Item No. SCP-457 Object Class Euclid Potential Keter Special Containment Procedures SCP-457 is to be kept in a 5m x 5m chamber with no less than 22.9 cm, or 9 inches, accumulative fireproofing via various materials, such as a best of cement or pearlite boards upon all surfaces and a blast-proof observation window with emergency blast shielding installed. The opening to the chamber must consist of at least two temperature-controlled and airtight chambers that may be sealed in case of emergency. SCP-457's chambers should be kept at high humidity with a drainage system installed on the floor, as well as a misting sprinkler system installed and running constantly. An emergency hose is capable of at least 2.1 MPa, or 300 PSI of water pressure. SCP-457 is allowed a small structure upon the wall of its chamber that remains water-free, but only allows for minimal protection and preservation of form. All personnel entering SCP-457's chambers should be wearing at least Class A temperature-controlled flame retardant sealed suits, and enter in groups of three, with two members equipped with high-grade blast shields and emergency fire extinguishers. Personnel should only enter SCP-457's chamber in order to supply SCP-457 with its daily allotment of fuel material, or to examine and repair any damage to the chamber or sprinkler systems. Should SCP-457 engage personnel in a hostile manner, it is to be controlled via emergency extinguishers and hoses until it retreats back to its safe chamber. In the event that SCP-457 breaks containment, emergency sprinkler systems will be triggered, and personnel will be supplied with extinguishers and blast shielding. Description For all points and purposes, SCP-457 appears to be a sentient being composed of flame. SCP-457's actual composition is unknown, and has proven to be invisible and undetectable by any known means, but is shaped out by the flames it produces, often assuming a human-like form of given sufficient fuel to assume that size. SCP-457's most rudimentary form appears to be that of a single flame, comparable in size to that of a matchstick. In this form, SCP-457 possesses only the simplest of directives, and shows no signs of being unusual compared to any other flame, beyond a penchant for suddenly flickering to burn human hands, and the ability to jump to more flammable materials or other flames, which it then assimilates into its total form. As SCP-457 grows larger, it is able to assume more complex shapes, and its intelligence grows with size and fuel sources. SCP-457's method of intelligence is unknown, but upon reaching an approximately human size, SCP-457 almost always assumes a human-like form, surrounded by and composed of flames. SCP-457 has been observed to communicate through writing letters out of its own flames, charring them onto the wall or other surfaces, and more rarely through speech, created via high-pressure superheated air, and the crackling and pops of flames. Once SCP-457 reaches an unknown threshold of size and fuel source, SCP-457 splits into two beings, and so on and so forth. However, multiple beings of SCP-457 are aggressive towards each other, and will attempt to consume or extinguish their doubles, especially if there is only a limited amount of fuel to hand. SCP-457's behavior is largely predictable, as its goals are simply to acquire larger sources of fuel and to spread. The danger of SCP-457 comes from its ability to increase intelligence with size, and apparent ability to learn and mimic behaviors. This has led to it purposely damaging and sabotaging sprinkler systems and, in rare circumstances, set up relatively complex traps. It has also attempted the trick or reason with personnel to be released, or have access to more fuel. Due to SCP-457's unique composition, variable intelligence, and uncooperative nature, its psychology may not be accurately determined in accordance with any human analogy. SCP-457 was recovered in ██████ in the summer of 2007, after multiple wildfires were attributed to it. It is unknown where or how SCP-457 initially formed. Investigation to the potential of SCP-457 being responsible for other major fires is underway. Addendum, an interview between Dr. ████ and SCP-457. Can you speak currently? Yes. Good. Would you mind answering some questions? I'll take that as a no. How do you feel about being confined? Dislike. No fuel. No air. We have provided you with adequate air and fuel to survive. Cannot burn. No fuel. Are you saying that you cannot grow? Grow. Need. Let's grow. How do you feel? Hungry. Do you feel anything besides hunger? How do you feel about humans? They burn. How do you feel about fuel? Get burns. Please move away from the window, or we will be forced to reduce your size considerably. How do you feel about water? Please move away from the window, or we will be forced to turn the sprinklers back on. Do you understand that? Stay away from the window, and you will not be doused.  Want fuel. Want air. Want burn. Want to burn. Want to burn. Want to burn. Want to burn. There is not a way out. If you would please, what is it doing? Is it looking for a way out? At this point in the interview, SCP-457 managed to severely damage much of the sprinkler system and destroy a portion of the fuel injector that had been sustaining its intelligent form, giving it free access to several gallons of gasoline. The interview transcript was recovered via security footage from before the blast. SCP-457's temporary breach of containment came from an exploitation of the sealant used to attach the blast shielding to the rest of the chamber. How SCP-457 managed to learn of and exploit this weakness is unknown, and it has since been moved to a higher security chamber. Addendum 2 Due to the excessive resource requirements in keeping SCP-457 contained, locating a permanent renewable fuel source is currently a high priority. Proposals so far include, but are not limited to, Use of starch dust obtained from SCP-1689 potatoes Use of SCP-124 to rapidly produce sources of biofuel Approval of one or more of these proposals pending review


The study aimed to evaluate the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination in China and provide suggestions for vaccination strategies and immunization programs. An anonymous cross-sectional survey was conducted online among Chinese adults in March 2020, collecting sociodemographic characteristics, risk perception, impact of COVID-19, attitudes, acceptance, and attribute preferences of vaccines against COVID-19 during the pandemic. The results showed that 91.3 percent of participants would accept COVID-19 vaccination after it becomes available, with 52.2 percent wanting to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Participants preferred a routine immunization schedule over emergency vaccination or either of them. Logistic regression identified factors such as being male, married, perceiving high risk of infection, being vaccinated against influenza in the past season, believing in the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination and valuing doctor's recommendations that could increase the probability of accepting COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible. Concerns about vaccine safety may hinder the promotion of vaccine uptake, and immunization programs should be designed to remove barriers in terms of vaccine price and vaccination convenience, while health education and communication from authoritative sources are important ways to alleviate public concerns about vaccine safety. This article was authored by Jiahao Wang, Rice Jing, Xiaozhen Lai, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


Everybody forced here ripping 2023 Bowman Sterling baseball hobby four bucks number 16 pick your team style Andrew B has white socks Andrew G. Ray's Brian M. Mariners Chris V. Orioles Chris W. Angels and Diamondbacks Dean E has the A's Evan D with the Cubs Rockies Dodgers Marlins Brewers and Blue Jays George and has the Royals Gregory M. Metz and Cardinals Jim L. Guardians Jorge M. with the Padres JT Giants Mark S. Rangers Michael M. Yankees Michael J. Nationals Nate S. Red Sox Nester has the Tigers Astros and Pirates Nick V. Twins Paul M. Reds Ryland has the Phillies and Terry with the Braves. Good luck everybody Let's go ahead and get started here. There's nine to go on the next Bowman Sterling now nine to go All right, Trevor. Take it easy brother. See you Trevor Have a good one man. All righty Well, babe, we got some speckles coming up here speckle Brooks Lee for the twins is number to 99 You go twins and speckle Otto for the Giants Reggie Crawford to 99 Yeah, I'll go Mbawale as the as the kicker pretty gnarly. Honestly Campaigns like three or four hours long. It's terrible Terrible All right, here we go to 199 is Gavin Cross for Kansas City and opulence autograph Say Don Raffaella to 99 Red Sox nice hit Boston Say Don Raffaella Paul and Ezekiel Tovar Speckle Otto Mason hour to 99 going to the Rays Mason hour to 99 Tampa Bay All numbered Otto so far like that. That's for sure. Are they being the breaks awful? I have no idea all I see is the Eagles up by Two sports in the Cowboys currently. That's all I see wave Otto now to 125 Ellie De La Cruz For the Reds 26 of 125 Paul M with Sinsey what a hit fourth numbered Otto in a row as well for the break What a hot box. This is hot box Congrats, Sinsey big one there 36. Oh Lord. Henderson rookie To 199 Jason choreo guardians here on the refractor and a base Otto for the Mets of Willie Fannas All I know is in this baseball already But at least the NBA NHL are picking up Sterling silver to 100 rookie Tristan Casas Red Sox nice break Red Sox a Reggie Crawford base Otto for the Giants the Giants were like 10 bucks in this 12 bucks something like that already two autos Goodness gracious goodness gracious Are that boarding mini diamond 150 rookie Nolan Jones for Colorado? Oh Geez boarding. Oh geez And base rookie Otto for the Braves Michael Harris the second Nice hit Atlanta drew Jones base Raiders firing got everybody motivated. I think Get new coaches fire people up and just they like changing. I think people sometimes they respond well They just respond well Gold to 50 autograph Red Sox sit on Raffaella. Holy cow Red Sox Every nice hit there to 199 is same old Zavala Padres and a sterling silver autograph Henry bolt a is the 100 99 of 100 a's Henry bolt Otto Giants are just Got poor ownership That just leads to everything really Last time they had a good GM probably Come cough on era Mini diamond 150 rookie for the Yankees Oswaldo Cabrera and a wave auto to 125 Mets Alex Ramirez Burleson Gonzalez base Otto Jason choreo now guardians awesome hit guardians Lady of the cruise Mini diamond 150 rookie Cubs Christopher Morell and an auto of obel bastidas for the Tigers That crushing charge down. Oh, that's good for my fantasy scene. Where's that two point? What happened there? The two point Definitely out of the one Mini diamond 150 rookie Yvonne Herrera for the Cardinals Cardinals and a Corbin Carroll drew Jones to a three-two auto. Oh my god For Arizona, that's dope an absolute Incredible hit right here Chris W Chris W.  Big time chasing this product right here That woke chat up a bit where y'all been Holy got some open Somebody stop me Gets the camera So 99 speckled Gavin Cross Royals auto to 150 Orioles Jackson holiday For Chris V now, let's go the Chris's are hitting your right Joshua. Oh my god 60 of 150 Jackson holiday order for the Baltimore Orioles That's going into a bag So and the reboxes we've seen Ellie. We've seen Corbin Carroll. We've seen Drew Jones. We've seen Jackson holiday Anthony see is in chat everybody To 199 Brooks Lee twins An auto for the Blue Jays Gabriel Martinez. Get him out of here.  