Monday, November 29, 2021



Notre Dame Cathedral May Get a Stomach-Turning New Design During Its Post-Fire Rebuild

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is one of the oldest and most revered landmarks of the Western world.

Completed in 1345 after almost 200 years of construction, the cathedral is a monument to both the Christian faith and the history of Europe.

But after the fire of April 16, 2019, the restoration of the medieval wonder may be taking a sad 21st-century twist.

The Telegraph reported this week that instead of returning Notre Dame to its original glory, officials are considering a proposal to modernize the interior.

Modern art and sound and light effects would replace classical sculptures, confessional boxes and altars to give the cathedral “emotional spaces.”

There would also be a “discovery trail” of 14 chapels emphasizing Asia and Africa. Biblical quotes would be projected on the walls in different languages.

The final chapel would be dedicated to “reconciled creation” — i.e., environmentalism.

One source familiar with the renovation harshly criticized the plans.

“Can you imagine the administration of the Holy See allowing something like this in the Sistine Chapel?” the source said. “It would be unimaginable. We are not in an empty space here.

“This is political correctness gone mad. They want to turn Notre Dame into an experimental liturgical showroom that exists nowhere else whereas it should be a landmark where the slightest change must be handled with great care.”

That is correct. Notre Dame is not just a venue to be redecorated according to the latest fashions. It is a historic and sacred place of worship.

To disregard its original design would be to throw out the history of generations and deface a work of art. Some of the greatest architects in history had a hand in building and restoring Notre Dame. Altering their work would be like spray-painting a Michelangelo.

Maurice Culot, a highly regarded French architect, has seen the plans and was disgusted.

“It’s as if Disney were entering Notre Dame,” he said. “What they are proposing to do to Notre Dame would never be done to Westminster Abbey or Saint Peter’s in Rome. It’s a kind of theme park and very childish and trivial given the grandeur of the place.”

But the push to modernize the cathedral is strong.

In June, Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris said the interior changes would “bring the cathedral into the 21st century while preserving its own identity in the spirit of the Christian tradition.”

On top of that, the French government is in a hurry to have the restoration complete, according to another report from the Telegraph. President Emmanuel Macron wants to reopen the cathedral in 2024, the year the Olympics will be hosted in Paris.

Culot would like to see the restoration done “in the spirit of the original and not in a sort of ridiculous rupture that will go out of fashion in three years.” He noted that even the modern architects who restored Notre Dame in the past were careful to honor its history.

The Telegraph reported that there is skepticism about the modern designs among members of the committee overseeing the restoration. Hopefully, they will stop the proposal in its tracks and give back to the world one of its most iconic treasures.

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Renowned Civil Rights Leader Exposes the Rotten Lies in Nikole Hannah-Jones’ ‘1619 Project’

Legendary civil rights leader Robert Woodson is an American hero who champions excellence. Woodson has taken on the villainous Nicole Hannah-Jones, who recently released an expanded version of her anti-American essay collection, “1619 Project,” which emphasizes horror over heroism in its depiction of American history.

“Nikole Hannah-Jones’ latest iteration of the controversial ‘The 1619 Project’ once again proves itself untrustworthy, and in some cases just as guilty of revisionism as the false histories it seeks to correct,” Woodson wrote in an article in the Daily Mail.

Woodson is a realist. He grew up fatherless in a low-income black neighborhood in Philadelphia. His experiences with segregation and racism led to his involvement with the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Although he had dropped out of high school, Woodson overcame the difficulties of his childhood and earned an Ivy League master’s degree.

His story is heroic. Woodson is no victim; he is an embodiment of excellence. He is a virtuous man.

The ‘1619 Project‘ is rather easily refuted. The claim, for example, that preserving slavery was the real cause of the American Revolution, which was a central point of the original publication, is demonstrably false and ignores issues like taxation without representation, the Stamp Act, and the list goes on.

As a realist, Woodson is fully aware of evil episodes in American history and past attempts to cover them up. The Commonwealth of Virginia, for example, “required that American slavery be taught to school children as a benign institution in which happy and carefree bondsmen were grateful recipients of free food and housing,” Woodson noted. “This was not 150 years ago but as recently as the 1970s.”

The real problem, according to Woodson, is “the story of blacks in America as told in American classrooms is too often the tale of what has been done to us, not what we have done in response.”

Having spent his career helping low-income people of all races overcome poverty, Woodson has witnessed “countless Americans overcome homelessness, abuse, addiction, the loss of loved ones, and so much more to become successful, productive, and redeemed.”

Instead of focusing exclusively on the evils that men do — the oppressors who would do anything to keep the oppressed under their control — Woodson champions everyday heroes who have overcome incredible odds to succeed.

We need more heroes, not more victims.

Hannah-Jones is not a victim, though she, and many like her, would teach students that all minorities are victims of white men bent on their domination.

“There is something particularly tiresome to me about middle and upper class educated blacks who never picked cotton or sat on the back of any bus being so aggrieved about wrongs they never even experienced,” Woodson writes. These are the same people who sow discord by obscuring the truth.

It is not only the bourgeois blacks who peddle false narratives for profit and fame. Woodson Center‘s scholar Delano Squires noted, “We are now beset by white liberals who are looking for absolution from sins they didn’t commit and black liberals who are looking to be affirmed for injustices they didn’t suffer.”

There is something surreal about it all. These people are either irrevocably cynical or dangerously delusional. Whatever the case, they are unbalanced in their treatment of history.

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The Consequences of Leftist Crime Policies

In the middle of heated political battles in Washington, D.C., it can become easy to forget the real, human toll that America’s porous border takes on United States citizens. The family of Francisco Javier Cuellar, however, is unlikely to ever forget.

