Christmas 2012

As I'm off (hopefully) for the week may I wish all my online friends

A Happy Christmas

And may this week be all you wish it to be!

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Penguins

Dead Penguins - I never knew this!

Did you ever wonder why there are no dead penguins on the ice in Antarctica ?

Where do they go?

Wonder no more ! ! !

It is a known fact that the penguin is a very ritualistic bird which lives an extremely ordered and complex life. The penguin is very committed to its family and will mate for life, as well as maintain a form of compassionate contact with its offspring throughout its life.

If a penguin is found dead on the ice surface, other members of the family and social circle have been known to dig holes in the ice, using their vestigial wings and beaks, until the hole is deep enough for the dead bird to be rolled into, and buried.

The male penguins then gather in a circle around the fresh grave and sing: 

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"Freeze a jolly good fellow."
"Freeze a jolly good fellow."

The Shortest Day

At last!  The darkness has descended and the night has begun!  At last the days will begun to stay around that little bit longer.  At last the year is turning and Spring is on the way, after a couple of months of hail, snow, wind and freezing weather of course!  How lovely to think there will be more light, buds on trees, blossoms and gaiety all around once more.  The shortest day celebrated the fact by almost allowing the sun to shine.  The rain fell where it belonged, elsewhere, and when I sauntered around the town the clouds had a bright golden edge to them.  

I wanted to do a post full of insight and significance but the bug has worn me out again.  My little brain is dull tonight, and wasn't much better this morning.  As I did the women's work today, hoovering and such like, I left the front door ajar.  An ambulance paramedic approached enquiring for a shop selling hot food.  When I have a bug the mind often blocks things and as I attempted to send her to the bakers shops for overpriced pies and soup I could not remember the shops name, it has only come to mind now I write this, 'Greggs.'  It has taken all day to arrive, and possibly it has taken the ambulance crew all day to find the shop after my directions!  Why does this 'block' happen I wonder?  I am sure my mother had this, and I suspect it runs in the family, like debt.  

I am worried about my week away over Christmas.  I will not be able to take the laptop as they use Sky and not Talk Talk.  There is growing within me a sensation of desperation here.  A week without fingertapping on this wee keyboard.  A week without emails, a week without anon spamming me, a week without contact with the real world.  A week in which I will have to talk to people!  Oooooh.  I think I am off to bed, I feel giddy.....

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Bright Lights

Howling wind, pouring rain, freeezing cold (this is the weather forecast) and in the shopping centre we have a man selling Candy Floss!  Now when young I LOVED candy floss, who didn't? However I just could not find enough pennies in my pockets (full of holes) when required so had to do without.  As it happens the man appears to have gone walkies so I am out of luck anyway.  I was hoping for pictures of people with brollies against the bright lights but it did not work out they way I wanted.  In fact it is very difficult to picture rain.  You can photograph umbrellas, rain drops, rain on windows, puddles etc, but rain itself, even when heavy, is hard to picture.  Another problem is that the photographer gets wet, and I can do without that thank you!

Roll on tomorrow, the Shortest Day!

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UK Sunshine

The TV these days is stuffed full of adverts crammed with smiling people offering things we don't need.  Glitter abounds among the adverts, whitened teeth constantly flash, fat red clothed overpaid men insult the intelligence by playing Santa (Father Christmas to the middle classes) and amongst the gifts, false happiness,  bright lights, and girls giving the 'glad eye' to the producer of soap operas, we find snow!  Snow!  The horrible stuff that blocks the roads, stops the trains, grounds planes, destroys industry, kills and maims thousands, and NEVER FALLS AT CHRISTMAS!  The chances of snow in the UK at Christmas anywhere south of Aberdeen is  as likely as my Grandmother playing professional football.  And we all know she preferred rugby!  Our weather, and years of experience proves this, is yucky almost all the year round.  Some times the summer is long and hot, sometimes the winter is full of snow, but only every twenty years or so.  The adverts, made in May, are full of the stuff!  Shopping centres full of those false smiles are surrounded by snow, yet not one damp patch appears on screen!  Sleighs fly through clear skies over a snowbound world yet never at any time does that blasted sleigh run into dark brooding clouds.  Nor at any time do the reindeer smash head first into one of the passing 'Easyjet' flights heading for Christmas sunshine, with real sun, in the Med.  This I feel is something of a shame in my view.  Today the shops are full of miserable unsmiling folks fighting over mince pies, Christmas cake and Turkeys.  The gray sky darkens as evening approaches (roll on the 21st!) and my picture captures the sun almost at the zenith.  No snow, just mirk!  

