"Believing Christians should look upon themselves as such a creative minority and ... espouse once again the best of its heritage, thereby being at the service of humankind at large." --Joseph Ratzinger
CMR friend Jen Merkel has the audacity to disagree with her betters in the government. Surely her insolence will be repaid by a visit from the authorities.
If Jen gets picked up by the feds I just hope she doesn't mention this blog as agreeing with her. In fact, maybe I shouldn't have even written that we agree with her. Maybe my next post should refudiate Jen Merkel, you know to distance her from us.
In case, the authorities are reading - Jen you had it coming!!!! How dare you question whether a mosque should be built at the site of the World Trade Center? You know, because Islam had nothing to do with 9-11.
I think that should do it. (Now that the authorities aren't reading CMR gives big huzzahs to Jen for her post.)
Jen writes:
It is a well established fact that the new aristocracy in Washington, and points left, looks askance at the fumbling yokels that make up the electorate that they must oversee.
The Elites currently in power believe that they have the only true path forward, and we are just too stupid to stay out of their way. They must deign to lower themselves, occasionally, to pat us on the head and explain what they must do, for our own good, even if it is painful....
I hate being patronized.
Continue reading at Jen's Pen and you too can distance yourself from Jen in the combox.
You gotta' love this guy. He brings almost as much humor to the legislature as Bawney Fwank. I love when Patrick Kennedy uses the term "values" and "human potential."
But here he loses it in trying to get taxpayers to pay for a bike path for $2 million. He advocates for it...vociferously shall we say. At one point he almost accidentally makes a point but veered insanely away just in time. Here's the thing. Dude, you're a Kennedy. You've got mad cash. If you feel this strongly pay for it. But no he doesn't feel that strongly. He feels only strong enough for you to pay for a bike path in his backyard.
If poll numbers are to be believed some Jewish people are waking up and wondering why they've been supporting the radical left which hasn't exactly been pro Israel or pro-Jew for a while.
If an exodus from the Democrat Party does happen, expect a lot more of blatant anti-semitism from the left. But Dem congressman Mike McMahon is clearly putting himself out there for frontrunner status. He didn't wait for the starting gun. He's out there with it. I mean, Wow. Talk about leftist anti-semitism. I knew it was this bad but I just didn't think they were stupid enough to say things like this out loud. Yet.
Mike Grimm, a G.O.P challenger for Mike McMahon’s Congressional seat, took in over $200,000 in his last filing.
But in an effort to show that Grimm lacks support among voters in the district, which covers Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, the McMahon campaign compiled a list of Jewish donors to Grimm and provided it to The Politicker.
The file, labeled “Grimm Jewish Money Q2,” for the second quarter fundraising period, shows a list of over 80 names, a half-dozen of which in fact do hail from Staten Island, and a handful of others that list Brooklyn as home.
“Where is Grimm’s money coming from,” said Jennifer Nelson, McMahon’s campaign spokeman. “There is a lot of Jewish money, a lot of money from people in Florida and Manhattan, retirees.”
No word yet on whether McMahon wants the Jooooos to wear a badge when they donate or vote or anything, you know, not that it matters...just so we know who the Jooooos are voting for.
Maybe something tasteful like this: You know, in case we need to round them up - for their own protection or something.
I often think of James Bond when I think of the Jesuits. No, not becuase they travel the world putting themselves in grave danger for the sake of others. Those are old school Jesuits. No, I think of James Bond when I think of the faith of many Jesuits. The faith of many Jesuits is just like a James' Martinis.
Shaken, not stirred.
Language in the hands of a Jesuit theologian is like taffy. Sweet nothings boiled and stretched into something completely other. Sweet on the tongue and of no nutritional value.
So it is with Jesuit Priest James Keenan, professor of Theology at Boston College.
Fr. Keenan is aware that Pope Benedict has decried relativism. Most theologians should understand that relativism is a bad thing. Most Jesuit theologians also think that traditionalism is a bad thing. So, using their impeccable logic, if relativism is bad AND traditionalism is bad --- ergo relativism and traditionalism must be the same thing. That was easy! And you didn't even have to pay the $40k a year for Boston College.
Asked about what Pope Benedict XVI has termed as a “creeping secularism” and his call to address the moral relativism of today’s society, Fr Keenan said that the notion of relativism “ cuts two ways”.
“We can have a relativism in which we simply say; ‘what the church once taught in 1548 has never changed and always remains the same’”, which Fr Keenan notes, is not possible. “There is the relativism of those who want to objectify tradition is such as way that they want us to be living in the past with rules that do not address some of the contemporary challenges that we have. So there is a relativism that comes from objectifying the tradition”.
Got that.
Don't get me wrong, its not that I think that most Jesuits are stupid, just that they are really really lazy. I mean they can't even be bothered to come up with new words to describe heresies of the right, they need to re-use words that mean the exact opposite.
They are so lazy they can't even put two words that combine normally-contradictory terms. What is that called again? Something....
I hadn't seen or heard this before. It's pretty amazing. This is the kind of thing the internet is great for. It's for us to be amazed and humbled by each other.
Duuude. Famous novelist and former atheist Anne Rice just broke up with Christ...ON FACEBOOK!
Totally ruuuuude. Uncool. Breaking up via Facebook is just a little bit better than getting broken up with via Tweet. Not much better but I guess a little.
The best-selling writer who made headlines with her dramatic conversion (or reversion) and wrote a popular book about her journey back to Catholicism, has changed her mind.
She made the announcement on Facebook:
"I quit being a Christian. I'm out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of ... Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen."
Sheesh! Why doesn't she just read the National Catholic Reporter, I think a lot of those guys over there would agree with her kind of Christianity.
Actually Rice tried to make up with Christ a little later. She wrote on Facebook:
"I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity."
Wow. Quickest break up like...evah. Kick Jesus to the curb and then when she realized she couldn't get a date for Sunday she calls the big man back and says it was all a misunderstanding. Again -not cool.
But what a weird statement -she remains committed to Christ but not to being "Christian." Huh? So she's committed to Christ as long as Christ agrees with her. Maybe I have to read the National Catholic Reporter more to understand statements like that. I'm not going to though.
The funny thing is that she doesn't realize that by calling herself a follower of Christ and not following any of the rules of Christianity she just joined the majority of Christians in this country. We're called sinners, Ms. Rice.
You know that expression "the more things change, the more they stay the same."
In the culture wars, it is the truism of truisms.
From the beginning of the culture wars (I don't wish to debate when they started, perhaps all the way back to Adam & Eve) education has been the front lines. Sure, weapons and tactics change, but the end game remains the same. Control education, control the culture.
The age old and continuing battle has been over curriculum. You know the battles over Creation, Evolution, sex education, and trans-gendered lesbianic social inclusion studies.
But there are other battles waging of which you should be aware.
Professional McCarthyism.
The has recently been a new wave of professional McCarthyism aimed at ...
