The Mother of a Thousand Blessings

"The potency of prayer hath subdued the strength of fire, it hath bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest; extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the gates of heaven, assuaged diseases, repelled frauds, rescued citied from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. Prayer is an all-sufficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by the clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings."

-John Chrysostom

Banging Drum #1 - Meltdown

I've long held to the "banging drum" theory - that if you hear something enough times (like a banging drum) it gets to you, and you believe it with or without it's own merits. I believe that some people, like the media, use the banging drum to get us to believe something that advances their ideals. I don't even think they always do it intentionally, but it's there. Take global warming - over the last few years we've been pounded over the head with the "fact" that our children will be up to their ankles in glacial melt-off and any "so-called" scientist to questions this must be a whore to the fossil fuel industry.

George Will's recent column in the Washington Post referred to the glut of articles with titles like this one from Time on Aug. 27, 1974: "'Warning: Earth's Climate is Changing Faster Than Even Experts Expect'". Something we might expect to see today - 30 years later - except this article refers to the ever impending catastrophe of global cooling. We were all headed for the next Ice Age and couldn't do much about it. Now everyone is convinced the whole planet is going the way of a Spinal Tap drummer any day now. The moral: I'm not buying it.
Read it here.