Dinner for the Solemnity

Daughter #2 made roast pork loin with herbs, potato and parsnips, baked in cream sauce with cheese and creamed peas.  Very Very Good.

For Epiphany, Daughter #3 is doing a Formal High Tea--suitable for receiving distinguished guests.

Despite the stresses of a Church riven by heresy and a trend towards schism, being Catholic has it's fun side1

The Somenity of Mary, Mother of God

As this is normally a Holy Day of Obligation, I thought that I would write a little about it.

Some people have a problem with the title  "Mother of God".  That's nothing new--people had a problem with it in the past as well.  They were the Nestorians, who rejected the idea that Mary was the Mother of God the Son.  This idea was denounced at Ecumenical Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. Nestorianism is an Heresy, and one that led to a schism in the Church.  That implies that people who reject the title Mother of God are heretics as well, and this test has been used in Canonical Trials for heresy.

Mother of God is the English translations of the phrase "Mater Dei", which is how the Western Fathers chose to translate "Theotokos"--the Greek for God Bearer.  This is the key to this feast.

This is a profoundly Christological feast!  In celebrating Mary as the Mother of God, we assert our faith in scripture, for it says in Isaiah "...and he shall be called Emmanuel, God is with us."  This feast is established to underscore, and to teach, the truth that "The Word was mad flesh, and dwelt among us".  It is an affirmation of the Divinity of Jesus.

People have had problems with this since the beginning of the Church.  The Monophysites couldn't get their minds around the idea of God being truly incarnate--of his taking a Human nature unto himself.  They denied his Human Nature.  The Arians couldn't get their minds around it either--They denied his Divine Nature, and stipulated that Jesus was some sort of Demi-God, or Hero that ascended to Divinity, much like some of the Classical and Germanic mythical heroes.

But the Orthodox Christian Teaching, affirmed by both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, received from the Apostles and affirmed by the Patristic Authors, and defined by the early Ecumenical Councils is that Jesus Christ was fully Divine, and fully Human, possessed of two natures, not admixed, and expressed in one hypostasis, or being--in one person.  I might even be tempted to use the highly inaccurate term manifestation, but he wasn't a manifestation, he was a person, an incarnate being, without internal contradiction yet having both a fully human nature and a fully divine nature. Not two persons.  Not a mixture of traits.  But an incarnate mystery, God With Us.

So we keep this great feast, because it reminds us of the boundless love that would lead our creator to take our limited nature to reconcile all things to himself.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death!

Notes From the Battle Ground--Abortion Front

It's not very often that I accumulate good news in the Abortion War, a war that is waged against the weakest and most vulnerable in a demonic attempt to destroy the family.*  But today is a bit different, and I've gotten some positive things.

A few days ago I mentioned that selective abortion of twins--killing one only--was on the rise.  Well, In Canada a 'selective reduction' abortion was publicised by a newspaper article meant to be supportive of the procedure.  And the result wasn't as expected.  Instead of gentle understanding and supportive solidarity, the reaction was outrage.  Outrage from members of the nursing profession.  Outrage from pro-lifers.  outrage from every quarter.  Most of all, outrage from twins, who could imagine this procedure stealing their sibling from them, or being used to murder them.  The net effect has been an increase in the size of the Pro-Life movement in Canada.  Now, if we can get singletons to see that they too are having siblings murdered and stolen from them, we can get somewhere.

At the same time, Archbishop Niederauer is begging to deal with Catholic Health Care West.  I don't know what the end result will be--it took seven years for Bishop Olmsted to give up on St. Joseph's, and I do not expect fast action.  Unless there is some behind the scenes canonical action that we don't know about. (For instance, another bishop declaring one of their hospitals to be non-catholic, or deciding that the system is non-catholic and declaring it to be so within his diocese!) But action is occurring to correct this horrible miscarriage of the definition of Catholic Health Care.

And in a very unexpected development, MTV has provided ammunition to the pro-life movement with their documentary No Easy Decision.  This shows one of the girls who was featured in their program 16 and Pregnant getting an abortion.  Oddly enough, it aired on the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  This show brought out a couple of things--the mental anguish caused by the decision to kill the unborn child, whom the mother clerly recognized as a child.  (She commented that she loved "this baby") and the false information provided to her by the abortion clinic.  It pointed up that the decision was driven by economics, and clearly demonstrated that she wasn't informed about assistance available to her from crisis pregnancy centers.  It also showed her being given false medical and biological information.  Dr. Alveda King, a mighty pro-life warrior, pointed that out, and pointed out that that was the same false information she had been given years ago.

So for new years day, news of tactical advantage in the Battle.

*I hope tomorrow to relate something I read by Scott Hahn about family life and the Holy Trinity, which helped figure out why the Family is under attack by Satan and his minions.

Stupid Stuff of the Week

Just a list of things I noticed that struck me as those sorts of moments when you realize that everything isn't quite right with a lot of people!

OMG--We lost 60% of all plant species in 2010!:  No, not a mass extinction.  The Plant List, The authoritative list of all plant species has been revised according to modern Cladistics.  It seems that of all known plant species, 480,000 were simply species that had been identified and classified twice--leading to duplication.  There just aren't as many separate species as we thought.  Oops.

So Much for PETA Spokespersons: Dominique Swain managed to justify her penchant for exhibitionism by stripping down for PETA.  So in her concern for animal welfare she didn't have her dog spayed, and in her great and sensitive maturity in these matters, she couldn't cope with a litter of puppies.  Which she dumped at a Malibu animal shelter, un-vaccinated and never seen by a vet.  She also declined to make a donation to the shelter to pay for the puppies vaccinations.  So much for the concern and responsibility PETA Spokes Persons.

A Priest is Suing Mt. Angel Abbey:  For alleged abuse in the 1970s.  among the damages and suffering he is saying he needs compensated for is the loss of his faith.  His attorney describes him as a man of "great integrity".  Hmmmm-if he has lost his faith, and is still a priest, where's the integrity?

Cardinal O'Malley Apologized:  The Cardinal Archbishop of Boston apologized for remarks made by a priest from the pulpit accusing men who have complained of sexual abuse by the former pastor of the Church he served in cowards.  Way to prove to the faithful that there is no old boy network that enabled clerical abuse in the epicenter of the Sexual Abuse Scandal in the US.  Supposedly Mons. Kempa has taken responsibility for his remarks.  I'd rather he be removed from his pastorate and given a job pursuing the cause of medieval saints from the Boston Area.

Europe Once Again Proves It's Contempt:  79 Countries from the African. Caribbean and Pacific Group of states have sent a letter to the EU protesting it's attempt to force it's agenda of accepting homosexuality on them by means of inserting language into the treaty governing an economic development pact between the ACP and the EU.  The EU tried to insert language to this end into the existing treaty, once again demonstrating that for all it's multicultural rhetoric it has no respect for the sensibilities and cultural values of developing nations.  The mask slipped in front of nations that have good reason to despise European Cultural imperialism as it is.  Nice way to waist your moral influence.

