We'd better watch our cat this Halloween.

Here he is:



He has quite an appetite. Cat food. People food. If there's a bug in the house, he'll find it. I just found out he likes to eat pumpkin too.


We wouldn't want this to happen to our jack-o-lanterns:

Where to begin:

Sandra Bernhard's racist and anti-feminist attacks on Sarah Palin. She owes women and the African American community an apology.



Professor Meyers is at it again. This time, the man who publicly desecrated the Eucharist is going after a pro-life pharmacist. Pray for him. Hopefully, it will do him good.




Barack Obama's less than classy response to abortion survivor Gianna Jessen:

Her Ad:



His:




Yup. 'Nuff said.

Tip of the Ruler to: Jeff Miller

Pro-Life Prayers and Pushy Pro-Abort Protesters

In Argentina.

Warning: My spanish is a bit rusty, but I'm pretty sure there's profanity here.



The contrast between the young people praying the rosary before the steps of the cathedral and the angry mob speaks for itself, I think.

Tip of the ruler to: Alan

Yahoos on Yahoo...

So much for secure webmail:

Sarah Palin's Yahoo Account Hacked

If this had been done to Obama or Biden, I bet congress would already be investigating.


At least the FBI is taking this seriously.


I'm waiting for the legal head-rolling.

...

One more reason to drill more in the West...

Ike is threatening Oil facilities in Texas, hitting the pump before it even hits land.

Did we mention that Sarah Palin favors drilling in Alaska?

Surreal.

It was near the end of summer vacation.  Like many college students, I was back home at my parents' house taking advantage of every possible opportunity for extra sleep before heading back to school.

Ahh, the joys of sleeping in.

Through the hazy fog of half-slumber one morning I heard my parents outside my door in my dream.  

"...bombed the World Trade Center..."

"Should we tell her?"

...

"Nah," I thought. "No way." And I turned over to go back to sleep, expecting to wake up to the world as it usually was.

When I did the sleepy college student shuffle out to the living room, I saw the smoke on the television. I saw a replay of a plane flying into a tower.

Later on there was another.

It wasn't a bad dream.

If only it had been.

Another use for scrap fabric:

Cat toys!

My kitten has these chew toys by Petstages:

And I thought to myself today that it might be fun sometime to get up to my craft studio and put together something similar using some of my old scraps and a little catnip.

Who will take care of Sarah Palin's Baby?

Why, Daddy, of course.

So says the Washington Post, calling him "the GOP's favorite stay-at-home-dad".

While the left is busy criticizing Sarah Palin for having five kids and a career at the same time, and asking who will look after little Trig and his special needs, they seem to be ignoring her husband, not to mention her older children. Those of my readers who come from large families know that very often the oldest children help with the care of the youngest ones.

Not too surprising, I suppose. So many people on the left are so appalled at the sheer size of her family's carbon footprint, they haven't stopped to think of the benefits of having a family that size. And, as to their tendency to overlook her husband, well, we often hear from the Left that fathers are overrated anyway.

You would think the feminists would be praising the Palins for defying traditional gender roles, but instead they are excoriating her, and ignoring him. Strange. 

 

Editorial Cartoonist Dana Summers at the Orlando Sentinel captures this well:

This blogger considers at-home parenthood to be the ideal. While it is expected that women will take on this role, the most important thing is that somebody do it, if at all possible. If having dad at home works better, that's great.

Kudos to Todd Palin for providing his family with what it needs, including time for his wife to take on corruption and foolishness on both sides of the aisle.

Search: PP in Los Angeles

Someone googled "sedation for abortion in los angeles california Planned parenthood".

For the sake of her own safety, this person might be interested in the stories of some of the LA area Planned Parenthood's other patients:
Erica Goode
Holly Patterson
Diana Lopez

She may also be interested in some of the lawsuits against PP that have been filed around the country, including one from a teenage incest victim in Ohio, alleging that PP failed to report her abuser to the authorities as required by law.

She may also be interested in knowing that the Ohio case is not the only instance of a child abuse coverup scandal at PP.

