Best (as well as Worst) Idea of the Day.

Business Wire: Jones Soda Co. Bottling the Flavors of Christmas and Chanukah to Benefit Charity

Jones Soda Co. (the “Company” or “Jones Soda” or “Jones”), announces today that it is tossing aside the Turkey & Gravy and bringing Christmas Ham and Latke Sodas to the table this year with two new limited edition holiday themed packs. The Christmas Pack includes flavors such as: Sugar Plum, Christmas Tree, Egg Nog and Christmas Ham Sodas. While the Happy Chanukah Pack includes: Jelly Doughnut, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins and Latke Sodas. As always, both packs are kosher and contain zero caffeine.

Consistent with limited edition packs of past years, Jones Soda is teaming up with two great children’s charities donating a portion of proceeds from the sale of the Christmas Pack and Chanukah Pack to Toys for Tots and Vitamin Angels respectively this year.

The Christmas Pack provides everyone with a variety of Christmas flavors, both delicious and obscure. And through the creation of this pack, Jones is able to partner with Toys for Tots for the fourth consecutive year in a row helping children around the country have a merrier holiday. Jones Soda will be donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Christmas Pack to this charity with a minimum contribution of $10,000. Toys for Tots is one of the nation’s flagship and most visible Holiday Season charitable causes with local Toys for Tots campaigns conducted from October through December each year, in 456 communities nationwide.

The Chanukah Pack, complete with dreidel, was created with an audience of Rabbis and in the true spirit of the Jewish tradition. In continued support of this charity, Jones Soda will be donating a portion of the sales of the Chanukah Pack to Vitamin Angels with a minimum contribution of $10,000. Vitamin Angel Alliance is a non-profit, non-sectarian organization created in 1994 to fight malnutrition and childhood blindness around the world. For more information, please visit www.vitaminangels.org.

”With the anticipation of a child at Christmas, our team here at Jones looks forward to this tradition every year. Not only do we get to make some fun holiday flavors, but we get to raise money for some great charities,” said Peter van Stolk President & CEO. “How often do you get to sit back with family and friends and toast the season with Christmas Tree Soda?”

These limited edition packs will be available in select stores through the Jones Soda distributor network the week of November 11th. They will also be available for sale on www.jonessodastore.com. The packs will only be available in limited quantities, and on a first come, first served basis.

Headline of the Day.

AP: Free Korea's 'Mr. Toilet' builds commode-shaped house in campaign to bolster worldwide hygiene

He's known as South Korea's "Mr. Toilet" for his campaigns as a politician to beautify public restrooms. Now, Sim Jae-duck is taking the lavatory life to a new level _ and moving into a toilet.

Sim is building a two-story toilet-shaped house set to be finished Sunday to commemorate the inaugural meeting later this month of the World Toilet Association. The group, supported by the South Korean government, aims no less than to launch a "toilet revolution," by getting people to open their bathroom doors for the sake of improving worldwide hygiene.

Uh...I beg your pardon...There seems to be a problem with the translation from Korean.

Representatives from 60 countries will gather in Seoul to spur the creation of national toilet associations of their own and spread the word about hygiene. Organizers argue the issue deserves greater attention and cite U.N. figures that some 2.5 billion people live without proper sanitation or water supplies.

"The toilet revolution should start with talking about toilet issues freely," said Song Young-kwon, head of the organizing committee for the five-day conference that opens Nov. 21.

The Seoul conference will be accompanied by a toilet expo featuring exhibits to excite the public about the cause: including a "Hansel and Gretel" bathroom made from cookies and candy that gives presents to children when they flush, and a "toilet gallery cafe" where people can sit on colorful commodes while drinking tea.

Sim, a lawmaker in the National Assembly, hopes his house in his hometown Suwon, some 45 kilometers (30 miles) south of Seoul, will help bring attention to the cause and is seeking a guest to pay US$50,000 to stay one night with the proceeds to benefit the association that hopes to work with developing nations to build more and better toilets.

Several candidates have already expressed interest, but Sim said he would choose someone who can appropriately represent his cause _ with the proceeds set to fund his foundation's work.
Visitors just wanting a glimpse inside the bowl will be charged a US$1 donation.

"Toilets stand central to people's lives," Sim said as workers scurried to put the finishing touches on the home _ including installing the final toilet inside.

Hmmm...Some people, apparently.

The toilet theme is central to the house named Haewoojae, or a "place to solve one's worries," shaped like a 7.5-meter-tall (24.6-foot-tall) toilet bowl. Thinking of how to push forward his cause of having better hygiene and sanitation, Sim tore down his former home to build the 1 billion won (US$1.1 million ) building.

In case they had any doubt about who would choose to live here, a plaque inscribed "Mr. Toilet's House" greets visitors. As a former mayor of Suwon, Sim spearheaded a campaign to beautify the city's restrooms _ part of a national push to spruce up the country's facilities for hosting events such as the 1988 Summer Olympics and 2002 World Cup.

A showpiece bathroom at the center of the 420-square-meter (4,520-square-foot) house is on display through a floor-to-ceiling window made of glass that turns opaque at the touch of a button. When guests enter to do their business, a motion sensor activates classical music.

Handel's Wassermusik, if there is any justice in this world.

The bathroom emerges into a spacious living room featuring a grand staircase and lined by windows curving around the rounded facade of the building.

The home has four bathrooms that include a whirlpool bathtub, urinals and large glass showers.
Occupants gain access to the roof balcony around the rim of the "bowl" by climbing up stairs through what would be a toilet drain _ which is equipped to collect rain for some functions to conserve drinking water. The home is encased in smooth, white-painted steel that appears similar to the ceramics used to make toilets.

Already, the home is drawing toilet pilgrims.

Visiting the house Friday all the way from Italy was Giuliano Pecorari, who came to show Sim his firm's stainless steel (US$3,670) digitally controlled toilets with lids that rise automatically when a person enters the bathroom and are fully self-cleaning.

Sim said he hopes visitors will be reminded of those living a life with less flush.

"The person who sits here and uses the toilets will have to think about those who don't have toilets," he said. "I believe all people can feel happiness in toilets."

Seriously, kiddies, hygiene is a matter of life and death in poor countries. That is why we must do all in our power to bring these countries freedom, representative government, and capitalism. The toilets will surely follow.

If we don't get that Kansas versus Hawaii title matchup, heads will roll!

EARTHtimes.org [???]: UPI:LSU leads latest BCS poll

LSU was the No. 1 team Sunday night when college football's latest BCS poll was released, while Ohio State fell from the top sport to No. 2.

The Tigers (9-1) -- who routed non-SEC foe Louisiana Tech, 58-10, Saturday -- assumed the top spot after Ohio State (10-1) was beaten at home, 28-21, by Big Ten opponent Illinois.

LSU had an average total of .9802.

Despite being idle, Oregon (8-1) was second with an average of .9383.

Spots 3-10 were occupied by Kansas (10-0), Oklahoma (9-1), Missouri (9-1), West Virginia (8-1), Ohio State (9-1), Arizona State (9-1), Georgia (8-2) and Virginia Tech (8-2).

Southern California headed the second 10, followed by Florida, Texas, Virginia, Clemson, Hawaii [9-0], Boston College, Boise State, Illinois and Tennessee.

Rounding out the BCS top 25 were Michigan, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Connecticut and Wisconsin.

The final BCS standings will be released Dec. 2. The BCS title game, featuring the top two teams, will be played Jan. 7 at New Orleans. [All emphasis mine.]

F Minus (and you) may or may not get it.

Norman Mailer, Requiescat in pace.

Ol' Normie, enabler of murderers and the dumbest dumbass of an entire generation of dumbass writers now knows The Truth. I doubt Mr. Mailer is pleased.

His friends all tell similar stories: Norman Mailer at a dinner party, awards ceremony or afternoon gathering, hobbling on canes up or down a few steps or a flight of stairs, short of breath, as if getting from one place to another was a struggle even greater than finding the right word to finish a paragraph. Then, he would be seated, and was himself again.

"We would talk about everything," novelist William Kennedy said of Mailer, who died Saturday at age 84 after spending more than two months in and out of hospitals. "He knew he wasn't going to live very much longer, but he would still talk of taking on the greatest subjects. He always was working on something."

"He was absolutely dauntless," said Jason Epstein, who edited several of Mailer's books at Random House. "He was quite weak in the end, but he still planned to write a seven-volume novel about Hitler."

Oy vey.

The Pulitzer-Prize winning Mailer, the eminent literary journalist, drama king and gentleman, eternal striver for the Great American Novel, seemed to embody in recent years not just one writer, but a generation for whom the printed word was a noble and endangered way of life.

More than such peers as Gore Vidal, William Styron or Kurt Vonnegut, Mailer was the writer as Writer, not a career to be printed on a business card, but a calling, an identity, with all the follies and privileges to which a man alert to his own gifts felt entitled.

Mailer made Vonnegut look like a genius and a humanitarian.

He wrote letters to the president, sounded off on talk shows, likened himself to Picasso, placed himself on a "plateau" with Jacqueline Kennedy.

More like a ditch.

"Some part of me knew that I had more emotion than most," Mailer, who married six times and stabbed one of his wives, once wrote. He cautioned himself not to "exhaust the emotions of others."

Dumbass. May God have mercy on his soul.

"He was interesting, because he was interested," said Vidal, a longtime friend and occasional rival. "He had a radical imagination, a way of approaching subjects that was never boring."

"He was by nature bound to a style of excess," said E.L. Doctorow, who worked with Mailer in the 1960s as an editor at the Dial Press. "There were times when you would be fed up with him, but if you could conceive of American culture of the past 50 years without Norman Mailer, you would find it a lot drearier."

Lightning struck early for Mailer, and he struck back. In his 20s, he was the prodigy behind "The Naked and the Dead," the World War II novel that made him instantly, and prematurely famous. He came back in his 30s as the master self-advertiser, the anointer of John F. Kennedy as "Superman" at the supermarket. In his 40s, he was the fighting narrator-participant in "The Armies of the Night"; in his 50s, the cool chronicler of killer Gary Gilmore.

His hero was the authentic, autonomous man — the boxer, or graffiti artist, or maestro of jazz, or the "Norman Mailer" who starred in "The Armies of the Night" and other works of journalism. The bureaucratic mind was his enemy, from the military leaders of "The Naked and the Dead" to the Kleenex box-like skyscrapers that appalled him when looking out from his Brooklyn town house, to the processed presidency of Richard Nixon.

"Nixon's crime is his inability to rise above the admiration for the corporation," Mailer wrote in 1974, commenting on the Oval Office tapes that would help drive Nixon from office.

Positively brilliant! No doubt Shakespeare wept when that was written.

"Throughout the transcripts, he is acting like the good, tough, even-minded, cool-tempered, and tastefully foul-mouth president of a huge corporation — an automobile man, let us say, who has just discovered that his good assistants have somehow, God knows how, allowed more than a trace of tin to get into the molybdenum."

It was easy to make fun of Mailer, with his chesty and sometimes foolish pronouncements, his nerve as a man in his 80s to write a 450-page novel about the childhood of Hitler, as told by an underling of Satan, with a bibliography citing Milton, Tolstoy and Freud.

But mocking Mailer was really just a way of putting down ourselves. Mailer's greatest risk was to presume that writing — and writers — mattered. To argue with him was good sport. To dismiss him was to dismiss literature itself.

Nope. Trust me, it really is a way of mocking Normie and all the other fruitless infantile rebels against reality.

Though he believed in reincarnation, we shouldn't count on such luck again. He was a man who saw the world whole and still forgave it.

If the Hindus are correct, and there is justice in the universe, little Normie Mailer will come back as a toilet plunger made in Slave China.

We have only started to miss him.

Who?

[Thanks to the AP for this obituary.]

The Catholic and Jewish crackups continue apace (and hand in hand)...

The Old Gray Whore of Babylon: Two Faiths Divided on Women's "Ordination" Ceremony

The Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Central Reform Congregation are on the same side when it comes to advocating for immigrants and the poor, often finding common ground in a zeal for social justice.

I blame the "reformed" Jews in this thing less than the idiot apostate broads who think they are still Catholic. There is no reason to expect liberal Jews to know or care about Catholicism.

But when the Jewish congregation offered its synagogue for an ordination of two women in a ceremony disavowed by the Roman Catholic Church, it drew the ire of archdiocese officials, who vowed never again to work with the congregation.

Amen to that. Actions have consequences, after all.

Maybe the Jews can call some unitarians nxt time.

The two women, Rose Marie Dunn Hudson, 67, of Festus, and Elsie Hainz McGrath, 69, of St. Louis, are scheduled to be ordained Sunday by a former nun as part of Roman Catholic Womenpriests, a small movement that began in 2002 and is independent from the Roman Catholic Church.

May God have mercy on their souls.

The Reform congregation’s rabbi, Susan Talve, informed the Rev. Vincent Heier, director of the archdiocese office for ecumenical and interreligious affairs, of the decision.

You too, Sue.

Mr. Heier told her it was unacceptable. “It’s not appropriate to invite this group, to aid and abet a group like this, which undercuts our theology and teaching,” Mr. Heier said he told Ms. Talve.

The Roman Catholic Church is framed in hierarchy, which sets rules and offers guidance for the faithful. The Jewish tradition has no centralized leadership, and congregations operate autonomously, answering to their own mission statement.

Thanks for the news flash, genius.

It was that mission that Ms. Talve and her congregation’s board relied on when considering the issue.

Ms. Talve said the women approached her this fall. “They said they were looking for a sanctuary, and that got my attention,” she said. “As Isaiah said, we are a house of prayer for all people.”

Dumbass. Isaiah is not pleased.

There are particularly nasty places in Hell reserved for those who dare mock Almighty God. That goes for rabbiesses as well as priestesses.

The congregation’s board voted unanimously to serve as host.

But the ceremony defies Catholic Church doctrine that allows only men to be ordained as priests and deacons.

The women are ignoring the warnings of Archbishop Raymond Burke, who said they would be excommunicated if they proceeded with the ceremony.

They have excommunicated themselves. All that is left is the paperwork.

Of the roughly 100 women who have been ordained as priests or deacons worldwide in the Womenpriests movement, including 37 in the United States, only the first seven were officially excommunicated by the Vatican, said a spokeswoman for the group, Bridget Mary Meehan.

Mr. Heier and Archbishop Burke pressed Ms. Talve and the board to withdraw their offer, saying the act would “cause pain” to the church.

“It’s akin to us inviting a group that is contrary to Jewish life,” Mr. Heier said.

Yeah. What if we had Neo-Nazi Bingo Night every Tuesday, eh, rabbi? How understanding would you and your congregation be?

Ms. Talve said she regretted that the church was pained by the decision, but added that denying the women would have hurt others. She said hundreds of practicing Catholics have called to thank her for taking a stand.

I doubt there were "hundreds". I know they were not Catholics.

But the archdiocese has clearly drawn a line with Ms. Talve and her congregation.

“This is not a lack of forgiveness,” Mr. Heier said, “but we have to stand for something. It’s a matter of principle.”

Amen to all that, Brother.

Some Sunnis seem to have figured it out.

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Ex-insurgents and al-Qaeda battle

Sunni former insurgents asked U.S. forces to stay away, then ambushed members of al-Qaeda in Iraq, killing 18 in a battle that raged for hours north of Baghdad, an ex-insurgent leader and Iraqi police said yesterday.

Let us hope this outbreak of reality quickly spreads.

The Islamic Army in Iraq sent advance word to Iraqi police requesting that U.S. helicopters keep out of the area since its fighters had no uniforms and were indistinguishable from al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to the police and a top Islamic Army leader known as Abu Ibrahim.

Abu Ibrahim said his fighters killed 18 al-Qaeda in Iraq members and captured 16 Friday in the fight southeast of Samarra, a mostly Sunni city about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

"We found out that al-Qaeda intended to attack us, so we ambushed them," Abu Ibrahim said. He would not say whether any Islamic Army members were killed.

Much of the Islamic Army in Iraq, a major Sunni Arab insurgent group that includes former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, has joined the U.S.-led fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq along with Sunni tribesmen and other former insurgents repelled by the group's brutality and extremism.

Golly. Now we just have to convince The Party of Blasphemy, Buggery, and 'Bortion that Our Boys are the good guys.

An Iraqi police officer corroborated Abu Ibrahim's account, but said police were not able to verify the number of bodies because the area was still too dangerous to enter.

Before the battle, the insurgent commander personally contacted Iraqi police in Samarra to tell them his plans, according to the officer and Abu Ibrahim. He asked that Iraqi authorities inform the American military about his plans, and requested that no U.S. troops interfere, they said.

The U.S. military said yesterday that it had no record of U.S. troops ever being informed about the operation, and that it was unclear whether Iraqi police followed through on Abu Ibrahim's request.

The police officer said the al-Qaeda in Iraq captives would not be transferred to Iraqi police.
Instead, he said, he believed the Islamic Army would offer a prisoner swap for some of its members held by al-Qaeda in Iraq. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because of the situation's sensitivity.

Meanwhile, farther east, in Diyala province, members of another former insurgent group, the 1920s Revolution Brigades, launched a military-style operation yesterday against al-Qaeda in Iraq there, the Iraqi army said.

About 60 militants were captured and handed over to Iraqi soldiers, an army officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to media.

Afterward, hundreds of people paraded through the streets of Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, witnesses said. Many danced and fired their guns into the air, shouting, "Down with al-Qaeda!" and "Diyala is for all Iraqis!"

Like the Islamic Army, the 1920s Revolution Brigades includes former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and officers from his army. Hundreds of 1920s members now work as scouts and gather intelligence for American soldiers in Diyala.

Heck, maybe the Baath Party should run one of these guys for US president. They seem smarter than the dimwits the Democrass Party is offering us. Especially Chris Dudd.

