Matt C. Abbot has a good article on NaPro Technology. It is amazing what you can achieve when reproductive technology is actually done in conformance with God's plan.

I wanted to make some comments about Sen. Kerry'sspeech at the convention. This was an okay speech with nothing really memorable to be repeated and it was delivered as best as a droning John Kerry can muster. Thankfully there was no five minute kiss of his wife at the end ala Al Gore. TS O'Rama shared with me a line he had heard about the convention "No platitude left behind!" That pretty much sums it up.

As President, I will restore trust and credibility to the White House.

I have heard that one before. I remember hearing on the radio as Bill Clinton said "Mine will be the most ethical administration in the history of the Republic!" And Mr. Kerry is off to a great start with advisors such as Sandy Berger and Joe Wilson. Oops I forgot they have been textually airbrushed out of his campaign site. And isn't the word credibility an antonym for flip-flop? Referring to the economy he said:

We can do better and we will. We're the optimists.

How many optimist talk about a "jobless recovery" when the unemployment rate is slowing declining? How many optimists do you know that release misery indexes? According to factcheck.org "The original "misery index" is simply the jobless rate added to the inflation rate. The term was coined by economist Arthur Okun, an economic adviser in Lyndon Johnson’s administration. It was widely used during the "stagflation" of the '70s and '80s when stagnant economic growth kept unemployment high and inflation reduced the buying power of wages." Now computing the classic "Misery Index" shows the index as being lower than Clinton's first four years. To get the results Kerry wanted they used highly selective indicators.

I know what we have to do in Iraq. We need a President who has the credibility to bring our allies to our side and share the burden, reduce the cost to American taxpayers, and reduce the risk to American soldiers. That's the right way to get the job done and bring our troops home.

Here is the reality: that won't happen until we have a president who restores America's respect and leadership -- so we don't have to go it alone in the world.

And we need to rebuild our alliances, so we can get the terrorists before they get us.

Government by a consensus. Why do we even need a president to lead us? One committee can just send its recommendation to another committee in a different government. Of course an elephant is a horse designed by a committee Leadership is the ability to make a decision and do what is right whether everyone or no one agrees with you. Sure we need to work within the framework of other governments to achieve our missions. But the process is not the end all. To say that it is a failure to have only 33 countries as part of the coalition forces in Iraq is just plain silly. Just because France and Germany, two countries with extensive economic ties to Iraq, didn't sign on. To aim for one hundred percent agreement on world affairs is a fool's dream. We need a president who is a leader and not a committee chairman. As Margaret Thatcher said "To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects."

We will add 40,000 active duty troops – not in Iraq, but to strengthen American forces that are now overstretched, overextended, and under pressure. We will double our special forces to conduct anti-terrorist operations. We will provide our troops with the newest weapons and technology to save their lives – and win the battle. And we will end the backdoor draft of National Guard and reservists.

Not in Iraq? In May of 2004 Mr. Kerry called for 40,000 more U.S. Troops in Iraq. "The extra troops are needed in Iraq to ease pressure on soldiers and National Guard troops battling insurgents in the Middle Eastern country. Half of the 40,000 troops would be used as military police and for civil affairs, tasks now mainly carried out by reservists, while the other 20,000 would be combat troops." Sounds like a flip-flop to me. I guess his leadership did not get past the parties' leadership and into the platform.

What exactly is the point of National Guard and Reservist other than to supply a ready force when we need to expand those troops? I agree we need to expand the military which was cut back drastically starting at the end of the Bush-41 years and even more during the Clinton years. Now I am glad to hear he will support the newest weapons and technology to our troops. This of course is a drastic change to his years in the senate of voting against bills that contained appropriations for the B1, B2, F-14, F15, F-16, Harrier, Apache, Patriot Missile, Aegis, Trident, M-1, Bradley Fighting Vehicle and Tomahawk. Now I know these spending bills did not only have only these item in them, but his senate record just doesn't support weapon systems including him being a great advocate of the nuclear freeze.

To all who serve in our armed forces today, I say, help is on the way.

Today I was shopping in Wal-Mart at the self serve checkout. The person in the aisle next to me must have made a mistake because the computerized voice talked about an error and said "Help is on the way." I looked around but I did not see John Kerry coming.

You see that flag up there. We call her Old Glory. The stars and stripes forever. I fought under that flag, as did so many of you here and all across our country. That flag flew from the gun turret right behind my head. It was shot through and through and tattered, but it never ceased to wave in the wind. It draped the caskets of men I served with and friends I grew up with. For us, that flag is the most powerful symbol of who we are and what we believe in. Our strength. Our diversity. Our love of country. All that makes America both great and good.

That flag doesn't belong to any president. It doesn't belong to any ideology and it doesn't belong to any political party. It belongs to all the American people.

Nice words from the strongest opponent of the Constitutional amendment to prevent flag desecration Now I am not any great supporter of that amendment since I believe that it would probably invoke more flag burning than anything, but then again I probably also wouldn't make a speech about Old Glory and also place an upside flag on my book cover.

My fellow citizens, elections are about choices. And choices are about values. In the end, it's not just policies and programs that matter; the president who sits at that desk must be guided by principle.

Of course he couldn't act on those principles since he said in the past that a lawmaker should not "legislate his personal beliefs." Or does he have principles not based on beliefs?

For four years, we've heard a lot of talk about values. But values spoken without actions taken are just slogans. Values are not just words. They're what we live by.

You mean like saying life begins at conception and then voting for partial birth abortion?

You don't value families by kicking kids out of after school programs and taking cops off our streets, so that Enron can get another tax break.

I think we need to rid our tax code of corporate welfare. Something like a flat tax or a national sales tax. Sen. Kerry worked on legislation to punish companies for moving offshore. One company that ended up getting an exemption was H.J. Heinz. I am sure I heard that name recently somewhere.

We believe in the family value expressed in one of the oldest Commandments: "Honor thy father and thy mother." As President, I will not privatize Social Security.

Gee, I didn't realize that the ten commandment came out one at a time and that some were newer or older. Did after the first commandment come out "I am the LORD your God..." that the Israelite said "Hey this is good stuff, we want more" By the time the series came to coveting thy neighbors goods did they said "no more, enough already." Another question I have is that when SS goes bust because new workers never enter the workplace because they were not chosen to leave the womb, how are we going to fund this pyramid scheme? Without some form of privatisation it will give no honor to they mother or father to have a SS check with a big fat zero on it. President Bush and his advisors need to get this discussion back on track (third rail or not).

What does it mean in America today when Dave McCune, a steel worker I met in Canton, Ohio, saw his job sent overseas and the equipment in his factory literally unbolted, crated up, and shipped thousands of miles away along with that job? What does it mean when workers I've met had to train their foreign replacements?

I bet there were a lot of sad stories for buggy whip manufacturers too. Companies need tough love by the government and we can no longer subsidize industries that are on the down swing. Infusing them with cash does not help the fact that either they are not innovating or that their time has just gone. One of the big government mistakes made by President Bush was when he enacted the steel tariffs that just tossed government money down the sinkhole of American companies who could no longer compete on the world market. As Walter Williams mentioned it would have been cheaper to spend the money pensioning the 23,000 steel workers with a salary of 45,000 a year for the rest of their lives.

What does it mean when twenty five percent of the children in Harlem have asthma because of air pollution?

Junk science alert. Michele Malkin has the details.

Oh and of course you could not hear a major speech from a Democrat without a little class warfare thrown in.

And let me tell you what we won't do: we won't raise taxes on the middle class. You've heard a lot of false charges about this in recent months. So let me say straight out what I will do as President: I will cut middle class taxes. I will reduce the tax burden on small business. And I will roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals who make over $200,000 a year, so we can invest in job creation, health care and education.

I’ve offered a comprehensive plan...[that] starts with a tax cut for the middle class.”, “We will lower the tax burden on the middle class...”, “I will not raise taxes on the middle class.” No these are not John Kerry's press statements but campaign promises from another Democratic candidate - Bill Clinton in 1992. I remember that I intellectually softened the blow of his presidency by thinking that at least he might be a new democrat that with tax cuts which would spur parts of the economy. Fool me once ..... I also wonder if John or Teresa refunded the Bush tax cut money they received back to the Government? With Democrats it is always "you first."

And our energy plan for a stronger America will invest in new technologies and alternative fuels and the cars of the future -- so that no young American in uniform will ever be held hostage to our dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Here is another blast from the Democratic past - Jimmy Carter.

Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 -- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over 4-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.

"Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun."

What no alternative fuels yet? I found that one of the most annoying things about politics is that I suffer with a memory. How much easier it would be to forget what was promised and said in the past and to live as one with short-term political memory. All of these concepts of alternative fuels usually ignore infrastructure and current equipment. Even if a good source for alternative fuels were found tomorrow we would not see any implementation during even an eight year Kerry administration. What needs to be done right now to reduce foreign oil dependence is using oil sources already within our territories; offshore or in places such as Alaska. Sen. Kerry has voted repeatedly against domestic drilling in ANWR. I have no attachment to having to fuel my car with gasoline, but I do want to put something in it that will actually get me to work.

What if we find a breakthrough to cure Parkinson's, diabetes, Alzheimer's and AIDS? What if we have a president who believes in science, so we can unleash the wonders of discovery like stem cell research to treat illness and save millions of lives?

What if millions have to die on the altar of the petri dish so that you and I might theoretically live longer? What if we have a president who believes in junk science?

What was the most interesting parts of the speech was not what was said, but what was unsaid. If you took all the speeches delivered at the convention you could not extract the parties platform from them. There was not much red meat for anti-war activists to hear that John Kerry would expand the number of military personnel. There was some parts tossed in about the environment, but not the Republicans want dirty water and air pollution rhetoric of the past. No mention of affirmative action. Here they were in Massachusetts the first state with same-sex marriage and neither Johns mentioned this issue. No mention of FMA or their belief that the state's have the right to decide individually on same-sex marriage. No red meat for the abortion activists, no women rights or choice cliches. No mention of the importance of appointing federal judges. He did say "And I will appoint an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution of the United States" which I guess is a reference to keeping Roe v. Wade. I just have a hard time buying Democrats as the guardian of the Constitution and states' rights. The race card was not even pulled, just a mention of "This is our time to reject the kind of politics calculated to divide race from race, group from group, region from region." That is good news. I hope it means that we won't have any "when you don't vote another church burns" or the NAACP's commercial blaming Bush for the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd.

Howard Dean in his speech at the convention said "we will never again be ashamed to call ourselves Democrats -- never, never, never." But judging by the speeches of both Johns they are afraid to be what the Democrat party has come to be as defined in its own platform. Their prime time speeches were not the same as what they fed party faithful during the primaries. "A Remarkable Promise," the nine-minute film biography of John Kerry was shown prior to his speech. This was put together by director James Moll and had as an advisor Steven Spielberg and as narrator Morgan Freeman. I won't get into the controversy of the re-enacted scenes from Kerry 8mm home camera but like the speech it was remarkable for what it didn't say. A big build up on his Vietnam experience, time as a prosecutor and so forth. No mention of his anti-war activists and his time as the spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War or his winter soldier testimony. They mentioned his time as Lieutenant Governor, but completely avoided the "D" word. You know Governor Dukakis. The official John Kerry site in their biography also doesn't mention the "D" word. Of course the whole convention even being in Massachusetts totally avoided the "D" word or any speeches by the "D" word and who can blame them? If Democrats are so proud of their advocacies then why does abortion have to hide under choice. Why does the word cloning have to hide behind "somatic cell nuclear transfer?" Why does their total support of not only the homosexual lifestyle and same-sex marriage have to hide behind states' rights?

As mentioned in another post the parties platform that was voted on now has the 2000 tolerance on abortion plank removed. There is now no more room for tolerance or discussion of this issue since abortion now has full and total support. But again the public was not informed of this via any speeches.

Possibly the organizers of the Democratic Convention also didn't like John Kerry's speech. On their official page they have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday's highlights. But no listing of highlights for Thursday.

Day by Day is one of my favorite strips and today's is pretty good.

As an official Isaac Asimov geek who discovered the love of reading via his stories I always appreciate references to the three laws of robotics. In fact I am re-reading the Robot series again just so that I can be thoroughly upset when "I, Robot" comes out on DVD. Sure it is only a summer action movie by Will Smith (who I usually enjoy watching), but this is close to sacrilege for an ex-atheist and avid SF reader such as myself. The Day by Day strip credits this bloggers' post as the source for I, Republican

In a previous post I also had referenced the three laws:

The Three Laws of Robotic Democrats

1. A Democrat may not injure a woman's right to abortion, or, through inaction, allow a woman's right to abortion to be overturned regardless of her ability to pay.

2. A Democrat must obey the orders given it by focus groups except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A Democrat must protect its own political existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Asimov used the three laws in his stories and the mystery would be how a Robot might have committed a murder even though bound by the three laws. The Three Laws of Robotic Democrats seem to be tighter and with better enforcement of possible contradictions. If you are a Pro-Life Democrat then you are barred from support in seeking national office and will not be allowed to speak at a convention, even if the topic is not about abortion.

CLEARWATER, Fla. (BP)--Citing Terri Schiavo's right to freely exercise her religious faith, her parents' lawyer has added a new twist to the case by arguing that removing the 40-year-old disabled woman's feeding tube would be in direct violation of her religious beliefs.

The motion by attorney Pat Anderson draws on a speech by Pope John Paul II, leader of the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. Terri Schiavo would "not want to commit a sin of the gravest proportions by foregoing treatment to effect her own death in defiance of her religious faith's express and recent instruction to the contrary," the motion argues.

A resolution on euthanasia adopted by messengers to the 1992 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis also is cited in the motion.
[Full Story][Via Wired Catholic]

Make no mistake: The Rev. John B. Ardis, the Catholic priest whom Senator John F. Kerry has chosen to give the benediction at tonight's closing session of the convention, opposes abortion.

But he also opposes capital punishment, the war in Iraq, and public policies he views as unjust toward the poor or hungry.

Although several Catholic cardinals have declined to speak at Democratic conventions because of the party's support for abortion rights, Ardis, the director of the Paulist Center of Boston, will speak tonight without reservation, noting that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are fully in step with Catholic teachings.

"My goal is to bring the convention to a close in prayer and to challenge not only the candidates, but all of us to our responsibility as citizens," said

...Ardis has e-mailed Paulist priests around the country seeking input, and also has studied the invocation given by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles at the 2000 Democratic convention. Mahony was criticized by some abortion opponents for addressing the convention; cardinals Joseph L. Bernardin of Chicago and John J. O'Connor of New York previously had declined invitations to speak at Democratic conventions.
[Full Story]

Well I for one have no problem with Catholic clergy giving an invocation at the Democratic Convention. A blessing is not an endorsement. The Pharisees complained that Jesus sat and ate with sinners. If any of us refused to eat with sinners we could not even dine alone. My concern is over the choice of clergy. If the essence of Fr. Ardis's church was extracted it could be sold as bottled water with no impurities such as dogma and doctrine. Though I truly doubt if he will say something outright heretical, I am critical of his seamless garment views that places everything as being equivocal to one another. Of course Fr. Ardis was hand-picked because they knew that anything said would not upset the pro-abortion apple cart of the Democratic Party. That if their consciences could be monitored by an EKG that not a blip would occur during the invocation. I was curious as to what Cardinal Mahony's invocation contained and here it is:

"In You, oh God, we trust that you will keep us ever committed to protect the life and well-being of all people, but especially unborn children, the sick and the elderly, those on skid row and those on death row."