This blog encourages women seeking abortions to learn the truth about fetal development and consider the other choices avaiable to them though local pregnancy help centers and telephone hotlines. Pregnancy Centers and Shelters


For legal help for women harmed by abortion, click here for a list of resources.

Policy, experience, conduct in office:

Here is a chart comparing Governor Sarah Palin and Barack Obama.

Tip of the ruler to: Annie Banno

Commentary on the Media feeding frenzy:

Mark Shea's commentary on the MSM's treatment of the presidential race is worth a look:

Here's a small slice:

The visceral, palpable fear and hatred of her was (mark this) instantaneous and took place *before* the Left that is desperately trying to trash her and her family actually knew anything about her. It's a pre-rational thing. Indeed, what drives the search for dirt is the pre-rational decision that she must be destroyed, no matter what the cost. And so we get the astounding spectacle of feminists demanding she abandon career for family and forget shattering the glass ceiling, of the Party of Compassion ritually slaughtering a 17 year old, of the Party of the Little Guy laughing at Jefferson Smith and his hicks up on the woods. Most of all, we see the deep, deep hatred of children that fills up the empty core where the heart of the Democrat party used to be. When the chips are down, Herod behaves as he always has when his shot at power is threatened. And so we get the appalling suggestion that "truly responsible" people would have just had Trig Palin killed for failing to measure up to Master Race specs and Bristol Palin delivered to the tender mercies of an abortuary.

To his great credit, Obama himself has told his rabid self-appointed neo-Puritan Inquisitors, "My mother had me when she was eighteen…" He's a smart enough pol to know that ritually sacrificing a girl to him is not right and will not win votes for him. But the latter-day Jephthahs are about as smart as the original Jephthah. In their worship of Obama, they are prepared to offer him human sacrifices that he himself never commanded. And in so doing, they show forth the ugliest and most inhuman face of the Left (a face rather like that of Dick Cheney in his willingness, nay, eagerness to "go to the dark side").

Read the rest of his post "Duelling Religious Systems" here.

A thank you to my grandparents...

who loved my parents and welcomed me into the world, even if the circumstances were not what anybody wanted, or entirely in keeping with the way they raised their children.

They were not the first to do such a thing, nor will they be the last, but they are no less special because of that.

At least they didn't have to do so under the predatory eyes of the mass media.

Practically tripping over themselves...

...in a rush to paint Governor Palin as a bad mother.

They can't even get their stories straight. On the one hand, she gave a speech after her water broke, against the advice of her doctor. On the other hand, she was never actually pregnant, her daughter was.

The second theory is the most absurd, and is based on pictures of her daughter. Apparently, the only reason for a young girl to have anything but perfectly flat washboard abs must be pregnancy.

I hate to think what this can do to Palin's daughter. In spite of maintaining a healthy weight, I have had a similarly shaped stomach my entire teenaged and adult life. I remember being pretty self-conscious of this as a teenager. Fortunately, nobody cared about my stomach enough to inspect it closely, much less analyze it publicly. As an n adult I have discovered that I have more important things to worry about, in spite of the cultural pressure on women to get that perfect body. I hate to think what emotional effect national scrutiny of her abdomen might have on a teenage girl.


I think Amy's assessment as well as Amanda Carpenter of Townhall.com pretty much say everything that needs to be said.

-------------------------------------------------------

Update: The AP reports that Trig could not possibly be Sarah Palin's grandchild, as her daughter is already pregnant with a baby of her own.

This blog commends Bristol Palin for not compounding a mistake by turning it into a tragedy, and the Palin family for supporting their daughter through her pregnancy.

Is this sexism?

From the FFL article on Governor Sarah Palin in my last post:


According to The Anchorage Daily News published August 6, 2006, "Palin said last month that no woman should have to choose between her career, education and her child." The article went onto say that "she's a member of a pro-woman but anti-abortion group called Feminists for Life." "I believe in the strength and the power of women, and the potential of every human life,' she said."

Palin and her family lived this out when she chose to give birth to her youngest son, who has Down's Syndrome.

CNN's John Roberts, aparently, seems to think otherwise when he discusses Palin's newborn son with Diana Bash:

The baby is just slightly more than four months old now. Children with Down's syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of Vice President, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?

