Shaking Off Sleep

Doomer Porn

2011-06-17T06:53:00.002-05:00

I haven't written much lately, because I've been busy doing things.

Anyway, last night, the wife and I watched 'Collapse', a lengthy, jeremiad interview with Michael Ruppert. Peak Oil, Peak Money, Peak Population. A lot of stuff there I already had heard before (likely sourced originally from Ruppert and similar doomcrows). Ruppert has both a blog and a website, Collapse.net

One issue he raises, I believe in error, is the need to invest in gold. I know that gold is hot right now in both conservative and doomer circles. If there is a complete collapse of socio-economic systems, I do believe that gold will not avail you anything.

What will the currency of post-collapse society be? Ability. What abilities? Not networking, not web design, and all the MSCEs will probably starve. The abilities that will be critical in post-collapse society will be:

1) Agriculture - We'll need food, textiles, etc. (Farm Ville experience doesn't count here)
2) Metalsmithing - We'll need tools, especially for agriculture
3) Engineering - We'll need houses, plows, and the Wheel would be nice as well

So, make sure to send your kids to the nearest A&M, eh. And perhaps join the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), as they'll teach you Iron Age skills of weaving and metalworking. There will be a scavenger/recycler class that will help post-collapse transition by taking discarded tech and repurposing it. But, most metals will have rusted away within two generations of the Peakalypse. The quicker we get back to at least the Iron Age, the better.

Like I've said before, I'm not worried. Just doing due diligence.

China Now Butt of the Joke

2010-10-08T07:08:00.000-05:00

"Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal sentenced to jail by Chinese justice. His acts are in complete contradiction to the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize."

- China, reacting to the Nobel committee's selection of Liu Xiaobo as recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace prize.

I'll wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes, and congratulate Liu Xiaobo on his heroic dissent from his oppressive government. Xiaobo has done much more towards earning his Nobel Peace prize than the previous recipient, who was awarded his prize for talking about sunshine and puppies, hope and change, and for getting elected President of the United States of America.

I guess that now, finally, China gets the joke that is the Nobel Peace Prize: Do something that resonates with liberal European sensibilities, and you're in there like swimwear. Just ask Al Gore, or Paul Krugman.

Superiority, Truly

2010-08-05T07:12:00.001-05:00

"Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples" - Chief U.S District Judge Vaughn Walker

Opposite-sex couples are superior, when looking at the State's interests, as only opposite-sex couples are capable of generating and rearing children, which are desperately needed for the continuance of our society (not to mention paying off the national debt). Any policy should reflect reality.

Favorite Hymns

2010-07-08T10:56:00.009-05:00

This meme's currently making the rounds in the Catholic blogohood, so I figured I'd list some of my favorite hymns. In no particular order:

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty:

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

That's a classic, and one that most Catholics can get behind.

Holy God, We Praise Thy Name

Holy God, we praise Thy Name;
Lord of all, we bow before Thee!
All on earth Thy scepter claim,
All in Heaven above adore Thee;
Infinite Thy vast domain,
Everlasting is Thy reign.

Another Catholic classic, and a hymn that puts our place at the feet of our God. No happy-clappy, Jesus-is-my-pal nonsense.

To Jesus Christ, Our Sovereign King

To Jesus Christ, our Sov'reign King,
Who is the world's salvation,
All praise and homage do we bring,
And thanks and adoration.

Yeah, you can't help but get the sense of Jesus' majesty in this hymn, and I bet the regal references drive the liberal, 'horizontal church' folks absolutely nuts.

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great Name we praise.

Sure, the timing is more waltzy than most, but the melody is simple enough for folks to be able to sing it.

Salve Regina

Hail Holy Queen enthron'd above, O Maria
Hail Mother of Mercy and of love O Maria

Triumph all ye Cherubim
Sing with us ye Seraphim
Heav'n and earth resound the hymn
Salve Salve Salve Regina

Yeah, you wouldn't find this one in most Protestant hymnals, but this is one of my favorite Marian antiphons. Just a part of what makes us Catholic, right, is a loving respect for our Mother.

I've been trying to learn these songs on the keyboard, dialing up the biggest sounding organ preset I can find and cranking it up. Remember, when we sing, we pray twice!

Obesity and Impotence

2010-06-17T07:13:00.005-05:00

Headline from a News network:

Obesity May Impede Sexual Health

Got me thinking about other bloated organisms with impotence problems:

"That's why, just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation's best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge, a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation's secretary of energy. Scientists at our national labs and experts from academia and other oil companies have also provided ideas and advice"

That item was culled from the President's "We're really trying hard" speech about the Gulf oil disaster. Funny, the only thing I've heard in the media is BP trying different things, and failing, and government hacks pointing fingers. I have yet to hear that the US government had a clue of how to cap the well. Even the Admiral of the US Coast Guard admitted as much. I think the government is paying too much for "a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation's secretary of energy... Scientists at our national labs and experts from academia" that have no effect.

The most that I've heard from US Government scientists is to hear them on NPR talking about how bad the spill is, and how bad BP was in drilling the well. If the government can't get the job done, then maybe it's time to lose some weight?

Executive Overreach

2010-06-15T07:30:00.005-05:00

So, the President is going to force BP to pay, up front, for oil damages:

David Axelrod, Obama's senior adviser, has said a new claims plan would call for an independent third party to handle the process, and a White House spokesman said Monday the administration is confident it has the legal authority to force BP to set up an escrow account for the purpose of paying damages. [CNN]

I have a little problem with this. The Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States of America. Specifically, the 5th Amendment:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

I don't remember BP, nor any of its employees, being so much as indicted yet. How the current administration rationalizes this overreach will be the bedrock of the next totalitarian regime's legal interpretation. Stare decisis, y'know.

Open Letter to a Neighbor

2010-06-09T20:22:00.004-05:00

Dear Mr. Mexico,

I hope this letter finds you well. We seem to be laboring under different impressions about our relationship and the property line between your yard and mine. I don't wish to cause you distress by bringing this up, but the situation has become intolerable. As civilized neighbors, I believe we can work things out in a civilized manner.

The County Assessor's office has a clearly marked boundary on file, pursuant to our last discussion about the property line, from February 2, 1848. I do recall that it was settled under less than friendly circumstances, but a deal is a deal. While we had respectful exchanges opinions about each others' yards, we realize that our right to dictate behavior stops at our respective side of the fence. I respect your authority to set rules for your yard, so I would kindly ask that you respect my right to exercise authority over my yard.

Just because I pay you to mow my lawn doesn't give you the right to send your kids over to climb my tree whenever they want. While innocuous in and of itself, your kids frequently leave pop cans and candy wrappers on the lawn. Plus, they tend to tell my own kids that they cannot climb the tree when they are, inflaming tensions between our families.

Also, I would be so humble as to point out that there is a big difference between my inviting you over for a beer, and you coming over while I'm at work and helping yourself to the contents of my refrigerator. Your refrigerator may be near empty, but that is not sufficient justification to helping yourself to what is mine. I'm a generous guy, if you ask around the neighborhood, you'd see that it's true. Still, your presumptuousness is wearing on my patience.

Yes, some of my kids have no problem with the behavior of you and your kids, but my kids have a sketchy idea, at best, of property rights. Some of my kids like the fact that your kids will mow my lawn and wash my car so that they don't have to, but that's beside the point. I decide what goes on at my house, not the children. So, don't send your kids over to have my own kids yell at me for sending your kids home or for insisting on my property rights.

You really need to have a discussion with your children about Cause and Effect. When they throw rocks at my dog, he gets angry. That's why he's bitten your kids on a couple recent occasions. If your children insist on continuing to throw rocks, the dog's mood will not improve, and more biting will ensue. Rant and rave all you want, but they're the one throwing the rocks at the dog to begin with.

I know that my attention to this issue has been spotty, as I still am dealing with some creeps from a couple blocks over, the ones that stole my BBQ grill. Still, I do think that we need to address this swiftly and with all due civilized discussion.

Your Neighbor,

U. S. America

In Who We What?

2010-05-26T19:57:00.004-05:00

I got a panicked e-mail from a sibling the other night, frantic that we should pray for our nation. You see, he heard that the U.S. Mint is issuing Dollar coins WITHOUT the phrase 'In God We Trust' on them. Someone later replied to the whole group that the issue was indeed a hoax, after checking it out on Snopes.com. Praying for our nation doesn't hurt, even if the panic was ill-founded.

Still, it got me thinking. Does having the the phrase 'In God We Trust' on our currency really mean anything? We, as a nation, obviously DO NOT trust or obey God, so the phrase is really a falsehood. A blasphemy, to be specific. If ever there was an instance of taking the Lord's Name in vain, this is surely one.

So, it begs the question; Would it do God more honor to remove his name from a currency that is based on a nation that endorses Abortion, Pornography, Idolatry, Greed, Envy, and any other mortal sin under the sun?

I do realize that we have a sizable number of people that nominally believe in God, but a majority of them are pretty selective at their personal and public application of what we know of God's Will. In all reality, they worship any number of Gods of stone, wood, flesh and fantasy.

Maybe the next Dollar should be printed with 'In Us We Trust'. It's not worth much, but at least it's honest.

Drawing You-Know-Who

2010-05-20T05:52:00.000-05:00

I'm not one for religious antagonism, but I also abhor submitting to bullies' death threats.

The Gravity of Sins Disputed

2010-05-19T06:58:00.002-05:00

I don't know what it is about America magazine, but the editors frequently seem to be drifting Leftward, and happen to be Jesuits.

On this occasion, Fr. James Martin S.J. takes issue with the Pope's declaration that Abortion and Homosexual "Marriage" are gravely evil sins. From America magazine's blog:

Pope Benedict XVI's comments last week in Fatima, Portugal, in which he stated that abortion and same-sex marriage were "some of today's most insidious and dangerous threats" to the common good seemed oddly discordant. The equation of abortion, something that clearly is about a threat to life, with same-sex marriage, which no matter how you look at it, does not mean that anyone is going to die, is bizarre.

The Pope said they are "insidious" threats, because all but the most wise would not believe them to be threats. Like Fr. Martin S.J., who seems to be under the impression that gay marriage is a socially and spiritually harmless diversion.

Why has same-sex marriage been equated with abortion? Are they really equivalent "threats" to life?

They aren't equated, but they do spring from a similar source: "My body is MINE, and I shall do with it as I see fit." Abortion denies life to a life already started, while homosexual relationships denies life to future life. Both refuse the rule of God over our sexuality and reproduction. This is mortal sin.

If you’re looking for a life issue with stakes as high as abortion, why not something that actually threatens life? Like war? Or the death penalty? Or the kind of poverty and destitution that lead to death? Why aren't “abortion and war” the most "insidious and dangerous" threats to the common good? Or “war and the death penalty”? Or “war and poverty?”

These are not "insidious and dangerous" because they are OBVIOUS and dangerous, and the Church speaks out about these things all the time, the Gospel also speaks out against theft, hatred and violence. But, War is not socially acceptable, and neither is poverty. It is not only against socially abhorrent sins, but also against the sins that our culture embraces that the Church is to speak out. Don't filter your message because you fear the loss of party invitations and the shallow goodwill of the social elites.

The great danger is that this increasingly popular equation will seem to many as having less to do with moral equivalency and more to do with a simple dislike, or even a hatred, of gays and lesbians.

Instead of condemning the message and messenger, the writer should be expounding on Church teaching, not just pounding on it. He'd be doing all his gay friends a better service by preparing them for the Kingdom of Heaven, rather than railing for their comfort on Earth.

Family, and the Reality of Marriage

2010-05-10T20:17:00.005-05:00

Some thoughts that have been banging around the ol' cranium:

How can one make an argument against "gay marriage" without resorting to religious proof texting? One could appeal to natural law, physics, biology and reality.

Society is completely subsidiary to a heterosexual, reproductively active pair bond. Wherever there is a man and a woman, there is the possibility of life and of society. Therefore, Society owes its existence to the heterosexual, reproductively active pair bond, and should give it every deference. Society calls these bonds 'Marriages'.

Sure, modern society has provided ways and means of creating simulacrums of productive, life-sustaining unions. But these inherently sterile cooperatives, either by nature or by choice, do not contribute to the future of the society. Sure, the participants may derive sentimental pleasure and personal affirmation from these pairings, but they offer no future to the larger society. They are dead-ends.

Proponents will point to the modern decline of the quality of marriages to somehow strengthen their argument that artificial unions are just as good. The problem with modern marriages is not with the definition of marriage, but of modern peoples' obsession with selfish pursuits of edification and gratification. Don't blame the recipe for cake when you start your disaster by substituting dirt for flour.

Sure, a homosexual couple can procure common property, furnishings, and even children produced by others. They can surround themselves with every trapping similar to a heterosexual, reproductively active pair bond, but it does not change the inherent difference, it does not change the truth. Sure, humans have built aircraft to soar above the ground, but it hasn't changed the laws of physics and gravity.

The larger society needs to recognize that its future can only be made with the help of the heterosexual, reproductively active pair bond. In that recognition, the society must give that union due deference by honoring its significance, not dithering away its definition to pander to peoples' feelings and sentimental illusions.

Flogging

2010-04-19T19:36:00.002-05:00

Yeah, it was another long, long Lent, complete with the media and every detractor against that Church that still draws breath flogging the Church and Pope Benedict. Jesus said "let he who is without sin cast the first stone". The New York Times says "rocks here, hard rocks, get your rocks here.."

Having been molested when I was 8 or 9, I can completely relate to, and still have to fight, the attitude of "string 'em up!" And I thank God that I don't know if my molester was a priest or not, and I try not to imagine it as so. Also, in the intervening years, I've learned some hard lessons about mercy and forgiveness, so I'm less apt to lash out about the issue.

I won't get into an analysis of the sexual abuse, the abusers, the bishops that kept it discrete, the therapists that enabled abuse to continue. I'm not an expert on any of those topics, and neither are most of the Church's current detractors. Most of the Church's fiercest critics are not interested in rooting out all sexual abuse in society, or else they'd be also relentlessly scouring the foster care systems, the public schools, and daycare programs as well.

Detractors' primary interest is the shame the Church by the failings of some of its' members, and to try and change the Church's doctrines and disciplines that they find most offensive to popular sentiments:

- Ordaining women won't eliminate abuse, or else you'd never see female teachers bedding male students.

- Married clergy won't eliminate abuse, or you'd never see married men sexually abusing minors.

- Blessing the use of contraception won't eliminate abuse either, instead it would just encourage already familiar forms of sexual abuse, like the current hook-up culture.

Sexual abuse is a feature of fallen human nature, not a feature of Catholic doctrine or discipline.

No, the World Did Not End, Yet...

2010-04-15T16:13:00.000-05:00

Ha!

