Duck Dynasty Star: Fame Is Fleeting; What Matters Most Is Jesus Christ

By Melissa Barnhart, Christian Post, April 26, 2013
Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the Robertson family whose Duck Commander business is the backdrop for A&E’s hit program “Duck Dynasty” will release a new book on May 7 titled, Happy, Happy, Happy, in which he shares his faith in Jesus Christ, his knowledge about the founding fathers, and how he’s grown Duck Commander into a multimillion dollar business.

The hour-long season finale of Duck Dynasty was the most-watched program on television Wednesday night, beating out American Idol with 9.6 million viewers, which is a record for A&E.

Robertson credits all of his family’s success to their faith in Jesus Christ and their devotion to living a Christian lifestyle. He told CP on Thursday that his family has managed to stay humble, amid all of the fame, because they know that all blessings come from God; and in the end, everyone’s going to the same place: a six-foot hole.

“Fame is rather fleeting, as you know, or should know,” Robertson said. “Money can come and go, and fame comes and goes. Peace of mind and a relationship with God is far more important, so this is the precedent that we’ve set in our lives. The bottom line is, we all die, so Jesus is the answer. Many have told me through the years: ‘I think I’ll take my chances without Jesus.’ And I always come back and say, ‘so what chance is that?’”

Robertson wasn’t always a follower of Jesus Christ. In fact, for the first 28 years of his life, he said he lived a “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle,” and rejected his sister’s efforts to bring him to the Lord, until he read a sign in the Atlanta airport that stopped him in his tracks.

“I’m walking through the airport in Atlanta, and there was a large sign on one of the terminal walls and the question on it said: ‘Were you born between the years of 1945 and 1965?’ And as I was walking through, I stopped and said, ‘oh, well that would be me.’ I read on and the sign said: ‘Report to the Centers for Disease Control immediately, because you’re in the highest risk group on planet earth for hepatitis C.’ The point is that for the first 28 years, I was in that group of individuals,” Robertson said.

“Fortunately, no debilitating disease fell upon me,” said Robertson who attributes his walk with Jesus Christ for all of the success he’s achieved in the last 38 years.

Robertson told CP that his book, Happy, Happy, Happy, is an extended version of the speeches he’s been giving across the country for the past 25 years.

“Basically, the book is about my life story,” he said. “I’ve been speaking all over the United States about duck calling, the founders of the country, and the Gospel. Once I started doing that, people started asking me: ‘How can I get a copy of what I just heard, why don’t you write a book?’ The book is just about that: ducks, founding fathers, and my faith in God. And the rest of the story is about how it all turned out—went from rags to riches, as they say.”

Robertson also attributes his wife, Miss Kay, for the success of Duck Commander, and for being a Christian example to their four sons who are married and raising families of their own.

“I told Miss Kay we need to make sure our children don’t turn out like I turned out,” he said. “So they were raised up around biblical instruction. That mixed with discipline—the discipline code, I call it. They just had a lifestyle of seeing their parents do good things. I think maybe me loving their mother and me loving my neighbors around me had a profound impact on them. And what came out of that was four sons who are all married to their original wives. And they’re acting godly and I think Miss Kay and I had a hand in that.”

“So basically, I would recommend that to all parents. You have to discipline your children, or they won’t respect you, law enforcement or God, or anyone else. But I would say, overarching, I made sure they knew that we loved them, their mother and myself. … They were loved, they were given biblical instruction, they were seeing their dad and mom reach out to their neighbors around them, helping them, whether it be financial or marriage problems.”

Robertson quoted 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 and cited it as being one of the scriptures he likes to share with people. “So basically, I don’t ever move too far past the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, because it’s of first importance. And I make sure it’s of first importance with anyone I’m talking to. It all comes down to that, really, when you get right down to it. So it’s not complex. Jesus removed our sins and guarantees we can be raised from the dead. I’m still waiting on someone to enlighten me on what story beats that one.”

Part of the Christian lifestyle is the Christian work ethic, and Robertson achieved his dream of getting his duck call on the market by setting goals, maintaining his focus, and holding fast to his unwavering faith in God.

“I worked hard,” Robertson said about his job as a commercial fisherman, catching catfish and buffalo while he worked to get his small business off the ground. “The first year, my gross sales totaled $8,000 in the duck call business. The second year was like $13,000, and the third year was $22,000. Simply put, I set a goal, stayed the course, and trusted in the Almighty. I did what was right, and the result is for everyone to see now.”

Speaking about his book, Robertson said: “All I would tell people is the first 28 years of my life I wasn’t going anywhere very fast. The last 38 went beyond anything I could’ve asked for or imaged. So it was either luck—I was just lucky, as the atheists probably would say—or I was blessed by the Almighty. I’m leaning toward blessings came once I was converted.”

“I would tell anybody who was listening, ‘Hey this is my story, a lot of good came out of it.’ The second half has been far better than the first half, I can tell you that.”