Bash makes a good point when she asks:

If it were a man being picked who also had a baby, but -- you know, four months ago with Down's Syndrome, would you ask the same question?

Tip of the Ruler to: Newsbusters.

More on Governor Palin and Feminists for Life

A press release from Feminists for Life of America:

August 29, 2008

FFL Member Nominated for Vice President of the United States

Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, has been selected by Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain as his running mate.

According to The Anchorage Daily News published August 6, 2006, "Palin said last month that no woman should have to choose between her career, education and her child." The article went onto say that "she's a member of a pro-woman but anti-abortion group called Feminists for Life." "I believe in the strength and the power of women, and the potential of every human life,' she said."

Feminists for Life's policy is that all memberships are confidential. However, since Governor Palin has been public about her membership, we can confirm that Palin became a member in 2006.

Earlier this week Feminists for Life reacted to the inclusion of woman-centered solutions in the Democratic Party platform, and the inclusion of FFL's trademarked message, "Women deserve better^® than abortion,^©" in the Republican Party platform.

FFL President Serrin Foster said "It is unprecedented to see the platforms of both major U.S. political parties incorporate key pieces of FFL's unique message."

"Of course there is a certain excitement about the recent movement toward FFL's woman-centered solutions and message by the parties, and now the selection of a pro-life feminist as the Vice Presidential nominee. But as a nonpartisan organization, we cannot endorse any candidates," Foster said.

"FFL members represent a broad political as well as religious spectrum, and we remain both nonpartisan and nonsectarian. There are many issues outside Feminists for Life's mission. Feminists for Life is dedicated to systematically eliminating the root causes that drive women to abortion—primarily lack of practical resources and support—through holistic, woman-centered solutions. We recognize that abortion is a reflection that our society has failed to meet the needs of women and that too often women have settled for less. Women deserve better than abortion," said Foster.

As each party takes steps to acknowledge and meet the needs of women, Feminists for Life is prepared to work with our elected leaders on behalf of girls and women who deserve far better than abortion. FFL has a long track record of working with both sides of the political aisle on major legislation such as the Violence Against Women Act, Child Support Enforcement Act, and much more. Many members of Congress have already stepped forward to cosponsor the FFL-inspired bill with bipartisan support, the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act.

"We invite all parties, all public servants, and all people to join us on the bridge of woman-centered solutions," Foster said.

............................................

www.feministsforlife.org

............................................

"Abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of women. Women deserve better than abortion."
Say NO to the Status Quo^TM
REFUSE TO CHOOSE^® WOMEN DESERVE BETTER^®
............................................

Feminists for Life is a 501(c)3 organization.
All donations and membership contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed to law.
Refuse to Choose and Women Deserve Better are registered trademarks of Feminists for Life of America.

McCain Chooses Pro-Life Feminist for VP

She hunts. She fishes. This moose-burger eating, basketball playing former Miss Alaska contestant (and Miss Congeniality winner) is the first woman governor of Alaska.  And, this mother of five (including a downs-syndrome child and a soldier about to be deployed to Iraq) is also a member of Feminists for Life. 

The Times Online describes her campaign style as "formidable" and her grasp of the issues as "Keen".  It also mentions the moose-hunting trips she went on as a child with her father. 

Yes, that's right. Moose hunting!

Sounds like She'll give Joe Biden and Barack Obama a run for their money.

New Heights

From Senator Kennedy's speech yesterday:

We are told that Barack Obama believes too much in an America of high principle and bold endeavor, but when John Kennedy called of going to the moon, he didn't say it's too far to get there. We shouldn't even try.

Our people answered his call and rose to the challenge, and today an American flag still marks the surface of the moon.

Yes, we are all Americans. This is what we do. We reach the moon.

Good idea, Senator. Let's send Barack Obama to the moon!

She may speak for the House, but not for the Church.

