The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is on the front line of the counter-revolution.

JEWS SAY IT’S OK TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

On December 1st, there will be a press conference convened by Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C.; it begins at 1:30 p.m. in the Murrow Room. (For more information, call Bryan Rudnick at 561-499-3201.)

In attendance will be the organization’s president, Don Feder, as well as Michael Horowitz from the Hudson Institute, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the president of Toward Tradition, and Rabbi Yehuda Levin of Jews for Morality; entertainer Jackie Mason will speak via conference call.

Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation was organized to combat anti-Christian bias in government, the news media, Hollywood, public education, and from activist groups (see www.jews4fairness.org).

In a recent column, Don Feder wrote, “The secularist assault on Christmas (unwittingly aided by the perpetually aggrieved and sensitivity-whipped) is one front in the war on America’s Judeo-Christian heritage.” Similarly, Rabbi Lapin has said, “Christianizing the culture is not the problem for Jews, secularizing it is.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue weighed in on this matter today:

“Christians have no better friends in the Jewish community than the group Don Feder will assemble tomorrow in Washington, D.C. Totally secure in their own religion, they have complete respect for Christianity. And they are scrupulously fair: they know that the war on Christmas is not only unjust, it is against the best interests of all Americans. That is because our liberties spring not from government, but from God. Ergo, attempts by radical secularists must be resisted with vigor if our heritage is to be preserved.

“I urge all those in the media to be present at this extraordinary press conference tomorrow.”


LANDS’ END NEUTERS CHRISTMAS

When the Catholic League got a tip from one of its members that Lands’ End refuses to use the word “Christmas” in its catalog—even though it sells Christmas items—we verified its authenticity. Printed below is part of the reply we received from Merlin W. Gorsline in the Customer Relations Department to an inquiry we made regarding the refusal of Lands’ End to mention the word “Christmas”:

“We find ourselves in a difficult position with this issue. As a result, we have adopted the ‘holiday’ terminology as a way to comply with one of the basic freedoms granted to all Americans: freedom of religion. We recognize that Christmas is a Christian holiday, and one of the foremost teachings of the Christian faith is a love for one’s fellowman—no matter what his race, religion or creed.

“If we knew which customers feel as you do, we would be delighted to send them catalogs with ‘Merry Christmas’ splashed throughout the pages. However, we don’t.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows:

“Freedom of religion is an important constitutional right, but to say that fidelity to that right demands that retailers censor the term Christmas at Christmastime wouldn’t even be believed by the judges from the Ninth Circuit. Nor is it good customer relations to tell Christians who desire to buy Christmas gifts at Christmastime that they are a loveless bunch of bigots who have an impoverished understanding of their own religion.

“And it’s not as though the decision to neuter Christmas is done to protect Jewish sensibilities: the company doesn’t sell Hanukkah gifts, but it does sell Christmas gifts (108 of them).

“Lands’ End says that if it knew who to send a ‘Merry Christmas’ catalog to, it would. So do it: contact landsend@landsend.com right away.”

Please help Paralyzed Veterans of America this Christmas.

“At first I felt lucky to be alive. But after a few days of intense pain and being unable to move, I wanted to die.”- Sgt. Jason Wittling, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)


For more information about PVA, please visit their web site at http://www.supportveterans.org/.

Paralyzed Veterans of America
801 18th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
(202) 872-1300
(800) 424-8200
www.SupportVeterans.org


PVA YEAR-END GIFT DRIVE


Your gift helps paralyzed veterans rebuild their lives.
Through your support, PVA helps paralyzed veterans get the help they need. With help from generous individuals, in 2005:

PVA Service Officers conducted more than 23,000 counseling sessions with veterans and their families.

PVA disaster relief grants to individuals totaled more than $200,000.

PVA representatives traveled more than 206,000 road miles across the country serving veterans and their families.

PVA served 20,000 paralyzed veterans and their families and provided assistance to another 15,000 severely disabled veterans, their families and survivors.

PVA provided more than 175,000 hours of voluntary service at VA medical centers across the country.

PVA filed 17,000 benefit claims for our clients with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

PVA awarded grants totaling more than $1.2 million for spinal cord injury research and education to find a cure for paralysis.

PVA delivered more than 500,000 cards to our hospitalized vets.

PVA offered membership at no charge to more than 21,000 veterans with spinal cord injury or disease.

And with your help, we can do more in 2006.

PVA cannot succeed without you. It’s that simple. The reality is you really do make a difference. Open your heart and give as generous a year-end gift to PVA as you can.

Fyodor's Pro Football Picks of the Week.

1) The guys who set the lines are professionals. Their job is to make each game look as attractive as possible to everyone. That way they even out the amount of money bet on each side.
Instant translation: The house wins no matter who wins. That's why people get into the gambling business.

2) I am just a fan. I won't even keep track of these picks week to week if it gets too embarrassing.

3) There is no such thing as "inside information". Especially in the pros.

4) If those idiot touts on tv and in the paper were any good, they wouldn't go public with their genius. They'd sit at Harrah's sports book from open to close and then go out and buy $2,000 an hour hookers who dress like high school girls.

5) Gambling is stupid. You cannot win.

That being said, here are my NFL picks for this week.


Sunday 12/4


Atlanta (+3) at Carolina
Carolina is the better team. At home. After a bad game. Pick the Panthers.
FINAL: Panthers 24 Falcons 6 - Fyodor wins! (Vick is not a pocket passer. Let him do it his way. The Falcons will never win a Super Bowl, But they'll be fun to watch.)


Buffalo (+5) at Miami
The Crummy Game of the Week? Almost. Take Miami.
FINAL: Dolphins 24 Bills 23 - Fyodor loses! (Nice comeback for the sea mammals.)




Cincinnati (+3) at Pittsburgh
The Steelers are in big trouble if they lose. Take the Bengals and the points. (I know. I'm a bad man.)
FINAL: Bengals 38 Steelers 31 - Fyodor wins! (Memo To Coach Cowher: If your team does not run, it does not win. It's nice to know Ben can throw for over 300 yards, but that leaves your D on the field for way too many plays. And all Steeler fans know that's not good.)



Dallas (+3) at NY Giants
Giants are inconsistent. Dallas less so. Pick the Cowboys.
FINAL: Giants 17 Cowboys 10 - Fyodor loses!



Green Bay (+7) at Chicago
I'm beginning to believe in the Bears. Take Chicago to cover.
FINAL: Bears 19 Packers 7 - Fyodor wins!



Houston (+8) at Baltimore
Now this is a crummy game! I wouldn't bet on it, but I'll pick Houston.
FINAL: Ravens 16 Texans 15 - Fyodor wins! (Heehee. Baltimore -8.)