He Regrets That He Got Caught:  Rep Earl Blumenauer is regretting the 'language' in a memo urgeing regulators not to publicize the new regulations concerning 'end of life care counseling'.  What he regrets is getting caught supporting an attempt to circumvent congress and the will of the people on this issue.  After all, he is from Oregon, a very death positive--as in Euthanasia--state.  He regrets the Language.  Notice, he doesn't regret the act, and thinks saying he regrets the language will make us think it's all OK.  We're not as stupid as you think, Rep. Blumenauer, or as you apparently are.

The American Schutzstaffle

Why is Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano having a junket in Afghanistan and Iraq?  Those areas are not the homeland. 

I was surprised to learn that Homeland Security had personnel in these areas--they are not the Homeland.  I could see Coast Guard personnel being assigned there--in times of war the Coast Guard can function--by law--as part of the Department of the Navy.  And of course, in the Washington Game of Empire Building and Sudden Solutions the Coast Guard has been transferred around several times--from Department of the Treasury 9where they were involved because of Customs, and made their reputation as law enforcement during Prohibition) to the Department of Transportation (because of their mission to maintain the bouyage system, aids to navigation and Search ans Rescue/lifesaving.)  until their current place in the shuffle, Homeland Security.  But she wasn't seeing them.

I do not think that Ms. Napolitano is a Nazi..  There are lots of different kinds of Fascists besides Nazis.  I do think she is an empire builder, who seeks to expand the reach and power of her department for the sake of power itself.  And finding that she has personnel on the ground in the overseas war zones is disturbing.

More and more, Homeland Security seems to resemble the SS, in many ways.  I don't say that it is a racially motivated organization--it can be called a lot of things, but not that.  But "SS"  stands for 'Schutzstaffle", protective staff.  It started as a security detail.  Then it expanded into domestic intelligence gathering--the SS-SD--SD stood for Sicherheitsdienst, "Security Service".  Then it expanded into having troops on the ground, and people in war zones.  The parallels are spooky.  Essentially, a cabinet level post (de facto--not de jure) began accumulating personnel, authorized to bear arms for the State.  And it targeted people within the homeland for surveillance and eventually arrest for dissent.  As well as facilitation war crimes abroad.  (Yes, I think Napolitano would sanction such things if they expand her power--look at her pattern of ignoring the Constitution here at home for the sake of power!) 

Add in the amalgamation of police powers to homeland Security under the Patriot Act, and you have an un-holy hybrid that has the distinct potential to become the SS-SD and Gestapo in one office.  Ms. Napolitano's expansion into overseas operations is indicative of a power grab for powers sake, and at this point if the Terrorist threat from Islam went away, she would turn her power on the American People, with trumped up justifications, to maintain her power.

Seculars Seem To Not Understand The Episcopacy.

And that applies to secular minded and poorly instructed Catholics, as well.  people just do not seem to grasp the Vocation and Job of Bishops.

Part of this, in the us at least, stems from the mythical "Golden Age of American Catholicism", the 1940s and 50s. ( I refer to these a mythical, because they were in no way a golden age--under a veneer of consensus and obedience was a cancer that has nearly killed the Church in the US.  if you were to try to debate this with me i would refute you simply by pointing out that those who attempted to disassemble and re-found the Church in the late 60s and 70s, and formed the persons responsible for the evils of the 80s were formed in the 40s and 50s.  by their fruits you shall know them.)  At that time the image most associated with Bishops was not that of Pastor, Or of a man charged with the responsibility to Teach, Sanctify and Rule a given particular Church, but of a CEO of a corporate entity whose product was clergy and institutional adherence.  People associated the Church with a business model.

So now people expect Bishops to be able to say just about anything that will improve the "marketability" of Catholicism in the US--we had a period of that, that we are recovering from--and we have lost 30% of our people to irreligion and other religions, and somewhere between 40-60% of the ones who stayed don't actually believe in the Catholic Faith. 

The Catholic Church is an institution like no other.  It is the oldest Transnational Institution on Earth.  And it has been held together by the Holy Spirit.  One can not understand the Bishops without putting them in this context.  We need to remember that our image of the episcopacy is just one of the many forms it has taken over the centuries to deal with the practical problem of teaching, sanctifying and ruling the millions of Catholics world wide, many of whom have only the Catholic Faith as a common cultural bond.

Quite simply, the Bishops are the Successors to the Apostles.  They are charged with safeguarding and transmitting the Deposit of the Faith.  Nothing they do will make sense without this idea.  If an Individual Bishop fails in this, he places his soul in peril of damnation.  If he deliberately does something otherwise, he breaks his fellowship with God and the Church, and becomes a special kind problem.

Secular people have become estranged from the idea of absolute truth, and from the idea of immutable moral precepts.  This, coupled with an ignorance of what Bishops are supposed to be produces confusion, and even anger on their part when Bishops don't do what seems absolutely reasonable to secular people.

That's why get such interesting and laughable bits of confusion--laughable because a couple of hours of superficial study would clear up the confusion--as the column by Bridgette P. LaVictoire on the site LezGet Real in which she can't figure out why Abp Wuerl can't redefine marriage, and see that it was defined for property rights in the middle ages. (I'm not going on about her historical errors and Anti-catholic statements here--it would be a lengthy fisk in  and of itself!). The core of her objections is the acceptance of immutable truths and morals, and the idea that Abp. Wuerl can't change them.

This is also the root of the confusion evidenced in the Arizona Republic column by Michael Clancy, dated Dec 27.  In this column Mr. Clancy's bafflement about Bishop Olmsteds insistence on writing about things with references to Scripture and theology, and his unwillingness to address thing that are the purview of the laity and the Civil Powers is evident.  Mr. Clancy obviously doesn't understand that Bishop Olmsted is simply adhering to his vocation, not pandering to the ever shifting sands of popular opinion and political fashion.

I really thing that if secular people would make the effort to understand what Bishops are, and are supposed to be, it would improve the quality of dialog in the US.  I don't think it would lead to any more agreement, but it would lead to a reduction of vitriol on both sides, and perhaps the glimmerings of respect.  In short, what is needed is for people to apply the basics of "multiculturalism" and deal with the Church on it's own terms when discussing it, rather than viewing it as some sort of stick-in-the-mud old boys club.  They won't agree with the Church, but at least they might understand it, and the Bishops, better.

Aphorism

Personal actions are more effective than political actions---Mitch Smith, 1 Jan 2011

My Eldest Granddaughter--The Master Wombat--Insists That I Post This

She has informed me that I shall be painted pink, with purple polka dots, so I can be the worlds only Pink and Purple Polka Dot Poppo.

She also is of the opinion that for 2011, all girls should be painted with pink polka dots, and all boys be painted with purple polka dots, and their hair dyed pink and blue, respectively.

I disagree with all of this, but she has me so wrapped that I posted it anyway.  Not only that, but she conned me out of some of my summer sausage snack, too.

Don't Read This If You Don't Wan't Hear What I Say When I'm KIlling Mad

Isabelle Caro is dead.  She was murdered by the fashion industry.  I heard about this from Lola, over at "What Lola Really Wants, Really--a blog I often read.

I saw the video she linked to an interview of this young woman by Jessica Simpson--who has not succumbed to the starve yourself for the camera thing. The interview brought tears to Ms. Simpson's eyes.  And since Ms. Simpson isn't all that good of an actress, I think they were real.

