Creative Minority Reader: July 2009

Friday, July 31, 2009

Feel Good Story of the Day

Couldn't resist a feel good story involving American troops, an Irish wedding, and some good old fashioned hospitality.

The Irish are known for their hospitality, but this pretty much takes the cake:

U.S. soldiers were given a true Irish welcome at a wedding in Co Clare this week.

The 300 troops were stranded in Shannon last weekend after their Iraq-bound plane was grounded.

As luck would have it, they were booked into the same hotel as the wedding party for Amelia Walsh and Sean O'Neill.

Steal a Fetus, Find a Baby

Verum Serum has a brilliant post about the recent tragedy:

It’s a terrible story. A Massachusetts woman named Darlene Haynes was 8-months pregnant. She was murdered and her baby was cut from her and kidnapped. Police have now Julie Corey who apparently lived in the same apartment building at one point. The baby was “found” alive at a local hospital and is doing well.

As I looked at differing media accounts, I noticed that some members of the media seem to be struggling with the proper language to use in this case. Technically, Darlene Hayes had a fetus inside her. But when she was murdered and cut open, was a baby kidnapped or a fetus? Here are a few headlines, starting with this one published yesterday by Fox News:

Pope Benedict's Christmas Album

I hope he does "Rocket Man" just like William Shatner did:

An album featuring the voice of Pope Benedict XVI is to be released worldwide later this year, a record label announced today.

The Pontiff will be heard speaking and singing in Latin, Italian, Portuguese, French and German.

It is the first time he will be heard on an album, according to Geffen UK/Universal, which is releasing the recording with the Pope's blessing.

The album will be released on November 30, meaning that he could be an unlikely contender for a Christmas number one.

Anderson Cooper: Perv

I don't even want to know why Anderson Cooper was asking this:

Greg Pollowitz at NRO Media Blog found CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper sat in as a host of Live With Regis and Kelly on Wednesday, and drew hoots and Internet notice by asking Jillian Harris, the latest star of the ABC reality show The Bachelorette, how many bachelors she er, took for a test drive before buying. She shot back: "Let’s talk about your sex life first, Anderson." Check out the exchange:

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Pelosi: Insurance Co's are Immoral Villians

I just get such a big kick out of Nancy Pelosi brining morality into the conversation. The question of where this morality comes from should be followed by urging her not to mix up Church and state. Hot Air has Pelosi's ridiculous comments:

Good stuff. Take one of the most unpopular politicians in America, have her go off half-cocked in a crude attempt to satisfy Democratic demands for a villain to demagogue in selling ObamaCare, then wait for the backlash. Bonus points for using the same Orwellian rhetorical device Paul Ryan called Katrina Vanden Heuvel on last night, namely, exploiting the language of competition to push one of the most anti-competitive domestic measures in American history.

For sheer comic alarmism, this is topped only by The One’s warning at last week’s presser that greedy doctors are after your tonsils. But remember, you’re the ones who are fearmongering.

Will Dems Euthanize ObamaCare?

There seems to be a growing debate as to whether Blue Dog Democrats actually exist. I think there are some but mostly they're just liberals from conservative districts. But never the less, R.S. McCain points out that whether or not they're "fiscally conservative" or not any delay is good for our side in the healthcare debate. And I think it's a good argument:

"The term 'fiscally conservative Democrat' is an oxymoron," says Monique Stuart, who has a point. The Blue Dogs are the Oxymoron Caucus, but they are important enough to Nancy Pelosi that they were able to delay the ObamaCare onslaught:

A group of fiscally conservative House Democrats announced Wednesday they had reached a deal with the chamber’s Democratic leaders on a bill that would revamp the nation's health care system.

Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, speaking for four of the Blue Dog Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Wednesday that the agreement called for the panel to begin debating the bill later in the day, but for the full House not to vote until after the August recess.

This is Really Cool

This is really really cool and beautiful. Check it out from Faith and Family Live:

I know there’s all kinds of cool stuff on YouTube, but why watch a skateboarding dog when you can watch this?

I never heard of sand animation or the TV show Ukraine’s Got Talent before, but I was moved by the simple beauty of this performance.

Illustrated Progressive Catholic Alphabet

Funny 'cause it's true:

Are you a progressive Catholic blessed with children grandchildren young nieces and nephews who are showing interest in the Catholic faith, and you want to make sure they don't grow up orthodox? Or do you lead Children's Liturgies at your Catholic community, and are seeking a fresh new text with which to indoctrinate educate your young impressionable charges? Well, AoftheA Publishing has the perfect book for you! It's the Illustrated Progressive Catholic Alphabet! Help that young person you know learn their ABC's while discovering the creative and spirit of Vatican II-filled world of progressive Catholicism.

1 Quadraplegic= 1/2 Human?

Peter Singer is not just a utilitarian monstrous lunatic. He's an Ivy League Professor who's respected by many of the elites in our culture because he's a utilitarian monstrous lunatic:

1 Quadriplegic = Half a Human Life, 1 Teen = Fourteen 85 Year Olds. That is the assumption behind a benchmark some, including Peter Singer, are urging for inclusion in any overhaul of the U.S. health system. It's called QALY or Quality of Life Years and the U.S. government has already endorsed it by including substantial funds for research on the concept in the "stimulus" bill. Here's how Peter Singer explained it in the New York Times:

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

This Makes Me Pull My Hair Out

A Nun for Obama is telling Catholics to just shut up about those pesky little insignificant issues like abortion and just pass ObamaCare. This kind of thing makes me nuts! And I blame Catholic Key for telling me about it:

An Interfaith group called 'We Believe Together - Health Care For All' held a press conference today at the Capitol demanding Congress pass a health care bill NOW. Sister of Social Service Simone Campbell was among them. This from Catholic News Service's report on the conference:

Fear of change, Sister Simone said, is what is holding back members of Congress now. Instead of making a decision many representatives are getting confused by insignificant details, she said.

"Too often in D.C. we can get caught in the details and in the argument," she said.

Anybody with a pulse knows what those "insignificant details" are. The U.S. Bishops have addressed them.

Captain of the Abortion Boat Speaks

I say we buy the abortion boat and sink it. That way we'll have the abortion crazies and the environmentalists mad at us at the same time. Two birds! But this interview has some pretty interesting nuggets. Thanks to Steven Ertelt who, as always, does an amazing job:

The Netherlands-based abortion boat that targeted nations in Europe and South America won't sail again thanks to changes in law in Holland. The boat was meant to be a way for abortions to be done in international waters outside the reach of nations with pro-life laws protecting women and children.

Although surgical abortions were not done on the converted tugboat and its replacement, a sailboat, in recent years, its staff did promote the dangerous abortion drug.

It's Not Over

ObamaCare is for from dead. Or maybe it was killed and it's now a zombie. Either way it's back and it's going to prove very hard to kill. President Obama has a lot riding on this:

I’m afraid I can’t share my co-blogger Donald’s relief at ObamaCare’s timely demise. From the perspective of ObamaCare opponents, it seems to me that we are at the point of in the movie where the monster appears to be killed and everyone starts to breath easier only to have it jump up again and renew its rampage.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Fr. Longenecker Liked Gran Torino

I really liked Clint Eastwood's latest movie even though the child actors were distractingly bad. Fr. Longenecker who obviously does not share my discriminating taste in adolescent thespianism liked the film quite a bit.

On the flight out to St Louis last week I watched Clint Eastwood's lastest film. Gran Torino is the story of a grumpy old Korean war vet named Walt who lives in a working class suburb that has been taken over by immigrants. His wife has just died and his kids have good jobs and have moved up and out. He's grieving and grumpy and scared. Then he establishes a friendship with a young oriental kid next door.

Newsweek's Obama Reporter Joins Obama

Newsweek's Obama reporter just joined the administration. And I guarantee that when he leaves the White House he'll be given another spot in the "objective" media:

The revolving door between the media and Team Obama continues to rotate. Some journalists on the campaign trail were infatuated with Obama, and that’s certainly true of the Newsweek reporter who covered Obama in-depth (with the promise that nothing he learned would be revealed until after the election). Philip Klein on The American Spectator’s blog reported:

Fr. Ray: Are You Pureblood or Muggle?