Jacksonville (-3) at Cleveland
No Leftwich, but the Jaguars are fighting for a playoff spot. Take Jacksonville on the road.
FINAL: Jaguars 20 Browns 14 - Fyodor wins!



Minnesota (-2.5) at Detroit
Another crummy game! Lions are crummier this time. Take the Vikings.
FINAL: Vikings 21 Lions 16 - Fyodor wins!


Tampa Bay (-3.5) at (sort of) New Orleans
A veritable sea of crumminess! Bucs better get their act together. And pronto. Take Tampa.
FINAL: Buccaneers 10 Saints 3 - Fyodor wins!



Tennessee (+15.5) at Indianapolis
The Colts juggernaut marches on. They'll cover.
FINAL: Colts 35 Titans 3 - Fyodor wins!


Arizona (-3) at San Francisco
Do the fans of these two teams still care? Take the 49ers because Dennis Green is a moron.
FINAL: Cardinals 17 49ers 10 - Fyodor loses! (He's still one.)



Washington (-3) at St. Louis
The Rams may have found another QB, while the Redskins are struggling. Pick St. Louis.
FINAL: Redskins 24 Rams 9 - Fyodor loses! (Ack!)



Denver (-1.5) at Kansas City
The Game of the Week! I'll pick the Chiefs on the strength of Larry Johnson's legs.
FINAL: Chiefs 31 Broncos 27 - Fyodor wins!



NY Jets (+ 10.5) at New England
Take the Patriots.
FINAL: Patriots 16 Jets 3 - Fyodor wins!


Oakland (+11.5) at San Diego
Oakland stinks out loud, but the Chargers have played a lot of close games that should not have been. Take the Raiders to cover.
FINAL: Chargers 34 Raiders 10 - Fyodor loses!



Monday 12/5


Seattle (-4) at Philadelphia
The Seahawks will use the Monday night stage to show off for the folks who don't see them often. And the Eagles stink. Pick Seattle.
FINAL: Seahawks 42 Eagles 0 - Fyodor wins! (Injuries plus T.O. does not add up to this debacle. They quit on Andy Reid. This does not bode well for next year.)

Fyodor's College Football Picks of the Week.

1) The guys who set the lines are professionals. Their job is to make each game look as attractive as possible to everyone. That way they even out the amount of money bet on each side.
Instant translation: The house wins no matter who wins. That's why people get into the gambling business.

2) I am just a fan. I won't even keep track of these picks week to week if it gets too embarrassing.

3) There is no such thing as "inside information". Especially in the pros.

4) If those idiot touts on tv and in the paper were any good, they wouldn't go public with their genius. They'd sit at Harrah's sports book from open to close and then go out and buy $2,000 an hour hookers who dress like high school girls.
5) Gambling is stupid. You cannot win.

That being said, here are my college picks for this week.



Saturday 12/3

Honestly, I am hoping Texas and/or USC loses to screw up the BCS again. I won't be picking the bowl games. They are meaningless exhibitions.

Give us a playoff system, you fools!




Army (+6.5) versus Navy (at Philadelphia)
This is the only game that really matters. It is played by boys who are better men than our benighted country deserves. Soon these boys will be fighting, bleeding, dying, and leading. All this for you. Even if you don't appreciate it. Even if you hate them. Even if you despise everything they hold dear.
So sit down, shut up, and watch 'em play ball!
Take Army and the points.
FINAL: Navy 42 Army 23 - Fyodor loses! (Bobby Ross is turning the West Point program around. We'll see you next year, Navy.)


Tulsa (+1) at Central Florida
Flip a coin. My quarter says CFU.
FINAL: Tulsa 44 Central Florida 27 - Fyodor loses! (Stupid quarter.)


Big 12 Championship (Neutral field)
Colorado (+26.5) versus Texas
How bad did CU look last week against a mediocre Nebraska squad? Very. Take Texas to win big.
FINAL: Texas 70 Colorado 3 - Fyodor wins!



UCLA (-21) at USC
If the Bruins only had some D...Nope. Take the Trojans to cover.
FINAL: USC 66 UCLA 19 - Fyodor wins!



SEC Championship (Neutral field)
LSU (-1.5) versus Georgia
Take LSU to cover.
FINAL: Georgia 34 LSU 14 - Fyodor loses! (Did I overestimate LSU or underestimate Georgia?)


West Virginia (-9.5) at South Florida
Mountaineers are looking pretty good. They'll cover.
FINAL: WVU 28 South Florida 13 - Fyodor wins!



Louisville (-15.5) at Connecticut
Can't wait to see this matchup on the hardwood. On grass, take the Cards.
FINAL: Louisville 30 Connecticut 20 - Fyodor loses!




ACC Championship (Neutral field)
Florida State (+14) versus Virginia Tech
FSU is in trouble. I think they'll get humiliated. Take Tech.
FINAL: FSU 27 Virginia Tech 22 - Fyodor loses! (Wow. Tech really stinks.)



San Diego State (+3) at Hawaii
In case you haven't noticed, there aren't a lot of games this week. Take the Aztecs.
FINAL: Hawai'i 49 San Diego State 38 - Fyodor loses! (Oh, never mind.)

Whatever happened to...

...Gigantor?

The space age robot who's bigger than big, taller than tall, quicker than quick, and stronger than strong is alive and well on the Cartoon Network. (Weekdays at 5:30 AM Eastern)

He's still engaged in his never ending battle against the bad guys along with Jimmy Sparks, Dr. Bob Brilliant, and Inspector Ignatz J. Blooper.

Once a upon a time, girls and boys, there was a little band in a little town that occasionally played a set of cartoon theme music. You know, the classics like the original Jonny Quest theme, (The best ever! Too bad we couldn't recreate the gunfire and the pterodactyl scream.) Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse, Underdog, Speed Racer, Spiderman, and a lot of that Charlie Brown stuff by Vince Guaraldi. And, of course, the Gigantor theme song.

Those were the days my friend. We thought they'd never end.

Remember when you could depend on Catholic priests as the bedrock of orthodoxy? Me neither...

...or, Headlines like this make Fyodor's old brain hurt.

From Catholic Online:
Gays in clergy widespread, Vatican decisions made in ignorance, scholar says

With the much-anticipated Vatican document on gays in seminaries soon to be published, a visiting scholar at a Jesuit university has written that homosexuality in the priesthood is widespread and that the church’s decisions about gay clergy are being made in without proper study or understanding.

Father Reese, currently a visiting scholar at Jesuit-run Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif., resigned as editor in chief of America magazine in May 2005 after, according to Jesuit officials in Rome, repeated complaints from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, who objected to the magazine's treatment of sensitive church issues.