Not a bad invocation at all with no shying away from abortion. Now I might wish for something stronger like what Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said at the prayer breakfast during the Clinton administration. In fact this is a call to conscience applicable to both political parties and to us individually.

On the last day, Jesus will say to those at his right hand, "Come, enter the Kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you visited me."

Then Jesus will turn to those on his left hand and say, "Depart from me because I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me drink, I was sick and you did not visit me."

These will ask him "When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or sick, and did not come to your help?"

And Jesus will answer them, "Whatever you neglected to do unto the least of these you neglected to do unto me!"

Let us thank God for the opportunity He has given us today to have come here to pray together. We have come here especially to pray for peace, joy and love. We are reminded that Jesus came to bring the good news to the poor. He had told us what that good news was when he said, "My peace I leave with you, My Peace I give unto you." He came not to give the peace of the world, which is only that we don't bother each other. He came to give peace of the heart which comes from loving, from doing good to others.

And God loved the world so much that he gave His Son. God gave His Son to the Virgin Mary, and what did she do with Him? As soon as Jesus came into Mary's life, immediately she went in haste to give that good news. And as she came into the house of her cousin, Elizabeth, Scripture tells us that the unborn child - the child in the womb of Elizabeth - leapt with joy.

While still in the womb of Mary, Jesus brought peace to John the Baptist, who leapt for joy in the womb of Elizabeth. And as if that were not enough - as if it were not enough that God the Son should become one of us and bring peace and joy while still in the womb - Jesus also died on the Cross to show that greater love.

He died for you and for me, and for that leper and for that man dying of hunger and that naked person lying in the street - not only of Calcutta, but of Africa, of everywhere. Our Sisters serve these people in 105 countries throughout the world. Jesus insisted that we love one another as He loves each one of us. Jesus gave His life to love us, and He tells us very clearly, "Love as I have loved you."

Jesus died on the Cross because that is what it took for Him to do good for us - to save us from our selfishness and sin. He gave up everything to do the Father's will, to show us that we, too, must be willing to give everything to do God's will, to love one another as He loves each of us.

St. John says you are a liar if you love God and you don't love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live?

Jesus makes Himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the unwanted one, and He says, "You did it to me."

I can never forget the experience I had in visiting a home where they kept all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them into an institution and, maybe, forgotten them. I saw that in the home these old people had everything: good food, comfortable place, television - everything. But everyone was looking toward the door. And I did not see a single one with a smile on his face.

I turned to Sister and I asked, "Why do these people, who have every comfort here - why are they all looking toward the door? Why are they not smiling?" (I am so used to seeing the smiles on our people. Even the dying ones smile.) And Sister said, "This is the way it is, nearly every day. They are expecting that a son or daughter will come visit them.

See, this neglect to love brings spiritual poverty. Maybe in our family we have someone who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried. Are we willing to give until it hurts, in order to be with our families? Or do we put our own interests first?

I was surprised in the West to see so many boys and girls given to drugs. And I tried to find out why. Why is it like that when those in the West have so many more things than those in the East? And the answer was: "Because there was no one in the family to receive them."

Our children depend on us for everything: their health, their nutrition, their security, their coming to know and love God. For all of this, they look to us with trust, hope and expectation. But often father and mother are so busy that they have no time for their children, or perhaps they are not even married, or have given up on their marriage. So the children go to the streets, and get involved in drugs, or other things.

We are talking of love of the child, which is where love and peace must begin.

But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?

How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world.

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.

And for this I appeal in India and I appeal everywhere: "Let us bring the child back." The child is God's gift to the family. Each child is created in the special image and likeness of God for greater things - to love and to be loved. This is the only way that our children are the only hope for the future. As other people are called to God, only their children can take their places.

But what does God say to us? He says, "Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of My hand." We are carved in the palm of His hand - that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God from conception, and is called by God to love and to be loved, not only now in this life, but forever. God can never forget us.

From our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents, and have grown up so full of love and joy! I know that couples have to plan their family, and for that there is natural family planning, not contraception. A husband or a wife must turn their attention to each other, as happens in natural family planning, and not to self, as happens in contraception. Once that living love is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily.

The poor are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. Once one of them came to thank us for teaching them natural family planning, and said: "You people who have practiced chastity, you are the best people to teach us natural family planning, because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other." And what this poor person said is very true.

These poor people maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have no home to live in, but they can still be great people when they are spiritually rich. Those who are materially poor can be wonderful people.

One evening, we went out and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in the most terrible condition. I told the Sisters: "You take care of the other three. I will take care of the one who looks worse." So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand, and she said one thing only: "Thank you." Then she died.

I could not help but examine my conscience before her. I asked, "What would I say if I were in her place?" And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself. I would have said, "I am hungry, I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain," or something like that. But she gave me much more - she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile on her face.

Then there was a man we picked up from a drain, half eaten by worms. And after we had brought him to the home, he only said, "I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die as an angel, loved and cared for." Then after we had removed all the worms from this body, all he said - with a big smile - was: "Sister, I am going home to God." And he died.

It was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man, who could speak like that without blaming anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - this is the greatness of people who are spiritually rich, even when they are materially poor.

And so here I am talking with you. I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Bear the good news to your own people first. And find out about your next-door neighbors. Do you know who they are?

I had the most extraordinary experience of love of a neighbor from a Hindu family. A gentlemen came to our house and said, "Mother Teresa, there is a family who have not eaten for so long. Do something." So I took some rice and went there immediately. And I saw the children, their eyes shining with hunger. (I don't know if you have ever seen hunger, but I have seen it very often.) And the mother of the family took the rice I gave her.

"Where did you go? What did you do?" And she gave me a very simple answer: "They are hungry also." What struck me was that she knew. And who were "they?" A Muslim family. And she knew. I didn't bring any more rice that evening. I wanted them - Hindus and Muslims - to enjoy the joy of sharing.

Because I talk so much of giving with a smile, once a professor from the United States asked me, "Are you married?" And I said, "Yes, and I find it sometimes very difficult to smile at my spouse - Jesus - because He can be very demanding. Sometimes this is really something true. And there is where love comes in - when it is demanding, and yet we can give it with joy.

If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world. From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak - the unborn child - must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!

What a beautifully speech. Mother Teresa aptly shows how peace and justice is deeply rooted in the dignity of how we treat the unborn. Our armies and navies can all be called home and while we slaughter 3,000 innocents a day we will have no peace or justice.

Dawn Eden has even more on the complicitous NYT and the non-coincidental timing of the Amy Richard's article and the release of the "I had and abortion" t-shirt. She has a picture of her wearing one the shirts. Shouldn't her shirt say "I pierced the hearts of two of my children to keep from shopping at Wal-Mart"

About a third of Minnesota's delegates this year, at least 28, are Catholic, followed by Episcopalians with four. Only three people surveyed said they were Lutheran. That compares with four years ago, when 19 of the 66 delegates responding to the AP's survey said they were Catholic.

Bill Flanigan, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, called this year's Catholic numbers "curiously high" compared with the Protestant numbers.

Minnesota does have slightly more Catholics than Lutherans, 1.26 million compared to 1.1 million in 2000, respectively.

Julie Blaha, a 34-year-old teacher from Ramsey, said she objects to mixing government and religion.

"I don't go to my church for politics," she said, saying it makes things awkward for parishioners like her who support abortion rights and gay marriage.

"This is the most pressure I've felt from my church in my life," she said. "You say you're choice and there are parishioners who don't want you there."

But among Minnesota's Catholic delegates, her views are in the majority.

Most, 22 of 28 who responded, supported abortion rights and 15 of them said they backed gay marriage rights.

Former Minnesota House Speaker Phil Carruthers said he was troubled that politics and religion had become so intertwined.

"You try to take your faith seriously," he said. "There's a set of moral principles, but that's different from what the laws of the state and the country should be."
[Full Story]

I for one am certainly tired of this excuse about laws and a supposed church and state conflict. When I was an atheist I came to believe that abortion was wrong. Those of many faiths and backgrounds who are not Catholic also recognize this. This is because this is part of the natural law and not just a set of moral principles dictated by a church. As for Phil Carruthers who is troubled that politics and religion have become intertwined, well it because the moral law and public laws have become untwined and separated. There is no way to be a legislator and not deal with issues that involve the natural law. Our own Declaration of Independence relies heavily on the natural law with the statement that "all men are created equal."

This though is just a platitude that is used since former Minnesota House Speaker Phil Carruthers actively worked to defeat a partial-birth abortion ban by replacing pro-life conferees with pro-choice ones. Whenever you hear these statements from a Catholic politician you do not have to dig far to find their pro-abortion views.

BOSTON -- A 12-year-old girl from California nearly upstaged some long-time Democratic leaders on the second night of the party's convention in Boston.

Ilana Wexler won a speaking role for launching a Web site called kidsforkerry.org. She described Kerry as a "hero to America" and a "great and positive role model."

But she clearly doesn't feel the same way about Vice President Dick Cheney.

Wexler told delegates that she'd heard about Cheney's heated exchange with Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor -- during which Cheney used what the 12-year-old calls "a really bad word." She said if she used that word herself, she'd get a "timeout" -- and she thinks that's what should happen to Cheney.

Senate aides said Cheney was upset with Leahy's criticism of alleged impropriety in Iraq military contracts awarded to Halliburton. Cheney is a former CEO of Halliburton.

Leahy responded during a photo session in the Senate chamber by saying the vice president had once called him a bad Catholic.
[Full Story]

There is something wrong when the most memorable line from Tuesday nights convention speakers is a twelve year old who said that Cheney should take a time out for dropping the f-bomb. Of course she was probably not aware of the time-out material from Sen. Kerry's Rolling Stone's interview earlier this year. When asked about voting for the war in Iraq he said.

`I'm against everything?' Sure. Did I expect George Bush to f*** it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did".

And of course there was the controversy of Teresa's "shove it" comment after her speech about civility. Another sign that the convention hasn't generated anything substantive to talk about. I think the greater mistake besides the momentary lack of composure when faced with a question about the "un-American" comment that she made, was that no later apology when it was shown she had actually used the word. And then later her defenders excused her behavior with no mention that she was wrong in her defense of not saying it.

Now I wouldn't totally excuse Dick Chantey's comment, but if I was accused of basically being a war profiteer by someone who later wanted to shake my hand - I might revert to my previous sailor's vocabulary. This is a little different than dropping the f-bomb in an interview to appear hip or losing your temper after being accused of something you actually did.

Here is a post I did earlier on cussing candidates after both Gen. Clark and Sen. Kerry let out expletives. I tried to update it with a Cheney image but my limited artistic skills were not up to the task.

From Teresa Heinz Kerry convention speech.

He earned his medals the old-fashioned way, by putting his life on the line for his country.

And he threw away his medals the new-fangled way, over the White House fence.

For those new to my blog here is the John Kerry's Medal Toss flash game I created.

WASHINGTON: Economists searching for reasons why some nations are richer than others have found that those with a wide belief in hell are less corrupt and more prosperous, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis.

Researchers at the regional Federal Reserve bank acknowledged the importance of productivity and investment in the economic process but looked at some recent unconventional efforts to explain differences in national prosperity.

The St Louis Fed drew on work by outside economists who studied 35 countries, including the United States, European nations, Japan, India and Turkey and found that religion shed some useful light.

"In countries where large percentages of the population believe in hell, there seems to be less corruption and a higher standard of living," the St Louis Fed said in its July quarterly review.

For instance, 71 per cent of the US population believe in hell and the country boasts the world's highest per capita income, according to the 2003 United Nations Human Development Report and 1990-1993 World Values Survey.

Ireland, not far behind the United States in terms of income, likewise has a healthy fear of a nether world with 53 per cent of the population believing in hell's existence.
[Full Story]

So I guess in this case it is "The Devil made me not do it."

Michelle Malkin and Dawn Eden report on Amy Richards author of that hard to read article on selective reduction.

Editors at the New York Times Magazine say they are going to publish a note to readers saying they were unaware that a woman featured in a firsthand account of her decision to abort two of her triplet fetuses was a prominent crusader for abortion rights.

"The editors of our magazine did not know about [Amy] Richards's activist background," a Times spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis, told The New York Sun by e-mail after the Sun had inquired about the piece. "We plan to run an editors' note."

Ms. Richards's 871-word account of her abortions ran on July 18 in the magazine's "Lives" back-cover column under the headline "When One Is Enough."

What the NYT doesn't have access to Google? Dawn exposes the not so surpising link to a piece of apparel that is now being offered by Planned Parenthood.

Mark Winsor has some interesting ideas for a plafform of a Christian Republic Party.

The Onion has a mock campaign poster for the Democratic convention.

People have been commenting on this "Dukakis in Tank" like picture of John Kerry yesterday at NASA. Domenico Bettinelli posts that Rick Galen captioned this with “Senator Kerry does his famous sperm imitation.” Well I have a different take.

With that umbilical cord and enclosed chamber this looks much more like Kerry doing his fetus imitation. The lack of hair and the prolonged face show that he is still in early development. Kerry Fetus is currently smiling and thinking "I hope my mamma is pro-life!"

The culture of death convention might seem to be a harsh attribute to attach to the Democrat's convention but unfortunately it is all too accurate. The very platform that the delegates will sign today is the most ferocious attack against life and family yet. They have become the party of junk science and family experimentation. Al Gore was well known for his advocacy of junk science such as global warming and now they are also firmly embracing the junk science of embryonic stem-cell research. They frame the debate by saying they believe in science, in fact John Kerry said yesterday at Cape Canaveral that America needs a leader who "believes in science." Now I am not aware of any Amish like contingent of our politicians who do not believe in science. Who do not believe that the world is understandable and that we can come to a better understanding of underlying principles. But the debate is framed this way so that anyone who disagrees with embryonic stem-cell research can be cast as being old-fashioned and living in the dark ages. If you don't be agree with global warming then you are out to destroy the environment. If you are not in favor of embryonic stem-cell research then you want people to suffer and die. The emotional and not scientific argument is used to advance the cause.

The favorite slander of revisionist historians used to attack the Church about science is the Galileo controversy. Never mind that this old chestnut is an inaccurate portrayal of events. The point is that the Democratic party has defined dogmas that no science is allowed to contradict. Instead the debate becomes highly dishonest where the truth of something is obscured. The debate on abortion is contra-science in that they would deny the humanity of the embryo/fetus. They would obscure this by admitting one fact and then hiding under the personhood scam, as if people grow into their personhood or that at the exact point of consciousness or activity the attribute of personhood is magically applied. 4-D ultrasound equipment was not greeted by a praise for new science in the Democrat community. Instead groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL called this machine a "weapon." Laws that would let women know the scientific facts of the risks of abortion in right-to-know laws are not endorsed by the party of "women's rights" but are vigorously attacked and everything is done to prevent those laws from passing. So passing of scientific information to women is prevented. Increased risk of breast cancer and infertility, big deal - we want to keep abortion at all costs. The debate in the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade did not center around science but around privacy. Yet we heard no calls from the Democratic community decrying this most un-scientific decision. They keep talking about choice yet Democratic state attorney-generals have tried to close down clinics catering to women who want to keep their child. Kerry recently said "Let me tell you very clearly that being pro-choice is not pro-abortion." If you can buy a line form this by a person with a 100 percent voting record in accordance with NARAL and PP who make their money on abortions and not pregnancy centers, I have just the bridge in Brooklyn for you.