It sickened me.  Ms. Caro looked like a concentration camp victim with make up on.  I Googled her.  She was still being used as model, and when you see the shots without huge amounts of make up and airbrushing you can tell she is dying.  I have seen the severely malnourished, and she was one of them.

What angered me the most was that she was told by agents and agencies that she needed to lose 20 kilos--that's 44 pounds--if she wanted to work in Fashion.  Whoever told her that killed her.  Just as if they had shot her in the gut and left her to rot in agony of peritonitis.  They killed her just a surely as a pimp who works his prostitutes until they die of aids.

The pimp analogy is sound--she died so that men--the fashion industry in the end is dominated by men who own companies--could make money off of her body.  The murdering bastards. How could a man do this?  The only explanation is that some men hate women, and hate beauty so much that they twists and exploit them both.  This is the product of hatred, pure and simple.


I have seen too much horror because of disaster, war, politics and hatred to tolerate this horror.  Right now, I could take whoever the evil bastard who convinced this once beautiful woman to starve herself to death into an ally and beat him to death, with a clear conscience.  These people will say how unfortunate, and find another victim to support their play in the multibillion dollar fashion industry.  There will be no accountability, no punishment to deter others.  Just another young woman ruined.

Fashion is violence and exploitation.  It sets up unreasonable expectations, and ever changing standards to keep selling unneeded  products.  It's advertising and mavens engender feelings of fear and inadequacy in women to extract their wealth.  It means that many women are afraid to go out in public without make up, without just the right clothes and shoes.  God forbid someone in the public eye should be unfashionable--they will be pilloried by the devotees of this false and hateful god.

Fashion is Evil with a capital "E".  We need to help women overcome it's tentacles in any way we can.  And the best way to do that is to raise our young men to respond to what women are, who they are, than the artificial allurements of fashion.

And I would gladly use violence against those who convince otherwise beautiful girls to starve themselves to death.  And should anyone try that crap with the girls under my care, I will.

My Obligatory New Years Eve Post.

2010--Good riddance!

God grant us the grace to do better in 2011.

I Wonder If This is a Good Idea

I received as a Christmas present the book Hail, Holy Queen, by Scott Hahn.  I would love to have someone to discuss the book with.  Actually, several someones. 

Mr. Hahn does a good job referencing Scripture in his books, and I can look things up in the Catechism, but I am entirely capable of reaching the wrong conclusion, or of erroneously interpreting what I read.  What I would like is a small group of people who want to read this book at the same time as me, and gather over coffee and cookies, or something, to discuss it.  Maybe even a group of men--so many things like this are dominated by women in our Church--not just our parish, but in the Church--that it can sometimes be difficult to pursue a masculine approach to devotion and belief.

I wonder if it would be a good idea to approach our pastor about putting a note in the bulletin, asking for Guys who are willing to be on the north side of the river (I live on the north side and transportation is hard for me!) one evening a week to read and discuss this book.

Of course, I would first have to discuss this with the Queen of the House, to see what she thinks of the idea.  She might go for it, just to get out of being my main sounding board when I'm thinking about what I read!

Hey! It Warmed UP!

It warmed up today to rain.  So, I've opened up the sun porch to air out the stale tobacco smoke--we're not allowed to smoke in the house! And now I will clear it off, and then vacuum the heat registers and then clean the bathroom and the kitchen.

I would go outside, and possibly go down to where Silver Creek joins the Ohio, and try for some sauger, but it's raining, and not warm enough to stand around in the rain.

I'm also wishing I could shoot inside the city limits--there are som fine, acorn fattened squirrels in the back yard oak, that just look mighty tastey, if one imagines them chicken fried with sage breading, biscuits and gravy on the side.

I'm ready for outdoor recreation, but it's not a good time of year hereabouts for it. 

Cabin Fever? Already?

The Gathering Storm Part III

Right now, there are advertisements claiming the Christmas is evil, and the source of everything from STDs to alcoholism.   These ads aren't in the US, but they are in Britain.  What's notable is that the hate speech and religious bigotry they contain isn't being called publicly.  It's OK to spout hate speech and bigotry in the UK--as long as it's anti Christian.  I haven't heard anything about this on the news, nor have I heard anything about the complaints raised by religious in the UK that these posters are arousing sectarian bigotry to the point that they are worried about arson and firebombs.

A couple of days ago I blogged about the fact that 95% of vandalism against religious space and cemeteries in France was anti christian, and the government was concentrating it's efforts on the anti Semitic and anti Islamic incidents, basically ignoring the anti christian incidents.

In Scandinavia, close to two hundred historic churches have been burned, by devotees of 'Black Metal" and various Neopagan groups, in acts out right hostility to Christianity.  But you don't hear much about it.  A fellow named Kalle Holm, a Finn set fire to the Porvoo Cathedral, being influenced by Varg Vikernes, a Norwegian Black Metal musician who is affiliated with the "Heathen Front" and who has written books on Germanic Neopaganism. ( He has also been convicted of murder and four counts of arson related to church burnings.)  The attorney prosecuting Mr. Holm attempted to enter his motivation--an intense hatred of Christianity--so that it could be tried as a hate crime.  The judge ruled that hating Christianity wasn't grounds for a hate crime. But you don't hear much about this, either.

An Islamic extremist  sent an audiotape in Washington, saying that Christmas Bells would be a signal for bombings and attacks on Christian Churches.  Hours later, churches were attacked in Africa and the Philippines.  I learned of these things in the Christian News sources on the 'Net, not from the MSM.

OK--Europe, Africa, Asia--what has this got to do with us?  Well--how about the eleven incidents of Arson in East Texas this year, in which a variety of churches of several denominations were torched.  When arrests were made, literature was found in the apartments of the suspects concerning Atheism and Demonology.  Did you hear about that on the News?  The accused are not being tried for hate crimes.  For that matter, the numbers of Church arson in the US is increasing, and unless it's a Church with a largely black congregation, these are not listed as hate crimes.  I read one where one federal investigator said it amounted to a war on the Church.  Then he was removed from the investigation.  BTW--these incidents of church arson are not limited to Black Churches, a very large proportion of them are churches with largely white congregations.  I think it was two years ago someone tried to torch a Catholic Church in Marion County, In..  It sticks in my mind because the Pastor, John Beitans, was a priest in my parish in High School, as his first assignment.

So we don't hear nearly as much about these things from the press as we probably should. What we do here in some quarters of the media is disturbing.  I'm thinking here of Tavis Smiley's resent assertion that every day in the US Christians are committing terrorist acts.  Mr. Smiley said this to Hirsi Ali, who was speaking about Islamic Terrorism.  Mr. Ali, who is an atheist shot back "Do they blow people up?"  But Mr. Smiley went on.  it seems that he is unable to make a distinction between a crime and a terrorist act, and that he regards everyone in this country who isn't explicitly non-christian as a Christian.  It's not just Rosie O'Donnell and the women on The View who say things like this--there are a sizable number of progressives who think this.

(As aside, I have twice been present when neopagans have said it would be a good idea to kill Christians, once present when a "pleasant" form of homosexual rape was proposed as a way of  "curing" Fundamentalist Christians, and several times when calls were made for the assassination of Rush Limbaugh, for promoting "Christian Theocracy".)