The Italian news agency ADISTA published the Italian text of the Vatican document Nov. 22, a week before it was expected to be released at the Vatican. A Vatican spokesman did not confirm or deny the authenticity of the text, entitled "Instruction on the Criteria of Vocational Discernment Regarding Persons With Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Priesthood and to Sacred Orders."

Father Reese noted Nov. 21 that, while “estimates of homosexuality among priests have ranged from 10 percent to 60 percent,” U.S. bishops have discouraged research into clergy sexual orientation or activity because of the bad publicity that would result.

“They don’t know because they don’t want anyone else to know.”

They don't want anyone to know because they are the ones responsible for those sodomites being priests in the first place and, by extension, the abuse those sodomites have visited upon innocent boys for more than a generation.

A 2002 Los Angeles Times survey did find that 20 percent of priests said they were homosexual or had some homosexual tendencies, he said, adding that those involved with the survey said the numbers most likely reflect underreporting. The survey also found that 26 percent said that a homosexual subculture definitely or probably existed in seminaries, he added.

May God have mercy on all souls.

The result, he said, is the “Vatican is making decisions about the appropriateness of ordaining homosexuals in total ignorance of how many current priests are homosexuals, how well they observe celibacy and how well they do ministry.”

Homosexuals are much more promiscious than heterosexuals. That's a fact, Father. Read the scientific literature. A celibate homosexual is about as common as a conservative Democrass.

Concerning the question of the right of ordination, he said both Vatican officials and advocates of the ordination of homosexuals and women “miss the point.”

“True, no one has a right to ordination. It is a vocation, a call from God,” he said. “Then, it is not a violation of a human right, it is violation of a divine right – the right of God to call whomever he chooses to the priesthood.”
The real question, he added, should be, “’Are they called or not?’”

I doubt God calls many men who define themselves by what they do with their genitalia. That alone should prevent self-proclaimed "homosexuals" from entering our seminaries. Would you allow a man whose desire for fornicating with women was so strong he oriented his entire life around that desire? Of course not, Father.

Let me put it this way. We want our priests to be men of God, not men of the flesh. Or is that too much to ask these days?

He said that, based on reports as to the contents of the Vatican document, there seems to be a presumption that “sexual orientation is a choice” that can be changed, while “most psychologists would hold that homosexual orientation is permanent and univocal.”

Most psychologists are barely one step up the intellectual ladder from Phrenologists. Since when did we let them decide what sin is?

And though he agrees that for some “homosexual orientation is an absolute obstacle to ordination,” he wondered whether the church should ordain men whose “heterosexual orientation is sufficiently ‘strong, permanent and univocal’ as to make an all-female environment a risk,” with many priests working in such an environment in a parish setting, for instance.

Exactly, Father. It is the responsibility of bishops and teachers to get to know their seminarians well enough to discover if they will make good priests. It is time for those in authority to stop avoiding this (and other) responsibilities they have chosen as part of their vocation.

Father Reese said that some bishops and Vatican officials have indicated that the document is part of a response to the sex-abuse crisis in the United States, as some 80 percent of victims of clergy abuse were boys.
Yet, he said, “many of the priests who abused boys were in fact heterosexuals.”

Prove it. Find me a heterosexual male who likes sex with boys or men and I'll show you a homosexual. Either that, or the definition of the word is meaningless.

And while “many in the Vatican have considered the sexual abuse crisis a uniquely American issue,” Father Reese said that more and more countries are proving that it is “not a uniquely American problem.”

Sadder still,” he said, “is the fact that the rest of the church seems to be repeating the same mistakes that many American bishops made in response to the crisis, rather than learning from our mistakes.”
He suggested that the problem of homophobia, existent in the United States and even greater in Africa and Latin America, may be driving the content of the document.

First of all, if "homophobia" were a real word, it would mean "fear of the same". Second of all, if your an altar boy, there is good reason to fear homos.

“Remember the Vatican is writing a document for the entire world,” Father Reese said. “Bishops in Africa and Latin America would certainly not welcome a document that indicated any openness to homosexuals in the clergy. In Africa, such a document would open the church to attacks from Muslim clerics and in Latin America it would open the church to attacks from fundamentalists.”

How about attacks from Catholics who remember sodomy and fornication are mortal sins? Are you really a Catholic priest, Father Reese?

“Only in the United States is this issue even being discussed,” he said.

That's because our perverts have political power and the decent people of this country are sick and tired of being lectured to by morons who define their very existence by the type of mortal sin in which they joyously revel.

Lord, please protect us from all priests who have lost their way.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the feast of St. Chromatius, bishop and scholar. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Isaiah 29:17-24.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 9:27-31.


[Links to the readings will be from the NAB until I can find another chapter and verse searchable Douay-Rheims Bible on-line.]


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTNNational Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today


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.


Prayer to Saint 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.

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

After that last post, this should come as no surprise to those cognoscenti kiddies out there:

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science by Tom Bethell

It would make a wonderful Christmas gift for the smug totalitarians in your life who get their science from The Today Show.

* Who? Look here.

A must read! Tom Bethell on evolution.

It seems National Review still has a couple of real conservatives in their stable. Bethell may be old, but he's not ready for pasture yet.

Please note how he beats down the alleged thinking of George "Defective" Will and Charles "Sour" Krauthammer.

My new book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, addresses many topics, ranging from endangered species to the alleged warfare of religion and science. But two in particular have repeatedly come up in radio interviews: global warming and intelligent design (I have chapters on both).

Most on the Right are agreed on global warming: It's mostly politics dressed up as science. But what about intelligent design?

On this, conservatives are divided. Many — dare I call them the rank and file? — are skeptical about evolution and, I sense, are willing to throw it overboard. Others — I'll call them the chattering class — think things have gone too far, and that when it comes to evolution we should show Harvard and Yale a little more respect.

George Will recently said that the Kansas Board of Education (which on Election Day voted to amend science standards in favor of intelligent design) is controlled "by the kind of conservatives who make conservatism repulsive to temperate people." Charles Krauthammer, too, wants to read evolution skeptics out of polite society.

But more than snobbish disdain will be needed to deal with the facts and arguments put forward by the proponents of intelligent design.

Heehee!

George Will tells us that evolution is a fact. Is it? It depends on what you mean by evolution. Add an antibiotic to a dish of bacteria, so that some die and some survive, and bacterial resistance may be seen. This is said to illustrate natural selection — Charles Darwin's great discovery and claim to fame — and, therefore, evolution in action. Charles Krauthammer is pleased to tell us that the advocates of intelligent design "admit" that natural selection "explains such things as the development of drug resistance."