Fr. Ray has a magical take on a very real problem:

I am a Muggle.

I had a visitor the other day who was very concerned about a worrying trend amongst those who are attached to to the Traditional Latin Mass. His claim was that there is an increasing trend for certain leading traddies to make a point of never attending Masses in the Usus Antiquor of priests who celebrate the Ordinary Form of the Mass. Not only that but they even refuse to attend churches where it is celebrated. He described it terms of "Purebloods" and "Muggles", the "Purebloods" refusing to mix with a Usus Utroque "Muggle" like me.

If this is so, it seems a direct contradiction of the Holy Father's thinking that is put forward in Summorum Pontificum. The Roman Rite now has two Forms, which are supposed to be mutually enriching.

Inspiration of the Day

This is great. Hey Hollywood! Are you reading this story?

JR Salzman, the "Lumberjack in the Desert" blogger, was the ESPN Outdoor Sportsman of the Year back in 2005.

Then he went to Iraq. JR lost his arm in an IED attack.

This week he came back and won his 7th ESPN Logrolling Championship.

I'll Take My Stand

I'm not Southern. And I'm not a woman. But I love good writing. And that's what this piece delivers in a Souther woman's defense of Mississippi in light of the prejudice of New Englanders against the South. I must give a hat tip to Southern Appeal for pointing me to this:

Maybe my lack of a thick Southern accent has made me mostly impervious to this in the past, but last week in Connecticut, I was subject to some of the most oddly small-minded anti-Southern prejudice I’ve ever experienced. And it made me mad, so now I’m writing about it.

I was attending a summer AP workshop at the prestigious Taft School in Watertown. It’s a beautiful campus, postcard perfect, equal to any fantasy I ever had about New England. The first day of class, the teacher sitting next to me politely inquired about where I lived. When I told her, she responded, “Oh, so you guys probably don’t have too many AP workshops available down there.”

And that was just the beginning.

20 Pro-Life Dems and 2 Traitors

Great analysis from Catholic Key:

Twenty Democrats in the House of Representatives joined all but 9 Republicans last week in voting to defund Planned Parenthood in an amendment offered by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) to the Labor / HHS Appropriations Bill. The Amendment failed, but I'd like to share some information about these prolife Democrats, as well as some info on two betrayers who should have been among their number.

1. The 20 are largely new in Congress. Two are Freshmen. All but five were elected in the last 10 years and the vast majority are in their second or third term.

You Can't Be a Religious Scientist

Sam Harris published a piece in the New York Times essentially saying that Dr. Francis Collins is unfit to run the NIH because he believes in God. Hot Air has pulled some of the more incendiary quotes but really the whole thing is so offensive and yet sadly...typical:

“Dr. Collins insists that our moral intuitions attest to God’s existence, to his perfectly moral character and to his desire to have fellowship with every member of our species. But when our moral intuitions recoil at the casual destruction of innocents by, say, a tidal wave or earthquake, Dr. Collins assures us that our time-bound notions of good and evil can’t be trusted and that God’s will is a mystery.

Most scientists who study the human mind are convinced that minds are the products of brains, and brains are the products of evolution. Dr. Collins takes a different approach: he insists that at some moment in the development of our species God inserted crucial components — including an immortal soul, free will, the moral law, spiritual hunger, genuine altruism, etc.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Infectious Disease Lab in Tornado Alley

Brilliant! Why are we so worried about Al Qaeda when we're just going to destroy ourselves through our own corruption and stupidity? Pundette has the story that will make you roll your eyes and throw up your hands:

The average man on the street might think safety would be the highest priority in selecting a location for NBAF, a federal research facility that works with "highly infectious pathogens." Heavy tornado activity might be seen as a deal-breaker.

But the government doesn't make decisions the way we do. Now the GAO reports that the Department of Homeland Security's selection process was seriously flawed and inadequate.

It's Not Bias. Obama's Always Right

You've got to read this one. For all those who think the media know that they're biased you've got to read this if only to show how ignorant they are of their own biases. Great catch by Tim Graham:

Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker crystallized the media’s liberal working assumptions on the aching need for nationalized health care on Sunday’s Reliable Sources on CNN. Apparently it’s not biased to offer a victory to the president if reality has a liberal bias. Lizza channeled Stephen Colbert, without any winks or giggles:

Hey! Somebody Read the HealthCare Bills

Raymond Arroyo of EWTN hasn't read the healthcare bills but he knows someone who has. And the upshot is pretty much what we all thought - We're in big trouble:

Here’s to your health, unless you are too old, too young, too disabled or any combination of the above. The health care reform bills wending their way through Congress should be focused on the well being of each citizen. Instead, it seems the bills, designed to contain costs while simultaneously extending health coverage to everyone, target certain vulnerable groups including the elderly, the pre-born, and the disabled. It all comes down to cost. How to pay for this colossus remains a question on the Hill. But the consensus seems to be: raise taxes and ration care. Both ideas have been woven into the current health care bills.

Poetry and Parables

Fr. Philip has an interesting take on parables:

Poets use verse to hide secret messages. Everyone knows that they could just say what they mean in plain prose, but the whole point of poetry is to figure out the code—the symbols, the allusions, etc.—and then decipher the hidden message to win the prize! Once you crack the code a poet uses, all of his or her poems can be decrypted in the same way. Every time I teach poetry, I have to un-teach this method of reading poetry. At some point in the class—especially with E. Dickinson or W. Stevens—someone will snap and cry out in frustration: “Just tell us what it means!!!” Though I am moved to pity, I am also resolved to resist allowing my students to turn good poetry into a de-coder ring game. Jesus seems to share my teacherly attitude when it comes to his parables.

More Late Abortions Than AIDS Deaths?

A society that works so hard and raises so much money to fight AIDS has been inexplicably blind to the horror of abortion. Big Blue Wave has the story. I'm going to check out the numbers a little further but was hoping that someone out there a little better at math could see that this is right:

This extraordinarily high number is even more remarkable in that it is based on 2005 data (i.e. the latest CDC Report issued in late 2008) which is two years AFTER the Federal Ban Act of 2003 prohibiting D&X Partial Birth Abortion in the U.S. The alternative but similarly grotesque procedure, primarily employed in late-term post-20-weeks’ abortions (that HAS NOT been banned in the U.S.) is the D&E – Dilation & Evacuation – procedure, which dismembers the child in the uterus (womb) using surgical instruments, with the cervix as a fulcrum. It is a procedure as horrific to contemplate as D&X and possibly even more pain-inflicting to the potentially-viable child.

Faith Based Economics

Forget all you've read and heard, just trust Nancy Pelosi, President Obama and Harry Reid that ObamaCare is the best things since...well...Cap and Trade. Ed Morrissey of Hot Air isn't sure "trust us" is a good enough reason:

After taking shots to the political solar plexus from the CBO on the costs of their health-care reform package, House Democrats have decided to drop the pretense of saving money through ObamaCare. Instead, The Hill reports that Democrats will argue that the new health-care system will be so good, that it will be worth spending a lot more money on it, and the savings will magically appear from …. somewhere. Since the entire raison d’etre of ObamaCare is that medical costs are bankrupting America, this smells like desperation:

Prayer Request

Jim at Gateway Pundit (which is one of the best blogs on the internet) is requesting prayers. And hey, while we run into lots of things we can't do anything about, prayer is something we can always do.

Eight years ago I made a wonderful decision. I moved my dear mother into my home. This amazing woman and mother of nine was having difficulty taking care of herself independently in Iowa. It was the best decision I ever made. The last eight years have been wonderful.

Unfortunately, my mother's health has gone downhill over the past few years.

Friday, July 24, 2009

It Is Always About Abortion

Abortion is the defining issue of our time. Right Wing Sparkle writes a great piece on how abortion touches everything:

Many years ago I was having an argument with my brother about politics. He said to me, "It's always about abortion to you." I replied, "Because it is always about abortion."