My sister's husband is in a commercial which is pretty cool. Just thought I'd share. He's the guy wandering around with the number on his face until the end where you see him for realz. Please don't tell him he looked better with his face obscured I'm sure he's figured that out by now. (You've got to bring these actor types down a peg. They get awfully full of themselves.)
A number of Catholic groups including the Catholic League, Ignatius Press, and the Pacific Justice Institute are asking the Supreme Court to review an outlandish and anti-Catholic decision by the always controversial Ninth Circuit.
This brief asks the Supreme Court to review a recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, which approved actions by the University of California system that effectively prevent private Christian, Catholic, and Jewish high schools from teaching courses in accordance with their faith traditions.
In essence, the UC system has declared that students from religious high schools will have difficulty being admitted to UC schools because those students will not be given credit for key courses such as biology, history, and literature when those courses are taught from a religious perspective.
UC officials stated in the lower courts that they considered religious perspectives - such as the role of divine providence in history - too narrow - minded. As a result, students from religious schools may be required to post higher test scores than their public school counterparts in order to be admitted to one of the ten UC schools, which include UC Berkeley and UCLA.
My first reaction was wondering if Catholic schools actually taught Catholicism anymore. But then I put away my cynicism and saw that besides being blatant discrimination that could be widely abused, this decision could have a two pronged effect. One -it would make it very difficult for parents to choose a Catholic school education because if parents know that sending their child to Catholic school makes it more difficult for them to attend a college what parent is going to put their children in Catholic schools? Two - This decision could force Catholic schools to secularize.
For militant secularists, this decision has the benefit of likely destroying the Catholic school system in California. Let's hope that the Supreme Court hears this case. You know, I hear there's lot of Catholics there.
Note: I first saw this story linked on Pewsitter. They do a great job at aggregating news stories important to Catholics.
This is exactly the kind of story that really makes me worry about America. It's not a story of shadowy terrorists with suitcase bombs, nefarious spies, or foreign madmen plotting our destruction.
If Education Secretary Arne Duncan has his way, kids would be spending a lot more time at school — and a three-month summer would be a thing of the past.
Duncan joked with attendees at a luncheon at the National Press Club Tuesday in Washington that he would like schools to stay open 13 months out of the year. Then he told the audience of over 100 that he seriously supports longer school hours.
“In all seriousness, I think schools should be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day, seven days a week, 11-12 months of the year,” Duncan said. “This is not just more of the same. There would be a whole variety of after-school programs. Obviously academics would be at the heart of that. But you top it off with dancing, art, drama, music, yearbook, robotics, activities for older siblings and parents, ESL classes.”
You have to ask yourself why? And the answer is so ridiculous that once you see through the smokescreen you see that this is about control of your children. They don't trust you to raise your children. They know better.
So why does Mr. Duncan think we need longer school days and years?
“As you guys know, our world has changed, our economy has changed,” said Duncan. “The days of telling kids to go home at 2:30 and having mom there with a peanut butter sandwich, those days are gone. Whether it’s a single parent working one, two, three jobs or two parents working, the hours from 3 o’clock to 7 o’clock are a huge anxiety, and that’s why we have to keep our schools open longer.”
So let me get this straight. Many parents can't be home with children when they come home at 2:30 and that's bad so instead of giving parents tax breaks or incentives to stay home with their children they decide to spend more taxpayer money to keep schools open 12 months a year and 12 hours a day making it harder for parents to be able to afford to stay home because they have to pay for all these programs.
And didn't you pick up the derisive tone to the whole "Mom there with a peanut butter sandwich" thing? To this administration Mom at home with the peanut butter sandwich is a mockable relic of a bygone era. Do they not realize that still happens in millions of homes across the country every single day. Actually, they do. They just don't like it.
Here's the thing - If you believe Duncan's stated problem is that parents aren't home with kids his solution actually makes no sense as it makes it harder for parents to stay home. So one must figure that the stated problem is not the actual problem. One can only surmise that the government wants less Mom and peanut butter and more government.
And they're willing to use their power to get it.
Duncan explained that although he intends to use the leverage of the federal government to drive reform, he intends to give officials and teachers at the local level the flexibility to improve while also holding them accountable
Yeah, completely forget the second part of that statement because those holding the money have all the power. He's telling the country in print that the federal government is going to muscle schools all over the country to extend school days and the school year. I pay him the respect to believe what he says. Too often we discount what big government types say because we figure they must not have meant what they said.
The question must be asked whether parents staying home with children is a societal good. And if so shouldn't the federal government be doing more to encourage it, rather than making it harder.
But when they say more time at school, they actually mean less time with family. This is their end game. Remember "It Takes a Village." Well, the village looks an awful lot like the federal government. And a lot less like Mom with a peanut butter sandwich.
I don't have time for a long post as it is quite late.
Let me just say a few things.
Inception might the best movie I have seen in years.
It is probably the first movie in a decade that I would consider watching again in a theater.
The special effects really contribute to the story and you actually forget they are special effects. The are just part of the landscape.
The director, Christopher Nolan, gives you enough at the beginning that you sorta know where its going, but always leaves you wondering how you got there.
Movies about dreams or with heavy dream sequences are usually quick cutting and disjointed affairs. Inception's dreams are neither.
The performances by the actors are simple and fit so well with the plot. The performances serve the story, not the other way around.
I boggle at the genius and creativity that can even envision such a thing as Inception.
I'm not saying she's my first choice for President but I have to give Sarah Palin mad props for this one. According to TMZ, Sarah Palin came face to face with a bear and two cubs. And she kept her cool. Something tells me meeting with Putin wouldn't be such a big deal for Sarah.
Look, everyone wonders how they'd react if they were ever face to face with a monster -and make no mistake a bear is a monster. It's faster than you, stronger than you and would eat you with its big sharp teeth and be looking for your neighbors by brunch. That's a monster. I think anyone who wants to be President should be forced to face down a monster of some sort. I think it would be very telling to see how they'd react.
I'm not saying something like this is feasible. I'd imagine the insurance on something like this would be pretty high, maybe even prohibitive. And then there's the chance of a presidential nominee being eaten alive on national television which might be kind of rough. But we could show it at like 10 p.m. when all the kids are in bed.
I'm just saying that now everybody knows what Sarah's made of. And it's strong stuff. Now, imagine if before the last election we'd done this. How do you think Obama would've done face to face with a bear. I'm just betting Obama would've bowed to the bear.
I wonder how John McCain would've done. I honestly don't know. I wasn't the biggest McCain fan during the election but I'll admit that the guy might have been as cool as the other side of the pillow or he might have just gone totally wacko and jumped into the water, fashioned a spear out of some fallen sticks and demanded to have it out right then and there with the bear. That was the thing about McCain. Dude kept everyone on edge a little bit.
But what I'm really saying is you can say what you want about Sarah, but how many politicians wouldn't have had to change their underwear after meeting a bear? And I think that says something. You?
"Less is more." -- Modernist architect Mies van der Rohe, early 20th century.
