Oregon is ODF*: So the State of Oregon has a problem with suicide. The suicide rate is approxamatly 35% higher than the national average. That is a problem. The Oregon Health Authority is trying very hard to find a way to bring it down. But I think that part of the problem is the Oregon Health Authority. It's legal in Oregon for physicians to prescribe lethal doses of meds to help people who want to die because they have a terminal illness. Once you start condoning self slaying for any reason, it gets harder to tell someone else they shouldn't or can't do the same. Quite bluntly: someone with sever cronic depression can simple say that they are suffering from an intractible illness that causes them great suffering, so they want relief. The health care community loses the ability to counter the argument, bacause they facilitate the same thing in other cases.
* ODF= Out 'dere flappin'
Faroe Islands and Moral Courage: Well, I woulldn't have done the same thing, but I admire the stand, for the fact that it is a stand. A Parlementarian from the Danish Semi-autonemous region of the Fareo Islands,Jenis av Rana has refused to attend a State Dinner with the Prime Minister of Iceland, because she is a Lesbian "married" to another woman. he has stated that to do so would to be tantamount to declaring her life situation legitimate. He is, of course, a memeber of a very conservative political party. However, Alfred Olsen of the Liberal Party has agreed, saying it is unatural for some sex persons to be married. The Faroe Islands, as a semi autnomous region, do not recognize homosexual marriage, even though Denmark was the first European nation to do so.
Bonnie Baroness! Baroness Greenfield has denouced the compacency of the scientific establishment in it's off handed opposition to religion as "Talibanlike". She maintains that they hhold an idea as the fundamental truth and will brook no opposition or questioning of it. Baroness Greenfield, a former head of The Royal Institution states that Physicists are trying to shut down "freedom of discussion".
TRIUMPHALIST--YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?
Saturday, September 11, 2010
The Eleventh of September
Like everyone else above the age of reason, I have memories of the 9/11 attacks. And those memories are going to be inflicted, with some of their consequences, on whom ever reads this. So if you don't want what was left in my mind by these events in yours, best go and read something else.
I was in my living room, getting read to get read for work--I needed to be there for the afternoon. Some one knocked on my door and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center--we weren't using the term "twin towers" yet. I thought that that was a pretty bad accident, but I was thinking of the B-25 that hit the Empire State Building on the 40s. They told me it was different. I went to my neighbors house, a lovely woman named Norma, a Canadian studying Climatology and meteorology at IU. We watched on her TV. I will never forget the look on her usually serenely cheerful face. A look of profound sorrow and shock. I told her that there was going to be a war, and she silently nodded, with tears in her eyes.
I went to work, I was a cook at Yogi's Grill and Bar, which at that time was the top grossing independent operation in Indiana. I had nothing to do. No one ate or ordered food. We didn't sell any liquor either. People came in, ordered a beer or a soft drink and silently watched the TV, with it's harrowing replay of the buildings collapse. They didn't even drink their drinks. It was unnerving, as Yogi's wasn't a rowdy place, but was a happenin' place, with lots of happy outgoing young people and cool 40 somethings who generated a lot of sound. And it was dead quiet.
One of the servers came in, a little emo punk bastard that sniffed out that if "'They' think I'm going to volunteer to fight for 'them' because of this, 'they're' wrong". When I asked him why he said "I tried to enlist for college money, but 'they' wouldn't let me because I got arrested for selling pot". My Redneck Vet Self got the better of me and simply told him that he had the right to say what ever he wanted, but if he decided that his country didn't deserve his support because he go arrested for doing something he knew was illegal in the first place he was basically being a childish, self centered cowardly little snot. Then I saw the manager looking right at me. I told Sickmeier that he could fire me and I wouldn't complain, but I meant every word and wouldn't apologize. He just said that he wasn't going to fire me, he agreed with me. The Front of the House Manger, Jim, sent the punk home saying there wasn't enough business to keep him there. Plus two of the male servers working that day were putting themselves through the university on Vets benefits and waiting tables. I think he wanted to save the kid from an ass kicking and himself from losing good workers.
One of the cooks came in to start his shift--he was a drummer in a thrash band. he said "You watch, now 'they're' gonna want us all to pull together like is was the 1940s. It's not gonna happen 'cause we don't want to pull for 'them'".
Twice in one shift? "They", "Them"? I felt something was going wrong here.
I went downtown after my shift. I wanted not to be stuck with my own thoughts, my own feelings. I have seen what happens when groups of men decide to kill each other with modern weapons. I know what happens to those who get caught in the middle. The future was a sad thing to contemplate.
Then, to my horror, amazement and lasting--to this day--anger, a little impromptu parade of Hippies came by, with their inevitable drum chanting "An eye for an eye makes the world go bye", a particularly inane slogan. But what got me was the joy with which they were doing this! Those neo-hippies were delighted, they finally had a real war to protest, and they knew that it was our fault. I stood there, and raised both hands up, with the middle finger extended. That was a major moment, because up 'till then I had bee on the fringes of the neo-hippy movement. And those people knew me, and had until then been my friends. It was at that point that the bankruptcy of reflexive rebellion hit me.
Just like the Emo Server and the Cook, they couldn't conceive of pulling together as a people, the idea was foreign to them--they had defined themselves, not by opposition to something, by by opposition itself.
Well, as time passed and we identified the enemy as Al Queda (sp?), we went into Afghanistan. I watched the 173d jump in, on those green screen NV cameras, with a mixture of pride, (Great pride, those guy were paratroops, my boys, and I could see both the fear and determination on their faces. On lad stood out to me, he was maybe 19, and he made eye contact wit the camera as he went out the door. His face showed fear, but not the panicky type rather, it showed that he was afraid, and was going anyway, the face of true courage.) and sorrow. Some of these guys, leaping into a land locked country, with no way to resupply except by air, and lightly armed would become casualties. They were opening a way onto a battle field that historically had eaten every invader since Alexander the Great. And I knew sorrow for the plain old Afghan people, who would be caught in the middle between ruthless men with weapons, "collateral damage" was inevitable.
So now, nine years later, I look back on all this and think: The terrorists have succeeded. The attacks on the Twin Towers were a strategic success. You can say that no, they weren't, that the back of Al Queda has been broken, that they haven't been able to successfully mount an operation agains us in the US since. that would be to miss the point, to think in terms that are obsolete. For we are fighting anew generation of thinking about warfare.