More ominously, Tom, it depends on what one means by "fact". Science is not some great and powerful monolith carrying us forward into peace, love, harmony, and the end of the need to work. Science is more like a human pyramid that will collapse if anyone doesn't play by the rules.

But what actually happens in the Petri dish? Some of the bacteria are naturally equipped with enzymes that give them immunity to the antibiotic. So they survive, while most of the bacteria die. Nutrients remain in the dish, and the resistant strain now has an ample food supply and multiplies. Before, it could hardly compete with the far more abundant strain, now wiped out. So the (pre-existing) resistant strain becomes more numerous. There is a multiplication of something that already existed. But as the famous geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan said about 100 years ago — he spent years studying fruit flies at Columbia University and was rewarded with the Nobel Prize — evolution means making new things, not more of what already exists.

Exactly!

Nonetheless, if you define evolution as a change of gene ratios, well, yes, there has been such a change of ratios in the population of bacteria. So, if your definition of evolution is sufficiently modest, then you can call evolution a fact. Others define evolution as "change over time." That's a fact, too.

But we know perfectly well that, to its devotees, evolution means something much more than that.

Indeed.

We are expected to believe — and I do mean believe — that evolution answers the important question: How did life, in all its abundance, appear on Earth? By the slow, successive modification of pre-existing forms, Darwin said. Go back far enough, to one of those warm little ponds Darwinians assume must have existed, and we would find that life started of its own accord from nothing in particular. Over the eons, atoms and molecules whirled themselves into ever more complicated structures. Eventually the best and brightest acquired consciousness, and started to ask: "How did we get here?" The usual answer was: "We seem to have been intelligently designed." Then others replied: "Oh, no, no, no, we all started in a warm little pond, way back."

Heehee.

Whom to believe? Or maybe we should approach it more scientifically: What are the facts?

I'll drink to that!

If we discount trivial examples like bacterial resistance or "change over time" or small changes in beak size among the finches of the Galapagos Islands, we don't know very much about evolution at all. We don't see it happening around us, or in the rocks.

Nope. Wait, it's about to get even better.

In my book, I quote Colin Patterson, a senior paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History, telling a professional audience at the American Museum in New York that there was "not one thing" he knew about evolution. He had asked the evolutionary-morphology seminar at the University of Chicago if there was anything they knew about it, and, he said: "The only answer I got was silence."

Ha! Precisely!

Patterson, who died a few years ago, was an atheist and once told me that he regarded the Bible as "a pack of lies." There was no way he could be accused of Biblical primitivism. People would ask him, with a note of alarm, "Well, you do believe in evolution, don't you?" He would respond that science wasn't supposed to be a system of belief.

May God have mercy on the soul of that honest fool. He, kiddies, was a scientist, not a political shill in a lab coat.

So let's look at the evidence adduced for evolution. The fossil record is sparse. Bats, for example — the only mammals capable of powered flight — appear suddenly in the fossil record, with their sonar systems already fully developed. "There are no half bats," as a world expert on bats once said. The experts have no idea what animal gave rise to the first bat.

Heehee. Half-batty!

The creatures that evolution purports to explain are fantastically complex. The cell, thought at the time of Darwin to be a "simple little lump of protoplasm," is as complicated as a high-tech factory. We have no actual evidence that it evolved — and yet we are asked, indeed obliged, to believe that it did.

Yep.

In the human body, there are 300 trillion cells, and each "knows" what part it must play in the growing organism. To this day, embryologists have no idea how this happens — even though they have been trying to figure it out for 150 years.

Imagine an automobile company that came out with a new model that could do the remarkable things that living creatures do. How amazed we would be! The car would be able to repair itself, if not damaged too badly. Dent it and, in a few days, the dent is gone. It needs to rest for a few hours every day but it can keep going for 80 years on bread and water, with perhaps vegetables thrown in. And it can hook up with another version of the same automobile, and produce in a few months' time new, tiny versions of itself, which will then grow up to full-size autos with the ability to reproduce in turn.

We have been unable to do anything remotely like this in the lab. Yet we are surrounded by lowly creatures that do these things every day — and we express no amazement. We have been trained to be blasé about the marvels of creation. "Oh, evolution did that," we say. "It was just a matter of random mutation; nothing surprising there." "These things arose by accident and were selected for."

Shhh! Tom's on a roll.

That phrase — "it was selected for" — is regarded as a sufficient explanation for . . . everything. The same mundane phrase is given as the explanation for everything under the sun. How did the bats get sonar? "It arose by an accidental mutation of the genes and was selected for. Next question?" How did the eye develop? "Piecemeal. There was a random mutation and it conferred an advantage so it was selected for. Then the same thing happened over and over again. Next question?" How did the camel get its hump? "Random mutations conferred some advantage and so they were selected for. Next question?"

See what the establishment's orthodoxy really is, kiddies? It is easily reduced to nonsense. And nary a bit of science is in view.

This is the science before which all knees must bend? These explanations are no better than "Just-So stories" (as one or two Harvard professors have rightly said). (Quick! Somebody put those two in the witness protection program! - F.G.) No actual digging in the dirt is needed: The theorist merely contemplates the trait in question and makes up a plausible story as to how it might have been advantageous.

We fear questioning the evolutionist dogma. Someone might call us fanatical. "Intemperate" was the word George Will used. So we go along with the dogmas of materialism, lest we be considered ignorant or uneducated or driven by a religious agenda.

EXACTLY! Don't be sheep, be men! Stand up on the hind legs God gave you and demand these petit fasciste numbskulls produce some evidence to prove their religion isn't a religion. Never ever let them get away with "Duh...the evolutionary process did it, I reckon".

Charles Krauthammer tells us that Isaac Newton was religious and if he saw no conflict between science and religion, why can't we take our thin gruel of evolutionary science like good children and be satisfied, without dragging a Designer into the picture?

Because it isn't real science, Charles. (Ha! Take that you pompous ass! You're a doctor? So's my Aunt Nellie! And she's never found any proof of transitional forms either. - F.G.) Newton, in fact, thought that the "most beautiful system" of sun, planets, and comets could "only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being." But the laws of physics that govern these motions are simplicity itself compared with the immense complexity of the biological machinery that governs the development, proliferation, growth, and aging of millions of reproductive species. These mechanisms have yet to be discovered or described. To believe that the feeble tautology of natural selection — laissez-faire political economy from the 1830s imported into biology (Ha! - F.G.) — constitutes a sufficient explanation of the marvels of nature is to display a credulity that makes our fundamentalists seem sagacious by comparison.

Heehee!

