The Pope is correct: one should not work too hard:

“We have to guard ourselves, the saint observed, from the dangers of excessive activity, regardless of the office one holds, because too many concerns can often lead to hardness of heart,” the pope said.

I can recall being told some years ago by an older supervisor: “Don’t kill yourself for this job, son; when you go to the gates of St. Peter the first thing you won’t say: ‘Gosh, I wish I’d worked harder at my job.’ “

Where does your job fit in with your overall scheme of life?

I find that, as the years wear on, work means much less to me than it did at the beginning of my career. We all change with age and our Life priorities become rearranged; I submit that is only normal for the course.

I was always the first one to work overtime, to volunteer for tasks, to take the special assignement. Because I live in the snow I spent many thousands of dollars more for special vehicles able to vanquish the snow, specifically so I could come to work. I always had to have the biggest 4X4 Ford F-150 pickup, the 4X4 Isuzu Trooper, the 4X4 Tracker, the AWD Subaru.

Now, my next vehicle will likely be a Honda Civic or Accord EX, optioned-out, with automatic. If I get stuck in the snow and can’t come to work, oh well. So be it. That’ll be more reading I’ll get done, perhaps another blog post if I still have electricity, more time watching the miracle of nature in the myriad flakes of snow.

My priorities have changed and work, I freely admit, is no longer a priority for me. I doubt any of my superiors read my blog but if they do, oh well. You are no longer a priority. I got over it; you will too some day (if, silently, you haven’t already placed your mind in that frame).

My family is now my priority. My fiance is my priority. My ailing father is my priority. Being with family and experiencing adventures with my fiance is my priority.

I’m within ten years of retirement. I’m over 50 and many of my perspectives have changed. Some have simply become stronger and more concrete: my feelings about right and wrong, my interest in politics. My interest in the survival of my country and our way of life.

Work is fleeting; that you perhaps have a fulfilling job, well, that is good. But likely, at St. Peter’s gate you’ll instead be saying: “I wish I’d spent more time with my wife, my husband, my children, my family. I wish I’d taken that trip to _____. I wish I’d told my wife or husband just how much they mean to me and how much I love them.”

Pope Benedict is correct.

BZ

America’s face is changing, and in places many did not expect.

Portal states to Mexico are not now, apparently, experiencing the greatest percentile growth of illegal Mexicans. Upper Midwest, New England and Rocky Mountain states are experiencing the greatest percentile of growth unlike traditional border states such as California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. The 2005 American Community Survey showed:

Indiana saw a 34 percent increase in the number of immigrants; South Dakota saw a 44 percent rise; Delaware 32 percent; Missouri 31 percent; Colorado 28 percent; New Hampshire 26 percent.

The overall trend identified:

Two decades ago, demographers said, 75 percent to 80 percent of new immigrants settled in one of the half-dozen gateway states and tended to stay there. Then, in the last 10 to 15 years, the pattern shifted and increasing numbers began to stay in the gateways briefly and then move elsewhere in the country. Now, they say, the pattern is that more immigrants are simply bypassing the gateways altogether.

In Fornicalia, there is another trend emerging.

It seems that people of all stripes are fleeing the Bay Area. For those not living in Fornicalia, the Bay Area consists of the city and county of San Francisco, east bay, South San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and other cities (see map).

People are leaving in droves. And not just the “customary WASPS.” This trend includes blacks and Mexicans/Hispanics.

As you can see, in San Francisco the black population has decreased 25% and “Latinos” are down 10% in five years. In Oakland, a very industrial city with a huge port where blacks first came years ago to work on the docks (and the birthplace of the Black Panther Party), blacks are down 19% (and “Latinos” up 12%).

There are two factors driving this: cost and quality of life. Most any apartment or home in the Bay Area is ridiculously priced. Oakland has historically and consistently had one of the highest homicide rates in the state.

People originally moved to the Bay Area due to the mild-to-cool overall weather in a state ruled by oppressive summer heat — not to mention adjacency to the ocean itself.

But with those issues come other quality of life issues for the newly-settled and now “impacted” areas.

HOMICIDES IN FORNICALIA

Homicides are up in Fornicalia, a fact that bucks current statistics indicating a trending down of homicides nationally.

In the City of Sacratomato, where I work (and the capitol of Fornicalia), the homicide rate is the highest its been since 1993. The Mayor and the city council can’t understand why.