Jen F. Amid The Fecal Apocalypse

This is classic. Just great:

On what may seem like an unrelated topic but I assure you has an ominous connection to what I said above, yesterday I read this post by Megan at Sorta Crunchy about how her toddler pooped on the floor at the library. "Hah!" I chuckled. "What a terrible story. I'm sure glad I'm not in her shoes today!"

I was about to move on what I saw a comment from Sarah at This Heavenly Life in which she wrote:

I tried not to laugh, for fear of bringing down the wrath of the poop-fates upon myself. Oh dear.

Immediately I realized what I had done. It's like in that movie The Ring where after you see the video you know it's only a matter of time until freakishly terrible things start happening to you. I had laughed at another mother's poop-related misfortune. My time was nigh.

Erin Manning Scares Me

Erin Manning scares me. Not all the time. Just today.

Let's imagine a hypothetical situation occurring after government-run health care becomes a reality in America.

Jim and Jane are a married Catholic couple with four children. Jim works for a small company which dropped private insurance two years ago, choosing instead to offer the government plan to its workers as a way of saving money. Jim and Jane aren't thrilled with the coverage they get, but they can't afford to buy private insurance, and new laws make it illegal to purchase private insurance if you're already on the government plan, anyway. They had to change pediatricians because their former doctor retired; he couldn't make a decent living anymore, and got tired of spending more time doing paperwork than seeing patients.

Hot Dogs Need a Warning Label?

Funny stuff from the Troglopundit:

Watch out, man. Those hot dogs are bad.

Anti-Meat Group: Your Oscar Mayer Needs a Warning Label

The Cancer Project, an offshoot of a pro-vegetarian organization, wants to force hot dog makers to use warning labels. The organization filed a lawsuit Wednesday in New Jersey.

What, pray tell, might that warning label say? The TrogloPundit offers his helpful suggestions:

Buried

The grass is there, but patchy.

The stone is there, too. His name, etched as if on the pages of an open book. It was not my first choice, but I did not notice that design at first. When I did, it became the only choice.

My name is there, too. I debated for a bit about that, internally, when Sister asked me. But then..why not. Whatever. It is a double plot, after all. Makes it easier on the kids, who will be left to make the decisions when my time comes.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Don't Drink Until After The Wedding

Aggies has a wedding video that is umm... ummm. Well just go take a look!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Obama Attacks Docs and Cops

Thank goodness partisanship and nastiness and baseless accusations are all done now that Obama's in the White House:

Over at the Washington Post's Post Partisan blog, the boss didn't stoop to respond to Obama's little jab at him during tonight's press conference--clearly, the boss knows it's not about him--but focused on Obama's disdain for docs and cops:
at press conferences there are often throwaway lines and unscripted moments that are interesting. I was struck by two that seemed to exemplify Obama’s easy disdain for the less enlightened among us -- in this case, for family docs and for Cambridge cops.

Stop The Abortion Mandate

Tomorrow is the day for a nationwide effort to bring attention to the issue of abortion coverage in the proposed health care legislation.

Many groups are involved including Democrats for Life and the American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYNS - and the place to go for more information is "Stop the Abortion Mandate"

Obama as Willy Loman

As Obama closes in for the hard sell, he maintains strict eye contact, he's pushing the pen into your hand and he's telling you that if you don't act now there are three people on the phone who will make this deal of a lifetime with him. And then, what's this? You, the customer is reacting to something. Something has made you think twice about the whole thing. Ah, it's the sour stank of desperation emanating from the salesman and you wisely tell the now leering salesman that you'd like to walk away from the deal. And then things get really weird. Pundette has more:

Via Pundit, Byron York has put his finger on it. Obama is a salesman, and he's giving us the high-pressure sales pitch.

But the public understands that he wants to rush, rush, rush, and voters told the RNC researchers that they were tired of the pressure. “Repeatedly,” the Republican strategist says, “we’d hear, ‘Wait a second. We had to do the stimulus in the dead of night, we had to do cap and trade without anybody reading the bill, we had to move quickly on a multitrillion-dollar budget without any serious public debate, and now we’ve got to get health care done in two weeks?’ ”

Was Mary Magdalene Dissed by the Church?

The Anchoress takes on conventional wisdom. Guess who wins:

At our most recent Big Family Party I got into a conversation with a dear friend of the family – a lady in her 70’s who is very modern-thinking, and on top of the conventional wisdom. Somehow the conversation got into television programming, and a general consensus was reached: television was more entertaining when there were five channels to choose from and afternoon and late-night movies. Now? “Hundreds of channels and there’s never anything on!”

Apparently, though, there was a cable broadcast on St. Mary Magdalene that had lit our friend’s ire: “I think it was very wrong of the church to disrespect her and denigrate her by insisting that she was a prostitute! They had to lower her in the eyes of the world because she was a powerful woman and they were men trying to stay in charge.”

I gather that The DaVinci Code has also shown up on cable, lately.

US Cancer Survival Rates Better than Canada

So the White House seems to be saying "Hey, let's do what England and Canada are doing." Wesley J. Smith says we know what they're doing but let's see how they're doing. And it's not all that good.

One of the excellent aspects of the current American health care system is that most people can get immediate help if they become very ill. Not true in places like Canada or the UK, where waiting lines for crucial imaging tests can range in the several months–months that for cancer patients can mean the difference between living and dying.

I decided to do a little research on cancer survival rates, and it turns out USA is # 1. From the fact sheet put out in 07 from the National Center for Policy Analysis:

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Should Government Decide The Value of Life

Great piece on who's going to decide how much your life is worth under government controlled healthcare from Heritage:

Controversial Princeton bioethics professor and philosopher Peter Singer is making waves with his article outlining the case for rationing in last week’s New York Times Magazine. This is the same Singer who advocated infanticide, proposing that abortion be made legal for 28 days after birth, in order to allow parents to decide whether to keep an “imperfect” baby.

Professor Singer’s latest piece, “Why We Must Ration Health Care,” should be a call to action for every American who cherishes personal freedom and self-determination. There is no doubt that health care reform proposals being rushed through Congress are the initial steps in government rationing of health care. As has been shown from experience in this country and others, under a government-rationed system the needs of the elderly, the disabled, and the unborn are pushed aside in the name of government bureaucrats seeking the “best value” from limited health care resources.

Buzz Aldrin Punches Out Moon Landing Denier

Greg Pollowitz of The Media Blog calls this maybe the best video you'll ever see. I'm in no position to argue:

Stick around until about 2:50 into this CNN interview with the Mythbusters team to watch Buzz Aldrin punch a lunar-landing denier in the face.

Ave Maria Fires Fr. Fessio - Again!

From Man With Black Hat

Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, a close friend of Pope Benedict XVI, and theologian-in-residence at Ave Maria University, was fired from AMU yesterday, after privately (mind you, that's PRIVATELY) expressing criticism over the university's finances.

Continue Reading >>>>

Monday, July 20, 2009

Catholics Have to Handle the Truth

Kathryn Lopez says there are lessons for the left and the right:

Some things are beyond parody. In announcing that Barack Obama is more Catholic than the pope, Newsweek takes the cake.

The piece, written by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend for the magazine’s website in anticipation of last week’s presidential-papal meeting, asserts: “[The pope and the president] politely disagree about reproductive freedoms and homosexuality, but Catholics back home won’t care, because they know Obama’s on their side. In fact, Obama’s agenda is closer to their views than even the pope’s.”

Dems Propose Fake Pro-Life Bill

Fake pro-lifers really introduce fake pro-life legislation that would result in very real dead babies:

If dems are so confident in their pro-abortion policies, why do they have to disquise them by calling them Pro-Life? Dems will increase funding for Planned Parenthood in a fake Pro-Life bill. It was put together by a former NARAL staffer.

Of Diapers and Deficits

What? You mean abortion has consequences for the entire country? Dr. Mark Crutcher has the details:

Earlier this year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the government's economic stimulus package to include a healthy increase in spending for what she called “family planning.” (If you didn't already know, “family planning” is generally code for abortion.) Pelosi said that this would save state and federal governments the cost of having to pay for the health care and education of poor children. Of course, it's pretty hard to argue with that sort of logic. After all, dead children are less expensive to care for than live children.

