On Two Men & A Crowd

 

Here's Rembrandt's rendition, along with another's take, to accompany words from The Voice, bringing the Old Testament notion of vengeance alongside the New Testament story of a man who was silenced for speaking truth to the religious leaders of the day.  In the crowd, watching that scene unfold, was another man who'd taken on the responsibility of guarding the stoner's coats, not knowing his own life (along with his name) was about to change in ways that would have a profound effect on the entire world for years to come.  

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"Upon hearing this, his audience could contain themselves no longer. They boiled in fury at Stephen; they clenched their jaws and ground their teeth. But Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. Gazing upward into heaven, he saw something they couldn’t see: the glory of God, and Jesus standing at His right hand.

Stephen:  Look, I see the heavens opening! I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!

 At this, they covered their ears and started shouting. The whole crowd rushed at Stephen, converged on him,  dragged him out of the city, and stoned him.

They laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, while they were pelting Stephen with rocks.

Stephen (as rocks fell upon him): Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Then he knelt in prayer, shouting at the top of his lungs,

Stephen: Lord, do not hold this evil against them!

Those were his final words; then he fell asleep in death. " from The Voice, Act 7: 54-60, 

The story continues on through the next two chapters with this as the start:

Some devout men buried Stephen and mourned his passing with loud cries of grief. But Saul, this young man who seemed to be supervising the whole violent event, was pleased by Stephen’s death. 

To this day, almost 2000 years later, the ending and full impact have yet to be realized.

On Force & Fire

 

"Martyrdom is an amazing force to behold. In my lifetime, I've never seen it, until now. I've read about it, but I've never seen it in action. Truly, an eye-opening event. Millions of hearts changed in a short amount of time. Evil exposed that has lurked in the shadows for decades. Hearts opened in prayer. It's a force unto itself that catches like kindling but can burn for decades."  as posted by Unseen on X.

And this, from Josh Trevino's post at the American Mind (linked here and at Insty) entitled, "Charlie Kirk, Martyr", in which he likens Kirk's death to the killing of Socrates:

"In this way, Charlie Kirk was perhaps the closest thing to Socrates in the American public square. The leftist intellectuals who sneered at him—the rube peddling his simple lines, his crass sophistry, his heartland aw-shucks certainties—would guffaw at the parallel, but it is no less true. He argued—amiably, fairly, relentlessly—until they couldn’t stand it any longer. And like Socrates, they had him killed.

Also like Socrates, his students will now do more for his cause after his martyrdom than they ever did during his life. The Socratic vindication was in his deification through literature at the pens of Plato and Xenophon. Millennia later, everyone remembers the philosopher, but vanishingly few know who ended his life.

The armies of Charlie Kirk, martyr, will be much more vast: not a handful of Athenians but millions of Americans. Their work will not be in philosophical literature but in the politics of the years to come. Whatever benefit accrues to the Republican Party is merely incidental. We are now in the realm of fundamental politics, which is concerned with the nature of the nation and the wielding of power for the common good. The generation of Americans that Charlie Kirk molded will be drawing conclusions about both from his life and his death alike."

On Anger, Spilled Blood, Questions & Answers

"Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground."

With regard to Old Testament Perspectives, here are the Five Key Questions Worthy of Consideration, that go way back to the beginning or genesis of things, when it comes to anger, murder, and blood crying out from the ground:

“Why are you angry?" 

"Why is your face downcast?"

"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?

“Where is your brother?"

“What have you done?"

When I read of these being asked up front, in the third story recorded by Moses, following the first two known as The Creation, and The Fall, I wonder if it's the responsibility of all humans to sort through and own their thoughts and emotional responses, and form honest responses?   

 

On Young Lions, Turning Points & Game Changers

 

 

Cross-eyed streetshitter couldn't find his butt with both hands. Were it not for a family member the shooter would still be roaming free. 

Can't wait to see how the blonde bimbo (mis)handles this case.

 https://youtu.be/Yz9ABh1X2rY

Nick Freitas.

Change my mind

The older I get, the more I realize that I am an Old Testament kind of guy.

Deuteronomy 19:21

Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot

Change my mind.

After a little reflection,

it occurs to me the old Mark Twain line, "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme", is perhaps a little too cute. Given the events of the last day, there are an awful (no pun) lot of echoes. If you know your 20th century history, Japan in the 20s, and a lot of other places, experienced the kind of political violence we're seeing today, Latin America had a fetish for it. 

Europe did it differently. There, as would happen so many times elsewhere, the murders and beatings and bombings and general uproar played on the Euros' passion for order and, since most places were "civilized", the Fascisti and the Commies would get their way. Not so in Germany, where there was a strong counterweight to the Red Front which very often handed them their heads. They also had uniforms tailored by Hugo Boss.

With the attempts on Donald Trump's life plus the murder of Charliue Kirk, of whom I had heard but never followed except to see the blurbs of how he would hand various Lefties their heads in debates, it becomes a bit more clear we're reliving Japan's turmoil 100 years ago; whether we're about to relive Germany's has yet to be seen.

The hook here is that, while the Euros crave order, the Americans crave freedom,which has put the faculty lounge crowd on the wrong side of so many 80 - 20 issues. The last time the Feds tried to impose "order", the American people got restless in less than a year. That was the lockdown. Now it seems the bad guys want to scare Conservatives into silence. Few things might be apt to cause a revolt quicker.

Whether Conservatives are going to start bushwhacking Lefties orators (which, of course, would be playing into the Lefties' hands) is up in the air, but I doubt trying to repress the 1st Amendment rights of Conservatives, as they did on J6, is going to go over well and doubtless will have consequences.

Which leads to a truism going back to 20s Japan that echoes through history. When you go looking for a war, you often get more war than you can handle.

The Krauts, as well as the Nips, found that out. So did the Sioux at Wounded Knee.

Whether the Commies do has yet to be seen.

UPDATE: Trump says they've got the guy. His father and minister turned him in. Now let's see if he joins the Vince Foster/Epstein club.

 I used to watch Charlie Kirk almost every day. He was a good guy. And a young man. He was gunned down for no reason other than he spoke the truth. Leftists are evil and I agree with this woman's sentiment. Of course, the leftists in the Trump administration are all too weak and incompetent to act.

And to think that Nepal, of all places, is showing us the way. 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1965905166533812342

On Up Front & Behind the Back

 

On Captivating Cats & Barking Dogs

 

On Upside Down & Drawing Blood

 

The Brooklyn Witch! The Battle for Brooklyn begins!

 

It's finally here!

Lisa's debut novel, "The Brooklyn Witch-The Battle for Brooklyn," is finally available on Amazon. It was a lotta work to get done, and we are very proud of what she has done.

It is available in eBook for Kindle as well as in paperback. If you are so kind as to order it, you can get a signed copy from our website: www.thebrooklynwitch.com 

Or buy it now on Amazon The Brooklyn Witch

I hope you guys get a copy and leave a review.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

On Living Among the Dead & Playing Through