So, Doc, do you have ESPNHD on the waiting room set?

Well, well, well...

Study: 'Coaching' During Labor Doesn't Help Much
Telling a mother-to-be when to push during childbirth doesn't help much to shorten labor, according to new research.

Fyodor reflects upon Old Spice After Shave as a Christmas gift.

The lovely, talented, and way, way too young for the likes of me (and darn near omnipotent) She Who Must Be Obeyed (also here and darn near everywhere) gave me a bottle of Old Spice (among other wonderful and thoughtful gifts) for Christmas.

Before I did the stupid guy thing and asked Her why, I considered the possibility She wanted to torture me for some reason or other. Old Spice on a freshly shaved face reminds me of Moe Syzlak and Holy Water. "It burns! It burns!"

Nahhhhh. She's not the type (to do something that is easily traced back to Her) so I did the stupid guy thing and asked Her why.

Since She is more reasonable than your average female, She didn't yell "What do you mean, 'why', you idiot?" at Your Humble Servant.

She merely flashed the international female signal for "idiot" (a slight wrinkle of the cutest little nose on God's blue earth) and said " I like the way it smells."

You would think that would end it, wouldn't you, kiddies? You would be wrong.

Putting aside the really crazy thoughts whirling through my poor old head ("Does She sniff other guys?", "Do they smell better than me?", et cetera.) I did another stupid guy thing and told her a story about another girl.

I know, I know. Believe me, I know.



Once upon a time there was a girl whom I tricked into dating me. After a few dates she showed up unannounced at my place on a Saturday afternoon and I had not shaved that day. Shocking, isn't it, kiddies?

I did have an excuse. It was the middle of the 1980's and Miami Vice was all the rage. Stubble and pastels were in.

Anyway, I grabbed her and kissed her as was my wont, but she objected to my proto-beard. Being a gentleman and eager to get back to the kissing (A zeugma? Maybe.) I volunteered to shave immediately. She thought that was a capital idea and asked if she could watch.

I thought that was mildly strange, but agreed. When we got to the bathroom, she asked if she could lather my face. Visions of Joe Namath's shave cream commercial raced through my young head. Again I agreed. (Do you sense a pattern developing, kiddies?) She got her wish and then I shaved.

Afterwards, a good time was had by all.

Such a good time, in fact, that before I knew it I was shaving after all of our dates. With her help, of course.

After several good times were had by all she upped the ante. She said she wanted to shave me. Now, this wasn't so long ago, kiddies. It's not like I was handing a straight razor to a stranger and letting her scrape it across my throat. We did have safety razors back then, though they did have 50% fewer blades than today's models. And Lorena Gallo was still an Ecuadorian teenager.

So I let her do it. She was very careful and did a pretty good job.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. It was unbelievably sexy.

It never got old either. Though she did refuse to dress as a cheerleader before she shaved me. (That's a joke. It is also a gratuitous Charlie Sheen reference for the cognoscenti.) I would not have minded never shaving myself again.

Then I did the stupid guy thing and asked her why. She wouldn't tell me for some time, but persistence is often a stupid guy thing too. Eventually she told me it reminded her of her Dad and her older brothers. She had loved the scent and feel of shave cream as a child. She said she used to squish it between her fingers and toes and smear it all over her face when nobody was around. She also begged them to let her watch them shave.

DINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDING!!!!!!!!!!!

The alarm bells went off, albeit a bit late. They went off big time. And there were giant red flags all over the place. Let me modify that old saw lawyers use: "Never ask a question unless you're prepared for an incredibly weird and awkward answer."

And that was the end of that particular relationship.

Whew! That was a close shave! (Sorry. I could not resist.)

After I recounted this fascinating tale to my beloved babydoll, She stared at me, aghast. That's strange, I thought. After all, I had left out the so-called jokes and the superfluous cultural references.

I immediately recognized my gaffe and recovered nicely. "Of course that has nothing to do with why you bought me Old Spice, sweetie. I was just reminded of that story."

Surprisingly, that did not elicit anything from the distaff side of the conversation.

So I continued. (This is the last stupid guy thing of this post. I promise.)

"You just like the way it smells", I babbled.

"Idiot" said She.

Those folks on the Gulf Coast are our neighbors. You know what to do.

First, last, and always, PRAY. Pray for the survivors. Pray for the repose of the souls of those who were killed. Pray for the families and friends. Pray for the relief workers, the cops, the firemen, the troops, and the technicians. Pray for the volunteers.

It is time to step up once again, kiddies. "Do unto others", "I was naked and you clothed me", et cetera.

As time passes, the memory of these disasters will fade for those of us fortunate enough to live outside the devastated areas, but recovery and restoration will take years.

Please, whatever you do, don't become a cynic. (I know, I know. But I just play one on the computer.) Of course there will be more horror stories like the abuse of the debit cards and that $250-odd billion federal package will produce insane amounts of corruption, but our fellow Americans will be suffering from Katrina for a long time.

True charity, (News Flash! Taxes ARE NOT charity.) like the money you donate to Catholic Charities will help the truly needy and will not foster dependency.


Catholic Charities USA is collecting financial donations to Catholic Charities agencies’ emergency and long-term recovery efforts in the wake of both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Catholic Charities USA is consistently ranked among the highest and most efficient organizations across the country. Approximately 96 percent of contributions made to the 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund will be used for emergency response and recovery efforts.


Mail Checks To:
Catholic Charities USA
2005 Hurricane Relief Fund
PO Box 25168
Alexandria, VA 22313-9788

Call:(800) 919-9338

Contribute Now Online


News
12/14/2005 — Catholic Charities Agencies Help Hurricane Katrina Victims Celebrate the Holidays Away from Home
12/14/2005 — Catholic Charities Providing Door-to-Door Mental Health Counseling for Hurricane Katrina Victims
12/14/2005 — CCUSA Grant to Catholic Network Florida Funds Graduate Program in Long-Term Disaster Recovery Managemen
t12/13/2005 — Catholic Charities Agencies Giving Hope For Christmas In Times Of Increasing Need
More news...


