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The Curt Jester

"It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it." GKC

Punditry

Abstinence and Gluttony

by Jeffrey Miller February 23, 2010February 23, 2010
written by Jeffrey Miller

The Church of St. Michael Catholic Aid Council is sponsoring an all-you-can-eat fish fry from 5-8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 19 in the lower level of Archangels Hall at the church, 16311 Duluth Ave., S.E., Prior Lake.

Lightly breaded Alaskan Pollock, macaroni and cheese, potato wedges, coleslaw, green beans, corn, homemade rolls, coffee, milk and dessert will be served. Tickets are $9 for adults, $8 for seniors (65 years and older), and $5 for children 5 to 12 years old. Kids four and under eat free.

Everyone is welcome and to-go orders will be available. For more information, contact Cheryl Dymit at (952) 440-6927. Article.

I guess “All you can moderately eat fish fry in keeping with the Lenten spirit” was too long to fit on the sign.

You have to wonder what other ironic events they hold during the year? Perhaps a Bar-B-Que on St. Lawrence’s feast day or maybe a kegger in honor of Venerable Matthew Talbot.

February 23, 2010February 23, 2010 8 comments
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Pro-life

Now for the rest of the story

by Jeffrey Miller February 23, 2010
written by Jeffrey Miller

The story today of abortionist Kermit Baron Gosnell whose clinic was shut down last night which had blood on the floor and fetuses in jars is rather scary.  Even scarier though is the information Matthew Archbold came up with on this doctor.  Only an abortionist could have a history this checkered and not be in jail.

Meanwhile some states try to have Crisis Pregnancy Centers shutdown or show special signs while the criminal organization called Planned Parenthood once again subverts the law.

February 23, 2010 1 comment
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Parody

The new L’ Osservatore Romano

by Jeffrey Miller February 21, 2010
written by Jeffrey Miller

There has been a lot of chatter in the last year about the direction the L’ Osservatore Romano has taken.   First there was the story on President Obama saying there were no radical changes in his first 100 days and no mention of his rescinding the Mexico City Policy in his first week.  Subsequently there have been other articles that have drawn criticism.  A film review of Avatar brought lots of attention along with a congratulations to The Simpson’s on their 20th anniversary.

People are wondering what is the point of all of this in the Vatican’s semi-official newspaper?  Most of this is due to the confusion of the newspaper as being an official voice for the Vatican. The film reviews and The Simpson’s congrats don’t really bother me – but now they have gone too far by releasing a list of the top ten rock and pop albums of all time:

  • The Beatles’ “Revolver”
  • Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of The Moon”
  • Oasis’ “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?”
  • Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”
  • U2’s “Achtung Baby”
  • Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”
  • Donald Fagen’s “The Nightfly”
  • Carlos Santana’s “Supernatural”
  • Paul Simon’s “Graceland”
  • David Crosby’s “If I Could Only Remember My Name.”

Now obviously this is a highly subjective list.  Though certainly the L’ Osservatore Romano does not have the charism of infallible pop picks.  I mean come on, U2’s Achtung Baby over Joshua Tree or The Beatles’ Revolver over Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band? Except for Pink Floyd’s album the other picks are questionable for my Desert Island album list.  But then again I am just a middle age head banger warped by the sixties on.

L’ Osservatore Romano really needs to write on the important things; like which is better Marvel or D.C. Comics? Better yet a papal encyclical on the subject.

Regardless I think people are going to be quite shocked at the new direction the L’ Osservatore Romano is taken.  In fact one of my readers from the Vatican City State leaked to me a cover from their next weekly issue.

L’ Osservatore Romano redone like Rolling Stone Magazine

February 21, 2010 16 comments
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Blog Announcement

Blog Move

by Jeffrey Miller February 20, 2010February 20, 2010
written by Jeffrey Miller

I have now moved over to a new server from the great folks at CyberCatholics.com along with changing my blog from my old publishing system of Movable Type to WordPress.