Now the Democratic Party is also turning away from democracy since none shall dissent from the abortion dogma. Their 2000 platform stated "The Democratic Party is a party of inclusion. We respect the individual conscience of each American on this difficult issue, and we welcome all our members to participate at every level of our party." This statement is now gone in 2004. Instead the proposed platform now says in part :

We will defend the dignity of all Americans against those who would undermine it. Because we believe in the privacy and equality of women, we stand proudly for a woman's right to choose, consistent with Roe v. Wade, and regardless of her ability to pay. We stand firmly against Republican efforts to undermine that right. At the same time, we strongly support family planning and adoption incentives. Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.

"defend the dignity of all Americans" except the pre-born. The make it seem like this is just a Republican issue when in fact they are disenfranchising a large chunk of their own party. I am not sure how they write with a strait face: " Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare." This is the same party that fights against allowing the same heath standards in abortion clinics as for other clinics that perform surgery. They mention the ability to pay which means federal money to pay for abortions. In Russian where abortions are funded by the government the abortion rate climbed to 89%. Whatever is federally funded you will have more of. This idea of rare is a sophist's argument and means absolutely nothing in reality. The only part of the phrase that is accurate is "legal"

Adding insult to injury embryonic stem-cell researched shall now be enshrined in the platform.

"President Bush has rejected the calls from Nancy Reagan, Christopher Reeve and Americans across the land for assistance with embryonic stem cell research. We will reverse his wrongheaded policy. Stem cell therapy offers hope to more than 100 million Americans who have serious illnesses – from Alzheimer's to heart disease to juvenile diabetes to Parkinson's. We will pursue this research under the strictest ethical guidelines, but we will not walk away from the chance to save lives and reduce human suffering"

Now the latest alchemist trick is to turn embryonic stem-cells into golden cures for whatever disease you want to assign them to. The debate again is deeply dishonest. Pursuing stem-cell research under the strictest ethical guidelines? That is utter nonsense. This is like saying we will conduct transplants of hearts from a healthy living person to another ailing person under the strictest ethical guidelines. You can not ethically murder an innocent person to help another. No mention is ever made by them of the true promise of adult stem-cell research. The ability of embryonic stem-cell research to perform these miraculous cure has not been backed up by data. Yet even if the promise was true then ethical methods such as using umbilical cord blood could be used instead. Again scientific facts are not mentioned in this debate, instead they attack Pres. Bush for not allowing Federal money be used to slaughter the innocent in the name of research. Embryos don't look like us, let's kill them. Since they don't look like us they are not human. Sound familiar? Meet the new boss,
Same as the old boss. Ah but in this case we are fooled again and another group of people are dehumanized so that another group may benefit.

So in the abortion debate children are allowed to be murdered to supposedly make the life of the mother easier. That a difficult situation justifies a difficult solution. We can experiment on embryos and murder them at will to ease the life of someone suffering from disease. These arguments are framed as the compassionate choice. We can and should feel sorrow at the plight of Christopher Reeves and others, but the answer is prayer and truly ethical medical research. John Kerry has been quoting the Bible lately and I wish he would get to the "never tire of doing good" part. Right now the end justifies the means if it is politically expedient according to focus groups.

Then we come to the attack on the family under the veil of states rights.

We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families. In our country, marriage has been defined at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it should continue to be defined there. We repudiate President Bush's divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing a "Federal Marriage Amendment." Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart.

I have a hard time believing a party that rejoices when the Supreme Court advances their agenda is pro-state rights. Where is their outcry that states were not allowed to accept/reject abortion? States accept/reject sodomy? I am curious to see how much same-sex marriage will be talked about at the convention. Especially it being in Boston where the the state court imposed same-sex marriage by fiat. But I guess this is still a hot-button issue even in Democratic flanks and so they are hiding under state-rights instead of outright endorsement. You would think that gay advocacy groups would be outraged at the relatively mild support of same-sex marriage in the platform. But they know, wink-wink, that this was done for political reasons and the the Democratic Party fully supports same-sex marriage especially if it came about by Supreme Court edict. "Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart." Oh and then why are you on the wrong side of the divisive abortion issue?

Being an ex-Democrat I would like nothing better then to see the Democrat Party regain it moral vision. As a Catholic I vote to advance the Culture of Life and to promote the dignity of all human beings. It would be nice to be able to choose between candidates on more mundane issues. The GOP is flawed in it's execution of it's pro-life platform, but Democrats who follow some parts of their platform are cooperating with evil. Jesus told us to pray for our enemies and I strive never to dehumanize those who advance policies which I greatly disagree with. So if you have managed to get to the end of this bloated post please pray for those who, as of yet ,do not see the dignity of all human life. And pray for those with who do that they shall persevere with charity in the fight for the unborn whether in the womb or petri dish.

The Old Oligarch expounds on modesty and swim ware inspired by a post by Theresa MF. The whole post is well worth reading as he states "The burqa and the bikini are polar extremes of the same fundamental error."

There is a sickness in a society that makes children's thongs. Recently there have been some murmurings of a possible return to some level of modesty, but for the most part the slutification of our socieity continues.

It use to anger me the amount of skin displayed on magazines as you approach the checkout lane or what I call "temptation aisle." Taking possession of my eyes looking neither right or left like I was being sung to by the sirens. I read a tip on a Carmelite list serve where they suggested instead of getting angry that to spend the time praying for the publishers and those involved.

I do wish that stores had a policy that posters and full sized advertisement displayed would have to conform to the same clothing standard as the shoppers. If someone went to a store dressed like the pictures displayed they would be arrested. And don't even get me started on modesty at Mass. Sometimes after leaving the Church I look around for the swimming pool that these people must have dressed for.

Oh and by the way the Old Oligarch finally got around to adding a site feed. So now those with aggregators can easily track his latest posts.
Atom Feed

Update: SecretAgentMan weighs in with a post on male dress at Mass called Dressing like a Doofus.

Earl of Times Against Humanity starts day one of election coverage with DP Convention Day 1: Blog Cheerleaders Tilt Left

Dawn Eden of The Dawn Patrol comments on some merchandising efforts by Planned Parenthood. They have updated their catalog since I last looked and now have Emergency Contraception pens and and other items. Dawn's post ends with a killer (pun intended) motto for the Democrat party.

Now the seasonal section of the store intrigued me. What might you hawk abortion with depending on the season. Well they have a Planned Parenthood beach ball. This is great if you can find enough young people on the beach to play with. A definite case of diminishing returns with a successful Banned Parenthood campaign I wonder about a Margaret Sanger bookmark. If you place it in a book does it soon reduce the amount of black ink messing up all the pure white pages? So if you want your racist eugenicist bookmark go here. Or how about their wall calendar. Doesn't everyone want a picture of a women sticking out her tongue with a "morning after" pill on it? And wouldn't your kids want a Parenthood. Plan it shirt?

What I think is fairly ironic is these two brochures next to each other. Teensex? It's OK to Say "No Way!" and Birth Control Choices for Teens. Of course this makes sense for an organization named Planned Parenthood that offers zero services for parenthood. Want to have a child - go elsewhere. Only if you want to prevent having a child or to kill one.

A spokeswoman for Democrats for Life of America says Terry McAuliffe, the party's chairman, has assured her that he would not prohibit pro-life speakers from addressing the party's convention.

"Chairman McAuliffe's statement proves that the Democratic Party is truly the party of inclusion," DFLA executive director Kristen Day said in Thursday. "Despite our differences on the issue of protecting the rights of the unborn, the fact that McAuliffe is not going to exclude pro-life speakers from addressing the Convention in Boston is encouraging."

According to Day, McAuliffe told a group of pro-life Democrats in New York that he would be open to allowing pro-life speakers at the convention.

However, no names of actual speakers have been committed.

In fact, the first list of convention speakers, released Wednesday, includes only one speaker, Rhode Island Congressman Jim Langevin, among 61 total, who is pro-life on abortion.

Well the final list of speakers is out and not even the nominal pro-life Congressman Jim Langevin is included. Either of course is former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn. Leave it to Terry McAuliffe to say that they would not exclude pro-life speakers and then to release a list of 60 speakers who are

Perhaps not all the speakers are rabidly pro-abortion, but you know those that are not will not even bring up the issue. Jimmy Carter will not be a conscience for the party and complain about its selling itself to the Culture of death. 13 year old Ilana Wexler founder of Kids for Kerry will talk about Kerry and kids issues and not about the fact that Kerry's administration would work hard to prevent kids.

The group Democrats for Life will not have anyone to represent their views in the party for the little people (just not too little) and of tolerance and inclusion. They were fairly pessimistic about the chances of that happening. In a poll on their site 58% expected "No pro-life Democrat will be allowed to speak."

In a related story:

Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Though they constitute a sizable minority, pro-life Democrats are often the forgotten element of a Democratic Party increasingly dominated by abortion advocates.

To make their case that the party's extreme pro-abortion stance is alienating voters, members of Democrats for Life of America will conduct a rally at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston.

"This is a homecoming party for the many pro-life democrats who have left our party," says DFLA executive director Kristen Day. "We are dedicated Democrats who are tired of standing outside the big tent."

Members of the pro-life Democratic group will sport buttons with the phrase "43 percent of Democrats can't be wrong."

That's a reference to a January 2004 Zogby poll that found 43 percent of respondents who call themselves Democrats take a pro-life position opposing most or all abortions. [Full Story]

If this poll in anywhere accurate then the DNC is really out of step with part of its base. I have long thought that the DNC party leadership is a lot more pro-abortion than the average Democrat.

Just like the RNC is a less pro-life than the average Republican. Judging by the speaker line-up so far for the Republican convention, or what I call the "Democrat Convention Part Two", many of those speakers could fit right in on abortion and social issues with the DNC. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rudolph Giuliani, George Pataki, Michael R. Bloomberg are not exactly fetus-friendly. Popularity over plank. These speakers just do not fit in with most of the planks of the GOP. They keep calling the GOP a big tent. Must be because of the three-ring circus and the inclusion of these pro-abortion clowns. The irony will be that one of the one of the most pro-life speakers will be Democrat Senator Zell Miller.

Two years I started my first blog "Atheist to a Theist" at blogspot with this entry and a quote from G.K. Chesterton.

"It is a good sign in a nation when things are done badly. It shows that all the people are doing them. And it is bad sign in a nation when such things are one very well, for it shows that only a few experts and eccentrics are doing them, and that the nation is merely looking on."

Back in June of 2002 Tim Drake wrote an article on Catholic blogging that first let me know about St. Blogs. The article mentioned Mark Shea, Amy Welborn, Kathy Shaidle, Kathryn Lively, Pete Vere, Tom Kreitzberg and others. I only recognized Mark's name and googled his site since the article had not hard links to sites. I soon started visiting the links on Marks blogroll and soon the people in the article and others became daily stops for me. As what has happened to many others commenting on other people sites leads you to the ego jump of starting your own blog.

My original intent was to comment on politics and the Catholic Church. As a recent convert I wanted to develop my new faith and expound upon life via my new Catholic eyes. I had never envisioned doing comedy via my blog. This just goes to show how little I knew myself. It took me all but two weeks to introduce comedy into a post with my Top ten list for you might be in a "spirit of Vatican II" parish if: Six months later I moved to Movable Type on my own domain with The Curt Jester. You can easily guess the Jester connotation and since my punditry is normally short and to the point I used Curt. But mainly because I liked the pun on Court Jester since one of my favorite movies is The Court Jester with Danny Kaye.

Blogging is much cheaper than a psychoanalyst and it is good to get pet-peeves off your chest. Plus I have found that it has forced me to think deeper on issues and to research what the Catholic Church has said on various subjects. I could easily had set the tone of my blog to be that of the Wanderer or the Remnant which I might of had a natural affinity to do. I complain about issues in the Church such as liturgy, but I try to do it with humor and charity (not always succeeding on either count). Steven Riddle had a defense of blogging of which I largely agree. Blogging is great for humility. I thought I knew a lot more about the Catholic faith then I really did when I started blogging. I have learned a lot more than I might have inadvertently taught. The other good thing for humility is that you might slave over a post that becomes almost like another child to you and it gets little or no attention. Then you put up something that you are not quite satisfied with and that one gets pointed to. I use to wonder how comic strip writers could come up with something funny to say everyday, and then I realized that they don't always come up with something funny - some days are duds. Just like comedy blogging, some ideas are just duds.

The one annoying thing about writing daily is when you are not a writer. I am in no way a perfectionist, but I know how much lacking my prose is. I think might stuff reads like grammatical speed-bumps. I never intended to write, but then again I never intended to become a Catholic. So once again a entrance for humility when commenters tell you how you have grammatically butchered the English language. These comments have been useful since they have helped me to improve my writing a little bit.

St. Blogs is much like the communion of saints. We come to know and to pray for others that we have never met or seen. So again thanks to those who read my blog, and for bloggers who have blogrolled it or linked to my posts.

Other Blog Birthdays:

Steven Riddle of Flos Carmeli had his two year blogging anniversary on July 19th.

Bernhardt Varenius of Anti-Socialist Tendencies also celebrated his two year blog anniversary this week. And by the way Bernhardt I am still awaiting my " toenail clipper with a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe on it! Direct from a tacky little shop in Mexico City" prize for naming your site.

Also my fellow editor over at Catholic! Kerry Watch, Earl E. Appleby of Times Against Humanity also celebrates his one year blog anniversary today.

A SEARCH continues for survivors of an unidentified dhow which collided with a 1,000-foot US aircraft carrier in international waters in the Arabian Gulf late on Thursday.

During night flight operations the USS John F Kennedy collided with the dhow at approximately 10:20pm.

A statement released by the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet yesterday said that all indications are that the dhow sank as a result of this accident.

"John F Kennedy and HMS Somerset immediately launched helicopters and small boats to search for any crew members of the dhow. US Navy P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft were launched to assist in the search and rescue operation.

"Although a debris field has been located, no survivors or remains have been found. Rescue operations are continuing.

"All airborne aircraft from Kennedy's airwing were recovered and all crew members have been accounted for. No Kennedy personnel were injured," said the statement.
[Full Story]

The U.S.S. Kennedy is stationed here at N.A.S. Mayport. This story reminds me of something that happened on my first ship in July of 1980

On July 29, Midway collided with the Panamanian merchant ship Cactus while transiting the passage between Palawan Island of the Philippines and the coast of Northern Borneo 450 nautical miles southwest of Subic Bay enroute to Singapore. While Midway sustained no serious damage, two sailors working in the liquid oxygen plant were killed, three were injured, and three F-4 Phantom aircraft parked on the flight deck were damaged.

I will never forget this incident. My shop was located underneath the flight deck and so was extremely noisy when launching aircraft via the cats. I had created a set of headphones using "Mickey Mouse" ear protectors. This kept most of the outside noise out and the noise of my music in. I was working on a piece of avionics gear in my shop when the collision occurred. I did not hear the sound of the initial impact or the collision alarm, but sure felt it. When I took my headphones off I heard the ship making a terrible sound almost like it was chiming from the impact. The ship started to rock and I could see the faces of the people in my shop just about turn white. I had no idea what had just occurred, but our Ensign Mr. Brown came running into our shop telling us to evacuate it. The next couple of hours were spent on the hangar deck where we heard just about every rumor possible. Later we learned of the deaths of the two sailors in the LOX plant who were crushed between the bulkhead and the plant.