This started with Mao--and his unorthodox way of waging war. It was attempted by Che, who didn't get it, and perfected by Ho Chi Minh, who did. Here in the west, we think of war, as Clausewitz did, as an extension of politics by other means. The defining characteristic of this new warfare which has been termed "4th Generation Warfare" by one thinker, is that politics is considered and extension of warfare by other means.
Al Queda has managed to exploit our weaknesses in polity, to divide our counsels. It has managed to exploit the "rebellion chic" that has existed in the US since the 60s. By giving the professional dissenters something to play on--all those "they"s and "them"s I noticed. We have, as a result of the situation we were manipulated into, wrecked both our dominant political parties, yet been unable to form a cohesive, meaningful alternative. We have spent ourselves broke, and crippled our economy. (I know someone is going to cry "Obama!", but the process was well underway before 2009!)
Yes, Al Queda is in disarray. but I will point out something from history to you: TheTet Offensive. Militarily the Viet Cong were virtually destroyed after Tet. The fighting was carried on by NVA regulars dressed as VC, Their political infrastructure was destroyed. They lost credibility--the uprising they thought they would get didn't happen. They alienated Urban Vietnamese. And it's the battle that one the war for them, for it destroyed our will to fight, set up a time table for withdrawal. We lost our cohesiveness as a nation in that battle. And we have done so again.
We have lost the war against terrorism, for they have broken our national consensus by exploiting the weakness of our polity. That's 4th Generation Warfare.
It is even fashionable, in many quarters, to suggest that it's our fault we were attacked, that Christians are reponsible for the current rash of slave raids and assaults, church desecrations and assasinations. That The West has provoked and deserves these events. I want to say something about that, I don't have a good place to put it in this reflection: It's is exactly the same thing as blaming a rape victim because she wore a pretty dress, or a mugging victim because he used an ATM. It's foolishness, cowardice, and a desire to tear down ones own culture. It's a form of ethnocentric suicide.
Twice now, in my life, I have beheld the spectacle of our nation defeated, by it's own inability to adapt to the warfare of politics, humiliated by forces we had the military capability to crush like a bug, but not the savvy and political will to do so.
(In something related, here is the URL to an essay I read this morning: http://townhall.com/columnists/MaryGraber/2010/09/11/sociopathic_intellectuals-on-911 . It's worth reading, even if you hate Ms. Graber, or conservative thinking, bacause it shows some of the roots of our anger.)
I was in my living room, getting read to get read for work--I needed to be there for the afternoon. Some one knocked on my door and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center--we weren't using the term "twin towers" yet. I thought that that was a pretty bad accident, but I was thinking of the B-25 that hit the Empire State Building on the 40s. They told me it was different. I went to my neighbors house, a lovely woman named Norma, a Canadian studying Climatology and meteorology at IU. We watched on her TV. I will never forget the look on her usually serenely cheerful face. A look of profound sorrow and shock. I told her that there was going to be a war, and she silently nodded, with tears in her eyes.
I went to work, I was a cook at Yogi's Grill and Bar, which at that time was the top grossing independent operation in Indiana. I had nothing to do. No one ate or ordered food. We didn't sell any liquor either. People came in, ordered a beer or a soft drink and silently watched the TV, with it's harrowing replay of the buildings collapse. They didn't even drink their drinks. It was unnerving, as Yogi's wasn't a rowdy place, but was a happenin' place, with lots of happy outgoing young people and cool 40 somethings who generated a lot of sound. And it was dead quiet.
One of the servers came in, a little emo punk bastard that sniffed out that if "'They' think I'm going to volunteer to fight for 'them' because of this, 'they're' wrong". When I asked him why he said "I tried to enlist for college money, but 'they' wouldn't let me because I got arrested for selling pot". My Redneck Vet Self got the better of me and simply told him that he had the right to say what ever he wanted, but if he decided that his country didn't deserve his support because he go arrested for doing something he knew was illegal in the first place he was basically being a childish, self centered cowardly little snot. Then I saw the manager looking right at me. I told Sickmeier that he could fire me and I wouldn't complain, but I meant every word and wouldn't apologize. He just said that he wasn't going to fire me, he agreed with me. The Front of the House Manger, Jim, sent the punk home saying there wasn't enough business to keep him there. Plus two of the male servers working that day were putting themselves through the university on Vets benefits and waiting tables. I think he wanted to save the kid from an ass kicking and himself from losing good workers.
One of the cooks came in to start his shift--he was a drummer in a thrash band. he said "You watch, now 'they're' gonna want us all to pull together like is was the 1940s. It's not gonna happen 'cause we don't want to pull for 'them'".
Twice in one shift? "They", "Them"? I felt something was going wrong here.
I went downtown after my shift. I wanted not to be stuck with my own thoughts, my own feelings. I have seen what happens when groups of men decide to kill each other with modern weapons. I know what happens to those who get caught in the middle. The future was a sad thing to contemplate.
Then, to my horror, amazement and lasting--to this day--anger, a little impromptu parade of Hippies came by, with their inevitable drum chanting "An eye for an eye makes the world go bye", a particularly inane slogan. But what got me was the joy with which they were doing this! Those neo-hippies were delighted, they finally had a real war to protest, and they knew that it was our fault. I stood there, and raised both hands up, with the middle finger extended. That was a major moment, because up 'till then I had bee on the fringes of the neo-hippy movement. And those people knew me, and had until then been my friends. It was at that point that the bankruptcy of reflexive rebellion hit me.
Just like the Emo Server and the Cook, they couldn't conceive of pulling together as a people, the idea was foreign to them--they had defined themselves, not by opposition to something, by by opposition itself.
Well, as time passed and we identified the enemy as Al Queda (sp?), we went into Afghanistan. I watched the 173d jump in, on those green screen NV cameras, with a mixture of pride, (Great pride, those guy were paratroops, my boys, and I could see both the fear and determination on their faces. On lad stood out to me, he was maybe 19, and he made eye contact wit the camera as he went out the door. His face showed fear, but not the panicky type rather, it showed that he was afraid, and was going anyway, the face of true courage.) and sorrow. Some of these guys, leaping into a land locked country, with no way to resupply except by air, and lightly armed would become casualties. They were opening a way onto a battle field that historically had eaten every invader since Alexander the Great. And I knew sorrow for the plain old Afghan people, who would be caught in the middle between ruthless men with weapons, "collateral damage" was inevitable.
