What's Wrong With The Japanese?

What's wrong with the Japanese? I have never seen a race or a culture that stunk more at garnering sympathy than the Japanese.

We Americans love to feel sorry for people. It is an American pastime somewhere between baseball and TMZ.com. We raised millions and had telethons for the Indonesians after their tsunami. Likewise the Haitians after their earthquake. Like we even knew where Indonesia is and anything about Haiti other than voodoo.

We love to raise millions for people we have never heard of before, people we can feel sorry for. But when a modern and developed country like Japan has an enormous disaster, we worry more about whether our milk has higher radiation than your average xerox machine more than the 25,000+ dead or missing.

All you disaster prone countries should know one thing. If we can't feel superior to you, we won't feel sorry for you. You are on your own.

The Japanese have undergone one of the most horrific and most well documented natural disasters in modern memory. Yet...

Yet...this disaster was the most un-sympathized disaster in modern memory.

Natural disasters for the unsympathetic, along with flash mobs and dancing weddings, are now just another form of internet entertainment.

The Japanese don't cry on TV or look doe eyed into the camera. They fix roads and get back to business. They leave no room for sympathy.

Kanye West and Fergie simply don't do star studded thingys for those that help themselves. American sympathy is reserved fo those who ask for it, nicely.

I am not suggesting that Clooney & Co. need to get on the airwaves asap and beg for dollars. Far from it. Nor do I think that the Japanese should do the same.

But if they could just be a little more pathetic, maybe, just maybe we would care--more.

Americans only do bailouts for those little pigs who build with straw, those who build with brick can only rely on God.

Riot at Cowboy Poetry Festival

Millions of dollars in taxpayer funding allocated for the Cowboy Poetry festival sparked off a riot reminiscent of Madison Wisconsin recently. Pastoral poets and haiku writers exhibited their anger, despair, and woe that cowboy poets received federal funding while they receive none.

Last month Harry Reid defended borrowing from China in order to fund the cowboy poetry festival.

Maxmillian Shelley, chair of Pastoral Poets for The Government Shining Love Upon us Like the Sun, said he didn't understand why Cowboy poets were being funded while pastoral poets were all but ignored by society at large and received little or no taxpayer funding. "We sing like melodious birds and ponder the stream of funding washing past us," he said. "And we weep."

The haiku writers also were outraged over the snub and said that with all Japan has gone through recently this snub of haiku writers was especially deplorable.

During the riot, the pastoral poets stormed the outside of the building chanting derogatory yet fancy slogans about the cowboy poets even blocking the entrance at one point which turned out to be a big mistake as the cowboy poets manhandled the pastorals handily and threw them from the entrance. And then the pastoral poets wept. Again.

Despite America facing bankruptcy, the pastoral poets and haiku writers intend to demand taxpayer funding in coming years. With such a glaring need, many Democrats are expected champion their cause and push for federal funding. Republicans say they would be outraged if they're funded but admitted they would likely back down if anyone called the mean or accused them of being stingy.

(Happy April 1st)

Wait, I Thought Jesus Was Made Up

I'm sure this is all part of some clever Church conspiracy to write something down about Jesus around 70 AD and then hide it away making it very difficult to find for about oh 2000 years.

I'm not smart enough to know what this means or even if it's real but it seems pretty interesting.Yahoo News reports:

British archaeologists are seeking to authenticate what could be a landmark discovery in the documentation of early Christianity: a trove of 70 lead codices that appear to date from the 1st century CE, which may include key clues to the last days of Jesus' life. As UK Daily Mail reporter Fiona Macrae writes, some researchers are suggesting this could be the most significant find in Christian archeology since the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947.

The codices turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordan—a region where early Christian believers may have fled after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The codices are made up of wirebound individual pages, each roughly the size of a credit card. They contain a number of images and textual allusions to the Messiah, as well as some possible references to the crucifixion and resurrection. Some of the codices were sealed, prompting yet more breathless speculation that they could include the sealed book, shown only to the Messiah, mentioned in the Book of Revelation. One of the few sentences translated thus far from the texts, according to the BBC, reads, "I shall walk uprightly"--a phrase that also appears in Revelation. "While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism," BBC writer Robert Pigott notes, "it could here be designed to refer to the resurrection."

Dem: Medical Choices Must "Come from Govt"

Control is the end goal. It always was and always will be for big government thugs. What could go wrong with the government deciding how much you're worth treating. Perfect. Doesn't this follow in a direct manner from President Obama's accusation that doctors routinely rip tonsils out of children uneccesarily for profit.

Remember, death panels are a figment of Sarah Palin's imagination.



HT The Blaze

Finally Some Corapi Answers

Thanks to the Register, finally we have some answers about Fr. Corapi's relationship to Santa Cruz Media and SOLT.

So much has been made of that Santa Cruz is a for profit business. The Register SOLT interview explains that.

Initially, Father Corapi was allowed to live an eremitic life in a cottage on a compound with a community of sisters. Father Corapi stayed there for some time, conducting parish missions. Ultimately, he moved into his own home.

His preaching had tremendous results and many people were converted to the faith, while others came back to the Church. Many vocations came from his preaching. Subsequently, he began producing tapes that showcased his presentation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the subject of his doctoral dissertation.

He made Santa Cruz Media a for-profit company, he told his superiors, in order to have the proper freedom to proclaim the Gospel without any fear of raising issues that might threaten the company’s tax-exempt status.

He said he would pay his taxes and proclaim the Gospel fearlessly. Father Flanagan allowed him to manage his own funds. No one knew it would become so big.

That doesn't sound so nefarious.

And as to why Fr. Corpai has so much independence from a society of apostolic life?

Has SOLT evolved since Father Corapi became a member of the society?

In 1994, our new constitution made SOLT a society of apostolic life. The founder’s arrangement with Father Corapi was established before that time, when Father Flanagan believed that every mission should take care of its own needs.

Now, according to our constitution, a different way of life has been established for members. All the money we make is turned over to the society, which gives us an allowance.

These are important answers as the lack of clarity on some of these issues leads some people to speculate the worst. The National Catholic Register and Joan Frawley Desmond has done a good service by getting answers on these questions.

Be sure to read the entire interview, it's worth it.

GOP: Your Last Chance

Rumor has it, and I know it will come as quite a shock, that the Republicans are getting ready to cave on the budget.

The story is out tonight (Caveat emptor: It comes from Dems) that Democrats and Republicans have generally agreed on figure for the budget cuts in the vicinity of $30bn and that all that remains up in the air is the policy riders, one policy rider in particular.

Let's talk about the number first and then we will get to the policy riders.

In my lifetime, I have never seen a movement like the tea party. They are a completely grassroots organization that sprung up virtually overnight and immediately began impacting elections. They primaried so-called moderates and helped to deliver one of the most sweeping electoral victories in this nation's history. And here is the kicker; they are almost a one issue group. Sure, they are about personal freedom in a general way, but there is one issue with which the tea party is primarily identified, cutting spending. And truth be told, for every affiliated member of the tea party, there are a dozen unaffiliated that feel the same way.

As far as electoral messages go, they simply do not get any clearer. Cut spending. Or else.

So now let's talk about the last 2 1/2 months. It is hard to believe that it has only been ten weeks or so since this congress was sworn in. It took less time than that for Republicans to forget or dismiss every lesson they swore to high heaven that they had learned before the election.

At first they promised $100bn which, let's face it, is a pimple on an elephants butt compared to this year's deficit of $1.6 trillion. But before the ink was even dry on that weak pledge, they lowered it to $60bn. Now it looks like they will come in around $30bn. My reaction? Of course. By voting for each short term continuing resolution the Republicans have weakened their bargaining position every day because the Dems know they are scared.

So all they have left to 'negotiate' on is the policy riders. And the big kahuna of policy riders is the de-funding of Planned Parenthood. As I said, $100bn, $60bn, or even $30bn in fact makes no real difference in the deficit. They are rounding errors. The Republicans are not really serious about cutting spending. No great shock there.