So now I have talked about goof-ball celebrities, progressive journalists and extremist haters, but what about the mainstream?  Well, right now the ACLU is calling for a "Federal Probe", which I think means either witch hunt or fishing expedition into Catholic Hospitals for 'denying treatment' when they do not violate Catholic Moral Teaching.  What this really is, is an attempt to use the coercive power of government to prevent Catholic institutions an practitioners from exercising their right to free exercise of religion.  (There is a reason why the Progressives speak about "freedom of worship" instead of 'freedom of religion"--religion is all encompassing, and affects your day to day activities.  Worship can be construed as an hour a week out of the public view.)


The ACLU has also attacked the Bishop of Phoenix, and the Diocese of Phoenix for removing St. Joseph's Hospitals Catholic Affiliation.  "The diocese can't be allowed to dictate who lives and who dies in a Catholic Hospital" was said by one ACLU attorney.  This is disingenuous at best.  More realistically, it's disinformation, mendacity and misdirection.  The Diocese and the Bishop didn't say who lives or who dies--they said, as is their right, who is Catholic and who isn't.  For that matter, if you were to take the statement on it's face value, it raises the question of "Who gets to pick who lives?"

Several Catholic Hospitals and Health Care systems are already lawyering up to protect their constitutional rights.  I expect them to lose.  After that, they will either surrender their Catholic identity, or close.

In local events, the Federal Government is suing abortion protester David Hamilton, alleging that he interfered with clinic access attempted to intimidate women entering the EMS Abortion Mill.  I wasn't there for the alleged incident, so I can't say.  But I have been to this facility, and all the overt hostility I have seen came from  abortuary personnel and passers by.  I have friends who, at this clinic, have had their feet stomped on, or who have had women come out of the clinic and begin shoving them or running into them while yelling and screaming for the pro-life people to "get off them", these were blatant attempts to create an incident, and were unchecked and uninvestigated.

I said in part tow of this little group of ramblings that Family Life and morality would be the flash point for persecution.  And we can see it starting, along with attempts to silence churches from speaking on matters of life and death, and morality, salvation and damnation.  The fuse is lit, and we will see it happen, sooner rather than later.

I must be about one strange dude...

...because the MSN page that comes up when you leave HotMail had a thing about the sexiest people in entertainment, and I didn't think any of them were sexy.  In fact, I thought most of them were rather repulsive.

There are lots of attractive, sexy people out there--but evidently, either I don't know what that means, or the entertainment industry doesn't know what that means, because the ones I pick never show up on the list.

Our Waking Nightmare

It's been a rough decade for me.  Not so much in an economic sense, or an emotional sense, or even in a personal sense.  But it's been rough on me.  I love the United States.  I have traveled a good bit in my younger years, and seen life in Central America, North Africa and the Middle East.  It wasn't pretty.  Even in Europe I was very aware of how much freer we were in the US than in the European countries.  And for the last decade, I have watched our freedom be eroded at an ever increasing rate.

When the Patriot act was passed--with overwhelming bi-partisan support--there were many of us Americans, from the right to the left, who said it would result in the loss of the very freedoms it purported to protect.  We were down shouted, and the law passed.  Then it was extended.  Then it was expanded.  We were told it wouldn't be used for conventional law enforcement.  Then it was, routinely.  Laws were passed against making terrorist threats, and we were told that they would be used to protect us from terrorism.  But instead, most prosecutions under these laws have been of conventional crimes which had laws on the books concerning them; it reached the point that people were being charged with terroristic threatening for saying they were going to punch someone in the nose.

The Department of Homeland Security has become an octopus of power grabbing bureaucrats that seek to extend their reach at every possible opportunity.  They remind me of the SS/SD in Wartime Germany.

Ms. Napoliatano has instituted a high-tec network of informers--from cell phones to Wall-Mart--encouraging Americans to snitch on each other.  Gee--it seems so innocuous though, if you see something that looks like a possible terrorist tell the authorities; until you remember that people who are pro-life, go to gun shows, watch certain TV shows or read Tom Clancy novels or who listen to talk radio or who are veterans have all been pegged by the administration as potential terrorists or subversives.  It's not just enraging, it's frightening.

Of course, we mustn't forget the TSA, with their low standards of personnel selection (remember the guy who was caught wacking off to the images from the scanners?  Or the man who passed the TSA background check despite numerous arrests and convictions--some for violent crimes?) and their invasive searches, which at first glance violate the Constitutional prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure?  This is the group that the Administration, in the person of Ms. Napoliatano, wishes to move into train stations, ferry boat docks (which actually are under the authority of the Coast Guard--who have been subsumed into DHS) and bus stations.  How long before she gets this settled in enough to assert authority over the Interstate Highways?  It's interesting to note that the Department of Transportation is looking with favor on the new technologies that allow a central control station to shut down individual automobiles. 

Then there are shopping malls and hotels.  In true bureaucratic fashion, DHS is moving to have more control over these as well.  I wonder, will I have to submit to an invasive search to buy a Snickers Bar?

I have counted now four attempts by the Administration to gain control of the Internet--the most powerful communications and networking tool ever devised.  Does no one else remember early this year, and last year, when Obama appointees wanted the authority to shut down individual web pages in order to prevent 'rumors' from circulating?  Or the attempt mid-year by the FCC to regulate the internet, which was shut down by the Federal courts as a violation of the law?  I would think one would hear more about that.

In the name of 'safety', and 'security' and 'order' this Administration is attempting to gain control of the means of communication and transportation.  If that doesn't scare you, you need to wake up.

And let's not forget the vindictive nature of this administration:  Last week a woman refused to submit to the full body scanners, or to having her breasts and genitals felt.  She wasn't denied access to the aircraft she was attempting to board--she was arrested.  Arrested for not submitting to an unconstitutional search, or allowing herself to be subjected to relatively unstudied exposure to electromagnetic forces.  And let's not forget the professional pilot--a reserve officer, BTW--whose home was invaded when he made video showing how ineffective the TSA's procedures were.

Or, for that matter, the TSA's attempts to ban cameras and cell phone video from being turned on them.  They know that if subjected to widespread public scrutiny, they would become perhaps the most hated people in America--even more so than the Jihadists, who at least are not oppressing their own people when they attack us.

But it's not just transportation and communications that are being invaded by the Federal government to an excessive and repressive degree--it's what's for dinner.  Seriously.

Let me explain a bit.  Monsanto used to control about 10% of the soybean crop in America.  Soy is a basic food stuff, used just not for human consumption, but for livestock feed, and consumer products.  If you eat dairy, eggs or meat, soy is important to you, even if you've never heard of tofu.  Monsanto didn't exactly increase it's market share through sales of seed.  What happened was this--they patented a 'round-up ready' hybrid seed, that was created by Genetic Modification.  The gene they patented became their intellectual property.  Soon, Monsanto lawyers were suing and threatening to sue anyone whose soy bean seed stocks bore that gene.  Soy is wind pollinated, so you didn't have to start with Monsanto seed stock to end up with the gene.  It could and did just blow into your fields.  Instant monopoly.  But it didn't stop there--Monsanto now has teams of people--invariably male and large--who simply go onto family farms and  tell farmers they cannot save soy beans as seed stock on their own land--even if they have never bought seed stock from Monsanto. (It is apparently legal under current American Agricultural law for them to do this!)  The effect is this--family farms, here in Indiana, have been told that they cannot save the seeds they use for raising feed even if they are the third or fourth generation to do so.  In some cases, they have been told that they can't even stock pile the soy they raise for feed, but must sell it to a grain elevator and then buy soy feed.  (So--how much are you paying for a gallon of milk?)