So now, nine years later, I look back on all this and think: The terrorists have succeeded. The attacks on the Twin Towers were a strategic success. You can say that no, they weren't, that the back of Al Queda has been broken, that they haven't been able to successfully mount an operation agains us in the US since. that would be to miss the point, to think in terms that are obsolete. For we are fighting anew generation of thinking about warfare.
This started with Mao--and his unorthodox way of waging war. It was attempted by Che, who didn't get it, and perfected by Ho Chi Minh, who did. Here in the west, we think of war, as Clausewitz did, as an extension of politics by other means. The defining characteristic of this new warfare which has been termed "4th Generation Warfare" by one thinker, is that politics is considered and extension of warfare by other means.
Al Queda has managed to exploit our weaknesses in polity, to divide our counsels. It has managed to exploit the "rebellion chic" that has existed in the US since the 60s. By giving the professional dissenters something to play on--all those "they"s and "them"s I noticed. We have, as a result of the situation we were manipulated into, wrecked both our dominant political parties, yet been unable to form a cohesive, meaningful alternative. We have spent ourselves broke, and crippled our economy. (I know someone is going to cry "Obama!", but the process was well underway before 2009!)
Yes, Al Queda is in disarray. but I will point out something from history to you: TheTet Offensive. Militarily the Viet Cong were virtually destroyed after Tet. The fighting was carried on by NVA regulars dressed as VC, Their political infrastructure was destroyed. They lost credibility--the uprising they thought they would get didn't happen. They alienated Urban Vietnamese. And it's the battle that one the war for them, for it destroyed our will to fight, set up a time table for withdrawal. We lost our cohesiveness as a nation in that battle. And we have done so again.
We have lost the war against terrorism, for they have broken our national consensus by exploiting the weakness of our polity. That's 4th Generation Warfare.
It is even fashionable, in many quarters, to suggest that it's our fault we were attacked, that Christians are reponsible for the current rash of slave raids and assaults, church desecrations and assasinations. That The West has provoked and deserves these events. I want to say something about that, I don't have a good place to put it in this reflection: It's is exactly the same thing as blaming a rape victim because she wore a pretty dress, or a mugging victim because he used an ATM. It's foolishness, cowardice, and a desire to tear down ones own culture. It's a form of ethnocentric suicide.
Twice now, in my life, I have beheld the spectacle of our nation defeated, by it's own inability to adapt to the warfare of politics, humiliated by forces we had the military capability to crush like a bug, but not the savvy and political will to do so.
(In something related, here is the URL to an essay I read this morning: http://townhall.com/columnists/MaryGraber/2010/09/11/sociopathic_intellectuals-on-911 . It's worth reading, even if you hate Ms. Graber, or conservative thinking, bacause it shows some of the roots of our anger.)
Friday, September 10, 2010
You Know, I Still Have Problems Trusting Priests
Because after all, bishops are priests, and the Archbishop of LA is being a bit of a problem for me. Like this: The Democrats in California kicked off their campaign at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral (the architectural horror show often refereed to as "Our Lady of the Borg"). Including Barbara Boxer and Gavin Newsome. In fact the candidates there were a virtual who's who of pro abortion and gay marriage candidates. You know, it doesn't matter nearly as much what you say, or even don't say, as what you do. And the Archbishop, by allowing this has basically endorsed these political positions, no matter what he says. The faithful will be confused, or feel it's OK to abort or commit homosexual acts. Shame on him.
Besides, shouldn't someone be raising hell right now about the church endorsing political candidates and challenging it's tax exempt status on those grounds? Oh wait--republicans don't usually use that tactic.
Of course, in other fronts there are reasons to not have a lot of trust in our shepards as well. Sandro Magister has recently published research that links the growth of contraception among Catholics with clerical silence, especially of priests, on the subject. Like, they don't preach the doctrine, and people go ahead with it, thinking that it's been essentially superseded. This is a mortal sin--by their silence, priests are allowing people to fall into a practice that can lead them to hell--for eternity. I have only heard one homily that mentioned contraception in my life. It was from a deacon who was told not to do that again, because it hurt the collection plate. No amount of money in the collection plate is worth even one soul in Hell. I'm supposed to trust men with values that skewed?
Then again, you get things like Father Thomas McQuaid, who is ripping into his Cardinal Archbishop in Chicago for nominating me to the honor of Monsignor. he says it's silly, and is alleging that it costs thousands of dollars per man to have the honor bestowed. (Actually, it's about $150 bucks a piece, to cover the cost of calligraphy and paper work!). Fr. McQuaid is quick to try and link this to the sexual scandals, etc, and to try to use it to sew division in the diocesan priesthood of Chicago. I think it's basically that he and his fellow rebels didn't get the honors, so he's going to whine like snubbed SoHo.
And, if he wants to mention the moral failings of the sexual scandals, why didn't other priests report the criminals to the police? They could do that with the anonymity offered to any citizens who report crimes, but they didn't. Seeing as how Fr. McQuaid has been in the Archdiocese of Chicago longer than the Cardinal, it seems to me that the guilt for what went on their is more on him, for his silence, than on the Cardinal.
Stuff like this is why I have trouble trusting priests.
Besides, shouldn't someone be raising hell right now about the church endorsing political candidates and challenging it's tax exempt status on those grounds? Oh wait--republicans don't usually use that tactic.
Of course, in other fronts there are reasons to not have a lot of trust in our shepards as well. Sandro Magister has recently published research that links the growth of contraception among Catholics with clerical silence, especially of priests, on the subject. Like, they don't preach the doctrine, and people go ahead with it, thinking that it's been essentially superseded. This is a mortal sin--by their silence, priests are allowing people to fall into a practice that can lead them to hell--for eternity. I have only heard one homily that mentioned contraception in my life. It was from a deacon who was told not to do that again, because it hurt the collection plate. No amount of money in the collection plate is worth even one soul in Hell. I'm supposed to trust men with values that skewed?
Then again, you get things like Father Thomas McQuaid, who is ripping into his Cardinal Archbishop in Chicago for nominating me to the honor of Monsignor. he says it's silly, and is alleging that it costs thousands of dollars per man to have the honor bestowed. (Actually, it's about $150 bucks a piece, to cover the cost of calligraphy and paper work!). Fr. McQuaid is quick to try and link this to the sexual scandals, etc, and to try to use it to sew division in the diocesan priesthood of Chicago. I think it's basically that he and his fellow rebels didn't get the honors, so he's going to whine like snubbed SoHo.