But they better be serious about the de-funding of Planned Parenthood because it is the only thing that really matters. I don't mean that in the moral sense, although that is undoubtedly true. I mean it in the political sense. This is the only thing they can actually achieve that will help them politically.

Tea partiers and the like will be rightly be disgusted with anything less than the $60bn mark, and I think it is a foregone conclusion that it will be less than that. So there is one thing and one thing only that Republicans can walk away from this battle with their heads held high, go back to their constituents and say "See? We did it." And that is de-funding Planned Parenthood.

If they come back with $30bn and a defunded Planned Parenthood, they win. The can promise to go back for more cuts, but they have the political victory. If they come back with $30bn and PP funding still in place, their political goose is cooked.

It is a strange twist that while Republicans have disappointed in the protection of life time and time again, defending life is the only thing that can save them now. This should be obvious. But that is what scares me.

Almost all that has happened over the last 10 weeks that has brought us to this point should have been obvious, but they screwed themselves anyway. The tea-party and other Americans sent an unambiguous message to them just months ago, but they screwed it up. And now they have a chance to pull victory from the jaws of defeat by de-funding PP. It should be obvious. But so much should have been obvious.

And what should also be obvious is that in order to win this victory, the government (at least parts of it) will have to be shut down. You have to make the President shut it down over this, as he has promised to do. Hang that promise around his neck. Make him regret it. Stand strong on this one issue and you can still win.

This is it GOP. This is your last chance. Don't screw it up.

Planned Parenthood: "We're Mostly a Surgical Facility"

Lila Rose and her Live Action crew have done it again. While the mainstream media have all but ignored the story I've listened to a lot of conversation about this on the radio and read about it on blogs. One aspect of the story doesn't seem to me to have received its due.

When Live Action called the abortion giant a woman named Samantha answered the phone and when asked about mammograms she did something completely surprising. She told the truth.

"We don't...um... deal with the health side of it so much...we're mostly a surgical facility."

Ah, finally some truth from Planned Parenthood. That is the statement that tells all if you ask me. They don't deal with health. They are an abortion facility. That's what they do. We've all known it. And Live Action got them to admit it.

Continue reading at the National Catholic Register>>>

The One, The Only, Zamfir!!!!

Since I mentioned him (even dissed him a little) in my post at the Register, I feel obligated to undo the damage I may have done.

Here is the indifatig... the incompreh.... the...um... Remarkable

Zamfir!!

The Lonely Shepherd as immortalized in Tarantino's Kill Bill.



I got a fever and the only cure is more pan-flute!

Bachmann Calls for Congressional Action on Planned Parenthood

This is quite the gathering. Andrew Breitbart (hosting the Dennis Miller show) hosted Lila Rose and Michelle Bachmann to discuss Lie Action's latest sting. It was Bachmann who today announced that she will seek to have Planned Parenthood lose its not for profit status.

I'm not sure how that will work but let's hope this happens.



HT ZipWire

Wow! Planned Parenthood's Mammogram Lie Exposed!

Wow. Firstly, remind me never to make an enemy of Lila Rose because dude she's scary good at taking down the federally funded Goliath called Planned Parenthood. Today she just released a new video where using a bunch of phone calls she has exposed the abortion giant as a bunch of liars. I know it's shocking that people who kill babies for a living would also be a bunch of big fat liars.

Lila Rose has repeatedly exposed Planned Parenthood as lawbreakers so effectively with her undercover videos that they're in danger of losing their federal funding. So
Planned Parenthood boss Cecile Richards and all the acolytes of Big Abortion have been on a big p.r. push saying that they need federal funding or women will die because they provide mammogram services. They say it all the time. Well, now Lila Rose and her Live Action crew have exposed them again with a series of new undercover phone calls revealing that contrary to their claims, the organization does not provide mammograms for women.

I mean, at this point Cecile Richards has got to feel like the villain of a Scooby Doo cartoon who just had her mask ripped off and is saying, "If it weren't for you meddling kids we'd have gotten away with it!!!!!"

Anyway, check out this very important video here from Live Action:

The New Mass Translation - The Power of Fancy

I may be weird, but I am looking forward to the new translation of the mass.

It's not that I am secretly a Latin scholar who has for years lamented improper translations. I am not. I don't know my e pluribus unum from my ad nauseum. But I like the idea that the language will be fancier. I like fancy language. Fancy makes things seem special.

Fancy can take the the otherwise mundane and elevate it and make it memorable.

Do you remember those Merchant Ivory films from twenty years ago? They were all the rage back then. They won all kinds of awards and stuff. One I remember in particular, Remains of the Day.

Remains of the Day starred Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Hopkins plays a stuffy emotionally repressed butler who never gets up the nerve to ask the maid out until it's too late. This plot isn't just mundane, this plot is mundane's older but even more boring brother, humdrum. I would rather read Brecht while listening to Zamfir on the pan flute than watch this movie.

But....

Continue Reading @ NCRegister.com>>>

The Clone Wars Are Back

Rebecca Taylor is guest blogging here this month. Rebecca is a Technologist in Molecular Biology, MB(ASCP) and a practicing Catholic. She has been writing and speaking about Catholicism and biotechnology for five years at her blog Mary Meets Dolly. This is the third installment.

The Clone Wars are back. And I don't mean that the Stars Wars movies are out on Blu Ray. Like a bad case of head lice, just when you think the debates about human cloning are over, they come back. And with them come piles of misinformation from the media on the science and ethics surrounding human cloning research. Minnesota has proposed a true ban on human cloning and like magic every media outlet anywhere near a lake has decided it is their job to obfuscate the issue and confuse the public. So while I really do not want to rehash the cloning issue, I think it is time for a refresher on what cloning is, what it isn't and why we need to care. Stick with me. I will try to make this as painless as possible!

The technical term for cloning is somatic cell nuclear transfer or SCNT. SCNT is the process used to clone Dolly the sheep. SCNT creates a cloned embryo from an egg and an adult cell like a skin cell. (More on SCNT.) Contrary to popular belief human cloning is not banned in the United States. In fact researchers in most states can clone human embryos with SCNT all day long. With H.F. 998 The Human Cloning Prohibition Act, the Minnesota legislature is trying to ban all SCNT in humans. Opponents insist that H.F.998 will halt stem cell research.

The truth is that cloning research is independent of stem cell research, even the embryonic kind. Researchers can clone human embryos with no intention of using them for harvesting stem cells. Embryonic stem cell research can proceed just fine with embryos that were not made with cloning. Cloning is making genetically identical human embryos and stem cell research is research on stem cells. Scientifically speaking they have little to do with each other.

Linking human cloning with embryonic stem cell research is a red herring used to make sure a true ban on human cloning never makes it into law. Here is the ruse. Scientists say that to make embryonic stem cells that are genetically identical to the patient, the have to clone the patient with SCNT and harvest the stem cells from the cloned embryo. Using SCNT, they can create patient specific stem cells that the patient will not reject because they are genetically identical to the patient. (The genetically identical part is not actually true. A clone will always have genetic material leftover from the woman who donated the egg.) Researchers insist that a ban on SCNT in humans will hinder stem cell research.

Cue the media that intentionally misrepresents the cloning process and screams that a ban on human cloning will make stem cell research a felony. Reporters have been playing the stem cell research card for years. They report that SCNT is only cloning if the cloned embryo finds it way into a uterus. Politicians and advocates play along. They all lie and tell the public that SCNT is only cloning if a cloned baby results. In other words, cloning is only cloning if used in reproduction. If a cloned embryo is made with SCNT and then destroyed in research then magically it isn't cloning anymore. Instead, SCNT is just stem cell research that will cure you, your mother, your second cousin and your dog. They insist that a ban on SCNT will destroy the pantheon of stem cell cures before it is ever built and anyone who says otherwise is a close-minded, religious idiot with no grasp of science whatsoever. Even the National Catholic Reporter got it wrong.