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Pope Francis Has a Few Words in Support of Leisure

By Mark Oppenheimer, NY Times, April 26, 2013
On Tuesday, “Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words,” a book of conversations with the man who was then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, will be published in English (Putnam; $24.95). These interviews from 2010 with two journalists in Argentina yield cute facts about the new boss of the church—a favorite movie? “Babette’s Feast”—but not much interesting theology.

But one passage in the book, at first glance rather slight, ends up insinuating a radical note into the proceedings. On a close read, it seems that Pope Francis believes that we must—indeed, that God is calling us to—relax.

Responding to the question, “Do we need to rediscover the meaning of leisure?” Pope Francis replies: “Together with a culture of work, there must be a culture of leisure as gratification. To put it another way: people who work must take the time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, read, listen to music, play a sport. But this is being destroyed, in large part, by the elimination of the Sabbath rest day. More and more people work on Sundays as a consequence of the competitiveness imposed by a consumer society.” In such cases, he concludes, “work ends up dehumanizing people.”

Some pages later, he derides people who think of themselves as Catholic but don’t make time for their children. This is an example, according to Pope Francis, of living “with fraud.”

Catholic social teaching is known for promoting the idea that workers deserve dignity, which includes rest. But Pope Francis seems to be saying something more: that an authentically Christian life includes a proper dose of leisure and family time. That may sound unusual coming from a man whose tradition valorizes solitude and monasticism, and whose clergy members are not permitted to take spouses or beget children.

The idea of a Catholic exalting the Sabbath sounds particularly peculiar in the American context. In the United States, Catholics were never the great proponents of Sabbatarianism, observing Sunday as a special day, for worship or rest. That was a Protestant thing.

From the moment the Puritans arrived, they began enforcing laws to reserve Sunday for churchgoing. Over time, what came to be called “blue laws” covered different activities, and varied by state. Some laws forbade hunting on Sunday, others the sale of liquor, others any commercial activity. In religious towns, cultural norms made some recreation, like sports, taboo as well. As a child being raised in a Pentecostal family, John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, wasn’t allowed to ride a bicycle on Sundays.

Over time, the official justification for the laws had changed, but it was still Protestants who pushed for them. “In the 1820s, they would say this is a time to pause to reflect on our religious obligations to God,” said David Sehat, a historian at Georgia State University. But by the 1870s, “they started using Pope Francis’ justification: a time to spend time with family, for ‘the preservation of health and the promotion of good morals,’ ” to use one jurist’s language.

And the temperance movement, which of course supported laws against Sunday liquor sales, was Protestant in character. Activists often depicted Catholic immigrants as drunkards.

Today, the laws are disappearing, relics of a time when Protestant culture was more dominant. Connecticut, for example, finally decided to permit Sunday liquor sales last year. And in the United States, Sunday has lost its sacred character. Most Christians see little conflict in going to church in the morning, then watching a football game—maybe with the family, or maybe at a sports bar—in the afternoon.

The Sabbatarian tradition is upheld, in a serious way, by some small groups of religious Protestants and, of course, by observant Jews. And, it so happens, by those who think of themselves as both Christian and Jewish. “Messianic Jews,” who believe in the divinity of Jesus but pay special attention to the Jewish roots of Christianity, are often very attached to Sabbath observance.

Sarah Posner, a staff writer for the ReligionDispatches.org Web site, recalled a conference of messianic Jews she attended last year in Ellicott City, Md. “They weren’t selling their books, CDs and DVDs on Saturday, because they didn’t want to exchange money,” Ms. Posner said. “But they were using electricity”—which traditionally observant Jews would not.

Our religiously diverse country includes those who call their weekly day off from smartphones a “secular Sabbath.” Some groups may not even have a concept of Sabbatarianism. In Islam, for example, “there’s a deep theological objection to the idea that God rested on the seventh day,” according to Marion Holmes Katz, a scholar of Islam at New York University. “The idea of God resting seems to imply God being tired. So the whole idea that you refrain from work as some sort of ritualized recapitulation or symbolic nod to the process of creation—it’s not one that has any traction in Islam.”

But in Catholicism, as Pope Francis suggests, the Sabbath actually is supposed to matter—the whole day, not just Mass. For as the catechism teaches, in Paragraph 2185, “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body.”

Of course, those who preach a relaxing Sabbath, with friends and family, are often working hardest on the day they exalt. For clergy members, the Sabbath is the busiest workday of the week.

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Study: Monsanto's Roundup Herbicide Linked to Cancer, Autism, Parkinson's

Common Dreams, April 26, 2013
The active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide may be “the most biologically disruptive chemical in our environment,” being responsible for a litany of health disorders and diseases including Parkinson’s, cancer and autism, according to a new study.

It’s “the most popular herbicide on the planet,” widely used on crops like corn and soy genetically engineered to be “Roundup Ready,” and sprayed on weeds in lawns across the US. But in the peer-reviewed study published last Thursday in the journal Entropy, authors Anthony Samsel, an independent scientist and consultant, and Stephanie Seneff, a senior research scientist at MIT, crush the industry’s claims that the herbicide glyphosate is non-toxic and as safe as aspirin.