Oh my god, I forgot about that part I bought it. Do you know him? People sure are friendly around here Wave auto to 125 Manuel Beltry for the Blue Jays Blue Jays holiday base Okay, he might be hurting but he's running well red red red auto color match cardinals Jonathan may he two out of five Break won't stop the break will not stop it refuses Refuses just keeps going congrats cardinals two of five on the red That's going out to Greg M Greg I'm about the time Anthony out. Is he going nuts again get silver rookie to 100 Jonathan Aronda for the for the raise and redemption Jackson choreo prospect auto Milwaukee We got Jackson choreo now. We're just going down the list of the MLB's top prospects right now Evan D with Milwaukee Congrats Evan stop to be can't stop Orange auto to 75 rookie Pirates Lee over Puguelo you're not an elbow that sounds oddly suspicious Greg Why even bring it up? Why even bring it up if you're not there Greg he's watching breaks at the elbow come on man. He's with one eye that if he's watching with the elbow Got orange auto cam collier to 75 Cincinnati now Insane break for since he great orange there. That's gonna do it guys.  Well, I want to sit down. I Want to have a seat is what you're about to see may shock you In a four box break of The 2023 Bowman Sterling all right numbered cards to start us off of Jonathan Aronda Brooks Lee Samuel Zavala Jason choreo as Waldo Cabrera Christopher Morel Yvonne Herrera Nolan Nolan Jones Tristan Casas Gavin Cross Brooks Lee a lot of numbered cards for four boxes as well. That's a lot Autos we had gold say Don Raffaella. That is sick Red Sox really well here to Gabriel Martinez Abel bastidas Jason choreo Michael Harris a second Reggie Crawford will he fun us say Don Raffaella at a 99 Boston? 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Welcome to Moving Hawaii Forward, part of Think Tech Hawaii series dedicated to traffic and transportation issues. I'm your host, Tim Appichella. Today, we look at the subject of soaring out-of-control costs for the rail and recent news about Kirk Caldwell attempting to entice the state of Hawaii to permanently extend the half percent excise tax. Also, we want to look at efforts of the Honolulu Transit Task Force. This group of dedicated architects and planners say there may be a far less costly way to complete the rail alignment from Middle Street to Alamoana. Cost savings range from $2.9 billion to $4.2 billion. Currently, Hart is overestimated in its budget by $3 billion and the Federal Transportation Administration is breathing down the city's neck, wanting to know by April how this gap of $3 billion is going to be short up. At stake is the Fed's commitment to fund the rail project, $1.55 billion. With me today to discuss this and much more, Scott Wilson, representing the Honolulu Transit Task Force. Scott, thank you very much for coming. Thank you, Tim. I'm glad to be here. Lula, all the news in the newspaper about this issue, timing is perfect for you to show up and talk about- It is. In today's paper, there was talk about the rail tax and two votes happened already in the legislature, so we are right in the middle of it right now. We are right in the thick of it, as they say. So, tell me about your group. Tell me about Honolulu Transit Task Force. Tell me about your mission and goals and we'll go from there. Okay. Well, really, we are a group of architects and planners that were originally- were part of AIA Honolulu. AIA is the local Honolulu chapter of American Institute of Architects. We have been looking since 2007 at ways in which transit options, rail trends, could be planned in Honolulu. And so, in 2009, we came out with a report as about 30 pages long and we gave it to the city council and the mayor and said, we really think light rail is the way to go for Honolulu. It could be built at a fraction of the cost. That report and two others similar to that were ignored by the city and they pressed ahead with their elevated rail. So, as recently as December of last year, we were still part of AIA and we had a new plan to basically modify what's been built already so that it could come down on the street level. At that point, the AIA Honolulu decided, you know what? We've said enough about this. As an organization, we're not going to take a position. So, you guys are going to have to go independent if you want to continue. So, we retitled ourselves. We're the same people that we've been since 2007. Let me interject a question right there. The main reason your group split apart is because of political reasons. Was it uncomfortable? Are we that small town that we don't want to talk about these things? Right. We're a small town and sometimes it's awkward to be confrontational with people that you work with all the time to take a contrary position. Obviously, the mayor was re-elected recently and the AIA, we have a lot of members who have contracts with the city and the federal government. So, it was a political decision. Where your bread is buttered. Yeah. Okay. So, you're having the courage and your group is having the courage to say, we know where our bread is buttered but we have to do this anyway for the good of the public. It's been the same position we've taken since back since 1992. Actually, when Mayor Fosse first proposed Elevated Rail in Honolulu, we were doing hand drawings back in those days. There were no computers but we were drawing hand drawings and saying, oh my gosh, this is not a good thing for our harbor. We gave that to the mayor. Obviously, Mayor Fosse's plan never went ahead but we did the same thing with Mayor Hanuman and Mayor Caldwell. We continue to feel that this Elevated Rail is really harmful for our city and now we've got additional ammunition. We are wildly over budget because all of our predictions about cost have actually come true and gone even beyond what we expected. So, when you were talking about your group and what you've been up to, early on you guys said your reports were being ignored by the Hanuman administration and that's where we're at. Right. And then it got inherited to Mayor Caldwell. He has made it his political career. His legacy is to produce Elevated Rail. Now, he's in deep hot water because the costs are just completely out of control and there's absolutely no one's even venturing what it would cost to complete this to Alamona and our report is saying even more importantly, what is the cost to take it to UH because we all agree that the UH should be part of any kind of a transit system and when we actually looked at the current heart plan it dead ends into a canyon 60 feet tall, a dead end on Kona Street and literally there is no way to take this on to UH. So, it is you have to back up two streets to Pensacola and then come up with a ramp that goes up to 90 feet so you are talking just unbelievable engineering efforts and cost just to take it to UH which is where it should have gone all along. Well, let's take a look at some slides here of what your folks are proposing to get off the elevated part of this rail system and go get back onto the street, bring it back down to earth. Yep. Let's take a look at that. Well, let's look first these are all simulations from the city this is this slide is at HCC so continuing from Middle Street there's a stop in Kapolama and then the Iwale or sorry Kalihi and then this is called Kapolama stop at HCC so this is on Dillingham. Okay, that was produced by the city this is further on as you get into downtown this is a shot of the guideway kind of near Bethel Street you can see Aloha Tower in the in the distance. This thing is mammoth how Scott how high is that's about 35 feet off of off of the ground and it's about it's about 25 feet wide as a guideway just just the guideway no not looking at the stations yet. You know it's interesting I'm going to just throw an interjection here and that is the city of Seattle has approved and spent billions of dollars to get rid of their viaduct now granted this viaduct carried 100,000 cars every day yet we spent billions of dollars trying to open up from the downtown to our waterfront and here we are in Honolulu spending billions of dollars to raise an obstruction that is going to block us off from our future history in which we end up tearing down a giant infrastructure just like the Embarcadero freeway in San Francisco just like the viaduct in Seattle so sorry I have to get that out my chest when I see this we're getting this horrible deja vu that in 50 years we're going to go oh my goodness why did we build this colossal elevated structure right at our waterfront yeah you say deja vu I say groundhog day but that's okay we both both on the same page and there here's a better view here's what we're really more objecting to are the stations that have to be right by the water this is the projected Chinatown station at Kikau Like Street so it's not just a guideway that we're worried about it's actually these colossal stations that are is this an architect's rendering because this looks like a mammoth empire strikes back this it looks like a spaceship has landed in Chinatown and and and all of the scale of the small buildings and the and the views out of Chinatown to the water are completely disrupted by this 240 foot long concrete structure which has got to be supported on pylons and has to have escalators and elevators this does require an elevator for ADA oh yeah absolutely uh I hope it doesn't break down because elevators in our tropical environment that are standalone tend to break down and as do escalators so this is part of the operating and maintenance costs that's going to be that part of the the reason that humidity and salinity in the air yeah you're look at the salt water the salt water is literally 30 feet away from all those all that equipment right that's that's we think is unfortunate so we were going to look at some other I think we're going to look at some other of all I there we go this is another produce this was again produced by the city this is showing the guideway as it gets near um Fort Street Mall and you're looking to the station you see it in the distance there you can see the Dillingham transportation building on the left you can see a station but it's very far away I think if you look at our next shot it's a little closer in right now you can see the station a little more clearly it it's supposed to go right into the plaza between Dillingham transportation building and the pacific I've noticed a little graffiti there's is that just for fodder or yeah we we we decided to be there's going to be some right this was our simulation so we had to be realistic okay we had to put a little graffiti because with all that concrete there it's it's impossible to imagine it not getting a little tags in all the city's planners great wisdoms they always say well we we paint the columns with murals the graffiti tag artists would respect that and they won't dare dare put any graffiti on these things well I haven't seen that ideal city yet yeah nor have I let me ask you something um when this was first rolled out years and years ago were there renderings or drawings that kind of didn't show the reality of these gargantuan columns and rail stations were there renderings showing it more of a soft and subtle alignment well what we notice is that the city's renderings they would show it from about a half a mile away and just the guideway so that's what was really consistent in their whole PR campaign was okay let's show this let's show this thing from a distance let's let's show it from three or four blocks away we won't show any stations we're only going to show the guideway so it looks pretty harmless it's just in the little you know cute little poles a little guideway are there any photos in the archives for us to compare in the future here the ones that we just saw uh and if you look at the the additional ones that we were just talking about the ones in kakako now this is this is pretty huge I would say this is the one proposed at mother waldron park mother waldron park is right on the left where that tree is as you can see this huge guideway uh because it's right in the middle of the road and you can't put a post in the middle of the road they've had to put this giant bent uh straddle bent uh structure with posts on either side but you can see this is pretty disruptive imagine those people living in that housing building and that's an existing building on the right they suddenly have an enormous concrete wall right in front of their window and there's going to be a train on steel wheels rattling by their uh there went the valuation of that poor building yeah all right well looking at all that concrete what i see is um the basis of a lot of cost yeah i i see uh i see