FAQs
FAQ - Donations
FAQ - Hurricane Relief


Agencies Impacted:
Catholic Charities of Miami
Catholic Charities of New Orleans
Catholic Community Services of Baton Rouge
Catholic Social Services of Houma-Thibodaux
Catholic Social and Community Services of Biloxi, MS
Catholic Charities of Jackson, MS
Catholic Social Services of Mobile, AL


How you can help:
Unfortunately, Catholic Charities USA is unable to accept contributions of food, clothing, blankets and other relief supplies. Monetary donations will be used to provide for the emergency relief and long-term recovery of Katrina's and Rita's victims. Catholic Charities USA is consistently ranked among the highest and most efficient organizations across the country. Approximately 96 percent of contributions made to the 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund will be used for emergency response and recovery efforts.

About the Disaster Response Office
Catholic Charities USA, which has been commissioned by the U.S. Catholic Bishops to represent the Catholic community in times of domestic disaster, responds with emergency and long-term assistance as needed. Its Disaster Response Office connects the Church's social service agencies and disaster planning offices across the nation.

And, as always, give generously to the special collections for hurricance disaster relief in your local parish.

ESPN2's Cold Pizza has a guy who picks football games by throwing an axe at a board with the team names on it while blindfolded...

...and I'm afraid to check out his record.

The Great Throwdini (at left with obligatory lovely assistant) is here.

Teen tourist sees Baghdad--and lives!

And you wonder why I call them Roto-Reuters? It is hard to believe they make a living with headlines like that.

An American teenager ran away to Baghdad over Christmas and survived probably the most dangerous destination in the world before being packed off home by the U.S. military, U.S. officials said on Friday.

Farris Hassan, the 16-year-old son of Iraqi immigrants to Florida, showed up at the Baghdad bureau of an American news agency on Tuesday and recounted a tale of foolhardy daring by a would-be journalist on a far-fetched school project, the Associated Press said in a report on its unlikely visitor.

Unable to speak Arabic, the dangers of his predicament began to dawn on him when he went out of his hotel looking for food and had to pull out his phrase book.

"And I'm like, 'Well, I should probably be going.' It was not a safe place. The way they were looking at me kind of freaked me out," he told the AP.
A U.S. military spokesman said troops, who suffer daily casualties in the Iraqi capital, took Hassan into their care.

The U.S. consul in Baghdad Richard Hermann, taking care not to name him in public, said he was on his way home for New Year.

"The young American citizen who has been in Iraq the past few days has now safely departed Baghdad and this young American is now on his way back home to his family in the United States."

Hassan's mother, Shatha Atiya, told CBS television: "We are going to watch his every move. We are going to take his passport. We're going to limit his access to money."

Uh, yeah...that'll teach him. I guess.

The account of his journey included a flight to Kuwait, failure to cross the Iraqi border because of a security closure for the December 15 election, a call to his father, a trip to Beirut to stay with family friends and, finally, a Christmas flight to Baghdad and a ride into town arranged by those acquaintances.

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.



Saturday 12/31



Denver (+11) at San Diego
If I was Shanahan, I'd play Plummer and the other starters all game long to keep them sharp, but you never know...Take the Chargers to cover.
FINAL: Broncos 23 Chargers 7 - Fyodor loses!


NY Giants (- 9.5) at Oakland
The Giants are overrated, but they've got to get right for the playoffs. I'll take NY to cover.
FINAL: Giants 30 Raiders 21 - Fyodor loses!


Sunday 1/1



Arizona (+6.5) at Indianapolis
Colts also must get ready for the postseason. Pick Indy.
FINAL: Colts 17 Cardinals 13 - Fyodor loses!




Baltimore (-3.5) at Cleveland
Ravens will cover to celebrate the continuation of the glorious Billick era.
FINAL: Browns 20 Ravens 16 - Fyodor loses!


Buffalo (-1.5) at NY Jets
The Crummy Game of the Week! I'll take the Jets at home only because the Bills played their best game of the year last week.
FINAL: Jets 30 Bills 26 - Fyodor wins!


Carolina (-4.5) at Atlanta
Panthers need a victory, Falcons don't. Pick Carolina.
FINAL: Panthers 44 Falcons 11 - Fyodor wins!



Chicago (+4.5) at Minnesota
Take the Bears even though I'm not sold on Rex Grossman as an NFL starter.
FINAL: Vikings 34 Bears 10 - Fyodor loses!


Cincinnati (+7.5) at Kansas City
Chiefs will win, but will not cover. Pick Cincy.
FINAL: Chiefs 37 Bengals 3 - Fyodor loses! (37 looks like a good number for the Bungles to give up against the Steelers next Sunday.)


Detroit (+13) at Pittsburgh
It's a playoff game for the surging Steelers. They'll cover big time.
FINAL: Steelers 35 Lions 21 - Fyodor wins! (It's playoff time! Bring on those Bungles!)


Miami (+5.5) at New England
I think this number is way too small. I'll take the Patriots anyway. That's what is known as gallows humor, kiddies.
FINAL: Dolphins 28 Patriots 26 - Fyodor loses! (Who cares? The drop kick is back, baby! Congrats to one of my all-time favorite players, Doug Flutie.)


New Orleans (+13.5) at Tampa Bay
I don't know if Tampa has that much offense. Take N.O. and the points.
FINAL: Bucs 27 Saints 13 - Fyodor loses! (Ack!)



Houston (-1.5) at San Francisco
The First Overall Pick Bowl! (I'm not convinced it should be called the Reggie Bush Bowl.) Pick Houston.
FINAL: 49ers 20 Texans 17 - Fyodor loses!


Tennessee (+3.5) at Jacksonville
Take the Jaguars to cover. And stop saying "Jag-wires"!
FINAL: Jaguars 40 Titans 13 - Fyodor wins! (The Patriots better not take Jacksonville lightly in the first round.)


Seattle (+5) at Green Bay
Nothing to play for against lousy team. Pick Seattle.
FINAL: Packers 23 Seahawks 17 - Fyodor loses! (Brett Favre is underrated. He may be the best QB ever.)


Washington (-7.5) at Philadelphia
Redskins cover easily.
FINAL: Redskins 31 Eagles 20 - Fyodor wins! (Yep.)


St. Louis (+12.5) at Dallas
A big spread, but Dallas is the better team playing at home. But I'll go contrarian here. Pick the Rams.
FINAL: Rams 20 Cowboys 10 - Fyodor wins! (Cowboys quit after being eliminated from the playoff chase. Of course it's not the fault of Genius Parcells.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.