Looking at the impacts of glyphosate on gut bacteria, Samsel and Seneff found that the herbicide “enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins,” and is a “textbook example” of “the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins.”

The researchers point to a potential long list of disorders that glyphosate, in combination with other environmental toxins, could contribute to, including inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, depression, ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, cachexia, infertility, and developmental malformations.

The herbicide’s “Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body,” they write.

The authors conclude:

Given the known toxic effects of glyphosate reviewed here and the plausibility that they are negatively impacting health worldwide, it is imperative for more independent research to take place to validate the ideas presented here, and to take immediate action, if they are verified, to drastically curtail the use of glyphosate in agriculture. Glyphosate is likely to be pervasive in our food supply, and, contrary to being essentially nontoxic, it may in fact be the most biologically disruptive chemical in our environment.

The new findings may add further momentum to concerns from food safety and food sovereignty advocates who have challenged Monsanto’s grip on corporate agriculture and its genetically engineered crops.

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Boston Marathon Bombing- What is the truth?

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How to Multiply your Physical Output!

By Dennis Edwards:

You can increase your physical output by following these simple steps.

Did you know how much your spiritual or psychological attitude affects your physical output? Of course, we all know that to be true. But a few days ago, I was reminded of this reality. As you may know, I like to keep myself in shape physically & sometimes post my 5-km times on my Facebook page. I do it mainly to encourage some of you who may need to be doing more exercise. “If Dennis can do that, maybe I should give it a try.”

Most of my life I have been quite active physically, having been involved in teaching young teens. I was usually pulled into playing soccer, if only as a goalie or defensive player, neither of which I did very well.  At the same time, I also have fought low self-esteem, insecurity & discouragement, which has translated into a deeper relationship with the Lord for the needed strength & inspiration in daily living. Like Paul said, “For I know in me (that is in my flesh) dwells no good thing.”[1] And James advises, “Draw nigh to God, & He will draw nigh to you.”[2]

Over the last 3 or 4 years, I started a running project as I saw I was putting on weight around mid-drift bulge! I have always liked to eat, as I come from a family of big-eaters. At my father’s death, he weighed in around 300 pounds. I am a little under 200 right now, & my 2 brothers are quite a bit over that!

I never had any problem with weight, & could usually eat all I wanted with little or no consequence. I have usually kept a healthy diet & stayed away from pork products, white sugar, white flour & white rice most of my life & very little alcohol. But a few years ago, I noticed a tire starting to develop around the waistline. So I decide a running project was in order. On the beach that summer, I started running for between 10-15 minutes. That’s all I could do. I soon built up to 20 minutes &, over time, 25-30 minutes.

Now, I run my 5 km in usually under 35 minutes. My fastest time has been just around 30 minutes flat. But I generally do around 33 minutes. It’s a slow pace, but it gets my heart pumping & lungs expulsing & inhaling deeply. I feel really good afterwards. I feel physically refreshed & psychologically renewed. My mind seems sharper & I am less stressed.

Last Tuesday, however, I was quite discouraged. I had had an argument with my wife over something I cannot even remember at the moment. Book distribution has been way down, which means financing is low. Financial problems normally affect other aspects of our lives, & the problems become exaggerated in our minds, especially if we are looking down at the waves, like Peter did.

I sure you remember the story from the Bible. Jesus had just miraculously fed a huge amount of people, about 5,000 men, besides the woman & children. He then constrained the disciples to get away by boat, while He Himself sent the multitude away. What a humble leader concerned about His flock. He then went into a mountain to pray until evening.

Meanwhile, the disciples were having trouble getting to the other side of the lake as the wind was against them. At about the fourth watch of the night, or about 3 a.m., Jesus goes unto them walking on the water. By this time, the disciples are exhausted & probably discouraged, worried or fearful even though they are men of the sea. The Bible says, that when they saw Jesus walking, they cried out in fear that it was a ghost!

Finally, Jesus calls out to them to not be afraid, that it is He. Peter then answers, “Lord, if it is you, bid me to come out on the waters with you.” And the Lord says, “Come.” Peter then starts his famous walk upon the waters. He seems to do quite well until he is reminded about how strong the winds are & how high the waves are. He starts to sink, & cries out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately puts forth His hand & catches Peter & says unto him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”[3]

When they get into the ship, the wind stops, & the disciples worship Jesus saying, “Of a truth You are the Son of God.”[4]

Well, I got my eyes off the Lord & on my problems & so, I began to sink. Nevertheless, that day even though I did not feel like running, I compelled myself to. It took all my effort to not stop in the middle of the 5-km distance & just walk. When I finally finished the 5 km, my time was 38 minutes & 39 seconds. At least I had run the whole distance. But it was a very slow time, in fact, the slowest time all year. The discouragement I was feeling had resulted in a low physical performance.

It reminds me of the true story of an Olympic athlete who was expected to win his competition. However, the same morning of his final race, he was informed of his mother’s death. He ended up falling during the race & finished poorly. His psychological attitude had defeated him & he had lost the race even before it began.