George Will has made one accurate criticism of the idea he so dislikes: "The problem with intelligent design is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis." This is true; but he should have added that Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is not falsifiable either. Darwin's claim to fame was his discovery of a mechanism of evolution; he accepted "survival of the fittest" as a good summary of his natural-selection theory. But which ones are the fittest? The ones that survive. There is no criterion of fitness that is independent of survival. Whatever happens, it is the "fittest" that survive — by definition. This, just like intelligent design, is not a testable hypothesis. As the eminent philosopher of science Karl Popper said, after discussing this problem that natural selection cannot escape: "There is hardly any possibility of testing a theory as feeble as this." Popper was the first to propose falsification as the line of demarcation between theories that are scientific and those that are not; both intelligent design and natural selection fall by this standard.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes! Amen to all that, Brother.

The underlying problem, rarely discussed, is that the conclusions of evolutionism are based not on science, but on a philosophy: the philosophy of materialism, or naturalism. Living creatures, including human beings, are here on Earth, and we got here somehow. If atoms and molecules in motion are all that exist, then their random interactions must account for everything that exists, including us. That is the true underpinning of Darwinism. What needs to be examined in detail is not so much the religion behind intelligent design as the philosophy behind evolution.

There! It is, at the most fundamental level, a revolt against Almighty God and his good order.

But that is a sermon for another day.

Amen, Brother Bethell, amen.

I was right. KU lamebrain Paul Mirecki used to be Catholic.

Remember the clever prof who was going to teach intelligent design as myth? Get a load of this:

...In another, Mirecki explained to students that German Christians saw “Nazism as compatible (the fulfillment of?) Christianity [sic], with Hitler as final messiah.”

I told you he was clever. He made that up all by himself. Want the truth?

In a post he published to the list last May, he wrote, “I had my first Catholic ‘holy communion’ when I was a kid in Chicago and when I took the bread-wafer the first time, it stuck to the roof of my mouth, and as I was secretly trying to pry it off with my tongue as I was walking back to my pew with white clothes and with my hands folded, all I could think was that it was Jesus’ skin, and I started to puke, but I sucked it in and drank my own puke. That’s a big part of the Catholic experience. I don’t think most Catholics really know what they are supposed to believe, they just go home and use condoms and some of them beat their wives and husbands.”
Cute, no?

May God have mercy on your soul, Mirecki. You're going to need it.

Mirecki went on to explain that he was going to meet with Monsignor Vince Krische, then at the university’s Catholic Center.

What did Msgr. Krische remember about the meeting? Not much.
Although Mirecki claimed in his posts that the two were “very good friends,” Msgr. Krische tells me the two had met only twice, once at the Catholic Center and once at dinner. The priest could offer no explanation for the comments. “I just don’t know why he would say such a thing. I think this is a very offensive and irresponsible thing for him to say. What is it based on? Why would he say this?” Mirecki did not return a call asking for comment and clarification. (Thanks to National Review Online for the heads up.)

One of the best ways to deal with the fascist left is to broadcast their ignorance and hate as widely as possible so everyone who does not masturbate to photos of Stalin will know what the totalitarians are up to. That's why I wish AirScamerica was more than just a way to bilk George Soros, et al. out of a couple of million bucks.

It Takes A Village To Staff A Gestapo Unit Update.

Various and sundry other mental giants comment on Hitlery's mental gigantism.

BRESLIN: 'Hillary Clinton today holds the new North American record for fakery'...

Actor Tim Robbins Lashes Out: 'Hillary Clinton can kiss my butt... That ridiculous, ridiculous statement she's made on Iraq.' Comments made Thursday on AIR AMERICA'S 'Morning Sedition'...

Meanwhile, down in the bunker...

Hillary fine-tunes message on war...

(Thanks to Drudge for the heads up on all of these.)

Why fans can't relate (to say the least) to today's athletes.

The latest on the coach choker from Stephen Cannella of SI.com:

The dollar amounts have changed, but the rhetoric is still the same from the Latrell Sprewell camp a year after the shooting guard turned down a three-year, $21 million contract extension offer from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Nearly a month into the season, Sprewell, who infamously explained his rejection of Minnesota's overture by saying he had "a family to feed," is unemployed and, according to his agent, willing to sit out the season rather than play for the NBA veteran's minimum of $1.1 million. "Anyone who thinks he should play for that, that's absurd," Sprewell's representative, Bob Gist, told SI.com this week. "He might as well retire."

"Latrell doesn't need the money that badly. To go from being offered $7 million to taking $1 million, that would be a slap in the face."

Gist said he considers the offer rejected last year a fair one. "The Timberwolves' offer was close to a [fair] valuation," he said. (Sprewell averaged 12.8 points and 2.2 assists in 80 games for the T'wolves in 2004-05.) "If you look at his stats, I think $7 million - $10 million [per year] is what veterans like him are commanding."

SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is theft)

The latest in a continuing series.*
As is usually the case, St. Augustine sums it up nicely.

I came to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lusts. I had not yet fallen in love, but I was in love with the idea of it, and this feeling that something was missing made me despise myself for not being more anxious to satisfy the need. I began to look around for some object for my love, since I badly wanted to love something. —St. Augustine, Confessions

ABOVE: Pam DeBord as Lady Sage in her best selling dental hygiene video "You Damn Well Better Floss, You Worm, Or I'll Do It For You And You Won't Like That Nearly As Much".


"Lady Sage", the flower of Columbus Ohio's womanhood, gets $250 an hour (Heck, that's cheaper than a good lawyer or a bad therapist.) to beat men. She also gets $1,000 a day plus expenses to travel to other towns to beat their men. The conservatives in the crowd would say it's a private business arrangement between consenting adults. The liberals in the crowd want her phone number.

But seriously, folks, I'm sure there are conservatives-from-the-waist-up out there who want a piece of this kind of action too.

But really seriously, folks, how wrapped up in your perversion must you be to steal 200 G's from the charity that employs you?

A charity executive used $210,000 meant to cure heart disease to get his own pulse pounding — repeatedly flying a dominatrix halfway across the country to spank him, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.

Abraham Alexander racked up charges on an employer credit card for a slew of personal items, including steamy S&M meet-and-beat sessions with Lady Sage, a world-renowned whip mistress based in Columbus, Ohio, the sources said.

Alexander, 45, is an accounts-payable exec at the not-for-profit Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

The Long Island man allegedly used the funds to fulfill his fetish fantasies by paying the Midwestern mistress' air fare to New York each month — and ponying up for a wardrobe full of bawdy bondage gear, including chains and whips.

Don't get me wrong. It's not just the perversion. Mr. Alexander's exploits would merit mention here even if he had stolen the money to buy 105 hours with the world's greatest whore. Heck, stealing $210,000 to decorate your house is bad, too.

