Candy

Bugger, I will have to do two for today since I missed Friday.
Today: Candy, and umm School.

The Immaculate Conception

Okay, this is the time of year where there are all sorts of religious events going on; mainly Hanukah and Christmas. Today, Catholics had a sort of holiday known as a holy day of obligation where we go to mass and participate in a celebration of feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This feast is something that many other religions and denominations of Christianity do not have (to my knowledge) so I am going to talk a little about it. For those of you who know what the Immaculate Conception and its feast day is this will be repetitive but feel free to let me know if I miss anything or mess anything up.

For those who are not Christian this may seem odd since it is a feast surrounding Mary who, while being the mother of God for us christens, is little more than another person to much of humanity. But even for those people of the world who do see Mary as the mother of God many of them do not put her in as such high regards so as to give her a feast day. The feast day is in remembrance the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This basically states that through the grace of God Mary was born without original sin (for those of you who are unaware in the Catholic Church we believe that all people are born with the original sin of Adam and Eve hence why we have baptism to cleanse us of said sin). From what I remember it is because it made it so that she was free from sin so that when Jesus was conceived he would be done so in a non-sinned body (though I may be off on that piece of information).

It also marks the point that is seventeen days from Christmas, which is just coincidental since it’s always the 8^th of December, at least in the United States. But if you want to celebrate it as a marker of seventeen days out go for it. 

Mary holds an important place in Catholicism since she is the mother of God and therefore she is venerated, which should not be confused with worshiped. We respect her as a pinnacle of humanity; the best mankind can be since she was without sin. Her humble service to God is something that Catholics and other religious groups respect. Catholics will frequently ask for her intercessions or for her to pray for us to God for grace. 

Well I hope that was informative to some degree. Have a safe and productive day.

Tomorrow: Candy

Pearl Harbor Day

Seventy years ago today the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and effectively brought the United States into the Second World War as an active combatant. 

The attack in itself was a surprise, and despite how many people claim to the contrary (most of which based off of information that while we can put together in hindsight was not seen as such at the time) I still know that it was.  Heck, the Japanese government meant for it to be regardless of what we knew at the time since they did not cut off diplomatic ties until after the attack had started, though they were meant to before the attack but the delegates were delayed. But since the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor had to leave Japan week before the attack the delegates in Washington’s timing was of little consequence since they knew they were just biding time. 

The war that this attack was a part of (which started the war for the United States) would be one of if not the most destructive in human history killing a total of 2.5% of the entire population of the planet with some 60 million deaths.  Within a few days the United States was at war with Germany and Italy too. The conflict would take the lives of over 400,000 Americas and would shift the balance of power in the world from the end of that war on.

This year will mark another historic event for Pearl Harbor; the national Pearl Harbor Association will come to a close at the end of the year. With fewer and fewer people being around for it there is no longer the population to keep it going. Though, local chapters will still go on. These veterans have been spending the past seventy years remembering their brothers in arms that they lost that day, which is something that we should all do today.

Tomorrow: The Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Bike Trails in Arlington VA

Arlington, VA has numerous bike trails that go on for miles. I frequent the citrus trail, four mile run, and Washington and Old Dominion trail. These trails go all over DC. The citrus trail leads to roads that go into DC and the first time I rode on that it I ended up at Watergate.  The four mile run trail took me to Reagan International Airport. All of the trails in this area are great. Some go all the way from DC to Mt. Vernon some twenty miles south. If you are ever in the area and like bike riding check one of them out.

Tomorrow: Pearl Harbor Day

The Thing (1982) vs The Thing (2011)

The 1982 thing was a great sci-fi action adventure horror film. The 2011 version used a lot of jump scares and had lots of bad CGI. I recommend the 1982 version. (It is finales time so sorry about the shortness of the post)

Tomorrow: Um… Something.

Baking Blueberry Bread

So I decided to take a shot at baking again, but this time I baked bread not cookies. I decided that it would be a good idea to follow the instructions this time, but since butter was not needed that didn’t matter as much. Though, rather than make the muffins that the box called for I made bread since I do not have muffin trays. I was able to make the batter easily and bake it in a brownie dish. The bread came out all right, it took a while longer to cook than I first thought, but that’s okay. After letting it cool I was able to grab a bite and taste it and it was quite good. I do not eat blueberry bread or even muffins often but I think it would stand up to some other bread that is box made.

Tomorrow: The Thing (1982) vs. The Thing (2011)

Occupy USA

The occupy Wall Street movement has helped to give birth to numerous similar movements throughout the United States. From Boston to Los Angles, Seattle to Atlanta people are “occupying” cities all around the United States. The movement itself is a tad odd; since it is a self described “leaderless” movement that also seems to be directionless. Some of its members are interested in closing the income gap between the “1%” and the “99%”, others are calling for more jobs, and another section of them are trying to get student loan bills nullified. The movement came to an abrupt end in November, and while it still exists in some forms around the country the tent cities in New York City were removed for the most part. The police reaction has garnished media attention with the UC Davis response getting a good portion of media attention for the police pepper spraying sitting people who don’t appear to violent.

 

This movement intrigues me for a number of reasons. First, there is the fact that it took until this year before there was a left equivalent to the Tea Party Protests that were a few years ago. I sincerely thought that this would have been sooner given the high unemployment level, the instability on Wall Street, and political weakness in Washington.

 Second, there are the issues that the movement has brought up. The income gap in the United States is similar to Argentina and Madagascar which is much higher than the gap in Europe, Canada or Australia which seems to upset many of the protesters. This issue seems to have a basis in reality and I can understand why the protesters are upset since the “1%” gained a 275% income increase between 1979 and 2007 where as the bottom 80% have gained minimal and some have even lost income due to inflation.

 The issue of jobs is an understandable one too with a higher than normal unemployment rate (I believe the government posted a new unemployment rate Friday o 8.6%) many people feel that there are no jobs for them. Heck one of the reasons why the government thinks that unemployment fell was because so many people that discouraged that they just stopped looking for work and therefore are no longer considered unemployed. And while unemployment is much less for college educated people (4% I think) more and more of them are underemployed (working in fields below than that which they went to school for). 

The call for student loan bills nullified is not something that I get. These people knew that they were taking out these loans and knew that there was a chance that they may not get a job. While I would say that it may be good to rework the student loan bills I do not think they should be nullified. Though to be fair, if any of them had high school guidance counselors similar to mine then they were falsely told that if you get a college degree then you are guaranteed a job. 

The police response is something that has annoyed me. For one all of the videos of the police using pepper spray and billy clubs are on non-violent protester show that there is an overreaction. While I understand that the work of a police officer is stressful and these people can be annoying I do not see why these measures need to be used, especially when the protesters are not a threat to people. While issue of “health and safety” has been used to justify evicting the protesters those seem to not be issues that deem the forcible removal of folks with these methods. I am all for cleanliness but I am more for the right to protest, that and the occupiers have shown that they are willing to clean there are to stay there (I think it was in October they cleaned the park overnight). 

The protests are showing a legitimate frustration of people towards their government, big business, and the bed that the two of them seem to share. Many of the issues that they bring up are at least debatable and warrant being addressed on Caption Hill even if some of them are out in left field. I suspect that they may be able to help influence the 2012 election, but probably not as much as the Tea Party.

Tomorrow:  Baking Blueberry Bread