Back to my story: The day after my poor time was a national holiday in Portugal. A couple who has been going through a very serious financial situation, where their business closed & they lost all their savings & property to the banks, came by for their bi-monthly visit. It is during this time that they pick up needed staples & we are able to share God’s Word with them, counsel, pray & fellowship together.

That day, we started with a Bible class on discouragement, as our friend has had suicidal tendencies. After class, we then snacked & sang some Christian songs together & praised God for our blessings. We ended up reading from the Bible together, before finishing with a good strong heartfelt prayer for the next 2 weeks until they come again.

What happened the next day surprised me. After running my 5 km, I looked at my watch & my time was 5 minutes 20 seconds faster than my time 2 days before. I realized how my spiritual state had affected my physical performance. Also, the day of rest & relaxation & prayer & praise & reading & sharing God’s Word had made a difference & had affected me positively.

In conclusion, take that day off that you need & don’t push yourself so hard day after day. Even God rested on the seventh day & commanded us to follow His example. That is where we get the 7-day week. Try to maintain your spiritual life. Get together with like-minded people to share your faith & encourage each other. Like it says in Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.”[5] 

Yesterday, I spent the day working on my present passion: stories with meaning for children. I finished up the first 3 books I had been working on for quite some time, but never seemed to have the time to finish. Instead of going out fundraising & distributing books, I wrote & edited & formatted & finished 3 books. At 7 o’clock, when I went running, my time was one minute faster than the day before, or 6 minutes & 20 seconds faster than the day of my discouragement. Doing my passion & trusting God for tomorrow increased my physical performance.

So there are a few tips for you. Trust God. Take a break. Pray. Do your passion. They’re all good for you! Get the inspiration you need. But don’t forget to get back to work. Do what you can do & trust God for the rest! He loves you & wants you to trust in Him. Just pick up a dollar bill or coin & read, “In God we trust!” Won’t you?

Footnotes:

[1] Rom.7:18

[2] Jam.4:8

[3] Matthew 14:31

[4] Matthew 14:33

[5] Heb.10:25

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US tourists swim for 14 hours after boat sinks

By Danica Coto, AP, Apr 25, 2013
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)—The fishing trip off the rugged north coast of St. Lucia was supposed to last all day, but about four hours into the journey, the boat’s electric system crackled and popped.

Dan Suski, a 30-year-old business owner and information technology expert from San Francisco, had been wrestling a 200-pound marlin in rough seas with help from his sister, Kate Suski, a 39-year-old architect from Seattle. It was around noon April 21.

He was still trying to reel in the fish when water rushed into the cabin and flooded the engine room, prompting the captain to radio for help as he yelled out their coordinates.

It would be nearly 14 hours and a long, long swim before what was supposed to be a highlight of their sunny vacation would come to an end.

As the waves pounded the boat they had chartered from the local company “Reel Irie,” more water flooded in. The captain threw life jackets to the Suskis.

“He said, ‘Jump out! Jump out!’” Kate Suski recalled in a telephone interview Thursday with The Associated Press.

The Suskis obeyed and jumped into the water with the captain and first mate. Less than five minutes later, the boat sank.

The group was at least eight miles (13 kilometers) from shore, and waves more than twice their size tossed them.

“The captain was telling us to stay together, and that help was on its way and that we needed to wait,” Kate Suski said.

The group waited for about an hour, but no one came.

“I was saying, ‘Let’s swim, let’s swim. If they’re coming, they will find us. We can’t just stay here,’” she recalled.

As they began to swim, the Suskis lost sight of the captain and first mate amid the burgeoning swells. Soon after, they also lost sight of land amid the rain.

“We would just see swells and gray,” Dan Suski said.

A plane and a helicopter appeared in the distance and hovered over the area, but no one spotted the siblings.

Several hours went by, and the sun began to set.

“There’s this very real understanding that the situation is dire,” Kate Suski said. “You come face-to-face with understanding your own mortality … We both processed the possible ways we might die. Would we drown? Be eaten by a shark?”

“Hypothermia?” Dan Suski asked.

“Would our legs cramp up and make it impossible to swim?” the sister continued.

They swam for 12 to 14 hours, talking as they pushed and shivered their way through the ocean. Dan Suski tried to ignore images of the movie “Open Water” that kept popping into his head and its story of a scuba-diving couple left behind by their group and attacked by sharks. His sister said she also couldn’t stop thinking about sharks.

When they finally came within 30 feet (9 meters) of land, they realized they couldn’t get out of the water.

“There were sheer cliffs coming into the ocean,” she said. “We knew we would get crushed.”

They swam until they noticed a spit of sand nearby. When they got to land, they collapsed, barely able to walk. It was past midnight, and they didn’t notice any homes in the area.

“Dan said the first priority was to stay warm,” she recalled.