And, if he wants to mention the moral failings of the sexual scandals, why didn't other priests report the criminals to the police? They could do that with the anonymity offered to any citizens who report crimes, but they didn't. Seeing as how Fr. McQuaid has been in the Archdiocese of Chicago longer than the Cardinal, it seems to me that the guilt for what went on their is more on him, for his silence, than on the Cardinal.
Stuff like this is why I have trouble trusting priests.
Just another brief round up--because the 'net is being awful today!
Of Course Pro Aborts Favor Murder: Feminist groups working for the legalization throughout Mexico lept to the defense of Six women who were in prison. The group Los Libres said they were in gaol for having abortions, but managed to get themselves disregarded by about everyone when it came to light that these women were in gaol for infanticide--they had murdered their already born children. So these evil women went a lobbying, and managed to get the penalty for murdering your baby reduced from 35 years to 3 in the Mexican State of Guanajuato. They are trying to get the practice of killing infants up to several hours after birth decriminalized. Local women's groups and advocates in Yucatan say their efforts won't find "resonance" with other organizations in the region. But they're trying.
Father Z at What Does The Prayer Really Say got something good from Father Finigan about the outgoing ICEL translation. He quotes it, and I'm going to quote it:
old ICEL: "He took the cup"
new ICEL: "He took this precious chalice in his holy and venerable hands"
LATIN: "accipens et hunc praeclarum calicem in sactas ac venerabilis manus suas"
So if Elizabeth reads this, she can comment on the Latin vs English.
BTW--Fr Z says that the problem wasn't that the ICEL translators didn't know Latin it's that they knew the content and didn't like it. Check it out at www.wdtprs.com/2010/09/what-was-wrong-with-the-old-icel-translation/ . Good stuff, as always.
Ave Maria University: A religious sister at Ave Maria University was removed for having a sexual relations with a female student. I wasn't going to blog about this except somethings came up in it that need mentioned. The group of sisters involved have the canonical status of a "private association of the faithful"--they are not a religious congregation of diocesan or pontifical right. They are not completely approved. They were not in the Diocese of Venice Fl with the Bishops permission and at his invitation, which is how it's supposed to go. The University is not technically even a Catholic School, being unapproved by the bishop. The priests associated with this group are still on campus, in an irregular status.
Folks, it doesn't matter how Orthodox you profess yourself to be, the Patristic writers agree--where the bishop is there the church is. This stinks like a three day skunk on pavement, and I can only think that Ave Maria is an example of a conservative Catholic going wrong and setting up a rival organization, in the guise of a school.
Father Z at What Does The Prayer Really Say got something good from Father Finigan about the outgoing ICEL translation. He quotes it, and I'm going to quote it:
old ICEL: "He took the cup"
new ICEL: "He took this precious chalice in his holy and venerable hands"
LATIN: "accipens et hunc praeclarum calicem in sactas ac venerabilis manus suas"
So if Elizabeth reads this, she can comment on the Latin vs English.
BTW--Fr Z says that the problem wasn't that the ICEL translators didn't know Latin it's that they knew the content and didn't like it. Check it out at www.wdtprs.com/2010/09/what-was-wrong-with-the-old-icel-translation/ . Good stuff, as always.
Ave Maria University: A religious sister at Ave Maria University was removed for having a sexual relations with a female student. I wasn't going to blog about this except somethings came up in it that need mentioned. The group of sisters involved have the canonical status of a "private association of the faithful"--they are not a religious congregation of diocesan or pontifical right. They are not completely approved. They were not in the Diocese of Venice Fl with the Bishops permission and at his invitation, which is how it's supposed to go. The University is not technically even a Catholic School, being unapproved by the bishop. The priests associated with this group are still on campus, in an irregular status.
Folks, it doesn't matter how Orthodox you profess yourself to be, the Patristic writers agree--where the bishop is there the church is. This stinks like a three day skunk on pavement, and I can only think that Ave Maria is an example of a conservative Catholic going wrong and setting up a rival organization, in the guise of a school.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Creation, Mechanics, Quanta, Gravity, Evolution, Chaos, Fact, Theory and Beer
"Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy"--Ben Franklin
I've started this post with the quote from Ben Franklin for three reasons. The first is that it illustrates a principle that is embedded in Catholic thought, that it is possible to draw inferences about God from his works. The second reason is that I like Ben Franklin. The third reason is that I like beer.
To start this discussion--or at least I hope people will comment enough for it to become a discussion--I would like to say this: Credo in unam Deum, Patrem Onmipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, vivibiliumm omnium et invisibilium. That's right, I believe that God our Almighty Father created heaven and earth and everything in them. Even those things that are invisible--like the forces of physics, like subatomic particles and those things that are visible, like mountains, planets, stars and planarians. And I believe that some of the the very best evidence for the existence of God comes through the natural world, his handiwork. that being stipulated, let's get on with it.
You have Mechanics,, classical Newtonian Physics that describe and predict motion, heat, and light, in detail and with precision. You have Quantum Theory that describes a subatomic universe so bizarre it gave Einstein the willies, yet produces concrete engineering results like the Laser. And you have not one, but competing Theories of Gravity.
And that's the difference between fact and theory. Facts are what you observe, and theory is what you come up with to explain it. If a theory is validated enough times, with no inexplicable exceptions, it becomes a law, like Newtons three laws of motion. Gravity is a demonstrated fact. We can describe and in many instances predict in great detail what it will do (except for the notorious three body problem!) but how it does it is a different matter. There is no consensus on how gravity works. We can speak in the same sentence about the Law of Gravity and the Theory of Gravity.
Evolution is a lot like that. We have lots of empirical evidence, from serology and DNA analysis, to comparative morphology and embryology, to the fossil record. (I know that right now, somebody--maybe even somebody reading this--is thinking that he fossil record is some form of deception. They have another think coming. For the fossil record to be deceptive one of two conditions must exist. Either God placed the fossils at the moment of Creation to make a "false trail" for human reason, or Satan made them to mislead humanity. In the first instance, that would mean that God is a liar, and God not only does not lie, he is Truth itself. In the second instance, while Satan is a liar, and the Father of Lies, he does not hold the power of creation. He is a fallen angel, a being of the angelic order, without the ability to create anything, and to assert that he can create things is to fall directly into the Manichean Heresy.)