This week, I have been telling my students over and over again that they have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

I hope while she is in Denver, Nancy Pelosi will listen to the Achbishop of said region whose statement I reproduce here in its entirety (I hope the Archbishop won't mind!):

ON THE SEPARATION OF SENSE AND STATE:

A CLARIFICATION FOR THE PEOPLE OFTHE CHURCH

IN NORTHERN COLORADO 

To Catholics of the Archdiocese of Denver:

Catholic public leaders inconvenienced by the abortion debate tend to take a hard line in talking about the "separation of Church and state." But their idea of separation often seems to work one way. In fact, some officials also seem comfortable in the role of theologian. And that warrants some interest, not as a "political" issue, but as a matter of accuracy and justice.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a gifted public servant of strong convictions and many professional skills. Regrettably, knowledge of Catholic history and teaching does not seem to be one of them. Interviewed on Meet the Press August 24, Speaker Pelosi was asked when human life begins. She said the following:

"I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition . . . St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose."

Since Speaker Pelosi has, in her words, studied the issue "for a long time," she must know very well one of the premier works on the subject, Jesuit John Connery's Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective (Loyola, 1977). Here's how Connery concludes his study:

"The Christian tradition from the earliest days reveals a firm antiabortion attitude . . . The condemnation of abortion did not depend on and was not limited in any way by theories regarding the time of fetal animation. Even during the many centuries when Church penal and penitential practice was based on the theory of delayed animation, the condemnation of abortion was never affected by it. Whatever one would want to hold about the time of animation, or when the fetus became a human being in the strict sense of the term, abortion from the time of conception was considered wrong, and the time of animation was never looked on as a moral dividing line between permissible and impermissible abortion."

Or to put it in the blunter words of the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

"Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed on this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder."

Ardent, practicing Catholics will quickly learn from the historical record that from apostolic times, the Christian tradition overwhelminglyheld that abortion was grievously evil. In the absence of modern medical knowledge, some of the Early Fathers held that abortion was homicide; others that it was tantamount to homicide; and various scholars theorized about when and how the unborn child might be animated or "ensouled." But nonediminished the unique evil of abortion as an attack on life itself, and the early Church closely associated abortion with infanticide. In short, from the beginning, the believing Christian community held that abortion was always, gravely wrong.

Of course, we now know with biological certainty exactly when human life begins. Thus, today's religious alibis for abortion and a so-called "right to choose" are nothing more than that - alibis that break radically with historic Christian and Catholic belief.

Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it. Catholics who make excuses for it - whether they're famous or not - fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith.

The duty of the Church and other religious communities is moral witness. The duty of the state and its officials is to serve the common good, which is always rooted in moral truth. A proper understanding of the "separation of Church and state" does not imply a separation of faith from political life. But of course, it's always important to know what our faith actually teaches.

+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Denver
+James D. Conley
Auxiliary Bishop of Denver
###

The original PDF file is here.

The USCCB has released a statement as well.

Tip of the ruler to Amy Wellborn.

Google's Quote of the Day:

No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.

- Michel de Montaigne

Victory for common sense:

From The Mercury News yesterday:


California appeals court affirms home schooling by non-credentialed parents

By Sharon Noguchi
Mercury News
Article Launched: 08/08/2008 09:51:09 AM PDT


In a decision widely praised, a California appeals court this morning affirmed the right of parents who don't have a teaching credential to educate their children at home.

A three-judge panel overturned a lower-court order in February that had created an uproar among home-schooling parents when it required that they be credentialed. An estimated 166,000 California children are home schooled.

The Second District appellate court in Los Angeles ruled that individual parents, like private schools, are exempt from the requirement that those who teach children be credentialed by the state.

"It is a very good decision and definitely a victory for home-schooling families in the state," said Damien Schiff of the Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento, which had filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of a Sacramento couple who teach their 7-year-old at home.

"We're happy with the ruling," said James Owens, Los Angeles assistant county counsel, who represented the county's child welfare agency. In the case before the court, that agency had sought public schooling for two children being educated at home.

Read the rest here.

According to a related article in the San Francisco Chronicle, this new ruling essentially declares that homeschooling is legal if parents declare their homes to be private schools. Teachers in private schools are not required to hold state-issue teaching credentials.

It's about time.

Related posts:

California Homeschoolers: Time to move!

