Magic Statistics

Someone fixed a lottery at a certain city in New Mexico.

All 50,000 scratch-off tickets for car dealership contain grand prize

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) - Everyone's a winner after a direct-mail marketing company hired by a local car dealership mistakenly sent out 50,000 scratch-off tickets to residents - all of them declaring the ticket-holder the $1,000 grand prize winner. Just one of the tickets was supposed to be the grand prize winner.

Proof that the UFOs are real.

Previous related post: Psychological research confirms the obvious

No wonder Christians are fleeing Palestinian territories.  Dr Justus Reid Weiner, scholar-in-residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, has reported gruesome stories of abuse and torture suffered by Christians at the hands of Palestinian authorities.  Here is just one.

His first story was about an Armenian Christian jewelry store owner from Jerusalem who was on a business trip to Gaza. The Palestinian police ordered him to turn over half of his gold and money and then subsequently beat him for six hours. After the beating the man still refused to give the police his gold and was beaten for another two hours in the police station. In the end, the Christian man’s watch, rings, half of his gold jewelry and $6,000 were taken from him before he was released.

Other stories involve Muslim converts to Christianity who were imprisoned and brutalised for months.  Dr Weiner’s new book is dedicated to one who was taunted, horribly tortured, and suffered death rather than renounce Christ.

During the 1940s, an estimated 75% of Bethlehem residents were Christian, but today only 12%.  The overall Christian population of the West Bank has fallen to less than 2%.

h/t: Transfigurations

Previous related posts:

• Properties of Bethlehem Christians sold without their knowledge
• Christians being driven from the Holy Land
• Palestinian Christians have lost hope
• Palestinian Christians fleeing West Bank and Gaza

Another unit of UN peacekeepers is alleged to have sexually abused underage girls.  The UN said the soldiers under investigation are stationed in Ivory Coast but refused to name their country of origin.  A source inside the UN leaked the details.

[A] UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the investigation involved Moroccan soldiers having sex with underage girls.

The United Nations has declared a "zero-tolerance" policy over sexual exploitation since peacekeeping operations in various African countries and East Timor were hit by scandals, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"An internal investigation by the United Nations Mission in Cote D'Ivoire has revealed serious allegations of widespread sexual exploitation and abuse by a UN military contingent serving in Bouake," the statement said.

The unit is confined to base while the investigation is underway.

After widespread sexual abuse by peacekeepers, most notoriously in several African countries, a 2005 UN report recommended that soldiers found guilty of such conduct should be punished.  Member nations have not agreed to that, however.

h/t: Dissecting Leftism

Previous related posts:

• UN “peacekeepers” exploit teenage prostitutes in East Timor
• UN pressures Nicaragua to legalise abortion
• UN report: “There is no hierarchy among cultures”
• UN guilty of "unethical and corrupt behaviour"

The government of El Salvador says it will ask the Vatican to beatify Archbishop Oscar Romero, yet it continues to deny any responsibility for his 1980 assassination.  Msgr Romero was fatally shot by a former death squad member while celebrating Catholic Mass.  The shooter was arrested and convicted and, as far as the Salvadoran government is concerned, that’s the end of the matter.

"The state can't accept responsibility because there was a clear person responsible for the killing, and that person was tried," [Security and Justice Vice Minister Astor] Escalante said.

A Salvadoran court found former death squad member Alvaro Saravia guilty of fatally shooting Romero in the late 1980s. Saravia was released from prison with a 1993 amnesty after El Salvador's 1992 peace accords.
. . .
David Morales, a church legal representative in El Salvador, said the decision to support the beatification process was just a “smoke screen” to defer criticism of its decision not to lift the 1993 amnesty.

According to a 1993 official UN report, the killing was ordered by Major Roberto D’Aubuisson, political leader and death squad organiser.  D’Aubuisson, who died in 1992, denied any involvement.

Romero is one of ten 20th-century martyrs depicted on the west front of Westminster Abbey.

The collect for today, the Feast Day of Saint Mary Magdalene (source):

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:14-18
The Gospel: St John 20:11-18

(This commemoration has been transferred from 22 July.)

Artwork: Titian, Penitent Mary Magdalene, 1560s, Oil on canvas, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.