The year previous the U.S.S. Ranger had been hit by another Panamanian merchant ship and was damaged so badly that they never ended up going into the Indian Ocean by instead went to Yokusuka, Japan for repairs. We had recently come off deployment but instead when out for another tour to replace the Ranger. I always wondered if these "accidents" might have been intentional since Panamanian registry was given to any country that paid for it. The Cactus had made a U-Turn directly into our ship and besides taking of the tales of F-4s on the flight deck, the collision took off catwalks and destroyed an aircraft elevator. We figured that was it for that cruise, but after only two weeks of repairs at the base at Subic Bay where they brought in the very industrious Japanese shipyard workers we were back on cruise with a new elevator, catwalks, and a Liquid Oxygen truck to replace our LOX plant. After an investigation our Captain was not relieved as it was found that there was nothing he could have done to prevent the accident. This is pretty rare that after a major accident of this nature that the Captain isn't relived on some pretext.

During the repair and removal of the old LOX Plant I found out something quite surprising to me. The welding burns of where they removed the plant burned the tiling in my shop. I found out that the LOX plaint was directly underneath where I had been standing at the time. So obviously I am pretty thankful that the LOX plant did not blow.

Would you eat food cooked in your own urine? Food scientists working for the US military have developed a dried food ration that troops can hydrate by adding the filthiest of muddy swamp water or even peeing on it.

The ration comes in a pouch containing a filter that removes 99.9 per cent of bacteria and most toxic chemicals from the water used to rehydrate it, according to the Combat Feeding Directorate, part of the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts. This is the same organisation that created the "indestructible sandwich" that will stay fresh for three years (New Scientist print edition, 10 April 2002).

The aim is to reduce the amount of water soldiers need to carry. One day's food supply of three meals, weighs 3.5 kilograms but that can be reduced to about 0.4 kilograms with the dehydrated pouches, says spokeswoman Diane Wood.

The pouch - containing chicken and rice initially - relies on osmosis to filter the water or urine. When two solutions of different concentrations are separated by a semipermeable membrane, with gaps that allow only water molecules to pass through, the water is drawn to the more concentrated side.
[Full Story]

This gives new meaning to piss-poor rations.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Big Idea Productions, creator of VeggieTales, has moved its headquarters from Chicago to suburban Nashville, and observers predict more family oriented entertainment companies will follow.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen participated in a welcoming ceremony and carnival for kids this summer at Big Idea's new home in Franklin, just south of Nashville.

Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, stars of the VeggieTales films, also were on hand, and Bredesen named them official citizens of Tennessee.

Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato were made official citizens of Tennessee recently when Gov. Phil Bredesen welcomed their company, Big Idea Productions, to the state. Joining the governor, Larry and Bob was Terry Pefanis (left), COO of Big Idea. Photo courtesy of Hoganson Media.

"Today's announcement is a testament to what can happen when we all work together--state and local governments, as well as private interests--to make something positive and exciting happen in our state," Bredesen said.

"Big Idea's decision to relocate its corporate headquarters to Tennessee, where it began, is reflective of a growing interest in developing family entertainment in the ... area. Big Idea's move here is sure to spark additional entertainment investment in this community and its workforce."

Over the past few years, Franklin has developed into one of the nation's major hubs for a half-dozen recording, publishing, management and distribution companies involved in family-oriented entertainment enterprises, according to the governor's office. Entertainment corporations in the area generate nearly $1 billion in revenue each year, and the growth is expected to continue.

For its new headquarters in Franklin, Big Idea has redesigned 12,000 square feet of space at The Factory, a former stove production facility listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The location will house Big Idea's executive, creative and production teams near major distribution partners Word and EMI in Nashville.

"Big Idea is thrilled to call Tennessee home," said Terry Pefanis, chief operating officer at Big Idea.
[Full Story]

There was a rumor that they were going to move to Florida, but after the Terry Schaivo case they changed their minds They were worried that George J. Felos and Judge Greer would have Larry and Bob executed for being in a persistent vegetative state.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates are making President Bush's pro-life nominees to federal courts an election issue in the campaign for president. On Wednesday, twenty-four organizations, including several pro-abortion groups, launched a new ad that attacks Bush.

The television and Internet advertising campaign will "spotlight the extremist views and records of the [Bush] administration's judicial nominees," the groups say.

The spot also asks viewers to contact members of the Senate and urge senators to vote against Bush's picks for federal courts.

"This administration has shown that it will go to any length, violate any rule, and upset any precedent to pack the courts with anti-choice extremis," says Elizabeth Cavendish, interim president of NARAL.

"We must not allow these dangerous ideologues to make rulings over women's reproductive rights and fundamental freedoms for a generation to come," Cavendish added.
[Full Story]

With more and more people becoming pro-life I think this AD campaign is a good thing. Illustrating that President Bush is mostly pro-life to try to anger those who want to keep abortion on demand will probably only end up preaching to the unholy choir of abortion supporters. Those who are pro-life or are becoming more so will just have one more reason to compare Bush and Kerry. NARAL is not making ads attacking Kerry for his "Life begins at conception" statement. They know that the words are empty and their advocacy is not threatened in any way.

Some months back Sen. Kerry criticized President Bush using the verse from the book of James about faith and deeds. In the last week he he has given two speeches using this phrase.

"When we look at what is happening in America today we must ask ourselves, 'Where are the deeds?' " Mr. Kerry said to rousing applause. "The Bible teaches us: 'It is not enough, my brother, to say you have faith when there are not deeds. Faith without deeds is dead.' "

While I readily agree that I am a sinner who struggles to do what is right I would truly like to ask "my brother" John Kerry that if he has faith in what the Catholic Church teaches where are his deeds?

The New Mexico Health Department is standing behind a sex-education teacher in Santa Fe who encouraged ninth-graders to taste flavored condoms.

According to a report in the Santa Fe New Mexican, parent Lisa Gallegos said that when her 15-year-old daughter balked at putting a condom in her mouth, instructor Tony Escudero told her, "Come on, sweetie, have a little fun."

Also, Gallegos quotes her daughter as saying when a male student expressed his disgust with homosexual activity, Escudero said, "Never say never, because you never know. Someday you might like it that way."

"I agree with sex ed 100 percent," Gallegos, whose daughter attends Santa Fe High School, told the paper. "I also teach it here at my home. But I think that was inappropriate and wrong 100 percent."

According to the report, Dorothy Danfelser, deputy director for the public-health division of the state Health Department, said she wrote Gallegos last week to say Escudero did nothing wrong.

"It had been investigated," Danfelser told the New Mexican. "There was no wrongdoing. I have no more comment. ... (Gallegos) may or may not agree with that, but that's her prerogative."
[Full Story]

Maybe we should just refer to the Public School System as the Pubic School System.

Here is an article about some of Florida's Catholic politicians.

MIAMI -- As a practicing Roman Catholic and legislator, state Rep. Tim Ryan tries to balance his personal faith with his duties to his South Florida district.

The Dania Democrat has voted to support abortion rights, putting him - along with some other Catholic lawmakers in Florida - into a national debate on whether Catholic politicians who break with church policy should receive Holy Communion.

Ryan says he will continue to receive Communion "if I am allowed," but needs to serve constituents with a broad range of religious beliefs.

"Why should I use the power that I have as an elected official to impose upon many people's faiths my church's doctrine?" Ryan said.

I think what annoys me the most about this debate is how intellectually vapid the excuses are and that these same excuses are used by countless people who say them as if they actually mean anything.

..Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate who supports abortion rights, declined to say whether he would no longer receive Communion, calling it "personal."

The parents of two children, Penelas said if he and his wife conceived another child, "we would choose to accept that child. But that's my own personal belief and that doesn't mean I'm going to impose my own personal beliefs on someone else."

I am open to life, buy hey if you want to abort yours - well I wouldn't want to impose my personal belief.

For state Rep. Susan Bucher, D-Royal Palm Beach, the debate over abortion has contributed to her decision to no longer attend Mass. Bucher said she received a letter from a diocese last year denouncing her votes on abortion-related issues. She tore it up.

"I resent that the Catholic church wants to get involved in my politics," Bucher said.

Bravo to her diocese for writing her, It obviously struck a nerve. Hopefully one day she will understand why this angered her so much and that maybe her faith in abortion on demand isn't as strong as she thought.

...Some Catholic elected officials who oppose abortion rights said the decision on whether to confront Catholics at the Communion line should be left to the church.

"I like the fact that there is very little movement with the times in the Catholic church," said Gov. Jeb Bush, who converted to Catholicism after his 1994 bid for governor. "While it is not absolute and there have been some changes, it's about as timeless as one can get in one's faith."

It is nice to have a Catholic Governor who actually seems to be on the right side of most pro-life issues. His fight to help save Terri Schiavo has been laudable. Now if only he come to a fuller Catholic understanding of the use of the death penalty and retire Old Sparky.

I think we need to cut the middleman out of government commissions. It takes no prophet to determine what the recommendations will be of any appointed commission. After 9/11 we saw how that the FBI and CIA were not efficiently sharing information with each other, so we get another level of bureaucracy in the Homeland Security Department. Now we can have the FBI and CIA and the Homeland Security Department not share information efficiently.

We saw the massive failure of airline security and surprise-surprise what do we get. Federalized screeners.

Now the 9/11 commission wants a National Intelligence Director and to upgrade the present terrorist threat integration center with a national counter intelligence center.

The old saying garbage in, garbage out when applied to commissions becomes bureaucracy in, bureaucracy out. We could have saved all that time and money and political intrigue with the 9/11 commission and just went strait to expanding government. This is always the political answer so lets just cut out the middleman.

There is just something about humans and organizations and how fast competition and rivalry occurs between organizations with the same mission. This behavior rarely enhances the mission and often distracts from it. During one tour while in the Navy I was working with Naval Air Command (NAVAIR ) and their counterparts in the Pentagon. There has always been rivalry in the services between the different branches, but even within the Navy there was rivalry. The group I had worked with had done some development in the training for a missile system that could be delivered via aircraft or ship. SInce we had already developed all of the up front analysis in what equipment and resources were needed for this system we contacted our counterparts in Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to offer this to them. They didn't want to have anything to do with us and even though this was a freebie. Instead of joint commands working together I found it to be more like separate kingdoms, each with it's own agenda.

The missile system itself was a case of governments working together. The Penguin Anti-Ship Missile was developed by the Norwegian Navy and was being forced on us for political reasons, not because it was better than the Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile.

During the Iranian Hostage Crisis we ended up with three Aircraft Carriers in the Indian Ocean awaiting developments in Iran. The area we were deployed was called Gonzo Station. Not named after a Muppet but after Gonzo journalism where anything can happen. Towards the end of one three month at-sea period our ship for entertainment had published a Gonzo Station coloring book as a joke. Besides the silly pictures for coloring and cartoons, it also had a page of definitions. My favorite was the following.

Mutual Carrier Operations: Three carriers conducting mutually exclusive operations in support of each other

This phrase always stuck with me because it is a perfect definition of how government works. Replace carriers with the branches of government and the phrase remains true. This understanding was the beginning of my political education. I would hope that the commissions recommendations don't come about but unfortunately that will probably not be the case. I wonder what we will do when there isn't once person left who is not working for the government in some capacity? Will we then start a cabinet position in charge of emigrating bureaucrats?

THE fertility watchdog is to broaden its rules on embryo screening to permit the birth of babies to help save seriously ill siblings.
The move was welcomed by the British Medical Association and parents who want to use IVF and genetic screening to create babies whose tissue could then save the life of a brother or sister.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority will now allow screening for purposes other than weeding out genetic disorders. The decision has angered religious and pro–life groups who argue it will result in hundreds of embryos being created and then destroyed in laboratories throughout Britain. There are also fears of "designer babies".
Parents have been allowed to screen if it is also of benefit to the embryo, but not where the only purpose is to create genetic conditions to help another.

Ethical campaigners said they feared a relaxing of regulations could lead to parents creating so-called Frankenstein children: choosing such as sex and hair colour while rejecting unsuitable embryos. Josephine Quintavalle, founder of the committee on reproductive ethics, said moral principles were at stake.

Mario Conti, archbishop of Glasgow, repeated the Catholic Church's opposition, arguing that human life was not a commodity. The decision came as the authority met in London to consider the results of its policy review.
[Full Story]

This is a truly sad situation where parents are willing to sacrifice other siblings to save one. They would never ask susie to give up her heart to save johnny, but they effectively do the same thing with all of the embryos that are killed in the process.

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. - A single mother in Prince George who found out three months after undergoing an abortion procedure that she was still pregnant has been awarded $60,000 in a lawsuit against her doctor.

The woman, now 37, and identified only by the pseudonym Rachel Roe, gave birth to a normal, healthy child and later sued Dr. Ronald Harold Dabbs who performed the failed abortion.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrett has awarded her $55,000 in general damages and $5,000 for lost income.

But, he rejected her request for compensation for the cost of raising the child, saying those expenses were offset by the joy of motherhood.

Such costs are generally awarded in "wrongful birth" cases when the child is born with severe disabilities. [Full Story]

'Not So Quiet' Catholic Corner links to some photos from CTA 2003 National Conference and comments.

A call to fashion is more like it!!!Check out the ridiculous stoles, banners and table cloths!!!

And yes all of the above photos are from the Mass they held.

This conference was titled "Called To Be Peacemakers: Prophetic Leadership For World and Church." Thought I thing that pathetic leadership is closer to the mark. Just look at some of the enlightening presentations we missed.

• The Tribal Dreams of the Christian Community
• Zazen and Kripalu Yoga as Christian Contemplative Experience
• I'm ODIE, You're ODIE - What Vatican Abuse of Gays and Lesbians Means for the Entire Church
• The Choreographed Prayer: Music and Dance as a Praxis to Spirituality
• Spirituality of the Mariachi

The most numerous conference topics were Gay/Lesbian ministry and the clergy abuse scandal. And no they didn't see the irony in this. In fact one of the conferences titled "Clergy Sexual Abuse: The Crisis Behind the Headlines" says this about the crisis " At its core he finds a pre-Copernican understanding of human sexuality and a power system dependent on a sexual myth." Well that really explains it.

And for entertainment:

The afternoon’s special performance piece Midwifery! throws new and touching light on Jesus’ special valuing of women and their creative Birthing energy. Developed by writer and actress Roberta Nobleman, who was ably aided by dancer, Linda Telesco, the play contains three vignettes from the Christian scriptures. These are told through the eyes of Peter’s wife, “Sarah,” a midwife who is now in Rome helping “to birth the new Church.” Prominently featured props included a real birthing stool “a red tent,” and two brightly colored hand made cloaks illustrating Sophia-God’s all encompassing care.

“Sarah” asks: “what are you laboring with today?” and recruits willing helpers to tell the story of Jesus’ healing of Peter’s mother in law, the woman with the issue of blood (aptly named “Flo”) and the bent over woman. The performance was interspersed with reflective music and dance inviting both song and movement from the audience.

Flo? Now that is pretty funny. I wonder what an apt name for the Syrophoenician woman at the wells name is? Perhaps Zsa Zsa.

I was thinking of starting a fundraiser for Call To Action. I thought that perhaps I might want to raise money to be able to send each member of CTA a new calendar. It is no longer the sixties!!!! Wake up people!!

If you handle information with classifications on a daily basis and don't want to be caught with your pants down or socked with a fine or some jail time - then Curt Jester Security Products have just what the security auditor ordered.

These high quality Khaki pants are made with heavy-duty construction using 3mm steel pant plate, 6mm steel plate zipper and twin locking zipper entry bolts. Simple to operate electronic keypad accepts a combination of between 3 and 8 numbers, giving millions of possible zipper combinations. Five LEDs give security, power and operating status, zipper status, and leak detection. Not only will your documents be secure, but you will never get those mocking stares when you forgot to zip up.