I decided to give up apocalyptic musings for Lent, and so to help me, Congress and President Obama decided to pass health care reform legislation. Okay, you caught me; I'm being flip.

Is it the end of the world, no. At least not until the legislation actually starts wreaking the destruction it promises to. The problem with our health care system is this; it works great for the Haves, okay for the Somewhat Haves, and not really for the Have-Nots. Seeing as how the Haves have fallen out of favor with the rest of us (with copious defamation from the mouthpieces of the Have-Nots), their opinions have been largely ignored. The grievances of the Have-Nots have filled the airwaves, print media, and Internet.

There are also a lot of Used-to-Haves out there, embittered by their Used-to-Have status, and they've been no help at all. A lot of these folks borrowed heavily to imagine themselves in the Haves caste, only to have those pesky 7-year balloon mortgages pop.and maxed out consumer credit tighten up.

What does all that have to do with the "heath care reform"? The socio-economic infighting has let the Statists dictate the terms of debate as class struggle and not a more fundamental question: is the Federal government responsible for the individual citizen's life, from cradle to grave?

If someone is responsible for something, you'd expect to give them the authority and powers to ensure a successful outcome. In this case, by making the State responsible for the health and well-being of the Individual, the individual needs to surrender sovereignty to the State. The State must now make the choices for the individual to effectively discharge it's duties. Obesity is a problem in this country, so the State MUST take action to prevent it. Coercive measures will develop, not only for the individual health's sake, but also the fiduciary health of the State.

Insurance companies are already applying the financial pressure offering "discounts" to people that enroll in their wellness/parole plan, and financially punishing those that don't participate. Government will do the same thing.

Things I Will Miss After the Peakalypse, #4

2010-02-04T12:50:00.000-06:00

Chocolate.

Chock full of antioxidants, chocolate is an important staple in any heart-healthy diet. Okay, I may be stretching it a bit, but you have to agree that chocolate is pretty boss.

Combine ground cacao beans with milk and sugar, and you have civilized, and healthy, bliss. I prefer a 60% to 70% cacao blend, just in case you needed to know. Rich, smooth, sweet, and something that makes life just a little brighter. Plus, you don't have to get stung by bees to get it.

In the future, we'll likely have to go back to honey as an available sweetener, so long as we can dodge the bees that make it. We may also try sugar beets. In the tropics, sugar cane will still be available, depending on any climate shifts.

Cacao beans, along with coffee beans, may prove to be the impetus to move to South America after the Peakalypse.

Fear, no. Planning, yes.

2010-02-03T12:39:00.000-06:00

I'm not afraid, really. Actually, if I didn't have a family to worry about providing for, I'd greet a future civilization crash with enthusiasm. But, I have a mate and young children to care for, guide, and protect. So, I'm more keen on making plans now for a bad-case scenario.

In the past, we've been haphazard gardeners, but this year, we're going to take it a bit more seriously. When it comes to weeding, we'll have to be more diligent(unless we plan on eating weeds).

I'm also contemplating learning to hunt with a bow, as I'm pretty sure that the Meat Department at Supersaver will be out of meat. In addition to meat, game can provide clothing. Vegans will have to face the future naked. And cold.

All in all, I'm not too worried, as God's promised to take care of us. It may not be to the standard we're comfortable with, but we have nothing to fear if we rely on Him.

Things I Will Miss After the Peakalypse, #3

2010-02-01T20:14:00.001-06:00

Telephone.

I live 1,500 miles from most of my kin, and so we converse regularly via telephone and e-mail. The telephone is indispensable to modern life, not to mention vital for ordering pizza delivery.

Forget cellular networks, I doubt that even land lines would continue on. The optical network that runs coast to coast will be inoperable without a dependable, national electrical grid. Sure, we may have pockets of stable, renewable power, but nothing near what it would take to power our current telecommunications infrastructure.

Well, at least we won't have to worry about people texting while driving anymore. They won't be texting at all. Or driving, for that matter. I can just see the text junkies now, sitting in rusted, immobile cars, frantically thumbing dead cell phones.

If we're lucky, we may have some short-wave base stations to relay critical info to remote locations. Or, if we can cobble together a copper-wired network, maybe get back to a usable telegraph system. Start brushing up on your Morse Code, kids.

Things I Will Miss After the Peakalypse, #2

2010-01-30T06:54:00.000-06:00

Coffee.

First thing I do, every morning, is brew a pot of liquid sunshine. I need it so. I cannot bear to think of life without it.

Chances are, after the Peakalypse, Juan Valdez may be still roaming the slopes with his mule, picking coffee. But, without cheap oil, that coffee won't be traveling the thousands of miles so easy. (if for no other reason, I may have to relocate to South America).

I doubt that my beloved bean will disappear suddenly, coffee availability will slowly dwindle, so I'll have time to kick the habit. First, it will gradually become too expensive a commodity for the Proles (like me). Then, Outer Party folks will see it vanish, and only the Inner Party may have access to it.

So, I will relish every cup from now until the dismal dearth, and it truly will be good to the last, final drop.

Pots and Kettles #100127

2010-01-29T20:14:00.001-06:00

I was half-listening to the State of the Union Address the other night and, towards the end, something the President said grabbed my attention:

Unfortunately, too many of our citizens have lost faith that our biggest institutions – our corporations, our media, and yes, our government – still reflect these same values. Each of these institutions are full of honorable men and women doing important work that helps our country prosper.

I'd have a little more faith in the institutions if the leaders of those institutions didn't remind one of a 'Three Stooges' sketch involving name-calling, poking, slapping, and nyuk-nyuk-nyukking between the lot of them.

But each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people’s doubts grow. Each time lobbyists game the system or politicians tear each other down instead of lifting this country up, we lose faith. The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates into silly arguments, and big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away.

President Kettle is calling out the Pots. How about when a politician tears down bankers and corporate leaders, reducing the economic crisis to a sound byte to cover his own failure? Or when union leaders game the system to cut special deals?

No wonder there’s so much cynicism out there.

No wonder there’s so much disappointment.

No [bleep], Sherlock. And after the cheap populist sloganeering above, the President has the gall to then say:

Those of us in public office can respond to this reality by playing it safe and avoid telling hard truths.

How about the hard truths that many Americans, like their Government, have spent too much, borrowed too much, thought too highly of their own prospects? Or the hard truths that government meddling in the markets has done as much damage as deregulation? Or maybe the hard truth that a big factor in the loss of manufacturing in our country is that most Americans don't want to pay the costs of items made by fellow Americans?

After such accusations from the President, I'm sure the Pots will gladly return fire. With all the clatter in the kitchen, I'm stepping out for a while.

Things I Will Miss After the Peakalypse, #1

2010-01-28T20:40:00.000-06:00

Toilet paper.

Nothing is so civilized as toilet paper; clean bum, clean hands, and clean shorts. It's a huge leap for sanitation, and indoor plumbing just isn't the same without it. Besides, you can't haul a bidet out behind a tree.

After the Peakalypse, I doubt Charmin will be cranking out the two-ply. So, I imagine that we'll be scouring the old landfills for moldy copies of Cosmo for #2 duty. That, or we'd best learn to identify and avoid poison ivy, oak, and sumac in the dark, just in case.

Sure, there are bigger worries, but it's the little things that we'll all miss the most.

Pondering the Peakalypse

2010-01-27T20:08:00.006-06:00

Peakalypse? Yeah, like a few others, I'm pondering Peak Oil, and the possible crash of civilization following it. This pondering may come as a surprise to folks who may have known me in the past, as I'm not a garden variety enviro-lefty. I'm not a denier of climate change, but I also believe that climate changes are a part of the Earth's history and future, regardless of what humans do. I'm a skeptic of many in the climate change movement because of the other agendas they peddle under that banner.

But, for some reason, Peak Oil has caught my attention. I think most people would agree that oil is a finite and non-renewable resource. There's lots of debate about how much oil reserves we think we have, but common sense tells us that with demand trending ever upwards, and supply trending down, supplies will dwindle and we will eventually run out.

I haven't read much Peak Oil agitprop, and have read just as much debunking it. Also, I haven't bought into the worst-case scenarios, but the issue bears some thought.

Our current lifestyles are touched by oil seven ways to Sunday. When the oil starts getting scarce, life will never be the same. And after witnessing the quick breakdown that occurred in New Orleans, after hurricane Katrina, I'm not optimistic about the prospects of our culture and civilization once scarcity hits. I'm not a full blown Doomer, yet, but I'm not Pollyanna either.

I'm still mulling it all over.

I thought I was over Baseball

2009-07-31T11:58:00.001-05:00

I grew up a Red Sox fan, making regular pilgrimages to Fenway to see Luis Tiant, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, and company play the Great American Pastime. Be it in the bleachers near the Green Monster, behind home plate, or underneath the "Jimmy Fund" billboard, every seat was the best seat because I was at Fenway.

I moved to Philadelphia later, and went to Veterans Stadium to see the Phillies play. While they weren't the cherished Red Sox, it was still a good game to watch. Mike Schmidt, Juan Samuel and Von Hayes made the game interesting, and I even got to watch the pitchers swing the bat.

Eventually, the Strike of '93-94 came along, and I swore that I was done with professional baseball. Greed on all sides had ruined the game.

Later, I would occasionally catch some Red Sox game on TV, as I flipped through the channels. I would be glued until the game was over, but I still never purposely made time for it.

Then, in September 2004, I started paying attention again. The Red Sox were doing pretty well, and all Bosox fans were waiting for the inevitable choke, stumble, and fiery crash. And we kept waiting, and the Sox kept avoiding disaster, sometimes only just. During the ALCS, I was glued to the Red Sox site, reading box scores, columns, and recaps. I watched them on TV, my son's Red Sox cap on my head, sometimes inside out (as needed). I'd cheer. I'd sigh. I'd even yell occasionally . "Don Zimmer gets pwned!"

After the Sox clinched the AL pennant, I was pumped. The 2004 World Series just seemed perfunctory, as the outcome was preordained. This was Boston's year. No Mookie Wilson, no Bill Buckner this time, we were going all the way. I was hooked, reeled in, and on the skillet. Red Sox forever! The World Series win in 2007 was just extra icing on the cake.

Naive? Sure. But it was such a rush at the time, all my childhood dreams at Fenway were realized. But the revelation was slow and steady, as the news rolled out player after player testing positive for steroids and HGH. After Manny Ramirez tested positive last year, and got suspended, I started wondering if he was juicing back in 2004 as well. Then I looked hard at Big Papi, and marveled, "Dang, he's as big as Barry Bonds." 2 + 2 = Dirty.

So, this week's news is not terribly surprising, but it just further fuels my disgust with the sport in general. I thought I was over baseball. But the ache in my heart tells me otherwise.

Audacity of Despair

2009-05-31T20:11:00.005-05:00

I'd had secret fears of this for some time now, and now it's happened: Someone's killed an abortion practitioner.

After a 10-year respite from violent opposition to abortion, we've had an unwanted, unnecessary, and even detrimental event. Wasn't the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act supposed to stop all this?

It wasn't any law, regulation, or statute that prevented anti-abortion violence; hope to end abortion through legal process prevented violence. For the last 10 years, social conservatives hoped that legislation, Republicans, and conservative judicial nominations would end abortion.

Now, faced with a proven pro-abortion administration bent on negating the minute gains made over the last ten years, despair is creeping into the fringes. The more the Obama administration advances the abortion agenda, the more I fear that despair will drive more to immoral and illegal means of opposing abortion.

The Obama administration is doing nothing to assuage the fear and prevent despair. First order of business was to start funding overseas abortions again. Next, Obama moved to strike down conscience protections for people refusing to provide information on, deliver or perform contraceptive or abortive services. In every forum on the issue, he equivocates and dodges, spouting platitudes based on his read of the audience. I ignore his words and focus on the deeds, and they are no encouragement.

Still, to despair, and allow ourselves to justify violence as a means to prevent abortions is counter to the very principles that we base our opposition on.

And every time an abortion doctor is killed, the media lionizes the deceased and manufacture a martyr, and people who otherwise think abortion is repugnant become more sympathetic. Like every time Israel sends a missile strike into the West Bank to nail one Hamas leader, 10 more civilians join to take his place. It's a sure-fire way to lose the war.

Deniable Plausibility

2009-05-30T09:22:00.007-05:00

Say I tell a racist joke, but then immediately afterward say that it's not nice to be racist. Do you think I'm a racist? Do you buy my quick disclaimer afterward?

ex abundantia enim cordis os loquitur (For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh).

Judge Sonia Sotomayor:

The Court of Appeals is where policy is made.

And I know -- and I know this is on tape and I should never say that, because we don't make law. I know.

She spoke her opinion from the heart, and then the brain said "whoa, grab a fig leaf" and she made that hasty disclaimer. "She's neither advocating judicial activism, nor indicating a personal predilection for it" screams partisans on the left.

You buy that? If so, I have some land in Florida you may be interested in.

Soap Opera in Miami

2009-05-29T06:55:00.001-05:00

When the news broke in early May, I wasn't going to give much mental time to Fr. Alberto Cutié. He was a man who'd stumbled, fallen, and needed to pick himself up, stand as a man, and keep carrying his cross as he should. I prayed for him, hoped that he'd resolve the situation and stay true to his faith.

Well, he had other ideas:

The Rev. Alberto Cutié, the celebrity priest removed from his Miami Beach church after photos of him kissing and embracing a woman appeared in the pages of a Spanish-language magazine earlier this month, has left the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami to join the Episcopal church and announced that he will marry the woman he has dated for two years.

I guess since the vow of chastity was quietly tossed, any notion of obedience to his bishop and Church went with it. Were I either the Episcopal Church or this man's paramour, I'd be leery of accepting any vow or promise he makes in the future. Caveat Emptor.

From the CNN story:

"This is something I've struggled with," he[Cutié] said this month. "I don't support the breaking of the celibacy promise."

I beg to differ with him, as his actions over the last two years indicate his tacit support for breaking the celibacy vow, and his leaving the Catholic Church most publicly indicates such support. Had he taken his vow seriously, he would have ended the relationship once it crossed the line, and sought Reconciliation, counseling, and the advice and guidance of his bishop. Instead, after his duplicity has been exposed, he's running to another church.

The Episcopal church is doing itself no favors in proudly scooping up notoriously integrity-challenged men like Fr. Cutié and former governor and catholic Jim McGreevey. If these men could not uphold their commitments to Christ, Church, or spouse, why is the Episcopalian church so eager to throw them into vestments and a pulpit?