Bah!

AND another thing, why are adverts for perfume so bloody awful?  Each one makes less sense than the one before.  Either a slapper rolling around as if on some drug, a bunch of 'yoof' dancing badly to aboriginal music, or a blue tinted one where some bint fancies a bloke posing at the microphones.  Poor lass, such men are usually queens dear.  Read the Sunday papers!  Why do these ads have to be so obscure?   Could it be they like the 'wrinkle cream' and 'face paint' ads which are banal and meaningless, appeal to women?  If so take the vote from them now!  The cost of each bottle of this pong is enormous.  Huge profits can be made by the producers.  Many years ago at work I used to see invoices from the producers of these substances, the price they charged was huge, add to this the companies profit margin and overheads and lassies pay enough to clear the Greek debt by the end of January!  Someone somewhere is making a lot of money out of little. 

Bah!    

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Megalithic, Mesolithic, The Past

I bought some reduced price books from the museum a few weeks ago and have been enjoying myself pondering life here several thousand years BC.  After the 'Ice Age' went away, and some occasionally fear may not have gone that far away, the land soon sprouted grasses, trees, animals and human life.  At that time the British Isles was connected to the European landmass until the melting ice caps flood water created the North Sea and flooded the area now known by some as 'Doggerland.'  Fishermen regularly collect bones of Mammoths and other long dead creatures from this area, the depth not being great.  

Peoples spread from the continent and made their way to the very tip of the land mass.  However it was not until around 6000 BC or so that they took to creating the many mammoth monuments that dot the land.  These often took the form of tombs, sometimes containing bones, sometimes not, and when bones were found these were often incomplete!  Later occasional pieces of pottery were to be found.  Different areas offered a variety of such tombs, some containing several niches, others additional tombs were added much later and the 'barrow' increased on size, often by a large mass.  Usually these comprised earth piled high, in northern regions stones expertly worked together creating very large barrows.  Many still remain almost untouched, others have been flattened by farming methods over many centuries.  

Winterbourne

Questions remain regarding the ceremonies that took place at such places, no writing was left, and the lack of personal material implies we may never know what really went on there.  A few years ago a man from Madagascar was taken to one area of 'Standing Stones.'  He was informed that no-one could understand their meaning.  In surprise he mentioned that it was obvious, these were commemorating the dead!  That is what happens in his society, and it is a decent enough observation, although no other evidence appears.  Did thousands gather to remember their dead, the past generations?  Could it be that these Barrows and Standing stones were less to do with the solstice and more to bring peoples together?  Today we so similar.  Families gather at weddings and funerals.  Nations gather at Armistice Day, or around major national events.  Sometimes football matches can be used in this manner.  Did Stone age man use ceremonies, possibly sporting or other activities, and certainly feasting at some places, to unite the peoples of an area, sometimes a quite large area at that?  What a shame they did not write this down.  

What happened before such tombs were built is generally unknown.  Hunter gatherers left little in the way of memorials,and possibly were constantly on the move.  It would be a more static society that combined to erect large monuments.  Possibly these were stating this was their area to outsiders, possibly it helped them sink roots deep into the land through their ancestors.  Nations need a 'myth' to build their self esteem.  The Athenians held to the belief that they had 'always belonged in Attica,' even though historians indicate they actually moved in from the north some years before.  The 'Myth' keeps the nation together.  Whatever the reason almost suddenly things changed.  Possibly it was wealth, or an increased population, but most likely ideas coming through contact with the continent.  The large works, which may have taken generations to build, were no longer constructed.  These continued to serve as places for ceremonials however, but individual tombs began to appear, and these began to contain grave goods.  