Today's reading for the Feast of the Holy Family is Ecclesiasticus 3:2-7, 12-14.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23.


[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 St. Anthony, Martyr of DesireDear 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.

Kill Kwanzaa and Kawaida kwik, kiddies!

Ann Coulter puts paid to the phony commie holiday made up by an all too real racist black totalitarian.

President Bush's 2005 Kwanzaa message began with the patently absurd statement: "African-Americans and people around the world reflect on African heritage during Kwanzaa."

Moron.

I believe more African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth of Christ than some phony non-Christian holiday invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge. Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks.

It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI stooge, Ron Karenga, aka Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga was a founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers and a dupe of the FBI.

In what was probably ultimately a foolish gamble, during the madness of the '60s the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the organization, the better. Karenga's United Slaves was perfect. In the annals of the American '60s, Karenga was the Father Gapon, stooge of the czarist police.

Despite modern perceptions that blend all the black activists of the '60s, the Black Panthers did not hate whites. They did not seek armed revolution. Those were the precepts of Karenga's United Slaves. United Slaves were proto-fascists, walking around in dashikis, gunning down Black Panthers and adopting invented "African" names. (That was a big help to the black community: How many boys named "Jamal" currently sit on death row?)

Whether Karenga was a willing dupe, or just a dupe, remains unclear. Curiously, in a 1995 interview with Ethnic NewsWatch, Karenga matter-of-factly explained that the forces out to get O.J. Simpson for the "framed" murder of two whites included: "the FBI, the CIA, the State Department, Interpol, the Chicago Police Department" and so on. Karenga should know about FBI infiltration. (He further noted that the evidence against O.J. "was not strong enough to prohibit or eliminate unreasonable doubt" -- an interesting standard of proof.)

In the category of the-gentleman-doth-protest-too-much, back in the '70s, Karenga was quick to criticize rumors that black radicals were government-supported. When Nigerian newspapers claimed that some American black radicals were CIA operatives, Karenga publicly denounced the idea, saying, "Africans must stop generalizing about the loyalties and motives of Afro-Americans, including the widespread suspicion of black Americans being CIA agents."

Now we know that the FBI fueled the bloody rivalry between the Panthers and United Slaves. In one barbarous outburst, Karenga's United Slaves shot to death Black Panthers Al "Bunchy" Carter and Deputy Minister John Huggins on the UCLA campus. Karenga himself served time, a useful stepping-stone for his current position as a black studies professor at California State University at Long Beach.

Kwanzaa itself is a lunatic blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. Indeed, the seven "principles" of Kwanzaa praise collectivism in every possible arena of life -- economics, work, personality, even litter removal. ("Kuumba: Everyone should strive to improve the community and make it more beautiful.") It takes a village to raise a police snitch.

Heehee.

When Karenga was asked to distinguish Kawaida, the philosophy underlying Kwanzaa, from "classical Marxism," he essentially explained that under Kawaida, we also hate whites. While taking the "best of early Chinese and Cuban socialism" -- which one assumes would exclude the forced abortions, imprisonment for homosexuals and forced labor -- Kawaida practitioners believe one's racial identity "determines life conditions, life chances and self-understanding." There's an inclusive philosophy for you.


(Sing to "Jingle Bells")

Kwanzaa bells, dashikis sell
Whitey has to pay;
Burning, shooting, oh what fun
On this made-up holiday!


Coincidentally, the seven principles of Kwanzaa are the very same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army, another charming invention of the Least-Great Generation. In 1974, Patricia Hearst, kidnap victim-cum-SLA revolutionary, posed next to the banner of her alleged captors, a seven-headed cobra. Each snake head stood for one of the SLA's revolutionary principles: Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani -- the same seven "principles" of Kwanzaa.

With his Kwanzaa greetings, President Bush is saluting the intellectual sibling of the Symbionese Liberation Army, killer of housewives and police. He is saluting the founder of United Slaves, who were such lunatics that they shot Panthers for not being sufficiently insane -- all with the FBI as their covert ally.

It's as if David Duke invented a holiday called "Anglika," and the president of the United States issued a presidential proclamation honoring the synthetic holiday. People might well stand up and take notice if that happened.

Kwanzaa was the result of a '60s psychosis grafted onto the black community. Liberals have become so mesmerized by multicultural nonsense that they have forgotten the real history of Kwanzaa and Karenga's United Slaves -- the violence, the Marxism, the insanity. Most absurdly, for leftists anyway, is that they have forgotten the FBI's tacit encouragement of this murderous black nationalist cult founded by the father of Kwanzaa.

Now the "holiday" concocted by an FBI dupe is honored in a presidential proclamation and public schools across the nation. Bush called Kwanzaa a holiday that promotes "unity" and "faith." Faith in what? Liberals' unbounded capacity to respect any faith but Christianity?

This is precisely what I mean when I talk about the ignorant relativism underlying protestantism. Bush has absolutely no idea that these (and all) words have consequences. This is how "conservative Christians" behave?

Or maybe he knows exactly what he is saying and he's just playing politics. That's worse than ignorance, kiddies. Much worse.

A movement that started approximately 2,000 years before Kwanzaa leaps well beyond merely "unity" and "faith" to proclaim that we are all equal before God. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). It was practitioners of that faith who were at the forefront of the abolitionist and civil rights movements. But that's all been washed down the memory hole, along with the true origins of Kwanzaa.

Sometimes, there really are Nazis* Update.

ABOVE: Mass murderer and proponent of government action Alois Brunner then and now.

International hunt on for Nazi fugitive
Adolf Eichmann's top aide believed to be hiding in Brazil
--Jerusalem Post


An international manhunt is underway for the most wanted Nazi war criminal, Alois Brunner, Adolf Eichmann's top aide, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Israel Police sources said the manhunt was focused on Brazil, where authorities believed Brunner might have recently entered to hide.

Despite recent media reports that a Brazilian investigation was closed four months ago, Israel Police sources confirmed to the Post that police in Brazil and other South American countries were in the midst of a concentrated investigation after receiving intelligence information that Brunner may be hiding in Brazil. The officers said there was a "good chance" the Austrian-born Brunner was alive and in South America.