The 46-year-old Cuellar was killed in Jacksonville, Florida, last month, allegedly murdered by an illegal alien from Honduras.

The alleged assailant, 24-year-old Yery Noel Medina Ulloa, was released into the country several months ago after lying to border authorities about his age. Ulloa reportedly told border authorities that he was a 17-year-old named Reynel Alexander Hernandez. Ulloa was released into the country, and was given a notice to appear in court.

After entering the country illegally, Ulloa was taken in by Cuellar, and was given a job at the family business before allegedly murdering Cuellar. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Ulloa on Oct. 13, days after he was found covered in blood following the alleged murder. On the surface, Cuellar’s death seemed to have been entirely preventable.

We don’t know how Ulloa got from the Texas border to Florida, but we do know that the Biden administration has been flying illegal aliens to states across the country, including Florida.

State and local officials have warned the Biden administration that its anti-border policies pose a grave danger to the security of their state, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, blamed the administration’s secretive flights for Cuellar’s tragic death.

“That individual who was murdered was in fact murdered by an illegal alien who was on one of [President Joe] Biden’s flights, these midnight flights. Unannounced,” DeSantis said in a recent interview. “If Biden had not been doing that, if he’d been doing his job, that individual would be alive today.”

At the very least, Ulloa appears to have exploited the Biden administration’s immigration policies in order to gain entry into the U.S.

Weeks after taking office, Biden reinstated the Obama-era “catch and release” rule, which allows for the release of detained migrants into the U.S., before a court hearing. There is still a policy in effect called Title 42, which allows the U.S. to turn away migrants in order to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is one Trump-era policy that Biden has technically kept on the books, but has still managed to gut.

During the Trump administration, Title 42 was applied to all migrants seeking to enter the U.S., but the Biden administration has made broad exemptions for certain classes of migrants, including unaccompanied minors.

Ulloa was able to obtain entry into the U.S. because he falsely claimed to be an unaccompanied minor. One can’t help but wonder how many other adult migrants have been allowed into the U.S. after lying about their age, and how many other crimes have been committed as a result.

The Biden administration has not discussed how it is verifying the ages of these migrants, but comments made by White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier this year gave a window into the administration’s thinking.

When asked about how the administration was verifying the claims of pregnant women, another group exempt from Title 42, Psaki responded with her trademark condescension and dismissiveness.

“Are you suggesting you don’t believe when women say they’re pregnant? Is that a big issue, you think, at the border? You think pregnant women are posing a big threat to the border, to the border communities? Is that a big issue?” Psaki said.

If the White House was this dismissive about the possibility of women faking pregnancies to get into the country, it’s a good bet that it has the same stance on people claiming to be minors.

The Biden administration appears intent on bringing as many unvetted migrants into the country as possible, regardless of the consequences. Cuellar is far from the first victim of America’s unsecured border, and likely won’t be the last. This time, the blood is on Biden’s hands.

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New words for Australian national anthem?

The proposed second verse is a rather clumsy reference to Aborigines so is hardly appropriate for general use. The proposed third verse, by contrast, refers to common Australian phenomena so is reasonably appropriate.

The real issue is why one population group is being singled out in what is supposed to be a NATIONAL anthem. Rather confused thinking.

There is also a Christian verse to the anthem that is widely sung in church circles. Christians so far have been content to use the verse only on their own occasions but if we are going to recognize special groups, the Christian version should also be recognized. There are more Christians than Aborigines


The Australian national anthem could be rewritten under proposed changes to make the words better reflect indigenous history.

Non- profit group Recognition in Anthem is pushing for a new second verse to Advance Australia Fair titled 'Our People' and a third verse 'Our Values'.

The group already had one victory when Prime Minister Scott Morrison made a one-word change from January 1 this year that altered the line 'we are young and free' to 'we are one and free'.

Cathy Freeman - who carried both the Australian and Aboriginal flags during her Sydney Olympics gold medal lap of honour in 2000 - is backing the move.

Her support was instrumental in the one word change - with Mr Morrison personally calling her to let her know - but now she wants to 'finish the job'.

The revised anthem has already been sung at high profile events including most recently at the Sydney Opera House during National Reconciliation Week in May 2021, attended by Ms Bulger.

She said the change to the lyrics made on New Year's Eve was a small step and the new verses 'would mean that we could truly celebrate our anthem because it would include us, the First Nations people, and the special places that are around Australia'.

Advance Australia Fair was chosen as the de facto national anthem in a 1977 plebiscite by just over 8.4 million voters who picked the song over God Save the Queen, Waltzing Matilda and Song of Australia.

It was officially adopted as the national anthem on April 19, 1984 on the recommendation of the federal government.

The song was composed by the Scottish-born Peter Dodds McCormick, first performed in 1878 and was sung in Australia as a patriotic song.

PROPOSED SECOND AND THIRD VERSES:

Verse 2 - Our People

For sixty thousand years and more

First peoples of this land

Sustained by Country, Dreaming told

By song and artist's hand.

Unite our cultures from afar

In peace with those first here

To walk together on this soil

Respect for all grows there.

From everywhere on Earth we sing, Advance Australia Fair.

Verse 3 - Our Values

In times of drought and flood and fire

When all but hope is gone

Australians join with helping hands

And wattle blooms again.

Tomorrow may this timeless land

Live for our young to share

From red-rock heart to sun-filled shore

Our country free and fair.

Beneath the Southern Cross we sing, Advance Australia Fair.

Beneath the Southern Cross we sing, Advance Australia Fair.

Christian verse:

With Christ our head and cornerstone,
We’ll build our nation’s might,
Whose way and truth and light alone,
Can guide our path aright.
Our lives, a sacrifice of love,
Reflect our Master’s care.
With faces turned to heaven above,
Advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia fair.

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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