And at Baghdad's most revered Sunni shrine, the Abu Hanifa mosque, voices blasted from loudspeakers yesterday urging residents to turn against al-Qaeda in Iraq: "We are your sons, the sons of the awakening, and we want to end the operations of al-Qaeda. . . . We call upon you not to be frightened, and to cooperate with us."

"Awakening councils" have sprouted up in communities across Iraq, where members swear allegiance to Iraq's U.S.-backed government and disavow the insurgency. U.S. officials say the councils have been key to tamping violence in recent months.

The backlash against al-Qaeda in Iraq among the Sunni Arab community began in Iraq's western Anbar province last year. Americans recruited Sunni sheikhs to help oust al-Qaeda from their home turf, and the movement spread to former insurgents who once fought U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.

The next generation offers a glimmer of hope.

USA Today: H.S. junior wins legal battle over right to create 'The Pro-Life Club'

When school administrators told Stephanie Hoffmeier they wouldn't recognize The Pro-Life Club, the 16-year-old junior prayed to God and went to court.

"The suit put a spotlight on an often-misunderstood legal arena involving religion in public schools. Even some advocates of strict separation of church and state say religious speech by students at public school is protected under the Constitution and federal law," Washington's other newspaper reports. "School officials, conceding they were wrong, officially recognized the club Oct. 24, and Hoffmeier dropped the suit."

About 20 students showed up at the group's first meeting, which took place a few weeks ago at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, Va.

Their mission, according to Hoffmeier's original proposal, was to "educate people about the biggest holocaust that is going on right here in the United States. To come together and pray to end abortion. To be a voice for my generation and a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves."

Click on the image to read a PDF of the complaint she filed in federal court in Alexandria, Va.


Notice the difference in the headlines from the organs of Big Babykilling...

MSNBC: Teen starts antiabortion club at school

UPI: Teen’s antiabortion club gets green light

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day [observed]. As you can see from the Department of Veterans Affair website, even they can't keep the day and date straight. It is time to get rid of the three day weekend nonsense.

Find a veteran and buy him a beer. Or, at the very least, shake his hand and thank him for risking his life so you don't have to.

Above: U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Gregory Gadson works with physical therapist Bob Barr during his rehabilitation at the Military Advanced Training Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington November 6, 2007. [Roto-Reuters]

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of Saint Paternus, Benedictine monk of Saint Pierre le Vif, near Sens, France. He was slain by evildoers whom he severely chastised. Pray fo us, all you angels and saints.


Today's reading is Wisdom 1:1-7.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 138:1-10.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 17:1-6.


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome


Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water from Christ's side, wash me; Passion of Christ, strengthen me; O good Jesus, hear me; Within Thy wounds hide me; Suffer me not to be separated from Thee; From the malicious enemy defend me; In the hour of my death call me; And bid me come unto Thee; That I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels Forever and ever. Amen.


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.


Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank You today for the gift of my life, and for the lives of all my brothers and sisters. I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion, yet I rejoice that you have conquered death by the resurrection of Your Son. I am ready to do my part to end abortion. Today I commit myself never to be silent, never to be passive, and never to be forgetful of the unborn. I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement, and never stop defending life until all my brothers and sisters are protected and our nation once again becomes a nation with liberty and justice, not just for some, but for all. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.


Prayer For Vocations

Send forth your Spirit, Lord, into the hearts of your faithful people, that we may be conscious of our vocation to holiness and sevice to others. Grant that many of us may dedicate ourselves to You through the priesthood and the religious life.We pray especially for the needs of our own parish and diocese. Grant that we may always have sufficient good and holy priests, and dedicated Sisters to serve our commumities.We pray, too, for religious orders; that generous men may join them to become zealous missionaries in preaching the Gospel in word and action, especially to the poor and abandoned.We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.


Prayer Before The Crucifix

Behold, O kind and gentle Jesus, I kneel before Thee and pray that Thou would impress upon my heart the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment. At the same time, with sorrow I meditate on Thy five precious wounds, having in mind the words which David spoke in prophecy: "They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones."


Divine Praises

Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.
May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament
Be praised, adored and loved
With grateful affection at every moment
In all the tabernacles of the world
Even to the end of time. Amen.


Prayer to Saint Benedict

Sanctissime Confessor Domini, monachorum Pater et dux,
Benedicte, intercede pro nostra omniumque salute.

V. Domine Deus virtutum converte nos.

R. Et ostende faciem tuam et salvi erimus.


Oremus.


Excita, Domine, in Ecclesia tua Spiritum cui beatus Pater noster Benedictus Abbas servivit: ut eodem nos repleti, studeamus amare quod amavit, et opere exercere quod docuit.

Da nobis, quaesumus, Domine, perseverantem in tua voluntate famulatum: ut in
Diebus nostris et merito et numero populus tibi serviens augeatur. Per Christum Dominum Nostrum. Amen.


For those whose Latin is a bit rusty:

O most holy Confessor of the Lord, Benedict, father and guide of monks, intercede for our salvation and that of everyone.

V. Lord, God of armies, convert us.

R. Show us Thy Face and we shall be saved.


Let us pray.

Awaken, O Lord, in Thy Church the Spirit that our blessed Father Saint Benedict
obeyed, so that, filled with the same Spirit we may strive to love what he loved and practice what he taught.

Grant us the grace to persevere in the service of Thy will, so that our days may
see the people of Thy servants grow in merit and number. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Peace of the Day.

Sunday November 11, 2007 is Armistice Day. It commemorates the peace to end all war.

Pray for Father David Ajemian.

NY Post: CONAN PRIEST HOOD

Ahhh... The Post's headline writers are the most clever of all.

The priest accused of stalking Conan O'Brien was kind and caring, nothing like the obsessed man who allegedly told the late-night talk show host he was "tracking him through space and time," his seminary mentor said.

Obviously, priests can have problems like the rest of us...but Conan freakin' O'Brien?


The Rev. David Ajemian, a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, was arrested last week while trying to enter a taping of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in New York City despite being warned to stay away by NBC security personnel. He was arraigned on charges including stalking and aggravated harassment and ordered held for psychiatric evaluation.

Ajemian, 46, was scheduled to appear in court Friday for an update on the case, said Jennifer Kushner, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan prosecutor's office.

His attorney, Eric Seiff, said Ajemian was being held at a New York jail, but declined to comment except to say "it will be worked out in court."

Ajemian, who allegedly began writing O'Brien in September 2006, has been placed on leave by the Boston Archdiocese and can't minister publicly. He was removed in June from his last posting, at St. Patrick Parish in Stoneham, after two years at the parish.

A spokesman at the archdiocese did not respond to questions about whether the move was related to the stalking allegations.

But on July 2, Ajemian wrote security officials at NBC questioning "why you chose to raise this matter with my superiors after I left you a clear message by phone several weeks ago that I would cease all contact with the show," according to court papers.

In the same letter, he called himself "a stalker of a very different order than the kind you are used to dealing with" and dared them to "tell Conan about your surveillance of me."

In a previous letter, Ajemian expressed frustration to O'Brien that he had been denied a spot in his audience after he'd flown to New York "in the dimming hope that you might finally acknowledge me."

"Is this the way you treat your most dangerous fans???" he wrote. "You owe me big time pal."

He also told O'Brien he knew where he lived and wrote, "Remember (mobster) Frank Costello once dodged a bullet in your building and so can you."

Ajemian's seminary mentor, the Rev. John Mark Hannon said Thursday he believes Ajemian can still be a good priest if he receives proper psychiatric help.

"He was a good seminarian. He was kind and generous and affable and concerned how people were," said Hannon, who mentored Ajemian before he graduated from St. John's Seminary in 2001.

"He's very likable," Hannon added, "it's just he's stupid, apparently."

Wow. And you folks accuse me of being less than charitable...

Ajemian, the son of former Time magazine journalist Robert Ajemian, attended Harvard University at the same time O'Brien did. Ajemian graduated from Harvard in 1983, while O'Brien graduated in 1985.

It was unclear if the two crossed paths there. O'Brien's roommate at Harvard, the Rev. Paul O'Brien, a priest in Lawrence who is not related to Conan O'Brien, declined comment.

NBC said Conan O'Brien would not comment on Ajemian.

After graduating from Harvard, Ajemian took a roundabout route to the priesthood. Among his jobs was work in 1990 as a legal assistant at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and he also worked as a teacher.

The Rev. Hannon, pastor at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Hanson, said Ajemian never spoke to him about O'Brien and never gave any indication anything unusual was happening in his life.
He's not a dangerous person, Hannon said.

"I still consider him a friend," he said.

Fyodor's Blog of the Day.

Black Aces - Bringing The NHL Perspective From Deep In The Heart Of Canada's Capital City.

I had not heard much about the new sweaters, but I did not assume everything was fine...

Most Predictable Situation: Players Hate The New Uniforms

The new sweaters repel the sweat right into the player's gloves and skates. Now Reebok is secretly trying to fix them and offering the older materials to players who request it. What a boondoggle.

Honourable Mentions: Vancouver Can't Score, Dustin Penner Isn't Performing, Phoenix Still Blows Big Time.

I'm guessing he means the Coyotes, not the City of Phoenix. Phoenix is a nice place to visit.

Once in a great while, ESPN gets it right.

A case in point is Triumph And Tragedy: The Ray Mancini Story airing on ESPN Classic Tuesday November 13, 2007 at 8:00 PM Eastern.

That day is the 25th anniversary of the WBA lightweight title fight between Ray Mancini and Korea's Deuk-Koo Kim. During that fight, Ray Mancini knocked out Kim who died 4 days later. Overwhelmed by grief, Kim's mother committed suicide 11 weeks later. Mancini was devastated and, until now, has not talked about the fight and Kim’s death in a tv interview..

Ray Mancini is a half-Irish, half-Italian working class Catholic kid from Youngstown, Ohio. His dad, Lenny [the original "Boom-Boom" Mancini] missed his shot at a world lightweight title in February 1942 because he was otherwise occupied: Uncle Sam drafted him to fight in World War II. Ray became a fighter to get a title for his dad.

Boxing is a brutal, beautiful, savage, glorious, dirty, sweet, crooked and yes, sometimes deadly game. But the men who participate in it know this.

Someday, the emasculation of mankind will be complete and boxing will be no more. Before that happens, the question we should be asking is this: How will men expend their aggression then?

Totalitarian Pennsylvania is a national joke.

Steve "Side-Saddle" Reed, Mayor For Life of Pennsylvania's capital, gets smacked by reality about as hard as he's beaten the city's budget over the years.

And he wonders why everyone has fled to the suburbs...

The Sentinel: Harrisburg mayor’s dream of the old West is readied for auction in Texas

The mayor of one of Pennsylvania’s most debt-laden cities spent millions of dollars in public money on everything from covered wagons to copper marshal’s badges for a museum about cowboys, Indians and the Wild West.

He did so even though the city is on the other side of the country from the prairies, mining towns and honky tonks of the old West and without telling city council members, who learned about it from a newspaper reporter.

Sound bizarre?

It’s true, and the other cowboy boot is poised to drop Saturday, when bidding starts on hundreds of items at a Dallas hotel — a step that council members forced to try to address a shortfall in the city budget.

The stakes are high for Harrisburg, a city of 47,000 that is best known as Pennsylvania’s capital, 95 miles west of Philadelphia and 1,400 miles east of Deadwood, S.D.

With the city deep in debt, council members will be watching closely to see how much can be reclaimed from the roughly $6.5 million that Mayor Stephen R. Reed said he spent on guns and other old West collectibles.

“If we get less, then it’s just a big mistake and it’s unfortunate for the people of Harrisburg,” said Councilman Dan Miller.

I guess we should be thankful ol' Bareback Reed did not blow the $6.5 million on statues of himself like Stalin did.

When Reed became Harrisburg’s mayor in 1982, his dream was to transform the decaying, shrinking city into a cultural destination, a “city of light” on the Susquehanna River.

Distopia, anyone?

Under Reed’s leadership, hotels and restaurants have sprouted in downtown and the number of businesses on the city’s tax rolls has more than quadrupled. A minor-league baseball team now plays on a park that rose from a trash dump on an island in the Susquehanna.

In 2001, Reed opened the National Civil War Museum on an abandoned reservoir overlooking the Capitol — even though none of the war’s major battles played out in the city. His dream of building the National Museum of the Old West next to it stalled.

“I still think it’s a good idea,” he told reporters at an unrelated public event Tuesday. But, “we need the money right now.”

The man is a certifiable lunatic. Or just an average politician.

Steve, the city had the money. You wasted the money. You are a thief and a liar.

Bad divine right monarch! Bad!

Reed did not return repeated messages The Associated Press left with an aide, but has defended his spending as perfectly legal. The auction will include items from six collections, and is being touted as the largest Western-related collection ever auctioned.

“This is your unique opportunity to share in this history,” Reed wrote in a letter printed in an auction catalog. “This is an auction like no other.”

To buy the items, Reed tapped an account at the Harrisburg Authority, where his expenditures were approved by officials he had appointed. The authority, which now includes council appointees, oversees parts of the city’s infrastructure and raises money by collecting fees on bond issues it brokers for government agencies.

At least one Harrisburg Authority official contends that some of the money Reed spent should have been off limits for the museums, and questions whether the mayor, in a shopping frenzy, unwittingly paid bloated prices for items that could be fakes.

Reed shelled out close to $30 million on old West, Civil War and other collectibles over 15 years — he even bought an Egyptian mummy — while the city was sliding deeper into debt, said the official, Eric Papenfuse, a council appointee who is the authority’s treasurer.

Certifiable.

City employees are only beginning to catalog what Reed actually bought. Many items, including a 12-gun schooner that was part of Gen. Benedict Arnold’s fleet during the Revolutionary War, are still stuffed into warehouses and storage rooms at city facilities, Papenfuse said.

Steverino heard Arnold had something to do with West Point and, being a brainless statist, naturally thought the schooner was perfect for his Wild West Extravaganza.

“The spending is staggering,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”

About 800 of the thousands of old West items from Harrisburg are scheduled to be auctioned by Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries over two days beginning Saturday. Another two-day auction is scheduled in April and some items will be sold on eBay.

For sale are covered wagons, marshal’s badges, boots, chaps, saddles, “Wanted” posters, letters, photographs, maps, furniture, pottery, decor, artwork, pistols, rifles, knives and more. One item expected to fetch tens of thousands of dollars is a bright red Wells Fargo & Co. stage coach, still in working condition.

Claims about the size of the auction raised eyebrows among dealers. One said he believes the items should bring in more than Reed paid, claiming that a weak dollar is drawing many buyers, including Europeans, into collectibles.

Way to squander your country's heritage, you pinhead. Some decadent foreign potentate is going to use that stage coach as a place to deflower the new members of his harem.

[BTW, Hitler had a thing for cowboy stories, too. I guess men who are less than men like to fantasize about being real men. I wonder if the Mayor For Life parades around his house dressed as Patton?]

“The Western market today has gone extremely wild,” said Don Cappa, a Deer Lodge, Mont., collector and appraiser.

William W. Savage Jr., a professor of western American history at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., laughed out loud when a reporter described the plans for the museum in Pennsylvania.

It is not so funny if you have to live in the middle of the tyranny, Bill.

The Keystone State is known more for its Civil and Revolutionary War history — say, Gettysburg or Valley Forge — than Wild Bill Hickok or the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

If anything, Pennsylvania was something of a launching pad for explorers, being the birthplace of the Conestoga Wagon and the Pennsylvania Rifle, Savage said.

“I wouldn’t say it was the Wild West, but it certainly figures into frontier expansion,” he said.

Miller, the councilman, said that the way Reed pursued the idea was embarrassing. There was no public discussion, no professional to draw up a plan and no curator to create a collection.

“A responsible city would not have gone about it in this way,” he said.

That, kiddies, is the bottom line. The rule of men rather than the rule of law leads invariably to tyranny. Sure, it is only petty tyranny today, but remember that Stalin got his start robbing little banks in the middle of nowhere.

Sport is dying.

Sports Illustrated: Louisville sues Duke over cancelled games

The University of Louisville has filed a lawsuit against Duke University claiming breach of contract after the Blue Devils opted out of the final three games of a four-game football series.

The lawsuit, filed in Franklin Circuit Court, is asking for $450,000 in damages, or $150,000 for each of the three games.

The two schools were to meet four times between 2002 and 2009. Louisville beat the Blue Devils 40-3 in Sept. 2002, but Duke opted out of the final three games, to be played this season and in 2008 and 2009.

Duke, according to the suit, asked the Cardinals to find a replacement opponent and promised to pay Louisville only if the school could not find one after a "good faith" effort.

Louisville claims it could not find an opponent of similar stature [What? Is Brown all booked up? - F.G.] to fill the schedule and received "little, if any, help from either Duke or the ACC" in finding a replacement.

Louisville still has one open date on its 2008 schedule and two open dates in 2009.

The university added Murray State and Utah to the 2007 schedule after Duke and Vanderbilt backed out of games with the Cardinals, said spokesman Kenny Klein.

The Cardinals have contacted every member of the Football Bowl Subdivision to find a replacement, according to the lawsuit, but has been unable to find a school willing to play two games at Louisville in exchange for one return game.

A call to Duke University by the Associated Press wasn't immediately returned on Thursday.

Happy 275th Birthday to the Redemptorists!

The Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris [C.Ss.R. or Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer], a society of missionary priests, was founded by Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, 9 Nov., 1732, at Scala, near Amalfi, Italy, for the purpose of labouring among the neglected country people in the neighbourhood of Naples.