"There is an ongoing investigation, not only in Brazil but also in other South American countries," Dep.-Cmdr. Asher Ben-Artzi, the head of Israel's Interpol and Foreign Liaison Section, told the Post. "If you ask me, there is a good chance that Brunner is really hiding in Brazil."

At the beginning of the month, Ha'aretz reported that Brazilian police suspected that a man traveling under the name Alois Brunner was the Nazi war criminal, despite his claims that he was Swiss and more than 20 years younger than the real Brunner who, if alive today, would be 95.

The day after the report was published, Swiss police tracked down an Alois Brunner in Lucerne and confirmed that he was not the wanted Nazi war criminal, Ben-Artzi said.

"It turns out that the name Alois Brunner is a common name, kind of like Avraham Cohen in Israel," he said. "In addition, the man in Switzerland is much younger and, unlike the real Brunner, he has all his fingers and both eyes."

A deputy to Eichmann, Brunner assisted in implementing the Final Solution and is held directly responsible for the deaths of at least 130,000 Jews. He is believed to have spent the last 40 years hiding in Syria under the assumed name of Dr. Georg Fischer.

* Huh? Look here.

The death of Art and the growth of government go hand in hand.

Remember the lamebrained "Fear No Art" bumpersticker? Here's a story from Not So Merry Old England filled with ignorance and a fat check for a hack artiste on the dole.

Oh, yeah. And a steaming pile of fascism.

From The Telegraph (via WND):

A council was accused of squandering public money yesterday after installing a television set at a library and calling it a "work of art" instead of spending the £50,500 it cost on new books.

The TV rotates on a pole hanging from the ceiling while displaying a tape loop of images of a globe.

Hampshire county council described it as a "sculpture". Library users labelled it as "utterly pointless" and said it has not worked since shortly after it was installed.

The Geostationary Plasma Screen is the work of the artist Stephen Pippin, once shortlisted for the Turner Prize, who insisted that visitors to Gosport Library enjoyed looking at it.

Only if it is on a porn channel. (There's a nauseating idea for you. British porn.)

Brian Beel, 73, a regular library user, said the screen was "neither functional, essential or educational".

Silly peasant. Libraries have not been intended to educate for decades. Now shut up and do what your moral and intellectual superiors tell you (as Natural Selection decrees).

A council spokesman defended the project but admitted it had suffered from technical problems and was not working.

Arch-pervert "Gary Glitter" beats the rap with cash.

Remember this one, kiddies?

Fury over Glitter child sex charge 'pay-off'
(Thanks to WND for the heads up.)

The former rock star Gary Glitter has paid more than £2,000 to the families of two under-age Vietnamese girls he is accused of sexually abusing, his lawyer has confirmed.

Glitter gave £1,100 each to the families of the 11 and 12-year-old girls he allegedly had sex with, the lawyer said. The families, who were paid two weeks ago in US dollars, had originally asked for £5,600 and £3,000.

Last week both families wrote letters to the court asking for the case against the 70s’ star to be dropped.

The pervert's motivation is all too apparent. But what of the parents? Is money that dear to them? Perhaps they do not value their daughters' chastity in Vietnam.

See how the acolytes of the neo-darwinist religion flee headlong from the truth!

Intelligent design banned as school debaters' topic
Officials: 'Too controversial' – 'parents wouldn't allow their kids' to participate --Associated Press

Thanks to WND for the latest on the death of one of materialism's primary fables.

High school students won't be debating the issue of intelligent design at state tournaments, the North Dakota High School Activities Association says.

Association spokesman Bob Hetler said parents and school administrators find the topic too controversial. Instead, he said, the state debaters will use a different topic selected by the National Forensic League for February. It will be announced next week.

The league had suggested intelligent design as a January topic, and other states followed the national organization's recommendation.

The state debate tournament is Feb. 3-4 at Fargo South, with a National Forensic League qualifier the day before. A number of individual invitational tournaments are scheduled next month.

``We were going to exclude kids from the state and public forum debate if we stayed with intelligent design,'' Hetler said. ``Some schools were afraid parents wouldn't allow their kids to do this one.''

Intelligent design holds that living organisms are so complex that a higher force must have created them.

States have the right to choose the topics they debate, said J. Scott Wunn, executive secretary of the National Forensic League.

Wunn knows of no other state that is avoiding the topic of intelligent design. Missouri will allow schools to select an alternate topic for tournaments, he said...

Here's the kicker:

Of the 15 North Dakota schools that offer debate as an extracurricular activity, about five of them had some reservations about debating intelligent design, Hetler said.

The state association's decision respects ``schools that might find this topic particularly awkward and conservative North Dakotans that might find this topic awkward,'' said Mandan school Superintendent Kent Hjelmstad.

Ha! I'll bet you $20 it isn't the Christians shrinking from this debate!

In vitro, no one can hear you scream...

China mandates jail for gender selection
3-year sentence for ID'ing female fetus for abortion
--United Press International


Closed abortion clinic ordered to pay $500,000
Judge enters judgment on behalf of woman claiming injury from doctor
--Associated Press

From The Some Americans Really Are At War Department:

Here are two stories that won't surprise those who have been paying attention.

Evidence indicates 'torture' worked
Al-Qaida operative a fountain of information for U.S. after water-boarding --Chicago Tribune

Moral and legal aspects aside, conventional wisdom is that torture simply isn't practical: that someone who is being tortured will say anything to make the torture stop, and that information gleaned through torture is therefore not reliable.

Some former military and intelligence officers say, however, that physically aggressive interrogation techniques that some human rights groups consider torture can be effective in the short term. When asked for specifics, the technique they cite is "waterboarding," in which water is poured over a subject's face to create the sensation of drowning.
Consider Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the 39-year-old former al-Qaida operative who was the Sept. 11 mastermind and bearer of many al-Qaida secrets.

If anyone had a motive for remaining silent it was the man known to terrorism investigators as "KSM." But not long after his capture in Pakistan, in March 2003, KSM began to talk.

He ultimately had so much to say that more than 100 footnoted references to the CIA's interrogations of KSM are contained in the final report of the commission that investigated Sept. 11.

Not that everything KSM said was believable. But much of his information checked out in separate questioning of other captures al-Qaida figures.
What made KSM decide to talk? The answer may be waterboarding, to which KSM was subjected on at least one occasion, according to various accounts.