The Episcopal bishop, Leo Frade, speaks to Fr. Cutié's vow of celibacy:

"That promise is not recognized by our church. If you can find it in the Bible that priests should be celibate, that will be corrected,"

Episcopalians have become deft at dismissing things that are IN the Bible, so this challenge to "find it in the Bible" is laughably ironic. Others have tackled this topic at length, but here are a couple highlights:

1 Corinthians 7:

32 But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

33 but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,

34 and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

35 This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.

And this from the Gospel via both Luke and Matthew, which makes it even clearer, with those having ears to hear:

"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other.."

There was a time when men were unconcerned with the raising of their children and the running of the household, and there are still men today who behave that way. But, we've come to the conclusion that a man needs to be engaged in the family, and not some distant provider, a socio-economic god, ruling from his reclining throne in the den. Being a husband and father requires a man's full attention and devotion.

A Catholic priest is not just a sacrament-dispensing ATM that works a couple hours on Saturday, and a couple hours on Sunday. He not only guides, but is intimately involved in the spiritual life of the parish: Morning Mass, visiting the sick, memorials, funerals, weddings, baptisms, counseling, confessions, vigil masses, etc, etc.. It's a full-time, mom's hours, vocation that requires a man's full attention and devotion.

A man seeking to undertake both priesthood and family life will end up giving short shrift to one or the other. He cannot be fully devoted to both. He cannot be two men.

The Catholic Church understands both the biblical admonitions and the practical implications on this, and so its discipline reflects these realities. Candidates for priesthood in the Catholic Church are taught this in the seminaries, so Fr. Cutié has made his choice not in ignorance, but in spite of what he's been taught.

Mad Mutterings #5092028

2009-05-28T07:44:00.002-05:00

" Out of passion for their country, the people form a Party.
Out of passion for the people, the Party forms a State.
Out of passion for the Party, the State ruins the country and destroys the people."

This thought sprung to mind after reading 'That Hideous Strength' by C.S.Lewis, 'Gulag Archipelago' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, watching 'Der Untergang' ('Downfall', about the last days of Hitler), and observing North Korea.

It is a hideous bloom that despises its soil and devours its own roots.

Close Shave

2009-05-19T20:50:00.002-05:00

From a blogger at the English-language Pakistani news source, Dawn.com:

Latest reports claim that the Taliban are shaving off their beards to escape the operation in Swat. The Taliban have maintained that the beards are a sign of being a devoted and true Muslim...

Already listed as the modern-day barbarians, these men have now taken to shaving off their supposed ‘identity’ in order to escape without being noticed by the Pakistan military. Clever tactic but is it worth shedding off their religious beliefs for? Or do their beliefs allow them to go clean shaven if it’s about the question of their survival? If that is the case then they are no different than the society they target – double standards persist either way.

A quick fade when the heat comes down? Sorry, Achmed, no virgins for you.

Grinding Gears

2009-05-18T20:57:00.002-05:00

So, a long, long time ago, in a mental state far, far away...

Shaking Off Sleep

After giving up blogging for Lent,
two years later, St. Jimbob awakes to
find the blogosphere a changed place. The
recent change of power in government promises
peace and reconciliation. But, by peace means cloture
votes in the senate, and reconciliation means that any opposition
is expected to learn their place. Vapid "dialogs" threaten to undermine
long-held values, and "common ground" is code word for capitulation....

I gave up blogging, as my influences were less charitable than they should be, and I found myself being less charitable than I should be. So, I took an extended break, focused on my studies, and an indulged old joy of mine, hand-rolled cigars. The break is hard to end, but it's time to refocus, and again speak up at a time when many are just going along with the dominant culture of self-centered gratification.

Still, I have been blessed by my wife coming into the Church, and my oldest son receiving the Eucharist for the first time, all during this Eastertide. I would credit the charitable witness of our parish family, and passionate example of love of God and the Church by our pastor, more than any persuasion I could have offered.

This has been a season of reflection, especially after the sudden illness and death of my infant godson, John Paul. I contemplated upon the examples of St. Veronica, and St. Simon the Cyrene, upon helping, aiding, and comforting the suffering of my sister and her family. I prayed often for their intercession, not only for my sister and family, but also to inspire in me the same spirit of reaching out to the afflicted.

With all that's been going on in the large world, it's time to start speaking out again. Speaking the truth with charity, offering correction without calumny, and making damned sure that people don't mistake me for a milquetoast Catholic. No pussy-footing here folks, no equivocations, and no "I know the Church teaches this, but..." nonsense.

In short, I have every intention of leaving a vertiable mountain of evidence that I'm a follower of the one, true God, and a truly faithful Catholic.

Arbiter of Constitutional Validity

2008-11-20T12:03:00.005-06:00

By all means, let's not do anything to make a popular TV personality sad.

Who's Going to Continue the Failed Policies of the Bush Administration?

2008-11-09T08:45:00.007-06:00

After a long campaign of blasting everything the Bush Administration has done since Election Night of 2000, Barak Obama turns his attention to the economy:

Obama said that passing a stimulus package will be his first move if the lame-duck Congress fails to do so before he takes office January 20.

Um, didn't the Bush Administration do that, and several times? Did it work? An objective look around would indicate that these "stimulus payments" only generated short-term economic twitches, while only serving to reinforce Americans' bad spending habits.

At least Barak Obama is willing to break with the Bush Administration on commitments to defending eastern Europe from Soviet intimidation. Oh, wait, maybe we meant to continue that policy instead..

Russia to Test Obama

2008-11-06T09:39:00.004-06:00

Headline: Medvedev: Russia to Deploy Missiles Near Poland

Well, isn't that interesting...

Just as a thief would decry the installation of a security system, so Russia's kicking up a fit about a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

Talking tough, he fleshed out long-promised military measures in response to U.S. plans for missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic, former Soviet satellites now in NATO. The Kremlin claims the system is meant to weaken Russia, not defend against Iran, as Washington insists.

Medvedev said Iskander missiles would be deployed to Russia's western enclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, "to neutralize, if necessary, a missile defense system."

The Iskander has a range of about 280 kilometers (175 miles), which would allow it to reach targets in Poland but not in the Czech Republic — but officials have said its range could be increased. Medvedev did not say whether the missiles would be fitted with nuclear warheads.

Russia will also deploy electronic jamming equipment, Medvedev said.

The U.S. has claimed that the system is in order to protect against Iranian missiles. If Russia has no malicious intentions, why are they determined to deploy countermeasures against a security system thats stated purpose is not against them? I imagine that you can follow that to conclusion.

Apparently, the ability to threaten its neighbors is fundamental to Russia's strength? No wonder it's so important to check that, and quickly. Will our next President rise to the challenge?

quae sunt Dei Deo

2008-10-26T20:13:00.004-05:00

Last Sunday's Gospel reading, from the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 22, brings one of the timeless sayings of Jesus:"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." Today, giving to God "what belongs to God" comes back to mind under unhappy circumstance.

This past week, my younger sister's 6 month-old son, my godson, returned to God. God had blessed our lives with John Paul, with his smile, with his laugh, and yet after so short a time we have to give him back to God. A sudden and fatal illness claimed him, and has left us all in grief.

It is with heavy hearts that we return this precious gift back to the Giver. And yet while we grieve the loss, we do give thanks to God, even for the shortest of His blessings. We trust that in this time of sadness God will give us comfort, and through our sorrows, more fully prepare us for the perfect joy of Heaven.

Emergency!

2008-09-30T10:23:00.002-05:00

I'm not a macroeconomics wiz. I'm just a guy who wants to live within his means enough to provide a modest and comfortable life for his family.

I have a problem with the bailout, actually a couple problems.

Problem A) President Bush is selling it.

The last time President Bush went on about the need to launch immediate and costly action was with Iraq. Sure the sketchy-at-best intel suggested some danger, but it panned out poorly, and now we're on the hook to fix Iraq. We broke it, we bought it. And even many Democrats bought into the Iraq, which leads me to problem B:

Problem B) Democrat leadership is selling it.

If anyone is against the free exercise of commerce, it's usually Democrats. So then, why are they so eager to shore up an enterprise that they are hostile to? Because the terms of the deal will give Government more power over the Market. More Government, Bigger Government. And that's the likely reason that many Republicans are balking at the deal. Throw in the partisan diatribes on either side, and I'm not surprised that the public isn't buying it either.

Problem C) No one's taking ownership of the problem.

Politicians, Right and Left, are denying any culpability in the political push for risky mortgages and lax oversight. Businesses aren't taking ownership of the obvious flaws and greed inherent in the trade of dubious securities. Americans are awakening to the dawning horror that you cannot live beyond your means on endless credit.

Problem D) It has to happen NOW, or the planet Earth will implode.

I'm sorry, but I'd prefer decisions of this magnitude have well-thought out plans for execution and consequences of the action. I don't make expensive knee-jerk reactions when I can avoid it. See Problem A.

Problem E) This will take generations to recover from.

I am resigned to the idea that my children will likely be working harder and have a lesser standard of living that we do now. That said, I'd like a little hope that my grandchildren will not be even further in the hole. Still, my grandparents survived the Great Depression, and were much more frugal and generous than the current generation. Maybe hard times would be a good lesson for modern folks.

Like I said, I don't know squat about economics, but then again, that's not where I put my faith either.

Taking Resonsibility

2008-09-20T08:34:00.007-05:00

So, who's fault is it?

Barak Obama seems to think it's the people running the business:"We must protect taxpayers, not bail out the shareholders and management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," he intoned. Wow, that's the same group of management and shareholders that donated $126,349 to Obama's campaign. I guess there's no loyalty in this business.

John McCain, early in the mortgage avalanche said “it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers.” Once the scale of the problem came into focus, he eventually supported government intervention in the mortgage mess.

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind my fellow Americans that the reason that these mortgage companies, and related securities, are in such a mess is that people stopped paying their mortgages. With the default on this debt, american homebuyers were the start of this avalanche.

Both Republicans and Democrats alike were crowing about all the home purchases through looser lending standards. The banks are in a Catch -22: If you lend money to high-risk borrowers, you're a greedy capitalist, and if you have tighter lending standards, you excluding "deserving people" from the American Dream. Sounds like you can't win.

The shareholders and management of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, among other mortgage lenders, loaned money to homebuyers in good faith and expected the borrowers to honor their obligations. To vilify the lenders for the insolvency of the borrowers is ludicrous.

The most basic issue at the base of this mess will never be discussed. The urge to have more than we can afford, and lacking the honor to repay our debts.

The Bailout is for the deadbeat American Borrower.

Disassociation...Destruction

2008-09-17T08:14:00.003-05:00

IT seems that when we label someone, objectivize them, the labels obscure their humanity. Once disassociated from their humanity, it becomes easy to allow terrible things to be done to them.

In early America, we encountered Native Americans, which we named as savages. Once we named them savages, it was easy to break treaties with them, allow the cavalry to kill men, women, and children. They were not human, they were "Savages".

During the same period, in America we had slaves of African extraction, which we named as Negroes. Once we named them Negroes, it was easier to work them hard, force them to live in squalor, to beat, harass and abuse them. They were not human, they were "Negro slaves".

In Germany, in the early 20th century, there were jews, which were called subhuman. Once they were labeled as subhuman, it was easy to harass them, take their businesses, and eventually herd them onto trains to take them to extermination camps. They were not human, they were "subhuman".

In Rawanda, tribal affiliations of Tutsi and Hutu were mutually used to disassociate each other from their own humanity. Once separated into Hutu and Tutsi, it was easy to isolate and slaughter each other. They were not human, they were either Hutu or Tutsi.

In America now, we have men captured on the battlefield that are called Illegal Combatants. Once called Illegal Combatants, it was easy to deny these men basic rights afforded to captured warriors, and even permitted waterboarding. They are not human, they are Illegal Combatants

Also in America, now, we have embryonic humans, called "a blob of tissue". Once called a blob of tissue, it is easy to deny it rights and permit the extermination my chemical or surgical means. They are not human, they are just blobs of tissue.

There are countless other examples of how we deny humanity when we should be embracing it. Jesus came as Man, and in all humanity he is both needed and found. Just as when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned, He is there. He is also there during a CIA interrogation or Dilation and Extraction abortion.

Political Statement #090908

2008-09-09T09:29:00.001-05:00

Right Uppercut

2008-08-30T08:15:00.005-05:00

Wow, there's a lot of froth and lather over the McCain campaign's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the VP slot on the GOP Ticket. I have a few thoughts, scattered as usual, about the pick and the anaphylactic shock reaction of the Left:

Sarah Palin is not just Pro-Life on paper, but Pro-life in her own life. It's easy for me to be Pro-life, as my four children have all been healthy. Palin has been Pro-Life in more difficult circumstances.

Wow, the All-American mom! It takes hope to have 5 children, but isn't 'Hope' one of the Left catchphrases? She even gave birth to a Down's child, which indicates that she has hope and has it in spades. While The Left talks loftily about hope, Sarah Palin lives it.

The 'National Organization of Women' will be exposed as the farce that they are, in the swiftness and substance of their attack on Palin. They aren't Pro-Women, or else they would respect her and her choices, but instead, they are Pro-abortion, which is the substance of their immediate attack:

Gov. Palin may be the second woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket, but she is not the right woman. Sadly, she is a woman who opposes women's rights, just like John McCain.

That should tell you all you need to know about how far NOW will support a woman.

This morning, a commentator on NPR suggested the Palin pick as a cynical ploy to get women voters. I would counter that it is equally as cynical to dismiss a woman as just a tool. Are the Left always saying that a woman, or any poor, opressed group, supposed to be judged by their performance and not their physical attributes?

I'm excited that there's such a Pro-Life example on the ticket, and showed my approval in a rare political donation to the McCain-Palin campaign.

A Year of Humanae Vitae

2008-08-25T11:42:00.004-05:00

In early June, our family got better acquainted with our newest member. She is a gem, a truly magnificent fruit of married love. Yes, there has been a loss of sleep, and yes, there has been expense occurred. But all the secular inconveniences melt away when I look at her, and know that she was made in the image of God.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's pivotal encyclical Humanae Vitae, and instead of blogging at length about it, I lived it instead. Some of my colleagues are aghast at the fact that I have FOUR children, like I'm some out-of-control breeding maniac. I'm the oldest of nine children, so my perspective is a little different than someone who had one child, and then stopped out of fear of personal inconvenience.

Our little gem has started to smile recently, and laughs when we play our traditional baby games. The older kids have started school for the year, and my academic torments are to start soon as well. Still, God is good, and has blessed us beyond all deserving.

Note from the Desert

2008-03-09T20:57:00.005-05:00

What have I been up to? I’ve been fairly busy with family, work and school. The kids are getting more demanding, there are lots of big projects going on at work, and the math class I’m taking the semester meets every day and has lots of homework.

I’ve also been avoiding blogs and other things that “get my Irish up”, and it’s been hard. Between NPR’s story about Massachusetts Catholics voting democrat (including a priest deftly avoiding agreement with Church doctrine), other political developments in South America and Russia, and Ret. Bp. Gumbleton’s continued brayings, I have been chewing my figurative tongue.