The Redemptorists are essentially and by their specific vocation a missionary society. According to their rule they are "to strive to imitate the virtues and examples of Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer, consecrating themselves especially to the preaching of the word of God to the poor". They take the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and by the vows of poverty they are bound to refuse all ecclesiastical dignities outside of the congregation. To these vows they add the vow and oath of perseverance to live in the congregation until death. Their labours consist principally in missions, retreats, and similar exercises. In order to render these labours most effective, all their sermons and instructions should be solid, simple, and persuasive. On all their missions they are obliged to preach a sermon on prayer and one on the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In order to secure the salutary effects of their missions, they should, after four or five months, return to the places where they have given missions, and preach another, shorter course of sermons. On missions proper the rule obliges them to hear all the confessions themselves. Wherever the Redemptorists have parishes they labour in the same spirit, both in the pulpit and in the confessional. One of the great means of preserving truly religious fervour among all classes of the faithful is the Archconfraternity of the Holy Family, which they establish in all their parishes. They are also most solicitous in providing well-equipped parochial schools, and they take special care of growing youth.


Visit the Redemptorists here.

Visit the Redemptorists in North America here.


The Redemptorists do God's vital work all over the world every day, preaching His Word and saving souls. Please pray that more good men will answer God's call to join the Redemptorists and encourage your sons to think seriously about the priesthood.

Pray for us, Our Mother Of Perpetual Help.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is th Feast of The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. Today is also the Feast of Saint Orestes, a martyr of Cappadocia who was put to death by torture under co-Emperor Diocletian. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.


Today's first reading is Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 45:3-4, 6-7, 9-10.
Today's second reading is 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17.
Today's Gospel reading is John 2:13-22.


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome


Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water from Christ's side, wash me; Passion of Christ, strengthen me; O good Jesus, hear me; Within Thy wounds hide me; Suffer me not to be separated from Thee; From the malicious enemy defend me; In the hour of my death call me; And bid me come unto Thee; That I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels Forever and ever. Amen.


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.


Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank You today for the gift of my life, and for the lives of all my brothers and sisters. I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion, yet I rejoice that you have conquered death by the resurrection of Your Son. I am ready to do my part to end abortion. Today I commit myself never to be silent, never to be passive, and never to be forgetful of the unborn. I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement, and never stop defending life until all my brothers and sisters are protected and our nation once again becomes a nation with liberty and justice, not just for some, but for all. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.


Prayer For Vocations

Send forth your Spirit, Lord, into the hearts of your faithful people, that we may be conscious of our vocation to holiness and sevice to others. Grant that many of us may dedicate ourselves to You through the priesthood and the religious life.We pray especially for the needs of our own parish and diocese. Grant that we may always have sufficient good and holy priests, and dedicated Sisters to serve our commumities.We pray, too, for religious orders; that generous men may join them to become zealous missionaries in preaching the Gospel in word and action, especially to the poor and abandoned.We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.


Prayer Before The Crucifix

Behold, O kind and gentle Jesus, I kneel before Thee and pray that Thou would impress upon my heart the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment. At the same time, with sorrow I meditate on Thy five precious wounds, having in mind the words which David spoke in prophecy: "They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones."


Divine Praises

Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.
May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament
Be praised, adored and loved
With grateful affection at every moment
In all the tabernacles of the world
Even to the end of time. Amen.


Prayer to Saint Benedict

Sanctissime Confessor Domini, monachorum Pater et dux,
Benedicte, intercede pro nostra omniumque salute.

V. Domine Deus virtutum converte nos.

R. Et ostende faciem tuam et salvi erimus.


Oremus.


Excita, Domine, in Ecclesia tua Spiritum cui beatus Pater noster Benedictus Abbas servivit: ut eodem nos repleti, studeamus amare quod amavit, et opere exercere quod docuit.

Da nobis, quaesumus, Domine, perseverantem in tua voluntate famulatum: ut in
Diebus nostris et merito et numero populus tibi serviens augeatur. Per Christum Dominum Nostrum. Amen.


For those whose Latin is a bit rusty:

O most holy Confessor of the Lord, Benedict, father and guide of monks, intercede for our salvation and that of everyone.

V. Lord, God of armies, convert us.

R. Show us Thy Face and we shall be saved.


Let us pray.

Awaken, O Lord, in Thy Church the Spirit that our blessed Father Saint Benedict
obeyed, so that, filled with the same Spirit we may strive to love what he loved and practice what he taught.

Grant us the grace to persevere in the service of Thy will, so that our days may
see the people of Thy servants grow in merit and number. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Wow. Things in Pakistan are much, much worse than anyone knew.

AP: Lawyers emerging as Pakistan's political conscience

Mary Anne Doe, Requiescat in pace.

I know Almighty God will have mercy on poor little Mary Anne's soul. Let us pray that her mother and father may seek His mercy through conversion, repentence, and confession.

Though the newborn baby's body was found in a dumpster behind the Lancaster YMCA, she is not being tossed away by the local community.

She now has a name, Mary Anne.

And her short life will be honored at a funeral to be held at 1 p.m. Friday at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, 501 E. Orange St.

"The most vulnerable and fragile human life is filled with dignity and deserves to be rejoiced in," said the Rev. Daniel Mitzel of St. Anthony Church.

Baby Mary Anne's funeral was planned by local people who stepped forward after her body was discovered Sept. 24.

The child's body, inside a tote bag from a state land title association, was found in a dumpster in the 500 block of Market Street. An autopsy showed the child was female and police are waiting the results of further tests.

Dolores Yecker, a lifetime member of St. Anthony and a member of its social justice ministry committee, was touched by the abandoned baby.

She talked with Mitzel, and the church decided to hold the funeral and donate a burial site at its cemetery off Ranck Avenue."When I read about this baby, there was just something about it that I felt so sorry for," she said today.

Yecker named the baby, giving her the first name of the mother of Jesus and the middle name of the mother of Mary. Yecker's own grandmother also had that name.

Blessed Mother, pray for us.

Saint Anne, pray for us.

Mitzel will be joined at the service by the Rev. Stephen Verkouw of Grace Lutheran Church, a North Queen Street church about a block from where the baby's body was found.

Also, the Rev. Kevin Brown of Ray's Temple Community Church of God in Christ and of the Downtown Ministerium will participate. A police chaplain also is expected to participate in the funeral, which will include a graveside service.

Chip Snyder of Charles F. Snyder Funeral Home has volunteered his services and a small white casket for the burial.

Snyder expects local florists will donate flowers. Also, a fund is being established to collect money for a headstone that likely will cost between $500 and $1,000.

In addition to celebrating the life of Baby Mary Anne at the funeral, Mitzel said he will note the challenge to respond to the needs of others in the community.

He hopes the community will embrace the service and that challenge.

"All people of faith are invited, all people of faith and prayer and good will," Mitzel said.

Donations for Baby Mary Anne's headstone may be sent to:

Charles F. Snyder Funeral Home
414 E. King St.
Lancaster, PA 17602

Any funds beyond the cost of the headstone will be donated to a local crisis pregnancy center.

Meanwhile, back in the other Georgia...

The Washington Times: President declares state of emergency

U.S.-allied President Mikhail Saakashvili declared a state of emergency yesterday in the capital of Georgia, where six days of demonstrations have fueled a worsening crisis.

Mr. Saakashvili has blamed Russia for fomenting the unrest in the former Soviet nation. His prime minister, Zurab Nogaideli, said in a televised statement that there had been an effort to overthrow the pro-Western government.

Putin's a dumbass. The age of czars and Party Chairmen is over.

“An attempt to conduct a coup was made, and we had to react to that,” Mr. Nogaideli said.
The emergency declaration “will temporarily ban demonstrations and protests and calls in the media for violence and the ouster of the government by force,” Mr. Nogaideli said.

He said the presidential decree would be submitted to parliament for approval in the next two days as required by the constitution.

Riot police earlier used tear gas and water cannons to break up demonstrations before bursting into the offices of a pro-opposition television station that went off the air moments later.

Georgia"s Imedi television station describes itself as independent but is seen as a key opposition mouthpiece by authorities. It has carried statements by opposition leaders and broadcast footage of police breaking up protests yesterday.

More than 100 people were hospitalized after police drove opposition demonstrators from two protests in the capital, Tbilisi. Police used nightsticks on some protesters and rubber bullets at one demonstration.

Whither Pakistan?

The Washington Times: Pakistan's moves may aid militants

President Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule has so alienated Pakistan's moderate middle class that many analysts fear he has created a power vacuum that will allow militant Islamists to flourish.

Pakistani police continued arresting opponents yesterday, adding to thousands of lawyers, human rights activists and campaigners for "civil society" who have been jailed since Gen. Musharraf suspended the constitution on Saturday.

Almost unnoticed in the domestic and international furor after the move was a prisoner exchange reported Sunday, in which 25 extremists were swapped for nearly 200 soldiers captured months ago in the tribal region of Waziristan.

"If indeed the reason for his virtual martial law was to fight extremism and terrorism, then he is not likely to rid Pakistan of it," said Naseem Zehra, a popular commentator and newspaper columnist.

Ayaz Amir, a political analyst, said Gen. Musharraf had a "good vision" but emergency rule highlights his government's biggest weakness.

"It is accountable to no one. There are no checks and balances," he said in a telephone interview from Washington.

"To face the challenge of extremism and terrorism, you've got to have the support of moderate and secular forces who have always opposed the Taliban. Now they are disaffected," Mr. Amir said. "This is no way to run a country."

'Conservative' and 'Republican' are not REPEAT NOT synonymous.

The Washington Times: Christian right scatters support in GOP

Christian conservative leaders, unable to coalesce around a single candidate, instead are spreading their blessings among several Republican presidential hopefuls — and drying up talk of a third-party "Christian values" ticket.

Alan Keyes for President!

The Rev. Donald Wildmon, who founded the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss., and whose evangelical Christian message reaches several million radio listeners and Internet subscribers, will throw his support to Mike Huckabee today, a Republican close to the Huckabee campaign told The Washington Times.

Alan Keyes for President!

That support will come a day after the Rev. Pat Robertson shocked fellow evangelicals by endorsing Rudolph W. Giuliani, the only pro-choice Republican running.

Alan Keyes for President!

Merrill Matthews, an evangelical Christian and health care policy analyst at the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, said Mr. Robertson's endorsement can mean one of two things: "Either abortion is no longer the defining issue for evangelicals that it used to be or the fear of a Hillary Clinton presidency is so great that at least some evangelicals will compromise on a three-decades-old non-compromisable principle to beat her."

Alan Keyes for President!

The doling out of endorsements began Monday when Paul M. Weyrich, who holds a regular Wednesday meeting of conservative leaders in Washington, gave the nod to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, who ended his run for the Republican nomination last month, yesterday embraced Sen. John McCain of Arizona. James Dobson, whose Focus on the Family reaches millions of followers through radio and newsletter subscriptions, is expected to reveal his choice this week.

Alan Keyes for President!

Some evangelical insiders predict that Mr. Dobson will back Mr. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and an ordained Southern Baptist minister.

Alan Keyes for President!

The Robertson endorsement is considered a clear signal that the evangelical broadcaster thinks that the former New York mayor will emerge as the Republican nominee next year and is the candidate most capable of defeating Mrs. Clinton in the fall.

Alan Keyes for President!

"The theme of the endorsements of both Giuliani and McCain seem to be less about conservative beliefs and more about who can beat Hillary," said Jessica Echard, executive director of Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. "For Republicans to use that criterion is to hand over the primary process to the Democratic Party, rather than to the grass roots."

Alan Keyes for President!

"Eagle Forum is in no hurry to endorse a candidate," Miss Echard said. "We are still one year from the general election."

Alan Keyes for President!

But some Republicans professed to see value in Christian right leaders ending up all over the map.

Alan Keyes for President!

"This really indicates a maturing of the social conservative leaders in one sense: that they don't all fit into a phone booth and that they don't all fit into a mold," Republican elections lawyer Cleta Mitchell said. "The absence of a lock-step devotion to the same candidate makes social conservative leaders important to whichever candidate is endorsed. That is a good thing, not a bad thing."

Alan Keyes for President!

Mr. Matthews said the endorsements show that the Christian right has a pragmatic side and is not as rigid an ideological movement as it is portrayed.

Alan Keyes for President!

Mr. Robertson has a history of endorsing the ultimate winner of the Republican presidential nomination fight, including Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000.

Alan Keyes for President!

Mr. Robertson's influence is not widespread as it once was. His "700 Club" reaches millions of viewers five days a week, but he is no longer associated with the Christian Coalition, which he founded after his failed Republican presidential nomination run in 1988.

Alan Keyes for President!

Many evangelical leaders across the country e-mailed each other expressing their shock over the surprise move by Mr. Robertson, who has built a reputation as a protector of the unborn.

Alan Keyes for President!

The practical effect of Mr. Robertson, still a major figure on the evangelical right, has less to do with how many followers he can turn out next November and more to do with the stamp of approval he puts on pro-life voters tapping the screen for a pro-choice candidate.

Alan Keyes for President!

"Many evangelicals have been saying quietly that given the choice between Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, they would vote for Rudy," Mr. Matthews said. "Pat Robertson's endorsement frees them up to say so publicly."

Alan Keyes for President!

Senator Token Update.

Ol' What'shisreligion babbles mindlessly about something or other as his hopes of being Hitlery's veep quickly fade.

The Washington Times: Obama confronts generational rifts

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama attacked his chief rival as out of step with the times and too locked in 1960s social and cultural battles to deal with new challenges that require a different and perhaps younger perspective.

Yeah, like he's any less a socialist. Heck, I know three year olds with collectivist tendencies.

As a matter of fact, having a mind like a three year old comes in handy on the fascist left.

"I think there is no doubt that we represent the kind of change that Senator Clinton can't deliver on, and part of it is generational," Mr. Obama told Fox News yesterday about the difference between himself and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. "I mean, Senator Clinton and others, they've been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s, and it makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done."

Mr. Obama began his presidential campaign with the message that a new generation of Americans needs to assume leadership and continue the progress made by the baby boomers who fought for civil rights.

For the first six months of the campaign, that message helped carry Mr. Obama to record fundraising numbers far ahead of Mrs. Clinton's. The senator from New York did not catch up until the summer.

Last month, Mr. Obama said he would begin to challenge Mrs. Clinton directly. [WATERBOARD HER! WATERBOARD HER! - F.G.] He and other Democratic candidates peppered her during a debate last week with tough questions about immigration and Iran.

Mr. Obama, Illinois Democrat, kicked off several days of campaigning in Iowa yesterday with a speech in Bettendorf. He touted his proposals introduced earlier this year to expand health care coverage, eliminate the income tax for retirees making less than $50,000 per year and cut taxes up to $1,000 for families.

He also proposed ways to make college more affordable.

"I'll create a new and fully refundable tax credit worth $4,000 for tuition and fees every year, which will cover two-thirds of the tuition at the average public college or university," Mr. Obama said. He pledged to "simplify the financial aid application process so that we don't have a million students who aren't applying for aid because it's too difficult."

...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

He said he would eliminate the current application for student aid and instead rely on parents' tax data to determine eligibility. He proposed a new Community College Partnership Program to determine the skills and technical education needed to help local industry, create degrees for emerging fields and reward schools that graduate more students.

Mr. Obama's higher-education proposal contrasts with that of former Sen. John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat who also is seeking the presidential nomination.

Mr. Edwards has called for a plan to fully cover tuition and book costs for more than 2 million students in their first year of public college. He said he would reform the financial aid system by eliminating bank subsidies on student loans and allowing students to apply directly to the Department of Education. He estimates his plan would free up almost $6 billion a year to make higher education more affordable.

The Washington Times: Edwards, Obama unite against Hillary

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" may be the new campaign motto for the two Democratic presidential hopefuls simultaneously working to topple Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

From The Evans-Novak Political Report for November 7, 2007

Sign up here to get your own FREE subscription.

The following is merely a sample of the latest ENPR.


Outlook


The transformation of congressional procedure into a knife fight as the session nears an end was typified by the maneuvers of Democratic leaders this week. They attempted to fold the controversial Labor/Health and Human Services (replete with earmarks) and Education appropriations bills into the non-controversial Military Construction bill (including Veterans benefits). The outcome is unclear.


In the midst of maneuvers over appropriations, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) rose Tuesday to offer a privileged motion for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney. Democratic leaders don't want this divisive debate, but Republicans do and prevented the Kucinich resolution from being tabled. The motion was finally referred to committee, preventing a bitterly divisive battle among Democrats.


Democrats are showing a little "buyer's remorse" about Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) as their presidential candidate even before they have "bought" her. Her waffling on New York Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer's bid to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens led some Democrats to describe her as somebody interested only in power. But she looks to be headed for the nomination.


Republicans are in a presidential quandary after the performance of former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday (see below). There is no party favorite, and Republican insiders are still waiting for somebody to step forward.





President 2008


Republicans:


Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) may have seriously wounded himself with his handling of the abortion issue on Sunday's "Meet the Press." Thompson unequivocally stated he opposed a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution, which is a plank in the Republican platform. Without prompting, he then attacked the idea of "criminalizing" abortion and locking up mothers who procure abortions -- images that are used as scare tactics by the pro-choice lobby. Throughout the long discussion of the topic, Thompson was incoherent at best and thoroughly objectionable to his party's pro-life base at worst. He backed away from his firm opposition to the platform, but he never quite set himself right on the whole issue.


While abortion might not have the weight this election that it has in the past, the pro-life base is still one Thompson cannot afford to upset. Many conservative activists who put the abortion issue near the top of their priorities would be ready to embrace Thompson as their nominee. His "Meet the Press" performance will, at the very least, make it very difficult for pro-life activists to campaign for Thompson.