"Less is a bore." -- Postmodernist architect Robert Venturi, mid 20th century.
"The man who said that 'less is more' is also saying that nothing is the most." -- Edward Schulte, American Catholic church architect, in "Quotations," a paper read before the Cincinnati Literary Club, 1968, recently discovered in his personal papers.
Remember Paul the Octopus who predicted the winner of seven straight World Cup matches? Well, now Iranian regime President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked Paul the Octopus in a speech this weekend in Tehran. Gateway Pundit reported:
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, says Paul the Octopus...is a symbol of all that is wrong with the western world.
He claims that the octopus is a symbol of decadence and decay among “his enemies”...
However, the Iranian president accused the octopus of spreading “western propaganda and superstition.” Paul was mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend.
Immediately after Ahmadinejad's anti-octopus speech, Michael moore came out and sided with Ahmadinejad saying the octopus was at fault for instigating such a reaction from adherents of the religion of peace.
Oliver Stone said the problem wasn't just that one particular octopus. "It's all octopi," he said. Stone claimed that the real story of what's going on between Ahmadinejad and the octopi can't be heard because the media is filled with octopi and octopi sympathizers. "Oh yeah," he added, "The octopus lobby in Congress is controlled by evil octopi too."
The Obama administration announced their promise to work for peace between the octopi and the Iranian leader but Obama did take time out of his vacation to criticize how the octopi were goading the Arab world into a reaction with their incessant sports predictions and...well, just existing.
An administration spokesperson said they might remove the octopus from the endangered species list because the United States didn't want to be seen as taking one side over another.
A spokesperson for the octopi said that they simply want to be left in peace in the sea, which is their homeland. That comment caused further outrage in the Arab world because they felt the sea didn't belong to the octopi but to the Muslim world.
Helen Thomas said she wants all octopi removed from the ocean and rounded up and placed in tanks. But she said she wanted to make it clear she wasn't anti-octopus.
Reportedly, Code Pink has already started buying harpoons, nets and clubs which they are bringing into the Middle East by flotilla to ensure peace.
Awww! The poor things at Big Abortion seemed so thrilled the economy had taken a turn for the worse. According to the media, abortion clinics seemed thrilled to predict while many industries suffered from bleak economic indicator s, the abortion industry was riding high predicting that the recession would be a boom time for Big Abortion. But, let’s just say they’re not having the great recession they were hoping for.
In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie reacted to the recession by rightly saying that the state is “broke” and can’t afford to fund abortion clinics like Planned Parenthood as it has in the past.
Atlantic City Press reports:
Legislative Democrats restored budget cuts of $7.5 million, but Republican Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the spending Friday afternoon. Unless Democratic lawmakers succeed in leading a vote to override the governor’s veto, funding for the centers will run out.
While the cuts will affect 58 centers statewide, Cumberland County, with high rates of teen pregnancy and unemployment, is likely to lose two of its three health centers, in Millville and Bridgeton, both run by provider FamCare, Inc.
Atlantic City’s branch of Planned Parenthood would face service cuts, possibly closing its doors three days a week.
This is interesting because Christie doesn’t seem to be a culture warrior. But he has pulled funding from abortion clinics in the name of fiscal responsibility due to the very same recession which was supposed to enrich Planned Parenthood and its minions.
You’d have to imagine that many in the abortion industry are now attempting to put the corks back in their champagne bottles. This kind of thing has to hurt the feelings of Big Abortion acolytes terribly because when the recession started, their hopes were so sky high that the abortion industry was recession proof. And the poor mainstream media must be devestated as well after passing along predictions from their fellow travelers in Big Abortion so eagerly...Continue reading at the National Catholic Register>>>
Diane at awesome Te Deum laudamus! makes a very good point. Remember how many progressive Catholic's intimated that Abp. Burke's departure from St. Louis to Rome and the Apostolic Signatura was a demotion.
The idea was that Abp. Burke was too outspoken and too conservative and so he was removed from St. Louis and given the Apostolic Signatura job just to get him out of the way.
Well, if they were trying to get him out of the way, they are not doing a very good job. Diane writes:
David Hudson writes writes for the First Amendment Center about a young girl who told by her school to remove a t-shirt that had a pro-life message on it.
A dress-code dispute over an anti-abortion T-shirt will head to trial in late August, after a federal district judge said it was an open question whether officials prohibited a student from wearing her shirt with pictures of fetuses because of its viewpoint or because it was too graphic.
In April 2008, a sixth-grade student at McSwain Union Elementary School in Merced, Calif., wore an anti-abortion shirt during the week of state standardized testing.
The shirt featured the word “ABORTION” on the front with three squares below it. The first two squares showed images of fetuses and the third was black. Below the three squares was the caption, “growing, growing … gone.” The back of the shirt read: “American Life League’s Sixth Annual NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY April 29, 2008 www.ALL.org.”
It looks like the school said that the shirt violated the school dress code. But the First Amendment Center quotes the school policy as:
“Personal articles, clothing, or manner of dress shall make no suggestion of tobacco, drug, or alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, profanity, vulgarity, or other inappropriate subject matter.”
The judge, presiding over the case, refused to toss the case when requested to do so saying there was evidence for both sides.
“Plaintiff alleges that Defendants censored Plaintiff’s expression due to the fact that her t-shirt advanced a pro-life message, and there is some evidence on the record sufficient to support such an inference,” Wanger wrote.
However, he also said the school officials presented evidence that “the restriction imposed on Plaintiff was not based on the viewpoint expressed by Plaintiff’s shirt, but rather on the graphic pictures contained on it.”
Graphic? I didn't see the specific shirt but I've seen the poster many places and if it's the same one, it shows two pictures of perfectly fine human babies in the womb. How can that be too graphic? These weren't pictures of babies torn apart. Have we really gotten to the point where pictures of babies in the womb are "too graphic?"
The judge also said it was an open question whether school officials could show that the anti-abortion shirt would have disrupted school. That would seem to me to be the school district's best argument here.
Now, this argument strikes me as hypocritical because school district all across the country refer and arrange abortions for children. The old line is that they can't give a kid an aspirin but they can arrange an abortion without parents knowing about it. So they can arrange abortions but nobody's allowed to wear a shirt with an unborn child on it?
Remember, free speech is only for those who agree with the state. Everything else is shouting fire in a crowded movie theater.
Many good people from the Garden State do not care for the show "The Jersey Shore" because it makes people from Jersey look like, well, idiots.
Governor Christie even went so far as to complain this weekend about the show saying to Jake Tapper on ABC's This Week that "reality series doesn't represent 'the real New Jersey.'"
If I were from NJ (I dodged that bullet when my NYC born parents chose Long Island over Jersey in the early '60s) I would be embarrassed too. But not just from "The Jersey Shore." There is someone making Jersey look even worse than JWoww and Snooki. It is "The Jersey Sharia."
A judge in New Jersey excused the rape of a woman ...