They hiked inland and lay side by side, pulling up grass and brush to cover themselves and stay warm. Kate Suski had only her bikini on, having shed her sundress to swim better. Dan Suski had gotten rid of his shorts, having recalled a saying when he was a kid that “the best-dressed corpses wear cotton.”

As the sun came up, they began to hike through thick brush, picking up bitter mangoes along the way and stopping to eat green bananas.

“It was probably the best and worst banana I’ve ever had,” Dan Suski recalled.

Some three hours later, they spotted a young farm worker walking with his white dog. He fed them crackers, gave them water and waited until police arrived, the Suskis said.

The Suskis were hospitalized and received IV fluids, with doctors concerned they couldn’t draw blood from Kate Suski’s arm because she was so dehydrated. They also learned that the captain and mate were rescued after spending nearly 23 hours in the water.

St. Lucia’s tourism minister called it a miracle, and the island’s maritime affairs unit is investigating exactly what caused the boat to sink. Marine Police Sgt. Finley Leonce said they have already interviewed the captain, and that police did not suspect foul play or any criminal activity in the sinking of the ship.

The brother and sister said they don’t blame anyone for the shipwreck.

“We are so grateful to be alive right now,” Kate Suski said. “Nothing can sort of puncture that bubble.”

Upon returning to their hotel in St. Lucia earlier this week, the Suskis were upgraded to a suite as they recover from cuts on their feet, severe tendonitis in their ankles from swimming and abrasions from the lifejackets.

“It’s really been amazing,” Dan Suski said. “It’s a moving experience for me.”

On Saturday, they plan to fly back to the U.S. to meet their father in Miami.

Once a night owl, Kate Suski no longer minds getting up early for flights, or for any other reason.

“Since this ordeal, I’ve been waking up at dawn every morning,” she said. “I’ve never looked forward to the sunrise so much in my life.”

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Canadian Priest Killed in Snatch and Grab Shooting in Haiti

Reuters, April 25, 2013
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters)—A Canadian missionary was shot to death on Thursday as he left a bank in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, according to local media reports.

The priest, Richard Joyal of Manitoba, was shot three times in the back by a man on a motorcycle who snatched a bag the priest was carrying, the reports said.

Joyal had previously worked in the Philippines and Ivory Coast, according to a source familiar his activities in Haiti.

The Canadian government recently issued a travel advisory for its citizens visiting the Caribbean nation, warning them to “exercise a high degree of caution due to high crime rates in various parts of the country and ongoing political tensions.”

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Like a Tarantino movie: carjacking victim tells of 90 harrowing minutes spent with Tsarnaev brothers

Eric Moskowitz, The Boston Globe, April 26, 2013
The 26-year-old entrepreneur had just pulled his new Mercedes to the curb on Brighton Avenue to answer a text when an old sedan swerved behind him, slamming to a stop. A man in dark clothes got out and approached the passenger window. It was nearly 11pm.

The man rapped on the glass, speaking quickly. Danny, unable to hear him, lowered the window—and the man reached an arm through, unlocked the door, and climbed in, brandishing a silver handgun.

“Don’t be stupid,” he told Danny. He asked if he had followed the news about the previous Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings. Danny had, down to the release of the grainy photos of suspects less than six hours earlier.

“I did that,” said the man, who would later be identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev. “And I just killed a policeman in Cambridge.”

He ordered Danny to drive—right on Fordham Road, right again on Commonwealth Avenue—the beginning of an achingly slow odyssey in which Danny felt the possibility of death pressing on him like a vice.

Now, Danny—the victim of the Tsarnaev brothers’ much-discussed but previously little-understood carjacking—filled in some of the last missing pieces in the timeline between the murder of MIT police officer Sean Collier, just before 10.30 p.m. on April 18, and the Watertown shoot-out that ended just before 1am. Danny asked that he be identified only by his American nickname.

The story of that night unfolds like a Tarantino movie, bursts of harrowing action laced with dark humor and dialogue absurd for its ordinariness, reminders of just how young the men in the car were. Girls, credit limits for students, the marvels of the Mercedes-Benz ML 350 and the iPhone­ 5, whether anyone still listens to CDs—all were discussed by the two 26-year-olds and the 19-year-old driving around on a Thursday night.

Danny described 90 harrowing minutes, first with the younger brother following in a second car, then with both brothers in the Mercedes, where they openly discussed driving to New York, though Danny could not make out if they were planning another attack. Throughout the ordeal, he did as they asked while silently analysing every threatened command, every overheard snatch of dialogue for clues about where and when they might kill him.

“Death is so close to me,” Danny recalled thinking. His life had until that moment seemed ascendant, from a province in Central China to graduate school at Northeastern University to a Kendall Square start-up.

“I don’t want to die,” he thought. “I have a lot of dreams that haven’t come true yet.”

After a zigzagging trek through Brighton, Watertown, and back to Cambridge, Danny would seize his chance for escape at the Shell Station on Memorial Drive, his break turning on two words—“cash only”—that had rarely seemed so welcome.

