Daily Spiritual Warfare

Here is a good reminder that the only warfare a true Christian is called to is the daily spiritual battle against the Enemy, sins and evil. Exterior battles only please the deceiver of humanity, and wreak havoc in the soul and in God's creation.

From the Catholic Exchange.

Excerpt ~

QUOTE Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity’s rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history – CCC #386 - Then, on the other hand, not actively living for God also makes us vulnerable to behaviors that build up evil in the world. When we live as abject Catholics, embracing the truths of the world over the Truths of the Church, we are ripe for spiritual warfare. To remedy this, when our eyes first open each morning, we ought to be making a conscious affirmation of our lives belonging to Christ and covered in His blood. When we live consciously, we are able to see God’s graces more clearly and find the protection and strength we need in them. We aren’t fodder for evil.
Whether or not you believe in the reality of spiritual warfare, it is time to take to heart the truth found in 1 John 4:4: You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you in greater than the one who is in the world. UNQUOTE

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Trying to Make Sense Of the Mess In South Ossetia

A warplane drops bombs near the Georgian city of Gori on Friday as Russian and Georgian forces battle. Courtesy AP.

I'm an amateur armchair intel wonk, something like the Monday morning quarterback or every other foaming online bloviator puffing endless hot air (we should find a way to harness that power for an alternative energy source). So as I got online this morning, I wandered around the cyber romper room of news sources and blogs, and found a few good good background bits of information.

Douglas Muir's backgrounder. written back in March 2008 (over at A Fistful Of Euros) is a good place to start, and I actually understood more about the situation in Georgia after reading it, unlike the first few I came across. Highly recommended. One point that sticks is his observation that South Ossetians and Georgians are both mostly Orthodox Christians (as are the Russians). This does not bode well. Nobody can feud more venomously than the Orthodox when they feel they are provoked. They are masters of backbiting and infighting, not to mention backstabbing and Byzantine intrigues. You can quote me on that. They do have many redeeming virtues, and I say this in all love and charity: 'live and let live ' is NOT among their prevailing attitudes.

QUOTE Couple of things you need to grasp if you’re going to understand South Ossetia. One is, it’s not very horizontal. It’s all mountains, with just enough flat ground for one modest-sized town. Almost all of it is over 1000 meters up, about a third of it over 2,000 meters.
Two, it’s not that big. There are only around 75,000 people in South Ossetia. In both area and population, it’s the smallest of the frozen conflicts.
Three, it’s poor. Really poor. I mean, Transnistria is one of the poorest corners of Europe, but Transnistria is Switzerland compared to South Ossetia. It’s basically 75,000 people living on rocks. Okay, okay, not rocks, but this is a region whose traditional economy consisted of driving sheep uphill in spring and back down again in autumn. There’s no industry to speak of. About one-third of the state’s income comes from charging tolls on the single highway. South Ossetia doesn’t export much but timber, sheep and people. Well, and there was a big counterfeiting operation making US $100 bills a couple of years back. But anyway, point is, not much there. UNQUOTE

Doug Merrill also posted on the war yesterday, please click over and read it all. BTW, he blogs from Tbilsi.

QUOTE One of the reports I read today (can’t find the link, grr) held that the Georgians were claiming to have headed off a “column of mercenaries” coming down from the north, i.e., Russia. This is just plausible — Russian railroad troops have been busy the last week in Georgia’s other breakaway region of Abkhazia — but also sounds like a pretext. At any rate, the Georgian leadership has decided to unfreeze the conflict by bringing it to a boil. UNQUOTE

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Wu Wei, also based in Tbilsi, has some updates on her site, Thoughts From the Tao.

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Le Monde is live-blogging! But I don't speak French, let's see if I can get the site in English...well crud, if my teeny tiny blog can have a Babel Fish why can't Le Monde? Somebody please tell me if you know how to get it in English....

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OMG, I hope Doug and Wu Wei are OK. Crap. CNN is reporting that Tbilsi has been bombed by Russian jets.

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Georgia On My Mind

Whatever happened to the US speaking softly and carrying a big stick? Whatever happened to
friendship with all, entangling alliances with none? Whatever happened to minding our own business and taking care of our own? I don't like this one little bit.

From Taki's Magazine, by Richard Spencer, be sure and click on over to read it all:

Excerpt:

QUOTE In response to the movement of Russian troops into Georgia this morning, State Department spokesperson Amanda Harper announced to the German press: “We support Georgia’s territorial integrity and we call for an immediate ceasefire.” Senator McCain was even more forceful, demanding, “Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory.”
Both statements are not only reckless but they reveal the total obliviousness of most American foreign-policy makers to the consequences of Washington’s actions since the end of the Cold War—a characterization that holds equally well for the supposed diplomats and realists in Foggy Bottom as for the neocons rallying to McCain. UNQUOTE
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No-Coast Poetry Slam Team Advances To Semi-Finals In Madison

Woot! Woot! Much cause for celebration among word geeks, art freaks and poets here in Star City, also known as Lincoln, Nebraska ~ home of the extremely talented (if alas occasionally somewhat foul-mouthed) No Coast Slam Team, which has just advanced to the Semi-Finals at the National Poetry Slam held this year in Madison, Wisconsin. After three days of preliminary qualifying competition, the No Coast Slam Team is ranked 14th in the country (woot!) and will be advancing to the twenty team semi-finals competitions on Friday night. I think there were 76 teams starting the competition, so there you go.

Lincoln readers: please patronize the following businesses, whose tanglible and spiritual support, along with that of we the fans, enabled No Coast, of The Nebraska Writer's Collective, to go to Nationals.

The Meadowlark Coffee & Espresso
A Novel Idea Bookstore
Panic!
Bodhi Imports
Mojo's Dermagraphics & Design

You can read up on No Coast here and here. And Nebraska Poet stuff, here.

GOOD LUCK! Break a leg!

A sample of Nebraska poets (alas I couldn't find NoCoast to sample):
You Are Dangerous
by Sarah Mckinstry Brown (Omaha, Nebraska) web site
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Rock Of Ages

Here at The Rosemary Tree from time to time we post classic rock videos, always tagged "Rock of Ages". Enjoy.

Here's great version of the Stones Gimme Shelter.

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Pink Floyd - Careful With That Axe, Eugene

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