Japan is in big trouble. What's the trouble? A lack of babies is destroying the country's economy. The birthrate in Japan is about 1.25 children per woman. 2.1 is the replacement rate. So what you have are no babies and lots of old people. Not exactly a roadmap to productivity, is it? So some folks have thought of a way to get people hooked on babies. How? By building robot babies. Yup. Robot babies. How sad is it that so many babies are killed that the only way folks can figure out to teach people that babies are great is by building robot babies? This is a very very strange world.
I can't help but think that this will have the same effect as inflatable women. Blow up dolls don't really make men like women more, do they? I mean, I've never heard of a great husband saying he owes his great relationship to his human wife to what he learned from his inflatable spouse. Having an inflatable date kinda' guarantees you'll never actually get a real live woman, doesn't it? I fear that the robot babies will have a similar effect, which is to say none at all in actually producing real babies.
My prediction? Japan will become an island of inflatable wives and robot babies and old worn out unproductive men.
I don't mean to single Japan out. Many countries are on the way to the same disaster, they're just not as good at building robots as Japan. Ironically, some are even better at killing babies though.
HT Jill Stanek -Besides being a pro-life hero she's a top-notch pro-life blogger. If you're not checking her out you should.
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean accused Fox News of promoting racism, including in the recent fracas over the Obama administration’s forced resignation of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod.
“Let’s just be blunt about this … I think Fox News did something that was absolutely racist,” Dean charged on “Fox News Sunday.
The NAACP outlandishly claims that the Tea Party is racist.
For years anyone who wants the border secure has been labeled a racist. And you know what? It works. It works well. How many times have you heard someone say, "I'm not anti-immigrant but..." Once you start off that way everyone you're talking to thinks you're anti-immigrant. Think of Richard Nixon saying, "I'm not a crook."
In the 80's, liberals labeled Ronald Reagan a likable dunce and even in the days after his recent death you could see how that assumption colored the news reports on him. In the 90's they labeled Newt Gingrich an uncaring ogre and it stuck. They labeled George W. Bush an idiot and it stuck. They labeled Trent Lott a racist with absolutely no evidence and he only added fuel to the fire by going on his "I'm not a racist" tour. Liberals labeled Palin a close minded fool and it stuck. Sure there's plenty of people who love her but there's no arguing that this view of Palin has permeated the mainstream. Andrew Breitbart is being labeled a racist now as the poster boy for the right wing.
Liberals control the media. Liberals control the government and its funding apparatus. And they will keep connecting the term "tea party" and "racist" so much until the two concepts until are fused in the public mind. If you were a legislator right now would you join the Tea Party caucus and open yourself to being questioned about racism every time some dunce says or does something stupid at a Tea Party rally or sends a racially insensitive email.
This kind of thing works. You know all those political attack ads that make outlandish charges with foreboding music in the background. Typically, if you scratch the surface behind many of the allegations they're pretty weak. People actually laugh at them. There are hundreds of mock political attack ads on You Tube. They're a punch line. But politicians continue to do them. Why? Because they work. They work well because many people don't remember the details they just come away feeling icky about the candidate. That's all they want and maybe a label or two like "Cheater" or "dumb" or "racist."
Like it or not there are still millions of apathetic people who don't do the research on these ads; they still watch and trust their nightly news or CNN. And after months of hearing that the Tea Party is racist from multiple sources they'll believe it. They won't be able to defend the assertion, they won't even know why they think it but the fact is they'll still think it. And they vote.
It doesn't matter to the liberals that they're hurting the country, it just matters that they get out the vote in the upcoming election and the way they get out the vote is by increasing the minority vote and convincing apathetic independents that the right wing is racist.
So call me cynical but I believe it will work. I don't know if it'll be enough to keep the Democrats in power but it'll spare them a few seats so they'll keep right on doing it.
The only thing that can stop this is alternative media. I have great hope for the blogosphere because mainstream media is shrinking. They're still ginormous but they're shrinking. We must reach the apathetic hordes with our blogs, by word of mouth, by talk radio. You never know how people will be reached. We must keep on trying because we know the liberals will.
Houston Votes receives its funding from Texans Together which has received funding from the federal government including grants for Americorps workers. So to make this clear -the federal government is funding an organization that's pushing people to vote for those in charge of the federal government and demonizing the same people who the federal government is suing. Weird, huh? Who'd a thunk it?
Clumsy Best Man Ruins Wedding - Watch more Funny Videos If this is't a great reason to get married in a church I don't know what is. This could never happen in a church unless there was some really weird placement of a baptismal font.
Excuse some of the language. You can even watch it with the sound off and it won't really change the fact that nobody will be talking to this best man for a loooooonng time.
A news magazine accompanied a number of priests to gay clubs and engaged in casual sex. The Daily Mail reports:
A gay priest sex scandal has rocked the Catholic Church in Italy today after a weekly news magazine released details of a shock investigation it had carried out.
Using hidden cameras, a journalist from Panorama magazine - owned by Italian Prime Minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi - filmed three priests as they attended gay nightspots and had casual sex.
Today there was no immediate comment from the Italian Bishops Conference and the Vatican - which has been rocked by a series of sex scandals involving paedophile priests since the start of the year.
The diocese of Rome responded that no one is forcing homosexual prelates to remain as priests. It said "we don't want to hurt them" but their conduct "muddies the reputation of all the others."
This is awful and it seems that the priests were in on it and they need to be handled immediately as they went out of their way to hurt the Church.
The Vicar of Rome today called on homosexual clergymen in the Catholic Church to “come out” and leave the priesthood.
The Vicar of Rome, one of the most important positions in the Vatican, was responding to a report today in Panorama Magazine that said Catholic priests were conducting a double life, citing secret video footage.
“No one is forcing them to stay in the priesthood to exploit the benefits,” the Diocese of Rome said in a statement posted on its Web Site. “If they are coherent, they should come out into the open.”
Many people hope that if Republicans can take back at least one house come November, that some degree of sanity can be restored and our fiscal house can be put in order. But perhaps it will already be too late.
In addition to the health-care bill, which will be nearly impossible to repeal before 2012 or even then, there is the looming humongous tax increase coming our way before the new congress can even be sworn in. IBD tallies:
But as of midnight Dec. 31, the death tax returns — at a rate of 55% on estates of $1 million or more. The effect this will have on hospital life-support systems is already a matter of conjecture.
Resurrection of the death tax, however, isn't the only tax problem that will be ushered in Jan. 1. Many other cuts from the Bush administration are set to disappear and a new set of taxes will materialize. And it's not just the rich who will pay.
The lowest bracket for the personal income tax, for instance, moves up 50% — to 15% from 10%. The next lowest bracket — 25% — will rise to 28%, and the old 28% bracket will be 31%. At the higher end, the 33% bracket is pushed to 36% and the 35% bracket becomes 39.6%.
But the damage doesn't stop there.