This leaves the GOP field without a real anti-abortion leader since the withdrawal of Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). Some pro-lifers trust the conversion of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), but many doubt it. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has a 100 percent pro-life record, but he has never been a leader on the issue, though he did pick up a Brownback endorsement this week. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), a doctor, has also consistently voted against abortion, but to date, he hasn't made it much of an issue. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) has assuaged the fears of some pro-life voters, but he will never win over the hard-core abortion foes who go to church parking lots on the Sunday before Election Day campaigning for Republicans in many races. The most pro-life candidate remaining may be former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), possibly the least broadly conservative candidate in the field.


Rep. Ron Paul set fundraising records on Monday, pulling in $4.2 million in online donations in one day. This is the largest single day of online fundraising in political history, and the largest single day of donations for any Republican candidate ever. The donations, averaging a little more than $100 each, reflect the unmatched enthusiasm of Paul's supporters, who range from anti-war activists to libertarians to fed-up Republicans.


Interestingly, it was volunteer supporters with no affiliations to Paul's campaign who organized the fundraiser. For all the talk of candidates' using the Internet in 2008, Paul's campaign is the only one that is really doing it -- and he is doing it mostly by stepping back and letting his enthusiastic backers form their own networks of support.


Raising this sort of money could increase Paul's support. First, it suggests that he is a legitimate candidate and not the Dennis Kucinich of the GOP. This might make some potential supporters less wary about "throwing away their vote." Also, going into the early states, he will have a huge cash-on-hand advantage over everyone but Romney and McCain.



I would vote for Ron Paul before I would vote for Mayor McTerror.

Children of the '80s, rejoice!

Because Pylon is back and they are playing in Philadelphia Saturday night at the World Cafe Live!

In December of 1987, R.E.M. was chosen by Rolling Stone as “America’s Best
Rock And Roll Band,” an honor that was quickly dismissed by drummer Bill Berry.
“We're not the best rock’n’roll band in America." Pylon, he declared, was much
more deserving of the honor than his group. Yet, at the time, Pylon had been
broken up for four years.

But such is the legacy of Pylon. Word of mouth and a relatively small but
vital cache of music, often traded by hard-core fans and collectors, has kept
the story of the fiercely independent and highly influential band alive for
three decades.

The quartet was born in 1979 in the humid college town of Athens, Georgia. It’s hard to believe now, but back then there was no real music scene in the now-legendary city. The B-52’s had made their mark and quickly moved to the greener pastures of New York. Cover bands and redneck frat parties served the college community, leaving the more artistically inclined outsiders with plenty of free time to create their own little world. Pylon was born of this necessity and deftly rose to the occasion -- on their own terms.

University of Georgia art students Randy Bewley(guitar) and Michael Lachowski (bass) teamed with drummer Curtis Crowe to fill out their repetitive “electronic experimentation” project, grinding out lock-step mechanical art rock that treaded danceable beats with the precision of a well-oiled machine. Two weeks after the addition of vocalist Vanessa Briscoe, the novice band debuted at a downtown party in March of ’79. Just a few shows and a few months later, they were opening for Gang of Four in NYC and Philadelphia.

Oh, man...Gang of Four! Commie dance music from the UK...

The “art-oriented, New Wave dance-party circuit” as Lachowski once referred to their clique, soon responded with a wave of new bands -- including an enigmatic garage band called R.E.M. Athens became a hotspot for music as The B's became the IT band of the New York scene, riding high on “Rock Lobster," and spreading the word about Pylon and the burgeoning Athens scene to anyone who’d listen.

Pylon's first single, "Cool" / “Dub” was released on Atlanta’s DB Recs label in early 1980, earning a slew of excited press that immediately heralded Pylon as a major underground act. The band’s jagged rhythms, scratchy guitar and insistent bass lines were the perfect foil for Vanessa’s whisper-to-a-shriek vocals and the band’s live shows were sweaty dance parties. Their debut LP Gyrate, was released in November of ’80 amid a heady time for the band. A string of sold-out club shows across the US was highlighted by an opening slot for The B-52's in New York's Central Park.

Glowing reviews came flooding in, including attention from Rolling Stone, Trouser Press and seemingly every other magazine on the planet. “Gyrate is a very good record that, in its humor, drive and purposeful innocence, sums up everything that’s best about the new American rock bands,” wrote Tom Carson in Rolling Stone. “[Pylon] bears scant relation to anything,” cooed a writer in NME. Pylon garnered a virtual torrent of positive reviews, all praising the band’s minimalistic approach, charming naiveté, artful use of space, persistent beat and quirky yet concise lyrics.

After Gyrate, the band soldiered on, releasing the stylistically adventurous Chomp while continuing to tour the US and UK to uniformly glowing reviews for their performances. The band remained an independent enterprise and when the project became more of a job than an exploration of art, they called it day with no one to answer to but themselves.

Many bands would be happy to relive those glory days, but damned if Pylon didn’t have another trick up their sleeve. In ’90 they reunited, released Chain and opened a string of well-received shows for R.E.M. before calling it quits once again the next year with a massive garage sale in their hometown the day after their final show. This time, they said, they were gone for good.

Or were they?

In the summer of 2004, fans and critics were shocked and pleasantly surprised to hear the rumors that Pylon had been secretly rehearsing at a practice space in Athens. Suddenly, on a balmy August day, word spread through Athens about a “secret” Pylon show, later that night. Naturally by showtime, the place was packed with old friends and fans who’d certainly heard of the band, but were too young to experience the real thing in person.

Pylon blazed through a set of their best-known material with Crowe bashing away on a set of drums borrowed from -- drumroll, please… yep, you guessed it -- old pal and long-time supporter Bill Berry. The band rocked with wild, wide-eyed and loose-limbed abandon, occasionally stealing glances at each other as if to assure themselves it was indeed happening after so many years of silence. For an all-too-brief brief moment, it was just like a hot summer night in Athens, circa 1981.

That brings us to today. After a string of successful gigs in Athens and Atlanta, Pylon is ready to create another era of their musical history. The very same line-up that ignited the Athens scene of the so-called Golden Age (and the only Athens band of any era to feature the original personnel) still has that spark and charisma that audiences and writers fell in love with the first time around. And the best news of all is that the outfit hasn’t altered their sound to pander to “modern” tastes, nor have they lost one ounce of their original style, humor and unrelenting art-school beat.

No one but Pylon sounds like Pylon. With an exciting live show and a newly re-mastered version of Gyrate, Pylon is back in action for their legion of old fans and a whole new generation of music lovers.

This is Pylon.

It starts at 11:30 PM, which is way past my bed time, but I have been waiting for this chance for twenty-five years.

This is why we invented naps, kiddies.

I mostly picked this story because of the name of the newspaper.

The Barre Montpelier Times Argus [!!!]: Notorious Boston jail makes transformation into luxury hotel

The elegant iron-railing balconies were once catwalks where guards stood watch over the inmates to make sure they didn't try to break out. If you look closely, you can still see the outline of the holes from the iron bars on the windows.

At the newly opened Liberty Hotel, it's hard to escape what this building once was: a decrepit jail where Boston locked up its most notorious prisoners.

But that's just the point.

After a five-year, $150 million renovation, the old Charles Street jail is now a luxury hotel for guests who can afford to pay anywhere from $319 a night for the lowest-priced room to $5,500 for the presidential suite. The hotel, at the foot of Boston's stately Beacon Hill neighborhood, opened in September.

Architects took pains to preserve many features of the 156-year-old stone building and its history.

The old sally port, where guards once brought prisoners from paddy wagons to their cells, is being converted into the entrance to a new restaurant, Scampo, which is Italian for "escape."

Clever.

In another restaurant, named Clink, diners can look through original bars from cell doors and windows as they order smoked lobster bisque or citrus poached prawns from waiters and waitresses wearing shirts with prison numbers. The hotel bar, Alibi, is built in the jail's former drunk tank.

Instead of con men, counterfeiters and cat burglars, the guests now include Mick Jagger, Annette Bening, Meg Ryan and Eva Mendes.

The old clientele included Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, who served time for fraud in 1904 after he took a civil service exam for a friend; Frank Abagnale Jr., a 1960s con artist played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie "Catch Me If You Can;" a group of thieves who pulled off the Great Brinks Robbery in Boston in 1950; and a German U-boat captain who was captured in 1945 and killed himself with shards from his sunglasses.

Boston also has a luxury hotel called Jurys in the former Boston police headquarters building in fashionable Back Bay. The hotel bar is called Cuffs.

The transformation of the Charles Street Jail is stunning to some of those who spent time in the notorious lockup.

"It's a magnificent place," said Bill Baird, an activist locked up for 37 days in 1967 for breaking a Massachusetts law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried people. His arrest led to a landmark 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing birth control for unmarried people.

May God have mercy on his soul.

"How you could take something that was so horrible and turn it into something of tremendous beauty, I don't know," said Baird, who visited the new hotel in October, on the 40th anniversary of his conviction.

How quaint. Does anyone remember when the law of the land actually agreed with The Natural Law?

Nope, me neither.

When the jail opened in 1851, it was hailed as an international model for prison architecture. Built in the shape of a cross, the granite jail had a 90-foot-high central rotunda and four wings of cells. Large arched windows provided lots of natural light and good ventilation. Each of the 220 cells housed just one inmate.

But over the years, the jail fell into disrepair and became filthy, overcrowded and prone to riots.

Joseph Salvati, who spent 10 months in the jail in 1967 and 1968 after he was charged in a gangland slaying, said everything was covered with pigeon droppings.

"They had a crew every morning that would come down with hot water hoses and brushes to scrape it off the floor and seats," he said. "You had to rush down for breakfast to get a seat that was clean."

Salvati, who was exonerated after spending 30 years in various prisons, said he gets a kick out of seeing the jail turned into a luxury hotel. It is now "very classy-looking," he said.

In the 1970s, the inmates sued over the squalid conditions. After spending a night at the jail to see things for himself, a federal judge in 1973 ordered the place closed. But it took until 1990 for a new jail to be built and the last inmates to be moved.

The property was bought by Massachusetts General Hospital, next door, which invited proposals for preserving the building's historical character.

Cambridge developer Richard Friedman said the architects tried to retain some original elements while not reminding people too much of its dark past.

"How do you transform that into a joyous place where people have fun and a good time?" Friedman said. "We tried to use a sense of humor."

Charlene Swauger of Albuquerque, N.M., who stayed at the hotel in October, said the designers preserved elements of the old jail without crossing the line into bad taste.

"I thought it was very clever. I didn't discover any ghosts or anything," she said.

Eighteen of the hotel's 298 rooms are built in the original jail. Those rooms feature the original brick walls of the jail but also have high-definition TVs. The remaining rooms are in a new 16-story tower.

Max Stern, the chief lawyer for the inmates whose lawsuit led to the jail's closing, said some aspects of the project — such as calling the restaurant Clink — are too lighthearted.

"I thought they could have been a little more objective about what it really was like," he said.

He has a point, kiddies, albeit a small one.

Sport is dying.

TennisX: Germans Say Tommy Haas Was Poisoned During Davis Cup Against Russians

The German Davis Cup team is alleging that Tommy Haas was poisoned prior to their Davis Cup semifinal match against Russia.

The International Tennis Federation is investigating the allegation, as Haas was forced to sit out the final day of play with what he thought was a stomach virus. On that day Russia won the final two singles matches to advance to the final against the U.S.

"We take this very seriously," ITF spokeswoman Barbara Travers told the AP. "The investigation starts today."

German Davis Cup teammate Alexander Waske said he was told by a Russian who manages numerous athletes that it was poisoning.

"He said as an aside, that it was bitter that Tommy Haas was poisoned," said Waske, who told the unnamed man it was just a virus. "Thereupon he said, no, they poisoned him."

Haas will reportedly have additional blood tests run to detect a poisoning.

"I'm shocked that something like that appears possible," Haas said. "When I think of how bad I felt, I can imagine it. I've been feeling weak for weeks...I was the only one ever to order dessert or a Latte macchiato after dinner [during the Davis Cup weekend]. If all this is true, since no one else got sick, that must have been when it happened."

It is more bad news for Russia, with Nikolay Davydenko under investigation for match-fixing, and the Russian mafia reportedly deep into internet tennis betting and match fixing.

Happy 40th Birthday to Courtney Thorne-Smith!

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette:

I know you boys will not understand this now, but trust me...she is better than two twenty year olds.

The Slave China regime continues its relentless war against the free world through other means.

Guardian Unlimited: Illegal drug GHB found in China-made children's toy

Did this kind of thing ever happen with stuff imported from Japan?

Toys made in China were being seized and tested in Hong Kong today after scientists in Australia found that similar toys contained a chemical that converts into an illegal drug when ingested, officials said.

At least five children in the United States and Australia have been hospitalised after swallowing the toy beads, which are used for arts and crafts projects. They can be arranged into designs and fused when sprayed with water.

Australian scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolises into gamma hydroxy butyrate, better known as GHB, or liquid ecstasy, which has become notorious in its use as a date rape drug and is also popular on the dance club scene.

When eaten, the compound - made from common and easily available ingredients - can induce euphoria, hallucinations and drowsiness in low doses, and in higher doses can cause seizures, unconsciousness, coma and death.

The toys were sent to a laboratory in Hong Kong for tests, a customs official said, requesting anonymity in line with policy.

If the tests come back positive for the drug, suppliers of the toy in Hong Kong could face jail terms of one year and fines of HK$100,000 (£6,100), she said.

The toys are designed and distributed by Moose Enterprise and are called Bindeez in Australia, where they were named toy of the year at an industry function earlier this year, while in the United States they are known as Aqua Dots.

Retailer Toys "R" Us said in a statement it has pulled the toy beads from its stores in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, after officials in Australia ordered them off the shelves on Tuesday.

An employee at Moose Enterprise's Hong Kong office said the production of the toy was outsourced to a mainland Chinese factory, but she was unaware of its name or where exactly it was located.

"Our Hong Kong office is only responsible for operations such as logistics and shipping arrangements, we don't have any firsthand information," the employee told Associated Press, requesting anonymity because she is not authorised to speak to the media.

Moose Enterprise earlier said Bindeez and Aqua Dots were made at the same factory in Shenzhen, in China's southern Guangdong province. The company said the product is distributed to 40 countries.

The Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Book of the Day.*

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944
by Rick Atkinson


View an interactive map
Read an excerpt
Read reviews
View historical photos from the book
View original historical documents
View a video of Rick discussing the book
Listen to Rick discussing the book
Listen to Rick read from the audiobook


In the second volume of his epic trilogy about the liberation of Europe in World War II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the harrowing story of the campaigns in Sicily and Italy
In An Army at Dawn -- winner of the Pulitzer Prize -- Rick Atkinson provided a dramatic and authoritative history of the Allied triumph in North Africa. Now, in The Day of Battle, he follows the strengthening American and British armies as they invade Sicily in July 1943 and then, mile by bloody mile, fight their way north toward Rome.

The Italian campaign's outcome was never certain; in fact, Roosevelt, Churchill, and their military advisers engaged in heated debate about whether an invasion of the so-called soft underbelly of Europe was even a good idea. But once under way, the commitment to liberate Italy from the Nazis never wavered, despite the agonizingly high price. The battles at Salerno, Anzio, and Monte Cassino were particularly difficult and lethal, yet as the months passed, the Allied forces continued to drive the Germans up the Italian peninsula. Led by Lieutenant General Mark Clark, one of the war's most complex and controversial commanders, American officers and soldiers became increasingly determined and proficient. And with the liberation of Rome in June 1944, ultimate victory at last began to seem inevitable.

Drawing on a wide array of primary source material, written with great drama and flair, this is narrative history of the first rank. With The Day of Battle, Atkinson has once again given us the definitive account of one of history's most compelling military campaigns.

Read reviews

*Huh? Look here.

And their parents are paying good money for it.

WorldNetDaily: University vetoes extra credit for flag-burning

The University of Maine is backtracking on a classroom teacher's suggestion that students would get extra credit for burning a flag, or a copy of the U.S. Constitution.

I, for one, am no longer shocked by this nonsense.

University spokesman Joe Carr has told the Bangor Daily News the comments that prompted complaints from several students – including one who decided to drop the class because of the suggestion – were not intended to be taken literally.

Carr confirmed to the newspaper no extra credit would be granted for carrying out the suggestions from Paul Grosswiler, an associate professor students reported made the offer to his History of Mass Communications class.

Rebekah McDade is a sophomore who was in Grosswiler's class, but decided to drop the course and take it later from another professor, because of the suggestion, which she believed was offered seriously.

"I was offended," McDade told the newspaper. "I come from a family of military men and women, and the flag and Constitution are really important symbols to me because of my family background."

Grosswiler explained that the student misunderstood the discussion.

"I don't intend for students to burn either the Constitution or the flag, and over the years hundreds of students have understood that," he wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper.

The issue originally was publicized in a news release from The Leadership Institute.

"Associated Professor Paul Grosswiler was addressing his first class on the 'History of Mass Communication' at the University's School of Journalism when a student asked how he could earn extra credit in the course," the statement said. "Grosswiler paused for a moment, then announced that he would award extra credit to students who burned the U. S. flag or the Constitution, or got themselves arrested for exhibiting free speech."

"There was the loudest silence ever for a second," said McDade. A classmate asked Grosswiler if he was serious, and he replied, "Absolutely," according to the Institute.

McDade said Grosswiler already had alleged free speech didn't exist in America because "the Republican administration has made it all but illegal."

She reported that she was concerned over what she described as Grosswiler's bias, and when his outbursts continued in the next class, she asked her adviser if she could take the class another semester with an objective professor.

McDade said she used the learning experience to start a Students for Academic Freedom group, with help from the Leadership Institute's Campus Leadership Program.

Carr also told the newspaper there would be no disciplinary action for the professor. He said Grosswiler has been at the school since 1991 and is a "well-respected member of the faculty."