Early in my Lenten meditations, while at Stations of the Cross, I was reminded of something I often lose sight of. From the Stations of the Cross, by St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Third Station, Jesus Falls the First Time:

My beloved Jesus, / it was not the weight of the cross / but the weight of my sins which made You suffer so much. / By the merits of this first fall, / save me from falling into mortal sin. / I love You, O my Jesus, with all my heart; / I am sorry that I have offended You. / May I never offend You again. / Grant that I may love You always; and then do with me as You will.

The weight of MY sins. Not the weight of Cdl. Bernard Law’s sins, nor the weight of Fr. Richard McBrien’s sins, nor the weight of the USCCB’s collective ineptitude, and neither the sins of the careless American Consumer. The weight of those sins is inconsequential. It is the weight of MY sins which made the Cross necessary. This is what I have been meditating on, and it is largely why I have been silent.

In two months, I am expecting our next child, a little girl, to arrive. Between family, work, and school, I’m not really sure what time I’ll have to continue blogging. Maybe that’s a good thing. Time will tell, and I will wait and listen for the Lord to see what’s next.

May God bless you all.

Huckabee Gets It

2008-01-25T08:15:00.000-06:00

It seems that very few folks understand the drawbacks of the "Economic Stimulus Package". Mike Huckabee understands, and said this during the GOP debate last night:

"We'll probably end up borrowing this 150 Billion dollars from the Chinese. And when we get those rebate checks, most people are gonna go out and buy stuff that's been imported from China. I have to wonder who's economy is going to be stimulated the most by the [economic stimulus]package."

Is anyone else going to have the stones to say that?

Fred bows out

2008-01-22T14:46:00.000-06:00

A Statement from Fred Thompson

Posted: Tue. 22 Jan 2008

Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people.

posted by Fred

Well, what else is there to say? I sure as heck am not voting for Rudy, I'm not on fire about Mitt, I don't mind Mike, and I think Ron Paul may be certifiable. Jeeeez. Gimme someone I can vote for without retching in the voting booth.

Economic Needle Exchange

2008-01-19T11:22:00.000-06:00

I've been quietly watching the sub-prime mortgage mess, and the subsequent hand-wringing from economists, bankers, and politicians.

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but here's my impression: Having burned through their own cash and available credit, American consumers are now looking to the federal government for money to continue spending.

I won't accuse anyone specific of being especially profligate (except perhaps myself), but it seems that the federal government's budgeting and spending problems are mirrored by the population at large.

With the sub-prime mortgage mess, we had two terrible proclivities coincide. Consumers tried to buy houses that they could barely afford, and/or were bigger or nicer than they needed. Banks tried to lend money to encourage the above behavior in hope of getting even more money than they were already making on more stable loans. Mr. Greed, this is Mr. Avarice. Mr. Avarice, Mr. Greed. Now that proper introductions have been made, let's start f#¢&ing things up.

Our currency has already been in decline, and doing a tax revenue handout to non-taxpaying spenders will not help. If the federal treasury sends out a $500 check to each household, it'll only be worth $450 by the time it gets cashed.

As an added insult to injury, most of what gets purchased with the kickback will be on foreign-made goods, which will only continue to widen trade gaps, and continue the hemorrhage of money from the country.

Unless the american consumer decides to live well within their means, and buy things made in this country, nothing we do will halt the decline. The same could be said for the federal government as well.

As for me, if a check shows up at my door, I'm turning around and putting it in gold or Euros.

Another Girl in the House

2008-01-16T15:02:00.000-06:00

We're having another girl. As I reminded my lovely wife, it's a good thing I'm not King Henry VIII. We still have a few months to figure out how we're going to name her.

She's fairly telegenic, as she was waving a hand, and arm, at us during the sonogram.

I only hope she waits until after final exams are over to make her debut.

Happenings 01/08

2008-01-14T06:41:00.000-06:00

I would apologize for my prolonged silence, if I thought it unnecessary. I've been enjoying more time with my family, wrestling with old sins, and trying desperately to hold my tongue about people and events over which I have no purview.

It hasn't been easy.

There have been countless times that I've thought about writing, but generally when I'm offended or angry about something, which I've been trying to reduce. Or even eliminate.

Baby Apokalypse is fine, and tomorrow we hope to narrow the list of possible names by 50%.

My semester tangle with Calculus I is starting today.

And I am still sustainably employed.

I have lots to be grateful for in the coming year, and challenges as well. My silence isn't permanent, and I'l resume blogging soon, maybe even to blog as a penance during Lent ;-)

Cheers,

Jimbob

A Different Christmas Story

2007-12-27T08:56:00.000-06:00

A Christmas tradition from my wife's family, we let the kids open one present each on Christmas eve. I would select something, usually small, from the pile for each child, and they would open it before bedtime.

This year, my 7 year-old son unwrapped his early gift to find a, ummm, surprise: A statuette of Jesus, from Sr. Faustina's vision of the Divine Mercy.

I held my breath a moment.

"How am I supposed to play with this, his arms don't even move" Sam said, getting simultaneously teary and agitated. Merry Christmas, from my parents, I thought to myself."Look, Sam, He's got red and blue lasers coming from His Heart," I said,"like one of those big, Japanese monsters." I tried to comfort him, but he fumed and raved for quite a while, wondering what grandma and pépère were thinking.

Eventually, I thought I'd shuffle everyone off to bed. "Alright, Sam, let me put this up on the shelf to keep it from getting broken," I said, taking the much-maligned gift." Wait, no," Sam said,"I want Him up in my bunk, where He'll be close to me." So, Sam made a small shrine up in his bunk, and set up the statuette of Jesus near his pillow.

I guess that it's something to think about, next time God gives us something that we're not asking for at the time.

Heck, I wanted a new set of golf clubs for Christmas, and instead, I got a lesson about faith and expectations.

Lucky Sevens meme

2007-12-16T08:31:00.000-06:00

Paul, at Thoughts of a Regular Guy, tagged me with this meme. And So, to disprove rumors of my untimely demise, I'll gladly cooperate. Here are some of the rules:

1) Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.

2) Share 7 facts about yourself that you think most people don't know.

3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.

4) Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

Facts about me that most people don't know:

My 8 year-old Mac G4 is running OS X 10.4, and I CAN print in landscape mode (sorry for you, Paul ;-p )

Despite being pro-life and socially conservative, I'm not really a happy Republican.

I'm entirely too fond of Pepsi.

I've used rolls of pennies to pay for gasoline.

Just over 10 years ago, I was homeless, though I preferred to view myself as a mendicant postulant of the Friars Minor.

It's bad enough having ADD, but when my kids are conscious, I don't get 2 minutes to think without an interruption.

I'm not going to try to lose weight in the new year.

Ok, as far as tagging others to do this, I'd just suggest: Those with a compulsive need for disclosure can do this meme.

For the rest of you, Merry Christmas.

When Bad Things Happen

2007-12-07T21:00:00.000-06:00

As most people are aware now, an angry young man stole a gun from a family member, and spread his agony by killing eight people and injuring others. My prayers have gone up for the dead, their families, and the rest of us witnessing this tragedy.

Some will condemn the young many as a monster, others will paint him as a victim.

Some will blame the gun, some will blame the State, and some will blame the parents. I wonder how many will blame the video games he played and other entertainment choices?

One of the first details about the shooter is how he was a nice kid who liked to drink alcohol, smoke pot, and play video games. I'm not a psychologist, but I have first-hand experience with ADD, depression, self-medication, and substance abuse. Here's my theory, and one that will likely never be seriously entertained: The shooter drank, smoked, and played video games to self-medicate his condition. When put through the tremendous upheaval of a romance and job, he needed to escalate the intensity of his self-medication. A mood swing that, in the past, was treated with a few hours of Halo or Splinter Cell, now required a live shooting rampage to deal with.

Despite years of tax-payer funded mental health treatment, it seems this young man was still completely unequipped to deal with his frustrations. I've always had a sneaking suspicion that mental health professionals are just fronts for the big pharmaceutical companies, pushing pills and feel-good platitudes about self-actualization(gratification). But I'll stop there.

Another thing, which screams out from this episode: If you are not ready to meet your maker right now, get ready today, as you may not get another chance. Whatever preparations your faith demands, get them done, be it reconciliation, confession, prayer, repentance, or any other act of contrition and penitence. Do it today!

Two Years

2007-12-05T06:11:00.000-06:00

Wow, I've been blogging for two years, time sure flies when you're wasting time. Here are some of my favorite posts from the last two years:

The Invincible Poor
Discernment in Progress...
I've gone after the public utterances of certain "catholic" theologians.
My idea of what to do with disordered priests.
A reminder to myself and other Catholic Bloggers.
I've used Monty Python sketchs to illustrate points about Women's Ordination and Gay Identity.
And I've done more than a couple posts about the plight of christians in China, and how our consumerism enables the Maoist government to repress the people.

And my favorite visual statement:

Not really food

Not really marriage

Spe Salvi

2007-12-01T09:13:00.000-06:00

Just in time for Advent, Pope Benedict XVI releases an encyclical on hope.

Here too we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness. Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well.

Speaking of certain futures, there's Microsoft's continuing disaster called 'Vista':

Spot the Fake

2007-11-26T18:51:00.000-06:00

Two tales from current events, about spotting something fake:

A wedding procession is stopped near Bagdad, Iraq, by those meddling American troops:

Upon inspecting the convoy, soldiers found a stubbly-faced man, Haider al-Bahadli, decked out in a white bride's dress and veil.

Bahadli was wanted on terror-related charges, as was his groom, Abbas al-Dobbi, the official said.

It may be a good thing that the soldiers intervened. Whatever would betray such an oddly conceived masquerade?

The soldiers became suspicious of the convoy because its members -- save the "bride" -- were all male and because one of the cars in the convoy did not heed orders to stop, the official said.

Also, soldiers said, the people in the car seemed nervous and the groom refused to lift his bride's veil when soldiers asked him to, according to the official.

Ahh, so the behavior of the party and composition of the group belied its appearance. That's something to remember.

A homily is delivered by a Roman Catholic priest, at a Roman Catholic Mass, at a Roman Catholic church:

"Two people came into Church to pray. One was an Evangelical pastor whose regional services are broadcast nationally who prayed " I give you thanks oh God that I am not like others - greedy, dishonest or like others who give into same gender sex drives which the bible calls an abomination."

The others who came into Church to pray for a same sex couple raising children born by way of donor insemination who prayed: "Oh god, be merciful to us for not finding our own medium to share with the broader audience the biblical passage of 1 John 4:16 – God is love and when we abide in love we abide in God and God in us."

Jesus concluded the last ones went home more worthy in God's sight than the first."

Hmm, the person delivering this alternative view of the Gospel looks like a Roman Catholic priest, but he's showing a decidedly firm deviation from the doctrines of the Catholic Church. I sense that he's closer to an Episcopalian than a Catholic. What other cards is the priest playing?

Two people came into Church to pray, one was a Catholic Archbishop who refuses communion to Rainbow Sash people at the Cathedral on Pentecost Sunday who prayed " I give you thanks oh God that I am not like others – greedy, dishonest or like others who need to make their dissent from official Church teaching so public and divisive."

The other were Rainbow parents of GLBT people at the Cathedral on Pentecost who stood off on the side and prayed, "Oh God be merciful to us for failing to attend our own Churches more often; they say they love God then turn there backs on us in hate directly contrary to 1:John,4 – whoever loves God must also love the neighbor."

Jesus concluded the last ones went home more worthy in God's sight than the first.

There's another straw man argument against the doctrines of the Church whose uniform he's sporting. He's not supportive of Catholic doctrine on sexuality, and he's promoted the LGBTQI agenda before, and only backed down when promised some heat.

So, we have a terrorist dressed as a bride, and an Episcopalian dressed as a Roman Catholic priest. Which do you think will end up doing more damage?

h/t Curt Jester

Humidor is online

2007-11-24T20:57:00.000-06:00

I've moved all the cigar items to their own blog, called "The Humidor of the Apokalypse". If you're shopping for a good stogie for yourself, or someone else, you can wander over there to get an Idea about some good cigars that don't cost much. One could even leave suggestions for your humble host.

Descriptive

2007-11-23T09:12:00.000-06:00

A local laundry operator was held up at knifepoint, and the local paper gives the usual details:

The man walked into the business, asked for a piece of paper and wrote a demand for money. He left without further incident and no injuries were reported.

The man was described as being about 40 years old, about 6-feet tall, about 225 to 250 pounds and with a light mustache.

Wow, the description avoids any racial description, but offends other gender, age, and physical attribute groups.

Describing the suspect as male is sexist, as the perp could be a woman trapped in a man's body. The facial hair trait is also sexist. So, we better scratch the descriptors "man" and "with a light mustache".

Giving an age range is patently offensive, as age shouldn't be a factor in assigning blame for a crime. So, scratch the "about 40 years old".

By announcing his height, you've disparaged people of moderate stature. So, you'd better lose the "about 6 feet tall" as well.

The overweight are constantly discriminated against, and would be insulted by a weight bias in the paper's report. Better to eliminate the derogatory "about 225 to 250 pounds" as well.

That leaves us with a more socially just description of the unfortunate offender:

The suspect was described as being.

Everyone happy now?

Oblivious, or Lying

2007-11-20T19:22:00.000-06:00

Russian president Vladamir Putin chanted praises for the Russian Orthodox church, this time for promoting interreligious dialog:

"We attach serious importance to the efforts being made by the Russian Orthodox Church to promote interreligious dialogue and cooperation, and to assert religious tolerance," Putin told the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Kremlin on Monday.

That's pretty interesting, considering that the Russian Orthodox delegation huffily left the recent interreligious dialog meeting in Ravenna. Maybe Vlad is referring to Patriarch Alexy II's assertion of authority over the orthodox in Estonia. The Russian Orthodox church is just continuing the Russian tradition of asserting authority over an unwilling group. It must have made Putin proud.

h/t CWNews

Propter Hoc

2007-11-20T18:50:00.000-06:00

"The District of Columbia -- a densely populated urban locality where the violence caused by handguns is well documented -- will be unable to enforce a law that its elected officials have sensibly concluded saves lives."

So say attorneys representing gun control before the US Supreme Court. The violence caused by handguns is well documented, eh? Well, let's stretch this out in proper Apokalyptic fashion:

The poverty caused by playing cards is well documented.

The alcoholism caused by wine is well documented.

The heart disease caused by hamburgers is well documented.

The AIDS epidemic caused by penises is well documented.

Each of these extrapolations takes a benign object and turns it into a malevolent sentience bent on destroying humanity. Heaven forbid that people are accountable for the choices they make with the tools/materials/substance of the world.