What they will never tell you is the truth. SCNT is the act of cloning. SCNT creates a cloned embryo irregardless of the fate of that clone. Whether that cloned embryo is ripped apart for the stem cells inside or is implanted into a uterus, it was still cloned. The only difference between so-called therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning is where the clone ends up. The cloning part is the same. (More on reproductive versus therapeutic cloning.) A true ban on human cloning bans all SCNT in humans.

They will never mention that SCNT takes eggs, lots and lots of human eggs. To get these eggs, young women's health, fertility and sometimes even their lives are put at risk. Dr. Woo-Suk Hwang, the disgraced South Korean researcher, forced his own female researchers to donate their eggs for his research because they couldn't get enough from the local IVF clinic.

They will also not tell you that after years of trying, cloning human embryos is tough and extracting a viable stem cell line form a cloned embryo is even tougher. To my knowledge, it has yet to be accomplished. So no one has ever been close to being treated with embryonic stem cells from a cloned embryo. Some scientists wonder if embryonic stem cells, cloned or otherwise, will ever be safe enough to treat patients because tumors have been reported in animal trial after animal trial. After years of delays over safety concerns, the very first embryonic stem cell trial is underway. It is only for a handful of patients and it is only to test the safety of the embryonic stem cells. All this is for stem cells from an embryo created the old-fashioned way with egg and sperm. I cannot imagine the delays for human trials with stem cells from a cloned embryo.

But the facts will not deter the bleeding hearts that cry that without cloning the cures will never come. They point to other, more enlightened countries, that are not as backward as we are with our archaic cloning and stem cell rules. Actually, many of those enlightened countries have banned SCNT in humans as recommended by the United Nations. Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, France and many many others, prohibit all SCNT in humans even for research. Whether or not these countries are farther ahead in stem cell treatments than the U.S. is debatable, but if they are it is because they do not waste their time and money on research that has not, and likely will never, treat a single patient. They are putting their efforts into adult stem cell research that has proven effective. Meanwhile we are still staring at our navels and arguing over whether a cloned embryo is still an embryo.

The biggest fact they will never tell you is that there is a viable alternative to cloning for patient-specific stem cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells have been created from all kinds of adult cells. iPS cells are derived from adult cells that have been reprogrammed back to an embryonic state. iPS cells behave like embryonic stem cells and they are a genetic match to the patient because they came from the patient, not from a clone (that has residual DNA from the woman who donated the egg.) iPS cells mean patient-specific stem cells, no eggs, no embryos created or destroyed, no cloning required.

Even after all of the facts, cloning zealots still push their agenda. The comments on this Minnesota Independent article are both aggravating and discouraging.

The only thing that puts a smirk in my snerk, is that I realize something they don't. SCNT is the same process used to clone cows. You know the cows that strike fear in the hearts of the masses. The cows whose milk no one wants to drink. I know that the people who push for SCNT in humans are the very same who are afraid to drink milk from a cloned cow. So while they complain about the horrors and health risks of milk and meat from cloned cows, they are clamoring to inject themselves with stem cells from a cloned embryo. Their dead clone to be exact. Go figure. Like most things in the Clone Wars, it makes absolutely no sense.

Why should we care about some piece of legislation in Minnesota? Because cloning is always wrong even if it done for a proposed good. It creates, manipulates and destroys human life. And anyone who believes that the cloning will end in the dish is naive. Cloning for research will lead to cloning for babies. According to some experts it is an inevitability. All SCNT in humans needs to be banned. If Minnesota succeeds where other states and the US Congress has failed, it will be a huge triumph for humanity.

Rebecca writes at Mary Meets Dolly which is, literally, the meeting of the world of genetics and genetic engineering, represented by Dolly, “mother” of modern biotechnology, and the teachings of the Catholic Church on the sanctity of life, represented by Mary, mother of Christ and the Church. Rebecca started www.MaryMeetsDolly.com to help everyday Catholics better understand the science and ethics surrounding modern biotechnology in light of Catholic Church teaching. Check her out.

Enviro Pro-EPA Ad Poisons Baby

What is it with environuts that they're obsessed with killing people, especially children in their ads. Here's the latest disgusting and disturbing ad from enviro-loonies where they poison a cute little baby.

Here they're saying that opposing the EPA is just like killing babies. Could you imagine the outcry if a pro-life group had made this ad about Planned Parenthood, saying supporting the abortion industry is just like killing babies. Oh wait...

But the good news here is that they greenies are at least presenting killing babies as an undesireable thing. So maybe we're making progress.



HT Breitbart TV

Here's the greatest hits of baby killing from the greenies.





Weird. Disgusting. Disturbing.

Station One from Leonard Porter's Studio

Station One from artist Leonard Porter's new set of Stations of the Cross reveals not only an excellent meditation for Lent, but gives evidence of a renewed interest in layered, meaningful and intellectually rich sacred art. Porter, who specializes in paintings of classical antiquity, brings his vast wealth of knowledge to the Stations, making them not only emotionally moving, but intellectually rewarding.

Station One begins with Christ standing before Pilate surrounded by members of the Sanhedrin, who clench their fists in anger and demand vengeance on Christ. Holding a reed and wearing the crown of thorns, Christ stands serene and powerless before Pilate, who is raised up on a white marble throne which sits on a pedestal much like a statue base. Shown in perfect profile, Pilate appears frozen. His senatorial toga makes him nearly as white as the pedestal on which he sits, reinforcing his statue-like appearance and indicating that his power is merely external and worldly. Axe heads and fasciae stand behind Pilate's throne, symbols of earthly power and authority, while Christ is bound and passive, the true King humbly accepting the judgment of an earthly king. Pilate points at Christ, ordering his suffering and death, yet he also directs the view of the one praying the Stations: go and walk the via crucis.

Two Roman guards hold Christ, figures who will appear repeatedly in the Stations. The bearded soldier wears a white belt, indicating that he is a Roman general. The other man in the helmet is Longinus, a centurion who grows in his love and appreciation of Christ as the Stations progress. The general wears a leather girdle with a breastplate showing Medusa, the monstrous Gorgon whose glance could turn a person to stone. This general would be unmoved by Christ's passion, his stony heart untouched by grace.

By contrast, the centurion Longinus wears an image referring to the mythological story of the Choice of Hercules. In this story, Hercules is visited by two nypmhs representing Pleasure and Virtue, and he is given the choice between a pleasant and easy life or a severe but glorious life. Hercules chooses the life of virtue and glory, despite its difficulties, an apt analogy for Christ's redemptive Passion, since in choosing obedience to the Father, He suffers but rises again in glory. It also sets the stage for Longinus' own conversion on the Way of the Cross, that he himself will choose to suffer with Christ with the hope of future glory.

In the background, a blood-red column prefigures the Flagellation at the Pillar, with the stripes of the marble itself imitating the wounds of Christ's back. An eerie skull-like figure appears over Pilate's knee, foreshadowing Christ's crucifixion at Golgotha, the "Place of the Skull." As the procession moves from station to station, the figures will grow in number, the scenes will get more frenzied, the weather will grow darker, and different people representing all of humanity will enter and depart from the scene, indicating that all sinned and that all were redeemed.

Those praying this set of Stations see themselves in the images, simultaneously the sinner and also Longinus, who will choose the virtuous life by walking with Christ.

Christians Beware, Obama Considering Arming Islamic Radicals in Libya

Just put these two stories from Weasel Zippers together, let them rattle around your cranium, and then gasp in horror at the stupidity of what the Obama administration is considering.

Fox News reports:

A U.S. NATO commander does not rule out an Al Qaeda presence in the Libya opposition against Muammar al-Qaddafi.

AND...