I have spent just about every waking moment I could spare to make this transition over the last week and a half and am quite glad to have the major stuff done and to get more than just 5 hours sleep!.  The blog theme is fairly close to the my previous blog design, but does have some new features such as including a theme to make it easier to read on a mobile phone. Plus commenting should be much better now than in the past when double-posts were common and it would not remember your logon. Plus I am implementing a rotating banner so that it will change the header banner graphic and not just display a static image.

For myself I am quite glad to get away from Movable Type as my publishing platform.  Over seven years ago when I started this blog, Movable Type was the best platform.  Over the years though I have encountered difficulties with it in that it was hard to upgrade and you always had to pray it wouldn’t kill data – though it still did anyway.  I dreaded though making the transition to another platform knowing I would face all kinds of problems.

When you have been blogging close to eight years and have accumulated around 7,000 posts and 50,000 some comments (not spam) I expected roadblocks and encountered them.  For one Movable Type would not export my whole blog and would choke after exporting around 50 megs of text.  I had to use a custom template and then spit out the contents in 25o post chunks.  Bringing this into WordPress was also problematic in that it would not take the whole file even though I had WordPress installed locally.  Right now using WordPress’s Export Tool it also won’t export my whole blog. For WordPress users I would recommend the Advanced Export Tool Plugin which gave me much more control of exports and the ability to export all of my content.

I also had to massage the data in my export file to change date formats and of course urls to media.

One thing that did make the transition easier was a program called MAMP. MAMP let me install Apache, MySQL, and PHP on my Mac within minutes and then quickly I was able to do a basic WordPress install on my harddrive.  This was great because I was able to design and fully implement my new blog without dealing with FTP or other methods on a web host provider.  It was so much easier to develop the css/php/etc files used in my theme this way and to quickly troubleshoot problems.

So far I am quite happy with WordPress since it pretty much allows me to do what I want to do and the interface is fairly easy to use.  There is also a very active plugin community and so as a geek I will enjoy looking for plugins to add to my site that I find useful.

I would also like to thank Joshua LeBlanc of CyberCatholics.com for the prompt assistance when I needed it and for welcoming my blog to his hosting.  For affordable web hosting with great service I would send you there way.

February 20, 2010February 20, 2010 10 comments
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Book Review

A Postcard from the Volcano

by Jeffrey Miller February 20, 2010February 20, 2010
written by Jeffrey Miller

Not long ago I heard Joseph Pearce recommend a novel that he put in the same league as Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. That is a pretty extravagant claim, but I trust Pearce’s literary judgment generally and so ordered A Postcard From the Volcano: A Novel of Pre-War Germany to read. I don’t have the literary skill set to be able to judge how accurate this comparison was – all I can say is that this is one of my favorite novels ever.

The novel basically starts in pre World War I Germany and follows the life of Max from boyhood on as he lives through this difficult time in history and both grows up and grows in wisdom. A great Catholic novel does not have to have hit-you-over-the-head Catholic themes, but presents the truth of the human person in a way that enables you to reflect upon it. The characters are so alive in this book, that I would have to remember that it was a book of fiction and not a historical drama based on the lives of actual persons. I wanted to be able to enter into conversations with them to both interact and to learn from them. The last page of the book brought to me a sadness in realizing that the novel was over, even though the ending was quite apt. I just did not want this book to end – which I don’t feel very often in a 500 plus page novel.

While much of the novel does not deal explicitly with Catholicism, as the story goes on those elements become more prominent at a philosophical level as the characters deal with the growing madness around them. In the midst of human depravity there is still always room for Christian hope and especially to pursuing/adhering to truth. I really wish I did have the literary capability to give this book the review it deserves and can only stumble in describing this novel. I can only give it my highest praise by saying it goes on my reread list .

Here is an interview with Lucy Beckett that IgnatiusInsight did with her for a previous book – which I will have to get.

February 20, 2010February 20, 2010 2 comments
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News

Teen suspended over rosary beads

by Jeffrey Miller February 11, 2010
written by Jeffrey Miller

HAVERSTRAW (WABC) — The parents of a high school student from Rockland County are demanding answers after their ninth grader was suspended for wearing rosary beads to school.