Intelligence operatives point out that while waterboarding can break through a suspect's initial resistance, it isn't effective for long-term interrogation.

Once a suspect begins to communicate, however, an interrogation specialist can put into action a wide range of far more subtle techniques, which include playing to a subject's ego or pretending to be his friend.
It could not be learned exactly when KSM was "waterboarded," or whether the technique was used more than once. But only 12 days after being captured in Pakistan, on March 1, 2003, KSM made his first reported major revelation.

As part of his initial proposal for the attack on America, he had "considered targeting a nuclear power plant," KSM said. But al-Qaida chieftain Osama bin Laden "decided to drop that idea," evidently concerned about a Chernobyl-type fallout that might threaten countries adjacent to the United States.

There are no footnotes keyed to the next 12 days. But on March 24 KSM began talking again, this time about assistance provided by al-Qaida to Zacarias Moussaoui, who was arrested in Minnesota three weeks before Sept. 11 and later pleaded guilty to planning to fly a hijacked airplane into the White House as part of a separate plot.


Clinton started CIA rendition program
Ex-agent: 'We asked the president what we should do with the people we capture' --Islam Online

(Thanks to WorldNetDaily for the heads up.)

Dumbass Rebellion Against God News Item of the Day.

NBC's dysfunctional 'Christians'
Book of Daniel' by homosexual writer features drug-dependent minister

This abomination will fail and will be withdrawn from the publicly owned airwaves soon enough. Let us pray no souls will be lost because of it. That would make the inevitable punishment meted out to all involved much worse.

A pro-family group has launched a protest campaign against a new NBC drama featuring a troubled, pill-popping Episcopal priest who is the father of a dysfunctional family.

"The Book of Daniel," written by a homosexual, is being promoted as the only show on television in which Jesus appears as a recurring character and the only network prime-time drama series with a regular male "gay" character, a 23-year-old Republican son, says the American Family Association, which has an online petition.

Touted as the riskiest show of the year, it includes a wife who relies on mid-day martinis, a 16-year-old daughter who is a drug dealer and a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sex with the bishop's daughter. At the office, the priest's lesbian secretary is sleeping with his sister-in-law.

Cute. They're only missing a pedophile, a couple of terrorists, and a black midget with a lisp and a hunchback.

As WND reported earlier this month, the series debuts Jan. 6 with back-to-back episodes and will air regularly Friday nights at 9 p.m. The cast also includes Ellen Burstyn and Susanna Thompson. Comedienne Phyllis Diller plays a member of the congregation.

It's good to see Phyllis alive and working. But sweetheart, not this way. There is not enough money in Hollyweird to buy your soul.

Christian Campbell plays a homosexual Republican in new NBC series
The priest, Daniel Webster, played by veteran actor Aidan Quinn, regularly talks with a manifestation of Jesus, played by Garret Dillahunt.

Somehow I doubt Citizen Dillahunt will be spouting lines filled with orthodoxy.

The war on the One True Church continues apace.

ABC News airs 'female pope' claim
Catholics say 'Joan' a myth used historically to ridicule church --WND

But Catholic writer Philip Jenkins, in his book "The New Anti-Catholicism, calls the "Pope Joan legend" a "venerable staple of the anti-Catholic mythology."

"Though it has not the slightest foundation," he writes, "from the sixteenth century through the nineteenth, the tale was beloved by Protestants, since it testified to Catholic stupidity. ..." Today, he says, "Pope Joan enjoys a lively presence on the Web, where feminist anti-Catholics celebrate her existence much as did seventeenth-century Calvinists."

The posting on the Newsbusters site said: "That a major network like ABC would lend credibility to such a vicious anti-Catholic smear is deplorable."

There never has been a rule against a woman becoming pope. One does not not even have to be an ordained priest. This is just another example proving that anti-Catholicism is the only acceptable prejudice in America.

Religion of Peace (and Love) Update.

Lebanese leader: Syria blackmailing U.S.
Says Damascus using aid to Iraq insurgents as means to lessen push for U.N. sanctions --WND


No regrets, says Munich-massacre plotter
Black September leader hiding in Syria says he's still target of Israel --London Times

Some day, you son of a goat rapist, you'll get yours.

And BTW, Señor Spielbergo, call your office.

Announcing the official start of the Name the Dried Cherries Contest.

Our first entry is:

Charids: Cherries + arid = "charids"

Send in your entries, kiddies. If your name for dried cherries is good enough, maybe the Cherry Marketing Institute will send you a big fat check!

I get mail about dried cherries...

Remember my post on dried cherries and what to call them, kiddies?

Well, I received a response to my query from the Cherry Marketing Association.

Mr. Joseph Lothamer wrote:

In some countries dried cherries are referred to as dehydrated cherries. This is not a typical term used in the US.

Other names used are dried tart cherries, dried Montmorency cherries or dried sour cherries. However, any name you give them, they are truly the best.

Good luck,
Joseph Lothamer


Thank you, Mr. Lothamer.

That makes it about as official as we're gonna get, kiddies. Let the Name the Dried Cherries Contest begin!

St. Thomas Becket, T.S. Eliot, and "Murder in the Cathedral".

In 1163, a quarrel began between the British King Henry II and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. The men had been good friends, but each felt that his interests should be of primary concern to the nation and that the other should acquiesce to his demands. Becket fled to France in 1164 in order to rally support from the Catholic French for his cause and also sought an audience with the Pope. After being officially (although not personally) reconciled with the King, Becket returned to England in 1170, only to be murdered as he prayed in Canterbury Cathedral by four of Henry's Knights. Three years later, he was canonized and pilgrims—Henry among them—have made their way to his tomb ever since.

The allure of such a story for a dramatist is obvious: there is a great conflict between human and divine power, a strong central character and a number of complicated spiritual issues to be found in his death. In 1935, T. S. Eliot answered this "calling" to compose a play for that year's Canterbury Festival; the result was a work that revitalized verse drama—a form that had not been widely employed for almost three hundred years. Critics praised Eliot's use of verse and ability to invest a past historical event with modern issues and themes, such as the ways in which lay persons react to the intrusion of the supernatural in their daily lives. In part because it is a religious drama which appeared long after such plays were popular, Murder in the Cathedral is still performed, studied, and regarded as one of Eliot's major works, a testament to his skill as a poet and dramatist.