Our pant security is totally in conformance with DOD and Joint Command instructions used for Information Systems (IS) and assure compliance with DCID 6/3, NSA/CSS Manual 130-1 and DIAM 50-4. Ultra secure leg openings make sure that top secret documents never embarrassingly fall through. You can keep a pant-load of information without every worrying about losing documents again.

But what about those times when you have more documents than you can stuff into your pants?

The Crypto-Sock will meet all of your security stocking-stuffing needs. Equipped with industrial elastic that can not be pried loose or opened without first putting in the correct 5 digit code. Biometric smell receptors insure our socks can only be worn or opened by those with the correct foot odor index as set when they are first put on.

"Wow! If only I had these before. I swear these are the best security clothes available on the market." --Former National Security Advisor

Barbara Kralis interviews Bipshop Vasa of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon,

ABC News states: "On the road, Kerry carries a rosary, a prayer book and a medal with the image of St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers, which he wore during the Vietnam War, according to a longtime associate who demanded anonymity to discuss an issue the candidate did not want to discuss."

Now this sparked my interest in how a life-begins-at-conception, abortion-voting, same-sex-marriage-supporting, embyronic-stem-cell-destruction-supporter Catholic politician might meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary. Possibly Kerry's fictitious Pius XXIII defined some mysteries that I am unaware of. How do you meditate on the Annunciation where Christ becomes Incarnate and then sponsor a "Clone and Kill" bill? Well thus intrigued I did some research as to what Rosary meditations that he might be carrying along with his prayer book and rosary. So here is the illustrated booklet I found with appropriate meditations.

The Flip-Flop Mysteries

The First Flip-Flop Mystery, The Renunciation
Let it be done unto me according to the results of a focus group. Think about how precious life is and that human life starts at conception. Life is especially precious when you can extract some stem-cells from it before discarding that precious life. How can you be both pro-life and for embryonic stem-cell research? How can you believe that life begins at conception and then fly across country to vote against the fetal-homicide bill. Life is a gift given by God but can be returned to sender by the abortionist. This must be so, since you voted against the partial birth abortion ban. Don't lose any sleep over these contradictions. This is a mystery and a seeming paradox that will dissipate under the spell of political power.

The Second Flip-Flop Mystery, The Same-Sex Wedding at Cana
As a Catholic Politician you realize that support of same-sex marriage is against your faith, but is fully endorsed by your political party. What can you do to resolve such a situation? You can be a leader and stand against the secular tide and bravely defend the truth of marriage as only being between a man and a women. If you are not quite up to that, then in your decisive leadership make sure you skip the vote on the FMA.

The Third Flip-Flop Mystery, The Crowning of Personally Opposed
Meditate on St. Mario Cuomo who first came out with this line at a conference at Notre Dame at the invitation of the Rev. Richard McBrien. Dwell on this powerful sound-bite that almost sounds rational if not dwelt upon too long (no more than a couple of seconds). Relish the opening "I am personally opposed to abortion" and the the fabulous "but ..." This "but" is the giant loophole that you could drive a truck through or a whole political career. While this statement does not stand up to rational scrutiny you can be assured that nobody in the elite media will ever challenge you on this. This is the Emperor's New Clothes of political statements, yet 60 minutes or morning shows will never point out that you are philosophically naked. Think upon the Gospel accord to Cuomo “to make my religious value your morality? After all you would never want to do any such thing, unless of course it is mandatory Government health care, government funded embryonic stem-cell research, government funded abortion, etc. These are the exceptions that prove the rule; or in this case the rule is all exceptions.

The Fourth Flip-Flop Mystery, No King But Caesar
"I'm not a church spokesman. I'm a legislator running for president. My oath is to uphold the Constitution of the United States in my public life. My oath privately between me and God was defined in the Catholic church by Pius XXIII and Pope Paul VI in the Vatican II, which allows for freedom of conscience for Catholics with respect to these choices, and that is exactly where I am. And it is separate. Our constitution separates church and state, and they should be reminded of that."

"We have a separation of church and state in this country," he told Time. "I don't tell church officials what to do, and church officials shouldn't tell American politicians what to do in the context of our public life."

The Fifth Flip-Flop Mystery, The Institution of the Eucharist
Partaking of the Sacramental Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Catholic faith. Thus it is only between you and God and no meddling Bishops who think their job is to actually pass on to teach you the faith. There is separation of Church and State (don't bother looking for it in the Constitution) and if they try to get you to change your views you will smite them with the mighty IRS with the threat of the removal of tax exempt status.

Meditate on this statement of Blessed Pelosi "’I fully intend to receive Communion, one way or another. That's very important to me,’’I believe that my position on choice is one that is consistent with my Catholic upbringing, which said that every person has a free will and has the responsibility to live their lives in a way that they would have to account for in the end.’"

Or Rep. Clay who said that if a priest refused him communion, "I would stand there."

How dare anyone say you are not in Communion with the Church just because you support, abortion, contraception, homosexual marriage, embryonic stem-cell research, and human cloning. What communion hath light with darkness? Well who cares, your presenting yourself for Communion anyway.

Now if you happen to be campaigning in St. Louis - home of Communion denying Archbishop Burke what do you do. Do you (A) bravely stand on your conscience and go to Communion knowing that you are a good Catholic. Or (B) not fulfill your Sunday obligation by slinking away to a non-Catholic Church instead. Photo below is option B.

From what seems to be a parody advice column in the Asian Times.

Dear Spengler,
I lead a church whose priests are pledged to celibacy. Nowadays we seem to get no one but gays, and the situation has gotten out of hand. Lawsuits about sex abuse are driving parts of my organization into bankruptcy, and now there are pictures all over the Internet of priests fondling each other at an Austrian seminary. What can I do to keep the gays away?
Red-faced in Rome

Dear Red,
Have you considered giving the Church an anti-queer makeover? Lose the chic black outfits, and instruct your priests to wear plaid polyester instead. No self-respecting gay male will go near you.

Well maybe Bishop John M. D'Arcy might want to consider this proposal and add socks that clash also.

Bishop John M. D'Arcy, who in private letters to other church officials as early as 1978 questioned the reassignment of priests accused of sexual misconduct, said yesterday that the church must improve its screening process for accepting seminarians and that homosexuals should be prohibited from being ordained as priests. (source)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A dozen police cars. A helicopter. A fleeing suspect driving over sidewalks and against traffic on a busy street.

All for a stolen library book?

That's what prompted a 10-minute chase through Syracuse Sunday.

An officer allegedly spotted Bryan Haynes running a stop sign late Sunday afternoon and a chase ensued. About a dozen police cars and a sheriff's department helicopter were involved before officers broke off pursuit because the situation became too dangerous.

It wasn't until later that investigators learned he had run out of a Syracuse University library after allegedly stealing a book, setting off the building's alarms as he fled.

During the chase, Haynes tossed a backpack out of the window. Officers expecting to find drugs or guns inside instead found a book on religion.
(source)

I wonder if they said "Book 'em Dano."

With a shortage of new priests, the Catholic Church is slowly changing who's in charge of some functions of Church life. Last weekend, lay and religious leaders gathered in Philadelphia to talk about expanding the role of lay people in the Church.

"It's what we are to do with our lives." That's how Margaret Hargroder describes how she feels about her lay work. Hargroder has been involved in lay activities in the Catholic Church for all of her adult life. She, and her husband Raymond, are both Eucharistic Ministers at St. Mary's Chuch in Lafayette. "More and more we've had lay people taking roles with Parish life, it's just an increasing role," Hargroder tells KATC.

Hargroder says changing some church responsiblities is just lets lay people and Priests specialize in what they do best. "We're all gifted in different ways and i think our Pastors are too. There are some gifts they can best utilize and there are other gifts that Parishioners may be able to lend their own gifts to."

With the movement, lay people could handle day-to-day operations and Priests do religious duties that way - priests could spend their time performing Sacraments, and lay people would take care of things like building maintenance and budgets.

Even though some Priests could see their roles become more focused, Hargroder says they play a very important role in Parish life. "I see him as a C.E.O. for our Parish, he's the one that sees our Parish achieves the overall goal of health and development." (source)

This attitude does not exactly put priest on an altar, but where it does put them I am not sure. Lines like performing sacraments, and C.E.O. does not exactly describe the sacramental life of a priest. I wouldn't exactly describe the goal of a priest as "health and development." I thought it might have something to do with helping to get us to heaven or something like that.

Zorak (my favorite blogging mantis) points to a Catholic columnist in Virginia complaining about Bishop DiLorenzo. It goes through all the standard points for dissent continuously made.

...In divining his public comments so far, the new bishop is leaving little or no wiggle room for Catholics except to adhere strictly to doctrine. A conservative, he’s much in the mold of Pope John Paul II, who assigned him here. Outgoing Bishop Sullivan was considered more open to differences of opinion.

Except when those opinions were in conformity with Church teaching.

As The Pilot’s Steven Vegh reported Wednesday, some local Catholics applaud the pronouncements from Richmond. But for others like me, the bishop’s comments suggest certain topics are no longer up for discussion. That, and the strange feeling — paranoia? — that DiLorenzo is shepherding a flock in the 21st century with a paternalistic attitude more reminiscent of church leaders from many decades past. This seems more like devolution than evolution in the church.

Moral truth never changes. The Letter to the Hebrews did not say "Jesus Christ was different yesterday and today has progressed and will keep changing for ever." Of course they never explain why it is the paternalistic attitude that is the cause of the constant teaching of the Church. There is a paternalist attitude involved though - The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Is discussion of married and female priests now verboten — at a time when many parishes struggle because not enough men enter the seminary? Other faiths seem to do just fine with female ministers.

Here we go again the arbitrary mixing up of dogma and a discipline of the Church.

Will discussion of birth control, which the church bans, now be squelched? This is ludicrous, given that most families today are much smaller than the tribes that used to pack the church pews on Sundays when I was a child. The rhythm method — sounds quaint, doesn’t it? — isn’t that effective. Given the financial challenges of having large numbers of children, scores of families have already adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on contraception.

Yes it should be squelched. Birth control is a lie and all lies should be removed. Talk about a tautology -he wants birth control because families today are much smaller. This is certainly putting the cart before the horse. Why is it that in the past that large families in much stricter economic circumstances were able to maintain their families; while those of us today in much better economic circumstances with cars, TVs, DVD's, Computers, etc are unable to support larger families? But this demonstrates the attitude today of children as burden. That openness to life is defeated by a spreadsheet. That when you vision having another child you also vision your favorite material items or hobbies disappearing before you.

Plus, the Catholic Church lost enormous amounts of credibility during the clergy sexual abuse scandals and the subsequent cover-ups by bishops in communities around the country. It seems an odd time to now throw down the gauntlet on those who have stayed with the church.

Recently journalist have lost enormous amounts of credibility because of the scandals at the NYT, USA Today, CNN and others. Does he mean that all journalist should now be ignored because of the faults of their compatriots.

Maybe the uneasiness toward Bishop DiLorenzo is an overreaction on my part. But in the few weeks he’s been here, it seems he’s given me two choices: Shut up and stay a Catholic, or protest and leave the church.

I pray that’s not the case.

Actually if you evaluate your conscience as not conforming to the truth of the Church - the option is not to shut up, but to kneel down. The Gospel is preached for repentance not censorship. We should never shut up and stop saying that we are sorry for all the offences that we give to God. Let us not be quiet but contrite.

Recently I have been thinking about those who dissent from the Church always bringing up the idea of married priests and women priests. They usually state that their goal is make the Mass more available and that we need more priests to keep the circumstances from worsening.

I observed that in the cases of all the articles I have read by people advocating married priests that never once have I heard them call for married nuns and brothers. Why is this? Is not the response to vocations even worse among religious sisters and brothers. If married priests are a cure all then why not married religious sisters and brothers. Are they so unconcerned with the state of the praying Church? All Martha and no Mary? In all the web sites I have seen by these groups that advocate for married priests I have not seen a prayer for vocations. Why is prayer so downplayed and advocacy for their causes encouraged. When it comes to consecrated religious life do they realize that marriage is not something that is truly compatible to the religious life of living in convents and monasteries? If they can realize that then why can't they see the life of a priest which is totally given to God and his own parishioners as being in most cases incompatible with normal family life.

I also find it ironic that the call for women's ordination is justified to increase the availability of the Mass The reality is that it would only increase the availability of illicit Masses with no consecration of the Eucharist. Many of the efforts of progressives have not increased availability of the Eucharist, but have decreased it. Recipes for altar bread that cause the elements not to be consecrated. Playing around with the words of consecration. Quick, name me a progressive diocese that has steadily increased vocations? I know that's a tough one, but naming a diocese that is faithful to Church teaching that has increased vocations and even built new seminaries is not. Name a convent of religious sisters where progressive ideas became the norm that is now larger today than it was in the sixties? Sorry time expired.

Lord Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father and Mary Immaculate, grant to our young people the generosity necessary to follow Your call and the courage required to overcome all obstacles to their vocation. Give their parents that faith, love and spirit of sacrifice which will inspire them to offer their children to God1s service and to rejoice whenever one of their children is called to the priesthood or religious life. Let Your example and that of Your blessed Mother and Saint Joseph encourage both young people and parents and let Your grace sustain them. Amen.

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration yesterday announced it will withhold a $34 million payment from the United Nations Population Fund to China over the issue of forced abortions.

The Communist government of China maintains, at least in some areas of the country, a one-child policy sometimes enforced through a policy of forced abortions. It is believed China performs some 10 million involuntary abortions a year.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.S. is the world's largest donor to health programs for women and children, to the tune of $1.8 billion this year, of which over $400 million is for reproductive health and family planning.
(source)

Well that is good news since reproductive health really only means no reproduction and anything but health to the baby.

In other news Moloch posts on what he considers good news.

For the third week now Jamie Blosser has been giving us a heads up on the Mass readings for Sunday through the eyes of St. Augustine. Highly recommended. This weeks installment.

Here is an introductory history on Carmel wrote about a year and a half ago which appeared on the now defunct Our Lady of Lorreto Carmelite Chapel blog.

The Carmelite Order is unique among orders since the founding of the start of the order is shrouded in history. Every other order that I know of you can point to a founder or founders as to the establishment of that religious order. The names of the various orders have been chosen by the founders themselves or were later named based on the founders. It does not take long to discover who the founders of the Dominicans, Benedictines, Franciscans are but the Carmelites are a different story.

The Crusades were in a period of time from 1095-1291 and were conducted mainly to free the Holy Lands from Islamic control. The majority of the people in the crusades contrary to the modern view were pious landowners who joined the crusades in order to free the Holy Lands. Many of them already had significant land ownings and were not seeking more wealth in conquest. These men were betrayed in multiple occasions by some men among their leaders who used the Crusades as a front for power.

I can well imagine the disillusionment of some of these crusaders. The vocation of a soldier is an important one when conducted to save lives and to protect others. The vocation of the contemplative life is an even higher calling especially when souls are saved and protected. The history of the Carmelites contains many instances of military men coming into the order. During the time period of Third Crusades some of these crusaders and pilgrims started to live on the western slope of Mount Carmel. We do not have any details as to who these first men were or how many of them there were. Somewhere around 1150 or a bit earlier these settlements must have occurred since from historical documents we have no mention of hermits much earlier than this.

Mount Carmel resonates with the history of the Old Testament and there was no greater prophet than St. Elijah in the history of Mt. Carmel. We can imagine the influence that mighty figure had on those who first lived in hermitage there. St. Elijah was a great model of both prayer and action. Around 1190 these Christian hermits living on Mt. Carmel constructed and dedicated their first chapel to Our Lady, demonstrating the important Marian character of the Order from the beginning. Carmelite spirituality has seen the small cloud that appeared at St. Elijah's beckoning to end the three years of drought as a sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The ruins of this chapel still stand today. These hermits became known as the Brothers of St. Mary of Mt. Carmel.