The marriage penalty also makes a comeback, and the capital gains tax will jump 33% — to 20% from 15%. The tax on dividends will go all the way from 15% to 39.6% — a 164% increase.
Both the cap-gains and dividend taxes will go up further in 2013 as the health care reform adds a 3.8% Medicare levy for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and joint filers making more than $250,000. Other tax hikes include: halving the child tax credit to $500 from $1,000 and fixing the standard deduction for couples at the same level as it is for single filers.
Letting the Bush cuts expire will cost taxpayers $115 billion next year alone, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and $2.6 trillion through 2020.
But even more tax headaches lie ahead...
The Article then details the various tax hikes that come later on with health-care.
As long as Obama is President, restoring the Bush tax cuts and repealing all the health-care tax hikes will be virtually impossible even if we took back both houses in November. By inauguration day 2013, there might not be an economy left to save.
This is what turns recessions into depressions.
Stock up on canned goods, ammo, and beef jerky while you can still afford it.
OK. Could this be the greatest drink ever? The Metro UK reports:
BrewDog, of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, is the firm behind the new ale that's apparently stronger than whisky and vodka at 55 per cent volume....
Twelve bottles of The End Of History have already slid off the production line and been placed inside seven dead stoats, four squirrels and one hare.
Yup. That's right. Beer served from the carcass of a dead animal. It's kinda' primal and technologically advanced at the same time. Mind you, they say the animals died of natural causes but who knows? With guys that are willing to brew beer for dead animal containers, it's not that hard to imagine them chasing down squirrels in their neighbor's backyard. Predictably, animal rights activists are...shall we say...a bit upset.
Advocates for Animals’ campaigns director Ross Minett blasted the brew in reports saying: "Using shock tactics to get attention is terribly out of date, especially when this involves exploiting or degrading animals...The modern approach is to celebrate the wonders of animals and respect them as individual sentient creatures."
Animal rights activist Libby Anderson said: "It's pointless and it's very negative to use dead animals when we should be celebrating live animals...This seems to be a perverse idea...It's just bad thinking about animals, people should learn to respect them, rather than using them for some stupid marketing gimmick."
You know, all this outrage would be a wee bit more compelling to me if animal rights groups had any outrage whatsoever over the Neocutis line of anti-aging skin cream which is made from the cells of an aborted human baby. Talk about perverse. So spare me the selective outrage for "individual sentient creatures," O.K.?
When I see the folks from PETA out there protesting the deaths of unborn humans I'll be impressed. When they get there they'll be able to find me easy. I'll be the guy drinking out of a dead squirrel.
This is pretty ugly. The National Organization for Marriage is traveling around the country. In Providence, protestors stormed the podium, threatened to kidnap children, and attempted to intimidate supporters of traditional marriage.
I recently ran across a story in which a catechist was told by a participant in a training session: "you can keep your catechism." It reminded me of a story of my own working as a liturgical and architectural consultant. I was being interviewed by a parish in Illinois after their church was destroyed by fire. In giving a slide lecture, I explained that the Church teaches that the Christustotus, or whole Christ, worships at the liturgy, including the angels and saints. To indicate how that reality can be made visible, I showed this image from the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City. One of muralist Felix Lieftuchter's greatest works, it shows a heavenly city centered on God surrounded by heavenly beings. I thought for sure the compelling power of Beauty would win the day, and people would jump up and demand a liturgical mural for their new church. (A bit naive, I know). Instead, a woman on the committee, with a look of disdain on her face, said, pointing to the mural: "I don't want all that garbage in my church!" I was shocked to say the least. As time has gone on I have thought about this a bit. Of course, there are a couple of problems here. First, one needs to be very careful about calling an image of heaven, God, the angels and saints "garbage," and that woman needed some serious time with her spiritual director. Second, the church does not belong to one person, but a larger community that might want and need sacred images in the church. I haven't stopped arguing for the use of liturgical imagery, and most people respond positively. But I became aware that day that many people are deeply wounded, and sometimes things of God and beauty are too much for them to bear, so they lash out in anger. The real problem is that pastors let them on building committees and allow them to steer the outcome of the design process based on irrational emotional responses. In any case, they hired someone else to guide them theologically who decided to use the phoenix as the motif for the liturgical plan (they were rebuilding after a fire, after all). They also hired a local architect of lesser abilities who designed a Hampton-Inn-Turned-Church. They placed a catalog-ordered life size crucifix on the rear wall of the unadorned sanctuary. And most people are quite pleased.
A college student has taken to the streets dressed in tights calling himself "The Viper." He's got a utility belt that seems like he might be more equipped to fix your sink rather than fight crime as he's got wrenches and screwdrivers.
Sure he doesn't have superpowers but he's got one of the all time greatest catchphrases of all time. "I'm just a guy trying to do what's right, in tights." That beats "Truth, Justice and the American Way" any day of the week.
A college student is dressing up like a superhero to fight crime in Columbia.
The 20-year-old man, who wants to remain anonymous, but calls himself the Viper, recently caught the attention of police in Columbia.
Officers stopped the man just after midnight Wednesday when they spotted him in this costume.
According to the Columbia Daily Herald, he told police that he was looking for crime to report.
The self-professed comic book nerd was armed with a screw driver, wrenches and a cell phone, all of which were stored in a utility belt.
Police urged the Viper to stop his patrols and told him that he was violating a city ordinance, which bans people wearing masks in public.
He told the Columbia Daily Herald that, "I am just a guy trying to do what's right, in tights." On Monday, the Viper told Channel 4 News by phone that it's a matter of pride protecting his hometown.
The crime-fighting college student said he eventually hopes to become a comic book artist when he is done with school.
The news seems to be making a little fun of him. But wait until they need him. Just wait. Then they'll all come running. Because you've got to figure if there's a kid somewhere who wants to be a superhero there's probably a kid somewhere who wants to be a supervillain.
An Argentine TV host was mad at all octopi because...get this... a pyschic octupus predicted that the Argentinian soccer team would lose in the World Cup. So look what happened. I'm not even going to show the video because it's just too icky:
AN Argentine TV presenter furious with Paul the 'psychic' World Cup octopus has horrified viewers by liquidising one of his relatives live on air. Paul became famous for correctly predicting the result of eight consecutive World Cup clashes — finally picking winners Spain for the final.
But presenter Roberto Pettinato, from Argentina's 'A Perfect World' programme, wanted revenge after the tentacled soothsayer called the results so well.
Argentine fans blamed him for their World Cup exit after he correctly predicted Germany would beat them and some have voiced a desire to eat him.
So after branding the animal a "Nazi" he grabbed an octopus live on air and claimed to be killing it as he hacked its head off and put bits of it in a blender.
Pettinato said as he lowered him into the machine: "Your moment has arrived, little Nazi octopus."
Paul the octopus had a 100 per cent record during the tournament
How many things are wrong with this story? Psychic Octopus? Calling it a Nazi? Killing an Octopus on a television show? Soccer fans wanting to throw the octopus into a shark tank?