Weak, Weak, Weak.

The Idiot Test.

I am 24% Idiot.

I am not annoying at all. In fact most people come to me for advice. Of course they annoy the hell out of me. But what can I do? I am smarter than most people.

Take the
Idiot Test
@ FualiDotCom

Tip of the Ruler to Nancy.

A close call for the terminally ill in California

The California Legislature has been at it again. Since last May, politicians in my home state have been considering AB 2747, a bill that nearly opened the door for legalizing assisted suicide. Even without this, it still has a little crack through which euthanasia may still slip.

Fortunately, according to the California Catholic Conference, at least the allowances for "Pallative Sedation" have been removed from the bill.

Here is an example of one of those changes. The original paragraph read as follows:

(e) "Palliative sedation" means the administration of sedative medication to the point of unconsciousness in a terminally ill patient. It is an intervention of last resort to reduce severe, refractory pain or other distressing clinical symptoms that do not respond to aggressive, symptom specific palliation. Palliative  sedation is not intended to cause death or shorten life.


This still leaves the possibility that a feeding tube or other treatment would be withdrawn once the patient is sedated, leaving the patient vulnerable to the same kind of starvation/dehydration death Terri Schiavo endured.

The language was changed to keep euthanasia more clearly out of the picture.

(e) "Palliative care" means medical treatment, interdisciplinary care, or consultation provided to a patient or family members, or both, that has as its primary purpose the prevention of, or relief from, suffering and the enhancement of the quality of life, rather than treatment aimed at investigation and intervention for the purpose of cure or prolongation of life as described in subdivision (b) of Section 1339.31.

Also removed is the paragraph defining refusal of food and water (as opposed to nutrition provided through a feeding tube) as an "option" for a patient who wishes to "alleviate his or her suffering".

According to the California Catholic Conference, The bill, as currently amended,  is more limited to requiring doctors to provide information on currently legal options in end-of life care.

One aspect of this that concerns me still is the fact that it still leaves room for the patient to hasten his or her death by refusing artificial nutrition. 

Public outcry from organizations such as the California Catholic Conference and Californians Against Asisted suicide led to the acceptance of the amendments.

The original bill, including the pernicious sections that have been excised and amended, was co-authored by Patty Berg and Lloyd Levine, both Democrats.

Looks like pro-life California residents--especially those in the health care professions--still need to keep a close eye on their legislators.

Read the full text of AB 2747 here.

Abortion linked to Pre-Term birth, infant mortality.

This time the data comes from the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Journal of Reproductive medicine, neither of which are opposed to abortion.

From the American Life League:

Evidence of Ripple Effect Between Abortion and Infant Death

Washington, DC (04 August 2008) – New statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics are adding more evidence to the body of research surrounding the link between abortion and infant death.

"Here is another of the unseen consequences of abortion," said Leslie Tignor, director of American Life League's Associate Program. "We're seeing that abortion not only ends the life of a child; it also endangers the life of that child's future siblings."

Tignor is project manager of "Baby Steps," a DVD that features detailed 4D ultrasound pictures of preborn babies from eight to 34 weeks throughout their 16 stages of development.

The NCHS' "Infant Mortality Statistics from the 2005 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set," (Vol. 57, No. 2) of the National Vital Statistics Report released July 30, shows that preterm births were responsible for over 36.5 percent of infant deaths in 2005.

The NCHS' findings affirm past studies that show women who have had abortions are more likely to give birth to preterm babies.

The 2007 Journal of Reproductive Medicine reported that nearly 32 percent of "very preterm" U.S. births – before 32 weeks gestation – are due to the mother's prior abortions.

"American Life League will continue to work to make women aware of abortion's ripple effect," Tignor said. "Not only does abortion hurt women, preborn babies and their families, but it could also risk the life of future children. Abortion leads to death, not only for the preborn child killed by abortion, but also for the many children susceptible to preterm birth and infant death.