Wessexarch.co.uk

All this changed when the Romans arrived.  Not only did the world around them become Romanised, the incoming gods accepted, but the arrival of Christianity saw the end of any connection with past ceremonials.  The Druids concerned were probably wiped out by Paulinus before Boudica began her revolt.  She and hers followed almost immediately.  Six, seven or ten thousand years ago people just like you and me wandered the land, hunting, farming, building shelters, developing tools, and going forth and multiplying, and evidence for that is found amongst some items left at the meeting places!  Did they have a philosophy?  Did they sit at the door of their round huts or cave dwellings staring at the sky and wondering?  Was the daily struggle such that little time was left for cogitation, or did they just wish they could watch TV and read the tabloid press?  One thing is sure, the women gossiped, the men boasted of their imported stone hammer from Poland, someone was proud of their expensive pot with intriguing design brought from far away.  Human nature never changes, whatever the culture.              

I find them fascinating, and several 'Time Team' programmes this week on one of the obscure channels have encouraged my fascination, with their existence in those days.  How trees could be felled by brute force and stone axes, flint could be made into a razor sharp knife, and deer antlers could be used to create the huge embankments and Barrows, and later hill forts, all makes me wonder at the human ability to make the best of the circumstances.  Great stuff, but I am glad I live in the days of photography and laptops myself.  Especially when the weather is rough.

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Genius

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Rotten Rain

Trapped by pouring rain today.  Snow, wind, ice, igloos and passing Eskimos, now rain!  Bah!
Still, I managed to finally almost get my Christmas dinner sorted.  I think I will be at sun drenched Bournemouth from next Sunday for a week.  I have not been there for several years and am looking forward to this.  On the other hand I am not used to being with people all day everyday and this will be a strain.  Also the laptop will not work as they are on a different ISP.  This means there is a distinct possibility I may go mad!  Of course I will save money on electricity and gas, and waste it on travel, them, and whatever I find to waste it on.  How will you cope without me? What?........oh!

A chap has appeared on TV playing Chopin's 'Etudes,' whatever they are.  This is something similar and the intelligentsia among you will appreciate this.

 

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The Guilty, The Smug and the Suffering.

These are the guilty.
The coalition of Conservative and Liberal-Democrats who have wormed their way into power and smugly go about their business while the nation suffers.  

For instance, Culture Secretary Maria Miller is happily forcing gay marriage on both the nation and the Churches.  While this fascist like approach pleases some, mostly in parliament, she herself is now to be investigated for possibly, note the words, fiddling her housing claims.  Some £90,000 is the money involved.  An appropriate body will investigate and it may well be she is found innocent of all wrong.  We are right to wonder if the 'Daily Telegraph,' who were about to break the story,  claim that a No 10 junior informed the DT editor the running this story may be 'unwise.'  Hmmmm.  Oh yes, Maria is also leading the investigation into the possible new Press Control Commission, if there is to be one.  Two sides dishing the dirt.  Maria may well be innocent of all wrong, others however have been guilty.

Ian Duncan Smith is the Tory hatchet man determined to make the sick work so as to stop paying benefits.   He went to a decent school where he failed well.  Failed academically and ended up in the army.  This used to be where the idiot son of the wealthy would be dumped.  Ian wandered about Rhodesia, which we lost, and Northern Ireland, carrying a bag for the Major General there.  He did not patrol the streets, or see action  it appears.    He spent time on the dole, something he now thinks criminal, living off the state happily enough (and claiming child benefit for all the kids when they arrived) until a state training course (free) enabled him to get work selling arms to beloved tyrants for GEC-Marconi.  Honesty and integrity not required here I suggest.  He then showed admirable understanding and vision by moving to a property firm where the market collapsed and he was thrown onto the street!  He then joined 'Janes,' selling gun magazines and worming his way up the ladder.  He decided to climb on the state employed ladder once again but his attempt to become an MP failed at the first go.  he eventually obtained the job that lines pockets and has wormed his way here into the cabinet.  From this position he is determined to get the 2,51 million unemployed into the 400,000 vacancies.  I mentioned his academic career failed didn't I?  To ensure those claiming sick benefit, under whatever name it is called now, he constantly implies they are scrounging, as he once did, and ensures ATOS claims they are fit to work, even if they are dying.  A man only the Daily Mail/Telegraph reader and the Tea Party could admire.