He was suspended even though the school doesn’t even have a policy banning them. So did the principal go too far? Jason Laguna is a former altar boy and proud Catholic. He got his rosary beads as a gift, thinks they look cool and sometimes wears them under his shirt at school. But last Friday, right before dismissal, he pulled them out on his way out. He was given a one-day suspension from Fieldstone Secondary School. His mother calls the punishment extreme, considering the 14-year-old is a member of student government and, according to his last report card, “is a pleasure to have in class.” Laguna says she was told the school has an unwritten policy regarding beads because they could be used to show gang affiliation. The principal claims it was insubordination, saying Laguna’s actions, “endangered the safety, health, morals or welfare of himself or others.” Jason was supposed to stay home Friday, but late Thursday the district superintendent put that on hold pending further investigation. It may not be divine intervention, but his mother has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union as she continues to fight the suspension.

Well contacting the ACLU is probably not the smartest thing to do. Though sometimes they actually do protect civic liberties.

So what is suppose to happen when you violate an unwritten policy – go go an unbuilt prison for an unspecified term? Though this suspension is not the first of it’s kind since other schools have done the same. These types of reactions though show the stupidity of the bureaucratic one punishment fits all where thinking about a situation is never part of the official reaction. If gangs started using belts as a gang symbol would they ban belts to?

February 11, 2010 1 comment
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Uncategorized

Cardinal Mahony Blog?

by Jeffrey Miller February 10, 2010
written by Jeffrey Miller

I suspected that a Cardinal Mahony blog would turn out to be fake or a parody. But this blog rings authentic to me. After all only he could blog favorably about the L. A. Cathedral.

Though I must admit licking the tack he took on the new Roman Missal.

Since the 1974 version was translated in haste, there were many errors in the translation which rendered the Missal inaccurate in many places.

February 10, 2010 2 comments
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Pro-life

Owning the opposition

by Jeffrey Miller February 8, 2010
written by Jeffrey Miller

I think Focus on the Family totally pwnd* Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and abortion supporters with their ad that never even mentions abortion or a choice to chose life. While some pro-lifers will be dismayed that the commercial seemed to not address the topic directly other than pointing to a URL with the full story, it still gets the point across. All the free publicity ahead of time made it so that the majority of the people will know what the ad is referring to so all the outcry only helped the pro-life side. These groups seem even sillier to objecting to the ad now then they were at first. I don’t know if Focus on the Family planned to punk abortion groups in this matter – if they did brilliant.

*pwned A term developed from gaming for “totally owning” somebody, the pwn in the spelling is a common misspelling of “own” when fingers are misplaced on the keyboard.

Pro-abortion groups pre-reaction to to the ad was stupid enough, but the AP takes this stupidity to another level.

And a commercial by conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, perhaps the most anticipated ad of the night, hinted at a serious subject although it took a humorous tone too. Heisman winner Tim Tebow and his mother talk about her difficult pregnancy with him and how she was advised to end the pregnancy–implying an antiabortion message–but ended with Tebow tackling his mom and saying the family must be “tough.

Good thing that reporters have editors to fact check things – oh wait they totally got wrong both ads that appeared.

February 8, 2010 0 comment
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Blog Announcement

Comments, Comments

by Jeffrey Miller February 7, 2010
written by Jeffrey Miller

Comments on my site are down for a while. The cgi script used to implement commenting for Movable Type has been hit so constantly by spammers that my hosting provider has asked me to disable it because it was too much of a load for their servers.

As a consequence I will be moving my blog to hosting provided by CyberCatholics in the future. Plus I will probably be transferring over to using WordPress instead. So bear with me in the meantime concerning commenting and other site maintenance. In the meantime you can always comment via the Curt Jester Fan Page on Facebook or yak at me via Twitter.

February 7, 2010 0 comment
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Pro-life

Stop using reality against us

by Jeffrey Miller February 5, 2010
written by Jeffrey Miller

Being both a Catholic pundit and living in Gator country by contract I am required to comment on the Im Tebow Superbowl ad. A lot of pixels and ink have already been spilled over this so I will spill some more.