Reuters reports:

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said on Tuesday that the Obama administration has not ruled out arming Libya’s rebels as an option for trying to end Muammar Gaddafi’s 41-year rule.

Sooooo let me just get this straight, the Libyan rebels may very well be Islamic Al Qaeda nutjobs, according to the U.S. government, and yes they're considering arming them. Huh?

Wasn't this supposed to be a humanitarian mission? That's like putting Chuck Norris in charge of the peace corps. It just doesn't make sense.

And think about this- we may arm Muslim radicals in a country where a minority population of Christians are already in hiding and living in fear.

Hey Obama administration here's the math: Islamic nutjobs + arms = Genocide of Christians. Our last two ventures into the Middle East ended with the arrest, persecution and/or slaughter of Christians in Afghanistan and Iraq. And now we're going to arm Islamic militants in Libya? Do we not learn? I guess they're just Christians though. They kinda' have it coming.

Libya - Questions Remain

Bottom line.

The President's speech did little to convince me of anything. I remain on the fence. Initially, I supported intervention in Libya, back when Ghaddafi was attacking protesters. Obama's speech seems to address that situation.

What I am not convinced of is if the situation that President Obama seeks to address still exists.

When protesters were being attacked in the streets, a no fly zone made some sense. This is clearly not the case anymore. I am hard pressed to see how this is anything but intervention--taking sides-- in a civil war.

Let's get a few things out of the way. There is no vital US interest. The President said so, just as much. The only enumerated interest is that we have the power and the opportunity to prevent a humanitarian atrocity. This is not to be discounted, but it is also yet to be established. I want to support the President here, but other than some references in his speech to looming atrocities, the evidence of such is still as scarce as WMDs in Iraq.

This is what I need to see. The world presumed a WMD threat from Saddam and we acted. We broke a country it has taken decade and too many American lives to fix it. So I want some proof of pending atrocities, as much proof as ever can be established.

I will not fault the President for indecisiveness here, as the right thing to do is elusive. But, one cannot help but surmise that the decision to go to war, and that is what it is, had additional sources other than those cited by the President.

Without substantive and public proof of the looming atrocities of which the President spoke, I don't think we have the moral high ground here. Indecisiveness is appropriate when the facts do not justify action. It seems we might have acted and then thought that justification might be handy, but I don't know this. This is the problem. The President has not told us anything until now about the need to do this.

Why now? Why so late? Why present valid reasons ten days later? If all this was the real reason, why not give this speech the night we took to the air? Why now? Why only after 10 days of criticism? Why address so much of your speech to critics? Doesn't that undercut your noble motives?

I want more, Mr. President. I want proof that we had no choice. Otherwise it still seems like we are taking sides in a civil war and that no matter who wins, we lose.

You have said why, Mr. President. Now prove it.

SBA List's TV Ad is Awesome

The Susan B. Anthony List along with other pro-life organizations has put together a devastating ad featuring former Planned Parenthood Director Abby Johnson.

I love this ad because it hits where it hurts. It smacks the self righteousness right out of Planned Parenthood's smirking maw.

Abby: I JOINED PLANNED PARENTHOOD BECAUSE I WANTED TO HELP POOR WOMEN WITH REAL HEALTH CARE NEEDS.

I STILL DO.

Abby: I LEARNED THAT PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS NOT ABOUT WOMEN’S HEALTH AT ALL.

THEIR PRIMARY PROFIT CENTER AND THEIR ENTIRE CORPORATE CULTURE IS ABOUT ABORTIONS.

Announcer: PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS AMERICA’S LARGEST ABORTION PROVIDER. NINETY-EIGHT PERCENT OF THEIR SERVICES TO PREGNANT WOMEN ARE ABORTIONS. AND THEY RECEIVE OVER $360 MILLION IN TAX DOLLARS EVERY YEAR.

Abby: MY SUPERIORS ACTUALLY INSTRUCTED ME TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF ABORTIONS AT MY FACILITY.

SBA List along with other groups understand that this is the best chance we've had to defund Planned Parenthood. Now is the time to score one of the biggest pro-life victories since abortion was legalized.

A Chainsaw, A Little Person, And A Some Magic

Michael Hirsh sent this vid around and and it fun enough to share. Michael says he tried this on his children but with radically different results.

Pretty cool magic trick.

Big Abortion Watches This and Changes Their Shorts

This video should come with a warning label for pro-aborts. "This video which shows thousands of young people on fire to end abortion may prove absolutely horrifying to you. It is reccomended that when watching this you have a change of undergarments ready."

Lenten Series: Leonard Porter's New Stations of the Cross

The works of New York painter Leonard Porter have been profiled on CMR in the past, but he recently unveiled a set of Stations of the Cross for the Church of Christ the King in New Vernon, New Jersey. They've already received some notice in the blogosphere, but Porter's Stations are notable for more than the masterful revival of traditional painting for which he has become known. They also take on the challenge of renewing a form that has been painted many times in the life of the Church.
I had the opportunity to have a long conversation with Porter recently, in which he walked me through his Stations one by one. Even though the Stations as a devotion are familiar to me and though I wrote an article on Porter's work some time ago, I was amazed at his layering of meaning and the very virtuosity of the project: 14 complex paintings completed in under a year.
As we continue through Lent I'll be commenting on the Stations one at a time, but here are some of the important ideas that indicate how Porter's Stations are more than the usual "buy it at the church goods store" type of art work.

1. The Stations are conceived as a set, where big arcs indicate the progression of Christ's journey. Weather changes occur indicating the intensity of the events of each station. Locations change as well, not just as varied backdrops, but indicating the movement out of the city to the place of the crucifixion. Different levels of frenzy appear in each painting, indicating the increasing attacks on Christ which signify how he absorbed all the word's sins. Repeating characters appear providing a secondary narrative. Questions of choice, conversion and the sins of the world appear and reappear in secondary characters and location.

2. The paintings actually indicate the movement of the person praying the Stations. In the church where these Stations are located, they start at the front left of the church with number 1 and progress backward to the rear of the church, then pick up again on the right side and work to the front. Porter has echoed these movements in his paintings, letting streets curve while changing the direction of the figures as they progress. In this way, the prayerful person reliving Christ's via dolorosa sees him or herself more closely associated with the action of the figures. In the image above of the First Station, Pilate not only points to Christ, but also sets the viewer off in the direction of the Stations themselves.

3. Each Station is full of prefiguring and foreshadowing meaning. In Station 1 above, a skull-like face emerges just above Pilate's knee, for instance, prefiguring the "Place of the Skull," or Golgotha, where Christ will be crucified. If you look closely at the Roman soldiers holding Christ you will see symbolic ornament on their clothing which will come to play as the Stations unfold. More will be said on that at a later date.

4. The design of the Stations themselves relates to Christ's torn body. The Stations are filled with dark areas, "holes" of black paint which suggest that the scene itself shows the world "torn" just as Christ's flesh will be torn. Yet Christ always appears with a certain radiance and a face which indicates the focus of His mission. Light and dark areas are contrasted, indicating the light of Christ being brought to the darkness of the world.

I'll be bringing the Stations one by one to CMR as Lent progresses, doing an artistic exegesis on each one. I think CMR readers will be as amazed as I was upon learning of the artistic sophistication and theological complexity of Porter's work.

Fr. Corapi & The Theology Of Personal Destruction

It is part of my job as a Catholic blogger to read as much as I can on hot Church topics and nothing is hotter than the Fr. Corapi story. So it is that I stumbled upon the post of one Michael Sean Winters at the National Catholic Reporter (the one that got 4% in the vote for best Catholic newspaper).

I have critiqued Mr. Winters columns from time to time because, well, even I sometimes just want the easy post. What I am trying to say is that I have never been awestruck at Mr. Winters intellect. Well, actually I have. But not in the good way. That said, I have never thought of him as vicious. I may need to re-evaluate.

Writing on the Father Corapi story, Mr. Winters had this to say.