When the younger brother, Dzhokhar, was forced to go inside the Shell Food Mart to pay, older brother Tamerlan put his gun in the door pocket to fiddle with a navigation device—letting his guard down briefly after a night on the run. Danny then did what he had been rehearsing in his head. In a flash, he unbuckled his seat belt, opened the door, stepped through, slammed it behind, and sprinted off at an angle that would be a hard shot for any marksman.

“F—-!” he heard Tamerlan say, feeling the rush of a near-miss grab at his back, but the man did not follow. Danny reached the haven of a Mobil station across the street, seeking cover in the supply room, shouting for the clerk to call 911.

His quick-thinking escape, authorities say, allowed police to swiftly track down the Mercedes, abating a possible attack by the brothers on New York City and precipitating a wild shootout in Watertown that would seriously wound one officer, kill Tamerlan, and leave a severely injured Dzhokhar hiding in the neighborhood. He was caught the following night, ending a harrowing week across Greater Boston.

Danny spoke softly but steadily in a 2 ½-hour interview at his Cambridge apartment.

Danny, who offered his account only on the condition that his Chinese name not be revealed, said he does not want attention. But he suspects his full name may come out if and when he testifies against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

“I don’t want to be a famous person talking on the TV,” Danny said, kneading his hands, uncomfortable with the praise he has received from the few friends he has shared the story with, some of whom encouraged him to go public. “I don’t feel like a hero… I was trying to save myself.”

Danny, trained as an engineer, made scrupulous mental notes of street signs and passing details, even as he abided the older Tsarnaev’s command not to study his face.

“Don’t look at me!” Tamerlan shouted at one point. “Do you remember my face?”

“No, no, I don’t remember anything,” he said.

Tamerlan laughed. “It’s like white guys, they look at black guys and think all black guys look the same,” he said. “And maybe you think all white guys look the same.”

“Exactly,” Danny said, though he thought nothing of the sort. It was one of many moments in their mental chess match, Danny playing up his outsider status in America and playing down his wealth—he claimed the car was older than it was, and he understated his lease payments—in a desperate hope of extending his life.

Danny had come to the United States in 2009 for a master’s degree, graduated in January 2012, and returned to China to await a work visa. He came back two months ago, leasing a Mercedes and moving into a high-rise with two Chinese friends while diving into a startup. But he told Tamerlan he was still a student and that he had been here barely a year. It seemed to help that Tamerlan had trouble understanding even Danny’s pronunciation of the word “China.”

“Oh, that’s why your English is not very good,” the brother replied, finally figuring it out. “OK, you’re Chinese … I’m a Muslim.”

“Chinese are very friendly to Muslims!” Danny said. “We are so friendly to Muslims.”

When the ordeal had started, Danny prayed it would be a quick robbery. Tamerlan demanded money, but Danny had just $45 in cash—kept in the armrest—and a wallet full of plastic. Evidently disappointed to get so little out of holding up a $50,000 car, he told Danny to drive. The old sedan followed.

“Relax,” Tamerlan said, when Danny’s nerves made it hard for him to stay in the lane. Danny, recalling the moment, said, “My heart is pounding so fast.”

They lapped Brighton and crossed the Charles River into Watertown, following Arsenal Street. Looking through Danny’s wallet, Tamerlan asked for his ATM code—a friend’s birthdate.

Directed to a quiet neighborhood in East Watertown, Danny pulled up as instructed on an unfamiliar side street. The sedan stopped behind him. A man approached—the skinnier, floppy-haired “Suspect No. 2” in the photos and videos released by investigators earlier that evening—and Tamerlan got out, ordering Danny into the passenger seat, making it clear that if he tried anything he would shoot him. For several minutes, the brothers transferred heavy objects from the smaller car into Danny’s SUV. “Luggage,” Danny thought.

With Tamerlan driving now, Danny in the passenger seat, and Dzhokhar behind Danny, they stopped in Watertown Center so Dzhokhar could withdraw money from the Bank of America ATM using Danny’s card. Danny, shivering from fear but claiming to be cold, asked for his jacket. Guarded by just one brother, Danny wondered if this was his chance, but he saw around him only locked storefronts. A police car drove by, lights off.

Tamerlan agreed to retrieve Danny’s jacket from the back seat. Danny unbuckled, put on the jacket, then tried to buckle the seat belt behind him to make an escape easier. “Don’t do that,” Tamerlan said, studying him. “Don’t be stupid.”

Danny thought about his burgeoning start-up and about a girl he secretly liked in New York. “I think, ‘Oh my god, I have no chance to meet you again,’ ” he recalled.

Dzhokhar was back now. “We both have guns,” Tamerlan said, though Danny had not seen a second weapon. He overheard them speak in a foreign language—“Manhattan” the only intelligible word to him—and then ask in English if Danny’s car could be driven out of state. “What do you mean?” Danny said, confused. “Like New York,” one brother said.

They continued west on Route 20, in the direction of Waltham and Interstate 95, passing a police station. Danny tried to send telepathic messages to the officers inside, imagined dropping and rolling from the moving car.