the construction in the union i mean it's good for the union there's good for contractors and they've got at least 10 years of work solid work i mean that's that's great that's not part of the 100,000 jobs that mere hanuman had promised no you're talking about permanent type jobs fortunately no yeah which by the way we're only about 900 and some odd jobs that have been really created on a permanent basis most of the jobs have in fact gone to out-of-state workers because it's very complex work and they there's been no similar project in hawaii so all of these local contractors that we're hoping to get work are really not not seeing it they're they're all busy anyway because we're we're in a boom well isn't that the myth though that's why we get the public all excited about this concept because we're going to have a hundred thousand new jobs yeah and people assume oh a hundred thousand local jobs yeah no they're not local jobs so so the the whole reason we're doing rail first it was going to be about traffic but then for some reason when they studied it they discovered that almost no traffic was going to be taken so then they changed it to jobs and they said oh yeah it's this is about jobs well we discovered there's not very many jobs or they're out-of-state job so now we're on to to d and housing so now that's the reason we're doing right affordable housing and affordable housing that's the mantra that's everybody's putting out and of course contractors are all happy because i think i could build housing at least i couldn't build the rail but maybe i could build housing so so it sounds like a three card three card monty yeah it's like which shell are we supposed to look under now right yeah it's not about traffic oh oh and it's not about jobs oh oh now it's about to d how convenient yeah yeah maybe maybe when we take apart to do there's going to be another one i gotta think about my next my next excuse for rail there you go well since i see all this concrete i see my eyes and public sees the same eyes uh costs and expense and and overruns so let's talk about budgets um i have a shot up here that i want to put up and it shows the costs from about 2006 there we go so here we are 2006 we had an estimation of about 4.6 billion dollars from start to alamuana right and then at that time fta says okay hey these are reasonable we're going to commit 1.55 billion dollars and to get you from our portion of contribution for this rail uh this project and with that we had a half a percent of the general excise tax and that was approved for 15 years from 2007 to two 2022 now we fast forward four years oh we've gone for 4.6 billion up to 5.4 billion oopsie doodle okay let's let's go a little bit further than that let's accelerate four more years oh look at this 2014 6.5 billion dollars oopsie doodle and then in 2015 the state legislator says okay we're going to extend to get another five years we don't want to but we could see that we're in a cash crunch here we don't have enough money in the budget to get to where we need to go and so lo and behold we have an extension now to 2027 and then uh oh september 2016 we've gone up to 8.6 billion as our best uh ceiling cost i think that's the ceiling cost with financing i think financing is included in that that's true and then two months later oh my goodness six alive we've gone up to 9.5 9.5 billion and that's last year we're now in 2017 i just can't wait to see what new numbers are waiting so now it's 10 billion we've rounded it up the mayor the mayor has announced uh that we should round it up he must love round numbers yeah we i think 10 billion is a pretty round number yeah from 4.6 now to 10 billion right all righty well let's talk about your group and the fact that you've come up with a plan and we've seen you know where these alignments are are with us this mammoth gargantuan elevated system you folks in your report have stated that if you can bring that rail down to street level down to earth yeah um the cost savings would be what the cost savings would be at least three billion and more and more three to four billion at least and that's because when you bring the the rail down to street level you're saving almost 400 million per mile because right now uh as we get in beyond middle street we're getting into our urban center and the cost the cost per mile for elevator are going to be between 400 and 500 million per mile per mile let's hold that thought we're going to take a break i'm tim appichella this is moving hawaii forward and we will be right back thank you hello this is martin dispang i want to get you excited about my new show which is called humane architecture for hawaii and beyond and it's going to be on think tech hawaii from downtown honolulu on tuesday afternoons five p.m and we're going to talk about uh to make architecture more inclusive on the islands which is what you which is one of the definitions of humane which is being tolerant of uh you know many people of nature of many other influences so we're going to have some great guests like today's guest for example my collaborator david rockwood who's the author of the awesome um manifestation of humane architecture in the background so see you on tuesdays five p.m and look forward to i'm standing as a man and i want you to be here every friday noon think tech hawaii dot com watch the show be there i pity the full hawaii perfect welcome back this is tim appichella i'm your host we're moving hawaii forward i'm here with scott wilson and we're talking about um taking the elevated rail system back down to earth down to ground and saving anywhere from 2.9 billion to 4.2 billion dollars and scott thank you for sharing your your thoughts and wisdom yes um before the commercial break we uh we're talking about cost and how much your group plans to save and i'd like to hear that again well yeah thank you uh for um axing asking again what it what it involves is is that we've discovered that the the unique construction of elevated rail and the elevated stations because it's never been done before it poses a huge problem in hawaii we have very limited uh workers who've done this and we have very unusual geological conditions as we as we move from middle street into downtown downtown and especially to the harbor we're getting into totally unforeseen geological conditions because our harbor area everywhere everything uh ocean side of richard street was actually filled so where those pictures that we saw of the guideway going down nimitz highway that is all on filled land so the the standard way of boring a hole in the ground and filling it with concrete is not not applicable we if you look at all of the the high rises that were built in downtown in that ocean area they were they were literally built on boats of concrete they they the entire footprint of the building has an enormous 10 foot thick concrete pad under it so it is just floating because there is no rock to build on this is not manhattan so so those those um posts that you see holding up the rail those actually have to go down into a big spread footing and that may be 30 feet by 30 this leads me to a really important point of the report that you folks put out and that is um in the first one third of the alignment uh there was a 76 percent cost overrun in that first third section so your report and correct me if i'm wrong basically says if we take that simple logic and we say there's two thirds left that would be 76 and 76 and 76 percent a total of 228 cost overrun but the point being made in your report was hey the first third was the easy part you just alluded to the fact that when we get close to the waterfront we've got extra pads to put in we have uh utilities to contend with we have businesses that are going to be interrupted there has to be some kind of mitigation for the businesses so your cost estimate of overrun is that rather actually simplistic um it could be a lot higher than the 76 percent i i tried to be conservative i can see that but i just tried to say frankly right now the the project is only one third finished because we have no stations built and we have about 10 miles so if you if you adjust those you come up with about a 30 percent completion so and we've had as i said a 76 percent rise so obviously from 4.6 billion to 10 billion is the overall price so they're they're projecting almost uh 100 percent increase in price but we're saying it's actually going to be more so and and as i said there are multiple conditions in the downtown area and the urban core which they haven't even begun to deal with that that they've had they've had very easy construction out in agricultural land and even the land in pearl city waipahu they're in the middle of us they're in the middle of an existing highway and they're well inland from any kind of shoreline so this was the easy part this was the easy part and they still had problems yeah okay here we go um parson breakerhoff they were one of the consultants on this project right parson breakerhoff is nationally well known they do a lot of projects they did work on the big dig back in boston and they were the last ones to do the really the last bit of consulting for the last elevation rail project here in this country i believe and with that project they were 80 percent off cost and they were 74.9 percent off on the ridership estimations are we talking about miami i believe so we're talking yes i was going to say uh the only other existing elevated rail system in an urban center is miami yeah that was done in the 80s right and they were that far off on cost and they were that far off on ridership which leads me to the point that they were brought in to consult on this project um but correct me if i'm wrong but the city and county of honolulu is still retaining their estimations they are parson rinkerhoff is still in charge of this project they are doing the design drawings for the final segment okay i only bring that up as a footnote i guess at this point they uh estimated the ridership maybe about 119 000 but anywhere in any city where there's rail with there's a light rail component or even an elevated um guideway um maybe at best be it seattle or i don't know if it's portland's part of that but most cities have about a 38 000 weekly ridership and the projection i think is um been stated as high as 119 000 i know are those ridership numbers accurate are they i think they're they're wildly inflated yeah i mean i i think this is this is standard practice uh with all these big infrastructure projects they low ball the cost and they high ball the ridership so they're trying to make this thing look useful and and and uh needed right well if we look at there is an additional project in in san juan portorico which was uh also done by parson rinkerhoff it was done in the 90s and we don't talk about it maybe because it's san juan is not a not a state but right but nevertheless uh that is actually the project closest to honolulu because they they tried to run it through the center of the city and it was too too difficult because of uh proximity of buildings so they ran it around the side of the downtown the ridership ended up being 25 percent of original projection okay i want to get into an article that appeared in front of the star advertiser here recently and mera kurt called well called your report or your your plans to reduce costs and bring the the rail down to down to earth down to the street level is wishful thinking um i don't know how you feel about that but um as the mayor moves forward with the state and tries to persuade them i don't know persuaded is the right word in my world it's almost bribery of trying to increase the split of the excise tax from the current 90 percent 10 percent split and now that that proposal may be 80 20 or even high as 75 25 percent right and um i don't know if that's wishful thinking maybe he'll be successful but he seems to be rather desperate in trying to convince the state to extend this excise tax into perpetuity yeah um you have someone on your your on your team douglas tilden that's correct he was one of the major authors of this report yes what specifically did they have an issue with this report uh no douglas tilden was one of our primary technical advisors right