In Elk Grove, an adjacent and newly incorporated bedroom community of so-called “good people,” the police department is agog, as are locals, with a likewise nasty homicide rate. In front of God and all, ordinary citizens have been shotgunned in the face at “random” on Laguna Boulevard. The Elk Grove Police Department has been caught completely flat-footed — preferring to refuse acknowledgment of the presence of violence on its perceived-to-be-pristine streets. No one can understand why.

One reason: the influx of middle class blacks, Mexicans and other minorities fleeing, yes, you guessed it, the Bay Area and it’s concomitant oppressive quality of life and high-cost issues. And when these middle class “minorities” (caucasoids are actually the minority in Fornicalia now) bring their Bay Area gangbanging “children” with them, these newly-arrived little lovelies armed with semi-automatics and shotguns now clash for status, power, money and face with the entrenched gangbanger populace — and of course, hilarity ensues with the resulting conflict.

This trend may continue because of falling housing prices in the Sacratomato area. “Sacramento County posted urban California’s steepest year-over-year fall in home prices during July as more buyers waited out a slumping market and sellers showed increasing willingness to cut and run.” This means more middle class minorities fleeing the Bay Area may find Sacratomato increasingly tempting.

These are accounts of legal immigration.

Illegal immigration has deadlier consequences still.

And we continue to put illegal immigration on the back burner because, naturally, both sides of the aisle benefit — but all parties and many Americans continue to fail to see the larger picture.

BZ

For those of you who may still not “get it.”

Islamists want to convert you or kill you. They would prefer to simply kill you.

However, should you deign to become part of their progressive society, this is the future your great grandchildren face. Above is an 8-year-old child who made the serious mistake of stealing. And, of course, the discipline involved isn’t a private affair, it is quite public. Note the microphone in the hand of the adult at the top shot and the numerous persons milling about awaiting the glorious spectacle of Islamic punishment.

When we enable or buy into their propaganda, this is what your children face.

When we place our heads in the sand and refuse to acknowledge reality, this is what your children face.

When we refuse to take a stand against evil incarnate, this is what your children face.

The stakes for America are that critical.

And the world dares to accuse Israel for a lack of proportion after they were attacked?

___________________

My thanks to John the Patriot. Go here for more information.

BZ

First: The Masters of Propaganda Continue:

Iranian President Ahmadinejad wants reparations for damage to Lebanon:

President Ahmadi-Nejad said that Iran calls for an end to the current hostility in Lebanon and the aggressor should pay reparations for the damages it inflicted on civilian infrastructure of Lebanon. He called on the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) to bring to justice Israeli officials for the war crimes they perpetrated against civilians of Lebanon and Palestine.

Second: Journalists HELP Islamists Win The Propaganda War:

Michelle Malkin calls it “fauxtography” in her post. And all it does is assist Militant Islam with their own propaganda war against Western Nations. To wit:

It’s the story that the journalistic elite would rather just go away. In the aftermath of Reuters’ admission that one of its photographers, Adnan Hajj, had manipulated two war images from Lebanon after bloggers smoked out his crude Photoshop alterations, and all 920 of his Reuters photos were pulled, evidence of far more troubling photo staging and media deception in the Middle East continues to pour in.

Such as the above photo amply illustrates. Again, let me be blunt: with a name such as Adnan Hajj, are you, clear thinker you, even remotely shocked? And yet Reuters happily trots out bunches of photos then, only later, after having been caught in the scam, grudgingly pulls them — luckily, all of them (that I can determine).

And our journalists are assisting in the Propaganda Scam On The West:

Washington Post photographer Michael Robinson-Chavez, who was at Qana, huffed: “Everyone was dead, many of them children. Nothing was set up.” But last week, a German television station aired damning video footage from the scene showing a lead propaganda director (dubbed the “Green Helmet Guy”) positioning a young boy’s corpse, yanking it from an ambulance, placing it on two different stretchers for the cameras and pushing bystanders out of the way for clearer shots.

Chavez was indignant that people should think things were staged. Imagine! Staged photographs by possible Left-leaning papers attempting to make money “working” interests against the United States? In the 40s and 50s this would have been completely unthinkable.

Now it’s a given and commonplace.

Third: Never Let The Facts Intrude Upon Good Propaganda:

The facts: Hezbollah kidnapped the original two Israeli soldiers on July 12th in an unprovoked and premeditated attack.

