Straw dollies

It's the usual "straw dolly" ...set up a false assumption and then knock it down..How clever are you!

There are/is at least one/or more alternatives.
1) The Heimlich is not without consequence...and can cause damage.
Inappropriate intervention..particularly by amateurs can/could/perhaps should leave you open to assault charges
2) Not all "choking" is appropriately treated by the HM..eg. serious internal regurgitation and vomiting. However
3) I would say the BEST treatment is to:
Perform the appropriate action, (if you know how/are qualified/can actually accurately diagnose the condition)
and ALSO pray.
Most good doctors get this!

Some would say..'well prayer can't hurt'
Others, myself included have experience which suggests that when I put my arrogance aside; Prayer does considerably more than just 'not hurt'

As for the esteemed Professor Krauss, one would expect considerably more intellectual integrity than the establishment of such straw dollies ( I do recognise that he may not have been specifically responsible for this meme...but I suspect he did say the words!)

a classic straw dolly

just bash it and it will fall apart!

aka The Easy Target

Does worship matter?

News that Pope Benedict is encouraging bishops of the Roman Church to allow the old Tridentine Mass is of minor interest to Anglicans.
It is more than a return to the Prayer of 1662 would be for Anglicans.
But it is also a return to a view of liturgy and worship that is completely at odds with what has been promoted for the last forty years.
Although much worship is pedestrian, boring and irrelevant...which is largely and often due to lack of preparation, poor resources and yes..I must say it...priests who are just total buffoons. The ethos of the earlier liturgies is quite different.
Modern liturgy is principally and primarily a gathering of community with a priest presiding at gathering of equals.
The Tridentine liturgy is essentially the formula that has to be completed in order for worship to be carried out properly. The priest, often with back to the people, offers a sacrifice to God on behalf of the people.
Should anyone want to retreat to this view of worship, one would have to think they were retreating to something that has long gone?
Now I am not saying that observed worship cannot be a superb thing. But worship is not a concert, it is essentially participation. Yesterday as I listened to the Kyrie from Mozart's Great Mass I almost swooned, the words are transporting. BUT they are performance.
Perhaps, and we are always being told this, we need to strike a balance.
My tip:The Latin Mass will be popular in certain circles, but it is essentially a retreat to a time that has gone, and the church would be better advised to be thinking more carefully about the way it can continue to sanctify the world, rather than drag it back to a world view which, at its best, is wishful thinking; and at its worst is superstition.