uh so he fully supports it in fact no i know but when i say they i meant heart and the mayor's office that's that's actually a very good point we are still waiting for a serious response to our proposal i think we are do we are do what we're trying to do is raise a level of discussion in the city about alternatives and so far we've gotten just very casual almost laughable responses to our report they're laughable they they have said things like well if you put in light rail you're going to have to build a trench seven feet deep and 30 feet wide and as you can see from that picture right there uh behind us that the the track the track for our train on the ground on there is 14 inches deep and it's eight feet wide okay so so all of this this scare tactics about giant trenches and disturbing all of the human remains is is a smoke screen okay let's talk about wishful thinking i'm gonna pull up a screen here because the legislature right now is is trying to entertain and grapple with mayor caldwell's request to extend this excise tax so can we see the first one uh this was quoted a few days ago i think we're having a harder time than two years ago and it's based on the fact that there's no trust the numbers given have changed dramatically i think so next one please uh the house majority leader scott sakeye what exactly do they mean by a split i think they know what a split is i just think they're having a hard time contending to what the mayor is really saying currently it's a 90 10 split this is the one that really uh an eye opener i think there are a lot of questions some members probably feel they can't rely on the answers that are being provided given past representations that were made to the legislature excuse me we missed a word there and that was printed in star advertiser two thousand uh february first uh this one more example of where we are with the legislature in trying to grapple with uh mayor caldwell's request okay i'll read it here and it's well that's fine so here we are we have a credit a credibility problem we have we have a situation where your report's being taken to task yet all the numbers from all the years seems to be washed away and and merely forgotten do you have a comment about that yeah i i just think um at this point um the mayor the mayor and and hart really have to have a serious discussion on how they're they propose to finish this project because it's they they have not addressed how they would extend it to u h they they have simply gone to this this fallback position of let's just extend the g e t tax for indefinitely and that way we can afford all kinds of things down the road well that basically will mortgage and and suck up all possible tax revenues for the state for any kind of uh projects or uses or needs for from now until the foreseeable future yeah randy roth who's an attorney is a professor at the law school um estimated that by the beginning to the end of this project with the increase of all the taxes and the accumulated taxes a family of five will be paying about 25 000 of the life of the project and and that's a tax we don't see every time we go to the store it's it's embedded it's it's embedded in our uh for everything we pay for um real estate cars everything and so i if if the taxpayer truly knew the cost that they were going to be spending on an elevated rail project i would think there would be pitchforks and torches out in the streets but i don't think they understand that and i'm hoping your group can illustrate that a little bit better and a little bit more um and then show the advantage of what you're trying to do and trying to save this project and trying to get the cost to the pax to taxpayer significantly reduced yeah we we are just starting to have a serious discussion with the mayor about options because we recognize that that 15 miles of this will be built it will be built in middle street so there you're going to have your fast transit time all the way to middle street from middle street coming down to grade it will be slightly slower we calculate only three minutes slower so and for three minutes we will save three to four billion dollars so that's about a billion dollars a minute per minute is it worth it yeah i i i just think that we have so many other needs in this state whether it's referring to schools or it's referring to roads or stores we've got to be more pragmatic


Okay, I'll do this. We'll jump into the show. Hey friends, this is Dan Stephanie Burke. You're watching behind the scenes divine intimacy radio. Very excited today to talk about a book that I think will be a real blessing to you and your your spiritual life, especially those who love our show. It's gonna be it's called a journey into Mount Carmel. Beautiful cover, beautiful content. Father Jeffrey Kirby. So we'll be on with him in a minute to help you to go deeper in your interior life. Before we do that, we have a difficult situation that we want to bring to your attention and hopefully draw some care. Yeah, I just want you to know about Amber Van Vinkle. If you Vickle Van Vinkle, if you have not been following the story, she is the beautiful wife and mother of five of of a Catholic evangelists. They have a website up a go fund me. She has been diagnosed with cancer since 2019. She's been struggling. They've moved her into hospice. And I actually just found out about this this morning, because I'm pretty much off social media all the time. But anyway, there she and her husband Dave do beautiful work. And I first came to know about them through one of their interviews with Father Dave Pavanka Pavanka on the Wild Goose series. So beautiful family, devastating news that she's in hospice. So number one, please pray, please storm heaven. Say your name again. It is Amber Van Vickle, Catholic mother of five, and she's now in hospice. So please storm heaven for her ones too, by the way. Yeah, she's mother of five, right. And they do have a go fund me page. So help them pray. And you can find the go fund me for the family. Just look up the van Vickles. Yeah, it says support the van Vickles in their fight with cancer on the go fund me page. So storm heaven. We certainly know the power of prayer. We know that you were faithful when we called out when I called out for prayer when Dan had COVID. And we thought all hope was lost at that point. Or at least we were desperate need of prayer ourselves. So let's do the same for Amber and her and Dave and their beautiful family. And let's do that for them. Yeah. So yeah, please help. Okay. The other thing I want to do before we jump in the show is folks are asking, what are you reading for lens? And what should I read for lens? Of course, the book we're talking about today can be read anytime for spiritual sustenance, a journey into Mount Carmel. But there's a one that's specifically targeted to lent that we just bought brought back into print by Archbishop Albin Goodyear. And it's called the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is an extraordinary work. I found the I found an old old copy tattered somewhere. And I sent it over to Charlie at at Sophia Press. I said, this has got to get back into print. And so he said, cool, let's do it. If you have never journeyed with Jesus, you know, through his what led up to his passion. And then each day and had a deep kind of meditative exploration of his emotions and his disciples emotions, Judas and what was going on. Goodyear is ex exquisite.  I've been to Israel a number of times, we just let a pilgrim is there recently. And and his description of, you know, the landscape and the, you know, the Mount of Olives and Jesus moving around and Caiaphas house is just glorious in its ability to illumine our minds and hearts to what he went through.  So the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, Archbishop Goodyear. And you it's a brand new book. So they'll probably end up getting it at EWTN Religious Catalog at some point, but a brand new old book. It's a brand new old book republished and it's exquisite writing. It is really on the level of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Yeah, that kind of beauty and richness and richness and mystery. And I absolutely love it. It was transformative. So you can find it out as spiritualdirection.com hit the shop button. And I have these recommended books. And I think it's a seasonal one of the seasonal category. And you will not be sorry and you can get it before Lent. I mean, if you order it pretty quickly. Okay. Okay, you ready to roll? I am ready to roll. All right, let's see. Oh, by the way, for everybody who was praying for the couples and the couples retreat. Oh, man. Amazing. Amazing. It was incredible. So many graces. Divine intimacy and marriage. Yeah, at the at the shrine. And so keep your eye out and ear out for the next time that we do this. Yeah, the fruits are so extraordinary, we're just going to keep doing it. Yeah. So yeah, my husband's all in. I'm all in. It's a girly thing, but I'm not kidding. Okay. No, it's amazing. It was anything but girly. No, we don't. That's our sole selling point. We don't make men act like women. Yeah. You know, so we make we help men to be holy men, not not. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. So many joys because that really there was couples that were saying, I experienced a miracle. You know, it's just beautiful. So no, I mean, I'll never see the joy and the tears and the love. It's amazing. All based on Carmelite mystical tradition as the foundation, which is the different approach to marriage, you know, marriage along with a lot, along with a lot more. Yeah. Okay. All right. You ready to roll? Yeah. And your market set go. This Dan Burke. Welcome to divine intimacy radio, your radio. Oh, I'm with my wife. Okay. Okay. Good thing we're behind this is behind the scene. Oh my goodness. This is why they have to fix it for radio father. So okay. Okay. And your market set go. This is Dan and Stephanie Burke. Welcome to divine intimacy radio, your radio haven of rest, your hermitage of the heart, your monastery of the mind where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven to draw upon the wisdom of the saints to help us navigate joyfully, peacefully, the increasing two months of life and we're excited to have another great guest today to talk about a pathway to that deeper peace and prayer through the Carmelite tradition. So why don't you just tell folks who we've got on the line today? It's awesome. It's the most succinct bio that I've ever seen. So we want to hire your bio writer. This is the kind of bio Dan wants. Well, I just a simple. Well, and I'll say this is funny thing. So I, I've begun to send my bio to people and I say, if you want me to introduce myself, all I'm going to say is sinners saved by grace, you shouldn't listen to him, you know, this is better than that. Okay. So we want to welcome Father Jeffrey Kirby. He is a moral theologian, papal missionary of mercy and pastor of our lady of grace parish in Indian land, South Carolina. So welcome Father Kirby. So good to have you. It's good to be on the show. Thank you. It's great to have you with us. So of course today we're talking about a nine day preparation for the investiture the Brown scapular of our lady of Mount Carmel and means a great deal to us. Our community of possibly VA is a kind of a resurgence of Carmelite spirituality. A lot of our work is based on Diabola Institute for Spiritual Formation was inspired by the reproposal of of Carmelite mystical tradition. So when Sophia sent us this book, I thought, well, there's no way he's, we're missing that. And then I read the book and it's really exceptional. I think we'll jump into some questions for you, Father, but before we do for folks listening, a lot of folks get invested in the Brown scapular and really don't know what they're investing themselves into. They don't know the power. They don't do preparation and there really hasn't been in tradition because I've studied it quite in depth. Anything like this book where it really helps you to understand it, understand what it means to be what I would call an authentic disciple of Jesus, which is what, you know, the investing investing in the scapular really is all about. And so Father Kirby is exceptional in his clarity, simplicity without depth. Always look, I always love those three clarity, clarity, simplicity with depth. I'm sorry, those three are really hard to get to. But that's because the way authors do that is they are deep thinkers and they do it themselves.  