Also an FYI Knights of Columbus Council 15962 aided by the Legion of Mary Gardner council will be putting on a pancake breakfast Sunday June 8th at St. Bernard’s Parish at St. Camillus Church on Mechanic St. in Fitchburg.
The breakfast will be to raise money to help pay for a defibrillator for the church so it will be available in the event of a heart attack taking place while folks are at mass or a function.
The price is $5 and includes Pancakes and Ham and if you’re eating on site coffee & something to drink. Takeout orders are available which will include pancakes, ham, syrup and spread for those who would rather eat at home.
If you have a large Catholic family we will feed your entire family for a flat $20.
About 300 servings or 75 family servings will cover the full cost even if we don’t raise the lot however much of the cost we can defer is great.
I’ll be cooking that Sunday so I’ll be away all morning, no time for blogging for me that day.
Hope to see you there and while your there if you’re a Catholic man check out the Knights of Columbus and see if you want to be part of our acts of faith and works, and if you’re a Catholic woman check out the Legion of Mary to see if you want to be a part of all they do.
Yesterday the rain came in a way it hasn’t been in about 35 years when one of the bridges in Fitchburg over the Nashua river was washed out in a storm, yesterday it was Leominster’s turn the rain kept coming down and the city was drenched, bridges washed out, basements flooded, sink holes appearing and route two the major artery east into Boston impassable.
I’ve not gone outside to shoot any video myself because the last thing Leominster needs is another person on the roads filming while they’re trying to clear to get blog posts.
Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzerella has been in office practically forever and it paid off yesterday here he is from facebook
and from a press conference today:
There is likely no mayor in the area more familiar with the various departments of his city and it seemed to me that they were really on the ball in terms of getting people out. You really can’t stop the rain if a front decides to pause over your area but the various crews allowed the city to weather the storm without loss of life and given the degree of flooding is quite an accomplishment.
Last night people were in dire straights in they had to head west or east on Route 2, to wit:
That is the primary exit from Route 2 for people going into the center of Leominster or into Fitchburg and it’s the primary exit to take route 2 east To Boston or 495 or Devens etc. People were stranded for literally hours on this road
With route 2 flooded people needed to take side routes such as 117 and with the side roads in conditions like this:
That simply added to the disaster because it diverted cars to these locations which the police and fire had to deal with.
What’s really going to hit people for six as the British would put it is the fact that many of the places that got nailed don’t get a lot of flooding. I suspect few if any of the residents whose basements are underwater or foundations were washed out had flood insurance so the cost of repairs is going to be astounding.
I have never had a better illustration of the parable of the house built on a solid foundation then when I saw this video:
The damage to personal property is likely going to be at least in the tens of millions possibly in the hundreds of millions, perhaps the governor can divert some of that illegal immigration emergency money to help rebuild and re-locate the people here.
Given that Massachusetts is one of the most reliably blue states in the country one might except the Biden Administration to come through, but given what we’ve seen in Maui located in an even bluer state I don’t know if that will matter. Time will tell in terms of how both the state and the feds do here.
On a personal level I was briefly trapped on the road with DaWife and my oldest who had just finished Eucharist Adoration together in Fitchburg as we were going to go to dinner together. We were on airport road when the emergency message came through and frankly there was no place for us to go so it took about an hour to turn around and hit a restaurant near my home in Fitchburg that had no issues.
But the real good fortune for me was that Pintastic NE 2023 had been moved and because of that move I had requested this day off weeks ago. If not I would have if I was luckily barely made it to work in Devens for around 3 pm. (the first drops of rain began at 1:10 pm in Fitchburg) and getting out at midnight I would have found every road home impassible at best and at worst would not have been able to clearly see dangers in the road that would have been submerged by water. I’m frankly a little iffy on what route I can use to get to work today but I guess we will see.