Though I mean no disrespect to this great Saint or Holy Mother Church, one of the funniest things I ever saw was SCTV's NASA's Production of T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral with Walter Cronkite (Dave Thomas) and David Brinkley (Rick Moranis) doing commentary as astronauts performed the great play on the screen behind them.

Fyodor suffers vituperation and invective from some of those he holds most dear.

She Who Must Be Obeyed and even You-Know-Who (a man who is more brother than friend to Your Humble Servant) assailed me last evening for the content I posted yesterday here in my little Bloggerdom Ghetto.

He went as far as accusing me of publishing my own "poor man's People magazine".

Ouch!

What hurts more is the realization that even they do not get it all the time. Silly me. What was I thinking?

I guess I am simply feeling sorry for myself because they do not always see the method to my idiocy.

How should I respond, kiddies?

With more from The Third Man, of course.


Harry Lime:
Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. (Listen to the inimitable Orson Welles deliver these lines as only he could. Click on Track 15 here.)

And then there's this one:

Harry Lime:
Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't, why should we? They talk about the people and the proletariat. I talk about the suckers and the mugs. It's the same thing. They have their Five Year Plans, so have I. (Click on Track 13 here.)

Get it?

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St.Thomas Becket, lawyer, soldier, priest, Archbishop of Canterbury (when that title still had meaning), Chancellor of England, and martyr. He was murdered in his cathedral by agents of the English king.

Today's reading for the Feast of St. Thomas Becket is 2 Timothy 2:8-13, 3:10-12.

Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 16:24-27.


[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 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.

Fyodor avoids People magazine so he will not be hit with hideous shocks like this.

ABOVE: The latest "wife" of Jesse James in happier times.


Last night on Jeopardy (!) I found out sweet and wonderful Sandra Bullock had married that tattooed clown Jesse James earlier this year.

Jesse's bikes and cars are cool, but I saw how he treated one of his "wives" (I think it was the pornstar one. I guess he's into lady thespians.) on one of his reality shows. Even if it wasn't real at all, he came across as a brutish low grade moron.

I guess Sandy just plays cute and smart in the movies.

Totalitarian Pennsylvania Update.

And now for something completely serious...

It seems some judges do not want to give up the unconstitutional pay raise even after the PA Legislature repealed it. So what do they do? Sue.

That is no surprise, since the judges are more insulated from the wrath of those over whom they lord it. Or are they?

Remember Russell Nigro or suffer the same fate, ye high and mighty, ye kleptocrats!

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the pay raise legislation that passed last summer - and was repealed last month - was constitutional, and whether state and county judges should get the additional salary despite the repeal.

The court on Thursday said it would hear two cases - a challenge by political activist Gene Stilp that had been dismissed as moot by Commonwealth Court, and a lawsuit by a judge seeking to reinstate the higher judicial salaries.

The order indicating the court will take the cases, in which Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy did not participate, said it would review the propriety of how the General Assembly passed the law giving pay raises to officials in all three branches of state government.

The court said it wanted to consider whether it was legal for lawmakers to collect their own raises immediately in the form of "unvouchered expenses," rather than wait until their next election, as the state constitution requires.

The case also will examine whether the law ran afoul of requirements in the state constitution that laws reflect a bill's original purpose, that legislation be put before a committee before it goes before the entire Legislature, and that bills must pertain to a single subject and be considered on three separate days.

The justices also will decide whether the pay-raise repeal violated the state constitution's requirement that judges' pay not be diminished "during their terms of office, unless by law applying generally to all salaried officers of the Commonwealth."

The court agreed to hear Stilp's lawsuit as well as a Commonwealth Court case filed by Philadelphia County Common Pleas Judge John W. Herron, who wants to revive the judicial pay raise only. The decision to take the case was made Thursday and came to light when the attorney general's office announced it on Tuesday.

One issue will be determining what the state constitution's framers had in mind when they insulated judges against certain pay cuts, said Robert C. Heim, Herron's attorney.

"I believe what they had in mind was a financial crisis, a situation where the commonwealth was threatened with bankruptcy or something very, very close to that," Heim said Tuesday.

Russ Diamond, head of PACleanSweep, a group that helped organize a rally against the pay raise and is working to unseat incumbents, said he was encouraged by the court's decision to take the case.

"We have the whole issue of them being biased in some way, because they'll be affected themselves. But I think the state Supreme Court is the proper place to hear this case and to hash out these issues once and for all," Diamond said.

The July 7 pay-raise law, passed in the dead of night without debate or public input, increased the salaries of more than 1,300 judges, lawmakers and senior executive branch officials. All judges - from district court to the Supreme Court - got pay raises of 11 to 15 percent, and state legislators increased their own pay by up to 54 percent.

Stilp's home phone was not accepting messages Tuesday morning and his cellular telephone was not working. (Thanks to phillyburbs.com for the heads up.)

Wow. Señor Spielbergo to Veronica Lake in just four posts...

LEFT: Huntz Hall (Bear with me. It will make sense in a couple of minutes.












...but how do I get to Kevin Bacon from here?

I see. Only three steps.

What if I start with Spielbergo?

Wow. A Bacon number of only 2.

How about a tough one, O mighty Oracle of Bacon? Try Henry "Huntz" Hall who played Satchel (?) Debussy Jones in all those Bowery Boys (Dead End Kids) movies.

Only 2?

...and it is a short hop from Greene to Veronica Lake...

My, oh my. Veronica was one of the all-time great beauties.

I have never read the book on which This Gun For Hire was based, so I don't know if it was commie novelist Graham Greene or the commie screenwriter Albert Maltz who came up with the shiny rubber fisherman's outfit that fit Veronica so nicely, but thanks, whoever it was. If you've seen the movie, you know what I mean.

ABOVE: The very definition of sultry. Which is not easy for a blonde to do. Don't get me wrong, I love blondes. But they (and redheads) are usually cute. Sultry is usually the domain of brunettes.

Playful is hot too. Or is that domineering? Or dismissive? Whatever it is, it works.

Forget the goofy eye thing. How about those lips?

Wow. Wowee wow wow. Et cetera.

ABOVE: The world famous peek-a-boo hair-do, and the gaze that still sends a wave of testosterone rushing through real men everywhere.

...and this leads old Fyodor to Graham Greene...