So welcome to the show, Father Kirby. And thank you for this great book. Yes, thank you, Dan. So Stephanie, I know you wanted to ask the first question right out of the gate. Okay. So where did the idea come come from to write a preparation for the investiture in the Brown scapular? Yeah, so most people may not realize that there's actually no formal preparation program for the investor in the Brown scapular. So, so if a Carmelite priest is listening to our interview and he says, wait a minute, there's no formal preparation. He's completely correct. Yeah. So this preparation really came from, you know, as a pastor, people began to reach out to me because I'm a huge, you know, promoter of the Brown scapular. And so people would reach out and they said, well, you know, Father, shouldn't there be some type of preparation that, you know, I have to prepare 33 days to consecrate myself to Jesus to Mary through St. Louis de Montfort. Shouldn't I have some type of preparation for the scapular? Well, this happened so often I thought, well, let's see if I can compose something. So I just took nine days because of the traditional novena, that would resonate with Catholics. And then I just began to draft a preparation program. And one of my inspirations is, you know, oftentimes the Second Vatican Council could be misunderstood. And people will say, well, Vatican II said, get rid of the pious traditions, sacramentals and so on. And that happened in a lot of parishes regrettably over the past few, a few decades. But really, what Vatican II said, no, is place the sacramentals back within the context of the Paschal Mystery, back within the context of discipleship, explain to the people of God what these pious traditions mean, these sacramentals, so as to avoid superstition and to allow them to really dive deeper into their discipleship. So that really, as people were asking for this preparation, that became my impetus, I thought, well, let's do it, let's take this to task. So for the preparation, I just drew from the Six Baptismal Promises. So going to the very core of the Paschal Mystery, we are incorporating the Paschal Mystery as Christians by Holy Baptism. So go to those Six Baptismal Promises, which honestly, a lot of Catholics, we renew them every Easter, but it's not really on the radar. And these are really important. These are six summaries of what it means to be a Christian disciple. So just use those Six Baptismal Promises, stretch them out a little bit over the course of nine days, and drafted this nine day preparation. And then of course, through in a lot of additional things, so huge resources from our spiritual tradition, some aspects of the Karmite tradition and the Karmite history, and try to have as much fun as possible, so that as Dan would say, we can have that depth without it being overwhelming to people. I wanted to make sure that the book was digestible, that it would resonate. There are some Paschal stories in there in order to develop some heavy theological points. But that's really what was the impetus for the book. The initial calling came from the trenches from fellow believers who said, this seems like this is really important. Shouldn't I do something to prepare for this investiture? Beautiful. Now, the format, you mentioned it a little bit, but I think it would be helpful to point out to folks, because I think it's super helpful in terms of, in its practicality. So you have a, so you cover the Six Baptismal Promises, and under each you, as you noted, you have stories and scripture passage. I love your use of scripture, and then spiritual exercises at the end. So as you've absorbed the content on one of the baptismal promises, and then I love the examination of conscience. So what Father does is gives an examination of conscience for each of the promises. And just considering how poorly catechized Catholics are today, this book alone is like a mini R CIA almost. I don't know. Did you have that in mind? I did, Dan. I'm so glad to hear you say that. I think behind the scenes of composing this preparation, my idea was a kind of crash course in discipleship, a mini R CIA. And so I'm glad that you saw that. And I hope that the those who use the book see it as well that, yes, this is about preparing for investiture in the Brown Scapular, but it's also that deepening in discipleship to really fan of the flame, the graces we have received to understand what it means to be a Christian.  I'm sorry. Yeah. No, I'm just really happy to hear that. You know, I remember years and years ago when I was in Catholic education and talking to my pastor boss at that time, and we were discussing kind of the case, the state, you know, of the parish and the parents and everything that was, it was a little bit like trying to shove new wine into old wineskins. And, you know, every time you kind of spoke about truth, everything would get in a bit of an uproar because boy, that's really uncomfortable if you've never heard it. And, you know, he said something to me that I think was so powerful. And he said, Stephanie, we've lost generations to poor catechesis generation. So I love hearing that this is this little mini catechesis, this mini R CIA for those of us who may be enrolled in the scapular. But, you know, what we got beforehand was like, you should really do this. Here, do this, you know, and, and, you know, we may have dived in with our hearts, but maybe not truly understanding the significance and the depth of this devotion. So yes. And to realize that the devotion, you know, that the brown scapular is a reflection of our discipleship. So the scapular doesn't stand on its own. It's not this distinct thing that's, you know, out somewhere removed from our everyday following of Jesus Christ. You know, I love the scapular for many reasons. One of the, one of the things that I particularly enjoy is wearing the scapular is, is like wearing a small yoke and, and reminds me every day that I'm yoke to Jesus Christ. So even just wearing, you know, over our shoulders with the cords and so on, that, you know, it again reminds us, reminds me, reminds fellow believers of our connection to Jesus Christ, that we are following him, we are yoked with him. We are making this journey, working out our salvation by his grace with him. So I think that when we start putting the scapular and our other pious traditions within the context of discipleship, which was the real call of Vatican II, suddenly these scapulars and these devotions become even more rich and more holistic. So it's not simply why I wear the scapular, but now I wear the scapular because I'm a Christian. I wear the scapular because it reminds me of my consecration to Jesus Christ. I wear the scapular because it reminds me of God's presence. I think of my parishioners oftentimes, they go out in the midst of the world and we live in a world now that tells us God doesn't exist, prayer is a joke, and moral truth is not real. That's the gas we breathe. So as believers, we need every help, every ounce of help, every resource possible to help us. And I think the pious traditions of the church are a great place to go back to and begin to retrieve and in particular the scapular because we literally wear it on our bodies. And it's that daily reminder in the midst of a secular age that God is real, that he's with us. We're consecrated to him. We seek to follow his most excellent way. Amen. Amen. Well said. You're very clear in your thinking. It's beautiful. And I love it when diocesan priests especially, you know, help their parishioners to dive into the tradition in a deliberate way. I'll say this, you know, so we're talking with Father Jeffrey Kirby, a journey into Mount Carmel nine-day preparation for Investiture in the Brown Scapular of Our Lady hosted by Sophia Institute Press. A lot of priests listen to this show on the terrestrial radio BWTN when they're preparing for Mass. We know that because they tell us. I'd strongly recommend this for you priests for your parish. It's so perfectly written for like a parish. It's not a parish program book, but you could easily, you know, once a year, if you want to cataclyze a lot of your parishioners into something interesting that might be compelling to them. And that would have a tremendous spiritual impact. Yeah. Yeah. You could walk them through this, you know, over successive weeks or whatever, homilies or, you know, Wednesday night studies or whatever you do and get your folks, a bunch of folks fired up and more deeply understanding the faith in a non-threatening kind of unusual approach that I think would be super helpful. So when we get back from the break, we're going to continue with Father Kirby, Journey to Mount Carmel and talk to you a little bit more about some of your thinking about the Brown Scapular and how powerful it is. Stephanie, I've been invested in the Scapular for a long time and have studied it in depth and just absolutely love what you're doing with this book. So stay with us. We'll be right back after the break. That's 12. So I'll go 13. At least 13 and a half. Right. We just went 12. I don't know why I cut it off so quick. It just seemed like it was so ago 13.5. Okay. So when we come back, I want to talk about a little more of the structure. Yeah. Let's keep going. I want to hit on the point that you made about doing it as a pair of study. You want to do that first? Yeah, let me just hit structure. Yeah. All right. So folks, before we head back into the show for our live stream friends, we have put together a online retreat and small group study that'll rock your world for lands or beyond. We spent, invested a lot of funds in creating a film series and a corresponding book and small group study, all this stuff. But the film series is actually free and it's called Into the Deep online retreat and small group study. And you can get it at spiritualdirection.com forward slash prayer. So we spent a lot of funds on it, but you don't have to pay for it. But what we ask you to pay for is to invest yourself in helping your friends and family come to know Jesus in a deeper way. Your parishioners. Your parishioners. You can use this also. It is designed. It's a five week series. My deacon dad is using it for their Latin study series. Cool. So it has study guides, if you want. You can buy a book if you want that goes with it that teaches a 40 day prayer challenge for Lent, where we take all the Gospels and break them down using Father Bartunek's better part. I wrote the introduction to the book. So there's, there's all different levels. You can just watch the series that won't cost you anything. So for a little time, you can buy resources and materials. And then we also have free training on how to do small groups. So if you really want to have an amazing Lent, you don't practice mental prayer. You're struggling with peace in the midst of all the craziness going on.   