From historic documents all that is know is of a prior with the initial "B", this person has normally been attributed as Berthold. Unfortunately much of Carmelite history is mixed with pious traditions and little historical basis. What we do know is that this Prior went to St. Albert of Jerusalem in the year 1206 to have a rule drawn up and to petition Rome for the acceptance of this new order. We do not know how much of this first rule was written by St. Albert or how much might have been contributed by then prior of this community. The Rule of St. Albert is a wondrous document which is both simple and direct but also contains greats depths pertaining to living the monastic life. Reforms of the order most always looked back at this document as a starting point and the rules written today also reflect much from to this document. This rule can be summarized as:

* Each hermit is to live in a cave or cell of his own.

* They are to spend their time meditating on the word of God and watching in prayer, unless other duties require their attention.

* Every morning they are to come together to celebrate the Eucharist.

* All they possess is to be held in common and distributed to each according to his age and needs.

* At least once a week, they are to come together to discuss the observance of the main points of the Rule and what concerns the salvation of their souls. This is the time to draw attention to any fault, be it in an individual or in the community as a whole, with a view to its correction.

* They are to be austere in their eating habits: no meat at any time, a fast from the Exaltation of the Holy Cross to Easter. It was accepted that delicate health, illness or any just cause could excuse one from the fast or abstinence, as necessity knows no law.

* The Patriarch then goes on to exhort them to live by faith, hope and charity and never to forget that life is an ongoing battle. Their whole energy must be directed, he said, towards loving God above everything else and loving their neighbor as themselves; and they were to look to the Lord alone for their salvation.

* Work, something essential in the whole monastic tradition,is to be an integral part of their way of life. Following the example of St. Paul, it can be a means of earning their livelihood as well as a means of avoiding idleness - the occasion of so many temptations.

* If they are to ponder God's law day and night, then silence is indispensable. During the day they must avoid all unnecessary speech and at night - from Vespers till Terce next morning - all communication is forbidden.

* Should anyone wish to do even more than is required here, concludes Albert, he may do so, and the Lord will reward him when he comes. Let everything be done with that moderation which is the hallmark of all true virtue.

The Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel was officially recognized by the church in 1222 by Pope Honorius III who approved the rule given by Saint Albert. These original Carmelites attempted in their mode of dress to approximate that of what St. Elijah wore. This was a long black tunic reaching to the ground, girded by a leather belt. Over this they wore a a cloak in imitation of Elijah's mantle. They also added a cowl in initiation of European religious dress. Attached to this cowl was two pieces of cloth which hung down to the knees. This scapular was a practical addition which was used to protect the monk's habit while they worked, but it was to become an article of deep religious significance in the Carmelite Tradition.

These first Carmelites spent most of their time in prayer but would come off the mountain at times to preach and to involve themselves in charitable endeavors. Over time living on Mt. Carmel became increasing difficult. Moslems invaded the community in 1263 and vandalized the small chapel at wadi 'ain es-sich without destroying it. Pope Urban IV granted an indulgence to whomever would contribute to the restoration of this chapel and in 1264 this chapel was restored and enlarged. In 1291 with the fall of Acre this put a end for the time being of the Carmelite Order being able to stay on Mt. Carmel.

Zagreb - Croatia has adopted tough new zero-tolerance drink-driving laws in a bid to curb road accidents, the HINA news agency reported on Friday.

Parliament adopted a bill late on Thursday introducing zero blood-alcohol tolerance, abolishing the previous threshold of 0.05 percent.

The law will come into effect on August 20 at the end of the tourist season.

It also set strong fines of up to 3 000 kunas (about R3 100) for those caught driving while under the influence.

The conservative government tightened the drink-driving rules in the face of opposition complaints that the zero-tolerance policy could impact negatively on the booming tourism industry.

Even the influential Catholic church called for a compromise solution of 0.03 percent or the exemption of priests, arguing that they have to imbibe wine as part of their work.
[source]

FRONT ROYAL, Va., July 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president, Human Life International, is calling for the excommunication of Calliopa Pearlette Louisy, governor-general of Saint Lucia. On April 30, 2004, Louisy sanctioned the legalization of abortion in St. Lucia by formally assenting to Clause 166 of the revised Criminal Code.

Despite widespread opposition, Clause 166 was passed by Parliament on Feb. 17, 2004. The measure legalized abortion in cases of rape or incest and to protect the mother's health or life. "Louisy has essentially legalized abortion on demand in St. Lucia," stated Father Euteneuer. "Apparently she's changed religions-from the God of Jesus Christ to the goddess of choice."

"While Louisy's office as governor-general is largely ceremonial, she, like King Baudoin of Belgium, could have refused to recognize the law and abortion would not be legal in St. Lucia" explained Euteneuer. "Instead of remaining true to her faith, Governor-General Louisy betrayed the poorest of the poor by assenting to her government's crime against humanity."

According to Louisy's own testimony at the United Nations the incidence of child physical and sexual abuse in St. Lucia quadrupled from 1997 to 2002. During this same period, HIV/AIDS rates rose 14 percent among children under age 20-with 92 percent of these cases being girls between 15 and 19. As one of St. Lucia's Carnival Queen finalists recently acknowledged, "The sad thing is most of these teenagers are pregnant for older men and they fail to realize until it is too late that these men are only seeking to prey on their innocence and vulnerability." Commented Euteneuer, "By signing Clause 166 into law, Louisy is not protecting children or furthering women's rights, she is shielding child molesters."

Pro-lifers in St. Lucia believe Parliament passed the law over the strenuous protests of St. Lucia's Catholic population in all probability to secure development of a luxury hotel that will double as an abortion mill. The government has repeatedly refused to explain the connection between its legalization of abortion and its backing for the abortion resort.
[source]

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam reports:

A brief statement by William Lacy Clay, Jr re:Meeting with Archbishop Burke
On radio station KTRS 550AM this afternoon during the drive time local news update, Representative Clay indicated that his meeting with Archbishop Burke went well and they are going to continue to meet. The first meeting, he said, was a religious moment, more of a religious meeting. Neither party is discussing the details of the meeting.

This is good news in that Rep. Clay and Archbishop Burke are going to continue to talk and to meet again.

Previously Rep. Clay had said:

Clay has said that Burke "has gone too far" by saying that Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should not receive Communion and that voters who support them should go to confession before receiving the sacrament.

He said Burke was delving into politics and perhaps the church should surrender its nonprofit status.

This latest statement sounds hopeful so please pray for Rep. Clay and Archbishop Burke that further talks will open him up to grace and the truth of the dignity of all human life regardless of it's size.

This reminds me of the story of Ahab and Elijah in 1st Kings 21:

Ahab said to Eli'jah, "Have you found me, O my enemy?" He answered, "I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD. Behold, I will bring evil upon you; I will utterly sweep you away, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; and I will make your house like the house of Jerobo'am the son of Nebat, and like the house of Ba'asha the son of Ahi'jah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have made Israel to sin.And of Jez'ebel the LORD also said, `The dogs shall eat Jez'ebel within the bounds of Jezreel.' Any one belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and any one of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat." (There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jez'ebel his wife incited. He did very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the people of Israel.) And when Ahab heard those words, he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. And the word of the LORD came to Eli'jah the Tishbite, saying, "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son's days I will bring the evil upon his house."

So if good truly does come of this I wonder where the critics of the "harsh and intolerant" Archbishop Burke will be? Have you ever heard of someone repenting because their Bishop was uncomfortable or did not want to place people in tough situations?

SAN FRANCISCO - Ebay founder and billionaire Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pamela, contributed $1 million to the well-heeled campaign supporting Proposition 71, which would make $3 billion available for human embryonic stem cell research in California.

The campaign has raised more than $7 million since last year, much of it coming from Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

Omidyar is Ebay's chairman and founder of the philanthropic Omidyar Foundation, which donates roughly $3 million annually to a wide range of organizations. Efforts to reach Omidyar through his publicists late Wednesday were unsuccessful.

An association of California Roman Catholic churches has raised less than $50,000, said spokeswoman Carol Hogan.

"This is going to be a real David versus Goliath fight," Hogan said.

The church and other groups opposed to abortion also are opposed to the stem cell work because days-old embryos are destroyed during research. Some feminist groups also oppose the research because they fear some women may be exploited because researchers rely heavily on donated eggs.

If passed in November, the $3 billion bond would make nearly $300 million available annually for 10 years to California researchers at state schools and biotech companies. That's 10 times greater than the amount of money currently available to stem cell researchers through the federal government and private foundations such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The California initiative, if passed, would forbid the cloning of embryos to make babies, but would permit it to create stem cells in labs. Scientists believe cloning stem cells would help reduce immune rejection problems in people. The measure would prohibit funding for research that involves the destruction of embryos older than 12 days.
[Full Story]

I believe that when they refer to the Catholic Church raising less than #50,00 they are referring to the group Doctors, Patients and Taxpayers for Fiscal Responsibility which the California Catholic Conference has been meeting with. They are raising funds to oppose this ballot initiative.

The group promoting the initiative has a website, Cures for California, which contains misleading "facts" and neglects to mention embryos or embryonic stem cells or cloning-other than "reproductive" cloning. That may be because the initiative itself does not mention those words, but instead uses "progenitor cells" to identify embryos and "somatic cell nuclear transfer" to describe cloning when the cloned embryo will be destroyed for research (source).

Of course it is not surprise the amount of deception used to tried to promote this initiative. The majority of venture capitalists and biotech firms putting money into this will in turn profit from it. This is what this initiative entails.

* Sets up a costly new bureaucracy, with no legislative oversight, that will dole out $3 billion in taxpayers money;

* Exempts the recipients of these tax dollars from California's Open Meeting laws when they deem it appropriate;

* Requires a 70 percent vote of the Legislature before our elected representatives can exercise budgetary oversight of how these funds are spent;

* Funds cloning of human embryos, but disingenuously calls the procedure "somatic cell nuclear transfer"—the scientific term—in order to obscure the reality.

* Allows this new bureaucracy to re-write California's medical Informed Consent regulations;

* Forbids the Governor from exercising oversight of the new bureaucracy's spending practices; and

* Amends the California constitution to empower its sponsors in perpetuity and prevent our elected representatives from oversight.

And you wonder why the embryo is okay to kill before 12 days of life but not after? Does the unique property of human dignity descend upon it on the 13th day? Is it only the mater of squeamishness and not wanting to have it look too much like a more developed human being? Our laws on life are just totally incoherent and it is just getting worse. Abortion is fine by them but not destroying embryos over 12 days of age.

I found this quote at a blog called Our Lady's Gift

“Every sermon should be an agony of the soul, a passion to beget Christ in the souls of men.” — John Chrysostom

Well I have sometimes found the first part of this statement reflected, but not necessarily the second part.

Well the FMA vote went pretty much along party lines.

FIrst off thanks to those Democrats that did vote for it:

Byrd (D-WV)
Miller (D-GA)
Nelson (D-NE)

And even Arlen Specter (R-PA)

And a big wet RINO strawberry to the following:

Chafee (R-RI)
Collins (R-ME)
McCain (R-AZ)
Snowe (R-ME)
Sununu (R-NH)

And of course we also have the decisive leadership of:
Kerry (D-MA), Not Voting
Edwards (D-NC), Not Voting

Sen. Sununu was reported as undecided previously, which I knew meant. I am voting against it but don't want to tell you right now. Sen McCain continues to be a disappointment.

Welcome a commenter of mine to the blogosphere, Rob of Crusader of Justice. I got a chance to do some more tinkering with CSS by designing most of the Movable Type template for him. Each time I help to do another site it helps me to learn new capabilities and to experiment with design ideas and for a code geek like me it is fun.

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On two separate occasions Catholics on retreat at a parish in Jacksonville, Florida, have reported remarkable images in and around exposition of the large Host known as the Blessed Sacrament.

The events were recorded at St. Joseph's Church in the Mandarin area of the city and join a growing number of reports concerning Eucharistic phenomena from around the world -- as if to remind that world of the True Presence.

A few days ago we reported the spiritual benefits of adoration in front of the Host and quoted a woman who claimed to see a radiant mist in connection with it. The phenomena often go beyond that, to reports of details and visual effects witnessed -- as in the case of Jacksonville -- by dozens of people.

The events began on November 6, 1999, and were also witnessed by priests, including Father Bernard Ahern, a retired Navy chaplain who recounted that in the midst of the retreat -- the middle of Saturday afternoon -- a woman came into the room "hysterically" crying that she had seen Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, which was exposed during the retreat.

"I then went into the chapel myself to find out what was happening, and I, also, saw the Face of Jesus in the Eucharist," the priest told two chroniclers of the events, who produced a booklet on the occurrences. "The color of the image was a sepia color, a light brown and white. There were many other people who also saw Him. I was skeptical and thought that there might be some shadows in the back of the monstrance, or light in front of it causing the image. But I found no basis for this after checking the surrounding area, and realized I saw what I saw."
[Full Story]

I heard about this after it originally happened. The Pastor of my parish, Fr. Leon, told our Carmelite group about it. The two priests involved had contacted him after it happened and he had asked them why they hadn't notified the Bishop during the almost hour that it was observed. He told us that the priest felt rather foolish for not calling the Bishop immediately. This happened in the chapel of what was the older Church built before there new Church was built. They are still maintaining the older Church since it is part of the grounds where they have a school. Even though this is pretty close to where I live I have never visited their previous Chapel. While I found the story interesting and relying on my pastor's opinion to be credible, I don't worry about following signs. That Jesus is in the Eucharist is already something I firmly believe and I would prefer to rely on the eyes of faith.

Fr. Leon also told us that one of the people there that he talked to was upset that his wife who is a convert saw it and that he as a cradle Catholic did not. I would hope that I myself would not react that way. That hopefully I would rejoice in a visible sign given my wife and to rejoice that perhaps God thought that my faith was strong enough with out it.

Earl blogs on the Republican rift and the FMA.

Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights organization, said "moderate and reasonable" Republicans such as Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, oppose the amendment.

In that case, Please give me an immoderate and unreasonable Republican any day.

Google's mail system Gmail, which offers 1 gigabyte of storage space, is still in public beta. Watching Tech TV yesterday I found out that these GMAIL accounts were being auctioned for between $20 and $80 dollars by people who currently have accounts. Since Google owns blogger.com they offered some blogspot bloggers (1 in 20) an account. I created one before and now I am allowed to invite three people to have their own accounts. So if you are interested I will give away those accounts to the first three people that email me here requesting them.

Update: There are gone now.

This man seems to be going in the opposite direction of the man in the post below it.

Here is an interesting story about at transitional deacon who was raised an atheist, found faith through an American Indian religion, then Protestantism, into the Catholic Church, back into Protestantism as an Episcopalian, and then back to the Church.

“You never know what God has in mind for you,” he smiled. “But it’s always good when you say yes to it.”

A pastor in Denmark’s state Lutheran Protestant Church who caused a stir last year by saying he did not believe in God will face an ecclesiastic court to explain himself, the Justice Ministry said.

The court, consisting of one judge and two theologists, will decide whether pastor Thorkild Grosboell’s declarations were incompatible with his position as pastor.
[Full Story]

I think what is even more ridiculous than the atheist pastor is two theologians trying to determine if his declarations were incomparable with his being a pastor.

Matt C. Abbot has a good column on men and abortion.