Ah, yes, Citizen Greene...writer, editor, failed suicide (three times), convert to Catholicism, husband, father, screenwriter, admitted communist, admitted serial adulterer, purportedly one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century, and purportedly the greatest Catholic novelist ever.

Here's an interesting Greene site, much of it in his own words. Check out his comments on The Third Man.

I do not particularly enjoy reading Greene's work, and he does not seem particularly Catholic either. After I read it, I understood why the Vatican condemned The Power and the Glory. I got bored with Our Man in Havana and didn't finish it.

Then again, it's not like Catholics were the ones who glorified him as a "Catholic writer".

Anyway, The Third Man was a good movie. And so was This Gun For Hire...

Black and White Movie of the Day.

The Third Man (1949)

The last post lead me to this one. The Third Man is a great movie. From the acting (Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Trevor Howard) to the direction (Carol Reed) to the screenwriting (Graham Greene) everything is top notch.

Even the soundtrack is one of my favorites. The Harry Lime Theme seems like a quirky little zither tune until it is played while they are digging up the body in the graveyard.

Señor Spielbergo does not let reality intrude too far into his latest epic.

Ideoolgy tries to imitate life, but always fails. Everyone's favorite non-union Mexican equivalent should stick to art.

From Roto-Reuters:

The other 'Munich': Israeli spies tell their side

A pocketful of receipts helped blow the lid off Israel's most notorious intelligence bungle.

It was in 1973, after spies dispatched to Norway killed a waiter mistaken for the Palestinian mastermind of a raid on the previous year's Munich Olympics where 11 Israeli athletes died.

The assassins might have got away, except that one of them was not a trained member of Israel's spy agency Mossad but a Danish-born volunteer brought aboard for his language skills.

Even the Mossad makes mistakes like hiring that amateur.

Which reminds me of a line from The Third Man.

Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) to Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten):

"Death is at the bottom of everything, Martins. Leave death to the professionals."

Or something like that. It has been some time. Anyway, you get the idea.

Hoping to recoup expenses, he had kept his receipts. Once detained by Norwegian police, he provided a paper trail that led to the capture and prosecution for murder of the rest of team.

1) So when director Steven Spielberg, in his new film on the post-Munich reprisals, showed a Mossad case officer ordering agents to hoard receipts while in deep cover abroad, eyebrows were raised among veterans of the intelligence service.

"It's an absurd version of the modus operandi," former field agent Gad Shimron said when asked about the thriller "Munich."

"Agents are expected to account for their expenses, but not if it means incurring the risk of discovery. They can just as easily declare their expenses from memory when they return home, and it's accepted on trust," he told Reuters.

That is just one of a list of complaints made about "Munich" by those with direct knowledge of the Israeli reprisal campaign...


...Spielberg was careful to add the disclaimer that the film was merely "inspired" by real events, but many Israelis say they are disappointed in the Hollywood director famed for his fastidiously researched Holocaust epic "Schindler's List"...

Ah, but that film was about what leftists like Spielbergo think of as good Jews - ones who go to meet their murderers like sheep to the slaughter. This new one is about bad Jews who fight back against those waging war against Israel and Jews everywhere.

2) "Munich" shows the Olympic attack, followed by another established fact: Israel's Prime Minister Golda Meir instructing Mossad to track down and kill the Palestinians held responsible.

In the film, Meir goes further, personally recruiting the hero, Avner, to lead the team. Shimron said this was unheard of.

"I know it's tempting to see Golda as a sort of Zionist version of 'M' from the James Bond films, but she had nothing to do with Mossad personnel," he said.

3) Spielberg shows a hit-team isolated in the field for months, and including a forger and bomb-maker so it can function alone.

But Mossad veterans say the reprisals, like all top-priority missions, were executed by a large number of agents, in stages.

First, case officers posted abroad were told to look out for Palestinians on the hit-list. Information came from a variety of sources, the most important being paid PLO informers; the Munich raid was carried out by Black September, a PLO splinter group.

Once the targets were found, specialized agents went through elaborate practice runs in Israel to prepare the assassinations.

"We would set up 'models', by choosing areas in Israel that resembled the place where the person in question would be hit. Then we would drill to make sure the mission went without a hitch," said a retired operative on condition of anonymity.

"The hit-teams were assembled and sent out on an ad hoc basis. Everything was in place for them, so they never spent more than a few days -- or, at most, weeks -- in the field. They were monitored and withdrawn as soon as each mission was over."

4) The assassins in "Munich" are shown as occasionally inept, especially when it comes to planting novel booby-trap bombs.

But Shimron noted that by the 1970s Mossad had perfected this tactic. As for having a forger, Shimron doubted this would be considered for such short-term missions as no forger would be able to produce high-quality documents under such conditions.

5) Shimron was more damning of the all-male makeup of the team.

"It's standard practice to include female agents in such operations," he said. "Anyone who has been on a stakeout knows that having a lady on hand helps you avoid being spotted."

6) Much of the criticism from Israelis in the know focuses on the film's depiction of the moral debates that burden the team.

A former Israeli special forces officer who took part in a Mossad assassination in the 1980s called this fanciful.

"Look, we all did mandatory military service, we all had combat experience, and we all accepted the necessity of hitting out at our enemies. Israel is a country at war," he said.

"So you go, you do the job, and you hope you'll be back in time to eat breakfast with your kids and take them to school."

Shimron said Mossad provides in-house psychologists to help any agents who develop doubts about their work.

7) "Munich" also shows three assassins being killed.

Other accounts do not mention this, although at the time the PLO did strike at Mossad case officers permanently stationed in Europe.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, those children slaughtered on the order of King Herod as he tried to kill the Christ, the true King of the Jews. (Also known as the Feast of Childermas.) Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading for the Feast of the Holy Innocents is 1 John 1:5, 2:2.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 2:13-18.


[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 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.

Coulter: The NYT spies on child molesters...

...And that's a good thing, but why can't the government do the same to those with ties to terrorists? Ann Coulter dissects the MSM nonsense.

Apart from the day the New York Times goes out of business -- and the stellar work Paul Krugman's column does twice a week helping people house-train their puppies -- the newspaper has done the greatest thing it will ever do in its entire existence. (Calm down: No, the Times didn't hold an intervention for Frank Rich.)