It is the man's motivation that fascinates me. Here again, we have another story for boys.

He also paid for jewelry and fancy dinners, in addition to $30,000 in fees to the leather-clad Ohio backside paddler, sources familiar with the case said.

Alexander, who had not been working at the charity for long, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of grand larceny and forgery and ordered held in lieu of $10,000 bail, the Manhattan DA's Office said.

Lady Sage — who goes by her real name, Pam DeBord, outside her dungeon — says on her Web site that she charges $1,000 a day plus expenses to travel to clients.

On top of that, clients pay $250 an hour for her spanking services.
"Professional domination sessions are about good people having great fun," Lady Sage says on her Web site.

Sorry to burst your bubble, Madam, (Or is it Mistress? I'm all for formality and good manners, but this is ridiculous.) but that is not what it is about at all. I suspect she knows this. For her sake, I hope she does.

"I love nothing more than coaxing you to accept more pain and torment for my pleasure," she adds. "I love holding your very soul in my hands."

Now that's just creepy, even if you are merely play-acting.

The raven-haired 43-year-old poses in leather bondage outfits on her site — but in real life, she is a divorced former hairdresser and a mom of one who recently became a grandmother, her ex-husband said.

"She flies from America to Europe all the time for work and even the Middle East, places like Egypt," claimed the Ohio man, who did not give his name and who said he divorced her after learning that she worked as an S&M mistress behind his back.

Wow. How glamourous. A grandmother who spanks Egyptians.

Technically, was that Ohioan cuckolded? No sex, just cash. I think that qualifies.

Of the more than $200,000 Alexander allegedly stole, $30,000 was spent for Lady Sage's services, the sources said.

Yes, but, in total, how much of it did she get?

The NYPD's Organized Theft and Identity Theft Task Force busted him on Monday at his East Meadow home. He was still being held in jail yesterday.

Thank goodness for cops. I could never be one. I'd spend all my time retching or laughing.

Neither he nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.

At his home last night, a man who identified himself as Alexander's brother-in-law said, "Unfortunately, my sister married him . . . He's an a- - - - - -."

I'm afraid the brother-in-law does not appreciate Mr. Alexander's problem. If one has desires, they must be satisfied. Right, kiddies? Well, Mr. Alexander can't help it if he has expensive desires, can he?

And that credit card was there for a reason. It was begging to be used.

Officials at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation released a statement saying that they uncovered the alleged theft during a regularly scheduled review of finances.

The East 59th Street-based organization, described as the world's largest private medical research foundation, said thefts will be covered by insurance.

I'm not going to pretend I have any answers like I usually do. But I will offer you a bunch of questions we can mull over together. From the bottom up (so to speak) they are:

How does anyone enjoy being beaten? Does one begin by fantasizing about it and eventually develop a need for the real thing when (not if) the masturbatory fantasy loses its power? (James "Dr. Masturbation" Dobson, call your office.)

How does a woman choose beating people as a way to make a living? Is it so lucrative as to be irresistible? Is it the fact it requires few skills? (I'm assuming here, kiddies. Perhaps it takes a giant intellect, a great work ethic, and incredible concentration to prevent the maiming and death of Lady Sage's clients.) Could she simply enjoy it?

How did Mr. Alexander get to the point of stealing from his employer to finance this nonsense? I assume that once he started stealing, it became progressively easier. But was it that pleasureable? Was it that much fun?

How do you decide to ruin your life, that of your loved ones, and become a laughingstock for the sake of erections you cannot procure any (apparently) other way? (Please pardon my ignorance on this particular subject, Gentle Reader. You see, my ancestors were Italian.)

Does the pleasure of satisfying one's disordered desires make everything else irrelevant? If that is indeed the case, kiddies, then it may be high time we all make sure our desires are put in proper order.

*Part 1: SEX IS DEATH. (Stories for Boys) is here.
Part 2: SEX IS DEATH. (Distaff Death) is here.
Part 3: SEX IS DEATH. (Joyously dispensing death) is here.
Part 4: SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is depression) is here.
Part 5: SEX IS DEATH. (When self-pleasuring becomes self-destruction) is here.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Eligius, philanthropist, priest, bishop, and patron of metalworkers. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Isaiah 26:1-6.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 7:21, 24-47.


[Links to the readings will be from the NAB until I can find another chapter and verse searchable Douay-Rheims Bible on-line.]


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


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.


Prayer to Saint 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.

A victory in the counter-revolution.

Defiant Michigan family wins fight to keep front yard Nativity scene

The defiance of a suburban Michigan family, along with the support of friends and neighbors means that the Nativity scene which graces their front yard will be allowed to stand another year.

The Samona family, of Novi, Michigan was threatened with a fine of $100 a week by the company that manages their subdivision if they did not remove the nativity scene which, they say has stood in their front yard every year since moving into their home three years ago.

Including their previous home, the family estimates that they have displayed the scene every year for the last 25 years.

Batoul Samona told reporters that his family would “not remove the nativity from our front lawn under any circumstances,“ and his 16 year-old son Joseph agreed.

“This Nativity display is a family tradition which will not be abolished. My family strongly believes in celebrating the birth of Christ in this way,” he said.

The controversy sparked a heated local debate which found its way onto TV and radio talk shows and even the front page of the Detroit News.

Richard Thomson, chief counsel for the Ann Arbor based Thomas More Law Center represent the family, and said that “The action of the management company in demanding only that the nativity scene be removed when several other objects remained on the lawn is clear evidence that this was an attack on Christmas.”

SEX IS DEATH. (When self-pleasuring becomes self-destruction)

The latest in a continuing series.

I came to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lusts. I had not yet fallen in love, but I was in love with the idea of it, and this feeling that something was missing made me despise myself for not being more anxious to satisfy the need. I began to look around for some object for my love, since I badly wanted to love something. —St. Augustine, Confessions




How do you know it's tv sweeps time? Your local station does a story about autoerotic asphyxiation. (Leave out the masturbation part and it becomes The Choking Game, or just another way for kids to get high. The eight year olds probably aren't into the auto or the erotic yet anyway. And speaking of cutting off oxygen to the brain, this one's for the homosexuals in the crowd: Are poppers still the drug of choice for easing your pain and greasing your skids?)

This one may be the shortest distance between sex and death yet devised.

A part time computer programmer and full-time mother comes home from the office early on Friday afternoon to share a video and a pizza with her 15 year old son, Lance. His bedroom seems unusually quiet on this afternoon. Absent is the din of his favorite Smashing Pumpkins CD. She saunters down the hallway while calling his name, pushes open his bedroom door and then collapses on the floor in a flood of emotions launched by a graphic scene displayed in the room before her.