The idiocy caused by Liberalism is well documented.

.

Posturing Poll

2007-11-18T17:27:00.000-06:00

Yes, some of the combinations seem improbable, but I wanted to give all the options. The more responses we get, the better our information will be.

Apokalypse Watch, Month 2

2007-11-17T10:51:00.000-06:00

Well, the next Apokalypse/i is due in mid-June, with the likelyhood of it/them coming before finals of the spring semester. Mrs. Apokalypse is still tired and always hungry, but is hoping that it will pass as we cruise into the second trimester. Though only one heartbeat was discerned this week, we may get an ultrasound next month to steel ourselves for the high likelyhood of twins.

I will trust in the Lord, that he will provide us the grace to care for these new children, and the means by which to feed them.

Red Friday 2007

2007-11-17T07:29:00.000-06:00

The Friday after Thanksgiving is referred to as Black Friday, as the retaillers usually see a profit that day. I refer to it as RED Friday, as most americans will only add to their debt on that day, and the money spent will find it's way into the coffers of the communist Chinese government. I started this last year in this other post, and I will continue to do an annual jeremiad about it until people listen, or our economy crashes. Yes, it's looking like the former possibility is more likely.

So, what's changed since last year? Well, the value of the American Dollar is down 30% versus the Euro, and also down against the British Pound and Japanese Yen. Ahh, but the dollar hasn't fallen in relation to the Chinese Yuan right? The Chinese currency is pegged to the US Dollar, so that as our dollar gets weaker, chinese imports to this country won't spike in value. Which means that americans can continue to buy chinese goods until the Dollar is 1:1 with the old Italian Lira, and the destruction of our economy is complete.

Oil, on the other hand, is not pegged to the Dollar, as any observer will note that the cost of a barrel of oil is up 60% from this time last year. Yes, it hurts, and will continue to hurt, until we both reduce consumer consumption and get our currency under control.

So, what does this have to do with shopping on RED Friday? Here are some suggestions:

1. Don't buy so much stuff!
2. If you just have to but stuff, don't buy stuff made in China.
3. Instead of buying a plasma TV, buy a copy of 'The Wealth of Nations' by Adam Smith.
4. Instead of buying a new Playstation, buy a copy of 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' by Edward Gibbon.
5. Some of you are talented folks, so craft something instead. We used to make stuff in this country, so revive the tradition.

Idea for 2008

2007-11-12T20:41:00.000-06:00

July 25th, 2008 will be the 40th Anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. Mark your calendars.

Call To Subterfuge

2007-11-12T19:26:00.000-06:00

From the Lincoln Journal-Star, Call To Action gets sneaky:

A group critical of the Lincoln Diocese for being the only one in the nation not to participate in a sex abuse survey said it was turned away Monday when it tried to hand-deliver petitions to bishops from across the country.

The USCCB is a sitting target for all sorts of grief when e're they gather. Call to Action, having been previously rebuffed and embarassed in their quest to shame Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, are trying to push their 'prophetic' agenda using some fairly underhanded tactics:

The Catholic reformist group Call to Action instead planned to use a person not known as a member of the group to sneak roughly 1,000 petitions into the hotel where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was meeting in Baltimore, said a member of the group.

Classy, guys, really classy. Next time, try it without the Groucho Marx disguise. While their battlecry is "Save the Children", Call To Action was excommunicated SIX YEARS before the abuse scandal hit. In reality, they're still hacked off that they got excommunicated, and most people know it:

Monsignor Timothy Thorburn of Lincoln said in statement that Call to Action is “venting its ire” at the bishop for his decision to “not allow the group to operate in the Diocese of Lincoln because of its anti-Catholic doctrines.”

Failing to whip up further scorn from other bishops, Call to Action proceeds to further advertise the root of their misunderstanding of the Church:

“It’s a disappointment ... because Bishop Bruskewitz has just thumbed his nose” at the policies from the bishops’ conference, said Gordon Peterson, Call To Action Member. “The position he takes is he’s only answerable to the pope.”

Well, Gordon, I hate to break it to you, but the bishop is right. The sad part is, Bishop Bruskewitz knows that he answers to the Pope, while too many catholics, like Mr. Peterson, think that they don't.

The model church of Call To Action makes the bishops obedient to the people, and the people obedient only to their 'conscience', however well or ill formed it may be.

With Such Ardor

2007-11-10T07:13:00.000-06:00

From the NCR:
The archbishop's out of town, as are his co-adjutor and auxiliary bishop, and some suspect shenanigans are scheduled to take place at a local parish. In steps Dennis McGrath, communications director for the archdiocese, to fill the shoes of his absent Archbishop by declaring Catholic teaching..umm, sort of:

[McGrath] contacted Fr. Leo Tibesar, pastor of St. Frances Cabrini, to tell the priest that “news of this would likely not be acceptable to the bishops.”

Ok, not a particularly rousing expostulation for the Magisterium, but we'll take what we can get. The event was cancelled, the Catholic Father/Lesbian Daughter duo were banished to a U.C.C. church for their lecture, and all is well.

In speaking to a National catholic Reporter writer, McGrath further softens his intervention, lest he come off like a modern Bernard Gui:

McGrath said he told Tibesar, “I do not speak for the archbishops and do not want to represent their authority, but this talk does not seem to be in keeping with archdiocesan rules and policies or Vatican rules and policies.”

Alright St. Jimbob, just shut up and be glad he said something to begin with..

Sufficient

2007-11-07T12:25:00.000-06:00

Shocker: Pat Robertson Endorses Rudy Giuliani

Robertson said he decided to endorse Giuliani because he was "a proven leader who is not afraid of what lies ahead and who will cast a hopeful vision for all Americans."

"In all of the crises which confront our nation and the world, we need a leader with a bold vision who is not afraid to tackle the challenges ahead," Robertson said.

Well, that's enough info for me to NOT vote for Rudy. Rudy may be a fearless leader, one who doesn't blanch at the notion that the engine of the economy is greased with the blood of aborted children. Rudy certainly does not fear God. As an accomplished adulterer, I'm not surprised that traditional family values are not his strong suit.

If any politician claiming to be a Roman Catholic could appear to be any less catholic than John Kerry, it would be Rudy Giuliani. Rudy's inconsistent approach to his faith is probably not a problem for Robertson. Romney's out, as Pat probably considers Mitt a pagan, and McCain's just not hawkish enough on apocalyptic conflicts, in addition to being federalist on the issue of same-sex marriage.

So, what does that leave? For Robertson to jump on board the Giuliani Express, my guess is that he thinks Rudy would do anything to defend Israel from Islamist aggression. Anything.

Robertson's previous public remarks have already warranted dismissal, and this time serve as a warning to go a different way.

Lift High the MDGs

2007-11-06T07:40:00.000-06:00

I caught this picture over at Titus One Nine (T19), a fairly conservative Episcopalian blog. Can you see "something wrong in the photo (beyond the hippie fashions and female 'priests'.)

The U.N.'s "Millenium Development Goals"(MDGs) have effectively replaced the Gospel, so naturally the MDGs should be given the preferential placement during their worship services. While many of the MDGs are erstwhile goals that would be corporal works of mercy, the elevation of them as commandments by a supposedly christian church is disturbing because it makes no mention of God nor Jesus, which we are all called to proclaim.

The U.N. goals would try to save Man with rice in stead of Resurrection, with troops in stead of Truth, with condoms in stead of Christ, and abortions in stead of Absolution. Instead of free people, they will have created well-fed sex slaves, breeding only the replacement amount of proles to keep the diamond mines, textile mills, and computer factories working.

Swept Series

2007-10-18T18:29:00.000-05:00

Series Swept:
Natural Family Disorganization 4, Creighton Method 0

Or, in subtler terms, Mrs. Apokalypse is pregnant. Prayers are welcome, as are large amounts of cash (small bills, non-sequential). Also looking for a sleeper sofa ;-)

It's just not challenging enough, working full time, on call 24/7, with a wife and 3 young children, AND attending university half-time. Let's throw something else into the mix... how about a new baby!

Tempest, Teapot, Cleanup

2007-10-13T07:42:00.000-05:00

The furor this week was all about the Archbishop of San Francisco and a group of homosexual activists. Let's see if I can boil it down a bit:

If your 'Sunday Best' is drag, you might be in San Francisco

"Psst, I wonder if he'll notice we're in drag.."

And so, the drag queens did receive the Eucharist from the hands of Archbishop Niederauer. Video captured at the event shows a slightly befuddled prelate.

The catholic corner of the blogosphere was in full lather over the offensive display, and many, including myself, dropped a note to the Vatican urging an explanation. And lo and behold, a couple days later, an apology from Archbishop Niederauer:

At Communion time, toward the end of the line, two strangely dressed persons came to receive Communion. As I recall one of them wore a large flowered hat or garland. I did not recognize either of them as wearing mock religious garb...

Although I had often seen photographs of members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, I had never encountered them in person until October 7th. I did not recognize who these people were when they approached me.

After the event, I realized that they were members of this particular organization and that giving them Holy Communion had been a mistake.

I apologize to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and to Catholics at large for doing so.

Good enough for me.

Still, I would hope that the Archbishop will become more aware of the spiritual challenges of his archdiocese. After all, everyone knows that San Francisco is the Gay Mecca, with the Castro district being the core.

Autocephalous Hypocrisy

2007-10-13T07:05:00.000-05:00

I saw this news Item earlier in the week, a meeting in Ravenna, Italy, turns sour:

A delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate led by Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria walked out of a meeting of the joint commission on the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue in the Italian city of Ravenna on Tuesday,

Not surprising, given the chilly relations between the two. As much as the Russian Orthodox fuss about Catholic proselytizing in Russia, at least Rome isn't leaning on the Italian government to expel foreign-born clergy.

But alas, the bug in Russia's bonnet is different this time:

During the Orthodox meeting, Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria told the other Orthodox participants that his delegation would abandon the meeting if they did not ask the Estonian Orthodox delegation to leave.

well, that's not a very prime example of christian love for our brothers, is it? What resentment could lead to such uncharitable behaviour?

The Russian Orthodox Church does not recognize the Estonian Apostolic Church, which is tied to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, said a statement by the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox Church believes the Orthodox in Estonia fall under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, not the ecumenical patriarchate.

Hmm, okay, lemme see if I've got this right: Russia refuses to entertain the notion of the authority of Rome, but expects to wield authority over others. I see. Russia can be autocephalous, but christians in their territory, and neighboring areas, cannot be trusted to make their own religious decisions? They need to get over themselves.

I wouldn't be surprised if Estonians, tired of Russian political and military hegemony, aren't excited by the imposition of russian religious hegemony.

By Extension #71006

2007-10-05T18:59:00.000-05:00

Ok, I've been goaded into making these slogans available as bumper stickers. Here's the first

Death Penalty - Making sure that every inmate is a wanted inmate.

Just click on the link above to order.

As CafePress won't let me have multiple offerings without paying the fee, I'll let this first one float for a while, then post others as interest would indicate.

By Extension, #71003

2007-10-04T06:09:00.000-05:00

Some people criticise pro-life supporters as being hypocritical when it comes to the death penalty. 'Tis fair to expect a people that claims to believe in mercy to really extend it. I would, in turn, like to see abortion supporters be thoroughly pro-death, extending their logic about the unborn to capital offenders.

With that in mind, I give you: Pro-Choice Slogans for the Death Penalty.

Lethal Injection: Making sure every inmate is a wanted inmate.

My Prison, My Choice.

If you don't believe in Lethal Injection, don't have one.

Pro-law, Pro-order, Pro-death penalty

If you can't trust me with a lethal injection, how can you trust me with a life sentence?

Keep your defense attorney off my lethal injection gurney.

More submissions will be posted when you cough 'em up.

Beware NeoChurchspeak

2007-10-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

The new bishop of Pittsburgh, David Zubik, talks the talk of the felt banner crowd:

In many ways we have to think outside the box and look for the ways in which the Holy Spirit is calling us to be church.

[barf]

He speaks like an Episcopalian Marine Biologist. I hope that this does not bode ill for the Faith in Pittsburgh. They don't need any repeat's of this summer's nonsense on the river.

When asked about social justice, the bishop hits the chord on life issues:

The most important social justice issue is the fabric of respect for life from the first moment of conception to the point of natural death. We have to be able to have profound respect for life, no matter what the world may say about how disposable people are.

So, then, how will he deal with pro-abortion catholic politicians? Time will tell, especially in dealing with U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), who feigned a pro-life position before his election.

Bishop Zubik also appear to be on the anti-border bandwagon:

I am a little bit baffled by what appears to be a growing insensitivity to immigrants coming into our country. Whatever nationality we all are, we became part of this country because our ancestors were immigrants. Our country is a mosaic of different nationalities.

It's not about immigrants, Excellency, it's about immigrants obeying the law of the land. Just ask Pedro Zapeta.

TLM in Lincoln

2007-09-30T09:20:00.000-05:00

I spoke with our pastor about the TLM, but waited for a month after the motu proprio had come out, lest I appear over-eager. His indication was that the bishop, his Excellency Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, wanted to make sure that clergy were properly prepared to offer the Latin Mass before widening its usage in the diocese. Currently, there's one parish doing two latin masses on Sundays, and possibly weekday masses as well.

I noticed this snippet in the local paper:

Priest training Latin Mass workshops, Oct. 5-9 and Nov. 2-6, Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Denton. 797-7700 or seminary@fsspolgs.org

I take this to mean that the bishop's plan is rolling forward. Interestingly enough, the topic came up in this week's 'Ask the Register' column in the diocesan newspaper.

Didn't the Second Vatican Council outlaw the use of Latin in the Mass? Isn't the pope defying the Second Vatican Council by reinstating Latin in the Mass with his new document "Summorum Pontificum"?

No, the Second Vatican Council did not outlaw the use of Latin in the Mass, but said just the opposite. The Council said, "Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites. But, since the use of the mother tongue, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or other parts of the liturgy, may frequently be of great advantage to the people, the limits of its employment may be extended." The Council also said, "In Masses which are celebrated with the people, a suitable place may be allotted to their mother tongue.... Nevertheless steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or sing together in Latin those parts of the ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them." It is important, before making such unfounded claims, that you read carefully the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Your error will become apparent to you when you read the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of that Council. If you were to actually read the "Motu Proprio" Encyclical Letter of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, you would also see how untrue and unjust your accusations against him are. The sooner you read and study his Encyclical and the Council's Con-stitution "Sacrum Concilium," the better off you will be.

My pastor also indicated that he'd not just spring it suddenly on the laity, but he didn't have any other details to offer. As I've indicated before, the vernacular Mass is celebrated well in Lincoln, and in our parish as well. Most hymns sung during Mass are from BEFORE 1950, many parts of the Mass are sung in english and during Lent and Advent, some Latin is sung as well. I've been to parishes in other states where the liturgy is every bit the felt banner clad nightmare of the 1970's.