Satan has two interesting strategies to spread his influence among humanity. The first involves pretending that he doesn’t exist. There are many people that laugh at the idea of Satan existing at all, and who instead argue that its “bad humans” that account for the evil in the world. These people don’t even like using the word “evil” because it implies there is a “good,” and they instead argue that actions are judged based on human standards at the time, instead of any sort of absolute judgement.
While this strategy works well, it pushes Satan to stay hidden and out of site. It’s far better to operate in the open, and that seems to be the current strategy. But why would rational human beings allow the literal Prince of Darkness, who promises to enslave men and women, to openly influence them?
Easy. Satan becomes cool. He stands for libertarian ideals of free and open speech. Heck, he even has an “X” account. He even manages to get applause in Chesapeake, VA, where school board members voted to continue to allow the club to meet on school grounds. From our parish’s FlockNote:
Unfortunately, the school board voted 7-1 (with one member absent) to allow all non-exempt clubs to include the After School Satan Club to use Chesapeake Public Schools facilities. There were 40 speakers that were signed up to speak, and only five spoke against the After School Satan Club and prohibiting facility use. Most of the speakers and the attendees represented the Good News Club (the Bible club), a wrestling club, and other various clubs such as a soccer club and the girl scouts. There were also about 10 Satanists present, with several of them speaking. There were only four Catholics present by my count, and all spoke out against the After School Satan Club and non-exempt clubs using school facilities. At the end of the meeting, the room was full of applause for the board’s decision to allow non-exempt clubs to meet.
The rosary rally had good attendance, despite the heat, with around 30 people showing up to pray. Four Satanists showed up as a counter-protest at the end of our rally, and there was no interaction between the groups. Thank you to everyone who showed up and those who were unable to make it that were praying from afar. Even thought the vote did not go as we had hoped, I know our prayers are not wasted.
On a positive note, I asked Rose Bastet (the leader of the After School Satan Club and a Satanic minister) if the After School Satan Club planned to meet on the third Thursday of the month as they did during the last school year. I said that we wanted to continue praying the rosary. She said that the school district was giving them a lot of trouble, and she wasn’t sure if they were going to meet at this time. She didn’t go into detail as to what that meant exactly. The attitude of the Satanists was completely reversed from the last time the school board allowed them to meet several months ago. Several months ago they were overjoyed and cheerful at the decision. After this meeting, they did not seem happy.
The only board member who voted to get rid of all non-exempt clubs to include the After School Satan Club was Samuel Boone. The member who was absent was Brittany Walker. The members who voted to allow the clubs to meet with no changes in the policy were: Angela Swygert, Thomas Mercer, Amanda Dean, Michael Lamonea, John McCormick, Norman Pool, and Kim Scott.
Amanda Dean tried to get a reclassification of what a non-exempt club was as she seemed to be surprised that the wrestling club would be impacted. She and Samuel Boone were the only two members who voted to reclassify, with the other members voting to not reclassify as they were wary of legal repercussions. Amanda Dean has been the most outspoken board member about getting the After School Satan Club out of schools so her vote to ultimately allow the clubs was surprising. Perhaps she voted the way she did due to the hostile crowd or realizing that the only option on the table would get rid of more clubs than she had previously realized.
Stay tuned for further details on this situation. We will plan to have rosary rallies in the future should we determine when the After School Satan Club is meeting. It is especially disheartening that the people of this city erupted into applause when all the clubs were able to meet. We need to continue to pray, do penance, and acts of reparation as it seems clear that things like wrestling are more important to the residents of this city than keeping Satan out of the public sphere.
The described use would conflict with a policy, procedure, or the mission of Chesapeake Public Schools.
Not sure when the mission of public schools aligned with Satan, but apparently they aren’t in “conflict” with the school? That doesn’t bode well for any of us going forward.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. Pray for America and for Chesapeake today, we certainly need it.
When does a local crime story become a national one? Outside of a mass shooting, a local crime story becomes a national one when there is a race element.
On May 1, a deranged homeless man, Jordan Neely, was threatening passengers on a New York subway train. A former marine, Daniel Penny, aided by two other passengers, placed Neely, who by the way had 42 prior arrests, in a chokehold. Penny has since charged with second-degree manslaughter. I’m sure that you know these details: Penny is white, Neely is black.