• The attack also took the lives of eight Israeli soldiers and took place under cover of a barrage of Hezbollah rocket fire.
• The attack was carried out across the internationally recognised northern border between Lebanon and Israel.
• Hezbollah is part of Lebanon ‘s Government. Even if the Lebanese Government didn’t know the attack was planned, Hezbollah’s action constituted an act of war by one sovereign country against another
• Hezbollah’s very existence violates international law. Under UN Security Council Resolution 1559 of 2005, The Lebanese Government was obliged to disarm and disband Hezbollah. It did not do so, and Hezbollah is now an active part of the Lebanon government itself.
• Neither Hezbollah nor Lebanon have a legitimate territorial claim against Israel. Israeli withdrew completely from South Lebanon in May of 2000.
• Israel had to respond because territory is not at stake, but Israel ‘s right to exist is.
• Hezbollah rejects Israel ‘s right to exist. If Hezbollah or other groups believe that they can use the territory they control to attack Israel with impunity inside Israel ‘s recognised borders, there will never be peace. Period.
• Israel did not wish to see this escalation. It has been forced upon Israel . And while Israel wishes to free the kidnapped soldiers, it is not responding to the kidnapping alone. It is responding to the rejectionist ideology which underlies the kidnapping.

Never let the facts get in the way of an excellent stream of Propaganda.

I repeat: the US and Israel do not know how to play the Propaganda Game. And I submit that propaganda is damned near as important as dead Islamists.

BZ

People are apparently attempting to quantify the Israeli-Lebanese-Hezbollah conflict in terms of winning and losing. And if push comes to shove, in those terms, I would offer:

Israel has “lost.” Hezbollah has “won.” And President Bush is, unfortunately, incorrect when he states that Israel “won.”

Israel has won nothing but a guarantee for future conflict and more dead Israelis.

Allow me to place the cards directly on the table, face-up:

The Israelis were (and will be once again) fighting Iran by proxy, nothing less — with Syria thrown in for good measure. It is a given that roughly a quarter of Hezbollah troops were eliminated. But that has in no uncertain terms guaranteed any lessening of Iran’s goal of the complete eradication of Israel — even though Admadinnerjacket appears to be on Mike Wallace’s “New Best Friend” list. After all, “it’s all our fault.”

The Syrian army is massing at the border.

And the passion is boiling in Israel, some saying that the Ehud Olmert government must go. Aaron Klein, WND’s Jerusalem post, wrote:

Officials say the IAF was still restrained from targeting key positions close to the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley from which intelligence officials say Hezbollah received regular shipments of rockets and other heavy weaponry originating in Iran and transported via Syria. Israel bombed roads in the area a few kilometers from Syria, but many weapons smuggling routes at the border remained intact.

While Syria placed its military on high alert, Olmert told reporters several times Israel had no intention of bringing Damascus into the war.

Klein writes a chilling paragraph:

And terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza are foaming at the mouth. Today, Abu Aziz, second-in-command of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, told WorldNetDaily that Hezbollah’s victory leads him to believe the end of Israel is in sight. He said he realizes now is the time to “attack Israel from all directions.”

Carolyn Glick, a columnist for The Jerusalem Post said she believes the Israeli government is finding itself unable to understand the true extent of the threat. She wrote:

The resolution represents a near-total victory for Hizbullah and its state sponsors Iran and Syria, and an unprecedented defeat for Israel and its ally the United States. This fact is evident both in the text of the resolution and in the very fact that the US decided to sponsor a cease-fire resolution before Israel had dismantled or seriously degraded Hizbullah’s military capabilities.

There aren’t the 62 necessary votes available in the Knesset to force a “no confidence” vote in the Israeli government, though protests are sparking all over the country, with people frustrated over the “holding back” of the Israeli IDF. Many believe the Olmert government is incapable of defending its citizens.

In the meantime, Hezbollah is certainly abiding by the ceasefire — by hurling rockets. Even today AP News writes: “Hezbollah guerrillas fired at least 10 Katusha rockets that landed in southern Lebanon early Tuesday” at the IDF. The ceasefire is clearly phony.

ONE-UPSMANSHIP?

Hezbollah’s Nasrallah, a Shiite, has the current upper hand in terms of propaganda and “face.” OBL, a Sunni, had his plan to detonate aircraft over the Atlantic shattered, but experts agree that isn’t the “big one.” Bin Laden is planning a larger strike yet, possibly involving nuclear weapons, some believe.

This entire plot revolves around Iran’s Ahmadinnerjacket simply trying to Teflon himself out of world focus on his nuclear program. And how wonderfully it has seemed to work.

Everyone knows how to hurl the propaganda — except Israel and the United States.

Oh, and a few bombs and missles thrown back wouldn’t hurt either.

BZ

P.S.

And oh — what about the candidates willing to fight come our 2008 elections? Do they even exist?