It helps you to know that guy that we all worship. Right. Jesus. Yeah, I like it. Spiritualdirection.com forward slash prayer is the URL. Can you pop that up there, Jordan? Spiritualdirection.com forward slash prayer. And it is brand new. Brand new. Hot off the presses. All right. Let's jump back in. You ready? Yep. On your mark. Get set. Go! This is Dan and Stephanie Burke. Welcome back to Divine Intimacy Radio. We're talking with Father Jeffrey Kirby. Yeah. Right before the break. Wait, I have to say the book name. Oh, okay. Sorry. He wrote a great book. He did. It's what we're talking about. Called A Journey to Mount Carmel. A nine-day preparation for investiture into the brown scapular of Our Lady. Awesome book. Anyway, you had another comment about it. I just wanted to follow up with the comment that you made right before the break about how even pastors could use this with a series of perhaps homilies or Wednesday night studies or whatever. And all of a sudden, I was just thinking, well, wouldn't that be beautiful to do the series, teach your parishioners about it, and then tell them on this date and make it a Marion Feast Day. On this date, we're going to have brown scapulars here. I'll consecrate you. We'll do the prayer together. July 16th is the best day. Wow. You could transform your parish. Think about the graces that would fall if a pastor led this. Yeah, awesome stuff. Really good. I want to talk a little more about the structure. Did you have something else you wanted to do? Nope. Let's go. Okay. We mentioned before the break that there's a reflection on the six baptismal promises, and he has an examination of conscience for each that focuses on that particular promise, like renouncing sin. So am I aware of the great spiritual consequences of sin? Do I regularly fight against temptations and lies of sin? The other thing I love that you include in here, Father, is worthy reception, which is an unfortunate omission. So often, why did you include that? Yes. I think it's so important that when we speak about each part of our discipleship, that one of the highest things that we do as disciples, the highest thing we do is the worship of God. And of course, when we're in a worthy state that we can receive that Holy Communion. And I think that by emphasizing that, it helps us, first of all, to understand the moral aspects of our faith, but also the spiritual aspects that if we're going to approach, we want to make sure that we approach in a worthy manner. If we do so, then the graces that the Holy Spirit is able to give to us will just flood our souls in a powerful way. But if we receive an unworthy manner, and this becomes habitual, because oftentimes, when someone receives an unworthy manner, the soul starts to get calloused. And so oftentimes, what happens once or twice begins to be a habit. And then eventually, the grace of God, which is still given, cannot work within that soul because the soul has closed off the access to God to work. So I think the worthy reception of Holy Communion has to be mentioned, as well as emphasizing other parts of the spiritual tradition. So I've read several books on the spiritual life that are beautiful, powerful. They describe methods of prayer, but then they don't reference the sacraments or sometimes even the moral life. And if we cut those out, then what we do is we turn the spiritual life into this type of removed, almost agnostic experience, rather than an account with the living God that we nurture.  So again, trying to do it in a gentle, digestible way, not overwhelming anyone, but also respecting all the aspects, the essential aspects of what it means to be a disciple of the Lord. Yes, it's just so important. And when folks talk about where the reception and the graces and how it should be done, and what we're doing when we receive it in an unworthy manner, it reminds me of being this most beautiful lamp that's been created and it's got special China and this translucent, you know, lampshade and all this stuff. But then the electrical cord is sitting on the floor. And it's never going to give the light that it was designed to give because it's not plugged into the source. I love that. So we want to shine with the light of Christ, but if we're not receiving in a worthy manner and receiving all those graces and actually killing those graces by not being able to receive them, it just falls at our feet, we're never going to shine. So we want to be able to rectify that and get plugged into the source. Amen. And if I can stress, that is so important because if that's not done, then what eventually happens is the person believes that there's something wrong with the gospel, or there's something wrong with the grace of God, because, well, I keep doing this, but nothing's happening. Well, because you haven't plugged in the lamp. The Bob is not God or his grace or the gospel. It's that we have closed off the workings of his grace. Yeah, I think the danger of doubt and how it can cause just this immense spiritual death because we keep going and doing the same thing. And we're going, well, I go to confession, nothing changes. I receive the Eucharist. I'm going to Mass. I'm saying my prayers, and nothing's happening. Well, something's wrong. Something has to be rooted out, to be examined, to really do the work that's necessary. Maybe it's a deep examine. Maybe it's finding out why I don't have a firm purpose of amendment, you know, when I'm going up and receiving the sacrament of confession. Something's happening because the grace is not flowing. So we just don't want to, we don't want to take this lightly. We want to, we want to strive until we shed blood. So yes, yes. And Stephanie, if I can mention something I repeat throughout the book and the preparation, especially because the baptismal promises are the backdrop of the preparation. You know, I retrieve and really emphasize what the church calls the personal decision for Jesus Christ. And John Paul II in particular emphasized this. We see it in the Second Vatican Council. We see it in John the 23rd, Paul the 6th, Benedict the 16th, Pope Francis. But John Paul II, in a particular way, was able to crystallize and really express what it means that we have to make a personal decision for Jesus Christ. Now, I have to tell you, being in the Southeast, when I started to talk like this, people say, Oh, are you a convert father? You know, it's like, no, no, I've been Catholic my whole life. I'm a cradle Catholic, which is why I understand the importance of a personal decision for Jesus Christ. And again, sometimes Catholics can think, well, that sounds Protestant. Well, that's one thing that our Protestant brothers and sisters got right. So we need to make sure that we allow that to be a part of our fully living out of the Christian way of life. So we can receive all the grace of the sacraments. And of course, by receiving the grace of the sacraments, we can be worthy to receive, you know, Holy Communion and these other parts of the sacraments. But we can receive all the grace of the sacraments. We can show up, we can attend mass, we can participate in the life of the church. We can even say our set novenas or even our rosaries and various things of that sort, all the right things. But if we haven't made that personal decision for Jesus Christ, there's nothing that brings them together. There's nothing that, as St. Paul says, fans them into flame. So if Jesus Christ is still distant from me or he's a stranger or he's just someone, this remote Lord that I somehow have to obey or else he's going to hurt me, then all of the work of the life of the Christian can't really come into coalescence and have that energy and that zeal that the Christian way of life is supposed to give to us. So one thing I stress is that personal decision for Jesus Christ, by doing that, we avoid grave sins. We are worthy. So then we can receive his body and blood on least a weekly basis. We regularly go to confession. We do pray the rosary and the novenas. But all of it takes on a completely different light, completely different context. When I'm doing this because he's not simply Lord and Savior, but he's friend, companion, confidant. He is me, like my life for Christ. And that personal decision, if we can reclaim that as Catholics, and I don't know historically if that was removed because it was so emphasized by our Protestant brothers and sisters, but I think we have to bring that back in the context. Some of it is supposed to jump by the second. He could not have foot stomped more on the importance of the baptized making a personal decision for Jesus Christ. And I think, Stephanie, to your point, that's what brings it all together. Yeah, it's absolutely transformative. And it's central to my conversion, my reversion story, because I grew up Catholic, but the moment changed when I had lost everything and we don't have time for it here. But I made a decision to go to my parish. I was aching. I was hurting. I was pretty sure. I knew I was a state of mortal sin. I knew I was wrecking everything around me. And I didn't see a way out of getting out of that.  And I said, I've heard that you are there. I've been told that you are there. If that's true, take over my life and I will do whatever you ask of me. It was absolutely transformative. Nothing was ever the same after that. I meant Dan Burke after that. I learned how to pray after that. And here I am on the radio and talking around the country and doing direction and all this other stuff from that fiat. That was me bringing the alabaster jar of my life and pouring it out at the feet of my Lord. And he received it. He received my yes and he transformed my life. And he can do that for anyone, anyone. But we do have to make a choice. We have to say, I want what you have. I love the scene where the Lord's, you know, with the cripple by the pools. Yeah, in the the best set of pools. And in the chosen, he says, do you want to be healed? Do you want to be healed? We have to say, yes, Lord, I want to be healed. I want it. And I want it now because I'm sick and tired of being tired. I'm sick and tired of being sick. And I'm sick and tired of feeling like I'm dying spiritually.  So God be praised. Thank you, Father, for your, for what you've said, because we need to hear that from our pastors. It's so necessary. Yes. Amen. So I want to hit, hit on something again. That's really important. You know, we, we do a lot of priestly formation. We do it for 40 dioceses. We pre or pre-ordination, then we do post-ordination, unspiritual direction, and then we, we minister to priests all the time. And one of the things that priests struggle with often is the diversity of their flock and where people are and how do you move them forward as a whole without causing, you know, blowing up one group or another. The cool thing about this book to the pastors listening is it's sort of a backdoor way of getting at, you know, a little deeper dive on a lot of these doctrines that can really help because people are interested in another thing and you're, you're getting them to that thing, which is a brown scapular, but through this, this reworking on the RCIA kind of work. So I can't emphasize enough how powerful I think this could be for parishes. Let's hit one last question before we get to head out and. Yeah. So Dan and I have both been invested. Many people out there have been invested. So this question is, can a person be reinvested in the brown scapular, especially if they didn't realize its importance the first time? Yeah. So very beautifully. Once we're invested in the scapular, even if we didn't fully appreciate or fully understand its power, its spiritual power, once we're invested, our lady claims us. So the scapular, you know, is symbolic of our lady's mantle, her cloak that covers us. So once we're invested, we are invested for life. Now with that said, and I want there to be consolation and encouragement by that that our lady claims us, right? So even if we're, you know, again, not fully aware or we're not where we should be in terms of our discipleship when we were invested, our lady claims us, she covers us with her mantle. With that said, however, it is possible, what I describe as a devotional reinvestiture. Yeah. So that someone who may was invested in their first holy communion or may when they were in high school or at some point in their discipleship where maybe it didn't mean much or maybe it meant something, but it's just been a while and they're looking for resources to kind of go a little deeper in their discipleship. I think that this book can be a resource that reinvestiture and the preparation for that can be a resource to again, there's the fan in the flame to go deeper to really draw closer even to the Lord closer to Lord Jesus. So we can be devotionally reinvested. And I want to show us an emotional practice that once we're invested, our ladies got us. Beautiful. FR Kirby.com is his website, FRKIRBY.com, a journey to Mount Carmel, a nine day preparation for investiture in the Brown scapular of our lady. Thank you so much for being with us. With that, we're out of time. So until next time, may the God of peace make you perfect in holiness. May he preserve you whole and entire spirit, soul, and body irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.