The suffering is interesting.  Note one ex-soldier.
Alex Smith, a Gulf War veteran (once described as 'hero' by the smug lot) has been forced out of work by an infection that has damaged his heart and leaves him '15 seconds from death.'  He awaits a second operation, the first installed a device which pumps blood around his body constantly.  A walk with the dog leaves him exhausted and he is unfit for work.  Until now that is!  Ian Duncan Smith and his ATOS friends have decided he is indeed 'fit to work.'  A man at deaths door?  How can this be IDS?  The result of this is his benefit has been cut, possibly they hope he will die of cold?  It sounds the Conservative way.  Daily we hear of such stories.  The man told he is fit to work who died the next day, the young male paralysed since birth 18 years before told to attend a job interview when he cannot move and is too mentally damaged to understand the letter!  It doesn't stop there does it IDS?

Today we read of Patricia Taylor.  She has been divorced, has developed cancer, lost her job and is unable to pay the mortgage.  The bank, Barclays, claim they attempted to help her but have now reclaimed the house and flung her out onto the street.  Over 50,000 are homeless, local councils cannot cope, the smug cabinet does talk about creating houses - for sale, but does nothing to stop this type of situation, which is increasing daily in this time of austerity.  Even America, the land of the greedy has under Obama refused to indulge in the austerity of George Osborne, possibly because Obama knows how the poor suffer.  Our cabinet neither know nor care.

How long until the next election?  How much government time wasted on gayboys and women bishops when the real imperative is improving the country?  Stop the tax dodgers (they have removed almost half the tax collectors from their jobs and wonder why so many, mostly Tory voters, dodge tax), spend money to save money, show some understanding and compassion, and then you may get a few votes.  I doubt that mind.   

Jack Frost

At just before 12 noon on the 12th day of the 12th month of the 2012th year of our Lord I took this picture of our frozen landmass.  The sun was at its zenith and having had my hair cut shortly before I can tell you the suns batteries had run out!  The novelty of 12 noon on 12/12/12 did not occur to me at the time.  I was merely attempting to record the front covered country around us.

This sight as I woke explained why the air had been so cold during the night.  This sort of thing is fine up north, Inverness played Ross County where the temperature was -5 at 7:45 kick off last night, these folks expect such horrors, I don't.  However there is something fabulous about a frost bitten land when the sun shines upon it.  Another 24 hours and all this will turn to our more usual rain.  Oh joy!

Oh Spring, wherefore art thou pal? 

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Looking...

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For Men Only

An Advent Calendar 

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God Bless America, Land of the Free....

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Friday Frolic

Who can frolic in sleet, snow and cold driving rain?

Bah!  Roll on Spring!

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Thursday Laff

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Horrid Winter, Horrid Politiicans

Disgusting!  No warning given that I would awaken to such a sight!  Disgusting!  Who sent this mess to us here?  It's a disgrace!  Thick snow all over the place and no reason for it.  Horrid!  Naturally the nation has crawled to a halt, not counting those who skidded of the road of course.  People will ask questions as they always do, "Why are we not prepared? Why does this happen? What is to be done?"  Daft people waste time answering such folks.  It's winter, that's why!  I'm moving to Australia where it never snows or rains!  How delightful!  

 

Daily Mail

The smug face of Chancellor George shows how satisfied he is after announcing he is once more taking from the poor and giving to the rich!  That will please the 'Daily Mail' readers.  His plan is simple, reduce the money offered to those on benefits, and tax the rich.  However the tax is not a tax, just fiddling with the terms enabling the richer types to benefit while real cuts affect the poorest and disabled.  Our beloved Chancellor will be planning a holiday like last years (£10,000 ski holiday if I remember right) while his rich friends ask their accountants to fix their tax returns in a manner worthy of their huge wages.  Those on £67 a week like I once was will be happily wondering how to pay the heating bills.