In any event, Pelosi's remarks came on the heels of Barak Obama signing an executive order allowing money taken out of the paychecks of American workers to be used for abortions in foreign countries! In other words, the Obama administration’s position is that we are running out of money to take care of our own children but we have enough to pay for the executions of other people's children. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood (America's number one abortion profiteer) continues to be given approximately one million dollars a day in taxpayer funding and there are calls within our government for that amount to be doubled.

Catholics Pols Advance Abortion Agenda

Sad. But typical.

Pro-life legislators in the House and Senate are working overtime battling attempts to broaden abortion policy in both appropriation bills and the healthcare reform bill. Some Catholic politicians have led efforts to advance the abortion lobby agenda making abortion universally accessible and funded by taxpayer dollars.

Bishops Approve New Translations

Heated debate ends in close vote:

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced the approval of revised translations of the Masses for Various Needs and Intentions, Votive Masses, Masses for the Dead, Ritual Masses, and the Ordo Missae II, which contains prefaces, solemn blessings, and additional Eucharistic Prayers. The revised translations were prepared in accord with Liturgiam authenticam, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments’ 2001 document that called for more accurate liturgical translations.

Lesbian of the Year Goes Straight

These poor liberals keep seeing defections. First, Norma McCorvey, the famous Roe, became pro-life and now The Advocate's "Lesbian of the Year" is straight and has a baby.Newsbusters has more:

In December 2005, Kerry Pacer, then 17, was featured on the cover of the national gay news magazine The Advocate as its "Person of the Year" — making her the youngest gay person to achieve that honor – for fighting for a "gay-straight alliance" at White County High School in Cleveland, Georgia. But there’s apparently no embarrassment for the gay press....when she takes on a boyfriend and they have a baby.

Sayonara

Mark Steyn on Japan (and the rest of the West's) self inflicted demographic implosion.

The "alarmism" of my book seems to be going mainstream. Newsweek's economics editor Daniel Gross belatedly joins the demographic deathwatch on Japan:

Japan's population peaked in 2004 at about 127.8 million and is projected to fall to 89.9 million by 2055. The ratio of working-age to elderly Japanese fell from 8 to 1 in 1975 to 3.3 to 1 in 2005 and may shrivel to 1.3 to 1 in 2055. "In 2055, people will come to work when they have time off from long-term care," said Kiyoaki Fujiwara, director of economic policy at the Japan Business Federation.

Such a decline is cataclysmic for an indebted country that values infrastructure and personal service. (Who is going to maintain the trains, pay for social benefits, slice sushi at the Tsukiji fish market?) The obvious answers—encourage immigration and a higher birthrate—have proved difficult, even impossible, for this conservative society.

Mr Gross isn't quite there yet. One can be pro- or anti-immigration but, either way, it doesn't solve a baby bust as severe as Japan's.

Continue Reading >>>>

Sunday, July 19, 2009

This is Funny

What's a little anti-lawyer humor between friends?

If you ever testify in court, you might wish you could have been as sharp as this policeman He was being cross-examined by a defense attorney during a felony trial. The lawyer was trying to undermine the policeman's credibility...

Friday, July 17, 2009

ObamaCare Conflicts With Catholicism?

Health care rationing forces the government to determine how much each life is worth. Princeton Professor Peter Singer is cool with that. We shouldn't be:

If you read the New York Times Magazine this weekend, you will see a lengthy article by Princeton professor Peter Singer. In this article he argues for health care rationing. Rationing implies that care is denied because the patient is deemed unworthy of such care. Read this article very carefully. This paragraph seems to capture the moral problem with his reasoning:

The Randall Terry Debate

Well, I'm glad this debate isn't taking place here. Many people have very strong feelings about Randall Terry. So check out Jill Stanek's site and check out her opinion and give your own:

The Washington Post featured an interesting profile on pro-life activist Randall Terry July 15. Here are excerpts:

Leaders of the antiabortion movement are cringing at Terry's sudden return. They say his incendiary rhetoric and showy tactics turn off ordinary Americans and reflect Terry's struggle to regain his glory years.

S. Logan on Bruno

So I'm thinking S. Logan isn't going to see Bruno:

After posting my vacation photos a few hours ago, I had no intention of blogging again for awhile, but I felt prompted to post about this so here goes:

Buying a ticket to see Bruno* is paying money to grieve God's heart.

(*The link includes a detailed, stomach-churning description of the movie. I glanced through it enough to get an idea of the content. If you're planning on seeing the movie, read through the description to be an informed consumer. You need to know what your money is supporting, and more importantly, the kind of material you are opening yourself up to.)

Right Wing Pay-To-Play

Anything that can be done to drain the filth out of politics is good in my book. I don't care which side it's on:

You probably have seen this article in the Politico today. Basically, the American Conservative Union, the organization that brings us CPAC each year, appears to have involved itself in a “pay to play” expedition with FedEx and UPS.

For the $2 million plus, ACU offered a range of services that included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s board of directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)

Paul Rodriguez:"We're Canaries in the Mine"

Paul Rodriguez, who I always liked, said environmentalists are killing farmers and that if the GOP wants to attract hispanics they should stay pro-life. Actually, there's lot of interesting things in his speech. Check it out at Newsbusters:

In recent months, actor and comedian Paul Rodriguez has made known his defection from the Democratic party because of the party's lack of interest in helping drought-stricken farmers like himself in California who have had water denied to them by court order under the Endangered Species Act to save an endangered fish, the delta smelt. As he addressed the 2009 Annual California Republican Assembly Convention in May, Rodriguez complained that the fundraising support he has given to environmental groups in the past has come back to hurt him and his family: "I always saw myself as an environmentalist. ... I’ve funded many of these things, I guess, because I’ve performed for them. Every time they call, you go there not really knowing what you’re backing, not knowing that those dollars are going to turn around and, and hurt me, hurt those I love the most." The complete audio of Rodriguez's speech can be found here.

Jim Caviezel Hospitalized

I'm interested to hear the rest of this story:

Actor Jim Caviezel was rushed to a hospital following a motorcycle accident. The "Passion of the Christ" star was thrown from his Harley Davidson when another guy threw a bicycle into his path.

Pope Fractures Wrist in a Fall

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Hospital officials and the Vatican say Pope Benedict XVI broke his right wrist in a fall during his vacation in the Alps.

Tiziano Trevisan, a spokesman at the Umberto Parini hospital in Aosta, told The Associated Press, "The pope will be held for a few hours as the doctors treat his fracture. He will then stay for observation."

Trevisan said doctors had taken an X-ray of the pope's right wrist and found a small fracture. The pope is 82 and has been healthy during his five-year pontificate.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said earlier that Benedict "slipped and got hurt" but "it doesn't seem to be serious."

Lombardi said the pope went to the hospital in Aosta for an examination after the accident.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

You Can Make the Baby Jesus Cry

The Crescat has the lineup of all lineups. Nick Nolte's mug shot is easier to look at than some of these Catholic art monstrosities. If you check it out you'll laugh, cry and cringe. All at the same time. It's not a pleasant feeling>>>Continue reading>>>

Big Money and the Culture of Death

Sometimes Robert Stacy McCain is so funny that I forget how smart he is. Great and well researched piece about funding the culture of death:

This morning, I watched Michelle Malkin on Fox News talking about Obama's "science czar" John Holdren, advocate of "compulsory abortion" and "involuntary fertility control" to deal with a non-existent overpopulation crisis.

Where did Holdren get his wacky ideas? His Ecoscience co-author Paul Ehrlich was the author of a notorious 1967 book, The Population Bomb, which promoted the overpopulation hysteria.

Does ObamaCare outlaw private insurance?

Unbelievable!