If you haven't watched Food, Inc you need to do so.  Now, before it gets removed from the shelves by lawyers working for the Agribusiness Industry.

So what has the business practices and ethics of Monsanto to do with government oppression?  Enter SB-510.  This was passed into law this autumn.  It makes it illegal to, among other things, save seed for your garden--so if you have spent 10 or 15 years carefully saving a heirloom variety and selecting the best plants every year to fit your seeds to your exact location, you're screwed.  It also makes it illegal not only to sell much of what you produce directly, but even to give it away or to donate it to charity.  All this in the name of food safety.  It also requires intense record keeping, tagging and management of livestock that will make it virtually impossible to produce your own food, let alone engage in small scale agriculture and husbandry.  So much for the American Dream of back to the land.

If you think I am over exaggerating, ask Dan Allgyer, and Amish farmer in PA.  his farm was invaded at 5:00 AM by federal agents who said they had "reason to believe" he was engaged in the interstate trafficking of raw milk.  That is patently absurd.  I grew up on and around a dairy farm, and farms do not as a rule pasteurize their own milk, nor do they market it directly.  Someone buys the milk from them--usually a dairy company--and then processes and markets it.  They were there to roust a farmer who wasn't complying with a business model that allows for government control of food and commerce.  Mr. Allgyer did not engage in interstate commerce--he sold locally.  But facts are not important.

Of course, we still have free speech, except where it's prohibited by saying it's inflammatory, or hate speech, or whatever.  Remember, this administration is very much in favor of, and trying to enforce, compelled speech on radio, and in print.  Compelled speech is never free. And with larger and larger swaths of speech being defined as hate speech, or stigmatized as racist, free speech is starting to fade as well.

There is also the question of huge bills being passed, with out a real chance for us, or even Members of Congress being able to read them.  That's a great way to conceal things that the people would never tolerate that you wish to have made law.  An example of that is the Health Care Bill,which has many little items appended that are not remotely related to health care.  One which worries me is the provision, buried deep in the law, that allows the federal government to ban private ownership of gold.  Moreover, it also allows for the confiscation of gold that is in private hands.  I thought there was a Constitutional provision that protected us from having our property seized with just compensation.  (I expect that, should this power be used, the owners of the gold will be compensated at "market rates", the market being depressed by the ban itself, and people losing money because of government action designed to make them lose money.)  Interestingly, the language authorizing this delays it's taking effect until 2012--perhaps to keep from alienating the electorate.  This is a measure that can only have the purpose of removing a way for people to protect their wealth.  It scares me, and I don't even own gold!  It's a government grab for wealth, by an administration dominated by wealthy people, who think others shouldn't have wealth.

Of course, one can't speak of the Health Care monstrosity without bringing up the so called "death panels".  I am not at all convinced that these panels would have as their end purpose the withdrawal of medical treatment.  They may well be what we are told they are--counseling to help people make the difficult decisions that confront patients and their families at the end of life.  However, I don't see any real protection in place to keep them from becoming death panels in reality.  And in today's social climate, there will be pressure for them to become euthanasia panels, and in the minds of functionaries who are not answerable to the public, they will become ways to cut costs.  If you don't believe that, I will remind you of the fate of Avestin--which was recently disapproved as an ineffective treatment.  This in the face of an average extension of life, with some of that ill defined 'quality of life' of six months.  One of the persons on the panel that withdrew approval was quoted as saying that they are not supposed to consider cost of a medication, but it was in the back of all their minds.  So yes, health care and medications will be decided, not by physicians, but by accountants and government appointees.  In a truly appalling development, this provision didn't pass even the minimal scrutiny this bill received from congress, so it was resurrected by the Administration by means of promulgating a regulation implementing it.  Quite simply, and end runaround the legislative process and the will of the people as expressed by the elected representatives.


.And one cannot speak of property rights without acknowledging that Federal Courts have decided that Eminent Domain can be used to transfer someones home to developers, when the owner doesn't want to sell.  Ironically, the properties in the case that set the precedent were seized, but the development fell through, and a working class neighborhood is now empty space generating no tax revenue at all.  (Government, at all levels, is always marked by incompetence, stupidity and self interest.  Not the good of the Republic or it's constituent elements.)

In none of the instances of government threats to our freedom are facts important to the government--what is important is power.  Direct power over We, The People, who are supposed to be running the government, not the other way around.  And yet people still persist in saying those of us who do not trust the Administration or Congress or the Courts are paranoid, ignorant and obstructionist, and that our voices shouldn't count.

It's a trifle disturbing...

...but the trend in the current poll shows both a low degree of Liturgical catechesis and observance, and an erosion of belief in the singularity of the incarnations, the nativity and the Person of Christ.

"Conquistador", by S.M. Sterling

Yes, it's another out of the blue book review about a book most people won't even want to read. 

I like S.M. Sterling--his books and writings always adhere to the first cardinal rule of Science Fiction:  Grant your gadgets and move on.  He also adheres to the second rule--have a developed back ground and make your economics believable, if not exactly inevitable.  In Conquistador, he does both things very well, which allows him to set up a plot and action that in the end relies on human drama and believable political skulduggery.

The premise?  A wounded veteran of the campaign to retake the Philippines from the Japanese is looking for work, and recovering from a leg wound in Berkeley California, 1946.  While playing with a war surplus radio that he is modifying, he generates a door to an alternate Earth, in which Alexander the Great did not die young, but lived to be a ripe old age.  It's a world in which Europeans did not voyage to America.  He uses his knowledge of where valuable natural resources are located to fund and establish a Country in the new world, concealing it from the authorities in the US until about 2009, when a faction in "The Commonwealth of New Virginia" plot to seize the "gate" and establish an empire that would resurrect the old colonial Apartheid state of South Africa, and use the alternative world as a great mine, as a source of personal power and wealth.  Among the plotters are settlers in the new world who stem from South Africa, Ex-KGB, and Mafia families.

The mix is very odd--but works, because Stirling stipulates that the founder of the "Commonwealth" drew settlers and technicians from populations that had been displaced by WWII, and the Colonial wars for independence since.  That's what makes the book good--Sterling is able, by granting his gadget, to concentrate on what a society founded by a band of war buddies, led by a conservative Virginian graduate of VMI, would end up looking like.  The society is interesting, and sets up both plot and interpersonal relationships that are plausible.

Like all of Sterling's work it asks, in a painless and entertaining manner, if our society hasn't somehow gone off the rails and if there aren't other ways to be Americans that don't look like what we have.  And like all of Sterling's work, it implicitly recognizes that there is no perfect society, and what ever we set up of evolve will have it's own internal contradictions and problems.