FOR MORE INFORMATION:

LifeSiteNews: Abortion Linked Condition Contributes to Growing Number of Infant Deaths(30 July 2008)
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08073009.html

National Center for Health Statistics: Infant Mortality Rates from the 2005 Period (30 July 2008)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_02.pdf

LifeSiteNews: Previous Abortion Linked with Preterm Birth and Cerebral Palsy (date)
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07102602.html

Hubris and Humor

From Greg Gutfield of FoxNews:

The backlash against Barack is starting, engineered mainly by envious critics accusing him of arrogance, as he flies around the world spreading hope across this troubled orb.

Some suggest the candidate acts as though he has already won the election, pointing to fawning world leaders and meetings with our own high-level officials. Some think Obama should practice a little humility.

I find this "Baracklash" disgusting. Any educated and decent person can see that Obama is the greatest human being we have ever seen since the beginning of time.

Actually, I'll go beyond that: He's the greatest human being ever, including the era existing before the creation of time. For it has become abundantly clear that the idea of Obama has always existed above and beyond some dumb measuring system.

Besides, time can only gauge mortal substance and we know that Obama can only be measured by our dreams. I mean, what is time anyway, but merely grains of sand in an hour glass? Obama, he's the whole beach. Yes, a whole beach of hourglasses endlessly sifting like an orchestra of hope using the very earth as its magical instrument.

Read the rest here.

Campaign Sarcasm

I got a little chuckle out of this:

Judging by the contents of the (occasionally profane) comments on youtube, however, it seems many people are not enjoying the humor here. 

It's still an ad hominem attack, but at least it's funny. The samples of Obama's language here smack of gratuitous self-confidence.  His speechwriters really should be more careful.  Uttering such words is really an invitation.

The ad would carry more weight, though if there were more policy-based adverts out there to go with it.

Protecting Children from Planned Parenthood, Vallejo

I am amazed that this actually worked, given Vallejo's proximity to the infamous Bay Area of California.

From the American Life League:

VICTORY! PLANNED PARENTHOOD TOLD TO STAY AWAY AFTER HUNDREDS OF CALLS FROM ALL SUPPORTERS

Vallejo, CA (31 July 2008) – Planned Parenthood was forced to stay away from a children's health and wellness event after American Life League supporters and local pro-life activists barraged event coordinators with phone calls and e-mails.

"We're committed to fighting Planned Parenthood wherever they are," said Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League. "We want to send a clear signal – there will be zero tolerance when it comes to Planned Parenthood's campaign to sexualize children."

The nation's largest abortion chain was scheduled to have a booth at the 'Vallejo Celebrates Youth' event geared toward grammar school children on Aug. 2. Children will learn about oral hygiene, literacy, and childhood obesity. They will no longer be learning about birth control, STDs and abortion.

Planned Parenthood has made a concerted effort to reach children recently through pornographic publications and web sites. The abortion giant targets children at events like the one sponsored by the Greater Vallejo Recreational District, with sex-related materials and birth control.

When American Life League heard of the events, the group contacted local activists and notified supporters. Within hours, hundreds of calls were placed to the GVRD who then decided to disinvite Planned Parenthood.

"The California pro-lifers, especially Ana Jaime are to be commended for their courageous work," Sedlak said. "The Greater Vallejo Recreational District has done the right thing by keeping Planned Parenthood as far away from children as possible."

American Life League was cofounded in 1979 by Judie Brown. It is the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life organization in the United States and is committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to natural death. For more information or media inquiries, please contact Katie Walker at 540.659.4942.


FOR MORE INFORMATION:

American Life League: Face Painting, Magic Shows and Birth Control: Planned Parenthood Infiltrates Children's Event (28 July 2008)
http://www.all.org/article.php?id=11511
Vallejo Times-Herald: Event Promotes Children's Health (23 July 2008)
http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_9970196

Salivation History

Gerard Baker over at the Times must be as fed to the teeth as I am with the mass drooling going on over Barack Obama and his vacuous attempts at messianic speechmaking.

He came up with a lovely satirical gem:



He ventured forth to bring light to the world
The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers

Gerard Baker

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”


Please do read the rest. It is a riot.


Via Pertinacious Papist

40--and looking better than ever!