Logic

2007-09-29T18:27:00.000-05:00

Since I'm on the long road to a BS in electrical engineering, the subject matter has been occupying more of my waking thought. And like anything else in my scrambled brain, some things are bound to get swirled around with other oddities. So without further ado:

The Logic of Matthew 7:13

Mistake, or Crime?

2007-09-28T06:52:00.000-05:00

Mistake costs dishwasher $59,000, CNN says. What was his big mistake?

he carried a duffel bag filled with $59,000 -- all the cash he had scrimped and saved over the years -- to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. But when Zapeta tried to go through airport security, an officer spotted the money in the bag and called U.S. customs officials.

"They asked me how much money I had," Zapeta recalled, speaking to CNN in Spanish. He told the customs officials $59,000. At that point, U.S. customs seized his money, setting off a two-year struggle for Zapeta to get it back.

Zapeta, who speaks no English, said he didn't know he was running afoul of U.S. law by failing to declare he was carrying more than $10,000 with him. Anyone entering or leaving the country with more than $10,000 has to fill out a one-page form declaring the money to U.S. customs.

Now, it would be easier to explain to the customs officials the mistake if one spoke english. It would also enhance one's credibility to be a US citizen, or legal immigrant. Oops:

For 11 years, Pedro Zapeta, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, lived his version of the American dream in Stuart, Florida: washing dishes and living frugally to bring money back to his home country.

DOH! There's the mistake. He was illegal on accident? It was just a mistake, see. CNN's hopped on that happy hispanic bandwagon, that all immigrants should be legal, and their manner of entry into this country should have no bearing on their rights.

Notice this guy was here 11 years, and never picked up the language? Funny, my French Canadian, Irish and German immigrant forbearers decided to learn the language when the got to this country, not just prennent l'argent et se sauvent , or sie nehmen das Geld und fliehen [take the money and run]. In fact, they joined the US Army, and fought in WW II, and when that was done, they worked and paid taxes. Unlike Mr. Zapeta:

Zapeta's story became public last year on CNN and in The Palm Beach Post newspaper, prompting well-wishers to give him nearly $10,000 -- money that now sits in a trust.

Robert Gershman, one of Zapeta's attorneys, said federal prosecutors later offered his client a deal: He could take $10,000 of the original cash seized, plus $9,000 in donations as long as he didn't talk publicly and left the country immediately.

Zapeta said, "No." He wanted all his money. He'd earned it, he said.

Now, according to Gershman, the Internal Revenue Service wants access to the donated cash to cover taxes on the donations and on the money Zapeta made as a dishwasher. Zapeta admits he never paid taxes.

Despite his legal transgressions, Mr. Zapeta seems convinced that he's in the right:

"They are treating me like a criminal when all I am is a working man," he said.

Dismissing protestations of innocence, the legal apparatus is making sure that situation is going to be resolved:

On Wednesday, Zapeta went to immigration court and got more bad news. The judge gave the dishwasher until the end of January to leave the country on his own. He's unlikely to see a penny of his money.

"I am desperate," Zapeta said. "I no longer feel good about this country."

You think?

Just Not Getting It

2007-09-21T20:59:00.000-05:00

Ok, so, your state has a public relations problem. The national media is making it look like your town is full of racist rednecks. While white citizens declare their love for their black neighbors, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton slither in to town to express righteous indignation for the TV cameras.

So what do you do? You decorate your pickup truck with nooses.

Sure, that'll set everyone over at NPR straight about race relations in Jena, and in Louisiana in general.

You cannot buy stupidity of this quality just anywhere.

Maybe Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should take up residence in Louisiana. Sounds like they all deserve each other's illustrious company.

Civil Rights Movement Fails

2007-09-20T06:51:00.000-05:00

The media and civil rights organizations are all atwitter over the 'Jena 6'. Six black teens had beat a white teen. When a guy is on the ground, and you're still punching and stomping him, and doing this as a group, it eclipses any claim to civilization you may present.

Most of the black teens were charged as adults, which is what the civil rights crowd is so outraged about. But there's some background to this:

[Mychal] Bell, 17, has been in prison since his arrest in December. The judge has refused to lower his $90,000 bail, citing Bell's criminal record, which includes four juvenile offenses -- two simple battery charges among them.

I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Bell's prior inclination to violence was part of the decision to try him as an adult. Since he's obviously not learned his lesson from his parents, the black community, or the juvenile justice system, one would conclude that it's time to try something different.

Rushing to the scene to fan the flames of racial discontent are two reported civil rights "leaders", Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton.

This is a march for justice. This is not a march against whites or against Jena," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist and one of the protest organizers.

"It breaks our heart to see [Bell] handcuffed and in leg shackles," Sharpton said. "But his spirit is high. He has said that he is very encouraged to know that thousands are coming to this town to stand up for him and his five friends."

So then, I don't imagine that the good reverend will be standing up for the victim of this mob attack? In his thinking, the assailants are the victims, and in a way he's right. But we'll get to that later.

Jesse Jackson, in his indestructable obtuseness, tried to link Jena to another civil rights moment:

"If I were a candidate, I'd be all over Jena. Jena is a defining moment, just like Selma was a defining moment."

I don't know if you could ask for a contrast more stark. In the Selma march, blacks were beaten by white cops during a non-violent demonstration for the right to vote. In Jena, a white teen was beaten by black teens over racist taunting. Earth to Jesse, the two events are worlds apart. If Jena is a defining moment, then let it be as the indictment of the failure of black leadership, and the death of any pretense of concern for non-violent advancement of black rights. What the outrage pimps and disaffected crowds are pushing for is a biased leniency for violence.

In that face of racial taunting, these black teens resorted to violence to try and stop the intimidation. And now that the consequences come, who's to blame? The blame is going to some white kids that put up nooses on a tree weeks prior. No personal responsibility to be found in Jena.

How about acknowleging that the civil rights leadership has failed to continue teaching Dr. Martin Luther King's message of non-violence? The 'Jena 6' are in their throes because of this failure. If these black teens are to be portayed as victims, let's show who's really caused their injury. Leadership in the black community has been replaced by outrage pimps, running from one scene to another. They spot the insults by noticing the presence of media attention, and then dive in front of the cameras to feign a guiding role in the community.

Both Jackson and Sharpton are quick to address any perceived slight AGAINST blacks, except when it's perpetrated BY blacks.

Look how quickly the outrage pimps jumped on the Don Imus quip, yet were ony grudgingly pushed to hold the same standard to black rappers, and even that's slipped into obscurity. It's just not a priority.

Jackson and Sharpton loudly blame gun manufaturers and sellers for black gun violence, yet do nothing in the face of the billion $$$ business of Hip-Hop, whose current superstar sports a bullet-proof vest on stage.

How does Dr. King's vision of non-violence square with that? If you listen closely, you can hear Dr. King, spinning in his grave.

Quebexican food

2007-09-17T18:49:00.000-05:00

In explaining the pronunciation of the end of my last name, my train of thought jumped the rails and landed in a twisted heap that you're about to see:

Taceau - Cretons avec laitue déchiquetée, tomates découpées, et le fromage Lechevalier Mailloux dans un pain frais. [Translated: Potted Pork meat with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, and a Quebec cheese served in a loaf of fresh bread]

Nacheau - Pied-de-Vent fondu avec retailles d'hostie. [Translated: Melted Pied-de-Vent cheese with unconsecrated communion wafer cuttings]

Buerre-iteau - Pain frais, bourré du beurre, porc haché, noix de muscade, clous de girofle et pommes de terre. [Translated: fresh bread, stuffed with butter, ground pork, nutmeg, cloves and potatoes]

Blogger Credentialed as Newsweek Reporter

2007-09-16T10:16:00.000-05:00

Jeff Miller has a vocation, though one not recognised by the editorial staff of Newsweek. In a secret ceremony, and in defiance of the editorial staff, Jeff Miller was credentialed as a Newsweek reporter. "I am taking this step forward so that others in the future will have the opportunity to be a Newsweek reporter without having to face their discriminatory hiring practice of only hiring those with a journalism degree and having the ability to write and to act as a reporter," Miller wrote, about his calling to credentials.

Some accuse Newsweek of credentialism, paying for and publishing work only a select few reporters that conform to Newsweek's dogmas. St. Jimbob of the Apokalypse, chairman of We Are Magazine, claims that Newsweeks denials of Miller's credentials are futile. "When will the editors wake up and realize that, credentialed or not, it's the reporters that are Newsweek? The editors only have the power we allow them, so we're pressing for a more horizontal model of the magazine." Apokalypse went on to note "we are striving to write into our calling to be Magazine, and it's really for the good of Newsweek to be inclusive enough to recognise us."

Future clandestine credentialing ceremonies are planned, but details are being kept secret.

Side-by-Side

2007-09-08T08:38:00.000-05:00

Comparing vocational gravity between two diocese. One, you'll likely guess quickly, as for the other, that may be fairly obvious as well.

Diocese A Diocese B
Catholic Population: 4,349,267 Catholic Population: 89,412
Seminarians from the Diocese: 50
Seminarians from Other Dioceses: 85
Diocesan Students in Other Seminaries: 18 Seminarians from the Diocese: 28
Seminarians from Other Dioceses: 7
Diocesan Students in Other Seminaries: 15
Local Seminarian to Catholic Ratio: 1 : 63,959 Local Seminarian to Catholic Ratio: 1 : 2,079

So, does this mean that a catholic in Diocese B is 30 times more likely to find a vocation to the priesthood or diaconate? To quote Bugs Bunny, "Ehhh, Could be."

Good News

2007-09-07T19:39:00.000-05:00

Twenty-three new seminarians in the Diocese of Lincoln, according to the Southern Nebraska Register. Nineteen are locals, four from other parts of the country or farther:

Sean Wilson of Gimli, Manitoba in Canada had originally intended to study for the Diocese of Winnipeg. However, various circumstances led him to enter the seminary for the Diocese of Lincoln instead.

“I ended up reading about the Bishop of Lincoln, and that made me curious,” he said. He came to visit St. Gregory the Great and was impressed with the friendly and faith-filled atmosphere."

Wow, he read about Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, and came here all the same. He must be an intrepid Catholic, and looking for more than just milquetoast doctrinal dissent taught by nancing poofs. Were in cassock country here, with many sporting the biretta as well. Please check all Call To Action membership cards and National Catholic Reporter subscriptions at the gate.

We are very fortunate to have such men, willing to contemplate taking up the cross of a religious vocation. And to have so many with such interest is special as well.

“We’re very blessed by God,” agreed Father Robert Matya, vocations director.

Yes, Father, indeed we are.

A Straighter Path

2007-09-05T06:57:00.000-05:00

Tiber Jumper, over at 'Crossed the Tiber', has been posting gems from Thomas á Kempis' 'Imitation of Christ'. Feeling lost? Á Kempis points the way, like all good witnesses, to Christ. Feeling full of yourself? Step up for some deflation and humility.

Like a discipline in a monk's cell, one can flog the wayward conscience with 'Imitation of Christ'.

Over at Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex, David explores the place for dissent in the Church (which is NOT IN the Church). The fear of fervent Catholicism is making some dissenters nervous. A big surprise, assent to Catholic teaching requires humility.

Meadering Path of the Spiritually Lost

2007-09-01T14:30:00.000-05:00

The Labyrinth lady cometh. Rev.Dr. Lauren Artress (Episcopalian) is winding her way to Nebraska, bringing her spiritual practice with her:

"There are many ways to describe a labyrinth. It is a path of prayer, a walking meditation, a crucible of change, a watering hole for the spirit and a mirror of the soul. May you be nourished."

Let me describe the labyrinth. It is a toilet of wasted time, a sink of prayer, a medicine cabinet of spiritual placebos, and a mirror of self-seeking. It has been weighed on the bathroom scale and has been found wanting.

With her "may you be nourished" line, it sounds like the labyrinth is more a substitute for the Eucharist than anything else. Is it really so difficult to seek Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and in our neighbors, that one has to wander on large-scale doodles?

Let us compare and contrast the winding way of the labyrinth versus the Gospel:

Proverbs 15:21 Folly is joy to the fool: and the wise man maketh straight his steps.

Isaiah 35:8 And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it, and this shall be unto you a straight way, so that fools shall not err therein.

Hebrews 12:12-14 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, And make straight steps with your feet: that no one, halting, may go out of the way; but rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness: without which no man shall see God.

Deuteronomy 27:18 Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of his way.

I know that there are many catholics who wander lost on these paths as well. Why is it that some would rather walk in circles rather than kneel in front of the Tabernacle?

Orthodoxy Enforced, to a Degree

2007-08-31T17:40:00.000-05:00

Fox News reports on a story of a Catholic university that's enforcing orthodoxy, of a sort:

The private Chicago Catholic university recently informed professor Norman Finkelstein that his three courses were canceled after a dispute over tenure that drew charges of anti-Semitism against him.

Critics find issue with Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, who believes that some Jews have exploited the Holocaust. Finkelstein is the author of five books, including "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering."

I wish that DePaul University was so zealous in defending the Catholic Faith as it is defending Jewish victimhood. Not too long ago, De Paul started turning heads with it's avant garde Gay Studies program.

"I understand that there's a tension there," says Assistant Prof. Gary Cestaro, the program's director. "Institutions of higher learning, even if they are Catholic, aren't spokespeople for the Vatican," he says. "Like any university, there should be room for free inquiry."

I guess that some inquiry should be more free than others? Or is it that the only kind of free inquiry desired is that inquiry free of Catholic doctrine. What ever happened to Ex Corde Ecclesiae?

Looking over the course offerings and course descriptions for the LGBTQ Studies, I don't see anything that points to a discussion on Catholic doctrine on human sexuality. Maybe the topic will be touched upon at the upcoming "Out There Conference" at DePaul in October. There's a session in the program called “Roman Catholicism and its Teaching on Homosexuality: Past, Present, Future” with James Halstead and Tom Judge from DePaul University, and Patricia Jung, Loyola University Chicago. The rest of the sessions seem to be the usual rah-rah for gay causes.

Halstead's not the most solid bulwark against the prevailing culture, as evidenced by his comment on CNN in regard to pro-abortion politicians and the Eucharist:

"It's precisely the people that are sick or in error that need to be going to communion. It's not a reward. It's a help on the journey."