No book review is really complete, in my book (heh--couldn't resist), with out a quote.  So here's my favorite one from the book.  The context is a Game Warden from 'our world' who has been made an 'involuntary settler' when he gets too close to the secret of the gate.  He is comparing text books to get a handle on his new world.  The tone was completely different form recent history books back FirstSide (sic):  self-confident swagger versus agonized sensitivity.  Tully grinned, imagining the authors of this one meeting the people who'd written the books he'd studied in high school, back in the late eighties.  Cries of  "wimp" and "wussy-boy" would meet anguished howls of 'Chauvinist! Imperialist!" with a good deal of truth on both sides.

It's really good read, and thought provoking as well.  Go read it--a fun and painless way to stretch your mind a bit!

FNH 5.7X28--My Thoughts

I don't see any use for this round.  Really, none at all.  It was designed for the military/police market, as a round that can penetrate body armor.  It doesn't.

It supposedly did, when used with an expensive, high-tech polymer projectile that held it's shape through hard material and then deformed in soft material.  But that round isn't available--I don't think it's available to police or the military either.

So what we have is another high velocity, small caliber round.  We really don't need one for any application I can think of.  Certainly not in the handgun clambering.  And the only long gun chambered for it that I am aware of is the FNH PS-90 carbine, for which I have no use.  You can't hunt with it, and it's too expensive to plink with.  If I want a small caliber, high velocity round to hunt with (and I do--I want to hunt coyotes, and that's the thing to use on them!) I'll use the 22-250, an established, proven varmint cartridge.  I'll continue to plink with the good old .22--it's cheap, accurate within it's limitations, fun and not even very loud.

The FNH products chambered in this round look to me to be toys for the tactical shooting community--which is fine, they have fun and I don't begrudge them that--or for the back lot commando community, who give the rest of us a bad name.  I don't think they will catch on with criminals though--they go for cheap guns, and FNH is an expensive brand.

Is Benny Fixin' to Bust a Move?

Or, to be more precise, and to move away from the fact that I like being flippant, is his holiness up to something?  The answer of course, is yes.  And it's about time!

Just 'reading around' the 'Net has given me several related articles on things Vatican.  One of the things I've read about is who is being appointed to what, and what is being done where.  At this point, Benedict has appointed  20 of the  people who hold the top 25 influential posts in the Vatican.  And despite the anguished cries of the Modernists and Relativists, he has not appointed exclusively men who conform to his personal preferences. Marc Cardinal Quellet to the Congregation of Bishops is a case in point, and an appointment that surprised and dismayed many of us conservative bead squeezers.  The men he is appointing are interesting--as I said, not all of them are in complete agreement with his agenda, but they are all orthodox.  And something else has become apparent, as well.  They are all very, very smart men.  His Holiness is appointing fewer men who are involved in political issues, or other issues as "activist bishops", and more who are intellectually and academically well equipped to actually understand the issues, and the effect of both modernism and relativism vis a vis various propositions concerning them. 

Benedict is appointing curial cardinals and prelates who will uphold Catholic Teaching, and a hermeneutic of continuity when confronted with the pressures of the 21st century.

And Benedict is pushing for the Reform of the Renewal.  (N.B.--the 2D Vatican Council did not set it self up as a reforming council--but rather called for renewal.  The implementation of that renewal has been botched, by any rational measure--from Mass attendance, through Vocations, through adherence to Church Teachings--in no way can this be called a success if one moves beyond political emotion and looks at the results.  And Scripture gave us the best test of all when thinking of things like this--"By their fruits you shall know them".)  From his decision to use the Christmas Proclamation at the beginning of the liturgy, instead of replacing the Penitential Rite, to his insistence on the presence of the Crucifix on the altar when he celebrates Mass, he is setting an example of how we should approach it.  It's interesting to me that when i read things critical of his approach to Liturgy, they uniformly betray three things:  an ignorance of the rubrics of the Ordinary Form,  an ignorance of the whole Magisterial teaching on the Eucharist, and a view that everything preceding the 2D Vatican Council was swept away. 9This last is mystifying--the council itself explicitly said otherwise!)  Benedict's replacement of Piero Marini with Guido Marini is simply the concretion of Benedict's understanding of the adage Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi.  Not to mention that Piero repeatedly set up liturgical events that were at odds with the wishes of the Holy Father, in such a way that Benedict ended up celebrating liturgies in ways he expressly said he didn't want to.

Benedict is Reforming our Church, which, in the name of a false and demonic 'Spirit of Vatican II' has been ravaged in the last two generations.  

And I am hoping to get a good handle on Benedict's next Curial appointment.  Cardinal Rode' is over the canonical retirement age, and it's thought that he will be replaced at the head of the Congregation for Religious.  This appointment is being watched by lots of people--especially in the US--because of the Apostolic visitation of the LCWR.  I hope whoever gets that job is an absolute hard ass, BTW.  (Yeah--that's a crude way to put it, but that's what's needed.)

A couple of last things--and you can skip this, as it's just pure and simple me rattling on about stuff that really isn't important:

1--John Allen describes the Apostolic Visitation as controversial.  It's just not that controversial.  No one who actually understands the Canon law covering Religious life can have aproblem with it.  No one who has watched the American Sisters can have a problem with the idea that something is very wrong, and needs fixed.  The proof of this is in the statements of the LCWR itself, which contain numerous misrepresentations and outright falsehoods about the Visitation, and their own activities.  These women are marked by their mendacity and contumacy.

2--The comments in the various places I read for this post are overwhelmingly in favor of His Holiness.  Even on liberal sites, and sites that are on the whole not all that supportive of the Church.  Perhaps it's time for Religion reporters to acknowledge what the faithful know--the Holy Spirit controls who is elected, and the Holy Spirit is moving the Church back to it's roots and to obedience--which is what Vatican II was about in the first place.

3--Hs anyone besides me noticed that although there are two Apostolic Visitations of the LCWR, no one is talking about the one from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? 

There! I'm Done!

Well--it's all caught up, blog wise.  Have fun, be safe, and comment!

It's a lot for one day, but these are things that I didn't want to spend time on during the last part of Advent.  So i got to them today.

Old Poll, New poll

In the Gingerbread Village Poll, things people wanted to see shook out like this:

Villagers with torches and pitchforks tied with 100s of Gnomes with sharpened Candy Canes with 25% of the vote apiece.

2D place was taken by Zombie Santas at 18%.

3D place was Evil Ballerinas with 12%

4TH place was a three way tie between Reindeer on Meat Poles, Peaceful Rejoicing and Intoxicated Party Goers with 6% a piece .

Nobody voted for Carolers, Rioter or Elves.

The new Poll is more serious--please vote!

Free Speech and Fascist Oppression

The increasing hostility of the Obama Administration is devolving into fascistic tactics of repression.  Period.  From the FCC's repeated attempts to regulate the internet--which it has not authority in law to do, according to the Federal Courts, to the FBIs seminars describing pro-lifers as violet, and defining the exercise of constitutional rights to free speech and redress of grievance as violent, it's getting scary to be an American.

Recently, the TSA has been under much scruiteny--by the people, not the government--for violating our right to be secure in our persons, property and papers from unreasonable search.  Well, they got a little bit further out of hand.