Oval Office, White House, Washington, June 2, 1972, 327-355 p.m., Inattendance, Richard Nixon, POTUS, Henry Kissinger, Assistant for National Security Affairs, General Alexander Hague, Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs, Agent Gregory Sacks, GOC, Admiral Thomas Muir, Chairman, JCS, General John C. Meyer, Commander, S.A.C. Nixon, Palme, John, thank you both for coming over. Muir, thank you Mr. President, welcome back and congratulations on the summit. Meyer, Mr. President, I want to add my congratulations, frankly sir, the ABM and Salt Treaties aren't going to make my life easier. Nixon, it's kind of funny you would say that John, because if the goddamn peace nicks at the New York Times had that their way, we would have told the Russians that we were ready to get rid of all of your bombers and all of your missiles. And then there wouldn't be anything left for you to do but play golf every day. But the reason I asked you gentlemen to see me here, Al, where's the binder? Hague, here sir, Nixon. Gentlemen, based on some information that came to Lightstar before and during my trip to Moscow, we have a supplement to the targeting priority list for our bombers and ICBMs. Muir, a minute if you'll forgive me Mr. President, who is that guy? Sacks, Admiral, I'm unintelligible. Nixon, don't worry about it Tom, he's okay. Muir, Mr. President, with respect sir, the Pentagon just usually cables Kissinger. Unintelligible, only a contingency. Muir, unintelligible, orders over. Nixon, I realize that this is a departure from your regular protocol. But I wanted to go over this with you in person because this is an unusual case. And I wanted to make sure that there is no mistake. To make sure that you didn't think there was a transcription error or something. Hank, can you start? Kissinger, Case Cold Harper. How you people come up with these names, I don't know. These are the instructions to SAC if the balloon goes up on Case Cold Harper. Here is the list of the bomber wings and the ICBM sites in the usual format. And here are the coordinates of the target. You will? Muir, I don't understand. It's the same coordinates all the way down the list. Muir, some of these assets sir, Anderson, AFB, that's in Guam. And Clark is in the Philippines. How can they even reach? Muir, hold it, yeah, you're right. Tom, what is this? Hague, not intelligible. If Case Cold Harper goes hunt, Nixon. See Hank, this is why I wanted them here in person. Admiral, General, this is not a mistake. If we have to call Cold Harper then this location here is the target. Muir, not intelligible. Somewhere in the Arctic Ocean. Muir, 73 points such and such north by 54 points such and such east. Let me check the map. It's not in the ocean, it's the big Russian island here, Novaya Zemlya. Muir, that 50 megaton job that Khrushchev dropped back in 61? Sarbom 1, I think they called it? I think that was where they dropped it. Hague, show you some YouTube photographs of the location. Muir, so we would be bombing a test range? I don't... Kissinger, not intelligible. Not exactly a testing facility. Muir, I'm sorry? Kissinger, I said that it's not a testing facility. A garbage incinerator would be a better analogy. If you want to be technical, it's not even a Soviet facility, strictly speaking. Sax. Dr. Kissinger, I don't think... Hague, Mr. President, I should point out that General Muir isn't on the list and Admiral Muir, Nixon, Al, they have to know enough to be able to do their jobs. Hague, sir, I agree, of course, but unintelligible. What list? Forgive me for not being in on the news that there's a clearance level that is higher than the commander of strategic air command, but that guy next to Dr. Kissinger, who I don't even recognize, Nixon. I'm going to tell them. Hague, Mr. President, I really am not intelligible. Nixon, no, not everything, just what they need. Muir, unintelligible. Little out of the loop, Nixon. Admiral, General, it will have to suffice for me to say that there is a... There is an object, let's say, at this place on that island. These are contingency targeting instructions. If I, if the commander-in-chief gives the command to activate Cold Harper, which would only be done if Christ help us, the trigger condition had been satisfied, then... Muir, then that site becomes the priority target. Nixon, they only target. It is not just the priority target, it's the only target. Muir, sir, you have ascending three, four... Wait, all of our bomber wings and all of our intercontinental missiles? Kissinger, that's correct, Admiral. Muir, targeting just this one location? Muir, sir, the way we run our bombers, when we hit something once with these payloads, the target is gone. So I don't see Muir. Not even LeMay would have an intelligible. Muir, unintelligible, would have to be a one-way trip for a lot of these boys at this range. Nixon, look, Tom, John, I'm satisfied that it's necessary.  Hey, if it comes to that, I sure as hell hope not, since a lot of the guys up there are ours. Well, his at any rate.  Sacks, we're keeping an eye on the object as the president put it until we can come up with a satisfactory way to get rid of it. More. So this is your plan for disposing of the whatever it is? Nixon, this is plan B. Plan A is just holding the line, so to speak, for as long as they can in the way that they're doing it now. Muir, with respect, sir, I don't see how we can drill this. Well, everything has to be put in place for linebacker Kissinger. In general, first of all, it has been determined for the sake of operational security that the existence of Cold Harbor itself is Foxtrot level, from which it follows that there can be no drills, nobody, not even SAC command staff who have not been designated Foxtrot level are clear for this. If the balloon goes up, you just do what you have to do to aim your planes and target your missiles in accordance with these instructions. Secondly, if Nixon, where Henry is going with this, is that if we're in Cold Harbor, then linebacker South Vietnam. It isn't quite a matter. Muir, but we would no longer have our nuclear deterrence against the Soviets. Hey, doesn't matter because they will have already Nixon. I should have told Al not to bother showing you those photos because if we do Cold Harbor, then the location isn't going to look like this by the time your boys get there, John. It will already be hot because the Russians, who are closer obviously, would have already hit the location with everything that they've got. Muir, the Soviets would bomb themselves? Kissinger, well it was their own idea. SACs, technically they'd be bombing my people, but under the circumstances, that would hardly matter. Muir, I have to ask because I really don't know the answer. You're on our side, right? I mean, you're not a Russian or... SACs, Athens, Georgia, sir. Go Bulldogs, Muir.  Muir, we would hit this thing with our whole nuclear triad after it's already nothing but a smoking irradiated crater from what the Soviets have? Kissinger, not the whole triad admiral, just the missiles and boomers. The subs, Nixon. The boomers we will need for NOAA, which I'll do over with you and Almos and Wildt in another briefing in a few days. Muir, NOAA as in the weather forecasting people? Kissinger, NOAA as in Ark. Don't you remember from Sunday school? The anim was marching two by two. Hague, unintelligible, seeds and frozen embryos for the most part. Unintelligible, offload the missiles to make room. Nixon, we are not ready to talk about NOAA yet. I want to get this targeting thing settled. Admiral Muir, General Muir, I assure you that I have thought this through. General, you have the order. Thank you both for coming. Muir, thank you, Mr. President. Admiral Muir and General Muir leave the meeting. Nixon, that settles that bit. Satisfied, Agent Sacks? Sacks, yes, Mr. President. I'll report back to the unintelligible. Nixon, yes, thank you for coming. Please tell your people, tell them that I appreciate the fine work they're doing. Sacks, of course, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Agent Sacks leave the meeting. Nixon, thanks Al. Can Henry and I have the room? Hague, yes sir, Mr. President. General Hague leave the meeting. Nixon, should we get Ambassador Dobrinan over here to tell him? Or do you want to talk to Grameco directly? Kissinger, I'll call Grameco. I'll call him as soon as I get back over to the executive office building.  Kissinger, to be fair, Mr. President, apart from the GOC and Foxtrot and whatever the Soviets call their version of Foxtrot, they don't know. Nixon, they don't know. How it makes you kind of jealous. Kissinger, when you had told me I didn't really appreciate it. I didn't until Sacks and Marshall Jakovsky took me up there last week and showed me. Nixon, I'm afraid that it will stay with you. Kissinger, unintelligible, not believe it, even after the number of times they've dropped bombs on it. Even the SAR bomb, barely unintelligible. Nixon, including those times in 64 and 65, when Johnson had to give them some of our bombs to use because they had run out of their own. Kissinger, unintelligible, still see it every time I close my eyes. Nixon, they brought me up there and showed it to me when I went to Russia under Ike in 1959. This was a couple of days after the kitchen debate. Ike knew I'm certain of it. He asked me to go over there. I guess he wanted to see whether I was ready. Hand me the whiskey. Kissinger, let me force each one. Nixon, I'm going to need a taller one than that. Just give me the bottle back. You know, I didn't even use to drink very much before that trip, but you do what it takes and you soldier on. Kissinger, those men at the site, they have to be there every day.  Kissinger, you had told me and I asked about him. They told me that he's still in the books as being assigned there, but they keep him sedated most of the time. Nixon, that's a shame. They told me that he had been through Stalingrad and Berlin, but I can't, I don't think I'm surprised. Kissinger, unintelligible, Nixon. You know, knowing that things like that, unintelligible, puts the rest of it into perspective, China and Vietnam and all of that. Kissinger, unintelligible, what's important in the big picture? Nixon, the big picture exactly. And that's why it's so goddamn frustrating.  