There are few better ways to tell someone that they are sick or in error by declaring that they are not in communion with the Church, but you won't hear that from Halstead. Patricia Jung, inline skating gold medalist at the 1994 Gay Games, is not a notorious stalwart for true Catholic doctrine either. In her paper, "The Call to Wed: Why Catholics Should Celebrate Same Sex Marriage," Ms. Jung displays her ignorance/disregard for catholic teaching:

"When the church’s long-standing emphasis on the significance of procreativity to marriage is
critically analyzed, it becomes clear that both the church and society should encourage all those so called – whether queer or straight – to wed."

"Critical analysis", in Academe-speak, is code for rationalized dismissal. With Halstead's and Jung's records, it looks like the deck is stacked against any straight, pardon the pun, discussion of Church teaching on human sexuality at this conference.

America LOVES Failure

2007-08-29T06:39:00.000-05:00

Two pointless incidents which americans, and their media vending machines, have turned into a stomach-turning, ubiquitous display of our crass interests.

a) The stunning blather of a beauty pageant contestant. Hey folks, she was on the spot, probably with a prepared comment in her mind, and was thrown a curveball. What I heard was a young person thinking with their mouth open. How merciless are we becoming, as a society, when brief moments of our humanity are suddenly national news, and something we're forever marked by.

b) The more lurid accusations and circumstances that a certain U.S. Senator has found himself in. Like Ted Haggard before him, Larry Craig has not made the "I'm a Gay American" speech, ala Jim McGreevey, which makes the militant gay lobby that hounds him even the more enraged. Really. The nerve of this guy, trolling public restrooms for gay sex, but voting against gay interests. Craig's denials make it sound as if being gay is something to be ashamed of, and our society won't tolerate that. That's why the media is being so merciless.

The Democrat-controlled congress is even going to spend some precious Ethics Committee time to further explore the issue, further cementing the idea that democrats are more interested in fanning scandals than actually accomplishing anything.

Like a Horoscope

2007-08-19T17:32:00.000-05:00

Your Birthdate: June 28

You have a Type A personality so big it makes other Type A's shrink away in shame.
You never shy away from adversity - and you love to tackle impossible problems.
Failure is not an option for you, and more than a few people are put off by your ego.
You tend to be controlling, and you hate leaving anything up to chance.

Your strength: Your bold approach to life

Your weakness: You don't accept help

Your power color: Bronze

Your power symbol: Pyramid

Your power month: October

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Interesting coincidence, and I would have to agree that some of it does describe an aspect of my personality. Yes, I am high-strung, and prone to taking personal control of certain projects. Nonetheless, I'm nowhere near conceited or egotistical about my work, as colleagues would tell anyone. I even blush at any public praise.

Sometimes I'm an INTJ, and other times an ENTP. I'm frequently a Rat, and sometimes a Cancer. I tend to be socially conservative, but fiscally liberal. But, I don't let any of it define me, or look to these systems for guidance that only the Holy Spirit, Sacred Scripture, and Holy Mother Church can provide.

h/t Regular Guy.

The Sword in the Cistern

2007-08-19T11:29:00.000-05:00

Jeremiah was a popular guy, notorious for telling people exactly what they DIDN'T want to hear. He was charged with undermining the common unity. Folks wanted some peace of mind, so they put ol' Jeremiah down a muddy cistern.

Jesus is popular as well, notorious also for telling people what they don't want to hear. Today's gospel reading from Luke is one such lesson from Jesus that too frequently is put down the cistern:

" Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three."

Ecumeniacs and syncretists don't like to dwell on this scripture much, unless it's to bolster perception of their own righteousness. Another teaching that ends up in the cistern is the second half of a liberal favourite, from John 8, when an adulteress is brought to Jesus:

And this they said tempting him, that they might accuse him. But Jesus bowing himself down, wrote with his finger on the ground. When therefore they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

Now, most liberals will stop there, having used scripture to support their notion of blissful non-discernment. Despite their abridgement, the scripture continues:

And again stooping down, he wrote on the ground. But they hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest. And Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee?

11 Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more.

The "go, and sin no more" often ends up in the cistern because it indicates that adultery is sin, and that there are still consequences for sin. What other teachings of Jesus agitate us to us put Him in the cistern?

You Might Be an Apostate If..

2007-08-17T20:06:00.000-05:00

This silliness was inspired by some seriousness over at 'Crossed the Tiber.' My apologies to both Tiber Jumper and Jeff Foxworthy...

If you think John Shelby Spong is a wise theologian, you might be an apostate.

If you consider one of the Seven Deadly Sins to be wearing white shoes after Labor Day, you might be an apostate.

If Easter afternoon finds you still in your jammies, eating jelly beans and peeps, you just might be an apostate.

You might be an apostate if you welcome homosexuality as "the Spirit doing something new in the Church."

You might be an apostate if you think that venereal disease and pregnancies are best prevented with condoms, preferably distributed in grade schools.

If you can sit through an entire televised football game, but usually leave Mass right after Communion, you just might be an apostate.

* New* If you complain about how the Church opresses women, but never bother praying the Rosary, you might be an apostate.

Any others, from the few who bother to haunt this place?

Ignorance and Enablers

2007-08-13T21:08:00.000-05:00

Okay, the article in the local paper was headlined as "Churches help couples prepare for their future together", so I figured to see how bad it could be. Oh yes, pretty bad.

The family highlighted is listed as such: Bride goes to temple and wants Jewish wedding. Groom is Seventh Day Adventist, but isn't particularly adamant, and agrees to the Jewish wedding. Bride's mum goes to a UCC church. The temple balks at the interfaith wedding, so mum gets the kids to have a co-officiated wedding at her UCC church. Getting it so far?

Bride has this to say:

“He [groom] would’ve been fine with a justice of peace, but I wanted a wedding, and I wanted a religious wedding,” she said. “I said, ‘I want God at my wedding and if he wants to bring his little friend Jesus along, then that’s fine with me.’”

Okay, you can get up off the floor now, catch your breath, and dry the tears.

A rabbi of local renown, who co-officiated the ceremony for the confused couple "said he believes churches should be blind to the cultural and religious differences that a couple might have." Does that include one spouse proclaiming Jesus as Lord, while the other spouse considers Him "[God's] little friend?"

The senior minister at First-Plymouth said that weddings are an advertisement for his congregation’s inclusivity and lack of anything deeper than passing discernment.

“We look at this as a moment for them (couples) to begin a potential relationship with the church or a moment for us to express the warmth of the Christian church,” he said. “Will the church be a place of compassion and inclusion and spiritual depth or not?”

Well, how about instructing the spiritually ignorant, for starters? The couple getting married in his church obviously need some instruction, as ambivalent as they are. But this minister does like to collect the lukewarm. He has, in a televised sermon, smugly intoned about one of his congregants that "still considers herself a Catholic", yet attends his church because she disagrees with Rome on many issues.

You know, a sewer will take anything that drops down the hole as well..

The article then prepares us for the coming section on Catholic teaching on Matrimony with this:

"Not all clergy are as progressive."

The director from the diocesan Family Life office then gives the proper Catholic teaching on marriage, and the article explores a catholic couple's long road to the Altar.

“The church is trying to present an authentic view of marriage and to preserve and protect that understanding,” he continued. “There are so many images and presentations in our culture of marriage that are not authentic and not Christian. They are warped views of marriage. We are trying to protect and preserve what God has established.”

The article concludes with it's punchline, that the UCC is starting a marital preparation course as well, though with the muddle of theology the UCC subscribes to, I can't imagine that it will be of much service.

If I Only Had a Brain

2007-08-04T10:10:00.000-05:00

Am-I-Dumb.com - Are you dumb?

I actually quit Mensa 13 years ago, when I discovered that a high IQ doesn't necessarily make you a good person. Around the same time, I also figured out that Democrats don't love their fellow man any better than Republicans do. C'est la guerre.

h/t to Regular Guy, who is, lamentably, 0.2% dumber than I. I may have to strike him from the blogroll ;-)

Tiptoe Around the Taliban

2007-07-25T06:36:00.000-05:00

Taliban, you say? In Pakistan?

No, we don't have Taliban in Pakistan.

Ohhh, THAT Taliban.

Well, we do have some of them, but they blow themselves up.

A creeping disaster is continuing to run its course in northwest Pakistan, in the border regions with Afghanistan. Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf is reaping the rewards for mollifying Islamist factions in his country:

Isolated politically, he is incapable of making the strategic changes necessary to meet the challenges the country faces today. Five years ago, he threw in his lot with the clerics of the MMA [Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal]. He gave them political space by driving secular parties into the wilderness. Some selective rigging saw them come to power in the NWFP [Northwest Frontier Province] and in Balochistan as a coalition partner. In exchange, the clerics used their suddenly expanded presence in the assemblies to allow him to remain army chief. Now, the same religious parties have turned against him.

And like this month's showdown at the Lal Masjid mosque, any attempt to bring the Islamists to any civil order will be messy. Just this week, a Taliban commander, Abdullah Mehsud, was discovered in a pakistani border town 350 km northwest of Quetta. When security forces found him, on a tip from some locals, he blew himself up.

Sure, you could say "well, thant's one less militant", but the bigger question is why do Taliban have such free reign in northwest Pakistan and southern Afghanistan? You can chalk it up to a combination of diverting US forces to Iraq, and political maneuvering from Musharraf. the situation is becoming intolerable.

AS bouquets and brickbats are being flung at the government following the Lal Masjid operation, the tough questions are sure to follow. Even as the corpses of the victims and the villains are being buried, most Pakistanis are already asking how events were allowed to come to such a bloody pass.

One of the hallmarks of military governments is that they all pretend to be very keen on accountability. So who will be the scapegoat for allowing the six-month old stand-off at the mosque complex to drag on? Clearly, the Ghazi brothers used this time to stock up on arms and ammunition, apart from sneaking in dozens of trained militants.

Musharraf is not long for the political scene if he cannot defuse the Islamist timebomb under his arse. His maneuvers to preserve his autocratic rule are coming home to roost, as debated in the pakistani Supreme Court last week:

In the 60 years of our tumultuous and mostly star-crossed history, nothing of greater importance has ever come before the Supreme Court. Other famous cases in the past – Tamizuddin, Dosso, Nusrat Bhutto, etc – helped legitimise one martial law after another. In doing so, the highest court in the land became a party to the twisting and distorting of our history, helping to turn Pakistan into a congenial playground for civil and military dictatorships.

In this case alone has the opportunity arisen to mend that history by putting a rein and bridle on military adventurism. For the central issue in it is not just about the person of Justice Chaudhry and the treatment he received when he defied the wishes of Army House, the source of so much of Pakistan’s many discontents.

It is about something far greater: whether Pakistan’s destiny – and this was put well by Fakhruddin Ebrahim, one of the lawyers defending the Chief Justice – is to be ruled by the power of the gun or the power of the law.

Unfortunately, Musharraf's "power of the gun" has been the only thing keeping Pakistan from completely sliding under the power of the Islamist bomb. The vaunted "power of the law" usually wilts in the face of the Islamist threat, which is why the Taliban has such haven in the northwest, and why the Lal Masjid situation mushroomed into the bloodbath that it did.

Back on the Street Corner

2007-07-24T08:15:00.000-05:00

I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost. I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble.

She said she was leaving. She said she'd go home. But the lure of the red-light district in D.C. was too much. Yes, Cindy Sheehan is back.

"The Democrats will not hold this administration accountable, so we have to hold the Democrats accountable," Sheehan said outside Conyers' office after the meeting. "And I for one am going to step up to the plate and run against Nancy Pelosi."

So, what happened to going home and reconnecting with her family? Did she get home and find out that they've decided to "move on" without her? Was the solitude frightening? Were there no news cameras to capture the histrionic wailing and gnashing of teeth?

Well, if she tries to run for office, I'm sure she'll get the rabid pacifist vote, but the cooler heads will vote for someone more stable.

Telling Omission

2007-07-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

The screen behind the democratic candidates for President caught my eye, and I noticed a telling omission that really speaks to the flaw in their foreign policy ideas. Here's the backdrop:

A good deal of the background image is from the great seal of the United States, but with a curious part left out. I circled the omission above, so that you could reference it to the seal in it's entirety:

Yes, they took the arrows from the Eagle. They think that the United States can protect its liberties with olive branches alone. They prefer to throw aid packages, abortion doctors and condoms at the world's problems. What a sorry lot.

All of them are for retreating from Iraq. To avoid his obligations, Onan, too, was eager to pull out. So much for fearless leadership from the Left.

Unseen Blogger Nails It

2007-07-23T19:23:00.000-05:00

From the Unseen Blogger:

Isn't it interesting that the New York Times can keep the ending of the new Harry Potter book a secret, yet they'll publish top secret documents from the Pentagon and jeopardize national security?

What else can be said?

A Pig by Any Other Name

2007-07-20T16:38:00.000-05:00

Nobody knows the trouble that Genarlow Wilson's seen.

The courtroom was packed with supporters and cameras Friday as Georgia's top justices heard arguments over whether a young man serving a 10-year prison term for consensual oral sex with a fellow teenager should be freed.

Poor boy, somehow got busted for what the media's calling "consensual oral sex" with a minor. Only It wasn't some awkward episode in the back of his parents' car. This was a romp at a party that included sexual contact with multiple underage, inebriated females, videotaped for future self-aggrandisement. So lurid was the video, it was labelled as Child Pornography by federal authorities.

The sex act was videotaped by another partygoer -- and that tape shows the faces of several underage girls. David Nahmias, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said earlier this week: "We have advised that the videotape at issue constitutes child pornography under federal law and should not be knowingly distributed, received or possessed outside of law enforcement and judicial proceedings."

Wilson was acquitted of a rape charge, stemming from the same party, for having sexual relations with another girl that prosecutors asserted was too drunk to consent. This kid, though only 17 at the time of the offense, has perfectly emulated his hip-hop heroes in their objectification of women and using them for careless sexual gratification. Whatever his mother may say, he's far from innocent.

You may see the smiling visage of the young man on CNN, clean cut, with a cross dangling around his neck. Here's a shot from the party:

Sorry, but this image has been deemed Child Pornography. If you were to see this image, you'd see a smiling, happy Genarlow Wilson at a gang-bang. Sorry to disappoint.

Wilson's supporters are pushing for retribution against the D.A., who released the tape to media and other judicial bodies. Ostensibly, the outrage is that the tape makes their unfairly persecuted angel look like just another pig.

"Why do you care about this, St. Jimbob" you may ask. I've got daughters, and believe me, after a stunt like this, jail is the safest place for guys like Genarlow Wilson.

Mowing and Musing

2007-07-14T17:58:00.000-05:00

I’ve had a lot on my mind, recently, and it’s been swirling around without any focus. Until last night, when I was mowing my lawn, when it came to me:

“Santino, come're. Whattsa matter with you? I think your brain is going soft from all that comedy your playing with that young girl.

Never tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking again!”

Yes, words of wisdom from Vito Corleone.