There are many pitfalls when you are both a Christian and a pundit. It is too easy to lose sight of the purpose of any argumentation or fisking on a subject. Scoring rhetorical points can override defending and trying to make known the truth. We can toss up lines like "hate the sin, but love the sinner", but it is quite another matter to not mix up the two on a day-to-day basis. Self-righteousness is the briar patch that it is all to easy to fall to when your are criticizing the actions or beliefs of others. I have heard that converts such as myself are especially susceptible to the dark side of radical traditionalism where Masonic plots dot the landscape. It is easy to get frustrated seeing liturgical abuses, but we must give all our trust in the Lord that he is guiding his Church and where there are problems that we do what we can to remove them. I think a useful Gospel passage from Luke 18 is always a god thing to meditate on, especially for those defending the faith.

"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, `God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, `God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

When viewing this highly secularized culture via the eyes of faith it is easy to see all of the sicknesses and problems that the culture of death produces. We can see those without faith as the proverbial "them" instead of a brother in need of the Gospel. We can grow outraged at headlines, articles, news stories and have anger towards those involved. While righteous anger over sin is good, it is worthless if not basked in charity and backed up by prayer and in some cases action. John the Baptist preached the message of repentance and was a pundit when it came to the marriage of Herod the tetrarch. But first he was rooted in asceticism and prayer and probably spent much time as a hermit in prayer before engaging the public. Jesus often had harsh words for hypocrites and others and over and over again he goes away to pray.

Prayer is the very foundation that has to be built first if we truly want to evangelize others and to spread the truth. I am no prayer warrior (still in prayer boot camp actually) but I know the dangers of punditry without prayer. When you are not praying and meditating daily it is too easy to become uncharitable. First reflect on your own sin before raising your gaze to others. I work to start each day with the Liturgy of the Hours, spiritual reading, prayer, and meditation before the first electron buzzes around in my computer. There have been times when I was slothful in that habit and I noticed the negative effects it had on my days. There have been posts that I have started by not finished because I realized that they crossed the line from charity into something else. The same thing happens sometimes with items I posted where later I revised them to be more in conformance of charity. Parody and sarcasm can sometimes be useful tools to illustrate a point, but prudence has to be used to prevent them from slipping into what I call sarcaustic comments.

In some ways spending most of my life as an atheist has helped me prepare in my writings and judgments. That I now have faith is something I see only as pure gift. I thought throughout my life that I had been seeking the truth when actually it was the opposite and truth was seeking me. Who am I to judge as to when someone might come to faith. Whether it is in the morning, midday, or end of life that someone comes to faith I can do nothing but rejoice. In Matthew 20 it says:

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place; and to them he said, `You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, `Why do you stand here idle all day?' They said to him, `Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, `You go into the vineyard too.' And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, `Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.' And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the householder, saying, `These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' But he replied to one of them, `Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?' So the last will be first, and the first last."

So if someone yet has no faith then I can only pray that they come to it and that nothing in my words or actions will harden them to God's grace. What would pundits have said about a pre-conversion St. Paul? Well we do know that they were quite suspicious of Saul's sudden conversion. But this conversion of his into a new life started with prayers of St. Stephen as he was being stoned to death. And if somebody has faith but their actions do not yet reflect it; we can remember Peter before and after Pentecost and pray for the Holy Sprit to come down upon them. Reading multiple stories and news sources should provide plenty of opportunity to spark the practice of intercessory prayer. If we can go through a day's reading and not pray for someone during that time then we really need to reevaluate our attitude. Again I am speaking of the voice of some experience with multiple failures in this area.

An examination of conscience for pundits.

When we are complaining about our Bishop, first are we praying for them?
When we complain about the dearth of vocations, are we praying to the Lord of the Harvest to provide.
When we complain about the heretical views of Catholic politicians, do we also remember them in our prayers.
When a priest falls or seems to be preaching other than the true faith, are we praying for them?
For those faithful clergy and lay people are we praying to support them and thanking them when able?
When we complain about the destruction of the family our we also praying with and for our families?

*This post is part othe Christian Carnival that Karen Marie Knapp of From the Anchor Hold is hosting this week on the 14th of July.

Mark Winsor has a list of Catholic Senators opposed to the Federal Marriage amendment. Please contact your representatives on this issue. It seems that they are not getting a volume of interest on this subject.

Via Kathy Jean Lopez a the Corner.

THAT Teresa Heinz Kerry surprised and worried some of the 1,000 guests at Friday morning's Women for Kerry breakfast when she looked out at the crowd and said, "We had better get you women some birth control, there are so many of you here!" Yikes.

That is a pretty telling remark for the culture of death.

During a reversal, the main field weakens, almost vanishes, then reappears with opposite polarity. Afterward, compass needles that normally point north would point south, and during the thousands of years of transition, much in the heavens and Earth would go askew.
[Full Story]

I wonder if John Kerry has anything to do with the Earth's magnetic field flip-flopping? Well he doesn't exactly have a magnetic personality, so probably not. In fact if a compass was based on his magnetism it would probably point both north and south at the same time.

Dawn of The Dawn Patrol had some kind things to say about my blog the other day and I am more than willing to return the compliment. Her headlines alone appeal to a punning pundit such as myself and the commentary is also excellent. Her latest Pop Smear is right on target in the it's-all-about-me attitude of those using children for social commentary.

Pastor Barry Mayson of Heaven's Saints Motorcycle Ministry
shakes Hope Phillips' hand Sunday at Victory in Truth Ministries,
where Mayson blessed bikers and their motorcycles.

The preacher, clad in leather motorcycle attire, looked out at the congregation and promised to give the group a "Heaven of a time."

The pastor was former Hell's Angel Barry Mayson, the evangelist who founded the Heaven's Saints Motorcycle Ministry, based in Johnson City, Tenn.

Mayson was at the Victory in Truth Ministries church on Ohio 4 for the "First Annual Bikers' Sunday and Bike Blessing" held Sunday.

More than 50 bikers from clubs around Ohio went to the altar, where they were anointed by Mayson.

The event was organized by Pastor Bernie France, who heads up the Chariots of Light Christian Bikers and is the church's motorcycle minister.

While Mayson anointed the bikers, Victory in Truth Pastor J.C. Church prayed with the congregation that the bikers use their motorcycles as tools to celebrate and teach people of God's love.

He asked God to supply "guardian angels" for the road soldiers.

Mayson told the story of how he came into the ministry and shared some serious stories of his experience in motorcycle gangs.

Pointing to a tattoo on one arm that said "Born Again," he said he was almost killed by fellow gang members when he refused to kill some prominent rival gang members.

When he refused, he said the leader reminded him that there was no way out of the Hell's Angels, and that a true Angel would wring his own baby's throat.

"He said, 'You'd kill your own child.' I said, 'You're nuts,' " Mayson said.

He was able to run out of the room and get away until a few days later he got cornered in a restaurant.

"I called my mama and said, 'I just quit the Hell's Angels,' " Mayson said.

At that moment he prayed, promising he would give his life to Christ if he could survive.
[Full Story]

Elena of My Domestic Church posts a story about "Spiderman II" beating "Fahrenheit 9/11." As many pundits predicted that the audience would be heavily front loaded with "Hate Bush" supporters and to dissipate rather rapidly after the first week. In fact it has grossed less than Dodgeball and a little bit more than White Chicks. Not quite the Passion for liberals.

Though I do think thre are parallels between ole spidey and Mr. Moore. Michael Moore spins a web of deceit. In this case spin can be used in both of its meanings. Another similarity is I think that Mr. Moore suffers from Iraqnophobia. Also in Mr. Moore's case with great media power come great irresponsibility. The parallels will stop there as to not slander our eight legged friends or those who serve in spandex.

FUNSEEKERS in central Portugal will have no excuse for missing mass this summer - a local bishop is planning to hold services at some of the region's most popular beaches, the weekly Expresso has reported.

"Rest should not be empty time. Leisure only makes sense when it serves as a time for personal enrichment," Bishop Antonio Marcelino of the central port city of Aveiro told the weekly.

He added the initiative would "permit, during a time when people are more relaxed, a more serene reflection about life."

Weekly services will be offered in August at four beaches located near Aveiro, some 250km north of Lisbon, as well as at a popular nearby spa, he said.

Beaches are at their busiest in Portugal in August, traditionally the month when most Portuguese take their summer holidays.
[Full Story]

Redemptionis Sacramentum says:

[108.] “The celebration of the Eucharist is to be carried out in a sacred place, unless in a particular case necessity requires otherwise. In this case the celebration must be in a decent place.”[197] The diocesan Bishop shall be the judge for his diocese concerning this necessity, on a case-by-case basis.

Well I guess afterwards to raise money they could have beach blanket bingo.

Bishop Marcelino is considered to be one of Portugal's most liberal Roman Catholic officials, having argued in the past that the Vatican should consider the possibility of ordaining women as priests.

Here is a letter from Bishop Victor Galeone of St. Augustine.

In 1962 Archbishop Joseph Rummel of New Orleans excommunicated Judge Leander Perez for attempting to block the desegregation of the school system in the archdiocese. The mainstream and liberal media applauded the archbishop’s action. Racists and segregationists attacked him vehemently. How dare he try to impose his sectarian views on those who held a different opinion on how the schools should be integrated?

In recent months, several Catholic bishops have issued directives forbidding the Eucharist to Catholic politicians who support abortion-on-demand. The media has been quick to respond with scurrilous editorial cartoons and commentaries, castigating those bishops for breaching the wall between church and state. How dare they try to impose their sectarian morality on the rest of the nation?

How does one respond to these charges? First, one should bear in mind that the right to life is not a sectarian Catholic issue – like celibacy for priests or meatless Fridays during Lent. It is a fundamental moral attribute of our humanity. We possess this right not from the state, not from the church, but from God himself. The founders of our nation acknowledged as much when they declared to the British monarch: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (emphasis mine)

Second, the right to life is the foundation of all our other rights. Just as a building without a foundation will ultimately collapse, so too, every other right we enjoy will crumble unless buttressed by this most basic right of all. So a politician of whatever or no religious persuasion at all is bound to respect the right to life of others, including incipient life in the womb.

“But the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that one cannot be sure when human life begins.” That assertion was disingenuous on the part of Justice Harry Blackmun. It’s embryology, not theology, that asserts: “Development is a continuum that begins when an ovum is fertilized by a sperm and ends at death. All the genetic information of the human adult is already present in that single combined cell, the zygote, which definitely marks the beginning of a new individual.” All that is needed for development is time and nourishment, the same components needed by a newborn child.

“Can an avid proponent of abortion-on-demand be at the same time a Catholic in good standing with the church?” I answer that question by asking another: Can an avowed racist be a member in good standing of the NAACP? For similar reasons, there are some positions so extreme that they would bar one from being considered a good Catholic, not because a specifically Catholic teaching is being denied, but because a basic tenet of the natural law is being trashed. As members of the human family, we must obey the natural law, written on our hearts: “You shall not take an innocent life.”

“Are you implying that Holy Communion should be denied to Catholic candidates who espouse abortion-on-demand?” I would hope that those candidates who consistently vote in support of abortion have enough integrity to willingly exclude themselves from receiving the Eucharist. After all, they are supporting a procedure for which the church reserves the penalty of excommunication for those directly involved. Besides, consider what St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:27: “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in any unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.”

“What about Catholic politicians who support the death penalty? Shouldn’t they refrain from receiving Holy Communion too?” According to church teaching, the state has the right to protect its citizens from unjust aggressors through use of the death penalty. However, at present the church stresses that non-lethal means – namely life-imprisonment – are more in keeping with human dignity, thus making reasons for recourse to the death penalty almost non-existent. Still, the church does not deny that the state continues to have the right to impose the death penalty. Furthermore, although the life issues are all interrelated, not all of them are of equal importance. In 1998, the bishops of the United States issued Living the Gospel of Life, a pastoral letter that stated categorically that the right to life carried more weight than other issues because it served as their moral foundation.

“I still feel that you bishops are meddling in politics.” Abortion is a moral, not a political issue. The United States Constitution does not prohibit a member of the cloth from addressing moral issues. If it did, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would never have achieved all the good that resulted in the area of civil rights. Besides, would not our silence be similar to that of the German clergy who looked the other way while millions of innocent citizens were being herded off to the ovens? And finally, God’s word roundly condemns anyone who tolerates evil. God commands Samuel to inform Eli that his house will be punished “because although he knew that his sons were blaspheming God, he did not reprove them” (1 Sam 3:13). A very similar message is found in the prophet Ezekiel 33:7-9. The lesson from Scripture is clear: Whoever tolerates evil becomes an accomplice in that evil.
[Source]

Not a pipe organ,a ctually it was his liver which he donated to someone he read about in the newspaper. I guess in this case the priest's sacrifice livered someone from evil.

Six weeks after taking office, Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo is reshaping the Diocese of Richmond to bring it into close conformity with the policies of Pope John Paul II and orthodox Catholic teaching.

That intention is most obvious with DiLorenzo’s announcement last month that no one can be invited by parishes as a guest speaker without first being approved by the diocesan theologian, a post re-established by the bishop.

The bishop has also decided not to reactivate the diocesan “sexual minorities” commission that had advised former Bishop Walter F. Sullivan on gay and lesbian concerns.

Additionally, DiLorenzo removed a Virginia Beach woman from the diocesan women’s commission because her support for ordaining women as priests conflicted with the Vatican’s policy of restricting the priesthood to men.

DiLorenzo was appointed by the pope to succeed Sullivan, who ended a 29-year tenure as bishop last year after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. The new bishop took over the Richmond diocese, which includes 64,000 members in South Hampton Roads, on May 24.

... But DiLorenzo has also assigned Smith responsibility for ensuring that no one who deviates from Catholic doctrine is invited by a church group or parish to lead a retreat, hold a workshop or give a guest lecture “on Catholic property.”
[Full Story]

Looks like the new bishop has been pretty busy, and judging by the state of that diocese that the previous bishop left it in he has his work cut out for him. The idea of outside speakers being vetted first sounds like an extremely sensible idea that I would like to see instituted by other diocese. As he says this will totally prevent the problems and media attention when some speaker must be dis-invited.

The proposed resolution came in response to the NAACP's recent endorsement of abortion rights.

Grier also is a member of Life Education And Resource Network, or LEARN, a pro-life African-American group which charged the NAACP with censorship for barring the resolution.

"Each day 1,452 Afro-American women are victimized by the abortion industry -- 81 percent of those women register some type of psychological complaint, said Rev. Clenard H. Childress, Jr., director of LEARN. "The NAACP's refusal to allow this resolution is nothing less than censorship. The present leadership is charting a course without a moral compass."

Childress said the NAACP has "made decisions without consensus or caucus."

...African-American women make up 13.7 percent of the U.S. population of women of childbearing age, yet the abortion rate among black women is three times higher than of white women, the group says. For every five African-American women that get pregnant, three will abort.
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This is one reason why I am glad that President Bush will not speak at the NAACP convention. It is hard to figure out why the NAACP are such pro-abortion zealots. It would seem to me that if some of your ancestors were once declared property and being only 3/5 human that they might be sensitive to the plight of the unborn where the same thing has happened. That they would keep far away from a group like Planned Parenthood which was founded by the racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger. Yet the opposite is true. If you place more abortion clinics in neighborhoods mainly inhabited by poor blacks you are doing a service to the community, not trying to wipe out "human weeds" as Margaret Sanger put it. The Dred Scott decision and Roe v. Wade are but two legal peas in a pod where the rights of a whole group of people are given to someone else's will. Master/Slave or Mother/Child you are only a person if the one above you deems that you are. Some slaves were freed from the plantation and allowed to live elsewhere and some mothers allow their child to live apart from the placenta. If a slave master killed their slave that was their right under law. If a mother kills her child that is her right under law.