The mainstream media, to use an old radio term, still has the Neely killing on heavy rotation.
On May 6 a much more troubling homicide occurred on Chicago’s South Side. Aréanah Preston, a Chicago police officer, had just finished her shift. As she exited her car in front of her home, Preston, who was still in uniform, was shot to death. Jakwon Buchanan, 18, two 19-year-olds Trevell Breeland and Joseph Brooks, and a 16-year-old, Jaylen Frazier, have been charged with her murder.
Preston, 24, was to have been awarded her master’s degree from Loyola University on Saturday.
By now you probably know why the murder of Preston is not a national news story. Preston, and the alleged killers, are African American. If the accused murderers were white, reports about this homicide would dominate the news outlets, particularly MSNBC and CNN, who would introduce each segment on the cop killing with a custom graphic and somber music.
There are additional chilling details about the alleged perpetrators, all of whom are in jail, bail has been denied.
Their crime spree began early on the morning of May 6, according to a Cook County assistant state’s attorney, because the girlfriend of Jakwon Buchanan needed money for a barbecue. That’s right, a barbecue. Buchanan, by the way, has a pending carjacking case in juvenile court.
First, the four teens, who were dressed in black and wore face masks, stole a Kia Forte, after robbing a woman of her charge cards, her smart phone, and a Louis Vuitton belt. As for the youths’ look and their criminality, think Alex and his “Droogs” from A Clockwork Orange crossed with ninja warriors from a 1980s action film. Next, a 62-year-old woman and her son’s girlfriend were robbed by at least three of the teens of a phone and a Coach purse. Then two of the accused allegedly robbed a man as he was leaving his car.
Then Preston was murdered. Her gun was taken and one of the accused allegedly sold her weapon.
I can describe the four accused killers with two words, ones that the holier-than-thou media has deemed racist: “Career criminals,” despite their youth, and “super-predators.” Remember how CWB Chicago portrayed the four, “all with extensive juvenile criminal backgrounds.” And CWB Chicago, citing a law enforcement source, said of two of the accused, “Brooks and Buchanan ‘are by far in the top 10 for prolific juvenile carjackers over the last two years.'”
On Monday, Brandon Johnson, a Democrat who is essentially a creation of the far-left Chicago Teachers Union, will be sworn in as mayor of Chicago. Until his mayoral campaign began Johnson was a “defund the police” guy. Among other things, Johnson favors sending social workers, instead of cops, to domestic disturbances. After a riot last month in downtown Chicago, the mayor-elect had this to say about the creeps, “It is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”
Sheesh.
If people do demonic things, they can expect to be demonized.
A few days later, Johnson doubled down on those initial remarks about the rioters. “They’re young,” Johnson said. “Sometimes they make silly decisions! They do. So we have to make sure that we are investing to make sure that young people know that they are supported.”
Investing?
Johnson is a big proponent of summer jobs programs for young people. I don’t believe such employment would cause youths like Buchanan, Frazier, Brooks, and Breeland to alter their destructive life decisions for $15-an-hour make-work jobs.
Chicago is stacked with career criminals and super-predators. My solution to the city’s crisis is simple, aggressively prosecute these lawbreakers and imprison them when they are found guilty. Johnson, Cook County’s so-called prosecutor Kim Foxx, and Cook County Circuit Court chief judge Tim Evans don’t agree with me. They’re “root causes” people.
Sadly, even though some moms rise to their challenge, there is one root cause the media and left-wing politicians refuse to discuss. Over eighty percent of African American births in Chicago are to single mothers.
I don’t know what the solution to that problem is. But admitting there is a problem is the first step in confronting it.
On Wednesday, four days after she was to receive her master’s diploma from Loyola, the funeral for Preston will be held.
John Ruberry regularly blogs five miles north of Chicago at Marathon Pundit.
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