when in torment or distress. He would appear both in dreams and in reality to those who called upon him for help, responding speedily to them, whether close at hand or far away. His face would shine with light as Moses’ did aforetime, and his mere presence among people would bring solace, peace and goodwill. In old age, he sickened of a slight illness, and went to his rest in the Lord after a life full of labour and fruitful toil. He now enjoys eternal happiness in the Kingdom of heaven, continuing to help the faithful on earth by his miracles, and to spread the glory of God. He entered into rest on December 6th, 343.
2. St Nicolas, Bishop of Patara.
The uncle of the great St Nicolas, he set his nephew on the spiritual path and ordained him priest.
Incidentally, the above-mentioned Arius, whom Sveti Nikola struck with his hand, was an infamous heretic who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ.
December 6
† Our Father among the Saints Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra (345)Our beloved holy Father Nicholas is, along with St George (and second to the All-holy Theotokos), probably the best-loved Saint of the Church. His numberless miracles through the ages, on behalf of the countless Christians who have called on him, cannot be told.
He was born in Lycia (in Asia Minor) around the end of the third century, to pious Christian parents. His love of virtue, and his zeal for observing the canons of the Church, were evident from his infancy, when he would abstain from his mother’s breast every Wednesday and Friday until the evening. From early youth he was inclined to solitude and silence; in fact, not a single written or spoken word of the Saint has come down to us. Though ordained a priest by his uncle, Archbishop Nicholas, he attempted to withdraw to a hermit’s life in the Holy Land; but he was told by revelation that he was to return home to serve the Church publicly and be the salvation of many souls.
When his parents died, he gave away all of his inheritance to the needy, and thereafter almsgiving was his greatest glory. He always took particular care that his charity be done in secret. Perhaps the most famous story of his open-handedness concerns a debt-ridden man who had no money to provide dowries for his daughters, or even to support them, and in despair had resolved to give them into prostitution. On three successive nights the Saint threw a bag of gold into the window of the man’s house, saving him and his daughters from sin and hopelessness. The man searched relentlessly to find and thank his benefactor; when at last he discovered that it was Nicholas, the Saint made him promise not to reveal the good deed until after he had died. (This story may be the thin thread that connects the Saint with the modern-day Santa Claus).
God honored his faithfulness by granting him unparalleled gifts of healing and wonderworking. Several times he calmed storms by his prayers and saved the ship that he was sailing in. Through the centuries he has often done the same for sailors who call out to him, and is considered the patron of sailors and all who go to sea.
He was elected Bishop of Myra not long before the great persecutions under Diocletian and Maximian (c. 305), and was put in prison, from which he continued to encourage his flock in the Faith. When the Arian heresy wracked the Church not long after Constantine came to the throne, St Nicholas was one of the 318 Bishops who gathered in Nicea in 325. There he was so incensed at the blasphemies of Arius that he struck him on the face. This put the other bishops in a quandary, since the canons require that any hierarch who strikes anyone must be deposed. Sadly, they prepared to depose the holy Nicholas; but in the night the Lord Jesus and the most Holy Theotokos appeared to them, telling them that the Saint had acted solely out of love for Truth, not from hatred or passion, and that they should not act against him.
While still in the flesh, he sometimes miraculously appeared in distant places to save the lives of the faithful. He once saved the city of Myra from famine by appearing to the captain of a ship full of grain, telling him to take his cargo to the city. He appeared in a dream to Constantine to intercede for the lives of three Roman officers who had been falsely condemned; the three grateful soldiers later became monks.
The holy bishop reposed in peace around 345. His holy relics were placed in a church built in his honor in Myra, where they were venerated by throngs of pilgrims every year. In 1087, after Myra was conquered by the Saracens, the Saint’s relics were translated to Bari in southern Italy, where they are venerated today. Every year, quantities of fragrant myrrh are gathered from the casket containing his holy relics.
Troparion (Tone 4)
In truth you were revealed to your flock as a rule of faith,
an image of humility and a teacher of abstinence;
your humility exalted you;
your poverty enriched you.
Hierarch Father Nicholas,
entreat Christ our God
that our souls may be saved.Kontakion (Tone 3)
You revealed yourself, O saint, in Myra as a priest,
For you fulfilled the Gospel of Christ
By giving up your soul for your people,
And saving the innocent from death.
Therefore you are blessed as one become wise in the grace of God.
Nothing at all like the modern depictions of Santa Claus, it turns out!
In fact, this Byzantine icon from approximately 1000 AD may have have been a fairly accurate representation:
From Proceedings of the Royal Society blog:
A certain Professor Francesco Introna (coincidentally from Bari, Italy) has studied the relics in the modern day, and comissioned Dr Caroline Wilkinson of Manchester University to reconstruct the face of the bishop, using tools now familiar through forensic police work, which have also shed light on the faces of Tutankhamun and Copernicus through similar reconstruction.
Essentially, the skull was subjected to a number of measurements based on both photographic and Roentgenographic images. With these data, Dr Wilkinson was able to infer the size, shape, and thickness of some 26 facial muscles. With the musculature laid over the skull, a layer of (digital) skin may be applied over the muscles, thus completing the facial features. Hair, skin, and eye colour would be chosen based on ethnologic traits of the population in IV century Myra, producing perhaps the closest facsimile possible of a person dead some 1600-odd years.
Interestingly, analysis of the skull pointed towards a broken nose, which would have likely caused a visible (though perhaps not distracting) deformity, one that the modern world may associate more with a rugby player, or boxer.
Originally published on 1389 Blog.
The Diary of Daedalus
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