Seriously. What is wrong with soccer fans? Why can't they just burn down their cities like Americans?
Maybe this movie will renew your faith in Hollywood. Maybe not. But maybe.
Let me see if I can entice you to go see a film that starts shooting in September called “Sweet Baby Jesus.” Here’s a quick little summary to whet your appetite from MTV :
The story is set in the ‘70s, in the town of Bethlehem… Maryland. One day, a new couple arrives in town: Joseph and his pregnant hippie wife Mary. Naturally, the town comes to think that the Second Coming of the savior is imminent.
Now if that wasn’t enough, here’s ten great reasons that’ll be sure to get you excited enough to drop ten dollars in Hollywood’s lap and some popcorn in your own:
It’s a comedy!!!
It’s from the director who brought you “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.”
It's all coming apart right in front of me. All my favorite nightmares are being destroyed.
Twilight made vampires the least scary creatures since Smurfs. Dude, they sparkled. The same series also destroyed werewolves because the dude made werewolf-itis Abercrombie chic. "True Blood" made monsters soap opera characters.
But always left untouched in my memory were zombies. Oh sweet zombies. Until now...
A "gay zombie porn" flick which shows aliens engaging in necrophilia has been pulled from Australia's biggest film festival after being rejected by censors, organisers said Tuesday.
"L.A. Zombie", which also features homosexual sex and full-frontal male nudity, is the first film in seven years to be banned from screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival, which starts on July 22...
Described... as a "video art zombie film", "L.A. Zombie" stars French porn actor Francois Sagat as a man convinced he is an alien zombie sent to Earth to roam the streets of Los Angeles in search of dead bodies and gay sex.
You know, it took some getting used to when movie zombies started running but I was cool with it after a while. I think running zombies gave a real shot in the arm to movie-dom. I know some would argue that many of today's zombies aren't technically zombies even though they look dead and want to eat brains. For me, it's close enough to fall under the same classification.
But gay necrophiliac artsy zombies? No. I'm afraid I have to draw the line.
This is all because our favorite monsters have fallen victim to an even more dreaded creature that devours all - the inclusiveness monster.
Vampire movies and shows are all about looking past the differences between us even if it means that vampires want to suck our blood and possibly turn us into the undead.
The HBO series "True Blood" has cast Christians as the villains because they're trying to kill vampires who routinely kill humans. They're lectured about acceptance and tolerance and defeated in the end.
This scenario creates an even worse nightmare in my head because now I'm supposed to live next to werewolves and vampires and just accept them until I'm torn apart or bled dry and left to die. And then even after I die to know that there are now necrophiliac zombies on the way? My nightmares are back.
Two families in Australia are suing their doctors for failing to diagnose their unborn children with Down Syndrome because they likely would've aborted their children if they'd known they'd be such a bother. So they think the hospital should be on the hook for the costs of raising the children since they would've killed the child - one must remember killed children are a LOT less expensive than alive ones.
Wesley Smith of Secondhand Smoke writes: "May these children never learn that their parents would have preferred that they were never born!
We claim today to be a society steeped in equality and tolerance for differences. But too often, that doesn’t apply to people with cognitive or developmental disabilities. I hope this suit fails because there should be no such thing as a “wrongful life.”'
On the list of supposed signs that are undeniable evidence that our long awaited biblical comeuppance is imminent, rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem is near the top.
After-all, where else will the Antichrist sit and proclaim himself to be God?
Israelis on Monday evening marked the beginning of Tisha B'Av, the national day of mourning over the loss of Israel's ancient temples. The First Temple was destroyed 2,500 years ago by the Babylonians, and the Second Temple was demolished 2,000 years ago by the Romans.
To mark the day, the Knesset TV Channel conducted a survey asking Israelis if they desire the building of a Third Temple. A 49 percent plurality said they do. Only 23 percent said they do not want a Third Temple.
However, 48 percent said they don't think the State of Israel should take active steps to reclaim control of the Temple Mount and build a Third Temple there. Israelis across the board fear the hostile and violent international and Muslim reaction that such a move would certainly evoke.
Certainly trying to rebuild the Temple right now would lead to mass unrest among youths of indeterminate ethnic and religious origin. (As they are called in French)
Because of the risk of total war in the middle east, I don't think that anyone in Israel would be foolish enough to attempt this now. The important thing to note in this poll is that the desire to rebuild the temple is there.
So, if one were prone to wild hypotheticals, what would need to happen in order for this obstacle to be removed and clear the way to rebuilding the temple? How about the mass conversion of Muslims to Christianity? That might do the trick.
But what could lead to that? Oh, I dunno. How about economic collapse followed by widespread war and devastating chastisements of the natural and supernatural kind including a war with Islam followed by a miraculous era of peace. A time of one flock and one shepherd.
If those things happened, then Israel might be able to rebuild the temple.
Then the real fun would begin...
Good thing we are still a few percentage points away.
This commercial was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in India.
Don't you just love that your taxpayer money went towards making a commercial for contraception and made abortion look like something between an overnight at a spa and something that can be gotten over with a wistful melancholy sigh while staring off into middle distance?
This is the same USAID which was funding forced sterilizations in Peru not that long ago so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise.
This is sickening. The ironic part is that abortion clinics are always yelling that crisis pregnancy centers lie to people about medical facts. God bless Lila Rose and the Live Action gang.
Patrick always tells me that people read CMR for its faithful, humorous, and insightful analysis of current events. Me? I think its videos like this very cute baby stuck in a watermelon.
Something tells me that giant child eating watermelons will be the subject of future nightmares and very expensive therapy. (How's that for analysis?)
Banning religious garb is all the rage these days. The secular order must be maintained at all times.
The banning of Burqas and full face veils has become so popular, in fact, that even some countries you wouldn't expect are getting in to the act. Recently, another country has banned the niqab, the full Islamic veil that reveals only a woman's eyes, at all universities. Has Islamophobia taken over? Not quite.
What with "cracker babies" being all over the news lately, they are apparently such a hot item that everybody wants one!
Geneticists are at a loss to explain this one! She is not an albino and the parents have no known white ancestry.
The parents are treating the birth with faith, joy, and humor!
Mum Angela, 35, of Woolwich, South London, beamed as she said: "She's beautiful - a miracle baby."
Ben told yesterday how he was so shocked when Nmachi was born, he even joked: "Is she MINE?"
He added: "Actually, the first thing I did was look at her and say, 'What the flip?'"
But as the baby's older brother and sister - both black - crowded round the "little miracle" at their home in South London, Ben declared: "Of course she's mine."
Blue-eyed blonde Nmachi, whose name means "Beauty of God" in the Nigerian couple's homeland, has baffled genetics experts because neither Ben nor wife Angela have ANY mixed-race family history.
Pale genes skipping generations before cropping up again could have explained the baby's appearance.
Ben also stressed: "My wife is true to me. Even if she hadn't been, the baby still wouldn't look like that.
