television detectives and the end of childhood innocence

in calm contentment we could review
shoot outs bank robberies all the rest
secure in the knowledge that the hero would come through
that rationo legalism was the best

then one day in the late 70s
kojak was shooting at some thugs
i was relaxed in all my certainties
until kojak went over like a sack of spuds

and here's the rub he did survive
to keep the streets of new york free of human vermin
my sensibilities died that night
i never put my trust in pop culture again

here's one

Flicking through the channels on the sexevision.
Apparently some incarnation of a British music combo styled The Clash are putting out cover versions of that band's greatest hits.
I alight upon the updated version of Rock The Casbah.
It goes:

"I really don't like this
Rock the Cosbies
Rock the Cosbies.
By order of  Gloria Allred
All 1970's tramps
Can collect a ten million dollar pension
And a million in food stamps
They randomly pick an 80 year old TV celebrity
And claim to have been in his hotel room
In 1973
That he gave them a potion
And sundry other things
Then the room began to spi-n-n-n-n
I really don't like this
Dung ger dung dung
Dung ger duk dung dung
Rock the Costbies
Rock the Cosbies
Gretchen Carlson got fired from Fox
Without a pension plan
She called up Gloria Allred
Who was her only man
They cooked up a tenuous allegation
About Fox CEO Roger Ailes
And the Murdock Corporation paid
Twenty mi-ll-ion-n-n
I really don't like this
Rock the Cosbies 
Rock The Cosbies
This is not Kosher
Rock the Cosbies 
Rock the Cosbies
With feminist attorneys
And bimbo eruptions
And a presumption of guilt when any gold digger impugns an elderly man
Rock the Cosbies
Rock the Cosbies"

Well, well, well gentle and refined travellers of the internet..
After all these years.
I think I'm actually starting to like the Clash.

considerations re poltergeists

There are occasional media reports of hauntings in Ireland and in Britain. Most of them are fake I think.

I recognise that ghosts may be real but I suggest most of the reported incidents have been staged.

The most famous and sensational case in London in the early 1970's was entirely falsified by people seeking to get their names in the papers.

Then there's the perspective that phenomena we think are ghosts might be something else at times.

Father Benedict Groeschel was of the opinion that poltergeist phenomena were the results of mental telepathy. Some sort of mind powers. Often in a teenager and associated with puberty.

I tend to respect him and it's because of him and his claims to have personally witnessed such phenomena, that I'm willing to say that not all the reports of poltergeist activity are the result of fakery.

But I think he was wrong in concluding that some of the moving objects and poltergeist phenomena were mentally induced.

My opinion is that we don't have mind powers that can produce kinetic motion because having such powers would give us an improper advantage over others.

It seems to me that reality is ordered by God so that we don't have mind powers that can produce motion or create an impact using objects. I would regard this position as absolutely in keeping with theories of Darwinian evolution (although I do not think Darwinian evolution is a proven theory.) In Darwinian terms a creature with mind powers could destroy all other creatures. So there are none.

My own explanation for poltergeists and associated phenomena is the presence of a spirit, possibly an evil one, which may be attached to or persecuting a particular person, hence Fr Groeschel's opinion that the person themselves has produced the kinetic effect on objects around them.

This idea would also explain for me how some people appear able to cast curses on others. I'm suggesting that the curse is cast through an evil spirit or spirits and not through any real faculty that the person making the curse has themselves.

I recall a moderately attractive Spanish girl telling me once: "Soy demonio (I am a demon.)"
Apparently she was trying to be exciting.

And I had replied: "You're not a demon. A demon may be interested in you. But he's not you."
By which I meant:
Have no truck with spirits.
Jesus Christ died to set you free from any and every oppression of evil.
This is the age of the one true God.

dawn prayer

The early hour of morning.

As I stood at the window, a fox emerged from the hedge and moved like a ghost through the grass.

I felt like I was receiving a blessing from the Almighty.

The fox took his ease, nosing about in the garden for ten minutes.

He did not seem unduly worried about anything.

Russet fur, a bushy tail, and holy grace.

The artistry of the Creator is writ fine in his creatures.

qatar's in the cradle with the silver spoon jihadis playing zithars with the man man in the moon when we gonna have a caliphate don't know when we'll get together then you know we'll have a good time then jihadis you know we'll have a good time then

Flicking through the channels on the sexevision.
By accident I land on a news station.
An interesting tidbit of news catches my eye.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have together cut all ties with Qatar and have jointly demanded that Qatar cease to sponsor Jihad terrorism, namely by hosting the Isis and Hezbollah terrorist movements.
I consider this story the biggest story on the planet at the moment.
A further demand from Saudi, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE to Qatar is that Qatar close down its international news station styled Al Jazeera.
Alas poor Al Jazeera.
I knew them Horatio.
I used to refer to them simply as "the Nazi channel" as they cheer-led Al Qaeda through the early days of the War On Terror.
Now Egypt which is the largest Arab State in terms of population and Saudi which is the richest, the UAE which is the most cosmopolitan, and Bahrain which is the most open, have more or less endorsed my view that Qatar is up to its neck in Al Qaeda.
These are indeed rum times.
Interestingly enough there has been very little reportage of the Saudi, Egypt, Bahrain, UAE ultimatum to Qatar on ye venerable Murdocks owned Sky News.
Sky as you all know has no revenue stream except for that which comes to it from the Al Qaeda loving Royal Family of Qatar via advertisements for Qatar airlines.
But this is probably not the reason that Sky isn't reporting the single biggest story on the planet this week about four Arab nations threatening a fifth for its support of Jihad.
Sky probably just didn't notice.

sermons and sermonability

Father Baines on the pulpit.
"Many people fear that immigrants will take their jobs..."
The noble Heelers front row centre looks a bit bemused,
I'm thinking that my concerns, not fears, relate more to the reality that we are experiencing via uncontrolled immigration an allied IRA mafia Islamist smash and grab on our nation and our freedoms.
Ireland will not survive this.
Still the jobs issue is not entirely outside my purlieu.
Not so long ago I'd asked the owner of a nursing home about the possibility of employment.
She'd apologetically given me the nay.
And I'd looked around her foyer where the confused and abandoned elderly Irish were being at best ignored by a staff of Pakistanis, Philippinos and one rather aggressive Polish staff member whom I'd seen shouting into the face of a demented old lady: "I am not a nurse."
F---ing right she's not a nurse.
Barely even a human being as evidenced by her treatment of the little old lady.
The proprietor noticed my vacant and pensive mood.
"We really have nothing at the moment James," she'd said.
And I'd murmured softly: "No Irish need apply, eh Miriam?"
Back in Kilcullen church Father Baines continues.
"Let us pray for the grace to do the right thing towards the immigrants."
My face profondeurs into a study.
By doing the right thing, can the Padre possibly mean, re-establishing our borders and expelling all Jihadis and ethnic mafias?
It would be refreshing.
Ho hum.
All these nice people are really going to find Muslim rule quite a shock to their systems.