40 years ago today, Pope Paul VI published Humanae Vitae (On Human Life), affirming the Church's teachings on marriage, including issues relating to contraception and abortion:

Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children. Equally to be condemned, as the magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man or of the woman, whether permanent or temporary.

Needless to say, this publication was not without controversy.

Many people suggest that the church's teachings are designed purely to control people, or to suppress women, or to oppose sexual freedom, or to simply manipulate couples into providing more Catholic backsides to fill the pews every Sunday.

However, when one reads what the Church believes marriage should be, and sees the beauty in that description, those accusations begin to sound rather hollow:

[Married] love is above all fully human, a compound of sense and spirit. It is not, then, merely a question of natural instinct or emotional drive. It is also, and above all, an act of the free will, whose trust is such that it is meant not only to survive the joys and sorrows of daily life, but also to grow, so that husband and wife become in a way one heart and one soul, and together attain their human fulfillment.

It is a love which is total—that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner's own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself.

Married love is also faithful and exclusive of all other, and this until death. This is how husband and wife understood it on the day on which, fully aware of what they were doing, they freely vowed themselves to one another in marriage. Though this fidelity of husband and wife sometimes presents difficulties, no one has the right to assert that it is impossible; it is, on the contrary, always honorable and meritorious. The example of countless married couples proves not only that fidelity is in accord with the nature of marriage, but also that it is the source of profound and enduring happiness.

Finally, this love is fecund. It is not confined wholly to the loving interchange of husband and wife; it also contrives to go beyond this to bring new life into being. "Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the procreation and education of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute in the highest degree to their parents' welfare."

The relationship between husband and wife is like nothing else in this world. It is perhaps the most profound commitment I have ever made. It is mutual self-giving. Mutual respect. Mutual faithfulness. No holding back. Body, mind, heart, and even fertility, until death.

The church's teachings are not about repressing something that is dirty. They are about protecting something that is exquisitely precious: married love and the families that come from it.



Read the Entire Encyclical at the Vatican website.

St. Gertrude of Nivelles, Patron Saint of Cats

Click here for the original Photo Source.

Here is a portion of her profile at the Patron Saints Index:

Younger daughter of Blessed Pepin I of Landen and Blessed Ida of Nivelles; sister of Saint Begga. Devoted to religious life from an early age, she turned down a noble marriage to pursue the religious life. On the death of Pepin in 639, and on the advice of Saint Amand of Maastricht, Ida built a double monastery at Nivelles where both she and her daughter retired. Gertrude became abbess about age 20.

Known for her hospitality to pilgrims and aid to Irish missionary monks, she gave land to Saint Foillan, on which he built the monastery of Fosses. Helped Saint Ultan in his evangelization. In 656, Gertrude resigned her office in favor of her niece, Saint Wilfetrudis, and spent the rest of her days studying Scripture and doing penance. Mystic. Visionary. Died at the significant age of 33, the age of Our Lord at His death.


She is also the Patroness of gardeners, among many other things. Traditional portrayals of her show mice running up her staff.

Her feast day is March 17.

A more detailed biography at the Catholic Encyclopedia

By James C. Christensen
Image Source: GreenwichWorkshop.com

Let's think about this for a second....

Here's a recent headline from the Guardian:

US environmental agency lowers value of a human life.

I am not making this up.

Here is what they are talking about:

When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule.

The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation – such as the tighter restrictions on pollution that the EPA refused to impose today, effectively postponing any action on climate change until after Bush leaves office.

Consider, for example, a hypothetical regulation that costs $18bn to enforce but will prevent 2,500 deaths. At $7.8m per person (the old figure), the lifesaving benefits outweigh the costs. But at $6.9m per person, the rule costs more than the lives it saves, so it may not be adopted.

Some environmentalists accuse the Bush administration of changing the value to avoid tougher rules, a charge the EPA denies.

I'm sorry, but I don't value my life in terms of how much the government is willing to spend to save it, so I don't take this move by the EPA too personally.

What I do take personally is the fact that the goverment is willing to pay to terminate my life if I am an unborn child, by giving American tax dollars to organizations like Planned Parenthood.

Some of our congressmen/women are working to fix this:



Click here for more comments from legislators on this issue.