Another student confirmed to the newspaper that the offer appeared to be serious.

In a forum page on the newspaper's website, Patrick, of Orono, Maine, said he took the same class in 2006 "and I was personally appalled by the comments made by this professor."

And Don, from Knoxville, Tenn., said the comments might have been fine if they had been balanced.

"If this prof's motives were really pure he would have given students the options of also burning a copy of the Communist Manifeseto by Karl Marx or reciting Reagan's speech in support of the nomination of Barry Goldwater or burning a picture of Hillary Clinton in the middle of campus. Now THAT would be fair and balanced."

A commentary at RightWingNews' website said liberalism in academia is not new, and this is just another example.

"Leftists seek sanctuary in the ivory tower of higher education where they can feel free to impose their liberal moonbattery on hapless college students. The less control they have over the country, the tighter their grip over academia becomes. And nothing runs more rampant on college campuses than anti-Americanism."

"Perhaps the most telling quote from Professor Grosswiler was this one: 'If they don't tolerate thought that they hate, they don't believe in the First Amendment,'" the editorial said.

"So not tolerating a professor asking students to burn the United States flag is equal to not believing in free speech? Your tax dollars at work, folks."

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of Saint Pope Deusdedit. Pope from 615-618, also called Adeodatus I. He was the son of a subdeacon, Stephen, born in Rome. Consecrated pope on October 19, 615, he became known for his care of the poor. An earthquake hit Rome in August 618, and he worked tirelessly during the disaster. He was the first pope to use bullae on documents. It is possible that he was originally a Benedictine. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.


Today's reading is Romans 14:7-12.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 26:1, 4, 13-14.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 15:1-10.


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome


Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water from Christ's side, wash me; Passion of Christ, strengthen me; O good Jesus, hear me; Within Thy wounds hide me; Suffer me not to be separated from Thee; From the malicious enemy defend me; In the hour of my death call me; And bid me come unto Thee; That I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels Forever and ever. Amen.


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.


Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank You today for the gift of my life, and for the lives of all my brothers and sisters. I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion, yet I rejoice that you have conquered death by the resurrection of Your Son. I am ready to do my part to end abortion. Today I commit myself never to be silent, never to be passive, and never to be forgetful of the unborn. I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement, and never stop defending life until all my brothers and sisters are protected and our nation once again becomes a nation with liberty and justice, not just for some, but for all. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.


Prayer For Vocations

Send forth your Spirit, Lord, into the hearts of your faithful people, that we may be conscious of our vocation to holiness and sevice to others. Grant that many of us may dedicate ourselves to You through the priesthood and the religious life.We pray especially for the needs of our own parish and diocese. Grant that we may always have sufficient good and holy priests, and dedicated Sisters to serve our commumities.We pray, too, for religious orders; that generous men may join them to become zealous missionaries in preaching the Gospel in word and action, especially to the poor and abandoned.We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.


Prayer Before The Crucifix

Behold, O kind and gentle Jesus, I kneel before Thee and pray that Thou would impress upon my heart the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment. At the same time, with sorrow I meditate on Thy five precious wounds, having in mind the words which David spoke in prophecy: "They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones."


Divine Praises

Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.
May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament
Be praised, adored and loved
With grateful affection at every moment
In all the tabernacles of the world
Even to the end of time. Amen.


Prayer to Saint Benedict

Sanctissime Confessor Domini, monachorum Pater et dux,
Benedicte, intercede pro nostra omniumque salute.

V. Domine Deus virtutum converte nos.

R. Et ostende faciem tuam et salvi erimus.


Oremus.


Excita, Domine, in Ecclesia tua Spiritum cui beatus Pater noster Benedictus Abbas servivit: ut eodem nos repleti, studeamus amare quod amavit, et opere exercere quod docuit.

Da nobis, quaesumus, Domine, perseverantem in tua voluntate famulatum: ut in
Diebus nostris et merito et numero populus tibi serviens augeatur. Per Christum Dominum Nostrum. Amen.


For those whose Latin is a bit rusty:

O most holy Confessor of the Lord, Benedict, father and guide of monks, intercede for our salvation and that of everyone.

V. Lord, God of armies, convert us.

R. Show us Thy Face and we shall be saved.


Let us pray.

Awaken, O Lord, in Thy Church the Spirit that our blessed Father Saint Benedict
obeyed, so that, filled with the same Spirit we may strive to love what he loved and practice what he taught.

Grant us the grace to persevere in the service of Thy will, so that our days may
see the people of Thy servants grow in merit and number. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Sport is dying.

I'll make a deal with the Grand Poobahs of the game that has been dead decades: You kill the DH and I'll back replay.

AP: Baseball GMs recommend instant replay

Baseball could soon have a new position: replay judge. General managers recommended for the first time Tuesday that instant replay be used to help umpires on boundary calls — whether potential home runs are fair or foul, whether balls go over fences or hit the tops and bounce back, and whether fans interfere with possible homers.

Steelers Update.

From ESPN:

Football Today
The Steelers rolled over the Ravens Monday night. How does Pittsburgh stack up in Jeremy Green's power rankings?

Schlereth: Steelers can compete with anyone


From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Steelers' Harrison shows his capabilities
To say linebacker James Harrison was a little disruptive in the Steelers' recent win over the Ravens is to say that it was a little damp before kickoff.

Big Ben says he's OK after hip contusion in Sunday's game

Steelers point/counterpoint: Performance this season

Steelers' Big Ben could have mammoth season

Steelers Q&A: Scott Brown answers your questions

Starkey: Reeling Ravens left bitter

Tomlin's Take: Quotes from the press conference

Steelers' Aaron Smith may return

Steelers may not be up to Pats' level, but they're surging

Mayor McTerror Update.

...or, the crackup of the protestant 'conservatives' continues apace.

McClatchy Election 2008 Blog: Pat Robertson Endorses Giuliani
by William Douglas

Citizen Robertson believes a veritable passel of wrong things about God and man, kiddies. Is it any wonder a twice-divorced, baby-killing, gun-grabbing, marriage-destroying, CINO* Repansycan looks like a winner to him?

Influential Christian conservative Pat Robertson endorsed Rudy Giuliani for president Wednesday, boosting the former New York mayor's campaign and further spreading the support of social and religious conservatives among the top-tier Republican candidates.

Robertson announced his selection at a news conference at the National Press Club Wednesday morning.

If, like Pat, you think a leftist CINO Repansycan is the "man" to stop Hitlery and her brownshirted criminals, think again.

"Rudy Giuliani took a city that was in decline and considered ungovernable and reduced violent crime, revitalized its core, dramatically lowered taxes, cut through a welter of bureaucratic regulations, and did so in the spirit of bipartisanship which is so urgently needed in Washington today," Robertson said.

Blah, blah, blah.

Robertson has spoken positively of Giuliani in the past. He praised the ex-mayor when he spoke earlier this year at Regent University, a Virginia college founded by Robertson. In 2005, he called Giuliani "a very dedicated Catholic and he's a great guy."

*Robertson has no idea what a real Catholic is. [I am being unusually charitable here, kiddies.]

Robertson made the assessment despite Giuliani's support for legalized abortion and a personal lifestyle that's resulted in three marriages and two divorces. Giuliani's social policies and personal life have turned off some social and religious conservative leaders and voters. But others, like Robertson, view social concerns as secondary issues in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, world and say Giuliani is their choice for the Republican nomination because he'll be tough on terrorism.

"To me, the overriding issue before the American people is the defense of our population from the bloodlust of Islamic terrorists," Robertson said in announcing his endorsement. "Our world faces deadly peril: nuclear armed North Korea and the forboding of nuclear arms in Iran, deadly violence from Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel, the possible overthrow of Pakistan's government, and drawn-out wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Holy crap, Pat. Buy a gun and defend yourself, you pussy. I don't see why babies have to be killed just because you are a coward.

Besides, what makes anyone think The Rude One can fight a war, anyway?

But Robertson's endorsement symbolizes how divided Christian and social conservative leaders and voters are in Campaign 2008. Conservative leaders Paul Weyrich and Bob Jones III recently endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for president. Sen Sam Brownback, R-Kan., a former presidential candidate, threw his support to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. And some social/religious conservatives have talked about coming up with a third-party candidate.

Robertson has been [Has been is what he is. - F.G.] a formidable force in religion and politics. He founded the Christian Broadcasting Network and the Christian Coalition. He ran for president in 1988 and finished second in the Iowa cacuses.

But Robertson has also been a lightning rod for controversy, particularly over comments he's made about homosexuality.

The Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Books of the Day.*

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal
by Ben Macintyre

From the Jacket:

Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began.

In 1941, after training as a German spy in occupied France, Chapman was parachuted into Britain with a revolver, a wireless, and a cyanide pill, with orders from the Abwehr to blow up an airplane factory. Instead, he contacted MI5, the British Secret Service. For the next four years, Chapman worked as a double agent, a lone British spy at the heart of the German Secret Service who at one time volunteered to assassinate Hitler for his countrymen. Crisscrossing Europe under different names, all the while weaving plans, spreading disinformation, and, miraculously, keeping his stories straight under intense interrogation, he even managed to gain some profit and seduce beautiful women along the way.

The Nazis feted Chapman as a hero and awarded him the Iron Cross. In Britain, he was pardoned for his crimes, becoming the only wartime agent to be thus rewarded. Both countries provided for the mother of his child and his mistress. Sixty years after the end of the war, and ten years after Chapman’s death, MI5 has now declassified all of Chapman’s files, releasing more than 1,800 pages of top secret material and allowing the full story of Agent Zigzag to be told for the first time.


ZigZag - The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman
by Nicholas Booth

Evening Standard:
“A compelling and well-researched biography.”

Christopher Hudson, Daily Mail:
“Now a new book with exclusive family interviews reveals Agent ZigZag’s most extraordinary claim to fame . . . to blow up Hitler.”

David Stafford, author of Churchill and Secret Service:
“Engossing . . . A gripping page turner . . . An excellent portrait of this slippery real-life agent and con man.”

Publishers Weekly:
A lively and sympathetic account of celebrated double agent Eddie Chapman . . . Intriguing reading.

Kirkus Reviews:
This cinematic tale of World War II espionage is a one-man spy versus spy thriller. . . . A fascinating chronicle of a largely unappreciated detail of the war . . . A first-rate text with Hitchcockian contortions.

Booklist:
A very personal, intimate story.

Pasadena Star News:
The author writes as John le Carré. . . . An extraordinary read.

Commercial Dispatch:
Here is a complex picture of a strange man . . . An entertaining biography . . . It’s one of those stories that if it were brought out as a novel, it would be dismissed as lacking any grounds for credibility.


*Who? Look here.

Animal Flesh Recipe of the Day.

Speaking of dead deer...


Roast of Venison with Remoulade and Fried Onion Rings
Recipe courtesy Ulrika Bengtsson and Food Network



Venison:

3 pounds venison top round
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, as needed


Remoulade:

1 cup mixed pickled vegetables: carrot, cauliflower, cornichon, onion, and celery root
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon curry powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Fried Onion Rings:

2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
All-purpose flour, as needed
Oil, for deep frying
Salt
Thinly sliced whole wheat bread (about 3 by 3-inches wide), as needed


To make the Venison:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Rub the venison with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in an oven-proof large skillet over high heat. Sear the venison on all sides until golden brown. Transfer the venison to the oven and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until the internal temperature of 125 to 130 degrees F. Remove from the oven and let rest, about 10 to 15 minutes. Cut the venison into thin slices.


To make the Remoulade:

Finely chop the pickled vegetables and transfer to a bowl. Add the mayonnaise and curry powder and mix. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.


To make Fried Onion Rings:

Pour the oil for frying into large pot to depth of 2 inches and heat to 375 degrees F. In a bowl, toss the onion rings with the flour. Working in batches, fry the onion rings until crispy. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the onion rings to paper towel-lined plate and season generously with salt.

To serve, spread the bread slices with the remoulade and top with the venison and onion rings.

Everyone knows deer are no good at knife fighting.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Man with knife holds off aggressive deer

Greg Vincent thought he was kidding when he told his 13-year-old son and a nephew that he could use his hunting knife to handle a snorting buck that was about to charge them.

In the woods in Fulton County for last weekend's youth hunt, the group was tracking a different deer that Vincent's son Kyle had shot when a six-point buck appeared in their path.

"I told everyone to just be still and see what he was going to do," Vincent said.

The buck was about 15 yards away, staring at them.

"We had left our guns at the camp, and all I had was a hunting knife," he said.

Most deer will run off when they see a person. Not this one.

Uh-oh.

"I took out my knife and jokingly told the boys I would take care of the deer if it attacked," he said. Then the animal lowered its head, shook its antlers, snorted, pawed the ground and advanced on them.

It got close to Kyle, and that's when Vincent rushed the animal. He grabbed the antlers, jerked the deer's head around and stabbed it in the ribs. Vincent said he hoped that would make the animal run away, but the animal kept struggling.

Vincent hung onto the deer's neck as they tumbled into a creek and he dropped the knife. He yelled for the boys to find the knife, and nephew Dillon Vincent placed the knife in his uncle's hand.

"When I stabbed the neck, I pulled the knife as hard as I could," Greg Vincent said, ripping a large gash that probably would have been fatal. The deer continued to struggle but was growing weaker. Vincent, who was a competitive weightlifter in high school, was tiring, too. Within moments, his father, Harvey Vincent, finished off the animal with a shot from Kyle's rifle.

The Vincents learned later from a game warden that the deer was aggressive probably because it was in rut.

Wow. SEX IS DEATH for deer, too.

And you wonder why I call it an invasion.

Some addlepate from Miami does his best to scare whitey into leaving the illegal invaders alone.

Miami Herald: Angry migrant underclass might erupt in U.S.

The rapid escalation of the U.S. anti-immigration hysteria -- fueled by ratings-hungry cable-television hotheads and leading Republican presidential hopefuls -- is a dangerous trend: It may lead to a Hispanic intifada that may rock this nation in the not-so-distant future.

Bring it on boyo. The commies have not taken all our guns...

Remember the Palestinian intifada of the early 1990s, when thousands of frustrated young Palestinians took to the streets and threw stones at Israeli troops? Remember the French intifada of the summer of 2005, in which disenfranchised Muslim youths burned cars and stores in the suburbs of Paris?

If we are not careful, we may see something similar coming from the estimated 13 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, most of them Hispanic, who are increasingly vilified in the media, forced further into the underground by spineless politicians and not given any chance to legalize their status by a pusillanimous U.S. Congress.

I thought they were all peaceful janitors and fruit pickers here because the fat and lazy white middle class refuse to work for a living any more. Now you tell me they are a smoldering powderkeg of ethnic, political, and religious resentment ready to start blowing themselves up at my local Starbucks.

We are creating an underclass of people who won't leave this country and, realistically, can't be deported. [Of course they can be deported. One rioter at a time. - F.G.] They and their children are living with no prospect of earning a legal status, no matter how hard they work for it. Many of them will become increasingly frustrated, angry, and some of them eventually may turn violent.

That is precisely the point, you churl. One does not get to be a citizen by working hard.

If a foreigner has no respect for our law, why should we respect him as if he were one of us?

It is simple: Time to be tossed over the fence.

HA-HA! Just kidding, kiddies. We don't have no stinkin' fence!

I was thinking about all of this when I read about last week's U.S. Senate refusal to pass the Dream Act, a bill that would offer a path to legalization to children of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States at a very young age, and who get a college degree or serve in the military.

The bill would have regularized the status of youths like Juan and Alex Gomez, the two Colombian-born Miami brothers who were brought by their parents to this country as toddlers, graduated near the top of their high school classes, and now face deportation to a country they don't even remember.

Too damn bad. Alex and Juan have my sympathy. I am sure there are muchos US Consulates in Columbia with the proper forms for them to complete.

There are an estimated 1.8 million children in the United States who are growing up like other American kids, often speak no language other than English, but don't have legal documents, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. They are denied in-state college tuition fees or scholarships that are available to legal U.S. residents, and are eventually thrown into a labor market where they are barred from being employed.

Why? Because they are here illegally. What part of the word "illegal" are you choosing to ignore?


Further, the Bush administration-backed escalation of raids against undocumented workers [Instant translation: Law enforcement. - F.G.] in factories, the increase of city ordinances prohibiting people from leasing apartments to undocumented immigrants, and the overt xenophobia spilling daily from Hispanic-phobic radio and cable-television shows will leave their mark on these and other children in immigrant communities.

Eek!

A study released last week by the Urban Institute and the National Council of La Raza says there are about five million U.S. children with at least one undocumented parent.

WATERBOARD 'EM! WATERBOARD 'EM! [Sorry, but if it is fine with The Real Junior Senatrix From New York, it is fine with me.]

''The recent intensification of immigration enforcement activities by the federal government has increasingly put these children at risk of family separation, economic hardship, and psychological trauma,'' the report says.

Eek!

The study looked at the impact of recent U.S. immigration raids in Colorado, Nebraska and Massachusetts, where about 900 undocumented workers were arrested at their work sites, and their children -- most often infants -- were suddenly deprived of their fathers or mothers.

''The combination of fear, isolation, and economic hardship induced mental health problems such as depression, separation anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide thoughts,'' it said.

Just wait until Hitlery and her Nazi thugs take over, then those sad little babies can be given safe and humane retroactive abortions.

My opinion: We have to stop this xenophobic hysteria. And please, dear anti-immigration readers, don't tell me I'm being dishonest for failing to point out that you are not against legal immigration, but only against ``illegals.''

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! Quotation marks!

You are making a deceptive argument. Leaving aside the fact that nearly half of the undocumented immigrants came to this country legally, and overstayed their visas, [That makes them illegal now, dumbass. - F.G.] their non-compliance with immigration rules should not stigmatize them with the label of ``illegals.''