Those who support legal abortion often chaff at being called pro-abortion – the much prefer pro-choice. No doubt they believe this is the case, but in reality there are few if any who see abortion and not having an abortion both a morally neutral acts of exactly the same weight. After all what was the last time you saw a Planned Parenthood Maternity Ward or a NARAL Home for Unwed Mothers.

The fuss over the Tim Tebow ad really proves this. The ad presents one side of choice so what is the big deal to them? A mother talking about the decision to choose life is not exactly controversial since all of our mothers did exactly the same thing.

The obvious reason they hate they so much is that it shows the reality of “choice” the existence or the snuffing out of a human being. Over the years more and more people whose mothers considered abortion and decided against it have been talking about this fact. They are survivors of a “choice”. There is also the case of abortion survivor Gianna Jessen who lived despite the attempt to abort her. The pro-abortion side is upset that they can’t run similar ads. In fact they have been able to find zero aborted babies willing to film a Superbowl or any other ad for them. They can’t even find people who want to take their mothers to task for having them. Those that each day regret their mothers did not abort them.

Tim Tebow does not represent a tissue mass or any other ecumenism euphemism for a child in the womb, but the normal consequence of not stopping life while in the womb. A Heisman Trophy winner is present because he mother choose life over the doctor’s suggestion. Though Joy Behar said he could just as easily have become a “racist.” Great idea Joy Behar – we should kill all children to prevent such an occurrence. Seeing Tim Tebow and hearing this story can remind us of the 50 Million individual persons who did not survive their mother’s choice.

The abortion industry and abortion supporters have always been about minimizing or hiding reality. Women are told across the world falsehoods about the stages of the child in their womb. Terms are used to describe this that have no bearing on the reality. Over and over Ultrasound has been called a weapon because it helps to visualize reality. Laws requiring that women be properly informed about the life in the womb and presented with factual medical and scientific information about this are blocked time and again by the pro-abortion crowd.

A mother choosing life is polarizing and divisive. What a sick culture we live in.

A rather odd fact is that Planned Parenthood is responding to this ad by having two men, an ex-footbal player and a Gold Medalist, talking about women’s rights being respected. Now could you imagine the outcry of a pro-life ad involving two men talking against abortion? The pro-abortion crowd would go crazy criticizing it for being so out of touch and not being able to speak for women.

Though I guess Planned Parenthood could get lots of men who favor abortion to do commercials for them. They could speak how abortion saved them from being trapped in a relationship. How abortion enabled them to maintain their lifestyle of treating women as objects and to keep pretending their was not natural consequence of sex. Predatory males certainly love legal abortion. In the meantime pro-abortion supporters want to remain to keep their head in the sand and to deny that a women’s choice determines if a person will continue to live or not. Tim Tebow should just go away and not remind them of the consequence of “choice”.

For us who are pro-life it reminds us to pray for those mothers in difficult situations that are considering abortion as a solution and to help them in every possible way that we can.

February 5, 2010 0 comment
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About Me

Jeff Miller is a former atheist who after spending forty years in the wilderness finds himself with both astonishment and joy a member of the Catholic Church. This award-winning blog presents my hopefully humorous and sometimes serious take on things religious, political, and whatever else crosses my mind.

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About Me

Jeff Miller is a former atheist who after spending forty years in the wilderness finds himself with both astonishment and joy a member of the Catholic Church. This award winning blog presents my hopefully humorous and sometimes serious take on things religious, political, and whatever else crosses my mind.
My conversion story
  • The Curt Jester: Disturbingly Funny --Mark Shea
  • EX-cellent blog --Jimmy Akin
  • One wag has even posted a list of the Top Ten signs that someone is in the grip of "motu-mania," -- John Allen Jr.
  • Brilliance abounds --Victor Lams
  • The Curt Jester is a blog of wise-ass musings on the media, politics, and things "Papist." The Revealer

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