But the Theory of Evolution is unsatisfying, in many ways. For instance, we have about 98% congruence between humans and chimp DNA. That 2% difference doesn't seem very large, unless you convert it into the number of base pairs that have to be modified through mutation to get there. That is a very, very large number. (I looked it up, and didn't write it down, and forgot it!) The problem is that for every advantageous or neutral mutation that occurs a very many disadvantageous or lethal mutations must occur--advantageous mutations are rare. There just doesn't seem to be enough time for all this to occur in the period stipulated for human chimp divergence.
That's one of the problems with the current Theory of Evolution. It says that mutations occur at a fairly consistent rate, and dates things using that rate. But that doesn't account for some observed facts. Notable among them is the Precambrian explosion. At about the beginning of the Cambrian Geological Epoch, a plethora of new species arose in a seeming eye blink. All the modern body plans found in biology were present, as well as a large number of body plans that are long gone. But this occurred in a very short period of time. The steady rate of mutation and the random nature of evolution stipulated in current theory doesn't account for it. Another thing not well explained, or even convincingly argued about in the theory is Human Evolution. simply put we evolved, physically, faster than the theory allows. In fact, in the 70s, I was taught in my anthropology classes that we were the fastest evolving species on the planet, and in biology classes in the 90s. The theory does not adequately explain the observed facts.
For that matter, the early hominids, Australopithecus, et al, had a very steady, gradualist evolution, them BAM, all of a sudden you get Homo Erectus, with very little theoretical explanation of how.
But for me this is no real problem. As Ben Franklin's quote points out, we can learn about God from his handiwork. And I think we can learn about his handiwork from God. Or at least, from thinking about God. The Universe, as we find it, becomes a little more weird each year, as we discover more and more things we don't understand. Everything from Astronomy to Material Science is constantly challenged by the Cosmos.
But we still see order in it. In fact Chaos Theory says that even in the most mixed up, unpredictable systems there is an underling order. This order, and the principles of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, etc. point to God, because the universe is created. It reflects the order and beauty of it's creator. Even those things which appear to use to be chaotic have an underlying order. Even those things that seem fearsome and devastatingly powerful contribute to the whole. There are things we will always find baffling; the order, interplay and mystery of the natural order is decreed by God, it is a reflection of his own interior life. We will never understand all of it, after all, what parent tells, or can tell, all of their mind two a toddler?
This lies at the root of my understanding of Evolution. I will not postulate that there is evidence for "intelligent design". I am well enough trained in neither science nor philosophy to do so. And I don't think it's important. Instead, I will postulate something quite different: the Idea of Inevitability. The idea that God meant to create us, and created a universe so profoundly a reflection of his will, that human evolution became inevitable. The Physical Universe was created to be a place for us, and we arose despite the astronomical odds of us coming into being. Not because we exist because in a Universe that is for practical matter infinite, and we would sooner or later emerge, like the famous Shakespearean Monkey, but because our evolution is simply the expression of the will of God. Nature could no more not have brought us forth than I can give birth to a platypus.
(OK, OK--but if I'm discussing evolution I'm going to mention platypi, if for no other reason than I think they're cool!)
I've started this post with the quote from Ben Franklin for three reasons. The first is that it illustrates a principle that is embedded in Catholic thought, that it is possible to draw inferences about God from his works. The second reason is that I like Ben Franklin. The third reason is that I like beer.
To start this discussion--or at least I hope people will comment enough for it to become a discussion--I would like to say this: Credo in unam Deum, Patrem Onmipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, vivibiliumm omnium et invisibilium. That's right, I believe that God our Almighty Father created heaven and earth and everything in them. Even those things that are invisible--like the forces of physics, like subatomic particles and those things that are visible, like mountains, planets, stars and planarians. And I believe that some of the the very best evidence for the existence of God comes through the natural world, his handiwork. that being stipulated, let's get on with it.
You have Mechanics,, classical Newtonian Physics that describe and predict motion, heat, and light, in detail and with precision. You have Quantum Theory that describes a subatomic universe so bizarre it gave Einstein the willies, yet produces concrete engineering results like the Laser. And you have not one, but competing Theories of Gravity.
And that's the difference between fact and theory. Facts are what you observe, and theory is what you come up with to explain it. If a theory is validated enough times, with no inexplicable exceptions, it becomes a law, like Newtons three laws of motion. Gravity is a demonstrated fact. We can describe and in many instances predict in great detail what it will do (except for the notorious three body problem!) but how it does it is a different matter. There is no consensus on how gravity works. We can speak in the same sentence about the Law of Gravity and the Theory of Gravity.
Evolution is a lot like that. We have lots of empirical evidence, from serology and DNA analysis, to comparative morphology and embryology, to the fossil record. (I know that right now, somebody--maybe even somebody reading this--is thinking that he fossil record is some form of deception. They have another think coming. For the fossil record to be deceptive one of two conditions must exist. Either God placed the fossils at the moment of Creation to make a "false trail" for human reason, or Satan made them to mislead humanity. In the first instance, that would mean that God is a liar, and God not only does not lie, he is Truth itself. In the second instance, while Satan is a liar, and the Father of Lies, he does not hold the power of creation. He is a fallen angel, a being of the angelic order, without the ability to create anything, and to assert that he can create things is to fall directly into the Manichean Heresy.)
But the Theory of Evolution is unsatisfying, in many ways. For instance, we have about 98% congruence between humans and chimp DNA. That 2% difference doesn't seem very large, unless you convert it into the number of base pairs that have to be modified through mutation to get there. That is a very, very large number. (I looked it up, and didn't write it down, and forgot it!) The problem is that for every advantageous or neutral mutation that occurs a very many disadvantageous or lethal mutations must occur--advantageous mutations are rare. There just doesn't seem to be enough time for all this to occur in the period stipulated for human chimp divergence.
That's one of the problems with the current Theory of Evolution. It says that mutations occur at a fairly consistent rate, and dates things using that rate. But that doesn't account for some observed facts. Notable among them is the Precambrian explosion. At about the beginning of the Cambrian Geological Epoch, a plethora of new species arose in a seeming eye blink. All the modern body plans found in biology were present, as well as a large number of body plans that are long gone. But this occurred in a very short period of time. The steady rate of mutation and the random nature of evolution stipulated in current theory doesn't account for it. Another thing not well explained, or even convincingly argued about in the theory is Human Evolution. simply put we evolved, physically, faster than the theory allows. In fact, in the 70s, I was taught in my anthropology classes that we were the fastest evolving species on the planet, and in biology classes in the 90s. The theory does not adequately explain the observed facts.