Clair Hirschkind who is 56, has a pacemaker type device implanted in her.  She can't use the electronic sensors, as they can disrupt her heart beat in a potentially fatal manner.  She also is a rape victim, and has issues with strangers feeling her breasts and genital area.  She made her position known to the Austin police and the TSA.  So, instead of a reasonable search, they told her she had to submit to their unprofessional and unconstitutional groping.  When she refused, she was arrested.  Arrested!  Instead of simply telling her she couldn't board the plane, they arrested her.  Let's look at that.  The only motive for arresting her was to support and extend their powers of intimidation.  Simply by denying her access to the plane would have accomplished their job of protecting it--if this crap is really necessary to protect it.  They had her arrested for not submitting.  I guess the fascist dictatorship that the Left has warned us about since the 60s is here--courtesy of the Left.

Of course, there is the Airline Pilot who used cell phone video to document failures and weakness in the TSA procedures.  After he posted them, six Law Enforcement Officers turned up at his home to confiscate his federally issued handgun--which he was issued to protect the cockpit of his aircraft from siezure--and his permit to carry a handgun. Both of these are punitive actions, and the taking of his hand gun permit is really scary, because it wasn't predicated on the commission of any crime, it was done because he exercised his constitutional rights and acted as a whistle blower.  He documented and made public the major weaknesses of airline security, and that made TSA angry.

There are calls for congressional investigation.

Stupid Religion Stories and My Reaction to Them

Here are some things I picked up on during Advent, but didn't write about because I was more concerned with the Season than with Writing.  I'll 'Blurb' them, and give my reaction.  If you think I'm out to lunch, feel free to comment.  Heck--feel free to comment.  I like comments.

The President of the Lutheran World Federation Wants a Common Lutheran/Catholic Statement on Holy Communion and the Institution of "Eucharistic Hospitality"--  that means he want's us to give communion to Lutherans, and to take communion in Lutheran Churches.  Well, No.  I will remind hi that we had mutual communion until they fell into heresy an schism, ditched Holy Orders and redefined the Eucharist until it wasn't the Eucharist anymore.  If he want's Lutherans to be able to take communion in Catholic Churches, then I suggest that they convert to the Church Christ Founded in mass.  That will solve the problem.  Otherwise, he doesn't seem to understand what the issue is, at all.

An Odd View of the Top Ten Religious Stories of 2010--A. James Rudin Lists Suicide of Tyler Clementi, but Not Deaths of Notable Religious leaders-- Rabbi Rudin wrote that the deaths of several notable religious leaders occured this year, but that the suicide of Tyler Clementi tops the list.  Why?  Although tragic, mr. Clementi's suicide was the act of a secular person, at a secular university, following the actions of secular people.  Somehow, his being Gay made it a top ten religious story.  I don't think that the Rabbi can separate secular political concerns from religious reporting.  Unless, he's trying to blame this kids suicide on religious people--who weren't the ones bullying him.

95% of Vandalized Places of Worship and Cemeteries in France are Christian, French Government Commits to Fighting the "Racism" and "Antisemitism"  of Vandalism-- An analysis of vandalism against sacred places in France shows that 95% of them are Christian, but this is ignored.  instead it's the vandalism against Jewish and Muslim sites that are investigated, because after all, they're victims!  No word on why it isn't apparent that Christians in France are under threat and attack-even though they have the numbers of crimes to prove it.

Rape of a Nine year old Girl is an Anti Muslim Crime in Pakistan--A nine year old girl was raped in Pakistan, after refusing the payment offered her by a man for sex.  The Girl is Christian, and was raped after she didn't turn a trick instead of gathering food in the families field.  The parents reported the crime, but had to withdraw the charges, and are now living in a state of siege because their neighbors regard the reporting the crime as an act of anti-Muslim bigotry.  Not a peep on this in the MSM, which continues to sing the chorus of tolerant and peaceful Islam.  BTW--this isn't an isolated incident, either in Pakistan, or globally.

Deacons Step In to Fill Priests Roll, Straddle the Border Between Laity of Clergy, Are the New Face of Catholicism and a Back Door to Married Priesthood--  At least, according to Danial Burke.  Unfortunately, Mr.McElvain has a couple of conceptual disconnects.  The first is that Deacons are not laymen in any sense--they are ordained ministers, recipients of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.  The second is that they are not stepping in to take priests place--they can't confect the Eucharist, nor can they Absolve Sins, nor can the Annoint the Sick.  Further, they can never, under any circumstance, confer Confirmation.  Simply put, they will not e the new face of Catholicism, because we are a sacramental Faith, and the most common sacraments cannot be conferred by a Deacon.  It's just wishful thinking on the part of a man who wishes to push an anti-sacerdotal model of the Church

The Pope Should Re-Define God as Bisexual and accept Gay Sex, Womenpriests etc--That's according to Robert McElvaine.  Problem is, despite his deep thought, sweeping vision and profound understanding of what the Church needs to become, he doesn't understand what the Church is.  or that the Pope can no more erase the Teachings we have received from the Apostles than he can gargle lava.  Mr. McElvaine is one of those unfortunate people who haven't been taught what the Church teaches, or about the Churches nature, and so assumes we can make it whatever we want it to be. 

Murderous Bastards

The worst thing to happen in 2010, as far as I am concerned, is the efforts of the current Fascist Regime Administration to label the pro-life movement as violent and potential terrorists.  They were caught circulating a report to this end, which was withdrawn.  But the FBI was found to be teaching seminars of domestic terrorism and violent groups that listed pro-lifers, even after the document  was withdrawn.  This despite the fact that there are thousands of instances of Moloch Worshipers pro-choice people perpetrating acts of violence against pro-lifers, to include hundreds of murders and almost two thousand sexual assaults.  Most disturbing was the inclusion of law suits to protect or recover freedom of speech for pro-lifers as acts of violence.  The Obama Administration considers the law suits to be acts of violence.

Our Government considers the exercise of two enumerated rights under the Constitution to be acts of violence.

Now Moloch's Propaganda Ministry  the MSM hasn't done much to publicize these things, preferring instead to either call them something else, or simply not report them. 

For instance--in Maryland, Charles B. Martin just got sentenced to life in prison.  The reason for this is that he put a contract out on his girlfriend, and provided a silencer to the trigger man, because she refused to have an abortion!  This isn't the only murder of a woman who refused to kill her unborn child in the last year or two, either.  It's a dismally frequent occurrence, and the motivation for the violence--the refusal to kill an unborn child is seldom, if ever reported in the MSM.  I wonder though--if someone killed a woman for having their unborn child murdered, how much airplay and print space that would get?  If you remember, there was a case where two people kidnapped their adult daughter, tied her up, and dragged her to get an abortion against her will.  She escaped, bound, and wasn't helped by passersby.  And the parents weren't charged wit the crime.  And she was forced to have an abortion.  Forced abortions, and coerced abortions are very common.  60% of all women having abortions report, force, coercion or pressure to kill their baby.

Who protects and cares for these women?  Not very many people that I know of.  Certainly not the governments of the several states, or the Federal Government.  And not the Government of Canada.  You know Canada--the place that is so often held out as a model of what we should do in the US.  Well here's what they are doing about he problem of forced and coerced abortion:  Bill C-510 in the Canadian Parliament was decisively shot down by that august body and the Canadian PM.  This bill would have made it illegal to force or coerce a woman into having an abortion by threats of violence, withdrawal of financial resources or support, or denial of a place to live.