"We both just sat there after the birth staring at her for ages - not saying anything."
Nature is a funny thing. May God bless their family.
Fox News reported that a group of atheists all got together to get themselves "debaptized" and they did this by using a hair dryer and muttering some phrases in Latin that they likely ripped off some episode of "Supernatural" or "Buffy."
This is sad. America simply has to get better quality atheist. Our atheists are carnival barkers. This is an insult to adolescent rebellion. Look, England's atheists aren't all that great but at least they write bestselling books. Our atheists use hair dryers on Nightline.
Come on American atheists you're being embarrassed.
Leading atheist Edwin Kagin blasted his fellow non-believers with the hair dryer to symbolically dry up the holy water sprinkled on their heads in days past. The styling tool was emblazoned with a label reading "Reason and Truth."
Kagin believes parents are wrong to baptize their children before they are able to make their own choices, even slamming some religious education as "child abuse." He said the blast of hot air was a way for adults to undo what their parents had done.
"I was baptized Catholic. I don't remember any of it at all," said 24-year-old Cambridge Boxterman. "According to my mother, I screamed like a banshee ... so you can see that even as a young child I didn't want to be baptized. It's not fair. I was born atheist, and they were forcing me to become Catholic."
Kagin donned a monk's robe and said a few mock-Latin phrases before inviting those wishing to be de-baptized to "come forward now and receive the spirit of hot air that taketh away the stigma and taketh away the remnants of the stain of baptismal water."
Ironically, Kagin's own son became a fundamentalist Christian minister after having "a personal revelation in Jesus Christ."
"One wonders where they went wrong," he chuckled to the TV show.
Oh give me a break. Kagin's own son became a Christian!? That has to hurt.
The funniest part is that they're still baptized. And they know it. Now they'll say they don't care but then I have to ask why go through the silly hair dryer ceremony if the baptism isn't a big deal?
A bus driver was fired for refusing to drive a woman to Planned Parenthood. He didn't know if she was going for an abortion or not but thought she might so he refused to drive her.
I'm not sure where I am on this one yet. I fully support the guy's right not to drive someone to Planned Parenthood but doesn't the bus company have some rights to hire drivers that will actually...you know, drive people where they want to go.
Can you really not drive people to where they want to go and still be a bus driver?
Maybe I'm missing something. So I was thinking about this and I saw this story in England where there's a case where blind passengers are being ordered off buses because Muslim bus drivers have some kind of thing about "unclean" guide dogs. That's certainly not cool.
Wonder if you guys have anything to add to clear this up. I'm thinking that if you own the bus company you can tell people you're not taking them but if you work for the bus company you can be fired. Your thoughts?
Warning -This vid is pretty graphic of a drag show at Santa Clara University, a Jesuit university. I'm sure this was sold as a social justice event to promote tolerance but it's not that at all. It's normalizing deviancy.
Moms and Dads, do not send your child to Santa Clara University because this is what you're paying for.
I’ve been saying recently that Pope Benedict XVI is heading into enemy territory in “Post-Christian” England. Sadly, I may be more right than I imagined.
A member of British Parliament says he fears violence at an open air mass with Pope Benedict XVI after an Islamic publication called Muslims to attend the Mass to convert Catholics and “tell the Pope in no uncertain terms what Muslims think of his evil slanders against the last Prophet of God and his message.”
What with oil gushing and charges of tea-party racism accumulating like cuss words on Oksana Grigorieva's voice mail, it is almost easy to forget that we are witnessing the most massive expansion of governmental power in our nation's history.
Just in the past few months we have seen the government take over health-care and grant itself enormous power over the financial industry and any business associated with the financial industry (read-everything). Chances are that cap-and-trade will be passed next -- even if it takes a lame duck congress to do it.
It is enough for you to miss the good ol' days when government just took over automobile companies. That's is just so 2009.
There is the old saying that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. I think this goes doubly for those who have no history.
We in America are so far removed from actual oppression, economic or otherwise, that I think many Americans had come to believe that such things only happened "over there." Oh sure, every generation or two we might need to send our boys over there to send oppression packing, but such things could never happen here.
There seemed to be this naive belief that in America the entrepreneurial spirit and the love of freedom would always check the excesses of the social-democratic (read-statist) impulses of the minority. Now we know better.
The incremental acceptance of spending has led to the tipping point of spending. The incremental acceptance of governmental control has led to the tipping point of massive governmental control. The incremental acceptance of the unlimited power of the federal government has led, of course, to a federal government that seeks to grant itself unlimited power.
Even today many Americans still believe that our quintessential American virtues of free-enterprise and hard work can still save us. Perhaps they can. But it is entirely plausible that free-enterprise can no longer save us because it has gone the way of the dodo and hard work is a punishable offense.
Perhaps we were so far removed from the memory of real oppression that we no longer valued the safeguards that our founders placed in our Constitution. During the respites from navigating the carefully laid minefield of distractions, I find my thoughts drifting to the wisdom of the founding fathers.
They had common sense. A common sense derived from real experience germinated one very clear and easily expressible idea--government with the power to oppress, will. So they sought to set up a limited government of checks and balances all aimed at restraining oppression. You know the drill. They succeeded so well that Americans began to believe it couldn't happen here. Not because of our dedication to the founding principles, limited government and the wise restraints place thereon, but because of something inherent in our character. We began to believe that somehow we were different, that hardworking Americans are just different than those "over there."
But it is not us. We are men just like all other men. Just like all those other men around the world who live under the thumb of others. Our founding fathers knew this, most likely because they were all Christians and understood the fallen nature of man. That, and they had the history to back it up. Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense.
O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her — Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.
I think that perhaps Paine's lament applies more now than it did then.
Free-enterprise cannot save us when it is no longer free. Something else will have to do it. I have come to think that common sense will have to save us, if we are to be saved. A newly earned common sense that understands, while men are no different the world over, we can still live differently.
We now have a little history with oppression, be it yet brief and comparably mild. Yet we are not obliged to craft the crucial restraints on government excess from whole cloth. We have our own history as our guide. Let us re-embrace the founding principles and dedicate ourselves to closing the gaps that have allowed oppression to gain a foothold.
Our task is considerably easier than that faced by our ancestors in 1776 and yet in someways that much harder. Our oppressor is not a tyrant on a throne thousands of miles away. Our oppressor is us.
So let us take to the task of rebuilding the Constitution and the safeguards needed for a free society. Let us do it so well that in two hundred and thirty years our great great great grandchildren will have to learn the lessons all over again because they, like we, had never known real oppression.
Hanging in the Sacramento County Public Law Library is a painting of the Bible with a warning across its front which reads: "Warning! May Impair Judgment."
The library insists that there's nothing wrong with this display despite some who say it does not belong in a government-sponsored institution and have asked for it to be taken down. The library has refused.
The title of the "art" is "Moral Values." In a statement from the artist which accompanies the piece, it says "There must be something stupid about religious faith which renders people stupid."