For that matter, the early hominids, Australopithecus, et al, had a very steady, gradualist evolution, them BAM, all of a sudden you get Homo Erectus, with very little theoretical explanation of how.
But for me this is no real problem. As Ben Franklin's quote points out, we can learn about God from his handiwork. And I think we can learn about his handiwork from God. Or at least, from thinking about God. The Universe, as we find it, becomes a little more weird each year, as we discover more and more things we don't understand. Everything from Astronomy to Material Science is constantly challenged by the Cosmos.
But we still see order in it. In fact Chaos Theory says that even in the most mixed up, unpredictable systems there is an underling order. This order, and the principles of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, etc. point to God, because the universe is created. It reflects the order and beauty of it's creator. Even those things which appear to use to be chaotic have an underlying order. Even those things that seem fearsome and devastatingly powerful contribute to the whole. There are things we will always find baffling; the order, interplay and mystery of the natural order is decreed by God, it is a reflection of his own interior life. We will never understand all of it, after all, what parent tells, or can tell, all of their mind two a toddler?
This lies at the root of my understanding of Evolution. I will not postulate that there is evidence for "intelligent design". I am well enough trained in neither science nor philosophy to do so. And I don't think it's important. Instead, I will postulate something quite different: the Idea of Inevitability. The idea that God meant to create us, and created a universe so profoundly a reflection of his will, that human evolution became inevitable. The Physical Universe was created to be a place for us, and we arose despite the astronomical odds of us coming into being. Not because we exist because in a Universe that is for practical matter infinite, and we would sooner or later emerge, like the famous Shakespearean Monkey, but because our evolution is simply the expression of the will of God. Nature could no more not have brought us forth than I can give birth to a platypus.
(OK, OK--but if I'm discussing evolution I'm going to mention platypi, if for no other reason than I think they're cool!)
Round 'em UP, and Move 'em out
Why One Should Disregard the Political Mutterings of Hollywood: It seems that the paragon of thespian ability, Rose McGowan has become disenchanted with our President, because he is so "moderate" that he hasn't made Gay Marriage "the National Law". Ummm...so she doesn't understand that making Law isn't part of the powers of the president?
A Tale of Two Schools: Scott Pilarz, SJ, is slated to be the next president of Marquette University. Currently he is president of Scranton University. At Scranton he implemented at GBLT inclusion program, on the idea that you had to have one or you couldn't be Christian.
Meanwhile, St Edwards University has told various non-profit GLBT advocacy groups that they will not be allowed to participate in their non-profit internship fair, because their activities and reason for being contradict the Universities Catholic Identity.
It's time to suppress the Jesuits, again.
Gee, It Sure Seems Like Vocations Are Starting to Take Off: Wichita has more priests under the age of 47 than over, a a good crop of seminarians as well. It's getting to be that way all over, except in dissenterville spots. Go check this article out: www.ncregister.com/blog/the-coming-vocation-explosion/ .
England Channel Four Does a Hatchet Job on His Holiness: This is news?
Abortion Violence and Collusion in Europe: In Austria, an Abortionist named Christian Fiala has hired people to harass anti-abortion protesters. The harassment has been video taped, and includes stealing their wallets and personal items, sexually groping them, dry humping them and various types of physical contact that is usually sexualized. The Pro-lifers have filed charges, and the local Law Enforcement community has simply refused to investigate or protect them. So they have filed a lawsuit with the High Court, asking for equal legal protection. The local prosecutors office has attempted to block them from doing so.
It's True!: I love my family, and give thanks for them. Even when they, or I, am being difficult. And that means all of my family--the whole extended bunch, to include those we just decided were family and drafted. Even the progressive members in Florida and Wisconsin!
Well, I"m not all that fond of the cat.
National Debt: President Obama has increased, in the 19 months he's been in office, the US national debt to 2.5260 Trillion Dollars. That's more than the national debt accrued under the administrations from Washington through Reagan, combined.
Nice going, Barry.
A Tale of Two Schools: Scott Pilarz, SJ, is slated to be the next president of Marquette University. Currently he is president of Scranton University. At Scranton he implemented at GBLT inclusion program, on the idea that you had to have one or you couldn't be Christian.
Meanwhile, St Edwards University has told various non-profit GLBT advocacy groups that they will not be allowed to participate in their non-profit internship fair, because their activities and reason for being contradict the Universities Catholic Identity.
It's time to suppress the Jesuits, again.
Gee, It Sure Seems Like Vocations Are Starting to Take Off: Wichita has more priests under the age of 47 than over, a a good crop of seminarians as well. It's getting to be that way all over, except in dissenterville spots. Go check this article out: www.ncregister.com/blog/the-coming-vocation-explosion/ .
England Channel Four Does a Hatchet Job on His Holiness: This is news?
Abortion Violence and Collusion in Europe: In Austria, an Abortionist named Christian Fiala has hired people to harass anti-abortion protesters. The harassment has been video taped, and includes stealing their wallets and personal items, sexually groping them, dry humping them and various types of physical contact that is usually sexualized. The Pro-lifers have filed charges, and the local Law Enforcement community has simply refused to investigate or protect them. So they have filed a lawsuit with the High Court, asking for equal legal protection. The local prosecutors office has attempted to block them from doing so.
It's True!: I love my family, and give thanks for them. Even when they, or I, am being difficult. And that means all of my family--the whole extended bunch, to include those we just decided were family and drafted. Even the progressive members in Florida and Wisconsin!
Well, I"m not all that fond of the cat.
National Debt: President Obama has increased, in the 19 months he's been in office, the US national debt to 2.5260 Trillion Dollars. That's more than the national debt accrued under the administrations from Washington through Reagan, combined.
Nice going, Barry.
"Boarding Party Away!"
For the first time since 1944, american naval forces--in this case marines stationed aboard ship--have boarded and siezed a ship under hostile control. The ship was the Magellan Star, a German owned comercial vessel that had been taken by pirates.