Investors Business Daily’s editors quickly read through the actual legislation of the House health-care reform bill looking for hidden time bombs — and they found a doozy. On page 16 of over a thousand pages of text, they discovered a clause that essentially locks people into their current plan, and locks everyone out of any other plan. Well, presumably the public plan will be an exception:

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Formerly Gay Penguin Living a Lie!

My favorite story of the day at Townhall:

The highly contentious “nature vs. nurture” debate over whether gay penguins choose the homosexual lifestyle or are hatched that way has reached a hard boil.

San Francisco’s Fox affiliate KTUV reports: “The San Francisco Zoo’s popular same-sex penguin couple has broken up.

“Male Magellan penguins Harry and Pepper have been together since 2003. The pair nested together and even incubated an egg laid by another penguin in 2008, but their relationship hit the rocks earlier this year when a female penguin, Linda, befriended Harry after her long-time companion died. Zookeepers say Harry and Linda are happy and were able to successfully nest this year,” reported KTUV.

Blobs of Tissue Have Memories?

So babies in the womb show signs of memories? Yup. But we can still kill them right? Oh yeah!

A new study found that unborn babies may start to develop memories as early as thirty weeks into a pregnancy, but ABC’s “Good Morning America” ignored the study’s potential impact on the abortion debate, especially concerning late term abortion.

Reporter Sharyn Alfonsi’s July 15 segment covered the pivotal study without even mentioning abortion. Anchor Chris Cuomo attempted to broach the issue during a follow-up interview but fell short.

Matthews: Obama a Hypocrite to Pope?

OK. You know Obama's having a bad week when Chris "Leg Thrill" Matthews is calling him a hypocrite. Jill Stanek has the transcript:

Last week Time magazine ran the headline, "Could abortion coverage sink health-care reform?" This seems to be a growing consensus - among liberals.

By pro-abortion dday at the Hullabaloo blog, July 14: For the second day in a row, Chris Matthews [of MSNBC's Hardball] ranted about the prospect of a potential public health insurance option covering abortion services, and his lineup of talking heads agreed that this was "the last thing Obama needed" and that Obama was a hypocrite because he met the Pope last week.

Sarah Palin for Congress?

Sarah Palin will soon be taking over Congress? Interesting theory from Patrick at Hot Air:

Sarah Palin is taking one heckuva gamble. Weeks after the Letterman controversy, Palin, who’d been continuously battling frivolous ethics complaints in Alaska, resigned her governorship to as she put it, “affect positive change outside government, at this moment in time, on another scale.”

It’s the “on another scale” comment that fascinates me. As we’ve seen, Palin’s resignation has evoked a wide array of reactions, but here’s my favorite assessment (from the LA Times) which combines bits of both the positive and negative camps:

Tax Man Comes in the Back Door

It's the taxes you don't see that'll kill ya':

The Obama administration is looking for every way possible to tax Americans without them noticing. I call it back door taxing. As long as you aren't taking the money directly out of the paycheck of the average worker, the administration hopes that the average worker won't pay enough attention to the talking heads on TV to understand that taxing the company you work for means you will not get that raise you need, or worse, you might lose your job.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Ickiest Hookup...Evah!

I can't think of any words that will adequately express the amount of heebies and jeebies this piece by Patrick Madrid gave me:

Read this breathless tabloid report of a new, strange low in the annals of modern luv:
Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman [68] plans to marry his step-granddaughter and possible mistress E'Dena Hines, family sources tell the National Enquirer.
The actor's nearly decade-long affair with his step-granddaughter, 27, hit the tabloids last month. E'Dena Hines is the grandchild of Morgan's first wife.

What are Whales trying to tell us?

The latest foray into the animals are people too ideology is toyed with by Wesley J. Smith.

Did it start with Jane Goodall? The enterprising anthropologist didn’t just report her amazingly detailed observations of chimpanzees. She pursued an ideology by giving the chimps internal lives and thoughts in her writing in order to make them seem more human.

Now, that approach is all the rage. Barely a week goes by in popular scientific writing these days without some writer mining the meme that animals are really people too.

NEA Targets Charter Schools

Hey, Charter schools are working so they must be stopped. Makes sense, right?

During its late conference held during the Independence Day holiday weekend, the National Education Association took up a series of new resolutions that targeted charter schools. The union was looking for ways to reign in the success of charter schools to make their own woeful attempts at education in the public schools look better. The union was also looking for ways to cash in on charter school’s success as well as for a way to get more union oversight into them.

But, here is the thing: when they work, charter schools work because they have less union meddling involved in their operations.

Sex Toy Ad in Prime Time?

The coarsening of our culture Part XXXXVVXXXXXXXXXXVXVXVXVXVXVXV:

It's hard enough watching television with your kids these days given all the Viagra and Cialis commercials, but are we now going to have to put up with ads for sex toys?

Trojan's vibrating fingertip massager for women has been around for over a year, as has the commercial for it.

However, I didn't expect it to appear in the middle of CMT's prime time airing of "Field of Dreams" Monday night.

Anti-Catholicism at the New Yorker

Fr. James Martin S.J. is slightly repelled by the anti-Catholicism of a piece in the famous magazine:

The New Yorker, as a rule, is not anti-Catholic. I say this as a longtime reader and avid fan. And I say it despite the fact that the magazine featured a painting of a crucified Easter bunny during Holy Week in 1995; despite the fact that last year the estimable literary critic James Woods wrote in an otherwise sensitive review of Marilynne Robinson’s book Home that he found priests “at once fascinating and slightly repellent;” and despite the fact that the famously fact-checked magazine often gets some basic facts about the Catholic church wrong. (Sorry, no hyperlink: these lapses are too numerous to mention, believe me. And if you don’t believe me, there’s one listed below.)

But the article by Paul Rudnick in the latest issue, called “Fun with Nuns,” I found, to borrow Mr. Woods' phrase, “slightly repellent.”

A Beautiful Moment for Minnesota Mom

For some reason I could really relate to this moment from Minnesota Mom:

I was on my way out to walk the dog yesterday when Felicity begged to come. I shut off my iPod with a sigh and a smile; yes, I’d love for her to join me. Is there anything as sweet as a 6-year-old, I wonder? Truly, few things are.

We walked hand-in-hand and she talked nonstop. The dog lunged here and there.

Just up the road is a field of wildflowers; it’s our favorite spot and for good reason. Purple, white and yellow flowers—big clumps of color, as far as the 6-year-old eye can see!

75% Say Stimulus Useless or Harmful

It can't be good when the biggest initiative of your Presidency is seen as useless or harmful to the country by 3/4 of the people. Pundette has the story.

The visceral sense among Americans is that Obama's agenda is the wrong one:

Fifty-seven percent say the country is on the "wrong track," up from 50 percent last month.

Despite White House efforts to stress the implementation of the stimulus package, just 21 percent say it has had a positive impact on the economy. The majority of those surveyed - 60 percent - say it has had no impact, while 15 percent say the stimulus has made the economy worse.

Monday, July 13, 2009

86% Would Restrict Abortion

America is becoming more pro-life, according to this and many other polls. Thank goodness we have a President who told the Pope he was going to work hard to limit the number of abortions in this country.

The American people continue to move to the pro-life perspective on abortion according to the latest Moral Compass polling by the Knights of Columbus and Marist Institute.

The poll mirrored findings of other recent surveys, showing that more Americans identify as pro-life than as pro-choice (an 11% shift from October), and that the vast majority of Americans favor restricting abortion.

Among the key findings:

- 86% of Americans would significantly restrict abortion.

Catholics for Kerry Founder Is a Pimp?

Your Ick! of the day from American Catholic:

Eric McFadden was the founder of Catholics for Kerry, a group which proudly proclaimed that Catholics should support John Kerry notwithstanding his support for abortion.

After the election McFadden went on to bigger and better things when he was appointed by Ted Strickland, pro-abort Democrat governor of Ohio, in February 2007 to head the Ohio Office of Faith Based Initiatives.

McFadden resigned from that position in October of 2007.

McFadden also served as head of Catholic outreach for the Clinton campaign in 2008. And here we have him making the first comment in this thread, carrying water for pro-abort Obama.