Still, everytime I flip channels and come across the supremely self-confident Corapi screaming about whatever cause he is embracing on any given day, I confess I have had the thought: Me thinks the gentleman doth protest too much. Stridency is rarely evidence of real, genuine faith.

It is also telling that Father Corapi's statement is so breathtakingly self-centered as to cause one to question whether he has any clue about why the Church must take all accusation of priestly impropriety seriously.

Stop. Read it again. This is one of the most despicable comments I have seen on this topic. Mr. Winters suggests the likelihood of Father Corapi's guilt in this case because he doesn't like his style. If stridency evidences a lack of faith, as he suggests, then Mr. Winters gives Christopher Hitchens a run for his money in the faithless department. Winters is nothing if not strident.

Winters suggests Fr. Corapi lacks genuine faith and suggests by extension his possible guilt. Don't tell me that is not what he said. Even a dolt like Mr. Winters is clever enough to leave himself some rhetorical escape clauses, but his intent is clear. This is evident in his indicting use of the phrase "doth protest too much."

The principal use of Shakespeare's phrase is suggest that one's vehement protests are a reaction to one's own hidden guilt. In Shakespeare-- it is used by the unfaithful queen who married her husband's murderer. She protests because she knows she is guilty. Winters thereby suggests Corapi's insincerity in faith and given the context -- this impugns guilt -- obvious caveats not withstanding. Even in his redolent craftiness, what is Mr. Winters if not strident?

So what Winters is saying is that Father Corapi is so strident in his defense of the faith as to suggest that he really doesn't believe it. And if he doesn't really believe it...ahem! Do the math.

This. Is. Despicable.

Now I do not pretend that I have any idea about what Father is or is not guilty of, but I presume innocence. Winters does not. Evidence? Stridency. (I hope that faithless St. John the Baptist and St. Vincent Ferrer are not reading this.)

It shouldn't surprise that when channel surfing between episodes of Spartacus and Glee, coming across Fr. Copapi might be jarring. Truth can do that. One might forgive Winters as he is a member of a generation reared on milquetoast which consequently views flavored oatmeal as strident. He is also a member of Catho-clique that prefers such watered down version of the faith that genuine faith expressed genuinely is unpalatable.

But whether you like his style or not, Father Corapi speaks what the Church speaks and ultimately that might be the style that Mr. Winters finds so unsettling.

I am not sure what Fr. Corapi may be guilty of, but I can't say the same for Mr. Winters.

The Ten Greatest (And Hilarious) Scientific Explanations for Fatima

I'm always amazed what people will believe in order to avoid believing in God.

The Miracle of the Dancing Sun at Fatima which was seen by 70,000 people on October 13th, 1917 has been written about often. But many people continually attempt to explain away the vision of the sun dancing in the sky at a foretold time.

Every year or so I poke around the internet to see what new explanations have arisen to explain away the miracle. And I'm always astounded that they keep on trying.

By now, secularists have amassed an enormous amount of explanations as to why we should not believe our own eyes. Here are the astounding reasons (some of them brand new) they've amassed so we should believe nothing at all special happened in Portugal that great day...

Continue reading at the National Catholic Register>>>

PETA Wants Animal Friendly Bible Translation

The stupidest story of the day comes to us via the awesome Weasel Zippers.

(Gothamist) — After they heard that the latest translation of the New International Version of the Bible will now use gender- inclusive language such as “he or she” instead of just “he”, PETA saw an opportunity to change one other thing.

The organization has petitioned the Committee on Bible Translation to suggest that its next translation remove”speciesist” language, by referring to animals as “he or she” instead of “it.” “When the Bible moves toward inclusively in one area . . . it wasn’t much of a stretch to suggest they move toward inclusively in this area. Language matters. Calling an animal ‘it’ denies them something. They are beloved by God. They glorify God,” Bruce Friedrich, PETA’s vice president for policy, told CNN.

PETA said it hopes the switch to include more gender-inclusive language will spark translators to readdress the ways animals are referred to in the Bible.

“Updating the Bible’s language regarding animals would not only reflect modern writing trends but also reinforce the idea that animals are living beings valued by God, not inanimate objects. Jesus taught us the importance of mercy and compassion, and this update would encourage mercy and compassion for all God’s creatures — including those who have feathers, fins, and fur,” Friedrich wrote.

Alternatively, we could start referring to members of PETA as animals. A few come to mind.

Fr. Barron on God's Love and the Tsumani

Another great video from Fr. Barron and his Word on Fire peeps.



Also, Fr. Barron wrote a piece for the Washington Post concerning Libya and the Just War Tradition. Definitely worht a read.

Dear Doomed Christian,

Rome
Circa 66 AD

Dear Christian Recruit,

Thank you so much for your interest in joining the Church. Your letter was forwarded to me by the former head of the evangelization and recruiting department. Unfortunately, he met a similarly grisly fate as his predecessor. They were both beheaded and stoned (though not in that order ;)

You asked about the benefits of being a Christian; well things have been a bit dodgy for this young Church. I’m sure that in the future things will get a lot better for Christians throughout the world but for now…

As you might already know Christianity is illegal. Very illegal. And the Roman Empire has been…shall we say…brutal. We’re persecuted so terribly that many of us are in hiding and oh yeah, we’re killed quite often. And not just killed but killed in pretty nasty and inventive ways. That’s why I’m always surprised to see letters like yours in my inbox. In the interest of full disclosure pretty much everyone affiliated with the Church from Jesus on down suffers terribly and then is killed. Somehow the recruiting office says this persecution is having the opposite effect than one would logically expect. But it just doesn’t seem like sound long term planning if you ask me...

Continue reading at the National Catholic Register>>>

Fr. Corapi Accuser A Disgruntled Former Employee?

Santa Cruz Media has released a statement concerning the Fr. Corapi situation. I think it would be an understatement to say that they're siding with Fr. Corapi. While they don't name the accuser they call her a disgruntled former employee who literally went out swinging and swearing to take down Fr. Corapi.

Check out the full statement at Less Femmes, The Truth:

Santa Cruz Media, Inc. is the owner of all of Fr. John Corapi’s intellectual property and the DVDs, CDs, and books that flow from it. We are a secular corporation and not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way. As such, we are not under the jurisdiction of any bishop or other official in the Catholic Church, although we have the utmost respect for Church authority.

We fully support Rev. John Corapi in this terrible trial, not surprisingly having begun on Ash Wednesday. Through the sacrifice and struggle of the desert and all of the dark moments that this entails, we are confident that the glory of the risen Lord will shine forth from the power of the Resurrection and Easter.

Continue reading>>>

Bigfoot is Dead!!!

I'm out. I'm done. No more Bigfoot. No more Yeti sightings. No more watching Sasquatch videos. I'm out. I'm turning my back. Bigfoot is dead to me.

For years I'll admit I checked out any videos of the bipedal ape man roaming the woods of the world. I watched the documentaries of eyewitness sightings when they came on Discovery or History or whoever. I even took seriously (kinda')the guys with the foot imprints. I even sorta believed the guy who said he almost took a picture of Bigfoot but dropped his camera in fright. Hey, I figured if a nine foot hairy monster was coming at me I wouldn't be thinking about photographing my last moments.

But overall my thinking was that if the Bigfoot clubs were going to put up a strong effort I was there for them. Open minded Matt -that's what they call me. But no more. Open minded Matt is closing his mind.

Now, you might ask, "Why open-minded Matt? What happened to close your mind, Matt?"

I'll tell you. THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This happened. This video is making its way all around the internet and even on news shows. It's made Bigfoot a trending topic on Twitter and Yahoo. Newspapers are detailing it like a real news story. Here's the video:


Really? Seriously? That's all you got? Come on. The Bigfoot people are just mailing it in at this point. This is a guy in an ape suit. Maybe a Chewbacca suit. And this is what passes for Bigfoot nowadays. Dude, if this loser was Bigfoot let him stay hidden. But seriously, if Bigfoot enthusiasts aren't going to at least pull off interesting fakes, I'm out.