The last time our naval services siezed a hostil vessel was in 1944, when a boarding party lead by David Gellery (who later became a Rear Admiral) siezed, of all things, a German submarine. The U-505 was taken by boarders in the North Atlantic, and is now on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chigaco, IL. The Last time before that was during the war of 1812.
Maybe we should issue our Sailors and Sea School Marines Cutlasses, for traditions sake. Besides, whenever something is declared to be a thing of the past in Naval and Ground Warfare, it seems to make a comeback!
The last time our naval services siezed a hostil vessel was in 1944, when a boarding party lead by David Gellery (who later became a Rear Admiral) siezed, of all things, a German submarine. The U-505 was taken by boarders in the North Atlantic, and is now on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chigaco, IL. The Last time before that was during the war of 1812.
Maybe we should issue our Sailors and Sea School Marines Cutlasses, for traditions sake. Besides, whenever something is declared to be a thing of the past in Naval and Ground Warfare, it seems to make a comeback!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
9-11, and "International Burn a Koran Day"
I have been straight up, and admitted that my antipathy to Islam amounts to religious bigotry. I honestly feel that although one can twist scripture and Christian Teaching to support some evil things, one has first to twist them! Yet one does not have to twist the Koran to justify the things we've been seeing, from Islamic slave raids in Darfur (reported as "sectarian strife"), to the murders of Christian School girls in Indonesia. It's considered a duty of governments in Islamic countries to impose a special tax on non-Islamic people, and to truncate their civil rights under the code of Dhimmitude. I dislike Islam, the social order it promotes and encodes, and it's tendency to brutality and political oppression. I wish there was no Islamic presence in the US or Europe. Or anywhere else for that matter. That's pretty much got to fall under the rule of religious bigotry.
But there are Muslims in the US, and I am an American, so I cannot condone or countenance religious oppression of these people, as much as I would like too. (You know, Catholicism, for me, seems to have a lot to do with not doing things I would like to, on moral grounds. Repenting, that is, turning away from my sinful acts and trying to turn away from my sinful inclinations!)
The fringe Church that has decided to publicly burn the Koran on the Eleventh of September is Wrong. Very, Very Wrong. I'm not going to talk about practicalities and political expediency. I'm talking about right and wrong.
I don't believe in Mormonism, either. But I wouldn't dream of burning the Book of Mormon. Nor would I burn the Lotus Sutra beloved of Nicherin Soshu Buddhism.
I wouldn't burn the Bagavad Gita, either.
We can and should expend great efforts to convert others, to evangelize them. But at seventh and last, according to both American Political Values, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, people have a right to their interior forum, and to believe as they wish concerning religion.
We just can't condone this. It's wrong.
But there are Muslims in the US, and I am an American, so I cannot condone or countenance religious oppression of these people, as much as I would like too. (You know, Catholicism, for me, seems to have a lot to do with not doing things I would like to, on moral grounds. Repenting, that is, turning away from my sinful acts and trying to turn away from my sinful inclinations!)
The fringe Church that has decided to publicly burn the Koran on the Eleventh of September is Wrong. Very, Very Wrong. I'm not going to talk about practicalities and political expediency. I'm talking about right and wrong.
I don't believe in Mormonism, either. But I wouldn't dream of burning the Book of Mormon. Nor would I burn the Lotus Sutra beloved of Nicherin Soshu Buddhism.
I wouldn't burn the Bagavad Gita, either.
We can and should expend great efforts to convert others, to evangelize them. But at seventh and last, according to both American Political Values, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, people have a right to their interior forum, and to believe as they wish concerning religion.
We just can't condone this. It's wrong.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Just Stuff!
Well, the Vatican has put it's foot down, and so doing has delivered a firm and judicious slap to the Bishops of the UK. It seems that their attempts to inflict crappy music on the Papal Masses for His Holinesses upcoming visit was kibboshed, and that they have been told, in no uncertain terms, that Latin will be the language for the masses, especially for the Canon of the Mass. Heh.
ABC news has resurrected the figure that 25% of all women going to college will be raped or sexually assaulted before they graduate. I hate it when this figure is published, not because I wish to lower peoples awareness of rape, but because this figure actually does that! What doesn't get published, or talked about in those sections of the American press that cover this issue every fall is this: That 20% of males, when the same survey types of questions, report that they have been raped or sexually assaulted. The problem with this number is that it then leads some people to question whether they have been raped, or whether they can support claims of rape. We need to depoliticise this issue, so that actual rapists can be hung.
A priest at St. Vincent's college is suing the School, and the Diocese. he was accused of having "kiddie porn" on his computer, but the computer in question was in a common area and someone else actually admitted to looking at kiddie porn on it. Then he was accused of being drunk on a senior field trip. But no one on the trip would say he was drunk, and a good many said he wasn't. Then his bishop tried to pressure him into applying for laicization. So on and so forth. Basically, he had criticised the Administrator of the School. Being a tenured professor left the administration with no conventional way to remove him. It looks like he has his ducks in a row, and this makes everyone involved look bad, especially the Bishop. BTW--the local law enforcement people refused to file any charges, saying they had proved he hadn't done anything illegal.
WAY TO GO FATHER! One of the reasons many Catholics who hold orthodox beliefs about the Blessed Sacrament are wishing for the indult allowing Communion in the hand to be withdrawn (It's not the normal way of receiving in the Roman Rite--it was a special permission given to sanate a widespread abuse, rather than simply suspend a few priests who engaged in it to encourage the others--Voltaire was right about that sort of thing, you know!) is the epidemic of deliberate and negligent instances of Eucharistic Desecration. In Valencia Spain, a young man received the Sacred Host, then deliberately dropped it on the floor (why people who don't believe insist on doing these things I don't know, unless it's the influence of the Demonic). The priest gave a bit of Catechal Guidance and Pastoral Encouragement to the lad: He slapped him upside the head, dragged him to the door of the Church and tossed him out, calling him a blasphemer. Now that's Eucharistic Catechesis I can envy!
ABC news has resurrected the figure that 25% of all women going to college will be raped or sexually assaulted before they graduate. I hate it when this figure is published, not because I wish to lower peoples awareness of rape, but because this figure actually does that! What doesn't get published, or talked about in those sections of the American press that cover this issue every fall is this: That 20% of males, when the same survey types of questions, report that they have been raped or sexually assaulted. The problem with this number is that it then leads some people to question whether they have been raped, or whether they can support claims of rape. We need to depoliticise this issue, so that actual rapists can be hung.