Then we have McFadden writing a public letter attacking Supreme Knight Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus for reminding Catholics that Obama and Biden hold views on abortion diametrically opposed to the Catholic Church.

Yesterday he was arrested and charged with running a prostitution ring for 6 years in Columbus, Ohio.

Obama and PB16 Video

Interesting from Mary's Aggies:

Very interesting development. The original video's narrator was changed from a man to a woman and the script is no longer the same. This is even more interesting...they pulled the old video (made it private) and then posted a new one that isn't quite as pointed in the commentary.
The difference between the two scripts is obvious.

WomynPriest Steals Communion

Is there something she didn't understand about "receiving" Communion? CathCon has the story:

The Sunday worship celebration in the Parish of St. Peter in Linz did not make the excommunicated "Bishop" Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger as happy as she would have wished. Bishop Ludwig Schwarz refused her communion with the Host. Then she took the wafer herself.

400 people joined the celebration of Mass in the Parish of St. Peter on 28June.. It was held in honour of the church's patron, St. Peter. Among them, high-ranking politicians. But few noticed what happened during the Communion.

Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger was dressed as a Bishop when she appeared at the Mass in official dress with a large pectoral Cross. During the Communion she chose, consciously or unconsciously, the row in which the Diocesan Bishop Ludwig Schwarz distributed communion. The bishop suggested to her that she should not come, because he could not give her Communion. But Mayr-Lumetzberger would not stop. When it came to her, she was not given the Host. According to ecclesiastical law,someone excommunicated may not receive communion.

Check out This Guy's Shocked Face

This is funny.

Future attorneys are taught in law school to never ask a witness a question they don't already know the answer to. On Saturday, CNN's Don Lemon learned this lesson the hard way.

Well after President Obama finished his speech in Ghana, Lemon was speaking live to correspondent Nkepile Mabuse who was reporting on location.

When Lemon asked whether the warm reception Obama received upon his arrival Friday was unprecedented, Mabuse caught him quite off guard with her response.

9th Circuit: No Conscience Allowed

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Ed Morrissey has more:

The most overturned appellate court has teed up another case for the Supreme Court to consider — and likely soon. The 9th Circuit overturned an injunction in a district court case, allowing the state of Washington to force a pharmacy to stock and dispense morning-after pills, which causes the abortion of an embryo in the early days of a pregnancy. The pharmacy owners had objected, claiming that the law violated their religious practice:

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Save the Embryonic Humans

A powerful call from Deacon Keith Fournier:

Two years before he would give his “Yes” to the invitation of the Holy Spirit to become the successor of Peter, Karol Cardinal Wotyla, spoke to the U.S. Bishops. His ominous observation was republished in the Wall Street Journal on November 9, 1978:

“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence. It is a trial which the whole Church… must take up.”

Saturday, July 11, 2009

CWR Round-Table: Caritas in Veritate

Impressive lineup from Catholic World Report discussing the new enyclical. Looks like a good debate starter:

When Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, was released on July 7, it sparked world-wide discussion and commentary. Catholic World Report asked a group of leading Catholic intellectuals to reflect on the encyclical, its place in the larger body of Catholic social teaching, and Pope Benedict's vision of a well-ordered and just society.

J. Brian Benestad, Francis J. Beckwith, Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., Richard Garnett, Thomas S. Hibbs, Paul Kengor, George Neumayr, Joseph Pearce, Tracey Rowland, Father James V. Schall, and Rev. Robert A. Sirico share their thoughts on Caritas in Veritate, below.

Here Comes FOCA

Remember when the administration said FOCA was not a priority. Well, that wasn't exactly the truth, I guess. Faith and Family Live has the story about how FOCA's simply disguised by being put in other legislation:

Pro-life groups are warning that the most prominent versions of health care bills wending their way through Congress are stealth FOCA bills.

Sen. Kennedy’s version in the Senate and the so-called “Tri-Committee Bill” in the House—provide for:

- mandated insurance coverage for abortion on demand
- federal subsidies for abortion
- and federally subsidized abortion clinics in regions of the country deemed to have insufficient access to abortion

additionally, both bills in their current form permit the federal government broad powers to override state limitations on abortion.

A Weapon of Mass. Destruction

Erin Manning takes on gay marriage and the effect it has on marriages everywhere:

Whenever people in the gay marriage debate insist that they don't want to interfere with my marriage, I just smile. Wryly. Painfully. Because it's blatantly untrue.

This article helps to illustrate why:

8 Reasons Deej is Becoming a Priest

After reading Deej's reasons for becoming a priest I'm mad at myself for allowing myself to get married and have all these kids. If I knew being a priest was this cool I'd a done it ages ago:

Yes, I am going to seminary to study for the priesthood, and some of you will, no doubt, want to know why. I list my reasons here:

1.Power. Over you, specifically. One aspect of the priesthood has a particular appeal to me, and that's the ability to exert control over superstitious parishioners via their deceased loved ones. If you don't do what I say, or give me sufficient money, I'll have the ability to cast your dead relatives from purgatory into hell. Think about that for a minute and then tell me who wouldn't want to be a priest.

2.Wealth. Speaking of sufficient money, we all know the Vatican has gigantic vats full of it, so much that if the Church only opened her greedy coffers, she could instantly solve all the world's problems with her enormous monetary assets and still have enough left over to fund an ill-fated space program involving flying cathedrals and confused nuns. Fortunately, she's not going to do that, because every good bishop knows money was made for swimming in, Scrooge McDuck style. As a mere priest I won't have a big vat of moolah like the pope, but I'm sure I can acquire a small bathtub full, which is sufficient for my modest needs.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Now It's Eugenics from the Science Czar

As if Ruth Vader Ginsburg wasn't bad enough, now we find out that Obama's Science Czar advocates eugenics on a broad scale. This is horrifying. Michelle Malkin has more:

Looks like Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn’t the only one who’s been channeling abortion champion/eugenicist Margaret Sanger.

Internet sleuth Zombie has a new report on John Holdren, President Obama’s science czar:

Forced abortions. Mass sterilization. A “Planetary Regime” with the power of life and death over American citizens.

The tyrannical fantasies of a madman? Or merely the opinions of the person now in control of science policy in the United States? Or both?

Humorous Picture of the Day

Suzanne Temple is the mother of boys. Heaps of them. I think she's on like her 40th kid or something. But the picture one of them drew along with Suzanne's caption got a chuckle out of me.

Sometimes it is a small comfort to realize that "we're all in the same boat."

Reporter: "We took sides"

What?! Journalists took sides against Sarah Palin? Yeah, I know. It's news because for the first time a journalist is actually admitting it. Tim Graham has more:

On AOL Politics Daily, long-time White House reporter Carl Cannon bluntly declared that the political press gave Sarah Palin a raw deal in the 2008 campaign, and seriously failed to scrutinize Joe Biden, especially his fact-mangling and odd statements in the vice presidential debate.

Trig Palin was Mocked?

Sally Quinn blames Sarah Palin for...everything. Jim Geraghty has the ugly truth:

The Washington Post's Sally Quinn: "One of the reasons, Palin said, was because they were upset that their 14-month-old brother Trig, who has Down Syndrome, was 'mocked and ridiculed by some pretty mean spirited adults.' I'd like to know the names of those mean-spirited adults who mocked and ridiculed her special needs child. I don't believe it for a second."

Newsweek: Obama 'More Catholic' Than Pope

From Newsbusters

Newsweek took their criticism of Pope Benedict XVI to the next level on Thursday- not only did guest columnist Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend affirm that the pontiff could learn from President Obama (something Newsweek and their partners at the Washington Post agreed upon back in April), but also blasted the Bishop of Rome and the Catholic hierarchy for their supposed “disdain” towards women and homosexuals.