Tamerlan asked him to turn on and demonstrate the radio. The older brother then quickly flipped through stations, seemingly avoiding the news. He asked if Danny had any CDs. No, he replied, he listens to music on his phone. The tank nearly empty, they stopped at a gas station, but the pumps were closed.

Doubling back, they returned to the Watertown neighbourhood—“Fairfield Street,” Danny saw on the sign—and grabbed a few more things from the parked car, but nothing from the trunk. They put on an instrumental CD that sounded to Danny like a call to prayer.

Suddenly, Danny’s iPhone buzzed. A text from his roommate, wondering in Chinese where he was. Barking at Danny for instructions, Tamerlan used an English-to-Chinese app to text a clunky reply. “I am sick. I am sleeping in a friend’s place tonight.” In a moment, another text, then a call. No one answered. Seconds later, the phone rang again.

“If you say a single word in Chinese, I will kill you right now,” Tamerlan said. Danny understood. His roommate’s boyfriend was on the other end, speaking Mandarin. “I’m sleeping in my friend’s home tonight,” Danny replied in English. “I have to go.”

“Good boy,” Tamerlan said. “Good job.”

The SUV headed for the lights of Soldiers Field Road, banking across River Street to the two open gas stations. Dzhokhar went to fill up using Danny’s credit card, but quickly knocked on the window. “Cash only,” he said, at least at that hour. Tamerlan peeled off $50.

Danny watched Dzhokhar head to the store, struggling to decide if this was his moment—until he stopped thinking about it, and let reflexes kick in.

“I was thinking I must do two things: unfasten my seat belt and open the door and jump out as quick as I can. If I didn’t make it, he would kill me right out, he would kill me right away,” Danny said. “I just did it. I did it very fast, using my left hand and right hand simultaneously to open the door, unfasten my seat belt, jump out … and go.” Danny sprinted between the passenger side of the Mercedes and the pumps and darted into the street, not looking back, drawn to the Mobil station’s lights. “I didn’t know if it was open or not,” he said. “In that moment, I prayed.”

The brothers took off. The clerk, after brief confusion, dialed 911 on a portable phone, bringing it to Danny in the storeroom. The dispatcher told him to take a deep breath. The officers, arriving in minutes, took his story, with Danny noting the car could be tracked by his iPhone and by a Mercedes satellite system, mbrace.

After an hour or more—as the shoot-out and manhunt erupted in Watertown—police brought Danny to Watertown for a “drive-by lineup,” studying faces of detained suspects in the street from the safety of a cruiser. He recognized none of them. He spent the night talking to police and the FBI, appreciating the kindness of a state trooper who gave him a bagel and coffee. At 3 the next afternoon, they dropped Danny back in Cambridge.

“I think, Tamerlan is dead, I feel good, obviously safer. But the younger brother—I don’t know,” Danny recalled thinking, wondering if Dzhokhar would come looking for him. But the police knew the wallet and registration were still in the bullet-riddled Mercedes, and that a wounded Dzhokhar had probably not gotten far. That night, they found him in a boat.

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The "Facts" Keep Changing About the Boston Bombings--And It's Fueling a Conspiracy Theory Industry

(DID THE GOVERNMENT HAVE PRIOR INFORMATION THAT A BOMB WAS PLANTED AT THE MARATHON BUT DECIDED NOT TO POSTPONE THE EVENT?) Dennis

By Alex Seitz-Wald, Salon, April 25, 2013

In the aftermath of massive, complicated crimes it’s not uncommon for a bit of crucial information to be immediately put forward by police, only to be contradicted later on. While it’s understandable that initial leads and assertions might end up being wrong in a dynamic situation like the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, wholesale contradictions can encourage skepticism of the motives of those releasing inaccuracies—as with initial, false reports that Osama bin Laden hid behind his wife when U.S. forces shot him. Another effect of changing details can be to encourage conspiracy theorists who latch onto inconsistencies, and to undermine trust in authorities. (IF AUTHORITIES WANT TRUST THEY NEED TO BE TRUTHFUL)


Now, almost a week after the Tsarnaev brothers fought a rolling street battle with dozens of heavily armed police officers, we learned Wednesday night that they had only a single handgun, according to sources who spoke with ABC News and the AP, something that directly contradicts what officials had previously said.


Here are some of the biggest changes to facts released in this investigation:


•Suspects’ arms—After the manhunt, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said the brothers were “heavily armed” and numerous reports detailed a fairly extensive arsenal. According to a New York Times report from April 21 citing a law enforcement official, “The authorities found an M-4 carbine rifle … two handguns and a BB gun.” Now unnamed sources say there was only a single 9mm pistol between the two brothers. Indeed, photos of the shootout suggest only one brother had a weapon. (MAYBE THE POLICE STARTED SHOOTING AT THEM!)