Chupacabra and the Montauk Monster is where it's at nowadays. The Bigfooters got old.

So going forward - I'm still cool with El Chupacabra, Hogzilla, and the Montauk Monster? All good. But Bigfoot? No. I'm out.

Ultrasound Belt? See Unborn Baby 24/7?

Now here's something definitely weird and possibly wonderful. It's kind of an ultrasound belt that expectant mothers could wear that would constantly show their baby. It's called a PreVue and was featured in the mag Business Insider.

This would seem to be a great tool of pro-lifers, right? Moms could walk around advertising their unborn babies. The only thing is that it's kinda' weird because you'd probably see all sorts of other things in there like bowels and stuff which wouldn't be so cool. But overall pretty cool.

It's not ready yet as it's still in the planning stages and I'm not sure if this is completely safe for the baby though. But if it is could you imagine how this would freak out BIG ABORTION. They would hate this thing. And that always makes me happy.

Ken Malloy of CBS writes:

The device is called PreVue and it could allow pregnant women see their baby 24/7. Women could wear it around their abdomens to see real images of their babies. Its kind of like ultrasound. "The screen is made from a stretchable e-textile, so it will grow along with the mother." Some think.. PreVue could help expecting parents bond with children before birth.

"This concept is still in the ideation stage, so there's no telling how clear the images will actually be, or how much something like this will cost.."

Pretty cool thought though. It'll be interesting to see if it actually happens.

The Courage Of His Convictions

Men. Jobs.

So many men find their identity in their jobs. So when a man loses his job it can be tough. It is particularly tough when a man is out of a job for an extended period of time. You begin to question yourself, you may even begin to question your manhood.

If Tim Roach questioned his own manhood after six months of unemployment, consider the question asked and answered. Tim Roach is a man, a good man.

In mid February, Tim, got a call from his local union with the news every laid off worker longs to hear — a job offer.

It couldn’t have come at a better time. Tim’s unemployment benefits were about to run out. He could hardly believe what the voice on the other end was presenting to him — an offer to be a job foreman for at least 11 months, with a salary of $65,000 to $70,000 a year.

Perfect, Tim thought. Then came the bad news — he would be working on construction of a new Planned Parent­hood Clinic in St. Paul on University Avenue. The highest of highs became the lowest of lows as he quickly turned down the offer.

Tim's Union rep tried to get him to reconsider saying he wasn't sure if abortions would be performed there but he simply responded, "It's a Planned Parenthood. No."

God bless you Tim. You are a man, a man after God's heart and the Lord takes care of his own.

Gonzaga To Host Vagina Monologues

Gonzaga University for the first time ever will play host to the controversial play The Vagina Monologues. It would appear that some students have been trying for a long time to get the nasty play on campus without success. But now they're all like yay what an accomplishment! But college students are mostly idiots. I know I was. The worrisome part here is that the school seems to be acting idiotically as well.

The Gonzaga Bulletin reports:

For the first time in Gonzaga University history, the performance of the "Vagina Monologues" will be allowed on campus.

The women and gender studies program, the English department, the sociology department, the Honors Program, and the Institute for Hate Studies are teaming up to sponsor "({Monologues, Dialogues & Stories}): Interdisciplinary Academic Discussion on Women's Narratives, Catholic Theologies, Violence Against Women, and ‘The Vagina Monologues.' "

Director of Women and Gender Studies Dr. Patsy Fowler announced the week Tuesday after the events were approved by Academic Vice President Dr. Patricia Killen.

"[We were] elated, [when we found out that the ‘Vagina Monologues' were approved]," student organizer Meghan Yee, senior, said in an email. "It was quite the process to get the OK, but excitement is one of the only ways to describe this accomplishment. But also and again, a sense of ‘finally' especially after all of the work that has been put into bringing the ‘Vagina Monologues' to Gonzaga by all of the involved students of the past."

According to an email from Dr. Fowler, "the week will include three interrelated events." There will be a panel presentation and discussion on April 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the Foley Teleconference Center that will feature Fowler, Dr. Cate Siejk, Fr. Tim Clancy, and student Drew Pollom, entitled "Voices on ‘The Vagina Monologues,' Catholic Tradition, and Jesuit Identity."

Gonzaga is one of thirteen Catholic colleges to allow the play on campus. Nine of them are Jesuit run, according to the Cardinal Newman Society.

“Catholic colleges that host this play—some of them repeatedly—should be ashamed of the obvious contradiction with their Catholic identity,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. “Most Catholic colleges have rejected the Monologues and found much better ways of seriously addressing women’s issues.”

The Monologues say lesbian activity is all that, masturbation is cool, and sex is all about you feeling good. Yeah, because that's exactly what kids today need to hear. And you know, Jesus was all about the pleasure principle.

This seems like a shame because I'd read in a number of places that Gonzaga was still pretty Catholic, especially when compared to their neighbor Seattle University. I'm hoping this announcement isn't indicative of a trend.

Obama Locked Out. Foreshadowing?

President Obama got locked out of the White House. Is it immature and ridiculous to show this video? Absolutely.

And no I'm not attempting to use this moment to question his intelligence or fitness to be President. I've got thousands of other moments to prove that.

Watch Obama get locked out for a moment and then dream of locking him out forever.



HT Freedom's Lighthouse

Transgenders Want Birth Certificates Changed

This would simply fly in the fact of reality. This would be the crowning achievement of subjective opinion over objective fact. So of course, it'll probably happen.

SF Gate reports:

Joann Prinzivalli has gone through a lot to be a woman, and she wants her birth certificate to show it.

Born Paul Prinzivalli Jr., she says she knew her true identity was female by the time she was 4 and broached the subject with a mental-health adviser as a teenager. But it was decades before she bucked family expectations and social pressures, changed her name and underwent electrolysis and hormone treatment to make a change that cost Prinzivalli her spouse, family, home and job.

About 10 years later, she's still a man in one important context: on her birth certificate. She's been unable to change the gender listed on the document because of city rules that she and some other transgender people call discriminatory, intrusive and out of step with recent moves by the federal government and some states to make it easier for transgender people to change ID documents.

Perhaps he doesn't understand what his transgender surgery accomplished. The reason he wanted the surgery is because he wanted to change something about himself. According to him he wanted to change from being a man to a woman. Well, first he had to be a man then which is what his birth certificate states.

I don't think I understand this desire currently rampant in our culture to have everyone else recognize their delusions as reality. It reminds me of the gay marriage debate which seeks to codify one thing as another as if recognition from the state makes it right. Distorting reality in the name of tolerance is just a legalized distortion.

13 Slogans for the Previously Anti-War Left

13 New Slogans for the Anti-War Protesters who oddly don't seem too upset by Obama's...uhm...kinetic military actions.

1) All We are Saying is Give Bombs a Chance

2)Make Kinetic Military Actions, Not War.

3) We Will Fight Our Country's Battles from Madison Wisconsin to the Shores of Tripoli.

4) War! What is It Good For? Absolutely...uhm...raising poll numbers!

5) Vive Le France! (Just 'cause)

6) Obama Lied, But He's On Our Side.

7) War is the Means, Poll Numbers the End.

8) See! He's Not a Wimp!

9) No War for Oil, Don't Drill Either

10) WWRWB, Who Would Rev. Wright Bomb?

11) These Colors Don't Run...The World (War by Committee)

12) Protecting people from tyrannical thugs is what our military should be doing! Sometimes!

13) O-Bomb-A

If you've got any others, feel free to add them. I'd love to hear them.

I Was Born This Way

For years I have fought my own nature, but no more.

Ever since I can remember, I have felt this way. It has always been just below the surface, but I have done my best to push it down. Way down.