The thing is, existing laws are not working to protect women from this scourge.  But the parliamentarians of Canada didn't want to extend a specific protection to pregnant mothers. (They have specific protection for homosexuals that have resulted in ministers being arrested for sermons delivered in church!)  This law was introduced after a young woman who refused to have an abortion was severely beaten and left in a snow drift to freeze to death--which she did.

And Canada is one of the exemplars we are supposed to look to for progressive legislation on human rights, gender issues, public standards of morality, health care and other issues.  But they can't make it illegal to tell a pregnant woman that if she doesn't abort, you'll beat her up, kick her out of the house and leave her broke and homeless.

Of course, one of the better kept secrets about our neighbor to the north is this--the per capital rate of violent crime, sexual assault, and property crimes are all higher than that of the US.  people tend to quote raw numbers, rather than the percapita rate, because it make them look better.  i guess they think we don't realize how few Canadians there are.  or maybe they don't know it.  Canada isn't a good roll model for us--it's a really unpleasant place, these days.

Here in the US the killing continues unabated.  One disturbing trend is the "selective reduction" of twins, it's common in Canada too.  This is something I won't even pretend to be thoughtful about: I am the father of twins, and I think people who do this should be punished severely, their children removed from the home and given to good couples who will adopt  them.  This is evil so extreme I can't come up with words for it.  Try to imagine it as a hypothetical conversation--"Well Ginny, I know being an only child is lonely, but you don't have a sibling.  Well, you had one, but mommy and Daddy had him killed, because it would have ruined Mommy's figure to carry twins, and been too much work and trouble to raise you both.  Besides, Daddy would have had to give up his beer drinking and bass fishing trips with the boys to afford you both."  The most common reasons given for this procedure are expense, parental work load and interference with life style.  It's evil, pure and simple, and a graver evil perhaps, than simple abortion, if that's possible. 

Then of course, much of this wouldn't be possible without the Moloch Worshipers reporters of the Mains Stream Press, who seem to be able to neglect such stories as the court case in Ohio where Planned Parenthood was found to be in violation of the law.  Planned Parenthood was found to have violated the law by ignoring the informed Consent Laws of the State of Ohio.  They were also found to have concealed the Statutory Rape of a minor female (a fourteen year old girl impregnated by her twenty-two year old soccer coach) and of providing non-emergency medical treatment to a minor without informing or gaining consent from her parents.  That didn't show up in the MSM very well.

Or take the physician in Massachusetts, who pled guilty to manslaughter in the death of a woman he was providing with a "safe and legal" abortion at 13 weeks of gestational age. He was released early from prison.  OK--lots of people, most in fact, get an early release from prison.  But this guy, who killed a patient and didn't call for help in time to save her in an attempt to keep his 'business" from looking bad, demonstrated no remorse for his actions, and the Parole Board recommended that he not be given early release.  Apparently he blames everyone else, including the State, for his actions and lack of judgment.  By the way, the medical Board has barred him from practicing medicine or teaching--the death was the result of criminal level malpractice.

So we no longer have a legal system that will protect the rights of the unborn, or of mothers, and our pressis firmly committed to enabling murder, and our government thinks that if we object, we are somehow violent, even though we can document that we are the objects of violence.  And one of the countries held up as an example of what we should be doing refuses to protect mothers and their unborn children from violence,coercion and pressure to murder them.  It's a hate crime in some places to say that homosexual activity is sinful.  But it's OK to coerce a woman into an abortion.

To close this up--I expect us to be punished by God for this.  After all, every time Mary appeared  in the 20th century has warned us of this.  But I keep having priests tell me that God won't punish us.  I know who i will trust in this matter.

Ignorant Rednecks Oven Green Beans

2 12 oz cans green beans, drained (or equivalent amount of steamed fresh or frozen green beans)
2 TBS crushed Garlic
1 medium sized yellow onion, chopped.
3/4 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tsp lime of lemon juice
2 TBS bacon dripings
Salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

Heat the dripping in an iron skillet, over medium high heat.  once they are hot, add the Garlic and Onion and saute until they are about to turn translucent, and add the Almonds.  When the onion and garlic are well cooked, and the almonds are showing a bit of brown, add the Green Beans and juice and toss well.  Season with Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste. When they are hot through place in the oven at 325-350 degrees, for 45 or 35 minutes (depends on temp!)  When done, pull from oven and top with Parmesan, and serve in skillet. (Use a trivet--it'll be hot!)

Very good, and an alternative to the classic mid western Green Bean Casserole.

God Bless Deacon Zoldak!

Today is the Feast of the Holy Family.  The reading from the New Testament is Col 3: 12-21.  Except when it isn't--the "short form" (which should be called the "cowardly or modernist cop out form") is Col 3:12-17, it omits the last four verses of the reading.  Some people call these verses "controversial".  I say that's a bunch of hooey--what the are are verses that don't affirm whatever anyone wants to do, according to their politics!

Verses 18-21 read:  "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.  Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.  Fathers, do not provoke your children, least they become discouraged." (RSV)

Many--I think most--parishes use the short form, lest they be politically incorrect, and offend someones feminist sensibilities.  I hadn't hers this part of scripture proclaimed in so long, that when i first came to St. Martin of Tours I was stunned to hear it read out during Mass. (I remember it clearly, the lector was a woman, and she read this verse with ride and challenge--her demeanor said "I'm a woman, and I'm reading this out to women--take heed!)  In my last parish, over half the people wouldn't say "for all His Church", they changed it to "for all God's Church" because the language was just too 'sexist".

This short form disturbs me, because it is sound advice for the running of a family that they are leaving out, and they leave it out because it's not politically correct. This betrays a certain unbelief in the inerrant nature of Scripture.

Well, it's one thing to read it, but it's wholly another to preach it!  Deacon Zoldak too just these four verses to base his sermon on.  I have never, ever, heard that in a Catholic Church.  That takes an extraordinary amount of moral courage to do,even in a liturgically conservative parish.  (We have liberal Catholics who attend because of the quality of the music and artistic merit of the liturgy and architecture at our parish.)

Deacon Zoldak is not a dynamic preacher.  He isn't polished either. In fact, he seems to be very uncomfortable in the pulpit--but then, he has been a deacon only a few months, and so hasn't gotten used to it yet!  But he preached this, and was even able to bring in examples from his own family life (he's a married permanent deacon).  Not only that, he was able to tie the Family in with the Trinitarian Love of God, and as a training ground for love, and an expression of Divine Charity.  What insight and Moral Courage!

The amount of courage it took becomes clearer when one realizes that Archbishop Kurtz is fighting an uphill battle to reform the Archdiocese, especially considering that Abp. Kelly allowed it to become dominated by cliques of modernists, and lay bureaucrats who built little empires for themselves where ever they could.

Deacon Zoldak--you wouldn't think much of him, on a casual meeting.  Just a mild man who seems like he should be teaching poetry, or something.  But a man who has shown me big, brass cojones in the pulpit.  God bless 'im, and I hope he inspires many more to follow!