•Boat gunfight?—Police initially reported that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev fired on police when they found him hiding in a boat Friday night. “It was back and forth … yes—he was firing,” Watertown Police Chief Ed Deveau told CNN Saturday (though the FBI cautioned at the time that only federal authorities had official information). The Washington Post reported that the suspect inside the boat “was shooting back.” But later, the Washington Post and the AP reported yesterday that Tsarnaev was unarmed when police found him after what was described as a gunfight. As it turns out, police may have been spooked by an errant shot, and fired into the boat, but apparently zero shots came out. (THE MAN THAT FOUND HIM SAID HE SEEMED TO BE BADLY INJURED AND UNCONSCIOUS)


•7 -Eleven and the MIT officer—Initial reports suggested the brothers tried to hold up a 7-Eleven, and then killed an MIT officer who either responded to the robbery or just happened to be in the area. But days later, authorities revealed that the holdup was committed by different suspects and the confusion was caused by the close proximity of the two events. It’s still unknown exactly why the brothers killed the police officer. (DO WE KNOW IT WAS THEM?)


•Carjacking—Some reports indicate that the person whom the brothers carjacked escaped while they inexplicably went into a store to buy snacks, while others say the brothers let the victim go because he wasn’t American. It’s also still unclear which brother stole the black SUV, and which drove the Honda that followed.


•Trip to NYC—What the suspects did after the bombing remains a mystery, but one detail that emerged was that they were planning to head to New York City—to party. That’s what New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday. But today, NBC News reports the brothers discussed trying to detonate a bomb in Times Square, but that the plan was not well developed and “aspirational at most.” (WILL WE EVER KNOW THE TRUTH?)(IT STARTS SOUNDING LIKE DALLAS 1963 ALL OVER AGAIN)

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Catholics try their hand at old-fashioned evangelism

Tim Townsend, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Apr 25, 2013
SHREWSBURY, Mo. (RNS) On a recent rainy Saturday, about 125 Catholics packed a basement conference room, many of them older, most of them lay people. Many were representing their parishes.

They gathered here to learn how to spread the faith, a concept that is both fundamental to Christianity and nearly foreign to modern Roman Catholics.

For the first hour of the conference, Kenneth Livengood, a parishioner at Holy Trinity Parish in St. Ann, Mo., detailed one way—door-to-door evangelization, a missionary strategy more familiar to Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“We’ve been tricked into thinking faith is a private matter,” Livengood told the audience. “That’s a lie. Faith is meant to be public, and there are many ways to share it.”

He taught them how to form a door-to-door ministry, explained how to divide a boundary map of their parish into geographical sections, suggested useful handouts, gave safety tips, and showed videos that detailed the best way to respond to various reactions from those on the other side of the door.

“Divide up into teams of two,” Livengood said. “One of you can do the talking and the other should be a silent prayer warrior. At the next house, flip your roles.”

Evangelization is central to the Christian mission, but for the average adherent, the physical act of approaching a neighbor, work colleague or family member can be daunting.

A pamphlet produced by the Archdiocese of St. Louis called “Witnessing Christ Door-to-Door” offered a list of suggestions “since this may be a novel, perhaps, intimidating path.”

The suggestions include:

•”Ask each person you meet if they are in need of prayer.”

•”Early Saturday mornings may not make for the most receptive ears.”

•”Trying to provide too many facts about the Church may cause misunderstandings.”

•”Doing a little role-playing before going out for visits may be helpful.”

•”Sometimes a person answering the door thinks getting back to regular Mass attendance would make their grandmothers very happy, which might present a welcoming start for conversation.”

In the final scene of the Gospel of Matthew, the resurrected Christ appears to his disciples and tells them—in what has come to be called the “Great Commission”—to make new disciples by “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Catholics are no less engaged by the Great Commission than evangelicals, but over the last century, the church has relied on evangelizing through the example of its social justice work, relieving those in the pews from having to knock on a neighbor’s door.

In the late 1980s, Pope John Paul II began referring to “the new evangelization” as a strategy of bringing lapsed Catholics in Europe back into the church.

In his book “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” the pope wrote that evangelization “has never been absent” in the church. He quoted the Apostle Paul from the book of 1 Corinthians: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!”

Pope Benedict XVI made his predecessor’s “new evangelism” a central theme of his papacy, even convening a monthlong meeting of bishops from around the world last fall to discuss it.

During a speech to his fellow cardinals in Rome last year, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan called evangelization “the sacred duty,” saying in the words of St. Augustine that it is “ever ancient, ever new.”

“The how of it, the when of it, the where of it, may change,” Dolan said, “but the charge remains constant.”

Many observers have cited Pope Francis’ humble behavior as its own kind of evangelization. Or, to use a phrase attributed to his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”

Bevans said images of Francis stopping to bless a disabled man during his papal inauguration, or washing the feet of women during Holy Week, were especially powerful.

Julie Bostick, executive director of the St. Louis archdiocese’s office of laity and family life, said the archdiocese would hold another “how to” conference in June, focusing on evangelizing in the family. Another in the fall will tackle evangelizing in the workplace.

“Sometimes people get a little nervous talking about their faith, but spreading the message of Jesus Christ has always been the mission of the church,” she said. “We’re just trying to refocus.”

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