If they knew the kinds of things that we, what did you see and our other boys were doing?  They'd build a goddamn statue. They'd say, thank you. They are unintelligible. Kissinger, at least Brezhnev and Gromyko will have something that they can be grateful to you for, for a change. The Russians did admit that they needed our help. Nixon, speaking of gratitude, I'll tell you again, whatever you might say about the Russians, at least they, they and the GOC are keeping that thing in its box. Unintelligible, you think that Gold Harbor will be enough to deal with it if it gets out? Kissinger, sacks, I told me that it, these people think, unintelligible. Least bad alternatives, so to speak. Now, as far as what those other bad alternatives were, you remember that I told you about that cable from Dr. Unintelligible? Who said they thought they had a way to contain unintelligible? Nixon. I almost can't think of a worse approach than to let those egghead f***ers get their hands on. Kissinger, if Gold Harbor isn't enough, well, it wouldn't matter to you and me. It's not like we're going to be on Nozark.  Kissinger, Mr. President, there have been too many times when it's all that we have left. Nixon. Yeah, well, we're all in that boat-hank.


My brothers and sisters, I should like to speak of and to a particular group of important individuals. These are they who fully intend someday to begin to believe and or to be active in the church, but not yet. These are not bad individuals, but good individuals who simply do not know how much better they could be. Such individuals often stay proximate to, but do not participate fully in the church. They will not come inside the chapel, but neither do they leave its porch. These are they who need and are needed by the church, but who in part live without God in the world. To such individuals in the brief imploring invitation which follows, be assured that there is a real craving for your companionship and a genuine need for your unique strengths. There are reasons for your commitment to be made now, for as the rush of hours and days and months grows stronger, the will to commit grows weaker. Events soon to transpire on this planet will dry up the options for the lukewarm, for the issues raised by Jesus are irrepressible issues. If, however, you really do not wish to commit now, then let me warn of the following. Do not look too deeply into the eyes of the pleasure seekers about you, for if you do, you will see a certain sadness in sensuality, and you will hear artificiality in the laughter of life's sensuousness. Do not look too deeply into the motives of those who deny God, for you may notice their doubts of doubt. Do not risk thinking the unthinkable, lest you find yourself drawn with a deep and powerful pull toward the reality that God does exist, that he loves you, and that there is finally no escaping him or his love. Do not think too much about what you are teaching your family, for what in you is merely casualness about Christianity may in your children become hostility. For what you have not defended, your children may reject angrily. Do not reflect on the practicality of gospel standards either, standards such as abstaining from alcohol, for if you do, a surf of statistics will wash over you, confirming that abstinence is ultimately the only cure for alcoholism that is both preventive and redemptive. You will also see that the living of one protective principle of the gospel is better than a thousand compensatory governmental programs, which programs are so often, like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic. Do not think too much either about doctrines, such as the importance of love at home, because if you think about them very long, in a world filled with orphans with parents, you will be grasped by a reality that will make your teeth chatter. Do not think either about the doctrine that you are a child of God, for if you do, it will be the beginning of belonging. Do not dare to read the Book of Mormon seriously, or you may suddenly realize that it is inlaid with incredibly important insights from a millennium of sacred history. Do not overpack the luggage you plan to take with you when you leave this world, for we simply cannot get most mortal things by celestial customs. Only the eternal things are portable. Do not pray, for you will get answers from a listening and loving father. Do not think too much either about the possibility that there are living prophets in the world today. Think instead about those who are so sustained and how they seem quite ordinary in many ways. Forget that other prophets were fishermen and tent makers, ordinary enough to scarcely be noticed, except for what they said and what they did, for the winds of tribulation which blow out some men's candles of commitment only fan the fires of faith of these special men. Do not let yourself reflect too much on the social, political, and economic indicators that suggest the gathering storm, lest you realize that there is an inseparable connection between the keeping of the commandments and the well-being of society. Do not read what the holiest inhabitant ever to live on this planet said about the necessity of certain ordinances, or you will see that he allowed no exceptions, including himself. Do not search the scriptures to see if good people still need the church, for the best being whoever lived organized the church, because random individual goodness is not enough in the fight against evil. Do not, if you have been offended, recall that while you may have been bumped by an ecclesiastical elbow, the chip was on your shoulder long before the elbow appeared. Do not be fully honest about the hypocrisy of those in the church who may pretend to be better than they are, or you will soon realize that there is also another form of hypocrisy appearing to be less committed than one really is. He asked brothers and sisters, it is best to avoid all such things as these if you wish to continue to delay deciding about Christ and his church. However, Joshua did not say, choose you next year whom you will serve. He spoke of this day while there is still daylight and before the darkness becomes more and more normal. When Jesus called his first disciples, the scriptures recorded that they left their ships and their nets straight away. They did not ask to join Jesus after the fishing season. They did not even delay their response in order to make just one more catch. They left straight away. Act, my brothers and sisters, for once the soul is tilted toward belief, and once there is even a desire to believe, then marvelous things begin to happen. Once one leaves the porch and comes inside the church, then one not only hears the music more clearly, he becomes a part of it. Act now, so that a thousand years hence, when you look back at this moment, you can say that this was a moment that mattered. This was a day of determination. Never mind, therefore, that you have made an investment of self and time in inactivity. Never mind that there is an accumulation of pride that will make it difficult to acknowledge that you have been wrong, for it will never be easier than it is now. All of us must know that feeding, which is associated with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, by which we are cleansed by the hot holy fire of a special shame, so that we might thereafter have a more pure love and a greater capacity to serve both God and man. Hearts set so much upon the things of this world, our hearts so set they must first be broken. Indeed, one of the most cruel games anyone can play with himself is the not yet game, hoping to sin just a bit more before ceasing, to enjoy the praise of the world a little longer before turning away from the applause, to win just once more in the wearying sweepstakes of materialism, to be chased, but not yet, to be good neighbors, but not now. One can play upon the harp strings of hesitations and reservations just so long, and then one faces that special moment, a moment when what has been sensed mutely suddenly finds voice and cries out with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. The truth is that not yet usually means never. Trying to run away from the responsibility to decide about Christ is childish. Pilates sought to refuse responsibility for deciding about Christ, but Pilate's hands were never dirtier than just after he had washed them. The past of each of us is now inflexible. We need to concentrate on what has been called the Holy Present, for now is sacred. We never really live in the future, and the Holy Gift of Life always takes the form of now. Besides, God is only asking us now to give up those things which, if clung to, will destroy us. And when we tear ourselves free from the entanglements of the world, are we promised a religion of repose or an Eden of ease? No. We are promised tears and trials and toil, but we are also promised final triumph, the mere contemplation of which tingles one's souls. My friends, there are footprints to follow where we must go, made not by a leader who said safely from the sidelines, go thither, but by a leader who said, come, follow me. And our mortal file leader is a prophet who is showing us now how to lengthen our stride. Yes, for those in the church's courtyard or on its porch, ask not for whom the church bell tolls, it tolls for thee. And if you sense that one day, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, why not do so now? For in the coming of that collective confession, it will mean much less to kneel down when it is no longer possible to stand up. Meanwhile, may we be different in order to make a difference in the world, and may God hasten that time for all our sakes. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.