???

This one has me speechless.

It seems that the two largest Christian TV networks in the US have set up 24/7 webcam views of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  Their intent is to have a live broadcast of the return of Jesus when it happens.

Daystar Television Network and Trinity Broadcasting Network, have you lost your collective minds?

Do not get me wrong.  Yes, i believe the Bible, and that the world will end someday, in some fashion.  Yes, i believe we will answer for what we have done in this life, for good or for ill.  (My favorite take on this was expressed by a man who had a near-death experience, and he said what happens after is that when it's your turn to talk to the Lord, He asks you, "Did you learn how to love?")

Yes, i also believe that much of what we read in the Book of the Revelation has happened already at the destruction of the Temple in AD79.

Also i believe that if Jesus comes back in the way they are thinking, they will not be broadcasting any of it, so their whole endeavor is futile.

This reminds me of a story Lewis Grizzard used to tell about one editor of his at a newspaper in Atlanta who wanted them to do a front page headline mock up of the Second Coming and keep it handy so they could be the first to publish when it happened, only needing to add a couple of pictures from the scene.

Grizzard said he never knew whether the man was joking or not, but knowing that editor, he probably wasn't, at least not totally.

This is something i would expect from a hardened newspaperman from all those years ago, not from people who currently claim to be Christians.

It really has me flabbergasted.



Today is:

Conmemoracion Patriotica en la Ciudad de Colon -- Panama

Community Service Day -- Dominica

Day of the First Shout for Independence -- El Salvador

Egyptian Day -- Medieval Europe day of bad fortune (common saying on this day was, "Notwithstanding, I will trust the Lord.")

Festival of Amun -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Guy Fawkes' Day -- Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador; New Zealand; UK; a/k/a Gunpowder Day, bonfires celebrate that Guy Fawkes plot did not succeed; related famous celebrations
     Burning of the Tar Barrels -- Ottery St. Mary, Devon, UK (17 barrels soaked in tar are lit outside 17 taverns and carried through the town)
     Lewes Bonfire Night -- Lewes, East Sussex, UK
     Turning the Devil's Stone -- Shebbear, Devon, UK (erratic stone, possibly from an Ice Age deposit, turned every year on this day to assure good fortune)

Job Action Day -- a day for workers and job seekers to put job or career in the forefront, make plans, and take action

National Doughnut Day -- well, it's better than buy a doughnut day, that one's too obvious

Nones of November -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Popes Day -- US name for the remembrance of Guy Fawkes' Day

Recreation Day -- Australia, and especially Tasmania

St. Elizabeth's Day and St. Zechariah's Day -- parents of John the Baptist (Elizabeth is Patron of pregnant women)

Wet Wellington Day -- Fairy Calendar (Imps and Gremlins; they really love it when this falls on a Wednesday)

Wuwuchim Fire Ceremonies begin -- Hopi Native American (dating approximate, as these ceremonies are now mostly closed to outsiders, a celebration of Masaw, god of death, and Spider Woman, the earth mother; a 16 day festival and manhood ceremony for adolescent boys)


Birthdays Today:

Judy Reyes, 1967
Tatum O'Neal, 1963
Tilda Swinton, 1960
Bryan Adams, 1959
Peter Noone, 1947
Sam Shepard, 1943
Art Garfunkel, 1941
Elke Sommer, 1940
Ike Turner, 1931
Vivien Leigh, 1913
Roy Rogers, 1911
Joel McCrea, 1905
Strom Thurmond, 1902


Today in History:

Wu MeKuan, a collection of 48 Zen koans, compiled in China, 1228
Publication of the Catholicon in Treguier (Brittany); it is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary, 1499
St. Felix's Flood ravages the Dutch coast and destroys the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands, 1530
The Gunpowder Plot, in which Catholics were trying to blow up the English Parliament, is foiled, 1605
Susan B. Anthony is arrested for trying to vote in Rochester, NY, 1871
The first US patent for a gasoline driven motor car is granted to George B. Selden, 1895
Calbraith Rodgers arrives in Pasadena from Sheepshead Bay, NY, completing the first transcontinental plane flight, in 49 days, 1911
Colombia joins the United Nations, 1945
USS Rentz, USS Reeves and USS Oldendorf visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China — the first US Naval visit to China since 1949, 1986
André Dallaire attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada, but is thwarted when the Prime Minister's wife locks the door, 1995
Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial, 2006
China's first lunar satellite, Chang'e 1 goes into orbit around the Moon, 2007