Also ever since I can remember, when my 'tendencies' would become obvious, people would tell me that it is wrong. My parents, my teachers, and especially my priests would warn me, you can't act that way, that the Bible says that it is wrong.

Now I know otherwise. I have been denying my true nature. There is a long-standing social stigma against people like me. We are put down and people do not like to associate with us. But the one thing I know is true is that I didn't ask to be this way. It is not, I repeat NOT something I have chosen. It is who I am. Everyone in my life, for my 44 years, has forced me to deny it. To pretend. And I have listened to them, until now.

I was born this way, the way God made me. No more denying it. I will embrace it and finally be who I was made to be... >>> Continue Reading >>>

School: "Pick a Song that Doesn't Say Jesus"

A school in California attempted to prevent a disabled student from using his choice of song in the talent show because the song inluded the word "Jesus."

I'm honestly asking if that song had used the word "ho" or was downright anti-Christian would the school have protested?

Principal Calls Jesus Song Offensive: MyFoxLA.com

Some good news is that the school relented and the kid can dance to his song.

HT The Blaze

My Radio Interview on Father Corapi

On Monday I appeared on Dennis O'Donovan's Religion, Politics & the Culture Radio Show.

The RPC show airs live, Mondays through Fridays from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm EST. Radio: in Southeast Florida: AM 1040. Internet: www.rpconradio.com.

I think you'll find it interesting.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

How to Celebrate Atheist Pride Week

Former atheist Jen Fulwiler has essentially dared us to come up with activities for atheists to do during Atheist Pride Week. She wrote, "I’ll leave it to the Archbolds to come up with some witty suggestions for how one might celebrate A Week."

As you know, CMR does not back down from challenges so...(pause for drama)... Here's CMR's official Top Ten List of Activities for Atheists During Atheist Pride Week.

1) Invite your atheist friends over, rent the entire Ricky Gervais' movie catalogue from Netflix, and discuss why someone so brilliant and atheisty can't make a good movie. (Makes for a nice early night!)

2) Come up with excuses why it's irrelevant that atheist utopias always end up with lots of dead people.

3) Figure out how to convince doctor you have glaucoma so you can get medical marijuana.

4) Attend nihilist convention in an ill lit ballroom and stare into the nothingness while listening to REM's "Everybody Hurts" and inhaling your glaucoma medicine.

5) Do nothing. Nothing matters anyway.

6) Talk with other atheists about how brave you are to be atheists.

7) Troll Catholic blogs all day (just like you do every day) leaving nasty comments and sign off feeling superior while inhaling your glaucoma medicine.

8) Go to Whole Foods for a nice organic feast to celebrate atheism called A-Whole.

9) Attend conference at Berkeley entitled, "Misunderstood Mao."

10) Declare war on Libya.

11) Tell my mother she's like totally dumb or something for believing in God and then slam the door on the way back to my room in the basement. (What? It's got a separate entrance.)

If you'd like to add your own activities, please feel free in the combox.

We Are All Atheists Now

It's inevitable. Religion is dead, saya a recent study.

Religion will soon be dead in nine countries according to a study reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas. Is this because the people in these countries are too smart for something like religion? No. The reason that religion is dead in those countries, they posit, is not they are strong minded. Religion will die in those countries because the people there cannot stand up to peer pressure. Being an atheist, they say, is cooler.

"The idea is pretty simple," said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.

"It posits that social groups that have more members are going to be more attractive to join, and it posits that social groups have a social status or utility.

"For example in languages, there can be greater utility or status in speaking Spanish instead of [the dying language] Quechuan in Peru, and similarly there's some kind of status or utility in being a member of a religion or not."

Some of the census data the team used date from the 19th century

Dr Wiener continued: "In a large number of modern secular democracies, there's been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%."

The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the "non-religious" category.

They found, in a study published online, that those parameters were similar across all the countries studied, suggesting that similar behaviour drives the mathematics in all of them.

And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.

The world is junior high school, we just live in it.

It was unclear in the study how long it would be before we are all wearing baggy pants and messy hair.

It is also unclear how the study accounts for an almighty God who might have other ideas.

ht Hotair

Tools Of Life / Tools of Death

Rebecca Taylor will be guest blogging here once a week for the next month. Rebecca is a Technologist in Molecular Biology, MB(ASCP) and a practicing Catholic. She has been writing and speaking about Catholicism and biotechnology for five years at her blog Mary Meets Dolly. This is the second installment.

Do you get that feeling? You know when you hear about a new prenatal test and you shake your head, let a little grumble escape from your mouth, and then you notice the sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach. Many pro-lifers get that feeling because they know that a new prenatal test performed even earlier means more innocent babies aborted. I normally don't talk about something as mushy as feelings, but today, I want to talk about that feeling.

A few months ago scientists announced a new way to genetically test a fetus as early as 12 weeks. Unlike amniocentesis, or chorionic villus sampling (CVS) each with a risk of miscarriage, this new method finds fragments of the fetal DNA in the mother's blood. This test is not the same as a serum test often called a quad-screen or AFP. This is a test that actually tests minute quantities of the fetus' DNA in a maternal blood sample. So prenatal genetic testing is likely to go from invasive procedures like amniocentesis and CVS to a simple blood test with no risk to the life of the fetus. Instead of a shout of joy from the pro-life community, this news received the whispered grumble, the shaking of the head and the sickened stomach. Why? Because most pro-lifers view any prenatal test as a precursor to abortion.

Admit it. We all do it. We lump prenatal testing and abortion together. We assume that with one comes the other. Sometimes the line between the two is so blurred, we lay the blame for the killing of an unborn child on the testing. In a piece on prenatal testing at LifeNews.com, Kristan Hawkins, a pro-life advocate whose son Gunner has cystic fibrosis, wrote about how genetic testing is killing babies:

As I have written before, I have become deeply involved with the current healthcare reform debate arguing that the system desired by the President and Democratic Congressional leaders will lead to rationing of care and slower development of potential life-saving treatments for children like Gunner. Recently my research into this issue has led me down another path: pre-natal genetic testing....

One theme is apparent; unlike with cancer where we are “racing to a cure,” these scientists offer hope that we can eliminate diseases by terminating those with them. An AP article yesterday, on February 17th, headlined, “Testing curbs some genetic diseases.” Couldn't the article title have been, “Testing snuffs out those with genetic diseases?"

I am not angry at the AP writer for the writing the story as I was excited for finally someone has admitted that genetic testing is killing little girls and boys like Gunner. [my emphasis]

I understand Ms. Hawkins' anger and frustration. Having tested pregnant mothers and their partners for cystic fibrosis mutations, I am fully aware of how this information is being used. But I disagree that it is the "genetic testing [that] is killing little girls and boys like Gunner." Genetic testing may be cited as the reason to kill a baby with a genetic disease, but the REAL killer is abortion on demand. Without legalized abortion, prenatal testing would be what it should be, a way to find out more about the life going in the womb, especially if something is going wrong. Without legalized abortion, the use of prenatal testing would be naturally limited to conditions that could benefit from some kind of prenatal intervention.

In fact the Catholic Church has no problem with prenatal testing, unless it is done with the intent to abort if the results are not what the parents want. Prenatal testing is only immoral when the parents are already planning to abort when the testing is acquired. I have a suspicion that this scenario happens less often than we think. After reading many heartbreaking accounts of women who have been pressured and harassed by medical professionals to abort their "genetically-defective" children, I suspect that most women go into prenatal testing because their doctor recommends it and then are bullied into abortion when the test results aren't perfect.

The problem is abortion and a medical establishment that uses it as a "solution" to medical problems. Always has been. Abortion takes clinically useful information and makes it deadly.

Why do I feel compelled to make this distinction? Because I know that someday doctors will likely be able to treat genetic disease in utero. Possibly even with gene therapy. I envision a day where drugs that are currently being tested to reverse the cognitive symptoms of Down Syndrome are used in the womb to halt the effects of an extra chromosome 21. That cannot happen without an accurate prenatal genetic test If we have labeled that prenatal testing as immoral because of its association with abortion, we close down an avenue for healing.