The Conservative lie is a simple one.  Based as you know on the idea of telling a lie over and over again until it is accepted as truth.  Thus the 'Daily Mail' and 'Telegraph' fill their pages with tales of scrounging lazy types, always working class, who refuse to work and receive huge handouts.  It can be exaggerated to the nth degree if the recipient is a black immigrant.  This tells those that still have a job, and they do exist, that they keep the scroungers in luxury.  In no time at all resentment builds up and wallah! Votes for the Conservative Party!  Maths tells a different story.  As mentioned many times before the unemployment figures stand at around two and a half million, job vacancies number around four hundred thousand, therefore it is not folks scrounging it is a lack of jobs.  Create a million or two jobs and most people will rush to take one.  However that is difficult, and indeed almost impossible to achieve during the depression so the Tories encourage disunity by blaming the lazy, the immigrants and anyone who fits their bill.  The reader of the right wing press wants to believe he is working to keep everyone else well fed but will soon change his mind - on the day his company collapses!

George satisfies the middle class right wing reader while taking from them and giving to those at the top, his type of person.  Since Thatcher this has gone on, attacking the poorest and feeding the richest.  The so called Labour government, who's leader made around twenty or thirty millions in recent years and has a very complicated tax dodging system going for him, claimed things were going to get better, and they did for him!  Now we have the worst government I can remember, shored up by the Lib-Dem 'fag,' and little hope of change while the world around us collapses, except for the top level of course.  

I'm so glad I trust in Jesus who never failed me through that horrible time.  Maybe this will cause others to do the same.  Things can only get worse for the next few years, not better and there is none who can lead us out of this.

               
On the other hand there is of course that 'British pluck' that sees black humour (a phrase banned by Rotherham council I believe) in every situation.  Some kids must have been out early today and made the most of the horrid, disgusting, foul snow to leave us these two creatures.  Hopefully not fashioned on the parents!  I am better prepared for the next snowfall, I bought a brush to remove the horrid stuff from the pathway today.  For years we have struggled without one because it was not worth buying (and a £2.99 that's a lot of money for me to spend) and naturally by the time I got home the horrid stuff was turning to slush and has gone.  Bah!

Robin Hood?

Scotsman

This mornings 'Scotsman' featured one of the more important stories found in the papers today. The 'Tesco Express' shop in Inverness has been attacked by an intruder.  This Robin has decided to keep warm and find supper by entering the store to choose a few morsels.  Not only does he fly around the checkouts and loiter in the store he has encouraged a pigeon to do likewise!  This of course causes a health hazard and the 24 hour opening has been interrupted by closure of the store at eleven each night as the staff attempt to chase the birds out.

Not only is this happening to Tesco this December it also happened to another 'Tesco Express' last year also in Inverness.  On that occasion the robin, possibly the same one, entered the cafe and took tidbits from customers.  Another health hazard but also popular as you can imagine.  Some folks have birds in their garden, not that I'm naming names, others have to visit the park or wander into Tesco's in Inverness!  Mind you with the snow all around up there I'm with the birds, it's better indoors than out!

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Maudlin Monday

The weather forecast threatened snow but as always it lied!  The snow stayed where it belonged, up north!  Let the Yorkists and the Scots keep what belongs to them - bad weather!  Instead we here in the soft south endured cold, cold rain.  As I crossed the almost deserted park it was indeed dreich.  The rain was coming straight down as I crossed, heavy shopping in hand.  In spite of the lass on the TV claimed it had, "Passed into the North Sea."  Liar!  It passed down my neck girl!  At least there has been no need to keep the heating on today although I did retire to bed for a while to keep warm - just in case.

This bint is filling the news again.  For the next few months we will be fed a daily diet of babies, her health, photographs, speculation, nancy boy 'Royal Correspondents,' boring women informing the world of their opinions on the child, and ceaseless comparisons to Diana from the media.  The sad women who lived their lives through Diana, and now do so through this girl, will be on every radio phone in, every page of the 'Daily Mail,' and the other tabloids.  All the tabloids will be printing those well prepared 'specials' that have been sitting on their PCs waiting to go since the day she married wealth and fame.  I am tempted to point out that the Tories attack the unemployed who have too many children they cannot afford so how about this pair?  They live on benefits (his RAF wage will not pay his way), claiming handouts from the taxes we pay, and doing nothing for society but sell dumbed down papers.  Should we insist she gets a job?  The child will probably be given a Chav name anyway.....