America’s brain has gone soft. Soft from all the comedy it’s playing with it’s culture of consumption and gratification. From the overweight kids playing their Playstations, to the parents over-leveraged with consumer debt (spent on stuff that the debt will outlast) to the politicians who pander to the self-indulgent.

Thanks to our Incontinental Congress, and their Media enablers, everyone in the world knows what we’re thinking (or that we’re not), and knows the limits of our fortitude.

Everyone now knows that 2.500 dead troops will make our people squeamish and our politicians start looking for something white to wave. Everyone now knows that if a force can keep us tied up for more than a year or two, we’ll throw in the towel. Everyone now knows that if they can bloody our nose, they can expect an apology FROM US for making them angry.

What’s now to stop China from taking Taiwan?! Or is Chuck Hagel (or any in the Yellow GOP) thinking beyond the next election? Don’t pander to the American people, as they’ve become too soft-headed from a couple generations of affluence without sacrifice.

Live Squat

2007-07-06T19:29:00.000-05:00

Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.

So, the archsongsters of environmentalism are convening a global community sing to proclaim their looming apocalypse, otherwise known as 'Global Warming'. A scant 22 years ago, another band of well-meaning musicians put on a similiar event, called 'Live Aid', to eliminate hunger in Ethiopia. It was a smashing success, as far as raising money is concerned. £150M successful.

Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam was very grateful for the generous donations. So grateful, in fact, that he was able to expand his army and maintain his fleet of soviet-made armor, needed to secure his Marxist government against surging domestic rebel groups. His starvation of opposition populations in his own country was what spurred the Live Aid project to begin with, so the whole decade from 1976 to 1986 was win, win, and win. Some figures claim Mengistu's Derg party was responsible for 1.5 million dead Ethiopians. So, Mengistu's government got paid £1000 for each person they killed. Nice.

So, who's the money going to this time, and who are they being paid to kill?

Grace Under Fire

2007-07-05T07:15:00.000-05:00

So, the goings on in Pakistan have finally hit the fan and the headlines here in America. The al Masjid, the Red Mosque, has been a thorn in Pakistan's side for quite a while now. The students of al Masjid have been kidnapping various people and demanding implemantation of Sharia Law as the ransom. Pakistan already has an anti-blasphemy law, severely punishing anyone who blasphemes Muhammad (I'd be hanged within the hour I touched down in Karachi). The tribal areas already do Sharia, with little intervention from any real government. Women are properly oppressed. What are the students complaining about?

Well, now that the military has moved in to administer some perspective, the students have been armed and are resisting. Where's the teacher, you may ask? He went that-a-way:

MAULANA Abdul Aziz, the leader of the Lal Masjid brigade, was arrested while trying to flee in a burqa.

“After all the things he has said and all the oaths he took from his students that they should embrace martyrdom with him, look at this man,” Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem said.

Maulana Aziz was caught after a group of 50 burqa-clad women from the mosque started screaming as they were taken to a nearby school for security checks after giving themselves up, saying the procedure was un-Islamic.

“Our officers spotted his (Aziz’s) unusual demeanour. The rest of the girls looked like girls, but he was taller and had a pot-belly,” an official said.

So much for the courage of the righteous. Intending to die last, I guess he was figuring Allah would be out of virgins by the time all the students in the mosque were killed.

Pakistan is beset by a bevy of conflicts. Most people are fixated on the conflict between President Musharraf and the Chief Justice of Pakistan's supreme court, while there are Taliban in Waziristan, and rebels and natural disasters in Balochistan. The country is poised to become another Afghanistan. With nukes.

The Horror

2007-07-04T17:50:00.000-05:00

I don't watch TV much, as it's usually a waste of time. It can occasionally be instructive, or so the producers would hope, but you can also learn more about the culture than what the show is actually trumpeting. I happened across a show call 'On The Lot', a reality show about budding film producers having to make short films in different genres. Last night's episode was an excercise in horror films, or so it was announced. The last short was 'Profile' by Mateen, an African-American film student. Just what kind of horror story was it? I'm sure you can guess.

An African-American driver is pulled over by a white cop, and faster than you can say "license and registration, please," the driver is in a bathroom being brutally assaulted by three white cops. Explaining his choice of drama, the filmmaker said he wanted to convey a horror that people could actually relate to.

Here's a horror that would be more helpful for African-Americans:

In 1999, firearm homicide was the number one cause of death for Black men ages 15-34, as well as the leading cause of death for all black 15-24 year olds.[1]

AND

In 1998, 94 percent of the Black murder victims were slain by black offenders.[2]

As much as the brother wants to spin a yarn about evil white cops, the larger horror is still wrought by his own people. While race-agitating shakedown artists keep the focus on the White Devil, the Black auto-genocide of violence, family disintegration and drug use will continue.

Bill Cosby, anathema to the victimhood mafia, proposed a solution on CNN's 'Situation Room':

It's not outrage as much as sadness that Dr. King started us in a winning position with nonviolence and that our youthful people are picking up guns, knives, and voices against each other, against their parents, against the school system, and a great deal of it has to do with the fact that we need to start in pre-K through 12th grade talking to the children in school, in school, because it isn't happening in the neighborhood, about nonviolence and how to solve one's sadness issue that has grown into frustration and then outrage.

For Cosby, it's not just a 'black thing':

The most important thing, Wolf, is, as time goes by, how many of these candidates, like Mr. Martin said, will address the invisible white people who are not graduating from college, who are teenage pregnancy at the age of 13, who are broke, who are looking for subsidy, who are looking at schools that are broken down? It isn't just blacks.

It's the poor. It's the lower economic people, the lower middle economic. And these people have to speak up. They have got to get themselves together. They are the most powerful. You have politicians who care about them, as opposed to some of these other things...

But will anyone in the Black community hear it? Maybe someone can do a film about that?

1. National Center for Health Statistics, 2002
2. FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1998

Pope Writes to China, pt II

2007-07-02T12:21:00.000-05:00

To begin, let's look at a statement, early in the Pope's letter to Chinese Catholics:

I realize that the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China requires time and presupposes the good will of both parties.

Yes, presupposing the good will of both parties. Well, one party doesn't have the same concept of good will:

Some Catholic websites in mainland China that uploaded Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Catholics in the mainland shortly after it was released were ordered hours later to remove it.

A priest in charge of such a website registered with the government told UCA News on July 2 he felt helpless because he strongly believes that "China Church websites should publish the pope's letter."

The priest, who asked not to be named, said some government officials who came to his office on June 29 asked about the letter but did not explicitly say he could not carry it. The next evening, he uploaded the letter to his site, but he was told on July 1 morning he was not allowed to upload the text.

China's good will seems to have a price, and they want the goods up front:

The Vatican should take actions, instead of creating barriers, if it wants to improve ties with China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Saturday.

"China's stance on improving relations with the Vatican is consistent. Namely, Vatican should sever the so called diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognize the People's Republic of China is the sole government representing China," said Qin.

"We hope the Vatican can take actions (to improve relations) and no longer creates new barriers," Qin said.

I will continue to hope for the best, but I won't hold my breath for good fruit from a wicked tree.

I'm still waiting for free trade and the market economy to bring freedom to Chinese christians. Any day now, right? Right?

Post # 250, Swiss Cheese

2007-07-01T11:59:00.000-05:00

A blogger dedicated to revealing the truth (condemnations) about Catholicism had posted the following:

"...Peter: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" ... Jesus: "You are right Peter, Upon this ROCK (THE TRUTH that I AM GOD'S SON), I will build my Church. And the gates of hell (extra-biblical doctrines and man-made rituals for salvation), will not prevail against it!" Matthew 16:18"

The first problem is that he cannot even disclose the truth about the scripture he's using! Here's the entire section of Matthew 16 he was editing:

16 Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.

Now, I'm a context junkie, and really get annoyed when people turn Holy Scripture into holey scripture. I'd hate to tar all Protestants with the same brush, but like Jack Chick's cartoon theology, I see too much strategic omission when Protestants try to make a case against the Church. Why is that?

Know Thy Enemy

2007-06-30T18:47:00.000-05:00

From CNN's continued gloating about their homosexuality poll:

For the Rev. Mel White, the founder and president of faith-based gay rights group Soulforce, the poll results were a "tremendous relief."

"The poll is such good news," White said Thursday. "Over half of America thinks we don't have to be healed from a sickness; suddenly we are OK as we are."

White, once a ghostwriter for the Revs. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Billy Graham before coming out in a public sermon in 1993, said the church was the barrier to nationwide acceptance of gays and lesbians.

"Until the church changes, this debate will go on and on and on," he said. "Once the church changes, it'll be over."

Good to know that there's still tension between the World and the Church, and the World knows that it cannot win the argument unless the Church cedes her authority. It's also good to know the stakes that the other side is playing for.

Pope Writes to China, pt I

2007-06-30T07:11:00.000-05:00

Pope Benedict XVI writes the the faithful Catholics of China:

I realize that the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China requires time and presupposes the good will of both parties.

Yes, and China's advance preparation to denounce the Pope's message telegraphs the true nature of the Patriotic Association of Chinese Catholics. The Communist Party is a jealous god, and will have no other gods before it. From CWNews:

Chinese officials have summoned Catholic bishops to a meeting in Huariou, north of Beijing, to coordinate their response to a forthcoming message from Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) to the Catholics of China, the AsiaNews service reports.

Ever the optimist, the Pope presses on:

at the same time, though, compliance with those authorities is not acceptable when they interfere unduly in matters regarding the faith and discipline of the Church. The civil authorities are well aware that the Church in her teaching invites the faithful to be good citizens, respectful and active contributors to the common good in their country, but it is likewise clear that she asks the State to guarantee to those same Catholic citizens the full exercise of their faith, with respect for authentic religious freedom.

Like I said before, Maoism is inherantly anti-christian in it's avowed repression of any religious expression not worshipping the State. More later, after I read the whole document.

h/t CWNews

Slouching Toward Sodom

2007-06-29T21:50:00.000-05:00

My, my. The handbasket is picking up speed:

Poll majority: Gays' orientation can't change

In addition to orientation, a majority is coalescing around the rainbow flag for adoption and marriage issues. More people have a sitcom view of human sexuality anymore, and it will continue to worsen, especially when they pass those mores onto their children:

CNN's Paula Zahn speaks with a transgendered 7-year-old and her family.

The video report includes the parents telling how horribly sad their son was until he was allowed to dress like a girl. How could good parents countenance waiting one nanosecond before allowing their child to dictate their own identity. Were I as good a parent as these folks, I'd have already changed my son's name to 'Godzilla' and let him exclusively dress in reptile costumes.

But, I should be mindful of my criticism. The closer our comfy handbasket gets to the iron gates of Dis, the more likely this will apply here:

Belgian Bishop Accused of Homophobia
Belgian homosexual activists have brought charges against Mgr André-Mutien Léonard, the Roman-Catholic bishop of Namur, for homophobia, a criminal offence in Belgium according to the country’s 2003 Anti-Discrimination Act. In an interview last April in the Walloon weekly Télé Moustique, the bishop is said to have described homosexuals as “abnormal” people.

We are not to blaspheme the popular sacrament, as our intolerance will not be tolerated.

Evangelism, à la McBrien

2007-06-27T11:46:00.000-05:00

Fr. Richard McBrien is at it again. In the latest issue of the Tidings, Fr. McBrien critiques conversion motivations in the post-Vatican II Church. Evangelism in the Catholic church has suffered:

"With the Second Vatican Council, however, and with the ecumenical movement which the council and the popes had endorsed, it became practically impossible to present the Catholic Church any longer as "the one, true Church" and all other denominations as awash in error and falsehoods."

Of course, you cannot present the Catholic Church as the one, true Church if you don't really believe it. Can you? That's also a large and unspoken variable in the calculus; the scores of clergy and theologians, in the Church, that cannot acknowlege the Church and thus cannot proclaim it. Skeptics make lousy salesmen, and cynics are even worse.

McBrien goes on to examine recent conservative converts to the Church, noting:

"Conservative Protestants and Jews who convert to Catholicism, especially of the Opus Dei kind, rarely shed the religious, social and political biases they had in their pre-Catholic life."

I didn't realise that there is a Opus Dei Catholic Church. Or, is this a backhanded slap at conservatives who come to the Church expecting some orthodoxy? Some converts have no interest in Cafeteria Catholicism, especially of the Most Holy Redeemer (San Francisco) kind, or else they would have joined the Episcopalians.

At least converts to the Church have the good grace and intellectual honesty to leave a church (or 'faith community') that they do not agree with. Right, Fr. McBrien?

h/t to Curt Jester and da Cafeteria.

Diocese A	Diocese B
Catholic Population: 4,349,267	Catholic Population: 89,412
Seminarians from the Diocese: 50 Seminarians from Other Dioceses: 85 Diocesan Students in Other Seminaries: 18	Seminarians from the Diocese: 28 Seminarians from Other Dioceses: 7 Diocesan Students in Other Seminaries: 15
Local Seminarian to Catholic Ratio: 1 : 63,959	Local Seminarian to Catholic Ratio: 1 : 2,079

Shaking Off Sleep

Doomer Porn

China Now Butt of the Joke

Superiority, Truly

Favorite Hymns

Obesity and Impotence

Executive Overreach

Open Letter to a Neighbor

In Who We What?

Drawing You-Know-Who

The Gravity of Sins Disputed

Family, and the Reality of Marriage

Flogging

No, the World Did Not End, Yet...

Things I Will Miss After the Peakalypse, #4

Fear, no. Planning, yes.

Things I Will Miss After the Peakalypse, #3

Things I Will Miss After the Peakalypse, #2

Pots and Kettles #100127

Things I Will Miss After the Peakalypse, #1

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I thought I was over Baseball

Audacity of Despair

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Close Shave

Grinding Gears

Shaking Off Sleep

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Who's Going to Continue the Failed Policies of the Bush Administration?

Russia to Test Obama

quae sunt Dei Deo

Emergency!

Taking Resonsibility

Disassociation...Destruction

Political Statement #090908

Right Uppercut

A Year of Humanae Vitae

Note from the Desert

Huckabee Gets It

Fred bows out

Economic Needle Exchange

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When Bad Things Happen

Two Years

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Propter Hoc

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Apokalypse Watch, Month 2

Red Friday 2007

Idea for 2008

Call To Subterfuge

With Such Ardor

Sufficient

Lift High the MDGs

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Series Swept: Natural Family Disorganization 4, Creighton Method 0

Tempest, Teapot, Cleanup

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By Extension #71006

By Extension, #71003

Beware NeoChurchspeak

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Logic

Mistake, or Crime?

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Quebexican food

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Side-by-Side

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A Straighter Path

Series Swept:
Natural Family Disorganization 4, Creighton Method 0

1. National Center for Health Statistics, 2002
2. FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1998