The former lieutenant governor of Maryland began her column, titled "Without a Doubt: Why Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does," with the context of the pope’s upcoming meeting with the American president, and how it was “much anticipated and in some circles frowned upon by American Catholics in the wake of Obama’s controversial Notre Dame commencement speech in May.” She then laid out her central thesis about these two leaders: “In truth, though, Obama’s pragmatic approach to divisive policy...and his social-justice agenda reflect the views of American Catholic laity much more closely than those vocal bishops and pro-life activists...[T]hey’ll politely disagree about reproductive freedoms and homosexuality, but Catholics back home won’t care, because they know Obama’s on their side. In fact, Obama’s agenda is closer to their views than even the pope’s.”

Continue Reading >>>>

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Rock Star Dion Comes Home

Patrick Madrid has this great story one of the great rockers of the 20th century coming home to the Church:

I was about as cold as I’d ever been. The Midwest was in the midst of a bitter winter in February, 1959. The wind was punishing, trees were freezing up and snapping, and the little yellow school bus I was riding in with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper had been breaking down.
After our "Winter Dance Party Tour" appearance in Duluth, Minnesota, our bus broke down again. Buddy had had enough. He talked the club manager into chartering a plane to fly the headliners to our next show in Fargo, North Dakota, and tried to recruit us to get on board.

Is the Pope for a New World Order?

I'm still going through the new encyclical but I'm always fascinated by the reactions people have to each one, especially with this one:

Chatter abounds around the web about a paragraph calling for a “world political authority” in Pope Benedict’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. John Zmirak writes that it is the only paragraph that he finds troubling. George Weigel concludes that this section and a whole variety of other statements he finds unacceptable are the result of intra-Vatican quibbling and the influence of the supposedly ideology-driven Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Weigel suggests that statements influenced by PCJP (as identified by “those with advanced degrees in Vaticanology”) are inconsistent with the rest of the “Benedictine” text. The implication is that we can ignore passages some might find troublesome, such as the “world political authority” section, where the strong language understandably has so many upset.

Carville: We're All Cafeteria Catholics Now

James Carville obviously doesn't understand Catholicism or just didn't read the Pope's encyclical carefully. But ignorance never silenced him before so I'm sure it won't now. Media blog has the quotes:

Pope Benedict's new encyclical put James Carville in a typically swaggering mood on CNN Wednesday afternoon, suggesting to conservative Catholics "welcome to the cafeteria" now that Benedict has embraced European economics in his new encyclical:

How Not To Read An Encyclical

Mark Shea explains why we shouldn't depend on journalists to explain what the Pope wrote:

Jounalists: Our Moral and Intellectual Superiors. A reader writes:
I don't know, this just strikes me as odd. This site at CNN is headlined, "Pope Challenges Capitalism Ahead of G-8". The thing is that I have the encyclical on a Word Doc and when I do a word search of the entire thing, "Capitalism" never comes up.
My reader fails to appreciate the sport of encyclical reading.

It Was Never About Leftover Embryos

I can't believe my ears. Is Wesley J. Smith really saying that the same people who are cool with destroying human life are now ok with lying too?

I have been saying for years that the great stem cell debate isn’t really about leftover embryos due to be destroyed anyway. That was just the pretext, an opening gambit intended to desensitize people to the idea that nascent human life can be treated as nothing more than a corn crop. The real goal is human cloning, first for stem cells and later for use in genetic engineering experiments, fetal farming, and eventually, reproductive cloning.

Who Killed California's Economy?

As American economic policy essentially mirrors all the errors of California this video interview from Instapundit is worrying:

INSTAVISION: Who Killed California’s Economy? I talk with Joel Kotkin, author of The City: A Global History, about “gentry liberalism,” media bias, and California’s disastrous economy. Plus, what it means for the rest of America.

Danielle Loves New Pixar Short

Danielle Bean has the new Pixar short and she loves it:

Partly Cloudy is the Pixar short that precedes the popular Pixar movie Up currently in the theaters.

Can I just say I LOVE this little story? It’s not only funny and creative, it’s positively enchanting. And it has a powerful message too.

I don’t mind telling you that, as a mom who struggles to embrace some of the more “painful” aspects of her vocation, the inspiring message behind this bitty film left me teary-eyed in the darkened theater.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Enviros Deface Rushmore

Since they don't have science on their side, why not try a little vandalism. Gateway Pundit has video:

Greenpeace activists desecrated Mt. Rushmore this week-- Activists climbed the cliff and hung a banner urging Barack Obama to fight non-existent global warming:

I Was a Pro-life Atheist

The issue of sex converts a pro-life atheist.

Pro-life atheism? Most people would call that a contradiction in terms. But it isn’t. I was one, and there are more.

Although I was raised Catholic, Catholic grade school and high school filled me with an enormous disdain for the Faith. As a teenager, I realized that none of my teachers were able to answer any serious questions about the Faith.

“It’s a mystery!” they would say, which I soon realized simply meant "Shut up, please."

“You just have to believe!” they would say. “No, actually, I don’t,” I would think.

Media Spins Pope's Encyclical

This was pretty inevitable:

Two major wire services- AP and Reuters- cherry picked excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical (a teaching document of the Catholic Church) on Tuesday to support left-wing economic and political positions, and all but ignored the pontiff’s traditional stances on the family, bioethics, and the environment. The AP also went so far to bring up “the state of the Vatican’s own [financial] books.”

My First Abortion Party

Sickest thing I've read in days. And let me tell you folks that in doing research for this blog I come across a lot of sick stuff. But CMR thanks to Mark Hemingway of NRO for finding this one to ruin our day. Thanks Mark. Thanks a lot:

Via Alternet:
"What are you going to do?" Unnecessary question, really — a conversational life vest, used when you’re sputtering for something to say. We knew the answer. Maggie, a 22-year-old college senior with no intention of bringing a child into the world yet, was going to have an abortion. She told us that she had already made up her mind; she had even determined the time, date and location. A better question might have been, "How are you going to pay for it?"

She answered that one before we had a chance to ask. "We’re having a party Friday to raise money," Maggie said. "You guys are obviously invited."

Gallup Poll on the Morally Objectionable

Some surprises here.

Gallup apparently got the idea to conduct this survey from the Mark Sanford mess, but beyond that, the data presents some interesting comparisons. Are there any taboos left in American life on which we can have broad agreement? Yes there are, although surprisingly few. Here are the taboos still getting majority agreement:

Married men and women having affairs: 92%
Polygamy: 91%
Cloning humans: 88%
Suicide: 80%
Cloning animals: 63%
Abortion: 56%

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Preventitive Care Prevents Nothing?

From Mark Steyn at NRO

One of President Obama's arguments for "reforming" health care is that "preventive" care - more tests, more screening - will help control costs. Really? A propos cancer, Professor H Gilbert Welch of Dartmouth Medical School notes:
For starters, the majority of folks who are screened receive no benefit. That's because, despite scary statistics, most people will not get cancer. Let's look at breast cancer as an example.
Continue Reading >>>>

Amy on Caritas

I still haven't gotten to read it as I'm still getting ready to take the kids to the zoo so I'll point you over to Amy who's a heck of a lot smarter than me anyway:

Preparatory reading Populorum Progressio, Paul VI's 1967 encyclical, which is a primary reference point in this one.

I have to say right out that I am never sure what the ultimate point and effect of an encyclical like this is. It is a mix between analysis of very specific global situations ranging from the financial crisis to migration to unions to the welfare state and some quite wonderful, clearly Benedict-written passages about the nature of human life, especially human life in community.

I wonder if arguments about the former - about the accuracy of the analysis, the sufficiency of the evidence and data - will overwhelm the latter, which is really what we should be looking to a Pope for. Don't think I'm saying religious figures - Popes included - shook stick to the "purely religious" stuff - whatever that means.

Adopting HIV Positive Children

Wonderful interview from Jen F. at Conversion Diary:

A few weeks ago I met a wonderful couple named Kimberly and Jimmy who are in the process of adopting two HIV-positive children from Ethiopia. I enjoyed talking with them so much that I asked if I could interview them for my blog to share their story with you. The following is the first of a three-part interview, written by Kimberly. It's a long post but I hope that you will find, as I did, that it is well worth your time to read the whole thing...