A priest at St. Vincent's college is suing the School, and the Diocese. he was accused of having "kiddie porn" on his computer, but the computer in question was in a common area and someone else actually admitted to looking at kiddie porn on it. Then he was accused of being drunk on a senior field trip. But no one on the trip would say he was drunk, and a good many said he wasn't. Then his bishop tried to pressure him into applying for laicization. So on and so forth. Basically, he had criticised the Administrator of the School. Being a tenured professor left the administration with no conventional way to remove him. It looks like he has his ducks in a row, and this makes everyone involved look bad, especially the Bishop. BTW--the local law enforcement people refused to file any charges, saying they had proved he hadn't done anything illegal.
WAY TO GO FATHER! One of the reasons many Catholics who hold orthodox beliefs about the Blessed Sacrament are wishing for the indult allowing Communion in the hand to be withdrawn (It's not the normal way of receiving in the Roman Rite--it was a special permission given to sanate a widespread abuse, rather than simply suspend a few priests who engaged in it to encourage the others--Voltaire was right about that sort of thing, you know!) is the epidemic of deliberate and negligent instances of Eucharistic Desecration. In Valencia Spain, a young man received the Sacred Host, then deliberately dropped it on the floor (why people who don't believe insist on doing these things I don't know, unless it's the influence of the Demonic). The priest gave a bit of Catechal Guidance and Pastoral Encouragement to the lad: He slapped him upside the head, dragged him to the door of the Church and tossed him out, calling him a blasphemer. Now that's Eucharistic Catechesis I can envy!
Good Vocation News
Two Seminaries are reporting large upswings in enrollment.
Sacred Heart School of Theology, a seminary specializing in "deferred vocations" has enrolled forty new students this year.
St Paul Seminary has 33 new students this year.
Everyone seems mystified as to why there is a surge in vocations. Some people are even postulating that it's the economy--priests have job security, or the uncertainty has led men to consider their lives--but I think that the answer is very simple, and very threatening to the modernists who have tried very hard to get a lock on the formation of priest in their country. Quite simply, the election of Benedict XVI has assured men who are Catholic in their faith, who adhere to the orthodox teachings of the Church that there is in fact a place for them. Moreover, the Apostolic Visitation of the Seminaries has reassured many men that their persons and personalities will be safeguarded against homosexuals and a homosexualist agenda.
It's easy to check this: just look at the traditional Diocese that didn't allow a modernist takeover of their vocation process and priestly formation. Lincoln Nebraska and Arlington Virginia haven't had a problem with a vocation shortage, and have emerged well from the scandals accruing to a priesthood filled with sodomites.
Sacred Heart School of Theology, a seminary specializing in "deferred vocations" has enrolled forty new students this year.
St Paul Seminary has 33 new students this year.
Everyone seems mystified as to why there is a surge in vocations. Some people are even postulating that it's the economy--priests have job security, or the uncertainty has led men to consider their lives--but I think that the answer is very simple, and very threatening to the modernists who have tried very hard to get a lock on the formation of priest in their country. Quite simply, the election of Benedict XVI has assured men who are Catholic in their faith, who adhere to the orthodox teachings of the Church that there is in fact a place for them. Moreover, the Apostolic Visitation of the Seminaries has reassured many men that their persons and personalities will be safeguarded against homosexuals and a homosexualist agenda.
It's easy to check this: just look at the traditional Diocese that didn't allow a modernist takeover of their vocation process and priestly formation. Lincoln Nebraska and Arlington Virginia haven't had a problem with a vocation shortage, and have emerged well from the scandals accruing to a priesthood filled with sodomites.
Well, Yes, I Do Believe Pro-Aborts are Prone to Violence
I was discussing the post below about abortion violence and the documented incidents, exceeding 8,500, of abortion against pro-lifers and women who refuse to have thier children murdered in utero.
She had no problem believing it, as she is active in the local prolife movement.
Around here, the local press tries very hard to keep the pro-life movement invisible. The Courier-Journal, which can report on fifty people protesting in favor of whatever progressive cause they are infavour of manages, every year, to miss reporting on a march of between two and three thousand people, down town, for life.
The Leo, which has run two page full photos of a 15 person demonstration for palistinian rights and the justice of bombing Israeli farmers, periodicly refers to the "rowdy" and "unruley" pro lifers at the local abortion mill.
But observation shows a different picture--the brave women and men down there are not unruly or rowdy. The pro-aborts on the other hand are.
This weekend, my friend--and I am not going to give her name because I am unsure of what that would do to her employment situation--say pro abortion women giving the pro-lifers the shoulder. You know, the shoulder, where you use your shoulder to shove someone, then accuse them of shoving or pushing you. I've seen girls use that in Jr. High Scholl to try to provoke fights, and I've seen white trash women who haven't grown up use it to try to start a fight in bars.
So now that's happening down at the local "womens clinic", which just coincidently put up video cameras.
BTW--that same clinic was caught not reporting insences of statutory rape.
So, I really don't think the media fiction of "violent pro-lifers haold up to a sober examiniation, when you add up all the violence and attempts a censorship and interference with free speech.
She had no problem believing it, as she is active in the local prolife movement.
Around here, the local press tries very hard to keep the pro-life movement invisible. The Courier-Journal, which can report on fifty people protesting in favor of whatever progressive cause they are infavour of manages, every year, to miss reporting on a march of between two and three thousand people, down town, for life.
The Leo, which has run two page full photos of a 15 person demonstration for palistinian rights and the justice of bombing Israeli farmers, periodicly refers to the "rowdy" and "unruley" pro lifers at the local abortion mill.
But observation shows a different picture--the brave women and men down there are not unruly or rowdy. The pro-aborts on the other hand are.
This weekend, my friend--and I am not going to give her name because I am unsure of what that would do to her employment situation--say pro abortion women giving the pro-lifers the shoulder. You know, the shoulder, where you use your shoulder to shove someone, then accuse them of shoving or pushing you. I've seen girls use that in Jr. High Scholl to try to provoke fights, and I've seen white trash women who haven't grown up use it to try to start a fight in bars.
So now that's happening down at the local "womens clinic", which just coincidently put up video cameras.
BTW--that same clinic was caught not reporting insences of statutory rape.
So, I really don't think the media fiction of "violent pro-lifers haold up to a sober examiniation, when you add up all the violence and attempts a censorship and interference with free speech.
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