Calling a spade a spade [sorry] is now forbidden?

Illegal is as illegal does.

You may have violated a rule, [A law, knucklehead, passed by the peoples' representatives. - F.G.] but that should not make you an ''illegal'' person. [It makes you a criminal, you fool. - F.G.]You may have gotten a ticket for speeding, but that doesn't make you an ''illegal'' human being, [Ditto. - F.G.] even if the potential harm of your reckless driving is much greater than anything done by most of the hard-working undocumented immigrants in this country.

Ha!

Carrying out enforcement-only policies, labeling undocumented workers as ''illegals'' and depriving them of hope for upward mobility -- rather than working toward greater economic cooperation with Latin America to reduce migration pressures -- is not only wrong, but dangerous. The millions of undocumented among us will not leave. They will only get angrier.

It may be time to commence with the Sad & Angry Illegals Updates, kiddies.

A little Sophie Howard goes a long way.

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette:

BIG BABYKILLING missed one. Oops, make that two.

If you can read this and still advocate the murder of children, you are more monster than man...

Catholic.org: Commentary: Twin Survives Abortion to teach Solidarity

I have two longstanding friends with whom I have stood in the pro-life trenches for over three decades, Paul and Rob Schenck. These brothers, besides being heroes to many who have been involved in the greatest human and civil rights struggle of our generation, are also “identical” twins. I can easily tell them apart, because I know them so well.

However, every time people see these men for the first time, they face the inevitable questions about how they can keep from being confused. They use it as an opportunity to speak truth, recounting that the extraordinary bond that exists between them is one of life’s greatest blessings. They speak of the nine months that they roomed together in the womb. They refer to themselves as having been “womb-mates.”

A report out of Birmingham England this past weekend concerning two other twin brothers, Gabriel and Ieuan Jones, brought my friends to mind. It is both heart touching and eye opening. Doctors told the mother of these two twins that they were worried about the health of one of their boys because of his small stature and what appeared to be an enlarged heart.


Mom, Gabe & Ieuan

They went further; they persuaded this mother to make the choice for what is euphemistically referred to in our abortion on demand culture as “selective termination” of the weaker brother. They told her that not only was it likely that the weaker child would die but that his continuing to occupy the womb with his brother could have jeopardized his health as well.

Mrs. Jones told reporters: "They told us that if he died, it could be life threatening for his brother. We had to decide whether to end his life and let his brother live, or risk them both. They said it would be impossible to keep him alive afterwards as he was so poorly nourished. It would be kinder to let him die in the womb with his brother by his side than to die alone after being born. That made my mind up for me. I wanted the best thing for him."

Unfortunately, many mothers are given these kinds of assessments and this kind of advice too easily. In an age when corrective surgery can be routinely done in the womb, such “selective terminations”, are not decreasing. In this procedure, a specific child (or children) is selected to be killed. Usually, this is done because of genetic difficulties. This says that children with potential handicaps are deemed less worthy. It is routinely advised that they be selectively aborted.

This is increasingly done after fertility treatments which result in multiple pre-born children. It is a new form of eugenics carried out in what was once the safest place on earth, the first home of the whole human race, the womb. Often, it is done through the injection of lethal chemicals into the child selected to be killed. Sometimes it is done through a surgical strike.

In their effort to take the life of the child now known as Gabriel, the Doctors first tried to sever his umbilical chord and cut off all his nourishing blood supply. The chord was too tough, so they then cut the placenta in half in another effort to “terminate” him but prevent the death of his brother. "I put my hands on my stomach thinking of Gabriel. It was devastating. I had said my goodbyes", said the boys mother. The little boy, whom the Doctors later named “Rocky” because he was such a fighter, continued to live for another five weeks until his mother delivered by a caesarean section.

Ol' Gabe is gonna be a rugby player.

Upon awakening the morning after the “reduction” surgery, the mother felt kicking. A scan showed a beating heart in the child whom they had tried to “terminate.” The mother recalled, "No one could quite believe it." Gabriel grew in size and the apparently enlarged heart began to decrease in size. Both brothers were born without incident and are now healthy, thriving twins.

The astonished mother now refers to the birth of her sons Gabriel and Ieuan as a miracle, telling reporters in England,” It was unbelievable. When I felt him kicking madly the morning after the operation, I suddenly knew that he was going to hang on. The doctors couldn't believe it when they could still hear his heartbeat the next morning." The father was equally elated, telling the press “It really is a miracle. Doctors carried out an operation to let Gabriel die - yet he hung on.”

The Doctors delivered the twins at 31 weeks. Ieuan’s birthweight was 3lb 8oz and the one who almost died, Gabriel, weighed in at 1lb 15oz. Now, at seven months, Ieuan weighs 15lb and Gabriel 12lb 6oz. Their mother recently stated to the newspaper, "The boys are so healthy, they have huge appetites too. Ieuan is the noisy one, while Gabriel is always laughing, it's like he's just so happy to be here. There is such a strong bond between them. They are always holding hands and, if one cries, the other reaches out to comfort him. Doctors tried to break their bond in the womb, but they just proved it couldn't be broken."

These two brothers in England, like my friends Paul and Rob Schenck, were “Womb-Mates.” They can teach us all a lesson, the meaning of solidarity. Solidarity means that we all belong to one another; and that we really are “our brothers keeper”.

Once again, a little child leads the way to truth.

Chicks dig the Black and Gold.

AP: Pittsburgh leads nation in female NFL fans

The Pittsburgh Steelers have known for years their fan base included countless women -- that was evidenced by all the pink official team jerseys they sell and the hundreds who attend their female training camp each summer.

Yes, more than 300 women spend money each year to go through a simulated day of Steelers training camp, replete with blocking and running drills and a trip to the training table. The club also sponsors a Football Knowledge for Women classroom-type course.

Now the Steelers have proof that, when it comes to building a female fan base, Pittsburgh does it better than any other NFL market.

According to a Scarborough Sports Marketing survey of 220,354 residents in 75 United States markets conducted last year, Pittsburgh has, by far, the largest base of NFL fans who are women.

Pittsburgh is the runaway leader, with 34 percent of the women living in the Steelers' market identifying themselves as fans. Green Bay was second with 29.4 percent, but no other market surveyed had even one-quarter of its women identify themselves as fans.

Buffalo was third with 23.7 percent, followed by Cincinnati (22.8 percent), Kansas City (22.4 percent), Jacksonville (21.7 percent), Baltimore and Boston (21.5 percent) and Denver, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Washington, D.C. (20.9 percent).

Nationally, the average was 16 percent, which means that Pittsburgh has more than twice the number of female pro football fans than the average market, based on the survey's results.
Obviously, all those Terrible Towels inside Heinz Field aren't being twirled only by men.

Among men, Pittsburgh was second only to Green Bay in the percentage of fans -- 38 percent of the men in Green Bay identified themselves as fans, compared to 35.1 percent in Pittsburgh.
Also in the top 10 were Jacksonville (34.9 percent), Boston and Denver (33.3); Buffalo, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Philadelphia (32.1) and Cincinnati (31.5).

Pittsburgh also placed in the Top 10 in percentage of fans who are college graduates (No. 4, 17.5 percent), percentage of fans with at least one child in the family (No. 6, 23.8 percent) and percentage of fans who are between the ages of 18 and 24 (No. 7, 7.2 percent).

The results were not surprising, at least given the long-standing loyalty of Steelers fans -- the team has sold out every non-strike home game since 1972.

According to a survey also taken by Scarborough Sports Marketing before the February 2006 Super Bowl in which the Steelers beat Seattle 21-10, Pittsburgh was the top market for fan loyalty in the NFL, with 64 percent of all consumers saying they were "very or somewhat interested" in the NFL.

Vajayjay, Nigger and Poopy-Head Triple Update.

Why, you ask? Because words mean things and are important.

Oh, yeah...they can also be used to control thought.

Blogcritics.org: A Vagina by Any Other Name is Not So Sweet
Written by Carla Thompson

Finally! A leftist fool who makes sense. [I am assuming Carla's only a few bullets short of Stalinism because she would have been lynched with a big noose fashioned out of hemp by a redneck midget by now if she were to the right of George Soros.]

I have had it. Enough is enough. What is this world coming to? We are beginning to sound like a bunch of three-year-olds. I am a grown ass woman, damn it! I've earned my right to speak as such.

This is the world left-fascism hath wrought, baby. In a word, blame your comrades.

What has prompted this most recent rant? An article from the New York Times style section, sent to me by an equally disgruntled friend. Written by Stephanie Rosenbloom, "What Did You Call It?" waxes endlessly and unnecessarily about the use of the nouveau word "vajayjay" as a euphemism for vagina. "Vajayjay" was introduced on an episode of the ABC show, Grey's Anatomy. Then Oprah got a hold of it, and now you have every middle-aged woman talking about her vajayjay.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but this vajayjay seems like another attempt to sanitize, with the result infantilizing, the American lexicon.

Ma and Pa Thompson kept it real, sometimes too real. Alongside my parents, I watched violent R-rated movies. No cinema was too bloody or graphic for their little boos, I mean children. The exposure did not lead me to kill, maim, or destroy - just on occasion yell, scream, or curse a few people out. But I digress. In the spirit of keeping it real, we, the family Thompson, called genitalia by their proper names:penis and vagina - not George and Nancy.

In stark contrast, I had a female friend with three small children who created the names "heehee" and "whowho" for said body parts. All I have to say is whywhy? Imagine the confusion when they have their first sexual experience.

"Baby, I want to (blank) your heehee."

Oops. I guess ol' Carla draws the line at the word "fuck".

"Heehee? What they hell are you laughing at?"

I was listening to a Kat Williams comedy special this weekend on Comedy Central. It was damn near refreshing to hear an adult speak so freely and use harsh language, including the N-word, to express thoughtful ideas. By the way Al, Jesse, et. al, banning the N-word hasn't stopped teens, especially black teens, from using the word excessively. (For the record, hearing the N-word bandied about by not always so literate youngsters drives me out of my damn, not darn, mind.)

In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, comedian D.L. Hughley said, “"I think it's dumb. Richard Pryor and Martin Luther King existed around the same time but Martin Luther King never called Richard Pryor and said, 'Could you stop using the N-word? It's making our struggle that much harder.' And that's because Martin Luther King was trying to affect real change, significant change for the benefit of a people. Not esoteric change that really wouldn't change anything...More black people die from not exercising and eating fried food than ever died from the N-word. You don't go to the doctor and he says, 'Your cholesterol is down. Have you been using the N-word lately?'"

Racist!

There is the f-word, and thanks to former Grey's Anatomy's star Isaiah Washington's rant against gay cast member T. R. Knight (What's up with that show?), there is another f-word not to be uttered publicly regardless of the context. Before you know it, there will be yet another f-word we won't be able to utter: fat. Are we going to start calling fat people, "calorically challenged"? Or are we going to create another euphemism like "fataytay." Oh Bertha is not as big as a house; she's just fatatay.

Hee-hee.

Hang in there. I am almost done.

Most mainstream media avoid racially charged topics like they are...the word..."vagina," but when they do attempt to address them, it's often awkward and painful to watch, especially when the anchors/pundits/talking heads make an attempt to use the least offensive words to describe an ethnic or racial group.

My least favorite of these monikers is "people of color" - the use of which chaps my black ass.
I've heard Joe Scarborough of MSNBC's Morning Joe use this term with relative frequency. I'd like to ask him one simple question: Who the hell are you talking about? Blacks? Latinos? Asians? Biracials? Martians? The statement belies the assumption that whites are not included among those "of color" and makes the rest of us sounds like some mushy mess.

Homeboy, last time I checked, white people come in various hues — dare I say colors — such as pink, various shades of olive, and light brown in the summer. If you see a "white" person coming towards you, run like a mofo because that s.o.b. is probably an escapee from a local cemetery.

Amen to all that, Sister!

Oh, I know what some of you pitiful PC folks are thinking. "Personally, I don't see color." Quit your lying. I dare you to say that to the police officer when he pulls you over for running a red light. I could go on forever, but I won't. You've got things to do and so do I. (If you are waiting for a cheap vajayjay joke, it ain't coming - yet.)

Now, the Tyra Banks Show is having its own version of the Vagina Dialogues. (No, I didn't make a mistake, this is how it is billed. With Tyra, it has to be a two-way conversation.). Called, “What's Up Down There?” (original broadcast: Monday, November 5), the show promises to provide women with the answers "to all the questions they were afraid to ask."

I am sure that after this show, the vagina will need some throat spray and a sabbatical.

Vajayjay* Update.

Louisville Courier-Journal: Tyra goes 'down there'

Tune in to "The Tyra Banks Show" today for a full-on discussion about the — dare I say it? — vagina. "I hope after this show women will not be ashamed about what's up down there," said Banks, 33.

*I am merely following the lead of America's Dictatrix of Kultur.

Get your kids out of the government indoctrination centers!

Q: What do you get when you cross a Zero-Tolerancer with a Hug Nazi?

A: A thirteen year old girl in detention.

The Arizona Republic: Illinois middle schooler is given detention for hugging 2 friends at school

Two hugs equals two days of detention for 13-year-old Megan Coulter.

The eighth-grader was punished for violating a school policy banning public displays of affection when she hugged two friends Friday.

"I feel it is crazy," said Megan, who was to serve her second detention Tuesday after classes at Mascoutah Middle School.

"I was just giving them a hug goodbye for the weekend," she said.

WATERBOARD HER! WATERBOARD HER!

Megan's mother, Melissa Coulter, said the embraces weren't even real hugs - just an arm around the shoulder and slight squeeze.

"It's hilarious to the point of ridicule," Coulter said. "I'm still dumbfounded that she's having to do this."

Two words: Private school.

District Superintendent Sam McGowen said that he thinks the penalty is fair and that administrators in the school east of St. Louis were following policy in the student handbook.

Moron.

It states: "Displays of affection should not occur on the school campus at any time. It is in poor taste, reflects poor judgment, and brings discredit to the school and to the persons involved."

Luckily for the arch-pinhead McGowen, nobody in his district knows how to read, write, or think.

That is one heck of a coincidence, Sam.

Coulter said she and her husband told their daughter to go ahead and serve her detentions because the only other option was a day of suspension for each skipped detention.

"We don't agree with it, but I certainly don't want her to get in more trouble," Coulter said.

FIGHT THE POWER!

The couple plan to attend the next school board meeting to ask board members to consider rewording the policy or be more specific in what is considered a display of affection.

Oh, you are going to try reasoning with the power first?

Good luck with that.

"I'm just hoping the school board will open their eyes and just realize that maybe they shouldn't be punishing us for hugs," Megan said.

Beef and/or dairy may be hazardous to your health.

The Register: Flying cow destroys minivan
Bovine 200ft death plunge shocker!

Don't you just love the understated class exhibited by the healine writer, kiddies?

A US couple had a lucky escape when a 600lb cow unexpectedly landed on the bonnet of their minivan, unsurprisingly causing "heavy damage".

According to AP, Michigan-based Charles and Linda Everson were visiting the area around Lake Chelan, Washington, to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. On their way back to the hotel near Manson on Sunday, the bovine in question decided to plummet from a 200ft cliff and impact without warning against the vehicle.

Charles Everson admitted he "didn't see the cow falling and didn't know what happened until afterward". He added he'd been reduced to repeating: "I don't believe this. I don't believe this."

Chelan County fire chief Arnold Baker said the pair had missed being killed by a matter of inches. The cow wasn't so lucky, and was quickly "euthanised"

Sport is being murdered.

ESPN: Report: Jose Guillen, Matt Williams bought steroids

Veteran outfielder Jose Guillen purchased thousands of dollars worth of steroids and human growth hormone from a Florida clinic under investigation for illegal drug sales, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

Citing business records, the Chronicle reported Guillen, who played for the Seattle Mariners last season, bought more than $19,000 worth of drugs from the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center between May 2002 and June 2005. Guillen had some of the shipments sent to the Oakland Coliseum during the 2003 season, after he was traded to the A's. The anti-aging clinic was raided in February as part of an investigation by the Albany County, N.Y., district attorney.

Major League Baseball began testing for steroids in 2003 and put growth hormone on its list of banned substances in January 2005.

The records, provided to the Chronicle by a confidential source, contained shipping and purchase orders, payment information, Social Security numbers and customers' birthdates, the newspaper said. The Chronicle also found that:

• Retired third baseman Matt Williams, a five-time All-Star who played 17 seasons in the majors, purchased $11,600 worth of HGH, steroids and other drugs from the Palm Beach clinic in 2002. Williams, the cornerstone of the San Francisco Giants' infield for a decade, was a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks at the time. His last season was 2003; he is now a broadcaster for the Diamondbacks.

Reached by phone Monday, Williams told the Chronicle he used HGH on the advice of a doctor to treat an ankle injury he suffered during spring training in 2002.

"We obviously just learned of this," Diamondbacks team president Derrick Hall said in a statement Tuesday. "Matt informed us that a doctor recommended its use to help heal his ankle injury. It was a substance that he was not familiar with at the time, and according to him, did not like its effects after sampling. He discontinued the use of it and retired the next season.

"Matt is a stand-up guy, who without hesitation, admitted using it and not liking it. There is no doubt in our minds that Matt would decline such a recommendation today, knowing what we all know about enhancing substances."

• Right-hander Ismael Valdez, who spent parts of 12 seasons with seven teams and last pitched in the majors in 2005, purchased $11,300 worth of performance-enhancing drugs in 2002 following his trade from the Texas Rangers to Seattle.

Valdez's former agent didn't return messages left by the Chronicle.

The newspaper's examination of the Palm Beach clinic's records found that Guillen ordered three different types of HGH, two forms of testosterone and the steroids stanozolol and nandrolone between 2002 and 2005.