Full Text: Caritas in Veritate

American Papist has the link. I'd start reading it now and have something brilliant to say but I'm taking the kids to the zoo.

A brief table of contents:
Introduction (Paragraphs 1-9)
Chapter 1: The Message of Populorum Progressio (Paragraphs 10-20)
Chapter 2: Human Development In Our Time (Paragraphs 21-33)
Chapter 3: Fraternity, Economic Development and Civil Society (Paragraphs 34-42)
Chapter 4: The Development of Peoples, Rights and Duties, The Environment (Paragraphs 43-52)
Chapter 5: The Cooperation of the Human Family (Paragraphs 53-67)
Chapter 6: The Development of Peoples and Technology (Paragraphs 68-77)
Conclusion (Paragraphs 78-79)

Monday, July 6, 2009

Tone It Down? Never!

From Father Z (Can I hear an amen?)

Some of my Catholic friends have been urging me and others on the Catholic right to tone down the rhetoric when it comes to discussing issues related to the Notre Dame scandal, or Notre Shame as time is showing it to have been. They want us to tone down our "harsh rhetoric" on issues such as abortion, President Obama and other Catholics who support him. These friends insist that they respect my right to my point of view, and they assure me that they, too, oppose abortion. However, they argue that many tactics of the Catholic pro-life movement are “negative” (e.g. showing pictures of aborted fetuses) and therefore counter-productive. They argue further that these tactics – which include protesting Notre Dame’s bestowing an honorary doctorate of law on President Obama – actually exacerbate tensions and divisions within the Catholic Church and within society at large. Finally, they charge that such tactics are spiteful and otherwise uncharitable. We on the right would say “sinful,” but these friends of mine don’t use that language.

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Cardinal Praises Obama on Abortion

You wanna rip your hair out? Scream in bewilderment? Then read this story about a Cardinal comparing Obama to Aquinas and praising his measured stance on abortion:

Cardinal George Cottier, 87, former theologian of the papal household under Pope John Paul II and Vatican adviser, has praised US President Barack Obama's "humble realism" and measured approach to abortion.

Cardinal Cottier compared the president's approach to abortion to the thinking of St Thomas Aquinas and early Christian tradition about framing laws in a pluralistic society, the National Catholic Reporter said.

His views, published in an essay in the current issue of 30 Giorni, reputedly the most widely read journal of Catholic affairs in Italy, analysed two Obama speeches - a May 17 commencement address at the University of Notre Dame and a June 4 speech to the Islamic world in Cairo.

I Am Sarah Palin

Hmmm. Who do I have more in common with, Barack Obama or Sarah Palin? Sherry over at Chocolate for your Brain has the answer.

I'm mad.

A lot of people who consider themselves smart, bought the Tina Fey package version of Sarah Palin.

The reality is that most of us are much closer to Sarah than we are to Barrack Obama. We didn't go to ivy league schools. We didn't spend our whole career orchestrating our way into the White House. Most of us were busy living our lives and like Sarah, in some situation, saw a problem and determined that if no one else was going to tackle it then we'd better.

Most moms who wind up Presidents of the School Board or Dads who wind up managing the finances for a volunteer organization, do so not because they have the training or the background but because they were willing to take risks and put themselves out there to do things.

The Catholic Founding Father

I didn't know about this and found it very interesting:

Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a delegate to the Continental Congress and later United States Senator for Maryland. He was also the only Catholic to have signed the The Declaration of Independence. One of the wealthiest men in the colonies, it is reported that -- upon fixing his signature, a member standing near observed, "There go a few millions," and all admitted that few risked as much, in a material sense, than the wealthy Marylander.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Cardinal Speaks Out on Honduras

We should all pray for a peaceful resolution which is being made worse by an inept White House. Fr. Steve Leak has more:

Our Salesian Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez of Honduras is speaking out on the political situation there. We need to pray for the good people of this country and for the Church there. Let's pray that peace will prevail. The following comes from the Let's Get It Right blog:

TEGUCIGALPA -- A top church leader called on ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to reconsider his return, and to recall three of the Ten Commandments.

Bikinis Everyday

What's a little miscommunication between mothers and daughters? Poor Ebeth is dealing with her daughter's modesty issues a wee bit young.

Yesterday, Karoline asked for "bikinis every day." Since she doesn't have a bikini, I was a little perplexed.

"You mean you want to wear your bathing suit every day?"

"No, bikinis every day."

"You mean you want to go to the pool every day?"

"No, bikinis every day!"

Great. She's two years old and already we have a modesty and clothing issue.

Palin: Quitter or Climber?

Could you imagine someone who's only been in major office for two years, quitting and declaring their presidential candidacy? You betcha.

Sarah Palin is a quitter, according to certain commentators, because she did not serve out her term of office. If that is the case, Palin is in "good" company.

I present to you, Barack Obama, photographed in front of the Capitol, the building where he served for less than two years of his 6-year Senate term before starting the process of running for President, something he promised the voters during his senatorial campaign he would not do:

Thursday, July 2, 2009

A Phone Call that Changed My Life

Patrick Madrid

I got to know Karl Keating in early 1987, back when he was still practicing law full-time and dabbling in apologetics part-time.

“Catholic Answers” was, in those days, simply a part-time tract and newsletter apostolate Karl had operated for a few years from his home, writing new materials in his spare time.

We made contact as the result of an article I happened across in our diocesan newspaper, a brief, blasé squib about a public debate on the papacy that Karl had engaged in with an itinerant Baptist minister who ran an anti-Catholic organization aimed solely at converting Catholics to the “truth.” That caught my attention.
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If You Care About Being Lied To...

If you're a regular here at Creative Minority Report you probably don't trust the media all that much. But this is so crazy that you just have to see it. The text is fine but the competing videos tell the story better. Go to Gateway Pundit and prepare to despair over the state of media today:

The US media reported today on "continuing protests" in support of ousted President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras.
FOX News reported:
"Demonstators on the streets of Honduras again today demanding that Manuel Zelaya be reinstated."

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Brain Death and Organ Donation

Could it be that an increasingly pragmatic medical profession sees sick patients not as individuals to be saved, but organ farms to be harvested. I hope not. Mary Ann Kreitzer has some thoughts and is asking for prayers for a friend:

I've been following the argument about "brain death" and organ donation for several years. It was an impersonal discussion for me until the end of last month when a friend's son was in an ATV accident and landed in the hospital in a coma and on a ventilator. He was showing some improvement a week after the accident and then brain swelling cut off the circulation to part of his brain and the hospital started agitating to do an apnea test where they turn off the ventilator for a few minutes to see if the patient breathes on his own.

Trig Trutherism Part 866,322,978

Some people are just crazy and insist that Sarah Palin faked her pregnancy. Unfortunately, some of those lunatics write for mainstream publications and appear on television. Among them you can count "journalist" Andrew Sullivan. R.S. McCain, in his own subtle as a sledgehammer way, rips apart Sullivan:

Dr. Andrew Sullivan, M.D., OBY-GYN, is an expert on these questions, you know.

Utterly lacking self-awareness, but yet still an expert on the care and treatment of pregnant Republicans. He is genuinely concerned about the health and well-being of pregnant Republicans and their children.

To quote the same eminent expert: "Words fail."

USCCB Selling out Catholic Health Care?

This is a really well researched and worrisome piece from Pewsitter on unions bullying Catholic hospitals and how the USCCB is responding:

For more than a decade, Catholic health care workers have been the targeted for unionization by some of the country’s most powerful, radically anti- life union bosses, efforts that have included slick television advertising campaigns that demonize Catholic hospitals as a public health risk.

For the unions, unionization of Catholic health care workers would be the goose that never stopped laying golden eggs until it died a horrible death from exhaustion. With 600,000 health care workers in 600 Catholic hospitals, the annual money flow into union coffers could easily reach $ 500 million per year, an awfully large amount of money to push the radical, left- wing agenda the union bosses have embraced over the past few decades, an agenda which has put abortion and homosexual rights at the top, the elimination of conscience clauses for health care workers, and the cutting out of employees in any discussions between union bosses and corporate management.

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