Monday's Times carried a major expose on child molesters who use the Internet to lure their adolescent prey into performing sex acts for Webcams. In the course of investigating the story, reporter Kurt Eichenwald broke open a massive network of pedophiles, rescued a young man who had been abused for years, and led the Department of Justice to hundreds of child molesters.

I kept waiting for the catch, but apparently the Times does not yet believe pedophilia is covered by the "privacy right." They should stop covering politics and start covering more stories like this.

In order to report the story, the Times said it obtained:
-- Copies of online conversations and e-mail messages between minors and the creepy adults;
-- Records of payments to the minors;
-- Membership lists for Webcam sites;
-- Defunct sites stored in online archives;
-- Files retained on a victim's computer over several years;
-- Financial records, credit card processing data and other information;
-- The Neverland Ranch's mailing list. (OK, I made that last one up.)

Would that the Times allowed the Bush administration similar investigative powers for Islamofacists in America!

Heehee. And amen to that, Sister.

Which brings me to this week's scandal about No Such Agency spying on "Americans." I have difficulty ginning up much interest in this story inasmuch as I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East, and sending liberals to Guantanamo.

But if we must engage in a national debate on half-measures: After 9/11, any president who was not spying on people calling phone numbers associated with terrorists should be impeached for being an inept commander in chief.

With a huge gaping hole in lower Manhattan, I'm not sure why we have to keep reminding people, but we are at war. (Perhaps it's because of the media blackout on images of the 9/11 attack. We're not allowed to see those because seeing planes plowing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon might make us feel angry and jingoistic.)

Among the things that war entails are: killing people (sometimes innocent), destroying buildings (sometimes innocent) and spying on people (sometimes innocent).

That is why war is a bad thing. But once a war starts, it is going to be finished one way or another, and I have a preference for it coming out one way rather than the other.

In previous wars, the country has done far worse than monitor telephone calls placed to jihad headquarters. FDR rounded up Japanese -- many of them loyal American citizens -- and threw them in internment camps. Most appallingly, at the same time, he let New York Times editors wander free.

Note the following about the Japanese internment:

1) The Supreme Court upheld the president's authority to intern the Japanese during wartime;

2) That case, Korematsu v. United States, is still good law;

3) There are no Japanese internment camps today. (Emphasis mine.) (Although the no-limit blackjack section at Caesar's Palace on a Saturday night comes pretty close.)

It's one or the other: Either we take the politically correct, scattershot approach and violate everyone's civil liberties, or we focus on the group threatening us and -- in the worst-case scenario -- run the risk of briefly violating the civil liberties of 1,000 people in a country of 300 million.

Réalité, kiddies. Toujours réalité.

Of course, this is assuming I'm talking to people from the world of the normal. In the Democrats' world, there are two more options. Violate no one's civil liberties and get used to a lot more 9/11s, or the modified third option, preferred by Sen. John D. Rockefeller: Let the president do all the work and take all the heat for preventing another terrorist attack while you place a letter expressing your objections in a file cabinet as a small parchment tribute to your exquisite conscience.

Christmas in Iraq from Major K.

The good major's blog will soon be ending (I assume) for the best of reasons: He's coming home.

Major K. is not the only one in whom gratitude is welling. Thank you, sir, for your service to our country.


Venite Adoremus

It has been a usual day here, although I did get a few extra hours off. I went to Midnight Mass last night and the chapel was packed. Chow was a little better than usual, and I had a long telephone coversation with my beautiful Wife, who indulged me by singing Silent Night to me in spanish. That was the best present that I could have received.

I brought several boxes of See's Candy into the TOC today that were sent by my family, and presented them to the Iraqi Soldiers and Officers - Did I mention this whole country has a huge sweet tooth? They each had several pieces which they enjoted thoroughly and wished me a Merry Christmas. I found that somewhat surprising and heartwarming that the Iraqis were the ones to initiate Christmas greetings. I also shared the candy with the rest of the US MiTT Advisors, so it did not last long.

Although it is obviously Christmas, as evidenced by the decorations that have proliferated all over the FOB in the past few weeks, it never feels quite that way unless I am home. There are lights decorating the trailers of many troops, fake trees and even an inflatable snowman in front of a company command post. There is even a Nativity Scene out in front of the main chow hall - don't tell the ACLU...

Heehee!

By far the funniest thing I have seen was a Soldier dressed up as Santa manning the gun-turret of an up-armored HMMWV as it drove across the FOB. He was waving and shouting Christmas greetings to all of the troops, who could not help staring and laughing. As I stood in the back of the chapel, thinking about the past year, and my impending return to the US in a few weeks, I felt a sense of peace I have not felt in many months. It is amazing Christmas always does that to me, in spite of where I am. One feeling continues to well up within me looking back on the last year - gratitude.

Merry Christmas! Peace on Earth. Goodwill toward men. God Bless us, every one.

Amen to all that, Brother!

Yet another right-wing smile...

Subversive Tees at Bureaucrash.com.

They have buttons too.




Thanks to Disaffiliates-Think Twice for the heads up and the following classic.

"It looks like an Ernst Wilhelm Nay"

Chimp's painting fools experts

From correspondents in Moritzburg, Saxony

A GERMAN art expert was fooled into believing a painting done by a chimpanzee was the work of a master.

The director of the State Art Museum of Moritzburg in Saxony-Anhalt, Katja Schneider, suggested the painting was by the Guggenheim Prize-winning artist Ernst Wilhelm Nay.

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay" is in fact the nom de guerre of Willy, an orangutan from Munich who also served with distinction in the elite German Scheißeflinggengruppen in WWII.

In fact, for the last twenty years lower primates have dominated the Guggenheim Prize awards, which has lead to charges of specieism from mollusks, who used to dominate the visual arts before the Dark Ages of Reagan.

"It looks like an Ernst Wilhelm Nay. He was famous for using such blotches of colour," Dr Schneider confidently asserted.

The canvas was actually the work of Banghi, a 31-year-old female chimp at the local zoo.

While Banghi likes to paint, she is not able to build up much of a body of work as her mate Satscho generally destroys her paintings before they can get to the gallery.

Everybody's a critic.

But this one survived long enough to give Dr Schneider a red face.

"I did think it looked a bit rushed," she told Bild newspaper.

Heehee!