Guillen did not reply to requests for comment left with his agent and business manager.

Election Day Roundup.

Enough people in New Jersey with IQs over 25 voted to prevent Governor Who from using tax dollars to play Mengele.

I consider this nothing less than a miracle.

Bloomberg.com: New Jersey Rejects Stem-Cell Bonds in `Big Defeat' for Corzine

New Jersey voters rejected a $450 million bond measure to fund stem-cell research, delivering a blow to Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, who backed the proposal with his own money and advocated on its behalf.


Apparently, Utah voters were too busy looking for [or looking to be] additional wives to strike a blow against government indoctrination centers.

Of course, maybe the salamander whisperers like government indoctrination when they are doing the indoctrinating...

Saint George Spectrum: Utah voters reject vouchers

Utah voters overwhelmingly rejected a program during Tuesday’s election that would have provided vouchers to pay for private school. With 2,129 of 2,237 precincts reporting by press time Tuesday, the measure was losing by about 62 percent to 38 percent.


Mirabile dictu, kiddies, nobody got lynched in Indiana or Michigan where the Vote Nazis dared require ID to participate in their bourgeois reindeer games...

Rushville Republican: Voter info: Don’t forget your ID!

Every vote counts, but if you show up to the polls today without a valid ID you won’t be able to cast a ballot. Indiana Public Law 109-2005 requires all residents to show a photo ID before casting a ballot at the polls.

Ironwood Daily Globe: Michigan to ask for photo ID for first time in Tuesday's election

Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope knows some voters are going to be surprised Tuesday when a poll worker asks them for a photo ID. After all, it will be the first time Michigan's photo ID law will be in effect since it was passed eleven years ago.


...while some blockheaded congressthingee from The Land of the Blondes named Ellison wants some more laws passed to make absolutely, positively, 100% sure...

Minnesota Socialist Radio: Rep. Ellison wants to ban photo ID as voting requirement

Requiring photo IDs to vote in federal elections would be banned under legislation introduced Wednesday by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who said such requirements disenfranchise minorities, the poor, women, elderly and young people...

Blah, blah, blah...

Q: What do you call a politician who cheats on his wife with an underage girl and his campaign manager's wife?

CBS 5: Newsom Easily Re-Elected As Mayor Of San Francisco

A: The mayor of Sodom-By-The-Bay.

Congratulations Lou Barletta!

There is at least one pol in PA who is a real man and a real American patriot...

Harrisburg Patriot-News: Hazleton mayor coasts to third term

Mayor Lou Barletta, a Republican who gained national prominence by targeting illegal immigrants living in this small city, easily won re-election Tuesday to a third term.

He defeated a Libertarian candidate, John Medashefski, a coffee shop owner who had argued the city should drop its costly effort to push through a law targeting illegal immigrants.

Unofficial returns showed Barletta winning with 3,530 votes, or 90 percent, to Medashefski’s 405 votes, or 10 percent.

In the primary, Barletta also won the Democratic nomination as a write-in candidate, easily defeating a comeback bid by a former mayor and leaving himself with no Democrat to face in the general election.

Last year, Barletta pushed through a law that targeted landlords who rented to illegal immigrants and businesses that employed them in this city of 30,000. The law, emulated by dozens of towns around the nation, was struck down by a federal judge as unconstitutional. The judge said states and municipalities cannot regulate immigration.

The city has since appealed.

At his victory party at an Elks Club, Barletta talked about fighting drugs and violence in the city and about the issue of illegal immigrants.

“We’ve seen what illegal immigration has done to our small town quality of life and we have said, ‘No! We will not let this happen,’” he said. “We will fight!”

The city’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act sought to impose fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and deny business permits to companies that give them jobs. Another measure would have required tenants to register with City Hall and pay for a rental permit.

Totalitarian Pennsylvania Update.

Congrats, fellow Keystone Staters, for rewarding the thieves who violated the same constitution they swore to uphold and defend. I do not want to hear any of you whine the next time they make up a law out of thin air.

Harrisburg Patriot-News: Voters say yes to judges

The 'vote no' campaign on judicial retention fizzles as judges are retained by wide margins.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of Saint Melasippus, a martyr c. 360. Martyr with Carina, his wife, and Anthony, their son. They suffered at Ancyra. Melasippus and Carina died under torture. Anthony was beheaded. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.


Today's reading is Romans 13:8-10.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 111:1-2, 4-5, 9.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 14:25-33.


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome


Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water from Christ's side, wash me; Passion of Christ, strengthen me; O good Jesus, hear me; Within Thy wounds hide me; Suffer me not to be separated from Thee; From the malicious enemy defend me; In the hour of my death call me; And bid me come unto Thee; That I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels Forever and ever. Amen.


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.


Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank You today for the gift of my life, and for the lives of all my brothers and sisters. I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion, yet I rejoice that you have conquered death by the resurrection of Your Son. I am ready to do my part to end abortion. Today I commit myself never to be silent, never to be passive, and never to be forgetful of the unborn. I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement, and never stop defending life until all my brothers and sisters are protected and our nation once again becomes a nation with liberty and justice, not just for some, but for all. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.


Prayer For Vocations

Send forth your Spirit, Lord, into the hearts of your faithful people, that we may be conscious of our vocation to holiness and sevice to others. Grant that many of us may dedicate ourselves to You through the priesthood and the religious life.We pray especially for the needs of our own parish and diocese. Grant that we may always have sufficient good and holy priests, and dedicated Sisters to serve our commumities.We pray, too, for religious orders; that generous men may join them to become zealous missionaries in preaching the Gospel in word and action, especially to the poor and abandoned.We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.


Prayer Before The Crucifix

Behold, O kind and gentle Jesus, I kneel before Thee and pray that Thou would impress upon my heart the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment. At the same time, with sorrow I meditate on Thy five precious wounds, having in mind the words which David spoke in prophecy: "They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones."


Divine Praises

Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.
May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament
Be praised, adored and loved
With grateful affection at every moment
In all the tabernacles of the world
Even to the end of time. Amen.


Prayer to Saint Benedict

Sanctissime Confessor Domini, monachorum Pater et dux,
Benedicte, intercede pro nostra omniumque salute.

V. Domine Deus virtutum converte nos.

R. Et ostende faciem tuam et salvi erimus.


Oremus.


Excita, Domine, in Ecclesia tua Spiritum cui beatus Pater noster Benedictus Abbas servivit: ut eodem nos repleti, studeamus amare quod amavit, et opere exercere quod docuit.

Da nobis, quaesumus, Domine, perseverantem in tua voluntate famulatum: ut in
Diebus nostris et merito et numero populus tibi serviens augeatur. Per Christum Dominum Nostrum. Amen.


For those whose Latin is a bit rusty:

O most holy Confessor of the Lord, Benedict, father and guide of monks, intercede for our salvation and that of everyone.

V. Lord, God of armies, convert us.

R. Show us Thy Face and we shall be saved.


Let us pray.

Awaken, O Lord, in Thy Church the Spirit that our blessed Father Saint Benedict
obeyed, so that, filled with the same Spirit we may strive to love what he loved and practice what he taught.

Grant us the grace to persevere in the service of Thy will, so that our days may
see the people of Thy servants grow in merit and number. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Tomorrow, Tuesday November 6, 2007 is Election Day in Pennsylvania.

Get out and vote, kiddies.

As long as you are going to strike a blow against Totalitarian Pennsylvania, that is.

Fyodor's Unsolicited Product Endorsement of the Day.

Shark Bite plumbing connectors

Gone are the days of soldering copper pipes! Gone are the days of guessing if you crimped the clamps on your PVC pipe strongly enough! And, yes, even the days of messy solvents and glue are [mostly] gone as well.

Your humble servant had to replace an ornery hot water heater this weekend, kiddies, and thanks to the folks at Home Depot, it was a breeze. Yes, the Shark Bite couplings are expensive, but some guy wanted over $700 to install it for me.

Lillian Ellison, Requiescat in pace.

The most grand of all the grand ladies of pro wrestling has left us.

Lillian Ellison, professional wrestling's Fabulous Moolah, has died. She was 84.

Ellison died Friday, according to Dunbar Funeral Home in Columbia.

Born Mary Lillian Ellison in 1923, she was dubbed the Fabulous Moolah after saying she wrestled "for the money ... for the moolah."

She was a longtime champion and the first woman inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame. Her autobiography, "The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle," was published in 2003.

"She was famous, but I never looked at her that way," daughter Mary Austin, 66, told The State newspaper. "She was just Mom, someone that was always there for me. Someone I could turn to."

Ellison grew up in the small community of Tookiedoo, S.C., the youngest of 13 children and the only girl. Austin said her mother had six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, loved her family and wrestling.

Her obituary from the funeral home lists 63-year-old Katie Glass of Columbia as Ellison's adopted daughter. Glass, known as "Diamond Lil," was a professional midget wrestler for 25 years. She said she was just 17 when she moved to Columbia to live with Ellison and learn to wrestle.

"She just taught me the basics, the holds, how to get somebody down, lock them down and everything," Glass told The State.

Glass said she will miss Ellison.

"It's going to be hard, I'll tell you," Glass said. "We're doing the best we can. She was there for me. She's a very nice lady. I'm going to miss her dearly and I love her very much." [Thanks to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for this obituary.]

Penguins Update.

The Penguins are 6-6-1, and are tied for third place in the Atlantic Division with the Rangers. The Pens visit the new home of the New Jersey Devils tonight in Newark, of all places.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Pens frustrated after blowing another lead
If the Penguins don't soon reverse trends that have developed over the past five games, they might need another second-half surge just to make the playoffs.

Penguins Q&A: Rob Rossi answers your questions

Scouting the Devils

Marzia Prince is what is known as a "fitness model".

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette:

Mayor McTerror Update.

It is time to put an end to the farce known as Rudy's campaign, kiddies. The baby killin', gun grabbin', marriage destroyin' Catholic In Name Only Repansycan is convincing his moral and intellectual inferiors in Flyover, USA he is the only thing capable of stopping Hitlery Rodham Schicklgruber.

The thing is, kiddies, he is the only one sure to lose to the Nazi Party standard-bearer.

The State: Giuliani a surprise hit in S.C.

Rudy Giuliani was not supposed to compete in South Carolina. The New York Yankee, pundits said, could not overcome his stances favoring gay rights, abortion or gun control. Social conservatives, they said, would torpedo him in the Palmetto State. But with less than three months to go before South Carolina’s Republican primary, fresh polling shows Giuliani is in a statistical tie for first place ...

Tears of a clown.

AP: Okra Whingefree wept at learning of school assault

Oprah Winfrey said Monday she wept after hearing allegations that a dorm matron at her academy for disadvantaged girls had abused students. She accused school officials of telling the girls to "put on happy faces" when she visited.

Though she said she was not responsible for hiring at the school, Winfrey said the screening process was inadequate and "the buck always stops with me." She said the head mistress' contract would not be renewed and promised a shake-up, indicating school officials had tried to keep the facts of the case from her.

"When I first heard about it I spent about a half-hour going around my house crying," Winfrey said at a news conference by satellite hook-up. She said learning about the allegations was "one of most devastating experiences of my life."

Only half an hour? She doesn't sound too devastated to me. After all, three girls have had their lives ruined at Okra's Ego Trip School.

Tiny Virginia Makopo, 27, faces 13 charges of indecent assault, assault and criminal injury committed against at least six students aged 13-15 and a 23-year-old at the school. Makopo, who said she was innocent, was freed on bail Monday.

Winfrey said she was initially told a girl who accused the matron of abuse had left the school because the girl's mother wanted to spend more time with her. She said girls at the school, which she visited frequently, told her they were instructed "to put on happy faces" when she was there and not complain.

Wow. Just like the Fembots in her studio audience hoping to be given a free automobile.

Winfrey, who has in the past spoken of the abuse she suffered as a child and campaigned for laws in the United States to protect children from abusers, said that because of the high rates of rape and sexual abuse in South Africa, she had worked to ensure outsiders would not be able to reach students at the school.

Okra enables the cycle of abuse to continue on an international scale.

But "as often is the case, child abuse, sexual abuse happens right within the family, right within the confines of people you know," she said.

Winfrey has spoken in the past of being raped by a distant cousin at age 9 and then abused by three other men, trusted family friends.

Penis bad. Vajayjay good. [See YouTube - Jimmy Kimmel's Monologue - "Oprah's 'vajayjay'"- (Five minutes in. - F.G.) ]

Winfrey said the school's chief executive John Samuel told her in early October that a group of 15 girls had come forward with a list of complaints including the sexual assault of one of their classmates.

She then called for an independent investigation to determine the extent of the allegations. The investigation was headed by Richard Farley, a Chicago detective who works with child abuse cases.

"My experience with child predators is that no one ever abuses just one child," she said.

Winfrey said she flew to South Africa to speak with the pupils and encourage them to come forward with their complaints: "It was a chance to break the silence."

The school announced Oct. 17 that a dormitory matron had been suspended amid allegations of serious misconduct. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls said private U.S. and South African detectives were investigating, as well as South African police.

On Oct. 20, Winfrey said Monday, she flew to South Africa again to meet with parents: "I apologized for the unfortunate circumstance and promised changes."

Winfrey opened the academy outside Johannesburg on Jan. 2, with celebrities such as Tina Turner and Spike Lee in attendance, as well as former President Nelson Mandela.

The lavish $40 million school was the fulfillment of a promise she made to Mandela six years ago and aims to give 152 girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education in a country where schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid.

Winfrey was adamant that the scandal had not dented her desire to help the girls in her school.
"No one — not the accused or anyone else — can destroy the dream I have held or that the girls hold. Their light will not be diminished by this," she said.

Samuel, the school's superintendent, told reporters Monday there was now a sense of relief at the school and that life was beginning to return to normal.

"We are beginning to heal. The spirit of the girls remains strong," he said.

Fascism Is Universal.

The power-mad commie fear mongers offer sane folks an opportunity to save money and brain cells...

Washington's other newspaper: NBC says 'Obey us or die!'

This morning, the "Today" show begins its "Ends of the Earth" stunt as part of NBC's "Green Is Universal" initiative. All this week, Matt Lauer will report from the Arctic, Ann Curry will be in Antarctica and Al Roker will report from the equator in an effort to highlight...

...shut off your television!

Fyodor's guide to surviving the Hollyweird writers' strike.

You hadn't heard? Well, apparently it is a big deal in certain precincts, smartypants.

Sharewatch: Picketing under way in TV writers strike

The first walkout by Hollywood writers in nearly 20 years got under way Monday with noisy pickets outside the "Today" show -- a strike that threatens to disrupt everything from late-night talk shows to soap operas.

Eek!

A giant, inflated rat was put on display Monday as about 40 people in Rockefeller Center shouted, "No contract, no shows!" "The seven-word mantra is, `When you get paid, we get paid,'" said Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America East.

Behold the cleverness America shall be denied until this tragic situation is resolved! Who is not entertained by giant inflatable rats?

The strike is the first walkout by writers since 1988. That work stoppage lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry more than $500 million.

The "Today" show is not directly affected by the strike because news writers are part of a different union. [So why did they go...? Oh, I get it. - F.G.] The picket was set up behind police barricades in an area adjacent to the NBC studios, where shows like "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" might be forced to play re-runs.

Writers' demands for a bigger slice of DVD profits and revenue from the distribution of films and TV shows over the Internet has been a key issue.

"They claim that the new media is still too new to structure a model for compensation," said Jose Arroyo, a writer for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." "We say give us a percentage so if they make money, we make money," said Arroyo.

NO JUSTICE, NO MINDLESS BLATHER!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This time the Heat Nazis have gone too far. They are now screwing with the beer.

The News Journal: Cost of beer heading up in 2008

Now's the time to raise your mug and savor the taste of your favorite local brew -- because you may be paying more for that pint next year.

A tight global market for the raw ingredients of beer is raising predictions of higher prices and complicating business for Delaware's popular craft brewers, a segment of the state's economy that had been enjoying a string of upbeat years.

Blame it all on drought, hailstorms, heat and inflation, just a few of the unpleasant influences that have beset the brewing industry in recent times.

Fuel, aluminum and glass prices have been rising quickly in recent years. Barley and wheat prices have skyrocketed as more farmers plant corn to meet increasing demand for ethanol, while others plant feed crops to replace acres lost to corn.

Eek!

A decade-long oversupply of hops that had forced farmers to abandon the crop has expired and harvests were down this year. In the United States, where one-fourth of the world's hops are grown, acreage fell 30 percent between 1995 and 2006.

As if that weren't enough -- Australia endured its worst drought on record; hail storms across Europe damaged crops; and extreme heat in the western United States hurt yields and quality.

For local brewers, hops and barley costs have posted unprecedented spikes. "They took an astronomical jump this year," said Mark Edelson, co-owner and director of brewing operations for the Iron Hill brew-pub chain." In the 10 years I've been in the business, I've never seen this. ... This is historic for us."

Craft breweries, which produce relatively small batches of artisanal brews for a beer-savvy customer base, face an especially thorny patch ahead, partly because they use so much more hops per barrel, and partly because they lack big brewers' capacity to hedge against price increases.

"For a microbrewery operating on the tightest of margins ... it might be crippling," said Al Stewart, owner of the Stewart's Brewing Co. brew pub in Bear.

So far, price increases for customers have been modest -- less than a dollar a 12-pack at retail, said Harry Schuhmacher, editor of the online trade publication Beer Business Daily. Some industry followers expect the price of beer to increase by at least 10 percent before the end of the year.

"Brewers are trying to take pricing up, but it's hard when beer is pretty sensitive to pricing per volume. And when drinkers are leaving beer to go to wine and spirits," he said.

