September 29th: St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael

Offensive Greek Etymology...

Out of fairness I start with a general warning. Due to vast varieties of reasons the following Catholic sermon will be found offensive by many.

The sermon itself speaks of the theological mystical significance of particular ceremonies in the Church... sacredness beyond the observed material world. When we see a holy image, the Church wants us to move from the visible image before our eyes to considering the invisible spiritual realities that those images represent.

It is truly right and just, O God our father, that every day and in all places we should praise and thank Thee for all Thy mercies bestowed upon us through Jesus Christ our Lord. We invite all the Angels to help us to thank Thee worthily, and we join with them to sing thy praises.

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus.

Please listen to the Catholic seromon: "What time is it?". If you choose to listen to this short (16 min) sermon, I encourage you to follow it to the very last word.

Using Babies for Gluttony?

Most of us are familiar with Aborted fetal cell lines being used to manufacture vaccinations. If that detail is not morbid enough, it seems a company is using human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted baby to produce "receptors" that function as a means to measure flavor.

In 2010, the pro-life organization wrote to Senomyx CEO Kent Snyder, pointing out that moral options for testing their food additives could and should be used. But when Senomyx ignored their letter, they wrote to the companies Senomyx listed on their website as "collaborators" warning them of public backlash and threatened boycott. Food giants Pepsico, Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup, Solae and Nestlé are the primary targets of the boycott, though Senomyx boasts other international partners on their website.

Senomyx website states that "The company's key flavor programs focus on the discovery and development of savory, sweet and salt flavor ingredients that are intended to allow for the reduction of MSG, sugar and salt in food and beverage products....Using isolated human taste receptors, we created proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems that provide a biochemical or electronic readout when a flavor ingredient interacts with the receptor."

Senomyx notes their collaborators provide them research and development funding plus royalties on sales of products using their flavor ingredients.

"What they do not tell the public is that they are using HEK 293 – human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted baby to produce those receptors", stated Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director for Children of God for Life, a pro-life watch dog group that has been monitoring the use of aborted fetal material in medical products and cosmetics for years.

"They could have easily chosen COS (monkey) cells, Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, insect cells or other morally obtained human cells expressing the G protein for taste receptors", Vinnedge added.

In writing to their collaborators, it took three letters before Nestlé finally admitted the truth about their relationship with Senomyx, noting the cell line was "well established in scientific research".

After hearing Ms Vinnedge speak publicly on the problem, angry consumers began writing the companies. Both Pepsico and Campbell Soup immediately responded.

Shockingly, Pepsico wrote: "We hope you are reassured to learn that our collaboration with Senomyx is strictly limited to creating lower-calorie, great-tasting beverages for consumers. This will help us achieve our commitment to reduce added sugar per serving by 25% in key brands in key markets over the next decade and ultimately help people live healthier lives."

Campbell Soup was more concerned in their response: "Every effort is made to use the finest ingredients and develop the greatest selection of products, all at a great value. With this in mind, it must be said that the trust we have cultivated and developed over the years with our consumers is not worth compromising to cut costs or increase profit margins."

While Campbell did not state they would change their methods, still their response, gave Vinnedge hope. [Update: Cambell Soup is no longer in partnership with Senomyx.]

"If enough people voice their outrage and intent to boycott these consumer products, it can be highly effective in convincing Senomyx to change their methods", she noted. "Otherwise, we will be buying Coca-Cola, Lipton soups and Hershey products!"

Despite the cuteness of this angry baby picture, and my lack of ability to phrase a suitable title to this post... We should all be upset by the absolute ridiculousness of aborted children, and even more enraged about the use of those children for things such as vaccines and food. I'll take my clogged arteries and high blood pressure over food additives that were created through the help of aborted fetal cells. This is sick.

Ineffable Propaganda

Last year the swine flu was all the scare and populations everywhere were urged to get a new, experimental vaccine. I forget what was predicted for those who didn't get the shot, but the merchants of fear mainstream press parroted public health officials' pleas that everyone get the shot. Most people didn't get the shot, and pandemic didn't result.

So this year there's a new tactic in the information war: spread the lie word that the vaccine helps prevent heart attack.

You'll forgive me if I don't believe this latest round of propaganda or rush out to get the shot.

Ineffability

To quote the wiki:

...ideas that cannot or should not be expressed in spoken words (or language in general), often being in the form of a taboo or incomprehensible term. This property is commonly associated with philosophy, aspects of existence, and similar concepts that are inherently "too great", complex, or abstract to be adequately communicated. In addition, illogical statements, principles, reasons, and arguments are intrinsically ineffable along with impossibilities, contradictions, and paradoxes. Terminology describing the nature of experience cannot be properly conveyed in dualistic symbolic language; it is believed that this knowledge is only held by the individual from which it originates. Obscene profanity and vulgarisms, however, can easily (and clearly) be stated – but they simply should not be and so are still considered ineffable.

Enough said...