   

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Trees

Trees

I Tthink that I shall never see 

A poem lovely as a tree. 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest 

Against the sweet earth's flowing breast; 

A tree that looks at God all day, 

And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 

A tree that may in summer wear 

A nest of robins in her hair; 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 

Who intimately lives with rain. 

Poems are made by fools like me, 

But only God can make a tree. 

Joyce Kilmer

November 30th

The wind from the north has spent the past couple of days howling through the gaps in my window frames.  Cold air fills the house, freezing the tea I was drinking no less than a minute ago.   Typing wearing Mitts can be difficult, so it's a good thing most of you read quite slowly.  As I sit here wrapped in a thick blanket I experience to the full what it means to be a Scot.  The weather is always like this up there!  Quite why the greatest nation in the world did not make its way down to the Mediterranean coast all those years ago is a question I fail to comprehend.   We would make much better neighbors for the Catalans than the ones they already exist alongside.  They would be much more tolerable than this lot here!

The point of all this comes clear when you realise that today is St Andrews Day!  Today the Scots remember their Patron Saint, St Andrew!  However ask the majority of this once Calvinist land what knowledge they have of him and few would know much.  The reformation of course removed the fallacy that a dead man could be prayed to or expected to look after one group of people rather than another so saints of any sort get ignored.   Quite right too!  However this could be a day for remembering what Scotland is about, Scots great contribution to the world, and Scots influence for good to one and all.  However let's not talk about me.  Scotland as you know has produced more genius's per head of population than any other nation.  The greatest Americans have all got Scots blood in them, Scotland led the way in exploration, benevolence, medicine, law, learning, and football.  What more could you wish for?  The Arbroath Declaration is the main inspiration for 'freedom' in this world.   A refusal to be cowed by an aggressive bully at that time has been the mainspring of human freedom ever since.  But you know all this and I merely humbly reiterate such for the benefit of the younger generation.

Andrew himself, as you know was brother of Simon, and is considered as the first disciple and the one who brought Simon, later renamed Kephas, Peter to you, to Jesus.  While this Peter became well known and ended up dying somewhere in Rome around 64 AD Andrew himself disappeared from history.  Around the four hundreds people began to collect bits of dead apostles, a finger here, a toe there, and stories of their healing powers began to circulate.  The place where they were stored brought pilgrims seeking healing and Spiritual strength which meant cash could be made by Abbeys and the growing number of monasteries around the world. 

Some say Andrews bones lay in Constantinople, a region Origon and others claim he evangelised.   Others make similar claims and these may contain an element of truth.  How then was he not only on the Volga but crucified at Patras in the Peloponnese?  Ah well, we will never know.   The story goes his bones remained there until moved to Constantinople by one of the bigwigs of the time.  They would interfere wouldn't they?  Later bits of him were returned to Patras, but I doubt it is worth a visit myself.  For some reason his bones ended up in Hexam, as you might expect.  Acca, the bishop, was chased from there at one time and moved himself to Fife,  he landed in his wee boat at St Andrews, a miracle that he landed at a town with that name!  Proof indeed that this was Andrew!  A later Pictish King decided to make Andrew the patron after winning a battle. However as the Picts died out (except in Fife where many still exist) maybe he got that wrong. 

Who really knows? In days of yore when few could read, and the bible was only in the possession of a few, often only one or two copies in the land, superstition easily arose and religion was second to church political gain. No change there then!  Lacking a biblical understanding people came to put their hope in 'saints' of many sorts, some even Christian, and in time all nations had their own personal 'saints' who would plead before God on their behalf. The new Testament makes clear that only Christ Jesus, the great high priest, pleads before the throne, and that using his own blood shed on the cross. By no other name can men be saved. A 'saint' by the way, is simply someone who receives Christ Jesus death on behalf of his rotten nature, believes Gods mercy, receives the Holy Spirit and finds a new life. Each Christian is in fact a 'saint.' No need for anyone 'special,' bar Jesus himself. 

Quite how folks endure the freezing cold weather beats me.  There should be a law against it.  Oh look, I've found a source of heat.  I wonder who this candle belongs to?

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