Just a question - if an artist had put something up saying "Homosexuality makes you stupid" what are the chances it would be up in the library?
The artist, an atheist, insists that the work isn't supposed to be anti-Christian but only anti-religious. The library can argue that it's a free speech issue but the fact is that this is not even art, it's propaganda.
This, of course, is nothing short of taxpayer supported anti-Christianity. I think liberals think that separation of church and state (which is made up in the first place) means that churches can't say anything about government but government can do whatever it takes to destroy religion.
You know, the federal government is funding hybrids and cars that run on leaves or something but I'm betting this is the car of the future.
Now that's some fine quality father/son bonding time right there. Mom, they might be out a while. But seriously, what reason could you ever have to leave such a glorious vehicle?
The number of Catholic-oriented websites out there has exploded, and keeping track of the ones that are truly useful gets harder as they proliferate.
OSV Newsweekly is pulling together a "best of the (Catholic) web" for its annual Catholic Internet Guide.
Tell us your favorites in four main categories we've chosen (spirituality, news and resources, opinion and community building) and if your pick makes the cut we'll give you credit (either by full name or initials; your choice) and a free copy of the guide. If the sites you submit are hidden treasures (until now!), even better.
For fun, you'll also have an opportunity to submit your favorite Catholic YouTube videos and mobile device apps.
My kids like the show the television show "Wipeout." You know, it's the one where regular people bounce, jump and duck their way through an obstacle course over a pool. There's a lot of people getting bonked, boofed, and bammed into the mud or a pool or just plain ol' goo. Essentially it's like all the good parts of American's Funniest Home Videos put together in one show. So we're watching it last night and while the show itself was fine the commercials for other shows on ABC were so offensive that I took to turning the sound off during commercials.
One commercial fooled me. They typed out the words "We slept with each other prom night, meet your son" or something like it and showed a picture of a young woman with a baby. I can't imagine how many parents grimaced during that commercial. It's really gotten to the point where you can't trust tv at all during even the 8 o'clock hour. I know it's probably been like that for a while but I'm just discovering it now because my children are now old enough to stay up past 8 o'clock.
Now, this week a ruling from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City decided that all the rules against expletives on television should be overturned. Yup. So, technically right now network shows can say anything they want.
On July 12, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City warmly offered the TV networks exactly what they wanted: the shredding of the FCC's lamely enforced rules against broadcast indecency. As of now, the network stars can swear at will in front of impressionable children. These judges did not rule narrowly on the focus of the case -- "fleeting expletives" that networks aired unintentionally. They ruled broadly in favor of all expletives.
There's no other way to say this. The ruling is idiocy.
If one ever had a moment of doubt about the supernatural provenance of the Church, one need look no further that the new norms regarding clergy abuse -- AND women's ordination.
These two things are like anti-Reese's peanut butter cups. Two great things that have NO business being smashed together.
The fact that the Church has survived this long and even continues to grow in parts of the world despite worse PR than Mel Gibson is testament to the protection of the Holy Spirit.
Remember, these are the folks who decided rescind the ex-communication of Bishop Williamson of the SSPX right after he said ridiculous things about the holocaust. While the lifting of the sanction was the right thing to do, it should have been accompanied with a statement denouncing Williamson's comments. Instead, the PR team at the Vatican was again caught napping.
While I am completely on board with the new norms regarding the dingbats involved with female ordination, tying it in with new norms on clerical abuse is about as tone deaf as you can get.
Actually, I take that back. If they had announced new norms that required all altar servers to be boys again. That would have been worse, but just barely.
While this degree of incompetence clearly demonstrates the supernatural protection of the Church, they should remember one thing. God sometimes helps those who help themselves.
It is also written 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' and
Can anyone be surprised at this? Fox News reports that a group of Christian students were told it was illegal to pray outside the Supreme Court building and ordered to leave.
The students were part of a junior high school American History class at Wickenburg Christian Academy in Arizona. After taking pictures on the steps of the Supreme Court building, their teacher gathered them to a side location where they formed a circle and began to pray.
According to Nate Kellum, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, a police officer “abruptly” interrupted the prayer and ordered the group to cease and desist.
“They were told to stop praying because they were violating the law and they had to take their prayer elsewhere,” Kellum told FOX News Radio.
A spokesperson for the Court said the Marshal of the Court will look into the events alleged by the ADF.
“The Court does not have a policy prohibiting prayer,” said public information officer Kathy Arberg in an email to FOX News Radio.
So the group of 15 students and seven adults left the Supreme Court and relocated to a sidewalk – where Rigo said the children stood in a gutter – and continued their prayer.
Any and all Jesus contagion must be stopped.
So let me get this straight police in Arizona shouldn't be allowed to ask illegal aliens if they're illegal but police should stop Christians from praying. Yeah, that makes sense.
Still waiting for Obama to come out rashly and announce that the cops acted stupidly...
Weasel Zippers wonders: "ACLU comes to defend their First Amendment rights in 5..4..3..2…no, wait, the students were Christian, not Muslim…"
Faux pro-lifer Bart Stupak is accusing pro-lifers of playing politics with life.
Yeah. Read that again. Bart Stupak is accusing pro-lifers of playing politics with life.
Man, you've got to give the guy credit, when Stupak sells his vote he throws in his credibility, his integrity and any claim to sanity too. He doesn't care what anybody says he's going to just keep reiterating his mantra even though everyone knows he's not telling the truth that Obamacare will not fund abortions.
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who initially raised the hopes of pro-life Americans when he took a stand against abortion coverage in the Democrats’ health care bill, also posted a message Wednesday, rejecting claims that Pennsylvania's high-risk insurance pools would allow for federal funding of abortion:
“This is the latest example of some right to life groups politicizing life issues in an effort to undermine health care reform," Stupak said. "The President’s Executive Order makes clear that federal funds may not be used for abortion under the Affordable Care Act – including the (high-risk) insurance pools currently being implemented in Pennsylvania and states across the country.
Stupak noted that in accordance with President Obama’s Executive Order, the Department of Health and Human Services has told states that federal funds provided under the new health care law may not be used to fund abortion. “HHS has reiterated this policy in response to the current accusations from the National Right to Life Committee,” Stupak said.
"While these recycled scare tactics may make for good headlines, we should not lose sight of the fact that tens of thousands of individuals across the nation who have been denied coverage by health insurance companies due to pre-existing conditions will for the first time have access to affordable health insurance. We need to take a whole life approach to health care which looks out for those who are out of the womb as well as those in the womb,” Stupak concluded.
The CNS report continues to detail exactly why abortions will be funded by Obamacare. You should read it.
Bart. Bart. For Bart Stupak to attack pro-lifers for playing politics with abortion is like Arlen Specter lecturing Republicans on party loyalty or Charlie Rangel on how to pay your taxes.
Just walk away man. Just walk away. Collect whatever was promised you by the Obama administration. Just stop attacking pro-lifers because you sold out. It's pretty sad.