As I once quipped with a slogan for Planned Parenthood, "Keeping Minorities - Minorities." And maybe the Supreme Court's slogan should be "Dehumanizing people for over two hundred years."

On the 6th of July CNS reported:

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington said July 6 that the leaked text of a recent memo he received from a top Vatican official, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, on Catholic politicians and abortion appeared to be "an incomplete and partial leak" not reflecting "the full message I received."

They also later reported:

The text of Cardinal Ratzinger's memorandum was published online July 3 by the Italian magazine L'Espresso, and a Vatican official said it was authentic. But it apparently was accompanied by a cover letter that has not been published.

Now as Jamie Blosser expertly noted at CKW the many differences between the actual letter by Cardinal Ratzinger and the summary as given by Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick. Since the Cardinal has said that the letter was incomplete we wondered what might have been in the cover letter that led the Cardinal to his summary. The Curt Jester is proud to give you a world exclusive on what was in the cover letter.

From Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion. General Principles Included with this cover letter are my recommendations about those who are in manifest grave sin receiving the most Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. On the eve of your general assembly in Denver I hope that this will will provide a basis for your actions involving this issue. I would like to give you a warning that my letter is based both on current Canon Law, scripture and tradition. This may not be palatable to some and might involve resentment. To try to prevent such problems I have instituted a new rating system on official documents. If denying communion to those who publicly persist in sin makes you uncomfortable and you feel that my statements do not give you pastoral flexibility then I hope you will understand the meaning of the phrases involved. For example "should" does not mean "could" when speaking to the press on this letter. The phrase "must refuse to distribute it" should not become "there are circumstances in which Holy Communion may be denied." The Holy See has repeatedly expressed its confidence in our roles as bishops and pastors. The question for us is not simply whether denial of Communion is possible, but whether it is pastorally wise and prudent. I believe that it is and is necessary to both save souls and to prevent scandal to the faithful. I encourage you to take my letter into serious advisement in the development of your policy. In other words don't make me come down there. With gratitude for your assistance and with prayerful best wishes I remain, Sincerely yours in Christ, +Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Lane Core Jr. asks "Why is it important to have Catholics in public life if, once there, they're no different from anybody else?"

Unfortunately most modern politicians who advertise themselves as Catholics are martyrs in reverse. The word martyr means witness and regardless of the mindless justifications that come out of their mouths their actions are anything but a witness to the faith. John Kerry's recent quote as saying that "life begins at conception" reminds me of Jesus' parable of the two sons. The one who did what the father asked was the one that was obedient and not the one who only said they would do it but didn't.

WINONA, Minn. - Diocese of Winona Bishop Bernard Harrington said in a statement that any Roman Catholic who supports abortion rights defies church teachings and should not receive Holy Communion.

"It is time we recognize that morality and ethics -- not our political parties -- determine what we believe," Harrington wrote in the July edition of the Courier, the diocese's official newspaper.

Harrington's statement came weeks after a national bishops' task force he served on said bishops have the authority to deny Communion to politicians who support abortion rights.

The task force's statement, "Catholics in Political Life," was overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last month amid controversy over U.S. Sen. John Kerry's support of abortion rights. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, is Catholic.

Individual Catholics must determine whether they are worthy to receive Communion, Harrington said.

He wrote that "any Catholics who steadfastly support abortion should not come forward" for the sacrament, but he stopped short of repeating threats made by some U.S. bishops to deny Communion to Kerry or other politicians who support abortion rights.
[Source]

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ has been approved for Christian audiences – only.

The Ministry of Home Affairs revealed the restriction in response to a question by opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Teresa Kok in parliament on Tuesday.

"Does it mean that the government is going to implement a policy where movies concerning … Buddhism and Buddha could only be watched by Buddhists and movies related to Hinduism can only be watched by Hindus?" Kok asked.
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Although it has been several months since the Food and Drug Administration approved the prescription of Morning After Pills, a federal mandate has stirred controversy and ultimately lead to the resignation of two State Health Department nurses, Lenita Ackles and Linda Bell, from their posts.

The federal government currently mandates that all agencies and clinics receiving federal funds distribute MAPs.

MAPs are considered to be emergency contraceptives and are primarily used in the event of unprotected sexual intercourse, when a condom breaks or after a sexual assault.

Pills are available by prescription. The pills induce a menstrual period within two weeks of taking the dosage. During the cycle, the pill flushes the egg, which may already be fertilized, and prevents implantation.

Lenita Ackles, former Alabama Department of Public Health nursing supervisor for Calhoun, resigned on March 19 from her post after 13 years.

Ackles said she was pressured into prescribing the pills.

"I asked them what choices I had and they told me that I would either have to write up the other people who refused to prescribe the pills or be written up myself," Ackles said. "I didn't want to be written up, so I resigned."
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Robert Reich, the former U.S. labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, believes people who follow God pose a more significant threat to the modern world than terrorists do.

"Terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face," writes Reich in a column titled "Bush's God" published in the American Prospect.

Reich begins his column criticizing the Bush administration as he pushes for a liberal understanding of America's separation of church and state.

He uses the term "religious zealots" and says their problem is that "they confuse politics with private morality."

Reich concludes his column by taking aim at those who believe in God:

The great conflict of the 21st century will not be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The true battle will be between modern civilization and anti-modernists; between those who believe in the primacy of the individual and those who believe that human beings owe their allegiance and identity to a higher authority; between those who give priority to life in this world and those who believe that human life is mere preparation for an existence beyond life; between those who believe in science, reason, and logic and those who believe that truth is revealed through Scripture and religious dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face.
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And Reich confuses the Natural Law, which applies to everybody, as something totally subjective and private.

Maybe it is just me, but when I saw the photo on Drudge - good ole Alvin immediately came to mind.

The comedy of errors today in the reportage of John Kerry veep nomination continues. Originally the New York Post reported that the pick was Rep. Dick Gephardt. Then John Kerry announced that his pick was John Edwards. Contrary to media coverage he did not choose Sen. John Edwards from North Carolina of whom he had once quipped "I don't even know if John Edwards was out of diapers" His nomination was actually celebrity psychic John Edwards of the Sci-Fi channel.

Kerry's team reports that this was done to balance the ticket and provide strength in some areas that critics have said that Mr. Kerry lacks. Yesterday John Kerry told the paper, "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception." With this nomination he can now show that not only does life begin at conception but that he believes that life also continues after death. Mr. Kerry said "This is a win-win situation for me. During war time I can have John Edwards talk to FDR and JFK for me so that I can get some experienced advice. Not only can I have a great kitchen cabinet, I can have Roosevelt's kitchen cabinet if I want to. Hillary Clinton might have been able to talk to Eleanor Roosevelt previously in the White House, but I can get advice from anybody that I want. In fact I can even talk to all those friends of Bill Clinton that showed up dead. At first I had looked at Sen. Edwards since Back in 1985, he stood before a jury and channeled the words of an unborn baby girl. But he seems to have lost his psychic skills or he would never have run against me for President. So I thought 'Hey, why not go with a professional psychic?' I can even apologize to those 1.4 million aborted babies each year and can say I am sorry I couldn't do anything about that. You know I don't want to force my personal moral choices on others. In fact in my twenty years in the Senate I was so worried about forcing my morality in others that I only sponsored eight bills. Five ceremonial, two for the fishing industry, and one for small businesses for women. Only three of those passed so I have been very effective in not forcing my beliefs on others."

In reference to my post on Receiving Communion Anyways I thought I would put it into some historical context. Back in the days of King David there was also a similar campaign. A guy named Uzzah was not thrilled with the ceremonial laws regarding Ark carrying and started a campaign in protest.

This was a very short lived campaign and though not recorded I believe Uzzah's last words were "Oops!"

Mary of Ever New has a good theological reflection called Holy Communion and Sin 101

Larry of A.M.D.G. points us to a group called Catholic Action Network for Social Justice in St. Louis. Judging by the content of their site it is another social justice for everyone but those in the womb groups. In a voters guide called 10 Questions to Ask Candidates we get questions about global warming, NAFTA, repealing the Patriot Act, and of course abortion. Actually I was kidding about them including abortion. It didn't make it to their top ten lists of concerns. This is like sitting in the middle of a battlefield and complaining of the noise pollution because of the gunfire. Another common factor is that this groups is willing to quote Vatican documents as authorative when it suits them, but are also willing to advocate for women's ordination. I found this part pretty funny. Under Prophetic Witnessing they had.

during local masses (using WOC's fake dollar bills, etc.
Compiling a registry of local women called to ordination.

But what Larry had pointed to is a group of pictures that they encourage you to print out under the title "Voting Issues: More Than Abortion!!" This mention of abortion in fact is the only reference to abortion on their whole site. Their campaign is in response to Archbishop Burke strong action on denying Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

Besides them being graphically challenged this campaign shows a lot about their attitude. Their catch-phrase "Receiving Communion Anyways" sounds more like a line from the movie Dogma than a serious slogan for a Catholic group. Since Archbishop Burke Communion ban was specified for pro-abortion politicians or as he recently added actions like somebody wearing a "I support abortion" T-shirt. This group by complaining about this is saying that they support abortion even though like most "peace and justice" groups they never come right out and say it. Why complain about a Communion ban that did not apply to them?

The circular sign quotes from Vatican II's Declaration on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae). Taking this statement out of this document is like taking a Gold Fish out of it's tank. As the rest of the document shows that conscience has to be informed by the truth, and once known to submit to it and to be obedient to proper authority.

2. This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.

...It is in accordance with their dignity as persons-that is, beings endowed with reason and free will and therefore privileged to bear personal responsibility-that all men should be at once impelled by nature and also bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth, once it is known, and to order their whole lives in accord with the demands of truth However, men cannot discharge these obligations in a manner in keeping with their own nature unless they enjoy immunity from external coercion as well as psychological freedom. Therefore the right to religious freedom has its foundation not in the subjective disposition of the person, but in his very nature. In consequence, the right to this immunity continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it and the exercise of this right is not to be impeded, provided that just public order be observed.

...Wherefore every man has the duty, and therefore the right, to seek the truth in matters religious in order that he may with prudence form for himself right and true judgments of conscience, under use of all suitable means.

8. Many pressures are brought to bear upon the men of our day, to the point where the danger arises lest they lose the possibility of acting on their own judgment. On the other hand, not a few can be found who seem inclined to use the name of freedom as the pretext for refusing to submit to authority and for making light of the duty of obedience. Wherefore this Vatican Council urges everyone, especially those who are charged with the task of educating others, to do their utmost to form men who, on the one hand, will respect the moral order and be obedient to lawful authority, and on the other hand, will be lovers of true freedom-men, in other words, who will come to decisions on their own judgment and in the light of truth, govern their activities with a sense of responsibility, and strive after what is true and right, willing always to join with others in cooperative effort.

...In the formation of their consciences, the Christian faithful ought carefully to attend to the sacred and certain doctrine of the Church.(35) For the Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of the truth. It is her duty to give utterance to, and authoritatively to teach, that truth which is Christ Himself, and also to declare and confirm by her authority those principles of the moral order which have their origins in human nature itself.

And from Evangelium Vitae:

The legal toleration of abortion or of euthanasia can in no way claim to be based on respect for the conscience of others, precisely because society has the right and the duty to protect itself against the abuses which can occur in the name of conscience and under the pretext of freedom.

They even have some form letters to send to the Archbishop and to the newspaper. They all start out:

I am a faithful Catholic, and active member of my faith community.

Nice tag line from a group that supports homosexual activity, same-sex marriage and women's ordination. I wonder what their definition of a unfaithful Catholic is? Well here is what I think might be a more accurate campaign.

A reader sent me a link to a short movie at atom films called Papal Cab. The premise is a taxi driving priest who uses the cab as a confessional. I enjoyed it and thought it was done pretty well except for the momentary lapse into simony.

From an article by Joe Beck.

As a Catholic who favors abortion rights and opposes the death penalty, I came away from an interview with Bishop John D’Arcy relieved that he has no interest in starting a conflict over denying Communion to those of us who disagree with church teachings on political issues.

There is something deeply wrong when a Catholic pro-abortion reporter can come away from an interview with one of our bishops and feel relieved.

Aquinas Institute of Theology is seeking nominations for two awards: the 10th annual Great Preacher Award and the Second Annual Catherine of Siena Excellence in Ministry Award.

The school will present both awards during an evening in the recipients’ honor in October.

The Great Preacher Award honors a priest who has strengthened the Catholic community and transformed lives through powerful preaching.

The Catherine of Siena Award honors a lay minister who possesses extraordinary gifts for ministry. The recipient will have studied theology and have established herself or himself in a long-standing role as a paid minister of the Catholic Church.

Submit nominating letters to Beth Glauber, Office of Institutional Advancement, Aquinas Institute of Theology, 3642 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108.
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Bishop Gene Robinson failed the first major test of his episcopacy this past week after all but three members of a New Hampshire congregation voted to secede from the diocese rather than accept his authority as Bishop.

“We offered [the parish] 95 per cent of what they were seeking,” Bishop Robinson said. “They chose not to accept any offer, would not grant the final five percent of authority that allows the tiniest thread of relationship with their bishop.”

Redeemer’s Senior Warden Jerry DeLemus stated the parish “remained united in principle and action last night” and was “true to the authority of Holy Scripture and the Lordship of Jesus Christ”

The Rochester parish has been a sore spot in Bishop Robinson’s campaign to win over opponents in New Hampshire. The parish vicar, the Rev Donald Wilson, an opponent of his election, was dismissed for contumacy in November. Over the past six months, the congregation witnessed public confrontations between diocesan officials and traditionalists and an exodus of parishioners to other denominations and Episcopal parishes.

...A spokesman for the departing congregation, Richard Ellwood, told The Church of England Newspaper, that as a matter of conscience the parish could not accept the episcopacy of Bishop Robinson. “Because of Robinson’s unrepentant sin, the very idea that he would be ordained a priest let alone consecrated a bishop is abhorrent and a violation of canon law and Scripture.”

As a matter of conscience also, Bishop Robinson noted he could not agree to a proposal that would undercut the US House of Bishops' agreed statement on Delegated Pastoral Oversight (DEPO) and was “upholding my vows as a bishop and my responsibilities under the canons of the church”.
[Full Story]

This is a good example of the silliness of conscience without formation. A conscience that has been formed by one's likes and dislikes is not a conscience but a mirror or the ultimate yes man. The size of the congregation is like the Agatha Christie novel "Ten Little Indian", there falling faster than somebody gets murdered in a slasher film.

Credibility has a picture of Kerry and one of his greatest supporters, Moloch.

Moloch over at Moloch Now has a few things to say about the picture and about the current election.

There is a developing story about Catholic lawyer who has filed heresy charges against Sen. John Kerry with the Archdiocese of Boston. Details at Catholic? Kerry Watch.

Not one to resist a tie in to my own humor. Here is a joke I wrote on my previous blog.

A man and his servant were out in the woods sitting around a campfire when the servant noticed "Sir, you have a tick on you arm!". "Get that blasted bloated hairy thing off my arm, pluck it out!" said the master. The servant cautioned "If I pluck it out it will leave its head in arm your and it might become diseased , better to bring fire to it so that it will remove itself". "Do as you say and hurry!", the servant brought a lighted stick onto the bug. "You clumsy idiot, you have burned my arm!". Thus he became the first person in history to be burned for a hairy tick.

Update: Here is a link to the heresy charges.