On the other hand, smaller brewers have more pricing power than the big guys do.

"They're able to increase pricing more without losing drinkers," he said.

Some of Delaware's beer producers say the situation is mitigated somewhat by contracts that lock supply and price in place for the time being. But by the first of the year, increasing reliance on higher-priced supplies could mean higher prices for consumers, Edelson said.

Delaware's most prominent locally owned brewery, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, is particularly well-known across the country for its "hoppy" beers, but faces its biggest cost pressures from barley. "We've decided not to pass along 100 percent of our price increase to our customers," said Dogfish owner Sam Calagione.

The Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Book of the Day.*

Want some good news, kiddies?

Not only are the United States Marines killing bad guys, they are continuing another honorable tradition: turning punks into men.

Hard Corps: From Gangster to Marine Hero
by Marco Martinez


From the publisher:

At the age of seventeen, Marco Martinez was a thug—a gun-toting, car-stealing gang member.

At the age of twenty-two, he was a hero—the recipient of the Navy Cross, the second-highest honor a U.S. Marine can receive, for extraordinary heroism under fire in the Iraq War. Hard Corps tells the story of his incredible transformation and of his experiences on the front lines of the War on Terror.

Writing with passion and candor, Martinez brings us back to his gang days, detailing experiences that make him “shudder in shame” to remember. And he recalls the moment that changed everything for him, when he spotted a barrel-chested U.S. Marine Corps recruiter at his high school. Immediately, he saw an opportunity to alter the course of his aimless life.

Martinez takes us with him through the grueling ordeal of Marine boot camp and the even-more-punishing training at the School of Infantry to show just how warriors are made. He reveals how he and his fellow grunts prepared tirelessly for battle, seeing combat not as a burden but as a privilege, the ultimate baptism by fire.

For Martinez, that baptism came in Iraq. In Hard Corps, he unfolds a warrior’s tale as riveting, harrowing, and immediate as any ever written. He takes us onto the narrow, treacherous streets of Baghdad, where enemy fire rains down from all directions; alongside his Marine squad as they patrol through the most dangerous war zone imaginable; and into a brutal terrorist ambush that calls upon reserves of ferocity and courage none of the Marines could ever be certain they possessed and that proves the value of every moment of their torturous training. Martinez also recounts stunning reminders of why we fight: the Iraqi man he met whose tongue had been chopped off for speaking out against Saddam Hussein’s regime, the ghastly evidence of human experimentation that Martinez’s squad discovered at an abandoned Iraqi military barracks, and the horrifying mass graves the Marines unearthed in the Iraqi desert.

Hard Corps gives us a visceral sense of what it means to know that you are ready to die for your brother Marines and that they would do the same for you. It tells us how it feels when words like duty, honor, and country are not an empty slogan. And, ultimately, it captures the traditions and ooh-rah spirit of the U.S. Marine Corps and the valor of all the Marines, sailors, soldiers...

Meanwhile, the Publishers Weekly mini-review reeks of penis envy...

In this macho, profanity-laced memoir by a 2003 Iraqi invasion veteran, Martinez describes himself as a Hispanic juvenile delinquent from Albuquerque, N.Mex., who turned his life around by joining the marines in 2001. His exploits (including winning the Navy Cross) will entertain military buffs with precise details of combat and of a sadistic boot camp that recalls the antiwar movie (but Marine and Martinez favorite) Full Metal Jacket. Bonded and eager for battle, his unit yearned in vain to fight in Afghanistan after 9/11 and joyfully participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Though experts now agree our forces overwhelmed Saddam Hussein's disorganized army, Martinez and his men assumed they faced a vicious enemy, referred to by Martinez as “terrorists,” and killed scores while destroying buildings with their overwhelming firepower. His company suffered two wounded. Martinez never doubts that he fought to defend America's freedom and freely admits his contempt for those who don't appreciate this. The book is peppered with denunciation of “biased news coverage,” “liberals,” “hippies,” John Kerry and Anthony Swofford (ex-marine author of Jarhead), but readers who enjoy learning about the mechanics of an urban gang and of a marine platoon in combat are unlikely to object. (Sept. 18)

*Huh? Look here.

From The Brutalizing Our Women Department:

ABC 13 Texas: Miss England told to pack on pounds for Miss World Competition

A British beauty queen says she was told to pack on pounds for the upcoming Miss World competition an unexpected request, considering she's not rail-thin. "I was a little bit shocked," Miss England Georgia Horsley said Friday in an interview on NBC's "Today" show.

"I don't think I'm too thin. I'm happy with the way I am," said the 20-year-old, who is a size 4.
She added: "I probably would have been more hurt if they told me to lose weight, I think."



She looks fine. She would look fine if she added a couple of pounds. She would look fine if she lost a couple of pounds. Have we really gotten this stupid, kiddies?

Horsley said pageant organizers want "their girls to be more voluptuous and womanly and curvy, you know, rather than the stick-thin, size-0 models that you see around."

"I've just got quite more of an athletic, boyish-type figure rather than the hourglass figure that some women have," said the 5-foot-8 Horsley. "And they're just seeing if, you know, I could maybe put a bit of weight on and it might give me those curves."



Fortunately, she appears not to have joined in the latest craze sweeping the Jolly Old: self-dentistry.

The Miss World press office didn't immediately respond Friday to an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Horsley has little more than a month to gain weight: the Miss World pageant will be held in China on Dec. 1.

Wha-wha-what? Are we really going to trust Slave China with the world's hottest babes??

"They've not given me a total (weight) to get to," she said. "But I'm going to eat, you know, healthy fats such as nuts and avocado, oily fish, things like that."

Horsley said the request was no big deal, comparing it to being asked to get a tan or let her hair grow.

"I don't think this is a major, major thing, you know," she said. "They just want me to put on a few pounds."

Sure, but what if she gains weight in all the wrong places?

"I'm trying to work out at the same time," she said. "It'll hopefully maybe level things out a bit. But, I mean, if I do start putting weight on, say, my stomach or somewhere on my thighs where I don't really want to put it on ... I'll obviously scrap the idea and I'll just accept the fact that I'm a naturally athletic build and can't do the curves."

The Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Book of the Day.*

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
by Bjorn Lomborg

A groundbreaking book that transforms the debate about global warming by offering a fresh perspective based on human needs as well as environmental concerns.

Bjorn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions now being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, are often based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may very well have little impact on the world's temperature for hundreds of years. Rather than starting with the most radical procedures, Lomborg argues that we should first focus our resources on more immediate concerns, such as fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS and assuring and maintaining a safe, fresh water supply-which can be addressed at a fraction of the cost and save millions of lives within our lifetime. He asks why the debate over climate change has stifled rational dialogue and killed meaningful dissent.

Exactly!

If you want to believe the sky is falling, fine, go ahead. Just don't corrupt science, impoverish billions of souls, and enslave all of humanity.

That's not asking too much, is it?

Lomborg presents us with a second generation of thinking on global warming that believes panic is neither warranted nor a constructive place from which to deal with any of humanity's problems, not just global warming. Cool It promises to be one of the most talked about and influential books of our time.

*WTF??? Look here.

I'm hoping this is the one that takes Tom Cruise to the Old Mutha (Hubbard) ship.

Arizona Range News: Comet Holmes 17p: A bright, oddball Halloween visitor from Deep Space

Small, faint Comet Holmes 17P surprised astronomy observers around the globe by suddenly becoming bright enough (at a visual magnitude rating of 2.5, a measure of brightness that astronomers use) to see with the naked eye on Oct. 25. Earlier in the month it had been one million times fainter (at a magnitude of +17) and not visible to the unaided eye. The comet, now located in the constellation Perseus in the northeastern night sky, became even brighter on Oct. 26 and 27, and now looks like a fuzzy, yellowish star with the unaided eye. The smaller the number is for an object's magnitude, the brighter the object is, and negative magnitudes are very bright objects. The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, has a magnitude of -1.42, with negative numbers showing even brighter objects. The brightest planet in the night sky, Venus, has a magnitude from -4.1 to -4.4.

Why did this comet suddenly become millions of times brighter in a few days, or perhaps even in a few hours? What is the source of the energy needed to do this? Does it come from inside the comet, or is something outside affecting it? The reasons why Comet Holmes has had such an explosive outburst are not understood at all. Some scientists are wondering if it has developed a large crack, or fissure, and this is causing more dust and ice to stream away from it. Or it could be an out gassing event reflecting sunlight, possibly related to ice melting over a gas-filled cavern. It might even be a partial breakup of the comet's nucleus.

Amazingly, it already made its closest to the Sun last May, at 191 million miles (307 million kilometers) from the Sun. The comet is now moving away from the Sun and currently is quite far out from Earth at a distance of 151 million miles (243 million kilometers), where the effects of the Sun on it are less. In spite of this, Loretta McKibben, (a volunteer telescope operator at Flandrau), noted that the coma of the comet increased in size about 10% on Saturday, October 27, from views seen the night before.

Due to time constraints, we now move to further action.

Edwin Holmes in London, England discovered comet Holmes in November 1892, and it was spotted again in the 1960s. This comet is part of Jupiter's "family" of comets-a group in of icy bodies, which cluster around the orbit of Jupiter, and takes 6.88 years to make one circuit around the Sun. Jupiter's powerful gravity has altered the orbits of Comet Holmes over time. The comet was considered "lost" for nearly 60 years before it was finally recovered with a large observatory telescope in 1964.

Comet Holmes is not alone in exhibiting anomalous effects. In the past, other comets have undergone unexpected outbursts in brightness. This is not the first outburst for Comet Holmes: when it was discovered in 1892, it was in outburst mode, since it became as bright as fourth magnitude and was dimly visible to the naked eye.

As to what Comet Holmes will do in the coming weeks is not known. If you have your own binoculars or a small telescope, use the Perseus constellation diagram to locate this comet. Perseus is in the northeast sky after sunset, and appears almost directly overhead at about midnight for the next few weeks. Viewers all report the comet as appearing star-like. The comet should appear as a slightly fuzzy, white to yellowish star to the unaided eye. Binoculars and/or a low powered telescope are recommended to spot the comet.

From The You Know Not The Hour Department:

Asbury Park Press: Runner who collapsed and died during Olympic marathon trials had enlarged heart

Elite distance runner Ryan Shay, who collapsed and died Saturday during the U.S. men's marathon Olympic trials, had been diagnosed with an enlarged heart but cleared by doctors, his father said. "The thing that made him such a great runner may have killed him," Joe Shay told The Associated Press. An enlarged heart like Ryan's translated into extra endurance — crucial for a distance runner.

Silly protestants have trouble with the death penalty because they believe (and therefore think) incorrectly.

Of course, the same sickness infects many Catholics as well...

The Christian Post: Church Reassesses Approach to Death Penalty After Members Killed

The atmosphere at a United Methodist church in Connecticut known for its outspoken opposition against capital punishment changed after the type of people they were striving to protect killed members from their own congregation.

Before the acts committed by two men left three church members dead, attendants of the United Methodist Church in Chesire were largely opposed to the death penalty.

The church’s current and recent pastors all opposed capital punishment. The church has also sponsored adult education classes that promoted the “restorative justice.” Furthermore, church members attended a vigil to protest the execution of a Connecticut prisoner two years ago.

However, when tragedy struck closer to home, the church reexamined its approach to rallying against the death penalty.

Back in July, two men broke into the home of a family that was very active and popular within the church. Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, was strangled and her two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, died from a fire set by the intruders, according to police. William Petit, the husband and father of the victims, survived.

“I’m treading lightly out of respect for the Petit family,” said the church’s pastor, the Rev. Stephen E. Volpe, according to the New York Times. “I do not feel we, in this church, ought to make this tragedy the rallying cry for anything at this point.”

Church members have also canceled plans to invite a prominent death penalty opponent to address the congregation.

Many have questioned whether Hawke-Petit opposed the death penalty, hoping that an answer would provide guidance on how the congregation should handle the matter.

A handful of members say they think Hawke-Petit was among those at the church that signed a Declaration of Life, which states a person’s opposition to capital punishment and asks that prosecutors, in the event of the person’s own death in a capital crime, do not seek the death penalty.

“She was a nurse and she would not cause harm to anyone,” said Lucy Earley, a congregant who handled the declarations from members at church.

But prosecutors say Hawke-Petit’s position on capital punishment would not affect the enforcement of the law.

The congregation has also wondered whether William Petit, a physician, would oppose or support the death penalty in this case.

A friend and church member said that after meeting with Petit, he felt the doctor supported the execution of the two suspects if found convicted.

Senatrix Hitlery Schicklgruber (N-NY), call your office.

AP: PetroChina becomes world's first company worth $1 trillion

Somehow, I doubt ol' Hit will try to take their "windfall profits".

The war this time.

If you think Pakistan's democratic "forces" can win the war against the goat rapists infesting their country, then urge our government to punish Musharrf. But do not be surprised if the goat rapists win and destroy all hope of freedom for Pakistan's people.

If you have dumbass left-fascist tendencies and believe nothing could be worse than Musharrf, try to remember how you thought the Shah of Iran was evil incarnate...

AP: Thousands battle police in Pakistan

Police fired tear gas and battered thousands of lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's decision to impose emergency rule, as Western allies threatened to review aid to the troubled Muslim nation. More than 1,500 people have been arrested in 48 hours, and authorities put a stranglehold on independent media.

Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup and is also head of Pakistan's army, suspended the constitution on Saturday ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on whether his re-election as president was legal. He ousted independent-minded judges, stripped media freedoms and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent.

Though public anger was mounting in the nation of 160 million people, which has been under military rule for much of its 60-year history, demonstrations so far have been limited largely to activists, rights workers and lawyers. All have been quickly and sometimes brutally stamped out.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington was reviewing its assistance to Pakistan, which has received billions in aid since Musharraf threw his support behind the U.S.-led war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

At a news conference in the West Bank on Monday, Rice urged Musharraf to follow through on past promises to "take off his uniform."

"I want to be very clear," she said, as a team of U.S. defense officials postponed plans to travel to Islamabad for talks Tuesday because of the crisis. "We believe that the best path for Pakistan is to quickly return to a constitutional path and then to hold elections."

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of Saint Elizabeth and Saint Zachary, Our Blessed Mother's relatives. Zachary was a priest in Jerusalem whose wife, Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, was beyond child-bearing age. He was told by an angel in a vision that they would have a son and should name him John. When he doubted this, he was struck dumb. Elizabeth was visited by Mary, at which time Mary spoke the hymn of praise now known at the Magnificat, and after John's birth, Zachary's speech was restored. This is all that is known of Elizabeth and Zachary, and is found in the New Testament in Luke, Chapter 1. An unverifiable tradition has Zachary murdered in the Temple when he refused to tell Herod where his son John was to be found.

Today is also the Commemoration of All the Deceased of the Seraphic Order.

Pray for us, all you angels and saints.


Today's reading is Wisdom 3:1-9.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 22:1-6.
Today's Gospel reading is John 6:37-40.


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome


Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water from Christ's side, wash me; Passion of Christ, strengthen me; O good Jesus, hear me; Within Thy wounds hide me; Suffer me not to be separated from Thee; From the malicious enemy defend me; In the hour of my death call me; And bid me come unto Thee; That I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels Forever and ever. Amen.


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.


Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank You today for the gift of my life, and for the lives of all my brothers and sisters. I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion, yet I rejoice that you have conquered death by the resurrection of Your Son. I am ready to do my part to end abortion. Today I commit myself never to be silent, never to be passive, and never to be forgetful of the unborn. I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement, and never stop defending life until all my brothers and sisters are protected and our nation once again becomes a nation with liberty and justice, not just for some, but for all. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.


Prayer For Vocations

Send forth your Spirit, Lord, into the hearts of your faithful people, that we may be conscious of our vocation to holiness and sevice to others. Grant that many of us may dedicate ourselves to You through the priesthood and the religious life.We pray especially for the needs of our own parish and diocese. Grant that we may always have sufficient good and holy priests, and dedicated Sisters to serve our commumities.We pray, too, for religious orders; that generous men may join them to become zealous missionaries in preaching the Gospel in word and action, especially to the poor and abandoned.We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.


Prayer Before The Crucifix

Behold, O kind and gentle Jesus, I kneel before Thee and pray that Thou would impress upon my heart the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment. At the same time, with sorrow I meditate on Thy five precious wounds, having in mind the words which David spoke in prophecy: "They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones."


Divine Praises

Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.
May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament
Be praised, adored and loved
With grateful affection at every moment
In all the tabernacles of the world
Even to the end of time. Amen.


Prayer to Saint Benedict

Sanctissime Confessor Domini, monachorum Pater et dux,
Benedicte, intercede pro nostra omniumque salute.

V. Domine Deus virtutum converte nos.

R. Et ostende faciem tuam et salvi erimus.


Oremus.


Excita, Domine, in Ecclesia tua Spiritum cui beatus Pater noster Benedictus Abbas servivit: ut eodem nos repleti, studeamus amare quod amavit, et opere exercere quod docuit.

Da nobis, quaesumus, Domine, perseverantem in tua voluntate famulatum: ut in
Diebus nostris et merito et numero populus tibi serviens augeatur. Per Christum Dominum Nostrum. Amen.


For those whose Latin is a bit rusty:

O most holy Confessor of the Lord, Benedict, father and guide of monks, intercede for our salvation and that of everyone.

V. Lord, God of armies, convert us.

R. Show us Thy Face and we shall be saved.


Let us pray.

Awaken, O Lord, in Thy Church the Spirit that our blessed Father Saint Benedict
obeyed, so that, filled with the same Spirit we may strive to love what he loved and practice what he taught.

Grant us the grace to persevere in the service of Thy will, so that our days may
see the people of Thy servants grow in merit and number. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.