Morally, we need to separate the prenatal testing from the abortion. We can not equate prenatal genetic testing with murder. If we do, we may lose valuable future opportunities to heal in the womb.

I do wholeheartedly agree with Ms. Hawkins' assessment of the way eugenic abortion is portrayed. Aborting a child with a genetic disease DOES NOT cure the disease. It only gets rid of the people with it. That wouldn't work with cancer, but somehow when it comes to life in the womb, death is described as a "cure."

Now there are those pro-lifers who would to like to restrict access to prenatal testing of any kind because it can lead to abortion. I understand that as a practical means to protect life in an imperfect world where abortion on demand is a reality. I just want to make sure that in doing so, or thinking it should be so, that we lay the moral blame where it belongs, with the abortion, not with the testing itself. It is important to recognize that sickening feeling we get around prenatal testing is due to the abortion that may follow and not due to the actual testing. After all, we Catholics pray our Rosary outside abortion clinics, not outside our local genetics lab.

Rebecca writes at Mary Meets Dolly which is, literally, the meeting of the world of genetics and genetic engineering, represented by Dolly, “mother” of modern biotechnology, and the teachings of the Catholic Church on the sanctity of life, represented by Mary, mother of Christ and the Church. Rebecca started www.MaryMeetsDolly.com to help everyday Catholics better understand the science and ethics surrounding modern biotechnology in light of Catholic Church teaching.

Gov. Signs 3 Day Waiting Period for Abortion

South Dakota's Governor signed a law requiring a three day waiting period for abortions. This is great news. Just 8 months and 27 days to go.

CNS News reports:

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a law Tuesday requiring women to wait three days after meeting with a doctor to have an abortion, the longest waiting period in the nation.

Abortion rights groups have already said they plan to file a lawsuit challenging the measure, which also requires women to undergo counseling at pregnancy help centers that discourage abortions.

Daugaard, who gave no interviews after signing the bill, said in a written statement that he has conferred with state attorneys who will defend the law in court and a sponsor who has pledged private money to finance the state's legal costs.

You can bet that big Abortion is going to fight this one for all its worth but if the law is found constitutional I'd hope other states would follow.

Look, we've got waiting periods for buying guns as a way to prevent violence. Why not abortion? Pro-aborts are always saying they want abortion to be safe, legal, and rare. I'd hope that those interested in killing babies for bucks, aren't liars too.

Difference Between Nudists and Strippers?

My two year old went through a phase where she kept taking off her clothes. And when I put clothes on her she would try to take them off. And if she took her clothes off I'd say in my stern adult voice, "Go put some clothes on NOW!"

And that was that. Can you believe this is a debate that adults are having? I hope someone here will act like an adult and tell these fools to put clothes on: Reuters reports:

In a state where men have legally strolled the streets in nothing but tennis shoes and Portland hosts an annual naked bike ride, nudists appeared at the Oregon Legislature on Monday — clothed — to ask lawmakers not to let their lifestyle get wrapped up in an effort to regulate strip clubs.

The battle over bare skin renews familiar debates about balancing freedom with neighborhood standards in a state known for its liberal protections of free speech — and nude expression.

Nudist advocates testified against a bill that would ask voters to change free-speech protections in the state constitution to let communities keep strip clubs out of neighborhoods. But, nudists warn, that might unintentionally allow cities to outlaw nude recreation.

"We want to protect our rights," said John Kinman, past president of the American Association for Nude Recreation, which has joined the American Civil Liberties Union in opposing the measure.

They're worried that the law won't differentiate between strippers and nudists?

There's a difference between nudists and strippers. Strippers are desperate people that some sad people will pay money to see naked while nudists are sad people we're desperate to not see naked.

Liberals are always yelling that they want privacy in their own bedroom where nobody can tell them what to do but then they try to make the entire world their bedroom.

Seriously,are there any adults left in America? Anywhere?

Barney Frank: GOP "Morally Stupid Bigots"

Gotta' love it when Barney Frank lectures you on morality. Dude had a brothel being run out of his home and he's lecturing you.



As Zip said, Because when you think of morally superior people Bawney Fwank comes to mind.

I'm unsure if we're morally stupid bigots because we support defunding Planned Parenthood and NPR or because we opposed DADT mainly because I can hardly understand a word he ever says.

HT The Right Scoop

Polygamy Is Sooo Cute

With the White House punting on its defense of the Defense of Marriage Act which restricted the federal government from recognizing anything other than marriage between one man and one woman, the pathway to legalized polygamy is looking pretty clear recently. Currently, five states recognize same sex marriage. And if follows logically that if the government has no right to restrict marriage to one man and one woman, it follows that it would have no basis for restricting marriage to ONE man and ONE woman.

Canada, which legalized same sex marriage in 2005 is now awaiting a judge’s ruling whether polygamy laws are illegal. Just this week, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association intervened by calling for Canada’s polygamy law to be “relegated to the scrap heap of history.

Continue reading at the National Catholic Register>>>

To Hell With Hell

Hell is just so uncool.

So a Rabbi, an Atheist, and a liberal theologian walk in to a discussion on hell...

No, this is not the beginning of a really bad joke. Umm. Actually. It is the beginning of a really bad joke. Only that joke is the panel discussion put together by WaPo/Newsweek 'On Faith' site.

Ken Shepherd at Newsbusters reports on some of the really silly and anti-christian responses elicited by the this damn panel. You should check out his whole post, but I want to quote a response or two.

First comes this response from liberal theologian Susan Brooks Thistlewaite. Dude, I am not kidding. This is her name, I am not making it up. If your name is Susan Brooks Thistlewaite you have limited career options. You can either be a liberal theologian or the stuffy girlfriend in the remake of Arthur. I am not sure she made the right career choice. Leaving that aside, Susie fears that belief in hell will prevent battered women from going all Farrah and burning their rotten husbands in bed.

"Damning people to hell for their religious beliefs, their sexuality, their reproductive choices and even their political views has enormously negative consequences for human life right now," liberal theologian Susan Brooks Thistlewaite insisted.

"When I have done Bible studies with battered women, as I have done for years, many of the most religiously conservative are very nervous about asking for help with abuse because they fear they will go to hell for not being “subject” to their husbands. Often they have put up with the physical and psychological abuse for years, fearing not only the judgment of their husbands, but of God," the Chicago Theological Seminary professor added.

Dunno 'bout you, but I wouldn't want to date Susie. Susie has baggage.

But Susie has nothing on the resident militant atheist on the faith panel, Herb Silverman. I never really understood why they insist on asking somebody who's entire raison d'etre is not believing what he believes about this or that. Its like asking a flat-earther about circumnavigation, what's the point?

Anywho. Herb takes the cake. Not only does Herb dismiss hell, he manages to bash Catholics and work Hilter into it. All in one measly little sentence.

It is difficult, though, to believe a claim that a loving and all-powerful god would condemn Mahatma Gandhi to an eternity of torture while the Catholic Adolph Hitler has an eternity of bliss as he looks down at Jews suffering in hell.

That's some talented atheatrics. Hell, he should thank God for all that talent.

Fr. Barron on "The Adjustment Bureau"

I saw "The Adjustment Bureau" recently and thought it was one of the most insidiously wrong-headed movies I had seen in a long time. Attractive characters, interesting plot at first and God as a capricious tyrant. I'm glad Fr. Barron has some erudite commentary.

SOLT Statement On Fr. John Corapi

The Rev. Gerald Sheehan, Regional Priest Servant of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) has issued a statement on the Fr. Corapi situation.

This was obtained for me by the Register and so I ask you to read it there.

Bottom line. The leave does not mean he is guilty and there is no accusation of criminal conduct.

Read the Statement