Lance's lifeless, semi-nude, bluish-white body hangs by the neck from the closet rod. The floor is littered with pornographic magazines, a bottle of hand lotion, and several articles of women's underclothing. Though he hangs from a bar that would only meet him at eye level, his knees are bent and his full weight hangs from the Disney necktie he wore to his eighth grade graduation. The knot cinched up to his larynx resembles the bow that one typically uses to ties one's shoes. The first two fingers of his lifeless right hand still grip one bow of the knot.

This is what happens when clever boys are too clever by half.

(Did you notice how I discretely passed over the Disney necktie? Oh...yeah. Never mind.)

Part 1: SEX IS DEATH. (Stories for Boys) is here.
Part 2: SEX IS DEATH. (Distaff Death) is here.
Part 3: SEX IS DEATH. (Joyously dispensing death) is here.
Part 4: SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is depression) is here.

YES! The good guys are 2 for 2 on the 9/11 Memorials!

Flight 93 Memorial Designers Drop Crescent
1010wins.com
(PITTSBURGH) Designers of a Flight 93 memorial have made a bowl-shaped piece of land its centerpiece, replacing a crescent-shape design that some critics had said was a symbol honoring terrorists, officials announced

Here 's the big one from back in September.

Gratuitous Krystal Fernandez Photo of the Day.

Click to enlarge this poster of the dazzling Miss Fernandez from Fox Sports Radio. All that, and sports too? Mercy!

From The Death Of The West Department:

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Wanna know what I hate most about the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

Wrong!

I hate the Spammheim Craproller "music" played during the conservatives' favorite serial adulterer 's radio show.

Christmas music, my eye. It almost makes me want to hear the bongo and recorder version of "Silent Night" at this year's Midnight Mass.

Bet on Intelligent Design. You won't need any points.

Mrs. (I know why the good ones are always taken.) Nancy Pearcey ruminates on one of my favorite topics with the wit and clarity to which I aspire.

To hear some conservatives talk, there is no room for proponents of intelligent design (ID) in the "big tent." In recent months commentators such as John Derbyshire in National Review and George Will and Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post have inveighed against ID. Warning that "the conservative coalition" is coming unglued, Will all but called on "the storm-tossed and rudderless Republican Party" to repudiate the ID movement.

Pay no attention to the Repansycans behind the curtain.

Conservatives who hope to be on the winning side, however, may want to put their money on ID, even if they harbor a few reservations at present. Here's why. For starters, the affirmation of design is good for science. Like all knowledge, science is a pattern-seeking project. The human mind inherently seeks intelligible order. Thus the conviction that such an order exists to be found is a crucial assumption. No scientists are going to find their work diminished because they ground it in the search for an inbuilt design in nature.

Exactly. Chaos is nihilistic and is often used to justify or excuse the most heinous of crimes.

Indeed, as sociologist Rodney Stark argues in To the Glory of God, modern science could have arisen only in a culture convinced that the universe is the creation of a rational mind--and is thus intelligible to our rational minds. This explains why science arose historically in medieval Europe, a period when western civilization was saturated with Christianity. Steve Fuller, a sociologist of science, offers this as one reason he testified for ID in the recent court case in Dover, Pa. "The idea that religion provided intellectual sustenance for science," he explained on a recent blog, is "obviously borne out by history."

Conveniently forgotten by the endarkened.

By contrast, Darwinist theory claims that the design in nature is not real but only apparent, a product of blind, mechanical forces. As arch-Darwinian Richard Dawkins said in a recent Salon interview, evolution produces "the illusion of design." The implication for science, as Richard Rorty elaborates so clearly, is that truth is not "out there" to be discovered but is merely a social construction. Such postmodernist notions threaten to undercut the scientific enterprise.

Just try to cure cancer with "the illusion of design" as your starting point. Heck, try to start a fire.

The second reason ID will win is that, contrary to the way it is often portrayed, it does not thrive on "gaps" in science but rather on the growth of science. The argument from design first became popular during the scientific revolution, which revealed that nature is more intelligible than anyone had hitherto imagined. And the current resurgence of ID was spawned by the revolution in biochemistry, which revealed the complex engineering and information processing that goes on within the cell.

We now know that the cell bristles with molecular machinery far more complicated than anything devised by mere humans. Each cell is akin to a miniature factory town, humming with power plants and automated factories, connected by criss-crossing transport rails and directed by a headquarters (the nucleus) housing a library of coded blueprints. The more we learn about life, the less plausible is any evolutionary theory that relies on blind, undirected, piece-by-piece change.

Reality is cutting edge. Who'd a thunk it? Not Hawking.

Third, ID will win because it incorporates the insights of the high-tech world of information theory. The revolution in biochemistry revealed that the core of living things is a code, language, information (DNA). The origin of life has now been recast as the origin of complex biological information. This explains why laboratory experiments to create life have failed—because they work from the bottom up, by assembling the right materials. But life is not fundamentally about matter; it’s about information.

Instant translation: Neo-darwinism is the worn out old orthodoxy desperately trying to protect its monopoly on "truth".

In today's preferred analogy, the DNA molecule is the hardware, while the information stored and transmitted is the software. "Trying to make life by mixing chemicals in a test tube," writes astrophysicist Paul Davies, "is like soldering switches and wires in an attempt to produce Windows 98. It won't work because it addresses the problem at the wrong conceptual level.” The paramount role of information strongly suggests that mind preceded matter.

Very nice.

Fourth, ID will win because it recovers the unity of truth. Edward Purcell in The Crisis of Democratic Theory: Scientific Naturalism and the Problem of Value explains how Darwinism led to a naturalistic worldview--one in which the natural sciences were elevated to the only form of objective knowledge while "theological dogmas and philosophical absolutes were at worst totally fraudulent and at best merely symbolic of deep human aspirations." In other words, Darwinism lent scientific support to the fact/value dichotomy, where religion and morality are dismissed as merely subjective and private, or even outright false.

Sad, but not surprising. Remember, kiddies, Darwin was a scientist. Those who came after him in his name are something else entirely.

As a result, ID appeals to a broad range of people concerned about overcoming the fact/value split--especially relevant during the Christmas season, when the ACLU and assorted secularists try to impose their gospel of privatized religion onto the rest of the country. As Richard John Neuhaus wrote recently in First Things, not just conservative Protestants but also "Catholics and everyone else have an enormous stake in defending the unity of truth." BBC's Washington correspondent Justin Webb recently asked why American social conservatives "are spending more energy fighting Charles Darwin than cutting taxes," but the reason is clear: At stake is not just a scientific theory but a divided concept of truth that reduces religion and morality to the level of myth.

Yes! Thank you.

As though to prove the point, at Kansas University the chairman of the religious studies department, Paul Mirecki, announced a new course subtitled "Intelligent Design, Creationisms, and other Religious Mythologies." Mirecki posted a note on a student atheists website bragging that he was "doing my part to [tick] off the religious right," giving them a "slap in their big fat face by teaching [ID] . . . under the category 'mythology.'" (Mirecki has since apologized.)

This Socrates of the Plains has used up his Warholian fifteen minutes.

Which suggests the final reason ID will win--because it accords with the ideals of a free and open society. In our pluralistic age, schools should train students in critical thinking to prepare them to engage respectfully and intelligently with a wide range of worldviews, both religious and secular. Yet under current rules, public schools may present evidence for scientific theories that imply a strictly materialistic or secular worldview, while they are not allowed to present evidence for scientific theories that imply a non-materialistic or religious worldview (though the latter may be mocked and ridiculed, as the KU course proves).

That's what I'm talking about!

The public cannot help but notice that many ID proponents are well educated and credentialed. Yet, as attorney Doug Kern writes in Tech Central Station, "the pro-Darwin crowd insists on the same phooey-to-the-booboisie shtick that was tiresome in Mencken's day." It has grown even more tiresome in our own day.


Mrs. Pearcey is the best-selling author of the award-winning Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity. Readers may want to check out her article, "Christianity Is a Science-Starter, Not a Science-Stopper," at http://www.pearceyreport.com/. She can be contacted at Pearcey@pearceyreport.com.

SEX IS DEATH. (Sex is depression)

The latest in a continuing series.

I came to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lusts. I had not yet fallen in love, but I was in love with the idea of it, and this feeling that something was missing made me despise myself for not being more anxious to satisfy the need. I began to look around for some object for my love, since I badly wanted to love something.
—St. Augustine, Confessions


Today, SEX IS DEATH is proud to present our first guest lecturer. Thanks to Human Events Online for the heads up.

Dr. Warren Throckmorton is an associate professor of psychology and fellow for psychology and public policy in the Center for Vision and Values at Grove City College. He is past president of the American Mental Health Counselors Association and is the producer of the documentary, I Do Exist about sexual orientation change. He can be reached at www.drthrockmorton.com.


Nearly every discussion about sexual education focuses on preventing sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. However, recent research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that, especially for girls, the discussion needs to include a third negative possibility: depression.

Most medical and mental health professionals would agree that there is a link between depression and sexual and drug using behavior in adolescents. However, it is commonly assumed that depressed teens use sex and drugs to “medicate” their depression. Thus, when faced with a depressed, sexually active teen, adults may overlook sexual or drug using behavior with the hope that the risky behavior will cease once the depression is gone.

Although the depression followed by sex and drugs link seems to make sense, a new study, which followed over 13,000 middle and high school students for two years in a row, found that depression did not predict risky sexual or drug using behavior.

Memo To Scientists: See what happens when you assume you know cause and effect beforehand?

Instead, the study found that depression often follows risky behavior. Lead author of the study, Dr. Denise Hallfors told me in an interview that her research team found evidence that heavy drug and alcohol use significantly increased the likelihood of depression among boys. For girls, the findings are stunning: Even low levels of alcohol, drug or sexual experimentation increased the probability of depression for girls.

Breaking down the results, Dr. Hallfors found that 25% of surveyed teens were complete abstainers meaning they were virgins and used no substances, not even tobacco. Only four percent of these teens experienced depression.

Another group of teens could be considered dabblers in that they had experienced sexual intercourse and engaged in some kind of substance usage during the first twelve months of the study. For the boys, there was no increase in depression from this pattern of behavior (for boys, the significant risk was heavy drug use). However, for girls, the study revealed a more troubling pattern. Girls even experimenting with drugs were slightly more than two times as likely to be depressed (8-10%). Those experimenting with sex were three times more likely to be depressed than abstainers (12% versus 4%). For sexually promiscuous teen girls, the results are staggering: 44% of girls with multiple sexual partners during the study period experienced depression.

Have mercy, Lord.

Did depression ever come first? Boys and girls were no more likely to begin or increase their sexual and drug use behavior when they were depressed than when they were not. In fact, depressed girls who were also abstinent were much less likely to engage in risky behaviors during the second year of the study. However, if they were already "dabbling" with substance use, depressed girls were more likely to go on to very risky sexual behaviors.

I'm sure you're friendly neighborhood lothario knew that all along.

In other words, the sex and drug use are not only associated with depression but most often precede it. As a public policy matter, the drug use findings are not surprising and hardly controversial. For any teen, who advocates drug use of any kind?

Pay attention now, kiddies. This is where we lose the orgasm uber alles crowd. After all, in their sad little world gettin' some simply can't be bad.

On the other hand, for opponents of a strong abstinence message in schools, this study may be difficult to reconcile with their public policy activities. For instance, two groups opposed to abstinence education, Advocates for Youth and Sex Etc., are now sponsoring a contest for teens to promote condom usage. Teens can craft an e-postcard to send to their friends (and potential hook-up partners?) extolling the virtues of condom use. One such card has a picture of a heart and a condom with the caption: Dream Team. According to Dr. Hallfors’ research, for many teen girls, the caption should read: Sad Nightmare.

Nice.

More research is needed to isolate the causes and cures for the link between experimentation and depression. However, there is no reason for policy makers to wait to encourage abstinence given these research findings. Citing the devastation and feelings of worthlessness that accompany depression, Dr. Hallfors warns, “Parents, educators and health practitioners now have even more reason to be concerned about teen risk behaviors and to take action about alcohol, drugs and sex."

Instead of cheery postcards, teen girls need to know that their sexual behaviors may put them at risk for more than STDs and teen pregnancy. "Once a girl crosses that boundary, she puts herself at risk for a spiral of negative effects," says Dr. Hallfors.

It seems to me that the evidence is consistent that teen sex is not a good idea, especially for girls. Why can’t everyone get behind that message?

Teens are nearly united in this sentiment. According to a poll conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, nine out of ten adults and teens want society to send a clear message that abstinence is best for teens.

Whatever we think about the morality of sexual behavior, can't we agree that teens should be given a clear and consistent message that it best to wait to engage in sex until they are ready to accept the financial, relationship and emotional consequences of making that choice? For nearly all teens, this would be adulthood.

My suggestion for a postcard? A picture of a gold nugget and a heart with the caption: “I’m worth the wait.”

Must I draw you the line from depression to death?


Part 1: SEX IS DEATH. (Stories for Boys) is here.
Part 2: SEX IS DEATH. (Distaff Death) is here.
Part 3: SEX IS DEATH. (Joyously dispensing death) is here.